I am so very sorry for taking so long with this chapter, but I got some pretty bad writer's block. Shout out to my good buddy Shine Archetype for providing some ideas to help me get back to writing.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's not too long, about average, but I think it's pretty good.

Sans sighed and leant back from his desktop to take a break from working. From what he'd gathered from the data readings of the timey-wimey-stuff measuring scale thingy (no one knew exactly what to call it, they just knew that it tracked timelines,) there was going to be a long while before the next manipulation still.

That was the good part of the data. The bad part was that it was a huge manipulation, larger than any of the others before it (though not that many had happened at this point.) That was the reason Sans was currently so stressed; he was trying to figure out how to stop it from happening.

Though, the longer he worked at it, the more fruitless the task seemed. How could he possibly stop a time manipulation from happening, especially if his machine had already recorded its occurrence?

The more he thought about it, the worse he felt. What was the point of doing anything if it was all going to be for naught?

Sans sat there staring at the tiled floor for what felt like an eternity, going over these thoughts over and over, each time making him feel worse. The only reason he snapped out of it was because of an alarm he kept on him at all times was going off, notifying him that someone had entered the Final Corridor.

Sighing, he got up and took a shortcut into the shadows behind his pillar. Had to keep up the appearance of the all-knowing Judge and such.

He watched as two large figures walked through the hall, heading to the castle. As he stepped out from behind the pillar, he realised that it was Toriel and Asgore who were walking towards him.

"Don not fear Sans, it is just us. We're on our way back from explaining everything to Chara." Asgore rumbled as he caught sight of the small skeleton.

"mmkay. i'll get back to work then." Sans swivelled around and was about to head back through his shortcut when Toriel's voice stopped him.

"Ah, hold on! I have a joke for you!" He turned back around so that he was facing the two of them again. Asgore moved towards the exit surreptitiously. Well, as surreptitiously as he could.

"alright, shoot."

"Okay. Knock knock."

"who's there?"

"To."

"to who?"

"Don't you mean 'to whom?'" Toriel and Sans laughed at that. It had lightened his mood quite a bit, but his laugh was still less sincere than usual. Toriel noticed, and also became aware of the fact that his smile seemed more forced than usual (not that he could stop smiling anyway, but you get the point). "Are you feeling quite alright, my friend? You seem a little down."

His eyelights flicked away from her eyes for a second before returning. He shrugged. "yeah, yeah. 'm fine. just a little tired from work."

"Oh, I hope you are not working yourself too hard! Feel free to take a break every once in a while!" Toriel sounded concerned. Sans chuckled.

"lots of people would say that i take too many breaks already."

"Lots of people don't know that you're usually working during those 'breaks.'" Toriel looked like she had a thought. "Say, why don't you take a break now, and we can chat for a while? It has been too long since we had a proper talk."

"sure thing. sounds nice." The two of them walked towards the castle.

Poor Asgore had no idea that he'd only temporarily escaped the bad jokes.

Chara had sat down and contemplated their newfound knowledge for a while before deciding to head somewhere quieter so that they could fully process everything – and also somewhere they wouldn't get teased by their family, because that was getting quite annoying by that point.

They eventually decided to head down to Waterfall, as there were many spots to relax around there, and it was just a nice and quiet place overall – when Undyne wasn't running around yelling, of course. Hopefully this would not be one of those times.

Chara left their home and walked along the path through the city before reaching the elevator and taking it down to MTT Resort. On the way they encountered a couple of monsters, who they waved to and continued on their way.

As soon as they left the Resort, they were hit by a sweltering heat wave. They hurried along to the lift, which Alphys had smartly installed air conditioning in, and took it over to the Lab. As soon as they exited the lift they hurried past the lab and across the bridge into Waterfall. They could've visited Alphys and Betty, but they didn't really feel like it, and also Betty would probably tease them about Frisk. Revenge for everything they'd done, Chara thought.

The temperature dropped the moment they entered Waterfall, and they slowed their pace as they were going past the "Welcome to Hotland" sign. Suddenly, a strong blast of wind and… something else blasted past them and they were sent spinning.

"Oh! Sorry, I didn't see you there! I probably shouldn't go that fast…" A familiar voice apologised, sounding sheepish. They saw a hand being held out to them to help them up through their blurry vision. They realised who had bumped into them just as they took the offered hand, and by the look on Frisk's face, they'd only just realised as well.

There was a long length of time during which both of them were silently staring at each other before Chara realised they were still holding Frisk's hand, and also still on the floor where they'd fell. They slid their eyes away from Frisk's in embarrassment as they got up and let go of the hand.

"Um. So. How come you're in Waterfall…?" Chara asked after another bout of silence.

"I was, um, going to explore for a bit. I was at the Lab but Betty was teasing me about… stuff…" Frisk answered. Chara knew exactly what 'stuff' Frisk was talking about.

"Ah, yeah. That's the main reason I didn't go in there when I went past earlier... And the reason I'm in Waterfall in the first place. None of them would shut up about the… yeah."

More awkward silence.

"Hey, do you wanna explore Waterfall with me? You probably know the whole place already, but we could just hang and talk and stuff…" Frisk asked suddenly.

"Okay!" Chara agreed eagerly. "Uhm, I mean… Yeah, okay. Sure."

Frisk giggled, and Chara stopped working for a couple seconds before getting even redder than they'd already been. They were fairly certain Frisk hadn't noticed though, luckily, seeing as they'd already started off down the path into Waterfall.

They hurried to catch up with them.

Frisk kept sending glances towards Chara whenever they thought they weren't looking. Also when they were looking. Basically, they weren't being very subtle about the fact that they were staring at Chara more than looking where they were going. They did notice one thing when they stopped looking at Chara for a bit, though.

"Hey, this is where Undyne tried to kill me!" Frisk exclaimed.

"Wait, what?!" Chara looked… well, let's just say that surprised would be an understatement. "Why did Undyne try to kill you?"

"Oh, you know… All the stuff with the… thing and… all that." Frisk replied eloquently, waving their arms around in strange gestures to represent the beast.

"Oh yes, I know exactly what you're talking about." Chara's voice was practically dripping with sarcasm.

"Oh, shut up. I was talking about the beastie thing."

"'Beastie thing?' Next thing I know, you'll have a name for it and be telling me what its favourite food is."

"Oooh, we totally should give it a name! How about 'Sir Jonathan III?'" By now they were walking across the bridge where Frisk had caught MK, and were about to have to start wading through some water.

"I cannot believe you." Chara then caught sight of the water and grimaced. "Ugh. I forgot why I don't go to Waterfall that much. My clothes always get all soggy."

"I could carry you, if you want." Frisk wiggled their eyebrows at Chara, who blushed while trying, unsuccessfully, to form a response.

"N-no, it… it's fine. I wouldn't want to inconvenience you." They eventually managed to get out.

"It would be far from an inconvenience." Frisk let it slide though, stepping into the water and starting to wade through it. Chara once again hurried to catch up.

The two of them headed through the dark rooms, and both of them stopping every once in a while for Frisk to play with a monster. Chara was more interested in watching Frisk.

They reached the path that contained lots of echo flowers, and they both hastened to hurry through the area. Chara didn't even bother to stop and complain about having to go through more water. The less they had to listen to the unintelligible whispering, the better.

When they passed Gerson's shop, Chara didn't object to swinging on in for a second to say hi. They liked Gerson; he was wise and not particularly loud, both of which were good things. Also he was a monster hero, which Chara fully supported.

While Frisk headed over to visit Napstablook, Chara went to have a look at Undyne's house. Frisk's claim that it was still on fire was very much true.

Eventually, they reached the area Chara had come for. They picked up the bridge seeds while Frisk milled around, confused. They gave Chara a baffled look as the bridge seeds formed a path into the secret bench area. Yes, that was the official name. Asriel said so.

"I didn't know this was here! This is cool!" Frisk said enthusiastically, looking around the room, which was actually pretty sparse. Just an echo flower and a bench. Still, it was a nice, quiet place, which is why Chara was there in the first place.

"I like to come here to relax and think." They informed Frisk.

"Why'd you bring me then?" Frisk joked. "I'm not exactly the quietest person around."

"Hmm, you're right. Alright then, get out of here."

"Wait, what?"

"You heard me. Shoo." Chara waved Frisk away before sitting down on the bench. As expected, Frisk did not leave.

"You can't just shoo me away!" They replied, falsely indignant.

"I can and I just did." Chara leant back on the bench, closing their eyes, with a small smile on their face.

"No, I mean you literally can't get rid of me. I'm like, ten times stronger than you, remember?"

"Are you? What are your stats? I mean, I know what 'Sir Jonathan's' stats are, but not yours." Chara opened their eyes again to look at Frisk curiously. They shrugged and made an "I don't know" sound.

"I have no idea how to check them and couldn't be bothered to figure it out. A... person I know was going to teach me how, but we never got around to it."

"That's easy. Just focus on, uhhh… reading your soul or something. I'm not really sure how to put it. So actually, it isn't easy. Just try it."

"Gee, thanks. With your advice, nothing can go wrong." Frisk snarked. As they did so, a stat box appeared in front of them. They both stared at it for a second, before a smug grin appeared on Chara's face. Frisk made no comment, instead opting to read what the stat box was showing – the important bits, at least.

"FRISK (that's me) – HUMAN FORM – ATK 69 DEF 69. Their stats reflect their tendency to flirt." They snickered while reading it all out loud.

"Are you serious?"

"Yes. Come over here and have a look at it yourself if you don't believe me." Chara decided that they'd prefer to stay sitting down, and instead waved Frisk over to sit next to them. Looking at the stat box, they could indeed confirm the… interestingly numbered stats.

"Hmm. That's strange. Your defence doesn't change at all when you're in your beast form. Or rather, when 'Sir Jonathan' is out."

"Well, I mean, the same kinds of stuff still kills me, right? So there's no reason it would change. On a side note, are we actually going to be calling it 'Sir Jonathan?'"

"Yes. I'll never let you forget your terrible naming skills."

"Hey! It's a good name!"

They sat there in silence for a short while, both of them becoming aware of their close proximity on the bench. Frisk embarrassedly scooted away to the other side, but seeing as it wasn't a particularly big bench, they were still pretty close. Eventually, Frisk broke the awkward silence.

"So, as I recall, your stats were ninety-nine for both attack and defence, right?"

"Yeah, that's right. So you aren't ten times stronger than me."

"No, only about five times stronger. Which still proves my point. Although I didn't actually think you'd try to get rid of me, anyway." Suddenly, a huge grin appeared on Frisk's face. Chara decided that it didn't bode well for them at all. They were right. "I mean, look at this place! It's probably the most romantic place I've seen in the Underground – maybe on par with the garbage dump. Perfect for a first kiss!"

Chara froze with their mouth agape, watching Frisk, who had not stopped wiggling their eyebrows. Even in their shocked state, they still noticed that Frisk was getting more nervous the longer they sat there with no response.

They also noticed that Frisk had gotten quite close again.

"You know, they say there's no time like the present." Frisk commented dryly. "But I guess I shouldn't have acted so fast. You clearly aren't ready."

"U-um… yeah. Uh. Sorry. I, uh…" Chara stammered.

"No, no. I should be the one apologising." They replied, standing up and scratching the back of their head sheepishly. "It wasn't really the best thing to do. Sorry about that. I'll just… go sit somewhere. On my own. Regretting all of my decisions that have lead up to this point."

Frisk turned and started walking away, but stopped upon hearing Chara call "Wait! Come back. Uh, please?"

They turned back around with a hopeful look on their face, and sat back down on the bench. Chara gathered their thoughts back together and tried to create a proper sentence.

"Okay. So. I have no idea how to feel about any of this. These past couple of days have been pretty crazy. I've never been in a relationship before, or rather, a romantic one. So maybe wait a bit on everything, okay? Thanks." After a moments silence, they added, "I… I hope I didn't just ruin everything. I didn't, did I?"

"No, no. It's fine. That makes perfect sense. I'm sorry. Uh, again. I'll just… go now. Again. As well. I'll go again as well as being sorry again. Does that make sense? I don't know. Um, bye." Frisk rambled, before disappearing with a blast of air.

Chara really hoped they didn't make Frisk feel bad.

God, you are such an idiot. The Hunger insulted.

I know, I know! I just thought… I like them; they seemed to like me… Do they like me? I can't tell anymore! That was so stupid! I'm so stupid! Frisk replied miserably.

Glad you're finally able to acknowledge that. On a completely unrelated side note, because I don't want to discuss that awkwardness anymore, can I get a cool new name?

Pfft, are you serious? Luckily, the strange request seemed to have lightened Frisk's mood. If you really want one, you can just have that name I thought up earlier.

Awesome. Say goodbye to 'The Hunger,' because here comes 'Sir Jonathan III!'

All hail Sir Jonathan III.

I'd say I'm sorry for once again denying you all your Charisk, but I'm having a lot of fun.