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.
Ivan furrowed his eyebrows. "Aiden, you were just as clueless as me. Unless you lied to me." He sounded a little upset, but he tried to act like he wasn't.
"Huh? C'mon Iv, 'course I didn't know she was going to climb! I was also a little distracted." He rubbed the back of his neck. There was some cute girl at the library he often tried to get a look at when he was there, so he was reading while trying to see her, probably. That was Ethan's guess.
Ivan sighed. He could see through his brother's lies when he made them, but he was telling the truth, it seemed. "You know, I believe you. It's not unusual for you to be like this."
"Glad ya got faith in me." Aiden grinned, throwing his arm around him as they walked. "Anyway, is everyone on the surface doin' fine?" He looked to Ethan and Harmony. Emily too, but she was humming to herself and enjoying the scenery instead of paying much attention to the others. It wasn't intentional- Ethan was sure of that. Emily was the most extroverted of them all, but also the most easily distracted. Frisk was on Tessa's other side and was just staring at the flower.
Ethan nodded, playing with his gloves. "I mean, yeah, everyone's fine. But they're worried about you, Tess. I never heard any news about you or your brother, though. Sorry." He shrugged. He could only be so apologetic. It wasn't his fault he didn't know much about the pair.
"We only ended up here a few hours before ya, I'm not too surprised, ta be honest." Aiden admitted, eyeing Ivan to see if he was listening or if he was going to answer.
"Our mom likely believed we were at the park, so she didn't report us missing." Ivan explained, his face still in his notebook as he either drew or wrote something.
Tessa was quiet the whole time. It wasn't hard to tell she didn't seem convinced that she was being looked for.
"Tessa," Harmony tried to reason, "There's a lot of people on the surface who care about you and are upset you aren't around. Not just your father." She put her hand on her shoulder to reassure her. "Plus, you have the six of us. Doesn't that prove we care about you?" That was Ethan's best friend- caring, polite, reasonable- he loved her. No, he didn't mean romantically- she was just his best friend. It'd been that way for years. He didn't want to risk changing that over something like a crush. Not that he even believed he had one, right?
"I guess. But Olivia-" Tessa began in a mumble, staring at her shoes. All Ethan knew about Olivia was that she was Tessa's younger half sister. That was it.
"Isn't you." Frisk finished, gazing at Tessa with a smile. "Olivia might be awful. She might be a delight. None of us know. But she's not you, Tessa. It's you we care about."
"Yeah!" Emily finally piped after being quiet for such a long time. "We love you!" She beamed at her admirably. Tessa was probably closer to her than anyone else- she even promised to help find out more about her dad, Ethan had heard. From Harmony, that was. He didn't find out much on his own.
Despite being glad everyone was cheering Tessa up, Ethan cringed at how mushy everything felt at the moment. He hated trying to do the whole comforting thing with other people. "Yeah, love, affection, all that stuff. What they said." He didn't want to sound insensitive, but he also didn't like gooey, warm friendship crap. It felt like more of a fairytale or something than reality with all that talk. Then again, they _were_ living in a fairytale, almost. Monsters shouldn't have existed. He thought they were cool, but Harmony was always right about that. It all sounded too good to be true, but here they were in a world of them. It was paradise so far to him, though. He craved adventure and not constantly having to seek his parents' approval for everything he did. This was his freedom. He didn't want to stay here forever, no, but a vacation was what he needed. A vacation from his family, that was.
Luckily for him, Tessa didn't seem too bothered by the fact that he was trying to move away from all the affection. Harmony didn't even say anything, likely because she knew he squirmed at anything he found overly lovey dovey. The brothers just glanced at each other.
"Hey, what's-" Ethan was stopped from finishing his thought when a monster leaped at him. It was a huge frog with big eyes and a derpy frown.
"What the hell is this? Get it off me!" He whined, trying to push the frog off of him. He wanted to befriend monsters, not necessarily beat the crap out of them. Unless it was necessary.
"Aww, he's kind of cute!" Emily totally ignored Ethan's cries for help. Frogs were one of her favorite animals. She used to have a couple. Harmony turned and took a step forward, but he didn't look like he was in real danger, so she turned her face the other way in hopes that he wouldn't see how worried she'd been for a moment. Tessa looked to Aiden, as she was holding Flowey and was kind of used to him being the protector.
"That'd be a Froggit, he ain't that scary." Aiden went to pull the monster off of Ethan's chest. "Hey, bud, we're just tryin' to get back to Toriel. Would ya mind hoppin' away for now?" He asked politely when he noted the frog had too great of a grip.
The Froggit croaked and hopped away, leaving Ethan room to breathe and dust himself off. "Thanks. Do all the monsters do that?" He hoped not. The fact that he couldn't fend off a single Froggit made him disappointed in himself.
"Only when they don't know you that well." Ivan answered, "I mean, there's more than one of that species, but usually the other Froggits are friendly if you're nice to their friends. Aiden and I already met our fair share of Ruins monsters. This is just because the four of you haven't been around yet, I assume." He sounded so matter-of-fact that Ethan was almost pissed off at him. He wasn't a fan of know-it-alls, but he didn't want to get on Aiden's bad side. It couldn't be because he was scared! Harmony would just scold him about it, Tessa and Emily too, right? Ethan figured it was best not to make them upset... even though he was just a coward.
"Hey, check this!" Frisk craned his neck around the corner and pointed towards the bowl of candy. "TAKE ONE" was written on a sign behind the bowl.
Ethan took one, as suggested, but then took another few. It's not like anyone was watching and could murder him for taking extra candy.
"You feel like the scum of the earth." A voice whispered in his ear. Ethan jumped and turned around. It was Aiden, that dam- darn cowboy. Emily and Tessa giggled, Harmony grinned, Ivan even seemed amused. Flowey smiled, though it looked a little fake to him... and then there was Frisk.
The idiot was rolling on the ground laughing. Aiden kicked him with his foot lightly. "It wasn't that funny."
"Owwwwww!" Frisk put his hand to his face, "Dear cousin, you must avenge me! My corpse has been disrespected."
Harmony facepalmed. Tessa looked at the ceiling and pretended she heard nothing. Emily whistled.
Ethan, however, was taking a minute to catch his breath and put his hand on the edge of the fancy table for support. "Don't do that!" He huffed, but accidentally knocked over the whole table, shattering the candy bowl.
"You feel your sins crawling down your back." Frisk muttered with a smirk. Ethan looked like a kicked puppy. The abuse wasn't something he couldn't handle- he didn't mind being comic relief- but he hated feeling embarrassed, for sure. And that's kind of how he felt at the moment. At least, his face was so red that he seemed embarrassed. He'd shattered a candy bowl after all.
"Quit it!" He didn't mind that the girls were laughing at him. It was mostly Aiden and Frisk that really bugged him. He couldn't place why he was so angry at them, but maybe it was because he felt like a fool, and usually he was laughing with his friends, not being laughed at. It could've also been because they weren't his friends. Harmony, Tessa, and Emily were. But the others weren't. He didn't know them. At least Ivan wasn't laughing. He was simply standing off to the side awkwardly.
Ethan tried to brush it off. "Let's just go." He didn't really want to hear what else they had to say. Something unnerved him about breaking the bowl, even though it wasn't a big deal. It reminded him of home and now breaking things never mattered. But this wasn't home, and actions had consequences, he'd learned.
"The floor here is cracked," Ivan explained, stopping them before they could enter the next room. "There's a certain pattern."
"Yeah, right." Ethan rolled his eyes and decided to challenge that. Suddenly, the floor caved beneath him and he fell.
"Ethan!" Harmony called down. He landed on his butt, but his fall was at least cushioned by some leaves.
"He tried to warn ya." Aiden looked down the hole too. Harmony gave him a frown and shoved him a little away. "Is there a way back up?"
"There's a staircase." Ethan responded after looking around. "Just try to look at the pattern or whatever that Ivan was talking about."
"It's fairly elementary." Ivan turned towards the floor and started to step on a certain path all the way to a wall. "Then you turn right, walk to the wall, then you take a left, you stop right about here, and then you take another left, walk to the wall, walk out to about here, and then you simply go to the doorway."
Emily scratched her head. It was not elementary to her. It was just confusing.
"Just stay close to me." Tessa led the way to the wall and waited for Emily to follow.
"You can do it!" Flowey encouraged, giving her a cheerful smile. Ethan could barely catch his breath, but got back to the top of the steps and groaned.
"Alright, so..." He looked at the cracked ground. "Um... how do I do this?" He didn't actually know what Ivan was talking about at all when he was going on about lefts and rights.
Harmony sighed and grabbed his arm, trying to remember the path that got them across safely. She pulled him behind her and made a small misstep, which should've made her fall to the ground, but Ethan pulled her back onto the path before it could completely crumble.
She stared for a second and held onto his arm, trying to process what had happened. After a moment, she recollected herself, he guessed, because she went back to getting through the puzzle. Aiden helped Frisk through with no difficulty, and they were finally to the next room, much to Ethan's relief.
"Oh, we're getting a ring-" Tessa mentioned when Aiden and Frisk had just gotten over, opening the flip phone and putting it to her ear. "Toriel? Yes, we're okay... no, Aiden didn't hurt any monsters... maybe make both? We should be back soon... a few more humans are going to be staying with us, if that's okay? ...Good... oh... I can put them on..."
Before one of the others could take the phone, Ethan did, but he put it on speaker.
"Heyyyyyy! I'm Ethan!" He greeted, causing Toriel to chuckle.
"Nice to meet you, my child. There are more of you, correct? Or did I mishear?"
"I'm Frisk. Nice to meet you." Frisk fingergunned at the phone even though Toriel couldn't see him.
"I'm Harmony." The ballerina mentioned, playing with her bun and trying to fix it to no avail.
"And I'm Emily! It's great to meet you." The ecstatic young chef introduced, seeming already fascinated with what she probably assumed was a nice lady.
"I'm sure it will be a joy to meet all of you in person. Do all of you like pie? Besides Ivan, of course."
"You don't like pie?" Ethan asked in astonishment, raising both eyebrows. "It's so good!" He threw both hands in the air, thinking it would help prove his point.
"I wouldn't say I don't like it. But I have several allergies. Eggs, wheat, nuts, latex, penicillin, fish-" Ivan began to list, but Harmony couldn't help but cut him off once he'd listed several items.
"Your allergies prevent you from being able to have it. That makes sense." Harmony tried to look understanding and not like she was just trying to shut him up for everyone's sanity. Ethan was sure they were all giving each other headaches at this point.
"So Ethan... because you answered first, I would like to know. Butterscotch or cinnamon?"
"Butterscotch for the win!" Ethan cheered. He hadn't gotten pie in a while. It wasn't "refined" enough for his parents' taste, so it was rare for them to get it. His grandparents, however, didn't care much about how refined the taste of things were, so they often got food Ethan actually liked. Such as chicken nuggets!
"Alright, that's two votes for butterscotch and one for cinnamon..."
"Two other people voted?" Emily asked, confused, "Am I that spacey?"
"No, no, my child. Aiden and Tessa have both been very clear on their favorites. I would not forget what they are..." Toriel reassured with a soft voice.
"Cinnamon doesn't suck like butterscotch." Aiden stuck out his tongue at Tessa.
"We'll just see which one she makes this time. It was a tie last time and she chose butterscotch." Tessa declared with her own smile. Ethan hadn't seen her smile in... had it been that long? He suddenly felt a little more down for not noticing sooner. At least she was smiling now.
"I, for one, believe in butterscotch supremacy!" Frisk... sang? Tessa didn't even react to that. Maybe she was used to it?
"No, cinnamon sounds better..." Harmony disagreed, clearly feeling she had a right to state her opinion because Toriel was asking all of them.
"I like the idea of both!" Emily exclaimed. "A perfect balance. Cinnamon-Butterscotch pie!" She tried to do jazz hands. For once, her enthusiasm was infectious, because everyone couldn't help but agree on that.
"Butterscotch and cinnamon pie... what a marvelous idea! Does that sound good to all of you?" Toriel wanted to confirm.
"A pie combo? Count me in." Ethan rocked back and forth on his feet.
"I don't mind." Harmony couldn't help but add.
"I won't eat it anyways." Ivan mentioned almost miserably.
"Cool idea, Em! I like it!" Frisk gave his stamp of approval rather quickly.
Tessa and Aiden, on the other hand, did not say a word, just smirking at each other.
"Tessa, Aiden?" Ivan looked between them and raised an eyebrow. Oh dear. Ivan being judgy. That never ended well.
"Sounds good!" The pair chorused, both sweatbeading at Ivan's gaze.
"Butterscotch cinnamon pie it is! I cannot wait to see all of you in person... stay safe, alright?" After everyone said goodbye, Ethan hung up the phone.
"She seemed nice!" Emily already bounced ahead of the rest of them. Someone who could bake- she couldn't wait to meet her! Aiden and Tessa followed behind the rest of them, Tessa still holding Flowey in her arms, who hadn't been doing much except observing everyone until now, it seemed.
"This ain't over," Ethan heard Aiden comment from behind.
"You bet your boots it isn't." He heard Tessa joke right back at him. He closed his eyes and let everything sink in. Tessa was happy, Harmony was happy, Emily was happy- as long as his friends were okay down here, he was too.
A/N; If you read the original, you know i have an Ethan bias, but I tried to make his character a little deeper in the rewrite. Don't worry, he's still the same dimwitted hothead from last time, his temper flares are still gonna be in here haha. Harmony is still quiet as always but a little more... outgoing, I guess XD. I like her character here. Ivan's our awkward boy, Tessa shies away from the spotlight, Aiden thinks he's a cowboy, Frisk is a flirt, and Emily's just a cinnamon roll :p. Thanks for the read :D