"So are you ready to give up?" Chara's lips curled into a smirk.

Pax's brows were drenched in sweat, "Never, I'm winning this time."

Frisk and Asriel sighed, Chara and Pax have been at odds in this competition for the last two hours. Asriel said, hand on hip, "Can you guys stop already, I know it's Pax's first free time in weeks but is this really how you want to spend it?"

Pax slammed down his seventeenth chocolate shake, "Beat that."

Chara's smirk grew into a menacing smile; picking up three chocolate shakes she maneuvered the three separate straws into her mouth and downed the shakes in a matter of seconds. Taking a breath and relieving the temporary brainfreeze she said, "I told you, never gonna beat me."

Pax raised his hands in defeat, "All right you win."

"Ha, you know i-" Chara's hands quickly covered her mouth as she ran to the restroom.

Pax cheered in triumph, "Looks like I was able to hold my shake down!"

"You two are silly." Frisk said with their arms crossed.

Asriel put a hand on their shoulder, "I've already tried to tell them... it's a fight not even determination could win."

Chara came out of the restroom, her eyes still a little watery. Pax laughed, "So what's next on the agenda?"

Chara shrugged, "I don't know about you, but I have to bring Frisk back home."

Pax began to open his mouth but Asriel interjected, "Ok Chara, Pax and I'll meet you at the mall."

"But I don't- OOF!" Pax mouth flapped open and closed as he tried to get air back into his lungs.

Chara's brows raised in confusion, but luckily for Asriel she didn't question anything, "All right, see you two there."

As Chara's car left the parking lot Asriel let out a sigh. Silent as a shadow and swifter than light, Pax brought a fist down on Asriel's head, "DUDE THE HELL! Mind explaining to me why I had to go without oxygen for those twelve minutes?"

Asriel gave him a serious look and changed the subject, "Did you get anything for Chara?"

"What?"

"Chara's birthday is today; I've already got her a present, what about you?"

Pax grew rigid and cold, almost akin to a corpse after rigor mortis, "No..."

"No?!"

"NO I DIDN'T," Pax grabbed Asriel by the arm, "Come on I need to get something for her quick!"


Pax pulled up into a suitable parking space, well more like phased into it. By some sort of graces he had used teleportaion around the entire vehicle and somehow managed to phase into a open spot. He wasted no time then phasing himself into the mall, leaving a startled Asriel in the truck, keeping it on in the process. He went in and out of stores, looking for something that'd make a good present for Chara. He saw many possible choices, but many of them didn't actually fit right in his mind. He thought about this one knife but realized she probably had plenty enough. 'A book on Art? No, she already has this one.' Putting the book down he started to leave the store when his phone began ringing, "Hello?"

"Pax, it's Asriel. You need to find that gift fast, Chara is looking for you; all I could say is that you went ahead."

"All right, thanks bro." Hanging up the phone Pax began running through the store, but not before stopping for a change of clothes. He couldn't risk Chara glancing and seeingg him until he got the gift. After tying the last lace of his boots he left the store. He opened his wallet, "Ok, still have seventy dollars. Gotta find that gift."

As he continued the search, on the other side of the mall Asriel was stalling Chara, "Hey, how about we wait for him right here. They say if someone is lost it's best for them to stay put."

"Asriel with that logic he should be staying put." Chara retorted.

Asriel gave a nervous laugh, "Yeah that's true isn't it."

"Hey who's that?" Chara pointed to a guy who had snow pale skin running around from shop to shop.

Asriel quickly got in Chara's way, curbing her vision, "It's probably no one."

Pax saw Asriel and had to suppress a scream. "Asriel move!" Chara shoved her brother out of the way only to reveal the person was now gone.

"Come on Chara, I think I saw Pax this way!" As Asriel pulled Chara away Pax breathed a long sigh from behind a cardboard cutout of a skeleton.

At first he was a little annoyed of the cutout, "That's not how every skeleton looks." But then he saw inside the store something shiny. He entered the store and inspected the item; it had looked like a pattern of some sort. When he picked it up it came apart; thinking he had broken he got scared. But he noticed notches in one part of the pattern; when he pieced it back together it had formed a different pattern. He realized the pattern was a hand; he pulled it apart again and pieced it back again. He realized the hands always made different symbols. He looked at the cashier and asked, "Hey what's this for?"

"Oh, that's our sign language bracelet. The cool thing about it is that you can re-arrange the pieces, or they shift depending on how the wearer is feeling. Kind of like a mood ring, if you know what that is."

Pax gave a skeptical look, "I find that hard to believe."

"Go ahead, put it on." Pax did as instructed to test it out; slowly but surely the pieces moved to form a hand with the thumb, pinkie, and index finger extended.

"What? What does that mean?"

The cashier smiled, "That means you're in love."

"How does it do that?"

"I don't know, magic I guess." The cashier answered with a coy smile.

After paying for the bracelet Pax looked for the others. He finally found them in the food court; Chara had her arms crossed, "Asriel you're not stupid, so why on Earth are you thinking he's in the pizza?"

Pax decided to make a joke so he phased above the Pizza; falling on to the table he said, "OWWW" But after recovering he said, "How'd you know I was in the pizza?"

Asriel laughed, "So you found something?"

Pax nodded and turned to Chara, a smile on his lips. Getting off the table he momentarily fell on one knee, the knee being hurt from the fall. Chara's face grew redder than most fire engines and tomatoes as all the onlookers gasped. Pax took out the gift without realizing everyone was looking, "Happy Birthday Chara."

The crowd cheered and for the first time Pax realized there were other people. He scratched his head in confusion; Asriel walked up, "Didn't think you'd propose dude!"

"Propose?!" Pax got up, his pale skin growing flushed as each second ticked by.

Chara took the bracelet and put it around her wrist; the symbols began whirring, flashing the words, 'Embarrassed, Giddy, Happy, Perplexed, Love'

"C-Chara! S-sorry, I didn't reali-" Chara grabbed Pax's wrist and drug him through the cheering crowd; Asriel in tow, the trio made it through the crowd. Chara's bracelet then signed, 'Escape' giving Pax the cue to teleport them anywhere. As the teleportaion occurred Pax forgot to include Asriel, leaving the prince behind. Asriel wouldn't have to worry though, there was a guard posted around him for saftey.


In the hole that allowed Pax to phase from place to place Chara clung tightly to Pax. It was her first time in such a thing so she was naturally frightened, even Pax was his first time. He turned her toward the light show that was about to begin, willing some of his sight to affect her. "Hey open your eyes, you won't want to miss this."

When Chara's eyes opened it took some time for her sight to see the colors. Gorgeous ambers now danced with dazzling strands of lavendar. Each stripe coiling itself around some invisible tendril of darkness. Red and Green jumped from place to place, sometimes clashing and causing droplets to splatter on some invisible canvas, each drop creating a different color. Blue, silver, gold, amber all became pictures. Eventually as their phase location neared, a picture had taken up their vision. A girl and boy clad in white, golden flowers decorating their path. Their hands held in a loving manner, an aura of happiness radiating towards the two. Chara looked up at Pax, "Thanks Pax..."

"For what?" Pax said, still mesmerized by the image before him.

Chara smiled, her lips finding his and finally parting, "For giving the best birthday present ever."

Pax couldn't remember what he said next but he thought it was something like, "Yeah... party gift time..."

As thee two left the portal entrance, they landed in chairs at the park. "Hey you two made it in time."

Looking around Chara saw her entire family there, even the always busy Mettaton had made it. Giving a smile the party ensued.


In the pocket dimension that Pax had used to phase to the park, the image still stayed, but all around it dark, distorted tentacles wrapped around the boy clad in white. The boy became distorted, his image turning gray and dusty. As the Tentacles moved towards the girl, a giant swath of ink stopped them in their tracks. The multicolored liquid engulfing the tendrils, "No more interference brother..."

"Ah, why did I know someone as annoying as you would try to stop me. Very well, I'll let you think you've won for now. But know, I always destroy the timeline in the end."

"Why do you do this? I create and you destroy? Why?" Only silence filled the void afterwards.