Chapter 45

Frisk woke up the next morning bright and early. Wearily, he looked down at his arms and saw that they had been rebandaged. He rolled over and saw that Papyrus was still sleeping, but Sans was not there.

That was strange.

Frisk climbed out of bed and walked over to Sans' room to see if he was in there. Unfortunately, the door was locked. Fortunately for Frisk, that was not an obstacle if he had the right equipment.

Frisk quietly ran down the stairs to search for "equipment" in the kitchen, but upon entering the kitchen, he saw that Sans had left a note on the kitchen table.

Frisk picked it up and read, "Dear Papyrus and Frisk, I had to go talk to Toriel about some things, mostly about getting Frisk's adoption papers. I'll be back later. Papyrus, until I get back, you're in charge. Frisk, listen to him and do not wander off by yourself. Don't forget to take your iron tablet. Love ya both, Sans. P.S. Alphys fixed your phone, kiddo. You'll find it charging in the upstairs bathroom."

Frisk squealed internally with joy and ran upstairs to find his new phone. The first thing he did when he found it was to enter Napstablook's number and start texting him.

Once he finished all his business in the upstairs bathroom, Frisk walked back to Papyrus' room with his book in one hand and his phone in the other to see if his older brother was awake yet. Surprisingly, upon opening the door, he was still asleep.

Enjoying the silence too much to bother him, Frisk started walking downstairs but paused when an idea crossed his mind. He placed his things on the floor and walked over to the bookshelf in Papyrus' room. In the dim light, Frisk searched to see if Papyrus had any of the ancient scriptures in his book collection.

His parents would wake up early to meditate on the ancient scriptures and pray. They told them it helped them get in touch with the Divine and clear their minds and that sort of thing. At any rate, it gave Frisk something to do while waiting for Papyrus to wake up and for his clothes to dry.

Frisk found the book quickly and carried it along with his other items downstairs. He climbed on the couch and started reading the book. It had been a while since Frisk had attended a place of worship or even read the book for himself. He would read it in the libraries sometimes, but for Frisk, that felt like a lifetime ago.

Logically, he started at the beginning when the Almighty created humans and monsters, each different but all equally valuable and destined to live in harmony…

After reading for a while, Frisk felt adequately inspired and closed his eyes to pray and meditate.

It was difficult, but he did it how his parents had explained it to him. Frisk kept his eyes shut, pushed out his conflicting thoughts as much as he could, and spoke to God while waiting for His responses in the silence.

When Frisk opened his eyes again, he felt inspired and his soul felt uplifted. Frisk checked his phone to see how much time had passed, but it had only been 20 minutes.

"You've gotta be kidding me," Frisk said quietly laying back on the couch. "Why is time moving so slow right now? God, are you trying to teach me patience or something?"

As if an answer to prayer, Napstablook texted back.

"How are you doing today, Frisk?" Napstablook texted. "I'm glad you finally have a phone. I'm also really glad the skeleton didn't kill you."

Frisk smiled widely and replied,"No, he was just mad that I left to find Undyne by myself. I've got anemia, so my HP isn't high enough to fight monsters yet. But it's all good now. I'm just grounded. I can't leave to explore the rest of the Underground until Sans says I'm not grounded anymore."

"Okay. I'm sorry I ran away when you were getting in trouble. I got scared."

"It's okay. I didn't think ghosts got scared."

"You'd think that but no. Ghosts get scared, too."

Frisk was thoughtful for a moment before he replied, "I know what you mean. Other monsters have always been afraid of me, but I've always been more afraid of them. I wasn't always nice to them, though, so I guess I brought that on myself."

"I'm curious. How old are you?" Napstablook replied.

"10."

"Why are you wandering around by yourself? You're just a kid."

"That's a really long story. You wanna hear about it? I have time to kill."

"Sure."

Frisk summed up his life story for him as well as he could.

When he was done, Napstablook replied, "Wow. I'm sorry. You've had such a sad life. I feel bad now for feeling so bad about myself."

"You're depressed," Frisk said. "That's hard, too. There's no need to beat yourself up."

"I suppose not. Do you have a place to live?"

"Yeah, Sans and Papyrus have adopted me. Sans said he's getting the paperwork today. I guess that's why he's not here. Hopefully, other monsters will leave me alone once it's official."

"So, you're living down here? You're never going back to the surface?"

"Well, Undyne and Papyrus said they would take me back up, so I could get my backpack, but then I'm coming back down for good."

"Don't you have any friends up there?"

"I have one. Her name is Varda, but I don't think she could ever visit me down here. I'll just have to call her."

"Maybe she could one day. She might be nice to us like you."

"Maybe. But dude, I can't wait to get my Dad's mp3 player back from my backpack. When I have it back, I'm going to your house to listen to it with you. You'll love grunge."

"I've heard some of it before. CD's wash down here sometimes."

"I'll show you all of it. My Dad's mp3 player is a big, old-fashioned one that came out before I was born, so it has like over 10,000 songs on it. You will get to hear so much grunge!"

"I can't wait. When are you going?"

"Whenever my HP goes back to normal and I start feeling better in the head. At least, that's what Sans said."

Frisk's stomach growled in hunger, and he replied, "I have to go find some food, Napstablook. I think I'll go into town and snatch some of those cinnamon roll things for me and Papyrus. See ya later."

"Won't Sans get mad at you for leaving the house?" Napstablook asked. "Besides, aren't you broke?"

Frisk thought for a second and replied, "Sans doesn't have to know, but you're right. I need to find some money."

Frisk looked around the kitchen, the den, and the upstairs bathroom, but there was no money to be found and he didn't want to risk waking Papyrus.

Frisk got out his phone and texted Napstablook again.

"I can't find money anywhere," Frisk texted as he collapsed back on the couch. "And I can't go out and fight monsters to earn more. What do I do? I'm so hungry."

"You could see what's in the fridge," Napstablook replied.

"Oh, yeah."

Frisk made his way to the kitchen and opened the fridge. Inside he found lots of fruits, vegetables, cans of tomato sauce, some milk, the orange juice he started drinking yesterday, eggs, leftovers, and…

Frisk's lips curled into a smile as he took out his orange juice to take his iron pill. He had an idea.

Frisk thought as he sat at the table, twisted open the bottle, swallowed an iron pill, and washed it down with orange juice.

He then picked up his phone and texted Napstablook, "Napstablook, I have the best idea ever! I'll make breakfast for Sans and Papyrus. They'll be so surprised."

"That is very sweet of you," Napstablook said. "But do you know how to cook?"

Frisk paused to remember for a moment before he replied, "I remember helping my Mom make eggs one time. It shouldn't be too hard."

"Good luck."

Frisk ran to the downstairs bathroom to wash his hands and then got the eggs out of the fridge.