[[ Hey! Brit here! I'm super pumped to have gotten Chapter Thirteen done already! And I'm already working on Chapter Fourteen, and am SOOOO excited to get to writing it! A lot's gonna happen, so I hope you all can look forward to it! ]]
"Alright, all set!" Lena stood with her hands on her hips, verdant hues scanning across her apartment almost pridefully. She'd spent every available moment from the time she'd woken up and rolled out of bed to that very moment cleaning her apartment from top to bottom. Having so much time off from work had felt odd. She was used to constantly having her co-workers handing off their busy work, tutoring students, helping clean up classrooms, anything that kept her busy. It was almost lonesome, having so much time to herself. She'd been spending it well, though; at least, she thought she did. There were days where she would watch Frisk so Toriel could catch up on housework, which she always enjoyed. Her refrigerator was now thoroughly covered with drawings of sunny yellow flowers and child-renditions of places in the Underground. There was even a few pieces of macaroni artwork, lovingly made by Frisk and Papyrus. There was also one of a single macaroni noodle glued to a piece of white copy paper hung with the others, and the name "Sans" written in Lena's own neat print at the bottom.
Many evenings were spent bouncing between apartments, either joining Toriel and Frisk or the skeleton brothers for dinner. There was lots and lots of spaghetti, and lots of snail pie (which, surprisingly, Lena didn't totally hate). She got occasional thankful text messages from Sans when she convinced Papyrus to try making something new, like fettuccine alfredo and lasagna, and the number of movie nights were endless. Playing in the snow with Papyrus and Frisk, baking with Toriel, and spending time trying to get to know a few of her neighbors was how she spent much of her time. Then there were quieter times, late at night after Papyrus and Frisk were in bed. She'd have tea with Toriel and discuss human-monster relations, or how progress with her school was coming. There'd be mugs of ketchup (and something else for her to drink) with Sans, where they'd spend hours just sitting and watching mindless television, making idle commentary and conversation. Sometimes they even ended up talking about things more relevant. Sans told her about Snowdin, and assured her that it was the real name and not just another one of his puns. Stories about working hot dog stands, and going to his favorite place. Grillby's sounded like a great place. When she'd said so, he'd just shrugged, saying that maybe he'd take her sometime. That had made her happier than it should have.
She'd gotten closer to all of them in that time, including their friends. Alphys was someone more 'her speed', not being too loud or pushy. In fact, she found herself trying to ease the monster into conversation. She always seemed so nervous and unsure of herself, and Lena couldn't help but sympathize with her for that. Undyne was someone she was a bit more nervous around, though she'd gotten over her fear of her for the most part, after a few "lunch dates" with the couple. She was passionate, Lena realized, and energetic, and sometimes those things made her come off as more intense than she meant to be. She couldn't help but respect someone who was so devoted.
Thankfully, she hadn't seen any more of Mettaton since the party. Though Lena was certain that he was a nice enough person, something about the way he approached people put her off a little bit...and maybe the fact that Sans didn't like him affected her view of him a bit. (She wanted to feel guilty about that, but with how thoroughly embarrassed she'd been at the party, she had a difficult time feeling too bad about it.)
"HUMAN! ARE YOU READY FOR THE MOVIE NIGHT AT DOCTOR ALPHYS' YET?" Her front door suddenly swung open, Papyrus standing proudly in the doorway, a pillow and blanket tucked under his arm. He was already dressed in a pair of orange and blue striped pajamas and pink fluffy bunny house slippers, and Lena had to bite back a laugh. "YOU ARE NOT EVEN DRESSED IN YOUR SLEEPWEAR!"
"Ahh, I know. I'm sorry, Pappy... I've been cleaning all day." He seemed to take a moment to look around the apartment, his eyesockets widening.
"WOWWIE, YOU CERTAINLY HAVE BEEN! VERY FINE WORK, HUMAN!" The skeleton reached forward and pat her on the head, and she couldn't help but feel a swell of pride at the compliment. "YOU HAVE DONE SO WELL, HUMAN, THAT YOU MAY GET TO CHOOSE THE FIRST MOVIE ONCE WE REACH ALPHYS' AND UNDYNE'S HOME." She chuckled and smiled up at the child-like glee the towering monster had, nodding enthusiastically along with him.
"Thank you, Pappy! I am happy to accept this reward for my hard work!"
"Yeah, you worked yourself to the bone," Sans said, suddenly standing behind Lena in her own living room. She jumped and whirled to look down at him, frowning slightly. He had a habit of sneaking up on people, and while part of her was curious to how he always seemed to be able to move around so quickly, the rest of her wished he'd stop startling her. Papyrus groaned loudly at his brother's pun, pointing a, for once, un-gloved bony finger at Sans.
"YOU WILL BE UNINVITED IF YOU KEEP THAT UP!" The smaller skeleton gave a shrug of his shoulders, glancing over at the human with a quirk of his browbone.
"So, you gonna wear that to the sleepover?" he asked, and Lena quickly looked down at herself, then down at Sans, crossing her arms over her chest.
"Are you gonna wear that?" She gestured down at what he was wearing, which was his typical attire: his navy blue hoodie, t-shirt and track pants. His slippers, for once, were traded out for a pair of worn sneakers. The laces were left untied, dangling uselessly down the sides. She rolled her eyes and gestured to her bedroom. "Gimme just a sec and I'll get ready." With that she quickly made her way into her bedroom, closing and locking the door tightly behind her before turning to her closet. 'What to wear, what to wear...' She flipped through the various articles on hangers, brows furrowing as she thought. Eventually she decided on a pair of loose black sweatpants and a fitted dark green long sleeved shirt, with the words "need more sleep" printed across the front. After pulling her hair back into a messy ponytail and pulling on her fuzziest pair of socks and slippers, she emerged from her bedroom feeling like the epitome of comfort. Papyrus applauded and grinned eagerly, sweeping the human into a hug.
"VERY GOOD JOB, HUMAN. I AM PROUD OF YOU! NOW WE ARE READY TO GO, YES?" She giggled and nodded as she was carefully put down. "EXCELLENT! BROTHER, AM I DRIVING?" he asked, turning now to Sans, who was fiddling with his phone in his pocket boredly. Realizing after a second that he was being spoken to, he glanced up at Papyrus and gave a lazy shrug of his shoulders. "VERY WELL! TO THE CAR!" He ran out of the apartment, leading the way like a general leading an expedition, and Lena chuckled to herself quietly as she quickly pulled on her coat and followed. Winter's sharp bite stung at her cheeks and nose as she stepped outside, a shiver running down her spine as the cold seemed to cut right through her clothing.
"Not gettin' cold feetare ya?" She didn't even need to look at his face to know that Sans was sporting a giant 'shit eating grin' and she reached behind her, blindly, to smack him on the shoulder. She connected and he gave a small grunt of surprise before it dissolved into snickering. She must've been showing more of her discomfort on her face than she'd intended, because he quickly stepped around in front of her, just enough to be in her line of sight. "Hey, if you don't wanna go, all you have to do is say so." Lena felt herself smiling at his words, always so genuinely surprised by how quick he was to try and make her feel at ease. Maybe because she was one of the few human friends they all had.
"I'm fine," she reassured, raising a brow at him slightly. "I'm just nervous...but I should really just chill out."
"I WILL LEAVE THE BOTH OF YOU HERE!"
They hadn't even noticed Papyrus drive the car up in front of the apartment building, hanging out the driver's side window groaning. His hearing was apparently better than Lena had thought. She and Sans laughed (at the others' expense) and headed down the stairs, quickly reaching the car. "Shotgun!" Sans shouted, taking a step and, by the time Lena had blinked, he was already sitting in the front passenger-side seat. She hadn't even heard a door open or close. The undiluted look of shock on her face only prompted more laughter, from both the skeletons this time, and she shook herself out of it enough to stick her tongue out at them before climbing in the back.
The entire drive there wasn't all that long, but it felt longer, simply because of how much Papyrus talked. Sans tried to remind him that she had, in fact, met Alphys and Undyne before, but he just seemed to brush his brother's comment aside. She 'learned' (again) that Alphys loved anime, and was what Sans liked to call a 'weeb', whatever that meant. She was also the Royal Scientist, back in the Underground, which Lena actually hadn't known, and she found herself wondering just what she did. Sans seemed a bit quieter at that question, though Papyrus did pipe up and say that she built Mettaton, so it must've been amazing work. Undyne was the head member of the Royal Guard, and the more Papyrus talked about it, the more passionate his voice became, and the human found herself looking at the taller skeleton's face with a mix of awe and amazement. Sans had noticed that fairly easily, and he felt his soul thrum proudly in his chest. 'My bro's so cool.'
By the time they were pulling into the driveway of a rather impressively large house, Lena had to take a few moments to register that they were, in fact, no longer in Taobh, but on the outskirts, between Taobh and Tristin. They all climbed out of the shiny red convertible and gathered up their pillows and blankets they'd brought, and Sans and Lena just barely had enough time to catch up before Papyrus was already at the front door, knocking on it loudly. He was practically bouncing in his pink bunny slippers, and Lena nudged Sans' shoulder a bit to get his attention.
"You think he's excited?" she whispered, giggling when the short skeleton's face split into a wide grin, shrugging his shoulders.
"So excite."
The front door opened then, swinging inward with enough force that it felt like a breeze had blown past them from behind. Undyne stood there with a sharp, toothy grin plastered over her face, wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt with a vague anime reference across the front. "Hey, sup nerds! Glad you could make it!" Her arm looped out and wrapped around Papyrus' neck, pulling him inside and rubbing the knuckles of her free hand against the top of his skull.
"PLEASE DO NOT NOOGIE THE SKELETON!" he whined, though he was also laughing, struggling to free himself from her grasp. Sans shuffled in after them, sparing a glance back at Lena as she hung in the doorway, glance questioning. She shook her head and quickly followed him in, closing the door behind her quietly. "UNDYNE! I HAVE BROUGHT THE HUMAN TO OUR MOVIE NIGHT SLUMBER PARTY, AS YOU REQUESTED!" With the attention now suddenly on her, she gave a small smile, awkwardly fiddling with the blanket she had draped around her shoulders.
"SWEET! Alphys was so excited to watch anime with you, dork!" The 'nicknames' were said with just enough endearment that Lena knew it wasn't an insult, so she just nodded. "Welp, Alphys is in the living room getting that shit all set up. Wanna help me get snacks and stuff?" she asked, though she was already snagging the pillow and blanket from her and tossing it to Papyrus, who fumbled with them a bit before catching them. "C'mon!" Undyne grabbed the human's wrist and tugged her along through the house, heading into an impressively built kitchen. All of the appliances shone with stainless steel, and Lena found herself suddenly very jealous. The fish-monster was already pulling out bottles of soda from the fridge (plus one bottle of red substance that Lena knew immediately had to be ketchup for Sans).
"What can I do to help?" she suddenly asked, feeling uncomfortable just standing there watching Undyne do all the work. The other woman closed the fridge noisily and looked up at her, suddenly looking a little uncomfortable herself.
"Yeah, uh, I didn't really need your help..." she said, raising a hand to rub at the back of her neck in a classically characteristic sign of 'awkward'. "I uh... See, I'm not so great at makin' friends. Frisk was the first human I'd ever made friends with, but the skelebros seem to really like you, and you're pretty cool with Alphys. So, uh... Yeah. Sorry. About nearly stabbin' you in the face before. That was uncool of me." The apology was so out of nowhere and sudden that, for a moment, Lena didn't know how to react. She just stood there, staring, mouth slightly agape, and it wasn't until Undyne cleared her throat that she realized what was actually going on. Smiling brightly, she shook her head, picking up the bottles that had been set on the counter and holding them all carefully in her arms.
"It's alright, no problem. All water under the bridge now, or whatever it is they say... I really like Alphys- as a friend," she added quickly, seeing the look that flashed over the monster's one visible yellow eye. "And I like you a lot, too. You'd be an awesome friend." This answer seemed to more than satisfy Undyne, who quickly threw an arm around the human's shoulders, pulling her into a strong, one-armed hug.
"Hey, thanks punk! That means a lot. Now, go take those out to everybody, and tell Papyrus I'll be out with our tea in a minute!" With that she released the human, shoving her gently toward the doorway, and Lena followed her instructions quickly. It took her a moment of walking around the spacious house to find the living room. It was set up with two large sofas and one large, overly plushy recliner, which Sans had already claimed as his, feet propped up and eyesockets closed. 'He can't be asleep already!' Shaking her head, she walked across the room and carefully set the bottles up on the coffee table, uncapping one bottle and holding it out to Alphys, who was fiddling with what looked like a very expensive DVD player.
"Here you go, Alphys!" The yellow lizard-monster turned around very sharply at that, as if startled, and quickly took the bottle, mumbling a stuttered 'thanks', to which Lena smiled. "Undyne said your tea will be ready in a bit," she said as she turned to Papyrus, who gave a nod of satisfaction before returning to looking through the stacks of DVD cases set on the end of the coffee table. She uncapped a bottle for herself, taking a small sip. It wasn't a 'human' brand of soda, so she wasn't sure what she had been expecting. It was just as fizzy and sweet as any other soda she'd had, but the way it spread a little ripple of energy through her was certainly...different. Not unpleasant, but unexpected. She set the bottle down carefully and, after a moment's thought, grabbed the bottle of ketchup. "Sans!" She tossed the bottle just as she said his name, and his hand flew up to catch it, cracking an eye open to look at her.
"You're lucky I caught it. You mustard known that I was awake." Papyrus threw down the DVD case he'd been examining and threw his hands up in the air, groaning loudly.
"I JUST CAME HERE TO HAVE A NICE TIME!"
"Chill bro, we all came to have an ice time. It's snow big deal." Lena couldn't help but giggle at the taller skeleton's expense, watching as his face turned from irritated to brooding to pouting in all of about a second.
"UNDYYYYYNE!" he whined suddenly, flopping back against the sofa with a groan, looking at Undyne, who'd just walked in holding two mugs.
"Oi oi, enough of that shit! C'mon, let's get this party started!" She shoved one of the mugs into Papyrus' hand, jumping across the back of the couch to land heavily on the cushions next to him. It was surprising that she didn't spill a single drop of her tea, but maybe that was from practice. "Alright, babe, what're we watchin' first?" Alphys quickly busied herself with sorting through the thin plastic cases on the table, moving so quickly that it was a wonder she was even looking at them. After a moment, she hesitantly held up three different cases, clutched carefully between her clawed hands.
"I-I, uh...can't decide between these three." Lena stepped closer and stooped down a little to better see the cases. They were all anime, unsurprisingly, but she was pleased to see that they were ones she actually recognized.
"Hmmm... Baccano, Black Butler, or Cowboy Bebop...?" she read slowly, mouth twisting into a small, thoughtful frown. Giving a small thumb, she reached out and gently plucked the 'Baccano' case from between Alphys' claws, holding it up with a smile. "Care if we watch this one first? It's one of my favorites." The yellow monster nodded eagerly and set the other two cases down, taking the one being held up and quickly moving to put the disk into the DVD player.
"Aw CRAP! I forgot the snacks!" Undyne suddenly set her mug down and practically launched herself off of the sofa, flipping through the air dramatically and landing on her feet about a yard away. Lena stared, dumbfounded for a second, then quickly shook her head. 'I really ought to stop being so surprised...'
"WHAT IS THIS ANIME ABOUT, HUMAN?" Papyrus asked suddenly, leaning over to pick up the empty case to look it over curiously. His eyesockets squinted slightly as he tried to read the back, but he didn't seem any more enlightened, because he turned his glance to Lena.
"Ah, erm... It's hard to explain without spoiling it." He gasped at that, because no, we CERTAINLY do not want spoilers. She continued quickly, "But I can tell you vaguely what it's about! Like, the setting and all that." He nodded and sat crosslegged across from her, leaning forward and eager to listen. 'He looks like a child about to be read a story,' she couldn't help but think, giggling and smiling fondly at him. "Okay, well... This happened back in the early nineteen-hundreds. There was something called the 'mafia'. They were an organized crime group, that-"
"YOU MEAN THEY WERE BAD GUYS?" he exclaimed, frowning in disapproval.
"Well, yes... See, back in those times, cities weren't all ruled by the government. There were lots of groups of criminals, called 'families', that had control over different aspects of the city."
"WHY WERE THEY CALLED FAMILIES? WERE THEY ALL RELATED?"
"No, no, not at all. It was called a family because the person in control, called a Mob Boss or The Don, had a name... And all of the people they let join their 'family' took on their name. So, for example... If you were a Mob Boss, and I got allowed into your 'family', then I would introduce myself as 'Leannán O'Brennike of the Papyrus Family'." Poor Papyrus looked even more confused, his skull cocked slightly to one side.
"I DO NOT GET IT. WHY DO HUMANS HAVE TO HAVE SO MANY NAMES?" Lena laughed and glanced around the room, seeing that she now had everyone's attention- even Undyne, who had somehow silently come back into the living room, numerous bags of chips and candy and crackers under her arms.
"It's...well..." She sighed, frowning slightly as she tried to think of how to put her thoughts into words. "...It's like, for protection. When you intoduced yourself that way, people would realize that you're a part of the Mafia, under that particular Mob Boss. Most common thugs wouldn't want to mess with you, because that would mean getting the Mob on their bad side!" The tall skeleton 'ooh'ed softly, nodding excitedly and looking over to Undyne, grinning widely.
"So, in other words..." Sans drawled lazily, eyelights flickering over to Undyne before he closed his eyesockets, grin widening, "...it's like sayin' you're friends with Undyne. If you mess with Undyne's friends, you mess with Undyne."
"Hell yeah you do!" Undyne boasted loudly, dropping the bags onto the coffee table messily and jamming her fist into the air with excess enthusiasm. She hopped back into her spot on the sofa and snatching a bag of chips, tearing it open. "So what you're sayin' is... This anime is about groups of bad guys fighting eachother, and fighting the good guys?" When Lena nodded, she gave a sharp, toothy grin. "Alright! Awesome! I'm so in!"
"It is pretty violent, though, so long as you don't mind that..." the human said gently, glancing at Papyrus, then at Sans. The lazy skeleton shrugged his shoulders, as if that would be a proper response. She sighed. "Well, if you guys don't mind that, then-"
"Just play the damn thing! I'm super pumped!" Undyne shouted, pointing a clawed finger at the television and spilling a few chips in the process. Alphys fumbled with the remote nervously for a few seconds before she was finally able to hit 'play', and she squeaked as a blue scaly arm wrapped around her and pulled her up onto the couch, her face flushing red. "C'mere babe, I got your favorite."
"Heh, th-thanks, sweetie..." Alphys mumbled softly, smiling at Undyne as the settled in close together. Lena watched them with a smile, though a bit jealous. They were just so darned cute together! Ever the unlikely pair, but it seemed to work really well. 'Opposites do attract, or so they say...' As the upbeat music of the anime's opening theme started pouring through the speakers, Lena tried to get comfortable sitting on the sofa next to an eagerly fidgeting Papyrus, taking another long drink from her bottle of soda.
Alphys and Lena both had watched it so many times that they had the words memorized, and they had shared a few amused glances as they waited to see everyone's reactions to certain scenes. Isaac and Miria were a huge hit with everyone, being the hilarious comic relief. There were violent moments, but it didn't seem to bother anyone too much, aside from a startled gasp from Papyrus or a laugh of amusement from Undyne. (Because it was so 'gnarly' and 'awesome' and 'friggin' amazing', and Lena tried not to be too disturbed that she found it so funny.)
It wasn't until the creature known as the 'Rail Tracer' was introduced that the atmosphere seemed to suddenly change. Everyone else in the room seemed to be watching just fine, Undyne having demanded the volume get turned up loud enough that it shook the windows (thank goodness they don't have close neighbors...) to be heard over Papyrus' eager interjections. It was all so loud that Lena almost missed the small but very sudden, very jagged breath that came from her left. Her eyes slid slowly from the television screen, where the blood-covered 'Rail Tracer' was staring down at someone with glowing red eyes and a wide, eerie smile...to Sans. He was staring at the screen with an intensity that, even though it wasn't directed at her, made a shudder crawl down her spine. The lights of his eyes were completely gone, vanished, leaving dark, empty sockets, and his mouth was turned down into what could only be described as a grimace. The amount of tension in his face and in his posture made him look rigid, and the stress emanating from him in waves was almost palpable. The bones of his fingers were digging into the armrests of the recliner and she swore to herself that it looked like they were trembling...
Frowning, she slowly reached a hand over to gently rest on his, only for him to jerk his arm back as though he'd just been burned. He stared at her through empty eyesockets, chest unmoving as he held his breath, his magic crackling within his bones. After what felt like hours, he slowly released his breath as a sigh, forcing the corners of his mouth up into a smile for a brief moment before he pushed himself up from his seat, hands immediately reaching into his pockets. She made a small questioning noise, halfway to her feet to follow him when he turned and raised an index finger to his lips. It was only reluctantly that she sat back down quietly, turning to the television again to watch something that only half her mind was on.