When Papyrus came back, dressed in his suit and pants, they were ready to go. Sans came up to him and whispered in his ear before handing him something. Frisk and Asriel both saw it happen, but couldn't tell what it was.
"ALRIGHT, I THINK WE'RE READY TO GO TO THE STORE," Papyrus winked at his brother, "AND ONLY THE STORE." A double wink this time. "NO WHERE ELSE, JUST FOOD AND HOME."
The children knew this meant something, but didn't quite know what was in store. When they walked out the door, Sans and Toriel came together in the middle of the room. Toriel then said, "Sans, I'm not a bonehead like you, so what was Papyrus talking about?" After Sans composed himself from his uncontrollable laughter, he replied, "Don't worry about it, they'll be fine. The important part is, they're gonna have fun, the people will follow them, and we're going to follow the people. First, I'm going to go back and see if I can gather more information about our unwanted guests and we'll go from there." Sans walked around the corner, out of sight and then took a shortcut once more.
The CPS camp leader didn't know what to make of this situation. He was still reeling from his orders and even more from the shocking command to use bugs on such seemingly nice… well, not people, but close enough. Two weeks ago, if you told him he would no longer be investigating abusive fathers and instead would be spying on a neighborhood filled with monsters, on the President of the United States' order no less, he would've made sure that he hadn't had too much to drink that night, and then given you one because you seemed way too high strung. Yet, here he was, with military grade surveillance equipment, ordering others to get into a truck and follow a well-dressed skeleton. The President made it very clear to the department how important this was; the kid was a bridge between Monsters and Humans. If they had corrupted him, or given him Stockholm syndrome or something and the monsters weren't as trustworthy as they seemed, a national disaster could erupt. People cared a lot about children, always rambling on about them, and if these monsters had one and lived up to their name… So far though, they seemed pretty boring. They had guests over, ate pancakes, and now seemed to be going in the direction of the nearby shopping center. It didn't make any sense to him, but come to think of it, not much had since they showed up.
Papyrus hadn't a care in the world, as he sped down the road in his red convertible, loudly singing to the latest pop song. He was a little disappointed to find that driving had rules and he couldn't just drive as fast as possible, wind blowing through his bones, but he got over it. The children were far too polite to tell him his singing was dismal and sounded like nails on a chalkboard, but they could think it all they wanted, which they did. Then on the radio turned on far too loud came the radio station lady's voice,
"NEXT UP, WE HAVE A NEW SONG FROM THE RISING STAR OF THE MONSTERS, THE DARLING OF THE UNDERGROUND, METTATON!" Papyrus gasped sharply and turned the music even higher, to ear-threatening levels, though the children guessed he didn't have eardrums to break and was probably fine. Papyrus didn't know the words, or even the song, as it was new, but he tried to hum along as best he could. It was a catchy tune, with vocals by Mettaton and music that undoubtedly had a touch of Napstablook in it.
"I'm glad Mettaton is doing well." Asriel said when Papyrus decided to turn the music down after a guy flipped him off for his music being too loud.
"WELL!? HE'S DOING GREAT! PEOPLE LOVE HIM! NOT AS MUCH AS THE GREAT PAPYRUS, OF COURSE, BUT I'M SURE THAT HE'LL GET CLOSE SOMEDAY."
Frisk was just happy to be outside in the car, Frisk loved car rides, they just felt so exhilarating. Asriel didn't quite share the same sentiment, as his ears tended to hit himself. Thinking of Asriel, Frisk was reminded of something and adopted a sly smile.
"Sooo, you don't want me to go, do you?"
Asriel looked, remembered, and then adopted a very stoic face before firmly saying, "No, I don't. Because then I wouldn't have an ugly face to laugh at all the time." His tongue stuck out at Frisk, a challenge to come up with something better to respond with. Frisk smiled harder and responded, "What's that, I couldn't hear you over all that bawling you did when they said it." Before returning the gesture. "I wasn't bawling, you were! Because you were going to lose your best friend in the whole wide world and all I would lose was, uh…" Asriel stalled as he tried to think of something. After about 6 seconds, he sighed and said, "Fine, I concede. You win this round, Human." Before smiling, followed by raucous laughter from both of them. They were so distracted that they didn't even notice they had reached their destination.
"ALRIGHT CHILDREN, GRAB A CART AND PLAY ROCK PAPER SCISSORS TO FIND WHO GETS TO RIDE IN IT." The children cheered and then the game commenced. They stared into each other's very souls as they tried to guess what the other would play. Frisk played rock, and Asriel played scissors. "Darn it, why do you always win?" "Because, I can read you like a book." "No you can't, I bet…" The arguing went on, playful as it may have been, as Frisk sat in the cart and Asriel walked alongside, holding on to it. People stared at the odd family the whole time, but they did not care. In fact, they barely noticed at all. Little did they know, Sans and Toriel were also at the store, carefully watching them, and watching for people watching them.
"Hunh, they fight just like siblings do." Observed Sans.
"What do you mean?"
"They talk bad about the other, insult them, make jokes, stuff like that, but it's clear that they care deeply about each other. Reminds me of Pap and I."
Toriel was filled with pride to know that her adopted child and real one were both acting perfectly normal, even by other people's standards. The other child did that too, but they didn't mesh as well as Frisk and Asriel. Chara just always seemed, a little distant to her. Her attention to this train of thought was snapped away when Sans said, "I think that's one of 'em." "You sure?" "No, but the hat she's wearing has the same emblem."
For the dozenth time that day, a CPS social worker regretted coming to work yesterday. Yesterday, her office became a madhouse with the news that a child had been living with the still possibly dangerous monsters and she was one of the many people selected to keep an eye on them. Personally, she had no qualms about the monsters and thought the best of them; she had even already bought a Mettaton shirt. Yet here she was, wallowing in self-pity as she followed the cheerful skeleton and his lovely children. Anyways, it was time for her to stop daydreaming and get back to work. She walked to the aisle they were at, close enough to listen, (It wasn't hard, the skeleton seemed to have no volume control whatsoever.) and pretended to look at a box of stuffing.
"ANYWAYS, FRISK, I DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU WHAT I'M MAKING UNTIL WE GO HOME. I WANT IT TO BE A SURPRISE!" "But Papyrus, uh-" Frisk tried to think of a good reason why he should know, when Asriel got it. "But we can help you find ingredients, than we can go home faster and be ready for your lesson." The CPS worker made a mental note to remember the name of the skeleton. She called the investigation leader, "Jonas, it's me, Ashley. I'm near the target, do you want me to talk to them and investigate like that?" There was silence for a moment before he said, "Follow them down a few more aisles, then talk to them; prepare what you're going to say." "Got it." Ashley hung up and realized they had already left the aisle and hurried to catch up. At the corner of the aisle she just left, Sans and Toriel waited, and they heard every word. "Sans, what do we do?" "We keep watching, nothing bad has happened yet. I have a plan for if something goes wrong, though." He described the plan and she was pleased, as it would get everyone out of trouble, but cause no harm to the nearby humans.
Papyrus finally had an answer for the children, "HRRM. NO, THE ANSWER IS STILL NO." Frisk and Asriel looked at each other with scheming, almost, sadistic smiles. They thought so alike that they knew what the other was thinking and were quick to act. Asriel began to pretend to cry and throw a tantrum, very convincingly, while Frisk did the same in the cart. Suddenly, the Great Papyrus had two crying children on his hands and he began to panic.
"OH NO! UH, FRISK, PRINCE, PLEASE, BEHAVE YOURSELVES! UH, WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME!? FINE, WE'RE HAVING MEATLOAF!" Both children immediately stopped their thrashing and looked confused at him. "What's meatloaf?" they both said, heads cocked slightly to the side. "IT'S AN ODD CREATION, A FAVORITE OF MANY PEOPLE HERE. YOU TAKE MEAT, LIKE FROM MEATBALLS ON SPAGHETTI, MAKE A LOAF LIKE BREAD OUT OF IT, AND THEN SPICE IT AND PUT SAUCE ON IT." Both children had never heard of anything like this and thought it weird, but were very excited to try it. The pancakes earlier suggested that Papyrus did have culinary skill and just needed a different teacher (Not Undyne) to drastically improve what he could make. They hoped it would go well.
That's when a woman, in her late twenties to early thirties walked up to their cart and said, "Excuse me, but are you that skeleton that was on the news last night?" "I AM." Papyrus said, swelling with pride. "And is that, oh, uh, shoot, Frisk? Frisk, right? That's the name you said." Papyrus deflated immediately, sighed, then said, "YES, THIS IS THE HUMAN CHILD NAMED FRISK, WHO SAVED THE UNDERGROUND." Ashley became suspicious. Why did he sound sad to say that? "Are you alright?" "YES, IT'S JUST, WELL, FRISK IS SHY AND I DIDN'T MEAN TO LET THE NAME SLIP. NOW I WORRY ABOUT ALL THE UNWANTED ATTENTION THEY'LL GET." Papyrus looked at the young child in the shopping cart, a little too big for it, now that he thought about it. Frisk smiled at Papyrus, then turned and waved at the lady. Ashley smiled and waved back and any doubts she had about the adequacy of monsters as parents vanished. This skeleton cared about this child more than most human parents cared about their own. Frisk then spoke, "This is my brother, Asriel, prince of the monsters." Ashley looked down at the goat child and practically swooned. "Hello there." "Howdy." "Anyways, I'm going to let you guys get back to your shopping. Have a great day!" Ashley said before leaving.
"HUH, THAT'S WEIRD." Papyrus mused. "What was?" Frisk asked. "SHE DIDN'T EVEN HAVE A CART." The three of them looked at each other, shrugged at the same time, and laughed as they kept moving. "Tori, you alright?" Sans was asking the question to a Toriel that had her back turned away, seemingly wiping tears from her eyes. "I'm fine, just filled with motherly pride at how cute they are." She exhaled sharply, regaining her wits, then said, "Okay, now what?" "Well, now we, oh hell." As the happy trio was grabbing the last of their groceries, many people noticed the skeleton and the child he had. About a dozen people crowded them and they couldn't hope to answer all the questions fast enough. Sans quietly said the go code for their secret plan: "Smoke on the water." Toriel discreetly made a fireball in her hand and positioned herself under a fire detector. Soon, the smoke wafted up and caused the sprinklers to go. Sans took her hand and led her through a shortcut so the people watching Papyrus wouldn't see them leave, and they appeared in Toriel's second car, ready to follow again. Everyone in the store left in an orderly fashion, except Papyrus and the children who stayed behind. None of them knew what a fire alarm was like and didn't even consider that they could be in danger. Frisk got out of the seat and the two children played in the sprinklers, pretending it was rain, whereas Papyrus was determined to buy the ingredients he needed. They waited for a couple minutes, until the system was shut off and the management was sure there was no fire. Then, they helped Papyrus and after checking out, the three of them got back into the car.
"NOW CHILDREN, I WASN'T ENTIRELY HONEST WITH YOU WHEN I SAID WHERE WERE WE GOING." The children prepared themselves for the answer to the questions they had earlier about what all the secrecy meant. "INSTEAD OF GOING HOME, WE'RE GOING TO GO GET SOME ICE CREAM!" Both children cheered, as they loved ice cream, even more than nice cream. Though nice cream made you feel good, it didn't have quite the same taste. "THEN WE'RE GOING SOMEWHERE ELSE." So, the secrecy continued. But the children didn't care. They were more than willing to wait to find the surprise of the day. And in the meantime, they thought of all the different flavors of ice cream ahead of them.