Chapter Text
December.
…
It was December in Hometown, meaning yet another year of cold for the lone human. If the already stacked dysmorphia of being the only human in a thirty mile radius wasn’t bad, Kris was now the only person having to bundle up in multiple layers just to be comfortable, all because they didn’t have fur. They really wished they did sometimes.
Being located in New England, Hometown experienced some harsh winters. Not to say they weren’t enjoyable, especially in Kris’ younger years. They had vivid memories of trips to the park, sledding, making snow angels at the lake. Those days it seemed like it was just them four against the world.
Kris bitterly shoved their hands into their coat pockets, their woolen gloves getting haphazardly caught on a zipper. Biting their lip, Kris blinked away a few dry tears, increasing their pace and walking a bit faster; Noelle stumbled a bit, attempting to catch up.
“Kris? Never took you for a speedwalker, faha!” Noelle chirped, quickly matching Kris’ pace. Kris solemnly nodded.
“Just trying to get out of the cold…”
Walking into the much warmer building, Kris sighed a bit in relief, brushing some loose snow off their puffer coat. Walking side by side, Kris and Noelle both approached their respective lockers. Whilst Noelle immediately locked in her combination, clicking the small latch open, Kris struggled for a moment. Their gloves couldn’t provide the same grip, and they angrily ripped their right glove off with their teeth.
Noelle watched with a weakened brow as Kris furled theirs, quickly putting in their combination with years of muscle memory. Clicking their own locker latch open, they began shoving their gloves into the empty space, their coat going with.
“Kris?”
Slugging off their backpack, they unzipped it, pulling out a few notebooks and books.
“Kris.”
Shoving their backpack along with everything else, they had to hold their stuff in the locker with one hand to keep it from spilling across the floor.
“Kris!”
*SLAM*
Shutting their locker quickly, and rather forcefully, Noelle jumped back a little in surprise. Kris tilted their head, their eyes showing more guilt than their face allowed them to let on. Bending down, Kris picked up their lock, which they had thrown on the ground after opening.
“... ‘m sorry.” Kris mumbled, clicking their lock back in place.
“Kris, I know I don’t even have to ask why you are moody, and I am too, trust me.” Noelle said, turning to fully face Kris, who could only face her from a turned head.
“But listen, I think Dess would… would want us to be happy, okay?”
“...”
Walking away, Kris slinked into their classroom, the bell ringing as they did. Looking around, Noelle found herself alone in the hallway. Taking her own bookbag and placing it in her locker, she shut hers, albeit much more softly.
Looking down at the ground, Noelle stared blankly for a few moments before wiping the heel of her palm across her eye, then wiping the tear streaked palm against her sweater.
Who was she kidding? ‘Be happy’? She was lying to herself as much as she was lying to Kris, and she didn’t even know why. Kris knew she was hurting even harder than they were, why did she feel the need to try and lie to them when they were alone?
To make them feel better, of course; Noelle thought in her head. Rocking back and forth on her heels, she held her books close to her chest, staring at the ceiling, trying to not let tears stain her fur. With the halls quiet, she could hear a voice.
“Has a-anyone… uhm, seen Noelle?”
After a moment, she heard the echo of footsteps, then the classroom door swinging open. She didn’t turn her head away from the ceiling, she didn’t want to risk whoever was coming out there to check on her to see her crying.
But feeling familiar arms wrap around her torso, she closed her eyes, letting the tears drip down her face freely.
“Are we seriously eating outside still? It’s fuckin’ freezing!”
Kris smiled as Noelle began to ramble about how, ‘The cold shouldn’t stop us from eating where we always do!’, as she always did after every time Susie asked. Although Kris was still more affected than Susie was by the cold, it was still reassuring knowing somebody else hated it as much as they did.
Susie shivered, rubbing her jacket sleeves, trying to keep herself warm. Kris keenly noticed the second snow hit the ground, Susie didn’t change into anything warmer. She, in fact, continued to wear what she always wore. Kris started to question whether or not it was willingly.
“Yo, Susie.” Kris spoke out, elbowing her in the side.
“Ack, shit bro, that hurts. What?” She asked, pursing her lips and rubbing her side. Kris took off their beanie, handing it over to Susie. She narrowed her eyes, glancing between both Kris and the hat. Quietly she took the beanie, putting it over her head.
“I’m not giving you my brownie for this.”
“No fair. I need something for being nice.”
“Really? The satisfaction of helping a friend doesn’t turn you on or something? Why are you always helping Noelle then?” Susie responded with a smirk, but quickly yelped as Kris stamped their winter boot down on Susie’s sneaker. Their face washed with red, not from the cold, and Noelle laughed awkwardly, tucking her head down to hide her glowing nose.
“Actually, I shovel her driveway cause Carol pays me, like, twenty bucks when I do it.”
“Ask for more dude. Aren’t y’all like, rich rich?”
Noelle smiled and rolled her eyes, slowly unfurling her scarf and handing it to Susie. Once again, she looked sceptical, her eyes darting between the scarf, Noelle, and Kris.
“Alright seriously, what are you guys getting at? Am I being punked?! Where are the cameras!?” She shouted out, turning her head on a swivel, looking for signs of the formerly mentioned.
“No, Susie, you aren’t being punked. It’s called kindness. Also, surprised you think a camera crew would drive all the way to Hometown.” Kris said, tilting an eyebrow as Susie accepted the scarf, wrapping it around her neck.
“Yeah, yeah; you could just be getting Nerdly to film it for you… Still not giving you my brownie though.” Susie said back. As they continued to walk towards their usual lunch spot: a picnic bench, Kris saw out of the corner of their eye Susie smiling from behind the scarf. She wasn’t shivering anymore.
It was just nerves. Asking a friend to spend the night? Completely normal. So why was Noelle so nervous?
She continued to overthink more and more. Getting back into Kris’ life in the first place was already a challenge. Luckily, she had bumped into both them and Susie at the storage closet in the school, and from there, she was talking to Kris like normal.
She used to visit the Dreemurr house all the time, what could be making her so worked up to ask now? She knew it wasn’t the years spent apart, or at least, it wasn’t the main reason… So what could it be?
“Noelle, I can hear that.”
Blinking and snapping back to reality, Noelle turned to see Berdly tilting his eyebrow, eyeing Noelle’s knee, which had been audibly hitting against the bottom of her desk.
“S-Sorry, faha! Just… just thinking! You know me.” Noelle said back, smiling.
“Whatever you are thinking about doing involving Kris, I think you should.”
Widening her eyes, she glanced around, laughing humorlessly.
“W-What do you mean, Berdly?”
“You were doing the thing again.”
“The th— w-what? What thing?!”
“I don’t know, I see you doing it all the time. Whenever the word ‘Kris’ is spoken, it’s like you’re some kind of Russian sleeper agent. You just start staring off into space and smiling.”
“... L-Like, like a funny smile?”
“Nope. More like a love smile.” Berdly said back, grinning deeply. Noelle laughed. Loudly.
Looking back, she saw Kris now looking up from their paper, eyeing Noelle with a raised brow. She quickly looked away, turning back to Berdly and now speaking in a much lower tone.
“I don’t know what you are trying to say, but no. Not true, not happening.”
Berdly raised his eyebrows even more, smiling even more mischievously. Noelle widened her eyes even more.
“N-No, Berdly! Stop… stop doing that look!”
His eyebrows raised even further. Noelle’s gaze softened, and she faceplanted on her desk, groaning.
“Ugh… fine. I’ll ask.”
“You’re helpless.” Berdly said blankly, picking his pencil back up and continuing to write. Noelle rolled her eyes, tucking her arms together and resting on top of them. Slowly, she started to stare off into space, her knee bouncing up and down as she grinned softly.
Berdly glanced over, and rolled his eyes.
“But yeah, that’s basically how I got banned off of all Minecrap servers.” Kris shrugged, tucking their hands back into their pockets.
“Seriously dude?!” Berdly squawked. “Now we can’t play Napwars anymore!”
“Not my fault, that guy was talking way too much shit. I had to say something.”
“And he just so happened to be an admin?”
“Yep.”
“... Damn.”
As they walked past the Librarby, Berdly waved goodbye to Kris as he split off, walking into the nice, warm building. Fuck the cold.
Hearing footsteps, Kris turned to see Noelle jogging to catch up. They stopped walking, allowing Noelle to slow down as well. Panting a little, Noelle adjusted her bookbag on her back.
“Hey!”
“Hi.”
“Hello!”
Kris smiled. “Yeah, what’s up?”
“... Hi!” Noelle spoke again, still panting even though she stopped running a couple of seconds ago. Kris chuckled even harder, pinching the bridge of their nose.
“Noelle, I know your mom is always saying some B.S. about how, ‘How you greet someone sets the mood…’ yada-yada, but I think you hit it out of the park with just the ‘Hey’.”
“Sorry, sorry… just, y’know, happy to see you!”
Kris’ cheeks dusted rosy for a moment as they tried sinking into their coat. After a moment, they took a calm breath.
“I know, it's always such a pleasure to meet me. I’d want to talk to me too!”
Noelle giggled at Kris’ comment, making them blush up even further. Biting their lip, they waited quietly. After a few seconds, they raised their eyebrow.
“... Well?”
“Right, right…” Kris smiled as Noelle found her train of thought again.
“Well, I just wanted to ask if… if maybe I could come over to your house tonight?” Kris felt their throat tighten as Noelle continued to talk. “It's Friday and all, so we don’t have to worry about homework or anything, at least for a day. I just thought… I don’t know, I just wanted to relive old times I guess, faha…”
Noelle now sat in her own baited silence, waiting for Kris to say something. After a moment, she saw them nod their head, pause, then nod again.
“Y-Yeah, I’d love it.”
Suppressing the urge to jump and scream in joy, she instead opted for a shaky smile.
“I’ll bust out the fine china and everything.”
“... you will?”
“Well, I mean, yeah. Mom is up in Ebott city right now, something about the school board.”
Noelle didn’t understand why Toriel not being home made her more giddy. Well, she knew exactly why, but… why was she thinking that? Aside from Berdly’s comment, she’d never truly faced the fact if she… if she loved Kris or not. And why was she thinking of these things with Kris?! They’d never.
“Is… that a problem or…?” Kris offered, their eyes showing a hint of fear. Quickly, Noelle shook her head.
“No, not at all! I’ll be over… say, 6?”
“It’s a da— yup, soUnd’s good.”
Kris instantly closed their eyes, pursing their lips tightly from their blunder. It was a terrible look, they could’ve easily played that off as just the saying, why did they have to make it worse by switching?! Not to mention their voice cracking…
“F-Faha, see you then!” Noelle responded before quickly walking ahead of Kris. They could’ve sworn they saw her nose glowing… but they summed it up to their imagination.
“Waitwaitwait, back up a little.” Susie’s voice rang through Kris’ phone speaker, their phone placed on top of their chest as they stared up, tossing a small rubber ball against the ceiling.
“Say that again?” Susie said once more. Kris sighed, rubbing their hands against their eyes.
“I started to say, ‘It’s a date’, but stopped halfway through— because like, I don’t want to incentivise it’s a date, y’know? I think it should be up to her to view it as a date.”
“... Well, didn’t she ask to come over?”
“Yeah?”
“And she seemed super nervous and awkward before?”
“Yeah…?”
“You’re a dumbass. Don’t mess this up bro, just be you. She already eats up your shitty jokes anyways, I legit don’t think this is possible to fuck up.”
“Wha— my jokes are NOT shitty!”
“Cope.”
Before Kris could respond, Susie hung up the call. Groaning, Kris placed their hands on their forehead, pressing their elbows against their knees. Did they want it to be a date?
Of course they did. They wanted that more than anything, but it just… it wasn’t possible. They’d gone through too much, seen too much… it was a fantasy to think they could be anything else after what happened with Dess. They’d already assumed they could never be friends again, which they were ecstatic was disproven.
Susie’s words continued to echo through Kris’ mind.
‘Don’t mess this up bro…’
…
They were going to mess something up, weren’t they?