Watching her father get hurt by the hands of her uncle, filled Y/n with anger.
"You outta pick on someone yer own size!"
Y/n stood in front of her adopted father—eyes red due to her magic flaring—glaring daggers at Papyrus the culprit, arms stretched out.
A heated argument paired with Sans' snarky comebacks, Papyrus had deemed that Sans was due for a proper punishment. Sans had told Y/n to stay out of his way when their argument started getting serious, code for "go hide" just in case things between him and his brother got a little out of hand.
So she ran under the table near the door, the one with a pet rock that was covered in glitter, courtesy of Y/n herself. She hid there, covered her ears and shut her eyes tight as their argument escalated into full blown shouting. Their shouting shook the 10 year old's very SOUL, making her eyes water and her body tremble, a pitiful whine escaping her. After one last shout from Sans, there was a weird hard sound and then a thump as something hit the floor, followed by the sound of a boot stomping. Y/n fearfully opened her eyes to find Papyrus' boot firmly keeping Sans' skull in place on the floor, an expression of pain on her father's face.
"I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOUR SHIT TALKING!" Papyrus bellowed. "IT SEEMS I HAVE TO REMIND YOU HOW YOU ARE TO SPEAK TO ME!"
With horror, little Y/n watched as Papyrus lifted his foot only to slam it back down on Sans' skull. Y/n gasped as Sans let out a cry in pain, following with stuttering apologies immediately after.
"IT IS TOO LATE FOR THAT!"
Papyrus' foot lifted again, but didn't land on Sans' skull. Y/n took advantage of his distraction with Sans to quickly get under his foot and push it back into him, nearly making him fall backwards. He instead stumbled back and quickly caught himself, surprise catching his features. In front of him he found his niece, protectively shielding Sans from further harm, her eyes red. Her shout at Papyrus was impressive, and he would have been impressed with maybe a condescending scoff if he wasn't already livid.
"YOU, A PITIFUL HUMAN, DARES TO CHALLENGE THE TERRIBLE PAPYRUS?!"
"Ya ain't 'upposed to hit daddy like that! Yer his brother!"
"I WILL NOT HESITATE TO STRIKE YOU DOWN AS WELL."
That's right, Papyrus hates Y/n. She was convinced by the way he treats her. He treated Sans slightly better, but even that wasn't good. Nothing she did brought joy to Papyrus. He called her stupid, pitiful, incompetent, whatever that means and all of the above.
And she tried. She tried so hard everyday to get him to smile at her. That's all she's ever asked for.
When she was younger, he would play with her, even as he grumbled about it. When Sans was busy, he would feed her and bathe her, even as he complained about it to no one in particular. On easy days, he would even watch TV with her. Well, he would watch TV and she would join him, but he didn't mind. Even after buying a house on the surface and moving in, their relationship was unwavering. Then she got older.
What changed?
"We ain't 'upposed to fight like this! We gotta show love to each other, not LOVE!"
"I GIVE YOU ONE LAST CHANCE TO STEP ASIDE, HUMAN."
Oh, he did not just—
"Are you kiddin' me?! What kinda brother are you?! You ain't actin' like the uncle I know! Yer actin' like those lug heads that don't know nothin' but LOVE! I don't know who you are, but I want my uncle back!"
Now she was crying. Now Papyrus felt a pang of guilt shudder through his SOUL.
"If ya wanna pick on someone, go pick on Undyne! She'll put ya in yer place real good!"
"NOW YOU LISTEN HERE—" But Y/n was having none of that.
"Blow off yer steam somewhere else!"
Papyrus glowered at her. No one speaks to the GREAT and TERRIBLE Papyrus like that. No one. He thought about hurting her. About throwing her out and finish his punishment on Sans. He even rose his rage-trembling fist toward her, but he couldn't. He couldn't hurt the small, fragile thing in front of him. His small, fragile, pitiful, foolish human niece, who had jumped in front of him knowing full well what he was capable of.
Papyrus instead snarled in annoyance, a noise loud enough to make Y/n's SOUL shake in fear...and he turned, stomping away and slamming the front door behind him so loud, the two left in the house jumped out of their skins.
Pun intended.
"what were ya thinkin', sweet pea?" Sans spoke after his daughter helped him onto the couch.
"I was thinkin' he shouldn't be hittin' you like that."
"he coulda hurt ya. don't do that again."
"I ain't gonna sit back and watch him hurt you!"
"y/n." a warning. She knows better than to raise her voice at her father.
She instantly shut her mouth, but as sad thoughts raced through her head, she couldn't help but utter, "That wasn't Uncle Papy..."
Sans carefully let his skull softly rest against the back of the couch, the makings of a killer headache quickly forming.
"yer right." Sans muttered. "that was boss."
~*~
Hours later when Papyrus returned home, he found the house dark and seemingly empty.
He lost his cool, showing Y/n who the Terrible Papyrus really is. She wasn't desensitized to that side of him. He had never shown her, he was mindful to never show her. It was no wonder she reacted the way she did.
He felt guilt. That never should have happened, especially not in front of Y/n. He doesn't even remember what they were arguing about, not like it matters anymore.
She'll probably hate him now, the realization hit him hard. She was the only other human besides Frisk that doesn't hate him or is afraid of him, but with his behavior, he probably flushed that down the drain.
He heavily sighed, his SOUL feeling heavy. It was getting late. He should head to bed.
