Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had taken more than a few hours to wrangle all of your friends and get them back in the cave. You could tell none of them really wanted to go back to the dark, but they listened to you.

They trusted you.

You had to do right by them.

Once everyone was safe and accounted for, you slumped to the floor, hugging your bone staff (unaware of the look of pride on Papyrus' face, or the mixture of jealousy and pride-by-proxy on Sans'). "Ok. O.k.." The barrier was broken. Now came the hard part of actually getting monsters integrated into society.

You could not fuck this up.

Doggo came over to you slowly, settling his larger body against your back, his arms going around you as he nuzzled your neck and the side of your skull. "I saw a squirrel!!"

You reached up to rub his arm (not noticing how Birgir watched the exchange with his fur bristled irritably, lighting up a new cigarette as if he could drown his problems in nicotine). "Was it everything you wanted?"

"Yes!!"

That was something, at least. Now you just had to make that experience viable.

"Ok. Lets assume best case scenario and say nobody saw any of us out there just now. If any satellites got pictures it probably wasn't something most people could see, since google images only updates every few years..."

"wait, satellites are real?!" Sans perked up.

"O-oh my gosh, did h-humans really go to-" Alphys started to vibrate.

"to space and walk on the moon?!?!" Sans' eyelights were bright with excitement.

You smiled. "Yeah. Or that was a thing in my world. Oh. That's a problem too..." You looked up at Asgore. "Maybe we should talk shop in private?"

"Hmm?" Asgore pulled his gaze from the cavern exit again. "Oh, yes. Of course. Best to work quickly."

You looked at Toriel. "I figure you're still not interested in being queen or anything, but while I talk to Asgore, could you, uh, I dunno, help with like, the people and stuff? I don't think it's safe for anyone to leave yet, and with the barrier gone it might be better to shut down all cellular and radio communications so nobody outside picks up the frequency?"

"O-oh..!" Alphys squeaked.

"You're taking this real serious, huh, punk?" Undyne commented.

"I said I would," you defended, pressing back into a rather happy Doggo. "Oh yeah, Alphys, see if you can pick up any of the humans' signals now. Compare frequencies and see if your network is going to overlap with theirs. I also wanna know if you can get onto their internet system somehow. It shouldn't be possible without the wires but still."

"O-on it!!" Alphys saluted you, before darting off. If you didn't know better, you would say there was some extra life in her eyes.

"For you, my friend, I can volunteer a few moments of my time," Toriel assured you. "I will train someone to pick up the job long-term, as well."

"Thanks," you sighed, rubbing your face.

"I VOLUNTEER TO HELP ASSIST THE ASSISTING!!" Papyrus jumped into a dramatic, heroic pose.

Toriel giggled. "Then perhaps you should join me in making a statement?"

Toriel left with Papyrus, the latter of whom shot his brother an audible wink before turning the corner.

That left you with Asgore, Undyne, Sans, Birgir, and Doggo.

Undyne and Asgore deserved to know for security reasons. Sans already knew.

If you were going to be taking their affections seriously (and by god, you were, you had to, they deserved it), then you would have to tell Birgir and Doggo eventually.

"What is on your mind, young one?" Asgore prompted, settling down to make his impressive silhouette more approachable.

"Ok. So..." You pat Doggo's arm around your middle, thumbing at the bone staff. "So... uh..."

It seemed so much easier when you were just screaming your feelings at Sans.

"Spit it out, punk!!" Undyne demanded.

Birgir sauntered closer, ignoring Doggo to sit next to you. He put out his cigarette, remembering the last time he had smoked near you (fondly, always fondly). He didn't say anything, but he didn't actually have to.

The soft, low purring noise was comforting.

"Ok. So. Uh. Undyne, remember I told you guys I was a time traveler?"

"Yeah!! Thats amazing!!" The fish monster grinned.

Asgore looked alarmed. "Young one, the magics to affect time are old and powerful and dangerous-"

"I know-" You tried to cut him off. "Well, ok, I don't know, since I never actually used any magic. It wasn't me. And this is where things get complicated. Ok, see, I only kinda was a time traveler. It was the simplest way to explain how I knew things before they were gonna happen. And while I kinda did do a bit of time traveling it was never very far back so it isn't the reason I knew all that stuff and it isn't ever going to be helpful again because-"

"you're rambling again, songbird," Sans chimed in quietly.

You stopped, taking another deep breath. You were stroking something soft in your lap (which turned out to be Birgir's tail). "I am... I'm from another dimension. Not the surface." You looked at Asgore. "I'm definitely human, but I come from a dimension where monsters don't exist, and the events that lead to your barrier breaking are portrayed in a video game. So. I have. Absolutely no connections or accurate knowledge of what's up there. Do you understand?"

Asgore was frozen a moment. You could almost see it in his eyes, the uncertainty, the sudden realization that his safety net wasn't as sturdy as he could have hoped.

"Wait, so you're not from up there??" Undyne gestured. "Then how did you get here??"

"I dunno." You shrugged.

"Are you going back?" Birgir asked.

"I don't think so," You admitted. "I'm, uh... Usually missing persons cases never get solved after 24-72 hours, so my family probably thinks I'm dead." You decided not to linger on that thought. You'd miss them, terribly, horribly, and maybe when you had a chance to calm down and settle and realize what had actually happened to you, your heart would catch up to your brain and you'd actually start grieving, but for now... "I have no idea how I ended up here, and even if I did know, what kind of bittersweet ending would it be to go back and never see you guys again?"

Doggo squeezed you gently, nuzzling more and licking your neck (much to Sans and Birgir's great irritation).

"So your working knowledge on humankind is based on information that may not even apply," Asgore summarized.

"Yeah," you agreed. "Now... The game's ending credits have a lot of good, positive imagery. It shows everyone living happily on the surface, so if that remains as true as everything else so far, there's definitely a way to make this work, but..."

"But what?!" Undyne crossed her arms. "If your future vision game-y thing says we get our future then we definitely will, right??"

"Well, here's the thing..." You rubbed your face. "To begin with, in the game, I wasn't a character. It was someone else. Someone who never showed up here after seemingly having run through before. The real time traveler. I somehow took their place. So. They are probably up there somewhere."

"you think they might turn back time to before you broke the barrier?" Sans asked.

The idea of your monster friends ever being trapped again filled your whole body (your SOUL) with the DETERMINATION to make sure it never happened. A warm pulse rippled in your ribcage, like a heartbeat, but not. "I'd like to see them try."

* That is the spirit.

Oh, god damn it.

"If these visions portend auspicious events," Asgore said carefully, "then there must be something else that troubles you so."

You licked your lips. "Well. Like I said. I'm not supposed to be here. So this isn't the exact same universe as the game is in. It's a variation. An alternate reality to it. Now... In my world, the fandom of the game would constantly cycle through possible alternate realities of the game. Where Mt Ebott was on earth, what year it was the barrier broke, what the humans would do in response to monsterkind..." You kneaded at Birgir's tail, letting go when it twitched, only to resume when it never left your hands. "We had a lot of theories... And some of them were great! But there were others that... Well..."

How did you explain human depravity in five syllables or less.

"Humans can be cruel."

The room was silent.

"You must care about us deeply, to be so cautious and concerned with our well being," Asgore murmured. "It was a good decision to trust your judgement. What do you propose we do?"

"I need to do reconnaissance," You said, realizing it as you spoke. "I need to find out where we are up there, who we're about to interact with, what the world is like, who to appeal to for help, and how..."

"Very well," Asgore nodded. "I will gather the guard-"

"No, I have to do it," you insisted. "I'm the only one who is going to know what to look for, and the only one who can blend in."

"Punk, you can barely walk, and the nearest town is leagues away!" Undyne pointed out.

"Well, it isn't like anyone else is going to be able to go with me!" You argued. "The costume excuse won't work unless there's a convention of some sort. Or it's Halloween. Assuming that's even a thing up there." The last bit came out bitter, but you couldnt find it in you to care.

"What's Halloween?" Doggo asked.

"It's a holiday where people dress up and kids beg for candy door-to-door." You used to love halloween. You knew that the description made it sound crazy. "Its cultural significance makes a lot more sense if you know the history and I'd be happy to talk about it later."

"cool," Sans drawled, winking at you. "hold ya to it."

"Undyne is correct," Asgore interjected. "It would be irresponsible to send our very important Ambassador out without a bodyguard of some kind. Surely there must be someone qualified who could accompany you."

You rubbed your face. "Ok. So. If there was a monster who looked enough like a biological animal, or a common item, that they could blend in seamlessly? That might work..."

Birgir and Doggo both seemed to perk up next to you. You pat the limbs they had on you (tail and arm respectively) with as much fondness and apology as you could muster. "You two are way too big. Nobody would mistake you for anything but a cryptid. Especially if you were wearing clothes."

You didn't see it, but the very mention of them being unclothed had both monsters flushed.

"I'd say put a mask on Sans and Papyrus, dress them in layers and hoods, and maybe they could pass off as human as long as nobody touched them, but..." you sighed. "Papyrus would be so excited to see the city, and I would hate his first experience there to be boring 'stay here and don't talk to anyone' work, which is what it would be. And Sans' HP worries me. Depending on the culture I'd worry about a simple shoulder check being the end of him."

Or 'kids being kids'. Or cars. Or heaven forbid actual human tier violence like gang wars or assault or riots (humans were terrifying and these monsters were so precious to you, you didn't want to let anyone near them unvetted.

"Yeah, leave Papyrus out of this," Undyne said at the same time Sans said, "yup, leave my bro for another time."

You chuckled.

"Is there anyone then?" Asgore asked.

"Well..."

The next day, you were sitting in a not-so-little wagon, a cooler of rations doubling as your seat, as Greater Dog happily wiggled into the driver's harness (it looked more like the harness of a sled dog, but you weren't about to say that out loud).

"Ok big guy," Undyne said, checking over your supplies again. "This is our first diplomatic mission!! You're in charge of covert security!! This is the most important duty you have EVER been assigned!! Are you ready for it?"

GD yipped an affirmation, panting with its tongue lolling out.

"Do your best, big guy!" Doggo barked out. He was standing beside you, as close to you as possible without also being in the wagon. "Take good care of my human, ok?"

You felt warm as GD gave another yip.

Alphys wrung her hands. "I p-placed a tracker and recording devices on the w-wagon. Cameras and microphones. And there's also both in these little pins i-if you wouldn't mind wearing them..?"

You took yours with a soft thanks, carefully securing it to your chest. You were wearing the royal garments Toriel had given you what seemed so long ago. They would probably stand out in public, but they were comfortable and fit much better than any of your other clothes. You were taking a risk in hopes that others might take you more seriously than if you showed up in recycled human clothes.

Your understanding of human cultural standards of dress was spotty on the best of days, but formality usually trumped familiarity. Right?

Oh god, you were going to fuck this up so bad.

"And you," Undyne turned to you, face stern. You stared back into her one good eye, swallowing hard. Her expression held until it inexplicably softened. "You come back to us safe and sound, ok?"

"Yeah." You agreed. "I'll do my best."

"You better. I won't know what to do with three broken soulbonds and half the underground in mourning."

You sputtered. "We're- It's not a- I mean-" What exactly did soulbond mean to these people???

Doggo also sputtered, howling low before leaning down to hide in your neck. "Bosssssssssss!!!"

Undyne cackled. "Lovenerds!!"

You were going to punch her in the hip gills one day.

Sans and Birgir weren't there to send you off (Birgir because he wasn't a member of the guard, Sans for his own ineffable reasons). Jerry had tried to come see you, but had been ceremoniously yeeted away from the door before he could. He had sent you texts about the unfairness of it all and how they better take care of his datemate or he would be pissed. You at least got a bit of amusement out of his joke.

You pat Doggo's neck, mussing his fur lightly. "Ok. Ok. I get it. You like me. I need to come back in lightly used condition."

"Hell yeah!!"

"B-be safe," Alphys stuttered. "I-I'll be monitoring everything from here as long as I can. There will be a series of beeps when the systems can't ping to me anymore, l-like if they get out of range. B-but with the barrier gone and the emergency towers moved, t-that shouldn't happen for a little bit??"

You made heart hands at Alphys. Then pat Doggo again. "Ok. Ready to go, Big Guy?"

GD yipped again, and once Doggo had extricated himself from your side (after one last lick goodbye), it started off, pulling your wagon behind it.

The first few hours were just you and Greater Dog working your way down the mountainside. You had to use your bone staff to keep balance on some of the steeper slopes, thanking Alphys silently for the wide all-terrain wheels she had had customized for the journey. Conveniently, there seemed to be a mostly smooth mountain path carved into the cliff face (and if some of the path looked newly cut and smoothed out, who were you to know what was or wasn't natural), which meant the ride was surprisingly less bumpy than anticipated. The only real trouble came from tree roots, which GD carefully steered around.

The sun was bright and the wind was cold, but you only had a few big scares of almost falling before GD proudly strut over the level ground at the mountain's base, taking his first steps into the forest that surrounded Mt Ebott. GD slowed its stride, stopping to sniff a few trees and linger in the grass. It let out a stifled whimper here or there, lingering more and more as it continued on.

You couldn't take it.

"Hey big guy, how about we take a break? Let's find a nice spot to rest and relax."

GD stopped, turned to look at you, and yipped excitedly before bounding to a sunny clearing. He parked you and the wagon, then sat and started shimmying out of the harness.

You smiled. A few shimmies of your own let you fish out a few bottles of water and the dish you had for GD. You poured GD half the water and drank the rest yourself as you watched it roll around in the grass in simple bliss.

You wanted that for everyone.

So much.

Chapter Text

It had been early morning, not long after dawn, when you and GD had first begun your journey. It was sunset before you reached the city that had loomed teasingly in the distance. On the way, the two of you passed what you assumed to be acres of land that likely had a cabin or two that you just didn't stumble over. You had found the road around midday, and GD had wanted to follow it, but you did not want to risk issues with traffic, strangers, or any weird substances that might hurt GD's paws.

The compromise was that GD would walk in the grass beside the road, with at least three feet buffering between you and it.

Only two cars passed you, each of them driving by without any fucks to give for what probably looked like a hobo and their dog. You noticed the cars drove on the right side of the road.

You wished you could have gotten sight of the license plates. That would have helped you immensely.

It was a relief when you finally found yourself and GD on an actual sidewalk. It was one that was in good condition, telling you that that area was either newly constructed or on a wealthier side of town. You found yourself in the suburbs first, the big city still some ways away. You suspected you would have to take a bus to get there, since having GD walk you on the freeway sounded both unsafe and illegal. Of course, you had never actually taken the bus before (having been sheltered most of your life — you didn't count your childhood experiences on the school bus or the one vacation on a grayhound with your parents), so you had no idea how to go about getting a ride or their policies about wheelchairs or service dogs.

As you were slowly panicking at how systematically you lost control of your life, GD ambled along the sidewalk, occasionally stopping to sniff the grass, or a fire hydrant, or a street lamp. It looked behind it to triple check on you, but otherwise seemed pleased with your progress.

"We should find a place to stay for the night," you said aloud. "Libraries have resources... there should be one somewhere nearby..."

GD answered you with a yip, then a questioning whimper.

"I dunno where to find it either..." You admitted. Logically, the fastest way to gather information would be to ask, but you really did not want to try starting a conversation with anyone until you at least knew for sure the locals spoke your language. Humans could be terrible to anything they perceived as 'other'.

But it was your job to be the bridge between humans and monsters.

You were going to fuck this up so god damn bad.

You suggested stopping for another water break (anything to buy you time to think), rummaging for the water bowl for GD, who shimmied out of its harness to sit in the grass patiently. You had poured it water and started sipping lazily at your own bottle when you noticed a group of kids headed your way down the street. You heard the plastic crinkle as you tightened your grip on the water bottle, your other hand feeling blindly for the smooth porcelain of your bonestaff.

There wasn't anywhere to run or hide. You had no resources. You had no support system. What if they were entitled brats and tried to rob you?? Or hurt Greater Dog??? What if they were predators?? What if they slashed your tires or called the cops on you for trespassing or-

"Hey, can we pet your dog??" One of the kids (what looked like a boy with a black backpack), asked.

"Uh..." You looked at GD. "You want pets, big guy?"

GD borked excitedly, his tail wagging a mile a minute.

You smiled at the kids. "Sounds like it's ok. Just be gentle."

The kids circled around GD, vying for its attention as they cooed and bickered good naturally.

"See, I told you it wasn't a service dog. Those have the special harnesses."

"I have never seen a dog this fluffy????"

"So soft!!"

"Whats its name?"

Oh, that was directed at you. "His name is Greater Dog, or GD."

"That's silly."

You couldn't really argue. GD borked, but if it took offense, it didn't think the slight enough to reject the petting.

"Can it do any tricks?"

"He has really beautiful penmanship," you answered honestly, knowing how it would sound.

Predictably, the kids laughed. "No, but seriously."

You shrugged. "Not really. He's just really smart, and dependable, and a great listener."

GD preened at the praise.

"Why is it pulling you around on this thing?" One of the other kids asked.

"My left leg is hurt real bad, so standing on it is super painful. GD is helping me get around. I'm on my way to the library."

"...but it's Sunday?" one kid perked up.

"Yeah. Library is super closed."

Well, fuck you, huh?!?!

"Oh. I guess... Uh... The park is nice... Is there a park nearby? I'm from out of town and don't know the way too well." Or at all.

The kids looked at each other. "...Are you homeless?"

"No." You had a home. You bought it with your own money, and it was yours. You wanted to go home. You missed it. "But I can't go back yet. It's far away."

"There's a nice AirBnB nearby. Are you staying there?"

"No." They were definitely getting suspicious. You had to get out of here. "Lets get moving, big guy. Say goodbye to the nice kids."

GD barked, nuzzling them one more time before carefully backing up the wagon, and then moving around them.

The kids watched you go. You heard snippets of their conversation: "cute dog" and "weird" and "hippie" caught your attention. You rubbed your face.

At least you figured a few things out.

Now where the hell were you gonna sleep for the night??

You hadn't liked the idea of backtracking, but it was already pretty late, and the last thing you and GD needed was someone fucking with you for trespassing. So you and GD went back the way you came, out onto the back roads with the open spaces, and set up a tent. You were desperately glad to lay down, even on the ground of the tent, and snuggled up with GD for warmth.

In the morning, you broke out more of the rations, checking them over to see how many days worth you had. If nothing happened, you had maybe two more days of food left, which meant one more day of exploring before you had to head back to the mountain.

So far you had stumbled stupidly into valuable information: you were in a society that was superficially similar to late-twentieth/early twenty-first century north america (similar enough that you could almost mistake it for your home, if you didn’t have a map or sense of direction). On the one hand, that made some of your anxiety recede, since at least you knew you spoke the language; on the other hand, it made absolutely no fucking sense because there weren't just single random mountains in the middle of Nowhere, Ohio! Were you in Alaska?! It didn’t feel cold (well, it did, but not that kind of cold — it was the chill of early morning fog in autumn, the kind that brought back memories of standing on a street corner waiting for a bus), but it could be summer, like fuck you knew what any kind of weather was like outside of your boring existence south of the Great Lakes.

You couldn’t remember much about the theories regarding the most probable location of Mt Ebott. You were just thankful the locals spoke english and nobody had tried to assault you in the night.

Packing everything back up, you settled back in the wagon and waited for GD to finish its morning exercises (you hadn’t known it did yoga, but judging from some of the poses, you bet it helped with its flexibility). You wanted to be cheerful for your companion, but it felt early: all you could feel was empty and tired.

Thankfully, GD did not seem to mind, eventually wiggling into its harness and strutting off with nary a care.

The two of you headed back into suburbia. You now knew it was monday, and the public library would be open if you could find it. Not really having any other choice, you and GD wandered through the residential area until you saw the first signs of capitalism.

A few awkward questions, some backtracking, weird looks, and two harrowing crosswalk-runs later, you made it to a frumpy looking brick building that served as a small town public library. You got out of the sled, leaving it and GD out front near the bike racks, and used your bone staff cane to hobble your way inside.

The smell of books almost made you cry from nostalgia. There were tasteful yet colorful decorations by some stands, advertisements recommending books based on genre, and some signs pointing you towards the fiction section, nonfiction section, returns, reservations, and the Computer Lab.

You continued your hobbling until you could collapse into a chair in front of a computer. It looked to be one of the old boxy-types, like what you admired as a child. Late 90s state of the art computers had their own aesthetic, and it made you think the timeline had to be at least ten years after that (since dinky small town libraries weren't exactly known to have state of the art tech). A janky little mouse wiggle woke the computer up, and you got to work investigating.

You started by getting acquainted with the default search engine and browsers, pleased to see some familiar brands and icons. You took some notes absently in the little notes app on your phone as you worked, most of it nonsense or innocuous thoughts about minor differences. Slight spelling changes, color shifts for icons, and familiar trends made you feel like the world was just a little to the left of the one you'd fallen from (what feels like) so long ago. You got the date, a quick scan of holidays that were observed, your general location, and the weather. You tried to research the political climate and end up making your head hurt (you actually kind of sucked at research, and you had never been particularly clever or well learned about politics).

What you were most anxious about (and most relieved to find) were some contact numbers for lawyers. Immigration and political asylum lawyers seemed the best way to go for your needs, although fuck if you knew for sure. At the very least it was a start.

Next, for your plan, you needed to know what social medias were going to do work for you. You needed to be able to go viral and you needed to garner support quickly. There seemed to be mostly the same kinds of websites that you were used to, if a few years younger than you knew them to be, so making a list was easier than it could have been.

It was just after finding and confirming the reddit equivalent that you noticed you were being watched. When you looked, you saw there was a kid (age indeterminate: they had to be older than 8, but they couldn't have been more than 16) with a bandage on their left (your right) cheek. You couldn't see their eyes well under their bangs, but you just had a feeling they were watching you.

* They look familiar.

You flinched at the sudden presence of the Voice (you knew the "demon's" name but you didn't know if saying it was going to hurt or help yet)-

* Thinking my name isn't going to do anything, weirdo.

Okay. Chara's voice surprised you. There. You thought it. It was weird. Why was Chara clinging to you anyway, did this mean you were never going to have any privacy?!

* Great questions, but they can't be answered so easily.

You were so distracted by the internal conflict that you forgot about the external one. The kid was suddenly in front of you, gesturing and signing rapidly between pointing to you. You, however, did not understand sign language in the least. "Uh, sorry, I don't speak sign..?" You weren't sure if they could hear. You tried signing 'sorry', one of the few simple gestures you knew. The child signed more frantically and pointed at you again.

You were getting a bit uncomfortable. You didn't know what to do to communicate and kids made you anxious to begin with. "Sorry, I don't, uh-" you signed sorry again and made to get up. You pulled your bone staff cane out from under the desk and made to hobble out.

The kid stared.

You made to get the hell out of there.

The kid followed you, the book they had been holding discarded.

You didn't really like this turn of events.

Outside, GD was laying next to your wagon. It was on its back, one leg kicking lazily in the air as it dreamed.

"Time to go, big guy," you said as you climbed into the wagon seat. The canine immediately jumped to its feet the moment you spoke, wiggled back into its driver's harness, and started to trot back the way the two of you had come. "We should head home. I think I got what I needed for now..."

The kid stumbled after you, only to slow to a stop and watch as the two of you ambled off. You felt like you were being stared at for a while, but when you turned around to check, the kid was still back by the library doors, and soon was out of sight entirely.

Despite the amazing time Greater Dog made, you and Greater Dog were still pretty far from the mountain by the time night fell. You called it a night, passed out half of the remaining rations, and settled to sleep in your tent. The sound of crickets was loud this far out of the suburbs, the stars bright and twinkling and more prolific than anything you ever saw before you fell underground. Light pollution was something you knew about academically, but seeing it's absence was a different experience entirely. The irony that you were seeing more of the world with your own eyes after falling into a video game didn't escape you.

It was easy to fall asleep. And not so easy to wake up the next day. You were glad GD was so patient with you, and also a morning person.

Breakfast used up the last of your food, and then GD was off back towards the mountain. Cars passed you both by as you followed along next to the road. As the mountain grew larger, closer, you started to imagine you could see flickers of color on the upper cliffs, near where you knew the cavern entrance to be. Sometimes you thought you could see purples. Sometimes you thought it was a strip of red. Once you thought you saw bright pink. More often than not, it was yellow and blue and white. You supposed to yourself that you were already missing all of your friends.

It was well into sunset before you were finally pulled up the cliffside, the shadows long when the top came into view.

You did a double take as Greater Dog pulled you the last few feet up the slope, before the cliff plateaued. There near the edge, Doggo, Birgir, Papyrus, and Sans were sitting and admiring the view.

GD barked in greeting. All four heads snapped to the side to look at you.

Doggo barked your name, and scrambled to his feet to run to you. GD had to scramble out of the way to save itself from being trampled, and you had to grab onto Doggo to keep from being knocked off the wagon and back down the slope as he hugged you and licked your face.

"I- yeah, I'm back-" You tried. Something that had been wrapped in anxiety finally faded away. Some little part of you that had worried you had imagined everything, that all of your friends were still only pixels on a screen, finally shut up, and the absence of that was like the absence of a migraine you never knew you had.

"Did you have any trouble?" Birgir asks, coming to greet you more gracefully. He flicked a used cigarette into the dirt and stepped on it to smother the last of the embers.

Doggo's tail was wagging a mile a minute. Birgir's was upright as he got closer, offering a hand to help you off the wagon. You took it, leaning on him until you got the bone staff cane to help you instead. "I'm exhausted," you admitted.

"hi, exhausted, i'm sans," Sans said immediately, making Papyrus squawk in outrage.

You laughed. You couldn't help it. It just felt good to be welcomed home.

Doggo sneezed a few times, then picked you up bodily (much to Birgir's tail-thrashing annoyance and despite Sans' jealous glare), making you yelp in surprise and cling to your bone staff cane on reflex. "Let's get you home!" He says, the force of his tail wagging making you both shake a bit.

You remembered your cozy little snowdin house, the one you were so proud of. "Yeah."

"follow me, i know a shortcut," Sans says with that usual smile.

"YOUR SHORTCUTS ARE CHEATING. WALK THE PROPER STEP NUMBER LIKE A NONE LAZY PERSON," Papyrus griped.

"Or just get a hotel room? Not like the Boss is gonna charge you now," Birgir grumbled.

As Doggo carried you back into the mountain, you decided that it's pretty great to be welcomed home. All the more reason that you had to do your best to protect it.