You wake up from your uneasy and all too short slumber, feeling as if the heavy weight that rests on your shoulder got just a little lighter. Asriel, to your own surprise, was still fast asleep.

The morning sun threw it's soft light in the room, giving off the feeling of a new beginning. It almost felt as if an ocean of dark gray clouds finally dispersed after countless years, giving place to the first real sunrise. But even though the skies were clear, it still felt as if the storm hasn't passed yet.

It was still rather early and you didn't really feel like getting out of bed but his was college and not vacation, you had to get used to it. So you crawled out of bed and sluggishly walked to the bathroom. A nice shower should help you wake up. A few minutes later and you stepped out of the shower again, feeling only slightly more awake. While you were busy drying yourself off and brushing your hair the sound of someone trying to open the door, knocking following soon after, caught your attention. Fortunately you locked the door.

"____, are you in there?" A voice, presumably Asriel's, could be heard from outside.

"Yeah, what's the matter?" You answered in a relatively casual voice.

"Nothing, just asking." Asriel responded.

Once you finished up you left the bathroom, spotting Asriel sitting on his bed. He looked like he was still tired, almost as if he got no sleep at all.

"Are you alright?" You asked, feeling slightly worried.

"Kinda. It's just, I've been thinking about everything you told me. I couldn't get any sleep because of it." He sighed, looking like he's about to fall asleep again at any moment. "It explains a lot about you and why you're the way you are."

"But it doesn't explain what I am." You looked off to the side with gloomy expression.

"You're human." Asriel said, almost as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. At least to him it was.

"Am I? I don't feel human." You began to sound frustrated. The lack of identity began to drive you crazy.

Asriel, however, had a questioning look on his face. Things were already starting to get a little above his head. Probably because he's still tired.

"I mean, I'm clearly not human. You just have to look at my ears and tail. Heck, even my eyes aren't human. So if I am human, does that mean you're human too? What does it mean to be 'human' in the first place? What does it mean to be 'monster'? Is there a difference? If not, then why do differentiate between them?" You began to ask countless questions. Questions with an infinite amount of answers, none of them right or wrong.

While you kept asking questions that no one could give you answers too, Asriel's brain began smoking. That was until he came up with, what he thought to be, a great answer.

"You are ____, that's who you are." He proudly exclaimed his half cooked idea.

"____, you say? So I'm a name, nothing more and nothing less. Would that mean that I'd loose my identity if I loose my name? Would you loose you identity if you lost your name? A name is just a word we use to refer to each other. It's only a part of who you are. But I guess I know what you're trying to say and I'd have to agree. I am me, that's who I am and that's who I always will be." A long sigh, almost as if you held your breath for a long time, escaped your throat.

"Ehm, yeah. That's exactly what I was trying to say." Asriel quickly blurted out. Your conclusion was totally not what he was getting at. He himself didn't know what he was getting at.

"Anyway, can we please talk about something else? You're going to give me an identity crisis." He added, sounding like things were getting way too complicated for him to follow in his current state.

"I'm sorry. It won't happen again, I hope." With a quick apology you flopped back on your bed.

"So, classes are going to start tomorrow." You stated, looking over to Asriel.

"Yeah, they do." He didn't seem all that excited. On the other hand, neither did you.

"Let me guess, your taking philosophy class?" Asriel joked.

"Nah. Philosophy is something you can talk about in a small group and with a cold beer." You joked back.

"For once I'm glad I don't drink. Even if I would, I can't hold that much alcohol. My first time was also my last time." Asriel quickly clasped his mouth shut once he realized he told you more than he wanted.

"What do you mean by that?" You sounded like you've taken genuine interest in what he said. Perhaps last night made you bond more than you realized.

"It's a really embarrassing story." With an awkward look on his face, Asriel looked off to the side. "Maybe one day I'll tell you."

"Fine by me." You casually shrugged your shoulders.

"What classes did you sign up for, if I may ask?" Asriel looked at you with curiosity in both, his voice and expression.

"I have no idea. That entire integration program just threw me into whatever classes were free." You sounded almost a little mad.

"So you're basically going to end up in classes you may not want to be in? That sounds incredibly stupid if you ask me. What if you fail all your classes and end up on the streets?" Asriel was upset and understandably so. He brought up a good point.

"Guess I'll live on the streets then." You sarcastically answered.

"And what if someone tries to rob you or worse?" Instead of staying reasonable, Asriel began to picture the worst.

"Then I'll beat them up with a salmon." You jokingly answered.

"That totally sounds like you." Asriel actually began laughing, something you didn't expect.

"We did know each other, didn't we?" You asked plainly.

Asriel's remained silent once again, almost as if he didn't want to answer. Or maybe he simply couldn't answer because you've never met before. Whatever his reasons may be, you'd probably never find out about them.

A gloomy atmosphere hung in the air, stagnant and slowly degrading everyone's mood.

"Hey, how about we compare our schedules." You tried to sound cheerful as you attempted to draw the attention to something else.

"Sure, why not." Asriel looked up again, his smile returning.

So you pulled out your schedules, comparing the different classes you had and when and where they would take place. Turns out that your schedules were nearly identical, except for one or two classes.

Looks like fate does have plans for you and Asriel. The only question that remains is how exactly this plan looks like.

"Well, seems like we'll be seeing a lot of each other." You jokingly mentioned.

"What do you mean, see a lot of each other. You've already seen everything there is to see about me." Asriel retorted, looking at you with a wide smile.

"Which not only was a lot more than I EVER wanted to see but also left me thoroughly unimpressed." You answered dead pan.

"Hey! Don't blame me alright. Blame the fact that I got most of my genes from my mother." He looked at you in mock offense.

You were certainly no expert in genetics but even you knew that what he said was nonsense.

"C'mon, you're a prince and sooner or later a king. Nothing about you looks appropriate for someone of that status." Keeping the currently rather light-hearted mood, you continued your playful teasing.

"What's that supposed to mean? I can't just snap my fingers and..." Asriel paused for a moment, placing a hand on his chin. "Well, I can but that just wouldn't feel right."

"I'm not sure I follow. You can just snap your fingers and adjust anything about your body?" You looked at him with a mixture of confusion and curiosity.

"Every monster can, even if they don't know about it. It does have it's limits however." He, more or less, confirmed what you said though he didn't seem all that thrilled about it.

"Mind telling me why you're still single then? I mean, if you have almost total control over how you look then why not use that?" At this point you were just confused.

"Because I want people to like me for who I am and not for how I look. Also, it's just aesthetic. I can make myself look stronger than I am but that's it. Height is something different but even that is limited. Two meters is the highest I can go. There are other aspects magic can be used on ..."

"You're telling me more than I need to know again." You cut Asriel off mid sentence, fully aware of where this conversation was going.

"Sorry." Asriel scratched the back of his neck. It seemed as if this was some sort of habit of his.

A short moment of silence passed, until you came up with a rather silly idea. Possibly the silliest idea you had yet.

"If you can use magic to adjust parts of your body, do you think it'd work on me?" An almost hopeful tune was hidden in your voice.

"I don't think so. Why would you want that anyway? I think you look great the way you are right now." And now Asriel was flirting with you, kind of.

This was the moment where you're supposed to blush but that would imply you had romantic feelings for him, which you didn't. At least not at this point in time. Right now you saw him as a friend, a friend you pretend to be dating.

"Hey, I just remembered something. We're going to continue to act like we're dating, right? So what should we do when one of your parents hears about it and begins to ask questions?" You watched how Asriel became significantly more uneasy at your question.

"I uhm, well. Maybe we should... no. Ehm, I guess we can... No, that won't work either." Asriel began thinking, really, REALLY hard but failed to come to a conclusion.

"How about we just tell them the truth?" You suggested, trying not to sound too condescending about it.

"That works too." Asriel clapped his hands together tough he did look like he wasn't completely sure about it.

"Just what exactly was your idea?" Hoping for something tame but still expecting the worst, you asked your rather simple question.

"Well, I thought about running away together and starting a new life in a far away country with new names and identities." He didn't sound like he actually meant it. You hoped he didn't.

"Just joking. My idea was that we stop just pretending and get serious." While Asriel looked like he actually meant it this time, you simply responded with the most serious look you could muster up.

"No? Well, I never said it was a good idea." He looked away with a hint of disappointment on his face.

"Then how about we join the drama club. It might help us to put up a more convincing act." Asriel slowly began to sound a little desperate. He really wanted to spend as much time with you as possible.

"Fine." You enthusiasm remained below reasonable levels. Asriel, however, was euphoric. So much that you could almost swear you heard him squeal.

And so you once again made your way to the drama club, this time to actually join. Maybe.

A good five minute walk and several stares from other students later and you arrived. An unexpectedly large amount of noise came from inside the room. Whatever the club was doing right now, it probably got out of hand again.

You opened the door, remaining unnoticed by most people.

"Seriously Elena. Do you really think that the prince, of all people, will join our club?" One of the members asked.

Elena remained silent, a smug expression on her face as she looked towards the door.

The rest of the club fell silent once they realized just who stood in the door.

"Hey guys, what brings you here?" Elena approached you, sounding cheerful as always.

"We would like to join the club." Asriel sounded like he had second thoughts about joining the drama club.

An almost radiant smile began to spread on Elena's face as she turned around to face the rest of the club.

"I told you. I told you he would join. Now." She held out her hand as she spoke in a victorious tune. "Pay up everyone."

You and Asriel were equally confused, watching as the entire club handed money to Elena. Looks like she just won a bet.

Once everyone payed their part, Elena turned around to face you again.

"Welcome to club you two. We're currently trying assign the roles for our first ever play." She proudly exclaimed.

"What's it about?" Asriel asked, looking at her like he was unsure whether he should be excited or worried.

"Well, it's a little complicated. It's not the entire story, because that would be way too complicated, but rather a very small part of it. It's a story that takes place within the story." Elena's best attempt to explain everything left you even more confused.

"So, a sub plot?" You commented.

"Not really. It's a major part of the main story but it can also be seen as a standalone thing." She looked like she had no idea what the story was about.

"Anyway, you too are perfect for the main roles." She immediately returned to her usual cheerful nature again, assigning you to play the main character.

The rest of the club wasn't all that impressed with Elena's choice, some even making their protest vocal, which she skillfully ignored.

"No objections? Great. Here's the script. Practice is Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. See you guys then." And now she simply handed you the scripts and ushered you out of the room. She didn't even tell you what the play was about.

"Well, that just happened. How about we take a look at the script?" Asriel looked befuddled and almost a little offended.

"Yeah, let's do that." You agreed and began walking back to your dorm.

Back in you room, you and Asriel began skimming trough the script. In became very clear that romance was involved to a certain degree. The characters you and Asriel were to represent could hardly be any different.

Judging by the script you and Asriel were to take on the roles of two princes from different kingdoms. Of course there would be action, drama, the obligatory romance, more action, something that could resemble a plot-twist, a little more romance and even more action. You were almost a little scared by all the amounts of action going on in that play. Throw in a ton of explosion and a car chase and you got yourself a blockbuster.

This was supposed to be a simple stage play and not some sort series with a great first part, an even better second part and a third part that turns the series into a raging dumpster fire.

Once you were done skimming trough the script, you looked over to Asriel. He looked back, both excited and a little afraid for the same reason.

"So, I guess we have to take our relationship on the stage." You said, sounding not all that excited.

"That's not the problem, we've already been doing that for the past days. The real problem is the kissing scene." A blush began to creep up on Asriel's face.

A kissing scene, of course. No play featuring romance is complete without a kissing scene.

"Well, I'm sure we'll figure something out." Asriel reassured.

"I guess so." You agreed, not feeling comfortable at all with what Asriel got you into again.

"What do you think about the play?" He chirped, beginning to sound more and more cheerful.

"I don't really know yet. I skimmed trough most of it. Could be great, could be the worst thing ever. Or anything in between, really." You remained neutral, hoping for the best but expecting the worst.

You continued to read trough the script, trying to get a feel for the world and the characters involved.

"Do you have any idea what was up with Elena earlier? She kinda seemed to be in a hurry." Asriel's concerned question caused you too look up from your script.

"Nope, no clue. I guess she's simply a little surprised by the fact that you actually joined and now she's trying to bring some order in that mess that is the drama club." You answered with an honest, albeit somewhat rude, answer.

"Is really that bad? I mean, it can't be that bad right? Right?" Insecurity began to dominate Asriel's voice.

"I've only been there once but things got really out of hand. Practice started like they seriously wanted to accomplish something but halfway trough everything turned into a mess." It didn't sound like you had high hopes for the drama club.

"That doesn't mean they won't take this serious, this is the real deal after all." Asriel sounded almost childishly naïve.

"I hope you're right." Unlike Asriel, you tried to stay realistic. Or maybe you're just a bit pessimistic.

Both of you returned to reading trough the script. It left you severely worried. Judging by the script, they'd need tons and tons of special effects. How they are supposed to add these to a stage play was something that was almost too terrifying to imagine. They're probably going to use magic. While that could be a good idea, it could also cause disaster. As long as they don't end up burning down the place, which doesn't seem all that unlikely, everything should be fine.

It was around noon when the sounds of, what you could only describe as, a starving beast caught your attention. Looks like someone, that someone being Asriel, was quite hungry. Understandably so, you did skip breakfast.

"How about we go and get lunch." You said, as you closed the rather big book that was your script.

"That's probably the best idea of today." Asriel smiled as he got up from his bed. "So, where are we going? Cafeteria or town?"

"Your call." Instead of making a poor decision, you redirected the question to Asriel.

"Cafeteria it is then. That way we have more time to learn the script." Say what you want, Asriel seemed really dedicated to that entire drama club thing.

So you decided to got to the cafeteria for lunch.

Classes haven't even started yet and you already had to learn an entire script. Pair that with upcoming classes and all the studies that come with them and you already had more stuff do to than you originally planed for. But as long as everything pays out in the end, you should be fine. Probably.