Chapter 42

Frisk was in the bathroom upstairs brushing his teeth.

He had gone up there to use the bathroom after he, Sans, and Papyrus had come home. But Sans told him to brush his teeth while he was in there in preparation for the last dare.

Frisk spat into the sink and rinsed his toothbrush off with determination. If Sans wanted Frisk to brush his teeth, this dare probably involved kissing or something gross like that, but Frisk could handle it. He put his toothbrush back in the cup on the edge of the sink and took a deep breath in preparation.

"Alright, you're ready," Frisk said quietly to himself.

"Are you sure about this?" the One from above said.

"Totally."

Frisk turned away, walked confidently to the door, and twisted the handle. But oddly enough, Sans and Papyrus were already standing there with mischievous looks on their faces that Frisk had every right to consider highly suspicious.

After exchanging confused glances for a second, Frisk finally said, "Sans, I'm ready for the dare. What is it?"

"Are you sure you're ready for this, Frisk?" Sans asked while Papyrus snickered with anticipation. "It's a doozy."

"Yeah," Frisk said confidently. "I can handle whatever dare you throw at me. Bring it on!"

"Okay," Sans said as he and Papyrus picked Frisk up on either side by his arm pits so that he was suspended in the air. "You asked for it."

"What are you doing?" Frisk asked. "Where are we going?"

"You'll see, squirt," Sans said.

"You sure will," Papyrus said in between snickers of excitement.

The brothers walked towards the stairs until they reached Papyrus' room. At which point, Papyrus opened his door with his free hand and turned on the lights to his room.

"Bedtime!" Sans and Papyrus said at the same time as they both carried Frisk into the room.

"What?" Frisk asked incredulously. "What about the dare?"

"This is the dare, kid," Sans replied as they both walked in and put Frisk down on the bed. "I dare ya to go to sleep. It's been a long day, and you need rest."

"Come on," Frisk whined crossing his arms in annoyance. "It's not even 10 o'clock yet. No one goes to bed this early except babies."

"You're a baby human," Papyrus said rubbing Frisk's hair. "Aren't ya?"

"No, I'm a kid," Frisk said. "There's a big difference."

"You still need to sleep, squirt," Sans said.

"But I'm too old to go to bed this early…" Frisk whined.

"When do you normally go to bed, Frisk?" Papyrus asked.

"Uh, it changes," Frisk said focusing his mind to remember the last time he went to sleep on the surface. "On the surface, it was whenever I got tired of reading, so around 2 at the latest…"

"In other words, you haven't had a consistent bedtime since your parents passed on?" Sans asked while pulling Papyrus' rolling chair over to the bed for him to sit on.

"I guess not," Frisk admitted.

"I knew it. Well, you're going to start going to bed more consistently from now on. You need to. You do eventually have to go back to school…"

"What? But I'm so behind. Why can't I just stay out of school, read books, and get a general education diploma when I turn 17?"

"Because you're 10, not 17?"

"Fine, but I can't go to sleep. I mean. I'd be stealing Papyrus' bed. Why don't I just wait for you to go to sleep so I can share your bed?"

"No way," Papyrus protested. "You slept in Sans' room last night! You're gonna be sleeping in my room tonight! Besides, Sans said he would let you…"

"But I can't make you sleep on the floor…" Frisk protested.

"Nonsense," Papyrus said dramatically pulling off his clothes to reveal a white undershirt and boxer shorts underneath. "You can share the bed with me! Just let me brush my teeth."

Papyrus then skipped into his bathroom to brush his teeth.

"But…" Frisk tried protesting again.

"But nothin'," Sans said. "I dared ya to go to sleep, and you have to follow through, right? Besides, have ya noticed what you've been doin' a lot of today?"

"Getting on your nerves?" Frisk asked nervously.

The response made Sans laugh out loud for a moment. Papyrus exited the bathroom and exchanged confused glances with Frisk before Sans finally stopped.

When he finally finished, Sans said, "Yes, but that is not what I'm referring to. I'm talking about you falling asleep. Almost every time you've been able to sit down for a few minutes, you've passed out. You know why? It's your anemia. Your body is only half-healed and needs to be allowed to rest to get stronger, or you ain't goin' nowhere. Understood?"

"Okay," Frisk finally relented. "I guess I can go to sleep."

"Good boy," Sans said as he got up from the chair and walked to the bookshelf while Frisk pulled off his shoes, socks, and his pants and stacked them neatly on the floor at the end of the bed.

"I'm not a dog," Frisk said.

"Hey, Frisk," Papyrus asked as he climbed into bed behind him. "How are you so organized?"

"What do you mean?" Frisk asked as he crawled over next to Papyrus.

"You don't just throw things on the floor," Papyrus said. "You organize it in a neat pile."

"It's practical. I know where everything is that way. Besides, my parents were super neat freaks. They said it was because everything was always tidy and clean in the orphanage and in the military. I have to do laundry tomorrow morning anyway."

"That makes sense. I wish someone else would pick up on that habit! Wait, why do you have to do laundry?"

"I only have one outfit. I can't let it get dirty."

"That's right. Okay, tomorrow after training, we're gonna get you some new clothes."

"Why? What's wrong with the clothes I have?"

"No offense," Papyrus said pulling at the oversized t-shirt. "But your clothes make you look like you're homeless."

"But I was homeless," Frisk protested.

"Well, you're not homeless anymore," Papyrus said. "So, you don't need to dress like it. We need to get you some nicer clothes…"

"Alright," Sans said grabbing a book from Papyrus' bookshelf. "I've picked one out."

"Picked what out?" Frisk asked.

"A book to read to ya," Sans said after shortcutting himself onto the rolling chair.

"Um, Sans, no one has read me to sleep since kindergarten," Frisk said in confusion. "You don't need to read me to sleep. I can just go pick up my book in the bathroom and read myself to sleep…"

"The book ain't for you, squirt," Sans said opening to the first page.

"YEAH!" Papyrus screamed at the top of his lungs. "STORYTIME! WOO!"

"What?" Frisk asked staring at Papyrus as if he had just sprouted another head.

In one motion, Papyrus covered himself with the blankets and bearhugged Frisk from behind so that he was cuddling him like a teddy bear.

"Shhhh…." Papyrus said to Frisk. "Don't interrupt the story, Frisk."

"You guys are weird…" Frisk said quietly to himself.

Frisk responded by giving Sans a confused look as he started reading.

"The year that Buttercup was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was a French scullery maid named Annette…" Sans read.

"Wait a second," Frisk interrupted as his eyes flashed with recognition. "Did you say Buttercup?"

"Yeah," Sans said. "What about her?"

"Buttercup is a woman," Frisk said as his heart started glowing with happy memories. "What's the name of the book?"

"The Princess Bride? Do you know this story?"

"Oh, my God. I've never read the book, but I've seen the movie. That was my Mom's favorite movie. We used to watch it all the time."

"Was it good?" Papyrus asked.

"Yeah, it was so funny," Frisk said getting more and more excited. "We used to watch it all the time. It was so cool. There was a lot of sword-fighting. All the people in it were hilarious. There were tons of good lines. I loved it, but I haven't thought about it in forever. I haven't watched it since my parents were alive. I can't believe you have the book. Where did you get it?"

"I found it in the dump," Papyrus said.

"Really?" Frisk asked. "I've been there. I found an anime DVD once. We have to go there. Maybe we can find the movie. Let's go now!"

"Yeah!" Papyrus yelled in agreement.

"You can go tomorrow," Sans said. "Right now, you need to sleep."

"Awww," Frisk said. "Do we have to wait that long?"

"I gave you a dare. Remember?" Sans replied. "Besides, you're still sick."

"I'm not that sick," Frisk complained.

"I can keep reading this book if you want me to," Sans said.

"Okay, sorry," Frisk said finally relaxing against Papyrus. "Keep reading."

"Annette worked in Paris for the Duke and Duchess de Guiche…" Sans read.

Sans kept reading for a while without interruption, but by the time he finished reading the second chapter, Papyrus interrupted him.

"Frisk is asleep, Sans," Papyrus interrupted while rubbing the child's hair. "That didn't take long."

Sans looked up to see Frisk sleeping on his side against Papyrus' chest and smiled.

"Like I said before," Sans said shutting the book, jumping out of the rolling chair, and pushing it back to where it was before. "He hasn't been feeling well, Pap. Frisk has probably felt weak all day. He just hasn't said anything."

"I don't think Frisk likes to pay attention to those sorts of things or let those things hold him back," Papyrus said laying the sleeping child on the bed so that he was facing the wall. "He's way too stubborn…Sans?"

"Yes," Sans said after putting the book back on the book shelf.

"It's Frisk," Papyrus said. "He's hot. I think he has a fever. It's all over his body."

Sans short cut onto the bed and put his hand on Frisk's forehead. Everything felt normal. It quickly occurred to him what Papyrus was talking about, and he smiled.

Sans breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Frisk doesn't have a fever, Papyrus. That's his body heat. All humans have a normal internal body temperature of around 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit to keep everything functioning. Their bodies produce the heat naturally and it escapes through their skin."

Papyrus put his hand on Frisk's neck and felt the warmth against his cool bones.

"Oh," Papyrus said grinning at the new discovery. "That's why the cold bothers him so much."

"Yeah," Sans said. "If too much heat escapes, their bodies will freeze to death, and if they get too hot, they could die of a heat stroke."

"Human bodies certainly are delicate," Papyrus said pulling the blankets over the sleeping boy. "Say, Sans. How do you know so much about humans' bodies?"

Sans' demeanor fell, and his heart immediately sank as the memories from the Lab started popping up against his will.

"Sans?" Papyrus asked. "What's the matter?"

As if an answer to prayer, Sans' phone rang in his pocket. He quickly answered it and short cut off the bed.

"Hello?" Sans said when he reappeared leaning against Papyrus' bed. "What? Oh, God. Alright, I'm on my way…"

Sans ended the call and headed to the door.

"Sans, what's happening?" Papyrus asked. "Who was that?"

"That was Alphys," Sans replied giving him a serious look. "It looks like the weed is gonna wake up soon. I have to go make sure he doesn't cause trouble. Stay here and look after Frisk. Okay?"

"Okay," Papyrus said while Sans turned off the lights. "Be careful."

"Don't worry about me," Sans said with a relaxed smile that belied his inner anxiety. "I'll be fine. See ya later."

Sans then short cut away while Papyrus went to sleep next to his little brother.