PATCHWORK SOUL - NEW MEDIUM

Bah! Chapter 109

Early morning arrived with the scent of pancakes and butterscotch sauce. Asriel blinked groggily up at the ceiling. He was snug in a blanket with a toasty, magical warmth flowing all around him. He cast a glance to the side. Papyrus, of course. Asriel was a little taken aback that the skeleton was still asleep at all, and not sitting up and reading like almost every other time the goat boy had crashed in his bed.

He pushed himself upright and looked around. There was no Frisk or Sans at all in the room, but there was an odd, cool comfort tingling against Asriel's soul. It wasn't something he'd felt before. For some reason, it made any worry he had for his siblings vanish.

He turned and made sure Papyrus was tucked in, then slipped onto the floor. He stretched his arms high above his head, popped his back, and then, very quietly, snuck out of the room.

From the top of the stairs, he could see Gaster was asleep on the couch, blackened arm draped over his eyes. There was only the softest of clamour from the kitchen. He walked on soft paws to the threshold between there and the living room, and peeked inside to see Toriel gently blowing flame over the top of a pot that smelled of dark sugar and butter.

His mother turned the moment he stepped onto the tile. He smiled bashfully and waved and she gave him a big, fangy grin so bright it took him aback. She shifted the pot off the heat and knelt down to pull him against her chest.

"Good morning, sweetheart," Toriel said quietly. She drew back to cup his face and stroked his floppy ears, then pressed her large, soft snout against his brow.

"H-Hi, mom," he said a little more shrilly than he intended. "You're, um, feelin' better, huh?"

"Oh, my child, I feel fine," she said. "I apologize for racing off last night, but—"

"No, no way, don't," Asriel said. "I totally get it. It's fine."

"You are very kind. But, I would just like to say, it was not anything you did. It was a wonderful revelation, but after the entirety of what happened yesterday, I was a bit overwhelmed."

"Of course, it was so much," Asriel said. "I can tell you all the rest, like I told dad and Gaster, okay?"

"Frisk told me quite a bit already, but I would love to hear what you have to say," his mother assured him. She tilted her head curiously. "Oh. How silly of me, I should have stayed a little longer."

"No, it's fine," he said.

Toriel looked upon him with a deep, melancholy fondness in her eyes. She took his small hand in both of hers. "And, after all that," she said quietly, "how are you feeling?"

"I... Well." He smiled sideways and shrugged. "Miss her, y'know? Always. But I just feel so... I dunno, relieved, I guess."

"You have no idea how glad I am to hear that, dear," she said. "She looked well, did she not?"

"Yeah, she did." Asriel smiled. "She, uh, wasn't quite as red as that in person, her eyes are still a little gold-ish. It's the ghost filter, or else she looked all weird on camera."

"So, the nature of her being is still... a little odd, then" Toriel wondered.

"I guess. She's still a ghost, kinda. But she's got a human body and a soul that has some time stuff to it. I dunno." He shrugged. "I don't think she knows, even."

Toriel nodded. She caressed his head. "As long as she is alright, it doesn't matter, does it?"

Asriel's eyes brightened. "Exactly."