"Are you sure you're going to be ok?" Papyrus asked as he looked at Frisk's arm with concern.

"Yes, Papyrus," Frisk said for the third time and adjusted his makeshift cast. "It's just a broken arm. With all of the food you gave me, I'm sure it will heal quickly with some rest."

"Very good! You may thank the GREAT Papyrus later. For now, I will leave you to heal up. I can't have an injured rival. NYEH HEH HEH!" He laughed and walked upstairs, presumably to go to his room.

*Sigh* Frisk leaned against the couch.

After rather embarrassingly being run through Snowden in a panicked Papyrus's arms, the skeleton had brought him into his house. Frisk then proceeded to be fed an absurd amount of monster food before Papyrus realized that it wasn't healing him like a normal monster. He promptly started to freak out.

Luckily Frisk had managed to calm him down and explain that bone cracks were not as severe in humans as they were in skeletons and that he would probably be healed soon. However, he wasn't exactly sure how long it would take him to heal a broken limb. He had recovered from his injuries before, but some of that was due to Toriel's healing. So just in case, he used an extra sweater from his bag and made a makeshift sling that should hold the arm secure.

Now he was just sitting here awkwardly on the skeleton bros couch while his arm pulsed with a dull pain. That monster food had filled up his Aura, but he was still physically tired from the hours of walking, puzzle-solving, and fighting. He should probably go to sleep, but after everything…

Frisk looked down at his right hand as he clenched it into a fist. He had lost that fight. Even if he had gone for the kill, he likely would not have won. He was getting better at using his magic but not fast enough. He would eventually be forced to move onto Waterfall, where he would have to face Undyne. Someone who is supposed to be much stronger than Papyrus.

Frisk opened his hand and concentrated on that feeling. He was weak, and he needed to get stronger. Light that spark of PERSEVERANCE in his SOUL. He thought about Undyne crushing him in seconds while utterly unable to build up any power.

There! He could feel the burning sensation flowing through him now. He just needed to guide it. From his SOUL up through his chest, past his shoulders, and along his arm. The energy pooled in the palm of his hand, and he tried to push it into existence.

*Spark*

It took a few seconds of sparking, but Frisk had made a small purple flame appear in his hands.

"Yes," he whispered out. He had never managed to actually summon flames when he hadn't already been in combat for at least a minute.

This meant that he could train his PERSEVERANCE to be useful even at the start of a fight. And maybe if he could learn to control it better, he could use both PERSEVERANCE and JUSTICE simultaneously!

"Whatcha doing, kid?" Sans called out from right next to him on the couch.

"Shit!" Frisk jerked his head back, and his flame disappeared, flowing back into his SOUL.

"Sans!" Frisk took a couple breaths to calm himself down. "Could you please stop scaring me like that?"

"Eeeh? Whatcha talkin about kid, you just didn't notice me because you were so concentrated on your little flame there." Sans smiled, but it looked more like a smirk, "I'm not trying to scare you at all."

Frisk glared at the skeleton for a couple seconds before looking back down at his hand. "What are you doing here anyway?"

"Come on, kid, what does it look like I'm doing?" The skeleton's voice came from somewhere to Frisk's right now. "I'm just feeding my pet rock."

Frisk looked up to see that Sans had disappeared from his spot on the couch and was now throwing sprinkles on a rock that sat on a table.

"I can see that." Frisk deadpanned.

"Ohhh, you meant why I am talking to you," Sans said with fake realization. "Well, tibia honest, my bro would be sad if you keeled over from exhaustion when training with him. So I guess I came to check on you and ensure you don't kick the bucket." He looked at Frisk with another smile.

Frisk looked away, ashamed. He was staying in their home, and Sans had come to check on him. But his first reaction was to be snippy and suspicious of the skeleton's motives.

"Sorry, I guess I am a bit tired." He tried to explain.

"It's no skin off my back, kid, so you're good," Sans replied with a wink. "I'll be heading out. Make sure to tell Papyrus that I fed the rock when he gets back. Don't want it to get too fat." Frisk nodded his head and waved goodbye as Sans walked into the kitchen.

Frisk leaned to his right and peeked into the empty kitchen.

"Why does he even do that?" He wondered to himself.

Frisk shook his head. It didn't matter; he probably just liked messing with people. The tired human decided to rest his head against the armrest and try to sleep.

→ [Next Morning]

Frisk yawned as he walked down the street of Snowden taking in his surroundings. For being such a small town, it was certainly lively. Monsters, mainly of the fuzzy variety, roamed the streets and manned the shops. There was even a Christmas tree with presents that stood in what must have been the town square.

Actually, Frisk didn't even know what month it was, much less what day. The memories he had received from the original Frisk had been filtering in slowly. But he had actually been trying to mostly forget they existed. He felt terrible about taking the kid's body, but it wasn't like he had done it purposefully. And from what Frisk had seen, he hadn't jumped down that hole for a very happy reason.

Frisk shook himself out of those memories and refocused his attention on the town. Luckily he had focused just in time because he found himself in front of the shop. It was the only place of its kind in Snowden, and Frisk was hoping to find some useful items inside.

When Frisk took his first step into the place, he was already disappointed. He had hoped to find a weapon to use before summoning his spear, but it looked like this place was almost game accurate.

"Hello traveler, how can I help you?" The cat monster said from behind the counter.

"Sure, I was wondering if you had a staff or spear that I could buy," Frisk asked, just in case there was anything in the back.

"Sorry, no can do." She replied, "Most of our weapons get bought up by the Royal guard quickly. The only thing I have right now are those boxing gloves." She held up the pair in question.

Those… did not look like they would fit well with the fighting style Frisk was developing. At the beginning of fights, he would use his JUSTICE magic to dodge his attackers and build up PERSEVERANCE. Those gloves wouldn't work very well because he wanted to keep his distance, and he would have access to his spear when he would fight at close range.

"That's ok. What is for sale, if I may ask?" There were a decent amount of things behind the counter, but Frisk wasn't exactly sure what was for sale.

"Are you looking for Items or food?" The cat monster looked down at the sling Frisk's arm was in.

"Items," Frisk answered. He didn't have a real use for food. At least for right now, he could eat in Snowden. And his arm was already feeling much better. Hopefully, he could take off the sling soon.

"Ahh, then right now, we only have this manly bandanna for 50G." She casually held up the orange strip of cloth.

Frisk's eye twitched. Really? That was all she had right now. How did this place run like a business?

But maybe Frisk could use this opportunity to find out if the items still worked similar to how they did in the game.

"I'll take it." He said and gave the shopkeeper 50G.

→ [10 Minutes Later]

So the Items probably worked similarly to the game. When Frisk had put the bandanna on, a slight orange pulse had gone through his Aura. Hopefully, this meant it was making his defense higher. Because if it wasn't, Frisk would never wear it, he wasn't a big fashion guy, but the bright orange bandanna did not compliment his lime green sweater. At least not with the cream stripes going across the chest.

Frisk reached into his pocket and grabbed his phone. Looking at the clock, it was around the time that he was supposed to be meeting Papyrus at Grillby's. Frisk increased his pace and made it to the restaurant on time. He stepped into the building and was immediately met by Papyrus.

"Frisk!" Papyrus called out from the booth to his right. "Come sit."

"Hey Papyrus," Frisk said casually, looking around. "Neat place."

It really was. Grillby's looked like your average bar on the surface. With its card games of poker and the booths off to one side. But the real difference was the monsters. A monster with a massive mouth sat behind Frisk, mumbling something about human food. The dog sentries that tried to cut him in half were sitting around and playing poker with each other. And somehow, a living flame stood behind the bar and seemed to be cleaning a glass.

"Of course, Grillby's is one of the hottest places in Snowden." Papyrus bragged like he had built the place. "Second only to the house of the GREAT Papyrus." Of course.

Speaking of that, "Thanks again for letting me sleep at your place."

"It is no problem, friend." Papyrus looked back at Frisk before his jaw dropped. "F-Frisk, I see you have gotten some new clothing."

Frisk glanced confusedly at the reaction but decided to ignore it. "Oh yeah, I picked this up from the shop. Does it really look weird?" He looked down at the bandanna.

"N-No, of course, it does not!" Papyrus said nervously and glanced down at his pocket. "I would say it looks amazing on you."

Really amazing? Did the skeleton like the color orange or something? Maybe, he did use courage magic after all.

"Thanks." Frisk looked skeptically at the skeleton's sweating face. "Are you ok over there?"

"O-Of course." He said unconvincingly, "Subtly changing the topic, what would you like to eat?"

It wasn't subtle if you said it out loud. "I guess I'll just try the Burger."

Papyrus stood up. "I will go get the food then" and rushed off, leaving Frisk to look oddly after him.

Why was Papyrus acting so weird? Maybe he was nervous about something. But what could that be? Frisk thought back to his playthrough of the game.

"No." Frisk put his hand to his mouth in surprise. In the original game, Papyrus had met Flowey before. Sans even says so in this very place. It might be a stretch, but Frisk had been worried about Flowey's silence ever since leaving the RUINS. It would be just like the flower to mess with him now.

But what could Flowey say to make Papyrus this nervous? Whatever it might have been, it couldn't have been good. Maybe Frisk was looking too deeply into this. When the skeleton gets back, Frisk will ask some more questions.

"Here you go." Papyrus set Frisk's plate on the table in front of him.

"Thanks." Frisk studied his friend sitting across the table. He definitely looked more composed. Maybe he was just overreacting.

Frisk's gaze turned to his burger, studying it slightly. It looked relatively normal, which also meant it would be a pain to eat it with one hand. So he slowly pulled his left arm out of the makeshift sling.

"Frisk!" Papyrus looked alarmed at what he was attempting. "Bone cracks are very serious!"

"It's alright, Papyrus." Frisk maneuvered his arm around slowly and clenched his fist a couple times. "See, mostly healed up." It was stiff and a bit sore, but nothing too wrong.

It took Frisk a couple more showings of his healed arm before Papyrus decided it was ok for him to eat with it. After taking a couple of bites, he decided to continue the conversation.

"So I guess this means we can go training after this, right?" Frisk's arm was mostly healed, and he wanted to do anything to get better quickly.

"H-Huh?" Papyrus was back to sweating again. "S-Sure, I guess."

Frisk was confused. Earlier, the skeleton looked thrilled to be training together, and now he was suddenly nervous. Something was definitely going on.

"Are you going to be up for it?" Frisk asked, "You don't look too excited about the prospect."

Papyrus panicked for a second before shaking his head rapidly. "O-Of course, the GREAT Papyrus w-would never turn down an offer to train with his rival."

"Great!" Frisk nodded his head. "We'll walk to the forest after we finish eating. Do you know any good clearings we could train in?" He asked. He needed to get Papyrus alone to see what was wrong.

"W-Walk," the skeleton whispered to himself and almost seemed to shut down.

*Sigh*

Frisk wasn't going to get anything out of his friend at the moment.

→ [After Eating]

It was becoming increasingly more likely that Flowey had something to do with Papyrus' weird behavior as of late. The entire walk, the skeleton had been almost shaking with nerves; Frisk even heard him mumble to himself something about flowers. Internally Frisk was gearing up for the next fight against Flowey. If Flowey wanted to harm his friend, he would get a rude surprise.

"Is this the clearing?" Frisk asked, looking ahead to see an open area amongst the trees.

"Ah!" It took Papyrus a second to get out of his head. "Y-Yes."

They made their way to the middle of the clearing in unspoken agreement. Frisk looked around to make sure that they were alone. Somehow sweat was streaming down Papyrus' face.

"Good, now that we are alone, Papyrus, I have to ask you something important." Frisk began "about thi-"

"WAITTTT!" Papyrus yelled out as he reached his breaking point. "Frisk, while I like you very much as a friend, I am afraid I do not hold romantic feelings for you in my heart!"

…" What?"

 

A/N: Aloha! Hope the character stuff in this chap was fun. Next chapter starts getting into the more important story moments. I'll probably post another chapter today but we're coming up on the end of my stockpile. Drop a favorite if you enjoyed and thanks for reading. Have a great day.