"Yo dude, we doing this or what?"
Frisk raises their hand to block out the sun, squinting at their friend. Monster Kid (they go by Ace now, they remind themself) is giving them a toothy grin.
The abandoned library looms over them, old and covered in vines and looking gloomy. Frisk shivers despite the warmth of the evening. They're eyeing the mural, a pleasant scene depicting a lone swan floating gracefully on a pond. Frisk never liked it. Even now, it looks haughty and judgmental.
"Mom is gonna be so pissed if she finds out about this." 'Pissed' is an understatement, really. Toriel is strict enough to make Frisk have second thoughts. They can't even begin to think of what kind of punishment she would give them, or how long it might last.
"Ha! Man, I'm so glad my parents don't give a shit. Don't worry, she won't find out." Ace turns around, looking back at Frisk impatiently. "It's in my bag, dude. Hurry up and help me get this off."
"I seriously have no idea how you manage this thing," the human says, carefully undoing the buckles on the backpack's harness. It's been covered in various video game and super hero stickers, they notice faintly. "Have you been wearing the same shirt all week?"
"Nah, man. I just have a bunch that look the same is all. And I manage just fine-"
"Sure you do," Frisk teases.
"Well, yeah, it is easier to just have someone else do it for me. But I can get it on my own! It just takes a little longer."
Undoing the last buckle, Frisk sets the pack on the ground. There's three cans of red spray paint inside. They hand one to Ace, who promptly grabs it in their mouth. Gross. Frisk grabs the other two, and they start shaking the cans. "So, what are we doing? Pentagrams? Dicks?"
Both teens gasp in unison. Ace's can of paint falls to the ground with a small thud.
"Pentagrams made out of dicks?"
"Hell yeah."
An hour later, and the mural is pretty thoroughly ruined, Frisk thinks proudly. The swan is almost impossible to make out now, covered in blasphemy and obscene symbols. They put their hands on the hips and admire their handiwork. "You know, I always hated this stupid swan."
Ace spits out their now empty paint can and grins. "See, dude, I told you this would be awesome." They glance up towards the sky. "Getting dark. Help me get this back on?" They nod at the backpack, and Frisk obliges.
"You know, we should have made it, like, weep blood," Frisk notes.
"Dude! That would have been so rad!"
They finish the last clasp and shove their hands in their jeans pockets. "Are we just gonna leave the cans here?"
"Yeah, man. That's part of not getting caught."
"Cool," Frisk says. "Hey, can I stay over tonight?" The two of them start walking, and Frisk tries not to feel guilty about littering. It's just paint cans.
"Uh," Ace starts. There's something in their tone Frisk can't quite place. "I mean I guess? If your mom is cool with it."
"My uncle is staying with us and he's all drunk and sad and shit." Frisk runs their hand through their hair, frowning. They hate the sharpness that's seeped into their voice. When did they start talking about their uncle like that? "I don't wanna be around that, you know?"
"Ew, yeah." Ace nods empathically. "But, like, is your mom cool with it?"
Frisk's frown deepens. "I'll text her and let her know, but I don't really care if she gets mad. I can't do the whole 'oh god everything sucks and we're all gonna die and it's gonna be pointless' shit today." They roll their eyes for good measure.
Ace stops for a moment. "Whoa, dude. That's," they pause. "That's intense."
Frisk shrugs. "Yeah. Pretty much every night, too."
They're almost to Ace's house now. Just a couple more blocks. The conversation has died, so Frisk fishes their phone out of their pocket.
"I'm just gonna call her. Don't wanna text back and forth forever."
"Cool."
Frisk hits the button to speed dial Toriel with their thumb and brings the phone to their ear. They only have to wait a moment for her to pick up.
"Hello, my child," she greets as usual. She's about to say something else, but Frisk cuts her off.
"Hey, I'm staying at Ace's house tonight." The words come out a little more forcefully than Frisk intended, but it's too late now. There's a pause. Frisk crosses their fingers and Ace glances back at them over their shoulder.
"Oh," is all she says for a moment. "Well, I was hoping-" Oh god, a guilt trip. Frisk rolls their eyes again. Best to cut her off at the knees.
"Yeah they're really having a hard time with their math homework, so I'm gonna help them with that tonight. Okay, I'll call in the morning love-you-bye!" The last few words come out so fast Toriel hopefully won't have time to process that they've just hung up on her. They promptly turn off their cell for good measure. They'll tell her they wanted to save battery life.
"Dude," Ace starts at they arrive at the house, "we just started summer vacation. We don't have homework."
Frisk groans. "Aw, fuck." How in the hell did they manage to forget?
Thankfully, Ace just laughs and doesn't question it. "Yeah, you're probably gonna be in trouble when you get home."
Entering Ace's room, Frisk's heart lurches and they feel like they've made a mistake. They haven't spent the night over since they were little kids. A lot of things have changed since then.
"Yo, how come we stopped hanging out for so long?" Ace blurts out suddenly, as if reading their thoughts.
Frisk shrugs. "I dunno. Depression shit." There's no point in lying, really. It should have been pretty obvious. All they had done in their free time for the last year and a half was alternate between sleeping and crying in their room. For a while, they had only left their house for school. They shrug off their backpack and set it behind the door.
"Oh." Ace's expression falls for the slightest second, but they recover quickly. "I mean, I wondered if something was up, but you really acted like you wanted to be left alone..." Ace trails off and turns their back on the human, and they don't have to ask.
Frisk starts helping Ace with the backpack. "I did want to be left alone. Nothing personal," they wince as they accidentally pinch their finger with a clasp, "I just, um. I didn't feel like company for a while. I don't know to describe it. Sorry."
"It's okay, dude. You, uh, don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."
"Thanks. You guys got anything to eat?"