When the king returned he came bearing gifts. He brought a large box filled with several of Asriel and Chara's old toys and possessions, among them were the presents they had gifted to each other the day before their deaths, still unopened. Asgore also promised to make him butterscotch pie that night, the same way his mother used to make it. Asriel knew that his father was a poor cook, but feigned gratitude for the gesture anyway. He decided not to open the gifts; the memories were still too fresh and painful. Instead he looked through his other old things. They were a little dusty, but otherwise exactly as he remembered them.

As Asgore brought each item out for him to see, a question started to burn in his mind. He really wasn't looking forward to knowing the answer, but it had to be asked. "Dad." He said, drawing the king's attention. "How long have I been gone for?"

Asgore, who was sitting among the golden flowers shifted as though suddenly uncomfortable. "Are you sure you want to talk about that now son?" He asked, quickly putting his hand in the box to draw out another item. "How about we-"

"Please dad. I need to know." Asriel cut him off. He wasn't about to let Asgore avoid answering, not after what he'd just been through. He needed the truth.

"Golly, urm..." Asgore broke eye contact, choosing instead to glance at every other flower in the room. "You know, I am really bad at keeping time..." He closed his eyes. "... It must have been almost a hundred years now, since we lost you."

Asriel watched him in silence. The time passed since his death was hard to comprehend, his mind didn't even want to try to understand it. All he could think about right now was how pitiful his father looked, how he sat there, head bowed among the flowers. How long had he been all alone in this castle? Asriel had been sat in the garden long enough to put two and two together, he knew that his mother no longer lived here but for how long she'd been gone he couldn't say. Looking at Asgore right now, he knew that his question must have reminded him of the loneliness, of the pain and yet... Asriel felt nothing.

His eye's widened. He should be feeling bad, he should want to rush up to his father with arms wide open and wrap him up in a big warm hug. He should want to bury his head under Asgore's ear and tell him how sorry he was, how much he missed him but... he didn't. He just didn't care... he didn't care. He had no feelings towards his father at all. No matter what Asgore did, no matter what Asriel did, all he felt was empty.

His compassion was gone.

Asriel shook his head, fighting back the surge of despair stirring deep within his stem. No. It was the shock. He'd gone through a something traumatic and would need time to recover. People go a bit screwy when things like that happened, he knew that, he'd seen it first hand but it always settles down in the end. Things would straighten themselves out in time, he just had to stay determined to get through it.

Asgore was looking his way again, Asriel gave him a patient smile. "Wow, that's a really long time... i'm sorry."

"No, no. You don't have to apologize for anything!" He picked a book out of the box. "Now, I remembered how much you liked to play games, so I thought you might appreciate this. It's a 'chose your own adventure' book! Would you like me to read it with you?"

The title read 'Raskel's Journey', it was not a book Asriel had ever seen before. He nodded and Asgore shifted to sit beside him and opened the book to the first page.

"Raskel was the second child to the rather strange family who lived in the fourth house of Capital Street, he was also a known troublemaker." Asgore read aloud. "Everyday he would sneak out of the city to play in the ruins. The ruins were quiet and almost completely deserted, what few monsters still lived there never paid much attention to him, so he was free to do as he pleased.

"One day, while playing in the ruins with his toy sword and pirate hat while pretending to be the great skeleton pirate 'Bonebeard', Raskel accidentally pressed a switch at the bottom of a pile of dried leaves. The far wall shifted and a new passageway opened up. Enter the strange passageway?"

"Enter the passageway." Asriel confirmed, feeling thankful for the distraction.

He decided to look around while Asgore made a note of the page number and started flicking through the book. He noticed movement out the corner of his eye, a monster was standing in the doorway.

"Dad, I think someone's here to see you."

Asgore looked up and practically beamed with joy when he spotted the visitor. "Dr. Alphys, It is a pleasure to see you again on this fine day! Asriel and I have just started reading this book, would you like to join us?"

Alphys stepped tentatively into the light. She was a somewhat dumpy looking yellow lizard monster who wore a dirty lab coat and spectacles. She was staring directly at Asriel, her expression was filled with apprehension and perhaps a twinge of... fear? Fear? What would she have to be afraid of here? Perhaps it was just his imagination.

"N-no, that is alright Sire, er Asgore. After you told me the good news I decided I should come as soon as possible... to make sure he's okay... but i-if you're busy right now I can come back another time..." She really didn't look like she wanted to be here.

"Oh not at all. I just thought you said you would be too busy to come today?"

"I made time. This seemed too important to put off." Her body language seemed to be at odds with her words. She shifted her feet and turned her gaze downwards, looking as though she might bolt at any moment.

Asgore either didn't notice or completely ignored her nervous signals. "Thank you doctor. You really are thoughtful for taking the time out of your busy schedule for this." Something seemed to occur to him and he looked at Asriel with a frown of uncertainty. "This won't be too demanding on him, will it?"

"Oh gosh no!" Alphys said quickly. "Just a quick once over, to make sure he isn't suffering from any unpleasant side-effects from his revival... heh... heh..." She tried to laugh it off, but she just ended up sounding nervous.

Asgore turned to Asriel with an expression of assurance and put on the voice he always used when trying to make him feel safe. "The good doctor needs to check you to make sure you are healthy, okay? Nothing bad will happen. I promise."

Far from helping him relax, Asgore's soft and slightly condescending tone instead made Asriel feel even more apprehensive than he did before, but he nodded anyway. Regardless of how he felt, the unease and even the tinge of panic welling up inside him, he knew that letting Alphys examine him would be for the best.

Asgore put the book down and stepped to the side to let her approach. She sat down beside Asriel and carefully checked over his body while holding her hands deliberately behind her back.

While he was grateful for the lack of physical contact, he couldn't help but find it suspicious and unnerving. Did she think he was contagious?

"He seems to be a perfectly healthy flower..." Alphys' eyes darted awkwardly between him and Asgore "heh..."

Asgore stood over the two stroking his beard thoughtfully. "Do you need to carry out any further tests, doctor?"

"I-" She looked down at Asriel again... wait, was that, guilt on her face? "To be on the safe side, I should probably check back in a few days."

Asgore nodded. "Of course. Whatever you think is best."

"A-anyway, I should really get back to my work now... goodbye Asgore and A-Asriel." She got up quickly and barely wasted time on a wave before hurrying out the door.

"Goodbye Dr. Alphys." Asgore called after her, but she was already gone. He sat back down in his story-reading spot. "She's the Royal Scientist." He said while picking the book off the ground and shaking away the dirt. "She's working on a way to break the barrier. Hopefully she will make a breakthrough soon." He looked down at the cover of the book, his eyes glazed over. The next words he said were more to himself than anyone else. "She works so hard."

Alphys was the Royal Scientist? Huh, this was interesting. It used to be well known that the Gaster lineage always filled that role. Their family was renowned for scientific prowess, in fact many kids in his class used to aspire to work under them... wow, most of them would be dead by now...

"Anyway, where were we? Ah yes, the strange passageway. Here we go-" Thank goodness for distractions.

The story followed a young monster through an adventure to the surface and his attempts to escape back to the safety of the Underground. After they had died for the fifth time - this time from falling into a trap while attempting to befriend a human using a daisy-chain bracelet - the two gave up on the book for the day. With the light from the high cavern roof waning, Asgore left the garden, vowing to return with his promised pie.

The thought occurred to Asriel that, being a flower, he might not even be capable of eating the pie. He even considered using that as an excuse to not even try Asgore's notorious cooking, but decided against it. He would try it to make his dad happy.

The smell of the burnt pie crust reached him before he'd even heard Asgore's footsteps. The king sat down and set the plates out in front of them. The bottom of the crust was almost completely black, but the filling looked good... if only he could smell it over the overpowering stench of burn!

Asriel looked down at the pie, then up at Asgore, then down at the pie again. He could see a slight problem here...

"Is something the problem son? Oh!" Asgore picked up his fork and cut a piece of Asriel's pie and held it to his mouth.

He felt incredibly embarrassed as he took a bite from the fork. Well, at least this was better than putting his whole face in...

"How do you like it?" Asgore watched him eagerly with that big dopey grin on his face.

The texture was mushy, he couldn't taste anything...

"Good." Asriel lied, then added "No, that's Okay. I don't think I could manage any more right now..." when Asgore started to cut him another piece.

Asgore nodded and scooped up a slice of his own pie and put it in his mouth. After a few moments of eating in silence he decided to speak up again. "Tomorrow, I am going to announce your return to the Underground. I will not force you to make a speech, you don't need to say anything at all. Don't worry."

Asriel felt slightly uncomfortable. He was by no means a stranger to attention, but this... this all seemed a bit much so soon after... well...

"Your returning will bring everyone so much hope!" Asgore added after finishing another mouthful. He looked so happy.

Asriel simply nodded, what else could he do? There wasn't anything more to say.