Coo-coo coo-coo

Martlet yawned, trying to recall what exactly she did last night... Which didn't take long. Clover had managed to get about half way through the book they were reading-the history between the fourth and fifth human's falls, before they had started mumbling. It didn't take much longer for them to fall asleep after that had happened. Martlet distinctly recalled smiling at that. She had given them a few pats on the head, then she carried them up the stairs... Tucked them into bed and... Oh god she really WAS acting like their mom... She shuddered guiltily. There was no way that it was morally green to think that way, right? Clover surely had ACTUAL parents up on the surface didn't they?

...Moving on, after that she'd set her alarm for nine hours and had fallen asleep promptly afterwards. She just needed to check one thing...

After a few minutes, Martlet had herself back in a pair of her signature attire and was up and about! Her first destination of the day? The mail! She needed to check if Ceroba had gotten her letter after all! It was of... DIRE importance.

So, she slipped out of the house for a few minutes, made her way to the mail whale bell and...

...

Ceroba, was frankly having an awful night. After Clover had gone to stay with Martlet, Ceroba hadn't felt comfortable staying in her house any longer... The memories outweighed the possible minor benefits from poring over any minutia details she may have missed in her observations of Clover's condition. So, there she was, drinking away her sorrows. She wasn't too far gone at the moment though, having only been half a bottle into the night.

Ceroba sighed as she put the bottle back down, reminiscing over recent events. Starlo hadn't been doing great ever since he'd shot Clover... They were... Having a rough time to say the least. On the bright side, the four didn't hold much against Starlo. Clover had lived, and it wasn't as if they hadn't attacked Clover just minutes before the incident anyways. On the contrary, it actually helped them pull back together a bit. Starlo really pulled their whole North Star act together after what he'd done. Ceroba was glad he wasn't so absorbed into it anymore but... But...

She downed another gulp, upping that total from half a bottle to three fourths. She needed an excuse to get Clover to come back... If they just went straight back to Asgore after getting better, they probably wouldn't come through The Wild East again... That... COULDN'T happen... Maybe she could write something to Martlet? Clover should still be recovering by now, maybe they were even well enough to walk?

Ceroba contemplated downing the rest of the bottle, and after a second or two of that she came to her answer. She reached for it, but just before she could the doors to the saloon opened with their signature jingle. Out of habit, she glanced back and coming through the door was the mail whale, or Jessica, if you were privy to such information like Ceroba was.

"Oh, hey Ceroba. Got some mail for you, it wasn't premium, but nothing's stopping me from grabbing mail for a friend right? I'm off duty anyways!" She chortled after setting it down in front of Ceroba next to the bottle. Ceroba almost downed it anyways but... The name of the person who'd written it gave her pause. Martlet... She stood up abruptly, snatching the letter and leaving the bottle behind.

Out of the corner of his eye, Starlo spotted Ceroba walking outside and smiled. He didn't feel he had any right to try and convince Ceroba to stop going down her spiral after the way he'd been acting for the longest time... But seeing her walk away from it put a smile on his face... Of course, he didn't realize what exactly Ceroba was stepping outside for. If he understood why it was she was doing that, he'd have been much less satisfied.

...

"Clover's gotten better faster than you expected, like a lot faster. There haven't been any problems so far but..."

Ceroba could almost envision Martlet's nervous face through the letter.

"I think I might need help Ceroba, there's been some stuff going on, it's a lot to explain. A little bit too much to explain over a letter for sure. I don't think Clover is in any danger. Well, at least not TOO much danger. But would it be alright if I and Clover came to see you tomorrow? If you see this, I'd appreciate it if you write back as soon as possible. I've got some time off and there won't be many times better than now for us to visit."

-Martlet

Ceroba neatly slipped the letter back into the envelope... Before sprinting back towards her house with the weight of the world bearing down on her the whole way there.

...

"Martlet, I'm glad to hear Clover is doing better, but if they're having any issues I would still be happy to help in any way I can. I don't have any plans of leaving The Wild East in the near future, so I'll be available at any time. Please, come over as soon as possible! I might already have some idea of what's wrong if my assumptions are correct, so please, feel free!"

-Ceroba

Martlet sighed in relief as she finished reading the letter, finally she had somebody to help with Clover! The writing had been a bit sloppy, but maybe Ceroba just had bad hand writing? Regardless Martlet didn't really care that much about it. Well, her plans for the day were settled! Though, she hoped Clover would be fine with it... Anyways... Speaking of Clover...

...

"Rise and shine Clover!"

"Cloooover, early bird gets-actually I'm the last person to be giving that advice-ignore that-just-wake up-please?"

Clover's eyes fluttered open slowly, and their beak stretched open in a quiet yawn. "G'morning mom..."

"Grk-uh-alright good morning to you too Clover! You might wanna be awake, like, all the way for this though. Can you do that for me?"

Clover stretched out, this time with their body, and sat up. They slowly blinked the sleep out of their eyes, readjusted their hat and then gave Martlet a thumbs up.

"What's up?" Clover asked after a few seconds of silence, he hadn't been making memories for long, but given he still felt things from his past, things had clearly happened before his most recent span of memories. And he felt pretty strongly that something like this hadn't happened anywhere in the recent past? He wasn't a hundred percent sure, but it was what he was leaning closer towards. So in other words, he was just curious about the occasion.

"Today we're gonna be going to The Wild East! I'm heading over to meet some friends, and well, I won't just leave you alone without supervision! So you're coming on this trip with me, and that brings me to the next thing I needed to tell you."

At the words "wild east" Clover noticeably perked up, and they sat with rapt attention waiting for the next few words!

"You need to change your clothes, and take a bath. After that you need preening. You were in bed for days and you've been wearing them ever since your accident..."

At those words Clover noticeably perked down, and they sat with a dejectedness unknown to Martlet prior to this moment.

"No, I'm not budging on this one Clover. Come on! It'll only be thirty or so minutes, then we can work on the preening on the way there! Up and attem, sooner you're done sooner we can be on our way!"

"Okaaaay..."

"Pfff, come on don't be so dramatic! Here I'll even go warm up the water for you, please be out of bed by the time I'm back." Martlet sucked in a laugh as she closed the door behind her. It wasn't until after she'd walked into the bathroom that she realized she'd had almost that exact same conversation with HER mom one time... Minus the preening. She... Ignored the similarity for now.

...

Clover, for better or for worse, did obey Martlet's request. He figured something really bad would happen if he just ignored her, so he didn't even test his luck. With a slight pain in his heart, he left his hat on the stand near his bed. And from there, he was ready for whatever the day had to throw at him.

That just so happened to be a bath. You know, the thing he'd already been told about.

Martlet asked if they could wash themselves, to which Clover said yes. And she left them to it without any hesitation! It already felt like they were descending this pipe line of being a mom way too fast, she didn't need to help wash her kid... ARGHHH-to help wash Clover! C-l-o-v-e-r!

After that, Martlet walked into her own room. It was where she'd taken Clover's clothes after she'd bought them, but unfortunately she had mostly gotten tank tops out of habit... Admittedly, that would've been pretty bad if Clover hadn't gone through whatever change they had gone through, if she hadn't also gotten two long sleeve shirts. But because they had gone through whatever change they had gone through, she could offer both options!

So, she folded them up a bit, then laid the two sets of clothes out in front of the door to the bathroom. "Clover! Whenever you're done there's two pairs of clothes outside! One shirts a tank top the other's a long sleeve! I wasn't sure if you were comfortable with having all of your feathers covered up like they have been, so I just grabbed both! Feel free to pick whichever one you like better!"

"Okay! Thanks mom!"

Martlet staggered as if she'd just been punched in the solar plexus, before somewhat weakly calling back. "...You're welcome!"

Next up, breakfast! To be frank, the past few days she'd been sustaining herself and Clover entirely off of instant food. That... Was not exactly her favorite thing to do! Martlet was not a bird bereft of the skill of cooking! It had actually been one of the few things her parents required her to be at least somewhat good at before leaving the house... Regardless! She had to demonstrate her cooking skill to Clover and earn their respect through it! Wait, why did that matter...? Ah well! She turned on the stove.

The irony of scrambled eggs were certainly not lost on Martlet. But hey what could she say? They were a good breakfast food! Surely Clover would think the same. She was more then familiar with the process, so there were no extrordinary circumstances that occurred in the creation of the eggs. It took her about ten minutes, so Clover should be just about ready to come downstairs any minute! And after she got the rules she had TOTALLY forgotten to go over with Clover last night, well, gotten over with Clover, then they could be on their way!

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So she waited... And waited... And... What was taking Clover so long?! Their eggs were going to start getting cold at this rate!

"Clover?! Is everything alright up there?"

"Yup, jus' drying off!"

Martlet heard the door swing open a few moments later, close again, then another thirty seconds or so after the fact it opened again. Clover came walking down the stairs, notably wearing the long sleeve shirt instead of the tanktop. The jeans they'd had on before and the jeans they had now were pretty similar, and he also hadn't taken off his bandanna... But instead of an overcoat and a shirt on, Clover now instead had just the shirt on, which was tan. Overall, they still looked pretty similar to what they had looked like before, just more lightly dressed.

"Oh... Did you make breakfast?"

"Yup! Scrambled eggs, eat up!"

"I... Huh... Wasn't I usually the one making breakfast...?"

"I-wha? Clover you're ten! Just, eat your breakfast alright?"

Clover paused for a moment, before just deciding to nod instead. She was initially going to ask what had taken them so long in the bath, but Clover's question had gotten them to forget about it... Martlet had to wonder, were all humans trained in house keeping at the age of ten...? Cause she knew she certainly hadn't been. Nor did she know any monsters who had either.

...

After Clover finished with breakfast, Martlet finally got down to business, and laid out her rules.

"First off, stay within eyesight of me! I don't want you getting lost, especially since you have amnesia!" Clover nodded, simple enough, reasonable. "Second, don't talk to strangers! Well, I doubt anybody in the Underground would really hurt a child but, just try not to get distracted alright? We wanna get to The Wild East and back before the day's over!"

Clover nodded again, a bit more energetically this time, so he reached up to steady his hat and... His hat! "Wait I forgot my hat, be right back mom!"

Martlet trembled again, though Clover didn't even see it given he was already up the first few steps by the time Martlet had registered what it was he said... How many times has he called me mom now...?

A few seconds later and they were back with their hat in tow coming to a stop in front of Martlet as they adjusted it onto their head. "Alright, I'm ready to go!"

"R-right..." Martlet nervous smile had shown up again a few seconds earlier, for obvious reasons, and hadn't dissipated by the time Clover got back. She shook her head and pulled her senses back in turning around to face the door! "Right! Let's get going Clover, follow after me! We'll talk about preening once we reach waterfall, alright?"

"M'kay!" Clover practically chirped right back. He was briefly surprised at the vocals he'd produced, but quickly chalked it up to the excitement! Something about this just... It made him feel good! Adventure! A whole new world! He couldn't wait!

...

It was a little colder than he remembered, but nothing too grating for the boy. Clover followed Martlet... Somewhat. On their way to Waterfall they passed through Snowdin Town and well, Clover was a curious bird for certain. He very much stretched the limit of "staying within eyesight". They'd walk up to buildings, eye strangers curiously... Martlet had to wonder how they'd even made it so far into the Underground in such a short time given how interested they were in everything.

Of course, this also led to a fair amount of people talking to Martlet herself. She'd been hoping to get through town a bit quicker... But that clearly wasn't going to happen if Clover had their way, which they were. And of course, those rumors she'd heard Undyne mention came to bite her. Well, not really but... Having your lies catch up to you, no matter how mild they were always tended to suck.

"So, you really did get a kid, huh Martlet?" An older rabbit monster lightly elbowed Martlet as she walked by, though she didn't say much in response... Martlet was just the lightest bit upset after the eleventh monster had taken notice of her and Clover. The first time, she'd been a nervous wreck! Barely able to get one word out after the other! The second time, it'd been a little bit better but... The third fourth fifth sixth and so on... She just felt more and more defeated. At this point, all she could muster was the lightest bit of acknowledgement.

"Yup..."

"Oh lighten up! Nobody's gonna judge ya for it, dunno why you felt like you had to hide it in the first place!" The woman chuckled, before walking off into the distance.

Martlet sighed again, then kept walking. That was the, now eleventh, time she'd called Clover her kid in front of every resident of Snowdin. If she hadn't been in too deep before, the deal was basically sealed now. If there was one consolation to this whole ordeal, it's that she knew she'd be able to trust Clover. She could see it in his eyes, he really, REALLY wanted to talk to basically anybody, but he was holding it in. Oh and also it seemed like the kids had gone back home since the weekend was over, so she didn't have to deal with their accosting! Bonus!

The thought almost gave her the energy to stand a bit straighter, but not quite.

Anyways, there was just a little bit more to go and they'd finally be out of town! That thought on the other hand, did give Martlet enough energy to correct her posture. Clover saw her begin to walk a bit faster, so they matched her pace. Martlet had been nice enough to let them explore around the place anyways, they didn't have a problem with cutting it a bit short. Though, it appeared there was at least one last hurdle to go through before they were home free.

"NYEH HEH HEH HEH! HELLO SMALL BIRD!!!" A tall, brightly smiling skeleton stepped out of their house to say hello to Clover. Martlet supposed she should've expected somebody to pop out and say hello to Clover at some point, though she wasn't quite sure she recognized the skeleton who did... Actually, skeletons were pretty uncommon. Did they just move in recently?

"Uhm, ello." Clover waved at them, slightly surprised by the sudden arrival, though they quickly bounced back from the shock and raised that same hand to the skeleton. Shortly after retracting their claws after realizing they'd offered their hand while they were still out...

The skeleton took their hand with great energy, proceeding to give it a slightly longer than usual handshake while striking some sort of pose. "I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS!!! THOUGH YOU CAN JUST CALL ME PAPYRUS NEW FRIEND."

"Nice to meet you Papyrus, name's Clover!" He smiled back as Papyrus let go of his hand. Frankly? Clover could appreciate some energy like that. It just kind of felt reminiscent of something, in the good way.

"I KNOW IT IS, IT'S NICE TO MEET YOU TOO. ANYWAYS, A LITTLE YELLOW FLOWER TOLD ME YOU WERE NEW IN TOWN, JUST LIKE ME AND MY BROTHER SANS!!! THEY SAID WE SHOULD BE FRIENDS, AND NOW WE ARE! FUNNY HOW THAT WORKS OUT!"

"A yellow flower...?" Clover tilted his head at Papyrus, something about the description evoked a feeling... No, more than a feeling! That was an actual memory! Somebody had called for him... Some sort of, fall? And then... Then...!

"Excuse me?" Martlet stepped inbetween the two of them with an appeasing smile. "While I'm glad you're making friends Clover, we do need to get going. I'm sure you'll have time to talk with... Papyrus later, alright?"

Clover's eyes refocused after a moment, it felt like they'd been on the verge of something but... Oh well, probably not. He nodded hesitantly after a few seconds.

Papyrus himself looked as if he were about to say something, but their eyes lit up in recognition of the person standing before them!

"WAIT! YOU! YOU'RE A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL GUARD, RIGHT?! AND YOU DID ALL THE PUZZLES NEAR... HONEYDEW RESORT, RIGHT!??!"

"Oh, yeah, that was me, why?" Martlet slightly tilted her head at Papyrus as she reached for Clover's hand.

"EXCELLENT! I JUST WANTED TO LET YOU KNOW, YOUR PUZZLES HAVE TRULY INSPIRED ME! I'M... STILL ONLY IN TRAINING, BUT ONE DAY I TOO SHALL JOIN THE GUARD!!! AND I JUST WANT TO LET YOU KNOW TO NOT BE JEALOUS, BECAUSE I WILL PUT MY ALL INTO PUZZLE MAKING, UNTIL MY PUZZLES ARE THE BEST IN SNOWDIN, AND IN THE ROYAL GUARD! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!"

"Al-alright...?" Martlet grasped Clover's hand, lightly pulling him towards her.

"Hey bro," a comparatively much shorter skeleton stepped into the wide open door frame, a seemingly permanent grin etched onto their face. "I know you're busy showin off your social skills, but they've gotta be places. You and the kiddo can talk later." Clover could swear it sounded like they'd break out into a fit of laughter with every other word...

"WELL... I GUESS THAT'S FAIR! ALRIGHT CLOVER, MRS. ROYAL GUARD! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL SEE YOU TWO LATER! HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY!" Papyrus seemingly began to hum to himself as he walked back inside, strolling past the skeleton at the door.

"Yeah, I'm sure you'll have a skele-ton of time to talk later." Clover could've sworn the skeleton winked at him, before closing the door.

"SANS!!! OH MY GOD!!!"

"Well, he was certainly... Energetic." Martlet looked on in shock at the closed door, before slowly turning the other way and beginning to walk. All the while continuing to hold Clover's hand.

"I, liked him. He's got a cowboys energy to'em." Clover smiled, and paved the way forwards pulling Martlet along for the ride.

She had the feeling it was going to be a pretty long day.