Chief Undyne entered the office of Mayor Carol Holiday. "You wanted to see me?"

The reindeer-like monster looked up from the papers she was reading. "Ah, yes, Undyne, come in."

Undyne complied. The air conditioning, per usual, was on full blast, but she didn't mind. It was the heater or dehumidifier being set too high that truly bothered her. "So," she said, taking a seat, "what's this about? Need to go over the police budget or something?"

"No, this isn't about work or anything like that," the mayor said. "This is going to be more of a… casual, social visit, I suppose."

Undyne shrugged. "Sure, I could chat for a bit. Not like there's much crime happening in town, unfortunately."

"Well, that's good to— wait, did you say fortunately or unfortunately?"

Undyne hesitated. "Er..."

"Nevermind," Holiday said. "The reason I wanted to talk to you is… um… well, how to broach this sensitively? I suppose there isn't a way to. So… you're a lesbian, correct?"

The mayor was right; there wasn't a way. "Yeah?" Undyne said, raising an eyebrow. "That a problem?"

"Oh, no, no, no," the mayor said. "No problem at all. I was fairly positive you were; I was merely confirming it so I could ask my real question, which is: do you have a girlfriend?"

"What?"

"A girlfriend, or partner, or whatever. Another woman you're romantically involved with."

Undyne was befuddled. "Are you hitting on me?"

"What? No, no, no. I'm not— I'm not hitting on you. I mean, I'm married… and straight. But, you see, I have a daughter, Noelle, and, well, she's a lesbian..."

"Your daughter? She's like, what, 15?"

"No! I'm not— suggesting—" Holiday groaned and planted her face into her desk. Her antlers sent a Newton's cradle rattling to the floor. "What I'm trying to say," she said, picking her head back up and recomposing herself as best she could, "is that there's this girl in my daughter's class she has a crush on, and, well, I'm sure you know how unlikely it is for a random girl to actually be gay or even bi. I don't want to discourage her, but I also don't want her to get hurt. And I'm not even talking about her getting rejected; teenagers can be cruel sometimes."

"Well," said Undyne, "tell your daughter that if this girl makes her cry, you'll send the chief of police over to rough her up!"

"No, Undyne," Holiday said sternly.

"I was kidding!" Undyne said. She hadn't been kidding.

"It goes beyond just this one girl anyway," Holiday continued. "Teenage romances come and go; she'd be no more like to end up with any given boy she had a crush on. But I do want her to end up with someone; but who? This is a small town. There aren't really a lot of possibilities for someone like her, especially not in her age range. I mean, you're the only gay monster in town I can think of, female or male."

"There's these two guys, a bunny and a dragon, that live on the east side," Undyne said. "I'm pretty sure they're a couple."

"Really?"

"Yeah, they're too close to just be platonic friends."

"Okay, but that doesn't really help my daughter's situation."

"I guess not."

"Which is why I asked if you had a girlfriend," Holiday said. "I want to know what my daughter's chances look like."

Undyne scratched her neck. "Well, I used to have someone I was seeing," she said, "but we kind of broke it off because she lives too far away."

Holiday sighed. "That's what I was afraid of," she said. She slumped down in her seat and clutched a hand to her head. "I'm a bad mother."

"Hey, don't say that!" Undyne exhorted. "Young love is hard for any parent to deal with whatever the child's orientation is!"

"It's not just that," Holiday said. "I haven't really around that much since before she learned to walk. I was always too busy with work. My husband was the one who really raised her, mostly. But now he's in the hospital, and the doctors aren't sure if he's going to make it or not..." She groaned. "Look at me. I'm a four-term mayor who's run the town for over a decade but have no clue how to help my own daughter."

Undyne was silent for a while. "I think you need to talk to some actual parents," she said at last. "Not me. I'm terrible with kids. Not five minutes ago I suggested beating up a teenager. No, you want to talk to someone like… Toriel Dreemur!"

"Oh, she's the school's principal, right? I think Rudy's friends with her husband."

"Well, ex-husband; they got divorced about a year ago. Which means, on top of the normal mother stuff, she could give you tips about raising a child on your own… you know, while your husband's stuck in the hospital. And her younger child— they're not gay – at least, not that I'm aware of – but they're human, which is unusual around here, so they know what it's like having a kid that's a little different. Plus, as the principal, she could probably point you to more parents who could give you advice."

"That might help," Holiday said. "Of course, if she's recommending other parents, their kids should probably be around Noelle's age. Maybe I could get in touch with her teacher as well. Do you know who teaches that class?"

Undyne frowned. "I know Toriel doubles as the kindergarten teacher, but I'm not sure who teaches the older kids."

"Hold on, I think I might have something here..." The mayor shuffled through her papers until she found a letter sent from the school. "Okay, it says here that her teacher's name is Ms. Alphys."

Undyne shook her head. "Yeah, no idea who that is. Name sounds familiar, though." She thought for a moment. "Oh, right! That human kid actually mentioned her to me just the other day. I thought they were asking me to arrest her, but I guess they were just complaining about getting too much homework or whatever. So that's some more possible excitement dashed."

Holiday raised an eyebrow. "Should I worry about you?"

"Nah, I should be fine. But yeah, I guess Noelle's in the same class as Toriel's kid, so you should definitely talk to her. I mean, I'm sorry I couldn't help you directly—"

"No, you helped plenty. Not only with the referral, but I think I needed someone to vent my troubles to to start with. So thank you."

"Sure, sure," said Undyne. She stood up. "If that's everything, I'm gonna go now."

"No, I think we've discussed everything I want to."

Undyne turned back before she reached the door. "I hope everything goes well with your daughter."

Carol smiled faintly. "I do too."