AN: I wrote this in honor of Pride Month. Hopefully I can finish the whole thing before the end of June, but we'll see.

The weather was nice and Asgore's house was only a couple blocks away, so Asriel and Frisk decided to walk over. Asriel carefully balanced the two plates, the small plate on top of the larger one, while Frisk rang the doorbell. In only a moment Asgore opened the door. "Good morning, children. Oh! Are these muffins?"

"Yup!" Asriel said. "Mom made 'em for us this morning. The ones on the top plate are for you, and the rest are for us to share. She said to think of it as a reward for driving us down and keeping an eye on us today."

Asgore laughed, his belly rumbling. "I need no payment for that, but if she's offering I won't turn it down." He took the plate from Asriel to lighten his burden and ushered the kids inside. "Should we save these for after we pick up your friend?"

Asriel explained, "The plan is to eat breakfast first and then drive over to MK's. We can save them a muffin or two but they said they'd eat breakfast before we got there."

"Their loss," Asgore said with a smile. "Then I will not hesitate to 'chow down', as you kids like to say. Why don't you go wake Chara up, Frisk? I wanted to let them sleep in because I knew they had a big day today, but I suppose it can't be put off any longer."

Frisk nodded, immediately running to take the steps two at a time. They burst into Chara's room with a bounce in their step. "Chaaaaaa~raaaaaa!" they sung. "Rise 'n' shine!"

A pair of red eyes opened a crack and settled on them with unconcealed malice. Chara pulled the blankets over their head and made an unintelligible mumble that Frisk translated as something like, "Not even you get to wake me up this early."

Frisk countered with, "You asked me to remind you of your promise to go to Pride." Another whine of protest emanated from the pile of blankets. "Aaaaaand you promised not to get mad about it." The grumble this time had the air of an enby defeated, and the creature within rose up. Chara peeked out from a hole in the blanket mound with bleary eyes and sagging cheeks. "C'mon, Mom made us muffins for breakfast and I brought some for you." Chara opened their eyes slightly and one arm slithered out from their blanket to make grabby-motions with their hand. "Oh no, you're not eating them in bed. Get dressed and come downstairs, then you can have one." Chara shook their fist in impotent rage but began extricating themself from the blankets. They were wearing mint green sleepwear, a button-up shirt and pants with a drawstring. Their hair stuck out from their head at odd angles and they squinted at Frisk in the morning light that was still too much. Frisk skipped up to their bedside and wheedled, "Would you like a good morning kiss to take the edge off?"

"Haven't brushed," Chara protested weakly. "M' breath's gross."

"Don't care," Frisk replied. "You're worth it." Chara gave in and craned their neck upward just long enough for Frisk to give them a peck on the lips. Then they gave Chara's head a quick hug. "We don't have to march in the parade, and we can leave early if it gets to be too much," they cooed, caressing Chara's head with calming pats. "It really means a lot to me that you're going at all. So don't push yourself any more than you're okay with." Chara nodded, then put their fingers around the top button of their sleepwear and left them there for a moment. Frisk understood the gesture; while it would be nice to watch their datefriend undress, it would probably be a bad idea to do anything while their brother and Chara's dad were waiting for both of them. "I'll see you downstairs," they said as they left, to which Chara nodded. "I'll save you the choco chip ones. Don't go back to sleep now!" Then they shut the door to give Chara privacy.

In most cases, pansexuality did not mean the person would hit on everyone around them. In Frisk's case, though, that was exactly what they were like in junior high. They quickly gained a reputation for going through lovers like most people went through bottled water. Boy, girl, monster, human, they were all attractive and fun in their own way. They really did enjoy themself and did not honestly mean any harm. It was just that whoever they were dating always lacked something. They were never quite satisfied, and usually after only a few days the magic would fade and they would casually break up with them. Frisk was so notorious they earned a nickname, though one that was never said to their face: "Arcade". As in, "anyone can play, no one can win." Despite their romantic capriciousness they were loyal to whoever they were dating at the time, and though they were physically affectionate they never let things progress too far. This helped them avoid being labeled a slut, though perhaps their very public beating of the one guy who falsely claimed to have slept with them also had something to do with it. Not even their mom blamed them for that one.

It was not as though they had a habit of dating bad people, though there were a few of those. Rather, they compared each person they dated to Chara and found their current squeeze came up wanting. 'They aren't as smart as Chara.' 'They don't have Chara's charm.' 'They don't get me the way Chara does.' 'I don't feel as safe around them as I do around Chara.' The obvious solution would have been to date Chara instead but they did not dare ask. Chara was emotionally skittish, longing for connection but terrified of getting too close to other people. This did not change as they got older, only altered in tone. Whereas Chara the child would have avoided contact with anyone they were not already familiar with, Chara the teenager hid behind a false smile and cordial but cold conversation. They felt Chara only tolerated Frisk's presence because they owed them a lot and Frisk did not ask for much relatively. A romantic relationship would have been too much; Chara would quickly become annoyed by the demands and withdraw, and things would never be the same between them. So Frisk continued to pine throughout most of junior high, leaving a trail of broken hearts in their wake.

As it turned out the situation had not been as hopeless as they thought. At the tail end of 8th grade Chara and Frisk ended up confessing their feelings for one another and started dating. It was not as simple as all that, of course, but that was a story for another time.

By the time Frisk got back downstairs Asriel had laid down the plate down in the center of the dining room table and was already a quarter of the way through his first muffin. Banana-nut, it looked like. Frisk pulled up a seat and took a blueberry one (the best kind!) for themself. "Chara will be down in a minute," they said. "Just leave them the chocolate chip ones."

"Goes without saying, really," Asgore chuckled. "Although, I would have expected them to grow out of that by now. You know, expand their palette a little."

"They have the taste buds of a five year old," Frisk sighed.

Asriel shrugged. "No complaining from you, you're the one dating them," he reminded them, sending a little thrill up their spine. Yes, yes they were. Heeeeeee.

Chara's coming was heralded by heavy footfalls coming down the steps followed by zombie-like shuffling through the living room. Chara's eyes were open only as tiny slits as they trudged into the kitchen. They slid into their chair without a word, not looking at anyone.

Asgore smiled. "Good morning, Chara! All bright-eyed and bushy-tailed?" Chara responded by taking a chocolate chip muffin and stuffing the cap into their mouth, leaving it there as though biting and chewing would require too much effort. "Anyway," Asgore said, putting their sleep-deprived child's antics aside for the moment. "I'm sure you remember, I would only take you three to the Pride festival if you completed all your homework for the weekend. Now, I know you completed your math problems, Chara told me when they got home last night. But did you do the reading for History?"

Frisk nodded. "The reading was about Gandhi. He fought…" They took a deep breath, as though they needed a running start to finish the sentence. "… British call-own-knee-a-lizm. He got mocked, and hit, and even jailed, but in the end he won. And he did it without ever fighting back!"

Asriel thought about that for a moment and nodded his head in agreement. "Yeah, I can see why you'd respect that."

"Most days I'm good," Frisk admitted. "But… I get mad, every so often. He never slipped up. I'd like it, if I could be more like him."

"This Gandhi fellow," Chara asked, seemingly disinterested. They had removed the muffin from their mouth without finishing their bite, leaving teeth-marks in a semi-circle in the glazing. The first warning sign ought to have been that they looked much more awake now after being all but dead a very short time ago. "Was he rich?"

Frisk shook their head. "Not at all. He was very poor his whole life. He would go a long time without eating anything a lot."

"Hm," Chara responded, continuing to study their muffin and carefully removing the paper one crease at a time. "So he walked everywhere, even though he didn't even have a pair of shoes to protect his feet."

"Prob'ly." That was kind of a weird thing to focus on. Asriel stared at Frisk intently from the other side of the table, trying to telepathically warn them about something.

Chara continued their 'idle' musing, "Maybe he didn't even own a toothbrush, and on a poor man's diet his breath probably reeked. And if he fasted all the time he couldn't be that strong, physically. In his pictures he looks sort of spindly."

Asriel's warning reached Frisk too late. They shared a wary glance with their half-brother. "I… suppose so?"

"How curious," Chara said as they finally looked up, an evil grin coming to their face and confirming all of Frisk's worst fears. "Then I guess you could call him a super-calloused fragile mystic hexed with halitosis." Chara beamed, incredibly pleased with themself. Asgore guffawed loudly, nearly choking on a bite of his own muffin. Even Asriel was snickering with one paw over his mouth to try and fail to keep in the giggles.

Frisk's bloodstream caught fire. Seeing as they were surrounded by traitors Frisk pushed themself away from the table. "I'll be outside!" they tossed over their shoulder. They stopped, went back to the table to grab their muffin and an apple-cinnamon one besides, then stormed out the front door to a chorus of laughter.