*I don't own Undertale or any of its characters; they all belong to Toby Fox, please support the original release*
Chapter 4: It's done, I ship it!
Frisk and Sans continued nonchalantly talking about minor issues. The skeleton made puns as he drank from the bottle of ketchup and the girl giggled as she tried to make some puns too, just another normal day. Hearing Sans making puns everyday had improved Frisk's puns as well.
The teen preferred listening to them than making them herself, but when she did, she always earned a very proud Sans and a very annoyed Papyrus. When this happened the taller skeleton would argue with his older brother, the discussion more or less always going the same:
"SANS LOOK AT WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE HUMAN! I THINK YOU ARE A VERY BAD INFLUENCE TO HER! I THINK HAVING YOU MAKING PUNS ALL DAY IS MORE THAN ENOUGH, WE DON'T NEED ANYONE ELSE!"
"oh c'mon paps, I wouldn't consider me as a bad influence..."
"SANS NO!"
"i would rather say that i'm…"
"DON'T YOU DARE!"
"a rad influence"
"OKAY, THAT'S ALL I'M LEAVING"- After saying that Papyrus would leave the room until Sans and Frisk stopped laughing, which, depending of the pun, could take a few seconds or several minutes.
When Frisk was with Sans she felt like the time flew, and by the time they decided to leave Grillby'z it was already afternoon.
"hey kiddo', i would like to show you something"- The skeleton said, and started walking down the street.
Frisk looked at him curiously but followed him anyways. The pair walked at a slow pace, greeting some monsters as they passed by. The snow had already melted and some patches of green grass appeared here and there. They nearly didn't speak to each other in their way to wherever Sans was taking the human. That was something they both enjoyed of spending time with each other, the fact that sometimes they could walk or seat next to each other without the necessity of striking a conversation. There was no need to talk to "fill the silence", they would just enjoy each other's company, without feeling uncomfortable in any way. Some days they talked nonstop for hours and then for no reason they got silent, sometimes looking at each other or laying somewhere side by side.
It was that that kind of "tacit" friendship in which it didn't mind if, for any reason, they didn't meet or talk for days or even weeks: at the very moment they saw each other again they would act like they had met the day before, joking and chatting like they always did.
After walking several minutes Sans suddenly stopped. They were in the vicinity of the city limits, only a few houses were settled there.
"here we are"- The skeleton said as he gestured to the tall house that stood proudly in front of them.
Frisk looked up at the building and then back at Sans as she slowly raised an eyebrow.
"hey don't give me that look! we arrived to our destination but this isn't what i wanted to show you"- his friend pointed up to the house's roof- "what i want to show you is up there"
The girl blinked a few times as she stared at the skeleton. He was joking, wasn't he? The skeleton seemed to understand the girl's look, to what he answered:
"i'm not joking this time, frisk. i hope you are good at climbing"- his ever present smile widening a bit at the sight of the girl's expression.
"But I'm not good at climbing! And isn't scaling someone's house bad? "-Frisk whined.
"don't worry kiddo, nobody lives here. this houses were made just in case someone had a problem and needed to evacuate their own house."- Those words said, Sans walked to the back of the house, without turning back.
"Hey! Wait! Where are you going?!"
Frisk hurried to follow his friend and found that he was in the tiny backyard of the house, already climbing up the back of it.
"Wait! Don't leave without me! How am I supposed to get up there?!"
"calm down frisk, your face looks pale, skull pale"- Sans joked as he hanged on the ledge of a window.
The tiny human looked up at him and frowned, her cheeks puffing a little. She didn't mind having Sans teasing her, but having Sans teasing her 9 feet (3 meters) above her was way too much.
"just follow my steps, it's very easy, you won't fall. and if you do i'll catch you, trust me"- the skeleton assured while winking at her, encouraging the girl to climb.
Frisk drew a deep breath, "trust me" Sans had said. Well she did indeed trust him, she had no idea how he was planning to catch her if he was way above her and not under her, but she started to climb up. The teen slowly placed her hands in the spaces between some bricks and the ledges of the windows. Her eyes were locked to the wall, watching carefully where to put her hands and feet as not to fall, and trying not to look at the floor to avoid panicking.
Sans reached the roof way more quickly than she did, so he kept cheering her up from there and giving her some advice. Saying things like: "you're doing great kid", "i wouldn't put my hand there if i were you", "you are halfway from the top", "friiiiisk, friiiiiisk, friiiiiiisk ,friiiiisk!", "yes ladies and gentlemen this climbing human is my friend, hold up your jealousy" , "just a bit more", "i know I'm pretty humerus but i would stop giggling if i were you"
After some more inspirational cheers Frisk reached the top. Sans reached out towards her and the teen gladly grabbed his hand as he pulled her up to help her sit on the roof. The girl sprawled in relief next to Sans, panting because of the effort.
"it seems you worked till your bones, my friend"
Frisk stared at Sans and huffed:
"Don't you dare to tell me this was all a prank because I'll tell Toriel you made me climb private property and I nearly felled in some occasions"
"you don't have to use tori's mother anger to threaten me kiddo'"- The skeleton chuckled- "c'mon when you finish panting sit down and look"
After a few seconds the girl managed to sit down, and her jaw dropped slightly in awe. Where they were on the roof they had a breath-taking sight of New Snowdin and its surroundings. Frisk could even see the details in every tree that popped up between the colourful roofs of the houses and had a clear sight of the forest that bordered the city. The girl looked up and discovered that from that spot she could even have perfect view of Mt. Ebott. Sans's smile grew larger as he looked at Frisk's tired expression turning into bewilder as her eyes darted everywhere in the landscape under their feet.
The skeleton took advantage of the distraction and appreciated every detail in the girl's frame, from her outfit, with her distinctive stripped sweater, to the tiny freckles that sprinkled her cheeks. He looked dumbfounded at how the sunset light tinted her features; delicately outlining them and giving her and exotic beauty, to the point of seeming surreal. Sans couldn't help to wonder why examining Frisk was suddenly so fascinating to him.
He had many strange hobbies, like putting joke books inside quantum physics books, or putting quantum physics books inside joke books. But he thought that counting Frisk's freckles was too weird to be a hobbie, even for him. But when was starting to consider that he actually needed a commoner pastime, like chasing butterflies or collecting stamps, the girl turned around and smiled softly at him, her brown eyes even brighter than usual.
The skeleton felt like something inside his ribcage was lightly warming up, and he could have sworn that if he had tried to move he would have failed.
"Thank you for bringing me up here Sans, it is one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen!"
"i knew you were going to like it, seems that the efforts of climbing were worth it, weren't they?"-The skeleton said, trying to play it cool and avoid thinking about the fact that maybe something had managed to get into his ribcage again and made him feel this odd sensation. It wasn't something that happened very usually, but sometimes, as he slept everywhere and very heavily, some insects and little animals considered him as part of the environment itself and climbed over him. In the worst cases they played hide and seek between his ribs and got stuck there. He remembered that one day when he woke up he found a little bird nest in his ribcage. When he had tried to move the bird on the nest got very angry and started pecking him (He had never felt so glad of having eye sockets and not eyes properly said).
"Okay you win, this is absolutely worth climbing for"- Frisk giggled.
"wait a minute, you said that you weren't good at climbing"- Sans reconsidered.
"Yes, what's about it?"
"well, how did you climbed mount ebott then? it is way higher than this house."
"Are you thinking carefully what you are saying? Don't you remember what happened when I climbed?"-the girl said holding back her laughter- "My last experience about climbing ended with me falling right to the bottom of a mountain! I don't even know how I survived falling from there! I think that there isn't anything strange about being scared of climbing after that!"
"ok, ok i get your point"-Sans agreed chuckling-"hey frisk, now that we are talking about that, i always wanted to ask you something. you knew about all the stories that were told about mount ebott, why did you climbed all the same?"
As soon as the skeleton had started talking she already knew what the question was going to be, and couldn't help to frown a bit, it was going to be the fourth time this week somebody asked the same. When Sans saw her expression he quickly apologised:
"oh, sorry kiddo' i didn't know it was something you didn't like talking about! i was just kind of curious and…"
But the skeleton's words were cut off by Frisk's soft laugh:
"That's exactly why I climbed Mount Ebott"- She said giving Sans a soothing smile.
"wait,what?"
"I climbed Mount Ebott because I was curious"- The girl repeated " Sorry if I made you worry, I have already spoken about this three times this week"- She sighed – "Okay, let me explain…it's kind of a long story, are you sure you want to listen to it?"
"i'm all ears"- the skeleton said winking at Frisk as he laid down on the roof, taking a comfortable position. He kindly gestured at Frisk to do the same. The girl laughed and left herself fall next to the skeleton.
"Oh my, you are such a character"- The girl teased him.
"well, you know kid, it's in my bones"- The skeleton teased back.
"Okay, okay let's leave it there, please"-Frisk said trying to hold back a smile. She gave a deep breath and organized her ideas a bit before starting her story- "Mhhh… I guess I should start telling you from the begging so you can understand better. Before I fell to the Underground I lived in an orphanage. By your expression I already know what you are thinking, but no, I actually felt comfortable there. You see, there were mean kids like everywhere else, but I didn't pay attention to them, the caretakers were absolutely sweet and lovable and I had some friends to play with. You may think that, if I was so happy then, why would I like to get out and do something so dangerous?"
His friend nodded in agreement as he gestured with his hand to encourage her to keep going.
"In the orphanage there were lots of stories about Mount Ebott, as full of children as it was, imagination was something that flooded the building from its floors to the ceilings. There were stories about evil creatures that lived in the mountain that liked chasing little children, others that liked eating them and even there was a theory about some beings that enjoyed wearing children as hats. I know, I know, they are absolutely unrealistic, but you have to understand that we were just little kids trying to make out what was hidden up there, and the adults didn't wanted to tell us! If you asked them they would just say that you had to stay away, that it was dangerous, or that they didn't know, which just made us want to know more about the mysterious Mount Ebott. "
"So, depending on which kid you talked to they had different answers about what was hidden up there: dragons, elves, trolls, ghosts, werewolves, vampires, aliens, dinosaurs, basically whatever you can think of, it was believed to live there. There were other children that were a bit more optimistic and thought that the top of the mountain was absolutely beautiful, with waterfalls, fairies, princes, princesses and huge castles."
" As time passed I was one of the oldest that remained at the orphanage, which meant that I had listened to tons of scary and magical stories about that place. Since I was very young I understood that I was curious, extremely curious, to be honest, and there were just a few things that made me as curious as Mount Ebott. "
" Sometimes I used to take care of children that were younger than me, not because the caretakers asked me to, I did because I really enjoyed it. I loved making them smile or laugh, they usually trusted me enough to tell me if they were sad and why, so I would find the best way of helping them, or tell a caretaker about her or his issue if it was too much for me to handle."
"One day, we all were taken to a trip to the forest, the one that is here"-The girl pointed at the forest that bordered the city-"and I thought that it was my opportunity to climb Mount Ebott and discover for my own what I could find over there. It didn't matter how much time passed, my curiosity about that place only grew bigger, to the point I couldn't resist anymore. "
"That day I put on my favourite clothes, I grabbed a small backpack and filled it with some food, something to drink and all my savings (it was a very important occasion). I took a cheap camera with me, so, when I reached the top I would be able to take a picture that proved I had achieved my goal. I was planning to tell the children about all the cool things that I had seen up there, and I wanted to show my caretakers the picture so they would understand that I could take care of myself. I thought that I was someone intelligent and responsible; there wasn't any reason for the adults to look after me so much, was it? "
"Oh my, how wrong I was! - Frisk said as she chuckled slightly burying her face in her hands" – "The first thing I did was forgetting the camera on the seat of the bus!"
"oh, that was something very responsible!"- Sans chuckled- "you can't be serious!"
"I'm afraid that I am completely serious, and that was just the beginning! As I was very little, hiding into the woods and making my way to Mount Ebott wasn't something very difficult. But when I reached the base I started feeling a bit hungry, so I decided to have a quick snack before starting to climb. That's when I committed my second mistake… I forgot to close my backpack"
Sans couldn't help to start laughing, Frisk joined him soon after.
"so-sorry, please go on"- Sans said after a few minutes of laughter.
"O-okay"- Frisk replayed trying to hold her composure- "Where I was? Oh yes! I started climbing, I didn't notice my backpack was open till I got thirty and reached into it to drink some water. I nearly screamed when I realized that it had been unzipped all the way there, my bottle of water was gone and most of the remaining of my food. I knew too well that there wasn't a way of getting my things back, so I decided to keep climbing, after all I was filled with determination."
"In my way up I started to get a bit disappointed, although I had already climbed half my way up I couldn't spot anything magical, scary or even strange. Everything seemed normal, just rocks, plants, roots, insects and small animals. I thought that maybe I could find all those things at the top, so I kept going. But as I did, I found that the slope I had to climb next was very step. I held on to the branches of a tree and started going up. "
"When I was reaching the top, the branches started to be thinner and thinner. I got scared, I knew how high I was, and if I felt from there it wouldn't be something nice…at all. So oh, the brilliant me, decided to jump from the tree and hold onto some roots that were on the rocks of the slope. Luckily, I managed to hold still, I didn't fall… but when I had jumped my backpack had got stuck into the limbs of the tree… and with the jerk of my jump my backpack was literally ripped in half. "
"From where I was I looked how all my money bounced and rolled down the hill. After a few seconds dangling in the tree, the halves of my backpack fell too. I spent like five minutes looking down, watching how my belongings slowly disappeared. I remembered that at first I wanted to cry, then I wanted to shout, but finally I decided to keep going. "
"When I was finally reaching the top it was very late, I was hungry, thirsty, tired and angry (With myself and with the goddamn mountain), but somehow I stayed determined. I had already lost everything I had been carrying, with the only exception of my clothes (That would have been way too much). What else could happen to me then? By that point I was very confident about my climbing skills, I had gotten up there, there was no way I could fall, was it?"
"There was no way I could get one of my feet stuck into a root as thick as my arm, I was carefully enough, wasn't I? There was no way I would be so silly to get too close to the enormous hole that appeared to be at the top of Mount Ebbott, was I? There was no possible way I could literally FACE PLANT the bottom of it if I fell, was there?"
Frisk made a full stop, and Sans turned to look at her. The girl wasn't looking at him; she was looking straightforward, and didn't seem to be going to continue with her story
"oh my frisk, you have to be kidding me"- The skeleton said suddenly understanding what that full stop meant.
"there is no way you could have fallen face first…"- But before he could finish talking the girl slowly turned to look him. By her expression Sans understood that Frisk had been absolutely serious, she looked completely done.
Sans simply couldn't take it anymore, so he just roared with laughter.
"Hey inconsiderate! I'm being serious over here!"- Frisk said as she tried to keep a straight-face, something that was nearly impossible with Sans howling by her side. He covered his face with his hands, only managing to muffle his laughter a bit.
"Oh so that's what we got, huh?"- The girl took her sweater off and used it as a soft weapon to smash Sans repeatedly as she joined his laughter.
"no! no! that's not fair!"- The skeleton said shielding himself with his arms from the girl's "sweater attacks" as he kept laughing.-"two can play this game, you know?"
Sans took off his fluffy jacket and countered back. A soft war was unleashed as their combined laughter echoed in the neighbourhood. The couple was so distracted giving blows to each other that they didn't notice when two familiar silhouettes walked down the street below them. Alphys and Undyne were making their way home when they heard their friends' voices.
"He-hey, isn't that Frisk vo-voice?"- Alphys wondered aloud.
"Yeah, I think so… and isn't that Sans laughter?" - Undyne replied looking up.
Both of them looked up and saw their friends hitting each other as laughed merrily and carelessly.
"Aaaww, they look kind of cute together don't you think? - Alphys said.
"Yeah they look like…OH WAIT, WAIT, WAIT A SECOND"- Undyne said, a bit whispering a bit yelling- "You don't think they are having a sort of date without telling anybody, do you?"
"Well… do y-you think so"? - Alphys asked, stuttering a bit as she looked up.
"Think about it Alphys, why would they come to a place so far away from the city centre? Why would they choose a place so high to hang out? OH MY! IT IS SO OBVIOS! HOW DIDN'T THINK ABOUT IT BEFORE?!- Undyne said as she hardly face-palmed- "Plus, look! They seem to be having a great time up there!"
They stood a few seconds there, letting their "discovery" slowly sink in, and then they turned to look at each other and exclaimed, exactly at the same time:
"I ship it!"
"Oh it makes me remember of that anime scene that…"
"Yeah! Yeah! I thought the same! It's so romantic!"- Alphys said, already knowing what Undyne was referring to.
"Here, let's hide over there"- Undyne said as she dragged Alphys to a spot the "lovebirds" couldn't see them. Alphys blushed madly because of Undyne holding her hand, but followed as quickly as she could.
"Noooooooooooooo"- Frisk's dramatic wail ringed in the neighbourhood as she watched her loved sweater falling from the roof to the street below- "Hey! That's cheating! It seems that you are not lazy for that, huh?"
In the middle of their "battle" Sans had managed to take Frisk's sweater away and, with a quick swing, he had sent it right to the street below them, leaving her disarmed
"you know what it's said, all is fair in love and war"- Sans said chuckling as he reached out to help Frisk stand up.
"Okay, you win this time"- Frisk sighed- "But next time I won't lose"
"that's the spirit, kiddo'"
"Well, to sum up the story"- Frisk said as to finish the topic – "you already know why I climbed, how my journey was, and how I fell down. When I did Toriel found me and took care of me. She got very upset when I said I wanted to leave the ruins, trust me you don't want to see mum angry."
"When I left the next thing I did was finding you, so you already know what happened next"- The girl smiled softly- "When we finally reached the surface I went back to the orphanage, Toriel came with me and adopted me. It took some time because everyone freaked out when they first saw her, but at the end they let her take care of me."
"I apologised for being so irresponsible with my caretakers and I promised that I would visit often, what I do; I miss them too much if I don't. At the end I can say that I feel happy, I know climbing Mount Ebott was a mistake, but I learned so much about it: that's the good part of commit mistakes, after all."
"I learned that being confident is something good, but being overconfident can lead you to lose many things; that I was able to do very big and important things, but that didn't mean I needn't someone to take care of me; that with a bit of patience and sweetness you can soften even the toughest people; and lots of things more. And the most important of all…I met all of you"- Frisk finished as she smiled at Sans brightly.
"you just can't understand how grateful we are for your help, kiddo'"- Sans said, as he shuffled Frisk's hair.
The girl giggled softly and looked up at the sky.
"Humm, I think I should start going, it is getting a bit late and I promised mum I would arrive early today to help her with the dinner"
"ok, let's go, don't forget to pick up your sweater"
Frisk nodded and started to climb down. But as she had descended a few steps the feet in which she was supporting all her weigh slipped. She panicked as she desperately tried to hold herself only with her hands…and failed.
The girl cried out as she felt herself falling, she shut her eyes close and waited; there was nothing else she could do now. She anticipated the hard and cold impact of the floor… but it never happened. She fell on something warm, soft and cozy. When she opened her eyes she found out that she was looking at Sans, his face very close to her burning one. He had caught her just before she had hit the ground and was holding her bridal-style.
"i told you i would catch you if you fell"- The skeleton said, smiling gently at the blushing, tiny human in his arms.
"THAT'S MORE THAN ENOUGH! I SHIP IT! IT'S DONE I OFFICIALY SHIP IT! I SHIP IT WITH EVERY SINLE PART OF MY BEING!"- Undyne claimed full of joy as she jumped out from behind a trash can, earning a very confused look from Sans and Frisk.
I decided to make Frisk's reasons of climbing less tragic than most of the stories I have read, I thought that considering it in a more humorous way would make it a bit different, I hope you liked it!
I have always considered Undyne and Alphys as incurable shippers, they love talking and sharing their ships with each other, talking hours about how cool, sweet or lovable they looked together. (Alphys usually thinking in a more romantic way and Undyne thinking in a more "they look so cool when they beat each other up!" way) I guess you are willing to know about our, oh so sweet and adorable, Nick. But don't worry; I won't make you wait so much ;)
Updating soon!