Aaaand surprise: I've finished this chapter in less than 2 weeks from the previous one! I'm proud of myslef... sort of. :D It's a LOT shorter than chapter 9 again - but I felt I said all I wanted.
Besides, even though not much happens in this chapter, a LOT happens in this chapter. And since things go the way they do here, it should come as no surprise that we're (oh no!) slowly but surely reaching the end. I will write a whole bunch of stuff about it in the last chapter (which is NOT the next chapter so don't freak out :D ), but for now, I would just like to thank every single one of you for sticking around! It's wonderful to read through the reviews and see that people actually like this. :)

CHAPTER X: A Cup Of Water

A dark cavern – considering there was an insane number of corridors around, he learned to think of it as a room. Kind of like a lobby, an entrance to the ruins behind. This was where they all came in, long ago, before he came back to life. And this was where another one has come through, young, lost, confused and scared, but somehow with enough strength to keep moving forward.

"Down here," he told the human, "love is shared through... little white..." He hesitated for a little while. "...friendliness pellets!" A blatant lie, but the human presumably knew nothing about magic. They nodded, even though their eyes didn't believe anything they saw. He almost felt bad for them. Almost.

"Are you ready?" he said as he sent the bullets towards the child. "Move around! Get as many as you can!"

And the human fell for it.

A second later, the child was lying on the ground, weak and hopeless. He felt they wanted to cry for help, but... They were all too sure nobody would come. A clever assumption.

"You idiot... In this world, it's kill or BE killed. Why would ANYONE pass up an opportunity like this!?" Well, that was fun. Maybe he should try to reset and do it again? He summoned a circle of bullets around the human. No, too soon to reset. He wanted to see them...

"DIE."

He laughed insanely and let the bullets fly towards the lying child.

And all of a sudden, their lips moved.

"Asriel!"

Strangely, her voice felt like it was coming from a great distance. But... wait, this wasn't right. How did she know? And how did he know that she was a she?

"Asriel, wake up!"

Now it definitely came from somewhere... else. The girl was gone. The cavern got darker. Wow, he never noticed there was a window in the cave. Right there, by the bed on which he lied...

"Come on, wake up already!"

Asriel gasped as he opened his eyes. He wasn't a flower trying to kill an innocent human, and he wasn't deep under the mountain. He was in his bedroom, and next to his bed, Frisk was leaning above him jiggling his shoulder. It took him a while to orient himself in this situation.

"Sorry, you were..." Frisk was worried. "You weren't sleeping well," she said hesitantly.

Memories of the nightmare flooded Asriel's head. He immediately thought what it must be for someone else to watch him sleep and relive the worst horrors of his life. Some people are talking during sleep; could he be one of them? Was he saying Flowey's lines out loud and laughing like a maniac? The fact that Frisk was there to witness it made him start to feel embarassed.

"Hi, Frisk..." he told her sleepily as he turned his face towards her. She just sat down on the edge his bed and was looking at him. She seemed a bit scared. "What do you mean?"

"You were mumbling... things. And rolling all over the place." Frisk's hand was squeezing his bed sheet nervously. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I guess," he told her and sat up so that their faces were at the same height. "I'm really sorry you had to see that."

"Don't be stupid, Asriel. Nobody's responsible for their dreams."

"Actually, I did bring this on myself, kind of," he told her. "But I don't wanna talk about it right now."

Asriel knew he was right: these nightmares kept coming back when he felt upset or anxious, which wouldn't have happened so often hadn't he been caring about others so much. This time, it was poor Papyrus' 'fault'. Before he went to sleep, Asriel had to sit by the sofa on which the skeleton slept and watch over him. Not five minutes after Frisk went upstairs, Papyrus woke up, rolled on his side and threw up on the floor, so he had to deliver him into the bathroom and clean up. All that time, he felt worried and sorry for his friend who had to live through this – not to mention what tomorrow's going to be like for him – and angry at his dad who let it happen. It was something they'll only laugh about in the future, but right now, it brought up his negative side again – and Flowey lived inside it.

At least Frisk was there to wake him up. When he came in the room, she found her half sitting, half lying in his armchair with eyes closed. He was hoping she'd taken his bed, and since she was aparently sleeping, he didn't want to pull her up just to offer it to her. He must have woken her up while he thrashed in his sleep.

"Thanks for waking me, by the way," Asriel added. "I should be fine now."

"Are you sure?" she asked.

"Yeah, I mean, as long as you're here, nothing bad will dare to come after me, right?" he chuckled.

Next thing he knew, Frisk lifted her legs on the bed and dug under Asriel's blanket. "Well, by that logic, I should stay here until you're asleep again," she announced. "Move a little, will you?"

Despite his best effort, Asriel couldn't make enough space to provide a comfortable sleeping position. Unless he wanted to spend the night being wrapped all around Frisk, which he did but wasn't about to do so. They were both lying on their backs for a while.

"You didn't say anything when you came upstairs," Frisk whispered eventually. "How did you handle Papyrus?"

"You looked like you were sleeping, so I didn't want to disturb you. Papyrus was fine when I left, he did throw up, but I took care of it. He then fell asleep so deep he likely won't be up until forenoon."

"Okay... I feel bad for what happened," she replied.

"Me too..."

Silence.

"I've never heard anyone use the word 'forenoon' before," said Frisk.

"Me neither... I just read it somewhere and it made sense to me."

"It does make sense."

Silence.

"This isn't too comfortable, is it?" said Frisk.

"It's really not," he agreed.

"You know, you don't have to be so afraid of touching me, I can feel you all tense over there."

Asriel cackled again and loosened up a little bit. Their elbows were now touching. "To be honest, I'm more used to sleeping on my side."

"Me too." Frisk turned her back at him. Asriel rolled over as well and slowly placed his left arm behind her head and hugged her belly with the other, partly because there was nowhere else to put it. It felt a little like sleeping with a plush toy.

"Yup, that's better," he said. "Good night, Frisk."

"Night, As."

And they soon fell asleep like that.

The night had passed away. It was the beginning of December so there was no sunlight yet to announce the new day. When Asriel woke up and looked at the alarm clock at his night stand, it was just after six. He realised he didn't have any more nightmares that night. Maybe Frisk actually helped.

He closed his eyes again and, half instinctively, squeezed Frisk's body a tiny bit more tightly. She moved; her right hand crawled towards his and held it. And so they were, and so they stayed, their bodies intertwined like two cute puzzle pieces, and even though they were awake, it hadn't yet gotten to their heads. These are the rare moments when you're somehow aware that you're sleeping. It's one of the best feelings in the world. When people sleep, every cell in their body is resting. There's no pain, no troubling thoughts, no anything at all, only you. When you know your body is sleeping – and so did Frisk and Asriel at that moment – you have a rare opportunity to pretend everything is alright, or even that there's no "everything" at all. There's just a pleasant warmth of your bed and blanket's embrace.

The funny thing was that since Asriel's brain was on standby, he didn't care about any overcomplicated feelings he might had had for Frisk. He could only focus on the fact that she was there, her back curled up on his torso, her hand holding his own, her soft breath deepening the morning silence – and he loved her. There was no "but" and "what if" this time, that was the only thing that mattered.

They stayed like that for maybe twenty minutes, relishing their sleep as they were very, very slowly waking up. Finally, Asriel's brain started up, and he realised that no matter how beautiful this piece of time was, it won't be able to last forever. The thought of Frisk getting up, leaving his side, walking home without him, was hurting his heart; but it was inevitable, and he knew that. He shivered.

She felt it and started to move – slowly activating her muscles, one by one, until she was able to turn her body towards him. Their eyes met, telling stories that could never be put into words by any poet.

"I..." Asriel started, but he tried so hard to keep his voice quiet that he didn't make any sound at all. He gulped and tried again. "I don't want you to leave."

Frisk smiled. "I'm not going anywhere."

Their hands touched again and their fingers danced around each other for a while, caressing the other one's palm, wrist, patiently exploring the unknown territories of their forearms, shoulders, faces-

It was only a matter of time before their lips finally met as well. First, they just touched for a brief moment. Asriel closed his eyes and stopped moving. There's no coming back from this point, he thought. All that he desired for the last few weeks – or, if he wanted to be completely honest with himself, the last seven years – was suddenly there, in the form of two red lips gently pressing against his. Perhaps he should have felt fireworks going off all inside him – how can one compress seven years of hopes and dreams into something as small and innocent as a kiss? But all of his doubts seemed to just stare in awe; some of them politely stood up and left through the back door quietly as they didn't want to disturb.

They drew back a few atoms of distance. They looked at each other, trying to figure out what the other one was thinking.

Then their lips touched again, and this time, they both meant to uncover all of their secrets. Timidly and yet passionately, they danced around one another, catching and letting go again, trying different angles, knowing that this single moment in time only belongs to Asriel and Frisk and intending to make the best use of it.

After a while that could have lasted an entire age, they finally stopped. They smiled at each other and Frisk hugged him, laying her head on his chest. He rolled on his back and placed his arm around her shoulder. His other hand once again found hers and held it.

"Asriel?" she whispered.

"Hm?"

"Don't you think this is crazy?"

"It is... but it's a good kind of crazy, right?"

"Yeah..." she sighed.

"Look," said Asriel, looking for proper words; "I... think you know what's going on..."

She interrupted before he could finish: "I think I got the idea, yeah." And she giggled. "You don't have to put it in words, As." She stretched out towards his face and smooched him again to support her argument. Frisk then rested her head on his shoulder.

"If you think so..." he said. "I just hope you know how much you mean to me, I fear you might not realise. You're the greatest, awesomest thing in my life... and I like you beyond imagination."

"That's so nice to listen to," Frisk whispered.

"Fine, you're the greatest, awesomest thing in my life..."

She laughed and gave him a kiss to make him shut up. "You know, I think I know all too well how that feels."

Silence. But a much less uncomfortable one than before, at night.

"I'd like to go to the bathroom," Asriel said after a while. Frisk chuckled.

"So? Why don't you?"

"I don't want to let go."

She withdrew. "Off you go, you silly!"

"Fine, if you insist..." He sat up and crawled out of the bed. Frisk was in the way, so he had to leave through its feet.

"Hey, As?" he heard while he was almost at the door. He turned around and saw Frisk peeking at him from under the blanket.

"Yeah?"

"Knock knock."

Well, that came out of nowhere. "Um, who's there?"

"Goat."

"Goat who?" Does she mean me, or what?

Frisk blinked rapidly. "Go to the kitchen and fetch me some water, pretty please?"

He smiled. "Sure."

As he walked downstairs, checked on Papyrus who was sleeping the merciful sleep of a sick man, payed a visit to the bathroom and poured Frisk a cup of water, Asriel was trying to make some sense out of what had just happened. The two of them spent – he looked at the clock – about thirty minutes snuggling and smooching, just after they woke up, without any warning. He always pictured himself professing his love for Frisk with a thousand words with which he meant to explain everything that he likes about her and all the reasons he wanted to be with her, only hoping she would not turn him down. This was perhaps too easy. He wasn't complaining, but... it was rather anticlimactic.

And what was to happen now, anyway? Are they officially going to be boyfriend and girlfriend? It was nice that they shared that moment, but it didn't resolve much. Asriel was always the one to dislike not knowing what future brings. Maybe they had to talk about it.

But upon opening the door to his bedroom again and finding Frisk in the bed, burried under the blanket and immediately putting on a loving smile when her eyes saw him, he realised this is not the proper time to ask questions about them. This early morning hour, before Papyrus gets up and cries for help, preferably with a hammer into his skull, before dad sits in the kitchen, drinking an early cup of tea, filled with shame – this hour was theirs alone. There was no future to worry about. They had each other, and they couldn't ask for more.

"Thank you, sweetie," she said when he approached the bed.

Asriel placed the water on the night stand. "You're right, it is nice to hear such words." He bent down and kissed her.

"I'm afraid you'll hear a lot of them from now on," Frisk giggled at him, and as he got back to the bed, she took the cup of water.