CHAPTER ONE

(Not centered around a specific character this time)

Ethan shouldn't have been excited as he was when they were falling. But how could he not? The thought of finding the Underground thrilled him- more than being stuck at home with his parents just to be their perfect son.

Harmony definitely did not emit the same energy. She was just hoping she hadn't screwed up. Honestly, Emily and Ethan didn't have a hard time convincing her to do things, even if they sounded like they could cause trouble. Like jumping down a hole to your death, for instance?

Emily, who was easily excited, seemed cheerful as they were falling. She and Ethan both always loved mythical creatures and fantasies. Maybe it was completely crazy for them to be thinking the tale of the Underground was real, but that was why they weren't necessarily the best duo to team up with.

At least when they hit the ground, a bed of flowers broke their fall. But they'd fallen in a huge heap.

However the heck it was possible, Ethan was on the bottom of it. "Harmony, Emily, get off of me!" He squawked, trying to not admit that their combined weights hurt. He wasn't weak persay, but he did have his own limits. He was a relatively tough kid- he tried to show it, clearly, because he wore an orange bandanna around his head, along with an orange t-shirt, pink gloves, and navy shorts. It didn't go together whatsoever. What a dumbass. His eyes were a pale orange, and his light brown hair was a tousled mess all the time.

"Okay, okay!" Harmony couldn't really get off until Emily did, so she was right in between the two. Harmony wore a dark blue shirt with two lighter blue stripes in the middle. She was wearing a navy blue skirt and her leggings were a very pale blue, almost like a periwinkle color. Her hair was dark brown and it was tied back into a bun; she had deep blue eyes.

"Harm, you owe me five bucks." Ethan hopped to his feet when both girls had gotten off of him. The purple bricks, the doorway to the next room- this had to be the Underground. They'd actually made it.

"I never made a bet with you!" Harmony tried to defend as she stepped out from behind him to look at the scenery as well.

"Aw, come on, she's allowed to be doubtful." Emily tried to defend. She had strawberry blonde hair in a bobcut and her eyes were a gentle mint green. She wore a tan apron with a signature on it overtop of a long sleeved green undershirt. Her pants were light gray. In her hands, there was a worn frying pan that was bigger than her face.

Suddenly, from the hole above Ethan, a foreign object came down and hit him on the head.

"Ow!" He rubbed his head, glancing up in bewilderment to see where it had come from.

"Ow?" Emily turned around to see what he had complained about. Harmony frowned and turned as well.

"Something fell on my head! That thing!" He pointed to the flowers and then proceeding in picking up what he assumed was the notebook from earlier. To his surprise, he was actually right. But how the heck had it gotten down here?

"That's so strange..." Emily squinted at it and then started to scratch her head.

"Is someone else-" Harmony couldn't finish her thought, because some figure fell from the hole and onto Ethan, knocking him back into the flowers.

"Ow! Why is it always me?" He complained from the ground, letting go of the item he'd just picked up two seconds ago.

"Sorry." The kid got off of him, scanned the other three, then started to walk away. They were holding a stick in this whole process. Their hair was dark brown like Harmony's, but much shorter. The small glimpse the three of them had gotten of him at least told them he had red eyes. He wore brown boots and cargo shorts, but had on a blue sweater with two purple stripes despite the warm weather.

"Wait, where are you going?" Emily ran to catch up with him as Harmony helped Ethan to his feet.

"Why's he in such a rush?" Ethan glowered at where he once was. He apologized, but he barely even looked at him. Why was he wasting no time in even introducing himself?

"I have no clue. This place is already weird." Harmony insisted, even though she hadn't seen the half of it. Her grip on Ethan's hand remained for a moment, but she felt awkward and pulled it away. Ethan didn't even really notice anything off about it.

"But it's also exciting, isn't it? Come on, let's catch up with Em." Ethan started to sprint to the next room to try and catch up with Emily.

Harmony grabbed the notebook from the patch of flowers, then looked up at the hole above.

I hope this is all worth it...

"Maybe you could do me a favor by telling me why you're-" Ethan stopped whining when he saw the boy stepping on some buttons. "What are you doing?" He peered at the puzzle and only seemed more confused. Emily was off to the side watching, but only because the guy had asked her to not interfere with it.

"The buttons open the door." He answered as he stepped on them in a particular pattern and then flicked a lever. The doors opened and Emily and Ethan shared a perplexed look.

From behind the door, Tessa and two boys were walking side by side. Kept secure in Tessa's arms was a flower pot with a buttercup in it. The first boy had dirty blonde hair, his eyes were a nice yellowish amber, and he was wearing flannel, a cowboy hat, and a belt. The second one, on the contrary, also had blonde hair, but had glasses, weird purple eyes, and a black sweater. Out of surprise, the cowboy pointed his gun at Ethan and Emily. Maybe I should've mentioned that he had a gun.

"What the f-" Ethan immediately lunged forward and punched the gun out of his hand. The cowboy quickly twisted Ethan's arm and firmly put his other hand on his shoulder, slamming him into the wall.

"Frisk?" Tessa tried to register the stick kid was actually there for a second, "You're here?" Instead of a response, Frisk had taken a dive for the gun.

"Let him go." When the cowboy turned his head, he was met with Frisk holding the gun with both hands and pointing it at his chest. The red-eyed kid had no intentions of shooting him, but he looked threatening enough.

"Please, let's not fight!" Emily sounded alarmed. The young boy with the glasses sighed, sounding exasperated.

"Aiden, let go of him," Tessa's voice was stern. Almost like a mom would. Aiden stared at her, then at the stick boy, not letting go of Ethan.

"He went after me first." Aiden reminded her, seeming irritated. Ethan didn't understand what was with the emotional connection to his gun.

"Because you pointed a gun at me!" Ethan growled. Harmony entered the room, holding the notebook in her arms, but took a step back at seeing all the drama.

"What's going on?" She couldn't help but be concerned. Ethan rarely got into fights with people, now there was a kid holding him against the wall and another pointing a gun?

"Aiden." Tessa repeated. "Let. Go." She commanded calmly, watching Aiden release his grip from Ethan's arm and his head.

"What the hell is going on? Why did I get a gun pointed at me?" Ethan demanded when he'd gotten freed from his grasp.

"My brother was out of line. I'm sorry." The glasses boy extended his hand, "I'm Ivan, and that's Aiden. We're friends of Tessa, the one holding the flower." He explained, unaware that the others knew her.

Ethan begrudgingly shook his hand. "I'm Ethan. That's Emily, and that's Harmony." He pointed to both of them. "And we know who Tessa is. That's the only reason we came here."

"I'm Frisk," the last person introduced, holding the gun out for Aiden to take back, glad that no one had gotten severely injured, "I'm Tessa's cousin. I'm here the same reason you guys are." It wasn't necessarily a lie; he was there to find Tessa. But he also knew that Tessa was going to be there once he found out she was missing.

Tessa shrank at seeing all seven of them being in one place at once. Hell, two of them had already fought. She hid her face behind the flower.

Before Tessa was forced to try and explain herself, Ivan ran over to Harmony when he spotted the notebook in her arms. "I was about to triple check for this, where was it?" He seemed so much more relaxed with it in his arms.

"At the top of the hole. I can't take credit for finding it. It fell on Ethan's head." Harmony gave a small shrug. At the mention of his head, Ethan took a second to rub it.

"First, a notebook boinks me in the head. Then, a kid falls on me. Then, my head is slammed into a wall. Can't I catch a break?" He groaned. Poor Ethan had taken a lot of hits to the head today.

Aiden rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Sorry for that, pardner..." He apologized in his (not real) southern accent.

"It's okay. Just been having a rough day as you can tell." Ethan laughed.

Frisk leaned against the wall and watched everything going on. Tessa edged towards him.

"You didn't have to come find me. It was just an accident. I would've gotten out by myself eventually." She insisted.

Frisk's expression went dark for a moment, as if he doubted that she would've gotten out alive. "You know me better than that!" He tried to perk back up again. She couldn't know how many times he'd reset to save her only to have it screwed up by the damage to the reset button.

"Howdy!" The flower suddenly had a face on it, "I'm Flowey, Flowey the flower!"

Frisk's eyes widened and he took a step back out of alarm, but Tessa simply grinned.

"It's okay, Frisk. He taught me about souls, and he was really nice about it." She explained, holding the pot close to her. Flowey looked straight at Frisk and gave him a big smile. Frisk glowered at Flowey, looking ready to flip him off but deciding not to.

Meanwhile, Emily walked over to Ivan because everyone seemed so invested in conversations and she wasn't in any. "I'm sorry about Ethan... he's a little bit much. Things shouldn't have escalated." She regretted not trying to keep Ethan back to begin with.

"No, don't apologize. I'm sure they've learned their lesson; talk before you fight." Ivan responded simply, barely sparing her a glance- it wasn't out of rudeness, or because he didn't want to be friends- he was just trying to document everyone's information.

"So... when'd you and your... brother... get here?" She murmured the brother part uncertainly, recalling that Ivan had said "my brother was out of line", but she didn't know if he was just using a more formal version of "bro" or if they were real siblings.

"Not long before you or your friends. Perhaps a few hours, I'd like to assume. It's hard to keep track of time down here." Ivan glanced up at Harmony and Ethan so he could write random things about how they acted. "Tell me about you and your friends." It was hard to tell whether it was a general statement or a demand.

"Uh... well, I don't know Frisk. He came here after us, technically. Anyway, Harmony, she takes ballet class and is really good at dancing. She has a little brother and her parents. She's pretty nice. She has a hard time trusting in people and didn't believe in the Underground... but I'm not even sure why. She's really cool, though! Ethan is more sporty and likes soccer. And he's really good at that! He doesn't like his parents, but I'm sure they're not awful people." Poor Emily had never met them, but if Ethan had heard that, he would've protested. "He also likes wrestling and sometimes goes to the roller skating rink. He's not too great, but I think he wants to get better. They're closer friends with each other than they are with me. Which is okay! I don't mind." She smiled at Ivan in reassurance. She wasn't necessarily jealous. Most people seemed to like her, after all- she was never alone at school. "As for me... I have three older brothers! One of them is in college and two of them are twins who are two years above me. They sometimes pick on me, but they love me. My mom's nice too." She didn't mention anything about her dad, because they weren't quite there yet. "I also like cooking, specifically baking! Ummm... there's not too much about me. I guess that's it." She rambled and rambled and rambled on about all of this, but Ivan didn't seem to mind. He was too busy writing this down. Maybe she shouldn't have told him so much because he was a stranger to her, but Emily was extremely naive, so she had no clue what was right to share.

"Interesting... well, it's nice to meet the three of you, I guess. I'll tell you a bit about me to get even. I'm a scientist- I'm really into chemistry. I like art too, which helps when I'm trying to observe and draw a chemical reaction. I have Aiden and my parents. That's it." He told her all in the blink of an eye, receiving a smile from her because she'd met someone new today who seemed nice. He went quiet after that and even went a little red. He didn't seem like he cared for social interaction.

"Howdy, Iv, and... Emily...?" Aiden guessed that was her name based off of what he'd heard. He was pretty sure that was it.

"That's me!" Emily giggled. Ivan only nodded at his brother in acknowledgment.

"Anyways, the group's plannin' on headin' back to Toriel's so we can explain all the soul stuff. Are y'all good with that?"

"Of course!" Emily really wanted to learn more about everything the Underground had to offer, and what he meant by "soul stuff". Ivan just shrugged, which must've meant okay, because Aiden turned back around and started leading the way.

"So who is Toriel?" Harmony asked as they walked, scratching her head.

"She's a goat monster, but she'd never hurt a human." The flower answered. Harmony nearly shrieked. "What the heck?"

"Howdy! I guess I only introduced myself to one of you newbies! I'm Flowey, a helper in the Ruins! I'm here to guide you through the Underground. Wouldn't that be swell?" He beamed at them. Ethan didn't look like he trusted a word the flower said, earning a bit of Frisk's respect. Harmony had mixed feelings because she didn't trust people anyways, let alone monsters who she had only just learned were real.

Emily, on the other hand, was way too excited. "That would be so awesome! Thank you!" She clasped her hands together.

"Of course! Your best friend Flowey's gotcha covered!" He reassured, holding off on saying anything about souls because he knew Toriel would deal with them and it was probably for the best. Frisk suspected that if Flowey tried to teach them about their souls, he'd just end up taking their souls for his own sinister plans.

Aiden worked on flipping the levers for a puzzle. He didn't seem to be listening to Flowey at all, seeing as he'd already heard this spiel.

Tessa had been avoiding the topic of her falling for a while, because she was afraid that the others would be mad at her, but decided to try and make conversation by simply telling the truth. "About my fall... I'm sorry. I only fell because I wasn't careful and the ground broke. I know, I know, it's really stupid... I wanted to see what the Underground had to offer, in a way, but not alone. I'm glad you're here with me, but Toriel's made it sound like... we're just at a dead end here in the Ruins." She admitted.

"Wait, we can't leave here?" Ethan furrowed his brow, "That's so uncool! You went through the whole Underground in less than a day? Without _me?"_ He looked both offended and disappointed. He'd been so thrilled at the idea of an adventure.

"I don't think it's the whole Underground, to be honest with ya," Aiden snorted, fixing his hat, "I think Toriel's hidin' something from us, and I intend to get to the bottom of it."

"But she's been so nice to us, we may as well stay for a little longer. She hasn't had much company in a while." Tessa tried to point out, Flowey bobbing his weird head up and down sadly in agreement.

"It would be useful to gather a little more information before we leave." Ivan inputted, "The Ruins have so much to offer, I haven't gotten to sketch every monster yet."

The group walked through the doorway and Ivan started on the next puzzle as Harmony picked up the conversation from where they'd left off.

"If that's what you guys want, that's what we'll do, I guess. Ethan?" She wanted to hear his thoughts as well, especially because he and Emily were the two people she was closest with.

"I guess. As long as we get to explore the rest of it if there is more and we get to kick some ass!" He gave his stamp of approval, it seemed. "Em, you in?"

"I'll do whatever too!" She was still so fascinated by the talking flower that it didn't concern her too much. "Frisk?" She didn't know too much about him at all, but she didn't like singling people out.

"Whatever my cousin does, I'll do." He told her with a grin, his eyes gleaming.

Tessa smiled back at him. She really appreciated Frisk at times like this. She always felt like she'd been taking him for granted.

When she turned her head back towards the front, Flowey smirked at Frisk, who glared right back at him.

I'm the one in control now, you idiot. Soon I'll have you all wrapped around my vines and become a god.