Frisk stood just outside the exit to the RUINS. His hands pulled the straps of his cream-colored backpack tight against his body, trying to ward off the cold. Just another thing that came with this not being a game, he had to deal with the chill of the Snowden weather.

Luckily he didn't have to deal with it for long. A shimmering purple and yellow forcefield sprang to life around him before quickly becoming transparent.

*Sigh*

Frisk's breath created a cloud in front of him, but the chill of the weather had been significantly reduced by his Aura. He wasn't the greatest at keeping it on when traveling, but the weather's chill should be a good enough reminder if he let it drop.

Luckily Frisk had left Toriel's house on good terms, and she had allowed him, even asked him to rest for a while and take some extra items for the journey. So his Aura should be able to last for a while out in the snow, and he had some 100G stored in his backpack along with a few changes of clothes.

Deciding he should probably start walking, Frisk looked around the forest he had just entered. While he knew that the Underground was intended to be a prison, he couldn't help but marvel at how amazing the place was. Looking up, he couldn't see the end of the sky. It was almost as if an entire world had been packed into this place.

*Creak*

Frisk was brought out of his ruminations by a sound from the forest that instantly put him on high alert. He scanned the surrounding trees, but they were too thick to see very far.

It was probably just Sans. Frisk was pretty sure this was around the time in the game when he was introduced. But he still had to be cautious; there was no telling if time differences would make a difference here.

Also, Frisk had been on high alert since he passed that suspiciously perfect circle of grass that led out of the RUINS. He hadn't seen Flowey in a while, and Frisk had thought that Flowey would come to brag. That, or just kill him again.

After he walked for a few more minutes, Frisk rounded a corner. In the distance, he saw what looked like a wooden gate sticking out of the snow. It was built across a hole in the ground that ran across the entire path. When he was closer, he realized it, in fact, was a wooden gate, a massive one.

Or maybe he was just short now. With that in mind, the logs that made up the gate were pretty far apart. He could probably just slip right through them. Actually, everything about the gate and bridge crossing the hole seemed to be of pretty shoddy design. Maybe he should try and find a way around it.

*Crunch*

Frisk was so distracted examining the bridge that he only heard snow crunching when it was right behind him.

"HUMAN." A deep voice echoed from right behind Frisk.

Frisk's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively spun around, aiming a backhand at his stalker.

The backhand passed through nothing but air, and Frisk was left to look in front of him for another panicked moment. Frisk tried to calm himself down, telling himself that it was just Sans messing with him and not Flowey.

"That's not how you greet a new pal." The voice somehow came from behind Frisk again.

This time, Frisk could stop his instinctive attack but could not control the high pitch yelp that came from his mouth.

The voice only paused for a second. "Turn around and shake my hand."

Much slower this time, Frisk turned around and took the offered hand.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

*PFFFFTTT*

A fart noise echoed through the forest, and everything was quiet for a second.

"Hehe, the old whoopie cushion in the hand trick. It's Always funny." Sans snickered out.

*Snort*

Frisk tried to hold in his laughter but couldn't entirely suppress it. It was just so corny. Frisk hadn't seen one of those used since daycare. And this however many years old skeleton just used one as a greeting. The laughter allowed him to relax and take a better look at Sans.

It was surprising how well Sans pulled off being a walking pile of bones and not looking threatening at all. Maybe it was the slippers he wore, the casual unzipped hoodie, the expression on his face, or, more probably, a combination of the three. But they all came together to appear like a pretty average dude, if said dude had no skin.

"Hmmm," Sans seemed to contemplate, "Wasn't the best first impression, but laughing at my joke brings it back. The name's Sans. Sans the skeleton."

"Ahh," Frisk played with the sleeve of his sweatshirt awkwardly. "Sorry about that. I guess this forest has made me a little jumpy. The name's Frisk. Frisk the human." Frisk replied in turn.

"A human? That's hilarious." Sans said while looking at Frisk menacingly. "I'm actually supposed to be on watch for humans right now."

Sans waited a couple seconds.

"Buuuut. I don't really care about capturing anybody." Sans said, dropping the act just as quickly as he started it. "Now, my brother Papyrus… He is a human hunting fanatic."

Frisk didn't really know how to respond to that. "Well… I guess it's a good thing he's not here then?"

"Heh, funny story. I think that's actually him over there." Sans said while looking across the bridge. "How about you go through the bars of this gate here," Frisk was taken by the hand and quickly dragged through the gate and over to the other side. "And hide behind that conveniently shaped lamp." he pointed Frisk toward a lamp that, for some reason, was sitting in the snow.

Frisk didn't really have much choice if he didn't want to be seen. So he hid behind the lamp that was almost the perfect shape for a human body.

Frisk quietly sighed and listened as Sans talked to his brother. Their conversation almost made Frisk laugh a couple times and blow his cover. Papyrus berated Sans for not recalibrating his puzzles, and Sans just seemed to go with the flow. Papyrus then moved on to fantasizing about how great it would be to capture a human.

Frisk knew that Papyrus should be his next obstacle to get through. But he honestly couldn't bring himself to take Papyrus seriously. After learning about him in the game and hearing his voice say those same cheesy lines, it was honestly kind of endearing. And Frisk still had to devise a plan to defeat Flowey, so he wasn't in that much of a hurry.

By playing along with Papyrus and his traps, Frisk really wouldn't lose much. The traps shouldn't be dangerous, and it would be a good way of getting into Sans good books. Who knows, maybe they will be able to take his mind off the dread of knowing that at basically any moment, all of his progress could be lost.

It was just ending when Frisk finally started to pay attention to the conversation again.

"I will attend to my Puzzles." Papyrus called out in an annoyed voice. "As for your work? Put a little more… backbone into it." He finished with a smile.

"NYEHEHEHE!" Papyrus laughed at his own pun while strutting away.

"You can come out now," Sans called out.

Frisk walked out from behind the lamp and returned to where Sans was standing.

"Thanks for that." Frisk thanked him.

"Heh, don't mention it, kid. You oughta get going, though. He might come back, and if he does, you might have to listen to more of my jokes." Sans waved Frisk off in the direction of Snowden.

"Ok, see you later!" Frisk called out and started on his way.

"Actually, hey… You seem like a nice human. Could you do me a favor?" Sans asked, and Frisk turned back around. "My brother has been kinda down lately, and seeing you might just make his day…." Sans paused.

"Sure," Frisk said, having already decided to play along.

"Don't worry- Eh, you agree already, huh." Sans looked at Frisk carefully before turning around. "Well, thanks a million. I'll be up ahead." He called out as he disappeared behind the bend in the wrong direction.

"Danm," Frisk muttered to himself.

He had seen how Sans had looked at him right before he left. So maybe he was being a little too explicit with his knowledge of the maybe future. In the end, though it hopefully wouldn't make much of a difference, he did offer to help Papyrus after all. But the truth was that Frisk wasn't an actor, and he didn't know precisely what Sans knew and didn't.

It was always kind of ambiguous in the games. Sans certainly knew about the resets, but how much was in question. Did he only know that the resets were happening and figured out the player was doing it during the story? Did he remember the resets completely? Or maybe the answer was somewhere in between.

Frisk was leaning more towards not remembering completely because Sans would probably vary his attacks during the genocide route battle if he could. But the thing was, he didn't know for sure, and these questions would be integral to how strong of an ally Sans could be against Flowey.

Frisk shook his head and continued forward. This was why he needed a distraction. If he just stood here thinking for eternity, nothing would happen.