"Of course not!" It bursts out too quickly to think through, and he winces after the fact.

How could anyone want the secrets, and evasions, and jokes used as deflections as much as anything else? How could he enjoy hearing jokes with little humor behind them, like Sans is always running from something in his head? Or the feeling that he needed to scold and nag, to push his brother into doing things, because left to his own devices... what would Sans do? Hang out in the bar all day? There were words for people who did that, and none of them were complimentary.

Papyrus takes a deep breath that does not turn into a sob. One of them needs to stay strong here, and it's sure not going to be Sans right now. As concerned and watchful as Rarity has been, she doesn't have the context for a lot of this stuff, so her sitting out so far was just as well. People not having the context, but acting anyway, was what started the whole fight.

"I--I mean... I can't change you for you. Try as I might!" Even a sock led to a lengthy exchange of demands and feigned confusion. By now, Papyrus knows better than to hope for much on the big things. "Getting mad about it would just make me feel worse."