Papyrus and Tori struck up a friendly conversation for a few minutes before Asriel walked in, as usual looking at his clipboard and not where he was walking. "Your Majesty, I have to ask you about somethi—woah!" He tripped over air and landed on his face. Tori ran over to help her father, but he stood up by himself. "Well, that's a bit embarrassing..." he mumbled, brushing himself off and picking up his scattered papers.

"Things like that happen to everyone, Dr. Asriel, don't be embarrassed," Papyrus said with a small chuckle. Tori smiled at the skeleton's cute laughter, then picked up a few stray papers and handed them to her father. "Thanks, Tori," he said cheerfully. "What brought you here?" Tori looked to the side with a shy smile. "Well..." Papyrus stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "She walked in on me crying, and she helped to cheer me up," he said. Tori nodded with a smile. Asriel smiled brightly. "How sweet!" he said.

Tori blushed a little, embarrassed, but still smiled. Papyrus smiled too. "So, what did you want to talk to me about, Dr. Asriel?" he inquired. Asriel looked a little confused, then chuckled a little bit. "I actually forgot," he said. All three of them laughed — Asriel's memory was normally excellent, but he usually forgot things at the funniest times.

The Royal Scientist held his clipboard close to his chest, and Tori looked up. "Anyway, it's almost lunch, so I'd best be going. I made plans with a friend for today. See you two later!" Papyrus and Asriel waved cheerfully. "Bye Tori!" Asriel called. "Have a wonderful day, Toriel!" Papyrus said to her. Tori blushed, although she wasn't sure why, and took another shortcut to the door in the forest. She sat down and knocked on the door.

"Howdy, old man," she said as she watched the snow fall. A voice from the other side sounded pleased to hear her. "Hello, my friend! Anything new today?" he said. Tori shook her head, even though her friend couldn't see her. "Nope, not much," she said. "I did have a run-in with the King though." "Really? Do tell!" her friend said. He sounded eager to hear about Papyrus; Tori decided not to ask about it.

"Well, since my father is the Royal Scientist, I help him out a lot with his work. Today, after helping for a bit, I decided to leave him and his assistant to their work and ask King Papyrus if he had anything else he needed me to do for him. But when I walked in... he was crying..." Tori's voice trailed off, remembering how miserable Papyrus had looked. "Crying?" asked the voice from the other side of the door. He sounded worried.

"Yeah, crying. His crown was on the table, next to a picture of his family. He was pretty much a mess. So I walked in and started to sing one of my favourite songs, which actually made him feel better. I even put the crown back on his head." Behind the door, Tori's friend clutched at his chest. Poor Papyrus! He was so miserable without his brothers and sister there. He smiled through his guilt. "That was very sweet of you," he told Tori. She smiled.

"My dad said the same thing, after getting up from tripping over nothing. He does that a lot more often than he would like to admit. He's always looking at his clipboard instead of where he's walking." Her friend laughed, making her smile a bit. "I assume he was quite embarrassed," he said. Tori nodded. "Yeah, he was. He always is. Hey, got a joke for ya." "Fire away," her friend told her.

"What did the goat say when his sandcastle got washed away? What a baa-tastrophy!" The man behind the door laughed. "Nice one!" he said. Tori smiled and kept telling jokes, and her friend kept laughing. He was the best audience she ever had. After a while, he said, "Hey, what does a skeleton tile his roof with?" Tori laughed a little. "What?" "Shin-gles!" he said. Tori burst out laughing. "Good one, old man!" she told him. He laughed too. "Thanks!" he said.

They kept telling jokes until the man started to sound a little sad. "Hey, cmon, old man, what's wrong? You can talk to me," she said. He sighed. "Can you... promise me something... again...?" he said. Tori was a bit surprised. She had already promised him not to harm a human if one fell down here, and she hated making promises, because she felt so bad if she failed to keep them. But he sounded sad, and she wanted to make him happy again. "Sure," she said. She looked towards the door as the man explained.

"Please, if you will, protect King Papyrus for me, alright? Don't let anything happen to him." Tori nodded again. "No harm will come to the King. I can promise you that without any hesitation." "Thank you, my friend," he said. Tori smiled. "No problem! Now, I really should be going. My lunch break is nearly over, I haven't eaten yet today, and Asgore will kill me if he catches me slacking off again. See you later, old man!" "Goodbye! Stay safe!" he called as she left, humming. She had brightened two people's days in less than two hours, and she felt special.

She walked through the trees, sat back at her post, and opened a sandwich bag. Tuna salad on white, one of her favourites. She quickly polished it off, as she hadn't eaten breakfast that morning, then went back to messing around. She made snowball art on trees, dug up some rocks, drew a comic on paper, and then felt something in her pocket. Golden flower seeds? How did they get there? She turned the packet over and started laughing and blushing, flattered. "Aww, Papyrus, you didn't have to...!"

On the back of the packet read "To: Tori — Love: Papyrus" in black sharpie, in Papyrus' handwriting. He had slipped flower seeds in her pocket as a gift in exchange for her helping him to cheer up. How sweet! She held the packet close to her chest, and had a determined look on her face. "These will be the prettiest goddamn flowers you'll ever see," she said to herself, and possibly to someone else too.