Aftertale
Chapter 1: Meetings Human!
Disclaimer: I do not own Undertale or any of the characters involved except Arin.
It was a beautiful, sunny day in the city. A young teenage girl was walking down the street with an arm full of books. The child had long brown hair and was wearing a blue and purple striped shirt with blue shorts, black tights, and brown shoes. Beside the girl was a larger figure, a woman, but she had white fur all over her body and she was wearing a button up pink shirt and black pants, a pair of glasses rested on her snout.
"Are you ready for your first day of High School Frisk?" The goat woman asked.
Frisk nodded.
"Well, I hope you make lots of friends,"
Frisk looked up at the goat woman and smiled. A figure rushed past them, blowing a strong gust of wind at them. Frisk tried to catch a glimpse but the figure was already a few yards away, all she really saw was it was a boy her age with dark red hair and wearing a denim jacket with a bag slung over his shoulder.
"Sorry!" The figure called back.
"Really, the nerve of some people, rushing down the sidewalk without looking out for other people," Toriel said with a huff.
Frisk pulled on Toriel's sleeve and nodded toward the school down the road.
"You're right, if we don't hurry we'll both be late," She said.
Toriel led Frisk down the street to the school where the two parted ways, Toriel went to teach her math class while Frisk split off to head to her locker. As she arrived she noticed a figure down the hallway, a red-haired boy with a denim jacket. She knew it was the one who ran past her and Toriel earlier. He was surrounded by three larger students.
"Come on Arin, what do you have today?" One of them asked as he slammed his fist into his open hand.
"Please Charlie, it's all I have," Arin told him as he clutched a brown paper bag.
"Hand it over," Charlie grabbed the bag and shoved Arin away.
He took a look inside the bag and frowned, "A peanut butter sandwich? That's it!" He threw the bag down and the sandwich spilled out onto the floor.
Frisk watched the scene play out quietly. The trio began to beat on Arin eventually forcing him to the ground, when they had, had their fill they walked away, stomping on his sandwich as they went. Frisk waited a little before rushing over to see if Arin was ok. She saw he was pretty beaten up with bruises and a bloodied lip, she offered a hand to help him up and taking him to the nurse's office.
"Thanks," he said as he took it and stood, "You're Frisk right? That new kid who brought all the monsters with her?"
Frisk nodded.
"Wow, you're famous around here, you know that?"
Frisk shook her head, she indicated that they should go see the nurse, but Arin seemed oblivious to her signing.
"Don't talk much do you? Well, I guess it doesn't matter, the name's Arin," He put his hand out. Frisk shook her head and tried to indicate they needed to go to the nurse's office again.
"Human!" A voice called from the other end of the hall.
A tall skeleton approached Frisk and Arin, he wore a blue half-dome on his upper legs, a white chestpiece and a red scarf around his neck bones. He was carrying a math book under one arm.
"Whoa, a Skeleton," Arin said in surprise.
"Yes, I am the Great Papyrus, who are you?"
"My name's Arin, Frisk was just helping me up after I fell and dropped my bag," Arin extended his hand before Frisk got a chance to correct him, and Papyrus took it.
"Well, you should be more careful, though I doubt you'd ever be as graceful on your feet as I, The Great Papyrus,"
He looked down and noticed the smashed sandwich on the floor.
"Was that your lunch?" He asked.
"Yeah, before I dropped it anyway,"
"Allow me to make you some spaghetti for lunch! I should have some left over from my bowl, we can split it,"
"No, that's alright, I'll find something," Arin said with a dismissive smile.
"Are you sure?"
Frisk looked between the two as they talked showing a little concern, she knew what had happened, but didn't want to embarrass Arin in front of Papyrus by saying it.
"Yeah, I'm positive, thanks for the offer though, anyway I better get to class, see you guys later!"
Arin took off down the hall after he scooped up the sandwich and bag and threw them away.
"He sure is a nice guy, what do you think about him Human?"
Frisk nodded, still wondering why Arin lied. The bell rang drawing their attention.
"Come on Human, we need to get to class," Papyrus took Frisk's hand and led her to the classroom.
When they arrived they noticed Arin sitting in the back with his head on his desk and his arms hiding his face.
"Is that Arin?" Papyrus asked her.
She nodded.
"I didn't realize he was in class with us,"
Toriel entered the room as another bell sounded, "Alright my students, please be seated, some of you may have noticed a new student in our class today, Arin,"
Arin looked up at the sound of his name. Toriel jolted slightly at the sight of bruised face, his lip had stopped bleeding and he seemed to be a little cleaner than when Frisk had left him the hallway.
"Would you come up and introduce yourself please?"
Arin nodded as he stood and walked up to the front of the room. Now that he was standing in full view Frisk noticed his dark red shirt under his jacket, the dark blue pants he wore, and the black boots on his feet.
"My name is Arin, I've actually been here at the school for most of this year, I just got transferred to this class because I wasn't doing so well in my other one," Arin said with a slight bow.
"Well, I hope you excel here," Toriel said with a smile, trying to play off the slight lisp he had from his bruised lip.
"Thanks Mrs. Toriel," Arin returned to his desk and class began.
Frisk noticed that he never really paid attention to the lecture, didn't take any notes, and more or less just slept through class it looked like. After class Frisk approached Toriel's desk and asked about Arin.
"Well, he was right when he said he wasn't doing so well in his other class, the teacher there said he just slept through all of his classes and didn't do well on the tests, he was supposed to be a year ahead of you and Papyrus, but he was dropped down because they knew he wouldn't make the finals,"
Frisk nodded, and walked over to Arin's desk where a faint snoring sound could be heard. She put a hand on his arm and shook him slightly. He almost leapt out of the room as he jumped to his feet his head darting from side to side as if looking for an opponent.
"Oh, Frisk, hey," He said once he realized who it was.
Frisk told him it was time for lunch.
"Oh, good I'm starving," He said as he and Frisk walked to the lunchroom together.
Toriel noticed something about Arin, but couldn't quite put her finger on it, or her paw rather. Frisk and Arin entered the cafeteria where they saw Papyrus was sitting by himself, the two joined him and Papyrus smiled.
"Hello again Humans," Papyrus said.
"Hey Papyrus," Arin replied.
The trio was soon joined by monster kid, who was introduced to Arin and the group began to eat their respective lunches, except Arin. They all offered him some food, but he declined.
"So Papyrus, why do you always call Frisk 'Human'?"
"Well, when we were still in the underground, she was the first Human I ever met, and I didn't know her name as she didn't tell me, so I just called her Human, and, well, old habits are hard to break, even for someone as great as me,"
The bell rang and the group returned to class. Toriel lectured them for the rest of the day and as everyone was packing up their things Toriel grabbed Frisk's hand and led her out of the classroom to go home. A few minutes later they were leaving the school, they had to make sure Papyrus was doing alright. The two began to walk down the street when Frisk noticed Arin sitting on a street corner by himself. She tugged on Toriel's hand and she noticed what Frisk was looking at.
"Arin!" Toriel called.
He looked up, "Are you waiting on someone?" she called to him.
"Yeah, my dad should be here any minute!" He called back.
Frisk looked up at Toriel and shook her head. She explained what she knew about Arin, he didn't seem like the kind of person who would wait on his dad like this.
"Well, maybe he doesn't have a choice," Toriel told her.
Frisk shook her head and let go of Toriel's hand. She walked across the street to Arin and extended her hand. He looked up at her with confusion.
"I'm fine Frisk, I told you, I'm just waiting on… my dad,"
Frisk knelt down and wrapped her arms around him.
"Frisk? What are you doing?"
Frisk told him that she knew.
"What-what are you talking about?" Arin asked.
She explained, the lunch, the bullies, his sleeping through class. He was homeless with no parents.
"Is this true?" Toriel asked as she approached.
Arin looked down at his feet, "Yeah,"
Toriel put her paws to her mouth, "Arin… I had no idea,"
"It's fine, I've survived so far without them, I can keep going,"
"There's no need to, you're coming home with us," Toriel said.
"What? But, I couldn't," Arin looked away.
"Nonsense, you're coming home with us, and that's final," Toriel extended a paw and Frisk extended her hand again.
Arin thought about it for a moment before sighing and taking their limbs to help him up, but they didn't let go. They began to walk home and led Arin the whole way, never letting go of his hands. Arin felt something warm inside him that he'd never felt before.
"Is this what it means to have a family?" He thought to himself.