Um... Hey.

I don't know if you can read this

And I kinda doubt you even really care

And I get the feeling that that you won't really accept it anyway but

I'm sorry.

That's all.

Um.

I'll let you have your nice things again.

I'm sorry.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Frisk quietly rested against Chara. Her head ached a little, and her lungs still burned a little bit, even with Toriel's healing. Chara ran her hands slowly through her girlfriend's hair, unable to voice anything that might comfort her. It wasn't a dream… but it wasn't real. It was just… bad. And it hurt. But in the end, they still had each other.

Chara wasn't feeling much better, honestly. She could still taste the acrid buttercups in her throat, feeling a bit ill, though nowhere near as sick as she had been in the… thing.

"...I'm glad you're here with me." Chara finally whispered, burying her face against Frisk. The smaller girl finally cracked a smile, and snuggled closer to her.

"Me too." Frisk whispered. "I don't t-think there'd be a better place right now than with you."

"Flirt." Chara smiled.

"Y-you love it." Frisk giggled, weakly.

"No, I love you." Chara corrected, pressing her soft lips to Frisk's cheek, eliciting a blush from the smaller girl.

"Mmph." Frisk shyly hid her face in Chara's pajama top. Chara just giggled and held her close.

"It's okay." Chara murmured. "I know you love me too."

"Shoosh." Frisk huffed, but smiled to herself, snuggling closer. "We're supposed to be trying to sleep."

"I don't think I can sleep tonight." Chara sighed, her smile fading a little. "Not without nightmares."

"We still share dreams." Frisk mumbled, looking up at Chara. "S-so I mean- they're those "lucid dream" th-things anyway, right? So we can control them…"

"Maybe. But sometimes, I can't do that… Sometimes I'll have a nightmare, and it'll be lucid, but I still can't quite get out…"

"Then we won't sleep." Frisk nuzzled Chara comfortingly.

Ana was finally being lulled to sleep. The small girl's nose was still running, but other than that she was perfectly fine. Toriel lay the small girl into bed, humming quietly to herself as she tucked the little one in. She was still awake partially, and tugged at her surrogate mother's sleeve.

"It's gonna be okay this time." She mumbled simply, smiling at Toriel, before her grip loosened and she slipped into sleep. Toriel cradled her head for a moment, staring at the tiny girl, stroking her hair. Slowly, the motherly monster went out into the hall, closing the door. She closed her eyes, leaning on the wall for a moment, exhaling slowly. Toriel still wasn't sure what to think or do, but for now, she did what she could, and that was making sure her family was alright.

Except for Ana, no one was sleeping yet. Chara and Frisk were just sort of nestled together for comfort. Jamie was sitting wrapped in blankets next to a space heater, along with Tara, who had dried off and changed into warmer clothes, but her hair was still damp and slick, and she was shivering. Sam was polishing their glasses, and staring at their raggedy notebook, flipping through the pages and smiling at old notes and nostalgia, frowning at ones that brought less-than-happy memories. Jack was staring blankly at a blank piece of sketch paper, trying to find something to convince himself that nothing was wrong.

Only Alex seemed mostly unaffected by it all. He was humming faintly in the kitchen, making some comfort food for everyone. The truth of the matter was, perhaps he had simply not been hurt as badly as the others. He was only frightened of being alone. And so, the best thing for his own sanity was doing something for everyone else. Warm soup would certainly help, and some thick soft bread. Those who were still awake lined up, taking bowls and sitting around, eating softly.

"Are Frisk and Chara still awake?" Alex asked, undoing his apron strings with a flourish. "I got two more bowls here and I'd rather get it to them while it's still hot."

"I think so." Tara balanced her bowl in her lap, stirring and taking a bite. "Probably huddled together in their room."

Alex nodded, picking the bowls up and making his way to their room, rapping at the door. There was some shuffling, before Chara opened the door. Alex held out the soup.

"Here." He grinned. "It'll help."

Chara paused, before nodding and taking the bowls, leaving the door open as she set them on the desk.

"...So, uh, you two usually seem to be a touch more in the loop than anyone else." Alex chose his words carefully. "Do you… know what happened?"

Frisk shivered. "I h-haven't any idea. It was… a-angry. It was really angry and it knew everything about us."

Chara pulled some chairs up, sitting down at the desk and gesturing for Frisk to join her. The smaller girl stood and shuffled over.

"...Did it… talk to you?" Chara looked at Alex, brow raised.

"I don't think so?" Alex wasn't sure. Already the past… whatever it was was fading, more feelings than memories.

"...It whispered things." Chara looked down. "It said everything I didn't want to hear…"

Alex handed them spoons, chewing his cheek softly. "Hrm. And here I am thinking it was all just a bad dream…"

"It's gone now."

The three were startled by the tiny voice. Ana had entered the room. Alex scooped her up and onto his shoulders. "You should be asleep, sis."

"The thing is gone now." Ana insisted. There was a strange lilt to her voice. She sounded unfocused and a little distant. "The bad thing. It's gone. It was so angry…" She slumped over, lolling, sleepily.

Frisk shuddered.

Alex stared at Ana for a moment, before glancing back. "I'll just uh… Put her to bed…"

He slipped out, cradling the tiny girl. Frisk and Chara looked at each other, wordlessly, before returning to their soup, mulling over the very strange words that came out of Anastasia's mouth.

"She's… a very odd little girl." Chara mumbled.

"Y-yeah. But I d-don't think there's anything w-wrong with that."

"Well yeah." Chara nudged Frisk. "I mean I love you to bits and you're probably one of the weirdest people I know."

Frisk blushed hotly, and nudged Chara back, as she distracted herself by spooning soup rapidly into her mouth. Chara just smirked.

Jack had at some point slipped upstairs to his small room. He needed to calm himself. To channel what had happened into something else. Paint splashed on the canvas, black, with shades red and violets, creating a violent cacophony of color. Abstract, but still crafting an image of a figure, tall and chaotic, but desperate and broken all in one.

Jack decided to title the painting "Hate is a Prison.

Love is Freedom"

Papyrus had made it his immediate duty to make sure everyone was doing okay. He patrolled the house, peeking in rooms, giving out hugs and optimism. Certainly, he could be naive at times, and right now he was about as confused as anyone else but right now he knew if anything everyone needed some Papyrus-brand joy in their lives right now.

Everyone got a hug. Well, Jack seemed extremely uncomfortable with the idea of hugs so he got a head-pat, but everyone else got hugs. For once, when Papyrus picked Sans up, his older brother didn't fall asleep in his arms.

"WOW!" Papyrus looked at Sans, jaw setting into a concerned expression. "YOU MUST BE PARTICULARLY… RATTLED." The tall skeleton didn't mind puns. Just Sans's puns and puns that were directly influenced by the short skeleton.

Sans let out an honest chuckle at that. "guess it's been a rough… night. i think. it was bad."

"I WOULD HAVE TO AGREE." Papyrus set his brother on the floor. "IT IS IMPORTANT THAT WE ENSURE THE WELL BEING OF EVERYONE HERE!"

Sans looked up at his brother with a kind of delighted disbelief in his eyes. "...you're so cool bro."

Papyrus beamed.

Undyne snuggled right up to Alphys on the couch, both holding steaming mugs of tea, courtesy of Toriel. They were silent for a while, leaning close to one another. Alphys closed her eyes for a moment.

"...I don't um. Really know w-what happened, but this is… things feel good right now. It's… r-really weird."

"I kinda get it!" Undyne's fins twitched a little. "Like, uh… It just feels like we're okay, even with all of that crap. That… nightmare stuff." She shuddered. She wasn't easy to scare, but somehow the "nightmare stuff" had got right under her skin and had refused to leave until now.

"But… I feel like as long as we all stick together and take care of each other we'll be good! Like a good family!" She grinned wide, hugging Alphys fiercely, almost spilling both of their teas. "We're gonna kick this problem right in it's butt!"

Alphys laughed and nuzzled Undyne. "You're very f-fired up about this."

"NGAHHH!"

"Shhh! You'll wake everyone else up!"

Sam and Tara sat together, Sam quietly braiding Tara's hair. It was good to do something with their hands, even if it was something as small and silly as this. Tara seemed to like having her hair messed with, so it was a mutual calming technique. Sam was quiet, but Tara was babbling. Sam wasn't really listening too much, but Tara didn't mind. She knew they were absorbed in thoughts. Tara didn't really have anything to talk about. She just needed to get the words out.

"Sorry am I talking too much, I can slow down, I know I sometimes talk too much..."

"No." Sam smiled at her. "The noise is good." They made a light hum as they adjusted the braid a bit. "...This is nice. Doing sibling things."

"Yeah! We need to do more sibling things. All of us." Tara grinned, nodding quickly. "We're all into super different stuff though so it's kind of hard. But we seem to get along at least!"

"Mhm." Sam nodded. "...You got a favorite?" They teased, joking slightly.

"Aww, I could never pick a favorite! I love all of you dorks!"

Sam smiled. "...That's… actually really nice."

"Nice is just something good that we all have."

"...I guess that's one way to see it... But... I like that."

Chara stroked Frisk's hair quietly. The shorter girl had fallen asleep after finishing off Alex's soup. It was a quiet, peaceful sleep.

"...I think we're going to be okay." She smiled at Frisk, drawing her close and nuzzling her fondly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

It's not over yet

But it's close.

Sorry for the wait.

Goodnight everybody.