Snow was falling over the sleepy town, slowly growing stronger and piling up on the ground, ever thicker, as they crossed over the path bridging Waterfall and Snowdin, and the all too familiar shift from calming cool to icy cold made itself known again. They'd passed through this area so many times before that it'd not only grown commonplace for them, but it was even something they looked forward to; the shift in the atmosphere always reminded them of what was to come when it turned warmer, and welcomed them back with that refreshingly icy chill.
But this time was a bit different. That blast of cold and the freezing little snowflakes falling onto them were unable to penetrate the glowing warmth the two of them felt in their SOULs as they treaded through the white blanket accumulating on the ground back to their home, hand in hand.
"IT'S A GOOD THING WE GOT BACK WHEN WE DID," Papyrus remarked, lifting his boots up over the snow to keep them from getting their feet stuck in it. "BY THE LOOKS OF THOSE CLOUDS, I'M EXPECTING A HEAVY SNOWFALL!"
"Yeah...Does look pretty dark up there. Hey, but that's another excuse to stay in and spend some time together, huh?"
"OH, YES, THAT SOUNDS WONDERFUL. REMEMBER, THOUGH, WE CAN'T MAKE IT TOO OBVIOUS AROUND SANS."
She chuckled a bit.
"And I thought I'd be the one reminding you about this."
"I AM A MASTER AT SUBVERTING PEOPLE'S EXPECTATIONS! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"
"How long were we out, anyway?"
"LET'S SEE..."
He checked the time on his phone.
"QUARTER TO SIX. A BIT LATER THAN I HOPED, BUT I DOUBT IT'S GOING TO AFFECT MUCH."
"What say you and I hit the kitchen again? You can show me how you make that alfredo dish you made for Gyftmas, how's that sound?"
"SORRY, UNDYNE. A MASTER CHEF NEVER REVEALS HIS SECRET RECIPE!"
"Regular spaghetti, then?"
"CERTAINLY! IT IS OUR SIGNATURE DISH, AFTER ALL. I SAY WE EXPERIMENT A BIT WITH THE SPICES, THOUGH! MIX THINGS UP!"
"Oh, I like the way you think..."
They approached the front door, reluctantly letting go of each other's hands and stepping into the house. Sans was there, lounging on the chair at the table his pet rock sat on.
"how'd everything go over there?"
They exchanged quick glances and a pair of smirks.
"It was pretty good."
"IT WENT QUITE SMOOTHLY, BROTHER! SHAME YOU COULDN'T HAVE BEEN THERE...MAYBE YOU SHOULD COME WITH US ONE OF THESE DAYS!"
"sweet...say, i got a notification; the weather squad's buildin' up a big one overhead. we're gonna be snowed in for the rest of the night startin here in a few minutes, so, uh, i don't think it's a good idea for you to show up at grillby's today, undyne."
"Noted."
"i was thinkin' we hunker down and chill. who's up for a movie?"
"OH, I AM, FOR SURE!" Papyrus blurted. "OH...BUT AREN'T ALL OF THE DVDS WE OWN METTATON'S MOVIES? I DON'T THINK UNDYNE WOULD APPRECIATE IT."
"Uh...Well...You know something, I honestly don't think I've ever seen any of his actually big movies. I'll give it a chance, whadaya say?"
"REALLY? THAT'S A FIRST."
"Yeah, well..." she shrugged. "...Whatever makes ya happy, you know? Besides, who knows? I might end up enjoying it."
"OKIE DOKIE! I'LL SET UP THE DVD PLAYER!"
"We have any popcorn here?"
"check the bone cabinet beneath the sink. it's the one thing in there that dog doesn't tear into. otherwise, it'd be PUPcorn."
"AGH...WHY MUST YOU DO THIS TO ME, SANS?" Papyrus lamented as he stuck one of the movies into the DVD player.
"sorry...do my jokes make you feel like a sheep dog stuck in a cantaloupe?"
"A SHEEP DOG STUCK IN A...? SANS, WHAT DOES THAT-"
"melon-collie."
"OH. MY. GOD."
Sans wheezed and doubled over where he was sitting, finding his brother's blatant disdain at the joke an absolute rip.
"Really, Sans?" Undyne sneered, emerging from the kitchen with a bowl of still-steaming popcorn. "I could make a dog pun a thousand times better than that."
"oh, you think so, do you?" the shorter skeleton challenged, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah...I Shih Tzu not."
Both of the brothers turned to stare at the fish woman with wide eye sockets, seeing that she had the stupidest-looking grin on her face. Silence reigned as her smile only got bigger, threatening to burst out laughing at her own pun at any moment.
But Sans and Papyrus beat her to it.
"ho-lee crap..."
"THAT WAS CRAZY...!"
They could barely be understood through the wheezing laughter that now rang out across the house, now coming from all three of them.
"Yeah...You weren't expecting THAT, were ya!?"
"no. no i wasn't...ah...ah, jeez..."
"YOU REALLY HAD US HOWLING WITH LAUGHTER!"
"Pun intended?"
"OH MY GOD I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"
"i swear, the punfluenza is contagious as all getouts..."
"DON'T FOGET YOU'RE THE ONW WHO STARTED THE OUTBREAK, SANS...THE GOOD NEWS IS I BELIEVE THE BRAND OF HUMOR IS STARTING TO GROW ON ME."
"well...can't complain about that...the movie set up the way it should be?"
"OH, YES, THAT'S RIGHT. THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME, BROTHER. READY, UNDYNE? I FOUND ONE THAT YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN!"
"Be right there."
She headed over to the couch where everyone was seated. Papyrus was in the middle, with the two people he loved the most on either side of him. Undyne read the title of the film displayed on the main menu screen.
"'The Mettaton Medieval-War-Romance Adventure Drama,' huh? Well...At least it sounds awesome. Let's see if it does the title any justice, eh?"
"WE'RE ABOUT TO FIND OUT! HERE IT GOES!"
"Alright..."
It turned out, to Undyne's surprise, that the movie did indeed live up to the great expectations the title gave it to fulfill. Sure, it was pretty obvious that almost every single character(with only one exception) was played by the late great Mettaton himself, but that aside, the plot was actually something to applaud; a gallant, knightly prince that vowed to protect his kingdom from their neighboring rival country ended up falling for the princess of said rival country mere days before the two enemies went to war with one another. The opposing kings of each nation vowed to kill the others heir, meaning the prince and the princess that'd fallen in love with one another. As the two nations warred, the two tried to escape into the wilderness to avoid the grim fate the opposite kingdoms vowed to inflict upon them...But before they could put their plan into action, seemingly out of nowhere(until Undyne realized that it'd hinting at it to happen,) a fearsome dragon ravaged the two kingdoms, destroying everything in its path. The prince and princess armed themselves for the battlefield and gathered their own armies to fight against the beast, not revealing to the two assemblies that they were from their rival nations, and the hundred soldiers banded together, lead by the two heirs, to defeat the dragon and chase it back into the mountains it'd descended from. In time, the rest of the two nations noticed the trouble, and the kings rushed in with the rest of their armies to aid the already allied force in the fight. It was tense, bloody and action-packed, and Undyne found herself well-entertained.
Guess I should've given the guy a chance earlier, she mused. This is pretty frickin' cool!
How Mettaton had gotten it to look like there was a hundred clones of himself taking down a draconic actor made to look far bigger than it actually was a mystery to all of them, but they figured he had hired people with editing skills beyond their imaginations to accomplish it, and accomplish it they did.
Anyways, in the end, despite their ultimate victory, the prince ended up badly wounded by the rampaging dragon, and it seemed as though he was going to "fall down," so to speak. But at the last minute, the princess rushed in to tend to his wounds, and ended up saving his life. It was then and there that the two warring kingdoms decided to finally end their long-lasted rivalry, and the two heirs to the throne hooked up and blah blah blah, all that cheesy romance in the end. But cheesy or not, the fish monster found herself barely refraining from screaming "Just KISS the guy already!" on several occasions, and was actually a little disappointed by the sight of the credits rolling.
"Aw, man. It's over already?"
"YEP! THAT'S THE END! YOUR THOUGHTS? YOU SEEMED PRETTY PLEASED BY IT!"
"Dang...That actually wasn't half bad, you know? Sans, how 'bout you?"
"it was a royal pain to have to watch."
"SANS!"
"Heh heh...I get it. Cuz' they're all kings and princesses and stuff."
"yeah, you got it. guess it's a good thing paps is startin' to like-"
Before he could finish, the lights snapped off, and the entire house was plunged into darkness.
"...uh-oh."
"WHAT JUST HAPPENED!?"
"hang on..."
Sans got up turned the flashlight on his phone on and headed over to the window to take a peek out of it. The only thing he could see was white; white being blown around by he wind, white beyond the house obscuring the trees and white up against the wall of the house, reaching a good halfway up the window he was looking out of.
"holy moly. looks like they really concocted a storm out there. dunno why they take it this far."
"How bad is it?"
The fish monster and the taller skeleton headed over to see for themselves.
"Hot damn. That's a blizzard, if I ever saw one."
"H-HOW LONG DO YOU THINK THE POWER'S GOING TO BE OUT?"
"no tellin'. could extend into tomorrow...that means no heat blowin' through the vents for the rest of the night."
"Well ain't THAT just peachy?" Undyne complained. She was NOT looking forward to the house turning into an icebox. "I guess we won't be making any spaghetti until-"
A blast of wind collided with the outside of the house, and they could feel it sway a little. The good news was that it had more than enough strength to remain in one piece during the storm, as it'd been build to withstand such harsh conditions in the first place. So no matter how strong the winds were, the two-story house might rock a bit on its foundation, but it would take a lot more than this to make it collapse.
Unfortunately for Papyrus, he was unaware of this, and the sensation of the house creaking the way it was sent him into near panic.
"now, i would THINK that by sometime tomorrow morning, the power will come back on. they don't usually keep storms like these goin' into the following day, so that's good news. bad news is we probably won't be able to actually get out of the house tomorrow until some of the snow clears, which might take a little while."
"Guess it's a good thing I don't have to show up at Grillby's tomorrow."
"BROTHER, HOW STRONG ARE THE WINDS OUTSIDE?"
"sixty miles an hour at the most. it'll probably come in gusts, so it's not gonna be howlin' at that speed all night, if that's what you're afraid of. the rest of the time it might be forty to fifty...still pretty fast, though. i'd prob'ly get blown away if i were enough of a numbskull to go out and walk around in it."
"AH, HA HA, WELL, THAT'S PRETTY TERRIFYINGLY FAST, ESPECIALLY PAIRED WITH THE FACT THAT THE HOUSE IS AS BLACK AS PITCH, WHICH DOESN'T...HELP MATTERS..."
He looked around. Save for the other two monsters with him, with their faces illuminated by the lights of Sans' phone, he couldn't see anything. He couldn't see his own gloved hand in front of his face. And the sound of the howling wind and creaking house wasn't helping the matter.
But he wasn't about to humiliate himself. Not in front of his brother. And most certainly not in front of his dear Undyne.
"NYEH...Y-YOU KNOW, IF I WE DIDN'T ALREADY LIVE HERE," Papyrus mused, trying to crack a joke to lighten the mood...Mostly his own. "I-IF WE WALKED IN HERE J-JUST NOW, WITH HOW DARK AND CREAKY IT IS IN HERE, I BET WE WOULD THINK THE P-PLACE WAS HAUNTED! HEH!"
"Didja know there's an actual haunted house in Waterfall?"
"WHAT!?"
"Yeah. A ghost lives there...Used to be more than one, though. I think all his cousins became corporeal."
"OH. RIGHT. THAT PLACE. I KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN. IT'S...KIND OF SPOOKY, ISN'T IT?"
"Napstablook's a little weird...Honestly, I kinda feel bad for him, though. He makes mixtapes and songs and stuff like that and puts 'em out there for people to listen to...Shame he barely gets any traffic. I've heard his, eh...'spooktunes,' occasionally, and they're not half bad. Wonder if he'd let me play any at Grillby's?"
"WELL, W-WHY DON'T YOU GO ASK HIM NEXT TIME WE GO OVER THERE?" Papyrus suggested, a smile slowly replacing his nervous grimace. It seemed to him that he'd succeeded in lightening the mood of the situation for himself.
"I'll do that. Hey, I also wanted to stop by Gerson's place, too, 'kay?" she continued. "Pay him a visit for a little while, you know?"
"OOH, IT SOUNDS LOVELY! YOU KNOW, SOMETIMES I WONDER JUST HOW HE'S-"
Another gust of wind wracked the house, and the snow came flying up against the front wall so hard it almost sounded like pouring rain. Their conversation stopped short, and Papyrus cowered at the sound of the storm fighting to try and tear down their home.
It was too dark to see normally in the empty eye sockets of the skeleton brothers, but Undyne was able to counter it. Her slit pupil widened into an almost full circle, letting in as much light as possible, even in the seemingly lightless house. And although it was black and white, her night vision was as sharp as a tac, and she could very easily make out the terrified expression the taller skeleton had on his face.
"...You okay, Papyrus?"
"WHAT? WHO? ME? OKAY? I'M FINE! P-PERFECTLY FINE!"
"You sure?"
"ABSOLUTELY! WH-WHAT DO YOU THINK I AM? SCARED? OF A LITTLE DARKNESS? OF STORMS? OF SIXTY MILE AN HOUR WINDS RELENTLESSLY BARRAGING THE HOUSE?"
"yep, he's scared. scared to death."
"SANS, YOU'RE NOT HELPING!"
"scaredy-pants."
"SANS!"
"sca-yured."
The fish monster rolled her eye. She wasn't going to put up with this.
"Come on, Sans, be nice to your brother," Undyne scolded lightly, putting an arm around Papyrus as she spoke to try and calm him a bit. "Everyone's scared of something, and that's how it goes for him. You don't have to poke fun at him, do ya?"
"ghee, sorry, mom. just makin' a joke, is all."
"WELL, I DON'T THINK ANYONE FINDS IT FUNNY."
"i was a little entertained."
"OF COURSE YOU WERE. BECAUSE YOUR TASTE IN HUMOR HAS THE BAR SET SO LOW. NYEGH...EH...I...GUESS IF THE POWER'S OUT, WE'LL JUST GRAB SOMETHING FROM THE FRIDGE TO HAVE FOR DINNER AND THEN...TURN IN, I SUPPOSE? IT'S A BIT TOO DARK TO SEE ANYTHING ELSE WE MIGHT OTHERWISE BE DOING, AND IF WE KEEP USING OUR PHONE LIGHTS TO SEE, THEY'LL GO DEAD ON US AND WE WON'T BE ABLE TO RECHARGE THEM UNTIL TOMORROW, LIKELY."
"yeah, good point," Sans nodded, turning off the phone in his bony hand and putting it away. "i'm not really that hungry, though, so i'm gonna call it a night, m'kay?"
"YOUR QUITE CERTAIN YOU DON'T WANT ANY FOOD?"
"yep."
"EH...ALRIGHT. GOODNIGHT, SANS."
"see you two tomorrow."
He turned and went up the stairs, disappearing into his bedroom looking heavy-eyed.
"I don't know about you, but I'm starvin'. You know if there are any leftovers in the fridge we can eat for now?"
"THERE ARE, BUT...WE'D HAVE TO EAT IT COLD. THE MICROWAVE'S NOT GOING TO WORK."
"Microwave? PSH. We don't need a microwave to heat things up."
"We don't?"
"I don't think I ever told you this..." Undyne whispered, leaning a bit closer to him. If Sans heard what she was about to say, he'd probably come running down from out of his room with a fire extinguisher he pulled out of nowhere.
"...But I do happen to know a bit of fire magic."
"FIRE-"
Undyne sputtered and shushed him, and he lowered his tone into a rasp.
"FIRE MAGIC...?"
"Uh-huh. I could use it to heat stuff up...The thing is, I'm not the best at it, though, so that's why I normally just use the stove. See, whenever I try to use fire magic, it, uh...Well, it usually starts off fine, but then it sorta gets out of hand if I kick it up too many notches...And I almost always end up kicking it up WAY too many notches."
"OH. I SEE. WELL, THEN...TAKE A LOOK AT THIS AS A GOOD OPPORTUNITY TO PRACTICE! I'LL JUST KEEP AN EYE ON THINGS WHILE YOU HEAT THE LEFTOVERS UP! I DOUBT YOU'D NEED TO HEAT THINGS UP THAT MUCH FOR SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"
"Alright, then, I'll give it a shot."
"MY CONCERN IS WHETHER OR NOT YOU'LL BE ABLE TO SEE WHAT YOU'RE DOING. I MEAN, I KNOW FIRE MAGIC PRODUCES LIGHT, BUT I WOULD FEEL COMFORTABLE KNOWING WHAT WE WERE ABOUT TO PICK UP AND HEAT BEFOREHAND."
"Another thing. You know how my pupil is usually thin and slit-lookin' like a cat's?"
"NO...WHAT ABOUT IT?"
"You can't really see it that well here, but right now it's almost completely round. It gets that way to let in as much light as it possibly can. I basically have a night-vision mode."
"NIGHT VISION? REALLY? WOWIE!"
"Well, it's a good thing to have in dark places...Like parts of the Underground that aren't as well-lit, like Snowdin Forest, or some parts of Waterfall. The only downside is that I can't see any color right now. I can see everything real well, but it all looks...greyscale."
"OH. WELL...DON'T SEE IT AS A BAD THING. DOESN'T IT..."
He thought for a moment.
"...DOESN'T IT FEEL LIKE YOU'RE IN AN OLD MOVIE? THOSE REALLY OLD BLACK AND WHITE ONES?"
"Heh...Yeah, it does kinda have that feel about it, don't it? Like some suspenseful detective movie, or somethin'. Neat way to think about it...Thanks for the idea."
"ANYTHING FOR YOU, UNDYNE...SAY, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME ABOUT YOUR EYE AND FIRE MAGIC UNTIL NOW?"
"Well, it was kind of irrelevant until now. Besides, I...don't usually toot my horn about stuff like that. Just prefer to keep it to myself, you know? The only reason I'm really telling you all this now, is...well, we're not just friends anymore, so I think I can trust ya with that little bit of information."
"AH, I SEE...AND OF COURSE YOU CAN TRUST ME WITH THAT INFORMATION. WHAT DO YOU THINK I'M GOING TO DO?" he joked. "RUN OVER TO NEW HOME AND SCREAM OUT THAT YOU HAVE OLD-MOVIE NIGHT VISION FROM ATOP THE QUEEN'S CASTLE?"
"Well, I freaking HOPE not," Undyne snickered as they headed into the kitchen. Undyne pulled out one of several containers labelled "spaghetti" from the fridge, opened the lid and stuck it onto a couple of plates from the cabinet, making doubly sure she took out enough for both of them.
"Heh...Yeah, the blossom's really startin' to bloom. That's part of why I wanted to head over to Gerson's shop tomorrow; to tell him what's been goin' on. I wanted to try today, but we ended up stuck here, so...Guess it'll have to wait."
"THAT BRINGS UP A QUESTION I HAD, UNDYNE."
"What's that?"
"ERM...DO YOU, UH...LIKE FLOWERS?"
"Why, were you gonna get me some?" she predicted, elbowing him a little before she started up. As she concentrated the magic energy into her hands, the telltale orange glow of a flame appeared there, and slowly, but surely, it increased in strength, hovering just inches over the spaghetti platter.
"UM, WELL, I MEAN...I WAS JUST CURIOUS, IS ALL. I KNOW YOU SAID YOU DON'T LIKE ECHO FLOWERS ONCE, SINCE THEY CREEPED YOU OUT."
Papyrus found himself mesmerized by the sight of the bright flames doing their job. They crackled with a flicker of gold every few seconds.
"That's true...I guess I like Golden Flowers well enough."
"I SEE..." he answered, staring in awe at the flickering fire. "WOWIE...THAT LOOKS AMAZING!"
"What, the fire magic? Oh, yeah. It does look pretty cool, don't it?"
"I COULD STARE AT IT FOREVER..."
"Same...But I gotta stop it now. The flames are gettin' kinda big, and I don't want it to-"
The flaming ball sputtered and sent a few sparks flying. Very fortunately for them, they decided to dissipate before landing on the carpet and spreading.
"-have it go nuts...!" Undyne finished.
All she had to do was shut her eyes and stop concentrating on what she was doing, and the flames shrank back down a bit before spreading into thin air and dissipating.
"...And I can't control the heat that well," she commented. "You know what Asgore used to be able to do? He could lower the heat of his fire magic so much, you could stick your hand right into the flames and you wouldn't be burned a bit. It was crazy...Fire magic is a staple of Boss Monsters, though. Sure, it's a basic skill for the rest of us, but those guys used it for so dang much. Not just cooking and heating, they used it in the war. And they could do some REALLY neat-looking stuff with it."
"WOW...ERM...SHOULD I LEARN IT? YOU KNOW...FOR THE CHEF JOB AT THE HOTEL I'M SUPPOSED TO BE TRYING OUT FOR IN A COUPLE WEEKS."
"Oh, jeez, you're right. Yeah, that's a good idea. I'll teach you some of the basics, but you're gonna have to get better than me if you wanna try to use it for cooking and stuff."
"SPEAKING OF WHICH, I SAY WE EAT THE SPAGHETTI BEFORE IT GETS COLD AGAIN."
"Alright. Let's dig in..."
They were both famished, so they were able to make quick work of it, and Undyne ended up going back for seconds when she found her plate empty way sooner than she'd expected it to be, and Papyrus followed suit, deciding the same thing. The extra helping ended up putting them both in a food coma, which lead to them deciding to call it a night right after they put their dishes away. The skeleton wasn't used to feeling so lethargic, so he denied the fact, trying to maintain his usual energy as the two of them plodded up the stairs.
"Tired?"
"ME? OF COURSE..."
He yawned mid-sentence.
"...OF COURSE NOT."
"That's the fourth time you've yawned since we ate."
"RUBBISH. IF YOU'RE NOT TIRED, I'M NOT."
"Paps, I'm exhausted enough to collapse on the stairs and fall asleep there."
"OH. OH, DEAR, UM, W-WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO CARRY YOU UPSTAIRS THEN? I WOULDN'T WANT YOU TO END UP TRIPPING AND FALLING DOWN THE STAIRS, EVEN IF YOU CAN WITHSTAND SOMETHING LIKE THAT."
"We're already at the top."
"OH," he realized. "...SO WE ARE."
"Don't worry 'bout me. It takes a lot more than a food coma to drag me down all the way...In fact, I'll try to lift you up right now."
"ARE YOU SURE THAT-GYACK!"
Before he could protest, she'd gathered him up in her arms, spun around and swept him clean off his feet bridal-style.
"Told ya."
"NYEH HEH...YOU KNOW, I THINK I COULD GET USED TO THIS."
The house shifted a bit on its foundation again as another hard blast of wind rammed against it from the east.
"Dang...It's really blowin' out there, huh?"
The only response she got was Papyrus shooting back up and clinging onto her.
"I-ISN'T IT, THOUGH?"
"Nervous?"
"ME? O-OF COURSE NOT," he assured. "JUST...I GUESS I'M SO TIRED I'M JITTERY."
"That can happen?"
"ERM...APPARENTLY?"
"Well, then, I guess it's about time we hit the sack," the fish monster decided, putting him down and taking him by the hand as they went into the bedroom and shut the door behind them. "Come on. Let's throw some PJs and hunker down; I imagine it's gonna get chilly in here without the heat running, so it'd be a good idea to do that now...I can pretty much hear my bed callin' my name right now."
...
The room was as dark and quiet as the rest of the house. An hour had passed since everyone had gone to sleep, and the only sounds that could be heard were that of the storm outside and Undyne snoring away, comfortably huddled beneath the warm covers and sound asleep.
Papyrus wished he could have said the same of himself; he was wide awake, and it wasn't from Undyne's loud snoring. The sound of the ominously potent winds assaulting every side of the house paired with the sensation of unsteady movement every so often was too unsettling to let him fall asleep, so he just lied there, eye sockets wide open and an unnaturally fearful grimace on his face.
COME ON, GET A HOLD OF YOURSELF, he thought, annoyed with himself. YOU'RE THE GREAT PAPYRUS! SOME SILLY LITTLE BLIZZARD SHOULDN'T BOTHER YOU!
Another gust colliding with the house and shaking it some made him take the covers and hide himself beneath them, as though he would be shielded if the house decided to collapse.
OKAY, SO MAYBE IT'S NOT SO LITTLE. BUT STILL! YOU SHOULN'T BE AFRAID OF SOMETHING SO...PETTY! FIND A WAY TO DISTRACT YOURSELF. WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO...?
He found himself getting up out of bed and pacing around the room, thinking it would help him think. Unfortunately, it was difficult to find one's bearings in a room so dark, and Papyrus found himself bumping into something every minute or so. It didn't hurt, except for when he bashed himself against the sharp corner of something, but he winced and tightly shut his eyes whenever he did, because it made a pretty loud noise, and the last thing he wanted was to wake Undyne by mistake. Nonetheless, he just wanted an excuse to stay awake and maybe tire himself out enough to fall asleep regardless of the nerve-wrackingly loud and strong weather.
After about ten minutes of this(and around ten times going "bump" in the dark,) his concerns finally came to be.
"Somethin' wrong...?"
Undyne's voice was nothing more than a weak rasp, but it seemed far louder, seeing how quiet the room was.
"OH, NO, I WAS AFRAID I WOULD WAKE YOU BY ACCIDENT. I'M SORRY, N-NEVERMIND IT, UNDYNE, IT'S...IT'S SILLY."
She turned her phone flashlight back on to light up the room a bit, allowing him to see her sitting up in her bed, her tired eye curiously glued onto him. For someone to have just been aroused from a pretty deep slumber, she seemed pretty awake. Although someone who used to be the Captain of the Royal Guard was probably required to get up on their toes as quickly as possible, so that might have had something to do with it.
"Come on, how bad could it be?" she asked him, her tone cam and understanding. "You say that I can always tell you anything, even if it seems dumb, so it's only fair for it to go the other way. What's the matter?"
He sighed. Now that she'd asked him, he couldn't keep it from her.
"IT'S JUST...THE SNOWSTORM OUTSIDE. IT'S KIND OF...STRONG, I-ISN'T IT?"
"Yeah...You don't have to worry 'bout the house, though. It's plenty strong to withstand snow and wind like this."
"AND, W-WITH THE POWER OUT, IT...WELL, IT..."
She saw the few beads of sweat beginning to form on the side of his head.
"It puts you on edge?"
"YES...S-SOMEWHAT, I SUPPOSE."
Another gust of wind rattled the house, and the walls creaked ever so slightly. But the suddenness of it would have still been enough to make Papyrus jump right out of his skin where he stood if he had any to begin with, and he let out a feeble-sounding whimper. Undyne slid out from under the covers and stood up to face him; the entire house felt like a refrigerator without the heat running, so she shivered a bit as she exposed herself to the air, but the sight of the usually proud and confident skeleton she'd come to love so much looking so helpless and afraid was more than enough to make her want to brave the cold to be there for him.
"Hey...It'll be okay. We're safe here."
She pulled him into a tender embrace, and he returned the favor tenfold, tightly holding onto her as though it would protect him from any unseen danger. His bones rattled in fear and his knees grew almost too weak to stand, but still he held on, and Undyne continued to console him, now gently stroking the back of his skull and tightening her own grip just a bit more. Slowly but surely, Papyrus' fears faded into oblivion; Undyne was the strongest monster in the entire Underground, and she could smell danger from a mile away. With her by his side, he knew he was safe. She was nice and warm, too. And soft...At least by skeleton standards. He and Sans didn't have any soft tissue on them, like strong muscles, or smooth blue scales that glimmered a bit in bright light, or fiery red hair that blew in the wind whenever she made a heroic pose as she faced an enemy.
...Now realizing all of that, it made her even more special to him than before, and he smiled at the thought.
"You doin' okay now?"
"VERY MUCH SO...I'M SO GLAD YOU'RE HERE, UNDYNE."
Another gust of wind blasted up against the house, and some of the air got through into the bedroom, and it made the fish monster shiver a bit. Papyrus noted that this was one of the apparent downgrades of having no skin, or the like; it was FAR more difficult for him to get cold. But for someone like Undyne, it didn't take that much.
"It's kinda chilly in here..." she remarked. "I don't want to have to let go, but I think it's best if we both go back to bed, alright?"
"LET GO? NONSENSE. I'M MAKING SURE YOU STAY WARM AND SNUG."
As he said it, Papyrus brought her back to bed, fluffed her pillow some, stuck it back on the left-hand side of the mattress before she laid down onto it and then pulled the covers over her right up to her chin. And once he finished doing that, he went over to his own bed, grabbed the pillow off of it and headed back over.
"What're you up to, huh?"
"WITHOUT THE HEAT GOING, IT'S ONLY BOUND TO GET COLDER IF THE BLACKOUT CONTINUES, AND I SIMPLY CAN'T GO TO SLEEP KNOWING THAT YOU'RE SLOWLY FREEZING HALF TO DEATH ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ROOM ALL BY YOURSELF. THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS NOT ABOUT TO LET THAT HAPPEN."
The skeleton fluffed his own pillow, stuck it beside Undyne's, then lifted the covers up and got into the bed next to her, scooching closer until they met. Once they did, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her right back up to him, snuggling into her and nestling down into the blankets.
"THERE WE GO...WARM ENOUGH?"
"Aw..."
She hugged him back, and then planted another smooch right against his tender smile.
"You're the best, you know that?"
Papyrus went bright red at the gesture, his content grin growing ever bigger, and the two buried themselves even further down into the warm covers, sleepy and content.
"SO ARE YOU...YOU'LL ALWAYS BE HERE TO PROTECT ME, RIGHT?"
"Always. Nothing's ever going to happen to you. I won't let it...I promise."
"I DO LOVE YOU SO, UNDYNE...SWEET DREAMS."
"Goodnight..."
She held him just a bit closer as they both began to drift off. They were warmer and more comfortable than ever as they kept the cold at bay, for it was no match for their forces combined. The rest of the night was quiet and peaceful, and the only noise either of them could hear anymore was the sound of the other's breathing; a reminder of just how precious they were to each other, and of how wonderful it was that fate allowed them to be alive at the same time, and in the same place, and ultimately letting them find each other and be where they were now.
If it was one good thing about being stuck beneath the surface, they wouldn't have cared if they never saw the sun or felt the fresh air aboveground in their entire lives. As long as they were together, it was well worth it.
.
13:
Everything that's happened over the past twelve hours has been both very confusing
and extremely enlightening.
Flowey woke up practically crying his eyes out today, babbling about how happy he was,
how sorry he was, and how he didn't deserve to feel again. First off, as was stated in my
previous(overly ecstatic entry from earlier today,) the experiment worked; the SOUL took
on form is less than 12 hours, during the previous night while we slept. I checked it, and
it bares all of the characteristics of any normal monster SOUL; a healthy glowing white in
the shape of an upside-down heart, and strong...But its strength comes from a dark source:
a LOVE of 2, which can only mean that he's done some regrettable things, so to speak.
Once I got him to calm down, he told me everything about his past and where he comes
from, and I'm still trying to wrap my mind around what I didn't already know. Flowey
claims to be the dead prince, reincarnated as a souless flower through DETERMINATION...
I know how that part happened first hand, but what I didn't know was how it was HIM
who was brought back to life. And that was when he explained that he brought back one
of the Golden Flowers from the village on the surface before scattering overtop it when
he finally made it back home...And now he IS that flower. Does it have something to do
with his essence on the flower, or is it DNA-related? Maybe both? I don't know; it doesn't
matter. I didn't believe who he said he was at first, but once he explained all of that, and
THEN proceeded to shift the shape of his face into an EXACT LIKENESS of him, that was
when I realized he was telling the truth.
...Prince Asriel. Toriel and Asgore's son...I brought him back.
He keeps saying that he's finally able to feel again, and how he's able to love...I thought
it was all just going to be happy news the rest of the day...And then he told me what his
DETERMINATION made him do.
He talked about some things called Saving and Resetting. He explained that he could
basically use his powers, gained through his DETERMINATION, to travel back in time to
different points, as early as when he first woke up as a flower. He says that at first he
tried to help everyone...but when it proved meaningless to him, he started to try things
no monster with a SOUL would ever try. He killed almost everyone...Including me, so he
says. And multiple times, and in some of the most brutal ways imaginable. He said that
without any SOUL, Flowey wasn't able to care. He even got some sick enjoyment out of
the things he did. And he says he was able to do it until the seventh human fell through,
since her DETERMINATION was even stronger than his own.
And what was worse...He confessed as to where his 2 LOVE came from.
He said he saw what happened. The human beat Asgore in battle, but refused to kill him
when he was on his last legs...So Flowey was the one to land the final blow on the king.
And then he stole the six SOULs, using them to regain his powers and fight the human in
the form of a horrible beast...Flowey was responsible for a lot of misery down here now.
...But Asriel isn't.
He's complete with a SOUL. Even if his body is different than before, he's whole again on
the inside. Flowey was just an empty husk. If it could've happened to someone as poor and
innocent as a child, it could have happened to anyone. It would have, if it'd been anybody
else. It could have even happened to me...It SHOULD have happened to me, really, if it
could have been anyone else.
Neither of us really know whether to laugh or cry about all of this...But now that we finally
have a reason to look up, we might as well try to use what we've learned. One thing I know
for sure about all of this is that it proves, contrary to previous records, that monster SOULs
CAN, in fact, be recreated with the aid of that of a human SOUL, as long as the dust of the
deceased host is scattered over a vessel, such as a plant, and reawoken through the aid of
just a bit of DETERMINATION.
Any monster could probably be brought back this way. In fact, if I could bring back Asriel by
these means, then...I could probably also bring back...
...
His father.
I have another idea. The Underground may be moving on alright with the queen, but they
deserve to have their king back. I'll talk it over with Asriel and see if he's on board with it.
That's all for now.
A/N: Undyne says something about cooking with fire magic during the 'date' with her, so I'm assuming that she CAN IN FACT USE IT and it's not just a Boss Monster thing. But I'm willing to bet that not a lot of other monsters(except maybe Grillby, Pyrope & other fire-elemental monsters and whatnot) have it mastered to the extent of the Dreemurrs. It's essentially a basic skill, I guess.
You know, if there weren't an obscure side plot going on in the Ruins to eventually merge with the main plot, I don't think this would be half bad a place to end the story...Then again, Sans still doesn't know, and I'd rather not throw that out the window. A lot is still on the way, so don't worry about it ending anytime soon! It's only bound to get juicier from here on out...
...What?
What's with the lenny face?
HOLY CRAP, I DIDN'T MEAN THAT KIND OF JUICY! THEY'VE ONLY BEEN DATING FOR, LIKE, SIX HOURS, JEEZ!