Chapter Text
When he opened his eyes all he saw was white. Endless white stretching for eternity.
The only color was himself. A soft gray outline of his body. Imperfect and messy lines covered him. He looked in fascination at the marks. He poked at them, surprised by how solid those soft lines were.
Next he touched the place where he sat. It too was solid. He tried to push up from sitting only to fall forward on his first attempt. Trying again he stumbled on weak legs and fell back to the ground. Over and over he tried to stand. He had no idea how long it took, but finally on shaky legs he stood.
He grinned to himself at the small victory. Though he had no idea what to do with it. After all, what could he do in this completely empty place? There was nothing here, nothing but him.
He didn't even know what he was or why he was here. He just was.
Then he heard a voice. At first it was distant but grew closer. It was muffled and seemed to be coming from above. Whatever it was, it scared him.
The sound seemed to eat the still silence of that place. So loud it was to him that it hurt. He put his hands to his skull as if to block out the noise, but it did little to help. But slowly he grew used to the noise. His hearing adjusted to the voice til finally he could remove his hands. He listened trying to understand what it was saying.
“Time to finally clean up here.” The sound of things moving echoed all around him.
“God, this place is a mess. Where to even start.” A sound of something falling.
“Seriously, why did I keep so much junk over the years?” The voice continued to mumble and complain.
“Hey, it's this old thing. Wow, I can't believe I still have this. This thing is ancient. Thought I lost it years ago.” The voice seemed distracted from it's organizing as the sound of pages being flipped filled the air.
“Hey, I remember this. I never did finish this au. Man, looking at this is bringing back memories. Last time I was in this fandom was when i was a kid.”
A long pause.
“Well I guess there is no reason to keep this old sketchbook. Might as well toss it along with the rest of the trash up here.”
Though he didn't understand any of what the voice was saying. He felt panic begin to claw at him. Grasping and squeezing his soul till he felt he couldn't breathe. Something deep inside him told him that what the voice wanted to do wasn't good.
He opened his mouth and tried for the first time in his life to speak. “No, please don't do it!” He shouted, but his words didn't seem to reach them.
He shouted more, anything to stop this voice. From what? He wasn't sure, just that it needed to be stopped.
He screamed and cried but all of it fell on deaf ears. It was hopeless. He couldn't do anything.
He collapsed onto the ground as his legs gave way. There he closed his eyes welcoming the black that enclosed his vision and waited for whatever fate was to befall him.
“Hmm, though it might be fun to work on this au again. After all, I can probably come up with something cool for this. All I'll have to do is clean this sketch up and go from there. Should be easy. Besides, it beats cleaning this mess for now.”
With those words he felt his body relax as all the fear and panic left it. He opened his eyes back to the blinding whiteness and began crying in relief.
Somehow they had understood him, they weren't going to do the bad thing anymore.
“I'll clean out the rest of this later, not like it's going anywhere. Okay, first I should rework this sketch. It's faded pretty badly.” There were sounds of footsteps followed by things being moved about.
“Now where's my pencil. Ah, there it is. Okay, here goes nothing.”
Suddenly his arm felt odd, like a strange itch. He went to scratch at it only to stop. His eyes widened in amazement as the soft lines making up his arm grew darker. Slowly he became more defined in harsh sketching lines. Soft vague arms became more like bones. A circle for a chest became a ribcage. He watched in amazement as he began to take form.
Slowly, bit by bit, more details were added to once simple lines. The earlier fear was forgotten as excitement took its place. He looked over his new self smiling ear from ear at the new lines.
From here a pattern of sorts began.
The voice would add more to him, muttering to themselves as they drew. Sometimes he liked to think they were speaking to him and nodded along. It was fun.
Then after adding more they would leave for a while. Sometimes it wasn't too long, but other times it was a very very long time. So long the fear came and settled on his chest.
“What if they never come back.”
“Maybe they no longer want me.”
“Please come back.”
These thoughts filled his mind til it felt like he would drown in them. Until he couldn't breathe.
But then the voice would return and the thoughts would leave and all would be fine. He would think how silly of him to doubt the voice of course they came back. There was nothing to worry about.
And so that same cycle repeated over and over. Until the voice did something different.
By this point he had gained lots of new lines. The newest ones were some strange things that covered his body. The voice had called it an outfit. He wasn't sure what that was but it was fine as long as the voice was happy.
Though the voice hadn't been happy with the outfits. Constantly starting and stopping and redesigning them. They seemed fine with the current one. He liked this outfit quite a lot. It was soft and nice. It was his favorite so far. He hoped this one would stay this time.
When the voice came back they seemed more excited than usual. This made him excited too.
“What was the voice going to do now?” He awaited in anticipation as he heard the clattering of the voice grabbing its tools to create.
Then with no warning the voice started adding more lines, but not to him. No, they started making lines and circles in the blank space next to him. He watched, his breath catching as he realized it's another him. Or at least something like him, though he wasn't really sure what he was to begin with. But he saw the similar circles and lines like he had been when he woke up. Only this one was taller. The lines were longer than his had been.
He beamed, they were giving him someone else. Maybe the voice understood how lonely this white space was when they were gone. So now they kindly gave him someone else, so he wouldn't be so alone. Yes that was obviously what this was. The voice truly was so kind.
The other one was finished, or at least the sketch was. They were sitting there looking around in confusion or amazement at their surroundings.
He excitedly approached them. They flinched away, but stayed sitting. With wide eyes they watched as he circled around them. He analyzed them from all sides. He gently poked them causing them to jump with a yelp.
He froze, this other figure had made a sound. Could they speak like the voice? He had someone to talk to. A grin sprouted on his face at the realization.
“HELLO!” He said maybe too loudly.
The figure jumped again, and looked at him. Fear painted their expression.
“Do you know how to speak? Can you talk or do you not know how? Don't worry if you don't, I can teach you. It'll be fun I promise.” Excitement bubbled up inside him as he spoke each sentence getting faster as his excitement grew.
The figure looked at him, their eyes unsure. And quietly they said in an odd speech. “You like to talk a lot.”
“SO YOU CAN TALK!” Seeing the figure wince at his loud tone he sheepishly looked at them and said “Sorry. Was that too loud?”
“Only a little.” Said the figure with what looked like a sketch of a smile. “It's fine. Just maybe a little less loud next time.”
He beamed at the figure and nodded. “You got it.”
The figure looked around. “So what exactly is this place?”
“Oh you mean the blank space?” He said, gesturing to the white all around them.
“Blank space?” The figure looked around quizzically.
“Yeah that's what I've been calling it. Because it's just well… blank.” He felt the weight of that final word settle on his chest, at acknowledging how little there was here.
“Will they like being here in a place with nothing but me?” He thought.
“What if they hate it here? What if they hate me?” He didn't let the second question even cross his mind. He shook his head. No, he'll make sure they like this place. They'll play games and have all sorts of fun. It will be great.
The figure stared at him, dejected. They sighed and said “Right, so we're the only ones here?”
Sitting down next to the figure he shrugged. “As far as I know there isn't anyone else. I searched all over but there was nothing here. You're the first other thing to appear here outside of, well… me.”
“Ah, that explains your earlier excitement.”
Now that someone else was here, maybe he could get some answers. Like why was he here? Why did the voice make him? This figure had to know.
“So why are we here, any ideas?” He asked.
“Nope.” Quickly replied the figure.
At that curt response the smile dropped from his face.
“That figures.” Not even the figure knew.
The figure, seeing his defeated look, sighed and said “Look you probably know more than me. So do you have any ideas.”
He looked at the figure and shook his head. “All I know is the voice brought us here, or made us? I'm not sure which. But the voice probably knows why. Too bad we can't ask them.”
A puzzled expression crossed the figure’s face. “Voice? What voice?”
“Oh, just the one from up there.” he said pointing up to the white nothing above them. “They come by and do things and talk. Then they disappear for a bit. But no worries, they always come back sooner or later.”
The figure sighed. “Right, so we just have to wait and see what the voice has planned.”
He nodded. “Yep.”
So with nothing else to do they waited. The figure asked many questions none of which the other could answer with certainty.
He tried to show them some of the games he made while waiting for the voice. Like counting his fingers or jumping around the white space. None really interested the figure, but they played along for a little while. They even made a game together. Having someone else was really the best thing to happen to him.
The voice was gone for a long time and after a while they just sat in silence.
The figure had wandered a bit but gave up on finding anything. So they went back to sitting and waiting.
Until the voice once again returned.
The figure jumped at the noise, with a panicked look.
“Don't be scared. They're nice.” He tried to reassure them.
Even as a new fear began to fill his chest. What if the voice decided it didn't like the figure anymore. What if they made the figure go away. He didn't want to think about going back to that loneliness again.
“Hmm, I should really fix this. It's just not that good. It's so basic. What was I thinking of doing such a weak design?”
“No.” He thought. “Don't take them away from me. Please.”
He watched as fear filled the figures' eyes as they looked at him. And before he could speak either to beg to the voice or apologize to the figure, the figure started to disappear. Bit by bit it was erased and then they were gone leaving behind empty white space. As if they hadn't been there at all.
He hadn't realized he was screaming at first. Everything felt muted, wrong. He curled up sobbing. He was alone again. Alone, alone, alone.
He stayed like that not wanting to look where the figure had once been. To be reminded they weren't there anymore. So he kept his head buried, blocking out his empty world.
He wasn't sure how much time had passed when he heard the voice speak.
“Much better. This should work for now. Though now I feel the other one looks a little outdated now. Oh well I'll just have to fix it tomorrow. That was enough drawing for today.” And then they were gone.
He finally looked up, only to see the figure standing there. They looked different, they were still tall but now they had an outfit.
They opened their eyes and looked at him.
At first he was scared. What if this was a completely new figure? One who didn't know him. “Even if they aren't the same, I won't be alone now. So why am I scared?” He wondered. His chest felt heavy at the thought of the figure he once knew being gone. That he would never see them again.
The new figure stared at him and finally spoke. “I thought I was gone for good.”
They bent over with their hands on their knees breathing heavily. “God that was terrifying.”
They looked at him. “I'm happy to see you're okay kid.”
Relief washed over him. “They know me. It's still them.” The weight in his chest lightened. The figure he knew before was still here. They weren't gone forever.
“You're okay.” He beamed at them.
“Yeah sorry for scaring you kid.” With this they hugged him.
He was so happy, but also confused. The figure was the same one but different, and not just in the way they looked. The way they talk sounded even more weird now. And some of the stuff they were saying didn't make any sense. But at this moment none of that mattered. He was just happy they were back.
He hugged them back. Holding onto them as if he was afraid letting go would cause them to disappear again.
“Hey kid. It's alright. I'm here, I'm here.”
He hadn't noticed, but he was crying. Another sob wrecked his chest. “Your back. Not gone forever.”
“Hey it's okay now.” The figure picked him up and wrapped their arms around him, making soothing sounds.
After a bit his tears stopped and his sobbing became hiccups. They set him back down with a smile. “There we go. You alright now?”
He nodded unsure if his voice would work.
“Good, good. That voice friend of yours is something else. Could have given me a warning there kid.”
He looked down. “Sorry.”
The figure sighed and patted his skull. “No, it's fine. Not your fault. You couldn't have known.”
Now that he had calmed down, he looked at the figure more closely. They really were different. Their very lines had changed. No longer pencil sketches but clear inked lines. Confident and with so many details it made his head swim.
The figure was definitely acting differently. Though it wasn't bad, just different. Though one thing bothered him.
“Why do you keep calling me that?” He stared at the figure.
The figure looked back at him, confused. “Calling you what, kid?”
“That!” He said pointing at the figure as if to point out the offending word.
“Kid?” They asked unsure.
“Yeah. Why are you saying that?”
The figure just stared at him. “Because it's what you are?”
He felt even more frustrated by this response. “What I am? What's that mean? What does keed mean?”
“Kid.” Corrected the figure.
“That's what I said.”
The figure put a hand on thier head scratching at it. “How to explain. It means you're smaller than me. And that's because you're young. You- uh. You haven't lived as long. Haven't been you for that long. God, I hope I'm making sense.”
He stared at the figure mouth agape.
“Uh kid, you alright? Didn't break your brain with that did I?”
“WHAT DO YOU MEAN?” He yelled causing the figure to jump. “I've been here alone way before you came. Now you're trying to say I wasn't.”
They winced and said “While you have technically existed longer than me. I'm definitely older than you. I don't know how to explain this.”
“You're not. If a kid is not being here as long, then that would make you the kid.” He said pointing accusingly at the figure.
“That's not- You're the kid here.” The figure said frustration entering their voice.
“Am not!” He replied, stomping his foot to emphasize his point.
“Are too.” The figure said, poking him in the chest.
They went on like this for some time.
Until the figure angrily threw up his hands. “You are a kid and that's it, deal with it.” They began walking to the other side of the space muttering under their breath. “I am not a kid, ridiculous.”
“Fine, go away then.” He yelled, turning his back on the figure and sat down. Crossing his arms he refused to look at the figure.
Both stayed like this for a time. But slowly he began to feel a pit in his stomach. Was it really a big deal what they called him? It wasn't even bad. So why had he gotten so annoyed by it? Here someone had called him something for the first time that he could remember and he had gotten angry and yelled at them.
He looked back and the figure had their back to him. They were probably still mad. What if they stayed angry. What if they never spoke to him again.
He felt a lump form in his throat. But he didn't know what to do. So he just sat there trying not to cry.
He heard the figure sigh and a moment later they sat next to him. He refused to look at them. Scared they were still mad. They put an arm around him in a side hug.
“Hey, sorry about earlier. I should have let it go. If you don't like being called a kid, I'll just think of something else. Okay. Just please don't be mad”
“I'm not mad. A-and it's alright if you wanna call me kid. I was just being stupid.” He wiped the tears threatening to fall, hoping the figure didn't notice.
“Hey you aren't stupid. You're a pretty smart kid.”
“Really?” He finally looked up to see the figure smiling at him.
“Yeah, you are and don't you forget it.”
He smiled and nuzzled into the figure's side. “You're smart too. Even for a big kid.”
The figure laughed at that. He joined in as well, relieved that the figure wasn't mad anymore. They both sat like that till the voice returned once more.
“Alright time to fix this old sketch. Should have done this sooner.”
He looked at the figure as he began to shake in fear. He couldn't help himself. The figure just hugged him even tighter.
“It's alright kid. You'll be back as good as new before you know it.” Their smile was strained. But it still comforted him a little. The figure was right, he would be okay. After all they returned just fine, so would he. He had to.
“Might as well use a clean paper than this old tattered thing. New paper for a brand new design.”
He closed his eyes waiting for it. Only suddenly a terrible pain came over him. He yelled out as he felt himself being crushed and squeezed. He couldn't breathe it hurt.
“KID!” The figure screamed as it all went dark.
Then, after what felt like seconds, blinding white filled his eyes once more. He closed them as he heard. “Kid, you alright? It's okay I got you.”
He felt like crying as two arms wrapped around him. He was back, he existed. He opened his eyes again and saw the figure holding him. His eyes began to focus as he slowly processed what had happened. He had been here. Then the pain. Then nothing. Then he was back here again as if nothing had happened.
He wondered how long he had been gone. How long had the figure waited for him. Looking at their worried eyes, even as they tried to hide it behind a smile, he guessed it had been a long time.
On shaking legs he stood. And looked around. The blank space was the same as always and the figure was also unchanged.
Though looking at them a word entered his mind. A word he didn't know, never heard of even. Nor had he ever thought of it before either, but now it was in his mind clearly. Like a missing piece falling into place.
“Brother?”
Yes that was right this figure was his brother but what was a brother? It was family, but what even was that? It felt correct yet wrong all at once just making him confused.
“Brother? Yeah I guess I am your brother, kid. Whatever that is?” The figure also seemed confused by the word even as they accepted it as what they were.
He nodded. “I’m kid and you're brother.”
His brother smiled at him. “Sounds good to me, kid.”
He smiled back at his brother. “Good, because you can't change it.” he said cheerfully.
“Oh man, I wanted something cooler.” His brother said in mock disappointment.
“Too late brother. My mind is made up.”
The figure shrugged in defeat at this. “Oh well, guess I can live with being a brother.” The figure grinned at him. He smiled back, breaking into a bout of giggles at how silly all this was.
It felt nice. Sitting next to his brother all the earlier fear and tension left him. Here, together, he felt safe.
“Though kid you look pretty different. Not bad, just different.”
“I do?” He asked.
He looked down and saw his outfit. He looked dangerous. The word edgy entered his mind, though he didn't know what that was really.
He also noticed his lines are no longer sketches. Just like his brother, his lines are now clear confident ink outlines.
“Wow.” He couldn't keep the obvious dislike from his voice.
“You sound happy.” His brother said sarcastically.
“It's a lot.” He admitted.
“Yep.” His brother agreed, nodding.
“I feel silly in this.” He looked down, blushing in embarrassment.
“You do look silly kid, but don't worry you're not the only one.” His brother said with a smile and a wink. He laughed at this. His brother joined in after him.
Once their laughter subsided, his brother embraced him once more. “I'm glad you're back, kid.”
Hugging them back he replied “Me too.”
From there things continued to change in the empty space. Little by little things were added into it. A couple of sharp trees and a square house with a triangle roof. All were simple, but to the brothers, it was all amazing. A world was beginning to take shape around them.
Each time the voice came the brothers also found new information entering their minds. From knowing what being brothers meant. To the trees being called pines. To their home being a place called Snowdin. Each new piece was an exciting discovery.
The biggest of course was their names.
One day he just knew that the figure who had become his brother was Papyrus. That was his name, what he was called. And just like Papyrus, he too had a name. His name was Sans.
Despite this Papyrus preferred the nickname kid and truthfully Sans didn't mind. After all it was the name his bro gave him.
One day they were exploring a new place that had been drawn in. A diner of some sort. Sans loved it. Papyrus was less thrilled but went along anyway. As Sans went to the rectangle that was to be a counter, he suddenly felt strange.
“Oh no, not another one.” he exclaimed in annoyance.
“Ah, is the voice redesigning again.” His bro asked.
“I think so. Aww. I liked these clothes.” Sans gestured at his current design. It was far more comfortable than the initial outfit had been. It fit him more than the dangerous look too. He just hoped it wasn't another wildly different design this time. He was kinda getting sick of being a dress up doll. Luckily their new house had a mirror so they could see each new design the voice had given them in full. This was one of the better ones of his.
Sans gave an over dramatic sigh. “See you soon bro.”
Papyrus smiled at him. “See ya kid.”
A quick hug, then he closed his eyes ready for the pain of being scraped. But the pain didn't come.
He heard Papyrus gasp, and he opened his eyes.
“What's wrong?”
Without a word Papyrus picked him up and ran back to the house.
“What is it, Papyrus? Is everything okay?”
Papyrus set him in front of the mirror. “Kid, look.” He sounded unusually excited.
Sans did as he instructed and looked at his reflection. He didn't understand what he was seeing. His eyelights weren't white anymore, they were something else. But there wasn't anything else, always black, white, and gray. And yet this was something else. He couldn't stop staring at it. He watched in wonder as his clothes became different too. Not the same as his eyelights but something else. Bit by bit more of it covered what was once white and gray. Once it was done he suddenly understood what this was.
“Colors.”
He stared at them, yellows and greens and blues. Colors, not black and white but colors. It was amazing.
His reflection beamed at him as he said, “Papyrus I have colors now!”
His brother smiled back at him. “Yeah, you sure do.”
He looked at Papyrus and grinned even wider. “You're getting colors too!”
Papyrus eyes widened with surprise. “What!?”
Sans stepped out from in front of the mirror and pushed his brother into his former spot.
“See colors.”
Papyrus looked on in shock as, just like with Sans, colors started to cover him as well.
“Well would you look at that. Looks like we've gotten an upgrade.”
Sans giggled gleefully. “Yep.”
The redesigning stopped after that. No more scraping or worrying. Sans was relieved that at least that part was over.
But things continued to change even more than before. Other people were made. First sketches like Sans and Papyrus had once been. Then true drawings and finally fully colored people.
Toriel, Undyne, and Asgore joined them in their sketched world. Just like Sans and Papyrus, all grew used to their strange existence with time.
Snowdin had grown and some of it was even colored. Their house had colorful lights on it. The diner was colored halfway in browns. The trees were scribbles of green and brown. It was almost as if that blank space had never been there.
That was until they left Snowdin. Once out of town they were met with the empty nothingness. All of them agreed to never go back out there unless they had too. So they all just hung out in Snowdin.
Undyne wore robes and came from the ruins that had yet to be drawn. Only a simple door in the woods was the only evidence of its existence. She was nice, baking pies and telling bad puns. Sans loved the puns and soon both were having competitions on who could tell the worst ones. Whoever got the most boos won. Undyne won the most so far, but Sans was catching up.
Toriel was cool. She had an eye patch and knew how to fight. She was in the royal guard, even though the king had yet to be drawn. She helped train Papyrus. Sans even sat in on some of their lessons. Though he was still too young to join in. But it was still fun to watch.
Asgore was the diner owner. He was mostly quiet but kind. He gave them free food whenever they stopped by after Papyrus' training sessions. All of them were great. Sans loved his new friends and his slowly expanding home.
Everything was great, that is until one day the voice stopped coming. It was the longest the voice had been gone. And the fear began to creep back in. Papyrus assured him that the voice was probably busy and they would be back soon.
A couple of months passed and still no voice. Had they finally grown tired of them. Did they do something wrong?
Then suddenly one day the voice came back.
Where before they seemed to be happy and even having fun, now they were frustrated and angry. They seemed to be writing a story for all of them. But they were stuck, or at least that's what Sans was able to piece together from their angry mutterings.
Sans wanted to help them. Whatever they wanted of him in the story he did as perfectly as he could. Sometimes he would try and help create new ideas when the voice grew frustrated with a particular roadblock. But the voice only grew more frustrated at his attempts.
“No Sans shouldn't do that.”
“Sans wouldn't act like that in my story.”
“This isn’t working.”
Despite all that, Sans kept trying to help. He wanted the voice to be happy again. And he was sure once they had the story figured out then all would be okay.
But the voice took longer and longer breaks between writing. They no longer drew. Leaving Snowdin a half finished mess.
He grew more and more worried. But all he could do was continue to try his best.
“It's okay Sans.” Undyne said one day as he sat staring off into nothing as she removed a pie from the oven.
“No it's not. What if the voice leaves for good.”
Undyne looked at him. “If they leave, that's their own decision. You can't force them to stay.”
“But-”
Undyne held up a hand. “And even if the voice abandons us we'll still have each other. Sure the town is small, but I believe we can still have a good life here.”
She set the pie down between them on the counter and continued. “If this is all we get, it'll be enough. I promise.”
He couldn't believe that.
“But what if it's not?” He slammed his hands on the counter, frustrated by it all.
She gave a sad smile and patted his skull. “You worry too much little one. As long as we have each other, what more could any of us possibly need?”
He looked down ashamed of his outburst. “You really think so?”
Soft laughter filled the kitchen as she replied “Yes, I truly do little one. Now do you want pie or not?”
He looked up at her, and sighed. “Yes please.”
She grinned at him. “Now that's more like it.”
The voice returned, only to have a breakdown. They had ripped up the door to the ruins. Despite it being her only connection to her actual home, Undyne had just shrugged it off saying, “It was just a door and besides I had no reason to go there anyways.”
Sans was angry, the voice wasn't even trying anymore. They were just giving up after everything it had put all of them through. It was for nothing. He hated it.
Sans slammed open the door and stomped over the couch and sat down. Papyrus was currently washing dishes in the kitchen, and having noticed his brother's sour mood decided to intervene.
“Look kid, I get it. It's frustrating, but it's not the end of the world.”
“Everything would be fine if they just tried.” Sans said, not even attemptingto hide his frustration.
Papyrus sighed, and set down the plate he had been scrubbing to dry. “I don't think it's that simple.”
“They used to care, now they just yell and rant. Erasing things more than creating them. I hate it and I hate them.” Sans crossed his arms, staring angrily at the wall before him.
“Kid, you don't mean that.” Said Papyrus.
Sans continued to glare at the wall. “I do.”
Papyrus saw his brother's shoulders shaking. He sighed and having finished the dishes, walked over to the couch and sat next to him. Without a word, he just wrapped his arms around his little brother and hugged him.
At first Sans fought against it, wanting to hold onto his anger. Better than letting the fear take him.
“It's okay to be scared, kid. I'm scared too. It'll be alright you'll see. We aren't leaving you.” He said, patting Sans' back comfortingly.
Sans hated the tears that fell from his face as he buried his skull into his brother's shoulder. “But what if they scrape you all. What if I end up alone again. If-if I could just do better. Help them more, maybe I won't lose you.”
Papyrus pulled back and looked at him. “You aren't losing me, kid. The voice will probably just leave and never come back. And we'll continue to live our lives here. We'll be okay. I promise, and you know how much I hate making those.”
“Heh, yeah. Thanks bro.” He hugged his brother back feeling a little better.
“Your welcome little brother.”
They stayed like that, holding each other and hoping neither would disappear. In the end it was all they could hope for.