Other Half
Chapter 3
After a difficult string of tests in her first few classes, Frisk found herself practically collapsing in her dormitory. It was her free period, and she practically melted into a beanbag chair when she gave her head a definitive rub. So far, she felt uncertain about her scores, but she'd definitely had a mental workout this morning. Coupled with the fact that she was up late the night before reviewing, it was no surprise that she abandoned any thoughts of eating during her free time in favor of a little rest. She slumped backward, feeling comforted by the softness of the chair.
Frisk knew that studying was most likely the best option at this point, considering that she had four more summative exams to take before her day would be over, but she was way too mentally and physically tired to do anything but lay there. The student thought over her last test, and her brows creased, but her mind quickly switched trains of thought and she grinned. She had a prize that would come after this awful time of midterms, and that filled her with the ability, (or determination, if you will), to continue. The prize she sought was one that she was bound to enjoy, also known as her break, and with it the long awaited trip to Mt. Ebott that she so dearly wanted to participate in. Her thoughts of the historical site and the fun she'd have were unfortunately interrupted by the sound of a knock on her door.
"You can come in!" She said lazily, expecting Ange or one of their tutoring students to walk in. She saw the doorknob glow a faint yellow, and was pleasantly surprised to see Kid standing outside. Or at least, she was until she felt the cold, and quickly ushered him inside.
"Yo, D-Dude! How's it g-go-" Frisk immediately cut him off.
"It's freezing outside! Why aren't you wearing something warm? You didn't walk here, did you?" She asked, a little incredulously. Kid looked down for a moment, before looking back towards her with a sheepish grin. Despite being almost a head taller than her, Monster Kid was, as his name implied, quite child like in nature. He could be serious when he needed to be though, and Frisk was more than happy to have him as a friend. Still, he was clumsy and got hurt often, and his lack of arms didn't help that in the slightest. Frisk was always there to worry about him, provide ice for a black eye, or drag him to a nurse even though he claimed he didn't need it.
"Sorry Frisk. But check it out, I brought lunch!" The aforementioned food levitated itself over to the table in front of the room's beanbag chair, and kid's magic easily placed it on the flat surface. Frisk, despite her worry, practically jumped on him with a hug. After all, he was even considerate enough to bring stuff from her favorite fast food restaurant that was located on campus, and levitate it all the way to her dorm.
"Thank you, Thank you, Thank you Kid!" She said, but quickly detached herself from the embrace. "But don't think that you're off the hook. Your shirt is so thin, you'll freeze out here!" Kid just laughed a little, but shook his head.
"Nah, I've dealt with worse temperatures than this. I used to live in the cold part of the underground, remember?" He said, and then sat down as Frisk helped herself to a bite of the chicken sandwich.
"You haven't been down there in a while, that's no excuse. Speaking of which, are you excited to go back?" She asked, recalling her excitement when she found out that most of the predominately freshman classes were visiting the mountain, and one of her friend's classes would be one of them.
"I guess so." He said between bites of his own food. "It's just visiting some place I used to live though, so it's not as big of a deal." Frisk nodded sympathetically.
"I get what you mean. Kid, you know that I've never been down there before. I've always wanted to see new places and explore. So yeah, I'm ridiculously excited for this trip, especially since I'll have you there too!" She said enthusiastically. Although they both had numerous exams that day to 'look forward to', Frisk's upbeat attitude had its way of contaminating Kid's, and he immediately began to gain a more excited outlook on the trip.
"I don't know if the tour will take us there, but I hope we'll get to see the waterfall." He said, thinking back to his childhood. "The entire place is beautiful. It has echo flowers, and these giant, almost glowing blue rivers- they look stunning. I always went there when I was younger; trying to find this person I was obsessed with. I-" He cut himself off for a second, envisioning the area once again, and his expression turned a little nostalgic. "I hope you get to like, see it. As far as I can tell, they don't have anything similar to it up on the surface." He said a small smile on his face. Frisk found that her voice was unusually small, but the amazing description she'd heard made her attempt to picture the underground.
"Do you miss it?" She asked, a little curious at the situation. Kid seemed to hesitate with his answer.
"A little, but I definitely like living up here more. I mean, like, the sky. It's just so endlessly vast and amazing and incredible. We didn't have that down there." He said, then added a bit of an afterthought. "But… everything we had down there, I liked." He added, then went back to his sandwich. Frisk continued eating hers too, now considering his words.
"I can't wait to see it." She announced, and then a faint alarm sounded from her pocket. That was a ten-minute warning for the end of her free period.
"Well, I guess you won't have to wait much longer dude." Kid joked. "Four more tests to go, right?" He asked a little smile re settling itself on his face. Frisk groaned.
"Why did you have to remind me?" She asked with a little exasperation in her tone. She decided to take all of her finals in one day, and while the idea brought her a little more stress, it would give her a few days before the trip began to relax at school without the weight of assessments on her back. Kid just shrugged and laughed, and soon Frisk joined in. She wrapped up her eating, and then looked towards her friend. He still had naught but his thin striped shirt, and she immediately walked over to a basket full of clean clothing. Inside it, she held up a decent jacket, and tossed it towards her friend. It landed on his head, and he looked up in confusion.
"What's this?" He asked, his eyebrows scrunching together. Frisk rolled her eyes.
"It's your jacket. You left it here the last time we hung out here, and I forgot to give it back. Come on, we don't want to be late. This time period ends in ten." She explained, and he immediately began situating the jacket- or a vest with a hood, she supposed, since it lacked armholes, over his body. Once the two were ready to go, Frisk took one last look towards her shared room.
"The next time I come back here, I'll be packing for the trip." She thought, and she gained the determination to do well on her tests. After ushering both herself and her friend out of the door, she grinned. She was ready.
Sans's usual unwavering grin started to, well, waver, throughout the day. He would be taking his trip to Mt. Ebott tomorrow, but that meant getting through finals today. The tests weren't hard. Actually, they were ridiculously easy for him, and he had no idea why everyone else, humans and monsters alike, seemed so stressed about it. He actually made a friend at school, an Ice Drake that adored making ice themed puns almost as much as he enjoyed ones about bones. They shared a class, and poorly hidden laughter emerged from the back of the room, much to the distaste of their teacher. The aforementioned ice drake seemed so worried about the upcoming test that he actually asked him for assistance in studying, and Sans was more than happy to help. Unlike his fretting friend, Sans found that the worst part of these finals was waiting for other students to finish, because he completed his so quickly.
Finally, after what felt like light years of waiting, a bell sounded and Sans was free from midterms. He felt an inexplicable rush of giddiness. After all, he was barely even trying in that chemistry exam- there were only so many equations a skeleton could balance without it feeling repetitive. Sans decided to take the long route home, which meant that he had time for sky gazing. The clouds were blowing across the seemingly endless expanse, and he loved getting a chance to look at them from time to time.
He spent half of the time on his path home walking, but the rest was spent looking up in wonder. It was amazing, to him anyway, that all of these people took the sky for granted. The sun though, was by far his favorite thing about the surface. The way that it looked when it rose from behind the clouds in the morning, or disappeared beyond the horizon at night- well, it was worth staying up for.
Upon entrance into his home, the skeleton's enigmatic younger brother greeted him with a hug- or really, more of a tackle.
"Sans! I missed you!" He screamed, literally knocking him over when he entered the house. Sans grinned at his brother's playfulness, but eventually stood.
"Aw bro, I missed you too. I guess I was a little bone-ly without you." Sans responded, earning a death glare. He flashed his brother a grin, and then threw himself on the couch.
"How were the exams, brother?" Papyrus asked, deciding not to comment on Sans's joke.
"Oh you know, I took them I guess." He said with a noncommittal shrug. "What about work? How is it, being Mettaton's bodyguard?" Papyrus's angry expression faded into one of joy.
"It's fantastic brother! When Mettaton starts performing concerts outside of the city, I'll be working at all of his concerts! I suppose that I'll leave home more often." Papyrus mused. "BUT, worry not brother, The great Papyrus will procure some merchandise for you from his shows! To think, I'll be employed to someone as positively glamor-ific as him!" Sans was genuinely confused at Papyrus's description of the robot.
"Glamor-ific? Where did you hear that?" The area where Papyrus's ears would be had he been human turned slightly orange.
"I suppose I have spent quite some time with Mettaton, it seems like he's rubbing off on me! Do you think I'll gain him as a friend, Sans?" His older sibling forced a grin.
"You guys will be the best of friends, I'm sure." Sans responded, and Papyrus looked delighted.
"You think so? I mean, of course he shall! Anyone would love friendship with The Great Papyrus! Nyeh heh heh!" He said, and ambled off to the kitchen. Sans wasn't sure how he was supposed to feel when he learned that Papyrus was spending enough time around the pop star to start mimicking his actions. The skeleton, as usual, shrugged his thoughts away, and turned on the television. He seemed to have built the habit that whenever he was upset, stressed, or thinking, he'd forget about it in favor of relaxing on the couch.
The idea that he'd made the television a coping mechanism kind of worried him, but he didn't feel like doing anything about it. After hitting the power button on the remote, Sans frowned when he saw a rerun of a MTT performance. That certainly didn't help his situation, so he eventually just turned the T.V. off. He had packing to do anyway.
-Okay, Okay. So this chapter was sort of a filler, I guess. Don't worry, next chapter, Gaster and Chara will come in! I hope you're excited, because I sure am. Stay cool people. Or hot, or lukewarm, I guess. I feel like giving Monster Kid a bigger part than I did when I first started writing this. Is that a good idea? A terrible one? Let me know in a review!
Question: Are there any pairings that you all want in here? I may add it in, if it works in the story and won't change the main ending. Let me know!
PS: What's your opinion on how I write Papyrus's words? I know a lot of people use caps for him, so if anyone prefers that, I would be happy to change it.
ST OUT!