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Kris was hesitant to get out the house.
Their town was blanketed in white, the orange grass hidden, the branches of trees bare, the sky overcast. It was also cold, so incredibly cold.
Their family must have not as felt it as much. The air biting their skin, something that isn’t accustomed to them with their thick white fur covering their bodies.
“Kris, honey, don’t you want to see the snow?” Their mother had asked, crouching down behind them, her paws settling on their shoulders. Kris shook their head, brown strands flicking from side to side.
Maybe it was just another monster thing, something that Kris wasn’t meant to participate in. They had realized it, the belittling fact that they would never grow horns like their parents or like their brother soon would. The red devil horns that Kris had begged their mother to buy would never get bigger and start to curl like their dad. Maybe the snow that covered the world was not something to be enjoyed for humans. An unspoken rule because Kris doesn’t have fur, or horns, or magic to keep them warm.
They looked down at their feet, blue boots that was a hand-me-down from Asriel, that was a hand-me-down from Dess. Their toes could wiggle as much as they can and they can never reach the front of the boot. Dess, Asriel, and Noelle are outside. Feet crunching against the snow, Dess scoops up a handful with black fingerless gloves, targeting Asriel and lands between his eyes with a splat. Noelle giggles behind her sister, golden pigtails bouncing.
“I found a jacket!” Asgore shouts, making Kris jump and Toriel grumble under her breath, thinking her child can’t hear.
“Thank you, Asgore,” Toriel says through gritted teeth. She helps Kris put on the jacket, even though they are fully capable of doing it on their own. Just like the boots, the jacket is too big, it covers Kris’ hands completely, they dig in the pockets and find a green knitted hat and yellow gloves that actual fit.
“Oh perfect! You found a hat and gloves! Now are you ready, my child?” Toriel asks, kneeling down smoothing Kris’ hair back.
“No,” they mutter balling their fingers into fist.
“No?” Toriel repeats.
“I-“
“Sure you can! Snow doesn’t bite!” Asgore says, stretching out his arm and scooping up some of the snow, bringing it up close to Kris’ face too fast that it makes them flinch back.
“Asgore!” Toriel scolds.
“Sorry Tori, I just wanted-“
Another argument starts, wonderful. They pace back into the kitchen, keeping the shouts away from the public view while their human child that’s stuck at the doorway stands forgotten. Kris nudges the snow with their oversized boot, retracting back when it smushes under the gentle press. Kris hates it when they argue, it’s become something that’s constant. It lingers in the house like a bad odor and never dissipates, ruining the atmosphere of the family room and the kitchen table entirely, Asriel and Kris feel restricted to their rooms, not wanting to witness or be the start of another argument.
“Yo! Krismas!” Dess shouts. When Kris looks up three pairs of eyes are all on them.
Dess smiles, buck teeth and all, long black hair tied into a low messy ponytail so she can fit a baseball cap between her antlers.
“You scared of snow or somethin’!” She jogs over, Noelle following her by hopping on her footprints in the snow like a white rabbit. The third hop she slips and falls, Asriel runs over and helps her up by the crook of her elbow, using his sleeve to wipe the snow off her red nose.
Dess turns, running backwards, Asriel gives her a thumbs up, telling her that he’ll focus on Noelle if she focuses on Kris. Dess nods, coming up to the doorstep where Kris stands. She peaks inside just a bit, able to see white paws flaring about with annoyance, and voices raised a bit too high. Dess cringes, she’s no strangers to seeing Mr. and Mrs. Dreemurr argue, and today is no different.
She crouches down, hands on black ripped jeans and tilts her head, “You scared?”
“Yes,” Kris mumbles.
“Why?” She asks, blue nose scrunching when a snowflake lands right in the middle.
“It’s embarrassing,” Kris says, because it is. They’re the only human in town, the only human that some monsters have ever seen. They love Dess, love her rock guitars, her spunk, and her attitude, but what would she know about being a human. Having to know what she can and can’t do, what she can and can’t have.
Dess rolls her eyes, “Puh-lease. You wanna know embarrassin’? Okay so, the other day I my mom got me new jeans, but they were so freakin’ basic! I mean really, straight blue jeans that were cuttin’ into my skin, she wanted me dead I know she did with these jeans. Anywho, I go to sit down and all you hear is this loud ass rip!” She exclaims, stretching her arms way above her head. Kris hides their giggles in their sleeve.
“Did you-“
“No I did not fart.” Dess snorts, pointing an accusing finger in the middle of Kris’ eyes, “damn pants ripped. And my dumbass classmates wanted to laugh at my underwear. We’re in high-school, grow up!”
“The other day you were watching kids movies-“
“Whatever, whatever! Point is, embarrassing things happen. They come and go and whatnot. So what are you so embarrassed of?”
Kris frowns. They didn’t want the conversation to spin back on them. Because it still is embarrassing, and they want to just stay inside. Watch their brother and neighbors go sledding and build snow-monsters while they watch from the window.
But then there’s a loud bang from inside the house, and when Kris turns around they see their father banging a fist on the counter. Not long after Toriel does the same, raising her voice even higher. So what options do they have? Go into the unknown territory and have icicles drip from their nostrils and get frost bite, or stay in the familiar. Not tell Dess and tip-toe up to their shared bedroom, pressing pillows to their ears to muffle out the shouting.
“Can humans even go in snow?” Kris mutters. Eyes already getting blurry with tears that slip down their cheeks. Prepared for the disappointing words to slip past December’s lips.
“What?” She laughs a humorless chuckle, “why couldn’t they?”
Kris shrugs, wiping their tears with their oversized sleeve, “‘Cause.”
Dess pauses, drumming her fingers on her ripped pants. She opens her mouth, then closes it, and opens it again. Choosing her words carefully so she doesn’t say something she regrets.
“Have you…ever seen the snow before?”
There’s a stretch of silence between the two, the world frozenly still until Kris shakes their head.
“What if it’s like a monster thing? Like the horns? And-and like magic? I can’t do have those cause I’m human and…what if I can’t go outside when it’s snowing too?” Kris asks, fat tears fall down their face, and snot sticks to their cupids bow.
“Oh Krismas,” Dess sighs, using their sleeve to cover their knuckle, wiping the sadness off Kris’s small face, “I’m sorry about the horns and the magic. To be honest with ya, I don’t know if humans can do anything like the stuff monsters can do. I did hear something about souls in one class though.” She mutters the last sentence to herself. “But weather ain’t magic Kris! You can go out when it rains, or it’s sunny! And you sure as hell can get out when it snows!”
Kris sniffles, looking up at their rebellious reindeer neighbor with blurry, red eyes. “Promise?”
Dess gives Kris a lopsided grin, lacing their fingers with the small human child and slowly guides them out the house, the snow crunching beneath their shoes.
“Would I ever leave ya Krismas?”