Papyrus cleared his throat. “Shall we commence the family meeting?”
“Whenever you want, bro,” Sans rocked on the two back legs of his chair, his foot hooked underneath the kitchen table as an anchor. “Coulda done it from the couch, though.”
“Nonsense! This is very important business! We can’t have our first meeting with half of us sitting on the floor.”
Doomfanger mewed.
“Thank you, Doomfanger,” Papyrus said, patting her head.
“So, what’d you wanna show us?” Flowey asked from Frisk’s shoulder.
“The solution!” Papyrus grabbed a large box from beside his chair and placed it with a thud on the table.
Flowey glanced from the box to Papyrus. “You mean…?”
“I did say I would do my upmost to protect you two,” Papyrus said. “I thought an excellent first step would be to provide you with armor!”
Flowey eagerly extended to his full height, trying to peer into the box. Frisk stood on their chair, put their hands on the edge of the box, and peered inside with Flowey. It was neatly organized with folded piles of cloth and stacked armor pieces. There were some random odds and ends including the remains of old Halloween costumes. Whether the costumes had simply been from the surface or if the brothers had used them for a Halloween related monster event, Frisk couldn’t tell. Looking closely, Frisk could see white fur stuck to several of the fabric pieces.
“How’d you get all this stuff?” Flowey asked, bouncing a little.
Sans let his chair thud back onto all four legs. “The dump.”
“What?” Flowey said.
Sans shrugged. “That’s where most things come from these days. But, some of those pieces are real treasures.”
Frisk leaned into the box, standing on their tiptoes and stretching their arm out at full length to reach a bag that had caught their eye. The bag rattled with metal. Frisk opened it and dumped the contents onto the table. Jewelry spilled out—necklaces, gold chains, broaches, bracelets, and lots and lots of rings. Frisk hurried to keep the jewelry from rolling to the floor, but some of the rings fell off the table. Doomfanger flicked her tail as she watched the child scramble to gather the shiny items. She pawed at the rings that had rolled her way and followed them as they rolled to the ground to play with them under the table.
“That’s where those ended up,” Sans said, catching a few.
“If I hadn’t put them away, they would’ve ended up like your sock—collecting filth,” Papyrus said.
“Decoration. It gives that corner of the room more sole.”
Papyrus groaned. “I’ll grab the rest of it from the shed before you pun-ish us more.”
Sans moved like he was about to say something as Papyrus stomped out of the room. He chuckled to himself before asking, “Wanna try on some of ‘em?”
As Frisk looked through the rings still on the table, Sans stood on his chair and haphazardly dug through the box, unfolding the neatly stacked clothing items as he searched. He let a couple of jackets fall over the edge of the box to the floor as he dragged out a black and red one. He jumped off his chair and held the coat up to Frisk.
“This outta fit. Wanna try it on?”
Frisk slid off their chair and accepted the coat from Sans. As Frisk tried it on, Sans sorted through the jewelry, picking out his favorite pieces. The coat was long at the waist, and Frisk’s hands were hidden within the sleeves. Frisk fully stretched out an arm, only the very tips of their fingers visible from under the fabric.
“This is armor?” Flowey commented.
“Well, can’t have ya getting’ cold out there,” Sans said.
Flowey grunted, unable to argue with his reasoning. Snowdin was pretty cold, and Frisk did need something warmer.
Handing several gold necklaces and rings to Frisk, Sans said, “How ‘bout these, too?”
Frisk slipped the necklaces over their head and struggled to figure out which fingers the rings would fit on. They managed to get a ring to stay on each of their thumbs before placing the other ones back on the table.
Flowey’s face screwed up in disgust. The child was covered in gold like someone playing dress-up with their mother’s jewelry and high heels.
“This is ridiculous.” Flowey mumbled. “They look like an idiot.”
“Look so bad that the bling scares ‘em away.” Sans winked. “Armor.”
Flowey frowned. “Yeah, right.”
“What?” Sans carefully selected a ring from the table. He held it out to Flowey. “Jealous?”
“No!”
Flowey snatched the ring out of his hand and found a way to loop it around his vines. He straightened a little until he realized that Sans was grinning even wider. Flowey grumbled about it looking dumb.
“Well, it’s up to you, bud, if you take or leave the bling.”
“I would consider that decision wisely, Frisk,” Papyrus said, returning with a pile of armor in his arms.
“A little bit of extra bling might have some monsters thinkin’ twice,” Sans said.
“Or make you more conspicuous.”
“Well, that’s why yer coverin’ the actual armor part.” Sans sat back down in his seat.
Papyrus set the armor in a neat row on the floor. Frisk slipped off the coat and folded it over their chair. They placed the jewelry back on the table and joined Papyrus where he had set up the armor. They poked through the armor on the floor, frowning at how most of it seemed to be too large. Unlike a jacket, a too long breast plate would make it hard to walk. There were some smaller pieces, though, and Frisk found themself more drawn to the pieces they thought they could actually handle the weight of. They picked up a pair of dark brown leather bracers. The ribbon running through the eyelets was worn in places, but the bracers themselves were well-cared for. Burnt into the leather was the insignia of the Deltarune.
“An excellent choice, human!” Papyrus knelt beside Frisk as they slid the bracers onto their arms.
Frisk struggled to tighten the armor as it slid off their arm when they tried to tie it. Papyrus took his own set of bracers off and showed Frisk how to tie on the armor with one hand. Despite the bracers being clumsily tied, when Frisk shook their arms, the bracers didn’t fall off. Frisk smiled up at Papyrus.
Papyrus laughed. “Well done, human!” He selected a helmet and offered it to the child. “How about this as well?”
Frisk put on the helmet. It rested unsteadily on their shoulders, and the visor fell well below their eyes.
“If they can’t see your face, they won’t know you’re human!” Papyrus said.
Frisk attempted to nod before jostling the helmet and unbalancing it. They made a slightly distressed grunt, and Flowey lifted it off their head.
“Yeah, fits great,” Flowey said.
Papyrus frowned and looked over the remaining armor. “That’s the smallest one we have.”
He walked back to the box that was on the table, his foot getting caught on one of the coats that Sans had left on the ground. Papyrus hopped on one leg a couple of paces. Sans and Flowey snickered.
“Shut up.” Papyrus pried the coat from his foot and threw it at Sans.
Sans leaned over just enough for the coat to miss him. Papyrus rolled his eyes. Pulling items out of the box and leaving them folded and organized on the table, Papyrus picked out a tattered pair of pauldrons that had a half-cape attached to them. He judged the metal part to be too large for Frisk and carefully started working the faded black fabric out from the metal. When he started looking around for a tool, Sans already had a hand out holding what he was looking for. Papyrus grunted his thanks.
Frisk and Flowey curiously watched Papyrus from the other side of the table.
“A skilled maker made this a long time ago,” Papyrus said. “The fabric should offer some protection.”
Papyrus offered the fabric to Frisk, and Frisk gingerly took it. It was uneven on the ends but carefully hemmed, making up for any fraying that had happened over time. Some places in the middle of the fabric were skillfully sewn closed; the repairs were unnoticeable unless someone was looking for signs of wear. Frisk wrapped the fabric around themself. It fit like a cloak.
“Some amount of protection?” Flowey gaped at the cloth. It gave off a strong defensive magic. A very old magic. “This is incredible.”
“It…is,” Papyrus said, glancing away. “It was a gift a long time ago.”
“Huh…” Flowey glanced between the brothers, unable to get a full read on either of them.
“May I?” Papyrus asked, motioning to the fabric. Frisk nodded and Papyrus carefully arranged the fabric to lay better. “I can take it in so it will fit better.”
Frisk nodded, and Papyrus stepped back to look at his and his brother’s work. Papyrus put his hand to his chin and tapped his foot, frowning. Frisk gave a questioning look.
“I suppose we do still have the issue that you appear,” Papyrus paused, “very humany.”
Flowey grinned creepily. “We can make them scary!”
“That’s what the bling was for,” Sans said.
“That’s not scary!” Flowey waved his petals. “I’m talkin’ lazers! Wings! Horns! Hyperdeath blasters! Chaos blade bracers!”
Sans chuckled, “As cool as those sound, ’fraid we’re all of those, bud.”
“Th—then, we’ll just make them!” Flowey rustled. “You got enough stuff here for it!”
Frisk set Flowey down on the table for him to pour over what he could use. Frisk and Papyrus joined Flowey in searching for items after Frisk had hung the cloak over the back of their chair. Frisk clambered back onto the chair and peered into the box again. With Papyrus having moved some of the items onto the table, they could see more of the contents. Frisk leaned the box over until what they wanted was within arm’s reach. Triumphantly, they pulled out a pair of red horns and put it on. They eagerly looked at the brothers.
“It looks good on ya, kid,” Sans said.
“It’s a start,” Flowey said. “Just wait ‘til we make them chaos horns!”
The brothers smiled, giving each other a small nod.
“So, human,” Papyrus said, “do you think any of this will work for you?”
Frisk nodded and scurried to gather what they liked. They left on the bracers and horns, slipped on the jacket, and wrapped the piece of fabric around themself. They spun around and made a “ta-da!” move. The fabric slid off of Frisk, and they tried to toss it back over their shoulder. They struggled to get the fabric to lay in a way that would let them maintain mobility without it falling off.
“Just a sec.” Sans walked out of the kitchen, turned the corner, and within a few moments reappeared around the corner. “Here, kid. This’ll help keep that in place.”
Sans handed Frisk a silver skull and cross-bones broach. The eyes of the skull were made of crystal or glass—Frisk couldn’t quite tell. Even Flowey eyed the broach calling it fancy. Sans snorted at that. Frisk rearranged the fabric to how they liked it around their shoulders and pinned the broach. They spun again, this time, the fabric staying in place. They beamed up at Sans and Papyrus.
I finally finished it! This one was a doozy to write--mainly because these characters are in a situation where they actually let down their guard for once. I hope you enjoyed the fluff! This story stands alone, but I intended it to connect to No Tea!. There's a story that takes place between this one and No Tea!, but it's a little heavier, and I wanted to do it right. So, that one is still in the works.
I've been working on this one off and on for 6 months at this point, and Flowey really gave me a lot of trouble for some reason when I was writing it. But, I'm so happy to finally have it finished so that I can share it with you guys!
I really hope the characterization comes across okay. Again, these guys are in a situation where they can let down their guards for once, so some of the walls that they normally keep up are down. But, it's also a serious situation in which they're doing their best to keep lighthearted. After all, they're now responsible for this kid in a world where multiple things are against them. And, where there's a lot of dangers (Asgore, being closely connected to a member of the royal guard, their world overall). I think a lot of their struggle and concern about this will likely come up in the in-between story, so hopefully their attitudes aren't too jarring in this one.
This was pretty hard to write, but I think the story keeps moving forward, and, hopefully, reveals things about the characters at the very least as they try help Frisk survive an unforgiving world.
Sorry for the undertale-ish related stuff- I got in suuuuuper late into the fandom so im just trying to wear out the need to draw-
Plus I wanted to test out how skeleton leggings would look on regular clothing, or well something underfell inspired.
