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Death wasn’t exactly what he expected.
Sans thought death was bleeding out slowly, pain shooting up his spine. But he didn’t feel all that. Instead, he felt the knife through his ribcage, he felt the blood ooze out of his system, and finally, he felt his brother’s hand in his when he closed his eyes.
And when he opened them again, Papyrus was right there with him in the blinding white.
“...hey, pap.”
The man didn’t respond for a bit, just staring in front of him.
Sans followed his gaze, and found that there was an opening in the floor, showing the human on the way to the throne room. He knew all along that they weren't human. Just another killing machine, or… maybe something else. But he knew that Papyrus didn’t. Papyrus had real hope for them, that they could change. Where did it get him?
“y’know, alphys is still alive down there. and grillby, gerson, and a ton’a others. i’m sure that after all of this they’ll…” Sans trailed off.
Papyrus just stared.
“The human… there was no changing them, was there?” Papyrus said, and Sans had never heard him sound so outright defeated.
Sans hunched a bit further, hugging his knees. “guess not.”
In the corner of his eye, he could see Papyrus’s fist tightening.
“I can’t believe I just stood there, I could have done something, I could have fought back—”
“don’t beat yourself up about it, pap. anyone could’ve done somethin’, and look what happened. it wasn’t— it’s not your fault. it’s not. never was.”
“But you knew, didn’t you? You tried, and… why didn’t you tell me?”
Sans sighed. “because you were so… you were so happy, that there was a ‘human’, and i just hoped that maybe they would… maybe they’d stop if they knew how happy you were. how hopeful you were.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “maybe that was wishful thinking. i dunno. I just… i wanted to be hopeful, at least. like you.”
For the first time since he arrived, Papyrus looked at him. And he smiled.
Papyrus was much different than Sans remembered. Physically, he was basically no different, but there was a direction to his expression that he’d never seen before. A little sadder, a little more serious. His smile was different too. Sans didn’t really like it, but he knew that more often than not, he looked just about the same, so he didn’t have the right to complain.
Instead of saying anything about that, he rested his head on Papyrus’s shoulder— still padded with his outfit. The taller skeleton leaned into the touch.
Sans looked back at the opening on the floor, and saw that the human was standing in front of a wilted plant, knife in hand. Welp.
“sorry I couldn’t get ya anything from grillby’s,” Sans said for lack of anything better.
Papyrus chuckled despite himself. “It’s alright, brother,” he said, and squeezed the hand in his own.