"Hey Chara." Asriel slings his bag over his shoulder as it falls with a slight thud on the floor.
"Hey Az." I say back, "Mom gave you extra homework again?" He scoffs.
"You were there."
"Just wanted to rub it in your face as all. No harm done." He sits at his desk and takes out a pen and sets it to a wad of paper. "Hey." I say. Nothing. "Hey! Asriel! Need any help?"
"I'm fine." He says, "Just go back to your book or whatever." I snort.
"Az, come on." I get up and saunter over, dragging a chair behind me, sitting down and looking at the hell in front of him.
"I told you-," he says,
"Uh buh buh buh!" I interrupt him, putting a finger to his snout, "You know you need me for this. Now what's the first question?" He exhales deeply.
"Sure, uh-," he flicks to the first page of the wad of papers, "Surds. Mom's always pushing us to learn those."
"Correction. She is always pushing you to learn those. Because I know them."
"Either way," Asriel says, "She's still making me do them, and you're so insistent to help, so are you gonna help or not?" I cross my legs and rest my chin in my hand.
"Hmm…" I say, looking up at the ceiling, "Nah."
"What?"
"I just feel like watching you struggle as I revel in the knowledge that I am far better than you in every way." I cock my head to one side and give a little smile. Those eyes, yep, he's dead inside.
"Okay, what's this one? Rationalise this denominator!" He points to a question. I don't even look. "The Hell are you doing? Rationalise, damn it!"
"That'd give away the answer." I say, "Plus, I shouldn't think that the Absolute God of Hyperdeath would need help with such a trivial question."
"Still going on about that, huh?" He asks.
"He was a super cool OC, bro. We should've written fan fiction about him and put him online." He smiles. "See? Not so hard." He drops his pen.
"Y'know," he says, "Mom's just next door, and something tells me she'd love to hand out some extra work to a certain someone who won't let me get on with my own."
"Yeah," I say, "But Asgore's next door too." I sit back. "Just let that marinate for a moment." His cheeks go so red the fur covering them seems to as well.
"You asshole." I say nothing. His cheeks go redder. He turns back to his homework but I can see he's not going to be able to concentrate very long.
"Hey." I say, touching his noise, "Boop, Az, hey," he looks up, "Let's get outta here. Go outside."
"What are you talking about?" He asks. "Mom and dad aren't gonna allow that."
"Yes, and they're the epitome of warmth and cuddles. If we left a note saying 'Hey mom and dad we're gone bye' they'd have pie on for us by the time we got back."
"You're insane."
"You clearly have very low insanity standards my friend."
"What the Hell are insanity standards?"
"Why the hell are we still sitting here?" He looks up at me for a second, and I see a million emotions in his eyes, and reigning above all… definitely bemusement. He scrawls a note on the front of his paper and we get up, sneaking through the house and vanishing out the front door.
"So." Asriel says, hands pocketed, as we walk along the garden path, "Are we going anywhere in particular or just leaving to upset mom and dad?"
"Asriel," I say, punching him lightly on the shoulder, "You give me too little credit." We keep walking.
"So are you gonna follow that up or-?"
"I was thinking," I interrupt, "We go somewhere a little dangerous."
"And you think this is a good idea why exactly?"
"Ju-shshshsh!" I blurt out, putting a finger to his snout, "Follow me, I know what I'm doing!" Before I turn and dash around the corner ahead of the garden, with Asriel's dejected footsteps following me distantly. I take him to the right, leading us past the little crevice to where we used to play together.
"Y'know," I hear a voice behind me say, "I'd actually be content to just go and talk in there." I look at him with an 'honest-to-God' type of face, "No! Like, it's safe, close by, we can go home when we want to, just-,"
"Az, come on." I wrap an arm around his shoulders. "My birthday's soon. You sure you don't treat me before then?" He sighs, and pushes my arm away.
"Whatever." He smiles, weakly. Aww. "Where were you thinking of going, and actually say something this time."
"Why don't we visit the core?" I ask. He seems to be taken aback.
"The core?" He asks, "Why? There's not much to do there we haven't done already."
"Ah whatever, I like it, and you're treating me, so let's go. Chop chop." I set off without waiting for him, yet he follows me still. That's my Asriel. We walk together without talking for a little while. I feel like I should say something. I look over at him. He looks back at me. We stand still for a moment. He reaches out, and touches my arm.
"Tag, you're it." I stop for a second. I blink. And he's gone.
"Are you actually serious right now?" I scream into the night, "Asriel, get back here, now! Come on!" No response. "Ugh." I dejectedly start walking after him. I snigger, under my breath. "Dude, Az, come on. I was looking forward to this for a while. I'm not in the mood for games right now, okay?" Still nothing. Damn. "You're a quick learner." I call out. Still nothing. Damn, he remembered the most basic rule of tag, what a turnaround. I feel really proud of him. I start walking along the path, hands behind my back. "Guess I'll just go on my own then." I start walking for the exit, just a little way along till there's a nice downward slope leading to the base of Hotland. Suddenly, I start to hear footsteps. I keep walking, inconspicuous. The footsteps are admittedly quiet, but not unnoticeable. They start to speed up. I hear him exhale a breath before I dash to the left, and he falls on the floor, hand outstretched.
"Agh…" He says, scrambling to his feet.
"Asriel," I say, folding my arms, "You sly dog." He gets up and lunges for me again. I lean back as his hand misses. "Try to catch me first!" I shout, darting toward the end of the cavern.
"Oh, that is IT!" He shouts back, chasing after me. The narrow passage opens up onto a wide open space, hot, red rock acting as a bridge along the stretch of Hotland. We start running down it together, almost side by side, our shadows dancing along the ground in the glorious light of the distant core. Time almost slows to a stop, for a moment, there. He and I running together, laughing, smiling, insulting each other at every possible opening. It's all I could've wanted. I look over at Asriel. He's trying to look mad, but there's a smile there, somewhere, as his long fluffy ears dance in the air rushing past us as we run.
There's a sudden turnoff to the right. Asriel taps me on the shoulder.
"Through here!" He says, and, of course, we both run into it. It's a short stretch of red rock leading into another cave.
"You're sure you know where you're going?" I ask, panting, trying to keep up.
"Sure I'm sure." He says, before gaining some distance. "Don't wanna lose, do you?"
"Need I remind you you're the one who's it-," he stops, and grabs hold of my arm.
"Tag." Then he runs off.
"Oh my God." And so, I run after him. After we've run a short distance, the stretch of red-seared stone opens up onto something like a… it's a balcony, so to speak. The flat surface circles out into an outcrop, before a drop leads down into a pit… that's so far away I can't see the bottom. Nice. I feel a hand on my back push me a short distance towards it. My heart stops. Then the claws of that hand pull be back onto the ledge.
"Saved your life." He says.
"Asriel, I'm willing to bet you're a bigger asshole than I am at this point." I say, punching him softly in the face.
"Yeah… I deserved that." He says. We sit together, backs against the rock, looking down onto the bustling lava-filled world beneath. I sit with my right knee pointing toward the sky, my left lying dejectedly on the floor. There's no talking for a long time while we soak it all in. "Say," Asriel says, turning to me, "Chara?"
I look over at him.
"Yeah, Asriel?"
"Mom and dad are acting kinda odd recently, aren't they?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well," he says, sitting up and looking at the floor, "I get dad's busy and all but he's barely home anymore, and when he is he just goes straight to bed."
"What are you suggesting?"
"I'm saying," he says, "I don't think we're really pulling our weight, here." Pause. "I mean, think about it, here we are running away without even letting them know and they're probably at home, stressed the Hell out about us. And everything else."
"Hey, Asriel." I say, softly, "Don't worry about it." I put an arm over his shoulders and sidle closer, resting my head by his side. "Mom and dad are fine, they've got their problems, and we have ours."
"What problems?" He asks, "We don't-,"
"Remember the kid?" I tell him. His chest falls flat as he breathes out the rest of his sentence.
"I thought we agreed not to talk about that." He says.
"I can't not talk about it, Az. You know that."
"Why not?"
"Because, Asriel, if you end up accidentally killing someone it tends to leave a bit of a mark."
"Okay!" He says, loudly, "I get it." There's another long, near deafening silence.
"Perhaps we should do something." I say. "Something just to cheer mom and dad up?"
"Maybe." He says. "What did you have in mind?"
"I was thinking we could make some of that cinnamon butterscotch pie mom always makes for us. Treat them to a nice evening of eating in without any worry."
"That sounds like it could work."
"Thanks." We lapse into silence again. Then, he turns to me, and looks in my eyes, dead on.
"Do you ever…" he asks, "Think about that kid?"
"Do you ever realise you just asked me not to talk about it?"
"I know, I know, but just… I'm curious, okay?"
"What about?"
"I guess I wanna know," he sits up, bringing up a knee and resting his arm on it, "How… how did it feel?" I look down at my hands, resting in my lap.
"I… give me a second." I look up at the roof of the outcrop, trying to remember. The spurts of dust shooting down my fingers, the feeling of strain under my nails, the thumping in my head, the redness in my eyes. "I can't…" I say, "I can't remember it all that well, but…" I sit up, and draw both knees beneath my chin and clasp my hands around them, "I remember, when I saw the… the dust on my hands, it felt… good."
"What?"
"I know. Asgore gives us those talks about how wrong it is to take a life, but then when I ended up doing it… for the shortest time, before and after, it felt… euphoric, almost. Like for the shortest time, all my troubles just went away. Poof." I start seeing images behind my eyes. Flashes of something I saw long ago. I see a grey outline, moist, damp, muddy. In the centre, golden, like the flowers outside my old house. I feel water dripping down my face.
"Woah, Chara…" I hear Asriel say, as he wraps an arm around me and tucks me in toward his chest, "What's up? Hey? Chara?"
"I…" I can barely speak for my lips trembling and teeth chattering, "I just w-w-want everything to-," I bury my face in the fur of his neck, the whiteness soaking up my tears. He puts his hand on my back.
"Hey, Chara, it's okay-,"
"No-,"
"It's okay, Chara. I'm here." I feel my face start to contort, my lips stretch. I start crying out, loudly. "Chara, hey, don't worry," I clamp my teeth shut to try to stop. Shut up, Chara, stop crying. Please. "It's okay, it's okay," he runs his hand in circles on my back, "It's okay, it's okay, it's okay," repeating those words over and over again, with naught a second between them, "it's okay, it's okay, it's okay."
"Eh heh heh…" I splutter, my eyes caked in moisture, eyelashes clinging to the fur on his neck. "Please…"
"I'm here." I lean up and wrap my arms around his neck, holding him as close and as tightly as I can.
"Don't…" I say,
"Don't, what, Chara, what is it?"
"Don't leave me, Asriel."
"What?"
"P-p-p-please…" I press my cheek against his, sitting on his lap, "Please d-d-d-don't…"
"It's okay, it's okay, it's not-," I sit up. Asriel's changed. His fur's gone. He looks, human.
"What-,"
"There you are." My vision goes red. I feel my teeth ramming into one another, ready to snap. It clears in a near instant, and when it does…
I'm lying in my bed, wrapped in blankets. Asriel's nowhere to be seen. I push against the bedclothes and go to the side of the room, pressing my ear to the door.
"I don't understand, Asriel." I hear Asgore say. "What are you saying?"
"Please tell me this isn't happening." I hear Toriel say.
"Just, listen to me." He says. Don't do it, Asriel. "There's something I need to tell you about Chara." I run back into bed and thrust my head into the sheets, burying my head under the pillows, pulling up as much to cover me as I can. Please, shut up, you traitor.