"Kris… I just um, wanted to say that…" I was barely speaking above a whisper, and my head turned away from Kris' eyes, "...you're really special to me and… I really enjoy spending everyday with you. What I'm trying to say is, um… I… love you."

Kris said nothing, but instead just shook his head without much expression.

"...K-Kris?"

"Ralsei, you admitted it yourself once, in the Dark World. We humans are just good at flirting."

"So… you mean?"

"I'm sorry you thought that I was serious, but I wasn't."

"O-oh…"

"And we're both guys, I'm not even into that."

I shrunk. Obviously the rejection stung, but to be totally crushed into the ground like that was just too much.

"Sorry, but there just won't ever be anything between us more than friendship, Ralsei."

"...Okay."

A part of me couldn't be too angry with that outcome. At least it didn't seem like it totally ruined our relationship; Kris still said we'd have friendship. I wasn't going to be abandoned by him.

"Anyways, Susie needs help with something or other, so I'm gonna go."

"...Can I come with?" I asked.

"No. I just… no," he said.

And that was it, Kris walked off following those words. I just needed something to distract me, something to push away the pain for enough time that I'd forget it. I went home, that way I could collapse on my bed and no one would have to know any of what just happened.

When I stepped in, Kris' mom called me over and asked me to sit down.

"I'm afraid that I just can't keep you here anymore, it's too much for me to handle. You are welcome to come here whenever, but you just can't live here. I'm sorry, I know you and Kris have been having fun together," she told me.

If I said I was surprised, I'd be lying. Of course my entire world was falling apart right before my very eyes. I asked if I could at least get one last nap there, I needed one right about then, but she dismissed it. All she did was hand me my stuff, which was already put together, and send me back outside.

I threw my hat on. I knew I had to look like an absolute mess at this point, so I just covered my face so that nobody would have to see it. If there was one thing I had to do before going back to the Dark World, it was see the lake one last time.

And so there I stood for a long while, just gazing out into the beautiful blue of the water. I reminded myself of the wish-Kris and I would be together forever-and then cursed myself for making such a stupid request. I tore off the rune bracelet, the one Kris gave me that said 'friendship' on it, I took a look at it for a moment, then tossed it into the lake. With nothing more to do, I went off to the school, and into the closet, back to the Dark World, and into the empty halls of my castle.

"...Ralsei…"

On the plus side, I was finally going to get that nap I wanted.

"Ralsei…"

I jumped into my bed and pulled the sheets over.

"Ralsei."

I rest my head down onto the pillow and closed my eyes.

"Ralsei!"

"Just let me get some sleep, please…"

When I finally paid attention to the voice, I remembered that there shouldn't be one-this castle was empty. I jumped up, and when I did I suddenly was in bed in the Light World, not the Dark World.

"Oh, thank goodness you woke up," Kris said.

"Kris…? What?" I mumbled, trying to catch up with what was happening.

"You must've been having a horrible nightmare; you were saying a few things under your breath and looking upset and kicking a little, and I tried and tried to get you out of it and it just wasn't working!"

"A nightmare… that's all it was?"

"Are you okay?" he gave a tender look.

"Just… a nightmare…" I repeated, it was almost too good to be true.

"Ralsei?" he took his hand and lifted my chin up so my eyes met his.

I broke down, the tears that were forming had to be released. I fell into Kris and hugged him as tightly as I could to make sure he was real and not just a nightmare within a nightmare, and rather than pull away he let me go on, whispering sweet words into my ear in a vain attempt to calm me down.

Eventually he pushed me up so that we were in the original position of us staring at each other. He wiped away whatever remaining tears there were and patted my fur a little so that it was less of a mess.

"Are you ready to talk to me now?"

I cleared my throat, "actually it was us talking in the nightmare that started it all. We were out doing something and then as we talked you got a bit angry at me and then you stormed off… And then I came home to take my mind off of it but your mom said that I couldn't live here anymore, so I went back out to go home… But I stopped at the lake first and threw away the friendship bracelet… And that was pretty much it," I had to stop several times to take a breath and not burst back into tears at the memory.

"Ralsei, that would never happen. Never!" he told me.

"I do and I don't know that-it's funny."

"Ralsei, look at me," he commanded, "I won't ever get so angry at you that I leave you, and mom will find a way to keep you here because she knows it makes you happy. And our friendship is more than just that bracelet! I'm glad you still wear it but it's not the only thing which keeps us together-we keep each other close."

His words were slow enough that I could comprehend each one of them. And they were more than welcomed by my ears and heart, but not my brain or soul.

"Kris… but what if it does?" I insisted.

"It won't."

"But…"

"It will not, Ralsei. Nothing you say will ever turn me away."

"...I don't know, Kris."

"Then say it now and we'll prove it together. What did you say that got me so upset?" he leaned in a little bit.

"I don't…" I stuttered.

"You don't remember?" he tried to finish.

"I don't want to say it… and risk it…" I corrected him.

"Then this mess won't ever be resolved if you don't trust me enough to let me help you," he got up and went to leave.

When I was sure he was out of earshot, I whispered the three forbidden words, then got up to follow him. It was morning, we had school, and I was hungry for breakfast.

Next thing I knew we were in class being lectured on a number of topics. The entire class groaned at the history lesson of one of the human wars, some even questioning why they had to know it when Kris was the only human in the entire town. Ms. Alphys was quick to say that in a lot of the surrounding towns and cities where we would be going for further studies, there would be just as many humans as monsters and that it was important to know both cultures. Kris leaned over to whisper that his brother had been surprised by the number of humans in the city where he was going to university.

Then we went onto a writing lesson, which brought another groan from the class. Neither Kris nor myself seemed to be too bothered with writing; I of course had been very used to it and enjoyed the activity. Our task was to write a simple, one stanza piece of poetry since it was apparently a new lesson and nobody was really used to it yet. Ms. Alphys asked if anyone would like to read what they wrote aloud to the class, but nobody took the chance. I would've, had I not been so incredibly nervous about it. Ms. Alphys laughed at us, saying that it was okay since she wouldn't have been able to do it herself.

Since we were uncomfortable, Ms. Alphys said she would go ahead with the science lesson. We learned about the different kinds of chemical reactions, and she said that tomorrow there would be a quick experiment to show us one of them. We all were disappointed that it wasn't today that there'd be something cool, but she assured us that the wait would be worth it.

Then finally she began a math lesson, which got groans from only half the class. Some students actually perked up for this one, while Kris and I didn't seem too particularly enthused or turned away. It was a simple lesson, synthetic division. Kris said that this was actually something nice for once, it made another process almost completely irrelevant and that this was a much faster and simpler way of going about it.

Considering I had only just gotten here and had barely any prior knowledge of any of this, I was picking up on it quite quickly. We didn't have any schools in the Dark World-we had a few libraries but seldom they were used. I had taken the time to read as much as I possibly could, to understand the world around me and its history. I also just didn't have anything else to do, so it was a nice way to waste the time. But in the end I'm glad I read as much as I did, since I'm sure that's the only way I kept up with the math lesson.

I kept glancing over at Susie the entire time, and she looked lost at just about every word. I felt kind of bad for her, but when she noticed I was looking she just gave a quick snarl and then I focused back up front. One of the times, I whispered up to Kris that I'd like to help Susie understand, but he whispered back that she was starting to get lessons from Noelle. He also added that the two of them seemed particularly close. I never really talked to Noelle so I didn't know what she was like, but I was happy for Susie that she had someone like that.

When class was over, Kris and I stayed to talk with Susie for a bit. Of course, she immediately took the chance to mock me.

"I'd be careful if I were you Kris, I think your boyfriend here is taking an interest to me too," she said with a wicked smile.

"W-what? No! That's not…!" I tried to say, though a lot of it was simple stuttering and muffled sound due to me covering up my face with my hands.

"Hey Susie, I think Noelle's leaving," he said coyly.

"You shut up," she said, "Noelle! Wait up!"

Then Susie darted after Noelle and it was just us and Ms. Alphys. I peeked out to see Kris just smiling at me, then he grabbed the hand that I removed and we were outside before I had the chance to say anything.

"Where do you want to go, Ralsei? The library, the lake? Do you want to just go home, maybe?"

"Kris… don't you think about spoiling me again."

"Awww, but you're so cute when you're like this!" he said.

I had an idea. "Then let's go to the lake," I said.

We ran over, and we were greeted with a view no different than the last time we were here during the day. The sun shone on the water, causing it to gleam beautifully. The wind shook the leaves of the trees all around us, adding a peaceful noise to the pretty scene. We sat down, both of us facing the lake. We set our hands to our sides, and my left met his right-but it wasn't accidental and neither of us were bothered by it.

"I love this spot," Kris said.

I could've easily said 'I love you' right then, but I chose not to.

"Yeah, it's really beautiful."

A pause for silence.

"This wouldn't be nearly as amazing if you weren't here, Ralsei," Kris turned to give me a brief smile, then went to facing the lake again.

"...I feel the exact same."

Another pause, this time a leaf fell before me and I picked it up to start fiddling with it.

Kris laughed, "I could stare at this sight for hours, but I could stare at the person sitting beside me for years."

"Kris…" I said, feeling a wave of heat suddenly.

"What? You're too cute, you know that? Especially at times like these when you're all embarrassed."

"Do you mean any of what you say? Or is it just to see me like this?" I asked suddenly.

"Of course I mean it. You're important to me for so many different reasons."

"...Kris, can you tell me something?"

"What's that?"

"What do you really think of me?" I asked. I had to know.

"...Ralsei, I wouldn't trade you for both the Light and Dark World. I need you to just sit here by my side more than anything else," he said as if it were nothing at all.

"...Thank you Kris…"

"Do you think you can talk to me now about that nightmare? What you said, I mean."

"...I still don't know, I'm sorry."

"Okay, that's fine," he said.

"Is it? I don't want to hide things from you but…"

"I think we've both been hiding something, and I think it's the same thing for us both."

"...What?"

He turned, then brought me in close for a hug. This was the best one he ever gave me; it was so warm, so full of love. That's when I knew that I shouldn't be so scared of telling him how I felt, because he did feel the exact same way.

"I love you, Kris…" I did it. I said it, and in a voice confident enough that he'd hear it.

"There you go, you finally said it!" he exclaimed, "I love you too, Ralsei! I always will!"

We broke the hug, but just so that we could go back to staring at the lake. We rested our heads upon each other, and just enjoyed the view for a bit longer.

"I'll always love you too, Kris. Forever and always."