15:33
"You can come out now, coast's clear."
Frisk obeyed Sans and crawled out from underneath the booth, the ordeal having left her both physically and mentally exhausted. She didn't want to be there anymore, she just wanted to go back to Ms. Toriel's. To get away from these hijinks and deadly encounters.
"Quick thinkin' there, kiddo," the comedian praised, "Ya really saved our guts."
"I'm 19." Frisk grumbled, ignoring the question of whether or not skeleton's even had guts.
"Sans' right." Papyrus agreed.
"I'm on a roll today." the aforementioned brother commented, feeling proud of himself.
"I knew I made the right choice in recruitin' ya into our trio," the red clad skeleton remarked, "Not even an hour in, and ya already proved your resourcefulness!" Not even an hour in, and she wanted out. This wasn't the life style she was cut out for, she wasn't a gangster like these two. No matter how over the top wacky they may have seemed, they were still a couple of skilled criminals. Who knew what they were truly capable of?
Today had been pretty traumatic.
"Don't let that web head get under your skin," Sans assured, sensing the change in the girl's attitude, "As far as we're concerned, that's over and done with."
"That's nice," the young girl mumbled, not convinced that that was true, "I'm gonna go now."
"Go," Paps questioned, sounding a bit disappointed by the human's dismissal, "But you only just got here!"
"'Bout an hour ago." his shorter brother reminded him.
"I'm really tired," Frisk insisted, which wasn't too far from the truth, "I need to go to bed."
"Oh," Papyrus responded, a bit down, "Well, I guess that's reasonable."
"How comes they get a pass, but I don't?" Sans asked, feeling that his brother was being biased.
"'Cause you're always nappin', ya lazy bones!" the dramatic skeleton yelled dramatically.
"Ya don't know that they don't." his brother informed, cheekily.
"Why must everything be an argument with you?" Papyrus complained.
"It is not." Sans replied.
"You're doin' it right now!" the irate bones pointed out, growing more frustrated the more his sibling spoke. Seeing that the two were gonna be preoccupying each other for sometime, Frisk took the opportunity to make her exit.
"Thanks, brotha', glad ya noticed my improvement." the funny bones chuckled, turning the other's words against him.
"How 'bout improvin' some more by shuttin' the fuck up?" Papyrus strongly urged, holstering his gun. He prayed internally for the strength to not use the weapon on his aggravating brother, who he loved despite his ludicrous ways. However, not everybody did, and that scared him. He couldn't stand the idea of Sans cracking one too many jokes and upsetting a guy. He was so small and frail, it wouldn't take much for some brute to get pissed off by Sans' shenanigans and end up crushing him.
It was times like these when he missed when his brother was serious.
"Hey, where'd the kid go?" Sans asked, gaining his brother's immediate attention.
"What," Paps looked around frantically, but couldn't find a trace of Frisk anywhere, "Ah, dangit, Sans, look what ya did! I didn't even get a chance to tell 'em when and where to meet!"
"Sorry, Paps." he apologized, scooting the plate of ketchup covered fries away. At this point, the fries just fell apart when he tried to pick them up, leaving him with nothing but a soggy pile of sugary tomato paste and mushed potatoes.
"It's fine," the slender brother groaned, standing and grabbing a brown fedora he left hanging on a nearby coat rack, "We'll just regroup back here tomorrow, and hopefully she'll show up."
"Good idea." the comic remarked, standing and grabbing his hat from a lower rung of the rack.
"Of course it is, I thought of it!" Papyrus retorted, pulling out a leather coin pouch. He unzipped it and dumped out several gold pieces into his hand, strolling over to Grillby at the bar. "Mr. Grillby, I hope this'll be enough to cover our bill?"
"More than enough, Papyrus, thank you." Grillby assured, accepting the gold.
"If itsy bitsy skitters back in here, let us know," Sans said, while his brother was already leaving the establishment, "We'll bring down the rain."
"Will do," Grillbs agreed, handing the gold back to the small skeleton, "I'll put it on your tab."
"Take it easy, Grillbs." Sans chuckled, pocketing the money and following his brother.
"See ya tomorrow, Sans." the flaming man ensured, knowing his friend's daily routine. Upon leaving the diner, Sans found his brother waiting.
"If she wasn't in such a hurry, I would've given her a lift." Papyrus commented, as him and Sans wondered over to his parked red 1959 Cadillac Convertible.
"Probably doesn't live far from here." Sans suggested.
"Can you believe it, Sans," his brother giggled with glee, climbing into the driver's seat, "A human; an actual human, in our crew!"
"Who would've thunk?" the grinning skeleton hopped into the passenger side, leaning the seat back and pulling his hat down over his eyes.
"I tell ya, brotha', our luck is finally turning' arou-" Papyrus stopped upon discovering a parking ticket tucked underneath his windshield wipers, snatching it off and looking at the 510g cost, "N'oh, Dammit!" He crumpled up the ticket and tossed it into the backseat, rather annoyed now. He started the car and immediately screeched off down the road, clearly having no regard for safe drive.
Though she was several blocks away by now, Frisk could hear the echoes of the screeching tires back from where she'd come from. For a moment, she almost feared that it was the two chasing after her, but felt relieved when they grew quiet in the peaceful night. It wasn't going to take her long to get back to Toriel's, she had a good sense of direction. When she got there, she would go back to sleep and forget any of this ever happened. She might even eat that pie she'd left. She'd been so preoccupied with finding Napstablook, that she forgot she hadn't ea-
"Crap!" she cursed, looking down at the stereo she still carried. In all the commotion, she'd gotten sidetracked and wasn't the least bit closer to finding the missing ghost. She'd went through all of that for nothing. "You're such an idiot!" She repeatedly bashed her forehead with the audio device, but not hard enough to impose any damage to it or herself.
There was nothing more she could do but hang her head in defeat, dragging her feet as she ventured back to her new home. She only hoped that Napstablook would happen to swing back by sometime so that she could return his property. Until then, she'd just have to put it away and keep it safe. She figured the wardrobe in her room would do just nicely, just as long as she got it there in one piece. Having thought that part she now worried that she'd just jinxed herself.
However, her superstitious concerns dwindled away moments later, when she'd arrived back to the bookstore. Still, no sign of the melancholy spirit, not that she really expected to see him again so soon. With the door still being unlocked, she quietly snuck back up to the apartment; making sure to lock both doors behind her.
"My child?"
Frisk's heart leaped in her chest upon hearing the goat lady's voice break the silence, turning around quickly to face her. Ms. Tori stood in the darkened hallway, dressed in a nightgown (the color of which being unknown due to the darkness). It was hard to make out, but her face seemed to show both a concerned and confused expression.
"Is everything alright?" the tender hearted monster asked her.
"Y-yeah, of course." the human girl stuttered her words out, giving an assuring smile.
"What do you have there?" the goat lady moved to the next question, now referring to the stereo in Frisk's hands rather curiously.
"Well, I was woken up by this strange music coming from outside," she began to explain her story, knowing she was going to leave out most of the details, "When I went to check it out, I found a ghost playing music on this thing. I guess I scared him off, and he forgot it."
"Frisk, you should never open the door in the middle of the night around here." Ms. Tori corrected her mistake, realizing how much worse it could've been, "Let alone leave the house! Especially if you hear something strange!"
"I-I'm sorry," Frisk quickly apologized, not wanting to upset her hostess on her first night, "It won't happen again, ma'am."
"It's alright," Toriel accepted her apology, though it wasn't really called for, "The next time anything 'strange' happens, let me know first and I'll investigate it. Lord only knows what it could've been."
"Tell me about it." the human thought, remembering back to the spider girl at Grillby's.
"Do you need anything before I go back to bed," Tori asked, "A glass of water? A snack? Maybe a bedtime story?"
"I'm fine, thank you." Frisk answered, smiling warmly in appreciation.
"Alright then, goodnight, my child." the monster bid her, turning and heading back to her room.
"Night, mom."
Both of them were taken aback by that, as an awkward silence fell over them. Frisk didn't know why she'd said it, it just came out. Almost as if out of instinct.
"M-mom," Ms. Tori repeated the word, her heart fluttering in her chest, "Is that what you'd prefer to call me? Mom?" The young brunette wanted to dismiss this as a simple slip of the tongue, but the tone in the goat's voice made her reconsider. It sounded hopeful, joyous, flattered; kind of like she'd received compliment. Maybe she did mean to say it, it surely didn't feel wrong in the slightest.
"Y-yeah." she confirmed, shrugging slightly in a 'why not' manner (not that Toriel could see it with her back turned). A small laugh came from the white furred monster, as she continued to her room.
"Sleep well, my child." Ms. Tori said, before disappearing into her room. And like that, Frisk was alone again, feeling content with her decision. Although excitement had shaken her awake so many times that night, the urge to sleep always seemed to overwhelm her soon after. Thank god she had that bed to alleviate that urge, and she sought to take full advantage of it. For the time being, she sat the stereo on the shelf in her room, and kicked off her shoes again.
Hopping into bed, she pulled the warm cover over herself, feeling the kind of comfort she hadn't experienced in oh so long. Her mind reflected on her very first day in the Underground, and all the madness she'd dealt with so far. Being jumped by Flowey, rescued and welcomed in by Ms. Toriel, scaring off Napstablook, meeting the two skeleton brothers, almost being caught in the middle of a shoot out; it just wasn't her day. Sure, Sans and Papyrus seemed like a couple of swell guys, hilarious even. But, if tonight was a testament of anything, it's that the lives they lived only seemed to spell out trouble.
She'd have to avoid Snowdin, avoid confrontation with the brothers-
"Dammit!" Frisk cursed beneath her breath, remembering how Sans and Tori were apparently an item.
"Wait."
"Ms. Tori?"
"Boss?"
"Oh my god!"
"Sans, if you're gonna be unboxin' some of this junk, don't just leave it strewn about the floor!" Papyrus ranted, stepping over the large opened boxes he had neatly organized. The keyword being 'had', as his brother had once again made a mess of things in their garage of a home.
"Gotcha." Sans answered, clearly not paying any attention to the other skeleton. He sat at a work desk, flipping through pages of an old photo album.
"What're ya even doin'?" his brother asked, both out of curiosity and suspicion. He stripped off his daily attire down to his under shirt and boxers, preparing for bed.
"Just thought I l'd take a trip down memory lane." the comic answered.
"Well, I guess there's no harm in that," Papyrus dismissed, grabbing a blanket and climbing in the back of his convertible., "Just be careful of paper cuts."
"Rememberin' the past can be pretty painful." Sans retorted wittingly.
"I only have myself to blame for that one," Paps sighed, laying his head and and his eyes sockets closing, "Goodnight, brotha'."
"Night, brotha'." his brother returned, flipping through more pages. He stopped when he got to one page in particular, one of several monsters gathered together at a dinner table. If he was remembering things correctly, it was a birthday party. The boss monster, Mr. Dreemurr, playing a couple hands with the old geezer, Gerson. That lovely beauty they call Toriel, resting her head on her husbands shoulder. His old man was standing behind the tortoise, giving hand signals to help his boss cheat. And there he was sitting with the birthday boy.
And her. The pink faced cutie that held rabbit ears over the young goat's head; the one with the rosy cheeks and a smile that melted heart. A smile that inspired hope in every monster in the underground.
A smile that hid a multitude of sins.
"Hey there, ol' buddy, long time, no see."