Chapter Text
“Kris, if you do not wake up, we will be late for school!”
Kris’ eyes open where they lie in bed, as their mother opens the drapes.
“I will wait for you outside, alright?”
They lie silently in bed for a moment, as though waiting for something more than their mother to leave the room.
A few seconds pass, and nothing seems to change at all.
They blink.
Slowly, they lift their arms up, and flex their fingers in the air.
They stare at the sight, as though they’ve never seen it before.
They reach up, and put two fingers under their own chin.
They wait.
Seconds pass.
They frown, and reach to their chest.
Their hand makes some indistinct motion under their shirt, as though looking for something, and they frown more intensely.
They look at the ceiling.
Then, without the slightest bit of additional fanfare, they slam their hands up above their head, and stretch out like a cat who’s been kept in a box for far too long. They groan, as their muscles creak, and their joints crack and pop. They twist, and a line of pops run up their back.
They lie there for a moment, midstretch, and there’s an undeniable sense of confusion on their face.
Then, Kris rolls out of bed in a pile, and practically bounces to their feet.
They spin, as if looking for something in their room, and their eyes pause on a birdcage sitting in a wagon in the corner of the room.
They reach up to their chest again, and shake their head.
“Why are you so quiet?”
Whatever the answer, Kris elects not to question this seeming turn of good fortune, and leaves their room quickly.
They all but sprint down the hall into the main room of their house, and look around there, as well. They stare at the fridge, then at one of the cupboards under the counter, and they jolt forward, pulling it open. After a second of rummaging, they pull out a small, half-emptied bag of mixed nuts, raisins, and the occasional piece of chocolate, secured with a reused bread-tie.
They stare at it, then, without a word, rip the tie off, and start shoveling the contents into their mouth.
Still holding the bag, they make for the door, where, outside...
“Kris! There you are! We might still be able to make it!” says Toriel, with a familiar, warm smile, as she stands next to the car.
“Morning,” Kris says, starting forward as though to make for the passenger seat. Then, at the last second, they jag to the other side, and wrap their mother in a hug by the driver’s seat.
“Oh!” says Toriel, visibly surprised. “Thank you!”
There’s a pause.
“I do hope this is not a preemptive apology for something you haven’t told me about,” she says, for a moment shrewd.
Kris chuckles, as though barely remembering how to do it.
“Not today.”
“Well, then thank you very much!”
And Kris pulls back, before making for the passenger seat.
They get into the car, and get on the road.
About halfway out of the driveway, Toriel notices the bag.
“Is that the trail mix from when we went camping in the yard?”
Kris nods, silently.
Toriel laughs.
“I was honestly about to throw it out; it has been a few months, has it not?”
Kris shrugs, and continues eating.
“If you would like breakfast in the morning, I can make an extra plate for you,” she says. “Though you might have to get up a bit earlier to eat it.”
Kris hesitates, as though not sure how to answer.
“Maybe.”
“Perhaps I should make something that will work as a snack for later if you do not eat it,” she says.
They take a turn, and Toriel sighs in contentment.
“It is truly a beautiful day, is it not? I hope it stays this way when Asriel visits next week.”
“I hope it stays this way, too,” murmurs Kris, tapping a finger at their chest, as though it were an idle action.
Toriel wonders aloud about whether Asriel will still appreciate a quiet town like theirs after the excitement of university, as they make their way to the school. Kris is too busy getting the trail mix into their mouth like they’ve got a time limit to pay much attention.
It’s a short drive, and almost before Toriel finishes her ruminations, they’ve parked in front of the school.
And this part of the day feels… normal, by comparison. Kris is used to their mother leading them into school. Used to be hugged goodbye before they head to class, though today they hug her back more than they would normally would. Used to walking down the hallway to their classroom.
They open the door, and glance around.
Most of the class is busy talking, and the teacher is busy pinning some bulletins up in the corner. Then, she turns to the class.
“So, does everyone…” she realizes Kris is there, and stops.
There’s an awkward pause.
“D- did you just arrive, Kris?”
Kris nods, silently.
“Oh. Well… We’re… we didn’t think you were coming today. We’re doing group projects this month. So… uh… walk around and find a partner?”
Ms. Alphys seems, if anything, a bit intimidated by Kris.
Kris looks around the room.
At a glance, looks like 7 people. Should be… should…
Nope.
Temmy’s got an egg next to her, and considering how she normally operates, Kris is filled with an instant, immediate certainty that that is her partner. Which means six more people, which is 3 pairs.
Meaning… Nobody’s available.
They look to the front of the room.
Noelle and Berdly are up there… Berdly’s going to say something insufferable if they ask to join, but…
They step up to Noelle.
“Hey. Noelle.”
Noelle blinks, as though something about the greeting surprises her.
“Hey Kris! You uh…” She pauses, as though losing her train of thought. “Sorry, did you lose your pencil again today?”
“No. Temmy’s got an egg for a partner. So… I’m the odd one out.”
“Oh.” She pauses, and the thought connects. “Well, Berdly already asked me, but…” She pauses. “But if you are the odd one out, I could ask Ms. Alphys about having a group of 3?”
“Thanks,” says Kris, and nods.
“Alright. Miss Alphys! Can we have a group of 3?”
Berdly, who has been writing an esoteric series of symbols in his notebook that are probably a fighting game combo, suddenly perks up at the sound of Noelle’s voice.
“What? No! I did not approve that!”
Kris tries to fix him with their most withering gaze, but he’s too busy trying to simultaneously duck Ms. Alphys’ attention and stifle Noelle to actually pay them any mind. It would almost be funny, watching him try to manage them both at once, except for the fact that if Kris doesn’t get a partner for this project, then the presentation at the end of it (and there’s always a presentation), is going to be terrible even in the best case scenario.
Kris stares into the distance, wondering if they’ll even still be able to give a proper presentation by the time the project is done, as Noelle makes the case that Kris simply doesn’t have a partner, and Berdly makes the case that he really shouldn’t have to work with someone as patently unintelligent as Kris.
Well. Maybe even if Noelle doesn’t convince Alphys to make this the group of 3, Kris might still get put together with one of the other groups that are currently watching this exchange with the amusement of teenagers seeing the teacher get in an argument that doesn’t concern them.
And then there’s a slam, as the door opens, and…
Susie’s standing in the doorway.
And if Kris made Alphys a bit nervous, Susie seems to actually scare her.
“Am I late?” she asks, in a tone that makes it eminently clear that she’s daring anyone to try and give her trouble about the fact that she definitely is.
“We were… we were just assigning partners for the group project,” says Alphys, and then, “uhh… you’re with Kris!”
“...Cool.”
“And if that’s the case, we can get… get…” Alphys pauses in front of the blackboard. “Where’s… the chalk? I can’t… Uh… I can’t start the lesson if I can’t… write, and…”
She looks around the classroom, even more nervous than before.
“Alright. Someone took it, right? Who?”
A pause.
“Come on, someone speak up,” she says. “If you… if you don’t… then we can’t…”
She falters.
“I bet there’s more in the supply closet,” offers Noelle. “You could send Susie and I to-”
“Right!” says Alphys, interrupting as she grabs her lifeline. “Susie! You arrived last, so you can go get it.”
“...Sure.”
And Susie leaves.
“And… Kris… Go with her? Make sure she… gets it? And doesn’t make trouble?”
It is, admittedly, a bit like assigning a particularly unruly dog to go watch over a significantly larger, even more unruly dog, but Kris isn’t inclined to make an argument against it.
Kris walks back out of the classroom, and shuts the door quietly behind them, just in time to hear an unmistakable crunch, as Susie does… something with her back turned to Kris.
She laughs, an oddly sinister sound, and slowly wheels around, as taking a pleasant walkabout, rather than on a mission from the teacher.
She freezes, spotting Kris.
There’s a distinctly chalk colored mark near her lips. She’s still crunching.
“Kris,” she says through a mouthful, in the deceptively light tones of a predator. “Didn’t see you there.”
She cracks her neck.
“You didn’t see anything just now, did you?”
“You didn’t get it all in your mouth.”
That gives her pause.
“What was that?”
“I said,” repeats Kris, forcing their voice a bit louder, “You didn’t get it all in your mouth. You’ve got a smudge.” They gesture at the approximate position.
Susie reaches up, and wipes the chalk dust away from her mouth with the back of her hand. She looks at it.
“Huh,” she says, and licks it off. “So you did see, huh?”
Kris shrugs.
“So what’s it going to be, Kris?” Susie says, advancing. “Now you know.”
Kris backs up as Susie looms over them.
“Come on. We both know it. Yeah. You saw me eating the chalk. You could just walk right in there now. Tell Alphys that’s why her chalk’s missing. I’d be expelled in a heartbeat. Everyone’s been waiting for it. Everyone knows I’m on my last chance.”
“I’ve eaten weirder.”
Susie stares for a moment, and then she laughs.
“You’re a real weirdo, you know that? Cracking jokes like that? You know what I could do to you?”
Kris doesn’t respond.
There’s a pause, and then Susie, in a single motion, slams them into a locker.
“It’d be real easy.” She bares a mouth full of wickedly sharp teeth. “And even if you don’t say anything… We both know I’m gonna get kicked out eventually. Why not go out with a bang? I could rip your face off, leave a mess in the hallway. Make a story nobody would ever forget”
There’s a pause.
Susie drops them.
“There’s my joke, Kris.” She says, though she doesn't seem to find it funny. “But I figure... You’ve got a good mother. I can think of way better people to make bury their child.”
She turns, and starts walking away. And Kris feels… Something painfully warm suffusing the inside of their chest, as though they were an inflating balloon.
“Come on,” says Susie, as the tension grows, and grows, as though Kris were about to vomit. “We’ll get this chalk. And then you’re doing the project. How’s that for a deal?”
***
Kris sits, slumped against the lockers, as Susie walks away from them, a question hanging in the air.
The tension snaps.