Work Text:
You loved working at the school with your parents. You didn’t have to work, Frisk earned enough for both of you. You were a prince too. Nobody expected you to need a day job. You worked because you wanted. You didn’t do it because you needed money like Frisk or out of a sense of obligation like Chara, you just did what you loved.
But loving work didn’t mean you liked every aspect of it. You didn’t like grading papers. It was long, tedious work that only made you irritatable. You had this one student who thought that it was a funny idea to write half an essay and then start writing insults about you and your mother (like you didn’t read the whole thing). Oh, it might have been funny the first time (it actually wasn’t, but you did approve of them questioning the system. You were still a bit of a punk), but by the third time they did it, you started thinking of them as a trouble maker. You didn’t like when students tried to outsmart you. Even worse was that they seemed to think you didn’t care about your work. They were wrong, you did. You cared a ton about your work, more than they could know.
After giving that student another big F and contemplating telling them to stop making goat jokes, you heard the sound of someone entering the room. At first you thought it was Sans, he was always around cleaning (or at least looking like he was cleaning. You knew that he was lazy, but then again who didn’t? He mostly cleaned the areas your mother checked and left the rest. How rude.), but to your surprise, you heard the clack of claws against the floor.
“Mom?” you asked in a soft tone. “Didn’t you get off work hours ago?”
There was the soft chuckle of your mother as she stepped into the room. She looked so old now. She’d stayed the same age for so long, but now that you were aging again, you were stealing her youth from her. Still, the years suited her. She looked happy now. Tired, but satisfied. Seeing her like this always filled you with warmth.
“Now now, weren’t you supposed to be heading home hours ago yourself? It’s dark already.” But it didn’t feel dark. Living in a cave underground for years made it seem like nothing was dark anymore. Humans had really low standards of darkness. To monsters, darkness became safety, but to humans, it was a thing to fear. It felt strange for you to be told to head home from work before it got dark and ‘dangerous’.
“I was grading papers. You know that I can’t grade them at home.” Last time you tried that, Chara came up to you and wrote some nasty things about the student on the paper. All the whiteout in the world couldn’t hide it and then you had to apologize to their parents. You loved Chara, but they were a bit/a lot of a dick. Frisk was no better. They’d drag you off to cuddle and talk about your feelings at the slightest sign of irritation. Frisk always wanted to talk about your feelings. You could never get work done there.
“And I could say the same, though I don’t have your same problematic roommates.” There was warmth in her tone. She really did love your roommates. They were her children too. It was difficult to explain to the world why you fell for those two, but you did. The media loved to get on Frisk’s back about that (as if it were something disgusting). “But, to be honest, I thought that I could spend some time with you, son.”
She approached your desk and set down a mug of hot chocolate. It was monster hot chocolate as well, filled with magic and love. You felt a happy twinge in your gut. She really did know you best. Having two (sorta) human roommates meant that it was harder for you to eat monster food. Chara insisted on cooking, and despite being a magical construct, they couldn’t use magic to make the food like the stuff Toriel made.
“Thanks mom.” You sip your drink. “So what I you want to talk about? And if it’s about Artie’s essays again-“
She put up a hand to stop you. “Calm down, son. I didn’t come here to talk about him. I know that child is trouble. He has always been trouble, and will only get worse as time goes on. I don’t blame you for what you wrote on his essay.” Or rather she didn’t blame Chara. You knew she knew. “I wanted to talk to you about your family.”
“But you’re my-“ You cut off at her look. She didn’t mean it like that. “I mean, they’re cool, like they’ve always been. Frisk is still working hard and Chara hasn’t hurt anyone, including themselves, in weeks. You should be proud, mom. They really are working hard.”
Toriel gave a small happy smile. “Then it’s around time that the three of you sealed the deal. You really should get married before anything happens, son. I will be expecting grandchild soon, you know.”
You spit out your drink. “Mom!”
“Darling, I’m several thousand years old. I should have had grandchildren a while ago.” You give her a look that imitates her own disapproving glare.
Normally, boss monsters don’t have kids until their parents are dead, since they can only age by passing on their age to their children. However, you were a special case. Not only were you once dead, you were also dating a pair of humans. Humans didn’t live nearly as long as monsters. Or, rather you were dating one human and demon. Life was weird. Either way, nobody knew how long Frisk and Chara were going to live. However, there were other problems with that.
“I have no problem with getting married to them, but you know that’s not going to work, mom. We’re not… Compatible.” Your cheeks flushed bright red, glowing through your white fur. This was worse than getting the talk again (which Chara made crude comments the whole way through and Frisk wouldn’t stop trying to suffocate themselves in your fur to get out of it). You don’t want to have to give the talk to your own mother, but apparently she doesn’t get it.
Human and monsters can breed, but it’s extremely frowned on. The results of such unions are monsters with human souls or humans with monster souls. They often don’t live long, and knowing what you do know about what happens to a monster body when it is given determination, you definitely don’t want that to happen to your child. You are also pretty sure that Chara can’t have kids at all. Originally, when you thought they were human again, you thought that they would get together with Frisk alone and have kids, eventually forgetting about you. As painful as the thought was, it made you happy. Then you found out that they had no blood when they started cutting into their arm. (Finding that out only made their self-harm habit even worse. They didn’t need the help.) Even compared to a monster like you, they had next to no physical mass.
It was extremely worrisome, the thought of you and Frisk accidently having a mixed breed child, so the three of you were careful. Luckily, monsters knew how to control whether or not they were going to have kids. They had to want it. (It was necessary, down in the underground. If they couldn’t, there would be so many kids and so little space. Within a generation, they’d run out of food and room, people would start to kill and- Stop, you weren’t going there. You didn’t want to think about it. Just be happy that it couldn’t happen. Be happy that you and your people never had to face that fate.)
However, your mothers gaze does not soften. She seems to have a plan. You wonder if that meant that she had found out a way around it. Though she lacks determination, your mother was a stubborn woman. When she wanted something, she figured out a way. You’d heard she was willing to trap all the monsters in the ruins there forever just to keep a child with her a little longer. Your mother could be a scary woman sometimes.
You thought about possibly solutions, but couldn’t find any. You didn’t think it was possible, regardless of all the options that she could put in front of you. Maybe adoption? No. She couldn’t allow that. You needed a child of your flesh to avoid being stuck forever young as she and your father had been. This only continued to confuse you more.
“Well, you could always get a surrogate.” You blink. Right, you hadn’t thought about that. It wasn’t uncommon for monsters to have surrogates. Monsters didn’t find homo or bisexually strange in the slightest. Some monsters didn’t have sexes or genders so it didn’t matter (you remember this being one of the reasons that humans could never accept monsters before the war and also one of the reasons that Chara felt so comfortable around the monsters). However, it didn’t mean that everyone could breed with everyone. Some types of monsters were incompatible, and homosexual couples couldn’t have children together, so surrogacy contracts were written up.
The first child went to the birthing couple, but the second one went to the other couple. The surrogates could visit the other child, but they would be nothing more than aunts, uncles, or genderless equivalents. This had caused quite a few fights over the ages, so it was suggested only between people that you really trusted. You thought to your extended family.
“So, did Undyne and Alphys say something about wanting to have kids?” you asked softly. They were the only option. Mettaton and Papyrus were suggestable too, but you didn’t think that you would be able to do a trade with them. Ghosts had their special methods of creating children, and both Mettaton and Papyrus would be no help to you. (Plus you wouldn’t trust them with a child of your flesh. You loved them with all of your life, but you would never give them one of your children. They were too careless and dramatic. You didn’t know how they haven’t managed to accidentally kill each other already yet)
A small sigh escaped you. You didn’t really trust Undyne with a child either, but you knew she’d make a good mother. She worked at the school with you, and thought you’d been hesitant at first, she was actually great with the kids. They all loved her, and she loved them. They’d never gotten hurt by her, and the few normal injuries were treated in seconds. She was a soldiers so she knew basic first aid well. You knew she’d be good.
Alphys would be better, though. She was kind, caring, smart, and probably wouldn’t let anything risky happen. Only she could reign in your rambunctious co-worker. They were a good couple. Better than any but you and your datefriends, you thought with pride. Yeah, maybe that would work, but still a seed of doubt found itself lodged in your gut. You didn’t think you were willing to go along with this quite yet.
“We’re all really young, you know…” you muttered, but your mother shook her head.
“Humans live very short lives, my child…” Of course she would think that. Sometimes you forgot how long she’d been alive. Back during the war, she had been alive when humans lived maybe thirty years. You and Frisk had once had a long talk about this. You knew now that they were expected to live to at least fifty. But fifty years was the blink of any year in the life of a monster like you. And nobody knew how long Chara would live. There was a fear between the three of you that Chara would disappear the moment that Frisk did.
“There’s still time. We’re all really busy people, Mom. There’s no way that we could just put our lives down and have kids right now… But we’ll think about it, or at least I will. Monsters live a really long time, so if we want to have kids, we can ask Undyne and Alphys about it later. Just… Give it time, okay Mom? I promise, you’ll get your grandkids someday. The three of us are just busy.”
She shook her head at you. You knew that if you had any, it might not be that long before she died. Having lived so long, her magic poured into you more quickly than it normally would have. The result was a quickly aging goat child. You remember hitting puberty like a truck. One morning your horns were grown in and your voice was almost as deep as your dad’s. It was an honest shock to everyone. But that was so long ago, now…
“Asriel, I hope you’re right. I don’t want you to end up like your father and I.” There was a truly sad tone to her voice. For the first time, you realize that your mom was really, really old. You knew the numbers, but now the age is carried in her voice. She sounded old and tired, weary of this world from being in it too long. “I always worried about you, Asriel… When you chose to love Frisk and Chara, I realized that you were going to get hurt someday. Someday you are going to lose one of them and then you’ll have half a life ahead of you still… I don’t want you to suffer, so I thought if you had a child to care for, it might ease your pain a little.”
You frowned. “Children don’t fix every problem, mom.”
She gives a small chuckle. “Sometimes they do.”
You frown. The way she said that made you think something. It had been on your mind for a while, but it solidified there.
“Hey, mom… Before I was born, were you and dad happy?” The words make her flinch. “I mean, everyone says that you were a great couple, but…”
She sighs. “Things were harder back then. Your father was trying so hard to be good king, but he wasn’t born into the role as I was. It’s funny, to think I would someday abandon him to the role despite knowing that he was not fit for it. But I was a selfish woman back then… He tried very hard, but we began to think it might be best to split up. Seeing two monsters on the throne instead of one gave the people strength, though. We decided, if the throne had an heir, then there would be no need for lies about the strength of our love.”
Your hands began to shake, and thanks to the cup in it, Toriel noticed right away. She looked to you with great concern in her eyes. “Oh, don’t think I didn’t love your father. In a way, I still do. But not everyone you love can be the person you marry. Some people just clash with each other. Apparently we made the whole underground sick with our mushiness. I did love him, but not the love I needed to marry him. But, when you were born, I realize that didn’t matter. I wanted him by my side, and I wanted you. Don’t think you were born to be some kind of bandage, you weren’t. You were loved and needed, you just made things so much easier between us. That’s why when you left…”
She sighed and you hid your face in your cup. You wonder if she was mad at Chara for causing your death. Chara had nightmares often, about your parents telling them they no longer wanted them because of the horrible thing that they did. Nobody had ever told your parents the truth of the situation, that it was their plan. It was a just a horrible accident to everyone but you, Alphys, Frisk, and them. None of you would tell. But still, there was the fear.
“Mom, I am sorry,” you muttered.
“I know, my child.” Toriel leaned over and kissed your forehead, making you feel like you were a child once again. She was good at that. Just being with her sometimes made you want to wrap your arms around her and stay here forever, but you were no longer a child. She was aging fast and wouldn’t be here forever. You had to grow up.
“I’m glad I got to see you again. I’m glad that I can feel love again.” You hug her anyway and bury your face in her shoulder. You wished you could stay here and forget about the inevitably of death again, but you were an adult. …Maybe for a little longer.
“I know. You’re a good child. I’m sorry I bring up the hard topics.” She patted you lightly on the head. “I didn’t mean to make you sad.”
“I know,” you responded. “You were just trying to prepare me for a rest of the world. I know that I’m a child no longer, but… I’m not ready for the responsibility of everything yet.”
“That’s why you’re still the prince. Someday you will be the king and rule over all the monsters. Even though we follow the laws of humans now, we still have to have a ruler, and that ruler will be you, my son.” A soft kiss was pressed to the crown of your skull. “But not today. Not for a while.
“And so you know, my child, I’m proud of you. You made an excellent choice in your future spouse. Frisk will make a wonderful consort.”
“…What about Chara?”
“Let us change the subject.”
And with that the heavy mood was lost. You gave a huff and swatted the top of her head. She gave a small laugh in return and moved a bit back from your hand. You knew it was all in good fun. Chara was her child too.
Yes, you loved your job here, despite the ups and downs, but most of all, you loved working with your mother. For all the bad things in this world, she made you feel safe once again.