It took Undyne nearly an hour and a half to trek all the way home, and by the time she got there, all hell broke loose.
Unsurprisingly.
Details weren't important. They were never really important in Undyne's eyes. All the arguments and their points to her faults always tended to repeat themselves.
After a while, she simply began to drown out the repetitiveness of the yelling.
She really only needed to focus on two things:
What her punishment was, and of course, if any new points or insults were brought to her attention.
After the heat of the moment died down into an uncomfortable tension you could cut with a knife, Undyne headed upstairs to write in her journal, mull over the mistakes she had made, and laid down to rest her thoughts.
It was only for a moment when she closed her eyes, but she could see angel wings.
And for that tiny moment, she smiled, and everything was right again.
•~•~•~•~•~
An incessant knock resounded throughout the walls of an otherwise quiet apartment building. The sound, although not particularly loud, was enough to tell Undyne that she would not be relaxing the rest of the day.
The culprit wasn't hard to determine. There was only one monster whose knock was sturdy yet light enough to not be threatening. And the faint sound of rattling bones trailing on afterward was a dead giveaway of who was outside her door.
Undyne, although not necessarily upset to see her best friend, was a little bit hesitant to open the door.
After all, Papyrus usually only knocked a maximum of 3 times. When the steady thud of bones struck her door after that point, she knew Papyrus was feeling something especially strong that day. However, what the emotion could be Undyne had never been able to predict.
She still hadn't forgotten the time Papyrus knocked 25 times, (yes she counted), and somehow the only problem was Papyrus applying a slew of skincare products only to discover he couldn't apply them behind his ears, because he didn't have any.
Undyne was about to counter on the fact that he didn't have skin either, but on the off chance that would open a can of worms Papyrus didn't know about, was the only thing that kept her mouth shut.
2 heartfelt discussions, a rant about societal beauty standards that lasted nearly an hour, and 3 pots of spaghetti later, Papyrus was finally ready to head home.
She didn't know if she had the energy to do this tonight, but despite it all, Undyne knew she was a good friend. So she smoothed out the wrinkles in her tank top, took a deep breath, and finally opened the door.
She saw Papyrus was just about ready to land another knock on the door when it swung open, almost giving him a metaphorical heart attack as well as almost giving Undyne a black eye. Thank God Undyne had fast reflexes and caught his fist in her hand at the last second.
Papyrus gave a soft sheepish smile as she released his skeletal hand. "Sorry, Undyne, I wasn't intending to be so impatient. You usually answer after the first 17 knocks, I had assumed you couldn't hear me."
"It's okay, Papyrus. Is everything alright?"
Papyrus' expression shifted within a matter of seconds from slightly sad to an intense seriousness.
"No! Everything is not alright! This is a matter of great urgency! An issue that even I, The Great Papyrus, could not find a solution for!"
Undyne tilted her head in disbelief, as much as Papyrus came to her for advice and a means to talk about certain things, he had never openly admitted to not knowing what to do in a situation, much stranger, asking for help with it.
"Okay, Papyrus, on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest, how bad is the situation?"
"Hmm... that depends. Give me an example of a manageable situation."
Undyne laughed. "Maybe the time when you couldn't remember your phone number, so you tried looking yourself up in a phone book that was dated 1984."
"That is not an accurate example! That was the only phonebook I had on hand! Besides, my number existed long before I was born!"
"Yes, but it wouldn't have been listed under Papyrus if you weren't born yet. You could have just asked Sans for your number or gone under your phone's settings to find it."
"Oh."
Undyne spoke again, this time in a more serious tone. "Papyrus, a situation can have many solutions, you have to go through every avenue you can think of to solve it, if you can't think of anything you can do, then the situation is going to be pretty bad."
"I see..." Papyrus paused and then spoke again matter-of-factly. "Okay! I have my rating!"
"And?"
"10!"
Undyne sighed. "Papyrus, what situation could you be in that's worse than anything you've ever dealt with?"
"I um..." Papyrus smiled sheepishly and turned to look at the ground. "I made a deal with Alphys."
"You what?!"
•~•~•~•~•~
YOU ARE READING
Soul-Searching (Alphyne)
Fanfiction"You really think you can beat me at my own game?" The girl went against her better nature and nodded defiantly in response. The air was thick with unspoken tension and electricity, and no other words were spoken for a good few seconds. Until, final...
