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It's early enough in the summer for it to still feel like a rush to be out of school in the middle of the day on a weekday. The sun beats down on them as Susie's thin flip flops purchased at Sans' store thwap-thwap-thwap on the pavement next to them, trekking towards the lake from the south side of town. She hums a hymn under her breath absentmindedly, swinging a bag filled with extra towels and a large blanket pilfered from the church's supply closet as she walks.
Kris pauses in front of the Town Hall, stumbling a little in front of the two large framed pictures of their brother and Noelle's sister that keep watch on the steps of the building. They're on stands and surrounded with flowers, like they're for some sort of weird joint funeral, even though neither of their bodies were recovered after their journey into the bunker, and no one has been able to pronounce them dead. But they've been gone for a year and a half. So not many of people in the town have much hope, even if they won't say it to the Dreemurrs' or Holidays' faces.
Asgore keeps the shrine well supplied with fresh flowers, and there are currently unlit prayer candles littering the steps and ground below their faces. Asriel's picture is of the last picture day he had at school. He had just gotten his braces off, and his teeth were clean and white and so so even. Dess' picture was her hockey portrait. She's in her heavy padding, making her shoulders broad enough to take up nearly the whole frame, and she's leaning on her helmet that's propped up on one knee. Unlike Asriel, who's smiling his disarming and sheepish smile, Dess' mouth is in a thin line, eyes piercing through the camera lens to the other side.
("Really, December, you could have smiled at the very least," Carol's voice rings in their head, Kris and Noelle sprawled on the Holidays' couch watching Blood Crushers 3 on low. Dess was slumped on the floor in front of the armchair, re-taping her hockey stick. The ice-e they had just slammed was making their brain feel weird, but they could remember the creepy wide eyed grin Dess had given Carol in return to her comment with crystal clarity.)
Susie pauses with Kris, used to their ritual by now, and stands a few feet back from the shrine respectfully. Kris clasps their hands together and said a silent prayer for Asriel and Dess, not praying to the Angel or Heaven but some other unknown thing, just throwing something, anything out into the universe, just in case. They turn back to Susie, and without a word, the two continue their path to the lake.
Noelle is already waiting for them when they arrive. She's sunning herself on the large flat rock near the edge of the lake, a paperback held loosely in one hand. She smiles when she sees Kris and Susie clamber up the stone. "Hey," she says mildly.
"Hey yourself," Susie says, smiling with all her teeth in return. Kris ping pongs their eyes between the two of them for a few seconds, snorts, and begins ridding themselves of their over layers and laying out the blanket.
Noelle shakes herself a little. "I, um! I brought snacks and drinks," she says, holding out a canvas tote bag with tiny Santas printed on it—her summer bag. "Mostly fruit, but some chips too, and I made us ham sand—"
"Noelle, my savior forever, the wind behind my back, on the Angel up above, I am eternally in your debt—"
"Get up," Kris says, flicking Susie on the side of her head lightly, saving a rapidly reddening Noelle from having to grace Susie's prostration with a response. "Let's swim."
Noelle and Susie quickly follow Kris' lead, removing their outer layers and stepping up toe to toe on the edge of the rock.
"How deep is it?" Susie asks, peering down the water below, moving just slightly with aftershocks of an unseen tide.
"Deep enough," Kris replies, catching Noelle's eyes over Susie's down turned head, tilting their head toward the lake just slightly with a pursed smile. Noelle understands instantly, eyes crinkling.
"Let's jump together," she suggests, "like we did when we were kids, Kris!"
Kris and Susie agree easily, and the three of them count down together from three. When they land on one, Susie cannonballs into the lake alone, leaving Noelle and Kris snickering from the hot stone above.
(Noelle cries after Kris tricks her into a belly flop contest off the very same rock, stomach smarting and Dess threatening Kris in the water while Asriel sits with her as she calms herself down.)
When Susie surfaces, hair plastered to the sides of her face, she yells, "NOT cool," from the water below, "but you'll be the ones with burns on the bottoms of your feet from the stone if you don't jump!" and Noelle and Kris dive in behind her, making twin ripples on either side of Susie.
When the sun hangs low in the sky, Noelle excuses herself and begins packing her things reluctantly.
"Mom's making dinner tonight," she says, crinkling her nose. "She still can't cook, but she insists on doing it once a week, and we eat in silence at the dinner table. I don't know what she's trying to prove to me."
Kris shrugs their shoulders sagely, the bridge of their nose pink. It will peel tomorrow, and Noelle pulls aloe vera out of her bag. They take it from her outstretched hand easily, and she knows they will not use it.
"I'll go in your place if you want," Susie calls from the water where she's still submerged. "Me'n Carol can have a grand old time."
Noelle giggles behind her hand. "That would be a sight! Thanks, but I'll handle this one, Susie."
Susie gestures with one arm out of the water, sending droplets scattering across the surface. "Suit yourself."
"I'll see you tomorrow, Kris," Noelle says, and Kris shrugs again. Tomorrow was the town's prophecy meeting. They've been having them monthly since they sent Dess and Azzy down. Less people showed up each month. Eventually it would dwindle to only the Holidays and Dreemurrs. Just like old times.
Noelle waves to the both of them before walking up the path and out of sight. Kris flops down on their stomach on the blanket, head resting on crossed arms. "You're going to prune in there," they say, not sounding if they cared if it happened or not. Susie shakes her no.
"Scales, dude," she says, making an expansive gesture to said scales.
"The sun's going down."
"I still know how to swim when it's dark out."
They turn over, looking up at the stars that were beginning to show themselves in the purpling sky. "I know a cool spot."
Susie hums in consideration. "How cool?"
Kris puffs hair out of their eyes. "Super cool."
After Susie clambers out of the water, shivering in the cool night air, the two pack up their belongings and Kris leads Susie to a small opening in the trees around the edge of the lake. They snap a few branches off with practiced ease to maintain the path, and push through to a wider path beyond the first few feet.
The trees were tall, branches from either side reaching to their partners, trying to interlock above them for complete cover. The air felt ten degrees cooler here than it did on the bank, and Kris stops to pull out the blanket to wrap around Susie, who blushes fiercely but takes the blanket gratefully. "It will warm up when we get there," they say, scratchy sounding from lake water and pleasant exhaustion. They lead Susie with sure feet through the winding path, and she follows without question.
("Kris! I found a new path!" Noelle shouted as Kris was ankle deep in wet sand, trying to bury themselves. "It could lead to a secret garden, come quick, come quick!")
("Just a little farther, Kris," Dess said, voice more harried than they'd ever heard her be, "You're doing great, kid.")
After a few more minutes of walking, the path opens up into a small clearing, the ground covered in clover and small flowers. There are logs situated around what used to be a fire pit, now taken over by new seedlings and a bit of lichen. Susie's eyes, however, are pulled immediately towards the old tube TV that sits opposite one of the logs, antennas askew on the the top. "Dude, this is super cool," she says, running her hand over the TV's surface, pollen and dirt coming up on her palm. "But it doesn't work out here, right?"
Kris shakes their head. "Mom told us to get rid of it some years back. She didn't tell us how."
Susie grins, and unwraps the blanket from around her arms. Kris was right, it was somehow warmer here than in the forest path, she guessed from the open sky above them. It was still night, but she thought maybe the sun's rays had warmed it enough here to stay for a while longer. She shakes out the blanket in front of the TV set and plopped herself down in front if it, patting the space next to her.
Kris reaches into their bag for their stolen goods—stolen from their house this time, not the church's supply closet—and pulled out a half empty bottle of whiskey. Susie raises herself on her elbows. "Dude?"
Kris ducks their head, in embarrassment or shame, Susie couldn't tell. "No pressure if you don't want any. But I'm gonna have some."
They unscrew the bottle and take a swig, before placing the bottle between the two of them and laying flat on their back. After a moment, Susie takes a swig from the whiskey too, clearing her throat after it went down, and lays down next to Kris. They sit in companionable silence for a while, wet hair soaking through the blanket to the grass below before Susie points suddenly up with her claw. "Shooting star," she says. She squeezes her eyes tight.
Kris turns their head silently and trains their eyes on Susie, thinking of how easy it was with her. When they talked, their conversations were like Asriel's smooth skipping rocks skidding across the surface of the lake, breaking into Kris' previously still brain with each sentence before settling to the bottom with a welcome thud, kicking up dirt and sediment along the way.
Susie's lips move soundlessly, wishing on the star that Kris was 90% was actually a satellite, before opening her eyes and meeting Kris' eyes. "Did you make a wish?"
"Yeah," Kris lies easily, "but I can't say it or it won't come true."
"Too right," Susie says, and settles again onto her back, eyes on the stars. The silence stretches on, not uncomfortably, before Susie breaks it again.
"Hey," she says hesitantly. "Do you ever…do you ever imagine what it would be like if we were the heroes of the prophecy?"
If Susie were looking at Kris, she would have seen them go deadly still, but she was still looking straight up. "We're not," they say quietly.
"I know, I know," Susie says quickly, "I'm not trying to be disrespectful to your brother or Noelle's sister, I'm just saying, you could be the prince, and then there's two girls and—"
"What about the cage," Kris interrupts flatly. "With human SOUL and parts."
This was the type of round hole square peg argument the town had gone over a year and a half ago. December was the cage, Asriel was the prince, and the girls, well—the girls must be down below. The heroes of light were supposed to meet someone so why not two someones. Kris pushes the heels of their hands into their eyes until they see static when they looked at the rounded TV screen. They used to fall asleep in this exact position, Asriel in Susie's place and the TV playing late night cartoons on mute, colors flashing brightly. Or December in Susie's place, whispering in their ear asking if they've ever licked the set and wasn't the buzzing weird? Or Noelle in Susie's place, squirming closer at every jumpscare in every horror movie but eyes still trained on the screen.
Susie seems to deflate a little bit. "I guess you could be the cage, too…"
Kris stares at the night sky. Another shooting star. Guess it wasn't a satellite after all. "Then who would be the prince."
Susie doesn't say anything for a while, but Kris could see her drumming her fingers nervously where they sat clasped on her chest. "Hey man, I'm s—"
"I have an idea," Kris interrupts, rolling over and pushing themselves up to stand. They walk over to one of the hollowed out logs, hoping what they were looking for was still there. They reach in past spider webs and moss, and pull out the baseball bat Dess had left stashed there so she wouldn't have to haul it back and forth. "Wanna smash the TV?"
Susie scrambles up to a crouch and looked wearily at the bat. "Um," she says.
"It'll be fun. Stand up and move the blanket," they say.
Susie does what she's told, dragging the blanket away and draping it across a log. Kris lines their body up along the side of the old TV, tapping the end of the bat on its surface with a small ting! and then pointing with the bat up above the tree line, mapping out their home run like they had seen Dess do a million times. Susie takes a few steps back.
Kris raises their bat, winds up, and swings with a whistle of air before hitting the surface of the TV with a crack that echos through the clearing and probably up to the lake shore. The blow back ripples up their arms and makes their teeth hum. It doesn't shatter like they thought it would, but it leaves a satisfying hole in the front where the leaded glass drips down, glistening in the moonlight like animal fat. They flip the bat over in their hand so they're gripping the end and hold it out to Susie. "Wanna try?"
Noelle stands at the entrance of the church, passing out last month's meeting notes to the few upstanding citizens trickling in. She smiles as she does, eyes flicking between folks as she greets them and thanks them for being here. Kris knows she thinks the smile is encouraging and grateful, but she holds it on her face like if she dropped it it would shatter. Like she would hold a loaded gun. They swivel their head back to face the altar where Father Alvin and Carol are standing, heads close together and talking lowly. Their mother is warm on the pew beside them, eyes closed and breathing evenly in prayer.
There are less people gathered tonight than ever. The Dreemurrs and the Holidays take up the first row of pews like the honored guests at the world's most depressing wedding. Rudy sits quietly, mirroring Toriel's position on the other side of the aisle. Alphys is here in the middle back. The Cattenheimers are here, which Kris has a feeling is mostly due to Catti's urging. Undyne and Nabstablook. That's it. The second hand clicks closer to 4. The summer rain plinks against the stained glass windows. The sanctuary smells sickly sweet, like frankincense and flowers and wood rot.
There's a commotion in the back of the room, clanging accompanied by a bashful "sorry, sorry!" and the whole room turns around to see Asgore picking up the censer he assumedly knocked over. Noelle is making placating motions with her hands. Kris makes eye contact with Catti, who smirks at them. They turn around and sink lower into the pew.
"Oh for the love of—Asgore," Toriel bites off her non-Angel-approved swear and greets Asgore coolly. He clambers in on the other side of Kris. They can feel Asgore's eyes staring at their mother over their head. She keeps her head facing resolutely forward.
"Hey Tori," he says, smiling, ignorant or ignoring of her tone. "It's good to see you. How are, well, how's life treating you?"
"Fine," she grinds out between her teeth. The word is so heavy Kris can practically feel it land on the top of their head. They sunk even lower in the pew. "Kris, dear, sit up," Toriel admonishes.
"How is, um, how's the house doing? Any leaks or gutter issues? This rain sure is coming down! After it lets up I could stop by and check—"
"No thank you."
"Oh, um, sure!" Blessed silence for a moment. "Hey! The newest batch of lilies just started blooming, maybe you could swing by the shop and—"
"Asgore, I would really not like to talk about this at a meeting to discuss our child's disappearance, please and thank you."
"Oh, um. Right," Asgore said, the wind leaving his sails. "Sure."
Kris' fingers itched to text Susie but didn't risk it sitting between their parents. The room echoed with whispers as people murmured to each other.
("Asriel, take Kris to QC's after Father Alvin's sermon finishes up," Toriel whispers in their brother's ear, Kris perking up at the thought of pancakes. "I need to have a word with your father.")
Carol looked up and nodded to the back of the room as the time turned over to 4. Noelle shut the doors with a soft thud and hurried up the aisle to sit next to Rudy. Carol surveyed the room, commanding attention. Her eyes moved over the Dreemurrs slowly.
"It's been 18 months since we have last seen the heroes of the prophecy," she began. She never called them by their names anymore. Kris knew it made Toriel livid. Noelle thought it was because she couldn't say December's name without her voice breaking. "We've searched every inch of the forest, dragged the lake, and had countless search parties, to no avail." She paused here, and the energy of the room seemed to freeze over. "I think it's high time we send someone else in the bunker."
There was a beat, and then the room exploded into sound. Mostly chatter, but a few immediate outcries of no! and a healthy amount of fear. Kris looked past their mother to meet Noelle's horrified gaze. Their mother looked shocked. Their father looked angry, but not surprised.
Carol stepped back on the pulpit, not to back away from her argument, but to let Father Alvin step up. Her mouth was set in a thin line.
"Settle down," Alvin said mildly. The congregation settled. "I know this may come as a shock. Please, know this is not brought to you lightly. We believe this is the best option for recovering our young heroes below," he said. Toriel stiffened at the word recover.
"Who do you expect to go in?" Undyne called from the back of the room. Alvin's eyes landed on Kris, then flitted away.
"That is what we are here to discuss," he responded, and the room hummed again with conversation. Kris met Carol's gaze, who, unlike Alvin, held their eyes. They had heard enough. With the room distracted, they got up and walked quickly down the aisle, ignoring the "Kris!" from their mother as they did. They made it through the doors and picked up speed as they got outside, rain pelting them as they ran through Hometown and away from the church.
Noelle found them behind the school. December once told them the leather couch behind the seldom used track and field bathrooms was originally Gerson Boom's. She said he used to sneak out here and nap during his off period, and Kris still didn't know if they believed her or not. Cigarette butts and beer cans littered the ground, and, despite the slight shelter from the elements the building provided, the couch was peeling badly. Noelle dropped a QC's bag full of fries on the seat next to them and held a milkshake in front of their face.
"Thought I might find you here," she said, and they took the offered cup.
She sat gingerly on the couch, popping the top off her own strawberry milkshake to dip the fries in. Kris mirrored her on the other side the cushion, hair falling in their eyes.
"Your mom went back to your house," Noelle said. Kris pushed a fry deeper into their milkshake, fingertips almost brushing the icy chocolate. Rain dripped off the roof of the bathroom, landing in puddles around their feet. Noelle sighed.
"Susie's worried you aren't answering her texts," she began, but Kris cut her off.
"Did you know?" They lobbed the question in her lap like it was a ticking time bomb.
Noelle didn't take the bait into the fight Kris was clearly looking to have. "No," she said. "But are you really that shocked she brought it up?"
Kris stared at her for a few seconds before turning back to their milkshake and pulling their feet up on the couch. "No," they said.
The last time they were on this couch with Noelle was before Azzy and Dess left. Left behind after the older kids meandered off to a different part of town, late afternoon sunshine, brushing fingertips. A muttered confession, blush on high cheekbones. A clumsy first kiss never to be mentioned again. Racing heartbeats as they parted ways for dinners at home.
There's a break in the clouds and weak light makes its way through. The rain spits down on them lightly.
"I got my college acceptance letter yesterday," Noelle said, looking out into the woods in front of them. Kris nods, eyes on the trees. "I have a full ride, if I want it."
Kris does not ask if she wants it. They do not ask if she would go down into the bunker, if Carol asked, and she does not ask them if they would do the same. They finish their milkshakes in the evening's dying light, and go home when the sun goes down.
It's a few weeks later and they're pleasantly buzzed in the parking lot behind ICE-E's. There's a joint moving slowly around the circle, and their head is pressed against Susie's thigh where she sits on overturned milk crate above them. Berdly had produced a bottle of moonshine from his backpack earlier in the night and the warm liquid swirls gently in their cup as they move it in rhythm to the radio that softly plays from someone's speaker. Noelle sits on the other side of them on another crate, and the smell of her perfume cuts through the low hanging smoky haze that snakes out from the end of joint. Noelle and Susie's pinkies brush behind their head, and Berdly is trying to rally everyone into a game of truth or dare.
"Berdly, let's just like, enjoy the evening," MK says, not unkindly. "We always play truth or dare."
"Because it's fun, MK! It's a fun way of getting to know your peers on a deeper level!" Berdly's face is smug. "It seems like you're just afraid I'll win!"
"I don't think you can win truth or dare, Berdly," Noelle says. "Besides, we've all played it a million times and everyone's probably out of dares and questions."
Susie shifted a little in her seat. "I, um. I've never actually played."
The circle went quiet for a second, seemingly just remembering Susie didn't always live in Hometown. MK moved their cup into their other hand. "Well, I mean—"
"Let's play," Kris said from the ground, tipping their head up to look at Susie. "It'll be fun."
Berdly crowed in triumph and placed an empty soda bottle in the middle of the circle. "Fate will decide our first player," he said grandly, and spun the bottle with a flick of his wrist. The end pointed to MK as it slowed to a stop. They sighed.
"Jockington, truth or dare?" They said reluctantly.
"Dare. I will, always choose Dare!" Jockington replied cheerfully. Catti nodded next to him.
"I dare you…to steal us a pizza from Ice-e's," MK said, and Jockington slithered away through the ajar back door into the kitchen.
"Let's move on while we wait," Berdly said, spinning the bottle again. This time it landed on Catti. She brought her eyes up to Susie.
"…Susie," she said flatly, and Kris could tell she wanted to call her anything but her name. "Truth. Or dare."
"Uh…truth," Susie said nervously, and Kris wrapped a hand around her ankle.
Catti flipped her hair a little. "What is your darkest secret?"
Noelle snorted above them. Susie thought about it for while. Finally, she says, very solemnly, "I've been banned from three separate ham sandwich days." When met with stunned silence, she follows up with, "In my old towns, I mean."
"That's your darkest secret?"
"It's what I'm most ashamed of, yes!!"
Kris snickers. Noelle giggles too and runs her fingers through the hair at the nape of their neck.
"Moving on!" Berdly says, spinning the bottle. "Oh, wonderful! It landed on me. Kris—truth or dare?"
Kris licks their lips. "Dare," they say.
"I dare you…to confess your crush to the whole group!"
Noelle's fingers stop moving in their hair, and Susie's leg against them goes still. "That's really more of a truth, Berdly," they say mildly, and he bats his eyelashes at them.
"Don't be afraid, Kris! I'm sure the person you confess to will be very kind to you if they need to let you gently!"
Kris' mouth is dry. "Um," they begin, and then the back door of Ice'e's slams open and the owner runs out, chasing Jockington with a spoon. "I Failed!" he says, "Run!" and the group scatters, whooping with adrenaline and yelling their goodbyes.
Kris, Susie, and Noelle find themselves back at the lake. They leave their shoes on the picnic tables and play chicken with the tide, and when Noelle laughs as the water splashes her, the residual smoke in her voice reminds Kris of burnt caramel. Susie and Kris roll their pants legs up but still get the bottoms wet, and when the three of them are too tired to stand and they don't feel the effects of the weed or the moonshine anymore, they collapse at the tables and put their heads in their hands. Hometown is quiet this time of night, and the sounds of surfacing catfish by the rocks spill up the shoreline to their table. "Man," Susie says into the darkness. "This has been a really good summer."
Despite the looming threat of the prophecy and Carol's demands and the still missing Azzy and Dess that hung over their head, Kris found themselves agreeing. There was something about this summer that felt like old times, like summers before anything bad had ever happened to them. Noelle seemed to think so, too.
"It really has," she said, sticking her fingers in the holes of the table. Kris wagged their fingers against hers through the bottom.
The air felt thick and humid near the water. It was the kind of air that tinged every thought about their childhood, the slow motion memories that fell sluggishly through the depths of their mind. The moment would last forever. It would never feel the same again.
"Makes me think about after high school," Susie said, scratching the side of her jaw. "It would be cool if every summer could feel like this."
Noelle smiles wanly, and Kris' mouth says, "We should move in together," before their brain catches up. Noelle widens her eyes and Susie says, "Great idea, Kris!" as she puts one large hand on the top of their head affectionately. For a moment Kris misses December and Asriel so much they can't breathe, the lack of their presence like a storm cloud hovering behind Kris' head, before Noelle's smile, her real smile helps loosen the knot in their chest.
It's one in the morning and ninety degrees in Hometown. Tomorrow is another day and Kris doesn't know what will come of it. There are people to hold in their mind, but there are also ones to hold in their arms, and right now, just for tonight, they let the latter take priority.