Undyne stretched herself out on the pebbly riverside beach, basking in the late spring sun as it warmed her scales. The water ran cool this time of year, sparkling in pleasant shades of green and grey as it ran noisily across hidden stones and bits of trash that had collected inside. Down the way a bit, Sans was fishing - or sleeping and pretending to fish. He'd set up there hours ago when they'd first arrived at the park and had yet to move. Papyrus was lazing by the tree close beside him, winding down after an afternoon of vigorous play with Frisk in the park.

And Undyne? She was just enjoying what was left of the afternoon. This was one thing she'd really come to enjoy about the human world - the sunshine on her scales after a swim. It was invigorating and encouraging, even if in the summer it got a little too overbearingly hot. It was still nice. That coupled with a nice long swim in the river - or wade, rather, as the water in this particular portion of the river wasn't all that deep - made for a perfect day out. A shiver went through her as the cool from the drying water gave way to the warm sun above. A wide and happy grin curled its way across her face, sharpened teeth glinting at the rest of the world.

Yes, today was excellent.

Rushed and stumbled footsteps grabbed her attention before she could doze off, and Undyne tilted her head back at the riverside path. Frisk ran over to her, a pair of nice creams in their hands and a smile bursting across their face. They'd opted out of swimming, just enjoying the warm day in the park while. They'd been with Papyrus earlier, the tall skeleton an excellent playmate as they romped across various pieces of playground equipment and climbed just about every tree.

Frisk slid the last few feet to Undyne, their feet sending a shower of pebbles raining down across the beach side as they sat. They offered one of the nice creams to Undyne, an excited giggle in their voice as they did.

"What, for me? You shouldn't have, nerd," Undyne barked with a laugh, taking one of the nice creams gratefully, "Man my favorite flavor and everything!"

Frisk gave a bashful, childish smile. The two of them sunk into a pleasant silence as they devoured their nice cream - Undyne finishing hers with the normal messy enthusiasm she was known for. She grinned at the pleasant message written on the wrapper (*it's a picture of a hug!) before folding the paper wrapper into smaller and smaller squares.

"You know," Undyne sighed pleasantly, "I could really get used to this."

Frisk raised an eyebrow at her past their nice cream. Undyne chuckled, waving her arms emphatically as she explained.

"I mean, just look at this view! Endless open sky that's blue as an echo flower! A river, a park, trees! And not the stupid bristly Snowdin trees either! There's nature everywhere, and birds 'n stuff. It's just all so frickin' cool!"

Undyne's enthusiastic grin stretched into something more mischievous. She bared her teeth in a snarl of a smile and grabbed Frisk, making the tiny human laugh as she noogied their head.

"And it's all thanks to you that I can see it, ya little twerp," she said good-naturedly, a gruff laugh in her voice. Frisk let out a loud peal of hiccupping giggles, grinning as they struggled out of her grasp and nearly spilling their nice cream across the ground in the process. Undyne let them go, relaxing her grip as they squirmed away. She cast her gaze back up to the sky, pillowing her arms behind her head and crossing a leg nonchalantly. She flashed them a diminishing grin, a happy sort of calm washing over her features.

"You really do work miracles, you know that kid?" she drawled, letting the sun warm her into a dozy stupor, "I never would've seen this coming. Friends with a human. Peace on the surface - well mostly anyway. It's almost like a dream."

Undyne sighed contentedly, glancing across to Frisk with a pleasant smile. A frown twitched at its corners when she noticed the nervous, questioning look on their face.

"What?"

Frisk pauses thoughtfully for a moment before asking quietly about the other humans in the underground.

"Huh? What humans?" Undyne blinked at them uncomprehendingly. Her eyebrows stretched upwards and her eyes widened when realization dawned on her. Undyne gave a grimace, looking away from Frisk uncomfortably.

"Oh, those humans. You mean the kids."

Frisk nodded quickly, not unpleasantly either - Undyne caught the motion out of the corner of her good eye.

"Nah I never really met them, met them," she gave a shrug, "I mean, most of them were before my time anyway. And before I was in the royal guard and stuff. Y'know for the whole... soul collection… thing."

There was a pause again, and though Undyne couldn't see it she could almost feel Frisk's questioning look on their face. It was heavy enough to weight the air. Undyne sighed uncomfortably, her mouth twisting more and more into a troubled grimace.

"I mean it's not like… I guess it's kind of… I mean…" she scowled, annoyance mounting at her own awkwardness. But she couldn't help but feel uncomfortable, like her next words were going to frame her as a bad person no matter what she said. Undyne huffed out a tense sigh, earning a startled look from Frisk. They hadn't expected their curiosity to bother her so much.

"I mean… I was really enthusiastic to help Asgore. Obviously. The guy was like the coolest mentor-dad-thing you could ever ask for. And he kinda couldn't handle all the grisly stuff after a while y'know?"

Undyne slipped her arms out from behind the back of her head, making random hand gestures and movements as she spoke. It didn't make explaining any easier, but it at least gave her a way to release some of the nervous energy she was feeling.

"And I mean, come on. You remember when we first met. I was kinda pretty impulsive. Well not kind of. And not 'was' exactly. I'm still really impulsive. And it wasn't anything personal or anything. I mean I kinda hated humans for a while there but like… on a species level. Not personally. Like those kids specifically."

She frowned lamely, the fins on the side of her face twitching downwards, "I thought what I was doing was… you know… right… I guess…?"

Now that it was out in the air, it sounded like a pretty lame excuse for killing someone. Undyne scowled at it, crossing her arms bitterly. She stumbled to pick up on something a bit more solid, a better reason - or was it just an excuse - for all the fighting she'd done in the Underground over those kids.

"I mean… the other humans weren't like you Frisk. You were like some kind of marvel in the Underground! No one could even tell you were human half the time. You were so nice. You never hurt anybody. You didn't even try to hurt me when I was attacking you. That's like unheard of in humans. Or was… I mean… at the time… I mean…! Those other humans weren't like that. Whenever a monster approached them they started freaking out and attacking things. I had to protect everybody!"

She cast a frantic look at Frisk, "You understand that right? You don't -"

Undyne stopped talking abruptly; only now realizing Frisk was frantically waving their hands to stop her from continuing. They watched her fretfully, frantic and a little distraught that they'd upset her so much with such an idle question. They definitely hadn't expected the floodgate that it had opened.

Both of them paused, an awkward silence claiming eating up what was left of what Undyne had been saying. Frisk looked down at their hands nervously, across at the river, then finally back at Undyne again. She bit her lip uncomfortably as they asked their next question, pointing rather obviously to their left eye. Undyne made a face, one of her hands coming up to dab at her eye patch self-consciously.

She shrugged, trying to make it seem like a trivial thing.

"Well I mean… yeah," Undyne admitted finally, frowning at how hard it was to sound casual, "I told ya they fought back."

She glanced back at Frisk again, giving a start when she noticed the very telltale signs of tears forming in their eyes. She waved her hands quickly to try and calm them down.

"Well I mean it's not a big deal! I mean… I was big and scary! I probably scared the crap outta them! I mean… uh… I mean I kinda pretty much deserved it right? It's okay I got used to it. I mean, by aim is kinda weird sometimes 'n stuff but in the end it just makes me look like ten times cooler right? And - oh… shoot."

Tears started rolling down Frisk's cheeks, and they gave her the most pitiful look she'd ever seen. There was a twist in her gut, uncomfortable and dismayed.

"Hey! Cut out the waterworks!" Undyne shouted exasperatedly, at a loss at how to make the kid stop, "I'm fine! No harm done 'n stuff! Come on, Frisk."

She sighed and scooped the little kid up in a hug. Frisk hugged her back, clinging her to scales with tiny hands and burying their head in her neck. Undyne felt a few tears drip down the side of her neck, and she gave a tired smile.

"Hey, calm down, it's okay. I'm okay. Look."

She pulled away from them, sharp teeth clenched in the closest thing to a reassuring grin as Undyne could manage. Frisk rubbed at one of their eyes, sniffling as they started to calm down.

"I'm really fine, Frisk. Come on, don't be such a cry baby," she laughed quietly, bringing a hesitant smile to the kid's face, "I mean, shouldn't this be the other way around? Shouldn't you be mad at me or something. Resent me or whatever?"

A horrified look crossed Frisk's face and they shook their head vehemently. They pitched forward, hugging Undyne around the neck fervently. The fish monster laughed, relief making her soul pitch lightly around in her chest. A tenseness rolled its way out of her body that she didn't realize she'd even started holding. It made her feel airy, made the sun feel a little warmer on her scales. She sighed.

"Yeah, you're too much of a wimp to care about all that nasty revenge stuff anyway."

Frisk wiggled a little closer to her, clamping his hug a little tighter around her shoulders. She could feel them doing their best to nod into the side of her neck. Undyne gave a quiet laugh.

"Thanks... Frisk."