Chapter Text
The sun had long since dipped below the mountain dappled horizon, as it did far too early this time of year. Dishes were being scrubbed, blenders quickly hidden in air vents, ghosts whispered between themselves. The Residents of the Undervale settled in for the night, stirring and yammering together, a distant and quiet hope buzzed in the heads of the children under the old, decaying roof. The weather forecast predicted a wintery storm. a middle schooler’s dream. Small flakes began to dust over the hotel, settling in the roof tiles and stick slicked to the frigid windows.
“Moooooom” Esther sat on a kitchen counter, kicking her feet against the cupboard idly.
The room still smelled like dinner, and the oven was still hot. The counters could use a wipe down, but, eh, Katherine had a lot to do, maybe Ben would clean it? They’d made pizza. Abaddon probably still had some flour stuck to him. The boy did not understand how to handle raw dough.
“Yes, Esther?” the woman didn’t need to look up, and anyway, she was busied, putting away cutlery and plastic plates.
“Can I still go to Heather’s?” The girl, realizing her chances, rushed to defend herself, “I’ve spent weeks preparing! For this moment! You CANNOT take this away from me mom I have GOT to follow through! We made a plan, and you raised us to be responsible and reliable and-“
Katherine let out a small sigh and set a hand on her kid’s wild hair. Like silencing an alarm clock.
“Preparing. What?”
“…. Nothing. normal sleepover things.” The girl quit hitting the cupboard with her heels.
“Uhhuh?”
“Uhhuh.”
“And what are, normal sleepover things, Esther?” Katherine pursed her lips and raised an eyebrow. Esther knew she was doomed right then and there.
“You know! The Usual! …scrapbooking?”
“You don’t own a scrapbook.”
The terribly familiar head of a demon-boy-thing popped out from a cabinet as Katherine opened it to slip in plates- she jumped back with a small yelp, and the offending creature ignored it.
“What is this… sleep-over?” Abaddon inquired, simply. The woman let out a quiet, and slightly fond exhale.
“It’s uhmmm. When you go over to someone’s house? And like. Hang out with them? Eat all their family’s junk food. Not have consequences.” The pre-teen shrugged.
“See, you thinking there are no consequences is what’s alarming, sweetie.”
“One should not take responsibility for the things that happen outside their own domain” Abaddon nodded sagely. “Why is this event being denied by the matriarch?”
“Because she’s boring and hates me.”
“Because we’re supposed to get three feet of snow, and I don’t want you snowed in across town for a week! With a family I haven’t even met! Not to mention the roads.” Katherine gestured, exasperated.
“What of the roads?” The boy chimed in.
“They’re already covered in ice. I am not letting Esther in some stranger’s car and trusting they won’t crash and kill her. It’s not happening.”
Abaddon hummed gravely, “Mm. you cannot perish on your great journey. It would be regretful.”
“Thank you! Abaddon! God I can’t believe I just said that-“
Esther hopped off the counter with a dramatic and childish sigh. Katherine fought not to laugh a bit at her daughters’ accolades. She was bad at keeping a straight face. She locked eyes with Abaddon on accident. God her life was weird. She was starting to like it a liiiittle bit, though. There was a demon slotted in next to her plates and her daughter wanted to practice unethical magic with her new friend. Awesome. Cool. At least it wasn’t hard drugs. She could work with all this, she supposed.
“…you gonna get out of there?” she asked, after a long moment of empty blue eyes staring right through her.
“…. Why should I?”
“I’m putting away the dishes”
“They are not sentient. They will not appreciate this crevasse more than I, nor do they deserve to.” The boy wrinkled his nose.
Katherine let out a small, tired laugh. God, how did Nathan do this?
Abaddon closed the cabinet. Katherine resolved to leave the plates on the drying rack for the night.
The Undervale was cold, too cold. Between the ancient heating and cooling system, and the horrible insulation the old building had, the hotel had a terrible draft on the warmest of days. Nathan had said, once, too, that it must’ve been something with the ghosts. Something about the presence of the spirits, or the loss of life, always left a spectral chill in the air. Still, even the souls that littered the place seemed to calm down for the night. The rowdy hidden away in the ghost speakeasy. Ben was preparing to retire in his bedroom for the evening. His room smelled like clean laundry and some of Esther’s Frankincense- Something about protection- Which was sweet, even if she announced it like it was a command, and to ‘not think about it’. The young teen hunkered down, flipped off the lights, turned on a dim star projector, and opened Netflix on his phone. He’d done his homework ahead of time, ensuring that, if they truly did get the week off school, he didn’t have to think about it the entire. Time.
His peace was broken, as it absolutely would always be, by his younger sister flinging open his door.
“Mom won’t let me go to Heather’s! you HAVE to help me convince her!”
Ben sighed, set down his phone, and blinked.
“Well. Duh. Have you looked outside? Or the news?”
The younger Freeling huffed indignantly and threw herself onto her brother’s bed.
“it’s SOOO cold here!” she threw her hands up, Ben just chuckled. “And BORING” she added.
“Now you’re just lying” Her brother responded, matter of factly, and shuffled a bit to make room on his bed. He had a million blankets, well- 4, he used to have 5, but he’d long since lost that thin, spaceship blanket. He didn’t really miss it. His sister took the topmost blanket and wrapped it around herself like a shawl. It was red with black stitching, and unreasonably soft. She responded with an irritated grumble.
“youuu wanna watch Midwives with me?”
Esther wrinkled her nose, “why would I want to watch your weird old nun drama, Ben”, which was funny, because she was already shifting to settle in next to him to watch ‘his weird old nun drama’.
The hours ticked on in a slow, companionable silence in the Undervale. The other sibling duo had settled onto the couch in the living room. Fire flickered in the hearth and Katherine took the opportunity to catch up on some work. She tapped away on the laptop, chatting idly with her brother to fill the quiet space. It was moments like this, she almost forgot. Forgot her brother could not feel how warm this one room was. Could not feel the couch. Was here, but wasn’t.
“do you remember” she started, after a particularly long lull in conversation, “when we were Ben and Esther’s age?”
Nathan hummed, “you drove dad mad.”
“It was justified resistance!” Katherine surprised herself, letting out a small laugh. Gosh, how she’d changed.
“Hmmm, I don’t recall it being too justified, I think he just wanted you to, oh, I dunno, stop hiding in your fort at night with the cat? And skipping school to paint in the woods? Like a little weirdo?”
“Well, then, he shouldn’t have been the reason I built a whole fort to hide in” Katherine crossed her arms, a bit smug.
“I did half the building. And that neighbor friend you had. What ever happened to her?” Nathan only mimicked her, unconsciously.
“Hmm, she still lives there, I think, she moved houses in high school? But never left town.”
“huh, the more you know.”
“Remember when you had to coax me down, when it started pouring on me?” Chuckled Katherine. It hadn’t been a- good night, back then. But it was sweet, now. She remembered it vividly: her drenched older brother, risking life and limb on that slippery, janky old ladder, hand outstretched, like handling a wild animal. Terribly careful. Terribly worried.
“I already had a sister in her ‘cool rebellious phase’, I didn’t need your edgelord middle school self to catch a cold, also, Kathy.” He flung out his hands, as if to solidify his point.
Katherine laughed, warm and bright and exactly how she had their whole lives, “You let me hide under your bed, instead.”
Nathan laughed, then, too, “oh! Remember when you got caught-”
“Nooooo- Nathan- be quiet.” The woman commanded, and buried her face in her palms, prepared for what was coming-
“Smoking, Kathy! You were almost the first ghost in the family, and it was going to be by my hands!” Nathan exclaimed dramatically, wagging his finger at her.
“I know! I know! I got it when I was 13, Nathan!” Katherine snorted. God. Nathan never changed, not really. She loved him. The bastard.
The two laughed for a moment and settled back into the quiet of the living room. Ironic.
“Hm. Can you- feel? The fire?” Katherine raised a small eyebrow.
“Naaaaah. But I can imagine!” Nathan chirped back.
Time stretched on like molasses. Dripped over the room. There was something to be said about the kind residents of this home. About the cruel past of it all. Something in how they seeped a little bit of warmth back into the place. Two younger sisters fell asleep on separate floors, under the same roof. One, curled up on a couch, laptop closed and tucked safely beside her while a fire blazed a few feet to the left, and her dear ghost brother a few feet to the right. The other, cocooned in a blanket in her brother’s bed, hid away in a frigid room, lulled to sleep by a very well written historical drama.
Abaddon, for the little demon’s part, tucked himself away in a slightly bigger section of the vent system, under a thin spaceship blanket, beside stolen ashes, an old sweater, and his favorite pile of bones. And of course, the blender. Always the blender. Long live the Freeling’s blender.