Nothing of much importance happened for the rest of the day. I took the time to get used to the new house, which despite being significantly smaller than the castle, was much more homely. Other than that, Kris and I spent the day reading more stories at the library. There wasn't any way these ones could be worse than the ones we read yesterday, but they weren't exactly memorable either. It was slightly disappointing, but Kris reminded me of my own words-get through the bad now and there'll be plenty of good later.

And I thought it was funny, I had gotten through my life in the Dark World for a new one in the Light World. A lonely life to one with Kris.

But the day passed by fairly quickly, and because school was tomorrow and I'd have to get registered, Kris' mom sent us to bed a bit early. For a few brief moments where we still had energy, we looked out the window together at the stars.

"Hey Ralsei…" Kris said in a shy voice.

"Yes, Kris?"

"Do you mind if I sleep with you again tonight?" he asked.

"Is this going to be something we do every night?"

"It's okay if you don't want to," he paused, "it's just… I was so comfortable, and you were so warm and soft, and then I didn't have the nightmare again and…"

If ever there was a time where I was the one to fluster Kris, this had been it. I grabbed him in a hug and put both of us up on his bed and nuzzled him, all the while Kris looked redder than some of the best flowers I had grown.

"I'm not going to tell you no, Kris. Especially not when you're acting like that," I said.

Kris was speechless. Unfortunately, before I could really enjoy what I had just done, I fell asleep.

It's not too often I have really amazing dreams, but the one I had that night was one I will keep in my heart forever.

It didn't seem to be far into the future, and it definitely wasn't the past. It was nighttime, and there were plenty of stars in the sky. Kris and I were standing in front of the lake, both of us slightly silhouetted by the darkness yet glowing in the moonlight. We stood facing each other, eternal smiles plastered upon both of our faces. He took my hands in his, and I started to hum as he lead me through a waltz.

All I could think about the entire time was how happy I was to be with him, and his expression told me he felt all the same. But it wasn't just joy, it was love. Love at its peak, love in its most beautiful, truest form.

Eventually I came to the end of the song I was humming, and the dance ended there. We hugged for a while, then we went in for a quick kiss.

"That was…" I said.

"Amazing," he finished, "love you Ralsei."

"Love you Kris…"

The last thing I saw was us going back to the house, hand in hand.

The next morning I woke up with a slightly cold feeling; that dream ended too soon. But then I was instantly warmed up by the fact that Kris had an arm over me, and he was still looking adorable even in his sleep.

The curtains were open, and light was pouring in from outside. For a moment I almost forgot, I was going to school today with Kris. I shook him a little bit, but he just mumbled and so I had to leave him to get ready. I put on a clean robe and my boots and my glasses, then left to run downstairs.

"Good morning, Ralsei," Kris' mom said, "what seems to be the rush? I'm only just now getting done with breakfast."

"Oh… I didn't know the time and thought I perhaps overslept," I sighed, glad that I wouldn't be late on my first day.

"No, no," she said, "school does not begin for another half hour. And this is a small town, so we still have quite a while before we actually must leave."

"I'll remember that," I laughed.

"Please, come relax," she said with a smile, handing me a plate so I may go get breakfast.

I took only one pancake and some eggs, I never was really hungry in the morning-even if Kris' mom cooks well. I took my normal seat, the one across the table from Kris' mother.

"...is there something going on between you and Kris, Ralsei?" she suddenly asked.

I wasn't ready for that question. I had to quickly swallow to avoid choking on the bite I had taken.

"Um… w-what do you mean?" I asked. I knew exactly what she meant.

"I have told you before, I do not see anything wrong with Kris liking you and you liking Kris. You do not have to be afraid of me."

It took me a while to consider my words, even if I knew exactly what I'd say from the very beginning.

"...I love Kris. I really do. I've never met someone as kind as he is. And I think he's really cute, too. We have a lot in common. But there's nothing more than friendship between us for now. Kris simply asked me to sleep with him, he said he used to do it a lot with his brother to keep nightmares away. I was just being a good friend."

And suddenly Kris was in the kitchen; I didn't even hear him come in. I got so embarrassed that I pulled my ears to cover my face so he couldn't see me. I couldn't tell if my heart had stopped or if it were beating so fast that I couldn't feel each individual beat anymore.

"...How much did you hear of that, Kris?" I managed to get out.

"Huh?" he said sleepily, tilting his head toward me.

"Did you not hear any of the conversation we were having?"

"...I've barely just woken up…"

I gave the greatest sigh of relief I ever had upon those words. His mom just laughed at us both, and we all returned to eating.

"If we're ready, I suppose we can head to school now," Kris' mom said after we put all our plates in the sink.

"I have to get there early, don't I?" I asked.

"Oh, it shouldn't take too long getting you in."

"How much time do we even have left?" Kris asked.

"A quarter of an hour."

"Let's just go then…" he said with a slight hint of annoyance.

We headed out to the van, and Kris and I hopped in the back seat. His mom took an extra moment, so I started talking with Kris.

"Do you not enjoy school? You seem kind of upset."

"I'll tolerate it more with you," he smiled, "it's just kind of… boring."

"Oh."

"Alright children! Are we ready?" Kris' mom said as she got in the driver's seat.

We said yes, and after that the car ride was filled with idle chatter. Comments on the weather and ideas for dinner were tossed around and not much else, the trip was so short nothing else really was allowed.

As we got out of the van, Kris' mom grabbed my hand and started to lead me in. Kris trailed behind with a bit of reluctance, but still put in the effort to keep up. For a moment we all stopped, and Kris' mother bent down to give Kris a hug, then sent him off to class. Then we went further back, passed the double doors which led to the Dark World and into the hall opposite the one the side room was on. There was a door at the end of it which simply read "Principal's Office" on it.

"It's Ms. Toriel, sir," she said after knocking twice.

"Come in!" we heard from the other side of the door.

I realized then that I never actually had even gotten Kris' mom's name, which embarrassed me a little. But as we went in, she waved a hand to the side which told me to sit. A few things were said about how she was registering me for class, and how I'd be fit for instruction from Ms. Alphys, and then there was a bit of paperwork she had to do. I just sat there patiently waiting and looking around. The office was a simple brown color and full of things you could almost expect: a bookcase and a few lamps, a sofa and two regular chairs, a plant in the corner, and a cluttered desk in the middle. Right as I was beginning to take a glance at the principal, Toriel handed me the papers.

"I'm sorry, I could only fill in a few things-please take care of the rest."

She gave me a pen as well, and I started to put in the missing pieces. But I had to think about the fact that I had practically been adopted by a total stranger. Maybe I should've said no, only because we didn't know each other very well. I still could be with Kris that way, maybe just not as often. But the idea of not being with Kris made me think that it was okay that I chose what I did.

I handed back the papers after I was done, and from there we were waved off and I headed to class. When I stepped in there weren't but three others, Kris, someone sitting next to him, and someone I assumed to be Ms. Alphys given that she was standing in the front of the class.

"O-oh, hello," she stuttered out, "Kris said that we'd be having a new student today."

"Hello, ma'am. My name is Ralsei," I said.

"I am Ms. Alphys. Um… you may take any seat you like, I really didn't assign seats."

I was about to take the open seat next to Kris, but he said I should take the one behind him instead.

"We kind of assigned seats ourselves, and this is the only one that's open," he told me.

"Dude! You totally look like Asriel!" the student sitting next to Kris exclaimed.

"Um…"

"He does, but he's so much better than Asriel," Kris said.

"Woah! Better than Asriel? Can you show me magic? Are you really smart? Do you like to…" the questions just poured on and I couldn't keep up.

"Kid, calm down," Kris said.

"Oh, sorry…" he said.

Other students started entering the room, and as they came in Kris listed off names and maybe a brief thing or two about them. Drake, he tries to be funny; Noelle, she's smart and kind; Berdly, he's smart and rude; a few others that Kris said he didn't really know very well.

"Just one missing… and class is about to start," Ms. Alphys said.

As if on cue, the door burst open and in the doorway was Susie. For whatever reason, the rest of the class besides Kris seemed to shrink down.

"For once she's not late!" Berdly shouted.

"Quiet, Bird-Brain," she mocked, "I've been on time a lot."

"O-okay. Let's just be calm and start class," Ms. Alphys said.

Susie appeared to grumble something as she slowly walked over to her seat, which happened to be the one on my left. It took her until she sat down to notice me, and when she did she immediately stood back up in shock.
"Ralsei?! What?!"

I heard Kris snicker.

"Hi Susie!" I smiled and waved.

"...You know what? Okay. I'm done questioning things ever since then," she said, sitting back down.

Everyone else looked quite confused, except Kris of course, but then Ms. Alphys directed attention to the front of the room.

"Well, our new student needs a group for the project. Is any group willing to-"

"Mine!" Kris shouted.

"Ugh," Susie rolled her eyes, "if I have to work with him…"

Kris gave a glare, but it didn't have anger behind it, then all three of us laughed.

"O-okay. Well today we'll just be working on projects. Don't forget it's due at the end of the week, so get busy!"

"Project?" I asked.

"We just have to make a poster about the history of humans and monsters, nothing hard," Kris explained.

"Oh… I guess I won't be much help then."

"Don't worry," Susie said, "Kris already agreed to do the whole project."

"I did not!"

The two of them laughed. It was nice to see that Susie had certainly gotten a lot better since our time in the Dark World, but she hadn't changed enough to make her a different person entirely.

"So what are you doing here, dude? Did Kris seriously go all the way back to the Dark World to get you?"

I nodded.

"Gee, Kris. I knew you loved him, but really?"

"Hush," he half-joked.

Did Kris really see me the way I saw him? It was something nice to think about, but I didn't want to go for it. Not yet, at least.
"Hey Ralsei," she said, "how's Lancer doing?"

"Oh! Very good, he's a good king. I'm sure he'd be happy to see you, Susie."

"...I'm glad."

The conversation seemed to kind of die there, so I shifted the subject.

"How's the project coming along?"

"Well, when you have a human and a monster both in the group it's pretty easy. We're sort of already done," Kris answered.

"Oh. So what do we do then?"

"Sit around and do nothing," Susie said happily.