Frisk and Asriel slept soundly that night, but sometime early in the morning, they woke up to noises outside. They expected the worse, sitting up in their beds, but instead a tall skeleton burst through the door.

"FRISK, I'M SO SORRY, I MADE TERRIBLE MISTAKES!" Papyrus wept.

"It's okay Papyrus, we all make mistakes, we'll deal. Besides, it can't be that bad."

It could totally be that bad, thought Frisk, but they certainly wouldn't tell Papyrus that. They looked at the clock and saw it was 2:37.

"I WANTED TO COME SAY SORRY YESTERDAY, BUT SANS TOLD ME TO WAIT UNTIL TODAY. I WANTED TO COME AS SOON AS IT BECAME TODAY, BUT I, UH, FELL ASLEEP. BUT I WOKE UP AGAIN AND RAN OVER HERE."

Toriel showed up in the doorway, surprisingly calm for a home invasion.

"Papyrus, go home, We can all talk about this tom- later today. Over breakfast. Tell Sans to come over at 9 and we'll talk about it over the meal and make a plan if we need to."

"YES, YOUR MAJESTY." Papyrus did a sort of bow before leaving.

Toriel said goodnight to her children once again and they slept for another 4 and half hours. Then they woke up, all three of them, and went to the living room. Toriel made herself coffee, she had recently taken a liking to it, thought it was just as much milk, cream, and, sugar as coffee. She had heard it could stunt the growth of children and as such vehemently refused to let the children drink it. However, on this day, she made an exception and poured 3 cups of beige colored coffee.

By the time Papyrus and Sans knocked on the door, the children were comfortable, if not jittery, and sitting on the couch next to Toriel with Brownie. Toriel rose to open the door, and Brownie accompanied her, barking all the way. When the door opened, Brownie looked expectantly at the skeletons, evidently believing that his favorite chew toys would simply lie down and take it.

"MAY I CONTINUE MY APOLOGY, YOUR HIGHNESS?"

She had a slight smile as she said, "You may."

"Can you at least wait until we enter before starting?" Sans asked, while fending off the vicious dog with a summoned bone he soon threw into the room as a distraction.

"NO, I AM NOT WORTHY OF ENTRY UNTIL I HAVE APOLOGIZED!"

Sans sighed as he leaned against the doorway waiting for his brother to finish.

"FRISK, I WANT TO APOLOGIZE… BUT I WILL NOT!"

Everyone whipped their heads around to look shocked at Papyrus, including Toriel and Sans, who were preparing to sit together and tell jokes while they waited for the expected speech. Frisk and Asriel waited with expectation.

" I WAS THINKING IN THE TIME BETWEEN MY BREAK IN AND NOW, AND I REALIZED SOMETHING. BEING SHY WILL NOT GET YOU AS FAR AS YOU DESERVE TO GO IN THIS WORLD, FRISK. YOU CERTAINLY DIDN'T SAVE THE UNDERGROUND THROUGH A SHY ATTITUDE. MATTER OF FACT, BEING BOLD, AND A LITTLE FLIRTY, IS WHAT KEPT YOU ALIVE. YOU NEED TO HAVE THE CONFIDENCE YOU HAD THEN, JUST NOW. AND, JUST LIKE I HELPED ALPHYS, IF YOU NEED IT, I WILL HELP YOU!"

Before Frisk could respond, Toriel asked, "By the way, how did you get in?"

"SIMPLE, I USED THE DOGGY DOOR."

"How?"

"I FIT MYSELF THROUGH PIECE BY PIECE. I FED BROWNIE TO KEEP HIM OCCUPIED."

Everyone looked at the dog, still wagging his tail furiously as he chewed a bone.

"Can we come in now?"

"OH, YES."

Sans and Papyrus walked in and Sans pulled up a chair next to the couch. Papyrus stood.

Toriel began. "So, we've heard Papyrus' plan-"

"NYEH HEH HEH!" He said with superiority.

"Does anyone else have an idea?"

Asriel spoke. "I think there should be a balance of Papyrus' idea and hiding. Frisk should learn to be, or at least pretend to be comfortable when asked questions and stuff like that, but not actively seek the spotlight. That way, they won't be cowering in fear and avoiding everyone they meet, but won't be overwhelmed."

"Okay. Sans, do you have an idea?"

"That depends. What do you want, kiddo?"

"Uh, I just don't want to get mauled. I'd be fine with answering questions, having pictures and stuff, but I'd still like some privacy. Be able to go play in the woods without it being on the local news."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. I think Asriel has the right idea."

"Actually, I agree with Papyrus. I think Frisk should stand up to them, probably take heavy exposure for a short time, and then they'll get bored faster and it will die down."

"It's a tie, so as usual, it's up to the kid."

Frisk thought for a while, eyebrows furrowed, and then held up a finger as they said, "I got it. We can compromise between the two. I'll take Papyrus' lessons, so when they do talk to me I'll be sure to be ready, but not go out of my way to talk about. I won't avoid questions, but I won't start conversations either." Everyone agreed that that sounded good and then Papyrus said,

"I'M GLAD WE SORTED THAT OUT. NOW, I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL ALL OF YOU. I BEGAN TAKING AN ONLINE COURSE ABOUT COOKING. I BEGAN MY FIRST LESSON EARLIER TODAY, AND LEARNED TO MAKE A NEW BREAKFAST FOOD, ONE THAT DOESN'T INVOLVE PASTA. HOLD ON!" Papyrus ran out the door, probably going to grab some of his experiments.

"I didn't even know he did this, I was still asleep. I should've known something was up when he brought home stuff like sugar and eggs yesterday. Spaghetti doesn't have that stuff. Well, at least he seems, Eggsited." Everyone tried to hold in their laughter, as they refused to succumb to such a cheap pun, but they all loved puns and couldn't help it. They giggled, with Toriel giggling harder than anyone, and Sans chuckled along.

"WHAT'S EVERYONE GIGGLING AT?" Papyrus asked as he entered the room with a covered container.

"Oh, nothing bro, we were just, cracking up about a joke." More laughter broke out, more intense than before, and Papyrus' confusion increased, but he decided to move past it.

"I PRESENT TO YOU, THE PANCAKE!" Everyone in the room was surprised by how good they looked; they actually seemed edible. Soon, everyone was sitting at the dining table, with a plate in front of them. Each member at the table looked nervously between the others, with the exception of Papyrus, who dug right in. However, he liked his spaghetti and that fluctuated between inedible to over cooked, never good enough to be classified anything above a C grade, so his taste was questionable at best. Finally, Frisk summoned their courage and ate a piece of the pancake, and was pleasantly surprised. It was a little too sweet, but they could live with that; they always did have a powerful sweet tooth. Frisk gave a smile and a discreet thumbs up to the others to signal it was safe. Asriel, Toriel, and Sans began eating, in that order. When they had finished, they actually asked for seconds.

Halfway through his second pancake, Sans suddenly stood up, his left eye lit light blue. Everyone near simultaneously asked him what was wrong in varying levels of concerned tones. He replied, "I get the feeling that something is wrong. Hold on." He walked to the living room and came back a minute later.

"Close all the shutters. They're out there watching us right now."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean they're being less conspicuous this time. They're hiding in the trees with cameras pointing at all the windows and doors."

"How do you know?"

"I, uh, took a few shortcuts all around the house and found a tent of people in the woods, watching us. They're using binoculars and stuff, and they're planning on doing something else I don't know the meaning of. It was, uh, bugging. They were talking about how they were going to bug the house. I'll look it up."

Sans walked over to the computer in the common room, a computer mostly used by the children for internet searches and playing various video games, mostly puzzle games.

While everyone did as he said, Sans privately stewed at the gall of these people and filled with anger. However, he was a patient guy, and he would wait.

"So, uh, guys. It means they plan on putting little microphones around the house to listen in on everything." Everyone reacted in a shocked manner, Papyrus being the loudest with a, "Wowie Zowey!" "I don't know who they are, but they are not reporters. Anyways, I think they want to take Frisk away." Papyrus screamed and practically fainted.

What a perfectly cynical thing to say when your brother caused this and is still very beat up about it, you crazy skeleton, thought Frisk, though his stoic face betrayed none of what he thought.

"What would make you think that, Sans?" Asked Toriel, incredulous at this accusation.

"Frisk can't leave! I care about them too much!" Asriel said, then immediately regretted it and looked embarrassed as Frisk smiled and made a mental note to torment him with jokes about it later.

"Think about it, not everyone likes us being here, and I guarantee that a lot of people can't stand the thought of a human child living with us monsters. They're trying to prove that we're inadequate as caretakers. If they succeed, they'll take Frisk because he needs proper care."

"Then I guess we'll just have to be adequate caretakers. We can do that."

Sans blushed a little as he said, "We?"

"Yeah, we all take care of them pretty well. Even Undyne. We just have to make sure they have nothing to throw in our faces. I have an idea."

Everyone waited in anticipation as she gathered her thoughts before continuing. "We can all go camping." She finally said with a cheerful tone. "It's something we haven't done yet and wanted to do, and if we can take care of them in the woods, we can certainly take care of them anywhere else." It was true that Frisk and Asriel had wanted to spend time in the woods, they had asked about a weeklong vacation for some time.

"OH YAY! WHEN DO WE GET TO ENJOY THE GIFTS OF NATURE!?" Papyrus yelled as he suddenly sat upright again.

"First, let's call everyone and see when they're free. Then we'll drive over to the nearby campgrounds, and have lots of fun. We'll sleep under the stars, hike through the woods, play in the river, and roast hot dogs over an open fire." Sans particularly brightened at the last one, while the children liked the stars and river the best. "Yeah, okay. Sounds like a good plan to me. It keeps Frisk away from most people and after a week, maybe this whole thing will have died down. Not the monsters thing, we'll probably be bothered for significantly longer, but hopefully they'll move past that goofball right there. If not, it's just having good fun and dunking those nosy jerks in the face."

"I'll start calling. Children, can you clean up the table?" After a barrage of phone calls and eventual texting as it was faster, everyone agreed to meet at the camp grounds in three days. The only people they knew that wouldn't show was Monster Kid, as his parents were afraid of the humans and were going to become hermits for a time, and Asgore as he was too busy dealing with things. He claimed to be more stressed now than he ever was before and jokingly claimed he wished that Frisk hadn't broken the barrier.

Sans called Frisk over to a chair he was sitting at, and said, "Okay kiddo, we'll be out of here soon and then the spotlight won't last. Don't you worry about it, and you may not even have to use the plan we discussed, if we're lucky. You just be the perfect little goofball you are for 3 days and then we should be fine. Deal?" Frisk smiled and slyly asked, "You promise?" Sans' smile turned to a slight frown as he remembered the promise he made and the time he told the kid about it over dinner. He said, "That's not funny."

"It is to me! Remember when I cried after you said that? You felt so bad. Everyone was staring at you." Sans smiled and was blushing hard when he said, "Yeah, I remember, I messed up, now get out of here ya noodle."

Frisk knew the next few days before the trip would be full of surprises, most of them unpleasant. They steeled themselves for the future, and the thought of a peaceful camping trip away from prying eyes filled them with determination. As they finished their thought, Papyrus said,

"I HAVE AN IDEA TOO! I NEED MORE INGREDIENTS FOR TONIGHT'S LESSON AND I NEED TO GO TO THE STORE. WHAT'S MORE NORMAL THAN GOING TO THE STORE!? FRISK AND THE PRINCE (He almost never referred to Asriel by name, similar to how he talked to Toriel.) CAN COME WITH ME. WHAT DO YOU SAY?"

The children didn't even have to look at each other to know that this would be a very entertaining way to pass the time, and agreed immediately.

"GREAT, I'LL GRAB SOME THINGS REAL QUICK. MAKE SURE YOU'RE READY. THEN, MAYBE WHEN WE GET BACK, YOU CAN HELP WITH MY LESSON! IT'S FREE AND IT USES A WEBCAM, SO I'M SURE THEY WOULDN'T MIND ME HAVING HELP. IT'S NOT LIKE I GET GRADED FOR IT, I JUST WANT TO LEARN! NYEH HEH HEH HEH heh heh…" The laughter got quieter as he ran to his house. Toriel made the children grab sweaters just in case, despite the 78 degree weather and signs of spring all around them. It truly was a beautiful day outside, birds were singing, creeps were watching, and the family they love so dearly was being threatened with their removal. A great day indeed.