Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When the human met their fiery— and first— death at the paws of the woman they had meekly called mother just two days earlier, they came to in front of the small house where they had grasped at a golden light on their way back from the spider bake sale that morning. Their eyes went wide and their breathing quickened and they looked around them in a panic.

Truthfully, Chara was just as disoriented. Dying again wasn’t exactly fun, and being conscious after dying again was confusing, to say the least. Two days ago, they had been dead. They didn’t remember how or why, or much of anything beyond their name, the fact that they were human, some faint impressions that they knew this place as they hitched a ride around the Ruins, and a bitter hatred that sat in the pit of the stomach they didn’t have. They couldn’t feel it in the stomach of the human whose eyes they were looking through, but they could feel things in that stomach. Right now, they felt a building nausea, and then a sudden lurch as bile was expelled onto the leaves at the foot of the old tree. Couldn’t exactly puke magic, Chara supposed.

*You threw up. Just bile. 

Chara slipped some color commentary into the human’s mind, disguised (hopefully) as one of their own thoughts. Chara didn’t think the human had any reason to assume the observations came from a dead person squatting in their body, just as Chara had no reason to tell them that there was a dead person squatting in their body. They distrusted humans more than they distrusted any of the monsters trying to kill one, even though this human was just a little kid and they had been growing on them a bit the last two days. Only a bit. Just enough for some commentary.

The human’s knees gave out underneath them and they collapsed to kneel in their own bile, shaking and clutching at their arms, digging their nails into their sweater.

I died, Chara could hear them thinking. She…

She, Toriel, rushed out of the house and knelt by the human’s side. “My child, what is wrong? Have you fallen ill? Did you stray too far while playing outside, did someone hurt you? ” She placed her paw on the human’s back and extended the other to them in an offer to help them stand. She didn’t remember what happened. Maybe it didn’t happen yet.

The human flinched away, eyes wide and darting. If Chara had their own eyes, they would have rolled them. Not for the human’s fear, but for their own decision to do something about it.

*She isn’t going to hurt you.

Chara left out the unspoken yet. Somehow, it was enough to calm the human down so that Toriel can help them inside to get cleaned up. After providing them with clean clothes, Toriel insisted that the human rest. She watched over them as they settled into bed, tucked them in, and placed her paw on their forehead. It pulsed gentle green with healing magic. It didn’t fix anything.

“I understand that this may be somewhat frightening for you. Perhaps your body is reacting to the stress. I promise you are safe here, my child. Get some sleep and I will prepare some soup for when you wake.” She pulled her paw away and held it up to her chest. She gripped her wrist with her other paw, as if holding it back from attempting any more physical comfort. Her face twitched briefly into a sorrowful frown, but whatever she had to say remained unspoken, other than: “Goodnight.” She left the room and closed the door behind her.

The human didn’t even close their eyes. Chara waited a few minutes before voicing a thought.

*A comfortable bed. You should get some sleep.

The human did not close their eyes.

Chara didn’t blame them, they supposed. Not often you woke up after dying. Nevermind alive. Hell, Chara hadn’t even done that. As far as they knew, being in someone else’s brain didn’t count as ‘alive.’

“Hello?” The human whispered. Calling for Toriel when they had just been terrified to be near her on the account of the whole ‘she killed them’ thing?

*She can’t hear you.

The human shook their head. “I mean you.”

Chara didn’t present another thought, though theirs were going a mile a minute. Was the human addressing them? The thoughts they had been sending weren’t even in a voice, really. They were just thoughts. Could the human even tell someone was talking? Was it because Chara had refused to present them in the first person and instead worded them in the second in some pathetic attempt to hang onto what little identity they had left?
When there wasn’t a response, the human spoke again. “Please? I… I know someone has to be there.”

They knew? Like hell they knew. Irrationally, Chara recognized it was irrational, Chara got pissed off.

*There’s nobody there.

The human shook their head again. “I know what it feels like to be alone. I’m not… alone right now. I haven’t been since I got here. Your um… joke about the stick made me laugh. The thing about its bark and its bite? It made me less scared, so thank you. Can… Can we talk?” They pushed the covers off of them and sat up in the bed. “Please?”

In the same way they caved earlier to assuage some of the human’s fear, Chara caved. Watching this kid compliment frogs and thank spiders for their hard work all while scared shitless— it was charming, sue them. 

Fine. Chara wasn’t sure how they made the distinction between this and the commentary, but they managed to think at the human with hopefully their own voice, if they still had one. Boo.

The human gasped and covered their mouth. Then, they lowered their hands to their lap and started cracking their knuckles individually. They looked around the room like they’d be able to find Chara. It just made Chara dizzy. Luckily, they stopped pretty fast. “Where are you? Are you… in my head?”

Yeah. I don’t understand it any better than you do. Barely remember anything. I’m supposed to be dead, I’m pretty sure.

“So you’re like a ghost? Oh! Wait, first… I’m Frisk.” Frisk stared down at their hands as they started wringing them. They ran out of knuckle cracks.

Something like that. All I really know is that my name was Chara.

“Chara, huh? That’s a nice name…!” 

Chara was suddenly cut off from Frisk, retreating into their own mind (if they even had that anymore.) It was as if hearing those words killed them all over again. Complete darkness. Utter silence except for those words. The smell of flowers. ‘ Chara, huh? That’s a nice name.’ That wasn’t Frisk. This was— Their one and only memory. 

Chara became aware of the lack of sensations, and they had been dead too recently for it to be comforting. They brought themselves to the forefront of Frisk’s mind.

“Chara? Chara? Can you still hear me? Where did you go…?” Frisk whimpered like a kicked puppy. Chara wasn’t sure how long they had been gone, but apparently it was long enough for this kid to start crying.

I’m here, you little crybaby. Geez, a dead kid can’t have a moment to themselves to think a little?

Frisk squeaked and wiped at their eyes. “You’re back! Sorry… It’s not like I’m not used to it, but I don’t really like being alone.” They sniffled. “You’re um… a kid, too?”

Think so. I dunno.

“What kind of monster are you?”

I was the only bad kind. Human. Just because Chara was tolerating this one didn’t mean that they could let go of the hatred they felt when they heard the word human. It was one of the only things they had. I was a human kid, just like you. Don’t remember anything else.

“Do you remember what happened… before I threw up?” Frisk held their breath in the brief silence that followed.

Chara was ready to scold them for asking a stupid question— of course they remembered— but they realized that Frisk might not understand how closely bound Chara was to them ever since they woke up. It wasn’t like Chara even understood it themselves.

Yep. Fwoosh. They made a sound that vaguely resembled fire. The joke didn’t go over well. Frisk drew their knees to their chest and squeezed with as much force as their little body could muster. Toriel clearly doesn’t remember. That weird glowy spot totally let you— us? You. It let you time travel. I just said the determination stuff cause it felt right somehow, but… I guess being able to jump through time is pretty motivating. Holy shit. If this is real, you don’t have to be scared of anyone. You can do anyth—

“I’m not scared of Toriel. ” Frisk covered their ears like Chara was speaking into those and not their brain. Chara stopped talking, anyways. They didn’t know what had gotten them so excited. This wasn’t even a power they understood. It was just power and the thought of it somehow got them so worked up that they almost felt their existence flickering. Like butterflies flapping wildly in a stomach you don’t have. They focused back in on Frisk.

Coulda fooled me. Fwoosh.

Frisk flinched. “I guess I am scared of her, but I’m not— the most scared of her. I’m the most scared of me , Chara. Can you keep a secret?”

Stars , they wanted eyes to roll. This kid made no sense.

I’m in your head, how do you expect me to snitch?

Frisk nodded, the sarcastic answer relaxing their shoulders somehow. “Right…”

We’re stuck with each other, as far as I can tell. Don’t have any secrets of my own on account of the lack of memories. Empty space for yours. Spill. Spill. That felt familiar. The act of collecting secrets felt familiar. Information was power, right? Power. If Chara could have any amount of power over Frisk, that would be preferable. They were the only one with a body.

“When I realized that I died, I was mad . I didn’t want to be mad. It didn’t make any sense to be mad, I— I’m only here because…” Frisk shook their head. “Monsters have been nice to me whenever they weren’t flinging scary magic at me, and Toriel’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a mom and I’ve only known her for two days, but I— I was just thinking that it’s so unfair. Why did I have to die when I finally decided I wanted to live? And when I thought that, I found myself wishing that I listened to her when she said fight or run away. Chara, I wanted to fight. I wanted to fight back, I wanted to hurt someone and make sure I lived. Chara, I’m just as bad as everyone on the surface. Do you… wish you were stuck in someone else’s head?”

Didn’t know you could be so talkative. Chara couldn’t bring themselves to say more. It was all just so achingly familiar. Wanting to hurt. Wanting to be hurt. Wanting to die and then wanting to live. Well. They had clearly gotten one of their wishes to come true. But how? Not being able to remember enraged them.

“I just said that I wanted to hurt people! I should get hurt! I should die again, but I don’t want to! I wish I could go back to wanting to!” Frisk raised their voice just a little too much. Chara could offer no comfort, and they were too slow in telling them to keep it down.

Toriel opened the door and the light from the hallway spilled into the room around her shadow. Her features were twisted in worry. “My child? I was coming to check on you, but I overheard you shouting… Is it alright if I come in so that we can talk? Perhaps over some pie.”

They were standing in front of the house again. Huh. They could jump back without dying. Frisk stared at the ground and their stomach churned with nausea as they fought the urge not to vomit this time.

*You did not want to talk.

Chapter Text

Frisk turned away from the house and went back into the Ruins, where they found an empty room bereft of even cobwebs and bakesale-loving spiders. Three monsters attacked them on the way there. They leaned against the stone wall and traced lines in the layer of dust on the floor in front of them with their stick. 

“Even when I say I don’t want to fight, they attack me until I say exactly what they want to hear. I don’t want to fight. I just want to make friends.”

Didn’t have any on the surface? Chara already knew the answer. Looking at Frisk— or through their eyes, rather— was like looking at their reflection in a dirty rippling puddle. Not quite right, but similar enough to know what they were looking at.

Frisk just shook their head and laid the stick flat to swipe away their pointless lines. They turned right to face a new patch of dust.

Family? Probably not if Toriel was the closest thing they ever had to a mother.

They shook their head again. They scraped out the shape of a smiling flower. The sight of it made Chara uneasy.

Erase that little freak.

Frisk hesitated, but swiped the patch of stone clean of dust. It was almost like Chara actually had a hand. 

Draw Toriel.

“I’m not a good enough drawer to do Toriel…”

Just her head.

“But I dunno how to—”

Draw an oval and throw some horns and floppy ears on it, geez. The horns curl in a little. The ears have to be slightly longer than the oval. And for her eyes, you gotta make sure—

Frisk giggled a little. “It sounds like you want to draw it, Chara.”

Yeah? Well I can’t, they snapped. Chara was embarassed that Frisk clocked them so easily, so they used the time-old diversion tactic of pure aggression. Just do the stupid oval.

Frisk didn’t move. They were a shitty hand. “But you want to, though?”

Doesn’t matter.

“It does to me. Want to?”

Chara groaned. You’re so stubborn.

“I think you described it as ‘determined.’” Chara could feel the corners of Frisk’s mouth tug up in a stupid grin.

Yes I wanna fucking draw it. I can’t, though. Happy? Frisk had asked if Chara wished they were stuck in someone else’s head, but Chara was betting about now that Frisk wished that someone else was stuck in their head. Someone nicer and less snappy. Less fine with the idea of wanting to hurt people or wanting to die. 

Frisk’s grin fell and their mouth set into a tight line. They gripped the stick. “You’re like… In my brain, right?”

Something like that.

“A person’s brain is what moves their body, right? Or maybe it’s their soul…” They gently brushed the fingers of their other hand against where their chest lit up and shone with a red heart whenever they were in a fight. “But whatever it is— If you’re like… in me…” They trailed off. They didn’t say exactly what they were getting at. But whatever it was had Chara’s very being trembling. Control of any sort? A way to exist outside of the confines of Frisk’s head?

What, you think we can go halfsies on autonomy? More snapping. Frisk would change their mind.

“I dunno… Can we try?” Frisk slouched and closed their eyes. It was the closest the two of them could come to eye contact with each other, unless they were looking in the mirror. Or a dirty puddle. They were offering to share their body. With Chara. It was exciting, but… Was it exciting in the way that realizing Frisk had time travel abilities and was above consequences was? In the way that made Chara feel like there was something wrong with them?

No. We shouldn’t.

Frisk’s eyes snapped open and suddenly Chara was looking at a fresh patch of dust. No Toriel drawing in sight. “Why not?”

I’m… messed up. You don’t want something messed up piloting your body.

“You’re not something, you’re someone. You’re like— my first friend.” Frisk mumbled. No matter how quietly they said it, Chara would have heard them. And no matter how Frisk said it, Chara would think it was stupid.

I’m not your friend, I’m haunting you. Chara felt a little bad for a second. ‘I’m not your friend’ felt kinda harsh, even for their rude tendencies, but Frisk was undeterred. 

“You’re my friend! It’s thanks to you that I’m not by myself, and— And I’m messed up, too! It’s not like I’m giving you my whole life. I told you, I wanna live now. I just… Wanna let you draw a picture. I’m not giving you my body, I’m just saying… If we could share it, maybe you’d feel less… dead. You’re not just my friend. I’m yours, too, so… Try this with me!”

Chara went quiet. They weren’t sure how many friends they had when they were alive, but— they doubted it was much more than Frisk. Fine. But they were too embarrassed to actually respond.

*Your determination sways your friend.

Frisk sat up straight, that annoying grin tugging at their lips again. “Alright, let’s do this!”

Fine, whatever.

Frisk closed their eyes again and let the arm gripping the stick go limp. “Can you move it?”

How the hell am I supposed to do that?

Frisk opened one of their eyes. “Uh… I dunno…” They closed it again. “I guess you don’t remember what you look like, do you?”

Chara absolutely did not. What does that have to do with anything?

“I was gonna try and imagine myself switching places with you or something… Like if there was a mirror in my head and we were each standing on one side… maybe I could pull you out and you could pull me in?”

Chara was floored. Was Frisk in their head? You think we’re like reflections of each other? You’ve known I was here for like an hour.

Frisk shrugged. “I just thought visualizing might help… Is it dumb?”

It’s incredibly dumb. Chara thought for a moment, back to when Frisk looked in the mirror shortly after arriving at Toriel’s. Their eyes were a shade of brown that managed to look distinctly golden. Like the light that let them jump through time. If your eyes are gold, like that light— Mine should be red. Like your soul in a fight. Like blood. Like hurt. Because Chara was seriously messed up and it was a bad idea for Frisk to do this.

Frisk nodded. “‘Kay.” They took a deep breath, eyes still closed. “Imagine you’re standing in front of the mirror at M— Toriel’s house. In the reflection, it’s me!”
What, and in yours it’s—

“You. Me, but my eyes are red.”

This was stupid and absolutely would not work. But all Chara had was their own mind, so it was easy enough to retreat into it and visualize. They imagined themselves in front of that mirror, Frisk in front of them. They imagined reaching out to touch it. Smooth, solid glass. Their reflection didn’t move.

Frisk made a squeaking sound. “Did you… touch it?”

Yeah. Could you— see that? Holy shit, there might be something to it. 

Chara felt Frisk’s head nod. “I didn’t even imagine moving my arm, but the reflection— Okay. Keep your uh… pretend hand there.”

Chara did as Frisk said and watched as that imaginary reflection placed their hand on their’s. Suddenly, the mirror was like liquid and they fell through.

Their eyes snapped open and they were alive . Suddenly, they realized that everything they felt through Frisk had been muted somehow. This was what air felt like when it was pulled into lungs. This was how bark felt against a palm. They tightened their grip on the stick. These were colors. They looked around the room of purple stone— Okay, fine. This was color. Singular. They reached up a hand to touch their face and it moved. They dragged their hand down Frisk’s— their— Frisk’s cheek. “Holy fuck.” It was Frisk’s voice, but Chara was saying it. Weird.

Chara?

Frisk’s voice rang again in their head like a squeaky little echo. “Frisk. You— It actually worked, you crazy little shit. I can move .” They stood up— and promptly fell on their ass, hitting their back against the stone wall. Not so used to having legs. Still, it was incredible. A little overwhelming, but incredible. In their excitement, Chara nearly forgot that Frisk wasn’t so used to not having legs. “Wait, you’re— Okay, right?”

Mhm. It’s a little like I’m dreaming. It’s not so bad.

“And— This is still your body. We can change back, right?”

You don’t wanna draw your picture first?

“No,” Chara snapped. It felt strange hearing what they were saying out loud. “I wanna make sure you didn’t permenantly lose control over your body.” Control. Chara knew they wanted it, but— Ha. They couldn’t bring themselves to want it at Frisk’s expense. Knowing that relieved them. They were messed up, but not so much that they couldn’t have one single friend. They closed their eyes and imagined the mirror again. Frisk’s hand reached through before they even moved and pulled them back to the other side.

I didn’t even have to touch it. Chara imagined the mirror again and when they touched it, their hand didn’t pass through. Solid. Looks like you get to decide, since it’s your body.

Frisk rubbed their back. It was sore from Chara’s tumble. “That’s good to know, right? See? Everything’s okay. Do you wanna draw your picture?” They sounded way too excited at the prospect of being able to go splitsies on their own body, but— As long as they could take back control from Chara and they wouldn’t end up stuck with a power hungry freak at the wheel… Chara supposed it was okay.

Yeah, I wanna draw my picture.

They swapped with Frisk and scratched out a picture of Toriel in the dust. It looked a lot better than Frisk’s shitty flower.

*It’s Toriel. It looks just like her!

Chara smiled a little despite themselves. They chalked it up to Frisk’s face liking to smile too much. They ended up swiping the Toriel drawing away with their shoe before Frisk took their body back.

Chapter Text

I want to live.

Frisk chanted it in their head like a mantra whenever they were engaged in a fight. Chara wasn’t sure whether Frisk knew that Chara could hear them thinking it or not. If Frisk wanted them to hear it. But they did, and over the course of the next two weeks they spent together in the Ruins, Chara adapted it to a mantra of their own: I want Frisk to live. They knew, deep down, that they’d hurt someone to make this desire come true. Though that knowledge terrified them, Frisk’s cheesy grins into the mirror at Toriel’s place whenever the two passed did a lot to settle the terror. If someone got hurt, Chara knew Frisk wouldn’t let it stay that way.

Well, unless the person getting hurt was Frisk. They made it clear they didn’t want to die , sure, but besides the incident with Toriel asking to talk and another time that the leaves didn’t cushion their fall right in the ‘there is only one switch’ puzzle area— when they got what Chara was pretty sure was a concussion— Frisk didn’t manually jump back as a result of injuries or rough encounters. It irked the hell out of Chara. If you have time travel powers, why not use them to make your life easier? Why have to shove a bunch of magic food down your throat or go sniffling to Toriel every time you skinned your knees if you could just undo it? Frisk whined that it was an ‘abuse of power’ and that it didn’t ‘feel right.’ Chara couldn’t do anything to sway them about this for whatever reason, but they could do their best to keep Frisk from getting too badly hurt. 

Over time, the two of them got better at swapping control. They even figured out how to share it, each of them standing on the same side of that imaginary mirror. In battle, even when Frisk was controlling their own body, Chara could throw it to the ground in a pinch, or handle legwork while Frisk did their best to negotiate. At night, on the living room floor at Toriel’s feet in front of the fire, or on what Chara and Frisk considered to be their shared bed, each of them could use one arm and draw together . Frisk still wasn’t very good at drawing; they preferred coloring Chara’s drawings, and Chara didn’t mind in the slightest. Once or twice, Toriel had come in to check on Frisk and pick up one of Chara’s drawings. When she did, she got this faraway look in her eye and mumbled something about ‘children and their wonderful tendencies towards creativity’ and asked Frisk if they’d like a chocolate dessert. They were indifferent, ‘not very hungry,’ but Chara insisted they said yes, and so they did.

It wasn’t a bad life by any means, it was just… a stagnant one. Not that Chara was one to judge, they hadn’t been alive at all a week ago, and they didn’t exactly remember what it was like. It was just that you could only spend so long surrounded by purple stone and the same handful of monsters that didn’t talk so much as make little sounds and shoot magic at you before you felt claustrophobic. And there weren’t exactly a lot of options for food. Toriel’s cooking or the spider bake sale were the main ones, and Toriel obviously had a handful of recipes that were her favorites. It was clearly getting to Frisk. By the second week after they spoke with Chara the first time, Frisk had stopped going out into the Ruins at all.

One night after Toriel had said goodnight and Frisk settled into bed, Chara broached the subject.

I know I’m not the only one getting tired of this. Hell, you originally tried to leave after the first two days.

Frisk let out a sigh like a sad dog and rolled over under the covers to face the wall. “That wasn’t because I was tired, I— Just didn’t wanna im… impose? Is that the word?”

Yeah.  

“And I thought that if I wanted to live now, I shouldn’t… hide in the place where I tried to die.”

Then fwoosh.

“Fwoosh.” Frisk’s voice cracked.

Hiding, huh? Chara supposed that was a good way to describe how it felt staying there. It was just so dusty and cramped and there was barely anyone around. Boring. Do you get the sense that Toriel’s hiding?

“Maybe… All that stuff she said the first time I tried to leave… About Asgore and the other kids that have been here… I really think she thought she was helping. And when it happened… It was an accident, right?”

Maybe she should have had more control over her fire, then, Chara snapped. Fwoosh. Remember?

“I remember…”

Killing a kid isn’t exactly he—

“ I know. ” Frisk squeaked and covered their mouth. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to snap.”

Chara was quiet for a minute. They’d be lying if they said they hadn’t been startled, but… Eh, they deserved it. I snap at you all the time. No biggie. I just did it. Should they be apologizing for that? Did Frisk want them to be apologizing for that? Could they even bring themself to? Not… directly.

*Your friend is sorry.

Only a little. It didn’t even hit the bare minimum, but Frisk perked up.

“That’s okay. I’m glad we can talk stuff out.” Chara felt their lips pull into a smile. What a sappy kid, geez. 

They tapped on their imaginary mirror. Let me through. Just an arm is fine. Not a second after they asked, they could reach their hand through like the mirror was liquid. Frisk’s left arm reached up to pat their right shoulder in what Chara hoped was a comforting gesture. Must’ve been, because Frisk’s right hand shifted to interlock fingers with their left.

“Toriel’s been nice, but…” But maybe it was time to stop hiding. Chara was curious as to what living would look like for Frisk once they were out of here.

Tomorrow?

Frisk hesitated, their breath hitching in their throat. “I don’t want to die.”

You won’t this time. Now you’ve got uh… someone with you.

“A friend.”

…

*You have a friend with you. It fills you with Determination.

Frisk’s eyes fluttered shut and they fell asleep holding hands with themself.

Chapter Text

“Prove to me you are strong enough to survive.”

Frisk had desperately insisted a fight wasn’t necessary, but so far, everything was turning out the same as it did last time. Toriel went on the offensive and the corridor was filled with the light of swirling orbs of flame, and of Frisk’s soul glowing out of their chest. Frisk gripped the stick that they still hadn’t discarded after all this time and threw themselves out of the path of the first wave.

Told you we should’ve grabbed the toy knife.

“Toriel— Mom! We don’t have to fight!” We don’t need it. We can’t hurt her. Frisk extended their shaking hand towards Toriel. An attempt at a truce that Toriel wouldn’t even meet with her eyes. She silently cast another fire spell. Some fire grazed Frisk’s cheek as they didn’t quite dodge in time. Chara didn’t need to see the soul health indicator on Frisk’s phone to know that even just getting grazed like that lost them some HP. 

Frisk. If at any point you think you’re gonna die, tag me in.

“Mom, I don’t want to hurt you!” Chara knew Frisk was devastated that the sentiment didn’t seem to go both ways. After all, even as Toriel’s face twitched in discomfort and she continued averting her guilt-ridden gaze, she kept attacking. And the fire hurt . Frisk took another hit and stumbled into the wall. They weren’t dodging as well as they did during their miscellaneous fights out in the Ruins. Emotionally compromised. Not that Chara could be too judgemental about that.

I’m already dead. You shouldn’t have to feel the full force of it again. Sensations are muted in here, so—

“ Stop. I’m not gonna die.” Chara hadn’t meant to piss them off, they just wanted to let them know that if things went south, they could count on Chara. Shit, did they hurt Frisk’s feelings? It seemed way too easy to do that… Shit. They’d apologize later.

Toriel snapped to face Frisk, making eye contact for the first time since the battle began. She lowered her paws “You will, my child. If you go out there, they will kill you. Do you not understand? I simply wish to keep you safe.”

Yeah, feeling real safe. Frisk, do you want me to take arms or legs?

“You’re throwing fire at me.” Frisk stepped forward and gestured at the burn on their cheek and the singed threads of their sweater sleeve with the stick.

Toriel’s brows furrowed and she looked at the floor. “I will cease if you only go upstairs. This is for your own good.”

“And if I don’t?” Frisk took another step forward.

Toriel raised her paws again and shut her eyes tight. She exhaled sharply through her nose. “Fight me or run away.”

“I won’t run.” I want to live. I want to live. I want to live. Frisk pointed the stick at Toriel. “So you’ll keep… You’ll keep hurting me?” Their voice cracked. Their eyes watered. It had never been clearer that they were only a kid.

I want you to live. Am I arms or legs?

“Please flee , you foolish child! Anything that happens to you out there will be far worse than this!” Toriel’s eyes snapped open and she shot out more flames. “ They will not hesitate to kill you!”

Chara was going to make a comment about how Toriel hadn’t hesitated, either, but… Maybe she had. Chara could be misremembering, but did Toriel look sort of horrified when Frisk took their last hit? Had Frisk been right last night? That it was an accident? Still, there had been a last hit. Chara wanted Frisk to live. Chara pressed their hand against the mirror. They’d help. They’d fight if they had to. If Frisk wanted. If Frisk wasn’t still scared to.

Frisk gripped the stick so tight that it dug into their palm. The mirror didn’t give way for Chara as Frisk charged forward through the fire, letting out a broken war cry. They had grown a spine. They weren’t going to let Toriel kill them— Or even just hurt them— anymore. The rush was better than sugar. Frisk was going to live. Frisk was going to kick ass. They weaved through the flames and swung the stick wildly at Toriel, jumping back whenever she grabbed at them. Chara couldn’t hear anything Toriel said over the pounding in Frisk’s ears. They noticed a second too late that Toriel had stopped attacking entirely.

The stick made contact with her chest.

It sank through as her chest started crumbling to dust.

Toriel fell to one knee.

Frisk, panting wildly, soaked with sweat, fell to both of theirs. 

“Urgh… You are stronger than I thought…”

Frisk’s chest tightened and they looked up at Toriel. One of her paws reached up to cup their tear slicked cheek. Frisk shook their head. “Nono, I— I was just fighting back— I was just tired of getting hurt. Don’t—”

Toriel shook her head and managed a smile. How was she smiling? Chara felt sick. Or maybe Frisk felt sick. They both felt sick. Toriel leaned down and bumped her snout against Frisk’s forehead. “Listen to me, small one… If you go beyond this door, keep walking as far as you can. Eventually, you will reach an exit.”

“ Please , I’m sorry—”

“No, my child. I am sorry. I truly thought that I could protect you from something far worse, even if you grew to hate me… I have to go now.”

“I don’t hate you, I was just—”

Toriel’s breathing grew shallow. She gasped a little for air. “Listen. Asgore… Do not let Asgore take your soul. His plan cannot be allowed to succeed.”

“Mom, I—” Frisk faltered. They didn’t seem to be able to find the words they wanted. Chara, aching in tandem with Frisk even through the strange elation that persisted from the first swing, gave them a nudge.

*You tell her you love her.

Frisk nodded. “I love you.”

“Be good, won’t you? My… child…” Toriel was gone. All that was left was dust, and a swelling of power in Frisk’s soul. The phone beeped. Some number went up. For a brief moment, Chara forgot themselves and wondered who would be their next target. Frisk’s quiet sobs brought them back.

We can go back.

Frisk hiccuped. “She didn’t mean it.”

Guess not. You were right, then. Sorry… Sorry I fwooshed at you a bunch.

“Chara, I killed her.”

We killed her. It’s just evening the score.

Frisk shook their head. “I didn’t even give you any control.”

Yeah and I didn’t do anything to stop you. Every time something happens, I remind you that we’re completely above consequences. Hell, I got excited when you started attacking. There’s something really wrong with me. S’probably rubbing off on you, I dunno.

Frisk placed their hands on the pile of dust and let them sink in. The dust was cold. It got under their nails. It felt like it got under their very skin. “Stop, Chara. You make it sound like you shouldn’t be around…”

Well. I am dead. Probably shouldn’t be around.

“Chara, I need you. I can’t do any of this on my own, I— Is it bad that I still want to keep living? After I did this?”
Chara had no idea what the answer to that was. They weren’t some expert on what was good and bad. But Frisk needed comfort, didn’t they? No. It’s not bad. You have to live. To bring her back. And after that— It’s still fine to want to live, I think. It’s natural or something.

“Or something…”

What do you want me to say? That you should die? No. I’d hate that. You think you need me around? Frisk, I need you. Not that you owe me anything or whatever, but… We’re in all of this together. Everything. Including what just happened.

“Together… Right. I guess without me, you’d still be all the way dead.”

Exactly.

“And I want you around, Chara.”

If Chara had a face to feel heat up, they were confident that’s what they’d be feeling. They brushed it off with aggression.

It’s mutual, you weird little crybaby. They pressed their hand against the mirror again and it gave way. In reality, Frisk’s left hand shifted to grip their other wrist and pull their hands out of the dust. Chara dropped Frisk’s right hand in their lap and placed the left on top of it.

“Together?”

Together.

Frisk wound back time to a save they had made that morning. Toriel came out of the house a few moments later to go get ingredients for that night’s meal.

“Oh! My child, I thought you had already gone out to play. Did someone hurt you?” Her expression soured.

Frisk shook their head and scurried up to Toriel to hug her tightly. “Just wanted to see you off. I’m going to go inside and get my crayons so I can draw.”

Toriel made a noise of surprise when Frisk clung onto her, but she quickly relaxed and wrapped her arms around them. “Are you not just the sweetest thing… Be good while I am away, won’t you? I will only be a short while.”

Frisk tensed up. ‘ Be good, won’t you?’ Chara could hear it. They knew Frisk could, too.

*She’s alive.

Frisk took a small breath and pulled back from the hug. They nodded up at Toriel. “See you, Mom. Love you!”

Toriel smiled and placed a paw on Frisk’s head. “Oh? I love you, too, my child.” After a few minutes of fussing over Frisk, she hurried away to get her groceries. This time, so that neither Toriel nor Frisk would have to be hurt, Frisk wrote a goodbye note (with spelling help from Chara) and left it in the kitchen on the fridge: 

I have to go now, Mom. Sorry. I love you, but I can’t stay in the Ruins. I want to move forward. I originally came here because I couldn’t do that, but being with you has given me the strength. I’ll be good and I won’t let Asgore take my soul.

Lots of love,

Frisk

Frisk insisted that Chara add a drawing to the bottom, so they caved. It was a small drawing of Toriel and Frisk. The eyes were colored the perfect shade of brown gold, but Frisk grabbed a red crayon once Chara was finished and colored over one of the eyes. ‘From both of us,’ they said.

After leaving the note, they went into the basement and stood before the door. Frisk began to shake, but their left hand firmly grasped their right.

*She’s alive. You want to live.

Frisk nodded and took a shuddering breath. “A one-way exit, right? We can’t come back?”

Right. Chara hadn’t been saying much since their most recent time jump. They couldn’t stop thinking about the feeling they had gotten when Toriel died. The elation, the hunger for more… Was that just how they were? Completely fucked up? 

“Chara?”

What.

“Together, right?”

Chara faltered. Did Frisk really not mind having a fucked up dead kid in their head? Even after what happened? They really wanted to be together? Chara wanted to tell them off, but despite themselves, they felt comforted by Frisk’s sentimentality. Yeah. Together.
Each of them in control of one hand, they pushed at the massive doors and they opened. Together, they stepped through to the other side.

There, in the middle of the walkway, was that damn flower. Flowey. Flowey the Flower. Dumb flower with a dumb voice and a dumb name that had tried to kill Frisk when they first got here. Chara wasn’t sure how to tell Frisk this, but if they ended up killing this guy, Chara sincerely doubted they’d feel like bothering to go back. Bit too soon after the Toriel thing to say that, though.

“Um… Flowey, right?” Frisk was already scrambling to do damage control, to find the words that would stop this flower from wanting them dead. Chara didn’t see it working.

“Clever. Verrrryyy clever.”

Frisk tilted their head and opened their mouth to ask a question. 

“You think you’re really smart, don’t you? In this world, it’s kill or be killed. So you were able to play by your own rules. You spared the life of a single person. Hee hee hee…”

Frisk was shaking again. Chara gripped their hand and slowly eased into control for them. Chara wasn’t scared. They’d glare down this giggling freak. They felt Frisk’s body stop shaking as they allowed Chara to be the one standing in it.

“Don’t act so cocky. I know what you did. You murdered her. And then you went back, because you regretted it.” Chara snarled and stepped forward, brandishing the stick. Did this guy wanna say that a bit closer to them and the business end of this damn twig? Frisk exerted their control and made Chara stop in their tracks. 

Wait, their voice murmured in Chara’s ear. It’s not like he’s wrong…

“Yeah, but—” Clearly thinking they were talking to him, the flower started laughing.

“Ha ha ha ha! You naive idiot. Do you think you’re the only one with that power? The power to reshape the world… purely by your own determination. The ability to play God! The ability to ‘SAVE.’” 

Chara’s stomach dropped. It sounded too similar to how they had felt when they first learned about what Frisk could do. Gleeful delight at god-like power. Their right hand gave their left a squeeze. Frisk didn’t say anything and the flower continued. 

“I thought I was the only one with that power. But… I can’t SAVE anymore. Apparently YOUR desires for this world override MINE. Well well. Enjoy that power while you can. I’ll be watching.” The flower let out an ear-piercing cackle and vanished into the ground.

Chara stood there in Frisk’s body, uneasy and silent.

He remembers…?

“Guess so.”

He used to…

“Guess so.”

Chara?

“Yeah?”

… I’m scared.

Chara would be lying if they said they weren’t freaked out, too, but… When they thought of Frisk’s hand shaking under theirs and the way their voice broke against Toriel and even just that quiet admission of fear, Chara couldn’t help but want to help them feel safe. “I’ve got you, Frisk. We’re together, right? Two sources of determination are better than one, so… We’ll be okay no matter what.”

Frisk was quiet for just enough beats that Chara wondered if they had said the wrong things, but then… Thank you. 

Chara grinned. It didn’t feel the same as when Frisk used this face to smile, but hopefully it was even half as comforting. “Of course. It’s just the truth.”

Chara?

“Yeah?”

Can I stay in here for a bit? I feel so tired.

Guess killing your mom and then getting confronted about it by a flower that almost killed you was pretty stressful. The body did feel a little heavy. Chara was strong enough to carry it. “Yeah. Take it easy.”

Chara took the first few steps out of the Ruins out into the snow, flinching only a little when the huge doors slammed shut behind them.

Chapter Text

Sans wasn’t sure why he bothered keeping track of it. He couldn’t even tell how much time got turned back, only if the number of fluctuations was different from the one he remembered from that morning. Not to mention that even with the knowledge from tracking the fluctuations in his workshop, there wasn’t shit he and his measly one HP could do about it. Hell, if the anomaly jumped back far enough, he wouldn’t remember that he wasn’t tracking that flower anymore in the first place.

He had caught the thing trying to talk to Papyrus about two weeks ago.

“Lay off!” It had spat. “Why waste my time? I have just as much of it as you now, can’t you tell? Some whiny human brat surpassed my Determination levels. I was just trying to get some shitty pasta to throw off a cliff about it.”

Papyrus would’ve given it to the flower even if he had known it was gonna throw it off a cliff. He was too kind to be interacting with this little freak. Sans told it as much and a single glow of his eye sent it packing. Not worth wasting a reset on? Or could it really not do that anymore?

After that interaction, Sans had checked the device he ‘borrowed’ from the lab in Hotland. He kept it with the covered hunk of broken junk in his workshop. Basically just a screen, you couldn’t even do calculations on it. The timeline didn’t look like it was going to stabilize anytime soon, but… There was a single red spike. Red, not white like the monster soul that the flower didn’t have. Red.

Three more spikes appeared over the next two weeks and no human exited the door. Sans thought a lot about what he’d do if they did— Thinking was all he was really good for, he was shit at acting on anything— and considering the promise he made to that lady and the anomaly’s power to reset anything and everything, Sans figured that all a garbage old jokester like him could do was make this timeline satisfying enough to keep things as they were. Or, if things went sideways, be enough of a ‘friend’ that the human could be convinced to make ‘em un-sideways. So, he lazed around at his station, turning over some of his best jokes in his head. He kept a whoopie cushion nearby, as always, in case he could convince the little thing to shake his hand. That always got a laugh. Were ‘whiny human brats’ into Grillby’s? Just about everyone was, right? ‘Cept Papyrus, but even he’d drink a hot chocolate. Funny. Sans couldn’t remember the last time he thought so hard about how to ‘make a friend.’ He usually just took it easy. That’s how he befriended Grillbs. And door lady. But Grillbs and door lady didn’t have the ability to screw up the timeline like it was their personal chew toy.

Today, Sans noticed one spike that hadn’t been there this morning when he checked the device around lunchtime. That didn’t necessarily indicate anything was going to emerge from the door, but Sans had a funny feeling about today. Someone must be tickling his funny bone. 

Not even an hour later, he got a frantic text. 

“human came thru the door!!! omg it’s so small. IT’S SO SMALL SANS OMG A REAL HUMAN. i should really tell Undyne first but u insisted! I trust u. Also would u come help me fix something in the basement l8r i need a second pair of hands to hold the circuit still while i fix it lol” Not even a second later, “it’ssosmall”

Sans responded before taking a shortcut to the door: “thanks” And then: “maybe got a human 2 deal with”

When he got there, sure enough, there was a little trail of footprints leading from the door off in the direction of the bridge. Sans considered knocking and checking if that lady would answer him, but he couldn’t stomach— not that he had one of those— the idea of being met with silence. Besides, he didn’t want the little anomaly to get too far ahead. Couldn’t miss his chance to make a good first impression. 

He took a few shortcuts towards the bridge, going only a few feet at a time. He wanted to get a look at the human before they were formally introduced. He wanted to see if he could sense any LV. He appeared standing on a branch and snapped it under his weight. What could he say? He was big-boned. He spotted the human just ahead, but the sound caught their attention. He blipped out of existence in an instant to avoid being spotted before he was ready, but his eyes met a flash of red in the split second it took him to disappear.

A chill went down his spine. He rested his skull in his hand as he sat in a tree some distance away. What was that? He hadn’t sensed any LV, but he had felt a spark of rage. Not ideal. 

He could barely see the human through the thick trees now separating them. The human was small, like Alph said. Shorter than Sans was, tiny hands clutching onto a little stick like it was their only lifeline. He couldn’t hear ‘em, but they looked like they were talking to themselves. Those red eyes were darting around like crazy. Maybe that rage was just how they reacted when they were scared. They had god-like powers, but y’know. As far as he could tell, they were a kid. Shit. He still had a shot at making an okay impression. He only got to make one. They could try this again as many times as they wanted, but for him, there would only be one. He didn’t get any deja vu when he saw them, so this was probably the first. Alright, Sans. He held his whoopie cushion lightly and took one more shortcut.

He appeared far enough away that he didn’t startle the kid by appearing directly behind them. He saw them stop at the bridge as he took his first few steps. He approached slowly, like he was approaching something with the power to dust him with a flick. Since. Y’know. He stopped so he had just enough room to get out of the way if they chose to swing that stick. They didn’t turn around, but their body tensed. Probably gripping the stick.

“Human. Don’t you know how to greet a new pal? Turn around and shake my hand.”

It took them a second. They hissed something under their breath, but it didn’t seem to be directed at Sans. He could just make it out as “You don’t know that.” 

He was ready to prompt them again, but they sighed petulantly and turned around. They glared at him with those deep red eyes. Their grip on the stick was tight. Easy, now. Sans extended his hand. They didn’t look away from his eye sockets as they took it.

Pfffffffftphhhh.

Sans retracted his hand and let out a chuckle. “Heheh… the old whoopee cushion in the hand trick. It’s ALWAYS funny.”

The human looked distinctly unamused. They looked pissed. Eyes wide, their nose scrunching up, their teeth all but bared. Sans braced himself, but their expression suddenly softened and they burst out into a quiet giggling fit. The red of their eyes lightened to a golden brown. Their grip eased on the stick. Huh.

“You liked that, human?” His grin got bigger. Either he was getting through to a real freak, they had just been scared, or they were pretending. Worst-case scenario, he had best play along until one of them wasn’t faking anymore. “I couldn’t tell for a second. That’s hilarious. I’m Sans. Sans the skeleton.”

Chapter Text

It pissed Chara off. It pissed Chara off how much Frisk brightened at meeting Sans the fucking skeleton. The entire walk to the bridge, Chara could barely coax Frisk out from the deep recesses of their shared mind; they could feel Frisk shaking even as they sat on the other side of the mirror, completely out of their own flesh. 

Do you uh… like snow? Chara had thought to them. Frisk only responded that they never really had a reason to like it, since it was hard to get by when it was cold enough for snow. Chara would have kicked themselves if they weren’t inhabiting Frisk’s legs.

I’ve got you. They had assured, stepping carefully through the snow. They were aware of every crunch, each of their own breaths that they still had to sometimes manually think about. They clutched the stick like the weapon that it was in the hands of a human surrounded by hostile monsters and proceeded, protective, hackles raised like a wild animal. They heard a weak thanks through imagined glass, and got the sense that Frisk might reach through to join Chara, at least partially, on the other side of the mirror, but then they heard a thick snap.

Frisk immediately retracted with a small squeak and Chara whipped around in a fury. They saw a flash of real and tangible blue through all of the metaphorical red.

Then, when they actually shook his hand and got that stupid low-hanging fruit of a gag that couldn’t possibly have been better than Chara’s bit about the stick a few weeks ago that cheered Frisk up— it was just a fucking fart sound— Frisk came fully back into control to smile and laugh like it was the funniest thing in the world. ‘ That’s hilarious,’ the skeleton had said. Hilarious, Chara’s ass.

Chara didn’t find a single part of the day they were having funny, even as Frisk coasted along gleefully. Not Sans the skeleton, not the dumb lamp, not the taller and shrill skeleton, or the cigarette dog, or the puzzles, or any of the other dogs, OR THE FURTHER INTERACTIONS WITH THAT SKELETON WHO TALKED BY YELLING. Chara wanted so badly to slink to the back of Frisk’s mind and stay there. Dormant, pouting. They tried to, even. But whenever Frisk got thrown into a fight, Chara absolutely couldn’t leave them hanging. Just a few hours ago, they had told Frisk, who was shaking and scared: We’re together, right? So, reluctantly, they sat in the driver’s seat with Frisk, contributing at the very least their presence throughout the body, jumping into action whenever there was action. After a little while, Frisk started to gently pry at Chara’s defences, at the passiveness of their involvement in their adventure since getting to the snowy forest.

They had slid off the side of a cliff and landed in the snow in front of what could only be described as the most visually distinct snowman Chara had ever seen (even without their memories, they could tell) and a shitty excuse for one. Frisk picked themselves up out of the snow, wincing, and chose that moment to ask.

“Chara, are you mad at me?” They whispered into the silence after shaking the snow from their hair with all of the strength of a kicked puppy. A puff of warm air rose into the cold from their mouth. Chara twitched the left fingers.

Are you using pity to make me answer you?

A shy smirk crept onto Frisk’s face. “You’ve been ignoring me a bit unless I’m hurt. I kiiinda fell on purpose.”

Chara almost felt proud at Frisk’s little trick. Frisk was getting better and better at telling monsters what they wanted to hear so their fights didn’t last so long, but only ever for that reason: to stop the fighting. They didn’t use that skill to get anything they wanted, only to engage in incessant people pleasing. They were a total and utter pushover and sometimes Chara felt bad asserting themselves over them, so this was a welcome indicator that Frisk wouldn’t let Chara walk all over them too much.

I’m not mad. I’m just… Not intruding on your fun. Their voice only existed in Frisk’s mind, but they could still hear that their tone was too obviously pouty. Ah, shit.

Frisk sat on their knees between the snow Papyrus and the Sans lump, facing the cliff wall. A little further back from the existing snow creations, they began gathering up a mound of snow only somewhat higher than the lump. Chara continued to leave their control loose, like they weren’t there at all. “You’re not intruding,” Frisk mumbled.

Chara bit back a laugh. I’m inside of your body. I’m in your head.

“I want you here. I don’t mind sharing.” Frisk started packing their little pile of snow tight with their right hand. They let their left fall into their lap. “Help me? Left.”

Chara left the hand where it was. They weren’t sure what to say in response to Frisk’s sickeningly sweet assertion.

Frisk’s right hand stopped packing the snow. “Chara?” They took a deep breath. “Do you not think it’s okay? For me to be having fun? After… what I did?” Their voice cracked and Chara felt a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature. No. They wouldn’t let Frisk think that.

The left hand flew to Frisk’s chest and tightly clutched their sweater. What? No. Geez, Frisk. No. That’s not— Shit, Frisk. No. I want you to have fun. I want you to be happy. To live, remember? Don’t be stupid.

Frisk’s eyes widened at the sudden movement and their gaze shifted down to the hand on their chest. Gently, they raised their right and placed it over their right. “But you’re not having fun…? Do you hate the cold? Or Sans and Papyrus? Or puzzles? I think they’re fun, but if you don’t like them, we can try to go around—”

Fucking hell, stop that.

Frisk went quiet. The silence was somehow even worse.

It’s fun. Everything is fun, okay? Chara loosened their grip on the sweater. They let the hand drop before deciding to raise it to pack snow. Like Frisk wanted. Look. Are we building a little snowman? Let me help.

“I don’t believe you. I’m ten, not dumb.” Frisk mumbled. Now, it was the right hand that lay in their lap, not helping. “We should talk it out. Whatever’s wrong. Please?”

Chara slowed, but kept packing the snow. I just… don’t think whoopie cushions are funny.

“Huh? You’re mad at me cause I laughed at the fart sound…?” Frisk’s face scrunched in confusion and their oversimplification was just so— close to accurate that it was embarrassing to hear it out loud.

My jokes are just as good. Better, even. If I had gotten a few more seconds, I would’ve thought of one to get you out and about again.

Frisk’s eyes widened and they tapped their lap in their little ‘aha’ moment. “You’re jealous of the skelebros? Or.. Of Sans?”

NO.

Several beats of silence.

I just think they’re annoying.

More silence. Chara packed the snow more aggressively.

And Papyrus is too loud.

Frisk started packing snow.

And… it is a little annoying that he could get you to smile before I could.

Frisk’s face relaxed. Except the corners of their lips. “Chara, we only made it to the bridge in the first place because of you. I only felt safe enough to laugh at dumb jokes because I know I’m not alone. I was just happy to meet another monster after Toriel whose very first instinct wasn’t to hurt me. He’s my friend, yeah. And I hope Papyrus will be, too! But neither of them is my best friend, Chara. We’re gonna make it through the Underground because we’re together. Like you said, okay?”

Best friend. Best friend. Best friend. Those words made Chara— happy. Yeah, happy. But also so sad, somehow. They couldn’t slip back through the mirror and drop control. They were helping build this tiny snowman. But because they stayed put, they couldn’t stop hot tears from rolling down Frisk’s cheeks and immediately becoming cold wet trails on their face. The both of them wiped at their face with their somewhat oversized sweater sleeves.

I still think they’re both annoying.

Frisk giggled. “That’s okay. I guess, um… We don’t have to like the same stuff. But… Will you play with me anyways? When it comes to the puzzles and—”

Yeah. I’ll play with you. Whatever. Chara was so embarrassed to be crying at all, nevermind over two words. Was it okay for them to say that Frisk was their best friend, too? They felt somehow like they weren’t sure how to say that. So they just repeated that childish phrase. I’ll play with you. Let’s give this little snow person a head.

Together, they rolled a head and nestled it on top of the short and slightly rounded body. With their stick, they drew a smiley face on the front and filled it in with the red marker they found stuck in the snow nearby. They got up and stood back, and even if Frisk didn’t say it, Chara knew that they were happy that it looked like their snow person was standing between the ‘skelebros,’ if a bit far back. They did say this one, but they were also happy the eyes were red.

They ran into Sans down a path they checked out on their way back to save— Frisk insisted that they do so in order to keep their creation existing even if they died and had to go back— and when the skeleton clearly pulled some sort of weird teleporting bullshit that amazed Frisk, Chara’s tinge of annoyance was dulled. Best friend. 

They went back to save before proceeding, and they ended up in a small field of what Chara decided to call snow poffs. By the time they reached the end, Chara had Frisk in a tiny giggling fit by announcing each and every one in the narrator voice. They were so giggly that they met an end in the subsequent battle with the giant dog (incredibly unaware of its own strength) that was not a snow poff.

It was the first death they met with— after a short stunned silence— laughter. They were both so glad they had saved their snow person.

Chapter Text

The last thing either of them wanted was for Papyrus to kill them. Frisk because they considered the big goofy guy to be a friend, and that time Toriel had killed them had put a strain on their relationship, to say the least. Chara because it would be embarrassing as hell to fall to a loud bumbling idiot like him. The both of them because they were fully aware of how their drive to live could shift to a drive to kill. Toriel’s dust may not have been physically there anymore, but it still coated their hands. Chara still remembered the rush they had felt, the desire to feel the number that rose as she fell rise higher and higher. Frisk wouldn’t say it, but Chara knew they still remembered the relief that had surged over them when they realized that Toriel couldn’t hurt them anymore.

Chara couldn’t help but imagine how thoroughly dust would blend into the snow-blanketed landscape of Snowdin. 

*You are determined to do no harm.

Frisk nodded in agreement as they trudged out of town and towards where Papyrus was waiting to face them. “Arms or legs?” They squeaked out.

Chara contemplated for a moment before answering. Arms. They felt Frisk’s control over their arms slip away and Chara slipped into them before they fell limp. They gripped the stick that Frisk was afraid to hold. They were scared they wouldn’t be able to control themselves. Chara thought it might be a little stupid for Frisk to assume Chara would be able to, but something about that trust made them confident they could. Just focus on dodging. I won’t hurt him.

“Even if I think something bad and part of me wants you to?” 

Even then.

“Promise?”

Promise. Chara was more than happy to be Frisk’s wrath, but also their self-control. Frisk trusted that Chara could control their violent urges. Chara knew they heard the call of violence louder than Frisk, they knew they did. But that meant they’d be aware. It wouldn’t catch them off guard like it had Frisk when they flew into the blind rage that Chara watched kill Toriel. There would be no blind rages. Any rages that happened would be with eyes wide open and Chara wouldn’t let go of the reins. I’ve got you, they assured.

Frisk didn’t give them a verbal response, but their face felt somewhat less tense as they arrived to meet Papyrus.

“HUMAN.”

Frisk took a deep breath. Chara stopped their wince at Papyrus’ volume from wracking Frisk’s body.

“ALLOW ME TO TELL YOU ABOUT SOME COMPLEX FEELINGS. FEELINGS LIKE… THE JOY OF FINDING ANOTHER PASTA LOVER.”

Pasta frozen to a table that Frisk had lied sweetly about having eaten. Chara’s vague annoyance that Frisk’s lies tended to be sweet while theirs were just lies. Still. The relief that they had it in common: lying.

“THE ADMIRATION FOR ANOTHER’S PUZZLE-SOLVING SKILLS.”

The tedious puzzles that Frisk gave their full attention to while Chara waited, bored and jealous. Of the puzzles. Of Frisk for having so much fun solving them.

“THE DESIRE TO HAVE A COOL, SMART PERSON THINK YOU ARE COOL.”

Cool and smart? Frisk wasn’t exactly either of those things. They were more like a dopey dog, whimpering and caked in mud. Still. Best friend. Them saying that… them thinking that Chara was worth anything at all…

“THESE FEELINGS…”

Maybe Chara was a little like Papyrus. Watching with bated breath at every stupid little thing Frisk did, putting on a bunch of bravado and hoping that Frisk would buy it and reward them with the slightest bit of admiration. The only difference was that Papyrus was actually strong enough to admit—

“THEY MUST BE WHAT YOU ARE FEELING RIGHT NOW!!”

“What.” Chara didn’t mean to speak through Frisk’s lips, but the force of the realization that Papyrus wasn’t as cool as they almost gave him credit for warranted a verbal indication of disappointment. Frisk cleared their throat as they reclaimed their voice, and Papyrus must have taken it as embarrassment at being clocked.

“I CAN HARDLY IMAGINE WHAT IT MUST BE LIKE TO FEEL THAT WAY. AFTER ALL, I AM VERY GREAT.”

He and his brother are numbskulls.  

Chara swelled with pride when Frisk had to choke back a laugh and cover it up with “Yeah…! It’s true!”

Papyrus glanced away and started sweating a little. He nodded in agreement, fully convinced that his projection hadn’t been at all noticed. Well. Maybe not convinced, but hopeful. “I DON’T EVER WONDER WHAT HAVING LOTS OF FRIENDS IS LIKE. I PITY YOU… LONELY HUMAN…” He suddenly snapped back to face Frisk, his nervous smile fully replaced by a blinding grin. “WORRY NOT!!! YOU SHALL BE LONELY NO LONGER!” He said it like it was actually something he could promise. Like anyone could stave off the loneliness felt by Chara and their murky reflection except for the person staring back at them from the warped mirror. Still, Frisk seemed to appreciate the sentiment, because they were blinking back touched tears. They started beaming as Papyrus continued. “I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, WILL BE YOUR…”

“Papyrus, are you saying… We’re…?” The emotional little dork was probably happy to know that their consideration of friendship went both ways. Chara was, embarrassingly, happy for them. Even though Papyrus was about as dumb as a person could be. Further emphasized by how his sockets widened and he turned his back to Frisk as their lips formed around the word ‘friends.’

“NO… NO, THIS IS ALL WRONG! I CAN’T BE YOUR FRIEND!!!”

Frisk’s entire being slumped except for the arms that Chara kept tense. Papyrus was too stupid for malice. Frisk would say that he didn’t mean anything bad by it. But the look on Toriel’s face had made it clear she hadn’t meant to kill Frisk, and that didn’t stop the damage from being done. It took everything in Chara to keep themselves from swinging. Just one good hit. They wanted just one good hint, to knock the sense into Papyrus. “But…” Frisk whispered. 

“YOU ARE A HUMAN!” Papyrus interrupted. “I MUST CAPTURE YOU!!! THEN, I CAN FULFILL MY LIFELONG DREAM!!! POWERFUL! POPULAR! PRESTIGIOUS!”

Try ‘pompous.’ Chara was satisfied with their insult, but it made Frisk’s mouth tighten into a thin, displeased, line. Fine. Well. Passionate, at the very least. They got an appreciative sniffle.

“THAT’S PAPYRUS!!! THE NEWEST MEMBER… OF THE ROYAL GUARD!”

And then Frisk’s soul was alight and they were fighting. Frisk braced themselves and widened their stance. Chara gripped the stick and held it in front of them, ready to knock away magic that got too close. They were both prepared, but… Papyrus cackled as a few bones rose up from the ground and sailed lazily through the snow too far off to their right to come close to touching them.

“Huh?” Frisk’s voice rang in their head.

Yeah, no idea.

Frisk’s disappointment melted away and their face broke out into a relieved grin. “Maybe he doesn’t wanna fight after all!”

I don’t know about jumping to any conclusions—

“Papyrus, you’re the coolest!”

Papyrus’s ‘NYEH-HEH-HEH’-ing stopped and he halted dead in his tracks. “WHAT!? FL-FLIRTING!? SO YOU FINALLY REVEAL YOUR ULTIMATE FEELINGS!”

Frisk was silent inside and out. Chara wanted to start swinging at him until he shut the hell up and picked something less stupid to scream. “Flirting.” They repeated, deadpan. It was supposed to make him realize how stupid he sounded, but he just took it as confirmation.

“W-WELL! I’M A SKELETON WITH VERY HIGH STANDARDS!!!”

Chara opened Frisk’s mouth to shut this down, but it clamped shut.

“Wait!”

What.

“What if this is the right answer? The one that makes him stop fighting.”

What. Frisk, this is stupid. This is worse than dusting him.

“It is not!! ”

And then Frisk was speaking again and Chara wished they could dust themselves. “I… I can make spaghetti?”

Papyrus’s hands flew to his face and his sockets were suddenly bulging eyes. Monster anatomy. “OH NO!!! YOU’RE MEETING ALL MY STANDARDS!!! I GUESS THIS MEANS I HAVE TO GO ON A DATE WITH YOU…?”

Nooooooooo… Chara groaned internally.

“Yes!” Frisk’s eyes lit up. “Now the fight ends, right?”

“LET’S DATE L-LATER!! AFTER I CAPTURE YOU!” And Papyrus sent another row of bones sailing past them, too far to make contact.

Chara went ahead and face-palmed for the both of them. Papyrus stared at them expectantly, waiting for an attack that would never come, even though he sort of deserved it. Frisk frowned and spoke up to clarify. “Papyrus, I don’t wanna fight you— Or… No. I absolutely won’t fight you. Not ever ever. Okay?” Chara extended their hand in a show of mercy, to emphasize Frisk’s statement.

Papyrus stroked his jaw with his big gaudy mitten. “SO YOU WON’T FIGHT… THEN, LET’S SEE IF YOU CAN HANDLE MY FABLED ‘BLUE ATTACK’!!” He threw his mitted hand forward and a horizontal blue bone sailed towards them. There was a little bit of room on the left to dodge, but then there was like a dozen more and there was no way in hell that they—

Wait. It’s one of the ones where you can’t move, remember?

Frisk’s legs that had jolted to run out of the way locked into place and they squeezed their eyes shut as the bone sailed through them. Both Frisk and Chara let out a sigh of relief. But then something seized in their chest and gravity seemed to want to bury them. Frisk tried to bolt in one direction or the other, but some mysterious force held them in what felt like an invisible corridor. They looked down and holy fuck their soul was not usually bl— A tiny bone came rushing towards them.

JUMP, Chara called out. They couldn’t move left or right at all, but maybe— Maybe, even though they felt so heavy—

Frisk somehow managed to jump over the bone and they fell face-first into the snow. Chara didn’t manage to catch them, but they did push them up off of the ground afterwards.

Sorry.

Frisk shook their head and some snow showered from their hair. 

“YOU’RE BLUE NOW. THAT’S MY ATTACK.”

Chara hovered Frisk’s hand over their now blue soul and swallowed hard. This just went from one of the easiest fights they had ever had to maaaaybe a bit of a challenge. 

Papyrus’s rows of bones were a lot more intimidating when you couldn’t just sidestep them and you actually had to jump. Especially when jumping was a fight in and of itself. Frisk pushed their legs beyond their limits and Chara swung their arms for added momentum. Every fumbled landing led to a rougher one where a bone knocked them on their ass or whacked them in the head. After a string of successful dodges, they’d sometimes be moving too fast to stop before a blue bone crashed into them. All the while, Papyrus was mumbling about that damn date and Frisk was calling out that they didn’t want to fight. They quickly ran out of monster food for healing.

Chara flipped out Frisk’s phone between attacks to check the inventory. Empty. The health reading was at five. Not ideal. They slipped the phone back into Frisk’s pocket and groaned.

How the hell is Papyrus beating our ass?

Frisk was panting too much to respond, but their thoughts were so loud that Chara could hear them, repeating the same phrases over and over: “Is he going to kill us? I don’t want to die.”

I’m taking arms and legs.

Frisk made no protest and quietly let go of control, even though they still remained in their body, unwilling to retreat completely into their mind.

Papyrus took his next turn and the bones came at them. Chara screamed at the top of their lungs and ran forward. They weren’t allowed to hit Papyrus, they couldn’t move left or right, and jumping sucked. They had one last plan and nothing much to lose, so they grit their teeth and swung the stick at the first approaching bone. They didn’t break it, but they managed to send it slightly off-course. Slightly was enough. Chara felt Frisk’s presence spike in delighted surprise.

“OOOOH! VERY IMPRESSIVE HUMAN!!!”

If there was any air left in Chara’s lungs, they’d scream for him to shut up, but they were putting everything they had into smacking the next bone, and the next. The one after that was small enough to step over, the next they ducked, the one after that— They swung too slow and it rammed into them with a sickening crack. They whirled around and the bone was pristine, undamaged. The crack came from inside of them. And they really shouldn’t have turned around, because one more hit would surely kill them and another bone was coming and it hit them and— They didn’t die. They didn’t die. They didn’t feel Frisk’s soul break, they were alive. They were alive, but the ground was getting closer and their vision was fading to black.

Frisk was alive.

When they woke, Frisk was behind the wheel again. They weren’t at their last save, but in a dingy wooden room. A weird chalky taste sat on their tongue and a small bone was in their hands, Frisk spun it around in their hand like Chara had vague memories of doing with pencils. They were sitting in—

A dog bed???

Frisk giggled softly. “Chara! Yeeeeah, I don’t think Papyrus knows a lot about humans.” They set down the bone and released control of the left hand. They squeezed it once with the right. “Look.” Frisk shifted and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from their shorts. Chara glanced it over.

SORRY, I HAVE TO LOCK YOU IN THE GUEST ROOM UNTIL UNDYNE ARRIVES. FEEL FREE TO MAKE YOURSELF AT HOME!!! REFRESHMENTS AND ACCOMMODATIONS HAVE BEEN PROVIDED. 

-NYEHFULLY YOURS, PAPYRUS

He writes in all caps, too?

Frisk giggled again. “Yeah, I guess so…” They were quiet for a while, but Chara could feel words forming at the back of Frisk’s throat, so they didn’t break the silence and waited patiently for Frisk to go on. “He didn’t kill us, huh?”

Guess not.

“Based on the um… The damage those bones were doing, that one should have done it, right?”

Chara thought back. Yeah. It should have. And in that moment, they were really convinced that the two of them were about to suffer another death together. But at the last second, somehow… Guess he pulled his punches. 

“Sans did say that Papyrus couldn’t be dangerous, even if he tried…”

Chara had hardly been listening to most of what Sans said, but he probably did say something along those lines. Chara was going to say something mean-spirited about either him or his doofus brother, but then Frisk was crying.

“It hurt. It hurt and— And he still put us in this shed with dog food that I had to eat to heal the wounds from the fight, but—”

THAT’S what that taste is? You ate dog food? Frisk.

“Chara, he didn’t kill us! And you know what? I bet if we fight him again and lose, he still won’t kill us.” Frisk was full-on sobbing now. Chara patted them on the shoulder with the left hand.

He didn’t, but I bet the Undyne character he’s waiting for will do it. You don’t have to be grateful to people for not killing you, Frisk. That bar is in the dirt.

Frisk shook their head and hiccuped. “Toriel’s dust is on my hands. But nobody’s will ever ever ever be on Papyrus’s. He’s— Sans is right, he’s the coolest.”

Chara faltered. If the bar was in the dirt and still nobody was reaching it… They guessed it was okay to celebrate. They couldn’t argue if Frisk was gonna cry about it, geez. Based on his little speech earlier, he’d love to know you think that. Then again, he might just take it as more flirting.

Frisk sniffled and buried their face in their sleeve. “I should probably tell him I’m ten. Again, he really doesn’t seem to know that much about humans.”

Chara exhaled through Frisk’s nose. We’ll get around to it. First, we have to win this fight.

“For once, our life isn’t on the line.” Frisk lowered their arm and took a few breaths, beginning to calm down.

Guess not. Still, I’d rather not spend any more time sitting in a dog bed. And you seriously can’t eat any more dog food. That’s gross, Frisk.

Frisk giggled. “I’ve tasted worse…” And Frisk’s face twisted into the sad sort of smile that you only smiled about shitty food if you had lived a life where food was a luxury and garbage wasn’t the worst-case scenario. A life where the bar was in the dirt. Unfortunately, the smile felt natural to Chara.

Gross and sad as hell. Get up.

The two of them got up and slipped through the too far apart bars and back out into the snow. After stocking up and returning to face Papyrus, they got their victory. And later, their date, though that title was short-lived.

They met Papyrus in front of the house and said that they were ready for the date, but before he could get a single word in, Frisk let Chara clear something up.

“I’m ten years old, by the way.” The number wasn’t true for them, they couldn’t remember what number was theirs, but it was true for Frisk, and as far as Papyrus knew, Frisk was the only one here.

Papyrus stared blankly for a minute before pulling out a book and tossing it aside in the snow. A… dating rulebook? “THANK GOODNESS!! I THOUGHT THAT I HAD TO DATE YOU BECAUSE YOU WERE IN LOVE WITH ME, EVEN IF I DIDN’T RECIPROCATE YOUR SINCERE AFFECTIONS. IT WAS GOING TO BE VERY AWKWARD!!! AND EVEN THOUGH DISCOVERING MY DATE IS A CHILD IS MORE AWKWARD, THIS MEANS THAT I HAVE A MUCH EASIER WAY TO FRIENDZONE YOU!!!”

Chara winced at his volume, which was always too much for them, but especially when he was standing this close. It only got worse when he knelt down and his face was right in front of theirs. He placed his big goofy mitten on their shoulder. 

“HUMAN! YOU ARE A BABY BONES. AND I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM A GROWN SKELETON! YOUR LOVE FOR ME IS ONE THAT CANNOT BE! BUT DO NOT BE SAD, HUMAN. FOR I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM STILL WILLING… TO BE YOUR FRIEND.”

Chara let go and allowed Frisk to take it from there. Rather than wincing, they were beaming. “That sounds good, Papyrus. How about instead of a date, we just hang out? As friends!”

Papyrus’s hand slipped from Frisk’s shoulder and joined his other in joyous clapping. “EXCELLENT PROPOSAL, HUMAN!”

Frisk rubbed their right thumb gently over their left palm. “And uh… Paps?”

“YES, MY GOOD PLATONIC FRIEND WHO IS A CHILD?”

“Humans have pretty sensitive ears. Can you talk a little bit quieter?”

Chara grabbed Frisk’s right hand with their left and dug the nails in. They felt Frisk’s cheeks heat up as a result of their embarrassment and they hissed Frisk’s name into their mind. 

“...OH, OF COURSE— I MEAN…” Papyrus cleared his throat. “Oh, of course, Human!” It was clearly a great deal of effort for him to speak at this volume, but he smiled like it was nothing at all and suddenly Chara thought for the second or third time today that Papyrus might not be so bad.

Chapter Text

Sans was hopeless in the face of everyday life even before you threw a mini time god into the mix, so his bones were feeling a little rattled since the human showed up, to say the least. Then there was the added pressure of his promise to Door Lady. Stars, he couldn’t stand promises, but she really was such a nice lady. And when he thought about it, the promise gave him a more solid plan of action than he’d be able to form on his own. Without it, he’d just be wondering if the best and easiest way to deal with the human would be to blast ‘em into next week until they stopped showing up. But with this promise as a code of conduct? He was forced to give the kid a chance. He wasn’t out taking bullets for them or anything, but since Door Lady forced him to entertain the idea of friendship, he was thinking more thoroughly about how to form a stable timeline. And so far, they didn’t seem like a bad kid.

First things first, they laughed at the whoopie cushion in the hand trick. Then, the more Sans interacted with em, the more they really did seem to love bad laughs. Not only that, but they were nice to Papyrus. They played along with his puzzles, patiently waited through his explanations, and even said they ate his spaghetti (even though Sans checked after and they didn’t— not that he blamed them.) Still. Sans knew that both he and the kid knew that none of those things necessarily had to mean anything. Any second, they could hop back and there’d be no trace of any of it except an extra spike on Sans’s device.

Sans was nervous for the kid’s fight with Papyrus.

Originally, he was planning on watching, but if something went bad… He wasn’t sure he’d be able to maintain his current course of human-placating action. So before the human met up with his brother, Sans set to wandering around the woods a bit. He checked on his sentry station. Still a mess. He didn’t have the energy to clean it up. Hopefully Papyrus would be around to complain about it later. He went back to the word search in the snow and noticed that the human had drawn a sad face next to the impossible word. He pocketed it. He stopped by to check in on Papyrus’s snowman and make sure none of the local teens ran off with its scarf.

Between Papyrus’s snow sculpture and Sans’s lazy attempt at participating, a little ways back as if it was too shy to actually stand between them: a little snow person. 

Sans made a sound like he was clearing his throat and took a shortcut back to his room. Yeah, the kid really didn’t seem so bad. Sans was cautious of hope. It struggled to rise up through the cloud that muffled most of his emotions, but he felt something. A small spark.

It grew a while later when he woke up from his nap to hear Papyrus shuffling around with the kid downstairs and he got the chance to pop out of his room and bother them with his trombone.

The relief exhausted him. The kid would be heading to Waterfall next, so Sans went to take his emotional labor nap in his sentry station there. The sound of rushing water made Waterfall one of his favorite areas in the Underground for a nap.

It was another short-lived nap and he woke up to the kid going: “Sans?!”

He opened one eye, a grin already plastered across his face. “What? Haven’t you seen a guy with two jobs before?” He took stock of the human’s eye color. For their first few interactions, whether it was the light or something else, they had shifted dramatically back and forth from brownish red to brownish gold. At some point, they had settled on a shade of brown in between, and that’s where they were now.

The kid furrowed their brow and thought for a second before shaking their head. “I guess… not.” Their hands were clasped together, fingers interlocked as if in prayer. If they could find it in them to pray to something, more power to them. Not that a time-traveling human was in any need of more power.

Sans shrugged. “Fortunately, two jobs means twice as many legally-required breaks. I’m going to Grillby’s. Wanna come?” The confusion on the kid’s face gave way to pure and utter delight. They were either a damn good actor or they had a shit poker face. If Sans were one to pray, he’d pray for the latter. 

“Yeah!”

Sans shrugged again. “Well, if you insist… I’ll pry myself away from my work…”

The kid rolled their eyes, but they were starting up another one of the quiet giggling fits they sometimes worked themselves into over Sans’s jokes. He couldn’t tell if it landed or not. It probably wouldn’t do anything to keep the human on a positive track if he stopped joking, and it would also be pretty painful to do so, so he decided it was best to keep it up. Trying to appease the human felt like he was writing a script. Best to stay with it, especially if they ended up doing any resets. That way, he’d be confident he could more or less tell what any erased Sanses had been up to.

And there wasn’t a single Sans who’d walk to Grillby’s from Waterfall, so. He stepped from behind his station and walked around the human and a little ways down the path. “Over here. I know a shortcut.”

Still clasping their hands together in an unknowable prayer, the human followed him.

Grillby’s was the same as ever. Not a single customer missing and not a speck of EXP on the kid’s soul. Sans relaxed. Inwardly. Outwardly, he was never anything but relaxed. He caught a wink from Bunny on his way in. Ignoring her for now, he turned to face the kid.

“Fast shortcut, huh?”

The red was barely there in their eyes as they nodded eagerly. Different lighting in Grillby’s or what? 

“Hey, everyone.” He greeted the dogs, Mouth, Bunny, and had a quick bit of banter about brunch that got a rimshot and some laughs. Second laugh he had gotten from the kid in like two minutes. “Here, get comfy.” He sat at the bar and gestured for them to do the same, waiting to see if he got that third laugh.

Pfffffffftphhhh.

He did.

“Whoops. Watch where you sit down. Sometimes weirdos put whoopee cushions on the seats.” 

Grillby didn’t have eyes to roll, but Sans knew he was rolling them.

Sans nudged the kid with his elbow. He was gentle about it, but they still flinched. Ah, whoops. “Anyway, let’s order. Whaddya want…?”

The kid’s eyes widened and those little prayer hands of theirs squeezed tightly. “Uh… what do they have?”

“Plenty o’ stuff. You into fries? Burgers?”

The kid pursed their lips and stared at him for a moment. Just when it was getting a little uncomfortable, they spoke up. “F… frrrriiiies?” They said it slowly, with a tone like they were waiting for him to correct them.

Sans chuckled and shot off the line he had ready no matter what they said. “Hey, that sounds pretty good. Grillby, we’ll have a double order of fries.” He whipped out the comb from his pocket as Grillby disappeared into the kitchen. He started combing his skull and turned to the kid, who let out a sigh of relief followed by a laugh. “So, what do you think… of my brother?”

Their eyes went wide like he had asked them something surprising and they glanced at their lap. “He’s the coolest, but um—”

“But?” He answered a bit too fast and defensively, a little too far off script.

The kid shrank into themselves. “Nonono nothing about him, I just— … Burger or fries, it didn’t really matter, huh? Not even the way I say them…”

Sans felt a bit of sweat form on his brow from the effort it was taking him to try and figure out what they were getting at. “Kid, what?”

“Like—” Their hands slipped apart and they ran their right through their hair. The left sat in their lap. “I shouldn’t have— Um— It was dumb and irresponsible, I just really wanted to see if we could talk about you since… I didn’t really feel like we got any closer after this.”

Sans laughed. Ideally, they’d never talk about him. Up until now, the kid had been just going along with wherever he or Paps took the conversation; this felt a little out of left field. Then again… It sounded a little like this was at least their second time having this interaction. Maybe he could get it back on the rails. “What does your order have to do with our conversation? Besides, you don’t wanna talk about me. Paps is way cooler. You seen that outfit? He calls it his battle body, he—”

“Sorry.”

“Kid?”

“Next time, I’ll just do it normally so that you don’t get uncomfortable—”

“Kid. I’m not uncomfortable, it’s fine.” Geez, were they about to jump back again over this? Only two spikes had formed during their entire time in Snowdin and they were gonna waste two more on an interaction with Sans? Why.

“But you’re just saying that, right??” The kid’s voice cracked like this was a lot more serious than it was. “If you’re just saying things, how am I supposed to know what I’m supposed to say for us to be friends?”

A few patrons were glancing their way, but they were all thankfully staying out of it. Grillby was definitely ready with the fries by now, but he hadn’t left the kitchen. Giving them space. Sans… took a deep breath. “Wanna go for a walk, kid?”

They looked at him cautiously.

“Can’t hurt, right?” Literally couldn’t. They could erase it. If they wanted.

The kid bit their lip and slipped down from the bar stool. “We can go for a walk…”

“Sweet.” Sans got up. “Cold fries’ll be waiting for us when we get back. Luckily, I know a fella who can warm em up.” He winked at the kitchen door and left Grillby’s with the kid. They took a shortcut on the way out and ended up somewhere in Waterfall. It was a bit off the beaten path; the kid probably wouldn’t end up here naturally on their way back to the surface, but Sans didn’t mind showing it to them anyways. It seemed like he’d need to dig a bit deeper than he had been to get them to stop taking this interaction in a loop. 

They stood on a thin walkway of stone running alongside a river. A little ways down, the rock formed a natural bridge in a steep arc over the water, and glowing moss hung over the edge, forming a little curtain below the bridge. A nice place for a walk.

“It’s pretty,” the kid mumbled. They kept glancing at Sans rather than the scenery.

Sans shrugged. “You didn’t seem satisfied with our trip to Grillby’s, thought maybe you’re into more natural wonders.”

The kid flew into a panic and started waving their hands in front of them. “It’s not that I don’t like Grillby’s! Grillby’s is great and I was happy to go with you, I just—”
“Kid. Calm down.” Sans kicked off his slippers and sat at the edge of the stone, dipping his feet into the water. He took a deep breath. “The water’s good. Real relaxin’. Try it.”

The kid nodded slowly and bent down to remove their sneakers. Sans noticed for the first time how grimy and torn up they were. The socks underneath were in somewhat better shape, he noted as they took those off and tucked them into the shoes. They rolled up the black leggings they wore under their shorts and sat next to Sans at the water’s edge. “‘S nice… It’s um…” They closed their eyes tightly for a second before snapping them back open. “Is my freakout at Grillby’s… w… water under the bridge?” They shrugged and smiled shyly and Sans felt a bit of pride.

Sans felt his grin widen. “Yeah, I’m one to forgive and forget.” Emphasis on forget. “You can almost always bank on it, eh?”

The kid might have picked up on his emphasis on forget, because their smile faded. “You’re really careful around me.”

Sans closed his eyes so the kid wouldn’t notice his sockets darken to anxious lightless pits. “Being careful sounds like a lot of effort.”

“It is. ” They squeaked. “So I— I feel really bad that you feel like you hafta do it!”

Sans laughed a little and opened one eye to glance at them when he was confident the light had returned to it. “Y’know what really sounds like a lot of effort? Caring so much what a lazy old bag of bones like me thinks of ya.”

The kid puffed out their cheeks at him (reminding him once again that they really were a kid, weren’t they) and huffed. “Sans.”
“Kiddo?”

“Frisk.”

Sans blinked both eyes open and tilted his head somewhat. “Whassat?”

“Frisk. My name is Frisk. And um— Um! I’m ten years old. I’m not a very good drawer, but I like coloring and also doing puzzles. I like apples and apple cider and apple pie— and all kinds of pie! I like dogs and spiders, and I’m not scared of heights but… but the dark freaks me out. I’m right-handed and I really like puns but I’m bad at thinking of them myself. I think farts are funny.” They closed their eyes and grabbed their left hand. “Sometimes. And sometimes I’m sensitive to loud noises and sometimes I like chocolate. And…” They opened their eyes and went back to staring Sans steadily in the face. “And as of recently, I’ve decided that I’m going to live. Even if everyone down here thinks I shouldn’t… I’m going to live. So I’ll do my best to make everyone think I should. And most importantly for this conversation… I’m friends with The Great Papyrus and I wanna be friends with Sans the Skeleton!” 

Sans faltered. The observational distance between them and the dance that they were both apparently doing to say the right thing this whole time seemed to wind down a bit. After all… It was hard for even Sans to say no to a kid that eager. This interaction might not even stick. But still, just like when he saw that little shape positioned just a little too far away in the snow… He felt a spark of hope. “Yeah, alright kid, I get it. We can be friends.”

And the kid grinned and latched onto him and Sans did his best to relax his shoulders. And he did his best to hold onto the hope that this moment would be part of a timeline that stuck around.

Chapter Text

Everything went quiet except for Frisk’s frenzied panting and pounding heart. For that brief moment, there were no more footsteps, nor any magic buzzing as spears exploded from the wood beneath them. Undyne wasn’t upon them quite yet. There was just Frisk, their exhausted and panicked body, Chara within, and the dead end ahead of them.

Neither of them said anything, Frisk because it took everything in them just to continue breathing and Chara because they were enraged that Undyne wasn’t engaging them in a fight like a normal monster, wasn’t even giving Frisk a chance to figure out how to make her stop. The anger left them with little more energy than Frisk. They stared over the edge of the path, trying to visualize throwing their anger into the void below. Frisk just kept breathing.

Both of their states of mind spiked when slow and heavy footsteps sounded on the wood behind them. Frisk’s fear and Chara’s rage.

The footsteps stopped. 

Frisk’s breaths and heartbeat. Undyne didn’t move, didn’t speak. She had already almost killed Frisk from afar with those spears of hers, and she still didn’t have the decency to even say a single word. Not even an introduction to the shaking human child before her. Not even an introduction to Frisk . 

Chara’s rage surged back up from the pit. Let’s turn around and spit at her.

Frisk shook their head and the movements shook tears free from their eyes. “She’s Papyrus’s friend— She’s Kid’s hero. I don’t want to be mean.”

Chara barked a laugh from inside of Frisk’s head. Pretty sure she’s going to keep trying to kill you even if you’re nice.

A stomp of a metal boot. Not even a step forward, but a challenge. An invitation to turn around. How kind of her to wait. Bit too late for first impressions.

Let me turn around, Chara insisted.

Frisk buried their head in their hands. “I’m scared.”

I’m not.

Somehow, that declaration won Frisk over and their control loosened. Chara gripped on tight. They dropped their hands to their sides and whirled around to glare defiantly at Undyne. They couldn’t make out her expression, but they imagined something smug and annoying. The expression of someone who would rather shoot at them from a distance, beneath a helmet and too afraid to look them in the eye. Chara took a single step forward, but in a flash of blue light, that magic buzz sounded again and three spears severed the unfinished bridge to nowhere.

Chara and Frisk were falling.

It wasn’t unfamiliar to either of them.

***

Flowers filled their senses. They could feel them on their face, under their hands, against their legs. They could taste the bitter petals in their mouth. And the smell. A floral scent that would be gentle in a smaller amount but that was somehow overwhelming. Their eyes fluttered open and all they could see was blurred yellow and green. Their vision spun and they closed their eyes again, hoping that maybe they’d never be able to open them again, like they planned. Concussed but not dead. Not yet. Just a little longer.

“It sounds like it came from over here…”

Even at the sound of footsteps, even as a voice grew closer, they kept their eyes shut. They squeezed them tighter.

“Oh!” The footsteps sped up and there was a gentle thud and the sensation of rustling flowers as someone fell to their knees next to them. “You’ve fallen down, haven’t you…?”

They remained silent. They prayed— No. They didn’t pray. They willed for this stranger to leave them alone, to leave them here to wither away and become fertilizer for the flowers.

Persistent, the stranger prodded again. “Are you okay?”

They grunted quietly. Okay? No. Alive? Unfortunately.

“Here, get up…” Truly unable to take a hint. Chara wished this person would die, too. They wished everyone would die. They inflicted the scars that they couldn’t inflict on the world on themselves, and those scars mingled with the ones given to them. They couldn’t end everyone, so they tried to end themselves, and still they couldn’t. They flinched when they felt a hand on their back. It was quickly retracted.

The stranger made a startled noise almost like a bleat. 

Resigned to their inability to escape, accepting that their only option was to keep going, they opened their eyes. Their vision was still blurred, but the shape kneeling over them was a white and vaguely animal-like blob dressed in green. Chara reached up and weakly brushed the stranger’s face with their fingers. Fur. A snout. Not human.

Maybe there was a god. “‘M Chara…” They whispered to this stranger, this stranger who was so unlike them in the best possible way.

“Chara, huh?” The stranger put hands— furry hands, paws— over Chara’s, continuing to hold their fingers to that wonderful inhuman snout. “That’s a nice name. My name is…”

***

When Chara came to, they felt and smelled flowers. They were laying on their back and staring up at a darkness that stretched far above them. Their mouth moved on its own, and they realized that it wasn’t their mouth, but Frisk’s.

“Chara…? Am I… me?”

Chara felt around with the left hand, reaching over to the other side of Frisk’s torso to hold their hand. Who else would you be?

“I think… that after we fell… for a little bit, I was you.” Frisk squeezed gently.

Chara’s grip went limp as they turned the memory around in their head. You saw that?

Frisk only nodded. Their head felt more or less okay. Not concussed. Chara helped them push up to a sitting position.

I didn’t remember that at first, but now it feels like I’ve always remembered it. I… felt it, sort of. I knew our stories were at least a little similar. 

Frisk was crying and Chara couldn’t even figure out why.

What’s wrong? Nothing hurts that bad. 

“Chara, you— I’m sorry.” Right. Real emotional little sap.

Chara sighed. Not a big deal. It was a little bit of a big deal. Or it should be. Chara had a piece of themselves back. They still had no idea what they had looked like, but somehow they could remember every scar they ever had. They knew why they had been so distrustful of Frisk at first, so much so that they hadn’t spoken to them for the first two days they were in their head. They remembered even more clearly now: they hated humans. They hated humans and the scars they had given them and the bruises and the rage. Chara was born broken, they remembered that much, but they also remembered how the people of the surface had dug their nails into every crack and pried them apart until they knew they had no choice but to die.

They remembered climbing the mountain. Tripping right before they were ready to jump. But feeling relieved, anyways. And then the way that relief melted into the flower bed when they woke up. Their memories ended there, but at the broken ends of them where something was missing, they felt warm.

“Not a big deal? Chara, I—” Frisk huffed. “Chara, I wish we had met when you were alive. So that… The both of us could…”

Chara couldn’t let Frisk continue that thought. Their clearest memories were of wanting to die. The hope was missing. They were scared to remember it. Nope. Dead.

Frisk bit their lip. “But… in a way, you’re not. Because… it’s the two of us, right?” They put their fingers on their left wrist to feel their pulse. “It’s both of us.”

It wasn’t. Not really. Chara was more of a parasite, but— they appreciated the thought. Frisk radiated so much hope, so similar to the things Chara was scared to remember. They were scared to remember, but if those memories held anything like Frisk… At the end of that memory… did you hear the name?

Frisk shook their head. “Mm mm.”

Figured. Guess for now I’ll have to stick with my other ‘That’s a nice name’ memory.

Frisk blinked away their last couple of tears. “Huh? Do you mean—”

Yep. When I met— someone important. I guess. Someone I obviously remember because— You can’t forget someone whose pulse you currently share. Chara got too bashful to be more direct, peppering in ‘I guess’ and ‘someone’s.

“Chara, I love you a lot.” Frisk was ready to start their crying up all over again, and Chara was about ready to explode and leave little bits of Frisk all over these flowers.

Yeah, yeah, I— They groaned loudly. Iloveyoutoo. Get up. Get up get up get up get up.

Frisk perked right up and stood. They bounded forward, giggling—

*You stepped in trash water.

“Oops— Uh, actually. I think this whole place is trash water.”

Fucking great.

“It’s not that bad!” Frisk’s mood wasn’t actually dampened— fuck, damp.

*Your mood isn’t dampened.

Chara left them with that and retreated into Frisk’s mind to the sound of their giggles. They weren’t participating in trash water.

Chapter Text

Frisk had died eight times to Undyne, each attempt being some combination of Frisk and Chara’s efforts. Frisk had pleaded for mercy, tried appealing to Undyne’s clearly competitive spirit, spared her over and over again, but each time, they ended up impaled, more blood than they had ever seen at once splattered all over before their soul shattered and they pulled themselves back. On attempt four, Frisk decided that running when their soul went back to red was probably the only way for them to make it out alive, but that armor hardly wore Fish Face down at all and Frisk was just a scared kid. Even when Chara took legs on attempt six, their rage at all of Frisk’s blood on Undyne’s gauntlets combined with Frisk’s feeble body ended in them dying once again. Attempt seven saw them tripping on a stupid rock and dying on Undyne’s first attack of the following battle. Eight was when they nearly made it to Hotland. Chara had the spear patterns almost completely memorized, and Frisk was desensitized enough to shake a lot less when they ran. No way a fish out of water in heavy metal armor would survive that heat. If they had made it just a few strides more— But Frisk cried after Papyrus hung up the phone and Chara was too preoccupied with trying to calm them down to focus on Undyne’s attacks.

Attempt nine would be special, though. Chara insisted that Frisk let them handle it on their own; nine was the limit, the tipping point. It was the most of anything you could express with a single digit. Some people thought of big numbers having lots of zeroes, but Chara always thought that was stupid. Why write out a bunch of useless placeholders when you could fill those places with the nearly overflowing potential of nine? 

Nine tries.

This fish wouldn’t shatter Frisk again. Because Frisk had suffered eight deaths to her hands and not a single hello. The well of hate inside of Chara ran deep, but the only hands they had for holding a bucket were Frisk’s, and Chara wouldn’t push them to bear that overflowing violence. Instead, Chara would ask them to dredge up the strength and hope or whatever from their own well for a smug victory, where they did things Frisk’s way and Undyne still failed. 

“Seven. Seven human souls, and King Asgore— Or Fluffybuns as the turtle called him— will become a god. Six. You’ve got six. Through this final soul, this world will be transformed, yada yada— Here’s the thing, though. I don’t care if you take the soul of some shitty adult, or hell… Any other human, really. Monsters deserve to be free. I’ve heard the tragic tale of your people, and humans fucking suck. But this soul’s off limits.” Chara brandished the stick. They swung it through the air and it made a satisfying swish . “Lucky number nine. Best part? I’m not gonna hurt you. Not even a little. So not only will you fail to take this soul… You won’t even drag me down to your level.”

“ I wouldn’t say we have the moral high ground… She’s trying to save everyone—”

But you won’t die. Not even for the sake of others. You’re going to live.

“Yeah… yeah, we are.” Frisk said it like Chara wasn’t already dead and could live. The right hand of Frisk’s body tightened its grip on the stick. 

Undyne was the most worked up Chara had ever seen her. Good. They unsettled her totally and completely with their little time-traveller bit.  “Wh— WH— HOW— NGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH SCREW IT! YOU WON’T INTIMIDATE ME WITH YOUR WEIRD HUMAN MIND-READING POWERS. NOT WHEN YOU’RE STANDING IN THE WAY OF EVERYONE’S HOPES AND DREAMS! YOU’RE NOTHING LIKE THE HUMANS FROM ALYPHYS’S HISTORY BOOKS, YOU CO—” 

Chara chucked a pebble up towards Undyne. It sailed past her, but that was fine. Chara didn’t want to hit her, just to stop her from slandering Frisk. If she got to the line about the most helpful thing Frisk could do being dying a ninth time… Chara might not be able to stop themselves. The first time, Frisk had cried and shook and tried to break their own skin with their teeth after coming back when Undyne killed them. Chara had just pathetically hummed the song from the music box in Waterfall. “Come down here and fight me. I’m ready. Right now.”

“ Chara!”

I missed on purpose.

Frisk didn’t pipe up again, but they did dig their nails into the left wrist. Message received, no throwing things even if there was no way they’d hurt anyone by doing it. Whatever. It did its job. “If you insist.” Undyne threw aside her helmet. She took a deep breath. “Do you hear that? You wouldn’t, but… Right now, everyone’s hearts are pounding as one. Everyone’s been waiting their whole lives for this moment… But we’re not nervous at all. When everyone puts their hearts together, they can’t lose!” She drew a spear and leapt from her jagged tower of rock, landing right before Chara and Frisk with the crash of metal boots against stone. “En garde!” She swung her spear and it went right through them; the soul pulsed green. She bent a spear in half and tossed it lightly forward. Chara caught it.

“Green. Can’t run.” They huffed. 

Undyne scoffed and dug her boots into the dirt. “So you get it. Good. You’d better face my attacks head on if you wanna survive even a minute longer!” She never started without telling them the rules, even if she was a bit more aggressive this time from all of Chara’s taunting. Bit of a weird courtesy to receive from someone who summoned spears out of the ground at them earlier without so much as a single word. Undyne began conjuring spears to fire at them, slowly at first.

Frisk stayed true to their promise to let Chara handle number nine, but Chara felt them grasping tightly at control of the right hand, as if they were holding onto Chara themselves. It was comforting. They deflected every spear and stuck their tongue out.

Undyne let out a hiss and the next wave came faster. “For years, we’ve dreamed of a happy ending…!”

Chara grinned and deflected them all again. “And now, the sunlight is closer than ever. I want that for you, believe me. Maybe not specifically you, but monsterkind. But you can’t have this soul!” If Undyne wanted to believe she was fighting a villain so that she didn’t have to face the reality that she was attacking probably the only good human there ever was, then Chara would lean into it just a little. They had more than enough bitterness towards her to pull it off.

Undyne returned Chara’s grin with a glint in her one eye. “That’s not for you to decide. I won’t let you snatch the sun away from us! NGAAAGH enough warming up! I’m sick and tired of your cocky attitude! Just die already!” Undyne fired off several spears before swinging one and switching the soul back to red. She leapt over Frisk’s head to get a jab in from behind, but Chara was ready. 

They sidestepped without looking and sprinted off towards Hotland. They scooped up a fistful of dirt and flung it behind them. They knew it hit their mark when they heard Undyne hiss with rage before the sound of boots stomping after them picked up.

“Chara, I’m upset, too, but you don’t have to be so outwardly mean to her…”

Busy, Frisk.

“I don’t want to hate her! She’s trying to save everyone she cares about!”

Eight.

“Yeah, I— I know. I remember.”

It’s fine to be mad about getting murdered eight times.

“Last time I let myself be mad about getting hurt, I killed Toriel!”

Yeah, after two weeks of shoving it down and pretending you weren’t pissed. Get pissed now before it builds up into something murderous. Last time I let my rage build up, I fucking tried to off myself.

Frisk went quiet at that one.

Undyne was on their heels, but thankfully, Papyrus called. Chara didn’t stop running to pick it up, even as Undyne showed another odd bit of courtesy for a child murderer and stopped to wait patiently for them to be done on the phone. “Hey Paps.” Chara did their best to talk to him like Frisk would, especially now that he had grown on them so much. Frisk had called him a few times around Waterfall, and Chara went from thinking he was annoying but not so bad to annoying but pretty great. “I’m a bit busy right now, but you, me and Undyne should hang out sometime. Bye!” They hung up.

“You— YOU DIDN’T EVEN LET HIM TALK? AND LIKE HELL I’D HANG OUT WITH YOU!” Undyne gave chase again, with seemingly a bit more fervor than before.

“Not like you let me talk the first time we met before you started flinging spears!”
“NGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!”

“Thanks for telling him that we could all hang out…”

Knew it was important to you or whatever.

They passed into Hotland and ran past a familiar sentry station. Chara stopped for a split second, considering asking for a hand, but— He was asleep??? “Oh, real comedian, huh?” Fuck you. Chara kept running, but they heard Undyne stop behind them for a moment.

“SANS. ON THE JOB?? AGAIN???” Her footsteps picked back up.

They sprinted across a bridge over a pool of lava. In their head, Frisk very helpfully squeaked “lava?!” as they glanced down. This body was about ready to give out and Chara basically collapsed on the other side. Fuck. Nine… please… They tried to force themselves to stand, but Frisk’s little legs buckled and they were on their knees again. Their eyes welled up in angry tears as they looked up at Undyne approaching. Her steps were slow.

“Armor… so… hot… but I can’t… give up…” Cook. Cook in that armor like an egg on a hot sidewalk. Lava. Fish. Please. Their thoughts were incoherent, but the universe obeyed nonetheless.

Undyne collapsed forward, panting wildly. 

Chara laughed. Just a little. They were so out of breath that it barely sounded like a laugh, but they did it. She deserved it. Eight. Not nine. That number wasn’t for her. It was for Chara. And Frisk.

Frisk, whose control flooded their own body like a rush of cool air. Chara slipped back through the mirror; it was Frisk’s turn again. Chara had done for them what they wanted to. Frisk could get the body to move in ways that Chara couldn’t, even as it shook and ached. They stumbled over to a nearby water cooler.

“She’s a fish, right…?” They shakily filled up a little cup.

You’re going to give her water??? I thought you were pissed!

“Not pi… angry enough to let her die or anything… You’re right. I won’t let it get to that point anymore. I’ll… be honest about it.” Frisk wobbled over to Undyne despite Chara’s shrieking internal protests and looked down at her. “That’s the hardest any monster has tried to kill me. Even though I haven’t hurt anyone. Kid says you’re a hero… And I know you’re trying to be, that you want to save everyone but…” Frisk coughed. “That’s… not nice. I’m just… a kid, too, you know. I… I deserve to be saved, too…! I decided. So… I’m mad at you…  But… It’s really hot, huh? I don’t want you to get hurt.” They poured the water over her head. 

Undyne shuddered as the cool water flowed down her face and into her mouth. She managed to stand and regarded Frisk for a long silent moment. Her face wasn’t twisted in a determined grin or even an enraged scowl. Chara couldn’t quite read her expression, actually. They braced, ready to take control again if she attacked, but— She walked away without a word.

I still can’t fucking stand her.

“You couldn’t stand Papyrus or Sans, at first, either.”

I still can’t stand Sans. But they had no rebuttal about Papyrus, and Frisk somehow took that as a victory.

Chapter Text

Frisk decided, against Chara’s better judgment and much to their chagrin that they couldn’t convince Frisk otherwise, that it was better to hang out with Undyne and Paps sooner rather than later. Instead of continuing into Hotland, they went back across the bridge, past the now-empty sentry station (asshole), and back into Waterfall.

At the very least, Chara was able to convince Frisk to— if they were doing pointless walking around, anyways— head all the way back to Snowdin so they could get some sleep. Dying eight times and running until you’re exhausted, all after trekking through Waterfall (including the trash water) really takes it out of you, after all. They found a weird little bird that carried them over the gap between them and the route back to Snowdin, and walked back to the inn.

Frisk only slept for a few minutes at a time before snapping their eyes open and feeling around on their body for spear wounds. Chara took over and let Frisk retreat far enough back into their mind that they couldn’t wake up the body unless they came to the front. Once Chara fell asleep, Frisk probably did, too, because when Chara woke up, they couldn’t hear Frisk.

They could have just waited, but waiting made them antsy. They knew it was Frisk’s body, but they could do something, right? Maybe something Frisk would do. Not eating dog food. But something else Frisk would do. They got out of the huge bed and trudged into the lobby to thank the innkeeper. They did their best to speak softly, like Frisk would, with a big ol’ people-pleasing smile on their face. Chara forgot that they weren’t very good at smiling on purpose and that it tended to look kind of off when they did— even with Frisk’s face, apparently— and they definitely made the innkeeper a little uncomfortable. She was nice about it, though, and Chara could only tell because they had spent their entire life making people uncomfortable and picking up on it. The kid behind the counter perked up and mumbled something about a ‘creepy face’ and received a strong nudge from their mother. Chara tried to adjust their smile as they waved goodbye and exited the inn.

Their next stop was the skeleton house. If Paps was going to be a part of the hangout, anyways, maybe they could go there together. It might put Frisk in a good mood to wake up with him around. There wasn’t even a guarantee he was home, since he was such a busybody, but Chara knocked anyways.

They didn’t even get a second knock in before the door flew open and they were swept up in long bony arms. They yelped as their face was squished against Papyrus’s battle body and they felt Frisk stir in the back of their head.

“HUMAN--- Ahem. Human! It is good to see you alive and very much not murdered by Undyne! This bodes well for our future group friendship!”

Hah. Chara did actually laugh at that.

Papyrus chuckled. He clearly didn’t get what Chara was laughing about, but that was alright. “Yes! Friendship puts me in a jolly mood, as well! Now what brings you to my humble abode, Human?”

Chara glanced sideways, wondering when Papyrus would put them down and when they would stop feeling like they sort of didn’t want him to. That had to be Frisk. They could feel them at the edge of their consciousness, not saying anything, just watching to see what Chara was up to. “That uh… group friendship or whatever. Wanna go… hang out with…” Fish face. Frisk wouldn’t say that. “Undyne?”

Papyrus squealed loudly with delight, and Chara winced. He lowered his volume once he actually started talking. “But of course!!! I have a cooking lesson today, so…” Papyrus trailed off for a second and then started laughing slowly. “Nyeh heh heh… Yes. We should all hang out. You two will surely become the best of friends. The Great Papyrus guarantees it!” He set Chara down and began stroking his chin with his mitt.

Chara couldn’t stop their eye from twitching. What dumb ass thing was he thinking? “Alright, well… Let’s go.”

Free to take over annnny time, Frisk.

“Aw, but you look like you’re having fun…”

“Yes! Let us away!! But first, Human.” Papyrus knelt down. “Might I say your eyes are a lovely shade of red today? They match my scarf!”

Chara had never disappeared into the mind so quickly. Frisk flooded into the body and wobbled a little at the suddenness of it all.

Papyrus narrowed his sockets and stroked his chin again. “Hm? Or maybe they’re a lovely shade of amber… Wowee! Human eyes change color?”

Frisk giggled softly. “Uh, mine do. Sometimes.”

“It must be so hard to accessorize when your eyes change color! I think the tutu is a good choice for you, but have you ever considered a scarf?”

Frisk pulled at the edges of the tutu. It was less of a choice and more of a thing they had picked up. Chara supposed they did choose to wear it, but mostly because Papyrus told Undyne they were wearing the dumb bandanna. Frisk held their left hand and Chara squeezed back. “I haven’t thought of that, Paps. Maybe if I find one.”

Papyrus made that stupid (and a little charming) ‘obviously scheming’ expression again. “Yeeees. If you find one.” He suddenly stood back up. “Alright, Human! To Waterfall!” He extended his hand to Frisk, but Frisk kept squeezing their own left hand. Like a little kid, too scared to let go. They were a little kid, Chara guessed. Only ten.

Well, Chara had been ten when they fell. They remembered the ten years they lived up to that point, but--- they somehow knew they weren’t ten. They were… They were twelve. Two years. They were missing two years. Suddenly, they were squeezing back just as hard. Was twelve a little kid, too?

“Oh, right! You prefer to hold your own hands! Worry not, Human! For I have observed this behavior and devised a solution!” He scooped them up again and Frisk didn’t even yelp. Their eyes just widened and they went rigid. Slowly, they relaxed and leaned into Paps’s chest. “I am more than strong enough to carry you all the way to Undyne’s! You’re light as a small human child, after all! I meant to ask earlier, but! Is this alright?”

Frisk mumbled a ‘this is okay’ and Papyrus began basically sprinting to Waterfall, very kindly stopping when Frisk asked him to so that they could save.

Undyne’s house did turn out to be the one shaped like a pissed off fish by Nabstablook’s place. Chara wondered how many monsters lived in houses shaped like what they were, if any others.

Looks just like her. Could you imagine if Papyrus lived in a Cocc-ttage?

Frisk furrowed their brow as Papyrus set them down by the door. “Whassat?”

It— It was a— oh, forget it. Chara seethed in embarrassment as Frisk tried their best to get the joke. When they didn’t stop trying, even as Papyrus asked if they were ready to hang out, Chara relented. Coccyx is a bone name. I combined it with cottage. It was funny, but it’s not anymore. Since I had to explain it.

Frisk’s eyes widened as they got Chara’s stupid pun and they burst into giggles like it was still funny, after all. (Chara was a little relieved.) Frisk gave Papyrus a shaky thumbs up as they struggled to catch their breath and collect themselves.

Papyrus perked up. “You sure must be excited to hang out with Undyne if you’re laughing so much! Good! I have a plan to make you great friends! Okay! Stand behind me!”

Frisk shuffled so that they were standing behind Papyrus and clasped their hands together. “Um… Actually, can you wait a bit before opening the door?” Weird request to make when you already said you were ready, but Papyrus went with it. He agreed and began adjusting his battle body like a businessperson adjusting their suit and tie. The reasoning for Frisk’s little delay presented itself when Frisk thought their name in the same tone they had used that time they were building the snowman. The kicked puppy tone.

“Chara?”

Frisk.

“You will try to get along with Undyne, won’t you?”

I’ll stay quiet in here, if that’s what you mean.

“You don’t wanna help?”

No, I don’t wanna help. This is your thing that you insisted on.

“You’re the one that told Papyrus yes over the phone.”

Frisk.

“Please?”

Uggghhhhh.

“Together?”

Fine. Together. But don’t get mad at me if I don’t end up all buddy buddy forgiveness with the lunatic that tried— and succeeded, may I remind you— to kill us. Chara slipped into control slightly behind Frisk.

‘Together’ was all Frisk needed to hear. They poked Papyrus in the leg and cleared their throat. “I’m ready.” It occurred to Chara that Frisk never said anything, themselves, about forgiveness.

Papyrus turned around. “Excellent! Oh, and make sure to give her this.” Papyrus passed a gift-wrapped bone behind his back and the inside of Frisk’s head echoed with Chara’s laughter. “She loves these!”

Frisk managed not to be outwardly swayed by the chorus of laughter in their head as they gingerly took the bone, mouth pulled in a straight line, and held it to their chest. “Got it.”

Papyrus knocked on the closed maw of a door and within seconds, the teeth parted to reveal Undyne. (It wasn’t hard to see her from behind Papyrus, Frisk being so short and all.) She stood, unarmored, in the doorway. She instead wore a black tank top, a pair of jeans, and a wildly colorful pair of boots for the angry fish face in gray armor from yesterday. Unfortunately, she looked a little cool.

“Hi, Papyrus!” She grinned. It wasn’t a grin of challenge or a grimace of effort, but like… The smile of someone happy to see her friend. Her friend who, by the way, was friends with the human child she almost killed, but whatever. “Ready for your extra-private, one-on-one training?”

Chara felt Frisk’s mouth twitch. That was definitely their bad. Frisk was terrified by the implications of what Undyne just said, their right hand was shaking. Chara, however, couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when they stepped out from behind this skeleton.

Papyrus clapped his mitts together, completely undeterred. “You bet I am! And I brought a friend!”

Chara bit down on Frisk’s tongue to stop themselves from bursting into laughter. Fuck, Papyrus was the best.

“Ow!”

Sorry.

Undyne must have been used to how Papyrus was the best, because her smile didn’t drop for a second as Papyrus dropped the bombshell that this private training was decidedly not private, and it even stayed up as he stepped aside to reveal the ‘friend’ he brought along. “Hi, I don’t think we’ve…” Oh, but they had. “…” And her smile shifted to something forced, something more befitting of the crazy spear lady, as she stood there in stunned silence.

Papyrus just smiled expectantly at Undyne, who took a heaving breath before forcing herself to say something.

“Why don’t. You two. Come in?” She stepped backwards into her house and pried her arm from her side to gesture inside.

“Thank you.” Frisk nodded curtly, feeding off of the tension Undyne was pumping into the air, their eyes darting around as they tried to calculate what exactly would make them most likable in this situation.

Papyrus, maybe a bit more nervous than he was letting on, shuffled rapidly on the doormat in several directions before actually stepping into the doorway. Frisk, probably going off of the fact that Undyne liked Papyrus already, mimicked him and it looked stupid as hell. Undyne’s one good eye twitched as she watched.

This is going well.

“Chara…”

Frisk cleared their throat and dipped their head. “You have a lovely home and um--- Thank you for your hospitality.” They held out the wrapped bone and Chara’s grip with the left hand was the only thing keeping them from dropping it right from their shaking fingers.

Papyrus placed his hand on Frisk’s head. He must have learned his lesson from picking them up so suddenly earlier, because he did it slowly, giving Frisk plenty of time to move away. Chara wanted to, but since Frisk didn’t move, they stood still, as well. “Here, Undyne. My friend brought a gift for you, on their own!”

Undyne was probably expecting the bone, but definitely not from Frisk. “Uhhh… thanks.” She grimaced and walked over. She reached out one cautious (like SHE was the one here who was scared and not Frisk) clawed hand and plucked the bone from Frisk’s weak grasp. She returned to her original position and adjusted her hold on the bone. “I’ll, uh, put it with the others.” She gave Papyrus an awkward smile, turned around, and opened a drawer next to the oven bursting with identical wrapped bones. She placed the one she was holding inside and closed it.

Frisk. Oh my god, did you see that?! No matter how much laughing Chara did in Frisk’s head about Papyrus’s antics, Frisk remained quiet and shaking. Damn fish face.

Undyne turned back around like she was allowed to look in Frisk’s general direction, and clapped her hands. “So are we ready to start?”

Frisk flinched at the clap, but it was so subtle that Chara was probably the only one to notice.

“Whoopsy doopsy! I just remembered!”

Chara snapped Frisk’s head towards Papyrus, silently begging for him to do something else goofy and charming to alleviate this tension---

“I have to go to the bathroom!! You two have fun!” He ran for the window and leapt through, breaking the glass and spiraling out into the darkness of Waterfall.

Chara couldn’t tell which one of them was dropping their jaw.

Undyne looked at her broken window and then at Frisk for a long, silent, agonizing moment before speaking. “So why are YOU here?”

Frisk jumped and turned to Undyne, grasping anxiously at their left hand. They opened their mouth, probably to spew some placating bullshit about friendship, but---

“To rub your victory in my face? To humiliate me even further? IS THAT IT?”

Don’t let her speak for you!! Get mad!

Frisk hesitated. “But what if that ruins our chance of befriending her?”

Oh, come on. Listen to her. We have to be a little forceful or she’ll mow right over you. Can’t befriend shit if you’re a pancake.

“I guess...”

Frisk frowned. They furrowed their brow and cleared their throat. “N…. No! Of course not!” It was distinctly… pancake-like, but it was an effort.

Undyne scoffed. “Then why are you here?” A beat passed and her eyes widened with some undoubtedly stupid epiphany. “Wait, I get it. You think that I’m gonna be friends with you, huh?” Oh. Actually, she was pretty on the mark. “Right???”

Frisk’s face lit up. “Yes!”

Chara wasn’t quite as excited. This fish smelled of sarcasm. And fish, probably. Chara wasn’t close enough to tell.

“Really? How delightful!! I accept! Let’s all frolic in the fields of friendship!”

Frisk blinked, still smiling, though it was a bit strained now.

I don’t buy it.

“It is a little weird… Should I have said no and tried to get it to happen more organically? I don’t have a handle on her sense of humor yet…”

“NOT!” That seemed about right. “Why would I EVER be friends with YOU?! If you weren’t my houseguest, I’d beat you up right now!”

Chara surged into full control and Frisk let them. They clenched their fists at their sides. “Yeah?”

“At least she’s a good host…?”

You’re kidding.

“YEAH! You’re the enemy of everyone’s hopes and dreams! I WILL NEVER BE YOUR FRIEND.”

Chara felt Frisk shrink back further into their head, probably swimming in guilt about wanting to live even if that meant everyone was trapped here. Chara snarled and it sounded unnatural coming from Frisk’s mouth. “Yeah? Well if everyone’s hopes and dreams are for some ten year-old to die, then maybe they need an enemy!”

Undyne’s face scrunched up. Rage?

“She… looks a little conflicted.” That was too hopeful a read.

Undyne scoffed. “They’re desperate for a hero. A champion. If you’re so eager to play the role of their enemy, then go on ahead, but I refuse to step down when they need me! Now get out of my house!”

“Should we go back and try again?”

Before Chara got a chance to answer, hurried stomping footsteps approached the broken window off to their left.

“Dang! What a shame… I thought Undyne could be friends with you. But I guess… I overestimated her. She’s just not up to the challenge.” He lowered his head and scurried backwards into the darkness.

Chara covered their mouth as not to reveal they were grinning. They didn’t realize Papyrus had a manipulative bone in his body. They guessed that being all bones meant the chances were that at least one of them was manipulative. Chara felt part of themselves give way. Part of themselves where only Frisk was welcome. Papyrus… sort of had a foot in the door.

Frisk rushed back into half control. Their chest swelled. Hope. Papyrus was so good at giving them that.

Undyne was smiling, too, but it clearly wasn’t out of any delight or joy. “CHALLENGE?! What?!” She whirled towards the window and reached after Papyrus. “Papyrus! Wait a second…!” She turned on her heel to face Frisk and let her hands fall to her sides. She clenched her fists and scowled. “Darnit! He thinks I can’t be friends with YOU?!”

Chara grinned. “He’s right, isn’t he? Miss Champion of Everyone’s Hopes and Dreams? Not his, I guess.”

“Chara!”

What? We’re making progress.

Undyne’s eyes widened and she started cackling madly. “You think that’s funny? I’ll tell you what’s funny: the idea that I can’t make friends with a wimpy loser like you! Listen. Scratch the whole enemies thing.”

Frisk perked up at that. Chara most certainly would not scratch the whole enemies thing, however.

“We’re not just going to be friends, human. We’re going to be… BESTIES. I’ll make you like me so much… you won’t be able to think of anyone else!!!! It’s the PERFECT REVENGE.”

“Doubtful.” Chara mimed yawning.

“SIT. I mean… Why don’t you have a seat?” Undyne smiled and gestured with her best attempt at gentleness towards the table.

Frisk nodded and scrambled for the seat closest to them and sat down. They immediately locked in on a conversation topic. They pointed at the giant sword to their right. “What’s that?”

Undyne seemed caught off guard by the difference between Frisk’s attitude and Chara’s. Good. Chara didn’t want her to get too comfortable. “You don’t know? It’s a human artifact from your sucky peoples’ AWESOME history! GIANT SWORD!”

Frisk tilted their head. “History…?”

“Yeah! Alphys has showed me hella human history tapes. They call ‘em anime, but… Yeah. Historically, humans wielded swords up to ten times their size!”

Yeesh. Chara wasn’t going to touch that one.

“Oh, um… Right!” Frisk nodded. “I haven’t really gotten to go to much school or anything, so I’m probably just behind on my human history, is all.”

Undyne’s face fell for a second. “You haven’t been to school? How old did you say you were???”

“Uh, ten?”

Undyne winced. Yeah. Sad, wasn’t it? Asshole. “Well, uh… Yeah. Humans had giant swords. When I heard about it, I wanted one, and Alphys---”

“You keep mentioning Alphys. Who’s that?” Frisk tilted their head again. Like a fucking puppy. Chara wanted to point angrily at Undyne and yell about how she kicked a puppy. But the conversation was going fine, so they stayed quiet.

Undyne’s face went a little red. It was really easy to tell, because she was blue. “Wh… She’s the Royal Scientist!!! Mega nerd who researches stuff for the sake of monsterkind! You really don’t know anything, huh?” She laughed somewhat awkwardly.

“I kinda really don’t.” Frisk frowned.

A long, awkward silence passed. Undyne loudly clapped her hands together. “Refreshments!” She hurried around the kitchen and set some things out. Hot chocolate, sugar, soda, tea… The tea made Chara nostalgic, somehow.

Frisk moved to get up, but there was suddenly a spear through the now broken table and they froze in place.

“Squirt— Kid— HUMAN. Just sit. I’ll get it for you, like a good, uh, host. You can… use the spear to point!” Undyne laughed loudly. It was incredibly awkward.

Frisk cautiously took the spear. “Chara? What are you thirsty for?”
Frisk was asking for their input? They almost said tea, but… the feeling it gave them scared them. Hot chocolate.

“Yeah, that sounds good!” Frisk pointed the spear at the hot chocolate.

“Oh. Uhhhh… I guess kids are into sugary drinks, huh? Well… kids and Sans.” Undyne rubbed the back of her neck. “Dunno why I set that out. It’s totally empty!” She grinned. “Stopped buying it after Asgore would come over and get marshmallows stuck in his beard. It was GROSS!”

Frisk frowned. “Oh, okay! Um…”

Just ask for a soda, then, I dunno. Chara didn’t want to hear any more about the king.

Frisk’s frown deepened. “You want soda…?”

Okay. Chara guessed soda wasn’t an option. Fine. Ask for the stupid tea.

“What’s wrong? You don’t like tea?”

Chara pointed the spear at the tea themselves, and refused to answer. The mention of the king, the tea… After pointing the spear, they felt themselves slipping away from the front of Frisk’s mind. That two-year sized void in their head was aching.

They heard Frisk thinking their name, but they ignored it. They tried to ignore everything. They let their connection to Frisk’s senses dull, but even then, they could smell the tea when it was ready.

They were staring down at their lap, a cup of tea in their peripheral.

“More? But, child, your cup is still full!”

“Hohoho, it’s alright, Tori. A high form of flattery, indeed, for them to enjoy the tea so much. Here you are, Chara. To the brim. Do be careful, though.”

Big furry paws gently tilted the tea pot to pour into their cup. The liquid reached the top, and just when it looked like it might spill, the pouring stopped. A tense, wobbling bubble of tea peeking just over the rim of the cup. A flick and it would spill down the sides. It would jump. The warm floral scent clung to their nose, suffocating them.

“Dad, can I have more tea?”

“No, you may not, young man.”

“But moooom! Chara got more!”

“Chara did not drop the sugar cubes, now did they? You can have more when you drink what you have in your cup. I do not want you spilling tea on your sweater.”

“Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.”

A deep grunt, a clearing of a throat. “Listen to your mother, son. I’ll be happy to pour you more whenever you please, but you do have a full cup of tea.”

A much more high-pitched grumble. “Oh, alright…”

A scene that didn’t make any sense. Dad. Mother. Son. And them. They had been here for a month, but they still didn’t belong. They probably never would. It was infinitely better than the surface, but they still felt the need to jump. When would they stop wanting to jump?

“Chara, are you gonna drink it? It’s so full, how are you even gonna do it? Like this?” A blurry shape next to them bent down towards his own cup of tea and lapped at it like a cat.

‘Mother’ cried out the blurry shape’s name and ‘Daaaaaaaaaaaaaad’ broke into hushed chuckles.

Chara stood at the edge and cried because there was nowhere to jump. Kindness sat around them, throats exposed, and they clutched at their own throat with their hands and waited for someone to strike. When three different voices asked them what was wrong, they screamed and knocked their tea to the floor and thrashed like a cornered animal. The cup shattered and the tea spread in a dark, wet shape on the floor. When the tea jumped, it shattered. There were no flowers to break its fall. Chara envied it.

After that, they all began to have tea time out in the garden, and even the tea wasn’t guaranteed the chance to shatter.

“… I don’t know if… I can ever let Papyrus into the Royal Guard. Don’t tell him I said that!”
“I won’t. Promise. But why…?”

A sigh. “He’s just… Well… I mean, it’s not that he’s weak. He’s actually pretty freaking tough! It’s just that… he’s… He’s too innocent and nice!!! I mean, look, he was SUPPOSED to capture you… And he ended up being FRIENDS with you instead!”

A finger that didn’t belong to them traced the rim of a half empty cup of tea, and a giggle that wasn’t theirs sounded from a throat that had nothing to do with them. “I mean… He did capture me. He kept me in the shed with like… dog stuff. The bars were just too wide to keep anyone in there.” A kid who wasn’t weak, but who was kind— and Chara had learned the difference now— shrugged their shoulders.

A fist on the broken table. “HA! Still, you get my point, yeah? I could NEVER send him into battle! He’d get ripped into little smiling shreds. That’s part of why… I started teaching him how to cook, you know? So, um, maybe he can do something else with his life.” Undyne smiled more kindly than Chara had ever seen. Maybe this wasn’t the first time, and Chara missed it when they were swimming in memories of being someone who barely knew what kindness was.

“Chara? Are you back?” Frisk’s finger slid down the side of the cup and landed on the table. Chara remained silent.

“Oh, sorry, I was talking for so long… You’re out of tea, aren’t you? I’ll get you some more.” Undyne stood and reached for Frisk’s cup.

“Fill it as high as it’ll go. ‘Til it’s overflowing.” Chara mumbled.

Undyne raised an eyebrow. “If you insist, squirt.” She chuckled. “That’s another thing about you that kinda reminds me of Asgore. He takes his tea like that sometimes, too.”

Chara grabbed the cup and shattered it on the ground before Undyne took it.

“Chara!”

Undyne took a half-step back. “What’s the big idea?!”

“Papyrus… is the best.” Chara’s rot was flooding Frisk’s eyes with tears. They felt Frisk’s right hand gently brush their cheek.

“Uh… Yeah?” Undyne’s face scrunched up.

“I’ve got… a Papyrus, too.” Maybe they used to have multiple Papyruses. They sniffled. “I can’t… I can’t let anything happen to them. If their enemy was down, they wouldn’t attack. They’d offer them a glass of water.” Chara bit their lip and drew Frisk’s blood. Their jaw gently pried itself open and the right hand slid down from their cheek to their lap, where it held their left. “I can’t let them die. So I can’t die, either. I can’t jump off; I can’t be pushed. Even if landing on my body would cushion someone else’s fall.”

“Are you…” Undyne paused for a while and then shook her head. She knelt down in the shards of teacup and lightly punched Chara in the shoulder. “Sounds like you’re a champion of hopes and dreams, yourself, huh? I swear, I can’t get a handle on you.” She scratched her head. “Are all humans this hard to read? Like they’re… two different people?” She shook her head vigorously. “Anyways. Even if we’re not besties, you can still scratch the enemies thing. We’re a pair of champions, so… It’d be a shame to be enemies! Or something! This mushy crap is really Papyrus or Asgore’s specialty… So instead of me trying to fumble through it, how about a cooking lesson?” She put on a big toothy grin and held up two thumbs-up.

“Do you wanna do a cooking lesson?”

… Chara nodded.

Undyne immediately leapt into action, away from the quiet moment where she managed to win Chara over, and into the task of setting out ingredients.

Chara started to slip from control, but something warm gently held them in place.

“Let’s do it together.”

“… kay.”

“I love you a lot, Chara.”

… Do you think we can have more of that tea?

“I’ll ask!”

Frisk.

“Yeah?

“Love you…”

The smile on Frisk’s face as they sauntered over to the stove was huge.

It shrank a little when the house burned down, but… neither of them really felt the need to redo anything. It was a pretty good hangout.

Chapter Text

“Alph, you like human culture, yeah?” That was one thing you could call it, anyways. Sans spun a wrench around on his finger as he lounged against the wall next to the console Alphys was trying to fix. They were in the room south of the “bathroom.” The real bathroom was, of course, at the back of this room.

“S-Sans I asked for your help with this like th-three days ago a-and I can’t help but notice that you’re… n-not helping??” Alphys, kneeling on the ground in front of the console off to Sans’ left, gestured with her right hand to illustrate her point. Her hands were tangled in wires, however, and she tugged one a little too far out of place. The staticy screens on the wall above cut entirely to black. Alphys groaned.

Sans snickered. “Not my job to help.” He kept spinning the wrench.

Alphys slid her claws carefully out of the nest of wires and let them fall into her lap. “W-well I know, b-but we’re…” She wasn’t confident enough to say it. Either that or she was embarrassed about the variety of words that could have gone there back when fixing this stuff was Sans’ job and they were both young and lonely.

“Friends, yeah.” Sans set down the wrench on the tiled floor and flicked his finger. The wires glowed blue and pulled themselves apart just enough for Alphys to get at the circuit she needed to fix. “Showed up, didn’t I?” He winked.

“A-after three days.” Alphys grumbled, but she couldn’t hide the way her shoulders slumped in relief. She reached back in beyond the panel and busied herself with the circuit. “Anyways… I like… a very n-niche subsection of human c-culture. My k-knowledge on the rest of it is uhm… s-spotty?”

Sans slumped so far against the wall that he slid down into laying on the floor. His whole body was limp, sans (heh) the hand maintaining the blue magic. He closed his sockets and listened to the shuffle of wires and small sparks of electricity, magical and mechanical. “My question’s about human kids.”

Alphys squealed and whatever she was doing almost certainly got set back several steps. “F-for Frisk??”

Sans sighed. “Paps was around their age back when you and I first met, but Paps was a little skeleton. Lot less… fleshy. And that was a while ago, he’s a big bones now. Coolest guy ever, but I don’t exactly get the credit for that. Didn’t know what I was doin’.” He opened one eye socket and Alphys was no longer buried in wires, but sitting right next to him, chewing on her claws as her eyes shone with nosy obsession.

“Y-you want me to h-help you figure out h-how to look after the h-human??”

“You’re makin’ it a bigger deal than it is. The kid’s not exactly gonna stay put and let a skeleton parent ‘em. That’s not what I’m lookin’ to do. Just uh… Keepin’ a socket out and throwin’ ‘em a bone every now and then.” He did promise, after all. Initially, he was thinking that there wasn’t much he really needed to do, little time god and all, but uh… The kid had all but asked for the same thing he already promised. The distance thing wasn’t really working out. It was just… making it look like he sucked. Which he did, but the kid didn’t seem to wanna accept that answer.

Alphys removed her claws from her teeth and took a few deep breaths. “O-okay! Not a b-big deal! Just… I-it’s rare to see you m-making effort where o-other people can see you d-doing it.”

“You’re the only one I can really ask about this.” There was someone else, but she hadn’t been in the mood to talk since he met the kid. If Sans was one to admit things to himself, he’d say he was starting to miss her. “Unless you know any other mega nerds.”

“H-heh… Just u-us, I guess…” Alphys got herself back together and reached back into the panel. “W-well you don’t w-want any of t-the technical stuff, I g-guess…”

“Wouldn’t mind a refresher. Human studies were never my specialty. More of a… Comedy theory guy.” Jokes. Quantum physics. Same deal, really.

Alphys rolled her eyes before going on about what she knew about human biology as she fixed the circuit. Sans didn’t look like he was listening, but they both knew he was. They also both knew to avoid the subject of human souls.

Alphys had just gotten into how whenever she saw human kids depicted in her anime, they didn’t seem all that different from monster kids in theory when she finally fixed the console and Sans had to speak up.

“This thing’s ancient. Whaddya fixin’ it for, anyways?” He sat up and stretched, some of his bones popping.

Alphys got up from her knees and dusted off her lab coat, laughing nervously. All of her laughs were nervous, but this one was for good reason. “W-well everything in the lab should b-be in w-working order, r-right?”

That might have been her initial reasoning. “But old puzzles? Lasers?” Sans didn’t stand to meet her eyes. They were darting around too much to meet, anyways.

“W-well it’s dangerous t-to have a-a br-broken l-laser, right?”

“So you’re not gonna turn it on when I leave?”

“N-n-n… nnoooooooooo?”

Sans just kept lazily grinning. In silence.

She broke. “O-okay fine!” She sat back down in front of Sans. “I… I was g-going to reactivate t-the puzzles t-to impede the h-human. B-but! I… I w-was going to safely g-guide them through.”

“Huh. You’d think a laser’s a lot safer when off than on, but I guess that’s why I’m not a scientist anymore.” Sans shrugged.

Alphys narrowed her eyes and smiled. It was a little bitter looking. Just enough to shock Sans into dropping his grin by a few degrees. Alphys laughed a little. “Y-you wouldn’t g-get it, Sans…”

“Cause I’m not a scientist?” Sans cocked his brow by widening one socket a little.

“N-no! B-because everyone a-already likes you!! T-the regulars at G-Grillby’s, G-Grillby, t-the dogs, the r-rest of the Royal Guard, e-everyone who comes t-to your standup a-at MTT… E-even Frisk a-already likes you!! For p-people to like m-me, I have to be h-helpful… A-and even th-then, they’ll s-stop liking me a-as soon as…” Alphys buried her face in her hands and went quiet.

“Heh… What have you ever helped me with?” Sans looked away and put his hand on Alphys’ head. “Those people just like jokes, Alph. That’s all there really is to it. Just a bit of comedic relief.”
Alphys peeked at him through her claws. “S-sans…”

“If you insist on turnin’ those things on, it’d better be some damn good guidance you’re offering.” Sans stood up. The kid… seriously couldn’t rely on him for anything, huh? He had already decided it would shake things up too much if he stepped in with Undyne more than that bit of distraction he pulled at the Hotland entrance. Maybe he’d need to keep an extra socket out during those puzzles in addition to Alph’s guidance to make up for it… This was exhausting. That lady and this kid were really working him to the bone with all of this promise stuff.

“I-it’ll b-be top notch! B-besides, it’d p-prooobably be a bit h-hard to g-get Mettaton to c-call off the cooking show b-bit a-and the n-news segment and t-the ballad…”

And of course Mettaton was involved. “… Right.” Sorry in advance, kid.