Behind Closed Doors: Chapter 14 - An Unexpected Arrival
"Wait, so..."
Forgetting the specific reason behind why you're faking a battle, you continue with a confused face. "..Who exactly are we staging the fight for again?" Papyrus smiles and says matter-of-factly, "UNDYNE, OF COURSE! SHE'S THE CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD, AND SINCE I'M JUST A SENTRY, SHE'D.." Papyrus trailed off for a moment with an uneasy face, but Sans continued the sentence. "she wouldn't be the happiest in the world. she, uh, takes her job pretty seriously. bit of a mean-streak, too. i guess you'd say she throws-" Papyrus' head instantly snaps towards Sans' direction with a scowl. "DON'T. EVEN. THINK ABOUT-" Sans starts laughing mid-pun, placing a hand on the side of his skull. "..a tempura tantrum!" You don't understand immediately but you can acknowledge the pun with a smirk at least. As Sans continues to finish up his laughter Papyrus glares the other way in clear discontent.
You all eventually head outside and continue towards the fog, the skeletons quipping back and forth. The other side of the fog looks completely different from town, a different color entirely even. It's more of a bluish tinge than the black cave-ceiling of Snowdin, and you can swear you see something glowing! You all finally come to a stop in what seems to be a purposefully flattened-out area before the apparent land-bridge to the next area. Instinctually you stand at the far end facing the next section, the skeleton brothers both continuing further until they're what seems to be ten feet from your perspective from the bridge. "HUMAN." Papyrus starts in a surprisingly low, dramatic tone. Sans pupils disappear to showcase an eerie glare before saying something himself. "to have gotten this far must have taken skill and bravery." Not saying anything, you steel yourself for the fake fight with an odd feeling. You were 'okay' at acting, but to dodge real attacks? "UNFORTUNATELY, YOUR BRAVERY IS IN VAIN, AS WE REFUSE TO LET YOU PASS. FOR THE SAKE OF MONSTER-KIND, YOU WILL SURRENDER, OR BE TAKEN BY FORCE."
A moment passes and you feel a chill run up your spine. Papyrus voice was cold. Either he's 'really' good at acting or you made him mad, somehow.. Sans too, actually they both seemed to be putting their all into this. Why shouldn't you, then? You take a deep, shaky breath before shakily exhaling. "N-No. I'm not going to surrender. I'm going home if it kills me, but I refuse to fight anyone! Just let me leave!" Your voice is laced with obvious fear, and Papyrus picks up on this. "NERVOUS, HUMAN?" Papyrus voice is back to it's oddly giddy and boisterous tone. He winks very subtly at you before continuing. "YOU SHOULD BE. NO ONE HAS PASSED PAPYRUS, LET ALONE THE DANGEROUS DUO THAT ARE THE SKELETON SENTRIES!" ...Oh thank god, it 'is' still a staged fight. "Bring it on, bonehead!" You spread your feet and get ready to move, and the moment you do the tall skeleton shouts, "SANS, QUICK, DON'T LET THEM THINK! ATTACK!" Sans' head quickly jerks back up to stare at you, and he swiftly throws his arm out and extends his palm. A bone comes rushing out from behind him!
...But it literally just flies four feet and then tumbles into the snow.
"welp, can't blame me. i tried." The short skeleton shrugs and closes an eye with a lazy smirk. Papyrus is clearly unamused. "UGH! FINE! I'LL DO IT MYSELF!" Papyrus turns his palm towards the sky and raises his arm, and immediately a flurry of bones comes rushing from the ground towards you. You launch yourself instinctively out of the way, watching the bones thud quite harshly against a sturdy pine tree. The entire body rumbles, causing the tree's loose pine-needles to trickle and flutter downwards. "HOLY CHRIST, MAN!" You glare at Papyrus in disbelief, but the moment your head turns towards him you realize there's already another flurry heading towards you! You scramble off the ground and push yourself up, running to the side and watching them come to an abrupt halt. Realizing you should keep your eye on Papyrus, you turn around only to have a single bone thud abruptly into your stomach. It doesn't impale you, but it feels like the equivalent to getting punched in the gut.
A rather loud "GurRRRHHH..." Sound comes from your mouth as the wind gets knocked out of you and instinctually take a knee, recoiling. "YouuUUhh..!" It should've clicked that some hits should at least land, but you kind of only half-realize that as a second bone painlessly sweeps the knee you were on, leaving you face-first in the snow. "STAND AND FIGHT ME HUMAN! IF YOU DARE, OF COURSE. NYEH HEH HEH!" Sans just watches the situation with his hands both in his pockets, leaning against a tree-trunk and winking at you. The pain faded quicker than you imagined, and having an idea, you ball up your fist to scoop up some snow. When you go to stand, you use your hands to push yourself up but fling the snow in Papyrus' direction. He effortlessly dodges it, turning to watch as it falls back down. "IT'S GOING TO TAKE MORE THAN THAT TO OUTSMART THE-" As he turns back his speech is interrupted with a snowball to the skull, leaving him silenced with a finger still raised in the air. The silence is long before he slowly wipes his eyes with a red-gloved hand.
"YOU CLEVER LITTLE RASCAL, YOU!" Papyrus instantly raises a couple more mixed patterns of blue-and-white bones. The next two minutes feel like twenty due to the exertion, and as the two of you strain yourselves you both stare at each other while panting for air. You wheeze a little due to the idea of being a little less-than-average. You're not 'fat', you just don't really exercise much, that's all. Despite that, you struggle to stand straight up and cockily manner, 'just' able to pant out, "What's wrong... Papyrus? Got... any fight.. left..?" Papyrus' stops his own panting for a second and stares at you with a playful 'Oh, it's on.' smirk. You smile in return and steel yourself, cracking your neck and starting to catch your breath finally. Paps stands up himself, stretching and seeming as ready to go as when he first started. You go to take a step forward before being struck from the side from a previously unknown bone, causing you to tumble and roll. Papyrus flinches subtly in turn and has a face of worry, but you place both hands on the ground and force your upper half up. It's quiet for a moment, but your head darts up after a sharp inhale and from pure instinct, you just let out an angry howl towards Papyrus' direction and start to bolt towards him. He smiles happily rather than proudly, and just as he squats to prepare another attack you both skid to a half when presented with an abrupt halt to your battle from a sudden blast of flame in between the both of you.
"Do not harm a single hair more on that poor human's head, you wretch!" That... that voice!
A hooded, purple-robed figure stands behind you with burning fists balled at their sides. They remove their hood and stand proud and tall, glaring at the two skeletons. It's... Toriel?! Papyrus stares in pure surprise, and Sans stands straight up with his hands at his sides in shock and what seems to be defense. Immediately, you try to diffuse the situation, turning around. "W-WHOA, WHOA! Toriel! We're just sparring, I-I promise! These are- are friends of mine, I-I-I swear!" You nervously stutter and place your hands in front of yourself like you would to calm an animal which causes Toriel's glare to snap to your for a second as she squints before lowering her fists to her sides. She sighs for a second before simply stating "..Very well, child, but why on earth are you fighting them? I thought you said you did not wish to harm monsters?" but not before you run up and hug her. "Of course I don't! I'll explain in a second, b-but What're you doing here?! I thought you were going to stay in the ruins!" As you mention the Ruins Sans perks up and chimes in, walking towards her. "the ruins, huh? you don't say." Sans' tone is curious as well as oddly pleasant, and as you look up at Toriel she seems to be staring at Sans with curiosity. "That voice.. Are you..-" Sans smirks slightly and quietly says. "knock knock."
"...Who is there?" Toriel responds in turn, and from what you can tell she seems a little hopeful? "snow." You raise an eyebrow and look between the two, and back at Papyrus who silently shrugs, for the moment. "Snow who?" A smirk slowly rises on her face in anticipation, and on Sans' skull too before he responds. "..snow point in pretending you don't know who i am." An abrupt howl of laughter can be heard from Toriel as she places a hand lightly in the middle of her chest and hunches over, and you yourself smirk at the change of events. You eventually back up a few steps from Toriel and gesture a hand to the two skeleton bros. "Toriel, this is Sans, and 'this' is Papyrus." Papyrus stands up and poses with his hand on his collarbone. "YOU MEAN THE GREAT PAPYRUS, HUMAN!" Toriel still squints with a scowl at Papyrus, but stops once you say, "We were staging a fight and we both kind of got into it like a sparring match, that's all. Except.. I wasn't really sparring, I was kind of dodging." You laugh a little before hunching slightly and grasping your stomach. "Damn, Pap, you really got me off guard with the stomach-one, dude." You smile through the pain sincerely as you compliment, only causing Papyrus to seem even more proud.
"NONSENSE, MANNY. YOU'RE RATHER QUICK ON YOUR FEET BUT YOU CAN CERTAINLY BE FASTER. FEAR NOT! THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL TRAIN YOU TO BE AS AGILE AND UNPREDICTABLE AS A WHIMSUM!" He marches towards you and takes a knee. "PLEASE LET ME SEE YOUR LOWER-STOMACH REGION SO I CAN HEAL IT?" A thoughtful smile comes to your lips and you lift the shirt they gave you, showing a few purple-and-black spots already forming. Papyrus hovers his hand over them and concentrates seriously for the moment, and the gloved hand starts emitting a slowly-growing green light! It feels really warm and calming, and as you watch your lower half the bruises and welts seem to sink inwards into nothingness. "..I'll never get over how awesome healing magic is, man."
Sans finally walks up with his hands in his pockets, facing the three of you. "pretty nifty, huh? on another note, i, uh, think that this looks like a fine-enough staged fight." He gestures behind himself with a thumb, and as the three of you turn your heads Toriel lets out a quiet "..Oh goodness.." before speaking up. "Ah- Manny! Why on earth were you trying to stage a fight with your friends?" She turns to Papyrus with a confused and concerned expression, and he answers happily and matter-of-factly. "OH! IT'S SO THAT WHEN MANNY JOURNEYS INTO WATERFALL, UNDYNE WILL THINK HE FOUGHT ME AND MANAGED TO SLIP BY! I WAS GOING TO TELL HER THAT HE DIDN'T ATTACK AND ONLY FLED SO THAT THERE WOULD BE NO NEED TO PURSUE HIM!" The skeleton finishes with a pure smile as if nothing in the plan was wrong, and realizing word-for-word what he said you think that there may be a few holes in the idea.
"Well I do not know who this Undyne is, but I can promise that she won't hurt a hair on this man's head. Human or not, he just wants to go home." You pause for a moment as they begin walking towards town, but eventually join them. You're unusually quiet during the walk back, thinking about what Tori had just said. While it's true that you did want to go back to your old ritualistic life of go-to-work-and-go-home, something about this place.. about the fact that they have no choice in the matter of living the way they do strikes you. Sure it seems normal, but they deserve more than just a cave system- "MANNY? YOU'RE BEING UNUSUALLY QUIET. ARE YOU ALRIGHT?" An abrupt loud question interrupts your train of thought and you shake your head briskly. "Wha-? Oh! Just getting lost in thought, that's all. Nothing serious, just one of those moments where you space out, you know?"
You all sit at the dinner table and make light-hearted introductions. Jokes are made, laughs are shared, and more pasta as well! Admittedly you choose mostly meatballs. Carbs are good, but you've always had an affinity for meat. As you go to grab a few pieces with your fork Toriel notices the now-smaller wound on your hand. "Oh goodness, Manny. Where on earth did you get that?" As she gestures to the hand holding the fork you pause mid-way through the meatball and a clear expression of fear plasters itself on your face. "manny, uh..." Sans started, looking at you for the moment. He reads the subtle permissive glance before you turn back to the food and sighs. "manny did it to himself. thinks he's not worth anyone's time-" Toriel interrupts politely for the moment with a simple. "Ah, it is that.." Her face shows mothersome concern, and Papyrus seems to be completely concerned as well. "I did not expect it to be this.. well." She pauses and places a hand on your shoulder. "Forgive me, please.. I did not expect it to trouble you to this extent." You're silent and straight-faced for a few seconds before answering. "Yeah.. sorry for killing the mood. Again." Your shoulders and head lower a touch before Papyrus interjects. "NONSENSE, MANNY. IT'S A SOUR SUBJECT, YES, BUT IF IT ISN'T ADDRESSED, WE ALL KNOW IT WOULD SIMPLY WORSEN. BESIDES, LOOK! HASN'T IT CLOSED UP MORE?" As he finishes that statement he flashes a soft smile, pointing with his bony index-finger. You look to see that the edges have closed a considerable amount! The redness is gone and it looks like at the very end, scarring has begun! "I.. what? How..?" You stammer quietly in disbelief. "when you really start to trust and open up to people, healing magic starts to work again. on top of that, you need to believe you have worth. for a moment, looks like you did, pal."
Sans' smile isn't just the one that looks like it's permanently there.. it looks really sincere. Come to think of it, as you look around the table, all of them seem to be smiling with very bright and hopeful faces. You get misty eyes for a second and it's obvious before you smirk and rub them with a little vigor. "Tsssh.. you idiots are gonna make me cry, knock it off.." Laughter is subtly present in your voice as you say that and Toriel rests a hand on the top of your head, offering a gentle giggle in return. As you all enjoy lunch and bring Toriel up to speed on what's currently going on in the underground she seems as negative-mannered towards Asgore as you first remember, but to lighten the mood you look at Toriel and softly tap her arm. She turns to you and you simply say. "Toriel?" She's quiet for the moment, and as you lean over you hug her from the side. "..Thanks for coming out here. I kind of missed you already." You smile as you say that and she returns the hug, closing her eyes. "Of course, my child. I hadn't thought about it before, but.. cooping myself up in the ruins would have hurt you, more than anyone else." The genuine care in her voice made your breath shaky, and you squeeze hard in the hug. You don't necessarily cry, but a tear or two stream for your eyes.
I'm definitely going to be writing a lot more, from now on. Thank you all for the messages and reviews too, it means a lot to know that so many people enjoy the story but I can PROMISE that it's 'far' from done.. you're going to love where it goes!
-RampantMemory