Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Noelle knew if she wanted to finish the project in time, she really had to start soon. Forget the strange dream she had. Forget… oh how could she forget! Queen, the strange city, the ferris whe…No, focus, she thought. The project comes first, Susie…later. That’s not going to be easy, she’s literally right the-

“Excuse me miss?”

Noelle almost shrieked in fright, turning around to a small monster looking up at her.

“You’ve been lookin’ for that book for a good 5 minutes now, d’ya need some help?”

“Oh! No, no I’m fine, I’ve got it.” She stuttered, scanning the shelf quickly for the correct book, taking it of the shelf by the spine. She smiled nervously at them until they slowly returned to their seat. Phew. She better not get distracted like that while working on the project.

She walked back into the computer lab, seeing Kris and Susie doing their work. Well, if doing their work meant playing space pinball on the ancient library computers. It was nice seeing the pair playing together, especially since Susie looked really damn cute when she was focused. Crap, not again.

After standing in the door for what was probably about 10 seconds the two looked up, most likely due to a crushing defeat from all the noise Susie was making.

“ Aw, god fucking dammit Kris! You knew I’d fall for that, didn’t you? “

Kris was grinning from behind the monitor. Noelle assumed they had pulled one of their famous tricks.

“ Oh, Noelle, you’re here!“ Susie looked up, her face lighting up.

Noelle felt her cheeks burn, which she desperately hoped no-one noticed.

“ About time, I was worried you were gonna bail on us!”

“ And risk bumping into Berdly? “ She said, summoning confidence she didn’t have. “ Yeah right. “

“ Fair enough. “ she replied.

Noelle pulled up a chair, getting out her project. Okay, this isn’t so bad, she thought, they’ll work on their project, and she would work on hers. This is fine.

Well, for the first 10 minutes she tried writing, but only got a couple of sentences written. Mostly because she couldn’t seem to tear her eyes away from Kris and Susie. From how the two acted you wouldn’t of guessed they barely knew one another the other day. Kris had always been reclusive, mostly hanging out with Azzie, herself and Dess. But now they seemed to be making more friends. While she was glad, it does mean seeing a lot more of Susie. Which is a…complicated situation.

Sighing, Noelle dragged her eyes away from her work (and subsequently the pair infront of her) to look at her watch. Woah, 4:27pm already? But that means…

“ Hey Noelle, you alright? You’ve been staring at your watch for like, ages “

Oh, right.

“ Uh, yeah! It’s just uh…”

Susie looked at her intently.

“…it’s just berdly’s shift finished in 3 minutes “

The look of confusion on Susie’s face changed to one of anguish, similarly matched by a groan from Kris.

“ Urgh, crap, I forgot! Ah well, I can probably deal with him. Besides, you can’t do all the work yourself, right? “ She asked

“ We’ll, yeah but… “ Noelle paused, before finishing.
“ I think he’s starting developing a crush on you. “ she added, bitterly.

There was a pause.

“ Ewwwwwww gross! Fuck it, Kris, you go distract that nerd, I am NOT dealing with him. “

Kris looked at Susie, before sighing and agreeing to distract him, as long as Susie did the project.

“ Urgh, fine. Deal. “ She replied, as Kris left the room. Silence.

Great. Now what.

Chapter Text

The two worked in silence for several minutes, unsure of what to say. She caught her reflection in the deactivated monitor, and saw her ears were still crimson. She looked down, embarrassed. Regardless, Noelle found herself glancing up every so often, looking at Susie. She looked like she was struggling, mostly chewing the end of her pencil than writing with it. To be honest, she was surprised it hadn’t snapped already.

Susie spoke first.

“ So…how long have you and Kris known one another? You seem close. “ She asked, suddenly.

“ Oh! Uh… a long time, I guess. Our families used to be real close, so we all hung out together. “ She replied, a little startled.

“ Used to? How come you don’t anymore? “

Noelle sighed sadly. It wasn’t a very pleasant topic.

Susie sensed that, before hastily adding “Uh- you don’t have to tell me if you don’t wanna. “

“ No no, it’s just after Kris’ parents divorced we got more distant. “ she explained. It wasn’t just that, a lot more happened. Things she would rather not dwell on.

“ Ah “ Susie coughed awkwardly, putting her head down and trying to continue with her work. The silence that followed was deafening.

Noelle sighed, trying to focus on her work. The two worked in silence for several minutes. The two couldn’t think of anything to say, and both worried they had made the situation worse. When Noelle finally looked up she saw Susie stumbling through a textbook with great difficulty, pointing at the words and mumbling to herself. Noelle was surprised she hadn’t realised they were struggling this whole time. As shy as she was, she couldn’t let her friend struggle.

“ Do you… need some help? “ She asked.

Susie looked up from the textbook, her cheeks a little redder than usual. She looked…embarrassed. The Susie, the most feared and subsequently fearless kid in the whole of hometown, looked embarrassed.

“ Uh…sorta. This textbook is just shit. “ She paused, before adding “ and I’m not exactly the best at all this academic crap. “

Susie, even before she missed class because of the dark world was never that good. She didn’t even bother to try anymore, and Miss Alphys was so close to shitting herself every time they spoke to her she got away with it. Not like her parents cared anyways. Still, she felt embarrassed admitting it to Noelle.

“ Let me see “ She said, as Susie passed her the dreaded book.

Susie wasn’t wrong, the textbook was terrible. The grammar was appalling and the presentation even worse. It made her head spin from all the content, that on closer inspection contained very little substance. No wonder she was struggling.

“ We could uh…both try and find better resources online? A-and if you wanted I could help you with the work? “ she asked, finally.

Susie nodded, before picking up her chair. Noelle was confused, before noticing what she was doing. Crap, she was gonna sit right next to her! She kept her head down, pretending to read the textbook to hide the blush creeping up her cheek.

“ So. Uh. Should we get started? “

Noelle looked up, embarrassed

“ Oh! Right, right. Yeah “ she stuttered, booting up the computers

“ Those’ll take ages to log on, why don’t we take a break? “ Susie said, leaning against the back of her chair.

“ Y-yeah, a break sounds good. “

Susie pulled out a notebook, casually doodling while Noelle watched the ancient computers slowly boot up. Eventually getting bored of watching he progress bat slowly load, Noelle’s eyes drifted to Susie’s sketch. It was Susie, Kris and a boy that looked a lot like Asriel wearing some strange costumes. Susie was wielding an axe and wearing some kind of strange yet cool outfit. It looked familiar…

Wait.

That’s what she looked like in her dream! But how was that possible? Was it a coincidence? Noelle’s head was spinning with the possibilities as Susie looked up.

“ Uh..you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost “

Noelle was brought back into reality, turning to Susie. Oh, right.

“ Sorry, I just thought your drawing looked weirdly familiar “ she said. She thought, for a second, she saw Susie’s face turn to one of shock, before turning back to her regular nonchalant expression.

“ That’s…cool. How though? “ she asked after a pause.

Noelle paused. Did she really want to explain why? Say that she was dreaming of Susie? Well, what else could she say?

“ Well, I had this dream… “

Chapter Text

“ …so that’s basically it “ Noelle finished. The two had been talking for several minutes. Noelle could of sworn Susie didn’t look as surprised as she excepted. She had just admitted to dreaming of her for goodness sake! Maybe it was just her nonchalant nature.

Susie, on the other hand, was kind of glad. It was nice that Noelle had such fond memories of the dark world, even if she just thought it was a dream. Susie thought about telling her the truth, but decided against it. It’s probably better this way.

“ That’s…actually pretty cool. “

Noelle looked shocked, looking at Susie. She was not excoriating that.

“ I mean, dark worlds? Me with an axe? That sounds cool as shit! Man, I wish I had dreams like that. “

Susie was proud of herself for sounding convincing. She really didn’t want Noelle to have to worry. It did seem a little dumb for her to draw her dark world form when Noelle was there only a couple hours ago.

“ Say, why don’t I try drawing that form you had in that dream? “ Susie suggested. She remember how Noelle looked, with that cloak and cute hood and… oh great, not again. She felt her cheeks flushing, which she disguised by digging in her bag for a better pencil.

“ That sounds… fun. Yeah, gives you a chance to practice, faha. “ Noelle replied, relieved. She was surprised how chill Susie was with the whole thing, but was actually glad. She would hate for Susie to think she was a total weirdo.

“ So, what did you look like? “

•

The two worked together, with Noelle describing the outfit she wore in her dream, with Susie drawing it. Eventually they came up with something that looked pretty close to the real thing.

“ Wow… Susie that’s amazing! “ she exclaimed when it was finished. Susie’s face lit up like a Christmas tree, which Noelle convinced herself was out of embarrassment.

“ W-well uh.. I’m… glad you like it? “

Susie was more user to being complimented nowadays. Kris and Ralsei were good at making her feel like she was worth something, and the darkners she helped always were openly grateful. But something about being complimented by Noelle felt..amazing. No, no, embarrassing, yeah. That.

Noelle smiled, turning to her watch. She sighed. She was due home soon, otherwise her mother would throw a fit.

“ Sorry Susie, I really need to go. My mother hates me getting home late “

“ Aw man. I barely got anything done! And the computers didn’t even boot up. Ah well, we can always work on it tomorrow? “

Tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow. Susie’s words echoed in her head. Susie wanted to hang out with her again. She almost felt like squealing unhappiness, but instead chose the more suitable option of smiling, heading out the door.

On her way out, she caught a glimpse of Berdly ranting to Kris about some kind of game lore. Kris looked bored to tears but was good enough at hiding it, and Berdly’s head was so far up his ass to notice. She mouthed “sorry” towards them before rushing out the library.

While the interaction was not the kind she often daydreamed about, it was a start. And to her, it was all that mattered.

Besides, there was always tomorrow.