The rubbing of rotating rubber along with the faint crunching noise of stray dirt and rocks being pressed under the weight of a moving vehicle. An all to familiar sound I've heard multiple times through out my human life. My gaze remained fixated on the door as I heard the on edge murmurs of the rest that were behind me.

I wasn't really focused on what they were saying though. Several thoughts were going through my mind at once and a good chunk of them were no where near the positive range.

Do I just stay here? Do I leave? Do I wait somewhere? Do nothing, say something, anything that comes to mind, nothing at all. I didn't know. As much as I would love to just stand here, shock my parents, tell them what happened and what I went through because of them... I don't think I can.

How cruel would I have to be? Their child dissappeared or went missing, whatever they might believe, and to just suddenly appear, tell them off, and leave again without anything. I don't think I can do it.

I could lie, I could say whatever but it would make no sense to come here and make my presence known just to never show up again. I don't think that would be fair.

But I came all this way anyways. Would I be wasting my only chance of doing something? I could do so much, I can show how much stronger I am living a new life without them. A blow to their egos... or something else. As a parent myself I'm conflicted since I know what I'd want, but I never treated Gradient the way my parents have treated me.

Times up. The door knob shifted a bit as a key was pushed into the keyhole on the other side.

I felt a hand grab my arm and quickly pull me away from the door. I saw the painted wooden surface crack open, letting in more of the outside light, before I felt a sudden shift in my direction. I found myself close to another with a hand firmly placed on my side and another clamped over my mouth.

I was completely still as I heard voices and footsteps enter the house. I heard the click of heels paired with a slight clinking noise, jewelry. A couple of necklaces specifically. I think I can remember those being something my mother wore a lot.

I could her hear talking to my father, I'm pretty sure it was him even though it's been awhile. With how I heard him take five steps before proceeding to toss his keys into a bowl, I knew it was him. His steps were heavier. They were always heavier than my mother's but it seemed a bit more so from what I could recall. They were talking about some kind of shopping task or something that they needed to get done and I brought my thoughts back to my current situation.

I moved my hand, brushing against the wooden surface under me. I was sitting on the floor. Shifting my gaze I saw specifically I was hiding behind an end of the couch. The one holding me in place and keeping me silent was Nightmare. He didn't look at me but he was concentrated staring ahead, listening to my parents moving around.

I have no idea where Gaster and Fresh went but I couldn't really worry about that. Well I could worry and I would being lying if I said I wasn't but I didn't want to be spotted right now which was the bigger priority.

We needed to leave, I heard my mother wander down the hall towards the rooms. My father entered the main area and Nightmare started pulling me along with him so we didn't get spotted and we're able to sneak out and go down the hallway towards the kitchen and back area.

Nightmare did not let go of me. He was stressed and wasn't risking things. It reminded me a few times I would join the whole group on tasks. Whenever a situation shifted Nightmare kept people close as he was ready to leave. Killer is a great example since he had moments of acting without thinking.

We snuck into the kitchen area and I made a beeline for the window, it was already opened so one of the others or both already went through it to escape.

"Come on, we need to move on." Nightmare muttered quietly and gestured for me to climb through first. I had to be careful since a wrong move could knock something over. I had barely put my hands on the sill before my blood went cold as the sounds of footsteps started to approach. I wouldn't be fast enough to climb through or close the window without making too much noise.

Nightmare and myself ducked behind the counter. I was tense as I heard my father muttering to himself about having to clean to dishes. However there was a miracle since the sound of the front door being knocked on sounded through the house. My father quickly changed direction heading back to the front which gave us the opportunity we needed to leave.

I heard the front door open as I got ready to climb out but heard something I wasn't expecting. A familiar voice.

"Hello, I'm sorry for the interruption. I'll just cut to the chase and say I'm here in regards to Y/N."

"How... who are you?" I heard my father ask. I also heard another pair of feet and assumed my mother had gone to investigate.

"Right, full names aren't important since I have places to be at. You can call me Dr. Aster... Mr. Aster if you wish to not say doctor. Really it's up to you." I peeked down the hall and saw Gaster was at the door. My parents were standing together facing him with their backed towards my direction. I can only assume he was being a distraction for us but I had no idea what he was planning.

"Alright Mr. Aster... how do you know of Y/N?" My father asked. He sounded unsure, like he didn't know if he should trust this stranger or like he didn't want to hear bad news. Gaster's gaze briefly met mine before he swept his hair over and adjusted his sleeve.

"Normally, I wouldn't be doing this but there's not much I can do about it. I don't know what you've been told or what you believe but they are alive. Before you ask questions let me explain. I don't know the full story but I had found them years ago swept up from the river in poor condition. They had no identification on them and I couldn't bring myself to take them to a hospital unaware of how their treatment would go. Being a doctor myself I nursed them to health."

"Wait... they're alive? They're OK? Where are they?!" I heard my mother's voice waiver and I was suddenly glad I decided to not confront them. That little waiver wouldn't got a reaction.

"That's where things get a bit tricky. They suffered quite a bit of head trauma and their memories were a bit skewed. Not forgotten, just blocked. Me and my sons kept them with us and to just cut to the chase they practically built a new life for themselves."

"A new life? What they just left, forgot us, and won't come back? Where are they? Can we contact them?" My father asked, his tone had hardened, and Gaster sighed a bit.

"I'm sorry but I can't bring myself to give any sort of information behind their back. Even if I had their contact information I wouldn't hand it over. Y/N refuses to hold onto a cellphone for reasons I'm not sure of so I can't anyways. I don't know where they went at this moment but upon figuring out about you two, I felt the need to come down and give some kind of information." Gaster sounded calm and professional, I had no idea if he was thinking of this story for a while or was making stuff up on the fly.

"So... are they ok? The head injury, the healing, their life.... are they doing ok?" My mother asked. I was leaning against a wall, listening instead of leaving like I should. Hearing her ask if I was ok and how I was doing was really something.

"They are well ok. I figured you'd have questions about them that I can't answer so I brought a friend of theirs that could answer more personal things." I was confused by that before I heard Fresh. He sounded less energetic keeping his tone chipper but not as ecstatic.

"Sup mister Y/N's dad and misses Y/N's mom. I'm Joshua, you can call me Josh, Joshy, whatever floats ya' boat." I shook my head a bit as Nightmare nudged me, we needed to go while we could.

"Right, my this is a lot right now-" my mother started but my father cut her off.

"Why haven't they come back? Do they realize how distressed and stressful we got?"

"Oh that's easy, they didn't want to. I mean, by the time they remembered everything clearly they were already an adult. Who was I to tell them what to do?" Fresh did not try to sugarcoat things, saying everything with a smile.

"What do you mean they didn't want to? This is their home, we raised them and-"

"And I'm sure you did great. However they really like living away and doing what they wanted. Apparently things were a bit much here? I don't know and I'm not judging. However as their best friend I care about their happiness. If they're happy away from here then I see no reason to tell them to come back."

It was quiet for a bit. I just know that someone was upset as the air had a sorrow to it. I climbed out the window carefully unable to hear any other questions. Once Nightmare slipped out he carefully closed the window and we snuck around the side of the house. On this side I was able to just open the side door inside of jumping the wall. I just knew we needed to be out of sight.

While we snucked by the porch I wanted to stop and listen to whatever was being discussed inside but a tug from Nightmare prevented that. We moved quickly across the lawn and down a few houses to stay out of sight from my parents' windows. I sighed as I leaned against a light pole and stuffed my hands into the hoodie pocket.

"...you doing good?" Nightmare asked and I shrugged. He decided to ask a different question.

"Are you doing better now than before?" I looked at him and nodded.

"Then that's all I care for. You'll get through this, we'll find the rift, then we'll go home. Get some of Horror's cooking and watch TV til we all fall asleep."

I huffed a bit hiding the laugh that bubbled up but looked at him.

"Sounds good, it's almost over and I can finally just relax. Like actually relax. No weird situations, no threats, just basic stuff."

"Just basic stuff. As basic as magic skeleton monsters with varying worlds and powers can be." Nightmare agreed with me.

Seeing, hearing, and being near my parents again after so long was something. But it was done and over, I was ready to move on and not worry about it anymore. Nightmare and myself just had to wait for the other two and we'll be on our way.