A/N:
CouchWriting: Honestly seems like Undertale without pure color descriptions...
Response: Well, yeah, it does right now, but that changes this chapter, along with some of it being in Sans' point of view! I hope you enjoy, and thanks for reading and reviewing! *not sure what you meant by "pure" color descriptions... but... eh, whatever.* Trust me, there will be some major differences, but not until much later. Here's a hint, though! It has something to do with how Frisk's soul looked different in the last chapter.
Chapter 3: Chilled to the Bone
Frisk shivered as she looked around the snowy landscape. She was... definitely not dressed for this weather.
She began walking along the path, hoping that if she kept moving she wouldn't freeze to death.
Although, she had thought about it a bit, and was sure that she had already died before, to Toriel, so it probably wouldn't matter if she died again. Still, she didn't exactly think that hypothermia would be a pleasant way to go, so she decided to avoid it as best she could.
She saw a large, gray stick in front of her and tried to pick it up, but frowned when she found it was far too heavy. She tried stomping on it out of frustration, but it didn't even bend.
She kept walking, jumping when a loud crack sounded behind her.
She turned around slowly, shaking even more from both the cold that built up in her from standing still and fear when she saw the huge branch had been cracked as if it was nothing more than a toothpick.
She began walking even faster towards a bridge, bordering on running, or at least jogging.
When she got to the bridge she found herself unable to move, a cold force gripping her soul.
Panic began building up in her, all of her instincts shouting at her to run, but being unable to.
"h-human... don'tcha know how t-to greet a new p-pal? turn around... a-and shake my hand."
She was forced to turn, and the sight that greeted her was unexpected.
From the broken branch, and deep, albeit stuttering, voice, she was expecting a much larger monster than this skeleton that was little taller than herself, wearing a white t-shirt, gray jacket with the fluffy hoodie pulled over his head, pale silver fluffy house slippers... with socks underneath them? Who wears socks with slippers?
She reaches out her hand to shake his. Noting that the lights in his eye sockets watched her every movement warily.
Pfffttt
She giggled slightly as she noticed the whoopie-cushion in his hand.
"whoopie-cushion in the h-hand trick, it's always f-funny."
"It was! I'm F-R-I-S-K." She signed before even realizing that he probably wouldn't understand.
But, contrary to what she thought, the smile on his face widened.
"you sign? wow, the only other people i've met who understand asl are my brother, one of my friends, and my dad." He replied in sign language just as fluent, if not more so than hers. "i'm s-a-n-s. s-a-n-s the skeleton." He added after a moment.
"Uh... it's kinda cold. Can we... not stand here any longer?" She asked.
"oh, h-heh. Sorry. the cold just g-goes right through me. although... i-i do guess for a human, and o-one that isn't really d-dressed properly for t-the snow... it'd probably be quite cold. c'mon my bro'll b-be just ahead. y'know, i-i'm actually supposed to b-be on lookout f-for humans. i'm too l-lazy for that, though. my bro, papyrus, on the other hand, is a human-hunting fanatic. he has a g-good, albeit non-existent, heart though, a-and he's harmless, e-even if he tries n-not to be. y'know, it'd really make his day if he saw you. he's been a bit down lately, but i bet seeing you would make 'em really happy."
"Alright... so what, he just... sees me, and... captures me?"
"ah, glad you're agreein' to it. nah, though. he'll try and stump you with his puzzles, first. my bro loves puzzles almost as much as spaghetti."
Frisk walked beside Sans as they crossed the bridge.
"there he is over there. go hide behind that conveniently-shaped lamp."
Frisk nodded and went to hide behind the lamp.
She had to admit, though. Sitting in the snow unmoving like this definitely wasn't helping her stay warm.
"SANS! THERE YOU ARE! WHY HAVEN'T YOU BEEN AT YOUR POST?! I've been worried..."
"ah, sorry, bro. i- uh... isn't the-that lamp interesting? don'tcha w-wanna check it out?"
"WHAT?! NO! BESIDES, YOU'VE BEEN BOONDOGGLING ALL DAY! YOU HAVEN'T GOTTEN ANY WORK DONE!"
"hey, i've gotten a ton of work done today. a skele-ton."
A rimshot sounded from seemingly out of nowhere. Frisk decided not to think too much of it, having gotten mostly used to the random sound effects.
"ARGH! THIS IS NO TIME FOR IDIOTIC PUNS! YOU COULD'VE GOTTEN SERIOUSLY HURT, SANS! YOU KNOW HOW LOW YOUR STATS ARE!"
"...i know... sorry, b-bro... but hey, you're still smiling."
"I AM AND I HATE IT! *SIGH* WHY DOES SOMEONE AS GREAT AS ME HAVE TO WORK SO HARD JUST TO GET SOME RECOGNITION? OF COURSE, IT'D BE MUCH EASIER IF YOU DIDN'T JUST SIT AROUND EVERY DAY AND MAKE ME LOOK AFTER YOU. HONESTLY, I SWEAR YOU GET LAZIER AND LAZIER EVERY DAY."
"wow, bro, r-really sounds like you're w-working yourself down to the bone."
Another rimshot.
"ARGH! THAT'S IT, I. AM. LEAVING. SANS?"
"yeah, bro?"
"MAYBE PUT A LITTLE MORE BACKBONE INTO YOUR WORK! NYEHEHEHEHEHEHEH!"
Papyrus walked off before returning with one more, "HEH," and walking off again.
"wow. i am so p-proud. he almost never makes puns. y'know, s-sometimes you'd think he's the older brother, n-not the other way around. d-despite the fact i'm the one who raised him. o-oh. you can come out now, kid. he might c-come back, a-and then you'd have to sit through m-more of my hilarious jokes."
Frisk couldn't move. It... it was too cold.
"...k-kid..?"
She heard the sound of his slippers crunching the snow. It sounded muffled and underwater.
"oh, o-oh, stars, k-kid, you're... oh god... oh god... P-PAPYRUS!"
She faintly felt something fluffy and warm being wrapped around her. Frisk's vision was beginning to black out, and within a few moments she lost hold on consciousness.
POV Change: Sans
Oh god, oh god... no, no... god no. This can't be happening. Not now. Not with Sans being the only monster here.
"oh, o-oh, stars, k-kid you're... oh god... oh god... P-PAPYRUS!" Sans screamed for his younger brother, knowing that Papyrus' healing magic was much stronger than his own. Not like that was saying much, with Sans' healing magic being non-existent, but still.
He placed his hand on Frisk's arm, fear spiking in his soul when he realized that there was only a barely noticeable difference in temperature between her and the snow.
He quickly took off his hoodie, wrapping it around the small human's shoulders.
He noticed that she had lost consciousness. Okay, bad, bad, very bad.
He was about to scream for his brother again when he felt the familiar magic of Papyrus' soul coming closer.
"S-SANS?! I HEARD YOU SCREAMING, ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"
"i... i'm fine, pap, this human isn't..!"
"H-HUMAN?! WHAT... WHAT IS WRONG WITH THEM?"
"hypothermia. she's too cold, pap. she's already unconscious. too much longer and she'll die. i... i'd teleport her back to our house but... i-i can't teleport anyone other than myself without risking falling down."
Sans blinked in slight surprise when Papyrus picked both him and the human up and began running at top speed.
"p-p-pap..! s-slow down a bit! t-the w-wind can h-hurt her too r-right now..!"
Papyrus slowed down slightly. But only slightly, of course.
Within a minute they were back at their house.
Sans set Frisk on their couch and teleported to quickly grab one of the many blankets from his own room.
"pap, make her some hot cocoa for when she wakes up, would ya? i'mma monitor her and make sure she doesn't warm up too slow or too fast. then she'll need some warmer clothes to change into. mine'll probably fit her well enough, so that should be fine."
"ALRIGHT, BROTHER. I HAVE TO ADMIT THOUGH, YOUR STUTTERS ARE GETTING BETTER. YOU DIDN'T STUTTER AT ALL THAT TIME."
"eh. y-you know i can't exactly help whether i stutter or not, pap. it's m-my magic, not me."
"...I KNOW, BROTHER..."
Sans let out a quiet squeak of surprise as Frisk snuggled up to him in her sleep.
"how is that comfortable or warm at all..? i'm literally just magic and bones, and not even much magic at that, why would she want to..?" Sans though to himself. "eh, maybe she's just the type that'll cuddle up to anything."
After a few minutes, Papyrus had almost finished the hot cocoa, and Frisk's eyes began fluttering open.
A moment passed and she seemed to realize how close she was snuggled up to him, and her face flushed before she scooted away, rapidly and sloppily signing apologies.
"h-hey, kiddo, it's fine."
"What... happened? Where are we?"
"you passed out, kid. h-hypothermia, i'd assume. me and pap brought ya b-back to our house."
"SANS? IS THE HUMAN AWAKE?"
"y-yeah, pap, she is."
"Sorry. I... I should've been more careful. Sorry for being a bother."
"...bother? frisk, uh... i don't r-remember saying it was any trouble."
"Sorry."
"heh, kiddo, stop sayin' sorry s-so much. there's nothin' for ya t-to be sorry 'bout."
"WELL, I HAVE JUST FINISHED THE HOT COCOA! I HAVE ALSO PREPARED SOME TRULY MAGNIFICENT SPAGHETTI! MY BEST WORK YET, I MUST SAY. NYEH HEH HEH!"
"alright, pap."
Soon Papyrus came and sat with Sans and Frisk on the couch, handing them each a cup of hot chocolate and a plate of spaghetti.
Frisk took a bite of the spaghetti, her face reflexively scrunching up.
"WELL? HOW IS IT, HUMAN?"
"It's i-m-p-a-s-t-a-b-l-e to describe."
Sans held back his snickers as Papyrus gazed at Frisk's signing, mumbling under his breath as he seemingly tried to figure out what the human was saying.
His smile fell after a few moments and his eyes just passed from Frisk to Sans, who had burst out laughing at the human girl's pun.
"o-oh, my, s-stars... kid, that was a-awesome!"
"I-WHA-WHY?! SANS, HOW HAVE YOU ALREADY INFECTED THE HUMAN WITH YOUR HORRIBLE LOVE OF PUNS?!"
"dunno, p-pap. but, uh... i-if i had a penne for every time you got that worked up over a pasta pun, we'd b-be rich."
"OH MY GOODNESS, SANS..."
They ate in silence until they were all done after that.
POV Change: Frisk
Frisk smiled at the skeleton brothers as she finished the spaghetti.
"I should probably get going."
"k-kid, wait. y-you aren't really g-gonna..." Sans trailed off, a look of annoyance on his face after a few moments.
He gave Papyrus a pointed glance.
"*SIGH* AGAIN? THAT'S THE THIRD TIME TODAY! I'LL BE RIGHT BACK..."
"What's wrong?"
"my voice does this a lot. since we're skeletons and we don't really have vocal cords, we rely on our magic to talk. my magic, unfortunately, is extremely weak so often i am rendered completely unable to speak, hence my knowing asl."
Papyrus came back over and handed Sans a glass of water and two pills.
"thanks, bro." Sans said after taking the pills and drinking about half the water. "anyway, as i was saying... you don't really plan on going to w-waterfall without dry clothes, do you, frisk? i mean, they'll get wet there b-but at least they won't be as cold. c'mon, i got some old clothes that'll probably fit ya."
They walked upstairs and Sans went into a room, presumably his, before coming back out and handing Frisk some clothes.
"b-bathroom's the middle door."
Frisk signed her thanks, and gave Sans back his hoodie before walking into the bathroom and getting changed.
The outfit Sans had given her was a light gray shirt with the word 'um' on it, looking like it was an element on the periodic table, with the words 'the element of confusion' below it, some dark gray sweatpants, and pale gray tennis shoes, along with a hoodie slightly lighter than the one he had been wearing along with being a bit less fluffy.
Frisk walked out of the bathroom, and Sans grinned at her. Well, she thought he was grinning at her, anyway. Hard to tell considering it seemed as if his face was stuck in a permanent smile.
"c'mon, kiddo. i'll walk with ya to w-waterfall, till we get to m-my post at least."
A/N: No. No, I can already sense you guys coming. This AU will not canonically have Frans, so no need to yell at me. Right? I do ship Frans, yes, but only when Frisk is not a child. Frisk is like nine in this, I'm not shipping her with Sans. Closest relationship they're gonna have is either gonna be brother - sister, or father - daughter. More likely the former than the latter.
If you are curious as to why Sans stutters and why he needed those pills, y'know how I said the monsters' magic is weakened in this AU? (Did I say that..?) Since Sans is already one of the weakest monsters, his magic is so weak in this AU that not only are his stats probably like 0.5 across the board, but it's also not strong enough for him to steadily conjure his voice, since skeletons don't have vocal cords they rely entirely on their magic to talk, so technically if they truly wanted to they could make themselves sound completely different. Those pills were basically solidified magic. Did that explanation make sense? I hope so...
Anyway, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed!
(Honestly I had this done days ago I've just been procrastinating and trying to figure out how to get a steady update schedule for this so I guess I'll try to update either every Friday or at least every other Friday)
