xoxoreaders:

Silence.

Traversing through the dark tunnels of Waterfall had always been soothing to you. The sound of the ground beneath your feet, the gentle whispers from the echo-flowers, and soft rush of the water always filled you with a happy tranquility. It was a wonderful place to live; looking out your bedroom window everyday at the beautiful land always made you happy. Your neighbors only further added to that joy, a certain one in particular always made your heart do strange flips inside your chest. The fiery and powerful Captain of the Royal Guard:

Undyne.

Living just a little ways down the stream you found yourself receiving many visits from the gilled woman, which you do not mind at all. At first she had been cold to you since it was not very good to have a human like yourself in the Underground given the history between the two races. You knew about the souls they were collecting and how tired all of the monsters were of being trapped down here. Undyne was not at all pleased to see you when she found you; she had sneered and always called you punk or human, never addressing you by your name.

Things were tense. She had tried to kill you at first but you pleaded and begged, refusing to fight her. You were so scared of this figure in bulky metal armor that made her look ten times as frightening that you had started crying. Undyne lowered her weapon then and took pity on you since she couldn’t bring her self to “hit some punk who cries like a baby,” or at least that was what she told you.

After that she had ushered you roughly to this abandoned house that was still in pretty decent condition. The Royal Guard had shoved you inside and explained how if you would not fight her you would stay here in this house because she could not have a human wandering around in the Underground unsupervised. You really did not have any other choice; it was either obey her rules, or face the sharp end of her spear. Obviously you chose the former and have ever since been living in this small house where Undyne could check on you everyday. Make sure you were fed and still breathing before leaving you again. After a while Undyne’s visits became more relaxed; she no longer showed up every day with a spear in hand and an annoyed tone in her voice like she never wanted to see you. Undyne began bringing you things to pass the time, you could actually have a conversation with her, and eventually she stopped coming with her armor on. It was just Undyne, coming to visit you like an old friend would when they stopped by. You enjoyed every moment of Undyne’s company, especially hearing the woman’s stories of her many amazing battles. The amount of strength in that body seemed almost limitless to you, and hearing how it did in action only made you more fascinated.

Over time, with each one of Undyne’s visits you found yourself looking forward to them more and more, for a while you weren’t quite sure why. Undyne was an amazing person, so full of passion and.. quite a lot of energy. You could recall that one time that she and you had been engaged in a game of hide-and-seek, for strict Royal Guard purposes of course. You, being a human, were to play the role of one so that she could practice capturing you. Imagine your surprise when one moment you were hiding in a patch of tall grass, only to suddenly be lifted high off the ground by Undyne who had leapt from the bright blue waters behind you. She had laughed triumphantly, hoisting you above her head like you weighed nothing. She had teased you for not watching your back as she lowered you down to be at eye level to her giving you a bright, wide smile that made your cheeks flush. It was in that moment that you finally realized why you always looked forward to her visits.

It was Undyne.

The way the fish woman now always greeted you with a tight embrace and that signature smile, even though she nearly crushes you every time, always made you happy. Slowly you had managed to build trust with the captain of the royal guard who had first set out to kill you. Now you were able to walk around Waterfall or even go right up to her house and pop in for a friendly visit, which is what you had decided to do today.

Undyne had not stopped by for her usual visit today, which was a little strange but you figured that she was probably busy with her royal duties. Perhaps it would be best for you to go visit her and give her a little break with a nice lunch you made. Yes, that would be perfect.

Grabbing the basket full of food you had prepared, you smile knowing that Undyne will surely appreciate the effort. You left your house with the basket in hand, beginning your journey to Undyne’s house, the grass crunching lightly beneath your feet. You can hear the sound of the water rushing beside you and you’re filled with that familiar sense of tranquility. You felt at peace. At least until you began to notice how the silence that usually put you so at ease, now felt strangely eerie.

You stopped in your tracks finding yourself in the middle of a patch of echo flowers. With a quirked brow, you kneel down before one of them and lean your ear close to listen to what the neon blue plant had to say.

Silence.

The Echo Flower was completely silent, there was not even a little whisper of a sound emanating from it’s petals. For as long as you had been living in the Underground you had never seen a fully grown Echo Flower be silent. You shifted to a second flower; and then another; and another until you were finally certain that it was not just affecting one. The entire patch was plagued by this unsettling quiet.

“What is going on..?” You muttered to yourself looking around the patch when you suddenly heard a soft thud of something hitting the grassy floor. You jumped, startled by the noise and quickly looked to the surface to spot a familiar face: Monster kid, one of your other good friends down here in Waterfall. He lifted his face up from the grass and you instantly knew that something was wrong. From the day you first met the young monster, he had always had a cheerful smile on his face, even when he fell he’d happily get right back up; still smiling. However, this time was different.

When he raised his head there was no smile, in fact, the young monster’s eyes were wide with fear and sorrow, tears brimming in the amber orbs. That look set you on edge and you quickly rushed to his aid beseeching him to tell you what had happened as you helped him back onto his feet. He seemed to push into your arms sniffling as he tried to fight back those tears threatening to fall. You could tell that he was trying to be brave but it was proving a daunting task. Whatever had scared him must’ve been truly terrifying.

“I-It’s Un-Undyne..!”

Those two words were enough to make your heart drop and you quickly tell him to run to somewhere safe while you charge ahead. You’re not thinking, you can’t think. Not now.

The look on Monster Kid’s face, and the way he said the guards name you knew in your heart that Undyne was in trouble. Your mind could not process it, but your heart seemed to give you the speed you did not know you had as you raced through Waterfall. When you finally spotted Undyne, your eyes widened and you understood why Monster Kid had been so horrified.

Undyne was kneeling, in her suit of mighty metal armor, in front of someone whom you couldn’t quite make out from the distance. As you got closer, the situation became clearer and soon enough you could see the real picture. The stranger whom who you hadn’t been able to recognize, was a child, a human child. You were relieved for only a second before your eyes fell upon the knife in the child’s hand. This child, whoever they were, was not here to make friends. It seemed that they had chosen Undyne to be their victim, already having brought her down to such a weakened state.

Slowly the child approached the gilled Knight, knife raised to attack once again.

You couldn’t take it.

Your feet ran faster than your brain could comprehend and before you could process it, you were standing right in front of Undyne on the bridge, arms held out wide to protect her with your body and suddenly…

Nothing.

You opened your eyes and were met with the gaze of the child who had stopped merely an inch in front of you, knife held out aiming directly at your heart. The human child stared up at you, dark eyes unblinking, but you could see the turmoil of emotions erupting behind the black curtains.

“What’re you waiting for? If you want to hurt people, hurt me, but leave Undyne alone. She means so much to the Underground.” You state the adrenaline pumping through your veins giving you a boost of courage. You tried to make your voice sound fierce, gaze stern, and body strong. However, you wanted nothing more than to hide away somewhere far from here.

The child’s hands shook and you watched as they slowly stepped back, the knife falling from their and hitting the wood of the bridge with a thud. The further the child moved the more you let yourself relax still keeping your eyes trained on them as they brought their hands up to their face. They seemed just as horrified of their actions in that moment. Out of nowhere, they let out a loud cry of pure agony, thrashing its head about and you found yourself questioning whether or not this was just a human. They lunged forward once again, grabbing the knife off of the ground and raising it up to fight once again.

“Stand back!” Undyne called out grabbing you by the arm and pushing you behind her. “Thank you.. for coming to help me, I’m really grateful to have you with me. But I can’t have you stealing all my thunder, so let this Captain protect you!” She proclaimed glancing back at you with a big toothy grin that you couldn’t help but smile back at.

The child let out another loud cry, this one sounding more like a battle cry full of frantic rage. Undyne ushered you back and then summoned her spear staring at the child intently.

“You’ve messed with the wrong Royal Guardsman! This is my home, and these are my friends, and if you think that I’m just going to hand all of that over to you without a fight, you’ve got another thing coming punk!” She proclaimed heroically before charging toward the child, spear in hand. The being only seems to grin wide at the display like it was all just a big funny joke to them which only served to add more fuel to Undyne’s fire.

You look on in awe at the vicious battle between Undyne and the human child who isn’t radiating with the same hatred as before, they seemed more reluctant even though they were putting on a face. It was with one toss of her mighty spear that Undyne finally wiped that smile off of the child’s mouth. You watched with slight horror as the child’s body fell, remaining unmoving with the spear protruding from their chest. Undyne snapped your gaze away from the child when she turned and approached you lifting you into her arms with such ease you wondered if you really weighed anything to her.

“Are you alright? You had me worried for a second. I thought I was gonna lose you.” She said looking down at you in concern with that one blazing eye. “Promise me you’ll never put yourself in danger like that again. Danger is better suited for the professionals.” She grinned.

You smiled back at her and then nodded your head in understanding. “Okay, as long as you promise to stay out of too much trouble.”

She laughed at your words but then nodded right back, “I’ll try but I can’t make any promises. It comes with the job of protecting the ones I love.”