Chapter Text
“Chara?” Asriel asked, whispering so that his parents couldn’t hear. “Chara? Can you hear me?” He grabbed her hand to keep his own from shaking. “I don’t like this plan anymore, Chara. Please, wake up.” Her hands were warm and slick with sweat. She didn’t respond. “I know I said I’d never doubt you, but…” tears began to fall from Asriel’s face, “but I don’t want to hurt anyone, Chara. I don’t think I can. Please, just… wake up and we’ll figure out something else. Please?”
“I do not understand, Asgore,” Toriel whispered in the hallway. Asriel overheard her. “No matter how much green magic I flood her system with, the illness comes back in full force. It is like I am not affecting the source of the disease at all. If we cannot figure something out soon, I…” Asgore wrapped his arm around Toriel as she tried to hold back tears. An idea clicked in Asriel’s brain.
“I think she ate something bad,” Asriel said quickly. His parents turned around to look at him. “She ate something just before she got sick. Maybe the bad food keeps hurting her.”
Toriel walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder. “Asriel, why did you not mention this before?”
The prince glanced away. “...I didn’t think it was important.”
Toriel immediately marched away. “Asgore, bring me a bucket,” she commanded, and the king rushed off as well. Toriel returned with a small bottle of some liquid medicine and Asgore with a metal pail. “Sit her up,” Toriel said, and Asgore propped Chara up with his hands. Carefully, the queen tilted Chara’s head back and opened her mouth.
“Mom, what are you doing?” Asriel asked.
“If the toxin is indeed in her stomach, this should help her expunge the poison from her body,” Toriel said, using a dropper to trickle a few drips of dark fluid down the human’s throat. Asgore held out the bucket, and a few seconds later, Chara vomited up a thick, yellowish paste. Toriel resumed using her green magic.
After a few long moments, Toriel looked up at Asgore with tears in her eyes. “It worked, Gorey,” she said. “Her fever is breaking.”
Asgore sighed with relief and sat next to Asriel on the other bed in the room. “Son, you may have just saved your sister’s life.” Asriel smiled and nuzzled into his father’s side, giving Chara a concerned glance. She was going to be furious with him when she woke up.
...That was a price he was willing to pay.
“You two should go get some rest,” Toriel said. “It has been a long night so far.”
“No no, sweetheart,” Asgore said, walking over to her and rubbing her back. “You must be exhausted from expending so much magic. I may not be as proficient in healing as you, but… if her condition has stabilized, I should be able to take it from here. We can take shifts! But for now you and Asriel deserve some sleep.”
“Oh, alright,” Toriel sighed, letting Asgore replace her healing hands with his own over Chara’s unconscious form. “Come along, Asriel. It is far past your bedtime.”
“Mom,” Asriel groaned as his mother led him away to his parent’s bedroom. She turned off the lights and they both snuggled into the covers.
Chara was still unconscious the next morning - Toriel was there with her; apparently Asriel had slept through his parents changing shifts. Luckily, the human looked much better than she had the night before; her skin wasn’t nearly as flushed and her breathing was deeper and slower. She looked like she was asleep, rather than dying.
“Good morning, my child,” Toriel smiled as Asriel walked in the room. Asriel could see the fatigue on her face as Asgore walked towards the kitchen to make breakfast for everyone.
Asriel knelt by the bed beside her. “You should go and take a nap, Mom. I can keep healing her for a little bit! I’ve been getting better with my green magic.”
Toriel looked like she was about to refuse, but she sighed when she saw her son’s puppy-dog eyes. “...I suppose it is alright, since her health has improved so drastically. Please be careful, though. And notify me immediately if anything changes, understand?”
“I promise, Mom,” Asriel said, grabbing Chara’s hand and flooding a little green magic into her body. Toriel smiled at him and walked into the living room, intending to take a nap on the couch while her husband cooked.
A few moments later, Chara rolled her head on her pillow and blinked open her eyes.
Asriel gasped. “Chara?”
Chara looked around the room drowsily, then back to Asriel. “...flowers,” she slurred.
Asriel’s eyes widened. “Um, no… nobody brought you flowers,” he said, trying to deflect from what he knew she was really asking for.
“No… need more flowers,” Chara said, her voice barely audible. “Before Dad’n… Mom come back.”
“Mom! Dad! She woke up, come look!” Asriel shouted, completely ignoring her. Their parents rushed into the room immediately.
Toriel walked forward and scooped Chara up in her arms. “Oh, my child! Thank the stars you are alright! We were so worried,” she said, nuzzling into the girl’s shoulder. Chara blinked, confused, as Asgore hugged both her and Toriel. Asriel joined in, too.
“I knew you would pull through,” Asgore said, stroking her hair. “You’ve always been so strong, daughter.”
Asriel didn’t say anything, merely reveling in the fact that his family remained whole. And trying desperately to ignore the fact he’d almost helped break it apart.
Toriel laid Chara back on the bed. “Here, my child, you should continue to rest. You have been through an ordeal. Are you feeling nauseous at all? Do you think you could eat something?”
Chara nodded her head groggily. “Alright,” Toriel said. “I will return with breakfast shortly. Come, Asriel, we should let your sister rest now.”
Chara grabbed Asriel’s hand weakly as their parents exited the room. “Flowers,” she said, more insistently this time. Asriel looked away and left, following his parents into the kitchen.
It took a few days for the princess to recover, but news traveled fast and the kingdom was abuzz with hope and relief. By the time the king and queen were prepared to leave her alone, she could once again take care of herself, even if she was still a bit weak.
Asriel watched his parents address the kingdom on the television, but he eventually got bored of hearing things he already knew in fancy grown-up speech. He looked around the house for Chara, before finding her in Asgore’s flower garden. She was picking… buttercups.
“What are you doing?” Asriel said, walking up to her in a panic.
“Clearly the dose wasn’t strong enough,” Chara mumbled under her breath, continuing to pluck flowers. “I’ll double it this time. Maybe I can find some other stuff to put in it this time, too. I think Dad has some--”
“What?! No, no more flowers!” Asriel said, grabbing them out of her hands.
Chara gave him an unamused glare. “Asriel, we’ve been through this a hundred times. We have to do this for the monsters to be free. Don’t worry about the humans, they aren’t worth--”
“No,” Asriel said firmly. “I don’t - I just can’t, Chara, I can’t lose you! The barrier isn’t worth you .”
Chara rolled her eyes. “I’d still be with you, remember? With my soul, you could--”
“I don’t care,” Asriel said, dropping the flowers to the ground and hugging her tightly. “I couldn’t hug you if you were just a soul-thing in my head.”
“You could always hug my dead body,” Chara said, one of her creepy smiles making its way onto her face.
“Stop being creepy, Chara!” Asriel said, and Chara chuckled a little. “But… it’s not only that. I don’t want to kill anyone, Chara. I know you say the humans are all really bad, but… I still don’t want to hurt them. There has to be a better way.”
Chara looked away from him. “Then you’re not only a crybaby, you’re also a naive fool. The monsters will never have their happy ending as long as the humans are alive. They’ll see to that personally.”
Asriel hugged her a little tighter. “I don’t believe that,” he said. “After all, you’re a human, and you’re good! You just want to help everyone.” Chara snorted, and Asriel chose to ignore it. “Please, Chara. We’ll think of something else, okay? Now… can you promise me no more flowers? At least for a little while?”
Unfortunately, Asriel caught her with those stupid, irresistible puppy-dog eyes of his. She sighed. “Fine.”
“I love you, Chara,” Asriel told her, nuzzling into her shoulder.
“Ugh, I love you too, you crybaby,” she said. “Now get off, you’re getting me wet.”