[Their hands close over Chara's, tightly, a fierce jerk of motion that they think might hurt, must hurt. They don't want to let go, though. They don't want to let go.

Falling first doesn't seem to end well for anyone, much less that other Frisk. It all still ended in blood and dust and pain, didn't it? Asriel still died. The first human was still chained to the eighth's SOUL. There was no escaping it. No escaping fate.

Anyone who would claim that Frisk would not have made Chara's mistakes, that they wouldn't have fallen just as hard and hurt just as much. Shattered the Dreemurrs apart, the spear that drove them all apart, that tore away monsters' hopes and dreams. The future that darkened everything.

* Still just you, Frisk.

They work their fingers between Chara's, folding them over their knuckles, holding them tightly, palm to palm.]

I know. I know.

But it's not...all bad, is it? Sometimes it hurts. But sometimes it - it doesn't.

[And it doesn't hurt as much, when they know someone else is here with them. Someone who understands.]

You're it, Chara. You're the Chara that's always been here, with me. We're partners, right? SOULmates.

That's the best thing I could ask for.