Emberly
...
Summary: Emberly has a lot to put up with when Sans and big brother Grillby hang out.
A/N: This is me needing to write more Grillby and Emberly and experimenting with a new format. It takes place a little after Happy Family's finale but way before the Epilogue.
Emberly let the door slam behind her and put her book bag on the ground with a satisfying thump.
"Em?" her brother's voice came from the living room. "Is that you?"
"Yes!" she called back.
She took off her coat and shawl. She really didn't need to wear those, as it wasn't like she was going to catch cold, but they were cute and Emberly liked being well-dressed.
"How nice of you to join us!" a familiar voice called, joining Grillby's. "You sure will brighten up our afternoon."
Emberly rolled her eyes as she walked into the living room. "Hi, Sans," she said.
"Hi, Emberly, good to see you again." Sans grinned. "You always know how to spark an interesting conversation."
She laughed. Sans had already been a regular at her brother's bar when she had still been a little flame. After they had come to the surface, the two had not seen each other as much as they used to, but lately he and Grillby must have been trying harder to meet up. Emberly was glad of it. Her brother was very friendly and he met a lot of people in his work, but he didn't call people his friends easily.
"How's college?" Sans asked.
"Exhausting," Emberly said, going for the liquor cabinet. "But really interesting."
She told Sans and Grillby about her psychology classes while she poured herself a big glass of something very strong on the alcohol content. Alcohol didn't affect fire elementals like it did biological creatures. Alcohol was flammable after all, so a nice shot of strong whiskey was refreshing to them instead of intoxicating.
"So you're psyched to be there?" Sans winked when Emberly sat down with her drink.
Emberly sent a few sparks his way and chuckled: "Yes, yes, I am." She took a swig and her green fire burned a little brighter for a second. "I guess I just wish they'd teach some monster psychology too. I mean there's a lot of similarities, but there are some core differences between monsters and humans."
Sans nodded in agreement.
"What about that possibility you talked about last week?" Grillby asked. "About a monster therapist as a guest lecturer?"
"They're being really difficult about that," Emberly said. "The professor is game, but the college is complaining about budgets and special treatment."
She sighed and shook her head, making her flames swirl. "But I'm teaming up with several other students that want to see less dominant perspectives expressed in the curriculum. We should at least be able to write our papers about them!"
Grillby crackled with pride at his sister and Sans nodded approvingly. "I'm sure you can do it, Em," he said.
"Yeah," she said. "Plus our professor is awesome. He's behind us all the way. He even asked us to come to the faculty meeting next week."
"Sounds like you're going to make those administrators hot under the collar," Sans grinned.
"This is a real issue, you know," Emberly said, rolling her eyes.
"Oh I know," Sans winked. "Otherwise you wouldn't be getting all fired up about it."
"Grillby," Emberly groaned. "Make him stop."
"Sans," Grillby said sternly. "Stop joking about Em's efforts to improve her education. She is a driven young woman…with a particular talent for fanning the flames of any important issue."
Sans roared with triumphant laugher and Emberly groaned even louder. "Don't you start!" she complained.
"Your brother is right," Sans said. "You're good at asking the burning questions."
They both broke down laughing like idiots and Emberly rolled her eyes. Before she could say anything, her phone rang and she answered it with a loud complaint:
"Muffet, Sans and Grillby are making fun of me. Do something about it."
"Ahuhuhuhu," Muffet laughed. "Is that Grillby in the background?"
"Yes," Emberly said, cracking a smile. Grillby's laughter sounded like the roaring of an open bonfire, loud and cosy.
"Sorry, dearie," Muffet said with a giggle. "I didn't call to rescue you. I just wanted to check if we're still on for this Friday."
"Of course!" Emberly said, walking out of the living room to get away from the snorting and choked laughter. "Can you at least give me a hint about what we're doing?" she pleaded. "Please?"
"No, no," Muffet teased. "You didn't tell last time and I won't either! You'll just have to wait and see."
Emberly and Muffet did their best to get together every two weeks for some girl time. Muffet was a lot older than she looked and, to Emberly, Grillby becoming friends with Muffet had been like gaining a cool older sister. Lately they had tried to surprise each other with the activities for their get together. Last time Emberly had treated Muffet to a Great British Bake Off marathon.
"Okay," Emberly grinned. "I'll try to be patient."
"You'll have to be! Ahuhuhuhu!" Muffet laughed. "Good luck with your unmanageable men."
"They're being huge dorks," Emberly informed her, holding up the phone so Muffet could hear the muffled laughter coming from the living room.
"Tell them I say hi," Muffet chuckled. "Bye, dearie!"
"Bye, Muffet," Emberly smiled and she hung up.
"Muffet says hi," she announced, going back into the living room.
"Thanks," Grillby said cheerfully. "What are you doing this Friday?"
"I don't know, she won't tell," Emberly said, her flames crackling curiously.
Sans was still grinning like he had more puns in him, but Grillby seemed to have calmed down, so Emberly decided to change the subject before Sans could think of a topical joke.
"It's my turn to cook tonight," she said, slanting her head. "Are you staying for dinner, Sans?"
"Grillbz did mention that was a possibility," Sans said. "And I never pass up Fire cooking."
"Then stay," Emberly said cheerfully. "It's always nice to have someone extra for dinner."
"Yes, Sans," Grillby said seriously. "You should stay. I think he could really use some meat on your bones."
"I'm leaving," Emberly said flatly, but she had to hide her grin as she paced out of the room while Sans slapped Grillby on the shoulder in congratulation.
Emberly went to the kitchen to see what was in stock for dinner. She wondered if she had time to make Korean fried chicken. Both Emberly and Grillby were very good at deep frying; they always got the temperature of the oil just right.
Emberly's phone beeped. Before she could dig it out of her skirt pocket, it had beeped and buzzed four times more.
"Jeez," Emberly tutted. "Calm down, Sadie." It was always Sadie when her phone went crazy like that.
She was right:
Sadie 3: Em
Sadie 3: Em
Sadie 3: Em
Sadie 3: Emmy
Sadie 3: Em
Emmy: Yes! What?
Sadie 3: Em!
Sadie 3: I told you I found this cool human cartoon right?
Emmy: Yeah? Something about human ghosts
Sadie 3: Yes! Danny Phantom it's awesome
Sadie 3: But Em!
Sadie 3: There's a badass punk characters with fire powers called Ember
Emmy: WHAT
Sadie 3: Yeah! Check it out
Sadie sent a picture of a cartoon character with big, blue hair, an impressive punk rock outfit and a purple guitar with blue flames on it. Emberly snorted, that sure looked like something Sadie would think was cool. She did like the design though.
Emmy: Cool, but I don't see any fire
Sadie 3: She has fire powers!
Sadie sent two more pictures, in which the girl seemed to change her entire physical form into blue translucent fire. Her hair was actual flames now.
Emmy: So she's ghost fire. That's pretty cool.
Sadie 3: Right?!
Sadie 3: She has a song. Do you wanna hear it?
Emmy: Sure ^-^
Emmy: (But I'm not dressing up as her)
Sadie 3: I would NEVER
Emmy: (Or in any other punk outfit)
Sadie 3: Aw, but you'd look so cute :3
Emmy: Nah. I'll leave the edgy fashion to you. ;)
Emmy: I can't do the make-up anyway
Sadie 3: You could wear a crop top though :D :-* :P
Emmy: -_-
Sadie 3: They have cutesy crop tops too you know…
Emmy: I'm telling Grillby you're being a corrupting influence on me
Sadie 3: Duh that's in my job description ;-*
Sadie 3: But seriously listen to the song it's awesome.
Sadie 3: Youtube/watch?v=wBMOc24_aIw&ab_channel=WorthlessToaster
Sadie 3: There's a video that's half clips from the show and some 3D animation thing but just watch it okay.
Grinning Emberly turned the volume up on her phone and clicked the link. She smiled when the drums and guitar began. This was very Sadie. If anything it was rather mellow for her usual taste. Emberly had to hand it to her girlfriend, this was very catchy.
Emmy: Okay
Emmy: I like her hair ^-^
Sadie 3: ^_^
Emmy: I like the song too
Sadie 3: It's great, right!
Emmy: Probably would be even better if you sang it to me ;-*
Sadie 3: Is that an invitation to come over?
Emmy: YES
Sadie 3: 3!
Emmy: Sans is here, I need you for moral support
Sadie 3: Haha
Emmy: Plus I'm cooking tonight :-*
Sadie 3: I'll grab my stuff
Sadie 3: Be right there :-*
Emmy: Yay 3
Sadie 3: xxx
"Sadie's coming over!" Emberly called out towards the living room.
"Good!" Grillby called back.
"And I'm making Korean fried chicken," she added, taking the big pot out of the kitchen cabinet.
"You're too good for this world, Emberly," Sans raised his voice above the roar of Grillby's good humour. He adored Emberly's Korean fried chicken.
"I know!" Emberly sang contently. She was looking forward to dinner already. With Sans and Sadie, there it would be a full table and Emberly loved cooking for an audience. This was going to be a cosy evening.
(This chapter works a lot better on AO3 where I could use screenshots of the texts.)
A/N: I'm not going to lie, I wasn't planning on writing this at all. But I had no choice okay, the world was against me: BookishAngel's Genocide Number Ninety made me love Grillby even more than I already did, Silverstreamcat chatted with me about their Grillby/Muffet ficlet, Undertexting on Tumblr did my request about Fuku and Grillby texting each other, NoSleepUntilVacation published her wonderful sequel fic, and I rediscovered Danny Phantom. You see I had no choice. It was beyond my control.
I also felt like I mostly showed Grillby's professional side in Happy Family, and I wanted to show that behind the scenes he's a really nice brother and can be very silly when he wants to be ;)
[Texting website: / I added the emojis myself, took too much time, won't do that again.]
[Danny Phantom and Ember McLain belong to Butch Hartman/Nickelodeon. The video on YouTube is "Ember McLain – Remember (HD Soundtrack Version)]
