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Kris walked quietly towards the lake. It was cloudy out, but still almost warm. It was September. They took a deep breath and smiled. They loved this kind of weather. Cold enough for sweaters, but warm enough it didn’t matter if they left it at home, just as they had. Their heart fluttered as they remembered that Susie was meeting them. Somehow, somehow this had happened. They’d only started hanging out, just the two of them, because they couldn’t bring Ralsei to the Light World. Susie started sleeping over, a while ago. Kris let her take the bed and would sleep curled up by the edge of it, drifting off to the sound of her snoring. They didn’t really ask why she wouldn’t just go home. They could gather enough that she didn’t like talking about it.
Their gaze dropped to their feet walking along the path. She had stopped coming once Mom and that… stupid shopkeeper had gotten drunk and locked them out. It had been hard to sleep without her. It had been hard to sleep in general, anyways, with that whole situation, but they missed the sound of her snoring drowning out the thoughts in their head. She started sleeping in Castle Town instead. Kris didn’t exactly blame her- Ralsei made cake, and everyone was there, her room was kickass, to say the least, and it was… a Dark World. Better than real life. They both knew deep down that it was a closet full of junk, but they didn’t say it. They let themselves pretend.
They kept hanging out after that, anyways. And Kris started to notice more things about her. How they loved her laugh. How her hair looked when the wind blew. How sharp her teeth were when she smiled. How she was the only one who would eat moss with them. How she was okay with having completely one-sided conversations when they didn’t want to talk, and how they somehow felt better and nicer than when anyone else tried to do it. How they could just sit at the lake and say nothing, and still be having a great time together. How they missed her snoring, and how she accidentally woke them up in the middle of the night by dragging the blanket out from under them in her sleep. They tried to ignore it for a while, but they liked her. A lot. So much it hurt, sometimes. The butterflies in their stomach would become a constant, terrible ache. It was hard to focus on anything else. And yet, they missed the feeling whenever it went away. They tried not to think about it.
They could see the lake, now, and they forced themself to shove their thoughts aside, even as the first shades of the feeling inched back. Susie had already found a whole bunch of rocks to skip. She was pretty good at it. Kris’ record was three, if they remembered right. Hers was eight.
“Hey!” She said, waving. They pointed a finger-gun at her, cracking a smile. She skipped another rock. Five skips. They couldn’t help but be impressed.
“We got to get Ralsei to do this,” they said. She grinned.
“I’d totally blow him out of the water. Hey, do you think rocks skip better in Dark Worlds?”
They didn’t need to answer. Everything was better in Dark Worlds. There hadn’t been one for a while, now, besides Castle Town.
“Should’ve tried back in the flower shop one, I guess,” Kris said, sitting down between Susie and her pile of rocks.. “I don’t think there’s a lake in castle town.”
“There’s not,” She said. She held out her hand, and they handed her another rock. They didn’t like to try skipping themself too much. They were scared of hitting something. They were scared of a lot of things, in the Light World. In the Dark World, they weren’t. Of course, everything was better in Dark Worlds, but they stood straighter in the armor, they held their head up with more confidence, they let the wind blow their bangs away so you could catch glimpses of their eyes. She never really asked to see their eyes- that’d be weird, probably- but they were beautiful. Red irises, thin lashes, eyes deep set into their face as though they were hiding even without the hair blocking them. She liked to see them. But she didn’t get butterflies, or anything. Her face didn’t get hot. Her heart didn’t jump. She just felt like smiling. That was enough, right?
She skipped another rock. It skipped seven times, then sunk.
“We should still teach him, maybe,” Kris said. “I don’t know where. Can we make new rooms, do you think?”
“There’s that party dojo thing. Remember when it got all love-themed? That was kinda wack.”
“Yeah,” they said. They both went quiet for a bit. Susie tossed a rock between two hands a couple times without skipping it.
“Hey, you… you flirt with a lot of people,” she said. “Like… most every darkner we’ve met.”
“Yeah.”
“How come you haven’t really flirted with me?”
They opened their mouth, but they couldn’t really say anything. So they went silent and ducked their head. She chucked the rock- no skips at all- and laughed.
“Hey, don’t do that! I can see you’re blushing!”
Kris pulled their knees in close to their chest. Susie held out her hand for another rock, but they didn’t give her one. She noticed something was wrong and plopped down next to them.
“You good?”
They shrugged. They didn’t trust themself to speak while their stomach was full of butterflies like this. It almost hurt. But they missed the feeling when it was gone, so they cherished it while it was there.
“You know, we could, if you wanted. Date, I mean,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck. “I mean, I don’t know if you like monsters, or- or girls, or- anyone, even, but I don’t really get it either, so…”
Kris laughed. They wouldn’t look at her. Their face was burning hot.
“I’m serious, man! Like- it’s chill if not. I just… I like you a lot. I think you’re cool,” she said. When they didn’t say anything, she elbowed them hard enough to break them out of their little knee-hugging egg. They laughed, and she grabbed their hands and looked at them, pointing her snoot at the ground so she still looked absolutely goofy and in no way serious. “You’re cool, Kris.”
They cracked a smile. She grinned, let go of their hands, and went back to sitting beside them. They watched the lake for a while until Kris felt like talking again.
“You’re cool too,” they said. They couldn’t meet her eyes, still distracted by the butterfly feeling. “I mean, you’re- you’re amazing, and you’re pretty, and-”
She laughed, drowning out their voice. They flushed scarlet.
“What?”
“I’m pretty?”
“I mean- yeah. You’re like- I don’t know. Words don’t really… work. But you look good. I like looking at you.” They rubbed the back of their neck. “If that’s not weird.”
“Eh, I’ll take it,” she said, smiling. “You’re pretty, too. And I’m not just saying that because you did!”
“Alright, alright.”
“I just don’t really… get some of this,” she mumbled. She looked up at them. “But I like looking at you, too. And you’re really great in every other way, obviously.”
“Of course. We’re both really great in every other way,” they said. Maybe a little more than they believed it, at least for themself, but it felt right.
“Of course. And if you want to be my… uh… if you want me to be your girlfriend, I’m down.”
They looked at each other a second. Kris shook their head. Susie didn’t really look like a girlfriend. She didn’t look like she felt like one, either.
“Yeah… that’s not really right, is it. For either of us,” she said. She lay back against the rocky sand, hands behind her head. “We’re friends.”
Their stomach dropped. She couldn’t have just said that. They didn’t really know how to back out of a situation like this, they didn’t really know there was a situation like this to be had, where Susie asked them out and then just changed her mind. They looked off into the woods. They could play it cool. They could pretend it was just hypothetical, like she probably meant.. They could-
“Friends… friends plus? Friends premium?” she said. She stared at the overcast sky, mouth slightly open. “I don’t know. It’s not like we’re better. Uh…”
“Partners?” they said. She turned her head.
“Oh, yeah! That’s what you call ‘em! Partners! Yeah. Yeah, I’m down to be that.”
“That’d be chill,” Kris said, trying to ignore their beating heart.
“Nice. Then we’re partners,” she said, holding out a hand for a fist bump. They finished it, and lay down beside her, staring at the clouds. On any other day, they’d probably look for pictures (which often became a contest of who could create the best dramatic, violent story out of them), but today the sky was just a blanket of gray. Somehow the sun still managed to filter through, making it almost bright blinding white in places. Kris put an arm above their eyes to block it out. They lay there for a while, watching the unchanging sky. It was pretty nice. They could hear the ripples of the lake in front of them. And Susie’s snoring.
They sat up. She was dead asleep. They smiled to themself for a second. A real-life butterfly landed on her nose, only to get nearly blown away by her snores. Kris picked it up with their index finger, and it flew away. They looked at Susie again. She was perfect. Of course, they only actually looked at her for a second before poking her awake.
“Want to go home and watch a movie or something?” they asked. She blinked at them, still half-asleep.
“What?”
“Come on,” they said, getting up. The two of them began to walk back along the path to Hometown. The quiet bustle of the town settled into the background as they walked towards the school. Kris had stolen their mother’s key years ago, and they used it to get into Castle Town almost every day.
They glanced at Susie walking beside them, their heart fluttering. She was still her old self. They were still their old self. Nothing much changed, really, but somehow the excitement in their gut was making it hard to think about anything else but her. Somehow, even the fact that nothing changed made it all the better. Almost.
They were painfully aware of her hand swinging right by theirs. They were walking fairly close together. Close enough they probably could holds hands if she wanted to. Their heart jumped again. They probably could just hold her hand right now. All it would take was a little shift of their fingers, and they could interlock pinkies, and she would look at them and laugh, and probably call them an idiot in her endearing kind of way, and probably just hold their hand. Unless she didn’t want to, and then it’d be weird, and awkward, and they’d wish they just hadn’t done anything in the first place, and they’d probably give up on the whole dating thing, because why did they even do that, and-
“Do you want to hold hands?” they mumbled before they could stop themself. She looked up.
“Huh?”
“Do… do you want to hold hands,” they said a little louder. They looked at the ground. “I mean, like. If we’re dating, and stuff-”
She laughed, taking their hand before they even finished. Her hand was warm, and rough with scales, and a lot bigger than theirs. They slid their fingers between hers. The butterflies were back.
“It’s just holding hands, dumbass, you don’t have to ask for that!” she said. They nodded, once again not trusting themself to speak. They were holding hands with Susie. They tried not to think about it too hard. She was right, it wasn’t that deep, they did not need to be blushing scarlet and thinking about how nice it was and how warm she was and how her claws brushed against the back of their hand and how it was even better than they’d thought it’d be. She looked at them and they ducked their head again. Suddenly she stopped squeezing their hand. “Do you want to stop? We don’t-”
They shook their head. After a second of mustering the words, they mumbled, “I like it. It’s… it’s nice.”
“Heh. You’re such a softie,” she said, ruffling their hair. They giggled and ducked out of the way. “Hey! That’s not fair!”
“Can’t catch me,” they taunted, smiling at her as they dodged another hand. A swing later, they let go of her hand and were sprinting ahead of her, laughing, down the street. She ran after them, still grinning. Kris was a really great person. She was glad they were friends. She was glad they were… whatever they were, now.