#undercrossing

Hours pass by, and Frisk and Asriel still work hard on returning New Home to its former glory. Many villagers pass by on their ways to wherever. Some say hello, but none offer to help. Except for Kidd, who offered to bring them more bottles of water, which they accepted.

“That Kidd’s a good, heh, ‘kid’.” Frisk jokes after Kidd delivers the water and then returns to his home to do more chores.

Asriel pauses to mull over the joke, cracks a smirk and replies “Yes, yes he is. Lord knows how many times he’s heard that one.” while watering a particularly dead patch of grass.

“You know…” Frisk pauses and surveys their surroundings. It’s been 8 hours and they’ve just gotten about half of the town weeded and watered. “This town’s a lot bigger when you get down and remove every weed from it. By this speed it doesn’t seem like we’re going to be finishing until about 4 in the morning.”

“Are you suggesting we leave the rest until tomorrow?” Asriel queries.

“Well, it is good to not overexert yourself, Asriel.” Frisk states as they get up and stretch their weary bones. “And to be honest, I’m quite tired myself. Physical work tires you out, you know. How about we take the rest of the day off and wake up early tomorrow?”

“Never would I have thought the 'fastidious and hard-working’ Frisk as an early-off boss.” Asriel mutters as he ties up the weed (not that type) bag they’ve been filling since the beginning. With a grunt, he hefts it over his shoulder and turns to Frisk. “How about we drop this bag off at the compost and I show you the special spot?”

"That sounds good, Asriel. I trust the compost is not far away?" Frisk asks, walking up to Asriel to keep up with him.

"Nope, it's just behind the Bone Bros. establishment. And I believe..." Asriel trails off as they head behind the large store "Just as I suspected." Asriel deadpans as he spies Sans asleep on top of the boxes he's meant to be sorting. Sans wakes up just as Frisk is rounding the corner, and waves at the both of them. "Hey Sans. Working hard, or hardly working?" Asriel greets as he sidles by Sans and places the weed clippings in the compost.

"I think we both know the answer to that, Mr. Secretary." Sans greets back. "Weeds, huh? And here I thought you'd be hanging out with Dogamy and Dogaressa today."

"What? Why would we be hanging out with them, Sans?" Frisk asks, confused. They spy Asriel next to them making frantic 'no, no' gestures.

"Well, I heard through the grape vine that you two'd be guardening." Sans winks as he relaxes on the boxes.

"I tried to warn you..." Asriel winces, despondent.

Frisk looks at Asriel's defeated expression, but then gets an idea staring at the boxes. "Well, we'd love to chat, but we have somewhere to go, Sans. It was a crate time seeing you again!" Frisk yells as they grab Asriel's arm and lead him away from a dumbfounded Sans.

"Wow, you were serious when you said you were a pun-master as well..." Asriel states. "Are you planning on combating Sans in a pun war while you live here?" Asriel asks as he leads Frisk to the spot, grabbing their hand as if on cue.

"Well, I'm quite versed in the art of puns as well, Asriel. I won't get beaten by a sack of bones any day." Frisk huffs, then turns their attention to the hand they're holding. "Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask..."

"Hmm?" Asriel turns towards Frisk.

"Why do you always grab my hand whenever we're going somewhere? I've always wondered..." Frisk asks, cautious not to offend him.

“O-oh, this?” Asriel asks back, shyly letting go of Frisk’s hand, which gets re-grabbed momentarily after.

“I didn’t say for you to stop... Continue, please.” Frisk mentions, not noticing the curious looks they get from several passersby.

“Well, I think it started when I was a kid...” Asriel begins, looking down.

“Which one, kid as in child goat or kid as in actual kid?” Frisk jokes, swinging the hands clasped in between them.

“Both.” Asriel replies with a look devoid of all amusement. “I believe my mother used to make me hold her hand a lot whenever we went out. I think that was just her being over-protective, but it seems to have rubbed off on me...” Asriel admits, looking down at the two intertwined hands. “Do you dislike it? I can stop if you want...”

“No!” Frisk says almost in desperation, though they did not mean to sound that desperate. “No, it’s fine, Asriel. It’s... oddly comforting, to be honest. Your hand’s quite soft, by the way.”

“Hehe, thanks!” Asriel says as they reach the edge of the town, where an untamed forest bars any hope of traversing any farther. “Now, before I show you this special place, I need to make one thing certain. You are not to tell anyone of this place, are we clear?”

“This is starting to sound more and more suspicious the more you talk about it...” Frisk replies skeptically. “But yes, I promise not to tell a soul of this place once we leave.”

“Please, Mayor Frisk. I have a reason why I keep this place a secret.” Asriel answers the ghost question as he leads Frisk through the foliage.

They go down a path that was near hidden to anyone not looking for it. Soon, the couple of young adults come into a clearing with a shaft of light breaking through the tree cover. The light illuminates a patch of flowers, with one of every kind. Though the most prominent, it seems, are buttercups.

“This little place, is my secret garden.” Asriel states letting go of Frisk’s hand. He then walks over to a makeshift chest at the edge of the grove. He opens it, and reveals a weathered watering can, which he uses on the flowers in the middle.

“I always wondered how you got those buttercups without any actual flowerpots or gardening tools in town...” Frisk murmurs, seeing some metaphysical puzzle pieces slot together. “Isn’t this place a little special for a relatively new resident of the town to enter?” Frisk asks, feeling this place is too sacred for someone who’s only lived in the town for one-and-a-half days.

“What? Oh, don’t worry about that, Mayor Frisk. I trust you more with these flowers than I do with most of the villagers. Come, sit.” He beckons Frisk over as he places the watering can on the floor and sits in the middle of the grove.

“I don’t know where you got this sense of trust...” Frisk mentions offhandedly and sits cross-legged next to Asriel.

“Hmm. I guess you would call it intuition? You have this certain air around you that just screams ‘trustworthiness’, Frisk. I’m sure the villagers have sensed it as well.” Asriel reassures, placing a paw on Frisk’s hand.

“Calmdowncalmdowncalmdown. This is JUST like what happened mere minutes ago, Frisk! Stop getting excited!” ”This grove is quite peaceful, isn’t it? The surrounding forest muffles all the sounds from the outside world. All you can hear is the rustling of the trees.” Frisk comments, stopping the wave of emotions from surfacing.

“It does have that air of tranquility, yes? I always escape here whenever I need a break from the town or secretarial duties. Ah! Speaking of which!” Asriel jolts up and turns his attention directly to Frisk. “I have a request for you, Mayor!”

“Frisk.” Frisk states, glaring daggers at Asriel.

Asriel squirms under their gaze, visibly flinching at Frisk’s distaste for formalities. “Sorry. I have a request for you, Frisk.”

Frisk’s demeanor instantly changes to friendly. “Request away, Asriel.”

“I have yet to file the Mayoral application at Town Hall because I am missing vital information about you...” Asriel starts, pulling his trusty clipboard seemingly out of nowhere and bringing said form out.

“What? Mom didn’t fill in all the information?” Frisk asks, surprised.

“No, your surrogate mother did not. She got most of the information: height; age; hair color; species; preferred type of pie. Same as mine, by the way. The only things missing are...” Asriel pauses and swallows a lump in his throat. “G-gender and eye color...”

“Oh.” Frisk’s face turns stony, grimacing at the form.

“B-But I’m not appropriating anything, Frisk! It’s just this paperwork-”

“I know, it’s official and has to be filed by the government. I’ve had to deal with this mess when I went into highschool as well, Asriel. I understand.” Frisk calms the nervous secretary down, knowing he’s not meaning to offend. “Biologically, I’m female. I’ve tried to look as androgynous as possible my whole life so no-one ever questions it, but there’s always people like those nosy ones at last night’s Q&A.”

“Female, perfect.” Asriel mutters as he jots it down on the form. “And eye color?”

“... Asriel, you remember what I said during the Q&A? How my eye color is strange and I only let close friends see it?” Frisk reminds, not wanting to show Asriel their eyes this early.

“I remember! But this document is official, and I need to know-”

“Trust me, Asriel. I know. Now, since I’ll be showing you my eyes, I need you to try your best not to freak out, okay?” Frisk warns as they place their hands on Asriel’s shoulder and lock sight with him. After a nod from Asriel, Frisk takes a deep breath. “Okay, here goes...”

“FREAK!”

“*screams*”

“Run away! They say those eyes with curse you if you look into them!”

“Don’t play with Frisk, okay? Those eyes are the mark of the devil...”

“Get out of my sight, demon child!”

“Woooow...” As Frisk comes back to reality after many unpleasant memories resurface, they notice Asriel has a starry expression as he’s staring at their eyes. A reaction Frisk is not used to. “Wow?” Frisk asks, puzzled.

“Your eyes are so red! That’s so cool!” Asriel gushes. “You’re like an anime protagonist! Or a super-villain!”

“Excuse me?” Frisk asks again, honestly perplexed. They never expected this kind of reaction.

“Why would you be scared to show such cool eyes, Frisk?” Asriel asks back, wondering why Frisk was hiding such a cool secret.

“You don’t know the people I’ve shown these to before...” Frisk replies, bitter memories resurfacing once again.

“Oh...” Asriel replies back out of reaction, then sees the meaning behind the words. “Well don’t worry, Frisk! Just like you will keep the secret of my garden, I will keep the secret of your eyes! No one will hear a peep out of me concerning this subject! You have my word!” Asriel states proudly as he lays a hand on his chest. He then returns to his clipboard and fills in the remaining information. “And with this, you are officially our new mayor! Thought you may have been playing as mayor before, it’s serious time from now on. As stated previously, I look forward to your future endeavors!”

“Only if you’ll be there by my side.” Frisk replies sweetly, resting their hand on Asriel’s thigh, causing him to go beet red. “He blushes so easily, it’s so cute...”

“O-oh yeah!” Asriel pipes up, changing the subject. “Since we’re here, I’ll show you my favorite pastime to do whenever it’s a nice day. Come.” He states and grabs Frisk’s arm, laying down on the flowerbed and pulling Frisk with him.

“... What are we doing?” Frisk asks, staring at Asriel.

“Don’t look at me, silly! Look up!” Asriel mock-scolds.

Frisk looks up and notices that the gap in the trees is right above the flowerbed, almost framing the passing clouds in the sky. “Oh, that’s quite a nice view.” Frisk comments as they stifle a yawn.

“Are you tired, Frisk? We did do quite a lot of physical labor today. You can rest if you want. This flowerbed acts as quite a nice cushion so I take naps here regularly.” Asriel offers, smiling at Frisk.

“Do you mind? Are you sure you won’t leave while I’m asleep?” Frisk asks, almost nodding off while laying on the soft ground.

“I’ll be sure to wake you up later.” Asriel reassures, clasping Frisk’s hand in his. “You have my word.”