Chapter Text
Behind Susie, the door swung shut and latched shut.
What greeted her was the same as just a few hours ago; an empty, boring, librarby. Bookshelves, a counter… all empty of people.
It was pretty freaking different from the last few hours of Susie’s life. The Dark World! Magic spells! A busy city! Giant robots, an ancient prophecy, and on and on…
Hell, even the end of the world. Both worlds! She’d had a little bit of a freak out when she realized that, shaking Kris back and forth, their head on a bobble.
But… now that she got to think about it some more, in this empty and quiet—she could only just hear the air conditioning, and nothing else—librarby…
Yeah, Ralsei had told them all about ‘The Roaring.’ That had almost seemed kinda suspicious, with how he shared it… but yesterday, he’d described the end of the world then, too. She just didn’t believe it.
Her face twisted up, fangs peeking through the sides of her muzzle. I guess I should say sorry for not believing him…
Susie hated saying ‘sorry.’ Because to have to say sorry, she already messed up—and she knew what happened when she came clean about messing up. Ralsei would be different about it, though…? Wouldn’t he?
She turned her scowl into a grin, snickering to herself. He’ll just bake us all a cake about it.
There was some quiet shuffling, and the clatter of something dropped to the floor, inside the computer lab. It would take Kris a few minutes longer to gather everything up in there.
Susie crossed her arms and sighed.
Speaking of Ralsei… kinda odd that he didn’t tell me ‘bout how Darkners work.
It wasn’t exactly hard to guess. Even Susie, who’d never call herself smart, knew as soon as she saw the plush cat in the old classroom. It had the same replacement button eye, the same patch on its head, as that funny old shopkeeper. Or seap keeper.
Heh.
Well… Ralsei was a bit weird sometimes, especially after they’d all fought… that guy… but he really didn’t seem like he was hiding anything. Just that he was—for all that he wore nerd glasses—a bit of a doofus. She still liked the guy, he was pretty great… she just needed to remember to ask more questions.
Anyways. Getting a bit stuffy in here. Susie rolled her shoulders and made her way out of the librarby. Sunlight and warmth soon greeted her scales. A gentle breeze playing at her hair, and…
…and…
Odd clack-y tapping on the ground. A soft grunt, ruffling clothes.
Susie looked over. She frowned.
Noelle was there, even though she had just run out of the computer room not two minutes ago. One hand of hers was placed against the corner of the librarby, while she was shifting her weight between one leg and the other.
Whenever that weight ended up on her left leg, her face tightened, and she stifled a groan.
“Noelle?” Susie had to ask. “You… uh, you good?”
Noelle squeaked, jolted, and spun around, thwap -ing the back of her hand on the librarby wall. “S- Susie! I was just—” Right then, Noelle’s left leg settled down fully on the sidewalk. Her own words were interrupted by a sudden gasp, lifting her hoof off the ground entirely.
Standing on just one hoof, Noelle swayed. Before she could topple over, she stuck out a hand and caught herself against the librarby. “U- uh. Um. I’m- I was just…”
Susie looked down.
Noelle’s other hand was holding her ankle— if she has hooves, does she have ankles? Susie had no real idea—up in the air. The hoof was turned to the side, so it was mostly obscured, but Susie could see a set of cracks in her hoof.
It looked painful.
Noelle’s eyes were shut tight, and she was, just slightly, shaking. Was she embarrassed? That she was hurt?
“Oof,” Susie shrugged. “That sucks.” Susie had experience with being hurt in dumb but annoying ways like that. She healed pretty good, but with the kinds of socks and shoes she had… well, at least she knew not to make a big deal out of it, or Noelle would get even more upset.
“It’s just because I was sitting down for a while… it’s not that bad…”
Susie had to frown. “Were you goin’ somewhere?”
Noelle’s eyes practically bulged right out of her head. “I- I was… I was going to visit my dad at the hospital, so I can get some, uh, medicine there… you don’t need to worry about—ah!”
Susie stepped forward. Noelle flinched, recoiling away.
Susie stepped forward again.
She turned around, crouched down. “I’ll give ya’ a ride.”
Facing away, Susie had to turn her head all the way around, and even then she could only just glimpse Noelle—but it was a deer-in-headlights Noelle, who had no idea what to think or what to say in return. Just completely frozen.
Susie patted her own back. “C’mon! Haven’t you ever ridden piggyback before?”
It was kind of strange, but Susie actually liked carrying people around like this. Even Lancer, earlier today, even though he’d been sick… Point was, Susie liked feeling big and strong, and carrying people around like they were nothing was a pretty nice way to go about it.
Footsteps (or would they be hoofsteps?) eventually sounded, plus the flighty breathing of Noelle. Legs pushed forward, which Susie wrapped her arms around, and in no time at all she was standing tall, Noelle coming with.
The reindeer monster’s arms then wrapped around her shoulders.
Wow, what’s up with her? I can feel her heart beating, here. And that wasn’t to say anything about how much she was shaking. “There! Comfy…?”
Noelle didn’t answer.
“Hey?”
“Um sorry I—” Noelle wiggled briefly and pulled her arms forward. “—yeah.”
“Cool.”
It was just then that Kris walked out of the librarby, looking dead ahead to the middle of the road.
Susie couldn’t even spot a single thing on them. How did they know what to take to get every Darkner?
…had they left Darkners behind in the classroom?
Well, they could always go back and get them later.
“There ya’ are, Kris!”
“Hi, Kris…” Noelle said. She sounded a little dejected.
At that voice, Kris looked over. Then they looked up, to see where the now even more towering Noelle’s voice had come from. “Noelle?” they asked.
Kris was pretty quiet usually. This time, sheer incredulity finally brought them to a normal person’s volume.
“She asked for a ride to the hospital,” Susie shrugged. Noelle bobbed with, lightly gasping, which was kind of funny.
Kris was silent for several seconds. Their expression was completely blank, their body still—but, peeking just through the gaps in their bangs, Susie could see they were looking right at her.
“Walk home after?”
Oh, so they actually said it? Susie almost chuckled. She was expecting the whole staring routine to happen until Susie offered.
Noelle raised one hand. “Dad… wouldn’t mind if I was a bit late, if I was…”
That got Kris smiling properly. “Susie…?”
“What? You think I’d mind?” Susie laughed.
Kris snickered. “ Noelle joined the party.”
Noelle stiffened oddly at that.
“Noelle joined the party.”
That sounded so familiar to something that had happened in her dream… but, well, it was the kind of thing that Kris would say.
Probably.
It was a bit hard to focus on Kris’ mannerisms; Susie was actively holding her! With her big, strong, scaly arms…
She wasn’t holding her in any kind of romantic way, not in the slightest, but… Noelle kind of preferred that. Susie wasn’t a romantic kind of person. She would punch someone in the shoulder way sooner than she would kiss or hug them.
Probably. Kris was the Susie Expert; right now, Noelle was but a mere Susie Initiate.
…she fixed her gaze on Kris. What have you done to my sense of humor? she thought, in only the fondest way.
“So where to, huh, Kris?” Susie asked, breaking Noelle out of her thoughts.
“Yeah, where are we going?” Noelle echoed.
“Store,” the impromptu leader— they were the leader in the dream, too —said.
Susie groaned. “Uuugh. Are you gonna make me talk to the skeleton?”
Kris snickered, which was Kris for ‘hell yes.’ Then they were walking off, down the street and heading north at the first corner.
It wasn’t a far walk, but unlike yesterday, Kris was actually taking it slow—not sprinting around everywhere, like they usually did. Maybe they’d noticed her hoof? Which was kind of humiliating, but…
…But the walk gave her time to send a text out to her dad, first of all. Her skirt had a pocket enough to fit her cell phone, if not the books she used to study. So out came the phone, on which she tapped furiously. A text to her dad, saying she was out with friends and would be a little bit late.
His response came back quite soon, asking if she was hanging out with ‘Nerdly’ again, and pleading her to bring him by the hospital window.
So she sent one more response, saying that she was with Kris… and Susie…
Rudy just sent back a message containing Susie? and then a winky smiling face.
“So you two, uh… you skipped class together?” Noelle asked, her mouth dry. And that’s all it takes to be best friends with Susie?
“Yes,” Kris answered. “Also crime.”
“Faha…?” Noelle shook her head. Here came the ‘crime’ excuse again.
“Jailbreak, robbery… unlicensed tree candy eating.” Susie started. With her hands occupied, she couldn’t continue counting off her supposed crimes, so she cut it off then.
Tree candy? “Fa… ha… sounds like you were really terrible.”
“Me? Those were all Kris’ ideas!”
Kris snickered again.
“Uh…”
She was cut off by Kris pulling open the door to the convenience store—or the ‘Sans, as the sign called it. Singular apostrophe and all.
Susie ducked down more than a little, and Noelle had to join in the ducking—bringing her head right beside Susie’s was a coincidence, honest—to keep her antlers from catching on the top of the doorframe.
When Susie stepped past the threshold, Noelle immediately beheld the oddly cold atmosphere inside, and the strange—catchy, but almost familiar—music that was always playing inside.
“Do we have a shopping list?” Noelle asked. She knew Kris didn’t have much of an allowance.
“Jerky, egg, and brother.”
Egg? Just a singular egg? Noelle frowned. “Uh… what?”
Kris was already at the counter, slapping their hands on the surface and looking Sans right in the eye. They repeated themselves. “Brother.”
“sorry, kid.” Sans answered immediately, not even flinching. “looks like the brother thing’s gonna have to wait.”
Kris gave an unimpressed look.
“how long? maybe tomorrow… maybe another two… hey, wait a sec.”
Kris waited. Wordless, expressionless.
“looks like it’s not gonna work out. sorry, kid.”
Kris threw their hands up, although their expression wasn’t exactly distraught… it was strange. Again, wordless, they just walked over to the side and inspected the array of bagged snacks all hanging up.
Noelle frowned. “What, uh, was he talking about?”
“I was hoping you knew,” Susie said. “Kris…?”
“hey, i’m right here.”
Susie swiveled her face to stare right at Sans the skeleton. “...Well?”
Sans shrugged.
Kris “He wanted me to meet his brother.”
“yeah,” Sans nodded. “my bro is great, but he’s always been a pretty bonely fella. he wanted to hang out, but he’s not feelin’ up to it.”
“Bonely?” Susie asked in earnest confusion.
Sans looked at her, and she stared back. A moment’s silence, and then Sans shut his eye… lids…?
Skeletons have eyelids. Noelle frowned.
“you’ve, uh, got a stowaway?” Sans broke the awkward silence.
He’s talking to me…! Noelle shuddered. “Um, hi…!”
Susie laughed. “Yeah, it’s great.”
Susie just called me great!
In the midst of the conversation, Kris had taken a bag of jerky from the side rack. They slapped it down on the counter, reached into their pocket… a pocket that turned up empty. They picked the jerky back up, stuck it back on the rack, and then turned back to the front door.
“Done here,” they said.
Susie chuckled, then frowned even deeper.
“wait,” Sans said, right as Kris pushed on the door. “Human.. I remember you’re—”
Kris froze and turned back. A single red eye seemed to shine through their bangs—a red eye that was shaking. They were shaking, their whole body. A sudden burst of fear that had them paralyzed in place…
“...the kid with all the coupons, right?” Sans finished, all the gravitas of his deep voice completely gone. “wait here a sec. free ice cream,” and then the skeleton was wandering off to the side, falling out of view.
A freezer door opened in the back room, only just audible.
Kris let out a massive breath that they were apparently holding, and slowly made their way back up to the counter.
“Free ice cream? Hell yeah…” Susie followed with. She hiked Noelle up a little further, shaking a little soreness out of her arms.
Just a little bit later, Sans was back from around the counter. He had a waffle cone of ice cream, chocolate and mint-chocolate-chip, in one hand. The other hand held two ice cream sandwiches atop each other.
Kris took each, then handed the sandwiches up to Susie.
Awkward eye contact was held, as Susie didn’t have a free arm to spare. Noelle bent forward to scoop both up. She tore the paper wrapping around the tip of one, and then lowered it back down to Susie’s mouth.
“Hey! That one’s mi—” Susie was half-snarling, glaring upwards. When the sandwich re-entered her view, she blinked, and then grinned. “Free ice cream, and I don’t even have to feed myself? Day keeps gettin’ better and better…”
“Well,” Noelle shifted, “you’re holding me, so I’m just making it even, fahaha…”
Susie took a massive bite, and a full half of the sandwich vanished instantly.
Kris smiled at that, and then led the way out of the store. Back to the sidewalk, where the warmth made the frozen snacks even more enticing. They were all walking again, and soon scarfing themselves.
The mere ice cream sandwiches paled in comparison to Kris’ glorious triple scooped cone, but… it was their coupons that had earned it, apparently. Noelle could find the strength not to stare longingly.
At the street corner, but before they crossed the street, Kris stopped. They looked to Susie, and then to Noelle, and held the ice cream cone up high.
“Huh?” Noelle looked down. “You want me to have a bite…?”
Kris bobbed their hand and nodded.
Now, knowing Kris, Noelle knew this would backfire somehow. She couldn’t quite imagine a way for it, so hesitantly and slowly, she bent herself lower to reach for the waffle cone.
As soon as it was in reach, Kris jabbed their hand forward, the frozen ice cream smearing itself all over Noelle’s nose. She recoiled, and Susie took a few steps back as a result.
“Kris!” Noelle cried out, wiping the back of her hand across her nose. Cold!
Kris laughed to themselves, then lowered the ice cream, spun it around, and took a big lick out of the scoop, right where it had met Noelle’s face.
“Kris…!” Noelle whined once more, her eyes shutting themselves automatically.
Although she couldn’t see anything, she could more than hear Susie snorting.
Noelle was probably very red right now… but…
But she had to admit, it was nice to see some more of Kris’ nonsense again. It felt like it’d been way too long. It was nice to hear more about Susie, too.
At Kris’ behest, the ‘adventuring party’ crossed the street, making way back towards the librarby, the school, and the hospital. All the southern parts of town, really.
Along the way… Noelle had to think. It was sunny out, warmer than Noelle usually liked… and Susie was even warmer.
A reptilian monster might be cold-’blooded,’ might have scales cool to the touch. Not Susie, though. Hers were warm, like there was some inner fire inside her. Not just the fire of her delinquent rebellion, either. An almost-literal fire.
Noelle had overheard once or twice, though she couldn’t quite remember where from, that Susie was a dragon, and not a dinosaur or lizard. If that was true… well, at least it would explain where that heat came from.
It wasn’t a bad heat…
Kris turned the corner of the librarby again, surveying this stretch of street. To the left, the school and librarby. To the right, the hospital, police station… Noelle was awfully familiar with this part of town. She almost didn’t even look at the area, with how well she remembered it.
A bike bell ringing, and then metal clattering, snapped Noelle right back into attention. She looked down the street. On the sidewalk, right in front of the police station, Alphys had been riding her bike—
And, to put it in Susie’s words (and laughter)… “Alphys just totally wiped out! Did ya’ see that?”
Kris gave a laugh, a tiny little heh.
Noelle leaned to get a better look. “I think she’s okay, she’s getting right back up… we should make sure.”
“What?” Susie asked, outraged. She cocked her head back, trying to make some kind of eye contact with her passenger. “You want me to get banned from outside of school, too? No way.”
Susie’s arms peeled Noelle’s legs apart, and then moved up. She held Noelle by the midsection, turning her around, and then dropping her. Rather than falling to the ground—Noelle had already braced herself for the landing—she fell to someone else’s shoulders.
Kris.
Kris teetered this way and that, unsteady from having a full reindeer dropped on their shoulders out of almost nowhere… but they straightened out, and held steady.
Noelle was a bit surprised by that, actually. She was a fair amount taller than Kris after all, and they were just standing so easily…
…But aside from that, she was a monster! A person! She shouldn’t be just hoisted on someone else as soon as it got tough!
“Susie!” Noelle looked back. “You can’t just—!”
“Looks like I did,” Susie crossed her arms, grinning.
Kris patted Noelle’s leg. “You want to check on her? Then let’s go,” and they walked forward. They were so much smaller, but they still walked almost like her weight wasn’t there. Almost. Noelle could tell that some effort was put into being nonchalant about it.
It was kinda cool.
Kris did that kind of thing, sometimes. They struck poses, or did something in an extra way, or they… they…
…it’d been so long, Noelle could hardly think of any examples. Which was a shame, really. When they posed, a hand fighting off their hair so their eyes could peak through… they were kinda pretty.
Where’d that thought come from? Noelle jolted, frowning. Had she really missed hanging out with Kris that much?
“Alphys?” Kris asked, when they were close enough. “Are you okay?”
Alphys was inspecting her bike and dusting herself off. She didn’t seem hurt, at least not bad—a bruise, some shed scales. At worst, she’d probably end up feeling sore.
Her bike, though… one pedal was severed, laying in the street, and one wheel was completely ruined. Noelle felt pretty awful seeing it, that was really unlucky.
“O-oh, Kris!” Alphys flinched, looking up from her bike. Then, she looked further up, to take in the sight of Noelle, towering ever higher. “Uh.”
Alphys blinked.
Noelle, words failing her, just waved.
“...I’m fine, Kris,” Alphys continued, looking back to Kris. “My bike though… eh heh…” she sighed. “Um… I got distracted when I was riding, and… it’s complicated.” She was silent for several seconds. “How are you doing?” she asked Kris. Then, looking up, she addressed Noelle. “Your… eh, eheh… project is going well?”
I feel asleep in the librarby for several hours. Noelle couldn’t admit that, though. “It’s… going okay…” she said, even though the lie felt terrible.
“That’s… eh… great, Noelle,” Alphys grinned. Sweat beaded on her snout as she looked back to Kris.
Kris just blinked at her.
“Well… don’t worry about me, just, uh… eh…”
Kris brought up a hand to gently loosely facepalm, then turned around and shuffled away.
“Uh—” Noelle swiveled to look back, smiling almost as nervously as Alphys was. Apparently we’re done here. “Have a nice day, Miss Alphys!”
“You too Noelle!” Alphys’ voice, growing more distant, called right back.
That was… strange. They had a strange teacher.
Near the front steps of the hospital, Susie promptly rejoined them, throwing glances past Kris at Alphys.
“She’s fine,” Kris answered, though Susie hadn’t asked a thing.
“I guess this is my stop,” Noelle said, looking at the hospital doorway. “I should spend some time with my dad…”
Susie stared right at Noelle for a few seconds. There was an odd expression there, one that was dying to say something. She was silent, though, not able to force the words free. Not until she turned her attention to Kris.
“Maybe… uh… we could show her our project…?” Susie tried. “Y’know, back at the school?”
Kris twitched, then tilted their head.
“Maybe he could… y’know…” Susie averted her eyes, grinning nervously. She pointed down at her foot, and then shrugged. “Yeah?”
“You mean…?” Kris muttered.
“Yeah!” Susie agreed, as if that said everything.
Kris looked up, patting Noelle’s leg again. “A little bit longer…?”
Noelle looked back at them. She found herself smiling. Despite everything, Kris still wanted to be her friend… and Susie was nice, too.
“...Sure,” Noelle’s smile grew. Was it what the two had skipped class all day for, yesterday?
Now she was really curious.