Content Warnings: Some cursing, some magic tricks, some character development, and TBH the fluff before the angst-tornado that will be chapter 5.
"Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, spock!" Chara's words rang out into the quiet afternoon, "HA! scissors decapitates lizard, I get shotgun."
To this, Frisk responded with a sad, beaten look, and Chara backed down.
"Aww, Frisk, don't give me those puppy dog eyes...fine, you can have shotgun on the way there, but I get it on the way back, kay?"
Frisk tackled Chara in a hug. "Kay." They responded, giving Chara a kiss on the cheek. Chara blushed deeply.
"sorry kiddos, but I get shotgun, or at least, other me does." Sans spoke, his hands in his hoodie pocket, and his slippers pressed against the pavement of the driveway.
"Oh, alright," Chara sighed wrapping their hands around Frisk's, "I'd rather sit by Frisk anyway.
Frisk giggled and gave Chara a quick peck on the lips.
Chara held Frisk closer, a devious smile on their face.
"get a room you two." Sans jested.
Geno just stood on the front porch, sizing up the trio. He looked thoroughly disgusted. "is that a minivan?" He demanded of Sans as the two humans crawled into the back seat, "what happened to pappy's dream of getting a sports car? What happened to YOU?"
Sans chuckled at his younger self, pulling the keys from his hoodie pocket, "pappy has his car, probably driving it right now in fact. and me, well, i grew up, kid." These words gave geno some pause, he glared at Sans. Sans pretended not to notice. "everyone in, next stop, grillby's." He called. Sans slipped behind the wheel. With a sigh, Geno walked to the van and sat in passengers.
The car turned on and started to move. Geno could hear one of the 'kids' giggle, and he passed a glance back. Frisk was leaning on Chara, the pair were holding hands, whispering something Geno couldn't make out. He decided to try to talk with them. Or...maybe he was just trying to start a fight.
"so," He began, twisting to get the children's attention, "are you two just gonna make bedroom eyes at each other all night? cuz i'll admit, it's creeping me out."
Chara looked angry for a brief second, but then their expression changed to something like glee. They snickered, leaning forward and cocking their eyebrow in a challenging manner. "No. We also plan on taking over the world tonight, finalizing our blueprints for the new government, and we might even make it TO the bedroom." They said that last part in a flirty way, snuggling closer to Frisk, and grinning when Geno looked uncomfortable, "Are you just gonna be a shitfaced drunk all night?" They returned.
Frisk's eyes went big and they began signing something that Geno didn't bother to read.
He was too enraged. "now listen here, you little shits, i-"
"OK!" Sans interrupted, "if you guys start fighting, i'll turn this car around and ground every last one of you to seperate bedrooms. understood?" He eyed Frisk and Chara in the rear view.
"Yes Sans." Chara said, in an overly sweet tone.
Frisk only nodded.
Geno faced forward in his seat and stared out the windshield.
The ride was silent for a second. Then Chara spoke again.
"You know, other Sans, when you're this close to someone," They snuggled up to Frisk, "You're in a position that theater people call 'kiss or kill'. You'll either smootch the person you're close to, or knife them. Cool right?" With that they planted a kiss on Frisk's lips. When they were done they beamed back at Geno. "If you wanted to come over here, and, definitely, if you ever said anything mean to Frisk again, I could demonstrate the other side of kiss, or kill." Their face twisted into a thing of nightmares.
"i'd like to see you try." Geno growled back.
"how about some music?" Sans intervene, blasting the radio. Journey's 'Don't Stop Believing' came on, but no one sang. This was followed by Train's 'Drops of jupiter' And Katy Perry's 'Firework.' As the song played it's last note, and the DJs cut to commercial, Sans parked the car. He had stopped outside a warm tavern
Conversations bubbled from the windows, outside a group of monsters, and a few humans spoke. They were smoking cigarettes and cracking jokes. The sign out front read 'GRILLBY'S'
Sans and Geno got out of the car, Frisk and Chara followed.
It didn't take long for the group to get attention.
As they walked up to the wooden doors, someone called out "Frisk Dreemurr!" A woman with a clipboard and a hat that read 'PRESS' hobbled up to them. She was heavy set, with dark skin, black hair, and was wearing a bright green dress and 3 inch heels. "Oh my goodness, I didn't know that the Monster Ambassador would be here today! What a wonderful surprise! I'm in town doing a piece on 'Monster Culture' and YOU are a big part of it! Can I get an interview?" She clicked a pen and batted her eyelashes.
"Uhhh," Frisk muttered, they started signing out, 'not now please, I'm here with my family' but the woman didn't understand.
"What did she say?" The woman asked Sans.
"they said no." Sans returned. "leave us alone."
The woman pouted, "Fine. Here's my card hon," They handed it to Frisk, "I'll get an interpreter at the office, and we can do the interview later, alright dearie?"
Sans just grabbed Frank's hand and led them away.
"what was that about?" Geno asked as the group stepped into the warm bar.
"eh, she was a reporter. reporters are vultures." Sans returned.
As the young skeleton stepped into the warm, familiar, but new, babble of Grillby's, Geno couldn't help but marvel.
Humans and monsters were scattered across the place, existing in harmony. More or less. The monsters, Geno was fine with, but the humans? They were just bizarre. One was in a full body skeleton suit, taking pictures with every monster he could find. Others were groups of young adults, and kids who couldn't be older than teenagers. They were kicking back beers and chatting. Most of the humans wore all black, some had gauged earrings, others wore jean shorts over ripped tights, and almost all of them reeked of desperation and attention seeking.
"What's that about?" Geno asked, gesturing to the human patrons.
Sans chuckled, "it's summer. tourist season, and this is a monster bar. those guys are monster fans. media calls them 'monsties' don't worry too much about it though, the trend dies down about ten years after the reset."
"I'd say five-ish years." Chara chimed.
'Seven' Frisk signed.
"Seven." Sans agreed.
As everyone sat down, the skeleton-suit-wearing human walked up to them. Upfront Geno could discern more of the kid's face. He had big glasses, red hair, pasty pale skin, and huge, green, starstruck eyes. "OHMYGOSH" He fanboyed, "Is that really ambassador Frisk? Can I get your autograph?" He pulled a pen from his man satchel that hung around his waist, then frowned, "Shoot, I don't have anything for you to sign...WAIT sign my face!"
He gave the pen to Frisk who chuckled and turned on their stool. They signed the boy's forehead.
The boy was ecstatic, he pulled out his phone and ran between the bar stools, snapping a picture with Frisk, the two skeletons, Chara, and himself. Then he thanked the group and wandered off, leaving the bar to go terrorize the cigarette smokers.
"that was...disturbing." Geno huffed.
"he's a disturbing guy." Sans returned.
"you know him?" Geno asked, flabbergasted.
Chara giggled, "Ya, we've met in in more than a few timelines. Get this, his name is Jerry."
Geno actually cracked a smile, "human Jerry." He muttered.
Frisk and Chara laughed.
That's when Grillby arrived to take orders.
"hey hot stuff." Sans flirted.
Grillby looked from Sans to Geno, then back to Sans. His face was put upon, almost annoyed. It read 'oh god, there's two of them.'
Geno couldn't help himself, seeing his old friend always cheered him up. "you look smoking today, grillbs." He grinned.
Grilby only sighed and got out a paper and pencil, a clear sign that he was ready to take an order.
"four burgers, two waters, and two cups of ketchup my good in-friend-o, put it on my tab please." Sans snickered.
Grilby wrote down the order, and passed the note to the kitchens, before leaving to take more orders.
Geno tapped his bony fingers on the counter. A awkward silence fell on the group. Once again, Chara broke it.
"You guys wanna see a magic trick?" They asked.
Frisk clapped their hands enthusiastically, Sans looked up lazily, Geno looked on with suspicion.
Chara dug around in their pocket a little and grabbed a quarter. "So this little trick is a bit of coin magic, I can make this coin DISAPPEAR!" They placed the coin on the counter and looked around, spotting the salt shaker and picking it up. "I will need this!" They put the salt shaker on top of the coin, "Annnndddd," They furrowed their brow as if they weren't sure what to do next, "Oh! And this." They picked up a napkin and pressed it on top of the shaker, covering the thing with it. "Now all I have to do is rub the coin with the bottom of the salt shaker," They did so, "And, PRESTO!" They moved the shaker away, revealing...that the coin was still there.
"amazing." Geno rolled his eye sockets.
"Hold on," Chara insisted, "I can make this work!" Again they rubbed the coin with the salt shaker, muttering, "Presto, please please please disappear."In a quick movement they pulled the shaker away and slapped their hand over the place where the coin was, then, slowly, very slowly, they raised their hand only to see...that the coin was still there.
"Curses!" They exclaimed. In a burst of anger, they slammed their hand on the napkin-covered salt shaker, and the napkin crumpled as if nothing was under it. The salt shaker had disappeared under the napkin!
Frisk and Sans clapped, Geno was impressed. Begrudgingly so.
"Thank you, thank you, you're too kind." Chara chuckled.
Grillby came back with the burgers, and the drinks.
Sans smiled and held up his ketchup bottle. "i would like to propose a toast," He said to the group, "to human jerry, magic tricks, and new friends."
Chara and Frisk clicked drinks with Sans. After a moment of hesitation, Geno joined in.
Things were looking up.
Okay, okay, it's a little shippy. Like...really shippy. But I can't help myself. I'm Charisk trash in my SOUL! The next chapter will be angst incarnate. This was fluffy, just sort of setting a couple character details up, calming Geno down, stuff like that. Thank you for reading, please follow, fave and review!
Answering My Fan mail!
Crystalshards64: Cry no more! Chapter 4 has arrived! Thank you for your review, you're awesome!
Mageblood: Thank you for your interest, I hope you enjoyed chapter 4.