Chapter Text
Kris invited Berdly over to their apartment to hang out, and Berdly is eager to catch up with his friend. Hopefully he can help Kris with some feelings they have.
THANK YOU
FOR YOUR TIME.
YOUR ANSWERS
YOUR WONDERFUL CREATION
Will now be discarded.
No one can choose who they are in this world.
Your
name
is…
“Kris! Hey, Kris! Ya there?” Kris opened their eyes, seeing a blue, feathered hand waving in front of them. “Kris, pay attention. I simply have to show you this excellent combo I’ve been working on.” Kris shook their head, their dark brown hair flopping every which way, trying to jiggle out whatever sleepiness they had in them as they turned their gaze towards their old TV screen across the room from them and Berdly.
It was a beautiful day outside, but instead of enjoying the fresh autumn air, Kris was instead watching Berdly perform Falco combos in Smash.
Kris wasn’t that interested in Berdly’s epic gamer skills, but he seemed really excited about this, so they may as well pay attention. He’s even wearing Star Fox merch for Angel’s sake. While he showed Kris the combo, they decided to throw a jab at him. “Jeez, how many hours do you put into this? I’m still surprised you even have friends, let alone a girlfriend.”
“Very funny, Kristopher.” Berdly scoffed. “We both know I managed to attract Catti with my, ehem, signature gamer charm.” He said, in one of those joking douchey tones that you just love to hate. “Oh, look! I’m about to get the combo! Down air, Up tilt, Up air, Up air, Up air, Down air- Spike! Yes!” Berdly pumps his fist, then brought it over to Kris for a high-five, which they obliged to.
“Damn,” Kris reacted, “That was pretty cool, I'll admit. But how about you put it to use against a real opponent?” Berdly smirks.
“Oh? You’re approaching me?”
“Weeb.”
“Jojo’s a top-tier anime though! I really have to make you watch it sometime.”
“Yeah, yeah. Alright, let’s play.”
Berdly grabbed another controller from under the coffee table and tossed it to Kris. “3 stock, no timer?”
Kris caught the controller, and ran their hand along the textured plastic handgrip that formed a seamless cross pattern that was satisfying to touch, the black plastic a bit dusty and dented. “Sure, yeah. Can we not do anything toooo serious though?”
Berdly smirked and said, “As you wish, m’theydy.”
Kris slowly turned their head towards him.
“No.”
“I thought it was funny.”
“No. No it was not.”
Berdly smiled. “At least you’re still my friend, and that’s all that mat- oh who am I kidding, let’s just play the damn game already.”
25 minutes later, Berdly was on a 7 win streak with Falco and Kris had only knocked him out four times. They kept changing the character they were playing, from Marth, to Cloud, to Ness, to Fox, to Game & Watch, to Ness again, but Kris got their ass handed to them so many times that they stopped focusing on the game entirely to make Berdly’s rapid ego inflation a bit less boring.
Kris started thinking. ‘Maybe he can help me with my situation… After all, he’s got experience with this stuff.’ They thought. ‘No, he’d find it weird that I just brought it up out of nowhere. He’d say something like: “Stop trying to throw me off my game, Kris! That kind of simpleton maneuver won’t work on me.’ Still, I’ve gotta find a good way t-’
Suddenly, by pure coincidence and not for the ability to move the plot forward, Berdly got a text, prompting him to glance at his phone and pause the game, giving Kris some time to let go of their controller and stretch their hands a bit.
“Ah, hold on. I have to answer this.” Berdly stated.
Berdly grabbed his phone from the white-painted wooden coffee table in front of him. Feeling curious, Kris took a glance over at Berdly’s phone to see the following text conversation:
🏳️⚧️Catti🖤: Hey. When r u coming home
NerdBird: In about… say… twenty to thirty minutes.
🏳️⚧️Catti🖤: Nice
🏳️⚧️Catti🖤: Can you pick up dinner pls
NerdBird: Of course, my love. What would you like to eat?
🏳️⚧️Catti🖤: Hmm
🏳️⚧️Catti🖤: Sushi i guess
NerdBird: Noted, anything else I should get?
🏳️⚧️Catti🖤: Lube ;3
After that text was sent, Berdly jumped a little and turned his phone screen away from Kris for a second, not knowing they saw the whole thing. Berdly blushed a deep red, and Kris tried their absolute hardest to fight a laugh, knowing Berdly would hear it. Eventually, he put his phone back down and turned to Kris, still a bit flustered.
“Sorry, just a, uh, text from Catti. Shall we resume?”
Kris nodded, swallowing the laugh they were holding and picking their controller back up and getting back to the match.
‘Well,’ Kris noticed, ‘now’s a good time to ask him, I guess. He just finished a conversation with his girlfriend, after all.’ Kris took a deep breath and mustered up the courage to ask Berdly about this admittedly embarrassing topic.
“Soooo uh, Berdly, pal.” Kris said.
“Yes, Kristopher?” Berdly responded, not turning his eyes away from the screen as he comboed Kris off the platform and SD’d.
“I’ve uh… been meaning to ask you about something. It’s, uh, about Noelle and Susie.”
“And what would that be?” Berdly says, finally glancing over towards Kris.
“Well, I uh… seem to be in a predicament where I… I’ve, uh…” Berdly paused the game and turned his head towards Kris, the light from outside reflecting in his beaten-up glasses taped to the side of his head, prompting the lanky bird to readjust himself.
“Take your time,” he says. “We’ve got quite a lot of it on this particular day.”
Kris took a deep breath and continued. “I think I'm… in love with them. Both of them.”
“...Ah.”
“...And…you’re asking me for advice?” Berdly gives a shit-eating, teeth-glistening grin, obviously in an attempt to piss Kris off.
They groaned and started bouncing their left leg. “Ugh, I know I joke about your relationship, but you’re the only one of my friends that’s in one. Even though we all thought you’d stay a single virgin for life, heh.”
Berdly glared at them, then sighed and adjusted his glasses. “I’ll help, so long as you stop throwing those jabs at me.”
“Relax, dude. You’re still cool to me.” Kris adjusted themselves on the couch to face Berdly. “So… I… yeah. I like both of ‘em, for different reasons. I always kinda liked Noelle, ya know, being childhood friends and stuff, but I never quite found them attractive until High School.” They paused for a second, clenching their tattered navy jeans.
“She’s just so…perfect. She loves everyone, she’s friendly, cute, she smells great, she helps everyone a lot, even though that’s pretty much the opposite of me, and after what happened… ya know.”
Berdly smiled. “Ah, yes, the Cyber World. Hard to imagine it was almost three whole years ago. I for one, am happy that the ‘Knight’ decided to back off for a while, and I really must visit Queen again soon. She’s like a mother to me.” Kris chuckled. “Yeah, Queen’s great, but as I was saying, spending that time with Noelle really put the nail in the coffin for me. I really am in love with them. I’m just worried that..” they trail off.
“That Noelle will reject you in favor of Susie?”
Kris’s eyes widened a bit, and they knew at this point that their crimson irises were surely visible through the mess of wavy brunette hair covering the upper half of their face. “Yeah,” they replied, a bit shocked. “How could you tell?”
Berdly laughed a little and replied, “Well, it was the same with me. I was too afraid to ask Catti out because she spends so much time with Jockington, and I kinda assumed they were together. I was prepared for a harsh rejection, assuming that she already had someone for the role I sought, but, thankfully for me, Catti… grew to like me. I suppose I owe it all to Ms. Alphys for changing our seating and putting her next to me.”
Kris raised an eyebrow at Berdly, causing him to laugh again. “I kid, I kid. You and Susie helped me become a better person, I know. If not for you two, that fateful confession years ago never would have resulted in me attracting a, quote unquote, ‘Goth Gee-eff’.” The two snicker. “The point is, like you, I was jealous of someone. So, I understand what you’re going through, but only partially. If you’re jealous of Susie, then why are you in love with her?”
Kris sighed and tilted their head back, their top and front hair parting from its usual shape and flopping on the armrest of the tan cotton couch they and Berdly sat on. “I still have no idea. I was always kinda afraid of Susie, but after my trip through the Card Kingdom, we started to rely on each other, and… well, I started to notice the good in her.” Kris lets out a half dreamy, half sad sigh. “She’s protective of me, saving my life likely more times than I remember, and me for her. She’s rude, yeah, but that’s not really her. The real Susie cares about her friends and is a goofy hothead as well as… just a good person, really. I feel like I should do more for her. And damn, she’s hot. She has abs, ya know.”
Berdly responded in a sarcastic tone. “Oh, does she? The dragon girl who works out is buff.”
Kris rolled their eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know, but you learn to appreciate abs when they’re exposed during a fight. I can hardly focus half the time. Thankfully, Ralsei makes sure she covers up. I think he gets distracted too.”
The bluebird chuckled. “I don’t know who wouldn’t be.”
Kris sighed. “So, I need a plan, really. I want to try to find the perfect way to tell them both, because it’s been weighing me down for… years at this point. I hope we can actually be together but…. still, I just wanna get it off my chest.”
Berdly scratched his head, causing a few of his sky-blue feathers to puff out of shape and thought for a moment. He slid them back into place. “...I think I have a plan for you, Kris. Listen closely.”