Chapter Text
Lunch always went by fast. A few neatly packed sandwiches followed by a signature slice of Toriel’s pie never failed to work up Kris’ appetite. It only failed to last more than five minutes before he had scarfed it all down. Susie had always wondered how the boy stayed so skinny and scrawny while eating so much pie on a regular basis, and upon seeing his allotted budget of ten dollars a week in allowance, she hatched an idea to help him put more meat on his bones. The limited funds given on an irregular basis meant that it couldn’t be a daily thing, but they could at least do it every Friday to celebrate the weekend. The class had an hour for lunch, which was plenty of time for her to skip out the door and hit up Sans’ shop for some candies or sodas or chalk or whatever she and Kris had decided upon. It hadn’t gone off without its fair share of hitches, but after the second week, Undyne had stopped badgering her for playing hooky when she had seen her go right back to school on her own volition. Toriel’s questions about the whereabouts of Kris’ money tapered off when they budgeted for some eggs, sugar, and flour, which prompted the Matriarch to buy Kris his own cookbook in excitement.
Today, everything had gone just as planned. Undyne eyed the dragoness from the street corner by the library, but her gaze softened when she spotted the bag in Susie’s hands. The school doors shut behind her and echoed in the empty hall, and as the commotion of the lunchroom whispered along the corridors, Susie took a moment to take inventory of her and Kris’ victuals:
- A twelve pack of chalk (for her): $0.25
- Four apples, for the two of them – $2.00
- A set of teaspoons/tablespoons (to serve as cover) – $2.75
- Miscellaneous candies and snacks - $4.48
All with fifty-two cents to spare. Susie thanked Kris, Berdly, and Noelle in her mind for helping her build up a tolerance to math during their study sessions. It wasn’t that she needed to be taught basic addition and subtraction, but the patience to deal with stupid numbers all the time was proving a valuable, if maintenance-heavy skill.
Susie walked back into the lunchroom to find Kris at their usual spot, his lunch bag empty and tipped on its side, as usual.
“Hey dude.”
Kris looked up from something on the table, his hands dutifully working on something that clearly wasn’t food. She saw the white blur of pages flipping shut as Kris turned to meet her.
“Oh hey! What did you get?”
His question took precedence over her curiosity, at least for the moment. “Here, see for yourself.”
“Oh, sweet!”
Apples, a couple of Kotkit candy bars, and some sour string, along with chalk. Ten dollars didn’t get you a banquet, but it always helped top off the tank.
“Did you keep the receipt?”
“Yep…” Susie rolled her eyes. “Sorry about the apples. I’d normally get us some more candy, but your mom’s got to insist on getting you more fruits and veggies and all that crap.”
“Hey, it’s fine, I like apples.” Kris replied, taking and pocketing the receipt. “Dibs on the kotkits.”
“I thought you’d like the sour string? I got green apples after all. I thought it would match.”
“Come on, Susie, you know how much I like chocolates.”
“Yeah, how could I forget…” Kris hadn’t caught on to how much Susie’s voice was trailing off as he dug into the candy, nor did he See Susie’s neck craning around him to see the mysterious book biding between his empty lunch bag and his left sweater sleeve. “Hey dude?”
“Yeah, what’s up?”
Susie pointed to the object of her curiosity. “What’s that?”
Kris’ eyes darted to the book and he hugged it close to himself. “Oh, it’s just my sketchbook.”
Susie’s brows went up. “Wait what? You draw?”
“Yeah.”
“Dude, I didn’t know! Can I see it?”
Kris eyes strained to make contact with Susie’s as his thumb flipped through the shut pages. “This is a new one. It doesn’t have a lot in it.”
The dragoness snorted. “Yeah, so? I still want to see it. Why don’t you want to show me?”
“Well…”
Kris had failed to provide an alibi in time and Susie’s grin widened as it was now time to employ the age-old trick of teasing the human into submission. “What, you drawing porn in there?!”
“Wh-what?! No!”
“HEY GUYS!” Susie shouted near the top of her lungs. “GUESS WHAT KRIS DRAWS IN HIS-*MPPH!*”
Kris had muzzled the beast with his hand, hoping to tame it with his stink eye. “Susie! The hell was that?!”
His eyes were glaring scarlet daggers at her, but for her, playfully getting on his nerves was as good of a victory as any and she chuckled as she tussled his hair. “Ah come on, you know I’m just joking.”
“What if Alphys got word? I’d get in trouble!”
“Yeah, yeah, well-“
“Or worse, she’d ask me to draw something! You know the kind of anime we saw stashed on her desktop!”
Susie held back raucous laughter with all her might. “*Pfffft!* Oh my God dude, that was so gross!”
“Yeah! So, settle down, will you?!”
Susie crossed her arms in a mock huff. “Only when you show me your sketchbook.”
Knowing he was at an impasse, Kris begrudgingly yielded. “… Fine.”
“Heheheh….” Susie chortled as she grabbed the book in triumph. “Now, let’s see what you-“
To the dragon girl’s utter shock, she wasn’t met with silly doodles or the cool-S littering the pages. Instead, she saw sketches of gardens brought to life in incredible strokes of graphite and sepia, followed by the blocks and action lines set under sketches of people, some human, but many monsters, most incomplete, with lines dictating motion, mass, and dynamic action sitting open, ready for the rest of the body to be rendered. Susie’s eyes widened to take it all in, completely awestruck by her friend’s talent.
“Dude, these are good…”
Kris shifted in his seat from side to side. “Thank you….”
“No, seriously, man!” A particularly wonderful rendering of the lakeside caught her for a few extra seconds. “This is like, pro-level!”
“Well, I don’t know about that.”
“Neither do I, but I’m sticking to it! You’re good, dude!” on and on she flipped through the book’s first pages, slowing her pace as she admired kris’ handiwork. “Wow, man…”
“Okay, can I have it back?”
“Hmm? No, hold on, I’m not finished looking.”
She didn’t catch onto the urgency in the boy’s voice. “Susie, really, can I have it back?”
“Why? It’s not like there’s-“
Then she saw it. The last page with graphite on it, a little less than a sixth of the way through the whole book. She saw a figure, feminine, but bulky and powerful. It sported a short tail, a long snout, and the initial pencil strokes that would eventually become a massive, flowing mane of hair. The figure was posed standing, its arms gripping a yet undrawn shaft, signified only by a line with a wedge shape at the end, held above the figure that looked an awful lot like an axe head. The gears were already turning in Susie’s head but it took a moment to shake off the disbelief that kept her from speaking up.
“Dude is that… is that me?”
Kris had retreated behind his bangs and between his shoulders as he nearly whispered his answer. “…Yes.”
As he turned to face what he imagined would be the most impish, devilish grin from Susie, he found out to his surprise, that, while she was smiling, there wasn’t an ounce of guile on her face.
“This is awesome, man!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! This is my dark form right?”
“Yeah…”
“Wow man, you actually drew me!” Something about hearing herself say that out loud turned on a lightbulb in the purple delinquent’s head. “Wait… you’re drawing me!”
The way she emphasized ‘drawing’ brought unexpected heat to Kris’ cheeks, and it only got worse when she scooted in closer. All Kris could do was try to play it cool. “Y-yeah. Do you like it?”
His blush only got worse when he felt a big, heavy arm around his shoulder. He wouldn’t dare to look up and get a full view of Susie’s skin tone quickly matching his own. “And all from memory… I must be on your mind a bit, huh?”
“… Sometimes.”
Susie looked back at the drawing, then back to Kris before closing the book and handing it back to him without a word.
“Thanks.” Kris whispered, hastily shoving the book in his backpack.
Susie deliberated on what she would say next. “So… you said that’s a new one, right?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you have any others?”
Kris swallowed his spit. “N-no, I don’t keep my old ones.”
“Interesting…”
The lunch bell rang, and tables scraped linoleum as students rose to get back to class.
“Hey, real quick.” Susie interjected as they got up together. “I’m still good to come over at five, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Cool.”
Kris finally looked up just in time to see Susie beaming as she once again put her hand on his shoulder, turning him around as they set off back for class.
“Actually…” She paused. “Since we got the weekly assignment done with Noelle and Berdly yesterday, we should be done with homework…. Mind if I come over early? Maybe four, or three-thirty-ish?”
Kris looked everywhere on her face for a sign of her impish pranks, but found nothing in the short window he had to reply before she would get suspicious. “Uh, no. No, that should be fine.”
“Sweet, dude.”
They walked back to class together. All the while, Kris couldn’t help but notice just how much more tightly Susie was holding him.