So long as a monster child resides upon the surface, it does not matter what happens to it. Eventually, they all find their way back to their kind and accept the darkness.

Level -1

"Tremble before the Great Papyrus!" A young, skeleton boy proclaimed to the snowy world around him. His feet were lost in a cold, powdery blanket of snow, but this did not stop the boy from throwing his arms into the air beside his marvelous creation; himself.

The skeleton was bundled up in a bright red snow jacket, complete with red mittens, black snow pants, red snow boots and a snuggly red, knitted hat atop his head, complete with a white puff of yarn on top of the beanie. Such warm clothes did nothing to restrict the skeleton's movement as he gazed over to a spot a few feet away from him. "Come on, Sans!"

"I'm almost done, Papyrus!" Sans called over his shoulder while he worked with the snow in front of him. Unlike his brother, whose skull was hinged at the cheek bones to open his mouth, Sans' mouth was etched onto his skull and unable to open, as far as he could tell.

He wore a matching winter outfit just like Papyrus' except instead of red it was replaced with a calming blue. His snow boots were the only thing to not match up with the rest of his outfit as they were bright yellow, but the fashion statement they proclaimed didn't seem to bother Sans.

Papyrus dropped his arms while his eye sockets narrowed, tilting his body back and forth to try and catch a glimpse of what was in front of Sans. His voice was high-pitched and young, full of curiosity and wonder. "What's taking so long?"

"I'm just adding some finishing touches." Sans replied, his voice adolescent yet down to earth and calming. Patting one spot of snow in particular, Sans allowed himself to stand tall. "It's done!"

"Finally." Papyrus swiftly moved his hands to his hips, thrusting his chest out. "What horrible beast awaits to fight the Great Papyrus?"

Papyrus quickly glanced at the snow sculpture beside him, which was a fairly decent snowman with icicles for arms and a hole in his face for the nose hole. Papyrus had tried to carve a six-pack into the snowman but opted against it when all it was doing was making just a big hole in the snowman's stomach.

Sans turned around to look at Papyrus, showing off his giddy smile. "Here it comes, Pap. You ready?"

Papyrus narrowed his eye sockets, running behind his snowman while grabbing the icicles and moving them up and down. "The Great Papyrus was born ready for this challenge! Come at me, fiend!"

"Alright, here they come!" Sans took a large step to the side, allowing whatever beast laid behind him to stand tall and oppose the warrior of snow.

It was a snow rock.

Papyrus lifted his head a bit. "You made a rock?"

"Not just any rock." Sans glanced down at his small and stubby creation, which was literally just a pile of snow with the word 'rock' carved into it. "This rock is made of snow."

Papyrus frowned. "Sans! That's not a beast!"

"It's a real beast if it gets inside your snowsuit." Sans teased, his smile growing as he watched Papyrus fume in his spot.

"Sans, Papyrus."

The two young skeletons looked up from their play-time in the snow when they heard the front door to the house they stood in front of open. A tall and very skinny skeleton poked his head outside, surveying what the two had done quickly. "Dinner is almost ready. Come inside and wash up before it gets cold."

"But Uncle Gaster." Papyrus whined, stepping out from behind his snow sculpture. "Sans didn't make a hideous beast for my snow warrior to fight!"

"I'm certain Sans can make a new enemy for you to fight tomorrow. Now come inside and no whining." Gaster glanced over to Sans before back at Papyrus, opening the door a little more to let them in.

Papyrus lightly grumbled but didn't linger on it for too long, hopping inside the house while Sans slowly trudged his way over. He looked up to Gaster who simply gave a hesitant smile back down, eyes going back up to look at the snowman Papyrus had built a few days ago outside of their house. It was Papyrus, Sans, and him all lined up and wearing beanies according to their color, which Gaster kept reminding himself to bring in someday but never got around to it.

When both boys were inside Gaster slowly closed the door behind him, keeping an eye on them so that they didn't scamper into the house without taking off their snow-boots and jackets first. A rug was placed behind the door to catch water from the melting snow as well as a coat hanger off to the side where jackets could be hung and forgotten. While there were a few pegs at the very top for Gaster to use easily, he made sure to have a few pegs down below where Sans and Papyrus could hang their jackets easily, which they did at the moment.

The rest of the house was covered in a blue carpet with purple waves going vertical except for the kitchen, which was checkered tiled. The living room in particular had a few bookshelves lined alongside the west wall, where Gaster shelved everything from his favorite reads to scripts and journals he was writing in on his most recent projects. The two bottom shelves had been dedicated to Papyrus and Sans, which for the moment was empty save for a few coloring books, light novels and children's stories.

In the middle of the living room was a long, green couch that could easily hold three people, and across from it was a fairly decent sized box tv, complete with an antenna and stand. To the east of the door was a small room where a large wooden table was placed and four wooden chairs were sat around it. A vase of golden flowers sat in the center of the table for decoration, though Sans always felt a little uncomfortable when staring at them for too long.

Up the stairs there were three wooden doors, with the door closest to the staircase being Sans and Papyrus' room, then Gaster's bedroom and the last door being the study. A few photos were hung on the wall in between doors and off to the side, but the biggest picture was a framed, professional photo of Gaster sitting with Sans and Papyrus in his lap, all dressed nice and smiling into the camera.

After sitting down to take off his snow boots Papyrus jumped off of the rug and ran into the living room, wiggling his little body. "What are we having for dinner Uncle Gaster? Is it spaghetti?"

"Not tonight, Papyrus." Gaster let out a little chuckle at all the adrenaline Papyrus still had, his gaze wandering over to Sans who was taking his time to unbuckle his snow boots.

While Gaster moved on over to the kitchen Papyrus ran back over for his brother, tugging on one arm. "Come on, Sans! You're too slow!"

"Dinner won't run off, Pap." Sans remarked as he took his arm out of Papyrus' grasp. He smiled to himself while staring down at his boots. "Now the refrigerator, that might run off."

"Sans!" Sans giggled as he heard his brother get annoyed, taking the moment to stand up and place his boots next to the coat hanger. Just as he set them down Papyrus had already taken Sans' hand, pulling him across the living room and over to the dining room at mach 1. "Come on! Come on!"

"Ah ah!" Gaster poked his head outside of the kitchen, giving Papyrus a stern look. "Wash your hands first before sitting at the table for dinner."

Papyrus balanced himself on one foot from freezing himself mid-run, dropping his other leg and arms. "Alright."

"You want to eat with dirty hands?" Sans joked while still holding Papyrus' hand. He used it to lead Papyrus over to the kitchen, where the two could hear something bubbling and a metal lid clattering against the metal pot.

"Nah, I just want to eat!" Papyrus caught up to Sans' walk by the time the two entered the kitchen. It was a small space but that was only because Gaster had filled it with an oven with a stovetop, a refrigerator, a sink, a broken microwave, which he was still tinkering with and needed to move, and a long island on the east wall. The island was almost height level with the window overlooking the snow-ridden world as snowflakes started to fall gently through the sky.

Sans moved over to a little corner in the room to fetch Papyrus' and his stools, with each one picking up their respective stool and walking over to the sink. For the moment Gaster stood near the stovetop as he held the metal lid in one hand, stirring the bubbling concoction with a ladle in the other.

He smiled to see Sans and Papyrus use their stools to get height level with the sink, with Sans turning it on while Papyrus dispensed the soap bar. Tiny hand bones clacked and clicked together as they washed their hands.

After turning off the water and sharing the drying cloth, Papyrus hopped down from his stool and scurried back over to the dining table. "Dinner time!"

Gaster turned his head and frowned just as Papyrus had left the kitchen. "You forgot to put away your stool, Papyrus!"

"It's ok." Sans was already picking up his stool when Gaster looked down at him. He smiled while grabbing Papyrus' stool and placing it atop his. "I can put both away."

"Thank you, Sans." Gaster turned his head back to the meal he was preparing in a large, metal pot, stirring gently through the thick mixture with his ladle. "Leftover soup is just about done cooking."

"What's the ingredients this time?" Sans set down the stools in their corner before briskly walking over to where Gaster stood. He couldn't tilt his head high enough even if he wanted to see what was inside the pot.

Gaster turned half of his attention over to Sans, a hesitant smile on his face. "Well, we have the rest of the carrots, mushrooms, celery and potatoes as well as some garlic and the last bit of squirrel meat Mrs. Flame was nice enough to share with us."

"I don't like squirrel meat." Sans shuddered at the thought of eating the meat again.

"Well we need to make a run for the grocery store tomorrow so you know how this goes. We eat up what's left in the pantry and refrigerator that'll spoil as leftover soup." Gaster absentmindedly clicked off the heat on the stovetop, bringing out the ladle to taste a sip.

"Hmm. Needs something." Gaster eyeballed the kitchen for a second before shrugging his shoulders. "Nothing a bit of bread won't solve."

"Come on, Sans!" Gaster and Sans turned their heads over to the dining room, hearing Papyrus shout from his seat. "You're such a lazy bone!"

Sans turned his head back to Gaster who laughed lightly, pointing a finger at the pot as it took on a blue hue, then floated off to the side. "Go join your brother at the table. I'll be there shortly."

Nodding his head lightly, Sans made his way back over to the dinner table to see Papyrus sitting on the side. He waved his hand in the air for Sans to come over, who simply pulled out his chair, which had some padding to help him reach the table better, and took a seat.

"You boys ready to eat?" Gaster wasn't far behind by the time Sans sat down, who walked into the dining room with the metal pot, a small towel and half a loaf of bread all hovering behind him. He took his place at the front of the table, allowing the towel to fold itself while he gently set down the pot of soup on top of it. The bread was torn into three manageable chunks and hovered above each bowl while the ladle floated out of the pot to serve the soup.

Papyrus awed at the soup falling into his bowl, placing both of his hands on the table. "Leftover soup!"

"Yay." Sans weakly muttered, keeping track of where the squirrel meat fell into his bowl.

Gaster lightly chucked to Papyrus' enthusiasm, allowing the blue hue to disperse over the items and allowing the bread to plop into the soup. "Make sure you eat everything. Nothing goes to waste."

Papyrus snatched for his spoon, watching Sans sidle his spoon through the soup so as to not get any squirrel chunks. "Does this mean we're going to the store tomorrow?"

"Have we ever had Leftover soup and not gone to the store?" Gaster idly played back, stirring his soup with his spoon to allow the steam to vent quicker.

He closed his eyes for a moment. "I was just informed earlier today that his Majesty will be joining us for dinner tomorrow."

"The King?" Sans took two of his fingers to the cheekbone next to his teeth, opening a small gap to allow the soup to get inside while gazing at Papyrus. "I don't think we've met him."

"You haven't." Gaster opened his eye sockets to address Sans and Papyrus. "He wanted to give you two time to acclimate to your new surroundings and home. Not only will he be sharing dinner with us, but he would like to introduce himself."

"Wowie, the King himself at our house!" Papyrus chewed on the gamy squirrel meat without a second thought, swallowing his bite of soup. "This must be an honor!"

His eyes grew star-struck, slamming his fists onto the table and staring at Sans. "Do you think he'll knight us?!"

Gaster flinched lightly to the slam, eyeing Papyrus who quickly took his fists off the table. "No, he won't be coming for that. His Majesty loves all of his subjects and makes it his goal to get to know each and everyone."

Papyrus brought his hand with the spoon up to his lower jaw, scrutinizing the table cloth beneath him. "The King is coming to our abode. I must do something to celebrate his arrival."

Eyes lighting up, Papyrus threw his spoon up into the air, placing a hand on the table while standing atop his seat. "I shall sculpt a snowman of himself for all of Snowdin to see!"

Sans lightly chuckled when bits of soup flew off of the spoon and rained down onto the table, but Gaster was less enthusiastic. He frowned at Papyrus, who quickly recoiled his hands and sat back down. "S-Sorry Uncle Gaster…"

Gaster sighed, unwrapping his napkin to clean off the tablecloth with. "It's alright, Papyrus."

He gave Papyrus a gentle smile to show he wasn't upset. "I'm sure the King would love to see that. But you'll have to make it before we go on our grocery run tomorrow, ok?"

Papyrus' eyes lit up, nodding his head reverently. "Don't you worry Uncle Gaster, the King will be so amazed at my sculpting skills that he'll never want to leave!"

He then pointed a bony finger at Sans. "And you're going to help me Sans! And you better destroy that snow-rock and make a really good monster for my snowman to fight! That way the King also knows that I, the Great Papyrus, do not run from a fight!"

"Alright." Sans said with a smile, allowing himself to get a bit excited on the fact that the King of their people would be joining them for supper. His mind ran wild with all the different possibilities of who this monster could be.

Gaster leaned back in his chair when one of his pockets vibrated. He quickly pulled out his black and white pager, which halted Sans and Papyrus' fun.

Gaster stayed silent for a moment before standing up from his seat. "I am needed at the moment."

The blue hue came once again as the pot, the towel and Gaster's bowl was lifted into the air. He gave an apologetic smile to Sans and Papyrus. "My assistant needs some guidance on one of her projects."

Sans frowned. "I thought you were on sabbatical from work for a year."

"I am." Gaster walked out of the dining room, setting the pot and towel back into the kitchen to clean later while keeping his bowl beside him. "But I am not going to the lab, am I? I will be in my study if you two need me, but for the moment I wish to not be disturbed."

Papyrus gave a melancholy smile as they both watched Gaster climb the stairs. "Alright Uncle Gaster."

"Make sure you clean your bowls and then head to the bed. I will be in later to read you a story." Gaster's voice wafted from the second floor before the sound of a door being opened was heard. "And make sure Sans eats his meat!"

Papyrus waited to hear Gaster close the door to his study before turning back around to talk to Sans. Sans froze when Papyrus caught him leaning over the table, his bowl tilted down and spoon in the soup. A couple of squirrel chunks plunked into Papyrus' soup. "Heh heh, looks like you caught me."

Papyrus frowned, but didn't decide to yell. He simply pushed his bowl closer to Sans, which gave him the signal to continue putting his squirrel meat into his dish. "You know I can't cover for you every time. How will you grow big and strong bones if you skip out on the meat?"

"I don't skip out on all meat." Sans remarked, making sure he got the last of the squirrel out of his dish before handing Papyrus' bowl back to him. "Just squirrel."

Papyrus simply shook his head when his brother lightly laughed, but couldn't help but chuckle back as they ate in silence. After washing their bowls the two scampered back up to their bedroom, where the room had gotten more furniture since Sans first woke up in it.

The walls had been painted a calming blue while the carpet had a giant, red rug adorned on the floor. The right side of the room, which was Sans' side, was made up of a small blue bed, a tiny book shelf where Sans and Papyrus kept various things like toys, books and other materials, and a desk with a small seat that Sans like to sit in and watch the snow fall from the window. On Papyrus' side of the room he had a red bed, a small area to play with his toys and a desk of his own where he mostly displayed unique things he found outside. So far the table was adorned with a weird rock, a stick that looked like a rock, and a leaf that had a giant hole in it. At the end of the room was a closet where they kept their clothes.

Jumping on his bed, Papyrus grabbed a red marker atop his desk while Sans opened the closet to take off his clothes and slip into his cozy blue pjs. Papyrus stood up on his bed for a calendar Gaster had gotten him only to X off the day. "It's been two months since we first got here, Sans."

He turned his head over to his brother. "Two months since we became a family."

"It feels longer, doesn't it?" Sans grabbed Papyrus' pjs, throwing them over as Papyrus snatched them out of the air with a simple 'thanks.' "Kind of like we've lived here our whole lives."

"Well… we sort of have." Papyrus capped his marker before setting it down on his desk. He started to take off his clothes only to change into his pjs, hopping off the bed to place his clothes inside the hamper in their closet. "I mean, I don't remember how we got here, or anything else besides waking up in this house."

Sans shifted uncomfortably atop his bed when he crawled onto it, watching Papyrus make his way back over to his bed. "I don't think I want to remember our lives before this. Uncle Gaster said that he found us outside of Hotland, and that no one was taking care of us."

Sans shrugged, but it felt heavier this time. "I would rather remember this than a life where we were sad and alone."

Papyrus stopped himself from climbing into bed when he noticed Sans droop his skull a little. Papyrus frowned, walking over to where Sans sat and hoisting himself up onto his bed. "Aw, I'm sorry Sans. I didn't mean to reflect on that."

Gently he took Sans and pulled him into his lap, resting his arms around his small brother and laying his skull atop his. "I don't mind if I don't remember either. I won't bring it up again, ok?"

Sans felt warm when Papyrus hugged him, closing his eye sockets and resting his skull in his brother's arms. "Ok, Pap."

"Besides, even if we had a crummy life before this, look at where we've come. We have Uncle Gaster, this nice house, a cool, snowy town to live in." Papyrus closed his eye sockets too. "And I have you. So things are looking up for us. Things are ok."

A simple knock on the door made itself known before the door opened. Light poured in from the outside as Gaster poked his head inside the room. "Is everything alright in here?"

He noticed the two brother sitting atop Sans' bed. Papyrus looked down to Sans as he looked up to him, both of them smiling. Sans then turned his skull to nod to Gaster. "Yeah, things are ok."

"Well, things seem to be going fine at the lab." Gaster took this as his time to enter the room. "So what story do you want me to read tonight?"

"Oh, oh!" Papyrus set Sans back on his bed before jumping onto the ground, running over to the bookshelf and retrieving a book. "Peekaboo with Fluffy Bunny! Read this one!"

Excitedly Papyrus ran over and waved the book above his head, which Gaster took reluctantly. "This one again? But this is the seventh time we've read it, Papyrus."

He eyed Sans. "Perhaps your brother wants to read something else?"

Sans glanced at Papyrus for a moment, who gave his best pouting face before back to Gaster. He smiled, then shrugged. "I can't say no to that face. Read us Peekaboo with Fluffy Bunny, please."

Gaster sighed. "Alright. But we're reading another book tomorrow night, ok? This one is getting a little tiring."

"Nonsense!" Papyrus exclaimed while he climbed into bed. Gaster sat himself at the foot of Papyrus' bed while both boys got under the covers. "Peekaboo with Fluffy Bunny never gets tiring to the Great Papyrus!"

Sans rested his skull atop his pillow as he listened to Gaster read the children's book. He sounded a little disappointed when starting out, but soon got into character as Papyrus eagerly gripped the covers of his bed.

Gaster's voice soon drifted from Sans' mind as the world around him slowly faded away. This was the life he had come to know, and preferred that it stayed that way.

Papyrus: *staring intently at the audience* Sans, look! We're back! *eagerly looks over to his brother, who is walking over*

Sans: Eh, not exactly, Papyrus.

Papyrus: What? Of course we are! *looks away from the screen for a second, pointing to the title* See? This is part 2 of our story!

Sans: That is true, but the writer is not officially ready to come back yet.

Papyrus: What? *Frowns* How is she not ready to come back yet? It's almost been a month!

Sans: Well, the writer got pretty busy with college. *lightly shrugs* She didn't expect the workload to be so heavy and she hasn't had time to really write this month.

Papyrus: Well, when is she coming back?

Sans: *closes his eyes sockets* Three weeks.

Papyrus: Three weeks?! *crosses arms* The Great Papyrus is not willing to wait three weeks!

Sans: Well, she needs time to make the story good. *opens one eye socket* The writing process for one of these chapters takes a bit of time, and she usually likes to stock-pile chapters so that she's always ready for an update and to change things in earlier chapters if she needs to. If she just put out a chapter every time she was done writing it, it wouldn't be nearly the grade of writing the readers get.

Papyrus: *lightly huffs* Well, if she's not ready to come back yet, why did she post this chapter? That seems super mean of her to leave her readers hanging for that long!

Sans: It would be meaner if she didn't. *opens other eye socket, motioning to the audience* She's already been gone for a month, making them wait three more weeks for the first chapter seemed unfair to her.

Papyrus: *looks away* I guess that's true. *Snaps back at Sans* So when are we really coming back?

Sans: *lightly smiles* Expect the next chapter update on March 6th, she and us will be coming back for good then.

Papyrus: I'm still confused on one more thing, Sans.

Sans: What's that?

Papyrus: *scratches skull* If the writer isn't ready to come back yet, why did she post this chapter early?

Sans: Well Paps, it's Valentines' day for the humans.

Papyrus: Valentines' day? *confused*

Sans: Yeah; it's a day celebrating love.

Papyrus: Really? *a smile grows* Wowie, that sounds so wonderful!

Sans: This is the writer's way of spreading her love to the readers. *smiles to the audience* Sorry for the cop-out, but we promise we won't be gone for much longer. Until then, Happy Valentine's day.

Papyrus: *waves at the audience* Yes, Happy Valentine's day, humans! We both hope you have a lovely day with all your friends and loved ones! *he then picks up Sans, snuggling his skull next to his as both boys giggle*

Gaster: *off-screen* Sans, Papyrus. It's time to go.

Both: Coming, Uncle Gaster! *Papyrus runs off with Sans in his arms*

Happy Valentine's day, everyone! And also a special shout-out to bedsafely and the askbabybones blogs on tumblr! Their love for the baby bones inspired me to take this route in Accepting Darkness, so a small homage to both with Sans' yellow boots.

As for the results to the voting, this was a close! While I will abide by what I said and do the path that won, I am kind of curious about something. Would you guys want me to go both routes? It would be in the same story, they would come one after another. But what order I won't say. ; ) Just throwing it out there. Let me know if this interests you! If not, then i'll probably take the route that didn't win and put it a side story since both endings I love too much to not use.