You're awoken by a horrible beeping noise and for a moment, you are prepared to stab whatever is making it. Then you wake up further and realize that if anyone deserves a stabbing, it's Frisk, the reason you're up so early. And since Frisk is one of the few people you can actually tolerate most of the time, it looks like there will be a disappointing lack of stabbings.

With that settled, you finally set about turning off the actual alarm. You savor the warm bed for a moment longer before finally dragging yourself to the closet.

You get dressed mechanically and stagger into the kitchen. Frisk is making themself cereal, their movements already fluid in contrast to your stumbling. You think it's grossly unfair that Frisk has both physical and social graces, but then you already knew that Frisk was the good sibling. (And Asriel of course, but he exists outside your weird duality. Asriel is still mostly untainted by your fucked-up self image, and you'll do anything in your power to keep things that way.)

Frisk shoves a bowl of cereal in your direction. "You were taking too long, so I got breakfast ready for you," they sign. "Don't expect this every day, though. You can make figuring out how to pour your own cereal one of your goals for this experiment."

You stick your tongue out at them. "There's a goal for this? I assumed you just wanted to get back at me for something. Probably last week, even though I already apologized like twenty times."

Frisk is not distracted by your extremely smooth change of subject. "No, this will be good for you! If you interact with more people, maybe you'll be able to see that most of them are better than you think." They notice that their gestures are getting wild and calm themself down. "Besides, this will give you more money to spend on your terrible anime or whatever."

You blush, though only someone who knows you well can tell. "I'm not that into anime," you mumble through a mouthful of cereal. "And you're one to talk. You actually enjoyed Mew Mew Kissy Cutie."

Frisk shrugs agreeably, picking up their spoon as if to signal the end of the conversation. You're tempted to keep going, to try to rile Frisk up further, but if the whole point of this ridiculousness is to help you get along with people intentionally annoying your sibling before you leave the house is probably counterproductive.

Toriel comes in just as Frisk finishes their cereal. She takes both their bowl and yours to the sink, taking a moment to ruffle your hair as she passes. "Are you excited, my children?" she asks.

Frisk nods, and after a moment so do you. You're still not sold on the idea, but that's your problem. Worrying your mother over it would be pointless.

Toriel smiles. "I am glad," she says. "Are you ready to go, then?"

When you both nod again, Toriel grabs her keys and the three of you climb into her car. Unlike Asgore's car, which is designed to impress, Toriel's car is smaller and more utilitarian. You find it unpleasantly cramped when everyone tries to pile in, though of course Frisk loves it. But today it's just the three of you, which is much more tolerable.

You're still a little miffed that Asriel gets to sleep in, though. It's summer vacation! You should be asleep too, not getting dragged off to deal with ridiculously energetic morning people. This whole thing is just an evil plot to make you look forward to school, you're sure of it.

But you can't say no to Frisk, so all you can do now is try to prepare yourself. "Do you have any idea what to expect?" you ask Frisk.

"Not really," Frisk signs. "Undyne said she'd find jobs for us. She probably won't let us in the kitchen, so maybe we'll wait tables or something."

Wonderful. People are well know for treating servers with respect and kindness. "That makes sense," you say slowly. "Do you think she's managed to make Papyrus into a decent cook by now?"

Frisk swats your arm. "You know he's been improving. I'm sure his food is delicious."

You figure that's all you're going to get out of Frisk on the subject of the job, so you let yourself get drawn into banter about Papyrus' cooking skills and whether Undyne is a qualified teacher.

Eventually the car pulls into a parking lot. You look out to see a building proclaiming itself to be "Undyne and Papyrus' Royal Restaurant". The name is kind of silly, but given the people running it you're surprised that's all.

You turn to Frisk, who seems almost relieved. They notice your questioning glance and explain, "It looks like Sans convinced them to start out in a normal building. For a while, Undyne was talking about trying to make the restaurant look like a fish."

"... Aren't they mostly a pasta restaurant?" you ask.

"Yeah, but according to Undyne 'Fish are cool.'"

Sadly, that sounds like Undyne. You know better than to question her eccentricities at this point, so you just start walking toward the restaurant. As you approach, you notice a sign in one of the windows. "YOU OBSERVE THE FANCY-LOOKING RESTAURANT," it says. "WHO COULD WORK HERE, YOU PONDER... I BET IT IS THAT VERY FAMOUS MASTER CHEF! (NOTE: NOT YET A VERY FAMOUS MASTER CHEF.)"

Huh. You aren't sure if Papyrus is referencing the show or just his own dreams, but either way you have to admire his conviction. Even if that admiration is buried under exasperation at his refusal to use lowercase letters.

Frisk seems uninterested in the note, so you decide to stop stalling and just get this over with. You open the door for them with a mocking bow, then follow them in.