Really talk here, bubby. At first, I wanted this to be a story based off a power struggle between Kaneki and Chara, where each would fight for control of their corporal form. But, after trying that, it seemed very... Well, I didn't like the idea of writing an over anguished chapter. I know this chapter isn't SUPER long, but I felt as though it's needed. I didn't want to write about their lives falling down into more and more despair, but rather, I now want to write about a story of bitter sweetness rather than just pain. I'm getting a new cover done in the meantime, on where Kaneki doesn't have to wear his eyepatch to blind Chara, and where Chara no longer needs a knife. Also, new clothes. Yay.

Exiting the kitchen, I stood near the armrest of Toriel's chair. "What are you doing? I thought you were ready to go." Kaneki pestered in an annoyed tone, to which I rolled my eyes at.

"How do you even know he'll be there?" It hadn't even come to my attention, and probably neither his, but we were really just going off an assumption based on nothing. "I mean, do you even remember falling with your friend?"

"... I… I remeber me losing track of him, then…"

"Then you probably went looking after him, right?" Not wanting to argue standing up, I leapt over the armrest and onto the tan living room chair that Toriel would usually spend most her time reading on. "And from the way you spoke down to him, I'm guessing you thought he was stupid enough to get lost and hurt himself, right?"

"I don't think he's stupid."Kaneki protested in his defense, to which I couldn't help but chuckle at.

"Oh? You seemed pretty satisfied with manipulating him into lying for you, and to his own mom nonetheless." Perhaps I was enjoying myself a little too much, but I did feel the need to correct him afterall. I might have been seen as a cruel monster by some, and even I admitted that betraying the trust of those foolish enough to believe that I could have changed gave me a certain rush before in the past, but there was never an instance back then where I deluded myself into believing something I knew wasn't true. "Admit it, Kaneki, you're in denial that Hide knew better than to follow you, a brainy show off who just HAD to prove himself important to others in order to feel important, into the mouth of hell." I could tell that this was bothering him, by the low growl he made.

"You're wrong.Even if he believed the story to be true, or for argument's sake, let's say he knew that the legend of the monsters being in the Underground was true... Hide wouldn't abandon me, so why should I abandon him?" In all honesty, what he said was rather noble and quite loyal of him, which made me think about Asriel and I. Sure, we had fun together, and his family had come to accept me as their own, but earlier… After that eyepatch or whatever fell off- when I got to see through his eye...

"Kaneki, who… who were you talking to before Frisk?"

"Why do you need to know?" It almost seemed like he was taking revenge. How typical. "I think you actually might be right, but for the wrong reason- about Hide not meeting the same fate as me, I mean." Grinding the back of my teeth, I sunk my fingers deep into the arms of the couch as I tried to keep calm.

"This isn't the time for you to start making stuff up, now tell me who else was with Frisk."

"You like to change the subject when you're upset, I'm starting to realize that now.You earlier told me that you heard a conversation you couldn't understand before seeing the door that led you to me. If Hide had fallen, surely Toriel and Asriel would have found him by-"

"-Asriel's here then..." I felt my smile creep back across my face as my eyes widened in joy. I hoped off the chair with an extra skip in my step as I made my toward the first room of the house that lead outside. Just when I thought my luck couldn't get any better, who else but my own brother froze to the spot a mere few feet from me. "Greetings, brother; it's been awhile, hasn't it?" I was expecting him to first recognize my voice, perhaps than cower from me like he used to, but instead, he gave me a confused look.

"... Kaneki?" He took a step back as I made my way closer to him with the knife gripped tight in my hand. "What are you… Hey, um, keep the knife in the kitchen please; you might hurt someone..."

"... Asriel it's me." I smiled as I took another step forward. However, he unexpectedly advanced toward me in a mild manner before pulling the knife out of my hand. It wasn't like he had to force it out of my hand, no, it was more like he wasn't afraid of me.

"I know it's you, Kaneki, and don't worry, I'll ask mom if she'll let you help prepare dinner tonight, since you seem so eager to use this thing." He chuckled to himself as he moved past me. I was dumbfounded, and soon, step by step, I found myself following him to the kitchen. "Also, what's up with your eye, it's all gunky with black stuff." He questioned in a concerned tone. This wasn't making sense, how could he not remember me? We died together, how could he have…

"Asriel… How… How are you alive?" He gave me another look of confusion before trying to brush it off with a chuckle.

"Gosh... don't tell me you don't know about the bird and the bees, Kaneki!" If I was still smiling, it would have been that moment that I would have stopped smiling for sure.

"Don't… Don't you remember me? Y-You… You're my brother!" Standing before me, I could see him stare at me in shock, and before I knew it he leaned in to pull me into a hug. "I… I thought we were a family…"

"Kaneki, if you wanted to be apart of this family… All you had to do was ask." There I stood in his familiar warm embrace, except it wasn't for me this time. If I or Kaneki still had a beating heart, I'm sure that the pain that I would have felt would have been from a broken one. It was then I could feel a warm sensation travel down my cold left cheek, a feeling that too was familiar. Unfortunately, all the times I did cry, it was when I was on the surface. "Even if you are a little weird."

"Asriel, try using 'you're' next time." Although I knew it wasn't me who spoke those words from my mouth, I didn't care. All I felt was a crippling pain that was only mocked by the genuine compassion Asriel was giving to who he thought was Kaneki. "I… Thank you… I'm sorry if I caused any trouble." Despite the hug not being for me necessarily, I still didn't want it to end, even if it was hurting me. So when Asriel broke the physical bond between us, I could only stare through the tears I had in my left eye, to which I raised my hand to wipe. "I apologize, I'm… I'm really happy is all."

"Don't worry about, umm… brother." There I stood, a mere three feet away from who I once thought as to be my brother. I… I needed time to think.

Had it not been for Asriel standing so close to me, I would have sworn that I would've fallen immediately after taking back control. The odd thing was that I didn't have to fight for it. In fact, it seemed to me that Chara wanted me to take control. I didn't blame them. "Asriel, can you help me?" He almost seemed surprised from me speaking; I suppose hearing several different voices coming from the same person could be a little strange, but he did try his best to ignore the change of voice, I'm sure.

"Sure! And uh… You're eye got better… sort of." He commented. "How can I help?" Asriel asked in an eager tone, which I couldn't help but smile at.

"Earlier, when you told Frisk to redress my bandages…" I had to pause in order to allow myself to admit to the horrible thing I did to them. What was worse was now he just had considered me a potential family member. "... I… I lost control of myself, and I… I kicked them against the wall and… I'm sorry, I know it doesn't excuse my actions, but I had thought that my friend was still at the place that you guys found me." I had expect him to be disgusted, and perhaps even regretful for offering me to be apart of his family. But instead, his smile was still there, and he actually looked happy to hear me admitting to this. "I know you and your mom would have saved him too."

"Hey… don't worry about... I know Frisk will forgive you, if they haven't already." Asriel reassured with a pat on my shoulder. "Come on, let's get you covered first, bro." He let out a soft chuckle as he pointed down with a finger. Due to recent- might I add even emotional- events, I had forgotten that neither Chara nor I had remembered to put on clothes. "No point in freaking Frisk out… Yeah, I think your clothes are dried by now, so let me go grab them from outside; just sit tight real quick." With that said, Asriel turned to exit, but not before giving me one last look. "You know… It's funny."

"What is?" I asked, curious to what he meant. Perhaps he was referring to the situation as a whole? However, Asriel instead brushed off it with a shrug.

"Nothing… I'll be right back, Kaneki."

"Okay, thank you." I thanked Asriel be he continued on his way outside, but not before turning around one more time to close the front door. As soon as the door shut, I fell to my knees with my hands outstretched to the floor to catch myself. Chara must have been holding back, because as soon as I landed, I felt warm tears showering down from the left side of my cheek. "Chara… What's wrong?"

"… Why…" A moment of silence passed, and for a moment, I thought they, just like Asriel had done moments ago, were just going to brush it off. Boy, was I wrong. "... Why doesn't he remember me!?" Their answer came out… louder than I had anticipated. Extremely painful to hear actually, and with their voice projecting inside my head rather than through my ears, I instead reached up to hold my forehead in an attempt to comfort myself, rather than my ears. "We were family!" Chara screamed through their fits of sobbing. It was shocking to hear what I thought to be an unshakeable person being able to sound so heartbroken.

"Chara, I'm sorry-"

"- ' ." The way they said that... unnerved me. The pain in my head was beginning to ease, and their distorted voice begun to ease back as their sobbing softened. Their murmurs of woe came to a halt as soon as the door cracked open.

"Hey bro, I'm back!" Asriel announced as he stepped in through the door. With him, he carried my clothes, folded neatly nonetheless. "... Hey, are you okay?" Asriel asked, putting down the clothes to the side before he kneeling down infront of me. He instantly flinched when I lifted my head to face him though. "Oh man, your eye…" Asriel muttered underneath his breath, but quickly shook it off as he put on a smile. "Well… Mom said I shouldn't do healing magic without her… But hey, that doesn't look too bad! Don't worry Kaneki, I'll have you fixed in a sec!" He cheerfully announced as he got up.

"What's wrong with my eye?"

"Nothing too bad, it's just that the white part of your eye, the uh…"

"The sclera?" I finished for him. Sitting down in a cross legged position, I took one hand to open my eyelid while with the other I pointed toward what felt like my sclera. "It's the white part of the eye."

"That's the thing though; your left eye isn't white, it's black and red." I then begun to wonder if that was the reason why I had the eyepatch on in the first place, although before he left outside to get my clothes, he did mention that my eye did look better. That was before Chara started to cry and after I took control though. "Jeez, it's still watering up pretty bad."

"Asriel, I don't think that-"

"Hurt him." I didn't know why I was starting to become… angry after hearing Chara spoke those two words to me. I then felt my hands beginning to twitch, and he was quick to take notice.

"Is… Is there something wrong with your hand?" Not wanting to frighten him, I shook my head.

"No, I'm fine, it's just a little-"

"I said hurt him."

"No…" I tried my best to whisper my response to Chara, but considering how I was already the subject of concern for Asriel, I could tell that he had heard me talking- probably to who he thought was myself. "Asriel, I'm fine."

"Ka-Kaneki... Your eye, it's dripping black stuff again…" He reached out with an index finger outstretched toward my cheek, to which I smacked away in annoyance. Asriel stepped back as he held on to the hand he tried to use to wipe away my tears. "I'm… I'm sorry."

"No! I didn't mean to do that!"

"He hurt me."

"Asriel! I'm sorry! I'm not myself, I-" When I stood up in my efforts to comfort him, he flinched away as well as moved back away from me. Another wave of anger washed over me, and I moved forward to shove him against the wall. Hard. "I said I was sorry, isn't that good enough?!" I could tell he was really scared now, as he coward against the wall near the door. As soon I saw his hand slowly creeping for the doorknob, I took hold of his wrist before twisting his arm behind his back to shove him once again against the wall.

"Kaneki! P-Please stop!"

"You're… You're… You're just like Hide!" I shouted in his ear, which caused him to whimper. "Why can't you just listen to me, Hide?! You idiot! I said not to look for a place to set up a tent! But no! You're too stupid and you just had to make my research into some idiotic camping trip! Even when I gave in to your childish pursuits, you went and left the stupid tent just so you can go and explore! Why couldn't you just listen to me?! You couldn't have even done that, could you?! It took you so long to get back, and I was worried sick about you, and all you had to say was sorry… No… No you didn't even apologize for leaving me! You made me hurt you, and then left me to make me feel like the bane of all existence, didn't you?! And you know what, you just ended up dying! Just because you couldn't listen to me for once! What was I supposed to tell mom?! That I shoved her real kid into Mt. Ebott by accident?! I couldn't go back! What do you want from me, Hide?! Just tell me!" I… I couldn't believe what had just came out of my mouth. I knew… I knew that what I said wasn't Chara alone. What I just said, no, what I just did to Asriel was cruel. During my little speech, I had forgotten that Asriel was even there and I must have let go. Looking down at him sobbing as he shivered in a curled up ball was… painful.

"Asriel…" I… Chara… No... We whispered to ourselves as we knelt down. We didn't stay kneeling down for long though, instead we wrapped our arms around his torso into a hug. "I'm sorry Asriel…" We had no right to ask for forgiveness, but, we owed an apology to our brother. "We've… we've both done a lot of horrible things in our past before…" His crying was beginning to soften, which brought a certain comfort that neither of us deserved. "Hurting you… Hurting Frisk… Hurting those we have no right to exist with... even if we've only known you and your family for only a little bit… You have such a lovely family, one that we don't deserve to be apart of." We had a hard time saying that without breaking down into tears ourselves, but crying out of self pity after what we did… No, we deserved hell instead. We should have stayed in that dark void. We leaned in to kiss his ear before getting up to stand up before feeling both Kaneki and Chara beginning to separate back into their separate personas. Kaneki and Chara: two damned souls sharing one corporal form together. How ugly we were.

"It was nice meeting you, Asriel… Chara was glad to see you too, despite us acting the way we did." I faked a smile as I knelt down to pick up my clothes. "... Goodbye." I didn't even have time to even grab the handle though, instead I felt the warm embrace of Asriel as he wrapped his arms around my chest before burying his head into my shoulder.

"Don't go." He whispered softly. That's all he had to say to get both Chara and I to break down. I could feel both myself and Chara's whimpers quickly escalated into a harsh bawling. I wasn't without a shoulder to rest my head on for long, before I knew it, I felt another pair of arms wrap themselves around me from the opposite side of where Asriel stood.

"Please don't be sad, Kaneki." It was Frisk, and as both Chara and I continued to sob furiously, Frisk begun to shush us in their sweet loving voice as they gently rubbed the back of my head. "You too, Chara, you don't have to be sad or alone anymore- neither of you do." Frisk reassured in a compassionate tone. "You don't have to worry, family always forgives will always love each other no matter what... Even if we do sometimes act crazy."

"Yeah…" Asriel murmured, "And you are pretty crazy... Besides, you were heading out the wrong door." Chara and I had held back tears like the ones we let loose for far too long. No alligator tears of anger or childish attitude, no false sorrows to deceive others into tricking them. Rather, we shed genuine tears. Not out of hatred nor despair however, but rather joy. Truth be told, I couldn't recall myself ever crying in response to ever feeling blessed, and I'm sure Chara couldn't remember themselves. And if we had experienced such a blissful memory, then it had been far too long. The feeling of being loved, something both Chara and I had longed for, was enough to make us forget who we were, even if we both knew deep down that eventually we'd be reminded time after time of our own sinful past. But… Despite any sin, isn't there a way to redeem oneself? True that there's no changing what we did, and we'd never truly forget about the ones we've hurt and the ones who've hurt us. We're both just children after all. But even knowing this, I couldn't help but crack a smile after hearing Asriel brightening up the mood with that comment, and I knew Chara had appreciated it too. "... I don't want to ruin the mood or anything… But bro, seriously, put on your clothes."

"It's okay, Asriel." Frisk assured with a small laugh. "I don't mind at all." So there we stood, the four of us, all together as loving siblings. Sure, I'd have to introduce Chara a bit more, and I'm more than positive that they'll want to introduce themselves with their own voice as well, but nonetheless, we were a family now.

Next chapter will be a bit more adventurous as they, gasp, leave the house. Unlike some of us, who pretty much seclude themselves in their home. And for those wondering, if there are any lol, Chara speaks in bold, while Kaneki and everyone else speaks normally. When Kaneki and Chara speak to each other through their mind, the dialogue will be italic. Don't worry, Goat Mama will be in the next chapter, along with a surprise. Next time, on Dragonball Z, Kaneki and Chara explore the ruins.