Manuela remembered how she felt when her best friend told her she didn't like her birthday. It made her determined to give Francine the best darned birthday ever…

Chapter 15: Operation Birthday (Phase 1)

Frisk stared at the object in her hands, a perplexed slant to her squint as she contemplated its meaning, and how it became present in her life.

After another magic lesson from Toriel, Frisk returned to the tent to find a box sitting on her sleeping bag. Sorrel and Rochester (the royal guards that became a couple after Fighting her and insisted on taking shifts together) immediately and thoroughly inspected the mystery box. It was soon deemed harmless, but they were also confused by it.

It was just an empty, wooden box measuring about a foot per side, with a slot in the lid. The word "WISH" was written on the outside in handwriting she didn't recognize. She turned it over and over in her hands, wondering if there was a secret button, a false bottom or some such trickery, but she was unable to find one. There was no clue as to whom the box might be from, but the timing of it's appearance suggested a pair of brothers to be the most likely source.

She'd left Flowey outside before her lesson, behind the tent, so he wouldn't have seen anyone coming or going. Since he didn't want to be seen talking, they talked quietly through the tent wall. When she asked if he'd heard anyone, he said he heard nothing. She described the box and he said it sounded vaguely familiar, but after becoming Flowey he'd noticed that not all of his memories as Asriel had made the transition. Particularly, the ones from before he met his best friend were the haziest (he said their name, but it was still being converted into Frisk's, in her mind).

Frisk decided to track down the Gaster brothers -one of them, at least- and ask them if they had anything to do with the box. She asked Flowey if he wanted to come while she watered him but he declined, not wanting to get closer to Sans than necessary. Sorrel and Rochester followed her, holding hands as they watched her back.

None of her neighbors had seen anyone entering or exiting the royal tent while she and Toriel were gone, but if Sans was behind this mystery that wouldn't mean anything. He could just take a shortcut inside and leave without ever being seen or heard (which was probably how he managed to sneak the whoopee cushions into her sleeping bag and Mother's teapot a while back). But why would that lazybones do this?

Did Papyrus tell him what she'd said about her family? She wasn't mad, since she never expressly told him to keep his teeth shut on the matter. But even so, why would Sans do anything like this? Had Papyrus been that upset with what she told him? Or was it that he roped his brother into helping with some grand scheme and Sans was in a good enough mood to humor him?

Even if that was the case it was still sweet of them. It almost made her wish she'd had an older sibling looking out for her, in the past. Of course, that just meant the both of them might have suffered. Frisk's face went neutral as an even darker thought crossed her mind. Her hypothetical sibling could have been one more person to view her with contempt, taking their cue from their parents. So perhaps things were better off with her being an only child. She put her thoughts away when she arrived at the brothers' shared tent.

She knocked twice on the improvised doorway made of planks, thinking Sans might appreciate a joke. But nobody answered, and peeking through the gap in the front flap showed that nobody was home. Except for Rockwell the pet rock.

Frisk went to Grillby's. She never expected to find Papyrus within, but was disappointed when Sans was nowhere to be found. A number of Mr. Grillby's Snowdin regulars, as well as some new faces greeted her as she went to the back to ask the fire monster if he'd seen Sans. After a shake of the head and some translation from Ms. Red (the bird lady), it turned out Sans had yet to come by today. Frisk thanked them for their time, but as she turned to leave Ms. Red stopped her.

"Grillby's wondering what you've got there, Princess," she said. Mentally shrugging to herself, Frisk showed them both the box, and it's emptiness. After adjusting his spectacles Mr. Grillby's "hair" flared a little bit, his body burning a tiny bit brighter. The tent got a little bit warmer as he gasped. He brought himself back under control, the soft crackling and popping of his speech a little more pronounced than normal. When Ms. Red translated, she seemed very pleased.

"History buff Grillbz says that's a wishing box! It's a very old monster tradition, from before we were sealed underground. What you do is leave it outside your house during a special occasion. People will come by to leave you and your family little notes wishing you happy birthday, merry Gyftmas, stuff like that. But nobody uses them nowadays."

Frisk tilted her head. "Why is that?"

Mr. Grillby shrugged. Ms. Red didn't feel a need to translate.

One of the restaurant patrons piped up. "So why do you have one, Princess? What's the special occasion?"

"Oh, there's nothing special going on right now," Frisk said with a smile toward them. "I just found this on my sleeping bag. I'm starting to feel like I'm being ribbed by… a certain someone." That got a round of laughs, everyone present knowing exactly who she was talking about. Then the clamoring started.

"Hey, so when's your birthday? I've been hearing a lot about someone wanting to throw you a party."

"I've heard that, too! Isn't it real soon?"

"Naaah, I heard it's months from now."

"Who cares when it is? It's gonna be awesome whenever it happens!"

"C'mon, you can tell us!"

"Yeah!"

The patrons began to crowd Frisk, all the attention making her a bit uncomfortable. Thankfully, she wasn't alone.

"Okay, people! Give Her Highness a little space, y'know? You're bumming her out!"

"….back up."

The efforts of the big, burly guards kept people from getting too rowdy. Some even smiled sheepishly and apologized as they gave Frisk some space. Breathing a mental sigh of relief she kept smiling, not wanting to hurt everyone's feelings.

"There's no need to get so excited over little old me," she said demurely. "I don't find turning another year older to be worth fussing over. But I would like to find whoever left this 'wishing box' in my tent. If you would all please excuse me?"

Ms. Red spoke up. "Princess? Grillby says he has something for you."

When she turned back to the elemental monster he was holding a folded napkin between flaming fingers, somehow not setting it alight. He gestured to the wishing box, and she held it up so he could stuff the napkin through the slot. He spoke some more and, while Frisk thought she understood snatches of it, she was grateful for Ms. Red's translation.

"He says you're not supposed to look at what's in the box until the day after your special occasion. It's so the wish magic has time to build up and take hold so it lasts for a whole year."

Frisk laughed, hugging the box a little. "Your note will have a while to wait, then. But… thank you, Mr. Grillby. This conversation has been quite… enlightening."

A sound left the fire monster that resembled a chuckle as he shook his head. He gave Frisk's head a pat, just like he did before her journey through Waterfall. Ms. Red said, "Grillbz says 'Sans is a terrible influence on you.'"

Frisk smiled innocently and said, "Oh, no. My mother taught me that one." That got another laugh out of everyone, even her guards.

As she tried to leave it turned out the restaurant patrons also had napkin notes to give her. Frisk collected them patiently, a little amazed that they all wanted to wish her well. Or maybe it was just the novelty of it that made them all want to participate. She wondered as she bid everyone farewell with a smile.

Since searching the two most likely places to find at least one Gaster proved to be a bust, Frisk changed tactics. She pulled out her c-phone, sending a text to Undyne asking if she'd seen Papyrus, and one to Alphys asking if she'd seen Sans. She chatted with Sorrel and Rochester while waiting for their replies, noting how happy the couple was as they held hands again. She even had time to put her box down and make a cute sketch them before Undyne answered her query.

She said she hadn't seen Papyrus. But she also said he liked to go on an afternoon jog after his shift, so he'd be home, eventually. She asked why Frisk was asking, and how important it was so she could go look for him if she had to.

Frisk remembered her camera and took a "selfie" while holding the box in front of her. She posted it to the Undernet page Alphys made for her, expressing confusion on its mysterious appearance, and letting Undyne know it wasn't terribly urgent. Frisk knew she, Alphys, and Papyrus were all "following" her, along with a small number of people she didn't know personally. She tried not to let the account become general knowledge, and feared the entire kingdom would follow her if given half a chance. She didn't think she could handle that much scrutiny of every post she made.

After growing up around technology which was (at its best) equivalent to the late nineteenth century, she'd forgotten she could simply check Papyrus' social media page for any updates. She wasn't quite used to thinking like a monster when it came to connecting via c-phone. To her it seemed terribly invasive to have one's life on constant display, but people could only see what you posted. If you wanted something to remain private, all you had to do was keep it to yourself.

Which proved to be what Papyrus was doing, after checking his page. His last post was from the day before yesterday, which was odd for the normally active skeleton. Then again, after becoming her guard the number of posts he made per day seemed to dwindle. Some of them were still humorously augmented selfies, but recently more of them were things Papyrus found interesting about the surface. Clouds shaped like a plate of spaghetti, a fuzzy caterpillar crawling along a branch, a close-up of morning dew on the grass, tree leaves bigger than his hand, things such as that. He liked to post at least one picture a day…

She checked log of the "troll" that liked to bother Papyrus. After just a little investigation she concluded that it was Sans pestering him, and others. He was less active, however, and it seemed like the account existed only so he could bug people (who seemed to be members of his family) on their accounts, mainly through bad puns in a "goofy font" that somehow looked like his handwriting. She couldn't tell who was who, but it seemed like he had a small pool of "favored" relatives.

Frisk felt sorry for them.

Undyne responded to her picture by "liking" it, as did a few of her unknown followers, but nobody offered any insight or seemed to know what she was holding. Alphys wasn't being very active on her account, either, but she understandably had her claws full with trying to bring monster technology to the surface. The fact that everyone could use their c-phones aboveground was due to all the hard work she'd put in since the barrier came down.

Being fired from her position as Royal Alchemist hadn't stopped Alphys from trying to contribute to the kingdom's move to the surface. She figured out how to get the c-phone signals to work aboveground, how to keep the power crystals in them charging without having to return underground, and was even working on harnessing a new energy source so they didn't have to keep relying on the Core; the sun. She was using special crystals that absorbed sunlight and working on converting it into usable energy. This was all on top of her helping to figure out what happened to Frisk the day she first used magic.

The princess had asked Alphys, in a private message sent soon after the incident, if she was stretching herself too thin and overworking. The alchemist said not to worry, and that she'd be fine. Since she was no longer looking after the amalgamates she had a remarkable amount of spare time on her claws (although it was cutting into her "human research" time.) Working on so many projects kept her mind off her past mistakes, and she hoped her efforts would lead to some good for monsterkind in the long run. Frisk still worried about her, but could think of nothing to say that would get Alphys to rest, a little.

With no other leads she went back to the Gaster brothers' tent. With still no skeletons to be found in the proverbial closet, Frisk was forced to use her last resorts. She tried calling the brothers, but she only received the prerecorded voice of Mettaton for both of them.

"So sorry, darling, but this person has either turned off their c-phone, or is no longer in an area with service. After my beautiful voice ends at the tone, you may leave a message. Although I don't know why you would, since I'm sure they aren't as fabulous as I am. I'm also sure they can't tell you all about the latest MTT-brand produ-" BEEEP.

She left messages saying she was looking for them, and asking if they knew anything about the wishing box she found. It was all she could do, if they were purposefully ignoring her. She wondered if this was all some elaborate prank, but she wouldn't know for sure until the punchline came for her.

Frisk was out of options. She wasn't allowed to wander around the woods, even with bodyguards, so she couldn't look for them. She didn't want to bother her father, because he was undoubtedly busy running the kingdom. Her mother was busy as well, holding her refresher class on surface foraging safety. Lord Dante gave her his number as she showed him around camp saying that, since he often let Sans sleep in his office, she could call him if she ever needed their friend when he wasn't answering his c-phone.

However, calling the half-drake lawyer wasn't an option. She simply didn't know him well enough to be comfortable bothering him out-of-the-blue, not unless it was a true emergency and she really needed Sans. Asking about a box nobody used anymore was hardly an emergency, so she would just have to be patient and hope Alphys got back to her, or one of the brothers themselves.

She went back to her tent and left the box inside. She then decided to volunteer for chores around camp, just to give herself something to keep her mind off of it.

If she'd only known, Frisk would have found her friends at the ancient tree. Sans was lounging in his favorite section of roots while Papyrus paced a short distance away, looking at his c-phone as he did.

"IT WOULD SEEM FRISK HAS DISCOVERED THE PURPOSE OF THE WISHING BOX!"

"yup."

"AND SHE HAS BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT US!"

"yup."

"HOWEVER, WE BOTH AGREED WE WOULDN'T TELL HER ANYTHING ABOUT OUR INVOLVEMENT IN IT'S SUDDEN APPEARANCE! NOT UNTIL SHE TELLS SOMEONE WHEN HER BIRTHDAY IS!"

"pretty much, bro." Sans' brother stopped his pacing and glared at him, making him look toward Papyrus with his left eye closed as he grinned. "what's the matter, paps? not getting cold feet, are ya?"

"OF COURSE NOT! AS SKELETONS, YOU KNOW OUR TARSAL BONES CANNOT PERCEIVE COLD, UNLESS IT IS MAGICALLY PRODUCED! HOWEVER, YOU WERE SPEAKING METAPHORICALLY! IN THAT CASE I, THE GREAT ROYAL GUARD PAPYRUS, HAVE NO REGRETS IN INTRODUCING FRISK TO OUR FAMILY TRADITION!"

"i'm hearin' a 'but' in there, bud."

Papyrus rubbed his humerus, his eye sockets downcast. "IT'S JUST… MUST WE IGNORE HER COMPLETELY? WHAT IF SHE THINKS WE'RE BEING MEAN?"

"nah, she won't. she's probably figured it's just some prank."

Papyrus threw his hands into the air. "THAT'S ALMOST JUST AS BAD! AND IT'S NOT LIKE I CAN IGNORE HER FOREVER! SHE'S GOING TO SEE ME WHEN I TAKE MY SHIFT TOMORROW!"

Sans shrugged. "guess that means we'll have to throw her a bone and move to phase two early." He checked the time on his c-phone. Toriel's class wasn't going to last much longer. And the kid liked to help out around camp at about this time, so the tent should be empty. Well, empty of anything sentient, anyway. Hopefully that flower Frisk liked so much was still outside. He could feel his grin fixing itself into place as he thought about it.

Once the anomalies started happening golden flowers just didn't agree with him, anymore. The strange thing was that Sans couldn't quite remember why. He just seemed to wake up hating the things one fine day. There was something about the color that made him feel angry. It also evoked feelings of grief, although nobody had died or been killed. He thanked any god listening that the anomalies started AFTER his grandparents passed away, so he didn't have to lose them over and over again.

A chill crawled up and down his spine whenever he had to be in the same room as "Flowey". It only got worse when he had his back to it, his instincts screaming he'd have a bad time if he didn't keep it in sight. He didn't like leaving Frisk alone with it, but there was no evidence to say it would harm her in any way. It was just a weed, after all.

…wasn't it? But then there was the flower-shaped weirdo that caught them all when they tried to stop Frisk's Fight with Asgore before it started. Being knocked out didn't exactly help with memory retention, but didn't Frisk call out a name…?

"BROTHER? ARE YOU ALRIGHT?"

Sans snapped back to the present. His answer was automatic, as was the smile. "sure bro. i'm just sans-sational." He was holding his c-phone so tightly he was making the crystal and metal creak a little. He eased his grip as Papyrus rolled his eyes at him and groaned.

"THAT'S WHAT YOU ALWAYS SAY!"

"what else can i say? it's the only pun that makes sans-e."

"HONESTLY, BROTHER! YOU ALWAYS INSIST UPON NON-SENSE AT THE MOST INAPPROPRIATE TIMES!"

"heh heh! good one, bro."

"I KNOW! NYEH HEH HEH!" Even as they laughed, Sans could tell Papyrus wasn't done fretting over him.

Time for a strategic withdrawal. He stood, shoving a hand into a pocket as he waved goodbye with the other, saying, "welp, i'd better get goin'. phase two isn't gonna start itself. later, paps!"

He rounded the tree, walking along the roots in the direction opposite of camp. Papyrus was jumping from root to root, trying to catch him, but he was already long-gone.

Frisk walked back to the tent, staring at her phone. She alternated between that and watching where she was going, a little annoyed that she couldn't just put the infernal device into "sleep" mode. Well, she could, but then it would just keep beeping at her with notifications. Word about her wishing box got out, and now half of the Undernet had exploded at the news.

Speculation ran rampant. Questions she didn't want to answer about what occasion she was celebrating were so numerous she had to figure out how to set her messages to "friends only". Arguments had broken out over the relevance of the box. One side said bullet-shaped cards and electronic correspondence were far superior. The other contended that a such a sentimental tradition should never have fallen by the wayside in the first place.

And still nobody was claiming responsibility for bringing it into her life! Probably the only reason she wasn't being bombarded with queries face-to-face was because Sorrel and Rochester cut such imposing figures. However, their shift was due to end soon and Greater Dog would their place. To be fair, he could be somewhat intimidating in his own way. When he wasn't imitating a snow poff. As she opened the flap to enter her temporary home, she reflected that perhaps this was the punchline for an elaborate prank designed to embarrass her to an early grave. It had "Sans" written all over it and-

Did the fabric flap just click?

Before the three of them could register they'd heard something there was a loud bang, smoke and bits of debris suddenly clouding their vision. It tore a startled scream from Frisk's throat as Rochester pulled her away from the tent and shoved her behind himself, Sorrel at his side.

"Princess! You okay, dude?"

"I… I'm fine…" Shaken but whole, Frisk brushed some of the debris out of her hair, where some had stuck. She gathered some in her hand and stared at it in confusion, still a bit shocked.

If Rochester felt confused, it didn't show. He squeezed her shoulder comfortingly, leaning down to look at the debris in her hand and identifying it. "…confetti."

"Seriously?!" Sorrel rounded on the growing crowd, hands on his hips and his voice admonishing. "Okay, I get that everybody's, like, excited for the princess and all, but this kind of prank is NOT cool! She could've been hurt! Like, c'mon guys!" He started grilling people, trying to figure out who the culprit was.

Rochester took it upon himself to check the interior of the tent for more traps. Frisk tried to follow him and help, but he held a hand out to stop her. He shook his head, wanting her to stay a safe distance away. She nodded and obeyed, watching Sorrel interrogate people, smiling and waving whenever she was given worried looks to show everyone she was fine. The search didn't take long.

"…tent's clear. …box is gone."

"Great, so we got reckless endangerment and burglary! Sweet. Not."

More Royal Guards arrived, drawn to the commotion. Frisk recognized Dogaressa and her husband Dogamy, among others. As the crowd dispersed the Dogi gave her quick sniff to make sure she was alright, then ran their noses over the tent. They had disgusted looks on their faces when they were done.

"It's no good. The smoke covered everything else up."

("We can't even smell Her Highness' scent, and she lives here! It's some strong stuff.")

Greater Dog arrived to take his shift. As he was briefed on the situation Frisk used the time to go check on Flowey, filling him in. Again, he didn't hear anyone enter or leave the tent. But he did agree with her and said "this has Chuckles' signature all over it."

Frisk sighed a little, knowing Flowey hadn't bestowed the nickname upon Sans out of any feeling of affection. But she didn't pinch the former prince since it technically wasn't an insult. She picked him up and brought him with her as the impromptu guard meeting dissolved.

Greater Dog knelt upon an armored knee and sniffed her, whining in a worried manner. She smiled and gave him pets. Sorrel and Rochester lingered nearby, although their shift already ended. The rabbit guard looked to his partner, tilting his head toward Frisk as he asked a silent question. He received an equally silent nod of agreement and encouragement. Bolstered, they approached Frisk.

"Princess? D'you want us to, y'know, stick around? If you need us, I mean."

Frisk shook her head, saying, "I'll be fine with just Greater Dog. You two have earned your break, with me dragging you both all over camp for no reason. Go on and enjoy yourselves."

"Well… if you're sure. Laters, little princess dude!"

"…stay safe." They left, holding hands. Even as things calmed down Frisk couldn't help but wonder where the box had gone, and who had taken it. Why was it given to her, only to be taken away?

She had a feeling the punchline wasn't over, yet.