me: i should really work on my ongoing fics

me:

me: but what if i dont do that

asl is in bold btw

Babysitting.

It's a relatively simple concept. Babysitting was to watch a child or children while their parents or guardians were out. Easy enough, right?

Mettaton had babysat Frisk many times before—kind of. Toriel hadn't been out those times; it was simply Mettaton asking to take Frisk along on an "adventure" (usually to a store or mall, or even a movie. Mettaton just loved hanging out with his baby Frisk). Neither Chara or Flowey had come along during those times.

This time, however, was different.

Toriel was going out to lunch with the other ladies from the PTA ("Sans was not invited because of the... incident last week."), and no matter who she asked, everyone was busy. Alphys was on a date with Undyne, Papyrus and Sans were doing their own "thing" (they wouldn't say), and Toriel just flat-out refused to ask Asgore to care for them. So, the next best thing was Mettaton, who eagerly agreed on the mindset of getting to spend more time with his baby Frisk.

He didn't know that the other two would be tagging along until Toriel dropped them off at his house. Napstablook happened to be visiting that day, and when they opened the door and saw Chara's deep red eyes and Flowey's sinister grin looking up at them, they panicked and bolted towards Mettaton in tears.

Mettaton was about to scold Frisk for whatever they had done to frighten Blooky, but when he walked into the front room and saw the three children (was the flower even a child ?) sitting on the couch, he stopped in his tracks and his jaw dropped.

Frisk hugged him immediately, tagging Flowey along too due to the fact that his stem was wrapped around their shoulders and arm. Mettaton hugged back eagerly, but looked over Frisk's shoulder to stare Chara dead in the eye. The child merely stared back, an unsightly grin spreading across their face.

Chara was someone who Mettaton had only seen twice. The first being back in the underground when he was still a ghost—the king and queen had just announced the arrival of a human child and were declaring a time of hope and peace, and the king was holding the human child on his shoulders as they stared off into the crowd, as if in a daze. The queen had her son in her arms, his head decorated in a crown of yellow flowers. The memory was hazy, for it had been so long ago.

The second time was when he saw Frisk walking home from school, happily signing to a slightly taller child next to them. He didn't know it was Chara then, but he couldn't help but feel those glowing red eyes were familiar.

He didn't notice when Frisk had let go, and he leaned back to smile at them and ruffle their hair.

"Hello, darling!" he greeted happily, kissing their forehead. "I think your..."—he struggled to find the right word—"...sibling here frightened Blooky."

Frisk blinked, and then turned around to look at Chara with a disapproving frown. Did you scare Blooky on purpose? they signed with a huff.

A closed-lipped smile spread across Chara's face, and Mettaton felt that that certain smile was the most terrifying of all. "Of course not," Chara said softly, their voice slightly echoing due to the fact that technically, they were supposed to be dead. "Do you even know me, Frisk?"

Yes, Frisk said, unconvinced.

Chara hummed, rocking their head side to side. "Mm, I may have used a trick or two." Their eyes flashed, as if in example.

Frisk frowned again, crossing their arms. They signed something Mettaton couldn't see, and Chara sighed exasperatedly at it.

"Do I have to?" they whined childishly, compared to the serious tone they had prior.

Frisk waved their hands in the air and nodded furiously. Flowey was silent beside them, slightly hiding behind Frisk's head and avoiding locking eyes with Chara. Mettaton assumed he was scared of them.

Chara groaned, tossing their head back and sliding down on the couch. They slumped, before rolling their head on their shoulders and looking towards Mettaton with a bored expression. "Hey, robot-guy, where's your cousin at?"

Mettaton squinted suspiciously at them, putting his hands on his hips.

They scoffed. "Frisk wants me to apologize to them. Chill out."

Mettaton blinked, and then looked around before frowning at them. "You scared Blooky. I'm not sure they want to talk to you at the moment."

Chara shrugged at Frisk, giving a look that said that they weren't really too worried about the fact that they frightened Napstablook. Mettaton and Frisk both huffed in unison, hands on hips and eyes directed at Chara in an angry glare. Chara only laughed at them.

"You guys really are alike," they commented, and then looked at Frisk with a grin. "We should start calling him 'Mettamom'."

That's your worst joke yet.

"What! All my jokes are fantastic! Remember 'pomeraisins'?"

How could I forget, Frisk signed with a deadpanned look, and then rolled their eyes. Chara snickered, and Frisk smiled at them.

Mettaton looked between the two, and then let out a slow sigh. He slapped his hands against his metallic thighs, and brushed his hair back. "Well, what do you kids want to do today?" he asked, hoping they wouldn't give some kind of otherworldly suggestion (Chara).

"The mall," Chara replied instantaneously, and when the others stared at them, shrugged and said, "Frisk told me that the smoothies there are phenomenal."

Flowey nodded in agreement, and Frisk laughed silently.

"Well..." Mettaton mumbled, and then walked into the kitchen to grab his car keys. "Let's go, then!"

"Can I drive, Mettamom?"

"Absolutely not."

The first thing Chara was led to at the mall was—to no surprise—the smoothie shack. Frisk had pointed it out to them, and once they saw it, Chara was dragging all four of them in its direction.

Quite a few of the humans in the mall were giving them strange looks. After all, it wasn't everyday you saw a robot paying for three smoothies for a thankfully normal child (if you could call Frisk "normal"), a terrifying zombie child with red eyes, and a talking flower who's killed all of them several times over.

But hey. Times are strange.

The four sat in the food court, Mettaton across from the three children, observing their movements as they drank their smoothies. Frisk drank theirs slowly, like they did with everything. Mettaton assumed it was to not upset their throat—they've had quite a few problems with it in the past. Flowey, even though Mettaton wasn't sure if a flower needed to eat, drank his at the same pace as Frisk's. It was almost cute; Flowey had stuck to Frisk and Frisk only ever since they brought him out of the underground.

Chara, on the other hand, was a monster as they drank theirs.

They were sloppy, and wiped up their mouth with their hands instead of a napkin like Frisk. They drank theirs quickly, far too quickly, but it didn't seem to have any effect. Mettaton just stared in awe as their large smoothie was devoured in a span of 4 minutes.

Then he remembered how Toriel liked updates on the children, and pulled out his phone before positioning it to take a photo. Chara immediately caught onto what he was doing, and stuck their middle finger in the air with a grin at the camera.

Mettaton lowered the phone, narrowing his eyes.

Chara rolled their eyes and put down their hands.

Mettaton snapped a quick photo and attached it to the message he sent to Toriel.

- [one image attached]

- The kids got smoothies! :D

He set his phone down on the table (but not before admiring his lock-screen—a selfie of him and Papyrus wearing those striped sunglasses and covered in face paint. It had been one hell of a night), and drummed his fingers against the table idly.

"What the fuck—" he heard Chara curse, and immediately snapped his head up with a dry glare.

Chara didn't seem to notice him watching them, and continued to try and steal Flowey's smoothie with a laugh. "Hey—shit, don't touch me with your vines—just let me have a sip ! Don't be such a bitch!"

"Get your own!" Flowey protested, trying to use his vines to keep Chara grounded to their seat. Frisk was pushing them back, frowning at the lack of personal space.

"Hey!" Mettaton snapped, glaring at all three of them. Frisk immediately put their hands in their lap, and Mettaton felt bad for yelling at them, but turned his attention towards Chara and Flowey. "Quit fighting! Chara, you already had your smoothie, now Flowey can have his." Then he narrowed his eyes, his only visible eye glinting dangerously. "And if I hear you curse again..."

Chara raised their eyebrows, almost looking as if they were trying not to laugh. "What, you'll go into your NEO form? Please, I've seen it and it's not very powerful—" Frisk suddenly slapped a hand over Chara's mouth, shaking their head at them frantically.

Mettaton frowned, pursing his lips. How did they know about his NEO form? He didn't recall ever showing it to either of them. And what was with Frisk's reaction?—they looked terrified.

"You haven't told them?" he heard Chara murmur to Frisk under their breath, and looked between them oddly. He glanced at Flowey, who was sweating and trying to hide his face behind Frisk.

Frisk signed something under the table to Chara, lowering their head, and Mettaton felt that he should just let the subject go for now. Frisk would surely tell him later, right?

"We should go to the arcade," Mettaton said, trying to change the subject and lift everyone's spirits. He and Frisk had gone to the arcade many times before, and he was pretty proud to note that the two had the highest scores on the DDR machine.

Frisk's eyes sparkled at the suggestion, and they nodded eagerly, smiling brightly. Flowey looked indifferent, shrugging the best he could even though he didn't have shoulders. Chara just stared, as if considering the idea (but Mettaton was going to go with or without them), and then nodded.

"I've never been to this mall before," they said, and then turned to Frisk. "What's the arcade like?"

See for yourself!

Chara frowned, dissatisfied with the response, and let out a yelp of surprise when Frisk grabbed them by the hand and dragged all three of them in the direction of the indoor arcade.

Chara looked almost envious when they saw the two top high scores on the DDR machine and their names: MTT and frsk.

Once Mettaton had failed for the second time to beat his top score, he offered to give Chara a try on the machine. They hesitated, looking between Mettaton and Frisk as if waiting for something. Mettaton was confused, but when Frisk offered to play with them, he realized that they must just have been embarrassed to do it alone.

Frisk handed Flowey over to Mettaton so he wouldn't get dizzy, and even though Flowey leaned as far back away from Mettaton as he possibly could, Mettaton paid no attention to him and instead decided to take another photo. When he opened his messages, he blinked at the realization that Toriel had replied.

- That is very cute! Tell Chara and Flowey that I siad to behave!

He snickered at her typo, and quickly snapped a photo of the two children at the machine before sending it to her. Then he turned his attention back to the game and laughed at the drastic difference between Frisk and Chara's score.

The taller child stumbled with their footwork, nearly tripping in the process, and had to lean back on the provided railing. Frisk, on the other hand, was doing fantastic—all thanks to Mettaton's rigorous dancing classes, of course. They were hopping, stepping, twirling around to the beat and making a Perfect on almost every one.

Mettaton cheered, and snickered as Flowey absentmindedly let out a Whoo at the display.

"Go, darling, you can do it!" Mettaton exclaimed, nearly hopping up and down from excitement. He clapped his hands, smiling at the sight of Frisk's joy. Others turned to stare, but he didn't care—his baby was doing fantastic and winning !

"Shit, shit, shit," Chara cursed as they glared towards Frisk, trying hard to catch up. But by the time their score got even slightly higher, the song ended, and Frisk was declared the winner.

Flowey immediately retreated back to them, shivering in disgust as he tried to remove all traces of even being on Mettaton. Mettaton rolled his eyes, and rushed over to congratulate Frisk on their win. They smiled at him, and then looked off the side to stare at Chara.

Chara had their arms crossed, staring angrily at the ground and pouting. Frisk was about to walk over and cheer them up, but Mettaton just put a hand on their shoulder and walked ahead of them. He walked up to Chara, squatting down to their height and tilting his head to the side slightly.

"Hey..." he said softly, and Chara turned their head away from him. "Are you upset about losing?"

They didn't reply, just leaned back away from him.

Mettaton pursed his lips and then smiled. "If you want, I can teach you how to get better like I did with Frisk."

"...You don't really want to do that," Chara finally said, their voice low. Their eyes had become darker, and stared into Mettaton's with an almost threatening gaze. Mettaton blinked a few times, before giving them a strange look.

"What makes you think that?" he questioned.

"I know you like Frisk more than me."

Were they jealous of the attention? Mettaton figured so, but he wasn't very good at deciphering the feelings of a technical-zombie child.

"You do everything with them and I," Chara hesitated. "I don't exist."

Their voice shook a little, and Mettaton bit the inside of his cheek. He let out a sigh, taking one of Chara's hands and squeezing it. They looked surprised, staring at Mettaton's face with wide eyes. Chara opened their mouth to say something, but Mettaton beat them to it.

"I do everything with Frisk because they want to," he said, and then scoffed affectionately. "If you wanted to go, you could've just said so."

Chara's usually rosy cheeks grew a bit redder, and they spluttered before turning their head away in embarrassment. "W-Well... I assumed you—"

"—didn't like you?" Mettaton guessed.

Chara hesitated before nodding.

Mettaton just laughed, putting his hands on Chara's shoulders and smiling warmly at them. "You may be a creepy zombie kid with weird eyes," he said, and laughed at Chara's bewildered look, "but I love you just as much as Frisk."

They huffed, shifting in place and looking anywhere but him. "Whatever..." they mumbled, and then grinned. "Mettamom."

Mettaton rolled his eyes. "If it makes you happy."

Chara smiled a bit, but quickly masked it. Frisk ran up, grabbing Chara's wrist and pulling them towards the Star Wars game on the other side of the arcade. Mettaton stood, putting his hands on his hips and watching with a fond smile.

Frisk and Chara each took a gun, ignoring Flowey's whining on how he hasn't gotten a turn on any games ("You're a flower. You don't have arms. You can't play."). Mettaton leaned against the machine beside them, and smiled as Chara flashed him a quick grin once they got the lead against Frisk.

Maybe babysitting wasn't as hard as he once believed.

I stand corrected, Mettaton thought to himself on the way home, as Chara wrestled Frisk in an attempt to fight Flowey and rip the petals off his head.

*looks at ongoing fics*

*sweats nervously*

reviews are always appreciated!