Chapter Text
Kris awoke on Sunday morning to the sound of pebbles plinking against their bedroom window. They got up and turned to see Susie standing outside, waving at them.
“Big day today, sleepyhead! Get on out here!”
Kris stared down at her for a moment before nodding. They grabbed the backpack full of sugary snacks they kept in a hidden compartment under their bed (an emergency supply, in case they needed a pick-me-up while they were running around without a SOUL), and slung it over their shoulder. They started to head towards the window, then turned to look at the birdcage where they kept the SOUL.
Kris was pretty sure that Dess (or the Knight, or whatever she was now) had no plans of opening a Dark Fountain on festival day. For one thing, there was too much risk of someone falling in who wasn't supposed to be there. Plus, Carol had received a list written in Dess' handwriting a few months ago, containing a list of places and times that seemed to line up with where fountains had appeared, and festival day was conspicuously missing from that list. So since they wouldn't need the SOUL’ s fountain-banishing light, as long as Kris kept their blood sugar levels high and didn't exert themself too badly they could probably get away with leaving the SOUL to rot for a day.
…Or could they? This was more or less uncharted waters. Kris and Carol had gathered all the information they could on SOULless humans, but at the end of the day everything they knew was conjecture. It was probably better to be safe than sorry.
They opened the cage, grabbed the SOUL, and stuffed it into one of the pockets of their backpack. Then they grabbed a small combination lock and fastened the pocket shut, just to be safe.
They returned to the window and tossed the backpack to Susie. She caught it with one hand and set it on the ground. Then she held out her arms, anticipating what Kris was about to do next.
With a grin, Kris leapt from the window into Susie's waiting arms. She gingerly placed them on the ground next to the backpack. “Heh, would you look at that? It's raining Krises!”
Kris chuckled and looked up at her. It was strange; before all this business with the Dark Worlds and the SOUL, they had never seen her smile, unless you counted the menacing grins she’d flash whenever she wanted someone to be scared of her. But ever since their adventures had started, she'd started smiling for real… and yet because Kris was being controlled by the SOUL, they couldn't properly linger to appreciate it. Until now.
“Hey, what are you staring for? I shake you up a bit too hard when I catch you or something, dumbass?”
Kris snapped out of their thoughts and stood up, grabbing their backpack as they did so. “It's nothing. You sleep okay last night?”
“Yeah, actually. Didn't feel like heading home for… reasons, so I ended up crashing at Castle Town. Ralsei’s been busy there. Set up this huge training dummy shaped like a Titan, has had all the darkners in town running combat drills with it. The flying ones have been practicing carrying you-shaped dummies up to its head, while the rest try to break its defenses. Results have been… mixed. I feel like most of town is used to seeing Ralsei as kind of like… a landlord they don't have to pay? Instead of a prince? Folks are still getting used to him giving orders. Still, I guess him having the confidence to give orders in the first place is an improvement…” she trailed off.
Kris turned to look in the direction of the school. “Glad to hear he's been keeping himself busy. Last night was hard on all of us, but… even though he already knew the end of the Prophecy, I worry that being forced to acknowledge it broke something in him.” I can relate, Kris thought. Carol had made sure they knew about the Tragedy from the start of their collaboration, but it still didn't feel fully real to them until they heard Susie's fist smashing through that pane of glass…
“Ralsei’s tougher than he looks. And he knows we would never do… that thing the Prophecy wants us to do.” Susie inspected her knuckles. “Also, less important but once I was back in the dark world my, uh, hand started bleeding again? Ralsei helped to pull out a few glass shards that were stuck in there, but it's still a tad sore, even if it looks fine in the light world.” Kris leaned over to inspect Susie's injured hand, but she wrenched it away. “Anyway, was your night ok? That skeleton guy didn't keep you up too late, did he?”
Kris winced. “The music kept going for… a while. Too long.”
“Damn. Wait, he isn't… like, still there, is he?”
“I didn't check. Don't want to. Why do you think I left through the window instead of through the door? What I don't know can't hurt me.”
“Kris, if I have learned anything from this adventure, it's that things I don't know can hurt me. A lot, actually.” Kris frowned. Susie reached over and ruffled their hair. “And you shouldn't tactically jump out of windows because you're avoiding shit, you should do it because it's badass!”
Kris grinned despite themself. “Alright, I’ll try to take into account how badass my exits are in the future.”
“Damn right you will. Now, onto business.” Susie scratched the back of her head. “So, Ralsei said we should try and chill after what happened yesterday. ‘Enjoy the things I can't have on my behalf’, that sort of garbage. And I want to do that for him, y’know? But…” She looked down. “I can't just sit around and do nothing. Not while he, and Castle Town, and Undyne, and… EVERYONE is counting on us.” She sighed.
Kris shuffled uncomfortably. They knew what she was about to say next, and they didn't have the strength to dissuade her.
“We already know where one of the shelter codes is, we just need to go back for it. And since Mayor Holiday will be out supervising the festival all day, now is the perfect time.”
Kris cringed. If Susie opened the shelter before it was time, everything they and Carol had planned would be ruined… not to mention the unimaginable danger Susie and Ralsei would be in once they entered the shelter’s Dark World. Still, one code wouldn't be enough to open the shelter, and they knew just how to distract her from seeking out the other two…
“Good idea. We’ll have to swing by there anyway to break Noelle out for your date anyway. Two birds, one stone, right?”
“I-” Susie stammered, “I mean, I know I said I was taking her to the festival and all, but that doesn't mean it's a… and why would we have to break her out?”
“Susie, come on? After that stunt you two pulled in front of her mom yesterday? She's turbo-grounded for sure. No way Carol would let her get away with that. She doesn't take pushback from anyone, especially not her kids.”
“Jeez, sounds like a rough neighbor.”
“She's… kinda, yeah. It's complicated. Let’s get a move on, we can chat more on the way.”
Kris led Susie to the woods between the Dreemur and Holiday households. “The front gate is locked, but there's old paths through the woods that I used to explore with… that I used to explore as a kid.”
“Heh, nice. The Mayor will never see us coming.” She paused. “Say, you and Noelle… her house is covered in pictures of you as kids, you know all these secret routes to her place, what gives? There's obviously history with you two, but when I asked about it yesterday Noelle wouldn't give me a straight answer.”
Kris sighed. “I mean, our parents were college friends, our siblings were practically married, and we… we were…”
A voice at the back of Kris’ head said “We were everything to each other”, but they pushed that thought to the back of their mind. They were glad the SOUL wasn't around to pick that dialogue option…
“It was like gravity, you know? Everyone else in our families was close, so it was only natural that we were close as well. And then when Dess disappeared, and our families split, that same gravity pushed us apart.” Kris looked away. “I mean, it was bound to happen anyway. Noelle and I couldn't be more different, it's only natural we’d go our separate ways eventually.”
“Hey, don't get fatalistic on me, dude. I'm more than sick of that. Just because you're different doesn't mean you didn't mean anything to each other back then. Or that you can't mean anything to each other now.”
Kris raised an eyebrow. “What’s… that supposed to mean?”
“Just… it’s obvious you both didn’t want to drift apart. And if there’s one thing this business with the prophecy has taught me, it’s that we can’t let ourselves treat shit we don’t want to happen as inevitable. Nothing in our lives should be written in stone! Er… glass. Whatever. You get what I mean!”
Kris turned to look at Susie. She didn’t understand what the years of distance had done to them and Noelle. The guilt that gnawed at them due to their part in Dess’ disappearance, the walls they’d put up to avoid hurting her more than they already had, the secrets they and Carol were keeping for her sake. Susie didn’t understand, couldn’t understand, and yet…
“Yeah, I get what you mean.”
Suddenly, Susie leapt in front of Kris, holding one arm out in front of them protectively. “Don't move, Kris! I thought I saw something moving out there…”
A stillness passed over the forest. The birds had stopped chirping, the insects had stopped buzzing. Out of the corner of Kris' eye, they thought they saw the shadow of a humanoid, antlered figure.
Susie was still looking around frantically. “I’ve heard rumors about a… thing out here. People say that that dog gang was attacked by a monster that came from the forest near the mayor's house. At first I thought that the Mayor had scared them off with her sword, and they were just describing it with flowery language, but…”
Kris spoke, a bit louder than normal. “Don't worry. Everything is going according to plan.”
Out of the corner of their eye, Kris thought they saw the shadow nod its head.
“Kris, our only ‘plan’ was to walk through the woods to get to Noelle's, what are you talking about?”
“There's nothing here that we should be scared of. Let's move on.”
Susie slowly nodded, and the two continued walking down the path. Gradually, the ambient sounds of forest creatures returned, and Susie relaxed.
Eventually, the massive white walls of the Holiday mansion came into view through the trees. “Alrighty, home stretch Susie. Prepare your speech for when you gallantly rescue Noelle or whatever.”
“Yeah, about that. Can we… talk, real quick?”
Kris turned to Susie, who had an uncharacteristically apprehensive look written on her face.
“Look Kris, I… I really do like hanging out with Noelle. A lot. She and Ralsei are some of the only people I've ever wanted to be… gentle around. Her asking me to the festival was like something out of a dream. But - and don't tell Toothpaste Boy this, but - I’ve been thinking about the prophecy.”
“I see.”
“If I’m supposed to be the Girl, and the prophecy says the Girl will find love, and we don't want the prophecy to come true…”
Kris frowned. “Susie… you were just telling me not to treat bad shit as inevitable. Defying the Prophecy doesn't just mean doing the opposite of what it says or something - it means not letting it have power over our lives, period. So if you want something that happens to be in the Prophecy… go take it. But know that it's you making that choice for yourself, not some ancient words on a wall.”
Susie nodded silently for a minute, then grinned. “Heh, when did you get so good at making me feel better? Ralsei rubbing off on you or something?”
Kris blushed and looked away. “Just trying to help.”
“It’s just… it feels like there's gotta be some sort of catch, you know? I mean, it's not every day that the hottest girl in school-”
“-Gets to go on a date with Noelle Holiday, right?” Kris said, finishing Susie's sentence with a grin. “I know, the stuff of legends.”
Susie's face turned red. “Hey, save the heavy ordinance like that for when we have to fight another water cooler! Almost as bad as when you said my hair looked nice in front of Ralsei and Lancer…”
Kris walked a bit faster towards the Holiday house.
As they arrived, Susie frowned. “How are we supposed to get in? I imagine the Mayor has one heck of a security system.”
“We’ll just use our agent on the inside.” Kris took a strategy out of Susie's book and tossed a pair of pebbles up to plink against Noelle’s window. There was a bit of motion behind the curtains as she peeked out, before she threw it open upon seeing who was outside. “Ohmigosh, Kris? And Susie!? What are you doing here???”
Kris just smiled. “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair!”
Noelle laughed. “Alright, alright, I’ll get it.” She stepped away from the window, returning a minute later with a rope ladder. She said in a singsong voice “‘You may climb up the golden stair.’”
Kris ascended the ladder, followed by Susie. Its rungs were small, but surprisingly sturdy. Susie whistled as she reached the top. “Dang, that thing held up nice! Worried it was gonna snap under my weight, heh. Why does your room have a rope ladder in it anyways?”
“Kris and I made it when we were little. We were always sneaking around to play games in the woods, and having a secret way to get out felt… I dunno. Exciting? Mom told me to throw it out when she caught Dess and Azzy using it, but I just, um, hid it? Asgore helped me replace some of the older parts a few months ago, when he was done with his housekeeping. Said it reminded him of how things used to be…”
Susie's eyes lit up. “Oh, sneaking around! That reminds me…” she turned to Kris. “You and Noelle catch up for a minute, I… need to go to the bathroom.” She got up with a wink and left, presumably to go look for the code. Kris and Noelle stood in silence for a moment, before Noelle took a seat on her weird long couch and patted the spot next to her. Kris hesitated, then took a seat just past where she’d indicated, leaving some space between them.
“So… how are you doing today, Kris?” Noelle asked.
Kris shrugged. “Tired, I guess.”
Noelle suddenly froze. “Kris, can you… say that again?”
“I'm… tired? Not for any reason, just…”
Noelle stared at Kris, as if searching for something. “Kris, your voice is different. Or rather it's… not different anymore. And your posture, you - you're slouching again, you haven't done that all week!”
“Ouch, ok, no need to…”
“Kris, I’m serious! You have been acting weird non-stop for days and now you're not, and you even remembered the old Rapunzel thing we used to do, and… is this some kind of prank? It's a prank, isn't it?
Kris' mind was racing. They had noticed Noelle was picking up on some of the SOUL’s eccentricities, but they never expected her to put everything together like this! That same inquisitiveness that led Noelle to scan every pixel of a game to find glitches and secrets was now being turned on them. They started to sweat.
“Um, yeah, you got me! Just a big prank, heh. A Kris classic, just for you!”
Noelle slowly blinked. “Alright, so it's definitely not a prank then. You’d never admit to a real prank that easily. Kris, what is going on?”
“Um, I… I’ve kinda been in survival mode for the past while. I probably seemed odd because I was running on adrenaline. I don't want to get into it, but Susie has been helping me deal with… some stuff. Nothing you need to worry about.”
Despite Kris' words, worry did crease Noelle's brow. She crept closer to Kris. Her pinkie finger brushed against theirs, making them tense up. Every miniscule touch of her fur against their skin felt like another year worth of repressed emotions threatening to break out. “Susie… yesterday she said something about you and… enemies? Kris, are the two of you involved in something dangerous? If anything bad is going on, my mom can help-”
Kris would have laughed if the situation wasn’t so serious. If only Noelle knew just how much her mom was tied up in all this… “It’s nothing that big. Really, it’s way more boring than whatever you’re imagining. Not something you should be worried about. Besides, like I said I’ve got Susie watching my back now. You think anything in town could get past her?” They crossed their arms, leaning away from Noelle with faux confidence.
Noelle blushed a bit at the second mention of Susie, but then widened her eyes, as if realizing something. “Kris, about that… you and Susie have gotten really close these past few days. Like, I literally don't think I’ve seen you leave each other's side. Are you two - I mean I don't want to assume, and obviously it's not my business, but - I just want to make sure I’m not getting in the way of any-.”
Shit. “No, no, no, there's nothing going on between - Susie and I aren't -”
Susie practically threw open the door to Noelle's room. “Kris is telling the truth, there is NOTHING going on, and we are NOT acting suspicious.” She clamped her hands over Noelle's ears and leaned over to Kris. “Was she asking about the dark world? Does she know? How could she figure us out, we're like masters of secrecy!”
“It's alright, Susie. Just a misunderstanding.”
“Oh. Cool.” She slowly removed her hands from Noelle's ears. “Sorry about that.”
“Nope, it's! Ok!” Noelle said, her face a bright red. “You can do that! Whenever you want!”
“... Alright? Anyway, I finished finding the… bathroom. We grabbing Noelle and heading to the festival, Kris?”
“W-wait,” Noelle said, recovering from her Susie-induced panic. “To the festival?”
“Yeah? I said I would take you yesterday, didn't I? And Kris is coming too, obviously. Why do you think we came all the way here?”
“I don't know, I just- what about my mom? Aren't you worried about what she’ll do if she sees us?”
“I’ll handle Carol.” Said Kris. “She's always gone easy on me. Plus, this operation was technically my idea.”
“Faha! True, if mom hears that you're the one who broke me out and dragged me to the festival, she might actually thank you!”
Susie was puzzled. “I don't get it. Is this some kinda inside joke between your families?”
Kris cringed. “It's barely a joke. We'll… explain it to you on the way.”
The three descended the rope ladder one by one. “So the gist of it is that Carol spent most of our early childhood trying to convince Noelle and I that the two of us should get married.”
“KRIS!” Noelle said.
“What, is that not what she meant when she said that one day the two of us would ‘unify our family lines’?”
“I- she meant it jokingly! Mostly! And besides, you don't need to put it so bluntly in front of Susie!”
“Hey, I don't mind bluntness.” Susie said. “Sometimes I miss the point of a conversation if people try to talk around it, heh. But wait, weren't your siblings a thing back then? Why didn't Carol just focus on them?”
Noelle wrung her hands. “You’ve heard about Dess and Azzy? Mom liked Asriel, but she never fully approved of his and Dess' relationship. She always wanted daughters who would help ‘defend this town as I always have’. Girls who were both fierce and disciplined. And, well… Dess got all the fierceness, and I got all the discipline. Neither of us was what she wanted.”
“Hey, you can be plenty fierce when you want to! Back when Quee- I mean, uh, I imagine - like if hypothetically someone you cared about was being threatened by a giant robot…”
“It's kind of you to want to make me feel better, Susie, but… as I was saying, Mom felt that Azzy wasn't a good fit for Dess. He enabled her rebellious side, while softening what Mom saw as her strengths. Kris, on the other hand… well, Kris was always her favorite out of the four of us.”
“Which was always a foolish choice on her part, I should add.” Kris said. “I am a troublemaker and a scoundrel, opposed to all that she holds dear!”
Noelle giggled. “True, but you and her always had the same… intensity. Even Dess couldn't beat you two in a staring contest.”
Kris shrugged. “I dunno why your mom makes bad decisions, Ellie. I’m just glad for the free chocolate milk.”
Noelle laughed, throwing her arms around Kris’ shoulders in a hug. “Kris, I don't know what has broken you out of this funk you’ve been in, but I am so glad you're back!”
Kris pushed her away gently, holding back a blush. “Um, cool. I’m going to scout ahead down the trail, you two should hang out or whatever.” Before Noelle or Susie could respond, Kris started speedwalking down the trail.
Kris could deal with having a crush on Susie. She was the strongest, most unflinchingly determined person they had ever met, a true terror on the battlefield, and yet surprisingly kind in those moments when she let her guard down. She'd been their main lifeline in the chaos of the past few days, always there to catch them when they felt they would fall. Kris didn't have any illusions about the two of them getting together; even in the unlikely scenario that she returned their feelings, they knew that when their collaboration with Carol and the Knight inevitably came to light she would toss them aside like the scum they were. That was fine. They’d accepted it. They would just keep their feelings to themself; one pleasant, precious secret to add to the piles of more sinister ones they were already keeping.
They could not deal with having a crush on Noelle. She was too precious for Kris to stomach thinking of her that way. A sacred idol from a past that was as lost to them as Dess was. They had spent seven years burying even their platonic feelings for her behind a wall of guilt and shame, to say nothing of their various other feelings. And yet despite all that effort, all it took was a hug and the implication that she’d missed them to bring everything rushing back. The way she would yelp when she was startled, or giggle when Kris said a cheesy one-liner, the soft touch of her fur when she hugged them, the fluttering feeling they would sometimes get in their chest when she said their name… it was too much to forget, too much to bury, and far, far too much for them to deal with right now. Feeling this way meant being ever-tempted to try and get closer to her again, and getting closer to her again meant inevitably hurting her again. And the possibility of hurting Noelle stung worse than forgetting, as impossible as forgetting her was.
Also, admitting their feelings would mean Carol won in the end, and she already had far too much control over their and Noelle’s lives for Kris’ comfort.
Getting Susie and Noelle together should have been a perfect solution. Susie could help Noelle learn to stand up for herself, and Noelle would give her a safe space to show her softer side. Kris wanted to be happy for the two of them. Instead they felt their mind filling with a cocktail of all the emotions they had been trying to avoid. They had to get away, find some excuse to dip out before they ruined things for the girls. If only-
“Hey, there you are. Been trying to catch up for like five minutes!” Susie clapped a hand over Kris' shoulder, breathing heavily. “Noelle was talking about how she really wants to ride the Ferris wheel, but her mom is definitely going to be supervising that area. I was thinking that since you're the resident prank master, you might have some ideas on how to draw her away long enough for the three of us to-”
Excellent. Two birds with one stone. “I know how to keep Carol occupied. You and Noelle have fun, I'll handle this.”
“Wait, that's not what I-”
Kris was already gone.