"It's funny how we were just here yesterday," Lust said, looking up the castle.

"But at least this is on bank business instead of party stuff I don't want to do," Grillby said to his 'wife'.

"Why didn't your parents do this? Aren't they constantly trying to impress the King?" The skeleton asked, "I know they were busy during the party, but I would think they'd want to do this."

"They want us to start taking on more responsibility," The fire elemental answered, "Even though we basically do everything now except for personal meetings with the King."

"They should be retired," Lust added on, "They just really want to support the King."

"Welcome, Mr. Flame and Mrs. Flame," A Royal Guard said, opening up the gate to let the two in.

"Thank you," The two said, nodding at the guard before they entered the castle grounds.

"Did he say why he needs us, exactly?"  Lust questioned, pondering why Asgore would call them so suddenly, "Usually he doesn't really call about money anymore, he just does what he wants. Like the party thing."

"Something about a wedding, I'm guessing he found someone he wants to marry for some reason," The taller said.

"Married? To who?"

"Like I said, I don't know."

Lust sighed, tugging on his purse slightly as he thought over the idea. He never thought Asgore would ever marry again, after the whole Toriel and Asriel event that had happened before.

Lust wasn't even alive when it had happened, but the rumors were still fresh since it only had happened a month before Lust was born.

There were so many rumors he didn't know what were true and what weren't true. All he knew that Asgore was married to a girl names Toriel and they had a kid named Asriel, then one day, for some unannounced reason, both Toriel and Asriel had died and funerals were held for them. Their dust was buried somewhere inside of the walls of the castle, with a large door that only Asgore had the key to.

The rumors were all different and always had a different story, but one thing that they mostly had in common was that their deaths were caused by Asgore.

One of them that Lust has heard was that Toriel and Asriel had fell from the lose of hope, both of them dusting away behind closed doors because of an abusive relationship Asgore might've been hiding. Another was that Toriel and Asriel were being beaten by Asgore, and Toriel tried to protect Asriel and gave him time that would allow him to escape, but Asgore had killed her with an attack and Asriel died from the fall of the window. One that his parents believed was that when a disease infected the family that Asgore didn't import vaccines from, he only had enough for himself and let his wife and child die when he could've given them the medicine instead.

The fake female didn't really believe any of them. While there was a big disease that spread among monsters at the time of their deaths, Lust wanted to think of a more creative and unique approach to it that would explain why, days after their deaths, Asgore declared a war on a Kingdom shortly before the war ended and he retreated the Kingdom into its walls, only having contact for trade.

So, Lust had an explanation that would explain a lot of events.

He believed that an assassin had broken into the castle from the other Kingdom and ended up killing the Queen and child. It would explain why Asgore went to war with the Kingdom, and why he retreated to only trade so that way he wouldn't be killed as well. Lust liked to think of it that way, since it was the more interesting way.

But it didn't explain why Asgore kept the dust hidden inside the castle, or why he suddenly started a burning hatred for humans and women alike. It made no sense on why those suddenly appeared after the deaths, but Lust doubted he would get an explanation soon, or ever for the matter.

He just worked the banks, after all.

~~~~~~

"Mom, I don't like this!"

Lust was tugging at his Mom's pants, tears gathering in the corners of his eye sockets as his soul ached for food.

Skeletons could survive longer than the average monster without food or water, being able to go for a month and a half without food before death and a month without water before death. However, that didn't mean skeletons were immune to pain, and child skeletons especially needed food to grow and were more sensitive to pain. So, Lust going two weeks without food was painful in the most terrible ways.

His Mother had recently lost her job due to being a women, and since she had the higher paying job at the time, she was the main contributer to the food. His Father had been in another Kingdom, on the front lines fighting, so he wasn't there in order to get them some food.

"I know sweetie, I know," His Mother said sorrowful, regret and pain filling her face, "I know it hurts, Mommy will find a way to get some food."

"Mommy, it hurts really bad!" Lust sobbed, gripping at his chest as his soul ached again.

"I'm so sorry baby, I'm trying my best, but the amount of jobs accepting women is going down," She said, tears now flowing down her skull as she hugged close her child, "I-I'm so sorry that I can't help your pain."

Lust gripped onto the back of her shirt as he sobbed into her shoulder, the pain only becoming worse. It would never go away, every movement just seemed to make it worse. So, he cried because of the pain, which made it worse, which made him cry harder, which made it even more painful, throwing the poor child into a never ending cycle.

"C'mon baby, let's go see if anyone is willing to give you some food," His Mother said, picking up Lust as she ignored the own growl of her soul for substance.

While he had gone two weeks without food, she was growing close to a full month without food, since the last amount of food that they had gotten was all given to Lust, and that was the last remains of their emergency stash. Both of them were skinnier then they should be, with Lust shorter than the average male was supposed to be at his age, and much skinnier too. With the lack of food, he took on more feminine features, with the small body and frail, deliqute bones. The outfit he was wearing also looked like more of a torn up dress, so that just made him look even more feminine.

Lust's Mom, a tall and slender women, made him look like an infant in her arms as she shuffled out the front door, going over all of her available options for food. The store down the street was a no, since there was a monster who was pretty strong running it. She had tried to rob it before, and paid dearly. Now there was a long scar running from her shoulder blade on her back to her spine, where a large chunk of bone was completely missing. However, she did manage to snatch some bread, so the sacrifice had been worth it.

Unfortunatly, hunger doesn't stay quenched, and it rose up once again.

Lust bad understood their situation and tried his best not to ask or beg for things unless they could kill him or he was in pain. He didn't ask for a toy he may see in another kids arms, and he never complained when screams and yells would wake up the two in the middle of the night. He'd just snuggle close to his mother and try to go back to sleep. He knew she was having a hard time and he didn't want to make it worse, so he just kept quiet the best he could.

Both of them were trying their hardest for the other, they really were.

There was only one thing she would think of, and it was an old friend from high school that had married a wealthy man. She had attended their wedding, but since she had to move away because of the lack of gold, she never saw her friend for years. Her friend probably didn't even knew she had a child, but she would be willing to help.

The walk was long and treacherous, but luckily she didn't live too far, it was only around half of an hour before she had reached the town that she recalled her friend had lived in. The houses were nicer then her town, and the smell of food was distant.

Her child had remained silent on the journey, his sobbing silencing into quiet tears before he had ran out of tears to cry. He wasn't tired though, so he just watched the road as it passed by underneath them.

His Mother almost yelled with joy when she recognized the house that her friend had been talking about, practically rushing towards the door. This was her last option, this was all she could think about. Her husband still had more then a few months of fighting, so she needed to get some food into her and Lust. She had considered the dust option that only extremely desperate parents already set for death did, but she couldn't leave Lust alone in this scary world, she would never do that.

A servant had answered the door, a short owl like creature who cocked its head at the sight of her.

"May I speak to Bertha?" She asked, her voice sounding sore.

"Do you have an appointment?" The monster asked.

"No, but p-please, I know her and I just needed to ask for some help!" She begged.

"Sorry Miss," The owl said, starting to close the door.

"Wait!"

The door was yanked open by someone else, a fire elemental that Lust's Mom could recognize. She was short with green flames, glasses sitting on her fire nose.

"Oh my gosh, what happened to you?" Bertha asked, "Wait, no, come in first, we can talk while you aren't starving!"

Before she had known it, Lust and her were sitting on a dough next to a crackling fire place as Lust practically chugged down a cup of water, her gulping down bread by huge chunks at a time.

Bertha's husband, a man named Greg, was sitting next to her, with light orange flames and a suit on. Sitting next to them, looking at Lust curiously was a little boy around Lust's age, with bright orange flames swishing around.

"I can't believe they fired you from your job just because you're a women," Bertha said.

"That's going too far, especially with the situation some people are stuck inside of," Greg said, leaning back.

"I know, it's been difficult, and I didn't want my child to starve, so I walked all the way here for help," Lust's Mom said, resting a hand on Lusts skull.

"Oh, I almost didn't notice them, they're so small that they blend in!" Greg laughed, "What's your name, child?"

"...Lust..." Lust mumbled into the bread he was eating.

"What a cute name for a girl!" Bertha said, clapping her hands.

"Oh, Lust is-"

"You know what, we've actually been looking for a little girl for Grillby," Bertha said, interrupting Lust's Mom's sentence, "But Greg doesn't like any of the girls his age at the school."

"I don't trust some of the others, since their parents are probably just after the gold," He said.

"What about Lust?" Bertha asked him, "She seems pretty sweet, and I know her parents, their good people. If they actually get married when their older, then there's a good reason to keep them around and feed them so the Royal Guard doesn't get suspicious."

"I think they should just start interacting first, since I don't want Miss Lust to immeadiatly be the future wife of Grillby without even knowing her."

"But Mom, I'm-"

Lust's Mom smacked Lust's teeth, silencing him as she laughed slightly.

"H-She's just a bit wrecked up from everything," His Mother said, "I'm sure we can work out something."

《》《》《》

What extents a Mother will go through for her child.

I feel like I should explain why Lust's Mom jumped at the lie so quickly about Lust being female so that way he could marry Grillby, even though they already got food from Bertha and Greg. You see, she just lost her job, she's went through a month of no food, Lust going two weeks without food, and they both don't even know if Lust's Dad will live and come home. She was desperate, hungry, cold, and was afraid that Lust wouldn't survive to even be a teenager. So, any chance for him to have a safe future garenteed is the best thing she could ever ask for. Marrying Grillby would let Lust have a set and safe future, and it would be to a family that his Mother knew and trusted, so it was a really good deal. Also, she knew that they were homophobic, so if she tried after telling them that Lust was a boy would ruin all of her chances. Their not bad people because their homophobic, they just were raised that way and don't know any other way. Just because someone doesn't like something doesn't make them a bad person instantly. Bertha and Greg are good people, they were just told by their own parents that being gay is wrong and can get them kicked out of the family, so that's the only way they know life.

Also, you HAVE to go read The_Flexinings story! I was crying of laughter at the end! Okay I'm going now bye!