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Kris had never been the cool kid on the block. Quite frankly, they were the least cool kid on the block (or in this case Mrs. Grace's Orphanage). If there was a club for losers with frequent black eyes, Kris would be the founder and reigning president, leading meetings on how best to be beaten up and shoved into closets by scary humans years older than you.
Even though most of the kids at the home were humans, they all hated Kris. Despite people so casually punching them as if they were a training tummy, they seemed to be afraid of Kris. People would call them a monster in human clothing. Because of that, they usually had a room to themself. People didn't want to share a room with them anyway.
It was nice to be alone, though. At least they could avoid getting smothered in their sleep. They often wondered if they would be the youngest person to die in an orphanage. They could just see the headlines: 'Kris, aged six, murdered at the local orphanage'. Humans were more fragile than monsters, so the nurse always told them to be extra careful whenever their teeth were knocked in.
However, as time passed, a roommate became inevitable. But Kris hadn't expected anything like this one. Mrs. Grace opened the door to their room with the welcome-to-the-orphanage smile she always wore to lessen the disappointment for the new kids.
"And here is your room," said Mrs. Grace as she gestured grandly to the barely one hundred and twenty square foot room with nothing other than two beds, two tiny dressers, and a window.
Right next to her was a tall and very purple reptilian monster, who just surpassed the short, plump, and human Mrs. Grace in height. Purple Reptile Girl had a messy aubergine-colored bowl-cut hairstyle that likely had been shaped after an actual bowl, topped off with some very seemingly out-of-character ribbons. Her eyes were slitty and suspicious; she didn't look very impressed with the place or with Kris.
"This is Kris, your new roommate," Mrs. Grace said to Purple. "Kris, this Susie."
So her name was Susie. She didn't smile at Kris, and they didn't smile at her either.
"I'll leave you two to get to know each other," Mrs. Grace said cheerfully, most likely pretending like she didn't notice the huge bruise on Kris' cheek and the horrible tension in the room. "Feel free to find me if you have any questions."
The door closed quickly, and now Kris and Susie sat alone in silence. Nobody bothered saying hello. Susie immediately threw her duffel bag onto the dresser and crashed onto the empty bed opposite Kris'.
"I don't care why you're here so don't bother asking why I'm here," she said suddenly. Those ribbons in her hair were starting to suit her less and less. "I'm not gonna be here for long anyway."
Kris didn't reply. They kept fidgeting with their wooden toy, still looking at Susie. She must have been the same age as Kris, despite being a good foot taller.
"Quit staring, freak," said Susie suddenly, looking at Kris like they were the scum of the earth. They quickly obliged.
They obliged so much that they left to go for a walk. Since there was nothing else to do, fresh air could perhaps do the trick to clear their thoughts.
Kris didn't like the idea of having a roommate to begin with, but having to live with Susie seemed to make it worse. The thought of having to endure potential years with this girl scared them.
But just as they thought it couldn't get any worse, they saw Chuck and his cronies at the end of the hall, looking particularly like they wanted trouble. Not to mention, they were some of the older kids. Chip, Chuck's best friend, was turning thirteen soon and Kris was a mere six-year-old with no strength or agility to fight back. Not to mention Cap, the only monster in the gang, had sharpened his spikes, which was never a good sign.
Kris tried to back away, hoping that they could escape unnoticed, but were called back by Chuck's horrible high voice.
"Hey turd-face!" he snickered, "Get your ass back here."
Kris tried to ignore it but was quickly grabbed by Chip who came running after them. He painfully noogied Kris' head and pulled them back to the group.
"Where are you going, loser? Back to your mommy?" Chip mocked.
Kris stuttered that they weren't, but they couldn't help but look to the ground.
"Little Kwissy is waiting for their mommy!" Cole, another crony, sang in a baby voice.
"As if your mommy would come back to you. She left you here for a reason, didn't she, freak?" Chuck laughed mirthlessly. "She left you here because she found out that you weren't even a human. Your mom probably fucked a monster and gave birth to you, and realized that you were some weird kind of—!"
But Chuck was interrupted after a dictionary was thrown in his face and he fell to the floor. As he slowly tried to sit up, he blinked disorientedly.
"LEAVE — THEM — ALONE!" a familiar voice screamed.
"What's it to you, you purple freak?!" Chip shrieked,
Susie smirked at those words. And then she roared like she was feral. She ran towards the group of boys and pounced on them, somehow beating all of them to the ground. Very quickly, all of them scuttled away, looking frightened of the 7-year-old girl with ribbons in her hair.
And then, she came up to Kris.
"Hey, I'm sorry," she said quietly, "Those guys suck ass, you shouldn't — you shouldn't let them get to you."
She put out a hand for Kris to shake. And immediately, they did. No one had ever stood up for them before. Nobody had even paid attention to them before. They suddenly felt a weight lifted off their shoulders.
Kris didn't have to be scared of the other kids anymore; they had befriended the scariest of them all.
At age seven, Kris got adopted by the Dreemur family. They never expected that happy family of three to want a troubled human in their lives, but they seemed alright.
It was a pure monster family, some type of goat-breed of monster. Asgore — or Dad, as they should probably have gotten used to saying — was a big, fuzzy, and friendly man who worked as the Chief of Police in Hometown, a small town a couple of hours away from Quatersville. Toriel — Mom — worked as a teacher at the local school.
But both of them could not compare at all to Asriel. He was perhaps the coolest brother any child could ask for. He was the best player on the Little League basketball team and the smartest kid in class. Most kids — especially those one or two years older than Kris — probably wouldn't enjoy suddenly having a human as a sibling. But not Asriel. Asriel accepted them with open arms and was happier than ever to have an extra member of the family.
However, Kris couldn't deny that it hurt to leave Susie behind at the orphanage. On their final day, Kris asked Toriel if they could have a moment to say goodbye to Susie.
"Of course, dear, take your time," she said with a gentle smile, rubbing their head.
Susie stood at the entrance, hiding the tears in her eyes. Kris walked up to her, opening up their arms for a moment.
"What? You expect us to hug?" Susie chuckled disbelievingly.
Kris just nodded. They told her that they'd miss her a lot. Their voice cracked as they said it. They couldn't look her in the eyes anymore either.
After hearing those words, Susie stood quietly. She didn't say a word and had a strained looked on her face. Perhaps a minute passed by. But ultimately she threw herself into Kris' arms and failed at holding back her tears any longer.
"I'll miss you too, you little freak," she croaked.
Settling into the Dreemur family was unlike anything Kris had ever experienced before. It was strange, having a mother to make them breakfast and hold their hands. A father to give big hugs and make horrible jokes that they would laugh at anyway. And more than anything, a brother to play with them, love them, and give them the attention that they had never even imagined experiencing before.
It started with game night, here Kris felt a fuzzy feeling in their chest. Then it was the occasional Taco Tuesday. Or when the Dreemurs would grill with the Holidays, the reindeer family next door. They were the perfect family to be neighbors. Mayor Holiday was a hardworking mother, Rudolph "Rudy" Holiday was an old college friend of both Mom and Dad, and December was Azzy's childhood best friend. And then there was Noelle.
Noelle was probably the sweetest and weirdest of them all. She was very uncharacteristically timid and quiet, but as Kris got to know her, they got to know how incredible she was. She would show them all her video games and the two would play for hours and hours.
Life was getting good. And before they knew it, it wasn't just a routine anymore; they were part of a family.
And best of all, everyone was accepting Kris for who they were. Sure, they were still the freak; they always would be. But people liked them. They were finally in a place they could call home.
As Susie and Kris grew older, they tried to stay in touch as much as possible. However, there was no denying Kris had less time for her now. And it was also clear that, at the same time, Susie's abandonment issues were resurfacing.
Now that she was thirteen, it became quite clear to her that her mother was never coming back for her at the orphanage. She would often call herself an idiot for ever believing that. In times like this, she needed a friend, but the problem was that her one friend couldn't always be there. Kris' classes were taking up a lot of time now, and Quatersville just started to seem further and further away.
And as the years went by, fewer and fewer monsters lived back at the orphanage, which caused quite a few problems for her. Not just for other people but also for her sanity. She was losing what few friends she already had at her school because the other kids' parents didn't like her teeth. She couldn't go to the doctors because they would bombard her with questions about her anatomy instead of helping her when she was sick. She was feeling more and more isolated for being the only monster in a town of humans.
So she figured she would visit her friend who happened to be the only human in a town of monsters.
She took the bus from Quatersville to Hometown, a three-hour journey where she did nothing but stare out of the window. She was nervous; she hadn't seen Kris in person for a while. They mostly texted and only had the opportunity to meet in person once a year. But she was excited to finally talk to a friend who understood how she felt.
As she hopped off the bus, she walked around the town a bit, in awe of how small and idyllic the place was. It was much smaller than Quartersville and barely had two restaurants.
Her stomach rumbled. Perhaps she should get something to eat first. It had been a long bus ride. She checked her pockets; if she also wanted a bus ticket back home, she had... two and a half dollars. Maybe she could bargain her way to a single pancake? Or if she played her cards right, an old sandwich!
She walked into the diner but stopped dead in her tracks when she saw Kris sitting with their entire family. Their mother sat right next to them, gently rubbing their shoulder and smiling happily as she saw them eat their food. And even though she was a monster, she was loving and nurturing beyond compare.
Kris wasn't lonely. They were living their best life, even if they were the only human for miles! They were eating pancakes and drinking hot chocolate with their monster family, so no wonder they didn't have time anymore for Susie. No wonder they'd rather not spend time with her.
All of Susie's life, she thought that she was abandoned by her parents because they were monsters, but here Kris was with a perfect life. If monsters truly were capable of love, why was she all alone? Why did the Dreemurs adopt a human? Why could they not adopt a monster?
Susie turned around and walked straight back to the bus stop. She wasn't hungry anymore.
The following Monday, Susie texted Kris to come to meet her in the forest in Hometown. They were surprised that she was in town, but they happily agreed and ran right after school to meet her. When they arrived, she looked much different than the last time they saw her. She was taller than them now by half a foot. She looked much rougher — she looked angry.
They were about to greet her, but she interrupted.
"Why are you abandoning me?" she asked, each word as serious as the last.
Kris chuckled awkwardly and asked her what she was talking about.
"I'm saying, how could you forget our friendship?" Susie shrieked, "We never see each other anymore! What happened? Even back when you first left Quatersville, we still found the time!"
Kris tried to explain that they hadn't forgotten about her but were caught up in their new life. They had made new friends as well as Susie. They still wanted to see her, but they couldn't spend every single moment of the day writing her.
This only infuriated Susie more.
"Oh, look at you! Friends? What friends? I was the only friend you ever had! People never liked you back home, what makes it different now?"
Kris yelled that this was their home now! They told her that they didn't have a say in being adopted by the Dreemurs, that they couldn't do anything about it, and that just because Susie was never adopted, that didn't mean that she could just —
"It should've been me! I'm the monster, they should've adopted me!" Susie cried, "You have everything I've ever wanted now! Your mother — your mother is too good for you. She probably doesn't even know how much of a freak you are. And one day she'll realize it. And then she'll abandon you."
Susie stormed off, stomping and crunching the autumn leaves, before turning around with one final comment.
"Don't you ever try to talk to me again!"
Years had gone by since Kris had seen Susie since that day. Kris was sixteen now, about to begin another year of school. They still thought about her, more than they'd like to admit. In hindsight, they regret the things they said. They never harbored any ill feelings toward her. Back then they failed to fully understand the depth of her pain and insecurities. However, there was no way of knowing how she was doing now.
Until, suddenly, Alphys brought in the purple monster in their morning class, smiling awkwardly as she presented the new student.
"Class? We have a new girl joining us. She has just moved in here from Quatersville," she said.
Susie stared directly at Kris, an evil grin all over her face. However, she seemed very disappointed when Kris didn't give any reaction as to knowing her. Perhaps she expected them to scream or run away. Instead, Kris sat still in their chair, bordering on smiling at her. Were they mocking her?
After school was over for the day, she had something to say about Kris' aloofness, and of course, she pulled them aside after everyone had left.
"Surprised to see me, asshole?" she said, smirking as she leaned back on the locker. "I ran away from Grace's. And now I'm surrounded by monsters. It looks like you're the only human around. Sorry, Kris. Look's like you'll be the freak again. Don't come crying when you've lost all your friends."
Kris couldn't believe their ears. Any positive feelings of reconciliation went out the window. This wasn't the Susiue they used to know. Something had changed within her. And they had a feeling it would be very hard to bring out the parts of her they used to love.
Much to Susie's dismay, she did not have as much ease making friends as she predicted. Kids were still scared of her, despite being monsters themselves. Even with her best interest, people were too intimidated to talk to her. It seemed that since she couldn't prove them wrong she only had one choice; she had to prove them right.
She became fiercer towards everyone, snapping at every little thing. But no one took the fall of it more than Kris. This behavior continued, and people were starting to notice. At least Noelle was. One day, she hit her breaking point.
"Kris, why don't you tell your mom?" Noelle asked earnestly as she and Kris walked home from school.
Kris always appreciated Noelle's intentions, they really did. But sometimes she just didn't know when to leave things be. They told her that it was okay and that it didn't bother them.
Noelle shot a skeptical look at Kris, but ultimately let it go.
"We should switch seats," she said, "That way Susie can't pick on you so easily. She never picks on me, you know..."
The bell rang; another day was over. All the kids rushed towards the exit, almost as if to see who could get out of class first. Kris had been sleeping but could hear their stampeding towards the exit. They could tell, however, that they were not alone in the classroom yet. Noelle and Ms. Alphys were casually small talking, the thuds of various books being moved around keeping them company. But there was someone else too.
Kris was still face-down on a blank notebook page. If they could, they wanted to fall back asleep. But someone was sniffing their head, kind of loudly one might add. The breath was horrible; a terrible mixture of milk, chalk, and newly-expired ham was circulating their nose. So of course, it was Susie.
"T-thanks for your help as always, Noelle," said Ms. Alphys nasally, walking out of the classroom. Noelle quickly followed but seemed reluctant in her steps. The door shut carefully as she left.
After a while, Susie got up, violently knocking her chair over. She walked across class, jumped into Ms. Alphys's seat, and put her shoes up on the desk, getting dirt everywhere. She leaned back as if she had been waiting all day for this, grabbing the apple on the table and holding it up.
"Hey, idiot," she smirked.
Kris didn't bother looking up.
"HEY, IDIOT!"
Kris still didn't look up.
"KRIS!"
And finally, Kris looked up. Using their name may have had more of an impact than they thought. Susie rolled her eyes and scowled. The contempt in her eyes was like nothing they had seen before.
"Nice shampoo. Apple flavor, right? Better be careful about wearing that around me."
Susie bit the entire apple in half, including the core. She crunched on the seeds, still staring directly at Kris.
"Keep smelling like apples... you might end up like this. Bitten," she pointed to the apple, "in half."
The room was silent. Painfully silent. Susie was drowning in the silence, probably praying for any type of sound to break it. But she wasn't prepared for —
Kris was laughing. They didn't mean to, but they were. They could barely keep it in, breathing heavily to stifle it. They were just so fed up with Susie's new act. How was this the same girl Kris knew since they were small? Everything seemed so ridiculous. None of this mattered anymore.
Susie was livid. She launched the apple right at Kris.
Kris, somehow, avoided it; they held up their notebook like a shield and blocked the apple diagonally, bouncing it into the air. They caught the apple, much to their surprise. Grinning, they took a bite out of it. Susie was seeing red.
"You little—"
She ran over and grabbed Kris by the hair, painfully pulling them up from their chair. She stared into their face, uncomfortably inching closer. Her breath was even worse somehow with the apple intertwined in the mix.
"One day, your mom's gonna get sick of you, you little freak. And as soon as that happens..." Susie laughed mirthlessly, "Someone might make you disappear. And finally, realize how happy she was without you."
But after all that, Kris still did not speak at all. They just kept looking at her.
"SAY SOMETHING, YOU IDIOT!" Susie exploded.
It felt like her voice echoed around the room forever. Then, when it finally went quiet, Kris looked up at her.
"Noelle's watching," they said.
Suddenly, Susie's attitude completely changed. She hadn't yet noticed her watery eyes or her cracked voice. Even her legs were shaking. The one girl in the entire town who didn't hate her was looking through the window and seeing this side of her. Then she truly wouldn't have anyone. She let go of Kris, backing off quickly, then left the room in such a hurry, she could've run through the wall.
As the two of them sat in Castle Town, that all seemed so long ago.
Susie and Kris did things like making cakes with Ralsei and running around with Lancer. They battled together at the dojo and placed bets with the Darkers about how many times Rouxls Kaard would unintentionally swear in front of Lancer.
They were friends. And as Kris looked over at Susie, they couldn't help but feel the same warm and fuzzy feeling they did back when they first started living at the Dreemurs. The two of them felt like a family again.