Frisk flipped through the textbook of the history of New Home, on the ride to New Home, fascinated. It wasn't that surprising that it was just so different from what they had read in their own kingdom's books. Monster kingdoms are most often the most feared despite the lack of wars or military might. They had always found that a bit odd, yet wondered if it was reasonable? After all, monsters have innate magical power, while humans had to work at it with years of study to master the bear minimum.

The book told a different story, one of hardship, getting cast as the villains by humans who are overall more durable. Remembering all of the stories Frisk had read about Determinate's encounters with monsters painted a glorious victory against horrid monsters, while the ones within the pages of the book Frisk was reading had humans kicking them while they were down. Both sources had a clear bias against the other, and honestly, Frisk wanted to know more.

That may be why they were on board to be married off to Prince Asriel. It wasn't like they were going to inherit the throne even if they were the firstborn to the queen, their stepfather would throw a tantrum if it wasn't his child ruling and Frisk's mother had passed the year before so there was no one to help them within the walls of their old home. Maybe if their mom were still here, they'd want to stay.

They had spent hours on this ride going back and forth from reading to looking out the window seeing the forest of pine trees, trying to not look at their stepfather. One would easily be able to tell that they weren't related by blood to the king, his skin was pale while Frisk had dark brown skin, the king was blond with straight hair, Frisk had dark textured hair, Frisk was the shortest out of all their siblings, while the king was tall. Frisk was referred to as Frisk without a title, but the king looked ready to kill if someone were to dare to call him Sorin.

It was for the best marry Asriel, even if they never met. Maybe it will end up happy in the end, perhaps it won't be true love, but maybe it will! Their eyes meeting and having their fate sealed in bliss, happily ever after.

Many told them to lower their expectations. It won't be as bad or as amazing as you'll think it'll be. But why couldn't it be great? Why was everyone acting like they were marching to their doom? They opened the book again at this point, rereading it. How monsters looked in this book was cute; they looked fluffy. Very friendly.

"That book is all lies from the looks of it," The king was leaning over reading the book. "All monsters I've seen have sharp claws and murder in their eyes."

"How many have you met before?" Frisk asked, genuinely curious.

"At least uh…" he trailed off, "two..?"

Frisk frowned, "two is hardly a fair number to judge a whole people around. What happened with the two monsters you've met?"

"Killed them," he must have realized that Frisk was upset because he quickly followed with, "I was completely justified, it was a kill or be killed."

"Honestly I don't think killing is ever justified and sire in the past you haven't been that level headed. So I'm inclined to believe that you weren't justified at all." It was bold of them to insist that he was lying. It really was. They weren't worried, while the king was talking they saw the trees thin out and started to see the towns of New Home. They simply smiled and pointedly looked out the window.

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Chara got out of the castle the minute they were awake. Having everything ready the night before to fuck off into the woods for the day. They knew on some level that they couldn't just disappear. Even if they wished to do so. They couldn't stand to see the face of the person who guarantees that they would never be with Asriel.

They leaned against a wall looking at the sky, they will have to suck it up eventually, It wasn't like Asriel ever had such feelings for them in the first place. It has only been a few days since the announcement and they were tired of their melodramatic bullshit. They have made a few plans on how to deal with the cesspool that was their emotional state.

One idea was to push all of those rather annoying feelings down and pretend to be really on board with Asriel's marriage. The problem there being that Chara knew they were a really bad actor. They won't even last a day trying to be happy. The second idea was just confessing to what they felt. This would cause more issues than it would solve. So that idea gets thrown out anytime it pops up. The third... well it was to shut down. Not letting anything get to them barely reacting to what was being said or done.

The best bet was going with the third option. They were already starting to mentally check out. They sighed getting to their feet and walking towards the pines moving faster as they got more upset. Once they were out of town and surrounded by trees they had been full-on running.

They stopped kneeling in the dirt looking at the sparse plantlife aside from the trees. They felt their breath evening out, sitting still letting themself stop thinking and breathed in the air. Hear the sounds of nature instead of the busy kingdom, with every corner talking about-

They squeezed their eyes shut taking a deep breath and taking out the throwing knives they brought with them. they then spent hours upon hours making the trees that had the misfortune to be near them riddled with holes and slash marks. They knew from the day growing into the night they had missed the arrival of Asriel's betrothed. Good. The less they know about them the better.

Some of their knives landed sloppily while others made the mark with pinpoint precision. they blame being tried and maybe being hungry for such sloppiness. They looked around for their knives before placing chalk circles on a new tree. One last time they told themself before clearing their head.

The first knife nearly made a bullseye but not quite. The next two did make it while the next three were misses. They sighed getting their knives and walked away. It was only by the memory of doing this exact thing many times that made getting back easy even if it was pitch black.

They managed to avoid the guards and servants and they got into their room just fine and was about to go to sleep when they were practically tackled with a hug.

"Asriel?" they knew this hug well, they didn't even need to see him to just know who it was hugging them. "What are you doing in my room?"

He let go quickly, "I just couldn't find you anywhere, I… was worried."

"I was just practicing with my knives, I do that sometimes you know this."

"Oh, wait you did ea-"

"Yes Azzy I brought food with me, I do know how to care of myself you know."

"But did you eat it? You can forget if really upset and you've been off for a while.."

Internally Chara cursed him for knowing them so well, they tried to give him a smile. "Don't worry about me so much Azzy, you have so much to deal without me adding to it." they patted his cheek, "Now if you excuse me I'm getting tired. if you have anything else to tell me it'll have to wait until morning."

"Okay," he hugged them once again, "I hope you sleep well, see you tomorrow."

"Night."

"Goodnight."

They closed the door sighing before grabbing their bag and taking out the food they bearly touched and made themself eat at least a few more bites before sleeping.

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