"Eighteen years old?"

"Yeah, I know. Crazy, right? One day a kid, the other an adult. I mean, that's how birthdays work, true, but it's so abstract to think about. Go to sleep a child, wake up a fully fledged adult!"

"Wow, adulthood. Must be scary. Of all people too. I guess it was inevitable, but hearing it for the first time. Dang… You're right, it's damn crazy."

"Imagine my reaction to it."

"Yeah...I don't really think I can. I mean… What do I mean?"

"Been wondering that myself to be honest, Tyl. What do you actually mean?"

Tylior sends over a tired stare over the table. "Some days I do also wonder what you're on about throwing meaning left and right, Aofil. Especially since you've done such a complete and sudden turn about the monsters that would have any other human in a neck brace!" Tylior sighs through his lips. "But here you are, head still facing forward, telling me that you've been tasked by one of the Royal Heirs to find out what the King and Queen are planning for their birthday?"

"Yup," Aofil answers with a smack of their lips.

"Their eighteenth birthday. Something that the Royals would want to have quiet."

"Yup," Aofil repeats with an identical smack as they read through the menu.

"And if that information were to somehow come out into the public?"

Aofil glances over from the top of the menu. "Then I'll know that it was you that leaked it. Not that you would, right? You wouldn't want to get on the King and Queen's bad side, now would you? Not when you're looking for that new apartment."

"How did yo-"

"It's really amazing how many times I have to mention that the King and Queen wouldn't blink an eye to the notion of commissioning a statue of me, and yet you still doubt the things I say, Tyl," Aofil interrupts as they put down the menu on the table with a quick flick of their wrists. "Like, worryingly so. I'm only slightly exaggerating, but only because I'm sure that they've thought about it at one point. If you just hearing that is enough to furrow your brow like its got an anchor on it, and it also freaking your mind out, then I'd suggest strapping in real tight since it's even worse actually having it happen to you, Tylior."

He waves the notion off. "Yes, yes, my now monster accepting friend. Forgive me for being a bit hesitant to you knowing things that I've not told you about. Not really used to the mind reading yet."

"How else would I then help you get a bigger and better one?"

"Oh." Tylior blinks quietly. "You did?"

"Yes, of course." Aofil shrugs. "You're my friend, so you get benefits."

"Not like that," Aofil adds to be perfectly clear.

"As if you could handle me," Tylior chuckles. "But yeah, thanks, Aofil. I appreciate it."

Aofil flips up the menu again. "Say nothing of it. Especially me flubbing my words like that."

Tylior does the same with his. "So what are you gonna do, Aof? How big a spade do you need for all this royal dirt you're gonna dig up?"

They shrug as they lean back into the silk clad chair. "I'm gonna do what Frisk asked me to, Tyl. I'm gonna try and dig up as much as possible. Shouldn't be too hard, I have a spade the width of a pizza spatula, or whatever those are called."

"Which is why we're at Muffet's?" Tylior wonders with a perplexed hand up against the store window with a cartoon spider surrounded by various forms of pastry. A real spider lands on his hand, and he flinches after a second since he didn't register the touch immediately. Once he lays eyes on it, well…

The spider shoots a very hard look over to Tylior with his hand awkwardly tucked against his chest as it gets control over the swinging Tylior's flinch tossed it into. After a couple of seconds of it waiting for an apology that will never arrive, it spins on its spun string over to Aofil with a limb extended towards the menu in their hands.

"We'll have," Aofil starts as they quickly skim the menu one last time while their tongue bounces rhythmically against the roof of their mouth behind their front teeth, "two of the lunch offerings with some," Aofil lowers the menu and shoots a questioning brow over to Tylior, "coffee?"

He nods as he shakes the lingering feeling of eight small feet off his hand. "Coffee works for me."

The spider flies up into a crack in the wooden planks above the window, almost as if its string was a strand of spaghetti someone very hungrily slurped up.

And speaking of hungrily and audible slurping. Something catches the corner of Aofil's eye from behind the counter. Just the tiniest movement, but it's plenty enough for Aofil to sense what's coming.

They push themselves up with a hand on the back of their chair. "Let's switch seat, Tyl."

"Why?" he asks yet still mirroring Aofil's movement.

"Muffin is gonna come flying out of the front door any second now. I should be closer since it's me he will be going for."

"Good thinking," Tylior agrees, but as he sits down in his new chair, a thought strikes him almost as hard as Muffin will do Aofil in a bit. His head slumps over as if hit squarely on the jaw. "Why did I agree on that?"

"You're wondering why you're not questioning it, are you, Tyl?" Aofil hazards a guess judging by Tylior's blank stare. "It's something you have to learn to live with now, I'm afraid. It gets easier if you don't question it. Take that from me."

"And I'm getting advice on it from the person I've known, until a couple of weeks ago, was the most hesitant of humans towards the monsters. It's double stacked against me, Aofil, so you're probably gonna need some patience with me on this."

"I'll enjoy seeing you question reality while it last then. Have I told you that once I was dressed up as that one character from Mew Mew season one with the tiara? Note that I didn't say that I myself dressed up, I was by another monster that could speak my voice."

Tylior's head disappears into his hands. "Why, Aofil?" he sighs into his palms. "Why say these things to me? God dammit, they're not even the same sex as you!"

"The monster knew some magic."

"Stop!" Tylior shouts into his hands. "You've already made me confess that I watch that show. Have pity where none is deserved."

"Oh yeah," Aofil laughs as their face lights up bright. "I just did. You pathetic man."

"But not only that," a piece of Tylior's face emerges from behind his fingers, "you're also telling me that you were crossdressed?"

"It fooled me, even," Aofil admits, but not out of shame. "That's how good it was. Mettaton did it when I first appeared on his show."

Tylior's hands slid down onto the table, leaving his poor neck and shoulders to carry the weight of his heavy head scrunched into a narrowed and perplexed expression. "First appearance? You mean you've been on it more tha- You know what? Whatever. I'm just gonna stop asking questions. It's better for my sanity. So I'm just gonna ignore whatever comes out of your mouth from now on while we're still on this subject."

"I did tell you when Undyne and Alphys showered together in my house, right?" Aofil asks with feigned curiosity.

Tylior sits with his leg crossed over his other, and with his clamped hands resting together on his knee. Aofil sees the combined fist tighten though, and they chuckle.

"Not as worse as when they downloaded that adult-"

The door behind Aofil crashes open, and they turn around even though they know fully what it was that came out of it. A slobbering mouth foaming with enough saliva to fill a swimming pool shakes with pure excitement. The saliva is sloshed around by a tongue whipping from side to side, throwing the spit around like a garden hose without a wielder. A pair of glistening eyes widened until their absolute limit stare back at Aofil, unblinking, and with complete focus.

Aofil turns back around while nodding carefully. "Just sit still, Tyl," they advise their friend.

"Sure," he answers, keeping his eyes looking at the horizon.

Aofil exhales. "Hi, Muffin," they greet while smiling to the large spider thundering towards them. It overshoots its speed, and scrambles back desperately just a few inches from Tylior. He stares at it, ready to jump away at the smallest indication that it has seen him.

Aofil extends a hand that they have to retract almost immediately as Muffin snaps at it. "No!" Aofil huffs. "What did Muffet say?"

Muffin's mouth turns into a bitter scowl, and a small waterfall of saliva pours out of its hanging lower jaw. Aofil again extends their hand, keeping a close watch on the hungry eyes following it onto Muffin's back. Aofil scratches the rough skin with the edge of their fingernails. "There we go! See what happens when you don't try and bite my damn hand off, you nightmare of a creature," they say with the same voice they would a puppy, but to an overgrown spider with vicious fangs and a questionable understanding of speech. "You get scratches! Even though I'm not sure that your rock hard skin even feel it. I sure do! Feels like I'm patting one of those small pillows you keep your needles in, but with the sharp points sticking out!"

Once Aofil's scratching reaches just behind the temple of Muffin, he collapses while shivering. "Oh!" Aofil smiles. "Gotta remember that spot for later."

Muffin sighs with pleasure, the sound not being too far off a snore of someone with sinuses filled to the point of exploding. Like an old two stroke engine coughing its last breath.

Aofil points to the blubbering spider with its tongue hanging out while cocking their head over to Tylior. "You want to-"

"No," Tylior makes very clear with just the tone of his voice without moving a muscle except his tongue. Absolutely not!

Aofil shrugs. "Your loss."

"Stop lying."

Aofil gives Muffin a final hard pat on its drooling cheek before sending him back inside the shop with a gentle push with the heel of their shoe. Tylior relaxes his shoulders as the large spider nears the door. Seeing that, Aofil turns around and whistles.

"Don't!" Tylior curses at Aofil. "Dammit, Aof!"

Aofil lets out a light chuckle, it coming out as a small series of small whistles as they still have their mouth rounded. They refill their water, and offers to top off Tylior's glass. He holds it out while looking around Aofil's shoulder to make sure the spider is no longer outside.

"But speaking of spiders that seem to have a keen interest in you," he says after he's convinced himself that Muffin is gone for now.

"Subtle," Aofil comments before drinking.

"You absolutely sure there isn't anything between you and Muffet?" Tylior asks even less subtly. He tilts his head towards the counter inside. Muffet turns her head quickly around as Aofil follows Tylior's movement. "See!" Tylior exclaims. "She's all over you with all of her six arms. You're just gonna ignore that?"

"What makes you so sure that I'm into monsters?" Aofil shoots back with one eyebrow lowered and one raised high. They hold that expression against Tylior's displeased frown. Neither one buckles until a handful of spiders comes sliding down with a tray containing two coffee cups with spider web etched into the porcelain along with a jug of steaming black liquid.

Tylior runs his nose quickly over the steam as the spiders retreat back up after bowing deeply. To him it seems to be coffee, so he pours himself some, along with some for Aofil.

"Is it because you want to be sure that other humans can fall in love with monsters except just you, Tyl?" Aofil pops over quick before Tylior has time to raise his cup to his mouth. He sets it back hard, causing a few drops to jump out of the cup. Some lands on his hand, and he retracts it while shaking the pain off.

"Why are you asking me if I'm embarrassed that I love Sevoltne? I'm not, to make it crystal clear beyond any doubt. She's a wonderful woman. Comes from a very respectable branch of monsters. Have you heard of Glenne Woolwing?"

"Can't say I have, no," Aofil admits after a thoughtful sip.

"Big griffon, lives a bit away from Mt. Ebott, in another mountain. Has helped Asgore a lot with building Monster City."

"From another mountain?"

"Commuting is rather easy when you're a majestic griffon and can fly."

Aofil nods. "She related to Sevoltne?"

"Cousins, actually," Tylior informs with a small motion of his injured hand to see how bad the burn is. "Thought you'd known her since you were so close with the Dreemurrs."

"I don't."

"Alright then." Tylior concludes that his hand has survived the ordeal, and puts his finger through the spider shaped ear of his cup. "I'll tell Sevoltne that, she was the one that wanted to know."

"Well now!" Aofil bounces their eyebrows playfully. "You two so close that she asks you for favors now? Is the wedding in a week or so?"

"Two weeks," Tylior corrects as he raises his cup. One long drink later he puts the cup down while meeting Aofil's dazed expression. "What?"

"Two...weeks?" Aofil repeats while cocking their head in confusion. "Marriage?"

Already? They've barely known each other for that long! Aofil's no stranger to the eagerness of monsters, but two week until marriage? Is he really serious?

"I'm not serious, by the way."

Oh…

Aofil heaves a relieved exhale. "Good."

"We're still probably gonna get married in the future though. I mean, we're moving into an apartment of our own, and I don't see us slowing down from there. I did manage to talk her into buying those felt chairs though. Gonna go great with those new curtains. I'll invite you over for some housewarming once we're done, Aofil."

"I look forward to it!" Aofil smiles. "I should have my house facing the right side forward until then, so we can double the warming."

"Right...side… You know what, I'm better off not asking."

Aofil cheers to that.

The food comes a couple minutes later after Aofil and Tylior take a moment to enjoy the sun. The spiders leaving the food hands Aofil a folded up note before they slink back up.

"Could've at least let us taste the food before giving us the check." Tylior blows his lips as he unwraps his cutlery from inside the bundled napkin sealed with spider silk. He pokes around a bit, moving some potatoes to one side of his plate, and some meat to another side. To his immense relief there's no spiders hiding, involuntarily or not, underneath his food.

With a satisfied smile he cuts off a piece of each and stack them on his fork.

As he bites down his eyes pop open. He looks down onto the wooden grip of his fork while slowly pulling his fork out of his mouth. A string breaks off, and dangles from his lower lip.

A small compartment has opened up at the bottom end of his fork, and from it, three spiders have crawled out to help him with his eating. They've tied strings around the meat and potato to have them not fall off, and Tylior has bitten down on them happy as can be.

Happy as can was, at the current moment.

The spiders crawl together, and quiet chattering can be heard from them. After a second, they split up again. One travels up the fork, and shoots a string that sticks to Tylior's front teeth. The terrified gasp it causes has the string fluttering, dangerously close to snapping. The spider is unfazed by it though, and with the help of the other two, it hoists a piece of potato up, and drops it.

The potato swings into Tylior's mouth, hitting him directly on his uvula. He bends forward as a vicious cough attacks him, sending the spiders flying everywhere. He washes his mouth with the remainder of his water, and lobs it into the storm drain at his feet.

"Could you please tell your girlfriend to stop sneaking spiders into everything, Aofil?" he shoots over the table after managing to compose himself. Tylior grabs his napkin to dry his mouth. "Unbelievable."

But Aofil doesn't answer.

"Aofil?"

They're too busy reading the note. Over, and over, and over again.

"Is it really that expensive? Your eyes are moving quicker than a speeding bullet!"

"Hm?" Aofil lifts their head, but their focus is still on the note. "No, it's..." Their words drift off as they again read the note.

"No, it's important," Tylior says with a vague imitation of Aofil's voice as he reaches over his hand over the table. "No wait, it's nothing. You don't have to read it, Tyl."

Aofil snatches the note out of the one finger Tylior manages to get around the fold of the paper. They look back at him, and he opens his hand to ask for the note.

"It's nothing," Aofil says while pocketing the note quickly. "Just a bit about an order Toriel did for a school event, that's all." They take their fork and start eating.

Tylior shakes off the spiders from his own fork. "Really?" he asks while spinning the fork between two of his fingers once. He lets it slip down between them and implant itself on a potato.

"Really," Aofil answers after swallowing their bite. "It's nothing. Just a bit stunned over the price, that is. Granted, I'm not paying for the order, but it's still a hefty amount."

Tylior's not convinced. He taps the back end of his fork so that it digs further and further into the cooked vegetable. "Not any of my concern? Even after you've said that you're digging up stuff for one of the Royal Heirs? Even after you've flustered over me suggesting that you and Muffet are together? Even after that, nothing that concerns me?"

"If I were to ask you about your sex life with Sevoltne would you describe it in vivid detail?" Aofil retorts immediately after.

Tylior's lips are dragged into a sinister smile. "You want tips with monsters?"

"That's not..." Aofil shakes their head. "No."

"Let me tell you about it anyways." Tylior gropes out a cavity in the meat with his fork. "First, we-"

"Tylior," Aofil says without blinking.

He looks up from his bent over posture. "Yes?"

"Stop."

He retracts his knife from the cavity. "Your loss."

"I doubt that."

"And I, in turn, doubt that."

Aofil, with a slightly less appetite than ten seconds ago, returns to their food with a sigh. "Just eat your food, you species deviant. Betrayer of the human race."

"You have so many colorful ways to say that you're jealous of me, Aofil." Tylior cuts off the piece he made a dent in, slowly, and with passion. "You're like a walking thesaurus."

"I can just as easily retract your place in the queue for your apartment, you know?" Aofil threatens with a lettuce leaf and a piece of, what they think, and hope, chicken flapping wildly at the end of their fork pointed with great annoyance towards Tylior. "Have you live in something that's one room smaller."

"Sevoltne would have something to say about that, true. She does get really puffy when she gets angry which I always find cute. It's like those old cartoons when the characters inflate their chest like a balloon. She hasn't popped yet, luckily."

"Alrighty then." Aofil bites down on their fork and start chewing.

Tylior will drop the subject now. That Aofil's sure of. He knows the boundaries, he was the one that helped Aofil set them. Damn...Aofil really enjoyed talking with Tylior now. Helped vent a bit. This note though that Muffet gave them, it's so loud in their head right now. It's not an immediate hurry, so Aofil's not gonna excuse themselves. They're still gonna enjoy eating lunch with a good friend, but after it they're gonna head in and talk to Muffet.

They still need to pay for this, so it's not that big of a detour.

But for now they're gonna enjoy their company.

So they do. Eating in silence with Tylior, leaning back as he does when he's finished, accepting the complimentary spider pastry, seeing him twist and turn it like Aofil would a piece of snail pie.

Once the coffee runs dry though, Tylior reaches behind him.

"I got it," Aofil offers.

"You sure?" Tylior asks. "The price is-"

"We're together, remember?"

"Right, right." Tylior pushes himself out of his chair and offers his arms to Aofil. They embrace him, sending him away with a couple of gentle pats on his back.

"See you later, Tyl."

"You too, Aof!" he waves as he walks down the street.

The spider chime sings Aofil's entrance to the somewhat busy Spider Cafe. Muffet pokes his head up from inside her bakery, and her smile widens. She skips on her toes over to the register, and types in the total.

Even with Aofil's...discount...they still feel their heart jump as the total rings. They swipe their card, and the green check mark indicating a successful transaction matches the color of their face.

"I got your note," Aofil says as they fold their wallet into their pocket.

Muffet nods. "Inside the bakery," she suggests while motioning Aofil to walk around the counter.

Aofil can feel the eyes of the entire dining hall pierce their back as they round behind the counter. Some whispers follow them inside the bakery, but they don't pay it no mind.

"I know what you're gonna ask, Aofil," Muffet says carefully as she turns around with her hands rubbing against each other. "And the answer..." She looks up at Aofil with five soft eyes. "The answer is yes."