Chapter Text
1:04 AM
The neighborhood, filled with resting skeletons after a long day, was almost completely silent apart from the bugs and frogs filling the air with their noise. The small street consisted of four houses, each painted for the brothers that lived inside.
The house that still had snow on it was the Undertale brothers. Being the original, it looked the most ordinary and familiar than all the other homes. The monsters who lived inside had been nicknamed Comic and Rus, truly the most creative of names, to tell each other apart from their similar counterparts. Although everyone had their own respective nicknames, they would still call their own brother by name.
The next, Underswap. It was a nice home painted a light blue and had a simple white fence around it, the gate at the front securely locked. There was a cat resting by the front door.
The brothers who lived there were named, as you may have already guessed, Stretch and Blue. Technically, the shorter one was named Blue berry , but I refuse to type that out in this writing style. They were opposites of the previous pair, with the shorter one being much more energetic and bubbly than his taller, lazier brother. Stretch got his nickname from being the tallest, which he constantly held over everyone’s heads smugly.
And then, there was Underfell right across the road from Undertale. It was a red and black version of the Undertale household, without the snow on the roof. The two living inside were named Red and Fell, another pair of rather creative names. While everyone had agreed on Fell, because “ALL THE OTHER OPTIONS ARE FUCKING STUPID,” Rus would very often refer to the shortest Papyrus as “Cinnamon”, which the former reticently allowed, despite his brother’s constant teasing whenever it was used.
Unfortunately for Red, he was the reasoning behind Blue’s.. Full nickname. Upon the first few weeks trapped in Undertale, Red hadn’t gotten along with any of the skeletons. After a long while of being irritable and rude, Blue decided to try and “help” him by tackling him from behind in what he claimed to be a “surprise friendship hug.” As a result, Red called him an “overgrown blueberry,” as well as some other more rude names. This resulted in Blue being flattered, and Red wanting to die.
And finally , the last house. The house next to Underfell. The house across the road from Underswap. The house that currently only held one resident. The house that this story is actually going to kinda circulate around so just get to the point already.
The Swapfell house.
Swapfell? Fellswap? Eh, who cares.
The house was painted more of a burgundy color, with a large and very protective black fence around it. The gate was obnoxiously, but securely, locked. A cat with bunched up, scrappy fur lay outside the door in a much less relaxed state than the one at Underswap’s. The short skeleton, both height and temper wise, that lay sleeping inside was dubbed Raspberry, or Razz for short. He did not like the name one bit, mainly because Stretch had teased that he was “like an evil, more satanic version of my bro.” Something told Razz that the former wasn’t a very big fan of the particular berry.
For a reason no one could find themselves able to explain, the skeletons had started popping up out of nowhere. The Fell brothers were the first, starting with Red, and then Fell two months later. That eventful course of events had happened four years ago, and yet they still had no known way of returning to their own world. Then again, it didn’t seem like they even wanted to.
Next, there was Underswap. It began with Stretch, and Blue coming not even a week afterward, which was three years ago, now.
Everyone began assuming that there was some kind of pattern, with the lazies appearing first and the passionates coming afterward, two groups they had all decided to use to refer to each other as a group aside from “the paps” and “the sanses.”
The theory was, of course, debunked when Razz appeared first and, after two long years, no sign of his own brother coming up anywhere. This led to the lazies coming to the conclusion that it was simply random, while the passionates continued to try to find some kind of pattern in all of it.
Of course, there were other people on the street too, but they aren’t relevant to the story. I can’t do all the imagination, people.
Finally, time for the story to begin.
Beep!! Beep!! Beep!!
An arrogant beeping ran through the air as an alarm clock activated next to the head of a black spaceship-shaped bed with star-printed blankets. The grumpy skeleton lying in it simply rolled over, trying to tune out the blaring noise.
“Five more minutes..” He grumbled, wrapping himself tighter with his blanket. He put the pillow over his head, to see if it would muffle the sound.
Beep!! Beep!! Be-
Suddenly, a fist came crashing down over the defenseless clock, and shattered it into pieces. A very tired looking Razz glared at it, looking slightly satisfied with himself. He’d have to buy another one soon, but for now, justice had been served. The evil was defeated.
Despite his own wishes, he rolled himself out of the bed. Why, oh why did he insist on making himself wake up two hours before the sun? Sure, he loved to see it rise, and it was still breathtakingly beautiful, even after two years, but was it really worth going through four clocks in only a week? He looked through his closet and picked out a relatively cute-but-badass outfit, consisting of black short-shorts and a slightly lighter shade of black crop-top. To top it off, he wore an oversized red flannel above it that hung down to his mid-thighs, rolled up the sleeves, and made the coolest face possible in his mirror. Perfect.
He got dressed, walked downstairs, and began making himself some breakfast. And by that, of course, he meant taking a breakfast burrito out of the freezer and heating it up in the microwave. He realized far too late that he had been hanging around Stretch, Comic and Red far too much. And then he realized he only ever actually hung out with them when one of the other passionates, most likely Blue, dragged him into it because they didn’t want to suffer alone. Of course, there was that one time when he tripped on some unseen object while standing on the counter (for reasons he didn’t even remember) and Red caught him bridal-style with that shit-eating grin of his. Ugh. Gross. Because of that, he had refused to go drinking with any of them again unless another passionate was present.
He couldn’t help but wonder why, unlike all the others’, his brother hadn’t shown up yet. Despite how much he hated and actively avoided talking and/or thinking about it, his mind always came to that. It had been two years now, and not even a sign of his brother had been seen. It almost made him jealous, actually, to see all the brothers just interacting, and even more to see them get along. Of course, the Fell brothers rarely did tolerate each other, but when they did it was like he was hit with a truckload of envy. Despite how often he and his brother fought back home, Razz couldn’t help but miss him. They pretty much grew up together, after all. Even if there was an obvious preference to a certain spoiled, bratty younger brother who bore a striking resemblance to-
The microwave’s beeping, thankfully, interrupted his thoughts. It was far too early to think about... Whatever it was he was thinking about. What was it again? He found that he had completely lost his train of thought. Huh, that hardly happened to him most of the time. He shook his head in an attempt to clear it, and took his burrito out of the microwave. Without thinking, he bit into it, and instantly burned his entire mouth. Cursing himself, he hastily swallowed, burning his throat aswell, and set the burrito on a paper towel.
He had only had enough time to fix himself a cup of water before the doorbell rang, and began wondering who would be at the door. Looking at the clock, he knew it had to be one of the passionates, considering it was now 5:32 AM. Not to mention, the lazies always knocked instead of using the bell. Because he remembered the different ringing patterns, he could tell who was at the door just by not answering right away. If it was Fell, there would be only one ring, whereas if it was Rus it would be one every minute. Every thirty seconds would be Blue, and a spastic, continuous ringing that was certainly the most annoying would indicate all three. Razz began counting the seconds and, assuming that it had been 10 seconds since the first ring, began at 10.
Once he got to 30, it rang again. Must be Blue, then.
He opened the door, satisfied with himself that he had made the correct guess.
“Why don’t you ever open it at the first ring?” Blue complained, crossing his arms. “It’s very rude!!!”
“Because I have to make sure you aren’t Fell attempting to get me back for saying Italian food is gross,” he replied, smirking. He stepped aside. “Get in here, you overgrown Blueberry.”
Chuckling, the other walked inside, taking off his shoes after entering. While no one else had this rule, Razz instated it after he got sick of having to clean his carpet every time someone left. Of course, he didn’t have to do that, but it would still bother him if he didn’t. He began walking back to the kitchen, about to ask if his nicer counterpart would like something to eat, when the latter spoke first.
“I like your outfit!” He said, making the other jump. Although Blue complimented everyone, it still managed to surprise him. Every. Single. Time.
“Uh-thanks,” he responded, mentally slapping himself. He took a moment to examine the other monster’s outfit. Blue was wearing a loose-fitting NTT shirt with his blue scarf draped over it, paired with ripped jeans. He pulled it off pretty well, actually. “I like yours, too.”
Overwhelmed with having actually given a genuine compliment , Razz went and got his burrito in more of a hurry, forgetting that he meant to ask Blue if he wanted anything until already holding the trashy meal. He poked his head out of the kitchen, and for a second, thought he saw the other looking smug. He figured it was just his imagination, though.
“Hey, I forgot to ask,” he began, “do you want anything to eat? I wasn’t really planning on cooking anything, but I mean if you wanted-”
“No, I’m fine, thanks! I heated up some leftovers before leaving the house,” Blue replied, seemingly disappointed at his own laziness. Razz was happy that he wasn’t the only one the lazies rubbed off on, at least.
The monsters sat on the couch together, as they so often did before sunrise.
“So, what brings you over?” Razz asked, as if he wasn’t expecting Blue to be at the door, despite needing to count the seconds.
“Oh, yeah! Apparently Happst- I mean Mettaton is doing some kind of show in a timezone that’s twelve hours apart from ours!” Blue explained. “I would’ve watched it at home, but Papyrus was sleeping on the couch and wouldn’t let me move him, despite my best efforts. I had no choice but to come here! Definitely not because I want someone to watch it with and you just happen to always be awake at this time!”
“Oh, of course not!” Razz responded melodramatically, “Why on Earth would I EVER assume something like THAT?”
They laughed amongst themselves, and turned the TV on to watch the show.
The two hours seemed to pass quicker than usual, and before they knew it, the two were walking together to the spot the passionates had claimed as their sunrise-watching spot, AKA a treehouse they built together in the first year Razz was in Undertale. Originally, it was going to have four walls, but very soon after the house became the sun-spot, the wall facing the sunrise was very quickly taken down. Punched down is more like it. Rus and Fell were already there, both sprawled out on the old couch that had been pretty much thrown up into the house itself.
“SORRY, NOT ENOUGH ROOM FOR MORE PEOPLE,” Rus said. “IF ONLY,” he stretched out a bit more, taking up some more space, “THERE WAS A WAY TO FIX THAT!”
“ALAS,” Fell said, draping a hand over his face and closing his eyes in mock-despair, “THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO SOLUTION TO THIS!”
“ACTUALLY, CINNAMON,” Rus spoke up, making Fell open one of his eyes, “PERHAPS THERE IS.. A SOLUTION..”
“OH? DO TELL, MY DEAR ‘RUS.”
Razz could practically hear Fell scream internally as he said that line. He looked at Blue, who looked back. Neither of them seemed to have a clue what was going on.
“THE SOLUTION, MY DEAREST CINNY CINNAMON,” Rus continued, obviously trying not to laugh, “IS THAT SOME TWO PEOPLE..”
Oh no.
“HAVE TO ADMIT THAT ITALIAN FOOD IS BETTER THAN MEXICAN FOOD!!” The two said in unison, looking right at the two sanses standing in the small space next to the couch.
OH NO.
“In your dreams!” Razz exclaimed. “I would never stoop to that level for an old couch!!”
“Italian food is and always will be gross!” Blue added on. “You just can't tell because you have poor taste!”
“I THINK THE TWO OF US KNOW THE TRUE SOLUTION TO THIS FOOD WAR,” Fell began, smirking at Rus. “THOSE TWO ARE JUST TOO SHORT TO SEE IT!”
Both the sanses gasped in mock-but-kinda-real-offense, putting their hands to their chests.
“I WILL HAVE YOU KNOW,” Razz said, voice rising slightly in volume, “THAT I AM THE SECOND TALLEST SANS AND I REFUSE TO BE CALLED SHORT!!!”
“YOU'RE WEARING HEELS,” Fell pointed out, grinning.
“WELL SO ARE YOU,” Rus said to his friend, nudging him a little with his foot, “SHORTY.”
“OKAY, WOW,” Fell shouted, while Rus only laughed. “I NEVER THOUGHT I WOULD BE BETRAYED LIKE THIS. I'M HEARTBROKEN, RUS, HEARTBROKEN!!”
“How about you betray him back and give us the couch?” Blue suggested.
“NOT THAT HEARTBROKEN.”
“Well you'll have to give up sooner or later before the sun comes up!” Razz pointed out. The paps looked at each other for a moment in consideration. Then, Rus took out his phone.
“YOU CAN DO A PRETTY GOOD RAZZ IMPRESSION, RIGHT CINNAMON?” He asked, scrolling through his contacts. “I CAN DO AN OKAY BLUE VOICE.”
Fell said yes, and Rus finally found the contact he had been looking for.
“Okay, what are you doing now?” Razz asked, but he wasn't worried at all shut up .
“WE’RE GONNA CALL STRETCH AND MAKE IT SOUND LIKE YOU TWO ARE FUCKING,” Fell said matter-of-factly. The sanses faces immediately flushed.
“OH MY GOD, NO,” they both yelled, trying to get the phone out of Rus’s hands. He held it out of reach.
“ADMIT IT!!” Rus said through his laughter, “ITALIAN FOOD IS AMAZING!!!”
“ NE-”
“OKAY OKAY, FINE!!” Blue suddenly yelled, interrupting Razz’s refusal. “Just don't call Stretch! I actually have to live with him, and that would NOT end well! Heck, I'd never even hear the end of it!”
The paps, the bastards, smirked at each other.
“ONE DOWN, ONE TO GO,” Fell remarked. “RAZZ?”
Blue had already given in, but Razz still had yet to say anything positive about his least favorite kind of food. He pondered the importance of seeing the sunrise compared to keeping his own dignity. Finally, he sighed a deep, long sigh.
“Fiiiine,” he said, frowning.
“YOU BOTH GOTTA SAY IT,” Rus said, recording on his phone now. “SAY ‘ITALIAN FOOD IS AMAZING!’”
“Italian food is amazing,” they both said, defeated.
Rus put away his phone, looked at his sharper counterpart, and they both got up.
“ALRIGHT!” He said. “THE COUCH IS ALL YOURS!”
“I thought we were gonna share it?” Blue said, confused. Razz raised a brow.
“NNNOPE,” Fell said, making his way toward the ladder.
“But what about the sunrise?” Razz asked.
“OH YEAH,” Rus began, “THE SUN ISN'T GOING TO RAISE FOR ANOTHER, LIKE, FOUR HOURS. IT'S THREE IN THE MORNING.”
The sanses’ eyes widened.
“But-the clocks-”
“WE CHANGED ALL OF YOUR CLOCKS,” Fell interrupted Blue, his voice smug. “EXCEPT FOR THE ONES YOU'RE TOO SHORT TO KNOW ARE THERE!”
And with that, he climbed down the ladder, with Papyrus following afterward, leaving the two skeletons sitting on the couch dumbfounded.
“Were we just pranked because of Italian food ?” Razz asked in disbelief.
“It appears so,” Blue replied, shaking his head.
Suddenly, they heard a loud growl coming from the bottom of the ladder.
“IS THAT YOUR DOG, OR MINE?” Rus’s voice asked, sounding slightly scared.
“DEFINITELY MINE,” Fell’s voice answered. “DON'T MAKE ANY SUDDEN MOVEMENTS, OR THE THING WILL TRY TO BITE YOUR LEG OFF.”
Suddenly, a loud hiss accompanied the growling.
“DEMON CAT?” Rus asked.
“DEMON CAT,” Fell answered in dismay.
Not even five seconds later, the sound of barking and hissing erupted through the forest as the paps fled away from their own demise.
Razz smirked.
He'd have to buy some pet treats later.