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Ralsei anxiously fidgets with the odd bracelet around his arm. It's a simple thing, made up of just a string and five "beads" that he sometimes feels like aren't really there, as if he's only wearing the shadow of a bracelet. Fitting for the dark world, the shadow of the light, but such an important object not feeling real doesn't really help with the fact that he's already teeming with nervousness.
The bracelet was given to him by Seam just a few minutes ago, when he had stopped by their shop with Kris and Susie. With five shadow crystals they could make something, Seam had said just a few days ago, and make something they did. He wasn't sure how the bracelet was any different than just holding all five shadow crystals, but apparently, in this form, it could bring a Darkner to the Light World. The Light World! Ralsei stares at the beam of light in front of him, pulsing, glowing radiantly. He was going to go to the Light World!
At first, he was kind of… mad. Of course he wanted to go to the Light World, but they had done all that work to get the crystals, and he knew he wasn't really worth all that work. But… Kris and Susie had said that this was better than any armor or weapon they thought they might've gotten, so he guesses it's alright, if it makes them happy. And, if he's being honest, he really wants to go to the Light World, especially today of all days.
Doing as they didn't really have much else to do in Castle Town, they had rushed through the few things left to do and headed straight to the beam of light that will bring them to the Light World. But now, standing right before it, he was starting to have doubts. What if it didn't work, and he was stuck here? What if something went wrong, and something dangerous and irreversible happened to him when he went through? And what about all the others that might want to go to the Light World? Oh, what about all the others, he hadn't even thought of them. How selfish was that? What about someone like Lancer, Susie would definitely want to bring him to the Light World. Ralesi should offer to let Lancer go instead, shouldn't he?
"You alright, dude? It'll be fine, promise," Susie says, putting a hand on his shoulder reassuringly, breaking him out of his spiraling thoughts.
Voicing his concerns, he replies "I- I just can't stop thinking of all the ways this could go wrong, what if something bad happens to me. We don't know it will work correctly. Also… don't you want to bring other people to the Dark World? Like Lancer?"
"I mean, yeah," Susie responds, and Ralsei's heart drops for a moment, and he starts to prepare himself to not go to the Light World. "But I also want you to come. I mean, it's the festival, and I know how much you wanted to go. Also, you're the very first person I would think of when I think of who I want to bring to the light world, Lancer can come later."
Her earnest smile spread across their face, the smile that never fails to give Ralsei hope. He's inclined to believe what she says, when she smiles like that.
He glances at Kris, who gives a nod and adds, "we want you there more than anyone else."
Ralsei has really gotten lucky, hasn't he. While he was waiting for the heroes to arrive, he went through all the terrible possibilities of who they might be, every awful scenario that ran through his mind. At first, with Susie, he had been scared that she was one of those dreadful possible heroes he was so worried about, but now? He was sure Kris and Susie were better than anyone he had imagined.
He still feels like he might be doing something wrong, going to the Light World, but Kris and Susie told him they wanted him there. and he did too. He wanted to go to the Light World! He wanted to hang out and laugh with Kris and Susie, he wanted to see the beauty of the Light World, he wanted to experience all the Festival had to offer. He wanted to go to the Festival with Kris, like that had said they would. Ignoring his rushing river of thoughts, he places his trust once again into his two friends. He takes a deep breath, mentally preparing himself, and he takes a step forward, walking into the light.
He felt his stomach lurch, for just a moment, but then it stopped, and nothing else happened. Blinking, he looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings, and his eyes widen. This was definitely not where they were before. This— this must be the Light World!
The colors themselves are less bright, less neon, and yet the world itself feels lighter. He takes a step forward, looking around at the brownish bricks around them.
He looks down at himself, he realizes he's wearing different clothes. He really should have noticed at least the absence of his warm, cozy scarf, shouldn't he have? Now, he's wearing a white collared t-shirt underneath a pink sweater vest that matches his scarf, along with a green skirt that matches his dress. It's definitely summer wear, which he knows he will probably be thankful for soon enough. With the sweater vest, along with his unchanged (thankfully) glasses, he knows he looks exactly like a stereotypical nerd, which he's sure Susie will tease him about later, but he likes the new outfit.
He just stands there for a moment, looking around, taking everything in, marveling in the fact that he's in the Light World.
"Chill, dude." Susie says after a moment. "You look as though you've found the angel itself. It's literally just school, the genuine worst place in the world. Save that awe for when you go outside."
He takes a few steps forward, hesitant. Susie and Kris are a few steps ahead of him, looking at him encouragingly, beckoning him forward. It really shouldn't be taking him this long for him to follow them, should it? He starts to walk forward, and the three of them head towards the door at the end of the hallway.
His paws feel cold against the solid floors as they walk. Kris pushes iron the door once they reach it, Susie follows behind them, and Ralsei takes up the rear, just like in the Dark World.
As he steps outside behind Susie, he's engulfed by a world of light. It is called the Light World, after all, but it really is bright! It's nothing like the Dark World, where it manages to be neon yet dark at the same time. Not that he even noticed quite how dark it was until now. There were also trees all around, birds chirping and flying about, and buildings off in the distance. None of it was that different, per se, aside from the color, but if certainly felt new. The brightest thing he could see, looking around, was a radiant circle in the sky—
"Oh, hey, don't look at that, Ralsei." Susie pushes his head down, away from where he was looking.
"That must be the sun, isn't it! I've heard about that!"
Susie brings a hand to scratch at the back of her neck, a bit awkwardly. "Oh yeah, you've never seen the sun before, have you. That's so weird, how could you have never seen the sun? Well, don't look at it. It'll make you go blind."
He can certainly believe that, all this light is already making him squint.
"We should get going to the festival," Kris chimes in, giving him a push back to reality.
"Oh, yes! That is what we're supposed to be doing." Ralsei responds, excited. He's going to get to go to a festival, and he's even going with Kris and Susie!
Susie replies, "Lead the way then, Kris. Ralsei's not the only one who hasn't really been to one of these before."
"That means we'll get to experience it together, Susie!"
"Hell yeah!"She gives him a high five, before turning back to Kris. "Alright, let's go! You better pick somewhere cool to go, Kris, or I might just take Ralsei and find something better to do."
Kris shrugs. "we have enough time to see everything. It's nothing huge, the town is small." They then take off without waiting for a response, and the three of them head off towards the festival.
As the walk into town, Ralsei takes a moment to worry about Kris. He can only hope the soul will let them enjoy this day, letting them do what they want. He can usually tell when the soul is in control, it feels… different, slightly. Like magic, but not quite. So far, though, it seems like the soul is mostly letting Kris have control that day, thankfully.
They enter the rest of the town, covered in colorful bunting and lined with many different booths and activities, all of which he assumes aren't usually there. He sees many different types of monsters walking around, mostly smiling and laughing with others. It's cheerful, in a way that makes it impossible to feel down.
"Oh hey, food!" Susie points out, then runs ahead of the group to their first stall of the day, advertising Takoyaki. The stalls a small one, and on the ledge sit platters of these fried balls, covered in sauces and toppings. Him and Kris follow Susie, and glancing over, Ralsei can't help but notice that Kris looks vaguely uncomfortable.
"Fried dough balls. Of octopus," the monster standing behind the stand states. "Didn't you want to try it? It's only 2G." After a moment, they quickly amend, "It's only for free."
Ralsei worries a bit. Kris still looks somewhat uncomfortable, and the monster's use of currency was weird. They must not be from around here, he's never heard of "G" before. But, before he can say anything, Susie swipes three octopus balls from the stand.
"There's no way I'm refusing free food! Here, you both can have one too!" She holds them out for both of them to take.
He eats his pretty fast, quickly devouring the tasty food. He still isn't really used to eating nice things, so he really enjoys anything. It's not sweet, like the cake, but he still likes it, albeit not as much.
"Heh, Ralsei liked it. That was quick," Susie teases, licking the grease from her fingers. "I thought it was pretty good. You didn't really like it, Kris?"
They're finishing theirs off much slower, and they just give a shrug to Susie's question. They're still looking a bit uncomfortable, so Ralsei tries to steer the group away towards something they might enjoy more.
"Hey, there's something else over here! I'm… not really sure what it is, though."
The next thing over is a tank of water with a target coming off of one side, and a monster sitting on a platform on top. He can't really figure out what the point of it is, maybe to keep people hydrated?
"Oh cool, a dunk tank! I bet I can hit them in!"
Susie grabs a bean bag from near the tank and takes a steps back, before chucking it with all her might towards the target. It hits, the target swings backwards, and the platform the monster was sitting in gives way, dunking them into the water tank.
Susie gives her big hearty laugh, and Kris also laughs along, albeit in their quieter tone. Ralsei isn't sure what's so funny about someone getting wet, but if they both enjoy it, then he does, too, so he smiles along with his friends.
Susie's laugh cuts off, and her head back laugh is replaced with an earnest smile. "Oh hey, there's Noelle! We've gotta call her over."
"Hang on," Kris responds before Susie could yell out to Noelle. "She can't see Ralsei, remember? Or she'd know her dream wasn't really a dream."
"Well, we've gotta figure something out quick, it looks like she's coming this way," Susie replies, and sure enough, Noelle's walking their way. She hasn't noticed them yet, so they still have a moment yo hide Ralsei, somehow.
Kris grabs Ralsei's hand, and before he can react or panic about the fact that Kris is holding his hand, they pull him away towards the bushes.
They manage to duck behind the bush just as Noelle reaches Susie. He can see them somewhat through the branches and leaves, and he watches the two of them chat and laugh a little before walking away, off into the depths of the Festival.
"She ditched us," Kris says, stepping out from behind the bush with a slight pout.
"I mean, she did plan to go to the festival with her, I think it's only fair," Ralsei replied. Now, it's just him and Kris, alone. He can feel his face start to heat up from the thought, so he tries to distract the two of them before Kris can notice his blush. "Maybe we should go over here, and try this activity out!"
The two head over to where he was pointing. It's this weird tower thing, topped with a bell, with two platforms on the bottom each matched with a big plastic hammer. To one side were a few dog monsters dressed in prison outfits, and to the other, a ghost in a cop hat. They were in front of the police station, so surely the prisoners had to be in costume, they couldn't be real criminals, right? He… wasn't going to question it.
Kris walks right up to the ghost cop, looking questioningly over to the game.
"hi… this is the strength tester…" the ghost cop mumbles in response to Kris's questioning look. "usually undyne runs this… but, also, she usually breaks it… and no one gets to use it… do you want me to show you how to play…?"
Instead of responding, Kris just asks, "aren't you a cop?"
"shh… not too loud…" they respond, and then they start rambling on about infiltrating the criminals and cops and honestly, for as much as he tried to keep up, Ralsei loses track of what they're saying. What does peak his interest, however, was when they brought Kris and him up.
"i saw you two hiding in the bushes… i would ask you about that, but in order to infiltrate the criminals, i can't act like a cop… i think… i'm not really sure what im supposed to do. i don't want to bother you two either…"
Kris just asks about the game after that, and they actually get to learn about the strength game now. They have to hit the pressure plates with the hammers with enough strength to reach the bell, and their strength comes with how well they're able to time their hits together. Kris walks over and takes the hammers, then hands one to him, and they take their places on either side of the game.
Ralsei takes the initiative, and starts preparing, "ready, Kris? I'll count down, and then we can hit it. Okay, three… two… one!"
They hit the hammers in sync, the star shoots upwards, and a bell chime fills the air.
"We did it! Kris, we hit the bell!" Ralsei exclaims, turning back to Kris and smiling widely.
"good job…" comes a voice from behind him, but he just focuses on Kris. They hold the hammer up for a second before lowering it down, and they just stare at Ralsei with a smile.
A moment passes without movement, and with the lack of a response, he asks, "Kris, you alright?" In return, Kris raises the hammer again and softly hits Ralsei on the head, right between the horns.
"Kris!" he giggles, swatting the hammer away. "That's not very nice…"
An idea forms, and he quickly raises his own hammer back upwards. He softly bumps Kris's head in retaliation, watching as their hair flattens for a moment with the hammer's touch. "There, now we're even!"
"That was a weak hit," is their only response, although their smile is still spread across their face.
Ralsei giggles again. "Well, I didn't want to hurt you!"
After that, the two of them start walking off towards the rest of the festival. Ralsei isn't sure what else there is to see, so he's happy to just let Kris lead the way. He'd rather just do what Kris wants to in order to make sure they're happy, anyways.
"So, where do you want to go?" Kris asks. There goes that plan.
"Um, well, I'm not really sure! You go where you want, Kris, I'll be happy as long as you're happy!"
"This is your day, though. I want to do what you want. Besides, I don't really care, it's the same every year."
Well, if they really didn't care… "That… um, I still don't know what else there is to do." Kris can't really ask him what he wants to do, he realizes. It's not like he's ever been to a festival before, he has no clue what activities they have!
"Well, there's the Ferris wheel. We could go get ice cream or cinnamon buns. Or we could just go to the lake and chill."
"Oh yeah, the lake! There's not really any large bodies of water in the Dark World." There's small amounts of water, but he's never seen an ocean or a lake. If they do exist there, he's never seen it. (To be fair, he's never actually gone out much further than his castle until Kris and Susie showed up.) He doesn't think the acid river in Queen's mansion should count, and he doesn't think he wants it to count.
"We should go to the lake, then." Kris starts to walk with a purpose, a bit faster now that they're not just meandering around.
It only takes them a few minutes to walk until he sees a dirt path expanding past the road, and what seemed like a large clearing after that. It was a small town, after all, and he did manage to see more activities as they went through. Instead of the line they walked in while in the Dark World, he and Kris walked side by side. It was kind of nice being right there with Kris, next to them, close to them without Susie inbetween. He loves her, but… yeah, being alone with Kris is nice.
They stop suddenly, and Ralsei stands there next to a frozen Kris, confused. They were by a few carts of flowers, but no water was around. Ralsei knew what a lake was, didn't he? There was no water, so this wasn't the lake, right?
"Susie and Noelle are at the lake," Kris states, and he's able to see Susie and Noelle sitting at a picnic table off in the distance. They look like they're having fun, smiling and laughing between them.
"O— oh, well, I guess we can't go to the lake, then." He tries not to sound disappointed, even though he was actually quite looking forward to the lake. He wouldn't want Kris to feel bad.
"We can go later, don't worry. For now, we can go do some of the other—" they turn around, ready to head back, but they stop in their tracks. "Berdly is coming this way. We should hide."
"Al— alright! Um, lead the way!"
Kris grabs his hand again (oh Angel, were they trying to give him a heart attack?) and pulls him towards the carts of flowers, past a large goat monster and behind one of the large carts.
The goat monster looks at them in confusion. "Oh, howdy, Kris! And Kris's friend—" his eyes widen in surprise, before settling back into confusion. "What are you two doing?"
Kris holds a finger up to their lips, silencing the goat monster but not wiping away his confused expression. He then looks around, and is promptly greeted by Berdly, having appeared in front of him.
"Hello, Mr. Dreemurr! You haven't happened to see Kris, have you? I swear, I just saw them…"
The new goat monster hesitates for a moment, before responding, "no, I haven't, sorry Berdly! If I see them, I'll tell them you were looking for them?"
"That would be wonderful! Thank you ever so much, Mr. Dreemurr."
He then walks off, with Mr. Dreemurr calling out a, "you're welcome!" to the retreating bird monster.
Once Berdly is gone, he turns back to Kris and Ralsei. " He's gone now, if you're hiding from him, you can come out. Should I even ask…?"
Kris shakes their head as they step out from behind the cart, and Ralsei follows behind.
After an awkward moment of silence, Mr. Dreemurr asks, "well, Kris, are you going to introduce me to your friend?"
"This is Ralsei. He came from another town to hang out during the festival."
"Oh wow, a far away visitor has come to our small town? Welcome, Ralsei! I'm Asgore, Kris's father and owner of this flower shop!" He gestures to the carts upon carts of flowers surrounding them, and the building behind him with a sign saying, "Flower King". "You know, you look a bit like Asriel, Kris's brother, I thought you were him at first! Don't worry though, I realize you're plenty different now."
Glancing over, he realizes Kris's face now sports a scowl.
"Well, your flowers are very nice! Are you selling them for the festival?" Ralsei asks, hoping it might distract from whatever is annoying Kris. Unless it was their father annoying them…
"I am! Although, feel free to take some, I've got plenty, and I feel like flowers are something that are better given, not bought. Also, you're Kris's friend! Friends and family discount, how about that?"
Ralsei wouldn't do that, he was running a business after all… but surely taking just one flower couldn't hurt?
"Thank you! Have a nice Festival!" he responds, walking over to the carts of flowers.
"Of course, have a nice festival!" he calls back to Ralsei, with Kris right behind.
Ralsei looks over the flowers, and picks a blue one matching the shade of Kris's skin in the Dark World. If he's being honest, even though he had seen pictures of them and Susie in the Light World, he's still a bit caught off guard by how different they look. Kris especially, Susie's colors had just shifted while Kris sported a completely different color palette.
He turns to Kris, and plants the flower right behind their ear. His paw brushes past their soft hair and the tip of their ear, and he tries not to blush at how close the two of them are.
From behind their bangs, he can see their eyes widen a bit, revealing slightly bigger slivers of their red iris. Their eyes really are beautiful, even if he's pretty sure humans aren't really supposed to have red eyes. It's a shame they're always covered by hair, he really would like to look at their eyes more.
Kris turns away, and he tries not to be dissapointed until he sees them pluck one of the hot pink flowers from one of the carts, the same color as his scarf in the Dark World. They place the flower next to one of Ralsei's horns, and they have to push the stem in their hands all the way down to the roots of his fur in order to get it to stay, since if it was just placed atop his fur it would just fall right off. His face flushes at the intimacy, and he's sure that by this point, there's a visible blush across his face.
"Thanks, Kris!" he says cheerfully, voice barely louder than a whisper due to their close proximity. They just stand there for a moment, looking at each other, and Ralsei realizes Kris is blushing too, and— Kris glances over at their dad, just across the narrow road, smiling supportively but also looking incredibly awkward. Kris takes Ralsei's paw into their own hand and speed walks away, pulling Ralsei along with them.
"Hey, there's the Festival King and Queen ballot. Let's vote," Kris says quickly, stopping abruptly once they're further away from their dad's shop. They, much more calmly, head over to a table with a ballot and a sign atop with two crowns, next to a cat monster and a stage with a similar sign.
"Hey there, neighbor and their stranger friend! Vote for Festival King and Queen here!"
Kris ushers him over to the ballot box, and grabs a piece of paper and a pencil from the table.
"Who should we vote for?" they ask.
"Um, well, can I really vote? I don't really live here…"
"It's not that serious," they reply in monotone. He honestly doesn't really trust Kris when they say that, he knows they're not a stickler for the rules.
"Oh… still, I'm not really sure? I guess we should vote for Susie and Noelle, right?"
"Yeah. Susie said we should vote for them. But, it'd be funny to vote for someone else right?"
"It would make Susie and Noelle happy to win, though." They pause for a moment, thinking, before continuing, "I also don't really know anyone else."
"Yeah, alright," they respond. They write in Susie's and Noelle's names, before drawing a little doodle of Susie on the bottom of her part, with a speech bubble that reads, "Kris rulez".
"What do you think?" Kris whispers, pushing the ballot over so he could see better.
He points to the doodle. "Um, I don't think that's allowed?"
"It's not that serious," they repeat.
"Well, I think it's true! You rule, Kris! Although, I'm not sure if Susie would say that…"
They slip the ballot inside the box, and then they're off again, heading to wherever Kris had decided they should go next.
"There's not much else to do," Kris tells him as they walk away. "Really only the Ferris wheel, and we could eat cinnamon buns and ice cream."
"Well, there's still enough for a fun time! Where are we headed, then?"
"Ferris wheel. We can grab cinnamon buns on the way there, then grab ice cream after. We have plenty of time."
"Alright, that sounds good! I've never had a cinnamon bun before!" He's tried so many new and exciting things today, there's no way he's not remembering this day forever. Although there are many reasons why wouldn't ever forget today… it's been so fun!
The two of them stop at a stall being run by a bunny monster. "Oh, hello, Kris. Are you and your friend looking for a cinnamon bunny? They're thirteen dollars each!"
Kris fished around in their pocket before pulling out a small wad of cash. They count out thirteen dollars, and they exchange it for a fresh hot cinnamon bun.
They walk Ralsei away from the stall, and tell him, "my mom gave me some money for the Festival. It wasn't enough for two cinnamon buns, I don't think she realized how much stuff costs. We can share, though."
"I don't mind if you eat it all, Kris! Besides, it will just make my paw fur all sticky."
Kris stares for a second. "We can fix that." Without elaborating, they break off half off the cinnamon bun and hold it up to Ralsei's mouth.
"Are— are you trying to feed me!?" Ralsei exclaims, taking a step back, trying not to stumble. The treat is close enough he can feel the warmth radiating onto his face. Hopefully he can play off any blush as him being flushed from the heat.
"It won't get your paws all sticky this way. Now, open up."
Hesitantly, he opens his mouth. They're not wrong, this will prevent his fur from getting sticky.
He closes his jaw around the cinnamon bun, biting off a piece of the pastry. It's warm and sweet, and chewy like bread. It's very tasty, and now that he thinks about it, he's found that he's been saying that a lot recently.
He thinks Kris looks a bit surprised, through their bangs. "Are you alright, Kris?"
They give a little smirk. "Susie would have eaten that all in one bite. Are you seriously going to let her show you up like that?"
"I don't think it counts if she's not here, she can't even do anything," Ralsei giggles. "I win automatically." He then opens his mouth again, and Kris gives him another bite of the cinnamon roll. They then bite into their half, with a distinct lack of eating it in a single bite, he notices.
They go in to get him his last bite, but Kris isn't quite able to get their fingers away in time and they brush Ralsei's lips. It distracts him from the sweet taste of his treat, there's no way that just happened, right? Kris is turned away now, and they quickly shove the rest of their cinnamon bun half into their mouth.
"Let's go," they say, ignoring what just occurred and turning to finish walking down the street. Ralsei hurries to follow before he can process what happened.
Further down the street was the Ferris wheel, stretching out far into the sky. It was the biggest thing around, how hadn't he noticed it before? He looked up in awe at the looming structure. They were going to go all the way up there, weren't they!
"hey. wanna ride the ferris wheel?"
At the stand in front of the ride is a skeleton monster in a casual hoodie, looking kind of bored. Kris immediately gives a scowl, with a similar annoyed look to when their dad had compared him to their brother.
"you're not from around here, are you," continues the skeleton, turning to Ralsei. For a moment Ralsei is worried that he knows that he's from the Dark World, before he remembers that everyone in this small town probably already knows each other, and he probably gives off a tourist-y impression anyway.
"so, you guys riding or not?"
Kris nods and just walks past, getting on the ride without saying a word to the skeleton. Ralsei gives a quick thank you, he is the one running the ride after all, before following Kris onto the Ferris wheel car.
They sit across from each other, and the ride is small enough their knees are touching, knocking into each other.
Ralsei fidgets with his paws, thinking about what to say. "Today was… really nice. I really enjoyed spending time with you Kris. The Light World is so cool! I had so much fun with you, and Susie at the start, of course, playing games, eating food, just hanging out… thank you, Kris, really. This day has been really special."
He looks across at Kris , who is looking back at him, really only a few feet apart. They're really close, aren't they? The thought makes him blush again, and he notices Kris's face is a bit red as well. They're smiling, in their usual small way, as if they're trying to hide it. They look away then, out the window, and taps the glass as if gesturing for Ralsei to look as well.
Looking out of the window, it feels as though he can see the whole world. It's really not that high, King's castle, Queen's Castle, and many of the open parts of the Sanctuary were much higher, but there's something different about this. There's something different about being in the Light World, looking out across the day's amazing memories, just being here with Kris, all of which help make it a breathtaking view.
"Hey, there's Susie and Noelle, standing in the water! There really is quite a lot of water, isn't there." The lake looks huge, and he's not even close to it!
"They're gonna be all wet," Kris says, amusement seeping into their voice. "Won't want to be around Susie this evening."
"I mean, they're only standing in the water. I guess you won't want to be around her legs…?" he replies, laughing a little.
"Today was really great, Ralsei. I enjoyed it a lot too."
Ralsei tears his gaze away from the glass to look back at Kris, who looking downwards in a way that matches the mumbly-ness of their words just now. They're definitely blushing, although the angle of their head is making their bangs fall and cover most of their expression.
They look back upwards, a smile spread across their face. They look at each other for a moment, something is acknowledged between them, and Kris shuts their eyes and leans forward. They start to close the short gap between them, and what can Ralsei do but follow?
Their lips meet, and Ralsei can feel sparks flying inside of his gut. They're only together for a moment before Kris pulls back, barely enough time to register what happened, but Kris is still smiling and blushing and looking at Ralsei with their beautiful red eyes, so he can't really bring himself to care if what happened was a bit quick.
"I had a lot of fun with you today, Ralsei."
"Me too. Thank you for everything, Kris."
Before any more words can be exchanged or movements could be made, the Ferris wheel car comes to a stop, and the door slides open.
"you two look like you had a good time. should i let the ride go around another loop?"
"We're good," Kris says shortly, grabbing Ralsei's paw and rushing off the ride, away from the skeleton. He's not sure what their deal is with that guy, but he doesn't want to ask, not wanting to ruin things after that.
"Let's go grab ice cream, then we can eat it on the beach."
"Alright. that sounds good!" Ralsei replies, cheerful as ever, as he should be after that ride. He notices that Kris is still holding his paw, even though they're not really dragging him away from anything anymore, which he smiles even more at. At the beach, maybe they could continue where they left off.
The two walk in silence, no people around to fill the air with chatter. He realizes the town seemed to be deserted now, was there some sort of end-of-festival event going on?
"Where is everybody?" he asks, confused.
"Probably at the parade. We can go, if you really want."
A parade? He hadn't heard of any parade, but it seemed like Kris didn't want to go, which was probably why. That was alright, he wanted to do whatever Kris wanted to do, and if he's being a little selfish, he'd rather be alone with Kris, just the two of them.
They approach the ice cream stand, ran by… the same skeleton as before? There was no way he got there before they did, right?
"hey, want some ice cream?"
"How'd you get here before us, we took the shortest route," Kris asks.
"i have my ways," he says with a wink, as if they were supposed to understand. What was up with this guy? "so, what do you guys want?"
"I'll have vanilla, please!" Ralsei asks. He's never really had ice cream before, so he just goes with the basic option that he's heard of before. It must be good if it's so popular, right?
"let me guess, you want butterscotch?" he asks Kris after a moment of staring, who just gives a short nod and a scowl. The skeleton scoops up two cones of ice cream, and hands them off to the two teens.
Ralsei tentatively licks the treat as they start to walk away, and the first thing notices the freezing cold of the ice cream, follows immediately by the realization of how sweet it is. He takes a few more licks rapidly, ignoring the cold in favor of the sugary sweet taste.
He pauses for a moment when he realizes Kris hasn't really had any of their ice cream yet, even though he's been licking away, and they're instead staring at Ralsei. When they notice he's looking at them, they turn to their cone and takes a big bite.
"Aren't you supposed to lick that?" Ralsei giggles. He might've never had ice cream before, but he's heard you're supposed to lick it.
"If you're lame," they respond, taking a smaller bite this time.
A figure rushes past the intersection in front of them before he can respond, and they both look over to see Noelle, speeding by.
Ralsei is the first to say anything, full of concern. "She's in a hurry. Susie's not there either, do you think she's okay? Should we go check on Noelle?"
"Let's see if Susie is back there, first," Kris replies, pointing towards the direction Noelle had just came from.
Ralsei nods. "That's a good idea, what if Noelle was rushing to get help, because something happened to Susie? Also, Susie probably knows what's going on otherwise, even if she's not the one in trouble."
The two of them speed walk back towards the direction of the lake, finishing off their ice cream as they go. Taking the last bite of his cone, he sees Susie, walking back from the direction of the lake.
"Kris! Ralsei! Hey! Have you guys seen Noelle anywhere?"
"She was heading that direction," Ralsei replies, pointing. "She was walking pretty fast, something must've happened, I thought you might know what."
"Huh. Nah, I have no clue. Hopefully she's alright. Should we follow her? She would've told me before ditching if it was something important, right?"
"Oh, the lake!" Ralsei exclaims, not able to stop himself. Looking past Susie, there was a wide expanse of water, teeming with plant life and surrounded by trees.
"Do you wanna go see the lake?" asks Susie.
"Well… we should probably check up on Noelle, right?"
"Nah, I'm sure she'll be fine, at least for a few more minutes. Lets go see the lake!"
The three of them walk to the edge of the water, just a little ways away from where he had seen Susie and Noelle earlier. There's a cool breeze, and with how the world's been getting colder as the sun sets, he's sure it's not long until he starts missing his scarf. It's peaceful, with the only sounds being the trees rustling and the bugs that fill the forest. The moment is beautiful, the last of the sun's rays cast a red glow across everything they can see.
They sit at the edge of the lake for a few minutes, in silence, just taking it all in. It's nice, but much as he loves Susie, he kind of wishes it was just him and Kris. But that's selfish, isn't it.
He's not really able to relax, and eventually his worry gets the best of him. "We should probably go see if Noelle's okay, shouldn't we."
"Yeah, let's go," is all Susie says as she gets up.
Kris leads the way once again as they walk back, but they don't go very far until Susie stops them.
"…Hey, Kris. Mind if I stop in here for a bit?" She gestures towards their dad's shop. Oh, was she going to get flowers for Noelle? Would… would Kris like to get some flowers?
"I'll come with you!"
"Alright!" Susie says with a smile. "Let's go."
She grabs his paw and pulls him inside, where Susie immediately heads towards the flowers and starts to gather some into a bouquet.
"Shouldn't we ask, first?" Ralsei whispers, realizing that they're kind of just broken into the shop. "We can't just take these."
"Nah. Mr. Asgore did say we can take them," she replies, not nothing to continue when his quiet tone.
"Still…" Ralsei trails off. This was a business, it felt wrong to just take the flowers, even if they were allowed too.
Noticing his lack of flower gathering, Susie separates some of the flowers she had already grabbed, and hands them to Ralsei. "Here, you wanted some flowers too?"
"Oh, um, Thanks, Susie! …I guess if I'm just going to give them to Kris, since the flowers are originally their dad's, it's not too bad?"
Susie stops in surprise. "You're giving them to Kris? Hell yeah, are you finally doing something about your crush of yours?"
"You know about that?" He knew he didn't do the best job of hiding his crush, but he thought he did well enough.
"Yeah, of course, you were so obvious. I'm glad, you two would be nice together."
"O-oh! Well, we actually…"
Just as he was debating telling Susie about the Ferris wheel, he felt the air shift. It wasn't quite the same, but was similar to the feeling of magic being used. But they were in the Light World, route wasn't any magic. It wasn't exactly the same feeling anyway, so maybe it was… the soul!
"We should get back to Kris." He says, and before Susie could respond, he's already heading out the door.
Susie looks around, trying to find her other friend. "Hey, Kris—"
A noise from inside the shop startles them both.
"A dark fountain? When we were just in there? Oh, this can't be good… hey, Kris, where are you? We need to go!"
Kris appears from the alleyway next to the shop, their head down and their posture slouched. That— they looked off. Very off.
"Kris!" Susie exclaims. "There's a dark fountain in your dad's shop, he might be in there, we gotta do save him! Come on!"
She jumps into the building, falling into their next adventure. Ralsei debates trying to confront Kris, but he's worried about them being without their soul, so he just gives them a smile and follows Susie, letting them deal with themselves and then jump in after them.
He falls, and while doing so, he can only really think about how much more he'd fall for Kris.