Though you'd been less than a couple minutes behind, Alphys and Mettaton's powered down body were nowhere to be found.
You suspected some magic shenanigans. However, when you bumped into a few monsters at the hotel, they mentioned seeing Alphys and Mettaton leaving. Their cooperation was short lived as their excitement over meeting the two human took over.
When the two of you get a good distance from the resort, carefully making your way back to Alphys's lab, your phone rings.
You pull it out from the depths of your bag. Frisk makes grabby hands up at you so you slide the pack off your shoulders and hand it to them as you answer.
"It's-"
"Hey!" You flinch at Undyne's excited scream. "Me and Paps saw you and the kid on TV!"
"You watched?" You ask slightly surprised. For some reason you couldn't imagine Undyne sitting still and watching TV.
"Well , I wasn't planning on it til Papyrus said that you two were gonna be on. He loves that Mettaton guy." She laughs but then goes quiet and clears her voice. She does it a couple more exaggerated times.
"Undyne?"
She mumbles something.
"Uh...What?"
"The letter!" You jump at the shout. She makes a weak sound and then coughs. "I was, uh, wondering if you passed the letter on to Alphys, while you were with her."
You blink.
"Th-the letter…" You send a nervous glance to Frisk, who had a cinna-bun half way in their mouth. The kids immediately starts digging into the pack. "Well, no-"
"Oh..."
"Not yet!" You hastily correct. "We're, uh, heading back to the lab now, to give it to her."
"Oh yeah?" Undyne laughs heartily. "See, I knew I could trust you two not to forget." Thankfully Undyne can't see your sweaty face and nervous glances to Frisk.
"What're friends for?" You remark, hiding your relief when Frisk produces the letter with triumph. "We'll anyway we're almost there so talk to you later!"
Hanging up you scoop your bag up and onto your back.
"Well, I guess now we have multiple reasons to go visit Alphys." Frisk nods happily, waving the letter back and forth as if it was a flag. "C'mon kid." You nudge them along, staying by their side, slowly continuing on.
There was something sweet to backtracking through the Hotlands. The first go around it felt a lot more time sensitive to quickly get through as fast as possible. That and every other half hour of puzzles Mettaton would appear to dish out his death wish on you two. You were jumping over lava pits and avoiding well disguised bombs. You were so focused on the venture over to keep Frisk safe from the cliffs that led to molten lava-... actually you think it'd be molten magma since you were still under - that you never really looked around.
It was nice to take a small breather and walk at your own pace with an excited little Frisk leading the way.
You remind yourself that you need to live up the moments like this as much as possible. You wouldn't have these chances for much longer.
You see the lab near miles before you reach it. It was a silver shining beacon that admittedly hurt your eyes a little the longer you looked at it. This was the second time seeing it, and the monstrous size and the way it did not seem to be really apart of Hotland still surprised you. For some reason it made you think of a Twilight Zone episode.
As you turn onto the final path, you notice a figure already in front of the Lab's doors. You stop Frisk to watch.
It's a Froggit. It hops back and forth a couple times before lowering its head and retreating. When it sees you and Frisk, it's frowns and jumps a bit and they make their way over to you.
"Ribbit." It chirps plainly. Having encountered a few Froggit's in the ruins and in Snowdin, you weren't too surprised this one, like the others, didn't talk to you.
Frisk makes a noise and nods and you cast a suspicious glance between the two of them.
"Bye!" Frisk waves the little Froggit along before turning to you.
"What… was that?" You ask, crossing your arms. The kid tucks the letter under their chin to free up their hands.
"They said they tried to get into the Lab but the doors were locked."
"...You… Understood it?" You asked, even more confused. You don't remember Frisk having a back and forth conversation with the earlier Froggits. "But it just ribbit'd."
"You didn't hear them?" They ask, now looking confused themselves. "Are you sure?"
"I'm pretty sure I'd know if a Froggit was talking." You say, then, hearing your own tone, back peddle. "I mean, have you been able to talk to the other Froggit's?" Frisk nods. "How?"
"I...Listen?" You make a face. "All the monsters are like that. If they can't talk out loud they talk, uh, inside?" Frisk then makes a few half gestures, going back and forth between how to explain. "It's in my head, kinda, but others can hear it too? I'm… not sure. I guess that's why they understand me." Frisk shrugs then, showing you one of their closed eyed smiles before hugging Undyne's letter close to their chest. They run off, bob of brown hair swaying as they hurry to the Lab. You stare after them.
You'd come across multiple monsters who didn't verbally speak. There wasn't always a way for them to convey what they were trying to say to you. Frisk always talked to them as if they knew exactly what the monster was saying and you had thought it was just the kid not wanting to exclude them. Frisk was always like that. Especially when they were so used to that sort of thing happening to them if others didn't know how to sign. However, being told that they were conversing with the monsters… You don't know. It seemed everyone talked to everyone in the Underground, even when some didn't have voices or spoke English. It did kind of explain why every monster understood Frisk even when none of them knew how to sign.
But why couldn't you hear them? You were there with Frisk anytime they'd encounter a Froggit. You had not once head one of them speak. Did Frisk have one of these "inside voices" if the monsters understood them?
You add on another reason to why you and Frisk need to see Alphys. You definitely wanted to talk to her about whatever Frisk was talking about. It seemed there was a lot more to the whole soul thing than just it glowing and showing you how hurt you are. You assumed there was, but you're too hyper focused on Frisk and crossing the Underground to really branch off to any other subject.
You come up to Frisk's side. Immediately you notice the doors haven't sensed the presence of you two. When the Froggit was denied access you hopped Alphys would see you on her cameras and just let you in. That didn't seem to be the case.
"Should we just slide the letter in?" Frisk asks, crouching down and looking up at you.
"We… could? I wanna check up on her though." Frisk stands back up and knocks on the door before you can. No one answers. You press your ear up to the door, but the metal is too thick for you to hear anything, if she is making noise. You think back to how the Froggit had been ignored by Alphys. "Actually, slide it under, it might get her attention." Frisk crouches again, jamming the letter roughly under the thin crack of the doors. You almost stop them, wanting to point out that the letter was important, but it's already in before you can act. Frisk gives another knock for extra emphasis.
You here a door inside slide open. Frisk presses their ear to the door, bouncing in place. You had thought earlier the door was thick, but now you realize it had just been quiet because Alphys wasn't in that main room you saw. You can hear the padding of her feet and them abruptly stop. You hope it's because she's seen the letter.
"O-oh n-no, is that another letter…? I don't want to open it..." Her voice comes out extremely muffled, especially because it's layered with a heaviness that only comes from crying. You wince when you hear her sniffle. "C-Can't I just slide it back out…?"
"She doesn't sound okay." You sign down to Frisk. If you talked now you'd definitely scare Alphys. It was pretty rude to eavesdrop, but you had a feeling she wouldn't open the door for you two just yet.
"She's been crying…" Frisk notes, fingers moving slow. You can tell that hearing the wetness in her voice upsets them a lot.
"N… No… I can't keep doing this." Alphys continues. "I'll read this one." You hear rustling, and then a grunt. "I-It's shut k-kind of strongly, isn't it? Wait a second..."
You realize it's kind of weird how much Alphys talks to herself.
Also, how on earth had Undyne "strongly" sealed a letter?
There a long period of silence then, which has you and Frisk exchanging looks. You're about to knock again, wondering if Alphys had left, when the door buzzes. It's slides open and you flinch at the sudden appearance of Alphys. Frisk nearly falls back, would've too if you hadn't put your hand on them to steady them.
"Hey, if this is a joke, it's-" Alphys's eyes drift up from her feet and the tightly gripped letter in her hands to meet your wide eyes.
You stare.
"Oh my god?" She squeaks out. "Did you write this letter?" Her yellow scales turn a vibrant shade of vermilion and she quickly looks between you and Frisk. "It wasn't signed, so, I had no idea who could have…"
Of course Undyne didn't sign it.
"Alphys," You begin, but her eyes land on you and, you think, she decides you were the one who wrote whatever was in the letter.
"That's adorable!" You feel your own cheeks going red at her near shout. "And I h-had no idea you, um, wrote or thought that way! E-Especially about me…" She bashfully avoids your embarrassed face, as your quickly realizing what Undyne wrote about.
You need to clear this up.
"Alphys," You start again. "Actually, the letter was, well,"
"It's surprising." She interjects. You can tell she's not meaning too, as her blush starts to travel down into the collar of her lab coat. "After all the gross stuff I did… I don't really deserve to be forgiven. Much less… This? And so passionately, too."
Damn. Now you don't know what to say. She's beating herself up over the whole thing with Mettaton. At first it really upset you and definitely pissed you off but now, after it's over and no one was really hurt (you were but that doesn't bother you too much), especially with how apologetic she is, you don't feel that same spike of anger. In fact, you're more worried about Alphys tearing herself down about it than anything. Especially when she literally ran away after telling you how to really take down the barrier. Luckily(?) you already planned to give Asgore the final soul he needed, so there really was no issue there. ...But you probably shouldn't explain it that way to Alphys when you talk to her.
Alphys takes your hands in hers, the letter dropped.
"You know what, okay! I'll do it!" She seems to realize that she'd held your hands and goes red all over again, dropping them in semi-panic. Cute. "I-It's, um, the least I can do… to make it up to you! Y-yeah! Let's go on a date!"
Oh.
Oh.
Undyne was going to kill you.
You open your mouth a couple times, but the words just don't form. Alphys looks so absolutely ecstatic at the idea of going on a date with you. She said it was a way of making it all up to you and you have had plenty of platonic dates in the past (mostly with Frisk, going to their favorite diner when school was stressing them out). But...
"Come in and, um, make yourself comfortable? I have to go get dressed!" She pulls you and the kid inside. Once again, it feels like your ears are cupped by hands as you step into the lab. The AC feels nice on your hot face.
Frisk laughs. When you send them a look they laugh harder.
"Oh!" Alphys spins around and you stiffen. "Are you going t-to wear….that?" She comes back over and appraises your outfit with a persed frown. You feel your face grow even hotter.
You were still wearing exactly what you'd fallen down in, minus the sweater that was stuffed in the bag on your back. Black scoffed boots that were more grey and white from damage, a long sleeved shirt that you'd rolled the sleeves up on with burned ends and spear holes, and ripped jeans that were definitely not ripped when you left the house. It was a sight, certainly, but since you were fighting for your life you never really thought of your apparel.
"She looks good in purple." Frisk quickly signs out of the corner of your eye. Your head snaps down towards them.
"I-I have a purple dress!" Alphys bursts, soundly even more excited than before.
"Th-Thats not really-" You try, barely getting your voice loud enough before Alphys turns big eyes onto you and your plea dies on your tongue. Something about her looking so absolutely happy at the idea of dressing you up was a little too much and you definitely think your face is literally steaming at this point. "Do you have shorts I can wear underneath at least?" You ask, giving up any idea of fighting this. Alphys squeaks, fangirling, before she waves her hands at you to tell you to wait. She runs off through a door.
It takes about an hour for you three to finally get out of the door. Mostly because Frisk also wanted to get dressed up like you, but all of Alphys's clothes were much too large for the nine-year old. With a few hair ties and clips, found via the bottom of your bag and in random pockets, you're able to make a dress out of your sweater. You also had to use a hair tie or two on your own dress, after realizing Alphys had her clothes custom hemmed to her body type. Luckily the brown shorts were too small for her so with the belt from your jeans they fit pretty well. You also readily admitted that the dress Alphys now wore was beautiful on her. However, when you and Frisk both showered her with compliments she nearly exploded, so in the time being you were holding off.
You're outside the lab when Alphys stops and turns to you, nervously rubbing her hands together.
"Alright, Alphys," You start, smiling. "Where do you want to go-"
"W-wait!" Her hands go flying. "Actually, we still can't start the date yet!" You blink and glance around.
"Why not?"
"Umm, I've gotta give you items to raise your affection statistic, first! That'll increase the chance of a successful outcome to the date! Right…?"
"Oh, Alphys, that's not really necessary." You wave your hands around, as if you could tangibly wave away the idea. "I don't need any gifts or anything!"
"N-No worries! I'm prepared! I-I've been stockpiling gifts in anticipation for a date like this!" She turns slightly as she digs into a pocket of her polka-dotted dress. She presents a jar. "Some metal armor polish!" She looks at your dress and goes orange. "Okay um, maybe you can't use that… but!" She returns the polish and pulls out a second jar. "I also brought some waterproof cream for your scales! Your, uh…. Scales…" You purse your lips to not laugh as she pulls something else out. "Uh… well… what about this magical spear repair kit that I… um… Hey, let's forget about the items! Let's just start the date!"
Oh no.
She's cute.
You turn your head away to try and smother your giggling. It was beyond adorable how much Alphys and Undyne obviously liked each other. It was pretty endearing. Especially now when you realize Undyne had asked the little scientist out.
You realize Alphys has started to nervously sweat, her eyes flickering from you to about anything else around you. You grin and decide to take the lead.
"Alphys," You start and she jumps. "Why don't we go somewhere?" You hold your hand out to her. "We can walk and talk on the way, yeah?" She stares fixedly on your palm. You patiently wait for her to register that you mean you want to hold her hand. When it does click she reached out her shaking paw and you hold it gently.
"Th-th-that's a great idea! I know the perfect place too! The garbage dump!" This time you can't hide your laughing.
"I love that. The big one in Waterfell, right?" You ask, bumping gently into her. Frisk comes up on your other side, taking your other free hand in both of theirs.
You're surprised when Alphys just goes straight into the thigh high water, which was more like upper tail level water for her. She wades in, her dress floating up around her as if she was a spotted water lily. She smiles over at you and waves at you to follow. In your stunned moment Frisk slips their hold off of you to jump in. The splash of lukewarm water brings you back and you blush, glad Alphys didn't notice your ogling.
There's a patch of floating wood with the familiar buttercup patch. It seems since the last time you were here, wooden palettes had floated down and been caught on the roots of the floating flowers. Alphys tries to push herself up onto the dry "land", so you quickly move up behind her and help her up.
"Th-thanks." She mumbles, fixing her glasses.
You also pick Frisk up to get them onto the flowers, before finally getting on yourself.
Alphys stands up, taking a deep breath as she observes the mass piles of trash around you two. They look even higher.
You decide to stay seated, however, scooting until you're in the pile of flowers. Frisk sprawls out for a moment, face first into the buttercups, before popping up onto their feet to take an interest in the trash. You shield your face this time from the splash of water when they jump in.
"This is where Undyne and I come all the time…" Alphys says as she takes a seat next to you. You fold your arms on your knees. You and her both watch Frisk try and climb one of the smaller piles. "We find all sorts of great stuff here."
"I bet. It's really nice." You shut your eyes briefly, listening to the white noise of the waterfall and feeling the chilly breeze wafting from Snowdin. "It's like a cute little corner just for you two." You crack an eye open to watch Alphys make a little goofy smile at the idea.
"Y-Yeah…" Her grin turns sour, through. "Oh no." You sit up a little.
"What's wrong?"
"I c-can't let her see me on a date with you!"
"Okay, but I don't think she's-" Your head snaps to the side as you hear the sound of water sloshing. It wasn't natural and it definitely wasn't Frisk, who was currently a royal of the trash pile. You slowly get to your feet, wondering if it was an encroaching monster. Instead, Alphys squeaks and scurries up to her feet.
"Oh no, here she comes!" Instead of questioning how Alphys can tell Undyne's water wading noises from anyone else's, you usher her to the closest trash pile and nudge her behind one of the large trash bins out of sight.
"Hey! Kid! There you are!" You turn, finding Undyne turning the bend and aggressively wading her way over to you. Moving away from Alphys's hiding spot, you go to the wood panel closest to the water edge.
Almost immediately you notice Undyne isn't in her Royal Guard uniform. She had her crimson bangs out and her ponytail is much looser, along with the fact that she was wearing a black studded leather jacket and jeans. The six foot woman easily steps onto the wood planks to get herself out of the water.
"I, uh, realized, if you deliver that thing, it might be a bad idea…" You use all the kindness in your body to stop yourself from running a hand down your face. "So I'm gonna do it! Give it to me!" Now her change of clothes made sense.
"I don't have it. I already delivered it." You say, rubbing your neck.
"Shit, really?" She bites her thumb nail. "Have you seen her since at least? She wasn't home." You avoid looking at the shaking garbage pile next to you.
"Nope." You pop the p out of nervousness. "Maybe, uh, she went looking for you in Snowdin?" You prompt and Undyne lights up.
"Of course!" She leaps back into the water and you flinch at the spray. "Thanks kid!" she says, waving over her shoulder. She's not even halfway before she suddenly turns around and throws a thumbs up your way. "By the way, the dress suits you!"
Your face burns as she disappears into the distance. As soon as she's gone, Alphys peaks out and then slowly wades out. You offer your hand to her to get her back up.
"Oh my god…" She finally mumbles and you run your hand through your hair.
"Look, Alphys I'm…" You pause, trying to find a way to apologize about not telling her about who really wrote the latter. She stops you, though, putting her small hands up.
"I'm sorry." She says instead and you stare.
"What?" You ask, not sure why she's apologizing.
"I-I agreed to this date but… It's, well, a little obvious, right?" She slowly gains a blush to her cheeks, but her stuttering starts to disappear. "I… I really like her. Undyne. I mean, more than I like other people! I'm sorry." As soon as she admits her crush out loud, her stuttering returns tenfold. "I j-just figured, y-you know… I-It'd be f-fun to go on like, a cute, kind of… pretend date with you? T-To make you feel better?"
There's a pause of silence. Her in mild horror and you in complete confusion. It appears Alphys hadn't put two and two together. She still didn't realize Undyne had already confessed to her in the letter.
"Well, it sounds even worse when I put it like that." She squeaks. "I'm sorry. I messed up again." She threads her hands together and it's only now that you really notice how red and puffy her eyes are. The frames of her glasses hide it pretty well, but they stand out against her blushing. "Undyne's the person I. Um… Really want to go on a date with." She sighs and sits down in the flowers, curling her legs up and leaning on her knees. She looked completely worn out. "But, I mean… She's way out of my league." She flinches at her own words and looks up to you. "N-Not that you aren't, um, cool! B-but… Undyne…"
You sit down next to her, bumping shoulders.
"But Undyne's really cool." You say and Alphys nods fast.
"She's so confident… And strong… And funny…" Her small smile wilts. "And I'm just a nobody. A fraud. I'm the royal scientist, but… All I've ever done is hurt people. I've told her so many lies, she thinks I'm…" She finally meets your eyes and there's tears in them. "She think I'm a lot cooler than I actually am. If she gets close to me, she'll… She'll find out the truth about me… What should I do?" It's a sentence that ends quiet.
"Tell her the truth." You say almost immediately.
"But if I tell her that, she'll hate me! Isn't it better this way? To live a lie where both people are happy rather than the truth where neither of us are?" You shake your head and then lean gently on her side. She curls up more on herself. "They say 'be yourself', but I don't really like who 'myself' is. I-"
"I like you." It slips out, cutting her off. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt."
However, it doesn't look like she's going to continue, as she's gaping at you now in shock.
"There's no way she'll hate you." You state confidently instead. "You… Said a lot about yourself that I don't really agree with, Alphys." She stiffens a bit at that admission but you continue. "I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit. You're a brilliant scientist. Anyone who can build such an amazing robot is extremely cool in my book. Plus, you were really cool when you helped me and Frisk."
"But I…" She starts and you shake your head.
"I know." You say. "I know about what really happened. But that doesn't change much." You also curl your legs up and look over to Frisk, who was digging through the trash like any normal nine-year old. "The kid thinks you're really cool too. They were so excited to meet you. And, before you say it, neither of us were disappointed when we did."
"I don't deserve this…" Alphys mumbles, sniffling. You gently reach an arm around her shoulders and pull her into a side hug.
"Undyne's badass, but I don't think she's out of your league at all. I think when you tell her the truth, it'll be fine. I'm positive she likes you, for you, not for whatever lie you made up." Alphys takes her glasses off to rub at her eyes.
"I…" she sighs. "Every day I'm scared… Scared what will happen if people learn the truth on their own. They'll all get hurt because of me… But how can I tell Undyne the tr...truth? I d-don't have the confidence… I'm going to mess it up! How can I practice?" You cock your head to the side, resting it on the top of hers for a quiet moment. You squeeze her gently, feeling she needed a good hug.
"You could practice with me." You say, moving off her so you can look at her face and see what she's thinking.
The float rocks and you watch Frisk pull their soaked form onto the wood, absolutely beaming at the both of you.
"Roleplay!" The sign quickly and Alphys splutters.
"R-Roleplay?" Then, she snorts and covers her mouth. "That actually sounds kind of fun!" When you stand up you offer a hand to Alphys, pulling her up with you. She fixes her dress at the same time you repoof your ass, dusty off a buttercup petal or two.
"Alright. I'll be Undyne then." You slip one of the hairbands bunching your dress off and use it to tie up your hair as best you can to match Undyne's usual slicked back hairdo. You then strike a pose as if you had half the confidence Undyne had. Alphys snorts again. Frisk jumps up and down, waving about so the two of you will look at them.
"Then I'll be my sister!" They announce. Then they… are they pretending to swing a baseball bat?
"R-Right…" Alphys says. She clears her throat then. She looks you dead in the eye. "H-Hi Undyne… H-how are you doing today?"
"Hey Alphys!" You say, trying to simultaneously roughen up your voice and sound cooler. "I'm doing fine." Alphys definitely finds your impression horrible, as she can't stop giggling. You definitely come off more pirate than Undyne.
"Glad to hear it!" Her laughter dies slowly and he smile wavers. "Uhhh, so I'd like to, um, talk to you about something."
"You can do it." Frisk signs, posing like some comic super hero. "I believe in you!"
"What's up, Alphys?" You ask, trying to stay serious but failing as you watch Frisk pretend to be you.
"Umm, you see… I… I… I… I h-haven't been exactly truthful w-w-with you… Y… you see, I… I…" She looks about ready to pass out.
"Hey, Alphys, It's okay if you need to stop." But, instead, it seems to fire her up more and she wildly shakes her head.
"Oh! Forget it! Undyne! I-I want to tell you how I feel!" From your side you hear the water churning again. You glance over only to blanch when you see none other than Undyne making her way over.
"Uh, Alphys," You try, not wanting her to embarrass herself, but she seems too far gone.
"Y-You're so brave, Undyne, a-and s-strong a-and nice. Y-you always listen t-to me when I t-talk about n-n-nerdy stuff. Y-you always d-d-do your best to m-make me f-f-feel special...L-like t-telling me that y-you'll b-beat up anyone that g-gets in my way… Undyne!" She screams the others name.
You stare at Undyne who's wide eyed and beyond confused. She looks between you and the very loud rambling Alphys.
"I can't take this any longer! I'm madly in love with you! Hold me, Undyne! Hold me!"
You cover you face with your hands.
"What did you just say?" Undyne finally speaks up. Alphys shrill scream cracks, turning to cringe filled silence. Slowly, she turns her head towards you, who's peeking through their fingers, and looks just beyond to see Undyne.
"U-Undyne!" Alphys squeaks in such a high pitch you wonder if the dog guards in Snowdin heard her. "I...Was...Just…" You can practically see the smoke coming from her face.
"Hey, woah, wait a second!" Undyne climbs onto the pile of wood and Alphys backs up. "Your outfit's really cute! You're both dressed up in cute clothes. What's the occasion?" Undyne looks between the two of you a couple times, since neither of you can really think of an explanation. Eventually, her big smile starts to die. "Wait…" For your own safety you start taking small steps away from the guard. "Are you two… On a date?"
"Uhhh…" Alphys looks at your head shaking. "Yes!"
Oh no.
Undyne's neck makes a pop as she snaps it to look down at you.
"Really?" Undyne asks slowly. You lower your arms to signal surrender.
"I mean, uhhh no!" Alphys quickly corrects, but then she looks at you again. "I mean, we were… I mean, actually we were only romantically roleplaying as you!"
"What?"
You cover your face again. You can feel your ears burning.
"I mean!" Alphys is scrambling. At that moment you wanted to jump into the waterfall. "I mean… Undyne I… I've been lying to you!"
You groan and crouch down, wanting to disappear. You feel Frisk pat your back.
"What?" You feel bad for Undyne, who's sounding more and more bewildered. "About what?"
You peak through your fingers to watch Alphys.
"About… Well… Everything!" She creeps closer to Undyne. "I told you that seaweed was like… scientifically important. Really, I just… I just use it to make ice cream." She takes another step. "And those human history books I keep reading… Those are just dorky comic books!" And another. "And the history movies… those are just, uh, anime! They aren't real!" And another. "And that time I told you I was busy with work on the phone… I was just eating frozen yogurt in my pajamas! That time I-"
"Alphys." Undyne sets her hands on Alphys's shoulders. You lower your hands so you can see the fond smile the guards is giving the scientist.
"I… I just wanted to impress you!" She admits. "I just wanted you to think I was smart and cool. That I wasn't some… nerdy loser."
"Alphys." Undyne repeats again, this time raising her hands to cup Alphys's face. She gently pets her head, as if she was pulling back hair.
"Undyne I… I really think you're neat, ok…?" Undyne kneels, hugging Alphys close and you can't help the smile that bubbles up on your lips. As much as it had started as a garbage fire, it definitely turned out-
Undyne picks up Alphys.
Undyne, with a grunt and a spin, fucking slings Alphys through the air.
She lands in a trash pile with a crash and a musical ditty probably from some old toy.
You stare in complete horror.
"Alphys!" Undyne shouts towards the trash pile. "I… Think you're neat, too, I guess. But, you've gotta realize...Most of what you said really doesn't matter to me. I don't care if you're watching kid cartoons or reading history books. To me, all of that stuff is just nerdy crap! What I like about you is that you're passionate! You're analytical! It doesn't matter what it is! You care about it! 100-percent! At maximum power!... So, you don't have to lie to me. I don't want you to have to lie to anyone anymore. Alphys, I want to help you become happy with who you are! And I know just the training you need to do that!"
There's rustling from the garbage pile and you turn, still gawking in mild horror, so see the sheen of Alphys's glasses poke up.
"Y-You're going to… t-train me?" Undyne laughs at that and then-
The trash pile shakes, the water sloshes and becomes rougher. You put one hand to the wood to balance yourself, the other going out to wrap around Frisk.
"NYEH HEH HEH!" A figure from nowhere, maybe from the cave ceiling itself, drops. It lands in the water, creating a massive wave that soaks everything in the area, including the four of you. The looming being slowly stands to its full height and you nearly scream at the sight of a booty shorts wearing Papyrus.
"Nah, I'm gonna get Papyrus to do it.
"GET THOSE BONES SHAKING!" He's jogging in place, arms pumping as if he's not in water. Though, you guess to him, who's even taller than Undyne, it really was more ankle deep than thigh deep like it was for you. "IT'S TIME TO JOG 100 LAPS, HOOTING ABOUT HOW GREAT WE ARE!" He then pauses briefly, turning to you and Frisk. "GREETINGS SMALL AND LARGE HUMANS! WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN? IT'LL MAKE YOU FEEL ALMOST AS GREAT AS I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS!"
"U-Um… I'm good. Already worked out… today." The skeleton nods, approving.
"AH, OF COURSE! I WOULD EXPECT NOTHING LEFT FROM THE LARGE HUMAN!" You don't know what that means but you decide to take it as you've met his high expectations.
Undyne looks to Alphys's hiding spot. Or, where she threw her. "Ready? I'm about to start the timer."
"U-Undyne," Alphys basically pleads. However, she stops, takes a deep breath, and then stands up- why… is she in a trash can? "I'll do my best!"
"NYEH HEH! FORWARD, ALPHYS!" Papyrus picks up Alphys, trashcan and all, and takes off at a disturbingly fast pace. You stare after them, smothering the perturbed look that crossed your face.
As soon as Papyrus's voice finally dies away, Undyne whips around to you. You flinch, wondering if she was upset that you had gone on a date with Alphys after all.
Instead, she looks panicked.
"Oh my god!" She screams, running a webbed hand through her hair, tugging at her ponytail. "She was kidding, right!?" She takes a heavy step your way. You pull yourself up to your feet, your legs upset you'd stayed crouched for so long. "Those cartoons… those comics. Those are still real, right?" She looks practically crazed. "Anime's real, right!?"
In the background, you start hearing the faint upbeat song that haunted you throughout Waterfell the first time you went through. The same song you died to.
"Animes super real!" You blurt.
"Ha!" Undyne barks as you deflate. "I knew it! Gigantic swords! Magical princesses! Here I come!"
Your friends are... Extremely weird.
… Oh.
Your friends…?
"Uhh, thanks for taking care of Alphys." You look up and Undyne's smiling, seeming to have come back down from wherever the hell she'd just been. "I didn't get to say what I wanted to, but… Things seem like they're going to get better for her." She punches your arm. "Well, I gotta go catch up with them! Later!" She punches your arm again, gives Frisk's head a single pat, and then launches into the water to run after them.
"I knew they could do it." Frisk signs and you cast them a look.
"You still pretending to be me?" They give a grin and you snort. "You make me sound like some cheesy cartoon hero."
"Well… you always encourage me. And you are like a hero!" They beam at you and you try not to get too extremely happy.
"Let's head back to Alphys's so I can return her dress. I don't want to mess it up."
Just as you squat to slip yourself safely into the water, your eyes catch the bright buttercups and you can't help yourself. You reach over and pick two, handing one to Frisk and then tuck the other behind your ear. Frisk thanks you and then slides the flower into the front of their makeshift sweater dress.
Climbing into the water, you reach out and pull Frisk into your arms. You make your way back through the watery cavern, Frisk humming an unknown tune brokenly into your ear, their little feet kick back and forth against your sides.
When you get near the entrance, where you vividly remember fighting a mad dummy, your phone rings. This time you had socked it away in a closer pocket on the outside of your bag, so you're able to reach it fairly easily.
"Hello?"
"IF IT ISN'T MY GOOD FRIEND, WHO TRUSTS ME." That's probably the sketchiest first sentence anyone has ever said to you. "THIS IS PAPYRUS. YOUR ALSO MUTUAL FRIEND. ALPHYS AND I FINISHED OUR TRAINING EARLY… VERY EARLY. SO I SENT HER HOME. VERY HOME. UH… NOW I FEEL STRONGLY, AND FOR NO APPARENT REASON, THAT YOU SHOULD ALSO GO… THERE. TO HER. LAB… HOUSE. I HAVE ONLY GOOD FEELINGS ABOUT THIS." He coughs. "GOOD LUCK!" He hands up before you can say anything.
"So." You mumble, putting the phone away. Frisk wiggles from your grasp when you come to the one of the glowing stars. They run their hands through it, like always. You take that moment to gather your dress up and wring water out of it. It stopped just above your knees, which was just long enough to get a good amount of it wet.
"I wonder what happened." They sign. They watch you for a moment and then copy you and wring water from their (your) sweater.
"I would've thought she got tired but… I don't know. Something about how Papyrus felt the need to call makes me worry a little."
"You always worry."
"My worry's never been misplaced, though." You retaliate. Then you reach out for their hand. "Come on, let's go make sure our friend's okay."
Frisk fixes the flower on their front before taking your hand.
A feel good chapter before everything goes to hell :)