Cole was more of a combination of Sans and Jeff. Papyrus didn't know who his Mother was, but he could understand why she would find Cole a bit difficult to handle.

One problem was that he had some sticky hands. The boy loved to steal anything he could, from anyone he could. It wasn't like Cole had anywhere to take it to, as he was staying in Papyrus' house, so Papyrus would have to go down to the basement to ask for his items back. Cole didn't even try to fight him, he'd just give him back his stuff. But he kept stealing it and hiding, which led to Papyrus discovering his items in the weirdest locations. At least now the boy seemed indifferent on his opinion with Papyrus, not hating him, but not liking him either.

That was different with Jeff. He made it very, very clear just how much he didn't like Papyrus. He didn't directly try to kill Papyrus, but it felt as if he was always on the verge of grabbing the nearest weapon and ending him.

Papyrus wasn't going to let this hold him back. Silky had explained that Jeff was practically Sans' brother at this point, which it did hurt a little to know that he had been replaced. However, Jeff made Sans happy.

That's why Papyrus had approached Jeff first. He wanted to do it before he put Addy to bed by reading her a story, to talk to him. Jeff had been sharpening his knife when Papyrus walked into the room, not stopping as he brought his blue eyes to look directly at him. His hood was down, revealing the cut smile onto his face. It had been such a long time since Papyrus saw him, he wasn't a teenager anymore.

"I'm going to just get straight to the point," Papyrus said when he walked in, "I... I just want to thank you."

"Huh?" Jeff grunted, looking at him.

"You were there for Sans when he needed you," Papyrus said, sitting next to him. "While I was being an idiot and goofing off, you saw what he needed and you were there for him. You held him while he was crying, you just... you were a better brother than I was. You deserve to be the children's Uncle and Sans' brother more than I do. Thank you for keeping him happy."

Jeff stared at him while Papyrus tapped his hands against his lap awkwardly, seeing if he would respond. There was none.

"Uh, okay then, I'll just go now!" Papyrus awkwardly said, standing up.

"Hey, sh*thead, get back down here," Jeff said.

The black haired male pulled on Papyrus' arm, yanking him back down against the couch. Papyrus looked over in surprise.

"I'm going to tell you a few things, so listen up," Jeff said, "First off, I want you to know how Sans and I had met. I had been a serial killer since I was 13, so I was well into killing when I met him. My original intent was to kill him, I wanted to see what it was like to kill a monster. I had been trailing him for a few days, and he was the perfect target because he was alone. You're fault, but when I broke into his house and held a knife to him, he didn't scream. There wasn't even a struggle. He just offered me a sandwich."

"I-"

"All you had done before was talk, so shut up and listen now," Jeff said, "The guy had just given up on everything. He didn't care if I had killed him, he actually made me a sandwich. At that point I figured out the guy was depressed as balls, and stalking him for those couple of days had proven it. He was alone, talked to no one, and didn't think he was worth anything. So yeah, you guys were idiots. He took me to the mall that day because I'm not able to go out in public on my own, you know, big fat smile here freaks people out. At that time, I was just some kid with no home and a knife. Sans saw that and showed me what it was like to f*cking live again. He did that for all of us, because he wasn't afraid of us. He felt like he had nothing to lose."

Papyrus listened silently, recalling back to that time so long ago. It still felt clear as day, those experiences. The mall, the dinner, the hospital.

"I never considered you guys as villains, you guys never had any bad intentions," Jeff admitted, "That was always my job, to be the bad guy. It was weird, suddenly being flipped around. I was always the villain, the guy others would scream and run away from. But suddenly, with Sans... I wasn't. I wasn't Jeff the Killer, I wasn't threatening to him. I was just Jeff, his friend, his brother from another Mother. It made me feel, well, it made me feel alive again. I didn't need to kill just to feel happy, I didn't need to taunt people and scare them. I was just me with him, and it was great. We all could just be ourselves, and just be with him, and I loved that. And Sans took care of us, made sure we were happy, because he cared, which made us care. To him, I wasn't a killer first, he didn't look at my smile first, or my knife. He looked at me first, because he knew I was a person."

"I'm sorry, but... I don't understand why you're telling me this," Papyrus said.

"Because," Jeff said, looking over at him. "Just now, when you sat down... you didn't look at the knife first."

Papyrus blinked. He didn't really acknowledge the knife, he had already long accepted that Jeff was a killer.

Jeff set aside the knife. "Most normal people are idiots. That's why I am the way I look today, it's why I started killing. They don't understand life, the desperate need to survive. They don't understand what true pain is, and in turn they act stupid. I fix that, well, I used to. When he took us away, he showed us that we didn't need to murder just because. Of course, I still made sure I could use a knife for self defense, but I didn't need to kill everyday like before. I had a home, I had a family, we were happy. But... I can understand when your judgement is clouded, and you make bad choices. That's why I don't blame you for the hospital, because I did the same thing. Did the fish chick tell you about the whole healing thing?"

Of course she had. Undyne had called in a hurry, telling Papyrus that Sans had been hurt!

"Yeah," Papyrus said.

"That was my fault," Jeff said, "I was a bit too f*cking confident. Ben was taken by the government, and I figured since we were CreepyPasta, we would be fine! So I had ignored the plan Sans had set out already and just ran in, alerting the entire government that we were there. I didn't really think about the consequences, I just figured we could kill all of them no problem. But there was a lot, and I forgot that I was a teenager with a couple of knifes... the whole plan was to be in and out, and to try and avoid getting caught for as long as possible. I threw that out of the window, and Sans got hurt because of it. That's when I learned that even though someone could have good intentions, it could be flipped on their head and just ruin someone else's life. That's when I realized you guys weren't bad people, you were just idiots who couldn't think for five seconds and acted in the moment. Like the party, if you guys had taken the night to think it over, I doubt you would've called Sans a pedophile."

Jeff was right. They had acted in the moment at that time, they hadn't considered the full story, such as it was Sans they were talking about. Sans would never hook up with a kid, he just liked taking care of other people! He had always talked about how much he liked raising Papyrus, and how he wanted a family when he reached the surface. The skeleton loved children because he had always liked taking care of them and raising them, just like Toriel did. Of course Sans wasn't a pedophile, he just enjoyed taking care of Jeff. But Papyrus didn't consider that, none of them did. They all just jumped to conclusions and acted irrationally, over and over again.

"Sans had always been good in stepping back and analyzing the situation before he acted," Papyrus mumbled.

"You still have a long way to go before we'll even consider you family," Jeff said, "We're Creepypasta, we're always going to be killers. You don't kill, and I heard that you're still freaked out over the organs thing, which you really need to get over... but you've been treating us like people first instead of killers, and you're taking care of the kids and even letting me stay here. You aren't at the stage yet where you're one of us, but you treat us like people. You still have a long way to go, since you still treated him like crap, but I can tell you're trying. Not just for Sans, but for the children too. Don't think this makes us friends, but it means that you're already better than before."

"I wouldn't expect you to become friends with me," Papyrus said, "Not yet, anyway, we still have awhile to go, and we barely know one another. But thank you again for being there when I wasn't, and for giving me a second chance."

"I don't give those out very often, Jane has yet to even get one," Jeff said, "And she's married to Sans, so you better be on your f*cking best behavior."

Papyrus nodded, standing up before grabbing a book to read to Addy. He made his way to the guest room where she had been staying at, Addy already ready for the story. It was the only time she would be able to look at Papyrus, as long as he was focused down on the story. If he looked up, she would squeak and quickly look to the side away from him. He would always smile when he could catch her watching him, body leaning forward in the bed as she absorbed the story. It was obvious that she loved storytime before bed, just as Papyrus had when he was younger. No wonder Sans made sure to read to her, just as he did for Papyrus.

Addy was always in bed by then, eagerly waiting for the story. Undyne was more of their translator, since she was the only one Addy could talk to, so it was nice to hear that Addy preferred Papyrus reading to her.

"You ready for story time?" Papyrus asked her, sitting down in the chair next to the bed.

There was never a response, but he knew she was excited. Papyrus was starting to understand how to read her hands. They played a lot when she was nervous, picking into her fingers or other things. When she was excited, she would stretch and bend them. She was stretching her fingers right now.

"I just grabbed this one off of the top of the box, I think we might run through those books soon and..."

Papyrus glanced down at the cover of the book, his voice going silent. He had just pulled out a box of books from his basement before to read to Addy, he always would grab a new book from the top each night to read to her. The skeleton hadn't been paying attention when he grabbed this book from the top of the pile.

"Uh..."

Cole's voice crashed through his thoughts, Papyrus and Addy glancing over at the door to see Cole there. He was wearing Papyrus' scarf again, the boy seemed to actually like wearing it. There was a silence in the air for a moment before Cole spoke.

"So uh, you're doing storytime with her..." Cole mumbled.

"Yeah, I read to her every night," Papyrus told his nephew.

"Ah, cool, cool," Cole muttered out.

He stood there in silence for another moment before speaking in almost a whisper. "C-Can I..."

"He wants you to read to him too," Silky said as she walked past the room behind Cole, basket of laundry in her hands.

"Silky!" Cole screeched, face red.

"I could read to both you and Addy if you'd like," Papyrus told him.

The white haired boy sputtered on his words, blush increasing. "I-I don't want to be read to like a f*cking kid! That's dumb!"

Even though he said that, Cole made his way into the room and climbed into the bed behind Addy, pulling her up onto his lap and hugging her from behind. He then shot Papyrus a look.

"Shut up."

"I still didn't say anything!" Papyrus objected, "I'm just going to read the story now."

"You do that," Cole said.

Papyrus glanced down at the book in his hands, sighing to himself. "Well, I'm going to be reading... it's called Fluffy Bunny."

Just looking at the cover made memories rush through him. This book had escaped from his memory, he forgot he had owned it. Papyrus probably had placed it into the box and put that box into the basement. It had been years since he looked at the cover, it was somewhat worn, but it was still overall well kept. It wasn't the original copy, Papyrus had forgotten it when he moved to the surface. He had bought this copy a week after, when he and Sans were still talking before Papyrus got distracted. The original was more worn, and somewhere still underground.

"Oh, we've actually heard that one," Cole said.

"You have?" Papyrus asked, looking up.

"Well, the first half," Cole said, "Dad had started reading it, then for some reason he started just crying and then he threw the book away. I hadn't heard the ending."

Papyrus glanced down at the book again. His chest hurt.

He tried to speak, but he couldn't find a voice.

"Is the book sad or something? You look like you're going to cry too," Cole said.

"How about I go get a different book? Yeah," Papyrus said, standing up and rushing out of the room before either of the children could react.

He couldn't do it.