**"Bold text in quotation marks signifies words spoken aloud." 'Italicized text enclosed with apostrophes signifies a character's thoughts.'**
Undyne adjusts to life alone, and a certain monster pursues his dream of becoming a guardsman.
Chapter Nine: Undyne Tells a Few Fib(ula)s
When she would look back on her life later, those first weeks after losing Kel were mostly a blur, with a few painful moments sticking out in her memory. She remembered violently refusing to let a healer restore her eye, wanting to keep a physical reminder of why humans couldn't be trusted. She remembered the Canine Unit at Kel's funeral, all pitifully whimpering and howling; they'd loved her just as much as Undyne had.
She remembered approaching Asgore, right after Kel's death, still holding her cousin's remains as she passed over the sixth soul to him. The guard had never seen the king looking more horrified than he did at that moment, and she immediately let go of any bitterness she might have harbored toward him for giving her this duty. He was so kind and gentle… these evil humans would have utterly destroyed him, no matter how physically powerful of a warrior he was. He didn't have the determination necessary to cut them down. No wonder he needed the souls to become strong.
There were a few moments in those dark times when she had been reminded of the goodness of her friends. The Canine Unit had crashed in and around her place for several days and wouldn't leave no matter what she said to them. They seemed to understand, more than anyone, that she could not be alone right now. Every time she woke up crying, remembering that her family was gone now, one of them was there to comfort her. It meant more to her than she would ever know how to tell them.
After the dogs left, Undyne remembered that Alphys and Gerson checked up on her frequently. Alphys didn't say much regarding the incident; she seemed terrified of making Undyne angry or sad by talking about it. She was just there for her friend, to watch bad movies and eat bad food and make more good memories to try and outweigh the awful things that had happened. Gerson was there to share her pain, no words necessary; he understood Undyne's loss and guilt better than probably anyone else in the Underground.
Even though at first it felt like time would never move forward, of course it continued its steady onward march. And, as it passed, the pain became easier to deal with, and Undyne began to pick up her old habits again. She knew Kel wouldn't want her to wallow, and set about trying to take up new activities to fill the empty days. The guard practiced piano frequently now, refusing to forget the one beautiful thing that she and Kel had shared a passion for. She kept cooking, too, with just as much passion, but far less skill, often to hilarious results.
She began teaching a neighbor, Shyren, to play the piano, and grew to understand why Kel had enjoyed teaching so much. It felt wonderful to pass on a skill to someone else.
And then, of course, there was that fateful night when a new friend would make his obnoxious way into her life.
BANG. BANG. BANG.
Undyne jerked awake from a nightmare about the awful human with the gun, panting and sweating, only to hear that the pounding sound that had been the firing of the weapon in her dream was actually someone knocking. Loudly. At fucking midnight.
A light spear materialized in her hand and she stormed toward the door, flinging it open to reveal a tall, broad-boned skeleton, who looked absurdly pleased with himself. "What the…"
"AH! YES, YOU'RE UNDYNE, CORRECT? NYEH HEH HEH! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HAVE COME TO JOIN THE ROYAL—"
SLAM. Undyne groaned and rubbed her eyes. She could still hear the big doofus talking through the door, his enthusiasm barely muffled by the obstruction.
"IS THIS MY FIRST TEST?! WOWIE! DON'T WORRY, MISS UNDYNE, I'LL MAKE YOU PROUD, NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES!"
'Is this Hell? It feels like Hell. What did I do to deserve this…?' Internally grumbling, Undyne ignored the skeleton's shouts and stomped back to bed, flopping down and snoring away in seconds.
When she woke up the next morning and was about to leave on her patrol, however, she found the skeleton standing exactly where she left him, still beaming proudly. She had to admit, it was impressive in a dumb kind of way. "Wow. Nothing better to do, huh?"
"GOOD MORNING, MISS UNDYNE! DID I PASS THE TEST? I WISH VERY MUCH TO BECOME A ROYAL GUARD!"
Undyne groaned and almost face-palmed, before she remembered she was wearing a heavy gauntlet and would probably knock herself unconscious. She'd gotten a few eager recruits for the guard before, sure, but usually they gave up pretty quickly or became intimidated by the training. Still… this guy's persistence was beyond what she'd seen before, she had to admit.
"Ugh. Alright, c'mere. Papyrus, you said?"
"YES, MA'AM!"
"Fantastic. Alright, Papyrus, let's see what you've got." She led him to a corner of her yard, where she kept a training dummy for occasions like this. "Show me your deadliest attack. Hit that dummy with all your power. Let's see if you have the strength to be a guard."
The skeleton looked uncomfortable, and glanced between the dummy and Undyne several times. "SORRY TO DISAGREE, MISS UNDYNE, BUT THE DUMMY HAS DONE NOTHING TO HARM ME. IT HAS NOT ATTACKED FIRST. I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CANNOT DO AS YOU'VE ASKED."
Undyne actually cracked a smile at that. 'What a marshmallow. Still…'
"Oh, so you can't hurt anyone that doesn't attack you first? What if you have to apprehend someone, under orders, who refuses to attack you but won't come quietly?"
"W-WELL… THEN I WOULD SIMPLY TIRE THEM OUT AND CAPTURE THEM! NYEH HEH HEH! YOUR TRICKY QUESTIONS CANNOT STUMP THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"
"Oh, so that's how it is." Undyne dragged him to the other end of the yard (away from the dummy he'd refuse to hurt, apparently) and gave him a light punch. Usually she wouldn't indulge someone like this, but admittedly… she was kind of having fun. "There. I've attacked you. Hit me with your best shot."
The big goof gave a wide grin, and the two began to battle. Undyne didn't counter his blows, just dodged like Asgore had with her all those years ago. The skeleton surprisingly packed a good punch with his bone attacks, managing to land a few decent hits on the head of the guard. After about fifteen minutes of watching how he fought, she had made her decision.
"Okay, I think I've seen enough, Papyrus." The skeleton ceased his attacks at once, looking at her with such honest excitement that she couldn't bring herself to let him down. "You're uh… pretty dang tough, punk. I'll give you that. But you need some… er… training, before you can officially join the guard!" Shit, she was completely making this up on the fly, but the dork was eating it right up.
"YOU'RE GOING TO TRAIN ME, UNDYNE? OH BOY, THIS IS GREAT!"
"Uh… yeah! How about this. While you're training with me, you can um… set up a sentry station in Snowdin forest. Keep a watch for humans for me. Once you've completed your training, or bring me a human, whichever comes first, I'll officially induct you into the guard."
'As if that'll ever happen.'
And just like that, Papyrus became a permanent fixture in Undyne's daily routine. She slowly grew more and more attached to the big-hearted goofball. Deep down, the head of the guard knew that Papyrus wasn't cut out for a soldier's life, and very much doubted that he could survive in a fight with a human. So, she shifted their "training" to actually be cooking lessons, hoping he would pick up on that and maybe find that he had a different passion.
She also ended up hiring his brother, Sans, as a sentry. When she asked the guy how many stations he thought he could handle, he just gave her a cheeky grin and said, "however many you can throw at me." Well, how could she refuse confidence like that? It turned out that he was ridiculously lazy, always sleeping on the job and messing around, taking way too many breaks… and yet he managed to just scrape by, each time she evaluated him, no matter how many stations he'd taken on.
As the years slowly passed, Undyne grew comfortable in her life. Since there had been such little time lapse between the last three human sightings, she'd almost forgotten how much fun she could have when she wasn't worrying all the time. Four years passed with no trace of human activity. Then three more. Undyne was now twenty-nine, and was almost sure she would never see a human again, for which she was grateful.
Honestly, she should have known better.
