A/N:
TimeBlade: "I am not much of a shipper-"
Also TimeBlade: "-seriously Fishbones is so sprinking adorable, if I could squeal in excitement, I would."
Racdrops just went from zero to one hundred real sprinking quick
Hey, not that I blame ya. Fanfiction has that effect on people...But now that it's June, some people are probably going to be pissed off by the mere existence of this story, if you know what I mean. Darn double-wingers...
...Ehhh, sprink it. Nothing's gonna stop me from writing this. I CAN'T BE STOPPED. *maniacal laughter*
"Man...These last few weeks have just been nuts. Wonder if the queen would allow me a break..."
Dr. Scarlett sat down at the computer desk. She'd spent the last few weeks studying the amalgamates she found in the True Lab and further investigating the late Dr. Alphys' belongings for anything she could put to use. The amalgamate situation was stressful enough by itself; she was constantly worrying about how they were getting along back with their families, and if they could function properly, eat properly, and a plethora of other concerns. She felt terrible for those monsters, and wanted to do as best she could to bring as much normality back into their lives as she could.
The good news was that despite being melted and fused they seemed pretty stable, and were even a lot more coherent than she'd expected; they seemed a little slow and disoriented in a couple cases, but the only major thing she'd noted was that their appetites had increased substantially, and they all seemed to have developed a common sweet tooth. Perhaps it was what Dr. Alphys had fed them and how much that lead to this result.
Now that she'd finished dealing with the amalgamates, though, at least for the time being, she could focus on other things. She'd shown her plans for the humidifying pipe line that would run from Waterfall all the way to the CORE to some of the construction workers that made the Hotland puzzles, and they were set to start the project in three days. In recent days, the parrot monster had also developed an idea for a similar pipe system that could carry the fresher air from New Home, perhaps even all the way from the Barrier Room passed the garden, to circulate through the Underground, making the subterranean atmosphere cleaner and more pleasant to breathe.
As long as Queen Toriel approves the starting location, she said to herself. That just might improve so much-
Her thoughts were interrupted by the faint sound of a knock at the door, She got up, her knees a bit wobbly, to answer it, and the twin metal doors slid open.
...But she didn't see anybody.
"Hello...?"
"Uh, d-down here."
She looked down at her feet, and there sticking up out of the ground, she beheld...
"A flower?"
"Yeah...That's right."
She cocked her head in confusion. What a strange creature. It didn't resemble any actual monster that would naturally occur. It looked more like a Golden Flower had simply sprung to life and grown a face...
A face that looked eerily like that of a Boss Monster's; white and furry, and with a blunt caprine snout that had the signature long canine teeth jutting out...She swore it was the spitting image of the late Prince Asriel himself. And she'd never heard his voice before, since he was quiet during the monthly addresses held by the king while they were both alive, but she swore it matched him perfectly.
"You, uh...need anything?" she asked it.
"I, uh...just came to look around," he chippered. "And, uh...well...ask a few things. Um...I don't mean to trouble you, but do you have a, um...flowerpot?"
"Ah...I think I do, actually. Just...I'll be right back. Wait there."
She closed the doors, rushed down the now-repaired lab elevator and grabbed a spare flowerpot full of soil from the table lined with other flowers, then came back up and hastily made her way back over to the sliding doors to answer the mysterious figure at her door. Sure enough, he was still there waiting...He did look a little wilted, though; flowers didn't exactly do well exposed to the heat of Hotland for very long.
He crawled out of the ground, his roots serving as unsteady makeshift legs, and rooted himself into the flowerpot as he was taken into the lab.
"Oh..."
It looked a lot...neater than he remembered. Perhaps the doctor had done some cleaning since his last visit. The computer desk was mostly cleared of items and straightened out, the dog food bag that used to sit beside the fridge was gone, and everything just looked well-dusted and tidy. He assumed the same of the upstairs; it was almost like Dr. Alphys had never even worked here at all.
...But THEN he saw the packed cardboard boxes along the walls just adjacent to the elevator door, the bathroom sign for which had been taken down, and he noticed that all of them were labelled "RESORT MEMORABILIA."
"What's inside the boxes?" he asked as Dr. Scarlett placed his pot on the computer desk.
"Oh," she answered, a sad glimmer entering her eye as she poured a cup of water into the soil to perk him up a bit. "That's all of Dr. Alphys' belongings. I'm sending them to the MTT Memorial Resort Hotel here soon so they can put them on display with some of Mettaton's things. You know, like a sort of mini museum, to remember the two of them by. I hear they're even building a statue of her on the opposite side of the Mettaton statue just outside the entrance, in honor of her brave attempts to try to break the Barrier and bringing back the fallen family members of the monsters who donated their bodies...Even if it did end up melting them all together. She didn't mean it. She didn't even know, nobody could have..She did good. Really, she did."
"Well...She'd be happy to know all of this, I'm sure," the flower smiled, his hazel eyes twinkling a bit. "Um...Wh-what does M-uh...Queen Toriel think of her?"
"The same way I do, I think. At least that's what I've determined from our conversations...It's a shame she did what she did at the abyss. She really didn't have to do that."
"Uh...Yeah..."
"What I can tell you for sure is that she feels pretty guilty about what happened to the king...She left because she was so upset and distraught over the prince that she didn't even think twice to try and stop him. We've had a few conversations about it before, and...As much as she was angry at him for doing what he did to the six humans that came and died, she...She misses him. And she wishes it wasn't too late to make things right between them...I really feel bad for all of them. The king, the prince, the first human, her...They were all such a wonderful family and then...It all vanished in a snap."
She snapped her feathery fingers to insinuate her point.
"...No family should ever be torn apart like that."
You're right, he thought to himself. ...But even still, it might not be too late.
"S-so, I was wondering," the flower continued. "It might sounds kinda weird, but I'm just curious, is all."
"What?"
"Do you know, um...where Da-erm...K-king Asgore's dust was scattered?"
"Me? Well, somewhere in New Home, I would think, but...I don't know exactly where that'd be. You might have to ask the queen herself. She's the one who scattered it, I think. Did you want to go and pay your respects?"
"Yeah."
That and then some.
"Consult the queen. She'd be able to give you a better answer than I could."
"Okay, then. Uh...I'm gonna go to New Home, then, and, uh...maybe talk to a few more people. You can just let me back out on the ground outside the other door."
She picked his pot up and started carrying it over to the door.
"I don't think I got your name," she commented as the doors opened for him and she lowered him to the ground. "What was it?"
He wanted to tell her. Wanted to introduce himself as the person he really was for the first time in what felt like an eternity...But he couldn't tell her. Not yet.
Besides, there was someone else he had to tell first.
"I...I can't say," he replied. "But...You'll probably know soon."
Why can't he say? Scarlett wondered. Nobody is in any danger, are they?
"Is something happening?" she asked him.
"...Yes. But it's good. It...It really is," he smiled. "I-I gotta go. Thanks so much for the help!"
Before the Royal Scientist could say another word, the flower burrowed into the ground and disappeared.
"Ah..." she sighed, rolling her eyes. "My job just keeps getting weirder and weirder."
...
"I'M GOING TO BEAT YOU THIS TIME!"
"You say that from ten feet behind me!"
"WELL, I'M SLOWLY CATCHING UP!"
"Not for long!"
Another race through Waterfall was just what they needed to get their training gears turning. But the finish line wasn't Undyne's old house, rather Gerson's shop. Undyne had wanted to stop by there before they went to train to give him the good news about yesterday, and just like the last race they had, she was a good number of lengths ahead of Papyrus. Fortunately for him, it looked like he was starting to catch up to her game, as he was slowly, but surely gaining ground.
"ALMOST..." he grumbled to himself. At that point, he was only two feet behind her, but the shop was only another handful of yards away. He knew that if he didn't do something to secure his win, he'd lose again for sure.
"I'm gonna win again!"
"OH NO YOU DON'T!"
"What-AGH!"
Before she could say anything else, he outright tackled her from behind, sending both of them tumbling down the dark passage, having fallen clean off their feet. They finally came to a stop just outside the entrance, Undyne having ended up overtop of him, in somewhat of a daze. For good measure, Papyrus flung his arm out and stuck it through the cave entrance to claim his victory.
"HA...! I...FINALLY WON!"
"Agh..." the fish monster groaned as she regained composure. She seemed upset, but the cheeky grin on her face betrayed her tone. "That's cheating!"
"WHO SAYS IT IS?"
"I say it is!"
"WELL I SAY IT WAS FUN."
"Heh...Well...I guess you're right..."
She helped him up, and they stood outside of Gerson's shop, facing each other.
"...Guess I'll give ya the win this time. You deserve it."
"OH, YOU DON'T HAVE TO-"
"I insist. You almost had me that time, anyway...Good job."
She opened her arms and invited him in for a hug, to which he quickly accepted, and the two of them stood there holding each other for several long moments.
"...We should probably head in, now."
"OH, YES, INDEED."
They let go of each other and headed into the small cavern together. They spied the front desk, and there was the Hammer of Justice, nodding off where he sat. He wasn't aware of his visitors until Undyne spoke.
"Gerson? Hey, Gerson!"
"Huh...Whah..."
His head slowly rose up, and he blinked a few times to clear his vision. He didn't look any less tired, though.
"Oh...Oh, hey there, Undyne," he greeted raspily, eye threatening to shut again. "Eh...Ya didn't show up yesterday, like you said you were gonna. Don't blame ya, though, I heard that there was a mean snowstorm over there yesterday...I think...If I remember right..."
"YES, THAT'S TRUE, MR. GERSON, SIR. VERY STRONG AND WINDY. IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR UNDYNE, I DON'T THINK I'D HAVE SLEPT A WINK."
"Oh, izzat so? What'd she do to...Eh...Hey, wait," he realized, his eye gaining just a tad more energy. "Undyne, didn't you say you were gonna...You know..."
"Yep."
"Well...You brought 'em here, so does that mean you're..."
She caught onto his point, and Papyrus was quick to follow. Both thinking the same thing, they exchanged glances for a moment, then took each other by the hand and gave the old tortoise monster a smile of conformation. And when he saw what he saw, the corners of his smile nearly made it all the way to his eyes.
"Well, stick me in a pot 'n' call me turtle soup...! Looks like it went alright for you two, didn't it?"
"IT CERTAINLY DID, MR. GERSON. AND MAY I SAY THAT THE CLEVER FLOWER ANALOGY YOU HAD TO GIVE UNDYNE WAS QUITE POETIC?"
"Think so, do ya? Well...I wasn't the one who came up with it, really."
"Oh. Huh...Who did then?" Undyne asked. "You know?"
"First person I heard it from was my own father...He told me everything I told you so I could go atop the mountain with Kilpi and tell her what I told her. Not sure if he was the one who came up with it, or if HIS father or somethin' like that said the same thing to him and he was passin' it on himself...I might never know."
"PECULIAR, ISN'T IT?" Papyrus remarked.
"You could call it that...If I do know one thing, though, it's that that lil' piece o' wisdom's stood the test o' time and did its work all over again right before my eyes! Hah hah hah-"
His raspy laughter curdled into yet another sputtering coughing fit, and he strained to keep it from getting out of hand again. Once it finally subsided a bit, he cleared his throat and faced his two visitors from where he say again.
"Heh...Pardon me. Sorry 'bout that."
"OF COURSE, DEAR SIR!"
"Sure thing..."
Undyne wasn't so sure if he was as well off as he made himself out to be, but he was at least aware and conscience. It might have just been bad timing, but if she saw things REALLY start to spiral downhill, then she decided to make sure she checked in on her old idol more often. She knew he was bound to dust one day, but with just how long he had actually been alive, she hadn't even considered that it'd happen during her own lifetime.
But nothing can last forever, she remembered grimly.
"So, does anyone beside you two and myself know 'bout this yet?"
"ERM...WELL...NO," Papyrus answered him. "I PLAN TO BREAK THE PLAIN FACTS TO MY BROTHER LATER ON, AND THEN...WELL, I SUPPOSE EVERYONE ELSE WILL FIND OUT BY THEMSELVES IN TIME. IT'S REALLY JUST SANS I'M WORRIED ABOUT. HE'LL PROBABLY...WELL...YOU KNOW..."
"Freak out?"
"YES, EXACTLY, THANK YOU, UNDYNE."
"I say you do it the way I actually confessed. Build it up as something really major and then drop the bombshell. Maybe squeeze a couple compliments in there if you can, give him a better time."
"What's he gonna do 'bout it, though? He's yer brother, not yer Pa."
"TRUE. BUT SANS HAS...ALWAYS BEEN VERY PROTECTIVE OF ME. WHICH I DO COMMEND HIM FOR. HE'S...I KNOW HE AND I ARE BROTHERS, BUT OVER THE YEARS, IF I EVER NEEDED ADVICE, O-OR COMFORT, OR ANYTHING OF THE SORT, I WOULD ALWAYS GO RIGHT TO HIM...AND NOW I HAVE YOU, UNDYNE. I JUST DON'T WANT HIM TO BE UPSET, OR WORRIED ABOUT ME, OR...WELL...JEALOUS, DARE I SAY. SANS MAY BE LAZY, BUT IF I EVER REALLY, TRULY NEED HIM, HE WILL NOT HESITATE TO BE THERE FOR ME. AND I DON'T WANT THIS NEWFOUND TIE BETWEEN THE TWO OF US TO PUT A STRAIN ON THAT...WHATEVER HAPPENS, THOUGH, I WON'T LEAVE YOU, UNDYNE. THAT'S A PROMISE."
"...Thanks."
"Well, I don't wanna keep you two. Don't you guys go down and hurl magic attacks at each other for an hour almost everyday?"
"More or less," Undyne chortled. "We've been doing it ever since our beginning days of training."
"QUITE TRUE!"
"Ah-ha...Well, you two best be headin' out, then, I guess. Thanks for stoppin' by. I, eh...think I'll make myself a cup o' Sea Tea and catch a few Z's. See you two."
"THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE TALK! WE'RE SURE TO BE BACK!"
"Soon, hopefully. Thanks for the advice the other day...Turns out I never really had anything major to be worried about, either way, but still. It helped."
"Any time, lil' guppy. Come on back whenever the idea strikes ya."
With a final wave goodbye, the two of them turned to leave. Papyrus snorted a bit as they turned out of the cavern and went on their way, looking like he was holding back a laugh.
"What's so funny?"
"...'LITTLE GUPPY?'"
"Argh..." she facepalmed, turning plum. "He's called me that ever since I was, like, five or something. Right when I started followin' him around chasin' the mailman away. Besides, in comparison to him, I might as well be. Even nowadays. But, like, nobody else says that and it's kind of embarrassing hearin' it from someone else..."
"WELL, I MEAN NO OFFENSE. IN FACT, I THINK IT SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY ADORABLE."
"Oh, please don't call me that, please don't..." she groaned.
"COME ON, YOU'RE SMILING."
"I am and I hate it."
"HEY! THAT'S MY LINE!"
"My bad. I still hate it, though."
"NYEH HEH...ALRIGHT, I WON'T CALL YOU THAT...CAN I CALL YOU 'DEAR,' THEN?"
"Eh...Too soon for somethin' like that," she declined.
"WHAT ABOUT 'DARLING?'"
"Blegh...Definitely not that one."
"HONEY?"
"No..."
"SWEETHEART?"
"Maybe...?"
"HOW ABOUT 'M'LADY?'"
"Not in-" She paused. "...No, wait, actually I think I like that one."
"ME, TOO! IT SOUNDS VERY COURTEOUS AND POLITE!"
"Looks like we're here."
He looked forward again. Sure enough, there was Undyne's old house.
"WELL, I SUPPOSE WE BEST START! AFTER YOU, M'LADY."
The skeleton bowed and showed her the way in a mildly dramatic fashion. But the stuffy cilivity was quickly dropped soon after she passed him by when she summoned a spear, and the turf in front of Undyne's house became choked with another relentless flurry of magic weapons once again. The blossom might have bloomed, but it didn't stop them from going all out against each other as they fired their bullets at one another.
And the two of them kept it up until they'd both worn each other completely out.
...
"Dang...You really got me on the shoulder there. You're gettin' good."
"TOO GOOD, PERHAPS," Papyrus worried. "THAT'S A BAD-LOOKING BRUISE."
He'd hit her in the shoulder somewhere in the middle of the training session, and it had left a notable dark and tender spot amongst the blue scales.
"'Tis but a scratch!" she assured him. "Besides, you can consider it payback for what I did to you that one time, if ya want."
"IF WE EVER GET TO THE SURFACE, ANY HUMAN THAT COMES AND POSES A THREAT WILL HAVE TO GET PAST US FIRST! AND IT IS VERY HARD TO GET PAST US! NYEH HEH HEH!"
"Yeah, we'll fight 'em off, no problem. We gotta step up our game, though. I know we're good already, but...The last thing I want is for us to face off against something we're not prepared for and either one or both of us ends up..."
She sighed.
"...I don't even know if it'll ever even come to that, but you never know what might happen next. Whatever happens, though, I'll be there for you. Always. And God save the poor bastard who tries to take you from me, because I'll shove enough spears down their throat to cover a three-course meal."
"YOU WOULDN'T RATHER GIVE THEM A SPOT OF OUR SPAGHETTI INSTEAD, M'LADY?" he suggested. "KNOWING JUST HOW MUCH WE'VE IMPROVED, I'M SURE ANY FOE WOULD BE SO AMAZED BY ITS TASTE THEY WOULD DROP THEIR WEAPON AND ASK US TO BE THEIR FRIENDS! AND THEN WE ACCEPT, AND THEY GO OUT AND TELL THEIR HUMAN FRIENDS JUST HOW WONDERFUL WE REALLY ARE AND TELL THEM TO DROP THEIR WEAPONS! IT'S FOOLPROOF! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!"
"Hah...Did I ever tell you just how much I love the way you laugh?"
"REALLY? YOU DO?" Papyrus grinned, cheekbones turning slightly pink. "I CAN'T RECALL A TIME YOU'VE SAID IT, NO."
"Yeah! Like, it doesn't sound forced, or anything, but it's..."
She snorted herself and giggled.
"Man...Someone needs to make a word that means something is both adorable and hilarious, because that's what I would use to describe it."
"HAH, WELL...TH-THANK YOU, UNDYNE," the skeleton answered, averting his gaze a bit and twiddling his fingers. "...NO ONE'S SAID AYNTHING TO ME LIKE THAT BEFORE."
"Not even Sans?"
"SANS? WELL...MAYBE, ACTUALLY. NOT RECENTLY, THOUGH, SO I MIGHT JUST NOT REMEMBER CLEARLY...NOT TO SAY THAT HE HASN'T GIVEN ME ANY ENCOURAGEMENT, OR PRAISE FOR ACCOMPLISHMENTS, OR THE LIKE. BECAUSE HE HAS INDEED! EVEN IF HE IS A BIT OF A BONEHEAD, HE'S STILL MY BROTHER, SO OF COURSE HE HAS!"
"...He's a what?"
"A BONEHEAD."
"Yeah...?"
"...OH MY GOD, THE PUNS AGAIN!"
The fish monster burst out laughing and doubled over.
"Y-you don't even realize when you do it at first...!" she wheezed in between laughs, her legs caving in and sending her onto her knees.
"...HEH...HEH HEH! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH"
He followed Undyne's lead in hysterics soon afterward, but not quite hard enough to make himself fall over, which she only found even more hilarious, and she fell right onto her hands, unable to contain herself. It wasn't long until Papyrus made himself stop, though. He realized he had something else to say.
"HEH...HEY! YOU KNOW WHAT?"
"What...?" Undyne chortled.
"I...I LIKE YOUR LAUGH, TOO!"
"Ha...Really?"
"YES, INDEED!" he answered, the laughter between them having died down at that point. "IT'S BIG AND POWERFUL! BUT AT THE SAME TIME, IT COMES RIGHT FROM THE HEART! VERY GENUINELY STRONG! IT SHOWS THAT YOU'RE REALLY AMUSED, AND...WHAT I LIKE IS THAT YOUR LAUGH IS ACTUALLY FUNNY JUST BY ITSELF. AND SOMETIMES YOU SNORT AND IT MAKES THE WHOLE THING EVEN FUNNIER. NYEH HEH HEH!"
"Heh...Yeah. It is pretty funny, ain't it?"
"QUITE SO."
Papyrus reached a hand out for her to take, and he pulled her up off the ground where she'd been howling away...
And the moment she got onto her feet, Undyne flung her arms back around him and pulled him into another hug.
"...Isn't it funny how the simplest things can make us so happy out of nowhere?"
"IT IS FAIRLY PECULIAR, ISN'T IT?" the skeleton answered, returning the embrace. "I GUESS THAT'S JUST WHAT LOVE DOES TO PEOPLE, ISN'T IT?"
"Yeah...C'mere, you."
The fish monster pressed her lips right up against his smile again, and once he processed what'd happened, he leaned his head forward and touched her forehead to his own, his smile growing a tad bigger. It felt like they were in their own little bubble of paradise, with nobody to bother them or spoil the moment, and he cherished it...
Until he spied a familiar figure from the corner of his eye.
He jerked his head around, eye sockets bulging, and a slightly startled Undyne looked in the same direction he was to see just what he had spotted.
There, just a few yards away from them, stood a familiar figure with a striped shirt, ridged back and bright orange scales. His tail drooped downward in utter shock, and his brown eyes gawked at the two of them as though they each had two heads.
It was Kidd. He'd likely come down to watch them train with one another, only to behold this.
His two idols.
Together in Waterfall.
In plain view.
Smooching.
"H-how...Wh..." he stammered, absolutely bewildered.
"Oh, no..." Undyne rasped.
"KIDD, I-IT'S NOT WHAT IT...I-I MEAN IT IS, BUT WE'RE...IT'S JUST..."
The armless lizard boy just continued to stand there, eyes as wide as dinner plates at what he'd just witnessed. Finally, Papyrus shakily clasped his gloved hands together and looked down at him with scared, pleading eye sockets.
"PLEASE...PLEASE DON'T TELL SANS."
He continued to stare up at them...
But they were both surprised to see what looked like a smile slowly begin to inch across his scaly orange face, and it kept growing until it almost stretched across his entire face.
"Um...You okay, Kidd?" Undyne asked.
"...If this is a dream, please don't pinch me, sis'."
Finally, he let out a bit of a squeal as he fell backwards into an ecstatic faint. The two older monsters watched on, just as confused as he'd been at what he walked in on.
"...Um...Should we...take him home?"
"THAT'S A GOOD IDEA."
Papyrus scooped him up in his arms and started to carry him through Waterfall, Undyne beside him.
"I, uh...guess he couldn't handle the excitement," she shrugged. "Do you think he'll come around by the time we get back to Snowdin?"
"I CERTAINLY HOPE SO. WHAT WILL WE TELL HIS PARENTS IF HE DOESN'T?"
"Dunno...I don't think we've ever met them, have we? Heck, do we even know what they look like?"
"HUH...NO TO BOTH OF THOSE QUESTIONS."
"Let's just hope that when he does wake up, whenever that happens, he doesn't go announce what he saw to everyone in the Underground. That'd be a mess."
"A RIGHT STICKY, MESSY MESS, FOR SURE! AND ESPECIALLY WHEN I HAVEN'T EXPLAINED IT TO SANS YET...LET'S JUST HOPE IT DOESN'T COME DOWN TO THAT."