Draw Me Like One Of Your Dragon Girls

Posted originally on the Archive of Our Own at http://archiveofourown.org/works/39028374.

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Category: F/M
Fandom: Deltarune (Video Game)
Relationship: Kris & Susie (Deltarune), Kris/Susie (Deltarune)
Character: Kris (Deltarune), Susie (Deltarune), Toriel (Undertale), Undyne
(Undertale), Noelle Holiday, Berdly (Deltarune)
Additional Tags: One Shot, Romance, Teen Romance, Friendship, Friends to Lovers,
Friendship/Love, Best Friends, Drawing, Hobbies, Hidden Talents,
Budding Love, Awkward Conversations, Awkward Crush, Teasing,
Hanging Out, Male Kris (Deltarune)
Language: English
Stats: Published: 2022-05-16 Completed: 2022-06-14 Words: 7,336 Chapters:
3/3

Draw Me Like One Of Your Dragon Girls

by TheGreenSwordsman

Summary

Getting to know Kris has been a journey full of surprises. From being invited to his house
by his mother, to making pie, to sleeping over, and now, to learning that her friend has
talent with a pencil. Of course, there would be more surprises, like finding out just how
good that talent is, or just who may be Kris' most avid subject as of late.
 Lunch Break

Lunch always went by fast. A few neatly packed sandwiches followed by a signature slice of
Toriel’s pie never failed to work up Kris’ appetite. It only failed to last more than five minutes
before he had scarfed it all down. Susie had always wondered how the boy stayed so skinny and
scrawny while eating so much pie on a regular basis, and upon seeing his allotted budget of ten
dollars a week in allowance, she hatched an idea to help him put more meat on his bones. The
limited funds given on an irregular basis meant that it couldn’t be a daily thing, but they could at
least do it every Friday to celebrate the weekend. The class had an hour for lunch, which was
plenty of time for her to skip out the door and hit up Sans’ shop for some candies or sodas or chalk
or whatever she and Kris had decided upon. It hadn’t gone off without its fair share of hitches, but
after the second week, Undyne had stopped badgering her for playing hooky when she had seen her
go right back to school on her own volition. Toriel’s questions about the whereabouts of Kris’
money tapered off when they budgeted for some eggs, sugar, and flour, which prompted the
Matriarch to buy Kris his own cookbook in excitement.

Today, everything had gone just as planned. Undyne eyed the dragoness from the street corner by
the library, but her gaze softened when she spotted the bag in Susie’s hands. The school doors shut
behind her and echoed in the empty hall, and as the commotion of the lunchroom whispered along
the corridors, Susie took a moment to take inventory of her and Kris’ victuals:

A twelve pack of chalk (for her): $0.25

Four apples, for the two of them – $2.00
A set of teaspoons/tablespoons (to serve as cover) – $2.75
Miscellaneous candies and snacks - $4.48

All with fifty-two cents to spare. Susie thanked Kris, Berdly, and Noelle in her mind for helping
her build up a tolerance to math during their study sessions. It wasn’t that she needed to be taught
basic addition and subtraction, but the patience to deal with stupid numbers all the time was
proving a valuable, if maintenance-heavy skill.

Susie walked back into the lunchroom to find Kris at their usual spot, his lunch bag empty and
tipped on its side, as usual.

“Hey dude.”

Kris looked up from something on the table, his hands dutifully working on something that clearly
wasn’t food. She saw the white blur of pages flipping shut as Kris turned to meet her.

“Oh hey! What did you get?”

His question took precedence over her curiosity, at least for the moment. “Here, see for yourself.”

“Oh, sweet!”

Apples, a couple of Kotkit candy bars, and some sour string, along with chalk. Ten dollars didn’t
get you a banquet, but it always helped top off the tank.

“Did you keep the receipt?”

“Yep…” Susie rolled her eyes. “Sorry about the apples. I’d normally get us some more candy, but
your mom’s got to insist on getting you more fruits and veggies and all that crap.”
“Hey, it’s fine, I like apples.” Kris replied, taking and pocketing the receipt. “Dibs on the kotkits.”

“I thought you’d like the sour string? I got green apples after all. I thought it would match.”

“Come on, Susie, you know how much I like chocolates.”

“Yeah, how could I forget…” Kris hadn’t caught on to how much Susie’s voice was trailing off as
he dug into the candy, nor did he See Susie’s neck craning around him to see the mysterious book
biding between his empty lunch bag and his left sweater sleeve. “Hey dude?”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

Susie pointed to the object of her curiosity. “What’s that?”

Kris’ eyes darted to the book and he hugged it close to himself. “Oh, it’s just my sketchbook.”

Susie’s brows went up. “Wait what? You draw?”

“Yeah.”

“Dude, I didn’t know! Can I see it?”

Kris eyes strained to make contact with Susie’s as his thumb flipped through the shut pages. “This
is a new one. It doesn’t have a lot in it.”

The dragoness snorted. “Yeah, so? I still want to see it. Why don’t you want to show me?”

“Well…”

Kris had failed to provide an alibi in time and Susie’s grin widened as it was now time to employ
the age-old trick of teasing the human into submission. “What, you drawing porn in there?!”

“Wh-what?! No!”

“HEY GUYS!” Susie shouted near the top of her lungs. “GUESS WHAT KRIS DRAWS IN HIS-
*MPPH!*”

Kris had muzzled the beast with his hand, hoping to tame it with his stink eye. “Susie! The hell was
that?!”

His eyes were glaring scarlet daggers at her, but for her, playfully getting on his nerves was as
good of a victory as any and she chuckled as she tussled his hair. “Ah come on, you know I’m just
joking.”

“What if Alphys got word? I’d get in trouble!”

“Yeah, yeah, well-“

“Or worse, she’d ask me to draw something! You know the kind of anime we saw stashed on her
desktop!”

Susie held back raucous laughter with all her might. “*Pfffft!* Oh my God dude, that was so
gross!”

“Yeah! So, settle down, will you?!”

Susie crossed her arms in a mock huff. “Only when you show me your sketchbook.”

Knowing he was at an impasse, Kris begrudgingly yielded. “… Fine.”

“Heheheh….” Susie chortled as she grabbed the book in triumph. “Now, let’s see what you-“

To the dragon girl’s utter shock, she wasn’t met with silly doodles or the cool-S littering the pages.
Instead, she saw sketches of gardens brought to life in incredible strokes of graphite and sepia,
followed by the blocks and action lines set under sketches of people, some human, but many
monsters, most incomplete, with lines dictating motion, mass, and dynamic action sitting open,
ready for the rest of the body to be rendered. Susie’s eyes widened to take it all in, completely
awestruck by her friend’s talent.

“Dude, these are good…”

Kris shifted in his seat from side to side. “Thank you….”

“No, seriously, man!” A particularly wonderful rendering of the lakeside caught her for a few extra
seconds. “This is like, pro-level!”

“Well, I don’t know about that.”

“Neither do I, but I’m sticking to it! You’re good, dude!” on and on she flipped through the book’s
first pages, slowing her pace as she admired kris’ handiwork. “Wow, man…”

“Okay, can I have it back?”

“Hmm? No, hold on, I’m not finished looking.”

She didn’t catch onto the urgency in the boy’s voice. “Susie, really, can I have it back?”

“Why? It’s not like there’s-“

Then she saw it. The last page with graphite on it, a little less than a sixth of the way through the
whole book. She saw a figure, feminine, but bulky and powerful. It sported a short tail, a long
snout, and the initial pencil strokes that would eventually become a massive, flowing mane of hair.
The figure was posed standing, its arms gripping a yet undrawn shaft, signified only by a line with
a wedge shape at the end, held above the figure that looked an awful lot like an axe head. The
gears were already turning in Susie’s head but it took a moment to shake off the disbelief that kept
her from speaking up.

“Dude is that… is that me?”

Kris had retreated behind his bangs and between his shoulders as he nearly whispered his answer.
“…Yes.”

As he turned to face what he imagined would be the most impish, devilish grin from Susie, he
found out to his surprise, that, while she was smiling, there wasn’t an ounce of guile on her face.

“This is awesome, man!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! This is my dark form right?”

“Yeah…”
“Wow man, you actually drew me!” Something about hearing herself say that out loud turned on a
lightbulb in the purple delinquent’s head. “Wait… you’re drawing me!”

The way she emphasized ‘drawing’ brought unexpected heat to Kris’ cheeks, and it only got worse
when she scooted in closer. All Kris could do was try to play it cool. “Y-yeah. Do you like it?”

His blush only got worse when he felt a big, heavy arm around his shoulder. He wouldn’t dare to
look up and get a full view of Susie’s skin tone quickly matching his own. “And all from
memory… I must be on your mind a bit, huh?”

“… Sometimes.”

Susie looked back at the drawing, then back to Kris before closing the book and handing it back to
him without a word.

“Thanks.” Kris whispered, hastily shoving the book in his backpack.

Susie deliberated on what she would say next. “So… you said that’s a new one, right?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you have any others?”

Kris swallowed his spit. “N-no, I don’t keep my old ones.”

“Interesting…”

The lunch bell rang, and tables scraped linoleum as students rose to get back to class.

“Hey, real quick.” Susie interjected as they got up together. “I’m still good to come over at five,
right?”

“Yeah.”

“Cool.”

Kris finally looked up just in time to see Susie beaming as she once again put her hand on his
shoulder, turning him around as they set off back for class.

“Actually…” She paused. “Since we got the weekly assignment done with Noelle and Berdly
yesterday, we should be done with homework…. Mind if I come over early? Maybe four, or three-
thirty-ish?”

Kris looked everywhere on her face for a sign of her impish pranks, but found nothing in the short
window he had to reply before she would get suspicious. “Uh, no. No, that should be fine.”

“Sweet, dude.”

They walked back to class together. All the while, Kris couldn’t help but notice just how much
more tightly Susie was holding him.
 Upstairs

Kris quickly learned that “three thirty-ish” was more like 3 o’clock on the dot, because as soon as
the bell rang, she was tagging along with him on the way home. It wasn’t the first time she opted
for it. Thanks to their study sessions with Noelle and Berdly, she was slowly, but surely beginning
to grasp the material for the subjects she was struggling in, and as much as she dragged her feet
about it, she had finally been getting her homework done. Whenever she did, she never passed up
the opportunity to come home with her friend right as the bell rang. Surely, this couldn’t be any
different, Kris thought to himself.

At least, aside from the arm firmly around his shoulder, nothing was different. The kind of
conversation Susie liked to start certainly wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, at least.

“So, what if you could get a million bucks every day for the rest of your life, but every day you had
to eat at least one centipede alive, would you do it??”

Kris nearly gagged at the thought of some myriapod’s pincers gnawing at his tongue. “Oh God,
no!”

“Dude, a million bucks every day, that’s like…” It took a second for her to tabulate the annual
total. “Three-hundred and seventy million a year!”

“You’re a few digits off, Susie.”

“Wait hold on….” Susie took on a moment before she slapped her forehead. “Okay, shoot, three-
hundred and sixty-five million a year.”

Kris laughed to himself, powering through the sudden impact of Susie’s fist. She hit hard, but his
resolve to tease her back was harder, even more so than any instinct to reply with ‘ow.’ “Hey,
Noelle’s math lessons seem to be paying off!”

“*tch* Shut up, dude! Gosh!” Though she punched him again, her smile grew all the bigger.

“All done there?” Kris sassed.

Susie snorted as she put her arm back around the human to pull him into a fierce noogie. “Oh, you
keep that up, and I might not be!”

Kris tried not to notice that, unlike all the other times she had noogied him, she hadn’t taken her
arm off him after finishing, but it was nothing he had any reason to object to. The two were quiet
and content for a little while, all the way through the short remainder of the walk taking them to
Kris’ house. It wasn’t until they got to the threshold that Susie released him to knock on the door.

“Hello?”

“Oh, mom’s not here yet.” Kris opened the door for the two of them. “She’ll be back at 5 after
she’s done with work. Grading and all that.”

Susie discarded her jacket and tossed onto the easy chair opposite chairiel as she came inside.
“Until 5? What, are those kindergarten kids writing novels or something?”

“No, mom just likes to call each parent and tell them how their kid is doing. You had her back as a
little kid, remember?”
Warm memories, rare in her mind the farther she reached back, came back to her for the first time
in so long. Ms. Toriel was always a welcome ray of sunshine in the otherwise cold world that she
inhabited back then. “Yeah… I don’t remember hearing her call. Dad probably just never picked
up, but I can see her doing that.”

Kris could see the memory had made her a little melancholy and resolved to bring his friend’s
smile back. “I’m sure she’d love to tell you when she gets back. She remembers all her students.”

That seemed to work. She was smiling again as she planted herself onto the couch. “That’d be
nice… “

‘So, what do you want to do? I can hook up our old game system if you’re down for some
Smashing Fighters.”

“Hmmm…” Susie’s eyes squinted. “I’m not in much of a gaming mood right now.”

“Oh. Well, maybe a movie? We still haven’t finished the Mechalodon trilogy yet.”

“Nah, we promised we’d finish the trilogy with Noelle and Berdly, remember?”

“Shoot, you’re right…”

He thought Susie was simply listless and failed to notice that her eyes were darting, as if she
already had an idea and was nervous about it. He didn’t pick up on anything until he heard her tail
thumping against the couch and her feet fidgeting.

“What’s up? You seem anxious. Anything you really wanted to do?”

The Dragoness felt heat in her cheeks at the prospect of being so embarrassed to ask him. She had
to play it cool as best as she could. “I, uh, *ahem* I kinda wanted to watch you draw, actually.”

Kris froze solid. “W-what?”

“You heard me!” As assertive as she sounded, her heart was threatening to break out of her chest
like an escaped convict. “I wanna see you draw some more, dude!”

Kris’ eyes darted around, as if there was anyone there to object to the idea other than him. “I-I’m
not sure, I mean, it’s not like anything exciting.”

“But I want to see it.”

“It’s just me dragging a pencil on some paper!”

She could see that he was getting a little flustered and it encouraged her and made her even more
nervous all at once. It was always fun to tease him, but seeing him react this way in this context
added… something to it that made her feel just as embarrassed, and she couldn’t put her finger on
it. “I want to see what you make!”

She gave away a little more in her intonation than she had intended to with how excited that
sounded, and it took restraint to keep her hand from covering her mouth. One false move and she
would lose the edge, and more importantly, the opportunity. Luckily, Kris didn’t seem to notice, or
if he did, he was good at concealing it, especially since he seemed to be conceding.

“Well, I… okay then. I’ll just uh…” He picked up his backpack, sheepishly pulling out the spiral-
spine sketchbook and clutching it close to him like a child would hold a teddy bear. “We’ll just go
to the table, and I’ll get to work then?”

Another bold idea flashed in Susie’s head, and if she were a more cautious person, she would have
ignored it, but as far as she was concerned, it was a risk worth taking. “How about we go up to
your room?”

The human’s eyes went wide. “My room? Why?”

“I don’t think I’ve ever been up there before.”

Kris gulped. “I-I dunno if my mom will be okay with it.”

“Why would she be mad? She won’t be here until five anyway.”

Out of excuses, the only thing he had left to say was a simple ‘no’ and as much as he trusted Susie
to respect that request, something in him kept him from doing so.

Did he want this?

“Okay... here it’s just up the stairs. Follow me.”

A short flight of stairs up through a narrow hallway with a drawer and a mirror which Susie paused
by, and they were there. Kris opened the door slowly, as if he feared judgement from Susie. On the
contrary, she looked pleased with it as she entered, sitting on Kris’ bed and feeling the sheets.

“Not too bad, dude.”

“Thanks…”

Her legs swung back and forth as she continued to eye the space around her, landing on the
opposite side of the room. “Is that all your stuff?” She was pointing at a bunch of trophies and
accolades shimmering on the shelves.

“No. those are Asriel’s.” He replied, flatly

Susie looked to her right and saw a bare bureau and empty shelves. “… I thought your bro went off
the college?”

“He left his old trophies here.”

“Oh…” The realization hit her like a truck. “Well, you’re talented, Kris. Don’t let it get you
down.”

“It’s okay, it doesn’t bother me.”

She noticed he wasn’t looking her in the eyes when he said it. “You sure?”

“Yeah…”

Then, he heard Susie’s hand patting the mattress. “Come here.”

“Huh?’

“Come here, dude!”

Sheepishly, he took a seat next to her, and the mattress creaked. It took him a few moments to turn
back towards her again, only to find that she was already looking right at him, and the eye contact
locked him in place.

“Open your sketchbook.”

He complied silently before Susie took one side and started flipping pages.

She pointed to an immaculately crafted knight clad in renaissance plate and rendered in charcoal.
“You see this?”

“Yeah?”

She flipped the pages again, landing on a landscape drawing depicting a farmhouse in sepia crayon.
“And this?”

“I did that one last week.”

Then, she turned to the most recent page, where her own likeness was rendered partway in clean,
rhythmic lines of graphite. Even though the picture was incomplete, it still affected her enough to
make her pause for a few seconds. “And you see that? You made that, dude. You made it with your
own two hands. You’re talented!”

“I-I wouldn’t say-“

She cut him off, pulling him in for another noogie and a shoulder-punch finisher. “Oh, shut up!
These are amazing!”

“…Thanks.”

Timid and quiet as his reply was, she could tell he meant that and wasn’t just trying to blow her off.
He meant that, and it made her that much warmer inside. “I’m telling you, man, you’re talented!
See all that crap on those shelves? That just means someone recognized Asriel’s talent. It doesn’t
mean you have none. I sure as hell recognize it! Seriously, why don’t you enter like, art shows or
competitions or something?”

Kris struggled to answer that question. ‘I…. I don’t know, I just… I just didn’t think my stuff was
good enough.”

Susie’s brow furled and she practically yanked the sketchbook out of his hands as she took the
mechanical pencil from its spiral binding and began to put something to paper.

“Susie, what are you-?”

“Hold on…“ She muttered as the pencil continued to scrape against the fine, cream-colored paper.
The sound lingered in the quiet room as Kris tried to crane his neck over and see what she was
doing. The way she focused so fervently on the paper and took so long to finish whatever she was
making had piqued Kris ‘curiosity, even if she was holding it close enough to her face that he
could never sate it. Every now and again, she would grunt and scowl as the eraser end of the silver
pencil turned in her hands to smash and rub against the sheet, sometimes folding and crumpling it,
drawing the first two or three letters of swear words from her lips before she undid the folds and
regained focus. With a few harsh blows to discard eraser shavings and a dabbling of finishing
touches here and there, she took a deep breath and smiled in satisfaction.

“Susie, what is that?

“It’s no golden trophy and my penmanship sucks almost as bad as my drawing skills but… There!”

She tore the paper out and folded it breadthwise with the edges of her claws before setting it down
on Kris’ drawer. Kris craned his neck around to read what she had made, and she leaned back to let
him see. It was essentially a letter, written in her distinctively shoddy handwriting and surrounded
by doodles of moss, Lancer, Ralsei, and their dark world weapons. It read:

To Kris: Consecutive winner of the “Best Damn Artist in Town” and “Coolest
Freaking Dork on the Planet” awards.

Keep being you, dude.

-Susie

She had written her signature with the ‘cool S’ glyph.

“Susie I… th-thank you! That’s…”

He paused and Susie’s brow raised. “That’s what?”

“That’s the first time someone’s told me something like that about my art… or anything really.”

It would have broken her heart to hear that if he weren’t beaming so brightly. She must have made
his whole week with that, and that was enough to brighten hers up by a lot.

“Glad you like it dude.” She handed him back the sketchbook and pencil, flipping to the last filled
page with her form still unfinished.

He knew what she was going to ask for, and he was more than glad to oblige. “You want me to
finish this one?”

“Hell yes!” Her amber eyes lit up like a switch had been flipped in her head, and she leaned in to
watch up close

“You got it!”

Without delay, he got to work and his pencil began to dance around on the upright paper, held in
his hand like a paintbrush and streaking across the empty space of his sketchbook. Susie marveled
at the process, the way he held his pencil was unlike anything she’d seen done before. It looked
like it would be too hard to make any small or focused movements, but as he moved the instrument
of his art with his whole arm, Susie learned just how precise a good draftsman could be with
proper technique. She could see him sculpting her form like it was out of marble, his pencil strokes
rendering forms that looked weighty and almost real, and that was before he even added any detail.
She could feel the weight of her own axe as it hefted over her shoulder, the muscles in her leg
flexing with the power of her stance and the way the weight was distributed in her figure. The hair
he drew on her was longer than it was in reality, but she neither objected nor cared. It looked great.
It even made her consider growing it out that long before taking a pair of scissors to the again like
she did last time. He took so much time on her eyes, his head lowering to make sure he could
examine and correct any flaws. He made them look so pretty. Almost too pretty. Even the toothy
grin he depicted looked fierce, but warm. The whole pose looked less like she was attacking
something and more like she was beaming with pride, having defended the viewer from some
unseen danger. He gave her those spiky bracelets and black vest that she loved to wear down in
Castle Town, shaded in the values for the folds in her clothes and the edge of her ax. Within
minutes, the piece was essentially done, and after a few strokes of the eraser to the leftover
guidelines, he handed it over to her.

“What do you think?” He asked meekly.

“Dude that’s…”

Kris stayed quiet. She wasn’t smiling, and he thought that maybe he had made a mistake.

His fears vanished into thin air when she leaned over and took him up in a tight hug.

“DUDE! This is amazing! That’s the best drawing of me anyone’s ever done! Hell, it’s the only
drawing someone’s ever made of me, but I doubt anyone can top this!”

“Susie…”

He didn’t even know what to say. ‘Thanks’ seemed too short and bare, yet giving her a long,
flowery platitude of gratefulness would just make her roll her eyes, so he stayed quiet, hugging her
back and relishing in her embrace. Her snout sat atop his head, shaking back and forth and ruffling
his hair while his head was stuck between her neck and shoulder. If Susie saw how hard he had
been blushing, she’d never let him live it down, but whether that was true or not, he didn’t care.
She could tease him all she wanted. He knew how she felt, and that was good enough for him.

“I’m glad you like it!”

“Like it?! I freakin’ LOVE it! Can I keep it?”

“Sure!”

Enthusiastically, but carefully, she tore the paper from the book and held it in her hands to take a
good look at it before stuffing it into her bookbag… which she realized wasn’t there.

“Oh shoot, I left my backpack by the door, could you get it real quick?”

Kris hopped off the bed. “Yeah sure, I can get it.”

“Thanks!”

“By the way, mom still has some pie left over, and we’ve got vanilla ice cream. Want me to get us
some?”

“You serious?! Yeah, man!”

“You got it.”

“Make sure to put some chalk and sprinkles in mine, if you have any!” She called as he turned the
knob. He gave a thumbs up in return as he vanished past the doorframe.

Susie eyed the piece for a few more seconds, utterly taken by its quality. She looked back at her
own silly doodles on the bureau, and with a sudden sullenness, compared it to the glistening golds
and silvers and blue ribbons lining the shelf on the opposite side of the room.
“You’re too talented not to have that too, you know…” She whispered.

There was no way he could be this talented and yet so unrecognized. He had to have honed his
craft for years, drawing ever since he was able to hold a pencil. She flipped through his sketchbook
again. The whole thing must have been about a centimeter-and-a-half thick, and barely a third of
that was filled. It was impossible for this to be the only one he had.

She checked the top of his shelves, making sure she could see them in full. Nothing up there but
dust.

She checked under the red wagon and birdcage. Nothing still.

Maybe he hid them by his brother’s old computer? She checked and found nothing in the boxes or
around the PC tower.

Then she reached under his head, and sure enough, her fingertips met warn paper edges
sandwiched between equally aged boards of cardstock. Her fingers ripped and a whole pile of paper
bound in hardcover spines and spirals alike came out amidst dust bunnies from under the bed.
Blowing off the covers and edges, she held them in her hands. They were all different, in color, in
binding, in length and breadth, and in age. Some of them wore blank covers while others had
printed pictures of sketches on them with the title “sketchbook” printed in bold sans serif.

She didn’t know which one to look through first, so she picked one at random, from the upper half
of the stack. She didn’t count, but it was probably the third from last. It was purple with a blank
cover. She flipped through it, and true to her expectations, more of Kris’ unmatched craftsmanship
came into the light. A picture of hometown, a sketch of his brother in a dorky Christmas sweater,
and another of his mom baking pie. Each one as beautifully drawn as the last.

Then she flipped towards the back, and for the entire last quarter of the book there was nothing but
beautiful, lovingly crafted drawings of her.

Susie’s jaw dropped.

 Opened Pages

Each picture depicted Susie in a light she had never seen herself in. Some sketches were mixed with
drawings of Kris and Noelle and all her other friends at school. Some were just quick head studies
of her smiling or smirking. Others showed her in her dark world outfit, and even depicted the
memories they shared there, like when she saved Kris from King Spade, drawn from his point of
view, or the first time they opened a dark world together. Seeing it all like a photobook of Kris’
memories and thoughts towards her began to overwhelm the dragoness. Susie was crass and jaded
enough that nothing much phased her anymore, or at least nothing negative. Whether it was gross-
out vids on the internet that she’d show to Kris and Noelle, or all four Dumbass movies (and the
old TV show), nothing ever made her cover her mouth in shock like she was covering it now
because those were negative things. Gross things. Emotions that had either dulled, like shock, or
had become a positive to her, like disgust. This was something new entirely. It wasn’t gross or
horrifying or sophomoric. It was touching. Flattering. It was full of fond memory and a genuine
admiration. Those things were new to her, and she didn’t know what to do with any of it but gasp
and cover her mouth as her eyes went wide.

“No way…” She whispered to herself.

Denial notwithstanding, there it was in front of her eyes, page by page, drawing by drawing for
several sheets was nothing but attempts to capture her form. It wasn’t all her of course. Kris had
other things to draw, like Ralsei’s castle and the fight against Queen, but they would only ever take
up a few pages before returning to Susie as the subject. There were multiple drawings made in pen,
many sketched out on account of perceived mistakes. On yet another page was a drawing taking up
the whole sheet, riddled with notes. It was perhaps one of the best ones yet; each fold in her
clothing, and strand of her hair was crafted in perfect similitude, but with a touch of something she
just couldn’t place, something that was incongruent with what she saw in the mirror, but hinted at
what Kris saw instead.

Puzzled, she began to read his notes aloud

Hair – big and messy.

“*tch* Dude! Come on, it’s not that bad…” She grumbled as she ran her fingers through her mane.
“Kind of greasy though, I’ll admit…”

‘Clothes: baggy and with lots of folds.’

“Yeah, yeah, dork. Throw shade at my outfit, why don’t you…”

‘Snout: construct on ball and plane. Really round and cute.’

Susie felt something like a skipping stone in her chest. “Cute…?”

And then she saw the notes he had near her eyes.

‘The prettiest eyes I’ve ever seen in my life.’

Susie gasped and covered her mouth again. Those feelings had returned, alien and powerful and
unbearably hard to process into coherent thought. Pretty. He had actually called her pretty. No one
had done that before. Cute was a new adjective too. When was the last time she even heard that
word uttered in her direction? Maybe Ms. Toriel when she was just a little girl? It had been so long.
She was so used to being called rough and messy and hellion and a myriad of less flattering epithets
by her classmates, but never pretty or cute.

If he were in the room, she would have panicked, unable to express her surprise in anything but
punches and questions she hadn’t even properly formed in her head and would probably come out
as panicked gibberish. The only words she could grasp in her head were the very ones causing so
much ruckus in her inner monologue. Pretty. Cute. They repeated themselves over and over,
waiting for other words to help them complete a sentence.

And the first ones that came together escaped Susie’s lips aloud.

“He thinks I’m pretty….?”

It was a question at first, like she wasn’t certain that she had just heard herself say that.

“He thinks I’m cute…”

The sketchbook sank down to her lap as her eyes lifted up. The light in the attic had finally turned
on, and now she could see everything. The way he got so flustered around her, how he was always
glad to spend time with her, be it at the lakeside or his own home with dinner and desserts ready,
sharing his allowance so they could enjoy some extra snacks together at lunch, all the pieces were
coming together in her head. She just couldn’t believe what she was seeing.

Neither could Kris

The sound of two bowls and two spoons falling and clattering on the carpeted ground with a soft
thud startled Susie, and she looked in the doorway to find Kris’ cherry eyes wide as saucers
looking at her from behind those long, thin bangs of his.

“S-Susie?!”

She didn’t answer him at first. He could see the open book and the page she was on and her
flabbergasted expression. Kris began to panic, fearing the worst.

“Oh my God, Susie, I-I can explain the- I just…”

“Kris…”

The human was shrinking into the doorway. He began to shake and his eyes were getting wet, a
heat building in the top of his head and in his temples. “Susie, I’m sorry! I’ll get rid of those! I-I
don’t want you to think of me as some freak who-!”

She could see how scared he was. He never displayed fear like that, even before they were friends.
Even though she had little experience in comforting people, she knew she had to calm him down.
What surprised her was how natural it felt when she said “Kris, come here.”

“Wh-huh?”

“Come here!” she patted a spot on the floor next to her. “I want to talk to you really quick.”

She didn’t sound mad or grossed out, but those words still froze his blood nonetheless, and he was
still terrified as he meekly bent down and took a seat next to her.

“Why are you so nervous?”

“W-wait, you’re not mad?”

“What?! No, man! Why the hell would I be mad?” She replied as she glanced to the doorway and
back. “… Aside from the fact that you spilled our pie and ice cream.”

“Sorry…”

“You’re fine, just… just talk to me, okay? I’ve only ever seen you freak out this bad once before,
and I kind of regret not helping you out with that more. Talk to me, buddy.”

“I… I thought you would find it weird or… I didn’t think you would…” He knew what he wanted
to say, and with the discovery of his drawings, he knew the cat was already out of the bag, but he
just couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud. “… I thought it would be too much, that it would
freak you out.”

“No, man, I’m not freaked out…” Her hand rested on his shoulder while her eyes shifted between
the off-white pages and her friend, who seemed to be unable to look at her directly. His cheeks
were flushed red enough to match his eyes. “Kris, you’re okay. Look at me.”

He felt scaly, rough, gentle fingers going under his chin and propping him up, guiding his face and
his eyes to meet hers. “Susie?”

“Do I look mad? Do I look freaked out?”

“No…”

“Then why’d you think I would be?”

She had trapped him. He had to be straightforward or doom himself to never get the chance to
express these feelings again. “I… I didn’t know if you were okay with the idea of me… thinking of
you that way.”

She flipped through the pages again. More fond memories rendered in charcoal and graphite. More
pictures of her that opened a window into Kris’ mind and let Susie see exactly what he thought of
her. None of the rumor-milling or two-faced remarks that she got from so many others. Just an
honest admiration. Friendship without guile or façade. There was a word for this, of course, but the
more Susie thought about it, the more it made her heart race. She steeled herself.

“Think of me, what way, Kris?”

He still struggled to get it out. “I… I just…”

She knew he wanted to say it. He knew she knew he wanted to say it. He just needed a little push.

“Kris, do you like me?”

The bluntness of that question made them both freeze, but Susie repeated herself, not only to get an
answer, but, in her mind, to make sure she knew what she had just said.

“Kris, do you like me? As in, ‘like me’ like me?””

The human gulped and took a shallow breath.

“… Yes.”

It was a whisper, but it was the loudest thing Susie had ever heard. It was like her ears had opened
themselves just to hear him say it. She didn’t answer at first. She looked back down at the pages,
turning to the drawing with the notes on it.
“You think I’m pretty, Kris?”

Her question didn’t sound probing or teasing. It actually sounded vulnerable, and he answered her
with more vigor than he thought he had. “I think that, yeah.”

She flipped the pages, back to the depiction of her defending him from King Spade. “You drew a
lot of our memories together… They really mean that much to you, huh?”

“Yes.” He scooted in closer to her.

She did the same, pulling him in by the shoulder and closing the book to get her eyes lashed back
onto his. “I had no idea you felt that way.”

Kris glanced back at the award Susie had made for him. “I do.”

“Then why were you so scared to tell me, man?”

“Because… I didn’t know if you felt the same.”

She too glanced at the paper on Kris’ drawer.

“… Do you feel that way, Susie?”

The feeling that hit her when she first saw the drawings was coming back stronger than ever, but
instead of blanking her mind, it focused her. Somehow, she knew what to say, as if she had wanted
to say it before. Her hand gripped his shoulder tighter. She took a few deep breaths as her friend’s
eyes stayed glued to her in anticipation, pleading for her response.

With a sudden, tight embrace, she gave her answer.

“Yes!”

“Susie!”

She had never felt so free. Kris was hugging her back and it was everything in the world to her. She
had to ration her words and her feelings, say what she wanted to say without going too fast or
looking like a dork. “Kris, I feel the same way! You’re my best friend dude, you’re… God, you’re
more than that! I just-!”

She didn’t know how else she could put it in words, so she just hugged him tighter, taking in the
wonderful apple scent of his hair and the warmth of his sweater. Kris felt the strength in her arms,
and even if she was squeezing just a little too tight, he had never felt so safe, so at home in
someone’s arms before. He nuzzled into her shoulder, so relieved that he could finally do so. They
weren’t strangers to touch. Roughhousing and horseplay were common between them, but this was
new. It was gentle and sweet. Peaceful and serene. The noogies and wrestling and pain games were
all part of the stupid fun their friendship entailed, but now it entailed something more, and the
more either of the two teens thought of it, the less they wanted to let go. They stayed there for a
while, rocking back and forth and rubbing up and down each other’s backs. Neither had checked
the clock and neither intended to. They just held each other, wordless and without a care in the
world but for each other.

Eventually, they managed to separate enough to re-establish eye contact. Kris swept Susie’s bangs
aside.

“Your eyes really are pretty, you know?”

Hearing him say it aloud hit twice as hard as reading it in his handwriting, and she had to cover up
for her mounting feelings with a little rowdiness, bopping him on top of the head. “Dude, come on!
Quit being so sappy!”

“I’m not lying, Susie.”

“I know you’re not! You don’t need to be so…”

She was going to say sappy, but it would have undermined the moment. Besides, sappy or not, she
was quickly discovering just how much she liked being called pretty.

“… Oh whatever, dork. Just come here!”

If they had checked the clock, they would have seen it go past 5:15, listened for the gravel
crunching in the driveway, and cleaned the ice cream mess up before Toriel saw it, yet as she was
just about to scold them, her eyes caught sight of their embrace. Seeing her child so content and
happy with a genuine friend like this was something the old matriarch had ached to see for so long,
so for a few, lovely moments she just stood in the doorway, letting her child and his best friend
have their moment.

And of course, when the moment began to taper, the parental discipline switch flipped back on.

“*AHEM!*”

The two jerked away from each other and froze like statues. Kris; face went pale.

“AAAAH! Mom!!”

“Toriel! W-we were just uhh-!”

“it’s quite alright children, hugging is allowed in this house…” she bent over to pick up the two
bowls, dripping with melted, wasted vanilla with sprinkles in one and chalk in the other. “What’s
not allowed is waste… or digging into desserts without permission.”

“S-sorry, mom.”

“You know what this means for your allowance, right?”

Susie didn’t hesitate to step up to Kris' defense. “I told him to. It was my idea.”

“Hmm… well then, I’ll let you two off with a warning, but I better not see it again, understand?”

“Yes, mom.”

“Yes, Toriel.”

“Now, I’ll go get the steam vacuum.”

“Yeah, I gotta clean this up...” Kris grumbled.

“So, I got to go then, don’t I?”

“Yeah…”

“Actually, children…” Toriel interjected. “You’re alright. I’ll steam-vacuum it myself. Kris, I’ll be
withholding your allowance for next week, but Susie can stay over in the meantime.”
“I can?!” Susie exclaimed.

“Yes. You two just head downstairs. Kris, make sure you text or call me before digging into the
dessert next time, understood?”

“Yes, mom.”

“Alright then, off you go.”

Kris could swear he could see his mother winking at him as he passed.

They got to the living room before Susie stopped. “So, now that your mom’s got to clean, what do
you want to do? We’re going to be short on funds for a minute.”

Kris didn’t take long to come up with an answer. “How about the lake? That doesn’t cost
anything.”

She would have asked him what they were going to do there if she didn’t know already by the look
in his eyes telling her that he wasn’t done hugging her yet. She had feelings that needed airing out
too. She took his hand in hers

“Sounds good to me.”

A gentle summer breeze blew in through the open door as they left together.

THE END

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