Sans seated himself at the edge of his brother's race-car bed with a bottle of ketchup. Watching, as Papyrus laid on the floor, scribbling his reply to the mysterious anonymous admirer on a piece of parchment.

Crumpled up pieces of paper were scattered all over the floor. Often, Sans would find his gaze lingering on each abandoned parchment; to receive some clue as to what Papyrus's letter might say.

But he stopped when Papyrus suddenly sat up.

Papyrus seemed to be looking over his latest written work, looking it over word by word. And then gave it a satisfied smile, he nodded. Afterward, he folded the letter up and sealed it inside the envelope.

When Papyrus turned his attention to Sans, Sans could tell how thrilled his brother was as a light orange blush lightly dusted his cheeks.

"I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, JUST FINISHED MY GREATEST HANDWRITTEN MASTERPIECE!" he excitedly announced

grinning proudly, Sans raised his ketchup bottle to his brother's achievement.

"good for you, bro."

Then, Sans tilted his head curiously

"But how are you going to send it when you don't even know where they live?"

it was a blunt question, but Papyrus began to sweat nervously like the thought hadn't crossed his mind.

Suddenly, Papyrus abruptly stands up and cleverly points at the ceiling as an idea had struck him.

"NOT TO WORRY!" Papyrus proclaimed reassuringly. "I KNOW THE PERFECT SOLUTION!"

Not long after that, the skeleton brothers soon found themselves outside their home, standing in front of Papyrus's mailbox.

It was Sans who sheepishly began speaking.

"So let me get this straight, you're going to send your letter through your mailbox and hope the mail carrier can deliver it for you?"

Papyrus immediately picked up the skepticism in his brother's voice.

"SANS! I TRUST THE MAIL CARRIER!"

To that, all sans did was shrug.

"Whatever you say, bro."

Once Papyrus put the letter into the mailbox, the metal flag flipped up.

Sans stared in silence

With that, Papyrus decided to retreat inside, but Sans remained where he stood.

Noticing that his brother wasn't following him, Papyrus looked over his shoulder, confused.

"Sans, Aren't you coming back inside?"

Sans turned to his brother and said "Nah, I'm gonna head to Grillby's,"

and, slowly, he began walking away while waving lazily behind him.

"Later, bro."

"Alright, Just don't get drunk again" Papyrus muttered

"I won't" Sans assured him, and with that, they went their separate ways

Well, almost.

When Sans heard the front door firmly shut, he immediately looked behind him.

He waited, listening for any sound of movement, then after a good minute, he approached the mailbox.

Sans took one final glance at his surroundings, confirming there was nobody there, before taking the letter from Papyrus's mailbox, stuffing it inside his jacket's pocket, and then hastily teleported to his bedroom.

He staggered momentarily from the quick use of magic.

He could hear himself lightly panting as his hand subconsciously palmed his pocket. Sans hesitantly pulled out the letter envelope and held it with both of his hands, staring at it in wonder, curiosity, and amazement, like it was the most wondrous thing in the world, while also wearing a dumbfounded expression.

Then, it hits him.

He's got Papyrus's reply

His response to his feelings.

His brother's letter.

Sans finds himself trembling, and His bone cheeks were being consumed by an overwhelmingly cold chill, due to how much he was blushing. He clutched the letter tightly, nervous.

'This is wrong on so many levels, but...'

Sans was reluctant to argue and instead shook his head to expel the blush invading his face.

he could hear the darkness whispering

'What will you do once he rejects you?'

'will you be ok with that?'

'is it better this way?'

'The way you love your brother is disgusting, and he'll never feel the same way.'

'What if he thought your letter was creepy?'

'You'll just end up hurting yourself in the end.'

"No, once he rejects me, I'll go back to normal, then my soul will stop acting so frantic."

he silenced those whispers with one thought:

'once he rejects me, my feelings for him will disappear for good, and everything will go back to normal, this way it won't hurt anyone but me, but I know with enough time, I can heal myself.'

Taking a deep breath and preparing for rejection, he carefully tore open the envelope and read the letter.

The first few words caught Sans's attention.

Dear Pen pal,

"Pen pal?"

Sans kept reading.

Dear Pen pal,

Is it alright if I call you my Pen pal?

I hope this letter finds you because I wanted to reply to you

I have no idea how you managed to put so much passion into your writing, but no doubt, you have impressed even the great Papyrus.

HYEH HEH HEH HEH!

I find myself amazed at how much you rely on me, and the way you wrote made it seem like I was someone extremely special to you. Having read your letter, I can't bring myself to pretend like I didn't notice your feelings.

I hope we can continue writing to each other, to which I want you to respond wholeheartedly like your first.

So that maybe, when we're both comfortable enough and well acquainted, we could see each other in person.

Deeply Appreciated,

-The Great Papyrus

It hadn't occurred to Sans that his permanent grin had formed into a fond smile, nor did he notice the tears leaking from his eye-sockets.

He noticed when his vision became blurred and small teardrops began to stain the paper.

Sans quietly chuckled as he carefully wiped away the tears with his sleeve.

'Oh no, I can't stop smiling.'

Sans let out a content sigh, feeling like a helpless lovesick fool after reading that letter.

Papyrus always had a way of influencing others with his charming and optimistic personality.

Sans could drown in that warmth that Papyrus radiated.

However, the reality of the situation suddenly struck him.

'but wait, wasn't the goal for him to reject me?'

Registering this, Sans became torn on what to do as anxiety pierced itself deep within his soul.

"What do I do?"

'How am I suppose to respond to this?'

Sans fell silent, struggling to figure out what he should do.