He didn't know when he started feeling something again. Something other than the emptiness that swallowed him. It was cold. The ground he was laying on was hard, rough. His fingers twitched, scraped over something. NOTHING'S EVER GOING TO CHANGE, HUH? The ground seemed to give in to his touch, moved when he closed his hands. But one side was rougher than the other. One side hurt against his skin, poked into his palm when he moved. The other was soft and all too familiar.
A light warmth, softness that crumpled in his grip. His heart sank for a moment. He knew the cave from the first moment he arrived down here and knew it from every other "first fall" he had had. Nothing had changed again. He had failed. Again. I'M STILL HERE. I WILL ALWAYS BE. THE UNSTOPPABLE TEAM. BUT MAYBE, THIS TIME, WE SHOULD TRY MY WAY AGAIN. He couldn't even bring himself to answer them. To tell them that that was not an option. Everything, even thinking, seemed too hard.
Harry felt his eyes begin to burn. His head hurt, a pounding pain that seemed to split him down the middle. He didn't want to open his eyes. He didn't want to see that cave again, the light from somewhere up above, the bed of flowers covering the hard ground. The only thing that dampened his fall. And still, every time he woke up, his limbs would ache.
Every time he felt weak. And every time he got up, pushed himself off the ground, looked around…and then he remembered. The first thing was always Asgore's face. The sad, regretful smile vanished with the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but absent darkness and an icy cold on the otherwise soft face. T
the knife that he couldn't put down out of his hand, no matter how much he wanted to, and the button he couldn't resist pressing any longer. AND THEN YOU HEAR MY VOICE. Harry turned his face down into the ground, his eyes closed. He didn't want to open them. He didn't want to lift his head, didn't want to stand up anymore. Maybe that would change something. Maybe it would make a difference if he wasn't part of this twisted game. "He's alive!" The voice was calm, barely more than a squeak, but it sprung live into the space around him.
The air seemed to shift, and something moved, feet scuttling across the floor. A scraping shuffle, a dampened, low step, the crunch of gravel crushed under the weight of a person – a monster, turning into the soft rustle of the plants pushed aside with every move. Harry froze, his hands cramped up around the gravel and the flower petals between his fingers.
He felt the stones dig into his skin, the same time that the tears finally pressed out of his eyes, rolling down over his nose and sinking into the ground below him. He felt something on his back, in between his shoulder blades. A soft pressure, a warmth that quickly sept into his skin. "Hey…get up, little one", the soft voice that spoke so close to him only made the tears flow quicker. IS THAT… He couldn't keep still anymore, couldn't keep to himself as the sob shook his body. "Hey…Hey…" she knelt down beside him. Her soft fur came against his cheek, her paw warming his face. She helped him when he stirred, came to support him as he rose.
His knees were sore, his hands, even more, when he pushed into the gravel to push himself up straight. The second he lifted his head, he saw her expression change. He saw her eyes widen at the sight of his face, the fur covering his body, drinking up the tears until it couldn't anymore. Her gaze wandered all over him, watching him so closely. And then a smile spread on her face, a gentle, loving look in her eyes. And for a moment, that was all that mattered.
Because at the sight of her, even Chara went silent inside his head. Another sob tore through his chest, and his eyes burned with the pressure of the tears that kept spilling out. Everyone else was little more than a blur, colors, and shapes in the dim light. But he could see Sans' blue puffy jacket, Papyrus' bright red scarf, the yellow spikes of Alphys' head, Undyne's green-ish skin, and Asgore's purple cape that he had seen him wrap himself in so often.
Toriel rose her paws to his cheeks, held him gently, wiped the tears that rolled down his cheeks away. "Are you alright, dear?" she asked softly. Harry sniffed, opened his mouth, but no words would come out. His throat felt tight, and he couldn't breathe. Until she pulled him into his chest, held him close, her arms wrapped tightly around his body.
He broke out, sobbed, cried into her chest, felt her dress getting wetter from the tears seeping into the fabric. "Oh dear little one," Toriel whispered, slowly stroking up and down Harry's back, "I'm so glad you're awake" "W-We were so…worried", Alphys said, somewhere beside them. Harry could hear them moving in closer, could feel the space around him close, the empty air filled with people who cared about him. His hands dug into her fur, held onto her more as more hands came to touch his back, to support him.
He didn't know how long they sat, didn't know who squeezed his shoulder or who stroked over the back of his head. But at some point, he pulled back, looked up into all these faces, smiling down at him. And he noticed that one was missing. "Where…" He pushed himself up, even if his legs were shaking, looked around while Toriel took his hand, and the others moved back to give him some space. But they were the only ones there. And Asriel was nowhere to be seen.
It was that fact that brought tears back into Harry's eyes. To see Toriel and Asgore, to see his friends, to know what they did for him, how they kept him alive for so long and helped him stand through everything he had to get through.
And know that he couldn't give them back to one thing that could make it all even. "Is something wrong?", Undyne frowned widely. "I…", Harry looked around, saw their faces turn to worry, "I'm so sorry…I tried…" "Tried what?", Toriel looked at him, "Dear, what happened?" Harry turned to look at her again. "None of us really remember anything," she continued. "We just woke up here," Undyne continued, "And you were out forever" "We a-almost thought you wouldn't wake up at all," Alphys said quietly. "Papyrus cried," Sans said with an amused tone in his voice.
Harry turned to look at him for a moment. "I did not!", Papyrus protested, "I don't cry" All eyes turned to him for a moment and Papyrus looked around. "I just…caught something in my eye", he tried to defend himself. "Yea? What did you catch?" Sans rose an eyebrow, looking up at his little brother.
His jaws seemed to start trembling, the eyes in his skeletal sockets welling up with tears. "Tears," he sobbed. CRYBABY… And Harry couldn't help the smile that came onto his face. For a second. And then his lips began to tremble again, and the smile dropped as quickly as it came. "Now, now…" Asgore's voice rang deep somewhere behind him, "The important part is that he's alright…." Asgore hesitated, tilted his head to the side with an uncertain smile. "Though…we have all been wondering and feeling terrible…we never seem to have asked you your name", his smile turned almost embarrassed, his eyes apologetic. Harry looked around at all these people, who he had told so many times that he was Harry.
Who gave him another chance to be someone else, over and over again. And now, maybe, he could finally take it. Give them the same name that he had given Asriel. YOU COULD BE ANYONE. His lips trembled. He swallowed before he could finally find his voice. "My name is Frisk" STILL THAT DUMB NAME THAT I GAVE YOU? PATHETIC. Harry shook his head to drown out their voice, wishing back the moment of silence his head could revel in when he was with Asriel. Asriel… YOU WOULD MISS ME.
Toriel smiled down at him, her hands now finally falling off of him. "Well, welcome, Frisk, finally" Harry got up, with her help, looked around the cave. This wasn't the place he woke up in every single time. Not the same cave he had fallen through after they abandoned him, the people whose voices rang through his head every now and then again. When he couldn't sleep or felt alone. When the broom closet under the stairs seemed to close in again. This wasn't the ruins.
This was a different room he had seen a million times. One he had never put that much importance to. The hallway just past Toriel, the path that Asgore stood at, that he had led him down so many times. He could see the ornate door, far in the back, almost swallowed by the darkness. And the barrier that had always been behind it. So long, most of these monsters probably couldn't remember a time without it. And now, he was the one who knew it wasn't anymore. That they were free.
Thanks to Asriel. Almost instantly, Harry straightened up, his eyes widened. He had never seen him anywhere else. He had never met him anywhere outside of that room, not in that form, not anywhere other than the barrier. And that was, after all, where he lost him.
He took a step forward, past Toriel, towards the hallway. "Frisk?", Toriel turned around, got up off the floor. But Harry couldn't stop. Not for her, not for anyone. Something pulled him, and he could feel it, right there. Why couldn't he before, when it was so obvious now? How could he have ignored this pull, the cry of his own soul right in front of him. His legs still felt so weak, and his feet hurt. The paws felt odd. He wasn't used to them.
But he couldn't let anything stop him. One step ahead of the other, he moved quicker, started to run. Parts of gravel started to dig into the pads of his paws before the rough ground turned smooth. His heartbeat in his ears pounded loudly. And then he could hear the other.
The same rhythm, in a different heart. He came closer to the door, and his hands came against the dark wood as he all but threw himself against it to open it. A crack with the first throw. Nothing more. Harry huffed, shook his head, and threw himself against the door once more. "Frisk- what are you doing?" Undyne was the first at his side, the first to look down at him, and then, without another word, threw herself against the door beside him.
She had the strength they needed. To nudge the door out of its position. Light flooded the room beyond once the door swung open. A golden shine, the light of the sun. Harry squinted against the brightness. Undyne, beside him, rose one arm to shield her face. And then his eyes adjusted, enough to see the figure sitting in the middle of the room. It seemed so different now. Less endless, but showing ornate walls, engraved and carved pictures forming a long story. The story of humans and monsters.
Of a child and a hero. It was a story that used to fade into the barrier before it was all that this room became. Now, it faded into the walls of a cave. Into rough stone. And finally, into an opening that the low evening sun threw its light into. But Harry was staring at the figure, right across from him. The monster, looking so similar to himself, staring down at his hands as if he was seeing them for the first time. And then he looked up with tears shimmering in his eyes. "Frisk…"