Chapter Text
Papyrus went out to the kitchen, steeling himself for what he was about to hear. He saw Sans and Chad waiting for him, Sans sitting at the kitchen table and Chad leaning against the kitchen counter. Nothing about this situation felt good. He had connected some of the dots already, and he definitely wanted the full story, but this didn't feel right. "IS THIS SOMETHING SHE WOULDN'T WANT US TO KNOW?"
Chad looked guilty, and Papyrus had his answer. The rabbit sounded tired when he answered the skeleton. "Probably, yeah. I'm not telling you everything, just..."
"the 'bare bones'?" Sans quipped. Papyrus fixed him with a withering look, which he pretended not to see.
"Right. Why don't you sit down, Papyrus?" Chad sat at the table himself, and Papyrus joined them. "Well...normally I wouldn't be doing this, but Burgerpants and I...we're running out of ideas, and she's really not getting any better. We really don't know what to do."
They were silent for a bit, which was out of character for Papyrus, then Chad launched into his story.
"So, this happened back in August. Burger was still at work. I was out shopping when I got a call from Adelle, and she was frantic. She couldn't find her brother anywhere, and she wanted to know if he was with me. I told her he wasn't, and asked her what was going on. The 'Reader's Digest' version is, he slipped out of the house when she wasn't looking and got lost." Chad cleared his throat and got up. "I need some water. You guys thirsty?"
Both skeletons shook their heads. Papyrus looked incredibly sad, and Sans looked the way he always did. The shorter skeleton rarely gave any clues as to what he was really thinking.
Chad got his water, took long drink, and sat down again. "Burger's shift was nearly over, so his boss let him leave early to help us look. We were out for hours, and it started getting dark. Then we got a text from Adelle. She...she found him. He was still alive when she got there, but...he turned to dust in her arms."
Chad rubbed his face; evidently, this was hard for him to talk about. Papyrus abruptly got up from the table and aimlessly paced the kitchen, still listening, but unable to remain still. "HOW DID IT HAPPEN?" He thought he knew the answer.
Clearing his throat, Chad replied with a single word. "Humans."
"shit..." Sans rubbed his skull, the lights in his eye-sockets completely dark. Papyrus didn't even scold him for swearing.
"Yeah...we all loved the kid, but we hadn't known him or Adey for very long before this happened. Maybe four months? I don't know for sure. It hit us pretty hard, but...she basically raised him. She didn't come out of her room for two days afterwards, and didn't speak for another five. All we were able to get out of her was that there were two men, that they were wearing dark clothing, and that she hadn't gotten a good look at them."
Papyrus said nothing, not trusting his voice. He was having a terrible job not to cry. Now he could understand why she was attacking humans, even if he couldn't condone it. She wanted to find the men who'd killed her brother, and she probably wanted to keep this from happening to anyone else. All while grieving her loss and going into an alcoholic tailspin. He didn't know what he'd do if he ever lost Sans! Oh, his poor friend...
Sans seemed to just be taking this all in, his hands folded on the table. "how's she dealing with it now?"
"She isn't," Chad drank some more of his water. "She refuses to talk about it. Gets angry and changes the subject when we try to bring it up. She blames herself for it, I know that much. I never saw her with so much as a beer before then, but now..."
Sans nodded, but his mind was far away, not on another time, but on another timeline. Several of them, actually. Timelines in which he saw his friends die over and over again. After seeing it happen so many times, after losing Papyrus so many times, he had almost become totally numb to it. Knowing that none of this was permanent, the bad as well as the good, had robbed him of his will to make any kind of effort. There was a time, though, way at the start of all these resets, that he had reacted very much as Adelle had. He finally thought he understood her. And, he thought to himself, if she didn't get herself out of this hole she was digging, she would soon be buried in it.
Unless, of course, Frisk reset for some reason. This was the longest they had been topside, and part of him would always be waiting for the other shoe to drop. He wouldn't remember things if Frisk eventually did reset, but the dreams would always bring it all back to him. Little notes he'd left for himself back in his lab, safe from time manipulation, would remind him. This was how his current self had learned about Chara, the spirit that had possessed Frisk on all of their...no-mercy runs, for lack of a better term.
And then he realized that Papyrus and Chad had begun speaking to each other.
"MAYBE WE SHOULDN'T BE HEARING THIS." he continued to pace, rubbing his arms almost in a self-soothing manner. "WON'T SHE BE MAD?"
"Not if she doesn't find out," Chad shrugged.
"YOU MEAN YOU WANT ME TO LIE TO HER?" Papyrus drew himself up to his full height, righteously insulted. "I CAN'T DO THAT!"
"No, not lie, just...don't go out of your way to mention it. Or...maybe, somehow, get her to talk about it? Or she might tell you herself. She talks about you a lot, you know," Chad smiled shrewdly.
"REALLY?" Papyrus looked flattered in spite of himself, then tried to play it cool. "WELL, NATURALLY! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS SUCH A COOL FRIEND, HOW CAN SHE NOT?"
"I know, right? I think she looks forward to hanging out with you after work and on her days off, too. And--"
Sans interrupted him, not liking where this was going. He got that Chad was worried about her, but using flattery to get Papyrus to do his dirty work? Nuh-uh. Nope. Not happening. "look, we better get goin'. if she overhears us talking, there'll be hell to pay."
Papyrus gave his brother a dirty look, but his heart wasn't in it. Sans was right; it was time for them to go home. Chad had dropped one heck of a bombshell, and Papyrus needed time to process it and come up with a plan of action! "I'LL SWING BY TOMORROW! WHAT WOULD BE A GOOD TIME?"
"Anytime after eight would be good. But if she's been awake for as long as I think she has, she probably won't be up until after noon. You could try texting or calling, though." Chad put his fist to his mouth and stifled a yawn. "I better head off to bed myself. Thanks for bringing her home. You guys really are good friends."
"papyrus is," Sans corrected him mildly. "i don't know her that well."
"Well, still, thanks."
"yep."
Sans and Papyrus left, with Papyrus throwing one more glance over his shoulder at Adelle's bedroom door. As they walked out into the night, Papyrus snapped his fingers.
"SANS, I'VE GOT IT!"
"hm?"
"TOMORROW, I'M TAKING HER JOGGING!"
"say, that's a good idea. maybe she'll even give you a 'run' for your money!"
"SANS, I SHOULD HAVE LEFT YOU AT GRILLBY'S!"
"yes, please."
"GAHHH!"