Dark Corners

Chapter 2.

Moving On.

I legitimately looked into actual processes for adoption in real life, but, there was so much to go through, I decided that I would take a good deal of liberties with the process in this story. There is no way of knowing how close to real life human society is in the world of Undertale anyway, monsters exist in this world for God's sake.


Following breakfast, Toriel and Asgore got ready and at about 9:30 a.m. they made their way to the courthouse where, after several minutes of waiting, they finally got to see one of front desk agents, a woman with light brown hair and wearing thick glasses. The woman at the desk was visibly surprised to see a pair of monsters approach her desk, but, quickly found composure, possibly recognizing them.

"Hello," the woman voiced politely, "can I help you?"

"We're Asgore Dreemurr and Ms. Toriel," Asgore said, "we came in yesterday."

"Oh, yes," the woman attested, "you were inquiring about adoption."

"Yes," Toriel affirmed, "and we have decided to finally go through with it, if we can."

The woman looked at something on her computer.

"Okay, so," she said, "the first thing we'll need to do is have a social worker come by for an evaluation."

"What does that entail?" Asgore wondered.

"The social worker will come to your place and make sure the house is a suitable environment for the child in question," the desk agent explained, "they will also have to ask you and Frisk *wink* some questions, and if everything seems in order, they'll present you with the adoption form and take it from there."

"Okay, that sounds simple enough," Toriel replied, "when will we be able to do that?"

"Well," the woman asked, "when would be the most convenient for you?"

Asgore and Toriel looked at each other thoughtfully.

"Um...would...today be possible?" Asgore inquired.

The woman spent a moment looking through something on her computer screen.

"We do have someone available today," the desk agent informed them, "would today at 5:00 p.m. be okay?"

"Yes," Toriel said gladly, Asgore nodding in agreement, "it would be perfect!"


Back at the house, Frisk and Asriel were looking out the window, eagerly awaiting for Toriel and Asgore to get home.

"Children," Dr. Gaster said, "you know waiting by the window won't get them home any faster."

"I know," Frisk replied, "I just can't wait to here how it went."

"I hope they didn't have trouble getting in." Asriel said.

"Well," the skeleton man affirmed, "you'll have to be patient, a trip to the courthouse is only the first step in the process."

"They're just lucky that they already got Frisk on hand," Sans said, watching television, "otherwise, the process would be a whole lot harder and more expensive."

Just then they heard a vehicle door slam, prompting Frisk to look out the window again.

"They're home!" the human boy uttered happily, "They're home, they're home!"

He and Asriel ran to the door as Toriel and Asgore came inside, Frisk throwing his arms around Toriel while Asriel looked at them both with anticipation.

"How'd it go?" Frisk asked hopefully.

"Is Frisk ours yet?" Asriel asked with the same excitement.

"We are on the right track." Toriel told them mirthfully.

"Now we're just gonna have someone come by to look at the house and ask us some questions," Asgore added, "if it goes well, they'll move forward with it."

Frisk and Asriel both jumped up and down joyfully in response.


So, for the next several hours, the family went about getting the house clean and orderly for the social worker's evaluation. Toriel was busy thoroughly vacuuming the living room, even going as far as to vacuum the stairs to the second floor of the house, while Asriel and Frisk tidied up their room. In the kitchen, Asgore was doing the dishes with the help of Undyne and Papyrus, while Sans used his telekinetic powers to put the clean dishes away. Downstairs, Alphys was getting the lab equipment in order with the help of Dr. Gaster.

"I wonder if we should put all of this away before the social worker comes." Alphys mused.

"We should at least put away anything related to fire, cutting implements, and chemicals," Gaster attested, "also, we should make sure all the safety gear, especially the kids', is front and center."

Alphys started putting things in their storage, the things that could not fit in containment were moved as far out of sight as possible. As she did that, Gaster picked up a container of disinfectant wipes.

"And if you guys insist on eating at this lab table," the skeleton man asserted as he swabbed the lab table's surface with a wipe, "you need to clean it off when you're done."

"Tell your oldest that," Alphys retorted, "half of that mess is his!"

Upstairs, after getting all the dishes put away, Sans used his telekinetic powers to take out the garbage, as he put in a new trash bag, he noticed Papyrus on all fours in front of the refrigerator.

"Pap," Sans asked, "what are you doing?"

"I finished cleaning the floor, now I just need to clean under fridge," the tall skeleton answered, "Toriel did say we should be as thorough as possible."

"I don't think the social worker is gonna care about how clean the underside of the fridge is," the short skeleton said, "I think they'll be more concerned that there's stuff in the fridge."

"Speaking of which," Papyrus responded, "we used up an awful lot of food making breakfast this morning, do you think there's enough left in here?"

"There's plenty of food in this kitchen," Sans assured him, "and Frisk is clearly well fed, it'll be fine, we've got this evaluation in the bag."

"I hope so." his younger brother said tensely.

Upstairs, Toriel was cleaning the bathroom, while Asgore and Undyne cleaned the downstairs bathrooms. Asgore was baffled as he scrubbed the bathroom mirror clean.

"How are there so many fingerprints on these things?" the goat man wondered, "Who touches a mirror this often?"

"Uh, Asgore," he heard from the doorway, it was Undyne, "question."

He looked and saw the fish woman holding...something in her hand.

"What do I do with this?" Undyne asked awkwardly.

"What is it!?" Asgore questioned in shock.

It was wet, amorphous, and hideously multicolored.

"I pulled it out of the drain in the other bathroom sink," Undyne told him, looking at the mass in disgust, "I think it's all hair."

"Just flush it down the toilet, any toilet!" Asgore insisted.

The fish woman shrugged and walked away, presumably, hopefully, to flush the wad of hair.

While Toriel was finishing cleaning the upstairs bathroom, Frisk and Asriel were working together to polish the banister, with Asriel doing the part on the upper floor and Frisk doing the part down along the stairs.

"Do you think we should do the stairs, too?" Frisk inquired, "I know Toriel vacuumed them, but, maybe they could use a wipe-down?"

"That couldn't hurt." Asriel replied.

Together they went about swabbing down the stairs with disinfectant wipes.


After four hours of thorough house work, the family had finished cleaning as best they could; with the house clean, Toriel advised both Frisk and Asriel to take showers before the social worker came so they could all look presentable.

Finally, by 5:00 p.m., with the house and both children in good order, they were ready for their evaluation. Just in time, as they heard the doorbell ring.

"Here we go, children," Toriel said, "remember to be polite."


Inching ever so closely to the meat of this story.