"Heyyy Former-Kingly-Dad!" A happy cheer echoed down the walls of the Card Castle prison. Lancer, the young king who refused to wear a crown was practically running down into the dungeon, a small box in one of his hands. Behind him followed Ralsei, who looked somewhat uncomfortable, yet optimistic about seeing the King. And trailing a bit farther behind the two, was the court Jester, Jevil. He was glaring around at the cells with great discomfort.

Though Jevil still considered everything to be a game, a facade with someone puppeting everyone around in a cage, he still was extremely uncomfortable around cells. It was cold, down in the prison, much like he had been for his years in that dark, dark spinning cell. He was free, there, outside of the bounds of the Puppeteer, playing with those around him like they had strings attached to them. So to return to the cold of the Card Castle dungeon put him on edge, on guard.

The former Spade-King, who was currently slumped in his cell playing some sort of card game all on his own, had clearly ripped up the jack of spades card and thrown it on the ground, looked up to his son. His once slightly disgruntled expression turned to that of pure rage, "You…"

"Me! So, anyway dad, I was thinking-" Before Lancer could even get out his current thought, he was interrupted.

"Get out of my sight you runt!" He stood with a huff, anger flaring past his hood in his eyes. Though slightly dishearted, the young former-prince-but-now-king brought up some speck of courage that sparked into existence from seemingly nothing. "So, Dad. As I was sayiiing… I thought it'd be fun and nice to celebrate Christmas with yo-" A white light flashed by his cheek, cutting through apart of his hood and leaving reddish blood flowing out of the wound. It was only a small cut, but Jevil, who had mostly been out of sight, leaped forward. The Jester leaped just in front of the cell bars, landing on his tail as beautiful sparks of diamonds, spades, clubs, and hearts appeared drawn and aimed. He wore a fearless grin on his face, but he was slightly scared of the king from the old days. The old days of when he was first locked away.

Ralsei, who had been quietly watching from afar hurried forward, "Lancer, are you-?"

"I'm fine." He stated firmly, awkwardly walking up next to Jevil and grabbing his hand, smiling up at him. He looked down, seemingly contemplating something for a moment before backing off slightly, only slightly. "Dad." The young king turned his attention back to his father. He stared for a few seconds, clearly having no idea what he was going to say, before he smiled. "I- I know that you're all down and stuff, but let's just try to spend Christmas together. Like a family!" He exclaimed. "Like when you, me, and Mom used t-"

His confidence shattered as the King punched the wall, causing him to be interrupted. "You. You know nothing about your mother-" Anger still burned angrily past that hood, "Go." He hissed, "Or I'll kill you!"

Lancer flinched before he realized something. His father was all bark and little bite. Especially in his current state, he couldn't do much real carnage, could he? He looked back to Ralsei, whose fearlessness hadn't yet faltered. Jevil, however, backed off immediately. He looked horrified, he was horrified of the old King. The young King, however, felt he didn't have a reason to fear anymore. Besides, he couldn't be scared- bad guys weren't scared of anything except for even scarier bad guys. But his father wasn't a bad guy!

...right?

"I know you won't- you didn't kill me back when it mattered most, and-"

A light flashed above his head for mere moments, a light sting coming from where it had flown by. The King had sent another spade at the prince, aiming for the top of the head. It purposefully tore open Lancer's hood and forced it off of his head. Almost immediately he grabbed the two parts of his hood and tried to press them back onto his head. He clearly didn't want anyone to see him with his hood off, so he held it there.

"You are no longer a spade- you're a suitless, cowardly, worthless little thing!" The King spat on the ground in front of him. "Next time- I won't miss." A crooked grin found it's way on the former king's face. He would enjoy doing it- and he made it clear.

Despite this insult, he simply frowned, "So, no fun family times for us today?"

That horrendous grin turned into a frown, as he simply replied a cold "No." Lancer stole a quick glance back to his two other friends before he looked at his father. "Alrighty..! Uh… See you tomorrow then!"

"Tomorrow?" Everyone asked, a little shell-shocked.

He turned, walking back towards the elevator as he declared with a grin, "Correct-a-Mundo, Tomorrow!"

Susie, Kris, and Asriel laughed as they all talked, about everything. About life, school, complaining about annoying people or classmates with a smile on their faces. The holiday cheer sang in the air, jokes were made, and love was shared. Even if Susie wasn't apart of a functional happy family, today, she could feel like she was. And she did. The welcoming arms of the Dreemurs were something she didn't want to forget, and that she refused to.

"Hey- wake up." Someone was shaking Susie's shoulder. Rather groggily, she blinked open an eye. Staring down at her was Kris, who looked fairly excited loomed above her. And past him, the ceiling of their Living room. Toriel had insisted she stayed the night, and well, she didn't exactly want to trudge home at night through the snow. So she slept on their couch, where she got a good view of the Christmas tree.

December 25, 20XX. He moved away from her, as she slowly sat up and yawned. Only her and Kris were in the living room so far, though a very loud and somewhat angry goat mother was yelling at her son on the second floor about him needing to stop joking around and get up. Though it was good-humored, clearly.

Susie awkwardly scooted her legs closer towards herself, wrapping her arms around them as Kris sat down next to her. He wore a red Santa Claus hat and a happy grin. She smiled at him, "Merry Kris-mas."

He groaned, "I've heard that joke so many times."

"That means it's a good one!" It wasn't, really. But she thought it was funny, and so did a few of her classmates. What followed after their laughter was a somewhat awkward silence, as Kris turned away and grabbed something out of his pocket. "Here, it isn't much, but Merry 'Kris'mas." She quirked a brow, as he handed her a tiny box wrapped in a sparkly bright green wrapping paper. She felt a little bad that she didn't have anything to really show, but she was so happy to get a gift from someone. She was honestly a little surprised as she somewhat carefully ripped the wrapping paper with her claw. The first thing she saw was an eight-pack of somewhat large chalk, the chalks clinking together from the inside of the box. And under it was another. She set the chalk aside and found… A fresh box of playing cards. The thin plastic that manufacturers often put around them was torn open, with something shoved inside and an attempt at hiding it. A grin appeared on her face as she moved it out of the wrapping paper, tore open the thin plastic, and opened the box. She slowly pulled out a note that had been shoved in between all of the cards and read it. 'Merry Christmas- Sorry we couldn't go to the DarkWorld.' And under it, was a crude drawing of all four of the Fun Gang, Her own proportions as well as Lancer's where extremely off, he looked much smaller and she looked much larger than she would actually be compared to the other two. But she laughed, grabbing the box of chalk and stacking the cards on top, setting them on the couch's arm, before wrapping an arm around Kris in a half-hug. "Thanks, Kris."

He laughed, "Merry Christmas- and please, don't break my neck."

"Oh- sorry." She awkwardly let go, before the two quietly began snickering between each other. Though a pack of playing cards didn't seem like much, Susie knew it was the best present that she could ever receive, and she loved it.

By the end of the afternoon, wrapping paper was everywhere. Susie had tried to help by cleaning it up and Kris and Asriel opened things, it was mostly in vain. Asriel got a new phone case, a few games, and a punny snail T-shirt. Kris got about twenty dollars, a set of headphones and a few games, too. It was clear that the two brothers loved video games, though she had no clue how Asriel would have the time for games and college. Though Susie was a little jealous of how lucky they were, she didn't mind. She hadn't gotten a Christmas gift in years, and just the little box of chalk - which she had already eaten through half of - and the pack of playing cards was so much to her. Plus, the Dreemurs made her feel like she belonged there like she was family. And not being alone was the greatest gift she could've asked for since unlike every other year, she belonged somewhere.

She couldn't help but reminisce on the fun morning she had as she walked home. The snow had let up for the day, and the cold air seemed a little more warm than usual. No one drove or walked in the streets, QC's was closed for the day. Just past the window, she could see QC having hot cocoa with her sister and her kids.

As she approached the apartments, holiday cheer became somewhat less obvious. There was one person outside of her apartment building, Monster kid. He was running around, kicking a ball around in the snow. She smirked, he looked fairly happy. As she walked up to the building, he called to her. "Hey, Susie!" She glanced over.

The two had made up over the months, but they didn't exactly become friends. She was still known for being scary, but not 'I'll eat your face off and throw you into the lockers' scary. "Hey. Merry Christmas."

"Merry Christmas!" He declared loudly, moving to kick the ball again before stopping. "Yo, dude. Do you know why Officer Undyne is on the 5th floor? She told me she's 'investigating criminal activity' and getting ready to kick ass!" He smiled, everyone knew that Monster Kid found Undyne so. Cool. And she was somewhat cool, somewhat.

Though, this news wasn't exactly the best for Susie. She knew that her family got into some… not so legal business and she just hoped that she wouldn't have to get dragged into anything. Plus, she lived on the fifth floor. "No clue. Well, see you at school." She put up a hand to wave and walked inside of the building. "See ya!" He shouted from behind, before going back to kicking his ball.

After Treking up five sets of stairs, she saw two police officers, in front of her door. Apt. 521. The door looked like it had been broken open, and out of it seeped the smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke. With the smell came regret, why did she have to leave the Dreemur house? She slowly approached one of the officers, a large dog who stood idly. "Hey, do you uh- know what happened here?" She put her hands in her pockets, without thinking her fingers wrapped themselves around the deck of cards. The dog slowly, slowly looked over. He had a tiny face with his tongue out, two beady eyes glaring at her. His face shadowed angrily as he said… "Bork!"

Silence. She tried not to laugh, as another dog poked around the side of the other. They wore a bandana over their eyes and looked fairly old. They also had a cane and weren't exactly in a police uniform. "Who's there?" They asked.

"Uh… Me- I'm just wondering what's happened here."

The dog paused, before frowning and walking over to her. He took a dog treat out of his pocket as he walked, sticking it in his mouth like a cigarette. "Somebody broke into this little apartment." He pointed, "But it wasn't a robbery since everything's intact."

Broke in? Who would want to break into their little apartment and not steal anything? Not like they had anything, anyway. "Weird."

The dog rather helpfully continued. "They say they got the guy who did it- but I haven't seen him." He laughed at his own joke, as Susie awkwardly tried to laugh with him. But something about this felt wrong. Terribly wrong. She knew her father had enemies and all of that, but who would go into their house and steal nothing? "Do you know if Officer Undyne is in there?"

They nodded, "Yeah. Checkin' the place out."

She smiled, "Thanks." And slowly she began to walk inside of the apartment, the two dogs didn't stop her as she went. Perhaps because one couldn't see her, and one didn't exactly speak English. Or was he? That was a question for another day if a dog speaking in barks was English.

The living room had looked worse, but it had also seen better days. The mostly ripped and broken couch was shoved out of the way of the television, the one rug had been overturned and tampered with. Just as she left it. The kitchen had one open cabinet, where wine and alcohol were stored. The one bottle of beer left in the cabinet looked pretty empty, someone had drank out of it. Her parent's door was left untouched, and thankfully, closed. But her door was broken down and destroyed, the sounds of someone talking coming from her room. Very awkwardly, she walked over to her room.

Her own room was nothing much. Like the rest of the house, a bit of blood was on the chipping paint of the walls, her tiny bed was hardly holding itself together, and it her one bedside table looked like it had been destroyed. Unlike how she left it before, the closet door was also thrown over, and her mostly torn clothes were thrown out. In the middle of the room. Undyne and a strange looking specter were talking, but both looked over to the doorway as she walked in.

Undyne groaned, "Didn't I tell those dogs to keep people outlook. Kid." She walked over to Susie, "There's nothing to see here, so just run on home."

" ...Nah. I'm already in my home, after all." She frowned, "What happened here?"

She was a little dumbfounded, "I've… Got a few questions to ask ya. Probably gonna take you back to the station." Oh, great. Questions from the officer- who didn't trust her. That tiny bit of regret of not staying back where there were good feelings, good people, all around her. Where she felt at home.

"Where were you last night and today?"

"At Kris' house." She had no real reason to lie, but even though Undyne had seen the two around, she looked a little suspicious.

"Where are your parents? Shouldn't they be here?"

Now, she had a reason to lie. "They went to the neighboring city for Christmas, to see my 'Uncle'. I didn't want to go, so they left me behind." At least what she said was sort of true. Yes they had gone to the neighboring city, and yes she did not want to go, but they would've left her behind either way. They never wanted to spare any extra money on her, and she… she couldn't blame them.

"Mhmm… Do you know who 'Mafiuex Woodburner' is?"

Mafiuex Woodburner. She knew exactly who he was, and she hated him. She hated him so much it made her hand curl into a fist. That man she referred to as her uncle was an illegal gun trader, a hitman, a drug dealer. Many things. Though she didn't mind Drug dealings and gun trading as much, the hitman part of him she couldn't believe. She always believed in violence to some capacity, but murder? No. Though she never wanted to admit how much she hated the act, after seeing it happen she…

"He's my Uncle. Why?"

Officer Undyne paused, before silently looking down, trying to comprehend something. "He… He was the one who broke into the apartment."

He… He broke into it? Susie was stunned. Her 'Father' and her 'Uncle' were close. Thick as thieves. So why would he break into this apartment?

"We arrested him based off of some security footage from the building. He had guns and what seemed to be a killing kit on him."

It then hit her. It hit her so hard she couldn't understand it. "I… I think my father tried to get me killed…"

When shit gets real fast. But it's about to de-escalate really quickly for those of you binge reading this. Because you'll notice that there are, and will be, a lot of time skips. The end focus is about 14 years later, and I can't write forever… well I can, but. No.