A/N: Crosspost from AO3. I don't think I will surprise anyone by saying YES, ANOTHER REQUEST FIC, once again for a lovely Anon on /utg/. This one in particular ran with the prompt "Old Chara is comforted by still-young Asriel after Frisk dies". It was a surprisingly difficult bit to write! I prefer Chara in a more 'evil' role, so this was a nice change of pace.
Tissues will be served momentarily, should they be needed. They are scented chocolate, for good feels.
The soft scent of Golden Flower Tea was permeating the little kitchen. Its scent was one that always brought about mixed feelings from the human: joy and regret, anger and hope, jumping all around from one second to another. They always stopped at one particular twinge though: a keen sense of 'home'.
"Careful, it's pretty hot."
Chara looked up to see their brother setting a mug down before them. He seemed like such a far cry from the little ball of charm and cuteness he used to be so many years ago. This Asriel was standing tall before them, larger in both body and SOUL. He hardly seemed older than a young adult, but his features and eyes especially betrayed his true age and experiences. This was an Asriel who has been a child, a flower and even a God for a short while. There were precious little things that could faze him.
Messy and hardly decipherable drawings adorned the cup, with a plethora of kind wishes scattered about. Chara reached and carefully wrapped their hand around the mug, taking in the heat emanating through the material. Their eyes drifted to their hand again. The skin was old and wrinkled, and there was a small, but definite shake to even holding it out straight.
"Thanks." they muttered after a while. "Shouldn't you be home though? Mom and Dad might be worried..."
"I'm where I'm needed." Asriel said, his gaze digging into the human's heart. He had the shadow of a smile playing at the edge of his mouth.
"That's now what I've been hearing." Chara scoffed. The chair they were sitting in was slightly uncomfortable, but it was reasonable to assume their spine was just not in the right place anymore. "You're always late, always off somewhere else... Sans has been a bad influence to you."
"I appreciate his taste in traveling and worth ethics." Asriel admitted. He glanced aside, noticing a bar of chocolate by the window. It was a very familiar brand.
"That's for the youngsters." his sibling spoke up, noticing his interest. "It's too good for them, but I can't eat a lot of it anymore."
"Chara..."
"Don't." Chara shook their head. They knew this was where the whole discussion was going, and yet they still felt frustrated and borderline angry. "Just don't. It happened, we've had the tears, had the speeches, now just let me-"
"Forget?" Asriel asked. The question felt nothing short of a cruel stab, in the vitals no less.
"Yes! No!" Chara raised their voice, the child-like tone of their youth now long gone. Chara heavily disliked their raspy voice and started preferring silence, to speech in the latter years. "Asriel just... it's such a stupid..."
The human's stomach twisted and turned, all their emotions bubbling to the surface once again. Five tears, that's all they have allowed up until this very moment, but Asriel seemed determined to extract more.
"It's not fair." Chara sighed finally.
Asriel pulled his chair closer. The cozy little kitchen felt smaller than ever before. He reached out and wrapped his hands around Chara's. The white fur softly bristled against the skin, especially as he started stroking the weak, bony hand.
"I know." he said and even through his grown expression, the human could see he was struggling with his own words and feelings. "But Frisk wouldn't want us to be sad."
Chara let out a chuckle, though there was no humor to it. Their red eyes had lost much of their early shine and yet for these moments, they burned as brightly as ever.
"Yeah, that'd be just like them." Chara mused. "Frisk, ambassador and savior of the Underground, the one who brought the Dreemurr Children back to life, who built bridge between humans and monsters... who couldn't even beat one tiny illness!"
"How is this fair to any of us? I wanted them to kill EVERYONE, Asriel! I tore at their soul for months and years, trying to put them on the same stupid path that got you killed! And still they... they just wouldn't give in..." Chara's voice cracked. "They never stopped smiling, never stopped reaching out to me... to US!"
Asriel took a deep breath, weathering his sibling's anguished rant. He knew those feelings well, having lived with various degrees of joy, thankfulness and guilt throughout these years. It took some time, but through the unbound love Frisk had for two people they truly had never known eventually led to a series of experiments and events that led them to regain their lives. Adjustment and atonement was a difficult process, yet both Dreemurrs could always count on their third, unofficial sibling.
"They gave us everything, Az... even this!" Chara touched their face, weary and worn by the many-many years Frisk's DETERMINATION granted them. "I only ever made it this far because of Frisk! But then I... I took... I took everything from them."
Chara pulled their other hand from Asriel's grasp, head sinking into their palms. Whether the human was just so old, or so upset, their whole form seemed smaller than ever before.
"Everything, Az." they said. "I got you back, I got my whole family back... I even got to make one for myself eventually, and Frisk got nothing out of that! What did they ever get? How could I have been so fucking selfish?"
Asriel got out of his chair and pulled his sibling close. He was shaking as well and had to constantly make sure he wasn't holding Chara strong enough to break their elderly bones. "Don't ever think of it like that." he said, his voice reminding Chara of the rare times Asgore would get truly upset. He pulled back and gazed straight into their eyes.
"Frisk has made many sacrifices, but they never regretted a single one. They loved us, all of us, beyond description. And you know, life didn't always work out for them. They had bad periods, bad experiences, bad relationships... but they never stopped loving us and all the other monsters, like we were all just one huge family."
He sighed, swallowing back his own set of sadness. Chara's rant was not something unfamiliar to him, as he had gone through many periods of self-doubt and sadness because of his actions as a flower. But even then, he had a pair of ears that would always listen and a pair of arms that would always pull him close, just as Chara needed them now.
"All we've been through, good and bad..." he continued. "Frisk was always there to have our backs. Whether you needed a sibling, a teacher, a friend, or even a babysitter, Frisk was always there and they did it without expecting anything in return. We were their world and they would have done anything for us, even after overcoming already impossible odds. And you know what? That was all they ever wanted."
He pulled Chara in for a hug again, allowing them to ride the same emotional roller-coaster he has embarked before. His SOUL twisted in sadness as he could feel just how faint the once fiercely unstoppable human had become. Truly, time was a cruel ruler of humanity. He eventually let go only as he felt them chuckle softly.
"Geez... you really do sound like someone who spent way too much time around Frisk." they said, palming a tissue to wipe the tears that were added now to the previous five.
"You'd never guess, but Frisk got pretty verbose as they got older." Asriel couldn't resist a brief chuckle. He finally took a sip from his cup. The tea was still quite warm. "It helps that they never tried to stab me, either."
Chara's pouted, hand sliding down to their cane set against the wall. "We can still fix that..." they said, deftly undoing the latch that held the secondary function of the wonderfully crafted cane sword.
"I'll wash up instead." Asriel got to his feet, smiling brightly. He knew better than anyone that he was in no danger, but it was nice to indulge his sibling a bit. "Not to mention, Mom and Dad would probably blow a fuse if they found out I was giving your birthday presents like that."
The soft chuckle coming from the old human was nice to hear. Chara was a bright person despite their questionable decisions, but it always took some effort to really bring that out. True to his word, he walked over and started washing the few dishes still in the sink. A few minutes passed with only the clinking of dishes and the tap water breaking the silence.
"I really am a bit selfish though."
He peeked over his shoulder and saw Chara looking significantly more tired, but also happier or at least more content than before. "How so?"
"A reason I love monsters more... I would never need to attend a funeral. Sure, I might make some of them sad one day, but I'd never feel like this. This... emptiness, this longing to see them again, just once." they mused, placing a hand over their heart. "But you know what? For everything that came after the end? Everything Frisk gave us?"
Chara drank their tea, its warmth brightening the ever-present blush on their face. This Surface worked differently than the Underground, but even at this moment Asriel could swear he saw the bright red glow of Chara's SOUL. It burned with stubborn vigor as always, just how he remembered. And yet there was another shade to it, a red tint just slightly different from the rest, yet so familiar.
"I would never want to erase this feeling."