Work Text:
The leaves fell as if the sky were shedding fragments of extinguished fire.
Kris walked behind Susie, listening to the crunch of her dark boots against the damp earth.
Autumn had always seemed like an empty place, a time of endings.
But now, watching her run through the bare branches, they felt everything light up in a new way.
Susie threw herself at the leaves as if they were rivals in a battle only she understood.
Her laughter rose, loud, vibrant, as if trying to break the air.
A laughter that pierced them, that infected them against the Soul's wishes.
Every time they heard it, something in them became lighter, as if it lifted a weight they'd silently carried forever.
They noticed her clothes: those jeans with ripped knees that shouldn't be there, not in this cold, not when the wind cuts through the skin.
But that's who she is.
As if the world couldn't dictate the rules to her.
As if she desperately needed to shield herself from the unknown.
And even though she knew they should think she was reckless, all Kris felt was that they admired her.
That they longed for the freedom she could afford.
A puddle suddenly catches her, soaking her up to her ankles, and she snorts.
She jerks, grunts, laughs again.
Kris snorts, earning a tongue stick out to them in their direction.
At the same time, they thought about how the water must be soaking into her bones.
And without answering, they pulled out a sweater of Asriel's they were wearing.
A little loose for her, less than it fit Kris, who almost sank into the jacket while wearing it.
Her shoulders, large and strong, disappeared into the fabric as if they were nothing. The wool folded around her arms, covering her hands, making her look... different.
No less strong. More like almost fragile, more fragile than she'd ever admit to being.
She protests, mocks how ridiculous she looks, her cheeks heating up to her neck. But Kris didn't think so.
They thought they wanted to keep that image: Susie laughing inside an little oversized sweater, the sleeves hiding her hands, the strands of her damp hair sticking to her forehead.
They thought they wanted to remember her like that, because it made them feel like there's warmth even in the cold air.
Kris reached out her hand.
And when hers encircled theirs, they felt something unexpected. A calm.
A calm so strong it was hard to hold on.
It had always seemed to them that silences were their only companions, weighing them down ever since that terrible day, when the first domino started to collapse, as all their troubles began to unfold.
But with her, it didn't weigh them down.
With her, they didn't need to search for words, because her presence filled them all before they appeared.
They realized then what it meant.
That she had become one of the most important people in their life, too quickly, without Kris having planned it.
And that scared them.
Because when they saw her smile—that smile that seemed to push their soul toward the light— They knew they wasn't the same anymore.
They knew that, even though they hadn't said anything, she had occupied a place in them that they didn't know if they could let go.
Autumn would continue to fall, slowly and inevitably.
But here, now, among bare branches, with her laughter still vibrating in the air and her hand holding theirs, they felt something new beginning.
Something that didn't need words.
Something that simply exists, strong and warm, in the shared silence.