Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

After god-knows-how-long in the underground, time seemed like a funny thing. Ant Tenna knew it all too well. Sometimes, it felt like just another day: Staying up to write his plays, entertaining the young monsters of the underground, even talking with the king as the queen soon left to go back to Home (Or the Ruins as they were now called) when their children fell. Other times...it felt like that one time...that wonderful time before the war occurred. 

Except...the fact that there's nobody there at his sides anymore.

He'd wake up one day, looking, feeling at his sides one day with his claws and antennas, only to come to realization that nobody was there. Not anymore. And despite the fact his antennas will wilt every single time, he chose to keep going; to keep smiling even if he can't move on. Because, he just hopes that he'll be reunited with his beloved somewhere over the yonder...possibly in heaven...or even less likely—back on the surface...

So when one random day, a light suddenly appeared to swallow everyone up...He didn't know what to think of it. He didn't even know what it was! But he could've sworn...in all that foggy darkness...he saw someone. A misty silhouette from his past like a flashback.

Tenna didn't even realize he was running towards them, hands outstretched to grab at something that wasn't there.

The person turned around...

And just like that. Life continued suddenly.

Tenna woke up sprawled against the mulch of Waterfall, surrounded by a vast field of echo flowers. Everything seemed...brighter, all of a sudden. He sits up, rubbing at the fuzzy chitin casing his body. Did he hit his head on something...? Maybe he must've overworked himself and passed out...but that didn't explain why he was in Waterfall.

As he simply sat there, trying to recall what he was doing before the light consumed the world, he noticed a handful of other monsters looking around too, as if they experienced the same thing; As if they also collectively woke up and are wondering what could've happened...

His antennas perked up as he saw one monster hurrying down the corridors, narrowly slipping on the puddles as they call out like a man on a stallion:

"Guys! The barrier is broken. We can all finally leave!"

It honestly felt like a fever dream...the fact that the barrier is suddenly gone; a fantasy he didn't expect to happen any time soon...

Seeing everyone herding to the barrier, Tenna felt inclined to do the same. He got up, dusting at his clothes and began moving. He occasionally looked around, noticing reunions all around; Monsters were overjoyed to hear the barrier is gone, that they could see the sun...that they were free. He even saw those who have fell down, now amalgamated yet happy to reunite with their loved ones before they went to see the surface too.

It felt bittersweet. If only he could do the same.

He noticed a human child walking around and taking to everyone, with brown hair, a goldenrod complexion, and a blue sweater with two purple stripes. He remembered seeing them when they first were around Waterfall; Frisk, was it...? He wasn't the best with names...he didn't think he asked them at all. But he's got a feeling that they were the one to free them. He couldn't help but feel grateful.

Regardless, he has places to see...and someone to hopefully find.

Before Tenna left to go outside, he roamed the castle hallways in New Home. His steps echoing softly as the droning sounds of monster commuting began to fade. He went deeper into the castle, and then down, descending into the basement chambers.

He never actually went down here; the door was usually locked tight, but suppose he'll see it now than never.

Tenna gazed among the 7 color-coded coffins in that room, a shiver going down his spine at the sight. Here was where all the bodies of the deceased humans went...whether he saw them or not. It was a necessary evil, but what could anyone do about the situation?

He slowly walks into the room, examining all of the caskets carefully. They were worn from the years, most of which without name engravings aside from those like "Chara" or "Clover". All were open, presumably for burial...except one. The one at the end of the chamber; The one with the emblem of a purple soul.

As benevolent as Tenna was, he hesitated at this casket. The name has been scraped off from withering, but he still was able to read the initials at the very least:

S------ G. A------

Tenna wondered where he saw these initials before...and the realization hit him.

He knew who it could be as his soul sank. But...

He opens the casket...he might as well let him rest on the surface, too.

Tenna stands at the mountain's edge, feeling the sun shine completely on his pale white body. He hasn't felt the sun rise in so long...it felt sublime...albeit subliminal. He didn't think he'll be able to see it until now. To have the rays glisten against his chitin like it did years ago.

However, looking at the body in his lower arms, he knew humans don't last that long...or the fact that his beloved mailman presumably went to look for him only to die alone somewhere...thinking about him. He was always so stubborn...so much of a justice-seeking daredevil that he'd persist when it wasn't necessary. If he'd tried, that amount of determination will melt him on the spot!

And now...what became of him as they both looked at the edge of the universe together.

As strong as the human soul is...he knew a reunion wouldn't work if they were both alive.

...But why must it hurt so bad?

He carries the body off, descending down the cliffside. He'll move his other things as time goes on...but his priorities were on taking his beloved mailman home.

Even after years...decades even, Tenna still knows the way back to the small home he and Sparrow shared. The house has been abandoned, everything left right where it was as if untouched by time...if it wasn't for the fact it was in ruins. The forestry has grown around it, consumed by ivy and foliage. It was beautiful...in a way that made his soul twist at the sight.

Tenna walks to the garden out in the back, his grasp on the mummified cadaver gentle and reverent out of fear that it might crumble to dust...even if humans rarely ever dusted. He removed his lower gloves and began to dig, digging into the center of the Earth a cavity large enough to encase the body and placing a flat slab at the head of the newly-made tomb. He gently sets the body down in the soil, placing some echo flowers in the palm of his hands before burying the body, tears seeping from the crevices of his chitin.

Chapter Text

This marks a month after he saw the sun once more. Conveniently, it also marked their (unofficial) relationship.

Sparrow would've been proud that Tenna made it long enough to look at the stars for him.

But what is a moment of goodness when you wanted someone to see it with you?

Since then, Tenna decided to renovate the home he once had, remodeling practically everything as the floorboards, wallpaper, and furniture were outdated and withered away in their absence. Every day since he returned to his little home, Tenna would stop to not only tend to the garden, but to place flower on Sparrow's grave. No matter how many times he done it, the pain will only come back just as vivid. He wondered if in one universe, they were fully together again, in body and spirit. 

Maybe in another universe…they were happy together…

Tenna stood over the grave he made for his beloved. Various flowers have grown around it: carnations, chrysanthemums, and various lilies; some he planted himself, others grew there naturally. It was funny. It was like Sparrow was watching him from the grave, watching him pass by to give flowers everyday.

Other than the flowers...Tenna wished he gave him more of a sign.

He knelt down in the lush grass growing above the grave, his hands idly twiddling together. Was he nervous? It was hard to tell...

"Hey, angel...it's me again."

He spoke softly to the headstone of the grave, his antennas twitching softly.

"It's been a while since I got to talk. I'm glad you took the flowers I gave you..."

Everything he says is followed a soft silence. He didn't expect for anyone to reply back, yet a sense of comfort began to flow over him as he starts to reminisce.

"...I miss you, Spammy. You know? When I was down in the underground, I wondered if you'll even come and see me from the surface. I felt selfish thinking about it though...there was a chance you might've not survived the trek if you did. But...considering I found your body down there...in that coffin...I found out you did come to look for me...even if I was...too late...to realize—..."

Tenna had to stop himself from tearing up, the guilt that he did look for him and he was none the wiser tearing at him. His body sagged slightly.

"...I-I wished I managed to see you...when you did come looking for me...Y-You didn't need to go searching for me...but suppose...you've always been stubborn...and I would be too. Knowing that...because of the war, we won't be able to sit under the grand willow tree in the garden...or cuddle near the fireplace during those chilly winters...I miss the way you'd scoff at my outlandish show ideas...or when y-you...you...smile...at me as you watch me entertain the town's kids back then..."

"I even miss the times when we got to watch the stars...and I'd ask you if one day...it would be possible for us to...m-marry..."

As he said that, Tenna pulls a small box from one of his pockets. A wedding ring that he never got to use. He sets it down near the headstone, amongst the other flowers, unable to stop the waterworks.

"I thought of proposing to you...but I never got to do it, my dear angel..."

"But sometimes...I wish you'd say yes...somewhere over the horizon...maybe in a different universe..."

He sniffled, wiping at where his eyes would be.

"I-In the meantime, I've been try to establish myself on TV...it's been going great so far...! Everyone has been so happy to see the surface, I'd see some sitting at the beachside, or in the cities selling things...it's wonderful. I also renovated our home...the weeds took it over when we were gone. It's just as beautiful as before. But of course...it's not the same without you."

"It's funny...How just before the war happened, I begged for you not to go...I unintentionally...h-hurt you...with how hard I grasped at you...You ran off thinking I was like the monsters those humans warned you about..."

"I thought you wouldn't want to hear...or see me...again...the way you stood over me with a revolver in your hands. But then...you let me go...you walked away. And only recently I heard you went to look for me..."

"I just want you to know...you weren't a coward...like you said you were...you're the bravest person I've ever met...I love you. Rest easy."

With that Tenna gets up and turns to head back inside...

Somehow, with strong power...

Something has woken up.

The feeling of having a body again...even if intangible made Sparrow feel groggy. Last time he had awareness, he was running in a dim marsh, having been impaled terribly by spears and on his last leg. He saw a pale silhouette that time, just out of reach, before another strike sent him into the water, knocking whatever equipment he had off of him as he sunk to the bottom...

The depths were cold, so much that it felt like burning. He was plunged into darkness, with only vague awareness of what was happening elsewhere through a tether on his heart.

But he felt something he hasn't felt in a while...

Warmth.

No longer did he feel the sterile coldness of stone or glass. Instead, there was light. Then, there was the sky, the grass, the thin slab he was leaning on...

And a massive white ant monster standing above a grave: His grave.

His vision cleared up with a soft violet lens as he looks up at the monster before him, who promptly halted in step and turned around. He looked as if he was weeping. That was until he saw him.

The two looked at each other for a solid moment...Tenna to the purple apparition, and Sparrow to the gi-ant monster.

Before—

"AAAAAAA—"
"AAAAAAAA—"