"Um… Kris? Don't you have to go home soon?"

I was barely keeping track of time, I was only enjoying my time reading with Kris. But now it was late, and surely he needed to go soon.

"I told my mom that I was going to head to a friend's for a sleepover," he said, "...it took some time to convince her, don't kick me out now."

"Kick you out? I'd never do that," the idea was ridiculous to me.

"Good. But uh… I am a bit hungry now. I think I might have to take up your offer for something to eat."

"Oh! Of course, I'll go get something ready. You can keep reading, if you like."

I left my room. My mind began running through a list of things that I could make for Kris. I had promised cake before, maybe I could just make that? But cake is very specific-there's chance he might not even like the type I choose. He didn't ask for anything in particular. Would he like anything I made, regardless of what it was? I know that's how I'd feel if he made something for me. I decided I would bake Kris a cake, despite my worries.

Surely Kris was hungry if he was asking for food, he never did that the last time he was here. When I got to the kitchen, I used a bit of magic to speed up the process. Ingredients began to levitate and zoom over from their places in the pantry or refrigerator and were carefully laid into a bowl. Then came a spoon to mix the batter hastily. Then came a choice, I could use fire magic to get it to a good temperature or I could let the cake bake regularly in the oven. My magic would sometimes burn it, but it'd be ready in the blink of an eye. On the other hand, it would taste better if I let it bake instead of doing it all at once. I chose the latter, Kris deserved the best. Besides, that just meant I had some more time with him.

I put the batter into a pan and the pan into the oven. 350 degrees for a half hour. Then I ran back through the purple halls to my room. Kris was standing at the window, staring out it and into my garden. I think he heard me as I walked in, he turned to face me as I shut the door.

"Ralsei! Did you do all that out there?" he asked excitedly.

"Well, y-yes," it's not like there was anyone here that would help me.

"It's amazing! I could gaze out the window for hours!"

"Thanks, Kris."

I was particularly proud of my garden, all the time I had waiting for Kris and Susie to arrive had to be spent doing something. It started with a few black tulips in the middle, then it grew to make the shape of a heart, similar to the one on my cloak. I started growing a few green tulips around it, and then added some white tulips, and all of a sudden I had a painting of myself made of flowers. But I didn't want to stop there; I made a few more small hearts scattered here and there, then filled in everything with blue and purple. It wasn't even a lot of work, magic made the entire thing easy. But I always thought it to be a nice image, the calm of the blue, the royalty of the purple. The red for love, the green for life, and the black of the Darkners.

Maybe I should make one of Kris, and another of Susie. I might make one of Lancer, even. Then I got an idea, I could make one grand portrait of Kris and myself in the front of the castle instead of the back. Everyone would be able to see it, it was perfect! But doing it while Kris was here might be a bit embarrassing.

"And you did all of it by yourself? I don't know how many humans it would take to perform the same job. You're really amazing, Ralsei!" he complimented.

"Um…" I'm sure I was blushing, at least a little bit. I'm not used to all the positive attention; I'm not used to attention at all.

"Ralsei? You don't have to be modest about things like these. I think you're really, really amazing! And don't let anyone tell you that you're anything else!"

I was definitely blushing by now. If only I could tell you how much I loved you, Kris.

"...I am pretty proud of my garden," I whispered.

He just gave me his grin at that.

"Did you um… like the book?" I asked, trying to kill some time for the cake to finish.

"I sort of knew the legend, or at least a part of it. It's a nice kid's fairy tale in the Light World. But there are multiple versions of it, your version was the good version where the human frees all monster-kind from the Underground. But there's one where the human goes on a murderous rampage and kills everyone they see…" he explained.

"Oh, I never knew about any other versions," I said, "but it does make sense."

"Hmm?"

"I've learned of a theory from all my reading, it basically states that anything that can happen, did in some other universe. So maybe, somewhere far, far away, somewhere we'll never see, maybe a human really did fall into the Underground. And from there, maybe both versions of the tale happened at one point."

"That's really cool!" he exclaimed.

"Well, it's only a theory, there might not be any truth to it at all-"

"-but it could be true all the same right?" Kris seemed to lip something after it, but I couldn't tell what it was.

There was a pause after that. Silence, as we just stared at each other unblinking. I took the time to wonder about Kris' belief in the theory. He seemed to be convinced that it was true, so I started to think about if it was. In that case, there were infinite copies of Kris out there. And not every Kris was the same, each one had some slight difference from the other that eventually would add up to drastic personality changes. So somewhere out there, there was a Kris that acted more like Susie or Lancer, a Kris that hated me, a Kris that would never even meet me. Why did I end up with the Kris that I did? Not that I was complaining, this Kris is perfect.

"Um… I doubt the food is ready, but I probably ought to check on it," I said, breaking the silence.

I left the room and went back to the kitchen. The cake was about half ready, but I didn't want to use magic to finish the job. I also couldn't go back to my room for a moment, not while Kris was still in there. I just needed this moment to myself.

It wasn't that I didn't want to go back to Kris. But standing next to Kris was hard for me, especially while plenty of thoughts raced through my head. My heart would begin to race, I'd tense up a little bit. He'd make some quip and reduce me to a blushing mess. I loved him, I really did. But this is only the second time I've ever been with him, there was no way he felt the same way. Or at least, not as strongly as I felt them. He at least did like me as a friend, I think. Maybe, just maybe, if the time was right, I might just say something about it.

I heard footsteps. I was standing still, and nobody else would dare to come into the castle, all of a sudden Kris was standing in the doorway. I quickly had to push out any remnants of my time alone, they couldn't be exposed to Kris.

"You're baking me a cake?" he asked.

"Um… yes. I hope that's okay."

"It smells amazing, I'm sure it'll be great!"

Then I began to wonder if maybe Kris did like me. He was different, he didn't criticize my look or my personality, I don't know that he had any problems with me to tell the truth.

"...Kris, what do you think of me?" I managed to get out.

"Haven't you asked me this before," he came over to look me directly in the eye, "Ralsei, are you okay?"

"I'm just not used to not being hated," the dam burst and I released so much built up emotion, "I mean honestly, look at this giant castle! Yet I'm the only one that lives here… Half the rooms don't have anything in them because there's no need for all of them, Kris! I've never been loved by anybody, not to any degree! I didn't even get to know my parents that much, Kris…"

"Ralsei, I-"

"I'm sorry, Kris… I didn't mean to go off like that."

Kris hugged me tightly. I think he was trying to tell me something without having to use words, and if so, he definitely got the message across. I'm glad… I finally had a somebody.

"Ralsei, I understand-at least a little bit. In the Light World, I live in a town with only monsters. Being the only human there, I'm the creepy kid that sits in the back, that nobody ever dares to talk to. At least now I have some relationship with Susie, so it's not entirely terrible anymore, but… I came back here for a reason, Ralsei. I came because I wanted to be with you, because you actually like me."

I wanted to say that like isn't the proper term, but then the oven dinged to signal that the cake was done.

"Now let's be the friends that we are, okay? I'm here for you and you're here for me, and that's the honest truth to it," he concluded.

I pulled out the cake, asked if he wanted any frosting or anything put on it, and he shook his head. Plain chocolate cake it is then. I took a knife and cut a nicely sized slice for him. I took a small slice compared to his. Suddenly, I wasn't feeling very hungry anymore.

"If that's all you're going to have then it's all I'll have, too," he said, cutting his slice down to a size resembling mine.

"Kris, you're hungry. Please eat."

"Ralsei, are you sure you're okay? Please, talk to me."

"I'm fine, I promise," it was a lie and I knew Kris would see right through it, "I just… I'm not very hungry myself, okay? I usually eat later."

"Okay, I trust you," he began eating his original slice.

We ate in silence. I had a lot to think about and I'm sure he had plenty on his mind as well. I think I owed Kris another apology, I kind of exploded and then I was getting him all worried and… I was ruining everything, like usual. Kris was too good for this.

Neither of us finished very quickly. I ate slow because I didn't want to eat, Kris ate at a decent pace but just had more than I did. I took the plates and put them to the side to be washed later. Kris just stared at me the entire time like he wanted to say something.

"Hey, Ralsei," he finally spoke up.

"Yes, Kris?"

"You haven't been having a lot of fun while I've been here, have you?"

I hated myself in that moment. I've been so terrible that now even Kris was doubting himself.

"Kris, you know that isn't true…"

"But this just seems to be annoying you. If you want me to leave, I can."

"Please stay, this is all my fault…"

"Can I ask something? Why do you always blame yourself?"

"Because I am imperfect," I said.