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The chilling autumn breeze messed with your head as you walked absent mindedly down the Hometown streets on a Saturday evening. Hands tucked in the pockets of your jacket, trying to defy the cold. Your ears were filled with the sound of crackling Autumn leaves as you stepped on them while the sun was setting and some stars were starting to shine up in the sky. Truly a beautiful time for a walk.
In other circumstances you would have enjoyed the view, but today you couldn’t bring yourself to. Your walk would have been much faster and less tortuous hadn’t you been carrying 3 duffle bags full of books, blankets, pillows and other belongings that could be of need when sleeping away from your house; such as napkins, a spoon, a fork, candles in case the light went out… Your mother surely thought Kris’ house was abandoned or something when she made you pack all that stuff.
She had refused to listen when you told her that 5 blankets was an exaggeration for only one night away. After all, the reason for the sleepover was the group project that was due on Monday, that they had completely forgotten about Alphys had given with so little time. No one would carry that many things unless they knew they were gonna be away for days. But you didn’t complain, knowing you would spend the night with your partner already made you giggle in joy. You loved Kris and Kris loved you right back.
So then there you were, walking towards the human’s residence, dragging your feet. Trying not to collapse from the weight of the bags. Of course you had to live on the other side of the town. It would have been easier if your father had offered you a ride, yet he couldn’t care less about it. Last thing you knew from him he had fought with your mother again, and locked himself in his room, slamming the door shut. As always, he paid no mind to your fear of loud noises. You had learnt to ignore it at this point, but his insults towards you lingered in your mind. All the times he called you useless or threatened that you’d better study and work hard or else it meant you were ungrateful for everything they’d done for you and bla bla bla.
You shook your head and tried not to think about it. After all, tonight wasn’t about him. Before you realized, you were standing on Kris’ doorstep. The windows shone with warm light that came from the inside, along with the unmistakable scent of Toriel’s butterscotch cinnamon pie. Your stomach growled with hunger at the thought of its flavor. Your arms were on fire at this stage so you dropped the bags quickly on the ground on both sides of your feet and knocked your special code on the wooden door.
As quickly as you had been to drop your bags moments before, you heard rushing footsteps from inside coming closer, and then the doorknob turning. Kris opened the door a crack and peeked outside. Their gaze dropped to the three bags on the floor and then back at you, skeptically.
“Sorry, we don’t want cookies” The human narrowed their eyes and shook their head. Taking a step back, they attempted to close the door but you put your foot in the doorway to stop them, chuckling.
“Stop it, dumbass!” You reached out and pulled them into a big hug, like you normally did, and basked in the apple scent that emanated from their hair, something that you were familiar with but you could never get enough from. Now that you guys were dating, you felt the need to be as close to them as you could any time you guys hung out. “I’m gonna steal your shampoo” Your voice muffled against their hoodie.
The human giggled “If Susie doesn’t drink it first… She kinda has dibs on it” As usual, they brought their arms around you, cradling you against themselves, and caressed your hair as you sighed.
“Oh well, I guess I’m gonna have to be faster and take it before she arrives”
“Whoops, too late for that” Answered the human.
As if on cue, a shout came from the kitchen, startling the pair, who quickly let go of the hug. You both hadn’t told Susie about your thing yet, gee, you hadn’t told anyone yet. You knew your parents would bury you alive if they found out, so you just got nervous and paranoid about anyone knowing. Susie wasn’t as clueless as you thought, though, even if she didn’t say anything out loud. Instead of approaching you and asking if you two were a thing, she would-
“HEY LOVE DORKS! BETTER HURRY UP IF YOU WANNA GRAB A SLICE” …Resort to… more indirect methods, or at least what she thought was indirect. Susie’s excited voice was hearable from outside, clearly feasting on pie.
“Susie! Save some for them!” Toriel’s voice followed, laughing at the girl’s antics “Am I going to have to bake another one?”
“Oh, what a surprise,” you rubbed your neck, smiling in confusion “usually I’m the one who arrives first”
“Well… you’re usually not 48 minutes late” Your partner crossed their arms.
“48 minutes?! But how could I- wait… you counted them?” You mimicked them, crossing your arms as well and giving them a deadpan stare.
“Yup, and honestly? It doesn’t surprise me…” They looked down at your bags with a slight frown “Did you walk all the way here carrying those?”
“Yeah… I… felt like exercising, you know?” You tapped your biceps, though your arms were visibly trembling. Clearly, lugging that much weight from the other side of the town hadn’t been as pleasant as you’d tried to pretend. If your muscles could have talked, they would have been screaming in agony.
“Right…” The human hummed absentmindedly, like they saw straight through your story, and leaned forward, staring into your very soul, their eyes showing from behind their bangs, fixed on you but always gentle. “Are you okay?” They asked quietly, only for you to hear.
The fight, your dad’s negative words towards you, the loud noises and threats that had filled your afternoon flashed through your mind, and as soon as you heard those words from Kris, the lump started to form in your throat. But you shove the unwanted thoughts away. Not tonight. “Yup, all good” you gave them a thumbs up and a smile, though it didn’t quite reach your eyes and that showed. Kris narrowed their eyes, side eyeing you like they always did when they weren’t fully convinced.
“Mmokay… if you say so.” Even though they didn’t buy a single word of what you had just affirmed, pressuring you wouldn’t have made you feel any better, and your partner knew that perfectly. So, instead, they motioned for you to get inside, and they still offered to carry your bags into the house even though you told them not to. They reached out and grabbed the straps of the bags, lifting them with a grunt before dropping them again loudly. Some leaves flew away with the movement. Kris straightened up dramatically and looked at you skeptically “Um… can I ask what exactly do you have in these? I mean, you know my mother won’t allow corpses in our house…”
“What’s all the fuss out here about?” Susie had gotten tired of waiting for you inside so she decided to come out herself. She leaned against the doorframe after greeting you, then snorted at Kris’ puppy eyes staring at her, begging for help as they struggled with lifting the bags. “Arright, weaklings, leave it to the strong ones” She brushed past you and lifted the bags with ease, although she wasn’t able to stop her jaw from clenching “Okay. What. The HELL. Do you have in here???” She smiled through the suffering and rushed to set the bags on the floor inside the house.
The human and you burst out laughing as you finally stepped in as well and closed the door. You smiled awkwardly.
“Oh, you know… The usual” you joked. Your friends were already unzipping the bags and peeking inside curiously. Both were searching for what could have possibly made them so heavy.
“Well I think this exceeds the ‘usual’ category” Kris frowned, finding the silverware. You blushed, embarrassed, but they just laughed “Does your mother know we’re civilized?”
“She probably thought you lived in the woods or something” Susie smirked, amused.
“My… Um… She said they could be of use,” you fidgeted with your hands “I tried telling her that it was an exaggeration but-”
“Is there any chalk in there?” Susie grinned, rummaging through the items and giving up when she didn’t find any “Guess she didn’t pack all the useful stuff”
“Five sets of blankets” The human whistled “That is actually pretty good, we can make a fort later. Now, as for the candles-”
“Okay! Can we stop judging my mother’s habits?” You sighed, trying to sound offended, even though the three of you knew you were acting. You closed the bags and set them aside “I think all of us know what we came here to do”
Your friends rolled their eyes and headed to grab their textbooks.
After a very productive research time, Susie was snoring, you were reading the same sentence over and over without really paying attention to it and Kris was hitting their head repeatedly against the table.
“Can. We. Stop. Already?” They begged as they intertwined their fingers with yours and pulled from your hand repeatedly from under the table. Your body rocked to the sides with each pull. You just looked to the front, eyes not fixed on anything, the look on your face like saying ‘I’m done’.
“No, we have to finish this or Alphys will murder us on Monday” You blew a strand of your hair out of your vision, managing to keep their hand steady as you leaned on the table, attempting to read, tapping your pen on the textbook. All jokes aside, it wasn’t specifically Alphys who would end you if you failed.
“Do you really see Alphys capable of doing that?” They turned their head and looked at you, still leaning on the table like they were dying. You gave their question a thought and remained silent.
“Argh! Screw this! Let’s go play Super Smashing Fighters instead” Susie jumped from her seat and headed to grab the controllers.
“But- the project…” You tried to reason, even though you truly were as fed up as everyone else.
“Heh, bet you can’t beat me, that’s why you’d rather keep doing that stupid project” Susie grinned.
“Come on! It’ll only be one round… pleeeeease?” Kris leaned closer and closer while extending the word, until you got nervous of having them so close in front of Susie and jumped from your own seat, rushing to snatch one of the controllers from her while Kris giggled mischievously, satisfied with what they’d accomplished. They could only think about how cute you looked when you got flustered like that.
“F-fine! But just one round.” You warned.
“I should have guessed it wouldn’t be just one round” Two hours later, there you were, your eyes hurting as much as your ego from having Susie beat you over and over. Two empty pizza boxes laid open and empty on a nearby table, as well as three cups of juice, also empty.
“Heh, never underestimate me” Susie snorted. “You too Kris” The girl glared at the human “Don’t think I didn’t see you trying to unplug my controller” She narrowed her eyes at them.
“Uhh should we do something else?” Kris tried changing the subject, with their most innocent face. Everyone went silent trying to think. Eventually, you opened your mouth.
“No, We’re not doing the stupid project” Susie started to complain, but what you actually did was yawn loudly.
“No, screw the project, I’m too tired for that” You rubbed your eyes.
“I never thought I’d hear that from you,” Susie feigned shock and then she fake-wiped a tear “they grow up so fast” You threw a pillow at her.
“I have an idea” The human got up from their seat, heading towards your bags, which were still forgotten close to the door. “I think our beloved friend brought enough blankets to build a blanket fort if we add my own.” You looked down, hiding your blushing face when they said the word ‘friend’, side eyeing you while internally laughing. Kris ignored it for your sake “What do you think we build the biggest fort ever?
Susie and you exchanged a glance before nodding. It was best to take out the blankets from the bag and carry them upstairs rather than carrying the bags, so that’s what you did. Once you were in Kris’ room, you guys planned how the fort should be built in order for all of you to fit inside, while Kris went looking for more blankets. Susie found some warm Christmas lights inside one of the drawers outside the room and brought them. Kris quickly returned with some more blankets and pillows to put inside.
“Alright, let’s get to work!” You clapped your hands.
For the hour that followed, the three of you spent the time building the most perfect pillow fort you had ever seen. The blankets were placed above the beds to create some sort of roof, which you elevated by tying one end of the blanket to a chair under the window, and the other to another chair they’d placed near the desk. Once the outside was done, the inside was stuffed with pillows and more covers to make it comfortable to sleep in. The lights were added last, for decoration.
While placing some pillows at the back of the fort, you didn’t notice Kris was fixing one of the walls that was rather loose. When you straightened your back (there wasn’t that much space to actually stand) You bumped into Kris and your faces ended up pretty close for anyone to get flustered.
“O-oh, sorry…” You felt your face growing hot as you backed away. Your hands trembled with nervousness.
“No, It’s okay” Kris chuckled, looking away in an attempt to hide their own blush.
Susie watched this from a corner, her eyes narrowing at the pair as she gave both a smirk like she knew exactly what was up. “I think I’m gonna take the corner” She set her pillow on the blankets, leaving you and Kris to sleep next to each other. You and your partner exchanged a glance before looking away, already embarrassed enough.
“Well look at the time,” The human grabbed their alarm clock, relieved to have something to change the subject with. The clocked indicated it was past midnight “we better go to sleep already, or my mom will kill me if she finds out that we’re still awake”
“Toriel wouldn’t kill a fly” Susie huffed “But I know a perfect place where we could hide your body” Susie side eyed you, still smirking.
“Are we talking about my bags again?” You crossed your arms, raising an eyebrow “I’ll hide your body there”
“Hm, yeah, bet I fit” she snorted. What was funny is that she probably could fit inside. Yeah, that’s how big the bags were “No, wait, let’s put Berdly in there so he finally shuts up” She smiled at the thought.
“Oh come on,” You sighed. As unpleasant his company may be, the bird had actually been the first one to talk to you when you first arrived at school. He had asked if he could copy your notes and… oh well… never mind. “he’s not that bad…”
Both Kris and Susie turn their head at you slowly, looking at you like you were some kind of alien experiment.
“Hello? It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” The human said, mocking the bird.
“Okay, maybe a little bit annoying, but…” You looked away and laughed.
“A little bit?” Susie gave you a deadpan stare, leaning closer to you.
“Okay, VERY annoying” You leaned closer as well, and the three of you chuckled.
“Yep, that’s enough for me, I’m off” The girl leaned back and jumped onto the blankets, covering herself up with more of them and facing one of the walls of the fort. “If anyone snores, I’ll freaking destroy y-” She suddenly fell asleep before even finishing the sentence.
Kris scooted closer and kicked her slightly “Yup, she’s out for good” The human stated. As if proving their statement correct, loud heavy snores started coming out from the girl, startling the couple.
“Guess we have to freaking destroy her” You raised an eyebrow. Both of you giggled quietly.
Your partner lay down in the middle, next to Susie, letting you sleep on the remaining corner “I don’t think it will do much, but maybe it muffles the snoring a bit” They chuckled. But you hadn’t lain down. You fidgeted with your hands, still feeling like you hadn’t done enough. “You’ coming?” Still, no response. The human noticed and sat upright again, tilting their head to enter your field of vision. “Hey, are you okay?” They whispered, gently taking your hands in theirs. They knew you liked that.
You finally came back to the present and lifted your gaze at them “Hm? Yeah, I’m fine” You couldn’t help but look away, not able to hold their gaze.
“Are you sure…?” The human insisted, leaning closer painfully slow, like every time he wanted you to open up. They frowned slightly “You’ve been a little off all day”
You sighed. “Today was kind of tiring, to be honest” You bit the inside of your cheek. You really didn’t want to get into this “My dad was being an asshole again…”
The human nodded, already feeling a tug on their chest thinking about your father. They knew how awful he could treat you if he set his mind to it. Kris circled their thumbs on your hands reassuringly, so you kept going.
“He, um… He was yelling at my mom, again” Your voice almost broke so you cleared your throat, not wanting to cry that night. “I thought I could say something… anything, to protect her,” you inhaled shakily “so I stood up for her” You looked down and stayed silent for a bit, the events you were narrating replayed through your head like a song on loop.
You felt Kris’ hand behind your head, stroking your hair ever so softly. It gave you the courage to explain further. “But then he started yelling at me instead, saying that I was useless, that all he asked of me was that I studied and that I couldn’t even do that, that I was ungrateful.” You didn’t dare look up. You just gave in when you recognized your partner’s arms wrapping around you softly, coaxing you towards their chest. You trembled slightly, not wanting to let the dam break.
“He said that I should be more like my sister, talking less and studying more” You didn’t even know what you were feeling, a combination of sadness and anger. “That she’s the future of our family… and…” Your breath hitched when you tried to talk.
Kris’ arms tightened around you, not hurting you, but attempting to ground you. “Breathe, he’s not here, I am” they reassured you, caressing the back of your head with one hand and rubbing the other one up and down your back. They felt just a bit calmer when your fingers clutched the fabric of their hoodie, holding on to it.
“Why did he have to compare us…?” You shook your head, the tears were unavoidable at that point. “She doesn’t even live with us anymore” you were going to keep venting, but suddenly you felt the snoring stop.
Then Susie shifted on her sleep and you tensed, Kris kept hugging you, also on alert if their friend awakened. Fortunately, it didn’t happen. The girl just shifted again and resumed the snoring. You didn’t relax though.
“I have an idea,” Kris whispered. Letting go just to look at you, they smiled patiently at your quivering lip and your teary eyes. They pressed their forehead against yours “Do you want to go somewhere quieter?”
You sniffled, then nodded when another loud snore broke the silence. Kris chuckled softly. “Alright, come with me” They took your hand and guided you as you both crawled out of the fort. They snatched a blanket from it and headed to the window. Getting there was such a challenge, since you guys had to go all parkour style climbing the bed, avoiding stepping on the blankets that made the roof of the fort (otherwise they would’ve fallen) and finally made it to the chair under the window.
Stealthily, the human opened the window and the breeze felt cool against your face wet with tears. Kris tied the blanket to their torso, and, before you could make out what their plan was, they stepped onto the windowsill and jumped up, climbing from the window to the rooftop. You gasped and quickly peeked up from the window as well, your heartbeat rushing. Suddenly, a head emerged from the edge of the rooftop and two eyes looked at you mischievously.
“Alright, your turn” They laid on their stomach and extended both arms towards you so you could reach them. You looked at them, then down at the ground, and shifted backwards unconsciously. You had to admit the idea scared you a bit. Kris noticed “Hey, eyes on me, okay?” They smiled tenderly “Do you trust me?”
You took a deep breath and nodded, stepping on the windowsill and standing up, hands trembling as you held theirs tightly. Feeling their hands around you again made you relax a little, and soon you felt yourself being lifted with ease towards the rooftop. One foot after another, you managed to climb a little, but Kris still did most of the work. When you got up there with them, you both walked a few feet away from the edge, settling down when you found a comfortable place on the roof, against a higher structure that you could lean against. You snuggled up against them, and they held you tightly, covering both of you with the blanket they’d brought.
“Hm… How come you couldn’t lift my bags but you could lift me?” You asked sleepily.
“I can be strong if I really want to.” They shrugged, playfully “So… about what you were saying earlier”
“Sorry… I really didn’t want to bother you with that…” You looked away, biting the inside of your mouth.
“I never said it bothered me” Kris searched your face to find your eyes, noticing you weren’t looking at them “You are so much more than you think, than your dad thinks”
You scoffed in disbelief. Kris reached out and lifted your chin with their hand to make you look at them. “I’m serious. You may not realize it, but you’re the most important thing that I have in this world, and I dare anyone to say otherwise in front of me”
You meditated on their words and lifted a hand to caress their cheek “You really think so?”
“I really think so” Kris smiled gently and pressed their hand above yours, still on their face.
You reached out and brought their face closer with both hands so you could stare straight into their eyes “Promise?”
“I promise” The human answered, and leaned just slightly closer, making sure you were okay with it. When you didn’t pull back, their lips brushed yours in a tender kiss.
After a while, you both sat in a warm embrace, you laying on their lap, your head resting on the crook of their neck and your arms wrapped around it as well. One of their arms rested on your thighs and the other supported your back. You both gazed at the stars above, shining brightly.
You smiled as you closed your eyes “We still have to finish the project, you know”
The human snorted, like they had been waiting for you to say that “Then we can do it tomorrow, first hour in the morning. But now, just rest, please. You need it” That said, they yawned.
“We need it” You chuckled “thanks for always putting up with my shit”
“Your struggles are not shit, and even if they were, I’d still love to put up with it” They grinned and both of you laughed.
Around you, the city was quiet. The breeze still hummed between the tree leaves. The project would still be there in the morning, your fears would still be there in the morning. But not then. At that moment, all that mattered was Kris and you, under the stars, safely in each other’s arms, and honestly? Everything else could suck it.
-THE END-