Each day in the underground world of monsters seemed to get more and more bizarre.
After confronting Undyne in the waterfall cave and escaping from her, Frisk had wandered into the laboratory of Dr. Alphys, a nervous and socially awkward lizard monster. She had been kind enough to upgrade their phone to include several more features, including a jetpack. That had proved useful in their encounter against Mettaton, an entertainment robot that perceived "entertainment" as finding ways to kill them on a variety of live television shows.
Frisk glanced up at the tower of cabinet drawers that loomed above their head. They couldn't help but wonder about how Mettaton had even constructed such a tower in the first place. During their last encounter, Mettaton had forced them to use their jetpack to fly to the top of the tower in order to retrieve a substitute ingredient for a cake. The ingredient, in this case, was MTT-Brand Always-Convenient Human-Soul-Flavour-Substitute. In the end, it wasn't even necessary, as Mettaton had already baked the cake beforehand.
Did a thing like 'Human Soul Flavour' even exist?
They looked across the set, wondering if there was anything else to observe before moving on. As they turned around, the movement of something green caught the edge of their eye. A familiar figure had walked onto the set and made straight for the refrigerator.
It was Chara again.
Frisk felt a strange sense of comfort. After their last encounter, Chara's presence in their mind had been gradually diminishing. It wasn't a bad thing, as it allowed them to keep focused on their goal of making it to the capital of the underworld. Yet, at the same time, it felt strangely lonely to be in their mind all by themselves without that second voice popping up every once in a while. During their battles against the angry dummy and Undyne, they had almost expected Chara's voice to appear to tell them to slaughter those standing in their way.
They realized how ridiculous it sounded – the fact that they missed having a second voice inside their own mind. If they told this to anyone, they would probably think that they were insane. But, in a way, having that second voice had started to become a source of reassurance. Even if all it did was tell them to do horrible, murderous things, they were at least glad that the voice always had confidence in them. With Chara by their side (or in their mind, or whatever), they felt like they could overcome any obstacle. They felt like they would never run out of determination.
But then, around the time that they entered Alphys' laboratory, Chara's presence disappeared completely. They wondered why.
Frisk approached Chara cautiously, so as not to startle them. When they walked onto the set, Chara noticed them and leaned their head over the door of the refrigerator, displaying their unnerving smile.
"Greetings, Frisk. Hasn't it been a while since we've met?" they said, before turning their attention back to the contents of the refrigerator.
Frisk opened their mouth, wanting to say something to Chara to express their happiness at seeing them. But, almost immediately, they closed their mouth again. They had actually wanted to express gratitude for Chara.
Once again, they found themselves questioning their own sanity.
"Damn. There's no chocolate in here," Chara said, sticking their head out over the door of the refrigerator a second time. They glanced at Frisk for a few seconds, as if waiting for Frisk to respond. Then, they put their hands into the refrigerator and took out a large pie wrapped in aluminum foil. They closed the door and walked towards Frisk, smiling wryly.
"Dear, dear Frisk," Chara said in a mocking voice, "You look rather sad. Aren't you happy to see me again?"
Chara placed the pie in Frisk's hands, bowing slightly. The smile on their face transformed into a grin as they looked back up at Frisk.
"I've missed you, too." Chara's voice grew low. They reached forward with their hand and placed their fingers below Frisk's chin. "But, you didn't seriously believe that I was going to go away, did you? I've been by your side all along. Even if I wanted to, I wouldn't be able to leave you. I simply decided to keep quiet for a while."
Not for the first time – and probably not for the last time, either – Frisk felt themselves turning as solid as a statue as they gazed into Chara's eyes.
Chara was unlike anyone else that they had ever encountered before. Chara's mere presence was enough to make them feel extremely weak and vulnerable. Even when facing against monsters, Frisk usually had no trouble finding the right words to speak to them – giving a compliment, cheering them on, a casual flirt – but, with Chara, the words that they wanted to say were always stuck in their throat. They could never find the right time or reason to say them.
This was also the first time that they were able to get a good look at Chara under decent lighting. As they had noticed earlier, Chara's eyes were bloodshot. They were wide and round, unlike their own, which were small and thin. Chara's hair was thick, and also slightly curled. It was messy and uncombed and reached down to their neck. Interestingly enough, their haircuts were of similar style and length.
"What are you waiting for?" Chara said, moving their hand away from Frisk's face. "I'm sharing some pie with you. Take it to the microwave on the counter over there and heat it up."
Wordlessly, Frisk nodded and took the pie to the microwave.
That had been unexpected. Briefly, they wondered about whether or not Mettaton would care about letting them steal their pie. Why would a robot even need to eat food in the first place? It was surprising enough that Mettaton even had food in their refrigerator, given how artificial the entire rest of the set of "Cooking With A Killer Robot" looked. Everything had probably been set up to give the audience an arbitrary reason for Mettaton to kill them and take their soul, if that giant stack of drawers was any indication.
But if ever Mettaton gave them trouble for it, they would have to put the blame on Chara.
When the microwave had finished heating up the pie, Frisk gingerly took it out and placed it on the counter. Chara walked towards them, smiling again, and glared down at the pie.
"You have a toy knife, don't you, Frisk?" Chara said. Their tone of voice grew menacing again. "Why don't you take it out and cut a couple of slices for us?"
Frisk tensed. They reached into their backpack and took out the toy knife. Chara was staring at them with an entirely too amused expression upon their face. Frisk unwrapped the foil around the pie and raised the knife, carefully glancing at Chara every few seconds to make sure that they wasn't up to anything.
Slowly, Frisk made the first cut. Despite the dull edge of the toy knife, it sank easily enough into the pie. A smell of butterscotch wafted came out. They waited before making a second cut. Then, they gestured at the pie and let Chara take the first slice.
To their surprise, the smile seemed to fade from Chara's face when they took the slice. Frisk began to feel nervous again, and they hesitated to make the next cut. For a moment, they stared back at Chara, wondering if something had gone wrong. Chara simply remained quiet until they finally turned away.
"Mmm. Butterscotch," Chara said at last, glancing down at the slice of pie in their hand. "It kind of brings me back."
Frisk raised their eyes, perplexed.
"I used to eat butterscotch pie a lot, back when I lived with...them," Chara said in a softer tone of voice. They closed their eyes. "She made pie for us almost every day. Once, I tried to make pie for them myself. I wanted to prank them, though. So, instead of putting cups of butter in the pie, I put buttercups instead."
They snickered, as if they felt proud of having done that. Frisk was horrified.
"Don't worry. They survived," Chara said, smirking. "It was only a prank, after all."
Chara turned their eyes back and forth between Frisk and the pie. Then, they raised their hand holding the slice of pie and and gently presented it to Frisk.
"I'll let you take the first bite," Chara said, making another unsettling smile.
The pie came from Mettaton's fridge, so it was unlikely that Chara had done something bad to it...unless it was already bad to start off with, given that it was Mettaton's fridge. Frisk held their breath. They didn't want to refuse such a request from Chara. At the moment, they felt like they were on Chara's good side, and they didn't want to ruin it.
They opened their mouth and took a bite.
The pie was delicious, just like Toriel's. Chara didn't pull their hand back. They held the pie at Frisk's mouth, as if to offer another bite. Feeling hungry, and not really wanting to refuse, Frisk took another bite, and then another, until they finished the entire slice from Chara's hand.
"There you go," Chara said, giggling. "Didn't that taste good?"
Frisk nodded and wiped the crumbs from their lips. They turned to the pie and made another cut, before taking out the slice and giving it to Chara. This time, Chara took the pie and began eating it.
While Chara ate, their smile disappeared and became replaced by another somber expression. For a while, Chara stared at the floor. Frisk remained silent. Once Chara was done eating, they looked back up at Frisk, their face now completely serious.
"I...I feel different," Chara said. They paused and turned away again. "It's been...so long since I've eaten anything. I didn't even think that I could remember this feeling. But, for some reason, I can–I'm eating again, and I can taste again, and..."
"For some reason, I'm alive."
Frisk didn't understand.
Before they could say anything, they heard a familiar ring from their cell phone. They picked it up. As expected, it was Alphys.
"U-uh, h-hello?" came Alphys' quiet and shy voice. "Uh, Frisk? U-u-mmm, where are you right now? I-I haven't looked at my video feed of you for a while now, because I'm, uh, in the bathroom, so, are you all right with everything?"
Upon hearing Alphys' voice, Chara became rather startled. They glanced around until they found the cameras that were placed around the set. Almost immediately, they turned away.
"I'll see you later, Frisk," Chara said, before walking briskly off of the set.
"U-uh, Frisk?" Alphys said. "Oh, I see you on my video feed now. It looks like you haven't gone anywhere. U-um, what's the pie doing on the table there? Are you hungry? Well, y-you should keep going, y-you know, if you want to make it to the core..."
Frisk nodded and turned back towards the exit of the set.
Author's note: Thank you for reading this far! I really enjoy writing this story, mainly because I love Frisk and Chara, and I think it could be a lot more interesting if Chara was involved in the Pacifist run as well.