Chapter Text
The boy trembles as he points the gun at the bird-like monster in front of him, a small trail of blood dripping down the side of his face from where he was hit by one of the icicles shot at him. He’s frozen with fear as he clutches the gun, his quivering finger struggling to find the trigger as he pulls the safety off. Squeezing his eyes, he finally pulls the trigger, hearing the loud echo of the gunshot.
He slowly opens his eyes, his gaze landing on the monster still untouched as it stares down at him. He feels horror flood his senses as he realizes he missed the other completely. It wracks through his body, his already weakened hands going lax as his body numbs with dread; the gun falls to the snowy floor. He watches as the wintry bird gears up in front of him, preparing to send another attack towards him. Still racked with fear, he feels himself drop to his knees as he stares up at his opponent, already preparing to lose.
Just as he’s ready to accept his fate, a blur of sapphire and glitter darts in front of him, slicing a clean blow across the feathery foe. He blinks as he watches the scene in front of him unfold. A fairy, no… another boy stands between him and the monster, gracefully dodging the attacks before landing hits of his own. He moves quickly and smoothly, almost a blur of the night sky as he lands hit after hit on the opponent.
After what feels like just a few minutes of fighting, the bird struggles backwards before fading away into a plume of dust and sparkles. The twirling boy seemingly floats down to the ground, landing daintily atop the snowy floor. He smooths out his braided hair and tulle tutu before looking over his shoulder, his eyes widening as they land on who had been watching him.
He quickly rushes over, kneeling in the snow, his leggings dampening from the snow, as he checks on the still astonished boy who had been watching him,
“Oh no… are you okay?” he asks, carefully touching the side of his head where the blood was trickling out before pulling out a cinnamon roll. “Here! I got this from a town just a little ways up the road.”
He tears his gaze away from the figure fretting over him, glancing down at the food being offered to him,
“Are… are you an angel?” he asks suddenly.
“Huh?” he questions immediately before giggling lightly, “No… I’m not an angel. I’m Blue.”
“Blue…” the boy echoes quietly, his gaze sweeping across the shimmering tutu and long-sleeved leotard the other boy wears in awe, “You’re mighty pretty, Blue… and mighty kind as well.”
Blue looks at him in momentary surprise before smiling softly,
“Well then, you’re mighty strong and brave… Yellow,” he says, tapping the edge of the cowboy hat the other boy wears playfully.
The cowboy’s eyes nearly sparkle as he looks up at the ballerina,
“You’re a human too, right? If you’re not an angel?”
Blue nods, smiling,
“You are too, right?”
Yellow nods excitedly, quickly slowing down as he registers the wound that is still on the side of his head. Blue steadies him before pressing the cinnamon roll he was still holding into the other boy’s palm before helping him stand up,
“Here, eat this; it’ll make you feel better,” he says. “There’s a town up ahead you can rest at if you want to come with me. There are shops and even an Inn if you need somewhere to sleep.”
Yellow weakly holds onto the food as he steadies himself against Blue, nodding along with what he is saying.
__________
The two eventually made it into the town, Yellow staying close to Blue the entire walk. He had finished the cinnamon roll while walking, immediately making him feel a little better and able to walk on his own alongside Blue.
Once the pair reached the Inn in town, Yellow was quickly spruced up. His clothes now cleaned up from his journey across the snowy land, and the blood that had previously been trickling had been wiped up; the wound miraculously already healed.
They now sit across from each other at a booth in a bar in the winter town, two orders of burgers and fries in front of them. They made quick work of their food, the two children ravenous from the battle they had just gone through. Blue now sips from a milkshake he ordered from the bartender, who passes it across the bar wordlessly.
“So… how long have you been down here?” Yellow asks as he pushes ketchup around on his plate with a fry, “You seemed to know a lot more about fighting back there.”
Blue thinks for a moment, bringing a hand up to his chin,
“Maybe… a few years?” he says, almost unsure.
“Years?!” Yellow exclaims, looking up from his plate, “You’ve been here that long?”
Blue looks at him from across the table before nodding,
“Yeah… I don’t really keep track of time, but it must have been at least a couple of years since I fell down here.”
A look of shock and almost horror crosses Yellow’s face as he looks at Blue,
“That’s so long though… I’ve only been here a few weeks, and I already miss home,” he says, his eyes welling up. “Don’t… Don't you miss home?”
Blue’s eyes widen for a moment before he smiles sympathetically, reaching across the table to wipe the tears starting to stream down Yellow’s face,
“Of course I do, but… Ms Toriel, I guess you met her already, is a really good person and always checks up on me once in a while. And there are really nice people here, well, one always threatens to capture me, but then we end up eating dinner with his brother, which is always nice.”
The little cowboy sniffs before looking up at the other boy,
“R-really? She told me not to come back to the ruins and that I wouldn’t see her again.”
Blue nods, smiling widely,
“She said the same to me, but she calls me sometimes to see how I’m doing, how far I’ve gone.”
Yellow nods along, wiping his eyes messily,
“How far have you gone? Ms Toriel said it would be a long journey to Asgore. How much is outside of this town?”
Blue seems to pause at this, the smile slowly dropping from his face. He sits back in his seat, his eyes falling to his plate,
“I… uh, haven’t gotten much further than this town,” he admits. Well, there’s a waterfall if you keep walking down the main road of town, but I haven’t gone past there.”
Yellow seems to notice the drop in energy immediately from the other child, how he seems to almost curl up into himself,
“Why… not?” he asks hesitantly, uncertain if Blue would want to share.
“Well… if you go too far into the waterfall land, there’s a knight, Undyne, always scouting for humans to bring our souls and us to Asgore. I couldn’t beat her when I fought against her and had to give up and run away,” he explains. “After that, I didn’t go back for a while until another kid fell down here, Purple. They were really smart and willing to go through anything to get to Asgore, and it inspired me to try fighting against Undyne again, but… right as we were about to beat her, Purple delayed their defense and got hit really badly. They were left wide open and… they died in the waterfall. I ran away before Undyne could get me, but she was still able to take Purple’s soul.”
Silence falls over the pair as Blue takes a shaky breath in, wrapping his arms around himself,
“After that, I decided I was done fighting Undyne, scared that I would be next. Another kid fell down before you, Green. They were so kind, and I wanted to stop them from going any further, but they wanted to reach Asgore and free the monsters. From what I heard, they managed to get past Undyne without fighting her at all, but… considering everyone’s still stuck down here, I guess they didn’t make it- oh…”
Unaware, tears begin to fall from the little ballerina’s eyes, little drops staining the wood table below him. He quickly wipes his eyes and freezes when he feels arms wrap around him tightly,
“Then we’ll do it together, Blue!” Yellow says, tears threatening to fall from his own eyes, “W-we’ll beat Undyne without any fighting at all, and then we’ll get to Asgore and free everyone from here!”
Blue looks down at Yellow before sniffing and hugging him back,
“That is a nice thought,” he says softly.
__________
The two children quickly grew attached, flitting around the edges of and within the town, always joined at the hip. They would go in between the Inn and the monsters they befriended's homes, sometimes crashing on random couches in a heap of exhaustion.
They often found themselves at the brothers’ home, whose names Yellow learned were Sans and Papyrus, and always ended up making dinner with them. Sans kept a cautious eye on the two humans while they ran around the kitchen with his younger brother, helping make spaghetti almost every night they spent there. Yellow and Blue often ended the night stuffed and in a tangled pile on the skeletons’ couch, waking up with a blanket haphazardly spread atop them sometime in the night.
The two explored the paths and puzzles on the outskirts of town, fighting against any monsters who attempted to battle with them. The two fought… relatively well alongside one another, although Yellow noticed it was rare for Blue to not immediately fight when they entered a battle. It would often end with Yellow acting and sparing the opponent.
Yellow wiggles his body across from the jelly-like monster in front of him, mimicking it much to the creature’s appreciation. He pauses after a few seconds, dropping his arms as he glances over to see Blue giggling. The monster squishes up and down a few times, pleased, before Yellow spares it with a point of his finger.
The monster happily blubs away as the battle ends. Blue immediately comes up next to Yellow, wrapping his arms around one of Yellow’s as they continue back down the path,
“We should go to the Inn tonight; we have lots of gold from the fights today,” Blue suggests kindly, smiling gently at Yellow.
Yellow nods silently, keeping his gaze pointed to the ground as if in deep thought. Blue immediately notices this and shifts his posture to try to look up at Yellow’s face,
“What’s going on, Yellow?”
“Hm?” the cowboy questions, his eyes landing on the other boy’s face as they walk back to town. “Oh… I was just wondering why you always choose to fight. Most of the monsters are pretty easy to spare…”
Blue makes a silent ‘oh’ as he stands back up straight, thinking,
“Well… I suppose it’s just kind of kill or be killed out here,” he says, shrugging, “Some monsters are the exception, of course, like Toriel or Papyrus. But most of them just go into battle immediately.”
Yellow nods along, thinking about Blue’s words,
“But we don’t know them at all; what if they’re all super nice?”
“And what if they’re not? Maybe they’re all just super mean,” Blue counters. “Well… why do you insist on acting immediately?”
Yellow’s eyes widen as he looks down at Blue,
“I like to think everyone’s nice if you look for it!” he says, smiling widely as they come up on the town. “Like Sans and Papyrus. I mean… of course Papyrus keeps threatening to capture us, but he’s still really nice! And Sans was kind of scary when I first met him too, but I think he’s kind of cool now.”
Blue looks up at the other boy, his eyes almost sparkling as he hears him talk,
“That’s… a really nice way to look at it, Yellow…” he says softly.
Yellow nods enthusiastically as they walk through the main road in town towards the Inn,
“And I think we can do that with Undyne too if we ever meet her! Papyrus says she’s nice, so she must be at least a little bit to us.”
Blue falls quiet at that, his footsteps slowing right as they’re about to enter the Inn,
“I… I don’t know, Yellow… I’ve met and fought against her. She’s pretty ruthless; I don’t know if she can be spared.”
Yellow stalls, turning to look back at Blue before taking his hands enthusiastically,
“But I bet we could!” he says, commitment shining through his eyes, “We’ll do it together!”
Blue’s eyes widen momentarily before smiling softly. He curls his fingers around Yellow’s before dragging him into the Inn.
“Maybe you’re right,” he says simply as he reaches for the door handle, “Maybe together we could do it.”