Chapter Eight: I Love Kissy

"I think it's about time you got a little more rest. It is starting to get late, after all." Mettaton once again offered his hand to Devia. Though she wasn't as hesitant as before, she still felt weirded out by this exchange of touch.

Devia was then guided to a small room. The door opened with the press of a button, revealing a bed and an adjacent desk inside. The bed had plain brown sheets with a lime green blanket draped over the edge. The desk had a stationary and writing utensils in a wooden cup directly next to it. There was also a small stool at the wall near the head of the bed. It looked like the room hadn't been occupied by anyone in a long time judging by how it was organized.

"I-it's not much, but you can s-sleep here."

Devia looked to Alphys before looking back to the room. She placed her free hand in the door frame before taking her first step in. Right before studying the bed, she placed her cup onto the unused stool. Devia then began to strip the bed of its sheets, blankets, and pillows. She piled them on each other by the foot of the bed, leaving the mattress naked and more suited to Devia's liking.

"Um, t-that's not how you-"

"Good night, Devia." Mettaton cut in before Alphys could continue any further. Her day was tiring enough as it was. No use in trying to make things more difficult. Besides, he had assumed that she would figure things out on her own in that room. Either that, or she would shift a few things around to make it more like home. Regardless, Devia soon found herself drifting off to sleep and curled up in the center of the bed.

~~~

Devia slowly awakened from her slumber. At first, she thought she was right back in her sleep chamber back at the Hub. Once she was reminded of where she was at, her mind was at a little more ease. She woke up colder than what she was used to. Devia didn't waste too much time dwelling on this and got away from the mattress. Devia slowly tip toed out of the room and checked her left and her right sides before moving forward. Everything was far too quiet for the alien girl's liking. There was no sign of anyone within her line of sight, but there was a slight whirring noise that she could not explain. The ground below her felt colder than she remembered from yesterday, probably from her body being considerably warmer before.

The sudden noise of footsteps caused Devia's heart to race. What was she to do? Was there someone else in the lab? She could try to fight, but that didn't exactly turn out well last time. Another, much closer footstep was enough to startle her once again.

"Ahh!" Devia turned as she jumped and raised her arms in surprise.

"Eep!" A mousy squeak. Little did she know, that sound was coming from none other than the lizard doctor herself.

"O-oh... i-it's only you..." Alphys sighed with relief. The two proceeded to look at each other as they calmed down from that moment of shock. "For a s-second I thought you were a b-burglar."

Devia tilted her head. "Kěhkt?"

"N-nevermind. Did you... sleep well... last night?" Alphys asked slowly as she made a resting gesture with her hands and made a pillow as she tilted her head. She also drew a moon in the air to signify the night time.

Devia lightly nodded. The more she thought about it, there was something that felt out of balance. She turned her head as she scanned the part of the lab she and Alphys were in. Something was largely amiss. It was only the two girls now. Devia tried to remember the name "Met-ta...Metta...?"

"Mettaton? O-Oh, yeah! H-he's... not... here... right now." Alphys awkwardly fumbled her fingers around trying to talk while giving signs. Devia was just barely able to catch on to the basic idea of what she was saying. "But... he'll be... back... soon. Do... you... understand?"

"Oh... naiio..."

"Y-yes... not... here." Alphys replied. She wondered if there was some other way to convey English to her. There were some things that needed to be done today, so she wouldn't be able to be by her side much. Even if she could be around her while at work, she couldn't risk the chance of letting anyone know what was down below. Especially if that individual was someone she had just met not a day earlier. If only there was some way of giving her something to do while also making speech progress. Then, a light bulb went off in the scientist's head.

"S-stay here, okay?" Devia's eyes followed the small lizard woman as she went off to another room. Once she disappeared, she began to hear shuffling noises and items being shifted around. Devia inched closer to the source of the noise, cautiously curious as to what the doctor had come up with. The suspense was eating at Devia's curiosity the longer she was forced to wait. Finally, Alphys brought out what she wanted to show Devia.

"H-here." Alphys set the box down by her desk and started shuffling through it. The cardboard box was labeled 'Anime' with black marker. Multi-colored plastic cases were now visible in both her hands. "Ch-choose one."

Devia grabbed the first one she saw and examined the foreign lettering on one of the boxes. The cover had some sort of hybrid cat human on it in the center, smiling as she was holding a glowing heart in her hands as more hearts surrounded her. Other characters were included above the box cover in a purple splotch at the top. Underneath one set of text read "Mew Mew Kissy Cutie Movie 2: Pure Hearts of Harmony."

"D-do you like that one? It's one of my favorites." Alphys smiled as she saw the case in Devia's hands. "T-though to be honest, t-the English dub k-kinda sucks and it doesn't e-exactly follow the show's canon. So I guess it would be m-more of a guilty p-pleasure."

"D-dub?" Devia tilted her head.

"Y-yes, a dub." Alphys replied. "Hopefully it can help better your comprehension skills. Did you want to try it?"

Devia's thumb drug across the plastic covering the box art. No matter how she tried, she just couldn't seem to look away from those eyes the main character had. The design of them was off putting, but she was compelled to keep looking at everything else too. Letting her curiosity guide her, she nodded and gave the box to Alphys.

"G-great!" Alphys' eyes started to sparkle. "I'll j-just put t-this in f-for you so you can w-watch it on the T-TV over t-there."

"Tee-vee?" Devia repeated the sound.

"Y-yes, that b-big black screen o-over there." Alphys pointed. She led the alien towards the couch, and she had to stop Devia from almost getting any fingerprints on the monitor that guarded the television screen. Alphys pressed one of the buttons on the plastic device and the screen cut to some text. "C-Call for me i-if you need anything, okay?"

Devia nodded absentmindedly. In almost no time at all, it was just Devia and the television screen. Though she didn't understand what was going on or what any of the characters were saying initially, she was able to get the general idea for the story and pick up on a few words and phrases. All the bright colors, creatures and sounds that were shown and were audible kept Devia glued to her seat. She was now like a five year old watching Saturday morning cartoons. The main character spoke in exaggerated cutesy tones nearly regardless of the situation she was in. Quite frankly, Devia found her presence annoying. She got a few chuckles out of the times things didn't go her way. The other characters weren't as flashy, with Devia's favorite being the elusive ninja Sachiko. Sachiko was the oldest of the group, wielding what was called a 'katana'. Devia wondered if there were any of these katanas in their world.

The character designs were so strange, though. Light skinned, large eyes, detailed hair and outfits added with peculiar limb design. The way they moved was very similar to how her kind and those two strangers did. Only this time, their movements were more acrobatic as to display their fighting skills. Watching the characters move and cast their spells started to make Devia wish that she was a stronger fighter. Even the main villains were strong, the Heart Breakers, though they had horrible intentions. They wanted to destroy all the pure hearts in order to create chaos throughout the entire planet. But strangely enough, it's those pure hearts that are used to defeat them in the end. Nonsensical, but Devia was able to see past this.

What Devia never could understand something. If the pure hearts truly were as powerful as everyone made them out to be and the Heart Breakers wanted to create a weapon more powerful than those hearts, then why even bother trying to find and destroy them in the first place? It all seemed rather counter intuitive to their overall goals. And for that matter, if the Crystal Heart was the purest heart of them all, then why couldn't the heroes have just used that in order to counter the spells of the Black Heart?

When Alphys returned, she found Devia still watching the television, even though it was back at the main menu. It was as if she was trying to decipher something. "A-are you done?"

Devia turned her head and nodded repeatedly.

"D-did you want... some m-more?" Alphys asked carefully.

"Y-yes... yes! I-I mean, yes. What... else... do you... have?" Devia wasted no time in responding. This surprised Alphys, not only with the vocabulary, but how she was beginning to show interest in anime as well. From this moment, Alphys could tell that this would be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

~~~

Later that day, the door opened to as Mettaton charged in. Once he was inside, he changed from his box form to his EX form, all while ranting and raving about a certain employee.

"Ugh, you couldn't believe the attitude that Burgerpants tried giving me this morning! Honestly, I sometimes don't even know why I even bothered hiring him in the first place! That lazy cat just can't seem to get the picture and- ...What is she doing?" Mettaton walked over and leaned towards her. He was never as into anime as her, and being forced to watch a few certainly didn't help to change his opinion on the matter. To see Devia laying on her stomach watching the stuff just further confused the robot.

"I-I thought it would be an e-easy way for h-her to learn our l-language. Th-that and it would keep her b-busy for a while."

"Alphys, you can't be serious." Mettaton said in a half frustrated, half skeptical tone. "If she wasn't able to understand what we were saying before, what makes you think she'll understand the ramblings of a bunch of high pitched schoolgirls?"

As if given some sort of signal, Devia walked by Mettaton and directed her attention to the doctor. She carried a DVD set in one of her hands. "I am done with this one, Al-phys."

Mettaton stood frozen. He pointed to the disk set to Devia and back and forth again. She was speaking English, and sounded decent at it and in such a short time as well? Though her voice was stilted in some parts, it still baffled him. How in the world was this possible?

"Devia!" The Norgav, who had just now noticed his presence, turned to him. "H-how did you-?"

"Oh...I learn." Devia smiled and paused to point to the short lizard woman and the box. "From her. And this."

Alphys gave Mettaton a mischievous smirk, proving her hypothesis correct and leaving him in disbelief. Needless to say, she felt proud of herself and wanted to shove her success in his face. It looked like anime was truly the answer to this situation after all. She could visibly see Mettaton's hopes and dreams fall down the tubes.

"Ramblings of a bunch of high pitched schoolgirls, huh?" Alphys placed her chin on the palm of her hand.

"...Shut it."