Chara only managed to see Frisk two or three times during the first Monster year on the surface.
Their meetings were a bit awkward, as they just often just stared at each other for a while. Chara tried to hand the pendant to Frisk, the one who had their SOUL pulsing.
Each time they met, however, Frisk's refusal got stronger, making Chara wonder if they would ever accept to live with them on the surface.
The couple eventually indulged in typical couple antics after remaining silent, so they can forget the burden of a reality they both slowly started to realize.
They may not outlast the fact of being apart.
As Chara felt Frisky's cold lips warm up due to their neck assault, they would sneak a hand under their lover's shirt. Frisk's cold skin wasn't enough to make Chara withdraw their hand, but those scars Frisk had all over their growing body did.
Chara shuddered at that direct hit on the heart they inflicted when times were gruesome. Chara would often pause there as they caressed around that scar, making Frisk question them with squinted eyes.
"What is it, Red?"
Chara looked at chocolate orbs before carefully leaning on Frisk's chest.
"Just remembering another rough episode of ours, child."
Their lover giggled at the word, one Frisk used to hate when they first met.
"We're no longer children, then."
It was true, they've grown into soon-to-be adults. Hell, Chara had already taken grown-up responsibilities as she juggled high school and public life.
Frisk, on the other hand, was being responsible for their mishaps. They punished themselves by staying here, but it was better than living with guilt over dark times.
Whenever Chara or Frisk pecked or marked their love on each other, they revived that old flame of theirs. As long as they did not caress their respective scars and bruises, they felt the same excitement they lived before that unfortunate event.
The second and third meetings went like that as well, with their ups and downs. While Chara and Frisk managed to keep those as lovey-dovey as they could, the baked cakes tasted progressively bitter, and the brewed tea got steadily sourer.
Eighteen months later
Chara had managed to enroll in high school once they finished the bigginart of negotiations with Capital City. They succeeded in earning some external recognition, as well as in lands near Mt. Ebott.
There was no schooling facility available there, so Chara transferred to the Capital's high schootransferredriel and Undyne.
Goat Mom insisted to accompany Chara in her capacity as a legal tutor, and Undyne was convinced by Sans to be a Royal Bodyguard for the duration of their "assignment".
"Here you go punk, see you at five."
They were dropped by Undyne in some fancy car, allegedly offered by the human state for their trouble. Chara almost refused it, but Undyne rode it back home before anyone said anything about it.
Chara sighed, then entered a standard human school. Things haven't changed much, everybody focusing their gaze on the new student as per usual.
"She's ... human?"
Great, someone figured out their gender right away.
"Must have monster genes by now."
Chara expected that one to come, and it didn't hurt at all either.
"She looks ... plain?"
True, Chara had little time to shop for clothes or pamper. Between official meetings, sit-downs with regular humans, paperwork to fill, and the massive migration work to han,dle, she had barely any break from work.
"Hey, monster !"
Someone finally stepped up and tried to bother her. Chara did not try to get back at them, that was just another bully that wanted to prove themselves to the class.
"Stop it, people! I think I ... I know her from somewhere."
A blonde girl, who looked quite popular, approached Chara.
"I knew it, you're Chara !"
Chara froze, she was sure no one knew her name around here. She looked back at the girl and noticed a familiar red ribbon.
"Patience?"
The tall, boyish blonde grinned and took Chara's hand before leading the new student to her clique.
"Name's Sabrina, you know?"
Sabrina whispered that to her like they were already best friends.
"Sorry, forgot about that one."
Chara honestly did, she had no idea any of the fallen humans would be alive. She does not remember befriending any of them either, but she went with it anyways.
"People, that girl kinda saved us from being ... well, lost in Mt. Ebott. Take care of her please."
Everyone in Sabrina's group started laughing really hard - at least, two of the boys did, the others just kind of chuckled.
Before Chara thought of snapping at anyone, she recognized all of them in a jiffy. Of course, the fallen humans just magically happened to bond together and end up at the same high school.
"You all... how come ...?"
Chara rattled her head to no avail, she and Frisk managed to save humans too, unexpectedly.
"We do not know either," said Justice.
"Sure, but ... we were out there." Bravery continued
"And sadly, we were undressed." Kindness concluded, with a small laugh.
Two other girls fidgeted, looking embarrassed at each other. Chara spotted a tutu and cloudy glasses, which means they're Integrity and Perseverance.
"Anyways, Determinat-"
The stiff look on Chara's face and her glowing orbs made Sabrina retract her statement./p
"Ahem, Chara ... we're here for you. Nobody's going to bother you if you stick around, except that kind of idiots from earlier."
Chara smiled, she was glad she managed to get past the door without making too much of a fuss.
"I can handle myself."
Bravery spoke up, making everyone cringe at that sentence of his.
"We know that, gorilla girl. We still gonna be around anyways."
Chara looked at the boy, giggled then whispered back to Sabrina, who ended up in a hysterical fit of laughter.
"What's making you laugh your arse over, mate?"
"Juicy."
Everyone smiled except Bravery, who pouted before trying a friendly jab at Sabrina.
The day went quite fast in the company of those humans, and she soon enough found herself in the car.
"Hey punk, how's human school?"
"Better than expected, Fishface."
Undyne grinned, focusing back on the road before letting Chara know she had a few things to do in their new office.
Chara simply sighed, she just wanted to go home and see Frisk whenever she could. She wanted to make up for those few bad dates, and try to convince him to come with her.
She was just afraid she would not do it on time.
Second Monster Year
Frisk and Flowey became friends, somewhat, and hung out casually in the now-empty Underground. They pretty much explored every nook and cranny of it, even the former True Lab and the monsters still living in it.
Alphys wanted to bring them back at a later date, but she had to prepare an equally large laboratory for the mutants. For the time being, Frisk and Flowey took care of the Amalgamates, feeding them and comforting them when needed. /p
"Ugh, another day went by and that giant, multi-headed dog just ate everything on his plate before trying to CHEW me up, AGAIN !"
Frisk looked at Flowey with a falsely empathic face, one the flower easily figured out and grumbled at. Truth is, Frisk was no fan of dogs either - or petting for that matter - but they had nothing better to do./p
Whenever someone requested them to do something, they gladly accepted and focused on the task at hand. Whether it was doing patrols for Papyrus, hanging out with Napstablook, or fetching items for Aster, they gladly obliged.
Flowey always happened to be there and got enlisted to help Frisk out. He often ranted about it before giving up and finished whatever was asked as quickly as possible.
The Underground was safe in their hands, for now.
Frisk had been able to recover a tiny portion of their SOUL, thanks to Chara's visits. They used those to help Flowey, who often was begrudgingly doing all the physical labor.
It was far from being enough to revive them, not that they planned to be back to the living either.
Sure, they could lift a few things for old Underground denizens or pet Endogeny while Flowey fed the amalgamate. The rest of their duties did not require anything corporeal in particular, and they managed to tap on their SOUL fragment as little as possible.
Yet, the faint red glow in their dark container grew thinner each month.
They haven't heard from Chara in a while, and it was somewhat of a relief. Frisk was worried about how wrong these last meetings felt, but they were not ready to change thei- No, they were pretty sure they will not.
It was for her sake that they put their life on the line after all.
Granted, she loved them very much so, and wouldn't be able to hold it together without seeing them once in a while. Even so, it was wrong for Frisk to accept being revived just like that. They thought that the last run would help them make peace with themselves, they thought they could finally let go of those horrors that gnawed at every inch of their body.
They were wrong, sins still crawled on their back. Living with Chara, as they promised, could never happen as they are now. Everything they vowed to do three timelines ago went south, so being a ghost was perhaps the best choice to make.
"Never thought rabbits and books could correlate ... Fifteen crates to carry all the way to that hole on the mountain for f*ck' sake ... FIFTEEN !"
Frisk snapped back to reality as he heard Flowey's ranting, glad he did not notice the hazy look on that child he begrudgingly befriended for quite some time now.
"Hey, brat."
Or perhaps he did, after all. Frisk floated away to escape, but Flowey plopped in and out to corner them each time.
"STAND STILL, FOR THE LOVE OF G- oh wait you dare float your way out again ... FRISK! FREEZE !"
Frisk got enough of that chasing pattern and gave up, turning back to face Flowey.
"So, brat, it is about time you and I get to chat about you know what."