A/N: I'm on a roll! Here's another chapter!

Guest: Thanks!

A: Thanks, me too! I really like this setup.

offbrandbiscuit: I like to imagine their voice when they say stuff. It helps a bit. I wanna see how this turns out, too! I have a few endings in mind but like, the journey to getting there is the most important thing in this story.

Ch2: Spaghetti

When I popped out of the ground again, I was in the middle of a snowy forest. For a moment, what happened before felt like some kind of dream… and I almost wanted it to be. The silence hurt, but it was safe, it was familiar in the Underground. Not only did I want the world to move on without me, but I was also scared to ever try otherwise. I took a moment to breathe in the remaining magic in the air- already so little from before everyone was trapped.

"What now? Should I really kill them? I don't have to take their soul, but then they'll just reload their save file and try to convince me? No, no…" I muttered, agitated, "Go to the surface?" I scoffed, "Why do they want to do so much for me…?" I didn't have an answer for that. But… maybe I would figure out eventually.

I should follow them like I did with Frisk. They're unstable… someone has to keep an eye on them! I realized. I ducked back underground and popped up near where they were last time. Chara was walking rather unsteadily, sometimes tripping in the snow and falling but they stood right back up. Did I hurt them more than I thought I did? I wondered, but kept my distance as they lumbered to the skeleton brothers' house and let themselves inside.

Not having soil to dig through wouldn't stop me, but I went for peeking through a window instead. Chara was rubbing their arms and made a 'brbrbrbr' sound before going into the kitchen. I watched them take some raw noodles out of a cabinet, grab a pot, and climb on the counter to reach the extra-tall sink so they could fill it with water.

Are they making spaghetti…? I thought, my mouth open in distaste and confusion. I watched them carefully get off the counter and put the pot on the stove before turning it on. In a previous iteration, I had actually taught Papyrus how to make spaghetti. He ended up being so good at it that we ended up opening up a restaurant, but of course something like that didn't give me any satisfaction. Just made me feel tired. Thus another reset.

But… this 'Chara', at least, had some emotions. If I could prevent them from getting bored… wouldn't everyone else be happy? Either way… I was calmer now. I needed to talk to them.

"Ha da da da da, spider dance, spider dance, spider dance…" Chara was singing something under their breath while they cooked some noodles, and went to the fridge to grab a jar. While they were focused on examining the red sauce inside, I worked my roots under the house, quietly through the floor, and ducked down to pop out of the carpet.

Chara was eating the spaghetti Papyrus left behind with their hands, making a really weird face. Yeah, that was this iteration's Papyrus's cooking alright.

"You do know there's forks in there, right?" I spoke up, causing them to jump.

"Ah! Geez, who the heck puts BANANAS into spaghetti sauce!" Chara exclaimed, and then laughed in that nervous way from earlier, "Hehehahaha!"

I ignored their ranting and got down to business. "What are your plans now?"

"Uhhh…" Chara blinked, and scratched their head, "Well, I honestly wasn't expecting you to say no when I offered my soul to you, so… I guess I'm gonna eat something warm and then take a nap. Annnd thennn, I dunno. This body probably has another eighty years before it kicks the bucket, so really it's only a matter of time before you fuse with me!" They grinned.

"Okaaaay… Why are you so obsessed with this fusion thing?" I asked carefully, frowning. Chara was showing echoes of my Chara again… and I didn't want to lose my cool again.

"There's a number of reasons." Chara put the jar down and went to the boiling pot of noodles. They searched through the cabinets, and then tossed a bone of all things into the pot, "First of all: I'm afraid of dying. Leaving this beautiful world behind to go into the unknown when my body perishes? No thanks. Fusing with you would at the very least, I guess, make us immortal. Since you have the dust of a Boss Monster."

"But you have save points. You can reset." I pointed out.

"That's not gonna work." Chara said simply, "I'm going to go crazy if the world repeats again and again."

A bit too late for that. I thought drily.

Chara continued, "I like not knowing stuff. I like the… progression of things. And with you, I can see even more of this world."

"Why pick me, then? Why not fuse with… Toriel or Asgore?"

"Because. Everyone's had their happy ending except for you."

There was a quiet that passed over between us as I took that in. Chara picked up a wooden spoon to stir the noodles.

"I do not deserve a happy ending after everything I've done." I said with absolute certainty, "And who's to say… you of all people would make me happy?! You're wearing the BODY of my BEST FRIEND!" The floorboards creaked as my roots grew in size in response to my agitation.

"Aren't you happy, Flowey? Aren't I a welcome change to the desolation of loneliness?" Chara snickered cruelly, "If you don't like it…" They trailed off, and seemed distant for a moment, before looking at me. The floors shrieked loudly in protest, my roots writhing nervously at that too-calculative stare.

"I… I'm just saying cruel things in hopes that you'll lose your cool and kill me, but I don't think that'd… make you happy?" Chara said, looking away and shuffling in place as they scratched their head, suddenly looking for all purposes an awkward teenager, "I can change this body… these clothes, too. But I gotta go to the surface to do that. Through all my resets, there's only been children's clothing down here, so I don't think anything will fit me."

Even if I didn't trust this entity, I slowly calmed again as they spoke.

"What I'm trying to say is, um, I'm sorry for… um. Yeah. I'm sorry." Chara flashed an unsure smile, "Sorry for making you more unhappy?"

… I didn't know what to make of this idiot. Then again… they had always been unpredictable.

"Apology not accepted." I said cheerily, then angrily, "You Chara rip-off!"

Chara looked blankly at me for a moment, their eyes widened slowly, and they looked away, pressing their lips together as they looked to their cooking. A tense silence passed. Their breathing got uneven.

"Are you crying?!" I asked, and snickered cruelly. Those had to be crocodile tears!

"Aw man, I guess I am. I'm not real good with rejection." Chara said with a smile and shrug through their tears, and turned off the stove to grab a bowl. They scooped the noodles out carefully with their wooden spoon, into the bowl.

Maybe… those tears were genuine? I couldn't feel what they felt, though, but their sniffling was getting on my nerves.

"Hey, quit crying!" I protested, "If you were really sincere about that apology… then don't reset, no matter what happens!" I extended an olive branch, completely in the spur-of-the-moment…

"I promise I won't reset, then!" Chara said, looking to me fiercely, and then smirked, "Do you want to write a contract? Maybe in blood? I'll-"

"You. Are NOT. Hurting yourself!" I snapped angrily. Apparently they had taken that branch, but I still didn't trust them! "Although, a contract would be... nice."

"Great!" Chara sniffled and their evil-playful grin turned into a genuine smile. They then poured Papyrus's spaghetti into their bowl.

"What the heck?! You're wasting perfectly good noodles!" I protested.

"I need seasoning or I will die."

"I thought it was your goal to die."

"Dying might be my goal, but I was never good at it." Chara snickered, stirring the unholy noodle concoction with their hands, "You want some?"

"Heck no!"

"Cool, more for me." They shoved some noodles into their mouth with their hands like some kind of… brute.

"You're gross."

Chara stuck their tongue out at me and kept chewing.

"So... where are we going to write this contract down?" I asked.

"Oho, eager to leave are we?" Chara said, wiping spaghetti sauce on their pants, "Perhaps on some walls? To set in both figuratively and literally in stone." Great, now they were making puns. "Hey, don't give me that look! Symbolism is real important in a world like this. With your vines, we could carve letters into the walls easily, right?"

"Yeah… and probably cause a cave-in! This place is hardly being held together by the remaining magic as we speak!" I pointed out.

"Oh… well, then I'll just record it on my phone." They flipped out a phone and tapped through it, "Alphys left some niiice stuff behind." They explained to my unspoken question.

"Let's figure this contract out, first. So… I want some ground rules, and consequences for breaking them." I said carefully, "Hey! Don't look so excited, you freak! It's something that needs to be unpleasant."

"Dying's pretty u-" I gave them a look, "Okay, okay, I'll shut up." Chara corrected themselves, "What are some good punishments… um. Maybe being locked up somewhere? Oh, but you want to be locked up somewhere."

A bitter silence passed.

"We're just gluttons for punishment." Chara concluded, and put the phone down. It was recording a blank video, which was fine because it just needed our voices, "How about if we break a rule, we have to do something that the other says to do? No questions asked?"

"I… I guess that would work. Within reason, of course." I didn't want to be at this freak's mercy, and neither did they, it seemed? "Like... if you broke a rule, I'd tell you to sit in the corner for a few hours." I tried to make it seem light, "And the punishments can't break the rules we put down either."

"Okay, Asriel!"

I flinched at the sudden name, in Chara's too-cheery voice. This was going to get some getting used to…

"First of all, you can not do anything that willingly hurts yourself." I said seriously. I was not going to have them poison themselves ~~again~~.

"Accepted." Chara said, "This rule applies to you, too!"

"Fine. Don't try to make me… angry, on purpose, to get to hurt you, too." I added. That whole almost-strangling them was… unpleasant.

"Accepted."

"And no resetting! I mean, I guess you can still SAVE if you come across a SAVE POINT."

"Sure!"

"And… if we go ever go to the surface, just call me 'Flowey' in public, okay? Asriel is fine otherwise." I muttered, and glared at their hopeful look, "I SAID 'IF'."

"Oooookay. Anything else?"

"If... we ever run into Frisk… run the other way." I said reluctantly.

"I think that violates rule 1." Chara said. I flinched. They were right… I wanted to see Frisk again, as selfish as that was.

"I… I don't care! Make an exception!"

"No exceptions~." Chara sang, "How about… we disguise ourselves, instead? I can cut my hair, change my clothes, and I can also dye your petals if you want."

"You'll have to change your name, too."

"Hmmm… codenames, eh? I don't want to risk picking out my name. Pick one for me!"

I blinked. "Huh?! Well… whatever. Hmmm… would 'Freak' suffice?" I snickered.

"No." Chara stuck out their tongue at me again.

"Hmmm… then how about…" We went through a list of names. Chara was awfully picky, and the recording went way past the 10 minute mark…

"Robin?" I suggested. Chara tilted their head back as forth, spaghetti sauce carelessly everywhere, and then finally nodded.

"I like that one. Sparrow would be cool too, but Robins have a redder motif, sooo..." They went on discussing the symbolism of bird names to themselves, and I tuned them out.

"Cardinal." I tried.

"No way. That's like calling me a priest or something. I'll go with Robin." Chara finally decided. I sighed in relief, until Chara suddenly frowned and yelled at the ceiling, "You hear THAT world? IT'S A CODENAME! My real name is CHARA, and my codename is ROBIN!"

"... So do you have any rules you want to add?"

"Yeah! One!" Chara's eyes were full of light as they pointed at me and declared, "You're not allowed to leave my side!"

I blinked, again, and then frowned. For one, someone wanted me around… but for two, this someone was sketchy at best.

"What does 'be by your side' entail, exactly?" I asked.

"Well… I want to travel with you, so I need to make sure to keep track of you somehow. We can get another phone for you to use so we can keep in touch, in case we get separated."

"... I guess, I decided from the beginning I came here… that you'd be my responsibility." I admitted. The surprise on their face was faintly amusing, "You're the final threat, after all."

"Exactly. And I'll take care of you, too." Chara said simply.

"So this last rule would be... 'take care of one another'. Right. Anything else?"

"Nah. I wanna take a shower… then a nap. And then we can do whatever we want, then." Chara tapped the phone to stop recording and tucked it back into their pocket, "Sound good?"

"Sure..."

"Oh, I'll probably need a flower pot to carry you around in…" Chara muttered as they got up onto the counter holding a bunch of utensils. Their foot slipped and I reacted, my roots springing through the kitchen floor to catch them safely, "Oh, hey. Thanks. Mind lifting me up to the sink?" For some reason, I lifted them up, a dull look on my face no doubt. "You're the best, dude." They started washing their dishes.

"Why are you so clumsy?" I asked irritably.

"Not used to this body, plus I probably have hypothermia or something? I sort of fell asleep in the snow earlier…"

I stared at them. "Why the heck did you fall asleep in the snow?"

"Getting here was really exhausting, even with determination fueling me."

"..." I closed my eyes and called up my magic. Fireballs appeared around Chara, and I watched them carefully in case they like… decided to hurl themselves into them.

"Hey, thanks Asriel."

I grunted in reply. I had a bad feeling that I was going to be babysitting…

Sans and Papyrus's house on the surface was not, luckily, surrounded by helicopters and tanks like Frisk feared it would be. Still, it didn't mean they could relax! There was a man in a black suit waiting at the door, however, looking at his phone. Frisk straightened out their crumpled pajamas the best they could.

"Heya. You Pap's new 'friends'?" Sans greeted the suited man, who looked up. The stranger's sunglasses hid his expression, but his gaze immediately turned to Frisk.

"Are you Frisk, the Hero of Monsters?" The man asked. Frisk made a face.

"I don't… have or want a title like that. But yes, my name is Frisk." Frisk said.

"Please come inside..." The suited man opened the door.

"So who are you guys? The mafia or something?" Sans asked.

"We'll explain inside-"

The door suddenly opened, and there was Papyrus, grinning at the three of them. He had a chef's hat on and an apron that said 'kiss the cook' in bone-font.

"GREETINGS FRISK, SANS! COME ON IN! I MADE BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI FOR EVERYONE."

There were groans of displeasure heard inside, and past him barely holding themselves upright were a few people in black suits holding their mouths, to Frisk's great amusement.

"SEE! THE OTHERS ARE SOBBING WITH JOY AT MY FANTASTIC COOKING."

Sans eye-grinned as he walked inside, and Frisk was soon to follow.

"HUMAN STEVE!" Papyrus called, making the door guard jump, "WOULD YOU LIKE SOME BREAKFAST SPAGHETTI YOURSELF?"

"N-no thank you. I already ate."

"ALRIGHT! HAVE FUN BEING OUTSIDE." The door was slammed shut and Papyrus faced Sans and Frisk, hands on his hips, "THE HEAD OF THIS NEW FRIEND CREW IS IN THE LIVING ROOM. I THINK HE WANTS TO MEET YOU, FRISK!"

"I'll go meet him." Frisk said.

"Hey, bro, whaddya make this time?" Sans asked, and Papyrus went into loud detail of what 'glorious experimental pasta' he went into this time as Frisk walked down the hallway and to the right. The room was full of people in suits in different states of wear- some were eating an odd syrup-y spaghetti covered in m&ms, some were leaning on the wall clutching their stomach, some were laying their heads on the table… but the one at the end of the table clapped his hands, and all the suited men snapped and straightened to attention.

"You must be Frisk." The head man said, standing up and walking around the table to offer his hand. He was tall and had a professional air about him, but Frisk reminded themselves that these people had practically dragged them out of bed. "My name is Gabriel Ward. I am the head of the Order of Monster Affiliations, the OMA for short."

Frisk reached out and shook the guy's hand, but then let go and crossed their arms.

"What is it, Mr. Ward?" They demanded quietly. Mr. Ward went on to explain their purpose- they were a secret government organization that wanted to protect and help monsters integrate with humans, they conducted research on souls, they were sorry that they had to drag Frisk out of bed but it was really important, yadda yadda yadda. At some point they ended up sitting at the table. Frisk listened politely, but eventually…

"What do you need from me?" Frisk interrupted.

"Your friend, Papyrus… has made a 'puzzle' right in the middle of a major highway, somehow. This puzzle has about forty people trapped in a cross-dimensional labyrinth. About thirty people have made their way out and it seems completely safe, but it is still an inconvenience for the rest of the public… Now, before you have any doubts, we know that Papyrus has made this puzzle because there were statues saying 'I am the great Papyrus' at every dead end."

"This is the third time this week…" Frisk grumbled... although the puzzle at their school's hallway was pretty amusing when it stumped a lot of people and they solved it with ease, "Okay, I'll tell him to move it elsewhere."

One of the OMA goons was eating spaghetti with his shaking hand holding his fork, and another agent gently put his hand over the other's to ease his hand back down and patted his back reassuringly. Behind his sunglasses, the agent at the table was crying.

"I also called you here for another reason… We have heard of you from every monster we've interviewed, and you've made great steps in monster and human relations. You are a natural ambassador, Frisk… and we want to offer you a place within our ranks." Mr. Ward said.

"Mr. Ward, I'm not interested," Frisk replied immediately, "My status does not let me join any sort of organization. I operate best on my own with my monster friends."

"I thought you might say that. Then let me make another offer, a favor, mostly-"

"HUMANS! ARE YOU READY FOR THE GREAT PAPYRUS'S BRUNCH SPAGHETTI!" Papyrus burst in, bowls of pasta in hand on huge cookie sheets. The goons groaned in reply, and Papyrus took that as an affirmation, "BEHOLD! THE GREAT PAPYRUS'S SERVING TECHNIQUE!" His hands moved dizzyingly, and bowls of spaghetti were tossed out like playing cards, sliding in place to every person sitting at the table with forks in each. Somehow, not a single drop was spilled. "AH! I DIDN'T FORGET ABOUT YOU AS WELL, WALLFLOWERS!" Somehow, Papyrus also slid bowls across the air to the OMA goons trying to hide in the wall. "DO ENJOY. I'M OFF TO SERVE THE OTHERS!" He strode right to the kitchen.

"Thanks Papyrus." Frisk wiped a tear of mirth from their eye and the goons started to eat. They didn't touch the spaghetti. That stuff was dangerous... and somehow very addicting, recently.

"Ahum." Mr. Ward cleared his throat, "As I was saying, I would like for you to teach some of my agents your ways to deal with monsters. We would pay you handsomely for this, of course, just name your price."

"You do realize how busy I already am, right?" Frisk said. Mr. Ward gave an apologetic smile.

"I know this is a heavy burden on you, especially when you are so young."

"I'll have to let the others deal with the monster problems for a while, then… Every day after school, I have a friend club. You guys can join, okay? Just tell the school that you have my permission. I'll confirm it."

"Ah, I apologize for this criticism, Hero Frisk, but will the school really-"

"I have connections, Mr. Ward." Frisk said simply, "Is that everything you needed from me?"

"I… yes. Thank you for your cooperation. Here's to a better future for mankind and monsters. Here is my contact info, should you ever need me." Mr. Ward bowed his head and handed him a card with OMA written on it, and Frisk smiled, their 'tough' facade gone for a moment.

"Thanks. I want a better future, too." They said, taking the card, and stood up, "Paaapyyyyruuus! We need to relocate one of your puzzles on the highway!"

"WHAT?! THAT HIGHWAY HAD PLENTY OF VOLUNTEERS THAT HAD THE HONOR OF WITNESSING MY GREATNESS!" Papyrus protested.