Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

One week ago, Kris nearly destroyed the world. Seven days ago, they took a stupid, selfish shot in the dark, throwing away all the plans they had so meticulously prepared in favor of one last, desperate gamble. One hundred and sixty-eight hours ago, they finally sealed the shelter’s Dark Fountain for good—and miraculously, thanks only to their friends, nobody had to die.

But more importantly: sixteen hours ago, Susie, apparently, went out with Noelle for an ice cream date and neither of them told Kris about it beforehand.

By all accounts, that should be fine. That should be not a big deal, because Susie and Noelle are girlfriends, and girlfriends go on dates with each other. And, typically, girlfriends aren’t expected to invite regular friends to join in on those dates. Especially not friends who lied to both of them repeatedly and nearly ruined everything, everywhere, forever. 

The cruel truth of the matter, though, is that Kris is extremely not fine. While there were many reasons for what they did—saving Dess, making good on The Promise, not wanting to be stuck with that damn SOUL forever—their very strong, very complicated, and very confusing feelings for Noelle Holiday were a major reason that they went along with Carol’s plan initially. And then, at the end, their main motivator for completely switching course and nearly fucking it all up was, of course, their very strong, very complicated, and very confusing feelings for Susie.

So, yeah. They wish they had been at the date. At the very least, they wish they had known about the date, so they could have properly wallowed in self-pity at home while it happened. Instead, they spent yesterday evening playing Final Monster Fantasy with Berdly, completely oblivious to the prime wallowing opportunity that was passing them by.

Now, as they sit across from Susie in the school cafeteria, they try to keep all these thoughts and feelings off their face, but they must be doing a terrible job, because Susie starts looking a little guilty, even though she obviously has nothing to be guilty about. 

“Shit, dude, did I not mention it to you?” Susie says, running a thick claw through her eternally-shaggy mane. “Coulda sworn I brought it up yesterday. Didn’t invite you cause Noelle made it sound like it was gonna be all romance-y, rather than hang-out-y, and I figured you wouldn’t wanna see that shit.” She chuckles, a little nervously.

Kris schools their expression. “Sounds to me like you just didn’t want me to see you being all lovey dovey with Noelle. Don’t tell me you’re still embarrassed. It’s been a week.”

“S-Shut up!” Susie bangs her fist on the table, rattling their trays. “It was only, like, our second date, if you’re not counting the festival.”

Why don’t you count the festival? Kris doesn’t say. Does it not count as a date when I’m there?

“And it isn’t like I have any experience with this stuff,” Susie continues, slumping in her chair and burrowing her snout into her crossed arms. “Of course I’m nervous, dumbass.”

“She’s down so bad for you it’s embarrassing,” Kris says, like a hypocrite. “You really don’t need to stress so much.”

“I guess,” Susie says, sounding unconvinced. Kris can’t help but wonder if something happened between her and Noelle. “It’s just, sometimes it feels like—” 

“Hey guys!” Noelle chirps from just a few feet to their left. Susie starts at her sudden appearance, head whipping to the side, but Kris barely moves. It takes a lot of effort to make their body move consciously these days, nevermind reflexively.

Noelle sits next to Susie, laying her lunch box out on the table. “Whatchya talking about?”

“Oh, uh, hey, Noelle,” Susie says, shooting Kris a worried look. “Didn’t, er, see you there?”

“I got waylaid by Alphys,” she says with a roll of her eyes. “She wants to know if I’m volunteering to help set up the Hawkman’s dance, as if that isn’t the very last thing on my mind lately. I barely escaped in time to get here soon enough to actually eat, fahaha!” She settles into her chair, and gazes blatantly at Susie. “So what’d I miss?”

 Susie waves her off with a claw. “Eh, nothing much.”

“We were talking about your date,” Kris says. Susie shoots them a look that’s like, Dude! and Kris pretends that they don’t see it.

“O-Oh! Right. Well, yeah, it was, um, it was nice,” Noelle says. She’s all blushy, as per usual, tucking a lock of golden hair behind her ear, but Kris detects a hint of something else in her voice. A nervousness that’s distinct from the typical embarrassment that Noelle always displays when it comes to Susie. There’s a real anxiety buried underneath it, this time; does she disapprove of Susie telling Kris about the date, since she wants to keep it a couples thing with Susie? Or is she worried that Susie was complaining—that she didn’t enjoy the date Noelle had set up? Did something happen? Does Noelle have a reason to think the date went badly?

Thinking about all of that makes Kris’s stomach start to bubble with the confounding cocktail of nostalgia, yearning, and guilt that always arises whenever they think too much about Noelle, and they find themself asking, inexplicably, “Which flavor was it this time?”

“What?” Noelle stares at them, but her confusion only lasts a second before she giggles. “Oh, faha—it was strawberry this time.” She turns to Susie, and explains, “When we were kids, I could never choose between strawberry and rainbow sherbet ice cream. Kris would always get mad at me for it, because the longer I took to decide, the longer they had to wait for their ice cream, and they were”—here, Noelle turns a pointed, teasing look at them—“an extremely impatient child.”

“You spent minutes deliberating, Noelle,” Kris says in their own defense. “Five minutes or more. Sometimes ten.”

“That’s an exaggeration!”

Susie guffaws. “Is that why you were acting all nervous when we got there and insisting I order first and everything? Cause you were still deciding?”

“Fahaha!” Noelle laughs, but it isn’t her real one. “That was exactly it, Susie. Embarrassing, right?”

She’s lying. Obviously, Noelle knows that Kris knows whenever she lies, so her eyes jump to theirs, with a clear, familiar message: Don’t call my bluff on this. It’s the same look she used to give them when she would tell her mother that she had been at Kris’s house, when she hadn’t, and she needed Kris to back her up. 

Kris narrows their eyes at her; she purses her lips, her smile stretching a little thinner; Kris raises their eyebrow just a hair; Noelle flicks her eyes towards Susie; Kris tilts their head a degree or two to the side; and then Noelle ends it with a single, deliberate blink, their classic shared signal for We need to stop this before the people around us realize we are having a secret conversation in front of them.

Kris has a lot of questions, but they respect the signal, seamlessly turning to Susie and saying, “Whatever you do, don’t get the flavor she doesn’t get, or she’ll be pestering you for free licks the whole time.”

“Hey, that’s fine with me.” Susie grins big, all teeth. “That just means I get a free bite of hers. And you know I take big-ass bites, don’t you, Kris?”

They nod sagely in agreement, even as Noelle laughs and asks, “What does that even mean? Is this another one of your Dark World inside jokes?”

And then Susie starts launching into a story, and Noelle’s face is half love sickness as she watches Susie and half relief as she subtly eyes Kris from her periphery. 

Something strange is definitely going on between the two of them, Kris concludes. They’re both speaking way too guardedly about the date, not telling the full story, and the two of them seem completely oblivious to each other’s anxiousness. Kris gets the distinct, unsettling feeling that they know Noelle and Susie better than the two girls know each other—and yet here they are, sitting on the opposite side of the table. 

Get it together, they chide themself. Jealousy doesn’t help anyone. Noelle and Susie are happy together, and if there is one thing Kris has managed to prove to themself these past few weeks, it is that they are willing to do literally anything, no matter how stupid or dangerous, to ensure Noelle and Susie’s happiness. A week ago, that meant nearly killing themself in order to spit in the face of destiny. Now, if that means playing relationship doctor…well, comparatively, that doesn’t sound so bad. 

As lunch fades into class, and class fades into their mother driving them home, Kris begins to scheme. In order to figure out what’s going on between Susie and Noelle, it only makes sense that they would need to attend one of their dates to observe the dynamic first-hand. 

Their mind crawls back to the festival, when Susie told Noelle about their diner visit and the SOUL insisted that Noelle tag along, too. In the moment, Kris had been ticked off for about the bajillionth time at the SOUL’s stubborn obliviousness, but now they recalled QC saying she was looking forward to seeing the three of them, and Susie promising Noelle they’d invite her the next time Kris came into ill-gotten wealth.

It’s a solid enough plan, they decide; they just need the cash. As Toriel hums along pleasantly to the radio and drives five miles below the already sluggish residential speed limit, Kris pulls out their cell phone and navigates to the text chat they haven’t dared to even look at in the past week. 

Kris smiles at the incoming Monster Venmo notification. Carol’s written “Payment for services rendered” in the message field, so Kris figures they can probably squeeze a lot more out of her if they argue that, breaking down the work they did for her by the hour, it will take a lot more than sixty dollars total to meet minimum wage. Not to mention child labor. But this is enough for now. 

They switch to their messages with Susie. 

Kris slides their phone back into their pocket, letting it rest right next to the cool metal of the kitchen knife they still keep tucked into their waistband. Old habits, and all that. 

“Gonna be eating out with Susie and Noelle tonight if that’s okay,” they say as Toriel pulls into their driveway. 

“Oh!” Toriel smiles charmingly. “Of course, dear. I am glad to see you getting out of the house. Please be careful, and be home by ten!”

“Yes, Mom,” they affirm her, clambering out of the van and into the house. They can probably fit a short nap in before they have to leave; they want to be at their best for this dinner. They don’t know when they’ll have another chance to go on a date with Susie and Noelle like this, after all. 

Or…well, not that Kris is going on a date with them. They’ll just be in attendance, which is really quite different. Like a third wheel situation. To help them. With no ulterior motive, because they’re sick and tired of having ulterior motives for things all the time. Right?

Angel dammit. I’m hopeless, Kris thinks, flopping face-first onto their bed with a groan. They really need that nap.