Chapter 14

Piper slipped her now clean ‘Mr. Dad-Guy’ shirt back on as she and Frisk got ready to go to New Home. Grillby had called a friend of his to purchase some wares off of her, leaving the humans alone upstairs.

“Ya got everythin’ we may need?” she asked. She’d let Frisk pack a backpack for things they’d need along the way.

They nodded. “We’ve got water bottles, a map of the vents, some fans and tons of food. We can carry the rest of the food in our inventory.”

“Is that the weird pocket thing that makes yer stuff disappear?”

“Yeah… Did anybody tell you about this?”

She shook her head. “I had to learn about all of this on my own. It sucked, especially when monsters just jumped out at me from nowhere. I only ever learned what the heart thing is called when Grillby told me.”

“Hm.” They nodded a bit, but didn’t seem too interested in hearing about a certain fire monster they both knew. “What do you even see in him?”

Piper raised an eyebrow and turned to look at them. “Excuse me?”

“Well, he’s so quiet. And he doesn’t have a face.”

“I happen to like how quiet he is, and he can make one when he wants to.”

“He’s awkward and clueless.”

“So what?” She put a hand on her hip and frowned at the child. “What’s gotten into ya? You’ve never been like this with others.”

“Because he’s different. He can take you away from me!”

“Why would he ever do that?” She knelt in front of Frisk. “Ya know he’s nice. He cares a lot about us. Not just me. BOTH of us.”

They looked down at their feet. “I just… don’t wanna share you yet…” they mumbled in defeat. “I just got you back…”

She sighed and hugged them softly. “Frisk… I’d never replace ya for anythin’... If ya didn’t mean anythin’ to me, then I wouldn’t have gone through hell to get ya back, would I?”

“No…”

“Then why would I replace ya with someone else?”

They shrugged. “Sorry…”

“It’s alright, mi bebé.” She kissed their forehead. “C’mon. We should go downstairs. I think Grillby’s almost done.”

Frisk nodded and let Piper stand back up. They pouted when she grabbed the bag. “I can carry that.”

“I know you can, but it's gonna be a long walk, and the bag is kinda heavy.” She held their hand as they went downstairs. “I don't want ya to get tired before the real excitement begins.”

They huffed. “Fine…”

When they reached the main floor, Grillby was chatting with was a spider monster over tea. She had a basket of pastries, all of which spider themed, and giggled during one of his stories about his customers. She was a very cute monster, and the pair got along quite well.

Piper couldn’t stop the bubbling sea of jealous rage from rising in her gut, even if she wanted to.

The spider monster turned and smiled at the humans. “Ahuhuhuhuhu~! It’s the little human who bought donuts in the ruins! And the big human my spiders and Mr. Grillby told me about~”

“Hi, Muffet,” waved Frisk. Of course her name was Muffet.

“Mr. Grillby tells me that you three are going to break down the barrier.” She lifted up the basket. “That sounds awfully dangerous. He bought almost all of my donuts for your journey.”

“Thanks…” Piper sat next to Grillby and leaned against him possessively, practically all over him like a cat. She didn’t really care. “We should get goin’ soon. Right, Grillby?”

“Y-Yes…” He blushed brightly. “We should…”

Muffet giggled again and got up. “Ah, well. It was nice seeing you again, Mr. Grillby. Your girlfriend seems very nice~!”

“W-We… She… I…”

“Ta-ta~!” The spider left them with a spring in her step and a giggle on her lips. Piper was happy to see her go. She calmed down when Muffet was out the door.

Grillby looked at Alphys, who was watching the whole thing from her computer chair, with a furrowed brow. “What was that…?”

“A human woman’s jealousy,” they said with a shrug. “Human’s are very territorial. They don’t like it when people get near what’s theirs.”

“O-Oh…”