Chapter 33

"Papyrus, you know your brother better than I do," Frisk said standing on a stool in the bathroom and scrubbing his face with a washcloth. "You have to know what he would be fooled by."

"That's just it," Papyrus said as he washed the last of the marker off his lip. "I've never been able to fool him. Someone Sans always knows when I'm trying to lie to him. It's ridiculous!"

"I refuse to accept it. There must be something we can do. There has to be some way to fool him."

"Agreed. We just need to be cleverer. We'll have to go to the library when he's not around. Maybe we can find a book on pranking."

"I don't know about that. I've read a lot of books, and I've never seen any books about pranking…"

"Nonsense! There are books about everything. You probably have just never looked for one before."

"I suppose. I wasn't exactly looking for them in libraries on the surface."

"Since you were homeless, I'm surprised you were spending time in libraries at all."

"Well, I wasn't going to school, so I went there to read and teach myself. It was safe and quiet, no one ever came in there to bother me, and it was better than dealing with cops or the kids on the street who always wanted to have magic fights. I loved them so much that I always unlocked the windows in the bathroom, so I could get in at night…"

"Wait, do you mean to tell me you slept in libraries?" Papyrus turned to him and said once he had finished getting the marker off his face.

"Yeah," Frisk said without looking since he was scrubbing the marker from his face with a washcloth.

"Did no one else give you a place to sleep?"

"Well, there are places called homeless shelters, but I didn't like going there that much. You see, adults can go there without anyone caring, but if they see a kid there by himself, then the police are called. That is why I had to leave the first city I ran away to."

"Did no one else offer you a place to stay?"

"No."

"Wow, humans sound mean."

"Some of them are, but most of them don't know enough to care and trust me, it's better that way. For me, anyway. I never wanted their attention."

Frisk was almost done washing his face off.

Papyrus hesitated for a moment before he said, "Frisk, there's something I don't understand. Why didn't you want anyone to help you or take care of you before you came down here? If there were people who wanted to help you, why would you run from them?"

Frisk finished wiping his face and replied sadly, "My parents were the two most amazing people ever. If I went to an orphanage, I could have been adopted, but then those people would expect me to think of them as my parents like my parents never existed. I never wanted that. I never wanted anyone to try to replace my parents."

Papyrus was slightly taken aback.

"Oh," he replied. "But you're okay with me and Sans and Undyne…"

"Because you're not trying to be my parents," Frisk said looking at him with a smile. "None of you are. You're my adopted siblings. I've never had those, and as my Dad used to say about his friends, you can have as many of those as you want. You only ever have two parents…"

An idea suddenly hit Frisk like lightning.

"Papyrus, I just had the best idea ever to prank Sans," Frisk said with his eyes lighting up with excitement.

"What?" Papyrus asked struggling to keep his voice down in excitement.

"We set up an online dating profile for Sans…"

"But Sans would never agree to that…"

"No, Papyrus, we're not gonna tell him."

"Oh…"

"We're gonna set up an online dating profile, and when someone responds, she'll come over and Sans will have to go on the most awkward date of his life."

"I love it," Papyrus said before putting Frisk on his back. "Let's do it now while he doesn't suspect anything."

Without another word, Papyrus ran out of the bathroom, into his room, and shut the door. The house's two other occupants were so used to this behavior that it didn't even phase them.

Papyrus dropped Frisk on the floor and started typing on his computer.

Frisk ran over to look over his shoulder and asked, "Does the Underground have many dating sites, Papyrus?"

Papyrus turned his chair around, sat Frisk on his lap, and turned back around to show him the website. It was a dating site with red hearts everywhere with a sign-in and a new account page. Papyrus could barely contain a chuckle as he pushed the new account button.

"I can't believe we're doing this," Papyrus said with a huge grin.

"This is going to be amazing," Frisk said excitedly as Papyrus typed away.