"I-I'm here! Where is he?"
"He is in here." Toriel called. "He is lying down."
"W-what a-are his symptoms?" Alphys asked.
"He is in a lot of pain, he is vomiting and there is blood in it, and he has blisters around his mouth."
"It sounds like buttercup poisoning." Alphys said. "Has he come into contact with buttercups recently?"
"I do not think so." Toriel answered. "The last thing he came into contact with before his illness started was a slice of pie."
"Um…actually, he did." I interrupted.
"What?"
"The recipe called for cups of butter, but we were out of butter, so w-so I thought we could use butter cups as a substitute. I'm sorry." I didn't know why I was sad, but when I reached up to rub my eyes and get rid of that strange mistiness, my fingers came away damp. God, I'd actually grown to care about them, but now I'd gone and gotten Asgore sick. Why the hell was I such an idiot? Where had I gotten the idea that a flower would replace butter? Yeah, so I didn't know crap about cooking and I didn't care much for it, but I had common sense, at least! What part of putting flowers in a recipe had anything to do with common sense? I could vaguely sense the mistiness leaking out of my eyes, but I didn't care. It was what I deserved.
"Oh, Chara, it will be alright." I heard Toriel say. "I suppose I should have checked up on you, rather than leaving the three of you to your own devices. Asgore will be alright, do not worry. He is very strong, and he did not consume more than a slice of the pie. Consider this a learning experience."
Toriel took the three of us into her arms, hugging us tightly. "It will be okay, children. It will be okay."
The young girl rolled up the left sleeve of her oversized blue sweater, rubbing a whip mark on her arm. "Clarissa, i-it really hurts." Her brown eyes were teary, and she was running a hand through her short dark hair.
"H-hey, don't cry. It's gonna be okay, I promise. Someday, we'll get out of this backwards place. We'll find a nice house by a lake or something like that, and we'll live together! We just need to pull through until then, and Fiona, I'll make sure it happens." The girl sitting beside her had red eyes and a green sweater with a single yellow stripe. She leaned over on the small mattress and hugged the other girl.
"Y-you really think so?"
"I know so."
"Y o u ' e, a. l…"
All I could think of was those twelve words. The last words she'd ever said to me.
I really was as bad as her.
Just like before, what I'd done registered in my mind all at once. I'd screwed up again.
I didn't realize I was laughing until I looked around and saw everyone's concerned faces.