Today had been a day.
Alphys had been worked down to the bone in the lab, and in some ways she felt lucky to have gotten through it without getting hurt. Working around chemicals and machinery was never a good idea when you hadn't gotten a lot of sleep the night before.
She'd gotten through it alive physically, but not so much emotionally. She'd kept making mistakes until her boss had yelled at her and her coworkers whispered when they thought she couldn't hear, and her self-esteem was worse for the wear because of it.
But at least she was home now. She was late, and her ago was bruised, but she was home.
She could always count on Undyne to cheer her up.
But Undyne didn't seem to be too happy today either.
She usually got home before Alphys did, but it wasn't until nearly five in the evening that she finally trudged in, soaking wet and very tired, threw her bags on the kitchen floor, and collapsed against the wall.
"My god, Undyne, what happened to you?" Alphys covered her mouth with her hands.
"A lot of crap. Guess it's just one of those days," Undyne sighed. "Kids were a lot more, uh, free spirited than usual, I guess. Couldn't get hardly any of them to listen to me, and a couple of them ended up getting hurt. And then when I had to go home, I just decided to catch a bus, since my car's still in the shop and you said you'd be working late, but I missed the stop while I was on it and had to walk back in the rain. Oh yeah, and I got catcalled while I was on the bus and had to restrain myself from beating the living daylights out of the guy. You know. Fun stuff."
"Oh, no." Alphys sat down next to her and hugged her, not caring that she'd get wet. "Undyne, I'm so sorry… I guess it's been 'one of those days' for both of us."
"What do you mean, what happened to you?" Undyne demanded.
Alphys shrugged. "Just tired. Made mistakes. Got yelled at a lot." She grew quiet. "I-I'm used to it."
Undyne put an arm around her and held her close.
A few minutes passed by in silence. Then Alphys stood up.
"You know what? Let's forget about all that and just relax tonight. You can go change, and I'll, I dunno, find something easy to make for dinner and we can watch something funny on TV."
"Yeah, alright." Anything sounded better to Undyne than moping about on the floor in damp clothes.
Soon enough they were both lying on the couch waiting for a frozen pizza to finish cooking in the oven, watching a light-hearted magical girl anime Alphys had put on.
"I'm feeling better already." Undyne smiled, snuggling into Alphys. "You know, those guys at work just don't know what a good, caring, smart, passionate person they have on their team. I bet if they realized, they'd think you're the greatest thing ever."
"Aw, thanks. And I bet the kids in your gym class would be hanging onto your every word if they knew how cool and nice and brave you are." Alphys kissed her. "I'm glad we can see those things in each other, anyway."
The girls settled into each other comfortably, content in the knowledge that no matter how bad they were both feeling, each could count on the other to love and support them through it.