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*sorry grillbz got to watch the kiddo tonight
*I don’t mind cooking for a child
*you ever babysat before?
*Not since I was a teenager
*after a while they start whining about you crushing them its kind of a pain in the tailbone
*that a real invite though
*Yes, if Toriel doesn’t mind
*hey tori instead of ordering pizza or scraping leftovers off the fridge the bf said he’d cook your kid a real meal hope you don’t get too mad
*What does Frisk eat? I’m making something other than bar food on my day off
*their mom cooks em a lot of snails but they dont seem that into it
*That was incredibly helpful. Thank you, Sans.
*np
–
Frisk looked around Grillby’s apartment, curious. They had never been where he actually lived before. It smelled smoky and there were dark marks on the wallpaper, but it was neat otherwise. They decided they liked it okay.
Grillby looked pretty weird out of uniform, in a black sweater and jeans.
“…………hello,” Grillby said. "……Frisk."
Frisk said hello back.
"…………" Grillby continued.
Sans was in the kitchen, grabbing a drink from the fridge. "think fast, kid,” he said.
Frisk braced themselves, putting their hands up to catch whatever Sans was about to toss at them. It never came. Sans ambled over and handed them a cup with milk in it.
“that’s about as far as it goes for kid-friendly drinks in there, so it’s that or faucet water,” Sans told them.
“……” Grillby said.
“ok but you should’ve told me before 'cause you keep the kerosene in a juice carton.” He put his hand on Frisk’s shoulder. "i’m telling you in advance: that stuff tastes worse than it smells."
"…"
"and it’s poisonous to humans, sure.”
Frisk nervously eyed the fridge. They decided not to sneak any food while they were at Grillby’s place. There was a chance Sans was pranking them on this, but they weren’t going to risk it.
“…………”
“we’ll just watch tv or something. kid, grillbz says he’s not done cooking, yet, so let’s see what’s on.”
Frisk nodded. Grillby had a bigger TV than Toriel’s. They grabbed the remote before Sans could make them watch something boring that Sans thought was hilarious.
A few minutes into their cartoons, they realized something unfortunate. They had to ask Sans which door led to the bathroom. This place had been built by humans, so there would be a bathroom, at least.
Sans pointed out a door. The other one must go into Grillby’s bedroom. “good luck, kid,” he said.
Frisk got up and gathered enough determination to actually open the door. Shelves lined the shower stall and someone had, at some point, removed the shower head and blocked the hole so no one could blast Grillby’s stuff with water. The mirror over the sink was smoky. Frisk rubbed a spot clean and stared at themself. Why hadn’t they used the toilet before they left?
There was a stack of boxes on top of the closed lid of the toilet. They seemed to have books in them, because they each weighed about a million pounds. Frisk tried to check, but it didn’t look like the water had been shut off. They tested by flushing ahead of time, and everything worked like it was supposed to.
“…….” Grillby said, when Frisk finally was free of the bathroom.
“grillbz says sorry about the mess.”
Frisk told Sans that there were a thousand boxes on the toilet.
“uh. probably should’ve cleared those off ahead a time, grillby. guess it didn’t occur to him.” Sans shrugged.
“…”
“yeah, i get there’s water in there, but it’s not gonna…jump out and attack you in your sleep. probably.”
“…”
“he says he has no idea how they work. ok. there’s water in the tank and it just goes into the—”
“……”
“you don’t know and you don’t care. ok.”
Sans had stolen the remote while Frisk was gone, so they tried to grab it while Sans was distracted having a weird conversation with his boyfriend. Sans held it over his head and Frisk tried to drag his arm down. They knew they had to just keep at it. Soon enough, Sans got tired of making an effort and let Frisk have control of the TV again.
They switched off the soap opera Sans had put on and went back to their cartoon.
The apartment started to smell incredibly good, covering up the noxious smoke smell and spiking Frisk’s curiosity. They shoved the remote into their pocket and got up to see what Grillby was making.
Thank god. No snails. They needed to figure out a way to get invited over again.
“……all right?” Grillby asked.
Frisk nodded.
“it’d be polite to help out and set the table or something,” Sans said, from the couch.
Frisk and Grillby both turned and glared at Sans.
“what?”
Grillby showed Frisk where the silverware was, and he got the plates down and set those out. Sans sat on the couch. He did bring Frisk’s drink over when Grillby called him for dinner.
It never took that long to eat monster food.
“you want to hang out here a while, or go home, or what?” Sans asked.
Frisk was a little worried about needing to use the bathroom again, but they didn’t want to go home yet, either.
“……..”
“grillbz says there’s a park not too far from here. it’s still light out.”
That sounded better than sitting on a couch watching TV or playing cards with Sans until they had to go to bed. Sometimes they set up a prank for when Toriel got home. Usually Sans would help out a little with their homework, but they didn’t have any that night.
Frisk held Sans’ hand on the walk to the park. They guessed Sans had never been to this one before. Grillby walked a little ahead, since he knew where they were going.
The park had a pretty good setup, and there were a bunch of other kids there, so Frisk ran off to play. Sans and Grillby sat down on a bench, nearby. They heard another adult ask Sans if he was babysitting for a friend.
“huh? that’s my kid. apple of my eye socket.”
Grillby said something.
“i mean, legally, but also in my heart.”
Grillby seemed a little taken aback.
“i never told you that?”
Frisk went over to the swings. They couldn’t hear Sans talking, anymore. They tried to swing high enough that they flipped over, but that goal seemed just out of reach. The whole swing set shook with their attempt.
The park cleared out around sunset. They went to an ice cream place down the road and Grillby paid even though he didn’t order any. It was getting dark on the walk back to his place and Grillby lit the sidewalk up around them. Moths kept flying around his head, and he idly waved them away.
“all right, kiddo,” Sans said. They stopped outside, by the stairs leading up to Grillby’s apartment. "tori’ll be back soon, so give grillby his remote and let’s head out.“
Frisk fished it out of their pocket and handed it over. Grillby looked surprised to see it.
Frisk said goodbye.
”……bye, Frisk,“ Grillby said, with great care.