Cover Art: FairyFan94 from Deviant Art
Chapter 2 – Going home to Snowdin
"Kid…" Sans started watching how his brother lifted the little human above his shoulders. She was still wearing his jacket but this time her arms were though the sleeves and they were pulled up a little so her hands could stick out. "I really think you got a petting problem there buddy."
The little girl only giggled as she petted Lesser Dogs head with the help of Papyrus. Lesser Dogs neck grew a few inches again and he barked happily. Papyrus was loudly encouraging the little girl to keep petting the dog and Sans was pretty sure that sooner or later something was going to go horrible wrong.
"Comeon kid." The shorter skeleton tried once more sweat dropping at the fact that Papyrus was now balancing the child on his hands while she was wobbly standing on his hands, trying to reach Lesser Dogs head once more that was now slowly doing a downwards curve.
Shaking his head Sans couldn't even bring himself to make a joke about this bizarre situation. By now Lesser Dogs was down near the ground again. Papyrus boosted about the fact of how much affection the child was giving the dog while the little girl kept on giggling in glee. How much could one pet a dog? Apparently so much that its neck was still growing with every pet the girl gave the dog.
"I think the dog is going were no dog ever was before." Sans muttered watching how Lesser Dogs tail wiped back and for in an incredible speed while his head was touching the ground now. "Kid seriously stop petting."
Papyrus also stopped cheering and watched the dog now with worry as it look like its head was burring itself into the ground. "HUMAN! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE TO AGREE WITH MY BROTHER! IT'S TIME TO STOP THE PETTING!"
Frisk giggled once more before giving the dog a final pet and turning to Sans holding out her hands and waiting for the skeletons to take them, which they both did as the shorter one breathed a sigh of relieve. They surely had done enough petting for one day.
"Welp, Fri- its freezing we should get back now." Sans corrected himself sweating. He had nearly forgotten that Frisk had yet to introduce herself, also he needed to make sure not to let her gender slip, after all they weren't supposed to know yet unless the girl would tell them.
"Mmmmh." Frisk hummed in agreement.
"OH WE CAN HAVE A SLUMBER PARTY!" Papyrus yelled eyes light up as he started to ramble about all the things they needed to prepare for that.
Sans only watched them from the corner of his eye-sockets. His default grin turning into a very happy one yet slightly tired. Convincing Papyrus to let the human stay with them, had been easy enough with his argument that he found her first. Making him promise not to tell Undyne, was not as easy but still easy in a way. After he had pointed out how… enthusiastic she could be about humans. Getting the tall skeleton and the kid to their house in Snowdin? That apparently had become a difficult task.
He didn't plan on how childish and playfull Frisk was this time around. Yet it was also amusing. In all the timelines Frisk had been a little serious kid. Sure she knew how to have fun but there had always been difficult decisions to be made by her. Decisions that affected a childs' growing. Mind you, the fact that nearly every monster she met tried to kill her was already enough cause for a child to grow up faster than they should.
Especially when they become the ambassador of the monsters right after finally getting to Aboveground where normally she should have been able to live a normal child's live, well as normal as it could be with monsters as family. But the little Frisk here and now? The short skeleton had never seen her truly being a child like this. It was interesting to see how one little change hadn't spoiled Frisk very childlike behavior. She was playing pranks on Doggo when they past him, petted Lesser Dog to extreme extent and now she was happily swinging on his and Papyrus hands as good as she could with their high difference.
Sans was happy yet scared at the same time. What if he messed up? Would this Frisk lose herself? Was she even going to grow up into the teenage girl he knew? Things were going different after all. There were so many things that could go wrong and so many that he could make sure go right.
"Snow poff!" Frisk suddenly yelled and let go of their hands bring Sans successfully out of his thoughts.
"NO HUMAN! THAT IS A SNOWLUMP! NYEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus corrected before piling up some snow himself and forming it into a poorly round shape. "THIS IS A SNOW POFF!"
Frisk looked at it tilting her head to the side, Sans chuckled. The girl looked like she was thinking really hard and Sans knew that she was trying to figure out a good one word answer. Frisk had never been much of a talker, especially with being selectively mute. It had never bothered any of them till they were in Aboveground.
"Awesome!" Frisk finally said lifting her arms up and cheering a little. Papyrus struck a pose at the praise, Sans grinned. Even though she didn't talk much, she still knew what to say to make it count.
"OF COURSE IT IS AWESOME HUMAN!" The tall skeleton said while still doing his pose. "I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, MADE IT AFTER ALL! COME HERE LET ME TEACH YOU HUMAN!"
'Oh no.' Sans realized it too late. He was about to interfere when the two were already engaged in snow poff making. Not that he was complaining but… it was getting late and he wanted to bring the kid home before they would meet Dogamy and Dogressa or even Greater Dog. He had the feeling that if they meet them they wouldn't make it home before night time. Then again. They life in a huge cave, when was nighttime down here anyway?
Sans thoughts were once again interrupted but this time by something else then the girls voice. Something cold hit him face on and the skeleton had to blink a few times to get snow out of his eye-sockets and to realize what had happened.
"WHOPSIE I AM SORRY BROTHER!" Papyrus yelled holding snow in his hand that looked suspiciously ball shaped, while a certain little human was unsuccessfully hiding behind his leg holding her hand over her mouth to not laugh out loud.
"Oh… so that's how you wanna play?" Sans mused his grin going a little wider.
"BROTHER I DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT." Papyrus answered. "I WAS MERELY TEACHING THE HUMAN ON HOW TO MAKE SNOW PO-"
The taller skeleton was suddenly bombarded with a dozen of snowballs while the little human ducked behind the snow poff they made earlier. She peered over it to see if the coast was clear only to see Sans standing there as if nothing happened his hands in his pockets and a wide grin on his face.
Looking over her shoulder back at the taller skeleton the human muffled her giggling once more when she saw Papyrus being half buried under snow. "Welp brother…"
"SANS!"
"…it looks like…"
"SANS I AM WARNING YOU!"
"…you are Snowdin."
"SAAAAAANNNNNS!" Papyrus exploded out of the snow standing tall while glaring at his brother.
The girl was rolling on the ground in laugher by now and the shorter skeletons eyes twinkled as he and the taller, still a little mad, skeleton exchanged looks. Before Frisk knew what was going on snow was flying her way and she barely dodged it, hiding behind the snow lump. Every now and then she would throw her own snowballs at the skeleton brothers in hope for hitting at least one of them but soon she was very busy trying to avoid all the snowballs they threw.
That was until suddenly a huge pile of snow was dropped on the child and it cried out in surprise looking up to see Papyrus standing behind the human a victorious smile on his face. "ADMIT IT HUMAN! I WON! YOU ARE COVERED THE MOST IN SNOW!"
The girl only laughed as she nodded. "So cool!"
Papyrus beamed at the childs words and instantly hugged the little one. Sans only chuckled he had always known that his brother was cool and he knew that Frisk thought so too, yet it was alight relieve to see that this Frisk did so too.
"Welp, it's ice to see you two being so good friends." Sans started as Papyrus groaned at the pun. "But it's freezing. We should get going before the kid gets chilled bones."
Papyrus looked at the human in his arms and the slightly drenched blue jacket now then back at Sans who stood there in his white shirt and back at the human. "I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL MAKE SURE YOU WILL GET BACK INTO THE WARM! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!"
With that Papyrus took off running with the human girl in his hands. Not caring that he was practically running over ice now. Sans followed his enthusiastic brother in a much slower pace, thinking about if he should take a short cut home and wait for them there with hot chocolate. But suddenly Papyrus surprised yelp lead the shorter skeleton to hurry and he was just in time to see Papyrus sliding head first on the ground and Frisk flying through the air with spread arms both at high speed.
"FRISK!" Sans yelled as the child was still a few feet above to the ground but close to crashing into a tree.
His hand was already outstretched and a blue glow was forming around the child. Suddenly an orange glow appeared surrounding it faster than the blue one, stopping Frisk centimeters from the tree. But the human was no longer facing the tree instead she was staring at Sans with mild curiosity.
The short skeleton blinked and looked at his brother who had slid into a pile of snow his head still buried in it but one of his hands was held upwards and had an orange glow to it.
"NYEH HEH HEH HEH! FEAR NOT MY FRIEND I GOT YOU!" The taller skeletons muffled words were heard through the snow and the human only giggled as they were slowly let down onto the ground.
'That was too close…' Sans thought horrified. 'A little more and everything would have been messed up.'
The short skeleton grimaced at this thought. Humans weren't invincible. They could break easily if treaded wrong, he was very aware of this fact. Frisk nearly flew at high speed into a tree was a frightening experience. Sans realized he couldn't let his guard down in watching over the kid. Even the slightest accidents could lead to her death. How had he been able to go so relaxed about this in past timelines?
A tugging on his sleeve brought Sans a third time this day out of his thoughts and he looked at the child that looked curious at him while he saw in the corner of his eye-sockets that Papyrus was picking himself up from the ground.
"Name." Was all Frisk said and Sans realized what she was asking. Sweat was forming on the back of his skull.
"Lucky guess he he he." Sans answered a little nervous, not really happy with the answer he gave the girl and he saw the skepticisms written all over her face. She opened her mouth to say more but thank god for his brother.
She was lifted off her feet in a matter of seconds as Papyrus inspected her turning her around and upside down in his hands "THANK GOD HUMAN! YOU ARE UNHARMED!"
"LETS GO! WE NEED TO GET YOU INTO THE WARM! I DO NOT BELIEVE A HUMANS FACE IS SUPPOSED TO TURN THIS RED." Papyrus concluded still holding her upside down. Frisk on the other hand was smiling brightly at the skeleton, trying to show him that she was alright while the blood practically rushed into her head.
Sans watched with slight relieve as Papyrus was heading off to their home this time at a slower pace. The shorter skeleton didn't follow them instantly. He was mentally beating himself up a little over the slip up. He couldn't effort to have the girl distrust him.
"SANS?!" Papyrus voice came from the distance. "ARE YOU COMING BROTHER?!"
"I am on my way bro." Sans answered lazily, shaking his head. He could beat himself up later. For now there was a human that needed to be saved from too much blood in their head.
"I don't think you are supposed to hold humans like that bro." He said grinning as he walked up to them and his brothers eyes went wide. Turning the child around in his hands Papyrus apologized to the little girl only to be answered by a sneeze.
"HUMAN ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!" Papyrus asked a little panicked as the girl sneezed once more.
"I think…" Frisk started in a small voice before she grinned. "I am getting a femur."
Papyrus let out a groan as Sans chuckled. "That was fibula kid."
"SANS! DON'T ENCOURAGE THE HUMAN!" Papyrus yelled not wanting to hear anymore puns but sadly Sans kept them coming.
That was until suddenly everything around Sans turned into static and a feeling of dreed filled him as he could not hear or see anything clear for several moments. Slowly the static sound changed and the skeleton felt like something was trying to talk to him thought it. The static in his vision cleared and Sans was faced with the image of Frisk kneeling head down, her soul howering infront and Papyrus dressed in black standing before the girl.
"What…" Sans stopped his voice wasn't coming out even thought he new he said something. He tried to move forward to the two but he couldn't move.
"This… is… the end… human…" For some reasons Papyrus voice was sounding not like the voice Sans knew. It was more static like as if someone was talking through a bad connection. Sans could also not remember that his brother had a crack in the skull over his left eye-socket or under his right one.
The shorter skeletons eyes glowed brightly as shock washed over him. That was not Papyrus. That was…
Static washed over him once again and the short skeleton found himself before his house. Papyrus was looking worriedly down at him while Frisk was tugging at his sleeve also worry written all over their face.
"SANS? ARE YOU OKAY?" Papyrus asked placing a hand on his brother shoulder, while the girl was still holding on to his jacket.
"Yea… I am alright bro." Sans slowly answered, covering his face shortly with a boney hand before he looked at the two with a strained grin and ruffling the girls hair. "No worries kiddo. Everything is going to be okay."