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Chapter Text

Frisk hated the constricting feel of the straps that bit into their shoulder blades and bound them tightly to the cushioned chair inside Sans’ time machine. It had been three hours. Three hours of tests and of minor adjustments and of nothing to do but watch Alphys pace as she waited for readings to compile. Three hours of waiting. Three hours of anticipation.

Frisk needed distraction. They needed someone to talk to. And unfortunately, Alphys had been very clear that any distraction would at best make this take longer and at worst… Well, that was exactly what Frisk was trying NOT to think about. And if Alphys was off limits, that left only Chara, who hadn’t exactly been quiet about not liking this plan. Still, it had been three hours and Frisk craved the company. Even if it was all in their head.

How are you holding up? Still mad?

It smells like stale air and sweat down here.

Heh. Well no denying that. Even with the fans running at maximum output, the ventilation in the True Lab was awful.

You know, I’ve always wondered. Why do you fixate on smell so much?

You’ve never been dead. I don’t think you’d understand.

Oh come on. We both know how many times Asgore and Asriel killed me. And they were just the two biggest offenders.

It’s not the same if you immediately come back to life, stupid.

Try me.

Ugh. Fine. Think about that moment right between the pain of dying and your return from death. That moment when your soul has left your body, but hasn’t yet broken. What did you feel?

Frisk thought about it.

Nothing. I don’t remember feeling anything.

Exactly. When you’re dead you don’t feel anything. You can’t touch. You can’t smell. You can’t taste. You can’t hear. You can’t even see. You’re left with an emptiness. A void. And only your memories to fill it. After a while like that you’re not even sure there is a you any more.

Is death like that for everyone?

How the heck should I know? That’s just how it is for me. And whatever it is that ties me to you, it gives me all that back, ok? So if it seems like I point out the smells to you a lot, well, maybe it’s just that you’re not appreciating that sense enough.

Frisk bowed their head. So that was what they had to look forward to if this plan didn’t work. Well, probably. Sans had been very clear about the dangers. A death that they couldn’t reset from. The possibility of being erased from time itself.

Frisk had thought they would be ok with that. The monsters would go back to being trapped Underground. They would forget Frisk. They would forget they had ever been free. Asgore would once again be awaiting one last soul, would once again have to face his promise to destroy humanity. But at least they’d still be alive.

Heh, looks like you’ve got company.

Frisk opened their eyes. A small yellow flower was staring up at them. He had lost another petal, leaving only three.

“Flowey? What are you doing here? I thought you were helping with the defense?”

“There’s no point, cause gee, wouldn’t you know it. We lost! Oh, that reminds me, I thought you might like to know that everyone you love so much is dead now. That’s right! All that effort to reach the surface and everything I sacrificed to get them there and nobody was willing to do what was necessary to keep it. It’s pathetic.”

A clipboard clattered to the floor. Alphys stood at her console, staring at Flowey, stunned by the news.

“T-they’re dead? Everyone? Even-? Damn it. Sans promised to buy me enough time to be certain I had these calibrations right.”

“Don’t worry, I’ve clogged the elevators all over the kingdom with vines. That should buy us more than enough time to fix this. All we need is for Frisk to reset the timeline again.”

Frisk shook their head.

“I told you, I’ve tried that. It’s just not enough any more. I’ve lived through this over and over and over again and it always goes the same way. At first we have our peace. The Humans think of magic as a new energy source. It is a fantastic bartering chip. But then the Humans learn about the six souls. They learn what the Monsters had been planning. And just like that, magic is scary and everything falls apart. Something has to change. I need to go back further to undo that fear.”

“Boy, you really are stupid, aren’t you? Just because you’re tired of how this scenario plays out doesn’t mean you have to risk Doctor Skrewup here scattering you across time and space. Look, you’ve always wanted to ‘save’ me haven’t you? Don’t bother denying it. I’ve seen the way you look at me.”

He’s got you there.

“Well, in the next iteration, we’ll let all the monster souls go free without shattering the barrier and I’ll keep the human souls. Hee Hee Hee. That should be enough to maintain my original form. Everyone will be so happy to have little Asriel back and we can all live like a happy family, safe and sound behind the barrier.”

“Asriel?” A strange look crossed Alphys face. “Frisk, is Flowey-?”

Frisk nodded. There was no point in keeping that secret any longer.

“Oh my god. How could I not have- I mean, I should have- I need to sit down.”

“I’m sorry, Flowey, but I’ve seen what you’re like with the human souls. And even if I thought that would be enough to truly restore you, it still wouldn’t be fair to everyone else. I can do better.”

“Heh, you’re strapped to a chair and helpless. I could kill you right now. I could force you to reset.”

Frisk sighed. Somehow Flowey always ended up back at the exact same threat. Even though they both knew he wouldn’t do it. Not after everything he’d been through.

“If I reset back to the beginning now, you’ll forget everything. You’ll still shatter the barrier and we’ll end up right back here again.”

“Fine, get yourself erased from time then. See if I care! If you’re gone at least I’ll get back my ability to save! Then I can have lots of fun! Hee Hee Hee!"

Flowey abruptly burrowed into the ground and was gone. He was upset, but Frisk knew he would behave. There were much bigger problems to worry about.

“Alphys, it’s time for me to go.”

“W-what, but there are still subroutines to double check. A-and I should probably take more readings just to be sure that everything is working properly, and-”

“Alphys, I’ve been watching. You’ve already been over everything three times. I know you’re worried about making a mistake, but I trust you. I know you’re just trying to be careful, but we’re out of time. Even if the Humans can’t easily reach us here, that doesn’t mean they won’t damage the Core. And if the Core goes down, this machine isn’t going to have an energy source.”

“Eh heh… right. You’re right. I suppose I haven’t found anything still out of alignment in a while now. Um…”

Alphys reached into the pocket of her lab coat and pulled out two letters. Hesitantly, she passed them to Frisk.

“Sans asked me to give these to you. He said, uh, you should open yours when you got to the other side.”

Frisk looked down at the two letters. One had their name penciled on the outside of the envelope. The other had a strange script that Frisk didn’t recognize.

“What’s this other one?”

“He, uh, wouldn’t tell me. He just said to give it to you. T-that’s Sans for you right? Eh… heh… heh… um… I’ll just go start the machine.”

Hey Frisk. I uh-

Please not you too. I’m not going to change my mind.

Ugh, I know that. I know there’s no helping you when you’ve set your mind to something. So just- shut up and listen for a sec ok?

I’m listening.

It’s just- before I met you I was a bit of a mess, you know? I’d gone through some stuff and maybe it had twisted my outlook a bit. Living in the Underground helped with that a little, but in the end I- well, you know. But following you around, we had some good times and some hard times, but all of it, your example, it really changed me for the better. Maybe it doesn’t mean much since I’m already dead but, uh, thanks. That’s all I wanted to say.

Chara. Are you? Saying goodbye?

Duh. Idiot. You’re planning to go back in time to a point before I died. Did you think I could just follow you? But uh, I guess I’ll be there. So maybe this is more of a ‘see you later’?

Sorry. We’ve been connected for so long now. I hadn’t stopped to think that we could be separated by this. I- I-

Are you about to cry? Geeze. And I thought Asriel was whiny. If your plan works I will literally be alive again. Just, you know, be you. And don’t let me kill myself. That plan was even stupider than this one.

“Frisk, are you ready?”

Alphys stood at the control panel sweating nervously. Flowey had come back and was hiding behind the trash can. Frisk smiled. He just couldn’t stay away.

“Yeah. Wish me luck.”

Alphys pulled the lever. There was flash and Frisk felt the sensation of a yank and then nothing.

Nothing.

Just emptiness.

Nothing. The tightness of the straps gone.
Nothing. The sound of the fans vanished.
Nothing. The musty taste of stale air missing.
Nothing. The acrid odor of sweat absent.
Nothing. Everything was black. Darker than Dark. A Void.

Was this death?

Chara?

Nothing.

Anyone?

Nothing.

Well this sucks.

Another flash, blinding next to the nothingness, and Frisk found they were back, once again strapped tightly in the machine, two letters clutched securely in their hand. Strangely, a curtain had been pulled over the entire contraption blocking their view of the rest of the lab.

“Alphys?” Frisk coughed and it felt like they were clearing a thousand years of phlegm from their throat. They tried again, louder this time. “Doctor Alphys? Are you out there?”

There was no response. Something must have gone wrong. Frisk struggled against the restraints, but had no way of undoing them on their own.

Chara?

There was still no response from Chara. Whatever else had happened, it seemed they really were separated. The chair they were sitting in had a thick layer of dust.

Chapter Text

Dust. Once Frisk had seen it, they couldn’t unsee it. It was on the arms of the chair and at the base. It lined every lip and clogged every cranny of the time machine. Frisk was sitting in the dust, literally strapped so tightly to it that they couldn’t pull away. Trying only kicked the dust into the air, but they pulled and they squirmed until they choked on it. Until their eyes watered from it.

Chara?

How many times had they seen a monster die? How many times had they seen the dust fall? Asgore had been the first. A shock, but one Flowey quickly distracted them from.

Chara please. Don’t be gone.

Frisk had seen far too much dust since then. The surface had been full of it. And their dreams.

Chara, I can’t handle this on my own. I need you.

Nothing. Frisk fell still, blinking tears from their eyes.

Please. Just tell me I’m an idiot, ok? Tell me that it’s only dust. Normal dust.

Nothing. Frisk took a shuddering breath and let it out long and slow. And then another. They swallowed and breathed again and tried to think rationally, tried to imagine the calm reason Chara would have used to soothe their panic.

If the machine had brought them back to the time they had left, Alphys would have answered their call. That meant they were sitting in a version of the machine that probably hadn’t been used in some time. It would certainly explain the dust and the curtain covering the machine.

Maybe- maybe their plan had worked out after all? But whenever and wherever they were, they were stuck, strapped into this chair until somebody noticed that they were there.

“Hello? Can anyone hear me? Anyone at all?”

Frisk waited to a count of ten and then started kicking at the base of their chair. It made a dull ‘thunk’ with each kick. Frisk kept at this for several minutes, switching off between kicking and calling for help, but nobody came.

This is stupid. You’re just tiring yourself out. There’s obviously no one within earshot.

The thought startled Frisk enough that they stopped kicking. They could almost have pretended that the thought belonged to Chara. Almost. But they knew their own mind well enough to tell the difference.

What else is there to do though?

The answer came almost instantly. The letters. Sans had said to read theirs once they got to the other side. Frisk looked at the two envelopes and carefully tucked the one with unidentifiable script between their legs. They didn’t know what to make of that one, but it didn’t seem like it was meant for them. Maybe there was a Sans on this side of time who would know what to do with it, but that could be worried about later.

Frisk slid a finger under the seal of the envelope. Inside they found a slip of thrice-folded paper and a small photograph of Frisk posing with everyone else on the surface. They looked happy.

Frisk’s eyes felt suddenly moist again. Somehow, this was the original photo. In every iteration since, Frisk’s smile had gradually become more practiced and their eyes more haunted, more determined. But this photo was proof that they had all been happy once too. It was good to be reminded of that.

Frisk slipped the photo back into the envelope for safe keeping and unfolded the letter.

*hey frisk.
*so you made it huh? good job.

*i’d hate to guess what you must be feeling right now, but i know, though it must be hard leaving your friends and family behind, you have something that you think you need to do. heh. maybe someday you’ll decide it’s time to settle and find happiness in what you already have and i want you know, that’s ok too. but for as long as you keep at it, i’ll still be rooting for ya, kid. you’re a BONE-afide hero in my book.

*actually, you’ve probably already figured this out, but sentry wasn’t my original job title. my brother and i, we used to work with this other guy who was really smart. we did all sorts of fun sciencey stuff together, but then one day we found something rather strange: an anomaly in the time space continuum. we spent months building a machine to go check it out in person. and all the while, we fantasized about what we’d find, about the acclaim from our accomplishment, about the grants we’d receive for future research. we even succeeded. well, sort of. it turns out that this kind of trip is one way.

*i know you’re the sort to want to fix everything, but don’t worry about this one. we made a life here. and sometimes happiness comes not from grasping after what we’ve left behind, but from letting go and finding something new. remember that, cause, well, you’re gonna be stuck where you went too.

*anyway, this is getting kind of long, so let me just skip to some advice. don’t tell anyone you’re from the future. that just leads to all kinds of unfortunate questions. don’t think you know the future either. just by going back you’ve changed things. that’s your goal right? well, just be mindful, the more you change, the less you’ll be able to predict what’s coming.

*one last thing. i don’t think you’ll be able to reset any more, so be a good child and try not to die.

*ps. are you still stuck in that chair? i told alphys that if you weren’t strapped in tight you’d be splattered across the cosmos and i think she bought it. hilarious right? it’s been a while, but i installed a voice sensor in the nearby terminal to alert us if a certain password was ever said. since only our team should know the password, it’s sure to bring someone running to let you out.

*just say ‘terminal on’ and then the password. it’s been a while, but it was definitely one of these. better try them all just to be safe.

*i am the sovereign of farts
*my flatulence is a melody to the stars
*they call me master poopsmith

*pps. please give the other letter to me.

Frisk smiled in spite of their annoyance. Even in those final hours before the Preset, Sans just couldn’t resist one final prank. Well fine then.

“Terminal On.”

There was a clicking sound and a dim boxy light appeared shining through the curtain.

“Hello, can anyone hear me?”

Frisk didn’t have to wait long. A voice came back through the terminal. It was a little grainy, but it sounded like Sans.

“Yes, but I’m sorry. I don’t recognize your voice. Why are you at the basement terminal? Who is this?”

“I am the sovereign of farts.”

There was a snort from the terminal and then a pause. Finally Sans prompted them on.

“Have you anything else to announce, your majesty?”

“My flatulence is a melody to the stars.”

“A lofty claim indeed.”

Frisk rolled their eyes and moved on to the last password.

“They call me… Master Poopsmith.”

“Ok, that’s just childish.”

“Sans.” Frisk had played along, but now they were at the end of their patience. “I have been strapped in this time machine for well over three hours and every bone in my body is stiff from the sitting. I said your silly passwords. Will you please just take a shortcut and let me out now.”

“A, uh, a short cut?” Sans genuinely sounded confused. “Huh. I’ll admit, your majesty of the melodious flatulence does seem to know me, but I’m afraid I don’t know what the good Master Poopsmith is talking about. The only way down there is the lift, but I will be right down. Give me two minutes.”

Right. Time Travel. Frisk made a mental note to not assume they knew anything about the present Sans. Who could guess when Sans learned that short cut trick or if he even would. Hopefully they could still be friends.

What should I say to him?

Nothing. There was still no Chara to offer a second opinion.

Oh great. I’m going to be talking to myself like this for the rest of my life, aren’t I?

Frisk thought about their own question as they put the read letter back into the envelope and slipped it into a pants pocket. Sans had warned them not to tell anyone they were from the future, but it seemed a little pointless to deny it to another time traveler while sitting in a friggin time machine. He would just have to be an exception. But even so, should he get the full story?

Wait, why were they even worrying about this? Sans had written himself a letter. They’d just hand it over and see what happened.

There was a ding and then the sound of hydraulic doors opening and then of heavy clod feet passing over a hard stone floor.

“Well your majesty. I think it’s time you abdicate from that throne of yours. Then we can go upstairs and you can tell me all-”

The curtain was drawn back and the skeleton fell suddenly silent. The smile slipped from his face in favor of surprised stupor. This wasn’t a Sans that Frisk had ever seen before. He was dressed smartly in ironed pants and a work shirt over which he wore a simple white lab coat. A square ID badge with the letters ARS written across the bottom was pinned to his shirt.

Frisk smiled. There was only one way to kick this off. They stuck out their hand.

“Hey, what’s the matter? Don’t you know how to greet a new friend?”

To his credit, Sans recovered quickly. They shook to the sound of a long-winded fart.

“Heh, I’m guessing you’ve heard this one before.”

Frisk nodded. “It’s fine. That joke- it’s always funny.”

Sans grinned. At least some things about him were still familiar. But as he began to undo the straps for Frisk, his face became pensive again.

“You’re the second human to appear in the Underground in a matter of days. There’s no way it’s a coincidence. So tell me, who are you?”

“I am Frisk and I uh, I’ve come to deliver your mail?” Frisk plucked out the envelope they had tucked between their legs and waved it at him. “I don’t know what you wrote in here, but it probably explains everything that you thought you should know.”

Sans accepted the envelope with an expression of curiosity mixed with trepidation. He opened it and withdrew another thrice-folded letter. Frisk snuck a quick peak as Sans read, but the lettering was as incomprehensible to them as it had been on the outside of the envelope.

With an inward shrug, Frisk slid off of the chair and took a few weak steps, working their legs to get the feeling of blood flowing in them again. They stretched and brushed the dust off the back of their pants, then, since Sans was still reading, they took a deep breath through their nose and tried to appreciate Chara’s favorite sense.

Smells like mildew and… bones?

Nothing. Their head was quiet and the silence made Frisk’s heart ache.

“Hey Sans?”

“Mmm?” The chubby skeleton hadn’t even looked up. He was still reading.

“Is Chara already in New Home?”

Now Sans paused.

“New Home? Kid, when you get around other people, you better be more careful about the questions you ask. Especially if I’m going to be covering for you. There’s only one place in the Underground and that’s Home. But tell me, what’s your interest in the other human?”

“They’re my friend. I miss them.”

“Are they gonna know you when they see you?”

Frisk shook their head. “This is… before we met. But in my time we were, uh, inseparable. I guess I’m just feeling… BONELY.”

“Ha, kid, you’re killing me here. TIBIA honest, you have me on a back foot, because I’m sure you’ve already heard all my good ones.”

Sans scratched his chin and thought for a moment.

“Well, this letter doesn’t tell me much, but it seems you came back here to do something important. So I’ll tell you what. Hide here for a day or so. We’ll think up a cover story and wait for a good moment to fake you falling into the Underground. And then- uh, actually, you tell me. What is it you’d want to do from there? What’s your game plan? Can I know that much?”

“I want to be adopted by the Royal Family.”

“Ok, explain.”

“They’re going to adopt Chara and a lot of good things are going to happen because of it, but also one very bad thing. If they adopt me too, I can stop the bad thing.”

“That’s pretty vague, but alright. I’ll do what I can to help you.”

“Just like that?”

“Sure, why not?” Sans tucked the mysterious letter into his shirt pocket and grinned. “I mean, what’re friends for, right? And hey-” He ruffled Frisk’s hair. “Welcome to 201X.”

Chapter Text

Frisk sat with their legs swung over the side of the examination table. They held their bangs up out of the way as Sans pressed a cold bandage to their temple and wrapped it evenly around their head.

They were in a small room that reminded Frisk of a doctor’s office. It was still just the two of them, but it wouldn’t be for long. Sans had telephoned the King that morning with their cover story and Asgore had thought it best he come personally and immediately.

In spite of the impending meeting, Frisk felt surprisingly calm. They didn’t know Asgore quite as well as the other monsters because Asgore’s shame and Mom’s rigidness had always kept him distant, but Frisk held him no animosity. In this time and place, his sins were but a distant possibility. Frisk was determined that they would never become more than that.

“Ok, all done. Just in time too. The King should be here soon.”

Frisk let their bangs fall and then, out of curiosity, reached up and felt the bandage. It squished under their fingers.

“Ewww. Sans. This feels so gross. Does it have to be sticky?”

“Don’t complain. The other human got severely banged up falling down here. If you didn’t have some sort of injury there would be questions.”

Frisk poked at it again and made a face.

“And stop playing with it. If it comes undone everyone will see that your head is perfectly fine.”

The intercom buzzed and a loud irritated voice filled the tiny room.

“Sans! The King is here asking for you! What have you done?”

Sans winced. “And that would be my brother Papyrus, here on the weekend because he doesn’t know how to take a day off. Damn. I thought I could pull this off without him noticing.”

The intercom buzzed again.

“Sans! Are you there?”

Sans sighed and pushed a button on the intercom to respond.

“Yeah bro, I’m here. Just send him up to exam room 2. I’ll explain everything to you later.”

Sans released the button and turned to Frisk.

“Ok kiddo, like we practiced.”

Frisk groaned. The table was cold and it barely had any cushioning, but they obediently swung their legs up onto it, lay back with their head on the pillow, and squeezed their eyes shut, feigning sleep. Sans quickly drew a lightweight sheet up to their shoulders and then dimmed the lights. Half a minute later, there was a polite rap at the door.

Frisk listened as the door opened and the King entered.

“Your Majesty, I’m glad you could come so quickly.”

“Howdy.” A pause. “Is this a bad time to meet them? I do not mind waiting if it is.”

“No need for that. I wouldn’t have called if I thought it was too soon. It should be fine to wake them. The human has been sleeping since I treated their head injury late last night.”

“Ah yes, the head injury. How is it?”

“Not bad considering. Provided we keep it covered, the magic in the bandages should have it fully healed within a few days.”

“Then with your permission?”

“Oh, by all means.”

There was the sound of a stool being moved to the bedside and then of someone heavy sitting on it. Frisk felt a large hand gently stroke their shoulder and shifted, allowing themself to be roused. They rolled their head slowly towards Asgore and opened their eyes, blinking up at him. Frisk said nothing, letting the King make the first move.

“Howdy, sleepy head.”

Asgore’s yellow beard dangled tantalizingly in front of Frisk’s face. This wasn’t what Sans had rehearsed with them, but they couldn’t resist. Frisk reached out, pulled a bit of it to their nose, and breathed it in.

“You smell nice. Like fresh dirt and flowers.”

Asgore gave a hearty laugh.

“And you have a good nose. I often spend my mornings tending the garden. Have you ever had a tomato newly picked from the vine?”

Frisk shook their head.

“No? How about tea brewed from fresh herbs? Or carrots plucked from the earth to be washed and served only minutes later?”

Frisk shook their head again.

“Well, perhaps I can introduce you to some of those things. Do you think you would like that?”

“Maybe, but I- I’m sorry. You seem really nice, but I don’t remember who you are. Do I know you?”

Frisk scrunched their knees up into a partial sitting position and pulled the bed sheet up to their nose. Maybe their acting wasn’t quite as good as Mettaton’s, but Asgore was buying it. Frisk had gotten a lot of practice pretending ignorance over their many resets.

“Of course, forgive me. We should have started with the introductions. My name is Asgore Dreemurr. And you are?”

“Frisk.”

“Frisk? Well, that is a lovely name. And you seem to be a calm and collected individual. Tell me, were you not surprised by my appearance?”

Frisk gave their head a quizzical tilt.

“Should I be?”

“Hmm.” The King stroked his beard. “Do you remember what happened to you?”

“I fell and hit my head and now I’m at the Doctors.”

“Well, I suppose that is true enough. Do you remember anything before that?”

Frisk scrunched up their forehead and pretended to think really hard, then mutely shook their head. A look of concern crossed Asgore’s face.

“How about your age? Do you know how old you are?”

Frisk thought again. That was actually a good question. If you counted all the reset days- but no, that wasn’t what he was asking.

“Ten.”

Asgore nodded solemnly.

“The doctor and I need to speak out in the hall for a moment, but I have a boy of my own about your age. Would you like me to send him in to keep you company?”

“Yes please.”

Frisk sat all the way up in the bed and Asgore stood, motioning Sans to follow.

“We shouldn’t be long.”

He opened the door and the two stepped out. A moment later a small face poked through the doorway. Asriel was slightly younger than Frisk remembered him and he was wearing a solid green shirt, but there was no mistaking those ears. They were furry and dangly and looked so warm.

Asriel carefully pulled the door closed behind him, then turned and smiled at Frisk.

“Howdy, I’m Asriel. It’s nice to meet you.”

“I’m Frisk.” Frisk slid off the table so that they could stand eye to eye. Or well, eye to forehead. Frisk was a little bit taller.

“I, uh, I like your sweater. It’s all stripy. I was just thinking of asking my Mom for something kinda like it.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Well I like your ears.”

“M-my ears?” Asriel giggled like Frisk had told a joke. “Why would you like my ears?”

“They're cute.” Frisk grinned. “Can I touch them?”

“W-what? H-hey, don’t tease me.” Asriel grabbed his own ears and held them back protectively.

“I’m not teasing. I’m serious. You. Have. Cute. Ears. But I won’t touch them if you don’t want me to. That’s why I asked.”

“Oh, um.” Asriel reluctantly let go of his ears. “I- I guess it would be ok. Just don’t do anything weird.”

Frisk reached out, but as their fingertips brushed the verge of Asriel’s ear, the boy tensed. With a sigh, Frisk let their hand fall back to their side.

“W-what? I thought you wanted to touch my ears.”

“I do. But you seem really uneasy about this and you just met me. You said yes, but I don’t think you meant it. So, another time maybe.”

“Oh…” Asriel rubbed his own ear absentmindedly. “Frisk?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re kinda weird, but you’re also kinda nice.”

Frisk laughed. “Do you wanna be friends?”

“W-what? Just like that? The other human won’t even talk to me. They won’t talk to anyone. But you- you’re like their exact opposite.”

“Am I? Huh. Well you know what they say, right? Opposites attract! You totally have to introduce me to them.”

“Heehee, you really are weird, aren’t you?”

The door opened and Asgore came back in. When he saw the two kids standing together he smiled.

“Oh, good. I see the two of you are getting along. Frisk, how are you feeling? Do you think you would be up for a short walk?”

Frisk nodded and looked behind Asgore for Sans, but the skeleton was missing. Asgore noticed the act.

“I understand you might feel a certain closeness to the Doctor after he rescued you last night, but he is a busy man and this laboratory is not really an appropriate place for children. You will see him again in three days to have your bandages checked, but in the meantime my wife and I will look after you. Does that sound alright to you?”

Frisk nodded again and smiled. Everything was going according to plan.

Chapter Text

The walk to the Dreemurr’s house was fun, if uneventful. Asriel giggled at Frisk for gawking like a tourist at every parapet and tower, but Frisk couldn’t help it. They were a tourist. This was their first time seeing the capital city in its glory days rather than as yet another long abandoned part of the ruins.

Several of the citizens who noticed the King strolling by also noticed Frisk, but if they saw Frisk as anything more than a friend of the young prince, there was no outcry of surprise or horror. The war was a distant memory and of the monsters who could recognize a human, most had fallen down long ago.

As they left the city and turned down the path Frisk knew led home, Frisk was struck by a paradoxical sense of having arrived in a place at once familiar and strange. Flowerbeds lined the road with a striking array of color and the vines running up and down the purple walls bloomed with wide white flowers of their own. It was well beyond anything Frisk had ever imagined.

“It’s so pretty.”

Asgore beamed.

“This is the start of my gardens. They extend from here all the way to the very end of the caves. Although the last few areas aren’t quite finished.”

Frisk crouched down to inspect one of the happy yellow flowers. As they had thought, it was a buttercup. They were fairly certain that Chara and Asriel’s tragedy had happened in New Home, but Sans had warned them that things might change simply due to Frisk’s presence. They would have to stay vigilant.

Asriel crouched down next to Frisk and looked at the flower too.

“Do you like that one?”

“No, I- it just reminded me of something. Actually, I think it’s poisonous.”

There. Maybe that would be enough. If Asriel knew not to put buttercups in a pie then Asgore would never get sick and Chara would never get the idea to poison themself. Could it be that simple?

Asgore leaned over the two children to have a look at the flower as well.

“Oh? Have you remembered something about your past, Frisk?”

“I think- I think maybe someone I knew once got really sick after eating these.”

“Hmm, well I am very sorry to hear that. But cheer up. Perhaps this is a sign that your memories will return in time.”

Frisk nodded and Asgore straightened.

“Come along now. Our home is just ahead.”

They made it a whole ten feet before Frisk stopped again, this time staring ahead at the tree in the front yard. It was fully alive and its dark branches were filled with healthy and vibrant red leafs. Asgore went on inside, but Asriel waited as Frisk circled it twice in silent wonder.

“Heehee, you sure are impressed easily, aren’t you? Don’t they have trees on the surface?”

“Uh-” Frisk tried to decide if there was any reason to be ignorant of trees. Sans had said the best cover story would be to feign total amnesia due to a head injury, but it seemed silly to pretend they didn’t know what a tree was after saying they recognized a flower. “I think so. I was just surprised there was one underground. I think it’s the first I’ve seen since I got here.”

“It’s the only one I’ve seen too. Dad says there are many others out in the wilderness, but this one is supposed to be special.”

“Oh?” This was the first Frisk had ever heard anything about the tree. All Chara had ever told them was that it had trouble keeping its leafs. Though obviously that wasn’t currently the case. Asriel was now beside Frisk, staring up at it too, an almost wistful expression on his face.

“Yeah, I don’t really know why though. Just, the one time I tried to climb it, Dad told me not to play in the branches because this was a special tree.”

“Huh.”

The front door to the house opened and Mom came out onto the front step. Even with everything else changed around her, she looked almost exactly as Frisk remembered.

“Come on in you two, it’s lunch time.”

Asriel raced past his mother on his way to the kitchen, but Frisk slowed to a stop as they approached the house and looked up at her.

“Thank you for having me, M- Ma’am.”

Frisk had almost called her Mom. Somehow that was the one habit they were never quite able to shake after so many resets. They could pretend to solve puzzles with Papyrus and watch Undyne burn her own house down (no matter how many different ways they approached her cooking lesson) and play along with Alphys and Mettaton’s little act all the way to the end, but Mom was Mom. It was hard not to let it slip out.

Mom smiled down at them.

“Worry not, my child. We are glad to have you. Though I do hope you like snail soup. I would have prepared something special to welcome you, but I’m afraid I do not know what your preferences are.”

“I’m sure anything you’ve made will be delicious.”

“Oh! Heehee, well that is kind of you to say. Was my husband bragging to you about my cooking? Well, no matter. Why don’t you go on in and have a seat at the table.”

Frisk nodded and walked into the house. Mom followed and steered them towards the room on the left.

“Just go on that way, my child. I’ll join you in a moment.”

Frisk watched as Mom walked down the hall towards their old room and knocked on the door.

“Chara? Lunch is ready. Won’t you come join us? There is somebody here who I’d like you to meet.”

There was a muffled response, but Frisk couldn’t hear it so they hurried to the table and took a seat next to Asriel. There were two fancier looking chairs set out that didn’t match the other three. Frisk didn’t think they’d ever seen them before. They looked like they belonged in an eloquent study rather than at a dinner table.

Frisk could hear Asgore humming in the kitchen and the sound of bowls clinking together. The faint aroma of snails and butter wafted through the air.

Toriel reappeared, leading a rather unhappy child by the hand. They wore a green sweater with a single yellow stripe running across the center and they had brown hair. Their left arm was in some sort of a sling and it looked like there were bandages on both legs as well. Frisk couldn’t help but stare. All that time together, but they had never seen each other face to face.

Toriel led the child to the front of the table.

“Frisk, I would like you to meet Chara. Chara, this is Frisk.

Frisk smiled and held up a hand in greeting. “Hi-”

Chara’s frown only deepened.

“You lied to me. You said there weren’t any other humans down here.”

“We did not lie, my child. Frisk fell down here like yourself just last night. Though it is odd… nothing in all this time and now two? If this is to be a new pattern perhaps some sort of safety net should be installed… Um, anyway, why not take a seat? We will have lunch on the table in a minute.”

Chara snorted quietly through their nose, circled around to the other side of the table, slid the chair out with no regard for the loud scrapping sound, and flopped down into it. As Mom went into the kitchen to help Asgore, Frisk’s smile wavered.

Oh Chara… I just want to be friends again, but it’s not going to be that easy is it?

Chara’s eyes suddenly snapped up to rest on Frisk.

“So. What’s your story then?”

“Uh-” Frisk blinked back at Chara. Their glare never wavered. “Well, I fell and hit my head actually, so I don’t remember much.”

“Convenient.” If Chara had any other thoughts on the matter they didn’t voice them.

“But everyone has been so nice to me since. The Doctor bandaged me up and then I got invited to stay here and now they’re giving me food.”

“Riveting.”

“Am I- are you mad at me for something?”

Asriel shook his head at Frisk.

“It’s not you. Actually, this is the most they’ve spoken in days.”

Chara flashed Asriel a nasty smile and said nothing. At that moment Asgore and Toriel come into the room with two bowls of steaming soup each. They set them in front of the children first, then Asgore went back for the last bowl.

Chara eyed the bowl in front of them. The soup was smooth and creamy and had a faint off-white color to it. Once Asgore returned and was seated, Mom nodded her head and everyone picked up their spoon to dig in. Everyone, that is, but Chara who was still sniffing at it in suspicion.

Frisk smiled at Chara with the spoon sticking out of their mouth. Snail soup had a rich flavor, at once salty and buttery. There had been times after a reset where Frisk had felt worn down from their latest failure to stop the war and had stayed with Toriel for a few months to recharge. It was during these vacations that Frisk had acquired a taste for snails. Frisk too had been uncertain of the flavor at first, but now they associated it with those peaceful happy times.

Frisk took the spoon out their mouth and licked their lips.

“It’s good, you should try it.”

Chara wrinkled their nose, but picked up the spoon and took a small sip. Immediately they made a face.

“Ugh, do you actually like this?”

“I think you would too if you gave it a chance.”

“Are you stupid? There’s snails in this.”

“So? You’re probably paying too much attention to the flavors you aren’t use to. If you do that, of course it’s going to seem strange. Why not focus on the flavors you recognize instead?”

Chara gave Frisk a skeptical look, but took a second spoonful and peered at it for a long moment before jamming it into their mouth. They pulled the spoon back out slower this time and set it back in the bowl. Chara sat still, staring at the bowl and smacking their lips, their expression unreadable. Then they took another spoonful.

Frisk grinned and went back to eating their soup too. Nobody said a word after that, but all the monsters in the room had watched the exchange in wide-eyed fascination. Chara had talked. Chara was eating their soup. Frisk knew this hardly made them great friends, or even minor friends, but it felt like a step in the right direction.

Chapter Text

After lunch, Mom went into the kitchen to clean the soup pot and Asriel got up to help. He collected his empty bowl and Frisk’s into a tidy stack. Then he circled around the table to get his father’s bowl, but Asgore held up a hand to stop and reached and took the bowls for himself.

“Thank you, son, but I will take care of the dishes today. Why don’t you and Chara give Frisk a tour of the house? I’m sure they would like to see where they will be staying.”

“Yeah! Ok!”

Asriel practically skipped to the other side of the room and then twirled to a stop at the edge of the hall.

“Come on, I’ll show you my room first!”

Wow. Didn’t have to ask him twice. Asriel must really hate dish duty.

Chara’s eyes shifted from Asriel to Frisk and then back again. They hardly seemed interested in a tour, but they stood when Frisk did and joined the procession across the house to Asriel’s room. On the way the three slowed to lean over the banister in the entryway of the house.

“Those stairs lead to the rest of the Underground, but the door is sealed with magic. Dad says there’s an icy wilderness on the other side, but if you go far enough you come to a bunch of cool waterfalls and some ancient engravings from when we monsters first passed through. Dad promised to take me to see them, but Mom keeps saying I’m not old enough yet. Um, anyway, my room is right over here.”

Asriel led them to the door to his room and then paused again with his hand on the knob.

“It’s, uh, a little messy at the moment, but please don’t judge. I’ve been sharing with Chara and they don’t pick anything up.”

Chara threw their right hand over their heart as though they had been deeply wounded.

“Lies. Lies and slander.” There was no denial in the tone.

Asriel giggled and twisted the knob. He seemed very pleased that Chara was talking now.

They all looked in. The room’s layout was much as Frisk remembered. Bed on the right, dresser and shelf and lamp at the back, the chest of toys tipped over and the toys strewn all over the room. Well, that last bit was different. There was also a rolled up sleeping bag against the wall on the left. Asriel followed Frisk’s gaze.

“There’s only one bed so I’ve been sleeping on the floor. I, uh, I think Mom was going to try to find another sleeping bag since there’s three of us tonight.”

“She better. Cause I’m not sharing the bed.”

“But Chara- they have to sleep somewhere.”

Frisk laughed. “Don’t worry. I think even the bare floor would be more comfortable than another night on one of those medical tables.”

“Frisk… Are you sure?”

Asriel’s eyes were big and he was frowning. Chara, on the other hand, looked quite pleased.

“Of course they’re sure. Now let’s go. You can’t call this a tour if you only show them one room.”

Chara spun on their heel and strode down the hall to the room that was always under maintenance. They flung open the door and went inside.

“W-wait, Chara!” Asriel ran after them, but hung around outside the room, not daring to go in. “That’s my parent’s study. We’re not supposed to go in there.”

Frisk peered in over Asriel’s shoulder, but all they could see was a bookshelf and Chara’s back. Chara was grabbing one of the books. Asriel looked back at Frisk.

“What should we do?”

If there was something dangerous about the study, the obvious answer would be to stop Chara. Or maybe to go get Mom or Asgore and have them deal with it. But Frisk doubted Mom would leave anything harmful just lying around and they really didn’t want to get Chara in trouble by ratting them out like that. Asriel probably didn’t either. Plus, Frisk was deeply curious about the room. If there was anything on this tour that stood a chance at being somewhat new, it would be in there. A quick peak wouldn’t hurt anything.

“Well, your dad did say you should show me the whole house, right? And Chara is already in there. So let’s go in, look around, and then move on?”

“R-right.”

The study itself was not remarkable. There were five bookshelves all told, packed with old tomes and miraculously free from any sign of dust. There were also two work desks. One had a flower pot with a water sausage growing up out of it and a closed journal and a stack of official looking documents. The other desk had even more official looking documents, a large hourglass, and Chara sitting on it with one of the old tomes open on their lap.

Chara was flipping through the pages rapidly, scowling like the book held a new personal affront on every page. When they looked up and saw Frisk watching them, they closed the book with a hurried snap.

“Here. Catch.”

Chara hurled the book like a frisbee. The cover flew open and the pages fanned out as the tome tumbled through the air. Surprised, Frisk somehow managed to get under it, catching it in the cradle of their arms. They looked down. A few of the pages were now bent in unfortunate directions, but the book seemed intact.

“I can’t read a word of it. What about you?”

Frisk tried to straighten the bent pages and looked closer at the words. Truthfully, Frisk had never been able to read monster script. Whatever magic kept the spoken languages understandable, it didn’t extend to the strange lettering. Until now, Chara had always been there to translate for them, but this Chara couldn’t help in that respect. And while Frisk had learned to recognize some common words over their resets, like ‘human’ and ‘monster’, they’d never spent the time necessary to learn the full vocabulary.

Shaking their head, Frisk closed the book. “I wonder how hard it will be to learn.”

“Learn?” Chara laughed. It wasn’t a happy laugh. “Do you really think they’re going to let us stay here for that long? No. Nothing in this world is free. And nobody is this nice to a stranger unless they want something. Once they get it they’ll send us back to the surface and that will be that.”

Asriel anxiously looked between the two humans.

“T-that’s not true, Chara. Haven’t I been nice to you this whole time? Hasn’t Frisk? They didn’t even ask for something in return when they said you could have the bed.”

Chara quirked an eyebrow.

“I hardly know Frisk, but I think their reasons are a lot like yours. You both want to be ‘friends’ right? You’re lonely, so you’re being nice to me so that you won’t be lonely any more. At their core, your reasons are self serving. This whole world is like that. People only ever pretend to care about you.”

“No. It’s not like that!” Asriel’s eyes were welling up with tears. “It’s you who seems lonely Chara. And it hurts seeing how unhappy you are.”

“Ugh, why are you-? There’s no reason to cry about it, idiot. What’s wrong with you? H-hey, Frisk. Say something. Make him stop.”

Frisk shook their head and then quietly slipped the book back into the empty hole on the bookshelf. Asriel was sniffing and wiping the tears from his eyes. Chara almost looked like they felt guilty.

“I know! You’re just upset cause I gave Frisk a book and you didn’t get anything, right? Well cheer up! I have something here for you too.”

Chara scooped up the hourglass that was sitting on the edge of the desk and chucked it at Asriel who was so startled by this that he ducked. It sailed over his head and hit the wall with the sound of shattering glass. The sand inside spilled out onto the carpet. Asriel stopped sniffing and looked down at it dumbly. For a moment, nobody said anything. Then Chara hopped off of the desk.

“Stupid! You were supposed to catch it! Now it’s broken and it’s all your fault!”

“W-what? But you’re the one who threw it! And- and I told you that we weren’t supposed to be in here in the first place!”

Mom’s shadow loomed suddenly from the doorway. Summoned by the shouts and broken glass, she did not look happy. Her eyes traced a path to the hourglass and then fell on each of them in turn. Asriel looked outright scared.

“Mom. It’s not my fault. I-”

“You are in the room, are you not? All three of you in fact.”

Frisk looked down at their feet. Mom’s gaze was piercing. Frisk hadn’t felt this guilty since the time they took a second piece of monster candy.

“I think there will be no dessert tonight.” It almost looked like it hurt Mom to say that. “Now, out and all the way outside. Play in the yard or tour the gardens, I care not, but I don’t want to see the three of you in this house again until dinner time. Understood?”

“Yes Mom.”

Frisk nodded and Chara bowed their head. The trio hurried out the front door as quickly as their feet would carry them.

Chapter Text

Dinner that night was awkward, but Mom accepted the apologies of the three children without further admonishment. As promised, no dessert was served. However, when Frisk emerged from the bathroom, the dirt scrubbed away and their sweater traded for a purple nightshirt bearing the delta rune, there was a mug of hot chocolate waiting for them. It wasn’t pie, but it was more than Frisk had expected.

Chara stood near the fireplace, sipping from a mug of their own, both a chocolate mustache and a contented smile on their face. They were also dressed in a borrowed nightshirt. It was identical to the one Frisk had been given. Naturally, the shirts were Asriel’s. It was a stroke of luck that all three of them were about the same size.

When Toriel saw the children lined up together in matching shirts and all drinking from their mugs, she raised a finger to her lips and smiled.

“Oh, just look at the three of you. Dressed like that, I can hardly tell you apart.”

“~M~o~m~”

“Hehe, just kidding.”

After the drinks were finished, Asgore sat them all down in a ring.

“Now then. What sort of a story should I tell tonight?”

Asriel’s hand shot straight up and he waved it around excitedly.

“Yes, Asriel?”

“Something with both Monsters and Humans in it!”

“Hmm.” Asgore stroked his beard and nodded to himself as he looked at his two guests. “Yes, I do think that would be a good idea. Well, here is an old story from a terribly long time ago. A time when both Monsters and Humans lived side by side on the surface…”

The story Asgore told was long and it reminded Frisk of several fairy tales they had heard before. It was one of a Human prince who fell in love with a Monster. But alas, this was a forbidden love and the prince, forced to choose between his inheritance and the one he loved, forswore his kingdom and ran away to be with his Monster love. And of course, in the end an act of extreme compassion transformed him into a Monster and they all got to live together happily ever after.

After the story was over, Asriel poked Frisk in the side.

“I bet you’ve never heard a story like that one before right?”

“I can think of a few. But they all end with the Monster turning into a Human, rather than the other way around.”

“What? Really? But being a Monster is great!”

Asgore coughed politely.

“Asriel, my son, perhaps you should consider your words more carefully.”

“Oh? Oh! I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that it was bad to be Human.”

Chara stood and yawned.

“Well, I’m going to bed.”

“Chara, please, I’m sorry.”

“Calm down Asriel and don’t you dare start crying again. I’m not mad, just- tired.”

“Oh.”

“And for the record, you weren’t wrong. Humans are bad. You don’t need to apologize for saying so.”

“Chara- Chara, that’s not-”

Chara had disappeared down the hallway. Now Asriel looked like he really would cry again. Frisk scooched over to his side.

“It’s ok. Do you need a hug?”

Asriel sniffed and nodded and leaned into Frisk’s shoulder.

“I really messed up, didn’t I?”

“Nah.” Frisk wrapped an arm around Asriel and squeezed him close. “I think Chara just needs some time and space and a lot of understanding. They’ll come around.”

Asgore exchanged a glance with Mom.

“Tori, should I-?”

Mom shook her head, then she looked down at Frisk and Asriel cuddling on the floor.

“Frisk, it has been a long day for you, has it not? Do you feel like you are adjusting to your new surroundings?”

Frisk nodded.

“You’ve all been so welcoming. I feel very much at home here, Mo- Ma’am.”

Frisk snapped their mouth shut after the correction, but they knew too much of the word Mom had slipped out this time. They could feel their face turning red. Mom must have noticed because the pause stretched for just a few seconds too long.

“Well, I am happy to hear it.” Another pause. “Frisk, forgive me if this is a strange question, but I understand you have lost many of your memories of the surface. Do you remember your family?”

Frisk squeezed Asriel a little tighter and looked away.

“No.”

Frisk wished that were true. They wished they could just forget, even if the truth of it was a century in the future. There was no reason to tell Mom what the family they had been born into had been like, but it hadn’t felt like a family at all. Or at least, not a happy, loving family like the Dreemurrs.

“I see. That must be truly hard on you, my child. If there’s anything we can do…”

“I-”

Frisk could feel a lump growing in their throat that they had tried hard to keep buried. Their vision was beginning to grow bleary. Through all those resets and all that fighting to bring everyone else their happiness, Frisk had really only ever hoped for one end for themself.

Now Frisk had finally experienced it. A day of happiness. A day of laughing at small nothings and of playful teasing. A day of parents sitting down with you at meals and of getting punished by them for broken rules. A day of stories and some tears, but mostly a day of smiles. It was the first day Frisk had truly experienced what it meant to have a family. It was a day Frisk would always remember.

Frisk had gone into this fully intending to let things follow their natural course. To let Mom and Asgore decide to adopt Chara and themself on their own. But now their desire burst out of them all of its own will amidst a trembling flood of tears.

“Please. Just let me stay. Let me live here with you and Asriel and Chara. Please. Please. I don’t- I don’t ever want to not have a family again.”

Suddenly it wasn’t Frisk hugging Asriel, but Asriel who had their arms around Frisk. And then Mom was there- and Asgore too. Frisk felt enfolded by loving, comforting arms as the Dreemurr family embraced them.

“My child, you put on such a brave face. I hadn’t realized. Were you holding this in the whole time?”

Frisk didn’t know what to say. They just cried and cried and let themself be comforted.

-

That night Frisk awoke to the sound of a creaking door. Their first thought was that Mom had brought pie for the three of them, but when they cracked an eye, nobody was there. Frisk sat up in their sleeping bag and rubbed the sleep from their eyes. The door was ajar.

Asriel rolled over in the sleeping bag beside Frisk's, but he was still fast asleep. Chara’s bed, however, was empty. Frisk got up and patted the wrinkles out of their nightshirt. They were tired, but they’d never fall back to sleep unless they found out what Chara was doing, so silently they crept to the door.

Chara was at the end of the hall, slouched against the wall just outside Mom and Asgore’s room. When they saw Frisk tip-toeing out into the hall, they put a shushing finger to their lips and then motioned for Frisk to join them.

Frisk crouched next to Chara without a word. It was obvious what they were doing. From inside the room, two voices could be heard.

“Tori… I think Frisk has been lying about how much they remember. Those tears were about more than just forgetting.”

“I know dear, but it doesn’t really matter. They will tell us in time or they won’t, but right now it seems they’d rather not have to talk about it.”

“Oh. Well, I suppose that is true enough.”

“Tomorrow we will have to refresh ourselves on the adoption process. It will need to be very official and ideally finished before the end of the week.”

“What? So soon?”

“Yes Gori. This isn’t something you can put off. If we wait too long someone will notice there are two humans down here before we make the announcement. And you know how the rumors spread.”

“I do. If just one person realized, then by lunch tomorrow half the Underground would think we were under attack and the other half would believe we’d already been freed.”

“Hehehe.”

“Tori…?”

“Yes dear?”

“They’ve both seen the surface, haven’t they? They both descended from up above.”

“They have, but- you know I don’t hold much to that ancient prophecy.”

“Even so, it will be impossible for the people not to think of it when they see those two- that either or both might find a way to break the barrier some day.”

Frisk felt a twinge of guilt. Their whole plan coming back here had been to save Asriel and Chara from death. But they’d also known that their success would mean closing off the only future they knew of where the barrier was removed.

“We are still in agreement that the barrier keeps us safe, are we not?”

“Hmm, no. You are right. We cannot risk another war with the humans. But still-”

“No ‘buts’. Unless we can be certain that only peace awaits us on the surface we can’t afford our freedom. Now… it has gotten late. Let’s just go to bed. We can discuss this further in the morning.”

Frisk stood and looked down at Chara who had closed their eyes contemplatively.

Well Chara, did you learn everything you’d hoped?

Chara looked up at Frisk.

Not by half.

Frisk blinked. That was Chara. In their head. Had they just imagined that? No, Chara was smiling too broadly at their response.

Chara? Can you-?

Chara stood and shook their head.

Come on idiot. Let’s just go back to bed. I’m too tired to get into this right now. But you and I- we’ll also have something to discuss in the morning.

Chapter Text

Sitting up in their sleeping bag, Frisk realized that they were the last to rise. They found Asriel and Chara at the dinning table, both munching on some sort of crunchy breakfast cereal. Mom and Asgore were in the kitchen, but Asgore poked his head out when he heard Frisk pulling out their chair.

“Howdy, sleepy head.”

“G’morning.”

“There is a bowl waiting on the table for you and I just picked some fresh mint. Would you like a cup of tea?”

“Yes please. But not too hot if that’s possible?”

Honestly, Frisk wasn’t much of a tea drinker, but their mouth felt dry and they knew accepting would make Asgore happy. Chara snickered at them from the other side of the table and held up a steaming tea cup of their own.

“Tea is supposed to be hot, dummy.”

“Now Chara,” Asgore said as Chara made a big show of drinking their tea hot, “If Frisk has a preference, that is perfectly all right. We will just let it cool for a bit and then one of us will bring it out. Ok?”

Frisk nodded.

“Thanks Dad.”

Ok, that felt weird to say, but Asgore smiled kindly at them before he went back into the kitchen.

Dad?

Well, they’re adopting us right? Might as well get used to the idea now.

Chara didn’t respond, so Frisk reached across the table for the cereal box and tipped it towards them. Black squares poured out of it and filled their bowl. Frisk wasn’t sure what they had been expecting, but definitely not black squares. They held one up to their eye for a closer inspection and realized that they weren’t perfect squares after all. There were actually eight nubs sticking out, four and four evenly spaced on opposing sides. Frisk shrugged and popped it into their mouth. It crunched as they chewed and had a distinct liquorice taste.

“These are good. What are they?”

Asriel swallowed his mouthful and grinned.

“Spider Flakes! They’re my favorite.”

“Is that what they’re called?” Chara snatched the box and examined the back of it. “Huh, it says here that they’re made from 100% organically farmed spiders.”

“What!?” Asriel’s shock faded quickly into skepticism. “No it doesn’t.”

“Fraid so. Says it right here.”

Chara held up the box and pointed at some small text that was impossible to read from across the table.

“Come on Chara, I know you’re lying. You just said yesterday that you couldn’t read.”

Chara shrugged. “Believe what you want, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Chara took a big spoonful of spider flakes and stuck them into their mouth with a wink.

“If that’s true, then why are you so eager to eat them?”

“Hey, didn’t you know? Humans love to eat spiders. It’s one of our favorite foods. Isn’t that right Frisk?”

Frisk, happily munching on their spider flakes, nodded sagely. Asriel rolled his eyes.

“Well, at least you’re in a good mood this morning.”

“Heh, guess I am.”

Mom entered with Frisk’s tea and set it down on the table for them.

“Here you are, my child. Please be careful as it may still be a little hot for you.”

“Thanks Mom. I’ll drink it slowly.”

Saying Mom felt so natural. It was actually a relief not to have to think about it any more. Chara didn’t send Frisk a questioning thought this time. Instead they got straight to the point.

“So, you’re adopting us then?”

Toriel sighed.

“I am afraid returning you to the surface is beyond our ability. You see, a magical barrier keeps us trapped underground. Although you were able to fall through it into the Underground, I’m afraid nothing can leave. I know this might be difficult to accept right now, however, I promise that my husband and I will take care of you. You can have a good life here.”

“Should I call you Mom?”

“Ah, my child, you may if you wish, but I understand if-”

“Then I’ll call you Mom. It’s fine. I thought about it last night and, well, I like it here. It seems maybe too good to be true, but if you’re promising not to kick me out then I don’t want to do anything to make you regret it.”

“My child, please rest assured, we would never ‘kick you out’ for misbehavior. And we would understand if terms for us like ‘Mom’ or ‘Dad’ would seem strange to you… We are promising to look after you regardless of what comes and we do hope for your happiness. Ah, but please don’t misbehave. We would still have to punish you. After all, that is what parents do with their misbehaving children, is it not?”

Chara closed their eyes and was silent. Frisk looked at them in concern.

Chara?

Last night… I was trying to find out what they wanted from us. When they started talking about that prophecy business I thought: Aha! They need us to break some barrier for them! But then Mrs. Er- ‘Mom’ was opposed to the whole idea. So… it’s strange, but- I feel like I can trust them.

I think so too.

Chara opened their eyes.

“What about the other Monsters? Will they really be ok with you adopting us?”

“As for that. We plan to make a formal announcement at the end of the week. The Underground will learn you are our children at the same time they learn you are human. There may be some misgivings, but they will respect the decision of the Royal Family in this matter.”

Chara’s eyes went wide. They mouthed the words ‘Royal Family’, but no sound came out. They shot a look at Frisk who hadn’t reacted at all and was still happily munching on their spider flakes.

You knew. Why am I not surprised?

The doctor told me.

Of course he did.

Besides, how did the way they were talking last night not tip you off?

I don’t know. Adults are always talking about politics like their opinions matter. It doesn’t automatically make them monarchs!

In the stretching silence, Mom looked searchingly at Chara’s face.

“Did we… did we never mention it?”

“No!”

Asriel giggled at Chara’s overreaction. Mom seemed slightly embarrassed. And Chara was looking frantically around the room.

“But this- this is just a house? I mean. It’s a normal house. Shouldn’t it be. I don’t know. A castle?”

“The castle is at the center of the city. It is a place for formal events and conducting various official matters. I do not think it would be a very comfortable place to live.”

Chara pushed out their chair and stood.

“I need a moment. Alone. To process this. Frisk. You’re coming too.”

Asriel giggled. “That’s not what alone means.”

“It’s fine.” Frisk gulped down their tea. Thankfully it had cooled and was pleasingly warm. “I’ve already finished my flakes.”

Frisk followed Chara back to their room. They closed the door and sat together on the bed. There was no need for words. The shock of the Dreemurr’s being Royalty was just an excuse and both children knew very well the real reason why they needed some privacy. They needed to talk.

Frisk felt at once eager and apprehensive to have this conversation.

Before the Preset, Frisk and Chara had been partners. And yeah, Chara could be a bit snappish at times, but Frisk valued their wry wit and careful advice, not to mention their friendship. Frisk had felt more than a little lost in this brief time without them by their side.

However, Frisk was fairly certain that Chara remembered nothing of the time they had shared together. As far as Chara was concerned, they had just met. And if they’d been picking up on Frisk’s thoughts this whole time, well…that meant Chara was going to have questions. Hard questions that Frisk wasn’t sure they would be able to answer even if they wanted to.

Chara lay back on the bed with their legs dangling over the edge.

“I’m thinking of a number between 1 and 100.”

“What?”

“Guess it. Guess the number.”

“9?”

“Oh come on. You didn’t even try. I’m thinking about it right now. Over and over and over.”

“What do you- Oh. Hmm.”

Frisk concentrated, trying to pick up even the faintest sign of a telepathic trace coming off of Chara, but-

I’m not sensing anything from you.

Good. That’s what I thought. Even if I’m thinking really hard about something specific, you only hear my thoughts if I purposefully direct them towards you. And I think it works the same for both of us. Which begs the question: why were you sending thoughts at me in the first place? I don’t think you knew I was receiving them. What you said was far too random. And the look on your face when I decided to try responding- that was gold. I wish I’d had a camera.

I didn’t know. I’m not even sure what all I thought at you. Maybe you picked up on the things I thought about saying to you, but didn’t verbalize?

I could almost buy that, Frisk, but there’s one other thing. The very first time I picked up a thought from you it went something like ‘I just want to be friends again’. Why the heck would you say again?

Frisk hesitated. How could they possibly answer that? Deny it? Pretend that Chara had heard an again that wasn’t there. Or maybe pretend that they’d known Chara on the surface? Except there was no way to back that up with anything. They knew nothing about Chara’s life on the surface other than that they’d had a bad time up there. Relating to that experience would hardly be enough to back up such a bogus claim.

Even the truth would be a hard sell. I mean really? I’m a time traveler. You used to be dead, but your ghost shared a body with me and that’s probably got something to do with why we can talk like this now? There’s no way Chara would buy that.

Frisk.

Huh?

I’m not stupid, ok? I can tell you’re sitting there trying to think up a lie. You want to be friends right? Why can’t you just tell me?

Frisk sighed.

Alright, fine. The truth is… this really is the first time you’ve met me and it’s the first time I’ve met you. But I used to be really really close friends with someone who was a lot like you and when I see you all I can think of is them. I know you’re not them, but at the same time, to a pretty large part of me, you are.

What the frick, Frisk.

You wanted the truth, so there it is. I thought ‘again’ because I wanted my friendship with that person back. I’m sorry you overheard that thought. I know it’s not really a good point to start a friendship with you, but in spite of all that, I really do want to be friends with you, Chara.

Now it was Chara’s turn to sigh.

One last question then. This telepathy is super cool and all, but I’ve been trying it on Asriel and it only seems to work with you. Do you have any idea why we are able to do this?

Frisk shook their head. The best they had were guesses.

You’re the only person I’ve ever had respond to me in my own head. Maybe the Doctor could tell us?

No! We can’t tell anyone else. This has to be a secret. Promise me.

Alright. I promise.

It was kinda cool. And Frisk didn’t really feel the need to understand the precise nature of their ability. They’d never really understood how the Resets worked either. All they needed to know was that Chara and them shared a special connection. They would be close friends again. Frisk was certain of it.

Chapter Text

The three kids stood in their nightshirts, watching as Mom shuffled through Asriel’s closet with a grim expression on her face. She pulled out a cheery yellow shirt and held it first up to Chara’s chest and then to Frisk’s. Frisk thought it looked a touch small, but it would probably fit in a pinch. Mom apparently didn’t agree though because she muttered something under her breath and then laid it out flat on the bed with the last four failures.

Frisk was getting antsy.

“Really Mom, I don’t mind wearing the sweater I fell down here in again.”

“After the three of you played in that muddy flower garden yesterday afternoon? I think not. I’ll not have my children running about the city in filthy clothes. Washington will be by for dirty laundry tomorrow. You can wear it again after that.”

“Washington?” Frisk imagined a painting of Washua crossing the Delaware.

“Ah, he is a member of the Wash family. Washington cleans most of the laundry in the Underground.”

Chara raised an eyebrow. “What? All on his own?”

“Yes. He is very efficient about it and, of course, with his specialized magic it hardly takes him any time at all. Though he does sometimes get distracted… Once I caught him cleaning the flower beds… I do not think he understood why I asked him to stop, though since then we’ve paid him a little bit extra not to.”

Mom picked out another shirt, this one blue with a motif of little orange flames dancing along the hem.

“Oh. Asriel. I remember this one. You used to wear it while pretending to be-”

“MOM!” Asriel hid his face behind his ears in obvious embarrassment at whatever story Mom had just started to tell.

“Hehehe. Well, anyway, you stretched it out shoving your pillows under it to look bigger a few too many times. I don’t think you’ve worn it in months now. Hmm.”

She held it up to Chara and nodded to herself. “This should do for today. Now I just need to find one more…”

Chara looked at the shirt as Mom handed it to them and wrinkled their nose.

“Frisk, we’re the same size right? You take this one. Blue really isn’t my color.”

Frisk shrugged. “Fine by me.”

Chara shoved the shirt into Frisk’s arms and then turned their attention back to Mom.

“So do all Monsters know how to do magic?”

“Monsters are largely composed of magic, my child. It is a part of us. Much as Humans are composed mostly of physical matter. Of course, we still have to learn how to control our magic if we want to put it to any sort of practical use.”

“Could I learn?”

“Ah. Hmm…” Mom paused with her hand deep in the closet. She seemed lost in thought. Frisk exchanged a glance with Asriel and Chara.

“Mom?”

“Oh! Sorry.” Mom went back to her shuffling, but she still didn’t answer the question. “Here we are.” Mom pulled out an olive colored dress. She held it out to Chara. “This robe used to belong to Asriel’s father back when he was a boy. We thought Asriel might wear it, but styles have changed and he wants nothing to do with it. It will fit you I think.”

Chara stared at the dress like they didn’t quite know how to process what they were being offered.

Chara?

Nothing.

Chara, if you don’t want to wear it you can still have the shirt.

Don’t be stupid. I told you. I don’t like blue.

Chara took the dress from mom. They held it loosely from their shoulders and looked down at it. Apparently this wasn’t good enough to get an idea of how they looked because a moment later they hurried across the hall to the bathroom to stare at themself in the mirror too. They nodded at their reflection, then grabbed the knob on the bathroom door. “I’m trying it on!”

As the door shut, Mom smiled. “Well, Chara seems to like it.”

Frisk’s eyes shifted from the closed door back to Mom. She had never answered Chara’s question, but now that Frisk thought about it, hadn’t it been a bunch of human mages who cast the barrier to begin with? That meant humans had to be capable of learning magic, didn’t it? But nobody in Frisk’s time even believed magic was a real thing. So what had happened?

Frisk must have been staring too hard, because Mom took notice.

“What is it, my child?”

“Oh. Um. Sorry. I was just thinking about magic. It is probably really hard to learn, isn’t it? For humans I mean.”

Mom sighed.

“Humans do possess a tenuous amount of magical affinity, so it is technically possible. However, you are physical beings, as I said, and your strengths lie elsewhere. It would take an awful lot of work before you could do even simple tasks with magic.”

The bathroom door opened and Chara returned, now wearing the olive dress. It wasn’t particularly fancy, but Chara twirled around in it, smiling as the fringe fluttered about their ankles. They stopped abruptly when Asriel giggled at them.

“Hehehe, if you like it that much you can keep it.”

“Sh-shut up. I mean. It’s alright I guess. If you really don’t want it.”

Very smooth. Frisk tried not to grin too hard at Chara’s fluster. They wanted Chara to have this moment.

“You look nice, Chara.”

“Um. Thanks.”

Mom nodded along, happy that everyone else seemed happy.

“Anyway, if you’re both interested in seeing some magic, there’s a street show not far from Wisknits, where you’ll be getting measured for your new clothes. It’s still a bit early, but we could stop by on our way back home.”

Even Asriel’s ears perked up at that suggestion.

“Mom, can I come too?”

Mom laughed. “My child, you were already coming. The whole family will be attending your father’s announcement at the end of this week, so you’ll be needing a new suit too.”

Asriel groaned, but there was still a twinkle in his eye. Frisk wondered what all a monster magic show entailed, but if Asriel was looking forward to it, then it would probably quite the spectacle indeed.

Chapter Text

From the outside, Wisknits was a gaudy deluge of color that affronted the eye with its blaring intensity. Each letter on the sign blinked with a different neon hue and it was impossible to look in through the windows because giant balls of yarn had been piled in front of them like a pyramidic rainbow. Even the outside walls, which would have been a stately purple anywhere else in the city, had been repainted to have an almost tie dyed look.

Frisk and Chara gaped openly, but Asriel just let out a mighty sigh which he matched with an equally impressive pout.

“I hate this place.”

Mom clucked her tongue.

“You did ask to come, did you not?”

“Yeah, but that was before I knew I’d have to get measured too. I just want to see the street show.”

“Really, Asriel. We’ll be in and out and on our way before you know it.”

A bell jangled as Mom led the way inside. Some kind of cat-monster sat at the front desk. Their eyes were half-lid and they had their head propped lazily against one hand while the other batted a ball of white yawn back and forth across the counter. Frisk was reminded vaguely of Burgerpants, though with a more, um, normally shaped face. Maybe this was a relative? They only spoke when Mom cleared her throat politely.

“Welcome to Wisknits. Yarn’s in the front, fabric’s in the back. Thread and needles are-” They stopped, apparently just then realizing who they were talking to. “-ahhhhh!” They jerked into an upright, almost uncomfortably rigid position. “Queen Toriel! Forgive me! You-”

“We have an appointment with Wisknit.”

“Yes. She is expecting you. On the right. Up the stairs.” The cat-monster’s eyes wavered past the Queen and over the three children, but then snapped right back to her, not daring to ask. “And if you need anything else, please let me know!”

“Thank you. Children, this way.”

All through the city Mom had insisted on hand holding, but apparently now that they had made it to their destination she trusted them to follow on their own. This was just as well because the stairs were somewhat narrow and steep. Frisk wasn’t sure it would be safe to go more than one person at a time.

The second story was less of a second floor and more of a casual loft. There were two comfortable looking couches with a low table between them and in the back, a fancy folded changing screen with several hand-knit sweaters draped over the top. A long rail ran the length of the front side of the loft and looking back over it, Frisk could see much of the store below, even that cat-monster who had gone back to batting their yarn, though now from a rigid upright position.

“Sni sni, what have we here? Who is this come to see old Wisknit?”

Frisk turned from their balcony gazing to see a mouse-monster with giant ears peering up at them. She was about half Frisk’s size even counting the ears and was wrapped tightly from head to toe in both brightly colored scarves and measuring tape. Her nose and whiskers stuck out with a pair of oversized glasses balanced on them, magnifying her black beady eyes. She looked like a colorful bespectacled mummy.

Frisk smiled and offered a hand in greeting. “Hi, I’m-”

“-A human.” Wisknit finished for them, eying the hand like it might be some kind of trap. “Sni sni, Wisknit is not so old as to have forgotten.”

“And yet it seems that Wisknit has forgotten her manners.” Mom’s glower was darker than it had been for that first poor Froggit Frisk had encountered in the ruins. “You do remember how to shake hands, do you not?”

“Indeed. Indeed. For the Queen then.”

Wisknit took Frisk’s hand and shook it with a cloth wrapped hand of her own. Though a grudging shake, Wisknit’s grip was surprisingly firm. Frisk decided to try again with the introduction.

“I’m Frisk.”

“Wisknit.” The word still sounded strained and suspicious.

“I like your store. It’s so colorful and lively.”

“Sni. Indeed. And the other one? What do they think?”

Wisknit turned, peering at Chara who, Frisk only now noticed, was clutching at Mom’s dress and hiding safely behind her.

Chara? What’s wrong?

Nothing. Chara didn’t respond to Frisk. They didn’t respond to Wisknit either. In fact, they seemed strangely afraid to meet this old mouse. Frisk frowned. This wasn’t the Chara they knew… but then, the Chara they knew had been around monsters for a long time before they met.

Mom looked down at Chara and placed a careful hand on their head. She didn’t try to dislodge them from her dress.

“Wisknit, listen for a moment, will you not? These two children fell down here a few days ago. They are innocent and ignorant of the war you remember and we have no means of returning them to the surface.”

“Indeed. Indeed. But why bring them to old Wisknit? Why trouble her with these things?”

“Asgore and I have decided to adopt them. There will be a formal announcement at the end of the week, but we will need appropriate clothes for all three of our children in addition to more regular day to day attire for these two. I will also require absolute secrecy on this matter in the meantime. You are capable of all this, are you not?”

“Sni… Wisknit will do as the Queen commands.”

“Then I command it, if that is what it takes.”

“A moment. A moment to set up please.”

Whiskers twitching, Wisknit toured the long way around the room. She stopped by a pointing stick with a large rubber tip that was propped against the wall and picked it up. Two steps further and she paused again to jab the stick at a light switch that was too far up the wall for her to otherwise reach. The rubber tip missed only once before two spotlights flickered on, creating a circle of brilliance at the back of the room.

“If the young prince will stand in the circle, Wisknit will do him first.”

Asriel groaned, but his mother nudged him onwards and, shoulders drooping in defeat, he did as bade while the rest of the group found a spot to wait on the couches.

Wisknit exchanged her pointing stick for a squat step stool and waddled with it across the room. She set the stool down next to Asriel and climbed up onto it. Then, reaching inside the folds of her multi-colored scarves, Wisknit pulled out a roll of measuring tape and a full measuring stick (which was somehow larger than she was) and set to work.

“Shoulders up. Arms out. Back straight. Sni sni, straighter.”

Asriel’s face was locked in a constant state of total agony for the entire process. It was over in a minute, but from the way Asriel slumped onto the couch next to Frisk when he was released, one might have thought he’d been standing there for hours.

“If I never have to do that again it will be too soon.”

Frisk gave his still slumped head a reassuring pat.

“There. There. It’s over now.”

Asriel looked up at Frisk with big eyes.

“For me yes. But now you’ll have to go through it. And then Chara.”

That was true. Wisknit was busily jotting down measurement notes onto a clipboard at the moment, but soon she would be ready for the next child. Frisk wasn’t worried about themself, but they weren’t sure how Chara would handle it. They were sitting very close to Mom.

Wisknit tore Asriel’s form from the clipboard and pinned it directly into the wall with a tack.

“Next. Next. It matters not which.”

With one last glance at Chara, Frisk stood and walked to stand at the center of the circle of light. It was a little blinding to be in the twin spotlights, but Frisk supposed the old mouse needed the extra light to get precise measurements. Wisknit jotted Frisk’s name at the top of the new form.

“Wisknit thought it would be you. Your friend seems rather shy.”

“Actually, we’re the same size. Would it be possible to use my measurements for them too?”

“The same size? Are you twins? …No, they seem paler and their hair is a shade redder. Hmm. Hmm. Wisknit could do it, yes, but would she advise it? No. Even at a similar height there are other measurements to consider.” Wisknit climbed up onto her stool. “But why do you ask this? Are you trying to save them from old Wisknit? Sni sni sni. That would do even less.”

Frisk put their arms out and stood as straight as they could while they tried to understand what the old mouse meant. “What do you mean ‘that would do even less’?”

“They are uncomfortable. Wisknit understands this. She is uncomfortable too. But Wisknit measures you anyway because the Queen asks. And because Wisknit is old and has seen many things, she suspects that by doing this the discomfort will go away. For your friend, it is the same.”

Frisk thought about this and then nodded their head. Chara had gotten used to monsters on their own in a timeline without Frisk around to interfere. Maybe it was a bad idea to try to protect them from their first experience with one outside of the Dreemurr family. Chara would have to learn to deal with them sooner or later after all.

“You are a wise monster, Wisknit, and pretty nice too I think.”

“Indeed. Indeed.” Wisknit rolled her measuring tape back up and stowed it inside her many scarves. “And for a human, you listen rather well. But we are done here. I need to finish recording your measurements, but you may go join your family on the couch.”

Frisk sat back down between Chara and Asriel without a word. And when Wisknit called ‘Next’ again, Chara stood. There was a slight tremble in Chara’s hand, but they joined the mouse-monster in the spotlight without hesitation. Frisk let out a big sigh of relief. Wisknit had been right. Chara was completely capable of facing up to this on their own.

Frisk closed their eyes and sank deep into the couch cushions to reflect. Sans had been right too. Frisk was the sort to want to fix everything and that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but maybe they had taken too short of view of that today. And when it came to helping Chara and Asriel, short term thinking might not be good enough. Next time, Frisk decided, they would have to think harder before trying to interfere.

Chapter Text

The depression of the cushions on Frisk’s right and the sound of faintly creaking couch springs made Frisk open their eyes. Wisknit had already finished with Chara. Frisk watched as the old mouse scribbled her notes for a moment, then looked at Chara. They seemed much calmer now that they weren’t gripping onto Mom’s dress. Mom seemed to notice too and she smiled down at Chara.

“How was it, my child?”

“Not as bad as Asriel made it sound.”

Frisk laughed. “I didn’t think so either.”

Asriel’s eyes went wide at this double betrayal. His face twisted into a weird grimace and he crossed his arms.

“You’re only saying that because Wisknit didn’t order you to stand up straighter and stiller the whole time.”

The old mouse’s whiskers twitched at that and she found a seat, clipboard still in hand, on the couch across from the Dreemurr’s.

“Maybe if the young prince stood as straight and as still as these humans, Wisknit wouldn’t have to.” The mouse set her clipboard down on the low table. “Though Wisknit supposes your father was just as fidgety as a boy. Couldn’t hold still for more than a second at a time, that one.”

“Wow. You knew my Dad when he was my age?”

“Indeed. Indeed. As Wisknit recalls, she was the one who made him that robe.” Wisknit pointed at the olive dress Chara was wearing. “It suits you child. Sni sni. Strangely fitting that Wisknit should see it again and on a human no less. If you like it, old Wisknit will make you something more in line with today’s styles.”

Chara looked up at Mom with hope in their eyes. “Can I?”

“Of course, my child. Part of the reason we are here is to fill out your empty wardrobe. Ask for anything you would like.”

Hundreds of ideas flooded Frisk’s mind. Anything? Without boundaries the possibilities were truly endless.

“Me too?”

“You too, Frisk. You both need clothes. Let us say eight outfits each for now? That should be enough to start, should it not?”

Only eight? But still anything? Well, probably anything. Frisk had a sneaking suspicion that Mom retained a secret veto for anything too outlandish, but that was fine.

Not to be left out, Asriel raised his hand too.

“What about me? Can I get eight outfits too?”

Mom blinked, but then thought about it.

“Asriel… you already have more than eight outfits in your closet. All that you need is a new suit.”

“Aww, pleeease. It’s not fair to let Frisk and Chara pick out that many new clothes and not let me get anything. What if it’s just one thing? Can I get one thing?”

Mom sighed and exchanged some sort of a glance with Wisknit.

“Oh very well. You may ask for one item.”

“Great. I already know what I want.”

“Tell Wisknit then.”

“Chara has a green sweater with a yellowish stripe. And Frisk has a blue sweater with two red stripes. So I want an orange sweater with three purple stripes!”

Chara snickered. “Are you trying to out stripe us? You do realize we could simply get a four or five stripe sweater as part of our eight outfits?”

“What? Chara. That’s not fair. You can’t do that!”

“Don’t worry, I’m just teasing. I would never ask for a four or five stripe sweater. I mean, it’s obvious that one stripe is the best number of stripes. I thought you knew that. Didn’t you say you wanted a sweater just like mine?”

“Y-yeah, but then I met Frisk and I liked their sweater too, so I decided I wanted mine to stand out more.”

“Pffft, well you’ll definitely stand out with an orange sweater and three purple stripes.”

Frisk grinned. “I think it sounds great. Maybe I’ll get one too.”

“Friiiiisk! Noooooo! Not you too.” Asriel was obviously at his limit. “Please just let me have this.”

“Well, I dunno. I was thinking Chara could get one as well and we could all match.” Frisk paused just long enough for Asriel to think they were serious. “But since you asked nicely I suppose we can hold off on that idea for another time.”

“Thank you.” Asriel looked so relieved that Frisk almost felt bad for teasing.

Wisknit reached under one of her many scarves and pulled out a small notepad. She flipped it open and immediately started writing.

“One sweater for the young prince. As for you two…” Wisknit flipped a page and then tore out two. “Wisknit thinks it might be faster just to have you make her a list.”

Chapter Text

By the time Wisknit and Mom finally settled the last of the details and the group left the shop, the city streets had become a good deal busier. Mom took Asriel’s hand and Frisk took Chara’s and they walked two by two towards Market Street where Mom promised they would be able to see a monster performing magic tricks as part of a street show.

They passed many buildings on the way, but none that stood out the way Wisknits had. A few though, Frisk noticed, were restaurants.

How do they tell the time down here without the sun overhead?

Dunno, but it must be getting close to Lunch.

All it took was the thought and Frisk’s stomach rumbled. A moment later, Chara’s rumbled an agreement. Asriel tilted his head back with curiosity at the two of them.

“How are you making that noise?”

“What? You mean our rumbly tummies?” Frisk laughed and left Chara to answer the question.

“It means we’re hungry. Don’t monsters ever get hungry?”

Asriel nodded. “Sure, but when we do we say something like ‘I’m hungry’. We don’t make weird noises come out of our bellies.”

“It’s not on purpose, stupid. It’s just something human bodies do.”

Mom slowed.

“Chara, my child, please do not call Asriel ‘stupid’. It is not a nice word for you to use. You would dislike being called stupid too, would you not?”

Chara looked down at the ground. As far as Frisk could tell, Chara said words like that almost reflexively, but it was hard to imagine Mom would put up with any sort of name calling in her presence. Maybe that was why Chara hadn’t been quite as bad about it in the future. Even now, Chara seemed to be ashamed after getting called out on it.

“I’m sorry, Asriel. I didn’t mean it.”

“No, it’s alright. I really didn’t know, so I guess I was being a bit stupid…”

“No!” Chara snapped, making both Frisk and Asriel jump. “It’s not ok. If someone is mean to you, you can’t just accept it.” Chara’s voice got kinda quiet. ”You shouldn’t let someone bully you like that.”

“Chara…”

“And don’t look at me like that either. You’re being-” Chara caught themself and started over. “There was no reason for you to know how human bodies work. I’m just a jerk sometimes, ok?”

Mom looked back at Chara with a worried expression.

“Oh. Um. Chara. Please don’t call yourself a ‘jerk’ either. It is not good to punish yourself like that. You should simply resolve to do better next time, should you not?”

Chara didn’t say anything. They just kept looking at their shoes. Mom’s expression grew more worried, but she returned her attention ahead.

“Um, anyway, since you are hungry, we should get something to eat. There are many food stalls on Market Street. If you see something you would like, please let me know.”

Chara’s grip on Frisk’s hand tightened. A moment later, Frisk heard Chara’s words in their head.

They are both far too forgiving.

Huh? I don’t understand. Do you want to be in trouble?

Don’t be stu- arrgh. See, I can’t even frikkin stop when I’m trying. And will you stop grinning at me like that? You look like a darn fool. What if Asriel turned around and saw you grinning for no apparent reason? You could blow our cover!

Nah. I’d just make something up. You know, tell him I’d thought of a silly joke or something. But you’re changing the subject… why’re you beating yourself up so hard over this?

I just don’t like bullies, ok? And Asriel- he’s done absolutely nothing to deserve my bad side. I don’t mean to bully him, but it’s just so easy. He needs to learn to stand up for himself.

Frisk wasn’t sure what to say to that. Chara wasn’t wrong that they pushed Asriel around maybe more than he deserved. And Frisk also thought that Asriel should probably develop more of a backbone. But still, they couldn’t force him to change. Frisk sighed.

It’s not just you or Asriel. I think everyone probably has something they could get better at. I felt kinda bad about teasing Asriel in Wisknits earlier myself. But maybe it’s like Mom said- the most important thing is to try to improve.

Maybe…

Chara didn’t sound entirely convinced, but just then Frisk saw Sans in the crowd and jerked their head around to get a better look. The chubby skeleton was standing at a food cart. As Frisk watched, he handed over some gold for a hot dog.

Of course he’s buying a hot dog.

What?

Oh. Frisk had not meant to share that thought. Um, I just saw my doctor. He’s buying a hot dog.

Wait. They have hot dogs down here and we’ve been eating snails?

Want one?

Heck yeah!

Frisk grinned. “Hot dogs!” And Chara joined in. “Hot dogs!”

Asriel, not having the advantage of telepathic communication, was slow to catch on. “Hot dogs?

“Yeah!” Frisk pointed with their free hand. “Over there. Can we? Please?”

Mom nodded and steered the group towards the hot dog stand. The crowds literally parted for Mom without any prompting and soon enough the four of them were standing behind Sans watching the stall’s attendant cook the skeleton a hot dog. The attendant was some sort of flame-monster like Grillby, though they weren’t nearly as well dressed. They handed the hot dog to Sans.

“You sure you don’t want ketchup with that?”

“Thanks, but I’m not thirsty right now.”

The skeleton turned and noticed the Queen for the first time.

“Ah, your Highness.” Sans took a bite out of his hotdog. “Out with the three Lownesses I see.”

Mom looked at Sans with a perplexed expression. “That voice… I am terribly sorry to ask this, but do I know you?”

“Nah, wouldn’t think so, but two of these kids know me. The name’s Doctor Sans. Actually, maybe we spoke on the phone when I called yesterday morning?”

“Oh! Yes, that was me.” Mom glanced about at the crowded market. “I must thank you for your discretion on that matter.”

“Think nothing of it.” Sans had on his trademark grin. His eyes shifted to Frisk. “And how’s the head doing kiddo? Just two more days before we can take those bandages off.”

Frisk reached up and touched their head bandage. They’d almost forgotten it was there.

“It’s still sticky.”

Sans winked. “Well, that’s how you know it’s working.”

The hot dog stand attendant cleared their throat.

“If your Highness was interested in placing an order I could get that going while you continue your conversation.”

“Oh! I’m sorry. I’d nearly forgotten. We’ll take four hot dogs please.”

“Better hope they don’t run out,” Sans murmured to the kids as Mom counted out the gold for her purchase. “One of you might get stuck with a hot cat instead.”

Chara snorted and Asriel giggled, but Frisk just smiled at the skeleton politely. Sans shook his head.

“Guess you heard that one already, eh Frisk?”

“Sorry, my funny bone is hard to tickle. I’m also a bit surprised to see you here.”

“What? You thought I lived in that lab? It’s important to enjoy your time off, get a hot dog, see a show.”

Sans put a weird amount of emphasis on the word show. Frisk raised an eyebrow and was about to ask when Asriel chimed in.

“We came to see the show too! Chara and Frisk were interested in seeing some magic.”

“That so?” Sans phrased it like a question, but it seemed like somehow he already knew. Even Chara picked up that something was odd.

What’s this guy’s deal?

Well, he’s the doctor who patched me up, like I said. I take it you two haven’t met?

Nope. They brought in a skeleton doctor to examine me, but not this one.

Oblivious to the telepathic conversation, Asriel continued right on talking to Sans.

“You should come see the show with us.”

“I wouldn’t want to intrude.”

“Mom wouldn’t mind. Would you Mom?”

“Hmm? Oh. Doctor Sans would be welcome to join us if that is what he would like.”

Sans grinned. “Well, since you’re offering. It’s better than being ‘bonely’. Asriel giggled again and Chara rolled their eyes. “You’re a great crowd.”

Frisk set their jaw. He had stolen their stolen joke. Sans took another big bite of his hot dog.

“Hey, what’s the matter kid? Got a bone to pick with me?”

“Nah.” Frisk decided two could play at that game. “I was just thinking you must have a Skele-TON of jokes in your arsenal.”

“Wow, it’s like you can see right through me.”

That one got a full laugh from Chara, but then the joke-spree was interrupted as Mom started passing out hot dogs to all the kids (with the ketchup already on top). As Chara took the first bite of their hot dog, they glanced towards Frisk.

I can see why you like him.

See. He’s not so bad. Plus he has a whole lab. If we let him in on the telepathy secret he could probably help us understand what’s going on.

Hmm. Running a few tests is a good idea. We still don’t know the limits of our telepathy. But we can do that on our own. The doctor is a funny guy, but there’s something off about him too. I don’t think we should trust him.

How could you say that? You only just met. You don’t even know him.

That’s kinda my point, Frisk. Neither do you. Not really. I mean, I get it. He’s the reason you’re here right?

Frisk hesitated. Sans had been instrumental in sending them back to 201X, but Chara couldn’t possibly know that.

What are you saying?

I’m saying that he saved you. Like Asriel saved me. Otherwise we probably wouldn’t be here.

Oh. Right.

He helped you, so you want to trust him, but you never know what sort of ulterior motives he might have. Like, right now? He might be trying to get close to the Royal Family for some nefarious reason. We should keep an eye on him.

Frisk thought about the letter they couldn’t read. Then they thought about the level of coincidence involved in Sans turning up to see the exact same show that Mom was bringing them to see. They had thought Sans agreed to help with the Preset because he believed it was the only solution left, but what if there really was an ulterior motive?

You might be right, but-

“Heh. You kids sure do love to stare at each other in silence.”

Frisk and Chara jumped, suddenly snapped back into an awareness of their surroundings. It wasn’t just Sans. Mom and Asriel were looking at them too. Sans shoved the last of his hot dog into his mouth.

“Sorry. Did I interrupt something?”

A sly smile crept onto Frisk’s face. “Oh. Sans. Do you have a map I could borrow?”

“A map? No… Why do you need a map?”

“Cause I think I just got lost in Chara’s eyes.”

Chara’s face went pink. “W-what? You-”

“My child, are you alright? Your cheeks look like they are burning up.”

Sans grinned. “Not to worry your majesty. It’s been a while, but I’m sure you remember the phenomenon known as blushing.”

“Oh! Yes, of course. Ah, but that would mean…” Mom looked significantly between Chara and Frisk. Chara hid their face behind their hot dog and busied themself with finishing it off.

I am going to kill you.

Hey, it worked didn’t it? But we probably shouldn’t talk like this too much around other people.

Agreed. The doctor in particular. He is too observant.

“So your name is Chara is it?” Sans grinned and offered a hand. “I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.”

Chara looked at the hand suspiciously, but took it and was rewarded by a loud and long farting noise as Sans firmly completed the handshake. Mom looked like she was holding in a laugh. Asriel and Frisk didn’t bother holding it in. Chara just stood stone still and Sans started to look like maybe he regretted the joke.

“Look, uh-”

Chara cut him off. “I didn’t catch wind of this till now, but you’re a bit of a bonehead, aren’t you?”

“Wow. Heh. Just wow. I can see why Frisk likes you.”

“Funny. I had a similar thought about you.”

Frisk put their hands on their hips. “Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

The two half turned to look at Frisk. Neither said anything. They just smiled in unison. It was… creepy. Thankfully, Asriel chose that moment to dance into the middle of everyone.

“The show is going to start soon! Can’t you see the crowd gathering on the other end of the street? If we don’t go now we’re going to be at the very back!”

As it turned out, Asriel hadn’t been exaggerating. By the time their group joined the throng quite a crowd had gathered around the stage. The stage was a simple circular platform with a rotating spotlight mounted at the center and monsters had gathered on all sides to see the show. A few people did make way for the Queen, but many were too busy looking forward to notice and Mom wasn’t the sort to abuse her authority.

On the stage was a Snowdrake and a Madjick. Were those monster types or actual names? Frisk wasn’t sure. They made a mental note to find out later. The Madjick was juggling three orbs as the Snowdrake addressed the crowd.

“Crowd in close folks! Crowd in close! There are no seats here so this is standing room only!”

Frisk was jostled a bit from the side as more monsters pushed in. Luckily a lot of these monsters weren’t too tall. In a crowd of humans this size it would have been hard to see through this many people.

“My name is Showdrake and my partner here is Madtrick and boy have we got a show for you today!”

Well, that answered that question. They were names. But apparently they didn’t change too much?

“But to warm up, let’s meet someone from the crowd! Hmmmm. Who shall it be today?”

Showdrake pointed out at the crowd, one feathered finger slowly tracing it’s way around the circular stage. On Frisk’s right, Asriel was rocking on his toes and waving his hand to catch Showdrake’s attention, but the finger stopped instead on a Loox look-alike. A loox-alike? Frisk thought that was a great pun, but they had nobody to share it with who would understand the context. Oh well.

“You there! The one with the big eye! Come on up and join me on the stage! Let everyone get as good a look at you as you are of us! Hahaha.”

This elicited a few chuckles from the crowd as the loox-alike was corralled up onto the stage.

“What’s your name, friend?”

“I-it’s Peex, sir.”

“Well, Peex, how would you like to be my pupil? Hahaha.”

The crowd laughed a bit.

“I’ll show you how it’s done. Just keep your eye on me. Hahaha.”

The crowd laughed again. Peex looked uncomfotable.

On Frisk’s left, Chara made a small noise. “That isn’t funny.”

“I’ll warn you though, this trick you’re about to see requires absolute focus. Hahaha. You can focus, can’t you Peex? Hahaha.”

The crowd laughed harder. Peex wasn’t saying anything. He just stared straight ahead like he was looking through Showdrake waiting for it to be over.

Chara’s voice was louder now. “It’s Not Funny.”

A few monsters looked their way, but not for long. They were too interested in what was going on upon the stage.

“Come on Peex, why don’t you tell the crowd? Are my jokes good or do they just keep getting cornea and cornea? HaHaHa.”

Peex’s eye was watering, but the crowd roared with laugher. Chara screamed furiously over all of them, pushing their way towards the stage.

“STOP PICKING ON HIM! WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH YOU!? CAN’T YOU SEE HE’S ABOUT TO CRY!?”

There was dead silence as Chara vaulted up onto the stage. Chara planted themself firmly between Peex and Showdrake. Madtrick had stopped juggling. His three balls just hung in the air.

“H-Hey folks, looks like we have another viewer eager to join the show!”

“You call this a show? You’re nothing but a bully!”

Peex took the opportunity to leave as the crowd booed and someone yelled, “Get off the stage, Kid.” From one side, a burly looking security monster was climbing up onto the stage as well to escort Chara away. But before the burly monster even got close, a new hush fell over the crowd as the Queen climbed the steps up to the stage. Everyone froze.

“Chara. Come here.”

“But-!”

“Fear not, my child. I intend to deal with it.”

Chara cast one more glare at the comedian and then marched angrily to Mom’s side. She put a hand on Chara’s shoulder.

“Chara is right. These jokes are not appropriate for this stage and I cannot in good conscience allow you to bully a member of your own audience. You will find a different opening to your routine or you will find yourself banned from the Market Street Stage.”

“B-but your Majesty-”

“I believe I have made myself clear, have I not?”

Showdrake bowed his head. “Yes, your Majesty.”

Mom turned and looked out at the audience. They all withered under her stare. The crowd had already thinned considerably.

“Very well. I shall allow you to get on with your act now. Come Chara.”

Mom guided them off the stage and away from the crowd to where Sans had taken Frisk and Asriel to wait a safe distance off. Mom gave Sans a grateful half smile as she approached.

“Thank you for guarding these two for me.”

Sans shrugged. “Wasn’t hard.”

“Even so.” Mom sighed. “I’m sorry, but I don’t think it would be a good idea to stay for the magic at this point.”

Frisk and Chara looked at each other and also gave half-hearted shrugs. Chara cast one last angry glare at the stage and then turned their back on it.

“Let’s just go home.”

Chapter Text

When the family arrived home early that afternoon, Chara retreated to their bed and wrapped themself in blankets like a turtle that had withdrawn into its shell. They didn’t come back out.

After an hour of giving Chara space, Asriel decided to go in. Since he reasoned Chara was upset about missing the magic show, he thought maybe offering to show off his own magic would cheer them up. But it was only a minute before Asriel came back out, his head hung in despair.

“Chara said no. They didn’t even want me to stay in the room with them… And- And their face and eyes were all puffy and bloodshot. I think they might have been crying.”

Duly concerned, Mom and Asgore went in to reassure Chara that standing up for Peex had been the right thing to do. The two of them were very proud of Chara and not upset at all. Chara listened to all they had to say, but then quietly asked once again to be left alone. The Dreemurr’s didn’t know what to else to do. They weren’t even sure what was wrong, but they honored Chara’s request.

Frisk hung around outside of the room for a long time after the others had dispersed. Frisk thought they knew the problem, but instead of going inside, they rested their forehead against the closed door for a moment of contemplation.

Just this morning in Wisknits they have promised themself that they would think before interfering, but how could they know if this was a good time or a bad one? The whole point of traveling back to 201X was to stop Chara from killing themself and to that end, they had told Asriel that buttercups were poisonous, but Frisk really didn’t think that would be enough. It would save Asgore from the accidental poisoning, yes, but Chara had chosen to die. The buttercups weren’t the real problem.

No. The problem was Chara’s choice. Frisk had never asked Chara directly about it while they had shared a body, largely because Chara had very obviously not wanted to discuss their own death. But now Frisk realized that maybe it would have been a good idea to try before coming back here to prevent it. Oh well. It was too late now.

Maybe they should just make themself available to Chara for anything they wanted to get off their chest. Chara had already shown a willingness to confide in them about certain things. Frisk just needed to offer their help.

Chara? I know you sent the others away, but do you want to talk about it?

…Not really. I just- I had started to think maybe monsters were different, you know?

Different than what?

Humans. Obviously. But they’re not. There are bullies here too and a whole mob of monsters willing to laugh right along with them. Asriel had told me monster souls were made of compassion, but that’s bullcrap! It’s- It’s propaganda or something.

Frisk frowned into the door and closed their eyes. The nature of souls was a topic better left to someone like Sans, though saying that to Chara would probably be a bad idea.

Monsters are people. If you expected them to be flawless I think you were just setting yourself up for disappointment. But I don’t think I’ve met any that were malicious either. Just like you or me, I think that they make mistakes sometimes, but that they can try to do better. So don’t give up on them. Not yet.

…Frisk.

Yeah?

Thanks. That does help. But… could you please leave me alone for a bit longer? I still need some time to think.

Alright.

Frisk pulled their head away from the door and saw Asriel standing two feet away with his head cocked to the side. One fuzzy ear dangled adorably away from his head and he was holding a squat box with a picture of mountains on the top.

“What are you doing?”

“Uh. Just? Thinking?”

Asriel raised an eyebrow, but then dropped it as his face shifted into a knowing (but also sympathetic) smile.

“You’re worried about Chara too, but you don’t know what to say to them, so you’re just standing here, huh?”

Frisk returned his smile with a sheepish grin.

“Something like that. I want to go in. I just- I think maybe it would be better to leave them alone. Give them time to sort their feelings.”

Asriel frowned down at the box in his hands.

“Oh. I was going to ask Chara if they wanted to do a puzzle. Do you think that would be bad?”

“I think they’d know your heart was in the right place, but I also don’t think they’d accept.” Frisk ran a hand through their hair and then scratched the back of their neck. “But hey! You and I could do the puzzle. It’s better than moping around waiting for Chara to feel better all day.”

“Y-yeah!”

Asriel led the way back to the family room and the two hunkered down together in the corner by the fire pokers. Asriel took the lid off of the box and dumped out the contents. He then put the lid back on the empty box and leaned it against the wall so that they could easily look at the picture they’d be trying to put together.

“I always start by flipping all the pieces right-side up.” Asriel looked at Frisk like he was waiting for permission.

“Oh. Same here.” Frisk pushed their hand into the pile of pieces and spread them out so they could get a better look. “I also try to watch for edge pieces while I do it. If we get them into their own separate pile it’ll be easier to build the frame we have to work with.”

“Really? I always sort them by color, but we can do it your way this time.”

Frisk glanced up at Asriel. They hadn’t given his half of the tragedy too much thought because Chara was the obvious ringleader of the doomed plan, but he sure did seem to lack a basic level of confidence in his own opinions. Being meek wasn’t necessarily a terrible trait, but maybe they could help him be a little more sure of himself.

“Oh, but Asriel. That’s a great idea too! Having the pieces sorted by color sounds super useful. Let’s do both. We’ll make a pile of edge pieces and a pile of everything else and then sort the piles into smaller piles by color. This’ll be the most organized attempt at a jigsaw reconstruction ever seen in the history of monsterkind!”

Asriel giggled. “It might be hard to beat Mom at that. She organizes the pieces by shape too.”

“Whoa. Ok. I don’t think we can top that. What about your Dad? How does he approach puzzles?”

“Uh, Dad just sits down and starts trying to put pieces together.”

“Doesn’t that make finding the right piece really hard?”

“Hehehe, yeah. He’s more of a doer than a planner. It probably takes him twice as long as Mom or I, but he always finishes what he starts.”

“I guess there’s not really a wrong way to do a jigsaw, so long as you’re having fun.”

“Yup! We usually all work on them together as a family anyhow, though it’s been a while.”

Frisk turned over the last flipped piece they could see. They had a nice pile of edge pieces in front of them by this point so they started to shift them into color coded sections.

“Do you have a lot of different puzzles?”

“Um. Maybe ten or so? This is the only one I’ve got that shows something from the surface though. I thought maybe Chara would like seeing the sky again.”

Frisk looked at the picture on the box. Sure enough just above the mountains was a blue sky and some puffy white clouds. It was funny, but they hadn’t really even noticed it until now.

“Chara might. But if they’re like me, they might also be too busy looking at the mountain to see the sky.”

“What? But we’ve got rock all around us down here.”

“And that’s why you value the sky. But on the surface, we’re surrounded by sky. So maybe that’s why rock formations impress us more. The only time I really like looking at the sky is at night.”

“I thought the surface got dark at night. How would you even be able to see the sky?”

Frisk laughed and rolled over on their side, now lazily toying around with the blue and white edge pieces, trying to assemble the top row of the puzzle.

“Yeah, at night the sun goes around to the other side of the planet and everything gets really dark. But there are other suns that are really far away too. Normally you can’t see them because they’re so far away they’re just like little specks of light in the sky. But when our sun leaves for the night those little lights start popping up one by one and fill the sky. We call them stars.”

“That sounds really neat.”

“It is! They twinkle in and out, kinda like sky glitter. It’s so pretty! You can’t really see them that well in the city, but if you leave and get closer to Mt. Ebott the city lights fade into the distance and as you move into the darkness you can see them more and more.”

“Wow. Your parents must have trusted you a lot to let you leave the city at night like that.”

The smile Frisk had worn talking about the stars wavered. “…yeah, something like that.”

Frisk stared down at the puzzle and busied themself with the darker edge pieces in the bottom row. They had said too much and they knew it. They weren’t supposed to remember anything about the surface and here they were blabbering about stars to Asriel. It wasn’t fair. Frisk wanted to share their happy memories. Why did they have to be twisted up so much in other things?

“Frisk?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry. I, uh, I don’t really remember much else.”

“Oh no! I’m sorry too! I shouldn’t have brought up your family. It must hurt so much to forget them.”

Frisk breathed and sighed and shook their head. They didn’t want to waste any more tears on this. “Asriel, you’re my family now and I am happy here. I’d rather focus on that, you know?”

“Y-yeah. Ok.”

He didn’t. Asriel had a measure of naivety that Frisk envied. His experiences were simply too different for him to understand. Frisk only hoped they could help him stay that way forever.

Chapter Text

Chara stayed in their room until dinner, emerging only when Mom went to the door and asked if they would like some food. They still seemed subdued as they ate, but made pleasant conversation about nothings as everyone carefully avoided mentioning the afternoon.

After the meal, Chara sat down on the floor with Frisk and Asriel to finish what was left of the puzzle. Chara largely ignored the center of the jigsaw, where there was still a lot of work to be done, but proved to be startlingly fast at filling in the smaller holes with the pieces the other two children had been unable to find.

Asriel watched in wide-eyed fascination as Chara snapped piece after piece into their proper place.

“How are you doing that so quickly?”

“More like, why are you so slow? You just have to look at the picture on the box and the picture around where you want to fill in, right? It’s obvious what the piece you’re looking for should have on it then.”

“And you can just pick that out from all the other pieces?”

“Of course. You already have them arranged by color. If I know what the picture should look like then it’s simple.”

“No, actually that’s kind of amazing, Chara. Do you do puzzles like this often?”

“Not really.”

“Oh? But you’re so good. I thought maybe you had a lot of practice.”

“Asriel.” Chara looked annoyed, but as they stared at Asriel, their gaze softened and they sighed. “There was one puzzle I liked to do sometimes of a big tree in a field of yellow flowers. But it was just something I did when I was- in my room.”

Frisk caught the strain in Chara’s voice at the end. Asriel just made a weird face.

“But wouldn’t you be in your room at some point every day? That would be a lot of puzzle practice.”

“Gosh, Asriel. Don’t be such an-” Chara bit their lip. The events of the afternoon were apparently still fresh on their mind. “I meant that I sometimes did the puzzle when I was in my room during the day. Obviously. It’s not like I do puzzles when I’m sleeping.”

“So if you weren’t in your room, then-”

“I normally played outside, ok?”

It was still too subtle for Asriel to pick up, but Chara was becoming increasingly agitated at his line of questioning. Frisk thought maybe it was time for a subject change.

“Asriel thought you might like this puzzle because it had a picture with the sky in it.”

“W-what- Frisk!” Asriel hid his eyes behind his ears. “That was supposed to be a secret.”

Frisk couldn’t help it. They laughed. It was just such a silly thing to be embarrassed about. “What? Really? I’m sorry. Maybe tell me in advance next time if you don’t want me to share something?”

Frisk really hadn’t meant to reveal anything secret. They hadn’t expected this reaction from Asriel at all. However, it did have the intended effect on Chara whose expression had shifted to a humored smirk.

“Nuh-uh. Nothing should be secret between the three of us.”

Asriel shifted his left ear just enough to peek out at Chara. “N-nothing?”

“Nothing. If you want to show me something you think I’d like, then there’s no point in hiding it. If we’re going to be siblings then we should make a pact to share everything between us. We can trust each other with our secrets. Right Frisk?”

Frisk frowned, their eyes shifting to Chara. Even ignoring the one secret Frisk absolutely couldn’t share with either of them, there was still one other problem.

This isn’t a fair deal unless we tell him about the telepathy.

I know. That’s part of what I was thinking about so hard this afternoon. We’ll have to swear him to secrecy, of course, but I think we should tell him. The three of us should be a team and we’ll be able to plan things better amongst the three of us if we don’t constantly have to hide it from him.

…I don’t mind telling him about that, but-

Frisk fiddled with a couple pieces they thought would fit together, but just weren’t, and then looked up between Asriel and Chara.

“I half agree. I think we can and should trust each other. But can we also agree that none of us have to talk about anything from before this pact is formed if we don’t want to?”

Asriel had stopped hiding behind his ears at this point. He seemed to be thinking too.

“Frisk… did you remember something from the surface? Something that you don’t want to talk about?”

Well then. Asriel was naive, but he wasn’t completely oblivious. Chara was watching Frisk closely now too. Frisk tried to keep their expression neutral as they answered.

“It’s not like I’ve forgotten everything. Like how I was telling you about the stars earlier. But it’s painful for me to think about. And maybe I’m not the only one who’d rather just leave the past behind and focus on the present?”

Chara held Frisk’s eyes for a long, long moment and then nodded. “Alright. But! You can still share if you want to. So if it hurts enough that you want to get it off your chest, the other two have to promise to listen without judgment, ok? AND! We also have to promise that any secrets shared in confidence have to stay just between the three of us.”

Asriel nodded eagerly. “Yeah! We’ll be like a secret society! Just like the Delta Core!”

Chara half raised an eyebrow at whatever Asriel just referenced, but they seemed satisfied that his interest was earnest.

“Sound good to me. How about you Frisk?”

Frisk closed their eyes. They weren’t sure they could uphold their end of this even with the loophole they’d added. They knew they’d feel bad if it came to a direct betrayal, but they had to focus on the task at hand. Once they agreed to this, Asriel and Chara couldn’t possibly plan anything without including their third member.

And knowing that they’d be perfectly positioned to save Asriel and Chara should the worst happen, it filled Frisk with Determination.

Frisk opened their eyes.

“Alright. How do we kick this off?”

The three children instinctively glanced towards the kitchen from where the sound of Asgore and Mom casually singing a silly duet as they cleaned the dinner dishes could be heard. Really. The two of them were just too adorable together. Frisk hadn’t yet seen the two of them nose nuzzling, but they’d have to keep an eye out for it. Ever since they’d seen that trophy in Asgore’s room, they’d imagined-

A whisper from Chara interrupted their train of thought.

“Tonight. After everyone has gone to bed.”

Asriel nodded. Frisk could practically see the stars in his eyes. He tried to keep his voice low too, but it squeaked a bit with excitement.

“A midnight meeting!”

“Precisely.” Chara grinned. “It’s the perfect time for making a secret pact.”

Chapter Text

That night, while Mom was preparing the hot chocolate, the three children gathered about her in their purple nightshirts. Asriel had just returned from his bath and the fur around his face was still all floofy from being blow dried. Mom smoothed it down (even though it poofed right back once she removed her hand) as she eyed the trio.

“Your drinks will take another minute to heat, my children. Or was there something else you wanted?”

“W-we were wondering…” Chara seemed strangely nervous. Like they weren’t used to asking for things- or maybe just that they were used to being told no.

“Yes, Chara?” Mom smiled at them kindly. “You can ask me anything.”

“Um. Is- Is there another sleeping bag?”

Asriel cupped his hands to Chara’s ear and whispered so excitedly that Asgore probably heard him in the family room.

“And blankets. Ask for more blankets too!”

Chara’s annoyance broke through their nervousness and they turned and whispered back just as loudly.

“Why me? You ask her! She’s your Mom!”

“But you’re already asking for a sleeping bag! Just ask for the blankets too!”

“That’s because I’m the only person without one. The blankets are for all of us! You do it!”

Frisk grabbed the two of them around the shoulders in a surprise grapple hug and pulled them in with a grin.

“She’s Mom to all of us now, remember? That’s why we’re all here asking her together.”

Though Chara didn’t pull away, they did become suddenly rigid, like they weren’t quite sure how to react to Frisk’s side hug. Asriel, on the other hand, happily joined in, putting his own arm on Frisk’s back with a “Yeah! Sibling Power!”

Mom observed all this with a thoughtful smile. “You want a third sleeping bag? So then, all three of you will be on the floor tonight?”

Frisk nodded. “And more blankets too if possible, please.”

“And so I am to assume some sort of a blanket fort is being planned, am I not? Yes. I see. This is a very serious and important request then. It is already late, but fear not, my children. I shall see what can be done.”

The Dreemurr’s, it turned out, did not have a third sleeping bag. Even Frisk’s and Asriel’s had been borrowed. But Mom put in a call to Wisknit and around the time Asgore was wrapping up that night’s story hour, Wisknit’s cat-monster assistant arrived with a special delivery: Asriel’s sweater, three of Chara’s outfits and two of Frisk’s, and one sleeping bag.

The rest of the clothing order, it was promised, would be brought in two days. This first batch was merely what could be finished for a rush delivery since Frisk and Chara otherwise had nothing but Asriel’s clothes to wear. The Dreemurr’s all profusely thanked the cat-monster (who was once again eying Frisk and Chara, but still too intimidated to ask) and wished them a good night.

The children helped Mom bring all the clothes to their room. Mom had already left them a stack of nicely folded blankets on the bed, and since nobody would be sleeping on it that night, they laid the outfits there as well. Mom took one last look in Asriel’s closet and shook her head.

“This just won’t do. It’s simply not large enough to store clothes for three children. And I suppose we can’t really have you all sleeping on the floor for the rest of your lives either. Your father and I will have to think on how to best address this matter soon.”

Frisk took an appraising look at the room now too. The Dreemurr’s had made two beds work in New Home, but three would make for a fairly cramped room. A bunk-bed would definitely work, though now that Frisk was contemplating this, it occurred to them that even in the future there was only one bed in this room. Did that mean the move to New Home would happen soon?

“I’ll leave you children to it.” Mom was already on her way out the door. “Good night and please do not stay up too late. Asriel, don’t forget, you have school tomorrow.” Mom paused. Her gaze resting on Chara and Frisk. “You two also. That is another thing I shall have to give some thought to this night. Well, be good and sleep soundly.”

“Goodnight, Mom!” Asriel called and Frisk and Chara echoed him as the door closed.

There came a partially muffled “Goodnight” back through the door and then the three children looked at each other, ready to begin the construction of their fort. Asriel made a move to get the blankets, but Chara caught him by the sleeve and stopped him.

“Wait. You don’t really have any good furniture for this project, so before we do anything else, we’re gonna need chairs from the dinning table. Hmm, two of them I’d say.”

Frisk nodded their agreement. They’d been pondering how hard it would be to move Asriel’s giant dresser closet thing, but it was just too big. “We definitely need the chairs, but why only two?”

“Because,” Chara had adopted a tone of superior intellect, “We can do it with two, plus what we have here, so there’s no need for more. And if we take all of them, then nobody will be able to sit down to eat breakfast without dismantling our entire fort. And leaving three at the table means if one of us wakes up early, they can also eat when Mr-” Chara cleared their throat and corrected themself. “I mean, they can eat when Dad and Mom do (and this is the important part) without having to wake up everyone else.”

Asriel smiled. “Wow, Chara. That’s super thoughtful.”

“Pfft, I’m just protecting my own butt, dummy.”

“Still,” Frisk mused, “It’s well thought out and to the advantage of all of us, I think.”

“Ya got me there. Now, if we’re in agreement, you two go get the chairs while I set up the sleeping bags.”

“Shouldn’t we set those up after the fort is built?”

“Nah.” Chara tapped the side of their head with a finger. “This is like building that jigsaw puzzle. I can see exactly how everything should be laid out. Trust me. I know where the piece with the sleeping bags need to be.”

Frisk shrugged. “Well if you say so.” They led the way to the door and peeked outside. There wasn’t really any reason to sneak, but somehow, the very nature of their plans that night seemed to require it. Even without saying so to Asriel, he seemed to think so too and he crept along beside them on his tip toes.

The long hallway was empty, so the two made it safely into the entry hall and ducked into the small alcove that overlooked the stairs. There wasn’t anything here but a small end table with a potted plant sitting on it, but it was a good vantage point for the pair to peer into the family room.

From here, they had a clear view of the empty table and their target, two of the chairs. Chara hadn’t specified which, but Frisk thought the two tall backed chairs that Asgore and Mom usually sat in would be best. Asriel’s chair and the two chairs taken from the office were all a bit squatter and wouldn’t give the blanket fort as much height.

Asriel gave Frisk a slight nudge and whispered. “I don’t see Mom or Dad. Should we just grab the chairs and go?”

Frisk nodded and they darted into the room with what they imagined was a stealthy ninja dash over to the table. Asriel grabbed the closest chair and tried to heft it up. It was a little big for him and he staggered back a bit as he lifted it into the air, but he caught his balance and looked like he’d be ok on his own from there. His eyes met Frisk’s as if begging them to hurry up and get the other chair. Frisk pointed back towards the room and made two half sweeping waves to tell him to just go and not to wait for them.

The other tall chair was on the far side of the table currently and in full view of the kitchen. Although Frisk couldn’t hear any noise coming from the kitchen, they didn’t know where Mom and Asgore were. It would be too risky to simply grab the chair without checking first.

Ducking under the table for cover, Frisk crawled on their hands and knees to the other side from where they could see the checkered flooring and the feet of the two boss monsters facing each other on the little carpet in front of the sink.

Frisk’s eyes traced their way up Mom’s purple dress and Asgore’s dark blue slacks until they could see… Were they-? A grin split Frisk’s face. They were! Asgore and Mom both held each other’s heads tenderly, their foreheads pressed together, and their noses nuzzling affectionately.

Frisk released a deeply contented sigh. It was so cute! So delightful! For a moment they almost forgot what they had come for, but the sound of a chair crashing against the banister as Asriel teetered past was a pretty ample reminder.

Unfortunately, the noise also made Mom and Asgore pull their heads apart. Dad glanced off in the direction of the noise which thankfully meant through the wall and not directly at Frisk.

“Hmm, Tori, should I check on that?”

Mom did look towards Frisk, though did not seem to have noticed them under the table yet.

“I do not think that noise was anything to worry about, dear. Let us not have it interrupt our time together. You can always check on them later.” She drew his head back to her and gingerly pressed her nose to his. As the pair held each other’s gaze it was all Frisk could do to resist squealing from the adorableness and scramble out from under the table.

This was their chance. While the adults were still distracting each other, Frisk lifted the chair up by its seat and began backing away around the far side of the table. They held their breath for the entire time until Mom and Asgore were once again out of sight. Of course, as soon as one of them looked into the room again they would notice the missing chair immediately, but that wasn’t the point. To them it would be like the chair had just mysteriously vanished! And that meant a successful stealth mission!

Frisk brought the chair back to their room. Despite his minor difficulties, Asriel had made it back too. His chair had suffered a bit of a scratch from its brief collision with the banister, but it was barely noticeable and otherwise the chair seemed unharmed. Chara had positioned Asriel’s chair across from the closet and directed Frisk to set theirs parallel with it and across from the shelf.

Chara shifted the chair slightly to the left of where Frisk put it and then surveyed the arrangement with a self-satisfied expression. They had lain the sleeping bags in a row such that their toes would be pointing at the bed. With the chairs set roughly as far apart as the sleeping bags stretched, Frisk thought they now had a fair idea of Chara’s grand plan.

Chara gave a final approving nod. “Perfect. Asriel, now you can get the blankets.”

Asriel obeyed and Chara trod across the sleeping bags to the shelf and began shoving stuff off of the top of it. Asriel turned back with his arms now full of blankets, just in time to see a plush dragon slide off the end and hit the floor snoot first. He winced.

“H-hey, be careful with Mr. Flamebelly.”

“What? Mr. Flamebelly?” Chara glanced over their shoulder and only then seemed to notice the plushie that was now on the floor. “Oh, that. Don’t worry. It’s fine.”

Asriel didn’t look like he thought it was fine, but Chara wasn’t looking at him. They already had their hands on the top of the shelf and were busily hauling themself up onto it. Asriel walked over, probably to see if they could help in some way, though, Frisk reflected, he might just be concerned about what else Chara might knock off the shelf in their scramble. Regardless, Chara seemed to have managed on their own and now crouched on the top of the shelf with one hand on the side of the closet for extra support.

“Asriel, hand me one of those blankets. Frisk, bring me the toy box. I’ll need that to hold it down.”

Frisk brought the toy box, but they had their doubts this was going to work. Chara let the blanket drape down over the closet for the moment and set the toy box on top to keep it from sliding off. It seemed to be holding, but that wasn’t exactly the problem.

“Isn’t the top of the closet a bit high, Chara? That blanket really isn’t long enough to stretch from there all the way across to the chair.”

“I told you, I know what I’m doing. Just trust me, jeez. It’s all gonna work.”

“If you say so.”

There was no way it was going to work. The distance from the closet to the chair Chara had set up was longer than the length of the bed those blankets were designed for. Well, they could always move the chairs closer. It wasn’t the end of the world. They’d just have to sleep a bit closer to each other than maybe Chara had imagined when they’d thought up this plan.

Chara crouched down again. “Asriel, hand me another blanket.”

“Um. Here.”

Chara took it and stood up again, then took the blanket by one edge and let the rest fall free. They slid their hand along the edge until they found a corner and then dangled the rest down towards Asriel’s head. “Ok, now take that end and find the matching corner. We’re going to tie our corners to the corners on our first blanket.”

Oh. Frisk felt their own eyes widen as the realized what Chara was planning. If they tied all the blankets together they’d have one giant blanket that could stretch across the whole fort. But that meant it would sag pretty terribly in the center unless they had some sort of central pillar to hold it up. As though reading Frisk’s mind, Chara issued another order.

“Don’t just stand there, Frisk. Go get the tall lamp out of the corner and stick it in the middle of the sleeping bags. See if you can get it to plug in from there too.”

It took many more minutes of assembly, but things moved relatively swiftly from there. And when they were done, they had stitched together a giant patchwork quilt of blankets that in one direction spanned from the closet, slightly over the bed, and to the chair Asriel had brought; and in the other direction, all the way across the shelf and to the other chair which Frisk had brought. And the lamp did indeed hold up the center. The whole construction probably took up a full quarter of the room.

Chara was pleased. Frisk was impressed. And Asriel was even giddier than before. He giggled to himself as he burrowed into his sleeping bag.

“This isn’t a blanket fort. This is a blanket castle.”

Frisk grinned as they also crawled into their sleeping bag. “I guess that makes you a blanket prince.”

“You two as well. We’re siblings now so we’re all blanket royalty.”

“Hmmm. That’s true, isn’t it?” Chara pondered this for a long moment. “Well, with the three of us here, our blanket kingdom is sure to thrive. And as the eldest, I promise to rule it with a fabricy fist of justice!”

“Hehe. Are you really the oldest? You and Frisk are the exact same height.”

Chara propped themself up on their elbow. They had taken the spot nearest the chairs and Asriel was in the middle.

“I think so. Frisk, Dad said you’re ten right?”

“Yeah.”

“And I’m eleven. Thus: the oldest.”

“Well, I’m eleven too.”

“What!? But you’re so short! How are we the same age?”

“Hey! Only for now. Dad’s super tall so I bet I’m taller than you when we’re grown up. And besides, you’re shorter than Frisk even though you’re a year older so you’re short too.”

“Humans grow at different rates. Just because Frisk is my height now doesn’t mean they’re going to be taller in the end. Besides, height doesn’t matter. We’re talking about birthdays. What month is yours?”

“May.”

“Dang it! Are you serious?”

“Yeah?”

“Fine. Mine is in September… which means you’re the shortest and the oldest. Congratulations. The fist of fabric is yours. I just hope you are prepared for this responsibility. The position is not a ‘cushiony’ as it sounds.”

As Asriel giggled at this there was a knock and then the door creaked open. The blankets draped onto the ground too completely to see whose feet stood there, but a moment later the blanket lifted and Asgore’s head leaned down to peek inside their private castle.

“Hello there, children. This is quite an impressive fort you have built. I simply came to see how you were doing and say good night, but you seem to be doing well, so I guess I will just say good night. …good night.”

The three children once again echoed their good nights. Asgore smiled and started to stand, but one of his horns caught on the blankets and it started to rise with him. Fortunately, he moved slowly and realized what was happening before the whole thing came crashing down.

“Oh. Hmm.” Asgore reached up and dislodged the blanket from his horn letting it fall back into place. “Sorry about that. Ah, also, your mother would like me to once again remind you that you three have school in the morning and that you should sleep. So I will be turning off the lights. I hope you all sleep well.”

There was a faint click as the lights in the room went out and another as the door closed behind Asgore. It was hard to see now, since the lamp wasn’t currently on, but they could still hear Chara’s voice whispering through the dark.

“Midnight. That is when we will make our pact. Stay quiet until then.”

Chapter Text

Frisk lay on their back with their head on a pillow, staring up at the drooping shadow of a blanket. In the dark, they imagined it looked a bit like a giant face peering down at them. For some reason, in the dark, everything started to look a bit like a face. Eyes popped out of divots. Mouths curled from wrinkles. Frisk squeezed their eyes closed so that they wouldn’t see them any more. They knew it was just their mind wandering or their own imagination toying with them, but it wasn’t a fun game.

There was a slight chill to the air. Not the cold of Snowdin, but a pervasive coolness that brushed Frisk’s cheeks with clammy fingers. Their sleeping bag was warm though and they pulled it snuggly up to their nose. It was hard to tell how late it was now, but air had been whistling through Asriel’s nose for at least an hour already. Frisk was pretty sure that meant he had fallen asleep.

Frisk’s whole body felt like it was growing ever heavier. Much more of this and they’d fall asleep too. Maybe it was time to check in with Chara.

Frisk tried to think of something pleasant to say and as they inhaled (silently) one thing did come to them that they thought Chara would appreciate.

These blankets smell like lavender and lye.

Frisk heard, more than saw Chara shift on the other side of the blanket fort.

What?

I think the blankets smell like-

No. Stop. I heard you the first time. I meant more: why are you sharing this? Why do I care?

Frisk bit down on their lip. Of course. They were forgetting to keep future Chara separate from present Chara in their head. This Chara had never endured existing in a void. Had never been forced to forgo all their senses. And had never, then, had the chance to enjoy their vicarious return.

Someone once told me I should appreciate smells more. But, uh, I guess I was really just seeing if you were still awake. Sorry. I should have just asked.

Heh. Sounds like you knew a dumb nerd.

Frisk laughed. Then felt a little sad. Chara had just called themself a dumb nerd. But that Chara was gone now. Frisk had essentially erased them from existence by coming back here. Just like they’d undone countless other versions of their friends, all in their vain quest for a happy ending. Maybe that was why part of them had felt an enormous relief when Sans’ letter warned them they wouldn’t be able to reset any more, rather than trepidation.

I think… I think they were kinda wise actually. I didn’t quite understand what they were telling me at the time, but I guess sometimes you really don’t fully appreciate what you have until you lose it.

Whoa. Whoa. Slow down Frisk. If you’re about to tell me something about your past, that’s cool, but maybe wait until after the pact and tell Asriel too? I’m here for ya, but I don’t want to have to listen to it two times in a row.

No, that’s not- I’m not trying to tell you my past right now. It’s just- I have a lot of thoughts to sort though sometimes. And talking to you like this feels so much like talking to another part of myself that I forget those thoughts are being broadcast. You know? Sorry.

Frisk. You don’t need to apologize to me so much. It’s fine.

Chara paused as Asriel shifted and another of his whistling snores filled the blanket fort. When it subsided, Frisk once again heard Chara’s voice in their head.

Besides, I kinda feel the same way. Asriel is easy to talk to and I trust him, but I’m glad I have you too. I’ve never had someone who I felt could relate to me so well before. It’s fine if you don’t want to say, but I can guess and I think we probably came from similar… situations. Heh. Who knows, maybe if we’d met on the surface we wouldn’t have ended up here.

Chara… I-

Asriel shifted again from where he lay between them and sat up with an audible yawn in the darkness.

“Are you two still awake? Is it midnight yet?”

Frisk stifled a yawn of their own. “Uh. Actually. You don’t have a clock in here, do you?”

Chara snorted. “Doesn’t matter. It’s late enough that everyone should be in bed and asleep. As long as we stay quiet it should be fine.”

“Awww, what?” Asriel sounded legitimately disappointed. “But it’s not a midnight meeting if we don’t hold it at midnight.”

“It’s the MIDdle of the NIGHT, isn’t it? I think that counts.”

“Oh. Hehe, I guess that’s true.”

“Good,” Chara said with a tone of finality. It really was amazing how quickly Asriel bowed to Chara’s assertive confidence. “Now, do you have a flashlight or something or do we need to risk turning on the lamp?”

“I don’t, but that’s because I can do this!”

A happy orange flame abruptly flared up, hovering just above Asriel’s cupped palms. It flickered and cast a faint light, but it was enough to beat back the shadows within the fort and reveal Asriel’s smiling face.

“I still have to use both hands, but Mom says that’s normal. Boss Monsters just take a little bit longer to get used to their magic for some reason. B-but we end up being the strongest!”

Frisk gave him a tiny applause. “Asriel, I’ll be straight with you. That is super cool. The fact that you can do magic at all puts you waaay ahead of us.”

Chara nodded their agreement. “Yeah. I’d love to be able to do that. Psshooo! Psshooo!” Chara mimed shooting fireballs out of their hands in all directions. “No more bullies on my watch!”

“Hehehe. Well, it doesn’t really work that way for me yet either. But do Humans really not have any magic of their own? Nothing that just comes naturally to you?”

“Not on the surface.” Chara let their hands fall back to their sides. “But since coming down here, Frisk and I have figured out how to do one thing!”

“What?” Asriel caught his breath in anticipation and the flame in his hand flickered and nearly went out. “Whoops. Hehe, sorry, if I don’t concentrate on this I lose it.”

A wide grin spread across Chara’s face. “We’ll tell you, but it’s a secret, so first we have to make our pact!”

Chara scrambled up out of their sleeping bag and stood and motioned for the other two to do the same. Frisk obeyed and Asriel too, though more slowly because he was still cupping the flame with both hands before him. Because Chara had mounted the blankets from the closet earlier, there was a comfortable amount of standing room, provided they stayed towards the back side of their fort.

“Ok! I think we’ve already agreed on the terms, but just to review. We’re pledging not to keep any secrets from each other, to listen without judgment, and keep each other’s confidences to just between the three of us.” Chara looked at Asriel, who nodded, then they turned to Frisk. “But if there’s something from before this pact that you don’t want to talk about, well, that’s up to you. We won’t force anyone to talk about something they aren’t comfortable sharing. All agreed?”

Asriel nodded again and Frisk said, “Agreed.”

“Excellent.” Chara thought for a moment. “But now we need to seal the agreement somehow. Otherwise it won’t be official.”

Frisk raised an eyebrow. “What, like a secret handshake or something?”

“No. I mean, we could do that too, but haven’t you ever seen a movie? If we want to make a solid pact, then we need to like… bite our thumbs to draw blood and then shake with the blood smeared across our palms or something.”

“Eww, can we not do that?”

“Oh, come on Frisk. Why not? That’s classic pact making. It’s not like a little blood will hurt us worse than we already have been.”

“For one thing, I don’t think I could bring myself to bite my thumb hard enough to draw blood. And for another… I don’t want to! Maybe instead we could have a big group hug and just trust each other like we’re promising to?”

“A group hug-! Ok, now I know you’re just messing with me. I doubt there’s even a parallel universe in which hugs are contractually binding.”

“Well they’re physically binding.” Frisk winked. “That aught to count for something.”

“Um.” Asriel started, and the two stopped their argument to look at him. “What is blood?”

Frisk and Chara exchanged a glance. Chara pointed down at the bandages wrapping their legs.

“You remember the red stuff seeping from my cuts when I first fell down here? That was blood. It’s something that the heart pumps all through our bodies. Or well, human bodies? Do monsters not bleed when they get hurt?”

“Not that I know of.”

“Huh. Weird.”

Frisk grinned. “I suppose this means we won’t be biting our thumbs. Asriel can’t bleed, so we’ll have to find another way. But if you still don’t want to hug… Uh, actually… Asriel, how do monsters signify agreements of this nature?”

“We mix our magic together. Magic is a large part of us though, so in a way, it sounds a little similar to mixing blood? But we don’t have to hurt ourselves to produce it, so maybe not.”

Chara frowned. “Well that’s no good. Frisk and I do have something special, but there’s no way we could mix it with your fire. It’s just not that kind of magic.”

Frisk took a step closer to Asriel and impulsively stuck their hand into his flame. It was pleasantly warm, like the fire in the fire place, not destructive or painful. The move startled Asriel though and the fire vanished as Asriel lost his concentration. The blanket fort slipped instantly back into darkness.

“W-what are you doing?”

“Just testing a theory. Don’t worry. It didn’t hurt. You can make your flame again.”

“But Frisk. What if it had hurt you? You shouldn’t risk your well-being like that, especially if you didn’t know what might happen. I- we care about you. If I had hurt you-”

“Asriel, chill.” Chara crossed their arms. “Frisk said they’re fine. And I think I understand why they did it. You do your fire magic and Frisk and I will join our hands with yours amidst the flames and then we can say something in unison. That’s pretty cool right?”

Frisk nodded. “I think it’s as close to combining with your magic as we can get.”

Asriel hesitated. “You’re sure it didn’t hurt?”

“Positive.”

“Well, if you are certain…”

The fire sprang back to life in Asriel’s hands. Smiling, Frisk and Chara placed their palms on his. The fire lapped over their hands, again, with naught but pleasant warmth. As the moment ticked by and nothing happened, Asriel relaxed.

“So, um, what are we saying?”

Frisk looked to Chara. This was largely their idea, after all.

“Have you ever heard of The Three Musketeers?”

Asriel shook his head no and Frisk hedged. “Uh, that’s a movie, right?”

“It’s a book and a movie. Anyway, it’s great! There’s these three friends, unrelated by blood, but siblings in the truest sense because they’re always there for each other. And they join together to fight against corruption and bullies no matter the odds! They make everyone who thought they were above the consequences pay!”

Asriel’s flame grew a bit brighter as the excitement danced in his eyes. “Wow. That sounds so awesome!”

“It is. And get this, they’ve got this pledge: All for One and One for All. I think we should use it for ourselves.”

Frisk nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

“Ok then, on three. 1… 2… 3…”

Together, their three voices joined in saying the pledge. The pact was made.

Chapter Text

As the three children uttered the final words of their pact, the flame leaping from Asriel’s hands flared and turned pure white. At once, the heat pouring over their hands became unbearably hot. It burned into Frisk like an attack on their soul. They tried to pull away, but some magical force held their palm locked in place against Asriel’s.

At the same time, Chara made a distressed noise of surprise and took half a step back, but also could not retract their hand. Their face scrunched in pain and they looked down at their joined hands. Frisk looked too, almost afraid of what they would see, but their hands seemed untouched. They were no more harmed than they had been moments prior. And yet. The pain burned deeper than their skin.

The two turned their eyes to Asriel. His eyes watered and his face showed that he too felt the pain. If anything, he looked more frightened than the two humans.

With their free hand, Chara grabbed desperately onto their own wrist and pulled even harder than before, but the result was the same. They were stuck. The three children were bound by some strange magic that none of them understood. Chara grit their teeth and looked once again to Asriel.

“Asriel! Stop this! It’s your fire isn’t it? Make it stop!”

“I- I’m trying. It hurts. But it won’t stop. I just want it to stop. Why won’t it stop?”

The tears were streaming down the young prince’s face, but the magic fire, rather than diminishing, seemed to be growing larger. The whole blanket fort glowed with its brilliance. Frisk could now feel the heat on their face.

Chara, if we don’t stop this soon-

I know. But what can we do? This is Asriel’s magic. Isn’t it?

Frisk hesitated. The constant unending beat of pain running up their arm made it hard to think, but was it really just Asriel’s magic? It hadn’t happened until the three of them made the pact.

“Asriel. Monster pacts. How do they work? Could it be- reacting to our souls?”

“I d-don’t know! M-monsters combine their magic a-and it links them somehow. M-magically binds them to their promises.”

The white flame had grown to a stage that it consumed most of their arms. Chara was breathing heavily against the heat and the color seemed to be draining from Asriel’s fur, leaving the tips almost translucent. The fire was expanding faster and faster with each passing moment. Frisk estimated that they had less than twenty seconds before it consumed them completely. What would happen then?

A small spark of fear seized their heart as they remembered they couldn’t reset. If they died- if Chara and Asriel died with them. There’d be no going back. There’d be no doing better next time. Whatever happened here was permanent.

15 seconds.

Frisk was frozen. They didn’t know what to do. Even if it was pact related, they didn’t know how to reverse this. But what if- what if they completed it somehow?

“Asriel, share a secret!”

“Wha-”

“Quick! Something you’ve kept from us.”

“I- I hide action comic books under my mattress! Even M-mom doesn’t know!”

The flame flickered. 10 seconds. No. Maybe another 20. It still burned, but the expansion had slowed. They’d bought themselves some time.

“Chara! You too!”

“I-” Chara made a face, but they were smart. They understood exactly what Frisk had realized. “I ran away from home. I knew if I went to Mt. Ebott I could… disappear.”

The flame had slowed further and the heat diminished, but there was a different sort of pain behind Chara’s eyes now. However, Frisk didn’t have time to dwell on that. They had to reveal something too. They swallowed.

“I lied about having amnesia. I can remember everything from before I came here.”

That was more than Frisk had planned to say when they made this pact, but they could still spin that. As long as Chara and Asriel thought it was just painful memories from the surface that Frisk was trying to hide they wouldn’t have to do too much explaining.

But the fire knew. It knew and it burned hotter than before and started to expand again, specifically bulging and leaping out towards Frisk. They let out an involuntary, high-pitched squeak of pain as it lashed against their face.

Of course it knew they were still holding something back. It was their soul fueling this flame, wasn’t it? This was their own guilt that burnt them now. Frisk knew deep down that there was only one secret that could stop it.

“And-” Frisk squeezed their eyes closed against the pain, and the fire died slightly, abating just enough for Frisk to finish. “And I’m a time traveler.”

The flame winked out and with it Frisk felt the last of the strength flee from their body. Their legs wobbled and they toppled back, knocking their head against Asriel’s closet as they collapsed on top of the sleeping bags. They saw, as the last of their consciousness ebbed away, that Chara and Asriel had fallen too. And they heard feet coming quickly down the hall. And they heard the door open. And they felt a faint disruption to the air and heard a gasp. And then Frisk felt nothing, heard nothing, saw nothing, as the void closed in and claimed Frisk as its own.

-
-
-

Frisk floated aimless through the void for what felt like days, drifting in and out of awareness like a sleeper balanced on the edge of dream and waking. They felt groggy and exhausted and the ever expansive darkness did nothing to will them towards wakefulness.

Had they been wrong about the fire?

Or had they simply been too slow to tell the truth?

These two questions pooled about Frisk like molasses flowing slowly through their mind. It didn’t matter now. This wasn’t like their last brief encounter with the void. They’d been here too long. And that could only mean one thing.

They were dead.

This is what Chara had been forced to endure for so long. The long nothingness. Left with nothing to do, but to question their mistakes.

Maybe the Preset had been a mistake. If they hadn’t come back here, they wouldn’t have opened themselves up to this failure. They could have just reset and tried again.

Frisk made a fist. And then looked down at their fist in surprise. They squeezed it into a tight ball and relished the pressure they felt as their nails dug into their palm. They turned their hand over and examined it from both sides. It was see-through, but it was there. Looking down at the rest of their body, Frisk realized that all of it was there. It was just transparent. And at the center of their chest they could see their soul, red, beating, and whole.

So they weren’t dead after all. But then, what did that mean about this place?

Frisk studied their soul harder, suddenly feeling very awake, and they felt more than saw something resonating within it.

Chara?

FRISK! OH MY GOD! WHERE ARE YOU?

Uh.

Frisk looked around for some sort of landmark, but there was nothing. Just blackness. Just void.

No. That wasn’t quite right. As Frisk looked in the direction they felt themself resonating with they saw two stars. One a brilliant white and the other, also brilliant, but red. Instinctively, Frisk knew these must be the souls of Asriel and Chara.

Hang on. I see you.

Frisk wasn’t sure how to move through the void, but as they focused on wanting to be there, abruptly, they were. Chara and Asriel both hovered a few feet away, their souls clearly visible and, thankfully, very whole at the centers of their transparent bodies. Chara had a red soul like Frisk’s, but Asriel’s soul was white and inverted. It looked a lot like Asgore’s…

“Hey Chara, Asriel… Did I miss anything?”

“Frisk!” Asriel threw his arms around Frisk in a hug. “We didn’t know what to think when we woke up here and you weren’t with us.”

It was a little odd to be hugged since they were both transparent, but Frisk wasn’t complaining. They returned the hug and smiled as Chara gave them a more awkward nod of recognition.

“Where is here? Do you know?”

Asriel shook his head. “I don’t know, but I’m glad we’re all here together. Even if it is a little weird being able to see each others souls.”

Frisk nodded their agreement, but then couldn’t hold back a smile. “I guess this makes us all… soul mates!”

Chara sank the full weight of their face into their palm. “Are you seriously flirting with both of us at the same time? And while we’re… like this?”

“I’m just trying to raise your spirits.”

Chara snickered, but then stopped themself, frowning. “Ok, I appreciate your sense of humor, but this really isn’t the time. We need to figure out what’s going on.”

Frisk sighed. They had at least four more ghost and soul based puns they’d wanted to use, but they supposed Chara was right. “Alright fine. What’s the last thing we all remember before getting here.”

Asriel pulled away from the hug and held up his hands. “My magic went out of control after we made the pact. It hurt all of us. I- I think we might’ve died.”

Frisk shook their head. “I don’t think so. Our souls are all intact. I’m pretty sure that means we’re still alive.”

Chara crossed their arms. “Well, souls can persist after death, can’t they? That’s like, the whole point of having them.”

“Not for this long, I don’t think. More to the point, we got the fire to go out by sharing our secrets. It was only after that I found myself here.”

Asriel exchanged a glance with Chara. “Same for us. A-actually, before you got here, we were discussing what you had said. R-right before the flame went out. Was it true? What you said? I-if not, maybe-”

“It was true.” Frisk looked down at their translucent bare feet. “I really didn’t want to tell anyone, but, in a way, I’m glad you two know now. Even though you said I wouldn’t have to share, I still felt bad about continuing to hide it after we made a pact to tell each other everything. I think my own feelings kinda betrayed me there.”

Chara gave Frisk an appraising look. “So are you from the future or the past?”

“The future.”

“Do we have flying cars yet? Or a moon colony? Or intelligent robots?”

“No and no and uh, hmm… yes?”

Chara rubbed their chin thoughtfully.

“How far in the future are we talking? And why’d you come back here?”

Frisk sighed. This was exactly why Sans had warned them not to reveal when they were from. So many questions.

“Listen. The future I came from was a bad one. And I guess you could say I’m on a mission to prevent the tragedy that made it a bad one. I can tell you that much, but everything about this has to remain a secret. Ok? That’s super important.”

Asriel’s eyes went wide. They were full of stars.

“Whoa! That’s so cool, Frisk! It’s like something from a story!”

Frisk tried to smile, but it was hard. What would he say if Frisk told him that the tragedy they were here to prevent was his own death? Would that make things easier? Maybe. Or maybe it would just scare him. And maybe it would make Chara actively hide their intentions from Frisk if they ever came up with a similar plan.

Chara wasn’t done asking questions. “Why are you in the Underground though? Did you actually fall down here? Did you know future me?” Frisk could practically see the gears turning in Chara’s head. “You did, didn’t you? That’s why you really said you wanted to be friends again! It wasn’t somebody else. It was future me! Did we have telepathy in the future too?”

Frisk held up both hands, trying to get Chara to slow down, but Asriel jumped in before Frisk could say anything.

“Wait! Telepathy? Is that your secret magic? You did promise to tell me!”

Chara nodded, still looking at Frisk expectantly.

“Chara and I can share thoughts with each other. And yes, I suppose this was also true in the future. I’m not really sure why. Even in the future we didn’t know.”

Asriel cocked his head to the side curiously. “Well, isn’t that obvious? I mean, just look at your souls.”

Frisk blinked and Chara narrowed their eyes. They looked at each other and then at Asriel. “What do you mean?”

“Your souls are beating in perfect unison. They have been the entire time you two have been standing here. I don’t know what that means exactly, but you clearly share some sort of a deep connection with each other. Maybe you really are soul mates…”

Asriel giggled as he said this, but it seemed kinda sad. Almost forced even. And lonely. Frisk gave him a closer look and was about to say something when he abruptly disappeared. Startled, Frisk turned just in time to see Chara vanish too.

Chara!?

Nothing.

Nothing.

Nothing.

And then all at once Frisk felt a dull ache and their entire body felt heavy. The back of their head hurt and it felt like they were lying on something cold and marginally cushioned. Frisk was tired again, but with what awareness they had, they forced their eyes blearily open and found themselves staring up into an unfamiliar skeletal face.

Chapter Text

The void was gone.

To Frisk, it felt very much like waking from a dream and only gradually did they become aware of their new surroundings: a room filled with strange equipment and computers and a long row of examination tables. There was a white sheet pulled over most of Frisk’s body and a needle taped into their arm with tubing that led back to an opaque bag which seemed to contain some sort of a glistening silver liquid.

Frisk felt a twinge of nausea, but resisted the urge to pull the needle out of their arm. They’d never been to a human hospital before, but they knew enough from watching television to recognize that the set up was very similar to that of a blood bag. It was probably best not to mess with whatever treatment they were being given.

Still feeling a bit out of it, Frisk rolled onto their side. They were on one of the medical tables. It seemed much like the one Sans had let them sleep on when Frisk had first arrived in 201X, but the skeleton standing over them now was not Sans. And it wasn’t Papyrus either. Frisk didn’t know who it was.

The skeleton was about the same height as Papyrus, but their skull was rounder- almost egg shaped. They seemed to be dressed nicely, though a white lab coat covered most of their body, concealing much from view.

“Uh-?”

The unknown skeleton smiled eagerly down at Frisk and stuck a single bony finger to their mouth.

“Wait. Don’t say a word. I’ve been thinking about this all night, but you haven’t been able to listen. I’m absolutely bursting and I must share before we do anything else. Alright. Here goes:”

The skeleton cleared their throat, though it seemed to be more for the drama of the moment rather than any actual physical need.

“There once was a Human named Chara
Their soul had a brilliant red aura
When they fell underground
By our prince they were found
Injured amongst the king’s flora!”

Frisk blinked at the skeleton, who was beaming back at them like a snail that thought it had just finished its race in first place. When Frisk didn’t say anything, the skeleton frowned and turned to look at a monitor that was next to the bed. Then the skeleton pulled out a handheld voice recorder and, holding down a button at the top, put it up to their mouth.

“Case 214. Log 9. The readings say everything is normal, but they are non-responsive to my brilliant poetry. It is possible the subjects’ brain is still scrambled from the knock to their head. I will try hitting them with equal force on the opposite side of their head to see if that will knock things back into place.”

Frisk flinched away from him, but at the same moment, a voice came from an open doorway at the other end of the room.

“Maybe let’s not do that, eh Aster?”

The skeleton released the recording button and slipped the device into a shirt pocket.

“It was a joke, Sans. I know you like jokes.”

“A joke, huh? You should gauge your audience a little better. The human isn’t laughing. Actually, they looked a little scared just then. Maybe try some wordplay next time? Those kinds of jokes are never pun-invited.”

“Sans!” Frisk laughed and tried to sit up in the bed only to be struck by a sudden spell of dizziness. The back of their head throbbed. Frisk touched the spot gently and their fingers met once again with a sticky bandage. It almost felt… stickier.

“Hey kiddo. Seems you had a bit of a bad time last night. We had to reapply that skull of yours with a new treatment. Do you always dive head first into trouble?”

“Last night?”

Had it really been less than a day? It had felt like they’d spent a week floating through that void at the least.

The skeleton that Sans had called Aster abruptly leaned in with a small flashlight and shone it straight into one pupil and then the other. Frisk squeezed their eyes shut reflexively, but skeletal fingers pried their eyelids up and held them in place. It was uncomfortable, but Frisk tried to hold still and cooperate.

Aster gave a long “Hmmmmmmm” and then the light clicked off. “Everything seems fine physically. But more memory loss? There could be something we can’t see with simple tests. To know more, I will have to operate.”

“Operate!?” Frisk squeaked.

Sans gave a dry chuckle, but he sounded annoyed. “Ignore Aster. I’m sure he’s just joking again. Isn’t that right, Doctor?” There was a roughness to Sans’ words that Frisk hadn’t heard since he first explained Execution Points to them in the hall of judgment.

“Ah? Ah! …I see. Yes. I suppose that was in poor taste. But if the subject truly can’t remember-”

Frisk shifted uncomfortably on the table. “Um, sorry, I do remember. I was just surprised. It felt like I was out for days.”

“That is to be expected. I imagine you feel quite drained right now. Yes, literally drained. Whatever the three of you were doing, you very nearly depleted the magic from all of your bodies. If you’d lost all of it, well, that would have been bad even for humans. What were you doing by the way?”

Frisk looked down at their hands. They seemed a bit paler than normal, but were otherwise unharmed by the soul-fire that had consumed them.

“We, uh- we decided to promise to be good siblings to each other and look out for each other, you know, stuff like that. But we also wanted it to be official and Asriel said that monsters combined their magic for that kind of agreement so we tried that the best we could… and after that… I’m not really sure what happened. Just, the magic got out of control or something and we couldn’t let go or stop it.”

“Curious. Very curious.” Aster half reached for his voice recorder, but then paused as another thought struck him. “It seems like some sort of a magical contract was made. That is a very old kind of magic. And, naturally, nothing of the sort has been attempted with Humans in a very long time. I wonder if we could repeat the process under more controlled circumstances.”

Frisk cringed at the thought of going through anything like the events of the previous night ever again.

“Are Asriel and Chara alright?”

“The Prince lost a great deal more magic from his body than either of you humans, though, of course, he also had more to begin with. And now that he is stable, he will naturally regenerate it on his own. The other subject and yourself will not have that luxury. Human bodies do not regenerate magic on their own very readily at all. And it is difficult to say what the proper amount should be. I’ve been forced to guess, but we’ve been going slowly because there’s no telling what the side effects of giving you too much might be.”

Aster glanced towards the half-emptied bag of silver liquid that was still connected to Frisk’s arm, then turned away and addressed Sans.

“Speaking of the Prince, shouldn’t you be monitoring him?”

“Nah. Since he’s up, the King and Queen asked for a moment of privacy with him. So since I’m not there, I thought I’d check on the kid here and let you know that Chara is also awake now. My brother is keeping an eye on them.”

Frisk let their head fall back on the hard pillow and closed their eyes. Of course Mom and Asgore would want to be with Asriel right now. It was only natural they would choose him first when all three of their children were hospitalized at once. It was only natural that their primary worry would be with their real child…

In one horrible moment, it occurred to Frisk that, technically, Chara and them weren’t even adopted yet. It wasn’t even supposed to be announced until the end of the week. What if… what if this disaster made Mom and Asgore change their mind? What if they decided having two humans in the house was too dangerous? What if the last two days was all the time they’d ever have as part of a happy family?

Frisk felt like they were on the edge of tears as an emotional tide surged over them. They couldn’t let that happen. They had to do something. Anything. Just to show that they were worth keeping around. One of the monitors beside their bed began beeping frantically. And they felt Sans’ hand on their arm, shaking them.

“Hey kid! Frisk! What are you doing? Snap out of it!”

Frisk opened their eyes. They felt warm again. And all the tiredness of a moment prior had vanished. Their hands were glowing with a silver light and the throb at the back of their head was gone as though it had never been. They felt a strange pushing motion within their arm and looked down to see the needle sliding out all on its own. As the tip was forced out and fell to the side of the bed, Frisk watched with wide eyes as the small puncture wound where the needle had been closed up behind it as though it had never been.

Frisk took in a rapid series of breaths as they tried to grasp what was happening. It felt strange, but for the first time they could feel the presence of something else inside of them, like a sixth sense attuned to their own vitality and soul. The glow to their hands was slowly fading now, but they could still feel it and they knew they could call it back if they chose to.

Was this… magic?

Sans released his grip on Frisk’s arm, his expression unreadable. The room was utterly still as he took Frisk’s head in his hands and began to undo the bandage. There wasn’t so much as a gasp as it fell away. Sans just gave a slight shrug to Aster and motioned for the other skeleton to join him. Frisk knew intuitively what he would see. Somehow, their wounds had been completely healed.

Sans coughed.

“I uh, I think maybe you gave them too much.”

“Too much?” Aster leaned down to scoop up the fallen needle. “Why Sans, don’t you see what is happening here? We’ve given this human the ability to use magic! We have to repeat this! We have to understand! This could be the key to our salvation! We will have to give them more.”

Chapter Text

There was a moment of uneasy silence as Aster held the fallen needle he had retrieved up to his eye sockets. Frisk could see the smear of red at the tip. The skeleton deftly plucked the needle from the tube connecting it to the bag of silver liquid, then sealed it inside of a plastic bag which he in turn tucked into his lab coat’s pocket.

Sans had jammed his hands into his own pockets and was standing with his elbows out almost sternly gazing at Aster. His face was hard to read, but Frisk thought they caught a flicker of suspicion in his eyes. The same kind of distrust Sans used to direct towards Frisk when they had first met again after a reset. It was like he was waiting for Aster to make some kind of a misstep. To what end, though, it was hard to say.

Frisk pushed the white sheet that was covering most of their body down and swung their legs over the side of the examination table. They were still dressed in the long purple nightshirt with the family crest stitched into the center that they had borrowed from Asriel. Their bare feet protested the coldness of the floor as they slid off the table, but Frisk ignored them and started towards the door.

Sans caught them by the hand.

“Whoa there, kid. Where are you off to in such a hurry? Aster didn’t scare you that badly with his jokes, did he?”

Had it been a joke? Frisk glanced over their shoulder at the taller skeleton. Aster was labeling a point on the bag of silver liquid with a black marker, oblivious to everything else.

“No. I’m just worried about Chara. You gave them the same transfusion of magic that you gave me right? And presumably, Chara is still going through theirs since I was only halfway through mine. And you were worried about side effects, so if I had too much then…”

Sans’ eyes widened in a moment of realization and he released their hand.

“Down the hall. Second room on the right. Tell my brother that Doctor Aster said to pause the transfusion until we can perform a test to ensure they are stable.”

Aster heard his name and seemed to listen as he continued fiddling with the bag of magic drip, but made no move to correct the instructions.

Frisk made a face. “Just pause and not stop?”

“We can’t be sure it will effect you both in exactly the same way.”

“And if I’m telling him, does that mean that you’re not coming?”

“We’ll be along in a moment.”

Frisk looked between the two skeletons. There was definitely a tension present in Sans, but Aster still seemed clueless to it. Frisk shrugged the observation off. This wasn’t the time to be worrying about whatever was going on with Sans and Aster.

Frisk’s bare feet made a quiet ‘plap’ ‘plap’ing sound on the cold floor tiles as they hurried down the hall. The door to the first room on the right was closed and an unnatural chill seemed to emanate from it. Frisk would have run past to get away from the cold, but they heard the faint sound of someone crying inside and hesitated. A not small part of them wanted to investigate and comfort whoever it was, but Chara was still in the next room getting pumped full of the silver stuff. Stopping that first seemed more important.

The second door on the right was also closed, but as Frisk neared a loud voice reverberated clearly through it.

“Human! You will cease your complaining at once! You have been hurt and now you must lie still to recover! The magic inherent to your soul has been all but drained from your body and the King himself has asked that I, the Greatest Doctor in the Underground, help you!”

Frisk couldn’t help but smile. The voice quite obviously belonged to Papyrus. Frisk hadn’t realized how much they’d missed his enthusiastic antics.

“Hey! Stop fiddling with that needle and look at me when I’m talking to you! Would you treat your mother this way?”

Frisk opened the door. Papyrus had his back to them. Just like the other two skeletons, Papyrus was wearing a lab coat, but it was too short for him and only fell to his knees leaving exposed some very sporty-looking sneakers and a long pair of argyle socks.

Frisk winked at Chara as they looked over, surprised to see who had just strolled in.

Hey there, soul mate.

Frisk! How did you escape? This one won’t let me out of his sight.

Papyrus didn’t give Frisk the chance to respond.

“Sans! There you are! This human is being very uncooperative! I need you to hold them-” Papyrus had been slowly turning towards the sound of Frisk entering. He stopped abruptly as he looked down and realized which short person he was talking to. “You’re not Sans!”

One sec. I can’t telepathy and talk.

“Of course I’m Sans.” Frisk gave their best impression of a Sans smile. They tried to do his voice too, but his pitch was way too low to do perfectly. “Don’t you recognize your own brother? Through the miracle of science I’ve been transformed into a human!”

Papyrus raised an eyebrow. “That is absurd, even for my brother. Did he put you up to this? I swear, his pranks get more childish by the day! But I imagine he thinks this is hilarious! Hmmm… What was your name again? Frisp? Frist?”

“Close. I’m Frisk! Sans asked me to come tell you to, uh, stop the transfusion? Doctor Aster needs to run some sort of test.”

“What? So he sent you to tell me that instead of coming himself? That lazy bones! And- weren’t you the concussed patient too? This time he’s gone too far! Are you dizzy at all? Do you have a headache?”

Papyrus took two wide strides towards Frisk and squatted down so that they were face to face.

“You shouldn’t be on your feet! You need to sit down immediately!”

And with that, he suddenly hoisted Frisk up into the air by their armpits, rotated in place, took another two long strides to the examination table adjacent to Chara’s and set Frisk gently down such that their legs dangled over the edge.

“Now, tell me how you are feeling.”

Strangely, of the three skeletons, Papyrus behaved like the best actual Doctor. At least from what Frisk had seen so far.

“I’m fine. I really don’t think Sans would have let me come if I weren’t. All my injuries are healed. See.” Frisk lowered their head and pointed at the back where they had hit it falling down.

“What? No. That’s impossible! I saw that bump when you came in and-” Papyrus stopped talking as his bony fingers parted Frisk’s hair in one spot and then another with increasing frenzy. He muttered “Impossible.” and then “How?”.

“The magic Doctor Aster transfused me with gave me some sort of natural healing ability or something. Just look.” Frisk held up their right hand and willed the silver glow to return. Frisk didn’t have anything to heal though so they just wiggled their fingers at Papyrus while they sparkled.

“Whoa!” Chara was sitting cross-legged on their own table, leaning towards Frisk for a closer look. “That’s so cool. Can you do fire balls too? Can I?” Chara held up their own hand and scrunched up their face in apparent effort. Nothing happened. “How do you turn it on?”

Frisk shrugged as Papryus took their hand in his and turned it over like he was inspecting for some sort of trick.

“Hmmm… either Sans has finally come up with an extremely clever prank or you are telling me the truth this time. Very well, you can turn your hand off for now. Either way, I suppose I should halt the transfusion until Doctor Aster arrives.”

Chara frowned as Papyrus came close and held their arm away from him. They still had the needle in their arm, though it looked like some of the tape holding it in place had already been peeled up along the edge.

“Hang on a sec. You’re saying this set up could give me magical powers right? Why stop it now before I can do anything? I don’t want to be the only person in the Underground who can’t do magic.”

“A minute ago you were demanding I remove it!”

“Yeah, well, a minute ago I didn’t know what it was.”

Papyrus sighed. “Your body isn’t made to store large amounts of magic. If we give you too much you could die. We can leave the needle in just in case Doctor Aster decides you do need more, but I’m stoppering the IV.”

Papyrus turned a small knob at the spot where the tubing and the bag of silver liquid met and the flow of magic into Chara stopped.

Chapter Text

For a long moment, Chara stared at the IV sticking out of their arm with a flat expression. Papyrus was still talking, explaining something about the philosophy of being a good doctor. Frisk was pretty sure it boiled down to the human principle of ‘first do no harm’, but he was using way more words and neither Frisk nor Chara were listening that closely. Their eyes locked with each other as Chara initiated a more private conversation.

Frisk, I need you to keep this skeleton busy for a few minutes. Like, run out of the room then pretend to collapse in the hallway or something.

I don’t think that’s a good idea, Chara.

Well, you can do whatever you want. It doesn’t need to be anything elaborate. Just distract him long enough for me to turn this IV back on.

The whole reason I came here was to get him to turn the IV off. So no.

You’re not really worried about me dying from this are you? They don’t know how much I need, so they don’t know how much is too much either. But I would know if I start feeling weird and if I do, then I’ll stop it again myself. I swear!

…Chara.

Frisk honestly didn’t know what happened to Humans who were injected with too much magic, but they did know what happened to Monsters injected with too much Determination. The amalgamates they met in the True Lab had left a strong impression. There was no way Frisk could allow Chara to risk such a fate.

Oh come on Frisk, we made a vow. All for one and one for all! Right!?

Yeah. That’s right. But Chara, me promising to always be there for you isn’t the same as me promising to do whatever you want. In this case, I think helping you means stopping you from making a mistake.

Aaaaarrrrrgh! This isn’t fair! Look, you obviously got more than I did since you can do magic. Just let me get enough to be able to do something too.

Frisk glanced at the IV bag. The silver liquid was about three-quarters drained. Frisk was pretty sure their own had only gone down about halfway.

Uh, actually, I think you’ve already gotten quite a bit more than me. Don’t you think it’s possible you already can do magic, but that you just don’t know how? I had injuries to heal when my magic came to me. Maybe what you need isn’t to have more of that silver stuff pumped into your veins. Maybe you just need the right circumstance.

Chara’s face actually brightened at that idea. And Frisk wasn’t the only one to notice.

“Nyeh Heh Heh! I can see from your expression that I’ve finally gotten through to you! But that is not surprising. For not only am I the Greatest Doctor in the Underground, but I also have the best bedside manner! Yes, fear not! You are in good hands!”

There was a polite knock on the still open door and the two humans and Papyrus all looked over to see quite a crowd out in the hall. Mom entered, followed by Doctor Aster and Sans, followed by Asgore and Asriel who was riding piggyback with his arms slung part way around his father’s thick neck. Asriel’s eyes were open, but he looked half asleep. As they all piled in, the room which had seemed plenty large before suddenly felt quite small.

Papyrus bowed low at the waist.

“Your Majesties! You will be pleased to know that both of the Humans are here and doing well under my care! Frisk appears to have made a full recovery and Chara is awake and awaiting a final screening by the Royal Scientist!”

Asgore nodded slowly. “Ah yes. We actually just discussed this with Doctor Aster on the way here. I understand that the transfusion awoke some sort of healing ability within Frisk that is somewhat like my wife’s. Has Chara shown any signs of a similar awakening?”

As he said this, Frisk realized both he and Mom had a bandage wrapped around one of their forearms. Had the two boss monsters donated some of their own magical essence to aid in Frisk and Chara’s recovery? They must have. Where else could the Doctors have gotten it on such short notice?

Frisk looked at Mom. She was already looking back at Frisk with an expression of curiosity and parental worry. Frisk smiled at Mom, then looked to Asgore and, for the first time, truly saw him as their Dad. They had never hated him for all those deaths, especially not this past version who was innocent of those crimes, but it had still been hard to think of him as anything but Asgore. Now though, knowing that he’d donated a part of himself to save two humans who, honestly, he barely knew, Frisk felt like the next time they called him Dad it wouldn’t feel so strange.

Dad, however, wasn’t returning their gaze the way Mom was. Instead, he was looking past Papryus at Chara. There was something in his face and eyes that was hoping the answer to his question would be ‘Yes, Chara has magic too’. But why?

Wait. Of course! Frisk had gotten a healing ability like Mom’s, so obviously the donated magical essence they had received was hers. That meant Chara had received Dad’s and that was why he was so interested. Maybe Chara would get the ability to toss fireballs after all. Wouldn’t that make life interesting.

Frisk imagined Chara and Asriel chucking fireballs at each other across a burning kitchen and quietly added that to the list of potential future problems. They’d already seen enough houses given over to fire for one lifetime to let that happen again on their watch. Well, technically it was only Undyne’s house, but they’d seen it enough times that it felt like something that had occurred way more than once.

As Papyrus began a long winded recounting of Chara’s brief and failed attempt at using magic, Doctor Aster set a small kit down on Chara’s examination table and pulled out something that looked sort of like a stethoscope. The device had the flat round chest-piece that Frisk supposed listened for a heartbeat, but instead of leading back to a set of listening plugs for Aster’s ears (which, as a skeleton, he didn’t even have), they fed into the center of a pair of red-tinted glasses.

Without so much as a word, Doctor Aster unbuttoned the top three buttons of Chara’s nightshirt and put the flat bit of the device against Chara’s chest. Chara shivered slightly as the Doctor peered through the glasses and adjusted the position of the flat bit slightly. Aster gave a low ‘hmmmm’ and then pulled away, leaving Chara to redo the buttons as he turned now to Frisk.

As Doctor Aster leaned in close and his hand reached for their buttons, Frisk instinctively swung away from him and slipped off the opposite edge of the table. Aster looked irritated, but Frisk didn’t care. They didn’t feel comfortable being touched by Aster and they didn’t want their top partially undone with this many people in the room.

Aster stepped around the table, reaching for them, but Frisk dodged away, circling again to the opposite edge. Aster frowned.

“What are you doing? Stop and let me examine you.”

“Why? You already know I’m fine.”

“I know nothing of the sort. I know we restored a surplus of magic to your body and I know you then used some of it. I don’t what is left. I don’t know how it compares to the other subject. At this stage, you may very well have used up what we gave you and need more. But I won’t know and I won’t be able to make an assessment of Chara until I examine you.”

Frisk took another step back and Aster sighed.

“Oh come now. This is foolish and everyone’s watching you. Don’t you find this embarrassing?”

Yes. That was exactly the problem. Frisk glanced towards Mom for support. Her look was one of concern, but not one of comprehension.

“It is important that we ensure you are both of good health, is it not?”

Frisk frowned, continuing to edge away as Aster circled around the table again. Frisk backed into Sans who caught them by the shoulder. Frisk tried to squirm away, but the short skeleton’s grip was surprisingly strong.

“Sans, please.”

“Hey, uh, maybe if you tell us what’s wrong? I know Doctor Aster is bad at first impressions and that his bedside manner is atrocious, but the psychiscope isn’t going to hurt you. It’s just a device for examining the health and composition of your soul.”

“It’s not that. It’s just- there’s no privacy here. If I have to be examined, can’t you or Papyrus do it and in another room?”

Frisk felt the grip on their shoulders loosen and Sans put a hand out towards Aster.

“Give me the psychiscope. I’ll take Frisk across the hall for a less public examination.”

Aster looked even more annoyed now.

“This is ridiculous. We would have been done a minute ago if-”

“If your patient was a sack of grain without wants and needs of its own. You’re a brilliant scientist Aster, but there’s a lot you could learn about working with people.” Sans hardly waited for Aster to remove the psychiscope from his face before snatching it away. “Excuse us.”

The room was silent. Dad took a step back to let Sans pass as the skeleton led Frisk across the hall. The new room was identical to the one they had just left except there was nobody in it. As Sans closed the door, Frisk took a deep breath.

“Thank you.”

Frisk’s fingers went up to the first button and paused. They still weren’t entirely comfortable, but at least there wasn’t an audience now.

“Don’t mention it.” Sans looked down at the psychiscope in his hands then back up at Frisk. “I’d offer to cover for you and make something up, but Aster wasn’t wrong about our uncertainty of your state. So I probably should examine you to be on the safe side. But first, uh, are you ok?”

Frisk’s hands trembled. They still hadn’t undone the first button.

“I’m fine.” An obvious lie. “I just- I uh- I’m really shy? About this. Sort of thing. I don’t like people seeing me undressed. Even partially.”

Sans nodded. “I thought it was something like that.” Sans looked like he thought there was probably more to it than that, but he didn’t push the matter. “Here.” He held out the psychiscope.

Frisk took the strange device, though they were still uncertain of what he was expecting. “Um?”

He turned his back to them. “I can hear my brother now. That Sans is so lazy! He lets the patients examine themselves!”

Frisk laughed as they felt their whole body relax. They hadn’t realized how tense they’d been. Frisk put on the weird glasses and turned away from Sans as they undid their buttons. They didn’t really think he’d peek, but they did it anyway. It just felt safer.

The round flat part of the psychiscope felt cold against their chest. Frisk couldn’t actually see anything through the glasses, but as they waited a strange image materialized before their eyes. Their red soul beat at the center of their chest as strong and full of life as they’d ever seen it. There was a silver glow about it which Frisk assumed was the magic they had been given and strands of silver seemed to flow out from their soul, faintly tracing the path of their circulatory system.

“Tell me what you’re seeing.”

Frisk jumped slightly at the sound of San’s voice and took the glasses off and glanced over their shoulder to make sure he was still looking the other way.

“My souls is red and beating. It looks fine to me. And I guess the magic is in my blood? Though it’s faint there. Mostly I just see a silver glow around my soul.”

“Yes. That sounds about right. The magic in your blood will fade as your soul has more time to absorb it. In theory anyway. Though this whole procedure was theoretical until today. Monsters don’t need magic transfusions.”

Frisk started to button up their nightshirt again. This was the perfect opportunity to ask about the link between their soul and Chara’s. Unfortunately, Chara had been pretty clear about not wanting to tell Sans anything related to their telepathy and Frisk couldn’t think of a way around it. The moment passed as they redid the last button.

“Alright, you can turn around now.”

“Heh. Well, now that that’s out of the way, tell me… How’s your mission going? Was last night all part of the plan?”

“Aside from all of us ending up in the void I think it went pretty well.”

“Jeez, talk about dark humor. I think Aster might be rubbing off on you. But uh, when you say void, do you just mean being unconscious or…?”

“No, I mean a literal void. Like, blackness all over the place. It wasn’t just a dream either. All three of us were there and talking to each other until you lot brought us back. I think- I think it was the same place I traveled through when I used your machine. Do you know what it is?”

“I know of it, but no, nothing concrete about the place. Aster though, he thinks it’s a ruined universe with a dead timeline. I’ve never seen any evidence to collaborate this, but he seems fairly certain. However, it does seem to have elements of timelessness to it. The time machine essentially functions by hopping into it and then back out at a predesignated point in the past. It’s odd though… how did any part of your consciousness end up there?”

Frisk shrugged. “I’m just a kid. You’re the scientist. You tell me.”

“Oh well. I’ll give it some thought. Before we go back though, one last thing: while you were in the void did you ever feel like you were being watched? Was there ever the vague impression of someone around besides the three of you? Have you ever heard of someone named…” Sans’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Wing Ding?”

Frisk started to say no, but their mouth was strangely and suddenly dry. It felt like Sans was messing with them, but at the same time a chill had run down their spine and Frisk couldn’t place why. And for no reason in particular, Frisk felt the need to glance at the shadows in the corner of the room even though there was definitely nobody there. The two of them were still alone.

Sans gave a sudden grin. “Eh, forgetaboutit. You’ve got enough on your plate already. Come on.” He clapped Frisk on the shoulder. “Let’s head back and report that you’ve got a clean bill of health.”

Chapter Text

Sans had barely placed his hand on the doorknob when a shrill wail, unmuffled by the solid wood door mournfully pierced the air. Frisk instinctively clamped their hands over their ears and ducked into a squat. It helped a little, but as the wailing continued Frisk got shakily to their feet, fingers still firmly in their ears, and looked to Sans.

The skeleton’s shoulders sank and he seemed to sigh as he opened the door. A burst of cold air flowed in around him. Frisk, still wearing only their nightshirt, shivered as the chill wind tickled their bare feet and ankles.

“Sans, what is that noise? Why is there a breeze inside the building?” Frisk shouted over the wail, hardly able to hear their own voice through their fingers.

If Sans replied, the words were lost.

The skeleton motioned for Frisk to follow. It was colder in the hall and the very air was crisp and stung the inside of Frisk’s nose as they breathed. Sans moved swiftly to next room down the hall. It was the one Frisk had heard the faint crying in earlier.

Frisk glanced over their shoulder as they followed Sans, catching a quick glimpse of Chara’s examination room. Chara had both hands over their ears, but seemed more concerned about Papyrus than the noise. They kept squirming with their elbows out to bat away the tall skeleton’s hands as he reached for the IV.

In the midst of the struggle, Chara’s eyes rose and met Frisk’s and the two paused.

Chara, just give it up already. Aren’t you curious about this noise? Even with the IV in, they’re not going to let you get more of that magic stuff.

OK. Fine. I guess whoever is doing that yowling does need to be told to cut it out…

That moment of pause was all Papyrus needed to deftly grab hold of Chara’s arm and slide the IV out. And that moment of sliding the IV out was all Chara needed to slip from Papyrus’s grasp and between his legs. They dodged around the Dreemurr’s who were too busy clamping their long ears to their heads to stop Chara as the child skipped out into the hall.

Sans frowned thoughtfully as Chara joined them, but pushed on into the room. The two humans followed side by side, now pushing in towards the center of the cacophony as the cold air washed over them in waves.

This was another examination room. A curtain was half-drawn around the table, hiding whatever patient was laying on it, but on a stool at its side sat the wailer. She was a bird-like monster of a similar shape to a snowdrake, but seemed more fit for a different season than winter. Leafs protruded from her body rather than feathers and each of those around her head was loosely tied with pink ribbons.

“Mamdrake. Mamdrake!” As Sans yelled the name, the wail cut off momentarily in a hiccup as Mamdrake raised her tear-stained face. “I understand that you’re upset, but you’re loud enough to wake the-” Sans grimaced at the joke he had been about to make and changed tact. “-other patients. These two here were so concerned they came running to see what was wrong.”

Mamdrake sniffed, wiping away a semi-frozen tear with her leafy wing. She looked between the two humans who were cautiously unplugging their ears. From the way she kept burbling, she seemed like she might let out another wail of lament at any moment.

“I am sorry, children. But my… my dear Showy here…” She gestured to the bed still hidden behind the curtain. “He fell down last night. We were to be wed, he always said, once he got his big break, but…” She sniffed again, stifling another wail. “…it seems the Queen really tore into him yesterday in front of his whole audience. He was always a bit more self-conscious than he let on. The jokes he told were to cheer himself up as much as everyone else. He told me it would be fine, but…”

Frisk bowed their head. They agreed with Chara that Showdrake had acted more like a bully than a comedian on that stage, but they also knew what it meant for a monster to fall down. He didn’t deserve this.

Chara folded their arms.

“So what- did he fall off the stage or something? Break his leg?”

Frisk winced. Chara didn’t understand and the lack of sympathy in their voice was painfully obvious. They clearly hadn’t forgiven him yet.

Mamdrake’s eyes watered again and this time she didn’t stifle her wail.

“My poor Showy. My poor poor Showy.”

As Mamdrake rocked on her stool, wailing these words over and over, Mom appeared in the open doorway. The effect was instantaneous.

“You!” The look in Mamdrake’s eyes was one of fury and of fear. She stood to her full height on the stool (which was barely any higher than she had been sitting), her leafy feathers bristling, and yanked the curtain back. “Just look at what you’ve done!”

Showy lay flat on his back, eyes closed, his wings tucked neatly around a vase with a single ice blue rose that was wilting from the extreme cold emanating from his body. The air around him seemed- dusty.

Frisk took an uneasy step back and turned away. They couldn’t look. They hardly knew Showdrake, but could feel the tears all the same, freezing as beads in the corners of their eyes. Chara, however, took a step closer to get a better look.

“What’s wrong with him?”

Mom stepped forward, past Frisk, and laid a hand on Chara’s shoulder. She didn’t look away from Showdrake as she spoke.

“When monsters get old, the magic holding our bodies together can weaken and we begin to dissipate into dust. However, unlike humans who seem to age at a steady rate, we monsters can live to be very very old if we remain hopeful and eager to live our lives… or fall down far too early if we do not.”

“…so what does that mean?” Chara gave a nervous laugh. “I mean, he’s not dead, right?”

“Chara, my child, I’m afraid that he is dying. Once a monster falls down it is all but unheard of for them to recover.”

“But- because of us? Because of me? Because I went up on that stage? Because I yelled at him?” Chara laughed again like it was another bad joke. And then again like it was so funny that they couldn’t stop. There were tears streaming from their wide eyes. “Just- Just like that?”

“Yes, my child, just like that.” Mom’s voice was somber. “However, you need not blame yourself. One of the many reasons I supported you when you stood up to Showdrake on that stage was that his treatment of Peex could very easily have resulted in a different monster lying on this bed.”

Mamdrake shuddered at this and threw her wing over Showdrake in a protective hug.

“No! He would never! Showdrake wanted nothing more than to entertain! He wanted to make people laugh so that they could forget the overcrowding of Home. He always spoke about how comedy could give people a space of time that was free from their troubles! He wanted to restore hope, not destroy it!”

Mom bowed her head. “Then his intent, at least, was pure. I am terribly sorry for your loss. I will take the children now. We will leave you to mourn in peace.”

Sans had shoved his hands into the pockets of his lab coat, watching the exchange. Chara was quietly shuddering, Mom’s steady hand still on their shoulder. Frisk looked at them with concern.

Are you ok?

Oh, I’m just swell. Dandy even. This whole day has been great. First I wake up in a hospital. Then I’m the only one not getting newfound magical powers. And now I find out I inadvertently may have killed someone??? What should we do after lunch? Hang Asriel from a tree like a pinyata and attack him with sticks? Cause that’s the trejectory that I feel like we’re on.

Oh, I fear it gets much worse than that. I’m pretty sure Mom said something last night about school.

Snrk. You have a twisted sense of humor Frisk. And weird timing. Telling jokes in the room of a dying monster?

Hey. You started it. And besides, from what Mamdrake said, I think he wouldn’t mind me cheering you up with some humor. But don’t give up on him just yet. You actually gave me an idea. This whole time I’d forgotten, but…

Frisk willed the silver glow of magic to return to their hands.

I have healing magic now.

Frisk approached the examination table slowly and pulled up a stool of their own. Mamdrake looked at Frisk questioningly, but saw the glow of magic about their hands and drew back to her side of the bed as Frisk climbed to the top of their stool and leaned over Showdrake.

Frisk coughed slightly, choking on the dust that hung in the air around Showdrake. They felt very uneasy being this close to him, but it was necessary.

Frisk wasn’t exactly sure how they intended to heal Showdrake with their newfound powers beyond touching him and hoping it all flowed naturally, but as they looked over his body they noticed that his wing sagged a bit funny, like it had been hurt when he fell. The dust seemed thickest there.

Frisk gingerly took his wing in their glowing hands and closed their eyes, willing with all the determination they could muster for Showdrake to be healed. They felt a surge of magic, but into them rather than away.

Frowning, Frisk pulled back their hands and a gray dust like substance pulled back with them. Frisk tried to shake the dust from their hands, but it clung to them. Frisk shook their hands more vigorously, nearly falling off their stool in the process, but it was no use.

Frisk stared at their hands in disbelief as the glow around their hand died and the gray dust all but melted into their skin. Showdrake’s wing appeared to have shriveled. This was the opposite of what Frisk had intended.

They desperately turned their head towards Mom. She knew all about healing magic and how to use it on others. She could still fix this.

Mom met their eyes with a look of sadness and pity.

“I am sorry, my child, but healing magic cannot help him. It is not a physical ailment that he dies from. It is a crisis of heart, a lack of hope. You cannot heal hope back into his soul.”

Mamdrake leaned over her fallen love to reexamine him and gave a brief wail of despair as she saw the wing. She pulled back, inadvertently knocking the vase from its now loosened place between his wings. As the vase hit the floor it shattered with the sound of breaking glass and the wilting ice blue rose was thrown to Chara’s feet.

“You! What did you do? He’s worse than before!”

Frisk’s head slumped as they slid off of the stool.

“I know. I’m sorry. I thought I could help… I didn’t mean to hurt him further. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Frisk went to Mom’s side and hugged her leg and cried. It was hopeless then. Even with magic they couldn’t save him. Mom put her free hand on Frisk’s shoulder, holding both humans now, gently to either side.

“I know you meant well. Much as Showdrake meant well. Sometimes things just don’t work out the way we intend. Please, do not fall into despair over this failure, little one. It is good that you want to help people. And there will be many chances for you to do better in the future, will there not?”

Frisk sniffed and nodded, but buried their face deeper in Mom’s dress.

I got healing powers and the first thing I managed to do with them is hurt somebody. I’m the worst. You were right. This is a horrible day. I wish I could just go back and start it all over.

Chara squatted down and picked up the rose.

You’re not the worst, Frisk. The fact that you care puts you above all the other humans in the world. And that power you speak of… the power to reset everything and try again? You’re probably the only person I’d trust not to abuse a magic like that. Heh.

Chara twirled the rose between their thumb and forefinger. One of the wilting petals tore off from the rotation and flaked to the ground.

But what am I saying? You’re a time traveler aren’t you? You already have that power.

No. I can’t do it again. For me this was a one way trip.

You can’t? Hmm, too bad, cause here’s the stupid thing: I hated this guy. Seeing him pick on that eyeball monster was the worst. He reminded me of everyone I knew on the surface. I thought he was vile. Unforgivable. Beyond redemption.

Chara squeezed the stem of the rose hard. The thorns dug into their palm and drew blood.

But seeing him like this? I feel… bad. I feel like I caused it and I can’t bring myself to believe he deserves death any more. I wish I did have the power to save him. Cause he’s like you. I think he made a mistake and should get another chance. And I- I want to be the one to give it to him!

Silver light shot through the cracks of Chara’s closed fist and a wave of pleasing warmth washed over the room, stronger and more persistent than the cold from Showdrake’s limp form. The rose in their hand straightened and the blue hue of the petals deepened into a strong cobalt as more petals grew to replace those that had fallen off.

Chara dropped the flower in surprise as the glow faded from their hand and looked down at it.

“Oh great. You can heal people and I can heal plants. I definitely hit the magical jackpot with that one.”

Frisk gave a mental sigh of relief. Chara had wanted fireballs, but they got gardening instead. Even so, and in spite of their words, they looked pleased.

Chara scooped up the rose and stepped forward, picking their way over the shattered vase and put the now restored rose over Showdrake’s chest.

“I’m sorry I can’t heal you, but if there’s any part of you that can hear me… for what it’s worth… I forgive you.”

Chara turned away and trudged slowly back to Mom. Mom nodded respectfully to Mamdrake and led the way to the door, but as they reached the cusp, Mamdrake called out to them.

“W- wait! He moved! Showy! Showy, can you hear me?”

Mamdrake excitedly propped Showdrake up with one wing. His eyes were open and his beak parted in a weak smile. He took the rose in his good wing.

“Thank… you…”

Mom’s hands went to her mouth. Her face was one of surprise and amazement. Sans smiled broadly.

“You kids really are something. Wouldn’t have believed this if I hadn’t been here to see it myself. No matter who told me.”

Chara stood stark still, rigid with uncertainty. The words, when they came, seemed uncomfortable and strange like Chara’s mouth didn’t quite know how to form them.

“You’re… welcome. I am… glad you are ok.”

Chapter Text

Finally alone, Frisk sank with their back against the locked examination room door and pressed their face uncomfortably into their knees. The short stack of once neatly piled clothes had fallen into a half-crumpled mound beside them, forgotten.

Showdrake was going to be OK, but Frisk, with their eyes red and their nose runny, still felt emotionally raw. They hadn’t meant to, but they’d hurt him. And whatever reassurances that Chara and Mom and given them, rushing in and asserting their presence had only made things worse.

Frisk lifted their head and let it rest against the door. What were they even doing here? Could they really make a difference? Could they really make things better?

The voice of Wisknit still talking to Mom and Dad in the hallway filtered through the door.

“-waiting for you at the castle.”

“Wisknit… You did promise me absolute secrecy, did you not?”

“Wisknit did and this is why she did not tell everybody. She told only her brother and a few of the other Old Hats. If there are two humans living in the Underground, they of all monsters deserve to know.”

“And they would have been told! My husband will be making a formal announcement. You knew this! All I asked for was a few days of silence to protect them and give us time to prepare. I swear to you, if the children are hurt because of this-”

“Sni Sni. We Old Hats are not so rash as that. But it has been but a day and the prince, your son, has already been hurt-”

Frisk grabbed a fistful of clothes and stood, stepping shakily away from the door. It was true. It wasn’t just Showdrake. Asriel had gotten hurt because of them and Chara too. They stripped off the long nightshirt and tossed it inside-out over the edge of the nearest examination table, then set the ball of new clothes on top.

Goose pimples sprang up along their thin bare arms and legs almost immediately upon exposure, but even as Frisk shivered they stared down at their scars. The newest, from the injuries Frisk had suffered passing through the Underground, were fading. The older scars though…

Experimentally, Frisk summoned the magical glow to their left hand and touched the deepest scar that crossed the opposite wrist. It tingled and, as Frisk ran an intentional finger along it, the scar did seem to fade slightly. Frisk immediately poured more and more of their magical energy into the healing and watched with mad elation as it faded further and further into obscurity.

Then they wobbled. And the room spun. And darkness crept in from the edges of their vision.

Frisk barely had the wherewithal in that moment to put out a hand for the table to steady themself, but somehow, as they reached out their hand, they grasped it, and after a long moment the dizzy spell passed.

The magical glow to their hand had also passed. Frisk tried to call it back to finish the job, but could barely feel the presence of magic inside of them any more. Had they really used it all up so quickly?

Frisk glanced towards the locked door. If they took too much longer, the others would start wondering if there was some sort of a problem.

With one last look at the now almost completely faded scar, Frisk separated a pair of blue overalls out of the bunched ball of clothes and stepped into them. It had a pink heart stitched into the center and what looked like deep pockets on either side. Perfect for stowing whatever odds and ends they wanted to carry around with them. It was just as they had requested the day before.

Shoulder straps still dangling to either side, Frisk shook the new wrinkles out of the shirt Wisknit had brought for them. It was a pink and white striped turtleneck. Frisk slipped it over their head and pulled the long sleeves carefully over the end of their wrists.

There wasn’t a mirror in the room, but Frisk wasn’t super interested in studying their new outfit at the moment anyway. They scooped up the nightshirt and walked unsteadily on their bare feet to the door.

Wisknit had left, apparently, and Sans and Aster were also nowhere to be seen. Frisk could see Papyrus across the hall, telling Chara and Asriel a story as his hands made wide animated gestures. Mom and Dad were still in the hall, talking quietly, their foreheads and noses pressed together, but they pulled apart as Frisk stepped out into the hall.

“Oh ho ho,” Dad bellowed with a cheerfulness that Frisk couldn’t imagine he truly felt, “So you finally emerge. Are you dressed and ready to go?”

Frisk nodded, then wiggled their toes.

“The only thing I’m missing is something for my feet.”

“Your feet?”

All three of them looked down at each others’ feet. Nobody was wearing shoes or even socks. Now that Frisk thought about it, most monsters seemed to just go without. Frisk wondered if having a body made mostly of magic meant not getting cold feet or ever suffering from stubbed toes. Or maybe Boss Monster feet were just too big for shoes.

“Hmm. Perhaps Wisknit could make you something…”

Mom shook her head.

“Wisknit isn’t a cobbler, dear. She could knit socks or maybe stockings or tights, but we will have to look elsewhere if the children need new shoes.” Mom smiled at Frisk apologetically. “Unfortunately, we left in such a hurry last night. Neither of us thought to bring the shoes you came to us in.”

Dad frowned and scratched at his beard with a concerned look.

“I can’t remember: Do humans need shoes? Should one of us go back for them?”

“We don’t have a lot of time. From the sound of it, there is a group of unhappy monsters waiting for us at the castle. The sooner we get to them, they less attention they will attract.”

Frisk swayed in place and took a step back to lean against the wall. They felt so tired all of a sudden, but it seemed like there was some serious stuff going on. They didn’t want to be an extra burden on top of everything else.

“It’s fine. I can go a day without shoes and I’d really like to see the castle. Chara was super interested in seeing it too.”

This answer seemed to mollify the worries of the two adults and the concern relaxed from their faces. Mom and Dad exchanged a glance and then Dad left to collect the other children from Papyrus’s exuberant watch. After he had gone, Mom knelt down and surprised Frisk with a sudden hug.

“I am so glad you are alright. You had your father and I very worried. I know it has only been a few days since you came to us, but I want you to know that we do love you. And whatever happens in the coming days, I promise that we will keep you safe.”

Frisk flushed and squeezed her back, not knowing how else to respond. It would be fine wouldn’t it? The monsters had accepted Chara once before. In fact, they had all come to view Chara very highly.

But what if they’d already messed that up? Had the pact still happened in the original timeline? Had Asriel been hurt before the monsters got to know Chara? Or was that something new? Something Frisk had made happen?

Frisk hugged tighter and buried their fear in Mom’s shoulder. They couldn’t reset. They couldn’t go back and fix mistakes. All they could do was hope and try to stay determined to see this through to the end.

Chapter Text

Ten steps outside the hospital Frisk felt lightheaded. The cold stone of the cavern pressed hard into their bare feet and sent a strange tingle like static running up their legs. Frisk had been a bit unsteady since healing their scarred wrist, but Mom and Dad needed to get to the Castle. Frisk was determined not to let anything slow them down.

Six steps further, however, and Frisk stumbled and clutched at the back of Chara’s sleeve to steady themself.

“Oi!” Chara yanked their arm away. “Don’t latch onto me without asking.”

Unbalanced and without support, Frisk’s feet gave way. Asriel caught what was happening at the last moment and made a grab for Frisk as they went down. He caught Frisk’s hand, palm to palm, and his fingers closed around theirs. His grip was surprisingly strong, but it wasn’t going to be enough. Their tilt was too great. If Asriel didn’t let go he’d probably get pulled over too.

Well, at least he tried.

For a fleeting moment, as Frisk continued to fall backwards, the thought made them smile.

But Asriel wasn’t finished. He lunged one knee forward, reached out his free hand, and caught Frisk around the waist as though he had just dipped them dancing. His snoot now hovered so close to Frisk’s face that they could feel the heat of his breath on their lips and his floofy ears dangled against Frisk’s cheeks like a pair drapes just brushing the floor.

Frisk probably would have kissed that beautiful nose if they’d had the energy, but their body was slack in his arms. They felt numb all over. Nothing they tried to move would respond.

Asriel blinked down at Frisk with concern. He’d caught them, but had no idea what to do next so after a moment of standing dumbly locked into position he awkwardly lowered Frisk to the ground.

“Frisk? Are you OK?”

Chara came over and nudged Frisk with a dirty toe. “You know, I only pulled away because you grabbed at me from behind. It was your own fault.” They crossed their arms. “And stop with the drama already and get up. You’re worrying Asriel just lying there like that.”

“I’m sorry.” Frisk closed their eyes, their words barely a whisper. Sleep seemed like a good idea, but they knew this would only slow everyone down. “I’m so sorry.”

“…seriously, if this is your idea of a joke-”

Asriel stepped beside Chara.

“I think they’re actually hurt, Chara. They were completely limp when I caught them.”

Chara furrowed their brow. They squatted and took Frisk’s hand in their own, then rolled up the sleeve of Frisk’s new pink and white shirt just enough to check for a pulse. Frisk’s skin prickled like it had been brushed with ice as Chara’s fingers traced a line along their wrist.

Chara’s hand lingered for longer than seemed necessary, but Frisk felt their shirt abruptly tugged back into place as two horned shadows loomed over them.

“Is there a problem?” It was Dad’s voice.

Chara stood. “Mr. Dad! Something is wrong with Frisk!”

“Oh golly.” Frisk felt themself lifted gently into the air by two massive hands and cradled in the crook of Dad’s arm. “Frisk, can you tell me what the problem is?”

His beard dangled tantalizingly in front of their face as he stared down at them. Frisk gave him a weak smile and tried to grab it like they had when he first met them, but their arm felt so heavy.

Frisk moved their lips to apologize again, but the sound barely burbled out.

“Shh, you need not worry.” Mom’s hand pressed against Frisk’s forehead. A warm energy filled Frisk and they felt the tingle of magic in their soul.

Mom smiled at them worryingly and brushed a bit of dirt from Frisk’s cheek before withdrawing her hand. Frisk was still very tired, but the tingle spread down their legs and then faded into naught but a slight tickle. They felt like they could raise their head.

Asriel and Chara were looking up at them very worriedly and holding hands. Frisk grinned in spite of their fatigue as their eyes flitted between them.

“Hey. My hands feel kinda heavy. You two look like experts. Maybe you could hold them for me?”

“W-would that help?” Asriel squeaked out, his eyes big and oblivious. Mom made a half-puzzled, half-bemused face, then reached in the pocket of her dress for something.

Chara snorted and self-consciously took their hand back from Asriel and shoved it into their own trouser pockets.

If you can flirt then you must be feeling better. But what’s going on? Why did you fall? Do you know?

I- I’m not sure. But- I think maybe I used too much magic? I was testing it while I was getting dressed. That’s when I first felt a little dizzy.

What? Why didn’t you say something?

I know. I’m sorry. I thought it would pass and I didn’t want to slow anyone down.

Frisk, you gotta know you’re not alone here. We made a pact. But you have to let us know if there’s a problem. Also… you might want to take that.

Frisk blinked and realized that Mom was holding something out to them with a worried expression. It looked like some sort of an energy bar.

“My child, are you-?”

Frisk’s hands really did feel a bit heavy, but they lifted one and accepted the food.

“I’m sorry. Thank you?”

“Oh. You are very welcome. Doctor Sans said that if one of you exhibited any signs of demagication I should have you eat something immediately. Monster Food is full of magic, after all. Do you need me to peel off the wrapper for you?”

Frisk shook their head, a little embarrassed that Mom thought they needed to be babied. They weren’t that out of it. Frisk peeled the wrapper back slowly and took a bite. The energy bar was filled with nuts and fruit and spiders. Or maybe those were just raisins?

Frisk pretended they were raisins.

As Frisk chewed, they began to feel a lot better. They were still a little tired, but it was the drowsiness of having just woken and not of needing to fall asleep. And as Frisk felt better, their mind cleared and they thought about what Mom had just said. One word in particular stood out.

“Mom, what is: Demagication?”

“Ah. It means that your body had become magic deficient. It is something that can happen to monsters if they do not eat enough to replenish their magic. Humans, I think, sometimes suffer from something similar if they do not get enough to drink? That has a similar word: dehydration.”

Frisk nodded. Alphys had taught them that word once on the surface. And then Undyne had called her a nerd and put them both in a headlock, which was really just her preferred method of hugging. Frisk smiled at the memory, though their heart turned as they remembered those two weren’t even born yet.

“Um. Excuse me Frisk.” Dad began to crouch, lowering Frisk back down to the ground. “Since you seem to be doing better, I am going to put you down now. But I will be right here to catch you if you start to fall again. OK?”

“Yeah.” Frisk put down a tentative foot, still half sitting on Dad’s arm, and then the other. The dizziness was gone, but they still felt weak and wobbled a bit under their own weight.

There was a small chunk of the energy bar left, so Frisk popped it up out of the wrapper and placed it on their tongue, savoring the last of the nut oils.

They chewed and swallowed and then tried to pick the stray bits of it out of their teeth with the tip of their tongue as they glanced at the now empty wrapper. Unfortunately, all the writing on the outside was written in the incomprehensible runes of the monster language and they no longer had a Chara in their head who could translate.

Frisk looked around for a public trashcan to put the wrapper into. Conveniently one stood on the corner of the road up ahead. Frisk walked to it haltingly, fighting against their lethargy with each step.

When they arrived, Frisk put one hand on the open top to steady themself and tossed the wrapper in. There was a gurgle from inside and then a burp and a long tongue came up and licked both the inner lip of the lid and Frisk’s hand before disappearing back inside.

“Thanks,” the trashcan said, “But don’t you know it’s rude to put your full body weight against someone’s face? We only just met.”

“Oh. Sorry.” Frisk removed their hand which was now slick with slobber and backed away.

“Don’t worry about it. And please, feel free to visit me anytime. I’m always hungry.”

“Sure. I’ll keep you in mind.”

Frisk’s stomach growled at the thought of food. The energy bar had been a good start, but ultimately it had barely done more than whet their appetite for something more substantial. After all, they hadn’t had anything to eat since the night before.

Frisk must have been standing and staring at the trashcan lost in thought for too long because the next thing they knew, Asriel had taken their hand.

“Are you OK? Does this help?”

Frisk looked over at him and grinned.

“It helps a lot. Thank you. I’d say I’m probably about fifty percent better.” They cocked their head back towards Chara. “If only I had someone to help with the other hand I might make a full recovery.”

Chara rolled their eyes and made a big show of sighing exasperatedly. “You are ridiculous.”

“Please Chara,” Asriel pleaded, “They need you!”

“Yeah Chara. I’m practically dead on my feet without you.”

“Ugh. I’m coming, just stop already.”

Chara trudged over and took Frisk’s other hand and squeezed it way harder than was necessary. “Ya happy now? We’re all holding hands.”

Frisk smiled at them and relaxed just a little. They were happy. And it did help. Though their feet still felt a bit uneven beneath them.

“Thank you.” Frisk swayed, but Chara and Asriel’s steady hands stabilized them quickly.

The concern returned to Chara’s eyes. “Whoa. Hey. Are you sure you’re OK?”

“I think I just need breakfast. Monster Food will help, right? That’s what Sans said?”

Chara thought for a moment and then nodded. “There are other ways to gain magic than having it injected into you apparently. Though I suppose injections are faster.”

Chara’s stomach growled now too. “Regardless, breakfast sounds like a great idea. But we’re not going back to the house are we? Is there food in the castle?”

Asriel shook his head. “No, but I know of a great place that’s on the way.” He pointed off down the road and called back to his parents. “Mom! Frisk needs more food and we’re all really super hungry! Can we go to WEHOP?”

Frisk blanched. “We don’t have to go anywhere fancy really. Anything quick would be fine.”

Mom and Dad exchanged a glance, then Mom turned and started to walk back into the hospital.

“You go ahead with the kids. I’ll call Sylpher at the castle and tell her to let the Old Hats wait inside.”

Frisk sighed as Dad stooped to let them ride on his back. It seemed there was nothing for it. They were going to eat at WEHOP.

Chapter Text

A young rabbit with a red ball cap turned around backwards and their long white ears slicked back leaned against the wall outside the WEHOP blowing pink bubblegum bubbles the size of their face. Their eyes widened at the sight of King Asgore strolling obviously towards them and they quickly sucked the bubble back into their mouth, strongly stomped their feet twice on the ground, and then disappeared into a chute that opened up beneath them.

From Frisk’s vantage point riding on Dad’s shoulders, they had just enough height to see a cluster of tiny white furred faces waiting at the bottom of the chute before it closed up again. Dad made a ‘hmm’ noise and Frisk leaned over the top of his head with a firm grip on his horns, squinting at the spot the best they could.

“Is that the entrance to the WEHOP?”

“No. I believe that is one of the ways into the home of the owners. They live under the WEHOP you see.”

“Oh. It must be a cool house if you can enter it via slide.”

“I am afraid I cannot say. Their tunnels are much too small for a monster such as myself to fit through. Thankfully, the restaurant door is a much larger size.”

Even though Dad said this, he still had to let Frisk down and duck his head to keep his horns from scraping up the door frame as they walked in.

The front entrance had a Please Wait To Be Seated sign, though as Frisk peered further into the shop it didn’t seem like they would have to wait long. It was between ordinary meal times and there were plenty of empty tables and booths.

An adult rabbit walked up to them all smiles and wearing an apron that had a monster rune Frisk vaguely recognized as meaning ‘WE’ at the top. Underneath the ‘WE’ was a picture of a carrot and then under that was the WEHOP symbol. Frisk snickered at the pun, but then clamped their mouth shut after a confused look from Chara.

The rabbit scooped up a handful of menus from the front desk and then gestured broadly into the WEHOP.

“Your majesty! It is so nice of you to honor us with your presence once again. And I see you’ve brought Prince Asriel, always a pleasure, and- why who is this? Two friends? And you’re all playing hooky from school? Is this some sort of special occasion? Well, that’s none of my business. Shall I show you to your usual seats?”

Asriel squeezed up past Frisk and Dad.

“Since there’s three of us, can we have a booth and extra crayons!?”

“Uhm… Well, you can certainly have as many crayons as you want, but…” The rabbit looked uncertainly at Dad.

“Oh ho ho,” Dad chuckled and put a hand on Asriel’s shoulder. “You may not remember because you were still quite young, my son, but the last time I tried to sit in a booth here I got quite stuck. They had to remove the table to get me out again.”

The rabbit made a calculating glance back over their shoulder.

“It looks like there is a booth free near to your regular spot, your majesty. If you like we could seat the children across from you.”

“That would be just fine. My wife will also be joining us shortly.”

“Ah, of course.” The rabbit fanned out the menus in their hand, revealing that they had already grabbed five, then tapped them back into a neat stack. “Now if you’ll please just follow me.”

The other restaurant patrons watched with more than passing curiosity as the royal family walked by.

Frisk wondered how many people had seen them and Chara with Asriel at this point. The underground was a small place. Especially since everyone was still living in Home. What did people think when they saw strangers with the Royal Family day after day? Nobody had said anything, but there must be some kind of rumor going around by now.

The rabbit set them up at a booth in the very back across from a table with a small ‘Reserved’ placard and two throne-sized chairs that seemed to be there specifically for Dad and Mom.

“How often do you guys eat here?” Frisk asked as a trio of smaller rabbits scurried up with empty glasses, utensils, and plates for their table.

“Oh, probably every other week or so.”

Asriel took a plate off the stack for himself, but set it to the side, leaving his paper place mat free. Frisk looked down at their own. There was a super easy maze in the shape of a rabbit’s head on the right and a monster word search on the left. The center was just a picture of a bunch of monsters staring up in awe around a giant stack of pancakes. It looked like you could color it in if you wanted to.

As Frisk idly solved the maze with nothing but their eyes, the rabbit in the carrot apron returned with Mom and a pitcher of orange juice. Mom waved at the three kids as she sat down across from Dad and the rabbit filled everyone’s cups before strolling off again.

Chara, who had sat on the outer edge of the booth passed one of the cups down to Frisk, then claimed another for themself.

“I don’t know about you two, but I’m parched. Nobody ever told me how thirsty becoming an awesome magic-user could make you. I bet I could drink this whole thing in three gulps.”

Frisk laughed and raised their own glass of orange juice.

“To becoming awesome magic-users then. Though I think maybe it’s just that we haven’t had anything to drink since our hot chocolate last night?”

“Psssh, no. This is monster food Frisk. It’s full of magic. So naturally using magic is going to make us thirsty for more. Tell Frisk I’m right, Asriel.”

“Huh?” Asriel slid his own glass closer to him, though he didn’t pick it up. He was actually too busy glancing out into the rest of the WEHOP to be paying much attention to their conversation.

“Um, well, I think you’re both probably right? I always feel a little bit peckish after magic practice.”

“See!” Chara brandished their orange juice in the air before them like it was some powerful elixir. “And that means I don’t need to get more injections. I can become a powerful sorcerer just by eating and drinking lots of delicious food!”

“But, uh…” Frisk hesitated. They didn’t really want to rain on Chara’s parade, but they weren’t following their logic. “Isn’t your ability to heal plants? How many plants do you think are going to need powerful healing around here?”

“Oh Frisk.” Chara shook their head like they couldn’t believe how short sighted Frisk was. “Obviously healing plants is just like… my level one ability. Soon enough I’ll probably be able to summon them to me and control them! Imagine: some evil-doer attacks and I just raise my hand and vines shoot out of the walls and restrain them!”

Frisk winced. Did Chara’s example have to be vines? Frisk could still vividly remember seeing all of their friends tangled in Flowey’s grasp. They were pretty sure Chara was hoping for too much, but…

“Hey! I bet I can chug mine faster than you two!” Chara raised their glass to their lips.

“Alright.” Frisk held their OJ at the ready too. “You’re on!”

Both humans looked at Asriel expectantly, but he made a face and shook his head, ears wagging slightly with the motion. “I’ll pass.”

“Suit yourself,” Chara said. “On three then. 1. 2. 3.”

Frisk and Chara tipped their glasses back and began gulping down huge mouthfuls of juice, each watching the other’s progress out of the corner of their eyes. After the first swallow, Frisk thought they might have a small lead on Chara. After the second, Frisk thought there was something slightly off about their drink. After the third, Frisk knew why and almost gagged. They put their cup back on the table, unfinished, opening and closing their mouth, their tongue rolling around in disbelief.

“This is carrot juice.”

Chara’s eyes flashed with triumph as they set their empty cup down next to Frisk’s. Their own face was scrunched up like they had just tasted a plate of Papyrus’ spaghetti, but they managed a semi-victorious grin.

“I win!”

“Ugh.” Frisk stuck out their tongue. “You sure did.”

“My you kids sure love your juice.” The rabbit in the carrot apron was back. “I’ll bring the pitcher to refill those for you on my next trip around. But for now…”

They set a basket filled to the brim with every color of crayon imaginable on the center of the table and Asriel let out a soft, but excited bleat.

“There you go, Prince Asriel. As requested. Is there anything else I can get for you? Are you ready to order?”

The rabbit glanced at the still untouched menus piled on the corner of the table. Asriel had already tilted the crayon basket towards him and was sifting through it, picking out a variety of colors for himself. He stopped abruptly at the last question, remembering his manners.

“Uh, thank you! And can we just all get my usual?” He looked at Chara and Frisk for confirmation. “You two are fine with pancakes right?”

Chara nodded and Frisk shrugged.

“I kinda assumed that’s what we’d be eating. I mean, this is a WEHOP.”

“Do you have WEHOP on the surf-” Asriel stopped himself at the last moment. The rabbit was still standing right there.

“No, the surf is all, uh- That is, the restaurants only serve…” Frisk tried to think of something you could believably find at a place called the surf. “Fish?”

“Fish?” The rabbit gave a polite laugh.

“Yeah, like, you know, fish sticks.”

“I think you mean: Fish Kabobs.” Chara said with a grin.

Asriel groaned, but the rabbit laughed again. It seemed a bit more genuine this time.

“You kids aren’t from around here, are you?”

The three kids froze.

“Oh, don’t you worry. If it’s a secret I won’t pry, but we’ve all heard the rumors. Monsters leaving the crowded city, going to find a better life for themselves in the caves. Not everyone knows, but my great grand daddy was one of those who made the march down here and he loved to tell us stories about an expanse of the cavern filled with water flowing and falling from the sky. Much too wet for rabbits or furry folk, he always said, but beautiful none-the-less. Probably the only place I know of that might have an abundance of fish.”

Chara cleared their throat and sat up much too straight, then looked the rabbit in the eye with an overly serious expression.

“My good citizen, I am afraid that I can neither confirm nor deny your suppositions.”

“Oh my. Listen to you.” The rabbit laughed again, clearly amused and clearly believing that they were hitting close to the truth. “Well, that’s fine. I’ll leave you kids alone now. And we’ll have your order ready in ten minutes or less or I’m not a Flapjack Rabbit.”

Chapter Text

As the rabbit in the carrot apron strolled off, Chara breathed a sigh of relief and then planted their face directly into the table. Their arms hung slack at their side and they did not move.

Not sure whether they should be concerned, Frisk put a hand on Chara’s shoulder.

“Chara? What’s wrong? I thought you did great.”

“I don’t like it. I played along with the deception, but it’s too much.” The table muffled Chara’s voice, but they followed the line up with another very audible sigh. “Everyone has been nothing but nice to us, but it’s only because they don’t know that we’re…” Chara hesitated, like they weren’t even sure they should say it out loud. “It just- it feels wrong to lie to them. Don’t they deserve to know what they’re being nice to?”

Frisk sank back into the softly cushioned booth and went still, meditating on the question.

Chara was, for better or worse, a straight forward sort of person. They might selectively not talk about a subject they didn’t like, but Chara had never ever lied to Frisk. They hadn’t even lied to the rabbit. They just hadn’t outed Frisk’s lie. Was that really what was bothering them?

“Well, they’ll all know soon, right? Mom is just worried the monsters will panic if our presence isn’t announced properly. We just have to play along with it for a few days.”

Chara groaned into the table.

“So we’re going to have to keep up this charade at school too?”

“Probably. Assuming Mom still plans to send us there today after everything else that’s happened this morning.”

Chara lifted their head and rested it firmly in their hands with both elbows fanned out on the table. They stared directly across the table at Asriel.

“Hey Asriel.”

Asriel had, by this point, finished coloring in the stack of pancakes pictured at the center of the paper place mat with his brown crayon and was busily giving it a green radioactive glow entirely of his own design. He didn’t hear Chara.

“Asriel.”

Absorbed in his art, Asriel plucked the red crayon from his specially curated pile and started to give the pancake at the top of the stack a hungry-looking, if improbable, mouth.

“Aaaasrieeeel.”

Asriel furrowed his eyebrows, extremely focused on drawing looks of horror over the top of the monster’s faces staring up at the now ravenous-looking pancake stack.

There was a hollow, almost strangely echoing thunk on Asriel’s side of the table as Chara tried to kick him and missed, striking instead the base of the booth with their bare foot.

“Owww. Asriel! Now look what you made me do!”

Chara, half stood on the seat cushion and unceremoniously plopped their entire leg onto the table. Their now throbbing toes landed on Asriel’s place mat, narrowly missing his still full glass of carrot juice.

Startled, Asriel jerked to baffled attention.

“W-what?”

“Unbelievable. How can you be this oblivious?”

A loud parental cough sounded from the table a few feet away where Mom sat with Dad, sternly eying Chara’s leg with a warning shake to her head. Chara’s face flushed and they returned to a normal sitting position.

Chara folded their hands together and settled in as though they hadn’t just received a silent chastisement.

“Anyway, you shouldn’t ignore people when they’re sitting across from you. It’s rude.”

Asriel looked helplessly to Frisk, with pleading in his confused eyes, but Chara didn’t give him the chance to muster a response or Frisk the opportunity to come to his aid before plowing on ahead.

“Asriel. I have a question.”

“Yeah?” Asriel sounded almost eager for anything that would change the subject.

“Why is there a barrier trapping everyone underground? Does it have something to do with the war Wisknit was talking about?”

“Oh. Um.” Asriel glanced sideways at his parents, then half shrugged and looked down at his ongoing art project. “Nobody likes to talk about that, so I don’t know much of the details yet either, but yes. At the end of the war the monsters went underground and the humans stayed above and the barrier was made to separate the two forever. Since neither side can come into contact with the other we’ve been at peace ever since.”

Chara’s palms slammed onto the table.

“But! Asriel! That means humans got the whole surface of the planet while monsters were trapped in this small space underground? That’s not fair!”

Asriel shrank back in his seat, clearly uncomfortable with Chara’s sudden outburst.

“W-well, we lost the war so… B-besides, didn’t you say it was nicer down here anyway?”

“No! The air is stale and everything is hard and cold and a little clammy and there’s a bunch of creepy shadows lurking in every unlit corner. Basically, the Underground sucks.”

Asriel winced and Chara’s expression softened.

“But the people down here are nicer. You let me wear what I want. You address me properly. You use my true name. You treat me like a person even though I’m clearly different. You’re the ones who deserve the surface, not those crummy humans. If only there was a way I could give it all back to you- If only I could make them all pay for what they’ve done-”

Frisk looked down at their hands. They knew humans weren’t perfect, but they still hoped for a future in which both humans and monsters could coexist peacefully. There was a lot that both sides could learn from each other if the fear and distrust could be dispelled.

Asriel leaned across the table and put a hand on top of Chara’s balled up fist. His ears swayed slightly as he looked Chara in the eye.

“But you didn’t even know we were down here right? The people living on the surface aren’t the ones who trapped us. So, it’s OK, really! You don’t need to worry about it. I don’t think all humans are bad. I mean, I’ve only met two, but they’re both so cool and. Um.”

Chara pulled their hand back.

“Asriel. You idiot. Keep your voice down.”

“What? What’d I say?”

Chara shook their head and put a finger to their mouth. They mouthed silently. “Listen.”

There was an odd clicking sound coming from under the booth, like gears slowly turning. Frisk ducked under the booth to search for the source, but at that moment a panel opened in the floor and glass wall closed in their booth, separating them from the rest of the restaurant. Frisk’s head painfully hit the underside of the table as they jerked back up into their seat.

On the other side of the glass, Mom and Dad were just now looking over with extremely bewildered expressions. And as Mom began to stand, the booth the three kids were sitting in shook, rattling softly against the glass cage, and then began to descend.

Chapter Text

There’s a reason restaurants don’t normally have their patrons dine in an elevator. Frisk’s fork bounced sideways across the vibrating booth and their empty plate skittered after it while, across the table, Asriel’s yet untouched glass of carrot juice toppled over. Chara’s hand launched to catch the cup, but was too late. Thick orange liquid spilled between their fingers and across Asriel’s paper placemat.

“Golly.” Asriel picked at the dry edge of his placemat, trying in vain to slide it away from the growing puddle of carrot juice. “My art piece… It’s ruined! I spent so much time on that too.”

“Golly?” Chara jabbed a finger dripping with carrot juice at the glass wall. The booth had descended halfway into the floor and showed no signs of stopping. Mom and Dad had rushed to the edge of the glass wall, but already all that the children could see was their parent’s feet. “Asriel, you dork. Don’t you think we’ve got bigger problems to worry about?”

Even as Chara said this, the elevator roof slipped beneath the floor of the restaurant and the thin window of light between them closed, plunging the children into a sudden and total darkness. It was like the whole world had been sealed away and now nothing was left for them but this rattling and clanking box falling down and down, away from the safety of Mom and Dad and into a familiar void.

Frisk squeezed their eyes closed then opened them, blinking like that would help adjust to seeing in the dark quicker. It was hard, but they could just make out the dark blob of Chara sitting to their left and the faint outline of Asriel sitting across from Chara. And… there was something else here too. Something sitting across from them… Something in the shape of a man…

Frisk’s whole body froze. Their eyes darted back to Chara for reassurance that they were still there.

H-hey, um, do you-

Their eyes shifted back across the booth. The shape was gone like a vaporous cloud that had simply dissipated when they looked away. Had they imagined it? They had learned once long ago in the true lab that it was very easy for the mind to play tricks in the dark. But then, they had also learned that one should never trust the seeming emptiness of a lonely room.

Chara shifted uneasily in the seat beside them.

Do I feel like we’re being watched? Yes, but I don’t see how. This is a liminal space.

A what?

A faint feeling like a cool breeze played up Frisk’s arm. Their whole body shuddered and froze once more.

A liminal space, you know, it’s sorta like-

It settled like a ghostly hand on their chest.

-a between area. So since we started this ride with just the three of us-

It pushed. Frisk felt a soft probing pressure against their soul. An almost experimental tug.

-it’ll just be the three of us till the ride ends.

Frisk, half in a panic, pushed back against the unseen presence the only way they could think how. With every bit of determination they could muster they tapped into their limited magic reserves and filled themself with it till their whole body gave off a magical healing glow, faintly illuminating the booth.

Frisk looked quickly around, but only Chara and Asriel were there with them in the booth and other than a vague lingering chill, the cold presence was gone. Frisk took a deep breath and then let it out slow.

Chara gave Frisk a worried look.

“Good idea, but don’t you think you should leave magical light to Asriel? You’re supposed to be resting. The whole point of coming here was to get you some food and restore your magical reserves.”

Frisk did feel tired again. And hungry. Their stomach growled at the thought of something to eat. They found their glass and downed what was left of their carrot juice, too exhausted to even make a face at the strange flavor, then let the magic and the light fade from their body like Chara suggested.

“We never did get our pancakes.” Frisk sighed more to themself than anyone else.

All at once, the booth shuddered to a clanging stop and the vibrations stilled. There was a cheery ding and a pair of doors opened revealing another dark room. The three kids peered into it, but it was impossible to see anything in the gloom. If not for the very solid booth beneath them, Frisk might’ve worried that they were in that void again. But no ordinary elevator could have brought them there.

“We’re not alone,” Frisk warned. “I definitely sensed a presence for a second there.”

“Agreed.” Chara shifted to their feet, standing just on the threshold of the room they had arrived at. “Asriel, can you light this place up?”

“You want me to set it on fire? I- I’m not sure I can do that. I can barely maintain a small flame I’m holding with both hands.”

“What? No, I mean, that would be kinda awesome, but I meant make us a flame to see by. You had the whole bedroom lit up last night. Do something like that.”

“Oh. Right. What happened last night was, um, it only got big cause it was all three of us I think.”

Frisk scooted across the bench and smiled at the dark blob that was Asriel.

“Just do what you can. We only need a little light to look around.”

The Asriel shadow bobbed his head and stood and a moment later a happy orange flame danced in his cupped hands. He held it out towards the room illuminating maybe the front third of it.

In the first burst of light several small shadows scampered quickly behind a large rectangular object at the other end of the room. It was too far for Asriel’s flickering light to fully reveal, but two by two, three sets of twinkling eyes rose up from the other side, to peer back. The kids definitely weren’t alone.