Frisk read the entire book, listening to Flowey's comments on human societies. He slowly remembered most of the content since that book was edited for monsters to live on the surface. Aster only gave Frisk that reading because he wasn't fully human now, and he may be confronted with some kind of racism from his once fellow humans. Flowey looked at the boy lost in thought and gave him a leaf slap, after which he lost a petal.
"AW ! FRISK ! WHAT THE HELL ?!"
Flowey snapped, like his usual self, while Frisk hasn't batted an eye.
"You knew that would happen, Flower Boy."
"As you know how much I hate that nickname your ex gave me, anyways ~"
Frisk flinched at the mention of an "ex", he was pretty sure nothing was over between him and Chara - or at least, that's what he wanted to believe.
"Flowey"
The pot plant gave him his usual pissed-off face, after ranting about a passage on how SOULless beings should behave on the surface.
"Yeah? You want some?"
Frisk giggled, he liked Flowey somehow, for not being totally honest with how nice he was to the boy.
"Do you think Chara could ever forgive me?"
Flowey remained silent, Frisk looked at the flower withering slowly, then getting back into shape.
"You know, it's like how they hate me, I betrayed them too ... "
Frisk's SOUL ached a bit, but he knew Flowey would say that. The boy was just trying to find a reason not to cling on to hope any harder, but when he thought he should give up on Chara, Flowey continued.
"She came to see you, a week before you woke up. She never entered the room, just stayed there, whining like the kid she never was. The idiot also threw daggers at me, I guess she can't stomach we're pals or something."
Frisk snuggled Flowey a bit, who sighed but gave in to the embrace for a bit.
"Alright, enough cuddles, you're making a flower sweat goddamit."
Frisk laughed at Flowey's eagerness to part from the hug, then obliged.
"Did she say anything?"
"Nah, she just came two or three times, never said a word. She stares at you, cries a bit, then leaves."
Frisk looked sad, Chara was probably determined to end whatever they had together. He would love to go and get her back right away, but he had to be discharged first and then find someplace to live.
A portal opened in the middle of the room, and one chubby skeleton popped out of it, grinning as usual.
"Hey sans."
"Howdy, Bonehead."
"hello, kids."
Flowey didn't exactly like being called a kid, but Frisk muffled him before he starts a FIGHT with sans over nothing.
"peachy?"
"Yeah, more like flowery to be honest."
Flowey complained some more, as Frisk held his mouth shut knowing he just pissed him off too.
"not bad, kid, anyways ... i'm here to discuss something with ya."
"Yes?"
Sans seemed serious for once, and Frisk didn't like the sight of it.
"you wanna move with us, kid? i mean ... after you get out from here."
Frisk got out of bed, nearly dropping Flowey who hung himself on the mattress. The boy slowly made his way to hug sans, who awkwardly returned it.
"I really thought you'd hate me as well."
"why would i?"
Frisk's voice, unwillingly, got darker.
"You know it all, sans."
Sans' pupils were gone but quickly came back as he kept himself sane. He held the kid for a bit longer, and Frisk clutched gripped his hoodie like a lifeline.
"I am sorry, I'm not my old self yet."
"guess these things take time, kid."
Sans would have snapped at Chara or blamed her for doing countless genocides. Now that he knew both of them were swayed by a vengeful mother of his, sans wasn't really feeling like FIGHTing those kids - he would still pick a bone with Chara, though.
Eventually, Frisk got discharged a week after that. He started living with Sans, Papyrus, and Aster, besides having to get a medical check-up at Alphys' lab every now and then.
Frisk was not allowed to be schooled until the next semester, since he had some catching up to do. Thankfully, he had some SOUL fragments from Aster, which gave him the ability to process information much faster. He prepared for his first year in the Art and Design major, while his fellow students were already approaching the final examination period.
The human boy did not go out much, befriended some monsters in the neighborhood, and hung out at Grillby's. Papyrus complained about how limited Frisk's entourage is going to be, but sans reassured his brother.
"the kid will be alright paps, besides, those are just grillbz regulars."
"BUT HE STILL GOT TO FILE HIS PERSONAL INFORMATION TO GET HIS ID"
"got his folder ready, all we need to do is get it to the registration office."
"AND WHY DID YOU NOT DO THAT ANY SOONER ?!"
"ain't nobody there to make them official, Paps"
Papyrus gasped, that did not exactly make any sense, the Monster Kingdom could not be running on autopilot now, could it?
Chara was on Lunch break, after listening to three hours of Gerson's Food History. She almost dozed off, and all that talk about exotic food made her hungry. She went to the dessert court first, picking her favorite Chocolate-filled Muffin. Although she wanted to keep herself in shape, she couldn't get rid of her chocolate addiction. It made any nutrition program useless, so she gave that up and sticked to a "salad and soup only" menu.
It wasn't that much along her muffin, and she thought she wouldn't gain weight again. Yesterday, however, her hopes were crushed by the bathroom scale. She gained another kilogram, despite sticking to the same menu for lunch and dinner. She might have a few mishaps from time to time - and couldn't fight the temptation of eating chocolate pastry - but she was pretty sure she exercised enough not to gain weight.
Chara was thus, for the whole day, irritated by her weight gain. Her friends kept at bay, they conversed at a minimum and left jokes aside. An angry Chara was never something you should get on her bad side, and the fallen SOULs knew about that more than anyone else. Still, someone dared to call her in that state, as the phone rang pretty loudly in the empty cafeteria.
"What?"
"Ambassador Chara, this is Ralph from the registration office."
Chara couldn't recall who the hell was Ralph, but had gone past that point.
"What is it?"
"Sorry to interrupt ..."
you better be, thought Chara, wondering if she should just hang up.
"... But you're the only officer from the Kingdom I could get hold of"
As usual, said Chara with a sigh, she wondered how the country ran itself if she only get to be on duty every other weekend.
"Where are the others, again?"
"It is a mess in here, Ambassador, Sans, and Papyrus are busy accompanying King Asgore on his country tour. Queen Toriel has been sick for a few days, probably from exhaustion. Mettaton was supposed to fill her seat temporarily, but he said he had concerts planned this month and needed, I quote, 'to focus' ".
Great, did they forget I am in my last year of college? Chara was a little irritated by how random the country she represents was. Monsters seemed to think that, five years after, they could still run their country Underground style. Although Chara delegated some of her duties and suggested a few names to King Dad as representatives, everyone loved ditching their duties for jobs they liked or to fool around the human country.
"Okay, um, Ralph was it? Please send me the paperwork to approve through someone from the town, I'll have them ready for you by tomorrow or the next day."
"Thank you, Ambassador."
Ralph hung up, leaving Chara with a cold soup she discarded. She ate her muffin in haste and went to her first afternoon workshop.
Back in the Monster Capital, sans and Ralph were chatting just after Chara was done talking to the only clerk in the registration office. Monsters seemed to not understand the meaning of office hours, except the Snowdin rabbit sisters who showed up occasionally.
"so, demon ambassador is going to sign and stamp this for me?"
"Yes, sans, yes. I just need to get hold of someone to deliver all of this before you get your papers ready." Sans chuckled, he had an idea in mind but needed Frisk's help for it.
"hey kid, care to come with me for a quick ride?"
"Sure sans, where to?"
"human capital"
"M'kay, I'll grab something to wear and I'll see you in a bit"
Sans grinned, then turned back to Ralph who talked to one late colleague about how messed up some demands were.
"what up, pal, some bone you can't chew?"
"Make them twenty, Sans, twenty! Bratty and Catty IDs are ready but they won't take them because they are too plain! Since when do registration offices do customized IDs to anyone ?!"
Sans chuckled, that would not be surprising coming from those too.
"huh, they want glossy pens on it or something?"
"Yeah ! and add cool job titles rather than just the generic 'Supermarket Clerk'. "
"maybe they should cash in later for that kind of extra."
Ralph did not want to laugh in between rants and was still going on with his other cases
"But that's the least of my problems, Mettaton wants his ID to have 'Mettaton' on it when his birth certificate says 'Happstablook'. When I suggested to him a name change, he said he couldn't deny his fabulous family lineage ..."
"talk about spotlight effect ... gimme those boxes, my help is here."
"But that's the unregistered human, you can't -"
"i'll use a shortcut, y'know?"
Frisk was given boxes and followed sans without saying a word. He was a little apprehensive at the idea of visiting a human city, but running an errand with sans wouldn't be that bad, or would it?
Frisk and Sans arrived at some empty street, where no one could see portals forming up from nothing. Frisk wondered why they were not going straight for their destination, then asked.
"Who are we waiting for?"
"undyne"
"What?! Wh-wha-what is she doing here?" Frisk was bad at dealing with Undyne, her eager and sometimes pushy nature often caught him off guard. He also heard she worked for Chara, hence his surprise.
"she's taken us to demon gurl's place, we both can't carry all those boxes all the way there, and my eye is kinda losing it."
Frisk did not want to see Chara immediately and almost felt like fleeing the vicinity ...
"kid, come on, do you wanna have a bad time?"
... but Sans was persuasive enough to keep him around, right as Undyne finally showed up to give them a ride.
"Hey Sans, who's the new punk?"
"some kid we found dragging himself out from Mt. Ebott. name is frisk."
Undyne glared at Frisk for a while, she somehow felt he was familiar but couldn't remember where she saw him before.
"Anyways, hop in! I'll show you around the city !"
Sans and Frisk entered the jet-black car, and it rode for a good thirty minutes. Undyne showed them the few notable places she knew of, mostly manga cafés, official buildings, and gymnasiums. She also went by Chara's college, since it was on the way.
After they arrived, Frisk stayed in the car because he feared that eventual meeting with Chara. Undyne shrugged and took three crates by herself, leaving a light one for sans along with a small folder.
When Chara saw Sans and Undyne, she was glad she could get off being chased by Arthur, her ex from the surface. The former bully still couldn't stomach how she could just leave him like that, and continued inviting her or tail her home. Chara wanted to just beat him up, but her image of ambassador would surely take a hit if she did.
When Arthur saw both monsters closing up on Chara, he clicked his tongue and left with his crew, who waited for him two streets away. Chara took a deep breath, thanked Fishface and Bonehead, then started taking the boxes inside.
Before Sans went for the car to safely teleport Frisk away, Undyne talked to her.
"Hey punk, there is that new punk that just got out of the Underground in the car, wanna shake hands with them?"