Forbidden Fairytale

Chapter 13

Clouds lazily drifted above the warm afternoon, sunlight sprinkling out around the grass below. Papyrus gently pet a bunny on his lap, gingerly feeding it some of his salad. Next to him, Alphys sat, her own tail dragging through the luscious knots of green. Undyne remained gone.

"BUNNIES ARE SO ADORABLE!" Papyrus said, gently petting it again.

Only animals were immune to Papyrus' loud voice, it seemed. Likely being around animals his life had trained Papyrus to properly keep them around without startling them. Maybe that was how he managed to shimmy his way into becoming Sans' friend?

"Undyne's taking too long, I should text her," Alphys said.

She gently pulled out her mirror, clicking on it a few times to try and message Undyne once more. It was an endless cycle of pain, once again repeating itself as Alphys paused, clawed fingers hovering in her hesitance.

"Undyne will be here soon, you know she has a nose like a bloodhound. She'll find us, even if she never remembers where we meet." Sans scratched behind his ear, clicking on his DS. "Oh, an eevee. Yes please."

"OH, YOU SHOULD DO A NUZLOCKE, SANS!" Papyrus said, "IT'S MORE CHALLENGING AND EXCITING, MUCH LESS ADDS MORE STRATEGIZING!"

"Nah, I get too attached to my team," Sans said, absentmindedly flicking his tail. "If one of them died, I'd probably cry."

"I'm worried, she never takes this long," Alphys said.

Almost as if summoned by the soft spoken words of her female friend, Undyne burst through the bushes into their small clearing. The bunny, startled, jumped off of Papyrus' lap and scurried off into the shadows of the leaves. Papyrus turned to glare at Undyne, but paused when he saw who she had with him.

Undyne had one of her arms wrapped around an entire deer, a large spear sticking out of its abdomen. Not an unusual sight for their lunch, the forest was teeming with an overpopulation of animals due to Snow White's rule, and Undyne often took some of the animals for her lunch. The unusual sight was instead found with Grillby, the boy's upper arm firmly grasped by Undyne. She was practically dragging his entire body, and also had the weight of a deer to further test her strength, yet she walked without the slightest hitch in her step. Grillby himself looked caught off guard, blinking as he was greeted by three people he didn't know very well.

"I just wanted to read in the library," Grillby said.

"We're your new friends now."

Undyne twisted her arm and practically shoved Grillby onto a log. He sat, without much choice, his satchel thumping to the ground with his defeat. One of his buttons on his cheap shirt was undone, evidence of his rough journey here.

"The next time you kidnap our group a new friend, warn me," Sans said, "Or at least warn Alphys. She was real worried 'bout you."

"I-I..." Alphys fell silent, eyeing the newcomer with a desire to scamper like the rabbit.

"HELLO, GRILLBY BEANSTALK! WE MEET AGAIN!" Papyrus said, "WOULD YOU LIKE SOME SPAGHETTI FOR LUNCH?"

"Oh, no thank you. I have my own food," Grillby said, "Sorry, I was just reading in the library before Undyne suddenly grabbed me out of my chair and brought me here."

Sans saved his game, looking up. "That's fair. Undyne does those things."

"I saw that he was lonely." Undyne twisted her body, letting the carcass of the dear thump to the ground. "He really screwed himself out of friends, so I figured he was one of us."

"One of us?" Grillby recited.

"An outcast, sorta," Sans said. He placed a finger on his chin, and tilted it. "People who have a hard time making good friends. That's what I like to think of it."