A/N: HELLO FRIENDS I HAVE RETURNED
Yes yes, I thought that I was finally out of the Undertale fandom, but then Toby Fox drops this onto my lap and it's pretty much the equivalent of a black hole. Honestly, I had so much fun with DeltaRune it isn't even funny. The writing is just so witty in the style Undertale was, the battle system is actually my preference to Undertale's, the soundtrack is beyond words, and the characters just have so much potential. So yes, when I woke up at some odd hour last night and said: "I'm writing DeltaRune fanfiction" the first person I thought of was my favorite emo axe girl, Susie, and "scary" villain, Lancer. Also yes, here's my attempt at writing a believable Susie without cussing, ban me.
TRIGGER WARNINGS, PLEASE DON'T SKIP: Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Canon-Typical Violence
If any of this triggers and/or makes you uncomfortable please click away as this isn't the fic for you!
You liked Lancer. Really liked him.
He was probably the first good thing about being down here, and if you were being even more honest he's the best thing to be sent your way in a long time. Sure, the axe was cool, but for the first time in your life you just wanted to be home. With Lancer that ache lessened, so yeah, it hurt when you woke up in that cell. Hearing his voice confirm what had been uncomfortably sitting in the back of your mind since recognizing the card symbols on the walls had cut deeper than any blows you had ever received, verbally or physically, and your vision went red.
It still hurt to swing that axe, even more so when the bullets he was throwing purposely avoided you, and just when you knew that this one strike would end it for good- end him for good-
You heard the axe crash into the stone floor, and everything goes white for a second with relief, pain, anger, and oh thank goodness he's not hurt too badly, Ralsei can fix him, even Kris could probably fix him
But no. He leaves, just like you wish the people who probably haven't noticed you're even gone yet would. He leaves to go talk to his dad, and you're completely sure that's a horrible idea so you immediately get your friends and rush to the elevator-
Friends.
When did you start calling them that?
There's a warm feeling rising in you as you absentmindedly listen to Ralsei ramble about how glad he is you decided to try ACTing, how he'll help you and be there every step of the way so don't worry!
You're worried, definitely. But for a different reason. You brush off Ralsei's worrying (no one's ever done that for you before) and keep trying to identify that pulsing in your chest as you look at Kris slumped on the floor and Ralsei delicately perched on the ground, tapping out patterns as you lean further back onto the wall and try to push down the worry rising in your mind as you think about how much Lancer would like to be sitting with you then, as one big group.
It hits you deeper than any kind of hit you've received, as badly as that cut deeply into your core.
Love.
You've never seen any classic display of love, never been in it, in fact you've hated pretty much everything you've ever heard of, but you know enough about it from all the cheesy things in the media and from the little assignments on literature you did, back when you actually cared what everyone around you thought to know that somehow this kid you've hated from the minute you laid eyes on them, this prince that has no business being this cute, and the prince of cards that just wanted to be scary have somehow wormed their way into your heart. With seemingly no intention of leaving either.
You push back these feelings and snap out of this thought process that has you rightfully terrified when the elevator beeps.
And yeah, if you (horribly) flirt with an enemy to the never-ending amusement of Ralsei on the request of Kris, you don't feel anything other than temporary embarrassment and begrudging affection.
Then they reach the fountain. Or more accurately, the person monster standing with your first and best friend before it.
The king (the words are bitter, even in her mind) orders them to kneel. Now it's a question of pride or his life, and you hate you're not surprised, not after that conversation, but it really isn't a question, and ow there's a pebble on the ground right as you drop to your knees without even thinking-
Oh. Kris and Ralsei are equally spaced from you, but you're synchronized in your movements as you kneel and wait for death despite Lancer's choked warnings. This is it, the end you've never planned out this way (there was no way you'd die of natural causes, this isn't so unfamiliar after all but in your darkest fantasies nobody was there with you) but that's life, or more accurately the end of it. Ralsei looks terrified but determined, and Kris strangely looks like they're reaching for something deep within themselves. Like they're waiting to do something. She wishes they'd hurry up with that.
But she doesn't have time to worry about that, doesn't have time to resign to it when a familiar white, glowing spade appears behind the king and you rise to your feet, with Kris and Ralsei both moving near you to stand in the line of fire as Lancer runs away, where she doesn't know, but now it's time to fight.
Kris doesn't want to do that, but Susie sneaks in one hit, just for revenge before agreeing with the plan to spare him.
And it's easier than they thought. It's only a few turns of dodging before he's almost passed out on the ground, and Ralsei heals him out of worry and- how could we be so stupid.
The words slip out of her mouth before she recognize them, calling Kris her friend before- holy &%*& Lancer what have you done.
One thing she's learned down here is just not to ask, and that's exactly what she does when she sees an army (what) carrying Lancer and now his dad to the dungeon, and now they have to leave.
It hurts unbelievably bad to say goodbye to Ralsei, but that pain was nothing to saying goodbye to Lancer, but in a futile experiment you give him your phone number, and oh, phones work if you text on the (surface? Overworld? You don't know what to call it). It doesn't ease the ache entirely, but your phone is now your most prized possession and anyone trying to even look at it will find an axe in their face, with questions coming later.
The feeling of going through the fountain was… odd. Unexplainably odd. But when you're back to the school you and Kris make an agreement to go back and see them tomorrow, and you find that there's still an ache for home in your heart. But this time home is through a seemingly innocent closet door (and really, how has no one stumbled on this before), and your heart gets heavy with every step towards home, though you'd rather call it another word starting with H.
You deal with the yelling, you're thankful no one tries to slap or punch you because your reflexes are so shot there'd be an axe in their face and an encounter triggered before you knew what you were doing, and eventually you slump into bed, not bothering to try to look for food.
But there's still a buzzing in your ears, and you can't sleep so you sneak out and head to the graveyard, a place that nobody visits out of some strange sense of respect or lingering superstition.
You pull out your phone and tap the contact that was instantly the prized spot in your favorites, open up a chat message and ask if he's awake. There's no answer. You assume he's either busy with kingly duties (lord help every darkener down there) or sleeping. You hope it's the latter. You still have lingering worry about his dad, but you're sure he'll be locked up. Lancer isn't that naive. You hope.
You pull your knees to your chest and recall a conversation you had near the stump, when you were still uncomfortable enough to keep eyes on each other but comfortable enough to know what subjects you should dance around.
You try not to look desperate as you eat some of the salsa, but that cake wasn't that filling and the chalk tastes like nothing and is worth about that much in your stomach. You're glad that Lancer is unobservant enough to not notice how hungry you are, and you wish you knew how to rewind time to avoid that look on his face when you hesitantly inquire about his dad. She's felt that look on her face enough to have your questions answered, but there's a certain anger filling your mind seeing what was done to you done to someone so sweet and innocent you have to fight the reflex to get your axe.
His voice is cheerful as normal, but there's a calculated and precise edge to it. "My dad is great! Sure I don't see him often, maybe once a month or so, but he lets me do whenever I want when he's not around!" And yeah, this is clearly a train wreck waiting to happen when he finds out how bad this is, but you also wonder just how he's survived without anyone watching him. His voice drops in tone slightly. "But when he is around, I'm not allowed to do certain things, and if I do he gets really mad…" Rage fills where curiosity was again. "Lancer. Lancer, look at me." He does, but he flinches and yeah, you probably should have tried to calm down again. There's a gentle tone you didn't know you had when you speak again.
"Lancer, does your dad hit you?" The guilty look on his face is all the answer you need, and then he smiles again and points to a dark figure and a more familiar one with dim light reflecting off the heart on their chest-piece and scarf fluttering dramatically in the wind that isn't blowing. You don't bring it up again.
Just remembering it makes you so mad. There's no time to process this, though. There's a sudden and awful shift in the universe, and dread crawling up your spine. For some reason you get that feeling when Kris turns that weaponized silence on you, and it makes you mad, always does. Silence is worse than ear grating noise. Then there's something that feels like your soul tumbling over, and then black.
—
A/N: This one really got away from me guys, not gonna lie. This was supposed to be like 500 words. Anyways, please review! Constructive criticism please, no blatant hate.
Thanks for reading guys!
-Luna?