I'm back again what's up
Cool, cool.
Upstart Psycho: Welcome to my little corner of the Charisk Trashbin, where everything is so happy it causes diabeetus.
Dragonsrule18: Everyone must hug everyone. It is a law. I refuse to stop making this cute.
SanDemonMax: I think pretty much everyone is in the Undyne Luggage Club. Her preferred method of transportation is running with whoever she's traveling with under her arm. I expect one day she'll run to Japan with Alphys under her arm, in spite of the fact Japan is a series of islands.
Omegalavaking: Welcome to the story, glad to have you reading. I don't intend to write for a Genocide run (I'm one of those softies who couldn't even finish it) but something interesting will happen soon. I basically threw Red in on a whim. Because I really like Red. And as for your review on Ch. 13… They are children and this story is rated T :P
dairym: Yep! It was a huge part of what influenced me to write in fact.
Anyhow… enjoy!
Chapter Twenty-Five
Asriel was tightly wrapped in his mother's arms, held so close he couldn't pull away even if he wanted to. She was cradling him much the same way she had held Chara when she first saw her alive and well, crying and laughing as she wrapped her arms around him, petting his hair slowly. Chara and Frisk exchanged a shaky smile, still a bit dazed from the recent happenings, and Undyne was still carrying Gaster and Alphys over her shoulders. They looked resigned to their fate of being hauled around for a bit longer until Undyne realized she didn't need to carry them anymore.
From his position draped over Undyne's back, Gaster extended a long, pale hand to shake Frisk's. "Doctor Wing-Ding Gaster. A pleasure to meet you. Well, that is… a pleasure to meet you again, though it would seem you do not recall our first encounter."
Frisk blinked, thinking. A spike of pain suddenly laced through her mind. "Ow! Ow! I- Ow!" She clutched her head for a moment, before her eyes widened and she snapped her gaze up to meet Gaster's. "In Waterfall! That… d-door-thing! That was you!"
"Yes. I was quite surprised when you wandered into the void." Gaster's smile tightened subtly. "Still, it gave me a way to nudge your young friend towards life." He turned his gaze to Chara, thoughtfully. "Amazing… Humans are truly strange- ah, I mean no offense of course…"
"Wait…" Chara stared at Gaster, who finally managed to wriggle his way out of Undyne's grip, slithering in a serpent-like fashion. "You're the reason I started to become "real" again?"
"Correct." Gaster stood tall and proud. "You were already well on your way, of course, but I decided a little nudge to speed you along could not hurt. Especially with an impatient and surprisingly clever flower lurking about."
Chara reeled softly, before smiling up at him. "Then I guess I have you to thank for a lot of good stuff."
"Nonsense." Gaster laughed softly. "I just was attempting to speed my return. If I could do some good in the process, even better."
Toriel was still clinging tightly to Asriel. Chara glanced at them, smiling, before dashing up and leaping up, hugging them both and beaming.
"C'mere Azzy! I need to hug you silly and play with your ears again!" She laughed, as she squirmed over to her brother, squeezing him tightly.
"Chara…!" He squeaked. "Can't… breathe."
Reluctantly, Chara released him, but made good on her other statement, taking a moment to toy with his fluffy ears and smiling. "Missed you." She hummed. "Even if you were there the whole time, but that wasn't really you so…"
Asriel laughed breathlessly and hugged her back. Frisk giggled at the sight, beaming. After so much effort and time and work and misery, it seemed like her "Happy Ending" was right there.
Except, it wasn't an ending, because things weren't stopping here. Which of course meant Frisk should pounce in and join the hug pile. Toriel huffed and laughed, having three children in her arms, all happy and clinging to one another, before she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.
"I think it's time," She said slowly, carefully, "That you tell me everything, my children."
Chara sighed, and exchanged a look with Asriel and Frisk, before taking a deep breath…
By the time they had finished filling in all the things that they had deliberately left out from the sorry tale, it was dark out and everyone in the house had quietly gathered to listen. There was a quiet silence, as Toriel closed her eyes, marvelling at all her children had been through.
Chara's eyes were locked on her hands. "...So… I ruined everything, and I made a lot of bad things happen, but… But that's why I had to help Frisk when she came. Because I had to do everything I could to help and fix it…"
Frisk gently scooched closer to Chara, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. She smiled, without looking up. "...And she really did it, huh? Undid so much bad stuff… just by being so… so unbelievably kind."
Toriel leaned forward and placed a hand on Chara's head gently, her other hand resting on Asriel's. "My dear, dear children… I would not wish the things that you have been through on anyone." She ruffled their hair, before releasing them, giving Frisk a quick ruffle as well. "But you have been very brave, and… for now…? For now, you do not need to be brave for a little while."
The three exchanged a glance, confused. Toriel smiled and drew them in closer. "For now, you can just be children."
"YES," Papyrus announced. His voice was rather jarring, as he had been silent the entire time. The only sound he had made was a loud clattering when Gaster was introduced to him- mainly because his lower jaw had fallen off and he had been spending the time that Chara, Asriel and Frisk had been telling their story re-attaching it. "YOU CAN LEAVE BEING BRAVE TO THE GREAT PAPYRUS NOW! NYEH HEH HEH!"
Gaster chuckled softly from where he loomed- he never really seemed to "Stand". He was always just sort of quietly looming over everyone. "Ah, how long has it been since I have heard that laugh…?"
"for us i guess like six years ish." Sans shrugged. "but uh, probably a lot longer for you. kinda hard to a-void thinking about it."
Papyrus groaned. Gaster beamed.
"Yes," Gaster agreed good-naturedly. "I am sorry for leaving you both in the dark so long…"
More groans. Toriel was biting back a giggling fit.
"Things are gonna be better now, right?" Asriel grinned. "I won't want everyone to leaf me alone anymo-"
Chara tackled Asriel, who was squirming and laughing. Toriel and Frisk were struggling not to collapse from laughter.
"SANS, YOU HAVE INFECTED US ALL WITH PUNS."
"you're smiling."
"IT'S A SMILE OF PITY. WE HAVE BEEN OVER THIS"
"we may have gone over it but have we gone through it?"
Chara was still play-wrestling Asriel on the floor, mercilessly tickling him. Toriel and Frisk were gasping for breath from howling with laughter, while Undyne and Alphys looked nonplussed. The other six children milled about, reactions ranging from laughter to head scratching.
Eventually, things began to calm down. Chara and Asriel flopped on the floor, Asriel still clutching his sore sides from the ferocious attack, Frisk flopped next to them, grinning.
"W-wear yourselves out y-yet?" She asked dryly, sitting cross-legged on the floor.
"Everything aches." Asriel wheezed. "But it's a good ache."
"That's kinda how I felt when I came back." Chara grinned, staring at the ceiling. "Feeling things after… not feeling things is weird, huh? Just breathing felt really weird."
"WHAT DOES BREATHING FEEL LIKE NORMALLY?" Papyrus asked, standing above the children, tilting his head questioningly as he asked.
"That- That is a really weird thing to think about." Chara paused, frowning thoughtfully. "It's like… being all filled up and then pushing it all out, but really slow and gentle?"
"No way!" Undyne grinned. "You have to FORCE the air out! Fight it in and then fight it right back out! BREATHE WITH SPIRIT!"
"If I did that, I'd pop a lung." Chara uttered, deadpan.
"THEN YOU JUST AREN'T TRAINING YOUR LUNGS ENOUGH!"
Frisk flinched as Undyne happened to be standing fairly close to her, and rubbed her ear as the fish woman bellowed.
"...Ow." She muttered.
Undyne had the grace to at least look a little bit sheepish. Frisk just gave her a pained smile, sitting up. "P-please don't yell right next to my head anymore."
"Sorry!" Undyne huffed, giving Frisk's head a slightly aggressive ruffle. The fish-woman had immense difficulty controlling herself sometimes. One of the things she had to admire about Papyrus was the incredible amounts of control the skeleton could have. He could not only control his physical strength almost perfectly, but also use magic far more intricately and with more complexity than she could ever hope to (although perhaps that was just the kind of magic he used. More finesse, and less of Undyne's brute force.
Speaking of Papyrus, he seemed to be utterly lost at who he was supposed to be more impressed by- Asriel, who had been his flower friend all the time, or Dr. Gaster, his creator and father. He kept looking back and forth between them, uncertain of what to do exactly. Sans grinned, amused at the way his brother's head kept swiveling back and forth.
"careful bro. don't lose your head." He chuckled.
"WAS THAT A PUN?"
"...maybe? oh wow, i just made a pun on accident. i am the punlord."
"SANS. PLEASE."
Asriel was exhausted. Everyone had bombarded him and Chara and Frisk with even more questions, until Toriel managed to calm everyone down for dinner. The dining room was one of the biggest in the house- which made since considering how many mouths their were to feed. Luckily, monster food was easy to make and monster currency went a lot further than human currency did. Monsters could even fabricate gold with enough time and magic. (Although they limited the production so as not to depreciate its value).
So it was fairly easy to get a big huge dining table and chairs. Dinner was a lighthearted and noisy affair, with the delightful smell of good food. Asriel sat close to his mother, tucking in hungrily, devouring every bite with a hunger he had forgotten he was capable of having. Asriel devoured his meal, wolfing down the pasta with a will. Since Papyrus was so fascinated with the process of cooking spaghetti (for some reason he just "liked" eating it- he loved cooking it however), Toriel had been introducing him to a wader variety of pastas. Tonight, it was linguini.
Papyrus particularly enjoyed the names of pasta, almost more than the flavor sometimes. But to be fair, they were really fun to say. Ravioli, Linguini, Lasagna…
Asriel didn't care what it was called, it was good and he was very hungry. He was so invested in his meal he didn't even notice Sans across the table putting liberal amounts of ketchup, mustard and relish on everything.
"SANS, WHY DO YOU DO THIS."
"cause i like it."
"YOU NEVER CEASE TO AMAZE AND DISTURB ME."
"love you too, bro."
Frisk sighed softly, leaning her head on Chara, eyes half-closed. She was full, sleepy, and content. She could feel Chara's breathing, a slow, comfortable rhythm.
"...C-can we finally rest easy?" Frisk joked sleepily. "Since Asriel's back n' all."
"Mhm." Chara nodded, glancing down at Frisk with a grin. "Asriel's certainly resting easy. He fell asleep in mom's lap…" She tipped her head upwards, nostalgically. "He used to do that all the time. Just crawl into mom or dad's lap when he was tired and fall asleep." Chara idly rested her hand around Frisk's shoulder.
The pair were quietly seated Chara's bed in their shared room. Frisk often needed to retreat to her room after dinner. They might have been her family, but they had a habit of tiring her out a bit.
Chara leaned against some pillows, smiling. "...Hey Frisk…"
"Mm…?" Frisk stirred, opening her eyes, still nuzzled against Chara. "W-what is it?"
"...This is kind of a weird question, but…. What do you think of me as? I mean, what am I to you? I was thinking about it because I was thinking about Asriel and how he's my brother even though he's not by blood and it just was kind of strange."
"Well…" Frisk sat up, giggling. "D-definitely not a sister, because that would make me a weirdo who goes on dates with her sister." She punctuated the remark by giving Chara's nose a little poke. "But y-you know, we're definitely cl-closer than friends…" She scooted a bit closer, causing Chara to squeak and blush as Frisk's face was inches from her own.
"S-so?" Chara sputtered meekly.
"What do you w-want it to be?" Frisk giggled, staring her right in the eyes.
"...I w-want… I want to be…" Chara took a deep breath. "Your… girlfriend?"
Frisk leaned forward another inch. "I w-will." Frisk replied softly, before finally their lips touched together.
They were rudely interrupted by a flash.
"Oh shoot, I was supposed to turn that off... still, caught what I wanted~"
"Tara…" Chara growled, staring the dancer down.
"I had to record this for posterity~!" She grinned, taking a half-step back. "Welp, gotta run!"
Chara rushed after her, and Frisk laughed as she chased after Chara.
"Give me the film!"
"It's digital, Chara, there is no film!"
Frisk rolled her eyes, as her friend- her girlfriend- she felt butterflies in her tummy just thinking the word- tore after Tara, still shouting.
Sorry for the long delay. Stuff kinda happened. A lot of it.
Tara is evolving into a troll more and more and I kinda love it.
Please review, hope you had fun~!
Goodnight everybody.