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Kris wakes up to the smell of something savory wafting through the crack at the bottom of their door. They peek over the top of their sheets towards their brother's side of the room. Everything's washed in yellow light. It's definitely past time to walk up but after the day they had yesterday, they want nothing more than to slip back to sleep…
But their heart is a little too slow, their thoughts a little too strange. They drag themself out of bed and find their way to the birdcage.
Their soul floats inside, bobbing up and down as if in an ocean. Kris hesitates before unlatching the door, but they grip the soul tight in their hand and plunge it into their chest before they can think too hard about it. The process has become easy the last few days. It doesn't stir inside them to take control, so Kris thinks perhaps they're in charge of themself today.
Great.
They leave their room cautiously and make their way to the kitchen.
Their mother is at the table, finishing up a plate of bacon and eggs. A plate sits beside hers, laid out for Kris along with a glass of apple juice. She smiles when she sees her child.
“Good morning Kris! I made eggs.”
Kris nods. They sit beside their mother and grip their fork in unsteady fingers.
Toriel sighs. “I know you like it with ketchup, but I just couldn't find any when I looked.”
Kris frowns.
Toriel continues. “I was going to go to the store to get some more after finishing up.”
Oh no.
Kris finally finds their voice. “I'll come.”
Toriel's eyes widen in surprise, and then narrow suspiciously. “Oh will you?”
Kris nods. “Want some snacks.”
Toriel taps her finger on the table. “We have plenty of snacks here.”
Kris furrows their brows. “That's what you always say.”
“Okay, well what exactly do you want that we don't have here?”
Kris thinks for a moment. “...Eggs.”
Toriel looks pointedly at the plate in front of Kris, still full of ketchup-less eggs.
“...Chocolate ones.”
Toriel laughs, a humorous exasperation alight in her face. She lays a hand on Kris’ head. “Oh alright. But if you get impatient and want to leave, you'll just have to deal with it or walk home yourself!”
Kris nods and focuses on finishing their plate. Food tastes so good when they get to choose what they eat.
By the time they're done, Toriel is already grabbing up her purse and keys. Kris retreats to the bathroom to quickly brush their teeth, but they don't bother to get dressed. They'd slept in their clothes from yesterday, and they don't see any point in changing them now. Besides, they'd rather get to the store and back as quickly as possible.
As they climb into the car, they find themself wishing that Susie had a phone. Life would be so much easier if they could just text their friend for backup whenever they wanted. But the girl said she'd broken her phone before they'd met each other and hadn't said anything else on the subject, and it wouldn't work anyways considering where she is…then they find their mind wandering to Ralsei. If only he could come to the light world and help them out. He's always so eager to please, he would probably enjoy it. But he's stuck in Castle Town for now.
Even the soul could be excused for taking over in this moment, but for some reason it's chosen now to go to sleep or die or just choose to watch instead.
So they're in it alone.
It's fine. It's not like Kris hasn't been alone before.
Toriel puts on some gospel music as she drives, softly singing along to the ones she knows. Kris doesn't particularly care about the songs, but their mother's singing is pleasant and they haven't heard it in a while so they don't ask for the station to be changed. It doesn't take long to get to the store - technically it's a walkable distance.
Toriel parks on the street. She spends a minute fixing her fur in the mirror before she notices Kris watching. She huffs a nervous laugh and reaches for the door handle.
This is gonna be a long day, Kris thinks.
The skeleton man is behind the counter when they walk into the store. Kris glares at him. If he notices their vitriol, he ignores it utterly in favor of their mother.
Kris retreats to the aisles and keeps an ear on their conversation.
“Hello Mr. Sans,” she greets cordially.
The man’s expression doesn’t change much - that fixed grin makes him terribly hard to read. “back so soon, huh?”
“Mm-hm. I seem to have misplaced my ketchup.”
“ah. well it’s always nice to see a friend. won’t catch me wine-ing.”
Toriel giggles, placing a hand over her mouth. “I wouldn’t want to be a burgun-dy on your stocks.”
Sans’ eyes widen mirthfully. He chuckles. “you like the festival?”
Toriel’s cheeks go a bit pink. “Ah. I stayed in yesterday. I uh, had a bit of a headache.”
Sans shrugs. “too bad. you coulda kept me company by the ferris wheel.”
Kris slams a bottle of ketchup on the counter. “Here,” they say simply.
Sans winks mischievously. “can’t check out without a basket, kid.”
Kris walks over to the impressively tall stack of baskets. They kick the side so the whole stack goes tumbling down. Toriel gasps and her face contorts into one of anger. “Kris,” she scolds sharply.
Kris puts a basket on the counter.
Sans’ face doesn’t change at all.
Toriel fumes.
“don’t worry about it. i was gonna put those baskets on the floor anyway.”
Toriel’s face crumples a little. Kris doesn’t know what that expression says, but suddenly they feel a little strange.
Their mother is quiet as she checks out, despite Sans’ attempts to lighten the mood with puns and quips. Kris would feel bad for making their mother angry, but they feel much more triumphant that she’s ignoring the skeleton man.
She rounds on Kris and points sternly. “You stay here and pick up these baskets! I’m going to speak with Ms. Alphys about lesson plans.”
Kris throws their arms out palms up. “What?”
Toriel shakes her head. “I raised you, child. This isn’t how we act.”
Kris grumbles.
Their mother flees.
Kris kicks a stray basket toward the large pile. They stare at Sans.
He presses buttons on the cash register.
Kris puts the basket holder back where it should be and glares at Sans.
Sans notices them glaring. His permanent grin ticks up a little and he huffs. “if you got a question, just b-ask it.”
Kris frowns. “What do you want with my mom?”
“she’s a nice lady.”
“I know that. Why do you care?”
Sans leans his chin on his hand. “i think she should be happy.”
“You wanna get with her.”
Sans shrugs. “if that’d make her happy.”
Kris furrows their brows. “So if she rejected you-”
“we’d be friends. you have some of those right?”
Kris rolls their eyes, depositing some baskets onto the stack. “Yes.”
“don’t worry about those last few,” he says as he watches Kris strain to reach the top of the pile. “i’ll get ‘em later.”
Kris places them down beside the pile and turns to face the skeleton man. His eyes narrow as he watches Kris, and Kris watches him.
Finally, he speaks.
“listen. i know you’ve got…” Sans’ eyes dart to the side. “...adventures to go on. don’t you think someone should be around to make sure your mom doesn’t get involved…again?”
Kris stalls for a moment. They don’t know how much the skeleton man knows…but now that he’s mentioned it…
“...Fine,” they concede.
“fine.”
Kris turns to leave.
“wait!”
Kris turns again and just barely manages to stop a plastic bag from hitting their face.
A bag of chocolate eggs.
“your mom said you like chocolate. enjoy ‘em.”
Kris doesn’t say anything more as they leave the store and begin the short walk home.
They open the bag and pop a chocolate egg into their mouth.
Fine. Maybe he’s not so bad.