A/N Everything Undertale belongs to Toby Fox; Ginny, as well as anything unfamiliar, is of my creation.
Initially, this chapter was even longer. But I cut out a good chunk so that this chapter didn't jump so much in wordage, and because the part I cut out still fit nicely with what I have for the next chapter.
Ginny soon found herself at the dinner table, with Frisk on her lap, and sitting alongside Toriel, Papyrus, and Sans, the second skeleton; he also turned out to be Papyrus's older brother, described affectionately as 'a lazy boondoggler'.
He had simply shrugged and said, "guilty as charged."
The dining room, which doubled as the living room, had light wooden boards for flooring, and the wallpaper was cream-colored. The dining table and chairs were made of darker wood, and had a pot of flowers in the center on a crochet cozy. The room was being kept warm by a fireplace.
Toriel had brought out a steaming teapot and several teacups, all on a tray. She then doubled back and brought a pie to the table. Though Ginny expected a fruit pie, or even some sort of meat, it turned out to be snail pie. When asked, she said she had never heard of it before, but was willing to give it a try.
Under differing circumstances, it probably wouldn't have been very tasty. But in the moment, it was the tastiest thing she had as of late. And still warm too.
"Well, Ginny," Toriel said, taking a sip of her tea. "I'm very glad to finally meet you. Frisk told us so much about you."
"Good stuff, I hope," she smiled, ruffling her sibling's hair.
"Oh, yes indeed! But I had been wanting to ask something ever since I learned Frisk had a sister."
"... And what's that?" Toriel hadn't given any suspicious intentions, but she still kept her guard up.
"I'm sure Papyrus must have explained how Frisk came into our care." At Ginny's nod, Toriel continued, "Well, we know that Frisk had come to Mt. Ebott and somehow fallen into our world, so to speak. But what we don't know is why."
"You never asked?"
"I did, yes. But they didn't want to talk about it at the time. They've only been with us for the last four weeks, mind you. And things have been busy lately."
That made sense. She glanced down at Frisk, who nodded silently. "I'm not sure myself why Frisk ran away. They don't live with me; they lived at the orphanage."
"Orphanage?" Toriel questioned, her eyes turning sad.
"We both did, until I turned eighteen. Once that happened, I was out on my own. So, I've been trying to get on my feet for the past four years, so I could adopt Frisk." Her mouth dried as soon as she said that, but she tried not to let her alarm show. Why did I say how many years it's been taking? That just makes me sound incompetent!
But Toriel either didn't think that, or she at least didn't let it show. She instead asked gently, "And have you been able to?"
This made Ginny internally panic even more. "Y-yes! I've got a place outside of town, actually. I-I've only recently gotten it though, so I'm still settling in. Unfortunately, I'm not in the best place, financially, to take in Frisk."
Toriel nodded, seemingly in understanding. Papyrus didn't bat an eye, still munching happily at his pie. Sans, however, was staring at Ginny. Even though his expression remained the same, she was skilled enough to garner emotion from someone's facial expressions, no matter how minute they were. It had been a skill she picked up and harnessed in the past few years.
And she could tell he was eyeing her with suspicion. If he had eyebrows, she had no doubt he would be raising one. She could feel his eyes running over her. Not in a perverse way, but more like he was looking into her very soul, trying to see if she was lying or not.
"Well, for the time, I have no qualms with taking care of Frisk," Toriel smiled, seeming to not notice Sans staring at their guest. "It has been so long since I cared for a child, and they've been good company for the past several weeks. If that's all right with you, Ginny. You'd be welcome to visit us any time."
"YES!" Papyrus agreed, raising his fork in the air. "EVEN IF YOU WERE NOT OUR TINY HUMAN'S SISTER, ANY FRIEND OF THEIRS IS A FRIEND OF OURS! I JUST KNOW THAT YOU MUST BE AS KIND AND BRAVE AS FRISK IS!"
"Th-thank you, Papyrus." Ginny flushed. She wasn't sure if she was all that. If what he, and the papers, said were true, then Frisk had braved a whole underground of monsters, befriended them, and liberated them from their mountainous prison. All at the tender age of six. They were the kind and brave one.
Realizing she still had someone else to respond to, she continued, "And thank you, Toriel. I would appreciate you taking care of Frisk. They'd probably never speak to me again if I were to say no."
Frisk leaned their head back and glared up at her, though with a mischievous smile. She returned the childish gesture by pulling down her eyelid and sticking out her tongue. They both broke from their taunts in laughter.
But under the laughter, she was thinking. She didn't know these monsters. And despite them being very polite and friendly—even if Sans still hadn't said much, and was still eyeing her as if waiting for her to say something wrong—she didn't know if she could trust them. Even if she didn't agree with the anti-monster protests saying they should go back where they came, or even leave the country.
But she had little to no choice in the matter. At the moment, she was in no state to care for a child, whether that child was their sibling or not. And Frisk seemed very fond of them, even if they had only spent four weeks of their life with them. If they trusted them, she would have to trust their judgment.
After several more minutes of talking and finishing their pie and tea, Ginny announced that she would have to leave. "Would you like one of us to escort you home?" Toriel offered.
It took all of her self control to not shout out her answer in a panic. "No, that's all right. The rain has stopped, and I could use the exercise."
"A WISE CHOICE, TALL HUMAN! I TOO ENJOY EXERCISE! PERHAPS IF YOU WERE TO VISIT OUR HOUSE, I COULD SHOW YOU THE WAYS IN WHICH I, THE GR-R-REAT PAPYRUS, EXERCISE!" Papyrus offered, rolling the R in his title. "AND MAYBE HELP ME CONVINCE MY LAZY BROTHER TO ATTEND TOO!"
"heh, i'd impressed if you managed to do that," Sans chuckled, having flopped down to sit back against the staircase. He had somehow managed to not fall between the posts.
"Since you seemed to enjoy the snail pie, how about you take home a piece?"
"Oh, no, I couldn't take up more of your hospitality," Ginny protested.
"Please, I insist," Toriel smiled, already holding out a plastic container with a single piece of the pie inside. "The container is disposable, so there's no worry in trying to return it."
Seeing she wasn't worming her way out of it, she took the container. If she was being honest with herself, she was already hungry for a second piece. It really was delicious. "Thank you," she said meekly.
"NEXT TIME WE MEET, YOU CAN TRY MY SPAGHETTI! I HOPE YOU Will FIND IT JUST AS DELICIOUS AS MS. TORIEL'S COOKING!"
"aw, paps, it'd be impastable to resist your cooking."
"SANS! YOU'LL ANNOY AWAY OUR NEW FRIEND!" he scolded Sans, stomping his foot once as he clenched his fists.
Friend. This word ran through Ginny's head as she pulled on her coat, said goodbye to everyone, hugged Frisk tightly one last time, and made her way out of the neighborhood. She had only known them for an hour, at least, and they already considered her a friend.
Well, Papyrus did anyway. And Toriel, for sure. Sans was a tougher nut to crack.
In any case, she wasn't quite sure how to feel about most of these monsters already considering her a friend. Especially when she had learned to take such early labelings with a pinch of salt. She simply decided she would have to watch her steps around them.
At least she got free food out of the deal. And good food, at that. It not only satiated her hunger and made her feel warm, it seemed to energize her. And chase away the ache from her earlier shift. Was it because she had gone so long without good home-cooked food? Or was it the fact that it was monster food?
At any rate, it would go nicely with the leftovers she was given at the restaurant, despite them most likely being crushed in her coat. And losing the warmth from the oven from earlier that day.
The following day, after her shift at the restaurant, Ginny found herself walking into the monster neighborhood yet again. Mainly it was because she wanted to visit Frisk. But she was also still curious about the monsters. Not just because they were interesting, but to make sure they were just as kind and generous as they seemed to be at first glance.
When she arrived at Toriel's house, the motherly goat monster told her that Frisk had gone to visit Sans and Papyrus. She gave her the directions to their house, as well as its description. And after they discussed Frisk, including how happy and excited they had found their sister, she sent her on her way.
The brothers' house was a two-story one, made of brown wood. A small balcony stuck out the right side of the second story, and there was a plastic wreath on the front door, despite it being nowhere near to Christmas. But she decided not to ask about it. Humans themselves had an odd fascination with Halloween decorations, maybe monsters were the same with Christmas
Upon knocking, Frisk answered the door with a gleeful squeal. They managed to jump and grab her middle in a hug.
"Oof! Hello to you too, squirt," she groaned, somehow keeping from falling backwards. "What's new?"
"Papyrus gave me a word search to solve," Frisk answered as they let themselves fall back down to the floor.
"That's good. Keeps your brain working," she nodded, following them into the house.
The first floor consisted of the living room. It had wooden flooring, and a carpet with blue and purple zigzagged stripes. The walls were painted maroon. Under the carpet was a green couch and TV stand, on top of which stood a wide flat screen television. On the left, between the TV and stairs, was a bookcase filled with books, ranging from children's stories to scientific journals; to the right of the TV was a gaming system. Next to the doorway to the kitchen was a table, with a tank of sand. On the sand was a rock, covered with sprinkles. A big black beanbag chair sat next to the couch. Sans was fast asleep in the beanbag, still in his clothes from yesterday.
Suddenly, the door behind them flew open. A yellow dinosaur-like monster in a lab coat ran past and into the kitchen. In their claws was a fire extinguisher.
When Ginny looked into the kitchen, her eyes widened when she saw the stove was on fire. At said stove was Papyrus, and another monster. "GREETINGS, TALL HUMAN!" he greeted as the yellow monster put out the flames. "YOU'RE JUST IN TIME FOR THAT SPAGEHTTI I PROMISED!" When he looked past her, he shouted, "SANS! ON YOUR FEET! WE HAVE A GUEST!"
"cool. i guest i'll greet them in a bit," he answered, still not opening his eyes.
Frisk giggled as Papyrus threw his head back with a groan, slapping his forehead. "NO MATTER! TALL HUMAN, I HAVE THE HONOR OF INTRODUCING YOU TO UNDYNE AND ALPHYS!" He gestured to the other two monsters.
The one that had previously been obscured by the smoke was tall, and had blue scales for skin. They had long red hair in a high ponytail, red and blue ears that resembled fish fins, and a yellow eye—the left one had a black eyepatch over it. They wore red eyeshadow, a black tank top, jeans, and red boots.
"You must be the little punk's sister!" she shouted, though not nearly as loud as Papyrus. Her voice was high-pitched, somewhat surprising given her macho appearance. She heavily threw her arm around Ginny's shoulders, causing her to grunt under her strength. "Like Paps said, name's Undyne! You?"
"I-I'm Ginny," she answered, not sure whether she was overwhelmed or frightened by this monster. It took grabbing the doorjam to not buckle under Undyne patting her shoulder with one clawed and webbed hand. Either she didn't know her own strength, or enjoyed showing it off.
"Cool!" she grinned, showing sharp yellow teeth. "Prepare yourself for the best spaghetti you'll ever have!" She finally let Ginny go to help Papyrus pour it from the pot to a large bowl.
"S-sorry about that," the other monster, whom she assumed was Alphys, stammered with a shy smile. Now that she was standing still, Ginny saw she was wearing thick glasses. "Sh-she can be a bit m-much for new people. Bu-but she means well."
Ginny simply nodded, rubbing her shoulder. Looking around the kitchen, its floor was patterned with orange and red tiles, and the walls were mustard yellow. It had the usual kitchen furniture, as well as a red dining table and chairs. As she sat in one of the chairs, her stomach rumbled.
"Heard that from across the room!" Undyne laughed, setting the bowl of spaghetti heavily on the table.
"Yeah, I had a light lunch," she shrugged.
"SANS! THE SPAGHETTI IS FINISHED!" Papyrus called out as he spooned generous helpings onto several plates.
As everyone else sat down, Sans walked into the kitchen. "s'up, ginny," he greeted, flopping into his seat.
"Hi," she nodded, still not sure what to make of him. But she reminded herself that she barely knew him, so it wasn't fair to pass judgment so quickly. Trying to distract herself, she twirled her fork in the spaghetti that Alphys passed to her. The sauce was so tenderized, she wondered if Papyrus had thrown everything into a blender, rather than stir everything together. And the noodles looked quite overdone.
But when she took her bite, it wasn't that bad. Actually, it was really good. Maybe not the best, but still really good. Alphys and Frisk gave her odd looks, Undyne raised an eyebrow, seeming impressed; even Sans seemed surprised. But she was being genuine in that it was the best spaghetti she had had in a long time. Maybe that last part was a bit exaggerated, but she found it was worth it to see Papyrus so happy.