Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Frisk groaned as they rolled to their side, lifting their head up to look around at the cave. Maybe they shouldn’t have gotten so close to the big hole in the mountain, their body was pretty sore now. Everything hurt. They had just wanted to see if there was lava! In books, big mountains with a hole on the top meant that it was a volcano! They were on top of a mountain, and there was a big hole!

Frisk carefully sat up, looking around more. It was a pretty big cave, with large rocks everywhere.

“Hello?”

Frisk twisted around to look for where the voice came from. There, sitting a few feet away, was a big kid. Maybe a young teenager? The kid had brown hair that was cut short, but still long enough to hang over her ears. She had white skin, and she was wearing a green, black, and yellow striped shirt with black overalls. The shirt almost resembled Frisk’s sweater, if you replaced the green and yellow with blue and purple.

Frisk cocked their head curiously. What was another person doing down here?

“Who are you?” the big kid asked, “Why are we here?” Her eyes widened. “Oh no, if I’m here…” She looked around wildly. “Where’s my brother?”

Frisk crawled over, reaching up to tap the big kid on the shoulder. They didn’t want the other kid to be sad. Their hand passed through the other’s shoulder like air.

“…what,” the big kid whispered, staring at Frisk’s hand. She brought her own hand up to try to hold Frisk’s, face falling when it didn’t work. “I’m a ghost? I guess it makes sense, the last thing I remember is dying. I guess dead-human ghosts really are different than ghost monsters.”

Frisk frowned. Dying sounded scary. Was the big kid a mean ghost like in movies, or a friendly ghost like Casper?

The ghost looked at Frisk sadly. “My brother’s probably dead too. I don’t think he would be a ghost like me, though.” She sighed. “I shouldn’t have drank that stupid tea.”

Oh. It was a sad ghost. Frisk crawled forward to hug her, reaching their arms around the ghost’s body only to fall through them onto the yellow flowers that were covering the ground.

The ghost laughed. “Aw, thanks for trying, kid.” She tried to pat Frisk on the head, hand passing through awkwardly. “Anyways, if you’re here, it means you’re stuck like I was. Well, still am. This place is called the Underground by the way.”

Frisk nodded thoughtfully, looking up at the big hole they had fallen through. Maybe there was someone up there? They clapped their hands a few times, trying to be as loud as they could.

“I don’t think anyone can hear you.”

They carefully tried standing up, wincing and tearing up at the pain they felt around their ribs and shoulder. At least they didn’t die.

“Are you ok?” the ghost asked, standing up and frowning in concern. She was taller than them.

They nodded and sniffed, wiping their eyes.

“If you say so,” the ghost sighed. “My name’s Chara, by the way. I go by they and them, instead of she or he.”

Frisk perked up, nodding and pointing at themself with a grin.

“Oh, you too? They/them?”

They nodded again, brown hair flying into their face with how hard they were bobbing their head. They had never met someone that had the same gender as them before, especially not a cool big kid! It was a good thing the other kid said something, otherwise Frisk would keep thinking that they were a girl.

“Cool. We should probably get out of here.”

Frisk nodded again, walking out of the patch of yellow flowers, being careful not to squish anymore than they already have. They noticed an exit, a long tunnel leading away from the cave they were in. They decided to go through it. There were dark purple columns along the purple brick walls, some broken down and leaning against each other. The walls were covered in cracks and small holes.

“Hey, you!”

Frisk turned around in surprise, eyes darting around the hall they just walked through until they saw a big yellow flower sticking out of the ground, each torn petal as long as one of Frisk’s fingers. The flower had a face in it’s white center, staring at Frisk.

“What the heck?” Chara asked in surprise, “I don’t remember there-”

“Howdy,” the flower said, waving a leaf at them, “I’m Flowey, Flowery the flower. I heard you clapping. Thought you might’ve been some kind of weird monster. But you’re not. You’re a human.”

“You didn’t need to interrupt.” Chara frowned. “Wait, can you even see me? The kid can see me. Maybe they’re just a special case, though.”

Frisk blinked away their surprise and waved at Flowey. They did their best to smile. Maybe he was nice? He sighed.

“You shouldn’t have climbed this mountain, kid,” he said, petals drooping. “The other monsters here will try to kill you. Do you understand?”

Frisk pressed their lips together, shrugging. So monsters were real? All the other kids said that monsters lived in the mountain, and the grown-ups would tell Frisk that if they kept misbehaving, monsters would drag them to the mountain never to be seen again. Frisk had always tried to imagine that as a rescue story, though. The monsters would take them to the mountain, and Frisk would never see the mean people ever again. But it sounded like that wasn’t reality…

“Not all monsters are mean,” Chara said, “My mom adopted me when I fell, and her kid, also a monster, was like my brother. They were nice.”

“Can you talk?” Flowey asked.

Frisk shook their head.

“Whatever. Do you know sign language?” He sighed when they shook their head again. “This is gonna be pretty difficult…” They looked at the ground in guilt. They didn’t mean to cause trouble. “Look, there are a lot of monsters living here. This part of the Underground is called the Ruins. It’s caretaker, Toriel, lives here. Whatever you do, DO NOT let her see you. She’s…” Flowey hesitated for a second, looking uncomfortable, “unstable, sometimes.”

“Toriel?”

Frisk glanced at Chara. They looked surprised and upset. “Toriel’s my mom! Did she…” They shook their head. “Oh no, Azzy and I dying must have hurt her…”

“You’ll probably be fine though!” Flowey said, a tense smile on his face. “I can try to help you!”

Frisk perked up at that. The nice flower was going to help them!

“You need to try to avoid the monsters that live down here,” Flowey told them, “they’ll be after your soul. If any of them try to attack you, you need to either fight back, or run away.”

Frisk tensed again. They didn’t want to fight anyone!

“What’s wrong?”

Frisk shook their head.

“You need to be brave, ok?”

They nodded reluctantly.

Flowey sighed. “You’ll be fine, kid.”

Frisk glanced around. Chara was standing silently, hugging themself. Frisk decided to leave them be, they were probably worried about their mom. But where did Flowey come from? He didn’t have any legs, how were they going to stay together?

They pointed at the ground his stem was coming out of and raised an eyebrow with a shrug.

“What?” Flowey looked down, frowning. “What’re you- oh. Right, me coming up like that was probably creepy.”

Frisk pointed to one of their legs and shrugged again, keeping their eyebrow raised.

The flower squinted at them before widening his eyes. “Oh! Don’t worry, I can follow you just fine.” He sank into the floor, leaving a dirt-filled hole in the stone.

Frisk blinked. They turned around and saw a crack in the floor growing bigger. Flower popped out of the new hole, shaking the dirt and dust off.

“See? I can follow you anywhere.”

“Neat trick,” Chara commented. They still looked a little sad, but they weren’t clinging to themself as tightly anymore.

Frisk nodded happily.

——————————————————————————————————————

Frisk peaked around the corner. The Ruins, as Flowey called them, were actually pretty cool. Frisk could pretend that they were exploring an old, haunted castle! The cracked brick walls were a dull red color, with the ground being a dark purple covered in a raggedy light purple carpet.

“There’s no one in this room,” Chara said from where they were standing in the center.

Frisk walked over to the edge of the carpet, hopping along on the red designs at the edge. They smiled a bit, hopping over the patterns and rips.

“…what the heck are you doing?”

They looked over at the ground where Flowey was sticking out. He was staring at them with a confused frown.

They waved with a grin, making him sigh.

“Kid, you gotta focus. If a monster sees you, you’ll end up getting hurt.”

Frisk pouted, their shoulders deflating.

“Don’t give me that look. I’m trying to keep you alive over here.”

Chara laughed a bit. “He has a point, kid.”

They sighed, nodding. They walked further into the room, where two tall, pale stone staircases were leading to a platform, covered in cracks like everything else. At the bottom of the stairs was a patch of plants with red leaves and a strange, glowy yellow thing that looked like a star.

Frisk walked over the carpeted floor to the star-thing curiously.

Flowey popped out of the ground at the edge of the leaf patch. “What are you looking at? The plants? I’m a way more interesting plant.”

Frisk shook their head and grinned good-naturedly, pointing at the star-thing. Flowey followed their finger, his eyes widening when he saw it.

“You can see the SAVE point?” A green vine that had a few thorns on it reached out of the ground, trying to poke at it. The flower frowned as the vine kept going through it, like it wasn’t there. “Why can’t I…” He turned to Frisk. “You try touching it.”

Frisk shrugged, reaching out. Their hand made contact with the star-thing, making a black rectangle with white outlines and words appear.

“I don’t remember anything like this being down here,” Chara commented, looking at it curiously.

“Huh. You can SAVE.”

Frisk looked at Flowey.

“Basically, if you die you can go back in time to the last time you used one of these things,” he explained, “They’re all over the Underground. Let me show you how to use it.”

Frisk followed his directions and SAVED. They felt all of the sore spots from their fall go away when they were finished. The star-thing could heal them? That was good to know. They didn’t really know what to feel about anything else. So, they could die, and go back in time? Weird. Cool, but weird. And scary. They didn’t want to die.

“You probably won’t die,” Chara reassured them, “Even if you do, time travel is pretty cool! You’re like a superhero or something.”

Still nervous, but feeling slightly better, Frisk walked away and went up the stairs, avoiding the bigger cracks. They got to the top of the stairs, going through a big doorway to a room. There were six big buttons on the ground to the right, and a closed door straight across from Frisk.

Flowey popped out of the middle of the floor. “Those panels are a puzzle, the Ruins are full of them. There are hints on the signs on the walls-” He gestured to a stone sign next to the door- “but I’ll do this one for you.”

Four vines rose out of the ground, pressing down on the buttons one at a time. After he did that, he sent a vine to the right side of the door and pulled down a yellow switch, making the door open. That was so cool!

Flowey snorted when he looked back at Frisk’s face. “I know I’m pretty impressive, but that was one of the most basic puzzles in the world. I’m not saying don’t praise me, of course.”

Frisk clapped politely, making the flower preen. Chara snorted.

“Don’t give him a big head.”

They walked across the room, going through the door. The room through here was more of a long hallway, the light purple carpet leading down in a straight line. Flowey popped out next to a wooden sign.

“The next few puzzles involve switches,” he told them, “The signs explain how to do it.”

Frisk looked at the wooden sign next to him.

“The sign may have said something at some point, but it’s too worn to read by now,” Chara observed.

“Well, not this one,” Flowey said sheepishly when he realized what had Frisk confused, “I don’t even know what this sign was about, but I was talking about the stone signs on the walls. Like the one over there.”

He pointed with a vine to the wall across from them. Oh! Frisk could see that sign. They rushed over eagerly to look at it, Chara following.

They pointed at the sign, looking at Chara with wide, pleading eyes.

“Do you need me to read it?” they asked with a slight smile.

Frisk nodded. They had never been good at learning, so the teachers gave up on helping them with stuff pretty quickly. Then they were homeless, so school wasn’t really an option anymore.

Chara looked over the sign. “‘Stay on the path’,” they read. “If I remember correctly, it’s talking about the carpets.”

Frisk nodded, smiling as brightly as they could in thanks.

Chara smiled back. “If you want to say thanks in sign language, you can do this-” they made a motion with their hand, bringing it to their mouth and moving it outwards- “to say thank you.”

Frisk copied the motion, grinning. -Thank you!- they signed.

“It also means you’re welcome,” Chara said, grinning back. -You’re welcome,- they signed.

Frisk bounced a bit happily, walking away from the wall and back to the path where Flowey was waiting for them. He was frowning, looking confused.

“What were you doing?” he asked. “I thought you didn’t know sign. Who’d you even need to thank?”

Frisk shrugged, not sure how to explain their ghost friend.

Flowey sighed. “Whatever. Just try to stay focused, ok?”

They nodded, following the path over a small bridge that covered a small creek. The wooden bridge creaked as they walked over it, making their heart speed up. They went over it quickly, not wanting it to break. Luckily it was only a few feet long.

The carpet continued in a straight line, but just after the bridge there was a new path leading to a switch on the wall.

“You need to push that switch, ok?” Flowey called out to them.

They glanced at Chara, who gave them a thumbs up. They nodded, following the worn carpet and reaching up to flip the yellow switch.

“Good job,” said Flowey, popping up next to the next bridge they had to go over. “Just follow the carpet, yeah?”

Frisk nodded. -Thank you!-

They walked over the next bridge. This time, while the carpet did break off to lead to a switch, there was another switch next to it that didn’t have any carpet leading to it. They shrugged, flipping the switch that was on the path, hearing a weird clicking sound.

“Splendid,” Chara said with a grin, making jazz hands. “The path doesn’t have spikes blocking it anymore.”

Frisk smiled back, hopping along the path to follow it through a doorway. They decided to jump over the small holes on the floor of the entrance, just in case the spikes came back while they were going through.

The next room looked empty, a wide space with vines covering the cracked walls.

Chara looked around. “There are a lot more cracks and vines than there were while I was living here. I wonder how long it’s been since I died.”

Frisk looked around. It didn’t seem like there was anything interesting, so they kept walking along the path to the next room. This was a long hallway, a bit like the room with the last puzzle. This room’s carpet wasn’t in a straight line, instead winding through with corners. Frisk looked around. They didn’t see any signs here, so maybe the advice from the first one was the same? They just had to stay on the path?

They stayed on the carpet, following the turns until they got to the end of the hallway.

“Kid, look out!”

Frisk turned around, startled, as Chara shouted at them. They didn’t see anything, so what-

There was a deep, rumbling croak behind them. Frisk shivered, slowly looking behind them with wide eyes. There was a large white thing behind them, looking like a frog, only it was about the size of a big dog. It glared at Frisk with glowing red eyes.

Frisk stared at it’s face nervously. They gave it a small wave. Frogs were usually really cool, so maybe it was nice…?

The frog-thing croaked deeply again. Frisk’s body tingled, making them shudder. The area around them darkened, everything turning black. Strange green lines spread around the air, arranged like a grid. The ground that Frisk and the frog-thing were on became outlined in red. Frisk looked around, feeling very afraid. What was happening?

“Kid, listen to me.” Chara?

Frisk sniffed, looking at where Chara was standing beyond the green lines. Everything out there was still colored normally.

“Kid,” Chara said, their voice even, “That monster is a Froggit. It just pulled you into an Encounter. You’re going to be fine.”

Frisk nodded nervously. They tugged on the sleeve of their sweater nervously, glancing down. Their eyes widened, breath catching.

It wasn’t just the ground that was black, everything was. Frisk’s skin, usually a dark yellow-brown color, was black, and the outlines of their everything was red. Their sweater turned black, too, thin red lines marking where the purple, blue, and black stripes usually met.

“Kid?” Chara called out again. “Do you see those four buttons?”

Frisk looked in front of them. There were four orange-red rectangles floating in the air, each one having a word and picture on them. The first had a picture of a knife, the second was three curved lives, like on a speaker’s buttons, the third had a weird round shape Frisk didn’t even know how to describe, and the last one just had an X.

“Those buttons are options that you can make,” Chara explained calmly. “The one with the dagger says FIGHT, the one with the lines says ACT, the one with the bag says ITEMS, and the one with the X says MERCY.”

Frisk nodded, looking at the options carefully. They hesitantly reached out and poked the ACT one, a new orange-red outline appearing above the options. There were white words in the outline. They sent a panicked look at Chara.

“Kid!” Flowey popped out of the ground next to Chara. “What happened!? Are you ok? Whatever you do, don’t panic!” His voice was frantic, making Frisk freak out even more.

Chara facepalmed. “Don’t worry, kid, I’m coming.” They speed-walked through the green grid, coming to stand next to Frisk. For some reason, they stayed the same colors they always were. “Ok, you have three options: CHECK, Compliment, or Threat.” They poked at the first option. “It looks like I can’t choose for you. Mind clicking CHECK?”

Frisk hesitantly tapped the CHECK option, the words changing into different words.

“‘FROGGIT’,” Chara read out, “It has an attack of five, and defense of five. That means that it’s attacks take away five of your HOPE, the amount of damage that you can take. It looks like you have twenty HOPE.”

The outline and options disappeared, the ground in full view. In the center of the red outline on the floor, there was a red heart floating in the center. The red heart made Frisk feel… strange. They noticed Chara tense next to them.

“Kid, get ready to move that heart. Don’t let anything hit it.”

“Be careful!” Flowey’s voice shouted out.

Frisk kept their eyes on the floor nervously. Glowing, red things that looked like flies flew into the rectangle. Frisk’s eyes widened. How do they move the heart? They pictured the heart moving closer to them. It worked! They pictured the heart dodging all of the flies, sighing in relief when it was over. The four options reappeared in front of the human and ghost.

“Good job, kid,” Chara said, glancing at them with a smile.

-Thank you,- Frisk signed, smiling back at them shakily.

“What do you want to do next?” Chara asked, “FIGHT, ACT, or MERCY? MERCY has a Flee option, if you wanna make a break for it.”

Frisk looked at the Froggit, and took a deep breath. They pressed ACT, looking at Chara.

“CHECK, Compliment, or Threat?”

Frisk held up two fingers.

“Compliment it is,” Chara said with a nod, pointing to the option Frisk chose.

Frisk poked the white word, giving the Froggit a thumbs up.

“The Froggit seems confused,” the ghost commented.

The panels disappeared again, the red heart floating above the center of the floor. Frisk focused on it, giving it a hard stare.

“Looking pretty determined there,” Chara commented, sounding happy.

This time, a new, small frog appeared, jumping towards the heart. Frisk pictured how they wanted the heart to move, dodging the magic frog easily.

On their next turn, they chose Compliment again, making the frog’s cheeks turn pink. The next attack was even easier with about four white flies floating around.

“Hey, look!” Chara pointed at the SPARE button. “The words are yellow instead of red! That means you can SPARE the Froggit!”

Frisk chose the SPARE button eagerly, tapping the yellow words when Chara pointed at them. The black area, red outlines, and green grid faded into nothing, the Froggit hopping away quickly. Frisk waved goodbye, not really caring that it didn’t see.

“Good job, kid.” Chara smiled, waving their hand through the top of Frisk’s head in the best head pat they could manage.

“How did you do that?”

Frisk and Chara looked at Flowey, who was staring at the younger with a frown.

Chapter Text

“How did you know how to do any of that?” Flowey asked, “I didn’t have a chance to explain anything about Encounters. And I know that humans don’t have those. And it looked like you were listening to some invisible person.” He gave them a hard look. “You said that you didn’t know sign. Is there someone else here, teaching you stuff?”

Frisk sighed, nodding. Flowey’s been helping them so far, they didn’t want to lie.

The flower looked around, frowning and curling his leaves around himself.

“He seems tense,” Chara said. They were right.

“Who’s there?” Flowey demanded.

“Here, kid, copy what I do with my hand.” Chara crouched down, bringing their right hand in front of them. “I’m gonna finger-spell my name. This is the letter C.” They curved their hand, palm facing towards Flowey. He looked at them strangely. “This is the letter H.” The pointer and middle finger pointed to the right. “A.” A fist. “R.” Fingers crossed. “And A again.”

-CHARA,- Frisk signed again. It was a little clumsy, but they thought it would work.

“…what.” Flowey stared at them. Frisk couldn’t tell what his expression was. “…is this a joke?”

Frisk shook their head, confused at the reaction.

“Chara?” Flowey’s face shifted, the mouth area of his white face moving outwards into a snout, and his eyes becoming wider and softer. “Cha-Cha? Is that really you?” His voice changed, also turning softer and a little higher.

Chara gasped, hand shooting to cover their mouth. “Azzy?” Their voice was shaking, eyes tearing up. “Asriel?”

Frisk looked between them uncomfortably, feeling like they were invading something personal.

“Kid,” Chara said, “kid, I need you to sign more, please?”

Frisk nodded, bringing their hand up again to copy Chara.

-ASRIEL.- Their fingers followed along stiffly. Hopefully they would get better with practice. -AZZY.-

Flowey stared at Frisk in shock. Then his snout curved into an overjoyed smile. “Chara! It is you! You’re here! It’s me!”

Chara let out a wet laugh. “Azzy. How the heck did you turn into a flower?”

Frisk’s mouth twitched into a smile.

“They’re here?” Azzy asked, staring at Frisk hopefully. “My best friend is here?”

Frisk nodded, reaching out to hold the air around Chara’s hand. Azzy’s eyes followed their hand, eyes scanning the area.

“How are you here, Chara? We died.”

Chara brought their hand up, Frisk copying them.

-GHOST,- they spelled. Chara said the letters as they were spelling them.

“A ghost monster?” Azzy asked, frowning in confusion.

Chara shook their head. “This is the sign for ‘not’ and ‘don’t’,” they told Frisk, making a fist and pulling it away from their chin. “This is the sign for ‘monster’.” They made clawed hands, flicking them up in front of their chest.

-They’re not a monster.-

The flower still looked a little confused, but he sighed and shrugged. “It doesn’t matter, I’m just glad they’re ok.” He glanced at the space where Chara was. “By the way, please keep calling me Flowey. I know the name’s kinda dumb, but I don’t really feel like Asriel anymore.” His face tensed. “You’re still my dumb sibling though, got it?”

Chara grinned at him. “Got it, Flowey.”

Frisk gave a thumbs up. Flowey relaxed.

“We should probably get going,” he said.

Frisk nodded, turning back to the hallway. It was really nice that the siblings were reunited. Chara and Flowey both seemed happy as the three continued. After a few steps, Frisk saw a new sign on the wall. They pointed at it, looking to Chara for help.

“It says, ‘The western room is the eastern room’s blueprint’,” they read.

-Thank you,- Frisk signed, continuing down the hall. It ended in a big, long room with a floor covered in spikes. The sides had a moat of water along the wall. Flowey popped up next to them.

“You read the sign, right?” he asked. “The spikes are on those square panels. On some of the panels, the spikes are just illusions. You can walk through them with no problem. All you need to do is pretend to walk on the carpet from the last room.”

Frisk stared at the spikes, squirming nervously.

“I have an idea,” Chara said. “I’ll go back to the last room, and give you directions.”

Frisk deflated in relief, nodding and signing thanks.

“Is Chara doing something?” Flowey asked as Frisk watched the ghost go back through the hallway. He hummed thoughtfully when they nodded.

“Ok,” Chara called after a minute, “step on the first square.”

Frisk took a deep breath, stepping hesitantly through the spikes. They passed through harmlessly, the spikes disappearing.

“Step on the next spike-square right in front of it.”

Frisk did so, the spikes fizzing in the air.

“One more spike in front of you, then step on the one on your left.”

With Chara’s help, Frisk made their way through the fake spikes, their heart pounding the whole way through.

“Good job,” said Flowey. “Let’s keep going.”

The next room was another long hallway, the ragged carpet winding down. Frisk tried to pay attention to the pattern, just in case they had to go through spikes again. They didn’t want to keep having to make Chara do everything. At the end of the hall there was a broken down pillar, but other than that there wasn’t a lot of interesting stuff.

Chara walked ahead of them to the next room. “There’s a Froggit,” they called back. “It doesn’t seem super aggressive, though.

Frisk took a deep breath, walking into the next room. The Froggit was on their immediate left, watching them with narrow eyes. It croaked at them.

“It’s asking why you spared it,” Chara translated.

Frisk blinked, giving it a shrug. The Froggit was silent in contemplation. It (He? They?) croaked again.

“It has advice for you,” Chara explained as the Froggit went on, “It’s saying that if you ACT the way you did with it, other monsters might not want to FIGHT anymore.”

Frisk smiled. -Thank you.- They would remember that.

The Froggit looked them over before hopping away. Frisk watched them go, a bright yellow light catching their eyes. Further into the room was another star-thing, floating above a leaf pile. They went over to it immediately, crunching through the leaves to touch it.

“You’re pretty determined, huh kid?” Chara asked, giving them a soft smile as they SAVED. Frisk grinned at them. They liked the sound of determined. They crunched on the leaves again, just for fun.

“Hey, kid!”

They turned around at Flowey calling them. He was near a doorway, close to where the Froggit was.

“This room has some food in it that can heal you if you get hurt.” He pointed to the doorway with a vine.

Frisk perked up, running over to the room. The room was small, a pillar in the center that was about an inch shorter than them. On top of it was a bowl.

Chara looked down into the bowl, wrinkling their nose. “Uck, licorice. There’s a note that’s telling you to only take one. You don’t have to, licorice is the worst.”

Frisk shrugged, reaching in to grab a licorice. They shouldn’t be picky, who knows how much food they’ll get down here? Most of the food they ate came from garbage bins, anyways.

“Suit yourself.” Chara shrugged.

Frisk headed back through the other room, waving at Flowey. There were two other piles of red leaves further into the room. No other SAVE stars, though. Frisk wandered down the room, following the carpet to the next doorway. Maybe they could spare another minute to play in the leaves?

A new monster rushed at them suddenly, making them gasp in surprise. The space around them turned black again, with red outlines and a green grid. Uh-oh…

“Oh hey, a Whimsun!” Chara said happily, before they seemed to process what was happening. “Oh. An Encounter. …oops.”

Chapter Text

Frisk giggled a little at Flowey’s expression.

“You could’ve asked me to hold down the button with my vines,” he grumbled. “I would have been way more helpful than that jerk of a rock.”

Frisk and Chara exchanged a glance, smiling. Frisk giggled more as they made their way through the next hallway. So far, so good. They had been dragged into a few more Encounters, but most of the monsters here just needed compliments or nice conversations. Frisk being mute wasn’t even a problem!

“Chara’s making fun of me, aren’t they?” Flowey muttered, rolling his eyes.

“You know me so well,” Chara replied dryly. Frisk just nodded at Flowey as they continued walking.

There was a SAVE star and a table on the side of this hallway, a piece of cheese sitting on the table. Frisk walked towards it curiously and tried to pick the cheese up.

“It looks like the cheese has been there so long, it’s stuck,” Chara observed. Frisk shrugged, moving to the SAVE star instead.

“I might be able to rummage for some cheese if you want any,” Flowey offered.

Frisk shook their head. -Thank you, not.-

“Here, this is no.” Chara made their pointer and middle finger tap against their thumb.

Frisk nodded. -No, thank you.-

The trio moved to the next room. This one was the smallest yet, only a small amount of space before the next doorway. At the bottom of the doorway, a new kind of monster was lying down on a leaf pile.

The new monster was white, and looked like a dirty sheet. There were dusty smudges at the bottom of the sheet, where the legs would be if they had any. The monster’s eyes were closed, and it was lying on it’s back as though asleep.

“That’s a ghost monster,” Chara told Frisk. “You’ll need to move them if you want to keep going.”

Frisk looked at the ghost in consideration. They didn’t want to bother anybody, the ghost looked like they were asleep. Maybe they could creep along the walls that the ghost was in between? They went to do that, backing up to the wall and pressing as close as they could to the vines and cracked purple brick. Slowly, they crept along, doing their best to not kick the ghost. Almost there… almost there…

The ghost’s eyes shot open, glaring at Frisk. They floated up, dragging them into an Encounter.

“Who do you think you are?” they demanded. “I came here to be alone!”

Frisk quickly slammed their hand down on the ACT button, looking to Chara for help.

“Your options are CHECK, flirt, threat, and cheer.” Chara paused. “Wait, flirt? Why is that an option?” They shook their head. “Whatever, just hit CHECK, it’s the first one.”

Frisk nodded, clicking it.

“Napstablook,” Chara read, “they have an attack of ten, and defense of ten.”

The ghost, Napstablook, sent a weird look in Chara’s direction. “Whatever,” they muttered. They sent bullet patterns that were shaped like music notes. Frisk focused on their SOUL, moving it out of the way.

“How old are you?” Chara asked once they were done. Frisk held up seven fingers. “Ok, no flirting for you. And I know you don’t like the threat option, so how about cheer?”

Frisk nodded, tapping the cheer option once Chara pointed to it. They gave Napstablook a thumbs up, grinning widely.

“You two are really weird,” the ghost muttered, sending a bullet attack shaped like wiggles.

“Wait, two?” Chara frowned. “I thought I was invisible.”

Frisk shrugged, clicking the cheer option again.

“I can only see the kid, but I can hear you,” the monster explained.

“Oh.” Chara blinked at them in contemplation. “I guess it’s because we’re both ghosts.”

Napstablook huffed. “Are you gonna attack me at all?” they asked Frisk. They snorted when they shook their head. “Whatever. You’re not gonna last very long down here.”

The Encounter faded away, Napstablook disappearing. Frisk and Chara shrugged at each other.

“I’ve seen that guy before,” Flowey mentioned after he popped out of the ground. “They come here a lot. Sometimes they vent to themself about a ‘stupid cousin’? I dunno what that’s about.”

Frisk tilted their head. That’s interesting. They didn’t know that ghosts could have cousins. Though, Casper had his uncles in the video game. Maybe the Nap guy’s cousin was like Casper’s uncles? Or maybe Nap was like Casper’s uncles, and the stupid cousin was like Casper.

The next room was covered in spiderwebs, white strings floating around in the air. A wooden sign was propped up against the wall, dozens of spiders as long as Frisk’s finger crawling around on and around it.

“Be careful,” Chara warned, “Spiders are venomous.”

“Be careful,” Flowey warned a second later. “The food that the spiders make is pretty good, but the spider bites are poisonous.”

“What- Flowey no!” Chara shot him a pointed look. “If it bites you and you die, it’s venomous, and if you bite it and you die, then it’s poisonous. How many times do we need to go over this?”

Frisk looked between the siblings a few times.

“…Chara just corrected me with the biting explanation, didn’t they?” Flowey asked after a moment. Frisk nodded.

The yellow flower smiled sadly. “I’ve really missed them.”

——————————————————————————————————————

Frisk let out a laugh as they fell down the hole into the pile of leaves. That was fun! The leaf pile wasn’t big enough to break their fall completely, but they would probably find another SAVE star later.

Chara floated down as Frisk crawled out of the pile. “Was that fun?” they asked, sounding amused.

Frisk nodded, looking at the Mold monster and bug-like monster that were in the room with the humans. Frisk waved at them with their best polite smile.

The bug-like monster grinned as it made an Encounter happen. “Free EXP…” it hissed out happily, “Nice!” It glanced at the Mold monster next to it. “I call dibs.”

Frisk ACTED, selecting a monster at random and clicking CHECK with practiced ease.

“Moldsmal has the regular attack of six and defense of seven, just like the other Moldsmals you’ve run into,” Chara told them. “It doesn’t seem too interested in anything.”

Frisk braced themself as their SOUL appeared. Bright red ‘bullet patterns’ flew around the rectangle, circle shapes going outwards like fireworks. Frisk would think that it was pretty if they didn’t know how painful they could be. Speaking of…

They winced as a small, shapeless bullet hit their red SOUL.

“You ok?” Chara asked, brows close together. Frisk nodded, determined. They ACTED again, this time choosing the bug-like monster.

“Alright, this monster’s name in Migosp. It’s attack is seven, and the defense is also seven. It’s pretty cocky.”

Frisk concentrated really hard. They wouldn’t get hit this time! The red heart wove through the bullet patterns, it was a little shaky and wobbly but Frisk thought that they were getting the hang of it.

Once that was over, they ACTED and clicked Moldsmal’s name.

“CHECK, Imitate, and Flirt,” Chara read, frowning. “Seriously, why is Flirt an option?”

Frisk shrugged, clicking the second option and bouncing slowly the way that Moldsmal was. They wriggled a bit.

This Encounter lasted for a few minutes, the Moldsmal’s name turning yellow pretty quickly but the Migosp taking a few tries. Frisk deflated in relief as the two eventually left.

“You ok?” Flowey asked, looking at them in sympathy. Frisk nodded, looking around the room.

On the ground a few feet away from them was a faded red ribbon, torn and dirty, but still pretty, in Frisk’s opinion.

“Here.” Flowey picked the ribbon up with a vine, using another vine to tap the ground in front of them. “Lemme put this in your hair, you might stopp getting hit all the time if your hair’s outta your face.”

Frisk pouted, crossing their arms. They don’t get hit ALL the time… They stomped over to Flowey anyways, dropping into a criss-cross-applesauce with as much drama as they could.

Flowey snorted. “Real mature,” he said dryly, moving some of Frisk’s hair away from their face. Chara laughed at the two, sounding happy.

“He has a point, kid.” Chara’s smile got smaller. “Plus, monsters may not hit you as hard if you look cute.”

——————————————————————————————————————

Frisk walked down the hall, Chara floating along close to them. A Froggit crouched next to the wall, watching them strangely. Frisk waved with a smile, slightly tense. They were getting really tired of the Encounters.

The Froggit made a noise that sounded like a sigh. The red glow coming out of it’s eyes faded out, leaving them plain white and black. The lack of red made it’s face look more gentle and nice. It croaked and ribbit-ed a few times.

“It’s the same Froggit we first met,” Chara told Frisk. “It said that… Toriel was here earlier, whispering to herself. We’re close to her house, it makes sense.”

“Hey, kid! Chara!” Flowey’s voice came from up ahead. “I found something, come here!”

Frisk waved goodbye to the Froggit as they and Chara continued forwards. It was nice to have another friend. …friend.

Frisk stopped, clapping once to get Chara’s attention. Chara turned around, raising an eyebrow. Frisk pointed at themself, and then to Chara, mouthing the word ‘friend.’

“Friend…?” Chara squinted at them. “Yeah, we’re friends. Flowey’s our friend, too.”

Frisk wriggled their fingers, staring hard at the ghost.

“Oh, the sign for friend?” Chara latched their pointer fingers together in front of their chest.

-Thank you.- Frisk turned to the Froggit, smiling brightly. -Thank you, friend! Bye-bye!-

The froggit’s eyes widened, cheeks turning pink. Frisk scurried away to the next door where Flowey’s voice came from, Chara following them with a big smile.

“Finally,” Flowey grouched. “What took you so long?” He shook his head. “Whatever, look. I found this.” He held up what looked like a knife. “It’s fake, it doesn’t do a lot, but it’s better than nothing.” He gave Frisk a hard look. “I know you haven’t chosen FIGHT at all since you came down here,” he said in a serious voice, “but there are monsters who won’t always give you a choice. Eventually, you might HAVE to FIGHT.”

Frisk crossed their arms, shifting uncomfortably.

Flowey sighed. “At the very least, you can wave it around to scare monsters off. You don’t have to use it a lot.”

Frisk’s shoulders drooped. They sighed, taking the plastic knife. Chara reached a hand out, making it go through Frisk’s shoulder. Frisk figured that if they could touch, Chara’s hand would be squeezing them.

It was a comforting thought.

——————————————————————————————————————

Flowey looked around cautiously. “We’re really close to Toriel’s house,” he said, “We’ve gotta be careful. It’s weird that there aren’t any monster’s around, though…”

There was a big, dead tree in front of the trio, the bark so dark it looked black. The branches reached to the ceiling, mangled like big claws or talons.

Chara stuck their head through it. “Wow, a big, empty, hollow space! So interesting!”

Frisk smiled at the ghost’s antics. Chara was really funny whenever they described something.

“Oh no.”

Chara took their head out of the dead tree, both humans looking at the flower in concern.

Flowey was trembling, looking around the room they were in with wide eyes. “She must be coming… it’s too quiet, she must know…” He turned his head around quickly to look at Frisk. “We need to hide! She’ll be-”

“Hello?”

Frisk, Flowey, and Chara froze, each of them slowly turning to look towards the end of the room where they just came from.

In the doorway, a tall monster with pale gray fur stood, a paw-like hand resting on the frame. She was wearing a black dress with purple and white patterns along the front, and long white sleeves. There were tears and rips around the end of her skirt and sleeves, causing the fabric to hang like ribbons. She stared at Frisk with red eyes that seemed to glow, and there were two small horns pointing up and away from her long ears.

“My child?” The monster took a step towards Frisk. “What are you doing out here? It’s almost dinner time.”

Frisk glanced between Flowey and Chara. Flowey trembled as he stared at the goat-like monster.

“Mom?” Chara’s voice shook. “Mom, can you…”

“Come along, my child.” The monster held a hand out, her lips curling up into a strange smile. “Listen to your mother, come along. Growing children need food.”

Frisk brushed a few tufts of brown hair out of their face, reaching a trembling hand out to the monster’s.

“Good child.” The goat-woman that must be Toriel kept the smile on her face, the tips of fangs sticking out. “We must go back home and have dinner, yes?”

Chapter Text

Frisk shifted uncomfortably in their seat as they listened to Toriel working on something in the kitchen. They were glad they managed to SAVE right outside the doorway of the house; something about this made them nervous.

Chara seemed… really off, as they stared at the doorway Toriel went through. Their face was blank, simply staring as sounds of cabinet doors opening and closing came from the room, Toriel mumbling to herself once and a while.

Frisk glanced at the window. Hopefully Flowey was ok, he could be pretty nervous whenever Frisk got hurt.

“Dinner’s ready, my child!” Toriel walked into the dining room/living room area, carrying a circular dish. “I made a nice meat pie.”

Chara raised an eyebrow. “Meat pie?”

Frisk looked at the dish curiously. They had never heard of a pie being made out of meat before. They picked up a fork as Toriel set a plate in front of them, a slice of the brown and gray food on it. They poked the pie with the fork.

“It certainly looks like a pie,” Chara observed. “A bit clumpy. Mom was never really the best cook in the underground.”

Frisk shrugged, bringing a bit up to their mouth. They had eaten out of garbage bins before, they could handle this.

…they could not handle this.

The texture was somehow dry and slimy at the same time, something grainy scraping against their teeth similar to the time they accidentally got sand in their mouth at the beach. The food (if it could even be called that) was… bumpy? Frisk had to chew hard on some parts while other parts were easy, like ice cream. They couldn’t even tell if there was a flavor. They tried very hard not to gag. They didn’t want Chara and Flowey’s mom to get upset.

“Eat up, my child,” Toriel told them with a scary smile. “You’re not going to bed until you finish. Don’t be ungrateful, now.”

Frisk swallowed with difficulty, bringing another bite to their mouth before they could chicken out. Chara watched on with a grimace.

Frisk managed a few more bites, masking their gags as best they could. Thank god that they had a good poker face. They used to be made fun of whenever they made their face go blank, but now it was their saving grace. They looked at Toriel hopefully, bringing an imaginary drink to their lips.

“Are you thirsty, little one?” Toriel gave them a softer smile, actually looking nice for a moment. “I’ll get you a glass of water, wait right here.”

She got up, leaving her own half-eaten slice behind. Frisk looked around desperately when she went through the hallway. Maybe there was a way to hide some of the remaining pie?

“She’ll find it if you put it under the table, and it’ll be suspicious if the whole slice disappears,” Chara told them, floating closer to the doorway to look through it. “Get some of it out the window, I’ll tell you when she comes back.”

Frisk quickly cut into a large part of the pie, carrying it over to the window. How does it open, how does it open…

“Just slide it up,” Chara called tensely. The sound of water coming out of a faucet could be heard. “Hurry!”

Frisk pressed their hand to the glass, pushing it upwards as hard as they could. The window slid open, Frisk tossing the pie out and closing it as fast as they could. The sound of the water stopped. Frisk rushed back to the table and climbed onto the chair just as Toriel came back out with a glass cup of water.

“Here you are, my child.” Toriel gave them another nice smile as she set the glass next to their plate before going back to her own seat.

-Thank you,- Frisk signed with a strained smile, taking a few big sips of the water. They took a deep breath, glaring at the rest of the pie. They could do this. They could do this.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Frisk gagged again as they lay curled on the floor of the bedroom Toriel took them to. They had dropped to the wooden ground as soon as she left, telling them to ‘play with their toys like a good little child.’

Frisk had zero interest in being a good little child if this was the reward.

“Hey, you did really well.” Chara floated above them, looking on in sympathy. “We’ll be out of here soon, I promise.”

Frisk rolled onto their back, doing their best not to puke. They could still feel that pie in their mouth, even though they had asked Toriel for another glass of water once they were done eating. They could still feel the sandy, rough dust texture combined with the slimy clumps. Their stomach felt bubbly, sometimes making gurgling noises.

Frisk slowly sat up, gagging. They swallowed as best they could.

“Hey, look at these toys,” Chara said, pointing at a wooden box at the foot of the small bed. “These look like they would be fun to play with right?”

Frisk stared at the ghost miserably.

“…ok, um…” Chara looked around the room. “There are some nice-looking books!” They grinned at Frisk, who just raised an eyebrow blankly.

Chara slapped themself on the forehead. “I forgot that you couldn’t read… I could read them to you! Or teach you how to read! If I teach you how to fingerspell, you could tell Flowey and I your name.”

Frisk perked up slightly at that. They would like their friends to know their name. They picked it out themself, after all.

“There you go,” praised Chara. “We can get outta here, find my dumb brother, and teach you the alphabet!”

Frisk smiled. Chara was a really good friend. The younger took a deep breath, standing up. They had to find Flowey before doing anything else. They swallowed back another gag.

They made eye contact with Chara. -Friend,- they signed. Then they cupped one of their hands, making the other pass up through it and spreading their fingers like a blooming flower.

“You are… putting on a glove?”

Frisk shook their hand, signing -friend- again.

“You are… putting on a friend’s glove?” Chara squinted at them. “Is it a tree?”

Frisk brightened up at the tree guess, waving them on with a nod.

“Ok, something like a tree.” Chara made a think-y face. “It’s close to a tree?” Frisk nodded again. “Plants… flower… Oh my god Flowey.” Chara slapped their face again. “Obviously Flowey, C’mon, Chara. Are you asking me to find Flowey? I won’t exactly be able to talk to him without you.”

Frisk shrugged. They turned around, walking to the window looking over a small desk. The carefully moved a few knick-knacks like toys, books, and a picture frame out of the way before climbing onto the desk. It quietly creaked under their weight, not collapsing. They pushed up on the window, opening it up to the outside. …was it outside if they were still in the underground brick place?

“Careful,” Chara warned. Frisk nodded at them.

“Kid!?”

Frisk turned around, seeing Flowey in the ground near the house walls. They waved with a grin.

“Oh thank the stars, I thought she was gonna hurt you.” Flowey looked them over in fear. “Did she?”

Frisk shrugged. They dropped to the ground and held a hand out to the wall.

“Are you oka-aaaayyyy oh shit.” Flowey cringed as Frisk threw up, leaning on the wall for balance.

“Oh, kid…” Chara fake-patted their shoulder in sympathy. Frisk wiped their mouth off on the sleeve of their sweater, holding a thumb up weakly.

“Are you ok?” Flowey asked.

Frisk nodded with a strained smile.

“Is Chara still with you?” Frisk nodded. “Ok, good. I really don’t wanna get separated again, so I’m just gonna un-dig myself and let you carry me around. We probably should have done that from the start.” Flowey squirmed, bringing his roots out of the ground.

Frisk dropped to the ground, crouching near Flowey and picking him up. The roots wrapped around their arms, climbing up to their shoulder.

“There.” Flowey perched next to their head. “Are you gonna throw up again?”

Frisk shook their head. They were feeling a little better.

“Ok. Now I just pretend to be a normal flower, and it’ll be fine.”

Frisk grinned, climbing back up to the window.

“I’ll go scout around her house,” Chara told Frisk as they crawled back over the desk. “I’ll be back in a few minutes, and then I’ll let you know if I find anything.”

——————————————————————————————————————

“Ok, how do I look?”

Frisk tried very hard not to laugh. Flowey had decided that a disguise would help him to stay safe from his mom, so he was on the floor in front of them, now wearing a sock puppet. They had cut open the mouth so that he could see out of it, leaving his face visible.

“Oh come on, I’m a genius!”

Frisk giggled, giving him a thumbs-up. He grinned proudly, preening. Frisk shifted where they were sitting. They pointed to their crotch, giving Flowey a pointed look.

“What?” He looked them over, confused. “Between your legs? What- oohhhhh.” He cringed. “You need to do the pee thing, don’t you?”

Frisk nodded, standing up and heading for the door.

“Oh, gross- hey, Frisk?”

They turned around, giving the flower a questioning look. He seemed awkward.

“Monsters don’t usually HAVE bathrooms.” He pushed his face out of the puppet’s mouth. “Our bodies absorb everything we need in magic food.”

Frisk stared at him in disbelief. Was he serious?

“Don’t look at me like that! It isn’t my fault human bodies need to do gross stuff!”

Frisk waved their hands around, glaring at him.

“What?” he snapped. “Just go back through the window and pee out there!”

Frisk rolled their eyes as dramatically as they could, darting over to the window and crawling over the desk.

——————————————————————————————————————-

“I’m back!” Chara called in a sing-song voice as they floated through the door. “Sorry I took so long, I-” They paused at the sight of Flowey in his puppet disguise. “What.”

Flowey glanced at the door as Frisk waved at Chara. “Are they back? Cool.”

Chara glanced at Frisk questioningly. “What the heck is my brother wearing?”

Frisk laughed, shrugging.

“What?” Flowey frowned at them. “What did they say? What’s so funny?”

Frisk reached over, pinching the green yarn that the puppet was made out of.

Flowey brightened up. “Do they like my disguise? It’s genius!”

Chara huffed a laugh, shaking their head fondly. “It’s certainly something.”

Frisk gave Flowey a thumbs-up, making him preen further.

“Anyways,” Chara looked at Frisk, “the exit to the Ruins is down the stairs we saw when we came in. We should leave as quickly as possible, so Mom… so Toriel doesn’t stop us.”

Frisk nodded, holding an arm out to Flowey for him to climb onto.

“Are we leaving?” he asked seriously. Frisk nodded. He nodded back, climbing onto their arm with his roots. He pulled the mouth of the puppet back over his head.

Frisk walked over to the door and carefully opened it, wincing at the squeaks it made.

“Quiet,” Flowey hissed. They poked him with a glare.

Frisk stepped through the hallway as quietly as they could, floorboards creaking occasionally.

Chara peered through the doorway on the other side of the stairs. “She’s in her rocking chair,” they reported. They gestured to the stairs. “Hurry.”

Frisk nodded, hurrying to the top and creeping down, doing their best to stay close to the sides. Flowey held onto the top of their arm tightly.

“Kid, run!”

Frisk’s head shot up at Chara’s voice. They moved more quickly down the stairs. They should get down soon-

They missed a step.

Flowey cried out as the two tumbled down the stairs, hitting the ground hard.

They both groaned. That hurt-

“My child!?”

Frisk jumped.

“Hurry, hurry, hurry,” Flowey urged them, poking their cheek with a vine. They got up quickly, ignoring the sore spots from their tumble and ran down the new, dark tunnel.

“Where are you going?” Toriel’s voice screamed behind them. Frisk continued running. There was a turn up ahead, almost-

Pain. A sharp, intense pain on their side. They fell to the ground again, turning around to look at Toriel.

She was marching towards them with a hard glare. Her palms were held up, balls of glowing purple and orange flames burning in them.

“Why are you trying to run away from me?” she hissed. “Why are you running away from your mother!?”

She threw another ball of fire at Frisk, who moved their arm quickly to try and shield Flowey.

“Kid-”

They didn’t hear what he tried to say. Their arm was on fire. The arm of their sweater had a large hole in it now, showing the pink and red skin that peeled away from their body. It hurt. It hurt like nothing they had ever felt before.

Toriel continued screaming at them, throwing more fireballs. They curled up onto the ground, grabbing Flowey and doing their best to keep him away from the flames.

They could hear Chara. They were screaming what sounded like “Mom”. Everything hurt. More flames. Pain, pain, pain.

Frisk coughed, smoke making their nose hurt. They couldn’t see anything, they couldn’t-

A red heart.

The heart breaking into two with an echoing crack.

The heart disappearing.

Nothing.

…

…

…

…

Reset?

Continue?

Chapter Text

Frisk blinked, the yellow glow of the SAVE star filling their vision. They were alive?

Their eyes widened. They were alive!

“My child?”

Frisk’s heart jumped. They whirled around, flinching at the sight of Toriel holding her arm out.

“Oh my god.” Chara was standing close by, whispering to themself. “Oh… my god.” Their face was pale, wide eyes staring at the goat monster in horror. “Mom, no…”

“Child, why are you frightened?” Toriel’s smile dropped. “Why do you seem scared of me?”

Frisk stared at her, hardly breathing. Toriel killed them. Toriel killed them. Toriel-

“Come along, little one.” Toriel held her hand out. Frisk stared at it.

They could’ve sworn that there was a ball of purple and orange fire in her palm.

——————————————————————————————————————

Frisk sat silently at the table, staring hard at the wood. Toriel had acted exactly the same. She had taken Frisk’s hand and led them into her house, past the stairs and into the dining/living room.

She had sat them down and told them to stay before going to the kitchen, probably to get that horrible pie again.

“Hey.”

Chara’s soft voice broke them out of their thoughts. They turned to look at them, who was standing on the floor and crouching down, looking at something on Frisk’s head.

“There’s a flower in your hair.” Chara pointed to the side of their own head. “It looks like a buttercup.”

Frisk raised a hand to their hair, feeling around until they found what Chara was talking about. It did feel like a flower; soft, thin petals attached to a skinny stem. The stem that…

Frisk’s eyes widened. The stem was growing OUT OF THEIR HEAD. They felt where the stem met their scalp, tugging a bit. …ow.

Frisk met Chara’s eyes. There was a flower growing out of their head, they were trapped in a strange, underground place, and they knew what it was like to die.

They sniffed, taking in shaky breaths. Chara’s eyes were wide.

“Hey, hey, it’ll be ok. We’ll figure it out, I promise.”

Frisk rubbed their eyes, sniffing again.

“Dinner’s ready, my child!” Frisk and Chara both flinched. “I made a nice meat pie!”

A plate was set in front of them, a slice of that horrible food taunting them.

Frisk ignored the deja-vu and took a deep breath, picking up the fork. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as they remembered?

——————————————————————————————————————-

Frisk sobbed into the pillow on the bed. Their stomach hurt. They wanted to throw up. They could feel the pie in their mouth, even though they knew there was nothing there.

“It’ll be ok,” Flowey told them, brushing a vine through their hair. “We’ll get through this, I promise. Chara and I are right here.”

“He’s right,” Chara soothed. “We’re right here with you, you just need to stay determined.”

Frisk sniffed, scratching their head. The flower in their head itched. They tried to tug it out again, wincing at the dull pain.

“Hey, don’t do that.” A vine gently pulled their hand away from the flower. “We’ll figure out a way to get it off, don’t worry.”

“He’s right,” Chara said softly. “Get some sleep, we’ll figure this out tomorrow.”

Frisk sniffed, sitting up and rubbing their eyes. They pointed to their crotch, rubbing their legs against each other. They were back to not having done their bathroom business yet.

“Oh, the pee thing again?” Flowey wrinkled the snout of his white face.

“There’s a bathroom at the end of the hall, but I think Mom- Toriel’s doing renovations, nothing looks like it would work.”

Frisk sighed, swinging their legs off the bed and moving to the window, trying very hard not to throw up.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Chara stared at the little kid that was sleeping under the covers.

That’s all they were; a little kid. A tiny, seven-year-old kid that decided to climb up a cursed mountain for some reason. A kid that, in the face of danger, did their best to make friends and spread kindness.

Chara glanced at Flowey, who was staring off in the kid’s general direction. Flowey… their brother. Their little brother, who always tried so hard to be tough. Who could have left Chara to die when they fell, and instead helped them to his home. Introduced them to his mom…

Mom…

She had been so kind, once. She had gone out of her way to ensure that Chara felt happy, and cared for, and even loved. She had taken them in, and had been so kind that Chara had been comfortable enough to call her Mother.

But now, violet and gold flames that brought warmth, that Chara had called beautiful on more than one occasion, had turned into weapons of intense heat that burned a little kid’s flesh. Her cooking had never been great, but now it made someone throw up. And the kitchen… The room off of the kitchen…

Chara had needed to take a minute to sob before they went back to the kid and Flowey.

“Are you still here, Cha-Cha?” Flowey whispered.

Chara looked at their brother sadly. They wanted to hug him so badly…

“I’m sorry.” Flowey closed his eyes, small tears trailing down. “I should have tried harder to keep you hidden from dad… I should’ve fought back against the humans. I-I’m so-”

Chara’s heart broke as they watched Flowey sob. They reached their hand out, trying vainly to touch him, to pat his head, to do ANYTHING other than watch.

“It wasn’t your fault,” they whispered. “It was never your fault, please don’t blame yourself, it wasn’t your fault…”

Flowey sniffed. “I’m so sorry, Chara…”

———————————————————————————————————————

Frisk rubbed their face into the plush surface they were sleeping on. They were under something really comfortable, like a blanket. They opened their eyes, blinking slowly.

…they had died the day before.

Their breath caught with that memory. Maybe they could go back to sleep for a few minutes, before starting the day. They pulled the blanket over their head, burrowing into it like a bunny going into hibernation.

“Kid?” Flowey’s voice came from outside the blanket. “Are you awake?”

Frisk squeezed their eyes shut, reaching out from the blanket to sign -no-.

“…uh-huh.” Flowey sounded unimpressed. At least Chara had let out a giggle.

“C’mon, kid.” Chara’s voice came from right above them. They were probably floating above the bed. “Wakey-wakey.”

Frisk peeked out of the blanket to glare at the ghost.

“Don’t give me that.” Chara poked Frisk’s forehead.

“Wake up, we’ve got a lot to do today,” Flowey spoke up.

Frisk groaned, covering their face with an arm before wincing. Their arm had rubbed against the flower on their head. They rubbed it, frowning when they felt something in the place where the stem met the rest of their head.

They sat up, pushing the covers off.

“Is everything ok?” Flowey asked with a frown. “Does the buttercup hurt?”

Frisk shrugged, moving their hair away from it.

“Ohh,” Chara hissed. “There are two blisters on your head. It’ll probably be ok, though.”

Flowey used his vines and roots to climb onto the bed, getting a closer look at the flower. “Oh, it looks like you’ve got some blisters. Makes sense, buttercups are pretty toxic.”

Frisk stared at him flatly as Chara sighed. “Let’s go see if we can find you something edible, what do you say?”

Frisk perked up, climbing out of bed to go to the desk. They had put their stuff there, including the knife, a stick, and…

They held it up in triumph. Licorice! Flowey laughed a bit while Chara stuck their tongue out.

“Ewww.”

Frisk stuck their tongue back at the ghost, tearing the stick in half and offering some to Flowey.

“Thanks.” He grabbed the half, taking a big bite out of it.

Chara rolled their eyes. “Whatever.”

Frisk ate their half of the licorice in a few bites, Flowey eating his pretty quickly.

“Here.” Chara pointed to a bag near the bin of shoes. “Grab that satchel, you can use it to carry your stuff.”

Frisk nodded. They took the bag and placed the spider bagel, plastic knife, and stick in it.

“I’m pretty sure I saw a notebook over there,” Flowey spoke up. “Since you’re still learning how to talk in hands, you can write in there.”

Frisk hesitated. They mimed writing in their hand, then shrugged.

“Do you not know how to write?” Flowey frowned. “It isn’t that hard, just trace out letters on the paper. If you know how to read, it’s easy.”

Frisk pointed to their eyes, then to the books, then shrugged again.

“…you can’t read?” Flowey looked very confused. “Didn’t you read all the signs for the puzzles? And they stuff in Encounters?”

Frisk shook their head, pointing at Chara.

Flowey squinted before his eyes widened in realization. “Chara read everything for you.”

Frisk nodded.

“We can teach you haw to read,” the flower offered. Frisk smiled. Their friends were so nice, and they only met yesterday!

They placed the notebook into the bag, pausing before putting it on. They pointed to their crotch, and then the window, making to crawl up the table again.

“Wait.” They turned back to look at Chara with a raised eyebrow.

“This is the sign for bathroom.” The ghost rotated a fist a few times.

Frisk smiled. -Bathroom.- They turned back to climb out the window.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Frisk stepped across the floor slowly, peeking through the doorframe. Toriel was in a rocking chair next to a fireplace, purple and orange flames dancing around, trapped in the red brick. Frisk tensed at the sight, memories of burnt flesh flashing through their mind.

“Hello, my child.” Toriel smiled at them. Frisk walked further into the room, holding onto Sock-Flowey tightly.

-Hello,- they signed, smiling as best they could.

“Are you hungry?” she asked, standing up. Frisk tried very hard not to flinch at her full height with the flames behind her. “Do you need my help with anything?”

Frisk shook their head. -No, thank you.-

“I’m here for anything you need, little one.” Toriel smiled, sitting down again and opening a book.

Frisk moved past her, walking to the kitchen. That was scary.

“Good job,” Chara praised with a strained smile. Flowey gave Frisk’s arm a small squeeze.

The kitchen was messy. There were stains on the floor and cabinets, and spots of mold around the corners. Frisk didn’t mind too much, they had seen places in worse conditions.

“What’s the plan?” Chara asked, floating by the doorway.

Frisk shrugged, itching their head.

“Hey, would you stop that?” Flowey batted their hand away from the flower. “You’ll end up bleeding if you do that!”

Frisk looked down at a spot of dirt on the floor guiltily.

“I know,” Flowey sighed. “It isn’t your fault.”
———————————————————————————————————————

Chara stared through the doorway at Toriel. She was humming softly, facing away from the dead human.

How would the kid be able to get past the Boss monster? They should probably wait until Toriel falls asleep, but that could take forever and the kid needed sleep, too.

No, they kid should sleep. Chara could just wake them up whenever Toriel fell asleep.

Chara would NOT let the kid die again.

———————————————————————————————————————

“Kid, wake up.”

Frisk blinked sleepily, looking up at Chara.

“She’s asleep,” the ghost said. “We need to go.”

Frisk nodded, pushing the blankets off and climbing out of bed. They poked Flowey, startling him awake.

“Ah, what?” He blinked, looking around before focussing on Frisk. “Oh.”

They held their arm out, making their way to the door when he climbed to their shoulder. They opened it carefully, eyes darting around the dark hallway. The shadows seemed to cling to the corners. Chara flew through the wall, landing on the floor.

“If Toriel comes out of her room, I’ll yell,” they told Frisk, who nodded in thanks.

Frisk and Flowey went quickly to the stairs again, going down to the basement carefully. They got down the first level easily.

“So far, so good…” Flowey muttered.

“She’s awake, run!” Chara screamed. Frisk jumped, rushing down the next level of stairs as fast as they could.

“What’s wr-” Frisk shoved a finger to Flowey’s mouth, running to the bottom of the stairs and taking off. Flowey’s roots and vines gripped their shoulder tightly.

“MY CHILD!?”

Frisk stumbled at the sound of Toriel’s yelling. They slammed into a wall, pushing off to turn a corner. They could hear Chara’s voice pleading something, but they didn’t pay attention to that.

“Look out!” Flowey yelled, vines pushing them to the left. They stumbled, purple flames flying past them.

“WHY ARE YOU LEAVING ME?” Toriel screamed. “LET ME KEEP YOU SAFE!”

“INCOMING!” Flowey and Chara yelled together. But it was too late.

Frisk slammed into the ground, their back and shoulders in agony. They did their best to crawl away, their back shooting tiny pins into their skin.

“Leave the kid alone!” Flowey yelled. Frisk squeezed their eyes shut.

“You pathetic weed!”

“Don’t call my brother pathetic!” Chara shouted.

Another wave of heat slammed into Frisk’s body, making them gasp and sob. They didn’t wanna do this again, they didn’t wanna do this again, please no…

“Just let me keep you safe!” The monster was still screaming, throwing fireball after fireball at the small body until Frisk saw the red heart again. It floated in the dark void they were in, breaking in two.

Chapter Text

Frisk sat on the bed silently, staring blankly ahead.

“C’mon, you’ve got this!” Chara said encouragingly. “Just do what I do!”

Frisk blinked slowly, looking at the ghost.

“Here.” Chara held their hand out, making the letter a. “Stay determined, you’ve got this.”

Frisk nodded, copying Chara’s signing.

“A, B, C, D,” the older kid sang, making the finger signs as they went, “E, F, G…”

Flowey joined in, “H, I, J, K. L-M-N-O-P…”

The three continued, singing and signing through the whole song. Frisk did their best to focus on the letters and rhythm, and not how itchy and sore the flowers scattered around the side of their head were.

“Now,” Chara and Flowey kept singing, the ghost making new hand motions that Frisk did their best to imitate, “you know your ABCs. Next time won’t you sing with me…”

Chara clapped with a big smile. “You made it through the whole song!” they cheered. “That’s amazing!”

“Nice work,” Flowey praised. “You signed the whole alphabet. That took a lot of effort, kiddo!”

Frisk smiled at them. Now that they knew the alphabet…

-F R I S K,- they signed.

Flowey tilted his head. “Huh?”

“Frisk?” Chara asked.

Frisk nodded. -Frisk,- they signed again, pointing to themself.

Chara’s eyes widened. “Is that your name?”

“Is your name Frisk?” Flowey asked. The younger nodded energetically with a big smile.

“That’s a great name.” Chara smiled back at them. “Frisk.”

“Nice name.” Flowey grinned before looking more serious. “Now get over here and let me fix your hair. The bow’s getting lopsided.”

Frisk laughed a bit, scooting up the bed to be closer to the flower. He reached over with his vines, gently untying the worn ribbon and combing through the brown mess, avoiding the five buttercups scattered around the right side of their head.

Frisk closed their eyes, relaxing. They didn’t usually like it when other people did their hair, but this was… nice.

“Do you remember how to spell my name?” Chara asked.

Frisk opened one eye to look at them. -K A R A?- they signed.

“It actually starts with C H, not K, but you were really close.” Chara smiled.

-Chara.-

“Exactly.”

“You’re getting pretty good at speaking in Hands,” Flowey commented as he carefully braided a section of Frisk’s hair.

-Thank you.-

“No problem.”

Frisk closed their eyes again. It was nice, just sitting here and being with friends. They reached up absentmindedly to scratch at the flowers, deflating when Flowey batted their hand away.

“Do you <>want> to bleed again?” Chara asked. Frisk huffed.

“Do you want me to use Green on the blisters again?” Flowey asked.

-No.- Green magic felt very soothing, but they didn’t want to be a bother all the time.

“Alright. Your hair’s done, by the way.” Flowey tied the ribbon around the end of the braid. Frisk felt it carefully. It was tightly woven, and probably looked very tidy. They liked it.

They gave Flowey a thumbs up.

“He used to mess with my hair all the time.” Chara pat him on the flower-head proudly. “Mom taught him how, he got pretty goo-” They were cut off, their body seeming to get sucked into the flower. Frisk stared in shock.

Flowey blinked, his eyes glowing a bright red color. “What?” He looked around wildly, his stem squirming around. “What the hell!? What’s going on!?”

Frisk looked at him in worry. Was he ok? Where’d Chara go? And why did his voice sound different?

Flowey squirmed some more, Chara eventually tumbling out of his body. His eyes turned into their usual black color, and he relaxed, though he still looked freaked out.

“What the fuck!?” Chara sat up on the floor, looking around with wide eyes. “What was that!?”

Frisk looked between them a few times.

“Chara?” Flowey looked around. “Was that you?”

“Was I inside your body!?” Chara screamed.

Frisk blinked. Wasn’t that called poss-essen?

Flowey looked at Frisk with wide eyes. “Did Chara just possess me!?”

Frisk shrugged with a small nod.

“Oh my god, I possessed my brother,” the ghost muttered, rocking back and forth.

Frisk climbed off the bed, sitting close to Chara. They waved to get their attention, pointing to themself.

“What?” Chara squinted at them.

Frisk pointed at them, and then themself. Chara’s eyes widened.

“You want me to try possessing you?”

Frisk nodded. It sounded kinda cool.

“Are you sure?”

“Hey!” Flowey called. “It’s really unfair that I can’t hear you guys!”

-Sorry,- Frisk signed. They gave Chara a look.

“Fine.” Chara raised their hands in surrender. “I’ll try.” They crawled over to Frisk, reaching out hesitantly. Frisk waited patiently.

——————————————————————————————————————

They blinked, fingers twitching. This felt strange. They pat the ground, feeling the smooth wood and the rough, fuzzy carpet. They could actually feel that.

“Chara?” The voice was small, hesitant. They looked over, seeing Flowey staring at them in hope.

“Flowey?” Talking was strange. Chara was aware of every movement of the jaw, the wet tongue rubbing against teeth. A swallow, saliva rushing down the throat.

“Oh my Fox, Chara!” Flowey beamed at them. “It’s you!”

Chara laughed, rubbing a few tears out of Frisk’s eyes. “Flowey. It’s so good to actually speak with you.” They stood up carefully, unused to the weight of having a body.

“I’ve missed you so much, Cha-Cha.” Flowey smiled, a few tears falling from his eyes.

“I missed you, too.” They walked towards him, lifting him up to hug tightly. They felt vines wrap around their shoulders, hugging back just as tightly.

“Chara,” Flowey said after a minute, “I’m so sor-”

“Do not apologize,” Chara said firmly. “You did nothing wrong. I should not have accepted any drinks that your father gave me, that was stupid. I shouldn’t have had you absorb my Soul, that was unfair. You tried to take my body to see my favorite flowers, and the humans that lived there attacked us. That was never your fault.”

Flowey sniffed. “Ok.” Chara could tell that he didn’t believe them, but hopefully they could convince him otherwise at a later date.

“Now.” Chara released their brother from the hug, setting him back down on the end table. “How are we getting Frisk out of here?”

Flowey sighed. “No idea. I would feel better if they could die without any side effects. I don’t know why they get a flower every time they die, I never did that, and I’ve died more times than I can count.”

Chara winced at that. “I’m sorry that you went through that.” They frowned. “Though, speaking of the flowers, these things are really itchy. How has Frisk been standing them?”

Flowey snorted. “They’re a tough kid.” He looked up thoughtfully. “Maybe I can distract Toriel, Frisk can sneak out, and I can tunnel to Snowdin after they get out?”

“What are the chances Toriel hurts you?”

He hesitated, giving Chara all the answers they needed. “I can deal with a few burnt petals.” He smiled shakily.

“No, we’re not doing any plans that involve you getting hurt.” Chara shook their head firmly. “What we need is a way to make Mo- Toriel stop chasing Frisk. Something that makes her stop in her tracks, and we need a way that stops any of us from getting… hurt…” Their eyes widened. “I’ve got it.”

——————————————————————————————————————

Frisk took a deep breath, holding onto Flowey and sneaking down the hallway for what felt like the millionth time. They rushed to the staircase, going down as fast as they could.

“That’s it, keep going,” Flowey whispered. Chara was floating above them, keeping watch.

Frisk got to the bottom of the stairs, ignoring Toriel’s on-time scream for them. They made a mad dash through the hall, feet slamming onto the stone floor.

“She’s down the stairs,” Flowey said. Frisk didn’t reply, slamming into the wall and pushing off to turn the corner, ducking underneath a fireball.

“WHY ARE YOU LEAVING ME!?” Toriel screamed. “LET ME KEEP YOU SAFE!”

She always said that. She always said that she wanted Frisk to be safe, but all she did was make them burn. She wasn’t safe.

“To the left!” They swerved at Flowey’s instruction, flames flying past them. Frisk leaped over the uneven flooring, panting for breath.

“MOM, STOP!”

Frisk ignored Chara’s scream, stumbling to a stop and turning around to face Toriel.

“You are such a naughty child,” she hissed, marching up to them. “Do not try to get out of a punishment, you-” She stopped, eyes widening and starting to glow a bright red.

“…Chara?” Flowey called out. Frisk backed away nervously.

Toriel twitched, shaking her head. The red glow in her eyed flickered.

“She- She’s fight-” Chara’s voice sounded strained as they spoke through Toriel’s mouth. “She’s fighting back- RUN!”

Frisk turned quickly, darting to the end of the hall where the large, stone door was. They pushed at it, Flowey reaching around with his vines.

“Kid!”

Frisk looked over their shoulder at Chara’s shout, but not in time to dodge the fireball as it slammed into their left shoulder.

“Frisk!” Flowey yelled in a panicked voice. Frisk leaned against the door, sinking to the floor. They groaned, pushing against the door. It creaked open, Frisk stumbling through it. They turned back, shoving the door shut behind them.

They panted, falling onto their bottom as they stared at the door. Was that…

“You did it!” Flowey stretched his stem out to look at them, beaming proudly. “You did it, Frisk!”

They stared at him. They did it?

“Here.” He went behind their head. “Let me try Green magic on that burn.” He gently pressed a vine onto their shoulder, making them flinch.

“I know, I know it hurts,” he muttered. The healing magic seeped into their burnt flesh, numbing it soothingly.

Chara floated through the door. “She’s gone, we succeeded.” They smiled at Frisk. “Well done.”

They gave the ghost a small wave.

“Hey, Cha-Cha,” Flowey said with a wave, finishing up with the healing. “You’re gonna have a scar,” he told Frisk. They shrugged. Scars were pretty cool.

“You ready to go into Snowdin?” Chara asked.

Frisk took a deep breath, nodding. They stood up turning around. Ahead of them, there was the bright yellow glow of a SAVE star. Frisk marched towards it.

They were filled with determination.

Chapter Text

Frisk walked through the second door, grateful that it was easier to move than the first one. Maybe it was just because the SAVE star in between the doors got rid of how tired they were?

They stepped out of the door, their foot stomping onto a small mound of snow. The whole ground was covered in it; white piles all over the place.

“Welcome to Snowdin,” Chara sang, making jazz hands. Frisk grinned at them.

“This place is called Snowdin,” Flowey told Frisk. “The monsters that live here are pretty tame, compared to some other places.”

Frisk nodded, walking down the path ahead of them. Surrounding the path were tall, tall pine trees, brown pine needles covering the snow at the base of the trunks. Frisk couldn’t stop admiring them, almost tripping over a branch in the middle of the path. Chara and Flowey just laughed at them, making them pout.

“That’s one tough branch,” Chara teased. Frisk stuck their tongue out at them.

“Pay attention to where you’re going,” Flowey chided with a smirk. “You never know what you could-” He was cut off by the sound of a smash and crack.

Frisk whirled around. It was still just them, Chara, and Flowey, nobody else. But the branch that Frisk had almost tripped over was gone. In it’s place was scattered pieces of wood, tiny chunks and splinters.

“It’s been smashed to pieces,” Chara whispered, surprised.

“Did-did Chara see what happened?” Flowey asked, sounding nervous.

Frisk shook their head. They turned around again slowly, going back to walking away from the door.

After walking for a few more moments, the three had to stop at a hole in the path, a wooden barrier closing it off. Frisk, Flowey, and Chara could only stare at it in confusion.

Eventually, Flowey spoke up. “Is… is this supposed to stop people?” He looked around. “How? We can just walk around it.”

Frisk tilted their head, resisting the urge to scratch it. Flowey was right; it was kinda ridicu-

“H u m a n.”

Frisk nearly jumped into the hole at the new voice directly behind them. Flowey yelping right next to their ear didn’t help.

“D o n’ t y o u k n o w h o w t o g r e e t a n e w p a l?” the voice asked. “T u r n a r o u n d, g i m m e a h a n d s h a k e.”

Frisk shifted nervously, turning around slowly. They kept their eyes trained to the ground. Behind them, a large figure was holding out their left hand. Frisk reached out, grasping it.

An intense vibration shot up their arm, making their whole body spasm. They fell to the ground landing hard. They could vaguely hear Flowey and Chara yelling something.

Their Soul cracked, breaking into pieces like the branch.

——————————————————————————————————————

Sans was having a pretty normal morning, all things considered. This month hadn’t been super easy, for reasons he didn’t want to think about, but today he actually didn’t have a bad feeling.

He woke up, dragged himself outta bed, got breakfast, dropped his baby sib off at school, then got dragged to his sentry station by his brother. See, average.

What WASN’T average; a tiny human in a striped sweater with a talking flower on it’s shoulder. The kid was glancing around the trees nervously as they walked down the path. The flower wasn’t much better, occasionally whispering things too small for Sans too read.

Sans was pretty much positive that this was a human; he and Alph had consumed more than enough Surface media back when he was working in the labs. He shortcut to the path, a ways behind the human. It tensed, as if it sensed his presence. Interesting. Sans summoned a bit of magic, shattering a branch the small human had climbed over. He shortcut back to the trees before it turned around nervously.

The human didn’t seem surprised to see that the branch was broken, but it was still pretty nervous. It walked faster, heading down the path. Sans raised an eye ridge curiously. Very interesting.

The human got to the wooden gate that Paps had made a while back, quickly squeezing past it between the outer wood post and an inconveniently-located tree. The kid did manage to squeeze through, but they tripped and landed in the snow, one of their feet caught in a root.

Sans huffed a laugh, slipping his favorite prank-tool on. A small device with a ‘shocking’ effect. He shortcut in front of where the kid was still struggling, the flower trying to help by stretching out vines to tug at the tree roots. Usually Sans would try to be more intimidating, but the branch gag seemed to work pretty well on it’s own.

“heya,” Sans greeted, making the duo’s heads snap up. Now that he could get a closer look, he could make out their actual features.

The flower had bright yellow petals, each one about two or three inches long. It’s ‘face’ was an off-white center, elongated around the mouth to give the appearance of a dog snout. It seemed to be wearing some sort of sock-puppet. The flower was staring at Sans with wide, black eyes, big and round and pretty soft-looking.

The human had brown hair, long enough to almost reach it’s shoulders, a small braid tied off with a ragged ribbon. It had a couple small, yellow flowers scattered through it’s hair. It was staring at Sans in fear, red eyes wide, and body tense.

“took quite the fall, didn’cha?” Sans asked. “need a hand?” He held his left hand out, buzzer at the ready.

The human’s eyes grew wider. They scooted back as best they could, foot still stuck in the root. Sans frowned.

“hey, easy, i don’t bite.” A joke came to the front of his skull that probably wasn’t appropriate for people that small.

“We can tell that there’s something in your hand, ass,” the flower snapped.

Sans raised an eye ridge. “ok? it’s just a little buzzer.” He slid it off his glove, holding it up and zapping himself with it. Heh, that tickled. “see? nothing that could hurt ya.” He slid it into his packet, holding his hands up. “now there’s nothin’.”

The human glanced around. They were still pretty nervous, but it seemed like they knew that Sans wasn’t gonna hurt them.

“do ya still need a hand?” Sans took his right hand off, waving it around. “i guess i could spare this one; imma leftie, anyways.”

The kid’s lips quirked up a bit, and they seemed to relax some. The flower just gave him a flat look. Whatever. The kid didn’t look scared shitless, Sans was counting this as a win.

“anyways, the name’s sans. sans the skeleton. and you’re a human, right?”

The kid nodded.

“hilarious. you’re pretty lucky, y’know. i’m supposed to be on watch for humans right now.” He shrugged. “but what can i say? i’m a pretty lazy guy.” He re-attached his hand, grinning at them.

The human tilted their head, looking up at him curiously.

“So, what, you’re just gonna leave us alone?” The flower stared at him with suspicion.

“eh.” Sans shrugged again. “capturing people takes energy. ya might wanna look out for my brother, though. he actually has energy. would be very willing to capture ya.”

The human and flower exchanged a glance. The flower sighed, using roots and vines to climb onto the human’s shoulder. “Whatever,” it muttered.

The human wriggled it’s leg a bit, finally freeing it from the root. It stood up, giving Sans a small smile.

-Nice to meet you,- they signed. Sans blinked. Oh, they spoke in Hands?

-whatever you say,- he signed back. They blinked back at him in surprise.

The flower whispered something to them, Sans reading it. “He said ‘whatever you say’.” The human’s face cleared up.

So the kid wasn’t fluent? Well, that’s dumb. If they can’t talk, they should know Hands, it’s common sense.

“my bro’s gonna be checking on me soon. if ya wanna meet him, stick around. if not,” Sans grinned, eyes going dark, “r u n.”

The kid blinked, startled. They ran past him, towards the sentry station. Sans listened to their footsteps as they got further past.

Something told him that today was going to be very, very, interesting.

———————————————————————————————————————

Frisk crouched behind the lamp, doing their best not to fiddle with the small flower growing directly out of their left palm. That death was scary. At least with Toriel, they knew what was coming, but with the Sans guy? He came out of nowhere. It did hurt less than Toriel’s fire, though.

Plus, it turns out he didn’t really mean to kill them! He had used the buzzer on himself, and he was fine! He actually seemed nice. The buzzer was probably only deadly to people with skin, or something.

“SANS!” a loud voice called out, “WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?”

“heya, paps.”

Frisk peeked out from behind the lamp. Another skeleton was there, taller than Sans by a lot. He (Frisk was pretty sure ‘brother’ meant he, not she or they) had on a weird black top that only covered his ribs. It was like a crop top, only it looked like metal, not fabric. He had a bright red scarf around his neck, and black pants held up by a cool-looking belt.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING, BROTHER?” the other skeleton asked, frowning at Sans.

“eh, y’know,” Sans shrugged, “chillin’.”

The other skeleton crossed his arms, his long red gloves highly visible against his all-black clothes. “IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO BE PRODUCTIVE, I’M SURPRISED THAT YOU’RE NOT WITH THAT LOVER OF YOURS.” Sans made a choking sound.

“Ooooh,” Chara went. “Drama!” Frisk held back a laugh.

“you- i- papyrus!” Sans’s cheekbones were red now. “grillby’s my boyfriend, you don’t need to call him a ‘lover’.” He put lover in finger quotes. “nobody calls their partners that!”

The ‘Papyrus’ guy smirked. “OH, COME NOW, BROTHER. LOVER IS A PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE TERM TO USE.”

“oh my fox, paps.”

“WHATEVER.” Papyrus hesitated a bit. “SO, EVERYTHING IS ALRIGHT OVER HERE?”

Sans seemed to deflate, his grin getting somewhat gentler. “yeah, i’m all good.”

Papyrus nodded sharply. “GOOD.” He uncrossed his arms, placing a hand on his hip. “NOW THEN, IF THAT IS ALL, THEN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, MUST GO RECALLIBRATE MY OWN PUZZLES AND TRAPS!” He turned around, doing the dramatic arm-wave thing that tv villains did to make their capes dance. “I’LL CHECK IN LATER, SANS!”

“see ya, paps.”

The taller skeleton waved as he walked away. Frisk watched him go, impressed. He seemed really cool!

“you can come out, now,” Sans called to them.

“Mom, dad, I’m gay!” Chara announced theatrically. Frisk laughed, standing up and walking around the lamp.

-Thank you,- Frisk signed to the skeleton. He blinked at them. How did he do that with bone eye sockets?

“word of advice,” he drawled out, “say’n thanks and being polite and shit’ll just get ya killed.”

Flowey huffed. “You’re not wrong, but you don’t have to be so harsh about it! They’re just a kid!”

One of the ridges above Sans’ glowing red eye socket went up a bit. “oh yeah? how old?”

Frisk held up seven fingers. Sans went completely still.

“…seven, huh? yer parents know you’re hangin’ out with monsters?”

Frisk tilted their head. -No.-

“they don’t?”

Frisk shook their head. -No…- They hesitated. -P, a, r…-

“Parents?” Chara asked. They glanced at them, nodding.

“Parents,” Chara said, bringing a hand from their forehead to their mouth. -Parents.-

Frisk nodded. -Thanks.- They looked back at Sans. -I have no parents.-

Sans blinked a few times. “jeez…” he muttered. “so you’re an orphan, and you’re trapped in a scary cave with monsters that wanna kill ya? Could your life be any more of a fucked-up tragedy?”

Frisk stared at him in surprise, laughing.

Sans watched them. “alright then…” He spoke up, “listen, my bro’ll have a bunch of traps. keep an eye out, yeah?” He tapped his red eye. “‘eye’ have other shit to do.”

Frisk grinned, giving him a thumbs-up.

“great. …and, actually? my bro’s been kinda down about something. maybe seein’ ya will boost his mood? do’ya mind?”

Frisk shook their head. Sans seemed nice, and the Papy guy didn’t seem so bad. More mentally stable than Toriel, at least.

“What are the chances that Papyrus kills Frisk with no hesitation?” Flowey asked.

“zero,” Sans replied, matter-of-fact. “he’ll make a big deal outta capturing you, have ya do a bunch of puzzles, and other than that? you’ll be fine.”

Frisk nodded. Puzzles were fun down here!

“We should go,” Chara said. “We can find a place to stay for the night.”

Frisk nodded. -Need go,- they signed to Sans.

“where are you going?” he asked.

They shrugged.

“fair enough.”

They waved goodbye, walking down the path that the Papy guy had walked on. This was fun! Maybe they wouldn’t die anymore.

——————————————————————————————————————-

Sans watched the kid walk away. There was definitely some invisible person with them. Eh, none of his business. There was no reason to give a damn about some babybones fated to die down here.

…so why the hell was he being so nice to them?

Chapter Text

Frisk shivered, pulling on their sleeve as they trudged through the snow. The Save point had been warm; it was too bad they couldn’t stay near it forever. The path continued straight ahead, but there was another, smaller path going to the left. They headed past the smaller path to a worn, scratched-up wooden chest that had a sign next to it. They pointed to the sign, glancing between Chara and Flowey.

“Want me to read it?” Flowey asked.

Frisk nodded. -Yes, please.-

Flowey cleared his throat. “‘This is a box’,” he read. “‘You can put something in or take something out. The same box can be anywhere, so don’t worry about coming back. Sincerely, a box lover.’”

Frisk tilted their head curiously.

“Would you like to use it?” Chara asked. “It could be useful for storage.”

Frisk nodded, opening it up with a grunt. There was already something inside; a lone glove. Frisk took it out, brushing some dust off. The pink material was tough, just a few really small tears on it.

“Looks like it’s been here for a while,” Flowey said. “You could probably take it, I don’t think it’ll be missed.”

Frisk tried it on. It was a little weird to only have one glove on, but it did fit well enough. They hummed, closing the chest up. They didn’t have anything besides the fake knife, the stick, the notebook, and some leftover licorice, so they didn’t really need to use the chest.

“Where would you like to go now?” Chara asked.

Frisk pointed to the small path that cut away from the main one, stomping through the snow towards it.

Up ahead was a river, with water gently moving along the snowbanks. Next to the riverbed was a fishing rod; propped up in the snow and cast into the river.

“Should we reel it in?” asked Chara, glancing at Frisk. They shrugged.

“What did they say?” Flowey asked.

Frisk pointed to the fishing rod, then mimed reeling it in.

“Do you wanna reel it in?” He asked.

Frisk shrugged. There probably wasn’t any harm. They picked the rod up, reeling it back. Attached to the end was a piece of paper. Frisk reached out to grab it. It was a picture of a monster in a weird outfit that showed a lot of skin. There was something written on the back of it. They held it up for Flowey and Chara to read.

“‘Call me,’” the siblings read at the same time, their faces making identical looks as though they smelled something bad.

“How about you just send the line back out?” Chara suggested.

Frisk raised an eyebrow at them, following the instruction anyways. There wasn’t anything else to do besides watch clumps of ice float down the river, so they headed back on the path they just took. They tugged on their sleeves, shivering. They were probably covered in goosebumps. At least it was a nice distraction from the itchy flowers.

“Hold on,” Flowey said suddenly as they went past the chest. “Look. And listen.”

Up ahead, Sans and his brother were having a conversation, Papyrus talking loudly. Frisk nodded, walking towards them. Sans was nice. He said that Papyrus wouldn’t hurt them. It was ok.

“…AND THEN I WALK THROUGH, ONLY TO SEE UNDYNE AND ALPHYS IN THE MIDDLE OF…” Papyrus trailed off as Frisk walked towards the skeletons. He stared at them as they stopped, not getting too close.

Papyrus glanced at Sans, who gave Frisk and Flowey a wave. Papyrus looked back at them, jaw dropped. (Not literally.) He glanced back and forth between the human and his brother for a while.

“…SANS,” he finally said. “IS… IS THAT A HUMAN?”

Sans glanced past them. “actually, i think thats a rock.”

Frisk, Flowey, and Chara blinked, turning their heads to see a stone on the path behind them. The three looked back at the brothers.

“SANS!”

“oh, the thing in front of the rock? thats a talking flower.”

Flowey straightened up. “Dude!”

“SANS!” Papyrus shouted.

“ohhh, you mean the kid the flowers riding on? yeah, thats a human.” Sans nodded, his grin never leaving.

“OH MY FOX!” Papyrus stared at Frisk. “THIS IS… I FINALLY…” He cleared his throat, stepping forwards. “HUMAN!” he said loudly. “YOU SHALL NOT PASS THIS AREA! I AM PAPYRUS, CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD AND DEFENDER OF SNOWDIN TOWN! IT IS MY DUTY TO CAPTURE YOU AND DELIVER YOU TO KING ASGORE! AS THE SEVENTH HUMAN TO FALL, YOUR-”

“Eighth!” Flowey interrupted.

Papyrus blinked. “EXCUSE ME?”

“Frisk is the EIGHTH human to fall, not seventh.” Flowey leaned into the side of Frisk’s head.

Papyrus tilted his head. “…TRUE! VERY WELL THEN; YOU ARE THE EIGHTH HUMAN TO FALL, BUT YOUR SOUL WILL BE THE SEVENTH TO COLLECT! KING ASGORE WILL USE IT TO DESTROY THE BARIOR, AND MONSTERKIND SHALL BE FREE FROM THE UNDERGROUND!”

Frisk nodded along, scratching the skin around the flower in their palm until Flowey batted at their hands with a vine.

“AS PER TRADITION, YOU WILL BE CHALLENGED WITH PUZZLES THAT ARE SPREAD AROUND THIS AREA. THEY WILL CHALLENGE YOUR WITS, STUMP YOU TO INSANITY, DRIVE YOU MAD.”

Frisk perked up at the mention of puzzles. Those would be fun!

“CONTINUE, IF YOU DARE!” Papyrus finished. He spun around, grabbing Sans’ arm and dragged him away down the path.

Sans calmly waved back at them. Frisk waved back.

“I think that went well,” Chara said when they were out of sight. Frisk shrugged, walking down the path. The wind blew on their back, making their burn scar feel sore. They squirmed inside their sweater, rubbing their arms.

“You ok?” Flowey asked.

Frisk nodded. Flowey curled up next to their neck.

“Let’s keep going,” Chara suggested.

Frisk nodded, continuing down the path.