Hi! This story's going to be a bit different from Memories (as the genres might've revealed). Just thought I'd mention that.

Also, I know the title might not be the best one you've ever heard… But, similarly to how it went in Memories, (mental) breakdowns and/or panic attacks play a major role in this story.

Breakdowns

Chapter one: Start of the day

Three weeks after Frisk's return to the Underground

Asriel slowly woke up to a continuous yet unsteady sound that echoed through his bedroom, reaching his ears and urging him to open his eyes to see the dark interior of the room he was in. His mind was still numb and his body weak, both factors forging an excellent recipe for reluctance to react to the noise. He was too tired for this.

It was then that he realized what the origin of the noise was…

He fully opened his eyes. His body protested when he sat up in bed and reached for the bedside lamp next to him. After a few seconds, his hand finally found it and turned it on, revealing another person in another bed that stood on the very other side of the room.

The other person had sat up as well, but her frightened eyes made her look like she was in a completely different world. She looked straight ahead, barely acknowledging the light, while her chest unsteadily rose and fell. Her face and hair were covered in sweat. It looked like she was suffering from a breakdown or a panic attack.

Asriel remained calm. He quickly got out of his bed, walked to the other side of the room and gently grabbed the other person's shoulders. This caused said person to turn her fearful gaze towards him. She flinched when he entered her view, and weakly tried to crawl away from the young goat man.

Asriel's grip on her shoulders was enough to keep her in place, making the person whimper. The prince looked straight into her eyes, feeling a sting rise in his gut as he watched her suffer, unsure if he'd be able to help her get out of whatever situation she was trapped in.

"Frisk," he tried. "Frisk…wake up. Whatever you're seeing is not real. You're alright. You're safe."

Frisk remained frozen. Asriel sighed in despondency before continuing his attempts to calm her down. He saw how her eyes gradually became calmer and calmer, until she eventually averted her gaze and gently pushed the prince's hands off her shoulders. He reacted by backing off a bit to give the Human some space.

Frisk put her hands on her temples before she spoke. Her voice shook a bit and had little confidence, its usual steadfastness was nowhere to be found.

"Uh…thanks."

"Don't mention it," Asriel softly said. "Are you okay?"

"Define 'okay'."

The prince sighed. "Frisk, I really think we should at least tell Alphys about this. She'd probably be able to help."

The Human looked him in the eyes when he said that, allowing him to see the stubbornness that he had seen so many times before in the three weeks after her arrival. The same stubbornness she had shown when she ordered that no one else would be told about her breakdowns. Every time one of the Dreemurrs said that she had to find help, she said the same sentence each and every time with that expression. The very sentence she said to Asriel as he looked back at those uncompromising eyes.

"It's my problem, not theirs."

Asriel's look displayed pity and sympathy in return, causing Frisk to once again avert her gaze.

"Look, just…go back to sleep, alright?" she said. "We'll talk about this in the morning."

The young goat man let out another sigh, but obeyed. As he walked back to his own bed and lied down, he wondered how in the world Frisk expected him to 'just go back to sleep'.

"Another incident tonight?" Asgore asked when Asriel and Frisk, both obviously tired, entered the dining room. He himself had been sitting at the table with a cup of tea, looking at the duo that came in.

Asriel let out a chuckle. "What gave it away?"

Asgore sighed and stood up. "Perhaps I should make you two breakfast."

"There's really no need for that…" Frisk weakly objected. "We'll be alright doing that ourselves…"

"No," the king calmly but steadfastly replied. "You two sit down, I will be back."

After a while, the three were silently eating their breakfast, with Asgore and Asriel stealing quick glances from the Human. Frisk herself just focused on her food, not noticing what the other two were doing. Eventually, Asgore spoke up again.

"Frisk?"

Frisk looked up at him. "Yeah?"

"Can we talk again about…your memory problems?"

"Do we have to?"

"Dr. Alphys might be able to help. If not her, perhaps we could find someone else in the Underground who knows how to deal with this kind of experiences."

The Human sighed. "We've been through this. This is something I have to deal with. It's bad enough that you guys got involved."

"You're going to need something," Asriel cut in. "How else are you going to solve the situation?"

"Wait until I got my full memory back."

"Even if we were that patient," Asgore said, "what is to say the breakdowns will stop? And what is to say that, while we wait, we will not get something like…last week…"

The other two cringed when that subject was brought back. Last week's incident involved Frisk getting the worst breakdown she had had thus far. The terrifying hallucinations she experienced had caused her to run around the castle in fear, forcing Asgore to restrain her until it stopped. When it did, Frisk had cried for the very first time since she joined the Dreemurr family.

"N-not going to happen," Frisk said, although she herself sounded unconvinced. "That was once, but never again."

"How do you know?" Asriel asked.

"I just do," Frisk said before quickly finishing her meal. "Trust me."

And with that, she left the dining room, ending the conversation.