Chapter Text
12 Years Before the Barrier Was Broken
Tap Tap Tap
Tap Tap Tap
The tapping was coming from the window and by the second round of it, the young girl who had been attempting to sleep threw off her covers and stalked to the window with as much a look of irritation as she could muster. This time of year the window frame was swollen with humidity and her small arms could only move the window so much.
“Carter!” She hissed out, “Give me a hand with this.” A second pair of small hands appeared under the lip of the window and together they shoved the window open. Before she really had time to backup Carter was already slipping into the room and the moment he stood up she shoved him. “You scared me, doofus, what do you want? It’s late!” Carter rubbed his chest, mocking injury.
“You wound me, Laura.” He said, eyes reflecting in the dim light. Then he leapt forward and swept her up into a crushing hug. “Happy Birthday!” Laura would have laughed, thanked him, or possibly made a joke, but she was having a hard time breathing through the fur on his neck. It took a few seconds of her flailing her arms and trying to push Carter away before he realized what was happening and released her, eyes downcast sheepishly. She braced herself on her knees, sucking in air greedily.
“-thanks...for that-” She gasped out, waving off his apologies. Honestly, she was really happy he was there, after all, it wasn’t every day you turned ten. Carter’s fangs bared in a large grin and he tugged on his whiskers in excitement.
Like Laura he was a demi-monster, only a few months younger than she was, and he was very proud of his heritage. From his animalesque low light vision, to the ever growing patches of fur that he loved to use to charge static electricity with which to shock people, even his teeth, carnivorous appetite, and quadrupedal hind legs. Neither of them were quite sure if he really resembled any particular animal, but he still looked largely human. Laura’s eyes fell down to his feet, feet that were textured in such a way that he could rarely be convinced to wear shoes. Something that always lead to him tracking dirt into her room, like he was now, but if ever Laura got onto him for it he always said “Sorry, can’t hear you, I’ve got fur in my ears.” It was an excuse he used with their teacher’s too. All in all, Laura had to agree, everything about Carter made him who he was.
“Like I was saying, it’s your birthday!” He finally burst out, “Are you excited?! You get the talk today right?” He was practically bouncing off the walls, or rather, practically pulling out his whiskers.
“Shut up dude, my parents are downstairs. Not. Asleep.” Laura gestured at the door for emphasis and he clamped a hand over his mouth.
“Are you excited?” he whispered, loudly. Laura shrugged. Sure, turning ten was exciting, but it was also a big year too.
“Yea, sorta.” She said, eyeing her friend curiously. Something was clearly eating at him. “Why-”
“Promise me you won’t!” He cut her off.
“Won’t what?”
“Won’t do it, go human. Promise me you’ll stay demi-mon with me!” Ah , so that's what this was all about. Laura nearly started laughing.
“Dude I don’t even know what I want for Gyftmas! Plus that’s years before I have to decide, and now I sound like a Pokemon.” Carter only looked at her expectantly. “What if I wanna travel of something?” She asked, throwing her hands out into the air.
“We’ll be the first monsters back in the world, we will change everything!” He said, grabbing her hands and holding them.
“We aren’t even full monsters, Carter.” She sighed.
“They don’t know that, come on Laura.” His tone was pleading, he really wanted this. She looked at the clock. 12:36 AM. Laura huffed and turned back to her furry friend and then she smiled.
“Fine...ok, I promise. You and me until the end, right?” Relief smoothed Carter’s face and he grinned wide again. “Now you have to go,” She continued, “clean up your mess before you leave or I’m gonna be in big trouble!” Carter hugged her again tightly, minding his fur this time and then let her shoo him to the window. Once his tracks were indistinguishable from the rest of the dirt on Laura’s floor he scurried back down the tree outside her window.
“Happy Birthday, again, Laura,” came his whisper as he ran home.
3 Years After the Barrier Fell
“Mom, come on-”
“No buts, Hummingbird.” Laura winced, though her mother couldn’t see it.
“It’s been three years mum, don’t you think it would be a little weird for some rando to just walk up and say ‘oh hey, thanks for freeing monsters and shit.’?” Laura shifted the phone in her hand and huffed, she’d had this self same conversation with her mother multiple times over the past year ever since Laura had called and told her she’d seen the young hero, Frisk, in the city.
“I certainly hope you don’t walk up to the child and say shit .” Her mother chided through the receiver making Laura snicker.
“Yea, ok, fair point.”
“So…” Laura glanced down at the large gift basket in her hand and rolled her eyes.
“It’s just so cheesy, mum.”
“Oh good, that means you have it then.” Her mother said knowingly, and Laura knew she was smiling.
“Yea? Only cause I love you, y’know. Shit-” Laura felt a chill run down her spine as she spotted the intended receiver for this gift basket across the street.
“Laura?”
“I gotta go -”
“!!!” The excited air was nearly palpable through the phone. “Give them our love dear!”
“How do you expect me to-” And the phone call was cut off. “Seriously mom?” Laura groaned and shoved her phone into her pocket. No backing out now. She squared her shoulders and then let them slump again. “Just move your ass, girl.” She darted across the street ahead of the group before she could psych herself out.
The young teen in question was walking with a rather tall Skeleton and a blue scaled woman, chatting animatedly with them, a school bag on their shoulder. Laura walked up to the group.
“Excuse me.” Her voice caught and she cleared it, trying again. “Um, excuse me.” The tall skeleton nearly walked into Laura before he registered her words and at that point the rest of the trio was looking at her curiously. “Hi! Uhm...so...my mom wanted me to give this to you. She, uh,” Laura took a deep breath and held out the gift basket. “She wanted to say thank you, for what you did. You’ve changed a lot of people’s lives.” She smiled finally, relieved to get the talking bit over with. It wasn’t like she had a problem talking to strangers, but these strangers...that was a different story.
“HUMAN!” She winced again and looked up quickly at the skeleton as Frisk took the basket from her hands curiously. He was smiling down at her, a genuine look of appreciation on his face. “THIS IS A VERY KIND GESTURE! AND IT CAME AT A MOST OPPORTUNE TIME.” Laura could only blink in surprise.
“It..it did? Well, I’m glad?” She looked away from him and back at Frisk and the woman with her, Frisk’s eyes were a little glassy and they were smiling nearly as big as the skeleton was. Laura felt her soul twist inside of her and she smiled a little more warmly. “I’m glad.” She said with more conviction and ran her hand through her hair. “I won’t keep you any longer, but really, thank you. My mom’s been a lot more at ease lately thanks to you.” She turned quickly and darted off, running lightly on the balls of her feet. The trio started talking excitedly behind her, but within moments she could no longer hear them and she turned down a side alley connecting back towards the college campus. She slowed to a walk and pulled her phone back out.
“Hey mom.”
“Laura?”
“The package has been delivered.” Laura said, smiling to herself.
“Oh? Thank you dear. Did they like it?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t stick around to find out, but I think so.” It had certainly seemed like it at least.
“Did you run off?”
“Yea? Of course I did, you know how I feel mom.” Laura’s mom clicked her tongue.
“Dear, I doubt they would judge you for-”
“Hold that thought mom.” Laura said as she exited the alley. She took quick stock of the traffic and then darted across the street and onto the campus. “Alright go ahead.”
“Nevermind.”
“Okaaayy. Well, hey, mission accomplished and all that, but uh, I’m gonna have to let you go: class starts soon. Love ya mom.”
“Love you, too.” Laura ended the call and checked the time. She was nearly late. She broke out into a light jog, crossing the rec field and making her way past the engineering buildings. Laura burst through the doors and took a breath of relief to notice Terry wasn’t there yet.
“Five minutes and twenty two seconds late.” Came his voice from amongst the students. Laura whipped her head to the side and zeroed in on his voice amongst the low brass section.
“Damn.” she said. A few of the flutists in the front snickered. “Want me to apologize?” She asked him when he joined her down in front of the students.
“Nah, still better than any of my records. Give me a hand passing out the copies of today’s sight reading.” He laughed and motioned her towards the table in the front where he had stacked the music.
Laura worked as the assistant teacher to all of Terry’s classes. Terry was one of the leading music professors in the university and the unofficial assistant director of the college of music there. He was young too, only in his mid thirties, something Laura still teased him about when he would gush about his time in the Ebbot Orchestra, telling him he could always go back if he wanted. Despite his nostalgic reminiscences of his post college career in the orchestra he was adamant that he was happy teaching here at the university. That was something Laura could appreciate, he was a fantastic professor and an even better musician, one of the best in the city by her reckoning though he always denounced that claim.
The rest of her day continued decently from there, her nervousness fading as she helped the students where they needed it, and in the later part of the day, filling in for a student to bolster the sound of one of the upperclassmen sections. After the last class of the day and after she’d finished closing up the music room, Laura bade Terry farewell and headed off to the small on campus cafe. She was looking forward to her usual order, she went there so often that it became habit to find her order already waiting for her by the time she walked in.
“Hey, punk!” Someone said stiffly and thinking it had nothing to do with her, Laura ignored it and continued on her way. “Don’t walk away from me!” Someone grabbed her arm and Laura spun around quickly, her Soul leaping into her throat when she came face to face with the fish monster from before. A quick glance told her that she was alone.
“Let go of me!” Laura said, her voice pitched with the nerves roiling inside of her.
“Tell me, why would some human care about the release of monsters? Why even bother sending, what turned out to be a harmless basket, to Frisk? Why. Do. You. Care?!” Cynical skepticism hung on every word she spoke and Laura felt herself react before knowing what she was going to do. She peeled the woman’s firm grip from her arm.
“Because not every human agrees with the majority.” Laura spat out. “And not every human wants to see you lot struggle as you have been, or agrees with the captivity in the first place.” She drew herself up and look the monster square in the eye, daring her, silently, to say anything more about her mother’s motivations. The woman almost looked taken aback and her sneer softened. She opened her mouth to respond -
“Undyne! You - you’re here early.” Laura looked past the woman, Undyne, to see a stocky yellow dinosaur monster rushing towards them. Undyne, on the other hand, turned to address the new monster and in that moment Laura quickly walked away, her nerves sparking within her.
“Oh, I- I’m sorry, I interrupted you and your friend. Who was sh-” Was all Laura heard from the monster before she rounded a corner and made her way to the cafe.
She had hoped to not have to interact with that group anymore, but at least it didn’t seem like she had been searched out on purpose.