Chapter nine:

Clarifications and back stories

Pulling up to Toriel's house I took out the igloo she asked to borrow for the trip today. Ringing the door and only having to wait a few minutes for someone to answer. That someone was Asriel, the small goat boy smiled up at me.

"Howdy, Panda" he stepped aside, "mom had been waiting for you"

"Hello, Asriel" smiling back I wheeled in the cooler behind me "are you ready for all the fun we're gonna have today". I couldn't help the giddy feeling in the pit of my stomach, the summer was getting hotter, and hotter by the day. Frisk and Asriel will be out of school next week, which means I've been here for almost a month.

"MAMA BEAR!" a blur of brown attacked me then clung to my bare leg "I like your bathing suit"

"Thanks, Frisk," I ruffled his hair "where's your mom, I have a delivery for her" Frisk took my hand and dragged me to the kitchen. Toriel was busy making sandwiches, she was wearing a lovely white sundress that went down to her ankles.

"Hey, Toriel I brought the iggy" I parked it next to the fridge

"OH! WONDERFUL!" she placed assortments of drinks on the table in front of me "place the refreshments in the cooler please"

Nodding I started to pack the drinks into the cooler, I could hear the boys playing in the living room. Once I was finished with the drinks, Toriel asked me to help her make some sandwiches as snacks. Since there was going to a BBQ on the beach, she informed me that Asgore would be manning the grill.

"Maybe I should give Asgore another chance," she said mostly to herself, my brows furrowed together as I frowned. Why? She already has Sans, why give him up for another man?

"W-why?" my voice shook a bit, wanting answers from the queen next to me

"I feel like separating the boys like this isn't a good thing" she sighed "siblings growing apart from each other doesn't seem like the healthiest thing"

"What about Sans?" I asked softly

"What about him?" my breath hitched at that statement, doesn't she care about his feelings at all? My view on Toriel was changing, and it was changing fast. Sure she was a pretty monster female but that doesn't mean she should go around breaking hearts.

"Aren't you and him… a…um…an item?" I bit the inside of my cheek

"Oh, heavens no" she laughed softly, a weight I didn't know that was on my shoulders was lifted, "whatever gave you that idea, my child?"

"Um…I was over at his house a couple days ago, and I saw" my tongue ran over my dry lips "a picture of the both of you". My cheeks flared up as I continued "and thought the two of you might be…u-um a thing?" Toriel's laugh only caused my face to burn even more.

"Sans and I are good friends, but was never lovers" the goat informed me, I felt light all of sudden.

"O-oh sorry for assuming things" my eyes shifted down to my hands, finding my nails suddenly interesting. She placed a warm paw on my shoulder, causing me to look back at her. Toriel smiled warmly down at me, something about that smile left me feeling uneasy like she knew something that I didn't.

"its fine, I don't mean to be rude" she paused for a moment "do you wish to settle down in the future?"

"Um.." my brow furrowed together, why is she asking me this? "well…yes…I see myself settling down…with someone I love and who loves me back…having a few kids…all that jazz you know?"

"Yes, I do know" her smile only grew "now tell me, does it matter if your partner is a human or monster"

"U-um no…" I shrugged "it doesn't really matter…as long as they love me…for me and not the name I carry" I couldn't help the frown that appeared on my face. Most of the men I dated in college almost never went out with me… for Hannah, they did it because I was Hannah Higgins. The adopted daughter of Aiden and Natasha Higgins; the rich power couple that are the monsters' allies. "Toriel, why are you asking me this?" I questioned the monster my eyes never leaving my nails.

"I just wanted to know what kind of, daughter my dear friends had raised" she collected the sandwiches she had made and placed them in the cooler. I blinked once then twice not really getting what she was saying, "now I know that's she's very open minded, like her parents"

"Oh…well…thank you!" I couldn't help to fight back the smile on my face

"Asgore was actually shocked when he learned how old you girls were" Toriel chuckled softly

"Yea...we're basically toddlers in Monster terms" I grinned "I would be the same way too! If I found out a group of babies was moving out on their own"

"Be warned Asgore is going to take the lot of you under his wing" Toriel added, oh god Asgore being a mother hen to us, all because he thinks were toddlers "he never had daughters so this will be interesting"

"Don't encourage him!" I exclaimed "try and talk some sense into him, explain human's age differently"

"I'll try, my child" Toriel just grins down at me with a smug smile, and then and only then I know she was lying. She won't talk to Asgore at all! She's going to enjoy watching Asgore fuss over us, like children. Oh, my god, I hope Geo doesn't have a daddy kink too.

"May I ask another question?" her playful smile is gone, and was replaced by a more serious look, "do you know anything about your birth parents?"

"Um…er…I know…that they left me...far from any hospital or firehouse" my teeth shanked into my bottom lip, "it was mom and dad that found me on their vacation to Jamaica". Shrugging lightly not wanting to think about my circumstances behind me getting adopted in the first place, "they never told you this?"

"No, they just told Asgore and me that they wanted a daughter and was about to give up, but they found you"

"After six sons, finding me might had been a ray of hope for them" I laughed half-heartily "but I'm glad they did". Sighing deeply, I looked down at the sandwich that I finished a few minutes ago. "How did you and Asgore meet my parents?" all I really knew was that mom and dad suddenly had monster friends, of course, I would know the full story if I actually attend one of those functions.

"It was a few months after we monster surfaced, the human leaders wanted a conference with us. They didn't take it well that we had Frisk as our ambassador" I giggled a little thinking about that cutie pie as the voice of all monster, but Toriel shot me a look that caused me to shut up. "So we decided that Asgore and I would speak about serious matters while Frisk will accompany these conferences, just until he is older. Monster soon started to voice that humans wouldn't let them rent homes and the ones that do…the conditions of that living area are horrendous, Asgore tried to reach out to companies that would help us. They all turned us down, they seem to want to push our kind back into the underground." The pain in Toriel's voice tugged at my heartstrings, "but your parents contacted us! At first, we were wary of them…after from all the hate we've had gotten"

"I would understand" I nodded, this all seem too familiar history rewrites itself I guess.

"They offered housing in all the major cities, livable housing just as good as the ones humans get. Some were even better I believe some human complained when they found out about it. Your father had no complaints about exchanging our currency 'G' into human currency, notes, and coins. That's when we learned that banks up here were robbing monster-kind, turns out that gold is more valued up there than the underground."

"Well, yeah….gold is a precious metal…so it's going to be worth a lot" the frown I didn't know I had deepened. I never knew humans were that unfair to monsters, maybe I was living under a rock. Or maybe it was too much to think humans would treat them fairly. After all, it's the twenty-first century and we have a history going back on this since the dawn of man. I guess, man is just stupid and stubborn about things like these.

"Your brothers the oldest set, when they found out this injustice against monster they took up every case" Toriel smiled "they did it for pro bono, no group of humans was never so kind to monsters. With word spreading more monsters decided to take a chance and move to the surface…only if they could work with your family."

My teeth continued to sink deeper into my flesh, shit, what if they start to wonder what I can do for monsters. Nothing, that's what I can do nothing. I'm not some big shot lawyers like my brothers, I don't have the money to come up with housing like my parents. I'm nothing like my family, compared to them I would seem self-centered and selfish…I never even turned up for any of the functions. I would be a disappointment if any monsters that looked up to my family found out about me, totally useless…more like a trophy daughter. Pretty sure I am in the eyes of Toriel and Asgore, I remember the look they gave me when I told them my profession. Now that I'm thinking about it…I don't even count as a trophy daughter; trophy daughters are beautiful and perfect. I'm not beautiful by society's standards, and I'm not perfect either. As a child I could never get my etiquettes right, I was always messing up and the simplest of things.

"Everyone in the monster community knows of your family, my child" Toriel's smile only grew warmer as she spoke kind words about mom and dad. "And I'm sure they'll love to you too, after all, you are their daughter"

Not by blood, so I have none of those great characteristics you love so much. Sorry to disappoint everyone in the monster community.

"Um…I best be getting home…I-I um,…have to see if the girls are ready" I smiled weakly. Toriel nodded and told me she'll call me when everyone is ready to leave. Closing the igloo I briskly walked to the front door, Asriel and Frisk ran up to me.

"You're leaving a ready, Panda?" the small goat child asked.

"Yea, someone needs to make sure those girls back home don't lose their heads" I smiled while ruffling his head fur.

"You'll play with us at the beach right?" Frisk asked more like plead with me "we're going to play kingdom, and I'm going to be the royal guard!"

"Sounds fun count me in!" I beamed at the two young children, promising to play with them once we get to the beach.


A/N: in which Hannah finds out the truth about Sans ans Toriel, and you get a little insight about how she feels about being adopted into a wealthy family