Chara sighed with relief as the fight with Papyrus finally ended. She winced as the wounds on her waist and back radiated pain across her torso. The blizzard began to quickly clear, showing their surroundings and the results of their fight. There were blue and white bones everywhere, Chara spotted a few in the river to the left of the path before they were quickly swept away by the current. Looking down there were a few drops of red in the snow around her. Chara looked to her right towards Frisk, who was surrounded by a great many more drops of blood from her multitude of wounds.

"NYOO HOO HOO..." Papyrus groaned with his back to them. "I CAN'T EVEN STOP KIDS AS WEAK AS YOU, UNDYNE'S GOING TO BE DISAPPOINTED IN ME. I'LL NEVER JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD AND MY FRIEND QUANTITY WILL REMAIN STAGNANT!"

After a brief moment Frisk said, "Let's be friends."

Papyrus excitedly turned to face them. "REALLY!? YOU WANT TO BE FRIENDS WITH ME?" Frisk nodded her head with a smile. "WELL THEN, I GUESS... I GUESS I CAN MAKE AN ALLOWANCE FOR YOU! WOWIE, WHO KNEW THAT ALL I NEEDED TO MAKE PALS, WAS TO GIVE PEOPLE AWFUL PUZZLES AND THEN FIGHT THEM? YOU TWO TAUGHT ME A LOT. I HEREBY GRANT YOU BOTH PERMISSION TO PASS THROUGH! AND I WOULD GIVE YOU DIRECTIONS TO THE SURFACE, BUT I'M SURE YOUR FRIEND HAS ALREADY TOLD YOU EVERYTHING ABOUT THE BARRIOR AND OUR KING, ASGORE, SO I'M GOING TO!"

Frisk beamed at Papyrus while Chara simply stood next to her, arms crossed, waiting for him to move out of the way so that they could continue.

"OH, I ALMOST FORGOT..." Papyrus walked toward them until he was right in front of Chara. Chara noticed she was roughly a foot shorter than him as she looked up into his eye sockets, one eyebrow raised.

"ABOUT YOUR FLIRTING EARLIER..." Chara could feel her cheeks warming up again. "I'M FLATTERED, BUT AFTER SEEING YOU AND THE HUMAN, I COULD NEVER BRING MYSELF TO COME BETWEEN SUCH A WONDERFUL RELATIONSHIP, SO I WILL HAVE TO DECLINE. HOWEVER! I WOULD BE MORE THAN HAPPY TO BE FRIENDS WITH YOU AS WELL AS THE HUMAN!"

Chara was stunned at what she just heard; her mouth slightly agape. What in the hell is he talking about? she thought as she continued to stare at him.

"ANYWAY! THAT'S ENOUGH TALKING! I'LL BE AT HOME BEING A COOL FRIEND! FEEL FREE TO COME BY SO WE CAN ALL HANG OUT! NYEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH HEH!" And with that, Papyrus leapt over the two of them and sprinted back toward Snowdin.

Before Chara and Frisk could do anything, Papyrus returned.

"BY THE WAY, HERE'S MY PHONE NUMBER." he said, holding out a piece of paper. "YOU CAN CALL ME ANYTIME! PLATONICALLY. WELL, GOTTA GO! NHEH HEH HEH!" He then quickly ran back to Snowdin.

Chara glanced over at Frisk, who had relieved expression on her face. Is she relieved that we got past Papyrus? Chara wondered.

Chara waited as Frisk opened her menu and began to eat the food in her inventory. Chara was lost in thought while Frisk was taking care of her wounds. Next is Waterfall, and if things are going to play out like they did last time, we're going to have to get past Undyne next. She could be difficult to deal with.

Chara was pulled out of her thoughts by Frisk, who had gotten close to her face with a concerned look.

"Are you okay Chara?" Frisk asked her closed eyelids pointed directly at her eyes.

"I'm fine, just thinking is all." Chara noticed that most of Frisk's wounds were healed but a couple of bleeding cuts on her arms. "Are you out of food?"

"No, I still have this bisicle." Frisk said as she pulled the light blue ice cream out of her inventory.

"Then why aren't you eating it?" Chara asked.

"I wanted you to have it." Frisk indicated to wound at her waist.

"I'll be fine, you need it more than I do." Chara said flatly.

Frisk frowned. "But Chara, it hurts right? I don't like seeing you get hurt."

"I said, I'll be fine. Hurry up and eat it so we can get moving." Frisk didn't budge for several seconds. Suddenly her face lit up and she broke the bisicle in two, holding one half out for Chara.

"Here, now we can both can have it." Frisk said with a wide smile.

Chara sighed, slightly irritated at Frisk's persistence. "Fine, if it will make you happy." She grabbed the unicicle and ate it in three bites.

*Your LOVE decreased!

Chara sharply closed the dialogue box that had opened in front her and quickly turned her attention back to Frisk, who had just finished eating her half of the bisicle. "Now can we please get a move on?"

Frisk nodded happily as she spun around and began to follow the river toward Waterfall. Chara huffed a sigh and followed her into the cool and damp Waterfall. They could hear the rushing and splashing of water getting louder as the river took a sharp left turn, disappearing from view.

They soon came across an alcove, to the right was a cliff with a stream that was flowing from underneath the cavern floor and rushing down into the dark abyss below. Standing next to the stream was Monster Kid. To their left was an orange fish-like monster who was standing next to a glowing blue echo flower. On the other end was Sans, standing behind his sentry station, both of which were in front of a stone door. Sparkling between Sans and the echo flower was a save point.

Chara and Frisk approached the save point and placed their hands on it. As soon as they were done, Frisk immediately walked over to Sans and began speaking with him. Chara noticed that somehow there was snow sitting on top of his sentry station.

"Sans, what are you doing?" Chara heard Frisk ask, seeing a grin on her face.

"what? haven't you ever seen a guy with two jobs before?" Sans replied, grinning back.

"You're working too hard." Frisk shot back.

"fortunately, two jobs means twice as many legally-required breaks." Frisk laughed at Sans' logic; Chara simply rolled her eyes as she waited for the two of them to finish their conversation. "anyway, i'm going to grillby's. wanna come?"

Frisk nodded her head and ran back to where Chara stood next to the save point.

"Come on Chara! Let's go eat with Sans!" Frisk grabbed Chara's hand and pulled her over to Sans, who was waiting for them in front of his station.

"Grillby's is the other way." Chara said flatly, not entirely happy with getting sidetracked again, but unable to ignore the empty ache in her stomach.

"i know a shortcut." Sans replied.

Frisk and Chara followed Sans as the three of them seemingly were walking deeper into Waterfall, but when Chara blinked, they were standing in the entrance of Grillby's.

"Wha-? How?" Chara stammered.

"fast shortcut, huh?" Sans winked, before making his way to the bar while greeting the other patrons.

As Chara and Frisk followed Sans, Chara noticed that Frisk's warm hand was still wrapped around her own. Chara was unsure whether she should leave it or take her hand back. The decision was made for her however, as Frisk released her hand when they reached the barstools.

As they all sat down, Chara on Frisk's left and Sans on her right, there was a short but noticeable fart sound that came from Frisk's seat.

"whoops, watch where you sit down. sometimes weirdos put whoopie cushions on the seats."

"Sans!" Frisk giggled as she gave him a light push.

"anyway, let's order. whaddya want...?"

After taking a moment to think Frisk said, "A burger."

"hey, that sounds pretty good. how bout your friend?"

Frisk turned to Chara, a small smile on her face. "Would you like something to eat too Chara?"

"I'll have a burger." Chara answered curtly, wanting to get things over with, but trying to be patient for Frisk.

"sure thing, grillby, we'll have a triple order of burg."

The flaming bartender gave a silent nod, put down the glass he had been cleaning and made his way to the back.

After a few moments of waiting for their food Sans turned to the girls and asked. "so, what do you think... of my brother?"

Frisk replied with, "He's cool." While Chara stayed silent.

"of course he's cool. you'd be cool too if you wore that outfit every day. he'd only take that thing off if he absolutely have to." Frisk gave a small smile. "oh well. at least he washes it. and by that i mean he wears it in the shower."

Chara pictured Papyrus in the shower, a large number of bubbles on his head, a back brush in one hand, and a rubber duck in the other. She couldn't help but give a slight smirk.

Grillby soon returned with three plates in his arms, each plate had a grilled burger sitting on a pair of buns. After placing a plate in front of each of them, he went back to cleaning the glass from earlier.

"here comes the grub." Sans reached over and grabbed a bottle of ketchup. "want some ketchup?" he said holding it out toward Frisk. Frisk shook her head no; Chara had already started eating her burger. "more for me." Sans said with a shrug before downing the entire bottle.

After a few minutes, when everyone had finished eating, Frisk and Sans began chatting, Chara simply sat and listened.

"anyway, cool or not, you have to agree, papyrus tries real hard. like how he keeps trying to be part of the royal guard. one day, he went to the house of the head of the royal guard and begged her to let him be in it. of course, she shut the door on him because it was midnight." Frisk giggled and Sans' smile grew wider. "but the next day, she woke up and saw him still waiting there. seeing his dedication, she decided to give him warrior training. it's, uh, still a work in progress."

After a few minutes of comfortable silence between the three, Sans started a new conversation. "oh yeah, i wanted to ask you something."

Suddenly, everything around the three of them went dark. Chara looked around the bar and, after concentrating to see through the darkness, saw that everyone except Frisk, Sans and herself had stopped moving.

"so, i see you got that thing under control, huh?" Sans said, pointing at Chara, his eye sockets empty and his smile ever-present.

Chara knew such a comment should have made her angry or hurt, but she felt nothing.

Before she could retaliate, however, Frisk abruptly stood up and whipped around to look at Sans. "Don't talk about her like that Sans!" she shouted, surprising both Chara and Sans. "She's not a thing, she's a person just like you and me!" Chara noticed that Frisk's hands had balled into fists, and she was shaking slightly. "Now apologize to her!"

Chara placed a hand on Frisk's shoulder. "Frisk, it's fine. I'm not upset, I don't even care."

Frisk turned around to face her, and Chara saw that tears had begun to appear at the corners of her eyes. "But you should care! Chara, you should be as upset as I am!" Frisk's hands and shoulders went limp at her sides. "I... I'm sorry Chara."

After a few seconds of silence, save for Frisk's quiet sniffling, Sans spoke up. "hey, lighten up bucko! i didn't mean anything by it." Chara doubted that, but Frisk wiped her eyes and turned back toward him. "here, i'll apologize just like you wanted." Sans leaned over to look past Frisk at Chara. "i'm sorry, i shouldn't have called you a thing..." Suddenly Frisk stopped moving and had turned dark just like all the other customers. "cuz, you're really kind of a freak, huh?"

Chara glared at him as a cruel smile formed on her lips. "Call me whatever you want smiling trash bag. As long as Frisk is able to get to the barrier, it makes no difference to me."

As Chara and Sans continued to smile coldly at each other, Frisk began to move again and seemed unaware of what happened.

Sans moved to look back at Frisk. "there, all better, right kiddo?"

Frisk nodded her head. "Thank you, Sans."

"hey, don't mention it."

Chara quickly wiped the determination that had seeped from her eyes before Frisk could see, and everything brightened up again as everyone else began to move.

Sans turned and got out of his seat. "whelp, that was a long break. i can't believe i let you kids pull me away from work for that long."

"You wouldn't have needed our help with that anyway." Frisk said as a smile returned to her face.

Sans turned around with a wink. "oh, by the way... i'm flat broke. can you foot the bill? it's just 10,000G."

"We can't afford that Sans." Frisk replied.

"just kidding. grillby, put it on my tab." Sans began to walk toward the exit, but stopped at the door and turned around. "by the way..." Sans hesitated. "...i was going to say something, but i forgot." He then turned back around and walked out the door as Frisk giggled after him.

*The twelfth chapter is over.*

*But you stay determined!*