After having finished work for the day as well as checked all of her social networks and updated her statuses, Alphys remembered she hadn't checked her e-mails yet. How could she forget this? There could be messages from Undyne in there or job offers, or- wait, no, Undyne lived in the same house as her, why would she need to send her e-mails?
However, upon inspection, there indeed were a few job offers in her mailbox. While humans were still somewhat reluctant to work with a monster, they were impressed enough with her work (or rather, what they knew of it : the Determination Experiment had been kept a secret from the human media) to seek her out.
Five different corporations wished to make her create other robots like Mettaton, which the lizard woman honestly didn't think was possible even if she did find someone else willing to have their SOUL put into a machine. Every SOUL was unique, after all. Sure she could make something that looked like Mettaton, but it would never be exactly like him.
She deleted those messages.
Another was from… D.I.E Laboratories? Their message wasn't very clear about what they wanted of her so Alphys concluded it was some kind of prank and marked it as spam.
The next e-mail informed her that the cosplay accessories she had ordered would be delivered really soon.
The sounds of the front door opening and the piano being played a minute later informed her that Undyne was home, so she left her computer to go downstairs.
"Is that a new song?" Alphys asked.
"Yes", her girlfriend confirmed with a big smile that uncovered her impressive teeth. "I wrote it for you!"
"F-for me?"
Undyne's smile grew wider and her playing more passionate. Soon, the lizard's short arms hugged her from behind.
"Undyne, I- I love it. I love you."
The fish lady turned her head so could give her partner's snout a smooch. She kept playing her piano the whole time.
"'Love you too, Al."
The doorbell rung ; Undyne stood up to see who was there.
"Howdy, Undyne!" Asgore said when the door opened. "Would you happen to be free two weeks from now? We'll give a speech to the UN. Would you mind being part of the bodyguard team again?"
"Asgore", she replied, "how could I ever say no to you? Of course I'm down with it!"
"Very well. I'll send you all the details."
"Speaking of that", Alphys intervened, standing behind her girlfriend, "I-I updated our secure e-mail system to make it even m-more secure!"
"Thank you both", Asgore said. "I already feel safer!"
"You're welcome!" Undyne smiled.
Two weeks later, Frisk was awoken early in the morning by Asgore.
"We do not want to miss our flight!" he said as his child reluctantly sat up in bed and rubbed their eyes.
They hadn't slept that well and he could see in on their face. Whether this was due to nightmares or stress he didn't know. He feared it could be a mixture of both.
"Are you alright, Frisk?"
They nodded, yawned, got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. Asgore went to the kitchen to finish preparing breakfast.
They were barely done eating and getting dressed when Papyrus and Toriel arrived to pick them up.
The four of them met Undyne in the parking lot next to the airport. After a few minutes of wondering where Sans was, they found him waiting for them inside, sleeping on one of those uncomfortable-looking metal bench with his hood down.
"Hey bonehead!" Undyne called as she lifted him in the air to shake him awake. "No sleeping on the job!"
"ok, ok, i'm awake now! please put me down…"
People were already staring at them before and now it was like the whole airport was watching the monsters. They did their best to ignore it.
"UNDYNE!" Papyrus shouted, sweat appearing on his skull (Frisk had stopped questioning this as well). "PLEASE DON'T DO THAT. PUT MY BROTHER DOWN. GENTLY."
She slowly put Sans back on his feet. His hood had fallen back, barring his skull again.
"very kind of you to try to lift my spirits, undyne, but-"
"SANS!"
"yeah, sorry, 'still a bit shaken."
"WELL I SEE YOU FEEL GOOD ENOUGH TO KEEP TELLING TERRIBLE JOKES. I WAS SCARED FOR A SECOND."
"Glad to see everyone is alright but we better get going if we don't want to miss our flight", Toriel reminded everyone.
Even though all the humans around them were still staring, the group went through airport security without any incident (besides Asgore having some difficulty going through the metal detector, but this was nothing new).
Once they finally got aboard the plane, both Frisk and Sans fell asleep as soon as they had sat down and buckled their seatbelts. Undyne snapped a picture of them as the human's body fell to the side and their head ended up on the skeleton's ribs.
Even the fish lady didn't dare to wake either of them up until the plane had landed.
As the vehicle appointed for the Dreemurrs and their bodyguards passed near the front of the UN headquarters, they saw quite a few humans holding anti-monster signs. Toriel shielded Frisk's eyes but they already knew too well that these kinds of protests were still going strong.
They were just glad that not all humans were hostile. And that they would enter the building through a different entrance and therefore avoid the protestors.
Everyone in the vehicle was dead silent.
Still Frisk had no choice but to stay determined. They had to help monsterkind. They had to make sure monsters and humans could share the world without any bloodshed or dustshed. They had to make things right.
Would that be enough to make up for what they did in another timeline?
Soon they stopped and left the vehicle to enter the huge building. The Ambassador for Monsterkind reached into their pocket where the printed version of their speech was. The audience hadn't even started yet and they already felt tired from all the talking they would be required to do. But it had to be done. They had to at least try. They were filled with determination. Actually, they could feel a new SAVE point forming right now.
They took their speech out of their pocket and read it for at least the one millionth time. However, they had to stop reading when they walked right into Asgore in front of them. He didn't say anything, but Undyne reminded Frisk to watch their steps.
Then they had to wait for what felt like forever, with the representatives or every country watching them, until it finally was their turn to speak.
They were hesitant at first, but as they kept going they could feel their determination overcome anything else and they gradually pried their eyes away from the paper until they stopped reading it altogether and put it back in their pocket. They already knew their text by heart anyway.
"We're so proud of you, Frisk!" both Toriel and Asgore said as they finally exited the UN headquarters.
"YOU ALMOST BROUGHT ME TO TEARS AND I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, DON'T CRY SO EASILY!"
"yesterday you cried when bambi's mom was shot", Sans reminded his brother quietly.
"You were so passionate, punk!" Undyne exclaimed. "That was amazing! And probably the most talking I've ever heard from you."
The monsters wouldn't be surprised if Frisk went completely non-verbal for an entire week after that.
Toriel picked them up to give them a long and warm hug.
Then the group went to the hotel they were staying at for the night. The name and location of this hotel had been kept a secret, but now that they had arrived they couldn't help but be noticed by everyone inside. After all, monsters were an uncommon sight that far from Ebott.
As planned, Undyne and the skeletons shared a room, Toriel and Frisk another and Asgore took the third.
Sans fell asleep on the bed closest to the door as soon as he stepped into the room he had to share. Undyne claimed the bed next to the window and sat down before checking her phone. She smiled at the tons of notifications from Alphys. A good portion of them were pictures of things that reminded the lizard woman of her girlfriend in one way or another. The fish lady took the time to like and comment on every single one of those.
Wait. Among all the notifications from Alphys, there was one from… the Dogi?
"Papyrus? Did you see the Dogi's status update?"
"NOT YET" Papyrus replied. "ACTUALLY I DON'T REMEMBER THEM POSTING ANYTHING SINCE THEIR PUPPIES WERE BORN."
"Well one of the puppies went missing!"
"DID THEY GET LOST?"
"It better be just that, 'cause if anyone hurt this baby I'll find out who did it and hunt them down!"
Undyne kept checking her phone every five seconds, even when Sans woke up to share some of the snacks he had brought with him and hidden in his ribcage.
"I fuckin' swear if one of those anti-monster pricks hurt a defenceless puppy…" she growled.
"i guess it's paw-ssible."
"NOW'S NOT THE TIME, SANS!"
"looks like my puns still aren't pupular with you. what a shame."
"I hate being that far from Ebott!" the fish lady shouted. "I can't do anything from where we are!"
"then don't do anything. it's not like you got a choice. plus we don't even know what actually happened yet."
Undyne stood up and decided to go check in on the others to distract herself.
For safety reason, the monsters and Frisk had agreed that going into the city was out of question, so everyone remained within the hotel. The child didn't mind though, as some peace and quiet were more than welcome.
They were showing Toriel a few new phone apps they had found recently when Unydne went to check in on them.
"You look tense, Undyne", the boss monster pointed out. "Are you alright?"
"Me? I'm perfectly fine!"
The human looked through their phone for a few more seconds, found a piano app and handed it to Undyne.
"I have this app already", she informed them, "but that's a great idea! How about a little duet for Toriel?"
She gave Frisk their phone back and took her own from her pocket, then everyone sat on Toriel's bed. The duet quickly turned into an impromptu piano lesson.
Well, looked like peace and quiet were out of question now. Still Frisk tried their best to follow Undyne's instructions. They were determined to make her proud.
"Good! Now do it again with MORE PASSION! SHOW THESE KEYS WHO'S BOSS!"
"Undyne, please do try to keep quiet", Toriel said. "If we get too many complaints about noise we might get banned from every hotel."
"Hum, yeah, good point. Hey Frisk, we could continue this lesson at my house when we get back if you want!"
Frisk smiled and gave a thumb up ; Undyne smiled back and ruffled their hair.
"Alright, I'll be going now. See ya later guys!"
Toriel and Frisk waved her goodbye as she left the room. The human kept playing on the virtual piano for a good five minutes before they decided to stop.
"I'll call room service", the former queen decided. "What do you want to eat, dear?"
The child shrugged, as anything was fine by them. They never were a picky eater. In situations like this one they would just take whatever Toriel picked. She'd still ask them anyway just in case.
Frisk woke up in the middle of the night, panting. They sat up in bed and pushed the cover away. They looked around and found themselves in the same hotel room they had fallen asleep in and Toriel was still lying on the bed next to theirs. This helped them calm down some, but they were still shaking and covered in sweat.
They got up and walked to the bathroom, careful not to make too much noise. They searched for the light switch a good minute before finally finding it. The suddenly change in lightning hurt their eyes and it took them a second or two to adjust.
They turned on the faucet and washed their face before looking up into the mirror above the sink. Despite everything, they were still Frisk. There was no-one there to change that anymore. They hadn't felt the Fallen Child's presence in over two years. Or rather, they only had in nightmares, but that didn't count, right? The nightmares weren't real. Merely memories. Memories that wouldn't leave them alone.
Frisk felt like they probably deserved it.
The bathroom door opened to reveal Toriel.
"Nightmares?" she asked, kneeling down so she was on the child's eye level.
They nodded, still trembling, then hugged their mother tightly. She hugged them back and slowly petted their hair.
"Everything is alright now, my child. I'm here. You're safe. Everyone is safe."
The shaking lessened until it stopped completely. Frisk usually didn't want to bother their parents with their problems and would only seek their comfort when things were particularly bad. Or, in that case, when whichever parent they were staying with at the moment awoke by themselves to comfort them.
Toriel stood up, still holding her child.
"Do you wish to sleep in my bed tonight, Frisk?"
They gave a muffled sound of agreement.
