Chapter 11

"Hey, Chara," Asriel called after Chara had spent an hour sitting alone in their bedroom after Ms. Ivey had finished tutoring them for the day, "Mom's going to town to run errands, and she said it's okay for you to come too, if you want."

Looking up from one of the many reports Ms. Ivey had assigned Chara to write, the human replied, "No, I should stay. I need to finish my homework."

"Are you sure? It's okay to take a break, Chara."

"I am sure. With all the homework Ms. Ivey has given me, I will be fortunate to finish it all before Monday."

Asriel frowned, and Chara knew it was because there was no argument Asriel could conjure against their tutor. Chara didn't like seeing Asriel sad, but even if Chara didn't have a mountain of homework to do, he still didn't want to go out. He especially didn't want to go out with Toriel when Chara knew that Toriel thought he was lazy.

"I should have this done by the time you get back," Chara then said in an attempt to cheer Asriel up. "We can play a game while we wait for dinner."

This suggestion pleased Asriel, for he replied, "Okay, sounds like a plan! Good luck on your paper, Chara."

"Thank you, Asriel." After his brother had closed the door behind him, Chara returned his attention to his homework. He then wrote the last sentence necessary to reach Ms. Ivey's word count for him and set the report aside.

Leaning back so that he was lying on the floor, Chara stared at the ceiling. No thoughts crossed his mind. All he did was lie there, letting time pass as if it had no meaning.

"Knock, knock?"

As the door opened, Chara kept his eyes glued to the ceiling and said, "King Dad, you know saying 'knock, knock' is not the same as knocking, especially since opening the door while you do so defeats the purpose of knocking."

"I'm a dad," Asgore replied, "it's my job to annoy you."

Chara chuckled before sitting upright to look at Asgore as the monster, dressed in his torn shorts and old shirt, stood in the doorway. "Are you preparing to tend to your garden?"

Nodding, Asgore said, "The vines are getting a little out of control, so I'm going to cut some of them down. Since you don't seem particularly busy at the moment, I was wondering if you wanted to join me. I know how much you love the garden, and it can be a nice activity for us while we're the only ones here."

Chara replied before he knew his mouth was open, "I would very much enjoy working in the garden with you, King Dad."

The two walked to the garden in comfortable silence. When they arrived, Asgore and Chara pulled some of the gardening supplies from the room behind the throne. As Asgore sifted through the tools to find something with which to cut the vines, Chara searched for something else.

"King Dad, where's the watering pail?"

"Now, what do you want that for?"

"Don't the flowers need to be watered?"

"No, I watered them this morning."

"Then what am I supposed to help you do?"

"I already told you: I need help cutting down the vines."

Chara frowned. "What am I supposed to cut them with?"

"That's what I'm looking for." After another moment of searching, Asgore found something and handed it to Chara. "This should do perfectly."

Looking at the scissor-like tool in his hand, Chara was aghast as he asked, "But wouldn't Ms. Toriel be unhappy if I used gardening shears?"

Asgore waved a paw as if wiping the question out of the air. "You're old enough and careful enough to know how to use those shears without hurting yourself. You'll be fine. Besides, nobody said your mother needs to know."

First looking at the shears then smiling, Chara tightened his grip on the tool. He hadn't been living with the Dreemurrs long before Toriel hid every knife and sharp object she could find away from Chara. Tools she could not hide were filed down to harmless blunts. It was as if she couldn't trust Chara with even a dinner knife to cut his food. To feel something sharp once again was a joy Chara could not begin to describe.

After Asgore told Chara what to do and the best way to do it, Chara immediately went to work and tried his best to make Asgore proud. Moments such as this may never come again, and Chara wanted to give it his all while he could. Gardening was the only thing he missed about the surface.

They couldn't have been working for more than twenty minutes when Asgore told Chara, "You're pretty good at this."

"Thank you."

"No, really. I knew you liked the garden, but I didn't know you knew how to garden."

Hesitating only a moment, Chara revealed, "I used to have a garden on the surface. Whenever I was having a bad day, I would go to my little garden and work on it. Sometimes, I would work on it till long past nightfall."

Asgore was silent for a moment, a look of contemplation on his face. Chara did not blame the monster. It was incredibly rare for Chara to mention the surface, and whenever he did, most monsters jumped at the opportunity to bombard Chara with questions about life above the mountain. Not Asgore. Instead, Asgore chose not to dwell on the subject, and Chara suspected it had to do with the fact that Asgore had used to live on the surface before monsterkind was sealed away, left to perish in the dark.

Instead, Asgore chose to ask, "What kinds of plants did your garden have, Chara?"

Continuing to cut the vines, Chara answered, "Mostly flowers. I love flowers. I had rose bushes and lilies. They never got very big before . . . they were uprooted. I didn't mind too much, though. I could just plant more and tend to their every need. As long as I was taking care of my flowers, I could pretend there was nothing wrong in the world."

"And what is your favorite flower? Perhaps we can plant some in the royal garden. Just you and me. Wouldn't that be nice?"

Chara smile at the vision of Asgore and him planting flowers together in the garden. However, that smile quickly fell to a frown. Snipping a vine, Chara answered, "That would be lovely, but I am afraid that my favorite flower does not grow Underground. I already searched, and I found no results that they grow here."

"What kind of flower is it?"

"Golden flowers."

"Ah, yes." Chara turned around to see Asgore nodding to himself as he continued working on his own set of vines. "I remember those flowers back before we were sealed away. They grow at the base of Mt. Ebott. Very pretty flowers, but the seeds stick to everything. Not to mention they can sometimes take years to sprout. I once knew a monster who planted a field of golden flowers, but when nothing sprang up, he gave up and left the field to nature. A decade later, a field of gold came from the ground and spread as far as they eye can see."

"They do not grow right away in new environments," Chara shared. "It is hard to plant a lone seed and have it grow without waiting too long. However, once one flower is present, the golden flowers grow so fast it is as if they are taking over everything."

Slowly lowering the shears, Chara walked away from the vines and began to circle the royal garden. Asgore stopped to watch Chara. Thinking of what the throne room could be, Chara smiled as he threw his arms out and spun around once, twice, thrice.

"Just imagine!" he exclaimed, the imagine forming in his head as if Chara could see into the future. "Once the first flower grows, the rest would soon follow. Then more golden flowers will grow. Then more! In a matter of months, golden flowers will invade the room. You would not be able to step anywhere without a golden flower being in the way. Would it not be amazing, King Dad, if the whole throne room would be painted golden with flowers?"

When Asgore started to laugh, Chara stopped spinning and dropped his arms. He didn't want to turn around to look at Asgore. Tensing, Chara braced himself for the ridicule that was about to be dealt to him.

Instead of ridiculing Chara, however, Asgore said, "That is a wonderful idea, Chara. If I can make it come true, I would."

"Too bad I didn't take any golden flowers with me when I climbed Mt. Ebott," Chara muttered, returning to the vines. A part of him had wanted to take his favorite flowers with him when he ran away, but he couldn't bring himself to uproot his flowers only to die. If only Chara had known that this would have been the life he would have found himself under Mt. Ebott.

"I do wonder," Asgore then said slowly, either struggling to say the words or bracing Chara for what he was about to say next. Maybe a little of both. "Why would you climb a mountain from which nobody ever returns? At first, I thought it might have been because you are an adventurous child with a reckless sense of bravery. However, as I got to know you, I quickly realized that such isn't the case. You are adventurous, yes, but I have never seen you charge anything with reckless abandon. So, why climb the mountain?"

Without saying a word, Chara kept cutting the vines. Answers flooded his mind, consuming his every thought. He wasn't sure which one would be the first to fly out of his mouth.

"I wanted to run where nobody knew who I was or what I am."

"I wanted the pressure from being so worthless to be lifted."

"I wanted everything to end after spending three days locked alone in the bad room."

Tears stung Chara's eyes. The truth of who he was and what he had been through weighed on him like a heavy backpack. Now more than ever before, he wanted to tell Asgore everything in hopes that perhaps someone, anyone, could help lift this heavy burden from his small shoulders.

Yet as he opened his mouth, Chara remembered what Asgore had said all those months ago. Chara was the future between humans and monsters; the future of both races depended on him. Had Chara been honest, Asgore would have realized that he was mistaken and that Chara was not the beacon of hope the king thought the child was.

So, as much as he didn't wish to, Chara closed his mouth. Not trusting himself to speak, he continued to work without replying to Asgore. Although Asgore did not push Chara to talk, Asgore still sounded disappointed as he then said, "It's okay if you do not want to talk to me, Chara, but please know that I am always here for you if ever decide to tell me what crushes you when you think nobody is watching."

For the next hour, Chara and Asgore worked without speaking to each other again. Asgore seemed to easily drop the tense feeling and work as if everything was okay. The monster king hummed a happy tune as if he had no cares in the world. Chara could not say as much. He felt immensely guilty for not telling Asgore the truth despite believing with all his heart that it was better nobody ever knew the truth.

As they near finished the task of cutting vines, Chara found a vine difficult to cut. It was thicker than the others, but Chara was determined to cut it away regardless. Taking the shears, Chara went after the vine with all his might.

"Dad! Chara! Guess what we found!" Asriel shouted as he rushed into the garden.

Jumping at the sudden, loud sound of Asriel's voice, Chara's hands jerked. He then cried out as he felt the shears slide across the palm on his hand. Chara instinctively dropped the shears and clutched his bleeding hand to his chest.

"Chara!" It was unclear to Chara which family member called his name, but it was only a matter of seconds before all three surrounded the human. Toriel quickly reached out, took hold of Chara's injured palm, and pulled it close to her.

In a matter of moments, Toriel healed Chara's palm. There was a pool of blood cupped in his hand, but the pain was now gone. Chara was about to thank Toriel for healing him, but when he looked up, he saw Toriel giving Asgore an angry look.

"You gave Chara shears?!" she snarled as she pointed an accusing finger at Asgore.

Asgore didn't appear intimidated by Toriel, but he was still gentle as he answered, "I thought helping me in the garden would be something Chara would enjoy, and they can't cut vines without gardening shears."

Lowering her voice as if the kids suddenly wouldn't be able to hear her, Toriel hissed, "You know Chara likes to hurt themself, that's why I hide all the sharp things in the house!"

"Chara hurt themself on accident, Tori," Asgore replied. "Besides, you can't restrict Chara forever. At some point you're going to have to let the child cut their own steak."

"I do what I do to protect them," Toriel argued. "I leave the house for not even two hours, and I come home to a bleeding child!"

Not wanting to hear anymore, Chara wordlessly spun on his heel and ran away. Both Asgore and Toriel called after him, but he didn't wait to hear what they had to say. Blood still dripping from his healed hand, Chara ran to one of the bathrooms, locked the door, and after washing off the blood, sat in the corner.

It couldn't have been more than a few minutes later before there was a soft knock and Asriel's voice coming from the other side of the door, "Chara, are you okay?"

Rising to his feet, Chara slowly unlocked and opened the door. Chara looked at his brother, who in turn stared at Chara as if about to start crying at any moment. Voice wavering, Asriel again asked, "Chara, are you okay?"

As Chara struggled to find the words, he shook his head. Eyes burning, he finally answered, "I am not."

Without another word, Asriel closed the distance between Chara and himself and wrapped his arms around his brother. Chara didn't hesitate to return the hug. As he clung to his brother and best friend, Chara struggled to find the courage to tell Asriel something he had never told anyone before.

Holding onto Asriel so tightly that the monster couldn't break the hug to look Chara in the eye, Chara confessed, "The reason I climbed Mt. Ebott when I know the legend says that those who climb it never return . . . was to kill myself."

Asriel tensed so hard it was as if he became stone. However, he did not try to break his hug with Chara. Instead, after a moment spent processing what Chara had revealed, Asriel hugged Chara even tighter.

Now that the truth was out, Chara continued. "I hate humanity, Asriel. I hate humanity so much. I had to run away, no matter the cost."

"It's okay, Chara," Asriel said, clearly trying to find the right words to use. "You found us, and you're here now. That's all that matters?"

"Truly though?" Chara challenged. "I'm supposed to be the hope and future between humans and monsters. How can I be when nobody knows the horrible truth about me?"

To that, Asriel did not have an answer.