For the first time since you woke up in your own body, things were actually going well. Physically, you were feeling better than ever… but not without a catch. Every two or three days, depending on how much you pushed yourself, you'd have to go to Papyrus to get healed again. It was like your body was perpetually eroding away, and only he could put it back together. Of course, Papyrus was happy to do it, but it did bother you a little. You didn't like relying on someone so heavily; though, if it had to be anyone, you were glad it was Papyrus. Still, it was always something lurking in the back of your mind, and you wished you could be rid of the worry.
But, aside from that hiccup, you were doing alright. It was much easier to see the bright side of being stuck in camp when you weren't in constant, debilitating pain. Now that you were feeling better, you felt that you were ready to start tackling your duties as a new ambassador. It seemed Asgore had the same idea, since you couldn't think of any other reason that he'd formally invite you over to his house for a "discussion" one afternoon.
It was right after one of your brief healing sessions with Papyrus that you and Sans took a shortcut into Asgore's house, preferring to forgo a walk in the uncomfortably crisp, early December air. The two of you appeared in the King's living room, and Sans reached back and rapped his knuckles on the front door belatedly. You had to stifle your laughter.
"Just one moment! I'll be right - oh!" Asgore's booming voice came from the kitchen, but he cut himself off when he saw the two of you already in his house. He chuckled, "My apologies, I do always seem to forget where Orion inherited their teleporting powers from," You and Sans glanced at each other, always uneasy whenever Orion was mentioned. Asgore didn't notice and continued talking, "Please have a seat… I am almost finished brewing a kettle of tea."
You sat down at the kitchen table as instructed, you and Sans placing yourselves shoulder to shoulder. When Asgore emerged with mugs of tea, he got a close-up look at Sans and laughed out loud,
"I like your shirt, though perhaps it is a little... redundant?" The King teased, and you rolled your eyes in exasperation. Sans was wearing a black shirt with a skeleton print on it, complete with a ribcage, spine, and pelvis. It was one of yours; you'd tried to move it to your closet discretely, but of course he'd found it. The look of pure glee on his face when he caught sight of it made it almost worth it, but the way his very real, boney arms stuck out from the cartoon skeleton was just odd. Plus, it straddled the uncomfortable border of lewdness… was it weird for him to be wearing an image of a skeleton pelvis? You thought so, but he clearly didn't.
"Thanks… I think it really compliments my figure, wouldn't you say?" Sans replied as he slouched back on his chair lazily. You rubbed your face with your hands.
"Undoubtedly," Asgore said with a smile as he passed out the freshly brewed tea. He gave you a mug that was only half full, which was just fine by you. You leaned forward and scooted the mug closer, hissing when its ceramic surface was hotter than you'd anticipated. As you simply breathed in the aroma of the tea, Sans took his and downed half of it in one gulp. Asgore was unfazed.
"At any rate," He continued as he sat down across from you, sipping on his own tea like an actual gentleman, "It has been several weeks now… how are the two of you settling in?"
"Fine," You answered for the both of you, "I'm feeling better, finally," You squeezed your cane, which was resting between your thighs. You weren't lying, for once; the improvement in your health had been quite drastic once you started seeing Papyrus on the regular. Sometimes, you didn't even need your cane when you were just walking around in your own house, though Sans always got nervous whenever he saw you without it. In addition, your hair was finally coming in. You were wearing a beanie today, but you could feel the little pinpricks of hair rubbing against your hat whenever you moved your head.
"So I have noticed… this is great to hear," Asgore said with a kind smile. You fidgeted and took a sip of your tea before remembering that you didn't like tea. You tried not to make a face as you set the mug back down slowly. "In that case, would you be willing to begin your work for me? I do not want to pressure you, if you still need time-"
"Yes! I'd love to," You answered immediately, desperate as you were to start working as an ambassador. Not that you weren't nervous to be taking on such an important role, but you were going to go insane if you had to spend another day just lounging around with nothing to do. That kind of lifestyle suited Sans just fine, but not you.
"Alright, then," He chuckled, but sobered as he got up from his seat and went into his bedroom. You and Sans watched him curiously as he returned with a sizable stack of papers. He set them onto the table gently, trying not to make a great amount of ruckus, "These are the minutes from our meetings with the humans. We typically meet every Tuesday… and I would like you to start attending those meetings."
"Tuesday… that was yesterday," You said absentmindedly as you pulled the stack of papers closer to you. You had to stand up to see the top of the pile, and your cane clattered to the ground as you did so. You ignored it, though the unexpected sound caused Asgore to jump.
"Yes, and that meeting is on the top. They are organized from most to least recent," The King said, rubbing the back of his neck. You pulled out the first stapled stack of papers and, sure enough, it was dated as 12/11/18. Everyone who had attended was listed at the top, which included Reives, Wolfe, Charlie, Asgore, and Undyne.
"Does Undyne come to all the meetings, too?" You asked, thumbing through the pages of typed-up notes.
"Usually, yes." You wondered how that went, but found that, while skimming the transcript of the latest meeting, Undyne never seemed to say anything. It was unlike her. You furrowed your brow as you cherry-picked certain parts to read, taking special interest when your name popped up. Sans leaned over to read, too.
Most of the last meeting had been about you, in fact. It felt weird knowing that people were talking about you, but they didn't appear to have been saying anything particularly shocking. It was, apparently, already common knowledge among the public that you'd returned from the Underground, and the news stations were clamoring to talk to you. Asgore had been adamant that no other humans were allowed to enter the camp, and you didn't have to leave the camp or talk to anyone if you didn't want to. You felt grateful that he'd been looking out for you, even when you didn't know that any of this was going on at the time. All the more reason to start getting involved in this chaos, so that you could defend yourself instead of making Asgore fight your battles.
The King watched, giving you time to skim over the meeting. When you looked up from the paper, he said,
"I was hoping you would take these home with you and read up on what you've missed… it would be wise to be well-versed in what has already been discussed before you take part in the next meeting." You nodded curtly, determined to do your best. You weren't sure you'd be able to read all of this in less than a week, but you could try.
"Excellent," Asgore continued with a smile, which fell into a thoughtful frown, "It is… not the best situation, I am afraid. I am sure you already know that from your previous interactions with the humans and from what I have already told you... but it is becoming more and more difficult by the day to get them to make concessions. I believe Mr. Reives may still hold some bitterness toward us because of the gold situation…" You pursed your lips as the memories started flooding back. Reives had been scamming the monsters by far underpricing the gold they possessed, but he couldn't continue to do so once you'd revealed the fact that the monsters had gold to the public. Now, Reives' spending was most likely being held under greater scrutiny. You hadn't even meant to expose Reives; you just thought you were being nice by leaving the kind people in that restaurant a generous tip. But you were glad it had worked out in the monsters' favor, anyway.
"Well… whatever. It's not like things can just stay like this forever, so Reives will have to get over it eventually and start thinking about the future," You leaned back, bringing your tea with you. It was cooled down enough now that you could warm your hands on it without getting burned.
"Perhaps. But, if I can be frank with you…" The King glanced between you and Sans, as though judging how vulnerable he could be in front of the two of you. He seemed to deem you worthy, and continued, "...I am very much at a loss as to how to proceed. There has been talk between the humans about pro-monster movements and anti-monster movements, not to mention the relations with other regions that they call 'countries'... it is all much more complicated than I remember from before we were sealed underground. I truly do not know what the public opinion is like outside of this plot of land. The two of you would have a better idea than I, since you made the trip to that human village," He scratched the top of his head, then continued, "We need you more than I would like to admit. Yes, Frisk has technically been our ambassador, but I gave them that title largely to keep the humans from taking them away from Tori. They are only a child… there is only so much I can ask of them."
You listened to this quietly while mulling it over in your mind. Your initial reaction to having all of this weight placed on your shoulders was mild panic. After all, you were no politician… you'd never even taken a political science class. But, you didn't think Asgore expected miracles from you, so you would have to try not to expect that of yourself. It seemed like what he mostly needed from you was someone to make sense of basic human institutions. Even just explaining what countries were to him would be a step in the right direction.
"Yeah, I understand," As Sans set down his mug, you held your own out to him absentmindedly. He took it wordlessly and started drinking your mostly untouched tea, "Well, um, I guess I'd like to start by asking… do you know who Reives and Wolfe are? Because you keep calling Reives 'Mr,' and that's not really how you're supposed to be addressing him…"
This began a long explanation of the system of power just within the camp, and then branching out more broadly to the justice system of the entire country. Asgore was mortified to realize that he'd been addressing the agents incorrectly this entire time, though you privately didn't think that how he addressed them really made any difference in their opinions of him. You explained how the FBI acted as the law enforcers of the whole country, while the officers who guarded the camp had come from local police forces. The King was often slow on the uptake, probably unused to thinking about groups of people in such large populations. But he was very interested in it, and asked a lot of questions. You tried your best to answer them, but you didn't always have the details he was looking for. You knew the basic idea of how your government worked, but nothing specific.
Sans was silent during this whole discussion, until it started getting late. He nudged your shoulder with his own during a lull in conversation,
"Hey, didn'tcha want to do that dinner thing tonight? We should get goin'." You looked at your phone for the time and saw that it was 3 o'clock. He was right… you'd better get back home and start preparing.
"Ah, sorry, Asgore… Sans is right. We really should go, if you don't mind." Asgore waved you off,
"Of course, of course… go right ahead."
"Are you sure you don't want to come over tonight? Everyone else is coming…" You bit your lip, hoping that Asgore wasn't excluding himself just because Toriel was going to be there. He chuckled and shook his head,
"No, no… I doubt everyone would fit into your living room, anyway. And I have other matters to attend to. Another day, maybe." You hummed and frowned down at your long-empty mug,
"Well, if you're sure," You reached down and grabbed your cane from the floor. Sans stood with you, the back of his hand brushing yours before he leaned forward to pick up the large stack of papers on the table. "See you later then, Your Majesty."
"Indeed. Have a good day, you two." With that, you and Sans took a shortcut out. As usual, you felt a tingle of recognition when he opened the portal. That feeling always made you think that maybe you could do magic, too… like it was right at your fingertips. But it never worked whenever you tried. And Sans discouraged you from trying, anyway… he said he didn't want you to strain yourself.
As soon as you got back home, you ventured into the kitchen, with Sans following you as soon as he set down the papers. You picked up a note on the counter; one you'd placed there yourself. It was a recipe… Toriel had written it for you as soon as you'd mentioned off-hand that you might like to make dinner for everyone one day.
It had been a silly, spontaneous idea that was now coming to fruition. You'd never hosted a party of any sort, but that was what this had come to. Not only were you making dinner for everyone, but Alphys had brought you a TV from the Underground so that you could all play video games together. You had your PS4, now that you'd been brave enough to unpack it, plus a sizable collection of games. It'd be a nice change of pace for the monsters, whose only entertainment for years had been Mettaton movies and whatever old VHS tapes happened to fall into the Underground.
The problem was that you had no idea how to cook, and Sans was no help, either. He knew how to bake a few things, so he had more experience than you, but he hadn't been a big fan of this idea to begin with. Therefore, he wasn't too inclined to help. Thankfully, once he saw you staring blankly at the recipe, he opened up the fridge to start digging for the ingredients Toriel had given you. His silent solidarity calmed your nerves.
In the end, it really wasn't that difficult. It was some kind of casserole, so all you really had to do was throw the ingredients together and pop the whole thing in the oven. You and Sans got into a minor food fight, but even so, you were still done with the cooking well before your guests arrived.
"HELLO SIBLING!" Papyrus exclaimed as you opened the front door to let him, Undyne, and Alphys into the house, "We have arrived!" You scuffed your foot on the ground and mumbled,
"Y'know Pap, I'm not really your-" You cut yourself off when you saw Sans shaking his head vigorously. Neither of you could really decide how you wanted to deal with that recurring misunderstanding, but now wasn't the time, regardless. You put on a forced smile, "Make yourselves at home."
Undyne readily obliged, jumping onto the couch with enough force to make you fear for its well-being.
"Hey, punk! Nice throw pillows!" She commented with a grin before hurling a pillow at your face. You were lucky you weren't currently using your cane, because you didn't think you would've been able to catch it one-handed.
"Yeah, yeah," you threw the pillow back at her. Neither you nor Sans were great decorators, but in your boredom over the past couple of weeks, the two of you had made a slight effort to fix the place up. You now had pillows for the couch, a ghastly orange rug, and a rack of test tubes sitting on the coffee table. The tubes were filled with interesting-looking rocks and flowers that you'd found around camp. It wasn't much, but the room at least felt a little warmer with the personal touches.
"Oh! T-that's a neat idea…" Alphys said as she crouched next to the table, examining the test tubes. You were about to answer her, but were distracted by the sight of Papyrus picking Sans up by the armpits and holding him out at arms-length.
"Brother, I cannot get over how short you are now! What will you do once Frisk outgrows you?! That will be so embarrassing!" Sans' eyes went wide at being picked up so abruptly, but he seemed to force himself to relax in his brother's hold. He grinned and shrugged,
"Well, hey… everyone likes short people. We never look down on anyone." He winked, and Papyrus roared,
"THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE! Not only are you wearing that ridiculous shirt, but now you're punning again?!" He plopped Sans on the couch and crossed his arms, frowning. Sans sunk heavily into the cushions, looking like he was about to become one with the furniture. You limped over to Papyrus and nudged him,
"I'd love to make a joke, too, but I guess I came up short."
"UGH!" Pap shoved you good-naturedly, then immediately realized his mistake and grabbed your arm to steady you. You barely avoided falling over. Before Papyrus could apologize and make the situation awkward, you smirked and pushed him back in retaliation.
"YEAH! FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!" Undyne cheered loudly from the other side of the couch.
"No fighting indoors," A motherly voice said sternly from the front door. All five of you whipped your heads around to look, and saw that Toriel and Frisk had let themselves inside. The kid immediately hurried to kick off their boots and unwrap the scarf from their neck, throwing all of their winter gear into the corner as they stripped it off.
"Hello, Queen Toriel!" Papyrus exclaimed cheerfully, then narrowed his eyes, "And human! Why are you wearing so much armour?! Have you been fighting?!"
"Fighting off the cold, perhaps," Toriel said with a chuckle, "It is getting chilly, and I have heard that humans get ill when exposed to frigid temperatures…"
"Yeah, but you might've gone a little overboard," You commented, trying not to laugh as you watched Frisk remove layer after layer of sweaters and coats. Poor kid must've been steaming under all of that.
"Oh…" Toriel bit her lip, then added, "Well, if that is the case, then I suppose you do not have to wear all of that on the walk back, my child." Frisk huffed, finally left in their usual striped shirt and jeans, both of which they'd outgrown months ago.
Sans, who seemed to have had enough of you walking around without your cane, reached forward, grabbed your wrist, and pulled you down onto the couch with him.
"Oof!" You flopped down onto the lumpy cushions and glared at him, "Just a minute, I should go grab the food now that everyone's here…"
"I'll get it," Sans shot up from the couch before you could even think about standing. You rolled your eyes. Alphys and Undyne shared a knowing look, and you blushed.
"Uh, Frisk! Why don't you pick out a game for us to play after dinner?" Anything to change the subject, You thought. The kid brightened up and made a beeline for the stack of video games piled haphazardly next to your TV.
Papyrus joined in, picking up all of the games Frisk discarded and asking you endless questions about them. Undyne leapt off of the couch to take a closer look at Grand Theft Auto, which had you spluttering to explain how it wasn't a very family-friendly game. Undyne's eyes widened when she read the warnings on the back,
"Oh my god?! I had no idea they made games like this! That's AWESOME! Babe, come look at this…"
Everyone was thoroughly entrenched in your video game collection by the time Sans reemerged with the food. Again, you felt his magic resonating with you before you even saw the plates hovering all around him. He gently lowered them all onto the coffee table, and your guests promptly descended on the food like ravenous wolves. Or at least, Undyne, Papyrus, and Frisk did. But even Alphys seemed eager to eat. When you asked about it, Papyrus replied proudly through a mouthful of caserole,
"We didn't eat lunch because we wanted to save our hunger for your superb cooking! It was my idea!"
"It was a dumb idea," Undyne mumbled, but amended, "But actually kinda worth it… this rocks!"
"Ah, you can thank Toriel for that," You said, gesturing helplessly to Toriel as you struggled to accept the undeserved compliment. The Queen took a mock bow before taking her own plate, and Frisk said something with their one available hand. You looked at Sans, who chuckled and translated for you,
"Kid says they had lunch, but they're always hungry."
"It is true," Toriel lamented, then ruffled Frisk's hair, "They must be going through a growth spurt… I have never seen a child eat so much!" You were sure that was partially Toriel's fault for letting them eat whatever they wanted, but you didn't voice that thought. It was true that Frisk was not only shooting up in height, but getting a little pudgy on top of it. It wasn't any of your business, though.
"H-hey, um… i-is there any ch-cheese in this?" Alphys asked nervously, poking her already half-eaten meal with a fork.
"Nope… you're allergic, right?" You thought you remembered that from one of your late-night lab conversations back when you were working with her on the epinephrine. She nodded, looking relieved.
The rest of the meal passed similarly, with light conversation ebbing and flowing between friends. Frisk had picked out a racing game for you all to play after you were full, and it turned out to be an excellent choice. Unfortunately, only three of you could play at a time, since you only had four controllers and one of them was broken. You played against Papyrus and Frisk first to show everyone how it was done, and beat the two of them handily. The controllers were passed around between everyone after that. You'd put more time into this game than you would've liked to admit, so you easily won every time a controller ended up in your lap. Frisk was the best after you, and you had the sneaking suspicion that they'd played this game before. The monsters were all pretty bad, but Toriel and Sans were by far the worst. They were so bad that neither of them ever managed to beat an NPC on the lowest difficulty level. It turned into a competition between the two of them to see who could be the worst, much to everyone else's dismay when a match lasted over fifteen minutes while both of them refused to move. Toriel and Sans were banned from playing after that.
It was just… fun. There was no catch; you were just having a good time. You all played until eight, when Toriel promptly declared it was Frisk's bedtime. Everyone trickled out after that, leaving you and Sans alone with the dirty dishes and a disheveled living room.
"I've got the dishes," You declared with a smile. You actually quite liked doing the dishes; the warm water and the smell of dish soap calmed you for some reason. Plus, when you were digging out your PS4 the other day, you'd found something in the crate that would make the chore even better.
Before getting your hands wet, you plugged your ipod into the speakers you'd set up on the counter and grinned ear to ear when your music began to play. You hadn't listened to music in so long… you'd have to show this to your friends the next time they came over. Monsters didn't have much in the way of music; the depressive mood in the Underground hadn't exactly been conducive to creative endeavors.
You flipped through your library at random, searching for a good song to clean to. You found one that wasn't quite in line with your usual fare… in fact, you considered it a guilty pleasure song. You glanced over your shoulder, and were surprised to see that Sans wasn't in the living room anymore. Everything was already clean and in order (well, as clean as it was before your guests had arrived), so maybe he'd gone to bed already.
You shrugged and pressed "play," laughing breathily to yourself as the familiar, upbeat tune sounded throughout the kitchen. You turned it down a little, hoping Sans wouldn't hear it and make fun of you for how cheesy the song was. On second thought, the odds were pretty good that he'd heard it get stuck in your head at least once as Orion, so he probably already knew.
You swung your hips and turned the sink on, humming to the opening of the song. You scrubbed the plate you were holding in time with the tune, shooting a look over your shoulder one more time before singing quietly along,
"But maybe all you need is someone to trust, maybe all you need is someone,
Maybe all you need is someone to trust, maybe all you need is someone…"
You took a deep breath and belted out the chorus,
"And I won't let you down, no I won't let you down!
I won't let you down, my love,
I won't let you down, no I won't let you down!
I won't let you down, my love…
No I. Won't. Let. You down!
Won't let you down… won't let you down…"
You began to run out of breath as you overestimated your singing skills, and went back to humming. You realized you'd been cleaning the same plate for too long, and set it aside on the counter.
Suddenly, you felt skeletal arms sneak around your waist. You jumped and let out an undignified squeaking noise. Much to your mortification, Sans started to sing along where you left off,
"And you've got what the whole world wants,
So strap that armour tighter on,
Double on down like it's gonna make you free…"
"Ugh, so you could hear whenever I had a song stuck in my head… I'm sorry you had to go through that hell," You apologized, only half-joking. Sans chuckled, then continued singing while swaying both of your bodies to the beat,
"But maybe all you need is someone to trust, maybe all you need is someone,
Maybe all you need is someone to trust, maybe all you need is someone…"
Without warning, he took your hand and spun you out to the side. You yelled wordlessly, then laughed as he caught your other hand and kept you from falling backwards,
"And I won't let you down, no I won't let you down!
I won't let you down, my love,
I won't let you down, no I won't let you down!
I won't let you down, my love…"
The two of you sung and danced together, with you being a terrible dancer and a mediocre singer, and Sans being a mediocre dancer and terrible singer. So you balanced each other out… combined, you were just kinda bad at both. You kept the dancing simple, mostly just swinging your hips and clapping at the right parts of the song. You took a turn spinning Sans around, and he spun you again, too. Even though you didn't have your cane, you never stumbled. Sans somehow always knew exactly where and when to support you.
The impromptu karaoke-and-dance session was brought to an abrupt close when you caught sight of movement in your living room.
"Frisk!" You exclaimed, your cheeks reddening. You hadn't even heard the door open over the music, but there Frisk was. They looked at you, then looked at Sans, and back to you. They gestured helplessly to the corner of the room, then ran over there and grabbed the garment that was laying on the ground. Kid must've forgotten one of the many coats they'd worn over here. They balled up the coat in their arms and shot you one last look, wiggling their eyebrows at the sight of Sans' hands on your waist. With that, they ran out of the house and slammed the door.
It took a few moments to process what had happened, but when you did, both you and Sans burst into laughter. During the fiasco, the song had ended and the next started playing, but you hardly noticed. You were too busy snorting and giggling at how ridiculous your life was now.
