#skele!dal

*bud. you had to have seen this coming.

*You tell Papyrus that you're getting REAL sick and tired of this.

*you need to stop letting this get under your skin.

*Nice try. Sans used that one last year.

*aww, you remembered~

*You roll your eyes. ...Eyelights? Oh god, that's weird to think about... You ask if Papyrus plans on changing you back anytime soon, or if he's gonna make you stay a skeleton forever.

*relax, bud. you have a tendoncy to overreact, y'know.

*...Okay, that one was pretty good.

~

*c'mon, bud. can't ya just go with it for once? for the best month of the year?

*You tell Papyrus no, and (politely) demand that he change you back right the fuck NOW.

*PLEASE TELL ME YOU DIDN'T ACTUALLY HAVE A HAND IN THIS, BROTHER.

*nyeheh... bro, you know me. it'd take way too much effort to do this myself. i'm just enjoying the results.

*PAPYRUS. AS DEVILISHLY HANDSOME AS OUR FRIEND LOOKS NOW, HE'S CLEARLY UNCOMFORTABLE. CHANGE HIM BACK, ALREADY. AND IF YOU DIDN'T DO IT, FIND WHOEVER DID.

*You thank Sans for the compliment and hope he isn't offended.

*NOT AT ALL, MY FRIEND. NOT EVERYONE HAS THE STOMACH FOR SUCH A CHANGE. I CAN ONLY ASK FOR YOU TO NOT LET THIS EXPERIENCE GET UNDER YOUR SKIN, ESPECIALLY IF HE TAKES HIS SWEET TIME RETURNING YOU TO NORMAL.

*...

* ...I DID MEAN IT YOU KNOW! YOU MAKE A FINE SKELETON!

*...thanks.

*You don't like what Papyrus is insinuating.

*yeah, he's fine. nothin' to worry about.

If we're talking about any AU outside of the canon 'verse, the one skelebro that Dal would probably get along best with is Swap!Papyrus.

No one is sure if these two have a thing for each other or just vibe together on a damn near spiritual level. If there is any romance in the air, neither side knows about it, with Paps dealing with his own issues behind the scenes and Dal's inexperience in the romance department keeping both of them from noticing any signs. Dal can at least see it between other people, of course, but when things like romantic words and gestures are thrown at him??? Clueless. Even his soul sphere turning pink would go unnoticed if no one's around to point it out for him. I mean... it's behind his back all the time.

And with the thought of a reset taking Dal away at any moment weighing on Pap's mind... it's best to just take what's given to you, and not seek out more than that. For a while, Pap even considered that Dalex was the anomaly responsible for the Resets, but alas, Dal simply isn't Determined enough to reset even once. If this human dies, he dies.

And, it would probably be another dozen timelines before Pap could see him again.

Or even worse, this is the only one where Dal even exists at all.

...The harder they are to find, the more you'll want to keep them.