Empty Desks

'Toriel late at the school grading papers. Contemplating her past and now her future prospects and what it all really means to her. A needed reality check at the pause of a busy life, if you will.'
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	Toriel sat at her teacher’s desk, her reading glasses balancing precariously on her nose. She held her red grading pen, scratching in ax ‘X’ over an incorrect answer and writing in the right answer like she has been since school had ended. She sighed and looked up at the clock. It was almost a quarter until five, she should have been home well over an hour ago, but she had to get all of the papers done and turned in before she could leave. Frisk was home, and Toriel was making sure that Sans and Papyrus were able to pick her up and make sure she didn’t get into any trouble, as she sometimes did.

	The ex-queen set down the pen, her hands rubbing at her eyes. Empty rows of chairs were all she could see, the window showing nothing but a playground devoid of any children playing or Asgore taking care of the grounds. The hum of the lights her only companion.

She absolutely loved her job, and she loved her students, but with the two combined it felt like she had no time to herself. Frisk sucked up most of the time that she had at home, not that Toriel minded at all, she missed having a child to care for and hated having an empty nest, but everything altogether just was too overbearing at times.

	Her hands returned to the pen as she looked back down at the paper, marking in another correct answer before filing the quiz into the ‘Corrected’ category. Her mind turned itself back into her thoughts. Life on the surface was better than she could ever imagine, but there was something missing.

	She was awfully lonely.

	She had made so many wonderful friends. Sans was there for her whenever she needed to talk or joke around with, and Papyrus was sweet enough to make her feel better no matter how low she felt. Even Undyne and Alphys turned out to be great monsters to talk to, as soon as Toriel got to know them. Many of the teachers were quick to make friends with her, and they even offered her advice for living on the surface, but... she missed having someone she could live with, spend the day doing nothing but still doing it with a smile. Someone like Asgore.

	Despite the obvious... strain that was between the two, he was always a monster she could vent to or lean on, and most importantly, he knew to give her all the space she needed, no matter how much it hurt him. She hated thinking about it, but she knew he cared about her, he was the one that even encouraged her to take up teaching on the surface. Teaching didn’t pay much, but he would rather face homelessness than let her live a day in poverty. She knew it was awful to take advantage of that, but he stood firm, even when she refused, that he would support her, and Frisk, no matter what.

	 Things were awkward between the two, for a lack of a better word. Their relationship was much better than what they were when the monsters were finally freed, but it was nowhere close to perfect. There was always a strange tension when they were both in the same room, as if one of them would slip up and do something stupid that would upset the other or someone else was going to ask them “Well, are you two together?” at any moment. She knew he felt it too, and they both knew that they each needed space. Some days were worse than others, and some it was as if nothing had happened between the two. He would attempt to make a pun, and she would giggle, making both of them smile until they realized what they were doing. She could see the old ‘Gorey’ that she loved all those years ago, especially when he was around Frisk, but the wounds between the two had to heal before she could even think about being anything other than friends.

	Toriel rubbed at her temples, trying to push back the memories of him. She thought back to her past, thinking back to what felt like an eternity of exile. It was her worst nightmare, dead silence in a welcome home, children’s shoes left at the door to never to be claimed again, a comfortable bed that was cold with no one to share it with.

	She shuddered just at the thought of it, memories of fear, hate and homesickness making her stomach churn. She had been so angry, angry at Asgore, angry at the monsters, angry at herself. Uncertainty made it so much worse, days of debating with herself over whether she should come back or stay hidden away. There was no doubt that Asgore had figured that she vanished into the ruins, but he never once tried to bust the door down and get her again.

	Days of excommunication and solitude turned to years, and years into lifetimes. Living alone for so long in the cold of the ruins had chilled her to the soul-- the children that fell were the only things she could clench to for warmth, but they never stayed. No matter how much Toriel tried to persuade them to stay, one by one they all left, and she knew it was inevitable.

	Her claws dug small grooves into her pen before she realized how tense she was. She sighed again, trying her best to keep any bad thoughts into the back of her mind, once again rubbing her eyes to clear her head. She glared back at the clock, its hands reading twelve past five. She picked up the next sheet, yawning as she scrawled her corrections on the paper.

	After filing the newly marked quiz, she reached for another paper to correct. She looked over in surprise, finding that all of the papers had already been filed away neatly in her desk. Perhaps there were fewer than she thought. Smiling, she leaned back in her chair and stretched her arms and back, everything popping into its right place.

	“Oh, thank goodness that’s over.” She yawned, throwing her pen into the holder on her desk. The shadows stretched across the playground, the day nearing its end. It was about time she went home.