For the best experience, listen to "Undertale - Bonetrousle - Snowdin mix - (lullaby cover)" by Chi-Chi on YouTube.

"Hooman."

For once during the time the former human had spent after existing the Ruins, Mettaton didn't feel like his ears were bleeding from how loud that tem was. He was half-expecting to wince by now, and he almost did, until he realized that she wasn't actually being that obnoxious. This only caused him to stare at her in disbelief.

Well, that, and the fact that she didn't have on her regular blue-and-yellow-striped shirt. Her light blue boots still remained, however, the rest had been replaced with a cardboard box painted a sloppy silver color. Holes had been cut in the side where her arms poked out, as well as one on the top, this one substantially wider to allow enough room for her head to poke through. The bottom was left open with what Mettaton was able to recognize as the lid flaps dangling from Temmie's sides. Some of the silver near the top of the box had been covered in an inch or two of falling snow that shook as Temmie eagerly bounced up and down in the frozen downpour.

She was lucky; she had fur. Mettaton's response, however, to the much heavier blanket that was coming down upon them was to wrap his arms around his chest and shiver. "What on Earth are you wearing?" Naturally, this was the most important thing to worry about.

"Temy armor," she replied, her smile still ever-present on her face, though voice no where near as sing-song as Mettaton remembered it being. In her front paw was a long white bone at least three-quarters the size of her, though Mettaton was willing to guess more if he had to make a bet. Temmie swung it high, letting it tread air for about half a second before holding out her front appendages and letting it fall into her outstretched arms. Behind her, a box of...something. It was hard to make out what it was with the blizzard around them, but he could at least make out a box of something. Probably the same kind of cardboard box Temmie crafted her "armor" out of.

"Mmhmm." Mettaton might have taken a bit more interest in the strange furry in front of him, in what was in the box behind her, why she had a bone nearly as tall as her and all that other wonderful stuff if he wasn't too busy freezing his metal off. Seriously, where was a coat when you needed one?

"Hooman," she repeated, a little bit louder this time but still in a voice that made it seem like she wasn't hopped up on four gallons of coffee. "Lemme tell u sum complex feels. Liek…"

Temmie swung the bone around and planted it in the ground, freeing up one paw to rub her chin thoughtfully. "...findin another temmi flake luver. da overwhelming urge to pet some1 SUPER CUTE!"

She then removed her paw, wrapping both of them around the bone and leaning into it while closing her eyes. "The desire 2 have cute person think ur cute. U MUS BE FEELIN DEM!"

The robot shut his eyes and let out a sigh. He would've argued most likely, but the majority of his energy went to simply keeping warm. How long was her speech going to be, anyway? It couldn't drag on forever. She wasn't that dumb...hopefully.

"But das okay," Temmie continued in her semi-serious sounding tone. If Mettaton didn't know any better, he'd almost think that she was trying to be sympathetic. "Temmie dun no wot das like becuz Temmie have Frisk! But hooman…"

Her eyelids drooped, eyes trailing to the ground. "Hooman dun have Frisk...or other tems…"

No, he didn't. Quite frankly, he didn't want to either.

When she looked up, the tem had a small smile on her face and a spark of...something in her eyes. Hope? Empathy? Pity? It was hard to tell, but she was certainly trying to display some type of emotion for Mettaton to pick up on. He just didn't care.

"I'll be your friend."

He then opened his eyes, almost out of shock. That sentence was grammatically correct.

"What?"

"I'll be your friend," she repeated, smile widening as she took a step forward. One paw swung to her hip, mimicking Mettaton's pose, and the other flew up straight in the air. She leaned her weight onto one foot. "See! I can pose liek u!"

"That's nice, darling, but I don't thi-" Mettaton was cut off when he noticed her dropping to all fours and proceeding to bound forward. He threw his arms out in front of him, just barely managing to have them up in time before she tackled him, chest against chest (or, uh, cardboard box), wrapping her own arms tightly around his abdomen and then proceeding to nuzzle the robot.

"We're gonna be da best friends!" Temmie squealed, adding a small hop into her stance. "We can pose an do coote things together an TOTALLY NOT FLEX BECUZ FLEXING IS NUT CUTE!"

"What is your problem?" The robot leveraged his hands underneath her chest area and offered the box of cardboard that had been lazily put together a weak push, doing little to make the tem move. This continued for perhaps a second or two before she suddenly let out a gasp, stood as straight as her back would allow her, and released him from her grasp.

"What am I doin?!"

He rolled his eyes. "I don't know. What are you doing?"

"I can't be friends wit u!" she cried- quite literally, cried, tears dotting the corners of her eyes- as she leapt several steps back. "Ur hooman! I can't be friends wit hooman… Frisk's dad wud not be verr happy. I have 2 capture u!"

Capture him? Okay, wow. Now she wanted to capture him. Not all those times he could have been caught off guard, no, now she wanted to capture him? He chuckled. "Please, by all means, feel free to try."

"Okee!" Temmie's left arm popped back into her box and she yanked it out but half a second later, paw clutching something. It was hard to tell what as she swung her arm high above her head, though, upon the thrust forward, which was followed by the release, the poorly-crafted rope net became fairly obvious. It was at least decent enough to spread apart, taking up enough area to cover the robot's head, though it was much too short to get anywhere past his shoulders. He winced as it made contact.

"What are you doing!?"

"Das a net I made for Frisk's dad for when I train wit him!"

Mettaton's hands coiled around the thin strands that held it together, ripped it off his head and flung it back toward the crazy tem. "Then throw it at him, not me!"

"I will!" she yelled back proudly, though her smile still on her face as she did so. It seemed to be more of an eager one than a defensive one, if Alphys could hear correctly from her position behind the robot. It seemed to be her favorite position; she considered herself lucky the others couldn't see.

"I will!" Temmie repeated, once more thrusting her paw out toward the robot, the other one moving to her hip. "I will when I capture u! Because den, DEN! U will be lookin' at de face of the FIRST! Royal Guardstem!"

There was a small pinch of pressure along Mettaton's chest as a bright purple light seeped through the cracks of his robotic body. It was weaker than normal, but it was still definitely there, pouring out from his abdomen. The same purple heart (his purple heart) hovered directly above those same buttons that his eyes had grown used to by now.

*Special enemy Temmie appears here to defeat you! he could hear Alphys cheer, and he rolled his eyes. She seemed to get rather happy around the tems. That's nice, he supposed, though didn't particularly care one way or the other. Mettaton let his hand waver as he shifted posture, moving it away from the 'Check' option.

"Good lord you are annoying," the robot muttered, not even bothering to check where his heart had landed. "Do you honestly expect to get into something so prestigious as the Royal Guard with that kind of attitude? When Frisk told me I had to play along, I thought this was supposed to be some sort of game. I thought you were just doing some silly, stupid roleplaying or whatever it is someone as aggravatingly stupid as you would do. You were seriously trying to capture me? I've seen seven-year-old internet trolls do better than you! All you've been throwing at me are pointless "puzzles" that aren't even finished, but when you finally find something useful and come up with a semi-decent plan, the thing isn't even half my size! How, exactly, have you been planning to capture me this entire time, when you haven't even tried? And don't tell me what you did was trying, because it's not. It's not anywhere close."

The robot paused for a moment, grinding his teeth together to pull his arms tighter around his freezing chest.

"If you're really supposed to be hunting humans, why haven't you attempted to hit me or knock me out in some other way? Or, I don't know, actually doing your job? If you're really trying to capture me, why did you just call me your friend? That's the exact opposite of what you're supposed to be doing! And, f.y.i., I never asked for that. There's no way I would want to be friends with an annoying furry bag of caffeine that acts like she's five. You are the worst possible candidate to become a Royal Guard member, and I highly doubt Frisk's dad would ever let you join, even if he had to start dragging others to take your spot!"

The air around them grew still. Perhaps it was the cold that had been putting Mettaton on edge, perhaps he didn't truly mean his words (or perhaps he did), but it didn't matter now. Sticks and stones can break one's bones, but words, coming from the Purple SOUL, are the one of the harshest attacks one could experience. It wouldn't be the first time he let his tongue slip to someone that didn't deserve it, but Temmie couldn't have known that. The blanket of silence swept over them only momentarily, broken by Temmie sniffling not once, but twice, taking several large steps backwards as she did so. Her light blue boots skidded against the snow they were dragged across, and on the third sniffle, her traction gave way to the frozen ground beneath her, and she felt herself become clutched in gravity's icy grasp, breaking free only when her bum had hit the hard floor that awaited her. She did not mind this, though; her attention was more focused on shutting her eyes, letting out a few whimpers as her front paws pressed into the ice beneath her and feeling the water begin to dot her eyes before it spilled over the sides. Her tears streamed down her cheeks like a waterfall, though a silent one at first that didn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. It wasn't truly silent, however, as her voice box wavered with the mental agony that washed over her. The noises it should have been producing became choked up with the stuffy sensation that lined her throat. They came out in sporadic bursts, weighing down any actual words that wanted to express how she felt. She couldn't do that. Her dreams had all been swiped from underneath her button nose. What point was there to express herself when she had been reduced to a shriveled, sobbing mess?

The first noise Alphys made was a gasp. Both hands were covering her mouth as she slowly slid out from behind her protection. A few of her own tears had been left to rest just beyond her eyes, but she felt them being pushed out as more made their way to the surface. That poor, poor tem… How could Mettaton say such things? She glanced up at him, eyes filled with watery questions. Why? Maybe it was just her relating to such ambition, but how could someone possibly go about crushing dreams like that? So what if she probably wouldn't be able to make it in? You don't know that, Mettaton! You shouldn't be crushing her self esteem like that…

Though Alphys probably doesn't have much of a right to talk, now does she?

She didn't. She didn't open her mouth once past that initial gasp. She did stare up at Mettaton with a questioning look mixed with both shock and traces of empathy, though made no move more than this. To say she was angry with him would be well past exaggerating. He had to have a reason for his motives, right? There had to be a reason. She just wasn't sure what.

Meanwhile, Mettaton was just...standing there. One hand over his hip, the other arm dangling limply from his side, weight poised as if he were having just a casual conversation. His face, however, read completely the opposite. His eyes were wide and, though the only one of the three currently not crying, he sure wasn't spared from the discomfort of guilt. In fact, that was likely the emotion that held him the most at that moment, wrapping around his cold metal exterior and weaving through his wires like flowers along an open casket. This wasn't normal. Sure, he let his tongue slip on several occasions, but the people he hissed at had always fought back or stormed off in a hissy fit. No one ever cried from him, or at least, not within his line of sight.

But now, here lie Temmie in a tearful mess, her dreams slaughtered and stuffed into that same casket Alphys had set the flowers down on. Once he was finally able to move his body, his eyes darted to his side, shoulders drooping, scanning over his companion who was not giving him a look of shame, but one little word: why?

Mettaton sighed. His hot pink boots crunched against the fallen snow for a few steps before he knelt, letting his fingers curl around the frost-colored bone. This was then tilted upright, toward him, dragged forward an inch or so and lifted up off the ground before sliding into both of his hands and being held out to the tem.

A moment passed that they stayed like this, the anthropomorphic cat/dog creature weeping into her arms, the bystander remaining off to the side of the event, wishing there was something she could do without being seen, and the cause of Tem's emotional distress genuflecting in front of her. Mettaton's knee shifted, however, causing a rush of cold to sweep through his system. He bit his metal lip.

"Temmie," he called, careful to watch his tongue as it danced with the foreign name. "Please, open your eyes."

She complied, albeit rubbing her eyes for several more moments before doing so.

They were glistening, Mettaton could tell, in the little light that was passing through. From this distance, he could hear her frantic breath begin to slow, though if he had to guess, it would be because of him requesting her to show her face instead of feeling any better.

They stayed locked in each others' gaze for about half a moment before she trailed her eyes down at the bone in Mettaton's hands. There was still water pouring down her matted cheeks, but she ignored it for the time being, gracing her paw against the item she had held before.

A small smile crossed the former human's face as the monster before him sniffled a few more times, leaned forward and gently took the bone from out of Mettaton's hands.

"I didn't mean to make you cry," he said in a slow, stern voice. "That's not what I had intended."

He paused, shifting his weight ever-so-slightly to the side and dragging his hand (and likewise, his heart) with it. Though, he didn't bother to check where his heart hand gone. Who would? Both travelers were much more concerned with the crying to think about something as trivial as that.

After a while of Temmie's sniffles to fill the void between them, Mettaton sighed, muttering something akin to a phrase he doesn't particularly care to mutter, and yet, still found himself doing so anyway.

"...I'm sorry."

Temmie blinked a few times, her tears being pushed to the sides in the process. Sorry? "You mean it?"

He nodded. "I never thought what I said would make you that upset." No, Mettaton, you just didn't think. There's a difference.

She smiled none-the-less, rubbing her paws against her cheeks to clear the water from them before it froze. It was a soft smile, a small one, one that could easily be washed away by more tears, but still a smile. It was at least semi-comforting.

"So Temmie can get into Royal Guard?"

Oh, well, he wouldn't go that far…

The robot paused, eyes rolling upward for a moment before being able to greet the tem again. "I think that if you want to get into something like the Royal Guard, which I assume is a very serious position, you may need to act a bit more...professional."

"Okee," she said as if she understood, though the unchanging expression and blank stare seemed to signal otherwise.

And so, our protagonist sighed. "Or maybe you could just beg and act cute enough to convince them."

She gasped, her eyes brightening while her grip around the weapon tightened. "U really think so?!"

"On second thought, maybe you're too cute to be part of the Royal Guard." Yeah… Mettaton's picturing some Renaissance-esque league of knights, and if he were captain of that, he definitely wouldn't let this girl in on accounts of just being too childlike.

Though the Temmie perked up even more at the semi-insult. "U relly think so!?"

"Absolutely."

"Well TEmmie gunna b in it ne way!"

He rolled his eyes. Of course she was. He's learned his lesson on arguing about this dream of hers. Still, there was a smile on his face. The quicker he comforted her, the quicker he could get out of here. Obviously that's the only reason he cared.

For the third time, Temmie gasped, and she attempted to stand up, though struggled with the cardboard box around her torso and fell back on her bum.

"Dear, maybe we should take that thing off of you."

"U FINELLY REVEAL UR ULTIMATE FEELINS!1!"

He blinked. "What?"

"U insult meh, but den u call meh coote! U dun think I'm bad- ur actuelly just a prickly cactus!"

"...What?"

"Is true!" Temmie placed both paws on the ground behind her and pushed herself to her feet, knees bent but then springing up like a pop rock. "U actelly secretly like me! :D"

"I never said tha-"

She leapt backward, however, landing with her feet spread apart at just less than a 90 degree angle in some sort of battle-like stance. Her body bounced with a newfound energy, and the first picture that popped into both Mettaton's and his companion's heads was a warrior from one of those lively Japanese cartoons.

"I akcept ur offer 4 dATE!"

"Date?" Mettaton tilted his head. "You're trying to capture me. I never said anything about a date."

"Let's date later!"

The robot shook his head, biting back another insult. He really didn't feel like dealing with this five-year-old breaking down for a second time. He could see her lifting the tall bone high into the air, waving it about like some sort of sword, and then thrusting it out toward the robot.

"HOOMAN! PREPARE 4 TEM'S SPECIEL ATTAK!"

*Temmie prepares her special attack.

"Special attack?" He tilted his head, hands on his hips and leaning forward ever-so-slightly. "Where did you get that bone at, anyway?"

"Frisk's dad."

"Of course."

She punched the air in front of her, grin twisting into one of pride and determination, eyes narrowing as she spoke. "He sed I remind him off his bro. Dat tEMMIE act lot liek Papyru! Den he gave me a bone dat Papyruss left at Undyn'es house a loooooong time ago! It was all rotting n stuff. BUT! Temmie cleaned it an now it's all betterer!"

Mettaton opened his mouth to speak but didn't have a chance to get a word in. Temmie immediately sprang off the ground, twisted around to turn her back to him, twirled the bone into one paw, flung her free one down into the box behind her and yanked out a handful of colored paper shreds.

"HOOMAN! Perpare 4 my SPECIAL ATTACK!"
She then flung the pieces into the air around Mettaton, who stood there blankly, watching the scraps fall to the cold snow before refocusing his attention back on the tem.

"Was that supposed to hurt?"

Temmie blinked a few times. A quizzical expression entered her face as she stared at the bits mixed with fallen snow but quickly bat it away as a light bulb appeared over her head.

"OOH! I furgot da magick!"

She reached down, only this time, when Temmie withdrew the pieces of scraps from the box behind her and spun back around, she paused, cupping her paws together and closing her eyes. At first, there was no movement. The robot had to take a step or two forward just to hold his interest. After a moment or so, however, a small light began to glow between her paws. Her eyes shot open as a heat emitted from the light. This was then thrust into the air above the two, scattering each piece of confetti across the open air. The difference between these and what lay on the ground soon became clear to both the robot and his companion, colored light reflecting off of the lens of his glasses and most likely would have off of hers, too, had she been alive to experience it. The torn bits of color shone like rainbow stars, though moved more like fireflies, still falling to the ground as their predecessors had, but much slower. It almost seemed as if they were Christmas lights, strung on some invisible string that weaved through a spider's web, waving gently with the breeze and glistening with the crystal white snow.

Mettaton could hear his partner let out a gasp, mirroring Temmie's own previous ones. He himself did not display such admiration. His eyes did go wide at the color display, watching as crystals rained down on him like parrot feathers, but this was all his mind had bothered to show. Wide eyes, magenta ones that sparkled like the dance before him.

Out of the corner of his vision, the protagonist managed to spot his companion reach out as one of the lights slowly descended upon her. Just as it would have graced her hands, it chose instead to pass through her, and that expression of astoundment dropped with just a hint of disappointment.

Mettaton could tell. He smiled at her softly, waiting until she was looking his way to hold out his own hands, cupping them together and catching a green wisp. It was warm. Though only slightly so, it still felt nice against the bitterness nipping at his metal, pushing away the snowflakes that seemed to want to fall onto his frosted fingers. His eyes, after staring at the oddity that touched him, would swivel back up at this tem with a bit of both astonishment and curiosity.

"Are these supposed to hurt?"

To this, Temmie gulped down more air, her enthusiastic smile morphing into a more rounded shape. "OH NU! Temmie can't evn stop someone as week as u… Frisk's dad gunna be disapointed… an den I'll nevre join da Royal Guard…"

"Tem, come on. What did we just go over?"

She didn't reply, however. Temmie skittered down the pathway without so much as a single sniff. Though a part of Mettaton screamed to go after her, he stayed put, merely watching her outline become lost in the thick blanket that fell between them.

Temmie's (kind of) epilogue

Frisk's attention wasn't really anywhere at that moment in time. They stared rather absentmindedly at the television screen in front of them. There were only three good channels, two of which held nothing but commercials. How boring.

A half-empty beer bottle was being swirled about in their palm as they felt the tears mat down their cheeks, though they still refused to tear their eyes away. It wasn't until the sound of a plastic flap slapping against wood echoed into the somewhat messy living room that they bothered to move their head, and, at seeing who it was that caused such a sound, they proceeded to leap over the back of the couch, their feet making a soft clunk against the carpet and socks pressing against it as they bounded toward her.

Temmie didn't have much of a chance to reply before she was taken into her roommate's arms, which wrapped tightly around her furry torso. Something in the back of Frisk's mind nagged at them to ask where her tem armor had went, but they pushed the thought aside for now.

"thank god you're okay," the human muttered, breathing deeply against their roommate's shoulder.

"Why would I not be?" she replied, though her voice was soft and faintly shaking.

This was when Frisk would pull their head up to stare at the monster before them.

"Tem... you're crying…"

Temmie shook her head. "I'm okay."

"No you're not. What happened?"

The monster's faux smile fell. A moment of silence drifted between them, but eventually, she did reply. "...Frisk? Do you think I'd be okay in the Royal Guard?"

They blinked in reply, though their arms still wrapped around the other's chest as they stared at her. "Yeah, of course. Why?"

"Because… I couldn't capture human…"

And this was when Frisk would reach out to grab both of their friend's arms, placing one paw on the left side of their black tee and the other on the right. They pressed a smile onto their face. "You caught me."

Temmie, though still a little bit uncertain, giggled. Even though she had originally moved in with Frisk just to get closer to their dad, she was more than happy to have stayed.

WARNING: Underage drinking is bad.

(pleasedontsueme)

Ah...just as I'm growing fond of Temmie.

I think why I disliked writing her was because I saw her as more of a one trick pony...just a joke character. And she is in UnderTale. But if she's going to be in Papyrus's spot, she needs more of an actual personality.

I think I got something.

...hopefully.

No, Mettaton's not just a straight up dick.

Trust me, he has his reasons for doing things. Just...read a bit closer if you can't see it? I'm sorry, that's just something I feel like needs to be discovered on its own. I'll answer individual people asking me privately why a character did something, but not here, where everyone can see. Things are best left up for interpretation :3

Reviews!

NoItsBecky: Same.

Tatzebea: You could try, but I have no idea where to look. The inbox?

I'm really excited to get to Waterfall, though, so even though break is ending, hopefully my spark is still there!

Ck: Most of my chapters are just about adding character depth XD

FriskedAway: Ah, Mettaton's gender. Here's where things get a bit complex.

Now, as stated before, I like leaving things open for interpretation. For anyone reading this that doesn't care one way or the other about his gender or would like to keep your own headcannon, by all means, feel free to ignore this. I really don't mind. (or, if you want the short answer, skip straight to the bottom)

Let's start off with the basics.

Meckenzie (which was Mettaton's human name before he died) was born male. Y'know, with a dick. Now I could rant forever about gender (those who know me personally know exactly what I'm talking about), but frankly, I don't feel like spilling out my personal opinions here. This is a character. A character does not necessarily reflect the author's or the reader's opinions/beliefs/morals. So please, follow with me, and try not to get upset. Okay? Because there's probably someone out there that will.

Now, growing up, Meckenzie was much more into the dresses, skirts, makeup, dress up, dolls...the girl's toys. This does not necessarily make him anything. Just because he plays with girl's stuff and wears girl's clothes doesn't automatically make him a tranny or whatever. So he likes playing with girl's shit. Big deal.

He never particularly grew out of that phase, though.

That also does not mean he's a girl or a boy. He likes wearing girl's clothes. He likes wearing makeup, high heels; he likes looking pretty. So take that as you will.

The problem with me giving a straight "boy" or "girl" or "nonbinary" answer is that he himself doesn't have one. He's only nineteen, and for almost all of his teen years, he's been yelled at for wearing dresses, scolded for trying makeup, and probably the most important, insisted that biology makes the gender.

Again, whether or not you believe that, I really don't care. Accept it or not, I don't care. It's the character.

He was never allowed to question his gender. Because of this, he really hasn't had much time to explore it. It feels good to be mistaken for a girl, but he isn't exactly against being called a guy, either. After all, he's used to it by now.

The shortest answer I can give you is that he doesn't know what he is, so I don't know what he is.