Lost Sister (Discontinued)

Chapter 6

Cinzel's POV

I woke up with a groan and an unpleasant skull-ache. I moved my hands, which were supporting me on the couch, to clutch my head only to lose my balance and roll off the green couch and land with a thump on the floor. I flinched at the sound I made and turned back towards the couch. Papyrus was sprawled out on the left side of the couch with soft snores somehow emitting from him.

Sans, however, shot up as soon as I made the noise and stared at me with a panicked expression on his face. His left eye was glowing wildly, and his breathing was heavy but shallow. My eyes widened at this, but I didn't move from my spot. He stared at me a little longer before collapsing back into the couch with a half-sigh, half-groan, his bony hands covering his face as he let out a few shaky breaths. My expression changed to confusion as I crawled over to the couch and onto the arm of it, right next to Sans. I wrapped an arm around his shoulders, but he didn't move.

"What happened?" I asked him softly. Sans let out another shaky breath before pulling his knees up to his chest, and his arms resting on top of them with his head atop his arms. His face was slightly stained with light blue along with a few bright, blue tears specked across his cheeks. A sympathetic smile crossed my face as I realized what must be bothering him. "Nightmare?" Sans nodded reluctantly before digging his face deeper into his jacket-covered arms. "Do you wanna share?" He glanced up at me with one of his pinpricks out of the corner of his eye socket. I could tell there was a war happening behind his eyes. He finally pulled his hood over his face and shook his head. I frowned and tightened the hold I had on his shoulders but was still gentle. "You know, I wise man once told me that it helps to talk about it," I stated matter-of-factly. Sans's shoulders slumped at that, but still didn't speak.

After a few moments, his deep voice finally croaked out an answer. "You wouldn't understand. No one understands. The only one that does is either my greatest enemy or my best friend." My frown grew deeper at his statement. What did he mean by that? Greatest enemy or my best friend?

"GOOD MORNING, BROTHER AND NEWEST-SISTER!" Papyrus exclaimed, popping into view as he sprung up from the couch. Sans's eyes crossed over to our brother that always seemed to have a smile painted on his face. Sans then uncurled from his position to lazily stretch out his figure as if he just woke up with his usual smile.

"Whassup, bro?" Sans slurred. I cocked an eyebrow. What is he doing? Now, he's going off like nothing happened. Why? Does he not care? Was it not that important? Well, it seemed like it bothered him a lot when he first woke up. And what was with the whole thing about his greatest enemy or his best friend? I was so lost. Why was Sans so mysterious? Papyrus was like an open book. You could tell when he was happy, when he was confused, when he was upset. Sans is an entirely different story. He always has the same expression. That same smile . . . It is fake, isn't it? Why? What does he have to hide? What was so important that he has to fake everything around his family? But that's the thing. Does Papyrus know? I'll have to talk to him later.

I looked up to see Sans talking to Papyrus, Papyrus nodding every now and then. My guess was that Sans was teaching our brother something or giving him instructions. I decided to pay attention—it might be important. " . . . You usually shouldn't work with magic so much in just a short period of time. So, I made a mistake yesterday. I should've been more careful. Y'know, if you overuse magic like this, worse things than a simple skull-ache could happen, like a crack. Always keep that in mind, you, too, Cinzel." Sans turned to me to see if I caught any of that. I gave a slight smile and gave him a thumbs-up.

"THANK YOU, BROTHER. NOW, I WILL START MAKING BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI," Papyrus told us and skipped into the kitchen. Before he could go very far, I caught his scarf between my fingers. He jerked back slightly and spun around to face me, craning his neck down a little. "YES, NEWEST-SISTER?"

"Can I help you?" I asked politely, hoping it didn't sound out-of-the-ordinary. He smiled at my offer, grabbed my arm at my elbow, and pulled me through the kitchen door. Once we were standing in the middle of the kitchen, he pulled an apron and a chef's hat off a clothing rack. He quickly tied the apron around him and gave me the chef's hat. Both pieces of attire were a clean white. I stared down at the hat before pulling it on my head. I stared while Papyrus pulled out a big, steel pot, a wooden spoon, spaghetti noodles, glitter, and tomatoes. I scanned over the ingredients approvingly until I saw the glitter. I swiped the glitter off the counter and stuffed the small container into my chef's hat, all the while Papyrus was filling the pot with water from the ridiculously tall sink.

I shifted my eyes over to the small crack in the kitchen door and saw Sans sitting on the couch watching TV. I sighed, put one of my bony hands on the door, and softly pushed it closed all the way. My eyes narrowed as I remembered what I really came in here to do. I needed answers. I took a deep breath and tugged on Papyrus's scarf again. He looked down at me with a happy grin. "YES?"

"Papyrus, has Sans ever had any . . . trouble sleeping, like nightmares?" I asked. I let his scarf go at this point and started wringing my hands. Papyrus's grin immediately fell, and the hand that was stirring the pasta in the water stilled.
He looked down with a look of remembrance and sadness. Great: I upset my brother. "You don't have to tell me if you don't—"

"Yes, he does," Papyrus mumbled quietly for once. I creased my eyebrows and frowned. Does? Not did? He still has trouble?

"Does?"

"Yes, he currently still does. It's been like this for a long time."

"Wow . . . I don't mean to pry or anything, but do you know what any of them are about?"

"Well, not really. He is pretty secretive when it comes to this sort of subject. Even when he finally says something, it always sounds like he is lying and keeps the details to a minimum. Sorry, I can't help you as much as I could."

"That's OK. Y'know, he actually had one last night, I think," I said.

Papyrus sighed unhappily. His eyes were very sad. I've never seen him like this. This didn't look normal. He looked over at me with those sad eyes. I felt so bad for him. I bet he probably has to go through this all the time. Hearing someone you love scream and cry in the middle of the night must be hard. And to think that this happens what sounds like every night. "I bet he didn't say anything."

"Not really. But he did say, and I quote, 'You wouldn't understand. No one understands. The only one that does is either my greatest enemy or my best friend,'" I told him matter-of-factly. He perked up at this. A light bulb went off in his head, and he started smiling again.

"I KNOW SOME MONSTERS AND A CERTAIN HUMAN THAT HE LIKES TO SPEND TIME WITH. MAYBE WE CAN ASK THEM IF THEY KNOW ANYTHING!" Papyrus whisper-shouted.

"Paps, that is brilliant!" I praised my younger brother. He laughed his signature laugh. We hugged each other while smiling into each other's clothes. We had a plan—a plan to help our nightmare-induced brother.