To stand at the precipice of life and death, to step forward and feel an all too familiar hand reach out for yours, and to feel that hand held at bay by a force far, far, greater, was an indescribable feeling. It was a feeling similar to that of being held by those that loved you, the feeling of being surrounded by those closest to your heart, except this...this was different. This was not a feeling of the heart or mind, it was a feeling of the soul, the feeling of a broken mind, body, and being as it was pieced, meticulously, back together. It was a feeling the Prince of Monsters savored once the tears stopped falling, a feeling he held onto as though it were a lifeline in the eye of a storm.
It was the feeling of the sun on his fur and the wind gently rustling his long ears that caught Asriel Dreemurr's attention. His clawed feet scuffed across the ground as though driven by a still groggy will, the soft sound barely audible over the sound of the wind atop the mountain's high plateau. At first he blinked, trying to clear away the blurriness of his new, untested, eyes, but no amount of curiosity could take his gaze away from the group he saw ahead, its number slowly dwindling as they ran off to explore their new world. How could he blame them? They'd been trapped in the darkness for so long, and now, finally, they could see the sun.
When only three remained, three he knew all too well, the young prince stepped forward, his gentle footfalls not yet enough to shake any of the three from their revery. His father, King Asgore Dreemurr, stood as tall and impressive as he always had, his crown, cape, and trident not seen in the Human world for over a thousand years. Then there was his mother, so gentle and kind, and the blue and white robes that she had worn for as long as his memory had served. She was the power behind the throne, in truth, but his dear, loving, parents were not the ones Asriel focused his eyes upon; no, that special place of honor was reserved for Her.
Prince Dreemurr stepped fully from the darkness of the cave and gently laid a single hand on her shoulder, the slight start as a certain realization dawned on her bringing a quiet smile to the prince's face. "The last time I saw this sky," he said softly, his tone distant, but no longer wistful, "I had Chara in my arms. We had...we had a plan to free the Monsters... Just one soul to pass the Gate, then six more to break it down forever. One life willingly given...and six from the...creatures that had imprisoned us for so long. Then my people would be free again, they would finally have hope again..."
Asriel's gaze turned dreamlike and morose as he watched the sun's brilliant rise over Frisk's shoulder, his hand digging ever so lightly into her skin. "I couldn't do it then...I was a cowa-"
Frisk laid her hand across his, her touch alone enough to draw his mind away from such dismal thoughts. "Don't say that, Asriel.", she whispered as she turned, finally looking upon the boy she'd tried so hard to save, "You're not a coward, you're a prince to your people, and you're an angel to boot." Her smile turned wry, a sideways grin she'd reserved just for him. "I'm just the fallen angel that helped you on your way, yeah?"
Whatever Asriel's thoughts, whatever his response, it was lost in those butterscotch eyes and the feeling of weight on his shoulders and sides. He hadn't even felt his parents kneel and embrace him, their arms wrapping him and Frisk up as though letting go would allow them to disappear once more. In truth, even as his mother seconded the idea of them both being precious angels, as tears were shed and the sun's warmth began to work into Asriel's fur, the prince registered little more. His steps, his words, all well rehearsed as though they'd happened a million times, but this feeling? The feeling of embracing Frisk and letting his own tears fall upon her shoulder? That...that was too new, as though this was the first time it had happened, as though...
Asriel awoke with a start, the prince sitting bolt upright in bed as his wide eyes tried to focus in the darkness. The room was pitch black save for a faint shaft of moonlight streaming in through one of the old house's peaked windows. Asriel liked the dark, it always seemed comforting when the nightmares came to visit, and the Underground had always been dark, right? It was only natural then, that a monster like him should enjoy the dark of night.
The prince groaned, a quiet sigh escaping his lips as he swung his legs out of bed, and rose with a crack of joints settling, his fur, for once, not matted by a cold sweat. It felt like it'd been years since he'd slept without some kind of nightmare, but that dream was just...weird. He'd never had anything quite like it before, nothing so...real..so tangible. It had been like he was really back on the mountainside, watching the sun rise over a world entirely alien to his eyes, and Her touch had been just as painfully real. Asriel hadn't seen Frisk in...what was it, four years? Five? Time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, only to bear down upon his shoulder when he stopped and thought about all he'd missed out on.
Furred feet padding across wooden floorboards, each toe clacking on the old boards, Asriel realized he'd need to trim his claws before long, they'd only grown larger since he'd returned from his journey. Oh how his mother had squealed in delight to see him walking back down the old, familiar paths, how his father's face had wrinkled with an aging smile at the sight of his growing son. Despite growing older, despite actually feeling time's passage again, Asgore and Toriel never once complained of aches, pains, or the cruelty of nature. At one time Asriel had wondered why, he'd even asked old Grillby and the silent innkeeper's only response had been to write out, "They're proud. Again.", on a napkin. That'd been the first time Asriel had shed tears for anyone but his family, Grillby had just patted his shoulder and whipped up a batch of fries on the house.
Asriel scoffed quietly at the memory as he ducked into the fridge, looking for something, anything, that would sate his late night hunger pains. Bologna? Not enough. Pie? Too sweet. Left over spaghetti? Not if he wanted to continue living, poor old Papyrus had never quite gotten the hang of making his 'famous' noodles.
Sighing, the Pwqa prince straightened up and looked around the small kitchen, eventually settling his gaze on a half-empty box of cereal. Hey, his people looked like goats to Humans, right? In that case it only made sense that he'd be eating grains. As he sat down at the kitchen table, bowl and box held in one hand, the distant sounds of movement reached his keen ears. More than likely it was Undyne moving about, only she was insane enough to willingly be up so early in the morning, but a part of him hoped that she wouldn't come downstairs just yet. He'd decided to shack up with the militant captain and Alphys when he got back, but the quiet of the early morning was the perfect time to fall away into the mists of memory, 'fall' being the operative word. Asriel poured his cereal and closed his eyes, the last, warm, vestiges of his dreams fading away as his vision seemed to turn in on itself and all the wonderful, and terrible, things that lay locked within.
"Asriel, wake up!" A high, all too familiar, voice rang through the young prince's head as his eyes shot open and immediately locked on Frisk's butterscotch gaze. "Wake up! We're going to be late for class!" Blinking blearily, Asriel nodded and half rolled, half fell, out of the bed as he scrambled to change out of his pajamas. The second he was out of the bed Frisk was already gone, tearing downstairs to eat breakfast as though her life depended on it, and the prince wasn't very far behind the young ambassador. Life had been surprisingly easy going for Asriel ever since Frisk had brought his people back, and his soul along with them; easy enough, in fact, that he'd mostly fallen into the routine of school, chores, and exploring the world around their village. It was a quiet, simple routine that allowed him a measure of peace, something that he desired more than anything after the nightmare that Frisk had freed him from. He'd not retained all of his memories, of course, but he remembered enough to know the pain that he'd caused, to feel the anger, fear, and hatred that had lingered in the back of his mind like some kind of cancer. He didn't remember everything, but he remembered enough to look at Frisk with nothing short of eternal gratitude for her actions, a fact he tried to remind her of every, single, day.
An exceedingly quick breakfast, and a tight hug from Toriel, later and they were both off, running well ahead of the motherly Pwqa that doubled as their teacher. Classes were surprisingly easy, for the most part, despite Asriel never having had a strictly formal education before, and whatever he couldn't do Frisk helped him with. In fact, they made the perfect team. As he'd become more and more a part of the Human world, Asriel had come to realize that Frisk looked after him as much as she did all the other monsters, and he'd tried his very best to do the same for her, not that she ever really needed help.
Frisk was always strong, always Determined, and always, above all, an independent soul. She was special in more ways than she ever admitted, at least so far as Asriel had ever heard, and that was never been more apparent than when she saved him for a second time. Classes had been let out for the day and the young prince found himself outside, reading beside a human boy, Frederick, that he'd come to befriend. Most of the humans were cautious, wary even, but they were curious too, and a handful were friendly enough to approach people like Asriel or M.K. It was the end of the school year, though, and not every human was quite so kind and accepting of those different from themselves. A group, three or four other children at the most, approached Asriel and Frederick, their leader, Keith, was a slightly older boy with sandy red hair and decidedly cunning green eyes. Keith had never particularly liked Monsters, he'd made his opinions so clear on that matter that Toriel had purposefully transferred him to another, all-human, school, but never before had he been violent about it. The older boy shoved Frederick off of his, and Asriel's, log perch hard enough that the smaller boy cracked his head on the ground and looked up, clearly dazed. Asriel had never been amazingly brave, at least he'd never thought so, but the young prince stood up to Keith all the same, standing between him and Frederick. "Oh, is someone finally gonna get brave?", the older boy sneered, making a mock gesture of looking around the yard, "Or is mummy around to save you again?"
Asriel glared, his heart racing and fists tightening. "I won't let you hurt him, Keith. Why can't you just leave us alone?" The young Pwqa's voice was low and surprisingly calm, but it was far from steady, his tone cracking just enough to make Keith smile. It was cruel expression, one of dominance.
"You won't let me hurt him?", the boy repeated, making a show of being shocked, "What, are you saying I should hurt you instead? 'Cause trust me, I'd like nothing more. Your kind doesn't belong up here, with us."
Asriel, again, just glared up at the taller boy, his hands unwilling to move despite his fighting spirit. He was a gentle soul, a compassionate child, not one prone to violence or conflict. Things like that were entirely alien to him, one of the many reasons his own actions in the Underground left such a stomach churning taste in his mouth. He wasn't willing to repeat that, not yet, not without a good reason.
The prince's silence was met by a sneering laugh and muted chuckling from the others in Keith's gang. "If you're so tough," the older boy jabbed two fingers into Asriel's chest as though punctuating his point, "why don't you prove it? Show me, 'Prince Dreemurr', or keep your stinking trap shut like a good little goat." Again he jabbed Asriel's chest, but Keith's smile faded all too quickly when he realized he couldn't pull his hand back. "Wha-"
Keith never got to finish his sentence thanks to the book bag that careened through the air and deflected off of his thick skull, the expert throw followed a half-second later by the sound of running feet and a voice, a girl's voice, shouting. Asriel was stunned into silence, partly by the tempest of thoughts and emotions that wheeled through his young mind and partly by what had just happened, but the sight of Frisk jogging towards him, Keith and his gang nowhere in sight, slowly began dragging his mind back to reality.
At first her words fell on deaf ears, literally, as she reached for Asriel, shook him, and asked him something, eyes wide with concern and dilated with adrenaline. When he didn't respond she looked past him, reaching down to help Frederick up and dust him off, ensuring that there were no real injuries from Keith's hateful antics. "Asriel!" Again her words fell on nearly deaf ears, the feeling of both Frederick and Frisk shaking Asriel's shoulders accompanied by a slight ringing as his mind returned to order. "Asriel, are you alright?"
Finally the prince was able to break his stunned silence, his gaze flicking to Frisk's as he muttered a quiet, "I-I'm..fine.." Frisk's eyes never really changed, no matter how many times he repeated himself, but she did, eventually, turn her attention away just long enough to tell Frederick to go and get Toriel. Asriel knew there would be questions, concerns, and that, unfortunately, there very little chance of anything coming of the situation. It would be chalked up to the 'adjustment period' or 'youthful bad decisions' just as it always was, no matter the concern and outrage Frisk and Toriel felt. It was not these things, though, that Asriel was considering as he watched Frisk's expression change in a thousand minute ways, the feeling of her hand tightly clinging to his shoulder matched as his own hand drifted to hers. He didn't say anything, there was little he could think to say, but he knew he'd seen something in her eyes when she'd first attacked Keith. It was something more than anger, something his conscious mind had missed but his subconscious had latched onto, and it was still there, though well hidden, when she turned back around to face him. Asriel hadn't known it at the time, he'd been far too young, but, with the passage of time, he'd realized that, reflected in Frisk's butterscotch eyes, had been the very flames that she'd seen in his eyes, flames that he'd since come to call constant companions.
It was to the feeling of a rough hand affectionately slapping his shoulder that Asriel's eyes snapped open, his own hand covering his left eye just long enough for the violet flames to die away. "Hey kiddo, you alright?" It was dark still, the blue glow of the early morning sun just barely peeking over the horizon outside, but Asriel would've known Undyne's voice anywhere.
The prince looked up, blinking slowly as though he still wasn't fully awake, and nodded quietly. For the gruff captain of the guard to ask if he was alright he must've looked mighty sorry for himself, but, then, he always did when his mind started to wander into old memories. "Hey..I...didn't wake you, did I?"
The shark like guards-woman drew herself a glass of water and hopped up on the counter, shaking her head firmly. "Nah, been up for two hours already. Bit early for you, ain't it?", she asked with a good natured grin, "Never thought I'd see royalty rise 'fore dawn cracked."
Asriel scoffed and leaned back in his chair, his silver eyes tracing over the cereal he'd still not eaten. "Me and dad maybe..but mom was always up early, doesn't she get up before you sometimes?" It was an absurd question, but Asriel was just glad to be able to talk to Undyne again. It felt like it'd been a long time since he'd just...talked.
"Up before me?", Undyne grinned incredulously, "Hardly kid, but she's got a reason t' be up early anyways, gotta go teach th' little ones how to put two-and-two together. Seems to me it'd all be a whole lot more worth it if she just let me teach 'em a couple things." The captain stretched and nonchalantly pulled a blue spear out of thin air as if to make her 'point' more tangible, its blue surface roiling like a disturbed tide or hurricane's swell. "'Sides, I keep things interesting! Always somethin' new to survive or destroy."
Despite himself, Asriel laughed, a long overdue smile creasing his furred muzzle at the thought of Undyne teaching children anything. "I think the whole, 'something new to survive', thing is why you don't teach kids, Undyne; you know, just a thought." At the sentry's all too enthused laugh Asriel, again, smiled, his mind wandering for the briefest moment towards how the others must've been doing. He'd not spoken to anyone except Undyne and Alphys yet, and he knew that Papyrus, if no one else, would never forgive him if he didn't drop by at least once. "Thanks, again." The sudden thank-you caught Undyne off guard, a black brow rising as Asriel looked up to her from his seat. "For letting me stay, I mean. It's been nice to...you know, be home.. Again."
Undyne almost always wore a smile, unless she was chewing someone out, but it became ever so slightly more genuine in return. The veteran nodded once, quickly, before hopping down from her perch and hooked an arm around Asriel's neck, nearly squeezing the life out of his throat with her overpowering hug. "Good to have ya back kiddo, wasn't quite the same without'cha." Mercifully she let go, Asriel's hand lingering on her arm a moment longer before she slipped out of the kitchen to get ready for the day.
Asriel had only gotten back the day before, his feet and mind equally sore from the long path he'd walked, but he knew that, before too long, word would get out of his return. Somehow, for some reason, he didn't mind the thought like he'd thought he would.
The Prince had come back home.
A/N: Hey all! Name's Whisper and I'll be your copilot with Cookie for this roller coaster ride. Hopefully my first submission goes over well, I've been writing for a long time but fan fiction is a whole new beastie to conquer! My next chapter should be a bit longer, as will Cookie's so I hear, so it can only get better from here on out.
See you all in the next one!
~Whisperfen
