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Wednesdays were practice days. This had been true ever since Kris joined the church band. Toriel preferred “the choir,” or “worship,” but those were just fancy ways of saying band, so Kris called it a band (much to their mothers chagrin).
They didn’t mind practice days, sometimes they even had fun learning a new, non-churchy song! Well… they used to not mind practice days. Ever since Dess went missing, and their dad started his research, practice days weren’t so great. Home wasn’t fantastic either, but at least they could mostly hide away in their and Azzy’s room. Here? Both Asgore and Toriel were sitting right behind them.
Currently, only one parent was sitting behind them. Their dad probably had to close up late at the flower shop again. That’s what Kris kept telling themself. They didn’t want to think about the mountains of papers and the walls of red string sitting on the top floor of the Flower King.
“Kris?” Their mother said gingerly.
Kris shook their head, trying to clear their thoughts, and turned to their mother.
“Kris, are you feeling alright? Surely you cannot be getting stage fright now, haha!” Toriel smiled lightheartedly, but Kris could sniff out the concern and agitation in their mother’s demeanor.
Kris nodded and bared their teeth in a sort of smile, a habit they had since they were little.
Toriel nodded back, and glanced backwards at the door of the church. “Asgore is just fine, my child. He’s packing up shop now, I am sure,” she comforted.
The statement did not, in fact, comfort Kris, and the fact that their mom just called their dad by his first name definitely wasn’t helping. Still, Kris turned back around, stared at their sheet music, and played. They cycled through two songs that they knew somewhat well for ten minutes, and right as they were ruffling through their papers to find something new to play, right as their mother was praising them for the fifth time on a job well done, the doors at the back of the sanctuary creaked open.
Asgore began walking towards them. He was turning through some crinkled pages of notebook paper, muttering to himself. Toriel’s seemingly endless stream of compliments fizzled out as she turned to see him.
“Ah. Asgore,” she said.
“Tori,” he said back, not looking up.
Kris suddenly wanted to run home very, very badly.
“You’re late. Again,” Toriel spoke, trying to keep an air of calmness about her, but clearly furious at his carelessness.
“I have important things to do, honey,” Asgore said, ferocity creeping into his tone on the final word.
“More important than our child?” Toriel hissed.
Kris’s chest started to feel tight.
“I didn’t say that, did I?” Asgore’s brows furrowed defensively.
Toriel opened her mouth, then paused, turning to Kris, who was staring at the two intently. They could faintly hear their heart pounding in their chest.
“Kris, my child, keep playing,” she said sweetly, and Kris complied. Anything to drown out the sound of their parents arguing.
Toriel stood up and dragged Asgore to the back pew. Kris didn’t care to watch them go. They just started playing.
Kris played and played, one chord after another, trying to think about anything else than what was happening far behind them. They could still make out some of the words their parents were saying.
“...ridiculous… you’re a bad…”
“...not my fault… trying to… ”
play louder
“...selfish! … think of Kris… Asriel…”
“...hometown… think…”
Play louder. Kris’s hands fumbled on the keys, but they didn’t stop. They couldn’t stop. If they stopped they would hear them.
“...barely present…never married… college…”
“...care… would it kill you… selfish…”
Play. Louder. Their palms were slick with sweat.
“...never… awful…”
“...stupid…noble…”
PLAY. LOUDER.
The only thing that Kris could hear now was the discordant slamming of keys in front of them. Quickened breaths and a racing heart were followed by the tears streaming down their face.
Kris felt a gentle, furry hand on their shoulder. They turned to face the physical contact, moving their head so fast it looked like they could have snapped their neck.
“Gosh! I-I’m sorry Kris,” Noelle jumped back in shock.
Kris just stared at the deer girl.
“This sure is an interesting way to practice piano…” she said awkwardly. Then, Noelle took a closer look at Kris’s face behind the bangs. “O-oh! Kris, are you alright?” she said with a look of genuine concern.
Kris looked past her. Their parents were no longer in the room. Kris looked back at Noelle. Then they looked down and stared at their hands. Noelle stood there, head slowly tilting to one side.
“It’s okay if you don’t wanna talk about it. I… uhm… kinda saw your parents storm out while I was walking in. My dad went to go talk to them. I figured you’d be in here because, well, you invited me to practice with you, fahahah. And I heard all the, uh, noise coming from in here too, I guess,” she rambled.
Right. They had invited her to practice. How could they have forgotten? Kris tried to muster up words, — Of thanks? Apologies? Misery? Who knows — but, but couldn’t manage to get out anything coherent through their sobs.
Geeze, I’ve never seen Kris this out of it before, Noelle thought. Usually I’m the one freaking out. And then they end up making it worse, faha. “Uh… do you want a hug?” I have no idea what to do right now.
Kris nodded. They also had no idea what to do.
Noelle bent down and the two hugged awkwardly. The good kind of awkward, though. The kind of awkward that is someone you’ve known your whole life. The kind of awkward that feeling intense emotions is.
“Thanks…” Kris sniffled out.
“Any time,” Noelle said, somewhat stiffly. “How about we don't practice today?” she grinned.
Kris exhaled in amusement. “Mhm.”