MagiStream

(‘How do you cook tea’ is something I have said to myself more often that I would like to admit xD )

Mira back in her haphazard set up of a room had cuddled under the blankets she had been given and seemed to be doing her best to stay warm and comfortable despite the slight shiver she had going on through her body, her face flushed red as she covered it from sight, the thought that she was being a burden somehow on these two brothers only making things worse for the sick human.

She was stubborn Despite her soft exterior....very, very stubborn. The thought of asking Sans or Papyrus for help with this illness not being something Mira was willing to do, her knowing she would just get through it as always and be fine in the end...

And why might you ask why she was so nervous about asking for help? That was something that could be answered in the future if she ever did make it back to the surface, anxiety and tiredness wrecking Mira’s body as
She did get best to drift off to sleep.


..................

Alphys and her suggestion of potentially giving Mira something to look after mostly coming from what the scientist had read about humans having a natural tendency to care for even lifeless objects, the species as a whole appeared to be the type to crave work of some kind even if it was just a small thing such as caring for a plant.

It was almost adorable in some cross-species sense with the way humans and monsters were so different yet so similar in that regard.

Unfortunately the next bit that she wanted to explain to Sans seemed like it was going to have to wait, their discussions once again bring interrupted by a call from Papyrus who seemed to not understand how to ‘cook’ tea judging from the loud voice she could hear even on her end.

“U-uh, yeah! I guess I’ll see you eventually”, Trying to not look disheartened as Sans said he needed to go help Paoyrus, Alphys sighed as she looked around d her lab for a brief moment and gave the skeleton a hopeful smile that she wished would give him his own form of determination, “Listen though, your taking really good care of Mira, stop doubting yourself so much, ok? It’s written all over your face that you think your not doing enough...but...”

(I have no idea how myself, honestly. I've always preferred hot chocolate ^^)

Though Alphys tried to hide it, Sans could tell she was disappointed the conversation had been interrupted again. Figuring she must have had something else she wanted to discuss, Sans felt bad leaving now, but he knew Papyrus was expecting him to show up soon. "if you want, i can come back after i help papyrus out. i don't think it'll take too long," Sans said, mentally adding 'hopefully' afterwards. With Papyrus, you could never be too sure, after all.

Sans would never forget the time after Papyrus' first cooking lesson, when he entered the kitchen to find crushed tomatoes and pasta noodles everywhere. Cleaning that up had certainly taken some time... But this was tea, how messy could the kitchen have gotten?

Though, that sounded like something that, in a tv show, would be quickly followed up by 'famous last words,' so who knows.

"if it's something urgent, you can always send me a message," Sans added.

Seeing Alphys trying to give him hope and encouragement, Sans smiled back. "thanks," he said, though he was a bit embarrassed that it was apparently very obvious that he was worrying so much. Maybe he wasn't as good at hiding it as he thought. Either way, he appreciated Alphys wanting to make him feel better.

Then his phone buzzed, indicating he had a message. Sans glanced at it, snickering a bit when he saw it read, 'SANS HELP I THINK I PUT IN TOO MUCH TEA!'

"i gotta go. i'll see you later," Sans said, waving to Alphys and then taking a shortcut back to Snowdin.

Entering the house, Sans saw Papyrus rushing around the kitchen, clearly seeming panicked as he tried to keep no less than five pots of tea under control.

"heya bro," Sans said, interrupting his brother's panicked rushing about. "wow, you weren't kidding about making too much tea."

"THE INSTRUCTIONS ARE TOO CONFUSING!! ISN'T ANY SPOON A TEASPOON IF YOU'RE USING IT FOR TEA?" Papyrus cried out.

Sans managed not to laugh, barely. "relax bro. i'll find the teaspoon." Sans began searching through the cabinet where they kept utensils, eventually locating the teaspoon. "here you go."

"WHY IS IT SO SMALL?" Papyrus asked, confused.

"i dunno, bro." Sans shrugged. "alright, here's how you make tea," he continued, beginning to slowly walk Papyrus through the steps. Once he was finished and Papyrus seemed much calmer, he asked, "so, why'd you suddenly decide to make tea, anyway?"

"OH, UM, WELL, I FIGURED IT MIGHT HELP MIRA FEEL BETTER!" Papyrus explained.

"huh? what happened?" Sans asked, concerned.

"WELL, AFTER THE COOKING LESSON, WE WENT BACK HOME, BUT MIRA GOT A STOMACHACHE..."

"oh," Sans said, hoping Mira was alright. Sans had a feeling that she would try to play the stomachache off as if there was nothing wrong, no matter how much it hurt. Maybe he should check on her? Though, if she was trying to hide it, she might get embarrassed if he did... Sans struggled internally with what to do while Papyrus tried the tea, nodding proudly after taking a few sips.

"THIS IS EXCELLENT, IT WILL SURELY HELP! THANK YOU FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE, SANS!"

"no problem, bro," Sans smiled back at him as best he could despite his internal conflict.

(‘Isn’t any spoon a teaspoon if your using it for tea?’

He is chaotic good in a nutshell!

I ask myself these kinds of questions at 2:30 am on a nightshift all the time though xD)


Mira having stuffed herself in a pile of blankets as she had the feeling that Papyrus was likely overdoing it in trying to help her get better, she could hear shuffling and crashing from the kitchen but dared not to look for fear that the skeleton would just find more ways to think she was sick than just a simple belly ache.

It was clear he was concerned about her well being though, the girl not wanting to upset him by saying she didn’t enjoy being fawned over all too much of it was to make him happy. Back on the surface, Mira had often been treated like a mere child due to her appearance and much to her displeasure and had missed out on a lot of things in life by being overlooked because of it.

No one ever took her truly seriously before....well, besides Sans, the skeleton seeming to know somehow when she was just needing someone to talk to or avoid word. It made the girls heart warm up just thinking of the few times she had been able to make him truly smile, but....there was something gnawing at the back of Mira’s mind about the short, chubby monster....

Why did she sense such a underlying sorrow in him?

He and Papyrus seemed to have a good life despite being stuck underground, but maybe there were other stressors in his life that she had no right to pry into? Yeah...maybe that was it...

‘He would never tell you, Mira...you guys barely know each other’

Sighing as she took one of the remaining sheets of paper that she had put beside her bed from earlier and trying to take her mind off things, Mira began to draw a new image of something she for once tried to draw from memory.

It was a picture of Sans and Papyrus, as she had done back near the puzzles earlier, but this time she actually tried to draw Sans looking genuinely happy with his brother, none of the forced smile she had seen him do so often ever since she had fallen down here.

M-maybe she was still getting to know the brothers, but Mira genuinely did want to see them happy and get to the surface alongside her someday with the kindness they had shown her, a mere human, despite humans having trapped their species down here long ago.

There was so much she wanted to show them too! Especially Sans, her having a feeling he would love the nature of her village and the massive trees that grew in the forests. And there were many secret places to that age wanted to share, the thought being nothing but a pipe dream though seeing as she was just as trapped as they were down here....

(Yep )

Sans smiled as Papyrus moved on to making more spaghetti. Sans could tell Papyrus really wanted to help Mira feel better. Sans wanted to help as well, though he had no idea what he could do. After all, he couldn't just make her stomachache go away, and Papyrus was already making spaghetti and tea for her...

Mira didn't seem like she wanted to be fussed over, so he didn't want to bother her, either. Besides, she might be asleep; rest usually helped him when he felt ill, and he figured the same might be true for humans.

Sans sighed silently, and finally resumed reading through the book Alphys had given him about humans. Maybe he would be able to find something in it that would help Mira. Even if not, at least he'd be doing something other than worrying...

After reading for a bit, Sans still hadn't found anything specifically for helping humans when they were ill, but he was learning a lot nonetheless.

.........

Papyrus felt much better now that he was back in familiar territory making spaghetti rather than tea. Still, he hoped the tea would help Mira; if it did, all of the chaos and confusion would be worth it! Papyrus glanced over at Sans occasionally and saw he was reading a book. It seemed to be about humans, and Papyrus figured he was looking for more ways to help. Papyrus was quite proud of his brother for putting in more effort now that Mira was around.

Really, Sans had barely been lazy at all since she'd arrived. It was a relief to see he wasn't so isolated anymore, and was spending more time with friends like Mira and Alphys. Papyrus smiled as he finished up the latest batch of spaghetti.

Papyrus hesitated once he was finished; was Mira still resting? If so, he didn't want to interrupt her to deliver the meal he'd prepared... Maybe he should wait a bit longer, just to be sure. For now, he would clean up the mess he'd inadvertently created while he tried to figure out how to make tea.

Maybe it was just because she was a bit homesick that Mira was trying her best to think of this place as her new ‘home’ as if it would help her feel a bit better about her situation, reality for her having set in a while ago that despite her new friends help there was little chance she would see the sun or her old friends anytime soon.

M-maybe this wouldn’t be so bad though, right? It didn’t seem there was really any danger from monsters down here as far as she could tell and she had a place to stay for now, Mira finishing up her drawing with a sigh as she smiled hopefully to herself with the thought of making a future down here.

‘It might not be so bad...I-I mean, at least things seem a lot less complicated down here’


The image she had created, a picture of the skelebro’s actually looking genuinely happy together on the surface, being tucked away carefully alongside the knife that Mira had hidden away once she realized Sans wasn’t a threat, the girl really didn’t think it was ‘normal’ to think of giving the picture to her newfound friends right now for various reasons.

Maybe it was simply her apparent ‘Love soul’ that was thinking they might see it as odd that this human girl was doodling imagined images of them living on the surface together like this and giving them some shred of hope, the girl deciding to shuffle out of bed once the image was safely hidden as she decided to go see what Papyrus was up to.

“Hey~”, Smiling lightly at the tall skeleton as she wasn’t aware yet that Sans had returned, Mira wasn’t quite sure why but something about the shorter of the brothers made her heart feel a bit odd around him, like anxiety mixed with a intense guilt she didn’t know the source of, “I’m sorry for making you worry earlier, I wasn’t trying to scare you or anything...a-and your cooking was good too! I think I was just overthinking some stuff and got really stressed out”.

Papyrus was glad to see Mira up and walking around again; surely that meant she was feeling better, right? Papyrus smiled back at her, "IT'S OKAY!" Though, he wondered what Mira had been overthinking; what was making her stressed? Had he accidentally done something to upset her? Papyrus hoped that wasn't the case; Mira didn't seem like she would tell him what he'd done wrong if it was. "IF... IF THERE'S ANYTHING I CAN DO TO HELP WITH WHAT WAS STRESSING YOU OUT, LET ME KNOW, ALRIGHT?" Papyrus added, wanting Mira to know that he'd rather she told him if he upset her than just move on like nothing had happened. And even if it had nothing to do with him, if there was some way he could help her with whatever was bothering her, he wanted to!

Papyrus poured a cup of tea and prepared a plate of spaghetti for Mira, hoping the tea turned out well despite him having never prepared any before today. At least Sans had been helping him, so it probably wouldn't taste bad or anything. "OH, AND HERE! TRY THIS!" Papyrus said, smiling brightly at Mira as he presented her with the meal.

.....

Sans was relieved when Mira entered the room. In all honesty, he'd been growing worried as the time passed, not knowing how she was feeling or how to help. Seeing that she didn't seem to have noticed he was back yet, Sans decided to stay quiet and let Papyrus talk with her first. After all, he didn't really know what exactly had been going on earlier, just that Mira had a stomachache, so Papyrus was probably better suited to help her right now anyway.

When Mira mentioned she had been stressed out, Sans felt bad; he knew that adjusting to the Underground couldn't be easy for a human and wondered if that was what she'd been stressed about. Despite his best efforts in searching through the book, he hadn't found much that would be helpful for making the adjustment smoother. Sans figured he'd probably end up just going with Alphys' suggestion of asking Mira directly what would help.

In the meantime, he smiled as Papyrus presented Mira with the tea and spaghetti. Sans hoped the tea had turned out well and would bring Mira some comfort. Papyrus had seemed to follow his directions while making it, so Sans figured it had turned out alright.

Mira quite happy with the fact that Sans hadn’t thought to check on her as she had needed the alone time to think on what was truly bothering her, the girl otherwise usually craved company, but with just how seemingly ‘normal’ today had been...everything just felt kind of ‘off’....

She had woken up, done puzzles with Papyrus, had given a cute picture to the brothers when they had all indulged child-like fantasies of drawing each other, she had met Undyne who had shown her that strength could come from the most unlikely places, and now Papyrus was worried about her potentially being sick and had made her tea and spaghetti.

This was oddly normal and it just...stressed Mira out to her core that she was adjusting to this new life so easily. It felt like she was throwing her old life away in favor of a new one in some sense.

She was terribly, terribly homesick.

......

“Well, I do have a lot on my mind It would bf nice to talk about....”, Mira talking quietly in comparison to Papyrus’s lack of a indoor voice, the girl nodded her thanks to the skeleton as he gave her a plate of spaghetti and tea, her belly being empty from earlier and the monsters food lacking the ridiculous spice that Undyne had thought to put in the last batch.

The healing qualities weren’t a bad side effect either, the tea filling Mira with warmth as she sighed and smiled at Papyrus, “Your not a bad cook, it’s just...I’ve always had a bad stomach for some reason”.

Mira wasn’t lost on the fact that she had likely came across as disliking his cooking due to this genetic quirk, her wanting to reassure the skeleton that it wasn’t his fault, “It makes me wonder though, does Sans like cooking too? I...don’t like to say it but he doesn’t really seem very confident in himself a-and maybe Undyne could help with that~”.

Unaware that Sans could very well hear the conversation as in her tiredness she had failed to notice him, she would have died of shame if she knew the short skeleton could overhear her heartfelt concern about him, “Don’t tell him I said this, but that drawing he made earlier was really cute, he seemed really happy about it~”.

"I'D BE HAPPY TO LISTEN IF YOU WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT," Papyrus said with a kind smile. Really, he wanted to help in any way he could, so if Mira wanted to talk about what was bothering her, he would be there to listen. That was what friends were for, after all! Papyrus was glad to see Mira accept the spaghetti and tea, and hoped it would help as well.

Papyrus, being confident of his cooking abilities, hadn't actually been worried at all that his cooking could have been the cause of Mira's upset stomach, and really had just assumed that it was just a normal stomachache as she'd said. "IT'S OKAY! I WILL ENDEAVOR TO FIND LOTS OF RECIPES THAT WON'T UPSET YOUR STOMACH AT ALL!" Papyrus announced, seeming certain he would succeed. Between Undyne's help and Sans' help, Papyrus was sure it wouldn't be too difficult to learn some recipes that would soothe Mira's stomach.

Papyrus considered Mira's suggestion about Sans taking cooking lessons with Undyne to become more confident. "WELL, IT COULD BE WORTH A SHOT. I'M NOT SURE IF IT WOULD WORK, BUT I GUESS I'LL LEAVE IT UP TO HIM IF HE WANTS TO," Papyrus said eventually, when Sans didn't speak up. Papyrus hadn't realized Mira didn't know Sans was there, and thought she was just speaking to him rather than Sans because they were already in the middle of a conversation. "SANS CAN COOK TEA, AT LEAST. ACTUALLY, HE TAUGHT ME HOW TO MAKE THAT TEA... LET'S JUST SAY, MY FIRST ATTEMPT WAS SOMEWHAT CHAOTIC..." Papyrus added with a sheepish smile.

Completely missing the implication that Mira didn't know Sans could hear them right now, Papyrus smiled and nodded in agreement with Mira's comment about Sans' drawing. "INDEED, IT WAS AN INCREDIBLE DRAWING! AND NOT JUST BECAUSE IT WAS OF ME!" Papyrus said cheerfully, hoping their comments would encourage Sans to keep drawing with them or even join in on other hobbies they might try together in the future.

.........

Sans had continued listening silently as the two conversed, figuring sooner or later Mira would realize he was there... But she didn't, and he would have felt awkward speaking up and joining the conversation halfway through. So instead, he decided to just wait there quietly. After all, he wasn't expecting them to say anything about him; he figured the conversation would just be about cooking and helping Mira feel better from her stomachache.

So it was somewhat startling for him when Mira suggested he have cooking lessons with Undyne. Sans wasn't so sure that was a good idea; Undyne could be a bit much sometimes, while she meant well her enthusiasm could easily get the better of her. Of course, when the cooking lessons were with Papyrus that wasn't an issue at all, since Papyrus was just as enthusiastic. However, Sans was more chill, heh heh... And Undyne didn't seem like she'd enjoy a more laid back style of cooking.

Sans was really more concerned by how easily others seemed to be able to see through him when he was worried. Alphys and he had been friends for quite awhile now, so her being able to tell wasn't so much of a shock as Mira being able to. They'd just met the previous day, after all. For Mira to be able to see his lack of confidence after less than 48 hours... Sans must not be hiding it as well as he thought he was. Really, Sans was less concerned by the fact it was Mira than by the fact if she could see through his act, Flowey might be able to as well...

...And that was never a good thing.

Sans was so distracted by his thoughts that he completely missed Papyrus's response to Mira's suggestion. When Mira spoke up again, Sans tuned back in and was surprised to realize the topic of conversation was still on him. Though, the way Mira worded her statement implied she still didn't realize he was there... Sans felt a bit bad, should he tell her he was there? No, that would probably embarrass her... Sans wasn't sure what to do at this point, if he'd known the conversation would turn to him he would have announced he was there earlier, but how was he to have known?

For now, he'd just pretend he was so focused on reading he hadn't overheard any of it, so when Mira did notice he was there, she wouldn't feel embarrassed.

(This is so adorably wholesome rn :u: Mira is just concerned about her new friend. She noticed something was ‘off’ about him when they were making sketches with his confidence but doesn’t really know how deep his problems are yet)



Maybe it was just because she still felt a bit odd in the head still that had led Mira to just wander into the kitchen and begin talking to Papyrus like old friends, her getting along with the skeleton quite nicely so far despite their different views on puns.

The girl talking away about Sans as she figured he was out doing whatever it was that monsters did down here, it really had taken more than a second for the oblivious girl to realize that her and Papyrus were in fact -not- the only ones in the house with the way that the younger of the brothers was speaking...a-as If he wanted Sans himself to hear it for a confidence boost....

‘Oh no....Mira what have you done?? He is -right there-! How could you be so blind??’

Glancing at Sans who she had completely missed before somehow with a sheepish look on her face, the girl felt herself internally blushing in shame with the way she had been talking about him not seeing as confident as he looked. Sans -was- confident, Mira was sure of that, but there had just been something eating at her inside that made it feel like he was trying to hide something he didn’t want to talk about, her unwilling to push him on it though since they were pretty new friends.

H-had he overheard everything though?? Even when she had claimed his drawing was really cute?

Oh -no-....

“H-hey”, Giving a small smile to the skeleton as she took notice that he was reading a book of some kind, maybe a quick change of topics would be best to avoid any more of this awkwardness about how much she seemed to care for the monsters well being, “What you reading there? I didn’t see you when I must have walked past earlier”.

‘Come on Mira, why are you making things more weird??’

(Ah, okay! And yes, it is ^^)

Sans looked up from the book when Mira spoke to him, hoping to seem like he'd been reading the whole time to avoid embarrassing Mira. "heya," Sans said, smiling back at her. "i'm reading another book dr. alphys gave me," Sans explained. "and don't worry about it," he added, not wanting Mira to feel embarrassed about not noticing he was there.

Nonetheless, he could tell Mira seemed to feel awkward about it. Presumably because they had been talking about him right in front of him without her realizing it. Sans wanted to reassure her that he wasn't annoyed about it or anything, but wasn't sure how considering he was trying to act like he hadn't heard the conversation.

Though, maybe it would be better if he just admitted he'd overheard the conversation and explained it was fine? Nah, it would be too awkward. Mira seemed to be trying to change the subject, so he'd just go with that.

........

Papyrus was surprised to hear that Mira hadn't realized Sans was there. Papyrus really had thought that Mira knew, and had made that comment about his drawing to try to boost his confidence. Though Papyrus was silent due to confusion for a bit, once he saw they were trying to change the subject, he decided to help.

"OH, WE HAVEN'T TOLD SANS HOW WELL THE COOKING LESSON WENT! DO YOU WANT TO TELL HIM ABOUT IT?" Papyrus asked Mira cheerfully, before turning to Sans and adding in a stage-whisper, "SHE DID GREAT! UNDYNE WAS SO IMPRESSED!"