When the nameless returns home, Madame Toriel is waiting at the front porch with an excited smile wide across her face and a glimmer in his eye. It's not enough to erase the questions about her intentions from his mind, but it is enough to make him waver on telling her right away what he has learned. "You seem excited, Madame," he greets her with all the composure he can muster up. "Has something happened while I was gone?"

"Yes, I have something exciting to show you. Oh, would you mind closing your eyes?" He doesn't see her smile widen as he puts the watering can down and takes her by the hand, reluctantly holding the other over his eyes. Following her inside, he feels her escort him to the room he's been staying in and hears her open the door. "Open your eyes!"

Once he lowers his hand to see what she has done, he realizes it will be much, much harder to do what he knows he must. Inside, the cramped child's bed he was sleeping in has been replaced with one just right for him. Before his conversation with the flower at the entrance to the underground, such a gesture would feel like the warmest welcome in the world. How much must it have taken for her to change a room that held so many memories for her? Now, it feels like a trap of comfort. A trap that admittedly tugs just right at his aching heartstrings, but a trap nonetheless.

"It was hard work bringing it in and switching them out, but I was thrilled I could get it done before you came back."

"... Thank you," he says once he regathers enough of himself to speak. He can't tell her now. Not when she looks happier than she's been all week. That smile wrenches the SOUL he never had and ties it up in knots, and what kind of fiend would he be if he were to crush her spirit right as it was lifted so high?

Hours go by that he is not entirely there to feel pass, lost in the haze of his mind. Maybe it's the middle of the day when he tries to ask Madame Toriel indirectly if there's more to the underground, and he loses himself further when she answers evasively. By the time Madame Toriel says that night has fallen he finds himself once more, now lingering by the bedroom door.

"Is everything alright?" Madame Toriel asks, stopping in the middle of the hallway.

"What is behind the door in your basement? I heard there's more to the underground and that it's through there, please tell me there's not more to the underground, please-"

"The rest of the underground is through there." Madame Toriel is unable to meet his gaze.

Reeling from the confirmation of the worst, the wanderer wordlessly opens the bedroom door, grabs his travel bag, and marches towards the basement stairs as Madame Toriel follows a few paces behind.

"I'm sorry for not telling you before. I know you want to see what's out there, but I promise I will take good care of you here."

"Why all the deception, Madame Toriel?! Did you think I would run off the moment I knew there was more down here than this?!" he bellows, fully turning to face her once more at the bottom of the stairs. "I would have no reason to leave now if it weren't for the lies!"

"You really wouldn't have wanted to go? They'll try to take your SOUL if you leave!"

"Not quite so soon if you hadn't lied to me! And I would want to come back once I'd seen what's out there if not for the lies either! Besides which, I don't have a SOUL to lose out there!"

"That won't stop the monsters out there from trying," she retorts, her voice growing more impatient and desperate.

He turns again to resume his march for the door he knows awaits at the end of this hall. The last three nights he's walked this hall in secret and memorized the turns in case it was his only avenue of safety, and now it only strengthened his resolve knowing this hall so well. Madame Toriel no longer pleads but cuts in front of him to block his way.

"You want to leave so badly? Hmph." Seeing that the nameless cannot be reasoned with, she prepares to take her last resort. "You're just like the others. There is only one solution. Prove to me you are strong enough to survive then."

"No! I've been tested enough!"

For the first time since descending to the underground the nameless draws his blade for combat, but the action feels different than on the surface world. This time, it is as though every choice carries so much weight that the act of drawing his blade was enough to reshape reality. Odd... The decision to take up arms is never insignificant, but what kind of nonsense is this about reshaping reality? Hands trembling with hesitation, he holds up his weapon in a defensive position and waits to see her first move. She may be cornered down here, but they both have an exit behind them.

Maybe he made the decision to take up arms, but he also doesn't want to hurt her if he doesn't have to. She's all the love he's ever known, why can't she understand how much it hurts not to be on her side?

With a flick of Madame Toriel's wrist, the nameless realizes swiftly why she feels she must test even his resolve to survive. Fireballs fly about the cramped space in a pattern he doesn't quite understand at first and must rely on his agility to evade. If this is the way of monster combat, then no amount of experience up on the surface could have prepared him for this. Once the flames finally subside, her eyes sharpen with expectation.

Tightening his grip on the handle of his knife, the nameless stands and watches for her next move. Upon making the choice not to strike, his feet plant more firmly down on the basement floor.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"What do you mean?" he asks in turn.

"Attack or run away!"

Her next spell is different, fireballs bouncing off the wall where they came in rows before, but he's more agile this time. Decisively raising his blade, he charges the moment her attack ends. Why give him an obvious prolonged opening thrice in a row? Why does she act like she wants him to hurt her?

Though she doesn't bleed when he strikes, he can't stand the look in her eyes. The next time she attacks her fiery projectiles urge him away from her again. Can she really not be reasoned with?

"What are you proving with this?"

"I'm done fighting to survive, Madame Toriel."

Her attacks do not abate. They're not so predictable that he need not even try, but they're easier to evade.

"Fight me or leave!"

"No!"

Unable to stand the sight of his sorrowful pallid yellow eyes behind his cracked mask, she starts looking through him as she attacks once more. His hand tightens around the grip of his knife again, but he still, still cannot bring himself to strike her again.

"Stop looking at me that way."

"Stop blocking my way out!"

The flames evade him if he gets close, and he truly can't find it in his heart to strike her again. A few rounds of him deciding not to strike and her spells evading him, she finally speaks again.

"Why are you making this so difficult? Please, go back upstairs."

"..."

To Toriel's surprise, he sheathes his blade and slumps against the wall, sliding down. Each movement carries weary sorrow and resignation, and by the time he hits the floor his gaze is far off in the distance.

"I never had a home or family until I met you," the nameless admits, his voice trembling from the effort not to let his tears fall. Even if she wouldn't be able to see them, and if this is no longer home he can't show how vulnerable he really is. "I didn't want to leave you, I just don't want to be hurt or trapped again..."

Oh, Toriel realizes as she averts her gaze from his weary frame, he's been feeling as alone as I have all along. How did I not see it?

Silence hangs in the empty air, and they know they've been here before. However long they linger, it feels like an eternity of trying to meet one another's gaze but being unable to bear it. When they can finally bear to look at one another again though, there's apologies in the other's eyes.

The nameless musters up all his strength and rises to his feet again, approaching Toriel slowly as if unsure whether he trusts her anymore. But of course I do, he thinks as he takes her hand. Hers is soft, warm, and worn. The roughness of his hand is understood differently than the first time she held it, the depth of his struggle in each scar and stitch.

"... You remind me of my first children, Asriel and Chara," Toriel admits, visibly holding back her tears despite how they well up in her mournful eyes. She wraps her arms around him, trembling as her efforts to contain herself slowly fails and tears fall on his shoulder. "They never made it past twelve. None of the others after them did either. I miss them all dearly..."

Oh, the nameless realizes as he holds her tighter, of course she would cling to her only companion in years after losing so much. Letting her cry on his shoulder, his own tears fall and slide down the inside of his mask. "...I still don't want to leave yet... I still want to stay with you once I've seen the rest of the underground, if you'll have me then. Will you have me now, Toriel?"

The moment Toriel spends stunned by his question feels like an eternity to the nameless, but once she lifts her head and smiles faintly at him he feels safe and at home again. "Of course I will. Now and then. Let's go upstairs."

Without another word they ascend the stairs together hand in hand, leaving their heartache and a confused golden flower behind.

Thanks for reading and for being so patient, especially if you've been following from the start. Track list for the making of this chapter-

It's In Our Nature - Brandon Boone (Slay The Princess OST)

Heartache - Toby Fox (Undertale OST)

The Thorn - Brandon Boone (Slay The Princess OST)

Fallen Down (Ruins Door vers.) - Toby Fox (Undertale OST)