Second Chance

7 - annoying company

Loud music blasted through their headphones as Frisk dug through their backpack, on the hunt for their house keys. Eventually finding them, they unlocked the door and opened it. They dropped their backpack on top of the shoe cabinet, reaching for the dirty clothes that resided in the bag. The loud tunes of cursed TikTok mashups drowned out any other impulses provided by the environment.

This, however, caused them to jump five foot in the air when they felt a tap on their shoulder.

"WHAT THE FUC-"

"Turn down the music, silly."

Frisk took off their headphones, turning around.

"You scared the hell out of me, Asriel!" The monster laughed.

"Well, sorry! You should try and develop some more spatial awareness."

"Maybe you shouldn't sneak up on people! Not everyone has superb hearing."

"Especially not with that trash playing at max volume."

Frisk pouted. They shoved their laundry in Asriel's paws. "If you're gonna insult me, at least make yourself useful while you do so."

"Ew, gross."

They giggled, making their way up the stairs. They opened the door to their bedroom, one that had remained empty throughout the weekend. Opening up their closet doors, their eyes peered through the mountains of clumsily folded clothing. Frisk grabbed a few clean changes.

As they stood in the doorway, they glanced back at the messy room. There was no extra bedroom available. Did that mean they had to share theirs with Chara? Or perhaps Asriel would share. Nonetheless, they'd have to clean it before the other human's arrival.

"Asriel?", they called out.

"Yeah?" His voice was muffled, indicating that he had in fact gone to the garage to put Frisk's washing in the machine. The human sped their way downstairs.

"Why are you here?" Asriel halted, turning around to face Frisk. A confused frown plastered his face.

"What do you mean? I live here, idiot."

"Not what I mean-" Frisk leaned against the doorframe. "I mean as in, why aren't you with Chara?"

"I have stuff to do here, too, you know." He turned on the washer, standing backup. He dusted off his knees.

"Who's with them?"

"... Sans..."

"SANS?!"

----

Chara stared blankly at the bushes of Alphys' backyard. The sun on their face most certainly felt nice, but it sadly did not fulfil the current desire they felt. Said desire, being peace and quiet.

"i win. again. you really suck at this.", the skeleton chuckled.

"Oh fuck this-", they muttered under their breath. Chara threw the remaining UNO cards on the table, pinching the bridge of their nose.

"now kid, don't let your mom hear you talk like that."

"Don't act like my dad."

Sans raised his hands in defense. "i'm just messin' with ya'. i'd think 'uno' me well enough."

Chara's face landed on the table. "I'm gonna kill myself."

"figured you of all people would be better at maintaining a 'poker face'"

"THAT ONE WASN'T EVEN CLEVER-!"

"Now, now, you two, what's with all this shouting?" Toriel's soft voice sang, as she walked out with a tray. There was a carafe on it, together with four glasses. Inside the pitcher rested a sickly yellow liquid.

"kid's a sore loser."

"I'M NOT-" Chara sighed again, pinching the bridge of their nose one more. "I'm not having this discussion."

"Nonsense, dear. Just ignore Sans, after a while that becomes like second nature.", Toriel giggled whilst sliding the human a bar of chocolate.

"Thanks, mom...", the muttered.

"ouch, your words go deep, tori."

"Oh quiet, you."

The glass sliding door opened, revealing Alphys. She was holding a folder, with another small stack of papers on top of said folder. She walked over to the terrace table, taking a seat as well.

"oh, is it serious chat time?"

Alphys nodded. "Yeah..."

Chara felt their stomach drop. Nothing was said yet, and yet this aching feeling gnawed at them. Was there something up with their recovery?

The scientist opened up the binder, scanning through the notes. "I-I think we should start out with the elephant in the room..."

"Go on.", Toriel said.

"Chara's recovery is going well, I-I even think they could go home soon." She tapped the papers. "But, uh..."

"Uh?", the human questioned.

Sans grabbed the binder, skimming through the page. "you don't exist, kid. as in, you legally do not exist."

"And that's a problem because...?"

"Well, you couldn't do anything." Alphys responded. "No job, no starting a family, it's not even a good idea to be outside the house."

"That can be arranged.", Toriel spoke. "We'll need to pull some strings, but... We can make it work."

"you're gonna falsify legal documents?"

"If we must."

Sans chuckled. "radical." His eyes darted back down to the paper. "seems to be the only big issue."

"Chara also doesn't have an education, and are too old to go to high school.", Alphys muttered.

The mentioned human took a bite of their chocolate bar. "It shouldn't be that hard to find a job. I think."

The faint noise of a ding-dong came from the inside of the house.

"i'll get it." Sans stood up, making his way inside.

"So what I take from this, is that we must forge some legal documents, and then Chara can come home with us?"

"You speak so lightly of forging literal legal documents.", Chara chuckled. "That's unexpected."

"As so is the job of a parent, my dear." The human frowned, a slight smile decorating their features.

"we got visitors." Sans smirked, pointing behind him.

"HELLO!"

The sound of a backpack being thrown to the floor echoed just slightly, as Chara got engulfed in a tight hug. They coughed.

"Frisk, no air-"

"Whoops, sorry." They grabbed the empty chair next to Chara, sitting down. "How was your day?" The dumbest of grins laid plastered on their face.

"Same as always." They looked over, finding the biggest of red bug eyes staring up at them. The attention flustered them, even if just the slightest. "W-What about you?"

"Same old, same old. I talked about you with Clover though!"

"You talked about me?"

Somehow, this got Chara even more flustered. It even started becoming visible.

"Well, yeah. They asked me what I've been up to the whole weekend, I can't just lie to them!" Frisk grabbed hold of Chara's arm as they spoke.

What on earth was this feeling? It was unlike anything Chara had experienced before.

"It was all positive though, I wouldn't worry too much."

It was like all of Frisk's words went into one ear and came out of the other. The inability to focus drove Chara mad.

The smaller continued yapping, yet it had come to a point where they couldn't even make sense anymore of what the other was saying. It was only when their own words left their mouth, they snapped back to reality.

"I'm coming home."