Chapter Text
Garish lights shone everywhere he looked, assailing his eyes with varying shades of cool neon blues and violets. Advertisements with no products on them simply telling him to buy something flashed on and off. They were everywhere, all through the alleys and along the walls surrounding the walkways, bordered by strips of strobing lights and rendered in every font imaginable, from Brush Script to Impact to Times New Roman. All of it was so vapid and repetitive, like any other trip through the internet without AdBlock on. Dark World or not, it felt banal to Kris, who, like anyone using the library computers, had gotten used to the constant barrage of advertisements besetting him from every direction. The only difference now was that they weren’t behind a screen anymore. It made them no harder to ignore.
All except for one. Surrounded by cones and bordered with the kind of old-fashioned yellow lights that one would expect to see on an old tourist trap in the city, or maybe a theater marquee. Something about that drew his eye among the hosts of inane, peddling drivel. When he saw the giant Ferris wheel in the center of it all, he had to get past the cones surrounding the billboard and get a closer look.
For once, Kris was looking at an ad that actually interested him. Park rides were always fun, and memories of the festival played out in his mind. Memories that only got more vivid as his oldest friend came up next to him. He wouldn’t admit it out loud, but maybe she was why this excited him so much in the first place.
“Gosh, that’s amazing!”
Noelle was expressing just as much interest as he was. Kris did his best to contain his excitement.
“Makes the one at the festival look like a toy! Haha!” Noelle paused for a little, her laughter dying down as her thoughts turned. “I… I wonder if Susie would want to… Gosh, who am I kidding?”
It was clear she wanted to ride with someone, and as much as Kris liked Susie and all her silly antics, it stung him a little that she said nothing of him. Was that petty? He wondered to himself.
Regardless of the answer, he spoke up. “I’ll ride with you.”
He said it as confidently as he could. She answered just as confidently. “Oh, so you can shake it when we reach the top? Just like at the festival when we were kids? I KNOW there’s a catch with you Kris! No thank you!”
The boy’s face remained deadpan after hearing her say that. It wasn’t that Noelle said it with any anger or vitriol. She just sounded so certain of it. She didn’t even hesitate to say no, and so quick on the uptake too. He didn’t show it as he walked away from the billboard with Noelle in tow, but his thoughts and the overcast feelings that came with him possessed him as he walked almost blindly across the platforms leading out.
‘Do I really annoy her that much?’
‘I only wanted to have fun with her’
‘I didn’t mean to make her mad….’
“Ohon! Two young beings together on a school night?”
That last one wasn’t him. It was a pink Addison standing behind a booth.
“Could I interest you in some brand-new dating shoes…?”
Noelle answered for them. “H-huh? No, no, you’ve got it totally wrong! Kris and I are just… um… fr… friends?”
She said that with far less certainty than she had when answering his offer to ride with her. Kris struggled in his mind to determine what Noelle was thinking and why the word ‘friends’ felt so forced. It only made matters worse when he could hear her continue to speak, even as her mouth remained still.
“Kris’s been my neighbor forever… We’ve been through so much, sometimes it feels like we know each other better than anyone…”
Something about that gave him hope. It made him smile.
“Yet somehow, it’s hard to say we’re exactly friends…?”
His smile disappeared. His heart sank. His hopes blew away like dust. She was smirking to herself, like it was such a casual thing to say. Her tone implied uncertainty, but her face suggested it wasn’t even that important.
“We’re friends.” He blurted out, turning his head to the Addison while everything in him wanted to say it to Noelle instead.
The Addison was silent, like he didn’t even hear him.
“I said, we’re friends!” Kris couldn’t hold in the desperation in his voice.
“Who said we were friends?”
That wasn’t the Addison. Kris turned to his right to see Noelle looking at him condescendingly. Her eyes were cold. He could feel his heart freezing.
“Noelle?”
“I never said we were friends, Kris.” She replied, wagging her head, squinting at him with such dismissive venom.
The boy had no idea what to say. Every word he would have had fumbled out of his mouth in a jumbled mess of wet-eyed panic. “b-but! We’ve know-! W-we know each other better than-!”
“Whatever.” She said with a sigh. “I’m going to go find Susie.”
The doe was briskly walking away from him, making no effort to conceal her desire to leave. “Noelle, wait!”
She didn’t reply. Not even as the walkway behind her was giving out, isolating Kris. The boy was full on crying in panicked heartbreak.
“N-Noelle!”
The ground under him fell, and Kris felt his guts going up to his throat as the world around him sank into darkness.
Then he felt a hard thump on his shoulder and heard birds calling from somewhere beyond his darkened vision. He opened his eyes and there was light shining on the brown carpet from the sunrise peeking in from the window. The blinds had partly muted it, but a few, bright orange rays had made their way in, and were shining on Kris’ face. Blankets tangled his legs, but left his upper body destitute and a little cold. The boy sat up, undoing the ensnared sheets from his legs as he realized he had fallen from his bed. He sat on the frame and peeked at the clock still sitting on Asriel’s night table reading 7:30. It wouldn’t be another hour until he had to get up, but he was too harrowed to sleep, too haunted by what he had just dreamed about. It would be too soon anyway, and by the time he found sleep again, his mother would be there to wake him up.
He sat there silently, the dream of the cyber world playing over and over again in his head. He cursed the fact that it was there and not immediately forgotten like almost every other dream he had. The inane dreams, the ones showing him going to school in some sort of costume or losing his teeth. The ones of which he only had the slightest memory. This dream was different because it was a memory all on its own. A changed one for sure, altered by fear and loneliness, but as much of a lie as the latter part of it was, it was as convincing as the truth in the first part.
It haunted him until Toriel entered his room to tell him to get dressed. All the way past the driveway and the main road leading to the school.
______
Boredom and anxiousness vied in a young dragoness’ mind as the clock approached nine. it would be seven minutes until the hour and the seat in front of her was still empty.
Susie twiddled her thumbs. Everyone else was in class, and Alphys had already started writing on the chalkboard. Some inane garbage about literature, with stanzas and prose and tone and quotes from famous authors and all the other crap she knew she would need to enlist Kris, Noelle, and Berdly’s help to understand in the slightest. Two out of those other three were already here, and while she had gotten used to the prospect of spending time with them, seldom did they make her day the way Kris did.
Luckily, he wouldn’t be keeping her in suspense for much longer. There was still five minutes to spare when he walked through the door. Face blank, as usual, but she waved, and his lips perked up into a smile again, though a bit smaller than usual. When he sat down, she noticed where his eyes went. Normally, they’d go to her as they shoot the breeze, but today they were on the girl in the front row. He had been doing that increasingly over the course of the past week, and Susie bit her lip and bobbed her eyebrows at the mere thought of it.
Of course, none of that did any good unless Kris could see it. “Hey doofus!”
Kris felt a familiar heavy clawed hand gently swatting behind his head. “Hmm? Oh, Hey Susie.”
She couldn’t make out his tone without seeing his expression. “What’s up, man? You sound a little… quiet? I mean, more so than usual.”
He raised a hand to quiet her. “Wait, wait, just…. Give me a minute…”
His eyes were still very much focused on Noelle. Susie would have teased him if she wasn’t so dead set on knowing just exactly what Kris was playing at and whether or not it would confirm her suspicions, so she kept her mouth shut for the moment.
“Hey… Noelle?”
The doe turned around, eyes sparkling. “Yes?”
Susie kept watching. She could see Kris’ jaw stuck open, yet nothing was coming out.
“Kris?”
“Oh, I uhh… I was wondering if you and I could-”
“Okay, class!” it was 9:01, and Alphys had just barely finished writing on the chalkboard. “So, if you remember from yesterday’s lesson on poetry….”
“Oh! Class is starting! We can talk later, Kris!”
And with that, Noelle’s eyes were on the board, and Kris’s eyes were on his desk. At least until he felt a light punch on his shoulder. He looked back behind him and saw a toothy grin and sneering amber eyes. That grin died down a little when, unlike every other time she punched him, his smile didn’t come in reply. He just turned around silently, head drooping just a little past his shoulders.
Susie knew right then that her buddy needed some help. She was no therapist. She wasn’t good at giving pep talks, but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to cheer him up.
It just had to wait until lunch.
__________
Those hard earned (read: scavenged) fifty cents from yesterday had come very much in handy, and Susie found herself able to buy two ice cream sandwiches with the scrounged total of two dollars. In any other circumstance, she could’ve (and would’ve) eaten them both on her own, but there was a human boy sitting by himself at the far table who looked like he could use some cheering up.
“Hey, Kris!” Susie decided to lay off the playful epithets for now. Just to test the waters. ‘Dumbass’ and ‘weirdo’ and ‘dork’ would have to wait until she knew he was in the mood for them. “What’s up?”
She would have asked if he was hungry if it weren’t for the fact that he hadn’t touched his food. “Hmm? Oh, nothing, I guess.”
Her greeting didn’t seem to invoke much of a smile. Time to whip out her secret weapon. “I got you some ice cream, dude.”
She produced the frozen treats from her tray and that seemed to get a little smile out of him. “Oh! Thanks, Susie.”
“Here, I got you triple chocolate.”
That faint little smile was still holding on. So far so good. “Thank you!”
He hadn’t yet touched his mashed potatoes or vegetables, but he tore past the wrapper and into the chocolate cake and ice cream like he hadn’t seen food in three days. Susie’s eyes glazed a little. It was always nice to know she had cheered someone up. ‘Maybe I am good at this…’ she thought.
She put that newfound confidence to work. “So, what’s up, dude? You’ve been looking a little down, lately.”
Noting Susie’s concern, Kris tried to keep himself from frowning. The ice cream helped. “I, uh… I’ve just been trying to talk to Noelle again.”
Susie’s eyebrows raised and she bit her lip. “Oh-ho-ho! Are you now? You little player, I see you!”
She was hoping for an embarrassed laugh or a shove, but instead he gave a gloomy sigh and set down his ice cream. “… Susie, it’s not like that.”
Wrong move. Got to course correct. “Oh… well, I thought since you guys were friends way back in the day that you would want to… you know?”
She almost had it, so Kris restrained his indignance. “I just… it’s been so long since me and her hung out. It feels like forever since our families last shared a thanksgiving or Christmas together. Not since we were just little kids. Remember the cyber world when we got separated?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, at one point, we came across a shop, and the guy at the counter asked if we were dating or something, and Noelle answered that we were just friends, but…” No matter how much he tried to suppress it, the wetness in his eyes came all the same. He was just glad Susie couldn’t see it behind his bangs. “She seemed so unsure when she said it, like she wasn’t sure if we could even be called friends anymore.”
This was the part that got tricky, where no amount of Ice cream could solve the issue more than listening. Susie steeled herself. “So why not just talk to her about it? It can’t be too hard.”
It was apparent that she had no idea just how much was laying under the surface. Kris tried to bury it to spare her. “It’s not that simple…”
“What do you mean? Just look at us! We didn’t exactly start off on the right foot, but we still made it work, right? I mean… we only first spoke to each other when I threatened to bite you face off…”
It was apparent that she still regretted remembering that, and kris felt his indignance fading completely. “I know, you’re okay.”
“And… I can’t thank you enough for forgiving me that”
“You’re fine.”
“But hey, as far as I know, nothing like that happened between you and Noelle, right?”
Kris was silent.
“…Right?”
“No, nothing like that…. It’s just…” Kris folded in on himself, tucking his arms into his chest and rocking back and forth a little.
Susie could see he was having some trouble getting it out, and she put an arm around him. “What is it?”
“…. Were you around when Dess disappeared?”
That question felt ominous. Not on Kris’ part, but just in and of itself. She was little back then. She didn’t care much for the world around her in return for it not caring about her, but she did remember the police lights and sirens and search notices. She remembered seeing Kris and Noelle crying while Kris’ father and Officer Undyne held them. it was stress that she didn’t need. Stress that she had blocked out amidst her own problems, though her attempts at exorcising the imagery and sounds from her mind always proved difficult.
“I was new in town back then… but yeah, I remember.”
Kris suppressed the memories as best he could. “Let’s just say things were never the same after that.”
“Oh… I’m sorry dude.”
“You’re okay. It’s not your fault. I just… I just wish I knew how to reconnect after all this time.”
Susie didn’t know if she grasped the whole thing, but she could share what she knew. “I mean… I know that had to have hurt, but it wasn’t like it was your fault or anything. She doesn’t hate you for it. She doesn’t blame you. I think you guys can still get past that if you at least try, you know?”
Kris shut his eyes, breathing quietly through his nose. He had stopped rocking, but his hands were clenching the sides of his arms.
“I… I don’t know.”
Susie wasn’t sure what that implied. All she knew was that Kris looked a lot more distraught now than when she had found him, and that was a no-go. She tightened her arm around him, taking her other ice cream bar in hand. “You okay, bud?”
“I-I’ll be fine…”
“Well here, let me help you get fine faster.” She proffered her frozen treat to him. “It’s vanilla, but you can still have it if you want.”
“it’s okay, honest. I still have mine.”
She noticed the half-eaten chocolate ice cream sandwich by his tray and wagged her head. “Well then dig in, man! You look half-starved on a good day!”
The way she shook his shoulder and smiled told him that, at least for her sake, he could try to lighten up. “Yeah, yeah, make fun of me for being skinny, why don’t you…” He said with an embarrassed smile.
Susie unwrapped her dessert with a smirk. “Okay, beanpole.”
He could see the claw of her first finger digging under the top cookie in her sandwich. “Oh, is that what we’re doing today?”
“How about you quit yapping and toast me?”
It had been a little while since their last ‘toast.’ Kris clenched his teeth as he took hold of his ice cream bar and peeled the top layer of cookie off, downing it just in time to see Susie inhale hers.
“Think you can beat my time?”
To an outsider, it would have sounded like she was challenging him to go faster. “I can outlast you, Susie.”
“Like when you folded last time?”
“Hey, mine was colder!”
“Excuses, excuses...”
They made solid eye contact for five seconds before raising the ice cream to their lips.
“Front teeth only” Susie reiterated the rules.
“Let’s go.”
They tapped their bars together, bared their incisors and opened their mouths to a gape just smaller than the height of the ice cream bars before pushing them in lengthwise, pressing the painfully freezing confections against their top front teeth.
Kris had developed his technique well enough by now. Breath through the nose, slow and steady while the pain in his cranium began to mount. Susie simply brute-forced it, monologuing to herself in her head that she could tank anything. Five seconds. Now Kris was a third of the way through while Susie was only a quarter past her starting point. Not looking good. At this rate, she would beat him for sure. He had to slow down to nearly a halt if he was to ensure his victory.
Susie felt her temples throbbing but she could tell by his pained grimace that Kris was close to cracking. Her innate pride sent her painful grin into overdrive at the prospect of another win to playfully dangle over his head for the next week or two.
But that’s when she caught sight of Noelle out of the corner of her eyes, and immediately reconsidered.
She pushed the ice cream hastily down her gullet, swallowing it and (partly) faking a painful brain freeze. “Ahh! Oh God! You win, Kris!”
Kris’ eyes went wide. He immediately inhaled the rest of his ice cream, cringed as one last wave of cranial pain shook his frame, swallowed and whooped in triumph. “Yes! Finally!”
“Yeah, yeah, drink it up dude…”
“I TOLD you I could do it!”
She saw him beaming and it would have been worth a hundred losses. She just had to pretend otherwise. “Go ahead, rub it in, why don’t you. You know mine was more frozen than yours.”
“Excuses, excuses!”
Susie shook her head, using a huff to conceal her pride. Kris looked happy again.
“Hi guys!”
Noelle passed them both by with her empty tray, putting it on its rack by the trash cans and exiting the cafeteria. Kris; smile didn’t disappear entirely, but it faded enough to where Susie had to acknowledge it.
“You gonna be okay dude?”
He nodded his head. “Yeah. I’ll be fine.”
“You know, you don’t have to do it today, but… promise you will at least try to talk to her, okay?”
“Yeah… I’ll try.”