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A rock tumbles across harsh concrete, briefly blown to the side by the wind before coming to a stop. Susie stares down at it, kicking out it into the grass and walking off.
She wanders south, past the church, where the sidewalks and road abruptly stop. She practically sprints past the mayor’s office. Autumn-yellow trees line a path that seems almost too straight, casting a cool shadow over the girl. Dry shrub crunches beneath her feet, a single thumb in her pocket.
Perhaps halfway down the path, a smaller, lighter footstep behind her reaches her ears. She turns around immediately, eyes wide, half-expecting to be met with nothing and half-expecting to be met with something.
That feeling melts into relief and mild exasperation when she looks down to see a human, just a few feet away.
“Kris! God, that- can’t you, I dunno, say hi? Instead of following me like a creep until I notice you?”
She reaches out, tousling Kris’ hair with a rough hand as her other arm drags them closer. They reach up to stop her, pulling her hand away from their head, but not letting go. Slowly, almost mischievously, they interlock their fingers with hers.
Susie yanks her hand away, sputtering, cheeks darkening before she turns around and stomps off, certain that Kris will follow. They do, naturally, and the two fall into an easy, casual pace through the forest.
Kris seems a little distracted at times, eyes darting over her but hardly at her face. They stop when she calls them out, their lips twisting into an embarrassed, sort-of pout. Susie brushes it off, but wonders if her clothes are, like, dirtier than usual?
In the midst of their relaxed conversation, she almost forgets what lies at the end of the path. As the rows of trees ebb away, a hill comes into view, one she knows holds unyielding metal doors on the other end.
Beside her—almost behind her now—she can practically feel Kris’ tensing. Their mouth opens, then closes a little, words on the tip of their tongue, but hesitant to truly say them.
Susie shrugs, stepping out of the shade, planting herself at the foot of the hill and patting the spot next to her invitingly. Kris pauses, head tilting up in surprised recognition, before a small smile spreads across their face. With red irises focused on the girl, they make their way over, sitting close enough for their shoulders to touch.
“Nothing’ll happen in broad daylight,” she reassures, to either Kris or herself. “‘sides, this place isn’t so bad when there’s no…”
She glances away, regretting having started that sentence and equally unsure of how to finish it. Thankfully, Kris doesn’t push. They never do.
In a rare moment of actually starting a conversation, they run their finger over the newest rip in her jeans. “You know, I think Tenna had a point. Where did you wreck those pants?”
Their words are quiet, almost teasing, as their finger glides along purple scales.
Susie fights herself to not say something weird, and responds a little awkwardly, “Uhh, I dunno. Not like I buy new pants all the time. Guess I’m just too rough in ‘em. Besides, it’s kind of a cool look, huh?”
Kris nods, seemingly content with her answer, but they don’t take their hand off her knee. Susie wants to say something, but she can’t come up with anything that doesn’t make her sound stupid or weird. So… fine, whatever.
Instead of speaking, she makes a (perhaps dumber) decision to sling her arm around Kris’ shoulder.
Scrambling for an excuse, she mutters, “Cold out here. You need to start wearing more than just that sweater.”
Whether Kris buys that or not is unknown to her, but they nod, shuffling closer and leaning their head on her shoulder. After desperately praying to the Angel for some sort of composure, Susie finally relaxes, finding herself comforted more than she cares to admit.
She’s definitely not the kind to stop and ‘smell the roses,’ as she’s heard. More ‘rough and tumble,’ as her elementary teachers liked to note, on report cards that went unread by anyone. Except maybe someone curious enough to go digging through neighborhood trashcans. Nah, who would do that?
As fun as it is to sit cuddled up on the dirt doing nothing, Susie finds herself bored pretty fast. An impulse passes, and she takes it—wrapping her arms around Kris’ torso, they’re hardly given seconds as she rolls down the slight slope of the hill, dragging them along with her, until they’re both covered in blades of grass and specks of dirt.
“Come on, loser,” she snickers, their expression comedically shocked. “I’m hungry. You think anyone’s bought that egg you reverse-stole from that dude’s shop?”
Kris flounders for a moment, but collects themself, grinning in turn and accepting her hand when she offers to pull them up. Or so it seems for a moment, until they pull with all their might, which is just barely enough to bring her back down into the dirt on top of them.
“Kris, you piece of- Hey, wait!” Kris cackles, using these few precious seconds to run as far as possible before Susie inevitably gives chase.
Claws dig into their sweater before they’ve even made it halfway, lifting them up and shaking them. Even now, as Susie snaps her teeth at them as if aiming to bite, they can tell she’s making an effort to gentle her roughhousing. It doesn’t necessarily work, but the effort alone makes it feel like their heart is beating out of their chest, and they’re suddenly grateful she can’t see their face.
“Thought you could outrun me, huh?” She interrogates, though she sets them down. “I’ve got, like, a whole foot of height on you.”
“Eleven and a half inches,” Kris corrects, purposefully obnoxious.
“Pfft. That make you feel better?”
“I’m being accurate.”
It takes them nearly thirty minutes to make it past the southern part of town, if only because of how many detours they take and how often the pair get distracted in their daily ritual of investigating every single item in town. Although they skip the mayor’s office today… just to be safe.
At night, staring up at the glowing stars on their bedroom ceiling, Susie wonders if she and Kris spend too much time together. She’s here just as often as they are by now, and it’s their house. But looking at them from across the room, she shakes her head, concluding: nowhere better to spend her time. No one better to spend it with.