She couldn't believe what she'd found out in the woods. Though she stared and stared, it just didn't seem possible. And yet, there it was. Though the hair was a different color and the eyes green instead of a reddish brown, Chara Vardalos was looking at her twin. The same smile. The same nose. The same blush to their cheeks. It just couldn't be, and yet...there it was. A boy who looked just like her.
"Oh...WOW." She murmured, mouth hanging open as the apron-wearing redhead laid by the stump she usually took her pet cat out to. Or at least, she USED to until he'd run away because she'd played with him too roughly. She'd been coming out every day to try and find him, and yet now she had something better. It was like losing a quarter and finding a dollar bill! "You look just like me!"
"I get that a lot." The kid said as he scratched at his redhaired head, the chef's hat atop his head slightly dirty from use along with his apron as a frying pan stuck out of a backpack nearby. "I'm Anthony Vardalos." He told her, holding out a hand. "I'm from the future."
Chara gaped in amazement, taking his hand as she shook it. "V-Vardalos? Wait, are you, like-"
"Your brother. The one you're gonna have in a few years." Anthony told her. "I don't know how I ended up here, one minute everything was black and the next...I wake up and you're staring at me."
"I GOTTA show you to Mom and Dad!" Chara inwardly mused, grinning broadly before blinking. Wait. Why tell them? They didn't deserve to know. This was a chance to have her own little secret. Something unique and different and...special. Nobody else would have a secret brother from the future! She immediately hugged him. "You can stay with me in secret! I'll keep you hidden in the attic and I'll make you a big ol' blanket fort!" She said with a grin, Anthony blinking a bit, almost in confusion before nodding.
"Fair enough." He said, agreeing surprisingly reasonably, taking off the apron over his green long-sleeve shirt along with his chef's hat. "But first thing's first. I wanna get these clean. Could ya sneak 'em in with your laundry?" He asked. "They mean a lot to me."
Well, needless to say, Chara's parents didn't react one bit when Chara nonchalantly and loudly announced "MOM, DAD, I'm goin' up to the attic with a strange kid". The two just kept typing away into their computers, Ms. Vardalos looking over a financial report, biting into her lip and nervously frowning whilst Mr. Vardalos's leg jittered, his face almost unscrutable as he rapidly typed away at what appeared to be the a patent of some kind. Anthony quietly sighed as he waltzed up the stairs with Chara, who reached the top of the steps and leaped up, grabbing hold of the hanging rope and tugging down the attic stairway.
Soon Chara and he were now up in the attic as dust motes floated about, Chara moving aside boxes and boxes of old books and the like, making sure there was room for a pillow and blanket fort for Anthony to sleep in as she grinned. "This is gonna be so much fun!" She said with a delightful laugh. "I get to keep a secret from everyone! Ooooooh! Wait!" She blinked, turning to Anthony and grasping his shoudler. "If you're from the future, tell me! What do I look like? Do I get pimples?"
"No, you're...you went down into the Underground." Anthony said, Chara's eyes slowly widening as she then ran over to a box of books, one of them sticking out in particular and looking quite dog-eared as she put it down and pointed at it, the book showing off a fairy tale design. Swirls and twisty golden lettering filled it up, with monsters and humans fighting in a slightly cartoonish fashion on the inside as she grinned.
"I read all about the monsters and the Underground in this and a bunch of other books I found up here. I'm always coming up to the attic when it's not nice enough to be outside." Chara said, reaching into her pocket and munching on a chocolate bar, not offering any to Anthony as he gazed on. "So I really went down there? Do you know what it's like?"
"Yes, because I went down there a while later to look for you." The red-haired young lad admitted. "They're very nice when you get to know them." Anthony admitted, Chara giving a big ol' grin.
"I KNEW it." She said, her voice a soft whisper before Anthony's next words made her cringe.
"Except Muffet, the Spider. She poisoned me."
"...ohhh. EWWW." Chara grumbled, frowning at this. "I don't like spiders. They got giant spiders down there? Maybe they're not that cool."
"There's these really nice skeletons down there, though." Anthony admitted. "I got to know one named Sans. He's a guy who's got a real...funny bone." He added with a wink, Chara blinking a bit before frowning slightly.
"Uh...whuh?"
"Tough crowd. Okay, um...I got it." Anthony took a guess at what type of joke Chara would like and cleared his throat, holding his hands up. "How many babies does it take to paint a wall? Depends on how hard you throw 'em."
THAT got Chara to laugh, a snort bubbling up from her as she tried to surpress the giggles. "S-Sorry, that-that's just funny to me. This "Tale of the Great War" and "101 Dirty Jokes To Make You Blush" were basically how I learned to read. I was reading Tolkien when other kids were struggling with the Hardy Boys."
"You've read Tolkien?" Anthony asked, looking surprised as he tilted his head to the side. "I LOVE it! Even the Simarillion! It has such beautiful imagery. I mean, the world created out of MUSIC? That's just beautiful."
"I know, right?" Chara asked, sighing wistfully. "I'll hold it open to the page and just close my eyes and if I think really hard, I can see it in my mind." She admitted, her tone becoming softer and more thoughtful as a small, genuine smile came to her face, and Anthony felt one coming to his own.
Perhaps they DID have a lot in common.
...
... "How did you EVER sneak this out of the library?" Chara asked in awe, looking over the DVD set of "Monty Python" that Anthony had gotten and brought to the house, her parents out at work.
"Borrowed your card and put a bit of dirt on it. They never saw the difference." Anthony said, as he put in a disc with a video he KNEW Chara would love, the two sitting down on a large and plushy couch with a lived-in smell, Anthony realizing that, despite how nice-off the house was...there was something missing. Looking up at the countertop above the chimney, he saw there wasn't so much as one picture, one photo, just...nothing. Nothing to indicate any sense of familyness or warmth or heart. Yes, they had a DVD and Blu-Ray player. Yes, they had the latest Playstation. Yes, they had fine furniture.
But that kind of thing wasn't the sort of thing that mattered. What mattered was the sense that this was your home. A home needed to feel like a home. It needed to feel warm and welcoming. It needed to feel like you belonged there. There were no toys lying around, not even in Chara's room, because she didn't buy any. There walls were too sterile in their lack of real color, there wasn't any art on the walls nor any of Chara's schoolwork magnetized to the fridge...
Nothing. It was just...so lacking.
So he understood why Chara squirreled herself away in the attic. At least that had those old books that made you feel like you were in an ancient library. The attic felt warm. The attic felt like someplace that belonged in a true home.
The good news was that being on the couch and seeing Chara cracking up hysterically at the "Sam Peckinpah's Salad Days" sketch made Anthony feel at home too. She couldn't stop guffawing wildly as an offer of "Anyone for Tennis" quickly ended with people losing their hands, a piano tipping over and squashing people in nice dresses, SOMEHOW the piano's entire keyboard ended up through Graham Chapman's stomach...
It was positively hilarious. And Anthony had a smile on his face all through it as Chara grinned and leaned back against the couch, the laughs slowly but surely coming to an end as she finally wiped a tear away, sighing. "HOO. That was...hoo. That's so funny!" She said. "I used to dream about putting the keyboard through my piano teacher's stomach just like that in music class. She keeps making me do the same stupid notes over and over and I just got redder and redder and more embarassed cuz I can't stand everyone just...watching me!" She smirked. "So THAT'S what it'd look like. That's awesome!"
"You don't like playing piano?" Anthony asked as Chara frowned and looked over at the piano standing by the living room table.
"It ain't that, I just don't like being FORCED to do things. If you make someone do something they love over and over, FORCE 'em to do it, they start to hate it." She said, the brown-haired young girl frowning deeply before sighing. "But now I'm not good enough to do any songs. I used to be okay, but every time I sit at the piano I hate it cuz nothin's funny."
Anthony thought of Monty Python. Then he looked at the piano and an idea came to mind as he walked over to it, pulling off the cover and pressing a few notes. "I think I know a few you'd like." He remarked as he began to play, building up to the song he wanted, a few chords sliding out through the empty house. Sure it meant Chara was skipping school again. And yeah, he didn't really like the idea of that too much, but...
He was spending time with her. And she was happy. And that made him happy too.
"Sooooome things in life are bad! They can really make you mad! Other things just make you...swear and cuuuuurse. When you're chewin' on life's gristle! Don't grumble!" He turned around, grinning broadly at Chara, making her blink in surprise. "Give a whistle! And THIS'LL...help things turn out for the beeeest! Heeeeeey!"
And then he bobbed his head back and forth, softly singing. "Always look on the briiiiight side of life! Always look on the liiiiiiiight side of life! If life seems jolly rotten? There's something you've forgotten! And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing!"
Chara blinked.
"When you're feelin' in the dumps! Don't be silly chumps! Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing! Heyyyy! Always look on the briiiiight side of life! Always look on the briiiiight side of life!" Anthony whistled a little, continuing to bob back and forth to the tune he played, green eyes a glitter as Chara felt a smile beginning to spread over her face, his grin as infectious as her own.
And soon, it was CHARA who'd be playing the tune on the piano, determined to learn every single Monty Python song there was to play. And one in particular always brought a smile to her face.
"Sans would definitely love this." Anthony said as he grinned in agreement. "He'd find it hilarious."
"Yeah, cuz I'll bet guys like him are all about BONERS." Chara laughed.
Anthony started laughing so hard he almost couldn't breathe.
...
...
...
...the two sat there on the hill as the sunset began to make its way over Simsbury, Connecticut. Mount Ebott was high off in the distance as they sat under the stars, letting the wind blow through the grass around them as Anthony wore his chef's hat and apron, once again regaling Chara with the tale of his epic fight against Undyne, the "True Hero of the Underground". He had told her it pretty much every week for the many months he'd spent with her, Chara sneaking up food to him in the attic and their parents STILL remaining incredibly ignorant to his presence in their own home. And sometimes, it seemed, to Chara.
"So I hold my frying pan up, the fireballs knocked away. And with my jaw set, I give her, like, the BIGGEST grin, and I say..." Anthony turned away from the soft lights of the town and the twinkling stars overhead, giving Chara a grin and a wink. "Ya can't be a cook if you're afraid of fire!"
Chara smiled and nodded at Anthony. "That's amazing." She said, her eyes wide with clear and obvious admiration as Anthony blushed, his already rosy cheeks getting redder as Chara nodded at him. "I wish I was good like you at that kinda stuff. Maybe one day I'll be brave like that."
"Aw, I ain't brave, I just didn't want her beatin' me. I had to get home." Anthony reasoned. "You just think real hard about what you wanna do, and you do it." He said with a calm nod. "I wanted to see my mom and dad again. I mean, they had to know about you going down there. I made a promise, and you don't break promises."
"Not ever." Chara reasoned with a shake of her head. "No way. But, uh..." She bit her lip. "Did I ever come back up?"
Anthony bit his lip and looked like he was gonna puke. It looked like he really, REALLY didn't wanna tell her. "I-I, I mean...uh..." He mumbled. "I mean...yeah but..." He trailed off. "...you got...hurt." He finally managed to mutter. "And...and I...I mean..."
Chara bit her lip. "That...I..." She stammered, thinking about what he was implying as silence reigned over the two, and the wind softly blew. They sat there, not saying anything at all as Anthony slightly hung his head.
"...I didn't wanna tell you." He muttered at last, the words almost being spat out of his mouth as if the very taste of them made him want to puke.
Chara continued to be silent, resting her hands on her knees as the darkness continued to set over the town, and her head was slightly hung low, her hair covering her eyes, making her face almost shrouded in shadow.
"...I..." She murmured. "...Anthony, I'm not scared." She insisted. "Big girls and big boys don't cry. We don't cry." She said, gripping her knees tightly. "I don't want to be up here anymore. You being up here with me's great, but I don't wanna keep doing it. Mom and Dad chewed me out for skipping school, and they're gonna ship me off to military or something. I wanna leave. I wanna go Underground, I wanna...wanna see the world you keep talking about." She admitted as she turned, seeing Anthony was looking deep into her eyes.
"I don't want you to die." He whispered out, and she saw he was struggling not to cry. "I know that when you go down there, you die. I don't wanna lose my sister again. Not when I finally got to know how great she can be."
Chara felt a harsh, icy knife digging into her heart, and she immediately pulled him into a hug. "Hey. NO. NO crying. N-none of that." She insisted, her voice quavering as she tried not to burst out into tears. "W-We ain't gonna cry. We're gonna go down tomorrow and we'll be fine. We'll-we'll pack a buncha chocolate bars and rope on down and-and we'll be fine! FINE! So you gotta smile, alright? SMILE."
Anthony carefully returned the hug as best he could, resting his head on her shoulder, sniffling a bit. Yeah...yeah.
The next day, the two had woken up before their mother and father, and they were slinking through the near-utterly-empty streets of Simsbury, making the trek up the tall, green, sloping hills of Mount Ebott as the sun began to poke over the horizon. Tying a rope to a tree by the edge of the yawning, gaping chasm of a cave that was Mount Ebott's opening, Chara gave Anthony a nod and a thumbs up, Chara getting her backpack back on as Anthony readied his chef's hat and frying pan and apron, deciding to go down after Chara, keeping the rope steady.
He gripped it tightly, Chara carefully easing herself down, down, down towards the soft, huge bed of golden flowers that softly glittered as the rays of the sun ever-so-faintly wafted down onto them from above. Bit by bit she inched down, Chara's reddish/brown eyes looking up expectantly, eyes wide as she nodded, and called out to Anthony far, far above. "Okay! I'm good! Go for it!" She said, putting the backpack to the side, Anthony nodding down at her.
He turned himself around, taking in a deep breath as he began shimmying down the rope, bit by bit, inching down further and further-
And then he heard the tearing, ripping sound, and he knew that his frying pan HAD been too heavy. He felt himself sighing, and closed his eyes as the wind whipped around him, and heard Chara's cry...
There was silence for a moment. And then he was faintly aware of Chara holding his hand as utterly blackness gripped its claws deep into his skull, his voice a throaty croak as he struggled to speak. "I can't...see, Chara. What...what happened?"
"Th-there's...it's EVERYWHERE..." She managed to whisper out. "Oh GOD it's-its everywhere..."
"It's...alright." Anthony murmured. "I can feel your hand."
She gripped him more tightly, Anthony trying to smile. "N-No...crying, right? B-Big kids d-don't...cry. Try to...try to smile. You...you'll be okay."
"No I WON'T!" Chara managed to scream out. "Anthony, I'm SCARED. I thought you'd be with me for this! What if...what if they don't like me down here? What if they try to eat me?! What do I do?! I'mscared!"
"You don't...need me." Anthony's voice whisped out, his own words sounding farther and farther away. "You've got...you now. The best of you. You're gonna be amazing, I know. So much better. I got to...see you." He whispered, and he could now feel his own tears going down his cheeks. "It's why I was here now, Chara. I understand now. They sent me back so I could see you. SEE you. I was...I was just so happy to see you. That's what I wanted. And...it's okay...it'll be...fine. Cuz you're my big sister. And that's...all I wanted..."
He sniffed the air.
"I...I smell butterscotch." He whispered. "And...cinnamon..."
The smell lingered on...he could still feel her hand.
...warm.
...
...
...
...Chara's head was hung as she slowly made her way through the dark halls of Waterfall, water cascading down across the way as she entered the room. A large piano was off to the side of the room, a doorway hewn from the living rock to it's right, but she ignored that and approached the piano, and the small stool in front of it. She rested her hand upon the cover over the keys, and shivered slightly, trying to surpress the tears that were rising to her eyes.
Big girls don't cry. You had to learn to laugh.
Because it hurt too much to cry.
"I'm not gonna cry. I'm not gonna cry." She whispered, taking the cover off as she looked down at the keys, and began to plunk out a few notes, hanging her head, bobbing it slightly back and forth. For a few moments, it was as if his own hands were on hers, moving her across the keys as she found herself softly smiling.
However, she was unaware a small crowd of monsters had begun to follow her, an annoyed, frowning blue-scaled woman walking towards where she was, a skeletal figure trotting nearby.
The mer-woman's gauntleted fists were tightly clenched as she walked towards the room, her face cold. Humans...how she hated them.
She didn't care if this was only a child, she thought to herself as she shook her head. No. All who fell down here deserved to die. She focused intensely, Undyne's eyes glowing with a pitless blue light-
But then the child began to sing.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Here's a little number I tossed off recently in the Caribbean!" Chara announced, giggling a bit before...
Isn't it awfully nice to have a penis?
Undyne's mouth fell open so wide you coulda stuck a melon in it, Sans barely surpressing a heavy snort of laughter.
Isn't it frightfully good to have a dong?
It's swell to have a stiffy, it's divine to own a dick!
From the tiniest little tadger to the world's biggest prick!
So three cheers for your Willy or John Thomas!
Hooray for your one eyed trouser snake!
Your piece of pork, your wife's best friend, your Percy or your cock.
You can wrap it up in ribbons, you can slip it in your sock.
But don't take it out in public or they will stick you in the dock,
And you won't! Come! Back!
Athankyouverymuch.
"...I think I LIKE this kid." Sans remarked, Undyne just staring as the rest of the monsters all began to clap, Aaron the Mer-Horse eagerly clapping and whistling in delight.
"Oh, what a FRIGHTFULLY witty song!" He laughed as Chara slowly turned around, and blushed so deeply, her cheeks got even redder than normal as Sans walked up to her, hand held out.
"You're a human, right? That song was hilarious. Where'd you learn it from?"
"My brother." Chara answered without missing a beat, her voice quiet and soft as Sans nodded. "He was the greatest."
"Yeah...aren't brothers the coolest?"
"THE coolest." Chara softly whispered back.