Hi. Yes, I am still alive. And since I'm still alive, I should make these chapters longer!

But, for now, enjoy!

Chapter 10: Talking With a Friend

When we got back to the ruins, Toriel had scolded and fretted about me just like I thought she would. Mel gave me the biggest hug ever, telling me to never do that ever again. They had me sit down and rest, even though I was perfectly fine, and made some butterscotch pie. Sans and Toriel, of course, had talked some and realized that they knew each other. Took them long enough! So they told jokes and made terrible puns back and forth nonstop, and I just tried not to laugh at them. Mel talked about stuff she did with Toriel like bug hunting, baking and cooking, playing, learning, stuff like any normal kid would do.

I noticed that it was starting to get late, so I looked to Mel to translate. I needed my voice for later, /Mel, can you tell mom that me and Sans need to be going back to Snowdin? We don't want to worry Papyrus.\

Mel looked as if I said that we were going to murder a person, "No. You're staying here, you're not leaving." She was determined to keep me here, probably because of the incident. "I know that you're hiding something, to keep me safe. Right?"

I knew she would say something like this, /No, I just don't want to live here in the ruins. I want to live in Snowdin with Sans and Papyrus, they're my friends. And I know that you're family, but I think it's better this way, understand?\ I was pleading with Mel right now, I needed to talk to Sans alone.

She was pleading with me too. "I want you to stay with me, you can always visit your friends. I-I listened to part of your voice log, on the voice recorder. I know what-"

I had grabbed Mel's arm as gently as possible, and started pulling her outside. "Be back. Gotta talk." That was all I said to Toriel, my back turned. I didn't want Mel ruining the peace between Sans and Toriel.

I had Mel out of the house before she turned on me, "What are you doing? I'm trying to protect you, like you protected me all of those years." Mel looked hurt that I had did this, but it was for her own good.

I sighed as I stored my voice again. /Mel, what exactly did you listen to on my voice recorder?\ I was definitely mad that she did that, but I could be mad later.

Mel looked down at her feet, "That he's mean to you. Hit you." Mel looked right into my eyes, she used the puppy eyes. "Why do you stick up for him? Why won't you let him get in trouble?"

I could not resist giving her a hug, but I quickly pulled back. /Because he's been hurt like us, but worse. He just took the wrong path, that's all,\ Now that was a lie, I would probably be doing the same if I were in his shoes, /But I'm helping him go down the right path. He just wants to protect the people he loves, and he's learning to be good. Don't worry, when I go back to Snowdin, I'm going to talk to him some.\ Mel looked at me with disbelief in her eyes. I gave a light chuckle, /Yes, that's how much I trust him. See? You have nothing to worry about.\

Mel was a little suspicious of my excuse, but she believed most of it. "Ok, you can live in Snowdin. But you have to visit every day!" She had the excitement back in her eyes.

I made a better deal, /How about I spend the night three times a week. That way, I get to spend more time with you.\ I was a long shot trying to convince her to do this.

She looked like she was making a very hard decision, "Mmm, ok, deal. But you have to be here right when it's almost ten am." This was her final proposition, no backing out now.

/Ok, deal. Let's shake on it.\ I stuck out my hand for her to take it. She took it, and gave it the most aggressive shake she could, which wasn't very aggressive. I smiled down at her, /Ok, let's finish our slices of pie. By the way, what happened to that milkshake I got for you? I know, it's a stupid question, but I spent hard earned gold for that milkshake.\ Seriously, I was not letting the milkshake thing go.

Mel laughed at me, just like I thought she would. "Are you joking me?" She did not just use joking instead of kidding. She did. I grimaced at the use of the word, but let her continue. She put on her "Serious" face for the next part, "I am sad to inform you, that the milkshake did not make it. He or she, lived a great and honor a roll life-"

"Honor a roll? Don't you mean honorable?" I mean, I couldn't really afford school for her, so it's mainly my fault.

She, wait. Did she just roll her eyes at me? No, it's too early for her to be a teen or tween! "Yeah, well, he or she lived an honorable life. They fought hard to be the best milkshake they could be. But the best just wasn't enough for the milkshake." She was trying to hold back her laughter, and did for the most part. But, the laughter just came out of both of us. We had our little talk, but now it was time for me to leave. We went back into the house, finished our desserts, and I got my satchel.

I was going out the door when Mel ran up and gave me a final hug. "You promise you'll visit?"

I held her tight and whispered, "I promise. But I need to go now. Ok?"

Mel let go of me, and went back to Toriel. "Ok. See you later Frisk. Love you!"

I smiled at the thought of getting to visit Toriel and Mel without Sans interfering. I waved goodbye to Mel and Toriel, and started the walk home with Sans. It was cold out, but I wasn't complaining. The dress and leggings made it really hot in the ruins, and the winter air felt nice. I could tell that Sans knew that we should talk later when Papyrus was asleep, so we walked in a peaceful silence. Me humming a soft melody, Sans just keeping quiet.

It took forever for Papyrus to get to bed. He wanted to know why I was gone for so long, what I did while I was gone, why I didn't tell him why I was gone, what happened to spending time with the friends, stuff like that. And Sans left all the explaining to me! So I made up a bunch of lies and excuses. Like I spent the days with the friends because one of them got sick, or because I couldn't call him because my phone was dead. I mean, Sans should've helped me out instead of letting me drown. I had been unconscious for who knows how long, I had a demon child suddenly appear in my head, and said demon child showed me that I killed everyone in the underground 536 times. My brain was kind of packed right now. So I was just thinking really hard, trying to tell Papyrus that I didn't need emergency spaghetti, and Sans stood off to the side probably wishing that he had a bucket of popcorn to enjoy the show. When I had finally run out of excuses, Sans finally stepped in and did some explaining in the kitchen where I couldn't hear anything.

When they were back out Papyrus said, "I'M SO SORRY HUMAN! I'LL LEAVE YOU TO REST, HAVE SWEET DREAMS!" And with those words, Papyrus was off to bed.

I was scared to ask Sans what he did, he was holding back laughter. "I'm scared to ask what you said. Should I ask?"

Sans managed to say, "i'm sorry, it's really embarrassing. you probably shouldn't ask." He got rid of the laughter as fast as he could.

I decided not to ask, it would be better that way. "So what do you want to know? I'll answer as many questions as I can, and then I'll tell you some important information. Sound good?" I was sitting cross legged on the couch, facing Sans, who was also on the couch.

Sans nodded, and began the questioning. "why did you kill everyone before? why are you being all nice and innocent now?" Sans was holding back his anger.

I could only answer honestly, "I didn't kill everyone, that was..." I had to tell him about her, what else could I do? "That was... Chara. And I've always been nice and innocent." I looked down at my feet, I didn't know if I could meet his gaze.

"how did you not kill everyone, when it was obviously you killing everyone? and who's chara, how do they relate to this situation?" Sans wanted answers, he wasn't exactly satisfied with my short answers.

I took a deep breath, "Chara relates to this situation because she's the one who killed everyone down here. She possessed me, stole my body, I couldn't fight back. It may have looked like me killing everyone, but it was Chara in my body. I tried fighting back, honest, but she was too powerful. Fighting against her, was like her fighting against you. She was always fast, always had tricks up her sleeve. The one trick that she always used, was trapping me with an invisible wall. I'd always pound against it, trying to stop her from killing everyone in her path." I had my head down the entire time I was telling Sans this, but I decided to look up to him. "You never got to see the real me, and that makes me sad. I would've liked to be friends, but it'll probably never happen." I looked down again, "536 times, that's how many times Chara reset. The last time though, I think I reset. Honestly, I don't remember anything from the time Chara possessed me. I only know those things because she showed them to me." I didn't want to go on, and Sans needed some time to consume this information.

Sans took a deep breath, probably to calm himself. "So this Chara, she's the one who's made me and everyone down here suffer? How am I supposed to believe you?"

I laughed bitterly, "I didn't expect you to believe me. But for one, Chara has a crazed voice and blood red eyes. You have finally heard my voice, and I don't sound anything like her. As for my eyes... well, they're amber like my hair. And if you don't believe me, well, that's your choice. I only open my eyes when someone's gained my absolute trust, and you have not gained my absolute trust. But if you need witnesses, go ask Alphys and Mettaton, maybe Undyne."

Sans would either take it or leave it. "Ok, I'll believe you for now. But only because I need the information that you're telling me. So, you're the actual Frisk, not this Chara? And how exactly did she show you the resets?"

"I am the actual Frisk, if I were Chara, everyone would probably be dust." I didn't want to go on, "And the resets, well... she's in my head. Literally. She said she'd show me probably eight resets a day to torture me, and she won't go away. That's why I was in the ruins earlier, curled up in a ball. She showed me only one reset... and I broke. I don't know how or why you kept fighting her after the hell she put you through." I brought my knees up to my head, tightly holding myself. "I just wish I could've stopped her, helped you in some way." I remembered why I let Chara possess me... she tricked me. She acted all innocent and weak, and tricked me. She said she...

"so, how exactly did she possess you? you said she stole your body, but not how." Sans believed pretty much everything I said, maybe we could beat Chara.

I didn't speak for a long moment, "I... I... I let her. But I didn't know she would do this, she tricked me. She said she wanted to get out of the underground to see the surface once again, but that she couldn't because she didn't have a body. She said that the only way for a soul like her to get out, was to have a body, and she wanted to use mine temporarily. I-I should've known that something was wrong, that something was off with her. I can usually feel if someone's good or bad, that's how good she was." I noticed that I was crying some, and quickly wiped away the tears. "I'm sorry Sans. All of this is my fault, if I had just stayed with those people, just stayed alive a little longer, then-"

"stayed alive a little longer? stayed with what people?" Sans actually sounded kind of mad. I looked up and noticed that he wasn't on the couch anymore, he was standing beside me, fists clenched. "what exactly happened to you before you came down here? and don't try to avoid the question."

I physically paled, I had said too much. That was the problem with me and talking, I let my emotions speak for me most of the time. I don't think things through. I couldn't tell anyone about what happened on the surface, I needed to protect them from the horror of some things. Things that shouldn't even happen to anyone, let alone two girls. I kept my mouth shut, and hung my head.

Sans had knelt down so he could see my face, he kept his tone gentle. "frisk, please. i don't blame you for what chart did, not anymore. you can trust me now, i won't tell anyone about what happened." He was trying to get to know me better, and that's good, but he just... shouldn't know this. Not yet anyway.

I could tell he wasn't going to give up, so I just said, "Not now Sans. Maybe someday later, you'll just have to be patient. It's just... a little soon to tell you things like this. I mean, we did just start being friends today."

"we're friends?" Sans clearly didn't know.

I laughed, "Well, duh! If we're going to talk about things like Chara and get to know each other, we should be friends first!" I looked away quick, "You do wanna be friends, right?"

Sans gave me a quick hug, "well, sure kid. now that i don't want to kill you, we can be pals. welp, i'm off to bed. and i suggest that you get some sleep too, we are going to do a lot tomorrow." He was halfway up the stairs by the time he finished his sentence.

"Sleep? I, um, yeah. I am very tired, see ya in the morning." I tried to sound happy about sleeping. But I honestly didn't want to sleep knowing that Chara could just pop in at any moment. But I did need to rest, me and Sans were finally friends! I would need to question him about important things like... his favorite thing to do. Or even deeper... his favorite color!

I smiled at my silly thoughts as I drifted off to sleep, everything was going to be better now. I was basically asleep, and didn't know that Sans was listening when I mumbled, "Love ya Sans."

Hmmm, done already? I must keep typing!

See ya later alligator! :)