"Monsters should not be allowed to use any sort of their dangerous energy outside of that mountain!" The adult thundered.
Frisk's hand wandered up to their chest, and they were relieved to find their SOUL still inside their body as the adult kept prattling on about the risk of having "creatures with unknown energy running about unchecked."
They glanced over at Sans, whose arms were crossed and his expression vaguely annoyed to those who knew him well enough to see past his smile. Asgore and Toriel were on their other side, the two exchanging uneasy glances. For once, the two weren't arguing and were actually agreeing on something.
"I've tried explaining to you, us monsters can't help it," Asgore tried again. "It's part of our nature to use magic. Our entire bodies are powered by it, and it's also cemented into our reflexes to use magic for daily life activities. It isn't possible for monsters to just turn that off-"
"Oh really?" The man sneered. Frisk frowned. They didn't like this human. They couldn't remember his name, but he reminded them of an ugly ox so they decided just to call him Ox Head. "Are you positive you're not just using that as an excuse to keep this power to yourselves? Your little human can use magic just fine, from the looks of it!" Ox Head leaned across the table, stabbing a finger in Frisk's direction, and they looked down to see their SOUL pulsing against their chest.
Frisk flinched as the other four adult human's gazes all instantly zoomed in on them.
(I can't help it,) they signed at Sans, looking at him hopelessly. (I'm sorry…)
Sans shrugged. (don't worry 'bout it. they're just trying to be difficult, that's politics for ya,) he signed back.
Sans used the bare minimum of Wing Dings whenever possible. Frisk knew he detested it because of who created the monster's sign language, but he was kind enough to use it so he could talk to Frisk even during these meetings.
"And? What does your little ambassador have to say about this?" Ox Head asked snidely.
"they said it's not the same thing," Sans said, resting his elbows on the table and closing one eye. "frisk doesn't have magic; all of you humans have those souls. frisk just has theirs come out of their body once in awhile, nothing to raise a fuss over. we've covered this already."
Frisk peered at him uneasily. It was his left eye he shut, they realized. Sans was mad… that was rare.
"Well, if that's the case, why don't we simply make any of the unsanctioned external use of this… magic of yours illegal?" A woman asked, leaning forwards. She looked somewhat nicer, with black curly hair and glasses. A notebook with scribbled writing lay open in front of her.
"External magic is pretty vague," Toriel said warily. "Many of us count on our abilities for every day life-"
"If the lot of you want to come and invade our home, then you'll have to make some small sacrifices." Another man spoke up, tapping his pen against the desk. "Making monsters accountable for any usage of this energy, magic, or whatever you want to call it is just a necessary step for humans to accept this change."
Toriel and Asgore shot another glance at each other, and besides Frisk, Sans sighed. They frowned and motioned with their hands. (Aren't humans allowed to carry weapons though? They don't get penalized for those, and magic is much better in my opinion.)
Sans nodded and repeated Frisk's question and Ox Head snorted. "No no, of course these things are different. Humans are quite harmless compared to the variegated zoo you expect us to let into our society. Weapons don't have such dangerous… ramifications."
(But magic isn't normally used to fight! How can you-)
"It is either you agree to obey this law or you and your monsters will need to find a new home, King Asgore." The fourth human spoke up, another woman who watched everything with calculating eyes and red hair. "Well?"
Frisk bit their lip as Asgore had no choice but to give his assent.
.
(I felt useless,) Frisk signed dejectedly as Sans walked besides them to their school. They had already missed a few classes because of that meeting, but Toriel refused to give them any full skip days after those meetings.
"eh, they're a pretty stubborn lot. nothing you could've done." Sans commented idly.
(But still, I should've been able to do something! That law… what if monsters are attacked by humans? We can't defend ourselves!) Frisk protested.
Sans halted, raising an eyebrow as he glanced at Frisk. They realized what they had said and blushed, looking away.
(...You guys,) they corrected themself. (You guys can't defend yourselves.)
Sans chuckled, putting his hands into his pockets and starting to walk again. "i'd say you're a bit young to have these kinds of worries, kiddo, but we both know we've handled worse. it'll be fine, frisk- we're on the surface. compared to that, any other issue can be fixed through our hard work. personally i think those humans were just mad i was wearing pink slippers to the meeting. they looked really boned about that, heh heh."
Frisk giggled silently, and Sans looked at them sadly. "by the way…your throat doing all right, kiddo?"
(It's fine. It hurts to try and talk still but it doesn't wake me up anymore.)
"good."
The two lapsed back into silence, and Sans paused as they arrived at the school's gate. "welp, kiddo, i think this is your stop. tori should be along shortly for homeroom."
(Thanks, Sans,) Frisk motioned. They turned to enter the building before pausing and waving at Sans as the monster winked at them and wandered off, probably going to one of his part-time jobs.
Their school was fairly small; it had only been open for a month, actually, and so far there were only thirty monster children and one human child. Frisk.
There would have been many more monster children, Frisk thought, had monsters had the same lifespans as humans. In reality, monster children were extraordinarily rare according to Toriel, because monsters didn't have enough HP to give HOPE to new monsters often. It was a problem expected to be remedied soon enough, though, what with the Surface open to the monsters now.
The bell rang and Frisk hurried inside, glad Toriel had insisted on dropping off their backpack earlier that morning.
.
School that day was overall uneventful. Frisk had special classes on human politics and government, but other than that they attended classes with several of their friends like Monster Kid. He was always fascinated with Wing Dings, since he didn't have hands to try using the sign language for himself.
That day, it was Papyrus picking Frisk up. Toriel was normally busy tutoring after school, so Frisk's other guardians took turns walking them home from school or going to get ice cream.
Papyrus was wearing a red t-shirt with white letters declaring "Bad to the Bone!" on it in bold print. Sans' influence, Frisk thought in amusement as they looked down at their purple sweater with the royal emblem on it. Toriel had given it to them as a present on their birthday.
"FRISK! OVER HERE!" The skeleton waved excitedly and Frisk hurried over, latching onto Papyrus' offered hand with a grin.
(Papyrus! You came!)
"OF COURSE I DID, SMALL HUMAN. THE GREAT PAPYRUS NEVER BREAKS HIS PROMISES!"
Frisk beamed, following the skeleton to his red convertible he had parked on the side of the road. They were still a bit surprised the skeleton had managed to pass the driver's test in just three months, but he was actually quite the safe driver despite his theatrical personality.
(So, where to today? A spaghetti restaurant? Sans' part-time job? The park? Or just home?) Frisk asked eagerly, strapping in.
Papyrus grinned, taping sunglasses to his face. Frisk watched, amused and certain he was doing it just to look cool since he technically didn't have eyes that could be harmed by the sun, but maybe he was still not used to sunlight after his life spent underground.
"TODAY I HAVE A SPECIAL SURPRISE FOR YOU, LITTLE HUMAN!" He announced. "METTATON AND I WERE TALKING, AND HE SAID HE WANTED TO GIVE ME TICKETS FOR HIS SHOW TONIGHT! WOWIE, WASN'T THAT NICE OF HIM?"
Frisk's eyes widened. (Really? I thought his shows were packed lately!) They grinned, nudging Papyrus with their elbow. (Are you sure there's no specific reason for this invitation?)
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT- OHHHH NO. WHAT DOES THAT FACE MEAN, FRISK?"
(Maybe you two have pushed all of the right buttons? Had a bit of chemistry?) Frisk waggled their eyebrows. (Maybe he's nuts and bolts about you-)
"AUGH, I GET IT ALREADY. PLEASE STOP!" Papyrus yelled. "I HAD ENOUGH TO DEAL WITH WHEN THERE WAS ONE BAD PUN PERSON AROUND, I CAN'T DEAL WITH TWO!"
(But are you-)
"I DON'T KNOW! NO! YES! MAYBE!" Papyrus grumbled. His face turned slightly flushed (how skeletons could blush, Frisk would never know) and he kept his gaze fixed firmly on the road. "WE'RE REALLY JUST FRIENDS, FRISK. I'M HOPING NOT TO SCREW IT UP SINCE HE'S… WELL… KIND OF ONE OF MY IDOLS BUT I DON'T KNOW IF I FEEL THAT WAY. I DON'T KNOW HOW I'D KNOW EVEN IF IT WAS SOMETHING SIGNIFICANT." Papyrus nervously glanced at Frisk to watch them sign, still glancing back at the road to remain on course.
(Well, I went on a first date with you a lot. Like, over a hundred times.) Frisk grinned. (I'm sure you'll figure things out.)
"NYEHEH. THANKS, HUMAN."
Frisk smiled, turning to watch the scenery fly by. They paused, glancing back at Papyrus for a moment.
(Um, Papyrus?)
"YES?"
(Can you maybe… not call me "human" anymore?) Frisk signed sheepishly.
Papyrus blinked, startled. "OH! UM. SURE, FRISK. IS THERE A REASON FOR THIS? I'VE CALLED YOU THAT FOR SO LONG IT JUST BECAME A HABIT…"
(Well, it's just. There's a lot of humans we meet everyday now! And it made sense when there was just me but… but now…) Frisk sighed. (It's a bit… complicated.)
"ALL RIGHT, FRISK. I'LL JUST CALL YOU FRIEND THEN! OR IS FRIEND A NO-GO? WHAT ABOUT COUSIN?"
Frisk laughed. (Friend is fine. Or cousin. Fellow skeleton in a meatsack and all that.)
"THE GREAT PAPYRUS CAN SURELY DO THAT, COUSIN!"
The two laughed again, and the red convertible sped towards the stadium that was located in the middle of the city.
.
Sans yawned, checking his phone again to see if another minute had passed yet. Nope. Still the same as the last time he had checked it.
The door rang as it was pushed open, and Sans looked up, slipping his phone back into his pocket.
"So what'll it be today?" He asked, leaning against the counter and grinning as Alphys and Undyne walked in. "nice cream? starfait?" He winked, glancing back to make sure one of his coworkers didn't hear him. "i'm pretty sure glitter was dumped into the starfait so i would definitely recommend the nice cream."
"Figures," Undyne said, studying the parfait dubiously. "What do you want, Alph? I was thinking we should split a nice cream. It's too damn hot on the surface!"
"T-That's just because it's the season of summer," Alphys offered, and then turned pink as she turned back to Undyne. "U-Uh, wait, s-share an ice cream? T-that's an i-i-indirect k-kiss isn't it?!" She squeaked.
Undyne turned and gave her girlfriend a duh look before laughing loudly. "Alphys we've already kissed multiple times, what is there possibly to-"
"N-Not here! Please, Undyne!" Alphys cried, covering her face.
Sans chuckled, turning to root around in the freezer for the nice cream. "sure thing, one nice cream coming right up,"
"Thanks!" Undyne grinned, baring her teeth as she looked around. "By the way, Sans, business today sure is slow, huh?" She glanced around at the three other customers, all monsters, and frowned. "Wasn't this spot popular for humans? I thought we'd see more in here."
Sans shrugged. "apparently our food hasn't been cleared as "safe for human consumption" yet. some kind of concern about raw energy bein' bad for humans or whatever. i'd think we'd know by now if this was an issue, though, since frisk is doing just fine and they've only eaten monster food for a while now."
"Hmph. Cowards. Don't even know what they're missing out on," Undyne snorted, pulling her red hair back and putting it into her normal ponytail. "I'm sure they'll come around eventually though. We're gonna show them what's awesome about monsters!"
Sans shrugged. "sure."
"Did Burgerpants or that blue softy clear your request to sell hotdogs yet?" Undyne asked, glancing over the rest of the menu.
"nah. that'd mean i'd have to cook somethin'." Sans muttered, yawning again. "not my style to ask for more work anyways. so, where are you two heading off to today?"
"W-We've got tickets to Mettaton's concert tonight," Alphys said. "He's doing r-really well here! I'm a bit concerned about… well… his energy consumption, but he insists that his fans prefer his EX form so we're trying it again for now."
"So we've both got to go babysit on the sideline while that guy dances around onstage!" Undyne complained, tossing some money on the counter. "I wanted to catch up on that anime you were showing me, Alph!"
"W-We can tomorrow," Alphys smiled. "But i-it should be fun! Papyrus posted that Frisk and him are going."
"paps is?" Sans handed Undyne back some change after puzzling over how many quarters went into a dollar again. Humans and their strange currencies. "tell 'im hi for me."
"Will do!" Undyne said cheerfully, grabbing Alphys' hand. "Come on, Alph, if we're gonna go we need to get the best view possible!"
"Okay! Bye, Sans!" Alphys called.
"see ya."
The two left, the door swinging shut behind them, and Sans returned to gazing out the window just in time to see a child look inside hopefully before their mother rushed forwards, taking them by the hand and quickly tugging them away before glancing warily back at Undyne and Alphys as they walked away in the other direction.
Sans sighed.
Figures.
He checked his phone's clock again before leaning against the counter and closing his eyes, waiting for the shop's door to open again.
.
.
.
((I didn't even know I liked Mettaton x Papyrus before writing this chapter. Huh. Interesting, lol. Don't worry though, if you guys don't care for romance there isn't really anything seriously romantic in this story. Just a few results of the scenario, I suppose. Also, nah, this isn't a slice of life story. That was why I was so hesitant to agree to write a sequel in the first place- I needed a plot! So yeah. First two chapters might seem a bit slow but trust me, there are important details in both to set everything up.^^ I'm really blown away for everyone's support this round! I hope not to disappoint. c:
On a side note, reason I've been writing less lately: I beat Undyne today. On No Mercy. Took me a solid four days. Now. Let's see what Sans has got, hehe. [I said I wouldn't but I did, same as this sequel lol.]))