"Whatcha thinkin' about, Alph?" Undyne asked as she swung their clasped hands back and forth.
Alphys sighed as she continued staring at the sky, as she had been for the past several minutes. "Oh, nothing. It's just a nice day, is all."
Undyne nodded and tossed her long red hair over her shoulder, letting it blow loosely in the wind. The boardwalk they were on was teeming with people, but to her, it felt like only she and Alphys existed, and all she could hear were their footsteps and the sound of the ocean, just a few hundred yards away.
She pointed up ahead. "There's the theme park. Did you want to get ice cream or something before we try it out?"
"Um…" Alphys thought a minute. "I think I'd rather wait 'til after if we're gonna go on any rides… m-my stomach's kind of sensitive."
"Okay, fair enough." Undyne grinned as she studied all the rides she could see from this distance. "Check out that slingshot thing! I hear it's twenty bucks per person and you have to sign a waiver beforehand."
Alphys made a retching noise. "I am not g-going near that thing."
"Maybe I'll do it by myself and you can watch," Undyne suggested, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
"I'm not paying for your funeral."
"Okay, so if you won't go on that, what will you go on?"
"I dunno." Alphys shrugged. "Maybe the Ferris wheel?"
"Oh, please tell me you want to do more than that," Undyne begged. "The tilt-a-whirl? Bumper cars? Maybe a small roller coaster? Please?"
"Okay, okay!" laughed Alphys. "I can do bumper cars. I'll… I'll look at the whirly thing. And, um… it'd have to be, like, a kiddie coaster."
Undyne sighed. "Well, I'll take what I can get."
They arrived at the entrance to the theme park, bought a full day's worth of tickets, and began looking around. Undyne marveled at all the flashing lights. "Aw, man! They have games here, too?" she exclaimed, watching someone toss rings onto bottles. "I'm gonna win all the prizes in the park for you."
"What if I want to win some for you?" Alphys raised an eyebrow.
Undyne thought about it. "I'm gonna win most of the prizes in the park for you."
They kept walking and eventually passed the slingshot ride, where Undyne stopped and watched it launch a couple of people high in the sky. "Damn," she said wistfully. "I really wanna try that."
"I can sit and watch while you do it. I don't mind," offered Alphys. "I could rest my legs for a bit, anyway."
"You sure?" Undyne turned to her reluctantly. They were supposed to do things together today…
"Yeah, it's fine! You go have fun. We'll do something together next," Alphys promised.
So Undyne went and stood in line. When she got to the front she found out that she did, in fact, have to pay twenty dollars separate from the tickets for herself and sign a waiver. As she was skimming it over, she heard a familiar voice. "Wait! W-Wait, hold on, I'll go on with her."
Undyne turned to see Alphys puffing up the steps to the ride. "Aw, Alph, you don't have to do this, I'll be fine on my own!" she tried to say.
"No, I—I wanna do this with you. I want to—to step outside my comfort zone," Alphys insisted firmly.
"If you want to do that, we should probably start with something way less intense."
"We're already here. Let's do it." Alphys held out a hand, trembling slightly, for a waiver.
After they had both paid and signed, they were strapped tightly into an open metal cage of sorts. Undyne's chest suddenly felt tight. She and her girlfriend were going to be launched into the air at who knew how many miles per hour—and it was a dangerous enough ride that they'd had to sign papers saying they wouldn't sue if one of them got injured.
How wild was this?
And how wild was it that she—who could suplex boulders, throw whole couches during pillow fights, and jump from small cliffs—was kind of scared of it?
She grabbed Alphys's hand. Alphys looked at her with concern. "Y-You okay?"
Undyne took a shaky breath. "I'm just really suddenly very glad I'm not alone in here."
Alphys laughed nervously.
They heard the ride operator say something, and then they took off.
Undyne was screaming louder than she ever had in her life as she and Alphys rocketed upward at almost a hundred miles per hour, spinning over and over—
And then everything went black.
When she woke up, they were still in the air, but being pulled slowly back down to the ground. Alphys was looking at her like she had two heads. "Oh my god, are you okay?"
Undyne shook her head groggily. "What happened?"
"You—you passed out," Alphys said incredulously.
"I… passed out?"
"You passed out."
Undyne leaned her head back and stared at the sky, completely silent.
When they were released from the ride, they wobbled over to a bench and sat quietly for at least fifteen minutes, processing what had just happened. Finally Undyne turned to Alphys. "Don't you ever, and I mean ever, tell Mettaton or Papyrus about this. Or Sans, or Asgore, or Frisk. But especially not Mettaton or Papyrus."
Alphys laughed genuinely. "Okay, okay. I won't. Promise." She leaned back. "I'm shocked I didn't pass out myself."
"Well, be proud of yourself." Undyne clapped a hand on her shoulder. "You rode the slingshot with Undyne and you weren't even the one who lost consciousness." She exhaled. "Well, we have all these tickets, we should probably use them. What do you think you're up for?"
Alphys shrugged. "Honestly, a-after that? I think I could anything. Maybe even a roller coaster." She smiled. "But maybe we should save that for when we're not so shaky. You wanna do the Ferris wheel now?"
Undyne threw an arm around her and kissed her. "That sounds like a great idea. Let's do it."
How lucky she was to have a lover like Alphys, she thought. Someone who was tender, but could be fearless at the most unexpected of times; someone you could be vulnerable around without having to worry about judgment.
As unpleasant as the experience had been, Undyne hoped she would never forget it, if it meant she also never forgot just how amazing Alphys really was.
oooooooooo
A/N: I've been taking LGBT+ pride requests on my blog since May and repeatedly forgot to post them here, lol. Here's the first one.