The next morning came and you were once again jolted out of your sleep by the same dreadful alarm from yesterday. Once again you laid in your bed, heart racing from shock. It would probably take you some time until you'd get used to that.

Asriel greeted you with the same smile he always carried whenever you saw him, before he disappeared in the bathroom. Once he was done, you'd take a shower and get dressed for the day.

The morning continued as usual. You had breakfast together, ignored students gossiping, attended class and groaned at the amount of homework the teachers threw at you. After that you enjoyed lunch and passed your free time at the arcade.

You and Asriel were sitting in your room, working on your assignments while the TV was running as background noise. The sun was slowly beginning to set, but your day was far from being over.

"Well, I'll be off to evening class. See you later." You packed your things and got up from your desk.

"Alright, see ya." Asriel looked over to you, his eyes following you as you left the room.

As you walked down the hallways you could only think about how little you cared about the upcoming lecture on alternate history. It was all about how the world could have changed if only a tiny detail about history would have changed.

While some call it butterfly effect, you call it a waste of time. Why bother thinking about what could have been if what matters is the here and now.

Once you arrived at the lecture hall, you decided to take a seat where the teacher hopefully wouldn't be able to see you. The room began to fill with more and more people until the teacher finally decided to show up. Minutes later and the lecture eventually started.

Instead of starting the lecture with something reasonable, the teacher began to write something on the chalkboard and turned to the class.

"I would like to ask all of you to come up with a scenario in the past that could drastically change the future as we now know it." He started off with something so ridiculously stupid you began to wonder whether he's an actual teacher or just some quack that got lost.

Not a single student seemed to be too invested in this class, seeing that no one raised their hand.

The teacher, seemingly disappointed, decided to randomly call someone out. That someone, and how could it be any different, was you.

"Well, what if monsters, back in the human - monster war, had modern day guns and magic, instead of swords, spears and similar." You didn't even bother to put any thought in your alternate history scenario and just said the first thing that came to your mind.

The teacher, for reasons unknown, completely lost it.

"What a marvelous proposition. If monster had access to the guns used today, just imagine how far we would be today. Well, we would probably be all dead since monsters would have wiped out humanity with their superior arsenal. But just imagine if they wouldn't wipe us out. Could we live in harmony or would they enslave us?" The teacher began rambling and it didn't seem like he was going to stop anytime soon. You stopped listening half way trough.

Somehow, you ended up with an A+ for the day even though you stopped paying attention five minutes in.

Why do they even teach stuff like that? Actual history, like the human - monster war, was way more interesting than this joke. Maybe Asriel knows something that is actually interesting.

Once you were back in your room, you were immediately greeted by said goat. For some reason he looked really excited, his emerald green eyes sparkling.

"Hey ____, there's something I need to show you." He stepped aside, pointing at an empty cardboard box.

There was a glint in your eyes as you slowly approached the box, eyeing it carefully.

After roughly a minute of investigating the box you picked it up and chucked it towards Asriel. No one ever said the glint in your eyes was one of happiness.

The empty box would have flown over Asriel's head, if it wasn't for his horns, where the box is now stuck on. After a few minutes of struggling, Asriel managed to remove the box from his horns, looking at you with an expression that was more impressed than anything else.

"Seeing that you didn't seem to like the box, how about I show you the real thing I wanted to show you. Check the TV." Asriel motioned towards the TV, his expression remaining excited.

You decided to go with it and looked at the TV and what you saw left you speechless. Asriel seriously got his hand on a gaming console, complete with two controllers and that game you played at the arcade a few days ago.

"Where and when did you get that thing?" Sounding utterly bewildered, you turned towards Asriel.

"It arrived shortly after you left. I ordered it yesterday, while you were taking shower. What do you think?" He looked at you with a big smile.

You didn't really know what to say, so you simply remained quiet.

"I'm just going to assume that your silence is a good thing." Asriel sounded quite satisfied with himself.

"As long as you don't throw another tantrum because you keep losing everything should be fine." You shot Asriel a cheeky grin.

"Well, guess we're going to have enough time to practice now." Asriel's enthusiasm remained unwavering, seemingly eager to spend time playing games with you.

"So, how was your evening class? What was it about in the first place?" He looked at you with a curious expression on his face.

"It's about alternate history, how things could have been if things were different. It was the most boring, pointless and redundant waste of time I can imagine." You made your dislike for the alternate history course quite clear.

"It did leave me with something I would like to ask you though." You added.

"Sure, what is it?" "Asriel looked ready to answer whatever question you were going to throw at him.

"Do you know anything about the human - monster war?" Straight to the point, just the way you always were.

"Nope. The war happened way, WAY before I was born. As in, a few hundred years before. The oldest things I remember are camcorders and that old, nearly indestructible mobile phone. The only reasons we had them is because humans discarded them and monsters reverse engineered them. So by the time these things were normal for us, they were probably were archaic for humans." Asriel began to tell you about what he remembered, raising a finger to his chin once he was done.

How old was I back then? Somewhere around ten and twelve, I think." While Asriel couldn't tell you anything about the war, he did tell you a few things about his life.

"You mean that old phone you can literally throw down a mountain and I'd still work?" You knew exactly what legendary phone he was talking about.

"Yep, that one. I found it somewhere around the dump, the place in the underground were trash from the surface washes up. I was quite impressed honestly. It dropped several hundred meters, was underwater for who knows how long and it still works. Today's phones break simply because you look at them the wrong way." Asriel sounded upset that today's phones aren't as durable as they used to be.

"Or they explode when you try to charge them." You added, chuckling slightly.

"Or they're lacking the most basic features a phone should have." Asriel decided to jump in on making fun of modern day phones and their obvious design flaws.

"So, do you want to play some video games?" he changed to topic, eager to sharpen his skills.

"Depends. Are you ready to get completely obliterated again?" You joked, looking at him with a playful expression.

"Don't get too cocky. You only won because I had no idea what I was doing. Admittedly, I still have no idea what I'm doing but neither do you so I think everything should be fair and balanced. Besides, I learned from my mistakes and will no longer mash random buttons. From now on I will thoroughly plan which buttons I'm going to mash." Asriel proclaimed, sounding determined to master the game.

"Alright, but don't forget that I'll learn too and I definitely won't go easy on you." You took what he said as a challenge and accepted.

"I didn't expect anything different from you." Asriel remained confident, ready to take you on right now.

So you sat down in front of the TV, ready to play. Once the console booted up you were promptly greeted by the message that an update was ready. Asriel groaned and let the console update, which took about an hour. By the time the update was downloaded you roughly had half an hour of playtime left before it was time to go to bed, at least in theory. As long as you don't bother others with the noise you make you should be fine, but seeing that you were in college it's probably best to go to bed early.

Once the update was finally installed and the home screen showed up, Asriel inserted the disc. Of course the game needed to be installed first, which would take another fifteen minutes.

Asriel, now visibly upset, groaned once again and entered the bathroom to brush his teeth. The second he reemerged from the bath, another message popped up. This time the game needed to update. Asriel simply decided to shut down the console and go to bed, no longer in the mood to play games.

You were quite amused by Asriel's behavior, though you didn't want to show it. He would probably throw another tantrum if he knew.

So you decided to go to bed, starting to feel tired yourself.

Moonlight was falling in from the outside as you laid there in your bed, struggling to fall asleep. Just a minute ago you felt like you could fall asleep at an instant and now, all of a sudden, your tiredness was seemingly gone.

Seeing that there was not much to do, you simply stared at the ceiling. White, the ceiling was definitely painted in white.

More time passed and you still didn't feel tired. You almost felt like knocking yourself out by bashing your head against the wall. But not only would that probably wake up Asriel, which would be rude, and it would also be very detrimental to your health.

Instead of doing something so unreasonable and stupid, you began to think of any remedies that could help you fall asleep. According to movies, warm milk is supposed to help, but there was no milk on your room, at least none that you were aware off.

Just as you were about to get up and check the cabinet in the bathroom for something that could help you fall asleep, Asriel began talking in his sleep, which was a little terrifying.

One of the few things you manage to understand was your name. For some reason he kept mumbling your name in his sleep, and it wasn't in the way you expected. At first it sounded almost childish, innocent and full with glee, like a child playing with their friend. But soon after it began to sound more sad, distraught and heartbroken. It was as if he lost something he held very, very dear.

Other things you managed to understand were things like 'alone again', 'why' and 'hate you'. Just what was he dreaming about?

You struggled to make sense of what little you understood. He clearly knew you, it's more than obvious now. So why does he try to avoid talking about it? You made up your mind, you're going to confront him tomorrow.

Asriel kept rambling in his sleep for a few more minutes before he fell silent again. Only a short while later and you finally fell asleep too.

Once again you were woken by the alarm you still haven't grown used to. As always, Asriel greeted you with a smile on his face, fangs slightly visible.

"Hey, there's something I'd like to talk about." You directly asked him, even though you knew you probably wouldn't get any answers.

Classes wouldn't start until ten in the morning today, so you should have plenty of time.

"Sure, what is it?." Asriel agreed, looking at you as if he was hoping for something.

"Well, how do I put this... You never told me you were a sleep talker." You tried to sound as normal as possible.

"Oh, uhm, well... I kinda forgot to tell you. Sorry. You didn't hear anything too embarrassing, did you?" He visibly began to grow uncomfortable.

"You kept repeating my name. At first you sounded rather happy but after a minute or two you began to sound desperate." You said, watching how Asriel's face began to light up. He was blushing so madly, that it became quite visible underneath his fur. You probably could have worded that a lot better.

"I- I don't know what your talking about. Why would I dream about you? That's absurd and weird." Asriel blurted out, becoming more and more fidgety.

"I didn't mean it like that. It sounded more like you were playing with a friend and then something bad happened. You also said something about 'alone again' and 'I hate you'." You continued, determined to get some answers out of him.

Asriel looked away from you, obviously uneasy about all of this.

"I really don't want to talk about that right now. This is something that's really personal to me. I promise that I'll tell you one day, just not today." He sighed, hoping you wouldn't press this matter any further.

"Fine." You said, becoming more and more angry with Asriel.

Instead of digging any further, you decided to get ready for the day and eat breakfast.

Another uneventful breakfast later and you were sitting back in your room, reading over the next act of the play.

"____." Asriel called you.

You looked up from the script to face Asriel, who was holding two controllers.

"Seeing that we didn't get the chance yesterday, how about we play a round or two now?" He looked at you with a smile.

"Shouldn't you learn your lines for the play? You did mess up last practice." You weren't quite on board with Asriel's idea.

"C'mon now. I still have plenty of time to learn my lines. Besides, we don't know when the play will be." He whined, really wanting to play that game with you.

"Isn't that just another reason to learn your lines? If we don't know when the actual performance will be, then we should pretend like it could be any day now." You continued trying to convince Asriel to learn his lines.

"Please, just one or two rounds. I promise I'll learn my lines after class, really." He was giving you the puppy eyes again.

"Only under one circumstance. I'll check whether you know your lines or not. If you don't, then this will be the first and last time I played games with you before you've completed your work." You sounded stern, almost like a strict father.

"Hurray!" Asriel threw his hands in the air and turned on the console again. His joy was cut short however, once he realized that the console needed yet another update.

"Are you serious? I updated you yesterday evening! Why would you need ANOTHER system update?" He complained, letting the controller drop on his bed.

"The game needs to update too, remember?" You added, hoping it would prevent any further disappointment.

Asriel groaned in response, rolling his eyes.

"You know what, how about we get breakfast while all those updates do their thing?" He suggested, hoping it would kill enough time.

"Fine by me." You agreed, leaving the room with Asriel following behind.

Another uneventful breakfast, filled with students gossiping about you and Asriel, later and you were back in your room. The updates still haven't finished yet.

Asriel was sitting in his bed, impatiently tapping his fingers on the mattress.

"This is taking forever." He dropped on his back, staring at the ceiling.

"Well, looks like we're not going to play any games until the evening." You said, as you began packing for today's classes.

"Damn you updates, always ruining the fun. Well, maybe we'll have time after classes." Asriel got back up again, sounding somewhat hopeful.

So you went to your classes, spending hours on learning stuff so you can get your hands on a degree that will be of little use in this day and age. There are simply too many people with degrees, turning said degree basically useless.

Once classes were finally over, you returned to your room to rest until practice. Asriel arrived only shortly after, immediately picking up the controller.

"You still have to learn for today's practice." You once again had to remind Asriel.

"So, no video games for today?" He looked at you like he hoped you'd change your mind.

"You promised you'd learn your lines, remember?" This entire conversation slowly made you feel like you were a parent talking to their child.

"I said I'd learn my lines after we played a round or two." He rebutted, or rather tried to.

"There is just one problem. You obviously haven't learned your lines yet, meaning that you're going to fail practice again. That means that I won't play any games with you unless you can prove to me that you know your lines." You couldn't believe you were actually arguing about this.

"It's not my fault the console needed a billion updates. That classifies as unforeseen circumstances, rendering your conditions null and void." Asriel was seriously trying to convince you.

"Well, doesn't matter anyway. We have practice now. So, no video games." Once again you had to strike a more strict tune with Asriel.

"Damn it!" He, once again, threw his hands in the air, upset that he didn't get to play with you. He can be really childish sometimes.

At practice everyone repeated the same part from last time, trying to improve wherever they could. While you perfectly delivered your lines once again, Asriel failed to even learn his. Elena, and pretty much everyone else, were understandably disappointed. Once practice was over, and Asriel received his lecture from Elena, you'd go back to your room.

"Ugh, Elena is stupid." Asriel dropped back on his bed, arms crossed.

"You're just mad because she called you out for not learning your lines." You looked at him with a disapproving expression.

"Seriously? You're just going to stab me in the back like that? I thought we're friends. You're supposed to defend me." He complained, shooting you an offended look.

"If she had unjustly accused you of not learning your lines, then I'd have stepped in. But you didn't learn you lines, so she rightfully called you out for it. You're just being a sorehead and you know that." You raised your voice, not standing for Asriel's accusations.

He looked away from you, pouting.

After a few minutes of silence, he looked back at you.

"I'm sorry. I know you're right. I should have learned my lines and I promise I'll start tomorrow." Asriel apologized, sounding sincere about it.

Another two, surprisingly eventful days passed. Days in which you learned a little more about Asriel. You were certain that you knew each other at some point in time and you were starting to feel like something terrible happened that ended up separating you.

Whatever it was, it must have affected Asriel in a bad way. But you probably wouldn't find out what it was anytime soon, so all you could do was keep going and see where it takes you. You just hoped that Asriel would finally start learning his lines.