Author's Note:-
So this is my first full Undertale fic. I'm still relatively new to the fandom and it's my first time writing the Skelebros so please forgive me if some parts seem out of character, but hopefully this will turn out to be a fun read.
I'm looking to keep it light-hearted with a lot of humour, a good amount of cuteness, some funny-but-awkard character scenes and a few feels towards the end... kind of like the real Undertale, I guess. So... yeah. Please leave a review and let me know your thoughts :)
Thank you!


Buzz. Whirr.
"whoa…" Out in Snowdin, in a secret laboratory that not many people knew about, Sans the skeleton took a step back and stared in wonder at the sight before his eyes. … It worked. It was working again… On the floor in front of him was a dusty lilac sheet; it had once covered an old, powerful machine… A machine that had swallowed up a brilliant scientists many years ago. It had exhausted itself in the act and it been broken ever since, but now… Whirr. The motor spun wildly – excitedly even, as if it were making up for all those years of dormancy. Sans gazed at it, almost breathless as he thought about what would happen next. This was it. The endgame. He was about to be freed… Him. W.D. Gaster, the great Royal Scientist that had met his demise at the hands of… … this machine.

Sans took a nervous step towards the creation, a product of Gaster himself. Heh. Maybe he shouldn't build such dangerous things. … Would he be angry about what had happened to him? Sans had often wondered. Over the years, it had put him off trying to rescue Gaster sooner. What if he wasn't Gaster anymore? What if he'd become a bitter monster, like some kind of evil ghost? … … Welp! Time to find out. Sans hadn't slaved over restoring this piece of metal for nothing.

Sans approached the machine and looked down at its dials. Okay. He'd studied the blueprints for this thing right down to the last detail. He'd figured out exactly what the machine had done to take Gaster, so if he wanted to reverse it he just needed to input this… Sans entered a few codes into the machine, and it seemed to be responding well. Okay, so now he just had to press this big dangerous-looking red button…

Swoosh! Sans gasped as an overwhelming bright light filled the room, and he suddenly felt dizzy. What… What the hell? He felt like he was fading… Like he was being dragged down by an unseen force – oh crap! This wasn't supposed to happen! He felt his life slipping away; he felt his grip on reality slowly diminishing and he was powerless to stop it. He couldn't move; he couldn't think… There was a heavy tugging on his soul, and then… Swoosh! All of a sudden, Sans felt a heavy force pushing him as if someone had just punched through his spine, and he was flung.

In a flash, the bright light that had engulfed the room disappeared just as a skeleton in a pink hoodie went sailing across the room and smacked into the wall with a great thud. The machine let out a loud shriek, as if it were struggling to go on, and all at once its healthy whirring stopped.
"ugh…" The skeleton groaned, struggling to keep herself awake. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the wall, allowing her skull to flop around as a dull ache echoed through her bones. Wow, that hurt. What the hell had just happened…? Eventually she opened her eyes and stared at the scene before her. It was the machine… The light was gone, but… there was no sign of Gaster. There was no sign of anybody else here. … Dammit, why wasn't Gaster here? She should be – oh, crap. The skeleton let out a groan as she climbed to her feet, a sharp pain shooting through her bruised bones with every movement. Okay, so… now she'd learned that getting launched into a wall kind of sucked. She wandered over to the machine, and examined it. … … Yep. Broken again. Man, Gaster really didn't build this thing to last, did she? … Welp. The skeleton shrugged. She'd tried. It was the thought that counts, right? Hm… wow. Her head really hurt. Maybe she should call in sick to work… she was already an hour late, after all. But… if she did that, Pristina would really flip. Hm… kind of a tough choice… … Oh, wait. The skeleton smacked her hand onto her chest, feeling to see if her bra was empty. Yep. She was out of ketchup, and she could really do with some right now to get her mind off this huge headache. Okay, so it seemed like she had no choice but to go to her post and pick up a few sachets of her favourite condiment. She made her way out of the lab, and headed for Sans's lookout post.

XXXXX

"SANS?" A loud voice echoed through Snowdin, emanating from The Great Papyrus. He'd been up and down the Underworld for over an hour now, looking for his brother. After travelling all the way to Hotland and back, he was just on his way back to the Ruins to start again when he saw a figure at Sans's lookout post. Finally! "SANS!" Papyrus yelled, racing over to who he assumed was his brother. Humph! Just look at that! Head down, eyes closed. Sans was sleeping on the job again! "SANS! WAKE UP, YOU LAZYBONES – HUH?" Papyrus blinked when he noticed something odd about his brother. "HEY…" He uttered, steadily approaching the figure. That was weird… Sans was wearing different clothes. He was dressed like a girl, actually. He was wearing a pink hoodie, and a black and white striped skirt, and stockings up to his knees. He looked a little shorter, too. What was going on? Was this… supposed to be a prank? To throw Papyrus off-guard…? Ha! "NYEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus laughed triumphantly. "SANS, DO YOU REALLY THINK I'M GOING TO FALL FOR THAT? JUST BECAUSE YOU CHANGED YOUR CLOTHES, AND YOUR HEIGHT, AND YOU'RE MAYBE A LITTLE SLIMMER, THAT DOESN'T MEAN I WONT RECOGNISE YOU!"
"hm…" The sleeping skeleton stirred, opening her eyes. "hah. yeah…" She rubbed her eye sockets and yawned, looking over at Papyrus. "you know, kiddo… if i'm not dressed like sans, and i don't look like sans…" She hopped off her chair and stood before Papyrus, shrugging in a Sans-like fashion. "then maybe… i'm not sans."

Papyrus blinked, suddenly confused. Huh… Changing his clothes and looks was one thing, but how did Sans manage to sound so much like a girl? Maybe this guy was right… Maybe he wasn't Sans. But then, why was he at Sans's post? And, more importantly… if he sounded like a girl…
"OH MY GOD YOU'RE A GIRL!" Papyrus screamed, leaping back with such force he managed to trip himself up and fall backwards into the snow.
"whoa – settle down. it's not that weird, is it?" The female skeleton replied. She stood over Papyrus and smiled, offering her hand out. "here, let me help you."

Papyrus stared down at her hand, and then back at the girl. No… This was all wrong. She was a lady – a lady skeleton! Papyrus didn't even know those things existed, and now he'd fallen down in front of one! Oh no, that was so uncool! Argh, and now she was helping him – him, the Great Papyrus! He had to fix this! He couldn't be caught looking like a loser in front of a skelegirl! But fortunately, Papyrus in his greatness and wisdom knew exactly what to do.
"ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Papyrus yelled. "I DON'T NEED YOU TO HELP ME UP! IF ANYTHING, I SHOULD BE HELPING YOU!"
"wha – whoa!" The girl cried out as Papyrus leapt to his feet and threw his arm down onto her, hitting her right on her wall bruises and knocking her to the floor. She let out a low groan as a dull pain thundered through her spine, as if it didn't hurt enough already without some maniac knocking her around.
"NOW – ALLOW ME TO HELP YOU UP!" Papyrus exclaimed, and with a wide grin he held out his hand to her. The female skeleton raised her skull to stare up at him, bewildered. He looked… kind of excited. Like he really wanted to help her up. … Hm. He seemed pretty innocent, actually. The skelegirl giggled, somehow charmed by his energy. Well… he didn't really look like he'd meant to hurt her. He was just overexcited. Hah. Cute.
"you remind me of my sister." The skelegirl said, and allowed Papyrus to pull her to her feet. "where did you come from anyway? i didn't think there were any skeleboys down here."
"WELL I MIGHT ASK YOU THE SAME THING!" Papyrus replied. "I THOUGHT IT WAS JUST ME AND MY BROTHER SANS – AND THAT'S ANOTHER THING!" He looked at her, narrowing his eye sockets. "WHAT WERE YOU DOING AT HIS POST? DID HE ASK YOU TO COVER FOR HIM? THAT NO-GOOD LAZYBONES! HE SHOULDN'T BE DELEGATING HIS WORK TO STRANGE WOMEN!"
"his post?" The girl blinked. Wait… That didn't make any sense. This was her post. … Ohhhh, no… This wasn't looking good. What the hell had that machine done?
"YES – YOU SHOULDN'T BE COVERING FOR HIM, YOU'RE NOT INSURED. WHY DON'T YOU HEAD HOME – OR EVEN BETTER, HELP ME LOOK FOR SANS. HE'S BEEN MISSING ALL MORNING." Papyrus said.
"yeah, uh… so i guess the last time you saw him was at home, right?" The skelegirl replied. "why don't we start there?" Okay, she had to see this. She really hoped he wasn't going to take her where she thought he was going to take her…
"GOOD IDEA. NOW YOU'RE STARTING TO SOUND LIKE HIM! WHAT AN ODD COINCIDENCE!" Papyrus grinned, and he suddenly let out a gasp. "OH – SORRY!" He cried, suddenly seeming a little flustered. "I – I'VE BEEN SO IMPOLITE! I DIDN'T EVEN TELL YOU MY NAME… I'M PAPYRUS."
"serif." The skelegirl replied.
"UH… YEAH. I GUESS THAT'S AN OKAY RESPONSE, FOR A GIRL…" Papyrus sweat dropped, not quite sure of what she was trying to say. "WHAT'S YOUR NAME?"
"serif." The skelegirl repeated.
"IS THAT SOME KIND OF COUGH?" Papyrus frowned. "ARE YOU SICK OR SOMETHING?" He took a step back, and held his hands up defensively. "DON'T GIVE IT TO ME – I'M DUE TO START MY JOB AS A ROYAL GUARD ANY DAY NOW! I DON'T WANT COOTIES!"

The skelegirl giggled a little. Oh wow, this guy was something else.
"no – papyrus, my name is serif." She said. "y'know, as in 'sans-serif', or… some other font."
"OH – I SEE!" Papyrus gasped. "I'M SORRY. THAT'S…" He paused, his cheeks darkening slightly as he stared at her. He didn't know why, but there was something incredibly comforting about this girl. Like he knew her, somehow… … But he didn't! He didn't know any skelegirls! "THAT'S… A BEAUTIFUL NAME." Papyrus uttered quietly, somewhat disturbed by the soothingness of her presence. "… SHOULD WE GO?"
"lead the way." Serif replied, and she followed Papyrus through Snowdin.

XXXXX

As they walked towards his house, Papyrus couldn't help feeling a little weird. He couldn't work it out. He wasn't nervous, he… He was oddly comfortable. Walking next to Serif like this was sort of… nice. He didn't know what to make of it. They'd only just met – he shouldn't feel comfortable around her! Not like this, anyway. This was super comfortable. Like, best friend comfortable. But they were still getting to know each other, and Papyrus had no idea who she was or where she'd come from… but he felt like he knew her. He didn't know her, right? He hadn't like, seen her every day for his whole life, then suddenly forgotten about it? … … No. That wasn't right – if that was true, then she would know his name. Unless she'd forgotten too… Maybe they were best friends, who'd suddenly forgotten about each other. Could that happen? But if it had… did that mean Papyrus had other friends he'd forgotten about? Maybe he was actually the most popular guy in the Underground! Yeah! That made so much sense, because he was such a cool guy! … Wait, but if he had so many secret friends, then why did he never get any mail? Or followers on UnderNet? … Maybe it was Serif herself. Maybe he felt weird, just because of her. She was a pretty weird girl, after all. Since when did a female skeleton live down here? With such a calming presence, and such beautiful eyes. … Uh-oh. Papyrus stiffened slightly as he walked. Okay, now he was nervous. He was far too aware of what good company she was. For some reason he really liked her – he really really liked her. Why did he like her so much? She was just so nice to be around, but how would he know that? He'd literally known her for five minutes. Maybe this was… love at first sight. Was that what this was? Ohh, this was all happening so fast! He hadn't prepared for this – this was such bad timing! He was supposed to be finding Sans, and instead he'd found… a really beautiful thing… And sitting on that beautiful chair in the lookout post was Serif. She wasn't like the other girls Papyrus knew. She wasn't like Undyne, for example. Undyne was really cool to be around, but Serif was relaxing. Warm, and soothing… She was kind of… live-together-able. It felt like she and Papyrus should be living together, in the same house, and eating spaghetti that Papyrus had made for them both… Argh! This was way too sudden!
"hey." Serif's voice caused Papyrus to freeze on the spot. He looked down to see Serif staring up at him with those calming beautiful eyes that had an ever so slight pink glow… Wow. "you okay, kiddo?"
"FINE!" Papyrus screamed. "I'M NOT AT ALL THINKING ABOUT MOVING IN WITH YOU!"
"cool." Serif shrugged. "are we good to go then?"
"UH – YES." Papyrus nodded. He looked up, and realised that they'd actually reached his house. "HERE WE ARE!"

Serif stared up at the building, and her face fell. Oh, no… She'd been afraid of this. No… No!
"papyrus… is this your house?" She asked nervously.
"YES." Papyrus answered.
"and… you live here with sans, right?" Serif uttered. No… No no no…
"YES. ME, AND SANS. THIS IS OUR HOUSE."

Serif suddenly went quiet as a horrible cold feeling ran through her soul. Oh, shit… What had that machine done? This was… This was her house! And her mailbox… Serif moved over to the two mailboxes outside the house. One was labelled 'Papyrus' and couldn't be any neater, and the other was overfilled and unmaintained… This was hers. This was definitely her mailbox. But it said on it… 'Sans'. No… No way! The machine… Crap! She must have done the calculations wrong or something. It hadn't pulled Gaster out, it had moved Serif to – what was this anyway? Another timeline? Where girls were boys? So this Sans guy… he was actually another version of her. A boy version. So then, this tall one… Serif looked at Papyrus, the magical pink pupils of her eyes widening as she started to realise who she was looking at.
"pristina…" She choked.
"HUH? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?" Papyrus frowned, oblivious to the situation. "IS THAT ANOTHER FONT? YOU KNOW, IT'S KIND OF PRETTY. MAYBE IF I'D BEEN A GIRL, THAT WOULD BE MY NAME."
"hah." Serif sweat dropped. "yeah, kiddo. you might be right." Ohhh crap. How was she going to fix this? This was such a disaster. Or maybe… a disgaster. … Hah. That one was pretty good.