Chara, Frisk and Asriel strolled around the local lake. The winter sun lazed over the horizon, turning everything white, and fog creeped over the banks and on to the footpath and frosty grass.
Chara shoved their hands into their jacket pockets and tried to stick their head into the synthetic fluff of their collar, like a turtle. Walks were good for them, all of them, but this early? In winter? It was better than nothing at all (though they wouldn't admit that, they had some pride), but this was egregious.
Frisk held out their arm and brought them to a halt. "Look!" they whispered, and pointed to a patch of grass.
A little of family of grass parrots, emerald patriarch surrounded by his olive queen and children, grazed and kept a very watchful eye on them.
Frisk grinned like Pyrope, those with less sharp teeth.
That was one advantage of really cold walks, Chara guessed. If you got out before the dog walkers scared them off, there'd still be birds in their noisy, flock-y glory. Chara didn't care much for the birds, but Frisk's grin? That was worth freezing their fingers off.
Asriel flipped his hood down.
Chara turned their head around to double check. Yep, he'd taken his hood down. It was below zero, and he'd put his hood down. Chara shoulder-bumped him, while still trying to stay curled up in their jacket. "Too hot for you, huh?"
"No-" Asriel rubbed the back of his neck, fluffing up the fur there. "I mean, it keeps my ears warm when it's up, but I like the weight on the back of my neck, too?" He shrugged. "It's just a thing."
And I hadn't noticed yet? I must be getting slack in old age strike and safety. "You'll get chillblains."
The grass parrots, finally past their limit of being near humans, flew off, and the trio started walking again.
"I know," said Asriel.
"On the inside of your ears."
Asriel sighed. "I know."
Frisk chimed in with a cheeky grin. "You'll get frostbite."
Asriel didn't bother replying, just raised an eyebrow in Frisk's direction.
"You'll lose half of each ear," Chara said. "Toriel would be horrified."
Asriel chuckled. He held a paw to his forehead, like an actress about to faint. "I know." He sighed overdramatically. "If only I could have my hood both up and down. Alas, I must live with only half my ears and a horrified mother."
Frisk giggled first. Then Asriel. Then they were all cackling as they walked, scaring off a flock of crested pigeons.
Chara stopped knitting, and tried to hear the conversation at the door. They couldn't even quite make out what Asriel was saying, let alone the person on the other side of the door. Something something signature? They were about to give up and start knitting again, when the door closed.
Asriel walked out of the atrium carrying a large cardboard box. "Guess who's got mail!" He set it down on the dining table, and sliced through the tape with a claw.
Frisk turned around on the couch to face him. "Who?"
Asriel leaned over and cocked his head, trying to read the label he'd just cut through. "All of us, it looks like. They had trouble fitting all of our names on the address line though."
Chara came over to investigate, Frisk following them. "Who's it from?"
"T Dreemurr. Do we know a T Dreemurr? Do I have a long lost uncle or something?"
"Toriel Dreemurr?" Chara suggested.
"Oh, right. I'm not used to her using her last name." Asriel opened the flaps of the box.
Chara and Frisk leaned around him to see inside. The box contained another smaller box from Asgore (Frisk yanked it out and busied themselves peeling the tape off) and a neatly stack set of loose sheaf papers and spiral bound books.
Chara took the first sheet off the top. It was a picture of a fruit basket and a pie, done in coloured pencil. They flipped it over. "Hey, look, Frisk! It's one of yours. I can tell because it's got a date on the back."
"It's also got their name on it," said Asriel.
Chara grinned. "Shush, you."
Frisk held up a drawing. "This yours, Chara."
Chara took it out of Frisk's hands. It looked like a half-stick figure kid throwing some flowers in the air? It was hard to tell, what with the poor drawing skill and the, uh, lurid colours. "Probably? If it's bad and has flowers in it, it's most likely mine."
Asriel leaned over to get a look at the drawing. "Hey, I remember when we did this. Dad had found some rainbow pencils, the ones with lots of colours in the one lead, in Waterfall. We had so much fun with those! Well, at least I did."
Frisk made a noise that sounded like it meant 'I can tell.' They picked up another drawing from the Asgore box, and cocked their head in confusion.
Asriel looked over at them. "Hmm?"
Frisk turned it round and held it up for them.
It was the most rainbow thing Chara has seen, even more than their flower drawing. It was more rainbow than they'd remembered, and they remembered it being pretty rainbow. The sky was teal-navy-royal blue streaks with big red-orange-green stars. Right in the middle was a white figure wearing blue-purple-pink robes. Underneath, each letter written with a different multi coloured pencil, was " ABSOLUTE GOD OF HYPERDEATH." They raised their eyebrows, and turned towards Asriel.
Asriel look stunned at the drawing. "Wow."
There was a moment of awkward silence, as Chara and Frisk remembered the time they'd literally fought Asriel's Marty Stu (which was significantly less rainbow than the drawing, somehow), and Asriel remembered fighting his sibling as his Marty Stu.
Chara considered making a joke to fill the silence and lighten the mood, but decided against it. While The God of Hyperdeath was a more acceptable gallows humour topic than a certain flower that should not be mentioned, it was borderline. As far as they could tell, jokes along the lines of 'Haha, your Marty Stu was ridiculous' were okay, but 'Haha, you absorbed the souls of the entire underground and tried to kill your friends' wasn't. They drew a blank on any jokes about The God of Hyperdeath's ridiculousness. Well, they drew a blank on any jokes funnier than the drawing. (Oh Absolute-God-of-Hyperdeath was that thing eye burning.)
Chara turned back, and looked at the picture at again. There was something on the drawing they couldn't quite make out- "What's that?" They pointed at the picture. "Around the shoulder area?" Their index fingers made small circles around it.
"Two hoods, I think," said Asriel. "You know how kids are. 'One hood is cool, but I bet two hoods would be the COOLEREST'"
Frisk giggled, and turned the paper round to see the hoods.
Two hoods... It'd be awkward to sew together, and knitting for Asriel was always difficult, but maybe... It should stop Asriel from complaining about chillblains in his ears, at least.
Chara skulked towards the craft shop, hunched over. Partially to keep their neck in synthetic fluff, and partially- Well, old habits die hard. Especially around humans.
Too many humans come out to shop on Saturdays. Too many humans came out of their house each day. And they included themselves in that number. They wanted to curl up into the foetal position and roll their way over to the craftshop. Pity they couldn't.
At least the craft shop was monster owned, and had mostly monster customers. Old habits die hard for monsters too, and most monsters grew up having to patch and repair everything they wore, or make new clothes out of odds and ends from the dump. So many still patched and mended and made, but many also loved the choice they got at an actual store.
Chara did too. They opened the door to the store, and a little bell chimed when the door hit it. Clean wool and cotton filled racks to overflowing, and working sewing machines stood in box piles in one corner. Another wall: Not broken pens and pencils and hooks and needles. Another: Paper and sketchbooks in all sorts of colours, that hadn't been drawn on. The store was a cornucopia of things in good working order, way better than you'd find at a garbage dump.
The shopkeep waved. "Hey, Chara."
Chara stood straighter as soon as he heard her voice, with her underground accent that never quite went away. "Hello, Basilbun."
"We just got a new pattern book in stock! Seems like it's the sort of thing you'd like." Basilbun rummaged behind the counter and held up a book.
Chara walked up closer to read the title. The Loom Knitter's Book of Dog Sweaters. It was the sort of thing they'd like... "I'd better hold off. Until I've got a dog to knit for."
Basilbun nodded, and put the book back. "Well, you know your way around here, so I'll let you get to it. But if you have any trouble finding something, just give me a yell, 'kay?"
"Will do." Chara grabbed a plastic basket and walked over to the wool section. They ran their fingers along the wire racks as the looked. Green? No. Teal. No. Pastel pink? No. Purple- They stopped in front of that rack. It was the exact shade. Toriel purple. God of Hyperdeath purple. They checked the price. Not too bad, actually. They started flinging it into the basket. Anything that could fit Asriel would need a lot of wool.
Satisfied with teetering pile in their basket, Chara looked for wrapping paper. The pink and gold star one might work? The rainbow one could too. Chara eeny meeny miney moed at the two for a bit, then stopped. It had to be the rainbow. The wrapping had to compete with the drawing in luridness. (Not win, of course, just compete. Nothing could beat that drawing in luridness.)
Chara walked over to the counter, and was just about to unload the contents of their basket when something caught their eye. A packet of multi colour pencils, each lead with three different colour, in a huge range of colours and combination. Cheap as chips too. Perfect stocking filler. Well, jumper filler. They grabbed it and put on the counter, and then started taking the wool out in great armfuls.
Basilbun swept the wool through the barcode scanner, and into a plastic bag. "That's... a lot of wool."
"I'm making a jumper for Asriel, so-"
Basilbun paused mid sweep. "Are you sure it's enough then?"
Chara shrugged. "If I run out, I can get more from here."
Basilbun cocked her head. "But, it is wool-"
"-And wool gets discontinued-" Chara finished.
They both stopped, and stared at each other for a second.
"I should get more," Chara said.
"Good idea."
Chara returned with a basketful of wool.
When all was said and done, Chara walked out with five bags of wool (plus pencils and wrapping paper) and a spring in their step. As much as spring in their step as they could have while running a gauntlet of humans.
Asriel was going to love this gift.
Asriel washed the menthol-y ointment off his hands, turned the tap off, and shook them dry. His ears tingled from the gunk, and his ears smelled medicated and weird. He scrunched his nose up. Darn chillblains.
He patted his hands down with a tea towel to get the last of the dampness off, and poked his head through the kitchen door.
A Mettaton cooking show played on the TV. He seemed to be making some sort of meringue? It was hard to tell with all the dramatic posing going on.
Frisk watched, rapt, while listing down steps in a notebook.
Chara didn't seem to be paying much attention. They sat cross legged on the couch, knitting something purple on their loom.
Asriel stepped into the living room, and stopped behind and to the right of Chara.
The hook made a rhythmic tap-tap-tap as Chara pulled the stitches over.
Asriel cocked his head, trying to work out what the purple thing was. He couldn't quite work it out. There was definitely some shaping involved, but the loom distorted the most recent stitches, obscuring the shape. It didn't help that Chara tended to knit things inside out and upside down anyway. "What'cha making?"
Chara paused to loop some wool over the pegs. "You'll see." They smiled a little bit, and started knitting again.
The pieces of purple fabric grew and grew (That thing is huge, Asriel thought), got cast off, and were placed in the project bag at an alarming rate.
Asriel could never quite tell what they were, even once they were finished. Rectangles with pieces missing, funny shaped circle, and at least two massive tubes? Asriel tried to fit them together, like a jigsaw puzzle, in his head. No combination made sense to him.
He'd sit next to Chara, TV on in the background, Frisk taking notes next to them during the cooking shows. He watched Chara, knitting away happily, and smile. Chara just looked so relaxed, and well- Every loose muscle was a treasure, with them.
And it was soothing a lean against the couch back, gentle tap-tap-tap next to him, and glance over to see how the fabric had grown.
One night, the project bag disappeared.
Chara sat on the lounge, still cross legged, and just watched the television?
They must have finished their project, I guess.
Asriel slid on to the couch. "Is it done?"
"I just need to sew. I can't do that while watching Mettaton cheesecake."
"Make cheesecake?" Frisk asked.
"No, be cheesecake."
Asriel sighed. "And you never told me what it was," he joked.
"You'll see it when it's done."
"Promise? "
Chara grinned, canines going over the bottom lip. "Promise."
Asriel walked inside, and kicked his shoes off into the shoe pile next to the door. He turned round, and walked into the combined dining-living room thing.
Chara's head poked over the top of the couch, and then darted back under.
The couch giggled.
Asriel raised an eyebrow. "Hey, Chara." He sidled in, keeping a close eye on the couch. Why would Chara fake-hide? (They couldn't actually be hiding, he wouldn't have seen them if they were really trying.) Something was happening.
A package sat on the dining table. A rainbow stripey package.
Asriel picked it up. The tag on it had "To The Absolute God of Hyperdeath" on it, written in multicoloured pencils. This was a joke. This was definitely Chara's sense of humour. He braced himself. Chara knew him enough not to blunder blindly into really sore spots, but... Asriel turned it over, and peeled off the tape cautiously. He reached in and pulled out an open, but complete, pack of multicolour pencils, each lead having three different colours. Must have been what Chara used to right the tag. He reached in again. A folded piece of purple knitting, like what Chara was knitting. Probably was what Chara was knitting. He unfolded it.
It was a hoodie, made to fit him. He held it by the arms, inspecting it. He turned it around. One hood, and then- "Two hoods!" He put the new hoodie back on the table, and ripped the one he was wearing off, avoiding getting it caught on his horns. He pulled new one over his head, flipped the first hood up, and kept the second one down as a comforting weight on the back of his neck.
Chara rested their chin on their hands, elbows on the back of the couch. "Like it?"
Asriel did a little twirl, grinning. "Definitely."
"Good, because I spent to long making it to have you not like it."
Asriel came to a stop, before he got dizzy. "Thank you."
Chara waved it off, and turned round to face the television. "No worries. I didn't want to have to explain to mother why you were missing a chunk of ear." They turned the tv on to Mettaton's cooking program.
Asriel grinned wider, and slid on to the couch. "Still, thanks."