Caden shuffled uncomfortably in his chair.

"Do you remember what you did?" The younger brother rested his head on the heel of his palm, his elbow on the table.

Gus answered hesitantly. "I... got a little drunk. Some guy did something and I... clocked him so hard I knocked him out."

"He spilled a soda on you. You gave him a concussion." Caden corrected Gus's poor attempt at fabricating a fuzzy memory. "He spilled a fucking Dr. Pepper on you and you gave him a god damn concussion. In front of an entire restaurant filled to the brim with witnesses."

Gus covered his eyes again, trying to hide away from the shame, but now someone else was in the room and it was Caden. The one person he knew for sure that wouldn’t let him run away from it.

"You could have KILLED him, Gus."

"I was drunk." Gus voiced, in quiet defiance.

"Yeah. So was Pa."

Gus began shaking his head.

"Every time he would come home and throw Ma around, whip you, slap me, he was drunk too. Didn't stop the police from asking Ma every time she did call them whether or not she wanted to press charges. And her saying no didn't stop them from throwing him in a drunk tank."

"Yeah... yeah I know."

"Do you?" His brother laughed, but it wasn't amusement. There was anger behind that laugh. Frustration. Disappointment.

"I don't know if you do, Gus. I just... I wish..."

Gus uncovered his eyes and looked at Caden. Those vibrant blue pools pierced right through him.

"I'll talk about my feelings in a minute. Right now I'm just here to tell you how lucky you are. The guy's not pressing any charges. Neither is the restaurant."

"Oh thank god..." Gus felt a wave of relief wash over him.

"Yeah. Thank god. I was gonna try and represent your sorry ass, Gus. But I don't know if even I could have got you off from nearly committing manslaughter. God, Gus I..."

Caden looked out the window. Gus could see the frame reflecting off of his eyes.

"...if you were gonna run away from what ruined us, I just wish you'd stop perpetuating it yourself."

The words hit Gus like a knife in the dark, and he fell backwards in the chair, his hands still cuffed, and he just didn't stop falling. The table and chairs and lights of the room grew further and further away as he fell down, down, down into the void, until he landed hard and his shackles evaporated on impact. He felt the same stinging pain in his stomach as he had in the nightmare before. Though his hands were free now, this pain made him feel even more trapped and limited. The trees were an unnatural color, their bark bright and emissive, the ground itself was like a bright burgundy, in the distance he saw a geyser... a geyser between two gargantuan rocks, vomiting ejecta into the sky. Gus felt a warmth from behind, and the pain was gone. Suddenly, he felt drawn toward the geyser.

He stood up.

And it was when he took that first step toward it that he awoke.

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Saturday.

A day which meant little to him. He had no schedule to keep, no place of work he needed to be at by a set time. He could do whatever he wanted to do today. And luckily, that meant nothing would impede him from spending time with people who had invited him out for the day.

By the time he got downstairs Susie was already watching TV again, flipping through channels until she landed on a war documentary.

Footage of monsters and men alike overseas, loading an artillery gun with an enormous shell. The firing of the weapon forced sprat and dust into the air from the ground, making a dirty cloud.

The next shot was of a tall man and a short, stout furry monster, both in battle fatigues and with grins from ear to ear as they were arm in arm and planting a flag in the ground, the relief of a quick victory in their smiles.

"My grandpappy was in that war." Gus sat down on the couch next to Susie, the old furniture creaking under his weight.

"Yeah? He ever talk much about it?"

"Nah. Not really." Gus rubbed the tiredness from his eyes. "He said he didn't see much as he was a mechanic and for the most part he was working on tanks and jeeps and the such, but what he did see he really, really didn't like."

"I bet..."

"You know what time we gotta meet Kris and them?" Gus scratched at his chin.

"He said around lunch."

"Guess we'll load up 'round a quarter til twelve then."

"Sounds good." Susie turned the volume up a little.

"What you want for breakfast, Susie?"

"Those cinnamon pancakes you made yesterday were pretty good..."

"Would you like more?"

"Yeah." She answered, and Gus got up to go make more.

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"It's the flowershop at the end of North Street, just before the dirt road." Susie said, pointing to her right.

"Alright." Gus turned.

When Gus pulled in he saw Kris and two goat monsters looming over him. One he recognized, Asgore. It had been some time since he and Asgore had actually gotten to talk to one another. But it was Asgore who was always supporting Gus in his sobriety, it started as an obligation, given that Asgore was a police officer at the time and the only one in town strong enough to manhandle a drunken Gus, but after Asgore retired from the force he still told Gus to keep out of it, lest he need to 'put his badge back on and taze him.’

The other goat took Gus a few times to wrap his head around. It was definitely Asgore's son, Asriel. But it had been so long since he'd last seen him. He was tall, taller than Asgore by at least three inches, nearly eight feet tall. Though he was much more lithe. He had his mother's countenance as well as her lack of a mane. Instead, a small tuft of white hair rested on top of his head. But a blonde goatee stuck out from his chin, and a mustache with a wide gap in the middle showed that he was definitely Asgore's son. A pair of green wireframe glasses rested on his snout.

Kris tugged at Asgore's jacket and pointed at Gus's truck as he came to a stop. Gus waved.

"Hey Gorey." Gus called out. "How you been, brother?"

Asgore sighed. "Well, Gus." He hugged Asriel and Kris. "I got both my boys back for the day. Couldn't be better."

There was a creak in his voice that betrayed his outward happiness.

"Well I'm glad for you."

"Asriel. God, you got tall." Gus chuckled.

"I've been gettin' that one a lot, heh."

"Hey Kris, what's up man?" Susie reached in for a fistbump and Kris obliged.

"Is this the friend you told me about?" Asriel asked.

Kris nodded.

"Kris kept telling me about you. For some reason he's all quiet now but he couldn't wait to introduce me to you."

"Oh." Susie said, surprised. "Well, here I am." She smiled. "Hope he didn't hype you up too much, dude."

"You seem about what he said you'd be."

"You're Asriel, right? He's told me a lot about you too."

"Like what?"

"Like how there was an incident with a magazine and your friend Dess but-"

"Heyheyheyheyheyhey sh-sh-sh-shhhh." Asriel stopped Susie. Kris started giggling. "Guess I should tell her about a certain book you made me check ou-" Kris frowned and smacked Asriel in the back, launching Asriel into his own fit of laughter.

Asgore put on a scowl, but he couldn't be mad at this. "Alright, alright. Enough roughhousing, your mother wants you boys back by sunset and there's a fair bit I wanna do with you all, so let's get movin'. Load up."

"What are we gonna do?" Susie asked. "Kris refused to tell me."

"You ever been up in the mountains in the snow?" Asriel asked.

----------------------------------------

The trees transformed on the way up to the ridge overlooking the valley Hometown was situated in. From a few leaves clinging for dear life, still bright with color, to skeletal branches, to ones frosty and covered with fresh fallen snow. There wasn't a lot of it. Only about three inches at the very top of the Mountain, and the very lowest the snow had fallen was already melted away, but it was nice to see some after the Summer had been such a hot one this year.

Susie was particularly terrible with the cold, borrowing a spare jacket Asriel brought along if it was too cold for him, but she seemed to love it. She talked about how long it'd been since she was up on the mountain. And the views were incredible. Watching the gradient of the slopes change, from trees covered in bright white snow at their peaks, to the muted brown in the middle, and the cornucopia of colors at the very bottom, autumn leaves blanketing the landscape of the valleys. Hometown looked so small from up here.

Gus tapped Susie on her shoulder and pointed out to their houses.

"Holy shit..." she mumbled under her breath, wowed by the sheer distance and scale.

"Now." Asgore said. "It only just snowed, but it's been absolutely frigid up here for about two weeks now, and if I'm right-" He trudged up a hill and looked over. He turned back from the crest and smiled down at the group. "-oooh boy. I was right."

Asgore went over to the truck and called over Gus and Asriel. "Azzy, you take these, son."

Asgore handed Asriel three pairs of ice skates. "Let's hope your old pair fits Susie, eh?"

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"And Gus- you like ice fishing?"

"I always wanted to try it."

"Today'll be your lucky day, then. And... we can catch up."

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The wind was biting cold, but Gus's jacket kept him warm. They had hiked down the other side of the hill into a place where the mountain ridge plateaued. In the middle of the little bit of flat land there was a pond, long and skinny. Asgore and Gus sat at one end, fishing, while Asriel, Kris, and Susie were at the very far end, ice skating. The unseasonably cold weather had frozen the surface solid to a depth of at least two and a half inches, from what Gus could tell when he carved out a fishing hole with his claws and threw the chunk off to the side. Conditions this cold up here at this time of year were unprecedented, hadn't happened in decades. But weather at mountain peaks was always fickle, anyway.

"This pond belongs to Rudy." Asgore said. "About twenty or so odd years ago he came up here and threw in a few bass, trout, daces, you know, a whole run of it. We would come up here to fish every year, bring the kids along too."

"Hot damn. Fishing at six thousand feet, eh?" Gus took a sip out of a thermos filled with hot cocoa that Asgore had prepared for him.

"What's keeping him from coming up this year?" Gus wiped the cocoa away from his muzzle.

Asriel bubbled his lips. "He uh... he's in the hospital. I see him every day and he doesn't seem to be getting any better. Doctor won't tell me much either."

"Oh... do they know what's wrong with him?" Gus sipped at his thermos again.

"Something in his lungs. They can't tell without- cutting him open. But they think he's at too much risk of dying if they do."

"Fuck..." Gus leaned back in his folding chair, taking in the seriousness of the news. "Damn, Gorey. I'm sorry."

"People die, you know?" Asgore ignored a tugging at his fishing rod. "Monsters and humans alike."

He stared up wistfully into the sky, the wind blowing dots of snow on his exposed beard.

"I just wish it didn't have to be like that."

They sat together in silence, both staring out at the other end of the pond as Kris and Asriel tried to teach Susie how to skate. Her legs like jelly and her balance poor, she kept slipping and getting caught by Kris so she didn't break the ice.

"And... it's not like it's over yet, you know?" Asgore continued. "Some miracle could come to pass and he'll get up and be just fine, but... things don't look good."

"How's Noelle taking it?" Gus asked.

"She seems to be doing alright. Hopeful."

"Hmm." Gus grunted.

"I'm mostly worried about after the fact, you know? Rudy's always been emotionally available for her, and Noelle's a... she's delicate, you know? Her mother on the other hand... oof..." Asgore took a sip from his own thermos. "She's not a bad woman, but I will never understand what Rudy sees in her. Hell, I'll never understand how Noelle could possibly be her daughter. Different in every way. Unlike her mother, she's got patience to her - softness. She'll humor people and be kind. With that woman it's always business, business, business and anything but is just in her way."

"Yeah... she's a bit of a case."

Gus didn't want to have to sit through another awkward silence so he asked Asgore the next question on his mind.

"How's things with Toriel?"

"You know her?" Asgore asked, surprised.

"Yeah, I met her just the other day, funny enough. Sweet lady, I'm building her a cabinet right now, actually."

Asgore chuckled. "Huh. No shit?"

"I didn't even know you were divorced from her til she adamantly said she was your ex-wife when I mentioned I knew you. I thought I was finally meetin’ that wife you loved so much. Thought I might get a chance to catch up with you again, til it was clear you were kicked out the house."

"Yeah... that's her attitude toward me lately." Asgore rested his head in his hand. "I wish I knew. I have to ask Kris and he can only tell me so much. I just wish she'd speak to me again..."

Asgore took another sip at his Cocoa, apparently having nothing more to say on the subject, but the look on his face told Gus that it was a very sore feeling he had about the whole thing, and that he chose a piss-poor subject to talk about. But the moment wouldn't last long, as Asgore had his own question.

"How's sobriety treating you?"

Gus, thankfully, had good news to give.

"Great." He leaned forward in his seat. "I don't have no more than two shots of whiskey every day if I can help it, maybe a beer every now and then..."

"Two shots, huh?" Asgore's line tugged slightly and he leaned in to focus on it. "So you're still keeping that tradition up?"

"Caden swore by it." Gus chuckled. "I don't believe it myself, but... I feel like someone has to keep it alive."

"That's good." Asgore said, apparently no longer focusing on his line. "Your brother was a good man. I'm... sorry he had to go the way he did."

"He didn't have to." Gus said, sourly. "Neither of them had to go that way... all I had to do was be faster."

Asgore rested a hand on Gus's shoulder. "It's not your fault. And it never will be."

Out in the distance the two of them heard a shout. It was Susie, who was skating on her own. "FUCK YEAAAAAAAH!!!" She went in a perfectly straight line, and about halfway across the pond she realized she was unable to turn. Once she reached the other end of the pond, she promptly tripped and faceplanted into a snowdrift on shore. Kris and Asriel laughed and cheered, and Gus chuckled.

----------------------------------------

Gus and Asgore were astonished to find that they caught a few fairly sizable bass and catfish. Halving out their catches, Gus took one half and Asgore took the other. Asgore explained he was certain he'd run his luck with Toriel's kindness today and he'd appreciate it if Gus could take both Asriel and Kris home so he didn’t have to face her wrath, and so that his kids didn't have to walk.

It was right after the two of them went into the front door that Toriel stopped Gus and asked him if he'd like to come over tomorrow for Sunday dinner. Seeing no reason to turn her down, Gus agreed.

When Gus came into view of his house, the sun sinking behind the mountains ahead of him, he saw who could be no other than Susie's mother leaning against the railing of the steps up to his front porch. He slowed to a stop in the middle of the road. The engine idling softly.

She shot a glance at him that made his blood run cold. It was the first time he had ever seen her face. She looked like she was in her sixties, but Gus doubted she was actually that old. An ugly scar ran across her pink snout. Her hair looked greasy and unwashed. She was as ugly on the outside as she was on the inside.

"Oh god..." Susie drew up into herself, she tensed, pulling herself into a fetal position, her knees up to her face. She squeezed herself. Hard.

Gus put a hand on her shoulder.

"Ease up." He squeezed her shoulder softly.

"I ain't lettin' her take you."

Slowly, he pulled into the driveway. Susie's mother watched him the entire way, cutting the most vicious, bloodshot gaze he had ever seen in his life.

He turned off the engine and unbuckled himself before taking a deep breath and cracking his neck and knuckles, popping the stiffness in his elbows as well. Just in case he needed to get limber. He turned to face Susie.

"I'm gonna get out this car. And I'm gonna go talk to her."

Susie's eyes widened with fear.

"When I do that, I want you to lock these doors. And under no circumstances, until I say so, for your safety, are you to unlock them."

Susie began to panic, tears were welling up in her eyes. Gus had never seen her cry, and he wasn't about to now.

"Hey, hey, hey, hey. Take it easy. Breathe." He gripped her shoulder again and rocked her gently. "Look at me. It's okay. Look at me."

Susie met his gaze.

"As long as I have a say in any of this, I will never let her hurt you again."

Susie shook her head.

"No, no, no. God. No. She'll kill you, PLEASE Gus."

"Nobody is killin' me today." The sheer direction and determination in Gus's voice, the gruff growl of it, the power it commanded in this moment made Susie interrupt her own protests and she looked back up at him. And she felt like she could trust him. Even with this.

She wiped the tears welling up in her eyes away and nodded.

Gus got out of the truck. He saw the locks go down through the window as Susie immediately secured them.

Susie's mother stared right through him.

"So. Right across my damn road." She pulled out a pack of cigarettes- 100s, and she stuck one in her mouth, struck a match on her jeans, and lit it. "Right. Across. My. Damn. Road." She stood up from where she was leaning and took one long pull of the cigarette. When she exhaled it was as though the smoke came from a raging coal fire in her lungs. Gus could smell the nicotine from where he was stood, some thirty-five feet away.

Gus looked back at the truck. Susie was watching with her mouth covered, rocking back and forth.

"I have to admit, I thought the dumb bitch finally ran away..." Susie's mom stepped closer. "...that was, til I heard her voice screamin' yesterday. Right in there." She pointed a gangly finger out to Gus's workshop. "And, sure enough..." She took another pull of her cigarette. "I seen her in there with you. Woodworkin'."

"She seems to enjoy it." Gus said, breaking the silence on his end.

"Is that so?" Susie's mother was now no more than ten feet in front of Gus. She had advanced slowly, monologuing the entire time, doing her little dance of intimidation. Gus had seen it before, and he wasn't afraid of it. This woman was the very embodiment of a sad, meaningless nothing. And she would stay that way.

"I think... it's about time for my Susie to come home, huh?" She said, a singsong tone in her voice. It just rubbed Gus wrong.

"That ain't gonna happen." He said.

Susie's mother raised her eyebrows. "Oh?" she asked, blowing smoke. She chuckled hoarsely.

"So, what's your deal then? Who are you supposed to be to her?" She stopped moving, expectant of Gus's answer.

"Someone who cares. I'm her friend."

"FRIEND?" The woman shouted to the heavens and began laughing, her pink scales shining in the sunset, mop of red hair flying wildly into the wind. Crows perched on a nearby tree panicked at the sudden noise and flew away, the flap of their wings breaking through the sound of the wind.

She was now within five feet of Gus, fully comprehending his size. He loomed over her by an entire foot and was much, much more stocky. But she was unfazed. She had tools other than size, and she was about to use them.

"Lemme cut to the chase here, you fat fuck." She took in another breath of the cigarette. "Are you fucking my daughter? Huh? Is that the kind of 'fRiEnD' you are?"

Gus was shocked. How. Fucking. Dare.

"No. I am not and I never would, you sick, degenerate filth. I'm doing what you should have done the moment she was born, I'm taking care of her."

"Well, I wonder what the police would think, eh? Kidnapping a young girl..."

Gus felt his blood boil, his head growing hot, but he knew all too well that this was precisely what the bitch wanted. He breathed deep and took a single, thunderous step toward Susie's mom and stood there, less than a foot away from her, looking down.

She didn't know how to react to this. She likely expected him to knock her block off so she could have an assault charge, Gus was certain of it.

Gus loomed over her and watched her start shaking. She seemed to just shrink. He outstretched a hand, palm-side up, and protracted his claws mere inches away from her face. The size of a single claw as long as one of her bony fingers. He could see the fear in her eyes and he swore he picked up on the sound of her quickening heartbeat.

"You go right the fuck ahead." Gus said. "You call 'em. You bring 'em here. And I'll tell them how you don't feed her, how you steal her food, how you kick her out into the cold, cold night for the slightest thing. I'll show them the bruise she still has on her arm, the one in the shape of your hand."

"If there even is only one." He scoffed. "I'm sure there's more."

They stood there frozen for a moment, the old lizard looking up at the mountainous creature that stood between her and her slave.

Gus made a sudden movement with the paw he had out, frightening Susie's mother.

The miserable bitch yelped and fell flat on her ass. In her fear she had swallowed what was left of her cigarette and coughed furiously before she spat it up. Gus was laughing.

"Go back home. This is private property." He delivered the joke as if it was raw venom pouring from his tongue.

Susie's mother scrambled to her feet and started walking backwards and shouting in her same hoarse voice.

"YOU KNOW WHAT?" Her spindly legs began moving toward the street. "FINE, YOU BIG FAT PIECE'A'SHIT. YOU CAN HAVE MY UNGRATEFUL LITTLE BRAT. I DON'T WANT HER NO MORE. TAKE HER, MOTHERFUCKER. TAKE HER. GET HER THE FUCK OUT OF MY HAIR!"

Gus heard the door of his truck open. "GO HOME YOU UGLY BITCH!" Susie shouted after her. "I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, YOU HEAR ME?"

Susie's mother stopped in her tracks and began marching up the hill again. Susie yelped and shut the door. Gus immediately moved toward the advancing menace and yelled after her. "YOU HEARD HER."

Susie's mother stopped again, fear gripping her once more.

"She doesn't want to see you again" Gus snarled.

With that, Susie’s mother began slinking away across the street, and she made it across, grumbling to herself, but without further incident.

Gus went to the truck and opened the passenger door, where Susie sat, close to tears.

"I'm s-sorry... I w-wasn't supposed to unlock-"

"It's okay. It's okay. I understand." Susie did not reach in for a hug, she didn't move, she simply sat there, frozen, choking back tears.

"Let's get inside, okay, Susie? Let's get inside."

Susie was shaking the entire walk back, she let Gus rest his arm on her back to steady her.

"You're safe now." He said.