Papyrus wanted to prove himself.

Not only to himself, but to Sans and his niece. He wanted to prove that he's grown as a person, and that he could handle this!

But it was... difficult, to say the least.

The little girl was skittish, constantly shifting from foot to foot and nervously picking on her fingers or clothing. She avoided eye light contact at all costs, and would stand in the middle of the room without moving go to sit down unless Papyrus would say it was alright. Papyrus thought he was alright with kids, but this proved him wrong instantly. His loud voice only seemed to scare her, making her jolt whenever he used it.

Additionally, she didn't accept anything he gave her. When he brought her a glass of water, the skeleton child just stared at it, but didn't move to get a drink from it. When he brought her some cooked food, she didn't touch it, even though Papyrus insisted on her eating it. Not even a bite.

The situation was unusual, so maybe Papyrus was just thrown off. He definitely hadn't expected this to happen, sure, but she wouldn't talk to him. Communication between the two was thrown out the window, as she never spoke. She looked to even be afraid of him, even though Papyrus tried to make it clear that he wasn't a threat.

Now, Papyrus knew that inviting too many other people wouldn't be helpful. The girl didn't seem to like himself alone as it was, too many might make her run away or start crying, which was the opposite of what he wanted. This girl was related to him, she was Sans' child, Papyrus wanted to get to know her! He wanted to learn about her, learn about his own niece. The same surge of emotions that had appeared with Sally before was here now, only more intense than before. Sans had a child, he had a family, he had a new life.

That Papyrus wasn't part of.

Was this how Sans had felt when Papyrus did the same to him? Was this his punishment for doing that to Sans? The feeling of hurt, knowing that his brother continued his life without himself, but Papyrus knew that he couldn't blame anyone but himself for this. Sans had the right to have children and a life without telling Papyrus.

But there had to be a reason why Sans' kid knocked on his door. Why she had come to him, and why she had nodded when Papyrus asked if she was alone. The child was alone, for some reason Sans wasn't with her. She came to Papyrus, there was a reason for that.

Now, Papyrus wanted to do this right, but he didn't think he could do it on his own. Of course, he had called up Undyne and Alphys to explain the situation to them, but insisted they didn't come over. Undyne did look a bit scary, and Alphys got nervous near children. There was one person, however, that Papyrus knew was good with nervous and shy kids.

"Where is she?" Toriel asked as she stepped in through the front door, looking around his home.

"She's in the living room," Papyrus explained, closing the door behind her. "I've tried everything, but she won't eat or talk, and she got here this morning."

"Around what time? How long has she been not responding?" Toriel asked, her brown eyes looking in the direction of his living room.

"She arrived here around seven, and she has just been... sitting there the entire time," Papyrus explained, "I don't know if I'm doing anything wrong, but she won't respond to me. I thought maybe you could help."

Toriel nodded. "Asriel did have some shy aspects, but you did say that she was alone... she might be scared because something happened. It may have been years, but Sans would never just abandon his family for no reason."

Papyrus looked to the side. Yeah, Sans never would. But Papyrus did.

That's why he wouldn't abandon his new family, no matter what.

Sure, skeletons could go for months without food and weeks without water, but it still hurt. Not eating for a day would cause the same hunger it caused others, she was likely in pain by now. But she wouldn't take anything he gave her, and skeletons couldn't exactly be force fed, as they could just let the food pass through their bodies if they don't want it.

It was frustrating, being unable to help someone. Papyrus wanted to help the child, but she wouldn't respond to him. Toriel, however, might be able to help ease her up. Toriel was excellent with children, she worked with them for most of her life and was a Mother herself. If anyone could help when Papyrus couldn't, it was Toriel.

The two walked to the living room, finding the purple haired skeleton in the same spot as Papyrus had left her. A glass of water and a plate of food had been placed on the bench in front of her, both remaining untouched. Papyrus had even made some cake, thinking she might just only eat sweets, to get something into the girl, but she didn't move for it, either.

"Hello, dear," Toriel said calmly from the large doorway of the room, "My name is Toriel, may I come in?"

No response. The girl kept her head down, fingers playing in her lap. Toriel and Papyrus looked at each other, both sharing glances of understanding.

"I'm going to come in, don't be alarmed," Toriel said, slowly approaching the girl on the couch.

The fingers in her lap started to pick at the bones of the other hand, both seeming to be in a battle with one another. Her eye lights remained down on the floor, focused on the bottom of the other couch.

"What's your name, dear?" Toriel asked.

No movement, no changes.

Toriel nodded before reaching into her bag, pulling out a blank sheet of paper and a pencil. "Would you like to use this to communicate? Would that help?"

It didn't. The girl didn't move or respond, she didn't even try to grab the piece of paper. Toriel, however, didn't give up, and decided to situate herself at Papyrus' house for the night as she wanted to try and ease the child into a state of comfortability so she would talk. After calling Asgore, Toriel offered to turn on the T.V for the girl to watch and simply talked to her for the rest of the day. When the sun finally retreated behind the trees, and when Papyrus tried to bring more food, the girl didn't eat. Toriel asked, but she didn't budge.

14 hours. The girl had been sitting in the same spot on his couch for 14 hours without moving, eating, or even talking.

Were they doing something wrong? They were trying to be careful and calm for her, trying to ease her to at least say something, but she didn't budge. Papyrus was worried for the girl, she had to be starving by now. Why wouldn't she eat?

The night came and went, Papyrus bringing down pillows and blankets for the two. Finally, the child did move, accepting the materials before adjusting herself to a more comfortable position. Toriel decided to sleep on the other couch that night, continuing to talk to the child. Papyrus went to his room, and instead of sleeping, ended up tossing and turning with his worrying thoughts running around in his head.

The girl must have been terrified. Judging by how she was acting, she probably was. Something happened to her family, and she likely had no choice but to come to Papyrus. She reminded him of Alphys, as the lizard monster was also anxious and nervous, but not to this extent. Had something terrible happened to Sans, and that was why the child was all alone?

Did he...

Papyrus shook his head, turning onto his side in the dark of his room to look at the alarm clock. 4:20. Barely any sleep, he was too worried to get more than a few hours of rest.

No, he wouldn't think about that. No way Sans had died, Sans wouldn't leave his child alone. Not like that. But by the way the girl looked so scared and frightened...

No, no. Sans wasn't dead.

Right?

Movement downstairs could be heard, Papyrus glancing over towards the door in confusion. Was Toriel awake already? No, she usually was up for her work at 5, and it was Sunday morning. There would be no reason for the goat monster to be awake.

The front door closed, Papyrus sitting up fully in his bed. That movement had been the front door opening, someone was inside of his house. Undyne and Alphys always at least made sure to call him before they headed over.

Acting quickly, Papyrus threw himself out of bed and walked out of his room and down the stairs, looking at his front door as he walked down, due to it being located almost in front of the stairs. From what he could see, there was a pair of feet at the edge of the front door as they stood there, doing something.

Wait, those were brown fur boots. And he could see the long, magic purple hair.

As he guessed, when he reached the bottom of the stairs, he discovered the small skeleton girl standing inside of his house. She had just entered through the front door, and she had pulled up the edges of her sleeves up to bunch over her hands as she wiped them across her face. Another footstep from Papyrus finally alerted her of his presence, the girl snapping her head up to look at him with fear and anxiety coated in her eye lights.

But Papyrus wasn't staring at that. Oh, no, he was staring at the blood.

That's what she had been trying to wipe off, blood that clung to her skull and was smeared on not only it, but her clothes as well. Even a small chunk of flesh was stuck to the front of her sweater, making Papyrus freeze at the sight.

But the most blood was on her teeth. Staining the bones, some of it even dripping through a small crack.

Did she...

Did she kill someone?