Chapter Text
Ah, the surface... Papyrus knew it well. Two whole months had flown by in what felt like little more than eight weeks, and it was only through his dedication to be a well-loved monster amongst the human populace that Papyrus was getting ready to attend human college. He supposed he could just call it 'college', as there hadn't been any colleges or universities underground, but human college had a pizzazz to it.
It made sense- if he was going to be popular, and prestigious, and a good ambassador for his newly-emerged species, he had to know what humans knew! He had to mingle- he had to meld minds with the smartest humans in the world!
Papyrus had to settle for the smartest humans in the general area around Mount Ebott. The human government was hesitant to give monsters full and immediate access to all things 'surface' even if the integration was going splendidly.
He had to earn all of the different degrees, of course, so he could always travel the world for Business or Education. Mathematics, even! Sans had convinced him to narrow it down to just one specialization from each general field of study, pointing out that Papyrus would be on his death bed by the time he earned every last degree and that the knowledge would overlap, anyways. He'd dismissed the lazy mindset, of course, but then Toriel agreed and Frisk said they didn't want him to die in a bed and he'd grumbled an agreement.
English had been the draw from the hat for his very first field of study. Papyrus was glad that his family came with him to the town a couple of hours from their previous mountain prison; it housed a lovely college campus that had readily agreed to accept Papyrus as the first monster student to any post-secondary school.
"HOW MANY DAYS OF PROVISIONS SHOULD I TAKE WITH ME TO CLASS?" Papyrus asked, sitting at the kitchen table of the new house he, his brother, miss Toriel, and little human Frisk had just moved into last week.
"none is probably good," Sans said. "it's a five minute walk to campus-"
"WHICH I CAN EASILY ACCOMPLISH IN TWO!" Papyrus interjected.
"heh, exactly." He looked up from the puzzle Frisk had coerced him into helping with. "if you need a snack you can just come back."
"I bet they have vending machines," Frisk said idly, distracted as they put all of the corner pieces together. Their eleven year old brain was honed spectacularly in on finishing the horse image.
"BUT SURFACE WEATHER IS SO UNPREDICTABLE!" Papyrus argued, looking over his many notes detailing his classes, their locations and times, and the route he would take to and from the buildings. "WHAT IF IT BLIZZARDS?"
A warm and fuzzy paw was put on his shoulder. "You won't have to worry about snow for a number of months, dear," Toriel said as she took a seat beside Papyrus.
"yup, snow need to sweat the small stuff," Sans joked, earning himself a groan.
"Sans, please," Toriel defended, but she had that terrible look in her eyes that meant... "Be ice to your brother."
"NO!" Papyrus protested, crossing his arms. "I AM TRYING TO BE PREPARED FOR MY FIRST DAY OF CLASS- WHICH IS IN JUST TWO DAYS- AND YOU ARE MAKING TERRIBLE PUNS AT MY EXPENSE!?"
"psshh... that's cold , bro."
"Alright, alright," Toriel relented, though she was smiling at Sans's last remark. "What other worries do you have?"
"I WOULD NEVER WORRY! I JUST WANT TO BE FULLY PREPARED TO MAKE THE BEST IMPRESSION ON MY HUMAN PEERS ARE POSSIBLE!" Papyrus said. He wasn't worried- slightly a little bit maybe nervous , JUST A SMIDGE, but not worried.
"First days are always easy," Frisk contributed, having finished their task. "They'll just take attendance and do easy stuff."
"you've been to college?" Sans teased, handing them a puzzle piece and pointing to where it went.
"Wouldn't you like to know..." they replied, pouting and fitting it into place. "I've just heard that's how it is."
"Even if the first day is a great challenge, I think you will be well equipped to handle it," Toriel said, looking over all of Papyrus's notes. "You have all of your textbooks, and you were personally reached out to by your professors and assured that they would provide any help you may need in becoming acquainted with the college process."
"I SUPPOSE YOU ARE RIGHT..." Papyrus reluctantly agreed.
"plus, if you keep worrying so hard, you won't have any fun," Sans said with an easy smile. "you're gonna make a million human pals, remember?"
"I'M NOT WORRYING!!" Papyrus denied. "AND DON'T EMBELLISH MY WORDS, MY REALISTIC GOAL IS ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND HUMAN FRIENDS."
"Maybe you'll find your human more-than-friend," Frisk said as they grinned down at their puzzle, glancing up at Papyrus to see him blushing.
"M-MY COLLEGE CAREER WILL BE STRICTLY ACADEMIC AND PURELY PLATONIC!" He defended, well aware of Frisk and their flirtatious antics. "ROMANCE IS ALL WELL AND GOOD, BUT I CAN'T LET MY GRADES SUFFER BECAUSE I'M BUSY SMOOCHING!"
"But what if one of your classmates-" Frisk pressed, but Papyrus made a loud screeching noise to disrupt their sentence.
Toriel chuckled with Sans as Frisk continued to try and describe Papyrus's romantic college experience and he made increasingly loud sounds to drown them out.