Toriel continues to gently stroke her fingers through fur, offering a low comforting sound from deep within her throat. A sound Asriel has heard from infancy through most of his childhood.

Toriel is no mind reader, far from it- but she can guess her son's fears aren't simply quelled with that. He carries the weight of what he has done with him. She doubts he'll be able to shed that anytime soon. Death on the scale he has seen and been exposed to again doesn't simply fade away with a few kind words.

"I'm glad." Two months ago she wouldn't have been, oh how time changes things... "Has he been good company?"