GroupTale (Rewritten)

The Ruins

CHAPTER TWO: The Ruins

~Ethan~

"So, you three know all the puzzles, huh?" Ethan asked as he watched Aiden approach a trap with a spiked floor.

"Keep close," Aiden warned, not even acknowledging the question fully, much to Ethan's annoyance, "This one's goin' to need us to hold onto each other."

Tessa passed the demonic flower to Aiden because he was leading and would thus have a free hand to hold Flowey. She took his other one, Frisk took hers- it just became a chain of children. That wasn't exactly the safest, but they decided to have faith in Aiden's ability to get through the puzzle. And hey, if he didn't remember the path, it'd be his foot that would get stabbed. Ethan seemed disappointed to not be in front. He was used to being the leader; it almost bugged him that Aiden was taking charge. As someone who only had one fear, Ethan was always confident in himself and protecting his friends by taking the lead. That was how they'd even gotten Underground to begin with.

"Just step where the person in front of ya did, we ain't gonna run into any issues that way." Aiden reassured, glancing back, at the end of the group, "Baby bro's okay, right?"

"Baby... bro...?" Emily giggled. She'd never heard a nickname like that before. Ethan smirked and tried to contain his laughter.

Ivan hid his face into his notebook with his free hand, too embarrassed for words.

"He's okay." Harmony informed, sounding more worried about them all getting across safely than giggling about "baby bro". Ethan looked like he was asking for a death wish- he kept stomping down on the spikes that were part of the puzzle and gasping when they disappeared, which kind of held up the line because he wasn't moving.

When the group got across, Aiden gave Flowey back to Tessa. Frisk glared at the potted plant, which didn't really add up to Ethan. Why did a plant concern him? Then again, he didn't entirely trust Flowey either.

Ethan noticed that nothing awaited them but a long hall, so he shoved his hands into his pockets and tried to fill the very awkward air. "Soooooo, uh, I don't think we know each other very well, which kind of sucks. Especially if we might be stuck here for the rest of our lives."

"Don't say that," Harmony couldn't stay silent. She didn't want to believe they were stuck down here forever, "We'll get back to the surface." She said with more confidence than she actually felt. Ethan read her like an open book- she had absolutely no confidence in the moment.

"Perhaps we should lighten the mood." Ivan suggested, not revealing whether or not he was certain they'd get back to their homes or not.

"Any ideas how?" Aiden spun his hat around his finger before placing it back on his head.

"I dunno!" Ethan thought for a second, "Wait, Tess, I thought you were dislexicist? How did you even find out more about Mt. Ebott besides what we told you about?" He personally didn't know much about dyslexia, including how to pronounce it, but he did know that it made reading hell for dyslexics and that spelling was quite the challenge. There was more to it, but he wasn't exactly an expert on any of it.

"Dyslexic, Ethan. Dyslexic." Harmony corrected with a facepalm. Though she couldn't exactly blame him for having no clue how to say it, right? Tessa had only mentioned it once or twice. "Nonetheless, his point is still valid. Did your dad help you? Why didn't he think you would've been heading here?"

"No, I didn't tell my dad. Aiden helped me." Tessa replied simply. She didn't really like the attention on her, as per usual, but she would rather have some attention than no attention at all.