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She clicked her boots together excitedly, the soles emitting a gleeful clack sound before patting the blue marsh grass beneath them. Her front paws pressed together as she watched the human descend. "I cant wait 2 get anotta sOUL!"

The human beside her chuckled, swinging their body around so that they were facing her. They took a few steps down the natural staircase and watched her bring her boots to the edge, then stop. She dropped onto all fours. The human's smile brightened at this and they withdrew their hands from their cargo shorts to give her a small pat on the head.

"Den we gonna getta see da serfuce an see all da STARS!"

The human shrugged. "Eh. The stars are nice, but you get used to 'em after a while."

This caused her to scrunch her face, eyes narrowing. "Stars are AWESUM! Dey always gunna be pretty an if dey get boring den we can make them change colours!"

The human laughed again, lightly, holding out their hand for the tem to take. She didn't. She leapt down the stairs much like a small dog, motion mimicking the gallop of a horse for every jump. The stairs weren't numerous, and it was only a moment or so later that she had finally reached the bottom.

"Yeah but birthday candles have the same effect," the human replied as they shoved their hands back in their pockets and descended. "Besides, I get to see a star everyday."

"Really?" Temmie's eyes widened and Frisk could have sworn they saw them sparkling.

They nodded. "Everyday I see you."

"Aww…" the tem hummed, the corners of her mouth tugging upward even further. "Frisk! I wuv u too!"

A warm sensation flooded their body, causing them to close their eyes for a moment to dispel it. The smile was still present, hands still in their pockets, but their head fell for a brief moment and they laughed. "God you're adorable."

"YaYU!" Temmie cheered and rose to her hind legs. She then leapt toward Frisk, wrapping her arms around their shoulders. "DA FORMITEMBLE tEMMIE! IS DA CUTEST!"

"Sure are." They patted the tem's head, wrapping one arm around her back and pulling her in for a brief second before letting go. "The stars are still boring though."

Her smile fell. "How? Stars are cooute 2!"

In return, they shook their head. "They're kind of like your lights, but they don't move. They're all one color and they stay in the same spot the whole time. The Earth can move, and sometimes it looks like the stars are moving, but they're not. They're always in the same spot. Always predictable…"

They paused, shoulders dropping, head angling itself to stare at the marsh grass beneath them. This was when Temmie would cut in front of them and stare.

"So?" she asked, taking a few steps back and dragging the invisible leash she held one end of, Frisk clutching the other, with her. "Dun u have ne wishes 2 make?"

"...hmmm, just one, but…"

They followed after her, brushing against the blue echo flower with their arm but paying no mind to it. "It's kind of stupid."

"WOT!" Temmie screeched, likely loud enough for the echo flower on the other side of the water to hear. "Dun say dat! Cum on, I promise I won laugh!"

They shrugged, their back straightening just slightly as their eyes locked on the tem. "I wish we could go back to the way things were. Uncle Papy was still trying to get into the Royal Guard, Grillby's was still in business, Chara was still dea-"

Frisk froze, eyes locked with Temmie's. The two held their staring competition for a moment or so longer than socially comfortable before Frisk shook their head. "Never mind."

"Nuu! I wanna hear!"

Seeing the puppy dog eyes from their temmate, Frisk's smile returned and they shut their own. "Fine, fine. I wish I could see my brother again."

Temmie tilted her head to the side. "Brother?"

"Yeah. I had a brother above the surface. He didn't always treat me nicely, but he was still my brother."

When she noticed the tears beginning to build up in her roommate's eyes, Temmie leaned forward, this time wrapping her arms around them slowly, gently, pulling them towards her.

"Maybe he's been patient. He's always been a patient person. Maybe he waited for me."

"He wated fur you." Temmie's voice was even, confident. She wasn't the greatest comforter in the world, but she lived with Frisk for long enough to know how to help them. The most important thing, besides a hug, was to sound sure.

Though they didn't hug back, the human still leaned into their temmate. "How do you know?"

"Becuz I wud!" she replied rather cheerfully. "An ur dad wud, and GREAT PAPYRUS wud, an a whoooole lotta monsters! So peepo wud 2!"

Even if it wasn't very assuring, Frisk still found themself chuckling purely out of the tem's child-like charm. Their smile returned, albeit weakly. "An nasa peepo."

"Nasa wa?"

They shook their head. "Nothing. It's nothing."

Nothing comes of nothing.

"Oh my god. Mettaton!"

The pair didn't seem too worried about the little yellow monster racing ahead of them. Considering how a few loose wires dangled from the gaping wound in Mettaton's arm, it was, at the very least, understandable. She couldn't pay mind to the familiar face when her only protection was at potential risk of death! What if the arm malfunctioned, and caused… Well, it could cause all sort of problems that her mind couldn't help but toss around her head. He was her only protection against those things; she had to fix him!

"Mettaton, are you…?"

He limped over to the wall beside them, pressing his good hand against it and sliding down. One leg jutted out in front of him, foot turned so that the ankle wasn't touching the floor. His boot had been torn, unfortunately, though somehow he found less concern in that than he did with the bits of metal torn open like a wrapped gift given to a three-year-old. Several spots along his body gave off that appearance. He wished the damn child-sized monster had the aim of the age he looked.

"I feel like a toy," he muttered in response. His good hand propped himself up, back still leaning against the wall. Whatever served as a nervous system was sensitive to temperature, but thankfully the pain wasn't as intense as it would have been had he remained human. He didn't seem to be bleeding out either, so there wasn't a need to wrap anything. It just hurt.

"But...but you're okay?"

His eyes narrowed in aggitation as they rolled their way over to the dinosaur. "I don't know, Alphys. I just had an over confident seven-year-old spear me like a sack of meat. My insides are hanging out of everywhere and my beautiful pink boots are completely ruined! I'm perfectly fine."

The scientist was about to open her mouth to speak, when a loud beep caught both of their ears, causing both to flinch with the more yellow face stretching into a look of mortal terror.

She approached him, slowly, holding out one arm. "C-can I look?"

"Considering you're the designer of this body, I think I'd rather you did."

So her clawed hand graced over his shoulder, pushing him forward slightly to allow enough room for her to squeeze through. Her motions were quick, as if she expected to drop him should she hold on for too long. One hand grasped a small latch on his back, twisting it and lifting up the panel attached to it to reveal several parts buzzing around wildly. They would have kicked into high gear had they known how to heal the damage, but alas, the only way to fix that was with an outside source.

Her eyes scanned over these. They were all spinning at a constant speed, all working together in sync. The black rubber band running around his gears still held firm with little signs of wear; the wires inside weren't snapped. She pulled on one, pushing him forward a little bit more to check. It held firm. She was almost starting to doubt she had even heard anything when another loud beep came through. It was then her attention turned to the battery panel.

"Oh thank GOD," she sighed in relief. The other parts of him still needed tending to with no doubt, but his most important mechanics weren't the ones triggering the emergency noise.

"Alphys, darling, what's the matter?"

"You're battery's low," she said with a sigh of relief, shutting the panel and twisting the latch clockwise. "We'll have to find a place for you to charge. I don't have any on me…"

The robot frowned, eyes moving from the yellow dinosaur down to the floor in thought, then back up at his companion. "What about the rest of me?"

"Well…" She reached for his bad arm, gripping it at either end of the wound. Her eyes grazed over it at the pace of a snail and a finger gently tapped one of the loose wires, causing him to flinch. "Th-the bone didn't cut very deep… I'd have to open it up and redo some of the wires, but the arm itself is still useable, thankfully."

He threw his good hand down to his leg, rubbing the ankle that had been cut. In return, Alphys's frown only worsened.

"What about my leg? I need my legs, darling! They're too beautiful to be damaged!"

"I-I, um…"

She lowered the arm down to Mettaton's side, gracing her paws against his metal until she could find her way to the wound. The foot itself was mostly unfinished, making it difficult to differentiate between where the damage was and where it simply wasn't covered, but the boot thankfully framed a majority t of the former. She would need to remove the boot to get it fixed, but for now, it was a guide. Some of the wires had been twisted and snipped. The spring that held the ankle in a flexible place was clamped down, and a sprocket was entangled in a mess of other parts.

"You can't walk on it," she muttered, eyes scampering over to his side and fingers rapping against each other. The wire mesh around his innards was sliced open, but most of the actual insides had stayed intact, thankfully, "but I can still fix it. I-I just need the right parts…"

Her orange-brown eyes fell back to meet his gaze. "You might need to be unconscious for that."

"And what about my side? Or my shoulder?"

"Mettaton, um, you're a robot. I built you. As long as I have all the right pieces to work with, I should, um… Hopefully I could fix you…"

"Hopefully?"

She turned away. Hopefully. She might screw up. She screwed up a lot. That's how she ended up this way anyway. It was her fault. It was always her fault. She wished it would stop, but it wouldn't, because she was just a screw up. A big, fat, lying-

"Alphys?"

The ghost dino turned back to her companion at the sound of his voice sharpening. Her eyes widened, body tensing. No, he wouldn't hurt her; he couldn't have known.

"Y...yes, Mettaton?"

He let his body drop a little further, the light in one eye dimming. "I'm assuming a Band-Aid isn't going to help."

Catching this, the dinosaur gasped rather loudly and rushed to the robot's back, reaching for his latch a second time and flinging open the panel. A little blinking icon appeared on a screen in the far right corner in the shape of a battery, a slash going through it. Only a small portion was colored.

Eight percent.

Alphys slammed the panel down, rushing clumsily with the lock and lever, then stepping back to meet Mettaton's gaze. Her hand fell down against Mettaton's side to clasp his good hand. "I-I...w-we have to find some place…!"

"But darling," Mettaton breathed. He flashed her a weak smile. "You said it yourself: I can't walk on this ankle. I can't move with these wounds."

She scanned her eyes frantically along the robot, focusing in on his purple SOUL and then back up to his eyes, which were losing light by the second. Soon she found her breath quick, shallow, uneven. Her hands grasped tightly onto his unwounded arm. "M-Mettaton, please! I-I need to… I need you!"

In response, he merely chuckled. Need him? She, of all people, needed him? That's almost...endearing? The feeling of being needed... What a pleasant feeling.

"Unfortunately, that's not going to be possible." He shook his head, the magenta light in his left eye barely visible through the soft blue glow from a room or two back. "You know the layout of this place, right? Surely you'll be able to find what you're looking for."

Instead of arguing, Alphys simply stared at him. She watched his arm fall limp with the damage that had been dealt and side giving way to topple on top of his cut. The body was shutting itself off to conserve power. She needed to act fast, or it could collapse in on itself.

She then rushed forward. "O-okay! Okay! I-I can go get…" Her eyes darted around. They scanned the walls, the ceiling, the floor, the sparkling stone...nothing. No monsters. Not yet. "...the parts…"

The robot let out a content sigh as response. His lips parted to speak, but came up empty. His mental functions were beginning to slow. She really, really needed to act.

"I-I need you to go into sleep mode," she muttered, her eyes finally falling to her hands. "I mean, if you want."

"How?" he asked, though the voice came out more distorted than it had originally been, with three different pitches stacking on top of each other.

Alphys tapped her claws together. "All you need to do is go to sleep! And then… and then… yeah."

"Like this?" The robot shut his eyes and leaned into the wall behind him, letting his head lull over his shoulder. The rest of his body had already gone limp from a need for power.

"If your battery's low," Alphys said as she glanced her head over to the path in front of them. She knew where to go once she got to the dump, but getting to the dump was something she hadn't done from this side. The only tool she could possibly summon was the hope that she'd make it, "then it should be easy. You should be tired enough to...Mettaton?"

When he didn't respond, her eyes scampered back to him and her frown fell to a neutral state. His expression seemed drained of the stress it went through while he was awake, body relaxed and mind at ease. Peaceful. He seemed peaceful for once. It looked nice on him.

She couldn't reciprocate the emotion.

So I was kind of torn. I wanted to add a little bit more here, but at the same time, I wanted to update before I went back to school on Tuesday. Haha... I really don't want to go back...

FriskedAway did some fanart on DeviantArt that's pretty cute.

I don't sound very enthusiastic right now, do I? Ah, sorry about that... The thought of school is...taking its toll on me.

Also I wanted to do a mini-lecture on the proper use of ellipses (which I almost never follow), but then my computer decided to shut down when I was almost finished, so oh well.

Reviews:

NoItsBecky: ...welp. I bet you're glad that Muffet has a pretty minor role in this.

I freakin' love her theme, so sucks for me because rip Spider Dance EquationTale, but at least the arachnophobes get a break.

Ck: Tbh I have no idea how Sans works! He's such a complex character with so much lore! It's difficult trying to figure out what aspects of his personality evolved from seeing reset after reset and then removing them to leave the ones that didn't. Seriously...ag. I have to take those away and give them to Frisk, which I guess could make Sans at least not-lazy enough to be in Undyne's spot?

Ag it's hard ;n;