Chapter Text
—I asked her some basic questions about… you know, you two —Asriel's voice was low in the room; it was clear he didn't want anyone outside to hear them. With a clumsy movement, he settled onto his brother's bed, making it creak, but ending up closer. —She intentions and all that.
His hand gestured in the air before he let out a sigh. His eyes hadn't left the floor in the more than ten minutes he and Kris had been sitting on the bed. The light coming through the window, illuminating the shoes the deer gave them for their birthday, didn't help.
"Mmh… didn't expect you to notice so fast," Kris's voice was monotonous. Their shoulder was pressed against Asriel's, practically resting all their weight on him. Their eyes scanned their shared room for the eleventh time, looking for something more entertaining to get distracted by.
Silence invaded the room once more. Both recognized the room as the place where they grew up, and both found things that didn't fit there anymore. It had been a couple of hours since lunch, and an hour since Kris asked Asriel to tell them about his talk with Dess, though he managed to delay it until now.
Asriel's eyes left the floor, fixing on Kris's brown hair when they sat up straight. His arm made a motion to move, only to drop back into place. His mouth opened for a few seconds before closing, and he squeezed his eyes shut tight. A huff escaped him before his other hand went up to fix a stray strand of hair.
"You… how do you think Mom and Dad will take it?" Kris's voice, almost fragile, broke the silence. That was a doubt that had started forming in their mind when they realized how unusual their relationship with Dess was—how "problematic." If Azzy, who knew both of them better than anyone and was the deer's best friend, was already reacting with a certain caution, they didn't even want to imagine how their mother or Aunt Carol would react.
—Maybe Dad will accept it easily; he might even like the idea —a small but firm smile formed on Kris's face as they stared at the room's rug. Their father was a town icon, a respected police officer; of course they could trust that he would understand the situation. He would definitely be the first to know. —But Mom…
The mention of Toriel was enough for silence to reclaim its throne in the room. Both siblings were now looking at the rug, at its food stains and a few scratches Susie had left behind during her last sleepover.
—When do you plan on telling them? —Asriel's eyes went back up to Kris's hair, who shifted in place. It didn't seem like they had thought about it yet.
"I don't know… Maybe when we make it official," it almost sounded like Kris had forced those words out. Slowly, they looked up and met Asriel's eyes.
They opened their mouth for a second before closing it and averting their gaze to the side. A crooked smile was offered to the ceiling. Asriel's fist clenched for a few seconds before a sigh escaped him.
—So… how was my little sibling's first date?— A hint of a playful smirk appeared on his furry face as his arm wrapped around Kris's shoulders. The question caught Kris completely off guard; they immediately turned their head, whispering that they preferred the silence, even as a smile broke through their mask of neutrality.
"Y-you know, we went to the Diner and then to the park. Mainly just… talked," a contagious excitement mixed with Kris's words as they spoke. With a single movement, they leaned closer to Asriel, resting their head on his shoulder.
—Oh come on, I want to know every detail. That way I'll know if I have to go hunting or not —a laugh identical to his father's escaped Asriel, unstopped even after a nudge to his side from Kris. —Alright, bad joke.
Amidst the laughter, Kris had wriggled out of the embrace, though they couldn't hide how the corners of their lips curved upward as they began to tell the story of their date.
Are you home?
Yeah.
Meet me at the lake in 10 minutes.
👍
The sun was dangerously approaching the mountains on the horizon, turning the lake water an orange hue that matched the tree leaves. A stone skipped a second time across the water before finally sinking, drawing a grunt into the air from a certain purple lizard.
—Dude, I swear. This morning I threw one that skipped ten times —a laugh stifled Susie's voice before she threw her stone across the lake, which sank after four bounces.
—DON'T LAUGH! You can't get past five either —Susie's hand curled into a fist before punching Kris's shoulder, who only burst into even louder laughter.
After a few seconds, a smile also reflected on Susie's face as she put her arms behind her head.
—Mmh, is the sun setting already? —The pair hadn't even been at the lake for an hour, but the sun was slowly starting to vanish behind the mountain peaks. Kris and the monster looked at each other at the same time and, without a word, began walking down the stone path.
The gravel crunched in sync under their feet, matching their stride.
—I'm crashing at your place tonight —Susie's statement was nothing new; at this point, it was almost a habit that after spending the day together, they shared the night too.
"Thanks for asking," Kris replied with a sarcastic tone, which was greeted by a gentle shove.
As the dirt and gravel ground turned into pavement, Susie glanced back and forth between the abandoned flower shop and her companion's brown hair. After a sigh, she finally spoke:
—I, uh… saw you this morning in the park —a small jerk, more out of reflex than anything else, almost made Kris trip over a rock.
"And you didn't come over to say hi? How rude," Kris spat out the words with a smile, though deep down they hoped the lizard hadn't seen too much. Kris quickened their pace for a second, expecting a laugh that never came; Susie barely offered a dry huff, far too short to count as a laugh.
—I saw you with Noelle's sister. December, I think. —a gust of wind blew through the small gap between them. Susie's purple hands went into her pockets due to the cold, and something else. —I might just be misinterpreting it, but… —her voice wavered for a second and faded as she looked away toward the yellow lines dividing the black concrete of the street. —I saw you two… kissing? O-or whatever that was.
It seemed as though her voice had lost all spirit, simply escaping her body like a dead person's last breath.
It was funny because, despite having nothing planned at all, Kris hoped to keep their… relationship? a secret for at least a few weeks. Not that they had bothered to hide it much.
Kris let a few seconds pass, trying to find a way to contain their joy and play it cool.
"Oh, I guess you already know," a smile spread across their face as they looked up at the orange clouds melting into the sky. "We're dating now, I think. She's cool and… I guess I've liked her for a long time," a nervous laugh escaped them when they noticed, for the first time, Susie's serious expression. Their laughter didn't take long to die down.
Kris turned their head, noticing a few flowers still growing outside the shop. Their lips pressed together when they saw the lilies were prettier than the dahlia. They wanted to pick both to bring home.
—Doesn't she have, uh… eighteen? —Susie's skin seemed to glow under the few remaining rays of sunlight, though that glow slowly faded until the light disappeared behind the horizon entirely. —I'm not trying to judge you or anything, I just… —Susie bit her lip as her hands clenched into fists inside her pockets.
"Yeah, Dess is eighteen," almost like a gavel passing sentence, silence engulfed them.
They both walked down the street, each with a thousand thoughts racing through their minds, both hoping the other would say something and, at the same time, praying that they wouldn't.
A harsh red light was the only thing illuminating the room, coming from a clock reading 2:21 AM. Susie's eyes had been closing for what felt like hours, only to find upon opening them that barely a minute had passed.
The loud snoring of the three goats in the house, one in that very room, helped feed her insomnia, but that wasn't what kept her awake. A name kept running through her head; it wasn't a friend's, but she liked to believe maybe she remembered her.
Back then, she had been two years younger, thirteen, and her… acquaintance was too. She never cared much, until she heard that the girl had a boyfriend who was a senior. She was horrified by it and genuinely thought about going to the police station to report it, but nobody else was shocked. They just accepted it; they saw it as something normal.
She tried asking her mother about it, but she just told her not to bother her. She tried asking her teacher, but she merely said it was normal. And when she asked the girl herself, she just called her a busybody.
Why did they do that? What was normal about a kid dating an adult? Those were the questions running through her mind, and now they were back, this time accompanied by new ones: Should she do something? Should she save her friend? Did they even need to be saved?
Susie could swear the ceiling had a hole in it given the unmoving stare she had kept for the last half hour. Her breathing was slow and deep; she wanted to sleep, but she knew she wouldn't until she found an answer to her questions. Or at least, a way to delay answering them.
Her hand clenched into a fist. She quickly raised it only to let it fall onto the blankets, much softer than she intended. She wanted to stand up and grab Kris, shake them and yell at them. She didn't even know what she wanted to yell, she just knew she wanted to do it.
She rolled over on the futon where she lay and noticed how Kris had drifted over to the edge of the bed.
Their hand was dangling right in front of her face. She could see it twitch whenever her breath brushed against it. A faint chuckle escaped her at the sight of a sleepy grimace on Kris's face as they kept slowly sliding down the mattress.
When the clock hit three sharp, Kris finally fell. It wasn't loud at all; they simply slid right into Susie's arms, who had already prepared to catch them. She didn't even get a chance to settle before Kris wrapped around her like a stuffed animal.
For a second, everything vanished. The peace of someone who has no worries, or who has forgotten them, washed over her. Kris's small arms, so much warmer than hers, gave an indescribable feeling. For a moment, she imagined them like noodles, and that was the only reason she pressed her face close to them. Just for that.
Susie didn't hesitate to hug back, and with Kris's warmth, her eyes slowly closed as a smile formed on her face. She decided to leave things as they were for now; maybe it wasn't so bad, she trusted their judgment. After all, they had picked her as their best friend!
She definitely had to do something.