Chapter Text
Noelle walks into school on Wednesday morning, early as usual. Kris and Susie, who have a growing reputation for tardiness, are absent yet again.
But considering how she feels, it's a wonder Noelle got to school on time herself, as she was exhausted yesterday, feeling as if she had walked miles the day before. Even now, her hooves are aching. Despite being a track team member for years, she still feels quite stressed. Regardless, she managed, taking her seat next to Berdly. He doesn't immediately notice her, seemingly lost in thought, but when he does, he smiles at her, which is not odd for him, but is usually accompanied by an amount of smugness, as Noelle can remember that he almost always greets her as being "the second smartest student in class," something that always annoyed Noelle, but that she was resigned to deal with.
"How are you doing today, friend and equal partner Noelle?" he asks, using a strange tone, almost indicating that he wasn't sure how to form that sentence.
"I'm doing alright, I guess. How are you doing?" responds Noelle, using a somewhat confused tone. More students are beginning to walk into the classroom.
"I'm just thinking about how much I appreciate you for being so helpful with everything all these years."
Noelle is beginning to feel apprehensive. Berdly is rarely so kind in his words, but for him to be outright gracious is an unprecedented event. She's about to question him on his unusual behavior, but loses her chance when they are both distracted by Kris and Susie walking in the door at the same time. They seem tired, even Kris, who always looks tired. Noelle is about to greet them, but loses her chance when Berdly quickly stands up and loudly greets them.
"HELLO SUSIE! How are you today?"
Susie is startled by this greeting from Berdly, stopping in her tracks to look at Berdly, who appears somewhat nervous himself.
"Uhm... I'm fine?" Susie responds, somewhat confused herself. She looks away, quickly finding her way to her desk.
Berdly looks even more nervous now, but Noelle doesn't have time to interrogate him as Alphys comes in and begins speaking.
"So h-how's everyone doing today? Let's see who's absent today?" She starts, turning around to see that, in fact, no one was absent. Seeming surprised, she continues. "O-oh. It seems everyone's here. On t-time. Thanks for joining us Kris, S-susie."
With that, she quickly grabs a sheet off of her desk and begins making marks. Then she begins her lecture, commenting on the current group project. Noelle attempts to pay attention, but her mind wanders, drifting back to the fantastical dream she had yesterday, at the library. She begins to think about the moments with Susie on the ferris wheel, lamenting that she could never get the opportunity to share such a moment with her in real life. Soon she finds herself looking back over her shoulder, at Susie, who seems to be quite disinterested in the lessons, nearly falling asleep, constantly slipping off their own hand, jerking awake, only to repeat the cycle.
Noelle forces herself to look away from Susie, who doesn't even notice her through her exhaustion. Soon enough, though, Noelle finds herself looking back again, thinking back to her dream, clearly recalling their imagined interaction on the ferris wheel. She thinks that the Susie of the real world has softened quite a bit compared to their past self. Perhaps now would be the time to act on their urges. To finally ask Susie out directly. Before she can fully consider this however, she catches Kris staring back out of the corner of her eye, grabbing her full attention. They make a silly face at Noelle, forcing her to look away, putting her attention back on Alphys, quickly realizing that they hadn't been paying proper attention for almost 15 minutes. They quickly start jotting down notes from the blackboard.
~~~
The school day goes by quickly for Noelle, as time flies when you're having fun. Noelle love's to learn, so school is one of Noelle's favorite places to be, naturally. But, unfortunately, lunch approaches. She always finds herself eating alone or with Berdly, but always eats in silence. While most people in class find her to be an enjoyable presence, few count her as a friend, and fewer as a close one. The only person who Noelle considers to be a close friend is Kris, but they rarely speak, so trying to hold an engaging conversation would be somewhat pointless. But now, Susie spoke to them every day. Maybe she could join in.
Noelle grabs her lunch bag from her locker and begins to head for the lunch room, but she soon finds herself questioning whether she should approach Susie and Kris at all. She quickly stops herself and takes a couple of deep breaths, exhaling slowly. She continues forwards.
The lunch room consists of a couple small tables, each with a few seats. Certainly more seats than needed for the number of students who attend the school, but the room is often used for some school events as well.
Quickly scanning the room, Noelle finds no sign of Kris or Susie, disappointed. She realizes that they must have cut in order to have lunch elsewhere, likely QC's. Frustrated by how silly she was, she sits alone once again, Berdly soon joining her wordlessly. Usually Berdly would yammer on about some video game, movie, or the like, but today he just eats in silence.
The silence is deafening to Noelle, who wants nothing more than for Berdly to start speaking, which he never does. She suddenly realizes that all this time, the noise was helpful, as she wouldn't have to think about herself in that moment. But once again, before she can delve too deeply into those thoughts, she is interrupted by Kris and Susie, who finally show up to talk.
Susie starts, "Hey, Noelle..." Susie seems confused, or maybe nervous, it's hard to read her with all the hair in front of her eyes. "I– we were wondering if you might want to hang out with us after school today. Head over to QC's to have some food. Y'know?"
Noelle is absolutely dumbstruck. She had spent all day thinking about trying to hang out with them, and they had approached her . How silly could she be?
"O-of, course. I'd love to hang out with yo- you guys. Both of you, I mean." Noelle stumbles over her own words, still surprised by the invitation.
Berdly stands up, putting his hand on Noelle's shoulder. "Noelle, I-I thought we were gonna work on our project after school today, right?"
Noelle turns to face him. "We already have most of it done. We can just do it tomorrow." She looks away from him and addresses Kris and Susie. "I'll meet you in front of the school, alright?"
Kris nods and begins to walk away, Susie following. She walks away from Berdly without a single look, going to throw away her trash before heading back to class.
~~~
The rest of the day goes off without a hitch. Kris and Susie manage to stay put all day, with Susie not being nearly as tired after lunch. Noelle even catches her trying to focus on some of the lessons.
Shortly after the bell rings, Noelle heads her locker, stashing a few things, before walking out of the building to meet up with Susie and Kris. Susie greets her, but Kris just waves. It's a very short walk to QC's, but for Noelle it feels like hours. She keeps deliberating in her head about what to talk about. Kris and Susie seem to like video games. She wonders if she'd played any of the games in the Dragon Blazers series, as that would make for good conversation.
They all arrive at QC's, finding it to be somewhat loud, which bothers Noelle slightly. They sit down and wait for staff to come get their order. While they wait, Noelle decides to start up some conversation.
"S-so, uh, what kinds of video games do you like, Susie?" Noelle is very nervous, as she's never had a chance to gather information on her crush. At least not directly.
Susie looks away, seemingly deep in thought, but responds meekly. "I'm not... familiar with recent games."
Noelle feels bad for embarrassing Susie, quickly clarifying. "N-neither am I, but I do like older games, like the Dragon Blazers games. I'm on the third one."
Susie looks back at Noelle in shock, before a grin crawls up their face. "I'm the QUEEN of Dragon Blazers . I have all 4 of the original games on cartridge."
Noelle leans over the table towards Susie, excited by the common ground they quickly found. "Really? Then you gotta explain how to beat this boss I'm stuck on. None of my spells or weapons are strong enough."
"Which one?"
"The one with the katana. His speed is just way too high for my fighter, and all my mage's spells don't have any effect on him."
Susie nods knowingly, seemingly familiar with the situation in question. "Everyone struggles with that boss at first. The game manual is no help either. You actually have to use fire spells against him, as well as debuffs to lower his speed. Then, your fighter should be able to attack reliably. Aside from relentless grinding, there's just no way to get the stats necessary to beat him with brute force."
Noelle looks at Susie with awe, ecstatic at her new ability to defeat the boss. "Angel above, of course! Dad'll be so happy."
~~~
The night progresses like that, with Noelle, Susie, and Kris having a lively dialogue on various games and movies. At some point they got a large order of fries, mainly because Susie asked. Noelle has stopped eating them, as she has dinner waiting at home for her, leaving Susie and Kris to eat to their heart's content.
"And that's why Bakèmin is one of my most favorite games of all time." Susie finishes, grabbing another handful of fries to eat.
Noelle chuckles, having heard the long description of all of Susie's favorite parts of the game. It's nice to hear Susie talking about her passions, Noelle thinks to herself.
Kris checks their phone and tells the two girls that they have to go, because otherwise Toriel would be upset with them. They quickly get up and turn around, beginning to walk away, before reversing again, reaching into their pocket and putting 5 dollars on the table. They then wave goodbye and walk out the door wordlessly, leaving the two young women alone.
An awkward silence follows the jingling of bells, Noelle feels her heartbeat rising, a bead of sweat forming on her brow. She feels incredibly intimidated by the situation, almost feeling like she isn't meant to be there.
"So, you're, uh, really good at school and stuff, huh?" Susie asks. The question causes Noelle to look up at her, staring directly into her eyes, releasing a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
"Uhm, yeah, I guess so. It always came naturally to me." Noelle immediately regrets saying this, fearing that Susie may think she's bragging.
Before Noelle can die of embarrassment, Susie speaks again. "I've never been good at school. Even when I was little, I could never figure out the assignments. I like to read and all, but I can never bring myself to do my schoolwork." Susie smiles as she says this, poorly hiding some sadness behind it.
"Well, you're not stupid." Noelle says, not even thinking about the words coming out of her mouth. "I know you're not. You speak well, and when you put your mind to things, you accomplish them."
Susie scoffs at this, turning away from Noelle. "Sure. I just wish that was worth something to my grades. There's no point in school anymore, not for me."
Noelle is saddened by Susie's words, feeling helpless next to Susie's apparent despair at their scholastic aptitude. "Well, I could tutor you."
It's Susie's turn to be shocked this time, snapping her head towards Noelle, her mouth agape. She struggles to find the words, but quickly responds. "No. You can't do that. I'd just drag you down. It'd be a waste of your time."
"No it wouldn't. It's never a waste of time to help a friend."
Susie is once again transfixed on the words coming out of Noelle's mouth. She looks away, considering the offer again. Soon, the same sad smile returns to her face. "No. You have enough on your plate as it is."
Noelle is about to respond, but is cut off by a ding, emanating from her phone. She pulls it out of the pocket in her skirt and checks it, and immediately stands up. "I have to go. It's getting late and my mom will be home soon."
Susie sits up. "Oh, okay. Guess I should pay for the food then." She digs around in her jacket pockets before counting out a number of bills and slamming them on the table.
Both of the girls walk out of the diner together, Noelle following Susie's towering form. They stop in front of the establishment, looking at each other.
Susie sighs. "This was fun. We should do it again."
Noelle looks up at her, having forgotten just how tall she is. "Y-yeah. Again."
With that, Susie waves and starts walking the opposite direction, leaving Noelle alone with her thoughts. A dozen of them race through her head as she begins the short walk home. Once she is far enough away, she quietly begins jumping up and down, celebrating her successful interaction.