She knew it wasn't supposed to be there because when she on a whim had tried to open it, her hand went right through the knob.
"What the fuck?" It happened the second, and third, time she tried it too. Although the door looked real in every respect, right now it was impossible for the child to pull it open or even so much as twist the knob. It wasn't that it was a ghost door. Her hand was hitting something each time it went through. It was sort of like having a jolt of electricity after touching something you weren't supposed to.
But she just... couldn't interact with it.
Frisk rubbed her hand and glared hard at the door. It reminded her of something she hadn't thought about in a while, something that happened before she'd broken the barrier or even gotten started on it.
Now, the door may have just been grey because Neo New Home itself was pretty grey. Still, Frisk took a look around it for creepy grey monsters, of the kind that had attacked her so long ago. She tapped her foot on the ground, as if expecting it to be hollow, or maybe hoping that a certain flower she hadn't seen in forever would reappear and explain this to her. So far, no results. The only strange thing was the door.
A deep voice called out to her, "Hey swee-"
"AH," Frisk jumped back, her eyes searching more wildly through the rain, and her frying pan was out and in her hands before she knew it.
"-theart." The voice was coming from above her. Frisk let the frying pan droop, shielding the rain from her face with one hand, and saw Mettaton sitting upon the offending building. He was no longer in his boxy form, but in the human one with reds and golds that lay underneath, shapely legs crossed. He held a wide umbrella that created a little curtain of rain all around him, remaining completely dry on the inside.
Frisk had never been able to rely on an umbrella to keep her dry in her entire life. She took a deep breath to slow her startled heart. "Mettaton? I just saw you with Alphys."
"And I just saw you, not with Alphys!" he replied with a sharp, metal-coated smile. His voice crackled and rose at odd intervals, like his voice box was malfunctioning again. "The poor dear needed some alone time so I thought that you might have had the right idea."
Frisk slowly unequipped the burnt pan, squinting at how once again Mettaton was above her while they talked. "Well I wasn't trying to avoid her."
"The way you ducked down that alley told a different story, darling."
"I was trying to avoid everybody." Mettaton flinched at that, so Frisk continued quickly, "-This building. Um, do you know what it's for?"
Readjusting his position, Mettaton leaned over the side to take a look, metal eyebrow raising. "I believe this is just a warehouse. Although I can't say whom it belongs to. Did you need something from it?"
"I'm just wondering why I can't get this door open. I can't even touch it."
For half a second, as Mettaton froze, Frisk had a choking thought that maybe she was the only one who could see the door, that she was crazy. But then he replied, "That one there? Yes, I saw that. I thought maybe you were having some trouble turning the knob. Child-proof locks and all that?"
"I'm old enough to get through child-proof locks!"
He shrugged. "I'm a happy bachelor, I wouldn't know, darling. You don't think that it might be... painted on?"
"It looks real from where I'm standing." But Frisk reached out a hand and tried to stroke the broad side of it; something was definitely there, and it gave her another jolt. She hissed. "It's real."
"But you can't open it?"
"I can't even knock on it."
"That's..." Mettaton's expression twitched, waning. "Suspicious. I would probably keep away from doors like that, if I were you. Wouldn't want you ending up some place you shouldn't."
Frisk looked from the door to Mettaton, who had resumed his sitting position. "Like a warehouse?"
"I'm just saying, I think one trip through the rabbit hole is quite enough for you."
The last "rabbit hole" in question was a big gaping hole in a cave covered in things to trip over, which led to a horrible kingdom of sometimes-awful people that wanted to kill kids. Unless the warehouse was hiding more subterranean worlds, Frisk doubted that it would be the same problem.
But she wouldn't say that to Mettaton. Instead, as she poked at the door with her frying pan, she said, "So do you know about Asgore's... plan to reveal you all to the humans?"
Mettaton's face lit up, almost literally with his neon eyes. "Oh you know it! I can't wait to be in a human city for the first time! I've been practicing so that I can give them only the best performances!"
"Well, I'm sure they'll like... you..." Frisk uttered, weakly smiling at him. "Especially if you use that body. And not the weird other one you keep using."
He dismissed her last statement with a wave. "That's for my monster audience, dear, you're not the target demographic for that one. But! How sweet of you to say!" His expression relaxed, turning contemplative. "I do hope they like it. I hope they really like it. Even if I can't change everything about the body I have. ...I think I like what I've got now, myself."
"Oh." Frisk stared up blankly. "That's good, Mettaton."
"Isn't it? ...But still, I can't wait to take this body for a spin where it really matters..." Mettaton turned his head and looked wistfully out to where the human city of Ebottstadt stood, or at least where Frisk assumed it was. She couldn't see with the trees in the way.
That discomfort curled again in her stomach; Frisk hung her head so she wouldn't have to see that hopeful expression and think how it was her fault that that dream of his wasn't fulfilled yet.
She also didn't want to look too hard at him and think of electronic hearts, chainsaws, and spiky boots. He was going back to talking above, voice airy, "In the meantime I guess that-"
*Ping!*
"Wait." Frisk dug for her phone. "Uh uhhhh got a message."
"Someone's texting you at this time of night? Is it a fan?"
On the screen of her phone, it said Message from: sansbutt.
And Frisk grinned. "Sure, kind of."
hey kiddo. me n my frisk r n th neighborhood f u wntd 2 stop by. jst stopped n grillbyz. unls ur alredi asslp.
The grin got a little bigger. "I gotta go, Mettaton. Sorry I kept you out in the rain."
He was smiling back, albeit with a far more muted expression, his gaze far away like he wasn't done daydreaming yet. "Oh, well it was nice to talk with you, sweetheart. Don't stay up too late now."
"I won't!"
She took a lingering look towards the door, daring it to disappear on her like that grey monster once had. Unlike then, this oddity didn't seem to be going anywhere. Even when she left the immediate area and then turned around and ran back, it stayed the same (albeit she confused Mettaton a little.)
So for the moment she let it be, and ran through the drizzle at top speed to Grillby'z.
"hey grillbz, why so blue?" was what she heard upon entering the bar, the air fraught with the stench of alcohol and damp cigarette smoke. The lighting was cozy, dim but not so much she couldn't see the rest of the bar clearly, and unlike back when everyone was underground she didn't get attacked immediately upon entering.
Somewhere to her left, someone booed. It was populated only by the few monsters so drunk that they didn't want to try venturing home yet.
Them, and her friends from the other world. Blue Sans and Blue Frisk.
The former was in his blue hoodie and looking totally at ease chatting with the bartender, Grillby (who was also blue, but that was just because his fire burned to an oxygenated and well-groomed point, like a flame on a bunsen burner.) The latter sat next to him in a cotton candy colored shirt and yellow rain jacket, the version of herself that was so much cheerier.
"what, you mean i already used that one?" Blue Sans was saying. The both of them were soaked with rain. "alright alright. what happens when wildfire tells you a joke?"
"Hey, guys!" Frisk broke out into a run across the sticky bar floor, and the two out-of-towners swiveled her way at the sound of her voice.
Sans was always smiling, but Blue Frisk broke out into a broad grin, giving a wave. "Hey Fred!"
As Frisk scooted to a stop in front of their bars tools, she frowned. "What are you calling me Fred for?"
Blue Frisk swung her legs back and forth. "I'm trying to think of new nicknames for all of you guys. Like you! Since Red Frisk makes you sound like a palette swap."
"What's a palette swap?"
Sans sucked on the nozzle of a bottle of mustard, while Grillby stared at him with what could have been an exasperated expression; Frisk couldn't quite tell with fire. "don't worry about it, we've been playin' super smash brothers."
"I thought Fred might work 'cause, Red Frisk. Fr-ed."
Frisk stuck her hands in her pockets. "Well don't call me anything from fuckin' Scooby Doo, Frue. Red Frisk is fine."
The way that Blue Frisk's eyes shined whenever she swore made her heart swell. Frisk polished her nails on her sweater like she'd seen in the movies. "Anyway," she added, actually opening her eyes again, "How come you guys are here in the middle of a weeknight? How'd you know I'd be here so late?"
There was a pause. "actually uh," Blue Sans shot Blue Frisk a glance, and Blue Frisk smiled sheepishly. "we didn't know it was night time around here when we left.
"it's the afternoon over in our timeline. crazy huh." Blue Sans was watching Blue Frisk out of the corner of his eye as he spoke, one eye closed and his smile stretched lazily across his face.
Blue Frisk's sheepish smile only grew. She quickly waved one raincoated arm and said, "We-we don't line up I guess, but we knew it'd be raining! ...Cause it's always raining here."
Grillby returned to their place at the bar and deposited a plate with a piping hot hamburger in front of Blue Sans; if he were capable of opening his mouth, and if he had a tongue, Sans would surely be licking his... lips, except he didn't have those either. Blue Frisk turned to Grillby before he had a chance to move away, eyes big. "How do you even go outside like this? Would you die if you got rained on?"
"An umbrella," said Grillby, and then, as he turned to tend to another customer, he added, "No."
Frisk climbed onto a bars tool left intentionally empty between Blue Frisk and Blue Sans; she still was short enough to have to struggle with it, but a slight pull of blue magic on her soul made her lighter and suddenly it was easy. "Thanks."
Blue Sans gave her a thumbs up, and Blue Frisk swiveled back and forth. "So how come your Sans didn't want to come with us? He said he's avoiding the bar right now."
"'sjust that he can't take the heat."
"He's on his second strike," Frisk said, lowering her voice a little with a squint over in Grillby's direction. "And he doesn't know what Grillby's gonna do to him if he gets a third one."
Blue Sans abruptly swallowed. "he, uh. he's still doin that?"
Frisk's expression darkened slightly. Grillby passed by again to deposit two milkshakes in front of the children, and she just pushed her glass back a little. She couldn't drink a monster shake without tasting toothpaste. "I guess. Murder's illegal now though, so... I dunno what the third strike is."
Blue Frisk sipped, and Blue Sans munched. "maybe he should consider a customer loyalty card system or somethin'." At that Frisk snorted, and their fiery bartender ignored them.
The bar gradually assumed an almost gentle, if uneasy, atmosphere. The heat from the front warmed Frisk's frigid body and almost turned the rain in her hair to steam. It also melted her milkshake.
She ended up eating some of the fries that came with Blue Sans' burger, using a last cola can she'd shoved into her inventory as a refresher. A refresher that coated her teeth and throat in gunk as soda did, but still. It was a nice midnight snack, much better than crispy crackers and cheddar.
Through their respective "meals" they chatted. They shared updates. Frisk learned that the New Home in the Blue World was expanding at a healthy rate, although they were having to pay for a lot of power from the humans' city as a consequence.
Whatever bug had occurred in their magic from coming to the surface had sorted itself mostly out, save for Undyne who was still chafing under bed rest. But then, she had other things she was recovering from too.
Frisk noted that it was happening in Neo New Home too, monsters getting sick.
You chose not to mention that monsters will be revealing themselves to humans soon.
When the food was gone and the chat was over, Blue Sans stood up and said thanks to both Frisks for "buying him lunch" and suddenly vanished with a flash of his left eye. Both Frisks yelped, but evidently too late for him to hear it.
It was lucky, or maybe Blue Sans just knew, that Frisk always had a little bit of g on her. The teachers never took it away from her. In fact, they never took away any of the things she had gathered up over her time underground.
When the children left the bar, they were laughing and joking in identical voices as they got soaked again. Blue Sans was back at Papyrus' house and Frisk called him a motherfucker, which made her Sans proud and her Papyrus mortified.
Catching up wasn't so bad.
By the time Blue Sans and Blue Frisk left the timeline even the extra cola can of caffeine was wearing off, and suddenly Frisk could sharply feel what time it was. She hoped that no one had noticed that she was missing back in town; reminding everyone of how long she was lost and alone around the forests of Mt. Ebott could only excuse so much.
Still, Frisk didn't want to head home just yet; she told Sans she wanted to take another quick walk first. Something else was nagging at her, and it brought her back through the streets of Neo New Home. By then, the rain had turned into a light sprinkling, after having been disrupted one more time by a patch of good, clear nighttime weather.
Somehow it was easy to find her way back to the warehouse, as if she knew the way by heart.
No Mettaton. That was understandable. But also no regular, staring monsters and no creepy grey ones.
Just a solid knob, and a door that unlike last time was now very, very real to the touch. A dark hallway finally greeted her when she opened it.
Frisk took one last look around and, seeing nothing of particular interest outside, went in.
The grey floor crunched under her worn shoes, sticky like the carpet of a movie theater. There was just barely enough light to see by as she went, trace amounts of flourescent lighting from somewhere that bounced along the colorless walls. This could have fit in in Neo New Home, but it definitely wasn't the warehouse. She'd only explore a little bit, and then she'd call Sans or Alphys and see if they knew anything about it.
Maybe if she'd been more on-guard like back underground, she would have thought to prop the door open. Maybe then it wouldn't have gently closed and disappeared behind her. But she wasn't, she didn't, and it did.
Frisk only had a little time to take stock of that, and all the unpleasant fear that accompanied it, before the voice of her head spoke. They often ran through her head so quiet she didn't notice, but now it was as clear as if it was a thought from someone else:
You feel as though you're being watched.
Author's Note: Frisk your bias is showing smh
Next Chapter: What's Wrong is in Red