Chapter Text
Something moved in the bushes deep in the forest. Something covered by trees and leaves and memories.
“I-I saw it too!” yelled a boy. “They aren’t lying!”
“For real?!” asked a girl, way too excited. “This is gonna be so awesome!”
You felt yourself shake at the statement.
“W-what’s gonna be ‘awesome’?” asked the boy, concern heavy in his voice. “You aren’t planning to..?”
“Of course I am! When’ll we ever get something this exciting again?” the girl replied. “You agree, right, little buddy?”
You ignored every part of your body screaming at you to get away from the forest, and nodded your head.
“See?! They agree!” she said, her black hair slowly catching up to how fast her head snapped back at the boy. Some strands getting tangled to the nails tacked onto a baseball bat she was holding.
“I don’t thin—”
“Womp, womp! Does the little goat need to go home? Scared of a little movement in the bushes?”
“I mean what if it’s a wild anima—”
“Then it becomes our dinner!”
He opened his mouth but before anything came out, she pushed her bat into his hands, and grabbed both his left sleeve and your right arm, dragging you into the forest.
Their eyes suddenly open up into slits. Seeing shadows cast onto the back of the couch. Once they're aware enough, they ready themselves for what they know is about to happen...
“Krisss?” they hear someone say, “Can you hear me??”
They pretend not to.
“Come ooonn, it’s 7:30 already, you’ll be hungry for the whole day if you don’t get up now!” The girl narrows her eyes. “Fine. If you won’t get up, I’ll have to make you.”
Kris feels hands grab their hips. They forcefully swallow a giggle.
“I heard that!! I know you’re awake!”
The hands start to pull Kris away from the safe and warm couch. Kris growls in response, clinging onto the cushion with all their might. The hands in return, pull stronger. A loud hum is heard as both sides put all their strength into it.
“Come... on..!”
And Kris flies off the couch, taking the cushion along with them. They spin mid air, and then proceed to land on the cushion.
“Fahaha, what the heck was that??”
In front of Kris stands a girl with wavy yellow hair adorned with hairclips on both sides of her head. She has long branching antlers that make her look taller than she really is. She’s still in green-red loungewear which complements her eyes and nose.
“It’s called style, Elly.”
“Har-har, whatever you say,” she says as she puts the cushion back on the couch.
Acting impressed with their actions, Kris sits on Noelle’s fixed bed. Noelle rolls her eyes and starts to pick out clothes for both from her wardrobe, which all promptly get tossed onto Kris’s face.
“Gosh, I just fixed the bed!”
Kris says something but it’s muffled by the clothes on their face.
“What was that??” she asks as she sits next to them.
Kris repeats themselves, still muffled.
“Wait, let me...”
Noelle frees Kris of their clothy air prison.
“You’re gonna sleep in it again tonight, anyway, why fix it?” remarks Kris, with a voice less serious than their face.
“How am I supposed to answer that??”
“I believe in you, Elly, you can find an answer.”
“Uh-huh... Whatever you say,” she replies before pushing a pillow onto Kris’s eyes. “Now, give me a minute, let me get into uniform.”
Kris waits patiently.
“Mm’kay, come on, it’s your turn.”
The pillow is then pushed onto Noelle instead, which gets a giggle out of her.
Kris takes their time changing. And when they’re done they sit back down right next to Noelle, and drift just enough for their shoulders to touch.
“(Huh? Oh.) Youuuu... okay, Kris?”
Kris quietly whimpers.
“(The nightmares never end, huh. I wish they’d just tell me what they’re about. I don’t want to just assume they’re...)”
Noelle takes the pillow off her face and gently pats Kris’s head.
She smiles with her eyes and says, “Aww, does puppy need affection?”
Kris glances sadly with their arms up and face down, and whimpers.
“(Oh, wow, it might be worse this time.) Fine, but later, okay? We’re gonna be late again, at this rate.”
Kris whimpers once more in protest, but doesn’t push further.
Downstairs, they enter the kitchen. A huge room separated into three sections, with the actual kitchen on the left, and a giant Christmas tree and a full piano on the right, as well as a dining table between them. In the kitchen part is a giant counter extending from almost the middle of the room to the left wall, with a gap in front of the kitchen door. As well as several kitchen gadgets all with Christmas decorations above them.
On the wall hangs an ominous katana.
In this sight which they’re so used to, Noelle begins to make avocado toast for herself, as part of her daily routine. Meanwhile Kris gets cereal and chocolate powder from the cabinet and milk from the fridge.
Noelle stares at the ingredients Kris grabbed and says,
“Are you really going to make choco milk cereal?”
Kris looks Noelle dead in the eyes and smirks. They then start to mix the milk and chocolate. Noelle lets out a sigh, but giggles afterwards.
Her toast done, Noelle pulls a stool from under the counter to use the counter as a table. Next to her, Kris does the same.
While chewing her first bite, Noelle looks towards Kris, only to see them down dry cereal straight from the carton.
“K-KRIS??”
After their feast is done, Kris slowly sips from their chocolate milk, and looks at Noelle questioningly, as if confused about why she just yelled.
“I- Y’know what? Okay.”
Kris snaps their right hand to their mouth facing away from Noelle to cover how they almost spat the choco milk in their mouth. After forcing a swallow and a few coughs, they try to cover some giggles with their hand, to no avail.
“Har-har, you got your reaction, happy now?”
Kris vehemently nods, which makes them both laugh.
“Okay, okay, enough. I actually need to eat now! We only have half an hour left!”
Taking the message, Kris behaves and continues to sip their drink.
When they’re both about to finish eating, they hear the house door open.
“Oh, is someone... leaving..? At this hour?” Noelle queries.
The kitchen door gets kicked open. And runs in another, older, deer girl from outside. She has straight black hair, and darker fur. She’s taller than Noelle and wears a black tank top with a red-black lumberjack’s jacket on top and ripped jeans, she also has a noticeably damaged dark brown purse around her waist.
“Goood morning, my favorite musical duo!”
“(Musical... duo?)”
She sprints behind the two, hugging them around their necks and pulling them towards her. Kris jumps a bit.
“What’cha two up to?”
“Umm... Morning, sis,” Noelle replies. “We’re just getting ready for school.”
“On my watch? No way!” says Dess, as her smirk gets bigger and bigger. “I have an adventure for you two!”
“Can it wait? We completely missed the first lesson because of your previous ‘adventure’.”
Dess fake gasps and takes mock offense. She fixes her hair behind her ears as she says, “But it was worth it, wasn’t it? Think of all the fun you two had!”
“With... putting up fake ads on walls?”
“Yess!! Wasn’t it so fun? Don’cha wanna have another grand adventure?!”
“Uhm...”
Noelle looks away, and holds her chin. “Not re—"
“I’m down,” says Kris, staring at Noelle with a shit-eating grin.
Noelle immediately locks eyes with them. “KRIIS!”
“Hell yeah! That’s what I’m talking about! You never disappoint, Krismas!”
“Urgh. So, what’s the ‘adventure’, sis?”
“Ohh, you’re gonna love it!” she goes back out to the main room and brings back a big box. “Y’see this box? I need you to deliver it to the police station.”
“Oh, so another one of these,” Noelle narrows her eyes.
“Less talking, more walking!”
“Sis! There’s no way we’ll make it to school on time if we make that detour!”
“Oh, c’monnn, it’s not like attendance affects your grade, no?”
“(It does!)”
“Annnnd you’ll have plenty of time to get to school afterwards! It’ll be fiiiinnneeee!” she ‘reassures’. “Worst case scenario, I could just tell your teacher you two were late busy making out, I'm sure she'll be more than happy with ignoring a few repeat offenses like tardiness after hearing that.”
“DESS?!” Noelle shouts incredulously, as she quickly gets up. “Y-you can’t just—”
“What? I can’t tell the truth now?” she laughs, “Is it illegal now?”
“B-but that’s not—!” she begins to say, but is cut off by Kris’s flushed laughter, which Dess joined shortly afterwards.
“D’aww, look, Elly! Only one of you is denying it.”
“K-Kris???” she sounds shocked. “...et tu?” she adds. Which only makes the other two laugh harder.
After the laughter finally dies down, Dess straightens her posture. “Okay, you two, I’m entrusting this package to you. It must be safely delivered to Officer Undyne, m’kay?”
“You got it,” replies Kris.
“Mhm,” is heard from the now pink mass called Noelle, who has her face covered with both hands, yet still unable to cover her blush.
“Great, good talk, kids. See ya!” and with that she is once again out of sight.
“...what the heck?”
Once out of the manor, Noelle locks the main gate behind them, and sighs.
“There’s no chance we’re gonna make it on time, is there?”
“No,” Kris answers, holding the box with both hands.
“Welp... Let’s at least try not to waste time, we might still make it before the first lesson ends”
As nothing is said, the two walk in calm silence for a short while, restful and never uncomfortable. Step by step. Like most walks they have, Noelle has to pace herself, since Kris has shorter legs than her. Even though she couldn’t dream of catching them if they decided to run.
Not long after, random neighbours and townsfolk are heard whispering around them. Which is something relatively new that they’re trying to get used to. Especially Noelle, has been having a hard time not getting nervous because of this.
Today, some of them even walk up to the duo, which at least distracts the two enough for Noelle’s legs to stop trembling.
“Aww! Krissy, Noelle!! Do you two do deliveries now too??” says the older Cattenheimer daughter, Catty, as she approaches. “That’s so totally adorbs! What’s in the box?? Who’s it for?”
“Morning, Ms. Catty! We, uh, don’t know what’s in the box,” tells Noelle.
“’Ms.’? Oh, Noelle, sweetie, you know you can just call me Catty!”
“Okkayy then, um, Catty.”
After a few seconds of an awkward stare-down between the girls, Noelle whispers to Kris, “(Kris, I think we should get out of this conversation.)”
Kris snickers, frees one arm and drags Noelle away.
“Aww, so cuuute! Goodbye you twooo!!”
After two more encounters, and barely having gotten through two thirds of the way, Noelle fully resigns from having any resemblance of punctuality.
“Umm..! Bye Ms. QC!” Noelle waves as they resume their walk, then turns towards Kris, a bit hunched down, “...is it getting... worse, you think?”
“Probably is. Not like we’re doing anything to stop it,” Kris says.
“I mean... what could we actually do, though?”
Kris doesn’t reply with anything.
“I mean, it’s not like I’m upset by it, just...”
“Annoyed?”
“Exactly! Like, what if they were right? Wouldn’t what they're doing still be weird??”
“I... guess?” Kris brings the box closer to their face, and their voice somehow lowers gradually in a two syllable sentence. “I mean—”
“Oh, we’re almost there,” Noelle mentions as they pass by the hospital, “Oop, sorry, Kris, what were you saying?”
“Nothing.”
“Oookay?” Noelle says, then her face scrunches and her hands grip her skirt, “By the way, you... don’t think Dess’d actually... say that to Ms. Alphys, right?”, Noelle asks, sounding a bit like a child in need of comfort, head withdrawn towards her torso, while her right hand lets go of her skirt and starts to hold her left arm.
Kris shrugs with their shoulders, hands unavailable due to their status as a human forklift.
Noelle’s eyes wander away, and they slowly fall back into silence. Despite everything this kind of silence only they possess is still nice. Until a loud ‘NGAHHH!!!!’ echoes from the now nearby the police station, breaking it quickly.
“Well, at least we know for sure Officer Undyne is in today,” Noelle tries, “M-maybe it’s best we keep this short though!”
“...we could probably just leave the box on the door,” Kris suggests.
“Y...yeah... That works.”
There’s no rush on the walk to school.
“You know, Kris?” Noelle starts, “I kind of realised, we wouldn’t have been much earlier even if we didn’t do the delivery.”
Kris looks at Noelle, their head slightly angles to the right.
“I mean, the main reason we’re so late was because we kept getting stopped!” Noelle crosses her arms and huffs, “So, we would’ve still been late.”
Kris scoffs, “Your point being?”
“My point being that we need to find a way to avoid people on school mornings!”
“Wow,” they put their hands behind them and lean towards her, “THE Noelle Holiday being asocial? Avoiding people, who just want to say ‘hi’?”
Noelle snickers, “It’d be fine if they just wanted to say hi,” she puts her hands back down, “Only if.”
Kris leans further down, having to look up to make eye contact, “And what, pray tell, do they want, then? Oh, so knowledgeable one?”
“Kriissss!”, Noelle grins, then laughs, Kris joining her shortly after.
But reality kicks back in when they make it to the school door.
It's as if no time passed between the opening of the school door and the class door. Suddenly, all their classmates come to view, as well as the two empty desks on the front.
“Morning, Miss Alphys, sorry for being late”, Noelle bows. “Could we come in?”
“O-oh, Kris, Noelle? I figured you two weren’t going to come today,” Alphys says, “Y-you two have been late often these past few weeks—“, she cuts herself off and then whispers to the two, “Not that it m-matters! I’m the cool teacher, y’know. You’re not in trouble. It’s just... even Susie came in earlier than you today, what’s been keeping you two?”
Kris huffs, and leans on the door. Noelle opens her mouth, vocal cords ready to spring into action. But then Alphys’s face changes. She equips a smug, and narrows her eyes.
“Um, if you don’t want to tell me, that’s okay,” Alphys starts, “I was just really... worried about you two!”
Noelle’s eyes widen, “Ummmm! Okay! Can we... get to our seats?????”.
Alphys returns to reality, “Oh, y-yeah.”
“(Thank god.)”
“O-oh, actually!”
“(Oh god.)”
“It seems the chalk is... gone... again?” Alphys tells them, “Since you two came in last... can you go get that for me?”
One of the kids in class speaks up, “Umm, Ms. Alphys? Is it really a good idea to send those two togeth—?”
Another kid shushes them with his tail and warns, “MK! You KNOW Noelle and Kris, Are ALWAYS partners!”
“B-but—”, they utter, but are cut short by a loud *SLAM*.
Everyone but Kris turns to look at the source of the sound.
“U-um... S-Susie?” Alphys muttered. “I-is something wrong?”
The girl who slammed her desk, Susie, looks at the teacher dead in the eye. “Are you gonna send them, or what? I was planning on getting bored to sleep with a lesson, not a soap-opera.”
“O-oh, yeah,” Alphys turns back to the two, “Um... make sure to stay out of trouble!” she says, then, puts on a smug grin, “Or don’t.”
“(Why is she doing that???)”
“Soooo, chalk!” Noelle tries, seemingly lost her ability to start conversations. “Ha-ha, we, um, seem to have really become couriers like Ms. Cattenh—um, ‘Catty’ said.”
Kris nods silently.
“Do you think Ms. Alphys would like coloured ones, or just plain white chalk?” Noelle asks.
“Uhh. Let’s take all the chalk. We don’t gotta worry if we do that.”
“Ummm? I don’t think we should do that?”
Kris makes the argument every one loves, “Why not?”
“Because?? The other class might need them?” she retorts as they stop in front of the school closet. Noelle reaches for the handles.
“But have you considered that—"
*POOF*
“Eeeeeeek!” the loud noise makes Noelle jump. “What the—?”
Darkness pours from the closet. It's as if all the lights went out.
Kris steps back. Eyebrows raised, eyes wide.
“Um, Kris?” Noelle turns back towards them, “Is it just me or is this closet... darker than usual???”
Kris doesn’t respond, only taking another step backwards.
“H-hey, come on, Kris! We just gotta... take the chalk and... um, we can leave after that?” she says, but her expression betrays her words.
Kris’s staring contest with the darkness emitted by the closet finds its conclusion, and their eyes drift to Noelle’s.
“I think... Alphys can live without a chalk.”
“B-but!” Noelle hesitates for a moment, “...I think they might think that we, uh, were using our time for other things... if we come back without the chalk..?” The color of her nose spreads to the rest of her face mid-sentence.
“I... I’m not sure... about this, Elly,” Kris doesn’t flinch at the remark, all attention still at the seeping well of darkness. “I... don’t think normal dark rooms work like that.”
“The lights... probably went out in the building, right?” she theorizes, “I mean, there was that huge POOF sound when we opened the closet doors?”
“I... guess?”
“Then, if it’s alright with you, can you... um, nevermind, why don’t we... enter at the same time?”
“...okay,” they say, then slowly walk next to Noelle, she counts down from three, and they go in at the same time.
“S-see? It’s fine,” Noelle says more to herself than to Kris, “You’re... normally good with these stuff, y’know? (I mean... yesterday, they were laughing at the movie Dess made us watch...) Is something the matter?”, she tries to tease. Her voice coming out more like a cornered kitten, trying to scare off a big dog.
Kris stays silent, but looks away.
“(Umm, okay! Keep your secrets, then,)” she thinks.
They walk further and further from the enterance, Noelle being in front, trying to feel for walls.
“Kris? Is the closet... normally this large?”
“...Noelle. Let’s get out of here. We can say the lights weren’t working and we couldn’t find it.”
“Oh,” she says, and then as if she has been waiting for an out, “Y-yeah, that’s a really good idea, Kris.”
Kris quickly grabs Noelle by the arm and sprints to the exit.
“Kris??”
*SLAM*
“H-huh?”
The door gets shut off right before they make it out. Kris grips Noelle’s arm tighter.
“H-hey! This isn’t funny!! Open the door!” Noelle yells. “Um, hello??”
“I... don’t think there’s anyone there, Noelle,” Kris says.
She turns toward them, “Huh, what do you mean?”, when no response comes she turns back to the door, “Hey, um, open the door... please? Pretty... please? With a Christmas star on top?”
The floor shakes, they both yelp.
“H-huh, what??” Noelle lets out, “An... earthquake?”
“Noelle, I don’t thin—”
Then suddenly there is no floor, only two screams. Then two ‘thud’s.