Papyrus didn't want to hang out with him. That's what Sans had realized. Staring up at the ceiling in silence. He wanted Mettaton's attention on himself. He didn't want to share any hint of spotlight with Sans.

The simple notion of pretending he would have invited Sans was enough to make it hurt twice as much. Papyrus was straight up lying to him.

But he was too.

The others in the house had all heard the exchange. But it was Smile Dog who decided to go comfort Sans first. He trotted into his room, and without any words, curled up next to Sans.

"He lied to me."

"He did."

Sans glanced over. "But I've lied to him too. So we're just equal then, right?"

"You're lying to him to protect us from the police, and from the chair. We both know Jeff's going to be executed if he's caught again." Smile Dog nudged up against Sans' arm to get him to turn. "Papyrus lied to you because he wanted to boost his own ego. Pretend that he's more important than you by not inviting you."

"But he is, isn't he?"

"Sans, how long have you had these thoughts?"

Sans blinked. Awhile, he guessed. Paps was the only family he ever had, of course his little brother was the most important thing to him. And Sans always told him that, stepped aside and let him take the attention.

"Do you think that maybe, just maybe, Papyrus is a bit... focused on himself?" Smile Dog asked.

"What'd ya mean with that?"

"I think you know."

He did. Papyrus always was 'Papyrus focused'. But it was never bad, it was just quirky!

The skeleton reached out a hand and quietly ran his fingers through Smile Dog's fur. It was nice to just sit and chill like this. Not have to stress about his problems, his troubles.

What even happened to them? His brother was acting weird, along with everyone else. First Charlie, now this. Something was definitely going on. There had to be.

"Maybe Paps is stressed, or maybe he's..." Sans tried in a desperate plea to make sense of this, but Smile Dog's thoughtful stare shut him down.

"Sans, have you considered that you're starting to notice this now because you're finally standing up for yourself?"

"That can't be it. I don't really need'a stand up for myself."

It was true. He was a laid back guy, he never really did intervene with things. Sure, he did have preferences, but he was fine with decisions others made.

"Think back to how you even saw Slenderman, what were you doing?" Smile Dog asked.

"Subbing. For Tori. I promised her a favor so I went in for her." Sans smiled at that memory of them talking, making that promise. Toriel loved children so much that she was worried for what would happen without their teacher around.

"What did she do in return for you?" Smile Dog asked.

Sans paused. "She makes us all food during our weekly dinners."

"Sans, what has she done as a favor for you specifically?"

Oh. Wow. He shouldn't have to rack up his brain just to try and remember the last time she did something for him personally. And he kept trying to remember.

Nothing.

"That doesn't... mean anything," Sans said. The words were starting to feel more forced recently.

"Sans, you've never fought your brother or friends before because you've never stood your position, you've never gotten anything from them because you let yourself become usable and a pushover," Smile Dog said, "That's why they seem upset over the fight with Charlie. Because you weren't a doormat. Didn't you notice how more distant they've become since then?"

Right. They had become a little bit more distant, but that's the natural outcome of fights, right? Right?

"I think you need to start standing your ground more, like you do with us," Smile Dog said, "After all, Papyrus only came over today to brag then have you housesit for him. He didn't even ask how you were doing."

He didn't. Sans never did tell Paps how he was doing until the subbing incident. After Sans got better, he stopped asking again.

People grew apart, Sans knew that, but damn did it hurt. Knowing that his brother was starting to drift away. Things were changing, but not in a good way.

Or were they always this way? Sans knew everyone else was closer Underground than him. Papyrus, Undyne, and Alphys hung out all the time, they only hung out with him when Papyrus brought him along. Toriel joined their group on the surface, but their door puns quickly stopped, and soon did their texts follow as well.

"I'm just gonna go to sleep," Sans mumbled, rolling over.

~~~~~~

The night went by better. Ben put on a funny human movie while Jeff made them dinner, the group all gathering on the couch to try and bring up Sans' mood. It was a nice gesture. He really did appreciate these guys. They meant a lot to him.

'Sorry Paps, I don't think I can housesit ur house'

Sans stared down at the phone. The conversation from earlier left a bad taste in his mouth. He didn't feel like doing his brother any favors right now.

'How come?'

'I just wanna focus on myself for a bit. Sorry'

A lie, blatant and obvious.

'Why? Sans why can't you do this one thing for me?'

'You don't even need your house to be watched, Paps. And I got a life too.'

'Please? I don't get why you won't.'

'I have a kid I have to watch, bro, r u forgetting that?'

'Fine'

Sans groaned. Ugh. God, he felt like he was just watching his relationship start to spiral, unable to stop it. Now he kind of didn't want to go talk to his brother now. Sure, he cared so deeply about him, but he...

Well, he was acting like an ass right now.

~~~~~~

Days passed. Slowly. But eventually, a week passed, then another. Sans barely even talked to his friends since then. And when he did, they'd always be conveniently busy. Jane hadn't stopped by to claim her victory, either, likely letting Sans process the results.

It didn't help when Sans decided to finally look on Facebook.

Everyone knew he despised that human website. Just didn't like to display his life out for the world to see. But Toriel did.

After seeing what's been going on with Papyrus, Sans decided to hop onto there to spy on Tori. For his own curiosity. There had to be something on there to save his relationship with any of them.

Instead, he discovered something. Something he did not know.

Sans scrolled through the pictures mindlessly. In a timeline of lies towards him.

He didn't realize it. But these problems had been going on much longer than he realized. It took a wake up call from literal serial killers for him to finally start noticing.

First, was the news that they had different dinner nights and parties than the one's Sans were invited to. With everyone but him. Toriel never posted about the ones with Sans, only the dinners with everyone else. This had been going on since they escaped to the surface. Laser tag. Festivals. All things he wasn't invited to.

Another blow was that, on the day Toriel had him sub for her, she was never sick. She had just been planning to go on a trip with everyone else and wanted Sans to cover for her.

The scrolling continued. More evidence of being excluded crossed Sans' feed. This wasn't accidental. Sans knew Toriel didn't post this stuff on Monsternet, the one app they did share together. This was entirely intentional. They didn't invite him to things. Didn't tell him certain things. They just... left him out to dry. A minor inconvenience in their perfect lives.

Sans almost cried scrolling though. There was no explanation. No wonder Sally seemed to be weird about them, why she always asked "They seem to go out more than you do. Do they not invite you to stuff?". The kid was smart, she probably could tell. And, when Papyrus didn't like his adopted kid after letting Undyne break her bear, he stopped asking about Sally.

It was an eye opener, of sorts. They asked for more favors out of him than they should of. Did all of these things without thinking about him, actively excluding him. He was the black sheep of the group.

Sans was about to click on Undyne's profile next, before his screen went black. Briefly. And up popped Cleverbot, blocking the feed.

"Ben, what are you doing?" Sans asked.

"You don't... Sans, you don't want to see what's on here," Ben's voice came through his computer. "Toriel's Facebook is one thing, but if you see Undyne's... we were waiting to tell you this until a better time."

Sans paused. "Tell me what?"

"You have the right to know. But we didn't want to tell you yet. Just know it'll probably ruin your relationship with Undyne for a long time."

What was on her Facebook then? What would she post that could entirely destroy their relationship?

"Let me through," Sans said, "I want to see it."

A pause, then a sigh. And the screen returned to Undyne's Facebook.

And, when he saw the picture of wedding dress shopping, his mind shut down.

~~~~~~

"I don't know why he's acting like this! First he adopts that crazy girl, then he acts all... ugh!" Papyrus threw up his arms.

Undyne shrugged. "Told you, we should'a just never invited him out."

Sans was being all weird now. He was never like this before. The guy always just let things go past, another annoying fact about him. But now he was acting all... weird. She didn't know how to describe it. He was just becoming more annoying by the day. The guy was lazy and weak, too, so it wasn't like he had much to stand on.

She'd actually respect him if he had some sort of foundation, like everyone else, but what did Sans actually have? No stable job, barely any other friends. It was sad. Undyne didn't like people who couldn't pick themselves up.

Then her phone dinged.

'Congrats on the engagement'

《》《》《》

Didn't think this chapter was worth an entire weeks wait so it's published now! The next chapter will come out this Saturday too, so enjoy the extra upload!

Also soon we're going to be encountering the 'smexy times' of this book soon, so I should probably let you guys know how that's going to work. The 18+ sex scenes are not going to be appearing in this book, instead they will be published on AO3 in a separate book for those who want to read them! The sex chapters will be uploaded on the same day their chapter in this book is uploaded, and I'll put down an authors note at the bottom of every chapter when there's a new scene uploaded. Don't worry, I'll give instructions on how to find it when the time comes!

I would upload it to Wattpad but recently Wattpad decided to be a little difficult with uploading any 18+ content of mine so I'm just going to stick to AO3. AO3 is just better with tags and warnings, along with not completely deleting my shit and making it difficult for me to try and write more mature things for some of my audience. And it doesn't require an account to read most stories so it's easier for all of my readers to read on there. So I recommend if you haven't already, go check out my AO3 account linked in my profile description (near the bottom)! Especially since today I just uploaded a oneshot of Laughing Jack x Sans doing 18+ stuff.

Basically, long story short: All sex scenes I write is going onto AO3, not onto Wattpad. I already have one sex oneshot and I plan to post more. So if you're wondering where my hot steamy scenes are published, it's over there.