Manuela's departed friend never came up with a birthday for Frisk, nor how they/she would react to a party. Maybe this would be an opportunity to have a little fun?

Chapter 14: Pry-vate Matters

"Yo, Princess! When's your birthday?"

Squinting at the armless monster kid she'd made friends with on her journey through Waterfall, Frisk didn't answer immediately. She didn't want to answer at all, but couldn't think of a way to do that without seeming rude to someone that didn't deserve it. So she tried to buy herself some time.

"Why do you ask, Kidalgo?"

"Awww, c'mon Princess! I told ya you could call me Kid!" He looked like he wanted to pout, but was refraining. He bounced on the balls of his feet, a little impatient because this was IMPORTANT and he didn't understand why his human friend didn't feel the same way!

Frisk smiled benignly. "I'm sorry, Kid. Please forgive me, but your question just came out of the blue! I'm a little bit confused as to why you'd be asking that."

"Oh… In that case, it's okay! Guess it was pretty random, ha ha!" After sharing a brief laugh, Kid went on. "Yo, so, you're our princess, right? And you're so cool for bringing down the barrier. And you've been so nice since you showed up, so everyone wants do something special for you! And Mom and Dad say a royal birthday party is what the grown-ups wanna do!"

Frisk brought a hand to her lips, fingertips just barely brushing them as she feigned a soft gasp. "Gracious! That sounds like a massive event! And it doesn't sound very fair. I mean, it's not like the entire kingdom can be invited to a party…" Even as she tried to act demure, her mind raced. Thoughts of big parties always made her uncomfortable. They brought to mind the birthday parties her human parents planned for her, just to maintain appearances.

They confused her, when she was smaller. To have her parents smiling at her, pretending they loved her, only to go right back to their normal, dismissive selves once all the guests left… Getting a glimpse of how things could have been, but never would be… The tears she hid away when she finally realized that nobody cared it was all an act…

In short, Frisk didn't like her birthday.

She could feel her face settling into the neutral expression she'd spent her life mastering. Eyebrows, squint and lips formed straight lines, hiding her thoughts and feelings. She hadn't been using it as much as she used to, but it was good to know she could still pull it off.

Kid didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, anyway. "Yo, it's not that big a bash!" he said with a laugh. "Like, for King Mr. Dreemurr's birthday? It's kinda like a holiday for the people that aren't invited to the actual party. There's no school, and grown-ups don't have to work. Unless it's super-duper important. Like my auntie that works in the Core! She always says 'somebody has to keep an eye on it', y'know?" He puffed up his chest with pride. "Lots of people in my family have been looking after it, since forever!"

"How fascinating! Please tell me more." Sufficiently distracted by his pride in his family, Kid didn't bring up her birthday again. Frisk was relieved, but her reprieve only lasted until the next day.

The Earl of Sharpe paid her a surprise visit, on his day off. It was his first trip to the surface since the barrier fell, and he asked for a tour of the camp. That went smoothly enough (despite a mild discomfort on Frisk's part for purely personal reasons), with her and Papyrus together showing him around. He seemed fascinated by the plants and trees, and would return the greetings of people he knew from the capital as they walked along.

Once the tour was over they went to the tent where Grillby set up a temporary shop to feed everyone. It turned out he and the earl knew one another, though it'd been a long time since they'd seen each another. Earl Sharpe offered to treat her and Papyrus to a meal. Frisk accepted, but Papyrus declined because he was still on-duty. Frisk suspected he would've declined anyway, just because of the "grease." As they waited for their food, the earl started asking questions.

"So, how has life among monsters been treating you? Are you enjoying yourself?"

She had the feeling he was a rather nosy person, but meant well enough. Then again, it wasn't like she knew him very well, if at all. So Frisk just smiled politely and said, "It's been going very well. And I am, thank you."

Dante Flat smiled, mainly with his eye sockets but also with an upward curve of his intimidating teeth. "That's good to hear!" he said with a warm laugh, completely at odds with his dragon-like, beastly visage. It made Frisk ask her own questions about him, the answers to which she started sketching in her journal.

His skull firmly represented the drake side of his bloodline despite lacking blood, on account of his being a skeleton. He had a grand total of six horns, three on each side of his head growing out of a sort of bony frill that was similar to but smaller than Alphys', his face tapering to a narrow snout. Said horns spiraled straight out like an antelope's, six inches at the longest and three at the shortest. His brow ridges were dotted with little spurs of bone, giving him a rather spiky countenance.

The talons on his hands, which had four fingers and an opposable thumb each, had felt dull when he held her hand the day they met, but he told her he could sharpen them with magic when it suited him. He was nice enough to sharpen her pencil with the aforementioned ability. He also had large, dragon-like feet, with equally impressive talons on the ends of long toes. When he walked he had a tendency to tip-toe, the bones of his heels just barely brushing the ground until he decided to stop. He walked mostly barefoot, although he wrapped something around the middle part (Frisk would later remember their name as being the "metatarsal" bones), covering them and a few inches of his lower leg while leaving his toes and heel exposed. Somewhat like spats, Frisk thought.

Then there was the tail. A line of neatly stacked vertebrae about two-thirds as long as he was tall, extremely flexible and prehensile. It poked out of the seat of his pants, tapering to almost nothing. It looked like it shouldn't have have supported anything, much less the earl's entire body weight (skeleton or not) whenever he leaned back in a chair, but he did so anyway. The rest of him was no different from Papyrus or Sans, although he was slightly bow-legged. He said that was due to his quadrupedal drake half clashing with his bipedal skeleton half, giving him a mixed knee structure.

Their conversation went on, even once their food arrived. They began talking about clothing, of all things. Frisk only asked because Earl Sharpe wore was not unlike what Mr. Kane donned whenever he went to see his business associates, although she didn't mention it aloud. It bothered her that such an unwitting reminder of her human father was the reason she felt uncomfortable around the skeletal drake. He'd done nothing to warrant such feelings. If anything, he'd been more of a gentleman than the humans her parents surrounded themselves with!

Dante seemed surprised by her little fashion tidbit, since the design had been based on something that washed up in Waterfall. It was considered the "hip" thing among monsters to wear clothing that came from the surface. While wearing something directly from the garbage dump was merely okay, a well-to-do wore monster-made clothing based on what was found. That explained why so many monsters wore human-like clothing, and why it all looked more-or-less like what Frisk had grown up seeing.

Earl Sharpe, who insisted on being called Dante, even showed her an old picture of himself and Sans in their younger days, showing her how differently they used to dress. In the picture they both wore "t-shirts" with humorous phrases printed in the stripes running across their chests. The earl (although the picture was from before he was the earl) wore dark blue jeans while Sans wore loose, black shorts with white, vertical stripes on each leg. He also wore a hooded blue coat that sagged on his shoulders and looked rather comfy.

What struck Frisk the most was how young they both looked, especially Sans. Lord Dante said the picture was taken just before Papyrus was born, making them both about fifteen years old at the time. Not much older than she was now… Warm butterflies danced in her chest again, and Frisk couldn't help but stare at the first monster she met after leaving the Ruins. She tried to compare the smile beaming up at her from the photograph to the somewhat more restrained one she'd come to know.

It wasn't that Sans couldn't smile like that, anymore, but Frisk did notice a difference between his grins during certain times. How rigid and mask-like it could become. The slight fading of his pupils…

*It's his eyes, she thought to herself. *If they're really the window to the soul, how does it affect them when you've seen as much as he has? When you've lived through something as terrible as the Core Incident, and experienced so much loss?

Another thought occurred to her. *…what does he see in my eyes?

Before she could ponder on it Lord Dante cleared his throat softly, asking if he could have his photo back. He had a sly grin on his face as she handed it over, and a teasing glint in his eyes. "Saw something you liked, did you?" he asked.

Frisk smiled and said, "I did, actually. That cake you two were standing in front of looked delicious! What was the occasion?"

Lord Dante blinked at her, brow ridges high on his skull. If he'd been playfully hinting that she might find either him or Sans attractive, Frisk was determined to disappoint him. She boxed up the butterflies and hoped she her deflection wasn't too obvious.

He chuckled, tucking his photo in a jacket pocket as he said, "Yes, actually. It was our birthday. Mine and my sister's, that is. Which reminds me of a little something I heard, on my way up here…"

He paused for dramatic effect, and Frisk hoped the cold sweat she felt gathering on her palms wasn't too obvious. Lord Dante looked like he was expecting her to ask what it was, and she couldn't think of any polite way to deflect him! She smiled, squinting for her life, as she asked, "What might that be, My Lord?"

"People have been saying they want to throw a royal birthday party for our lovely little princess. Of course, nobody can agree on when your birthday is…?"

"I'm not surprised. I haven't told anyone when it is, so anything you've heard is pure speculation."

Lord Dante closed his eye sockets and sighed. "Ah, the good old rumor mill. It never gets anything right." He opened one orbit, tilting his head to one side. "So…?"

"So… what, My Lord?"

They stared one another down, pleasant smiles creasing both their faces. Lord Dante's was growing more and more amused as Frisk started sweating again. As long as he didn't ask the actual question she wasn't going to say anything, but he just sat there, smiling…!

"PRINCESS! I BELIEVE IT IS TIME TO LEAVE!"

She and Lord Dante jumped a bit at Papyrus' interruption of their stare-down. But even as Frisk sent fervently grateful thoughts in his direction, Dante raised a brow ridge at him. He asked, "Oh? What's the rush?"

Papyrus' visor hid his face, but not the discomfort in his eye sockets. "UM… IT IS TIME… FOR HER HIGHNESS TO… IT'S TIME FOR HER MAGIC LESSON! THAT'S IT!"

Lord Dante clearly wasn't buying it. His brow ridge rose even higher and Frisk decided to run with her friend's little white lie. She turned to him and said, "Thank you, Papyrus! I lost track of the time. We'd better go see Mother, before we're too late." As she turned back to the earl she said, "My Lord, this was a lovely afternoon. Thank you for the meal, and I hope you enjoyed your trip to the surface!" She bowed the way she'd been taught to at the castle, then beat a calm-but-hasty retreat with Papyrus on her heels.

Behind them, Lord Dante called out "spoilsports!", before howling with laughter.

Safely hiding the tent she shared with Toriel, Frisk sighed with relief. It was still a while before her lesson, but she could use the time to pull herself together. She smiled up at her friend in shining armor and said, "Thank you for bailing me out of there, Papyrus. I know you don't like lying, that way…"

He struck his dramatic pose, scarf tails flapping somehow as he said, "THINK NOTHING OF IT, YOUR HIGHNESS! I, THE GREAT ROYAL GUARD PAPYRUS, SWORE TO PROTECT YOU FROM EVERY THREAT! THAT INCLUDES EMOTIONAL DISTRESS! NYEH HEH HEH!"

Suddenly his expression sobered, his scarf falling to settle against his back. When Papyrus spoke again it wasn't at his normal volume, trying to respect his friend's privacy on a matter she may not want shouted to the heavens. "Your Highness… Human Frisk, do you not enjoy your birthday?"

Frisk didn't really want to answer him… but then she remembered the difficult memories he'd shared with her during their "date," down in Snowdin. If anyone would understand how she felt, it would be him, and everyone was prying into her business, anyway! There might as well be ONE person she could share this with voluntarily…

"No. I don't like it at all."

Papyrus lifted his visor. His expression was gentle as he said, "Would you like to confide in me? I assure you that I am all ears! I also lack lips, so you don't need to worry about them being loose!"

His words made Frisk chuckle a bit, reminding her of his brother, and the words Sans shared when he visited her in the hospital. Maybe… it was time to talk it out. This one subject, at least, no matter how hard it was to talk about her old home life. She came to a decision and nodded to Papyrus, inviting him to sit in a chair on one side of the tiny table scrunched into the tent. She took the other seat, steeling herself. After a deep breath, she was as ready as she was ever going to be.

"I've only ever known my birthday to be a farce. Of course, I didn't know what a farce was when I was small, so I enjoyed the attention everyone gave me. The hugs and smiles from my parents, the well-wishes of the guests, the toys and pretty clothes I received as gifts… But then everything went right back to normal, afterward. I would go back to being the unwanted child, the only Kane that wasn't a true part of the family."

She sighed. "All that joy. All that happiness. All of it was fake, a grand little play I had no choice but to star in. I eventually learned my part but… it was hard. It was hard to smile after I realized nobody in that house ever loved me. But I learned to do so, anyway." She smiled now, though she didn't feel like doing so, forcing the corners of her mouth upwards and pasting a politely attentive expression on her face. Her friend seemed appalled, and her expression fell as she looked down at the hands wringing themselves in her lap.

Papyrus took advantage of her pause to ask, "What do you mean when you say weren't a part of the family?"

Her hands wrung themselves even harder. A voice that sounded like her human father, thick with contempt, echoed in the back of her mind. She wasn't "his" daughter, and he only deigned to raise her because she was too "visible" to easily discard. And he had his reputation as a "philanthropist" to consider, orphanages being one of the many places he donated his "charity" to. Although she wasn't his daughter by blood all he had to do was smile and spew a lie, saying he cared about all children, even if they weren't his. People believed him, and when Frisk tried to contradict the lie she was punished by being thrown into the closet under the stairs by her own mother.

That woman took her turn to screech in the back of her mind. Frisk had been nothing but a doll, to her. Dolls sat on the shelf, never speaking. They wore the pretty clothes their owners chose for them. They weren't supposed to think for themselves, or talk about the feelings that stabbed them in the heart every day. They weren't supposed to feel at all. Nobody cared what happened behind their painted-on smile. No matter how many tears fell from their glass eyes, nobody would come to save them from their pain. Nobody came…

Her body was suddenly constricted! Frisk gasped and struggled before she realized it was Papyrus hugging her. He'd gotten out of his seat without her noticing, and was kneeling beside her as he wrapped his arms around her. He'd taken his helmet off, and his cheekbone dug into her ear, just a bit. His armor made the hug a little awkward, but the warmth from his soul made up for it. Tears leaked from her eyes before she could stop them and she tried to box everything up, but Papyrus stopped her.

"It's alright," he said. "You don't have to talk about it. But at least let yourself cry." Frisk shook her head, making Papyrus hug her tighter. "It's alright! Bawl your eyes out, scream into my scarf if you need to! You'll be surprised at how much better you'll feel afterward." He sighed, a long-suffering sound. "Honestly, you and my brother are exactly the same. Keeping things to yourselves until it becomes too much to bear, and hoping you're not worrying anybody until then."

"I'm sorry…"

"You don't need to apologize for it, just… Just let me be here for you, like the great friend I am."

"… the greatest friend."

"And don't you forget it! NYEH HEH HEH!" Frisk winced a little at the volume of his laugh right in her ear. He apologized, patting her on the back of the head as he did.

Frisk couldn't help but smile. She wriggled her arms out of his hold so she could hug her friend back, wrapping them around his neck. The scent of bones and armor polish was strong and, although she didn't cry or scream as Papyrus suggested, she couldn't deny talking had helped, just a little. He eventually let her go, and had a suggestion when he did.

He very reasonably pointed out that she no longer lived with humans that didn't appreciate how cool she was. She should take this chance to make happier memories for her birthday, with all the monsters that loved her the best! Every birthday from now on would be a celebration of true friendship and family! It didn't always have to be about how crummy those never-to-be-mentioned-henceforth humans made her feel!

Frisk knew had a point, but she still wasn't quite ready for the sort of fuss everyone seemed to think she "deserved." Thankfully, she had plenty of time before her next birthday to decide what she was going to do.

Sans awoke to the sound of pacing in the tent he shared with Papyrus. The footsteps sounded like his brother's, with the clanking of his armor added in for flavor. Still laying on his cot, Sans barely opened one eye socket to find that his brother was, indeed, pacing a hole into the ground that served as their floor, at the moment. He'd removed his helmet, mainly because the roof was so low Papyrus had to stoop to keep his skull from hitting it, even in his bare tarsi. The helmet would've caught on something and brought the whole place down. The lack of ironmongery let Sans see his brother's expression, one of the more complicated ones that managed to combine worry, frustration, excitement and…

*huh, that's rare, Sans thought to himself. *he's actually mad. really mad. i don't think i pranked him today, so why…?

He made a big show of stretching and yawning, banking on the hope that Papyrus' thoughts distracted him so thoroughly he didn't notice Sans' scrutiny. As he sat up and scratched his ribs he said, "heya, bro! just get back from your shift, or somethin'?"

"Hello, Brother. Yes, I just got back a few minutes ago."

He didn't stop pacing. The tent was so small it took Papyrus two long strides to go from the flap of the "door" to the back wall. Which he did, over and over. Step, step, turn. Step, step, turn. Step, step…

Sans was starting to get dizzy watching him. And maybe a little worried. "uh… bro? did something happen with frisk, again?"

"Yes! No! I mean, something did happen, but Frisk confided in me! And I'm not sure she'd want me telling you about it! She didn't say I couldn't, but she didn't say I could, either!"

"okay… she didn't have another 'bad time', did she?"

"Almost! But I, the Great Royal Guard Papyrus, successfully thwarted her waking bad dream! Nyeh heheh heh!" He stopped pacing long enough to strike his signature pose, his smile sparkling heroically.

"heh, that's great, bro! you're a real knight in shining armor."

"I know! I even-!" Papyrus made the mistake of looking down at his brother. Sans was glowing his eye so he could see in the semi-dark tent, reflecting it off his armor. He was checking himself in its polished surface and making silly faces in it before he noticed Papyrus watching. Caught, Sans smiled as though he was innocence incarnate. Papyrus knew better, of course, and gave his brother The Look of Fraternal Disapproval. It bounced off of The Perpetual Grin as though it never happened.

"Sans! Would you please take this seriously!"

"okay. so are you gonna tell me what happened, or should i go ask her myself?"

"I'm… not sure!"

"aww, c'mon paps. you know you need tibia honest with me." Papyrus clamped his jaw shut, trying not to explode. It was neither to time, nor the place for over-used jokes! He already had to apologize to their tent neighbors about his volume, but Sans didn't relent. "you know i'll just rib ya 'til you talk. it wouldn't kill either of you to shiitake to me."

Papyrus threw his hands in the air, lifting the tent a little. "OH MY GOD! IF YOU'RE GOING TO PUN INCESSANTLY, AT LEAST STICK TO ONE THEME! EITHER BONE PUNS OR FUNGUS PUNS! DON'T MIX THEM! YOU HAVE NO STANDARDS AT ALL!"

A voice from outside their tent shouted, "HEY! Volume!"

"SORRY! I mean, I'm sorry!" Papyrus leveled The Glare of Fraternal Frustration upon his brother, who at least had the decency to look abashed.

"sorry bro! you, uh, wanna take this conversation somewhere else?"

Papyrus nodded with an aggravated sigh. "Yes. That may be for the best."

"you wanna go to the usual spot? i know a shortcut."

"Yes, yes, I know! You and your lazyboned shortcuts." Although Papyrus didn't approve of the way Sans used them to slack off, he couldn't deny their usefulness. Especially after Frisk's uncle nearly succeeded in dusting him! Even with his friend's cool healing magic, the trip to the hospital by other means would have been… unpleasant. So he was grateful Sans had the ability, he just wished he used them for less lazy purposes!

After Sans slid his boots on (without tying them, because he never did) he lead the way out of the tent, Papyrus close on his calcanei. They stepped onto a path they knew well, back down in the Snowy Forest. Papyrus couldn't help but look behind himself, half-expecting the tent to still be there, but it wasn't.

He didn't really know why Sans went back to being mysterious about his shortcuts, but his brother did many things he didn't understand. Frequenting Grillby's, for example, despite the copious amounts of grease. Or how his inventory seemed to be bottomless. He could swear Sans was shortcutting things into his hands while he made a show of digging through his pockets! But since he didn't know how the shortcuts worked, and Sans became cagey whenever he asked, he couldn't be sure…

As Papyrus pondered the perplexities of his peculiar brother, they walked to an old clearing with plenty of space. It was probably where most of the building materials for Snowdin came from, when it was founded, but went out of use as trees closer to town grew to maturity. Now it was just a nice, empty place in the middle of the woods wonderful for pacing, magic training… and venting to the ceiling. Although Frisk didn't say he could share what she'd shared, this injustice simply could not be allowed to stand! The royal guard inhaled deeply, letting the cold, crisp air fill his soul just before letting his outrage be known.

"OH! MY! GOD! WOULD YOU BELIEVE FRISK HATES HER BIRTHDAY!? BECAUSE OF HOW THE HUMANS TREATED HER!? LIKE SHE WASN'T EVEN PART OF THEIR FAMILY!? AND NOW SHE'S AFRAID WE'LL DO THE SAME!? OR MAYBE NOT THAT! I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT SHE'S AFRAID OF! BECAUSE SHE DIDN'T SAY! BUT CHILDREN HER AGE SHOULD NOT BE CONCERNED WITH SUCH THINGS! THE MONSTER'S MANUAL TO RAISING CHILDREN CLEARLY STATES-!"

Sans took a seat on a nearby stump, watching his brother pace 'round and 'round. Papyrus gesticulated wildly as he made his opinion known, in no uncertain terms, on how children were to be treated throughout their lives. It didn't sound like Frisk shared very much with him, but the fact she shared anything about her place in her former family was a step in the right direction. Sans tuned his brother in and out, half-listening until…

"-I MEAN, WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT?! WHY MAKE HER FEEL UNWANTED?! I MEAN, OUR MOTHER PASSED AWAY WHEN I WAS BORN! ONE WOULD BE TECHNICALLY CORRECT TO SAY I DUSTED HER!"

Sans frowned, interrupting his brother. "paps, we've been over this. you didn't do anything to mom. what happened to her wasn't your fault."

"I KNOW THAT, NOW! THAT'S WHY I SAID 'TECHNICALLY'! AND BECAUSE IT IS A TECHNICALITY, NOBODY MADE ME FEEL UNWANTED! I WAS NEVER FORCED TO SMILE AND PRETEND THAT I WAS NEVER IN PAIN! WHAT IN THE WORLD COULD FRISK HAVE DONE TO WARRANT SUCH PUNISHMENT!?"

"beats me. sounds cruel and unusual, anyway."

"EXACTLY! I SIMPLY DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW ANYONE CAN TREAT SOMEONE ELSE SO POORLY! AS THOUGH THEY NEVER MATTERED, AT ALL!" His energy flagged, and he sighed. "SHE GAVE ME ONE OF THE FAKEST SMILES I'VE EVER SEEN, AND I LIVE WITH YOU! THAT'S A VERY HIGH STANDARD FOR FAKE SMILING!"

Sans winced on the inside, even as he smiled and said, "hey! i resemble that remark."

"THAT'S WHY I MADE THE COMPARISON! BUT I KNOW YOU HAVE YOUR REASONS, WHICH IS WHY I TRY NOT TO PRY! EVEN IF DOING SO WOULD BE FOR YOUR OWN GOOD!"

"you're the coolest, bro."

"I KNOW I AM! BUT I BELIEVE WE HAVE STRAYED FROM THE TOPIC AT HAND, WHICH IS FRISK!" Papyrus crossed his arms and closed his orbits to think. "I TOLD HER SHE COULD MAKE BETTER BIRTHDAY MEMORIES WITH EVERYONE, BUT SHE SAID SHE NEEDED SOME TIME TO THINK ABOUT IT. SHE SOUNDED LIKE SHE COULD USE SOME CONVINCING, BUT HOW TO GO ABOUT IT?"

The brothers spent a while brainstorming, which consisted mostly of Sans making jokes and Papyrus telling him, in various ways, to grow up and be serious. Eventually, a plan was pulled from the mess of their fraternal bonding.

Frisk wasn't going to stand a chance. She was going to have the best birthday ever, or their names weren't Papyrus and Sans Gaster!