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Kris quickly dashed down the street, almost slipping on the fresh ice and losing grip of their backpack. They regained their balance and continued to sprint at full speed. This was going to be awesome, they just knew it. They turned the corner, passing the Librarby, and approached the school. As the educational institute came into their vision, a certain bluebird caught their eye. Berdly nearly jumped at the sight of them.
"K-Kris? Thank god, I was starting to doubt myself..." Berdly piped up, seemingly quite relieved.
"Berdly? What are you doing here?" Kris immediately asked. Berdly immediately responded with confusion.
"Huh? I'm here for school! I-I just assumed everyone else forgot! Or that I just got locked out." He admitted. Kris stared at him for a solid second, which felt like hours to the shivering bird.
"It's Saturday."
"O-oh. I-I knew that! I was just... uhm..."
"How long have you been out here?" Kris asked, their voice holding a slightly higher-pitched-but-monotone sound.
"I, uh, I lost track. I forgot my phone at home, you see. Must've been a while, though."
Those words seemed to stay in the stagnant air between the two. Kris didn't break their sharp stare, and Berdly intermediately glanced to and from them. Kris took this possibly short period of time to observe him. As should be expected of anyone out in the cold for too long, Berdly was shivering like hell. It wasn't even a consistent shaking, more like sporadic bursts of tremors. With his arms crossed, it sort of looked like he was having a seizure in a straitjacket. Kris chuckled at the idea.
"What, are you laughing at me?!" Berdly blurted, his breath fogging his face.
"Yeah." Kris snorted. Berdly shook his head, continuing to shiver on the steps of the school. T'was a sad sight, Kris admitted to themselves, a dork like him left alone outside the one place he succeeded. Truly some undertones of Greek philosophy, very tasteful.
Anyway, it would be sad to leave this fool to die in the snow alone, so Kris strolled over. He half-flinched as they brushed the fluffy snow off the steps, and sat down next to him. For a brief moment, their skin brushed against his feathers.
"Well, Kris, you obviously aren't here for any productive or educational reasons. What were you going to do at the school on the weekend...?" Berdly asked. Kris opened their mouth, before getting cut off. "Wait, don't tell me. Are you buying drugs!?" He accused.
"No, I was-"
"DEALING drugs?!" Kris wacked Berdly on the back of his head. He groaned and rubbed the point of contact, but was successfully shut up.
"I was just gonna set up a prank for Monday."
"Oh. I'm... sorry I went off on you like that. Still, drugs are bad, and I'd definitely go on a longer spiel if you actually were handling them. Also, pranks? I thought better of you, Dreemurr." Kris rolled their eyes.
"Well, I was gonna break into the school, and reverse the placement of every piece of furniture in Ms. Alphys' room." Kris said, immediately regretting it, as Berdly went back into his 'justice mode'.
"Wha- Breaking and entering is a serious crime, Kris! You-" Kris elbowed him, rolling their eyes. Despite his groans of light pain, they noticed that his physical state seemed to improve. He wasn't shivering as much as when they found him.
"You should probably get headed home, it's only going to get colder." Kris told him. He seemed to space out as he patted his pockets.
"Uh, heh, I don't have my keys on me, either."
"Huh, that's usually a Noelle problem."
"I guess she's rubbing off on me, heh." Berdly joked, receiving a pity-laugh from Kris. "Do, uh, do you think I can warm up at your place for a bit? I don't think I'll make it two steps past the Librarby." He asked, staring forward, not noticing Kris' slightly judgmental gaze.
...
"Not like that, Kris! I-I just mean... I'm really... cold. I'll freeze out there!" Berdly pleaded. Kris rolled their eyes.
"Sure, I guess." Kris half-mumbled. Berdly seemed adequately pleased with the conclusion, and got up to stretch his near-frozen legs. As he straightened his figure, he yelped from pain.
"OW! Ah, shit!" He stammered, falling back onto the stairs. Kris was speechless, both out of confusion and out of surprise for hearing him swear for the first time. "I just felt every nerve in my legs explode! It's probably frostbite!" He yelped, gripping his legs.
Kris, for once, found themselves at a lack for words. Berdly just sat there, rocking back and forth. He sharply inhaled, and Kris felt something within them push towards Berdly. Kris reached out their hand to the bird, who's eyes were too closed to notice.
"Berdly, c'mon." Kris said, grabbing his wrist and pulling him up. His legs trembled under his weight, nearly snapping beneath him. Kris placed their hands at his shoulders to keep him upright. "Can you walk?"
"No way, I can barely bend my knees!" He gasped. Kris lowered him back down to the steps, hooking their arms underneath his legs and arms. They lifted with all they had, and were then surprised by how light Berdly was. Carrying him bridal style wasn't exactly what they are going for, but they didn't know what else to do. With a small grunt and hiss from Berdly, Kris carried him while walking back to their house.
"I swear to the angel, if I lose my legs to frostbite I will be so angry..." he grimaced, either not recognizing or deliberately ignoring the general romantic nature of being carried like this.
"If it was frostbite, you wouldn't have felt anything. I'm guessing your legs fell asleep, and woke up to the extreme cold." Kris stated.
"O-oh. Well, it's a fair precaution to assume the worst, right?" He defended, bringing his hands up to his chest.
"Sure."
As they passed the Librarby, something clicked in the bluebird's head.
"Uh, you can put me down now. I think my legs are fine, I can definitely walk!" Berdly stammered, averting his gaze.
"What made you change your mind?" Kris asked, looking down at him, their bangs dropping down, giving him a clear line of sight to their eyes. Despite this near once in a lifetime opportunity, Berdly seemed focused on struggling out of their arms.
"U-uh, what would Susie think if she saw you carrying me? Or Noelle, or anyone! They'd think I'm your boyfriend or something, now that you're carrying me like this!" He spat out.
"I carry you in every team-based shooter we've ever played, and now that we do it in real life you get all defensive. Kind of weird." Kris joked, not putting him down.
"Ugh, Kris, you're the worst!" He tried to grimace, but he let out a soft chuckle. It took him a moment to realize, but Kris stopped walking.
"Uh, why are you stopping?" Berdly asked, seemingly forgetting about the whole carrying thing.
"Man, you look goofy as hell like this." Kris laughed.
"Well, that's just more reason to let me walk!" Berdly continued to struggle.
"No, like in a good way."
"There is no good way! Let me out of your ar- wait, what?"
Kris started walking again, giggling to themself.
"Hey, don't start the silent game now!" Berdly shouted, causing Kris to break out into a fit of laughter, nearly dropping him.
"You heard me." Kris got out between laughs. Berdly sputtered, trying to get something out. He was obviously failing in such a flustered state, maybe getting out one or two words at a time.
"W-wait, this is another prank, isn't it, Kris? You're just trying to embarrass me!" Berdly mustered, desperately trying to recover.
"Yeah, yeah, sure. A prank. That involves carrying you to my house, that you specifically asked to go to. Seems like you're the one trying to embarrass me, dude." Kris ribbed him again.
"There's no winning against you! Not in real life, and not in games!" Berdly cried, half-jokingly putting his head in his hands.
Kris turned the corner and approached their house. Berdly stared at the building for a moment, basking in the memories of the times that they used to play games together. He fondly remembered every time that he stepped through the front door, initiating a grand gamer duel. Thus, he was surprised (and perhaps a little heartbroken) when Kris went towards a rope leading up to their window.
Wait, a rope?
"Kris, why are we using a rope to get into your house? The door should work fine..." He complained.
"I never told my mom that I was going out, so I went out with the rope to hide my tracks." They explained. "So that also means that I can't keep you long."
"You better hope my legs get warm by the time your mother wakes up, Kris. Or else." He jokingly warned. He was glad they were back at the stage of friendship in which they could joke like this.
"It'll be a shame to see you drop from the second story. Anyway, are your arms strong enough to climb up this?"
"Kris, please. I'm a bird, our wings carry our entire body weight, plus more! We have excellent upper body strength!" He confidently announced, gripping the rope with his wings. He pulled himself up about half the way to the window before looking down.
"Aa-aah! That's quite the fall!" He yelped, curling his body around the rope as tight as he could.
"Birds shouldn't be afraid of heights."
"I'm not afraid! It's a primal instinct, can you blame me?!" While Kris was whispering "yes", Berdly pulled his head up, and squirmed up the rope. He focused everything on simply the window, not the height, not the cold, and definitely not his legs. Before he knew it, he was in Kris' windowsill.
"Hey, you actually did it." Kris said, climbing up the rope in considerably less time. After they got back into their room, they pulled the rope back up with them, then closing the window. When they turned around, they were met by Berdly with their blanket wrapped around his legs. They sat down next to him.
"Feel better?" Kris asked, breaking the silence betweenst them.
"I... A little bit."
And thus, they sat there for a minute, the awkward silence that was previously broken reforming into a more... wholesome silence. Kris wasn't too opposed to having Berdly as company, as he seemed to be a lot less brash for some reason. Berdly was glad to have someone who didn't push him away the moment they could. They were glad to be chill with each other. And the atmosphere was chill. Or, rather chilly.
Turns out, leaving your windows open for half an hour tends to drink up all of the heat. Kris was cold, compared to the Berdly wrapped up in their blankets. They didn't want to disrupt Asriel's bed, so they tried to think of a way of phrasing it in a way that didn't sound weird
"Uh, I'm getting pretty cold. Can we maybe... share the blanket...?" Kris mumbled, trailing off. They decided that was platonic-sounding, and not too weird. Berdly seemed to be caught off guard by the question.
"Uh-" He stammered, barely recognizing the question.
"O-oh, uhm. I mean, I don't mind. But uh, wait, that sounds wrong. I mean that I'm not gonna stop you. Or- uhm. God..." He stammered, his face subsequently turning redder with each stumble. "Ahem, you get what I mean."
Kris pulled the blanket out from around him, and flipped it upwards, lowering it onto both of them. Now, with at least some adequate heating, Kris lowered their head against the floor.
"That works." He said, lowering his head down as well.
"Your legs warm yet?" Kris asked.
"They have been for a while. B-But, I wanted to stay!" He blurted. Kris nodded, acknowledging the current peace between them. So, of course, a plan formulated to destroy said peace.
"Up for a game of Super Smashing Fighters before you go?" Berdly shot up, swiveling to Kris.
"Y-yeah!" he excitedly shouted. Kris got up, grabbing two controllers off the dusty television in the corner of the room. They plugged them into the equally dusty console, and slide one across the carpet to Berdly. He wrapped his wings around the handles, fidgeting with the buttons to warm his digits up. Kris sat down next to him, wrapping the blanket around both them and Berdly. Like usual, Berdly started with some trash talk.
"Ready to see some real gaming? I'll play so well that you won't know what hit you!"
"Sure, I've beaten you 10-0 in most of our duels. We'll see who's the real gamer." Kris retorted.
As the game started, they moved through the menu and selected their characters like it was second nature to them, because it was. They had well and honed their skills to near perfection through their many duels. Kris was always a step ahead of their rival, however. During their "practice round", a name that Berdly started to call it after he got his ass beat against Kris, they managed to get another 10-0. They started the next round, but not without some trash talking of their own.
"Real nice play there, dingus. Diving off the edge of the map? Really taking it to the next level." Berdly was rather surprised by the emotion they were letting out, something that he only remembered from early middle school.
"Agh, shut up, Kris. You're just mad that I'm going easy on you! I like to see you win, that's all!"
"You like it, huh? I guess you'll be pretty happy by the end of this round." Kris chuckled. Berdly rolled his eyes and went in for attack against Kris' character. He let his emotions bleed somewhat into the game, and he was playing more aggressively. He was ready to put Kris into their place for once. To his and their surprise, he actually managed to secure a few battles as a victory.
"Take that, loser!" He joked, immediately letting it get to his head.
"We'll see about that." Kris stated, deadpan and seemingly trying to get Berdly to whiff from their unexpected seriousness.
And that it did, as he stopped moving for about half a second, which was enough for Kris to leap in and get a win. This back and forth went on for about two minutes, where Berdly would get a win, get a rush of superiority, and Kris would knock him down again. This left them at a tie, 13-13. One of them needed to get 2 points ahead to win, and neither of them were going to budge. Such an extended battle took a slight toll on either of the two's tactics, as they went for calmer, less aggressive attacks.
A calmer playing field was enough for Kris to plan on how to get a leg ahead. Berdly was mostly focused on only the game. They could pry his attention away, but he was definitely too far into the game to get distracted by simple trash talk. A dirty external play might be enough, though. They thought back to when they were carrying him back from the school, and his flusteredness, and an idea sprung into their head.
Execution time.
Kris managed to get Berdly to retreat, and they returned to their side of the map as well. This would buy them enough time. As Berdly switched directions, going in for the kill, Kris turned their head towards the bird, closed their eyes, and leaned forward.
Berdly fell apart as soon as Kris planted the kiss on his cheek, meaning their plan worked. While he was racking his brain for something to say in response, Kris mopped his character up, securing another win.
"Wai- KRIS!" He shouted, scrambling to pick his fallen controller. "YOU CAN'T JUST DO THAT!"
"I never heard any rules stated at the start of the game, bitch!" Kris tried to say as coolly as possible, but they couldn't hide their energy behind a monotonous barrier when they just kissed a friend.
Berdly could only stare in awe when the game finished and the leaderboards announced Kris as the winner. Kris sort of paraded in place, rubbing in as much salt as they could into the fresh wounds of losing. While they were grooving, Berdly was basically hit by the semitruck that is memory recollection.
Kris kissed him. He wasn't imagining that, right? That really happened?
"Did you actually do that...?" he squeaked, voice breaking as he started to speak.
"Yeah, sucks to suck, man!"
"I don't know what to feel." He admitted. Kris watched as his face turned from the average blue to the not-often-seen deep red.
"O-oh, did I go too far?" Kris asked, going back on themself.
This was followed by a chuckle, and then the last thing Kris ever expected.
Berdly lunged over to Kris and kissed them on the cheek. He pulled back and laughed the hardest he had all day. Kris blinked in confusion, much like he did a minute earlier.
"Hah! You may be well versed in 'The Art of War', but I have a few tricks up my own sleeve! I knew you'd never expect me to mimic your tactics, as you see me as... just a..." He continued to ramble, but Kris immediately tuned him out, just to think about what just happened.
Why were they so flustered from that? Why did they want it to happen again? They blinked.
"...Fall for such an obvious plan, but I guess I was wrong!" He finished, still riding on his pride. He continued giggling to himself, and Kris saw an opportunity to do the funniest thing in the history of Kris.
While Berdly went into another monolog about knowing your enemy, Kris leapt up again and kissed him. On the lips, this time. Or beak, rather. You get the idea.
If a peck on the cheek was enough to destroy Berdly, a full blown lip-on-lip kiss made him straight up dissolve. He planted his face in his wings and didn't say a word. Damn, he was cute like this. It's funny to see him all flustered, I mean. Kris decided to go all out, and wrapped their arms around Berdly, giving him a side hug. He held his face for a solid minute, before finally moving. He lifted his head up, still red as ever, and looked at Kris. He went in for another kiss, but they were expecting it, and sandwiched his head between their hands. He was clearly surprised, and they used the moment of confusion to plant another kiss on his beak.
And this continued for a while, Berdly trying to kiss Kris, and Kris trying to kiss Berdly. Clearly, this was a game of all out destruction, war, and misery. This was more strategic and coordinated than D-Day, more deadly and lethal than Verdun, more destructive than any war in human and monster history... And Kris was going to win. Which was quite easy.
Kris went in for a usual kiss, but instead of a short peck, they held it. They pulled Berdly closer to them, making sure the kiss went over the 5 second threshold. This amount of affection seemed to be enough to finally overload Berdly, and he collapsed on the floor, giggling. Kris rolled down with him, laughing along with him. This was great. They just laid there for a solid 5 minutes, enjoying each other's company, like earlier.
After the kissfest was mostly over, Berdly started to put on his winter clothing.
"Weren't you going to kick me out after a few minutes because of your mother?" He asked while trying and failing to zip up his jacket with his wings.
"Heh, I think my mom's at a PTA meeting." Kris admitted.
"Ah, I see."
And as it left, it came back again. Silence filled the room once more. Going from passionate kissing to taking about PTA meetings really makes things awkward, as surprising as it sounds. Berdly reasoned that he might as well ask the question that they were both dying to ask.
"So... are we a thing now? That was all, uh, pretty sudden." He questioned Kris. The answer to that question seemed to also be lost on them, despite starting this whole thing.
"I'm not... opposed to it..." Kris finally confessed after a tense second.
"Gotcha. Uhm... Would you like to, uh, go out sometime...? If you don't want to that's fine, but I can definitely t-"
"Yeah."
"W-well, alright. You still have my number, correct?" He asked, Kris nodded.
"Alright, I'll be heading out now. See you soon, Kris!" He said, pushing up the window.
Kris held out a finger, walking to their closet. They pulled out an old, wrinkled, red pair of snowpants. They handed it to Berdly.
"Ah, thank you Kris. This'll probably help if I ever misremember my scheduling again..." He mumbled, while putting on the snowpants. Despite them being from Kris' wardrobe, and also being at least a few years old, they fit him well. Well, to be fair, his legs were pretty skinny, being a bird and all...
"Alright, see you later, Kris! For real this time!" He said, throwing the rope out the window, and climbing down. Kris watched as he waved goodbye, and ran off to his house. They pulled the rope back up again, closed the window, and chuckled.