Chapter Text
It was just a night. A not really a casual night, a hurtful one even. It felt so weirdly upsetting, more than it should have been, just a growing feeling, just to disappear at this moment right now.
Kris buried their face in their pillow, rolling around on the bed like it had spikes on it, feeling their head about to crack open like it’s a Pandora Box or something, just to make the whole situation even worse.
The loud noises coming from downstairs set pure disgust and hatred in them. Not even anger, honestly, there was a glint of fury in the feeling, but it was much more just misery. Lingering misery that was stuck to them like it was crawling in their skin.
The worst part, Kris felt like mom didn’t even seem to care. All tipsy, dancing around the living room with that weird, annoying stranger with his stupid unfunny jokes and irritating attitude all the time, cracking puns and flirting with each other, all that filth around. Awful, genuinely awful.
Did she not see how much the divorce has affected dad? Asriel even?? Kris themselves??? Seriously, can a divorce be that bad that it even had affected the TV. And right now, she’s just… dancing and drinking down there?! What is wrong with her! Kris felt their heart sink even more as they continued rolling around.
Sometimes, Kris felt like mom was raising a failure. I mean, it is much more obvious that she would prefer another monster child like Asriel instead of Kris, based of how she treats Susie. Or treated. A human in a place full of monsters surely sounded weird, didn’t it? The only thing that Kris could’ve wished for from time to time is just never even to have been adopted by their family.
They just want to go home.
So many things bothering them, it just feels like something on their chest that is not going away anytime soon. They were so tired, they are just a child, a scared child. And there was so much of things that bothered them at the moment. The Roaring Knight, the festival, the divorce, the.. Player.
For a second, Kris threw a glance at the bird cage at the corner of the room, quickly looking back. Player was slowly floating up and down in it, their dull red shine spreading across the room. Kris continued looking away, trying to focus on anything right now just to get those thoughts away, failing miserably.
Player themselves remained quiet. Unusually quiet, knowing how chattery they can be with Kris. Maybe that’s because they’re the only one who witnesses their existence and can properly hear them. At days, it just feels like having a chattery annoying streamer around you, unnecessarily commenting every single thing about your life. I mean, it was like that, actually, except they weren’t really streaming.
They seemed bothered about the noises themselves, in some way. It felt weird - Player doesn’t have any expressions or basically anything to express, but they’re oddly easy to read.
“HEY, UH, KRIS?” — They spoke up, quietly, almost like they’re afraid to scare their vessel away like a hurt animal or something.
Kris looked up slightly with the pillow still pressed against their ears tightly, almost slipping away from the grip. They looked too concerned and tired right now to even be annoyed by Player’s attempt to interact, they just listened.
For a second, Player stayed silent, not sure what to say. The red heart-shaped figure’s shadow pressed against the walls, covering its own glow. It seemed worried at some point.
Sure, Kris and Player never seemed to really get along. Well, for Player is because Kris wouldn’t really let them to try to get along, and for Kris.. I mean, obvious, isn’t it? Imagine you’re a kind of isolated teenager going through bullying at school, existential crisis and your parents divorce.
Your life kinda sucks but it’s bearable and you don’t really complain, but then suddenly some deadass essentially god invades right into your body like they’re a cardiac surgery professional and starts controlling everything you say and do. Also they suck ass at dodging. Kind of a reason not to really like them, huh?
Player stumbled across their words, feeling Kris’ sharp but exhausted gaze on them for a second, before a glowing, half transparent, fully red pair of soundproof headphones popped out of nowhere right next to Kris, falling into their hands gently. — “HERE. FIGURED OUT U’D NEED THESE.”
Kris stared at the pair of headphones silently for a second, not sure how to react at the unexpected act of weirdly sickeningly sweet kindness. Before they even prepared to mumbled anything, Player started to nervously rant about it.
“UH, SURE, THEY’RE NOT REAL, BUT, UH, STILL WORK LIKE REAL ONES! I MATERIALISED SOME MAGIC, SHOULD DO IT’S JOB.. I MEAN, CAN’T BE 2 BAD!” — Player chuckled, still kind of jumpy. Kris felt their gaze soften, as they fidgeted with if, making small circles with their thumbs, feeling the unfamiliar texture. — “I KNOW THERE HAS BEEN A LOT GOING ON RECENTLY, AND MOST OF IT WAS MY FAULT, MAYBE, BUT I STILL HOPE THAT ONE DAY WE CAN.. YK… GET ALONG, @ LEAST A BIT, HAHA-“
Kris focused their gaze on the headphones, feeling their thoughts fade away slowly. It was weird, but comforting. Sure, they usually just had beef with the Player, but for some reason from time to time they could have wholesome interactions, that felt natural.
Maybe like that time when Player first saw Berdley and them and Kris had an unserious argument either he is gay or european. Or maybe that time when Kris was making Player take their too too off, ending up in one themselves. Sometimes they could just sync, or unseriously agree with something with complete seriousness. And usually, they didn’t even realise they were doing it. Maybe sometimes it’s not that bad.
“..YEAH, UM, SO-“ — At the background, Player continued to babble, before Kris could quietly interrupt them with a simple :
“Thanks.”
As Player went silent. They felt themselves calming down a bit. — “NO.. NO PROBLEM.” — They reassured softly but rapidly.
Kris found themselves fidgeting around with the headphones a bit more, before starting to put them on. — “It means a lot for me, I-“
‘ ♫ NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP • NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN • NEVER GONNA RUN AROUND AND DESERT YOU ♪ ‘
…They were, in fact, not soundproof. Very much just headphones. Kris didn’t take their hands off the headphones after putting them, just freezing in the moment as their eyes went soullessly open.
Player snickered.
Kris silently and very slowly took the headphones off, still deadly staring at the front like crazy, not saying a word. At their reaction, Player started trying to hold its laughter. Oh, that motherfucker.
I mean, their plan was to distract Kris from the noises, AND IT DID WORK, but the thing that they did not think about is the consequences. And exactly - how hard their ass is gonna be beaten right now on the counter of how much dates with Berdley that is going to cost for Kris.
“Get out of the cage or this is going to turn into a Kingsman type of fight.” — Kris muttered with no emotion, looking at the Player. Feeling like they’re getting jum- oh ok they’re already getting assaulted.