#asgoreappreciationweek

[theshadowedqueen82]

After the Winter, 2.1k, Gen.

Written for Day 7 of @asgorelove‘s Asgore Appreciation Week, for the prompt Free. Also on Ao3.

Being on the surface was nice, in many ways. Frisk had missed the sun and the stars when they were underground, and she couldn’t imagine what it must be like for the monsters. But even though so much had improved, there was still one downside to living aboveground.

Frisk was now back in school.

“Frisk, come here,” Toriel ordered after class had ended. There were some perks to school, like having your Mom as the teacher. But despite that it was still school, which was rather boring after you’d fought battles that determined the fate of all monsters and humanity; Frisk was glad for the school day to end.

“Today Undyne will pick you up,” Toriel said, planting a kiss on the top of Frisk’s head. “Call me whenever you get home, alright?”

“Yes, Mama,” Frisk said, hugging Toriel before picking up her backpack and heading out.

Since Toriel was a teacher she had to stay at school longer, so they had a system where somebody else would take Frisk home and watch her until Toriel got home. Usually Papyrus volunteered regardless of whether he had Captain of the Royal Guard duties that day. Sans didn’t have a license but could ride a two seater bicycle remarkably fast, and occasionally Mettaton took Frisk home in a limo (they usually spent the evenings playing Dance Dance Revolution). Alphys was too nervous to get her license but Undyne was happy to take Frisk home (Toriel had banned them from the kitchen).

But today was different, because when Frisk walked into the parking lot Undyne was not there; instead Asgore was standing next to the school doors looking profoundly out of place with his massive stature and horns tall enough that he needed to duck to fit in doorways. He towered well over everybody else and Frisk was relieved to see that he’d opted out of his full royal regalia and instead was wearing overalls and a plaid shirt.

“Dad!” Frisk said, running towards Asgore and throwing her arms around him. He looked surprised but bent down to return the embrace.

“Undyne said that she was busy tonight,” Asgore said. “Would you mind if I took you home instead?”

“Sounds great!” Frisk said, grabbing his paw. “Let’s go!”

Asgore drove a red pickup truck, a cherry red under a couple of layers of dirt. It was not the sort of vehicle one would expect a king to drive, but it suited Asgore perfectly.

“Undyne will come to replace me,” Asgore told Frisk, adjusting his mirror and backing out of the parking lot carefully. “I’m just watching you until she arrives.”

“I don’t mind,” said Frisk. “I like it when you watch me.” It doesn’t usually happen hung unspoken in the air between them. Toriel had not been the most forgiving when it came to Asgore.

“So, what do you usually do?” Asgore asked, and Frisk shrugged.

“Undyne usually wants to play laser tag or something,” she said. Although usually ‘laser tag’ turned into ‘run for your life’.

“Would you like to do that?” Asgore asked and Frisk shook her head.

“Not really. I usually only do it because Undyne really enjoys it.”

“What would you enjoy?” Frisk furrowed her brow in thought, and a devious smile spread across her face.

“Would you like to play a board game?” she asked.

“If that’s what you’d like to do,” he replied, not a trace of worry in his voice. “I’m afraid that I haven’t played any of these board games previously, so you will have to instruct me.”

“No problem at all,” Frisk said, grinning from ear to ear. This is going to be a lot of fun.

“What happens if I land here?” Asgore asked, carefully maneuvering his top hat so that he didn’t accidentally knock over all the game pieces with his large fingers. Frisk cackled and rubbed her hands together.

“You’ve landed on one of my properties,” she said. “Which means that you now owe me…” she made a show of checking the property cards, knowing that she’d already made a fortune off of this turn. “Two hundred twenty dollars,” she declared, and Asgore raised his eyebrows in surprise.

“Really? That much?” he said. “But I thought the house only brought the price up to eighty dollars.”

“Yes, but I added another house,” Frisk explained. “That means that you owe more.”

“I see,” Asgore said with a sage nod, pulling out his bills and counting them out. “Here you go, then. I’m afraid that I only have one blue bill left now.”

“Yes,” Frisk cackled. “Soon you will be bankrupt, and I will rule supreme!” She rolled the dice and tensed as one landed on a four and the second wobbled between the three and six. Please not three, please not three, please-

Unheeding to her telepathic pleas, the dice tipped over with the three facing up. Frisk groaned and moved her tiny dog forward.

“Oh, I see you’ve landed on my properties again!” Asgore said, and Frisk sighed and handed him a wad of cash. Asgore had only bought the yellow and pink properties (because he thought they were pretty) and had hardly improved them, and yet by a fiendish stroke of luck Frisk would land on at least three of his properties every time she went around the board. Which meant that Asgore had staved off bankruptcy for another turn.

“Don’t feel so bad,” Asgore told her. “I’m sure that you’ll win next time around.”

“Nobody’s ever lasted this long against me in Monopoly,” Frisk said, glaring at the board for it’s treasonous tendencies. As a matter of fact, Undyne had gotten so upset the sixth time Frisk beat her in Monopoly that she had banned the game from the house while she was watching Frisk. The rest of her friends didn’t resort to measures quite as drastic but it was a general consensus among them that Frisk should not play Monopoly, ever.

“It’s just a matter of luck,” Asgore said. “If you want to, we could do something else. This is just a silly game.”

“Oh, no you don’t,” Frisk said. “I have never lost a game of Monopoly and I don’t intend to now. Your turn.” Asgore gave Frisk a look that was equal parts concern and exasperation. “Don’t worry, Dad,” Frisk said. “I don’t mind, really. It’s been a while since I’ve had an actual challenge in this game.”

“Very well,” Asgore said, picking up the dice again.

The game had finished in Frisk’s victory, and Asgore declared that they had to celebrate with Frisk’s favourite meal. So now they were standing in front of the oven and staring at the frozen pizza inside, hoping that it would magically cook itself without their intervention.

“Maybe we’re doing this wrong,” Frisk said after ten minutes had passed and the pizza hadn’t changed. “What temperature did the instructions say the pizza should be at?”

“Instructions?” Asgore said with a frown. “There weren’t any instructions, were there?”

“Yeah,” Frisk said, turning to stare at him. “They were on the back of the box.”

“Oh.” They both turned to stare at the trash can where Asgore had thrown the pizza box. “I think that we can manage this without the instructions, don’t you?” Asgore said, and Frisk shook her head.

“I really don’t think so,” she said. “Maybe we should get the box out of the garbage.”

“That would be very unsanitary,” Asgore said. “I cannot allow you to do such a thing. You have baked pizza before, have you not? Perhaps you could apply your expertise to this situation.”

“I don’t know,” Frisk said, frowning at the oven. “I guess we could turn it up a little, right? As long as we’re here watching it, we can’t exactly burn it.” Asgore nodded encouragingly and Frisk reached up the dial and twisted it.

Since they were there watching the pizza closely they had a perfect view of the black smoke that soon engulfed it. “Dad, I don’t think that there’s supposed to be that much smoke,” Frisk said.

“Well, perhaps this is a different type of pizza,” Asgore said. “One requiring more smoke.”

“You’ve never cooked a pizza before, have you,” Frisk realised with horror. “There’s not supposed to be any smoke at all.”

“Oh,” said Asgore, his eyes widening in panic. He looked around for a moment before simply turning off the oven and watching it intently.

“Um, shouldn’t we do something else?” Frisk asked, and Asgore shook his head.

“This way we’ve trapped it,” he said. “It will just go out on it’s own.” Despite his uncertain tone Asgore appeared to be correct, as the smoke slowly dwindled. Once they were reasonably sure there was no fire Asgore cautiously opened the oven door and pulled out a blackened husk that Frisk could only assume began life as a frozen pizza.

“I guess we should have taken the plastic wrap off,” Asgore said with a laugh, and Frisk joined in.

“I can open all the windows if you dispose of the evidence,” Frisk offered, and Asgore agreed. After he took a quick trip out to the alley to dump the attempted pizza the smell of smoke was already clearing from the kitchen.

“Now, are you still hungry?” Asgore asked, Frisk nodded. “I’m sure that we can figure out how to do this properly the second time around.”

“Of course,” Frisk said with a nod. They both stared at each other for a moment before they burst out laughing.

“I’ll order a pizza,” Asgore said, pulling out his phone.

They were just finishing up their second pizza when they heard the jingling of keys outside the door. Asgore stood and motioned for Frisk to grab the plates while he went to the door. She had almost put them all in the dishwasher when she realised that Toriel was the only one other then herself with keys.

“It’s not what you think,” Asgore was saying when Frisk bolted into the living room. Toriel was staring at Asgore in shock and he was holding out his hands in front of him, either to pacify her or protect himself.

“Wait, Mom,” Frisk said, putting herself between the two monsters. “It’s okay, really. We had a nice time.”

“Wasn’t Undyne supposed to watch you tonight?” Toriel asked, and Asgore nodded while Frisk shook her head. She rose one eyebrow in an expression so fierce that Asgore actually took a step backwards.

“Undyne was busy tonight,” Asgore said, and Frisk cleared her throat.

“Actually, we… um, planned this together,” she said. Both of her parents looked at her and Frisk smiled apologetically at them. “I’m sorry, but you wouldn’t let Dad watch me,” she said to Toriel. “And I like spending time with him. So yeah, maybe I shouldn’t have gone behind your back, but you weren’t even open to letting him watch me.”

“He tried to kill you,” Toriel said, and Asgore looked down.

“Yeah, but so did Undyne!” said Frisk. “And Papyrus tried to capture me, and even you fought me. Pretty much every monster I met I fought. And you still let me hang out with everybody else, so… maybe you shouldn’t hold it against him.” Toriel stared at Frisk in surprise, and finally bent down and hugged her.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “You’re right, I’m not being fair to you. Either of you,” she said, looking up at Asgore. “Maybe… you could still watch Frisk after school? That is, if you’re not busy.”

“Of course not,” Asgore said, looking very surprised. “I mean, I would love to.”

“Okay,” she said. “That might be a good place to start.”

“Thank you,” Frisk said, hugging her tightly before breaking the embrace and hugging Asgore.

“I didn’t only do it for you,” Toriel said. “I was getting a bit worried about those friends of yours watching you.”

“Mooom,” Frisk groaned, and Toriel giggled.

“It’ll be nice to know that I’m coming home to a house that’s not on fire,” she said. “I love Papyrus but I really need to give him cooking lessons!” Frisk and Asgore exchanged a guilty look, and Frisk cleared her throat and grabbed Asgore’s paw.

“Thanks Mom, can I say goodbye to Dad?” she asked, and Toriel nodded.

“Go ahead dear, I’ll just be in the kitchen,” she said. Asgore opened his mouth and Frisk tugged him out the door, thankfully preventing him from saying anything incriminating.

“You really want to spend time with me?” Asgore asked once they were outside, and Frisk nodded.

“Of course,” she said. “And… today’s kind of a special day for humans, and I wanted to spend it with you.”

“What day is it?” Asgore asked, and Frisk hugged him again, burying her face in his overalls and inhaling the scent of burnt pizza.

“Happy Father’s Day, Dad.”