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“We should not be too long,” Toriel says, a hand on Raze’s shoulder.
Raze peeks through the doorway into the house, a pair of dark eyes with little white eyelights looking back at him.
“It’s really no trouble,” Gaster says, opening the door fully to allow Raze inside. “My boys have been talking about meeting Raze since they formed.”
“DAD!” one of the two in the doorway shout, the one that had been watching Raze.
“We do not know when this meeting is going to end, but we’ll try to make it back before dinner, alright?” Asgore says to Raze.
“Okay, Dad,” Raze is distracted watching the shortest skeleton prod at his brother and pretend he didn’t.
“Do not hesitate to call if you need us,” Toriel says.
“Yes, I understand. Your child will be fine, do not worry,” Gaster says as Raze enters the house.
The adults continue to talk outside as the taller brother pulls Raze along inside the house, taking him to the couch.
“WELCOME TO OUR HUMBLE ABODE! I AM PAPYRUS, AND THIS IS MY BROTHER SANS! WE ARE VERY HAPPY TO MEET YOU!!” the taller brother says.
He is quite loud, a stark contrast to most other people Raze has met. That said, though, most of the people Raze has met have been very sad to meet them, given the circumstances, so considering that, it’s actually a nice change of pace.
“a real bone-a fide ghost,” Sans takes a seat on the couch next to where Raze was directed, slumping into it and becoming one with the cushions.
“I don't have bones,” Raze says.
“guess that pun really boo-gled your mind,” Sans says.
“… What?”
“SANS YOU ARE MAKING A BAD IMPRESSION ON OUR GUEST!” Papyrus does not take a seat on the couch, instead he paces in front of it enthusiastically. “RAZE! IGNORE MY BROTHER’S AWFUL PUNS, WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO?”
“Um…,” Raze doesn’t really have that many hobbies. They’re pretty new to the world, and they don’t exactly know what their options are. “I like to read, I guess…?”
“FANTASTIC! SHALL I INTRODUCE TO YOU MY FAVORITE BOOK, PEEK A BOO WITH FLUFFY BUNNY?” Papyrus offers.
“Sure,” Raze accepts.
Papyrus’ eyelights brighten and he just has the air of someone delighted to be there. It’s something Raze has never seen before, but it makes them want to be happy to be here too. Papyrus bolts up the stairs, going to retrieve the aforementioned book.
The front door finally closes itself as Gaster enters again, Asgore and Toriel leaving for work. Some meeting that Raze couldn’t come along to. Not that Raze was particularly interested in going, they’d tried once and everything went right over their head.
“Good afternoon, Raze, it is nice to see you again,” Gaster looks around for his younger son. “Where did Papyrus go?”
“RIGHT HERE! OH, DAD, COULD YOU READ TO US?” Papyrus waves his book around.
“Hm. Alright, yes, I can read to you, but not for too long. I have some things I need to have done before lunch,” Gaster takes the offered book and sits on the arm of the couch, turning it outward so that the kids can see the pictures.
The book takes very little time to actually finish, but something about the crackly radio static of Gaster’s voice has Raze half asleep in just a few minutes. Sans seems to be in the same boat, though perhaps half asleep is half too little of a descriptor, as Raze catches some full on snoring from him. Papyrus though, is invested, leaning forward and listening intently, as if it’s his first time listening to the most interesting story in the world.
Raze doesn’t mind the story, it’s sweet, but a little part of him wants to call himself childish for it. It’s clearly a kids’ book, and not a single one of them actually hit the age demographic for it. They frown and tell that part to shut up. Papyrus is enjoying it, at least, and that’s what matters.
… Well. Telling it to shut up doesn’t work, it still nags at him that this is dumb and ridiculous and that he shouldn’t enjoy listening, but he did try.
“…. The end,” Gaster finishes up.
Papyrus immediately turns to Raze. “WELL? DID YOU LIKE IT?”
Raze blinks. They’d barely even registered it was over. “It was okay. You have a good reading voice, sir.”
“Thank you, Raze,” Gaster says. “I do now have to leave for a while, I will be done in… Half an hour, perhaps? Why don’t the three of you go play outside and we can make some hot chocolate when you’re done.”
Papyrus shakes Sans awake. “YES! WE SHOULD BUILD SNOWMONSTERS!”
“build wha..?” Sans asks, eyes still closed.
Papyrus picks him up and carries him over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Sans allows this with no fuss, letting himself be brought outside and then unceremoniously dumped in the snow.
“that’s cold bro, dropping me like that,” Sans lays on the ground.
“I THOUGHT YOU WERE GOING TO STAND ON YOUR OWN!” Papyrus sounds entirely unremorseful.
“guess not,” Sans says, still laying in the snow.
“ARE YOU EVER GOING TO GET UP?” Papyrus asks.
“yep.”
“NOW?”
“nah.”
“SANS I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU.”
“nothing unbelievable about laying in the snow. look, i’m even making snow angels.”
“SANS YOU'RE NOT MOVING.”
“i’m not?”
“NO.”
“oh.”
Raze laughs at the exchange. They’ve never thought about having siblings before, but seeing Sans and Papyrus interact, they wish they did.
And then, they’re smacked upside the head with something cold. They jolt, finding snow in their jacket and hood. They look around, finding a wolf monster in a fluffy pink coat and a younger green fox flinging snowballs at each other. A purple monster with huge wings not appropriately dressed for the weather cackles as they launch a snowball at the fox’s head, to which he stumbles and whirls around to get them back for it.
Another fox, whom Raze can barely see through the layers of huge coats calls over, “Sorry! I meant to hit Cupid!”
“You what?! We were supposed to be on the same team!” The wolf says indignantly, targeting her with their own snowball.
She laughs as the snowball hits its mark, gathering another loose chunk of snow and throwing it at Cupid.
Raze is pelted with more snow, this time from the other fox. He grins. “Kanako didn’t mean to hit you, but I did.”
“Join us!” calls the winged one, abandoning her strategy of one huge snowball for several tiny ones.
“YES!” Papyrus gathers up handfuls of snow and starts throwing them indiscriminately at anyone within his vicinity, except Sans, who continues to lay on the ground contentedly.
Raze ducks, trying to avoid the barrage of snow now being thrown at him from all angles. It seems any idea of teams were abandoned when Raze and the skeleton brothers were invited to join, as no one seems to care to make a distinction in who they try to hit. Raze hides behind a bush, shivering from the cold seeping in through their gloves and making his hands go numb.
He laughs as the green fox is ganged up on by Kanako and the purple monster, giving away his position to Cupid, the wolf immediately throwing an armada’s worth of snow at them. Papyrus is nowhere to be found…. Hm..
Raze yelps, leaving their cover as fast as they can as snow gets into their jacket and melts on their shirt below, leaving them damp and even colder. Still, though, they can’t afford to lose focus, countering Cupid’s attack with a handful of loose snow that gets stuck in the wolf’s face fur and the fluffy lining of their hood. They shake off as much as they can, shooting a toothy grin at Raze. Their eyes narrow mischievously and all of a sudden they’re tackling Raze to the ground, a plume of snow coming up all around them.
Well, if Raze wasn’t damp and cold before he certainly is now. He wiggles away from Cupid quickly, throwing more loose snow, adding to whatever’s already sticking to them in chunks. He can’t even begin to imagine how they’re still going like this but he can respect the determination.
Raze is about to get hit by another handful of snow when everything goes white and he’s being held down by… More… Snow???
The entire group is half buried in a giant pile of snow. Kanako, in all her layers, is barely more than a bulky white shape with eyes, the green fox can be heard under the snow complaining loudly, the purple monster leaves a visible pathway where they’re trying to escape the mass, Cupid tries to shake off the snow, and Papyrus stands just outside of the pile, looking very proud of himself.
“I GOT ALL OF YOU AT ONCE! DO I WIN?” Papyrus asks.
“You didn’t get that guy,” the purple monster gestures over to Sans. “I think that means he wins.”
Sans is unburied and unbothered, still laying right outside his front door.
“NO! SANS IS NOT EVEN PLAYING! HE CAN'T WIN!”
“i won..?” Sans yawns, seeming to have just woken up. “cool.”
“AUGH! NOOOO!!!!!”
“How’d you even do that??” Cupid asks, wading through the snow.
“GRAVITY MAGIC! VERY USEFUL!” Papyrus answers.
“Can you gravity it off of us?” the green fox pulls himself up so that he’s standing again.
“OH, YES, RIGHT!” The snow glows blue as it’s gathered up and moved away and dumped a few feet off to the side.
Kanako shivers. “I think we’re done playing with snow for now.”
In the distance, her name is called.
“Oh! And that’s my dad, so I guess I gotta go now. It was nice meeting you!!” she says.
“You too!” Raze calls as she leaves to go find her father.
Cupid grabs the green fox’s hood and pulls it back up over his tall ears. “We should get going now too. Circuit’s dads are gonna blow a fuse if he’s not home before late.”
“They are not,” the green fox, Circuit, shoves Cupid away and pulls his hood back down.
“They definitely are, and I’m not gonna be the one getting in trouble for that,” Cupid says, already starting to walk off.
Circuit follows, voice getting less and less audible as the two get farther away. “Can’t we just blame…”
“Hey, if the fun’s over, I’m gone too,” the purple winged monster puts her hands in her pockets. “I’ve got a friend over in Waterfall that I said I’d go see later. See ya!”
“DO YOU THINK DAD’S DONE WITH HIS WORK YET?” Papyrus hefts Sans over his shoulder again.
“probably,” Sans yawns. “we’ve been out here for a bit.”
They make their way back into the house. Their outer clothes are all covered in half melted snow, making Raze worry about getting the house wet, but Sans just drops his coat on the floor, which Papyrus then picks up and grumbles about. He turns to Raze. “LET ME TAKE YOURS AND WE’LL PUT IT THROUGH THE DRYER FOR YOU!”
“Oh! Sure,” Raze takes off their jacket, scarf, and gloves, feeling much lighter now that they’re off.
Their cheeks are cold to the touch and a chilly red, and their arms quickly cool to the same once the extra layers come off, but it’s nice, following the exertion of playing outside.
Papyrus takes the bundle of clothes down to the basement and is followed back up a few minutes later by Gaster.
“Alright, I believe I promised you three hot chocolate?” Gaster reminds.
“YES!” Papyrus agrees, already rushing to the kitchen to watch his father prepare it.
Sans kneels by the TV, digging around in the TV stand, pulling out DVD cases. “you wanna watch something, kiddo?”
Raze joins him on the carpeted floor, looking through the selection of movies. Some of the covers look vaguely familiar, but nothing rings any bells. They shrug. “Whatever you think is cool.”
“i don’t really care. if ya leave it up to me, i’m picking something random out of the pile,” Sans says.
“It’s not like I could have a favorite,” Raze picks one of the familiar looking ones out. The title means nothing to them.
Sans takes the one they’re holding. “let’s see, uhhh…. the incredibles. good enough. ey, pops, paps, we’re watching a movie.”
Somehow his voice manages to carry to the other room, despite not making any changes to his volume at all. Papyrus responds with, “WONDERFUL! WE SHALL BE DONE IN A MINUTE!”
Sure enough, by the time Raze and Sans are settled in on the couch and the intro is rolling, Papyrus and Gaster come back into the room with four different mugs, which are passed out to everyone in the room.
By the time the movie finishes, Sans has already fallen asleep again, Gaster has had to make a quick exit after a ping from work, Papyrus shushes every noise made, and Raze is too invested in the plot to argue.
Toriel and Asgore return shortly before dinner, before Gaster returns, even, and Sans handles the day’s debrief while Papyrus returns Raze’s winter clothes, fresh and warm from the dryer.
“COME BACK AGAIN SOON!!!” Papyrus calls as Raze leaves.
“I will!” Raze promises.