Archive of Our Own ^beta

It was one of those days where the snow was just the right texture. Fluffy and fresh but with a nice crunch under your foot. The perfect kind of snow for a–

“snowball fight!” A snowball flew past, almost hitting Papyrus square in the face. He just managed to dodge it, despite his subpar vision, but luckily his hearing was just fine. That allowed him to pinpoint where he figured Sans was, and judging by the pouf sound and his brother spluttering, his snowball had found his mark. Papyrus shrieked with laughter, immediately readying another snowball to launch over his protective wall of snow.

The brothers had been preparing for the snowball fight for about 10 minutes, and it was sweet not suffocating the way Sans helped build almost a whole igloo to protect Papyrus. The wall of his little fort even included little windows he could peek out of to lob snowballs at his brother. The only thing that would make it better would be if he could see his target he had a catapult to launch giant snowballs, but Sans had said he was still working on the blueprints for that.

So for now, Papyrus would have to use good old-fashioned strength and dexterity to wage this war against his brother. Stifling his giggles so his brother couldn’t hear where he was coming from within his fort, Papyrus balled up another two snowballs and lobbed one in a random area, listening for either the sound of a snowball hitting its target or his brother giggling at how badly he missed.

Sans, seeing the first snowball launched out of the fort with no clear direction, made sure to giggle, loud and clear, and very obviously crunch the snow beneath his feet. Right as he lobbed one back, he felt a snowball connect with his shoulder and he let himself be knocked over into the snow by it. The sound of his brother cheering in victory rang out from his fort, causing Sans’ smile to grow fond. But he had to put up a fight, or Papyrus would accuse him of losing on purpose. So using his magic, he lifted a few snowballs in the air, letting a couple hit the fort right near Papyrus, one even sailing through the window and landing inside.

Predictably, Papyrus stuck his head out of a window a second later, frowning. “HEY! WE SAID NO MAGIC, BROTHER!”

Sans shrugged, a playful smirk on his face, and called back up, “sorry bro, couldn’t help it. you’re just so good at this i had to use my power.”

Papyrus puffed up at that. “OF COURSE YOU’D BE WORRIED TO LOSE TO ME!” Then, as if remembering he was mad, he yelled back, “BUT NO MORE MAGIC!”

The rest of the snowball fight went similarly, with Papyrus using his excellent hearing (and Sans’ obvious clues) to dominate, ending with a snow-covered Sans and an almost pristine Papyrus. Sans had accidentally landed one shot on Papyrus, but to make up for it, let out an extra loud whoop of victory. He let Paps land several shots on him, dramatically dying in the snow afterwards and calling an end to the war.

On their way home, after dismantling their forts, Paps rode on Sans’ shoulders. He kept claiming he wasn’t tired, even while dozing off on Sans’ hoodie. The yawns coming from above Sans were totally not Papyrus. They could never be, since Papyrus wasn’t tired. Seeing as snores started echoing through the street, though, Sans figured his brother may have been over-exaggerating. Luckily, they weren’t too far from home, so he managed to make it before Paps woke up and gently tucked him in for a nap while he went to go find Asriel.

It didn’t take him long, in fact Asriel found him right as the door to their room clicked shut, and almost scared Sans.

Asriel smiled gently at him, and patted his head, telling him, “Oh hey, I just heard that you two got back from playing in the snow.” He looked past Sans to the door and, presumably, towards Papyrus. “He must have been really tuckered out to actually nap, that’s impressive. What did you two get up to today?” He gestured for them to start walking and talking, so Sans followed, gesturing with his hands as he recounted their adventure that day.

Talking about his brother always brought a genuine smile to his face, and maybe Asriel felt that today was a harder mental health day for Sans than usual, but he allowed himself to be cheered up for once. He chattered on about how cool his brother was and how tactical he was with his snowball throwing thanks to Asriel’s coaching. Eventually his rambling trailed off, and he realized how long he’d been talking, blushing sheepishly up at Asriel, rubbing the back of his neck. Asriel only responded with an encouraging smile and asked Sans about his plans for tomorrow as their voices retreated down the hall.

Papyrus never usually napped very long, so about 15 minutes after Sans left, he woke up in his room, the light dimmed and the covers tucked in around him. He also never usually sat still for very long, so the second he was awake, he searched around the room for his drawing supplies, determined to make his brother and Asriel a picture to commemorate Sans’ great snowball battle defeat.

Before he knew it, he was in the zone, scribbling furiously, and he was signing his masterpiece just as the door gently creaked open. Asriel and Sans peeked in and saw he was awake, so both stepped further into the room. Their eyes immediately went to the drawing, and Papyrus held it up proudly.

“I CREATED A MASTERPIECE TO COMMEMORATE OUR MAJESTIC BATTLE TODAY, BROTHER! ASIDE FROM YOUR MINOR MOMENT OF WEAKNESS,” Papyrus glared at his brother, “IT WAS GLORIOUS AND DESERVED TO BE MEMOR… MEMORIZ… MEMORIAL….”

“Memorialized?” Asriel gently suggested. Papyrus huffed indignantly… but nodded a moment later.

“YES! MEMORIALIZED! NOW FEAST YOUR EYES!” Papyrus shoved the drawing towards them, and they took a moment to study it closely.

It was a little hard to tell exactly what each scribble was, since Papyrus’ color-blindness caused him to use the wrong colours, but regardless, Papyrus was proud of it so they were too.

It was hung up on the fridge that night with a little bone magnet and the proud, wide grin of Papyrus.