Chapter Twenty-One - More Adventures in Noodles, Part One

Frisk was curled up on the couch with her laptop, half-heartedly looking through job openings - there had been nothing new posted in the last few days and she was starting to get frustrated. Of course, the problem with a city where seldom grew old is that seldom jobs became open, especially the kind preferable for a pregnant college drop-out.

The job Grillby had offered her when she was still unsure about whether she was going to college at all was still open, but waitressing while pregnant didn't seem like her best option. Unfortunately, most jobs in her skill range weren't preferable while pregnant.

She sighed heavily, shutting her laptop with an unsatisfying click.

"Would you like some cookies, Frisk?" Her mother called from the kitchen, where she was baking for some charity bake sale or another.

"No thanks." She called back, while usually not one to refuse a fresh baked cookie, her stomach had been upset all afternoon and she didn't want to risk it.

"Would you mind taking some out to your father?" Her mother asked, appearing in the doorway with a tray of cookies and milk - oatmeal raisin from the look of them. "He's out in the greenhouse."

"A busy day ruling the kingdom for both of you, I see." She teased, getting up to take the tray from her mother. The bottom of it was warm.

"Since we are still waiting on permission from the human government to expand our city to the east, and there's no petitions to considered this week, we decided a day off was in order." Her mother replied, not chastising, but in a way that reminded Frisk of exactly how hard her parents worked, even if she didn't always see it.

"I know Momma, you're a queen and a saint." She replied, kissing her fluffy cheek before carefully setting the tray on the coffee table so she could put on her coat and shoes.

Her father was repotting seedling - more golden flowers, unless he had finally taken her suggestion to branch out - when she entered the greenhouse, nearly spilling the glass of milk as she maneuvered through the door. "Special delivery." She said, getting his attention as she set the tray down on the table least covered in dirt. Which was still a lot of dirt.

"I see your mother is as bad at taking the day off as I am." He said, taking off his gloves and wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans. "Are these raisin or chocolate chip?"

"She didn't say. I wouldn't bet on chocolate though, you know how she tries to sneak more fruit into our diet."

He broke a cookie in half and inspected it. "Hmm." He murmured upon taking a bite.

"What's your expert opinion? Are they safe for consumption?"

"They appear to be a chocolate dipped fruit of some sort. I'm not sure if it's safe for humans. I had better eat all of these to keep you safe."

She rolled her eyes. "You're truly selfless. I'm surrounded by such noble souls."

He chuckled, taking a sip of milk. "No easy task, let me assure you."

"Can I repay your sacrifice in any way? Are there some wily seedlings I could repot?" While golden flowers still made her uneasy, she could never find the words to explain that to her father.

"I wouldn't mind the help. I may have started too many seeds again and don't have the heart to cull any."

"There's no such thing as too many flowers." She said, parroting one of his own lines.

After he finished his cookies, they worked in silence for some time. While Frisk was a bit rusty at the repotting process - she hadn't helped him garden in far too long - she appreciated the familiar, peaceful work. Maybe there was a plant nursery in need of her unsteady hands.

"These don't look like normal seedlings. Are you trying your hand at a new strain again?"

"These are Nasturtiums, I believe. Your mother bought the seeds for me, I think she finds them pretty."

"Can I put in a request for some Chrysanthemums? I want to annoy my roommate with them." Sharing a name with the flower, she had tried to insist upon being called by her full name. Naturally, Frisk had delegated to call her Em.

"Perhaps one thing at a time. This old dog isn't keen on new tricks."

"Come on dad, it's a new year."

"Not quite." He said softly, bracing a weak seedling with a small wooden stick. It amazed her sometimes how gentle he could be with plants and well, anything really.

They were quiet again for some time, before he broke the silence. "I had been waiting to bring this up when your mother wasn't around, but I hear you had been having trouble with your car?"

"Yeah.. I mean. It's probably just a battery issue? She'll be fine once winter is over." Frisk loved her car perhaps a bit too much, but she had insisted upon buying it herself, selling magazine subscriptions over the phone for two summers to pay for it.

"Doesn't it have a cooling issue in the summer?"

"I got that fixed. Mostly." She paused. Alphys had tried, at least, but cars were not her forte. "To be honest, I've been thinking about getting a new one as soon as I find a job."

"You'll need a reliable vehicle to get you to work in the meantime, will you not?"

She sighed, nearly decapitating the seedling in her hands. "I can figure it out in the meantime, plus I have most of my tuition dispersement saved." She had received far more financial aid than she needed, and it was currently padding her savings account. "It shouldn't be too long before I have a new old faithful on the streets." Her car was originally christened Betsy, but after a year of driving it, she had discovered its true name.

"May I make a suggestion?" Her father asked, gently taking the nearly mangled seedling from her careless fingers.

"Not if it involved buying me a new car." She wasn't quite sure why supplying her own wheels was the hill she was willing to die on, but she didn't want her parents to supply everything because they could. Well, that and if she bought her own car, her mother couldn't ground her from it.

"I was worried you'd feel that way. But. I believe we once made a deal about special occasions."

Her father, the diplomat.

"I seem to recall some sort of gift giving clause.." She murmured, focusing her attentions on filling another pot with soil.

"I, that is, your mother and I, wanted to give you something to help with the new life you're starting. Perhaps a baby shower gift, of sorts? To put a title to it."

"You already have a car picked out, don't you?"

"I may have done a little research, but if you find one you would prefer, I just ask that it have airbags."

"Here I was hoping that I could get you to buy me another Gremlin. I saw a blue one while I was in college." Her own was an odd shade of green that she had grown attached to.

"How about a nice Volkswagon? I think the beetles are very cute."

"Do you really want to try and teach me to drive stick again?" Her father's first vehicle on the surface had been a manual transmission truck - one of the few vehicles he could fit in - and while he had never given automatic transmissions another thought, Frisk on the other hand, was not as quick to learn.

"Ah. Well. Perhaps not." He said delicately. "Perhaps Sans could help you in your decision. Or Papyrus, I remember he was always chattering about what kind of car he wanted to have here on the surface."

Frisk remembered Papyrus' short lived love affair with his red convertible. She thought Sans was never going to let him drive again after his wreck. "Maybe I'll see what Alphys has to say."

"Wait, you're actually letting your parents buy you a car?" Alphys asked in disbelief as they were looking for parking.

"Dad invoked the special occasion clause, he was going on about the new life I was starting, it was moving, okay?"

"He is the king for a reason."

"Yeah, I was doomed from the start - watch out Alph, that kid isn't paying attention."

"I see them." She replied, slowing down a bit more. "How can you even tell which humans are kids or not? They're all different sizes and they never wear stripes."

"Because they look like kids? They're like, miniature humans. We're all pretty similar."

"But then t-there's the tall kids and the short adults. How can you be sure?"

"Because our culture evolved to not need striped clothing to delegate what is a child or not? I'm not sure." It was true that the stripes really helped when it came to monsters, since they varied so much in appearance.

"You're the history expert." She replied, swinging the car into an open spot. Frisk didn't have much room on her side to get out, but she could probably manage.

"Hardly. I don't even have a degree, Doctor."

"That can be arranged."

"You're not hacking my university to give me a degree." She had offered when Frisk was upset over failing her first test.

"It would be so easy though! Their security is so lax. No one would be the wiser."

"Alphys."

"One day you're going to need my hacking skills and I'm not going to help because you never let me have any fun."

"Keep telling yourself that." Frisk countered, opening the door carefully as not to ding the imposing black SUV parked next to them.

"Did I not give you enough space to get out again? I'm sorry -"

"It's cool, I'm not a blimp yet."

"You won't be a blimp."

"Mhm." She replied noncommittedly, sliding out of the car.

"So, what's the plan of attack?" She asked her yellow best friend as they walked towards the mall. She doubted they would find anything black tie affair ready there, but the food court had the noodle place she liked and it was as good of a place to start as any.

"Well, the bridal shop has prom dresses and things, and I'm sure one of the bigger clothing stores has some things worth looking at."

Frisk wasn't too keen on the bridal shop, but Alphys had a point.

The problem, which was the problem every time she and Alphys went shopping, was that she and Alphys had wildly different views on fashion and, well, modesty.

"Absolutely not." Frisk shook her head, not even willing to consider the dress Alphys was trying to show her.

"It's cute! And it's blue. Blue is your color."

"I don't even think it's in my size. How will I breathe?" Secondly, what was keeping it on her? She hadn't had good luck with strapless dresses in the past.

"Who needs to breathe when you look fantastic?" Someone had been talking to Mettaton again. "And you're a size fourteen, right?" She asked, checking the tag.

"I was before the freshman fifteen. Er, twenty in my case."

"You're pregnant, it doesn't count."

"The twenty was before that. It's fine. Breathing room is a necessity, okay?"

"Humans are so inefficient, you know that?"

"We can't all run on magic and bad fanfiction." Frisk replied, inspecting a dress that looked promising. Or not.

"We still need to finish the one we were writing, the Madoka / Pokemon / SAO crossover."

"Oh my god, I forgot all about that, our fans need to know if Kirito is ever going to be the very best." She paused. "Like no one ever was."

"Frisk.."

"To catch them is his real test, to train them is his cause -"

"Frisk please."

She pulled Alphys close to her and starting singing as soulfully as she could. Soon, she and Alphys were belting the Pokémon theme song. In the middle of the dress section.

"You're the w-worst. The actual worst, you know that?" Alphys complained, her cheeks a deep orange when she realized that people had noticed their impromptu concert.

"Here I was thinking that title was reserved for Sans." Frisk replied, leaving her blushing friend to go pass judgement on a new section of dresses.

Alphys scampered after her. "Okay but you're l-like incubating his progeny, so it has to be wearing off on you."

"Incubating his progeny? Okay Alph, that's enough internet for you."

"There isn't a good phrase for having a kid with someone. It's just weird."

"I thoroughly appreciate your ability to take something moderately weird and dial it all the way up." But not to eleven. Eleven was reserved for Papyrus.

Alphys groaned.

"I'm kidding. Hey. What about this one?" She showed the dress to Alphys. Black and silver, some poof but plenty of breathing room. Minimal sequins.

Alphys looked unimpressed.

"Come on, what's wrong with it?"

"It's boring."

"It's got like, three layers of - what is it called - tulle? Its super poofy. Poofy isn't boring."

"It's a boring poofy."

Frisk sighed, putting it back on the rack.

They took a break from dress shopping to see what Hot Topic had to offer, the BOGO sale drawing the both of them in.

It took approximately ten seconds before Frisk noticed the dress with a sequined rib cage pattern. It was another five minutes before she decided to point it out to Alphys, not wanting to admit it was the first thing she had noticed.

"I've found it. The perfect dress." Frisk said convincingly, holding it behind her back as Alphys was looking for inaccuracies in the pop figures.

"You did?" Alphys turned around, surprised.

"Behold!" She brandished it proudly.

"That's absolutely horrible." She snickered.

"I think my closet needs this."

"Oh my god. Just. Not for the date, okay?"

"Oh no, I'm going to look so great for that. This is payback for all the skeleton jokes."

"This is why we're friends."

"Skeleton dresses?"

"Among other things."

"Can I ask you a weird question?" Frisk said from the dressing room. She had finally caved to the idea of the bridal shop, and other than Alphys looking sad but also somewhat wistfully at the wedding dresses, they had managed to find a couple of formal dress options they could agree on. Assuming one of them fit, anyway.

"Uh, sure?" Alphys replied, from her seat on the bench outside her room.

"So, if you and Undyne were to hypothetically have your football team of mini Undynes -"

"Frisk.." Alphys whined.

Okay, maybe it wasn't the best time to bring it up. But she was curious.

"This is thoroughly hypothetical. Look at it like the scientist you are, Alph."

Alphys sighed heavily. "Alright. What about this hypothetical team of scientists?"

"Football players. You're the scientist." Her voice was a bit muffled by pulling off her sweater.

"I heard you the first time. Baby scientists."

"Alright. Well, do baby scientists hatch or do they get incubated like my progeny?"

"I'm not sure. It might depend on who is doing the um. Incubation in question? Cause I hatched but Undyne.." She paused.

"What, was she birthed by the fire of her own determination or something?" She was imagining the Birth of Venus, clamshell and all, except with more fire and spears.

"I thought that was you." She paused. "I think Undyne hatched in a way? Her family is like seahorses."

"I need help." She had managed to pin her arms to her sides while trying to wriggle into the dress.

"It's not that funny."

"No, like, I'm stuck."

"Oh." Alphys stepped in, immediately starting to laugh at her situation.

"It's not that bad."

"You look like the time Kyube got stuck in the arm of my sweater." She snickered.

"I'm not a fat cat in a sweater."

"I showed you the photo. The facial expression is the same."

Frisk groaned. "No flash photography, just rescue me, please?"

Somehow, Alphys managed to tug the dress off of her.

"Okay so that's one down, one to go." Alphys said, a little out of breath. "Cute bra, by the way." It had green polka dots.

"Thanks, my mom picked it out."

"I bet you tell all the boys that."

"You'd be surprised." She replied, shooing Alphys out so she could try on the second dress.

"Well?" Alphys asked hopefully, less than ten seconds after she had closed the door.

"I haven't mastered faster than light travel yet, Alph."

"Unlike your warp factor ten boyfriend."

"He's not the enterprise." None of them were quite sure how he did the teleporting thing, and he wasn't offering any answers.

"Can I ask you a weird question?"

Coming from Frisk, it was a reasonable request. From Alphys. Well. "Sure."

"Does the hyper speed or whatever it is come to play in the bedroom?" She snickered.

"Oh my god." Frisk let the dress she was pulling up fall to her feet so she could face palm effectively. "Alphys. For the love of -. Okay, for one, we've been together like. A week, maybe? So there is no 'in the bedroom' to speak of. Secondly, how long have you been holding on to that question?"

"Well, Undyne and me were never sure if you two didn't have a friends with benefits situation going on -"

"Alphys, where along the lines did my two years of whining about a crush I thought was unrequited translate to sleeping together to you?" Frisk asked, putting her arms through the lace sleeves.

"You'd be surprised. I read this story once where -"

Frisk managed to focus her scream of frustration into a sigh. "We weren't, okay? My first time was in college, I would have told you otherwise."

"You didn't even tell me about that until you were already pregnant."

"I know but. I didn't want to like. Call you and be like. Guess who got drunk and lost her virginity! You know?"

"That makes sense. B-but I thought you could trust me with something like that."

Frisk sat down on the small bench inside the dressing room, staring up at the white tile and lights on the ceiling. "It's not a trust thing Alphys. It was. I was embarrassed? I didn't want anyone to know at all. I'm sorry."

She wasn't going to cry over this. Not today.

"I understand. I d-did some ridiculous things while studying for my masters."

"Like getting pregnant?"

"Not exactly."

"That explains why you don't know if scientists hatch."

Alphys giggled. "Do you have that dress on yet?"

"I might need some help with the zipper."

It took a bit more than a tug at the end, but it fit. It was snug in places, but she wasn't going to gain that much weight in the next week.

"You look amazing." Alphys said, once they had all the ruffles sorted and the wrinkles smoothed.

She looked in the mirror. Her stomach stuck out a bit - it always did. But there was a pleasant roundness to it that she liked. She placed her hand on her stomach, admiring her currently nonexistent glow.

"Hey Frisk?" Alphys said softly.

"What's up?"

"Well. While you're admiring your baby bump. I-I just wanted to let you know that I'm really happy about you and Sans and baby bones and. Everything. In case you didn't know." She paused. "Even if you banged a cute jock and didn't tell me."

"More like frat boys. For the record. But thanks, Alph. I'll be sure to tell you the next time I get laid."

"Please don't, because it will be with Sans and I want to be able to look him in the eyes - eyesockets - whatever he has. I just don't want to know what he's like in bed, okay?"

"First of all, you're a liar, because you probably need this information for the weird fanfic you're writing about us. Secondly, if I can still look you and Undyne in the eyes, fair is fair."

Alphys sighed. "Fine."

"I'm going to send you a text immediately after, so you know I'm still naked and sweaty, okay?"

"We are no longer friends."

"Yeah, sure. Want to get noodles?"

"Isn't that the whole reason we picked this mall?"

First of all, it's halloweentober, so please let me know in the reviews what you're going to be for Halloween. I think I'm going to reuse my awesome Poison Ivy cosplay, personally:)

Other than that, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it, and as always, please be sure to review and tell me what you think!

purrs,

TigerLily