Work Text:
“Man, I can’t believe Ralsei crashed so early.” Susie throws herself face-first onto her bed, somehow not concerned about the spikes lining it, and groans into her pillow. “Dude works himself too hard. He spent so much time planning this sleepover and getting everything ready that he exhausted himself,” she says, her voice muffled by the pillow.
Usually Kris wouldn’t even be in bed by now on a school night. They lead a risky life, staying up way past their bedtime with their blanket pulled over their head to hide their dim phone or flashlight. Or, well. They used to lead a risky life. It’s getting harder to have energy lately.
But at least they have more energy than Ralsei. Kris and Susie arrived in Castle Town right after school, only around 4 PM, to find Ralsei bustling about and trying to set up the perfect sleepover. He prepared so much food, stockpiled Kris and Susie’s now conjoined room with pillows, and even had board games (Kris found them a little awkward to play, since they associated the pieces with Darkners now). On paper, it was the perfect setup for a sleepover. The only issue is that Ralsei ran himself ragged and fell asleep in their pillow fort while clutching a blanket.
Kris and Susie had stayed quiet for a while to let him sleep. When he woke up about an hour later, he blushed and apologized for falling asleep so early. He then tried to stay awake, only to briefly fall asleep again, so Susie convinced (forced) him to go to bed.
Ralsei insisted on sleeping in his own room rather than in their room like they had planned. He still wanted them to have fun. Susie only relented and let him leave since she knew he had a bed now. She did, however, check on him to ensure that he was sleeping in his bed rather than on the floor. He was, thankfully.
And now she’s back in their room, complaining but with no bite. Kris understands. They wanted to hang out with Ralsei longer too, but it’s important for him to get some rest. They’ll just have to plan another sleepover in the future and make sure Ralsei doesn’t overwork himself too much.
Kris peers out from inside the pillow fort. They see Susie sprawled out on her bed, dressed down to only her shirt and pants. It’s strange to see her not in her usual Dark World outfit, but those spikes and boots surely aren’t very comfortable. It’s the same reason why Kris removed their armor, although the bodysuit still isn’t that comfortable. It’s not uncomfortable in a physical sense; it’s uncomfortable in the sense that without their armor and scarf over top of it, it feels too…revealing? Not that they care about Susie or Ralsei looking at them, but…
Ralsei’s the lucky one. He just wears that loose robe. That’s probably super comfortable.
Susie rolls onto her back, and Kris is slightly concerned that she might roll off the bed and tear herself open on those spikes. Their concerns are unfounded, however, because she’s nowhere near the edge of the bed.
“So what do you wanna do?” Susie asks. She glances down at them in the pillow fort on the floor. “Don’t tell me you’re gonna fall asleep in there too.”
A thought crosses their mind. The SOUL doesn’t even hesitate to go along with their whims. Perhaps it’s being merciful today, or it just thinks this is funny. It lets them slink deeper inside the pillow fort, where Susie can no longer see them beyond the mess of pillows and blankets. They let out an obnoxious fake snore, as loud and annoying as possible.
Susie snorts. “Wow, I can’t believe they’re asleep already,” she says. Kris can hear the bed creak and her feet hit the floor. “If they’re sleeping this deeply, I could do anything to them, and they wouldn’t even wake up!”
Kris hates where their mind goes first. They’re glad that they hidden in the pillows and blankets, where Susie can’t see their blue skin growing purple and—
“Gotcha!”
Kris is suddenly hoisted into the air in a tangle of blankets and a couple pillows. Susie must’ve torn down the pillow fort to reach them and is carrying them in the debris. Clearly the fort isn’t strong enough to withstand Susiezilla. She’s taken its foundation, its insulation, its existence in one fell swoop. And Kris. Kris is in there too.
Kris’s back hits a bed. They can’t be sure if it’s theirs or Susie’s, with the blanket stuck over their head. They can’t even pull it off. They feel Susie’s weight on the bed with them and assume she’s the reason why they can’t get it off.
“Damn, I can’t believe Kris can sleep through this! They’re out like a light!” Susie says between laughs. “That means I can do this!”
Well. It’s not what Kris was secretly hoping for. Instead, they are subjected to Susiezilla’s torturous tickle attack. Rare laughs escape them, for Susie is a menace with her tickles. Luckily the blanket provides a bit of a buffer. If they could feel her claws directly on them, that would be so much worse. Or better. Hmm. She probably would give really good back scratches…
They’re torn from their line of thoughts when they feel Susie’s hands on their sides, tickling them in the spot that Asriel used to know was off limits, because it sent them into such hysterics that they couldn’t breathe. They thrashed under the covers, trying to find something to grab onto to brace themself, only for their hand to land on the worst possible spot.
They’re used to pain. It’s usually nothing to them. But most of the time, they expect it. They know it’s going to happen, so they can prepare for it. Not this time, though. The sudden feeling of Susie’s bed spike impaling their hand makes them jolt and uncharacteristically wince. Even Susie notices, because the tickling immediately stops and the blanket is pulled off of their head.
“Are you okay?!” she asks.
Kris looks down at their hand. Smeared blood covers the center of their palm; the spike must’ve stabbed them through the blanket and muddled the blood. Fresh blood wells up in the middle, however.
“Oh, shit! Dammit, I didn’t think about the spikes, I should’ve gone to your bed!” Susie grabs their hand, careful not to touch the wound, but brings their hand closer to look at it. “Fuck, that’s kinda bad…”
Kris no longer notices the pain. They’re not worried about it either, since Susie can just heal them. They don’t even need to wake Ralsei.
Kris raises their hand a little, silently asking her to heal it. Susie looks back and forth between their face and their hand, as if she’s confused, then…licks it???
They flinch out of sheer shock, but don’t pull away. They’re pretty sure this isn’t part of a normal healing process. But it’s kinda…nice? Cute? Hot? Hot like Kris’s face is getting against their will?
Susie laps up their blood like it’s nothing, not even the least bit bothered by it. Kris hates how into this they are. How all they can think about is wow, that tongue is long, imagine how it would feel—
Shit. They can’t think like this when the SOUL is in them. It would know.
Susie looks up at them. “What are you looking at me like that for?” she asks.
They can only imagine how they look. Probably stupid as hell. Blushing and confused and if they were a Cyber World Darkner, they’d probably have that buffering thing over their head. Somehow, they manage to speak despite feeling like their brain left the building. “I…meant for you to heal it,” they say, their voice embarrassingly breathless.
Susie also looks like she’s buffering. Then turns a darker pink. She tries to laugh it off, but stutters a bit before saying, “I know that! I…I was just messing with you!”
Kris gives her a disbelieving look. She looks away sheepishly before beginning to heal them. The wound quickly closes up, the only remnants being the light smears of blood left behind.
Another thought crosses Kris’s mind. It’s enough for the SOUL to work with. It forces them to hold their hand up directly in front of Susie’s snout, offering it up for her to lick again. Kris flushes, for they weren’t actually going to do this. They merely thought about it, they didn’t have the nerve to go through with it. But…at the same time, they weren’t exactly mad about the SOUL’s decision.
Susie looks at their hand and laughs. “You’re a weirdo, you know that?” She rolls her eyes in mock annoyance and lets her tongue slip out again, licking the rest of the partly dry blood off of their palm. Kris tries not to focus on the feeling of her tongue against their skin, particularly when it flicks between their fingers, but they end up gripping onto the bedsheets without realizing it.
“Well, I said I'd taste you last time, didn't I?” Susie remarks once she pulls back. Slight embarrassment flickers across her face, though. “I mean, wrong spot, but…”
Right. Right. She had mentioned…
Don't think about it. Not with the SOUL here.
…dammit. They’re totally thinking about it. Susie wasn’t subtle about what she wanted to do after their impromptu romp on the couch, and Kris was absolutely more than happy to let her. But they agreed to that while they didn’t have the SOUL in them. They agreed to that, thinking they’d be able to control the situation and make sure that the SOUL was once again locked up where it couldn’t bother them or see anything.
So they can’t think about it now. They can’t do it now. Because they have zero control at the moment.
They look down. In the back of their mind, they hope that makes the SOUL understand that they don’t want to be bothered, but of course it doesn’t understand that. Or maybe it does. Maybe it just chooses to ignore their obvious body language, like the selfish little bastard it is.
It chooses to ignore them now. Instead of respecting them, it decides “hey, why don’t I fuck with them some more?” And tells them to—
“Kris? What are you doing?” Susie grabs their wrist, trying to dislodge their own hand from their jaws. “Why are you biting your own hand?” she asks, almost sounding exasperated.
Once it seems like the coast is clear, like they won’t actually lick her back like the SOUL wanted, they stop biting their hand. Huh. It’s funny. They registered pain when it was that sudden spike prick, but didn’t even notice that they were drawing blood with their own teeth.
“Man, you’ve gotta stop bleeding, you’re bleeding more right now than you would in a regular battle,” Susie scolds, though her tone is totally lighthearted. “It’s like you want me to lick you or something.”
Kris quickly turns their head away. Okay, yes, deep down they do want that, but they can’t admit that right now. They’re not even sure if they’d be allowed to.
And besides, what is the SOUL’s problem?! When Susie had asked if they liked what they saw so happily, clearly expecting them to say yes, the SOUL forced them to say no. But now it’s all for making Kris flirt with her?! Not like they didn’t want to, but what are the SOUL’s priorities here?!
Susie heals them again. As she does, she mutters, “You know, if you want something, you can just ask.”
Oh no. That’s just giving the SOUL the perfect chance. And for something that ruined the mood last time, it’s surprisingly eager today. A little too eager.
So Kris says what it told them to. Except their sentence devolves into incomprehensible noises amidst a cough they force out. This just makes Susie laugh. “God, you’re a mess today, aren’t you? Bleeding out, hacking up a lung…what’s next? Choking on some cake?”
That makes Kris let out a small snicker, which in turn makes Susie smile proudly. “Well, I guess I shouldn’t let you have any more cake,” she says. “Which means more for me!”
She leaps off of the bed, rushing over to the table in the middle of the room that still had a couple slices of cake left. She slaps a slice onto a plate and throws herself onto the sad remnants of the pillow fort, which lay demolished next to the table. “And don’t even think about eating that last slice, that’s for Ralsei!” she says between bites, already digging into the cake like a dog that’s afraid someone’s going to steal their food.
Kris rolls their eyes with the smallest hint of a smile. At least Susie changed the subject. They feel kind of bad, because they know Susie wanted to continue what they did the other day. They want to continue it too. But doing that with the SOUL in them could go so horribly wrong…what if it tells them to do something bad to her? And even if it doesn’t, it would be able to see everything they’re doing. They don’t care if the SOUL sees them in a compromising situation; it’s unfortunately had to have seen them naked before, considering they’ve showered with it in them. But they sure as hell wouldn’t let it see Susie. Not in a million years.
Susie…Susie deserves better than all of this, honestly. She deserves better than having to deal with the whims of Kris’s SOUL, she deserves better than Kris. A thought that makes them pause, because wasn’t she just bullying them not too long ago? Yet they think so highly of her already, that she’s better than them?
Well. She is. That’s just a fact. Susie is one of the most amazing people Kris has ever met, so kind despite their rocky start. She’s the only reason they’re holding it together. She’s the main thing that keeps them going in spite of living every day as if they’re a passenger in their own body.
They look over at her, unable to prevent themself from appreciating her mere presence. Even though she’s just lounging in the pile of pillows and blankets, eating her cake and looking at the back of one of the board games Ralsei had brought. The little things like this, just existing in the same space together, was enough for Kris. For they couldn’t ask for much more while this bastard is controlling them.
Susie holds the game box up in the air, waving it towards Kris and distracting them from their simultaneously sappy and depressing thoughts. “It’s two players. Wanna play?” she asks.
The SOUL chooses to be kind again. “Yeah,” Kris says, feeling almost like they’re speaking their own thoughts rather than the whims of their stupid heart. They stand up and join her in the remains of the pillow fort, hoping that the SOUL will be able to see the board and not make them look like a fool again. It fucking sucked at that racing game.
Susie finishes her cake and sets about getting the game ready. She pours out the pieces and unfolds the game board, then shuffles the cards that are meant to sit on a specific part of the board. Though she focuses all of her attention on this, Kris can tell that something’s different. They can tell she’s trying to distract them from her disappointment by returning to her usual laidback state. It’s just like she did when the SOUL let her down so horribly the other day.
Kris doesn’t say anything. They can’t. They just…need to rectify this next time they can get the SOUL out of them.
They both have to select their game pieces now. Susie chooses the dragon piece, and Kris chooses the knight.
After seeing Kris and Susie off in the morning, Ralsei returns to their room to clean up. Only, he finds the place in complete order. The extra pillows are stacked on Kris’s bed with the blankets folded beside them. Leftover snack bags are rolled up and ready for clothespins to be stuck on them, plates are stacked together, and trash is shoved into an empty bag of chips. A single slice of cake is left behind, with a note written in green crayon. “For you” it simply says.
Ralsei smiles. He only ate one slice of cake last night at Susie’s behest, so getting a whole extra piece…that’s the kind of nice thing only Kris and Susie would do for him.
The only thing out of order in the room is the blanket laying haphazardly on the floor next to the stack of board games. For some reason, it has a note on it, one that says “sorry.”
Sorry? Sorry for what?
Ralsei picks up the blanket and examines it. He sees nothing amiss at first, until he notices a small hole and bloodstain near the edge. How could that have happened? People don’t usually rip holes in blankets and bleed during sleepovers, do they?
…oh no.
Ralsei forgot one major thing! How could he be so careless?! He should have prepared menstrual products, obviously!
…though does that really cause one to rip a hole in a blanket?