The doorbell chime would have been a Christmas tune, so recognizable that anyone who rang it should instantly tell what it was, and begrudgingly hum along. But it was broken. The song was turned upside down: high notes were a muted whistle, low ones left a mild bleep, it was all wrong. But Kris didn't let that get to Him. He kept standing under the autumn clouds. What was the worst that could happen? After all, it was just Noelle. They'd known each other since they were children, why would He be afraid of meeting her? He waited and waited, until eventually He saw a cute distant figure trot to the gate. It was his horned classmate, wearing her sweater and jacket, even though it was Saturday.
‟Good morning, Kris! What's the occasion? Do you need something?"
For a moment his mind stopped, she was there. All of her, golden hair, beaming smile, soft ears, cross antlers, giant green eyes, even the troubled expression she wore was cute. Was it an eternity since last they talked? Suddenly, He got an urge to start speaking.
‟Yeah, I need some help with homework." - Kris said, pointing to His school bag.
‟Oh! Good timing! I was gonna study until noon, so we can do some homework together!"
‟… Nice." - The awkward teen said with the casual cool one would expect.
‟Uh, lead the way, it's cold out here."
They went on the twisting path to the Holiday residence. The trees on both sides were a feeble orange, the cold leaving them sapped of life. But the leaves on their branches were still enduring, all but aimlessly holding on. Almost as if they wanted to see how much they'd last. Or maybe they were in it to spite gravity herself. Kris felt a pang of forlorn sympathy seeing them grimly resist their meager fate.
He was also trying to ignore Noelle's bouncing tail and pretend He was totally cool about doing homework and stuff. Like he was.
But the house, it had been grayed out and redesigned since last he saw it. The foyer had been colder than the outside. The furniture had been rearranged and he couldn't recognize it. The wallpapers were new and glossy. A picture of the Holiday family he didn't remember had been placed in the living hall. Their heads were angled towards him. Plant pots were on every corner, so that wherever he was there had been a porcelain reflection somewhere to watch him back. The glares of the lights had been staring at him. He remembered the house, but his memories were nowhere within it. It was like he had been wrong to think he'd ever been there before.
Noelle's room aided him slightly, the light purple of the walls calmed him down, even if they weren't as Christmas as the rest of the house. Kris fell to the ground, next to Noelle's cute study table. Lowered so He had to sit cross-legged next to it.
‟Hm? Is there something weird about my room, Kris?"
‟It's just…really different from last time I was here." - He didn't remember Noelle having a giant, sleigh-sized bed.
‟So, is that where the family sleeps?"
‟Pfft, no! It's just for me, but it's way too big! I asked for something smaller, but you know how dad is…
A-anyway! What do you need help with, Kris?"
‟Uhh…" - He hadn't thought this far. In reality, all would be an acceptable answer.
‟Well, I was just finishing the English homework, have you finished it?"
‟… That's for Thursday" - An arm rose from under the table to dismissively goad the question away.
‟Besides, I hate English."
‟You hate every subject! Come on, better early than never, right?"
‟Better never."
‟Kris! … P-please?" - He got a good view of Noelle's pleading green eyes. His heart melted for a second.
‟…Fine, let's finish it quick."
The slow, dreary rhythmical sound of that pen had been banging on Kris's head for half an hour. There was no lull in Noelle's writing, her rhythm was like a clock's. He looked over and rows and rows of plush animals had been organized on the bed, all looking at him. A wrongness had been welling up in his stomach, something didn't sit right. He had been clasping the handle of his teacup, trying to look out the window, but he spotted His reflection looking like a mannequin through the glass surface. Something felt eerie. Even she started to look off. A word had loomed from his mind into his thoughts.
Dollhouse. None of it felt right.
‟Sorry Noelle, I gotta go."
‟W-what?! But we didn't finish yet!"
‟Sorry, but I remembered I'm busy—" - Was all he could blurt out while He gathered his belongings.
Noelle looked like she wanted to walk him out, but he was too quick out the door. He even surprised himself. He walked outside without looking at anything else. When He opened his eyes, he was home.
It had to be somewhere, but he knew it wouldn't be anywhere he would normally search. He looked all around the bedroom, craned his head from wall to wall, even inspected it from corner to corner. There was one place it could realistically have been. So he passed over the vast ravine of empty in the middle of his room. He opened the door to his closet, hoarse creaking echoed off the hollow walls. It was full of old things that didn't interest Him at all. His old Halloween costume, one lone slipper, old consoles, a single working walkie-talkie. He didn't want to believe He was wrong. It had to be somewhere.
‟…There it is!"
It was an old picture. Thin and fragile, but without folds or scratches. Kris couldn't even recall when it was taken. It was him and Noelle, and Dess and Asriel. Asriel was celebrating while perched on a snowman that wore his snow cap and scarf, Dess was looking worried, ready to catch him, while Noelle and Kris were posed awkwardly to their left. Little Kris was also giving little Noelle bunny ears. He tried to venture through his mind, but he didn't remember much about it… What he did remember was that Asriel had fallen on his butt a few seconds after the picture had been taken, and that Noelle had never realized she looked like a dork. Which, for him, was a victory. She wore pigtails back then…. She'd probably still look good in them. The photo gave Kris unexplainable emotions, he just absorbed it for a second
His red eyes glinted through the laminate, and His face took its will away from his.
‟Is this your brother?" - The red eyes looked through the picture.
‟…Yeah, that's Asriel."
‟What happened to him?"
Kris looked to the empty bed in the far distance, sitting next to the computer that currently couldn't connect anywhere.
‟… He's off to acting school." - He had to repeat that, Asriel wasn't dead… it was still tough without him.
‟And her?" - The Soul pointed to the black-haired doe looking up with a worried expression.
‟That's Dess, December Holiday, she's Noelle's sister… She's off to acting school too."
‟Does everyone in your town go to acting school?" - The Soul's one solitary expression made His seriousness impossible to ascertain.
‟No, they both just wanted to go, I guess. For different reasons. Asriel loved movies, and I think Dess just wanted to get away from home."
‟Hm."
‟…You think I should frame this picture in my room?" - Kris whispered, like he was to do something naughty.
‟Won't Toriel see?" - The only reason Kris even had this picture was because his dad gave it to him, if Toriel caught sight of it, it would forever be trapped in embarrassing family catalogs.
‟No, my other room."
The lone boy put himself on his bed, but his whole body could barely stretch to meet the sheets. He stared at it for a few more quiet moments.
He turned over to look to the window, and the glint reflecting off it stared back at him.
‟Hey, Soul?"
‟Yeah?"
‟Was that you, earlier today?"
‟… Yeah."
Kris only just realized. Obviously it wasn't him that would go to Noelle's house on a Saturday morning. He would never just go up to Noelle's house to study… he wouldn't just ‟be cool" with the two of them doing homework together. He never would. But He did, like it didn't even matter that they hadn't spoken in years. Like it was just something they do every Saturday. But, when it happened, he thought it was his idea. He had no concept of being controlled or forced against his will. He just wanted to go meet her. The cognizance of what happened came gradually, until it spilled into him like a wave frothing at the tide. There was a bad feeling in his throat, but he swallowed it down.
‟… Good job."
‟Thanks."
The Soul didn't seem happy with Kris's praise, or affected, in any way. It just bounced off of him. Like it was just work. Then he disappeared, and the room grew a bit brighter. Picture in hand, Kris stopped a moment just to remind himself why He was doing what he was. Then he turned and grabbed his phone. The Soul was easily the worst person Kris could call on to discuss these kinds of things with. Luckily, the introvert had someone else in his contacts list. Exactly one other contact…
Besides his mom.
‟… What is it?" - Catti said, still staring at her glittering magenta phone a few centimeters above her face. She had barely turned to look at Kris since he walked in. The cat almost looked too big to fit in her own room. Kris wondered if they could swap at some point.
‟Got a minute?" - He plodded over to her violet-padded spinny chair, sat in it backwards.
‟… Mhm."
‟Well, uh…"
‟Uh, you see."
Kris was lazily spinning, looking at the assorted symbols on the walls, some of them he knew were band logos, others he recognized to be sigils of dark magic. The rest, not even he knew. Catti was a giant motionless mass of white damp fur, bundled in salmon pink pajamas. She reminded him a lot of Dess when she was too tired to go out. But Catti wore eyeliner better.
‟… I kind of, fell for someone."
Catti didn't say anything, but she did turn to look at him with a face of maybe shock. Her pitch black pupils were even a bit wider than normal. What she would have said was obvious, 'who?'. He took a deep breath as his body started to reject saying it out loud like that—.
‟… I-It's Noelle!"
He couldn't say it with a straight face, butterflies started duking it out in his stomach. But he had something to do, and the cat was out of the bag (not Catti, she doesn't like bags).
‟… Cool."
Catti returned to her impassive existence and kept on looking at her phone, waiting for her fur to dry and her mint green claw polish to set.
‟… So, I was wondering if you'd uh, help me out? In getting with her-"
‟Ok."
‟…Wait, seriously? Just like that?"
‟You'll owe me one."
Kris felt like he had just been outfoxed. Outfelined?. When and how that'll come back was a question that'd haunt him later.
‟… Talked with her yet?"
‟Yeah, I just went to her house and asked to do our homework together… it didn't go great."
‟… Ask her to hang out?" - Catti was typing something on her phone, at a speed that Kris could never hope to follow even with his eyes, her nails weren't even set.
‟… She'll agree, if she's not busy."
‟I don't even know when she's not busy."
‟… She's free after school for a bit, usually… sometimes." - This was a lot of words for Catti. She'd hit her monthly allowance for those soon.
‟Yeah, but… where would we even hang out?"
Catti looked at Him with her only official emotion, a sardonic, detached, and smug grin. Like the cat just dragged him in.
‟… At Qc's, dumb-dumb."
