'This is a box. You can put an item inside, or take an item out. The same box will appear later, so don't worry about coming back. Sincerely, a box lover.'

Both twins shared a look at the strange message as they tugged at the blanked covering the two for more warmth. Rin decided to look inside the box, and to his joy he found there was already an object inside; a worn pink leather glove.

"Thank you, Box Lover." Rin said to no one in particular as he put it on. "This could help us if we find a bad monster like Flowey!"

"You're right!" Yukio smiled in turn. The red mist that had been following him around (and which Yukio suspected it to be Chara) got closer to the weapon.

"Tough Glove: Weapon Attack 5. For five-fingered folk." they described, making Yukio hide a smile.

Unfortunately, the box hadn't been out of sight when they felt the by now familiar pull on their SOULS as a monster appeared.

"SNOWDRAKE flutters forth!" Chara warned unnecessarily. Yukio and Rin both ignored the buttons, not knowing if they were in a situation that they could use them or more of a action-reaction situation, like the battle with Toriel had been.

"If someone cares," Chara started, "Snowdrake has 6 AT and 2 DEF. This teen comedian fights to keep a captivated audience." this almost made Yukio groan aloud. Another comedian?

"Wanna hear a joke?" the monster that looked like a cross between a snowflake and a bird asked them. "Better not snow 'flake' out!" he stared with a big grin as the twins fought to keep their SOULS from touching the magic of the monster's attack. Yukio forced a laugh at Snowdrake's pun, it was so bad it was funny. The monster's eyes lit up.

"See?! Laughs! Dad was wrong!" the monster exclaimed. Rin pushed the MERCY button without hesitation, ending the battle. The elder twin turned to his brother.

"See, Yukio? He seems like an ice person," Rin chimed in with a big grin. Yukio's face fell.

"Leave." the younger said as he facepalmed. "Get out. I'm...I'm going ahead."

"That's really cold-hearted of you, leaving me here right now," Rin chuckled.

Snowdrake laughed along. "You're good too!"

"Could you tell us if there's a village somewhere?" Yukio asked, wondering if they would have to walk all night. The monster nodded.

"Snowdin Village is right ahead. Just keep moving forwards, and you'll end up in it."

The brother smiled, relieved. "Thank you!"

As it turns out, the Okumura twins found the skeleton brothers a few meters ahead, appearing to be chatting with each other.

"SO, AS I WAS SAYING ABOUT UNDYNE..." The taller brother, Papyrus, was saying. The sentence died in his lips as he noticed the two children who were tumbling along. He looked at Sans. Sans looked at Papyrus. Papyrus looked at Sans. And so on faster and faster until it seemed they were spinning in place. Yukio cracked a grin, Chara crackled freely and Frisk laughed into his hand as they watched the display.

Then they turned around. "Hey!" Frisk called out to them. "Over here!"

The skeletons ignored him, being immersed into their own conversation.

"SANS! OH MY GOD, ARE THOSE HUMANS?" Papyrus said in his version of a whisper, which wasn't very soft at all. Still, it was an improvement considering his normal tone of voice, for which Frisk was grateful. His ears were ringing.

"uhhh..." the shorter skeleton began. "actually, i think that's a rock." both human brother looked behind them to see there indeed was a rock there.

"OH."

"hey, what are those in front of the rock?" Sans asked, and Frisk could've sworn his permanent grin widened.

"OH MY GOD!" Papyrus began all over again, before turning to Sans to make sure. "ARE THOSE...ARE THOSE HUMANS?" he did his 'whisper'.

"yep."

"OH MY GOD!" Papyrus repeated with much more enthusiasm. Frisk promptly covered his ears as Yukio sent him a pitying look. "SANS, I FINALLY DID IT!" the skeleton cheered. "UNDYNE WILL... I'M GONNA... I'LL BE SO POPULAR! POPULAR! POPULAR!" the skeleton could barely form sentences due to excitement.

"AHEM," in Frisk'd opinion, the skeleton got over his excitement extremely quickly. "HUMANS! YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL STOP YOU. I WILL THEN CAPTURE YOU! YOU'LL-"

"Why?" Yukio asked from beside Frisk in a slightly loud voice, as to be heard.

"-BE DELIVERED TO- WHAT?" Papyrus stopped short. "WHY WHAT?"

"Why do you have to capture us?" Yukio inquired, pulling his brother closer to him. "We're humans but we haven't done anything to monsters." well except for that poor Froggit. "

Papyrus looked at Sans as though asking for help. "WELL, IT'S A RULE THAT EVERY HUMAN THAT COMES HERE MUST BE CAPTURED AND DELIVERED TO THE CAPITAL. THEN...I'M NOT SURE WHAT'S NEXT." he admitted. "BUT IN ANY CASE! CONTINUE, ONLY IF YOU DARE!"

The taller skeleton was already walking away, giving one of his particular laughs, when Frisk interrupted him. "What are you gonna do?"

This time Papyrus looked like he couldn't believe his...ears? Earholes? "HMMM... YOU MUST BE HAVING CULTURE SHOCK. YOU SEE, WHERE I COME FROM, IT'S A LOVING TRADITION TO SUFFER THROUGH HORRIBLE PUZZLES FOR NO REASON."

Frisk's mouth curled downwards at the same time Yukio's curled upwards. "Puzzles? I love puzzles!" the younger twin said.

Papyrus seemed more animated by the enthusiastic response. "WELL THEN YOU'RE GOING TO LOVE THE ONES I HAVE PREPARED! NYEHEHEHEHE!" With that he ran up the path, leaving the brothers with the short skeleton.

"well, that went well." Sans opined. "hey, don't sweat it. i'll keep an eyesocket out for ya."

After they had the battle with Doggo (which left Frisk weirded out and Yukio shaking with laughter at the dog's ridiculous attire) and learning from Sans about Papyrus' blue attack, they finally made it to the first puzzle.

"Hiya, we're back!" Frisk greeted them. The orange-clad skeleton immediately looked at him.

"...OH-HO! THE HUMANS ARRIVE!" Papyrus said with glee. "IN ORDER TO STOP YOU, MY BROTHER AND I HAVE CREATED SOME PUZZLES!" Papyrus explained. "I THINK YOU WILL FIND THIS ONE...QUITE SHOCKING!"

Yukio raised his eyebrows at the tone. "Was that a pun?"

"It totally was."

Flowey watched in confusion as the two humans travelled the path to Snowdin, in the middle of getting through Papyrus' ridiculous puzzles and battling with the Dog Guards.

"Nii-san, please, you've been petting Lesser Dog for an hour!"

In between hearing his sibling calling 'brother' to other random human, and the sheer coldness of Snowdin, this flower was in a very sour mood.

Chara's behaviour was confusing him greatly. They had been so close that last time! What had stopped them? And now they were taking the difficult way out and trying to make friends. Flowey would bet his stem it was all the blue-haired kid's doing. Or maybe Chara had their memories erased by the RESET... Well obviously something happened to them! They had glasses and a watered down version of their SOUL!

But of course! Flowey would've smacked himself if he still had hands. He himself hadn't remembered he was Asriel until a few days of being a flower. Chara must be experiencing that, too!

Flowey watched from the edge of the bridge as the boys faced -surprisingly- what looked like a decent human-hunting puzzle. Cannons, spikes, blades, a little white dog...

"BEHOLD! THE GAUNTLET OF DEADLY TERROR!" Papyrus was saying as Flowey felt the urge to smack the skeleton with his vines. What the hell was he doing? Didn't he know that humans are fragile?!

Now all he needed to do was to talk to Chara alone (he didn't like the other kid, and suspected the feeling was mutual) and everything would get back to normal again.

Flowey realized he had become distracted when the younger skeleton tried to activate the puzzle but couldn't.

"that, uh, doesn't look very activated." Sans commented. Papyrus was obviously reluctant to do it, but tried to at the kids' insistence. "I'M TRYING BUT IT...DOESN'T...WAIT A SECOND, ARE THOSE BITE MARKS? TOBY!" Papyrus yelled out as the dog didn't even look ashamed, only yipped happily. "LOOKIE HERE, IT SEEMS THIS DOESN'T WORK. AWAY IT GOES!"

Flowey couldn't deny that he sighed in relief.

'WELCOME TO SNOWDIN' Yukio and Frisk read the sign as they finally (finally!) approached the town.

"We need to look for a place to sleep." the younger twin, ever-practical, said. After roaming the town, buying some Cinnamon Buns and visiting the librarby at Yukio's insistence, they got a room in the Snowed Inn for the both of them.

As they were admiring the Not-Christmas tree, an armless yellow monster walked up to them.

"Yo!" they said in greeting. "You're kids too, right?"

Both Frisk and Yukio nodded, the asking for clarification -they supposed- was understandable, as there had to be small adult monsters and the like.

"I can tell 'cos you're wearing striped shirts! I'm MK by the way." it grinned.

"Is that how you tell kids apart?" Yukio asked.

MK nodded. "By the way, what kind of monster are you? I've never seen you around. Where are you from?"

Before Yukio could formulate a response, Frisk was on it. "We come from the Ruins. Our mom let us explore for once."

The young monster child's eyes widened. "You come from the Ruins? Awesome! I've never been there 'cos the doors are always closed."

As they continued walking, a group of monster children invited them to play a snowball fight. Frisk agreed enthusiastically, not exactly used to that kind of interaction, and Yukio declined, preferring to keep MK company and laugh at the snow battle.

After it was over and Rin decided to let the other two play, Yukio looked at his brother. His hair was messy and his cheeks red from the cold, shivering slightly from the temperature that made Yukio hand him his part of the blanket. Rin looked happier than he had ever seen him in his life.

"We should play a game everyone can play." Rin stated, looking at MK. The armless monster child smiled at him gratefully.

"Darumasan ga koronda?" Chara suggested, planting themself in front of Yukio.

"Nah," the boy replied, ignoring the confused stares.

"Hana Ichi Monme?"

"I don't think MK can play that... Besides they don't know the lyrics."

"Kancho?"

"Chara-san, I don't wanna anger anyone."

"Onigokko?" Rin suggested, though his panting voice denied the game by itself. "Oshikura Manju? It's cold enough."

"How about Kagome Kagome?" Chara tried once more.

Yukio sighed. This would take a while.

We'll free everyone

Do you doubt me?

A kid who slept in the soil

We'll free everyone

Two kids who played in a muddy flower garden

Do you doubt me?

We just need six

Asriel...

"Who's Asriel?" Yukio woke up staring right into blue eyes. After playing all say, they went right back at the Inn to catch some sleep. It made Yukio feel guilty, because the day before he had all but forgotten about his Tou-san, who must be worried sick...

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chara now was pretty much a red, slightly translucent kid. "Morning, wimpy." the ghost greeted.

"I don't know." the younger finally replied to his elder brother, getting up and rubbing at his eyes to shake off sleep. He had been having weird dreams lately.

Darumasan ga koronda: Green light, red light.

Hana Ichi Monme: Game similar to Red Roven

Kancho: Japanese prank performed by clasping the hands together in the shape of an imaginary gun and attempting to poke an unsuspecting victim's anus, often while exclaiming "Kan-CHO!"

Onigokko: Tag

Review please!

H. E. B.