Toby Fox owns Undertale and all associated characters.
Late afternoon on Christmas day, the city's Recreational Centre was packed fit to burst with holiday finery. Asgore and Toriel had once again reserved the largest room, comparable to a high school gymnasium, for the now-somewhat traditional massive Christmas party. Or as Sans called it, the "Monster Mash."
A large tree stood fully decorated in the middle of the room, the star at the top nearly brushing the ceiling, there were presents of various shapes and sizes scattered all about it. Christmas lights were strung up across all across the walls, flashing red, green and yellow, adding yet another festive layer to the room already packed with decorations.
Monster and Human alike milled about the place, most of them centered around the large tables set up on the right side of the room packed with various foodstuffs. The adults were mainly talking amongst themselves, while children played alongside them, every so often running back to the tree and rummaging through it, hoping to find a present with their name on it.
The idea behind the gift-giving here was simple. One could leave their gift under the tree for the recipient to find at their leisure, or they could give it directly to the intended. Chara had left most of her gifts at the base of the tree, but she held on to the small box holding Kid's gift. There was no way she was going to let it out of her sight, she was going to give it to Kid as soon as he arrived.
Unfortunately, the party had been in full swing for nearly an hour now, and there was no sign of the armless Monster. Frisk had assured her that he was going to be there, but now her brother had gone missing too. She huffed in frustration, her hand raising unconsciously to rub at the metal bars lining her jaw. Then she resumed walking around the room, her eyes scanning the place for any sign of Kid.
She recognized a few of the people around here; the dog pack was grouped together around several of the younger Humans, who were laughing and playing with them. Grillby was out near the tables overseeing Undyne having a drinking contest with some big, burly Human, and making sure that nothing got out of hand like it did last year.
The other fire elemental Monster she knew, a teenage girl made of green fire named Emerald, was at the edge of the room, giggling as she held hands with one of the seniors from the High School… Chara was pretty sure the guy's name was Steve. Monster and Human couples were not common… but there had been a few springing up in the past year or so. Chara made a note to keep an eye on that one, she knew Steve had been pretty accepting of Monsters, but she knew for a fact that he hung out with people who weren't as open-minded.
"Chara, is that you?" The voice caught the robotic girl's attention, and Chara looked around to spot 01 and 02 standing together not too far away from her, the bunny Monster waving at her. She rolled her eyes internally to see that they were both still wearing full battle armour.
"Hey guys." She said, abandoning her search for the time being. "I see you've both dressed for the occasion."
"What?" 01 asked, confusion in his voice. "But like… we always dress like-"
He stopped as the dragon Monster put a gauntleted hand on his shoulder and just looked at him. His partner stood there for a moment, then his ears stood up straight in understanding.
"Oh!" He realized.
Chara couldn't help but chuckle at the two.
"Do you guys ever take that armour off? I don't think I've ever seen you out of it."
"Uhh.. well yeah…" 01 replied, visibly sweating despite his full-face helmet. "Of course we do, but it's uh… it's-"
Chara raised her hands in a placating gesture.
"Say no more. I think I get the gist of it."
01 looked away, embarrassed, but a soft, hissing laugh emanated from behind 02's helmet. Chara frowned as she realized something.
"Hey guys, I've been meaning to ask you.. what are your real names? I'm assuming that 01 and 02 aren't your actual names…"
Surprisingly, this time it was 02 who spoke up.
"Of course… those numbers just represented our rankings in the Royal Guard. 01 here was like, the second-in-command after Undyne, and I'm one rank below him. When we got to the surface and became officers, we were still just under Miss Undyne, so we like, decided to keep it."
"So… what are your names?" Chara prompted.
The two officers shared a glance.
"It's uhh… personal." 01 mumbled. Chara sighed in response.
"You forgot them, didn't you."
"When we got up to our current rankings, everyone started calling us by our titles!" The rabbit Monster defended. "And like, we thought it was cool, so we didn't say anything. But after being called that for twenty years… we just sorta…" He trailed off sheepishly.
Chara just shook her head.
"Uhh… anyway, like, enjoy the party." 01 mumbled, turning away from her. Chara nodded to 02, and walked away.
As she resumed her circling, she suddenly spotted the yellow-scaled Monster emerging from behind a door, nearly tripping over his own feet as he scampered in. Her first instinct was to walk towards him, relief flooding through her that he'd finally appeared. But she hesitated, her insecurities suddenly crashing back into her.
There weren't a lot of others around where Kid had entered, and he was looking around, probably for her. She took a deep breath to calm herself and strode towards him.
The boy's eyes lit up when he saw her, and a warm, tingling sensation filled her, knowing that she had elicited that reaction from him.
"Yo! Chara!" He enthused, bouncing a little as she approached. "Sorry I'm late, I had to run all the way here, haha!"
"You ran here from your place?" Chara questioned, impressed.
"Yeah! I kept slipping up on the ice though. Good thing I lived in Snowdin for so long, otherwise it would have taken forever to get here!"
Chara smiled at him, then slowly pulled the wrapped box away from her chest.
"Here.. this is for you."
Kid's eyes widened.
"For me? Awesome!" He immediately sat himself down on the floor. "Pass it over! I wanna see it!"
The boy's excitement did wonders for Chara's resolve, and she planted the gift at his feet. He used his teeth to tear open the wrapping with surprising skill, and gently nudged the box itself open with the tip of his snout. His eyes widened as he gazed inside.
"Yo…" He breathed. "What is that?"
Inside the box was a long, thin rectangular piece of metal. On one end it widened into a flat circle the size of Chara's fist, while it got thinner at the other end. Chara picked it out of the box and raised it for Kid's inspection.
"I had Alphys make this for you… You told me once that you were fine with not having any arms, but some things are still difficult for you. So we made you this. Can I show you how it works?"
Kid nodded eagerly. At his unspoken permission, Chara raised the piece of metal so that the circular end was just behind his ear-hole. She pressed it slightly against his smooth, dry scales, and it let out a soft hissing sound as it latched itself onto the side of his head. Kid gave a little surprised squeak at the contact, but otherwise managed to stay still and silent.
Now the device was situated so that the metal piece went across the left side of his head, the thin end going just above his left eye. Kid blinked, his eyes looking up, trying to catch a better glimpse of the metal just at the edge of his vision.
There was a sudden, quiet beeping sound, then a soft voice said;
"Magical signature recognised. Activating systems, shutting down temporary AI."
The thin part of the metal piece above Kid's left eye lit up, and then a beam of red light shone down, covering it. It quickly became a semi-transparent glow that just allowed Chara to see the boy's eye through it. While she only saw a red glow from it, she knew that he was seeing something else.
"This visor works basically the same as a cell phone would." Chara began to explain to the dumbstruck boy. "Anything you can do on a phone, you can do on here, with some extra stuff installed I'm sure. Everything is synced to your eye movement, so you can open or select stuff by looking at it." She hesitated. "It might take some getting used to, but-"
"Yoooo!" Kid cried out, leaping to his feet and crashing into Chara in an armless embrace. "That's so cool! This is the best present ever!"
A wide grin spread across the girl's face as she returned the hug. It only lasted for a few moments though, before Kid wriggled out of it, looking at her with pure joy on his face, the left side of which was lit up from the light of his visor.
"Yo, one sec! I left yours just outside, I'll go grab it!"
He dashed off before she could say a word, leaving Chara staring after him as he disappeared through the door. She could feel her magic pulsing within her in anticipation. For some reason, she'd honestly not considered the idea that he might have gotten something for her as well.
True to his word, it wasn't long before Kid raced back in, the handles of an overlong, heavy paper bag clenched in his teeth.
He dropped it to the floor at Chara's feet, and the image of an overexcited puppy bringing something home to show it off inexplicably flashed through the girl's mind.
"Yo! Here it is!" The boy suddenly looked slightly sheepish. "It's uh, not as cool as what you got me but… I hope you like it!"
Chara reached down and pulled open the bag, her view of what was inside obstructed by more dull brown paper. She pulled the paper to the side, and she let out a startled gasp.
No way. She reached trembling arms into the bag, and pulled out a leather jacket. Not just any jacket… the jacket. Just as sleek and deadly looking as it had in the store window. She looked at Kid, who had an excited, but slightly nervous look on his face.
She quickly slipped on the jacket over her shirt, the weight of the leather comforting as it settled on her shoulders. She rolled her shoulders and struck a pose for Kid.
"Yo… you look so cool!" Kid enthused, bouncing up and down a little. She smiled at him before stepping forward and crushing him into another hug.
"Thank you." She whispered. "This is… this… thank you."
Kid just pressed himself closer against her, and she was certain that he was smiling too. She finally stepped back, ending the embrace and let out a little laugh.
"C'mon… C'mon…" Frisk muttered, watching the two from where he stood next to the table, peering at them from around another group.
"Buddy, I'm starting to think that you're taking a little too much interest in your sister's relationship." Sans noted from where he leaned against the table, absently picking at various pastries spread across the white tablecloth.
Frisk waved a hand at him vaguely.
"This is what brothers do. Besides, I love 'em both, but Kid's clueless and my sister is hopeless. Someone's gotta nudge them, or they're never gonna get anywhere."
"Whatever you say."
Frisk looked back at the skeleton.
"Sans, it's not working! Quick, deploy the secret weapon!"
"Hate to break it to ya, pal." The skeleton replied. "But it's called a soul effect for a reason. It only works on things with souls. If I could just move objects around with my magic, I'd never get out of bed again."
Frisk stared at him.
"You could have told me that before! Why didn't you say anything?"
The skeleton simply shrugged, and Frisk glared at him.
"I didn't set this whole thing up for nothing! Sans, use the effect on me, I'll take it over there."
Sans looked at him in surprise.
"Buddy… you know Chara will kill you if you do that, right? Especially if she finds out how involved you've been in this…"
"I said I was going to get them to kiss if it kills me, and I meant it!" Frisk replied. "Now are you gonna send me over there or not?"
Sans sighed, and raised his hand, his eye glowing slightly.
"Whelp, it's your funeral, bucko. I'll miss you a skele-ton."
"Yo, this thing is so cool!" Kid enthused, standing next to Chara as his eyes moved side-to-side, indicating his usage of his new visor. "Makes me a little dizzy though… haha."
"It might take a little getting used to…" Chara responded, her fingers caressing the spikes on her shoulders and idly wondering if she should see about trying to sharpen them. "There should be a way to switch between having it track your eye movements and just looking around normally, but I'm not sure what it is."
"Hey Chara, you're all red now!" Kid chuckled, closing his right eye and staring at the girl just through his left. His grin widened as a synthetic laugh tore itself free from the robot's lips.
There was a sudden jingling sound from above, and the two teens looked up to see Frisk hanging over them, his soul protruding slightly out of his chest and turned a deep blue colour. In his hands, he was holding a small garland of mistletoe with a tiny bell attached.
Frisk, what the hell do you think you're doing? Chara seethed at him via their telepathy.
"Frisk? What are you doing up there?" Kid asked, almost echoing Chara's own words.
"Just hanging around." the boy replied, grinning down at his sister, whose eyes were shining bright red now as she glared at him.
"Hey, that's that plant that gets hung around a lot this time of year, right?" Kid continued, his gaze fixed on the garland in Frisk's hands. "Missing toe, or something, right?"
"Mistletoe, but yeah, it is." Frisk corrected, his grin now threatening to split his face in half.
"Yeah, that's the one!" Kid paused. "Uhh, hey Frisk, why does it get hung around at Christmas? I've noticed it around before, and I asked some Human boys about it one time but they just laughed and said I didn't have to worry about it."
Chara looked at Kid in surprise, even as the calculating part of her mind made note to see if she could find those particular boys and set them straight.
"Chara knows what it means, you should probably ask her." Frisk called down cheekily, unwittingly refocusing Chara's anger on himself.
You are so dead. Chara promised as Kid turned his questioning gaze to her, his head cokced slightly to the side.
Kissing first. Killing later. Frisk replied.
"Chara?" Kid asked as the girl hesitated, torn between an actual desire to do as Frisk said… especially since Kid was doing that adorable head-tilt of his again, and the desire to use her brother's intestines to make balloon animals.
"It's probably better if I show you." She replied at last, stepping in close to Kid. His eye's widened as she brought her face in close to his.
"Ch...Chara?"
One hand snaked around to the back of Kid's head, fingers wrapping around one of the spikes there. She reached her other arm behind her, palm open. With the hand on Kid's spike, she pulled him down towards her, her smooth lips meeting his scaly ones halfway.
Kid let out a surprised, muffled squeak as they met, but did not resist. Chara closed her eyes, partly to savour the feelings suddenly surging through her, and partly to disguise the sudden glow in her right eye.
She made a gesture with the hand behind her back, overriding Sans's soul effect on Frisk with her own. Then, she released the power, rewarded by a sudden yelp, swiftly followed by a thud.
She pulled away slightly from the kiss, opening her eyes and looking at the reptile in front of her. The boy was breathing heavily, his eyes glazed over as he stared at her in wonder and disbelief.
"Yo…" He managed.
Chara smiled brightly at him, then turned to see Frisk curled up on the ground behind her.
"Totally… worth it." The boy mumbled. "Ow."
"You were right, Frisk." Chara told him, her smile never wavering.. "This is the best Christmas ever!"
And so help me, if I ever find you meddling in my relationship again, They will never find your body. She warned privately. She didn't wait for a response though, she turned back to Kid, her spirits soaring high.
"You're probably hungry, especially if you ran all the way out here. Let's go grab something to eat… boyfriend."
Between all the gifts she had gotten today, the jacket, Frisk's injury, the kiss, and the look on Kid's face as she said those words… she just couldn't couldn't choose a favourite.