by GR Griffin
Alphys sniffed and grew a brave smile. "Okay." Her courage earned her a sweet grin from her girlfriend. "I guess I sh-should start by telling you about the cushion."
"Cushion?" Undyne blinked her only eye. "What's this about a cushion?"
"You see, I have this life-sized pillow with a picture of—" Alphys got that far in her thought before Undyne clamped her mouth shut.
"I said let's not keep anymore secrets between us, Alphys, not whatever the heck kind of freaky fantasies you got cookin' up in there."
"Excuse me," someone spoke with a voice which made Alphys snap her eyes aside and Undyne's skin crawl.
Impossible to miss, there was Lord Grill, in the most haggard state he'd been in since the all-nighter he held at Bjornliege Manor ten years ago, which he saw fit to stretch to four nights.
He made a meagre gesture toward the scientist. "This your girlfriend?" he asked. He wished not to provoke Undyne's ire, as hinted in his reluctance.
Undyne gave a blunt answer. "Yes." It came out slow and more like a hiss than a word.
Blankly, Grill examined the short, podgy, yellow-scaled dinosaur or lizard or whatever she was, then compared her to the stuff of nightmares. Since yesterday, his mind ran with what kind of beast could tame a heart such as hers; an abomination ten feet in height with skin like chiselled marble and a temper which exploded when one so much as opened their mouth at the wrong time was a vision he'd put money on. He looked at the hunched lady in the scientist's uniform, half his size in height and bulk, most likely a bigger shut-in than he was with a diet also consisting of nothing healthy, and couldn't believe how wrong he had hedged his bets.
He imagined Undyne as the ten foot tall, hulking abomination now. The next instant his teeth parted could be his last, and he would die without having sampled the legendary delicacies as seen through human television. The Bonus Mac. The Sloppy Whopper. The Big N' Wink.
He opened his mouth anyway. "May I have a word with her in private?"
Undyne thought about it. Believe it when she really thought about it. He hit on anything that moved. What was to say he wouldn't try on it Alphys. Before releasing Alphys, she pointed two fingers to her eyes then pointed at Grill, repeating it twice for good measure.
As Alphys made her way across, Undyne did it a third time, then a fourth.
Lord Grill squatted down past the point where his knees could sustain his weight, resulting in him rolling on his backside. His crash landing was thunderous, even on a surface as soft as theirs. At least this way, the two were seeing each other face to face.
"So, Undyne's girlfriend, huh?" Grill reiterated just in case he imagined it the first time. Alphys – abated by his meaty breath – answered with a timid nod. "Listen carefully. I want you to know one thing about that woman over there. She's…"
Instinctively, Alphys's eyes rolled behind her glasses. Yeah, she could already guess what he was about to say. She's a maniac. A lunatic. A whack job. Completely out of her tree. A deranged psychopath and you should run away as fast as you can.
"One of a kind."
Alphys's eyes snapped to meet Lord Grill's. His bear face, which looked ready to chomp her snout off, looked at her with a certain softness whom Undyne would have difficulty understanding.
"You have no idea how lucky you are, young lady. How great it must be to find one person to complete you, when I couldn't find it in twenty." He clutched her wrists and brought them together. "Promise me one thing. Don't let her go. Never, ever, ever let her go."
"Actually," Alphys said, "I'd say she's the one who won't let me go."
It was halfway between a joke and a fact, but Grill laughed anyway. He leaned back and his face scrunched up. He shifted his wide rump around before reaching under it and yanking out the source of his discomfort: it was about the size of a large coconut, with a weird choice of hair colour and two blank, dead eyes which spooked him, nearly making him drop it.
Doctor Alphys drew a quick breath. "Mew Mew!" She snatched the head of her anime robot, amazed to find it still intact. She turned Mew Mew around, pried open a hatch hidden beneath her spiky locks, and rummaged around her cerebral circuitry. "It seems alright. N-nothing looks broken. Please don't be corrupted. You've got so much to live for, my anime friend."
Anime? And Lord Grill thought he was the loser. He would make an 'L' with his finger and thumb and press it against his forehead but Alphys's other half made that threatening gesture a fifth time. I'm watching you, buster.
Instead, he opted to remain frank with Undyne's girl. "I hope she's okay," he said. "After all, I have been sitting on her fa…" He stopped and really thought about that phrase for a second. He retreated back to his first thought. "I hope she's okay."
* * *
Sans dug his hands deep into his pockets. From his height, he could scarcely make out the gathering in his vicinity, but he could heard their numbers. "Man. To think that we had our share of problems leavin' the Underground," he said. "At least we still have the Underground. These guys've got nothin'."
"So many more monster back on Earth…" Asgore murmured, stroking his bead. "Getting them food and shelter on such short notice is going to be a hassle."
"Without question," Toriel replied. "But if everyone pitches in, then we can make it work."
"I guess we've got some tough weeks ahead of us." He glanced down at his son. His pristine fur almost glowed in the dawn light. "However, let's enjoy this moment while we can. I still can't believe you're back, Asriel."
Asriel nervously dug his feet into the sand. "Me neither."
Asgore's limp hand, by his side, opened up, beckoning his son to take it. As Asriel took it, Asgore gave Toriel a knowing glance. She nodded and took hold on his other hand. Together, their grip was firm and locked solid.
"Ready?" Asgore asked, and Toriel nodded again. "One… two… three…"
The coupled lowered themselves before throwing their hands in the air, along with their child. Little Asriel rocketed five feet off the ground, laughing like old times. After landing, imprinting another pair of his paw prints over the existing ones, they counted to three again.
Papyrus brought his clasped, gloved hands up to his chin as to bared witness the wonder of the three Asgores: Original Asgore, Cloned Asgore, and Mini Asgore.
Undyne had seen her mentor happy on many occasions, but this was a different breed of happiness altogether, one never seen in all of her years. A special kind of joy, seen in the connection of others, just how she was connected to Doctor Alphys.
And Fleck…
They saw the Dreemurr family reunited at long last after countless years of separation. Fleck wanted to frown, but could not find it in themself to ruin the magic of the moment. Asgore and Toriel had their real son back. The human could see it in the family's eyes: happiness beyond measure. Everything they needed, releasing hollers of joy every time his feet left the ground.
The parents counted to three and pulled their child off his paws, him laughing like in a time forgotten. The King shared his joy with the warrior he mentored and the scientist he cared for. Alphys and Undyne made an adorable couple. A short, relaxed skeleton and his lanky counterpart were exact polar opposites, and they were brothers to the end.
Such wonderful people. The most interesting lives in the whole of Fleck's small world, the ones they struggled to live without… and yet they remembered their alternate self.
Toriel's last lyrics of laughter as she clutched the deep gash to her torso. Papyrus's promise as a skull lopsided in the snow. Undyne's undying resolve as she melted away. Mettaton's perpetual self-absorption despite the hole through his sternum. Sans putting off his own death to ask his long gone brother if he wanted any of Grillbys' finest, greasy grub. Asgore dying alone, as did his soulless son.
It still made Fleck sick to their stomach. To think something wearing their clothes and their skin could slice out the most important aspects of their life. Not out of justice, but because they could – they as the strong human
and everyone else as weak, freak show monsters. That version of Fleck with the dusty knife was still them, whether they liked it or not. The same size, build, strength, speed, and empty past. The one difference was their morals.
There was only one way Fleck could protect them…
Fleck turned and made for a break between the scores of people. They stopped to take one look back as the boy was pulled off the sands.
By the way… Asriel. Take care of your Mom and Dad, okay?
Alone, they dragged their feet past constellates of Outerworld inhabitants – excited, awed monsters, experiencing the wonder of the real world while the magic existed; none of them heeded them as if they were invisible. They snivelled in large gulps of air to stop themself from making a scene as they moved further north at a snail's pace.
On their way, they passed Brute, whose size had made him a magnet for every bird within a five mile radius. Seagulls, pigeons, sparrows, and a few uncommon breeds stood perched on his shoulders and head. They took a liking to Brute so much that he could even stroke some of their feathers. He liked them, although he wasn't too fond of the white stains they were leaving on his expensive suit.
Sam an' Rita's white wrappings were visible atop a hill near the treeline further inland; the couple sat in the one spot where no one else resided. Together, they gazed across the water as the sun descended toward it. Their rustic, riverside home was gone along with her parents – all ashes strewn to the wind. The same parents Fleck allowed to die – whom they nor anybody could save from the inevitable clutches of death. A dumb thought suggested to ask if they were in the market of looking after a human child, at least for a while. As quickly as it popped up, Fleck shot it down.
With each minute, the chorus died down an octave, along with the numbers surrounding them and a widening berth of untrodden sand.
Eventually, Fleck found themself surrounded by open air and sky and the waters to the brim of the Earth. Walking alone, the monsters behind them, nobody spoke their name or walked beside them.
Where would they go? Fleck wondered as they soldiered on. Who would want to look after someone such as them? A child who dwelled better with members of a species not their own. Someone who had no happy family of their own to even imagine what one was like.
On the horizon to the north, a blocky, mauve silhouette of skyscrapers clashed against cyanic sky. One of those rectangles would be the orphanage, and one of those wine-coloured squares would be the window where a spare bed overlooked the gasoline choked lanes. Fleck was a parentless child in a world which didn't care for parentless children. In time, however, they would find others who'd be their friend, and find a family of their own who would take care of them, and love them, and treat them as one of their own.
Fleck stopped to take another look back – the final one, they swore it. The crowds swelled with the lapping against the shore, but nobody – no goat, skeleton, fish or lizard – came diving out. Just as Fleck suspected. Already, their existence had been erased, washed over by the miraculous return of their little prince. There was no room for them, an outsider peering in from the cold and trying to be something they weren't. If they went back, no doubt they would stare blankly at them, and wonder who they were.
They chose that wish, knowing full well what it meant for them. Fleck had condemned themself to an eternal life of solitude, of never having a true family of their own. But they could at least keep some happiness in their heart knowing that they gave up their chance of a family to give another back his. The one who needed it more than them.
Wave after wave bit against the coast; each drop of water always at work and never alone. The shrieks of a few wayward gulls cackled elsewhere. At least the birds had someone beside them, someone to communicate with, even if said conversations consist of shrill crowing. So many clouds littered above; big ones, small ones, one in the shape of a cloud. Trillions of grains beneath their feet. Trillions of rays illuminating their path.
So many things united together. And yet, Fleck remained the one facet who stood alone.
The sun warmed their skin, and Fleck imagined it as a hug from dear Toriel, coupled with a pinch of Asgore's embarrassing, fatherly charm. Their belly grumbled with a strange craving for Papyrus's special brand of pasta, and a hearty glass Sans's puns to wash it down. Alphys's nerd outs and Undyne with her fearless determination quivered their knees. Such little things tore a gorge in Fleck's heart, and they knew full well they were never going to see any of them again.
During their second adventure, the thought of returning home to butterscotch-cinnamon pie and flowers in the garden, to Asgore and Toriel's relief were the forces which told them to push harder, run faster, think smarter, and never give up. Now all that was gone. The one thing they fought for was now gone forever, because they handed it to someone else.
Fleck counted their next steps as the first toward their new adventure, one which could last them right to the end: the quest to find a family of their own.
As for those they were leaving behind, Fleck was sure going to miss them.
They sniffed as they rubbed their cheeks with sleeves saturated with their tears.
Goodbye… my friends.
Goodbye forever.
Chapter 39: Outertale
Asgore and Toriel playfully lifted Asriel off the ground again, just the way they did years back; the tenth time was just as fun as the first. Goose bumps spread beneath their fur as they remembered the sound of Asriel's youthful laughter, and the touch of his fur against theirs. The scene of a family brought back together brought smiles to Alphys, Undyne, Papyrus, and – ironically – Sans. Still finding it hard to believe that the flower behind all his overlapping memories was the kid of his king and the old lady.
Still, he couldn't act like a downer about it. Toriel was smiling wider than he had ever seen, laughing stronger and longer than he had heard, and doing all this alongside the husband she used to disown.
Sans tilted his skull in the direction of his bros. "Ain't it sweet?" he asked.
"Rightfully so. As sweet as cinnamon and burning," Papyrus replied, although that concoction wasn't sweet at all. Smiling, he brushed a finger across his chin. "However, I believe this recipe will be made even sweeter with the inclusion of one small ingredient."
"One small ingredient?" Asgore repeated. "Wait a minute…" With his free hand, he pointed at himself, his son, and then his wife. That was three fingers extended, yet it wasn't enough. "Papyrus is correct. Something is amiss here."
Toriel covered her mouth to giggle. "You are right," she said, "We appear to be missing something."
Asriel slipped his fingers from out of her grasp.
"Or rather… someone," he finished before he turned to the right and reached out. "Hey, Fris—" His hand reached toward an empty space. Who he thought was there, wasn't. "Fleck?" His smile vanished. He looked left and right, perhaps having forgotten where they stood. Or maybe they moved while he wasn't looking. "Fleck?" he said louder. All around, he found no sign of them. "Fleck!"
It rubbed off on the rest. His parents and their four friends frantically scanned the area in search of their missing number.
"W-what? Where did they go?" Alphys asked. Mew Mew's head suddenly weighed a ton. Her guard had been down at the hope of returning to the Internet and getting her fix after a full two days apart. Imagine the tweets she could have sent. The posts she had been unable to thumbs up. The cat videos she couldn't grace with first in the comment section.
Their worst fears had come to pass, having been too caught up to consider that anyone could go missing again. Six-and-a-half pairs of eyes looked to their surroundings, to the monsters entranced by the glow across the ocean, or the blending colours above, or the richness in the ether. They desperately asked around, but no one else had any idea who they were talking about or where they went.
Sans bobbed and weaved around the citizens in a weak ploy to see farther out. "I can't see anything with all these people about," he said.
Before he knew it, Undyne's iron grasp was on his arms, pinning them at his sides.
"We need to get to higher ground," Undyne shouted in a manner which brought about a nasty case of déjà vu.
Sans tried to stop her. "No, Undyne, don't—"
Undyne picked up Sans, stepped over to Papyrus, and planted him atop his brother's shoulders. Then, she grabbed Papyrus by the legs and, in an impressive show of strength, lifted him up and placed him on her shoulders.
Sans got quite the surprise in both the view of the land and in the restrain in the commander. Forcing three people into a ladder might not seem like it, but next to burning down houses, suplexing boulders, and hooping scientists into trash cans, it was the most composed action she had done all week. From so high up, he could see for miles across the shimmering gold to where sea met sky. He scanned the heads down below, searching for any sign of certain shaggy haired kid.
"Found them yet?" Asgore shouted up.
Sans shook his head. "Uh uh," he replied. "A lil' to the left."
Undyne rotated in tiny shuffling steps while Papyrus made a dooting noise every two seconds. Doot! Doot! Doot!
"What're you doing?" Undyne asked. The grating in her voice was not due to the skeletons' meagre weight. Honestly, the two were as light as feathers.
"Acting as the sonar," Papyrus answered, then pulsed with another Doot! "This way." Doot! "We'll locate Fleck." Doot! "Faster." Doot!
"I'm pretty sure that's not how sonar works, but I'll take whatever I can get."
Sans turned until he overlooked the stretch of seaside as it curved to the right, north by northeast. Far in the distance, one tiny speck blemished the umber sands. Scraping long footsteps down the beach. Head hung low. Clutching their elbow. The blue in their clothing gave them away.
"Found 'em!" Sans shouted down, pointing in the direction of the dot. "That 'a way!"
Asriel was the first to move, diving through the crowds of monsters in the direction Sans had laid out. He was followed closely by his parents, then Alphys, and finally Undyne at the back, still hiking the skeleton brothers over her head.