Work Text:
Susie stepped out into the dimly lit hallway of her apartment. Letting her bedroom door fall shut behind her with a click.
She entered the living room, where the faint hum of TV laugh tracks echoed off the walls along with the flashing blue light from the screen.
She made sure to carefully step over the trash haphazardly lying around. She couldn’t remember ever seeing the floor of this place not completely covered in trash. Whether floorboards or carpet lay underneath was unknown to her. With how low the rent was, it must have been sold to her father all those months ago, with the trash included.
Speaking of her dad, at that moment, he was watching a game show which seemed to be produced on a budget of 10 dollars at most. He didn’t as much as blink as she walked past the couch.
Susie couldn’t help but grimace in distaste. He had been sitting there since she had come home that day, and when she left for school the day before that.
The only sign of life were the empty beer cans gathered by the couch. And the steady rise and fall of his chest.
Susie continued to make her way towards the front door. The monster wouldn't be questioned, not that she wanted to. No one asked her where she was going. Good, it was better that way.
She turned and left the apartment complex. It had been dark outside for quite some time.
Her jacket had been left in her room, draped over her chair. And the thin white t-shirt didn’t do much to keep the cold from nibbing at her purple scales. Her exposed arms were covered in moles, freckles, and marks.
None fresh.
He had been tired lately after work, and she was not home nearly enough for such an encounter.
Most houses had shut their curtains, lights off, and everyone asleep, lovingly coddled and tucked in with a kiss pressed on their scales, feathers, or fur.
Her legs led her past the local convenience store and up the street, hands in her pockets and eyes glaring holes into the ground.
Honestly, she just wanted to wreck shit, starting to consider breaking into one of the local shops or maybe breaking a window. Her fists were already clenching at the thought of kicking some ass in the Dark World.
Susie sorta kinda missed Ralsei. She regretted how their adventure had ended.. Then again, that prophecy panel was burned into her mind, a fresh and still aching memory.
Although the sharp pain had lulled into a softer but not any more bearable throb in the back of her mind.
She strangely considered stopping by Noelle’s house, but her mom would surely freak out if she caught sight of Susie near her daughter again, let alone near her expensive Christmas decoration.
What was that woman’s problem anyway? It was like the hag had an icicle up her prudish ass.
She took a deep breath as she walked up to some bushes, crouching down to pick up a few rocks. Susie started making a selection of flat, round, and smooth rocks, perfect for skipping them over water. Maybe she’d practice a bit, it would teach Kris right for laughing at her earlier…
Kris…
She slowly got up, wiping her hands on her pants and ignoring the grating feeling of dirt under her sharp claws. The monster put the rocks she had gathered in her pockets and made her way over to the lake.
She had to keep one hand in her left pocket. She forgot to sew the hole shut that had formed in the worn fabric, and she didn't exactly want to lose any of her precious stones.
Susie was drowning in her thoughts when she caught a glimpse of someone sitting in her usual spot. Too dark to make out the blurry silhouette.
Shoving her other hand in her rock-filled pocket, she approached them.
“Dude,” she snarked, “you’re kind of sitting in my spot-”
They turned their head to face her.
Crimson pupils met her yellowed scleras.
The human's scrawny legs were crossed, soft brown hair dishevelled, and wearing their light blue pyjamas instead of their usual outfit, which consisted of their older brother’s hand-me-downs.
Actually, the pyjama set definitely belonged to Asriel at some point.
Susie could take one look at them and figure out Kris didn’t seem to be doing much better than her.
Susie at least relaxed as she took note of the familiar presence, the tension never leaving her shoulders, though. She was greatly confused as to why Kris was by the lake at this hour.
“Kris, shit. Umm. Out for some fresh air?” she managed lamely.
Kris’ eyes glazed over almost instantly as they stared off into the far distance.
They nodded affirmatively, brushing their bangs in front of their eyes.
She got an idea of what Kris was doing before she got here. They smelled of ash and smoke.
Susie didn't know Kris smoked. Maybe a few weeks ago, that would have surprised her, and not the pleasant kind of surprise. She didn't have the best experience with smokers… But for some reason, she didn't seem to care that Kris was one. They didn't seem like someone dependent on that sort of thing. And this was really the first time she’s caught on to them doing it.
“Mm.. What.. ‘Bout you?” Kris asked, staring down at their lap while playing with a slim black lighter. Flicking the flame on and off, the heat against their thumb was temporary, but comforting nonetheless.
They were acting off. Susie was used to them being less expressive. Their posture was also slouched, while she was used to them standing stiffly as if wearing a back brace.
That was how they stood in the Dark World, straight. Feet together, hands flat at their side, shoulders tense, facing forward, and taking long, confident strides as they led their teammates through the fantasy realm.
“Just wanted to uhh.. Throw some shit,” Susie shrugged, huffing as she crossed her arms.
She registered their blank stare, and stupidly kept running her mouth, “y’know. Through the windows of that stupid store clerk. What’s his deal anyways?”
Kris looked up at her and didn’t look away. They tilted their head at her.
Susie smirked as she started pulling out the rocks she gathered. She crouched down next to Kris on the ground, laying out the rocks in front of the two of them.
“Check it out! Tight, huh, Kris?” Grinning wildly, she picked one of the shiny rocks up and held it out in front of her as an example.
Kris shrugged, hugging themselves in an attempt to shield from the cold. Normally, prompting them with a question or multiple lines of dialogue would make them force out an answer, but they were oddly quiet.
Hypocritically enough, she wondered what could’ve possessed them enough to leave their house at this hour in those flimsy clothes. They were sitting on their jacket, since the ground was still wet from the rain.
Because Susie wasn’t wearing a jacket herself to lend the enby, she instead scooted closer, hoping to provide them with any extra warmth that she could offer.
Instead, she was the one who felt a lot warmer all of a sudden. The smell of fresh, crisp apples was tempting, so she bit. Scooting a little closer.
Kris was looking at her with that observant and quiet look. like they’ve got her all figured out. The same look that pissed her off at the beginning of the year, the same look that made her slam them into a locker.
“You’re cold,” they noted in a flat tone.
Then they turned their gaze away from her and kept staring ahead of them, almost mournfully staring back at the lake water. “Why are you here?” Their voice was weaker now, cracking at the end, yet sharply cutting through her walls.
Kris was mindful of the number of words spilled. Sometimes it was like they were trying to get through life saying as little as possible.
Even though she was startled, she made sure to reappropriate their bluntness with a shrug.
“Wanted to throw some shit,” she repeated. It wasn’t the only reason, but it didn't count as a lie. Susie really wanted to throw some shit right now.
They hummed in understanding. She knew they really did understand.
Susie silently looked over the rocks again, inspecting them and turning them around.
“Why are you, really, out here then?” It was Susie’s turn to repeat the question, even if she knew the answer.
Kris shrugged. They didn't seem to know themselves. They spoke in a hushed and deadpan voice, not at all the one Susie grew to know these past few days, “I like sitting here and just… Listening.”
“There’s nothing to listen to here,” Susie shot back, only to have Kris shake their head dismissively.
Silence fell again, and Susie felt like she had said the wrong thing. She quietly stared into the lake water like Kris was doing, and sat still.
She couldn’t hear anything.
“I wish Ralsei were here,” she said instead.
Not giving Kris the chance to chime in, not sure if they would, she continued, “he must be lonely in Castle Town. All alone in his empty room... Probably blaming himself for everything that went down. Y’know how he gets.”
Kris shrugs. Not moving their eyes away from the still lake water.
First, the ominous sound they said to hear, and maybe soon, they’d claim to see the water ripple.
But they didn’t. Even if their watchful eyes seemed way too busy to be just watching the water.
“...He’s fine,” they reassure her with an unsure tone. Ralsei couldn’t possibly be fine. None of them were.
Kris found it oddly easy to communicate directly with Susie. It was the first conversation they shared together since considering each other friends, without the outside help of the SOUL.
That’s right, the SOUL was currently locked up inside the birdcage. The cage was covered with a blanket so as not to draw unwanted attention if their mother decided to check up on them at night, which she won’t. But they can never be too sure.
It was so late, angel. Susie would've been in trouble, way back when her dad still pretended to care. Back when he still tried to show her care in the form of anger.
Susie would worry about Kris’ mom being furious with not just Kris, but her included.. But she knew that by now Toriel was likely passed out from the wine she drank with the skeleton monster earlier.
She changed the topic, and quickly at that.
“So, festival tomorrow… I heard your brother’s coming back from college? Man, everyone just keeps talking about him, so he must be a pretty impressive guy,” she said passively.
She knew he was. She’d seen the trophies and the gross amount of girls talking about him with pink hearts in their eyes. They spoke about his homecoming like wives awaiting their husbands to come back from a war.
Kris missed their older brother. They missed him so much. Then again, they really didn't want him to come back home right now.
Not when they can’t even talk to him properly without that parasite making a fool out of them. How many more times would they have to mumble the words with their mouth closed or yawn and cough through sentences? And what would he think of Susie? What would Susie think of him? What would Asriel think of his little sibling, who was basically a walking corpse, that had not yet begun to rot?
Not rot visibly to others, Kris had seen the decay start since the moment they stepped into that shelter-
“Yeah, he’s cool,” Kris said instead. Because he was… No matter how much of a crybaby he could be, Asriel was brave and kind-hearted.
When Noelle screamed and cried about a spider, he’d go and take care of it for her, even though he was just as scared of the thing's spindly legs, if not more than she was.
(Noelle couldn’t ask Kris because they’d chase her around with it, nor Dess because she would have burned it alive, right there just for scaring Noelle… And surely that would have just scarred her.)
Asriel was charismatic, and he was pure. He was everything Kris failed to be.
“Heh, man… The things I’ve seen about him tell me otherwise, but shit.. Hey, I’ll take your word for it,” Susie snickered.
They didn't answer her pointed jab.. She was referring to the time she’d seen Asriel’s search history in Queen’s mention and the horribly written love letter she found in his pockets,
and the book in the hallway drawer-
Kris’ train of thought was cut off, thankfully, as their phone rang, horribly enough.
They didn’t need to take the vibrating device out of their jacket’s pocket to know the contact name ‘C’ was brightly displayed on the screen.
Susie was curiously watching them. Was that their mother? She wondered. Maybe Toriel didn't drink as much as Susie had thought, and her motherly concern won over the prospect of having fun this time…
Kris was debating whether they were throwing their cellphone into the lake or themselves before it finally stopped ringing, just too soon for them to make the daunting decision.
“Spam call,” they said flatly. They would just have to tell Carol they were asleep. No way she’d believe it, though. The tracker on their phone she installed made sure to update her. She’d know if they were at the lake or in their own bed.
Their bed was an appealing idea right now; they should go home. Their mom and her fling were surely tired out by now.
“Yeah, ‘course, dude,” Susie scoffed. Standing up, she grabbed one of the rocks from her collection, throwing it up and catching it again.
Kris caught a glimpse of the bandages tightened around her bruised knuckles. Her hand, which had been bleeding so fiercely earlier in the Dark World...
They looked away.
She didn’t try to aim or apply the technique to properly skip stones across the lake. Susie simply threw her arm back before launching the rock as far as her physical strength made possible.
It made an impressive distance of 8, maybe 9 feet before dropping back into the water with a pathetic splatter.
Kris burst into laughter at her failure. Quickly stifling their laughter by pressing their face into their hands, their shoulders still shaking.
“What- Dude, this lake is rigged…” Susie scoffed. Grunting as the next rock she threw only got 4 feet away before falling down.
They smiled. Kris didn’t mind being here if it meant Susie would stay with them. Actually, there was nowhere else they wanted to be at that moment.
The human had come out here to search for her, only to find the streets empty with no trace left of their friend. They’d resided to the lake, only for her to find them regardless.
“Let me try,” Kris mumbled as they stood up on their weak legs, crouching down to pick one of the rocks.
Fate was a funny, horrible thing.