Today was the rare occasion in which most of Frisk's guardians were too busy to look after them for the day. Toriel was grading homework at the school, Papyrus was still working on trying to get his license (he also took Flowey with him, much to the flower's displeasure), and Asgore was currently in some sort of meeting. Napstablook and Mettaton were on tour at the moment, so they were out of the picture as well.

The only one who wasn't busy right at the moment was Sans. He usually worked at a hot dog stand similar to the one back underground, but since there were a lot more people on the surface, business was a lot higher.

Sans strolled with Frisk down the sidewalk, heading over to Alphys and Undyne's house.

"Ooh! Can we take one of your shortcuts?" the child grabbed his arm, and he chuckled.

"nah, i think we've taken enough of those today. it's a beautiful day outside...why not take the time to enjoy it?"

Frisk shook their head in mock shame. "Too lazy to even take a shortcut..."

"hey, like my bro says...truly I am a master." They both laughed, and it didn't take long before they approached the pathway leading to the house.

"Hey, can you save me a hotdog once you're done with work?" Frisk asked.

"of course, kid." Sans winked. "but seriously...one of these days you need to control your obsession with hot animals."

Frisk giggled as he walked up to the door. After he knocked, however, the child began to sense that something was off. All the lights seemed to be out inside the house, and not a single sound was heard. Normally, they could hear Undyne from even a block away. "Sans?"

Sans's grin lessened a bit. "hm...just a sec, kiddo." He immediately disappeared, and a few seconds later, the front door opened.

Frisk turned around and saw him at the doorway. "They're not home?"

"definitely not. Undyne said she'd kill me if i ever did that again." Sans scratched his head. "that's really weird...they never said they had plans today, did they?"

Frisk shook their head. "Not that I know of."

"huh." Sans thought to himself for a moment before his grin returned. "well, at least i'm sure we have someone else here that can tell us where they went."

"Who?" Frisk raised a brow, and they turned around to see that Sans had vanished again. "Sans!?"

"Let go LET GO LET GO!" a familiar, angry voice was heard behind a bush.

Frisk cautiously took a step forward, flinching when a dummy soared right out of the bush, consumed with blue magic.

"LET GO OF ME RIGHT NOW, BONEBAG!" Mad Dummy screeched, flailing about.

Sans walked out and set him down in front of Frisk. "here we are."

Mad Dummy hopped up furiously, but as soon as he noticed Frisk, he froze in place.

"Oh!" Frisk immediately recognized him and waved. "Hello again!"

Mad Dummy blinked as conflicted emotions crossed his face. After all, he still wasn't entirely sure if he liked Frisk or not. "Um...hi..." he muttered, shaking his head and facing Sans. "What do you want!?"

"nice to see you too, 'stitches'." Sans smirked, and the dummy snarled at him.

"You know him too, Sans?" Frisk was surprised.

"course i do. everyone knows me, remember?" He winked. "we didn't really get around to talkin' till we got to surface, though."

Mad Dummy narrowed his eyes. "I'll ask again; what do you two want!?"

"Frisk needs someone to watch them, so i figured Undyne and Alphys were home." Sans glanced back at the house.

"They're out at some sort of anime convention." The dummy rolled his eyes at their surprised looks. "I'm going to assume they were so enamored with the idea that they completely forgot to inform anyone."

"welp..." Sans looked down at Frisk. "that rules out our plan a bit, doesn't it?"

"Boo-hoo." Mad Dummy turned around to go back to his business. "Guess it's time for you to leave, then. So leave already."

"Wait!" Frisk tugged Sans's sleeve.

"what is it, kiddo? ya think you wanna hang out with Mad instead?" he joked.

Frisk eagerly nodded. "Yeah!" They smiled.

Sans actually looked baffled, and Mad Dummy flinched as he whirled around. "Wait...what?"

"ya sure, kid?" Sans asked incredulously, and Frisk continued to nod. "well..." he chuckled, and Mad Dummy's eyes widened, "looks like you're the only babysitter available, pal."

"What!?" Mad Dummy's mouth fell wide open, still trying to wrap his head around the idea. "Do I LOOK like a nanny to you!?" he barked.

"I think it'd be fun!" Frisk told him.

Mad Dummy cringed as he looked away. 'Fun' wasn't exactly his forte. "Uhh..." He cleared his throat and shook his head. "If you haven't already noticed, I'm busy! So no thanks. I'm good. Sans can just take the day off, can't he?" He gritted his teeth. He couldn't understand why Frisk even wanted to hang out with him in the first place. After all, he did try to kill them when they both first met.

"Aw..." Frisk looked a bit disappointed, and Sans shook his head.

"well. that's a shame."

Before the dummy could even think about feeling bad, he noticed how Sans's grin began to widen. A hint of blue radiated off the skeleton's left eye-socket, and Mad Dummy paled, deciding it was best to obey his unsaid command. "But! I...um...guess I'm not that occupied or anything..." he growled quietly, eyes on the ground. "I can watch Frisk."

Sans's eyes returned to normal as he shoved his hands back in his pockets. "awesome. i'm sure either Tori or my brother will come to pick them up around 4. you'll both be fine, won't ya, Frisk?"

Frisk nodded excitedly. "Of course!"

Sans ruffled the child's hair. "i thought so. see ya later, kiddo." Frisk smiled and scampered off to say hi to some of Mad Dummy's minions. When they were gone, Sans faced the dummy one last time, noticing his scowl. "oh, and Mad?"

Mad Dummy cautiously glanced his way, hiding his annoyance.

"if I were you...i'd patch-up that attitude of yours." The dummy paled, and Sans laughed. "hey, don't look so unraveled. be glad that I actually trust you enough with the kid."

Mad Dummy shook his head and huffed. "I wasn't scared, if that's what you're implying," he grouched. His visage gradually softened, however. "But...don't worry. I'm not going to hurt them." His eyes trailed towards the ground.

"i knew you had a soft spot in there somewhere." Sans poked him with a wink before heading off. "see ya."

Mad Dummy narrowed his eyes as he left, but didn't respond as he looked back over at Frisk. The child was patting some of his dummies and dummy-bots, who were squeaking with delight. He had to admit; it was actually pretty cute.

"So, what's up? I feel like it's been forever since I've seen you." Frisk chuckled, and he forced away his smile. "Are you liking the surface?"

"It's pretty nice," the dummy muttered, not looking at them. "I get to see my cousins more frequently."

"So, why do you still live in Undyne's yard?" Frisk asked curiously.

Mad Dummy shrugged, still not looking up. "Undyne and I are just pretty good friends, I guess..." He didn't feel like explaining the entire story of how they met, but Frisk nodded nonetheless.

"Cool! But..." The child scratched their head. "If that's true, how come I've never seen you whenever I visit her?"

Mad Dummy stiffened as he kept his mouth shut.

Frisk innocently rocked back and forth on their feet before tapping his head. "You...do know I visit...right?"

He gritted his teeth, answering almost inaudibly.

Frisk blinked, gesturing for him to speak up.

"I hide from you," Mad Dummy answered louder, turning red in the face.

The child stared at him in disbelief. "You...what?"

"Oh, for the love of—" He finally whipped his head up. "You heard me! Every time you come to visit, I hide from you! I cower behind some tree or bush and just wait for you to leave! Now go ahead and laugh all you want about it! Ha HA HA! Let's all laugh at the despicable, lilly-livered, good-for-nothing dummy!"

Frisk frowned as they cocked their head to the side. "...I'm not laughing."

"WELL, YOU SHOULD BE!" the dummy screamed. Everyone else definitely would.

"Why? There's no reason you should hide from me." Frisk shrugged. "I'm not mad at you."

"For crying out loud...it's not YOU I'm concerned about! It's—" Mad Dummy groaned and shook his head. "I hide because I feel stupid, okay!?"

"Why?"

"You've practically made friends with every single monster in the underground! They all know you, care about you, show you their gratitude for helping us all to the surface..." Mad Dummy looked down. "Everyone but me, anyway. Instead of confronting you to say thanks, or even just to say hi, I've been avoiding you. It's not like I'm not grateful—I am! It's just...hard to confront someone knowing that you've falsely accused them and tried to murder them with rockets and stuff..."

Frisk started giggling, causing him to raise a brow.

"What's so funny about that!? I fired missiles at you! I sent a whole bunch of dummies to hit you with their magic attacks! I threw a KNIFE at you! Why are you laughing!?" He hollered, flailing about.

"You do realize that pretty much every monster has also tried to hurt me, right?" Frisk snickered. "But they're still my friends. I never once held it against them for it, so of course I'd never do that to you!"

Mad Dummy looked at them in confusion. He couldn't understand how someone could be so willing to dismiss his unnecessary temper tantrums and still want to be friends. "Wait...so you...forgive me? Just like that?"

"Well, yeah!" Frisk smiled. "Why wouldn't I?"

Mad Dummy's face scrunched up as he started muttering gibberish. "Just...wow..." Frisk was just forgiving him so voluntarily that it made him feel even more stupid. "I guess I really am a dummy, aren't I...?"

Frisk laughed and gave him a hug. "Don't worry about it! We can just pretend it never happened."

Mad Dummy fidgeted around a bit since he wasn't exactly used to hugs. (Ugh...) However, his scowl gradually began to soften. (Okay, fine...I suppose lookin' after the kid won't be as bad as I assume...)


I just can't get enough of Mad Dummy :P In case you're wondering, he and Undyne first met in my story "Just a Punching Bag".