A/N: Almost late but not quite!... Okay its late but its still next week so it counts ^^'...

CHAPTER EIGHT

A TOUGH GLOVE FOR A TOUGH NATION

[*(How close you came to freezing to death still fills you with FEAR.)]

[*(HP fully restored)]

Romano sighs, saving and taking in his encounter.

He trots over to a nearby box, looking at the sign next to it.

[*(This is a box.)]

(No shit.)

[*(You can put an item inside or take an item out.)]

(Congrats motherfucker you know how boxes work, great.)

[*(The same box will appear later so don't worry about coming back!)]

[*(Sincerely, a box lover.)]

(Uh-huh, okay-)

"APPEAR LATER?..." Romano yelps, scratching his head for a moment as he reeled once again. "… You know what, fuck it, I gotta stop questioning this magic monster shit…"

He sighs, opening up the box to see what's inside. He pauses, picking up a Tough Glove. A single leather glove that looked faded and… And… Suddenly he felt unsettled. Like…

His hand goes to the ribbon around his neck. He didn't know how but he had the sensation again that this had belonged to… Someone. Some human from the past.

Taking off a mitten and trying the glove on it fits him well.

(Huh… If only I had its mate. Maybe I'll find it later.)

Romano decides to try heading north first, quickly hitting a lake with a fishing rod simply left on the bank. He tugs but realizes that someone had sturdily affixed it to the ground.

(… Maybe I can get a fish at least?) He considers whether or not he's stealing now as he reels in the rod, blinking as he realizes he's not pulling in a fish but a note. A picture is attached of some strange monster.

[*(Call me! Heres my number!)]

Romano wrinkles his nose, groaning with disgust as he stalks away.

He passes the box, pausing as he catches sight of Matt and Al talking in the distance.

Romano let out a long, exaggerated sigh.

(Goddammit… I better get this over with.)

After a moment to brace himself he stalks over to the brothers.

"So as I was saying about Julchen-"

Al stops, mouth dropping open as he spots Romano, seeming completely at a loss for words.

Matt raises his eyebrows, watching Al's reaction.

Al looks at Matt speechlessly, Matt looks at Romano with faux amazement, then looks at Al who looks at Matt who looks at Romano only to look BACK at Al while he starts FLAILING as Al looks back at Romano, the brothers turning back and forth and back and forth between each other and Romano so many times that the Italians head starts to spin from effort of keeping up with the twos manic pace.

Finally, Al can't seem to contain himself anymore, exploding with excitement as he grabs his brother, seeming to be trying to have a secret conference only to ruin it by yelling at the top of his lungs.

"MATT. OH MY GOD. IS THAT… A HUMAN!?"

They turn back around to face Romano, Matt taking a moment, squinting in the human's direction for a few seconds of close studying before replying.

"Eh, actually…. I think it's a rock." He states nonchalantly. Romano glances behind himself, seeing there is indeed a large rock slightly off to the side of him. He facepalms at the stupid joke, sighing loudly to himself.

"Oh…" Al sounds deflated for a moment. Romano runs his hand through his hair and straightens as he raises a quizzical eyebrow at the skeleton, taking a better look at Matt's brother. While Matt himself was dressed casually to the point it was easy to forget he was even there, Al was dressed in what looked like a cheap superhero outfit. His jacket looked like a Hot Topic hoodie version of some Marvel hero he'd seen in a movie trailer, a big red blanket was tied around his neck, and his dark jeans and combat boots had clearly been scruffed up on purpose to give him a tougher look. Most of this was rather ruined by the giant goofy grin on his face, unruly cowlick in the front of his hair, and tamely squared off glasses…

"Wait a minute…" Romano mutters as he narrows his eyes…

"Hey," Matt nudges his brother, nodding in Romano's direction, "what's that in front of the rock?"

"OH MY GOD IS THAT A HUMAN?!"

(Jesus Christ not only does this kid look like America, he's as brain dead as America too.)

"Yeah." Matt confirms Al's suspicions, smiling to himself in amusement at his brother's antics.

"OH MY GOD! MATT I FINALLY DID IT! JULCHEN WILL… I'M GUNNA… I'LL BE S-SO… POPULAR POPULAR POPULAR!" Al jumps up and down in place with excitement as he shouts.

Finally, Al tries to contain himself, stopping and clearing his throat before pointing a decisive finger at Romano.

"HUMAN! YOU SHALL NOT PASS…. THIS AREA!" Al tries to take on a serious face, pouting at Romano and talking in a fake deep voice as though it would make his enemy take him more seriously. "AS THE HERO OF THE UNDERGROUND ITS MY DUTY TO STOP YOU! I WILL THEREFORE CAPTURE YOU! THEN YOU WILL BE TAKEN TO THE CAPITAL!... THEN!... Th-then….." His finger falls as he thinks for a moment… "Uuuh… I don't really know what's next…" He murmurs in his normal tone of voice. "IN ANY CASE," Al returns to shouting, "ONLY CONTINUE IF YOU DARE! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Al takes off, running ahead without even pausing to see if Romano had anything to say about his grand monologue.

Romano rolls his eyes. Mostly he was just glad the moment was done with as he sighs. Matt laughs, almost startling Romano as he'd nearly forgotten about the other skeleton's presence.

"Well, that went well."

"He didn't even try to catch me after all that." Romano comments dryly, feeling himself start to snigger as well.

"Yeah. Like I said, he's really harmless. I gotta go catch up with him but, I'll be keeping an eye socket out for ya."

"Yeah thanks- wait what?" But Matt doesn't answer, already jogging off the way Al had gone.

Romano sighs, jogging back to save before he moves on.

As he turns around Romano feels the atmosphere turn tense. As the fight initiates he looks for the threat, finding himself looking into the air above him at a blue serpentine creature. The snowy reptile seemed to be riding the cold winds and Romano would have called it a dragon except it seemed to lack any wings.

[*Snowdrake flutters forth!]

(Another fucking monster! Is this the sort of shit wandering the forest?!)

Romano trembles, before taking in a breath. (Maybe I can talk it down like I did the others…)

He chooses to CHECK the snowdrake. (Lets see what we're dealing with here…)

[*SNOWDRAKE 6 ATK 2 DEF]

[*This teen comedian fights to keep a captive audience.]

(Teen comedian?...)

"Better not snow-flake out!" The kids voice cracks as the monster teen sweeps down, landing in front of him and grinning at him expectantly with sharp teeth.

(Dear god this is worse than if the little shit just killed me on the spot. Now I fucking have to act like he's actually funny.)

In spite of his instinct to HECKLE the kid he begrudgingly fakes a LAUGH, getting an excited response from the young monster.

"See? Laughs! Dad was wrong about me!"

Romano feels a twinge of pity at the pathetic statement.

(Even monsters have family problems then… huh.)

The teens attacks were easy to avoid, Romano managing not to take any damage to his SOUL. The monster seemed pleased with its own pun as Romano checks to confirm he can SPARE it.

He does so immediately, running a hand through his hair.

"That's… Great kid. Good luck with that." Romano grumbles, ready to be done with things and leave.

"Hey you're a human, aren't you? Like in a book!"

(Fuck dammit. Kids not gonna let me leave that easy, is he?)

"That's sooo cool!" The teen cheers squeakily. It was almost weird how much the developing voice didn't match up to the monster's body.

"Uh huh… Look kid-"

"I'm not a kid! My names Koda!... Or you could always call me Cool-da hahaha!"

"… Koda. I have things I gotta go do, okay?" Romano sighs, his patience wearing thin.

"Like what?"

"… Places to be. Ain't your business, anyways."

"Oooooooo! You're really tough aren't you?"

Romano pauses, huffing and smiling to himself.

"It shows, huh?" Romano crosses his arms in front of himself, a smirk fixing itself on his face.

"It totally does! I can see it now! The real power and mystery of humans!"

"Heh… I guess you're not too bad yourself, Koda. Gave me a real scare when you came out of the trees."

"And a real laugh too!"

"… Sure." Romano hisses the word out between clenched teeth but Koda doesn't seem to take notice.

"Are you going to town?"

"… I don't know. I hadn't decided yet."

"Well you'll probably wanna stay at the Inn at least. You'll freeze if you sleep in the snow."

"… I'll see how the town treats me and then decide."

"Don't worry about that! Everyone's nice! I'll show you I bet we'll meet some of my friends along the way!"

Romano groans, glancing to the sky to look for any help to get this kid away from him. Unfortunately, he found none, looking back down into a pleading expression, the eyes and snout of the drake twisting like a dog that was begging to be let inside.

"Pleaaaassse!"

"Uggggghhhh… You can come as long as you don't slow me down."

"YAAAAYYYY!" Koda takes off into the air joyously, sending snow flying Romano's way as he screeches and throws up his hands to protect his face from the onslaught. The snowdrake weaves its way through the trees around him gracefully watching him out of the corner of its eyes.

"So, what's your name?"

"… Romano." Said Italian sighs as he sets off through the snow, starting back on his determined trudge towards town and coming to terms with the fact he wasn't going to be walking there alone.

A/N: I really start doing my own thing from here on out. God writing the sass is so fun XD

Also already apparent but Romano's not making this trek alone hehe :3

On a good note: I'm done with Snowdin Forest! Completely! Yaaaayyyy! Snowdin Town is next. Guess we'll see where that goes! Hehe :3

Been super depressed but I'm still trekking on with what I'm doing. Gunna say it now: I'm commited to posting thro the forest!

Dunno where my lifes going rn but chin up, everyone! I'm sure we'll all work it out soon ^w^