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*Toriel remembers an argument with undyne. Setting is TP a couple years after the barrier is broken.*
With meekness in his voice Asgore blathered, “No, she’s right. I... I should go.” Before Sans could offer an apology he was already past the dining room, his great size betraying his swiftness. “Um thank you for inviting me everyone. But I have to um… I forgot something.” He left the group of confused faces, trudging out into the cold. The faces turned from their holiday feast to Toriel’s angered form. She stood with indignation in the kitchen doorway. Behind her Sans could be heard saying “Gee, Tori. What ever happened to the Christmas spirit?” Before anyone could speak to ask what had happened, Undyne dropped a plate, the sound of shattering ceramic getting everyone’s attention. Her fists were shaking. Her upper lip quivered with disdain. “You… bitch!”
Sans took Frisk by the hand. The observant skeleton knew where this was headed. “Come on kid, I’ll show you how to make snow angels with no arms.” He led the child out into the back yard, Papyrus following suit. Even he knew better than to get in between Undyne and whoever or whatever she was angry with. Alphys timidly grabbed her by the arm. It was shaking. Alphys looked at Toriel and silently thanked whoever that Frisk couldn’t see the cold look on her face. She didn’t like it, not one bit. Undyne’s angry face, she was used to. Toriel’s was different. There wasn’t any excited energy, just a stoic visage of something she couldn’t quite place, nor wanted to. “Uh-Undyne…”, she said began to protest.
“Watch your language around my child, Undyne”, Toriel interrupted. Alphys disappeared behind the bombastic red head. With a remarkable amount of either patience or respect, Undyne waited until the back door clicked shut.
“Who do you think you are, to drive him away from his family like that!”, Undyne bellowed. Her voice was almost as sharp as her teeth. “After everything he’s done? It’s bad enough you won’t let him spend enough time with Frisk, and now you have to ruin the holiday for him too?” She banged her fist on the table, shaking the set plates of food. Toriel stared. “What’s your problem lady!?”
“His feelings of shame and regret are his own. It is not my fault I reminded him of what he’s done.”
Undyne seethed. “Shame and regret? Shame!? And regret!? Yeah you should know a lot about those!” Alphys clung to her arm as tight as she could while still hiding behind her. The table rattled with her words. “What does he have to be ashamed of anyway? Guess what! It’s because of him we get to hang out on the surface in the first place! Did you ever even thank him for that? You ever thank him for giving you a chance to play house with the human?”
Toriel’s eyes open wide, her pupils reflecting the fire from the hearth. “I should be grateful? You know nothing about what you speak of, girl. I lost… so much because of him”
Undyne rose her fist and struck a hole in the wall, nearly missing a portrait. “Have you ever considered what he lost? What, you think that all those years apart, all those humans…” Her upper lip quivered with rage. “You think he didn’t…. you think he never cried himself to sleep about any of that?” The look on Toriel’s face showed her what she had already assumed. “No you haven’t, have you? You sat all nice and comfortable in your old digs while Asgore did what he had to. For us!” Undyne punctuated her last word by pounded her chest with her fist, causing Alphys to flinch.
Toriel narrowed her eyes and moved not once otherwise. “He did what he did out of cowardice, because of his own inability to see through his foolish anger. That foolishness gave way to lack of commitment. He allowed all of us to suffer because he didn’ have the stomach to carry out the decree he so eagerly declared.”
Undyne balled her fingers, her hand shaking in impotent fury. “No! No you don’t get it because you just hid away and pretended like you never had anything to do with it! He gave us hope! He gave us a chance! Without him, there wouldn’t be any souls, and all those humans would have died along with everyone else who suffered in the Underground! It sucks they had to die. but they never wanted to stay down there! Can you blame them? Either they killed the king and left, or Asgore collected their soul. Maybe you would be happy about that, huh? If he just up and died down there? Sure your precious human could go free and it would only cost the lives of every single monster. Must be nice being immortal, huh!?”
“Girl…” Toriel started, but could not find the words to respond.
“Don’t you ‘girl’ me, like I’m some whelp! Just because it was Asgore who raised me doesn’t mean you get to treat me like one of your children. You know what ‘mom’? Me and the rest of monsterkind, with him leading us, not one of us wanted to hurt Frisk. Well I did… but I was wrong! I knew I was wrong because of what he taught me, about kindness and all that.” Undyne’s eye gave way to reminisce. “It isn’t fair how you treat him. You don’t have to be snuggle buddies but you can at least thank him for enduring all those years. You could be bothered to ask him about it at least. He never let anyone know about the pain inside but to those he was close to… it was obvious. I did my best to make him happy but it doesn’t take a royal scientist to figure he won’t really be happy without your forgiveness…”
Her eye quickly darted back and met the red gaze of Toriel. “Do you even care about him? About what he had to go through without you?”
Toriel was taken aback at the accusation, taking a step back into her kitchen. She gulped before she could saying, “His mistakes were his own. I don’t see how I…”
Undyne never let the words leave her mouth as she screamed at her “Answer me! Tell me you didn’t miss him! Tell me how everything you had together meant nothing! Damn it…” A tear drop rolled its way slowly down her cheek. “I think I love him more than you ever did.” Undyne’s words stabbed into Toriel’s heart like no spear of hers ever could.
“I never… wanted him to die. Not him or Frisk…. or anyone. I never…” Toriel gasped in distress. “I don’t know what I wanted…”
Alphys took the awkward silence as an opportunity to speak up. “Undyne. You’re uh uhm. Crying.”
“Yeah? Well! Maybe I like crying!”, and with that, Undyne burst out through the front door. The unfortunate door knob never stood a chance. Alphys gave Toriel a pathetic smile, but once she saw that she had retreated back into the kitchen, decided to go and help make armless snow angels. Toriel could see her child playing in the snow. She was ever so grateful for Sans and his friendship, along with the others’ including even Undyne. She could not bring herself to thank the man who forced her into isolation. Yet all the same, here she was.
Asgore’s footprints were not hard to see. The large indentations in the snow marked his travel and were easy for Undyne to follow, her footsteps crunching as she went. She eventually found him sitting upon a bench on the way to nowhere in particular. He was slightly startled as she sat next to him. “Oh Undyne! Should you not be with the others, enjoying the holidays?” She let out a confident sigh and stretched her arms out along the back of the bench.
“Nah, I broke a couple things and I’m pretty sure Tori doesn’t want me around right now. Besides” she said, bringing an arm around the burly monster. “It ain’t really the holidays unless you’re with family.” Asgore stared up into the night sky and looked at the twinkling lights that looked nothing like the inside of Mt. Ebott.
“No, I suppose it isn’t.” He wrapped his around the relatively thin woman and shared his warmth. Winter was mighty cold on the surface, and it wouldn’t do to face it alone.