"You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

Fate looked at the ground, her eyes running along her new outfit as she did so. Gaster had re-done her stitches, doing them properly that time, and had been nice enough to make her a whole new outfit so she didn't have to borrow anything from Destiny. It was simple, but she was grateful for it.

It was a light gray quarter-sleeved shirt with a hood, the strings black with black stripes at the ends of the sleeves and such, a pair of dark blue jeans shorts, black cropped leggings and a pair of black combat boots. She had a simple pair of white socks as well.

They had decided that today, Fate should properly meet the other kids… and she had agreed because she was tired of hiding out in her and Destiny's rooms.

"I… I want to. I'm just… anxious…" She explained in a soft voice, making him squeeze the hand he was holding reassuringly. She looked up, seeing his soft smile and relaxing a little bit as she nodded. "Yah…"

"It'll be okay. They're all really nice."

Fate's heart nearly stopped upon seeing the small group of kids, but when she squeezed Destiny's hand and felt how reassuring his little bit of warmth was, her heart resorted to just racing at a fair pace. Gaster was there and Destiny was straight beside her, and she trusted both of them to let the others talk to her one by one.

The first kid was a little goat girl in a purple and white dress, a crest that Fate didn't know decorating the chest of it. Her smile was just as soft as Destiny's and she was being really cautious, which Fate appreciated.

"Hello, my name is Toriel." She greeted, obviously not expecting a reply as she gently rested a hand on Fate's shoulder, constantly checking to make sure that it was okay before actually touching her. "I could teach you how to bake sometime, if you'd like."

"… I'd like that…" Fate responded softly, making Toriel light up as she nodded with a big smile before backing away, allowing the next person to go up.

A small skeleton dressed in bright colors, like orange and yellow, cautiously walked up to her with a little restraining support from Gaster. He seemed like he was really hyper, yet he was trying to stay calm just so he didn't scare her. She really appreciated that even if his hyperness was a part of his personality because she knew that he was at least trying.

"H-Hello…" He greeted, stuttering because he was obviously holding back most of his hyperness. When he held out his hand for her to shake, she hesitated a moment before cautiously grabbing it, letting him do the little bit of shaking. "My name is the Great Papyrus! It's nice to meet you."

She paused for a moment before nodding, finding his personality something to look up to.

"… It's nice to meet you, too…" She mumbled, making his face light up before he frantically nodded, turning on his heel and running back to the couch quicker than she had ever seen anyone run before.

Next was a red-haired little fish girl who wore an eye patch, which made Fate think of how she could have to wear it, which made her think back on some things. She must've noticed because she lifted her eye patch to show her that it was just something she liked to wear and that her eye was perfectly fine.

"Heya, my name is Undyne!" She introduced herself, holding out her hand for Fate to shake, in which she carefully did before there was a bit of a silence, and then Undyne went to sit down.

There was a moment of silence in which no one moved before they all looked at a little, red-faced, yellow dinosaur girl, who went an even darker from all the attention.

"Alphys, introduce yourself!" Undyne told her, but she just shook her head.

"I-I don't th-think I-I can…" She mumbled, hiding her face in her hands.

Fate understood how she felt and squeezed Destiny's hand to tell him that it was okay and he motioned for the last one, which was another skeleton. He seemed pretty casual because his hands were in the pockets of his shorts and he had a pretty blank expression alongside his grin, an adorable gap in his teeth making him look younger than he probably was.

"Hiya, my name is Sans the skeleton. Paps and I are Dadster's original kiddos." He explained, making Fate feel a little bad. Suddenly, there was a blanket wrapped around her and Destiny as Sans' grin somehow got wider. "I made a /purr-ito/."

Papyrus yelled at Sans not to make jokes and everyone either laughed or groaned at it. The moment the joke was made, it made Fate think of her Dad… and she laughed with the others for a moment, who laughed more because they believed that she was okay.

Then she laughed too hard and she continued to laugh as she started to sob, tears starting to stream down her face. Everyone then stopped, looking at her in worry. She apologized softly between her laughs and sobs as Destiny wrapped his arms around her, hugging her carefully. She could hear Sans apologizing even though it wasn't really his fault, but she couldn't tell him that because she was just sobbing and she couldn't stop.

I… feel horrible…

Fate was lying on her bed with a couple of arrows hovering above her, still trying to calm down from earlier. She felt so stupid for crying over a simple joke, yet she didn't know why she had even done so… It felt like it should've been because of her Dad, but for some reason, it felt like she was just trying to get all of her emotions from the past couple of years out.

She didn't even know if she was safe. She didn't think that she was, not even just a little. They set off the alarms and she barely got away… so they would look for her. They still needed her… for now… so they wouldn't stop until they got her, finished using her, and did whatever they did with entirely used experiments. She shivered upon thinking about what they would do and just rolled over, making her arrows disappear.

This isn't okay. This isn't okay. This isn't okay.

She kept repeating that, over and over again without any failure. She didn't know why, but it helped her calm down for some reason. It somehow had kept her sane and still helped with keeping her as sane as possible.

Then there was a knock at her door, making her jump a bit before she called out shakily to let the person come in. When the door opened to reveal Sans, she was wondering why he would come to visit her and got her answer when he crawled up onto her bed, looking really apologetic.

"Hey… I'm sorry for, um, well… whatever happened earlier…" He apologized. "I dunno what happened, but the moment you started crying, I just… I feel really bad, so I'm sorry."

She sat up slowly before suddenly hugging him, feeling him tense under the contact before relaxing and hugging her back gently. She mumbled that it was okay and she felt him smile a bit as he hugged her a little tighter, nodding and thanking her a bit. What for, she wasn't sure… but she didn't really care because she felt accepted for once in her life.

Although, she was at least 99% sure that it wouldn't last.