Underlust: Papyton - His Prince

8: Letters

Dear Mettaton,

Hello, it's me again! Last night's episode was exquisite! I have to admit, that last question really stumped me. I guess I'll just have to try harder on the next episode! I look forward to it.

~P

AKA Your #1 Fan

***

Mettaton giggled, his hand over his mouth, and carefully slid the letter into the small shiny box he'd starting keeping on his vanity, labeled "My #1 Fan." The box was filling up quickly with letters from the mysterious admirer. Mettaton had been upping the ante on the difficulty of the last several questions over his last few episodes, taking this "P" up on their challenge. He was happy his efforts seemed to be working.

These last few weeks had been... strange, to say the least. Alphys was still walking on eggshells around him, and he was starting to get really sick of the way she coddled him whenever he was having a slightly bad day. Bad days just happen sometimes, and especially after what had happened, Mettaton expected to have bad days more often than not for the foreseeable future. But whenever his mood was sour, Alphys practically threw herself at his feet asking if there was anything she could do to help.

It was annoying, for sure, but Mettaton tried to stay patient. He knew Alphys still felt guilty about what happened, and no matter how many times he told her it wasn't her fault, she still didn't entirely believe him. Mettaton soon realized that even the lab, his only safe haven where he could be himself without fear, was no longer a safe haven. Unless he wanted to end up being the one comforting Alphys for making her feel bad for making him feel bad, he had to put up a front all the time that everything was okay. It was exhausting.

It wasn't all doom and gloom, though. Since their talk a few weeks ago, Mettaton and Undyne had established a cautious sort of friendship. Mettaton still rarely left the lab except to go to his studio for rehearsals and performances, but Undyne always made time to visit her girlfriend at the lab, and now that the two of them weren't making an active effort to avoid each other, the fish and the robot were spending a decent amount of time together.

It turned out that they got along better than either of them had expected, considering how different they were. Unlike Alphys, Undyne wasn't always second-guessing everything she said and did and wasn't looking for constant affirmation, which was a relief for Mettaton, who was having trouble even keeping himself on his feet these days.

Undyne was fascinated by Mettaton for how different he was compared to everyone else she knew. She wanted to know why he was always reading and writing and why it was his passion to educate the Underground. Despite his reservations, Mettaton was also cautiously interested in the Royal Harem and what working for it was like, since he'd only heard rare tidbits of information on the subject from Alphys. Although the Royal Harem as a concept still baffled him, it turned out that a lot more went into it than he had assumed.

She told him about her different responsibilities, especially training new recruits. The had a lot of interesting and funny stories about new recruits turning up expecting to be having sex with Undyne or other monsters as "training" and were thrown for a loop when they realized a lot it actually consisted of education about safe sex and consent. As lustful as everyone was and although sex was generally very casual, the Underground was generally a respectful place regarding sexual activity... for the most part.

Undyne was always bringing up this one particular recruit, though never by name. He was a friend of hers. Apparently, he'd been training with her for a long time, longer than any other recruit before being officially inducted into the Harem, but she still didn't feel like he was ready. One day she even confided in Mettaton that she wasn't sure her friend was cut out for the Royal Harem at all.