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"You're pretty, you know that? It's annoying."
Kris pauses.
They're sitting by the lake, skipping stones with Susie on a lazy Sunday afternoon. The summer sunlight shines upon them, bouncing off their vision in a mirage of bokeh.
It's summer break and they'd both been helping Asgore with the flower shop today, Susie with the heavy lifting and Kris with taking care of the flowers. Susie had teased them for it, before Kris had pinned a purple iris to her apron and she had gone a deeper shade of purple, falling quiet as she sorted through several boxes.
Asgore had let them go for a snack break, and so here they are, by the lake. There's not much to do in their small town, but Kris finds that spending time with Susie is enjoyable by itself. They're content doing whatever, as long as it's with Susie. Their friendship is easy, simple like that.
However, what Susie just said sends Kris' entire world spinning.
Kris lowers the rock that they'd been preparing to throw and turns to Susie with slightly widened eyes. It's their version of disbelief. Susie notices and huffs a little, setting down her own stone as well.
"Dude, have you seriously not noticed?" Susie grumbles a little, turning a little red. "Don't make this awkward, man. You know sappy stuff ain't my strong suit."
Kris just stares, their red eyes peeking through their bangs. They're confused, and so they tilt their head to prompt Susie. It's them asking, "Can you explain it to me?"
Susie looks away, and stares at the lake for a bit while Kris waits quietly. After a few minutes of Susie looking like she's gone through mental warfare, she sighs and looks at Kris with narrowed eyes.
"I mean, you're still pretty unsettling.." Susie starts, scratching the back of her head. "Your eyes are so insanely bright that it's alarming, your demeanour is sometimes a little spooky and.. Shit, I don't know how to put it, but you're just kinda demonic sometimes, man."
That just prompts Kris to snort silently, baring their fangs for a brief minute. They wear that reputation on their sleeve, and Susie knows they do, because she snorts at their reaction.
"Anyway.." She speaks, bringing her arm down to rest on her propped knee. "All that aside, there are other parts of you that aren't.. as unsettling."
Driven by curiousity, Kris raises an eyebrow and Susie knows what that means. "Like what?"
They're curious. Honestly, they've never been called anything other than "weird" or "creepy" by those around them. They've been called "cute" by Asgore, Toriel, and Asriel, but that's their family. It's different.
Susie's different.
She's always been different.
As if she can sense their thoughts, she coughs into her hand noand there's a deep magenta accenting her cheeks. It's a nice look on her, Kris thinks briefly, before she opens her mouth and words start tumbling out one after another, as if fighting for their spot in a landslide of Susie's heart.
"Well.. Your eyes kinda remind me of the fresh apples at the store. You know, the ones Sans restocks weekly because he juggles them at the counter to piss me off? Yeah, those. Your hair looks like melted chocolate. Kind of like the hot cocoa from the diner, when the sun hits it like that. It's weirdly soft too. You also have these freckles that showed up recently.. What are you, the sun's child or something? It looks like the cinnamon powder Toriel puts in her pies. And.."
Susie trails off, seemingly growing aware of just how embarassingly mushy she had sounded. She hadn't realize she was capable of sounding so.. disgustingly poetic. It's a little scary, knowing that being with Kris brings out this side of her
(It's incredibly scary.)
Susie coughs again, and while she avoids eye contact with Kris, something in her expression pulls together with determined grit and she continues on, her voice softer now.
"And.. You don't do it very often, but you have a nice smile, Kris. I'd.. like to see it more. I want to see it more often."
Susie says, now purposely looking away, looking at the trees who didn't have soft, brown hair and ruby red eyes reminiscent of an apple pie's filling.
"But yeah, you're pretty. End of story, Pisses me off sometimes."
She concludes, and Kris is left feeling like they've been run over by a truck, their mouth falling open as they process what Susie's said.
Whoa.
Kris's face is scarlet, they're sure of it. What the hell..? They had never seen themselves in that light before, and here Susie was, thrusting them into the spotlight in that brash manner of hers that's become so familiar to Kris, doing it like it was second nature to her.
… But that's just like her, isn't it?
In all the ways Susie had described Kris, described the ways in which they were pretty to her.. All of it leads back to moments they had shared with her. Kris has always been the more observant one out of them both, but Susie was perhaps a competitor in that regard when it came to Kris specifically.
Buying apples and other groceries at the store for Toriel, baking pies together.. It's because they've spent so much time together that Susie is able to observe all these details about Kris. And Kris hadn't even realized.
Something warm blooms in Kris's chest, like a cluster of marigolds, wrapping themselves around their ribcage. It hurts a little, but it's a pain that Kris wants to sit with.
(Susie, always so awkward and so violent.. yet so sweet and so sentimental, despite it all.)
Against all odds, they find their voice for a moment and they find the courage to speak alongside it. Susie deserves that much; Susie deserves everything.
"… Thank you. I.. hope you know you're.."
".. I'm what, dude?" Susie turns a little, her eyes peering at Kris, the blush still present on her cheeks.
Kris takes a deep breath and meets Susie's eyes: Her eyes sparkle like citrine in the summer heat.
"You're.. beautiful. All of you is beautiful."
The purple iris on Susie's apron sways in the wind, as it dances to the rhythm of Susie's quickened heartbeat and her eyes are widened, her mouth open in surprise and the blush painting her face.
Yeah, Kris thinks again. It's a nice look on her.