Chapter 1
Their First Gift
It was a date. Good thing it was so cold outside, because Susie and Kris could more easily hide their blushes behind scarves and upturned coats. But it was impossible to hide the fact that they were holding hands most of the time. Even when Susie insisted on cramming her hands into Kris' pockets, for the warmth of course, it glued them together even more closely and Kris' coat pockets were bulging.
Resting her chin on top of Kris' head, she muttered, "Hey, dork, let's go get some hot chocolate. I'm freezing out here!"
Kris stepped forward, guiding her as she hugged them from behind. Yeah, trying to hide their relationship and avoid embarrassment was impossible at this point. Everyone in Hometown would know by now!
As fall slid into winter, Kris and Susie had started going out. After all their adventures in the Dark World and Hometown to save the world, it had only been a matter of time. Now they walked together in the Angel's Market, set up in the center of town, where everyone was doing their home-grown shopping. Sure, it was nice to travel to the mall or avoid the crowds by doing online shopping, but there was an exhilarating element to walking among the open-air stalls and seeing all the homemade goods.
The Holidays made exquisite candy canes and tree ornaments for people to purchase. All proceeds went to the Mayor's re-election campaign.
Alphys did Christmas-themed anime sketches at people's request. Unfortunately, only Officer Undyne had made any request for her. However, their teacher was happily, though somewhat shiveringly, drawing the commission.
ICE-E's staff was out making frozen pizzas for people to enjoy with their hot chocolate and cider.
Father Alvin and QC had stalls in front of the church, selling spiced cider and hot chocolate respectively. Catti's father was not too far away with a grill going for anyone who wanted out-of-season barbeque.
Everyone else had their own stalls and gimmicks going to sell their wares and Christmassy goods. Asgore was not too far off, selling poinsettias. While he far more enjoyed the flowers of spring and summer, Kris' father honestly did his best during the winter season selling inedible, poisonous flowers. They had already had to save Susie from sampling some of Asgore's poinsettias just the other week.
"Spot me?" Susie asked as Kris drew them up to QC's stall.
Kris nodded. They got out their wallet and purchased two steaming, Styrofoam cups of cocoa. Susie mumbled her thanks as she accepted her cup. Her hands flew from kris pockets and carefully cradled her cup as she took a few cautious sips.
"Damn QC! Your cocoa is always the best!"
"Thanks, Susie," the rabbit monster said kindly. "Though you might want to avoid swearing in front of Father Alvin."
"If only for propriety's sake," the old monster replied, chuckling at Susie's flustered expression. "Remember, we don't believe in sin."
"Then why even have religion?" Susie asked.
"Because it gives people hope. It provides answers when they are hard to find. And because the Angel is real and could smite any of us unless we are careful."
Susie muttered darkly into her cup, "What a cheery subject for Christmas."
Kris shrugged and took a sip of their own hot chocolate, careful not to burn their tongue. They checked their phone to see how the time was going. Toriel would expect them both back soon. They were supposed to help decorate the tree and get the house ready for Asriel's winter vacation break. He would be back in town tomorrow, and the family was getting back together.
But there was still time to do a little holiday shopping and get ready for Christmas which was right around the corner. And there was a nice family tradition that Kris wanted Susie to be included in on.
As they explained where they wanted to go, Undyne and Nabstablook wandered over to the church. Undyne boomed, "Father Alvin! I need to check all of your cider! To make sure that none of it has expired and is no longer legal for children."
"Officer Undyne, this is all fresh, as you fully well know!"
"Never hurts to be safe!" she said, flicking some coins at him. She flipped them so hard that they became embedded into the wooden stall. Father Alvin grimaced and let the coins alone as he scooped up some cider and ladled it into her own styrofoam cup.
"You haven't seen the perps still hanging around your house or church, have you?" Nabstablook asked.
"No, they have thankfully stopped pestering me," Father Alvin replied, sounding relieved.
"Perps?" Susie asked excitedly, turning around. She nearly lost her hot chocolate and spilled some across her glove. "Dammit! That burns! And it's going to freeze later… But whose been trying to attack Father Alvin?"
Undyne wagged a finger at her as she guzzled the entire contents of her cup in one swig. She exhaled a puff of spicy steam and belched before answering, "No one's attacked Father Alvin or anyone else. Which is a shame! Not that we want you to get mugged, Father," she amended quickly. "But it was a chance for some action, but these creeps are keeping to the shadows and avoiding me! Dammit!"
"We could help out," Susie suggested, growing eager.
"Nope!" Undyne slammed more coins on Alvin's stand. "Another cup, Father! I need to try all your cider! And no, Ms. Sooz! No, you can't help! You and Asgore's kid have had enough adventures going around and saving people. Leave the rest to the professionals!"
The teens watched as the 'professional' officers dangerously chugged more piping hot cider or fiddled around with a CD player to listen to their newest mix track. Susie glowered, but this mystery was not as pressing as her soaked glove. Sure enough, the cold wind was already freezing her fingers. Kris noticed and hurriedly swapped gloves with her. They would have a very knobby glove later, but Kris' pockets were much warmer. They stuffed their exposed hand away and continued to sip their hot cocoa.
Undyne waved them off and Kris gently led Susie to the Holiday stand as Undyne shouted, "Even if they're not bugging you now, it's only a matter of time before I have them all locked up in a cell! Never fear!"
"Your dedication to the law is not what people fear," QC said carefully.
"It would be sweet to get in on that action!" Susie said excitedly. "We've needed a new adventure for a while now! We beat all the bad guys and brought peace to both Light and Dark worlds, but now we all just hang out and party. I'm going to grow weak unless we find a new source of action and some bad guys for me to pummel with my ax!"
Or to befriend, as Kris pointed out.
"Heh, yeah. We can befriend them if they're cool."
They found Noelle manning her family's stand alone. She appeared relaxed and at peace in the cold. She was still bundled up tightly with her own massive mug of steaming hot chocolate, but there was no denying that Noelle was in her element.
When she saw the couple approaching, she blushed brightly and waved to them. "S-Susie! Kris! Good to see you out here! Catti and Jockington passed by earlier and talked! I hoped I'd get to see more of my friends."
"Hi Noelle!" Susie said, waving her hand with Kris' glove. After getting together with kris, she had decided to not let things get unduly awkward between her and Noelle. After all, they were friends. You should never throw that away over something ooey, gushy feelings. "Kris insisted that we come over here. They've got something they wanted to show me."
Kris worried that Noelle might get the wrong idea, that they were trying to show off Susie to the girl who lost. They quickly explained that their family had a tradition of finding a unique ornament to hang on the Christmas tree. That way, no matter how the whole decorating escapade went, everyone had a part of themselves up on the tree and a say in it. It began as a compromise between Toriel and Asgore, who had always argued over how to best decorate the tree. That's what happened when a neat-freak and florist were tasked with setting up the all-important Christmas tree.
Kris wanted to share the tradition with Susie and have her select an ornament.
"Oh! I remember years ago when your parents invited us over for a Christmas party!" Noelle said excitedly. "My dad brought over an ornament to add to the tree! He was very proud of it, even though it made my mom furious when she finally saw what he got you all. Do you still have it?"
Kris couldn't help but laugh. Yes, they still had the ridiculous ornament, though Toriel did her best to hide it in the tree. It was a figurine of a reindeer driving the sleigh with Santa hooked up the reins as the beast of burden. There was an almost sexual element to it. It had made Asriel a little uncomfortable. Kris couldn't stop staring at it.
"You both have screwed up families!" Susie laughed. "Nah, I don't have any Christmas traditions like that!"
The way she said that, almost wistfully, embarrassed, Kris marked that for a later conversation. She was hiding something. It was going to be fun to find out what Susie was hiding and perhaps incorporate it into the Dreemurr traditions. Anything to make her feel more comfortable when she was with the rest of the family.
"Well, you can be a part of it now," Noelle encouraged, gesturing around the stall. "We made a bunch of these ourselves. Others were sent in by cousins and some of mom's associates from her early days. She might not care too much for collecting these bulbs and figurines, but the rest of us Holidays can't get enough of them! Oh, uh, and of course, we love sharing them at a decent price!"
She dropped her voice and glanced around. "Of course, I'll give you both a discount. It's not like anyone ever runs against my mom, anyway…"
"A discount!? Sweet!"
"Shhh! Please, Susie, not so loud!"
"Oh, sorry!" Susie said, chagrined.
Kris and Susie proceeded to check out Noelle's wares. Racks decorated with garlands and pine boughs reached around in an open hug, inviting passersby to look around. Figurines and bulbs of all kinds hung delicately from hooks jutting off the racks. Susie was overwhelmed by the variety and festive colors. This was almost too much Christmas.
There were ornaments shaped like trains, drum sets, miniatures pine trees, candy canes (which made her feel hungry), turtledoves, chocolate bars, teddy bears, owlbears, variations of Snowy, and other things. There were bulbs that acted like snow globes, others were stuffed full of glittering, furry material, others were delicately painted with Santa or the Angel. There were also far more elaborate decorations, like figurines of the Angel. There were miniature churches alongside complete nativity sets that could be hung in the tree, with some monster shepherds who looked suspiciously like Susie, and even one large ornament that was a barn that could be opened to reveal pop-out paper animals. Plenty of painted and glittered pinecones filled out the rest of the space.
Seriously, there were too many options!
Kris didn't push Susie, but instead waited to see how she would react to the different baubles and decorations. They wanted her to feel her own connection to the ornament she chose. Hopefully it would be within Kris' meager price range. Thank goodness for Noelle's generosity.
"Aha! This is the one," Susie said, grinning happily and pointing to one of the bulkier tree ornaments.
Her claw quivered at a large birdhouse decorated with its own small garlands, moss, and fake snow. It had a homely, weathered look to it. And nestled in the door were two birds wearing scarves. One bird was blue and the other was colored a strong mauve. Kris beamed at it. Yes, that was a perfect choice.
Noelle's eyes danced when she saw which ornament Susie was looking at. Of course she would choose that one. It stung a little, but she couldn't resist the excited look on Susie's snout.
"Nice choice! It's your own traditional tree decoration!" Noelle congratulated.
Kris happily coughed up the dough to purchase the birdhouse. Susie carefully took it off the hook, tense as if she expected to accidentally crush it in her hands. Noelle gently took it from her and packed the ornament into a box with plenty of stuffing.
"There you go! I still won't play fetch with it or anything like that, but it should be safe," Noelle said. "Are you two going to check out anything else?"
"We'll probably go back to Kris' place soon. Their mother wants help getting things ready for tomorrow when Asriel gets back into town," Susie explained.
Still, the three friends spent a little time chatting and joking. Noelle looked a little lonely. They stayed until more customers swept in looking for last-minute decorations and gifts. Kris and Susie departed to let Noelle handle the stand. They made their way once more around the Angel Market, taking in the sights.
Snow began falling from the grey clouds above. It was so cold that it didn't take long for the snowflakes to stick. The first layer was quickly trampled to slush under the feet of shuffling shoppers and playing children. But with more snow coming down in peaceful blankets, all that slush would soon be covered up and become a dangerous slipping trap.
"Think there'll be enough to make a snowman?" Susie asked Kris.
They certainly hoped so. Fresh snow just before Christmas was a wintery dream!
Finishing off their hot chocolate, they made their way back up the road and towards the Dreemurr house. Susie wished they had more time to goof off and run around. Sure, Hometown was small and by now they had seen everything there was to see. But when she was together with Kris, even the mundane was an adventure. That was part of the secret to their relationship, to their strong friendship. Neither got bored with the other.
The clouds above became packed, turning the sky above into a sheet of grey curiously lit with a purple glow. It was as if a reflection of the town's light was trying to come back from the foggy mirror but had been trapped. Winter's weather made plenty of people depressed and miserable. While those feelings sometimes tugged at Susie, she was enthralled by the continuously falling snow and eagerly opened her jaws to catch a mouthful of snowflakes.
"I really wish these tasted more like sugar."
Kris opened their mouth and caught a few flakes on their tongue. "At least it's not dandruff."
"What? YUCK! Dude, now I won't be able to get that out of my head!" Susie said, shoving Kris a little. It was almost too much, and Kris nearly took a spill into the fresh snow. Susie barely caught them, crying out, "Woah there!"
They laughed and continued on their way. Kris complimented Susie on her choice of tree decoration.
"Thanks! I think this will look really good on your tree! At least… I hope it will."
Kris assured her that it would, adding, "I'm surprised you didn't go for mistletoe."
"Huh? Why's that?"
"For courage." Kris pointed to their lips and puckered a kiss before laughing.
Susie nearly shoved them again. "Har, har… Look here, nerd! I'll kiss ya whenever I feel good and ready for it, got that? I don't need any damn parasite plant to make that happen."
Kris supposed they didn't. Susie always did what she wanted. Still, it felt fun to rib her. And deep down, they felt a little anxious about sharing this Christmas with Susie. It had not been long since their friendship got kicked off back in the Dark World. They had become fast friends, and it wasn't long after saving the world that they had gotten together. Neither of them really understood what that meant. Sure, they held hands, smooched every now and then, and shared more about themselves. But that just felt like being friends, only with a +1 to intimacy.
What was love? Kris could flirt, Susie still had trouble with it, but what else was there to romance? They could think of several other things, which got their insides squirming like freshly dug-up worms, but that felt like a step too far. Neither of them was entirely ready for the big stuff just yet. Perhaps it was the atmosphere. Or perhaps it was all the friends and family constantly around them. Or maybe it was their own fears that they'd screw up a relationship that meant so much to both of them.
It was with those kinds of thoughts cascading through Kris' mind that the two friends approached the Dreemuur house. The lights were all on, and Christmas music was drifting through the windows and out on to the cold wind. Toriel could be seen busily working inside, juggling baking, cleaning, and decorating. Wondrous aromas reached their noses before they reached the front door.
"Ready to join the insanity?" Kris asked.
"So long as your mother doesn't just play Mariah Carey. That human holiday music seriously grates on my nerves!"