Undertale fanfic : Stories From the Surface (29)

Chapter 29 : Housing Problem & Solution




There was a “Now Hiring” sign on Grillby’s door. Well, that was odd, Sans thought. Were the human siblings quitting?
He asked Hisha about it when she served him his breakfast.
“Oh, hum…” she hesitated. “Well, the original plan was to stay in this country for, like, a year or two, but with everything that happened… we’ve been considering just going back home early? But we can’t just like, quit our job here before the boss find someone else, right?”
“ya never mentioned any of that”, the skeleton pointed out.
There wasn’t any judgement in his voice, only a bit of surprise, yet she looked guilty anyway.
“Well… hum… We don’t know if- I mean, when we’ll actually leave? I don’t know. I just know we can’t stay at the inn forever… Yeah, I should- I shouldn’t have put off telling you guys…”
“ya know toriel’s been looking for a home for you two, right?”
She covered her face with her hand.
“I had completely forgotten about this! I- I didn’t think she’d actually do it?”
“she’s been busy with other stuff, mostly. but there’s a house that’s gonna be free soon. not ‘free’ as in ‘won’t cost you anything’ of course. ‘free’ as in ‘the previous owners are leaving’. she told me to tell ya ‘bout it. and to give you her number.”
“Oh… sorry, I gotta go-, just… put the number in my phone, ‘be right back!”
Hisha left her phone on the counter in front of Sans, next to his burger, then left to take someone else’s order.
He would have taken such an occasion to do something he thought funny like replacing the phone’s notification sound with fart noises or renaming all the contacts, but it was a touchscreen. When its owner came back, it had remained completely untouched. The burger was half-eaten though.
“your phone’s a touchscreen”, he said.
“…Yeah? Most cellphones are.”
“i can’t use it sans skin.”
“Oh, right! Sorry. Just… gonna do this the old-fashioned way, I guess. Also it’s not pronounced that way.”[1]
He dictated Toriel’s number to her while finishing his food.
“i take it you guys maybe leaving is why ya didn’t wanna come to that wedding then?” he asked.
“Hum… at least that’s part of it, yeah. That and, like I said, I don’t know how long we’ll get to stay here. Also… there’s gonna be a bunch of people I don’t know and… yeah.”
She was nervously tapping her fingers against the counter.
“hey. that’s fair. you can always hit us up if you change your mind.”
She thanked him and left to take care of yet another customer. Soon, he was gone someplace else.

Later that day, as Toriel was getting home from work with Frisk, she received a text from an unknown number. She opened it as her child went into their room.
The message turned out to be from Hisha about the house.
“I saw the ‘for sale’ sign while running some errands through town yesterday”, the boss monster texted back, “and thought it might interest you and your brother.”
She put her phone back in her pocket and went into her own room to deposit her bag on her desk. Soon, another message arrived :
“We can’t afford to BUY a house :/”
To witch Toriel replied :
“It is alright. I have already talked to the current owners and they might consider renting their house instead! ]: ) I will send you their number so you can negotiate with them directly.”
She then joined up with Frisk again to help them with their homework. The matter was dealt with quickly, leaving them both more time to work on the ambassador’s next public speech.
“This is all very good, Frisk!” Toriel complimented her child as she lightly patted their head. “I am so proud of you and everything you have done for us.”
Frisk replied that it was the least they could do. Their mother still thought it was a lot of responsibilities for them, but they had chosen this path out of their own free will. The least she could do was to help and support them so they wouldn’t bear this burden alone.
Then Papyrus called on the phone just to say hello to both of them.

The following day, the human siblings were closing the bar instead of opening it for a change.
The bunny monster who often came here was still loudly boasting about celebrating their engagement and paid a couple rounds of drinks for everyone. When they finally left, the building suddenly felt strangely silent by comparison. Or at least it would have been silent had a certain skeleton in a blue hoodie not started snoring on the counter.
Grillby started cleaning all around his sleeping form, careful not to disturb him. Behind the fire elemental, the human employees were observing the scene.
« Tu crois qu’on devrait le réveiller ou… ? » she asked her brother.
« Ben va bien falloir le faire avant la fermeture » he replied.
Before they did anything, however, Papyrus arrived to pick Sans up. Literally, in that case. Star was also with him, ready to start their night shift together.
“OH, BY THE WAY,” Papyrus said after ordering a glass of milk, “TORIEL TOLD ME ABOUT THE HOUSE. ARE YOU TWO GOING TO TAKE IT?”
His voice had woken up a few drunk customers ; his brother, however, remained undisturbed. Grillby grabbed the milk bottle from the fridge nearby.
“Rent is too high”, Hisha’s brother explained.
“They said they needed the money to raise their puppies”, his sister added. “I can understand that. The price is just a bit much for us, you know?”
“What if you split it in three instead of just two”? the owl chimed in.
“You mean if we find a roommate?” Hisha said. “’Guess that would help. But there are only two bedrooms. Their kids all shared the same, apparently. ‘Must be why they’re moving to a bigger house.”
“Well”, Star argued, “I am looking for a place to live outside of my parents’ house, and I will probably only sleep when you guys are working.”
The siblings looked at each other and exchanged a few words no-one else in the room could understand ; then they agreed to give the owl’s idea a shot.
Papyrus quickly finished and paid his milk before saying goodbye and leaving with Star by his side and his still sleeping brother secured in his arms.