Thanks to Petalthorn for her help on this chapter. If you're hurting for more Undertale stuff to read, you should go check out her story: Corrupted File Exe. It's very well written and could use some more attention.
Toby Fox owns Undertale and all associated characters.
"Wow, you finished it already?" Frisk asked into his cell phone, holding it to his ear as he sat comfortably in Toriel's large reading chair. "I knew you could do it, Alphys!"
Chara watched him from across the room, absently polishing her sleek, black metal arms as she did so. Her brother listened into the phone for a few moments, nodding his head absently as the nervous reptile chattered. Chara hated it when he did that. Didn't he know that no-one on the other end could actually see him?
"No, it's fine, you know what you're doing better than us. Sure, we'll be able to come and check it out tomorrow, but I'm sure it'll be great. Uh-huh…. Uh-huh… Look, I know it'll be fine, okay? There's seriously nothing to worry about. Chara'll love it, Kid'll love it…
"Okay, how about you go lie down for a few minutes, alright? You'll feel better, and your baby'll thank you for it when he comes out. You know he's coming soon, the last thing he's gonna need is a stressed-out mom." Frisk grinned into the phone. "Alright, bye."
He pulled the phone away from his face and pressed a button, ending the call. Then, he turned to Chara and gave a overdramatic bow.
"See? This is why you listen to me. Alphys has finished up a present that Kid will certainly cherish for the rest of his life. Tomorrow we can go out and check on it, but knowing her, it's even better than what we asked for."
"Why can't we check on it today?" The robotic girl asked.
"Because, my dear sister," Frisk replied, a massive smile on his face. "We are going shopping!"
Chara raised an elegant brow to look at Frisk, who was still grinning like an idiot.
"... Really?"
"Don't give me that look! You've got a present that'll blow Kid's socks off… or at least it would if he ever wore socks. But you've got other friends to think about! Remember, Dad's setting up the giant Christmas party again this year! You're not going to be able to just dip your toe into the Christmas spirit, there's so much more to experience!"
Chara still looked unimpressed.
"This is just your way of trying to get me into one of those stupid santa hats again, isn't it?"
"What? No!" Frisk looked around warily for a moment. "And don't say "stupid" and "Santa" in the same sentence, you know how much Dad loves dressing up this time of year. Look, you've made it clear how much of this stuff you find silly. All I want is to help you make this Christmas the best ever, okay?"
Chara looked suspiciously at her brother, who was desperately trying to look as innocent and angelic as possible. Finally she sighed and relented.
"Alright, we'll do the shopping. But there'd better not be any shenanigans going on here."
Frisk chuckled.
"Still love that word. Don't worry, this trip is going to be completely shenanigan free. Grab your stuff and meet me outside… we're going to the mall!"
Christmas was fast approaching, which meant that the mall was full of last-minute shoppers. Fortunately, Frisk knew well how to navigate the place, and Chara had been here a few times before, albeit back when she was a passenger in Frisk's body.
The siblings walked through the labyrinth of a shopping centre, their dodging prowess and fighting experience easily allowing them to keep from being trampled or overwhelmed by the hordes of people around them.
The central hub of the place was less crowded, a fact that Chara appreciated. She cast her gaze about for a moment, before going to a large sign that displayed all of the stores in the mall, and how to get to them. Frisk, however, quickly noticed a familiar pair and waved to greet them.
"Grillby! Muffet! What are you guys doing here?"
The small spider Monster waved back, and both she and the taller fire Monster made their way towards the two.
"Hello, dearie!" Muffet said, smiling brightly up at the boy. "Goodness, it has been a long time since I last saw you, hasn't it? You were about the same height as me last time!"
Frisk smiled.
"Well, it's not all that easy to go out and visit you, since you set your bakery so far up the mountain. I thought you'd been avoiding the cities…"
The spider sighed.
"I have. Humans have been less accepting of me and my poor spiders than some of the other Monsters. Still, my business has been gradually rising, and I've decided to start expanding into the cities. Grillby here was kind enough to show me around to pick out a good location for the shop." She covered her mouth with her hand and giggled. "Such a gentleman."
Grillby made no response, other the crackling of his flames.
"I didn't know you two knew each other." Frisk remarked.
"We've not met in person before." Muffet explained, "But Grillby has been ordering my pastries for years! When he offered to help me find a good spot to expand to, well, how could I pass up the opportunity to meet one of my best customers in person?"
Frisk laughed, shifting his stance to a more relaxed position.
"Have you managed to get more than two words out of him? I'm still not sure that I wasn't just imagining things when I heard him actually speak.
"He is very quiet..." Muffet smiled, her five eyes seeming to blink at random intervals. "But he will speak if he finds the need to. I must say it is refreshing to have someone I can chatter away to if I must."
"You must be doing very well for yourself if you're expanding into the city now," Frisk remarked.
Muffet pulled out a large purse from behind her, and her lowermost pair of arms rummaged in it for a moment, before she pulled out a small box of donuts.
"Care for a pastry?" She asked.
Frisk nodded eagerly, selecting a donut from the box and biting into it almost immediately.
"I've been having more business than ever before." Muffet explained as she watched the boy eat. "Even the Humans have been getting more and more comfortable with purchasing my pastries. Of course, not all of them have been so polite. A few days ago, some gentlemen barged into my bakery and demanded I shut it down."
"What did you do?" Frisk asked. Chara was approaching them now, listening in on their conversation.
Muffet let all her eyes blink in lazy synchronization, and gave a small smile.
"I thought you would know, dearie. You're eating one of them right now."
Frisk froze, crumbs of donut falling from his open mouth as he stared in horror at the half-eaten confection he held in his hand. Muffet began laughing, once again covering her mouth with one of her top arms as she did so.
"I'm only joking, dearie. You can relax, these are just the same as the ones you ate back in the Underground."
Chara let out a laugh, as Frisk visibly relaxed.
"That was amazing, Muffet." She congratulated. "The look on his face… that was priceless." She looked over at her brother, a grin spreading across her features. "You were right, Frisk. Going to the mall today was a great idea!"
"I'm sorry, dearie." Muffet said, examining the mechanical girl before her. "I don't believe we've met before?"
Chara knit her brows in confusion, looking down at the spider Monster before her expression cleared.
"Oh, right. Sorry, my name's Chara. I've, uhh… sort of met you before…" She trailed off and winced as an image of her knife tearing through the small woman's body flashed briefly in her mind.
"She means that she's heard us talk about you before." Frisk put in. "It feels like she's met you before is all."
"Oh, you must be Toriel and Asgore's daughter!" Muffet realized. "I heard about that...It's good to actually make your acquaintance!"
"Thanks." Chara managed, giving the woman a slightly strained smile. Frisk realized his sister was uncomfortable and quickly changed the subject.
"It was nice to see you again, Muffet, but Chara and I should probably get back to our shopping. We've still got a lot of stuff to do."
Muffet inclined her head slightly, smiling as she did so.
"Take care, dearies. Perhaps I will see you around sometime soon."
With that, both Grillby and Muffet walked away, leaving the siblings behind in the middle of the hub.
"You were looking at the list of stores over there…" Frisk prompted, drawing his sister's attention again. "Did you find anything you wanna check out right away?"
Chara blinked a couple times, then shook her head slightly to clear it.
"Uh, yeah… I think that the orange wing might be a good place to start…"
Frisk threw a glance over at the sign.
"Clothing, hardware and misc. I never got why miscellaneous was a category, but you're right, that is a good place to start. Come on, sis, let's get this train wreck a-rolling!"
They'd been browsing the various shops around for nearly twenty minutes now, Between the two of them they'd picked out a lovely light purple flowing dress for Toriel. Chara was glancing over a rack of shirts, when Frisk's phone rang. The robotic girl glanced over to him as he frowned and brought the device up to his ear.
"Hello?" He asked, then paused. His eyes widened.
"Oh, man! I totally forgot about that! Yeah, I'll be there in a few minutes, just stay there!"
He put down the phone and glanced over at Chara, who was still watching him.
"I gotta go quick, I won't be too long though!" Frisk explained hurriedly, pushing his way out of the store. "Just keep going, I'm sure you'll find something!"
"Frisk, wait!"
But he was already gone. Chara ran out of the store, but her brother had disappeared in the masses of people everywhere, and she couldn't see him, not even with the zoom functions in her eyes. She blinked a couple of times, returning her vision to normal before rubbing at her forehead. She really hadn't gotten used to that function yet… the few times she'd tried it, it just gave her a headache.
She supposed she'd have to keep browsing by herself then, though she felt a bit silly doing it alone. She picked up the bag that held Toriel's dress and walked out of the store, jostling with the crowds where necessary.
She only walked a few steps before she saw it. Her eyes went wide as her gaze focussed, everything around her fading into the background as she looked at the window display in the next store over.
She walked towards it, pushing past anyone in her way, never letting her eyes stray from her target. Finally, she was standing before it.
There was a mannequin standing sideways, presented so that both the front and the back of it's outfit were visible from the outside. It was wearing tight jeans, but Chara wasn't interested in those.
She was looking at the jacket.
A beautiful black leather jacket, glistening in the fluorescent light. It wasn't bulky, but sleek while still maintaining a dangerous air, aided in part by the three metal spikes protruding from each shoulder.
On the back, in flaming red and yellow letters were the words "Rising Phoenix" arching over the top, just under the shoulders. Beneath that, was the Phoenix itself, a flaming bird rising up towards the words framing it, it's wings spread wide.
She kept staring at it, using her vision features to pick out various details of the jacket and generally entranced by the thing. She'd never really been much for buying things; she was just getting used to the concept of needing anything for herself. The only thing she really considered hers was her locket, which she always wore over her shirt. But this…
"Sorry about that!" Frisk's voice snapped her out of her reverie, and she stumbled while turning to face him, trying to keep her composure. Her brother grinned at her sheepishly, brushing his brown locks out of his face and adjusting his red scarf.
"Do I even want to know what you were doing?" Chara asked, a little proud of herself for managing to slip so easily back into her rhythm even after staring like an idiot at that really awesome, cool, badass-
"Probably not… But I'm back now! Did you see anything you liked while I was gone?"
Chara hesitated for a moment, then shook her head slowly, clutching the bag with her mother's present in it a little tighter.
"No… not really."
Frisk looked slightly disappointed for a second, before he brightened.
"Well, don't worry, the present master is here to help! Come on, there's another store close by we should check out, should be some cool stuff that Dad might like!"
Frisk started walking quickly away, and Chara followed in his footsteps. She re-focused on the task at hand, and soon, all thoughts of that leather jacket had slipped from her mind.
Well… almost all.