Curled up in a corner, that's where he sat, fighting back tears. His dreams were on the ground before him and they were smashed by Undyne's cold, hard spear of reality. Once, a Royal Guardsman in training, now, an ordinary monster. The memory came smashing back to his mind again, and again, and again. It would never go away.

"Undyne, why won't you let me into the Royal Guard?! You've been training me for almost two years now! I've beaten you several times in training! Most of the other monsters got in without breaking a sweat! In one week even! Why are you still training me and not-"

"Papyrus! It's three in the morning! Can't we talk this over when the sun actually rises?!"

"NO! Undyne, I've been beginning to believe that you will never let me into the Royal Guard. Why?! Answer me, WHY?!"

"You don't have the guts for it! Even if you did, you'd never be able to hurt anything! Not even a stupid fly! I'd never be able to let you in. Even if you had the guts, you're still too sweet and innocent! We'll talk more in the morning! Now go away, let me sleep, and DON'T COME BACK UNTIL THE SUN RISES!!"

Slam!

With the door slammed in his face, he realized. She just told him the entire truth that she'd been avoiding for two years. Now, it was finally out in the open. He was never going to be in the Royal Guard. He curled up into a tiny ball against the door and looked at all of his shattered dreams. What would Sans say about this? He'd probably get really mad at Undyne for saying this. Papyrus didn't want Undyne to get hurt or into trouble. He'd just have to not tell Sans about how his dreams were destroyed.

Slowly, as he fought back tears, he made his way towards home. The familiar sights of Snowdin were soon within sight and he instantly saw his house. He hoped Sans wasn't home to welcome him back from his confrontation. He hoped Sans was in his room or on the couch, asleep. He hoped that a horrible pun would be taped to the door so he'd have a reason to chew him out in the morning before he had to run the errands.

Sans was locked up in his room. There wasn't a pun taped to his door. Only the keep out signs. Papyrus opened the door and noticed his room was dark. Usually, he didn't sleep. Usually, he'd already be started on another batch of spaghetti. Normally, he'd be done with most of the chores that he had planned for the afternoon. That extremely early morning, nope. None of those were going to be a reality today. Papyrus looked at his race car bed. He wanted to one day drive down a long highway with the wind in his hair and sun on his skin. Was that just going to be a dream, too?! What was going to be real? What was going to only be a dream?! What was his future going to hold...?

Papyrus flopped into bed and closed his eyes. Maybe Sans will man up and do some of the chores for once. Maybe he won't have to wake up ever again. Maybe he can convince Sans to do what he says for once. And sleep slowly crawled to him on that dark morning.

It was a dreamless night with a rude awakening. While he was dreaming of blackness, an arm shook him gently. When he ignored it, it shook him harder!

"Bro, I know you don't take naps, you don't sleep in, you don't do THIS every morning! What's up?!"

Papyrus finally opened his eyes to see Sans. He looked worried. Well, this was all probably new to him. Papyrus sat up in bed and didn't feel much better from the previous night. He just wanted to go back to sleep.

"Sans, why'd you have to wake me up...? I'm starting to figure out why you like sleeping so much...," Papyrus told his brother groggily.

Sans shook his head at Papyrus. "Are you sick? Are you feeling okay? You said yourself on the phone with Undyne that you don't have to sleep. Seriously, what's up?"

The very mention of Undyne made Papyrus want to cry. He flopped back in bed and groaned. "I don't feel good... Can you run the errands today? I don't think I'm up for it..."

Sans checked Papyrus' temperature. "You don't have a fever. You can't possibly have the stomach flu. You look too well to have a cold. You don't look bad enough to be sick."

"I'm not going to talk about it... I just don't feel good and I want to stay in bed. My emotions are bouncing all over the place and you couldn't possibly understand this...," Papyrus explained.

Sans made a face that said 'Oh, really? Are you sure about that?'. Sans then looked to the ground and knew that his brother's behavior wasn't normal. He let out a long sigh. "Okay, Papyrus. If you're that sure that you're sick, I'll believe you. To be honest though, I don't think that it's sickness, I think it's something else. You know, who else can understand a bad day where you just want to do nothing more than me? I can run the errands for you today."

Papyrus was a little surprised. He had never seen Sans work. Did he even know how to run errands?! "Sans, you don't have to. You've never had to do them before. I'll just finish them tomorrow."

"I don't think that the enormous pile of dishes in the enormous sink quite agrees with you. Neither does all of the laundry. Neither do all of the dust bunnies. Neither does the snow on the roof."

Papyrus huffed. "Seriously, don't do it. It'd be too weird. Just don't."

Sans huffed back. "Who says that I can't?"

"Me."

However, Sans didn't wait. With a snap of his fingers he warped downstairs and only then did he realize what he had gotten himself into. He then recalled his promise to keep his promises. He then recalled how much he hated promises. It was going to be a long day...

Papyrus was asleep for longer than he thought he was going to be. He looked over at a clock. It was six in the evening! How could he possibly have slept that long?! He sprang out of his bed and went racing down the stairs and his eyes were opened wide.

"Wowie..."

Sans went overkill on the cleaning. Everything was dusted and polished. The entire living room was actually sparkling and he actually picked up his moldy sock! He fed his rock which was now covered in more sprinkles and the kitchen was beautiful. The dishes were done, the laundry was clean and neatly folded, and the countertops and stove were cleared and cleaned. The cabinets were well-stocked up on supplies for more spaghetti and the floors were vacuumed and the windows were cleaned.

"Sans, I had no idea you had a hidden talent for cleaning... Speaking of Sans, where is he?" Papyrus asked.

He made his way outside and saw that the snow was cleared off of the roof and the sidewalk was cleared of snow and was salted. The wreath on the door was adjusted to look just right and Sans' mailbox was empty for once. Finally, he saw a pile of snow that had been the place where Sans shovelled it all, was him asleep on top of the snow pile with a sticky-note on his face. Papyrus read it out loud.

"'You have SNOW idea how long this took. You underestimate me, but don't expect this to become a habit...' Sans, you really didn't have to. I was going to do it, but you did a great job... HOWEVER, YOU CAN'T HAVE A SLUMBER PARTY IN A SNOW PILE!!" Papyrus yelled as he plucked Sans from the snow pile and carried him inside.

Once Sans was moved inside and onto the couch, Papyrus figured it would be good for him to get some fresh air. He left a note on the door about where he was going in case if Sans woke up before he returned. As soon as he grabbed his scarf, he walked out the door.

He made his way towards Waterfall and recalled the night before. Sans' cleaning fiasco did help him to regain his old personality, but it would take a miracle for him to be the way he was before. The echo flowers began to pop up and whisper to him. Mostly the echo of the rushing water. He continued on. About half way through, he heard something different. It was a voice. He always found it interesting whenever a person talked directly to an echo flower. Almost like a message that was supposed to be passed on. He leaned in closer and listened.

Once upon a time..., there was... a princess! Yeah! Annnnnnnd... Uh... she was bored one day and asked her father to throw her a royal ball! He agreed and asked for everyone in the kingdom to come! As the people danced, she got attacked by the terrible dragon that took her away to the horrible Mountains of Smokenshire! The dragon kept her captive there... It was a long time since the dragon had live, human prey...

The echo flower paused before repeating the whole tale all over again. Many of the other echo flowers in the area repeated the story as well. Papyrus was interested. The voice sounded like a girl's voice. Papyrus walked along and heard her say what she said after her story.

Man... That's awful! I should know better than to tell stories like that! Then again, who's going to be here to listen... Nobody ever came running to hear one of my stories. I've been ignored for a long time. I'm not in the minds or hearts of the monsters around here... I'll try a new story tomorrow! It's not like this story will ever get off the ground! Nobody's going to support me. With the amount of friends I have, I might as well be friends with the rocks. That's where my dreams lie... Broken in the rocks...

Papyrus listened to her. She sounded sad. He sympathized with her. He looked around at all the echo flowers that told the story. He smiled with an idea. He was the Great Papyrus! It was up to him to bring her story to life! She was obviously going to come back at some point. He ran all the way back to the first flower and took a deep breath.

"However, little did the princess know, there was a hero who would save her!"