Nightmares And Bonding

And now for the start of Book Two! I hope you guys enjoy! Things will change from canon some, while still following the plot, and I'll be introducing some of my headcanons/theories about the Dark world, which hopefully will not bite me in the butt when Chapters 3, 4, and 5 get released.

...

Frisk was helpless to act as Ralsei healed the Spade King. Helpless to move as spades shot from everywhere. Ralsei was thrown across the room and lay limp. All she could do was watch in horror as his body then turned to dust, blowing away in the wind.

The evil king then turned his attention to Susie, the glowing spades flying right at her soul. Frisk tried to rush to shield her, but something locked her legs in place. She couldn't move, could only stand there helplessly as Susie screamed, her soul shattered, golden eyes staring at Frisk accusingly for not helping her as she too turned to dust.

Frisk tried to scream, but couldn't. Pain exploded around her as she was hit with a ring of spades, flying backwards like a rag doll. The king then grabbed her, that evil jagged grin on his face. "Aww, did you fail to save your friends, pathetic excuse for a light bringer? Don't worry, you'll soon join them."

Pain again, and blackness surrounding her, trapped in a void of nothing but dark, her body gone, nothing but a glowing red soul... The cruel white hands with holes coming back, the creature's creepy voice filling the air as the distorted grin appeared once again in front of her, reaching out to take her soul...

...

Frisk woke with a gasp, sending her blankets flying off her and quickly sitting up as she looked around the room frantically. She wasn't in some creepy black void. She was home, Tina asleep next to her.

"Dude, you okay?"

And Susie was here and safe too, sitting up with her blankets wrapped around her, looking at Frisk in worry.

Frisk rubbed her eyes. "Yeah... just... bad dream. Sorry I woke you up." she whispered so she wouldn't wake Tina.

Susie shrugged. "Don't be. I wasn't asleep anyway. I couldn't." she whispered back. She got to her feet. "You, um, wanna go out to the living room and talk or something?"

Frisk hesitated, then nodded, and the two got up, leaving Tina to sleep peacefully. They went to the living room and sat down on the couch.

"So, uh, you wanna talk about it?" Susie asked awkwardly after a moment, fidgeting her fingers.

"It...was just about the fight with King and how it could have gone." Frisk admitted.

Susie looked down. "Yeah, I get it. I, um, keep thinking about it too." she said softly. "Damn, it got close back there..." She then tried to smile. "But hey, everything's fine now! You're okay, I'm okay, Ralsei's okay, and we're going to help Lancer and his subjects tomorrow... well, today." she amended. "And that bastard king's in jail, and he's not ever getting out again. And if by some chance he does, we'll kick his ass just like we did before. And this time Ralsei knows not to heal the bastard, so we'd take him down. It'll be okay, I swear." She placed a gentle hand on Frisk's shoulder.

Frisk wasn't sure which one of them Susie was trying to convince, but she knew she was right. She nodded and lifted her other hand, gently placing it on Susie's. They sat for a while just like that.

...

"...So you built that little dresser in your room yourself?" Susie asked. Even an hour later, the two girls had found themselves unable to sleep and ended up deciding to distract each other from their worries by talking about random things and getting to know each other.

"Rebuilt actually. Somebody separated it into pieces and threw it out by the road. I found it, lugged it home piece by piece, brought it to the bedroom, put it back together, and repaired the broken parts." Frisk told her. "Tina was the one who painted the little flowers though. I actually found some of our chairs the same way. I don't know why people throw out things that either are perfectly fine or just need a bit of repair to be good as new. It's good for me and Tina though. Plus, what we can't use, I sometimes can sell if I do a good enough job fixing it up."

"My grandpa actually used to do that with old cars and motorbikes, He'd buy them and fix them up in his shop." Susie said, a soft smile on her face. "Whenever my parents were...being stupid, Grandpa would pick me up and take me to the shop. We once found this old Harley, and I helped him repair it. We got it running and he told me whenever I turned eighteen, he'd teach me to ride it." Her fists then clenched slightly and she looked down. "But he never got the chance. He died when I was twelve."

"I'm so sorry." Frisk said softly.

"It's okay. I miss him, but... he had a good, long life." Susie said softly. "Anyway, that's how I got into mechanical stuff. And Lancer learned how to from that Rouxls dude, so it was pretty fun to get to do it again with him. That stupid Thrash Machine was fun to build, even if we couldn't quite get the laser head to work."

"We should build another one for our science project. Even if you guys couldn't get the head to work, it still looked pretty freaking awesome!" Frisk suggested, wanting to cheer Susie up. "I'm not sure if Lancer'd be allowed to help us, but we could get his input on which would look the most awesome, and maybe Lancer could talk Rouxls into helping us figure out the harder parts. Though you'd probably better be the one to draw the blueprint since I'm suckish at it."

Susie brightened. "Hey, that'd be cool!" She then frowned. "Damn, actually that won't work. All the food we tried to bring back with us turned to a big ball of junk, so our project probably would too."

"Oops, I forgot about that." Frisk sighed. "Guess we'll have to think of a different idea. You got anything you want to do?"

"Well, preferably something either really easy or fun enough that it doesn't matter, something two broke people can afford the supplies for, and definitely no volcanoes." Susie said firmly.

"What's you got against volcanoes, Susie?"

"Trust me, nothing's worse than a science fair full of nothing but baking soda volcanoes. We need something really cool. Something that will beat all those other losers!" Susie proclaimed. "Like a robot arm that shoots flamethrowers!"

"Do you know how to build a robot arm?"

"...No idea."

"What if we did a Mentos rocket?" Frisk suggested.

"That's been done a million times. Though we should totally set one off in the teacher's lounge. Or in the cafeteria so everyone's distracted and we can grab all the ham sandwiches we want." Susie joked.

"Honestly, I'd be down for that second one." Frisk shrugged. "But seriously now, what should we do for our project?"

"How about a pie throwing machine? We can aim it at Berdly!"

The ideas kept coming and grew more and more ridiculous until both girls were needing to muffle their laughter to avoid waking up Tina. They ended up staying up until at least four in the morning, until yawning replaced laughter and they both ended up slowly dozing off on the couch.

...

"Frisk, we need to go to school." Tina's voice said, waking Frisk quickly up from her thankfully dreamless sleep. She opened her eyes to realize the sun was streaming through the windows and that she had fallen asleep with her head on Susie's chest, snuggled close against the dragon girl. She gasped softly, realizing both how late it must be and how awkward Susie would feel if she woke up to Frisk snuggling her, knowing Susie wasn't too keen on hugs yet. She tried to get up, only to realize she was trapped; Susie having wrapped a muscular arm around Frisk in her sleep and resting her head atop Frisk's, effectively pinning the smaller girl where she was. Frisk moved to get free, only to have Susie grumble in her sleep and pull her closer.

Well, that didn't work. It looked like she didn't have a choice. They couldn't skip school if they wanted to bring back Lancer. There was only one thing she could do. "Susie, wake up! We'll be late for school!"

Susie jolted awake. "Huh?! What?!" She then realized the position they were in and turned bright red at having been snuggling Frisk like a teddy bear, then yanked her arm back towards herself, letting the brunette go. "Okay, get off me! Da- Darn, what time is it?"

"Past seven. We need to hurry." Frisk said.

"Don't worry, Frisk! I got myself all ready!" Tina told her. And she had indeed. She was wearing her usual dress and sweater combo and had managed to (messily) braid her hair into one long braid. "And I got out the cookies for us for breakfast!"

"Thanks, Tine." Frisk told her as she and Susie ran upstairs to get changed and grab their coats and backpacks. It took them only a few minutes to get ready and Frisk locked the bedroom door before they headed downstairs to Tina. Susie glanced at her questioningly, but didn't ask.

Frisk thanked Tina as she handed them both a few cookies, then turned to Susie. "I'll meet you at school once I drop off Tina. Also, I forgot to mention it last night, but Alphys asked me what happened, and I had to make something up after I stupidly blurted out we had to seal a fountain, so now she thinks we went to go seal your neighbor Ralsei's fountain after some jerks destroyed it and blew it open."

"Good thinking, Frisk." Susie said approvingly. "Sure you don't need me to come with you guys though?"

"Yeah, we'll be fine." Frisk reassured her.

Susie nodded. "All right. See ya at school, Frisk."

They split up at the end of the road, and Frisk hurried Tina to Ebott Elementary, giving her a quick hug and making sure she got inside safely before she darted off towards Hometown, knowing she was going to be late and praying Alphys wouldn't be TOO mad.

...

Susie hurried to school, hoping she would be able to check on Ralsei and see what they needed to do to bring Lancer back before class started. Unfortunately, the hallways were too full, and she didn't want some loser who was trying to catch her doing something bad following her and finding out about the Dark World, especially when Lancer and Ralsei might be in a vulnerable state. And the Dark World was her and Frisk's thing, their special place, not anyone else's!

So she reluctantly went to the classroom, getting in right as the bell rang, which was incredibly early for her actually. Early enough that everyone was staring at her. She took her seat, glaring at those who were still staring.

"H-Hi, S-Susie." Noelle's quiet voice piped up.

"Hey." Susie replied, a little surprised. Normally Noelle was too freaked out by her to even look her in the eyes. And even now she was still bright red and shaking.

"I...um...I... I w-wanted to ask..." Noelle stammered. Her frightened eyes darted all over like she was looking for an escape route before they landed on Frisk's empty seat. "I, um... where's Frisk?"

"Obviously running late again. She clearly doesn't care for her grade point average." Berdly muttered, just loud enough for Susie to hear him.

"Lay off her, Nerdly." Susie snapped. "She had to drop her little sister off at school like she does EVERY morning."

Berdly shrank back, though had the decency to look abashed, and now everyone was staring at her again like she was a pod person. Noelle was bright red again and staring at her feet. Susie inwardly sighed. Great. She turned to look at the door as an equally nervous Alphys began the lesson, hoping Frisk would be here soon.

Thankfully, Frisk burst through the doors ten minutes later, though she looked like shit, clearly exhausted with dark bags under her eyes. "I'm so sorry I'm late!"

"D-Don't w-worry about it. S-Susie told us you w-were dropping your sister off at school, so, um, it's okay." Alphys said.

Frisk gave Susie a grateful look and took her seat, the faint smell of strawberries filling the air once again. Susie smiled and kicked her desk. "Seriously, you should have let me go with you. That way I woulda had an excuse to not show up on time."

"Like you need an excuse to not show up on time." Frisk teased back lightly.

"Susie, please don't kick your desk. Treat school property, like you'd treat people." Alphys lightly admonished, though was nervous as usual.

"Okay. Next time I'll aim for the vitals." Susie joked. She laughed and was pleased to hear Frisk giggle, though now they were both getting odd looks from the rest of the class.

Alphys fidgeted. "Th...That's not what I..." she stammered before brushing it off. "In any case, good morning, Class! We have a lot to go over today... First, we're starting the reading from page 142! Any... any volunteers?"

Noelle spoke up nervously. "Umm, I... I guess I could read the..."

"Ah, trouble yourself not, Noelle!" the annoying bluebird said smugly, getting up. "I will valiantly take this blow of humiliation!"

"Umm, t-that's OK, I can..." Noelle said, sounding very slightly annoyed, but was cut off.

"A-HEM. "Page 142." "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Times-a pretty good. Times-a pretty bad. Mediocre times. Iffy times. So-so times..."

His drone of a voice was enough to fall asleep to, and looking ahead, Susie saw that that was just what Frisk had done. And like every time, she didn't wake her, instead doodling absently in her notebook while pretending to listen to Berdly's babbling.

Frisk needed the sleep anyhow.

But by lunchtime, Frisk was still asleep, and Susie knew she needed food even more than she needed to rest, so as the rest of the students and Alphys filed out, she went to Frisk and gently shook her. "Hey, wake up."

"I don't understand." Frisk mumbled, frowning in her sleep. She looked disturbed.

"You're dreaming, dude. It's time for lunch." Susie told her.

"I'm sorry. I still don't understand. Who are you?" Frisk asked, her eyes still shut, looking confused and frightened.

Now Susie was starting to get worried. "You know who I am. It's me! It's Susie!"

"Not you, the man." Frisk said, her voice growing more frantic. "Where are you? I can't see you!"

Susie had no idea what to do. She shook her again, starting to get more frantic herself. Not only was Frisk not waking up, but her skin was cold as ice, nearly as cold as it had been last night when Frisk lay in her arms, close to death. "I'm right here! And what man?!"

Frisk half opened unfocused eyes, her gaze staring into Susie's soul. Her next words chilled the dragon girl to the bone. "The man in the shadows... The one who speaks in hands..."

...

Frisk was wandering through an endless void of darkness once again, this time as her full self, not just her soul. It was freezing, and she wrapped her arms around herself, shivering. "Hello?" she called out nervously.

And then the one she had seen twice before appeared from the shadows in front of her, his distorted egg shaped white face grinning at her, black body somehow still showing up in the darkness, a faint white glow around him. He was much smaller this time, though still taller than her, and was less intimidating than before, though he still scared her. He spoke to her in a garbled electronic sounding voice but Frisk still couldn't make out any words.

Frisk frowned. "I don't understand." She heard a second voice, a girl's voice, coming from the shadows, but couldn't make out what was being said.

The creature's twisted grin drooped a little. His hands shaped to be more like normal ones, with regular fingers, though still retained the holes. He started to sign something to her, but Frisk had never learned sign, and still had no clue what he was trying to tell her.

"I'm sorry. I still don't understand." Frisk said politely though she was terrified. "Who are you?"

"You know who I am! It's me! It's Susie!" Frisk looked around, but couldn't see Susie. She wondered where she was.

"Not you, the man. Where are you? I can't see you!" Frisk frantically tried to locate her, feeling disoriented as the dark room she was in started to ripple and blur.

The darkness was brightening and starting to recede as she looked for her friend. She felt her shoulders roughly being shaken. "I'm right here! And what man?!" Susie yelled.

Frisk opened her mouth to answer, but didn't remember what she said.

And then the world turned white.

...

She blinked open her eyes and found herself back in Alphys's classroom, Susie crouched in front of her desk with a worried and freaked out expression.

"C'mon, man, you're freaking me out! Wake up!" the dragon girl pleaded.

"Huh?" Frisk asked, her head still filled with cobwebs. "I was sleeping?" She shivered a bit. When had the classroom gotten this cold?

"Yeah, you were asleep! What the hell were you dreaming anyway?" Susie demanded. "You were babbling something about weird guys in the shadows who spoke in hands."

Frisk frowned. "I don't know. I keep dreaming that I'm in a void of endless darkness and some creepy distorted guy keeps either trying to talk to me or take my soul. White egg shaped face with scars with either a long black robe or black body, hands with holes in them, an a really creepy grin."

"Yikes. How long have you had that crazy dream?" Susie asked as she helped Frisk up. "Geez, Frisk, you're freezing, dude. Here, put on that giant coat of yours." Susie grabbed Frisk's tattered black coat off her chair and slipped it over her shoulders.

"Since yesterday when I nearly, well, died." Frisk admitted softly, letting Susie slip the coat over her shoulders. The cold quickly faded away as she snuggled into its warmth, feeling a lot better. "He showed up at the end of my nightmare too, and then, well, now. I don't get it."

Susie looked even more freaked out and like she regretted asking as she gently pulled Frisk out of the room, glancing behind them like she thought something might actually be there. "Creepy." She then tried to smile. "Well, it's probably just a crappy nightmare, but maybe, when we go to the dark world, we should talk to Ralsei. He's a big nerd, he'd probably know what all that dream crap meant. Either that or he can just knock you out with his lullaby so you can get some decent rest."

"Susie, it's just nightmares. I don't want to bother Ralsei about them." Frisk told her.

"I don't think there's anything you could do that would bother that guy. Stop worrying so much. Now, c'mon, let's get some lunch before we head to the Dark World. I'm starving."

Frisk nodded and followed Susie down the hallway. They made their way to the free lunch line where they grabbed the cold sandwiches and salads the low income students got.

"...Damn, people are staring at us again." Susie grumbled.

Frisk glanced over to the other tables to see that they were indeed getting stares from the other students. "They're probably just curious." she assured her.

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to go to the you-know-where if those losers keep watching us?" Susie whispered, annoyed. "We can't have everyone just wandering right in. It's our place!"

"Technically, it's Ralsei's place." Frisk pointed out. "And it's not like anyone here is dangerous."

"Yeah, but who knows what would happen if this thing gets out." Susie pointed out.

Frisk nodded, understanding. "So what should we do?"

"Let's eat and act normal. We can sneak to the closet after school." Susie suggested.

They sat down at a table and Susie hungrily tore into her lunch as Frisk wrapped half her sandwich and went to put it in her bag, only to have another sandwich be lightly tossed in from under the table. She looked up in confusion.

"Relax, Frisk, you don't have to ration. I snagged a bunch more while we were at the counter." Susie assured her.

Frisk was both shocked and impressed. "How?! I was looking at you the whole time and I didn't see it."

Susie grinned. "Trade secret."

"Nice. And thanks. I really appreciate it."

"Just eat your sandwich, dork."

Frisk nodded and started to do just that. "Hey, Susie, can I ask you something?" she asked softly after a few minutes

"Sure."

"I know you wanted to keep Ralsei's place a secret, but... I'd really like to let Tina in on it. We're probably going to be spending a lot of time there, and... I really want her to be there with me, and to meet Ralsei and Lancer."

"Well, yeah of course! I want Tina there too." Susie assured her, then frowned. "Let's make sure we can get through first though."

"I know. So what do you think we should..."

"H-Hi, S-Susie. Hey, Frisk!" Noelle said cheerfully and a bit nervously as she came over with her own lunch tray.

"Hey." Susie mumbled through a bite of her second sandwich.

"Hey, Noelle!" Frisk said cheerfully.

"I-Is it okay if I join you?" she asked shyly.

"Sure." Frisk told her with a smile.

"Whatever." Susie muttered, but didn't seem too bothered.

Noelle shyly sat down next to Frisk. She looked over at Susie, a blush on her cheeks. "I, um, made some cookies last night. I-I thought you guys might like some." She pulled out three bags of cookies, wrapped in cellophane decorated with holiday wreaths tied neatly with red bows. She passed the first one to Susie. "H-Here, Susie. And Frisk, I got one for Tina too."

"Thanks, Noelle." Frisk said gratefully.

"Hell yeah! Peppermint cookies!" Susie cheered, chomping down the cookies, cellophane and all. She then blushed in embarrassment. "Um, thanks, Noelle."

Noelle blushed even more. "Y-You're welcome."

They all sat quietly for a few awkward minutes, eating their lunches, with Susie looking awkward and Noelle stealing glances at Susie and blushing. Frisk tried to figure out what to say, or if it was best she made an excuse to leave, since Noelle clearly wanted to talk to Susie. She was beginning to feel like a third wheel and it was NOT a good feeling.

Susie looked to Frisk, silently begging her to make things less awkward, so Frisk spoke up. "So, um, Noelle, how have you been?"

"I-I've been good." Noelle said shyly. "Berdly and I are going to the Library after school to... do some r-research for our group projects, and... I-I wanted to know if... you guys would like to come too, so we c-can all study together...?" She looked hopefully at Susie.

Frisk glanced to Susie. The dragon girl shrugged. "Um, I guess so...? I mean, me and Frisk were planning to go there later anyway. We gotta do some stuff first and pick up Frisk's little sister, but I guess we can meet you guys after." She tensed. "Though Berdly better not say any more crap about Frisk!"

"Susie, it's fine." Frisk told her, though she was touched by Susie's protectiveness.

"He won't! I promise! And he does feel really bad about being so rude." Noelle told them. "He's just a little... bad at saying it."

Frisk nodded. "It's fine, Noelle." She smiled. "We'll see you guys after school." Noelle smiled widely at this.

The bell soon rang and they all started to head to class, Noelle heading to Berdly's side when he called out to ask about something, leaving Frisk with Susie.

As soon as they were alone, Susie lightly shook Frisk's shoulders. "Wait, Frisk, what the HELL was that?! Why would NOELLE ask ME to do HOMEWORK with HER?! Deathwish much? Does she WANNA fail?" She then shot up. "...wait a second. WAIT a second. Frisk, did you notice how nervous she was...? And like... blushing and stuff? Frisk, you don't think she... uh..."

"I think she does." Frisk said, thinking Susie had caught on to Noelle's huge crush on her. Noelle had made it extremely obvious after all.

"She's onto our secret identities!? Y'know. This.. Dark World stuff. We were kind of talking about it right before she showed up. Damn... we gotta get better about keeping this under wraps, Frisk." Susie sighed. She grinned. "This is OUR thing, y'know."

Frisk shook her head. "Susie, she definitely doesn't know about the Dark World. I told her the same "we went to seal your neighbor's fountain," story I told Alphys. She definitely is interested in SOMETHING but it's not the Dark World."

Susie's eyes widened. "OH! I get it now!"

"Yeah?"

"She's got a huge crush on you!"

Frisk tried not to burst out laughing at Susie's obliviousness, and barely succeeded. "Susie, Noelle most certainly does not have a crush on me."

"What are you talking about? She was blushing a ton at the table, and she made you and your sister cookies!" Susie pointed out.

"She made you cookies too." Frisk pointed out.

"Yeah, probably just to be polite or to keep me from eating yours and Tina's, which I wouldn't have, but you know how people are around me." Susie told her softly, then grinned a bit. "Well, okay, with anyone else I WOULD have, but you and Tina are safe."

Frisk patted her shoulder, having to nearly stand on tiptoe to do it. "Susie, that's where you're wrong. Noelle definitely has a crush, but it's not on me. It's on YOU."

Susie blinked, then burst out laughing. "Yeah, right. Try pulling the other one, Frisk." She punched Frisk's shoulder playfully. "Maybe there's some other reason she's acting all weird. Now, c'mon, let's get to class. The quicker this is over, the quicker we can go to the closet." With that, the two headed to class and the matter was quickly forgotten, lost in the excitement of returning to the Dark World and hopefully seeing their friends again.

...

Class was boring, but thankfully flew by, and the second it was over, Susie grabbed Frisk's arm, pulled her off her chair, and Frisk barely had time to grab her backpack before getting dragged down the hallway towards the closet.

Susie finally let Frisk go as they stood in front of the double doors, and Frisk caught her breath as Susie reached out to them, hesitating a bit. "You think Ralsei will be there? You think we'll be able to get in, and be able to save Lancer? Do-Do you think it's even real?" Susie asked softly.

"I KNOW it was real." Frisk told her quietly. "There's no way we could have both had the same hallucination. And as for if we can get back, see them again... damn, I hope so. And for all we know, Lancer and the others made it to Castle Town. We'll figure this out."

"Well, here goes nothing." Susie said and opened the doors. Both stared inside.

Endless blackness greeted them.

Frisk and Susie smiled.

And then they jumped.

...

Beyond Frisk's nightmares, not too much action this chapter, but Frisk and Susie's newest adventure still looms ahead.

Please review and let me know what you think, and if you have any questions or suggestions!