For as long as I could remember, Kris and I had been able to read each other's emotions pretty well. Which is good, I think, because I can't remember a time in my life where Kris wasn't a part of our family.

Our ability to read off each other was at its peak when we were younger; Mr. Holiday even used to call us Thing 1 and Thing 2. If one of us gave the other a side glance, it meant that the other had to do something. If one of us gave the other a nudge, it meant that they were the target of Mom's wrath. A tap on the nose? It meant steal the cookies, and quick, before Mom came back. For awhile, we were so good at it that a lot of people assumed that Kris wasn't able to talk. Everyone in Hometown found out that Kris could, after a very clever prank they conducted one afternoon during Vacation Bible School. No more Signing Time with Alex and Leah...

But when Mom and Dad separated, the light that was once in Kris's eyes started to dim. Everything about Kris seemed a lot duller. I had a hard time reading Kris- some times I still do, and I hate it. Mom always says that the separation wasn't our fault, but deep down, it always felt like it was. Maybe if we had behaved a little better so Mom and Dad didn't have to conflict over how to punish us, or maybe if we had helped them when they had needed it, maybe we would have all still been together.

Suffice to say, Kris wasn't the only one that changed.

It wasn't fair to Kris that Mom and Dad could no longer stand in the same room together, so I started to take them to the diner on Sundays for hot chocolate. We would stay there for hours- not wanting to be reminded that Dad would never come home or hear Mom say awful things about him. Sometimes we laughed and joked about the kids at school. Sometimes we cried. But even when it felt like our parents had abandoned us, we still had one thing; our adventures.

Mom taught the younger kids at our school, and since she was a teacher, she had a key to the school so she could get in whenever to set up the classroom. One day, Kris had managed to nab Mom's key and get a copy of it for us. It felt wrong, sure, but we soon had a place where we could play without anyone spying on us. The school had become a safe haven, even safer than the diner. I forget which one of us had found the abandoned classroom- but all I know was that it became our base of operations. If we wanted an adventure, that classroom was where we started.

The news of the separation still hung in our heads a whole month later. Mom could pretend that nothing was wrong, and Dad seemed to be fine. But me and Kris? It still felt like everything was wrong. We hid ourselves away in school, making our way to the abandoned classroom. Where else did we have to go?

"So, um..." I tried to start, if only to say something, "I started looking at colleges."

Kris looked over to me with a horrified expression.

"D-don't worry!" I then tried to tell them. "I don't want to go far, and I'll come back when I can. It's just… it's time, you know? For some change."

Kris still gave me that same fearful and betrayed look as they turned away. I was going to abandon them, they knew it, just like Mom and Dad had. I honestly wasn't trying to and if I had the power, Kris would have come with me.

When we approached the abandoned classroom's door, something felt… different about it. Kris was the one to try to open the door but hesitated.

"We don't have to visit today." I reminded them. "We can come back whenever."

Kris gave a small shake of their head. They had to visit today. We had to visit. So, after a taking a deep breath in, Kris took a firm hold of the doorknob and opened the door.

It was very, very dark inside and only getting darker. Kris was the first to step inside, I followed closely behind. The door shut behind us after we were far enough in, but neither of us seemed to notice. In silence, we walked through the darkness. It might have been a few minutes, or maybe a year for all we cared, but eventually the darkness started to fade away. Our feet were now treading on a dirt road with large willow trees at the side, blocking any sunlight that could have been seen. But there wasn't a sun here. There was never a sun in this place- only darkness.

Kris was now wearing light armor consisting of a silver breastplate, boots, shoulder pads, and gloves laid over a dark under bodysuit. Over their shoulders and covering one of the shoulder pads was a small striped cape. I, on the other hand, was wearing heavy armor created from pure obsidian. The large shoulder pads, torso piece, and tasset were all one part of the upper armor. My boots reached a little over my knees, leaving only my lower thigh unarmored and showing a bit of my under bodysuit as well. When our armor appeared, we never questioned where we got them or if we had even bothered to change before hand; having our armor on meant that there was an adventure to be had, and we were going to find it.

We continued down the road and eventually a small figure started to appear on the horizon. As we came closer, I began to realize that it was a human. Despite the darkness, their skin was noticeably pale and their hair near platinum. When we were close enough, my heart nearly skipped a beat; it was a girl. The Pale Girl (who Kris said I couldn't name or I'd get attached) stood there waiting for us at the end of the road. Her face seemed a bit smug, but otherwise expressionless.

"Welcome travelers." she greeted with a half smile. "I see you made the journey well enough."

"The journey is always easy when you know the way." I coolly told her as Kris and I took a bow. Impressed, the Pale Girl gave a small bow of her own.

"Need I remind you," she then said, "In this world, you must lose something in order to move on. It can be something trivial, or even personal, but when you leave it will stay behind as tribute to your journey."

"I'm sure we'll manage." I teased in return. Kris gave a nod of agreement. If it wasn't important, then we wouldn't be here.

"Very well." she once more smirked. "Then you must find and slay the witch that ravishes this land. Only then will you be allowed to return home."

Kris folded their arms with some skepticism. It seemed easy- far too easy. They looked over at me with a raised eyebrow. They didn't trust her. Of course they didn't.

"It's our only way home." I reminded Kris. "We have to."

Still a bit annoyed, Kris put their arms down and gave a nod. If they had to…

"Excellent." the Pale Girl mused. "Follow me, for there will be many trials you must face before you can fight the witch."

Kris gave me another look that was pure 'are you joking?' to which I easily shrugged off and started to follow the Pale Girl. With a small, kinda annoyed sigh, Kris shook their head and followed as well.

A/N: So, this was going to be a oneshot- but then I actually wrote out a timeline for the story and this one chapter is 1.3K without the author's note and after 2k words, reading gets tedious for me and I figure I don't want my readers suffering through it too, so maybe this fic will be a two-shot instead? Also, this is the first time I've written a first person in awhile, so here's hoping I don't screw that up ^^;

One more thing of note, Kris is wearing their Dark World outfit here. Asriel, on the other hand, is absolutely wearing Undertale!Undyne's armor- with a bit of adjustment, but it was what I mostly based my description on. This will remain the same in my other Deltarune fic, Two Planets, when we get to the Dark World in either chapter 6 or 7.