[Handplates chapter references: Long time no see, Just doing some redecorating, This time on unresolved mysteries, Guess what I found!]

"DO YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING YET?"

"not since you asked me five minutes ago."

"I DON'T GET IT, SANS....WE'RE HERE, THIS PLACE MUST BE WHERE WE CAME FROM BUT...
I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHY IT STILL ISN'T WORKING. WE'RE DOING WHAT WE'RE SUPPOSED TO, AREN'T WE...?"

The two brothers were once again in another room, surrounded by a couple of boxes and metal drawers. Papyrus scratched the back of his head, frustrated and running out of options.
They were roaming these halls for what felt like hours and they got basically nothing out of it.

"THIS IS THE LAST ROOM....THE ANSWER HAS TO BE HERE..."

"so much nothin, so little time..."

The quiet was occasionally broken by Sans rummaging through a cardboard box: "hey, check this out, bro. cool huh?"

Papyrus turned to his brother and knelt down next to him as he pulled out a cube that consisted of squares in different colors.

"HUH. WHAT AN ODDLY COLORED CUBE."

"i think you can spin the sides around. i think it's a puzzle...see?"

Sans gave the cube a little twist, changing up the sides and mixing the colors. Papyrus watched him for a moment: "DOES IT MAKE YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING?"

"uh, no...how about you?"

Papyrus did not answer, getting back onto his feet again and moving to one of the filing cabinets that were standing in the corner.

Sans frowned, fully aware that Papyrus was becoming more and more frustrated. He knew how much all this meant to him but sadly he could not help with this either.

He tried to ease the heavy atmosphere in the room: "well...i'm gonna hang onto it, might be fun to mess around with later." No response from Papyrus again.

More time passed, both of the practically taking turns in rummaging through the different files, papers and cupboard to no avail.

At this point, both of them had probably checked everything thrice. Sans was reluctant to say it out loud but finally broke the deafening silence with a deep sigh: "...sorry to say it bro, but...i don't think there's anything else left in here to find, you know?"

Sans scurried back to his feet: "i was hoping it'd work too, but...there's nothin here, and i'm not really remembering anything.
maybe we should just give up and call it a day. we can think about what we got and see if we can come up with any ideas at home."

The small skeleton looked over his shoulder to stare at the back of his brother, who just stood motionlessly in the room.

"huh, bro?"

Papyrus remained silent and Sans went to fully turn to him, worry overtaking him: "...papyrus?"

Suddenly, Papyrus had grabbed the nearest object, a small stool and tossed it to the wall.
The metal crashed against the wall, shattering to the ground and Sans jumped slightly as the stool landed almost next to him.

A box followed and flew straight towards Sans. He had to duck to dodge the papers that flew out of it and he shielded his face from any of them as they fluttered to the ground.

Papyrus stepped up to the heavy table, kicking it over and sending it crashing to the ground.
The papers scattered across the floor.

He walked up behind one of the filing cabinets and with a little effort and an infuriated huff, he had managed to knock over that piece of furniture as well.

Many more crashes and rustling followed as well as the occasional agitated groan of the tall skeleton.

Sans had seized the moment to duck behind the big drawer, watching as his brother tore apart whatever was left of this room.

Eventually, Papyrus stopped, the papers falling to the ground around him. He was turned away from Sans but he could see that Papyrus was visibly shaking.

Suddenly, Papyrus put up his hands, trying to calm himself down: "OKAY...OKAY...DEEP BREATHS..."

His voice still had a small edge to it but it became progressively better. Sans took it as a sign that it was over and he slowly came out from behind his cover.

"....bro...? you okay...?"

It was hard to read what his brother was thinking with his back still turned to him.

Papyrus remained silent for a short moment before he let out another sigh and replied: "...THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS ALWAYS OKAY."

Sans could not help but let out a small humorless snort at that, shoving his hands back into the pockets of his hoodie to fidget with the small box: "huh, now i know how you feel when i say that."

He made his way through the papers and clutter, trying not to stumble over anything as he approached Papyrus: "what's up? you seem a little, uh...upset. about something."

"I DON'T GET IT, SANS."

"get what?"

Papyrus abruptly turned to Sans, throwing his arms up.
His face was twisted into mild anger and irritation, tears running down his cheeks: "THIS!"

He motioned around him.

"I DON'T GET THIS!! WE'RE HERE, WE'RE RIGHT HERE, THIS HAS TO BE WHERE WE CAME FROM, THIS HAS TO BE IT, AND I STILL CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING!"

He gripped his skull harshly, frustrated that his mind refused to give him the memories that he so desperately longed for.

"I CAN'T REMEMBER ANYTHING! I'M TRYING AND TRYING AND ALL I CAN REMEMBER IS ASGORE'S HOUSE, AND I KNOW THE ANSWER IS HERE! WE'RE DOING EVERYTHING RIGHT, WE SHOULD BE REMEMBERING!
BUT WE'RE NOT, IT'S NOT WORKING AND..."

His voice grew more subtle, tears still streaming down his face.
Sans just watched him with a saddened gaze, his heart aching as he saw how clearly this affected his younger brother.

"AND IT, IT MAKES ME FEEL...IT MAKES ME FEEL DUMB.", he huffed, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"THAT I CAN'T FIGURE IT OUT, EVEN WITH ALL THE PIECES IN FRONT OF ME."

Sans frowned as Papyrus referred to himself as dumb. It somehow struck a chord in him and he did not want to leave his brother feeling like this.

"hey hey, you're not dumb. i can't figure it out either, right? it's not you. it's both of us.", Sans tried to reason, hoping he would get through to Papyrus.

"...I DON'T UNDERSTAND, SANS. WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS MEAN? WHAT DO ALL THESE LITTLE PIECES MEAN?"

Sans sighed: "i dunno. Maybe nothin."

~🧡💙~

Papyrus had calmed down more or less but he was still crying uncontrollably.
They both decided to sit down so Papyrus could express his frustrations and Sans would listen.

"...WHY DID THEY ABANDON US? WHAT DID WE DO WRONG? I DON'T UNDERSTAND, ASGORE SAID PARENTS ARE SUPPOSED TO LOVE THEIR CHILDREN..."

Sans lowered his gaze, staring down at the ground like Papyrus. He did not want to admit it, but it hurt him just as much as Papyrus.

"yeah but...you know, so far, most 'supposed to's don't seem to apply to us."

Papyrus looked at his hands: "I JUST WANT TO KNOW WHO THEY ARE. I WANT TO KNOW WHY WE WEREN'T GOOD ENOUGH FOR THEM."

"hey, don't think like that okay? who even needs those bums anyway?
they're the ones who ditched us in the first place. it's their loss, right?"

Papyrus hugged his legs to his chest: "I KEEP FEELING LIKE IT WAS MY FAULT, LIKE IF I'D JUST DONE SOMETHING DIFFERENTLY..."

Sans was caught off guard by these words but he tried to immediately chase these thoughts from Papyrus's mind: "even if it was, and i bet it wasn't, what kinda jerk would kick out their kids for makin a mistake? i'll tell you – real scumbags, that's who."

Papyrus did not respond to that, looking away for a moment.

"and we don't need any scumbags. all we need is each other."

Papyrus sighed at that, turning to search Sans's face: "...DOES IT REALLY NOT BOTHER YOU THAT YOU CAN'T REMEMBER?"

Sans winked at him, his voice casual as he responded: "nah, it drives me nuts. but we did everythin we could here to fix it and we can't, so it's like...if we can't change it, we just gotta accept it, you know? it's just how things are."

Papyrus chuckled at that, cracking a small smile: "HEH...YOU REALLY ARE SO LAZY."

Sans smiled too, putting his finger up and saying in a posh voice: "i'm an expert."

The smaller skeleton watched his brother for a moment, hoping that he at least somewhat feels better: "you feeling any better?"

As Papyrus did not react but only stared back to the ground, Sans sighed and reached into his pocket.
He pulled out the small box once again, opening it.

The faint glow caught Papyrus's attention and he turned his head back to Sans, who now went to hold it up to his brother: "here, might make ya feel better."

Sans smiled gently, motioning him to take it.
Papyrus carefully took it from him, admiring the little flower for a moment before reaching out to gently trace his fingers across the petals.

The energy or magic it gave off faintly resonated with him, calming him and causing a slight warmth to form in his chest.
It was strange that they both seemed to be affected by this small flower, even when the impact was really small.

"I WONDER WHO THIS BELONGED TO.", mumbled Papyrus as he continued to admire the flower.
Its sight really did make him feel better.

Eventually, he closed the lid and put it back down, burying his face in his scarf in shame and regret: "...SORRY ABOUT GETTING SO ANGRY. USUALLY I CAN CONTROL EVERYTHING BUT THIS TIME, I...I'VE GOT TO TRY HARDER."

"bro. there ain't no one in the world that tries harder than you, all day every day. don't feel bad about getting mad. it's worth getting mad about, it sucks.", Sans explained, shuffling closer to Papyrus.

"and if you wanna mess up all the rooms, i'll be right there with you. we're in this together."

Papyrus looked back up at his big brother, smiling: "...THANKS, SANS."

"no problem."

There was a momentary pause before Papyrus spoke up again: "...OF ALL THE THINGS I DON'T UNDERSTAND, I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY ABANDONED YOU THE MOST."

Slightly flustered, Sans scratched the back of his neck.

It was both flattering and sad. Flattering, that Papyrus thinks so highly of him...and so lowly of himself.
That he actually believes he would have deserved being abandoned.

"aw, don't say things like that. you're the real star."

Silence filled the room once more and Papyrus leaned back a little, staring at the ceiling: "...WE BOTH GOT SOMETHING WRONG WITH US."

"yeah, but we're the ones with a cool house and awesome skeleton flag, so who cares?", Sans shrugged.

"we're doin better than them, wherever they even are. i don't see any skull flags in here."

"YEAH...YEAH, THAT'S TRUE. ALRIGHT...", Papyrus got back onto his feet, grabbing the small flower box as he moved.

Sans also got up, following after his brother: "ALRIGHT, LET'S GO, SANS."

~🧡💙~

The light of Hotland blinded them as they left the secret underground lair. They turned, looking at the door once more.

It was still wide open and it did not seem to budge: "yeah uh this door ain't closing again any time soon."

"I GUESS WE REALLY BROKE IT."

Sans shrugged and turned to walk: "well, it doesn't matter, there's nothin in there anyway. i bet most people aren't gonna want to walk on magic glass to see some boring empty rooms."

"I GUESS..."

Papyrus was obviously still down from this very disheartening search for answers.

He nudged his brother gently: "hey, i got something that i know will cheer you up."

He buried his hand once again in his hoodie pocket and rummaged through it for a while.

"when you were throwin everything around, something fell out of one of the boxes...", he explained with a smirk, winking at Papyrus.

Eventually, he pulled out the item, revealing a key.

Papyrus almost squeaked, his eyes wide and covering his mouth in amazement: "A KEY...? OH MY GOD! SANS, DO YOU THINK THAT'S THE KEY TO THE BACKROOM?"

"i'd bet on it."

The tall skeleton immediately went to hug his brother, now back to his previous cheerful self: "OH SANS! SANS, OH, THIS IS FANTASTIC! WE CAN FINALLY SEE WHAT'S IN THAT ROOM TOGETHER!!
FINALLY THE HOUSE WILL REALLY BE ALL OURS!"

"heh, so now you can't say we didn't get anything outta doing this. just not our memories."

"YEAH...YEAH, THAT'S TRUE. AND I BET WHATEVER'S IN THAT ROOM WILL BE INCREDIBLY COOL!", exclaimed Papyrus in excitement.

Now he actually could not wait to get back to their home, marching ahead with newfound determination.

"ANOTHER VICTORY FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS! COME ON, SANS! LET'S GO HOME!"