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The blinding lights of the Cyber World were irritating for a while, but Noelle was starting to like all of the neon and the horns of the walking cars. Kris walked in front of her, wearing a armor that reflected the signs around them and the ascot around their neck contrasted perfectly with their light blue skin, something that she found a bit weird when she first saw them but it weirdly suited them, she concluded later.
Queen’s advances were starting to annoy her, they had met twice already and each one of them were getting sillier than the others before, Kris did their best to distract the monarch meaning, they stood in their place and Queen talked until she went away to look for the deer monster in another place in the Cyber World. It was strange how active Kris was being now, fighting, talking to random salesmen on their way, things that... Kris would never do.
Of course, she wouldn’t know what was going on in Kris’ mind. Despite growing up together, both of them had distanced from one another, only talking in school when Kris needed something from her, Noelle’s heart got tight everytime she saw Kris coming in her direction in the hallways, classrooms, even when both teens were walking on the streets of Hometown. But the last few days were different.
Kris has always been a person with ‘few words’, mostly just signing or just writing what they wanted to say something, and rare were the occasions where Kris would use their voice, from what she could remember Kris used to talk a lot more when they were little kids, just remembering their little voice brought some warmth to Noelle’s heart. After a while, Kris started getting quieter and quieter, until one day, a horrible day to both of them, they just stopped talking all together. After that, Kris was getting further and further away from her, from everyone.
They had stayed away for so long and now, out of nowhere, decided to open up again. With Susie, nonetheless.
There was nothing wrong with Susie, for the most part. Noelle just found extremely strange her childhood friend and the girl that she was in l– she had a crush on become friends suddenly. Especially this morning when she caught both of them sneaking into the supply closet by the end of class, Susie was sweating bullets and Kris was trying their best to not cackle when Noelle left them running towards the front door. And as the day couldn’t get any weirder, Berdly and her fell asleep in the librarby and woke up surrounded by sentient wires and sockets with legs, wearing not the clothes that they definitely weren’t before waking up, and now having to run away from a tyrant that wanted to "roboticize" her face. Just the afternoon that definetely she wanted.
She couldn’t quite understand what was happening, but she decided just to roll with it. Her and Kris had been walking for a while, crossing extremely dangerous streets, fighting and sparing enemies, and doing things she couldn’t begin to imagine how she could do it, like shooting ice beams from the palm of her hands. She was scared out of her mind but Kris’ presence, explaining what was happening and how to control her new found powers was both soothing and... a little bit disturbing because how Kris knew all of this magic nonsense and seemed to understand everything that was happening around them?
And the question that floated around her antlers constantly, was all of this real?
What kinda of mess she had stumbled upon?
Was she dead!?
Definetely wasn’t the latter because this looked nothing like Heaven and Kris was here so... not Heaven. But it wasn’t all so bad, at least, she was alive, Noelle guessed and Kris was helping her find their way home so that was something, at least. They continued onward until Kris stopped in front of her, making Noelle bump into them and apologizing promptly, the ‘knight’ in front of her took out of their ascot something that resembled a hamburguer but the bread and meat were a bit too dark for her taste but Noelle accepted, it tasted really good but the suspicion didn’t let her fully enjoy the food.
They sat by a bench that had a view to the rest of this world. Skyscrapers piercing na endless black sky, no starts in sight, neon outdoors advertising products, an intense traffic coming from every direction and right when she thought this sight couldn’t be more beautiful, fireworks exploded filling the dark sky with colora that she couldn’t even tell what was it.
“Wow...” Noelle muttered under her breath, looking out the horizon. She felt tears swell in her eyes as she thought of her sister, “Dess would’ve love this...”
Both of them sat in silence as the fireworks’ vanished from the sky, leaving them in a awkward silence. Noelle didn’t know what to say next, she always had something to say to Kris, even if it was just small talk, maybe in any other situation they would be talking about literally anything else. In the corner of her eye, Kris stared into the void with their legs crossed, patiently waiting for her to make the first move, in her mind.
“So...” She started tapping her hooves on the ground. Kris turned to her, breaking them out of their little world, “Uh... Oh, what the heck?”
Noelle leaned forward, sinking her fingers in between her light blonde hair. “Kris, what is really going on here?” Her back touched the bench again, waiting for a answer, but all she got when she turned to them was Kris’ piercing red eyes staring at her.
It would be remiss to admit that she wasn’t taken back by Kris’ beauty, Noelle never interacted to any other human so she had no other parameter to what ‘human beauty’ actually looked like, but to all means, Kris is very beautiful. Their silky hair covering half of their face added a charm and an air of mystery to them, what was supposed to pimples were replaced by what she assumed was some kind of glitter or, believe it or not, stars, but all of that was irrelevant because the thing that most stood out were their eyes.
Some say that the eyes were the window to the soul, so Kris’ soul must be as beautiful as their eyes. She could feel them staring deep in her own soul, as if it was talking to it, to her. The prolonged staring made Kris blush and look away from her, and the moment was gone. Noelle cursed herself in her mind, as she nervously laughed, trying to look anywhere but Kris.
The silence came back and the only thing that could be heard by Noelle was her heart beating so fast that she was certain that a heart-attack would come sooner or later. She tried to even her breathing in a way that Kris wouldn’t notice, something that failed miserably.
“I... missed this.” Kris said with their raspy voice, almost like they vomited out. Noelle looked at them, confused and their voice sending shivers on her fur. Kris was sweating a bit, breathing heavily. “I... missed you.”
“R-really?” Noelle smiled a bit, her nose lighting up a bit. She soothed her hair and looked right at their eyes, “Well, I missed you, Kris.”
Their boots nervously clicked on the ground, seeing this, Noelle scooted closer. She carefully held their gloved hands, the sweat on their cheeks was visible and their breathing got heavier, “Kris, are you okay?”
“Yes.” They said but Kris shook their head in denial, the knight intertwined fingers with the ice mage, on which she reciprocated. “Noelle... ‘E-Ellie.”
Kris stopped bouncing their foot on the floor and completely relaxed as they stared at each other. Noelle felt her whole face heat up, as they said the nickname given to her when they were kids, she thought about calling them ‘Krismas’ but she declined that idea. When she was about to say something, Noelle realized how close they were, their bodies practically clued together.
The world slowed down around them, as if it waited for what they would do next. Both their hearts were almost exploding, the warmth of each others face almost colliding.
Noelle had no idea what to do next, in reality, she had no idea what was happening. Since when she found Kris so beautiful? Since when she found them so attractive? Why was she getting closer to their face? Why did she opened her mouth?
It was only for a second or maybe two, but it happened. Noelle felt her lips touch theirs, and for a moment, she thought it would be fine, after all, they knew each other since they were children and their parents joked about them marrying each other in the future, Dess and Asriel would mess with them about the same thing, so it would be fine, right?
Kris, as they felt her lips touch theirs, immediately stepped back and looked at her in terror, getting up from the bench. Their face was in a bright shade of pink, their breathing had even and their eyes widened to that act. Kris’ heart was beating rapidly as they stared at Noelle’s eyes, it was a weird situation. After composing themselves, they stood straight up and looked at the ground, almost in shame.
Noelle felt her fur damped as the tears fell from her face. She couldn’t believe that she had done that, something that in her mind was almost sinful, ashamed wasn’t enough to describe how she felt now. Noelle raised from her seat and stood in front of Kris, cleaning her eyes from the fallen tears. She tried to apologize but all that came out were sobs and half-words.
“I-I’m sorry, Kris. I d-didn’t mean to–“ As Noelle rambled on, Kris raised their hand and looked her in the eyes. “I j-just thought t-that...”
“Stop.” Kris spoke firmly, “You like Susie.”
“W-what?” She felt her cheeks heat up as their breathing returned to normal. Noelle stepped forward but Kris stopped her, as they lifted their hand. “I’m sorry, Kris. Really, I shouldn’t have...”
The knight brushed their bangs aside, revealing their huge red eyes, as they stared at Noelle’s terrified expression. Kris hated to show their eyes, they deemed them ugly and unnatural but again, they lived among literal monsters but only few people had saw their eyes. “Noelle.”
“Y-yes?”
“I want you to answer my questions honestly.” Kris maintained their stoic face but she felt a bit strange as their eyes weren’t covered. Noelle nodded and felt her legs gave out a little but she stood tall, “What do you feel about Susie?”
“I... like her.”
“Like like?” Kris quickly replied as their expression became sterner.
“Y-yes.”
Kris hummed and kept going, “Why did you kissed me?”
Now they had cornered her. Noelle felt her heart race even more, fearing a heart attack might struck her, why did she kissed them? She tried formulate a good enough answer but the words got caught in her throat, knowing that Kris asked her to answer with honesty. “Because... I used to like you when we were kids.”
“And I thought that, maybe, just maybe we could be friends again.” Noelle played with the hem of her sleeves as Kris’ expression softened, they listened to her as attentively as possible.
Both teenagers stood in silence, waiting for any kind of response from the other but the only thing heard by them were their faint heartbeat. “Noelle... How do you feel about me now?”
“What do you mean?”
“We haven’t talked to each other in a long time. What do you feel about me now?”
Noelle breathed in and out, looking at the ground, “I don’t know. I like you and I can’t understand you. You stopped talking to me, going to my house, ignored me.”
“And despite all that, you haven’t left my mind after all this time.” Noelle felt like crying but their weren’t any tears to be shed, “You’re really confusing, Kris.”
“And then Susie showed up. I fell for her, I like her more than I could ever imagined, and yet... I couldn’t forget you. How could I?” Noelle’s voice came out more as whisper than anything else. Kris listened her with their heart tight and words that were stuck in their throat dissapeared.
Kris approached the doe and grabbed her hands gently, intertwining their fingers and pressing their foreheads together. Noelle’s heart stopped for a second, Kris’ skin was colder than she imagined, maybe that’s why their skin was a shade of blue, she let out a shaky breath and looked them in the eyes. They shared a tiny smile and stepped back, still holding hands.
“I missed you too, ‘Ellie.” Kris’ tone came as a soothing mist and like a wet dog, they shook their head frantically, making their bangs cover their eyes, “Now, shall we continue?”
They began walking back into their path, leading them into another Annoying Mouse Room, and as they analyzed the room, looking for the solution, Kris tapped Noelle’s shoulder, breaking her concentration. “Susie likes you too, Noelle.”
The shriek that came out of Noelle’s mouth almost deafened them, “But don’t tell her I said it, yeah?”
Noelle would have a lot to think once she woke up from this dream, such as “why life gave to her two people to love” and “could she have them both?”
Why was her life so confusing, she asked herself.