***The song above fills you with  d e t e r m i n a t i o n.  or character. whatever floats your boat m'dude.*

"heya, kiddo."

"chum."

"pal."

"friend."

"yo."

I feel someone flicking my shoulder.

"wake up."

They start shaking my shoulder.

"homeslice."

"breadslice."

"Chara!"

"Aack!" I yell myself awake.

I flail around, and roll over. I fall to the floor with a thump. My phone falls  with me. I take my earbuds out.

"I'm up, I'm up." I rub my eyes and look up at Sans blearily.

He looks down at me, concerned. "geez kid, you look like crap."

"Thanks, Sans." I mumble, attempting at sarcasm, but failing, "Means alot." I sit up. and try to look at the clock on the nightstand, but I'm too short. I see that Azzy and Frisk are still asleep, which is weird, because usually they jump awake at the slightest of sounds.  "What time is it?"

"almost 8." He says. "typically you start walking there at 6 or 7. we were worried that you'd gotten in trouble or something." He looks out the window, "i'm glad you weren't walking today. it's not exactly the best of days outside. it's freezing and i would've had to come get you."

"I thought skeletons don't get cold?"

"uh, yeah we can. Why do ya think I'm always wearing a jacket? it's 'cause I'm always freezing."

"but you said..."

"i was joking that time. I thought ya knew that."

"Oh."

"are ya still coming to the lab?"

"Of course! Why wouldn't I?"

"um, did I mention that ya look like crap?"

"Yeah, I recall." I say dryly, "But I'm still coming."

"well bring a blanket and a pillow. Something tells me you're gonna crash before 12."

"M'kay." I say.

He teleports out of the room.

I grab a pair of jeans and a pun shirt from the nightstand. Frisk wakes up with a start.

"Chara?"

"'morning."

"Did I hear Sans just now?"

"Yeah. He woke me up."

"Oh. okay." He blinks groggily. "Did you have a nightmare last night?"

I look up, feeling startled. "Uh....Why don't y'go back to sleep, Frisk."

"That doesn't answer my que-"

"Yeah, sorry gotta' go." I grab my jacket on the way out so I don't have to go back in the room.

I change and go into the kitchen and make myself breakfast and a lunch to take with me. I curse silently. I'd forgotten the chocolate in the room.

I hesitate. Is it really worth it?

Yep.

I run back to the room. "'supFriskloveyabye" I say quickly as I grab my chocolate. While I'm at it, I snag the bone pillow and my fuzzy blanket.

He's sitting up in his bunk, his hair sticking up in odd places and bleary eyed. "This conversation is not over," He calls after me when I run out of the room.

I run back into the kitchen and make a couple of Nutella sandwiches. I eat one of them right then and stick the other in a plastic Ziploc along with some chocolate. (alright I may have a problem with the whole chocolate addiction; I'll admit it.) I stick that in a paper bag, which I throw in my bookbag (that's free of school stuff for once), along with the pillow and blanket.

Lunch? check

Phone? check.

Earbuds? check.

House keys. err... no.

I swipe them off the counter and head for the door.

check.

Jacket? Oh shit, I left that on the counter, too.

I run back to get my jacket.

Yep, check.

I stare at it for a while, rubbing the hood in between my fingers.

One of the things that differentiate us from other AUs is that me, Frisk, and Azzy all wear hoodies.

They were a gift from Sans. We got them when we were 12, on our first Christmas on the surface. He got really sick and tired of us stealing his jacket, so he got us our own. We've worn them ever since. Mine is green, Frisk's is blue, and Azzy's is purple. All of them have the rune  and the words 'Dreem Team' on the back; mine in yellow, Frisk's  in pink, and Azzy's  in white. Toriel had helped him make them, and when Sans first gave them to us he said there wasn't just one angel; that's why there are three triangles.

I know it sounds like he meant in a good way, but....He didn't specify whether we were the angels of death or that saved everyone. Call me a pessimist but....

I shake my head. That doesn't stop the nostalgia but it makes me feel better. I throw my hoodie on, shrug on my bookbag  and go to head out the door.

"chara, where're you going?" Sans calls from the living room. "we'll teleport."

"Righto." I say. I go into the living room and grab onto Sans' sleeve. He teleports us into the lab.

I stumble forward into a table. "I hate teleporting." I mutter. It's really uncomfortable, and I can never seem to be able to find my balance afterwords.

"H-hey Chara." Alphys says with a smile.

"'Sup punk."

"Heya Alphys and Undyne." I smile apologetically. "Sorry I haven't been able to come in a week or two. I had an essay I had to do for Lit."

"I-it's okay." She says. She's sitting in a spinny chair at one of the many tables in True Lab, "D-do you want to s-see what I have so far?"

"Sure." I say walking over to her.

Alphys (love her, she's really awesome and cool to talk to once you get past the stutter), hasn't quite gotten over her nervousness so she still stutters alot, but she's making progress. Haha, yeah this one time- er, wait I'm getting off topic. Remind me to tell you later, it's a really funny story.

"S-so we've decided that before we can figure out what happened to them, we need to figure out what happened to you and Asriel; specifically you."

"Um...Okay...What do you mean?"

"O-okay," She rubs her hands together, now so thoroughly immersed in the theory that she forgets her nervousness and starts talking normally. "So you said that you were a ghost after you-uh- died, right?"

"Mhmm," I confirm warily, already not liking where this is going.

"But none of the others were ghosts."

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I would've seen them if they had been."

"Well, my theory is that you still had a part of your soul after you died."

I feel like she'd just pulled a rug out from under me. "But how...SOULs can't be split into pieces."

"That's what we thought, but you have to remember, the exact nature of the SOUL is unknown, and everything we do know is based on monster SOULs.

She spins around in the chair and scoots to another table on the far side of the room all while continuing to talk. I follow  her. "I've done my research, and it seems that what happened to you is pretty common among humans," she point to the papers strewn across the table. "Look."

I skim through some of the papers quickly. Some of them are printed, and some are just collections of notes written in Alphys' messy scrawl. All of them seem to have one thing in common though...

"...Alphys these are all ghost stories. Or claims of hauntings."

"So?" She asks me with a stubborn look on her face.

"So, a majority of these are just rumors or stories people tell to scare their kids." I say.

"A-all rumors have a fragment of truth around them." She crosses her arms around her chest.

"Alphys. Anime. Isn't. real." I tell her, slightly exasperated.

"Damare, baka." She mutters in japanese under her breath. "That's not what I'm talking about." She says, looking cross.

She taps the paper in front of her. "We think-"

"and when she says 'we,' she means me." Sans says. "I came up with the theory; she just agrees with it, because we have nothing else to go with."

Alphys looks at him and says dryly, "Well if you're such a h-hotshot, smart guy, why don't you explain it yourself."

Oh, yeah. I taught Alphys sarcasm. That's what happens when people hang out with me; even the quietest, most complacent of people become fighters. I like think it's 'cause of my roguish charm. Of course, Azzy says its just because I'm contagious.

What can I say? I grow on people.

(Then again, so do warts)

"if you insist," Sans says with an exaggerated shrug and a grin. He grabs a chair and sits on the on the same side of the table as Alphys.

"these stories, even though they might not all be true, all have the same theme; a human SOUL that persists after death. And this typically happened when someone had particularly violent or... unsettling death."

"Yeah...I guess mine would count as that." I say.

We're all uncomfortable for a second.

I try to break the tension, "Okay, so what you're saying is that I was able still exist because in a way...I wasn't ready to die?"

"yeah."

"So I wasn't ready to die....so a fragment of my SOUL.... where'd it go?"

"We think it m-might've stayed with your body."

"Toriel's already told us that when you  and Azzy died and her and Asgore parted ways....she took your body from the basement. She gave you a proper burial. In ruins-"

"The place where Frisk and the others fell."

"Y-yes. W-we just don't know how..."

"My SOUL stayed dormant for awhile." I'm starting to pace, something I tend to do when I'm thinking. Or, y'know, when I'm nervous (Shhhh). "And when they landed..."

I look up at Sans. "I was buried under the buttercups; I remember Toriel telling me that." Everyone just sits there and watches me pace. I'm kinda surprised Undyne hasn't said anything. Then again, this isn't her area of expertise.

I continue to pace and talk, "When they fell on the buttercups....their determination...."

"That's it!" Alphys exclaims, standing up so fast  her chair flips over behind her, startling Sans, who teleports several feet away into a corner, almost smacking his face against it. "That's what we were missing! Their determination woke you up..."

She frowns and goes to sit back down, but misses the chair because still on the floor. She lands with a thump and a surprised look on her face. Undyne lets out a muffled laugh. Alphys blushes.

She gets back up and brushes the dirt off her lab-coat.

"But we're still missing something." She says, "it doesn't quite add up. How were you and Asriel able to be alive again...."

"sounds like we hit another dead end," Sans sighs. Everyone looks a bit disheartened.

"No one said this would be easy," I say to the floor. I look up at him, determination blazing in my eyes, "But since when were things worth doing easy?"

"Y-your right," Alphys says, but she still looks kinda discouraged.

"Your onto something, I can feel it," I tell her. "And what we're looking for, it's there, I know it. We just can't see it."

"Anything worth doing isn't easy." I say, "just like anything worth doing takes time. We'll figure this out."

I yawn, suddenly remembering how tired I am.

Alphys frowns, "why d-do you look so tired?"

I shrug. "Not very pleasant dreams," I say airily, not wanting anyone to think its a big deal.

Sans' eyes narrow, but he doesn't say anything about it.

"Maybe you should get some sleep," Undyne suggests, "You look like crap."

"I guess I should..." I trail off, hesitating. You'd never get me to admit it, but my dreams scare the ever loving shit out of me. I don't want any more nightmares.

"sleep." Sans speaks up from his little corner.

I blink at him in surprise.

"kid, ya need it." He says, "seriously. you grabbed a blanket and a pillow, didn't you?"

I nod.

"then sleep."

I sigh. "Sure thing, boss."

I take my pillow and blanket out of my bookbag and spread them out on the floor under a table. I take my phone and put Undertale on loop. As I stuff earbuds in my ears, I see the time.

Haha. 10 o'clock. Guess Sans was right.

I lay down and pull my hoodie tighter around me as I fall asleep.

Alright, a note to my subconscious; fuck you. I said I didn't want anymore dreams.