Set in an AU (the same one as Facing Nightmares and A Predicament) where everyone is alive and living in a post True Pacifist Route with no prior occurrence of a Genocide Route.

~

Many stories start from a simple question.

"What's your New Year's resolution?"

In the amid of darkened houses under the tranquil glittering night, light still shone from the house brimming with warmth. It was the home of the former king and queen, the Dreemurr family, who were joined by friends for a celebratory gathering.

Everyone who attended, except for Toriel and Frisk, were gathered in the spacious living room, chatting away until Undyne brought up the question. Stepping with one foot on a random pile of pillows, she crossed her arms, grinning. "Well? Anyone? Even if you don't do it now, you'll still have to later!"

"I would like to see you try," Chara dared, smiling in an almost inviting manner.

"Hush, punk number three!" Undyne silenced, earning a good humoured scowl from them.

Asriel was not paying attention to the two's squabble, seemingly more preoccupied with studying his glass of orange juice. That question got him thinking. What are his resolutions?

Asgore stepped in, putting up his hand to stop the two. "Now now, let's not get into a fight so early this year. How about I start?" he suggested.

What did Asriel want to try and achieve by the end of the year? Sure, he wanted to be a doctor, but it was not something that can be done in a year. Something small... yet big? That... did not make sense at all.

Asgore must have said something goofy, because a second later, the room was booming with laughter, effectively snapping the goat-like child back to attention.

Looking up, he saw that Undyne had doubled over, smacking the closest wall - recently reinforced in anticipation for such occurrences - in the midst of her laughter. Alphys, while concerned and slightly nervous, was struggling to hold back her giggles. Even the skeleton family eventually joined her.

"Uhh, Chara?" Asriel tugged at the sleeve of his adopted sibling's shirt. "What's so funny?"

"Hahaha- huh?" Somehow, they managed to pause, glancing at him. "You missed what Dad said? Well, that's a shame. It was about fl-"

Barely one word into describing the cause sent Chara collapsing onto the sofa in a bout of guffaws.

"Sorry...!" they forced out in between laughs. "Give me... a... minute."

"Err... nevermind," Asriel said, scratching the back of his neck in attempt to soothe his awkwardness.

"If you say so." Chara turned over to get their drink on the side table.

Something about their gesture sparked a thought within him. As the laughter gradually died down, it was all he could think about.

"They are still not seeing you, aren't they?"

Asriel couldn't deny it. Ever since they got to the Surface, he wanted to talk to Chara about the past in hopes of alleviating the guilt that persistently plagued him for years. However, they dodged it at every opportunity, trying to make their actions as subtle as possible. He felt too bad to pester them about it, plus... their past was not an easy thing to talk about.

In a way, Chara was avoiding him. They never looked straight at him anymore, causing the unspoken distance between the two of them to stretch further. Then, the goat realised. It all happened when-

"Hello? Asriel? Are you in there?"

Asriel blinked.

It was only then he noticed that he had dozed out again. This time, everyone was looking at him expectantly. On the other hand, Chara was frowning. "Well?"

"Huh?"

"It's time for you to state your resolutions, you dummy! Everyone did it already, except Mum and Frisk. They will do it later."

"My resolutions...?" Asriel muttered.

Almost instantly after that, he knew. He knew what he wanted to achieve, but the words were lost on his tongue.

"I..."

"There's a reason why Chara didn't want to talk about it. Maybe it's best if you just leave it."

"... can't..."

"You know what they are capable of..."

"That's enough for one night," an authoritative voice brought everyone's attention to the speaker. Toriel stood by the doorway connecting the kitchen to the living room, drying her hands on a piece of cloth. While everyone was hanging out in the living room, she was washing the dishes with Frisk's help.

Glancing at the clock, she continued. "It is getting late, so I believe it is time for bed."

Papyrus sprang up from his seat, beaming. "Yes, your Majesty!"

"Papyrus, she's not the queen anymore," Sans reminded, slowly rising from his seat with his hands buried in the jacket's pockets. "Welp, it's about time we head off anyway."

Asriel was not sure whether he felt relieved. His nerves had faded from his soul, yet there was a strange feeling of loss that still lingered within.

"... but if you don't do anything, nothing will change, won't it?"

Well. Emotions are complicated, he decided.

"Y-you are not going to stay?" Alphys piped up. "We w-were planning to have a sleepover here tonight."

"Yeah!" Undyne added enthusiastically. "Come on, it will be fun!"

As the skeleton brothers looked at each other, Asriel could almost feel the wordless communication radiating off them. However, it was their adopted father who responded.

"Thank you for your offer, but I don't wish to impose on all of you." His voice was even and quiet, as he scanned the room, the tiniest sliver of a smile creeping up on his face. "It was... a nice party."

Before anyone could insist for them to stay, Gaster was already at the door. For a brief moment, his white irises met Asriel's eyes and the latter felt a shiver of intimidation running down his spine. Without another word, Gaster faced everyone and bowed in thanks, only to have Sans admonish him for being too formal.

Asriel decided to turn in for the night. A yawn escaped his mouth as he made his way to his room, careful not to make any unnecessary noise.

For some reason, the goat felt sick. There was nothing much he could do about it, hence he simply plopped onto his bed, vainly hoping that the twisted feeling in his stomach would go away.

~~~~

In the wee hours of morning, Asriel's bed was empty. There were scuffling sounds outside where the goat child hobbled along the dim corridor. Sleep had not been easy for him last night, topped up with dreams that made him restless.

I need some fresh air.

Stepping outside, Asriel welcomed the weak rays of sunlight that peaked out from the horizon, inhaling deeply, lifting his nose towards the sky. Being with nature - in this case it was Asgore's garden - was always comforting.

He should be happy. Monsters were freed, he was... living again with Chara on the Surface, the ending that no one ever thought was possible. The ending that was only the beginning of another story.

Sighing, Asriel lowered his head and stopped. He had been so caught up with his own thoughts that he didn't notice the silhouette of his friend crouching over the patch of golden flowers that Asgore adored so much.

"You're up early," Frisk commented.

"Yeah... I couldn't sleep well." How else was he supposed to respond?

They stood up and faced him. "Are you feeling all right?"

Asriel blinked, caught off guard that Frisk said it so directly.

"Maybe you could talk to them about..."

No.

It was not because he found shame in asking for help. In fact, he asked Frisk for help many times and that was the exact reason why he didn't want to. It would only be an extra burden put on their shoulders which were already sagged with exhaustion.

In the end, Asriel did not give them an answer.

Much to his surprise, Frisk made no attempts to pursue it. Instead, they strode up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Just remember that we are always with you," was all they said before returning to whatever they were doing.

Unfortunately, Frisk's words did little to ease the tension in his soul. Unwilling to return inside, Asriel stayed with them even as the sun's rays intensified into a vibrant orange, eventually softening to a gentler yellow.

It was then Toriel called them in for breakfast, but he was not hungry. Nonetheless, he sat at the dining table, trying to brace himself for the inevitable question.

"Figured out a resolution yet?" Undyne, who sat on the opposite side, asked. Asriel could not help but tense up, gripping his pants tightly.

"Why?" he asked feebly.

"T-to be fair, we don't know a lot about you," Alphys pointed out. "You... pretty much appeared out of nowhere."

"We just want to get to know you better," the fish-like monster explained. "It's totally fine if you don't want to talk about where you came from. But at the very least, you could tell us about what you want to achieve, so we can help each other like one big family, like what your dad always say."

Toriel's face reflected Alphys' and Undyne's thoughts.

I have to say it eventually, don't I?

"I want to be better," Asriel began, swallowing the lump in his throat. "To do that, I want to be more open and..."

His gaze was directed specifically at Chara, whose face was perfectly neutral.

"Let's give them some space," Frisk hinted, ushering everyone else somewhere else.

When did it all began? How? Why? For a long time, Asriel thought about it, agonised over it even, until he finally figured out a part of it. Everything started because of their plan. Everything started to fall apart since the two of them decided to...

"Well, what is it?" Chara prompted. They looked so calm, unaware of what Asriel was about to say. It was simply the calm before the storm, and that scared him, because he knew, and even felt it for himself. The storm.

But he had to do it. Otherwise, they could never look at each other like the past times again.

"I want you to see me."

Chara blinked, confused. "Huh?"

"I-it's not what you are thinking of, " Asriel said hastily, realising that it did not sound like the way he wanted it to be. "It's just that..."

"Ever since we made up that plan to save all the monsters, you felt so far away that it seemed that I can't reach you. You never looked at me properly from then on, even now... I feel that distance only grew. It's like you... couldn't face me anymore, and I ended up doing the same. Whatever happened in the past... I want to get over it and I wanted to talk to you about it but... but..." he trailed off, noticing the dark look on Chara's face, the one they gave him whenever he dragged up things from the past.

"No, no, no... this was a bad idea. Get away, now!"

Asriel couldn't move. He couldn't even breathe as that one simple look paralysed every inch of his body, as he remembered.

Back then, when he refused to kill the humans, despite their attempts to get him to, what came next... could only be described as an inferno.

Chara was furious, and he felt it all due to the link created by their soul. For the first time, the target of their rage was him. For the first time, he had seen and felt them being genuinely angry and it terrified him, etched so deeply in his memory that he remembered to this day.

Without thinking, Asriel's words came tumbling out. "I-I feel so guilty about what I did and no matter how hard I tried, I just can't f-forget it. Then, I tried to talk to you about it but you always dodged the question a-and I didn't want to keep dragging it up because you don't like to talk about it," he nearly choked on his words, "Now I don't know what else to do! I just feel so confused aand it hurts because I keep thinking about it, thinking about what I-I did to you, to Frisk, to everyone and-"

The goat stopped abruptly, feeling something soft wiping the tears from below eye. He didn't realise that he had been crying.

Asriel lifted his head, and there Chara was, drying his tears with a piece of tissue gently, their eyes unusually downcast.

"I'm sorry," they spoke quietly.

"I..." Asriel began, only to be interrupted by a hug. It was not as tight as Papyrus', but it brought him the warmth of comfort that he had been longing all this while. He started to sob, returning the gesture with a tighter hug.

"I'm sorry," Chara repeated, pulling away after a while. "I... well... there's no excuse for what I did. If you want to know why... it's just that I wanted to forget, even though I knew that it's impossible. I didn't want to talk about the past because... I knew... that I would, you know, blow up on you and hurt you, but," they took in a deep breath, "I ended up hurting you anyways. Knowing that, I... couldn't face you."

"We are the same, aren't we?" They faced him and let out a cruel laugh. "Even if we try not to hurt others, it still happens anyways."

"Chara..."

"But we can try, right? We can keep trying to reach that ideal of ours. Who knows? It might actually happen." Chara stuck out their left hand, smiling. "Let's start over."

Asriel didn't hesitate. He took their hand, finding a smile on his face as well. "Yeah."

"Anyways. Here." They threw him something, which he managed to catch it, albeit in a clumsy manner.

"Why did you give me a packet of tissues?" he asked, puzzled.

"To dry your tears, of course. Your face is still wet. Maybe you should start a New Year's resolution to stop crying so easily," Chara chuckled, more to themselves than to Asriel, who seemed to be taking their suggestion seriously.

"That's a good idea!"

"Actually, I was messing around," they admitted, "but since you are earnest about it, we will be with you all the way."

They are right, Asriel realised. They had always been there for him, in ways that he didn't notice until much later.

"In the end, everything worked out, didn't it?"

"Yeah."

He could finally smile without the burden of the past weighing on him like before. It would always be there, but now its new role was to push him up. To not let the past drag him down, but to use it to push forward towards the future in their ideal world.

That is...

"My resolution."

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Notes:

• The dialogue in italics is more of Asriel's inner voice, which you can think of it as Flowey, but they are the same person. That's why he doesn't respond to it initially - if he wanted answers, he would have to discover it for himself.

• Frisk didn't get very involved because they felt that it was better if Asriel sort it out with Chara instead.

• What Asriel mentioned about wanting Chara to "see" him is inspired by Assassination Classroom.

Any questions? Feel free to comment down below!