PotatoxSeriousSans

[SeriousSans]

Alia was feeling a bit better knowing Chara would help her, but she still felt quite uneasy about the task being timed. She didn't like being pressured, and even though she figured neither Papyrus nor Mira meant for this 'timed game' to cause pressure for her, she couldn't really help but feel pressured when there was a timer involved. She preferred to take her time, but she couldn't really do that when she was being timed, could she? When she was being timed, any moment she was uncertain and trying to figure something out for the task felt like wasted time. And then she would get upset with herself, and then she'd start to panic... It was an endless cycle of misery.

But Papyrus seemed so proud of his idea, Alia couldn't bring herself to refuse to try it. Besides, how could she explain all of that when she already felt so tense? Even though Papyrus said it didn't have to be a game, it wasn't the fact it was a game that was bothering her. Maybe if it was some other kind of game, and not timed, she would actually enjoy it, because Alia liked games generally.

This was just so confusing! And overwhelming...

Yes, Mira said she could take her time, but if they were still going to time her, that was pretty much impossible. At least for Alia, because that cycle was so ingrained in her that even if she tried, she couldn't break free from it once it started. So she had to avoid it. Which was far easier said than done, but at least she wasn't alone this time. She knew if she got stuck now, Chara would be there to try to calm her down... Or, more likely successfully, find the remaining ingredients for her.

Then, Mira spoke up again, announcing the start of the 'game' before Alia was truly prepared for it, but she simply opened the refrigerator and started looking for the first ingredient. Her eyes scanned the contents of the refrigerator anxiously, and she quickly grabbed the first ingredient when she finally saw it, placing it on the counter near Mira and Papyrus. Then she headed back to the refrigerator to find the next one.

This process repeated a few times, with Chara telling her puns about the ingredients as she looked, and Alia started to feel like she was actually doing alright, until she reached an ingredient that would not be found in the refrigerator. She glanced around the kitchen at all the cabinets, not sure which ones the ingredients she needed to find were in. She opened the nearest cabinet; it was full of spices, so she left it open for now and moved on to the next.

The next cabinet held none of the ingredients she needed, and she was starting to slip into her cycle of panic as she felt like searching it had been a waste of time. Chara seemed to notice, and spoke up quickly to reassure her, guiding her to another cabinet where Alia found a couple more ingredients which calmed her down a bit.

Nonetheless, this was really starting to get to her by now, and even Chara's puns were not calming her down as much as they had at first. She glanced worriedly at the clock between finding ingredients, even though Chara encouraged her not to. She simply couldn't help it. She needed to have some idea of how long this was taking her, even though it just made her more anxious.

Finally, all that was left on the list was the spices. Alia wasn't sure whether she was relieved, since Chara would be finding them for her, or about to panic even more because somewhere along the line she'd forgotten the time she had first started at- Or had she even taken note of it before she rushed to the refrigerator? Alia couldn't remember- and thus had no idea how she was doing.

It was too much. At least all she had to do now was pretend to scan the shelves of spices until Chara pointed at one, then grab it and put it on the counter. 'I can do this,' she managed to tell herself, as Chara pointed at a container of spices while smiling as reassuringly as they could at Alia. Still, she could tell they were worried about her. Maybe she wasn't as good at hiding how stressful this was for her as she thought.

Soon, Chara was pointing to the last container of spices on the list, and Alia quickly put it on the counter with a forced smile, before sitting down on a nearby chair and trying to calm herself down. Chara began telling puns, funny stories, anything they could think of to try to cheer her up. The whole time, Alia kept the smile on her face, not wanting Mira or Papyrus to realize how stressed out she was.

....

After speaking awhile longer, Sans and Gaster returned to the kitchen to see how the trio was doing. Gaster headed over to watch Papyrus and Mira cook, while Sans walked over to Alia and sat in a chair beside hers.

"How is the cooking going?" Gaster asked, smiling at Papyrus and Mira, and looking curious about their cooking process.

[PossessedPotato]

Mira was really and truly worried about Alia and the state she must have lived in back on the surface to be this afraid of making a mere mistake, even a small one, as if she were afraid of being yelled at for not being able to find the right ingredients.

Was it her parents who had treated her so harshly at such a young age? Perhaps society in general? It would have been wrong to say that Mira didn’t know hardship herself, but this poor baby bug was acting like a beaten dog even just trying to figure out what ingredients were which, Mira exchanging a glance with Papyrus as it seemed that Alia was ‘overthinking’ in her head on where each and every thing was, neither knowing it was because of the helpful Chara trying to get them through this task.

“That was wonderful, dear!~ You did that in record time!”, Mira giving a bright smile to Alia once the girl nervously set down the last ingredient on the counter and took a seat in a petrified looking state, she got the sense that Alia was likely trying to hide her nervousness and thus didn’t point it out, her instead praising the girl for her completion.

“Yes! I knew you could do it! Now, how about we get to actually cooking? Watching you do all that work made my non-existent stomach hungry!”, Papyrus playing his part to keep Alia happy and feeling good about herself, he was just as aware as Mira that Alia clearly was okay but he wasn’t going to push her, “The pasta should be almost done so we can let that cool and get to work on the sauce!”.

Mira already cutting up some onions as Papyrus gave Alia a tomato to chop, Mira had to wipe her teary eyes to smile back at Gaster when he arrived with Sans to see how things were going, her wiping her eyes with the back of a sleeve.

“It’s going good so far~ We just gotta make the sauce and everything should be fine”, Mira being a odd sight indeed with her smile and teary eyes, she wasn’t even sure if skeletons knew that humans cried when cutting certain vegetables due to…well, they’re lack of eye sockets, “How did your guys talk go?~ I-is everything alright?”.

[SeriousSans]

Alia felt somewhat better when Mira spoke, complimenting how quickly she'd found the ingredients. She still wasn't sure how long exactly she'd taken, but if Mira seemed to think it had been a record time, Alia certainly wasn't going to argue. Mostly, she was just relieved she'd been able to find everything without seeming too panicked, as far as she could tell from Mira and Papyrus's reactions. She was quite grateful to Chara for telling puns so she would calm down a bit quicker, and her forced smile seem a bit more genuine.

A small grin appeared on Alia's face as Papyrus spoke about his non-existent stomach, the closest thing to a skeleton pun she figured she would hear from him. "Thanks," she told both of them, since they had complimented her. She nodded when Papyrus explained they would be making the sauce next, and watched curiously as Mira started cutting an onion.

When the other two skeletons returned to the kitchen, Alia waved at them both, managing to smile more genuinely at Sans when he sat near her since he seemed the most likely to notice something was wrong and she didn't want him to worry. Besides, she was feeling less stressed now that the task was over and she'd had a bit of time to calm down. There was really no reason to cause anyone to worry about her. Now she just needed to find a way to cheer Chara up, who still looked a bit concerned about her...

Fortunately, an opportunity arose quite soon after she had that thought, when Papyrus put a tomato and a knife in front of her. "Oh, oh, I can help!" Chara spoke up eagerly, grinning at Alia. Alia tilted her head slightly, curious, but was happy to agree if it would make Chara happy, and nodded with a smile. "Okay, hold the knife firmly enough where it will not slip out of your grip, but do not try to control it. Let it guide you, okay?" Seeing how excited Chara was, Alia just nodded again and picked up the knife.

A couple moments later, after giving her time to adjust her grip, the knife started moving towards the tomato and carefully slicing it. Alia just held it and watched, amazed. Soon, the tomato was chopped up perfectly, and Alia set the knife down again when she felt it stop moving. She turned to Chara and beamed, impressed, and honestly kind of grateful they had been able to help her with this so she wouldn't mess up the sauce. She'd never really made anything that required her to cut things before, and she figured if she'd tried to cut the tomato by herself, it definitely would not have turned out this well. For their part, Chara seemed quite happy, grinning back at her.

......

Sans could tell Alia's smile was kind of forced, so he'd sat down beside her to check on her while the other three were distracted. However, before he could say anything, Papyrus had given her a tomato to chop, so he just watched silently until she was finished, not wanting to ruin her concentration and cause her to hurt herself. Though, it seemed like she was quite skilled at cutting tomatoes, based on the results. And then she was grinning at nothing again. Probably her imaginary friend... Ah well, if she was happy, that was what mattered, right?

"heya kid. how are you?" Sans asked, still slightly concerned though much less so now that she was looking happy again.

"I'm fine," Alia replied after turning to him with a smile. "How are you?"

"same," Sans said, before glancing over at the other three to see how they were doing- Only to immediately feel concerned again when he noticed Mira looked like she'd been crying. Sans was confused; what could have caused her to cry?

Alia saw his expression, followed his gaze, and then giggled before explaining that humans sometimes cried when cutting onions. Sans didn't really understand that, but if it meant Mira wasn't upset, it was a relief.

.....

Gaster was confused when he saw Mira seemed to be crying as she cut up the onion. "Is something wrong?" he asked, feeling rather concerned. Though, based on her words and smile, she didn't seem upset, so why would she be crying like this? Remembering to answer her question, he added, "It went well, everything is fine."

Truly, humans could be quite confusing... Nonetheless, it was clear that his sons cared about the two humans here very much, so he would make an effort to understand them.

[PossessedPotato]

Mira looking a bit concerned as she wasn’t really sure on giving a child a knife that they could potentially cut themselves on, it wasn’t as if she didn’t trust Alia, she very much did, but the last thing they needed was for a child with a chopped finger or worse that would ruin any progress they might have made on making her comfortable here.


Alia was clearly a intelligent child though…and for that Mira put up no complaints as Papyrus left her to her devices in chopping the tomato into bits for the sauce, her cutting the onions before her along with parsely (or the closest monster equivalent of it), and trying not to seem like -too- much of a crying fool in front of her new little family due to they’re lack of eye sockets and lack of knowledge that they would be burning just as much if they had eyes.


The last thing Mira wanted was for Sans or anyone else to think she was crying again because of this or that, most of her little fits in the past being because she was still adjusting to life in the Underground and had a -lot- to get used to in a short amount of time.


“Humans truly are strange, what with crying over a vegetable and all?? Are there any others that do this to humans, Mira??”, Papyrus speaking up as he didn’t mention that he had noticed Alia acting a bit oddly as she chopped her tomato, he chalked it up towards her just being a odd human child with her own little quirks they needed to get used to.


….There was also the fact that Sans had made it clear they were supposed to make Alia comfortable too, the tall skeleton not wanting to make things weird by mentioning the way Alia seemed to be responding to some invisible force as she chopped her tomato.


He would ask Sans later if he had noticed it too though.



“Uh…I’m not really sure. I don’t think so? I-I mean, I bet there is at least one other out there”, Mira smiling a bit nervously at Papyrus and Gaster as Sans kept a eye on Alia, the girl went to wash her hands after she was done with the onion and Papyrus thanked Alia for her help and took the chopped tomato, the skeleton blending them together into a sauce that would go with the pasta.


“I would like to learn more about the food you humans have on the surface someday! I bet you have a lot more variety up there than we monsters are able to collect down here”, Papyrus musing as He poured the complete sauce into the pot of pasta and mixed it with a newfound gentleness he had learned from Mira, if he had been ‘training’ with Undyne there would surely have been mix on the wall.


“Oh!~ I would be happy to tell you all about what we have up there. Did you know there are over 2000 types of potatoes?”, Mira smiling and pulling the first fact she had on her mind out of her head as Papyrus looked as if his jaw would drop off with the fact as he stated incredulously at Mira for a moment, he inevitably turned to Gaster as if he could somehow confirm Mira wasn’t fooling him.


“That’s amazing! How in the stars is there so much up there??”, Papyrus’s culinary mind feeling a bit razzled despite being just a bit suspicious of Mira potentially fooling him, it was hard to read the cheek smile that Mira wore as she simply shrugged her shoulders and went back to stirring the Pasta.

[SeriousSans]

Alia was feeling much better now, and listened to the others' conversation silently. She was glad for the opportunity to relax with the attention off of her for awhile, she really wasn't used to having attention on her in general after all. This would take some getting used to, but at least everyone here was nice. That would make adjusting a lot easier.

It was also interesting to see the skeletons' reactions to how onions affected humans. Papyrus had seemed quite curious about it, asking Mira questions, while Sans and Gaster seemed confused but just went with it. It was eye-opening how something humans take for granted could be so surprising to monsters, like this. Then again, there were probably a lot of things monsters took for granted that humans would be surprised by, too.

Alia smiled when Papyrus took the chopped up tomato to use for making the sauce, happy that it had turned out well. While everyone else was distracted, she smiled gratefully at Chara again. It was good to see them happy again; clearly being able to actually do something to help had cheered them up. They were such a good friend. Alia was really glad they were here with her. Though she still felt bad they could not interact with the monsters... Tomorrow! She was going to figure something out tomorrow, she told herself, determined.

She returned her attention to the others as Papyrus asked Mira about the food humans prepared on the surface, and listened to the conversation silently as usual. She grinned, looking quite amused by Papyrus's reaction to Mira's comment about potatoes. It really looked like his jaw was going to fall off for a moment there! She couldn't help but giggle quietly when Mira just shrugged at his inquiry about how that was possible.

....

Sans was glad Alia had explained about the onions causing Mira to cry, since he would have been worried otherwise. Knowing she wasn't actually upset made it easier to just relax and enjoy listening to Papyrus and Mira's conversation as they finished preparing the pasta. Fortunately, Papyrus seemed to be carefully preparing the sauce rather than creating the chaotic mess that often resulted when he followed Undyne's instructions. Sans wasn't sure how Alia would react to that, since it might be a bit much for a child.

For now, she seemed to be doing alright, and while he wondered why she had seemed so tense when he and Gaster had returned to the kitchen, he wasn't about to ask and risk making her nervous again. At least she was happier now.

Sans grinned as Mira told Papyrus about the number of types of potatoes that could be found on the surface and his brother's jaw nearly fell off. Papyrus's over the top reactions to things always made him smile; he had a feeling he'd be seeing a lot more of them as Mira, and possibly Alia as well, told him about the more surprising things about the surface. Truthfully, Sans was quite impressed by the amount of potatoes as well, though he didn't react to it like Papyrus did.

.....

Gaster was, admittedly, quite surprised to hear how many types of potatoes there were on the surface. "That's incredible," he commented, watching the two cook but making sure to stay out of their way. How could there be so many types? Unfortunately, he doubted he would be able to find out, being trapped here in the Underground. Being a scientist, he was rather disappointed at not being able to find out, but he did his best to hide this disappointment.

Besides, he really shouldn't complain, anyway. At least he was no longer in the Void. When Papyrus looked at him for confirmation about the number of potatoes on the surface, he shrugged apologetically. It had been a long time since he was on the surface, and he had no clue about how many types of potatoes there were other than what Mira had just said. Still, it felt nice that Papyrus was looking to him when he had a question; unfortunately, it hadn't been one he could answer. Hopefully next time he'd be able to, since he didn't want to let Papyrus down at all.

Gaster grinned as he saw how well the pasta was coming along. It was quite exciting to finally be able to try one of Papyrus's meals, knowing how much he liked cooking, specifically pasta dishes. This was something he had missed out on for a long time. Far too long, in his opinion.

[PossessedPotato]

As odd as everything was for two humans to be living in peace with a trio of skeletons, there didn’t seem to be any real fear left for relations between the two different species, Mira willing to work her best to show young Alia that monsters weren’t that scary and that she could be herself regardless of what she had dealt with on the surface.



Not that she herself was any level of confident enough to be the outgoing and outwardly brave type though, Mira still having plenty of issues to work out while assisting Alia and giving her the confidence boost…that they, well, -they both- honestly needed.



Cooking like this was the perfect way for at least three of them to bond, even if Papyrus did feel a bit bad over unintentionally pressing Alia to get into a little race to find ingredients which had likely stressed her out. The tall skeleton was still learning on how…best to treat humans, especially children, and with Sans help he -was- getting better at it, but he would slip up every now and than.



It may have been a bit soon too claim there was ‘hope’ in the Underground again, but the presence of two humans who wanted peace with monsters was not to be underestimated, it being a shoot though on whether this would lead to freedom or not for the trapped race.


“It’s true! I read it in a school book on the surface. Sometimes the little facts stay with you, y’know?”, Mira laughing at how Papyrus seemed to be working the gears overtime in his head to figure out if she was truth telling or not, the food was just about done by now as the talk of potatoes of all things seemed to lighten the mood of the kitchen ten times over.


They really were turning into a happy little, mixed family of monsters and humans, weren’t they?


“Alright alright, pasta is done~ Who wants to taste test to make sure it’s good enough?”, Mira smiling as she glanced at Alia in the assumption that she might want to be the first to taste their finished dinner, she had been doing her best to help after all with chopping tomatoes and finding spices so she deserved to be taste the fruits of her labor, “Alia?”


Through all this, Mira did feel it was going to be best for her to sit down and talk to Sans and Gaster later on certain things she felt were up with Alia, her obviously not wanting to talk about it just out in the open and nor did she expect the girl to open up herself fully anytime soon. From the outside looking in it was a pretty classic case of the girl being neglected on the surface world, but seeing as they couldn’t really…get to the surface to fix the issue they would need to handle it down here and work on adjusting Alia to being in a kind, safe environment where she would be loved the world over.

[SeriousSans]

Alia listened, happy not to have much attention on her as Mira reassured Papyrus her earlier statement about potatoes was true. While it was true she felt more at ease around the group here than she would on the surface, after so many years of being ignored it really did feel more comfortable to not be the center of attention, so she was happy to let the others talk and she would just speak up occasionally if she felt like it. For now, at least, that would probably be the best way to get used to people actually paying attention to her.

It also meant it was less likely for the others to notice when Chara told her a pun, and she had to stifle a giggle. Right now, they were telling her potato puns, probably because that was what Papyrus and Mira were talking about. Alia made a mental note to tell Sans a few of them later; she figured he would enjoy hearing them as well. Or, hopefully, she would indeed figure something out tomorrow, and Chara would be able to tell him the puns themself.

That might be a bit of a longshot, though, she admitted to herself. After all, even if she did manage to read all the books on magic she'd found at the library earlier, there was no guarantee she would find anything of use in them. She might need to keep looking before she could find one that had the information she would need to help her ghost friend speak with the monsters again.

When Mira announced the pasta was done, Alia smiled. She was kind of excited to try the meal, since other than the pie Toriel had made, Alia was used to making her own meals, without really having assistance from others. So, this would be a nice change; a meal created by members of what she was beginning to think of as her family.

She felt a bit nervous when Mira asked if she wanted to be the first to 'taste test' the pasta. Not because she was afraid of how it would taste, of course- she was sure it would be delicious. No, she just did not want to have everyone watching her, waiting for her verdict. She would much rather they all just ate at the same time, or if one of the others wanted to try it first, she was fine with that too. Mostly, she just didn't want to be the center of attention.

Chara seemed to sense this, and smiled reassuringly at her, encouraging her to just express how she felt. Seeing Sans smile reassuringly as well, silently indicating for her to be honest and not go along with anything she didn't want to, Alia felt comfortable enough to explain. "I'm sure it's delicious! But, uh, I'd rather not have everyone watching me while I try it, if that's okay? Someone else can try it first."

Seeing a bit of nervousness return to her expression after she spoke, Sans smiled at Alia and gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder to show it was alright, and then spoke up to get everyone's attention off of her. "hey, why not let gaster try it first? i'm sure he's been eagerly awaiting this moment for awhile now."

While Sans was speaking to the others, Chara floated slightly closer to Alia, still not actually attempting to pat her shoulder themself after their failed first attempt back at Toriel's house, though the intent was obvious to Alia who seemed grateful to both them and Sans.

Meanwhile, Gaster looked quite pleased by Sans' suggestion, and nodded eagerly. "I have indeed. I would be honored to try it first, if that's alright with you two?" Gaster smiled hopefully at Papyrus and Mira. It was true that he had been hoping to someday try one of the pasta dishes Papyrus was so proud of, and he appreciated Sans having guessed that and making this suggestion so he could try it as soon as possible.

[PossessedPotato]

By the time dinner was over and everyone had congratulated Alia especially on her help with the cooking, there didn’t seem to really be any complaints with the food despite Papyrus assisting in making it, Mira’s les than aggressive way of cooking the food being different than the method the skeleton used with Undyne during training which often resulted in…odd results.


Burning water somehow just being one of those oddities.


Sitting around the living room and eating like this made it seem like they really were just one big family despite the tensions that had brought three of them here over the course of these last few months, there, somehow, not having been a single reset as of late which could have ruined all of this in a instant.


Luckily, Sans was the only one aware of such things, Mira unable to speak for Alia but she herself would have been seriously paranoid if word got to her that everything could have just…reset at any given time.


“Anyone wanna help me with dishes?”, Mira beaming happily as she collected the bowls from everyone when they were done with dessert, she truly was a lil ball of sunshine trying to hide her fears and worries behind a smile that she wished she could always have, “Alia?”

Mira sensing that Alia may have just been a little nervous being left with the skeleton family all on her own as she went to the kitchen to fill the sink, she wasn’t going to press the child into it obviously but the offer still stood.


Maybe she was just a little old fashioned though and was the type to let the men chill in the living room after a day like today? It was how she had been raised, for better or worse, her parents unfortunately not having been the most progressive in terms of parenting back in the day.

Come to think of it though, Mira was getting the sense that maybe Alia had been in the same boat in a way or worse with how shy she was of getting anything wrong at all, her knowing she was going to need to talk to Sans about this when she got a chance to get this worry off her chest.

Maybe it was just her nerves over reacting though? She was already very protective of young Alia and the thought of anyone hurting her made the usually calm Mira’s blood boil to a pitch….


“OH! DO YOU WANT HELP? I do them most of the time as it is so please don’t worry!”


Papyrus speaking up with his usual loud tone as Mira shook her head and smiled, she really just kind of wanted to get to know Alia a bit more one on one if she could.


“No no, that’s alright~ You have done a lot today already, Papyrus”, Mira…really -didn’t- know what the skeleton had been up to today actually, but the statement seemed acceptable for the monster as he returned to his seat and seemed to give off a aura of proudness in a sense.


If Mira had been aware that Chara existed she may have asked the child as well if they wanted to help (and maybe get a second helping of dessert as a reward), her yet unaware of the ghosts presence nor the attachment they held towards Alia. There was a -lot- of stuff Mira was yet to learn actually, not the least of which was a tiny flower that had caused a certain skeleton to give up on the world for the longest time.

[SeriousSans]

Alia had enjoyed the meal, though she had been silent for most of it this was more due to being used to eating in silence than any discomfort, and also a slight bit of embarrassment at being congratulated for her assistance since she felt like she hadn't really done much herself. Well, during the actual cooking process at least. Regardless, the food had turned out very well in her opinion, and it had been nice to enjoy a meal while simply listening to the others. It had been a good way to get a bit more used to the kind family without feeling pressure to join in any conversation if she didn't want to; being rather introverted she preferred listening over speaking up herself, so the excuse of having just taken a bite of food and not wanting to be rude by talking with her mouth full had been quite helpful.

Truthfully, she still had a lot of getting used to having people's attention on her to do, since she'd basically been invisible on the surface considering how little anyone noticed her. She'd gotten used to that, so it would take her some time to feel comfortable with lots of attention. Fortunately, Sans seemed to have noticed that, and had been able to help get the attention off of her when it got too overwhelming, which Alia very much appreciated. She did understand that the others were just trying to include her more when they spoke to her, but for now while she was getting used to it, she would much rather be allowed to choose for herself when she joined the conversation.

As much as she was already growing to like the family a lot, it was still a rather large group comparative to what she was used to with her interactions. So she needed some time to get used to having so many people looking at her when she spoke and other similar effects of being around a group rather than just one or two people.

It was mostly due to her time on the surface that Alia automatically took being singled out by Mira during her inquiry if anyone would help her with the dishes as a request rather than a suggestion. Trying to ignore what she was sure was everyone's attention on her, she stood up to follow. Mira's response to Papyrus's offer to assist only solidified that feeling inside of Alia, and while she wasn't sure why she had been chosen, she had bigger things to worry about right now.

She had to admit to herself she was extremely nervous about this. After all, just-washed dishes were extremely slippery, and Alia really didn't want to accidentally drop one. It wasn't that Alia thought Mira would be angry if she accidentally broke one of the dishes, but... Well, she knew her parents on the surface would have been, and among all of the confusing, unexpected things that had happened today, her anxiety about this was much larger than it probably should have been.

As focused as she was on trying not to look like she was only a couple steps away from panicking, she didn't notice how concerned Chara was. They could easily tell how nervous she was, after spending so much time masking their own feelings it was not difficult to tell when other people were as well. Unfortunately, they could not speak up themself, since no one except Alia would even hear them. Instead, they turned towards Sans, the one they trusted most to help Alia, willing him to notice and do something...

...And thankfully, he did. Standing up as well, Sans moved to walk beside Alia. "i'll help as well," he stated, smiling reassuringly at the nervous child. "besides, i'm sure you two want an opportunity to talk with each other some more, right?" he added with a glance at Gaster and Papyrus. Gaster nodded with a smile, turning towards Papyrus to see if he also wanted to talk some more.

Alia smiled up at Sans, feeling better now that he was coming along too. She knew he wouldn't get mad if she dropped something, in fact with his ability to levitate stuff, he could probably stop it from hitting the floor and breaking! Her nervousness about the task finally fading away, Alia hugged Sans' hoodie sleeve as she walked beside him to the kitchen.

"Thank you, Comedian," Chara said, even though they knew he would not hear them. They were just too relieved that he had stepped in to help Alia feel better to care that their words would not actually reach him.

.......

Sans had been quite confused when Mira had asked if anyone would help her with the dishes, but then told Papyrus not to when he offered. Especially considering Mira had asked Alia specifically if she would help. Did humans have some kind of particular way they liked washing dishes or something? Or was she worried that Papyrus washed dishes as chaotically as he made spaghetti during his cooking lessons with Undyne? Even if that was the case, he didn't really understand why she would say no to Papyrus's offer to help.

Regardless, Sans could tell Alia was nervous, as much as she was trying to hide it. It wasn't hard to guess why; she was probably afraid of breaking one of the dishes on accident. She was a child after all, and dishes could be slippery while they were being washed. She'd been making so much progress slowly getting more comfortable here, and Sans wasn't about to let that all go to waste.

Besides, the kid had just had quite a day, falling into the Underground, meeting lots of new people, and the variety of anxiety-inducing events she'd faced in the process. Sans was determined to make sure she got through this latest one as smoothly as possible, which was why he stood and walked beside her with a statement that he was going to help. It seemed like this had been the right thing to do, as Alia smiled up at him, no longer looking nervous.

[PossessedPotato]

Mira was….doing her best to make Alia feel welcomed and happy in the only way she knew how, but maybe she was still overwhelming the girl too much unintentionally. She had no intention on embarrassing or making Alia feel out of place, nor did Papyrus, both just wanting to be friends with the girl but being terribly awkward in their own way it seemed.


Maybe Alia just wasn’t used to getting attention like this? Perhaps…Mira suspected that Alia’s life on the surface must have been troublesome to say the least, but she had no real experience in helping deeply troubled children like this, her hoping that maybe there was someone down here that could help.


There had to be -someone- down here who could help, right?


“I-I mean, it’s fully up to you Alia. Please don’t think I’m making you do anything, okay?”, Mira smiling gently down at Alia as she sensed a familiar tension in the air when she asked her if she wanted to help do the dishes, maybe…she was going to have to figure out a more direct way to communicate with this kid.


All of this was making even -Mira- nervous that she was going to make Alia accidentally dislike her, her being ridiculously grateful when Sans decided to step in and offer a hand to resolve the conflicting emotions.


Perhaps Sans was a bit of a anchor towards Alia? It sure seemed like it, and Mira was grateful for it as well~


God, she had so -much- to learn in terms of communicating with emotionally abused children.


“O-oh? Three of us together will make it perfect than~ One for each task”, Mira smiling despite the fact that she secretly felt she had ruined any progress she had made with Alia with being too vague on ‘if anyone wanted to help with dishes’, she was likely going to need to be more direct next time in a way that couldn’t be seen as ‘demanding’.


Mira starting the sink, she gave Alia a warm smile to hopefully reassure her that everything really was okay as she scrubbed the dishes, Sans presence making this all the more better since Alia seemed to fully trust him.


This lingering feeling of being out of place though continued to
nag in the back of Mira’s mind as meanwhile as Papyrus went to sit down with Gaster to discuss…well, a whole lot of stuff seeing as he had essentially just met his ‘long dead’ father….


“So, how…Uh, does it feel to be back in the real world?”, Papyrus seeming a whole lot less confident now that Sans wasn’t here to help him avoid any odd things he tended to do out of habit, it did give Papyrus though the chance to ask some kind of more person things he had on his mind that he had been not wanting to ask in front of his brother, “I know it’s probably sudden to ask, but how did you survive for so long with wherever you were?”.