FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 1

A Royal Surprise

Sans was stretched out in pleasant lassitude on his bed, rolled onto his stomach and about to start on the second chapter of QED and the Men Who Made It, when he heard the knock on the door. He didn't trouble to stir or even to look up, not with his brother in the house to do those things for him.

"I'LL GET IT!" came Papyrus's tenor cry from the living room. Sans went on reading.

"Oh! Your majesty! Ambassador!" Papyrus cried again, and this time Sans clapped the book shut in surprise. Toriel? Frisk?_he thought. _What are they doing here?

"This is indeed a pleasant surprise!" Papyrus went on as Sans hastily jammed the QED book under his pillow and pulled out a MAD magazine. (One of the great joys that Sans had found in the Overworld, a joy scarcely known to him before: no issue of MAD had ever been lucky enough to survive a journey to the Underground to wash up in the garbage dump with any legibility intact.) He opened the magazine upside-down, quickly righted it, and then slumped back onto the bed, pretending to be engrossed with "Spy vs. Spy".

"My dear Papyrus! You need not bow to me," said a deep, resonant, feminine voice. Amazing, thought Sans, how quiet and mild that voice sounded, yet two rooms away he could still hear every word, crystal clear in its articulation. "How many times must I remind you that there is no need for any formality with me nor with my child? Consider me not as your monarch but as your friend."

"Y-Yes! Of course, Toriel! And you as well, Frisk!" Sans heard Frisk's cheerful vocalization of greeting. "What's that you're saying, young human? Now give me a moment; I've been studying your sign language, and the great Papyrus can surely puzzle this out...ah! You're saying that you love your friend Papyrus and you want me to give you a hug and a ride?" Frisk assented with another cheery sound. "Well then, little human, up you go!" Frisk laughed delightedly and Sans knew that Papyrus had hoisted the young ambassador onto his shoulders. Toriel laughed too, in that subdued, musical way of hers that Sans had come to regard as almost the favorite of the many laughs he had heard from her in the years of their idiosyncratic friendship Underground. It wasn't the loudest or the longest of her laughs, Sans reflected, but it was perhaps the most charming...

Toriel spoke again, bringing his train of thought to an abrupt halt. "Is Sans indisposed?" she asked Papyrus. "I saw his scooter out front and assumed he was in. I confess that I decided upon this impromptu visit largely to see him, if that should be possible."

"Sans_had_told me he was planning to spend the afternoon reading," Papyrus replied. "Knowing my lazy brother, though, he's probably sound asleep."

"Oh!" Disappointment colored Toriel's voice. "Oh dear. Well, in that case, perhaps my visit was ill-advised. Thank you for your hospitality, Papyrus, but I suppose that now my child and I should take our leave--"

Sans flung the MAD magazine onto the bed and sprinted to the door of his bedroom, stopping just short of it to take a deep breath and brush down his well-worn blue hoodie. Then he slowly opened the door, hands stuck carelessly in the hoodie's pockets, affecting a yawn as he walked to the living room.

"Hey, Papyrus, is there any--oh, hello, Tori, hi there, Frisk," said Sans in a somnolent drawl as he ambled into the room. "I didn't hear you come in. Must've nodded off."

"Just as I suspected!" Papyrus declared, raising a bony index finger in triumph. "Fast asleep! I told you, Toriel. Sans probably didn't even get through one page of whatever it was!"

"Hehe. Got me there, bro. You always knows_when I _doze." Papyrus responded to this with an indignant snort, but Frisk (still atop him) giggled, and Toriel laughed--a sharper, bleating laugh this time, a laugh that Sans loved to hear because he knew it meant that his wordplay had taken her a little by surprise.

Frisk patted Papyrus's shoulder, signaling that they wished to be put down. Papyrus obliged, lowering the child with utmost care to the floor with a hearty, "Hope you enjoyed the ride, young Frisk!" Then the child addressed Sans in sign.

"Oh, uh...it's okay, Tori, I'll get this one," said Sans, focusing on Frisk's hands. He'd been striving, as had all Frisk's close friends, to learn ASL and spare the ambassador the need for laborious handwritten communication. Toriel had picked up the language with effortless facility but the others were slower to learn. Still, both Sans and Papyrus--_especially_the indefatigably studious Papyrus--were making steady progress.

"Okay...you're saying that you love me too and also want a hug? Of course, kiddo, c'mere." Frisk put their arms around Sans, who after a bit of hesitation returned the gesture with a somewhat timid embrace. I'm not great with this stuff,_Sans had to concede to himself, _even after months of practice. Even the lesser degree of intimacy in a handshake made him feel vaguely uncomfortable but he'd figured out how to get around that with whoopie cushions and joybuzzers and the like, making a little joke of his own discomfiture.

He didn't have any of those problems with Papyrus, but that was different. With Papyrus, everything was different.

Frisk finally released him--Sans permitted himself a relieved exhalation--then signed to him, "Mom wants to talk to you." They then produced a book of Junior Jumbles from their pocket to show to Papyrus, who practically squeed in delight before pulling Frisk over to the living-room couch to work on it.

"You wanna talk to me, Tori?" Sans tilted his head up to look at Toriel. "What's on your mind?"

"Well, Sans," replied Toriel, with a little giggle. This wasn't a laugh usual for her, that nervous titter; Sans had only ever heard anything like it when Toriel was trying to pass light-heartedly over something that made her feel uncomfortable, like an inadvertent reference to her ex-husband. "I, ah, just happened to be passing by your house while enjoying the afternoon sunshine with Frisk, and I saw your scooter out front and thought..." Again the nervous titter. "I thought that maybe you would be available for a visit, albeit an unannounced one."

Sans smiled broadly. "Tori, you're welcome any time here, you know that. You're the _queen_after all."

"Now, Sans, don't start sounding like your excessively courteous brother here."

"That's_right_Sans!" Papyrus piped up from the couch, in a high and querulous voice. "It is the queen's wish that you _never_sound like me!"

"But anyway, Tori, I don't mind you or Frisk dropping by any time, whatever the reason," Sans went on. "Hell, even at three in the morning I'm probably awake."

"I am glad to hear that, Sans!" Toriel beamed, the tips of her fangs glinting in the afternoon light as she smiled, an effect that always caught Sans's gaze. "The particular reason I have today is this. You may remember that you had texted me two nights ago about wanting help with your baking some day because you were having trouble..."

Oh, yeah, I did do that, didn't I, Sans recalled. He'd come home from Grillby's, tipsy and with a irrepressible craving for chocolate cream pie, and with Muffet's bakery closed the best he could do was try to make it himself when he got home. But the crust was mealy and the filling didn't set properly, and he ended up tipping his creation into the trash and tapping out a slightly boozy SOS to Toriel, lamenting his failure and asking for help. _What was I thinking, pestering her like that after midnight?_But she'd answered promptly, promising help at a more convenient time. Sans idly wondered why she'd been awake that late.

"Oh, yeah, sorry about that, Tori," Sans said. "It's nothing really. You don't need to waste any _thyme_on me. Or any cinnamon or nutmeg either."

There it came again, that bleating laugh that always tickled Sans's heart. He heard another groan from Papyrus and a chuckle from Frisk. "Oh, Sans, you dear!" said Toriel. "But I would _love_to instruct you. I am a teacher, after all. I am sure that with even only a few hours of guidance from me you can make as delicious a pie crust as anything I can bake."

"Heck, Tori, you know that's impossible."

"Sans!" She fixed him with a glare and an expression of mock disapproval on her long face, but the warm brown eyes twinkled with amusement. "Are you telling _me,_the Queen of Monsters _and_the schoolmaster of Ebottsville Academy, that she lacks the ability to teach one of her dearest friends how properly to bake a pie?"

"Well..." Sans hoped that the color of his cheekbones betrayed no embarrassment. "If you put it that way, Tori. I'll do my best."

"I know you will, Sans. Do you wish to come to my house and use my kitchen? Or would you prefer me to visit you here again?"

"Um...would you might coming here again, Tori? Saturday morning, maybe? Papyrus can keep Frisk company if they want to come too. What do you say, Frisk?"

From the couch Frisk cheered and clapped their hands, while Papyrus grinned and waved. "Nyeh! I would be delighted to keep the ambassador entertained! I can show them all of my new puzzle books! There are some that, I confess, have even the great Papyrus at a loss..." He turned to Frisk and asked in a lower voice, "Have you ever heard of a puzzle called 'kakuro'?" Frisk shook their head.

Toriel smiled. "Shall we make it a date then?" Sans blinked his eye-sockets at her choice of word. "Saturday morning at, shall we say, ten o'clock?"

"It's a d--sure, Tori, I'm game," he replied, smiling back.

"Excellent!" She clasped her paws together. "Frisk, my child, I think we should leave Papyrus and Sans to the rest of their afternoon."

Frisk nodded and signed his assent, then gave Papyrus a quick hug and the "ILU" sign.

"Goodbye, young human!" Papyrus said. "I look forward to solving the mysteries of kakuro with your assistance!"

"See ya soon, kiddo," said Sans when Frisk came to him to bid their farewell. After their sign and their hug, Frisk gave Sans an enigmatic nod, turned his head to look at Toriel, then turned back to Sans, this time with a curious smile and a quick flurry of signs.

Sans repeated his interpretation in a whisper pitched to Frisk's ears. "...'Good luck'? Is that what you just said?"

Frisk nodded, still smiling the odd smile.

"Sure thing, kiddo. Till Saturday, huh?"

Frisk nodded again, more vigorously, then darted to Toriel's side. The queen waved her paw at the two brothers as she and her child headed for the door.

"Thank you again, my friends, for your hospitality! Sans, I look forward to our lesson. I am sure that you will..." She again giggled, but in a different way, one that Sans had become very familiar with indeed. "..._dish-_cover that you are a far better baker than you imagine."

Papyrus faceplanted into a couch cushion to muffle his pained groan. Sans grinned his broadest of grins. "Hehehe. Nice one, Tori. See you on Saturday. Bye, Frisk," he concluded with a wave.

When Toriel and Frisk exited, Sans slumped down into the nearest chair. "That was...unexpected," he said to no one in particular.

"I_know,_" said Papyrus, his face still buried in the cushion. "I'm _used_to your horrible wordplay, brother, but from her? Nyoo...it's _still_an unwelcome surprise!"

Sans didn't correct him. His thought were once again dwelling on Toriel's laughter.