The happy soon-to-be-wed bunny certainly didn't look so happy today. Their whole body was shaking and their eyes wet with barely-contained tears. Other regulars were getting out of their seats to go ask them what was wrong. Grillby and his employees were observing the scene from behind the bar in stunned silence, not daring to intervene.
"hey, what's going on?"
No-one had seen Sans enter the building, but everyone was used to him just appearing out of nowhere so no-one even questioned it.
"Some humans sent death threats to them and their fiancé online", explained the big-mouthed monster. "Promised to crash the wedding. And not to enjoy the buffet."
"Hey, I know exactly what to do", declared a human who often visited Grillby's on the week-end. "I'll call my squad. You know when there's some pro-monster rally somewhere and humans volunteer to create a literal human shield around it so asshole anti-monster humans can't get to it? We've done that shit before. We can totally do that for you. Hell, if you need protection anywhere anytime, just call! I'll give you my number."
She was met by a storm of thank-yous from the crying monster, to which she replied that helping out was just the right thing to do. The rabbit gradually calmed down, still shaken but reassured in their belief that they could always find help and protection somewhere.
The human employees behind the bar started talking to each other in their language for a few moments before the older of the two cleared his throat and asked if he and his sister could take part in the human shield.
"Hey, of course! Lemme give you guys my number so we can organise everything."
While names and numbers were being exchanged, Sans casually sat on his usual sit at the bar. He noticed Hisha gave her birthname this time, but didn't comment on it.
"looks like yer goin', after all", he said. "just in a different way."
"What can I say", Hisha shrugged, "life's full of surprises."
"You can say that again", the other human woman confirmed. "Oh, and I can get you Delta Rune badges for the operation, if you wanna."
The siblings briefly looked at each other, then Hisha turned to Sans :
"So… hum… is it ok for humans to wear the Delta Rune or not? 'Cause I've seen pretty contradictory stuff and… yeah."
"depends. if you're just usin' it as some aesthetic stuff without actually givin' a shit 'bout us, that's real dick move. if you're gonna wear it, you're gonna be expected to fight for us. be our ally. ya know, that kind of shit."
Grillby nodded in approval.
"…But how do you tell the difference between the asshole appropriating it and the actual monster supporter then?" his employee asked.
"believe me buddy, they reveal themselves soon enough."
"Also in pro-monster rights circles we keep reminding each other never to buy Delta Rune stuff from human-owned businesses", the other woman intervened. "I get all my badges from monster-owned Etsy stores."
The others nodded. Soon, the bar's normal activities resumed.
"But why's she still here when she already got dreemurred?" asked one of kids for the fifth time this week. "She should be with her monster moms, not here!"
Their caretaker sighed.
"How many times will we have to tell y'all? They haven't actually adopted Valari yet. She belongs here just as much as you do."
"I wish I could get dreemurred too", the child continued. "Humans suck."
"'Guess you're not wrong on that last point."
Meanwhile, Valari was constructing the biggest lego tower she could in another corner of the room. She had quickly found out that the downside of her auto-transcribing glasses was that now she could be aware of conversations she didn't necessarily needed or wanted to know about. In moments like these she was tempted to take the glasses off ; however she didn't want to lose them again so she kept them anyway.
Her mighty, multi-coloured plastic tower was up to her waist now. Another child came up to her to complain that she was keeping all the legos to herself. She stared intensely at her shoes, waiting for the younger kid to blow up in her face, but he didn't. He was still mad, sure, but all he was doing was cross his arm over his chest and tap his foot on the ground impatiently.
After a few seconds, Valari picked up a few more bricks and handed them to the boy. She pointed at him, then at the tower, and went back and forth between the two until he got it.
"Oh, you want me to help you build this?"
She nodded, smiling. He accepted, but soon they ran out of available bricks. So they destroyed the tower, the boy making lots of sound effects that Valari's glasses couldn't accurately transcribe, then built a new construction together.
"So, how did you meet your monster moms?" he asked her out of the blue.
She almost knocked over the foundations of the brand new lego building. Were Alphys and Undyne really her new parents now? She certainly wanted them to be. She guessed they were now, even if it wasn't official yet. Everyone here but the administration had already accepted it as fact.
She gestured the other child to wait here, then searched the toy box and came back with a large toy car and the one small doll that matched her skin tone the best. She put everything down on the floor in front of the boy, placed a yellow lego in the front seat of the car and drove the latter into the doll.
"I don't get- Oh! No way! Do you think if I get hit by a car…?"
Valari shook her head no, as she doubted her luck could be replicated like this. And also, she didn't want her playmate, or anyone really, to go through all that pain for nothing. He looked disappointed.
"I'll find some other way then", he finally said after a brief pause.