ohmyarceus | DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT (for Team Rocket's glory)

They're not sure what the stinging in their eyes is, or the odd ache that settles around where their SOUL should be fluttering and beating and pulsing. Frisk opens their mouth again, but words aren't coming. Their mouth is dry, and their throat tight.

But Frisk can still nod, and they do, weakly. One step closer, and they reach blindly for Chara's hand.

* It's you!

It's a hysterical thought, and yet--

You're here, aren't you?

This is real, isn't it?

It's not just a dream, right?

When Frisk first takes hold of it, Chara's hand is limp, clammy, numb.

But as the seconds tick by--just a couple, surely, but it feels like so many, minutes--eons--it slowly closes over Frisk's in return. Weakly at first, then stronger, fiercer, until the grip is so intense that it's like Chara is afraid that if they don't hold on as tightly as possible, if they don't hold Frisk there--

* It's you!

They can't believe it.

After all--after everything--

* It's still you.

The only human being they wanted to see again.

They only human being they ever wanted to see at all.

It's so BIG. The feeling in their chest right now--it's HUGE, like it could crack them open, swelling out of their ribs and up into their throat--

"Frisk." It's stronger this time, like their grip.

...the possibility that they might be holding Frisk's hand a little too hard hasn't occurred to them.

Edited 2016-07-21 23:26 (UTC)

It hurts. Chara's hand closes on Frisk's hand like a vice, but they're holding on almost as tightly. Certainly with the same desperation, the same bone-deep fear and need that leaves them light-headed.

"Ch...Chara..."

Another step, and suddenly their free arm is flung around Chara to pull them close, to hold tight and never let go. They can almost smell the flowers again, a smell like death and life and too many things to name. Frisk buries their face in Chara's shoulder, and they don't know if they've started to laugh or cry.

"I-I thought you were gone--!"

"Hghk--"

Chara is taken by surprise, their one hand still on their forehead as Frisk steps forward and suddenly they're being pulled into a hug, they're being trapped, they're being smothered, they're--

Their grip on Frisk's hand tightens to the point of being painful, fingers wrapping around Frisk's like their life depends on it.

In a way, it kind of does.

They drop their head, pressing their brow against Frisk's shoulder in wordless copy.

"......"

It's too hard to make words for this moment.

~~But I thought you were gone, too.~~

Their bones nearly creak under the pressure, and Frisk sucks in a gasp of pain. They don't notice though, not really. Not with how loud the silence in their mind is, how they wonder why they feel so numb and singular, why can't they feel the panic it's right there--

Please don't leave, I don't want to leave you again!

The thought goes unheard, but Frisk doesn't really need to voice that, do they? Chara surely missed them just as badly, surely had the same moment of panic, cried just the same once they were sure no one was around to see. They're partners, forever and ever, they were never supposed to be apart...

Frisk's breathing goes funny for a moment.

Chara hasn't been alone in so long. Not like this. Not in their own body, not with their own heart beating in their own chest. Not with their own feelings--not theirs and theirs alone. Frisk is right, though Chara would never admit it. There were tears just like Frisk's, tears that ran warm and wet and later even itchy as they dried on Chara's own cheeks. Chara had punched a wall--over and over and over, until their knuckles were bloody and their bones ached.

And now Frisk was here-right here--so close that Chara could touch them, could feel them breathing, could smell them. They smell like warm fur and musk and shampoo.

It's so confusing, and it's too hard to figure out what to feel. It's everything Chara wanted, and yet at the same time, it isn't what they wanted at all.

Right now, the only thing Chara can think of is what not to do.

Don't let go. Don't let them go.

Maybe if they hold on tight enough, they'll be one again. They'll fill that void in their heart and soul, the silence that rings so loudly when no one else is awake, when their mind buzzes with memories and horrible thoughts that are so hard to ignore. It's not whole, it's not right--

But it's so much better than never seeing them again. Than thinking they'd lost the one person who could ever truly understand.

The children's tearful and heartbreaking reunion might have gone on for ages more like this, but sometimes we don't get what we want. Instead, we wind up with a small canine whining in confusion and stuffing his cold nose right on up under Chara's sweater and against their side.

Um. Whoops?

Chara yelps in surprise, right in Frisk's ear, and jumps at least a foot, straight in the air.

When they land, they do land on their feet.

Whether the first thing they said upon landing was a bad word or not is a secret lost to the ages.

A startled shriek follows right on the heels of Chara's yelp, and Frisk stumbles back half a step to clap a hand against their ear.

Just the one, though. They haven't let go of Chara's hand, after all.

Blinking and shaking their head to get the faint ringing out of their head, Frisk looks in confusion at Chara, and then down to the Houndour barking his little head off and wagging his tail. Oh good, the humans aren't broken! Hooray!

"Wh-what--why did you yell?!"

Chara hasn't let go either, but the rush of adrenaline from the shock has them gasping for breath, red eyes wide, pulse racing in their ears as their blood runs hot with fight or--

Oh, let's be honest, with Chara, the instincts are FIGHT or FIGHT.

"I--You--"

It's not the most eloquent response. Chara points accusingly at the Houndour with their free hand and looks back at Frisk, indignation all over their flushed face.

Both Frisk and the Houndour look at Chara.

Then at each other.

And then back to Chara.

"I...um." It's hard when they can't hear Chara properly. Why are they mad about him? "His name is Big Bone?"

"............"

Chara...

..............try as they might, they can't be mad at that. Well, they can, and they are, but the opportunity Frisk just gave them to say something stupid...

"...... where's the Little Bone?"

Frisk smiles a little, and then giggles somewhat helplessly for a moment.

"No, th' other one's Lazy Bone, duh!" The pup in question yawns again, widely, and raises his head up to sniff at Frisk's pocket.

...ah. Still no treats.

His head flops back down, and the larger Houndour turns his head around to bark in annoyance at his rotund partner lazing away over his back.

"Um, they were gettin' picked on by a trash bag, so I helped 'em out. An' then they followed me!"

Edited 2016-07-23 10:02 (UTC)

"--by a what?"

The grin Chara didn't want to have is starting to break the angry expression they're trying to hold.

Chara has a magic ghost balloon, but a trash bag?

"A trash bag! I'm not kiddin', it was a real livin' trash bag! An' it was stinky an' super rude, too!"

Frisk giggles again, seeing that smile peeking out behind the cracks in Chara's mask. It's so weird, seeing this reaction for themself, but it's exciting, too.

"All th' trash bags are Jerry now."

"Snrrghk--"

It's not a laugh, but it's close--close enough for government work, and Chara covers their mouth with one hand to hide the lopsided smirk.

Having their own face is a double-edged sword.

Well--actually Chara can't think of ANY good things about having a REAL body again, but being caught laughing is definitely one of the problems with it.

"Don't make me laugh, I was trying to be mad!"

'Was' being the operative word, apparently.

Frisk giggles, and mirror's Chara's gesture for a moment before their hand drops away from their mouth again.

"Yeah, but I like it better when you're happy!"

Or less irritated, at least. Moments when Chara is truly, unabashedly happy are few and far between.

"How did you get here so fast? I didn't see you anywhere on th' Gear messages!" And it's not like they haven't been paying attention at all.

Oh my God, Frisk. You're so nice. It's... mm. It's nice. From you, anyway. But also--

"Oh, right." Chara had kinda gathered from the 'gear that a lot of people started out someplace called Newbark, to the Southeast. It seemed pretty small... but the trees looked pretty, they guessed.

"I started here. There's a secret base in the city for something called Team Rocket. You'd probably hate them."

Edited 2016-07-24 22:01 (UTC)

Really, Chara. After this long, do you expect anything else from them?

"Team Rocket? Like, going to space rockets?" Frisk frowns in confusion. "Why wouldn't I like that?"

Frisk has heard absolutely nothing about Rockets yet. A few of the passers by cast them a strange look, but it's kind of hard to take a kid claiming they're part of Team Rocket seriously.

"..." Chara's brow furrows up.

"....no. I... I don't actually know why they're called that." They were a little overwhelmed when they first... uh, first woke up alive and not in Frisk's head. They were still pretty dazed (the proper word was probably 'dissociating,' to be honest) even hours later.

And, uh. There was a lot to take in.

"I don't think it has anything to do with space. They're all criminals. We steal Pokemon and stuff."

With Frisk right there, Chara has completely forgotten that they now talk in a way that means other people can hear them.

It's not like Frisk has really registered that this isn't a private conversation, either. It would take a lot more thought and focus than they have to spare on that reality for them to become fully conscious of it.

Heck, it had taken two whole weeks before they stopped trying to talk to Chara off-hand when they first arrived.

That information, however--

"What?!" Frisk helps and nearly jumps, their grip tightening on Chara's hand for a moment. "But--that's horrible! Why would you do that?!"

Chara just stares at Frisk. For like, twenty whole seconds.

Honestly.

"It's not hard, really. No one expects to be robbed by a kid." They smile in that way that's as ominous as it is disarming.

If Chara is being completely honest, it's kind of fun to steal Pokemon from humans. Satisfying.

"But Pokemon are magic. If they don't want to be part of Team Rocket, they can just leave and go home. The only people who get hurt are humans."

And Frisk knows how Chara feels about that.

Edited 2016-07-24 22:46 (UTC)

...

Man, the silence is even worse when they can see it.

Frisk fidgets and drops their gaze, looking back up when Chara speaks again. What they say makes sense, in a logical way, but it's not something that Frisk likes. Even disregarding that hurting humans isn't okay (an argument that both sides have agreed that neither is ever going to win or change their mind on), just because the Pokemon could get free again doesn't change the fact that stealing them in the first place is a hurt all of it's own.

"But what if they can't get back home again? What if they get lost, or--or their trainer isn't here anymore when they get free again?" It's the best argument against this that Chara has any chance of listening to.

It's a good argument--and one that, normally, would have reminded Chara of what's really important.

In this case, though... Chara gives their partner a hard look.

"I don't really have a choice, Frisk." Chara stares briefly at a crack in the pavement, then shrugs it off. There's not much else to say; Team Rocket doesn't really have an open-door policy.

And if they keep it up, they can be promoted. And then they can figure out what's really going on.

But they don't want to admit they don't know right now. It's... kind of embarrassing.

Plus, it's Frisk. Frisk is too good a person. They won't like any answer Chara has. And Chara can't leave Team Rocket anyway. So it's better if they just don't make a big deal out of it.

DRIVE IT LIKE YOU STOLE IT (for Team Rocket's glory)

TEST DRIVE MEME

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Spoiler: not how being stolen by Team Rocket actually works, Chara

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