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Kris and Noelle went out to an animal themed festival with the Fun Gang and Carol with Rudy in a wheelchair.
The gang were having fun in the festival, with Susie winning a strength contest while Kris attempts to wring as much prizes as he can from the dart throwing contests without getting kicked out.
They also got some interesting merchandise that they bought as well, ranging from Noelle's new pair of fans that she could use during warm summer days to Berdly's fancy anime sword figurine. There was one interesting item that one of the members had bought for themselves and that was Kris' goat mask.
Granted, it was more of a half mask as the jaw was open for Kris to eat and drink but it still resembled a black goat with red horns on the front.
After buying the mask, she had never seen Kris take it off during the entire trip. When Susie and Berdly shot a stream of water at Kris as a prank during one of the booths, Kris treated the mask as if it was a part of his face instead of taking it off and wiping it.
Noelle decided to intervene.
"Hey Kris, I just wondering..." Noelle slowed down her pace as to catch Kris at the back of the group. "Why don't you take off the mask, hm?"
Instead of answering, Kris just gripped his mask on and shook his head as if trying to hide it from her.
"...Kris, what's wrong? You never held onto something like that for a while, the last object you gripped like that was the red horn headband you used to wear when we were kids." Noelle asked Kris worriedly.
"..." Kris stared blankly at Noelle, as if contemplating something in his mind.
The both had stopped walking, with Noelle waiting for Kris to try and catch up while Kris purposely stopped walking to try and make Noelle forget about the topic.
The two stared at each other for at least a minute, with passersby looking at them strangely and/or silently cheering on a more romantic idea of their stare-off. Seeing that Noelle would not budge about the topic, Kris sighed in defeat.
"It's just..." Kris scratched the back of his head, mask still in place. "I guess I... still feel out of place from time to time..." Kris mumbled upon the last words.
Kris held onto the mask again. "It just feels weird being human in a town of monsters, you know? When you take a look around town, you see some interesting people there. We have a literal fireball walking around in a bar of all places, a talking skeleton who somehow can predict lines, and even Miss Muffet with her multiple arms; and then you take a look at me. Just... a regular anomaly. No interesting qualities, bland hair, and made of blood."
Kris kicked a pebble to try and calm himself down. "Somedays I wonder..." Kris looked upwards towards the night sky, looking for a shooting star. "What if I was born a monster? Would I feel more welcome in town? Would I have made more friends? Would i have stopped Toriel and Asgore from-"
Before he could continue on Noelle placed her finger on Kris' lips, silencing his ranting.
"Kris..." Noelle called out, making Kris face forwards again. "Why should it matter?"
Noelle removed her fingers from his lips. "Just because you're a human doesn't mean you're no more different from yourself. Sure you're human and all that, but did that really stop you from doing what you loved?"
Noelle prepared herself mentally.
"When we first met, sure I had commented about how you were a human and how strange it was. But now, look at us. We're hanging out with friends that we shared memories with. We conquered the obstacles within the Darkworlds. We found a cure to Rudy's terminal illness. We even managed to move on from our respective traumas, together. Would it have changed it you were a goat monster or something else? No, because despite being a human within a town of monsters..."
Noelle moved closer to Kris, making sure that he understood everything she was about to say.
"-you are still you."
After hearing those words, Kris couldn't hold back the tears and started to tear up. He had finally pushed the mask upwards to reveal his ruby eyes staring back at her obsidian ones, tears still present within both eyes.
When Kris stared at Noelle, he saw someone that he could reliably act with, always in sync whenever they did stuff. Someone that truly understood them despite everything they had done.
When Noelle stared at Kris, she saw the old Kris coming out of his shell. She saw the Kris who would usually try and make everyone's day cheerful through pranks or simple shows like playing the piano.
The two moved closer and closer, each inch making their breath more noticeable yet forgotten.
They were almost nose to nose when one of the child asked, "Mommy! When would they kiss?" to their mother."
In a surge of panic and fluster, they both jumped backwards and apologized for the sudden breach of space.
Both of they went off to find the others, with the previous moment still stuck in their minds.