Making an honest living was not very difficult in the Underground. In fact, it was easier than thievery or lying or anything of the sort. Crime was only practiced by those who found an honest living to be too little.
In the Capital there lived two such souls. The pair were partners and brothers. They were very skilled at the craft of lying and sneaking and lived well for it.
But, it didn't last very long. At one point or another news spread of a pair of con artists in New Home that happened to be skeletons. Of course it was their luck that only there were only two known skeleton monsters in the Underground.
However, this was only a small obstacle. Their real problem was when thet managed to get in over their heads with one of the foremost thugs in the city.
"I will not ask again, sir. You owe me 5,000 G and I haven't seen a scrap of it. Where is my money?" Repens, a rather bulky and fearsome lizard monster hissed, tail lashing violently.
"Well, you see, mister. We uh... don't have it. Business hasn't been very good since... since all this happened," a tall skeleton explained, anxiously glancing around the room. He wasn't stupid. The monsters around didn't seem overly pleased with him and he doubted they were going to ask nicely any longer.
"You. Don't. Have it?" Repens growled, rising to his full height. His massive form loomed over the quivering skeleton.
"N-no. But! We have a job planned for this week so, we should be..." he trailed off as the lizard raised a massive claw.
"I'm sick of your excuses, sir. You have until tomorrow morning to return what is mine and I'll let you and your miserable brother off with a warning. I like you, Papyrus. Don't make me do something we both will regret," Repens said, dismissing him with a flick of his hand.
"Absolutely, Mr. Repens! You'll have your money!" Papyrus confirmed before sprinting back home to his brother.
"Sans!" Papyrus cried, throwing open their door.
"Yeah, Pap? How'd it go?" Sans asked, looking up from a game of solitaire he had been playing.
"We need to go. Now. Quick, get your pack and let's go," the younger said frantically.
"Guess it didn't go well, then," Sans said, packing up his cards and opening the closet where they kept their emergency packs. Both filled with supplies and 50 G each.
"No. It did not! And he gave us until morning to pay him!" Papyrus shrieked, grabbing the crackers from the cabinets.
"Job's off, I suppose," Sans mumbled, emptying their drawers for any additional G.
"Our heads will be off if we don't leave now!" Papyrus said, hurrying Sans out the door.
The two began running quickly down the busy streets of New Home. They ducked into allies and crept around corners, dodging anyone who would recognize them as either criminals or debtors.
"Where do you suggest we go?" Papyrus asked once the elevator doors opened in Hotland.
"I don't know. We could go to Waterfall. Lay low for a while and then maybe go to Hotland," Sans suggested, eyes flicking about in their sockets.
"Waterfall? He'll find us in a snap. Remember that's where he used to live. Not to mention his cousin lives there," Papyrus objected.
"What's past there? The first capital, right?" Sans asked, trying to recall those lessons from years ago.
"And that one town... what was it? Cold Place or something," Papyrus said, nodding, the geography lessons fresh in his mind.
"We can go there. He won't be able to follow us to the Ruins," the shorter of the two said decisively.
Papyrus nodded and they continued to the boat. It would be a short trek from Cold Place or whatever to the Ruins. They could set up there until Repens calmed down or until they gathered what they owed. Whichever came first.
"To Snowdin...? Yes. Snowdin," Papyrus told the River Person as they boarded.
The boat took off and the cloaked figure hummed a cheerful tune.
"Tra la la~ come again soon!" River Person said brightly as the brothers thanked him and stepped onto the snowy ground.
"So... which way is it to the Ruins?" Papyrus asked, rubbing his skull.
"That way, I guess. Just work backwards, bro," Sans said with a shrug.
The two set off moving quickly until they eventually left the town and entered a sparse forest. Soon they reached a large door.
They pushed and pulled and even tried attacking it but, try as they might, the door would not open. It didn't so much as budge.
"Rats! Now what?" Papyrus asked, scowling at the offending barricade.
"We could stay in town. Make up a backstory. He can't follow us here, not in this cold," Sans offered, studying the snow.
"You have a point.... The town did seem like a nice quiet place to live. We could gather some gold and then go back home," the other mused, working out a plan in his head.
An agreement was reached. They would stay in Snowdin until they could pay Repens back and then return to the Capital. But, because of the size of the town, they would have to come by their gold by legal means. Picking up jobs every now and then, perhaps.
However, the brothers eventually abandoned their goal of returning to New Home. They would pay back Repens and continue their lives in Snowdin. They had a good thing going for them. Both worked as sentries for the Guard and Sans picked up a side job in Hotland selling hotcats (Papyrus had initially been skeptical of the stand because of its proximity to the capital and, by transitive property, to danger).
As for the two skeletons from New Home, they disappeared from the world, it seemed. No one could find them and it was eventually suspected that some vengeful monster had managed to take them down.
Life continued in the Underground as usual. And no one questioned the two new residents of Snowdin.
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