Won't You Stay My Little Honeybun?

Chapter 1: A Fateful Encounter

A/N:

Starting chapters will be longer to get the intro out of the way but all chapters should be around 5k words!

Do note that this fic is a Yandere with dubcon content.

Thank you for checking out my fic and enjoy!

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"Hello? Earth to Y/N, you there?" A yellow claw poked at you as you were focused on some papers, finally you regained your sense of surroundings as you looked at the familiar looking yellow lizard monster in front of you as the usual white walls of the office came into vision as well. "Huh? Oh yes sorry! Just putting these papers into my memory palace, something you want?" You apologized but Alphys bashfully smiled. "Ah no, no! Just informing I'm leaving, it's getting late" You blinked at her and looked at the clock in disbelief, it showed to be 10:30 pm. "And so it is, I'll be staying, got some more work to do" Alphys bashfully took your hands into her claws gently. "Y/N, it's okay to rest, you're always working so late" That wasn't a lie but you enjoyed this work and unbeknowingly stayed late doing what you loved, for you it was the usual. "I know, time just slips away from me but I promise I'll take care of myself" You reassured Alphys and gave her clawed hand a squeeze.

"A-alright, but if you need anything you can always text me... Oh and Sans will be hanging around later than usual!" Smiling at her you nodded and retracted your hand, you nudged her towards the exit door. You were pretty sure Alphys knew about you and Sans being soulmates and now she was shipping you two together. "Got it, now get home to your lovely fish lady, tell her I said hi" Alphys blushed as she nodded and awkwardly walked out but not before waving goodbye to you and you doing the same. You truly loved that dork, platonically of course, she already had her destined soulmate Undyne.

You sighed and got back to your papers, it was about some newly discovered medicine for the soul, who knew monsters could catch a fever by their souls? Well now you did. Moving onto the next paper, it was a blueprint of the newly modified machine, some things had been changed or worked on but it still technically didn't turn on even though it clearly used electricity to power itself on, you looked at multiple papers and memorized them. Abruptly you could feel a pull in your soul and you instantly knew what the reason for that was, you reacted like you didn't feel anything. Sans didn't know that you knew about the soulmate thing and honestly you would like to keep it that way. You could clearly see the little blue string attached to your soul, since you didn't have any magic it took on Sans's primary magic colour. Humans usually weren't able to see them but you could if you really focused on it, didn't know why but you weren't alone in it so maybe just a minority.

"Hello there kiddo, working late again?" Sans usually called you kiddo, which didn't sit well in your book but you didn't make a fuss out of it. "Yep" You simply answered as your eyes didn't divert from the blueprint of some weird contraption you were committing into your memory. You didn't have the mood to converse with Sans and then him getting uncomfortable when things got even a little bit personal. It was weird he even initiated a conversation unprovoked.

"Welp, I'll be going, don't stay the entire night, we can't afford to pay that" You looked up from the blueprint in a somewhat amused expression on your face. "I'll make sure to leave before that happens, oh and do tell your brother I enjoyed his spaghetti" Sans's brother had made a spaghetti dish for the get-together that your work held and you didn't find it distasteful, just needed more work. As expected you could tell that Sans got uncomfortable, why do you even bother, you didn't show your disappointment and looked back down on the blueprint, surely by now you had it all memorized. "Hehe... will do, see ya" And out he went... Wait, how much time has passed? You looked at the clock and it was now midnight, you should probably take a break so you didn't completely exhaust your brain.

You sat down at your desk in an office chair and your gaze fixated on the curious machine in the corner, usually it was in a lab room made of thick glass but it had been dragged here for the modifications. For some reason it was left plugged in, not your problem and not your bill to pay. You stood up and walked towards it, you examined it closely and you could see the changes that the blueprint had shown. You sighed and casually leaned on it, it never reacted to anything anyways. Your mind went to your soul bond and why it even existed, you remember a very crushing memory... if only you were good at forgetting things you didn't want to remember.

You had accidentally caught Alphys and Sans talking, you had tried to focus on anything else but when Alphys brought up the soul bond thing, your interest piqued. "So are you and Y/N getting along?" Alphys had asked and you could feel Sans glance your way but like usual you didn't react. "You want me to answer that when they're standing right there?" Sans spoke in a quiet voice but you still managed to catch it. Alphys chuckled and looked towards you too while your eyes were seemingly on something you were working on. "Oh they can't hear anything, they're usually so absorbed in their work they forget this world even exists sometimes" You knew she was joking but she could have said that a little more eloquently. "I THINK THAT H-HUMAN OVER THERE S-SMELLS AWFUL" Alphys suddenly shouted but you didn't react at all, you were good at playing pretend.

"Huh, guess you're right well I haven't really talked to them too much" You could feel his stare on you but he quickly averted his gaze back to Alphys. "I don't really like them that much, if you're trying to elude to my soul connection with them, I rather not acknowledge it exists, especially with a human, won't work out with no magic and all" Well at least he wasn't sugar coating it, guess he preferred monster partners but it did sting a bit to be so wholeheartedly rejected. The rest of the conversation became a blur as you dedicated your entire focus on your work.

You leaned more into the machine "Rather not acknowledge it huh?" You mumbled, what a cowardly thing to say but weren't you also a coward pretending it didn't exist or affect you? Ugh you wish you could just rip the damn thing out of your soul and be done with this painful thing all together so you didn't have to pretend anymore. You focused and saw that loathsome blue string going up to your soul, you reached towards it not expecting to be able to touch it physically but instead of it going through your hand it stayed solid. How odd... you gave it a gentle pull and you felt that in your soul, that wouldn't affect Sans right? Even if it did, what would it matter? He wanted it gone, you wanted it gone so... You yanked the string as hard as you could, your soul felt immense pain but you kept pulling at it until you heard something snap and the pain went to a dull ache. You hadn't expected that to work.

You looked at the now detached soul string and you felt free? Unburdened? You could now just... do your job without having to think about it ever again and maybe Sans would stop avoiding you but you wouldn't mind if he continued to do that, you could move onto better things like somebody actually wanting to be with you. You dropped the string carelessly and saw it vanish from your sight... It was time to go home to your quaint apartment but before you could push yourself off the machine, it started to make weird clunking sounds. Uh oh that wasn't normal! You're certain that you did not accidentally press anything!

You could hear the fans pick up speed and you carefully stepped away from it, you saw something weird forming inside the machine. It looked like a black hole but it wasn't sucking anything towards it... You spoke too soon as you felt a harsh pull in your soul, the fuck? You need to get away ASAP! The lights in the room started to flicker as the black void started to grow bigger and pulled your soul harder, oh stars you hoped you were just dreaming! You ran towards the exit but the pull on your soul slowed you down and eventually it got too strong, your body got pulled with it. The pull got so strong it yanked you towards the black void painfully adding more dull aching to your soul, it dragged you closer and closer and you feared it would devour you whole. What in the world was happening!? Why did it have to turn on when only you were in the room!?

Your body collided with the void but your body phased through it like if you were going into a portal. Your body got swallowed whole and you saw the portal's opening close right before your eyes leaving you in utter darkness as your body weightlessly floated in the dark void. You could still feel your soul get dragged through the endless void, were you even moving!? You didn't know. It felt like you had been inside this hell hole for ages but realistically it had probably only been like 5 minutes, how were you able to even breathe and why was the temperature so cold? Maybe you should just focus on staying sane and not question everything.

Suddenly your vision got attacked with an intense bright light as your body got thrown and hit something cold but soft. You lifted your body up and got in a sitting position as you rubbed your sensitive eyes. You slowly opened them to see mostly white but you could also see some orange? You rubbed your eyes again and your vision cleared up, what you saw as white was cold snow and the orange was... an unfamiliar skeleton looking quite stunned, he was wearing an orange hoodie and dark green cargo shorts. The weather was quite sunny? It pricked at your skin gently and gave you quite the needed warmth, It's weird how the snow hasn't melted. You looked behind you and saw a very familiar but different machine that had sucked you in, had this one spat you out?

You could see the remnants of a portal closing... there goes your way back home. You turned your head back around and the same skeleton stood there, gazing at you with awe as you looked up at him in your sitting position. Even if you stood up he would probably tower over you. "Um h-hello?" You stuttered out, uncertain that of the situation you were in, quite frankly you were hella confused. The skeleton reacted by jolting at the sound of your voice, it seems like he was as confused as you were.

You got up from the cold snow and you were right, the tall skeleton did tower over you even when he was slouching. "This is awkward but where am I?" Had the machine teleported you to another country? That would be awesome but also not. "Eh, you're in Sunnedout, specifically behind my house" Ah, that didn't tell you anything at all, it just left you more confused. "You suddenly popped out of my machine that shouldn't be working" You looked behind you again and it wasn't even plugged in, that was odd. "So it seems... I have no idea how I got here, well kind of but I don't understand it" This was really messing with your brain, you turned your head back around and saw that the skeleton had stepped closer to you which did scare you a bit. He stretched out his hand for what you assumed to be a handshake.

"I'm Papyrus, Papyrus the skeleton and you?" He greeted and it would feel rude to not at least introduce yourself back to him. "I'm Y/-" You started but when you went to shake his hand, you felt electricity going up your arm and you quickly retracted your poor hand. "Quite shocked, but you can call me Y/N" You finished and it seems that made him crack a smile at you. Did he say his name was Papyrus? This was getting weird, you only knew one orange clad skeleton called that and you're pretty sure Sans and Papyrus did not have another brother. "Ice to meet you... it seems we're both very confused on what just happened, I'll answer your questions if you answer mine" That didn't seem too bad of an offer, maybe you could find a way back home to your country? You still didn't know if this was even that far away from where you came from originally.

"You know what they say, go with the snow" You could see Papyrus stifle a chuckle, so he liked puns. "Icy what you did there" He simply replied and gave you a friendly wink. A bit of a flirt too, duly noted. "Anyway, I know a good place to talk if you don't mind following a stranger to possible danger" He placed his hands inside his orange hoodie pockets as he lazily smiled at you, luckily the sun was giving out warmth so you didn't freeze to death seeing as you did not dress for cold climates. You really didn't have any choice other than to follow him, he saw how you had arrived here and he claimed to own the machine so... "Snow the way" You had to stop with the goddamn puns, he laughed and motioned for you to follow him, so you did.

"You don't need to lag behind me, I don't bite... usually" That did not soothe your already shot nerves but if he wanted you gone he could have simply killed you with ease, assuming he could use magic. You sped up and walked next to him, your soul still had a dull ache in it. The both of you stopped near a building that looked like quite the fancy bar, the name was awfully familiar. Papyrus ushered you in and you could feel many curious eyes on you. When Papyrus followed suit, multiple monsters greeted him like an old friend and when they saw him guide you towards the bar stools they all stopped staring at you.

"So Y/N right? You're a human? My brother loves to hunt for humans, mind entertaining him for a bit after this?" You didn't know what to say, hunt humans? That didn't sound very good. "Oh don't worry, he's harmless, couldn't hurt a froggit even if he wanted to" Papyrus had managed to read your expression quite accurately. "Maybe later, I'm fueled by sheer anxiety... It was midnight when the... machine took me and I was about to go home to rest" You offered quite a lot of details but what good would it do you to hide information? It would only cause mistrust.

"It took you?" Papyrus inquired.

"Yup, pulled me into... a dark void? I'm not sure what it even was" Papyrus put his phalanges to his chin in thought, after a minute or two he spoke again. "That sounds... scary, you sure you're human?" Well that was rude but understandable, you would question a lot if you saw anybody get spit out from a machine that wasn't supposed to work. "I'm beginning to question that too but I'd say yes" before Papyrus could speak, an awfully familiar spider monster with a very good looking purple suit rolled up to you with roller skates as she cleaned some glasses with her multiple arms while still having one pair available.

"Heya Muffs, mind givin' me the usual?" So this spider monster was the bartender and what you assumed to be the owner, hence the bar's bold name. It reminded you of something you had been told before but you drew blanks, you should focus on the main goal first. Figure where you had ended up so you could get back home. "Sure dearie and for the lovely darling next to you?" You were about to say you didn't want anything, you hadn't the faintest of clues what the menu had and for currency? You're probably broke. You had a few gold coins in your pockets you always kept on you for emergencies but you had no idea if they'd accept your coin here. "They'll take a simple spider donut" Muffet gleefully nodded and rolled away to get your order.

"Don't worry about it, I'll put it on my tab" He gave you another friendly wink which didn't affect you much. "Thanks... don't know if my currency is any good" Papyrus nodded in understanding, you hadn't planned to get thrown into this mess so it wasn't your fault. "I could take a look at it if you got some on you, of course I'll still be putting our orders on my tab" What a gentleman... gentleskelly? Oh whatever, it was kind of him. You fished out a gold coin from your pocket and gave it to him to analyze.

"Oh darling, be careful about giving this numbskull any money" Muffet spoke up as she rolled towards you and placed a plate in front of you and placed a bottle of... was that honey? In front of Papyrus. "Ey, I handle money decently" Muffet chuckled and you could see her multiple eyes glint mischievously. "Then pay off your tab ahuhuhu~" She rolled away on her skates before Papyrus could retort. "Don't listen to her, she likes to tease me when I bring guests... anyway your coin is unusual but I don't see why anyone would reject it" He handed you the coin back, well that was good, at least you weren't entirely broke.

"Have you ever tried monster food before?" Papyrus asked casually with genuine curiosity, you nodded and stared down at the spider donut in front of you. It was purple mostly with a pink coat of glaze, it didn't look like any normal human food. "Well, yes I believe so" You had tried the spaghetti from Sans's brother and you didn't despise it, it gave your tongue a weird tingle sensation so you assumed it was indeed homecooked monster food. Papyrus began to think about your answer for some reason, you left him to think about whatever thoughts that skull of his held. You didn't wait for him to finish his thoughts and you took a bite of the donut. It tasted quite unique but in a good way and the same tingle appeared on your tongue, you could feel Papyrus gaze at you and gauge your reaction but you didn't give much away. You went for another bite and in your peripheral vision you saw him shrug and begin to drink the bottle of honey... that's gross but it might be monster honey which could be different from bee honey.

"Seems like food won't be a problem for you down here in the underground" You simply nodded, not really listening as you finished your donut, somehow your body felt lighter and your soul's dull ache was almost gone but it was still slightly hurting. Wait.... Did he say underground? Why were you teleported underground? You had heard some monsters decided to stay after the barrier break... but weren't the parts of the underground called The ruins, Snowdin, waterfall and hotland? You had never heard about a Sunnedout. "Underground? Didn't the barrier break?" Papyrus looked quite stunned at you and you could feel people glance your way when you asked that. "I don't know what part of The Ruins you have been living under but we've been stuck down here for ages" That.... So technically you were now also trapped underground. "This is getting more confusing... have you ever heard about a place called Snowdin?" Now it was Papyrus's turn to look at you confused, something very wrong was going on, either your memories had failed you or this guy was pulling your leg. Both were highly unlikely to you, he did not give off the joking vibe like earlier.

"I've never heard about that place and I've been living here my entire life, the places here are called Sunnedout, Lavarise, Coldland and then you have the ruins plus the underground castle" A horrifying realization hit you, what if the machine hadn't just teleported you to a different country but a whole ass other universe where everything was seemingly swapped around? That's why things are somewhat familiar to you but too different for you to recall. So if the skeleton next to you was called Papyrus then... "Your uh brother's name doesn't happen to be... Sans does it?" Now Papyrus looked alarmed and he leaned towards you more in a very threatening way. "You're right on the gold there... so Y/N how could you possibly know that?" It felt like his empty sockets were gazing through your soul and it scared you but you had to keep composure. "I think I just figured out what's happening" That made him slightly back off but the tension was still there, one wrong move and you felt like your life would be forfeited.

"Don't keep me in the dark and throw me a bone will ya?" His joking words didn't match his looks at all, it was jarring. Maybe you shouldn't have brought up his brother, you could have mentioned Alphys instead but using Sans's name was quicker and more solid of a proof. You had activated Papyrus's protective nature of his brother. "I don't belong here" You started but Papyrus scoffed at you, cutting you off. "Obviously, you're human" Oh wow, all friendliness down the drain, now he was acting more like your universe's Sans, hopefully no one was overhearing the conversation. "Not that... My point is everything is swapped for me, the underground I remember hearing about was different, the barrier was broken and suddenly it's not? I come from the surface where monsters got free and were living in human society" Papyrus completely retreated from you, stopping his glaring immediately. "I didn't piece it together faster because I've never been in my world's original underground and that's why I know your brother's name specifically" You were looking forward to just hit the hay, your mental capacity was severely used up.

You had been told that Snowdin had an innkeeper that offered travelers a room with a bed so it should be the same for Sunnedout but slightly different, to you it didn't matter. "That's... Uh I guess welcome to the underground?" You could tell Papyrus was speechless, you chuckled. "Thanks, it's cozy down here" It was a half joke, the snow and the sun were quite weird but very beautiful, though you would need to be wary of snow blindness. The temperature wasn't too cold or warm, just right to keep you from completely freezing and with your work clothes that benefit you. You had been told Snowdin was quite dark and cold, there were hardly ever lights to be seen in the sky? Mountain roof? Mountain roof. "So... how will you get back?" Now that was the million gold question, you shrugged. "I'm just an assistant not a scientist nor mechanic so me fixing your broken machine to get home? Unlikely... I'm beat, I'll find the inn that supposedly should be here, thanks for the food though" You swirled around and got off from the bar stool, ready to find the inn and retire for the night? Day? Doesn't matter, you're tired.

Papyrus got up too and stopped you from walking away by gently grabbing onto your arm. "I can snow you the way, it's uh at least I can do for my hostile behaviour" Papyrus apologized, even though everything was seemingly swapped, you couldn't compare this Papyrus with your Sans... that would be an insult to this world's Papyrus, he was his own person and quite different from your Sans. "That's ice of you, sure if you don't mind" Papyrus let go of your arm and shoved his hands in his hoodie pockets, he gave you a genuine smile, for some reason you felt like that didn't happen too often. "Please no pun wars in my fine establishment!" Muffet's voice could be heard from behind the counter, with her reaction you could only assume a pun war had taken place once. "Alright alright, we'll be going, see you later Muffs" She scoffed but she had an apparent smile on her expression when she shooed the both of you out.

"From a completely different universe huh? Do you have any idea how or why you ended up here?" You groaned, wasn't he done with the questions already? This felt like an interrogation more than an actual conversation... is this how Sans felt? No you wouldn't give him the benefit of the doubt, you asked non intrusive questions and then you just started not even asking anything. "How? Obviously the machine decided to power up and pull at my soul which made it pull me in, have no idea why it decided to turn itself on all of a sudden and spit me out here" Papyrus nodded and stopped with the questions, he could probably tell you were dead tired as your ability to pretend to be okay was dwindling.

You both got to the inn, you were about to enter before Papyrus once again stopped you by your arm. "Eh I know I got scary when my brother got involved but... He has never seen a human before and it would mean a lot to me if you played along with him" Ah shucks, he was being so genuine with that look he gave you and he gave you some of his trust, how could you refuse? Plus if this Sans was like your Papyrus then he couldn't be anything bad. Your Sans would never let you interact with his brother unless he was present, that's how little faith he had in you. "Of course I'd be honoured to meet such a cool skeleton, he likes puzzles and junior jumble right?" Papyrus's sockets widened, had you said something wrong? Should you have declined? But his reaction caught you by surprise as he laughed loudly, his short fangs glinting in the sunshine.

"Close! Puzzles and crosswords with the occasional riddle" Ah you weren't that far off, riddles came out of nowhere though, maybe you should stop assuming things in this swapped universe before you offend anyone. "Almost had it right too! anyways I'm running on fumes so goodnight? Day? Eh" Papyrus chuckled and did something you wouldn't believe, he rubbed away at your head, messing up your hair. "It's midday but an early bedding doesn't sound too bad, goodnight Y/N" He smiled at you and walked away, ugh whatever your hair would get messed up in bed anyway. You sheepishly walked in and you saw a very buff looking bunny monster manning the check in counter... Hopefully they will accept your gold coins. "Ah hello there, welcome to Sunnedout inn, where the sun always shines... well mostly anyways, I'm the innkeeper" Yeah they looked quite strong for looking like a bunny, you bet their punches could do some gnarly damage.

"Yes hello! I'd like a room for the night?" The innkeeper's brow lifted as they stared at you. "It's midday, long journey?" Your reaction however told them everything and they dropped the brow immediately. "You have no idea, I'm exhausted" The innkeeper nodded at you and motioned you to come closer to the counter. "Alright one room costs 80G" You handed them the coins, now you only had like 20 left. "These coins are odd but gold nonetheless, here's your key and please no fighting with the other occupants, that's my job" They handed you a key with a room number, you simply nodded in understanding and went on your way to finally sleep the whole day and night away.

You found your room and slid the key inside, unlocking it and you instantly closed the door and locked it again. You quickly undressed, while still keeping your shirt and underwear on, you had to find new clothes and how to get more. Currency for said clothes... Ugh so much to figure out! This is stressing you out! You jumped into bed and draped the duvet over your tired body, the dull ache in your soul all but gone.

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You woke up with sun blaring in your eyes, you groaned, did you forget to drape your curtains in your bedroom? You rubbed the sleep out of your eyes and opened them up to see... that this wasn't your bedroom or your apartment. The events from yesterday weren't a dream then, you were truly in a different fucking universe with nowhere to go, broke as fuck and with no extra clothes! This situation sucked so hard, you sighed out loud and got up to take a shower. You got dressed back in your not so clean clothes but they weren't too dirty, if push comes to shove you just have to wash them and wait til they dry... Not a fun alternative but it was something.

Maybe you could ask the innkeeper for a job... It's the best option for now. You stumbled out of the bedroom and went to the check in counter where the buff innkeeper was standing. "Slept well?" They asked you and you nodded, giving them your key back. "I did... Um so this must sound weird but I was wondering if you need any new hires? My adventures have kind of led me to become homeless you see" A white lie but you couldn't really tell them that you came from a completely different Universe which led you to become broke and homeless. The innkeeper raised a brow but brought their paw to their chin like they were thinking. "Hmmm... Well it would be nice to have somebody help me with cleaning rooms... if you're okay with that" You would honestly take anything, plus this job wouldn't be forever. "I'm delighted you would even consider giving me a job in the first place!" You smiled at them in gratitude and you could feel them get flustered.

"Ah uhm yeah, so I'll take 80G out of your pay whenever you stay the night?" The innkeeper suggested and honestly that sounded so good, things were finally looking up. "You've lifted a heavy worry from my mind, honestly thank you... When can I begin?" When looking at their reaction they probably weren't used to strangers being as friendly as you were. "I'll give you time to get used to this place so... tomorrow? I'll give back the key and you can stay this night too for free" That was so sweet of the innkeeper, you wanted to give them a hug but that would definitely cross their boundaries. Your main mission of finding a way to get currency was completed and you found temporary housing too! Now you should find some clothes... preferably new underwear.

You thanked the innkeeper once again and walked out of the inn, the sun was shining down like yesterday, giving your body warmth as the snow crunched under your feet. There should be a shop around here somewhere right? Or maybe you should explore a bit more before you buy anything so you don't need to lug anything around. You could see multiple monsters walking around, some you had seen before up in the surface and others were completely new to you, everything was new to you even if something seemed familiar. An idea struck you, why not go to the town's library? You could learn about the history and see if something had changed from your original universe. You looked around town for the library and some monsters glanced at you in curiosity, you could assume they hadn't seen a human in a long time since the barrier in this universe wasn't broken yet. How could Papyrus recognize you as a human? Has he seen one before? He did ask if you really were but you thought that was just in a joking manner.

You finally found the library! Or as the sign said 'LIBRARBY' in big bold letters, ah as long as you understood the spelling of it shouldn't be a problem you should be concerned with. You opened the door and walked in, the bell above the door announcing a newcomer which was you and many eyes were on you yet again. You were a new face in this place after all, sooner or later you'd blend in. You ignored the stares and walked towards the row of bookshelves with all kinds of colourful books. Luckily for you, their spines had titles to what they could contain. You picked out a red book that said 'Monster funerals' out of morbid curiosity. You flipped it open and started to read it.

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Monster funerals, technically speaking, are cool as heck.

When monsters get old and kick the bucket, they turn into dust.

At funerals, we take that dust and spread it on that person's favorite thing.

Then their essence will live on in that thing...

Uhhh, am I at the page minimum yet?

I'm kinda sick of writing this.

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That sounded like it was from a school report and didn't quite belong in a book but it gave you quite the information, none of your co-workers had discussed monster funerals so this was news to you. The ritual sounded very nice, to live on in the thing you valued the most... it was a sweet sentiment. You put the red book back into place and searched for more interesting books that might pique your curiosity. An orange book with big bold letters that said 'SOULS' was certainly something you would find interesting, you hadn't really bothered to learn much about souls... but you knew some things monsters in this universe didn't yet and that was that after the barrier breaks some souls would form soul bonds with either human or another monster and their soul could get sick from a fever, luckily it couldn't spread to humans but could go from monster to monster. You don't think anyone would believe you if you told them without proof so until then. You opened the orange book and read it, feeling some gazes on you but you pretended you didn't know like always.

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Because they are made of magic, monsters' bodies are attuned to their SOUL.

If a monster doesn't want to fight, its defenses will weaken.

And the crueler the intentions of our enemies, the more their attacks will hurt us.

Therefore, if a being with a powerful SOUL struck with the desire to kill...

Um, let's end the chapter here...

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That shocked you, their defense would fall if they didn't want to fight? You could understand why monsters would be wary of humans now, luckily you had no mean bones in your body and you had never felt the desire to actually murder another being. For some reason you felt like this was information that shouldn't be spread to humans just yet so you closed it. Imagine if somebody set to genuinely hurt monsters saw this book? Disastrous. You put the book back, should you... search some more? You hadn't found any history of this underground yet, you really didn't want to ask Papyrus about everything and anything... You only wanted to bother him with things like the machine since only he knew about your true nature. If it ever would turn back on again, you had to expect to be stuck here for a while or worst case scenario, forever. You sighed quietly and continued to search for books. Finally you found a book about what you were searching for! It was brown and looked quite old, you turned the pages and they were quite yellow from oxidation.

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Long ago, two races ruled over earth: Humans and Monsters.

One day, war broke out between the two races.

After a long battle, the humans were victorious.

They sealed the monsters underground with a powerful magic spell.

Many years later, a human child fell into the underground.

The Queen and King decided to adopt this child into their existing family but tragedy struck as the child died of illness.

Wrecked by grief, the Queen and king's adoptive monster kid absorbed the human soul and crossed over the barrier.

The kid came back fatality wounded and died in a field of flowers inside the castle's garden, their dust scattered all over.

The Queen and King divorced after an argument about taking fallen Human children's souls to break the barrier, the king refused to take any part of it and retired into the ruins, never to be seen again while Queen Toriel ruled alone while collecting human souls.

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So Toriel was the ruling Monarch? In your universe it used to be King Asgore. You knew the underground's history was bleak but reading it made you feel a deep sadness. You knew they required 7 human souls but you don't know how many the Queen had gotten now... Maybe you shouldn't dwell on it too much, it's not good for your soul. In your universe the queen and king only had one adoptive child but here you assumed they had two but none biological children. You quickly put the book back where you found it, now you knew the history was about the same as yours, only a few differences. You had gotten a lot of information and now what would you do? You could go into the shop now or... you could go explore outside of Sunnedout. Better to get used to this place sooner than later, right? You ignored the incessant stares of multiple eyes on you and walked out of the library, if you remember correctly you saw a forest nearby when you exited the inn...

You had trotted your way towards the forest and saw a booth? luckily for you there was nobody manning the booth so that means you could go deeper inside the forest without anyone stopping you. You walked past the booth and came across a bridge with bars? They looked as if to stop something or someone... but the bars were too spaced apart and you easily slipped past them. You walked for a while and for a second you thought the forest trees would never end but a door made of what looked like stone appeared in your eyesights. You got closer to the stone door, it doesn't seem you're able to open it meaning your journey would have to end here. Out of curiosity you touched the stone door and to your surprise, it was slightly warm. It must have been because of the sun shining down on it most of the time but your mind had expected it to be cold to the touch. Well you should probably get back since you can't continue this way, you knocked at the door for fun and turned around to leave.

That was until you could hear a deep voice. "Who is there?" Huh? Doors couldn't talk right? You hadn't overhead your co-workers talking about inanimate objects speaking... except for dummy dolls. "Witches" You replied, might as well hit them with your great comedic charm, maybe the door would open if it was moved by your skill in jokes. "Witches who? The voice asked, seemingly going with the flow. "Witches the best way out of these woods?" You delivered the punchline and you could hear the voice chuckle. "That was a good one but to answer your question I would say to just follow the paths" The voice answered your query, good to know there wasn't a shortcut you could have taken which means... you will have to pass the booth again. Suddenly you could hear a knock coming from the opposite side of the stone door, did they want to continue the jokes?

"Who's there?" You asked curious of what joke they would make. "Tank" The deep voice simply said. "Tank who?" You might know where this is going but you let them finish. "You are welcome" Yep you knew it, you saw that one coming a mile away. "So who are you anyway? You're not like an actual talking stone door right?" You got back to business, curiosity was far stronger than your need to make jokes to a door. "I am not... Who am I? I am the caretaker of these ruins" Oh so... you were talking to Asgore then. "Have any humans fallen recently?" It seems like that question wasn't very well received as the door heaved opened and you could see a tall goat monster, he wasn't looking very pleased. "I TOLD YOU PEOPLE I WILL NOT GIVE YOU THE HU-" But he stopped speaking when his baby blue eyes fell onto you, awkwardly waving at him as his angry expression instantly turned into a confused one. "Just asking out of curiosity, if I wanted to give the queen a soul it would probably be mine instead of another human's so don't worry" You had considered that option but you wanted to try to get home first before a human fell down, you would feel the need to protect the other human by giving up your soul instead after all, who knows when another human would show up anyway? Decades? This wasn't your universe either and you didn't want to impact anything major if you could prevent it.

"Ah... you are human... how did... ?" Asgore looked you over in awe, he probably was asking how you got here without being in the ruins in the first place where the only entrance for humans laid bare. "You could say I ended up somewhere different when I arrived here" You didn't want to spill the beans about how you actually got here plus you think keeping the knowledge that you're from a completely different universe would keep things more simple. "I... do not understand but would you like to come inside? It is not safe out here" Not safe? How so? Were there dangerous wild animals around the underground? You nodded and he moved to give you access to the ruins. You could ask about the dangers when you weren't in the area where the presumed danger lay. You entered the ruins and Asgore closed the heavy stone door... he had quite the strength to slam it open the way he did. He gently took your hand in his soft paws and guided you up some stairs, so the Ruins exit was located down the basement.

"I apologize for my outburst, I thought you were from the queen's guard asking for a human soul" That was understable, you did ask quite the sensitive question. Asgore led you to the living room and sat you down on one of the kitchen table's chairs. "It's quite alright, you didn't know who I was, I hope you can forgive me for asking such a sensitive question in the first place" He smiled at you, ruffling your hair with his big soft paw. "There is nothing to forgive as you have not done anything wrong" Gosh this goat was being very sweet and gentle, you could say he was a gentle giant. Asgore sat down in his recliner chair nearby the very cozy fire. "Anyways, what were the dangers you spoke of earlier?" You inquired and Asgore visibly tensed up, was it that bad? Had you gotten stupidly lucky by not running into it at all during your walk in the forest?

"That is... Have you seen any skeletons around? They keep a lookout for humans and capture them" Well that was a weird topic change but you decided to go with the flow. "Yes? An orange clad one, why?" His tension got stronger, was Papyrus and Sans really that dangerous? You could see how Papyrus would be but this world's Sans? You don't think Papyrus lied about his brother not being able to harm anyone. "He did not hurt you, did he?" Oh you see now, he was afraid that Papyrus would take you to the queen if he captured you... "No, we talked and it doesn't look like he wishes to either" Not yet anyway, that episode in the bar did leave you quite shaken and to be honest you think that he's more curious about you more than he wants to give your soul to the queen. If you died then the mystery of how you got here would probably stay that way and you took him to be a leave no stone unturned kinda guy. "That is good to hear... Oh my I haven't even offered you some tea! Or biscuits! Pardon my lack of hosting a guest" Darn, this goat gave you major awkward dad vibes and you loved it.

"No worries, I came in unannounced but I'll love some tea and biscuits!' You were pretty hungry, you hadn't eaten anything today and you doubt you would end up having money for food after getting new clothes, good thing humans can survive without food for at least a week. He quickly got up from his chair and hurried to the kitchen, you could hear sounds of clinking. He came out with a steaming cup of hot tea and a plate full of biscuits, how did he make the tea so fast? Probably with his fire magic, how neat. "Here you are little one" He patted your head and sat down again, did he just call you little? I guess you were compared to his height but you don't think that's what he meant, you'll let that one slide just because he's charming. You took a bite of the biscuits and they were oh so delicious, you might even consider sneaking some with you when you left the Ruins. "These are really good Asgore" Suddenly he looked at you in shock, did you say anything wrong? "That is great to hear but how did you know my name?" Ah shit did you let that one slip? Think Y/N! Think!

"I assumed since I read about you in a history book in the library... My name's Y/N" Nice save but yikes what an awkward introduction. "Ah I see so you knew who I was" He wasn't wrong but that was too close for comfort, you nodded and gave him a warm smile. Asgore didn't seem to mind too much and the both of you talked while you ate and drank all of the tea, it tasted quite flowery but you didn't mind it. "So... how many humans have come through?" You were curious as to how many souls the Queen had but you couldn't just straight up ask how many humans has been murdered. ".... Six, you're the seventh one" Oh that didn't bode well for you seeing as monsters were quite keen on breaking the barrier. You nodded and quickly changed topics, this poor goat has been through so much.

"Well it was nice meeting you Asgore but I'll have to get back" Asgore looked at you with an intense stare, you didn't know such soft baby blue eyes could feel so fierce. "Little one, you do not have to... You are welcome to stay here with me where nobody will try to hurt you" You gave him a gentle smile and shook your head, you couldn't stay here if you wanted to go home someday. "Thanks but I'll manage on my own, I am considered an adult after all" Asgore looked down on the floor in sadness but you could see he had hopes for you. "I see... I cannot keep you here unwillingly but if you do need a helping hand, please return and I will do my best to help you" Your heart melted and you went to give him a big thank you hug which he instantly accepted.

Asgore guided you down the stairs and into his basement where the Ruins exit were, he heaved the door open for you. "Thank you for your hospitality" He rubbed your head one last time and ushered you outside, your feet hitting the snow as it made a slight crunching sound. "It was my pleasure and please be careful... especially towards that orange skeleton" Asgore warned, he really didn't trust Papyrus did he? You don't know their history with each other and it wasn't your place to know. "I will, thanks for the heads up" You waved goodbye and you started the trek back to where you came from.

You had slipped past the bridge bars and you stopped when you saw a very familiar skeleton behind the booth you passed earlier, he had also spotted you but he looked at you in surprise. "Heya there bud, how did you get past this point?" Umm... was Papyrus being suspicious of you? There was literally no need as you had told him everything you knew from last night's incident while he didn't really tell you anything. You mentally sighed, you were the outsider and could be dangerous if left alone for too long or so you presume he thought. Maybe if you two get to know eachother better, he'll stop being so passive aggressive towards you and he'll see that you mean no harm to anyone. "Nobody was here when I passed the first time" You came closer to him but not too close, you didn't completely trust him either since trust worked both ways. "I'll take ya word for it anyway whatcha doing here?" Ah so there was a little bit of trust, well he did also want you to meet his brother which took some trust too.

"Mainly exploring but had to go back, big stone door is preventing me from going any further" Should you tell him about the caretaker? If you did, would that create more trust between you two? "Yup, that's a dead end, find anything interesting?" He was subtly prying for information and it's not like Asgore told you to specifically keep it a secret. "Found a goat that gave off major awkward dad vibes" Papyrus blinked at you, not expecting you to actually give up that information so easily. "I see... Did he offer you biscuits?" Well that was an odd question to ask and weirdly specific. "Why are you as- I got crumbs on my face don't I?" You mentally groaned as you came to the horrifying conclusion and quickly wiped the crumbs off, that wasn't embarrassing in the slightest. Nope. Not at all. "Heh thought so anyway since you're exploring and all, want to meet my brother? He's about to arrive" You see no reason to decline, this time was as good as any plus your stomach is full so that would make solving puzzles easier without it screaming at you the entire time. What was weird is how he knew his brother was on the way, did he have good hearing or something? Was it even worth it to ask?

"Of course but how do you know he's coming soon? Good hearing?" You decided that if he asked questions so could you. Papyrus shrugged and gave you a wink. "Just my intuition" And that wasn't the answer you were looking for, he was being very vague with his answers. Before you could speak again, a booming voice spoke before you. "BROTHER! WHY HAVEN'T YOU RECALIBRATED YOUR PUZZ-" Yep that was definitely Sans, goodbye eardrums. You both looked towards Sans and he had stopped in his tracks when his... big cyan coloured eyelights locked with yours.

He was dressed just like your Papyrus except in blue and instead of an orange scarf, this Sans donned a pretty cool cape that was coloured royal blue but he wore no gloves like your Papyrus did. "OH HELLO THERE STRANGER I HAVE NEVER MET BEFORE!" Even though he looked like your Sans, he was quite different... quite adorable. "Hello to you too Mr. Cool skeleton, I'm Y/N and you are?" You could see his eyelights get bigger and proudly introduced himself as his cape seemingly flowed with the non-existent wind. "I AM SANS! SANS THE MAGNIFICENT!" Even though he's quite loud, you think you much prefer this Sans over your original but eh you can't choose who you're stuck with in the universe.

"Magnificent you say? I'd say you're more... Sansational" Papyrus and Sans looked at you in disbelief. You could see Sans crack a smile while looking upset and his brother was trying to hold in a laugh but failing miserably. "That's not a bad pun... HOWEVER I DO NOT ALLOW THEM!" You remembered now how your universe's Papyrus absolutely despised puns but it seems like this Sans secretly enjoys them. "My bad, magnificent it is" You genuinely smiled at him and he came closer as he bashfully twiddled with his phalanges, poor guy is nervous. Papyrus lazily watched you both, not interfering with your conversation. "MIGHT I ASK WHAT KIND OF MONSTER YOU ARE? I HAVE NEVER SEEN ONE OF YOUR KIND BEFORE" That gave you a very mischievous idea, time to put that pretend skill to good use. "You haven't? Huh I guess there's not much of my kind down here but up on the surface however... there's a lot of them" You waited for his reaction as he processed your words.

"T-THE SURFACE?" Sans stuttered out, you had to stop yourself from chuckling to keep up the act. "Oh yes, that is what I said" You confirmed and did his eyelights turn into star shaped pupils!? "ARE YOU HUMAN?" His gaze never left yours as he was awaiting your answer, the little guy was dying of anticipation. "That is what we call ourselves so that makes me human, yes" You didn't think his star shaped pupils could get any bigger but Sans proved you wrong as he looked at you with so much glee. He must have really wanted to meet a human for so long if this was his reaction to you. Papyrus watched the both of you in amusement, his skull hiding a very faint genuine smile. "OH MY STARS! PAPYRUS IT'S A HUMAN! WE NEED TO IMMEDIATELY CAPTURE IT!" Now you're downgraded to an it? Great maybe you should have stayed as an unknown monster kind. You mentally sighed, at least Sans is having the best day of his life meeting you and that smile of his was very infectious.

"Capture? That doesn't sound too good for me, is there a way for me to avoid that?" Sans looked back at you, his eyes still starstruck. "BUT OF COURSE HUMAN! WE ARE NOT TOTAL BARBARIANS! SOLVE MY PUZZLES AND RIDDLES AND YOU WILL EVADE MY CAPTURE!" You nodded in understanding trying to pretend to be relieved, suddenly Sans froze, what could be wrong? "I HAVEN'T FINISHED MY RECALIBRATIONS YET! BROTHER KEEP IT BUSY TILL I'M FINISHED" And then he sped off with quite the pep in his step, oh how cute. "Isn't my brother super cool?" Papyrus finally spoke up and you had to agree. "He's a pretty rad dude, though I don't prefer to be referred to as an it but I'll allow it since he's cute" Papyrus didn't argue with that. "Cute you say? Are you crushing on my brother? Or do you just like teasing him?" You looked at Papyrus, not expecting him to even say such a thing! "Absolutely not! I just like the teasing" Papyrus's empty sockets looked back at you, ugh his expressions were hard to read with those empty sockets unlike Sans!

"Mhm, I see" He said dismissively, did he just sass you!? "Ugh don't say it like you don't believe me" Papyrus shrugged nonchalantly as he brought out a cigarette out from his hoodie pockets. "Don't know what you're talkin' about" Ugh whatever, if he thinks you have a crush on Sans then you'll let him. Papyrus lit the cigarette and started to smoke. "How can you do that with no lungs?" You were genuinely curious, his answer would probably be vague again. "Lungs formed by magic, cool huh?" He took a drag and exhaled the smoke in your direction as he mischievously smirked. You quickly retreated from him and kept your distance, you did not like that one bit. "No need to demonstrate, I get it geez" At least his answer was straight forward and not vague. "Heh, just messin' with ya" Yeah no it was still a jerk move but you couldn't be bothered to fuss over it... god you were such a doormat sometimes.

Papyrus finished his cigarette but you stayed a distance away in case he planned to do that nasty trick again. He stomped it out on the cold snowy ground and strode towards you nonchalantly. "Come on, my brother is probably finished calibrating the puzzles by now, I'll escort ya there" How gentleman of him but he probably had an ulterior motive for escorting you there, like keeping a close eye on you so you don't 'accidentally' dust any monsters that might come your way. You nodded and you both walked back to town while talking. "So what's your plan to get back to your universe?" Wow, didn't know he wanted you gone that quickly but you also wanted to hurry back as fast as you could. "Only way back would be that machine behind your house but I doubt you would have the correct parts to modify it" Your mind held the blueprint of the machine and it had machine parts you couldn't get your hands on easily, especially down here.

Papyrus looked at you quizzically. "You know how to modify it?" Well yes you did but since you weren't a mechanic, you weren't really confident you could fix it by yourself. "Technically yes, I know what goes where and what parts are needed but getting it actually powered up is still something I don't actually know how I managed to do" You only leaned into it where no buttons were located and it had been touched multiple times without reacting. "Welp I got a deal for ya" Oh? What's this? Was Papyrus offering you an olive branch? He took your silence and curious expression as permission to go on. "Ya see my brother, as cool as he is, doesn't have anyone to keep him company" You had heard something similar happening with your universe's Papyrus, it wasn't until Frisk fell down that he made his first ever friend, poor guy. But why is he telling you this? You got your answer quickly enough as Papyrus continued to talk.

"And I can see he really likes you so if you keep him company during your stay here, I'll help you with the machine to get back home" That was a one time opportunity you just had to take, you would have spent time with Sans if you happened to cross paths again regardless if Papyrus had asked or not. "However... If you hurt him I will personally see to it that you would very much regret your actions'' To be honest you had expected him saying something like that, it didn't deter you from accepting his offer though. With his help there would be a chance for you to go home and escape the underground without needing to break the barrier, you rather not sacrifice your soul to break it. If going home didn't work then either you'll just grow old down here and then they can have your soul or if another human fell down during your stay then you would rather spare that human from that burden. Therefore getting back to your universe would be on top of your list.

"Alright I get it, no need for the scary attitude again" That seemed to throw Papyrus's scary expression off his face and he replaced it with a lazy smile. "As long as you understand" Papyrus shrugged and waited for you to either accept or decline his offer while you moved slightly further away from him subconsciously. "Loud and clear and I'll say yes to your offer" Papyrus looked quite happy with that answer and you both walked in silence until you had reached the first puzzle Sans had recalibrated. When seeing his brother, he instantly walked to him and they had a conversation you could not quite hear since you were too far away but they looked to be having fun... despite Sans's annoyed expression with a slight smile on his skull. While they were having their private conversation, you decided to look around and you saw a square on the ground, covered in snow. You were standing on one of the sides of the square and the two brothers on the other, you assumed this was the puzzle Sans recalibrated by throwing extra snow on the ground to form a square.

"HUMAN! WELCOME THE FIRST PUZZLE!" You jolted back to the real world when Sans declared for the puzzle solving to start, both of them were staring at you. Shaking yourself out of your stupor you smiled at Sans, you could see he was holding onto something spherical. "THIS PUZZLE IS NOT EASILY SOLVED! IT REQUIRES QUITE THE INTUITION! START WHENEVER YOU'RE READY!" Sans said and you looked at the snow covered square and then at the spherical ball Sans was holding, you have a small suspicion that you were the one supposed to hold that. Papyrus noticed where you had looked and spotted the thing Sans was holding, he gave his brother a nudge. They started to converse in hushed whispers and Sans looked down at the ball and bashfully trotted towards you, his footsteps imprinting in the snow and he walked a very fine path. "I- I UH... SEEM TO HAVE FORGOTTEN TO GIVE YOU THIS!" Sans quickly gave you the spherical ball and hurried back out of embarrassment, you wanted to chuckle at how adorable he was but you didn't since it would cause him more embarrassment.

You looked at the spherical ball in closer detail and it looked like one of those ol' but cool plasma balls but this one didn't give off pretty electric patterns when you held onto it. If you stepped on the wrong path it would shock you wouldn't it? Good thing Sans literally solved the puzzle for you. Without hesitation, you walked the path Sans had left in the snow and you crossed to where both of the brothers stood. "WOWZERS! YOU SOLVED IT SO QUICKLY!" Sans looked at you with excitement and his eyelights formed star shaped pupils again, you're pretty sure your original Sans eyelights didn't do that but then again you hadn't really gotten to know him that much. "Yup, let's just say I had a little blue bird help me... Oh and here's your ball back" You handed the spherical ball back to Sans as he looked quite befuddled by what you said. "BLUE BIRD? NO MATTER, YOU HUMANS ARE WEIRD!" Well you couldn't argue against that, it's his first time seeing a human after all.

"ANYWAYS! DON'T THINK THIS IS OVER! THERE'S MORE PUZZLES TO SOLVE AND RIDDLES TO BE FOUND OUT BEFORE YOU CAN EVADE MY CAPTURE!" Yeah you didn't think it would be that easy but if the puzzles were as effortless as this one then you should be okay plus seeing his expression when you 'solved' the first one was precious. "SPEAKING OF... I DIDN'T HAVE TIME TO RECALIBRATE THE NEXT ONE! LUCKY FOR ME I MANAGED TO PUT UP DISTRACTIONS!" Distractions? You wondered what that could be? Oh well you'll find out soon enough. "Alright, you go and I'll keep the human distracted some more" Papyrus nudged his brother. "HOW DILIGENT OF YOU BROTHER! THE HUMAN STANDS NO CHANCE IN ESCAPING OUR CAPTURE! MWEH HEH HEH!" And with that he quickly ran off to get the next puzzle working. You really didn't want to be alone with Papyrus but you couldn't just walk off... well you could but that's rude and you wanted to give Sans time to get the next puzzle ready.

"Soooo... what's your favourite colour?" Papyrus suddenly asked, was this his way of distracting you? Masterfully done. "Oh it's a shade of nunya" He looked confused at your answer. "Nyeh? Nunya? What kind of color is that?" He looked quite curious, maybe because he thought it was an actual colour from your original universe. "Nunyabusiness" Papyrus blinked at you for a moment and then he started laughing, his short fangs showing themselves once more. "Ya got me, wanna try to guess mine?" Papyrus said with amusement in his voice, you could vaguely remember that your Papyrus liked the colour yellow even though he mostly wore orange but since things were swapped here.... You said it yourself you should stop assuming but this time you were just guessing. "Is it blue?" With the reaction you got from Papyrus, you could safely say you were right or really close. "Heh I assumed you would have guessed orange, it's like you already know way too much about us" You could understand how he would think that but you really didn't know that much about this universe or its inhabitants.

"Don't worry, my knowledge only goes that far since my relationship with my universe's Sans and Papyrus was strictly acquaintances, plus that answer was a guess in all honesty" A guess with just a tiny bit of help. you could still sense a slight suspicion or was that curiosity coming from Papyrus? oh well, not gonna try convincing someone you're not suspicious. "Mhmmm... I'd love to hear some more about your universe but later, you should probably get going" Papyrus gave you a wink and nudged you towards the path to the next puzzle. This time he didn't follow you and you felt kind of relieved, finally some time alone. Turns out the distraction Sans prepared was spikes preventing your path forwards and the way to get them to vanish? Solve the riddle he left behind. You read the paper he had written the riddle on.

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I am hidden somewhere out of sight.

Be careful of snow blindness, it's where I might hide.

Find me and the spikes will be no further obstruction to your path.

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It was short and sweet. With that you could guess that the thing you needed to find was somewhere in the snow but you probably had to find that out yourself. You carefully stepped in the snow until your steps had uncovered a lever by swishing the powdery snow away from it, you pulled it and you could hear the spike retract from the ground unblocking your way forward. That wasn't too hard to solve but it did give Sans considerably more time to get his puzzle ready since you had to solve the riddle and then find the hidden lever, plus you may or may not have gotten distracted by trying to get a snowball into a hole in the ground... Why? Because you could. It even gave you some gold! Worth it!

You finally arrived where Sans had been waiting but you didn't see Papyrus anywhere, not that you minded that. "HUMAN! YOU ARE FINALLY HERE! TOOK YOU AWHILE TO GET HERE" Wasn't that good? Meant his distractions actually worked. "Sorry, your brother did a really good job in keeping me preoccupied" Sans looked at you in disbelief, was that so hard to believe? "HE'S ACTUALLY DOING HIS JOB!? HOW UNEXPECTED..." You chuckled. "So what's the next puzzle O' magnificent one?" Sans became bashful once again and his eyes averted from you. Maybe he's not used to getting compliments much which means... you'll be sure to give him more of that. "UH YES... AS YOU CAN SEE, THE GROUND HAS A BUNCH OF X'S ON IT! YOUR TASK IS TO MAKE THEM INTO O'S BY WALKING ON THEM! SIMPLE!" Sans gestured towards an area with a bunch of X's and rocks. You were embarrassed to say that perhaps this puzzle would require some retries...

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You had tried a couple of times to solve the puzzle but you hadn't quite gotten it right yet. "Blasted triangles! They're becoming the bane of my puzzle solving life!" You could hear Sans snicker quietly at your frustrations or was it because he found what you said funny? Probably the last one, you couldn't picture him laughing at your misery. "DO YOU REQUIRE A HINT, HUMAN?" He graciously offered but you shook your head, you were fully invested in solving it by yourself. "Nah I'm good... I want to impress you after all" You gave him a teasing wink and you could tell he got flustered by your statement. "o-oh... ok" You laughed at how quietly he had said that, you must have really hit him hard with your teasing. Eventually you did figure it out and they all turned to O's!

"YOU SOLVED IT! I AM INDEED IMPRESSED! PERHAPS YOU EVEN HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO BECOME MY PUZZLE RIVAL!" Yeah no you doubted that very much, Sans was way ahead of you when it came to puzzles, if he wanted to he could have made way more complex puzzles that you couldn't solve but he had kept them easy enough. "Is that a challenge? Well then what are you waiting for, let's get to the next puzzle!" You got a bit cocky there but Sans seemed to match your enthusiasm as his cyan eyelights turned into stars again. "I ALREADY HAVE THE PUZZLE READY!" Oh, did you use that much time to get here? Or he was extremely quick to calibrate his puzzles, such a hard worker he was. "Already? Wow you work quickly but I should have expected that from such a cool skeleton like you, at this point I stand no chance evading your capture" He got easily flustered and then he got a somewhat sad expression on his skull? But it was only fleeting as he shook it off quickly and suddenly grabbed your hand in his bony one. Somehow it felt like skin but not quite like it but it definitely wasn't normal texture bones would give.

"DON'T GIVE UP HUMAN!" He looked at you with so much admiration, awh he was trying to cheer you on even though his goal was to capture you... That reminds you... why did he try to capture you? For your human soul so he could help break the barrier? Might as well ask why. "Thanks for the encouragement but might I ask why you want to capture me so badly?" You kept smiling at him but Sans let go off your hand and looked nervous as he averted his eyes once again. "ER- WELL I WANT TO BECOME A ROYAL GUARD! AND IF I CAPTURE YOU THEN SURELY THEY WON'T HAVE A CHOICE BUT TO ACCEPT MY MAGNIFICENCE!" He wanted to become a royal guard and work under the queen? It sounds nice and glorious until the knowledge of a lot of humans have been sacrificed to maybe someday break the barrier. You'll give Sans the benefit of the doubt and say he didn't know about the entire thing, if you were to seriously be captured you would have to say goodbye to your soul early.

"They won't let you join otherwise?" You inquired and Sans looked disheartened at your question, why wouldn't they accept such a goodhearted person? "I LACK SOME SKILLS REQUIRED..." You feel like you shouldn't pry anymore than that, the poor guy looked really down. "Well you don't need to be a royal guard to be as magnificent as you" You cheered him up and and his cheeks dusted a slight blue, you didn't comment on it since this was not time for teasing. This topic was pretty serious for him so you reined yourself in. "... YOU'RE RIGHT HUMAN! BUT MY GOALS ARE SET! YOU CANNOT ESCAPE MY PUZZLES!" His happy attitude came back tenfold, smiling at him. "I wouldn't dream of it, your puzzles are amazing after all" It seems you managed to cheer him up, his energy back at full power. "OF COURSE THEY ARE! FOLLOW ME TO THE NEXT ONE!" He bounced in joy as he showed you to the next puzzle. Papyrus stood at the other side next to a peculiar machine that was shaped like a square with buttons and a lever, waiting for the both of you. Sans immediately ran towards his brother with a smile on his skull, Papyrus was quite pleased with that.

Sans explained to you that to solve the puzzle you had to cross over to their side but coloured squares tiles would make it difficult to cross. He gave you a long winded explanation about what each colour did and you memorized it all into your mind. You also learned the odd device was made by Undyne, which means Alphys was the royal guard captain, you couldn't quite picture Alphys wielding a weapon in the first place plus she was so small and dorky. "ALRIGHT I'M PULLING THE LEVER!" Sans warned and suddenly all the square tiles lit up in all different colours and they all shifted into each other in quick repetition until...

They all turned pink, the tile that did absolutely nothing if you stepped on it. "THAT'S..." Sans started, a look of disbelief on his skull. "Disappointing" You finished, ugh you had remembered all the rules too! For absolutely nothing... Oh well you could consider this your puzzle break. "I KNOW! UGH NEXT PUZZLE!" Without saying anything more, he silently walked off. You were about to follow Sans until Papyrus stopped you by blocking your path... a little bit menacingly at that or was that just your imagination? Honestly he made you highly uncomfortable with how hostile he could get. You stepped a bit away from him. "Is there something wrong?" You couldn't find anything that would suggest you were in trouble by his expressions. "Wrong? No? Jus' wanted to thank you for makin' my brother so happy s'all" Oh? Is that the only thing he wanted? He could try to not be so scary while doing it though. "Seems like he's really enjoyin' himself" Ah he was being the dotting brother.

"He sure is... Welp I'll better get going" You were getting pretty exhausted, plus you had some shopping to do after this so you wanted this to be over as quickly as possible. Papyrus winked at you and moved away from your path so he wasn't blocking it anymore, how nice of him. He let you go without any more trouble. Sans led you to a few more puzzles and you managed to solve everything he threw at you, you could see he was running out puzzles to capture you with how nervous he looked. Now you were standing in the middle of a very unstable bridge made of rope and wood while Sans and his brother stood at the end, Sans expression seemed to be troubled as his gaze trained on you. "HUMAN! THIS IS THE MOST DANGEROUS PUZZLE YET!" Suddenly multiple things abruptly appeared out of nowhere, was that a cannon!? Is that fire!? And... was that a white dog? Why in the world was there a dog hanging from a rope? It didn't seem like it minded actually.... It looked so fluffy.... And it gazed at you so lovingly while you did the same, you wanted to oh so badly pet it.

"GET READY HUMAN! I'M GONNA ACTIVATE IT IN 3... 2..." You jolted back to reality, Sans expression showed hesitation as his eyelights never strayed away from you. Well fuck, you shouldn't have gotten distracted by that annoyingly fluffy dog! This bridge would surely break apart when he activated everything that was around you, was this really a puzzle!? "1...." Sans finished and you braced yourself for your inevitable but early death....

...

..

"Are you sure it's activated?" Papyrus was amused as he spoke up to his brother, Sans grumbled. "THIS PUZZLE IS TOO UNFAIR FOR A HUMAN... AND LIKE I SAID WE ARE NOT TOTAL BARBARIANS! THIS PUZZLE IS SCRAPPED!" Sans looked quite relieved when all of the dangerous items vanished... with the fluffy white dog... it's... for the best. "PHEW" You could hear Sans say audibly, did he not want to capture you anymore? He quickly moved on and left you and Papyrus alone once again. You walked to the end of the bridge, towards where Papyrus was since it was your only way forward. Finally you were on stable ground again and you could sigh in relief yourself, that would have been a long drop down... you couldn't even see the bottom! "Heh, isn't my brother so considerate?" Papyrus really liked to sing his brother's praises but you could see why, he was quite magnificent after all. You slipped out a chuckle at your thoughts and Papyrus took that as you agreeing wholeheartedly with him, not that you're gonna refute that.

"You seem to really like my brother too huh?" And back to his protective attitude. "Not in the way you're thinking, you should get that thought out of your skull, knucklehead" He blinked at you and you shrugged, moving on before he could say anything more about that useless topic. "Do you know how many puzzles are left?" You dared to ask, you were quite tired and the sun was getting dimmer and dimmer meaning night would soon fall. You wondered how they had sunlight down here in the underground, perhaps it was magically generated? Must be. "Honestly? I don't know what my brother has up his sleeves now but I'll give ya some advice, imagine blue stop signs" What sound advice he gave you, really detailed and everything. Your unamusement must have shone through on your face since Papyrus gave you a sly grin. "Very telling, not at all very cryptic of you" Papyrus gave you another wink and brought out a cigarette as he shrugged nonchalantly. "No problem, honey" Did... did he just call you honey!? Was it because you called him a knucklehead? It totally was! What a flirt. You didn't let it get to you as you rolled your eyes at him and walked away, you didn't like it when people played with others emotions. Perhaps he didn't mean to and it was a habit of his but miscommunication could happen easier if he continued to do that.

The further you walked, the more foggy it got for some reason, you could hardly see in front of you until it let up and you saw Sans blocking your path forwards. Behind him was the entrance to Lavarise, you could tell by the brightly glowing orange cave and some lava was floating upwards like the contents of a lava lamp. That was slightly cool? Hot? And dangerous. "HUMAN! YOU'VE BEATEN ALL MY PUZZLES.... SO IT HAS COME TO THIS!" Sans said as he summoned a blue bone, readying his attack and stance to battle you. He wanted to fight you!? But you had no experience in fighting monsters! What if you... accidentally dust him!? You couldn't, right? Since you had no intent to actually hurt him? No... that's not a chance you should take, you should talk to him to make him reconsider or tire him out. Suddenly he threw the blue bone at you and you froze like a deer in the headlights, a pulling sensation came from your chest and a nice heart came out from your chest. The blue bone phased right through you and what you assumed to be your soul. You expected to feel pain since it hit you straight on but nothing happened.

The soul was a beautiful shade of your favourite colour, what a coincidence but suddenly it turned a deep blue and your soul felt heavy and your body was sluggish. "Hey, a warning next time would be nice" You mumbled, better dodge the other ones if you could. Sans summoned more than one bone this time and some weren't blue like the first one. "I AM SORRY HUMAN BUT I MUST CAPTURE YOU! TO FINALLY GET PRESTIGE AND THEN I'LL GET A LOT FRIENDS!" Sans threw the bones at you again and you managed to dodge all of them except one, it hit you and you felt a quick pain in your soul. Sans looked guiltily in your direction and summoned even more bones, ugh this sucks... You much prefer the puzzles. "Do you really need all that?" If he was gonna battle you like this while you couldn't fight back then you'll fight with your words instead. "OF COURSE I DO! I'LL FINALLY BE FAMOUS AND HAVE FRIENDS!" Oh the poor guy, why in the world didn't anyone want to be his friend? Before you could think anymore about that, Sans threw all blue bones at you, moving to dodge them but too slow, one grazed your arm as you were moving and it hurt you.

What the hell? Why did that attack hurt you when the first one phased right through you!? And then you remembered what Papyrus had told you about... blue stops signs... ugh blue bones means don't move or it'll hit you. "You want to become a royal guard to get friends?" It was clear that his answer would be yes but you needed to make sure. "YES... IF I BECOME A ROYAL GUARD MAYBE THEN... EVERYONE WANTS TO BECOME MY FRIEND!" He must have been horribly lonley all his life down here, Papyrus did say nobody wanted to be around him for some odd reason. Perhaps it was because of his eccentric personality? Abruptly two bone attacks went right through you, luckily they were both blue and you had been stuck in your thoughts to try evade them. You got a slight feeling he wasn't very keen on hurting you like this. "Alright but let me ask you this, what kind of friends are those? Wanting to be your friend only if you join the royal guard?" Sans stumbled at your words and missed his attack completely and hitting the ground instead.

"THAT'S-.... I.... UGH! ENOUGH TALKING!" He threw multiple bones at you so you couldn't argue back it him, eventually he must get tired right? With that bundle of energy you highly doubted you could out tire him. You were getting drenched in wet snow as you had rolled out of the way from some attacks. Great, the sun was getting dimmer and less warm while you were getting wet and cold. "Okay let's say you do get friends, then what? Will they treat you like a real friend or just pretend? Is it worth it?" You asked the heavy questions and that seems to have made his already summoned bones fade from exsistence. "WORTH IT? WHAT DO YOU MEAN? UGH FORGET IT, YOURE JUST TRYING TO STALL THE INVETIABLE!" Abruptly he summoned a ton of bones all at once, it was impossible for you to dodge them all even if your body didn't feel as sluggish as it did!

"Alright, I'll surrender if you can answer this second question truthfully" Sans looked you as you stood completely still, he looked like he wanted to continue his attack but hesitated. "SINCE I'M SO MAGNIFICENT, I'LL GRANT THAT REQUEST" His magic bones all but vanished, he was waiting for you to ask your final question. "Would you rather have a real friend or a lot of fake ones?" Sans looked at you befuddled, his battle stance slacked as he thought it over. "I... I WOULD WANT A REAL FRIEND" He looked at you confused but abruptly he resummoned his bones. "AND THAT IS WHY I NEED TO BECOME A ROYAL GUARD, SO I CAN HAVE ONE!" Ugh! That adorable moron wasn't reading between the lines! He was about to unleash all of the bone attacks onto you until a white dog interrupted him by snatching away one of his bones. Was.... That the dog from earlier!? Its gaze locked into yours and hyperactively started to run towards you while holding Sans's bone in its mouth. It pushed your already drenched body into the snowed ground and began licking you, the bone vanishing from sight.

Suddenly you heard Sans buckle into snow and started to sob, you quickly pulled the dog off of you and stood up and it ran off to somewhere. "I CAN'T EVEN CAPTURE A WEAK HUMAN LIKE YOU.... NOBODY WANTS TO BE MY FRIEND NOW..." He hid his skull in his hands as blue hued tears fell down. You walked towards him and crouched down so you could face him, you gently brought his hands away from his skull and his glossy eyelights looked into your eyes. "Nobody eh? Guess I am kind of a nobody... would you want to be my friend?" His tears started to overflow from his sockets, blue heavy tears falling down into his clothes. "Y-YOU WANT TO BE M-MY FRIEND?" He stared at you in disbelief, his tears still flowing down his skull. "Even if you're not a royal guardsman yet? Absolutely" Sans tackled you in a hug, sending you both into the powdery snow, his clothes getting wet as well as he made contact with you. You hugged him back, it seems like he really needed that but you were getting cold so you nudged him to gain his attention.

"We should probably get up before we freeze to death since the sun is fading after all" He quickly acted and unraveled himself off from you and helped you up too. You chuckled and swatted some snow off from Sans's clothing, you didn't want it to get soaked like you since it looked crafted with love. "HUMA- NEW FRIEND! I... AM SORRY FOR TRYING TO CAPTURE YOU AND HURTING YOU..." He nervously twiddled with his thumbs while looking at the ground, you smiled at him and rubbed the top of his skull playfully. "Yeah the only way I could forgive such atrocities against friends, is if.... I could give you a nickname!" His cyan pupils went wide while he stood in stunned silence, processing what you were asking of him. "N-NICKNAMES!? THAT'S... isn't that a bit too soon?" What in the world was he saying? Nicknaming friends is common here, right? You heard Papyrus call Muffet for Muffs so it shouldn't be too outrageous, right? "Nonsense! How do you feel about Lucky? Lucky because meeting you and making you my first friend down here" His cheeks dusted blue or was that stains from his crying?

"I... I LIKE THAT ONE" Yes! Now you could stop referring to him as 'this universe's Sans' in your mind all the time and this nickname gave him a sense of self since he wasn't just a swapped copy of your Sans. "Lucky it is! Don't worry if you don't want to give me one... though I would prefer if you didn't just call me new friend since I'm planning to become an old friend" You gave him a wink and his cheek definitely turned a darker blue, so not just tear stains! "I DON'T HAVE A GOOD ENOUGH ONE FOR YOU... YET" san- Lucky looked at you like he wanted forgiveness since he didn't already have one for you, you laughed and patted his shoulder in reassurance. "Eh don't worry, you can surprise me with it! The only reason I have mine is because I thought about it during the puzzles" Lucky's eyelights suddenly turned into stars and his smile got larger, how was that even possible? "YOU WANTED TO BE FRIENDS EVEN DURING MY PUZZLES!? WOWZERS!" Lucky was awestruck and leapt into you, giving you another hug but this time you managed to stay upright.

The battle had come to an end and even though Lucky hadn't captured you, he managed to catch your friendship instead. After the aftermath you promised Lucky that you would for sure hang out more but right now you were tired and your social batteries needed to be charged. You two parted ways but not before giving Lucky a see you later hug, you could tell he was over the moon with finally having a friend even though that friend was human. You quickly went to the shop that was next to the inn and bought a set of clothes, fortunately the clothing didn't cost too much. You were left with a mere gold coin left, maybe you should save it? It is from your original universe after all and there's a possibility you wouldn't be able to see anymore of these...

"Well you've had a tough exploration journey" The innkeeper commented and you couldn't argue with them about that, since your clothes were drenched in water and sticking to your body. "Yeah, found out snow eventually turns into water" The innkeeper laughed at your sarcastic reply, their laughter was quite boisterous. "Quite the funny one aren't cha? Good to know and your shift starts tomorrow morning, I'll come knock on your door and we'll get right to it!" You smiled and nodded, you were dead tired, cold and wet so you wanted to get to your room so you could take a warm shower and get yourself under a warm comforter and that's what you immediately did. After getting into the warmth of the comforter you fell asleep instantly when your head hit the fluffy pillow.

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