"Again, I do apologize for this. This feeling of forceful superiority isn't fit for a king. I much more prefer for things to be a bit more peaceful."

The casually sighed exhaled as a strange form of apology wasn't fit for a king either!

At least according to Cter. However, she hadn't met a king before, now had she? Not that she could remember. She would surely have remembered such an intimidating presence like that of Asgore's. A human king might even have been even more bold and assertive with his presence, but with how Asgore towered over Cter all she could do was sit still in its hefty shadow, and that wasn't even including his horns, forwith those he'd be mountaning instead of towering over her!

Which he was!

"Do you take lemon or milk in your tea, human?"

The question was spoken as the most courteous of waiter asking a customer for their preference. It created a dissonance inside Cter's mind which she sought help with from her temporary sleeve. Even with running the feeling by the guard's presence it was all still confusing though. Perhaps it wasn't strong enough to impose itself more on her soul and emotions? Although with the way her jaw bounced on the seat of the shared bench before dropping to the ground, not even a connection as strong as Romrom's would've been enough to get Cter on more conversational thoughts.

"I...uh...I don't know," she answered the courteous king holding the silver tray with drink and drink condiments for her to see. Cter couldn't even lift her hand to vaguely point at something and let the Monster King figure out what it what she meant to then just accept with a smile the thing he offered to her regardless if it was what she was pointing at or not.

It had helped her get through the interview and first day at Soul's School where she just wanted to be told where her room was so that she could let the reality of her beginning her studies as a human mage sink in with a wet towel on her face.

The Monster King didn't offer any for her to use though…

"You're not in any trouble, human," said the king with a disarming smile through his beard gently flowing with a passing breeze. His eyes narrowed ever so softly as his round cheeks lifted them up during his smile. "Not when the King of the Monsters is sat next to you enjoying tea out of his own wish and volition."

The slightest added weight on his words regarding tea had Cter feeling a bit guilty of not answering him properly. After all, he was the Monster King! She was an escapee being pardoned her crime! Even if she didn't know why, it was still rude of her to deny the hospitality undeserving towards her. Her family raised her better than that! "A squeeze of lemon, please." They raised her better! "A squeeze of lemon, please, your highness."

While to a human that would've been an accurate measurement of the amount of lemon Cter enjoyed in her tea, for a monster that was one of the reasons the castle had much larger doors than she was used to ingress and egress through, the most it did was narrow the measurement down to two options which King Asgore presented without saying a word, and with his disarming smile taking one step closer to a wholesome chuckle at the human's clear inexperience with dealing with monsters a different size than her.

He was kind enough to demonstrate to her just like he'd done hundreds of times towards human delegates not used as well.

The King first held the halved lemon above Cter's poured cup of steaming Golden Flower tea between his thumb and index finger at their first knuckles, and then moved it towards the tip of his fingers, barely holding it at all.

Cter averted her eyes for a split second feeling some bashfulness mixed with longing. Had she had a proper sleeve on and a stronger monster presence around her soul she would've most likely have realized even without the Monster King's demonstration what he meant.

A monster-squeeze of lemon or a human-squeeze of lemon in Cter's tea?

"Monster-squeeze."

The answer caught the King by a bit of surprise. His bushy eyebrows raised themselves to get a better view. "Oh, certainly." He moved the slice back towards his first set of knuckles and gave the lemon a good, kingly squeeze. It didn't overflow the tea, as he'd only served it enough to allow for the monster squeeze. Like Cter would as if she tried to pick up a single strand of hair from a table, Asgore picked up a spoon and fished out a seed from the golden liquid. He flicked it over the white balcony railing into the garden. "We'll see if that grows in a few months," he then joked before stirring the tea and handing it over to Cter with a claw through the cup's ear.

She took it with a bow, "Thank you, your highness," and drank some. The monster-squeeze of lemon inside the tea gave it that sharp tang which mixed so well with the smooth, yet still so dancing, taste of the Golden Flower. A human-squeeze of lemon would only tip the balance slightly which to Cter made the dance clumsily. Made it so that one partner was a novice while the other was a master of the art. Toes stepped on, hands placed at improper parts, and rhythm nowhere to be found.

A monster-squeeze of lemon tipped the balance enough so that it came back around, like an impromptu twirl between the two tastes. It had her cheeks tickle as they both imploded and became flush and glowing. Both a tickle and a comforting stroke at the same time. A perfect serenity between the two senses that spread across her face as her cheeks relaxed from the initial taste. A calm which was uplifting rather than thoughtful as her wet towels being heavy on her face were.

A calm which she needed as she was sat next to the King of the Monsters and sharing a spot of tea while being an escapee from Monster Custody at the same time.

A calm which she welcomed with open arms.

"Would you like to address me as your king instead, human?"

Those open arms closed in over her mouth coughing violently after spitting out the finest of mists comprised of the perfect blend of Golden Flower tea and monster-squeezed lemon. Without thinking, she handed the cup over to the large, white hand opened friendly to take it while she had her little episode. She leaned over the cast-iron armrest to help her surprised ailment, but it didn't help as much as she wanted.

"Stand up," suggested Asgore instead of commanding which he could've done. Nevertheless, Cter did. She walked over to the railing overlooking the Castle Garden for support, and leaned on it with her arms outstretched. Her coughs began to settle, and amid their failing strength she spotted the lemon seed resting on a leaf of a tree which she didn't recognize.

"Birch," said King Asgore as he too leaned onto the railing. He held out Cter's cup for her to take again. "It's native to Xoff. Grows around Mt. Ebott as well as other places close to the mountain ranges separating it from Hjearta. The dogs of the Royal Guard enjoy it due to its black spots on white bark. Reminds them of themselves." As Cter took the cup and saucer after quelling a hiccup born from her coughing, Asgore too noticed the lemon seed on one of the leaves of the birch tree.

He summoned a trident in his hand, but with its crown facing up. With the end of its handle he swept off the seed so that it fell down into the shadowed soil below. "This one next to it is called an aspen tree," the King then continued to explain while tapping at the neighboring tree with his trident's long handle. "Its leaves shiver like distant applause and roars during wind. It's very pleasant to the ears." His magical weapon dissipated into a translucent red blur before disappearing completely. "I had one visiting human from Xoff confuse the two which in turn confused me. Those trees were native to them, so why would they confuse it?"

Cter wasn't sure if the King meant for her to answer it or if he was just thinking out loud. She nodded regardless, and drank some more tea as he did.

Carefully.

"You don't have to answer my question now, human."

While it was blatantly obvious which question he meant, Cter still felt a slight part of herself argue that he meant the question about the Xoff native confusing the trees. She had to shake that one off her. Luckily the King was aware enough of how she was feeling that he didn't take the shake of her head as an answer.

With thick claws he tapped at his porcelain cup painted with swirling patterns similar to that of the legs of the furniture grown magically. Its ear was big enough that Cter could've probably fitted her hand through it with some will and oil. She would have been the talk of the town with it around her wrist, and perhaps even the country too and beyond! Who else could've bragged about having one of the Monster King's personal teacups as an accessory?

A quiet, melodic clang found itself among the many colorful trees and flowers inside the Castle Garden having snuck in from outside and between the flags a plenty, weakly lifting up their curious patterns by the gentle wind. Cter recognized it. The clang from the clock in Jarasevo Time's Square. She and the Monster King waited with heads and ears turned over to the flags and the clanging.

Four in the afternoon.

If it was on the day directly after the night where Idyll and her had done what they did, or if it was the day after that one, Cter didn't know.

"It is thanks to you that we can hear that clock again, isn't it?" asked the Monster King to brighten up the mellow shadow being cast over Cter's face. "I heard from one of the town's clock-makers who came to visit to inform that it'd been fixed that he had gotten help from you. Magical help." He raised his cup for Cter to clink hers with. She did so after a few seconds of internal debating. "We had to put a Royal Guard on counting duty while it was broken. The peaceful quiet among the castle halls was quite subdued by the loud counting, I gotta tell you that."

Did he really?

"So for that you have my personal thanks, Cter, the mage."

To Cter's relief the Monster King only raised his cup again as thanks instead of deciding to bow. Had he done that it'd been a bit too much for Cter to be able to keep composure with. Talking friendly with the King was one thing. Talking friendly with the King while she was on the run was another. Talking friendly to the King while she was on the run and him bowing to her?

Thing, stuff, or object, not a single singular would've been enough to describe it!

And with the Royal Guard's magical presence implicating at Cter's soul that she was a subordinate to the King to boot…

She drank some more tea to move her mind away from the thoughts before they consumed her whole.

"You have some magic at your disposal right now, don't you?" The Monster King said it in a way that would elicit an answer from a monster without a mouth. Prying in a way an old friend would. Both concernedly, yet with authority behind his words which was even more authoritative with its chosen absence. "Not a fully fledged sleeve, but a temporary one, no?"

Cter nodded.

"You wouldn't mind showing me what you can do with it? Ice? Fire? Strength? Conjuring? Some colorful sprites?"

Was it a trap? If Cter blossomed her magic for a display it would surely alert the Monster Mages that she had escaped. With her doing it so close to the Monster King too it would be no doubt that they would assume the worst, and deliver the worst to her to protect the Monster King. She shook her head at the Monster King's request, and this time it was clear that she meant it as a denial. "I can't, your highness," she regretted to inform. The way his smile faded to that of thoughtful concern would stick with her for the rest of her life. Such carefree, almost childish warmth, his smile had. With it gone the breeze passing between the two and stealing away Cter's sigh felt just a little bit colder.

"I'm...outside my cell," she said despite it being a confession of her crime. "If the Monster Mages sense me doing magic near you they will kill me."

"That the might do," the Monster King agreed, which had Cter hiccuping with how easily he said it and how heavy it fell on her. Her cup began shaking in her hand, and she cupped it with her other one too so that her fear wouldn't be visibly obvious. Through her aura though it was screaming, which the Monster King reacted to after a moment of thinking. "Golly, I'm sorry!" he apologized with his arms halfway outstretched to embrace the human.

"That was not what I meant, human. Well..." His arms retreated into a bashful scratch of his cheek. It was very confusing to Cter how she suddenly felt like she was the one that had to apologize to him due to how cute and cuddly he made himself out to be just like that. "They would do their everything to incapacitate you, yes. You're a human, and a mage to boot, and you're doing unknown magic near their king. I think that's actually one of their vows that they've taken. To protect me and Toriel with everything at their magical disposal, and more."

The explanation didn't really help Cter with feeling better about it, to be honest, and that was expressed without any thought from her in her aura for the King to read.

And sigh against.

"I thought it would lift your spirit and soul a bit, human," Asgore explained after Cter's hair had settled after being lifted by his sigh. "I still feel a bit bad about doing what I did to get you to stay. A bit too much Gerson instead of Frioke, in this case." He drank some tea before continuing. "When they say that the entire castle has been on wide alert ever since you and your friend..." He stopped courteously as he didn't need to remind Cter about what had happened. "The entire castle includes me and Toriel. Both the castle, as well as the Castle."

A heavy duvet was thrown over Cter and the Monster King as his brow furrowed hard at the mention of his Monster Queen. His aura flared up with a sense of duty and resolve that Cter had never felt before. Oppressing, almost. The Royal Guard in her sleeve begged her to kneel. Not because of a sense of subordination towards him, but so that she wouldn't fall her entire length once her knees gave up from the Monster King's weight being thrust upon her shoulders.

Her head bowed as he cast a glance burning with such refined, yet primordial fire raging behind his eyes. Those she couldn't face. Those none could face. It was the look of a Monster King that was worried about his Monster Queen, and further than that, his people and his land.

A Monster King with the resolve of a human. The one monster which could potentially be as strong as a human. A monster who's presence was enough to sway the land itself, it was said. Cter believed it. As she stared at his large feet with the same color as the marble floor of the balcony upon which Asgore Dreemurr stood.

No, he didn't stand on it. The balcony was supporting him! It was there for him to help him be the Monster King he could be!

Cter fell to her knees as they gave way underneath her.

"I told Gerson that I wanted a full report by the end of the day," King Asgore said distantly to himself. Cter saw the shadow of his head tilt up, so she did as well. She saw him catching the rays of the sun beginning their shift towards an evening orange. "I don't think I've ever demanded that of him before. I don't think I've ever made a demand of him, period. It feels...strange. Like it is the beginning of when the game-pieces he uses on his map falling when I have to demand of him rather than ask of him. Is it me coming into my own as a Monster King due to me maturing into the role, or is it me coming into my own as a Monster King due to the necessity of the situation forcing me to mature? If I begin to demand rather than ask from now on, would he and Frioke still be Royal Councilors? They can't give council if I don't give them room to give me an answer from their own view."

Cter was afraid to even breathe.

"Toriel..."

Or blink.

"My dear Toriel. How I despise falling into thoughts like this. How I attest having to mull over if I made the right choice which led to you being the safest. If I have to mature to protect you, then I'll do it a thousand times over if that means that our time together as Monster King and Monster Queen won't be cut short."

Or feel any emotion that would interrupt the king before her.

"Even…" Asgore's tensed shoulders relaxed, and he sunk the length of a Royal-Guard-issued spear. From underneath the golden, bushy stripe on his furrowed brow he again glanced down at the human kneeled at his feet. "Even if that means becoming more human than they could ever be."

Cter flinched as Asgore's large hand came into her head's bowed view. It was opened so gently though, so inviting, and so careful. A hand that could both offer and protect the world to whoever he chose to open it towards. "Even if it means giving humans as much love and care in my soul as I have for monsters."

His hand could as easily crush Cter's into splinters and blood as he caressed her hand like a freshly laundered duvet of the finest silk ever to be produced. Same with his other hand which he placed like a fuzzy lid on top of Cter's hand. He smiled at her, and she smiled back. Asgore helped her stand up, and motioned for the two to sit down again on the bench. Cter nodded in agreement.

And tripped on her long robe the first step she took.

"Golly!" Asgore exclaimed as moved his long, sturdy arm underneath Cter's body to catch her. It was both incredibly soft and incredibly hard at the same time. She coughed, but if it was from the soft of his fur tickling her lips and nose or if it was the hard of the impact she couldn't tell. Regardless, it prompted another reaction from Asgore. "Did I hit your head?"

"No, your highness," Cter answered as she pushed herself up on her feet again. She lifted up her robe, but not enough to expose her ankles, and continued over to the bench carefully. There she sat down, and only then did she realize that she left her cup on the balcony floor. She stretched a forced, apologetic smile to the Monster King as in her hurry to be courteous in return, she stood up just as he was sitting down. "I..." trickled out of her stunned mouth moving back and forth between the Monster King's somewhat-curious expression and her cup.

What should she have done? She couldn't just walk away when the Monster King was sat down, could she? How would that be seen? Worse than her just leaving her given cup of tea on the floor? Better? Was there a way for her to…

Cter glanced down at her arm before moving her glance up to the Monster King. He too looked down at her arm in response, and then over to her cup at the base of the railing. "It'll get cold if you don't fetch it," he suggested very subtly. "You can do that now or in a second after I've summoned two of my tridents in my hands to stretch my aura out a bit," he continued to suggest extremely subtly. "Do you think a gust of wind can be felt inside a hurricane, by the way?"

He surely didn't.

It would take the rest of the Royal Guard's temporary presence inside of Cter's sleeve, and perhaps it would run out before she managed to move the cup over to her proper, but with the Monster King summoning two massive tridents in either of his hands she didn't really feel like she could back out of it any longer. The Monster Mages would surely feel their Monster King's magic flaring like the hurricane it was, so while it did good to hide Cter's building aura as she searched her memories for the feeling of the stasis magic she was loaned before, they would still feel his aura expanding like it did and come running.

Not that it was difficult for Cter to find the memory of the stasis magic by imagining the clang of the clock that had just rung recently and going back from it. The difficulty came from trying to make a hill out of a pebble using only a stone. She could find the memory and feeling of how the stasis magic was to her, and project it into her sleeve, however anything further than that came across as faint and woozy to her soul.

She would kick herself for not asking for the Royal Guard's name. Using up his entire presence in just one spell felt wrong to Cter, like she was erasing him from existence in a way. She had never ran out of a monster's presence before. It had only been taken away from her. Even when she gave Idyll's magic back to her it never felt as she ran out of it.

But...didn't that mean that…

The cup broke with a crash, spilling its bright-amber liquid across the white marble and drowning the shards of the cup that had been its prison. The metaphor didn't sit well with Cter, nor did the feeling that had prompted her to just cut off her magic with the cup just an arm's length away from her. She curled up her legs on the bench, and pushed her head hard against her knees.

"Golly..." said the Monster King. Cter felt the warmth of his large hand hover just behind her back for a second or two before the Monster King moved it away. "Is it about your friend, human?"

Cter nodded.

"I see." His beard was scratched loudly. "If you want to see her I'm not gonna hold you here any longer then. However, you feel very much like a human now, I'm afraid." A long moment passed between the two as the Monster King thought. Gently, he tapped at the top of Cter's head to get her attention. She lifted her head up to the Monster King offering a handkerchief for her eyes. "I'm going to give you another choice," he said after Cter took it and began dotting her eyes. "I can give you some of my magic and you can keep hiding in your robe if you want. I'll tell you where your friend is and you can go meet her."

That would Cter very much have liked, yes.

"However, since I am a Boss Monster, and also the Monster King, that magic won't let you blend in as well as the magic from whichever Royal Guard it was that you made friends with enough to establish a rudimentary Cooperative Connection. Furthermore it might have some effect on your friend. I have...someone...watching over her, so she is safe as safe can be, believe me. The best would be if you visited her as you were. Only you. While I can send for the Royal Guard again which you made friends with, I'm not sure if he'll be able to make the Cooperative Connection again since I'd have to tell him that you have escaped from under his nose."

That Cter wouldn't very much have liked, no.

"My third proposition to you is that you take that large robe off of you and present yourself as the human you are. Not only to me, but to the Monster Mages as well. It's only a matter of time before they find you, and the trust I've given them, as well as my Royal Councilors to make decisions regarding human mages and human magic, I'd only be able to convince them to hear you out and pardon you should they want to go any further." The Monster King moved his eyes down to the broken cup and its widening puddle of tea. "Doing this will give you the chance to talk with them on your terms, human. Toriel and I have set it up so that the three will always argue for different views of a situation, but with the night's event I'm not even sure if three are enough to cover all angles of it."

That...Cter didn't know if she wanted.

"I'm not asking you to become a Monster Mage just yet, human. That you'll have to prove by making sure your friend wakes up. Changing a monster's magic due to their own request? That frightens me to my very soul. I'm reminded, however, of when human magic was first discovered, and the logic from which it works. How it stems from our two species' views of death. If you can help us understand what you and your friend did last night, then we'll be able to change lives for the better, human! Another step towards a future where humans and monsters are the same, together."

Together…

That was the only thought that needed to pass through Cter's head for her to agree.

"I'll take your robe then," the Monster King offered friendly. "Don't worry, I already know that you're wearing another one underneath. Toriel would have my head and then my dust if I'd ask without already knowing."

How exactly did he…

Actually, no, Cter didn't want to know the answer to that.

It felt warmer with the dark-blue robe off of Cter. Mostly because of the King's brow raising with pleasant surprise. "I'd always wondered how that pattern would look on a human that was fit for it." He nodded. "See it as a gift from me, human. Should you decide to accept my offer later I'll make sure your Monster Mage robe is made with that pattern. I'll have it commissioned all the way from Xoff. Not in the forest-green, unfortunately. It'll have to be Royal Purple for coherent reasons, I'm afraid. Not really my choice on that, sorry." He flicked a friendly finger towards her. "Trust that forest-green looks very good on you though."

As the King folded the dark-blue robe in his hands like a towel, the door Cter had used exploded open with a myriad of footsteps. Three mages, all winded beyond belief, stood with mouths agape and eyes hardened.

"On your terms," whispered King Asgore to Cter in a way that was unnoticeable for the Monster Mages. "Thank me and shake my hand to show that."

If His Highness said so…

"Thank you, King Asgore."

Jaws hit the floor.

"It was my pleasure, human."

Splashing the spilled tea.