(29)
"Spaghetti?" Serena asked as she looked down at the plate placed in front of her.
"Pasta," Grillby corrected. "Pasta Carbonara: one of the greatest culinary examples of the elegance in simplicity." He waved his hand over the pan as he spoke.
Serena shrugged off his description and dug in.
"So?" Grillby asked. "How'd it turn out?"
"If I keep eating like this," Serena said before swallowing. "They won't be able to stop me from bouncing off the walls back at the barracks."
"Good, then you'll really fit in with the rest of the Guard," Grillby joked.
Serena tried to reach across the table they shared and push the fire monster's head into his plate, but he was too quick, and she was going easy on him. "Hardy-har," she said before returning to her meal.
It was the second night in a row she had agreed to let him treat her; her second night back in that basement kitchen, and she had almost refused just so he wouldn't get the wrong idea. But that pie – or whatever it was – from the night before had been just too good, though admitting it still hurt a little. She wasn't lying though, if they kept this up, she'd have too much energy to know what to do with, and that never led monsters to good decisions.
"So what's the price this time around?" she asked as she reached for another helping. "Still the same question from last night?"
"Actually no," Grillby began, setting his fork down. He had only taken a few bites. Serena wondered how he had the self-control and how she could get it.
"I wanted to ask…" he went on. "If the barrier were to fall tonight, how do you think that would go?"
Serena paused in her own meal. "How so?"
"Like, what do you think would happen?" he rephrased.
She took a moment to think about it. That was a tough question to just spring out of nowhere. "Well, for starters," she said, "there'd probably be a lot of really shocked humans to deal with, unless they were the ones to open it. Either way, I think we'd have quite a bit of work on our hands for a while." She meant it to be lighthearted more than anything. She wasn't sure it worked.
"And the guard," Grillby asked. "Do you think they'd be able to handle it?"
Serena realized he was being serious. What could have brought this on? She wondered.
At first she was going to say that they would do their best, because of course they would do nothing less. But what did that mean exactly? Then she remembered something.
"In his training," Serena began, "Gerson would often say that none of us would be able to face a human. I always thought that was just normal deterrence tactics – weed out the monsters whose soul wasn't really in it – but… We've always known stuff can get into the barrier – plants and animals and junk. The Guard was put in place so that, in the event that list starts to include humans themselves, we'd be able to stop them before anything happened.
"So to answer your question, no. We were brought up to stop a few humans at most – plus the occasional monster hooligan – but not an army of them."
Grillby did nothing for a long moment, digesting what she said. Then he chuckled. "That's exactly what he said."
"Who?"
"Asgore."
She raised an eyebrow at that. "On a first name basis with the king now?"
"Fun fact: he wishes everyone was."
Serena gave him a look.
"No, seriously. The next time you see him, call him by his name and he'll probably give you the silliest grin you've ever seen."
"Why do I get the feeling you're setting me up for something?"
"Because you know you deserve it. But no, if I was, it would be far less obvious, trust me."
"That's exactly what I don't when it comes to you."
He threw up his hands. "Hey! I haven't poisoned you or anything, have I?"
"You have, actually," she mumbled, picking at her food, "just in a far worse way."
"So if the guard isn't enough to give us a chance," he asked next, "do you think there's anything that could?"
"That's a big question," she admitted.
"I'm just talking hypothetically," Grillby clarified. "Not expecting you to solve all of the world's problems in an hour.
"Well, I don't know. Maybe if every monster had the same training as the guard. But even then…" Her curiosity couldn't contain itself by that moment. "Why are you asking all of this stuff anyway?"
Grillby stood up and went over to the kitchen's small stove. "I don't know," he said honestly. "Guess I just feel a little stir-crazy."
Serena stared at the monster's back and came to a decision. "Do you think you can make it to the barracks early tomorrow?" she asked.
He turned back to her. "I guess. Why?"
"Because you wanted to know how we do what we do, right? I'm gonna show you."
He grinned. "Not gonna charge me again?"
"This one's on the house," she told him. "And trust me, you won't be thanking me for it."
