Timing and Understanding
Severus left pretty quickly after that. Frisk knew that he didn’t like being reminded that he was technically in charge of a child, so they let him leave without much of a fuss, they even stopped Chara from making any remarks at the professor who was clearly very uncomfortable. That still left a much worse situation without the humans. The awkward re-introduction of Toriel and Asgore and their children. Or well whatever conversations that spawned from this reunion.
Frisk couldn’t even run. They tried. Chara latched on like the parasitic demon they were and refused to let go. The Devil…also Asriel looked truly terrified of facing his parents without any backup so they also stayed for that. Because Asriel was an angel.
What made the situation so awkward to begin with was the fact that the entire walk back up to the school no one said anything. Not even Sans who just showed up after teleport-dipping when the Headmaster showed up, only to return with a smoothie. Everyone was also taking their sweet time moving up the hill either because of how in awe they were (read: The parents) or how badly they were trying to put something off (read: Frisk and co). In the case of Sans he was just enjoying the drama, Frisk thought. Really couldn’t get much of a read on him right then anyways.
Frisk glanced between the three groups that they were accompanying. On one side she saw Toriel and Asgore, who both couldn’t take their eyes off their children, but also kept looking away from them in awkwardly long intervals. They would stare at Chara and Asriel for a long time, so much so that one of the two would twitch from it, and then when they saw they were uncomfortable they would look away really quick and try to stop themselves from doing it again. It was really quite sad. Frisk felt for them, they really did. It didn’t help that Toriel went for a hug almost immediately as the human’s left, only for Asriel to duck and hide behind Chara and Chara to take a quick step back.
Frisk had grimaced from the hurt looked on Toriel’s face, but didn’t say anything to Chara or Asriel. It was honestly too soon for any of that, and both of their children had changed. One became a demon and the other a god. Both hellbent on destruction. And Chara himself had used Frisk’s body to murder both of their parents…so not the right time for a hug.
Now that Frisk thought about it, why did Chara kill everyone in the underground when they were awoken? If Frisk was being honest they weren’t much better because it took killing all the non boss monster’s in The Ruins to wake up Chara in the first place, after that they kind of just took over, but from then on it was them that killed the boss monsters, even their parents. Which from what Asriel told Frisk before wasn’t something that they had initially wanted or died for. At what point did Chara start hating the monsters as well as the humans? Frisk knew what caused Flowey to do it, pure apathy, but Chara never really came off as apathetic. Just power hungry, or vengeful? Was that the only thing that fueled them? Revenge on everyone, even if it meant slaughtering the people in the camp after escaping if Frisk didn’t take their deal seriously? Was that even Revenge on them or was it on the monsters? Both? Chara was a complicated mystery that honestly gave Frisk a headache, even when they weren’t sharing the same body anymore. So Frisk just wasn’t going to think about that right now, it is not time for deep introspections of the reasoning behind their demonic siblings kills.
Something bumped into Frisk’s back and they turned to find that Asriel had moved from the other side of Chara, and instead of walking closest to his parents was not walking behind but between Chara and Frisk. Frisk being the only separation between Chara and Sans, because they were all that stopped them from killing each other. They could go ham on each other now, without the risk of hurting Frisk, which honestly wasn’t a good thing.
Frisk turned to look at Asriel and tilted their head in a silent question. This seemed to catch Chara’s attention. “Something up?” he said quietly, but Asriel just shook his head, but he continued to blatantly ignore his parents, which is something he had been doing, even when he was Flowey just trying his hardest to not interact with them, and when they did he was always uncomfortable. Frisk wondered what it felt like to slowly lose you’re emotions, and when you went to the two people who you knew logically you had loved with all you’re heart, you just came up lacking? It must have really messed with him then, honestly the only person who got any positive emotions out of Flowey had been Chara, which makes sense considering they were kind of fused when they both died, but still. To know that when you aren’t able to feel much, you still can’t bring yourself to feel anything for the people you used to love? Must make him feel bad if that’s still the case, that he can’t make himself love his parent’s like nothing happened, like he was still their little boy who died mysteriously.
Did Toriel and Asgore ever learn what happened to their kids realistically? Or did they have a vague idea of it, and nothing else. Frisk know that they never told them, and they reset the world’s so much that those times when Sans learned wouldn’t have made much of a difference if he told them. No one remembered the Asriel Dreemur fight during those endings, but they did remember vaguely Flowey when they did those. They also didn’t know how much of the fights and transformation that either had seen and if they knew that Flowey, the flower that Frisk had demanded they run back into the Underground for, was Asriel their child…and that Frisk knew the entire time. Oh no.
Frisk did a quick glance between Asgore and Toriel, Chara and then Sans, who just glanced at them from the corner of his eye. They wondered if they could make a break for it before anyone made up the courage to speak. No one could catch them if they ran now, they were the fastest. It was a good plan, so just as Frisk was about to run up the rest of the hill they were pulled back into position by a hand on the back of their coat.
“Nope, can’t leave me alone, kiddo. Don’t even think about leaving me here with this train-wreck.” Frisk groaned but continued to try to run. However, Sans was incredibly strong.
“Oh, come on. You can run with me. Then neither of us have to stay for this.” Sans smirked but denied their request, and Frisk slumped and let Sans drag them in for a ‘comforting hug’.
“There. There. You little rascal, You can just stay and enjoy the show with me. It’s not like they have a bone to pick with you.” Frisk groaned some more. However that little scene seemed to spur on an actual conversation, the which Frisk had been hoping to avoid.
“Excuse me, but what do you mean by Train-wreck, Sans?” Asgore asked.
“Never mind that Asgore, children.” Toriel cut in, and all three of them flinched. Which caused Toriel to flinch, and then she groaned. “This shouldn’t be that hard, you’re my children, I shouldn’t struggle with being able to talk to you.”
“Yeah, well. We’re not your kids.” Chara sneered, before he turned away and grumbled. “At least not anymore.”
Toriel only raised an eye brow at them. “Oh so you’re names aren’t Chara and Asriel, and that must not be Frisk right there who tried to run away.”
Frisk started shaking their heads rapidly as if to tell her not to bring them into this, please do not bring them into this. Also don’t even mention that they aren’t Frisk they weren’t sure if Sans would start up his stalking just to keep a bit running. Toriel ignored them.
“No, that’s our names.” answered Asriel quietly. Still not looking at his parents. “But that’s not what Chara meant, he meant that we aren’t really kids anymore, are we or even real most of the time?” Asriel glanced at Chara who only grumbled in response. “We’re not who or what you remembered before we died, and…” he broke off.
Asgore made a noise that was a mix between confused and saddened. “How can you have died if you’re right here. You’re not dead, and I know souls have a lot of power.” he paused before continuing a bit quieter this time. “I would know that, but they don’t have the ability to bring back the dead. And you’re both right here!”
“Well yeah, Souls by themselves can’t but Determination can give them a running start apparently,” Chara frowned as if they just acknowledged how impossible their presence should be. “And we both had a lot of that before Frisk went and did all those vivisections.” Then he grumbled something that sounded a lot like ‘Plus if anyone could bring the dead back to life, it would be Frisk.’ Frisk beamed at that, which made Chara blush and glare at them. See, Frisk reminded themselves, Chara could be sweet, when they weren't covered in the dust of your loved ones.
“Either way. It doesn’t matter how much you have changed.” Toriel stated, giving off every bit of regalness that a true queen could. “You’re still our children, and that will remain the case. Even when you died you were still our children, nothing could change that.” Frisk, Asriel, and Chara all shared a glanced, before both Chara and Frisk turned to look at Asriel who startled.
“Hey, what are you looking at me for?” he yelped.
“Well, is it true?” Chara asked and Frisked nodded.
“Is what true?” Asriel was eyeing the both of them now, not used to them being able to team up on him out of body with their being two now, was he? Well Frisk was going to have fun.
“Would they still love us” Chara made sure to gesture between himself and Asriel, “Because no one can resist that charm.” they motioned to Frisk who struck a pose that was semi-seductive. “But us. Would they still love us and see us as their children, knowing what happened.” Frisk nodded again, Flowey was the only one who would know after all he had done it, to both of his parents. Asriel thought about it for a second, his brows furrowed as he tried to remember through all of the timelines he must have lived through even before Frisk took over.
“Yeah.” he finally said. “I think they do?” it sounded more like a question than an actual answer, but it seemed to satisfy Chara anyways. Frisk risked a glance at the parents who they were talking about, but they only seemed amused if anything, and nostalgic.
“Anyways, that’s enough of this. It really isn’t something we should start now when we have people waiting on us. Let us go.” With that Toriel charged forward and led to rest of the way to Hogwarts with Asgore trailing behind her. The rest of the way was still quiet, but neither one of the parents glanced back to see if their children were still there. Which, progress. And it seemed that both Asriel and Chara had grown with this too because they started whispered jokes back and forth between the two of them, occasionally saying them louder for Frisk. Sans stayed out of everything, and there was not a pun to be found. Frisk was happy. It seemed that while they weren’t looking their family changed, but it wasn’t bad. Or maybe they had done it right in front of their eyes. Oh well.
They finally made it to Hogwarts and met up with everyone else in the Great Hall. What alarmed Frisk was that there was quite a few more people than there had been at Hogsmead. Including a couple more Weasleys if the large circle of gingers had anything to say about it. It was there that Frisk caught sight of the two eldest Weasleys. They thought that one was a Curse Breaker, and the other had something to do with Dragons? Was that what it was? Well judging by the large burn scare that took up a portion of one of their neck and seemed to travel down their back, that was a yes. The other had piercing which, cool.
Then Frisk made the mistake of locking eyes with the Dragon boy, and before they could stop themselves, they reflexively said. “Hey Dragon Tamer, how would you like to Tame this Dragon?” and then froze. Behind them Sans spat out his smoothie as he promptly choked on it, and Chara groaned. Yeah, everyone had changed, but Frisk apparently.
“God-damned Flirt.”