[Admittedly, saying that Mettaton has any damn idea what he's doing here would also be a barefaced lie; physical contact with his fans is often a brief, limited thing - they aren't allowed to touch him for long periods of time, certainly not so closely - and Alphys isn't exactly the huggy sort, nor would he really want to hug her at all at this point.
But at the same time, it's not like the logistics of it are hard to figure out and it's not like he's expected to be particularly cuddly, and after a moment one of his hands finds Cherryblod's hair and he's doing...something, anyway. It falls somewhere between proper hair-stroking and just kind of awkwardly headpatting him, and yet it's managing to accomplish exactly neither of those things properly; either way, though, if he notices the tearing-up, then he's not saying anything about it.
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But at the same time, it's not like the logistics of it are hard to figure out and it's not like he's expected to be particularly cuddly, and after a moment one of his hands finds Cherryblod's hair and he's doing...something, anyway. It falls somewhere between proper hair-stroking and just kind of awkwardly headpatting him, and yet it's managing to accomplish exactly neither of those things properly; either way, though, if he notices the tearing-up, then he's not saying anything about it.
Go ahead if you need to; it's fine for now.]