Hometown, a place of peace. A town where the inhabitants were overall friendly and without worries, a town one would be happy to grow up in. It was quiet and not too big, and yet featured everything one needed: dinners, a school, a library…something for everyone was present. The sun began to creep onto the sky, banishing the darkness and making all the structures throw long shadows. The sunrays also shone through a window of one particular house in the outskirts of the town, not a house one would pay attention to.

In that house lived a dragon, formerly known as an outcast in school. She was sleeping as peacefully as the town itself was, snoring away as the sunrays missed her bed by a small margin. Her sleep was not to last for long however, because the alarm clock that sat on the floor next to her bed was happy to do what the increase in light failed to do. Doing what it was designed to do, it produced a disturbing noise that could be heard well through the house, loud and ringing without mercy.

Susie entered a state of being half-awake, and slowly raised her hand to feel around on the floor next to her bed, until she found the alarm clock that was desperately trying to motivate her out of her bed. Susie put all of her expertise to use as she silenced the clock for another day, feeling a satisfactory wave of success flowing through her mind as she dealt a decisive strike against the noise that had interrupted her sleep, and she got comfortable in her bed again. That was until a second alarm went off in the corner of her room, too far away for her to disable from her bed.

Susie tried to ignore it at first, before she was eventually fed up with the sound and sat up in her bed, a simple metal frame with a mattress put onto it and sheets that matched the colour of her jacket. She slowly put one foot after the other out of her bed and onto the ground, standing up and stretching herself, letting out an extended and loud yawn before walking over to the alarm clock and lazily shutting it off with her foot. She was just about to walk back to her bed when her phone’s alarm could be heard from the kitchen.

“Ah fricking hell, every darn day…” she grumbled in tired discomfort and annoyance as she finally opened the door to her room and walked out of it towards the kitchen, the outlines of the place of food and eating becoming visible to her..

Susie wasn’t really awake, but she didn’t have to be anyway, thanks to the morning having become a routine. With half open eyes, not paying her surroundings much attention, she crept towards the kitchen, entering it to see the all too familiar simple room equipped with a small table and three chairs around it, a stove and a fridge plus a microwave, and two cupboards. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to live…and the most her family could afford anyway.

Her phone was lying on the table, loudly demanding Susie to turn off the alarm and go on about her day. Being somewhat awake, she lazily tried to silence the noise, tiredly missing the button two times before she finally shut the alarm off. She afterwards shambled over to the cupboards and took a bowl and a box of cereals out, and also grabbed a spoon from a tray. Up next was the fridge, which she opened and took a bottle of milk out of.

Susie was still tired, but the expectation of some breakfast made her more awake than her alarms could ever hope to achieve. Emptying the box of cereals into the bowl and filling it up with milk was a satisfying experience, enough to reflexively cause her tail to wag a bit in anticipation as she hungrily looked forward to consuming the meal that stood before her. Having filled the milk into the bowl, she placed the bottle back into the fridge and closed it again, walking over to the table with the bowl and spoon in hand afterwards.

She sat down and began taking in a few spoonsful of cereal and milk, checking her phone while she was at it. It was one of the most expensive things her family had ever bought, and Susie had tried to be somewhat careful with the phone, but her temper had caused the phone to land on the ground or fly against a wall at high velocity a few times. Despite this, a few cracks in the screen were all the damage it had taken, which she eventually got used to seeing and operating through.

An unpleasant thought crossed her mind when she saw the app for chatting with others, and she found herself opening it and tapping onto the pinned chat with Kris. Looking through her chat history with Kris made her feel uneasy, and she would have liked to try and talk to him again about what was on his mind…though that was hard to do when the human was still sleeping, only to be awoken by his mother a few minutes before school started.

“You: Hey dude, sup?”

“Kris: Not much.”

“You: Eh, same here. Say, we gonna get some burgers before we work on the project after school?”

“Kris: Not feeling up to it. I’m not hungry, really.”

“You: Damn dude, cmon, dont leave me hanging here. Well, guess its burgers for just me then, but dont complain that youre hungry later, haha.”

“Kris: Guess it’s my fault, then.”

“You: Yo, something the matter? Ive gotten more of a response out of some walls ive talked to than i do with you, and you not being hungry? I feel like something is wrong on your end.”

“Kris: No, everything alright.”

“You: Thats what you said yesterday as well, and you clearly werent. Talk to me, i know that something is up.”

The chat between them of last day when she was walking to school; after her last message came no reply or anything, just silence. Kris had gone offline after a few minutes, and he had called in sick later, thus was Susie left with working on the project on her own for that day, though she would have preferred to have him with her, as the project was about the differences in human and monster’s anatomy and biology, as well as some history.

Looking at the time, she realised that school was to start within a few minutes. She hoped that Kris was alright and to come today, as the project was due on Monday, with this day being a Friday. Yesterday she had even approached Toriel, her friend’s mother, and asked her to deliver a note to him that she had scrambled together frantically before leaving school that day.

“Come on you freak, I know that something is up. Please come tomorrow, we really need to finish this project or else we’ll get booted. And I’ll try and help you while we’re at it…that’s what we are friends for, right?”

She hadn’t known what else to write, so she had folded and handed it to Toriel, and now she hoped that Kris had read it and was sensible enough to move his sorry behind to school. She had to resort to that letter after she had snuck to the bathroom during class and tried to call Kris, only for him not to pick up and letting it go to voicemail, which lead Susie to the assumption that he had his phone silenced or was asleep. Thinking back, it was the first time Susie had written a letter to anyone; no surprise that she struggled with finding the words she wanted to express to her friend in retrospect.

She grabbed the bowl and emptied the rest of the milk and cereals into her throat, quickly getting up and putting the bowl next to the sink before heading into the bathroom to go through the rest of her morning routine, which included brushing her hair and brushing her teeth. She decided to brush her teeth first, taking her special toothbrush from the sink. The toothbrush itself wasn’t actually special; it simply consisted of two wide toothbrushes taped together due to her teeth being so big.

Susie squeezed some toothpaste onto the dual-brush and quickly went about brushing her teeth, still trying to be somewhat thorough despite having little time left before she had to leave home. Thanks to the two brushes were the entirety of her teeth covered; a normal brush alone would have required brushing each individual tooth for several seconds until the entire surface was cleaned.

The dragoness spat the remains of the toothpaste and saliva in her mouth into the sink, washing the spit away afterwards. She put the toothpaste and toothbrush away before grabbing the hairbrush, looking into the mirror and at the complete mess that was her mane thanks to her bed. She had fought worse battles before, and so she readied her brush to attack the hair that was out of control.

A look at her reflection gave her a good idea on what her strategy to defeat the monstrosity on her head would be, and so she struck her hair with a determined, swift strike. The hair partially bent to her will where she touched it with the brush, but some of it proved to be resilient as it stood back up. Susie didn’t lose hope, and instead brushed the section with a devastatingly strong stroke, struggling to overpower her hair as the brush got stuck in some parts of it, though her remaining free claw freed it again, forcing the hair to surrender.

The battle against her resilient hair went on for a few more minutes, each stroke of the brush forcing some of it to surrender and causing some other hair to change formations to try and withstand Susie’s powerful strikes. Susie’s brilliance with the brush proved to be too powerful for her hair in the end, and as she dealt the last strike could she look into the mirror with a satisfied grin.

With her hair fixed and her teeth in good condition, Susie stepped out of the bathroom and entered her room to dress herself accordingly. She entered her room once more, which was as simple as it could get. Flat, brown colouring of the walls and ceiling, her bed in a corner of her room next to a window. On the opposite wall to her bed stood a wardrobe, a single tall construct with two doors. Opening it revealed Susie’s different shirts on a pile, colours being black, white and blue, and grey; and on the bottom a single pink one back from the time when she didn’t feel like a lonely outcast.

She saw the distinct colour between the other shirts, and reminded herself to show her former self to Kris at some point, a self that hadn’t been worried and didn’t feel alone. On the other end of the wardrobe were her jeans, piled up like her shirts. They were all of the same colour, and Susie usually just picked a random one when going outside. She grabbed a pair of jeans and a white shirt, dressing herself before looking at the coat hanger where her jacket rested on. She took the jacket off the hanger and closed her wardrobe, putting her signature clothing on before attending to leave her room.

She briefly looked at the different things on the ground in a corner next to her door. Weights, boxing gloves...a baseball bat from a time long ago and a tennis racket as well. She used to do outdoor sports, but she had eventually resorted to weightlifting and boxing the wall, which resulted into her growing to be a strong girl with fighting capabilities. She took her gaze away from the objects again and left her room, from where she went to the kitchen once more.

There, she put her phone into her pocket and went to the door, grabbing her keys that hung next to the door on a nail in the wall. She opened the door and stepped outside, the cool breeze of autumn hitting her as leaves filled the air, dancing in front and around her. While it would have been enjoyable, she had other things on her mind, and as such slammed she the door to her house shut a bit harder than usual, making a few birds nearby fly away in shock before she turned around and locked the door, putting the keys away into her pocket before she made her way towards school.

“Shit, I hope you turn up, Kris, else we’re in trouble with the project…and you even more. I swear, I’ll come to your house and shake answers out of you if you don’t come today,” were her thoughts as she walked through Hometown, kicking an empty can a few times in front of her before she lost interest.

She was hoping to resolve the issue Kris seemed to have…was she even suited to do that though? Heck, she would be damned if she didn’t try her best anyway, though the chances of her success didn’t look too high in her opinion. She sighed in frustration as she turned the corner and saw the school at the end of the road. Toriel’s van wasn’t there yet, and when she checked her phone had she a reason to hope: it was shortly before time for class, and the goat teacher usually arrives early, unless Kris sleeps in late and needs a lift to school.

Not intending to be late and be written up for it once more, she entered the building and crept towards her classroom to the left. The door was closed, but according to her phone she still had some time left, though not much. She was still in her thoughts and not particularly happy, but just before her foot met the door to open it did she remember how that would throw negative light on her, and how it was rude to be like that in the first place. Her own home was one place, the school was a public educational institution however, and as such was she required to follow some common rules even in times of her feeling anything but happy. Having reconsidered her actions, she instead reached out with her hand and twisted the knob of the door, a clicking sound prompting her to push the door open and enter her classroom.

As she entered was she met by several gazes of curiosity, most of which quickly looked away again to engage in chit-chat. She saw Noelle talking to Monster Kid, while Temmie talked to EG; the remaining ones went back to their own business, with the exception of two people in the room. The first one was Alphys, her teacher, who looked at her with a nervous smile. And the second one was the winged nerd who she couldn’t stand, even now when she wasn’t perceiving the world as all bad around her. When her glare met Berdly’s glance seemed the bird to have a moment of intelligence and looked away as well.

“Su-Susie, how nice of you to turn up,” Alphys greeted her in the familiar nervous manner.

Susie pondered how she became a teacher like that in the first place, but she explained the material well enough for others not to fail, so she took that as the reason.

“Am I late?” Susie asked, just as the bell rang. “Guess not,” she answered her own question before she walked over to her desk and sat down.

Just as Alphys signalled every student to redirect their attention to the front did another figure show up in the door, the sole human of Hometown had arrived in class at last. Everyone in class seemed to look at him, but Susie didn’t care, she was happy to see him turn up again, but when she felt like something was off she studied his posture and appearance closely. His hair was even more of a mess than it usually was; his expression, or what was visible of it, signalled a heavy case of “I don’t give a damn about anything”. If Susie hadn’t been concerned about her friend already, then now she definitely was; hoping to be able to do something about how her friend seemed to feel like, she tried to calm herself in order to speak to Kris.

“Ah, Kris, there you are! W-we’re glad that you feel better; please, take your seat,” Alphys innocently greeted him and closed the door behind him.

Kris didn’t even look at the teacher as he walked to his desk in front of Susie, in fact was his look directed at nobody, and he seemed to evade Susie’s gaze in particular as he turned his head away from her. His body dropped into the chair behind his desk, and it was followed by him resting his chin onto his arms which he put on the table. Susie would have walked up to him immediately, but she didn’t want the attention of the entire class on her and him now.

“Alright class, you know h-how things are: you must hand in your projects on Monday, so work on them now and f-feel free to ask me questions if y-you still have any,” Alphys announced before sitting down at her desk and looking at her computer.

Susie knew that the teacher wouldn’t pay much attention to class, given how she had gotten a look at her browsing history once. She knew that Alphys was a nerd, but she hadn’t known that she was a total anime-nerd of the highest degree until that moment. The others in class went to their partners and began talking to them, some more and some less focused on working on the project. Kris showed no intention of doing anything on his own, so Susie decided to speed up the process and get to the point quickly.

She stood up and reached over her desk, grabbing Kris’ chair with one hand and his shirt with the other, pulling his body backwards to force him to sit up straight and pulling his chair backwards as well to force him to sit in front of her, before she swiftly turned the chair with the human on it around so that he was suddenly facing Susie’s desk. A few classmates looked at them in curiosity now, but Susie just flashed a fake, playful grin to indicate that they were just having fun, and the number of eyes on them quickly returned to zero.

She let go of both Kris and the chair again and sat down on her own chair again, but as she tried to look Kris into his face did he turn his head away again, and began to let his body go limp as he slid down in his chair. Susie quickly grabbed him underneath his shoulders and sat him up straight again, and was then careful not to raise her voice too much.

“Okay dude, what’s the matter with you? Do you have any idea how I am feeling right now? Or do I have to spell it out to you?” she asked him in a mix of a concerned and frustrated voice. “Now you keep sitting straight, and give me some answers man. I am worried sick over here.”

“…” silence as a reply, but at least he kept sitting straight.

“Come on, talk to me. We’re friends after all, right?” she asked as she tried to look into his face again, and this time didn’t he take his gaze away from her.

Susie instead saw something moving down his cheek, a drop of water making its way down to his chin before dropping onto the desk. He slightly nodded with his head. Was this how it was going to be, had she to ask him for as long until she got something out of him that she could even begin to work with? And why did he cry? Susie couldn’t make any sense out of what the mess in front of her was, but she was determined to resolve this issue with the power of friendship.

“If you don’t want to talk, at least help me understand what’s bothering you dude…did someone treat you wrong and needs to have a serious word with me?” was her first suspicion, but she doubted it when she thought about it…nobody bothered with Kris, and people knew that Susie wouldn’t wait for long before standing up to an attacker of her friend. As she expected, Kris shook his head, almost unnotably.

“Fine, at least…did something happen in your family?” she wanted to know next, again did he shake his head.

Susie began to run out of ideas, because the two most logical things didn’t apply to Kris’ situation, apparently. What else could be putting him into such a downed mood? Susie didn’t know, and she looked at Kris with a desperate expression.

“Just tell me already, I don’t know what else could be putting you down,” she begged him, but Kris was silent enough that a needle dropped on the other end of the building would have been more audible.

“Let’s work on the project.”

Susie looked up as he spoke his first words to her today. His voice carried sadness in it, defeat, grief. Susie felt utterly frustrated at her inability to help him, if only she knew something that could help to break through Kris’ determined skull.

“Dude, I’d rather help you first, you clearly are in need of some comfort. Come on, please tell me…” she responded, and by now she was desperate as she just didn’t know what else could be done about his situation.

“The project.”

He said it with absolution, through gritted teeth. Susie wanted to give up at this point, but she knew that she had to try anyway. Wasn’t it her duty as his friend? She hadn’t had friends before her adventure with Kris, and now one of her only friends didn’t want to talk to her about his issues…it left a stinging pain inside of her, but she was determined to get to the ground of this and help the human in front of her no matter what it took.

“Fine, project it is. Afterwards, I will have a talk with you though, and you ain’t getting around that, that’s a promise,” she replied with one last frustrated sigh.

Kris didn’t reply, and instead they gathered their material and continued with combining their collected notes and facts into what would eventually be their final result to hand in. They had used the apparent differences between the two of them on superficial and obvious levels at first, with Susie jokingly adding “Kris is a wimp while I am not” when they had begun working on the project some days ago. They’d scratch that part for their final product again of course, but for now it was a funny joke…to her at least it still was funny, Kris didn’t really seem to have fun in his current situation.

Eventually had the two of them to resort to books from both the school and the library in town, which was much to their dismay as it meant having to interact with Berdly more than either of them really wanted to. In the end the both of them had gathered a whole lot of notes and information, combined with some knowledge of Kris’ mother as well as she was able to cast fire magic if she chose to do so.

Susie didn’t try to bring the topic up again, and she knew that the two of them needed to keep at things to be able to hand in the research paper. The two of them didn’t speak, only pointing to various notes and parts in some instances so they knew in which order they would want to write things down. Susie still tried to think of something that could have been a cause for Kris’ state, but aside from his family and someone treating Kris badly came no possible reason for her friend’s mood to her mind.

The paper came along at a quicker pace than Susie had anticipated, and hadn’t it been for Kris’ condition would she have been sad as they erased the joke about Kris being a wimp. Kris had done his parts and Susie was scrambling the last paragraph onto the paper, and she felt a hint of pride and satisfaction when she added the last bit of punctuation. The paper was finished, all that was left was for the two of them thoroughly revise it on the weekend, type it into Kris’ computer so that they’d have a backup if anything happened to the paper, and of course signing the paper once they had verified that this was the final version.

“Whoa, we really managed to do it. Good job, team,” Susie said with a slightly enthusiastic tone, but it quickly wore off as Kris showed no reaction.

“Okay, come on now. We have this stupid project done and you still are no bit happier? There’s something big bothering you, and I want to help you, so please let me know what’s putting you down,” she asked of him, but Kris didn’t talk to her. He didn’t look away from her either though, it seemed as if he was frozen in place.

Susie was at a loss, she had no idea how she could help him. If only she knew of someone who could help her or him, but she didn’t have any friends in school. That was when an idea popped up in her mind, one that made her snap her fingers in excitement and even cause her to flash a grin. She didn’t have friends in school or in town that could help, but she had another friend who could talk to people better than she would ever be able to...or at least for the near future, she was still trying her best to learn off both Kris and him.

“Alright dude, if you aren’t talking to me, then I know what will get you to talk. Just you come along, okay? I want to help you,” she said to him, and Kris looked at her in what seemed to be confusion.

“Thanks, but I’d rather -“ he began, but Susie got off her chair and went up to Alphys.

“Ms. Alphys?”

“Oh, S-Susie? How can I help you?” the teacher reacted as she clicked a few things on her computer.

“Uh, well, Kris and I are done with the project, we’d only have to type it into his computer at home. Can we leave early?” Susie asked her as she looked at Kris, who looked at her with a mixture of a curious and depressed expression.

“Oh, I see. W-well, I shouldn’t be allowed to let you leave, b-but if you keep quiet, I can say that you went home because you didn’t feel well. N-no use if you just sit here and are bored I guess,” Alphys answered with a nervous smile, and Susie grinned as she was now able to realize her plan.

“Great, thanks,” she said to the significantly smaller monster before walking back to Kris.

“She said that we can go. Come, dude, and don’t forget the project,” Susie said, and Kris slowly got up and took the paper sheets into his hands before he followed the dragoness out of the classroom.

“What do you plan to do now?” she heard next to her after Kris closed the door behind him.

“First bring the papers to your locker, then I’ll tell ya what we’re gonna do,” Susie said with a grin at her idea.

The two of them walked through the hallway over to Kris’ locker, which the human opened and put their documents into. It was empty otherwise as Susie noticed, just like his room; she hoped to get him to fill his possessions with some things in the near future to make the areas around him more enjoyable. Kris closed the locker again, and looked at Susie in a somewhat curious manner.

“Alright, we’ll leave school for some time and go somewhere to help you out of this situation,” Susie proudly announced, and Kris sighed a bit, but he didn’t object either.

The two of them walked back towards the entrance, and Kris was about to turn towards the doors when Susie grabbed his shoulder and spun him around, making him face the hallway leading to the purple doors that marked the entrance to the Dark World.

“Nah, we aren’t leaving school through here, we’ll go through those doors,” Susie announced, hoping that Ralsei was going to be able to reason with Kris better than she did.

“N-no, please...” Kris stammered, it sounded like he was trying his best not to cry at her reveal.

“Why not? Come on, I’m sure Ralsei can help you, he is better than me with these things. Plus we haven’t seen him in a long time, and I bet Lancer would be happy if we paid him a visit as well, eh?” Susie asked, but Kris seemed to be in the want of fleeing as he began to head for the exit instead.

“What’s wrong, Kris? You are seriously confusing me, what is the matter with you? I’m just trying to help you,” Susie brought out as she managed to grab Kris’ arm, and as he tried to pull himself out of her grip pulled Susie him closer instead.

The next thing Susie knew was that she was hugging Kris in the hallway, she didn’t know how else to try and calm him down in this situation. It seemed to have an effect on him though, as he stopped making attempts to free himself and instead began to sob as Susie held him in her arms. She lightly patted his back as they stood there, not saying a word, and after a bit felt Susie how he wrapped his arms around her, or as much as he was able to, sobbing against her chest.

“Come on, dude...we are trying to help you, so please let me and Ralsei try to cheer you up again,” she begged him, and when she didn’t receive an answer from Kris, she began to walk towards the purple doors, keeping an arm around Kris to have him follow her.

“Shit...alright Ralsei, I really hope that you can help me out here, because I don’t know what’s wrong with Kris,” she thought as she pushed the doors open, gently shoving Kris inside the entrance to the dark world before stepping inside herself, closing the door behind her as she and Kris awaited the journey to the Dark World, and hopefully the person who was able to help Kris as well.

Susie waited next to Kris, gently placing one of her hands onto his shoulder as they waited for the ground to give in. She was deep in her thoughts, and so started the ground to give in behind them without the dragoness noticing it. When the ground gave in underneath her was she placed back into reality, and she held onto Kris with both of her arms in shock as they began to fall down towards the Dark World. Susie slowly began to regain her composure as the ground slowly became visible to her, and she held Kris tightly in her arms as she braced herself for the impact.

Susie returned to being conscious, still feeling some pain from the landing flowing through her body. As she opened her eyes became Kris’ shape visible to her, who was still caught in her arms. He was awake, made evident by him looking her into the eyes, so it was likely that she had taken most of the fall and Kris didn’t suffer much more than a rough shaking.

“Oh...hey dude, how are you?” Susie asked with a painful grin as she let go of Kris so that he was able to get off her.

“Okay. You?” he asked back, a mix of sadness and concern in his voice.

Kris slowly got off his friend and offered her a hand, and Susie couldn’t hold a bit of chuckling back at the thought of him trying to lift her off the ground. She took his hand with one of her own and helped Kris as he tried to pull her off the ground by pushing herself off the ground with her free hand. She used her legs to finalize the process of standing up, and she dusted her clothes off before facing Kris again.

“I’m just a bit shaken up, nothing wild. Thank you, noble hero,” Susie replied and playfully nudged Kris’ shoulder, who as a reaction gained a bit of colour in his face.

“Heh, gotcha. Come now, let’s go and meet Ralsei,” Susie said with a grin as she set into motion, looking over to make sure that Kris was following her.

Susie didn’t exactly know what the two of them could talk about, and she doubted that Kris was much to talk at the moment anyway, so she instead walked in silence, as did her friend. She didn’t know how to feel as they approached the steep cliff that would take them down to Castle Town...worried about Kris? Hopeful for Ralsei’s ways of helping and his insight? Pitiful for being unable to help her friend? It ended up being a mixture of all of those, and it didn’t exactly make her feel better...it simply produced more chaos inside of her head.

“This whole thing is messing with my head...c’mon Kris, we gotta see this through bud,” she thought as she stopped at the top of the cliff that they had slid down to escape Lancer on their first time in the Dark World.

“Alrighty dude, let’s get going,” Susie said as she tried to spice things up a bit for both of them to try and lift the mood.

She knew that it probably wouldn’t do much, but she would still try to make Kris slightly more cheerful with her actions than not try at all. She stepped behind him and acted faster than he could object, and so was Susie carrying him bridal style before jumping onto the large slide downwards. Occasionally steering to the left and right to stay on track, she safely brought the two of them down to the ground as she gracefully bent her knees while landing, standing up straight afterwards and letting Kris descend to the ground again.

“Heh, that part always is fun, eh?” Susie said with a grin, but Kris didn’t show any reaction again, causing Susie to sigh.

“Well, let’s go on, then...” she said as she put an arm onto Kris shoulder and slightly nudged him forward, the human walking next to her as they made their way to Castle Town.

“Oh man, how am I even going to explain to Ralsei what the situation is...maybe not in front of Kris, that wouldn’t be nice...” she thought as they approached the castle in the abandoned town, and as they stood in front of the entrance raised Susie her arm to make it known to the inhabitant that he had visitors.

There hadn’t been change to the castle that loomed above the town; it still was as cold as it was during the first adventure of both Kris and Susie down in the dark. And while the castle was still cold and unchanged, the resident of it certainly wasn’t either of those. He had become a lot more cheerful thanks to having found friends, he wasn’t forever alone anymore...the castle he lived in was big and relatively empty when considering that only he lived in it, but the warmth that radiated from his body and soul spread through the rooms he inhabited. Those rooms were: the room he used to sleep in, the kitchen, and also the library, where he was residing while his friends approached the castle, just that he wasn’t awake at the moment, though that was due to change.

Ralsei awoke from his peaceful slumber in his armchair in a sudden fashion, the reason for him waking up being a repeated, echoing noise. He was not sure what that sound was, as he was still in the process of waking up. Slowly but surely began his mind to work; and it identified the sounds as strong knocks on the front door to his castle. Being somewhat awake, he quickly stood up and wanted to walk out of his library, where he had fallen asleep while reading a book; said book also fell off his legs as he stood up, and landed on the floor.

Ralsei quickly picked it up again and placed the book on his armchair again, a soft and comfy green piece of furniture that was part of his library, which itself was a huge, round room. The room was filled with bookshelves at the wall, reaching up to the ceiling which hung at the height of two K. Rounds stacked atop each other. To access all the books did Ralsei have a ladder in this room, though climbing it up to the top was something he still didn’t feel quite comfortable with.

As the knocking on the front door repeated itself again, he made haste to leave the room he was in, forgetting to take his hat with him which rested on a cloth hanger near the door, his boots echoing through the halls of his castle as he quickly ran towards the front door. It was in front of him soon enough, and his breathing had gotten a bit heavier due to the speed at which he had hurried through the halls. He opened the door a bit in order to look outside, just in time to see a purple dragon raising her arm in order to deliver another series of strong knocks.

He quickly opened the door, feeling joyful at seeing Susie again after what had been a few days of being alone. Kris had told him something about school keeping them busy, but he was more than looking forward to spending time with his friends again. Only that something in his heart hurt when he saw the expression on the face of the human next to Susie. Kris...looked dead inside, if he was polite in describing it. There seemed to be little to no joy inside of his friend, and upon closer inspection looked Susie’s grin more like she was faking it.

“Kris, Susie...how nice to see you again. Is, uhm...is every-“ he began, trying to sound optimistic, but Susie fell into his words.

The grin that Ralsei had suspected to not be genuine wavered, before returning again as the purple dragoness began to speak.

“Hey Rals, nice to see you, too. All good here...can we come in?” she said, and in her voice could Ralsei clearly hear how she seemed to be suffering because of something

“Uhh...sure, right this way,” he answered, stepping out of the way and gesturing his friends to step inside.

Kris only briefly looked at him as he passed the prince, no emotion visible in the red glow that were his friend’s irises.

“Ralsei, I need to talk to you. Right now,” Susie whispered as she stepped inside as well.

The prince in question closed the door behind her, and he already had a bad feeling about the topic of conversation.

“Go ahead into the library, Kris! I’m sure Susie will help me get you two some things to eat and drink!” Ralsei shouted after Kris, who briefly turned his head around before he continued to walk towards the library.

“Good cover-up, buddy. The last few days have been hell, and that’s me saying that,” the dragon sighed as she lowered her voice again, clearly not happy at all. Ralsei gave her a hug before he looked into her eyes.

A look of surprise was visible in them, as well as one of sadness; both of those were accompanied by a small blush on her cheeks, and Ralsei could have sworn that her eyes were getting a bit watery, but he wasn’t too sure about it as Susie quickly blinked with her eyes, and what he had thought to have seen was gone afterwards.

What wasn’t an illusion was the fact that Susie wrapped her arms around his body and pressed him against her to return the hug, even going as far as lifting him off the ground due to her strength as she hugged him tightly, though Ralsei still found himself able to breathe without much trouble.

“Susie, what happened? What makes the two of you so...unhappy?” Ralsei asked in great worry, hoping that he was able to do something about the states of mind of his friends.

The dragoness slowly let him descend again until his feet touched the ground once more, taking her arms around from him afterwards. Ralsei let her go again as well, still taken aback a bit because of her hugging him back like that.

“What makes me unhappy is that Kris has been unhappy for a few days. And by unhappy I mean that it seems like he has died inside for some reason. What that reason is...I dunno man, he doesn’t talk to me much,” Susie explained to him, sighing in what seemed to be frustration.

“Oh no...I need to talk to him and see if I can help,” Ralsei said as he wanted to rush off and help his friend as quickly as possible, but a strong hand on his shoulder held him in place. He looked back, and Susie just shook her head in a slow motion

“Won’t help, dude. I tried it myself, he won’t budge. I think he needs a slower approach,” Susie told him. The fluffy prince thought about her words, and he knew that she had a point...just rushing in wouldn’t help anyone.

“What do you propose, then?” he asked her, hoping that she knew a way out of this situation.

His question made her chuckle a tiny bit, before she wore a serious expression again. “Why are you asking me that, Ralsei? I don’t know how to deal with someone like this, you can do that better than me. So, what would you do?” the purple dragon asked back, and Ralsei began to think about things.

“Well, uhm...perhaps we should just go about things like normal. You know, just spend time together, maybe he’ll become happier. And if not, then maybe we can talk to him and try to find something out. Maybe he would also prefer to talk to just me, I don’t know...we must try. Him being here is a good sign though, if he is willing to come down here...” he shared his thoughts, but Susie sighed in frustration.

“Yeah, about that...I basically had to drag him here. I’m glad that we finally have time thanks to that school project being done, but Kris wasn’t very excited about that either, so I ended up dragging him along so that we could try and find something, because...I just don’t know anymore, dude,” Susie went on, lowering her head as the sadness in her voice came through. Ralsei had an idea as to why she was sad.

Ralsei was impressed with what Susie seemed to have gone through already before resorting to asking him for help. And he also felt proud that she had tried a lot of things and even was considerate about things, going as far as slowing him down when he had a moment of not thinking about things. She had evolved, and the dark prince felt proud to have shaped her into a better person together with the others.

“You would like to be able to help him; I get that...come, maybe we can make him feel a bit better,” Ralsei said as he reassuringly rubbed Susie’s back with one of his hands.

He hadn’t had a talk like this with Susie before, but Ralsei knew that both she and Kris needed him now...and he would be there and help them, make his friends happy again.

“Thanks, man...I hope Kris feels better soon, hate seeing a friend like that...” she replied after a sigh, before she began to walk deeper into the castle.

Ralsei quickly followed suit, overtaking her with small, quick steps while Susie simply made slow and long ones, due to her being much taller than the prince. He hurried into the kitchen, looking for something he could offer his guests to eat; he eventually found something in one of the cupboards in the form of a jar of biscuits that he had made not too long ago.

“You finding anything in here, Rals? I’m hungry, I’ll admit,” Susie spoke up as she appeared in the doorway, and Ralsei quickly looked at her before rummaging through the cupboards again.

“Y-yeah, I think I have something. And if I remember correctly...” he answered, searching for another specific jar.

He eventually found what he was looking for: a jar of darkalade, which was similar to what those in the Light World called marmalade as he had learned, and apparently the process of making it wasn’t too different either. The marmalade in the Light World wasn’t as sweet as the one made of different types of dark berries found in the forest, or at least that was what Kris and Susie had told him when they had tried it the first time.

“Oh, is that darkalade? Nice, I love that stuff!” the dragoness said in excitement as she licked her lips in anticipation. Ralsei couldn’t help but smile at her reaction, and he handed her the two jars that he had taken out of the cupboards.

“It is; I luckily still have that jar left, so we could eat it with those biscuits. If you would please hold these, so that I can get plates and something to drink?” he asked as he placed the jars in her hands, which Susie took with a bit of a bewildered expression, but she kept them in her hands with a sly smile nonetheless.

“Huh, I have nothing to drink here aside from water which I got out of the river, I fear that you will have to live with that,” Ralsei said in an apologetic manner as he realised that he couldn’t offer his guests anything special to drink.

“Ah well, better than nothing I suppose,” Susie replied as she shrugged, and Ralsei took three plates and cups out of another cupboard, stacking the plates onto each other and placing the cups atop of them before placing the construction onto one of his hands.

“Dude, are you sure that you can carry that to the library?” he could hear Susie ask as he did his best to balance the dishes on his hand.

“Yeah, I think I can, I have tried this a few times already, and last time nothing went to shards,” he replied as he concentrated on keeping the balance up, while also grabbing a flagon of water that stood nearby with his free hand.

Having secured everything, he slowly walked to the door, where Susie awaited him with both a concerned and an impressed look on her face.

“Not bad, Ralsei, wouldn’t have expected ya to be able to carry all that stuff. You have more strength and skill in you than I’d have thought, guess I underestimated ya a bit,” Susie said as she stepped out of Ralsei’s way, and Ralsei could hear her walk behind him with slow steps once he began walking towards the library.

“Aww, thanks, Susie...though may I suggest you to say it differently next time? I know that you mean well, but other people might feel insulted when you word it like that,” Ralsei answered with a smile, but also decided to help his friend to further develop her ways of complimenting others.

“Huh? How could I’ve said it better?” Ralsei heard her ask behind him, a mixture of curiosity and a bit of disappointment swinging in her voice...was she sad because she tried and didn’t get it right? He didn’t dare to look back as he had to keep his eyes on the construction he was trying to balance on his hand, but he was still going to share his opinion with her to help her go through these situations better and easier in the future.

“Well, if you say that you are impressed because you underestimated someone like this, they might feel offended because it could imply that you thought of them like weaklings. Had you just said that you were impressed with me being able to carry all of this, it would have sounded a lot better,” Ralsei explained as they walked down the hallway, the door to the library becoming visible to them as they turned a corner.

“Oh right, that makes sense now that you say it. No offense though, yeah? I’ll try to work on it,” Susie replied, and Ralsei was glad that she picked up on his hints and advice like this.

“No worries, I just thought I’d let you know,” the dark prince happily said as they walked up to the library.

Kris had left the door to the library open, and Ralsei could spot him standing in front of the window in the middle of the room that reached up to the ceiling, just like the bookshelves. Through that window came a faint glow, just enough for someone to see in the room, and through the window could one see the river flowing around the castle, with extended, empty plains behind it...

“Kris, why don’t you take a seat?” Ralsei asked in a friendly tone as he entered the room, Susie walking in right behind him.

Their friend turned his head at Ralsei’s invitation, nodding before sitting down in a blue armchair. In the middle of the room stood a small, round table, which had three armchairs positioned in a triangular formation around it. One of them was green, one blue, and the third one matched Susie’s skin colour. Ralsei had made the effort in finding a respective armchair for each of them, and Lancer mostly sat in either Kris’ or Susie’s lap when he came by to visit.

“I’m glad that the two of you are back again, I have missed you quite a lot,” Ralsei said as he put the flagon filled with water on the table, which then allowed him to take the plates with the cups on them into both of his hands, placing them onto the table as well afterwards.

“Yeah, we missed ya as well, right Kris?” Susie replied as she put the two jars she had been holding until now on the table.

Kris didn’t answer verbally, he only nodded a tiny bit in a slow motion, which worried Ralsei. Was there anything that they could do to make him talk, even if just a bit?

“Well, it certainly is nice that we are united again. Say, Kris, what have you been up to over the past few days?” the dark prince asked as he put a plate and a cup in front of everyone’s armchair, while Susie sat down and relaxed in her designated armchair as well.

A question Kris couldn’t answer with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’, so he was bound to answer if he didn’t want to be rude to them. Ralsei hoped that he could at least get some words out of his friend this way while he opened the jar with biscuits and the one with darkalade.

“Project work. Finished now,” he heard Kris say in his blue armchair, almost inaudible.

“Ah yes, I remember you telling me that you had a project to attend. What was it about, and how did it go?” Ralsei asked as he distributed the plates and cups to his friends, setting the jars with the biscuits and darkalade into the middle of the table for all of them to reach them.

“…human and monster differences. Went well,” the human said after a bit of silence, which made Ralsei more worried while he sat down in his own armchair after putting the book that rested on it onto the table next to his plate.

“Uhm, I’m glad to hear that. Please, take as many as you want, you two,” their host replied with a nervous smile.

Kris clearly wasn’t feeling well, not at all. Would Ralsei be pressuring if he asked him about the issue though? And if Susie said that Kris wouldn’t react to her attempts, then what were the chances that his friend would if Ralsei tried it?

“Say Kris, are you feeling well? You haven’t been talking as much as you usually do,” the dark prince asked, now worried to a high degree.

“…” Kris didn’t answer, and instead fidgeted with his fingers while avoiding eye contact with either of his friends.

The jar of biscuits hadn’t been touched much yet, Susie had only occasionally taken and slowly eaten one with some darkalade, but Kris and Ralsei hadn’t touched a single biscuit yet. It seemed to Ralsei that this whole situation even managed to slow down Susie’s otherwise huge appetite and habits of devouring food in a quick manner. The fluffy prince didn’t know what was bothering Kris, but he did not intend to give up yet. Maybe Kris needed some comfort before he could talk about things?

Both Kris and Susie lifted their heads when he got off his armchair again and walked over to Kris, who was limp in his blue armchair. The goat monster leaned over the armrest before giving Kris a tight and sincere hug, which caused the human to gasp, and then to...sob? Ralsei could feel and hear how his friend began to sob, and how the Lightner suddenly wrapped his arms around Ralsei as well, hugging him so tightly that he almost had trouble with breathing.

“That’s the second time today...c’mon Kris, you gotta tell us what’s wrong,” Susie said as she got up as well and walked up to the two of them, placing one of her hands onto their crying friend’s shoulder.

Kris didn’t say anything, he only kept crying into Ralsei’s shoulder while his two friends stood around him, hugging and holding him in this time of hardship. It still left them to wonder what his struggles were though, and their fluffy host was determined to find out what Kris’ issue was.

“We are here for you, Kris, and we want to help you. We can’t help you if we don’t know what we have to help you with however,” he tried to reason with the Lightner, but he still didn’t receive an answer.

Silence followed, broken only by an occasional sob coming from Kris. Other than that remained his friends silent, sticking close to him as something weighed on his mind. Susie gently placed her arm around Kris as she knelt down next to the armchair, while Ralsei was locked into a hug with the human. Was there another way to move Kris to open up about his problem?

“Ralsei...?” the dark prince heard Kris ask weakly.

“Yes, Kris? Can I do something for you?” he asked back, happy to hear that Kris seemed to have a wish.

“Can you...feed me a biscuit? I’m hungry...” Kris requested, and the fluffy prince was happy to fulfil it, as Kris being hungry was not a bad sign.

“Of course! With darkalade or without?” Ralsei wanted to know, letting go of Kris as he felt the arms around him move away again.

“With, please...” Kris replied, his tone seemed to suggest that he was looking forward to the biscuit.

“Coming right up,” the dark prince cheerfully said as he walked to the table, taking a biscuit out of the jar and dipping it into the one with darkalade.

Ralsei walked back to the blue armchair and held the biscuit out to Kris, expecting his friend to take it out of his hand. What he didn’t expect was for Kris to sit up and take a bite out of the biscuit while Ralsei held it, leaving the dark prince perplexed. Susie seemed to be surprised as well, judging by the bewildered expression she wore.

“It’s delicious,” Kris said once he had swallowed the chunk he bit off, before leaning in on the biscuit again and taking another bite out of it.

“Uhm...not that I mind, but that is a bit sudden, Kris,” Ralsei said, unsure what to make out of this situation.

“Yeah, one second you look like the world has ended, and the next you enjoy being fed by our toothpaste boy...no offense, Ralsei,” Susie added, clearly confused due to Kris’ behaviour as well.

“None taken, Susie, don’t worry,” the goat monster reassured her with a smile, while Kris took the rest of the biscuit with his teeth and pulled it out of Ralsei’s hand, eating it afterwards.

“Can I please have some water, Ralsei?” Kris requested after he had swallowed the biscuit, sounding a bit livelier than before, and even though he was still confused at Kris’ behaviour wouldn’t the host decline his friend a request like this.

“Oh, sure, just one second,” the dark prince answered before walking to the table again, where he filled Kris’ cup with some water from the flagon.

“Hey Rals, can you fill mine as well while you’re at it? Darkalade’s made me thirsty,” he heard Susie say from her place, still kneeling next to Kris’ armchair with a hand on the human’s shoulder.

“Sure thing, I’m on it,” Ralsei happily replied as he filled her cup as well, placing the flagon on the table before handing them their cups afterwards.

“Thank you,” both of his friends said as they took the cups.

Susie emptied her cup in one go, while Kris drank his water with more modesty, patiently taking sip after sip.

“Can you refill my cup, dude...please?” Susie asked as she handed Ralsei her empty cup, who took it into his hand and placed it on the table again.

“Of course,” the fluffy boy answered as he refilled the cup and handed it to Susie once more, though this time she was a bit slower with drinking it.

“Thanks,” the dragoness said between two sips.

“You’re welcome,” Ralsei replied with a smile, before he looked over to Kris again.

“Uhm, are you feeling a bit better, Kris?” the dark prince asked his friend, who in return looked down again and continued to fidget with his fingers once he had put the cup away.

“A bit…” Kris answered, though Ralsei noticed that there was a bit of colour gathering in Kris’ face.

“Are you not feeling well physically? And are you perhaps able to talk about what is on your mind?” the fluffy goat monster went on, and it seemed as if Kris gained a bit more colour in his face at Ralsei’s words.

“Uhm…I…I’m sorry…you are my friends, you deserve to know…I just wanted to keep it secret so it wouldn’t become more complicated…” the human Lightner began to say after a bit of silence.

“C’mon dude, y’know that we are there for ya all the time, we’d understand and help ya. Glad that you’re gonna finally tell us, I was worried sick about you,” Susie spoke up and patted his shoulder, and Kris shook his head.

“I appreciate it, and I’m sorry for my behaviour, Susie…” he said, but Susie interrupted him once more.

“Ah come on, it’s okay. I never was able to tell anyone about my problems, and talking to you guys was a challenge at first as well when something bothered me. I getcha,” she reassured him before quickly wrapping her arms around him and hugging him.

“T-thank you, Susie…” Kris spoke, his voice becoming a bit quieter.

“Haha, no biggie, dude,” the dragoness replied with a grin as she let her friend out of her hug again, ruffling his blue hair a bit with a grin, causing a faint smile to appear on Kris’ face for a short moment.

“Aww…we’re glad to be here for you, Kris. Now, would you mind telling us about what was plaguing your mind?” Ralsei asked, happy to see the two of them interact like this, especially Susie.

“Uhm, yeah, about that…” their friend began, and this time Ralsei was able to see that Kris gained a lot of a pinkish colour on his cheeks.

“Y-you see…I have been sad because I feel like I can’t reach something in my life,” the human explained, with Ralsei now leaning closer in interest and also concern, as he didn’t want his friend to be sad anymore.

“You shouldn’t be sad, Kris! Just put your determination to use, you can reach any goal if you work hard for it,” Ralsei cheerfully said, but Kris shook his head.

“I would do that, but…it is difficult when you want to reach something specific, and the only person who could help me reach that is not picking up on my intentions,” his friend carried on with explaining.

“Huh? Maybe you should apply more pressure then, Kris. What do you wanna reach anyway? You’re quite vague with what you’re saying,” Susie wondered aloud, tapping her chin with one of her fingers in what seemed to be a lack of ideas.

“Yes, I agree with Susie in that you should be persistent, but I wonder what you want to reach as well,” Ralsei added, the blushing on Kris face becoming stronger.

“I-It’s not easy to talk about, yeah?” their friend replied, but then sighed before continuing on with his explanation.

“W-well, I would...well...I’d love to spend my life together with someone, you know? A special someone...” he continued on, facing away from either of them as he seemed to have trouble keeping his composure.

“Aww...do you love someone, Kris?” Ralsei asked, trying to sound happy for him, but he felt how there was a slight sting in his heart, one he hadn’t felt in a long time, leaving a bit of a sour taste when he spoke the words out.

Meanwhile, Susie’s eyes grew wide as there she seemed to have processed the words of the both of them, but she also looked at them alternatingly once they had spoken their words, something Ralsei couldn’t make sense of.

“Y-yes, I do...but I fear that they don’t love me back, despite my continuous flirting...they don’t appear to react, and ignore my attempts to get closer, which is why I want to give up at his point...” Kris went on in what sounded like sorrow, and Ralsei’s heart ached at the sight of his friend suffering under the spell of love.

Kris didn’t deserve this, and it made him feel worse that he wasn’t able to help Kris, as much as he wanted to. And the dark prince was secretly longing to spend as much time as possible with this particular Lightner himself, this charismatic and lovely human...

“Oh wow, now that’s something I didn’t quite expect; given how the town is rather small, I guess I know them as well, huh? Who is it, Kris?” Susie asked, glancing over at Ralsei occasionally while asking him.

“It’s...well...” he began, now severely blushing.

“Come on, Kris, you can tell us. We won’t judge,” Ralsei tried to reassure him, hoping to somehow make at least his friend happier.

“It’s...I’m sorry, Ralsei...I didn’t want to make this any more complicated with you knowing about it,” the human eventually brought out, leaving Ralsei quite confused.

“Huh? What do you mean by that?” he asked, but Susie’s surprised expression told him that there was something that he was missing.

“Wait, Kris...so do I get you correctly, you love...him?” the dragoness asked, and Kris nodded slowly.

“Yeah...I love you, Ralsei...that’s why I wanted to be fed by you, I wanted to enjoy a nice moment with you...” Kris replied, looking at Ralsei, though avoiding eye contact.

“I love you, Ralsei” these words echoed through the prince’s head as he began to realize what Kris meant.

Susie’s shocked look. The grieving human next to her in his blue armchair. And Ralsei himself, who found himself in a situation he wouldn’t have thought to hit him like this. Kris loved him, that was what his friend had just said, right? The shock at this reveal paralysed him, and now he found himself unable not to review the past interactions with Kris in his head again...he had been flirting with Ralsei this entire time, and wasn’t just overly nice to him because they were great friends?

Ralsei couldn’t believe that this had been flying over his head the entire time, causing Kris so much grief thanks to his obliviousness. If Kris loved him however, then that meant one thing...one thing that made his heart beat quicker, and have him run up to Kris’ armchair and throw himself at his human friend to hug him as tightly as he was able to while crying.

“I’m so sorry, Kris...I wish I had noticed!” he was able to say between sobs, all while Kris hugged him back and gently patted his back.

“It’s okay, Ralsei...if you don’t like me like that, then that is okay...” he heard the saddened voice of his friend, but Ralsei violently shook his head.

He wasn’t grieving anymore. He was sad, yes, but only because he hadn’t noticed the signals Kris was sending...if he had picked them up, all of this mess wouldn’t have happened...

“No Kris...I’m sorry for not realizing that you loved me as well,” he brought out, holding onto the human he adored above everything.

“What do you mean, ‘as well’?” Susie asked next to them.

“I...I love you too, Kris! I felt drawn to you since our first adventure, but...you seemed so out of my league, and I always thought you were just being overly nice to me...” the dark prince blurted out, still sobbing at how dense and oblivious he had been.

“R-Ralsei...?” Kris faintly said next to his head, and he tried his best to stop sobbing at his own idiocy.

“Yes...?” the goat in question weakly answered, trying to keep his sobbing in.

“You...you mean that...?” the human wanted to know, and Ralsei finally managed to stop sobbing completely as he tried to focus on Kris and the happy fact that they, in fact, loved each other.

“Y-yes, Kris....I love you so much...” the fluffy prince managed to reply, and found the courage to distance his head from Kris’ to look him into his face, where his gaze was met by the one of Kris’ red irises that emitted a warm glow.

“Whoa...didn’t expect that, but, uhh...you two are kinda cute together. I kinda put it together, how you didn’t want to come to the Dark World at first and then how you began explaining...’course, Ralsei was the source!,” Ralsei heard behind his head, turning it around to spot Susie still where she had been the entire time, looking at them in what seemed to be shock and surprise, but also with a grin.

“Y-you think so, Susie?” Kris asked, making the dragoness laugh.

“Man, of course! It was the last thing I expected to put you down like this, Kris, but I had always kinda seen how you two should totally be together with the way you interacted. Guess nobody noticed how you loved each other, but eh...went well anyway, right?” she explained and grinned once more.

“If you say it like this...I am glad that things turned out fine, too,” Ralsei replied with a smile directed at her.

“Ralsei? I...I got something for you,” he heard Kris speak up, and turned his head towards his friend again, only to see him lean closer to him and give his cheek a quick kiss.

“For you, my dear prince,” the human said in a clearly relieved and now way more affectionate manner, his words and actions causing Ralsei’s face to heat up extremely quick.

“Dude, look at you blush. Ha ha, I think I might enjoy watching you two like this, wonder if Lancer and I should call Kris a toothpaste boy as well from now on” Susie laughed as she observed the two newly found love-birds.

“Oh, right...what do we tell Lancer about this, Kris?” Ralsei wondered when Susie mentioned his name.

Lancer was a great friend of them, so it surely wouldn’t hurt to tell him, right?

“We should tell him about us, he is a good friend too,” the human replied, and Ralsei had to agree on that.

A sudden sound of biscuits in a glass made the two of them look over to the table, where Susie had just taken the jars filled with cookies and darkalade into her hands.

“Well, while you two are busy, I’ll just take these and book it, since you guys don’t seem to be hungry. Have fun, lovers,” the dragon said with a wide grin before running out of the library.

“W-wait, Susie! Those are meant for everyone!” Ralsei shouted as Kris let him go with a smile, and Ralsei quickly began sprinting after Susie, hearing Kris’ footsteps behind him quite soon as well.

As they sprinted after Susie, who in an amused matter kept taunting them with the jars she was running away with, a new sense of delight filled Ralsei, delight at the fact that his love for Kris, after all this time, turned out to not be unrequited. Delight that Kris was feeling way better now, chasing Susie by Ralsei’s side as they hurried through the entirety of the castle and back. Delight at how Susie had grown in her way of helping others who felt bad. Really, Ralsei felt delight at the things that happened and were happening, because now looked the future better than he had imagined it would just a few days ago.

Ralsei eventually got close to Susie, and he decided to try and stop her in order to get the biscuits back for all of them to enjoy the snacks. As he ran after her, he took his scarf into his hands and tossed it forward, guiding it with his magic to wrap around Susie’s waist and return its ends into his hands. He then tried to stand his ground as he prepared for Susie to try and keep running, and he was glad that Kris quickly stepped up next to him and grabbed the scarf as well, so that they could try to stop Susie in her tracks together.

The scarf tautened as Susie had run the distance Ralsei’s scarf covered, and she stopped as the force caught her off guard. The force of her impact was greater than Kris and Ralsei had expected though, and even though they managed to bring Susie to a staggering halt, her force caused them to fly off the ground towards her as well. As the two boys collided with Susie they accidentally managed to knock her to the ground, but as she was still tied to the scarf she took Kris and Ralsei with her due to them still holding the scarf.

They ended up landing on Susie, the trio of them rolling across the floor as Ralsei’s scarf wrapped them up like a present, until the three of them were knotted together tightly. He could hear a sigh of relief from Susie’s end though.

“Oh man, good I held onto the jars, they didn’t break,” she said in relief, causing Kris to start laughing.

“I-I‘m sorry, guys...I caused you to trip and now we’re caught like this,” Ralsei said as he felt bad for bringing his friends into this situation.

“Ha ha, are you kidding dude? This was awesome, great thinking there, pal,” Susie laughed, and with Kris and Susie both laughing to their heart’s content, it didn’t take long until Ralsei had to start to chuckle as well in the face of their predicament.

“I agree with Susie there, this is a funny situation and also a good strategy of yours, Ralsei...though we should have expected Susie to be stronger than us,” Kris chimed in as he managed to stop laughing for a bit, but then began to laugh once more.

The three friends sat in the castle’s hallway, tied together and laughing at the silly situation they had gotten themselves into. Was this what people meant when they say that friendship brings people closer together? Ralsei knew that this wasn’t what this saying meant, but it certainly had a funny way to it when applying it to what happened to them.