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It’s nearing mid-afternoon on a frankly too warm summer Saturday when Kris arrives at Asgore’s new house that sits beside Flower King. The house is still a relatively recent development, as even just over a half a year ago their dad was still living in the flower shop’s old basement.
Now, he has a yard, driveway, and more room than he really knows what to do with. Seeing him finally back on his feet after years of struggling through the divorce has been nice. Strange, but nice.
Flower King’s presence in Hometown has grown, too. What was once a tiny shop has blossomed into something more akin to a floral empire, with Asgore serving as the primary - and, in some towns, only - supplier for most of the county. The extra business has paid for the house, adoption process, and everything else required to support the new addition to the Dreemurr family that Kris can already hear giggling from the driveway.
“Play, play, play!”
About six months ago, Kris’s status as the only human in Hometown was shattered.
Asgore’s truck is parked beside the house, the tailgate lowered as he places what can only be described as an entire pallet of multicolored flowers into the bed. Aqua circles him with a roll of red ribbon in one aquamarine-sleeved hand, repeatedly tugging at his pant leg with the other.
“Hold on, little one!” Asgore chuckles, shifting the bundle of blooms in his arms.
The little human girl barely comes up to his knees. Her oversized aquamarine sweater swallows her almost like a dress, the sleeves hanging well past her hands, and a small red bow struggles to keep her spiky black hair in place against the summer breeze.
Aqua releases his pant leg only long enough to grab the tailgate and try hauling herself into the back of the truck.
“If you would like to help,” Asgore says, setting the flowers down. “You may tie one ribbon around each of the marked bouquets.”
“Yaay! Yaay!”
He steps behind her and lifts her with a gentleness disproportionate to his boss monster size, placing her carefully in the truck bed. Aqua immediately scampers around toward the nearest bouquet and begins her task.
By the time Kris has reached the driveway, she has bound several arrangements together into a tangled web of red ribbon that will eventually need to be cut to disentangle. Asgore watches her work for a moment, clearly already absorbing the consequences of his offer.
“One bow each, please,” he reminds her.
Aqua just nods, then moves to a cluster of flowers she has not already decorated and ties three bows around it.
Kris cannot help but smile as they smooth the wrinkles from their skirt and step closer. Normally someone with that much excitable energy would have worn through their patience in minutes, but Aqua is somehow different. Her presence doesn’t feel like it’s shoving Kris out of the room, despite the way she demands the attention of all present.
“Ah, Kris!” Asgore says as he steps around the truck and spots them. “Thank you for coming.”
Kris nods, then tilts their head in silent question. Asgore called less than an hour ago with what he only described as an urgent request. They eye the tangled mess in the back of his truck, noting that clearly it’s not urgent enough to prevent whatever mess Aqua’s labor will eventually turn into.
“I received a call from Flowery this morning,” Asgore explains. “Someone placed a gigantic last-minute order for some celebrity wedding in Ebott. Normally I could find someone else to deliver it, but this is such a large job…”
Flowery is the aptly named distributor Asgore contracted while trying to establish the steady income stream he needed to qualify as an adoptive parent. Kris still has trouble believing that someone named Flowery legitimately works in the flower business, but it is supposedly the man’s real, legal name.
“It’s fine,” Kris says, stepping toward the truck. “I wasn’t doing anything anyway, so - “
“Krissy!”
Aqua abandons her task and sprints across the truck bed. She plants one red rain boot on the edge of the truck bed and leaps without a moment of hesitation. Kris barely manages to step into her path and catch her.
The impact sends the air from their lungs and makes them take a stumbling step backward as Aqua swings halfway around their body, both arms clamped around their neck. Before Kris can set her down, she scrambles onto their back and settles there like a miniature human backpack.
“Are you babysitting me, Krissy?”
Kris shakes their head. “Babysitting? We’re undertaking a top-secret, human-only mission to overthrow our cervid overlords.”
“Uuu…” Aqua hums. “I don’t know what that means. But it sounds fun!”
Asgore laughs, his entire barrel chest moving with his merriment. “Try not to get into too much trouble, all right?”
“Okay!”
“No promises.”
“That’s not the answer I was hoping for, Kris.” He sighs and reaches for his wallet and counts out several bills. “Here’s enough for dinner at the diner. I should be back by seven.”
Aqua perks up against Kris’s back. “Before seven exactly? Like six-fifty-nine? Not seven-oh-one?”
Asgore pauses, considers, then nods. “Seven at the latest.”
“Is your phone charged? Which way are you going? Can you call if - “
“My phone is charged, I am taking Ebott pass, and I will call if any plans change,” he answers, gently but without dismissal. It’s clearly oft-recited. “All is well here, little one.”
Kris glances back at Aqua, brow furrowing. The questions give them pause, but they quickly write it off as a quirky routine between Aqua and their father. Asgore places a large, fluffy hand over her head and ruffles her hair in the way that he knows Kris hates, but Aqua seems to love.
“I have to get going.”
“Uuu…okay.”
The two of them stand in the grass at the edge of the driveway while Asgore crosses to the driver’s side. When he tries to start the engine, it coughs and sputters twice, and roars to life with a sound that reminds Kris of a dying horse.
“Bye bye!” Aqua calls, waving one sweater-swallowed arm.
Asgore rolls down his window and waves back. The truck pulls out of the driveway, rattles down the street, and turns toward the road leading out of Hometown. Aqua continues waving until the truck disappears and the rumbling of the old engine is no longer audible.
As soon as Aqua’s arm drops, her grip tightens around Kris’s neck. It’s not enough to strain their breathing, but it’s enough for Kris to clearly note the tension beneath the gesture. They hook their hands under her knees and hold her a little more securely.
“Krissy,” Aqua says, her voice going bright again. “What game should we play?”
“Game?” Kris lets out a dry chuckle and starts back towards town. “My dear sister, we are going to war.”
Around an hour later, Kris and Aqua are hidden amidst the trees surrounding the Holiday estate. Getting over the fence was almost insultingly easy, even with Aqua riding on Kris’s shoulders for the duration of the climb.
Now, they crouch behind a thick hedge beside the long cobbled driveway, concealed from both the house’s view and the road leading up to the manor. A black duffel bag rests between them, stuffed with everything required to enact Kris’s long-awaited revenge.
“Operation: Brown Shower is a go,” Kris whispers.
“Uuu…Krissy, what are we doing?” Aqua asks in the closest thing she can manage to a whisper.
“Infiltration. We’re assessing the Antler Court’s defenses and searching for an opportunity to slip behind enemy lines.”
Aqua peers through the leaves for several seconds. Nothing moves except for a sprinkler ticking in an arc a dozen or more paces away in the large lawn.
“Krissy,” she says. “I’m bored.”
Kris raises one finger. Aqua stops swaying, though only after the bush she’s hiding in has shaken enough to compromise their position many times over, had anyone been watching.
“Do you remember the horror that befell me on April first?”
“Oh! Oh!” Aqua claps her sweater-covered hands together. “The pies! That was fun!”
“The double pie-ing incident,” Kris says gravely. “December Holiday, my arch nemesis, lured me into a trap using my one true weakness as bait: a home-baked pie. Unbeknownst to me, it was booby-trapped. Not one, but two pies were deployed against my person.”
“It was fun!” Aqua giggles.
“It was an insult to butterscotch and cinnamon alike.”
Aqua tilts her head. “So pie is why we’re sitting in bushes?”
“We are agents of justice seeking vengeance against the bourgeois for their oppressive hold over this land,” they correct.
Aqua just stares at them blankly. Kris sighs.
“We’re pranking Dess back.”
“Oh!” Aqua’s face lights up. “Pranks are fun!”
Kris nods, satisfied that their sister finally understands the gravity of their purpose here. Before they can elaborate on their plan, the Holiday family’s remote-operated gate begins sliding open on unoiled, metal hinges. Kris parts the leaves and looks out toward the road, their target approaching. Not December, but the key that will open the gates to the Antler Court.
“Follow my lead,” Kris whispers.
They ease through the hedge and wait beside the driveway until their target has passed all the way through the front gates. Then, Kris leaps onto the cobbled road directly in front of her. Aqua springs out beside them, brandishing the plastic knife Asgore gave her as a toy.
“Stop right there,” Kris drawls in the lowest voice they can manage.
“Stop, criminell!”
Susie makes a strangled noise and jerks back, one fist already swinging up toward her attackers. She freezes just before throwing the punch, eyes flicking from Aqua’s toy knife to the black duffel over Kris’s shoulder to the camouflage jumpsuit and streaks of dirt beneath their eyes.
“Kris,” Susie says after a long pause. “What the hell?”
“That’s agent Kris to you, borgie!” Aqua announces.
“Bourgeois,” Kris corrects. They place one hand on Aqua’s head and turn her slightly so the knife is no longer pointed at Susie’s stomach. “We were waiting for exactly this opportunity.”
“Waiting for an opportunity to get punched in the face?” Susie cuts in.
“No?”
“Then maybe don’t jump me from the bushes, dumbass!”
Susie may be Kris’s best friend, but that also makes them particularly aware of how poorly she responds to being surprised. They should've foreseen that consequence to their plan.
“We need access to Dess’s room,” Kris explains.
Susie glances up to the house. “Why?”
“Justice.”
“Revenge!” Aqua adds eagerly.
Susie quirks an eyebrow. “What exactly did Dess do?”
“She pied Krissy twice.”
Susie’s mouth twists upward, and she snorts. “Okay, yeah.That one was pretty good.”
“Do not speak of the incident.” Kris glowers, then quirks their head to the side. “You weren’t there, how do you know about it?”
Susie chuckles. “I’ve seen the pictures.”
“There’s pictures!?”
Aqua gasps. “We have to destroy the evidence.”
Kris slowly turns their head toward the Holiday manor. The scope of their operation has just expanded. “She gets it.”
“Yeah, she’s like, eight, dude.”
“I’m nine!”
Susie folds her arms. “So, what’s in the bag?”
Kris opens the zipper the slightest bit, and Susie peers down at the collection of supplies inside. Her grin widens and she nods her approval. “What do you need me for?”
Kris smirks. “You’re on your way to see Noelle, right?”
“Wha - “ Susie’s shoulders rise toward her ears, and a faint hint of magenta spreads across her cheeks as she glances away. “I mean, yeah. But just to hang out. As friends. You know, like, games and stuff.”
“Well, whatever your intentions are, we just need ten minutes. Do you think you could distract Noelle? She’ll blow our cover.”
“You want me to help you break into my friend’s sister’s room?” Susie glances at the duffel again. “...How funny is it?”
“Historic.” They flash their phone. “Get Noelle into the kitchen, then text me. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Are you going to help?” Aqua asks, looking up at Susie. The taller girl crouches in front of her, reaching out one claw and running it along the edge of the toy knife. Aqua allows her to inspect it.
“Okay,” Susie says, standing. “I’ll help, but you owe me dinner after.”
“Deal.”
Sneaking up to the back end of the Holiday manor is even easier than jumping the gate. The house sits on a frankly absurd plot of land, with enough trees surrounding it to hide a small invading army. Even with Aqua skipping through the underbrush and making enough noise to no longer qualify as stealthy by any measure, Kris has no reason to suspect their cover has been blown.
“Help me with the hose,” they whisper, pulling a metal bucket from the largest pocket of the duffel. “Quietly.”
“Roger, roger!”
She scurries over to the faucet beside the back door and twists the handle with both hands. Water rattles through the hose before spilling into the bucket. Aqua crouches beside it, watching the water slowly rise. “Is this the prank?”
“It is part of it.”
While the bucket fills with cold water, Kris pulls out their phone and waits for the promised text from Susie. They have almost completed the rest of their preparations by the time the message finally arrives.
> Noelle’s makin me cookies. U’ve got 20.
More than enough.
With the deft touch only a teenager raised on a smartphone can manage, Kris switches to their chat with Asriel and sends two quick messages.
I need u to call Dess and get her to leave her room for 10 mins <
Now <
Asriel may be away at college, but Kris knows their brother well enough. He has every member of the family set to priority notifications, allowing them to reach him even during lectures or while he’s working on homework.
That said, it’s the middle of a Saturday, and Kris suspects he’s just playing video games anyways. True to expectations, the response only takes a few moments to come.
> Is this going to get me in trouble
Kris snickers and taps out their reply.
IDK. Not my problem <
If u don’t do this for me I’m telling her about how to draw dragons <
And I’ll let Aqua use your PC while you’re gone <
The response is immediate
> Low blow, Kris
Tell me when she’s out <
“Help me carry this,” Kris says.
They shut off the faucet and lift the now-full bucket by its handle. Aqua attempts to help by grabbing the opposite side, but her short arms only manage to pull it off-balance and slosh water over the edge and onto both of their shoes.
“Friendly fire!” Aqua giggles. “Uuu…am I in trouble?”
“It means you're carrying the bag instead,” Kris says, handing the much lighter duffel to their sister. Aqua ducks beneath the strap and lifts it over her neck, nearly folding in half beneath the weight of something half her size.
“What’s in here?” she asks as she stumbles forward a step. “Is it naughty?”
Kris smirks. “Only the naughtiest.”
“Yaay!”
They fish the spare key to the Holiday family’s back door from their pocket, deftly lifted from their mother’s key chain earlier that morning. They peer through the pane of glass set into the door, watching the empty living room until their phone buzzes.
> go.
Right on cue, the door to December’s room flies open. The woman herself scrambles down the stairs and makes a direct line for the front entrance, keys already in hand. Kris watches her shove her hooves into a pair of modified Crocs and hurry out the door.
What did you tell her? <
She seems in a hurry <
> Pizzapants got arrested by Undyne and she needs to go bail him out
Kris nods their silent approval. Smooth.
I trained you well <
They slide their phone back into their pocket and nod towards Aqua. “Let’s go.”
They ease the door open with the practiced hand of someone who knows exactly how to move the sliding panel without jingling any of the bells hanging from its handle. The duo slips through the gap and makes their way up the stairs.
As soon as the door to December’s bedroom closes behind them, they get to work.
Aqua is something less than helpful throughout the setup process, but Kris appreciates her participation nonetheless. Their long-running prank war with December would not be as much fun if they could not enjoy the work itself. That’s the entire point, really. Planning the trap and waiting for the moment everything falls into place is often as good as the payoff itself.
Only most of the time, though. Kris suspects the result today will be hard to top.
They loop a length of nylon cord around a ceiling hook while Aqua sits cross-legged in the middle of the floor, feeding rope to them one section at a time.
“More,” Kris says. Aqua hands them about three more inches. “More until I say stop.”
She releases the coil and the rope snaps taught, the both of them watching helplessly as it rolls beneath December’s bed. Aqua dives after it, disappearing up to her waist beneath the frame. “I found a sock!”
Kris sighs. “Leave it.”
“And a guitar pick! And a - “
“Do not touch anything else.” Kris does not want to know what a grown woman in her early twenties has stashed beneath her bed, and suspects the list may include things Aqua is too young to see.
Aqua wiggles back out, hair caked with dust. At least she has the missing cord clutched between her teeth.
Once the pulley is secured, Aqua wanders through the gloomy bedroom looking for more miniature treasures while Kris finishes tying the trigger line. She looks at the various posters, the scattered guitar equipment, and the assortment of black clothing piled across her desk chair.
“Why does Dess have so many belts?” she asks.
Kris just smirks. ”It’s just her…unique fashion.”
She moves to the framed picture of December and Noelle as children, with Kris and Asriel crowded into the edge of the cropped shot. December has her arm hooked around Asriel’s neck, and Noelle is laughing at Kris. They’re several years younger in the photo, and wearing a plastic pair of antlers.
Aqua holds it up. “Krissy, why are you a deer?”
“It was psychological warfare. A tragic time in my life.”
Aqua giggles and sets the frame back down. Meanwhile, Kris empties the entire spray bottle’s worth of fart spray into the bucket, and tries not to gag.
Aqua’s face contorts. “Eww!”
Kris turns their head and coughs into one sleeve. “Super strength.”
They lever the bucket into place, notch the trigger rope, and set the final latch. Once the door opens, a small razor taped beside the frame will sever the last thread and release the bucket. Kris steps back to admire their handiwork, just seconds before their phone buzzes again.
> She’s almost back home
“Aqua, with me.”
Kris grabs her hand and pulls her toward the rear of the room. They’re suddenly very grateful for the Holidays’ wealth that apparently means every bedroom has a spacious walk-in closet. Kris, Aqua, and the duffel all fit amidst December’s disorganized belongings with room to spare.
They barely have time to pull the closet shut before the front door slams open hard enough to rattle the foundation of the house. Aqua presses both hands over her mouth, though it does little to contain her anticipatory giggles.
“I swear to the Angel, when he gets back home from break, I’m going to - agh!” December’s voice carries through the otherwise empty house. Hearing the genuine irritation in her tone briefly makes them question the timing of their prank.
“Krissy,” Aqua whispers. “She seems mad.”
This will be glorious.
“Shh.” Kris raises a finger to their lips and peers through the narrow crack where the closet door does not quite meet the frame.
“I don’t even understand,” December grumbles, her voice growing louder as she climbs the stairs. “Why lie about - “
She doesn’t finish her sentence.
The moment the door pushes open, it presses the blade into the final thread and the rope snaps. The counterweight drops, the pulley turns, and three gallons of cold garden water and concentrated fart spray pour directly over December’s head. The bucket lands upside down, handle looped around one antler before she reaches up and drops it to the ground with a metallic crash.
Kris bites down on the inside of their cheek to restrain their laugh. Every element performed perfectly. December just remains frozen in the doorway, soaked from her hair all the way down to her Crocs. Water drops from the end of her nose.
“Kris,” she breathes. Then, the smell hits her. She gags and stumbles backward, coughing into the crook of her arm. “Oh my - what is in this? Kris!?”
Aqua shakes silently beside them, both clothed hands clamped over her mouth as tears of laughter gather in the corners of her eyes.
December gags again, then goes still. Her eyes scan the room, taking in the setup, then locking on the open space around the closet door. “I know you’re in there. You always want to watch your handiwork, you smug little freak.”
She turns away from the closet and crosses toward the corner of her room. Her hand closes around a plastic whiffle bat.
Uh oh.
“You have ten seconds to start running.”
Aqua looks up at Kris, delighted. “Is this part of the game?”
Kris jumps to their feet. They grab their sibling around the waist and sling her over one shoulder. They kick the closet door open and bolt for the bedroom exit. “It is now!”
December whirls, still dripping fart-laced water. She lowers her stance and raises up her bat like a knight preparing to strike down her foes. Her glare alone could kill any with a weaker resolve than Kris.
Kris whirls, skids to a stop, and pulls Aqua from their shoulder. They grab her under the armpits, and hold the little girl out between them. “She’s innocent.”
Aqua immediately spreads her arms and legs as wide as possible. “I’m a shield! Yaay!”
December’s bat drops several inches. Her splitting glare flicks between Kris and the giggling child suspended between them. “Dirty, Kris. You’re playing dirty.”
“Hehe! You can’t hit Krissy!” Aqua taunts. “Human team!”
December points the tip of the bat at the duo. “I am willing to offer you a full size candy bar if you change sides.”
Aqua gasps and Kris’s grip tightens. “What kind?”
“Aqua!” Kris protests. “Remember our agreement!”
The younger girl glances between the sopping wet deer monster and Kris, clear indecision racing across her face. She twists in Kris’s grip, then nods to them. “I stay with Krissy.”
December narrows her eyes. “Then you’ve chosen war.”
“Yaay!”
In that same moment, December gags again and turns her face away, trying to escape the smell that now permeates every pore of her body. “Is that fart spray?”
“Super strength!” Aqua confirms.
“Kris Dreemurr, I am going to put you through a wall.”
Kris tucks Aqua beneath one arm and bolts for the door. December swings, the hollow plastic bat whistling past the back of Kris’s head by inches as they race through the doorway. They reach the upstairs railing and throw one leg over it, Aqua squealing in anticipation.
December stops at the bedroom door. “Don’t you dare - “
Kris flings themself over the banister. They fall a few feet into the living room with the grace one would expect from a teenager carrying a child under one arm. Their feet hit the carpet but their knees buckle, Aqua’s excited shrieks echoing through the house. Behind them, December leans over the railing, still dripping water onto the carpet.
“This isn’t over!”
Kris straightens and races for the front door. “It never is!”
December has showered twice, scrubbed herself until fur started coming off with the sponge four separate times, and spent an hour soaking in a floral-scented soap bath. Despite her efforts, she can still smell liquified ass in her coat.
Noelle swears the stench is gone, and insists anything December catches now is only a phantom smell lodged in her nose. Then again, Noelle also laughed so hard she was sent into a hiccup fit when December first stumbled downstairs soaking wet, so her testimony is compromised and biased. Every so often, the wind shifts and December catches another trace. She wonders if it will go away when she finds Kris and enacts her revenge.
“Dess, is this really necessary?”
Noelle follows her through the forest surrounding the shelter north of town. This is the sixth location they’ve searched from a list twice as long. She stalks through the underbrush with the wiffle bat slung over one shoulder while her sister trails several steps behind, supposedly to help. More likely, she is here to ensure December does not beat Kris to death when she finds them.
“Yes,” she says flatly. “Ellie, they dumped an entire bucket of fart spray on me. That’s too far.”
“Fahaha.” Noelle raises one hand to cover her mouth. “Is it really that different from your pie prank? Or the reverse-flushing toilet? Or the - “
“Are you on my side or not?”
Noelle gives a noncommittal half-shrug, so December releases the branch she’s holding so that it snaps backward and smacks Noelle right on the end of her nose.
“Eep! Dess!”
“Sorry, my hand slipped.”
Noelle lowers the branch slowly. “You know, I could always text Kris and tell them where you are so they can avoid you.”
December glances back at her, but her sister is just smiling sweetly. “You wouldn’t.”
“Maybe my hand will slip.”
For several seconds, the sisters stare at one another. Then Noelle snorts, and December tries to remain stern despite the corner of her mouth tugging into a smile. She turns away before her little sister can claim victory and continues deeper into the trees.
The sun is already sinking towards the horizon, staining the forest in pink and gold. In another hour, they’ll need flashlights, though she doubts Kris will keep Aqua out that late. She’s also well aware that, even without Noelle acting as a double agent, Kris could be stalking her around town, always staying just out of reach.
It’s exactly the sort of thing that little menace would do. Meanwhile, the other, smaller menace probably thinks they’re on some sort of adventure.
Noelle steps around a fallen tree limb. “Why are we even checking all the way out here?”
“Well, they weren’t at any of the obvious places. Asgore’s house, or Toriel’s, or the diner or Ice-E’s or the lake…”
“Yeah, but they have a nine-year-old with them. They wouldn’t take her anywhere dangerous.”
“A nine-year-old who jumped off of our balcony into a snowbank in February because Kris told her it was a secret escape route.”
Noelle frowns. “At least it was just the second floor.”
“That’s what Kris said, too.” December pushes aside another curtain of brush. “Anyway, I started pulling out the deeper cuts. I figure Kris really doesn’t want me to catch them after what they pulled, so they’d pick somewhere obscure.”
Noelle hums, but it’s just the right intonation that makes December’s ear twitch. She stops walking. “What?”
“Nothing.”
“Ellie…” Noelle takes an unusual amount of interest in adjusting her sweater. “You know where they are.”
Noelle’s mouth twitches. “Well…you missed a spot.”
December stares at her. “Missed a spot?”
“Yeah.” Noelle clasps her hands behind her back, looking far too pleased with herself. “One really obvious place.”
“And you waited until we’re in the middle of the forest to tell me?”
She shrugs. “I wanted to see whether you’d figure it out on your own.”
December raises the wiffle bat, and Noelle takes one prudent step back. “I’d bet you my share of Christmas cookies that they’re there.”
December narrows her eyes. “Where?”
“Go fish.”
“No fair!” Aqua grumbles as she draws yet another card from the center pile. Her hand has bloated to at least twice the size of Kris’s, and she has yet to put down a single pair. At this point, they suspect she does not actually understand how to play the game, and that she just likes taking cards from other people.
“I don’t have any kings.” Kris shrugs. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
“A king!”
They make a show of flipping through their hand, considering each card and weighing the strategic implications of calling each out. Eventually, they sit straighter, clear their throat, and ask, “Do you have any kings?”
Aqua clutches her fanned cards close to her chest, cheeks puffing into an offended pout. “That’s mean, Krissy! You don’t even need that card!”
Kris extends one expectant hand. The other human just grumbles, digs through her cards, and reluctantly offers the king of spades. Kris accepts it, adds it to their hand, then leans back against the beanbag.
At this point, they’re mostly waiting for Aqua to declare herself bored, as she has done with the last half-dozen games they’ve tried. The floor of the old school supply closet is littered with the remains of Apologies, Capitalism, the board-game adaptation of Dragon Blazers, and several other passtimes. Each and every one hasn’t made it halfway to completion before Aqua decided another game looked more entertaining and new.
Past that, Kris did not expect their hiding place to remain undiscovered this long. Practically everyone in town knows they’ve converted this closet into their private hu-man cave, using a copy of their mom’s master key to enter the school whenever they please. The actual supplies have been shoved into one corner, while the rest of the room is littered with beanbags, board games, a television connected to several generations of consoles, and a PC running Hometown’s Minecrap server.
They make it through three more rounds of Go Fish before rapture finally comes to break up their fragile little peace.
The closet doors slam open hard enough to scatter the pile of loose cards across the carpet. Kris glances up to find the shadowed form of December Holiday filling the doorway, backlit by the dim school hall. Her wiffle bat rests across one shoulder, and she bears an expression that promises Kris a long and unusually creative death.
“There you are,” she sneers.
“Dess!”
Aqua drops her entire hand, revealing that she had all four aces, three complete pairs, and either a lack of knowledge or care to lay down any of them. She scrambles to her feet and begins running toward the eldest Holiday before skidding to a halt after two steps. She seems to remember the day’s political feud and throws her arms out, placing herself between Kris and the threat in the doorway.
“Stay back, corvid overloard!”
“Cervid,” Kris corrects.
December lowers the bat from her shoulder. “I’m here for Kris, kid.”
“I’m on the human team!”
“Aqua, It’s fine.” Kris meets December’s eyes. “Dess has come to surrender. Right?”
December’s eyes settle on them. The fury her gaze held at the manor has had time to settle. Her mouth is pressed into a hard line, but Kris can still see the characteristic challenge beneath the stern expression.
“Oh, absolutely,” December drawls. “I came all this way to congratulate you. I think kneecapping you is a good reward.”
December takes one step into the room before another figure peeks out from behind her.
“Ellie!”
Aqua abandons her defensive position and rushes forward, throwing both arms around Noelle’s legs. She looks up at the blonde, giggling. “Are you on our team?”
Kris narrows their eyes. “Traitor.”
“Sorry, Kris.” Noelle rests one hand on Aqua's head. “I got tired of being dragged around town searching for you.”
Kris pauses, then looks at her more closely. “Wait, why are you even here? Weren’t you with Susie?”
Noelle’s expression strains. “Well, after you ran away, Susie was suddenly in a hurry to leave too. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about why that would be, would you?”
Kris shrugs. “Sorry if I ruined your date.”
“It wasn’t a - “ Noelle sputters, nose flashing red. “It wasn’t a date!”
Kris tilts their head. “Really? Then no harm, no foul right?”
Noelle’s arms stiffen at her sides, and she takes a slow, deep breath. “I suddenly feel much less guilty about bringing Dess to your little hideout.”
Dess clears her throat, stepping further into the room. She’s slowly tapping the wiffle bat against the palm of her hand. “This was an escalation, Dreemurr. Even by your standards.”
“You crossed that line with the pie, Holiday.”
“You broke into my room, dumped industrial strength ass water on me, and used a child as a shield.”
“I volunteered!” Aqua offers with a giggle.
“So no, I’m not here to kill you,” December continues, leveling the tip of the bat at Kris. “I am here to tell you that you’ve made a terrible mistake. This is war.”
“Foolish of you to assume we weren’t already at war.”
December shakes her head slowly. “You were a nuisance before. A thorn in my side at best. But now? Now you have my full attention.”
Kris rises from the beanbag and meets the weapon’s tip with the edge of the king of spades. “You might want to scrub down again, first. You’ll never surprise me if I can smell you coming.”
December’s face goes red. Noelle covers her mouth, but not quickly enough to hide the laugh.
“You’re lucky it’s getting late, because I do not feel like explaining to Aunt Toriel why you were at the hospital at this time of night.”
“Bold of you to assume you could - “
“It’s getting late?” Aqua cuts in. She has gone completely still. Just a moment ago, she’d been bouncing around Noelle, following the threats with delight. Now, her smile has vanished. “What time is it?”
The question is quiet, but there’s an edge to her voice that wasn’t there before. December’s bat lowers a few inches. Aqua looks from her to Noelle, panic creeping in around the edges of her expression.
Noelle checks her watch. “Um…about half past seven.”
Aqua does not move. For a second, she only stares. “No.”
Kris frowns. “Aqua?”
“He said seven.” Her breathing has changed, growing shorter and faster. “He said he’d be back at seven.”
Noelle’s brow furrows. “Asgore?”
Aqua is on Kris in the next instant, fingers clawing at the pocket of their sweater. “Phone. Krissy, give me your phone.”
“Hold on - “
“I need it!”
Stunned, Kris pulls out their phone, but the smaller human snatches it away before they can fully unlock the screen. She double-presses the side button to bring up the emergency call keypad, and dials the number from memory.
“Aqua,” December tries in her best soothing voice. “He’s probably just running late.”
Aqua ignores her and presses the phone to her ear. She paces in the narrow closet, nearly stepping on the scattered cards while her free hand grips at the end of one sleeve, twisting it tighter and tighter around her fist.
The phone rings once, twice, three times. December and Noelle exchange a glance, and the older Holiday takes a step closer to the closet door, giving the young human some additional space. The volume on Kris’s phone is turned all the way up, so everyone can hear when the call clicks to voicemail.
“You’ve reached the voicemail box of Asgore Dree - “
Aqua ends the call, phone slipping from her hand to clatter against the floor. She pushes past Kris, the fabric of her oversized sweater unexpectedly slick and difficult to grab.
“Aqua, wait!”
She doesn’t listen. She darts towards the door. December steps into her path, dropping the wiffle bat and holding out both arms. “Woah, kid. Slow down.”
“I have to go!”
“Go where?” Noelle presses.
“I have to go find him!”
She tries to slip around December, but she shuffles with her. She doesn’t reach out to touch the panicked girl yet.
“Kris can call again,” Noelle says, hurrying closer. “Or we can call the flower shop. Maybe he isn’t near his cell phone.”
“Move!”
Aqua shoves at December’s arm. The force would not normally be enough to move her, but the raw panic in Aqua’s voice makes her recoil. That instant of hesitation is enough for Aqua to duck beneath her arm and burst into the hallway.
“Aqua!” Kris lunges after her, barely snagging the tail end of her sweater. The little girl twists violently, yanking one arm out of the sleeve then throwing the rest over her head. The abandoned garment falls limp in Kris’s hand as she runs.
“Damn it!” December mutters, scrambling upright. “Aqua, stop!”
All three rush into the hall, but the kid is too fast for them. By the time they emerge from the closet, Aqua is already throwing the front doors to the school open with a resounding bang!
Kris can only stare. They’ve seen Aqua upset. She’s thrown tantrums, cried over scraped knees, and sulked when someone didn’t want to play games with her. They’ve never seen anything like this.
“What just happened?” Noelle breathes.
Kris scoops up their phone and breaks into a run. “Call Asgore. Keep calling until he answers.”
December follows after Kris, their earlier feud already forgotten. “Where would she go?”
Kris purses their lips. This behavior is new, but if Aqua’s reaction is anything to go by then…
“To find him.”
December’s car is a rackety old hand-me-down from Rudy’s college days, which means the thing is older than December herself and is one bad pothole away from falling apart at the seams. The Holidays have more than enough money for something better, but Rudy insists that driving a beater builds character.
At the moment, the strangled sounds of the engine chugging are only building dread.
“She can’t have gotten far,” December says. Her voice is low, almost lost in the growl of the engine. Kris just nods without looking at her.
Noelle sits in the back seat, calling Asgore’s cell for what must be the hundredth time. The pale glow of her phone lights up her face, only vanishing for the halting periods of time between the call clicking to voicemail and the next attempt starting again.
Their first sweep of Hometown turned up nothing. Aqua was not at Flower King, Asgore’s house, the diner, the lake, or any of the other small hiding spaces she found in the first few months in Hometown. It hadn’t taken long to call every responsible adult they could think of. Toriel was checking the neighborhoods and school while Susie was searching near the riverbank, and Undyne put out a call from the police station to get any available hands searching.
Meanwhile, Kris, December, and Noelle got in a car and started out on the only proper road out of Hometown. It’s a narrow mountain pass that curls around the lower rim of Mount Ebott, frequently a mere shelf road. December is pushing the car at barely ten miles an hour, one hand gripping the wheel while the other rests on the horn.
“Keep watching the shoulders,” Noelle says. “She had a blue and purple striped shirt under the sweater, right?”
Kris nods again. Their eyes ache from staring out into the dark. Every flash of pale bark tricks their mind into thinking they saw a small arm. Every low branch filled with pine needles looks like a mop of spiky black hair.
They should have noticed the signs that something was off sooner.
Before seven exactly? Is your phone charged? Which way are you going?
Aqua’s questions to Asgore before he left still bounce around the inside of Kris’s mind. Asgore had trusted them. He’d left Aqua in their care. His daughter, and their sister.
Are you going to be the one who tells him you lost her?
Kris’s fingers dig into the fabric at their sides. The worst of the worst scenarios run through their mind freely.
What if Aqua left the road? The forest floor disappears abruptly in places, dropping out into gullies full of loose stone and fallen branches. She could’ve slipped in the dark. She could’ve hurt herself and crawled somewhere off the road that they’d never find her.
What if she fell off the shelf road? What if a driver came around one of the blind corners too fast? What if an animal found her first?
Kris can’t help but imagine Asgore arriving home to an empty house. They feel the crippling weight of the dinner money still folded in their pocket. They imagine having to explain everything that had led up to this moment.
“Kris.” December’s voice cuts through the spiral. Her eyes are still locked on the road, but they can see her knuckles have gone pale on the wheel. “Do you know why she’d run out here?”
“She was particular about when dad would be back,” they say. Their voice comes out raw from all the screaming for Aqua in town earlier. “Really particular.”
Noelle’s phone clicks to voicemail. She ends the call and starts another, but it cuts off early. She fiddles with the screen, then sighs. “Crap. Out of service area.”
“He didn’t seem surprised when she asked him a bunch of questions,” Kris continues. “It was like he knew exactly what she was going to ask.”
December glances at them. “So this has happened before?”
“I don’t know.” The answer comes out weak. Kris turns toward the window. “I don’t know anything.”
“Kris,” Noelle says softly. “It’s not your fault. You couldn’t have known she would do this.”
“Then who would have?”
Silence falls over the cabin. The words are heavy on the air, and Kris immediately feels ugly and gross for spitting them out like that. Noelle lowers her phone slightly, but she doesn’t snap back. Kris feels the heat of shame crawl onto their face.
“Sorry.”
The car rolls around another bend in the road. Loose gravel crackles beneath the tires, and somewhere in the forest around them, cicadas hum in the night. The forest should feel alive, but instead it feels vast and unmanageable.
“What do you know about her life before Asgore adopted her?” December asks.
“She came from a human family,” Kris says. “I don’t know where.”
They try to remember whether Asgore ever told them more. He must have, they think. There had been tons of meetings and paperwork and visitations.
“Both her parents died when she was seven. After that she stayed with other people for a while.”
“Relatives?” Noelle asks.
“Maybe.”
Another useless answer.
“When it was me, I didn’t want anyone asking. So I didn’t ask her.”
“Do you think tonight reminded her of something?” Noelle asks.
Kris can only manage a nod. They see Aqua standing in the supply closet again, all the mirth and happiness draining out of her face. They should’ve been able to stop her before she made it out of the doors. They should’ve tackled her or grabbed her or -
December slams on the brakes. The seatbelt snags Kris hard across the chest.
“Look!”
Kris wrenches the seatbelt free, throws the lock, and tears the door open before December has even had time to shift into park.
A dozen yards ahead, in the middle of the road, is Aqua. She’s lit up by the car’s mismatched headlights, having fallen to her knees in the center of the gravel path, arms wrapped around her sides.
Her head hangs forward, shoulders hunched in and narrow. Dirt covers her knees, and her shirt is tattered and dirty. But she is here. She is breathing. She is alive.
Kris’s shoe catches on the loose gravel, pitching them down to one knee. Pain shoots through their leg, but they barely feel it. They shove themselves up with both hands and scramble into a run.
“Aqua!”
The little girl’s head lifts. She squints against the glaring headlights, looking both dazed and exhausted. She’s confused for a moment, until she sees them.
“Krissy?” Her face crumples. “Krissy!”
The sound is broken and raw. Aqua throws both arms towards them, and Kris drops to their knees as they crash into her, pulling their sister against their chest so hard that the impact nearly knocks the air from their lungs. Aqua folds into the embrace, arms locking around Kris’s neck.
Her entire body shakes with violent, exhausted sobs as she presses her face into their shoulder. Kris buries one hand in her hair and the other against her back, holding her in a way that silently says they will never let go.
“Thank the Angel,” they say, even though they’ve never been particularly devout. Their voice cracks. They had not realized they were crying until their breath catches and a tear rolls down their face, soon followed by another. Their chest contracts and they suck in an uneven breath.
“Don’t - “ They suck in a breath. “Don’t ever scare us like that again.”
Aqua just sobs harder, tears soaking through Kris’s sweater.
“You could’ve gotten hurt. You could’ve gotten lost. We didn’t know where you were. I didn’t know - “
“I’m sorry!” Aqua’s voice cracks. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry - “
Her apologies break apart into hiccupping sobs. Kris holds her tighter, one hand moving in comforting circles across her back. “It’s okay.”
“He said seven!” she wails. “He said he’d be back before seven, and he wasn’t. And he didn’t answer, and…he promised.”
Kris’s own throat closes. “I know.”
“They promised,” she says. “They said they’d come get me. I waited and waited, and they never came, and - “
She can’t finish. She folds forward, forehead pressing beneath Kris’s chin, and sobs into their chest. It’s not loud or long, but it’s wounded. It’s pulled from a place that has never quite healed.
They hold her while she cries for Asgore and two other people Kris has never known, nor will ever know. They hold her while her hands knot tighter in their sweater, holding on for dear life to the tiny fragment of family that is there for her.
The crunch of hooves approaches behind them. Aqua flinches and lifts her head from Kris’s shoulder. A string of tears and snot clings to the fabric.
“Ellie?” she whispers. “Dess?”
“The one and only, pipsqueak.”
December’s voice is softer than Kris has ever heard from her. She and Noelle have come to a stop several feet away, as if afraid coming any closer might frighten Aqua again. December takes the acknowledgement as permission and steps closer, crouching beside them to rest one hand on Aqua’s disheveled hair.
Aqua’s mouth folds into a frown once more. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Dess.”
December’s expression pinches, and she strokes Aqua’s hair. “Yeah, well. You can make it up to me by not doing that again.”
Noelle kneels on Kris’s other side. “We’re just glad you’re safe. Let’s get you home, okay?”
Aqua goes rigid. Kris immediately tightens both arms around her.
“No.”
“Aqua.”
“No!” She jerks in Kris’s lap. “We still have to find him. We can’t go back.”
Noelle presses her lips together, and Kris can see tears glistening at the corners of her eyes, too. December looks toward the dark road ahead, then nods.
“Okay.”
Aqua blinks at her.
“We’ll find him,” December says. Her voice is firm and confident. “But we’re doing it from the car. No more running around in the dark.”
Aqua’s grip tightens around Kris’s neck. “We’ll keep looking?”
“We’ll keep looking.”
Aqua studies December’s face for several seconds. Whatever she sees in the older girl’s expression is enough, because she gives one short, exhausted nod.
Kris stands with her, and does not slacken their grip as they carry her back to the car. They slide into the rear seat without setting her down. They don’t put on the seatbelt so they can keep holding her tight.
They hold onto her as December starts the engine once more and begins trudging back up the road. They hold onto her as her breathing evens out and the hiccups come less and less often. They hold onto her as December approaches the next turnout.
They hold onto her as Aqua falls asleep and December turns around. They hold onto her the entire way back to Hometown. They hold onto her until they pull into Asgore’s driveway and turn off the rattling engine.
They hold onto her all the way until Asgore’s truck pulls up over an hour later.
Kris only lets go of Aqua once they can finally lay her down in bed. She doesn’t stir even a little when they make their way into the house, up the stairs, and pull the blankets over her. She doesn’t even react when they remove her shoes or disentangle themselves from her grip.
She still looks fragile and positively wiped out. Her face is still puffy and red from crying, and one hand remains clenched around the hem of Kris’s sweater until they gently pry it loose. For a long moment, Kris remains beside her bed, watching her breathe. Only when they’re convinced she’s truly safe do they return downstairs.
Kris, Noelle, December, Susie, and Toriel have collected a rough ring around Asgore in the living room. Though nobody has deliberately framed it that way, it looks uncomfortably close to a tribunal. Kris breaks up the pattern and inserts themself right in the center, on the floor between the coffee table and couch.
“I need to apologize,” Asgore says. “I did not realize how severely my tardiness would affect you all.”
Kris just lowers their eyes. Asgore hadn’t been there, but they had. They were the one responsible for keeping Aqua safe. They had heard her nervous questions when Asgore left, and hadn’t given them thought until it was too late.
“What exactly happened?” December asks. She sits forward in her chair, elbows resting on her knees.
Asgore rubs his palms together, smearing the soot that covers them deeper into his white fur. “It is a rather long story.”
“We have the time,” Toriel says. She is the only person in the room who appears openly angry, arms crossed over her chest and a glower plastered on her face. Toriel Dreemurr has always been particularly protective of children. Asgore just nods, accepting the rebuke.
“After making the delivery in Ebott City, I began driving home somewhere around three-thirty. Perhaps closer to four.”
“It’s only about an hour away, isn’t it?” Noelle asks.
“Under ordinary circumstances, yes.” Asgore’s gaze gets lost in the darkened window facing the road outside the home. “I made it perhaps halfway back when there was a loud pop beneath the hood and my engine died.”
“The truck just…stopped? In the middle of the road?” Susie asks.
Asgore nods. “I was fortunate enough to guide it onto the shoulder. After it stopped, I could not get it to start again.”
Susie leans back in her chair and props her boots up on the edge of the coffee table. Toriel glares at her, despite it not being her home or furniture, and Susie lowers her feet again.
“So why didn’t you call?” she asks. “I mean, even when my pops wasn’t coming home from the bar, he at least called.”
“There’s no service on that road,” Noelle offers. Her phone is clutched in one hand, battery completely dead from a night full of calls. “None of mine went through after just a few miles outside town.”
Asgore gives a low, humorless chuckle. “Seeing nearly a hundred missed calls appear at once was…quite a fright.”
Kris flinches. They imagine Asgore’s phone exploding with message after message that they lost his daughter. That Aqua was missing and nobody knew where she’d gone. That Kris had failed at the singular job he gave them.
“You eventually got it running, though,” December notes. “The truck, I mean.”
Asgore lifts his hands, showing the black grease stains covering his palms and even up to his elbows. “I am afraid my mechanical knowledge is rather limited. After a few hours, a good samaritan stopped and helped me identify the problem and perform a temporary fix. I just wish I could have gotten the necessary repairs done sooner.”
“You couldn’t have known there was an emergency,” Noelle says.
Asgore shakes his head. “No, but there would not have been an emergency, had I returned on time.”
“A broken truck isn’t your fault,” December says.
Kris blinks and stares at her. It’s meant to be reassuring to their father, but it only serves to drive a bigger wedge between the two of them. Asgore had a genuine and unavoidable reason for his participation. He can point to the broken down engine and grease beneath his fingernails.
What could Kris point to? A duffel bag of prank supplies? A collection of board games? All of it is just distraction after distraction, showing the very reason they did not realize something was wrong until it was too late.
“It wasn’t his job to watch her,” Kris says. Their voice sounds flat, but their hands have clenched into fists so tight that their nails are digging lines into their palms. Every head in the room turns.
“Kris - “ Asgore starts.
“You asked me to keep her safe, and I let her run away.” Kris stares at the floor between their shoes. “I noticed something was wrong when she was asking you all those questions this morning. She was nervous, and…I noticed. I didn’t do anything about it.”
Noelle shifts closer on the sofa. “You didn’t know what that meant.”
“I should have.”
“How?” December cuts in. Kris sucks in an uneven breath and looks up at her. The eldest Holiday’s expression is firm, but not accusatory.
“You said it yourself. You barely knew anything about what happened to Aqua before Asgore adopted her,” she continues. “How were you supposed to know that a kid asking her dad when he’d be home would turn into her panicking and running halfway up a mountain?”
“She was my responsibility,” Kris grumbles, but by now it comes off as a flimsy and weak defense.
“You screwed up for, what, two seconds?” Susie says. December flashes her a look, but she just leans forward and shrugs. “What? You’re allowed to screw up every once in a while. You all know I do. The important part is that, after they screwed up, Kris did everything they could to try to find her.”
Kris opens their mouth, but it is Toriel who speaks first.
“This is not Kris’s fault.” Asgore lowers his head, but Toriel continues with a sigh. “Nor are you at fault because of a situation beyond your control, Asgore. You should have, however, told Kris of the circumstances that led to this situation to begin with, or at least warned them that your tardiness may set her off.”
“Or at least what to do if you weren’t home on time,” Noelle adds. “How to console her.”
There’s a flurry of nods from around the room, and Kris glances up from where their gaze had been locked somewhere near the floor at the same time that Asgore raises his own chin.
Asgore takes a deep breath.
“Before I adopted Aqua, her human parents were unfortunately killed in a tragic car accident. They’d been on the way to pick her up from school when a drunk driver drove them off of a bridge.
“When Aqua first came to live with me, she struggled whenever I left the house without her. Even a brief trip to the grocery store next door ended in panicked fits if I did not explain exactly when, where, and why I was going somewhere, and when I would return.
“We worked on it together. Over time, those moments became less severe. I thought she felt more secure the longer things went on, but perhaps I mistook her learning to conceal her fear for improvement.”
“I never knew that’s what happened,” Noelle breathes out.
I had my suspicions,” Kris adds. “Humans don't end up adopted by monster families often. Ask me how I know.”
“I wished to protect her privacy. I did not want her past to define her, nor did I want everyone to pity her for it. We learned that lesson with Kris the first time. That, however, is where I failed tonight. I should have let you all know what may happen.”
Silence falls over the group, but it’s not as heavy this time. Susie scratches the side of her face. “So, what do we do next time?”
“Sounds like Asgore needs a new truck,” December says with a chuckle. “I’ll talk to my mom.”
Asgore lets out an uneasy laugh. “While I agree, I can make that purchase myself.”
Laughter ripples through the group.
Once everyone else has left, Kris follows their dad upstairs to Aqua’s room. Neither of them speaks, the house having gone quiet once more. It doesn’t hold the same heavy silence that it had while they waited for Asgore to get home.
Asgore hums as he walks up the stairs and cracks Aqua’s door. The two of them shuffle across the carpet together, with Kris stopping near the foot of the bed while Asgore kneels beside it and gently brushes a strand of black hair away from Aqua’s face.
“Little flower,” he whispers. “I’m home.”
Aqua stirs. “Hmph…”
She rubs one eye with the sleeve of her sweater and pushes herself up onto the other elbow. For a few disoriented and drowsy seconds, she can only blink as she tries to comprehend the dark shape beside her bed. Then, recognition dawns on her face and her mouth falls open.
“Papa!”
She launches herself out from beneath the blankets and throws both arms around Asgore’s thick neck. He catches her against his chest, one broad hand coming to rest on her back. Aqua buries her face in his yellow beard and laughs and giggles as she rubs her cheeks through the soft fur.
Perhaps she has shed every tear she has to give tonight, or perhaps it is just a testament to Aqua’s character that she manages to hold back the night’s stress and anxiety in favor of being happy. Either way, she does not cry.
Listening to her laugh, the final knot in Kris’s chest starts to loosen.
“I’m home, little flower,” Asgore repeats. His voice wavers despite the broad smile. “I am so sorry I frightened you.”
“Uuu…” Aqua presses her cheek against his shoulder and looks up into his eyes. “It’s okay, Krissy helped me.”
Kris glances down.
“But don’t do that again,” she adds. Her fingers tighten around Asgore’s shirt. “Please.”
“I cannot promise I will never be late again,” Asgore says softly, stroking her hair. “But I promise I will do my best to make sure you can always find me if you need to.”
The answer appears to satisfy Aqua. She presses her face into his beard once more, then freezes as she notices the other person standing in the room.
“Krissy!”
She wriggles free of Asgore’s grasp and bounces across the bed to the end. Kris steps forward just in time to catch her as she throws both arms around their neck. This time, her grip is not desperate and weak like it had been on the road. This is that same, exuberant tackle-hug she had first given them that morning when she leapt from the bed of Asgore’s truck.
“Hey,” Kris says softly. Then, surprised by how easily it comes, they smirk.
“How do you feel about replacing Dess’s coffee sugar with salt?”