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Asriel was alone in their shared room when he woke up that morning.
It was still early, though. He could guess just by looking with half-lidded eyes at the slight rays of sun that were passing through the curtains; their light was too dim for it to be past eight or nine. Well... Maybe this wasn't that surprising, actually, since Chara had always been the type to get up excessively early.
Smiling at the thought of his friend, Asriel let out a long yawn and slowly crawled out of bed. He made sure not to forget his favorite plushie (a strong and courageous stuffed buffalo appropriately named Buffalo) in between the sheets, of course, and then passed by Chara's empty and already cold bed to get out of their room. A few minutes later, he entered the living room, and a delicious smell of cinnamon proved to him that Mom definitely was in the kitchen.
"Mom!" Asriel exclaimed as he opened the kitchen door. She was here, obviously, and she almost dropped her peeling knife to turn around and greet him. He ran to her, still in his pajamas, and she didn't hesitate a second before opening her arms wide and lifting him up to give him a well-deserved morning hug.
"Good morning, my child," she said calmly, kissing her son on both cheeks. "Have you slept well?"
Asriel nodded, and she nuzzled her nose against his with all the love and affection she felt for him.
"Mom, I was wondering," the child said again, his dear Buffalo pressed against his chest, "is Chara up already?"
"I think I have seen them heading to the garden earlier on," Mom answered. "Maybe you should take the two left-over pieces of the pie I baked yesterday and join them? They have been up for quite a while, after all, they must be hungry... And so are you, too, probably."
While she was talking, she tenderly pressed a finger to Asriel's stomach, and the kid laughed before giving her an approving nod. She put him down, and he was quick to grab the last two pieces of Mom's tasty cinnamon-butterscotch pie and dart outside the kitchen, almost not hearing Mom's anxious voice behind his back as he left.
"Wait, Asriel, do not run! You might fall!"
He still ran, didn't fall (by sheer luck; with him having to hold both Buffalo and the pie, falling down would probably have hurt a lot), and soon reached Dad's favorite garden. Dad wasn't there when he arrived, though, and he guessed the great king of the Underground was probably busy listening to the many greetings of his people, or maybe just reading in the living room, or something like that.
In any case, Chara was there, and to Asriel it was the only thing that mattered right now.
"Chara!" he called his most precious friend, running towards them – they were sitting in the middle of the garden, wearing their usual green stripped shirt and a smile on their human face. "Chara, I brought some pie!"
Without waiting for his friend to answer, Asriel stopped and sat on the ground right next to them. He carefully put down the plate containing the two pieces of pie somewhere between them, and held Buffalo in both of his hands again as he raised his gaze on Chara. They were... human, as usual. With their skin that didn't quite have the color of a monster's, and their hair that seemed as soft as Asriel's or Mom's or Dad's fur. Asriel had been very curious about them at first, when he had found Chara and brought them back home on the day they fell into the Underground, and he had asked a lot of questions, but now... Now, he knew Chara was happy living here with them, as a part of their family, and that was enough to make him happy as well.
He gave his friend a soft smile and inched a bit closer to them, hoping to get a better look at what exactly they were doing.
"What are you doing?" he quietly asked. "Do you... want to play a game?"
Until now, Chara had been occupying themself with something on the ground, but they finally raised their head to look at Asriel. They gave him a wide grin; they were really pretty when they smiled, Asriel thought, and as their friend he would always do everything he could to make sure they'd keep smiling like this forever. And Mom and Dad would as well, he was sure about that.
"Asriel, do you love me?" Chara suddenly asked, their eyes still half-closed and their smile still plastered on their face. The question took Asriel off guard; his eyes widened for a second, followed by a blush spreading on his face.
"W-What do you mean?" he said, hoping to gain some time to think of an answer.
"I wonder if you love me," Chara repeated, mysteriously.
Did he... love Chara? Asriel blushed again – this was a very embarrassing question, for some reason... and yet, he knew there was only one answer he could give.
"Of course I do," he whispered. "I d-do love you."
Chara was his friend, after all; his friend, his sibling, the person with whom he spent the most of his time here in the Underground, in a world in which lived mostly adults who often couldn't quite understand his games and his dreams and his hopes.
Right next to him, Chara gave him yet another unreadable smile.
"I wonder if this tiny flower agrees with you."
Asriel's eyes followed Chara's hands as they suddenly rushed to the ground and, without a warning, picked up a small buttercup flower.
"What... What do you mean?"
Asriel had started holding Buffalo closer to his chest, unconsciously; but his friend didn't answer and only gave him another slight, mysterious smile as they opened their eyes yet a bit wider.
Then they held up the flower and suddenly tore one of its golden petals.
"You love me not," they said – and before Asriel could answer another petal was picked off the buttercup. "You love me."
Without a single more word, Chara brushed the ripped petals from their lap, where they had fallen, and only then did they talk again.
"This is a game us humans play often. The flower will tell the truth."
Asriel released a sigh he hadn't realized he had been holding. So this was just a game in the end... fortunately. For a second, he had thought his friend really didn't believe him when he said he loved them, and that had pained him greatly – but if this all was just a game... It was okay, and he could smile again. Plus, if it could please Chara, he was willing to play with them, even.
"Understood!" he thus approved, grinning happily. "And... how does the game end?"
"I'll show you."
Chara tore off another petal as they spoke.
"You love me not."
Another one.
"You love me."
And yet, another – the last one.
"You love me not."
In an almost theatrical gesture, Chara dropped the now petalless flower on the ground and let out a small sigh.
"The flower says you don't love me."
"But-"
Asriel wanted to object, to say something, to affirm once again that he did love his precious friend very dearly, but Chara didn't leave him any time to do so. Before he could even pronounce an entire sentence, they had picked up another flower and started their little human game again.
"Does Mom love me? ... She doesn't."
A second petal was ripped off.
"She does."
A third one.
"She doesn't."
The fourth one, too, and Asriel could already guess how this game would end-
"She does."
The last one, finally – Asriel's heart missed a beat, and once again he found himself holding Buffalo closer to him as his eyes just wouldn't leave Chara's hands mercilessly destroying the tiny flower.
"She doesn't."
The human kept silent for a moment, and Asriel quickly thought about what he could say to make this situation stop, to solve the problem and convince Chara they were indeed loved – but he was too slow, or Chara was faster, or both.
"Mom doesn't love me. I bet Dad doesn't either. And yet, you know, I've always dreamed of gaining some LOVE..."
Asriel kept silent, this time.
Chara... Their eyes were wide open, now, and the way they had said it- LOVE... Something was off about it. It didn't feel right. Asriel himself was starting not to feel right, too. He couldn't describe exactly what was wrong, but he knew something was. With the way their friend was looking at him now, and the way they had just spoken, something definitely was-
"Would you like to earn some LOVE too, Asriel?"
Chara slightly tilted their head on the right and smiled.
But their smile was no longer pretty – and for the first time in a long while Asriel felt scared.
It didn't stop there, though. Before Asriel could react or do anything at all, another flower was picked up, another golden petal was ripped off.
"Buffalo doesn't love you."
Asriel's heart sank. Instinctively, he held his favorite stuffed animal as close to his chest as possible, and almost tried to move an inch away from Chara – but he stopped as soon as he realized what he was doing. No. Chara was his friend; he couldn't do that. This was just a game. A nice, human game that he was playing with his most precious friend, the person he loved the most in the Underground.
"He loves you. He loves you not."
Okay, so maybe Asriel didn't like this game quite as much as the other games he used to play with Chara – but it was okay. Soon, the game would end, and maybe he would even have found a way to truly enjoy it by then. Yes, there was no way he could not enjoy a game that his precious friend seemed to like so much-
"He loves you. And... he doesn't."
As the last petal fell on Chara's lap, though, Asriel found out he wasn't so sure anymore.
That was when his friend picked up yet another flower, and lifted it up to their nose so that they could smell it. Asriel immediately relaxed a bit; Chara looked pretty again, now that they had closed their eyes to focus on the smell of the tiny flower, and the color of their skin and the apparent softness of their hair were as pretty as ever, and-
Their eyes snapped open and it suddenly seemed like their hand had started to grip the flower harder. So. Much. Harder.
"Asriel," they started.
"I'm sorry, Chara," the other child interrupted. "I-I don't think I like this game very much, after all..."
But he was ignored. And Chara continued.
"Do I love you?"
And Asriel's heart suddenly felt like it was shattering to pieces.
Before he could even realize what was happening, tears had started filling his eyes.
He didn't like this game. No, he didn't just dislike it. He hated this game, actually. It hurt too much. It made him think about terrible things. He wanted it to end, he just wanted it to be over and done, so that they could move on to another game that was more fun, and maybe everything would be just like it was before-
The first petal fell.
"I don't."
From the day Mom and Dad had adopted them, playing with Chara everyday in the garden or in the throne room, walking to Snowdin under Mom's careful eyes, building snowmen and talking to the villagers and being too hot once they went back to Hotland, listening together to the whispers in Waterfall and murmuring sweet messages to echo flowers so that the other could hear them when the flowers would repeat everything-
The second petal was ripped off.
"I do."
Asriel closed his eyes, and tears instantly started rolling on his cheeks. He couldn't take it anymore. He wanted to get up and run, escape, far away from this horrible game; but he couldn't do that, not when he was playing with Chara, not when...
The third petal was torn apart.
"I don't."
But it hurt. It hurt so much. Why would Chara want to play that game? Why would they try to convince him they weren't loved, and they didn't love anyone? It was wrong, Asriel knew it was – Mom, and Dad, and he, and everyone in the Underground, they all loved Chara very much, and Chara loved them too, they had to love them too...
The fourth petal was shred to pieces.
Shred. To. Pieces.
"I do."
"Asriel, Chara! What are you doing?"
And suddenly the pressure and the pain in Asriel's heart vanished as Dad's arms swept him off his feet – a second later, he found himself pressed against Dad's strong chest, and the tears were falling harder than ever before but at least the hurt was gone.
"Why is Asriel crying?" Dad's voice sounded anxious. "Chara, are you alright? Did something happen?"
Dad's big hand left Asriel's back, probably to go down and anxiously pat Chara on their head – but Chara didn't answer.
"The flowers... They said... Chara and Mom and you... you don't love me..."
"What? The... flowers?"
Dad seemed skeptical at first, but his tone soon changed to become a lot more reassuring, and he got down on his knees to carefully sit Asriel on his lap, all the while keeping a fatherly hand placed on Chara's shoulder.
"Listen, children," he said quietly. "I do not know which flowers you are talking about, but flowers are very nice beings. If some of them told you blatant lies, like we do not love each other very much or we are not a real family, then you must not listen to them, for they probably were no real flowers."
Asriel had stopped crying, now. His eyes still burned a bit from all the tears, but Dad's soothing voice and strong arms had made almost everything better. Brushing away from his eyes the last remains of his tears, he turned his head to glance at Chara (and hated himself for being so hesitant to do so) – but he was instantly reassured. Chara had almost closed their eyes, now, they were looking down, and Dad's large fingers tenderly stroked their cheek until they held up their head again.
"You too, Chara," Dad insisted. "You no longer have to worry about the flowers growing on the surface. Everything is fine, my child. Mom and I love you very much. The both of you."
Chara remained motionless for a second more, and Asriel almost feared something was off again; but in the end, it wasn't. Chara simply moved their right hand and put it on Dad's soft paw. Then, Dad leaned down to place a loving kiss on Chara's forehead, turned to Asriel to give him the same treatment, and took Chara in his arms as well.
"Now, how about we go back inside and eat the pie you two seem to have forgotten here?"
Asriel smiled, just as if the terrible human game had never happened at all, and agreed happily; Chara nodded. Thus, Dad leaned down once again to pick up the abandoned plate, which he did his best to carry as well as the two children, and they all left the garden.
(But as they were leaving no one bothered to look back at the place they were moving away from – the place where Chara had been sitting.
The place that was now covered in the dead bodies of buttercup flowers. In the shreds of their golden petals.
And inside their left hand Chara was still holding the last flower, the fifth petal, crushed-
I don't.)