Still blinking blankly at the odd skeleton, she couldn’t help but being a little amused, but also a little skeptical. After all, this strange creature didn’t even know her, they couldn’t. So how could he know if she was nice and kind or a monster in her own right?
Who was she kidding? She’d barely left her room since she’d arrived here out of pure fear, was it really such a mystery that this was not the kind of thing she was used to. “… I suppose you’re correct. … I don’t tend to spend much time around others. … I’m not very good company.”
But the promise of protection felt a little… uncomfortable. No one protected her, no one took care of her. That wasn’t her role in the world, she was just a useless waste of space. She’d been told it often enough she had no question in her mind if it was true or not. “… You’d be better off… taking care of yourself and yourself alone. You… don’t know me, or anything about me. … There’s not sense in you attaching yourself to me.
Still, as he continued on to mirror her own sentiment, there was something in her that felt just a little fuller with the agreement. “… There are no guarantees here, just as in the real world. … Not all who are supposedly supposed to protect… do so.” After all, that was what parents were supposed to be for, but hers had done nothing but hurt her for as long as she could remember. “… I’ve been alone for a long time. … I don’t anticipate that changing here.”
“EVERYONE CAN BE GOOD COMPANY!” Papyrus says brightly, clapping his hands together. “I’M SURE YOU’RE GREAT! NOT AS GREAT AS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, BUT GREAT NONETHELESS!”
His grin seems permanently fixed with his refusal to let it slip at all, even though it’s not actually. It was always something he found a little funny, about him and his brother. That Sans is the one with a fixed smile while he’s such a Negative Nelly about everything, and that the endlessly cheerful Papyrus is the one with an inexplicably more expressive skull.
Despite being one, Papyrus doesn’t understand Skeleton Monsters at all. He’s okay with that though, since it’s just him and his brother anyway. Or... Just... him here...
He doesn’t need to know when it’s just him, really.
“THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF AND OTHER PEOPLE. BACK HOME I TOOK CARE OF MYSELF AND MY LAZYBONES BROTHER SANS! I WANT TO ‘ATTACH’ MYSELF TO YOU!” He’s very, very earnest and genuine, and seemingly unaware how unusual this actually is.
To him being alone is what’s unusual, and with the murder he just couldn’t take it anymore.
“BEING ALONE IS AWFUL!! WITH ME AROUND YOU’LL NEVER HAVE TO BE ALONE AGAIN!!”