Chapter 2 start

The pie was made out of one part butterscotch, one part cinnamon, and four parts of empty. Toriel looked at the two-thirds that was already gone, however early she'd woken up. She was of half mind to start locking up her baked goods as well as the chocolate.
”Well...” she said, out loud, as she heard her son walk down the stairs – rather earlier than usual. ”You left more for me than the last time. That's progress, I suppose. Small steps.”
Kris seemed poorly-rested as he entered the kitchen. But he smiled. He still had a couple crumbs on his cheek.
”Have you thought of making worse pie?” he asked. ”Then I wouldn't want to just keep eating.”
Much as she wanted to remain at the very least stern, Toriel couldn't help but laugh. ”Ask your father to let a few flowers wither, see how that goes. Same answer from me.”
”And anyway,” Kris continued, ”I hadn't eaten anything all day. And I saved some for, uh, someone...”
”Oh? You mentioned making a friend.”
Briefly the smile had disappeared, but now it returned in full – if a little more sad. ”Yeah. I'm sure she'd like it. I don't think she gets much to eat at all. Not nearly enough, anyway.”
”Well, then you should definitely bring her some more! A growing child needs plenty to-”
Mid-word, Toriel fell silent. Gears began to creak in her head: rusty, set in their ways, but far from weak once they got going.
”Who is it, exactly? I can think of only one girl of about your age who...”
Kris didn't reply, not with words at any rate, but the way his eyes shifted away from her told her all she needed to know.
Toriel sighed. ”Kris... much as I'm glad of you having found a friend...”
”She's not that bad!” he interrupted. ”She's just... I don't know. She's going through stuff. Like I am.”
”What did you do yesterday?” Toriel asked: she hadn't felt nearly this concerned the previous evening, upon first hearing the news of him making a friend. She hadn't thought that there would've been any need to ask.
”We, ah, we just...” Kris stammered, shifting weight from a foot to another. He seemed deep in thought for a moment, before carrying on: ”Alphys sent us to the supply closet for some chalks, since I guess she'd misplaced hers or something. We didn't find any. I thought we'd call it a wash and go back, but Susie figured that we could have a look through the abandoned classroom to see if they'd left any there. We found none, but we did find a bunch of cards and board games, and ended up playing for a while. And... yeah, I guess time flew.”
He looked back at her with an awkward smile. Her worries mellowed out: perhaps he wasn't telling everything, but it was also clear nothing truly concerning had happened, or else he would've been even more out of it. Like when Asriel kissed Bratty...
Still...
”Don't skip any more classes, all right?” she emphasized.
”I won't.”
”And be careful with Susie. You know she's right at the end of her rope: if she does fall out, I don't want you to be dragged down with her.”
”I know.”
”You are in a vulnerable situation, and might end up going too far just to keep her arou-”
”I know!” Kris repeated, more forcefully. ”Mom. It's fine. She's coming around. I know it.”
He looked far more confident, self-assured, and determined than his mother had ever seen him since Asriel headed out for college. It warmed her heart – however misguided it would turn out to be.
She hugged him.
”Kris... remember when your father and I split up?”
He didn't hug back – he rarely did – but she could feel him stiffen, unhappy memories bubbling back to the surface.
”You were inconsolable all week. You tried so many times to get us back together, set us up, all these plots and conspiracies... dragged your brother into them, too...” She laughed.
”But nothing worked.” he said. His voice had broken. ”It just...”
She sighed: that brief, forlorn bit of mirth had passed. ”Kris. You have to learn that sometimes things just don't go the way you want them to. No matter how hard you try, no matter what you do... you can't save everyone.”
”I know.” he whispered.
”Heavens know I tried, with Susie. I did all I could, with what little time I have – she's not the only troubled child I've had, maybe not even the worst.”
”I'm not saying you didn't...”
”If you want to give it a go yourself, then I'm not stopping you. Who knows? You might succeed where I failed.” She smiled, and hugged him tighter. ”Just... set yourself up for disappointment. All right?”
”All right.”
At last, she let him go.
”I think I'll walk to school today.”
”Stay safe.”
Gloomier topics were pushed aside, into the depths of their minds. They both smiled.
”I will.”
The door closed behind him, and Kris took a deep breath.
”Good work with that story.” he said, seemingly to no one.
(Thank you.)


Kris wasn't more than a few steps away from his home when his phone rang. He dug it up out of his pocket and saw the number as unknown.
(Answer it.)
”I don't know...” he replied. ”I don't like talking to strangers. Probably just a salesman anyway.”
(Answer it,) the urge in his head repeated. It was a little stronger, but nowhere near as bad as the previous day. Their talk that morning seemed to have worked out.
”Oh, fine.” Kris shrugged and answered. But he would do this his way...
”Clubs Deuce Cleanup – you've got a corpse in your car, minus a head, I'll take care of it all.”
”Minus a face, actually,” said a cheerful and happily familiar voice, ”and really I was looking for a recipe or two. I usually just eat them up raw, but lately it's gotten kind of dull...”
Kris's heart fluttered. A smile spread on his face unlike any in a while.
”Susie!”
”Sup, freak.”
”How'd you get this number?”
”I bullied the whole class's numbers out of Alphys the other week.” Susie replied, all too happily. ”Thought I might do prank calls some time. Didn't get around to it.”
”Oh, well, I...” Kris paused, then a grin spread on his face. ”Wait, wait... you've got all the numbers?”
”Yep!”
”Even Berdley?”
”Uh-huh.”
He couldn't stop himself from laughing. ”I think we'll have a lot of fun with that later...”
Happily, she laughed right back. ”Anyway, where are you?”
”Walking to school. Want to meet up?”
”Yeah, did you see that creepy skeleton guy?”
”Oh. Uh.” Kris paused: the skeleton named Sans was a font for great many questions in his head. ”Yeah. He seems cool enough. Wanted to get me to hang out with his brother later.”
”Count me in on that.”
”But we can't skip school this time. Mom will blow a lid and you'll probably get kicked out.”
”Yeah, yeah.” She sounded rather more dismissive about this than she should have. ”See you soon.”
She hung up. He put the phone back and walked on.
”So, uh...” he asked, after a moment. ”What's your deal with Sans? You seemed to know him. Are you friends?”
(It's complicated.)
”I bet it is...”


Sans wasn't around this morning. Perhaps that was for the best: Kris had the strangest feeling that had the skeleton been here, they could well have missed school today as well.
Susie was there, though. She grinned, and gave him one of those dismissive I-don't-really-care-that-much waves. ”So you weren't grounded. That's great.”
”Yeah, I-”
(Flirt.)
”Shut up.” Kris hissed from between his teeth. Susie's smile faded a little.
”Something wrong?”
(Flirt.)
”No, it's fine. Everything's fine. Let's go, don't want to be late two days in a row...”
”Yeah, she wouldn't let us hang out anymore, then.”
”Yeah.”
”She could be half as good mom as she is now and...” Susie cleared her throat, broke off, and didn't say anything else for a while. Neither did Kris.
They were by the librarby when he finally spoke up again: ”Oh, speaking of my mom.”
”Yeah?”
”She baked a pie.”
Susie's eyes lightened up as she saw Kris dig up the wrapped little package and hand it over. He could just about hear her stomach growl.
”Oh.”
”So you won't have to eat chalk again.”
”Thanks!” She snatched it and threw it right to her mouth, wrapping and everything.
(Give her the flowers.)
Kris blinked at the voice inside his head, and carefully felt his weight. He was still carrying those. How was that even...
(Give her the flowers.)
Meanwhile, Susie happily chewed on the treat. She looked about this close of tearing up. ”This is great! Just... man. Delicious. Tell her she's awesome.”
”Sure will.” Kris brushed the puzzlement aside and grinned. ”If you'd said anything else, I would've had to fight you.”
(Give her the flowers.)
”Shut up.” he hissed.
”What?” She looked down at him. He flustered.
”N-nothing! Just a thing...”
(Give her the flowers.)
”Shutupshutupshutupshutup-”
”Kris.”
Susie had stopped walking, turned right to him, and put a hand on his shoulder. The tingle he felt was nothing next to the genuine concern on her face.
”What's wrong?”
(Say nothing.)
Contrary to the voice, he decided to come clean:
”I've, uh... there's been this thing in my head. Trying to give me commands.”
”A thing? A voice? What?”
”Not in the crazy sort of way.” he reassured. ”I mean I've been literally possessed. I can get rid of it too. I did last night.”
”Uh... okay.”
”We talked a bit. It doesn't know for sure, but we think it's what allowed us to enter the darkworld in the first place. And it mostly just wants to have fun. Sort of an adventure of its own, along with us. It's weird, but... yeah...”
Her concern didn't mellow out much. Kris tried to rid of it with a smile.
”I'm all right. I've got it under control, and it doesn't seem to want us any harm.”
She breathed deep, but calmed down a little bit, gradually. Then she bared her teeth.
”If it causes trouble, throw it to me and I'll eat it.”
(Mercy.)
Kris laughed. ”Yeah. Okay. I think we're good here.”
”So what was it trying to tell you? Or command you to do? Going on about shutting up as you did...”
”Oh, that. Ah...” Kris flushed red: his smile grew more awkward and his throat desperately needed clearing. ”I was, um, I had this other thing. Not meant for you. Really I wasn't supposed to carry it with me right now at all, it just...”
”Oho?” Susie grinned – it was an alarming combination of curious and predatory. ”What was it?”
”N-nothing much.”
”You've got me curious now.”
”No, look, it's-”
He broke off with a gasp as she pushed him against the librarby wall. It was much gentler than the previous day with the lockers, but left him just as little room for escape. ”No, wait-”
”Show me!” She all but laughed as she frisked him.
”Lemme go! We're going to be late!”
He tried to push her away, but he was far more self-conscious with where his hands were prodding. That, plus she was simply so much bigger and stronger than him, and her hands had more reach.
It was a lost cause.
”Well, isn't this something!” Fortunately, Susie was taking it in good humor: she grinned wide and held the bouquet of flowers far up beyond the reach of Kris's desperate arms. ”Nice. You shouldn't have.”
”I wasn't going to!”
”Roses, too! I don't know much about flowers, but isn't that for romance?”
(Yes.)
”N-no, it's-”
She laughed, entirely uncaring of his plight. It was nowhere near as bad as she'd once been, but still incredibly embarrassing. ”You should've said something earlier! We could've run away – stolen my dad's car – gotten married in secret...”
”Give it back...”
”No guests, just a great big buffet for the two of us...”
(That sounds great.)
”Don't you start now!” Kris growled mid-wrestle.
Later on, he would spend a great many quiet moments thinking back into this, and just how lightly – almost mockingly – she took the very idea that he might've had feelings for her. Because he well could have. He wasn't really entirely sure himself. These things had never been easy to figure out for a teen with no friends like him.
Right now, though, things were yet getting worse. Just as he thought it was over, she noticed something even he'd missed:
”Oh, hey, there's a card...!”
Kris swore semi-loudly and his efforts redoubled. ”Don't open it!”
She had a tougher time with him this time, and lightly kept him within arm's reach with one hand, while the other struggled to open the note. ”What, didn't you write this for me? You can't back away now, Kris.”
”I didn't-”
”Nice handwriting, for sure...” Despite his best efforts, the card was opened. She grinned. ”Maybe your mom would like it better if you wrote this nice in your projects. Let's see...”
Kris stopped fighting and stood back, face buried in his hands. He wished earth would swallow him underground right now: it couldn't possibly be worse.
”'Thinking back to all the good times we had together'... wow, isn't that sweet! I had fun too, but I wouldn't be sending flowers. At least not roses. Then, uh... 'if you'd only give me a chance, we could'-”
She broke off.
Kris risked to look up from between his fingers. The wide grin had died out of her face and her eyes had gone to plates instead. ”...Huh.”
”Please don't tell me what it says.” Kris pleaded.
”Who is this really for?” Susie asked.
”It's... from my dad. To mom.”
”Oh.” She cleared her throat. ”Well, uh. Your dad has a way with words.”
”Don't-”
They heard a car pull over by the sidewalk. ”Kris!”
Kris jumped and turned around, shocked, to face his mother. He heard a loud crunch from next to him as Susie stuffed the whole bouquet into her mouth: just a bit of paper poked out of between her jaws by the time she faced Toriel.
”You're going to be late from school.”
”No we're not.” Kris said. ”It's right over there. We were just going.”
”I hope I didn't catch you in any delinquency?” She looked suspiciously at the wall behind them, as if expecting to see graffiti – then to Susie. ”What's that in your mouth?”
Susie mumbled something, then swallowed. She winced in pain as the thorns stuck to her throat, but in the end it didn't kill her or anything. She'd probably eaten worse. ”Trash.”
Toriel squinted. ”Did Kris give you anything?”
”Oh, yeah. Yeah, he did. It was great. Thanks. I was just... uh, still peckish.”
The squint intensified. For several seconds their eyes met, then Susie looked away, embarrassed and defeated. Toriel turned to her son instead.
”Kris.”
”Yeah?”
”Bring her along after school. I'm going to stuff her.”
”Yes, mom.”
”Susie, do you prefer cinnamon or butterscotch?”
”I'm, ah... indifferent?”
”Ah, well.” She nodded, and at last smiled – the danger had passed. ”Truth be told, I'm not sure I could do one or the other if I tried.”
”I'll appreciate it anyway. Thanks, Ms. Dreemurr.”
”Don't worry about it. Now, to school. Don't be late again!”
The bell rang somewhere near. Susie waited until the car was gone before she could let her pain and discomfort show. Her stomach rumbled again.
”So, uh...” she began.
”Yeah?”
 ”I think we can save the darkworld for tomorrow...”
”Yeah.”
(Break in your mom's door. There's a gate there.)
”How do you know that?”
(An educated guess.)