I do not own Undertale, it was created by Toby Fox
To say that the situation is uncomfortable would be an understatement. The three monster women sit in silence with Alphys and Undyne sitting together on their blue couch while her mother sits across in an easy chair. Undyne is unusually quiet in front of the woman claiming to be Alphys's mom. There are still empty cups on the coffee table and DVD cases lying on the floor that Alphys had intended on picking up before answering the door. Undyne is a little embarrassed but in no way does she blame Alphys for any of it. They all have a plethora of questions they want to ask each other yet can't seem to find the nerve to say anything.
Undyne is still recoiling from the revelation that this random woman is Alphys's mom. Even though the resemblance between the two monsters is so uncanny that anyone would believe the two are related just by looking at them, Undyne is baffled because this is how she is finding about this instead of hearing this from Alphys. It's not due to any indifference on her part, but rather Alphys and her reluctance to open up. Undyne knows better than to pry into Alphys's past and force her to recall devastating memories so Undyne has been waiting patiently for her to talk about it when she feels comfortable. It's taken longer than she anticipated and normally Undyne would have lost her patience at this point but she is willing to put in the extra effort for her sweetheart. They've been making progress and Alphys has been acting more casually around Undyne but it's been baby steps for the most part. So now, Undyne is cautious about what she wants to say fearing that she might accidentally say something to offend her girlfriend's mom.
After a minute of awkward silence, Undyne decides to take the situation into her hands.
"So…..you're Alphys's mom." Undyne finally states though it sounds like she's indirectly asking for clarification. Admittedly not the best way she to start things off but it does get the ball rolling.
The elder monster tenses up a little and fidgets in her seat. The two continue to look more and more similar with every passing second, even down to their mannerisms. "Um….y-yes, but p-please c-c-call me Ternal. I'm sorry f-for not letting you know I was c-coming. I would have called but…." She hesitates to continue.
"It…It's fine." Alphys mutters. She averts her gaze unable to look her mother in the eyes. Once again, Undyne has to break the silence in order to keep the conversation going. "So…want something to drink? Maybe some tea?" Undyne offers stiffly. "Oh, tea sounds nice actually." Ternal says.
"Great, you two can catch up and I'll go make-"
"I'LL MAKE IT!" Alphys proclaims, rushing out of the room before either monster could object.
"Whoa, she never runs that fast on our jogs." Undyne picks up that there's something going on between the mother and daughter that Alphys isn't telling her about. She'd get up and ask but since she's the host, Undyne feels responsible to stay with her guest and keep her company until she has a good excuse to leave
"So, is this y-your home or Alphys'?" Ternal finally asks, gaining the courage to raise her voice again and putting Undyne on the spot. "It's both actually. When the barrier was lowered and we were all settling down, Alphys wanted to build me a new house with her cool science tech but I told her she should just build her own place first. That way first she can show off all her cool nerd stuff to the humans and what monsters can really do!" She stops when she realizes that she's getting worked up again and dials it back down. "So we decided to just make a house for both of us and live together. It was a lot easier than staying back in the Underground. She really went all out and made it indestructible. I haven't even burned-…my... finger... cooking since we got here. Totally safe." Undyne looks a little nervous after that flub but manages to keep her composure.
"Well that's a r-relief. I was so worried when I heard that s-she moved to the surface. I thought she was going to be living by herself all f-frightened and alone, but it's nice to know that she has a f-friend to look after her." Ternal seems to calm down a tad though Undyne is more confused than before. Should she correct her on that or not? Did she know that Undyne is dating her daughter? Alphys owes one of them an explanation.
Suddenly, there's a rapid knock on the door providing Undyne with an excuse to step away. "Wait one sec, I'll be right back." Undyne did not want to be the one to drop all this information on Alphys's mom if she doesn't know.
Undyne opens the door and says, "Sorry for the wait-". At that moment, she remembers that she has a cooking lesson with Papyrus and Frisk. She only realizes this just now because those two are standing on the other side of the door.
"Hi Undyne." Frisk says with a friendly smile.
"Hello Undyne! The human and I ready for our lesson. Are you ready to engage with the Great Papyrus in a battle of culinary wits?"
The two of them stand with friendly smiles on their faces ready for their weekly activity. As much as Undyne would love to get cooking with her two friends, now is not a good time. However, Undyne can't bear to turn Papyrus or Frisk away. Somehow Papyrus can give her the puppy dog eyes look without even trying or having eyes.
"Uhhhhhh…be right back!" She sprints into the kitchen hoping that Alphys will know how to handle this. She finds Alphys using a foot stool to reach the tea. "Alphys! We gotta talk!" Undyne says startling the short scientist and nearly causing her to fall over. Alphys nearly falls backwards but she steadies herself at the last second and looks at the former captain shakily. "What is it Undyne? Why aren't you with my mother? Oh no, what did she say? What did you say to her?"
"She's fine but I don't think she knows about us being together. You did tell your folks right?" Undyne asks waiting for a simple yes or no. Alphys averts her gaze and wrings her hands together. "Welllllll, we haven't actually spoken to each other in…..a while."
"How long is a while?" She asks detecting the hesitance in Alphys's voice.
"Umm….a…couple of years." Alphys admits.
"A couple of- Alphys, get your butt out there and talk to your mom!" It would be understandable if it had been a few weeks or months but to go for even a year without any word from her parents is not acceptable.
"I can't! I can't see her. Not after what happened last time…."
"Well you can't just hide out here! Frisk and Papyrus are here and I can't handle them and your mom."
"I'm sorry, I'm really sorry but I- wait who's at the door?"
"Papyrus and Frisk. They're here for the cooking lesson."
"Well what did you do?"
"Nothing! I came here to ask you."
"Did you close the door?"
"No, why?"
"Oh nonononononono!" Alphys darts back into the living room fearing the worst just as the kettle whistles. To which Undyne immediately facepalmed herself and realized what she did wrong. She left the door open to a kid that likes to wander around and examine everything in sight and a skeleton composed of nothing but nice bones that seeks attention and approval.
Alphys finds Frisk and Papyrus sitting across from her mother and starts freaking out even more. "Oh hello Alphys. You didn't tell me you had a tall clone of yourself. I was just asking if she knew Asgore's clone." Papyrus tells her. Ternal looks over at her embarrassed daughter with confusion and concern.
"I don't think that's her clone Papyrus." Frisk clarifies, feeling obligating to explain this after what happened when he mistook Toriel for Asgore's clone.
"Then who is she a clone of?"
"A-actually, I'm her mother." Ternal says softly.
"Your mother is a clone? Wowee! Does that make you a clone as well?"
"There aren't any clones Papyrus, this is my actual mother." Alphys says with growing irritation.
"Oh! Wait…." He looks to Frisk and asks, "So does that mean you're living with Asgore's mother?"
"Toriel isn't Asgore's mother." Frisk asserts
"So she is his clone."
"There aren't any clones!" Alphys exclaims, only to immediately cover her mouth feeling mortified.
Before Frisk could attempt to explain once more to Papyrus that there aren't any clones, Alphys goes over to the human and sheepishly says, "Can I just borrow Frisk for a second?" Ternal looks like she is about to say something but Alphys takes the human by the hand and leaves with Frisk before she can say anything. She takes Frisk into the kitchen passing by Undyne along the way. At this point Frisk can see that she is visibly unnerved by all of this.
"I hope we didn't ruin your time with your mom." Frisk apologizes. "I could talk to Papyrus and we can leave you two-"
"Don't leave me with her! I mean…." Her face falls and she tries to properly explain what's going on to Frisk. "I need your help. You're good with handling situations peacefully. I need you to deal with my mom."
"Why? What's the problem?"
"She…there are s-some…issues that we left unresolved the last time we met that I really don't want to get into right now. Not with you guys or Undyne here." The human wants to pry and ask more questions but gets the feeling that Alphys isn't going to be opening up any time soon. All Frisk can do is support her and do everything to help. "Hmm, okay. I'll see what I can do." Frisk responds. She lightens up a little and smiles weakly at the child.
As for her mother and Papyrus, the two of them are joined by Undyne the moment Frisk and Alphys left. "Tea's ready. Careful, it's hot."
"O-oh, thank you." Ternal graciously accepts the cup from her and takes a sip. Papyrus has a cup as well while Undyne stays standing anticipating any further requests. Just as it looks like the room is about to return to awkward silence, the optimistic skeleton chimes in saying, "Excuse me Alphys's clone mother, but you seem to be nervous. Is everything alright?"
"O-oh! Everything is just f-f-fine." Even Papyrus can see past her attempts to mask her stress.
"There is no need to worry. I know what you are going through and can reassure you that will everything will be fine."
"R-really?" She says hopefully.
"Of course! I was nervous when Undyne gave me my first cooking lesson." If Undyne wasn't keeping perfectly still she would be facepalming herself again right about now. Ternal doesn't have a clue what Papyrus is talking about, having been given no context whatsoever. "I still remember when that happened. Undyne asked me one day if I was doing anything after training. I thought to myself 'What a peculiar thing to ask. Why does Undyne want to know? Could it be that she is asking me out on a date?' And then I said, "What peculiar thing to ask. Why do you want to know? Are you asking me out on a date?'. She then proceeded to-"
"-clarify that I was only asking because I didn't have any plans either and thought he might like to hang out!" Undyne interjects, cutting off Papyrus before he can say anything to incriminate her.
"Yes but you did some other stuff before that." Papyrus insisted.
"Yeah well that stuff isn't important. You accepted, we made pasta, and since then we've been meeting up for cooking lessons ever since." Undyne summarized without going into any major detail.
"Actually I was hoping to talk with Alphys. We….we haven't seen each other in a long time. It looks like I came at a bad time though. I should have called first." Ternal says with her voice full of regret..
"Nonsense! Undyne and Alphys love having unexpected guests. I come here all the time and they rarely yell at me to leave." At this point Undyne isn't just staring daggers, she is staring spears at Papyrus and is tempted to summon actual ones if he doesn't knock it off. "In fact, I'll go see if the human is ready for our lesson." He leaps to his feet and leaves the two ladies again once more forcing Undyne to play the role of host. Papyrus finds Frisk and Alphys planning out how to deal with Ternal unaware of what's going on. "Human! I need to have a word with you."
"Oh uh Papyrus, I don't think now is a good time." Alphys mutters softly.
"I agree. I think it might be best if we left. Clearly Alphys and her mother some serious business to talk about."
"They do?" Frisk asks, surprised that Papyrus managed to pick up on that.
"Of course, its so obvious. Alphys's clone mother is nervous about her very first cooking lesson and is worried about looking bad in front of us. She's so desperate she's turning to Alphys for advice. I can't even imagine what that would be like. Worried about disappointing those you look up to by preparing a horrid dish that doesn't live up to their expectations. Embarrassing yourself after trying so hard. Living with the shame forever." Papyrus deduces. Frisk doesn't even know where to start this time while Alphys looks more gloomy than before. "Which is why I think we should let them have their lesson in peace. I don't mind missing a lesson. There's nothing more for me to learn, I just go to these so Undyne won't be lonely."
"Who are you calling lonely!" Undyne shouts as she enters the kitchen. Before Papyrus could respond, Alphys asks, "Why aren't you watching my mother?"
"She's not here. She gave me her number and left just a second ago." She hands Alphys a scrap of paper with a phone number written on it. Alphys exhales in relief yet also looks saddened to hear about this.
"Drat. She must have been intimidated about trying to make pasta that can live up to my standards. Tell you what, the human and I shall leave and you can call your mother's clone to let her know that she won't have to share you with us. She can have you all to herself. We'll just have to reschedule and find something else to do."
"Like go to Grillby's? Maybe we'll see Sans there." Frisk suggests.
"We might as well, someone has to check on my lazy bones of a brother. Nya ha ha." Papyrus leads Frisk out of the house content with how things turned out. Frisk looks back to see Alphys still staring at the number and hopes that everything works out for her.
Undyne watches her friends leave and waits until Papyrus and Frisk have shut the door before exhaling. The entire experience was mentally taxing trying to stay calm and not lose control of herself. She looks down at her girlfriend and asks, "Alphys, what's going on? I get that whatever is going on with you and your mom is personal and I'll help you out no matter what but I need to know what's going on first."
Alphys finally takes her eyes off the number and places the scrap of paper into her pocket before facing her crush. "I….I'm sorry. I should have told you this long ago. It's just…I've done a lot of things I'm not proud of. Putting Frisk in danger just to feel like a hero, lying to you just so you'd like me, the Amalgamates….."
Undyne kneels and places a hand on her hunched shoulders. "No one blames you for that Alphys, you were just trying to help those monsters and following orders. It's not like you could have seen it coming." Undyne usually manages to find a way to bring Alphys out of her slump whenever she gets like this, but not this time. If anything Alphys looks worse. The only person that hasn't forgiven Alphys for what happened to the fallen monsters is herself. Even though she did find a way to revive several monsters and reunite them with their families, she considers it one of her greatest failures and regrets. Just thinking about how long she kept them from their families sends her into a deep depression.
"There's no excuse for what I did. All I can do now is make sure they and their families are happy." She turns around, unable to face Undyne and her sympathetic gaze. Undyne hates seeing Alphys beat herself for what she did in the past and hates being unable to help. She feels so powerless being unable to solve something without beating it up. Alphys speaks up before Undyne can offer her any more reassurance. "If you must know, my m-mother and I don't always get along. She's not a bad person, but she can be…inconsiderate."
Undyne does pity Alphys, but finds it a little hard to believe that Ternal could do any harm given how meek she appeared. She seems like a sweet old lady like Toriel. Still Undyne gives Alphys the benefit of a doubt hears her out. "Hey, we still got plenty of tea. Let's go finish it up and talk this over?" Alphys gives a small nod right before Undyne picks her up and carries her into the living room. Once they're sitting down on the couch and sipping tea, Alphys resumes.
"I didn't have many friends growing up. Part of the reason is that I was really shy, but the other reason was that my mother was very protective of me. She didn't like it when I spent time with the kids she thought were dangerous. I ended up spending most of my time reading my mother's old science books and manga she found at the dump. She's actually the one that inspired me want to become a scientist." Undyne can't help but imagine how adorable Alphys must have been as a child. She'd have to ask Ternal if she has any baby pictures the next time she sees her. That would be handled later, right now she had to listen to Alphys.
"She actually taught me a lot about science after school. She knew things that even the teachers at my school didn't know. Whenever I had a question or wanted to learn something new, I could always ask her and she would know the answer. I used to think that she was the smartest person in the Underground." For a second these sound like happy memories but then her tone changes. "The problem is she thought so too. She always had to prove me wrong and point out my mistakes. She was right to do so whenever I messed up on a formula or got a fact wrong but she started taking it too far. Even when I became old enough to make my own decisions, she wouldn't let me hang out with certain kids, she wouldn't let me explore other fields of interest, she even tried to talk me about of applying for the position of the royal scientist. She was overprotective and overbearing. Even after I became the royal scientist, she would look over my notes without permission to make sure that I didn't make any mistakes and questioned my logic constantly. It's like she didn't think I could take care of myself!"
Undyne nods and is starting to get an idea why they aren't getting along. While normally she loves seeing Alphys get worked up this is not one of those times "Alphys, that sounds like it sucks but you should give your mom a chance. Maybe she's changed since you last saw her and wants to make up with you. Why else would she bother looking you up?"
"Well….the last time we talked…we had an argument. I…I don't want to talk about it but it ended with me blowing up in her face. I was so ashamed that I couldn't stand facing her so I locked myself up in my lab and avoided her ever since. I hadn't really thought about her ever since Frisk came along and, well, got us together." Undyne feels something brush against her fingers and noticed Alphys holding her hand and giving it a squeeze. "I've just been so happy with you and Frisk and everyone else that I forgot all my old problems. I just figured that they'd all be left behind once we moved to the surface. I guess I was wrong and now I got you mixed in all of this."
Undyne does more than squeeze her hand back, she pulls Alphys into her lap and wraps her arms around her to hug the nerd. "Stop talking like that! Don't act like this is all your fault. Your mom's the one whose wrong. If she could see you now she'd realize that you're a totally hardcore scientist that's super smart and is the most amazing girlfriend ever!"
Even though she's hugging her way too tight, Alphys still nuzzles into her and tries to hug back. "Thanks Undyne. I appreciate it." She lets go and hops off the couch. She still looks a bit down but not as severely. "I just wish this could all just go away and we can move on from this."
"Well you have her number. Just talk to her, hear her out, and then that's it. You won't have to deal with her anymore." Undyne wants this to be resolved just as much as Alphys and would love to see the mother and daughter patch things up. At the very least Alphys should give her mother the chance to say what she has to say and address the issue. Alphys pulls out the number again along with her phone and contemplates whether she should actually reach out to her or not.
She takes a look back at Undyne and receives a reassuring smile. Reluctantly, she puts the number into her phone. Filled with determination, she texts her mom a simple text reading "hey mom" and hits send. For a moment she feels proud and confident in herself. She can only imagine this is what Undyne feels like most of the time. Everything looks like it's taken care but then sees the ellipses that follow and panics. "GahhhhhH! She's texting back!"
She immediately tosses the phone on the couch and runs away in fear. So much for that determination she had a moment ago. Undyne picks up the phone for her just as it pings to let them know that she just got a new text. It reads "Alphys im so happy to hear you again. Can we tals?", followed by a following text that just read "talk". Since Alphys is unavailable for the moment and possibly hiding in terror, Undyne answers for her. She writes back "not now, lets meet later" and hits send. Before she can go find Alphys and calm her down, Ternal starts writing another message. When it's received, it reads "when can we meet? I reallh want to see u". Followed by another text clarifying that she meant to say 'really'.
Undyne thinks for a second as she considers what to do next. She could ask Alphys but since she can be indecisive and given how agitated the sheepish scientist can get she probably won't be able to give Undyne a straight answer in the next few minutes. Undyne bites her lower lip contemplating what she should do next. She acts on impulse and replies before Ternal gets worried. Undyne types "how about the mall this Sat? we can hang out and have some dinner with my friends". Best case scenario, they patch things up and celebrate. Worst case scenario, Alphys and Ternal never speak to each other again and everyone will be there to support Alphys.
Almost three seconds later she gets a response. " Great! ") " is what she read followed up with "Does 1 PM work for you? Did I do the smiley face right?" Undyne snickers imagining how excited Ternal must be about this. Plus she's as adept at texting as Toriel was when she first got introduced to it. She responds letting her know that its fine and lowers the phone. Everything is arranged, but now comes the hard part: Getting Alphys to go and getting ready for dinner with Alphys's mom.
"Uh, Alphys? Got any plans this Saturday?"
Looks like Alphys has her hands full on Saturday. If you're wondering why this chapter is noticeably longer, this was two chapters but the second half felt too short on its own so I combined the two so that people weren't left with a really short chapter. Anyway, I've also decided to set the genre for this story to general since I'm not really sure what to classify it as. It does feel like it would fit in Hurt/Comfort but it does have light hearted moments and not meant to be a complete downer. For now I'll write Papyrus like I would any other character but I may change my mind later on. We'll see. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on what two genres I should classify this as or if I should leave it in general. And as always, I'd appreciate any reviews since this is my first time writing an Undertale Fanfiction and any feedback would be nice.
