Chapter Text
"hey kris"
"i want to show you something"
"come to the apartments on the right side of town"
"first building to your left, go around back"
"then youll see a metal staircase leading up to all the rooms"
"come to the top"
"and knock on the window"
...Kris looked down at their phone, their ears still ringing from hearing the noises downstairs. Sans was back. Again. Frankly, they didn't want to hear their mother's shrill laughter and the bonehead's terrible jokes that she seems to LOVE for some reason. This was the thing they were hoping would happen, just something to ground them and keep them sane. Hanging out with Susie sounded like the best possible solution. After all, things just seemed to click when they were around her. The world didn't seem so boundless and big when Susie was there. The deafening sounds of the world quieted, with Susie being the only source of noise that they were able to tolerate.
Pulling on their sweater, worn and stretched with age but still useable, they grabbed their phone and texted back.
"omw."
Turning the screen off, Kris went downstairs. They'd normally go out through the window in their room, but it was too high to jump down without Susie there to catch them. So, the bathroom would do for now.
Kris tried to sneak past the raucous laughter and chatter filling the living room, hoping Toriel (and especially Sans) wouldn't notice them slinking off to the bathroom.
... One stray floorboard creaked. Almost muffled by the carpet, but not enough. Both Toriel and Sans looked over.
"heya, kiddo." Sans greeted, in that odd intonation that Kris couldn't stand for some reason. It made their blood boil hearing him speak now. Toriel beamed, bright as ever at Kris, and waved.
"Greetings, Kris! Sans dropped by to deliver groceries to me! Sans, why don't you tell Kris about your new delivery service?" She said, ecstatically. She was practically vibrating with excitement. Kris wanted to throw up in their mouth hearing Toriel talk like that about someone. Especially when its about HIM. Kris's face scrunched up and they turned to leave right as Sans was about to begin speaking about his stupid service.
"where ya goin' kiddo?"
"Bathroom." They responded with gritted teeth.
"heh. takin' care of business upon the porcelain throne."
Kris's skin crawled with rage as they opened the door to the bathroom and went in, slamming it shut behind themself. They locked the door.
No more. No more of this. Kris immediately made their way to the window, pulling up on it. Why wouldn't it budge?? They pulled harder, their jaw clenching. There was a knock at the door.
"Kris... I know what you're trying to do in there... I had no choice but to make sure that window stayed shut. It's for your own good." Toriel said from behind the door. She sounded stern, but worried. Worried. When did it matter if she was worried? When she SHOULD have worried before when they were out all night, fighting the Titan. They could've DIED and Toriel wouldn't have known because she was too busy getting WASTED. Kris started breathing heavily, rage building in their chest. How unfair. How DARE she pretend to care NOW. Kris looked at their fist, resolve building in them.
"I'm getting out one way or another." They decided. Taking a step back, they ran at the window, fist balled. With all their might, they shattered the window. It exploded outward with a loud crash, pieces of glass left embedded in Kris's fist. It began bleeding, but they didn't care. The warm trickle of blood, the pain in their hand, the way it ached... None of that mattered anymore. They couldn't stay here. Not now.
The doorknob to the bathroom rattled intensely, as Toriel was trying to get in.
"Kris?? Kris!! What was that noise?? Kris???" She sounded panicked. "A-Are you hurt?? Kris! Say something!!"
They were already gone. They walked around to the front of the house and ran out toward the apartments. The weight of what they just did already settling into them. They bit back the tears pricking their eyes and just kept running. As fast as they could carry themself.
They approached the apartments, covering their hand that was still bleeding. It was soaking into their sweater and would almost certainly stain, but they didn't really care at that moment. The pain had subsided just a bit, now a simple dull ache that flared up just often enough to remind Kris that it was still there. The pain was doing it's job, at least... Kris just wishes they could forget about it, as well as everything else that happened.
They went to the first apartment building and moved around the back. Behind it, not able to be seen unless you looked from a certain angle, was a basketball court. It was run-down, with the net torn off the hoop and the asphalt cracked. They frowned, as it looked like no one had played on that court in years. It was in complete disrepair.
Kris turned their attention to the stairs on the apartment building itself, and began ascending them. They walked slowly, the metal clinking gently under their shoes. Some windows showed empty apartments that haven't been leased yet, some showed mothers cooking for their children, some were simply covered with blinds or curtains. Kris tried to go swiftly past the ones that had people inside, so as to not disturb or spook them. After all, a human with a bloodied fist so close-by might not exactly be a WELCOME sight to most monsters.
Reaching the top, Kris took a breath. The only window left was before them, all they had to do was knock. There were curtains on the other side, though they were paper thin.
...Now that they thought about it, this series of requests was strange from Susie. She was being unusually cryptic in the way she texted. Before they could think about it too much, they knocked on the window. 'dink, dink, dink...'
Kris's eyes went wide and their heart jumped as Susie popped up from the bottom of the window, teeth bared, roaring. They stumbled backward, catching themself on the railing of the stairs as they breathed heavily.
"RARRGHH! HA! Hahaha!! Dude!" Susie guffawed at Kris being startled. Kris frowned, looking away. They were embarrassed that it caught them off guard so bad. They noticed that Susie wasn't wearing their usual coat, just a white tank-top and her pair of ripped jeans. Susie eventually calmed down and then noticed the blood on Kris. Her expression shifted in an instant. She immediately opened the window, pulling them inside. "Dude what happened???" She said, brows furrowed. She pulled their wrist close to her, examining the glass and the blood still slowly dripping. Most of it was dried now, but moving their hand caused it to open again in a few places. Kris winced, clenching their jaw.
"Dude, what did you do? Jeez... C'mere, we got a first aid kit 'round here somewhere..." She said, pulling them out of the room they were in. The room itself seemed to be Susie's room. But it was bare, much like their side of their room was back home. Kris felt a pang of empathy for Susie, as they knew exactly what it felt like. Susie just had one poster, a chair, and a bed with several claw marks through the sheets where her feet would lay.
Kris was pulled into a hallway now, into a room. The bathroom, it seemed. It was dirty but not in the way of being unclean... Dingy was more like it. Kris sat on the closed toilet seat as they watched Susie root through the cabinets under the sink. Eventually, she found a first aid kid and popped it open. She pulled out some tweezers, some antibiotic ointment, and some bandages of varying sizes.
"I'm not gonna bullshit you Kris, this is gonna hurtttt." She said, turning to them with the tweezers. Kris nodded, handing her their busted fist.
Piece by piece, Susie extracted the glass and dropped the shards into the trash can by the toilet. Each piece removed felt like tiny flames in Kris's fist. They bit their lip to stop themself from making noise. Finally, Susie felt that she had removed all the pieces. Then, she brought their hand over to the sink and cleaned out the wounds with warm water and soap. It burned, but Kris pushed through it. Then, she grabbed a clean rag and patted it dry, before applying the ointment and bandaging it.
"There. Now, ya gonna tell me what happened?" Susie said, starting to put everything away. Kris just looked away, not saying anything. She sighed, knowing that if Kris didn't wanna say anything, they couldn't be persuaded otherwise. "Fine, man. Anyways... My dad's not home, he won't be for a bit. Wanted to show you my apartment." She said, rubbing the back of her neck. Kris nodded.
"Sounds good."
Susie smiled a bit and took them out of the bathroom and to the hallway again, where they looked down it. There was the bathroom on the left, Susie's room behind them, and down the hall there were two other doors. One door looked like it'd been beaten and busted open multiple times and seemed to be barely on it's hinges. The other one looked like a closet.
"Down the hall is my dad's room and the closet. There's my room, but you know that." She turned around and walked into the main room. The living room was modest, had an old, leather couch with various claw marks littering it, as well as the general wear and tear of being sat on for several years. The leather cracked from age. In front of it, was a table where a TV would've been perfect, but... There was not one there.
Across from the living room was a kitchenette, where there was an old looking off-white fridge, a few worn down counters, and a sink. Standard stuff. There were stains all over the walls, some looking like accidents, and some seeming... Less so.
"There's not much but uh. My home is your home I think." She said, chuckling nervously. Kris nodded, looking around.
"Looks... Nice." Kris said, trying to be polite. Really, this place activated their fight-or-flight response. Susie picked up on their anxiety and sighed.
"Yeah, it's.. a shit-hole, I know. But its... Y'know. It does fine." Susie explains, rubbing her arm. Kris smiles gently, and walks over to the table where the TV should be.
"...Why didn't you take Tenna?" Kris asked, looking back at Susie through the corners of their eyes. Susie caught their gaze and averted their eyes.
"...I just thought uh... Thought that person could use him better than I could." That didn't seem like the full story to Kris though.
"...What's the real reason?" Kris asked, now turned to look at her fully. She got defensive.
"Its- That IS the real reason, dude." She said, crossing her arms. Kris wasn't convinced.
"Susie." They said, their eyes boring into her. Susie cracked.
"UGH. Fine. We HAVE a TV. I'm... Just not... Allowed to use it." She admitted. Kris was puzzled by this.
"Why... Not?" They asked, genuinely curious now.
"...Dad's the one with the TV. He doesn't let me use it. He keeps it in his room and has some way to tell when I use it. So I... Just don't use it." She seemed defeated. Kris thought about this carefully. Seemed important.
"...Not fair." They responded. Susie sighed.
"...Yeah. You're tellin' ME. That's kinda why... I was so excited to have a movie night with you those times. Because... I don't really... Get to watch TV anymore. The TV USED to be out here. But..." She trailed off. Kris was almost sure they saw tears collecting in Susie's eyes, but she swallowed and bit them back. "Now it's not."
Kris walked over and pat her on the arm, looking up at her. She looked down at them and smirked, then smiled, and then she started chuckling.
"Pfft- Hehe- Hahaha! Dude, you're so weird..." She said, though she seemed a bit tired. Kris smiled back.
"...Let's go to your room." Kris said, taking her hand. Susie looked at them for a moment before nodding.
"Yeah sure, I guess." She led Kris to the room, and the two sat on the ground. There weren't many other places to sit.
"...Tell me about your parents." Kris said, suddenly.
Susie looked at them, and seemed like she was really really thinking about this. Finally, her shoulders slumped and she looked at the ground, playing with a piece of fuzz on the carpet.
"...Mom and dad met back in the 80s."