Another lackluster day at school. I certainly could see what Kris meant when he said that school was boring.
"Just a few days left until the Dream Festival," Kris told me.
"I can tell," I laughed, looking around at what all I could see.
I didn't ever expect the town to jump to life like it did. All of a sudden everyone was running around placing blue banners here and hoisting red flags there, stringing lights around trees and on buildings, among a few other things.
"So what's with the red and blue?" I asked.
"Red for passion, blue for faith. Both colors represent different parts of our dreams; we put our faith in them and follow them passionately."
"Wow…"
It was a lot to take in. I already liked the town's natural beauty thanks to all the trees and the lake, and all the fireflies and the stars, but now there was all the additional color to it.
"Let's get home, mom probably needs us to do something for her."
"Oh, Krissy! Come help me with this really quick!" someone shouted.
"That's Bratty. We're kinda friends, I guess," Kris told me before running over.
"Here, just hold this here for a moment…" Bratty said, referring to a string of lights she was trying to put up over her house. She ran to the other side and attached the end of it really quickly, then thanked Kris.
"Krissy? Who's this?" she said after noticing me.
"This is Ralsei," Kris said easily.
I somewhat shrunk as Bratty came over to look at me closer, too ready for her to find a reason to hate me. But after staring down at me for a second, she turned back to Kris.
"This isn't Azzy…?" it sounded to be both a statement and question.
"No, no. My brother is still off at university, I promise. And besides, Ralsei is so much better than Asriel," Kris gave a loving glance.
"Oh! Is it true? What makes you so special then?" she turned to me.
"Um… I…" I couldn't form a sentence.
Bratty laughed, "You certainly seem to be just as modest."
"...Is that a bad thing?" I asked.
"Not exactly. Azzy was always pretty cute when you gave him a compliment and he tried to play it off like it wasn't true," she said, "but you've got stuff of your own to do, right? Don't let me keep you any longer! Bye Krissy!"
"Bye Bratty!"
We made it only one house before we got stopped again. Kris just gave a sigh before smiling when someone else needed his help. To make it even worse, it was with the exact same task.
"Thanks Kris! Say, who's this?" she said.
"Catty, this is Ralsei."
"He looks like Asriel. But a bit younger."
Kris and I just laughed. We just had this conversation with Bratty and now we were having it again.
"Hey, what's so funny?" she asked, "I wanna laugh too!"
"We were just helping Bratty with the same task, and she said a lot of the same things."
"Ooooh, Bratty! That total copycat!" she steamed.
"I think you two would actually be good friends, you do like a lot of the same things and talk kind of the same," Kris said.
"No! She's just trying to steal my style and be better than me!"
"Maybe just give it a chance," he tried to say. Catty didn't seem to hear him.
"Kris, shouldn't we get going?" I asked.
"Do you have to go already? Awwww, bye Kris!"
We walked the final bit of distance home. Kris asked what I thought of Catty and Bratty, and I had to say I wasn't too impressed with either, but especially not Catty. Kris laughed, agreeing with me.
"I always hated being the mediator between their little fights. I don't really talk to either much anymore," he said.
Hanging above our door was a large blue banner with the Delta Rune inscribed into it. Other than that, it didn't seem like anything else was done to make the outside look any nicer. Though it did make sense, our house was on the corner of town and you'd have to very intentionally come here, it wasn't anywhere that would be noticed a lot.
"Hey mom!" Kris shouted as he entered.
"Oh, welcome home children," she said sweetly.
"You need our help with anything?"
"You know we do not do much decorating for the Dream Festival. All I'd need help with is all the baking."
"Ralsei could probably help a lot."
"Are you good at baking?" she asked me.
"I don't know, I just used to bake a lot."
"He made the best cake for me when I went over to visit, I remember that much. You should totally bake with mom, Ralsei!"
"Well, I'm sorry to say but there's not a lot he could help with. If I want a break I'll be sure to call though!" she said.
After all that we ended up going to our room, having nothing better to do. Kris took a seat on his bed and gazed across at his brother's belongings.
"Something wrong Kris? You seem to be a bit lost in thought," I said.
"No just… they mentioned my big brother. I miss him a lot."
I didn't really know what to say. For a moment it seemed as if anything I could've said would make it a bit worse. But I didn't want to leave Kris in silence to himself.
"...What was he like?" I asked. It was a risk, but I had to try something.
"A lot like you, actually. Smart, caring… helpful, trusting… The biggest differences were that he didn't wear glasses and he was a bit more vocal than you are."
"Is that why those two confused me for him earlier?"
"Probably."
"Did you have a good relationship with him?"
"Yeah. I always wanted to be just like him when I was younger. He'd be the only one I'd talk to in school. He stood up for me and didn't think it was fair that I was being mocked for being human. He was a good brother."
Kris gave a reminiscent smile. I smiled with him, happy that I hadn't made things worse. He got up from his bed and turned to face me.
"And don't think I want you to be any more like him than you already are. All I want you to do is show me that adorable smile of yours a bit more, okay?" he told me.
"Only if I get to see your smile just as much," I teased.
There was a gentle knock at our door, before we heard Toriel's voice.
"Kris! You have a visitor!"
I looked at him, and he showed no signs of knowing who was waiting for him. I only could've imagined it was Susie, but Kris probably would've known that Susie was going to come over.
"Let's go, I guess."
I trailed behind him as he went downstairs, then as his foot hit the final step down he took off and I was left confused. I looked ahead and saw Kris in a big hug with another goat-monster, looking to be younger than Toriel but of a similar form and stature.
"Azzy! What are you doing here?" he shouted.
"I finally got a break from school during the same week as the Dream Festival, thought I'd show up," he said. His voice was mature, and slightly deep, but it still had a joyous bit of youth in it.
"We're very glad to have you here, my child," Toriel gave a soft smile.
"And I'm very glad to be here! College is a nightmare!" he laughed.
I was still hanging by the corner of the stairs, not really knowing what to do. I wanted to go say hi but I also didn't want to interrupt the family reunion.
"So how's school been for you, Kris?" he asked in a friendly tone.
"Certainly better for me than for you, apparently."
"Oh yeah? How's MK, is he still your partner for everything?"
"No, I haven't actually been talking to him all that much recently."
"Any reason for that? I thought he was your best friend besides me."
"Well… I met this one person and… Where is he?"
Asriel tilted his head while Kris came over to the staircase and took me by hand.
"I met Ralsei here!"
Asriel let out a loud laugh. "Kris! I was only gone for a few years, you didn't need to find a perfect replica of me as a replacement!" he continued to laugh.
It may have been just me, but I didn't see a whole lot of resemblance between me and him. Granted they all referred to when he was younger, but I still didn't see a whole lot of physical similarities. His horns were much bigger and curved back for one.
"So where are you from? Cause you can't have been from here, I would've known you," he asked.
I whispered over to Kris, asking him if we should tell them where I'm really from or not. Kris told me that they deserved to know.
"It's kind of a long story," I said, "...and it might not be that believable."
"Well you had to come from somewhere, didn't you? And don't worry about time, we've got plenty!"
So I took to explaining the Dark World and the entire story behind Kris and I meeting, and then how I got here and how Kris and Toriel allowed me to live with them. Both Asriel and Toriel were very quiet during the entire thing, perhaps shocked into silence, but after I concluded they both looked at each other and then at Kris and then they both nodded.
"If I hadn't seen crazier in college then I probably wouldn't have believed a word of that."
"It does explain how you mysteriously appeared one day, child."
"...So you actually believe me?" I asked.
"Why not?" Asriel shrugged.
"It doesn't matter much where you come from, child. I am happy you are here with us now."
"And I'm glad Kris found a friend in you, I was so worried that he'd be all alone while I was away and that nobody would be there for him."
"I think I found a bit more than just a friend in him," Kris laughed.
Toriel joined in the laughter, and it took Asriel a moment to put the pieces together.
"He's your new best bro?! I thought I was your best bro forever! Kris!" Asriel complained.
Kris' laughter grew a bit louder and now it was my turn to join in the laughter.
"Come on Kris! This isn't funny!" he pouted.
"Asriel, you always will be my best bro," Kris assured him.
"Then what…" Asriel thought for a moment longer, "wait, are you…?"
Kris leaned his head on my shoulder, "Yes, that's exactly it," he said.
Author's Note:
My sincerest apologies for not holding up to a consistent upload schedule. And I apologize for the pathetically useless chapter that this one was. I've been kind of in a state of writer's block and this is finally something I can push out to prove that the story is not dead just yet. My biggest struggle is making it not as depressing as possible, because that's another thing that's kept me from writing: my apparently permanent state of sadness this year. And it is a problem, because I've taken write what you know to a very literal sense-Ralsei's character has developed a number of my own traits totally by accident, and much of his depression and many of his fears come from my own experiences. This is supposed to be a happy little love story; I don't need the main character to be depressed all the time.
Finally, I'd like to say thanks to Yanush for the review. It wasn't nearly as useless as you think; knowing my strengths is just as valuable as knowing my weaknesses! And don't you worry about Ralsei not knowing the town, that's actually sort of the entire reason I wanted to put the Dream Festival in.
With that said, thank you for staying with me here, I know I haven't exactly done a good job of keeping you. Hopefully I'll be able to get more out soon but... no promises, of course.