A/N: Hiya! So, you may be noticing that quite a bit has changed about this thing. Well, that's because I'm very soon going to be posting more stuff again! Yeah, basically, when I do one thing, it usually means another new thing is just around the corner. Anyway, you're probably wondering about the new name of this story. Well, let me answer that by saying that I don't want to explain EVERYTHING just yet, but all will be explained in good time. Just know that the new title is important and a bit of an allusion to a very large future project. So, yeah, this is also now a multi-chapter story, not just a one-shot. Yep, this'll be a collection of one-shots that I write for Asriel and Chara during their lifetime in the Underground, because there is not NEARLY enough of cute family stuff with them in the fandom. Anyway, that's enough rambling for now, so let's get started!

...

We're a Family

…

"Hmm… No, that's too dark…" Asriel Dreemurr hummed softly to himself as he happily started coloring the picture he had been drawing. He lay on his stomach on the plushy carpet in the living room of his home, his large ears touching the ground on account of how close his head was to the floor. His legs were crossed comfortably as he stared intently at the different crayons he had laid out in front of him, trying to decide which color to use for what.

The little goat child lightly scratched his chin in thought with a tiny claw, then pushed the sleeves of his favorite green and yellow striped shirt up to his shoulders before he finally picked up a crayon, so they wouldn't get in the way of his handiwork. A little smile started to form on his face, revealing the little fangs that had recently started slowly growing large enough to be visible. Now that he had decided on the colors, he could finish his picture fairly quickly.

From how he was so laser-focused on the piece of paper in front of his face, it was as if he was all alone in the room. But, despite how he single-mindedly focused on his drawing, he wasn't coloring alone. Right next to him, lying in the same position as he was, was his adoptive sibling, Chara the human, whom had been living with him and his parents for several weeks.

As they colored their own picture, Chara seemed equally as focused as Asriel, and had the sleeves of their shirt, which was very similar to Asriel's, pushed up slightly so they didn't bother them while they were finishing their drawing. Despite the both of them wearing jeans, (Asriel wearing blue and Chara wearing brown) the carpet was soft enough to keep both of them comfortable as they worked. Chara seemed to be enjoying themself as much as Asriel was.

To be quite honest, Asriel didn't know that much about Chara. He knew that Chara had run away from their old home for some reason… and had ended up falling into the Underground. He could still perfectly picture the day they had first met in his mind's eye…

Flashback

"Do not wander away too far, Asriel," Asgore, Asriel's father called out to him as he started walking out of sight of their home. Hearing his father's slight worry, he turned around and called back.

"Don't worry, dad! I'm just going for a walk!" he cheerfully notified his father. From his position, he could vaguely see his father give a slight nod before he responded.

"Very well," Asgore agreed, seeing no harm in a small walk. "Just be back in time for dinner, Asriel, or you know how your mother worries!"

"I will, dad!" Asriel beamed, waving a paw 'goodbye' as he turned back around and began his walk. Before he left what counted as the 'front yard' of Home, he stopped in front of the young tree sapling that his father was trying to raise healthy and strong. However, although it appeared to be healthy by all means, whenever it grew any leaves, they would never stay for very long, and fall off fairly soon. Asriel recalled his father telling him it was most likely caused by the lack of sunlight in the Underground.

Asriel didn't know much about sunlight, or gardening, so he trusted his father's judgment in the matter. He decided he had best get going on his way so he could finish his walk before his mom started to worry, but before moving on, he knelt down to the little sapling and gave a gentle pat to the ground under which the roots of the young tree lay.

"Hang in there, okay?" Asriel said to the sapling and gave it an encouraging smile, even though he knew it would be unable to give a response. Still, he liked to imagine that plants appreciated words of encouragement as much as monsters. For all he knew, they actually might.

With that out of the way, Asriel went on past the tree to go further into the Ruins. He found it very fun to go through the puzzles that the Ruins had to offer. Occasionally, he would could across a resident monster or two. Every time he met one, he would eagerly try to talk with them, only to be met with the same nervous excuses to leave every single time.

He never felt offended by this, just disappointed. He knew that although his parents were respected monarchs who were loved by their people, most—if not all—monsters would be all too nervous to speak to him on a personal level. He understood that speaking with a prince would make most anyone uncomfortable, but it did make him very lonely.

The only ones he knew who would treat him like a person rather than a future monarch were his parents, a turtle monster named Gerson, and the royal scientist, Dr. W. D. Gaster. Aside from them, Asriel had no real friends. He wished he could have at least one friend to play with.

"Ugh, come on, Asriel, stop thinking about that," Asriel sighed to himself, shaking his head. He took a moment to survey exactly where he was. He was quite close to the edge of the Underground. He played around with the switch puzzle for a bit before growing bored. Not to mention, he was getting hungry. "Guess I better head back soon." He turned around to head back towards his familiar home, but made not three steps back before he stopped abruptly in his tracks, his right ear twitching for a moment.

"…help…" a faint voice could just barley be heard calling out, like a whisper on the wind.

"Huh? Did I hear a voice just now?" Asriel asked himself, tilting his head curiously. Silencing himself, he closed his eyes and concentrated hard on the background noise to see if he would hear it again. Despite his ears being of the floppy variety, he still had an impressive amount of movement control over them and could lift the bases up enough to take in more ambiance.

"…h…help me…" the voice called again. Asriel gasped as he opened his eyes again. Someone needed help! Being the future king, he couldn't very well just ignore someone in need! Even if it did result in being late for dinner and facing the wrath of his mother's worry. Some good deeds did have consequences, after all. But despite the risk involved, Asriel rushed off in the direction the echoed voice had come from.

"Hello?!" he called out as he ran as fast as his legs could carry him. His feet may as well have been flying underneath him. "Where are you?!" As he ran, he frantically glanced about in every direction to see if he could spot the troubled person.

"…someone there…?" the voice responded, becoming louder and gradually discernable. Asriel gasped happily to himself at the fact that he got a response, and increased his running speed now that he knew how far away the voice was.

"Yeah!" Asriel yelled back to the voice. "Stay where you are! I'm coming to help you!" It wasn't long before he reached the very end of the ridiculously large cavern, and found none other than a human child laying on their stomach, holding their head as if in pain. Once the shock of seeing a real, live human wore off on him, Asriel dashed to help the wounded child.

Asriel helped the child onto their feet, and offered to take them back to his home so that his parents could help them. The child smiled at him, introducing themself as Chara. Asriel, in turn, introduced himself, but decided to wait to tell them that he was royalty, and focused instead on getting them to New Home. When he did, the look of surprise on his father's face to see a human had been expected.

When he explained to his parents that Chara was injured, and had no place to stay, he asked them if they could, in addition to helping them heal, let her stay with them, if they wanted to. Chara seemed very surprised at this offer, and even more so when Asriel's parents happily agreed that they could take Chara in, if they wanted to stay with their family. Surprised as they were, Chara accepted their offer, giving Asriel a grateful smile while they sincerely thanked him and called him, much to his secret delight, friend.

End of Flashback

"Asriel," Chara called to him, snapping him out of his reminiscent thoughts as he turned his head towards them. "How is your picture coming?"

"Take a look!" Asriel answered cheerily, holding his drawing up so they could see it. It was a golden flower with six petals, just like Chara had described as the special ones from their village, with the bright sun and the blue sky in the background, and a snail slowly crawling up the stem. "What do you think?"

"Very nice," Chara smiled. They took a close look at the drawing. "You missed a spot on the snail's shell."

"Oh!" Asriel looked at the picture and realized Chara was right. He hastily put the paper back on the floor and quickly colored in the missing space on the shell. "Thanks for catching that. How's yours?" Still smiling, Chara pushed their picture closer to where Asriel could see it, then began explaining.

"It's your family!" Chara exclaimed happily. From left to right, they had drawn Asgore, Asriel, and Toriel all standing together, all smiling. "See, there's mom, and dad, and that's you in the middle!" Asriel couldn't keep a large smile from forming on his face, from both the fact that he was flattered he and his parents had been the subject of Chara's latest drawing, and the accuracy of the drawing. It was stunning just how skillful Chara was at drawing.

"Aw, cool!" Asriel complimented, then blinked in confusion. He looked carefully again at the picture, searching for something missing… but couldn't find it.

"What's wrong?" Chara asked, worried that Asriel didn't like something about their drawing.

"Um, nothing," Asriel assured, picking the picture up to have a closer look. "But… if it's a picture of me and my family…" He put the picture back on the floor so he could look at Chara. "…then where are you?" Chara blinked, caught off guard slightly from Asriel's question.

"What do you mean?" they asked.

"Well, you're an important part of my family, too, you know," Asriel answered matter-of-factly. "And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Mom and Dad love you, you know. You're my best friend." Chara stared at him, speechless.

"But, Asriel…" Chara began quietly, looking away from him. "Why don't you hate humans, Asriel? They have hurt you and your people so much… It's because of them that you all have no idea what the outside world is like… I can't stand that I am a part of that species…"

"Chara, don't say that!" Asriel reassured, his smile never leaving his face. "Sure, some humans might be mean, but I'm sure there must be nice ones, too! And besides, I don't care that you're human! Whether you're a human or a monster or whatever, you'll always be my best friend! Remember when I gave you that locket?" Asriel pointed to the gold colored heart-shaped locket that had 'Best Friends Forever' written on it that Chara wore. They had promised that they would always cherish it, because it was not only a symbol of their friendship, but of their trust and acceptance.

"Yes, I remember," Chara answered, clasping a hand around the pendant. "You monsters… you're all so different from humans… so compassionate." They smiled again. "You don't deserve to be trapped down here… But, you may be right. Perhaps it isn't wise to blame humanity for everything." Taking their hand off their locket, they picked up several crayons and started adding something to their drawing. Asriel tried to see what they were doing, but had a hard time seeing their picture from his position. When they finished, Chara moved the drawing back towards Asriel so he could see their change. Asriel pulled the picture closer to see it better. He smiled when he saw what Chara had added. In between his parents in the drawing, right next to him, Chara had drawn themself, with an expression as happy as the rest in the picture.

"Perfect," Asriel chuckled as he held the piece of paper.

"Picture perfect," Chara added in jokingly as they smiled along with him. With a sigh, they decided to talk a little more. "Thank you, Asriel. You're one of those people who just gives others hope… just like a sunrise."

"What does a sunrise look like?" Asriel decided to ask, having never seen one before.

"It's… kind of hard to put into words," Chara tried to explain. "But if we ever get out of here, I'll show you one, okay?"

"Promise?" Asriel asked hopefully.

"Promise," Chara decided after thinking it over a moment. Contented, Asriel smiled and pulled out a blank sheet of paper to begin a new drawing. Doing the same, Chara made a second promise to Asriel in their mind. Asriel… Someday… I will get all of you—you and all of your people—out of this place. I promise, brother.

…

A/N: Welp, here we go. Whew, I'm so glad to finally have this fixed, you would not BELIEVE! Anyway, expect the next chapter soon, like sometime in the middle of next week or something. Also, YES, I'm using the term 'themself', without giving a darn about every dictionary saying that it's not a real word. Well, tough break, you stupid Internet! It's a word NOW! We made it up, so it's official on this channel! However, in addition to all this good news, I unfortunately have a bit of slightly bad news, too. See, my Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh! Crossover story will soon be taken down, BUT it's not what you think! It's not cancelled! I just need to make some changes to the 'series schedule', if you get what I'm saying. This is important news, so I just figured I'd say it here. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this fluffy little chapter, and I hope you come back for more. I'll be updating the other stuff, too, so keep an eye out for that. The next one I hope to update is Vulpix Tale. The second chapter is very close to being done, so hopefully I won't get "writer's funk" again. (That's a new term I made up to describe the time when I just don't feel like writing.) Okay, that's all I wanted to say, I think, so see you next time! BraviaryGirl7 out!