We sat at the lake for a while longer, enjoying each other's company under the newly expressed love we held. Eventually we did get up to leave, but the joy never left my heart. I'm sure Kris felt the same.
"Hey Kris?" I said as we walked.
"Hmm?"
"What did you mean by 'you finally said it?' "
Kris laughed for a moment. "I knew you loved me, I was just waiting for you to make the move."
"W-what?"
"And that's why," he lightly tapped my nose, "you're so adorable when you're all flustered like this! It'd be no fun if I were the one to confess."
"Kris..." I half-whined.
"And also…" he took a more serious tone, "because I want you to be confident in yourself. You're so incredibly perfect yet you can't see it."
"Apparently no one else in the Dark World did, either…"
"Oh, don't worry about any of them. You're here now, and you're with me. And that's how it'll stay," he added on his wonderfully warm smile after.
"...I love you so much, Kris."
I always loved seeing that smile of his. It made me believe in myself more than anything else could.
We ended up going back to the house, not because it was the end of the day just yet but because that's just where we found ourselves.
"Oh? Back so soon, children?" Kris' mom asked.
"I guess," Kris laughed.
"Well then, since there's so much time left today… Kris, remember that the Dream Festival is coming up soon. Have you picked out anything nice to wear yet?"
Kris gasped, then shook his head. "I totally forgot!" he exclaimed.
"I figured as much from you, my child," she laughed, "I suppose you can just take care of it now then. And Ralsei, do go with. It'd be a shame if you weren't there."
The entire time I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about. But before I got the chance to ask, Kris had already received a bit of money from Toriel, waved goodbye, and dragged me by the hand back outside.
"The Dream Festival is an annual celebration where each town member says a dream that they'd like to achieve over the next year or just in general. After that we all just have fun in our own ways, so there's usually a ton of nice food, some people sing and dance, stuff like that. It is a bit formal though, so that's why we need to go get something better than, well… what we always wear," Kris finished it off with a laugh.
"That sounds amazing!"
"Sometimes it isn't that great though. We try to hold it by the lake, but sometimes the weather doesn't want to work with us, and sometimes even if we can hold it outside, there's a lot of clouds in the sky so we can't see the stars."
"Well, the weather's been great lately, at least. Hopefully it'll stay that way for the festival," I said.
"I always just think the best part is that we get a day off school because of it."
We both laughed.
"Here we are. Mom gave us a bit much, so if you see something you like, grab it," Kris said as we entered the store.
We split up from there. The store offered a lot to look through, but nothing much caught my attention at first. I liked my robe, it was comfortable and simple, and yet I thought it fit the bill of looking at least a little formal. But eventually after a long and hard search through at least half a dozen options, I finally found something that I'd enjoy wearing that was also what I assumed to be in my size.
It was a nice, collared black shirt, and to go with it a similarly styled pair of black pants. It wasn't incredibly fancy but it looked nice and I thought it would be great, so I went ahead and took it.
I went to a fitting room just to try it on and see if it fit, which it did, and I was about to go find Kris when I realized he found me first and we bumped into each other as I was heading out of the fitting room.
"Goodness, Ralsei! I did say formal but I only said a bit formal!" he laughed.
"Is it too much, do you think?"
"What I think is that you'll look absolutely adorable, because you always do."
"Can we not do this in public?" I asked, not wanting to be embarrassed.
"...Fine, you got me there. Anyways, this is what I got."
"That's more than what I have!"
He had a white buttoned shirt and a black vest to go over it, along with a pair of pants similar to mine. He also had a plain blue tie, all of which would look absolutely amazing on him.
"Okay you're right," he laughed, "I'll be back soon and then we can get shoes really fast and we'll be done!"
As Kris stepped into the dressing room I thought to myself that if Kris was going to look that incredible then so was I. I hurried back to grab a matching set of everything, except in the opposite colors. Since I knew my size based on the other clothes, it was easy to find the clothes that would fit. I rushed to get back to the room, and just then Kris stepped out ready to move on. He instantly noticed I had went back for different clothes though.
"You didn't have to do that," he said.
"I liked what you picked out," I said easily.
"So we'll be wearing semi-matching outfits on our first official date. Ralsei if you aren't the most adorable…"
"Date?" I asked, cutting him off.
"Yes, date. That was what the plan was," he laughed.
"Well then maybe I'm glad we'll be getting these clothes," I laughed with him.
"Come on, let's go get shoes," he said.
Getting shoes was significantly easier. I already knew I wanted something like the boots I always wore and Kris was determined at that point to keep the theme going, so I ended up getting black boots and he got white ones in as similar a style as possible to mine.
We went up to the cashier and it ended up being a bit more than I anticipated, but we had plenty of money thanks to Kris' mom.
When we got back home Kris' mom immediately wanted to see us both in our new outfits, and Kris and I shared a glance and snickered as we ran upstairs to go put them on. I realized very quickly that maybe we shouldn't both change in the same room at the same time, regardless of the fact that we were dating, so I just waited outside while Kris changed. After a few moments passed Kris opened the door and asked me for help with the tie.
"Do you really need help or do you just want me to be close to you?" I asked in the middle of tying it.
"...Both," he admitted.
"Kris," I sighed and rolled my eyes, "you say I'm adorable but have you looked at yourself?"
"If you're suggesting that I'm cuter than you, you are very wrong, Ralsei."
"Whatever you say," I hummed.
Then Kris stepped out of the room to let me put my clothes on. He told me on the way out that he also kind of had that same thought, so he was glad that he wasn't making anything awkward by doing it this way.
I got my clothes on with ease, including the tie. I found it sort of odd that Kris couldn't get the tie despite having tied the white ribbon around my hat, but it wasn't a big deal. After all, part of the reason was just so that I'd be close to him for a moment. Maybe it was the entire reason, and he just tried to hide it. I stepped out of the room and gave him a smile.
"You look amazing," he said.
"You look better. This was your pick, after all."
"Oh hush, we look equally as good, how about that?"
It was too hard not to laugh at Kris.
"Well then, let's go," he said, taking my hand in his.
"Mom!" he exclaimed as we reached the bottom step.
"Well look at you too handsome gentlemen! And matching, even. It almost looks like…" the realization struck Kris' mom, "you're going on a date?"
Kris smiled at her, and she closed her eyes and gave a quick nod.
"Ah, the joys of young love. So who said it?"
"I did," I answered.
"Really? Kris, I much would have expected you to be the bold one," she said.
"He said it was because he likes seeing me get all flustered and embarrassed."
"I do," he exclaimed, "you're cute as is and then you find a way to get even cuter with your blushing!"
Kris' mom gave a wild laugh at that, "I'm sure you two will last. You're absolutely perfect for one another."
"Well I don't plan on leaving Ralsei behind, he needs me."
"And Kris needs me! So it all works out."
"Alright, children. I'll begin preparing dinner soon, do go back up to your room and carefully put the clothes away."
As we were heading up the stairs I could've sworn I heard her add "don't have too much fun, either." I asked Kris about it and he said he didn't hear it, so maybe I just imagined it. He did laugh at it though, so it was worth it to ask.
Nothing much else happened for the rest of the day. Dinner was mostly silent, with only a little bit of talk about the Dream Festival. Of course, I barely knew what it was and just learned of it today, so I really couldn't add much to the conversation other than saying I was excited for it.
And because there was school the next day, we had to go to bed early. Kris and I stargazed for a bit before heading to bed though, and talked for a while.
"I'm glad mom is supportive of us," he said.
I nodded.
"I'm sure there are parents out there that would be against their kids dating. Or they'll allow it but they won't allow dating specific people for a whole list of reasons. I was sort of scared about it; we are both guys after all. I didn't suppose my mom would be like that since she's so kind but… I didn't know either way."
"Then she didn't have the same talks with you as she did me," I said.
"What?"
"She mentioned a few times that she was totally fine with us being us."
"Oh. No, she never did tell me anything like that," he said.
There was a pause where neither of us said anything, and we just stared out at the night sky.
"Well, good that she said those things. I think you should be able to like whoever you like. After all, you can't control what the heart wants, and usually trying to force it down will only make the situation worse."
"I completely agree," I said, "love is love."
"Well, I'm tired. Let's get some sleep," he said as he jumped up on the bed.
We snuggled into each other like we usually did, except this time we seemed to be pushed closer together than usual. Kris quickly got to sleep, comfortable in my embrace.
"I'm glad I met you, Kris. My heart got exactly what it wanted," I whispered.
A soft smile crept on his face and he mumbled my name, so I thought for a moment that maybe he wasn't asleep at all. But before the moment was over, I found myself drifting into my own sleep.