Alphys had explained why killing the human would be a mistake, stuttering and mixing up long words until Undyne asked her to start over with a vocabulary she could understand without a dictionary.

Undyne had listened, and the more Alphys had talked, the more her anger had washed down. She wasn't exactly calm, not completely – let's just say being lectured while held down to the ground by your own soul isn't the most relaxing situation. She had to keep herself from commenting several times and was grinding her teeth. At least she was accepting the explanation. Frisk was very lucky the fish lady trusted Alphys so much, and reciprocally. She was barely done when Sans, exhausted, let go of her soul. Undyne got up, a lot more collected, although she still looked awfully tense, and when Sans suggested, yawning, that they went back to the lab to avoid worrying Toriel, she asked to go with them.

Well, so much for not worrying Toriel. Not sure she would be glad to see the head of the royal guard in the same room as her little darling.

Sans had teleported them again. They had barely taken a step on the lab's tiles when the little skeleton slumped down onto the floor, curled up like a child and started snoring like he didn't have a care in the world. Papyrus opened his mouth in protest, as usual, but he had to admit he had never seen his brother work so hard in so little time and elected to let him sleep, just like little Frisk whose rollercoaster of emotions had tired out and who had dozed off in the middle of the royal scientist's explanations.

The three monsters walked around the sleepy skeleton. Toriel wasn't there yet, the post-it Sans had left on the desk was untouched. Alphys went and got a couple of chairs for Papyrus and Undyne and all three of them sat in awkward silence.

Hard to start a conversation after such a dispute. "A-are you hungry? Thirsty?" Alphys tried. "I've got instant noodles. Do you want instant noodles?" Papyrus and Undyne politely refused. Alphys scratched the bottom of her neck and her feet lightly tapped the air. Quick, an idea, something to say, something to do… her gaze fell onto Frisk. "Papyrus?"

"Nyeh?" The skeleton looked up like he had been somewhere else.

"Would you let me examine Frisk? Toriel said she was sick, so m-maybe I should m-make sure she's okay?"

Papyrus's gaze fell on Frisk, then fluttered back to Alphys, then Undyne, then Alphys again, and he finally nodded. Alphys got up and went to take Frisk into her arms, then seemed to remember something. She apologized and spent a whole fifteen minutes looking for different medical instruments throughout the different rooms of the messy lab. When she came back, she was pulling a wheeled examination table behind her, and she had a stethoscope around her neck. This time, she delicately held her arms out to take Frisk out of Papyrus's hands.

Frisk whined and opened tired little eyes. Tiny sobs seemed to awaken with her and Alphys git worried. "No, no! Don't cry, everything is fine! Uh, me nice? Me friend?"

"It's a baby, Alphys. Not an alien," Undyne said. She kept and even tone, but as she turned to her, Alphys saw she was trying not to smile. Alphys felt a bubble of relief pop inside her chest, she couldn't stand Undyne being angry, especially against her. If she could feel amused, then the situation might not be as bad as it seemed.

Papyrus waved at Frisk to get her attention and pulled a funny face that seemed to calm her down a bit. The tall skeleton's presence seemed to reassure her. When Alphys took her to the examination table, the tiny human kept her eyes on him.

"She seems to like you a lot," Undyne noticed.

"Of course! Everybody loves the Great Papyrus!" he said. He looked slightly distracted, worried, although he kept a smiling face. Things had to be said, and neither him nor Undyne were sure they wanted to say them. So they looked away, as if they could ignore those words drifting between them.

Alphys was examining the human and felt pretty good about having something to do. Frisk was looking at her with curious eyes that didn't really know what to think. She stayed put as the monstress worked.

"Papyrus?" Undyne suddenly said, after several minutes of denial.

"Hm?"

"Listen, I'm sorry for attacking you earlier."

Papyrus briefly looked surprised, and then smiled again. "Oh! Do not worry, you didn't attack me!"

"Fine, almost attacking you." She still had pulled her spears out…

"It was nothing, Undyne! I know you had to do your job!" Papyrus assured her, and he spoke with a softer, more sincere tone when he added : "And I also know you wouldn't really have attacked me, you just wanted to scare me! Uh… Please don't do it again, though!"

Papyrus, always ready to forgive anything to anyone. Undyne would never know how he managed to do it. "We don't deserve you, bonehead," she muttered, almost for herself.

"Thank you…?" They went silent for a moment. Papyrus was fidgeting with his gloves. "I would wish to apologize as well!"

"For what?"

"Well… For making you angry, mostly."

"I'm always at least a little angry, you don't have to apologize for that."

"No, but that's different!" Papyrus's gaze dove deep into his friend and mentor's only eye and Undyne felt a pinch of guilt when she saw his put out face. "I'm your friend, but you didn't even want to tell me what the king really wanted to do with the humans! You thought I wasn't up to it, didn't you? You didn't trust me. Nyehe, you knew I restrain myself when I'd fight." Undyne clenched her fists when she heard the joyless laugh. "And worse of all is I know that, if I had known, I would probably have tried to stop you. Even if I really just want to be friends with everyone, in the end I can't help anybody. You must think I really am just a bonehead."

"Papyrus, shut up!" Undyne yelled, sitting at the edge of her seat, and Papyrus startled. "You don't get it! You think we didn't tell you because we were worried you'd be on the human's side? We didn't tell you anything because we didn't want you to be hurt! You're the only monster I know who'd stay outside all night, waiting for me to train you, only to refuse to hurt anyone! You're a real treasure in this world and I forbid you from thinking even for one second that you're worth any less because you refused to kill a baby!"

Tears shone deep inside Papyrus's large eye sockets and Undyne wondered if he needed a hug. The answer was yes. But she wasn't fast enough and found herself trapped in a pair of bony arms before she could breath. "UNDYNE! THE GREAT PAPYRUS IS EXTREMELY GRATEFUL! AND FROM NOW ON I WILL DO MY BEST TO BECOME EVEN MORE AMAZING THAN I ALREADY AM!"

A huge smile grew on Undyne's face, so proud it shouldn't be allowed. Her own arms circled Papyrus and she hugged him so hard she almost carried him off the ground. "THAT'S MORE LIKE IT, PUNK!"

"NYEH!"

"NYARGH!"

"Wh-aaah!" cried a third voice that made everyone turn to the lab's entrance.

Toriel was finally here, and in her hurry had sloped down to the floor in her black cape, which made her look like a pile of old abandoned laundry. She had tripped on Sans's lying body and the skeleton had opened his eyes with difficulty when the former queen's large white paws had fallen on him. He yawned, rubbed his face and vaguely tried to sit. "What's up?"

Toriel looked up to take in the situation, and suddenly had a smile that was just slightly too happy. "Not me, that's for sure!"

Sans blinked and they both started to laugh as Papyrus was regretting the day he was born, in the background. "Well Tori, may I ask if you had a nice… trip?"

"Oh my god, Sans, this is getting WORSE and WORSE!" cried out an exasperated Papyrus. I cannot BELIEVE you found someone who'd fall as LOW as you!"

And in an instant, all eyes were on Papyrus. Undyne, Alphys, Sans and Toriel, all of them were looking at him, vainly trying to choke their laughter back into their throat. Papyrus looked at each of them without understanding. "What? What did I say? Wh…" At the exact moment he realized precisely what he had said, horror overflowed his face. His eye sockets grew large with disgust and his hand shot up to his mouth, full of shame. "Oh god, no…" he said in a whisper, and it was like a signal.

Undyne, Alphys, Sans and Toriel burst into a fit of laughter, at the same time, unable to stop as a mortified Papyrus tried his best not to laugh as well at his involuntary pun. Frisk was laughing too, sitting on the exam table, her back helped up by Alphys's clawed hands, and for a few moments it was like everything was fine. Like nothing had happened. Like there was no royal guard, no barrier, no law asking for the death of a child fallen from the surface. There were only friends happily laughing together, and nobody to stop them.