Chapter Text
*K… Kris? Why’d you put… us…?
*And… you don’t even remember how to spell my-
*...
*(I remember when Kris and I were little…)
*(Azzy and Dess were trying to win, too.)
*(Obviously, we were supposed to vote for them, but…)
*(I… told Kris that we should put our names in instead.)
*(Naively, I actually believed so hard we might win…)
*(I remember crying when Dess and Azzy’s names were announced.)
*(...how could the two of us win?)
*(We could hardly spell each others’ names correctly…)
*(...)
*(“Noel Hollyday”)
*(“Kris Dreamer”)
*(I’ll put those names down, too.)
*(I still think they deserve to win…)
Sick to their stomach, Kris couldn’t take it anymore. The way the two of them were canoodling on the beach, Noelle’s head resting against Susie’s as she cradled her newfound girlfriend over the water, staring out to watch the sunset.
They had done everything with Noelle today. Everything. The voting, the ferris wheel, the strength tester, all of it. And for what? For that girl to go running into the arms of the very girl they called their best friend, leaving them an awkward third wheel alone at the picnic tables a good distance away. And it pissed off both the Kris fronting and the headmates in the back of their mind to no end.
They supposed they couldn’t blame her much, though. They had distanced themself away from her for so many years, after all. Call it depression, call it hiding their emergent DID from the world, or call it purposeful abandonment of the one they so deeply cared about, the effect was the same: they weren’t there for Noelle when she needed them the most, and this was just paying them back for that.
At least she was happy now.
Unable to bear it anymore, they peeled themself off the picnic table, turned tail, and trudged away from the beach, their friends none the wiser. They’d be back; a Dark Fountain was due to be opened up at the Flower King later that evening, and they needed to be there with Susie to distract Asgore long enough for the Knight to come in and swoop him away. They just… needed some space for now.
Venturing out into town, they figured that the King and Queen votes would be announced soon enough, but there was certainly still enough time to go grab some lemonade or ice cream from one of the vendors. Something, anything, to extinguish the inferno of jealousy burning within their soul.
As they got closer to the heart of it all, though, they found a large crowd assembled in the town square, right by the Town Hall and the Church. Rudy was resting by a ladder, evidently in the process of fixing up some lights still, but besides him, the rest of the crowd were a bunch of no-names that Kris hardly recognized despite them having lived in Hometown their whole life. Thus was the knowledge of a recluse, they supposed.
“...And we’re here to announce the King and Queen of this year’s Festival!” The announcer lady, QC, stood on top of a milk crate, with a microphone and spreadsheet in her hands. Kris figured that it wouldn’t hurt to peer in and see who won before grabbing some refreshments. It was a worthwhile distraction from what was going down at the beach.
“Now, this year’s vote is a special one,” QC said, “because every single ballot was unique, except for two!”
Kris approached the crowd, overhearing the proceedings with a chuckle. Close race this year, huh. People must’ve been overzealous voting for their own couples and forgot that the whole thing was supposed to be a popularity contest. They wondered who had succeeded.
“Our Hometown Festival King is… NOELLE HOLIDAY!”
Cheers erupted from the crowd, including a spirited “THAT’S MY GIRL” from Rudy in particular. The sickness returned to Kris’ stomach for a brief moment. Of course, of course Susie and Noelle were going to win the Hometown Festival King and Queen vote, they had surely both voted for each other earlier in the day, and when the bar for winning was literally two… well, that just rubbed salt even deeper into the wound for Kris.
Except as QC prepared to read out the winning Queen, they got to thinking. Hold on a minute… Noelle told me to vote for HER as Queen and Susie as King… why the hell would she win as the KING?! As the dots slowly began to connect for Kris, QC’s lips moved, and their heart stopped beating.
“And our Hometown Festival Queen is… KRIS DREEMURR!”
As slightly more muted cheers rang out across the town square, Rudy turned and caught sight of Kris, and waved over to QC. “Hey, Q! There they are!” Much as they didn’t like attention, all the eyes of the town descended upon them, and as they froze up like a statue, the sea parted, and an aisle up to the milk crate was formed.
“And here they are, the monarch themself! Come on up, hon!” QC was excited, the whole town was bursting with excitement as a matter of fact, but as they slowly wandered up to the crate, all that was passing through their mind was one simple thought: what have I done?
More thoughts rushed to fill their mind. Thoughts of their promise to Noelle when making the ballot, their promise to Susie to help her have as good a day with Noelle as possible. And how did they repay them? By getting the wrong couple voted King and Queen? What a lousy friend they were….
“You know, it’s funny, really, neither of your ballots spelled your names right! I suppose you two lovebirds wanted to be all cutesy with it, didn’t ‘cha?” She handed the mic over to Kris for comment, who couldn’t help but stammer into it. For a good, long while, ten seconds that felt as if they lasted an eternity, they stood there babbling nonsense into the mic, as the crowd only got more spirited and started to laugh at them, which only made the problem even worse.
Eventually, QC leaned in and whispered into their ear. “Cat got yer tongue? Don’t blame ya, it’s a big honor to win it all.” Much to their relief, she took the mic away from Kris. “And where may Little Miss Noelle be? I… don’t see her with you.”
“The lake,” Kris finally murmured coherently.
“The lake?” The crowd burst out laughing as QC quipped in astonishment, causing Kris to shrink down even further into their body. “And why would she be at the lake and not with you?”
“I… uh….” The mic was back in their face again, and they really didn’t want to be laughed at a third time. “She’s… watching the sunset. I came out here for drinks and just happened to see this whole thing, and-”
“Well, you heard it here first, folks! Looks like our two monarchs were spending a romantic evening together!” The crowd let off an “oooooooooooh,” feigning astonishment and poking fun at the truthfully nonexistent romantic escapades that were hinted at. “Let’s go pay her a visit and coronate her, but first….”
She stepped off the milk crate, lifted it up, and pulled out a flimsy plastic tiara. Ceremoniously, she placed it right atop of Kris’ moppy hair, and jubilantly shouted into the mic, “LET’S HEAR IT FOR HOMETOWN’S NEW QUEEN!”
As the crowd erupted into cheers once more, and chants of “QUEEN! QUEEN! QUEEN!” erupted through the square, Kris darted off to the side of the town hall to catch their breath. They didn’t even care about the gendered language applied to them for once. It was all happening, all too quickly, all too real. They wrote their names down and showed it to Noelle as a dumb, nostalgic prank. HOW THE HELL DID THEY WIN?! For it to count, someone would’ve needed to misspell their names in the exact same way, too!
Before they could give it any more thought, a jostling of their shoulder knocked them out of their trance, and they shot a look to whoever was behind them, only for them to melt in relief as they saw it was Rudy, giving them a big, dumb grin as congratulations. With the crowd funneling down the streets of Hometown towards the shore, he nodded in that direction, and hesitantly, the two of them took off together towards the back of the crowd.
“Ayy, Kris, congrats on the win!” Rudy said as they walked.
They mumbled a weak “yeah, thanks,” in return.
“Ah, I remember I’ve always wanted to win this with Carol… shame we never did. Your folks beat us out most of the years they were together, and this year… well, I guess she was busy taking care of other business, I can forgive her for not voting!” He said it with a smile, but Kris could obviously tell that he was still hurting inside.
“Yeah, I honestly can’t believe I won.” The more Kris thought about it, though, the more one of their headmates began to weigh in on the win. This is exactly what we wanted, isn’t it? To be with Noelle? Damn how Susie feels, they’re not even that close, anyway. Remember, she had to have voted for you in the election if you two won, so enjoy it!
The realization hit them like a brick: Noelle had to have voted for this, too! Who else would know to spell their names in that specific way? That was enough to soothe them, and they let off a chuckle. “Heh… thanks.”
“Who’re you talking to?” Rudy probed.
Kris froze up, unable to think of a good response. “M-myself! Shit! Uh….”
Rudy let off a cough-filled laugh in response. “Oh, Kris, you’re too funny! Yeah, fair enough, I guess we all mumble to ourselves on occasion.”
You have no idea how right you are, Kris thought. Nobody else knew of their condition; best not let it slip now of all times.
“But there’s one thing that’s been sitting odd with me,” Rudy commented as they passed the Flower King. “I know that Elly likes you, she likes you tons, but I really would’ve thought she’d vote for herself and Susie as King and Queen, what with how much she talks to me about her. I swear, you’d think they’re already dating by the sound of things!”
As they neared the beach, however, the entire crowd came to see just how right that quip was. The sound of them approaching had drawn the attention of those already present, and they were all too shocked to see Kris shuttled up to the front, already wearing the Festival Queen’s tiara.
Susie was simply staring at them, mouth agape, standing in the water.
And in her arms, the literal deer caught in the headlights, was the doe of the hour, the Festival King.