Hair draped over their forehead, expression as neutral as ever, Kris stared towards their brother patiently. To any third party, they'd appear to be detached and impersonal with an ever so slight inquisitive tint to their eyes, though internally they were screaming.

"Explain."

At their simple demand, their shaking, stuttery goat-brother let a soft smile come onto his face, hunched posture in growing clarity as his paw held onto the human's shoulder.

"W-Well, I do-don't really k-know where to begin, uhm, K-Kris…"

Not even giving him a moment of pause, Kris opened their mouth and spoke immediately, a feeling of emptiness threatening to swallow them up from inside. Surely their kind, caring, goat-bro hadn't been hurt this badly by university?

"Explain."

After a brief pause, Asriel turned to glance around the room as he moved his paw away from his brother. Moving swiftly towards his bed, he sat down and patted at the side in an open invitation as he began to speak.

"U-Uh, I-I'll start with 'Big J' alright, K-Kris?"

In an instant, Kris teleported next to him, eyes staring at their brother with the most intrigued glint they'd had since figuring out they had two great new friends, with a newly saved world below of even more. Internally, there were far too many questions - such as those around 'Big J'. The only 'Big J' he knew was the oh-so-hated bigger sister of Monster Kid, Judith. Someone who Asriel had scarcely spoken of, outside of how he was trying to look after them, and to not tell 'Goat Mum'.

"W-Well, she's ma-ma-uhm-manipulative, constantly kept me s-skipping meals and t-trying to help h-her after she cut off ties w-with uhm, you know…"

Admittedly, that made a surprising amount of sense to Kris as they contemplated the words after a brief mental 'stutter-to-speech' translation. Their big, cuddly, friendly older brother wouldn't hurt a fly, not to mention his constant desires to please anyone he met. Getting pushed into university, through no small part by their own actions, Kris mused, undoubtedly would need the best reasoning imaginable to even begin the call to mother.

Displeasing the Goat Mother would, in Kris' view, lead to a fate most foul. The fabled negotiation or punishment tactics were inevitable, no matter how 'justified' it was. Why, in the past, Kris had rightly worked on a mix between prank, retribution and 'divine intervention' against their continued 'enemy', the armless figure known as Monster Kid.

Not only was MK tarred and feathered, Kris decided to go a step further and torment him by interfering with every radio they went nearby. For the two days they got away with it, every single radio they went nearby would start loudly playing a beeping noise, at random, and frequently during the best bit. Naturally, when their mother found out, she was the most annoyed with them in months.

So much, in fact, that she actually did the impossible and punished them fully, the previously prank-encouraging Dadsgore even assisting in the task. Bans on any electronic device for aeons, mandatory apologies to the sobbing reptile, though it was worth it to see Asriel breaking down giggling every time he heard a noise even slightly close to said beeps for the next month…

That always made the pranks worth it, in their view. Their older brother had found it absolutely hilarious, as much as he tried to teach Kris how it was a 'bad' and how he went 'too far', it was obvious both brothers had at least a similar sense of humour. Naturally, since Asriel found it hilarious, a sequel focusing on 'Goat-mum' was inevitable, trying to get back at the ultimate punishment issued by Toriel.

It succeeded and backfired in far too many ways to count, Toriel believing that her new punishment methods were so terrible, it had caused her child to utterly lash out in the worst of possible ways. Not to mention utterly damaging her reputation in the eyes of the community, a factor that led to the divorce - After all, why care what the community thinks on divorce, when they've already 'cleansed' and 'exorcised' you due to your child's prank-spree?

Sure, everyone was fine with each other once more, or it seemed that way at least, everything returning close to normal as always, though the divorce stuck. Both your parents never made up either. Truly, it was the ultimate prank-venge on them, a continuous prank spanning millennia and tearing at Kris' very soul.

Very fitting, when it came to Mother. She was always quite the prankster, or 'pun-ster' in her own view.

"U-Uh, K-Kris? Y-You there? H-Hello?"

Asriel's stuttery voice brought them back to reality, hands moving to timidly scratch the back of their neck and hide their reddening face as they mumbled out an apology. Even with their brother here, the gained habit of constant daydreaming was hard to kick to the curb, though at least they could work to fix it now, since it has now outlived its usefulness.

"E-Everyone m-made me do their h-homework, a-and 'help' w-was j-just me do-doing stuff fo-for them…"

In Kris' view, that completely added up, too. So much so, they stopped paying attention once more, thinking back to their own experiences with Asriel's homework.

Back when Asriel was around, they'd frequently tricked him into assisting or outright doing assignments for them, though their uncanny ability to learn information without all the busy-body tasks still had the goat-mother stumped. There'd been at least six occasions where she was prepared to call them out on it, only to receive extremely positive test results, test results they couldn't shove off to their brother.

"..."

Always, their brother would do it with a smile, not to mention Kris' favourite times, when Asriel would try to help them understand the intricate complexities of thirty five percent of exactly just eighty. Truly, a conundrum that took too much out of him, not to mention being absurdly difficult for him to grasp, as he kept overthinking it.

As always when Asriel was explaining, Kris got to sit in their brother's lap and feel cosy, as he went on to explain it so astonishing amazingly, that they'd usually understand it after the first, or second time at most - then not forget it afterwards, as would commonly happen otherwise, much to Kris' annoyance.

To the intricate complexities of that thirty five percentage question, their brother merely showed them the smartest maths trick they'd ever heard - flip the numbers around. Instead of doing it the long way, merely flip it. Eighty percent of thirty five was faster, easier, and better to work out than the alternative, allowing them to get the right answer with ease.

After learning, their brother would always let them snuggle up plenty, in the past even sharing a bed quite a lot of the time. Unfortunately for the both of them, Goat-Mother eventually read a book on parenting in regards to a growing brother and sister for whatever reason, before forcing them to each side of the room permanently. Kris had never seen such horrors on their mother's face before, nor ever since.

Whenever Asriel or they had asked, Toriel had always diverted the subject, contorted it, even outright leaving the room at times. She'd been so horrified that they hadn't dared trying to get around her new rules. Not even when she got a bit more strange, like how at one point, she had just started taking their older brother's second hand clothes to the charity shop, instead of immediately just giving it to them as past history would indicate.

That time they'd both enjoyed a delicious, white hot chocolate Dadsgore had brought home as an extra-special Christmas treat was even weirder. At the time, the dubbed 'Mumsriel' had walked in, seen them, before turning the palest shade imaginable, shortly before running off, 'Dadsgore' running right behind with a weirdly panicked expression.

Their talk had gone well, at least. Toriel had stopped panicking and they could go back to sharing beds now and again after she apologised profusely, admitting she'd read the wrong book and gotten the entirely wrong idea, having recently finished a new book on growing brothers. Still, their 'bed-sharing-bond' was irrevocably destroyed, especially after Asriel had read said book, turning a solid green for a few minutes before leaving the room.

"...Uh, Kris, Uhm…"

"Yes?"

Giving a swift and firm straight-to-the-point response to their brother's attempt at continuing, day-dream snapping out of existence with ease, Kris was surprised to see a bright smile briefly enter onto the goat's features, before disappearing to one more solidly neutral.

"Y-Yeah, that's about e-everything, r-really…"

Naturally, their day dreaming had utterly backfired, though it was assumedly the exact same situation generally. Asriel doing great in his studies but everyone else taking advantage and manipulating him was a scenario Kris had thought up in about the first five seconds, one that they'd tried to explain to mother. As always, they were dismissed and told not to worry.

Being completely, utterly right had never felt more bitter than before. They were absolutely going to milk it for all it was worth, though. Kris had never been one for avoiding opportunities, perhaps they could use this to distract the female, motherly goat while they prepared a grand, intriguing prank.

"I'm sorry."

"It-It's n-not your f-fault, K-Kris, a-alright? It's Tori's, s-she made me go…"

Sensing some discontent in their brother's words, there was a brief, smidgen of hope, followed by a tidal-wave of an almost depression-like feeling. University had not only disillusioned the most kind, caring goat Kris knew, but had brought him to their view of mother-dislike. Why, their clear refusal to call her mother certainly was a sign and a half, at least to Kris.

Turning towards their brother with an unhappy frown, they reached out and did the only thing they could think of, bringing them into a tight, soft hug. Tears rolled down their brother's face once more, a soft stutter and mumble of thanks followed reciprocation, the two holding each other close as they focused solely on each other. Carefully, Kris spoke out as they tried to lighten the mood, mind thinking of just the right story to tell to lighten up their older brother…

Mere miles away from the conversing duo as tears were shared and stories told, one tall, armless figure sat silently in the back of a car, loud, annoying pop music blaring inside. Driving along the road with far too many painfully loud noises, the driver didn't even bother to try to speak to the vehicle's only other occupant, uncaringly singing out the lyrics at the top of their lungs until the car finally came to a stop at her destination.

With a grimace, she silently stared towards the driver as the car moved to a slow and steady stop. Tail moving quickly, a few coins were slowly inspected before being placed into the driver's hands as she opened the door without a word, black and pink chequered dress wafting in the wind…