"Where are the two of you going?"

"We're getting lunch, mom," Frisk replied. "We'll be back in a couple of hours."

Toriel appeared surprised. She was standing in the kitchen, washing a basket full of vegetables. "Chara agreed to go out for lunch with you?"

"Yeah. It's shocking, isn't it?" They winked.

"All right. Please be safe."

Frisk turned around and closed the door. Chara stood in front of them with an impatient look on their face.

"Why didn't you just tell her that we're going on a date?" Chara asked. "You've already had the audacity to flirt with her. Do you think she'd be that surprised if you said that you were dating me?"

"No, but she'd probably be surprised that you said yes," Frisk responded, smiling quirkily.

"...I suppose that's true."

Chara had agreed to eat at a restaurant which reputably served an abundance of chocolate desserts. The restaurant was located near the city port. From their house, they turned right onto a street that led down a hill towards the beach.

At the current time of day, noon, the streets of the city were swarming with people. Chara became anxious, and they kept their head lowered as they walked closely beside Frisk. A few blocks down the street was the urban centre of the city. It was a bustling place, full of crowds and cars. Tall buildings surrounded the streets. There were open food stalls and markets where people hollered loudly about their prices. Only a few monsters were amongst the crowds, and they were always being scrutinized by the humans.

"Hey, Chara. If you walk with your head down like that, you're going to bump into somebody."

"I want to get out of here," Chara replied, raising their head only slightly to look at Frisk. "It's too crowded and noisy."

"Don't worry. We'll reach the restaurant soon."

Once they had passed through the urban centre, the street cleared up and became wider as it led to the bottom of the hill. The beach and the ocean came into sight. In front of them was gleaming white sand and a horizon of blue. A distant but calming sound of ocean waves could be heard, alongside the crying of seagulls. The wind carried a pleasant sea breeze towards them.

The neighbourhood around the beach was filled with resorts and eateries. Eventually, they found the building that they were looking for: a restaurant named "Seaside Desserts."

Despite it being noon, it was dark and quiet inside. A pianist played soft music in the background, and portraits of nature on the wall lent the place a calm atmosphere. Smells of confectionary filled the air, along with the slightly salty tinge of seafood.

Frisk and Chara sat down at a table in a corner of the room. A waited arrived with their menu. They browsed through it silently until both of them had decided on what they wanted to get.

"Can you tell the waiter to get me this?" Chara said, pointing to an item on the menu. "The chocolate syrup-coated strawberry-flavour kiwi-topped ice cream-stuffed flan?"

"...Isn't that the most expensive item on the menu?" Frisk said. Their eyes grew wide when they saw price listed beneath it. "Chara, that's probably too much for you to eat alone."

Chara made an indignant face. "Maybe we can just order this, and then share it?"

Frisk had wanted to order a Sea Tea-flavoured sundae, but they decided to go along with Chara's suggestion. "Okay. We can do that."

They gave their order and waited for the dish to arrive.

Frisk's phone rang. They took it out of their pocket and saw that the caller was Alphys.

"Give me a moment," they said to Chara, before getting out of their seat.

They looked around the restaurant, trying to find a place where they could talk without being overheard. The phone continued to ring. They decided, finally, on just going to the washroom. Luckily, there was no one inside, so they locked the door and answered the call.

"U-umm, h-hello, Frisk?" Alphys said, her voice as nervous and timid as usual.

"Right. Hi, Alphys," Frisk responded.

"W-well, I did some research on the questions that you asked me the other day, and I think I have the answers now."

"Really?! Okay, tell me!"

"Y-yes. To start, the good news is...Chara will be fine. They won't be disappearing any time soon."

"Oh, thank you! That's great to hear!"

Someone turned the knob of the washroom door, then walked away upon realizing that it was locked. Frisk glanced at the door, wondering if that person could hear them. They retreated to the back of the washroom and toned down their voice.

"So, do you want me to explain why?" Alphys asked.

"Yeah, definitely."

For a few seconds, there was no response. Then, they heard Alphys exhale, and her voice came back:

"S-so, you know how human souls are very different from monster souls, right? All human souls exhibit the property of having a unique colour. From what I've studied, the closer a soul is to having the red colour, the more determination it is capable of containing. M-moreover, because of their ability to persist for a while after death, it seems that human souls have the potential to linger within the former person's essence – under very special conditions, that is."

"Toriel told me that she buried Chara at the place inside the ruins where the two of you both fell. She must have given Chara a monster's burial, spreading Chara's essence into the ground, where the golden flowers now grow. M-my hypothesis is that, due to Chara's strong determination, some of their soul still remained where they were buried. Now, Frisk, I-I think you must also have a red soul. It's the only explanation that I can think of to rationalize why Chara came back."

"When you fell onto the flowers, your soul must have come into contact with what remained of Chara's. Because of your soul's colour, you were able to transfer some of your determination into Chara's essence. W-with monsters, umm, we know that what happens next is that they will start to come back, b-but, uh, in the form of a shambling corpse." Alphys laughed nervously. "B-but! It doesn't work that way for humans! I think, because of a human's soul ability to linger for so long, there was also a bilateral transfer of determination from Chara back to your soul, allowing Chara's essence to be reborn within you."

It dawned on Frisk that that was exactly what must have happened back then to cause them to start hearing Chara's thoughts inside their own mind.

"But, as for how Chara was able to get their own body back again – well, that's a bit more complicated. I think, when Chara was reborn within your soul, they slowly started to gain a separate consciousness as well. W-with that consciousness, and the combined determination from their and your soul, they were able to call a 'reset'. Except, instead of resetting the whole world, they were only able to reset themselves – because they were still sharing your soul, and it's probably impossible for an entity without a unique soul to reset themselves back to a point where it had one. So, all they could do was get their own body back, with the two of you sharing the same soul."

"That makes sense!" Frisk replied. "The first time I saw Chara was in the inn at Snowdin Town. They just...appeared out of nowhere, even though there was supposed to be no one else in that room."

"Oh!" Alphys exclaimed. "Well, uh, I guess my theory's consistent, then! Eh-heh-heh!"

"Thanks, Alphys. What about Asriel?"

"W-well, uh, Asriel's harder, because he doesn't have a soul, and monster souls aren't as, well, as persistent as humans'. B-but! I'll keep doing research! Even if Asriel has to remain a flower, I'll find some way for him to have feelings again!"

"All right. Thank you so much, Alphys! I don't know what I'd do without you."

"Oh, u-uhh, ha, it's nothing, really, Frisk!"

"No, really – thank, you!"

"Ah...heh-heh, heh..."

"I have to get back to Chara, now. We're eating lunch out at a restaurant. Mind if I talk to you later?"

"Oh, s-sure! Okay, bye, Frisk!"

"Bye, Alphys!"

When Frisk came back to the table, they saw that their order had arrived, and Chara had already started eating the flan. Chara turned to look at them with a guilty expression on their face. They quickly chewed and swallowed the food in their mouth.

"Sorry. You were gone for a while, and I was hungry..."

Frisk sat down and smiled. "That's fine."

"If you don't mind me asking – who were you talking to?"

"Just...a friend," Frisk replied. They grabbed a fork and a knife and dug into the flan.

It was delicious. The ice cream stuffing within the cake was exquisite, and the chocolate syrup coating made their mouth water more with every bite. As delicious as monster food and Toriel's cooking was, they always seemed to go down too fast, never giving them the chance to savour their taste. Human food, on the other hand, was something to eat and enjoy at one's preferred pace. They ate until they felt the the food becoming stuck in their throat, and they had to pause to allow themselves time to swallow.

"H-hey, Chara," Frisk said, wincing as they swallowed, "Want the kiwi?"

Chara stared at the little green fruit on top of the flan. "You don't want it?"

"I think I'm out of commission for a while."

"Okay. I'll take it."

Chara reached out with their fork for the kiwi, but Frisk intercepted them. They stared at Frisk curiously as Frisk cut off the portion of the flan containing the kiwi with their knife. Frisk placed the piece onto their fork, which they then delivered to Chara's mouth.

"Here you go," Frisk said, winking.

Chara laughed. They opened their mouth to eat the piece from Frisk's fork. As soon as they closed their mouth, they began laughing again, which turned into a bout of coughing. They leaned forward, making a mock choking expression. Bits of icing from the surface of the flan stuck onto the tips of their hair. Chara stared up at them, tried to chew, and burst out laughing again.

"Okay, Chara. I think people are looking at us now. You should-"

Swiftly, Chara carved off a piece of the flan with their own fork and shoved it towards Frisk. With a resigned smile, Frisk opened their mouth and ate the piece as well. As they started to chew, they couldn't help themselves from staring at the icing that was on Chara's hair. Without thinking it, they started laughing as well. At the same time, they swallowed, and they felt the food going up their nose.

Frisk coughed and fell forward.

Amused, Chara laughed even harder. Then, they leaned towards Frisk, close enough that...the icing on their hair stuck onto Frisk's as well. Frisk leaned back, their eyes becoming wide when they realized what Chara had done. There were little white dots in their vision where their hair fell in front of their eyes.

They swallowed again, trying to get the food to go down their throat this time. Then, they coughed, and fell into another fit of laughter.

Both of them couldn't stop laughing.

"Stop it," Frisk said at last when they had regained their composure. "Wipe that icing off your hair. Everyone's going to stare at you."

"Everyone's staring at you, too," Chara snapped back.

Chara grabbed a piece of tissue paper, reached up to wipe their hair, then – suddenly – spun their hand around, leaned towards Frisk, and cleaned the icing from Frisk's hair instead.

Unable to hold back their grin, Frisk grabbed a piece of tissue paper and helped clean the icing from Chara's hair as well.

"Okay. That was pretty fun," Chara said, giving Frisk a pat on the head when they were done.

Frisk nodded. "Yeah. Let's do this more often."