Work Text:
"Have a wonderful day at school, my children!"
Toriel gave both her children hasty kisses, then ran back towards the city. Chara wished she could stay with her just a little longer, maybe have a goodbye hug, but as she made both of them aware very frequently this morning, all of them were late, and needed to hurry.
They stood before the unfamiliar building with Azzy by their side. Their mother still made sure to dress them up perfectly for today, lateness be darned. Not a hair out of place, not a crease on their uniform, not a whiff of them smelling of anything but freshness.
All of this did nothing to calm Chara's nerves - if anything, it spiked them. They weren't used to being like...this. Only Azzy, his soft, comforting paw, and his ever present smile gave them any hope for school today.
Chara looked to him for guidance, trepidation drawn plainly on their tiny face. Mercifully, he noticed, and drew a little closer to them, his hand clasped a little tighter.
"Don't worry, Chara! Today'll go great, you'll see! Daddy said everyone would be so excited to see you!" That was true, and he was never, ever wrong. With that, he walked forward, Chara following with little resistance. He pushed open the towering entrance to the building, and they went inside.
Immediately, the unfriendliness of...well, everything, struck Chara. Something was stuck in their throat. Everything looked so very dull, all blue or white or light brown, and it was far too clean. Nothing like Home, all colourful and cluttered with toys and friendly faces to chat to or hug and a nice warm fire to curl up under. If only they could be back there now.
Eyes darting from wall to wall, ceiling to floor for a hint of comfort in their new prison, Chara could find nothing. If anything, they regretted their desperate curiousity immediately. They found themself surrounded by many metal doors taller than even Azzy, with only tiny slits at the tops, leaking out darkness.
A few of the doors and walls had pieces of paper stuck to them, some with a little colour. The human could see many unfamiliar creatures on them - were they Monsters? Most of them looked really scary, like no one they had seen before. The paper also had some squiggly lines and shapes on it, but the human didn't know why.
Near some of the scary doors were metal poles, leading to a sink with a silver snake at the top. Chara wondered why it was there, or why it wasn't moving at all. Were they also Monsters? They were sure Azzy would beat the snakes back if they tried to attack, but they moved quickly past them, nonetheless.
As the pair kept walking to their ultimate fate, Chara spotted an open window, a possible escape. Mummy would understand if they ran away back to her, right? Azzy must have looked over and guessed what they were planning, because he hurried past before they could seriously begin to consider it.
Suddenly, he stopped. There was another door in front of them now, with a small bit of glass and some more wiggly lines on it. Monster language, maybe? Some sort of spell? Chara didn't think about that for long, as their heart began to pump louder and louder, faster and faster. They knew what was coming, what they tried not to think about until now.
Azzy turned to Chara, as if expecting their reaction. He knelt down to match their height, and put his hands on their shoulders.
"Please, Chara, it's going to be okay. You don't need to worry! Everyone in my class is super duper friendly, they won't treat you any differently to me. The teacher is going to help you settle in and everything, we're going to have-"
"Promise. P-promise me that it'll be okay." Chara almost couldn't believe their own outburst. Azzy's face dropped, for just a moment, before he composed himself.
"I promise Chara. I promise you'll be okay." He took Chara into a warm, fluffy hug, practically melting their worries away. With their brother's words in their heart, Chara finally felt themself calm down, just a little. He promised. A smile lit up their face.
Azzy never broke his promises.
"Alrighty, let's go in, we're already so late, oh goodness me!" With a blush on his face, and a shaky grin on theirs, they opened the door to the classroom together.
"Um, g-good morning, Miss Cherti! Sorry we're late!" The teacher monster looked in their direction, but didn't respond.
Upon his finishing his sentence, Chara felt the stares of at least two dozen unfamiliar faces bearing down on them. They could barely take in all their shapes at a first glance, let alone the finer details of their bodies. They all wore the same mauve uniforms as each other, the same as Chara and Azzy, though the uniforms were wildly different in shape and size, to account for the different students' bodies.
Some were humanoid, like Azzy. Others resembled some of the animals Chara had seen growing up, like cows or horses. One was bigger than everyone else, with some tentacles sprouting out from their body. At least, that's what Chara could grasp from the single glance they took, afraid to have another.
All of a sudden, they felt an urge to throw themself out of the door to the classroom, run home, and never return. Everything was too much already. Only Azzy’s grip on their hand kept them from enacting this sudden plan. Chara hoped no one noticed their frantic looks toward the door, and the newly forming beads of sweat on their forehead.
The teacher monster, apparently called Miss Cherti, stood upright and attentive. She was covered in yellow fur, as well as some brown spots. Her uniform resembled the children’s, but a lot more weathered. She had yet to take her eyes off Chara, or comment on their lateness, unnerving them further.
Azzy led them to a table with three monsters around it. Chara recognised them as Azzy's friends, the ones he had told them all about before starting school, and the ones that sometimes came to the Dreemurr's, asking to hang out with him.
On their left, sat a portly monster, almost perfectly round, like a ball. She was covered in scaly skin, and Chara felt she wouldn’t look out of place in a book on dinosaurs. On their right, sat a monster that looked quite like a bear. He looked so much like one, Chara thought he was almost out of place in the classroom, like they were. The third and final monster looked like a little mountain with a hat on his head. Azzy said they in particularly would like them, but their expressions seemed to say otherwise.
There was only one spare chair around the table, no doubt Azzy's. He paused for a moment, seemingly not expecting this, but he recovered quickly.
"Just a sec, guys! I need to go grab a chair for Chara."
"We're not sitting with that freak." The monster to the left spoke up.
"Yeah. It can sit by itself, over at the spare table." The rightmost monster pointed to a table in the corner, occupied by no one, except one lone chair.
Asriel tried to hide his emotions from Chara, as best he could, possibly to keep their spirits up. He kept his smile up, though it now looked a little strained.
"Chara is a person, not an "it". We can sit somewhere else, if you don't want us." Without looking their way, Azzy turned to the other tables, looking for somewhere to sit.
"We don't want to sit with the human either!" One of the animal-like monsters shouted out at him, on behalf of their table.
At that, the class erupted into an uproar. The children were all shouting over each other, hurting Chara's ears. They could barely make out anything they were saying.
Some of them were jeering, laughing and pointing at the human and their misery. Some were demanding the human to stay away from their tables, that Chara wasn't welcome there.
The big tentacled monster even tried to grab them by the arm, but Azzy stepped in front of Chara and slapped it away before it could reach them.
Chara could feel the tears streaming down their eyes, and made no effort to stop them. Why was this happening? Mummy and Daddy and Azzy said they wouldn't, that the monsters wouldn’t hate them. Were they all lying?
All the while, the teacher was scanning her students with a faint smile on her face, doing absolutely nothing to stop them. Not a voice raised, not a hand in the air to silence them.
"Miss Cherti, this isn't fair!" Azzy shouted at his teacher, finally breaking through the other noises that floated around the room. They paused, possibly to hear what would be said next. The teacher looked at Azzy, bored, as if she didn't hear him raising his voice.
"Asriel, I can't force people to sit next to a human. It's not fair on them." At that, the class erupted again into their prior conversations, now with authority to back them up.
Suddenly, something happened to Azzy's face, something Chara never saw before. His eyebrows lowered, his nose wrinkled, his face dropped, and his clenched teeth were shown. His breathing was much louder now, and Chara could hear it, almost a growl. His arm began shaking, taking Chara's along with it.
Without a word, he grabbed his chair with his spare hand, and took both it and Chara over to the spare table. He practically threw it down besides the lonely one, and then himself onto it.
Throughout this ordeal, he still made sure to be gentle with Chara. His grip on their hand didn’t tighten much, and he didn't pull them with much force, either. They sat down on their rickety spare chair, still crying silently.
Azzy had yet to notice, as he was busy glaring at every other monster in the class, adult or child, as if daring them to comment. One by one, they turned away from the odd pair, and hushed their voices, whether in shame or fear.
"Settle down, class, settle down." Said the teacher after the last monster went silent, trying to at least pretend to exert control over them. "Good. Let's continue on with our lesson on..."
"Chara? Are you okay?" Azzy had now turned to their friend, his transformation back to the caring and compassionate monster complete.
Chara couldn't find the words, and so just shook their head. Azzy wiped away the tears with his tie, and brought Chara into a hug, which they answered with their own.
"When Daddy hears how everyone's treated you here, all of them are gonna regret it." Some of his prior hatred returned, poured in those words. But Chara wasn't convinced.
"He said th-they'd like me, Azzy. Mummy did too. So did you. You promised me it would be okay." Their eyes were dry, but they still felt like crying. Everything they expected out of school couldn't compare to reality.
“It will be okay, Chara. I’ll stay with you here, and we’ll get through school together.”
“But what about your friends over there?” Chara broke the hug, and pointed at the trio. They truly didn't want Azzy to suffer for their sake.
“You’re the only friend I have here. Those guys aren’t my friends anymore, and they never were.”
Chara couldn’t help but be touched by Azzy’s loyalty. Loyalty to them, over everyone else. They stared a stare of gratitude and disbelief at him.
“Really?” Was all Chara could get to leave their open mouth.
"Of course. You're my best friend. I like you more than I ever liked them." He smiled at Chara. One of those smiles that told Chara "everything's gonna be okay".
The human reached out for the goat’s hand, once again, and he took it instinctively. Neither of them were paying any attention to what the teacher was saying, and it seemed she was doing the same in return.
Azzy began rubbing his other hand all over the hand he was holding, causing the human to giggle, as they always did. School, the monsters it in, they all seemed so far away in that moment.
Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad, Chara thought.