A/N: This story takes place just before the events of Undertale. The human mentioned in this story is the sixth one, the one just before Frisk. Obviously as this story contains OCs, it takes place in a slight AU version of this universe.

...

When Serif woke up one particularly cold winter's morning, she found herself alone in the house she shared with her brothers. When she got downstairs, she found that Papyrus had been gracious enough to leave her a note, explaining that he had had to leave earlier than expected for sentry duties and that he had left some spaghetti for her breakfast in the fridge.

Whereas the only thing Sans had left her was a whoopee cushion on her armchair.

Thankfully, nobody was there to witness Serif's embarrassment at not having noticed the small rubber cushion before she sat down on it.

Less than half an hour after she had woken up, Serif was out of the house and heading towards the entrance to Snowdin. Six months ago, she would have been terrified at the prospect of going out on her own, at least without one of her brothers accompanying her. It just showed how far she had come since she arrived here.

On her way past, she glanced into Grillby's and spotted her brother lazing on one of the chairs, chatting away with the regulars. She couldn't help a grin at the sight. Sans might pretend he was hard-working and diligent but that could hardly be further from the truth. Nevertheless, he was a loving brother to her and Papyrus AND he paid the bills, so she couldn't complain.

She made it to the outskirts of Snowdin forest without incident. Life in the Underground may have been draining, miserable, and devoid of all hope, but one thing it had going for it was that it was peaceful. Crime was practically non-existent here, which meant there was no danger for her to be walking around alone.

In fact, the only thing she had to look out for was humans.

"G'morning, Bones! How's life?"

...and overzealous sentries.

Serif put on a smile and turned to face the werewolf leaning casually on his sentry station. "Hello, Lupin. You know, life is the same as always. Cold, dark, miserable."

"That's the spirit," Lupin snickered. "By the way, Grillby's is hosting karaoke night tonight. I heard your brother's gonna be the highlight of the party."

"Yeah, well, Papyrus throws himself into everything, even singing." Serif cleared her throat, very slowly edging sideways. She wondered how quickly she would be able to leave without seeming rude. "To be honest, parties aren't my thing. I'll probably go to the library and read."

"Huh. Well, that's good too."

Serif inwardly winced. She had gotten used to recognising that tone as a "oh, really? How lame" kind of tone.

"Yes indeed. Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta-."

"So Undyne came round earlier," said Lupin happily, seeming to be completely oblivious to Serif's attempts to leave. "She wasn't happy with the improvements I made to my sentry station; you know, with the fish stickers everywhere. She told me to... scale it down."

Serif blinked.

Lupin stared back at her, as if trying very hard not to laugh. "Scale it down. She told me to- You know, cuz she's a fish? And it's fish stickers?"

"Uh huh?"

After a moment, the corner of Lupin's mouth twitched. "You know, I got tons more FINtastic fish puns. They don't get any BETTA than this. These puns are really soFISHticated."

Lupin burst out laughing at the complete and total lack of reaction he was getting from Serif. "Your brother would love these. I spend all my time coming up with them just to please him."

"Yeah, well, I'm not my brother," said Serif, a little more coldly than she had intended.

The werewolf finally seemed to pick up on her mood. He chuckled nervously. "Oh, sorry, am I keeping you from something?"

"As a matter of fact, I have things to do."

"Doing some sole-searching, are you?" Lupin watched her innocently. "Looking for your sole-mate?"

Serif rolled her eyes and began walking away, hoping the werewolf would just let her go.

"Hey, anyFIN is possible, you know!" he called after her. "Oh come on, that one was GILLiant!"

The skeleton ignored him and picked up the pace slightly. When she was a safe distance away, she finally relaxed. Social situations were stressful at the best of times but when it was a virtual stranger waylaying her when she was on her way to do something else, it could really start to panic her.

Sometimes, she wondered if Lupin was so genuinely bored that he found it fun to embarrass people on purpose.

Whatever. It doesn't matter now.

As she got closer to the door to the ruins, she spotted her older brother's sentry station a little way off. It didn't take long for him to catch sight of her too.

"Ah, Serif!" Papyrus boomed. "Good morning! I don't suppose you've seen any humans on your way here, have you?"

Serif couldn't help a giggle. "No, Pap. Trust me, you'd be the first to know."

"Good! With you and I, the Great Papyrus, on the lookout, no human will get past us! In fact, NOTHING will get past me! Not even a snail!"

"What about a rat?" asked Serif innocently, pointing to where a small rodent was sitting on Papyrus's foot. "Like that one on your foot, there?"

"YEEK!" screeched Papyrus, hopping up and down and shaking his foot furiously. "GET IT OFF!"

Serif couldn't stop laughing long enough to tell Papyrus that the rat had already gone. By the time she had recovered enough to speak, Papyrus had planted both his feet on the ground and crossed his arms, giving her a scowl.

"That wasn't funny!"

"Hey, it wasn't like I put the rat there!" laughed Serif. "Anyway, I'd better let you get back to work. Let me know if you see anything special, okay?"

"Absolutely!" Papyrus beamed, his earlier frustration already forgotten. "You can count on me to find a human!"

Serif was still chuckling to herself as she walked away. Poor Papyrus always tried so hard but there was almost no way he was ever going to capture a human. With his luck, he would probably end up somehow missing it entirely if one walked by. She had just accepted that that was how life was for Papyrus. Not that he himself would ever realise it. He lived in his own little world, oblivious to the reality around him.

It was enviable, really.

As she passed her other brother's station, Serif looked out for him but of course, he was nowhere to be seen. Sans was probably still back at Grillby's, counting down the seconds until his boss came by to make sure he wasn't slacking off.

Just like Papyrus could always be counted on to try hard but fail, Sans could always be trusted to do nothing at all and still come out on top.

Serif found her usual secluded clearing in the middle of Snowdin forest and stretched out, preparing to practise her powers. It was always best to practise way out here in the middle of nowhere, in case the wrong people saw her using such rare powers.

That, and Serif still hadn't quite gotten the hang of using her powers without risk of injury or destruction to her surroundings.

But as she lowered herself into her normal stance, movement through the trees caught her eye. Though she thought it was probably nothing, she decided to investigate anyway, just in case.

She peered cautiously through the trees, back towards the path that led away from the door to the ruins.

To her shock, the door was open.

With wide eyes, Serif watched as a small figure emerged through the door, which was quickly closed behind them. The figure tried to open it again a few times but eventually gave up and turned, ready to make their way into the forest. As Serif quietly got a little nearer, she realised exactly what she was looking at and everything seemed to stop moving entirely.

It was a human.