A/N: I am cross posting from Ao3 early in the morning, so the spacing may be off and other tiny errors may appear. If so, they will be fixed within 24 hours and this top message removed to reflect that. Thanks for checking this out!

"A Name?"

The human child with skin and hair the color of chestnuts murmured the words, leaning their little body back in order to look up at a pair of tall and fluffy white goat-like persons who asked them such a kind question. It brought them joy to hear 'what is your name?' rather than 'what are you?' or screams of fear. The human's hair was in the way of their eyes until their hand brushed it aside to reveal they were the color of fresh roses. Their eyes shimmered as they considered the question... And found the answer, but the human was fond of the adorable features above them.

They stared for a moment longer before they answered...

"We hadn't decided."

[Because of a promise]

…

…

…

"Asriel? Are you keeping your little sibling awake?" A pair of goats had a child, but just like that, overnight, they had a pair of children and they required twice the attentive ear of one. The mother was the sterner figure of the two. The father, who was much taller, watched from behind her, curious of the dim red light peeking through the door she'd so carefully cracked open.

"No," Asriel wasn't the one to answer. The human child sat directly at the center of the room in the middle of a symbol of protection. Their back was turned and hutched forward in a futile attempt to shield something...

"Then who are you talking to, dear? It's late, you're so small and need so much rest, you know?"

"To someone only I can hear." The child turned their body around, their eyes were round and full when they heard a fluffy foot pad against the rug in their new room. A glowing red heart sat in their hands. "We will go to bed soon," their voice was hushed and nervous when another step was taken toward them. Then another after another, they curled over the glowing source into a tight ball. "This is a human thing-" Once touched, the child laid on their side on the floor, the light obscured and then disappeared when they were picked up. Tears streamed down their face as they looked at the fluffy monsters concerned and... Frightened features.

"Do you want to stay with me on the sofa?" The small child gasped at the words, then tears fell down their cheeks. When they hiccuped, they were pulled into the goat's gentle warmth. "How about we go to the sofa? Hm?"

"Tori-"

"Shh-" She squinted at her husband to keep out and move out of the way. With the path cleared she closed the door and wandered away to the stairs. "We'll see you in the morning," and that was that. No ifs, ands nor baahs.

[In our heart]

…

…

"Augh…"

Falling out of bed was ruder than an alarm clock could ever strive to be. The fragile lanky human sat up to discover that he was at the center of the floor in his room he'd just dreamt about, and could see a bright light peeking from under old thick curtains from where he sat.

"...Huh?"

*You deal with the aftermath...

"Huh." Less confused this time. The human rose from the floor tall and aching, but he diligently walked over to the window and opened the blinds wide, his eyelids squinting shut as a result. "Ahh... I prefer less light than this..." Still, he persisted in waking up the tender solid body by examining his tossed and tangled bed sheets. If the sun was peaking so intensely... Maybe he had time to fix it? He did so, pulling the sheet up and even, followed by the comforter over top and straightening his damp pillow directly on top of the layers. He frowned. That...was a little gross. He rubbed the edge of his mouth with the back of his wrist, no crust... He'd sweated through the night.

He wandered to his drawer to rummage through folded clothing that had the scent of caring linen and the toasty fur of mom. His mother must've been here not too long ago with the warmth the clothing had. Jeans and underwear in one arm and a blue shirt with pink stripes in the other, he turned around to leave-

"You're awake on your own today! My, you're making quite the strides, dear!'

"..But... am I late?"

"Wha—Oh! No! Isn't that joyous?"

"...Do I have time to take a shower?"

"If you don't boil yourself in there, yes," she chuckled behind a fluffy hand.

"Now it's joyous." The human was genuinely happy to hear the news that not only was he not late, he had time to be less gross!

"You can count on me, you'll get to school on time! I want to hear about the look on Alphys' face! Shoo, shoo. We can talk in the car, okay? And do you want breakfast?"

"Anything I can take with me... Paces..." He answered and walked out of his room with some pep in his step. His knees still felt stiff on the way out, especially down stairs, but with every step his vessel felt truly attuned to its surroundings. He didn't stay in the shower for long before he heard the encouraging call of mom that he trusted. She was a better time keeper than he was. In the mirror he looked into his red eyes... As always, they were marred with dark circles. He brushed his hair right back over those tragic windows and strolled out the bathroom.

"Hurry! By walking it would be five minutes… But by car it should be five seconds! Get to school on time!" It appeared that mother-dearest was more excited to be on time than the high school student.

Peers... Peers were outside of the school and enjoying the weather. He did it. He made it. He achieved...

Punctuality.

His smile was short lived, though, for a number of reasons.

"Yo! You're here before we're all inside and seated? Nice! You even look a lot less annoyed than yesterday!" Monster Kid's words always moved faster than his, or anyone's minds could handle. Also importantly, his heart was always in the right place. Although all that the human teen gave in reply to his friendly peer was a nod and a small smile, that was enough for the start of Kid's day.

"I'm happy for you!"

Although the human felt worry and a small hollow something in the cavity of his ribs, he couldn't help but be filled with the warmth of happiness given to him by another.

"...Thanks." The sounds of the school bell had obscured his quiet deep voice, but from the look of his classmate, Kid had understood. The bells kept ringing for a lot longer than the human anticipated, even as students filled the building it rang and rang, like it was beckoning for all to arrive indoors. Interestingly enough, the literal ringing in his very human ears stopped once inside of the building...

*Carry on and take a seat.

Right... His shoes clicked uniquely behind the variable sounds of hooves, talons, and paws bustling through the room and into their seats. Alphys was always the first one here and usually, the last one out. Today was no different. Behind her desk and typing away, muttering a nervous 'good morning' a few times before it sounded like her voice could handle no more of that. The human related to her quietness and was patient for Alphys to come to, because that too, was relateable.

But relateable wasn't very... Distracting.

And although the human preferred the dim and artificial lighting of the classroom... Looking out the window would be a perfect classic distraction. He didn't feel like all of his energy was quite here yet to doodle, either with words or pictures... His new notebook was fresh seeing as he had accidentally left the old one in the library and another at home somewhere (he'll remember where later, hopefully). His eyes drifted to the door that almost everyone had come through.

...Will it open?

"Alphys aren't we supposed to get started? Everyone is here!" It was none other than Berdley's shrill voice asking the passive-aggressive question.

"Uh-" Alphys nervously looked at her class, then to the door, then upward at the clock and kept her eyes there. It was time to start seven seconds ago, but the clock no longer signaled that after a few encounters with Susie. "I-in a moment."

"Don't be so mean, everyone isn't here yet, Birdley..." Noelle's quiet voice politely followed after Alphys' answer.

When will it open?

"You mean to tell me she's still not expelled after yesterday?" The blue bird decided to challenge the gentle dear of the class. He openly couldn't understand how she was nice to everyone, even to those he believed she was clearly better than. He sought to correct and discourage her association to peers he believed to be a waste of time. His intent was awkwardly obvious to everyone.

"Shut up." The student who was dubbed 'momma's boy' had spoken up from the back of the classroom. Visibly tense with a frown twitching onto his face. The glare he had was shielded beneath his hair, but like a pointer, it was felt like a flick to the forehead.

"Oh." The instigator who stirred this pot was stunned for a moment, but he grudgingly squinted at the lone human who told him to shut up so rudely. "Don't think that your mom won't hear about her son's yesterday act or this morning's outburst." His beak displayed a smirk of confidence.

"Hey, hey, all this conflict is so unnecessary!" Alphys began by waving her arms as she flailed to the front of her desk. "Think of it as pre... Pre-break! Use it productively!" Alphys tried her best to fan the tension out of the air. "Yesterday's passed, and this morning hasn't officially started, so there's nothing to hear about."

Somehow, that actually worked. Had there been a visible meter, the class would be out of the red zone ready to peak and back into yellow that was a quarter full. There was stiffled giggles that were more nervous than humored, but worse, there were eyes from all directions on the slightly tense human who stared so intensely at the door. The human poured all of his hopes and optimistic energy into the direction of the door.

That very door then slammed open, and the clock hanging up above it fell and crashed face first into the floor.

"Cool. I beat the clock." Susie was the tallest and the strongest of the school body. There was theorized rumors that she was a Boss Monster despite her poor class performance. She had to look down at her teacher, and despite the little yellow lizard flinching at the simple passive action, the mauve dragon didn't falter like she would've the day before. "Thanks for waiting," she began before she motioned down to pick up the fallen clock. She could hear it ticking and it continued to as she put it on the edge of Alphys' desk. "It still works, so, there it is." She had a toothy grin when she turned around toward the class. Her eyes gleamed a golden light beneath her aubergine hair.

Susie felt a very positive energy flowing directly in her direction and couldn't help but bare her fangs in a wide smile that others would've felt pain in their cheeks to do. She wade her way through filled desks to the very back. Her empty stall was behind the human whose energy grew in her proximity. She sat down and gave her friend a thumbs up that was returned to her with two. Well, she had another hand so, she gave two back.

Tomorrow was now officially real, so This Morning could truly, truly begin.

"So..." Alphys started, rattling a box of chalk in her hand. "We have plenty of chalk this time! And that also means I can talk at you a lot less today and... Write down today what I wanted to yesterday. So uh... Imma do that. It'll...be a few minutes?" Alphys began with listing off each paired students for the group project due at the end of the month. Impressively, she wrote it down in order, to the very last two.

"Oh yeah, Kris."

*Do you clearly recall now ?

Kris nodded to himself before Susie nudged the back of her neighbor's arm with the clawed tip of her finger. "I forgot about that team thing. You remember what we're doing?"

"Ah... I never knew to start." He stiffled an amused laugh which appeared to be contagious. His new friend behind him did the same. Many eyes were still felt, so he looked over his shoulder to see Susie sticking out her fork tipped tongue at everyone. Ah.

He turned back around and did the same.

His cheeks then bloomed with warmth as he quietly laughed behind his hand. It was a pointless action, he was clearly laughing, blushing... and behind him was Susie loudly laughing with the purest honesty of anyone in the room. The various eyes now felt invisible to him shrouded in what felt like a toasty barrier.

"Ha ha... ha yeah, laughter's good for the soul, everyone, but look at the board, please! I used every color in the box! It can't be misunderstood! There's a color for everyone. Then I mimicked the style of impact in red for the deadline! Yellow high lights the really important instructions and white is literal flavor text! Be sure to not skip too much, lore can prove to be helpful you in this month long quest!" Alphys nervously looked around the room. She wanted to be done, she wanted everything to be done... she wanted to go back to the safety of her computer.

"S-so rather than move your desks and chairs around, um... Get out and make magic out of your project! T-take utmost care! S-show off your problem solving and independence skills! See you in two days..! As in Monday! Bye!"

*The luck that you always had came through... Glad to be apart of it.

He did feel quite lucky—and excited too. It was like ever since the battle against the King and the moment his soul shined on Susie, he felt synchronized to her moods? She was the first one out of her seat and her desk bumped into the back of his chair. He didn't even have to get out of his chair, Susie picked him up at the back of his shirt like a kitten to only stuff him under her arm.

"In legitimate games the last team goes first, punks. You all sort the rest." Susie then approached the door, and with impeccable team work, it was Kris to turn the knob and Susie to walk backwards so it would open. She flashed the victory sigh with her large hand behind her back and stomped out—quickly.

She cared more about the project today than yesterday, but she cared about the Dark World a lot more. She hurried to the closet, and although the halls didn't get dark, she tried to open it up and... It did not budge.

"What." She looked down to her right where she still suspended Kris under her arm. "I'm not bonkers, right? It happened right?"

"...It happened. Oh, put me down a sec'." Kris said. On his feet, he unzipped the pocket of his light jacket, revealing a ball of junk. "When we came back... I had this in my pocket when I didn't before... I think it's...Dark World stuff."

"Wha...?" She poked it with her finger and a black speck fell off it to the floor like a piece of charcoal. She observed as Kris rolled it in his palm, revealing other small things sticking out of it like a small stack of paper edges close together... Something doing its best to glitter, an unraveled paper clip, old paper sprinkles too, and a mac noodle. "So because it appeared in your pocket you think it's Dark World stuff? It looks like...stuff!"

"...Kay, so, I had a regular pencil when I was in class... But in the Dark World... I had a sword. Then when I came back a Halloween themed pencil I didn't have. I think it was when I sold my wooden sword for the spooky sword which I think are pencils here..."

"Man." She stuffed her claws into her coat pockets. Nothing in them. "I hate how dumb this sounds. I hate I don't remember having anything in my pockets! I had a sick axe! And damn good studs! I want to go back to that rather than be here." She kicked at the door that sounded more sturdy than it had the right. She motioned to kick it again, but Kris' smooth hands on her wrist stopped her. "I had ideas, dude..!"

Susie kicked the door anyway, and harder.

"Susie-" Kris tried to stop her, looking over his shoulder and down the hall. Others were observing them rather than taking advantage of class technically ending early. "Maybe there's another way." He whispered. "R'member we popped up in another room when we came to? Maybe the entry moves around..." She thankfully did not kick the door again. "Let's try-"

"O-oh... excuse me." It was Noelle. Kin to her soft spoken ways, Kris could always hear her more than others.

"What? You're always whispering." Susie replied, her mood was soured and not even the timid kindness in front of her could sooth. She hissed a 'what' at Kris who squeezed her wrist in an attempt to make her less tense at the world around her.

"I-I was just... concerned. Is there...something wrong with the door, S-Susie?"

"I dunno if there's something wrong, but I do know it sucks." She softly snorted at the nervous laughter the mayor's daughter had in reply to what she said. "Anyway, what do you want? Aren't you the top student? I would've thought you'd be racing to the archives or something?"

"I... I wouldn't say I'm the top student. Um, but none the less... I was wondering if you and Kris wanted to go have brunch?"

"Brunch?" The two outcast asked in unison. If the two knuckleheads took a moment to think about what she said...

"Oh. It's... When you didn't have breakfast but it's almost lunch time, so you're in that little window of breakfast and lunch and the types of foods it offers at that time..."

"Huh. That's pretty cool but I'd rather lunch then. I'm not a huge fan of breakfast food."

"Oh..." Susie's answer deflated her. She puckered her lower lip as she sincerely thought about the next move as Kris tried to encourage her to do yesterday. Thinking on the fly simply was not her style, she was as analytic and planned as her mother.

"Anyway, y'got an obnoxious partner. The sooner you get your project done the better, right? I doubt Alphys wants us to spend the entire month on one assignment. Or if she does I doubt our parents want her to. They're all freakin' out about college and all that it offers." Susie shrugged. If she went for anyone... it would be for her dad, if she could even make it, that is.

"Y-yeah. Well, I'll um... see you next week. Bye, Susie. Bye, Kris. Good luck on your starting draft!"

Kris wasn't good at talking on the fly, and Noelle was gone in a blink of his droopy eyes. He let go of Susie's wrist in favor to curl his fingers under his chin thoughtfully.

"So... What ideas did you have?"

"Huh—oh yeah. My idea was that time here moves way more slower than in the Dark World! So I imagined us getting way more done over there with plenty of time to kill here." Susie was used to looking down as she talked. However, this time while looking down at Kris she wasn't focusing all of her aura into being scary and was instead paying attention to his face. As she spoke, his mouth went from a small frown, turned upside down and had the nerve to expand. "A-are you laughing at me?!"

"No..." He had to process what he was thinking of, what he was feeling... He didn't know how to describe that he saw between the lines of how she wanted to go back to play with their otherworldly friends too in a place where time was both slowed down and fleeting. "I thought...similarly. Dark World is better than Here."

For a moment, silence hung beside the shuffling hands in pockets.

"Yeah." Another pause past. One of discomfort, the other of appreciated patience. "Y-you had an idea too, right? You got cut off earlier."

"Oh." He clasped his hands together, fingers laced. "Let's try the school's unkempt lot."