Chapter Text
…“I won’t fight or nothin’. Please.”
Yellow knew it was over. He’d accepted it the second he’d accepted that Blue was dead.
He deserved it, didn’t he? He’d failed to notice how nervous Blue was. He’d failed to listen when Blue said they shouldn’t leave. He’d failed to protect Blue.
He’d failed Blue.
He was so terrible, this was all his fault, wasn’t it? They were going to die, slaughtered without anyone to save them, their souls used from greater purpose they’d never see.
And it was all his fault.
If he could just go back, go back and save Blue, stop any of this from happening, he would. He’d protect Blue the best he could, do all he could to get them out of here, to keep him safe.
He’d be so dedicated. So desperate. So…
So determined.
Something inside of him seemed to click at that. It was an odd feeling, one he wasn’t sure he’d ever experienced before. Like something falling into place.
He didn’t have time to understand what it meant, if he even could, before the kings trident stabbed him in the back. The pain was like a flower blooming through his body, spreading through his nerves until it was all he felt. He let out a hoarse scream as he held Blues body closer, coughing up blood that stained them both.
His vision blackened around the edges, the pain dulling to a dull ache.
He didn’t let go of Blue. He couldn’t.
He hoped he never would.
𓍯
Yellow woke up in Toriels house, shooting up in the bed he and Blue shared, gasping for air and covered in sweat. His heart thumped quickly in his chest, beating in his ears. His hands shook terribly, only quelled slightly by his white-knuckle grip on the sheets.
He looked around the room, eyes adjusting to the darkness. He…Was back here? But, he’d just been in throne room, hadn’t he? It couldn’t have all been a dream— not when the journey had felt so real. Not when his feelings had felt so real. Not when he and Blues death had felt so…
…!
Blue!
His head snapped to the side, seeing not a corpse, but…Blue. His friend, sleeping peacefully next to him. Like none of it had been real. Like nothing had ever happened.
Yellow shakily raised his hands to nudge Blue, panicking when he didn’t awake. He grabbed both of Blues shoulders, tears burning his eyes.
“Bl-Blue, please, c’mon wake up, I can’t, I can’t lose ya again,” Yellow pleaded, nails digging into Blues skin. Blue woke up with a start, sitting up quickly and accidentally head butting Yellow in the process. The two boys flinched, reeling from the impact. Blue barely had time to even understand what was going on before Yellow started again.
“Blue, d-do ya remember anything that jus’ happened?” He stammered, only to be met with a confused look by Blue, who was still rubbing his forehead.
“Wh…What are you talking about?” Blue asked, a slight annoyance in his tone. “Toriel she…She just tucked us in, remember? After making us some weird snail pie…” He reminisced, disgust from the taste of gastropod tarts still on his tongue.
“No! Not that!” The other boy yelled, to which Blue put a finger over his mouth, trying to get him to quiet down. Yellow paid no mind to it. “After we left! When we fought the king! When we met Asgore!”
Blue gave him a look, his look of aggravation morphing into a look of confusion, mixed with concern.
“…Who’s Asgore?”
Yellow froze. Blue really didn’t remember. He’d been sent back.
He’d gotten another chance.
Yellow blinked, it all hitting him at once. He’d gotten another chance! He could protect Blue this time! He could get them out! He could save him!
Yellow shook his head, snapping himself out of his thoughts.
“N-No one. I just had a real bad dream, ‘s all…Don’t worry ‘bout it, Blue.” Yellow lied, his nerves only calming slightly. “‘M real sorry for wakin’ ya, y’can have my pie tomorrow! T’make up for it!”
Blue tilted his head. He didn’t believe Yellow all the way, that much was obvious. But he couldn’t put his finger on what was wrong.
That was for the best, Yellow thought. Blue didn’t need to know what’d happened. Only he did. He could deal with it all just fine, as long as Blue stayed safe.
“Alright…Please get some more rest when you can then. And no more head butting, please?” Blue teased, tapping Yellow on the nose playfully. Yellow blushed, his heart racing for a reason other than fear.
It felt so nice to have him back, after everything. To see his smile once more.
“I’ll try my best!”
Blue was satisfied with that answer, enough so that he laid back down, not taking long to go back to sleep. Yellow laid next to him, though he couldn’t sleep. He’d close his eyes, begin to lull off, and then…
The sound of Blues body dropping to the floor, the feeling of his breaths getting slower and slower against him, how cold he felt, how warm his blood was—
He was fine. He didn’t need to sleep that badly. He could get some more later.
𓍯
The next morning was casual. Toriel had made them butterscotch-cinnamon pancakes, claiming she’d accidentally poured the cinnamon mix into the butterscotch mixed, and decided that it would be better to serve it all as one. To the two boys’ surprise, the combination was better than just having one flavor alone. After adding some with whipped cream, they were sure they’d eaten heaven on a plate.
Blue had left, saying he wanted to practice another routine he’d seen on TV once. It hurt Yellow to decline his usual invitation to watch, even if he promised to be follow in a little bit.
For now, he had to confirm something.
“Uhm…Missus Toriel?” He asked, fidgeting with his hands as he stayed at the dinner table. Toriel, who’d been humming to herself as she picked up their plates, looked at him, an idle interest in her eyes.
“Oh! Yes, dear?” She asked, smiling at him. Yellow smiled back, it was just courtesy after all.
“Do…Do y’happen to know a fella by the name of Asgore?” He asked nervously, tipping his hat down. Toriel paused, looking so shocked she was about to drop the plates.
So he was right, then. He hadn’t made it all up.
“Who told you that name?” She questioned, her voice sterner than he’d ever heard it. Yellow flinched, shrinking away as he covered his whole face with his hat.
“One of them froggits, they told me!” He lied again. It felt wrong to lie, especially to rat someone out so shamelessly, but what was he to do? It was in the name of justice, in the name of saving Blue, he had to!
“Those little…I told them not to say a word about him…” Toriel muttered to herself under her breath, her eyes narrowed at nobody in particular. She seemed to remember Yellow was still there, and sighed. “Dear, why don’t you come with me in the kitchen? Help me wash the dishes, I’m sure Blue won’t mind all too much.” Yellow put his hat back on, and nodded, following the woman into the next room.
Yellow was good with washing dishes. He’d never had any siblings, but he had a lot of cousins, and his folks loved family reunions more than anything. It wasn’t uncommon for the entire family to come to his small little house, the children playing outside while the adults stayed in talking about a bunch of things the boy couldn’t hope to understand. After, his parents would often ask him to clean up. It didn’t feel quite fair, but it would be unjust to make a fuss about it, so he became the best dish scrubber that side of town at only thirteen.
“What did they tell you?” Toriel asked, her voice deflated. “About Asgore, I mean.”
Yellow stumbled over his words for a second, trying to find what seemed acceptable to get the result he needed. “Not much. They jus’ told me he’s th’king of this here place. I, uh, I jus’ wanted t’know if that’s true.”
Toriel sighed once more, pausing on the dishes to look at Yellow.
“Asgore, he…He is a horrible man.” She said, looking down. Memories of a time long past seemed to flood her brain, her usual comforting expression replaced with a somber grimace. “I didn’t want you two to know. I didn’t want to scare you both, but…If you get to him, he’ll kill you.”
Yellow flinched at her words. He knew she wasn’t lying. He knew all too well.
“Has anyone ever gotten past ‘im?” Yellow asked. “On the surface, there’s uh, a few kids that everyone thinks went missin’ down here too. Did they get past ‘im?”
Toriel shook her head. A pit formed in Yellows stomach. He felt ill.
“I’m sorry for scaring you, my dear. I simply don’t want anything bad to happen to either of you.” Toriel said, pulling the boy into a side hug. Yellow leaned into it. “I know it may be selfish of me to ask, but would you stay with me? I know I do not have much, but I would try my best to make the both of you happy.”
Yellow shook his head softly. “I can’t, ‘m sorry ma’am.” It hurt to say, but it was true. “I gotta…We gotta get home. ‘M real sorry.”
Toriel hugged him tighter. She understood, even if it upset her.
“Then, I have to ask…”
Yellow looked up at her.
“When you two leave…Please, do not come back.”
Yellow nodded.
“We won’t.”
Yellow left the kitchen soon after, going to his and Blues shared room. Blue had his hands on his hips, playfully asking what took him so long. Yellow half-fibbed, saying he’d gotten caught up with helping Toriel with the dishes. Blue had rolled his eyes, saying that he supposed he could forgive him.
Yellow watched as Blue went through the motions of his dance, occasionally tripping or messing up a step, to which Blue would huff or groan and start it all over again, Yellow didn’t mind any of that though. It was just nice to see him again.
𓍯
The two left only a day after, mostly on Yellows pushing. He didn’t want to leave Toriel so quickly, not with how kind she was, not with how much Blue seemed to enjoy her company, but they had to. Yellow refused to let himself get too comfortable in routine. It’s what had led them astray last time. It’s why they’d died.
At the very least, Snowdin wasn’t bad to visit again. Yellow had been sure to take off his vest beforehand, giving it to Blue the second they’d stepped into the town.
“How did you know I was cold?” Blue asked, hugging himself to retain more heat. “Oh, jus’ a hunch’.” Yellow grinned smugly. “N’ the fact y’were shakin’ harder than a leaf in a hurricane.”
Blue pushed Yellow playfully. Yellow laughed before he tripped over a snow covered rock, falling into the fluffy snow.
“Yellow! Are you okay?” Blue asked, leaning over him. Yellow held out his hand wearily, waiting until Blue took his hand to pull him into the snow with him. Blue yelped as he fell face first into the snow, Yellow having to hold himself as he laughed at the other boy. “HAH! I gotcha good!”
Blue glared at him, pouncing on him. “You jerk! I thought you were hurt!” He said, though his smile betrayed his faux-anger. “Yer the jerk for pushin’ me!” Yellow argued, his smile starting to hurt his cheeks.
The two boys rolled around in the snow, giggling with each other as they dirtied themselves. They only got up once Blue started to sneeze, and they realized that getting sick and getting out of the underground didn’t exactly pair well together.
Speaking of, Yellow knew that they’d have to stock up on more food if they wanted any chance of getting out. Those cinnamon buns were mighty yummy, but the bisicles did take up less space in their crummy little bag. Even if they did usually end up melting…
Yellow grabbed a big handful of goods, Blue following him out of the shop.
“That should be enough t’hold us over ‘til we get to that waterfall place…” Yellow thought aloud. Blue raised a brow. “Waterfall place?” He questioned. Yellow jumped.
“Ah! Nothin’, just uh…” Yellow shoved the items into their bag, trying to think of a good excuse.
“How did we even have enough to afford all of that, actually?” Blue asked separately, peering at everything Yellow picked up. Yellow thanked whatever god there was that he had the opportunity to change the subject.
“Oh, I’unno. I mean, I thought y’did all’at calculating stuff. That’s how we did it last time.” Yellow nearly slapped himself. How’d he mess up again?
“What do you mean last time? We’ve never been here before?” Blue tried to pry, stepping closer. Yellow looked away. “Also, I didn’t pay for that, I thought you would have?”
“Whuh? I ain’t pay for this.” Yellow stated. Blue blinked. Yellow blinked. They stared blankly at each other.
Fuck.
“Did we just—“ Before Blue could finish his realization, they heard a cry come from the store.
“Those humans stole from me! Someone, call the royal guard!” The lagomorph monster shouted, making the duo flinch. Unfortunately for the two of them, two guard members seemed to have already been taking their break inside of the shop, jumping out and pointing their swords at the two.
“W-Wait, we didn’t mean to!” Blue pleaded, but Yellow wasn’t about to wait around to try and explain. He grabbed Blues wrist, running off as fast as his legs could take him.
“Yellow, wait, we have to—“ Blue was cut off when Yellow ducked behind a house, covering the boys mouth with his hand. He watched as the guards ran off past them. Blue grabbed Yellows palm once they left, shoving it away.
“Yellow, what’s wrong with you?!” Blue whisper-shouted, trying not to alert the officers who were surely still looking for them. “We could have explained it to them! Now we’re on the run from monster-cops!”
“I-I’m sorry okay! I didn’t want ya to get hurt, and they had weapons—“ Yellow stuttered, feeling tears prick in his eyes once more. First a liar, and now a criminell?! How horrible could he be? He shoved his hands in his face, wiping his tears. “‘M sorry Blue, I jus’ made a bigger mess…”
Blues face softened seeing Yellows tears, sighing. He opened his arms, and Yellow dove in for a hug, tears streaming down his face.
“It’s okay, I know you didn’t mean to.” Blue said, patting Yellows back as he sniffled. “We’ll just have to try and reason with them later. I’m sure you didn’t take that much.”
Yellow pulled away, tears still streaming down his face. “I got a lot so…I think I had ‘bout ten cinnamon buns, and sixteen bisicles…?”
Blue went silent, evidently taken aback.
“That…Is a lot more than we have in gold, Yellow.”
“I know, ‘m sorryyyyyy…”
“Let’s just…Try not to eat any of them until then, alright? I think that’s how store policies work…Hopefully monster store policies are the same.”
Yellow nodded, wiping his face, determination settling in his veins from Blues words.
They were going to get out of this.
𓍯
The two humans snuck out of waterfall, ducking behind corners and avoiding the eyes of the residents. Waterfall, thankfully, was significantly less populated than Snowdin. And if the news of their thievery had spread in this area, the people around certainly didn’t care.
The two stayed on their guards, looking out for every noise that seemed even the slightest bit too suspicious. And for two paranoid middle schoolers, that was in fact every noise they heard.
“Maybe they moved on?” Blue whispered. “I would assume they have something better to do rather than chasing us down…”
“I…” Yellow trailed off, unsure. Everyone had been so nice the first go around, what about the second? Why would that change? Sure, they’d made a small mistake, but it was just a few sweets. They couldn’t be that mad…He hoped.
“…Hey Blue, y’wanna see somethin’ nifty?” Yellow said with a smile, pointing at an echo flower. Blue let out a small ‘hm?’ prompting Yellow to take his hand, leading him to the plant. They kneeled in front of it.
“When ya say somethin’ to this plant, people say it’ll say it right back.” He said under his breath, “Watch this.”
“Blues th’best dancer ‘ve ever seen.”
Blue blushed, head twisting to look at Yellow. Yellow smiled back, his own cheeks reddening.
It only took a few seconds for the flower to respond. Its speech was a bit warbled, its stem moving as it ‘spoke.’
“Blues th’best dancer ‘ve ever seen.”
Blue looked on in amazement, eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree. The other looked back at him, proud of his little stunt.
“How did you know that?” Blue asked, more from awe than suspicion.
“Err, uh…Missus Toriel told me!” Yellow answered. Blue looked back at the flower, poking it, prompting it to repeat its speech. He looked on in wonder.
That’s what I’m after, Yellow thought. That smile there.
“Did you…Do you really mean that?” Blue asked, his smile gentle, a little trepidatious.
“‘Course I do.” Yellow replied. “Yer the best darn ballerina I ever did see.”
Blue looked away, and even in the cyan lighting of the waterfall, Yellow could tell the others face had flushed more. “I think you’re the best cowboy I’ve ever seen, then.” Blue said, his hand covering his mouth. Yellows face heated up, and he found himself having to look away, pulling his hat down.
Their moment was halted by a shout down the hallway, the two boys whipping their heads to see one of the guards pointing at them. They gave each other a quick look before Blue grabbed Yellows hand, forcing him to stay in place. They stood up, backing away nervously from the guard as the other stepped in.
“You two are the humans who stole from that store, aren’t you?” He questioned, clearly rhetorical. Yellows grip on Blues hand tightened, Blue returned the motion.
“Yes, b-but it was an accident. We really hadn’t noticed, we’d be open to—“
“Twenty-six items of stolen merchandise was an accident?” The other guard pressed, flashing his sword. Yellow took another step back.
“We just had a bit of a miscommunication between the both of us…Like I was saying, we’re willing to return the items if that would help, or pay if we can!” Blue tried once more. The first guard scoffed, pointing his sword at the two. Their hands got clammy in each other’s grasps.
“Don’t try and fool us, human scum. We know the second you get the opportunity, you’ll run off with those goods. Don’t you know how hard that lady works to make those pastries for all of us?” He took a step, the sword nearly poking Blues chest. Blue tried to stutter out a response, something about it all being a big misunderstanding, but Yellow wasn’t going to sit around while they threatened them.
Yellow turned on his heel, dragging Blue off once more. This time Blue didn’t fight it, sprinting along with Yellow. The guard yelled at them to get back, and they could hear the clanking of metal as they followed the boys, but Yellow wouldn’t stop if his life depended on it. And it did, actually.
Blue followed Yellows lead as he led them through rooms, making sharp turns around each corner. He ran into a small room, skidding into it, only to be met with a dead end.
“No, no…” Yellow muttered. Blue held onto his arm, not saying anything, but he knew the situation they were in. “Nononono, I thought, last time—“
The two looked behind them when the guards stepped in, their larger shadows obscuring the natural light that shone in the rooms. Yellow tried to stand in front of Blue, protecting him with his body, but the effect was in vain. One grabbed Yellow by the hem of his shirt, while the other yanked Blue by the arm. The two guards wrapped their arms around the humans, obstructing any way they could leave. Yellow struggled in the guards grasp, kicking and cursing at the monster.
“Didn’t know humans were so fast, I swear that gave me a workout.” The one holding Yellow huffed, irritated. Yellow glared at the guard holding Blue, brows furrowed deeply. The guard holding Blue tilted his head at the boy, an idea suddenly popping up in his mind.
“Hey, I bet if we get these souls to Asgore, he’ll give us a real great reward, huh?” One said. The two boys froze at the words, ice filling their veins. Yellow struggled harder in the guards grasp, but it was for naught.
“Oh yeah, he would, wouldn’t he?” The other said, and they could hear the grin in his voice. “I mean they’re already thieves, they’ve prolly killed a few monsters too. That’s all humans do, after all.”
“Th-That was an accident! Please, you have to believe me!” Blue yelled, unable to hide the fear in his voice. “And we haven’t killed anyone! You can ask anybody, honest!”
“Tch, as if.” The guard holding Blue pulled a dagger out of his holster. “Like we’d take that chance.”
Blue looked at the dagger, then at Yellow. Yellow wasn’t sure if he’d ever seen the other look so hopeless. He hated it. He hated himself for being the cause of it.
“Blue—“
“Yellow, I—“
Blue gasped as the dagger stabbed him in the chest, eyes widening. Yellow couldn’t do anything but stare in horror as the guard dropped the dagger, reaching into the other boys chest. Blue screamed, a horrible, horrible sound, which turned into a weak exhale once the guard pulled his out his soul, the blue heart beating weakly.
Yellow hadn’t realized he’d begun to cry. He didn’t even know if he was breathing anymore.
“Geez, gnarly dude.” The other winced, not paying attention to the catatonic human in his grip. Yellow stared at Blues limp body.
It was all his fault, all his fault, all his fault.
Yellow didn’t hear what the guards were saying. It didn’t matter, nothing did.
He felt a cold metal press against his head. A gun, surely. He vaguely heard something about the guard saying how this was clearly more humane, the other scoffing in response.
His hands balled into fists. Rage filled his veins, pulsing through his body like red hot blood. He mumbled something that he wasn’t even aware he’d said.
“Eh, whuzzat?” The guard holding him asked.
“‘M gonna kill ya.”
The guards paused. Yellow looked back at him, his brows furrowed, his whole frame shaking. But he knew he meant what he said. He meant it more than he’d meant anything before.
“‘M gonna come back, n’ ‘m gonna be stronger, n’ then ‘m gonna kill both of ya.”
The guard holding him gave him a look through his helmet, the other laughing nervously.
“Whatever, kid.”
Yellow gritted his teeth, fists balled so hard they began to hurt.
He didn’t feel the shot for more than a second, but somewhere, deep down, his rage still burned deep inside, like an untamable flame.
𓍯
𓇢
𓄼
✦
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