Seated in between Ralsei and Asriel, Kris is struggling to chew their food with their usual blank expression.
Mom is cheerfully telling an intrigued Ralsei that embarrassing story about the pink headband while their brother alternates between sneaking glances at the phone in his lap and side eyeing Ralsei with they think is suspicion.
A pang of guilt bubbles in their chest. This is not going at all the way they thought it would. Not only have they brought a stranger here for Asriel's return home, but they hadn't even considered the pressure it put on Ralsei himself. They don't think he's even seen a TV before.
"Whatever happened to those, do you think?" Mom is asking them.
They definitely didn't 'accidentally' leave them behind at school after they'd started to get bullied for wearing them, nope. "Don't know," they say. They're probably still in the old classroom, somewhere.
"Horns aren't all they're cracked up to be, Kris." Asriel says, looking up from his phone. "Now I understand why Dad is always so cautious around doorways." He chuckles, the first genuine laugh Kris has heard from him all day. "They never make them tall enough."
Kris takes a moment to appraise Asriel's horns. If they've grown over the time he's been gone, it hasn't been by very much. They're still not as impressive as Dad's, yet, but they're getting there.
"They hurt when they first start coming in, too," Ralsei adds, pleased to have found some common ground.
Asriel nods at Ralsei in agreement. "Yeah. They do." He looks like he wants to say more, but apparently decides against it.
"Do you have any siblings, Ralsei?" Mom asks, suddenly and forcefully reminding Kris just how little they actually know about him.
A pained expression appears on his face, but he smoothes it into a more pleasant one quickly. "No. It's just me," he says quietly, seeming faraway.
"I see," she responds. She doesn't press the subject.
"Can we eat the pie now?" Kris asks, hoping to keep the mood from completely souring.
Mom laughs. "I don't know, can you?"
After dessert is served and eaten, Asriel heads up to the bedroom to unpack, and Kris shows Ralsei around the house. Explaining everything in the bathroom had been a challenge, but at least they had managed to keep Ralsei from eating the shampoo.
The rest of the day is spent leisurely chatting and catching up. Asriel seems determined to ask Ralsei difficult questions that he can't answer, so Kris ends up glued to his side and running interference all day. They don't mind it, of course, but even for a well practiced liar like them, it soon becomes tiring to remember the old lies and keep the new ones believable.
In the evening, a new problem arises.
"I'm fine sleeping on the floor, Kris." Ralsei insists again.
Kris slams their thumb down on the controller again, too late. Their character on screen dies, and Asriel laughs as he bumps them out of the seat. They've missed playing video games with their brother; party games are only fun if you have someone to play them with, so Kris hasn't touched the console after Asriel left.
"Kris and I can share my bed, and you'll sleep in their bed," Asriel says cooly. "If we had heads up that there was gonna be another person, we would have gotten an air mattress."
"An air mattress?"
Asriel cranes his neck around to look at Ralsei, incredulous.
"You died," Kris informs him.
Instead of interrogating Ralsei about his apparent ignorance of air mattresses, Asriel luckily decides to turn his attention back to the game. "Oops. Guess I should have paused it."
"It wouldn't be fair to make you two share a bed in your own room, though." Ralsei insists, apparently unwilling to drop the subject.
This time Asriel doesn't take his eyes off the screen. "We've shared plenty; we're used to it. I try not to poke their eyes out with my horns, they try not to kick me too much." His tone leaves no room for argument. Ralsei seems to realize this.
"I'm gonna get you back for poking holes in my favorite pajama top someday," they say, though not with very much conviction.
They would have liked to share a bed with Ralsei, but they had known from the start it would be unlikely. They can feel their face heat up a little, but they can play it off as being invested in the game.
"Served you right for putting a rubber snake in my bed," Asriel shoots back, grinning.
They find themself smiling for once. It's impossible to deny just how much they've missed this stupid banter.
Asriel's character dies again, so he turns to thrust the controller at Ralsei. "Ralsei, do you want a turn?"
He balks at the prospect of hurting people, even if it's just pretend hurting on pretend people, but he reluctantly accepts the controller and plays anyway. He's never touched a video game in his life, so of course he dies almost immediately. "It's more fun to watch you guys play," he says.
Asriel gives him a doubtful look, but mercifully lets Ralsei hand the controller to Kris without comment.
Somewhere around midnight, Toriel comes upstairs to tell them they'd better head to bed, or at least quiet down a touch.
"You three have your sleeping arrangements sorted out?" She asked.
"Kris and I are sharing my bed. Ralsei will take Kris's," Asriel had said.
She nodded approvingly, eyes lingering on Ralsei's with an expression he couldn't read. It wasn't completely unfriendly, but there had been something else there, too.
And now he's curled up in their bed, unsure if he should try and distract himself from the fact that it's absolutely permeated in their scent, or if he should be reveling in it. He would have rather shared a bed with them, but this is the next best thing.
Their world, filled with light and hope the sky (Oh god, the sky. Kris had been forced to haul him up off his knees when he had first seen it.) is all so overwhelming it was almost impossible to process it all at once. Lying in their bed, he knows he isn't going to get much sleep tonight.
Apparently, people change colors when they go between the Light and Dark worlds. Here, his fur is a dense coal black, and Kris is mostly tan with a twinge of gold yellow. The first time he saw his reflection here, he had almost started to introduce himself to this stranger.
Kirs had mentioned having a brother, but they didn't bring up the fact he was a goat, like him. It's ridiculous, but something about that isn't sitting right with him. It seems like Asriel is bothered by it, too. Asriel had tried to be discreet about it, but he had been staring at his horns off and on throughout the day, too.
He reaches up to touch his own horns. They've always been small, but compared to Asriel's, they're downright feminine. Until today, it's never bothered him.
Ralsei had planned on suggesting that he share a bed with Kris, but the way Asriel talked about it left no room for negotiation. The only question is, does it stem from jealousy or protectiveness?
He's too distracted to sleep. He rolls over, towards the bed Kris is sleeping in. They're facing away from him, arms wrapped their brother. It's hard to tell from here, but it looks like they've buried their face in his back. It's immensely disappointing for some reason.
They're siblings. He shouldn't feel jealous.
But he does.
He rolls over to face the other wall, allowing himself a groan of frustration and disappointment. He hadn't known what to expect when Kris asked him to come to their world. A little too late, he realizes that he had expected to have Kris all to himself the entire time. He bites down another unhappy groan.
And the lying. He hadn't been prepared at all for the brutal reality that he's not from this world and really doesn't belong here. Half of the things Toriel and Asriel had asked him about were things he had never heard of, which left him stuttering until Kris would swoop in with a lie.
It's almost scary, how quickly and casually they come up with lies.
He puts it all out of his mind for now. He needs to sleep. Even if he doesn't get much, at least he won't wake the others with nightmare induced screaming like Susie has done. He's never had a nightmare so bad he woke screaming; it makes him wonder exactly how bad Susie's are.
Again, he resolves to put it out of his mind. He does feel a little bad about leaving her, but it's not like she's alone; she has Lancer to keep her company at the very least.
Eventually, he's able to drift asleep. He dreams of falling upwards into the sky, leaving a blue Kris on the ground. He tries to stop and come back down, but he can't. He falls up and up, past the clouds and into a void of sheer white. He floats in this void and worries that Kris will forget about him.