(35)
The morning the king and queen left for home had been an interesting one. Grillby was certain he had never heard the queen talk as much as he had then, and definitely with not as much concern as she showed them (though most of it was directed at Gaster), and he was sure that was what it was too: concern. It was getting hard to convince himself that she just lectured them and explained everything five times over because she still saw them as criminals who were not to be trusted. It seemed Gaster's idea really was working. And to be honest, he was sort of touched by it all. None of his foster moms ever seemed to have the energy.
Grillby's plan to spend the day with his friends had fallen flat soon after. Try as Serena might, she wasn't able to get out of work on such short notice. His own fault, he supposed, for not telling her sooner.
Gaster, it turned out, was no longer available either, saying something important had come up in that enigmatic way he always said stuff those days. And so, Grillby decided to spend his day at the bar instead.
The day proved to be a relaxing one. It had been too long since he could just absorb the world around him and he took full advantage of the opportunity. Mainly, monsters still seemed to be revolving around the same idle banter that he remembered from weeks before, but he heard some interesting rumors floating around as well.
Folks from the generators have had more power being directed towards the queen's lab without any explanation, and Grillby found himself even more curious as to what they were doing down there. He was surprised by how adamant Gaster had been in not giving up anything. He'd expected the skeleton to inadvertently spill the beans on something by that point, but there had been nothing.
Another rumor he heard was more about the tension in the Old City. Apparently word had reached this side of the mountain that the capital of Home felt like it had been turned into nothing more than a figurehead that had no real say in anything. The king and queen had said little on the matter to him, but it seemed they could no longer keep in under wraps. He guessed that was why they chose to finally leave and see what they could do directly.
The monsters over there were apparently threatening to pull away from the kingdom; become independent of the rest of the Underground. It was no wonder the four of them never talked about the state of the world at the dinner table.
Lastly were the rumors he had hoped to hear ever since his encounter with the kids the day before, that there were still monsters causing trouble on this side of the world as well. Many of the rumors contradicted themselves though. Some monsters swore up and down that the string of crimes from before was still going on, and not only that but they were getting worse, while others simply said that it was impossible and hinted that it would be a very good idea to drop the subject.
On the faces of either side of the conversation, though, more often than not, he saw nothing but worry that nearly dipped its toe into fear. Some of that was directed his way too. Grillby caught more than one sidelong look his way, as if they wanted to ask him what it was all about, not that he would have any idea. No one approached him for anything other than a drink, though.
Something was up, that was what he gleamed from it. Something that was part what he had cooked up, part not, and he had no idea where the missing pieces were. If he had been keeping his ears open, he may have been able to catch it before it became something, but as it sat now, his plans looked like they might be in jeopardy.
One other thing caught his attention, or rather, the lack of something. There had not been a single word about his friends specifically, one way or the other, and that led him to believe they had something to do with it. He had expected them to keep causing trouble after a time, even planned for it at first. But now he knew it was the time for different action. He had hoped to reach out to them by then, but he'd had no luck. Now it seemed like he was too late, and they might be in a hole they were having trouble digging themselves out of.
The rumors still disturbed him though. It wasn't just pranks and chaos; some of them sounded more like attacks.
It didn't change the fact that he was still missing pieces. He knew he had to find them, and quick. Before things got worse.
Gaster arrived in the middle of his thoughts, but before Grillby could pull him aside and tell him what he learned, the owner of the restaurant found him and asked him to check up on one of the stoves that were acting up, promising him a week's worth of free meals for the work, while also asking him how he'd been since he last saw him. By the time Gaster sat down at the corner of the bar with the broken part in his hands, he was already engrossed and Grillby decided it could wait until he was done.
.
Some hours later, the bar near to empty, Grillby was just finishing his work-over of the glasses and whistling a tune to himself when the bell above the door chimed as someone entered. He looked up, hoping it would be Serena finally getting off work, and was surprised to see his group of friends looking back at him.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the princes of the Underground!" Jani said with a heavy dose of mockery. "To what do we owe the honor of you gracing this humble establishment with your presence?"
Grillby arched a brow. "And just how long have you been sitting on that one?" he asked the snake.
The monster shrugged. "Only a week or so," he admitted.
Grillby failed to suppress his grin. It was good to see his friends again, and now that they were there, a little of his worry that they were behind the more serious rumors he had heard was dissuaded. At Jani's back, Teresa sniffed at the air, trying to figure out what was being served that night, looking happy as ever. She was as open of a book that there could be, so if she was upset at all, you would know.
"I feel like I should be asking you the same," Grillby went on. "What are you guys are doing here? We don't need to start a mess by us being seen all together." There were, perhaps, two other monsters in the restaurant besides them by that point, but still, he didn't want the wrong idea spreading. He still had his plans to think about.
"Well," Jani started, slithering up and leaning an arm onto the bar, "we heard the king and queen were taking a trip, so we figured it would be alright to stop by for a little. It's been what, months? So tell us, what's up?" He popped the 'P' at the end of his question. It was then that Grillby noticed the monster was very annoyed at something, annoyed enough to be playing games; dancing around a topic and waiting for Grillby to stumble and fall in. Well, two could play that game.
"Not much," Grillby said noncommittally. Gaster added a shrug. He seemed discomforted by their sudden presence, particularly Hannah's, half hiding behind Teresa's leg, who he kept glancing up at. She always was the only thing that could pull him out of a project.
Their combined response seemed to strike a nerve with the snake. "Still as talkative as ever, I see," Jani grumbled. "C'mon, you must have some stories. You've been living it up in castle for crying out loud! And what about this water monster we've seen hanging around you Grillbz? You two seem close."
That one caught him off guard, but he tried his best not to show it. "So you've been spying on us now? That's a tad disturbing." And it was made more so by the fact that Grillby had been unable to gather anything in regards to them.
"Only having Hannah make sure you weren't being tortured," Jani clarified. His smile had not slipped an inch since he'd arrived.
"Oh come on," Teresa spoke up, joining them at the counter. She must have sensed the tension between them. She was keen on that sort of thing. "Lighten up a little," she went on. "I think you two are cute, Grillby. We watched the two of you while you were walking through the market one time. You two tease each other too much." At least she still seemed genuine, Grillby noted. Compared to Jani, who was definitely hiding something, but what?
"It's kind of like the start of a bad joke though, don't you think?" the snake chimed in. "'A fire monster and a water monster walk into a bar…'"
"How does it end?" Teresa asked after a moment.
"With things getting 'steamy.'" Everyone turned as Gaster spoke up. He looked he looked back at them and hunched his shoulders. "What?" he asked.
Then everyone cracked up laughing. "Holy crap, I didn't think you had that in you Gas Man!" Jani roared.
From there, everything seemed to settle in as it should. Gaster's joke seemed to break the tension and the group partied and ate like they had just made the biggest score of their lives; just like old times.
Teresa tried to pry as many details about Serena from Grillby as she could while Jani tried to get everything about the king and queen and, more importantly, what the plan was now. Grillby was more hesitant about giving that away. He wasn't sure if they'd believe him if he told them. Heck, he barely believed it sometimes too. He also didn't know if he even wanted them to know. It might be simpler to do what he planned if they didn't, at least then and there. He needed to know if he could sway them over first. So he talked about his boring job at the Guard's barracks and what living in the castle was like more than anything else.
Hannah sat over next to Gaster, silently watching him work and occasionally pitching in a suggestion or two. The rest of them knew to let them be, though Grillby thought that Jani was likely as eager to interrogate the skeleton, and would be a lot more wary when he held stuff back. That would be too unlike the Gaster he remembered.
Eventually the party settled into talk of old nostalgia and Grillby found a moment to step outside and collect himself.
Suddenly he had felt like everything was coming at him too fast that day. He needed to figure out what direction to take things, and soon. Should he tell his friends what they'd learned and try to bring them in on it? Would they believe him? There was also the problem with the rumors he had heard, and he still didn't like them. Something nasty was going on, and he knew little more about it since his friends had arrived. That made him hesitate; made him want to simply keep going with how things were.
And there was one more question swimming in his head: where the heck was Serena?
Jani stepped out to join him before he could come to a solid decision on anything.
"So then the biggest news of the night seems to be that Gaster learned how to crack a joke," Jani said. "After months, I can't say I'm not disappointed."
Grillby shrugged. "What can I say? We've been on ice thinner than ever. We had to play with what we had. And I say we made a pretty good work of it. Gaster in the lab, me in with the Guard. We've set ourselves up in some pretty key positions."
"Insofar, it seems like that's been absolutely useless though," Jani pointed out. "Unless you're holding something back from us."
"Do you think that?" Grillby challenged.
It was Jani's turn to shrug. "Just making an observation is all. I won't pretend to know what it's like for you in there, but I just feel like under any other circumstances you would have tried harder." Grillby said nothing, letting the bait float past him. "More than that though, it's seemed like you guys have gotten quite comfortable in your new lives. You haven't forgotten about us have you?"
"Course not," Grillby said. "How could you even think that?"
"Oh, don't get the wrong idea, it's just that if I didn't know any better, I would think you two have fallen into the world we were trying to do away with."
"That is most definitely not the case," Grillby assured him.
The snake shifted his weight so that his shoulder was leaning against the wall. The cacophony inside filled the gap in their own conversation.
"Prove it." He said fiercely. "Come back to us already. We've been holding back for too long. We're going to start losing ground soon."
Grillby decided to lay out a test as well. "From what I've gathered," he said, "you guys seemed to have kept busy without us. I thought I told you to lay low."
"We wanted to surprise you," the snake said, not even trying to hide it. So it was them then. "We haven't been doing much," he went on, "just enough that monsters remember their way of life doesn't keep them as safe as they think they are. And that just because of that announcement the king and queen made about you doesn't mean their troubles are over. We figured it would help out with whatever you never had a chance to tell us that was scheming in your head the day you got us off the hook."
"And I thought I said we weren't going to use fear as a means to an end, ever," Grillby said sharply.
Jani didn't flinch. In fact, he seemed to take it as a cue to drop some of his mask. "Don't know if you noticed this boss, but you haven't exactly been around lately. Since then, I've done what I could. Don't like it? Come back. We're all waiting for you anyway."
Grillby pondered the naga's words. "If you saw the announcement," he said, "then you know why we haven't come back yet."
"That tracking spell or whatever they got on you, right? Yeah, I remember."
"Because of that, we needed to be on our best behavior, so this whole thing could blow over as quick as possible. It shouldn't be long now. The king and queen are already talking about letting us off the hook. They've been impressed with our good behavior."
"They have?" Jani asked in surprise.
"Straight from the Guard Captain's mouth," he confirmed. "Then we'll be back, so try not to make any more of a mockery of our group until then, okay?" He poked the other monster in the chest to make his point.
Jani straightened his shirt in annoyance. "I'll do my best," he said.
Good, Grillby thought. Maybe that would hold them off for a while until he could figure out what to actually do.