Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a normal day in Hometown. Birds were chirping, the wind was blowing, and Kris Dreemurr was attempting to sleep in on a Monday morning. “Kris wake up you’re gonna be late for school!” Kris’ mother Toriel yelled up the stairs. After sitting up the words sunk in and Kris scrambled to get ready so they wouldn’t be marked absent, again.

~~~

After arriving at the school Kris jumped out of the car and bolted into the building, making it to the classroom just before the bell rang. “I’m not late!” They exclaimed before sitting down and looking around the room, Susie was missing, but that was hardly unusual. What was very unusual was that Ralsei was also missing, they never missed school, so something was immediately off. “O- Ok class, I j- just finished taking attendance, and we seem to be missing Susie and Ralsei.” Kris was pulled out of their thoughts by Ms. Alphys and took out their notebook to copy down notes that were written on the board. Ralsei is probably just sick, it's no big deal, right? Kris didn’t entertain that thought.

As the day dragged on Kris started to get worried as Susie hadn’t shown up either. Yeah she normally wasn’t on time but she rarely missed this much of school. They glanced at the clock, 40 minutes until the class broke for lunch, they could text their friends and make sure that everything was fine, and they were worrying for nothing.

~~~

Ralsei woke up late. There was no way around it, he slept through his alarm and was now scrambling to get ready for school. As soon as he finished shoving a piece of buttered toast into his mouth he was out the door running to school. He was in such a hurry that he barely noticed the sniffling coming from a nearby bush- wait, bushes don’t make those sounds. Was this a prank Kris set up? He thought as he slowly crept towards the bush, parting it to see a small human child wearing a slightly oversized blue hoodie with 2 horizontal purple stripes on it. They were still sniffling, with tear tracks on her face. The two stared at each other for a bit.

“The hell is so intriguing about this bush?” Susie’s voice caused Ralsei to jump and for the child to flinch back violently. “Susie! You can’t just scare people like that.” The goat monster exclaimed, much to the amusement of the dragoness. “Again, why are you staring at a lame ass bush?” “Susie! Language!” “Answer the question dumbass!” As the two bickered, Susie was about to say something that would prompt Ralsei to scold her for her language when she noticed the human child. “Uhhhhhh, hello? What's your name?” She asked, getting no response back.

Susie’s attempts to get the child to speak went on for another few minutes before she opted to just sit there next to the bush. “Susie, we should really be heading to school.” “Nope, I’m not moving until we figure out what the hell is going on.” “But education is important Susie.” Ralsei tried to reason, despite knowing it probably wouldn’t work. He was about to try again to get Susie to get to class as they were now very late for class when a new voice spoke up, “Hey! What are you two doing here?!”

~~~

It was now lunch time and Kris couldn’t take it anymore, they needed to figure out what was going on. After eating their food they quickly stood up and bolted out of the cafeteria, ignoring the confused looks from their fellow classmates. They made their way out of the school, carefully ensuring that their mom Toriel didn’t notice, and onto the street leading towards Ralsei’s house. After a bit of running Kris eventually hears Susie and Ralsei arguing with someone, though they were still too far away to tell who it was or what was being said. Moving closer and hiding behind a tree to not be spotted, Kris’ eyes widen at what is going on.

Standing in front of a bush was Susie and Ralsei as expected, but across from them stood a small human child, probably around 12 years old, wearing a lime green long sleeve shirt with a horizontal stripe going across it that was cream in color, not that different from Kris’ signature sweater. Diverting their attention to look at the bush, Kris notices another human child, a few years younger than the first, hiding behind some leaves and drawing in the dirt with a stick. The first had reddish-brown hair, while the second human had brown hair that was the same color as Kris’

“Hey, what are you doing behind that tree!”

Kris is pulled out of their thoughts by the older human noticing them, as well as directly calling them out. “Uhhh. I’m, just enjoying, I like standing behind trees?” Their response was not thought through at all, as evident by the unamused look they are given by the child. “Ok fine, you got me. I was worried about Susie and Ralsei, as they never showed up to school today.” “See Susie, I told you school was important.” Ralsei said, which was immediately followed by Susie’s “Since when did YOU care about school Kris?!?!” This led into another round of bickering that lasted all of 20 seconds before attention was brought back to the two humans, one of which had climbed out of the bush to stand next to the other.

“Uhh, what are your names?” Susie asked in an attempt to get an answer to the question from earlier that the children had yet to answer. “Oh! My name is Frisk!” The younger one in the blue hoodie exclaimed with a small smile. “Frisk! I told you not to give out your name to strangers willy nilly!” The slightly older human scolded. “Well too bad Chara! They will know both of our names whether you want them to or not.” The one in the lime shirt, now known as Chara, sighed, followed by general silence.

“Ok so Frisk, Chara, do you have anywhere to go? Surely your parents must be worried sick.” Ralsei was the first to speak up, breaking the awkwardness that had begun to creep in. Frisk and Chara quickly shared a look before Frisk slowly looked downwards to stare at the sidewalk. “Don’t worry, we will make sure that you two are safe and sound.” This was followed by Frisk looking up again, wiping their face with the sleeve of their hoodie. “It seems like you got this Ralsei, I’m just going to head back to class before my mom catches me out of school. Also so she doesn’t adopt those two or something” Kris said, not voicing the 2nd part.

“Kris! What are you doing here outside of class? School is important, you know.”

Goddamit.

Chapter Text

“But mom we can’t just adopt them out of nowhere, what if they have a family to get back to?” Kris was not happy about the prospect of two complete strangers staying with them. So here they were, trying fruitlessly to reason with their mother. “No worries dear, this is only a temporary arrangement. Besides, their family is probably trying to find them as we speak, we just gotta find who they are.” This seemed to work for Kris as they opened their mouth to respond, only to close it again seconds later.

Currently they were sitting in the living room with their mom, while Frisk and Chara were checking out the guest bedroom upstairs. I forget we even had a guest bedroom. Kris thought to themselves as Toriel stood up from her chair, presumably to start making dinner. Might as well see what those two are doing upstairs. As they started the walk upstairs another thought crossed their mind, they would have to tell Asriel about this later. Now at the top of the stairs they walked over to the guest room and stood at the closed door, hesitating. Sighing, they eventually pushed open the door.

The room wasn’t much, it had two beds with one on each side, a currently empty shelf was mounted to the wall in between the beds. On the left side was a window with the blinds drawn over it to block out the natural light and opposite of it were two pictures, a bed of flowers and the Delta Rune. Kris quickly scanned the formerly uninhabited room and stopped abruptly as they saw Frisk attempting a handstand, except it was just them balancing on their head with Chara holding their legs so they wouldn’t fall. They quietly shut the door and left them to, whatever that was, before retreating back to their own room and calling Susie.

It was after the 1st ring that Susie picked up and her voice could be heard through the phone’s speaker. “Yo dude whats up?” “Nothing much, just lucky I didn’t get punished for being out of school.” Kris indeed did not get punished for leaving school early, probably because Toriel was more focused on Frisk and Chara. They wondered how Ralsei was holding up though, as he never told anyone about his home life or parents. Kris was then abruptly pulled out of their thoughts by Susie’s voice, “Hey Kris you’re spacing out, you good?” “Yeah, just wondering how Ralsei is holding up, they probably got in trouble big time for not being at school.” “Welp, sucks for him I guess.”

The conversation lasted roughly half an hour before Kris was called down for dinner. Hanging up and telling Susie they would talk at school tomorrow, they quickly made their way downstairs to eat as quickly as possible so they wouldn’t have to socialize, a foolproof plan.

Unfortunately for Kris, life didn’t like letting things be that easy, as was evident by Toriel encouraging Kris to get to know their guests once everyone was seated. They tried to weasel their way out of it, but a threat of no pie after dinner quickly shut down those efforts.

“So, do you two have any family, they are probably looking for you.” This statement from Toriel caused the little conversation that was happening between Frisk and Chara to instantly halt, the eyes of the latter going wide and for them to drop their fork, the sound of it clattering, getting them to flinch slightly. “Um, is something wron-” before Kris could even finish their sentence Chara bolted out of the room and up the stairs, leaving an awkward silence behind. “I’m going to go calm them down. Kris can you stay here with Frisk, there’s pie on the counter if you two want some, just make sure to not eat all of it.”

As Toriel walked upstairs Kris and Frisk moved to the couch, both silently opting to grab pie later. “So, is there anything you want to watch? I heard that there are some good cartoon shows out there.” After a few moments of silence Frisk finally replied, “Nah I’m good” quickly followed by “Wanna mess around with sticks outside?” This caught Kris slightly off-guard, to which they said, “It’s a little late, don’t wanna get lost in the forest when it's dark.” A small frown appeared on Frisk’s face before they gasped, “I could try a handstand, I’ve been practicing!” This was followed by them trying, failing, and falling back onto the couch.

Eventually Chara and Toriel returned, evidence of tears on the former, before they all sat down to eat pie. This time the conversation was about buying Frisk and Chara some clothes while Kris was at school, which the conversation swiftly pivoted to. “So Kris, how is your project going?” “It's going well. We are almost ready to present it on Thursday.” Kris said, making a mental note to text Susie about what their plan was for the project.

Thankfully, the conversation switched again and Kris took the moment to head upstairs and promptly faceplant their bed before falling asleep.

Chapter Text

Kris woke up a little bit before their alarm, which greatly annoyed them as they started getting ready for the school day ahead. After getting dressed into one of their many green and yellow shirts they made their way downstairs only to see an empty kitchen and living room. Seems like mom must be sleeping in. They thought as they grabbed a piece of bread, wrote a note so Toriel wouldn’t worry, and quietly left the house for school.

They arrived pretty early, a rare occurrence, but this time they didn’t want to make it to class on time, no they had better ideas. Kris was here to pull off one of their various pranks that they had planned before the spring break. Sadly, as they approached the building they noticed Berdly waiting for the school day to begin.

“Hey Kris, have you finally gathered the intelligence required to make it to school at a reasonable time?” Kris was slightly annoyed that Berdly was here to potentially ruin their plans, but they soon had an idea to distract them. “Hey Berdly, I saw Susie walking into the library just now, maybe you should head over and see if she would like to study with you?” Susie was not in the library at all but Kris’ statement did the trick and Berdly started walking in the direction of the library.

Now that Berdly had been distracted Kris snuck into the school and took out some supplies to execute their master plan; putting saran wrap over the classroom door. It took a good bit to make sure the entrance was covered and that it wouldn’t fall but in the end they had time to spare. With their remaining time, they decided to glue Berdly’s locker shut, as he had forgotten to fully close it the day prior. With their prank set up successfully, they walked out of the building and waited under a nearby tree for school to begin.

~~~

Toriel woke up a little later than she anticipated, which was partially due to the fact she wouldn’t be at the school today. Walking down the stairs she noticed a note written by Kris. “ Hey mom, I woke up early and decided to be responsible so I left for school already, don’t worry I’ll be fine. ” She read the note a few times before setting it down and getting started on breakfast. They better not be getting into trouble. Pushing those thoughts aside the goat monster finished breakfast and went to wake up the two children sleeping in the guest room.

“I really need to figure out what's going on.” She said aloud at the bottom of stairs, as various thoughts gnawed away at her mind. Now in front of the door she softly opened it and turned on the lights, telling Frisk and Chara that it was time to wake up and that breakfast was downstairs. They both got up without any difficulty, save for a groan from Chara, and everyone made their way to the kitchen table.

Chara was on edge, something they were very good at doing, as Toriel explained the shopping trip she would be taking them and Frisk on. “Now, there isn’t a good store here in Hometown so we will have to drive up to Ebott City. The mall there is crowded so make sure to stay close so you don’t get lost.” As soon as Toriel was finished speaking she got a “Yay shopping!” from Frisk and an affirmative nod from Chara. At least Frisk is happy , they thought to themselves.

The drive up to Ebott City wasn’t anything special, Chara wasn’t really interested in watching the scenery pass by as they drove, or engaging in the conversation Frisk was having with Toriel about what they wanted to be when they were older. They soon got lost in their thoughts. It was a regular night, nothing bad should have happened. Something did, man, police station, rain, sirens, rain, noise, rain, bad noise, rain, rain, rain, rain, RAIN -

Chara pulled themselves out of their head abruptly with a sharp gasp. “Are you ok, my child?” Asked Toriel with concern in her voice. “Y- yeah, just thinking about things, that's all.” Chara managed after a few deep breaths. “If you need to talk about it, you are welcome to do so.” Chara stayed silent for the rest of the ride.

Toriel was worried, most parents probably would be, however she couldn’t figure out what was wrong if Chara didn’t want to tell her anything, a decision she would respect. Though the answers would come eventually, sooner or later, something was going to happen. “I wonder what Kris is up to” she mused.

~~~

“Kris, why won’t my locker open?” Asked Berdly with mild annoyance. “I dunno dude, it's your locker, you figure it out.” Berdly sighed as he continued attempting to pry his locker open. Kris just chuckled to themselves, just soft enough so Berdly wouldn’t hear, and made their way to the classroom. ‘Seems like Ms. Alphys already took down the saran wrap, that was fast.’ They walked through the door that was now completely devoid of evidence showing off their prank and were quickly stopped by Susiei.

“Yo Kris, I know what we should do for our project.” She said before whispering something in Kris’ ear, earring a thumbs up from the human. Once everyone was seated Ms. Alphys took attendance before going to help Berdly open his locker. Kris let out a small laugh.

~~~

Frisk immediately felt nervous upon arriving at the shopping mall, their thoughts racing and eyes quickly darting to analyze their surroundings. ‘Why are there so many people? This place is big, and loud. I don’t like loud stuff. I hope this is quick.’ They quickly grabbed onto Chara’s hand after getting out of the car. “Don’t bother anyone and we’ll be fine.” Chara whispered in their ear, reassuring them as the duo followed Toriel into the shopping mall.

The three of them looked at clothes for a little while, Chara picking out a few red shirts and some shorts while Frisk picked out gender-neutral clothing. “You sure you only want red shirts, my child?” Asked Toriel “Um, on second thought…” They trailed off, grabbing a single shirt identical to the mostly lime one they had been wearing since yesterday. “I- I hope this isn’t bothering you Ms. Toriel.” Frisk said, looking at the few sets of clothes they were carrying. “Oh, no worries dear. It’s completely fine, you need clean clothes each day, do you not?”

Done with clothes shopping, the group ate lunch at a nearby pizza place within the mall. ‘Things are going smoothly so far.’ thought Chara. However, as luck would have it they had thought too soon. Frisk suddenly put their heads over their ears and started to cry, mumbling “too loud” over and over. ‘Dammit, I should’ve realized that Frisk would be overwhelmed here.’ Chara mentally slapped themselves.

Rushing to their sibling’s side, Chara tried to help Frisk calm down “Don’t worry Frisk, I’m here. It is going to be alright.” They said in a soft tone while trying to get Frisk to stand. Toriel, having also noticed, leapt into action, getting both of them out of the establishment as fast as possible and over to a more secluded area. Before assessing the situation.

“C- can we buy headphones? I- I think they would really help Frisk and I.” Chara asked after Frisk had calmed down, mentally scolding themself for their stutter, which they found stupid and obnoxious. Toriel agreed and bought both of them noise-cancelling headphones.

With the shopping trip having concluded the 3 made their way back to Hometown, just in time for Kris to get back from school a few minutes after getting out of the car. They all walked inside tired after a long day, except for Kris, whose expression was unreadable as usual. Eventually the door was opened followed by an exclamation of “I’m home!” Kris mentally cursed, they had forgotten to tell Asriel about Frisk and Chara.

Chapter Text

Asriel was on the bus for Hometown, barely able to contain his excitement about seeing his family again after 4 long years of college. He wondered how Kris was holding up after all this time, they weren’t really social after all. ‘Did Kris finally make some friends?’ He wondered in speculation. Eventually the bus came to a halt at his final destination. ‘This is it’ he thought, ‘I can’t wait to be home.’ Stepping into the cool air of late spring, Asriel quickly made his way to his house, no, his home . Knocking on the door, he didn’t wait for an answer before opening it, “I’m home!” He exclaimed with a burst of excitement. He quickly scanned the room to see if anything had changed, then locked onto the 2 new children standing next to Toriel, eyes widening slightly.

Asriel stood there for a moment, his mind having bluescreened as he tried to process the fact that Kris may or may not have duplicated while he was away. He tried to formulate a cohesive sentence in his mind before being pulled from his thoughts by Kris. “Hello, earth to Azzy? You good?” Before he could process what he was saying he suddenly blurted out, “Kris did you clone yourself while I was gone?”

“No”

Asriel went back to thinking for a moment before finally speaking up again, “So, we have two human children living with us now?” “Yep” “Well Kris, you are finally not the only human in town, how do you feel?” Kris gave a shrug in response, stepping out of the way to avoid Toriel enveloping her son in a hug. “It’s so glad to have you back! Why don’t you get to know Frisk and Chara.” She pointed to the aforementioned children, who had been standing there awkwardly the entire time.

“H- hello.” Frisk waved nervously. Meanwhile Chara just stayed silent, studying Asriel with their red eyes, which made the latter squirm a little. “I think you are okay.” They said a little cryptically before grabbing Frisk’s hand and leading them upstairs. “Uh, thanks? I guess?” Asriel stood there dumbfounded for a moment, before they noticed Kris trying to leave the house.

“And where are YOU going? Don’t you want to spend time with your big brother?” He pointed an accusatory finger at his younger sibling. A small frown crossed Kris’ face for a moment before they spoke, “I would but I need to find Susie and work on our group project, they wanted to study after school. I promise that I will hang out with you as much as I can after presenting it, ok?” After leaving the house Asriel was taken aback slightly as not only did Kris mention Susie, a name he knew belonged to an old bully of Kris, but they also made a promise to them, a very rare occurrence for Kris.

Turning around, he walked over to the kitchen table where Toriel was already sitting, the two finally talking face to face after 4 years.

~~~

In another part of the Dreemurr residence, two siblings sat on a bed talking in hushed whispers. This had been something they did every night with Toriel so far, both of the siblings finding peace talking to the other.

“Chara, do you really think that As- Az- Azra- the new person is actually trustworthy?” Frisk asked, stumbling over the pronunciation of Asriel’s name. Taking a deep breath, Chara began to tell their younger sibling a story. “Back when we were much younger, I met a kind goat monster. You were too young to remember anything, but I can remember the day very well.” They said softly.

Chara was crying. They usually cried, being constantly teased by the other human kids for it, and today wasn’t much different. After the other kids got bored and left, thankfully not going to bother Frisk playing with wooden blocks nearby, someone approached them. Looking up, Chara saw a goat monster, maybe around 11 years old, looking at them with a soft smile. “Are you okay?” He asked them, his voice being filled with nothing but kindness and his eyes being a nice blue color that reminded Chara of a clear sky.

“Are you okay?” He repeated, voice soft as to not cause trouble. “N- no. The other kids bullied m- me. They c- called me mean n- names.” Chara said between sobs. “Don’t worry, I won’t let them hurt you.” The goat boy replied, helping Chara stand. The two were going to talk more but the boy was called away by someone. The two never saw each other afterwards, but Chara never forgot the goat child who helped them that day.

As Chara finished their story Frisk listened with great interest. “Did you ever get his name?” They asked, to which their sibling replied, “No, sadly I never got his name.” The two moved to sit by the window and watched the late afternoon sky. Just Chara and Frisk, two children wandering a large world.

~~~

Elsewhere, an older lady sat behind a desk with a frown. “Do you know where they are yet?” She asked someone else standing in the dimly lit room, a hint of annoyance in her tone. “No ma’am, we haven’t found them yet.” The voice replied, belonging to a younger man. The lady sighed deeply.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find them.”

Chapter Text

It had been two days since Asriel’s return to hometown. During this time he had gone around and caught up with people he missed while Kris was at school and hung out with his family, Chara and Frisk were included in this, whenever they were around. Asriel enjoyed college, don’t get him wrong, but there was something about Hometown that couldn’t be replicated. Whether it was a tight-knit community or his mom’s cooking he couldn’t be entirely sure. Regardless of the reason he made his way to the school, he had a presentation to watch.

It was now Thursday, 1 week since being assigned group projects by Ms. Alphys and only a few minutes before Kris and Susie had to present theirs. “Curse Ms. Alphys for making us go first.” Susie grumbled as Kris, Lancer, Ralsei, and herself were all standing by the old storage closet where they had met each other on the first day. “Don’t worry Susie! I’m sure your project will be amazing, just like ours!” Lancer reassured her, his energy being contagious.

“Yeah, I think you will do a great job presenting!” Ralsei chimed in, Kris also giving a nod of affirmation. Tears began to well in Susie’s eyes as a large smile broke out across her face. “Thank you guys so much! You are the best friends I could ever ask for!” She then enveloped all of them in a group hug, not caring if anyone else in the hallway was watching or not.

With the wholesome moment over, the four gave each other some final words of encouragement as Susie wiped her eyes. Soon she started towards the classroom, Kris walking close behind as Ralsei and Lancer followed them. Everyone took their seats and just before Alphys could begin the door burst open as Asriel rushed in panting, “I’m not late am I?” All eyes turned to him as he elaborated “I just wanted to see my little sibling get an A on their project.”

“A- alight c- c- class, it’s time for p- presentations. F- first off, K- Kris and S- S- S-usie.” Alphys was clearly spooked by Asriel’s sudden entrance as the project partners walked up to the front of the room to present. Any conversation stopped immediately as Susie grabbed the chalk and a pointer stick while Kris stood so still it put a statue to shame.

“Ok so our project is on humans.” Susie began, drawing the word on the chalkboard in big letters. “To begin, humans are NOT the same as monsters. Humans don’t really have many shapes, they are all very, uhh, human-shaped.” She said, pointing to Kris with the pointer stick, who gave a wave in response. “As you might not know, humans don’t have fur or scales, which means they have something else. Can anyone tell me what that might be?” Not waiting for a response and ignoring Berdly’s raised hand she continued. “They have skin, which is not as durable as scales or as soft as fur, but it gets the job done I guess.”

Once she was done Susie stepped to the side, it was time for Kris’ part. “Hi everyone. I’m Kris, Kris the human.” They said, shifting their feet slightly. “As you may know by now, humans are different from monsters.” Kris then grabbed a picture and held it up. It was a drawing of Susie breathing fire onto a building with a big red X over the entire thing, the class got a small chuckle out of it. Kris took a small breath before they continued.

“So, we have humans and monsters, but what about Darkners? Well, after the Human-Monster War a group known as the Knight’s Guard arose and brought terror to the land, opening fountains of pure darkness. They seemed unstoppable even with everyone working together. That was, until a legendary hero known as the Prince of Darkness challenged the Knight alongside a human and a monster. They won and peace was restored.” During all of this Susie held up some pictures she and Kris had made last night while Kris took another breath. It was time for Susie to wrap up the presentation.

“So- uh, yeah. The darkness from the fountains didn’t entirely go away, instead taking a new form as people, people known today as Darkners. The world was saved, everyone was happy, and I WISH I WAS THERE TO SEE IT DO YOU KNOW HOW COOL IT WOULD’VE BEEN?!?!” Everyone in class clapped and cheered with Ms. Alphys telling them it was a wonderful presentation. A thought crossed Kris’ mind, ‘Seeing all of your classmates congratulate you and Susie for a project you spent effort on, it fills you with DETERMINATION.’

As their presentation was now finished the two sat down and listened to all of their other classmates present their projects. It was now the end of the day and Noelle was almost done with her project, the last group to present. Eventually they finished and class was dismissed early, with everyone heading into the hallway to talk about the presentations. “Good job you two!” Ralsei said as he, Susie, Kris, and Lancer were standing by the storage closet again. “Kris, you did awesome! I’m so glad you’re making friends!” Asriel said, walking over to the group. Kris opened their mouth to speak, when an incoming call stopped them.

Hesitantly Kris picked up the phone “Hello?” a pause, their face paled, “Got it.” Kris’ face morphed into a clear expression of seriousness, their voice steady and firm. “Asirel, we need to go. Now.” Asriel gave a nod as both of the Dreemurrs rushed out of the school. “Well what are we doing standing here?! We gotta follow them!” Susie exclaimed, breaking into a sprint and not hearing Ralsei telling them to wait.

~~~

Throughout their entire life Kris rarely ever ran this fast. The last time they could think of running like this was when Dess- ‘Probably shouldn’t think about that right now.’ Asriel was right behind them as they turned onto the street to their house. Kris’ eyes widened slightly at the sight of two police cars outside their house, one of them being Undyne’s and another belonging to the Ebott City Police. Toriel was standing by the door while Undyne argued with another officer, presumably the owner of the other car, which Frisk and Chara were inside of.

Upon getting closer to their house the two tried to see what was going on, only for the officer to get in his car and drive away, Toriel fighting to stop him. Once the car was out of sight she broke down crying as Undyne tried to reassure her that things would be okay. A pit of dread opened in Kris’ stomach as a realization hit them like a brick wall, Frisk and Chara had been taken from them.

Susie arrived a few minutes later followed by Lancer and Ralsei. Everyone eventually went into the house to discuss what had just happened as Undyne made a few phone calls. Calming down, Toriel began to recount the events that had unfolded.

It was around 12:30, just after lunchtime when a knock sounded at the door. Curious, Toriel opened it and was met face to face by a police officer holding a warrant. “I have gotten notice of two missing children being found at this residence in particular, I need to escort them back to where they belong.” Toriel was shocked at these words, she didn’t entirely believe the officer and called Undyne to handle the situation. During this time the officer forced his way into the house and came back holding Frisk and Chara, both trying to break out of his grasp. Just then Undyne arrived and an argument broke out after the children were forced into the back of the man’s vehicle. She was powerless to stop him as he drove off with Frisk and Chara inside.

By the end of it Toriel had once again broken into tears. Undyne got off the phone and said “I believe that there was something off about this whole ordeal, we are launching an investigation.”

As the conversation continued one thing was for sure, they were going to get Frisk and Chara back.

Chapter Text

Chara was scared, no, they were downright terrified of what they were heading back to. They really didn’t want to head back to that place, that wretched, horrible, terrible place that made them into what they are now. It was the cause of their and Frisk’s-, oh god, they really didn’t want to think about what might happen to Frisk. ‘Are we going to be separated, after all this time?’ The thought was nearly enough to get Chara to freeze entirely. They subconsciously moved to hug Frisk, not wanting to lose them too after everything they had been through together.

The orphanage loomed over them with its bleak and old walls. The place seemed to suck the color out of its surroundings as everything seemed bleak compared to where they had been previously. Gulping, Frisk slowly walked forward, hand held tightly in Chara’s grasp. ‘Misery thrives here.’ Frisk thought glumly, repeating a saying they heard other kids whisper from time to time during their previous stay. The head of the orphanage, Ms. Linda, was there to ‘greet’ them after they arrived inside. The two siblings could only wonder if there was anything they could do to make light of their situation.

~~~

It had now been 3 days since the police visited the Dreemurr Residence and an atmosphere of misery had set in, covering the house like a blanket. Asriel had barely left he and Kris’ shared room, only coming down for meals and occasionally water or a snack. Toriel wasn’t doing much better, she felt as if it was her fault, that she had let the two children she had taken in down. Kris was trying to distance themselves from it all, usually being absent at the house to hang out with Susie or Noelle. Hell, even Berdly was being nice to them which would be a welcome change if there weren't bigger things occupying their brain.

On the 4th day Kris and Susie were at the former’s house as Toriel had excused both from school for the week, something Susie had expressed gratitude for multiple times. Suddenly a knock sounded at the door with Undyne slowly opening it shortly after. “Hey uh, Kris and Susie, was it?” Getting a nod from Susie, she continued, “Can you two go get Ms. Dreemurr? I have something I need to share.” Kris slowly got up from their seat on the couch and made their way upstairs to get their mom, also dragging Asriel out of bed for good measure, they figured he’d want to know what Officer Undyne had to say.

Kris was worried a lot these past few days. As little as they showed it, they cared for those kids, probably more than they were willing to admit. It reminded them of themselves when they were adopted by mom and Asriel, a scared child looking for family. They hoped the kids were doing alright.

Now that everyone was downstairs Susie suddenly felt a little nervous “Sh- should I go or?” “No, it’s alright with me if you stay, Kris could use the company as you two seem like good friends.” Toriel told her before Undyne started to speak. “Ok so, we did some investigating alongside members of Ebott City’s Police Department and found that the officer from earlier this week had acted on his own. To put it simply, they unlawfully took the children from this house.” After letting the words sink in for a bit Asriel was the first to speak “So do you know where they are and how to get them back?”

Undyne paused to think of an explanation. “We know where they are, Sundown Orphanage in Ebott City. Unfortunately, they haven’t responded to calls from me, Carol, or others about Frisk or Chara.” “So how do we get them back? Are they okay?” Toriel asked, very concerned. “The only way I could see you getting them back reliably is through adoption, either by your family or another family willing to take them in.”

Toriel mused over the words a few times, deep in thought. She wanted so badly to adopt those children, to give them a loving home they deserved. However, she would need to make sure that Kris and Asriel were okay with it to prevent any conflict from arising. Eventually, she came to a conclusion. “I want to adopt them but I have to talk with-” Toriel was cut off by both of her children suddenly speaking up. “I’m down.” “As long as Kris is fine with it.”

With that settled the group talked a bit more about their plan of action. “So, we could drive up to Ebott today. It would be best to leave sooner rather than later as we don’t know what’s going on in that orphanage.” Undyne explained. “Not gonna lie, that place sounds sketchy as hel- sorry- it all seems to be very sketchy.” Susie said, slightly embarrassed by her slip up, before Undyne continued. “So, we have a time we are leaving, but we will probably have to bring Asgore, seeing as he was once the police chief, is that alright with you Toriel?” Toriel sighed, then nodded “As much as I don’t want to interact with him, it will be beneficial for him to be with us.”

Soon enough everyone was ready to go a few hours later. Undyne was taking her police car, Asgore had his truck with Asriel, the two still needed to catch up after college, and Toriel had Kris and Susie, who decided to tag along and reassured everyone that her parents knew where she was going.

~~~

The group had now arrived at the orphanage, its gloomy atmosphere making everyone a little tense as they all stood outside the entrance. Slowly, Asgore walked up and knocked on the door. Receiving no immediate response, Undyne took the opportunity to stand by her former chief. When the door did open, an older lady with slightly greying hair and a smile just a little too wide greeted them. “We are here on behalf of the Ebott City Police Department in regards to an unlawful search and seizure. Two children were taken from the house to this location, we kindly ask that you let us find them and bring them back.” Asgore said, getting right down to business.

The lady looked taken aback by this, before regaining her composure. “And what do you have to do with any of this?” She said with a hint of anger in her voice. “Ma’am I worked as chief of my department for 12 years, I may be retired but that does not mean I can’t act to uphold the law.” Asgore held up his badge to prove his point. He paused, then continued. “If you do not let us in we have a warrant to inspect this institution you are running.” He then held up some documents that were given by the Ebott Police around 30 minutes prior. The lady didn’t move from her position that was blocking the entrance.

After realizing that this wasn’t going to work Asgore tried to push past the lady only to be roughly and suddenly pulled backwards. “Sorry officer, you aren’t going to proceed.” Turning around, Asgore came face to face with who he presumed was the rogue officer Undyne told him about. He tried to say something, but a fist suddenly colliding with his jaw caused him to fall over. Attempting to stand, he was knocked down again by a kick to his leg. A fight started to ensue as Asriel and Toriel, one putting any past tension aside for the time being, rushed over to help Asgore fend off the man while Undyne called for backup.

Kris’ eyes darted around wildly to survey the situation. ‘I have to help.’ They thought, before remembering an idea Susie had told them jokingly on the way here. Filled with determination, they grabbed Susie’s arm and charged through the door, which was now unguarded as the lady had slipped away somewhere. Now inside the building they rushed into what was presumably a meet up area that branched off into different hallways. “Shit where do we go?” Susie said before suddenly being yanked by Kris running in a random direction. Looking back, she saw someone, who she had to guess was probably a staff member, chasing them.

~~~

Frisk was scared, they were separated from Chara 3, maybe 4, days ago and hadn’t been able to leave their ‘room’ at all, even for meals. They were lying in bed before they heard some commotion outside the walls they had been confined to. They didn’t know what it was but they decided to risk it and wanted to make their presence known. Despite being downright terrified of speaking up, Frisk started to scream.

~~~

Kris and Susie were panting as they had escaped the staff member who had probably alerted others by now of their presence. “I- I think we lost ‘em.” She said between breaths. Suddenly, a sound started up, and both became afraid that they triggered some kind of alarm. Kris wore pure panic on their usually emotionless face before realizing something, the sound was too quiet to be an alarm and sounded like, screaming? “Wait Susie, it sounds like a child, it could be Frisk or Chara. Let's move!

The two eventually located the source of the sound and reached a brown door at the end of the hallway, it was locked, as there was a physical lock on the door. Kris told Susie to keep a lookout while they tried to get the door open. ‘All of those times I broke into the Holiday Mansion don’t fail me now.’ Kris thought as they got to work.

The screaming had stopped by the time Kris was able to discard the lock and open the door. Looking inside there was a bed with a thin mattress, a small dresser next to the bed, a closed window that didn’t seem openable, and Frisk, standing by the wall out of breath. Kris rushed over to them as they seemed to collapse in their arms. “Chara is down the other hall, hurry.” They said weakly before fully collapsing into Kris’ arms, who passed them off to Susie. “What? Why do I have to carry them?” One death glare aimed at Susie later and they were running down the other hall to get Chara while Susie lagged behind carrying Frisk.

~~~

Soon enough the police had arrived and just as they were about to go in Kris and Susie reappeared, both carrying Chara and Frisk respectively. Toriel rushed over to hug them while Asriel was talking to Asgore and helping him up. “Come on punks, let's let the real officers finish the job!” Undyne called upon spotting them.

Everyone agreed, and they all made their way back to the vehicles they arrived in, just as police started to raid the building.

Chapter Text

It has been about 2 days since Frisk and Chara were rescued, and a lot happened. First off, after the police raided the orphanage they found clear evidence of child abuse and neglect. With that conclusion being drawn, multiple arrests were made and the children within the orphanage were taken into police custody until proper families could be found for them. The rogue officer and the lady running the orphanage, who Kris learned was called Ms. Linda had escaped, but were tracked down and arrested about a week after the raid.

Asgore was wearing a cast on his leg as the bone had broken where the rogue officer had repeatedly kicked it. Meanwhile, Susie had come clean to Toriel about bullying Kris in the past, who was just glad that Kris had eventually become friends with Susie.

Currently Toriel was baking three pies, one cinnamon, one butterscotch, and one a mix of the two, to celebrate adopting Frisk and Chara, who were ecstatic upon hearing the news. Toriel did find out what happened to their birth parents that night, they had died in a robbery from bullet wounds, and she had hugged her new children, promising that nothing bad would happen to them anytime soon.

Finally, Kris and Susie were excused from the remainder of the school year seeing as there was only a week left anyways. Frisk and Chara would be enrolled into school next fall, with someone named Martlet coming in to teach the younger kids of Hometown after the previous teacher resigned.

Frisk and Chara were then taken to a doctor to see what medical conditions they had. Frisk was diagnosed with a form of Autism, while Chara had a visual impairment leaving them with 20 over 70 vision. Both of them were also diagnosed with Panic Disorder.

Now, the Dreemurr household was sitting around eating pie, sharing stories, having a lighthearted discussion, and most of all, being a family.