"Where are your socks, Chara?!"

Chara was sitting at their desk and playing computer games as usual. Frisk stood beside them with a full laundry basket in hand. They stared at Chara unblinkingly, with a less than pleased expression.

"On my feet."

"Well, take them off and throw them in my basket," Frisk said, groaning. "I'm going to do laundry."

"Wait a minute. Or five."

Frustrated, Frisk gazed over Chara's shoulder at their laptop screen to see what was keeping them so busy. They were playing a rage platformer, one of those games where half the pixels on the screens were spikes and the player character exploded into a shower of pixelated blood every five seconds. Frisk never understood the point of these games. They were tedious and produced nothing but anger.

"Give them to me now," Frisk said in a lower, more ominous voice.

Chara didn't even glance at them.

"Do I have to be your mother? Move your feet out from under the desk. I'll take your socks if you aren't going to hand me them."

"Wow," Asriel said, making an obnoxious stink face on the flower. "Mother AND lover? This is becoming quite the kinky househo-"

"Quit it," Frisk interrupted, even though this was almost exactly what had happened between them and Toriel. Their flirting back then, however, hadn't really been serious.

"Just give me a sec, Frisk."

"I gave you three hundred 'secs' five minute ago. Also, where's that sweater you wore last week?"

"What sweater?"

Frisk felt their patience wearing thin. "The green one. With the yellow stripe. You said you'd find it and put it in my laundry basket by noon."

"Oh, yeah. I did?"

"Yes. You did," Frisk replied, pointing at the clock on the wall. It was currently 3 PM. "So, where is it?"

"I couldn't find it," Chara said, their tone growing irritated as well. "Can't you leave me alone for just ten minutes, Frisk? I have to beat this level."

"You've been stuck on it for five days!"

"Exactly!" Chara gestured with their hands at the monitor screen. "But I'm so close! I promise, once I beat it, I'll find you that sweater."

"When Chara says ten minutes, what they actually mean is two hours," Asriel spoke up, giggling in his strange flower way.

"Shut up, Asriel," Chara snapped back.

"Maybe if you were better at video games, you'd have gotten this done faster," Asriel continued. He smiled mischievously. "I know where you keep dying, Chara. Honestly, that jump looks sooooo easy! If I had fingers, I'd have beaten that level ages ago!"

"You want to go?" Chara said, spinning around in their seat to face Asriel.

"What? You're going to fight me? A flower?"

"No, I'll make you play this level, and see how you like it!"

Asriel howled with laughter. "I know you don't like to fight fair, Chara, but not even I'm going to fall for that. How am I going to play anything without fingers?"

"You can use your leaves!"

"Break it up!" Frisk shouted, walking in between the two of them. "Honestly, how old are the two of you? Stop fighting over a stupid game."

"Well, I'm fourteen, and Asriel's fifteen years ol–"

"That's not the point!" Frisk replied. "The point is, I need your dirty clothes, and I need them NOW. Chara, give me your socks."

"Hold on," Chara said, spinning back around to face their monitor screen. "I need to show Asriel that I can and I WILL MAKE THAT JUMP!"

"Seriously?!" Frisk felt their temper rising, even though usually almost nothing made them angry. Nothing, except for a particularly aggravating Chara. "Your feet were already right in front of me before you moved them back under the desk!"

"Should've snatched them while you had the chance!" Asriel said, chuckling.

"I'm not going to touch their dirty feet, Asriel."

"My feet aren't dirty," Chara said in an indignant tone. "I haven't even gone out in a week!"

"Chara, that makes no sense."

"Plus, the smell coming from them says otherwise!" Asriel declared, grinning.

Chara spun their chair back around with a murderous expression on their face. "Asriel. If you don't shut up right now, I'm going to rip you out of your pot and throw you out the window!"

"Wow. Solving things with violence again, Chara? You haven't changed a bit!"

"I told you to shut up!"

"I still need those socks, Chara!"

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" Chara yelled, spinning back to face their laptop screen.

Frisk had had enough. They walked towards Chara and placed their laundry basket down on the table. Then, they leaned over the laptop keyboard and pressed their finger down on the power button, holding it.

"NO!" Chara screamed.

They grabbed Frisk's arm with both hands and shoved them away. A little too hard. Frisk stumbled back and fell against the desk, hitting their side. Their feet tripped and they crashed their head against the wall, which caused them to fall onto the ground.

For a moment, as Frisk tried to sit back up, everyone in the room was silent. A near-enraged expression grew upon Frisk's face.

"Oh my g-Frisk, I'm so sorry!" Chara shouted. "I'm so, so, sorry! Frisk, I didn't mean to do that! It was an accident!"

Frisk returned to their feet, rubbing their head. That fall had been painful. They stared down at Chara with their eyes narrowed. "Why did you shove me like that?"

"I'M SO SORRY!" Chara said, burying their face in their hands. "I didn't mean to hit you, Frisk! It was a mistake! I'm so careless, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'M SORRY!"

Seeing Chara so distressed calmed Frisk down quite quickly. The pain on their head was subsiding. They opened their mouth to say –

"I'M SORRY!" Chara yelled, gripping the skin of their face with their fingers. "Please don't hate me, Frisk! I said I'm sorry! I won't do it again! I was so stupid! I'm so sorry! I'M SO SORRY!"

"Chara," Asriel spoke up. "We know it was an acci-"

"FRISK, I'M SORRY! DON'T HATE ME, PLEASE! DON'T HIT ME! I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I-"

Frisk rushed to Chara's side. They wrapped their arms around Chara and hugged them tightly. Chara was trembling and crying and saying incomprehensible things, and Frisk held them with all their strength. It broke their heart to see Chara crying like this. They felt guilty, and wished that they hadn't made such an angry face (or tried to shut off Chara's laptop in the first place). At the time, it had seemed such an insignificant thing to do.

Chara cried for a minute while Frisk held them, before finally starting to calm down. Gradually, they stopped trembling and crying, and then became silent. Frisk didn't let go. They wanted Chara to know that they loved them. They wanted Chara to feel safe. Gently, they placed their head against Chara's shoulder and let Chara lean against them.

For some time, Chara was still and sat there, sniffing. Then, they placed their hands around Frisk's back and hugged them. Chara lowered their head into Frisk's arms and made a sound like a muffled cry.

"I'm so sorry, Frisk. I'm so, so sorry..."

"Chara, it's okay," Frisk said, recognizing that Chara was now out of their episode. "Everything's okay."

"I'm so sorry...for acting like that..."

Frisk moved their hands over Chara's back and caressed them softly.

"I d-didn't mean to...I didn't mean to get so worked up..."

"I know you didn't," Frisk whispered. "But, it's okay."

"...You keep saying that, Frisk..."

"I mean it."

"Frisk..."

"Chara, we all love you," Frisk said in a quiet and reassuring voice. "Nothing you do will ever change that. So, don't worry."

"But, Frisk...I sh-shouldn't have...I shouldn't, it's just so embarrassing..."

"It's all right. You've been through so much."

"But..."

"Chara," Asriel spoke up. He wore a crestfallen expression on his face, with eyes that were full of remorse. "Frisk and I are here for you. I'm sorry for arguing with you earlier. But, really, we both love you, and we want you to feel safe and happy when you're with us, okay?"

"Asriel, you-"

"I mean it!" Asriel continued. "I love you, Chara! Even though I don't have a soul, I can at least remember how it feels to love! I'll always be your brother!"

Chara buried their face into Frisk's shoulder and began crying again.

"There, there," Frisk said, patting Chara on the back again.

Frisk held Chara in their arms, holding them and being there for them for as long as they needed it. This time, Chara cried for two or three minutes. Tears streamed down their cheeks and fell onto Frisk's sweater. They were shuddering and whimpering. Frisk embraced them as tightly as they could.

Eventually, their tears stopped, and their crying turned into light sobs which slowly faded. They were sniffing again. When they looked back up at Frisk, their eyes were almost completely red.

"Chara..."

"...Yeah?"

"It's going to be okay."

"I'm...I'm fine, now," Chara said, shaking their head. "I'm...fine, Frisk."

"If you need to cry more-"

"No, Frisk. I'm...fine, really." Chara looked into Frisk's eyes and mustered up a sad smile. "Thank you..."

"I'll always be here for you when you need me."

"Yeah, me too!" Asriel said.

Chara looked back at forth at both of them. Another tear streamed down their cheek, but they attempted to smile again. It was a genuine smile, now.

"You two...thank you, so much."

Frisk smiled in response. They found Chara's fully red eyes pretty, but refrained from mentioning it at the current moment.

"I'm sorr-"

"No need to say that!" Asriel interrupted them. "You don't have to say it so many times. We're your family, Chara. We can take anything from you, and we'll still love you!"

"Yeah," Frisk added, blushing. "I'm...your family, too – right?"

Chara was speechless. After a moment where they looked like they were deliberating what to say, they simply stepped towards Frisk and hugged them again.

Frisk grabbed Asriel's pot and added them to the hug, which was a bit awkward. But, seeing Frisk's effort, Chara giggled and smiled again.

After their clothes were washed, Frisk began hanging them up on a clothesline by the window. They were surprised when Chara stood up, started picking out the wet clothes out from the basket, putting them on the cloth hangers, and hooking the hangers onto the clothesline.

"Thanks, Chara," Frisk said, smiling warmly at them. "I can do this by myself, though."

"I want to feel useful," Chara replied. "You're right, Frisk. You've been doing every chore around the house ever since we started living alone. I've been completely useless."

"That's not true!" Frisk took out Chara's green and yellow sweater, noting that it was starting to become a little faded – the green was mixing in with the yellow. "You helped me make dinner and wash the dishes a couple of times."

"Yeah, but that was only after you told me to."

"...Well, thanks for helping me now, Chara."

Chara blushed. "I wouldn't mind if you gave me a few more responsibilities."

That was surprising to hear. "Huh?"

"Let me do some of the chores?"

Frisk thought about what Chara could help them with, but found that there really weren't that many things for them to do. They already felt comfortable doing most of the chores by themselves. "You could, I guess, take out the garbage every once in a while."

"Okay."

"And just make sure you don't leave your clothes lying around on the floor."

"'Kay. What about washing the dishes?"

Frisk was very vigilant about the cleanliness of their sink. They were used to cleaning their dishes, pots, and pans immediately after eating, a habit that they had picked up from travelling on their journeys. "No, it's fine. I can handle the dishes by myself?"

"Cooking, then?"

"I could teach you to cook."

Chara nodded. "Oh, and I could vacuum the floor, too!"

"...You're taking away all my chores now, Chara!"

"I just want to help!"

Frisk giggled. They liked that Chara was becoming more and more responsible. It was just that they didn't mind doing all of these chores by themselves. Right now, every day was just waiting for news from Sans or Alphys about their progress on their research. Neither of them had discovered anything, and their reports were little more than a foreboding mention of the still steadily decreasing number of timelines. They were down to only two thousand now.

It was disturbing to think about. Somewhere, in other universes, thousands of Frisks were disappearing. Thousands of undergrounds were being cleared, up to millions were dying, and they could do nothing to stop it.

Aside from that, Frisk spent their time reading the books that they had checked out from the campus library, exploring the neighbourhood, and...cuddling with Chara. They really felt that they ought to be more worried, but the reality was that they couldn't do anything about it.

"You haven't gone out in a while," Frisk mentioned as they hung up their last piece of clothing.

"There's so many people outside," Chara replied.

"But if you stay in all day, you'll just end up feeling tired all the time."

"Do I have to?"

"Let's go out for a walk," Frisk offered, smiling. "You can get some exercise."

"...Fine."

It was cold outside. For the past few days, snow had been falling heavily, and now the streets were completely white. Frisk and Chara put on their boots, jackets, mittens, and scarves.

The city streets were filled with festive decorations in preparation for the New Years'. It reminded Frisk of Snowdin, only a lot bigger. Everywhere they went, they saw strings of bright lights hung up upon trees and buildings, beaming a rainbow of colours. There were glowing statues and sculptures at the corner of every street. Colourful lanterns hung around the porches of several houses and apartments. Shops advertised with massive, flashing posters.

Their neighbourhood was a good distance from the city downtown, but even here, the streets were teeming with people, and the crowds at the entrance of shops were often enormous.

It filled Frisk with both happiness as well as sadness to see everything like this. New Years' was a festive time, and people deserved to celebrate – but no one knew the danger that had come to this and every other world. A danger that could take away everything. Only they and their friends and a select few other humans carried the burden of knowing. While everyone else was happy, they lived in constant doubt.

No, they had to keep these thoughts out of their head. The survival of this timeline depended on their ability to keep up their optimism and to preserve their determination. They had to be confident. They couldn't let fear and anxiety take over.

"Chara," Frisk spoke up, partly in an attempt to distract themselves, "want to go shopping?"

"Where?"

Frisk glanced around at all the stores on the streets. One of them caught their eye.

"How about that one?" Frisk asked, pointing to it.

The stores' name was 'Blook's Pet House'.

"A pet house?"

"I think I know the person that owns it," Frisk said cheerfully. "Let's pay them a visit."

They crossed the street and entered this store. It was a pet house all right. There were smells inside of all kinds of different animals. Looking around, Frisk saw cats and dogs (not of the monster type, which were sentient) and hamsters and rabbits and a variety of different birds. Beside the entrance was an aquarium filled with colourful fish, and near that was a pen full of...snails? There were also a few more...interesting animals, like insects and snakes (Chara stayed far away from those).

As they expected, standing behind the counter at the back of the shop was a transparent white ghost.

"Oh...hey..." Napstablook greeted them. "It's you...long time no see..."

"Hi, Napstablook!" Frisk said, grinning. "How's things been going?"

"Well...after the barrier went down, I went to check out the surface. It was...nice...I guess...and I joined Mettaton's band for a while...but then he got so popular they offered him a career as an actor...so our band disbanded."

Frisk's smile faded. "Oh."

"I tried to restart my snail farm business..." Napstablook continued. "...But, there were lots of interesting animals on the surface, and no one...wanted to buy or visit snails all the time...so I expanded my business into a general pet shop. Ummm...Shyren suggested it..."

Napstablook glanced at Chara, who was standing behind Frisk. "Oh...you have a new friend there..."

"Hi?" Chara said, walking shyly up to them. "My name's Chara."

"I'm...Napstablook, if you care..." Napstablook replied, extending out a ghostly hand. Chara reached out to shake it, but their hand passed through.

"Oh..." Napstablook said. "Sorry...I'm ethereal and all..."

Chara tried to smile and be polite. "It's okay. Nice to meet you, Napstabloke-uh, Naptasblook-ummm, Nastapblook-uh..."

"...just Blooky is fine..."

A blush came over Chara's face. "Nice to meet you, Blooky."

"Well...feel free to check out my store...if you want...no pressure or anything..."

"Okay."

"Everything is on sale...for the new years'...you know..."

Frisk started going around, looking at all of the different pets that were on sale. They felt Chara pulling on their arm.

"That ghost...looks kind of depressed," Chara whispered. "Maybe we should buy something to cheer them up."

"I was thinking that, too."

"But they only sell pets."

A thoughtful expression came over Frisk's face. "We can buy something that doesn't require too much work to take care of."

"Like what?"

Frisk glanced around the store. "Well, nothing like a cat or a dog. Maybe something Asriel could play with?"

Chara crossed their arms. "Would that really be a good idea?"

"...Hey. If you want more responsibilities, maybe you could get a pet to learn to take care of," Frisk said, scratching their head and smiling. "Doesn't that sound like fun?"

To their surprise, Chara looked like they were considering the idea. After spending a moment deliberating, they said, "Okay. But only if we find something I like."

"Sure."

For the next half hour, they browsed the store, looking over all the animals as Chara tried to find something that suited them. Insects, reptiles, and snakes were out of the question, but many of the cute, fluffy animals (like the dogs) were too much work to take care of. Eventually, they narrowed it down to the birds. Chara quickly found a pair of zebra finches that they liked.

"Awww, look at these little fluffballs," Chara said, leaning down at them.

"...Chara?"

"What?"

Frisk made a smirk. "I've never seen you react like that to something cute before."

Chara threw them a disappointed look. "I can 'awww' at cute things too, you know."

"I know! I was just surprised, that's all."

Chara smiled at the birds. "Look at these two. They're so puffy."

"They're just ten VCs..." Napstablook spoke up. "...You want to buy them?"

"Are they hard to take care of?" Frisk asked.

"...no, not really...I have some basic tips, if you want..."

Chara looked at Frisk, who nodded in response.

"Okay. I'll get them."

"...wow...I didn't think you'd actually buy anything...thank you..."

Frisk smiled. "You're welcome."

"so...they're social birds, so you can't just keep one of them...you have to get two..."

Chara lifted up the bird cage. "We get this, too, right?"

"Yeah..."

They took out their VC card from their wallet and scanned it by the device on Napstablook's counter.

"Alright...so you change water and give them food one to two times daily...you have to clean out the bottom of the cage often...oh, and give them calcium blocks, like ground-up eggshells and bones...you can also give them leafy greens...and you can let them out to hang if you wanna..."

"That's great! Thank you," Frisk said.

"Also...one's male, and the other's female...I guess you could name them...if you have more questions, you can come back or call...here's my number...but you also have me on the UnderNet...so you could just PM me..."

Chara put their card back in their wallet and smiled gleefully at the birds in the cage.

"Thanks, Blooky!"

"So, what're you going to name them?"

They had arrived back in their apartment, and Chara placed the bird cage on the desk beside Asriel's flower pot. Chara opened up the cage door and let the birds come hopping out.

Asriel stared at the two birds hopping around his pot. One seemed to be staring back curiously at him.

"Yeah, look at me," Asriel said in a sarcastic voice. "This is Asriel. A flower with a face. Cool, huh, birdy?"

The bird made a chirp.

"Except I'm actually THE GOD OF HYPERDEATH!"

Both birds fled back into their cage.

"Okay. I've come up with names for them," Chara announced. "The girl's going to be called Tem, and the boy will be Toby. How about that?"

Frisk laughed. "Where'd you get that from? I feel like I've heard those names before."

Chara shrugged. "Eh. I just made them up."