Warm golden sunlight streaked across the sky. The dusk sun, surrounded by clouds, was just dim enough to look at without stinging the eyes. It was slowly descending behind the horizon. There was a vast forest beneath the cliffs, and they stretched to the shores of the ocean. In the distance, Frisk spotted a small cluster of villages beside the shore. They had come to Mount Ebott from one of them, but that village – and their old house there – seemed so distant now, as if it was from a past life.

All their friends, with the exception of Toriel, had left to begin forging new relations with the humans. Before leaving the underground, Frisk had went back as far as Snowdin Town to talk to all of the people that they had made friends with. All of them were happy that the barrier was gone, and even the amalgamates from Alphys' lab had found happiness from being reunited with their families. However, no matter how hard they searched, they were unable to find Chara or Asriel. Eventually, they gave up and decided to go on ahead to the surface, as Chara had instructed them to do so.

It was going to be interesting to see how the humans would react to the return of monsters into their world. They had declined to be the ambassador for the monsters, and Papyrus had offered to take up the role. Perhaps, after meeting Papyrus, the humans would think that all monsters were goofy and innocent instead of the terror that they had always been reputed to be. This wasn't true, of course, and it would take time for both sides to understand each other and achieve peace. The important thing, according to Toriel, was to avoid another war.

Frisk looked up at Toriel, who towered above them. She was at least twice their size. Toriel smiled back at Frisk, a particularly goat-mom type of smile where she opened her mouth and revealed her teeth in a non-threatening manner.

Earlier, they had told her that they had decided to live with her instead of returning to their old village.

"We will find a nice, comfortable house in a peaceful neighbourhood to live in," Toriel said to Frisk, her eyes shining. "I have always wanted to be a teacher. Maybe, I will set up a school close to Mt. Ebott, and I will teach both human and monster children. It will be a good opportunity for human and monster kids to learn about each other."

Frisk nodded.

As the two of them prepared to leave, they suddenly felt a familiar presence – a presence that they had begun to grow used to now. They turned around and saw Chara in their green sweater running out of the cave exit of Mount Ebott. To their surprise, Chara was holding a little pot in their hands, and there was a small golden flower growing out of the pot.

Toriel froze completely.

Chara stopped in their tracks when they saw Toriel. Their expression became sad, and also nervous, and they slowly turned their eyes away from Toriel's gaze. Frisk, who had been holding Toriel's hand, felt Toriel's arm go limp. They glanced back and forth between the two of them, wondering which one of them was going to speak up first.

Slowly, Chara began to walk again towards Toriel. When they finally stood in front of Toriel, they placed the flower pot onto the ground and stared back up into Toriel's eyes.

"Ch...Chara?" Toriel said. Her eyes instantly became wet with tears. However, she remained frozen, and the look on her face told that she was almost incapable of comprehending what she was seeing.

"I...I-I, m-mother, it's me," Chara said at last. Their voice was so soft that even Frisk could barely hear. "Mother. I-I'm, Chara."

Toriel raised her hand, her expression still completely in disbelief. Gently, she touched Chara's face, brushing their hair out of their eyes, as if to verify that they were actually standing there in front of her. For nearly a minute, she remained silent, doing nothing but keeping her hand upon Chara's face.

"I know," Chara whispered. "Mother, I understand. You don't believe that I'm here."

"I, I buried you," Toriel responded. Her voice was shaking. "I took your body, away from the coffin that Asgore kept you in, and I buried you under the earth in the ruins where you had fallen. I buried you with my own hands."

She closed her eyes, forcing out her tears, and they streamed down her cheeks.

"I visited you every day. I watched as the flowers grew above your grave. You were my child. I could not forget about you. And yet, now...now, y-you, you..."

Toriel knelt down, but even on her knees, she was still much taller than Chara. She moved her hands down over Chara's shoulders, holding them tightly. Every once in a while, she would blink several times. Her eyes had a strange, far-off look, but – at the same time – they were completely focused.

"Chara. My child," Toriel said with a steadier tone, "I have not seen you for so many years. I cannot believe that you are back. Why are you back? No – no, I must not scare you with such a morbid question. But, perhaps, I still cannot believe my own eyes, and I want to know if this is just a trick. If returning to the surface has made me so overjoyed, that I have also started to become delirious."

Frisk raised their hand and patted Toriel on her back. "Mom," they said, unafraid of calling her that, "You aren't seeing things. Chara was with me during my whole time in the underground."

"My child," Toriel said, turning slowly away from Chara to look at Frisk, "I think I am becoming delirious. You almost never speak up, to me or to your other friends. But, now, you are talking quite normally."

She shook her head, closing her eyes again.

"I am afraid. Afraid that, if I turn around and look at you again, you will be gone, and I will realize that you were nothing more than an illusion."

Toriel lowered her head. The tears flowed freely from her eyes now.

"Maybe all of this is an illusion," she continued. "Maybe I am a crazy old lady who cannot stand her reality any longer, and I have made up everything – you, and Frisk, and all the other children who have passed through the ruins. And that we have broken the barrier and monsters have returned to the surface is a delusion, too. Perhaps I am still alone, stuck in the underground, stuck in my daily routine of going around the ruins, over and over again..."

Chara didn't look like they could take it any longer. They jumped into Toriel's arms, crying and sobbing against her.

"Mother, it's not an illusion," Chara said, sniffing. "I'm here. I'm really here. You can feel me, right, mother?"

"Chara..."

"Yes. I'm here, mother. I won't leave you again."

Chara wrapped their arms around Toriel's back, hugging her tightly. "Mother. I'm so, so sorry..."

"Sorry? For what?" Toriel asked. "I am sorry, too, Chara. I really do not understand."

In response, Chara fell to their knees and continued crying.

Some time later, Frisk, Chara, and a still-uncertain Toriel descended the mountain and made their way towards nearby human settlements, though Chara chose to avoid their own village, which still gave them too many bad memories. Eventually, they found a fishing city by the ocean which had already been visited by the other monsters (with the exception of Undyne, who took issue with the entire practice of fishing). The humans of this city had been expecting more monsters to arrive, and welcomed Toriel with open arms.

As an act of goodwill to begin amiable relations between humans and monsters, they were given a house to live in near the city port. It had a kitchen, a living room, two bedrooms, and a balcony that allowed a pleasant view of the ocean. Frisk and Chara had to share a bedroom, but there was only one bed, so Chara volunteered to purchase a futon and sleep on the floor. They placed the flower pot that Chara had brought along on a rack on the balcony, where it could receive plenty of sunlight.

Asriel seemed to be taking some time to reawaken in his flower state. None of them had told Toriel about the flower's true identity, as even Frisk had to concede that the concept was too...bizarre, and also difficult to explain. Instead, Chara made up the excuse that the golden flower was something they brought along for the sake of remembering their favourite flowers, which were not common in this city.

Neither did Chara tell Toriel about the true reason that they had died. Toriel was definitely not ready to hear something so heavy just yet.

Living beside humans again, however, brought a sense of anxiety to Chara that Frisk had not been expecting. Chara stayed home for most of the day, talking to Toriel and helping her with chores around the house. Frisk would go out and explore, as they liked to do, as well as to buy groceries. There were news every day about the monsters returning to the surface world, and – for the most part – humans reacted to them peacefully. They were now more fascinated than scared of the monsters, and welcomed them into every city. A few human leaders even offered apologies for the war that had happened so long ago.

All of that, however, was of little concern to Toriel, who just wanted to start her own school for monster and human children. She spent a bit of time every day drafting up a curriculum and reading her old books.

One day, Frisk arrived home and went upstairs to their room, where they found Chara sitting on their bed, knitting. They sat down beside Chara and watched.

"What are you making?" Frisk asked.

Chara glanced up at them, and then returned to looking at the needles in their hands.

"A sweater. For mother."

"Oh."

There came a knock on the door. Chara stopped knitting and placed the needles into their lap. "Come in."

The door opened, and Toriel appeared. She was so tall that she had to duck her head just to enter the room, and even then, her horns knocked against the top of the door frame. In her hands were two plates with pies on both of them. Chocolate pie for Chara, and butterscotch-cinnamon pie for Frisk.

"Hello, my children," Toriel said, smiling as she put the two plates down by their feet. The pies smelled delicious, and Frisk felt their mouth beginning to water.

"Hi, mom," Frisk replied, waving at her. Chara did the same. Then, both grabbed their plates.

"Chara. It has been a while since you went out," Toriel said. "Perhaps you should go and explore the city a bit with Frisk. It is not good for you to stay in your room for so long."

"...Maybe," Chara replied, with their usual indifferent demeanour. "Let me finish knitting first."

"Oh, all right." Toriel turned around, nearly banging her horns against the ceiling of the room. "I will be making dinner soon. Please go out for a breath of fresh air before we eat."

"Yes, mother."

Once Toriel had left, Chara picked up their needles and began knitting again. Frisk started to eat their pie.

"We can head down to the beach, if you'd like," Frisk said. "Have you ever swam before?"

Chara shook their head. "No, I haven't."

"Well, maybe I can teach you."

"Frisk." Chara paused their knitting and lowered their eyes. "I don't want to. I really don't want to go too near to other people. If I do, then, sometimes...I start to think about certain things again, and certain impulses come along."

They put the needles back into their lap and turned to look at Frisk directly.

"You know how I used to be. I'm hardly what you would call a well-behaved child. Less than a month ago, I was still vicious. Still violent. It's...hard, sometimes, for me to restrain my thoughts." They leaned forward, placing their elbows against their knees, and cupped their chin with the palms of their hands. "To be honest, I still hate people. I...I still can't forgive myself, either, for doing what I did, for...killing myself, just so that I could gain the power to wipe out humanity."

"It's okay. That isn't you anymore."

"But it used to be." Chara began to look glum. "I don't know why I acted the way I did. Toriel – mother, I mean, and her family, they treated me so well. Even though it was so long ago, I remember that I had felt happy living with them in the underground. Happier than I've ever been when I lived amongst humans."

"There's a part of me that I don't like," Chara continued after a brief pause. "It's a part that, no matter what I do, always feels empty. It's like...I'm always restless, I always need to achieve something, I always need to feel purposeful. Even when my new family showered me with love and cared for me and gave me everything that the humans didn't, I couldn't stop myself from feeling this persistent emptiness."

"In the end, I became...self-destructive, in an attempt to satisfy this part of myself that could never be satisfied. I think that's why I ended up doing what I did. I was so selfish, and only thought of my own feelings, never realizing how much I had hurt the people who truly cared about me until it was too late..."

Chara picked up their needles and began knitting again. "I don't want to become like that again. Ever. So, I try to keep myself in check, by avoiding other people. If I go out again, where there's so many people around, who knows what could happen?"

Frisk was silent for a while. They watched Chara knit, thinking over everything that Chara had said, and trying to figure what they could say to give reassurance..

"Chara. You don't have to live like that," Frisk said.

"Huh?"

"You don't have to close yourself off, just because you're afraid of hurting other people. No one can really shut away their feelings, even if they believe that those feelings are unacceptable. I guess, what I'm saying, is that – I want you to feel proud of yourself, Chara. Not for what you did in the past, but because you deserve to feel proud – because you deserve the right to be happy, and no one should ever take that away from you."

"And, to start, you can open yourself up to people." Frisk made a corny grin. "I'm sure that there are at least two people on this planet who really care about you, and they will always be willing to listen to your feelings."

Chara turned and stared down at the floor. After a while, they started to laugh quietly. It was, however, a genuine laugh.

"Okay. Well, Frisk, I'm opening up to you," Chara said. "I really haven't told anyone else what I've just said to you."

They looked up, sighing, and placed their knitting needles to the side on the bed.

"Thanks, Frisk," Chara whispered. "I think...I think, you're the first, umm, human that I've really liked. You're not like the other humans that I've met throughout my life at all. You're kind, and...I guess, you're the only person who's ever truly understood me."

To Frisk's surprise, Chara leaned towards them.

"I...I suppose, all I can say, is – thank you, Frisk."

Gently, Chara kissed Frisk on the cheek.

Frisk stared back into Chara's eyes, blushing.

"Ah...thanks?"

In a way, they found Chara to be quite pretty looking. There was something charming about the way that Chara's eyes always seemed to be a little red. They were mysterious, in that sense. They were reminded of the night that they first met Chara, at Snowdin Town, where they had felt compelled to listen to Chara, even though Chara was hardly the nicest person back then. They were even closer now, and – it was strange to think about – but, could Chara have always felt drawn towards them as well?

In return, Frisk gave Chara a hug. Then, they closed they eyes and mustered up the strength – no, the determination – to say something ridiculous, something to make Chara laugh. Perhaps, they could even get Chara to go outside for a change.

"Say, Chara. Want to go on a date?"

Author's Note: This chapter was very fun to write. As for the plot, it's slowly wrapping up. I hope I've transitioned from in-game Undertale events to post-Undertale events in a realistic manner.