The throne room was cold.

Cold, too cold. The busted heater was evident in that, proving ineffective in fixing the lack of heat within the large room. Dust clogged the inside, displaying just how long the heater had failed to do its intended purpose.

Undyne let her yellow eyes dance across her surroundings, the expression of disgust unhidden with the shiver that ran through her body. It was too cold in here! It reminded her of Snowdin, the temperature dipping well under what normal standards would deem appropriate. She could almost sense heat drip from her body, melting away into the room.

With a desperate shiver, her hand outstretched to the heater, fiercely grabbing the knob. A twist, then another. Finally did the heater power on, dust spewing out like grey snow on a winter night. The warm air was like that of a refreshing cup of hot chocolate, the monster who had sputtered back from the original attack of dust quickly returning to feel the heat.

So it wasn't broken? Of course, she should have expected that. It was the heater of the throne room, of the castle, naturally it would be of the best condition, even if unused. The question soon rotated to why it was unused, Undyne letting her scaled hands glide across his bare arms in ways of soothing the heat throughout her body. Although their King was not inflected by the onslaught of weather conditions, not like Undyne's sensitive body to the temperature changes, the other rooms within the castle often did have their heat turned on. Then again, other monsters were in control of the heaters, not Papyrus. The throne room, however, was under Papyrus' control, who was the only one really to step foot within the boundaries of the walls.

It was likely that Undyne was the first to step within the room for a long time, as Papyrus often didn't invite too many people in. It was spoken constantly amongst the staff of the castle for no one to enter the throne room unless explicitly invited, which often didn't happen. Until this particular day, to which Papyrus had told Undyne to wait within the throne room to begin their weekly happenings.

It was a normal procedure, Undyne had first been surprised by how stupidly simple the meetings were. There was no complicated economics or political substance, the conversation typically leaning towards a meet and greet.

However, the location of the throne room was new. Undyne had never stepped foot within the area until now, much less ever taken a glimpse through the door. Ideas and theories about the throne room had become present in her mind during the dragging hours of the day, but she would admit, this was not what she expected.

Naturally, it was high and mighty, as one would anticipate from royalty. The throne was large and eloquent, and the walls consisted of the expensive structural details that matched with the many other countless rooms of the castle.

But the differences stuck out, much as the yellow flowers around the throne did out of the fertile soil. Undyne knew Papyrus wasn't one for flowers, so the presence of them there was questionable. Her friend and trainee, Asgore, adored them, so it would make sense if the little goat monster had flowers, but Papyrus never really spoke about them. The flowers were collected in the middle of the room, allowing for her to travel freely along the borders.

What did draw her attention was the other throne. The second seat hidden away in the back, displaced from the organization found within the rest of the room. A white sheet was carefully thrown over it, corners tucked neatly. It was easy to tell that the sheet was regularly used and adjusted, unlike the heater and the layers of dust now thrown up into the air.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."

Ah, there he was. King Papyrus himself. He had walked in while she was distracted with the heat, his red cloak fluttering as he walked. Tired eye sockets quickly caught sight of her position, seeing the monster hunched near the heater with crossed arms.

"Um..." Papyrus said.

"It's f*cking freezing in here!" Undyne defended herself.

"Oh, oh!" Papyrus said, "Sorry, I guess I never really notice the heat. I have no skin, it's never really been a problem for me."

"That'd make sense," Undyne grumbled, straightening with another shiver. "But you should start using it more for people with skin. Judging by how you have another throne in here, you might want to use the heat for them."

"Ah, no, that wouldn't really do. He hasn't returned yet..."

"Oh, Sans."

Everyone knew about that, about the story. Undyne hadn't expected the other throne to be his, though. It happened such a long time ago, she wouldn't think Papyrus would keep his throne around.

Then again, the sad look he gave was quite an answer in it's own right. Of course he kept the throne, he still missed Sans.

The story was one everyone knew, it was quite known among monsters underground. King Papyrus and King Sans, they had been so close when the monsters first were trapped underground. They raised Sans' little brother, Gaster, who had met the first human and became friends with them.

Until little Gaster and Chara died.

After that, everything had fallen apart for the once happy family. Sans had run away, leaving King Papyrus alone to lead monsters. The stress was ever evident on his face, a constant sad expression drawing on his features. This happened so long ago, and it was clear he still missed his old lover.

"Sorry about that, King Papyrus," Undyne apologized.

"No, it's fine," Papyrus said, smiling at her with a slight pained expression. "It's fine for you to ask questions. I haven't really brought anyone in here for such a long time, I guess I forgot about the heat problem."

"I'm really sorry about what happened," Undyne said.

The topic of his old lover was never really discussed amongst them. Was it really Undyne's place? He was her King, she never really was sure if she could bring it up. Yet here they were, talking about him.

"He was so beautiful," Papyrus mumbled, gaze lost on the throne. "Sans was always calm, he always knew what to do. He always was able to tell me what to do, so I never had to worry about being King. Sans was fun, so much fun. He used to make so many puns and... I miss him. A lot."

"Hey, it's fine!"

The fish monster quickly approached her King, a hand laying on his back in a way to comfort him. Papyrus was a softie, Undyne knew that, but he was fragile emotionally. He always looked so sad, she never knew what to do about it.

"Was it the right thing to do? To declare war on humans?" Papyrus asked her, hand gripping his face. "Sans was so upset. He left, and it's all my fault! And now he could b-be hurt or-"

"No it's not!" Undyne said, gripping his shoulders to steady him. "Sans is fine, I'm sure he is! I know the searches didn't produce anything, but I'm sure he's fine!"

"I know he is," Papyrus sniffed softly, "He was always good at hide and seek when we played. I miss him, so much. I just want to see Sans again."

By then Papyrus was blinking back tears, leaning slightly against the head of the Royal Guard.

"We'll find him," Undyne said, rubbing his back smoothly. "I swear, we will. For you."

It wasn't unusual to see Papyrus sad, which in itself was a depressing truth. Undyne knew Papyrus had looked for Sans, for his beloved, but the searches came up empty, as did the Kings happiness. Leading a kingdom on your own was stressful enough, and with the loss of so many people that were important to him, it was easy to tell Papyrus had grief he was dealing with on his own. For him to open up to her about it, though, it made Undyne feel close to him.

King Papyrus was nice, but there sometimes was a sense of distance between him and others. And now, she knew why. No doubt this situation had been eating him from inside, and now he was finally revealing himself to someone.

"I just- I-I miss him so much!" Papyrus was practically sobbing now. "But I've killed all of those humans! He's never going to forgive me now! I can't stop now, not when we're just one soul away!"

"And we won't," Undyne said, "You have the Royal Guard to back you up, and we can perform more sweeps of the underground to look for him and to get the last human soul. We'll find Sans, and we'll escape to the surface. You're doing great as a King, Papyrus, and we're all here for you."

"I... I'm sorry, it's inappropriate of me to lose composure like that," Papyrus mumbled, gently wiping a few tears from his face.

"No, man, it's perfectly fine! I'm here for you whenever you need me," Undyne said, giving him a gentle hug. "Even a King has to let himself cry a bit, we're all just monsters. And I'm not kidding about the search thing, my Royal Guards need to train more anyway. We're going to find Sans."

"It's fine if you don't." The King gently smiled at Undyne. "I searched so many times now, I doubt any more searches would help."

"It'll still do good for finding a human the next time one falls down."

"I guess I'm too far now to stop."

Papyrus let out a sigh, gently peeling off his tear stained red gloves. He was probably going to wash them very soon, no doubt about that.

"You're doing what's best for the Kingdom," Undyne ensured him, "We need just one more soul to be free. And that human might come any day now."

The heater continued to rumble with more blasts of warm air, the distant sounds of the castle staff working emerging from the hallway door. With a few more reassurances, Undyne had managed to calm Papyrus down, taking one last glance at the hidden, second throne before the two made their way to the exit.

Where would Sans even hide?

《》《》《》

This book for this AU is going to have some adjustments, since I already wrote an Altertale fanfic with Soriel but still like this AU idea, so I'm mixing it up a bit.

Friisans is the creator of this au, and they're a shipper of soriel. I am not. I do ship Sansgoriel, but that's when Asgore is thrown into the mix, but normal Soriel isn't really my thing. I'm not going to judge, I can see how it's cute and it's fine they ship it. But they made it canon to the AU, and said if we changed their AU to say when we did, so here we go lads.

In this book, Paps and Sans ain't brothers. In the AU they were, but in here they aren't. In the AU Gaster was their little brother, but in this one he is Sans' little brother, Papyrus isn't related to him. I like bigger brother Sans so he's going to stick with Gaster, but Paps isn't related to the little guy.

This is also fontcest altertale, it's not incest though since they aren't related. This books about them and their relationship because I said so. If you want a canon Altertale fanfic where everything follows what Friisans created, check out my other Altertale book. It follows the Soriel, older brother, Altertale canon stuff so if you want to read a more canon version of that AU you can go check out my other Altertale book. And if you want related Fontcest, I also have a story on that. But this is just a lil altertale fontcest two shot where they just miss each other, nothing too big.