Chapter 10
Chara woke up with a flash. Panting, they looked around themselves and realized they were back in their and Frisk's room.
Was that all just another bad dream? Chara brought the covers around them in comfort. Just like how I always have? Chara's head snapped up as they heard the door open.
"Oh, you're awake, my child!" Toriel smiled, and sat down on the bed next to the kid.
"H-hey mom…" Chara frowned, shivering Why am I so cold?
"You had us all so worried! First, when we came back in from talking with Undyne and the others, the kitchen was a mess, then we found Flowey in the garage! He told us that you had run outside, and by then it had started snowing…" Toriel grabbed them in a hug. "Oh, I'm so glad you're alright, my child!"
"How long was I out?" Chara asked.
"For about a day." Toriel said. "Would you like to talk about anything, my child? Flowey told us that you hadn't told him very much about what had happened to you, and, well, you barely told us anything."
"Umm, well…" Chara frowned.
"It's okay if you don't want to talk about it." Toriel smiled. Chara sighed and started to explain. When they got to the part about Meredith attempting to kill them, they paused, still recalling the awful flashback they had just awoken from, and pulled the blankets even closer.
"Oh, that is…" Toriel embraced Chara in a hug as they finished their detailed account of the abuse they had suffered. "No wonder you came to us in such a horrible state. And also that you reacted so strangely when I first met you."
"Yeah." Chara shivered, touching their hand to the back of their neck.
"Also, I have to warn you. The PTA has to meet at one of the member's houses once a month. This month, it happens to be here."
"Great." Chara sighed, pulling the blanket even closer to themselves. "When, exactly?"
"Today." Toriel broke the news. Of course. "Do not worry, my child. You can stay in here. If need be."
"No, i-it's fine." Chara insisted.
"Are you sure? They do tend to call you the wrong pronoun." Toriel asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I'm sure." Chara said. "Worst comes to worst, I can come back up here."
"That's my kiddo." Chara looked up to see Sans in the doorway, Frisk next to him. How long had they been there?
"Not long." Sans smiled. "Frisk here was getting worried about you." They were? Why? And...did I speak that last part out loud?
"Your face spoke your thoughts." Sans explained. "Well, they'll be here in a couple hours. How'z about we leave them alone, Tori?" The goat nodded and left with Sans, leaving Chara and Frisk alone. Frisk blinked their bright, blood red eyes, adjusted their glasses, and sat down on the bed.
"...Why are ya so nice to me?" Chara asked. Frisk crawled next to them, and gave them a hug. "W-what are ya doing?" Chara yelped in surprise.
"...I thought you were going to leave me…." Chara jumped at the tiny, high pitched voice.
"Y-ya can talk?" Chara crawled away from the other child.
I don't like to. It's kinda… Frisk paused to think. ...Heavy? It hurts a bit too. I don't like to.
"W-wow…" Chara replied, staying put where they were leaning up against their pillow. Frisk blinked, and went back and hugged them again, cuddling next to them.
"F-Frisk! No-no-no-" Chara sighed when they realized that the other kid had fallen asleep. Of course. Chara couldn't help but look at them. Despite being almost exactly like them, Frisk looked so much more...innocent. It really reminded them of Asriel.
Why do you like me so much? Chara wondered. Why did either of you like me?
I don't deserve it. I don't deserve anything…
"Chara? Frisk?" Toriel came back in a bit later, and giggled a bit at the sight before her. Frisk had woken back up at that point, and the two were playing cards. It looked like Frisk was winning.
"Hey mom." Chara said, as Frisk signed the same thing.
"Hello, my children." Toriel smiled. "The guests should be here soon. Frisk, why don't you come downstairs while we let Chara change into something else?" The kid nodded and jumped off the bed, as the two left the room.
After Chara changed into another lime green sweatshirt and some black pants, they went back downstairs, to an amusing sight. They held their hand to their mouth in a giggle as they saw the interaction between Frisk and Flowey.
"Leave me alone, Frisk." Flowey grumbled. Frisk pushed a small ball towards the flower, which kept bouncing off of his flowerpot and going back to them. Frisk seemed to be enjoying it, as they were smiling.
"Hey there." Chara walked down the stairs, and jumped the last step. Flowey hissed at them.
"Good riddance." Chara rolled their eyes as they sat down next to Frisk. They laid their eyes on Toriel, who was baking a pie. She leaned over to pull it out of them oven, and lay it on the stove to cool.
"Oh, hello there, child." Toriel smiled when she noticed Chara.
"Hey, mom." Chara replied without missing a beat. "When's everyone getting here?"
"Soon." Toriel smiled. "Hold on, I need grab something from the garage." Toriel left the room. At the same time, Frisk signed, Hey, I'll be right back, I need to go to the bathroom. They then left Chara alone with the flower.
"Ugh, what do you want?" Flowey muttered.
"Listen, I don't like you, and you clearly don't like me. But one thing we seem to have in common is that we don't like Linda. Right?"
"I've never met her, but from what I've heard, yep. Go on." Flowey nodded as Chara whispered their idea to him. "That's...a GREAT idea." Flowey smiled evilly.
"It'll sure be funny." Chara said, shaking their short hair as Flowey laughed. "Don't get me wrong, I'm still mad at you."
"Whatever. Like I need a friend like you." Flowey scoffed as Toriel came back in.
"Now, Flowey, don't be rude." Toriel chided as the doorbell rang. "Oh! They're here already."
"I'll get it." Sans ran to the door. "Oh hey there, Iris and Aadila."
"Hello, Sans." Aadila smiled, tucking the red headscarf over her ears. Iris smiled as well, and she was holding Jamal's hand. "Thank you so much for agreeing to hold the meeting here."
"It's no problem." Sans smiled. "Why don't you come in? It's awfully cold out there."
Pretty soon, the kids were all playing in the living room, while Chara was standing next to the door to the kitchen where all the adults were.
"Okay, let's get this meeting started." Linda sat down at one of the extra chairs that Sans had pulled up to the table. "Um, Aadila, sweetie, would you mind taking that thing off?"
"What, my jacket?" Aadila asked, moving to take off said jacket.
"Oh, no, I meant, um, that." Linda pointed to her headscarf.
"...my Hijab?" Aadila frowned. "I, um-"
"Let the lady wear what she wants to wear, Linda." Sans waved off the woman, who shot him a glare.
"Well, for one, it makes me uncomfortable. And two, you don't need to shove your religion in our faces." Linda sniffed.
"For the first part, tough. She wants to wear it, so let her. And two, your religion is literally the mainstream religion. I have heard very little about any holiday that isn't Christmas these past two years, so you may as well shut up about having her religion shoved in your face."
"Well, I say! You're a hypocrite, aren't you? I've seen your house, it's practically swimming in decorations for Christmas."
"First off, we only decorate because Frisk wants us to. We don't even celebrate Christmas. We celebrate a monster holiday very similar to it, however. So, in any case, how about you shut up and we start the meeting?" Sans replied. Chara peeked over into the kitchen. Sans looked calm, but the kid could hear that he was angry.
Sans just needs to beat her racist ass.
"Now, going off from where we ended last week. When will we have auditions for the musical?" Linda started. Sensing the tension in the air, Sans quickly piped up.
"Hold on a second. We still haven't decided on who will be judging."
"Yes, we did. We decided that it would be me, Helen, and David." Linda replied.
"Hold on a sec. We need more than three humans to help." Toriel stopped them.
"Why? You monsters don't know how to do that kind of stuff, like how humans do."
"I'll have to disagree with you there. Your kid's dance AND drama teacher is a robot, who is embodied by a ghost of a monster. Your kid's English teacher is a ghost of a monster. Your kid's soccer coach and band assistant are both monsters. We know how to do stuff just as good, if not better, than humans." Sans growled. Chara quietly walked in, grabbed a cup of hot chocolate, and left.
Chara sipped their drink as they watched the others. Jamal was sitting next to Frisk, who was signing to Alex, surprisingly, who seemed to be understanding, yet still had a confused look on his face. Jimmy was glaring at his twin from across the room from where he was sitting with Anna and Ashley. Tommy and Alice were talking- well, it was more like Tommy was taking and Alice was listening- and Stella sat munching on a brownie, holding her brother and watching the whole scene. Chara walked over to Frisk.
"Hey Frisk, Alex." Char greeted the two.
Hey, Chara. Frisk signed.
"Hey. Um…" Alex scratched his back. "I, um, wanted to apologize for my brother. He gets carried away a lot. And his behavior was unforgivable."
"Thank you for apologizing." Chara smiled. "You know, you're much better than your brother."
"Y-you really think so?" Alex blinked in surprise.
"Yeah. I mean, your brother's a jerk. And he's not that smart. I don't know how he keeps straight A's."
"Well, Mom says it's because he works harder than I do, but that's not right. I mean, he's just chatting with someone on the phone all the time or playing video games. I've never seen him study."
"Well, there's got to be a reason for it." Chara said.
"I think th-that Mom br-bribes his teachers."
"What?" Chara blinked in surprise.
"Yeah. She only does it for him. She constantly compares me to him and asks why I can't be that good. But there's a lot she doesn't know about him. Like how he constantly sneaks out at night, and comes home at 1 in the morning."
"Really now?" Chara smiled. Now I have some dirt on him. Good.
"Yep. And yet Mom treats him like a poster child." Alex glared at his brother across the room.
Sheesh. Seems like there's more to this than meets the eye.
"Yikes." Chara took a drink of their hot chocolate. "Hey, do you want to grab some more food?"
"Isn't it in the kitchen?" Alex frowned.
"Yep." Chara walked off. As they walked towards the kitchen, they heard some comments that made Chara frown.
"Are they cursing?" Alex frowned.
"Seems like it." They should know that there are kids in the next room.
"Look," Alex stopped Chara. "I know there's something else going on here."
"You do?" Chara frowned.
"I can read people pretty well. You in particular, are fairly easy to read. Something's going to happen in the kitchen, isn't it?"
"Yep." Chara smiled, recalling their agreement with Flowey. As they walked in, the adults noticed their entrance and calmed down. Trying to change the subject, Linda's eyes rested on Flowey. Chara smiled.
"Oh, what a pretty flower! It's a buttercup, isn't it?"
"A sunflower, I believe." Sans replied. As Linda leaned in to smell it, Flowey bonked her on the head.
"Oh my-" Linda jumped back in surprise as Flowey yelled,
"HAIL SATAN!" Both Chara and Alex burst out into laughter, as did Sans and Toriel. Aadila and Iris held back their laughter, Gloria smiled, and the other parents just looked at the flower in horror.
"Oh my, you might want to take Flowey out of here, my child." Toriel said once she had calmed down. Chara knew, however, that they weren't going to get of it unpunished.
Worth it. They smirked as they grabbed their food and left with Alex.
"Well, that was funny." Alex smiled. The other kids seemed unaffected by what had been going on in the other room.