Rivalry
This is one of my favorite stories from my 100 Themes Challenge on AO3, so I brought it over here. The prompt word was, of course, Rivalry. It took me a while to figure out what to write it about, but then I thoguht Papyrus's POV of the Undyne hangout might be fun, especially with a Frisk who was stubborn and not so sure about being friends with Undyne at first.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, it's not like I'm scared or anything..." Frisk asked Papyrus as she walked with the skeleton to the imposing fish shaped house that belonged to Undyne.
Papyrus knew she secretly was, but humored her. "I KNOW, HUMAN. BUT IT WILL BE FINE! YOU AND UNDYNE WILL BE FAST FRIENDS! SHE'S GOING TO LOVE YOU!"
"Three dozen freaking pointy spears told me otherwise." Frisk muttered, cursing herself for letting Papyrus's puppy eyes, well, eye sockets, convince her to come with him to attempt to be friends with Undyne of all people.
"HUMAN, I KNOW YOU AND UNDYNE GOT OFF ON THE WRONG FOOT..." Papyrus started.
"You can say that again." she grumbled.
"AND I KNOW IT GOT REALLY BAD, AND I WISH I HAD BEEN THERE TO PROTECT YOU, BUT I KNOW UNDYNE FEELS SORRY FOR WHAT HAPPENED! SHE'S NOT ALWAYS LIKE THAT, AND I KNOW WHEN YOU TWO GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER, YOU'LL BE GREAT FRIENDS; TRUST ME!"
"I trust you; it's her I'm not sure about." Frisk muttered.
"IT'S GOING TO BE OKAY, HUMAN. I WON'T LET ANYTHING HAPPEN TO YOU! YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE SCARED!" Papyrus said soothingly.
"I told you, I'm not scared!" Frisk protested, almost sounding like Undyne when someone told her she couldn't do something. "I'll be just fine! I can handle Undyne!" Her eyes glinted with determination as she started marching off towards Undyne's house.
Papyrus wondered if she realized how much she sounded like Undyne in that moment. In fact, she had been rather similar to Undyne (minus the flirty bits) through the whole time he'd known her, from her can-do attitude on the puzzles and challenging him to "do his worst" doing their battle. Their similarities would make his plan either really easy or really hard; he wasn't sure which yet.
But if anyone could make those two friends, he, the Great Papyrus, could!
...
When they arrived, Papyrus told Frisk to stand behind him, which she grumbled about a little, then handed her a small golden bone tied with a red bow. "PSST...MAKE SURE TO GIVE HER THIS. SHE LOVES THESE!" Frisk agreed with a small nod as Papyrus knocked on the door.
Undyne quickly answered. "Hi, Papyrus! Ready for your extra-private, one on one training?"
"YOU BET I AM! AND I BROUGHT A FRIEND!" Papyrus side-stepped to show her Frisk, though was prepared to jump back in between just in case Undyne's initial reaction was a little...murdery.
"Hi, I don't think we've..." Undyne froze as she looked closer at Frisk. There was an extremely awkward silence before Undyne gritted her teeth, looking between Frisk and Papyrus and for Papyrus's sake trying to speak with somewhat of a polite voice. "Why don't. You two. Come in?"
Papyrus twirled a bit, glad that at least Undyne was trying to be polite, as he walked in, Frisk close behind him. This was going well so far! Now to have Frisk give Undyne the friendship bone, then discreetly slip out so Frisk and Undyne could get to know each other without him being a third wheel.
Both Undyne and Frisk were staring at each other awkwardly and with mild hostility brewing beneath the surface, so Papyrus knew he needed to act fast. "HERE UNDYNE! MY FRIEND BROUGHT A GIFT FOR YOU! ON HER OWN!" He took the bone from Frisk and handed it to Undyne, beaming.
Undyne looked at him weirdly, clearly not buying it. "Uhh...Thanks. I'll, uh, put it with the others." She took the present and placed it in the drawer beneath the sink where Papyrus could see that she kept all the other bones he had given her as gifts.
He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly when she wasn't looking. Maybe he SHOULD have selected a less Papyrus-like gift for Frisk to give to Undyne...
Undyne came back, still looking less than thrilled to have Frisk there. "So are we ready to start?"
Now time to make a subtle exit so he didn't become the awkward third person that he knew Undyne and Frisk would both talk to to avoid talking to each other. "WHOOPSY DOOPSY! I JUST REMEMBERED! I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM! YOU TWO HAVE FUN!" With that, he ran to Undyne's window and jumped out of it right through the glass, tumbling across the ground as he caught his balance. He could see Frisk staring at him in shock while Undyne just looked surprised that he hadn't stuck the landing. She HAD been the one to teach him "the awesome window escape" after all!
Okay, so maybe the Great Papyrus did not do subtlety, but he had done the exit part well enough! He moved just far enough away to get out of sight, then crept back to the window to listen to make sure the two were getting along.
Undyne and Frisk stared at each each other again before Undyne spoke, not even attempting to hide the anger in her voice now that she thought Papyrus was gone. "So what are YOU doing here? To rub your victory in my face? To humiliate me even further?! IS THAT IT?!"
"No! I'm not an idiot." Frisk told her, not bothering to hide the anger in her voice either.
"Then why ARE you here? Wait, I get it. You think that I'm going to be friends with you, huh? Right?"
"Well, I was hoping we could at least TRY to be friends for Papyrus's sake..."
Undyne snorted. "Really?! How delightful! I accept! Let us frolic in the fields of friendship!" she said in a fake high pitched friendly voice before glaring at her. "NOT! Why would I EVER be friends with YOU?! If you weren't my houseguest, I'd beat you up right now! You're the enemy of everyone's hopes and dreams! I WILL NEVER BE YOUR FRIEND. Now get out of my house!"
"Fine! I knew this wasn't going to work! And you know what, Undyne?! I don't even want to be your friend! You're a total dick!" Frisk yelled, turning bright red.
Undyne was just as red now. "Why you..."
Outside, Papyrus's eyes widened. Uh oh. Damage control time! He thought quickly. Okay, the one thing I know best about Frisk and Undyne is that they're both freakishly competitive. But maybe...just maybe I can use that rivalry to work for them being friends!
He stuck his head in the window. "DANG, WHAT A SHAME! I THOUGHT UNDYNE COULD BE FRIENDS WITH YOU. BUT I GUESS...I OVERESTIMATED HER. SHE'S JUST NOT UP TO THE CHALLENGE." He sighed to make it look convincing. "OH WELL..."
Undyne took the bait. "Challenge?! What?! Papyrus, wait!" But Papyrus had already disappeared.
He waited out of sight, crossing his fingers. This would either be really good or really bad. But Frisk and Undyne were both really good friends to him, so he knew they could be good friends to each other.
"Darnit. He thinks I can't be friends with YOU?! Fuhuhu, what a joke! I could make friends with a wimpy loser like you any day!" he heard Undyne yell at Frisk. "Listen up, human! We're not just going to be friends! We're going to be...BESTIES. I'll make you like me so much...you won't be able to think of anyone else! Fuhuhuhuhu! It's the PERFECT REVENGE!"
"Well, I'm going to make you like me so much, you'll REGRET having ever attacked me!" Frisk yelled. "Because I'm the best best friend there ever was...well, besides Papyrus."
"No, I'M the BEST best friend!" Undyne yelled.
"Well, prove it then!"
"Fine, punk!" They glared at each other, then realized glaring and arguing probably wasn't the way to prove they were the "best best friends." Both planted smiles on their faces.
"It's so nice having you over. Why don't you have a seat?" Undyne asked, gesturing to the chair.
Frisk smiled at her. "Thank you, Undyne." She glanced to the window as she did.
"I can't believe he leapt through the window like that. Normally, he NAILS the landing." Undyne said with a laugh, making Frisk laugh too, a real, genuine laugh.
Papyrus watched as they made small talk about the things in Undyne's house and sighed in relief as he saw that they were both relaxing. His plan had gone perfectly! Now that Undyne and Frisk had harnessed their competitiveness to take on his challenge to become friends, they would see how much they had in common and start to like each other for real! He headed off, congratulating himself on a job well done.
...
But he thought he blew it a half hour later when he went back to see how it was going and found Undyne's house on fire. He gasped and was about to rush in to rescue them when two soot covered figures came stumbling out of the building.
And they were laughing!
Frisk turned to Papyrus, eyes sparkling. "You should have seen it, Papyrus! Undyne caused the biggest explosion I've ever seen! It was better than Mythbusters! Though...sorry about your house, Undyne."
Undyne ruffled her hair. "No problem, punk! It's all happened before. Okay if I crash with you for a few days, Papyrus?"
"OF COURSE! AND I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU TWO BECAME FRIENDS!"
"I told you I could do it! And Frisk's pretty damn cool! You should have seen her hit that tomato! That thing went flying six feet before hitting a wall!"
"And that was a miss!" Frisk said, laughing. "And Undyne, you HAVE to teach me that slam move that crushed everything on the table! That was freaking awesome!"
"I will, along with how to throw a decent punch. Because, no offense, but your punch is wimpy!"
Frisk glared at her, but with no real venom. "Hey, I can punch great! I just didn't want to hurt you!"
"No you wouldn't have! I'm no wimp! I'm stronger than you!" Undyne had a challenging spark in her eyes and of course Frisk rose to it.
"I'm just as strong as you! I bet I can beat you in a wrestling match!"
"I bet you can't!"
"Prove it!"
Undyne grinned. "You're on!" She lunged at Frisk, knocking her to the ground, sending snow flying everywhere. "SNOW WRESTLING!"
Papyrus watched with a shake of his head as the two tumbled together, trying to pin one another and shove snow down the back of each other's shirts, looking like snowmen in only a few minutes.
His two best friends were insane. But that's why he loved them.
And then the two snow covered figures both smirked in unison and grabbed onto Papyrus, pulling him into the snow as well.
"NYOOOOO!"