#dadgore

Without a second thought, Asgore rushed to his daughter’s side, arms and Soul already reaching out for her, his magic washing over her and Checking her for any injuries.

At this, Frisk’s head shot up, eyes immediately snapping towards her father.

Asgore almost stumbled upon catching sight of the miserable look on his child’s face, the wet tear streaks, and the red blotches marring her youthful visage. His Soul squeezed painfully.

He opened his mouth to question his daughter on her sorry state, but Frisk beat him to it.

“Daddyyyyyy!!” Her desperate cry was punctuated by a fresh round of tears, as the young child took her father’s arrival as her cue to express her upset to her fullest abilities.

Asgore wasted no time in sweeping his daughter up into his arms. He tried to pull her close, but Frisk pushed back against his chest and lifted her hands up to her father’s face, showing him the object she’d been holding.

“Daddy look!”

It was her little red headband. However, one of its horns had broken off, and was now limply hanging off the side, barely holding on by only a thread. Asgore’s heart sank at seeing his daughter’s most prized possession so badly damaged.

“Oh no! What happened?” he asked.

At his question, one of Frisk’s hands shot out, pointing towards the fish monster.

“She broke it!” Frisk cried out in an indignant whine. “The mean girl broke my horns!”

The ‘mean girl’ in question instantly bristled. She crossed her arms defensively and gave the other girl her most fearsome glare through her messy, red bangs, though the effect was marred by the sulky pout on her lips.

“I’m not mean! I’m Undyne, and I’m gonna be a hero!” she announced with all the confidence of a young child. “And heroes always beat up bad guys!”

Papyrus instantly leapt to his friend’s defence. “FRISK IS NOT A BAD GUY!! OR A BAD GIRL!! SHE’S NOT A BAD ANYTHING!!”

“and heroes,” Sans added, intense stare still fixed unerringly on the fish monster, “don’t make little kids cry.”

Undyne flinched at his words. Her fire seemed to extinguish, the ten-year-old skeleton monster’s words having clearly hit a sore spot for her. She averted her gaze, frowning down at the floor in lieu of having to look at anyone else.

“I didn’t mean to break her stupid headband,” she grumbled, the slightest trace of remorse leaking into her voice. “I was trying to break her! But her dumb loser friends got in my way. If it wasn’t for the nerd brothers, the human’s Soul would be mine, and we’d all be free!”

The resulting explosion of noise from the others in the room - particularly Papyrus - was lost to the ringing in Asgore’s ears.

Red filled his vision.

This monster had tried to hurt his daughter.

This monster had tried to kill his only living child.

His magic began heating up in response to his rising temper.

For one terrible moment, rage filled his Soul.

He needed to protect his child. He needed to get rid of this threat to his precious daughter. He needed to eliminate this abhorrent, intolerable danger, before it took away the most important thing in his life.

He’d already lost so much. He could not bear to lose anyone else. He would do anything to prevent that.

His Soul was already tainted by violence, his hands already stained by blood.

What more was a little Dust?

Thankfully, that terrible moment was ended by a swift and powerful whack to his head.

“Yowch!” Asgore clutched his aching head, hands massaging over the spot where he’d been struck. His watery eyes went to the culprit.

WingDings twirled a large bone in his hands, looking entirely unrepentant. He raised a browbone at his friend. “YOU WERE SPIRALLING, ASGORE.”

His senses now returning to him, Asgore realised where his previous train of thoughts had been leading him.

Immediately, he was flooded with guilt.

He couldn’t believe that he had considered, even for a moment, hurting- no, killing a child. While it was unfortunately true - much to his everlasting shame - that he’d killed innocent human children before, that was only for the sake of his people! As king, he’d felt like he had no choice. But this… this was inexcusable.

He really was a miserable creature.

He was utterly irredeemable.

He should just-

“Oowww!!”

Yet another blow to the head put an end to his internal self-condemnation.

WingDings gave the king a sharp look. “YOU WERE SPIRALLING AGAIN.” He lifted up his bone club threateningly. “STOP THAT.”

Asgore cowered away from his friend, hands held up in a gesture of surrender. “Alright, alright. I understand. I will stop,” he promised. “And, uh… Thank you, old friend.”

A weak, but no less grateful smile rose to his lips. He truly was thankful to have a friend he could trust, to pull him back from his darker moments. Even if said friend’s methods were a little… extreme. They were certainly effective, at least.

Wings eyed him suspiciously, weighing the truth of the goat monster’s words. Seeming to accept Asgore’s sincerity, he relaxed. He casually tossed his bone club over his shoulder, letting it dematerialise in his shadow.

“YOU ARE WELCOME, ASGORE.” He smirked. “I AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO KNOCK SOME SENSE INTO YOU.”

Asgore gave a nervous chuckle, before shaking off the lingering sting in his skull.

When WingDings stepped forward, the king wordlessly backed away to allow his friend to kneel down beside Frisk, as he took out a pack of wet wipes from his Inventory.

The scientist then set about cleaning up the little girl’s face, with all the speed and efficiency of a single parent to two messy children. Frisk patiently endured the action without fuss, and when Wings was done, he waved off Asgore’s thanks, and moved on to his own children, who bore his efforts with far less grace than their human friend did.

Asgore gave the skeleton family a fond look, before turning back to Frisk. Taking his daughter into his arms once more, the king asked her to explain what had happened.

The little human eagerly launched into an explanation of the events of that morning, accompanied by the other children all chiming in to give their input on the unfortunate series of events. Everyone had something to say, and they all kept interrupting each other, and frequently went off on tangents, often devolving into petty insults and childish name-calling. Keeping the conversation on topic was no easy task.

It was more than a little difficult to put together what everyone was saying, but Asgore thought that he’d gotten the gist of what had occurred.

From what he’d understood, it had all started during the morning break, when all the children had been let out onto the playground.

Frisk had been approached by the young fish monster - who was apparently in the same class as Sans, despite being a year older than him. The stranger had, suddenly and without provocation, launched into a fight with Frisk, out of what the older girl had claimed was a desire to take the human’s Soul to free monsterkind. And because “humans are the enemies of everyone’s hopes and dreams, so they should all die!” according to the child.

What happened next was difficult to ascertain from the children’s chaotic arguments, but it seemed that Frisk had managed to dodge the other kid’s attacks surprisingly well - especially for a five-year-old. Asgore couldn’t help the spark of fatherly pride that ignited in his Soul at hearing that. His daughter was truly talented.

But despite her impressive agility, Frisk’s poor headband had gotten caught in the onslaught and had been knocked to the ground, resulting in one of its horns breaking off.

That had then caused Frisk to break down in tears. 

“It was an accident,” the fish monster mumbled, looking genuinely contrite, her previous bluster and combativeness gone from her demeanour. “I didn’t mean to make her cry.”

Asgore could tell that she was being honest. The child had clearly not expected such a reaction from what she had believed to be nothing more than a heartless, “evil” human.

“I was gonna say sorry,” the child, Undyne, admitted, somewhat reluctantly. “But then he showed up!” A glare and a pointed finger were then aimed at Papyrus. “And he started attacking me!”

The skeleton monster in question immediately fired back with his own glare. “OF COURSE!! YOU HURT MY FRIEND!! YOU MADE FRISK CRY!!” Papyrus stomped his foot. The force of his anger caused his bones to rattle. “I HAD TO PROTECT MY FRIEND!! ‘CAUSE THAT’S WHAT GOOD FRIENDS DO!! AND I!! AM A GREAT FRIEND!!”

“The greatest,” Frisk agreed, nodding her head, a small smile playing on her lips for the first time that afternoon.

Asgore wasn’t sure how much of the skeleton child’s following boasting he should believe, but it was clear that Papyrus had fought bravely, managing to hold his own against the older monster, and meeting her energy spears head-on with his own bone attacks.

“He was pretty tough,” the fish monster conceded, grudging admiration shining in her eyes. Or at least, the one eye Asgore could see through the mess of red hair falling across the child’s face. “Heh, I never thought baby bones could be that strong.”

Papyrus visibly and audibly preened at her words.

“But his brother is way stronger!” The other child continued, causing Papyrus to deflate dramatically.

All eyes turned to Sans, who tensed and shrunk back underneath all the attention. He mumbled something too low for anyone to hear. It fell to the other children to explain, in their own ways, his part in the situation.

Apparently, at some point during the altercation, Sans had jumped in, completely out of the blue and seemingly from out of nowhere, in defence of his brother and his best friend. The two skeleton brothers had fought side by side, showing truly impressive coordination in their attacks, if the children were to be believed.

The poor fish monster had been completely out of her depth against her two opponents, and had been on the defensive the entire time. That explained her scuffed and dishevelled appearance. By comparison, Sans didn’t look to have a single scratch on him. Undyne had clearly gotten out of that fight the worst of them all.

Asgore didn’t miss the fiercely proud look in his best friend’s eye sockets. Indeed, WingDings hadn’t looked this proud even when he’d unveiled his newly-constructed CORE, though he was trying his best to not be too obvious about it. It wouldn’t do to encourage violence in the children, after all.

Especially not in the face of the deputy headmistress’s displeased scowl.

“Fighting is not allowed on school premises!” she screeched, blue feathers ruffling so badly, it left her glasses crooked atop her beak. “Not only could you have injured the other children, but you also made an absolute mess of the school grounds!”

The bird monster waved a wing towards the windows. A quick peek outside revealed a landscape littered with magical bullets that had yet to fade away. Tiny, glowing blue spears were stuck on various surfaces, and a near forest of bones of varying sizes jutted out from the ground.

Asgore blinked, taken aback by the destruction before his eyes. He shuddered to think of his tiny daughter amidst all that carnage. It was a miracle that she hadn’t been hit by a stray attack.

WingDings frowned as he observed the scene outside.

“THAT CERTAINLY IS… A LOT OF BONES,” he noted, mouth flattening into a thin line, his displeasure evident on his face. “AND ALL FOR JUST ONE OPPONENT.”

His stern gaze fell on his oldest son.

Sans cringed at his father’s accusing look. “hey, that girl’s the toughest in our class,” Undyne’s smug look was duly ignored, “we had to give it our all to protect frisk. we couldn’t take no chances.”

WingDings appeared unconvinced by his son’s words. “I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE CAPABLE OF, SANS.” He folded his arms, his frown deepening. “YOUR RESPONSE WAS EXCESSIVE. YOU DID NOT NEED TO LAUNCH SO MANY ATTACKS.”

Sans lowered his skull, but before he could say anything in response to his father’s scolding, Papyrus spoke up.

“HEY!! MOST OF THOSE BONE ATTACKS ARE MINE!! NYEH HEH HEH!!”

Both his tone and demeanour were filled with pride, and devoid of any awareness of the present situation.

Sans shot his younger brother a look of panic, as their father shifted his stern gaze over to Papyrus.

“IS THAT SO?” The eldest Gaster’s voice was deceptively soft, incongruent with the hard look in his eye sockets.

Papyrus remained blissfully ignorant of the danger he was walking into.

“IT IS SO!” he bragged, hands on his hips and rib cage puffing out. “I LAUNCHED WAY MORE BONES THAN SANS DID!”

His older brother rushed to intervene, stepping in between Papyrus and WingDings, as if he could physically protect his younger brother from their father’s ire.

“nah, he’s exaggeratin’, dad!” he tried to insist.

But his efforts were immediately thwarted.

“I AM NOT!!” Papyrus glared at his older brother, who tried desperately to shush him. But the seven-year-old would not be silenced. “I FOUGHT THE MOST!! I ATTACKED THE HARDEST!! I PROTECTED THE BEST!!”

So determined was he to declare his greatness, that Papyrus completely failed to register the storm brewing in his father’s expression, nor the growing alarm in his brother’s.

Thankfully for the youngest Gaster, he was saved from whatever punishment his father was planning, by his human friend.

“He did protect the best!” Frisk beamed at her friend, whose face lit up in response. She looked between Dr. Gaster and her father. “Papy was so cool! He- He was like… like a.. a knight from my books! Yeah! Papy was just like those super cool knights who fight scary bad guys to protect the princess and save the kingdom!”

Papyrus’s eye sockets glittered, both literally and figuratively, as wonder filled his expression. “WOWIE!! ME!! A KNIGHT!! THAT’S SO COOL!!”

The young monster appeared genuinely enchanted by the idea, his gaze lost in images of knightly valour and fairy tale chivalry.

WingDings’s face softened. “WELL. IT IS TRUE THAT YOU ACTED ONLY TO PROTECT YOUR FRIEND.” He let out a sigh. The corners of his mouth lifted up in a fond smile. “I SUPPOSE I CANNOT FAULT YOU FOR YOUR ACTIONS.” His gaze sharpened. “THIS TIME.”

Sans exhaled in relief, his shoulders slumping. Crisis averted and scolding avoided. He offered Frisk a grateful smile. His friend blinked at him cluelessly, but returned his smile nonetheless.

Meanwhile, the deputy headmistress looked like she had some choice words to say to all that. However, she was distracted when she noticed that, at some point, the owl monster had apparently given up on staying awake. Her feathers ruffled as she tutted at her sleeping colleague.

Undyne gave Frisk a disgusted look. “You like books? What are you, a nerd?”

The human tilted her head to the side in curiosity. “What’s a… n-nerd?”

The fish monster curled her lip at the question. “A lame loser who likes reading books and doing boring nerd stuff.” She shot Sans a mocking sneer. “Sans is the biggest nerd I know!”

The skeleton in question returned her sneer with a glare.

“maybe if you actually did ‘boring nerd stuff’ for once, ya wouldn’t’ve had to repeat a grade.” He lowered his voice and flashed Undyne a condescending grin. “who’s the real loser, eh?”

The fish monster bristled in offence. She bared her sharp fangs at the other child in a vicious snarl.

But before she could do anything rash in front of four disapproving adults, she was interrupted by Frisk’s excited gasp.

“So being a nerd is a good thing?” Awe filled her expression, as she beamed up at her father. “Daddy, Daddy! Did you hear that? I’m a nerd! Like Sans! I won’t have to repeat a grade!”

Asgore wasn’t sure how to feel about that. The other child had clearly meant that as an insult. But, in Asgore’s opinion, nerds were undeniably cool, as WingDings had proved, time and time again.

In the end, the king decided to just be happy that his daughter was happy and smiling again. “That is indeed, uh… good!”

Frisk giggled, the sound drowning out Undyne’s disdainful scoff.

All of a sudden, the harsh clearing of a throat cut through the atmosphere.

“Excuse me! Can we please get back to the topic at hand!?” The deputy headmistress glared at everyone in the room, and gestured furiously at the outside devastation. “There is still the matter of the wilful destruction of school property and the reckless endangerment of your peers!”

The two fathers and four children all shrunk back as they remembered their present situation. No one was sure what to say in the face of the bird monster’s wrath.

The deputy headmistress glowered at them all, before turning her blazing eyes onto the owl monster sleeping at his desk.

“Headmaster!”

Her shout successfully awoke the headmaster, who shot up with a startled hoot.

“Y-Yes! I’m awake! I’m awake! I-” He cut himself off with a yawn. His feathers puffed out briefly, before settling down. He rubbed his face, his large, round eyes blinking dazedly around him. “Hm? Yes? What is it, Miss Berdette?”

The deputy headmistress scowled at him.

“We were discussing this morning’s incident.” At the owl’s blank stare, the blue bird monster huffed in exasperation. “The fight on the playground involving four children.”

The headmaster’s face lit up in recognition. “Ah yes! That. Yes, I remember now.”

He cleared his throat, and folded his wings atop his desk. His primary feathers linked together like entwining fingers. His huge eyes fell steadily on the children. There was a surprising weight to his gaze, for a monster who’d been fast asleep mere moments ago.

“I hope you children understand what a serious situation this is.” He waited for them to murmur their acknowledgement of his words, before continuing at the same measured pace. There was an almost hypnotic quality to his soft, mellow voice, and his large eyes were arresting. “Fighting is forbidden on school grounds. You all know this. Do you all understand why? Do you all realise how dangerous reckless fighting and throwing around uncontrolled bullets are? What if you’d gotten hurt? What if you’d hurt someone else?”

The gravity in the headmaster’s voice bore down on the children like a physical weight. They all bowed their heads in shame. Even Frisk, who hadn’t actually done anything, got caught up in the regretful mood, and wore a look of contrition on her face, for acts she hadn’t even done.

As one, the children all apologised to the headmaster, voices low, heads and spirits even lower.

The owl monster stared at them solemnly for a few moments, before nodding his head. “Very well. As long as you’re sorry.”

At that, the serious air immediately dissipated.

The deputy headmistress spluttered in outrage. “It is not ‘very well’! A mere ‘sorry’ will simply not suffice!”

The headmaster was unruffled by her protest. He smiled affably at his colleague. “Now, now, Berdie. Don’t get yourself worked up over every little issue. You’ll give yourself a migraine again.”

The blue feathers on the bird monster’s face took on a red hue, but she seemed to bite her tongue at whatever she wanted to say. She exhaled harshly, then squeezed her eyes shut, as she started massaging her temples.

The headmaster gave the children a kind smile. “Do you all promise to never get into another fight inside the school ever again?”

The kids all dutifully nodded their heads and voiced their collective compliance.

The owl monster clapped his wings in delight. “Wonderful! Then I guess we’re all done here. Off you go, then.” He gave the others a genial wave of his wing, his feathers fluttering with the motion. “Night, night!”

And then his head fell down onto his desk. Loud snores began escaping his beak.

The deputy headmistress sighed. Her gaze rested on the owl’s sleeping figure, a calm entering her expression that had been absent all afternoon. She shook her head gently, then turned back to the others.

“Well, you heard the headmaster. The matter has been settled.” She gestured to the door. “You may all leave now and go home. No point remaining here at this time.”

Asgore stepped forward, wringing his hands. “Um. I deeply apologise for the trouble the children have caused.” He bowed his head. “I will see to it that the playground is fully restored to its previous state.”

The bird monster chuckled and waved off the king’s offer. “No need, Mr. Dreemurr. The school has a repair team on hand for just such an occasion.” The corners of her beak turned up into a wry smile. “Roughhousing is to be expected between young monsters still getting used to their magic. This wouldn’t be the first time the playground has gotten destroyed by a fight that got out of hand.” A hint of humour leaked into her voice. “Believe me, excited, young puppies have done far more damage than any stray bones or spears could hope to do!”

Asgore still appeared hesitant about letting the matter go, but WingDings stepped in before his friend could push the issue.

“THANK YOU FOR YOUR KINDNESS AND UNDERSTANDING.” He grabbed hold of the king’s arm and began dragging him out of the room. He waved for the children to follow them. “WE WILL BE LEAVING THEN. GOOD DAY. AND GOOD LUCK.”

Without another word from anybody, the group exited the office. The door shut behind them with a resounding clack, cutting off the sound of the headmaster’s snores.

The group let out a collective sigh.

Undyne was the first to recover. She eyed the human with a conflicted look on her face, before her expression steeled itself with determination. She squared her shoulders and marched towards the human with resolute steps.

Instantly, the other monsters tensed.

Sans and Papyrus stepped in front of their friend, but the fish monster forcefully pushed past them without a word.

Frisk looked up as the older girl stopped in front of her.

Undyne was quietly impressed that the little human showed not even a hint of fear, despite their earlier fight, but she wasn’t about to admit that to the human’s face. No, instead the young fish monster had something else to say to the girl she’d attacked.

“Look, human,” she began gruffly, discomfort etched into her features, “I, uh… I didn’t mean to break your headband, or-... or make you cry. That-...” She let out a huff, and ran a hand through her messy hair, her frustration almost palpable. She then fixed Frisk with a dark glare, though it was clear her anger wasn’t truly aimed at the human. “Look, I’m sorry, okay?!”

She crossed her arms and glared even harder, silently daring the human to rub her apology in her face and humiliate her further. She tried to ignore the blush creeping up her cheeks. She’d never apologised to anyone before. Not willingly, at least.

Frisk quietly took in the older girl’s apology. She blinked. “Okay.”

Undyne looked away and kicked at the ground. “I don’t expect you to forgive me or anything. I don’t need-!”

“I forgive you,” Frisk stated plainly, no trace of hesitation in her voice.

Undyne spluttered. “W-What?” She stared incredulously at the human, not believing her ears.

“I said I forgive you,” Frisk repeated. Her gaze was steady, and her eyes were clear, and devoid of any falsehoods.

The fish monster blinked at the human, struggling to process the other girl’s words. After a few seconds, Undyne averted her gaze, scratching at the back of her head.

“Oh, uh, that’s… um…” Her voice was shaky and uncertain. “...Thanks…”

She went quiet.

Undyne hadn’t expected the human to forgive her so easily, not after what she’d done.

A slow smile rose to her lips.

This human kept managing to surprise her.

Maybe… just maybe… this kid wasn’t all that bad, after all…

“Hey, um. Undyne, right?” Frisk’s voice broke her out of her thoughts.

The fish monster looked back. She raised her eyebrow. “Yeah? What about it?”

Frisk gave her a bright, hopeful look. “Does this mean we can be friends now?”

Undyne gave a start. “What?! Us?! Friends?!” She let out a snort and then laughed mockingly in the other girl’s face. “Yeah, right! As if I would ever be friends with a human! Don’t be stupid, punk! Fuhuhuhu!!”

Frisk’s face fell into a disappointed pout.

The other monsters all bristled angrily, looking ready to fight her, but Papyrus beat them to it.

“YOU’RE JUST SCARED!” He pointed an accusing finger at Undyne. He tried to mimic the mocking look his older brother had given her earlier, when Sans had so easily managed to rile the girl up. “YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO LOST TO ME (AND MY BROTHER) WOULD NEVER BE ABLE TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH SOMEONE AS COOL AS FRISK! YOU’RE JUST NOT UP TO THE CH-CHALLENGE!!”

He stumbled a bit on the last word, clearly still a little unfamiliar with it. But Undyne took no notice, her whole attention consumed by the younger monster’s taunt.

“WHAT!?” She seethed, looking more furious than ever. “I’m NOT scared!! And I’m up to any challenge!! Ngaaahhh!!”

She turned her blazing gaze on Frisk. Stepping closer, the older girl leaned into the human’s space to poke a finger at her chest.

“He thinks I can’t be friends with you!?”

She threw her head back in a laugh. “Fuhuhu! What a joke! I could make friends with a wimpy loser like you any day!”

She turned her head to shoot a glare at Papyrus and yell at him, “I’ll show you!”, before turning back to Frisk.

“Listen up, human.” She smirked at Frisk, her single visible eye lighting up with excitement at the prospect of a challenge. “We’re not just going to be friends. We’re going to be… BESTIES.”

Her grin widened, eye narrowing, as devious thoughts ran through her head. “I’ll make you like me so much, you won’t be able to think of anyone else!! Fuhuhuhu! It’s the perfect revenge!!”

Frisk stared blankly as the other girl laughed to herself. She wasn’t sure what was going on with Undyne, but the one thing that was clear to her was that the fish monster did want to be her friend after all.

Frisk’s face brightened, a wide smile forming on her lips.

She’d made another friend! And on her very first day of kindergarten!

The human startled slightly when Undyne reached forward and grasped both of her shoulders.

“You better prepare yourself, punk,” the older girl told her, eye narrowed at Frisk with a determined look on her face. “‘Cause starting tomorrow, we’re going to become closer than you can ever imagine!! Fuhuhu!!”

And after having had, quite literally, the last laugh, Undyne slapped Frisk roughly on the back, before departing with a wave and a, “see ya, dorks!” thrown over her shoulder.

Everyone stared after the fish girl, their faces a mix of different emotions.

Asgore furrowed his brows. He wasn’t sure what to make of that child. She wasn’t a bad monster, certainly, just a little… hot-headed. And more than a little brash. But beyond that, something about her was achingly familiar to him, though he couldn’t quite put his finger on what.

He left out a sigh.

At least the young girl was no longer interested in attacking his daughter. Speaking of…

The monster king looked down as he felt a tug on his hand.

His daughter’s brilliant smile met his gaze.

“Daddy, did you see that?! I made a new friend! And on my first day of school, too!”

Asgore gave his child a strained smile. “Indeed, Frisk. Isn’t that swell? Good for you, my dear!”

Frisk giggled, before turning her beaming smile on Papyrus. “Thank you, Papy! You’re the one who made Undyne wanna be my friend! You’re the greatest!”

Papyrus preened at his friend’s words. A prominent blush stained his bones, as a grin almost split his face in two. “NYEH HEH HEH HEH!! YOU’RE WELCOME, FRISK!! YET ANOTHER WIN FOR THE GREAT AND CLEVER PAPYRUS!!”

WingDings gazed warmly down at his youngest son, affection shining in his eye sockets. “YOU ARE DEFINITELY VERY CUNNING, PAPYRUS.” The edge of his mouth twisted upwards. “AND MANIPULATIVE. HEH. I AM IMPRESSED.”

While Papyrus was busy soaking up everyone’s praise, Sans hoped that no one had noticed him quietly sneaking away.

He took a shortcut and ended up in front of a certain fish monster.

Undyne let out an embarrassingly loud yelp at the skeleton monster’s sudden appearance.

“Wh-what do you want, nerd?”

Her attempt to act tough went ignored by Sans, as he stepped in closer. There was a dangerous edge to his grin.

“i just wanna make sure we’re on the same page.” He tilted his skull down, angling it so that a shadow fell across his face, making his eyelights stand out all the more. “make sure ya know where i’m standin’.”

His eyelights twinkled ominously. Undyne gulped against her will, but resisted the urge to back away.

“see, i’m not like my little bro and my best friend.” The skeleton monster’s voice lowered. “i don’t trust you. not at all. i’d say ‘not as far as i can throw you’, but…” his grin sharpened, “we both know i can throw you very far, heh heh heh.”

Undyne tense, her spine straightening in response to the clear threat. She bared her fangs at the boy.

“Ya wanna go, punk!? Finish our fight, now that the grown-ups aren’t here to get in our way!? NGAAAHHHH!!”

Despite her bravado, the young girl knew that she was outmatched. She’d seen the guy move. There was no way she would be able to keep up with him, not given how exhausted and achy she still felt from their previous tussle.

Not that she’d let that stop her.

Magic started gathering in Undyne’s hand.

She’d give it her all, no matter who her opponent was. She would never give up or back down from a fight!

But Sans only smirked and let out a few chuckles.

“nah, i’m not here to fight. unlike you, i don’t go pickin’ fights with those weaker than me.”

Undyne snarled at the barbed insult and swiped her spear at Sans’s skull. She was itching to wipe that obnoxious grin off of his dumb face!

Sans easily dodged her jab.

“nah, what i’m here for is to make sure you understand one simple thing.”

Before Undyne could blink, Sans lifted his hand and sent out his magic.

Instantly, Undyne’s Soul turned blue and an unnatural gravity forced her to the ground before she could react.

She hissed at the impact, her earlier bruises stinging painfully.

She fought back against the offending magic enough to lift herself up on her elbows and raise her head to glare at her opponent.

A shiver ran down her spine as she stared directly into Sans’s eye sockets.

One of the skeleton’s sockets was empty, nothing but a dark, chilling void.

The other was alight with flashing yellow and light blue.

“If you try to hurt my brother or my friend…” Sans’s voice was different, an odd quality to his tone and words which made them sound… wrong somehow. “Then buddy… Well…”

The pressure surrounding Undyne’s Soul disappeared all of a sudden, as Sans’s eye sockets went completely dark.

“You’re gonna have a bad time.”

Then, without warning, the entire world seemed to blink, as if time and space had momentarily split apart.

Sans vanished without a trace.

Undyne scrambled to her feet, head swiveling around to see if the other monster was still around, ready to strike again. Her magical spear was held in front of her defensively.

Once she had assured herself that she was truly alone once more, Undyne let out a deep breath.

She brushed the dirt off her clothes, as she remarked to herself,

“Geez. That guy is such a weirdo.”

__________

When Sans arrived back with the group, he was relieved to find that his disappearance seemed to have gone unnoticed.

Until he caught his father’s eyelight.

WingDings stared quietly at his eldest son for a moment, before giving him a subtle nod of his head. Unmistakable approval glimmered in his eye sockets. There was a slight, proud edge to the shallow quirk at the corner of the older monster’s mouth.

Sans felt his Soul thrum with relief.

It appeared that he wasn’t about to get grounded after all.

He stealthily made his way to his father’s side, and was welcomed with a hand stroking his skull and familiar magic washing over his form. He couldn’t help closing his eyes to savour the pleasant sensation.

“what’d i miss?” he whispered.

Before his father could answer, Frisk’s voice rang out.

“Please, Daddy! Please, please, please!”

Papyrus added his own pleading. “PLEASE!! PLEASE LET ME BE A ROYAL KNIGHT, UNCLE FLUFFYBUN!! I PROMISE TO BE THE GREATEST KNIGHT EVER!! AND PROTECT THE PRINCESS SUPER DUPER FLUPER GOOD!!”

Sans bit back a snicker.

It seemed his little bro had gotten it into his skull to become a knight. He guessed that Papyrus had been more taken with the idea than Sans had initially expected, back in the headmaster’s office. And of course their human friend was in full support. It had been her who’d put the thought into Papyrus’s head to begin with, after all.

Poor Asgore looked overwhelmed by the children’s pleas. “But there is no such position of Royal Knight.”

Instead of being deterred, Papyrus looked even more adamant. “THEN I WILL BE THE VERY FIRST!! AS WELL AS THE GREATEST!! NYEH HEH HEH!!”

Frisk nodded her head excitedly. “Yeah! Papy can be the first Royal Knight! That’ll make him extra special!”

Papyrus looked completely starstruck by the idea. Sans could practically see the sparkles twinkling around his eye sockets.

Asgore stared helplessly down at the children, unsure what to do. In desperation, he glanced towards his dearest friend, silently beseeching him for assistance.

Wings gave him a considering look. His gaze moved to the children.

“HMMM.” He crossed his arms, and drummed his skeletal fingers against his humerus.

Sensing a new target, the children turned their pleading gazes on the eldest Gaster instead.

His fingers stilled.

“I SEE NO ISSUE WITH THEIR REQUEST, GOREY. I THINK PAPYRUS WILL MAKE A FINE KNIGHT.”

Asgore stared at him in disbelief.

Papyrus and Frisk cheered and rushed towards Wings.

Two pairs of arms encircled his legs. Two very different - but equally dear to his Soul - faces beamed up at him.

“YAY!! THANK YOU, DADDY!!”

“Yeah, thank you, Uncle Wingsy! I love you!”

“I LOVE YOU TOO, DADDY!!”

WingDings felt his Soul melt. He reached down to caress the children’s heads, taking extra care to not get any of Frisk’s hair tangled in between his phalanges.

“I LOVE YOU BOTH AS WELL.” He bent down to press a kiss to each of their foreheads. “YOU THREE,” his gaze flickered to Sans, before returning to the two kids in front of him, smiling up at him with such bright and earnest adoration, “ARE THE LIGHT INSIDE MY SOUL.”

Papyrus and Frisk hugged him harder, their tiny faces aglow with joy. Sans ducked his head, an embarrassed blush spreading across his skull. However, he couldn’t conceal his happy smile.

Asgore gazed at the four of them with tender eyes, his Soul feeling as fuzzy as he was. A contented sigh slipped past his lips.

When his daughter and her friend looked up at him with such naked hope on their faces, all the king could do was shrug his shoulders in defeat. He could never deny the children anything.

“Very well then, young ones.” He tried to inject some solemnity into his voice, to make it feel like a royal proclamation, for the kids’ benefit. “If it is truly your wish, then when Papyrus is older, he may become our very first Royal Knight, whose duty it is to safeguard and protect my daughter, Princess Frisk Dreemurr.”

Papyrus and Frisk both whooped in delight, fist bumping the air. They gave each other a high five, before running over to Asgore and launching themselves at him.

“THANK YOU, UNCLE FLUFFYBUN!!!”

“Thank you, Daddy!! You’re the best!!”

“AND THE FLUFFIEST!!”

The king chuckled, returning their hug with equal enthusiasm.

“You are welcome, young ones.” He held them close for a moment, before leaning away, to look them both in the eyes (sockets). “Just… Please… Promise me that you will not be reckless. Do not pick fights with anyone. And do your best to stay out of danger.”

Papyrus and Frisk were quick to agree.

“I PROMISE I WILL!! ERR, I WON’T!! ERRR-”

“Whatever you say, Daddy!”

“THAT’S RIGHT! WHAT SHE SAID! I MEAN, WHAT YOU SAID! I WILL DO AS YOU SAID, BECAUSE I’M SUCH A GOOD LISTENER!!”

Asgore gave them both a warm smile. He reached a hand to each of their heads to stroke them, sending them his most affectionate Intent through his magic.

“And Papyrus.” Said child stood straight at the king’s address. “If you ever change your mind-”

“I WON’T!” Papyrus interjected, a determined look on his face. “NEVER!! I WILL BECOME A KNIGHT!! I PROMISE!! WHEN I GROW UP, I’M GONNA BECOME THE. GREATEST. ROYAL. KNIGHT. EVER!!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!!!”

Asgore could see that the young monster had his mind set on achieving his dream, and would not be dissuaded any time soon. The old king let out a resigned sigh, fondness curling his lips upwards.

“Golly! I have no doubt that you will, Papyrus.”

Papyrus puffed out his rib cage, a proud grin stretching wide across his skull.

“NYEH HEH HEH! THAT’S RIGHT! I WILL BE A GREAT KNIGHT!” he declared, eye sockets sparkling as he imagined his future heroic deeds and noble exploits. “I’LL GO ON ADVENTURES! AND QUESTS! I’LL SOLVE PUZZLES! FIND TREASURES! FIGHT OFF BAD GUYS! AND SAVE THE PRINCESS (THAT’S FRISK)! AND THE KINGDOM! AND- AND- ERR…”

He paused, struggling to think of what other brave acts a great knight was expected to perform. 

He looked to Frisk for help.

The human furrowed her brow in thought, trying to recall what her story books had to say about a knight’s duties.

“Well… in my books, after the brave knight saves the kingdom,” she pursed her lips, “he marries the princess.”

Asgore gave a jolt, feeling his fur stand on end.

Papyrus didn’t look too pleased, either, about what his friend had told him. “BUT- BUT… I DON’T THINK I WANNA MARRY YOU, FRISK! I DON’T LIKE YOU LIKE THAT.”

Frisk nodded her head in agreement. “I don’t like you like that either, Papy. And I’m not gonna marry you.” Her gaze then landed on Sans. Her face was set with determination. “When I grow up, I’m gonna marry Sans.”

Colour exploded across Sans’s skull in the fiercest blush Frisk had ever seen. He made a strange choking sound, before grabbing the edge of his hood and forcefully yanking it down his skull. He pulled on the strings until only a glimpse of his teeth remained. His bones were rattling.

Frisk stared at her best friend with wide eyes.

His reaction captivated her. She’d never seen him like that before, so… flustered. It was funny. And cute. And utterly delightful.

Frisk decided that she wanted to see him like that more often.

Her father’s reaction was far less entertaining, however.

Asgore fluttered around her in a panic, giving her desperate, pleading looks.

“Please, Frisk,” he begged his daughter. “You are far too young to think of such things! Please forget about thoughts of marriage, and just enjoy being a child!”

Frisk gave him a confused frown. “But it’s fun to imagine what I’m gonna do when I grow up. And Uncle Wingsy says it’s smart to ‘plan for the future’.”

Asgore shot his Royal Scientist a betrayed look.

WingDings coughed nervously into his hand. He avoided his king’s gaze.

Asgore returned his attention to his daughter, hoping that a different tactic might prove more fruitful.

“But why do you want to marry Sans?” He wrung his hands, unable to keep them still. “It cannot be just because he gave you a nice present!”

Frisk looked offended at the suggestion. “‘Course not! It’s ‘cause I want a happily ever after.”

Asgore blinked. “What?”

Frisk sighed dramatically, as if her father was being deliberately slow.

“A happily ever after. Like in the stories you read to me.” At her father’s blank look, Frisk explained, with all the patience a five-year-old could muster. “At the end of the story, the heroes get married and live happily ever after. I want that too! And Sans always knows how to make me happy. So, when we get married,” another choking sound came from the vicinity of Sans’s hood, which went ignored by all, “he’ll know how to get us a happily ever after!”

Well, then.

Asgore’s shoulders slumped.

He couldn’t fault his daughter for her logic, as simplistic and childish as it was. It did make a certain kind of sense, he supposed. To a young child, at least.

“Also!” Frisk continued, blissfully ignorant of the dark cloud hanging over her father’s head. “When I marry Sans, Papy will be my brother, and I really, really, really want Papy as my brother. I know he’ll be the coolest brother ever!”

The smile her words brought to Papyrus’s face was a stark contrast to Asgore’s dour mien.

“WOWIE!!” The young skeleton monster clasped the sides of his skull, as a blush rose to his cheekbones. “YOU’RE RIGHT, FRISK!! WE CAN BE BROTHER AND SISTER!! NYEH HEH HEH!! I KNOW YOU’LL BE THE COOLEST SISTER EVER!!”

Their exchange finally managed to get Sans to peek his (still blushing) face out from within the confines of his hoodie.

Coherent speech remained beyond his reach, however, as he could only grunt in agreement.

“And, and!” Frisk could barely contain her excitement, as thoughts of her perfect future danced across her mind’s eye. “Uncle Wingsy will be my second daddy!” WingDings gave a start, his eye sockets widening. “We’ll be one big family! The best family ever!!”

Asgore couldn’t help but smile at that, albeit weakly. “Golly. That sounds neato.”

Frisk giggled, bouncing on the balls of her feet.

Asgore gave a deep sigh, resignation settling heavy on his Soul.

Oh well. At least his daughter was happy.

_____

The group decided to walk back to Asgore's Castle.

A lot had happened that day, and they’d all silently agreed that the walk back home would help them all process the events of the day.

The children had also begged their parents for a sleepover - none of them were eager to be separated from each other after their earlier fight with the fearsome Undyne. Both fathers had agreed without hesitation.

It hadn’t taken long for the day’s excitement - and her prior distress - to catch up to Frisk. When she’d started yawning, her father had offered to carry her, and she’d quickly fallen asleep in his arms.

Feeling rather exhausted himself after all that had happened, Asgore held Frisk close, letting her head rest on his shoulder, her peaceful face tucked into the crook of his neck. He had a large hand on her back, to make sure she wouldn’t slip. The king could feel his child’s Soul beneath his fingers, still as strong as ever.

The goat monster allowed his daughter’s warmth and the sound of her soft snores to wash over his tired Soul like a balm.

When he felt WingDings fall into step beside him, Asgore glanced over.

The skeleton monster was looking ahead of him, eyelights fixed on the forms of his two sons.

Papyrus was talking animatedly to Sans, slowly coaxing his older brother out of hood town.

Asgore fought back his instinctive frown at the sight of the monster who would one day steal his daughter away from him. He reminded himself that it wasn’t the child’s fault that Frisk’s hopes and dreams involved a future with Sans.

Asgore would just have to get used to the idea.

He grimaced.

That didn’t mean he had to like it, though.

The king’s ears perked up when his old friend finally chose to speak.

“I ADMIT THAT I MAY HAVE BEEN… WRONG,” Wings’s face twisted unpleasantly as he uttered that last word, “ABOUT FRISK EVENTUALLY CHANGING HER MIND ABOUT SANS, AND FORGETTING ALL ABOUT HER PLANS. I KNOW HER WELL ENOUGH TO RECOGNISE THAT THIS IS NOT SIMPLY A CHILDISH WHIM. THOUGH I SUPPOSE THAT THERE IS STILL A CHANCE THAT SHE MAY CHANGE HER MIND IN THE FUTURE.” He looked doubtful about that possibility, however.

Asgore wasn’t in the slightest bit happy about his friend’s admission.

His Soul instinctively reached out to his daughter’s, and wrapped it in his magic, his Intent both protective and possessive.

He would need to learn to let go in time.

But not today.

Not yet.

He would hold his little girl close for as long as he could.

“HOWEVER,” WingDings continued, “I WAS RIGHT THAT FRISK WOULD BE FINE.”

Asgore shot his friend an incredulous look.

WingDings smirked back at him.

“FRISK IS UNHARMED,” the old skeleton monster pointed out. “MY SONS DID A FINE JOB PROTECTING HER. GRANTED, HER HEADBAND DID GET DAMAGED. HOWEVER! THAT IS AN EASY FIX. I WILL HAVE IT REPAIRED BY TOMORROW MORNING. AND! BEST OF ALL! FRISK MADE A NEW… FRIEND.” A dark look flashed across his face, but it was gone before Asgore could be certain of what he’d seen. The scientist’s self-satisfied grin soon returned to his face. “ALL IN ALL... EVERYTHING TURNED OUT JUST FINE!”

Asgore gave Wings a long, hard stare, before he actually started to consider his friend’s words.

Frisk had managed to avoid being hurt when she’d been attacked. She’d evaded the other girl’s bullets for long enough for her friends to come to her aid. The Gaster children had then successfully kept his daughter safe during their entire fight, despite the damage wrought to their environment. And in the end, Frisk had even managed to befriend her attacker!

A smile slowly dawned across Asgore’s face.

His little girl had made a new friend on her very first day of school! That was marvellous! He was so proud of her.

Asgore felt his daughter shift slightly in his arms. A small hand reached out to grab hold of his beard, and tiny fingers tangled themselves in the long, golden strands. Frisk’s soft snores continued to echo in his ears.

Warmth curled in his Soul, a blissful contentment that made it glow, unseen in his chest.

Asgore hummed a quiet tune to himself.

WingDings was right.

Everything had turned out just fine.

______________________________________

Asgore: “I... am not sure what to say...”

“I would of course be happy to be a father to you.  I promise to take care of you as best I can.”

_____

“Daddy!” Frisk’s cry brought her father running to her side in an instant.

Asgore came to a halt when he saw his two-year-old daughter standing in front of his ex-wife’s old room. Frisk was on her tip-toes, arms stretched upwards and hands reaching up to grasp the door handle.

Frisk tugged on the handle with all her might, and huffed in frustration when the door refused to budge.

“Door no open!” she complained, her voice coming out in a loud, childish whine.

Asgore hesitated. His Soul clouded over with mixed feelings at the sight of that door, permanently closed for “renovations”.

“That’s right. That door is locked. It won’t open, no matter how hard you pull,” he tried to explain.

Frisk’s frown deepened. She gave the handle another rough yank, then let go when that once again proved fruitless. She bawled her tiny hands into fists and leveled a pout at her father.

“Why?”

Asgore let out a sigh, unsure how to explain the situation to his young child. He wasn’t sure he could adequately explain it to himself.

“That room used to belong to someone. Someone… important.” Asgore felt his Soul give a sharp pang as Toriel’s face flashed across his mind. He swallowed thickly and hurried on, before Frisk could ask about her. “But she left a very long time ago, so I locked the door to her room. I don’t want anyone going into it, in case that person ever decides to come back.” And in case he was ever tempted to wallow in a past he could never return to.

Frisk’s brow furrowed deeply as she considered her father’s words. Her gaze went to the door that wouldn’t open, then to her father who wouldn’t open it.

His eyes looked sad.

Frisk wanted to ask about it, about that mysterious someone who left, but she didn’t want to talk about things or people who made her father look sad. Besides, she didn’t know enough words yet.

Asgore let out the breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding, when his daughter nodded her head and walked away from the locked door. He very much doubted that that was the end of the matter. But he was relieved that, for now at least, Frisk was content to let it go.

However, his curious child eventually found another way to bring up topics he didn’t want to talk about.

_____

“Daddy?”

Asgore looked up from where he was folding his daughter’s freshly-washed clothes on her bed. “Yes, Frisk?”

The three-year-old girl reached up and grabbed hold of a photo frame sitting on top of her dresser.

Asgore’s breath caught in his throat when the little human showed him the photograph she held.

“Who them?” his daughter asked him with innocently curious eyes.

The old king pushed the clothes to the side and sat down on the bed with a sigh. He beckoned his child over and patted the spot next to him.

Frisk quickly went to his side and climbed onto her bed. She sat down beside her father and eagerly handed him her latest discovery, looking up at him with patient expectancy.

Asgore took a moment to gaze at the photo of his lost family. His eyes trailed across the smiling faces of his ex-wife and deceased children, Soul aching at the sight of loved ones he’d never see again. Old memories beckoned to him.

He felt his daughter, warm and alive, scoot closer to him and press herself into his side. Her presence, both tiny yet impossibly massive, helped ground him and settle the quivering of his Soul. Asgore would forever be grateful to his daughter for always managing to bring him back to the present, whenever he got lost in the past.

He cleared his throat and angled the photo so that she could see it better.

“This is the family I had, long, long before you were born.”

Frisk’s eyes widened at this incredible revelation, her mouth dropping open in her surprise. She leaned in even closer, eyes raking across the photograph and taking in every detail of these people - her father’s old family - with renewed fascination.

Asgore tried to quell the shaking in his hands as he pointed to each person in turn. “This is Toriel, my former wife. We had an argument-” more like she yelled at him, while he cowered in the face of her rage and disgust, “-and she left here a very long time ago. No one has seen her since.”

Frisk’s eyes narrowed. Asgore could practically see the thoughts churning in her head. He hurried on.

“This is Asriel, our son and first child. He…” Asgore took in a shaky breath. He drew comfort from his daughter’s presence, her bright Soul acting as a beacon of hope. “He died a very long time ago. As did our second child, Chara.”

Frisk’s face fell, obviously disappointed at the news that she’d lost two siblings, long before having even had the chance to get to know them.

Asriel looked kind, and soft, like her father. And Chara kind of reminded her of herself. She wished that she could have met them. She was sure that they would have gotten along.

She reached a hand towards the image of her newly discovered - but long lost - siblings, tracing her finger across their features as if committing them to memory. She may never know them, but she would remember them.

Maybe in her dreams she could play with them, like she did in real life with her best friends, Papy and Sans.

Her eyes moved towards the image of the last person in the photo. Her father’s former wife.

She pointed at Toriel and asked her father, “is she my mummy?”.

Asgore wanted so badly to be able to say yes. But Toriel herself had denied that possibility when she left, all those years ago.

So instead, he shook his head. “No, Frisk, she isn’t. Your mummy was a human who came to the Underground from the Surface. She died when you were born. She loved you very much, though. More than anything in the world.”

He wanted to make sure that Frisk knew that. He owed at least that much to the woman who’d given him his daughter.

Frisk’s face fell again, taking this latest news even harder than the rest. She was so upset to learn that she’d also lost her mother before having ever known her, on top of two siblings. Her face scrunched up, fat tears welling in her eyes. It was so unfair!

Asgore felt his Soul constrict at the sadness radiating from his daughter’s own Soul. The trembling of her lower lip was mirrored by the trembling of his Soul.

He carefully put aside the photograph and gathered his child into his arms.

Frisk returned his hug with surprising force for one so small. She buried her head in his chest and let herself cry out her disappointment, expressing her discontented feelings in the only way she knew how.

Asgore gently rubbed his daughter’s back and pressed a kiss to her head. He desperately searched his mind for anything he could do to cheer her up.

Suddenly, an idea came to him.

“Golly, Frisk, I just thought of something!”

Frisk sniffed, a sound that shot through him like one of Wings’s bone attacks.

Her sobs subsided, and she looked up at him. Asgore’s Soul almost cracked at the wet tears in his daughter’s eyes. He gently wiped them away, not caring how they soaked into his fur or that the salt would later crust and clump it together unpleasantly.

“Since your mother was a human, her Soul was really strong! Just like yours is.”

Frisk blinked. A small smile tugged at the corners of her lips, at hearing that she had something so cool in common with her mother. Asgore widened his own smile in encouragement.

“Well, when a Soul is that strong, it persists even after a human’s death.” Asgore read the question forming in his daughter’s eyes and answered it. “That means that it did not disappear - it stayed with us. In fact, I’ve kept your mummy’s Soul, safe and sound, all this time. If you want, I can show it to you.”

Frisk was definitely intrigued by her father’s offer. It wouldn’t be the same as actually meeting her mother for real, but it was better than nothing. Besides, she’d never seen a Soul before. This could be very, very interesting!

“Yes pease, Daddy!” Frisk nodded eagerly, her previous tantrum already nothing but a distant memory in her mind.

Asgore smiled in relief. He stood up and held out his arms. “Alrighty then. Shall we go now?”

Frisk immediately launched herself at her father, who hurried to catch her. She giggled. “Yes! Now!”

Asgore chuckled and held her close. “Let’s go, then!”

Frisk cheered. “Go! Go!”

___

The little human’s excitement had quieted by the time they arrived at where the human Souls were being stored.

It was a room she had never been to before, nestled deep, deep below her home, and surrounded by thick, metal walls. The room was empty, save for several machines (which reminded her of the ones she’d seen in Doctor Gaster’s lab), as well as six large, glass cylinders, each containing a single faintly glowing, heart-shaped object. She noticed that each heart was a different colour.

Something about those colourful hearts made her feel very uneasy.

And while being in a new place would normally fill her with intense curiosity and a determination to explore all that she could, this room felt too… wrong.

It felt too cold… too quiet… too dark.

Or maybe that was just her imagination.

She clung tightly to her father’s hand as he led her towards one of the hearts - the pretty green one.

“This is it, Frisk,” her father’s voice was hushed, a quiet reverence colouring his tone. “This is your mother’s Soul.”

Stood before the container holding her late mother’s Soul, Frisk felt nervousness creep into her, despite her best efforts to suppress it.

Asgore kneeled down beside his daughter. He placed a hand on her back and gently coaxed her forward.

“Go ahead, young one,” he encouraged her. “Go and say hello to your mummy’s Soul.”

Frisk hesitated for a moment longer, before she resolutely shook off her sudden shyness. She marched towards the green heart - Soul, that was her mother’s Soul! - with as much determination as she could muster.

At her approach, the green Soul seemed to come to life - or something like it, at least. It drifted closer to her, pressing itself as close to her as the glass separating them would permit.

Frisk was positive that the Soul was glowing just a little brighter.

It emboldened her to place her hand on the glass, right where her mother’s Soul was.

The glass was cold.

And yet, Frisk imagined that she could almost feel the warmth of her mother’s Soul.

At her touch, the Soul’s light got brighter.

Frisk felt warmer.

It made her smile. She liked her mother’s Soul.

“Howdy, Mummy!” she greeted the Soul, injecting as much enthusiasm into her voice as she could, for her mother’s sake.

Since her mother probably didn’t know a lot about her, on account of her being dead for so long, Frisk thought it best if she introduced herself, like her father had taught her to do when new monsters came to visit her. “I’m Fwisk! Nice to meetcha!”

Asgore smiled down at his daughter, pleased with her positive reaction to meeting her mother’s Soul.

“Very good, Frisk.” His daughter preened at the praise. “How’s about you tell your mummy all about yourself? So that she can get to know you better. I am sure that would make her happy.”

Frisk looked more than okay with this suggestion.

Turning towards her mother’s Soul, the little human launched into a long, barely coherent speech, all about herself (“I’m thwee! I live with my Daddy”), her likes (“I love Daddy, I love my fwiends, Sans an’ Papy, I love fowers…”), her dislikes (“I hate soda! Blergh!”), and anything that came to her mind, really (“last I stay with Sans an’ Papy, there a doggy an’ it, an’ it took Papy bone, an’ Papy so mad, so he-! An’ then his daddy- oh! He soooo funny! An’ Sans too! An’ Papy too! Hahaha!”).

Asgore was amazed at how talkative his little girl was being. Frisk was normally a rather quiet child, preferring to listen rather than to talk, only speaking up when she had something she wanted to say.

He’d never heard her talk so much before.

He found that he could listen to her all day long.

The old goat monster smiled softly as his daughter rambled to her mother’s Soul.

His child looked happy.

The Soul looked happy too. Well, he assumed it was happy, given how brightly it shone.

And… he was also happy. Happy enough that his Soul was shining too, deep in his chest.

Frisk paused to catch her breath after all that talking, and perhaps to gather her thoughts to share with her mother.

She stared at the floating heart, admiring the pretty, vibrant green colour. She wondered if her mother was as beautiful as her Soul. She also wondered if her own Soul was as beautiful as her mother’s. She hoped so. She wanted to feel close to her mother, even if they’d never properly meet.

Overcome by a sudden, childish urge, Frisk spread her arms wide and tried her best to hug the last remaining piece of her mother.

She wished that the glass wasn’t in the way.

She wished that she could hug her mother for real.

She wished that her mother was still alive.

But, above all…

“Thank you for staying with me, Mummy.”

She was happy that her mother didn’t completely disappear. That a part of her, no matter how small, no matter how out of her reach, had persisted.

_____

From then on, Asgore took Frisk to visit her mother’s Soul from time to time.

Each time Frisk decided that she had something important she wanted to share with her mother, she would ask her father to take her back to that dark room with the six hearts.

And each time, the green Soul would shine brighter, hovering as close to Frisk as possible.

Even the other Souls seemed to be glowing just that little bit brighter, floating just that tiny bit closer to Frisk.

Asgore wasn’t sure what to make of it.

He told Wings about the strange phenomenon, but if his Royal Scientist had any speculations on the matter, he didn’t share them with him.

The monster doctor did ask to study the Souls, though. A request that Asgore granted, after receiving a reassurance from Wings to not use the green Soul in any of his experiments, out of respect for Frisk’s mother.

Asgore didn’t know what his friend was looking for or what he hoped to find. But maybe, just maybe…

They might uncover some of the hidden mysteries of the human Soul. And knowing more about them could maybe, possibly, hopefully lead to Wings and his team of talented assistants discovering a way to break the Barrier without using seven human Souls.

It was a small hope.

And a fragile one.

But it was hope nevertheless.

And it was that small and fragile hope which guided Asgore for the next several months, for the next year, lifting his spirits high up, so high that he felt like he could almost touch the Surface once more.

“Daddy? When will my horns grow in?”

Until his daughter’s innocent question brought him crashing back down to below Earth once again.

_____

Doctor WingDings Gaster prided himself on his sharp intellect. He was celebrated throughout the entire Underground as a brilliant scientist without equal, an unparalleled genius. His accomplishments were many and well documented. He’d made advancements in the realm of science that few in the entire world could ever hope to match.

Admittedly, there were some areas that he was less knowledgeable about. Emotions and interpersonal relationships were more his late wife’s expertise. However, when it came to scientific research, he was the very best in his field.

It was why everyone depended on him to find a solution to their biggest problem - namely, how to escape from their terrible prison.

From the beginning, WingDings had put his Soul into looking for a way to free himself and his people. He’d dedicated many years of tireless research to this task.

But all he’d found was what they’d already suspected.

Only the Soul power of seven human Souls could break the Barrier.

Something that could not be recreated artificially, as he’d eventually been forced to accept.

And so, he’d then redirected his efforts into making their lives in the Underground more bearable.

This was what had led to his construction of the CORE, his greatest achievement thus far (although his children did rival this in his eye sockets).

With a reliable source of energy, monsters could finally begin to live comfortably.

Well, as comfortable as being forever imprisoned beneath a mountain could ever be.

And despite his best efforts and vast intellect, there were some things even he could not fix or improve.

Space was beginning to become a real concern, for one. With limited space and a steadily rising population, there was less and less room for everyone. Monsters were getting increasingly worried. Some had even started Falling Down.

The future was beginning to look bleak.

And WingDings was growing concerned.

The longer monsters remained trapped Underground, the more desperate they’d become to find a way out. And the more desperate monsters became, the more WingDings feared that they might be tempted to look to their one surefire ticket out of this situation -

Frisk.

The final human Soul they needed to be free.

And Asgore’s only living child.

WingDings refused.

He refused to allow them to sacrifice his dearest friend’s beloved daughter, his king’s greatest source of hope and happiness. The child that he’d helped bring into the world, who he had watched grow for the past four years, and who he had devoted so much time and effort into keeping alive. The child that he’d come to care for as if she were his own.

Such an option was utterly unacceptable.

Therefore, he had to come up with an alternative. And soon.

As luck or fate would have it, a possible lead had suddenly presented itself to him.

Gaster ran a bony finger down the glass cylinder housing the light blue Soul.

The Soul trembled almost imperceptibly, then seemed to back away from him ever so slightly.

He would’ve missed the action if he hadn’t been looking so closely.

Gaster smiled.

How very

Very

Interesting.

He typed some notes into his computer.

The nature of Souls had long remained a mystery.

Monsters had their own beliefs as to what comprised a monster Soul, whether true or not. But no one had ever done any extensive research on Souls before. There were a couple of reasons for this.

For one, it was considered unethical by most. Souls were the very culmination of one’s being, whether one was a monster or a human. To mess with a person’s very essence was seen as disrespectful, at best.

Not that such a thing would’ve stopped Gaster from doing what was necessary to protect those he loved.

Regardless, the greater obstacle was that it was quite simply impossible to properly study a monster Soul, given how deeply attuned a monster’s Soul was to their body. The two were intrinsically linked, inseparable. Which was why monster Souls did not persist after a monster’s death. Even Boss Monster Souls could only persist for a few, all too brief moments, before shattering and turning into Dust like the rest.

And as for human Souls, well…

It wasn’t as if a human would ever willingly give up its Soul - or even allow one to be taken - for monsters to study. Especially not since humans were unable to sense and call forth Souls, the way monsters could.

Human Souls were an even bigger mystery to humans than they were to monsters.

Which was why Gaster had never thought to include human Souls in his research. He’d never been able to experiment on them and study them before.

Until now.

If he could figure out how the human Soul worked, the way he had with the human body, then perhaps…

He might be able to deduce some way to replicate its power.

He might even find a way to harness its power for the benefit of Monsterkind.

Gaster looked over all of the notes he’d taken during his observation of the six human Souls.

They were truly a treasure trove of information - if one knew how to look.

And how to probe.

Gaster had become very good at prising information out of his subjects.

But one mystery yet remained, one important secret remaining tantalisingly out of his reach -

What made human Souls so powerful?

Gaster was unable to identify the source of their great power with the current tools at his disposal. But he was a genius, after all. He just needed to create a machine that could isolate and extract this mysterious component from the human Souls, so that he could properly examine it.

The Royal Scientist dragged a stack of papers towards himself and grabbed a pencil. With careful, precise strokes, he began to draw up potential blueprint designs for such a machine.

It was as he was sketching the machine’s inner mechanisms, that his personal cell phone began to ring, the one whose number was known to only a select, precious few.

His hand automatically went to answer it, a response born from four years of his closest friend frequently calling him at all times of the day (and occasionally the night).

“HELLO?”

As he’d expected, Asgore’s voice greeted him immediately.

“Wings! I need your help! Frisk- I told her- but she asked-!” WingDings was struck by a strong feeling of déjà vu. “I don’t know what to do, please come here right now, she won’t stop crying-!”

WingDings was already putting his papers and instruments away and packing up to leave.

“ASGORE, PLEASE CALM YOURSELF.” He didn’t know what the problem was this time, but he sincerely hoped that it did not involve another dying human. Not his human, at least. “TAKE A DEEP BREATH AND EXPLAIN TO ME CLEARLY: WHAT HAPPENED WITH FRISK? IS SHE ALL RIGHT? IS SHE SAFE AND UNHARMED?”

“Yes, she’s fine.” Even WingDings was taken aback by the sheer force of the wave of relief that swept over him upon hearing that. “Well, physically at least. She’s upset, though. Really, really upset!”

As was Asgore, clearly, from the way he sounded to be on the verge of tears.

“You see, she asked me when her horns were going to grow in. So, I decided that now is the perfect time to explain to her that she’s adopted and that she’s a human, not a monster.”

Oh. Oh.

Honestly, WingDings was a little surprised that Frisk hadn’t realised that a lot sooner. Then again, monsters all had radically different appearances and magic, and she was only a young child. WingDings had probably gotten too used to how perceptive Sans was.

“And then! She burst into tears and ran into her room!” Asgore wailed, most likely in tears himself at this point, if WingDings knew him at all. “She won’t come out and I can still hear her crying. Oh Wingsy, what do I do?”

WingDings felt his Soul constrict at the misery in his oldest friend’s voice. Asgore had always been a crybaby, with a Soul too gentle and kind for this harsh and cruel world. And Toriel was no longer here to soothe his pain and ease his worries.

Which meant that it was now up to WingDings.

And he would not let Asgore down, the way Toriel had.

“WELL FOR STARTERS, GO PUT THE KETTLE ON. I AM CERTAIN THAT A CUP OF TEA WILL DO US BOTH GOOD.” He could hear Asgore move to carry out his order. “I WILL BE OVER THERE VERY SOON, ASGORE. AND I WILL BRING MY SONS WITH ME. THEY WILL BE ABLE TO COMFORT FRISK FAR BETTER THAN US OLD MEN CAN. AFTER ALL, FRIENDS ARE AN INCOMPARABLE TREASURE.”

As WingDings well knew.

Asgore sniffed softly into his phone. He seemed to be calming down already, which relieved the old skeleton. “Thank you, Wingsy. I’m so happy you’re here. Gee, I don’t know what I’d ever do without you.”

WingDings smiled, feeling a tingle in his Soul. Warmth spread through his rib cage and across his cheekbones.

“YOU NEED NOT EVER HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THAT, GOREY.”

_____

Sans shuffled his feet, discomfort prickling along his spine, as he and his little brother stood in front of Frisk’s bedroom door. Unease itched in his bones at the situation he’d found himself in.

When his father had suddenly appeared and dragged him and Papyrus away from their homework, the brothers had only received a vague and rushed explanation. But they had understood the gist of it.

Frisk was sad.

And it was up to him and Papyrus to cheer her up.

His little bro was more than up for the task, obviously. And Sans…

Well, what were friends for?

Papyrus knocked on Frisk’s door with all the force and exuberance he put into everything he did in life. The youngest skeleton monster waited just long enough to receive a response, before throwing open the door and marching into their friend’s room like he owned the place (and with how much time he’d spent in that room, he practically did).

Sans followed his brother at a more sedate pace, making sure to close the door behind him as (his father’s) manners dictated.

By the time he joined his brother’s side, Papyrus had already engulfed their human friend in an all-encompassing hug, allowing Frisk to cry into the skeleton’s chest.

Papyrus was showing remarkable restraint in not reacting to the copious amounts of disgusting human fluids Frisk was unleashing upon him. He clearly had Sans beat in the friendship department. Sans was so proud of his little brother.

In between Frisk’s wails and sobs, Sans managed to catch a few words which helped shed some light on what had gotten his little buddy in such a sorry state.

“D-Daddy said I- *sniff* I’m ad-dopted!”

Oh. Oh.

He and Papyrus had been told about Frisk being Mr. Dreemurr’s adopted child from the beginning, but it seemed that Frisk had remained unaware of this fact this whole time.

Sans winced. Oof, that had clearly come as a shock to her. No wonder she was so distraught.

“A-And he s-said that I.. I… I-” Papyrus rubbed her back as Frisk choked on her words. She took in a few deep breaths and said in a long, anguished wail, “I’m a huuumaaaann!! Waaaaaaahh!!”

Sans blinked. She… She hadn’t realised that she was a human? Really? Had no one ever told her?

He searched his mind for any moment anyone had called Frisk a human, but came up short.

Huh. He lightly furrowed his brows in contemplation. It seemed that the topic had just never come up. Everyone had always called Frisk by her name, and no one had ever referred to her as a human - at least not in her presence. And it appeared that even the knowledge that her mother was a human hadn’t been enough to clue her in to the truth.

Papyrus looked just as nonplussed by this revelation as Sans was.

Frisk was struggling to get her next words out, as emotions overwhelmed her.

“I’m n-n-not a monsteeeeerr!! I c-can’t use m-magiiiic!!” She drew in a deep breath and yelled at the top of her lungs, “I WON’T HAVE HOOOOOORNS!!”

That last part seemed to be what upset Frisk the most, given the Papyrus-worthy volume of her cry. It was clearly too terrible a truth for her to accept, as she devolved into incoherent bawling afterwards.

She remained inconsolable from that point on, despite the brothers’ best attempts to calm her down and console her.

Sans was at a complete loss as to what to do. His Soul felt like it was crying out in pain alongside Frisk.

He massaged a hand over his sternum, right above his Soul, vainly hoping to ease the sharp aching in his rib cage. His eyelights slowly dimmed, before blinking out altogether.

His best friend was crying. She was sad.

That was unacceptable.

He had to do something; he needed to fix this.

But how?

It wasn’t like he could change Frisk into a monster, or make her capable of using magic, or give her-

Wait.

A vague memory clawed its way up to the surface.

Several months ago, he and his brother were playing in the Garbage Dump in Waterfall, as they often did while their father was busy with work. They were rummaging through the trash, hoping to find anything interesting that had floated down from the Surface. And among all the discarded junk, Sans had found something.

He wasn’t sure why he’d taken an interest in it. It hadn’t seemed like anything special.

But for some reason, it had made him think of Frisk, his little human friend with the nice goat monster for a father.

So he’d kept it.

He’d taken it home with him. He’d cleaned it up (because his father would give him hell if he left dirty trash in his room). And he’d put it away… somewhere.

He just needed to find it and give it to Frisk.

His face set with as much determination as his young monster body could hold.

“guys, i gotta pop away for a sec. there’s a li’l somethin’ i think might cheer ya up, frisk.”

It didn’t seem like Frisk had heard him above the sound of her ongoing tears and lamentation.

That was okay, Sans told himself, even as his Soul quivered. He was going to make this better. Hopefully.

He would at least try.

Papyrus smiled up at him, and gave him a thumbs up and an “OKIE DOKIE!”, which was all the encouragement Sans needed.

He had to try.

“be right back.”

With one last glance at his brother and his best friend, Sans exited Frisk’s bedroom.

And entered his own.

He cast his eyelights over his room, mentally mapping out the entire place and all of his many dimensionally-improbable hidey holes, where he hid all the stuff he thought his father would lecture him for.

This… this could take a while.

Sans felt his shoulders drop. But he squared them up again and gave his cheekbones a quick slap.

He’d better get to it, then.

_____

After digging through what felt like his entire room - and making a mess that he was definitely not looking forward to having to clean up later - Sans held up his prize in victory.

He wasted no more time, as he rushed from his room and back to Frisk’s.

He was surprised (but really shouldn’t have been) to find that Papyrus had somehow finally managed to calm his little human down.

Heh, his little bro really was the coolest.

The two were still locked together in a hug, but Frisk was no longer trembling from the force of her sobs, and was instead resting peacefully in the young skeleton’s arms, her face pressed into his shoulder.

She sniffled from time to time, but was otherwise blessedly silent. Almost as shocking was how uncharacteristically quiet Papyrus was. The youngest Gaster was whispering something into Frisk’s ear, too low for Sans to pick up, and to which the girl responded with the occasional nod.

Sans smiled. His face softened as tension left his frame.

He allowed himself a few moments to enjoy the sweet scene, before pressing forwards.

Loathe as he was to interrupt this tender moment, he had an important gift to deliver.

Frisk looked up at his approach, which Sans took as a good sign.

Smiling proudly, if nervously, he offered his best friend the fruits of his labour.

“here, frisky. i got you a present. hope ya like it.”

Frisk’s eyelashes fluttered rapidly as she blinked away the tears lingering in her eyes. Her vision slowly cleared, allowing her take in what Sans was holding in his lightly-trembling hand.

It was a headband with little red horns on it.

Frisk stared. She didn’t say a word for a few tense seconds, eyes glued to the headband. Sans fought the instinctive urge to rattle his bones as the silence grew (he was NINE now, way too old for baby bones behaviour).

For one Soul-wrenching moment, he thought Frisk was about to burst into tears again.

But instead, her eyes widened in undeniable wonder, something bright and beautiful sparkling in her gaze.

“Golly. For me?” Her voice was a little hoarse from so much crying, but so full of hope that it made Sans’s Soul tingle. He smiled bashfully at her.

“yep. just for you.”

Frisk’s hands reached out for the headband, tiny fingers closing so delicately around it, as if afraid of breaking it.

Sans relinquished his gift readily to her, and watched in relieved satisfaction as Frisk quickly set about affixing the headband to the top of her head. Papyrus was all too eager to help her.

When they were done, Frisk stepped back, practically bouncing on the balls of her feet. She tilted her head this way and that, getting used to the new weight on her head, and making sure that her new treasure was resting securely in place.

She beamed at them, her face shining with happiness. “I love it!”

The two brothers returned her smile; her joy was infectious. Sans could feel his eyelights go wide and fuzzy with glee.

“i’m glad, pal. real glad.”

And he was. More than anyone would ever know.

Frisk giggled and posed for her friends. “How do I look?”

Papyrus gave her a double thumbs up, eye sockets twinkling and mouth stretching wide in his biggest grin. “YOU LOOK GREAT!!”

Sans winked at her. “yup. you’re the g.o.a.t.”

Frisk stilled, her head tilting to the side.

“Goat? Like Daddy?” Then she gasped, her face lighting up. “Oh! Do I look like Daddy?!”

Not really. She still looked like a human, just with horns. And a horned human looked nothing like a fluffy goat monster.

But of course, Sans would never tell her that. He’d Dust himself first. Instead, he nodded his skull, his mouth curving into an easy grin.

“yup. you look just like his kid.”

The smile Frisk graced him with was truly radiant. It made warmth bloom in his Soul, flowing out throughout his entire body. His face felt the warmest. Sans barely resisted the urge to hide his skull in his hoodie (like a baby bone).

Papyrus suddenly had a look of realisation on his skull.

“OH! I GET IT! KID, LIKE A BABY GOAT! NYEH HEH HEH! WOWIE, THAT WAS CLEVER!!”

Sans grinned broadly at his brother.

“what, you’ve only just realised it, pap? heh, you’ve gotta be kid-ding me.”

Papyrus leveled a harsh frown at his older brother and stomped his foot.

“SANS! YOU’VE ALREADY USED THAT PUN! DON’T BE LAZY!!”

Sans chuckled. He shrugged his shoulders in a careless gesture.

“heheheh. sorry, i- oof!”

His words were cut off when a solid weight slammed into his chest. Two small arms wrapped tightly around him.

“Thank you Sans!” Frisk’s voice was muffled by his hoodie, but her gratitude came through loud and clear. “Thank you so much! This is the best. Gift. EVER!”

Sans’s grin softened into a genuine smile. He returned Frisk’s hug.

He could feel her heart beating against his rib cage. His Soul felt ticklish.

“heh. no problem, kid.”

_____

A cup of tea did in fact do WingDings and Asgore some good.

Not a lot, but enough for the old skeleton monster to settle his nerves, and for his fluffy best friend to calm down enough to be receptive to WingDings’s reassurances.

“I AM CERTAIN THAT SANS AND PAPYRUS HAVE THE MATTER WELL IN HAND.” He watched Asgore take a small sip of his tea, and was pleased to note that his friend’s hands were no longer shaking. “FRISK IS YOUNG AND EMOTIONAL, BUT NOT UNREASONABLE. IT IS NATURAL FOR HER TO THROW A TANTRUM AT HER AGE.” Stars knew Papyrus did so, and frequently. “SHE WILL CALM DOWN EVENTUALLY, ONCE THE SHOCK HAS WORN OFF.”

Asgore still looked unconvinced. WingDings sighed and drummed his fingers against the side of his mug. His phalanges made a satisfying clacking sound.

“MY SONS KNOW FRISK WELL. THEY HAVE BEEN VERY GOOD FRIENDS WITH HER HER ENTIRE LIFE. THEY WILL BE ABLE TO REACH HER THROUGH THE STORM OF HER TURBULENT EMOTIONS. THEY WILL BE ABLE TO SOOTHE HER PAIN AND BRING HER COMFORT.” The corners of his mouth curled into a confident smile. “I CAN FEEL IT IN MY BONES.”

Asgore let out a surprised snort of laughter, almost choking on his tea.

WingDings sipped on his tea to hide his self-satisfied smirk.

It had always been far too easy to elicit such a reaction from Asgore. When they were young, he and Toriel had often had pun battles, if only to see who could make Asgore laugh the hardest. WingDings was proud to say that he’d won most of them, with his superior wordplay.

Those were fun times…

The Royal Scientist immediately stamped down on the thought. He forcefully pushed away those old, dusty memories, and squashed the feelings they evoked in him. Those times were gone, and they would never return. Just like Toriel. There was only the present. And the future, he reminded himself. They would have a future.

Asgore’s laughter eventually slowed to a stop, and he wiped away the tears that had formed at the corners of his eyes. He inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. He faced his closest friend, offering him a grateful smile.

“Thank you, Wings,” he said softly. “I am sure you are right.”

WingDings raised a browbone at him. “I AM ALWAYS RIGHT. AS YOU SHOULD KNOW.”

Asgore chuckled at his friend’s haughty words and air. Fondness filled his Soul.

“Indeed you are, my friend,” he conceded. He let out a sigh. “I suppose I must put my faith in your boys to do what I could not. They have been better friends to Frisk, than I have been her father.”

WingDings slammed a hand down on the table, startling a bleat out of Asgore.

“NONSENSE!” he growled. His eyelights flashed dangerously. “YOU HAVE BEEN THE BEST FATHER TO FRISK!!” And he was certainly a better father than WingDings was, although the doctor refrained from saying so. He didn’t want Asgore leaping to his defense and starting a pointless argument. “YOU HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THERE FOR HER! ALWAYS DONE YOUR BEST FOR HER! ALWAYS GIVEN YOUR ALL FOR HER! WITHOUT FAIL! WITHOUT HESITATION! WITHOUT COMPLAINT! NO ONE WOULD, NO ONE COULD ASK MORE OF YOU!!”

Asgore stared at him, speechless. His eyes began tearing up again, though for vastly different reasons than before.

“I-... I don’t know what to say, Wings,” he admitted, rather unnecessarily. He opened his mouth, to say what he didn’t know, but snapped it shut again when WingDings placed a hand on top of his.

“BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY… ASGORE.” WingDings’s gaze caught the king’s and held it captive. Asgore felt his Soul shiver. “FRISK LOVES YOU. THAT IS UNDENIABLE. AND YOU OF ALL MONSTERS SHOULD KNOW HOW ENDURING LOVE CAN BE.”

Asgore swallowed, trying to wet his suddenly dry mouth. He could only nod his agreement to that statement.

His mind briefly flew to thoughts of his ex-wife and lost children, before returning to the present - to the hand on his, hard yet comforting, and to the eyelights arresting his vision, bright lights shining in an inky abyss. To the friend who’d been by his side for longer than any other.

Oh yes, Asgore knew all too well just how enduring love could be.

Wings’s gaze softened. His voice turned equally soft, though no less sure and steady, brimming with unshakable confidence.

“FRISK WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU. THIS WILL NOT CHANGE THAT. NOTHING WILL CHANGE THAT. OF THIS, I AM UTTERLY CERTAIN. AND AS I HAVE TOLD YOU, I AM ALWAYS RIGHT.”

A smile rose onto Asgore’s face. His Soul felt mellow and fuzzy. It pulsed with a gentle warmth that chased away the cold of his previous fears.

He turned his hand over to clasp Wings’s.

“I know,” was all he could say. Asgore squeezed his oldest and dearest friend’s hand. The hand squeezed back. Their Souls beat in unison. “Thank you, Wingsy. For… everything.”

Wings gave him one of the warmest smiles Asgore had ever seen on his Royal Scientist’s face.

“ALWAYS, GOREY. ALWAYS.”

The two monsters shared a long and heartfelt look, conveying in their gazes what words alone could never express, their Souls speaking louder than any voice ever could.

Except maybe Frisk’s.

“DADDY!!”

Asgore immediately shot to his feet, spinning towards his daughter just in time to catch her as she barrelled into his legs.

“Daddy, Daddy, look!! I got HORNS!!” she yelled up at him, bouncing up and down on her feet in excitement.

Asgore was taken aback by his daughter’s complete change in demeanour. The little girl in front of him could not be any more different from the one he’d last seen crying her eyes out in her room.

It seemed Wings’s sons had succeeded in cheering Frisk up after all. His friend had been right. Like always, his mind whispered to him, sounding distinctly like Wings.

And then his child’s words finally registered in his brain.

“What? Horns?”

He knelt down beside his daughter and peered at the top of her head.

There were indeed a pair of little red horns peeking out from her brown hair.

Asgore blinked. He looked closer and noticed that the horns were attached to a headband.

He smiled at his daughter, his eyes crinkling at the edges.

“Golly! You do indeed have horns. And what a fine pair they are!”

Frisk beamed at him. Her small body was unable to contain her joy, as it spilled out of her in giddy giggles.

“Do you like them?” she asked her father, her bright eyes eagerly seeking his approval.

Asgore didn’t know how anyone could possibly look at those eyes and that smile, and say anything other than -

“Yes! I love your horns, Frisk. They suit you well.”

Frisk gasped. “They do?! Yay! I’m so happy!”

Asgore’s Soul felt full to bursting as his daughter cheered.

Suddenly, Frisk’s excitement dimmed a little. She looked unsure of herself for the first time since bursting into the room.

“Daddy?” The hesitation in his daughter’s voice was a stark contrast to her previous elation. “Do I look like you now? Do I look like your real kid?”

Asgore wanted to cry. To think that he’d ever doubted that this precious, perfect child loved him.

He placed his palms on Frisk’s cheeks, gently cradling her face in his hands.

It felt like he was cradling his Soul in his hands.

In many ways, he was.

“Frisk, you are my real child,” he spoke with unyielding confidence. “You always have been, and you always will be. Nothing will ever change that. Monster or not, magic or not, horns or not, you are my daughter. From the moment you were born, you became my entire world.” He looked deeply into her eyes, feeling his Soul swell with boundless and unwavering love for his child. “And what a wonderful world I see.”

Tears gathered in Frisk’s eyes, but before he could watch them spill over, his daughter launched herself at him. Her arms wrapped around his neck, practically strangling him - not that he cared. Her tears soaked into his fur - again, not that he cared.

Asgore returned his daughter’s hug. One hand moved to rub her back in soothing motions, while the other one went to stroke her head, his fingers carefully carding through the short strands of her hair. Frisk clung onto him even tighter.

“I love you, Daddy,” she cried into his fur, her words reaching into his Soul to seize it and declare it hers. Asgore surrendered it happily.

“I love you too, Frisk. More than anything.”

_____

Later that evening, some time after Asgore had profusely thanked the Gaster family when seeing them off, it was Frisk’s bedtime.

Asgore tucked his daughter into her bed, making sure that she was nice and snug beneath the covers.

Her horned headband was safely placed atop her dresser. Frisk had been unhappy about having to remove it, but relented in the end, if only to keep her most prized possession safe from harm. Her father had promised to help her put it back on in the morning, and reassured her that she could wear it whenever she wanted, with the exception of bedtime and bathtime.

As Asgore sat down next to Frisk to read her a bedtime story, a question came to his mind.

“Hey Frisk? Where did you get your horns from?”

Frisk replied eagerly, “Sans gave them to me!”

She looked absolutely giddy as she thought back to that moment. It was sure to become one of her most cherished memories.

Asgore chuckled. “Well, that sure was awfully kind of him. I’ll be sure to give him my thanks, next time I see him.”

Frisk smiled and snuggled deeper under the covers. Just then, a look of deep contemplation came over her face.

“Daddy?”

“Hm?” he replied absentmindedly, his thoughts drifting back to the past day’s events.

Frisk gave her father a look full of determination.

“When I grow up, I’m gonna marry Sans.”

Asgore fell off of the bed and landed hard on the floor.

No matter what, his darling daughter always managed to bring him crashing back to the present.

______________________________________

Asgore and Gaster: slowest of slow burns. Frisk and Sans: wedding planned at age four. Father and daughter share many similarities, but romance is not one of them.

Fun fact, Gaster was not supposed to have a significant part in this chapter. He was only supposed to appear BRIEFLY when Asgore called him, and then when Frisk ran in to show off her new horns. But this attention hog just butted in and refused to leave. I can see where his son gets it from...

Speaking of Gaster's son, Sans's part was literally meant to be half as long as it ended up being! But his lazy ass kept dragging everything out. Typical. These skeletons are gonna drive me spare smh.

Anyway, lesson learned, never make promises. I don't know when the next chapter will come out, because I think I'm going to replay the game again to remind myself of... everything. And everyone. Gotta make sure these idiots are all in character (as much as can be, considering this is a pre-canon AU)

So there were a lot of ideas that went into this comic about why/how Frisk would get adopted by Asgore, because I haven’t seen anything really exploring that.  Granted the primary idea is one that doesn’t really need much exploration and it’s the fact that Asgore did promise to take care of Frisk; even though it technically didn’t happen Frisk would still remember it (as would Asgore somewhat, it’s been established that reloads don’t undo everything) and here Frisk is just holding Asgore to his own words, as well as fulfilling the last favor Asriel asked them to do.  Asgore being The Goatdad would be more than happy to take care of Frisk just because they asked.

But that’s not really enough for me and I had a lot of other thoughts about this.  I’m not sure if I conveyed it properly but a huge part of this is the massively frustrating sequence of events in the end of each (mercy) run where Asgore’s attempt at redemption gets taken from him as were Frisk’s attempts at getting their happy ending; first by Flowey killing him, then by Asgore deciding to kill himself and give Frisk his soul to so they can escape, and finally by Toriel stopping the fight before it even starts so he can’t even get to the point of seeking redemption unprompted (that doesn’t itself stop Frisk’s happy ending but it does prevent Asgore from offering to take care of them).  But Frisk didn’t give up on him and is now giving him another chance to do a Good Thing, one more chance to adopt them and officially begin his Redemption along with getting Frisk another piece of their happy ending.

And the last big idea that ultimately is the reason I wanted to make this comic in the first place is the fact that whenever Frisk dies, it’s Asgore’s voice that tells them to keep going, to stay determined, to not give up.  It’s such a hugely significant thing for me.  Even if he’s technically talking to the player, and it’s not even him actively talking but the memory of him long ago talking to a dying child, that doesn’t change the fact that it was his voice that was always there in Frisk’s ‘last’ moments.  It was a major factor in me latching onto him, and considering (at least in how I interpret Frisk) there’s a massive connection between them, the player and the First Child (aka Chara)  I imagine they’d also form an attachment partly because of this and also all the above reasons.  God I hope this makes sense.

Overall I feel this situation wouldn’t just be some mushy happy lovely family stuff but also a huge amount of closure for these two after a ton of strife.

(not really a transcript, the text is literally just text from the gameover screen mixed with Asgore’s dialogue after his fight, and then Asriel’s last request)

memory of Asgore: “You cannot give up just yet...”  “Don’t lose hope!”  “I just want to see my wife.  I just want to see my son.”  “I just wanted everyone to have hope...”  “We could be like... Like a family...”  “Stay Determined!”  “...That’s just a fantasy, isn’t it?”  “You have the same feeling of hope in your eyes.”  “There must be a way to free us from our prison.”  “I’m sorry... I coldn’t give you a simple, happy ending...”  “I believe your freedom... is what my son... what Asriel would have wanted.” 

memory of Asriel: “...Take care of Mom and Dad for me, ok?”