The scenery was all too familiar to Sans.
The green couch, the carpet, the television, the remote sitting on his knee. Another Tuesday, although the days tended to blend together when one's routine involved doing absolutely nothing at all. No sentry duty meant no keeping watch for humans, which would've been pointless now.
There were over eight billion of them. Far too much work.
A familiar noise from outside prompted the skeleton to hop off of the couch, smiling as he made his way over to the window. He opened it, letting in the cold air that blew over the freshly-fallen powder from outside.
It smelled like solace and Snowdin...with fresher air.
He turned his gaze to the source of the noise: laughter. Both from his best human friend, and of course, from his brother. Although a much deeper guffaw erupted from just out of his field of view, so he leaned out to get a better look.
Asgore, former king of the Underground, was busy shaking snow out of his beard in between chortles. He used his long purple scarf to dry it off before ducking it inside, and beneath the scarf, a loud, pink shirt reading "Mr. Dad Guy."
"I CAN'T BELIEVE I HIT THE KING IN THE FACE! I'M SORRY, YOUR HIGHNESS!" Papyrus said in disbelief.
Asgore smiled and shook his head. "It's all right, Papyrus. In fact..."
He looked toward Frisk and gave them a wink. The human smiled as they both scooped up more snow.
"...Now I have to cut loose!"
They were pretty much the perfect offensive pair. Frisk's snowballs were small, fast, and almost rapid-fire, fueled by the human's determination and nearly bottomless well of youthful energy. Asgore's were more like boulders; huge, deliberate, and unstoppable.
The skeleton summoned a long, white bone, holding it with the mastery of a martial artist. Papyrus spun it to deflect the smaller projectiles with ease, laughing heartily as he did so. Frisk wasn't the problem, it was the boss monster in the room. ...Or the backyard, he supposed. One huge snow poff from Asgore took the skeleton out at the legs, causing him to fall on his back. Frisk pressed the advantage and sat on Papyrus' chest, nailing him right in the skull with two child-sized cold attacks.
"GAAAHHHH! NO FAIR!"
Sans agreed. He grabbed his blue jacket and slipped into his sneakers, but still didn't feel like tying them. He wasn't really going to be walking anyway. He looked outside for a perfect vantage point, then took a shortcut.
Asgore loomed over Papyrus with two huge handfuls of snow, an almost sinister twinkle glittering in his eye. He raised his arms, and suddenly stopped. Frisk's head suddenly fell forward, and the two began to shiver. Behind them, Sans stood, with his hands in his pockets, smiling. Always smiling.
They could feel the snow crawling down their backs.
"seems like you're going to dunk on my brother pretty soon. lemme give you some advice."
Another couple of snowballs flew towards Asgore's hands, nailing their targets and causing him to drop his ammunition.
"don't." Sans grinned.
"SANS!"
The smaller skeleton warped next to his brother, clasping his hand to help him to his feet. Papyrus scooped up his bone staff and spun it in a fantastically showy display before planting it in the ground in front of him.
"NYEH-HEH-HEH! NOBODY CAN DUNK ON THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"
"he's right," Sans said, pulling his hood over his head. His left eye glowed a familiar shade of cyan, the only part of his face visible besides his eternal smile. "and i'm not about to let 'em."
Asgore backed away, standing next to Frisk with a clenched fist. The two skeletons almost appeared to be...no...were they...posing?
The true final battle was finally beginning.
The king charged first, dragging his large hands into the snow, flinging it towards Sans. The hooded one responded by shrugging and slipping off to the side, effortlessly. Asgore turned for another charge, but found himself stopped by Papyrus, blocking the way.
"I'LL TAKE HIS HIGHNESS!"
Sans looked toward Frisk and rolled his eyes. "oh sure, leave me with the hard jobs."
The boss monster gathered up two more huge boulders, aiming at both Papyrus' legs and chest. Papyrus, wary of last time, bounded over the first shot. For the second one, he instinctively thrust his staff directly into the center, finding himself to be taken aback at how it was now stuck to the end.
Asgore pressed the advantage, knowing that his opponent's weapon would be far more unwieldy. He grabbed two smaller poffs, tossing them at the skeleton with heavy hands. Papyrus used the snowy end to block both of the shots, and gave out a look of inspiration.
He began to spin his staff like before, turning and twirling gracefully in a real show of mastery. After a few seconds, he let the staff slip through his hands down to the bottom, dry end, before grasping it again. Continuing to spin it, he began to grin at just how good of an idea this was. He finally brought the staff over his head and swung it down with impressive force, which was enough to dislodge the snowy boulder on the end, aiming straight for Asgore's face.
The king was actually rather impressed at the display, before realizing his mistake. The snowball hurtled toward Asgore, and he reacted by sweeping his hands in front of his face before it landed. A tremendous burst of flame followed his hands, engulfing the snowball and turning it immediately into steam. Fire magic. Always a good defense.
They both looked toward each other with smiles of respect. Papyrus focused his mind and caused his staff dissipate back into magic, holding his arms out wide.
"What are you doing, Papyrus?" Asgore queried.
Papyrus smiled wider. "THE GREAT PAPYRUS HAS DECIDED TO SPARE YOU!"
"Spare me?! Oh no, skeleton. You will get no mercy from me!"
Asgore scooped up one final, huge boulder of snow, holding it behind him as he gave a final charge, giving a heartfelt battle cry as he dashed toward the skeleton, who strangely didn't move.
"NYEH-HEH-HEH!"
Papyrus raised one hand to reveal his trump card. A wide array of bones, raised up from beneath the snow, in varying distances apart just to make sure this would work. They did their job well, catching Asgore in the shin and forcing the boss monster to fall forward, tossing the boulder into the air. As soon as he tripped, Papyrus forced the bones to disappear, causing Asgore to faceplant right into the snow.
Asgore rolled onto his back, revealing his deep, proud laughter at what had just transpired. Glancing toward the sky, he saw two more bones hovering in the air above him, and upon those, the snowball he'd just lost. With one final "HEH," Papyrus released his magic, letting the boulder fall onto Asgore's chest.
"Mercy!" he laughed.
"GRANTED, YOUR FLUFFYNESS!"
Sans and Frisk, however, had their own battle to sort through. For a moment, familiar, lingering, dark memories haunted the both of them before they both shook them loose, giving each other wicked smiles.
Frisk employed a more guerrilla-style approach to the fight, using the nearby tree and garbage cans for cover amidst Sans' onslaught. The skeleton wasted no time in using his powers to try to gain an advantage over the human, but Frisk knew all of these tricks already, and just had to stay sharp.
From behind, from the front, from above, Frisk was pretty surprised at just how hard Sans was working for this. An unexpected attack from the side prompted Frisk to grab the lid to the nearby garbage can and hold it up like a shield, deflecting the blow before another one came from behind. It was blocked as well.
"heh. clever," Sans snorted.
"Undyne taught me a lot," Frisk smiled.
At this point, both Papyrus and Asgore were enamored at the war unfolding in front of them. Sans warped around the "battlefield" with his typical, almost lazy shenanigans, while Frisk was keeping up every step of the way. It was almost amazing.
"GET 'EM, SANS!"
"Frisk! You have to stay determined!"
"huh-" Sans turned, realizing that he was now being watched.
The distraction was just enough for Frisk to launch a counterattack. Holding two snowballs, the human leapt through the air, gaining an impressive amount of altitude. They aimed for the skeleton, who turned around and instinctively raised his hand.
Frisk quickly raised higher into the air, dropping one of their snowballs out of surprise. They hovered there for a moment, giving Sans a fierce look that the skeleton returned with a smirk.
Sans flicked his hand back toward himself, which in turn caused Frisk to begin hurtling toward the skeleton. His magic slowed the descent before catching Frisk, bringing them in close for a surprise hug.
"gotcha."
Frisk looked into Sans' eyes and gave a wide grin, shoving a handful of snow into his face. They didn't expect Sans to retaliate in the same manner, mashing cold powder into the human's face amid playful laughter.
"Mercy!" Frisk called.
"mercy!" Sans responded.
"MERCY!" Papyrus finally shouted, not wanting to be left out.
All four of them finally collapsed into the snow, laughing for what felt like an eternity. Their laughter echoed down to the end of the neighborhood and back, rolling away into the distance. Finally, Asgore stood up, brushing off the incredible amount of snow that had built up on his sweater.
"Alright, I think I'm cold enough. I'm ready for a nice hot cup of tea. Anybody else interested?"
Frisk stood up and bounded toward the king, smiling.
"Well, I suppose you'd like some hot cocoa, right?"
Frisk nodded.
Asgore looked toward the two skeletons. "You two care to join us?!"
"OF COURSE!" Papyrus nodded, before looking toward his brother. "YOU COMING, SANS?"
For a second, Sans wanted to go back to watching tv, but then saw all three of them beaming at him before changing his answer.
"sure, what the heck," he shrugged.
It smelled like snowdrifts and smiles.