201X + 8

201X+8

20 miles SE of Mt. Ebott

5:32 PM

A yellow hatchback with a rusted front bumper drives through a suburban road, unnoticed. The street lamps have just started lighting up, to counter the dim lighting of the early October Dusk. The small houses adorning the side of the road all ooze of simplicity and middle-class families. After 3 minutes of driving alone in this cold, deserted street, the small yellow car pulls up to a driveway of a friendly-looking wood house, almost as small in proportion to the other houses as the little car in relation to the other cars on the neighborhood. From just behind the house, following a dense evergreen forest, the peak of Mt Ebott can just about be seen. A tall, yet delicate figure slides out of the car with a bag of groceries and a comically small purse, making her way to the door of the house and opening it, cleaning her shoes on a crafted door rug that reads "New New Home Sweet New New Home".

The insides of the little abode are extremely comfy, a charming and very homely wallpaper covers the wood-paneled walls. In the center of the living room is a coffee table with 4 or 5 books stacked up, and next to it, a very large armchair, with a fleece cover, with a sewn pattern of snails. This whole little room is dimly lit by the twilight that comes through the sliding panoramic window on one of the walls, giving the entire little area a very dim, and very cozy orangeish yellow tint. Through the window, the other houses of the neighborhood can be seen, as well as a few of the skyscrapers that decorate the skyline of the city center. The figure still hasn't bothered to turn on the lights, merely leaving the groceries in the kitchen table, while turning on oven's stove to heat up a kettle of water that was preemptively left there. While the stove slowly heats up the kettle, the figure takes a seat in its large armchair, letting out a small grunt of relief, absorbing the peace and serenity of this moment, after a long day of work. The twilight was enough to be able to light up the figure's face, which had, until then, remained in the shadows of the room and the street, the orange sun gleaming off the white fur on her head and the semi-circular reading glasses that lay on her stubby muzzle.

This serene moment is interrupted by a telephone ringing, aloud, from the other side of the room to where the armchair lay. Too tired and relaxed to be bothered to leave the armchair, the figure just decided to let the answering machine do its job, by playing a recorded message , which contained a soft, happy feminine voice.

"Greetings! You have called the Toriel Dreemur residence, right now I'm not able to answer your call, but leave me your phone number and name after the "beeper noise" and I'll return the call as soon as I'm done with... well... whatever I'm doing! Bye bye, now!" - BEEP -
After the beep, another voice came from the answering machine, this time a male voice, from what seemed like someone in their late teens.

"Hey, Tori...  Did you hear about that guy downtown who had his whole left side cut off? ...... He's alright now."
Just as the voiced finished saying that, Toriel let out a bellowing laughter, got up and picked up the phone to continue talking.

"Alright, who's the mastermind behind that joke?" Toriel said into the phone, still giggling, but not immediately recognizing the voice.

"Oh, come on, it's only been a year since I've been away .... Mom .." the voice replied.
Toriel froze for a second, reaching out to the lampshade that sat next to the phone, and turning it on, revealing an expression of surprise on her face, aswell as her long silky robe, colored in a friendly baby blue, with a sewn-on tag that read "Ms. Dreemur".

"Frisk!! Gosh, it's been so long! I-I... Wow... How are you?"

"I'm doing good, just got back in town. Thought I'd call to say hello."

"Well, umm..... Hello!" Toriel giggled, followed by laughter from the other end of the line.

"No, but really, I was thinking.. Would you like to go out for some dinner? I mean... I wanted to catch up on all I've been missing out on, y'know." Frisk said, somewhat nervously.

"Oh my... Well, I am sort of bogged down by some tests I need to correct, but.... Oh, look at me rambling. Of course we'll have dinner together!" She said, beaming.

"Alright, cool! Um, I was thinking about that French place on Walnut street, the one with those  breadsticks? Is 7 PM alright?

"7 PM is great, child."

"Alright, see you in a bit then. B-Bye." Frisk said, before hanging up.

Toriel hadn't seen Frisk in nearly a year, because of a series of around-the-world lectures he had been giving regarding his role in the liberation of the monsters all those years ago. The most she could do was send an occasional text message to him, which was hardly ever replied to.

It was still relatively early to leave for her encounter with her human friend, so the goat took her time to dress up. She walked into her room, which was decorated in the same fashion as her living room, with a very large and comfortable bed, next to which was a sock drawer, with a picture of her and her students, with "to Ms. Punriel Dreemur ". In the room was also a writing desk, a worn lampshade and a large wardrobe.

Upon opening, the wardrobe revealed a relatively small amount of clothes, mostly robes and long skirts, plain shirts and two fleece cardigans. Toriel browsed through these, unsure of which to pick. However, secluded in one corner of the wardrobe was a  different robe, a special robe. Purple and made with a very fine silk it stood apart from the other clothes. Adorned on its chest was a large emblem, resembling some sort of royalty coat-of-arms, with a very simple design. Upon looking at it, the monster's expression changed, from a tender smile to a saddened gaze. Looking away from said robe she took a cardigan before shutting the wardrobe close, leaving the room sniffing faintly.


7:04 PM


Frisk rapidly taps the table with his fingers, looking back and forth between his wristwatch and the street, where a few people are grouped up around a nearby bar, cheering and wailing at a football game on a large TV screen. The sun has long ago set, and the only lights are coming from old timey lampposts that run all along the sidewalk, giving the entire block a distinct comfy small town vibe. He looks at his phone, to see if Tori might have sent him message or tried to call him. Nothing. He begins tapping his foot, drinking away at the third glass of water he's ordered.

He's been sitting at the French restaurant for about 20 minutes, to which he arrived early in the fear that Tori herself might have arrived earlier. Now there he was, nervously waiting for her, anticipating what to tell her, what to ask, and how to ask it. The only person he's had time to talk to after arriving was Sans, and that's merely because they still share the same flat, which is now even messier than before.
Just as he finishes his water, a cab pulls up to the restaurant braking violently and screeching its tires. Most everyone in the street gets startled and looks at said cab. Even though all the windows of the car are closed, a voice can clearly be heard from inside:

"You get NO tip, young man!"

One of the rear doors swings open, revealing Toriel with a grumpy expression, with a large straw hat on her head, with small holes for her horns, stepping away from the cab and towards the restaurant entrance, not realizing Frisk is already sitting at a table in the sidewalk, covered by a sunblind that reads "Toulouse".

In a fit of anger, the cab driver yells "FUCKING MONSTERS, GO TO HELL!!" before darting out into the night.

"Cabbies, huh?" Frisk says to Toriel, who is caught by surprise by the familiar voice. She turns around to see the human, sitting alone by a table covered in white fabric, with a single wax candle dimly illuminating his face, with his hands resting on top of the table.

The monster walks over to Frisk, who gets up to welcome her formally, but is instead greeted with a big motherly hug. After such a long time, he had almost forgotten how tender and delicate her grasp was and how dearly he missed her. He couldn't help but remember the good times he had way back in the day, when Toriel would make dinner for him after school, or how he'd comfort him after a nightmare or a bad day. It'd been so little time since he had liberated all the monsters from the underground, and yet, it felt like an eternity.

"You have no idea how much I missed you, Tori." the human whispered

"I missed you too, my child..."

The two proceeded to sit down and talk, over scargots and cheap wine , Frisk telling his stories of globetrotting and crowded airports, while the momster relayed her accounts of countless ordinary classroom stories, ranging from paper airplanes thrown to-and-fro, to whoopee cushions that were placed on her chair, much to her dismay. Not much had really happened in the single year that Frisk spent away from his friends. Papyrus was still quite a celebrity in the media, for his willingness to partake in interviews and such. Asgore still spent most of his time with outdoor activities and would send flowers regularly to Tori, who had now started to put them in her yard, much to the monster king's joy. Alphys and Undyne had recently gone out of town on their honeymoon, so not much had been heard from either in a few weeks. Other than that, life continued as normal under the shadow of Mt. Ebott.

Both the human and the monster took great joy in hearing each other's stories, as mundane and ordinary as they were, for they fueled the nostalgia they had for simpler times, before Frisk had become an adult. In the middle of taking a sip out of his second glass of wine, however, Frisk suddenly froze, his eyes concentrating in an empty point on the horizon, right behind Toriel's shoulder, still holding his glass to his lips. Almost immediately, the monster took notice of his behaviour and asked:

"Whats the matter? Seen an old friend?" Turning around to check behind her, only to see the empty street with closed storefronts.
Frisk remained absolutely still, unblinking, a single drop of sweat running across his forehead , before dropping off his eyebrow. His eyes were starting to become bloodshot, followed by trembling, and a feeling of dread and uneasiness filled Toriel, who now started to fear for the human's wellbeing.

"F-Frisk.??"  She whimpered, afraid of what was happening to her son.

Her voice echoed through his cloudy thoughts, snapping him out of his trance in a sudden spasm, leading him to drop his glass, shattering in the hard sidewalk.

He rapidly and worriedly looked at his own hands, the shattered wine glass and at his mother's petrified expression before covering his face, breathing heavily, visibly shaking. Despair and sorrow fills his mind, prompting him to start sobbing, resting his head on the table before him, lost in his thoughts, forgetting almost everything that happened during his dinner.

Despite this, he feels a very soft hand caressing his hair, which instantly calms him down. Followed by a voice that, once again, takes him back to his childhood, when he'd be crying over a nightmare and the monster would come to his room, lulling him to sleep.

Frisk raises his head and lock his eyes on Toriel's. She herself is teary-eyed, deeply worried about her son's spiritual state.

"What's the matter, my child?" she asks, smiling faintly.

"I...I haven't had a good night's sleep in months... I keep having nightmares. I keep dreaming about... The things that happened in the underground. The only reason it took me a year to come back was because I couldn't keep composure for more than a few weeks. I'd have finished this whole worldwide-lecture affair months ago had I been alright."

"The things that happened in the underground? But... You did all the right things! Everyone's free because of you, Frisk!"

"I'm talking about ASRIEL!"

This time, Toriel froze, wide-eyed and utterly shocked. It had been years, several decades since she had verbally heard her deceased child's name. She didn't expect it to hear it in such a situation, much less from the human she had cared and known for over 8 years. Her shock turned into confusion, how could he possibly know about Asriel? Neither she nor Asgore nor anyone she knew had even hinted at his existence, or lack thereof.

"Mom, I... I want to get things right! I want to help him!! For him, for Asgore, for.... For you."
Tori took Frisks hands in her own, gently massaging his palms and knuckles, calming him down just a tad.

"My child..." She whispered softly, still caressing her son's hands. "... I think it's time to go home."  Frisk looks deep into her crimson eyes and nods, shyly smiling.

"I'd love to but... I really need to go to my place, Mom. There's things I need to get sorted over there."

"Please, I insist my child... I'll bake you a nice pie and..."

"Listen. I promise I'll show up tomorrow at your home okay? It'll be just like old times. I promise."

Despite her best efforts, Toriel couldn't change Frisk's mind, and agreed to let him go, however, Frisk volunteered to take her home in his car, not wanting her to get harassed by yet another rude cabbie. They pay their bill and make their way to his automobile automobile, a 90's sedan with a familiar rune sticker in the top right corner of the windshield.


9:13 PM


After a short drive, Frisk finally turns into the winding suburban road where Tori's house is. The street lights give the pavement and the sidewalk a soft amber color, and the starry sky gleams off the hood of the car, while a soft rock songs plays in the radio, accompanied by humming from the monster in the passenger's seat, who has her purse on her lap, along with her straw hat.

The mood makes the trip down the road seem very short, and soon, they come up to a house on the opposite side of the road with a yellow hatchback sitting neatly on the driveway, next to a small but colorful garden filled with roses, tulips, sunflowers and other such flowers.  It's Toriel's house and, by extension, Frisk's old house.
The car U-turns and rolls to a halt just in front of said house, Frisk proceeds to turn off the engine, leaving the radio playing its comfy tune. For a few seconds, both him and Toriel just sit in the car, listening to the melody of the song. She tenderly passes her fingers through his hair, scratching his head, letting out a meek giggle. Eventually the song fades out, making way for an obnoxious advertisement for car insurance.

"You know I'm not really good with goodbyes. I'm more of a 'what's up, babe' kind of guy." Frisk says jokingly, winking at the momster.

"Are you sure you don't want to sleep here? I have a spare bed and plenty of food."

"I told you, I'll drop by here tomorrow. I promise."
Toriel then proceeded to give her son a motherly smooch on his cheek, before opening the car door and saying:

"... Be good my child, won't you?"

"Don't worry, I will, mom."

Both of them locked eyes and smiled, Tori closing the car door and making her way up the sidewalk to her house, but not before Frisk opened his own door, got half out the car, resting his arms on the roof, and saying:

"You got any puns you want me to share with Sans?"

She turned around and said "One of my students has been trying to annoy me with bird puns, little does he know that toucan play at that game." letting out a hearty laugh.

Frisk himself didn't really laugh, he just snickered at how horribly cheesy the pun was, just like all the puns she and Sans loved to exchange.

"Golly, these are horrible! I don't know how you two can find these funny!"

Just as Frisk was about to hop back into his car, he scanned the night sky once again, the moon gleaming down on the little houses all around the neighborhood, the stars blinking and the top of Mt. Ebott peaking just behind the roof of Tori's house, its base hidden by an endless sea of evergreen trees. Suddenly, Frisk found himself with his eyes locked on the top of the mountain, unable to move, unable to talk. Everything around him seemed to cease existing, the faint glimmer of the top of the mountain being all he could see. Images started to flash before his eyes, familiar images, places he'd been to.

The Throne room. The Golden Corridor. The Core. Hotland. The waterfalls. Snowdin. The woods. The Ruins.

The flowerbed.

The FLOWERBED.

FLOWERBED.

Just as suddenly as he had entered the Trance, he left it, noticing all around him was back to normal, Toriel having not even made it to the entrance to her house. All that happened in a fraction of a second, yet, it felt like minutes.
The radio started howling an 80s synthpop song. The lyrics echoing through the inside of the car and into his head. The lyrics are very clear, almost like a sign.

"Who, baby, who will save the world? It's not too late!"

Frisk was completely filled with a feeling, a familiar feeling, one he had not felt for such a long time. The music, the night sky, the wind blowing in his hair, it all filled him...

...with Determination.

In a heartbeat, he jumps back into his car, slams the door vigorously and flips the ignition, the engine of the car letting out a bellowing roar as it sprung to life. Slamming the gear into 1st, Frisk puts pedal to the metal, and screeches off into the night, leaving Toriel startled in her doorway, as she watches the silver machine dart away, leaving tire marks on the tarmac. She watches as the car eventually disappears into the winding road, the engine revs faintly hearable in the stillness of the night.