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It was hot only in summer in the town, being in New England in all.
Only during the time of year the sun decided to show itself for longer than a few hours and leave the heat there until the night. But every house around had built in air conditioning, and Kris's family despised going out in the heat because they were, well, goats and covered with fur.
So the kid had never really needed to take off their sleeves, not for anything besides yard work, and as a kid they had been scared of worms which usually crawled up into the autumn leaves, which meant Toriel never exactly sent them out there to do much. And Asgore wanted them to be with their mother and never bothered Kris over something stupid like that.
Kris' forearms had then never really been needed to be shown.
That was until the dark world.
Maybe it'd just been the specific outfit they wore almost daily, but their vambraces failed to cover the skin near their elbows.
It'd never cause issues, Kris themselves had struggled to notice, and nobody else seemed to either. All good, all fine, everything was perfect and it just kind of bugged them. Until the one on their left arm broke.
There was blue star shaped circles wrapped around and cuffed Kris’ arm like a slinky, and all the young enby could do was stare after it showed itself.
The metal had broken when Kris accidentally hit it against a cave rock, and it shattered off, the armor somewhat weak.
Kris stared at their arm.
It looked weirdly cute despite the history. White stars going in links with light blue lacing around each.
Damn, the DarkWorld liked doing shit with this.
It was fun sometimes. Other times it got on their damn nerves.
Susie looked over when she realized that she didn’t hear Kris’ footsteps. When she saw Kris staring at their arm, she walked over.
”Dude, you coming?” She asked before looking at Kris’ arm just as they looked up. Susie widened her eyes.
Kris did as well. They prepped themselves for the talk, the terror that would weld in Susie’s throat. They looked down, flinching before anything could even be said.
”Bro . . . These are sickass tattoos! Who did these, Toriel would kill you if she found out!”
. . . tattoos.
Mhm.
Never mind, yeah, Kris liked the place again. It always hid all that needed to be. At least to their fellow lightners.
”U-Uh, yeah. Um . . . I found a free kit at a yard sale.” “Lucky! Damn, wish I had one of those cool things.”
Susie and Kris started conversing about tattoos for a good the next few minutes, much to Kris’ delight. Good thing too, it would be a very different conversation if Susie understood what scars looked like in the dark world.
Then, right before they could swiftly escape, Ralsei spotted the two other teenagers from a distance.
“SUSIE, KRIS!” He exclaimed, running’s over while simultaneously calling them both over. Weird mix of actions but whatever, Ralsei was a weird lil dude.
As soon as Kris realized it was Ralsei, an obviously close friend who understood how scars worked, they froze in place. Luckily for them, Ralsei was still coming over either way.
“Ralsei, dude happy to see you man!” “Hey Susie! Kris, nothing to say to me?” The two laughed.
Kris attempted a chuckle.
Susie’s eyes widened in excitement. “Oh, guess what I found out about this blue little asshole?” “Susie, what’d you find?”
Before Kris could step back and try to run for the exit, Susie gripped their arm and forced it up to hold in place in front of the goat’s face.
She kind of expected a “cool! How do humans get those” or a “oh these, I read an article about them once” kind of esque reaction.
Susie did not expect to Ralsei also do the weird freeze up and stare kind of thing.
He clasped his hands together in front of his chest, looked up at Kris who’d been looking at him in equal fear, before stepping forward and turning back to Susie. “You realize that these are . . . Y’know, right?”
The purple lizard feller raised an eyebrow. “What? Do these tattoos have some weird meanings or something?” She asked, making it click in Ralsei’s head what was happening.
”Susie, set down Kris’ arm. Now.”
Confused, she did so.
Ralsei walked towards Kris and gave them a hug, tighter than anyone previously done between the two, besides maybe the one they’d did after a near-suicide.
They whispered a few things to one another, before stepping away. Kris walked forward towards the exit, but Ralsei blocked Susie for a moment.
”Dude I wanna go fucking home.” “Kris had been hurting themselves.” Ralsei announced, not even prepping the sentence. Susie widened her eyes. “W-What?” “You heard me. Go, get them.” Susie stopped in place for longer than Ralsei had stopped her himself.
That was before she absolutely started dashing in the same direction.
Unfortunately, Kris was a very fast walker.
After escaping, they’d run home, which was even speedier.
They reached their house, slamming the door closed as Toriel looked over. “Oh, Krissy, I made some-“ Before letting her finish they ran upstairs, slamming their bedroom door next, only to Toriel’s dismay.
“I- KRIS! COME DOWN HERE!” Toriel shouted from downstairs, while Kris backed themselves into the corner of their room.
Suddenly the now pink lines spread across themselves felt like they needed a reopening, as if they needed to grow.
Kris craved to reach out to the desk beside his bed, a lamp on top and textbooks next to it, as if inside there didn’t delay what had left the things that ruined them.
They itched to get closer and pull it out, to reopen what caused this mess.
As Toriel shouted and began to walk, the front door opened much more softly. Despite the soft sound, it was the aggressive girl in town who walked in. Yet, she seemed much more worried than usual, at least to the goat.
”Susie, would you mind getting Kris out of their room?! They’ve only been disrespectful-“ “Yeah uh we have bigger fish to fry ma’am, but I’ll try! Shit shit shit.” That last part was probably meant to be said under her breath, although Toriel wasn’t exactly threatened by that at the moment.
Susie ran up the stairs and went straight to Kris’ bedroom, slamming open the door. She saw Kris reaching forward for the drawer, stopping dead in their tracks as light entered the small room.
The two teenagers stared at one another for a moment. Everything and everyone seemed to have slowed down as much as they could.
Susie stepped forward until she reached Kris, and knelt down, gently grabbing them by the waist and arm and pulling them forward. “Hey, dude, just rest for a second.” “I want it I need to-“ “No, listen to me. Just sit here and try to feel better, I can get some ice cubes or whatever, but no fucking way are you doing that!”
Tears streamed down Kris’ yellow face, showing Susie her reflection. They nuzzled into her, her purple scaly neck holding their head tight.
”I’m sorry so ran.” “It’s okay, don’t be sorry.” “Okay.” “Just . . . Hold on, okay? We all love you dude, don’t do something stupid.” “Okay.”
Susie watched Kris calm down, and eventually from all the stress taking all of their energy, they grew tired and fell asleep in the arms of their much larger friend.
Susie sadly chuckled and picked them up, walking them over to their bed and laying them down onto the covers.
She leaned down and gave them a kiss on the forehead goodnight before turning to the desk and opening the drawer, pulling the knife out.
”You’re coming with me.” She whispered under her breath.
She walked out the door and closed it, saying a few last words before leaving the Dreemur house.
”Love you Kris, we all do.”
And with that she was out.