Chapter Text
You can't believe it.
Weeks after your little sibling disappeared, after hundreds, maybe even THOUSANDS of ads, papers and wandering like a lunatic to the same spots every day. You can't believe that they were under MOUNTAIN!
Not to mention that under said mountain was an entire race of people that history just FORGOT to mention. Only they would do this! Chara has always been like this: Wanting to help others, wanting to do better, always striving to see the good in people. Where do they get this? I couldn't tell you.
Chara was dropped into your life when you were 10. At the time you were living with your aunt, it was nice and livable, you guess. Your parents weren't bad per se, but they weren't good parents either. After having you, they decided that they wanted their freedom back and dumped you on your aunt at your ripe age of 4 and went off to travel the world. She had some....choice words to say about your parents, most of which you don't remember now, but as time went on, she started to treat you like you were one of her own. You learned a bit later in life that she couldn't have kids of her own. At the time, she was fine with that, though she did always dream of having a few kids. It seemed your parents exploited this fact. But for what it was worth, it was nice, a very good thing!...
Chara was, for lack of a better word, an accident. Your mom got pregnant while they were travelling and decided to have the baby and just drop a newborn on your aunt. To say she was angry is like saying the North Pole is 'just a bit cold', a MASSIVE understatement. She. Went. Off. You don't remember much of what happened, seeing as you were sent to your room with the baby, but you DO remember the screaming. Chara stayed with you, and so far, you haven't seen nor heard from your parents since, and honestly, good riddance.
As Chara grew, you got closer and closer to your little sib. You had to take care of them a lot due to your aunt taking up more shifts at work to take care of the three of you. You were kinda free childcare, but you never minded. You loved Chara! As they grew and grew and even discovered their own identity, you were there for all of it! Your aunt passed away when you were 19. It shocked you and Chara; by all accounts, she hid it very well. You didn't even know about it until you were getting a call from her boss saying she had gone into shock at work. She was in the hospital for a while before there was nothing they could do. You had been working part-time at a store when she died, but your aunt's boss offered you an assistant job, mostly out of pity, but you jumped at the chance to have it.
Raising a 9-year-old is...harder than you thought it would be, long days at the firm only to come home and have the work not stop, having to cook, clean and take care of Chara. Not to mention all the fights they ended up in, Chara had the habit of getting picked on, seen as 'weird' by the other kids, couldn't blame them honestly, but Chara was your little weirdo! No one else could say otherwise! Though it was getting annoying having to pull yourself out of work to deal with these, being Chara's only caretaker and all.
You shouldn't have been surprised that, after a pretty bad screaming match one day that they decided to run away. This happened....more often than you'd like to say, times when life just became too much, people asking too much of you, then coming home and getting THE SAME THING-...It got too much, it leaked into your relationship with your sibling, there were times you and Chara would get into petty fights, screaming matches, typical sibling fights! But with no one to break it up, they just got worse until someone (usually you) would offer the other dinner or the promise of pizza, hug it out, then go about the day.
You can't believe you're so stupid, you can't believe you took your eyes off them...You can't believe you might not see them again...
When Chara wouldn't come out of their room when dinner was ready you thought they were still heated, you just told them that you'd leave it in the micowave and to come get it when they were ready and come talk to you when they were done, when your bedtime rolled around...nobody came.
You woke up the next morning and went to check on Chara, only to find their closet ransacked, their bag missing and their window. Wide. Fucking. Open...You couldn't move, your whole body went numb, and a million thoughts ran through your head. Your first thought was kidnapping, but given how there was no sign of struggle and everything seemed purposeful, you had to conclude that Chara ran away. Every kid at some point ran away! It's only natural! You kick up a shit, you pack something, you 'run away' but by the time you get to the end of the block you realise that you can really do much with no money and do the walk of shame back to the house....THAT'S what you do. But not Chara...They had to have been gone for hours!
Stupid. StuPID. STUPID! STUPID! How could you lose a 12-year-old?! Where were they?! Where did they go?! How...how would they get back?
After a call to the police, ads posted online and papers stapled up on every shop and post that would allow it all you had to do was wait.
3 weeks later, you were having dinner and watching the news when you suddenly saw them. Chara had been under Mount Ebott and had emerged not only alive but with MONSTERS! You would have cared more if it weren't for the fact that your sibling was alive! They were alive! You practically booked it out the door. Got in your car and drove (probably breaking sooo many speeding laws) to as close to Ebott as you could and hauled ass up that mountain.
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After getting to the top, the adrenaline is starting to wear off, and you take a moment to catch your breath. It seemed so easy on TV, but dang is this mountain steep....What was I doing? CHARA! RIGHT! Running to the front of the mountain, you can see a small gathering of monsters and hear a bit of chatter getting louder and louder as you approach. You can see Chara next to a tall, almost goat-like person in purple and wearing a crown, seems like you might be pissing off some royalty or maybe just someone who thinks they are.
"CHARA L/N!" you yell, which causes Chara (and several others) to whip their head towards you. "I swear I am going to KILL you for what you did! Do you have any IDEA how worried I was-" before you could fully finish, you feel your chest go heavy? like suddenly you weighed a LOT more than before and are stuck in place. Looking around, you see a skeleton, draped in deep purple and golden accents and glowing eyes staring right at you, bones drawn in its (his? her? you aren't quite sure) hands in a threatening manner.
"Wait! Sans! Don't hurt them!" Chara calls out and puts themselves between you and the skeleton.
"THEY THEATEN YOUR LIFE CHARA!" The skeleton (Sans if Chara was right) replied. Voice almost booming with authority.
"Oh, like you guys did when I was going through the underground?" Chara said with their arms crossed and hip popping out sassily.
"THAT'S NOT THE SAME!" Sans(?) yelled. "Wait! They did WHAT to you!?" You shout after processing what was being said.
Chara ignores you, "They're my sibling, Sans! Drop them!"
After a bit of hesitation, you feel a weight lift off you, as well as your anger from earlier, which is now mixed with confusion.
What just happened? What did this guy do to you? Who tried to kill Chara- again, you were interrupted, but instead of a weight on your chest, you feel it on your body, almost knocking you to the ground. Looking down, you see it was Chara, wrapping their arms around you in a tight hug.
After a pause, you hug them back just as tight. Your sibling is okay, they are okay! Alive and well! You feel tears start to prick at your eyes, and you crouch down a bit to bury your head into their shoulder as they do the same to you.
"You're okay! You ARE okay, right? You'd tell me if you weren't okay?" You say in a string of panic. "I'm okay, Big Sib, I'm okay", Chara says back lightly. "Good...You had me so worried, little Sib...I'm just glad you're home." You sniffle out, all the anger is gone and replaced with relief, the sleepless nights and groggy days can finally be put to rest now that you know Chara is okay.
Your sibling hug is interrupted by someone clearing their throat, looking up from Chara's shirt. You see another goat-like person, but different from the one you saw before, this one had long horns that curled up with black hair (fur?) and beard, also wearing purple but in a long tunic, much more comfortable than the armour the other one was wearing.
"Can-Can i help you?" I sniffle out, tears still making their way down my face.
"I suppose you can."