Chapter 1. Ruins.
Ow. Ow ow ow ow ow. That was a rough tumble. Bad enough to make her black out for a while. She wiggled around, groaning. Someone put a hand on her shoulder. "Shh. Calm down, partner, you`re going to be just fine." - something about that voice disturbed Frisk. Something... something familiar. Still, whoever they were, they were obviously not hostile. At least, right now. Something soft and wet dragged over Frisk`s face, making her finally open her eyes.
"...CHARA?! What... why, no stop!" - she shrieked, frantically backpedaling from the other girl. Chara frowned, dirty rag still in her hand as she sat back on her heels. Was she.. wiping the dirt from Frisk`s face? Strange. How, even? Wasn`t Chara supposed to be a disembodied spirit?
"Calm down, alright?" - Chara ventured casually, folding her hands on her lap, fingers fiddling with the rag - "I`ve also been through resets, just like you. I know that killing everyone doesn`t work. I`d like to try it your way this time."
"...What?" - that was probably one of the least likely things Frisk expected to hear. Chara sighed and winked at her. It looked... weird. "Look. I have a plan." - she proffered finally - "A plan to finally move on from this damn cycle. And, even better, that plan doesn`t involve killing anyone."
"What are you talking about?! Why do I know your name? What`s going on!" - other girl wailed, clutching her knees as she tried to roll into a ball. Chara frowned. "Huh. Yeah, well... you will probably remember more later." - she proffered uncertaunly - "Look, I`ll try to explain what I know, but I`m in the same boat as you - making it up as we go. Your name is Frisk, you remember that much, right?"
Other girl cautiously nodded, - "...Yeah. Were we, uh... introduced before?" Chara shook her head, and stood up, swinging backpack off her back and rifling through it. "OK, yeah. First of all, you need this." - she proffered as she gave Frisk a bottle of water - "Drink some, and uh... stretch your leg, please? You got a nasty gash on your knee from the fall, and I`d like to patch you up a little before we go anywhere with this."
Frisk sniffed, but gradually uncurled, accepting the bottle and gingerly extending her leg. She, indeed, had a bleeding gash just under the knee, and on seeing it, the pain hit her full force, making her whimper and turn her face away from the wound. Chara simply clucked her tongue as she pulled out a clean rag and a length of bandage and set to work cleaning off and bandaging. "It`ll do for a while, but we should get some proper attention later. Wouldn`t want the bloody mess to get inflamed, right?" - she quipped, eliciting another whimper from Frisk.
It took half an hour for the other girl to get confident enough to stand up and move. It really helped that Chara found her a good sturdy stick to lean on as she walked - the leg still stung pretty bad. "Do you know how to get out of here?" - she asked tremulously, returning the half-empty water bottle back to Chara, who stashed it into her backpack.
"That`s... uh, complicated. I know where to go to get some help, but getting you out of here entirely? That`s going to take a while." - she finally answered, pointing upwards. The hole in the cavern`s ceiling didn`t look accessible. "No way to climb there, see? There is another way out of here, but it`s good ways off, and we`d be better off if we meet the people living here first and get them to help us. I`ve been here a while, and I know a thing or two about the place. We`re in the ruins, mind. Kinda abandoned place. Except for Toriel, I suppose, so our first point of concern is to find her."
"Ah. Um. So... who is this Toriel?" - Frisk ventured softly, as she limped next to her unexpected companion. Chara giggled. "Ah, she`s our goatmom." - she tossed back carelessly, as she veered towards the opening in the cavern`s wall - "Come on here, that`s the way into ruins proper."
"A... uh... goatmom?" - other girl wondered faintly, her memory floating up some vague recollection. Someone... kind. Caring. And pretty fierce, if she thought children were about to be hurt. Definitely mom.
Chara suddenly paused, and whirled around to face Frisk. "Goodness gracious, I almost forgot to remind you." - she said seriously - "Around here? You and me are the only humans. Well, only alive humans. There were a few more, but..." She left the rest of sentence hanging ominously - "The thing is, the rest of people down here are monsters. They`re, uh... varied. There`s talking dogs, there`s talking skeletons, there`s people made out of fire, there`s a grumpy merfishmaid and a shy dinosaur scientist and I`m not even sure who else. Regardless of who they are, Frisk? Do NOT attack them. I can`t stress that bad enough. They might get silly, exasperating, annoying, frustrating or just plain menacing, but not a single one of them would actually fight you to the death. Not unless you force them to. If you`re unsure, I`m here to help, and I`ll be sticking around, so consider your back watched. Still, it would be good if you practiced to deal with them. Use psychological warfare, so to speak... I`m telling you this because we`re about to run into a particularly vicious flower, and it`s best if you don`t whack him with a stick, aight? We`ll need him later on."
Surprised, and very befuddled, Frisk nodded and frowned. Chara`s words have had been triggering some vague recollections in her mind. Most of them too garbled to actually think much about them, but that mention of flower?... Frisk had an uneasy feeling about it. "...Flowey? Is his name Flowey?" - she ventured softly. That name filled her with trepidation and pity in almost equal measures, though she had no idea why.
"Got it in one, partner." - Chara nodded with a smile - "We can`t properly help him right now, but later on? We`re totally going to. We`re going to help everyone down here." She turned around and marched on, leaving Frisk to catch up. Helping everyone? That... was pretty good. In theory, at least. Frisk was still in the dark about details, but so long as helping everyone meant what it sounded like, she was on board with that.
As they walked into the smaller cavern, her memory served up yet another snippet. The demented grin... She shivered, and peered ahead. Flowey was... bad. Not bad as in evil, but more like... bad. Wrong. Still, if Chara knew how to fix him... Frisk was very unsure. Her hazy memory insisted that something was equally wrong with Chara too. Even more so, maybe. Yet, right now? The Chara she was with didn`t quite trigger her as her memories suggested she should`ve. Maybe something fundamental changed. Something that would allow to break this cycle of endless deja vues.
"Howdy! I`m Flo... What the hell." - the greeting was definitely new. Frisk ambled closer, keeping a wary look at the animated flower who expressed all manners of surprise, befuddlement and worry. "Chara. What is going on? How... why... WHAT!?" - flower stammered, switching his eyes from one girl to another. Chara crouched next to the flower, and extended hand towards him, making him pull back cautiously.
"Hey, Az." - she muttered - "Calm down, I`ve got a plan for all of us." Flower`s expressions continued shifting, from suspicion to wariness to anger to despondence to even vague sense of hope at one point. "I know you`ve got your own ideas." - she continued, quietly - "But we`ve already been through this, didn`t we? If you get your way, Sans comes around to kick the pot over and we all have to start over. I`m mighty sick of it, to be honest. So... I`ve thought up a plan B."
"...Let me guess, the plan B involves that idiot over there?" - plant snapped back irritably - "You know damn well that her way changes nothing. In the end, everything gets reset again and again and again. Don`t you want to just... end it!?"
Chara sighed. "Seen what happens when that comes through. Just another reset." - she commiserated - "Bad one, wipes all memories. No, the only way to move forward is to get the barrier down without any sacrifices. Then no one has reasons to reset." She raised her hand, forestalling further objection from Flowey - "Yes, you too. Notice how I`m tangible and everything? Got that out of last timeline. It was too little too late back then, but in this one? Az, you get to come back too. Like with everything. Alphys was onto something, but she didn`t have one last piece of puzzle... and I`ve got it right here, with me." She leaned over the flower and pulled up her sweater, making Frisk blush and look away. She totally didn`t expect sudden flashings, that`s for sure.
Still whatever it was Chara shown to Flowey, it turned his mood around pretty radically. "...Yyeah, that`s a gamechanger." - he agreed petulantly - "Fine, fine. I don`t want to deal with smelly trashbag again, so let`s try your, uh... Plan B. What do I do?"
Chara lowered her sweater and chuckled - "Well, if you want to come with, I`ve got place in my backpack. If sunny dispositions and magic of friendship is too much for you right now, mosey on quietly to the barrier and wait for us there. Need to assemble bunch of people and stuff to get this done, but once there... You get the drift, don`t you?"
Flowey made a disgusted face and pulled away. "Yeah, no. I`ll see you there." - he groused - "I`d wish you good luck, but I`ve seen enough of your plan Bs not to hold my breath. Oh well, whatever. I`ll just do my thing when this falls through." And with that, cantankerous flower dove underground and disappeared among the rustling of yellow petals.
Still blushing, Frisk wondered - "Isn`t this where we`re supposed to meet Toriel?" Chara shrugged. "Normally, yes, but normally, you don`t have anyone waiting for you at the cave to wake you up and bandage you up, so she won`t be passing through here for a few more hours. Not sure where she is, but I`m guessing we`ll run into her on the way to her place." - she retorted, as she stood up and offered her hand to Frisk - "Come on now, let`s not keep her waiting."
Taking Chara`s hand was... an experience. Not sure why, even, but that simple touch felt as jolting as the electric shock. Chara probably felt something too, given how her usual blush darkened. "...Were we, uh... close, before?" - Frisk ventured after a few minutes, mulling over the situation at hand.
"Depends on how you look at it." - Chara replied thoughtfully, picking a way ahead - "You see, I`m usually not in possession of my own body..." She almost visibly stumbled over her words, and sighed - "Frisk? I have to ask you something. There`s a lot of stuff going on, and some of it is pretty disturbing. For example, the question of how I got the body to use. I promise to explain everything, but let me do it at my own pace, please. The last thing I want is for you to panic because I said something you don`t remember the context for."
"That`s my body you`ve got, right?" - the question made Chara stop cold and turn around, biting her lip. "...How`d you figure that?" - she finally asked, huskily. Frisk shrugged - "Memories are coming back, you know. I`m still hazy on a lot of details, but I do remember about resets and how you`re usually are, now. Did I... die in the last timeline?"
Chara leaned back against the wall with a thunk, her hand rubbing her forehead irritably as she tried to formulate the reponse. "...Yes. No. Sort of." - she finally managed - "You did something... foolhardy. I`ll grant you it was done with best intentions, but you ended up knocking yourself out of your own body... You self-sacrificing fool." Frisk`s brows risen sharply at that. "...Wow. I think I meant a whole lot to you." - she quipped as she stepped up closer to give Chara an awkward hug - "Given you`ve came back for me and everything."
Chara stiffened at first, but then relaxed, letting out a deep sigh. "Given how you`re usually are, it`s... hard not to." - she finally admitted, putting her arms awkwardly around Frisk and patting her back - "I`m not letting you go this time, you hear?"
She pushed Frisk away lightly and pulled herself from the wall, stretching out. "C`mon." - she proffered - "The sooner we get to Toriel`s place, the better. There`s a lot we need to do, and many people to befriend." Just as Frisk was about to answer, she almost stumbled over a frog. Or, more precisely, froggit. Chara turned around half-way, feeling the jerk as Frisk stopped suddenly. "...Wha, oh... those guys." - she quipped - "Check them out, they`re pretty cute in an amphibian sort of way, ne?"
Frog blushed faintly and shuffled his feet on the ground, finally disappearing into the underbrush with a muffled "Thank you, ribbit.", leaving a gold coin behind. "Huh. That was even easier then I remember." - Frisk mentioned finally, as she plucked the coin from the ground to look at it - "Did you ever figure if this is a real gold or just something, uh... monster-specific?" She turned the coin around and handed it to Chara, smiling distantly as her own memories of charming all kinds of monsters flooded in, still hazy but with clear feeling underneath it. Frisk loved those little games, getting everyone around feeling flustered, bedazzled, confused and, most importantly - happy.
Chara made a movement to put the coin away, then stopped, puzzled. "...Frisk, check your stats, please." - she muttered distractedly, seemingly preoccupied with looking at her own. A little alarmed, other girl concentrated briefly, making herself think of her own statistics. Their eyes snapped open in the same time, meeting each other`s gaze with incredulousness.
"I`m fort Knox?" "I have LV 20?" OOkay, Chara`s statement instantly killed any concerns Frisk had with her own stats, replaced by gnawing worry and fear as she took a step back. Chara groaned. "I can`t believe it!" - she grunted angrily, clutching her fists - "How do I even GET LV 20 without any EXP!? How does that even... what I... Just... WHAT!"
"You don`t have EXP?" - inquired her counterpart, scratching the back of her head as she struggled to recall all that Sans explained about stats so long ago - "That doesn`t make any sense. How can you..." And then, she recalled the exact words. '...it stands for "level of violence". a way of measuring someone`s capacity to hurt. the more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. the more you distance yourself, the less you will hurt. the more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others...'
"Chara, I think I got it." - she proffered slowly - "LV doesn`t mean how many people you killed. It means how easy it is for you to kill without feeling anything about it. You don`t necessarily need to have EXP yourself to gain LV, all you need to do is to grow numb to things."
Other girl sat down on the leaves heavily, holding her head. "Great. Just... great." - she mumbled through her hands - "Not even out of ruins, and I`m already screwed..." Frisk sat next to her gingerly, and put an arm around her shoulders. "It`s not so bad, Chara." - she offered after a while - "I`m surprised I don`t have any, actually. After everything I`ve seen... Maybe that`s why my memories always come back so hazy."
Chara`s hand rubbed her forehead tiredly. "It`s still extremely worrying." - she finally managed - "I`m essentially bogeyman to all those monsters out there. Good grief, I`m surprised that Froggit didn`t keel over from my sheer presence." Her counterpart patted Chara`s back - "You`re overthinking this. Monsters react to EXP, not to LV. Simply because the more EXP you get, the more you smell of monster dust, and when you smell of death, everyone falls over themselves to get out of your way. Your LV is your internal, uh... internal, internal... Inner give-a-damn-mometer! The thingy that tells you how bad things need to get to make you unglue. So it`s actually a good thing you have high LV, it means you`ll be able to deal with situations that panic everyone else. I mean, just because you won`t feel much about killing someone doesn`t mean you WILL do it, right?"
"Heh. Heheheh... Yeah, I.. I suppose." - Chara managed finally, leaning closer to Frisk and resting head on her shoulder - "Of course, it doesn`t mean I won`t come unglued after a situation, ne? At least I`ve got you to put me back together." She let out a tired sigh and, reluctantly, stood up. "Let`s go. I haven`t cried in untold ages, so if I start, it`s going to be a long affair. I`d rather not do it in the middle of the ruins." - she quipped lightly, blinking against the light a few times as she turned towards the road ahead, - "What you were saying about fort Knox, by the way?"
Frisk blinked. "Oh. Right. Apparently, I have so much gold I literally don`t know the name of number." - she proffered - "How does that even work, and why do I have so much?" Chara snickered - "That`s because it`s not gold. G is goodwill. It materializes like gold coins. Not sure if they stay as they are up top. I`m pretty sure liquid determination can`t exist outside of Underground, so this might be something similar. Still, it`s pretty good. I do have a good piggybank myself, but yours apparently blows mine right out of water, because I only have a little over billion. And that`s after a century-long life full of good deeds and general benevolence. I`m afraid to think how many resets you had to go through to amass that much."
"But I never had G following me around before... At least I don`t remember that happening..." - other girl muttered, - "Gah, those hazy memories are the pits. Well, well... We`ve got the moneys, then. Set for life, even, at least around here. That`s ... something, I guess."
Chara turned her head, brow quirked at Frisk - "We, partner?" Her counterpart chuckled - "We, Chara, we. You`re not getting rid of me now. But there is one last thing I wanted to ask..." She trailed off, gathering her courage, but then forged on ahead - "When I hugged you, there was this strange... Like there`s a hole in your chest, where the heart should be. What`s up with that?" Chara`s breath hitched. "...Can we PLEASE leave this conversation off until we come to Toriel`s place? Please? I`m not ready to discuss that." - she asked. Frisk gave her a worried look, but then nodded - "I`ll hold you to that. Oh, the puzzles! I hated the ones that make you fall."
Between the two of them, negotiating the puzzles was almost laughably easy. Especially since they could pull off some interesting teamwork in places. Like lifting the talkative stone and placing it exactly on the triggerplate, then asking politely to stay where it was. Chara graciously volunteered for all the puzzles involving jumping down into pits, citing Frisk`s wounded knee. Privately, Frisk suspected that Chara was afraid of sudden chest hole conversation continuation. Silly girl.
Half an hour later, they were standing in front of Toriel`s house, munching on spider donuts and washing them down with spider cider. "I wonder what took her so long." - Chara wondered, peering into the door - "Or maybe you`re normally unconscious back in the cave for hours upon hours?... Huh." Just as Frisk was about to answer, the door opened.
"...Oh my goodness, children! Why, how... Oh, I`m so terribly sorry, you must have fallen in at night!" - well, the first impression made, given Toriel`s excited gushing - "Come on in, come on in, you must be hungry, oh my gosh I haven`t even bought groceries yet..." Chara waved at her with half-eaten donut.
"Hey mom."
And just like that, Toriel stopped. Transfixed. "...Chara... How... Oh, my child!" - and with that, Chara found herself wrapped in tight goatmom hug. "Hnnn... Need... ribs... breathe!" - she managed a full minute after, glaring at snickering Frisk. Toriel backed off immediately, her face streaked with tears. "...I never thought you could come back to me, child." - she proffered tremulously, turning her attention at Frisk, immediately noticing high similarities between the two girls - "And what is your name, child? Are you, perhaps, Chara`s sister? Oh my gosh, this is... this is... Oh my gosh."
It took a while to shepherd the emotional goatmom back into house and settle her back in the chair. Arranging themselves next to the fireplace, both girls took turns explaining some of the pertinent facts to Toriel. The dodgier details (like genocide run resets and everything concerning Asriel) have had been omitted for now, focusing more on using determination as a way to turn back time, and on Chara`s own stubborn refusal to stay dead.
"You two say you have a plan." - Toriel commented finally - "And so far, I`m in agreement with what you propose. Your level of LV is greatly worrying, however. Chara, darling... all that happened to you. I..." Chara rose her hand to forestall the topic. "It never happened, mom. We`re not letting it happen." - she promised firmly - "But I must remember what could have been. As the fools who forget their own history are doomed to repeat it."
"And I will be with her all the way." - Frisk interjected brightly - "Maybe she has high LV, but mine is still zero. I can feel just as acutely as always, and I will keep her from making any bad mistakes. Promise." She paused, and then poked Chara`s side playfully - "Besides, from what I`ve seen so far, she isn`t as unfeeling as LV suggests." Frisk shrugged as both directed questioning stares at her - "Think about it. Chara got upset her LV is so high. Do you know what that means? She can still feel something about it. All that this number means is that Chara is inured to the idea of violence. Not that she doesn`t have common sense not to do it."
Toriel nodded thoughtfully. "...I see your point, child. I`ve read that LV can go up without gaining EXP, if one witnesses enough traumatizing events, but that doesn`t explain why your own LV is zero." Frisk shrugged - "I blame my hazy memories. Chara remembers her life before reset really well. Me, well... My memories are more like... feelings. For example, when I look at you, I have a warm "mommy" feeling, but for the love of all that is sane, I can not remember if I ever called you mom, mrs. Dreemurr or auntie Toriel."
For a few moments, Toriel was at the loss for words, but then finally managed - "Ah, well... You can call me mom, if you want to." She paused, and then continued - "Oh, what am I saying. OF course you can call me mom. After all that you and Chara were through, well. You must be as close as sisters, by now."
Chara stood up suddenly. "Oh, I just recalled something. Spider pastries are fine and all, but... you haven`t gotten groceries yet, have you?" - she quipped at Toriel, who`s expression quickly changed from surprised to chagrined. "Yeah, thought so. How about me and Frisk get the groceries? It`s getting pretty late, after all."
Toriel stood up, shaking her head - "Now, now, there`s no need to saddle you with this chore, I`ll go buy them right now..." She was cut off by Frisk and Chara grabbing her by the arms and leading her to kitchen. "...Ahahaha, alright, alright, I see your point. I`ll start the dinner now, and you two can handle the groceries, alright? On purely unrelated note, do you like butterscotch or cinnamon better?"
"Both, please!" - was the happy chorus before girls run off to get the groceries done. Following them with a gaze, Toriel sighed. Today was... terrifying. A new child falling in was a problem in itself, but two of them? One of which being her long-dead human daughter and other being her sister in all but name?... Or maybe not even sister? Try as she might, but Toriel couldn`t overlook the blush on Chara`s cheeks. The blush that would grow darker each time Chara spent some time looking at Frisk... Oh-ho-ho-ho. That promised to be... interesting. Interesting indeed. And then, that great plan of theirs... She would dismiss it as childish ramblings, but they were ridiculously well-informed about things no child should ever think about. Alphys` insane experiments, for one... For crying out loud, they saw the amalgamations up close... They FOUGHT the amalgamations! And... apparently Chara even knew how to separate them... Wow. Just... wow. And even deeper... In a far, far corner of her mind that Toriel herself didn`t dare to look in, was a tiny hope smouldering. The hope that if one child could rise from the dead, then maybe so could the other.
Meanwhile, outside the house, Frisk suddenly paused. "You know, I have this feeling that we forgot something... Or, rather, uh... Someone?" Returning Chara`s questioning glance with one of her own, she suddnely gasped. "Napstablook! Goodness, we didn`t see him at all." - she exclaimed - "Chara, we have to find him. If nothing else, he`d help us to get through to Mettaton."
Thankfully, melancholic ghost didn`t prove himself hard to locate. Between an impromptu cheering session (Involving Chara making silly faces, for some indescribable reason.) and quick run for groceries, they`ve been back with missing ingredients well before Toriel needed them. "Who would have thought there is an actual grocery shop in the ruins?" - Chara mused thoughtfully - "It almost seems like Toriel is the only person who actually bought anything there before now. Makes you wonder, ne?" Frisk nodded thoughtfully. She wouldn`t put it past Asgore to finance this ridiculous arrangement, solely so Toriel could have a readily available source of domestic necessities.
Dinner proved itself to be a merry affair. Especially so, after Toriel brought out a bar of chocolate that made Chara literally salivate at the sight of it. She knew Frisk would never let her live it down, but... Chocolate. Oh my gosh, sweet glorious chocolate. Cinnamon-butterscotch pie was also a great hit, in spite of Chara`s vegement insistence that it was actually butterscotch-cinnamon pie in disguise.
But the real surprises were in the evening. Or maybe surprises was the wrong word. Chara did promise that explanation for a while, but... Toriel was more then a little worried about bedding arrangements, but finally accepted the gentle insistencies that girls would sort out the bedding situation between themselves just fine. Well that, and a quick demonstration that the bed was wide enough for both of them, provided they agreed to be friendly. But now...
"...Alright. I promised, didn`t I?" - Chara muttered, as she sat on the edge of the bed, fingers fiddling with the edge of her sweater. With a sigh, she started pulling it up.
"...You don`t have to, you know." - Frisk remarked casually, as she sat down next to Chara, putting a hand on hers to stop her from taking the sweater off - "I can wait until you`re comfortable showing me." Chara chuckled dryly. "That would be a long wait." - she muttered, and shook her head - "No. I`m not comfortable, but I want you to know. To see. This plan of ours will not work if we`re going to play around at keeping pointless secrets from each other." She grabbed the hem of her green sweater and pulled it up over her head, tossing it off onto the toy chest. Unsurprisingly to Frisk, she had nothing on under it. Same as Frisk, really.
The heart-shaped hole in her chest was defininitely not like Frisk, of course. Nor the inverted heart shape jammed roughly into it, held in place with a few bandaids. "...That looks uncomfortable." - she commented softly, leaning closer to see the soul glowing with soft white light - "That... doesn`t look like my soul."
"That`s how yours looks if you drain if of all determination." - Chara proffered quietly - "This is not the body you left me. It, ah... aged. I wouldn`t be able to do much stuck around here as a decrepit grandma." Frisk sucked in air sharply. "...Alright. Tell me." - she demanded, eyes still glued to the soul. And so, Chara told her. About the visit to the doomed timeline. About suicidal Chara and murderous Frisk, about their end together and about body procurement. About her negotiations with Sans. Everything.
"...So the determination is gone because... we both died in that timeline?" - Frisk finally managed, pulling her eyes from the soul only to look in Chara`s own. Half-naked girl shrugged helplessly. "Yes, I guess." - she proffered - "Frisk, I swear. I had NOTHING to do with making the timeline turn like that. I just checked the splits that were likely to produce an intact body, and... Soul is a bonus loot I didn`t even count on. I didn`t even KNEW I could carry across a soul without making it mine."
"Wait, what? This soul isn`t even connected to you?... Good grief, Chara, how do you even move soulless? I remember having mine pulled out a few times, and it was the worst thing ever." - Frisk fretted, as she run her fingers gingerly over Chara`s chest, tips brushing the bandaids lightly. "Wait, no, nevermind... This soul, it`s not even a fit for your hole. How did you even... oh, Chara... Let`s get this off you. I don`t even want to think how much this must cramp."
"Are you sure? I, uh... don`t actually know much about soul containing. Asgore seemed to keep his looted ones in simple jars, but those were human souls... This one is essentially a monster soul, by now. Exceptionally powerful one, granted, but lacking any determination to hold it together. Are you sure it will keep without being, uh... there?" - she retorted sullenly - "I`d hate to need to pull two resets just to recover a copy... And I don`t even know how`d I explain it to Sans this time."
As she were speaking, Frisk`s nimble fingers peeled off bandaids one by one, making soul wobble precariously. It still held fast, though, wedged into the hole. "...Nnngh, oh gods and stars, Frisk, careful!" - Chara yelped, pulling back slightly - "It feels... weird!"
Other girl said nothing, inching closer again, her fingers grasping the soul gently, and wiggling it out of the hole gradually. She did her best to disregard the noises Chara made during the extraction, sensuous as they were. Considering the soul in her hand briefly, she walked out of the room, coming back about five minutes later with a clean jar, soul safely ensconsed inside. "I don`t think it matters if it has any determination or not." - Frisk mused pensively, as she sat the glowing jar on the table and sat next to deeply blushing Chara on the bed - "All that matters is that we`re both determined to keep it intact." She turned to the other girl, and wiggled her fingers playfully, reaching for the hole again.
"Wait, what are you even dooooooing... oh goodness gracious, Friiiiisk... Oh, oh, oooh... NNgh!" - Chara didn`t dare to move as the fingers slipped into the darkness, rubbing the bruised edges gingerly. "Oh... Oh, ok, please, enough... Stop. I`m... better." - she finally managed, biting her lip. That was not a lie, per ce - she did feel immeasurably better. It was like rubbing loose a cramp, but so so much more... inside of her. On the other hand, it felt...
"I`m such a freakshow." - she muttered ruefully, turning away from Frisk - "C`mon, let me save up at least a little bit of dignity. No need to poke at it anymore." Still dressed girl shook her head and put her hands on Chara`s shoulders, turning her to face Frisk again.
"Chara, stop. I am not bothered by your looks. Unusual holes or not." - she asserted firmly - "If anything, I think you look beautiful." And Chara promptly beat her own records at blushing. "...You`re such a flattering liar." - she whispered softly. That... Just would not do. And of course, Frisk had a plan B for that. A kiss makes every boo-boo better, no? And so, she leaned in, ignoring Chara`s breath hitching at the sudden movement, and pressed her lips against the lower peak of the hole, kissing it gently. Much to her surprise, Chara tasted like the richest chocolate she ever tried.
Sometime later, she finally came to her senses, sprawled on top of Chara, who was now crying, smiling and panting like she just run a maraphon. And spread across the bed. She must have fallen over sometime during that kiss that had turned somehow into a long and thoughtful tongue exploration of that unexpected cavity.
"Oh my Frisk... You`re such a fiend." - Chara muttered, her breath ruffling Frisk`s hair and thus prompting her to pull back. "I, uh..." - now it was Frisk`s turn to beat blushing records. Darn impulsiveness and darn the stupid sexy Chara and her stupid sexy hole! ...OK, wait, no, this thought went in a very... weird direction. They exchanged a meaningful glance, both of them well aware that Frisk would never ever get to forget about this impulsive fiasco. Never. Ever. Again.
"Sleep?" - she suggested, suddenly eager for topic change. Chara giggled. "...Mm, yes. Alright. Sleep sounds good." - she agreed, as she started shimmying out of her shorts clumsily. The return of Blush: Frisk`s Blush rides again made a triumphant return. "Uh, Chara?... Are you going to, uh... get naked?" - she quipped, intently looking anywhere but on her counterpart.
"Like... seriously?" - she didn`t even need to look to know that Chara`s brows were risen at that question - "Frisk, I just let you eat my soul out. I can`t even fathom a way to get more intimate then this. C`mon, ditch those clothes and climb on in under the blankets. We must get a good sleep tonight, Snowdin`s going to be busy tomorrow."
Still blushing hard, Frisk shedded her clothes and slipped into bed, stiffening when she felt Chara`s arms encircle her waist from behind. On one hand, the active part of her brain was firing "OMG I`m naked in bed with another girl" at all cylinders. On other, the passive part of her brain went "mmmm, cuddles" and never stopped. Her tenseness leaked out little by little, as she snuggled closer to Chara and drifted off into sleep.