The cleanup crew had mostly fallen apart once the monsters got back, partly because they were almost done anyways, and partly because it was a noisy job and it was getting late. The city might not care much about destruction of property, but boy did they ever enforce noise ordinances.

Chara had been strangely silent since you'd noticed everyone's presence and invited them inside for dinner. Actually, not just them. The monarchs were quiet as well and even Fuku and Sans, who always had something to say to fill the silence, hadn't made a peep since you began dishing up food.

"How were the festivities?" You finally asked, hoping someone would just say something.

"BoRiNg As UsUaL." Temmie grumbled as he snatched his plate from you and trotted over to the table. You raised an eyebrow at him, but he didn't seem too keen on continuing the thought.

You dished up plates for everyone else as the monarchs tried to fill the empty air with platitudes about the nice weather. Had something happened during the celebration, were they just uncomfortable talking about it with you, or had you offended them in some way by not going?

"You didn't play any of the games, Temmie?" You pressed when the silence began to stretch again.

The small monster scowled at you as well as he could with his mouth full of food before swallowing and shaking his head. "WhY bOtHeR? If ChArA iSn'T gOiNg To PlAy, WhY sHoUlD i HaVe To?" He immediately went back to scarfing his food as the teen, as if expecting the conversation to turn, shoved a forkful of their own meal into their mouth.

"Chara?" You questioned anyways. "You love those games." It sounded presumptuous to say that you knew they liked yard and children's games, but with how often you'd caught them playing croquet with Temmie, you didn't think it that much of a stretch.

The silence stretched as Chara refused to answer you. You poked them through your magical bond, but the only thing that resulted in was Chara slamming it closed as quickly as they could.

The sudden silence from the bond actually made you flinch. It wasn't the same as when you travelled and the bond slowly stretched and faded over time as the distance between the two of you grew. It was sudden, almost as if a part of yourself had suddenly been ripped away from you. If your magic could feel pain, you were certain this was what that would feel like.

The silence stretched far beyond the bond. The monarchs were melancholically quiet, Sans seemed to be struggling with trying to find anything to say, and Fuku was practically accusatory in her silence. It was maddening just how much you'd come to depend on the noise that your family provided, and it scared you when that silence was so all-encompassing. Especially now, when you were at home.

Chara winced at your reaction while the monsters present startled from it, yet everything remained painfully silent. Suddenly full, despite not having even eaten a single bite yet, you excused yourself from the table and went up to your room.

You didn't get far once you were up the stairs. You slumped against the wall for a few seconds before turning and sliding to the floor with your back to the wall. What happened? Had you done something to upset them?

That wasn't how you had wanted dinner to go. You wanted to excitedly share stories of the week and laugh at Chara's and Sans's inevitable antics at Surfacing Day.

With a sigh, you buried your head in your knees.

The buzz of Chara's magic didn't return.

You didn't know how long you had spent in the maddening silence when your door opened, creating precious noise. It could have been ten seconds, it could have been ten hours. Did it matter?

Sans's hard armor clanked, brushing against the wall as he moved to sit beside you. His bony arm wrapped around your shoulders and drew you close, and suddenly there was a much quieter buzz that you weren't sure if you heard or felt. Again, you were unsure how long you spent with your ear up against him, just listening.

"Did something happen?" You eventually inquired, still not moving your head away from the comfortable hum he put off.

"THEY REGRETTED NOT GOING WITH YOU, AND ENDED UP SAYING…WELL…NOT NICE THINGS. ASGORE AND TORIEL TRIED TO ADMONISH CHARA FOR IT, BUT THEY…" He trailed off hesitantly, as if afraid to say the next part. He didn't continue, instead uttering a quiet apology. You didn't press the issue. Hopefully Chara would tell you when they were ready. "IT ENDED THE WHOLE CELEBRATION ON A RATHER SOUR NOTE. NOBODY'S IN THE BEST MOOD RIGHT NOW. I'M SORRY I DIDN'T EVEN THANK YOU FOR DINNER."

"It's fine. Dinner wasn't the important part anyway." You replied quietly. Neither of you spoke again, but it was fine. The silence was kept at bay by Sans.

Eventually, the door opened again. A crackling joined Sans's hum as Fuku slipped down on your other side to lean against you, filling the quiet air with even more calming noise. You felt yourself relaxing farther into Sans's embrace.

Shortly thereafter, you heard the front door open and close before your door opened yet again. The louder buzz of Chara's magic made itself known to you apologetically as the teen crawled up the stairs and into your lap. Before, their sound might have drowned out Sans's and Fuku's, but now that you were already accustomed to them you could hear them even under Chara's noise.

You didn't know it was possible to feel this relaxed without also being about to fall asleep. You felt as though your eyelids should be drooping, but you had no trouble keeping them open despite the lethargy that had overtaken the rest of your body.

'I'm sorry.' Chara's magical voice startled you into jumping a bit, confusing half the cuddle-pile, but you relaxed again quickly. 'I was wrong, but at the same time I kind of think I wasn't.'

'That's fair.' You replied. 'Things are rarely black-and-white.'

'Unless you're colorblind.' Chara attempted to joke. They were quiet again for a moment before continuing. 'I wasn't sure what to choose, and Toriel gave me an easy way out. I shouldn't necessarily have taken it the way I did though. After we got that picture from your sister and I walked on that pond though…I…blamed her for it. It was petty, probably, but I did it anyway.'

You hesitated for a second before admitting, 'It might be petty, but I blamed her too.'

Chara seemed to gain some confidence from this, even if their tone remained somber. 'I didn't talk to her at all for, like, two days. I didn't play any games because I was throwing a tantrum and wanted to be with you instead. I actually wished I had made a time lock so I could change my decision.'

A smile crept up on your face unbidden. 'Learning from our mistakes is part of growing up Chara. Sometimes, even you have to face the music. Even if the consequences amount to nothing more than our own feelings of regret.'

'Regret huh? I suppose so.' Chara paused again, the silence stretching long enough to startle you when they began magically speaking again. 'I apologized to Toriel already. I know it wasn't fair to take it out on her the way I did. But I doubt she forgives me yet. I said…some bad things.'

'She will, in time. You're in an emotionally hectic time in your life. I'm certain Toriel understands that. It isn't like you killed someone or anything. At the end of the day, words are the easiest of offenses to forgive a teenager for.'

Chara chuckled. 'How are you so good at this? Did you take parenting classes when I wasn't looking?'

'Nah. I was just a much worse kid than you.' You had intended it to be a teasing phrase, but Chara actually turned their head to view you properly, eyes unreadable. 'I had way more of these talking-tos from adults at the academy. After a while, you end up memorizing the whole lecture.' You added, trying to clarify.

'You don't think much of yourself, do you _?' They questioned. You were caught off guard before realizing what they meant: you couldn't lie when talking this way, even if the statement was meant as a jest. You had to truly believe it.

You struggled to answer them. If you said you did, it would be a lie. If you said you didn't, that wouldn't quite be true either. 'I like to try to look at myself as realistically as possible.' You finally managed. It didn't answer much of anything.

'What does that mean to you?' Chara pressed.

'I know what I'm a failure at, and sometimes even why. I know what I'm good at.' You mused. That still didn't really answer the question though, and you both knew it. Chara waited patiently this time for you to formulate an answer. 'I don't really know. I was a bad kid, even if I did have a perfectly good reason to be one. There's quite a few things I ended up regretting from before three years ago. I'm still not in the greatest of headspaces. But I also know that I turned out to be an okay kind of person.'

'Not just 'Okay'.' Chara argued. 'You're a great kind of person.'

'I don't think I'm quite as great as the idealized image you have of me.' Knowing that they wouldn't be able to convince you, but also knowing that hearing them say it made you happy, they let it drop.

Fuku snuggled into you comfortably on the opposite side of you as Sans. You seemed to be actually enjoying the quiet for a change, so she decided not to break it. She could feel you relax even further as the three of you cuddled before Chara came up.

It was so easy to tell when the two of you began having a conversation, even if she and Sans couldn't hear what either of you were saying to each other. Thanks to the close proximity, the silence, and her own closeness to you on an emotional level, she could feel the tiny pulses your Souls were sending each other as communication.

It really was like an encounter in that way. A quick glance at Sans told her that he could definitely feel it too. He seemed to be straining to sense them though, and Fuku took a bit of pleasure in that, even if it was less than fitting to. After all, you were hers long before you were his.

Still, it wasn't like she begrudged Sans the closeness to you. She had her own love life as well, and neither had caused any rift between the two of you as friends.

Your conversation extended for quite a while, but the position was comfortable enough that nobody moved much or complained. Fuku almost found it odd that whenever the two of you spoke to each other in this way, despite you describing it as absolutely honest and literally with your Souls, you never projected what was said. It was almost as though with a proper recipient for the thought to go to, your Soul saw no reason to tell anyone else about it.

The way you projected, though, was so rare it was hard to truly understand. To the extent of her knowledge, you were literally the only integrity human that did it and was close enough to monsters for it to be noticed. Even other people with Soul flashes like yours didn't project, but Undyne had theorized that was because you were integrity, while the others they'd managed to observe were not.

The pulses of your conversation faded slowly. Both your and Chara's breathing had deepened, even while you were still talking, so it didn't quite occur to Fuku until you literally fell over that the two of you had fallen asleep.

With a smile, she and Sans tucked the two of you into your bed before heading downstairs. "It occurs to me…" Fuku mused aloud, breaking the long silence finally, "that at the end there, they were literally sleep-talking." Sans's snort made her laugh.