"AIIEE! WHY YOU BRUTE!"

One of the many lightning bolts finally struck its mark, Mettaton flailing about as smoke began to billow from his casing.

"I can't work under these conditions!" he shouted.

In the time it took to blink the mechanical menace had zipped out of the room, leaving Lloyd in the fluffy monster's hold.

"Let's go, that should deter him a while," his rescuer stated.

Lloyd went to reply but the goat-man was very fast, and he didn't seem to want to talk at the moment. The trail led them back to the main path he assumed was connected to that room the 'musical' was in and finally he was set down on his feet.

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"Uh-uh," Lloyd shook his head, eyes wide. "That was so cool!"

"Pardon?" Kratos blinked.

"Yeah! You were like zoom and then fwoosh and he was all BLARGHA it was so awesome!"

The goat-man blinked once more and Lloyd craned his neck up to look at him.

"Hey, you look like Toriel!" he said, grabbing at one of Kratos' long ears.

"Don't do that-" Kratos gently pushed his hand down. "And yes, Toriel is my mother-"

"Oh, is she mad at me? I guess I kinda left without telling her, but I really need to get back home. I guess I should have used the phone thing, it's just kinda confusing with all the buttons and stuff. Well, you can go tell her I'm all right, right? So that works!"

"Listen to me, she's very worried but she's not angry, now just come back with me and-"

"Wait- what? I don't want to go back! I mean your mom is really nice and she makes good pie but I have to get home!"

"Lloyd-" he began.

"My Dad's probably worried a lot!"

He froze. The boy gave him an odd look but he quickly reclaimed his composure. Why was he so shocked? It made sense someone would take him in- hell, he was relieved someone took him in and cared for him. There would be time for self-pity later, as always.

"I see, but it's not safe out here for you, I'm going to take you back to Mother."

"No!" Lloyd flailed, glaring at him. "Put me down!"

"Lloyd, please-"

Now normally, had he human hands, it would have been very difficult for the boy to slip from his grip. However at the moment he had large, fumbling claws, and was taking great care not to cut the boy with them; unfortunately that turned out to be enough of a hindrance that the boy slipped from his paws, ducked through his large legs and took off at a breakneck speed.

"Lloyd!" he blurted, panicked. "It's dangerous, get back here!"

Kratos was fast, but catching the boy without harming him would be hard with claws. He grit his teeth and attempted to catch his son but the narrow paths of hotland were doing nothing to help him in his task. The boy had more maneuverability and before he could manage to grab him, Lloyd slipped between a crack in the wall, out of sight and reach. Kratos bit down a curse and attempted to reach him through the wall, demanding he come back.

Damn it all!

Lloyd didn't know where he was going, it was too dark, but he could feel his way through the narrow passage. Wherever it went, he wasn't sure, but he couldn't go all the way back to the beginning. It was so dark, he couldn't see a thing! He grasped at the walls and then- quite suddenly- nothing was there. The boy frowned, straining to see something, anything. He reached forward with his other hand and again felt nothing, then when he tried to reach back to the wall found nothing there. What? The wall was gone, the passage he had come from was gone! It was just- nothing! He couldn't feel anything, see anything, smell or hear anything…

Then suddenly crashed onto a dining room table.

"OW!"

"WHAT THE HELL?!"

Lloyd's head spun but he managed to sit up, looking around and then coming face to face with the eyepatched monstress that had attacked him earlier.

An awkward silence passed between them.

"DON'T KILL ME!" Lloyd yelped, scrambling off the table.

"WAIT! KID HOLD ON!"

Lloyd squeaked when Undyne grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling him back toward him. The boy flailed around, desperately attempting to escape her grasp.

"Look kid I don't know how the hell you ended up here, but I'm not going to hurt you!"

"Let me go! Let me go!"

"I'm not going to hurt you, kid! Okay?! I know your dad!"

Lloyd twitched, looking back at her with a bemused expression.

"My dad's on the surface…how do you know him?" he asked, confused.

"Er- um," Undyne fidgeted. "Your…other dad, like, your um, birth dad, you know?"

"Birth dad?" he frowned, even more perplexed.

Another dad? He didn't have two dads- wait, didn't he? There was the first dad, with mom, but he was…gone, wasn't he?

"My dad is gone," he said, confused. "He's…dead, like mom."

Undyne frowned.

"Look kid, I don't know what happened but your dad isn't dead, I saw him a few days ago, he's been down here a while."

"But my dad's a human, so did you kill him?"

Undyne fidgeted, visibly uncomfortable, but composed herself.

"Your dad isn't…totally human, kid, he's part monster, like me."

Big brown eyes stared at her, and the captain felt a distinct sense of unease at the gaze. Maybe it was a human thing, but their eyes always seemed so…intense; they say the eyes are the windows to the soul, was their more powerful soul fueling a more powerful gaze? Kratos was only a halfie but his eyes still had that feel to them, or was it just a genetic thing? She didn't remember the former queen well, but she remembered she was an imposing presence.

"So kid, look, your dad is a friend of mine," she continued. "I don't want to hurt you, all right? So it's important you keep quiet and not draw attention to yourself."

She shuffled around for her phone, pulling it out of her pocket and hastily dialing Kratos' number.

"Hey, who are you calling?" Lloyd asked.

"Hush up a sec, kid, I'm calling your dad." Undyne snorted, listening to the phone ring.

He kept rambling on, bombarding her with questions, but Undyne ignored him in favor of focusing her attention on the phone. He wasn't picking up, and he never did set up voicemail, did he? Damn it, and that old-ass phone he used didn't have texting, she would just have to keep calling. If the kid would shut up and stop flailing around it would be so much easier to focus on what she planned to say.

"Put me down put me down put me down-!" the child shouted.

"KID JUST SHUT UP A SECOND, OKAY!?" she snapped at him, her eye twitching. "I'M TRYING TO HELP YOU!"

"THEN DON'T YELL AT ME YOU FREAKY FISH LADY!"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING A FREAKY FISH LADY YOU LITTLE TWERP!?"

"YOU! DUH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRGGH!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRGGH YOU!"

Thus it was Papyrus entered to find Undyne and the human child engaged in an intense screaming match.

"Uh- I like yelling as much as anyone but uhm, what's going on?"

"Papyrus! Help! The fish lady won't let me go and she keeps talking about how she knows my dad but I don't believe her!"

"Oh dear, perhaps we should all just calm down?" Papyrus suggested nervously.

Without waiting for a response, Papyrus scooped Lloyd from Undyne's grip and placed him on a chair at the table, patting him on the head.

"How about we all calm down and have a snack? I shall make some delicious spaghetti-! Oh wait, the little human doesn't like tomatoes, I forgot! I shall make grilled cheese instead!"

With that he dashed over to the stove, already placing bread and cheese on its surface.

"I didn't have-? Ah nevermind," Undyne sighed, sitting down across from Lloyd. "…So, hate tomatoes too, like your old man?"

"Of course, tomatoes are evil, they're the second most evil plant ever," Lloyd huffed, crossing his arms over his little torso.

"Second most? What's the first?"

"That stupid flower with the face that tried to kill me."

"There's another flower?!" Papyrus gasped, turning his head an entire 180 degrees while continuing to cook. "Wow! I wonder if Flowey knows them, maybe he can ask them not to do that again!"

Lloyd showed his confusion, but Papyrus didn't pick up on it. The boy was pretty sure that the flower that attacked him was 'Flowey' but maybe he was wrong? There were a lot of weird things down here, maybe there were more talking flowers?

"Yo, Pap, that's racist, not all flowers know each other," Undyne said.

Papyrus gasped very loudly and quite over the top.

"You're right! How less than amazing of me! I should be more sensitive!"

"So kiddo," Undyne redirected her attention to the human. "How did you end up down here anyway?"

"I tripped," he said, looking around. "I'm bored, I want to go-"

"Bored?" Undyne snapped. "BORED!?"

"…Yes?" Lloyd said slowly.

"HOW THE HE- HECK CAN YOU BE BORED WHEN I'M AROUND!? I'M UNDYNE! I'M THE LEAST BORING PERSON THERE IS!"

"Because you're boring."

Lloyd wasn't quite sure what happened after that, but he was pretty sure that the furniture wasn't supposed to being thrown around the room while Papyrus flailed around begging her to calm down.

"SIT DOWN TWERP-!"

"I'm already sitting down-"

"WE'RE GONNA HAVE THE MOST FUN EVER. DO YOU HEAR ME!? WE'RE GONNA DO SCRAPBOOKING AND MAKE FRIENDSHIP BRACELETS AND YOU'RE GOING TO GO 'WOW UNDYNE, YOU'RE SO MUCH FUN!'"

She slammed her hands on the table and a random assortment of arts and crafts supplies fell from the ceiling onto the table; before Lloyd could question where they had come from Undyne was shoving yarn into his hands.

"MAKE A BRACELET, PUNK!"

"Undyne perhaps you could calm down just a little?" Papyrus asked nervously.

"NO! YOU JUST FOCUS ON MAKING THE GRILLED CHEESE!"

"But it's done!" Papyrus held up a plate. "Perhaps the human should eat first, then make crafts?"

"I-!...Okay fine, snack time, then crafts!"

Undyne threw her arm across the table and the bracelet supplies flew through the air, smacked into the wall and exploded. A plate slammed down in front of Lloyd and Papyrus sat next to him, tying a napkin around his vertebrae.

"Well then, human! Let us eat! I assure you it is most tasty! Nyeh heh!"

Lloyd was too confused to remember he was going to try to escape, and instead settled for hesitantly munching the sandwich. It wasn't great, but good enough, why was Sans acting like he was such a bad cook all the time? Maybe it was just his spaghetti? Made sense, tomatoes tainted the pasta and made it disgusting upon contact.