This is stupid. You told yourself. Your hand stopped centimeters away from your phone. You had turned it off earlier, hoping to work out this feeling before talking to anyone.

You hadn't managed it yet. You let it drop as you flopped backwards onto your bed again.

It hurt. A lot. Much more than you were expecting it to. You cocooned yourself in your blankets, staving off the seasonally cooling air. You might have to invest in a heater soon.

You weren't sure how long you laid there before the interruption came. Your wards flared again as someone tried to come upstairs, but unlike before, they allowed the intrusion. There was only one person that they would ignore in such a way.

Icy cold feet met your warm skin, causing you to flinch, as the intruder crawled under the blankets with you. Their arms wrapped around you comfortingly, and you found yourself reciprocating without really thinking about it.

'You okay, _?' Chara asked. 'Fuku and Sans are getting worried. You've been up here since yesterday.'

Huh. You hadn't even known Sans had been here. Your wards had done their job better than you were expecting. Now you felt bad for worrying them.

"I'm…not really." You replied. "It's silly though."

'It isn't silly.' Chara admonished you immediately. 'They're your feelings. They're important, not silly.' There was a short pause. You didn't take advantage of it like they were hoping. 'You promised to be there for me if I ever needed you.' They recalled. 'Let me return the favor. Please tell me.'

So, you did. You told them about the flirting, confessing to Sans, the fight with Papyrus, and Sans's response. Looking back on it, that last part seemed odd at best. It wasn't even an answer, and in hindsight, you realized it may not have even been meant as one.

'He told you to leave?' Chara interrupted, confounded. 'But he loves you.' They argued, mulling it over in their head. The words rang with sincerity. Chara, at least, firmly believed they were true. It made the hurt lessen. 'Are you sure a rejection is how he meant it?'

"…No. I'm not. I told you it was silly." You finally answered. Chara's glare almost made you bark out a laugh. "I probably took it wrong. I…this is my first time actually…"

'You're insecure?' Chara deadpanned, grasping your meaning. 'You?'

"Well, yes. Who isn't at least some of the time?" You retorted with a growing smile. "Thanks, Chara." Their responding smile was as large as Sans's.

Your phone flooded with messages as you turned it back on. Several apologetic ones from Sans and Papyrus, and quite a few worried ones from Fuku and Chara. You turned to view the young mage, eyebrow raised. They shrugged in response. 'Of course, I would try before just coming up here.'

You sent quick messages back, reassuring everyone, before letting Chara drag you down your stairs so you would eat something. You dispelled the ward on your door, startled when Chara jumped in surprise next to you.

'Do they always make loud cracking sounds like that? It sounded like the barrier breaking all over again.' They complained. You laughed.

"It's something wards do, yes. Barriers do it too. Some that are made with specialized magic won't do it, but it'll always happen with sequenced ones." Chara seemed to take this information with great interest.

'Does that mean that the barrier that locked away monsters was a sequence?' They asked, opening your door. Since it was the middle of the day, the house was clear of people. 'Could a sequence do that?'

You thought about it for a moment as the teenager ran around your kitchen to throw together a meal. "I would be hard pressed to say it could have been anything but a sequence. Most mages, save healers and very few others, can't openly share their magic with others. You told me that it was seven mages that sealed the monsters underground, so I have trouble believing all of them would have been so compatible. A sequence, however, can draw power from any number of sources without trouble."

'But a sequence would take time! It would have to be perfect, too.' Chara argued, setting a chicken salad in front of you topped with creamy French dressing.

That was true. If monsters truly had opposed being sealed in the first place, they easily could have just smudged a symbol or two. A spell of that size would have backlashed lethally on the mages casting it, top tier or no. Losing that many top tier mages could have even turned the war in their favor.

You shared this thought with your student between bites of your lunch.

'So, they just stood back and let it happen?' Chara questioned, starting to get upset.

"There isn't anything wrong with that. Perhaps they didn't want to kill seven human mages. Perhaps they were tired of fighting and knew being sealed would end the war. Maybe both of those things."

'If they didn't oppose it in the first place, then why would they use human Souls to break it? Why kill seven humans now instead of then?' They thought furiously before bringing a hand up to cover their mouth as if they had spoken.

There was this oddity again. Could it be…? "Are Souls a magical manifestation?" Even without Chara's response, things started to click together at this realization.

If they'd managed to create such a self-sustaining spell as the theoretical barrier, it never could be broken without extreme measures. If Souls and magic were as closely tied as you had been assuming, and Souls were a magical thing that could be maintained after the death of its host, then you had the answer.

Not just that, but the sudden color-coding personality test made sense. Monsters could see them. Maybe only under certain circumstances, but you knew for a fact they'd seen yours before, because Sans had complimented it. Not just that you had a nice Soul or an honest Soul, but a pretty one. As though he knew what it looked like.

And that felt severely intimate all of a sudden. There was an actual manifestation of that center of your magic. You knew how to find it inside of yourself, but it had never occurred to you that it was possible for anyone else to see it.

'_!' Chara's mental shout finally grabbed your attention again. The teenager sighed. 'Let me explain this properly to you.'

"Okay. That sounds good right now." You replied simply, trying to stop your brain from overworking.

'Let's start simply. Yes, a Soul is a thing that actually exists. It looks like a heart you'd find on a valentine's day card.' A simple image entered your mind following this statement. 'Most of the time though, humans don't need to know this stuff. We can't access them ourselves, anyway.'

"Except with magic." You inserted as Chara paused. You rose your gaze to meet Chara's. "Monsters can then?

'I'm not sure I would call it that. Our magic comes from our Soul, the same way a monster's does. It isn't the Soul itself, just the closest thing humans can achieve. And yes, under specific circumstances, monsters can access Souls. Please listen to the whole thing before you ask anything. I might end up missing something otherwise.'

It was a simple enough request. You agreed. The began with the most basic information possible: what a Soul was. The culmination of a person's entire being. It actually had a physical presence, despite the fact it wasn't made of anything physical at all.

They went on to explain, in detail, what a confrontation was. It was essentially a method used by monsters for communication. When used between solely monsters anyway. Since their magic was all very similar, they could share it between their Souls in place of speaking, almost like the way Chara and you spoke. During such an encounter, both Souls would leave the body and share magic with each other.

Since human magic was so different, especially for non-mages, such a confrontation could actually cause damage to the soul. Both Souls involved, actually. It was part of the reason humans didn't know about it, as no monster wanted to be so vulnerable, so it wasn't really happening. On top of the royal decree not to say or do anything about it.

You hadn't met a monster yet who wouldn't do exactly what the monarchs ordered. They were wise and held a very potent loyalty in their subjects. Chara paused for a moment, and you understood it to be for any questions before they continued.

Something didn't quite add up though. "When would they have seen mine then? I'm relatively certain I've never been in an encounter."

'It's a rare occurrence, but people who embody their Soul trait a lot can have moments when it's possible to see. Remember the figures for a bond like ours? It's about that level of rarity. Usually, with you I'm told, in an instant when you're feeling really strongly about something, or embodying integrity even more than you usually do, it can show through for a second.'

This was nothing new then. It couldn't be a bad thing if nobody had ever warned you about it. You relaxed a bit. "They told you?"

'I've been pulled into quite a few encounters, so Souls aren't really a taboo to speak about with me like they are most humans. There's something else you need to know relating to this.' Chara added, expression serious. 'It isn't just glimpses of your Soul that you show them. You also project quite a few of your thoughts and feelings too.'

What?

What?

You held up a finger before Chara could explain. It made sense now, how sometimes they wouldn't talk when you were adding a mental thought onto a sentence you'd finished, or how they seemed to know what you were thinking. You'd just figured it was because you were close to them. You paused at that thought, mulling it over.

It was because you were close to them. Muffet never seemed to do it, or Toriel or Asgore. Even Sans, Alphys, and Undyne never had in the beginning. 'You're not wrong. Except for Papyrus, the only ones that can sense it when you give off these projections are people you're close to.'

"People I trust." You corrected lightly. "Or maybe both. Why the Papyrus exception?" You asked, feeling much better about the whole thing. It wasn't like you usually needed to keep your thoughts a secret anyways.

Chara hesitated. 'It isn't my secret to tell…'

You held up your hands, placating. "That's fine. I don't want to push you. So. Since we're here, want to do some practice?" You redirected quickly. "Your area of effect control and slowing could use some work."

Chara enjoyed explaining Souls to you. Was this how you felt when you were teaching them something and they understood it? It felt nice.

Chara obediently put the entire room into a "stop" mode. You grinned, and expression you tended to get whenever you had thought of something interesting to test or show them. They found themselves leaning forward as you flicked a pen. Of course, it didn't move.

Still, you seemed excited about something. Chara released their hold on the room, watching in interest along with you as the pen spun wildly off course. 'What changed?'

Your expression was positively gleeful as you turned to answer them. "The momentum continues!" Of course, even if something stopped it would continue on its given path once released unless interfered with. That was your first lesson to them.

Unless something interfered. Momentum applied during a stop still counted! If the added momentum would be enough to send an object off course, or move it in a way that it hadn't been when it was stopped, then that momentum would override the starting momentum! There were so many possible applications.

A thought occurred to Chara, watching you wander around their "stopped zone" so easily. 'Why does my magic not work on you?' They asked.

You paused. "Because I'm a part of you. Magically anyways. You aren't trying to stop, slow, fast-forward, or rewind yourself, right? It's the same reason my ward didn't stop you earlier."

Wait. That meant… 'Does my magic work on people?'

There wasn't an immediate answer. "I suppose that's something we will have to try. With consent, of course."

You were probably the most awesome person Chara had ever met.