Chapter Text
Trees, buildings, and cars all swept across her vision, as Susie stared out the window. The trip to the next town over wasn’t a long one, but still enough for her to get a bit fidgety. She was never the type to just sit still, especially for an hour at once. Not borrowing one of Noelle’s game systems or even a comic to read was a bit of a mistake.
She could wake up Kris, of course, who dozed off just a minute into the ride. It was strange how they always managed to fall asleep so easily. Was it a human thing, or just a Kris thing? None of the humans at her old school slept this much. Then again, Kris had that whole weird situation with their soul going on, back during their dark world adventures. She never fully understood it, but knew it was pretty taxing on them.
Soon, the boredom got to her, and Susie was about to force Kris awake. When she looked down at them though, she couldn’t help but think about just how adorable they looked. Their face was pressed against her arm, and it flattened their nose a bit. Hair fell over their face like silky brown curtains, hiding their closed eyes.
Instead of trying to wake them, Susie gently held Kris’s head with her other hand. Now, she could lift up her trapped arm and get a bit more comfortable. She then put her arm around them, and held them closely against her side. Some other passengers were glancing over at her now, but she didn’t care. It was fine for people to see them like this. They were a couple now, after all.
“Heyyyy, dumbass,” Susie whispered in Kris’s ear, but they didn’t stir. “Kris, hey, almost at our stop,” she tried a little louder. Giving up on just talking, she put her face down by theirs, and licked their cheek. This was enough to wake them, causing them to sit up and wipe saliva off their face.
“Even for you that was a pretty deep sleep. Am I just that comfortable to bury yourself against?” Susie teased them a little. Kris’s face turned slightly red, and they looked away for a second. She loved that she could get the normally-stoic human embarrassed like this, and wanted to press further. Before she could say anything, though, Kris turned their face back up towards her. They answered her question with a nod - and the cutest little smile - that made Susie turn just as red herself.
“Shit, where is this place?” Susie stared at the section of map she brought with her. She didn’t rip enough of it out of that travel book, and it was missing the part of town she was in. Having a smartphone right now would be nice, she thought to herself. While she looked it over again, trying to figure out what direction to go, Kris popped up between her arms.
“What’s it called?” Kris looked at the map for a second then turned to face her.
“I don’t-” Wait, no point being stubborn here, not with them. “Err… Ristorante Sapori Divini,” she read the name of the place, off the notes she scrawled down earlier. Kris leaned against her, their forehead against her chest, as they looked down at their phone. A few seconds later, they pulled their head back up, and handed her their phone.
“It’s close. Lead the way.” Kris clung to her arm as they walked. As small and light as they were, Susie was worried she’d accidentally fling them if she swung her arms too much.
They had been officially together for a couple weeks now, after spending way too long dancing around proper confessions. Susie still hadn’t gotten used to Kris, normally reserved and a bit distant with people, being so affectionate and clingy. It was what she had been wanting for awhile, probably way longer than she even realized she did. Just, finally getting what she wanted, made her worry that there was something fragile to it. If there was anything she was used to, it was getting the rug pulled out from under her.
It didn’t take long to find the place; Kris was right that they were already close. The moment they stepped inside and looked around, Susie silently cursed Noelle. She chose this place on her recommendation, but it was clear the two had very different ideas on casual dining. Everyone here looked like they had just come from a business meeting or church sermon. Meanwhile, the pair were in their normal outfits: a jacket and t-shirt for Susie, a slightly oversized sweater on Kris.
“It’s fine. Not like they’ll kick us out.” Kris’s small bit of encouragement helped to get her up the nerve to ask for a table.
While the waitress guided the two of them towards the back of the restaurant, Susie noticed Kris glancing around uncomfortably. She soon realized it wasn’t the fancy clothing on people that was bothering them. Most of the patrons here were human, probably the first time Kris had seen so many of them outside of tv and illustrations. She instinctively pulled them close, and could feel their body relax against her.
Once they were seated, choosing what to order didn’t take long. Neither of them was used to eating out anywhere but QC’s, so anything here would be new to them. They quickly decided that two of the daily specials, some sort of pasta dish with ingredients Susie didn’t recognize, would be a fine choice. Susie noticed that even while looking at the menu, Kris’s constant glances continued.
“Damn it,” Susie muttered quietly, “should have found a place with less humans.” She hated that her attempt to be romantic was just making her partner uncomfortable.
Kris turned their attention to her, “It’s fine. Have to get used to places with them eventually.” They smiled, uneasily at first, then warm and sincere. “If it starts to bother me, I’ll just only look at you.”
“That’s what you should be doing anyway, dumbass.” Susie responded, a wide grin on her face. It was impossible to see their smile without doing the same in return.
Susie tried badly to keep herself from salivating when her order was placed in front of her. As soon as the waitress walked away, she didn’t hesitate at all to dig in. Never in her life had she eaten something like this. It was so delicious, that she devoured half of it before she registered the noises around her.
Several patrons sneered and scoffed at the sight of her eating with such gusto. Sauce dripped from her face; noodles were stuck between her teeth. She looked more like a wild beast than someone that belonged in a place like this. Kris has to feel embarrassed right now being seen with her. Noelle would never lo-
Susie’s thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Kris’s manic grin. They lifted their fork, a glob of pasta half the size of their face twirled around it. Kris tilted their head back, and started jamming the ball of noodles into their mouth. Susie could only stare in stunned silence for a moment, before breaking out into laughter. Sure, fine, as long as they looked ridiculous together, who cared what other people thought? The only feelings that mattered were each other’s.
By the time they finished eating, the waitress couldn’t wait to get them out of there any faster. Even let them keep the cloth napkins they cleaned up with. Now time for the movie. Susie double-checked the receipt from the tickets she bought online, figuring out the location and start time. She realized with annoyance that the movie was almost three hours away.
“Hey, I… um, thought we’d be at the restaurant longer. Got a lot of time before the movie. Want to, um…” Susie tried to think for a moment. What else do people do on dates? She tried looking this stuff up earlier. Shopping, going to a museum, walking through a park; was any of this something Kris would even want to do?
“Relax,” Kris grabbed her hand to snap her out of her thoughts, “just think of what you’d find fun.”
“Hmm… in that case,” Susie had the sort of grin that was always on her face when she was about to suggest something crazy, “saw a junkyard just before the bus stop. Wanna sneak in and see if there’s something cool to steal? Or hell, just smash stuff?”
Kris’s eyes lit up so brightly they didn’t even need to speak.
Getting into the junkyard was easy enough: what was a chain link fence to someone as strong as Susie? The pair climbed through the new hole in the fence and started looking around. There wasn’t a whole lot that immediately stood out, but Susie found some old welding goggles that looked really cool on her. She put them on and started digging some more. When she found a nice length of pipe, Susie had a fun idea.
“Hey, Kris,” Susie called out to her love, who was searching through the trunk of a mostly-smashed car. “Find some shit to throw and let’s play some baseball.” She got into a batter’s stance, while Kris found some unidentifiable car part that was about the right size to throw.
Kris wound up and let loose, Susie swung the pipe, and the car part slammed into the fence behind her. She grunted in annoyance; the little human was so much smaller than her that sometimes she forgot how good they were at stuff like this.
“I’ll take a few steps back,” Kris had the smuggest look on their face as they put some extra distance between them. Grabbing another piece of scrap, they pitched it at Susie. The pipe connected this time, and Kris was forced to jump out of the way as broken metal zoomed past them.
“Shit! Sorry! That wasn’t on purpose!” Panic filled Susie’s voice at seeing how close she came to injuring her beloved human. “Maybe we should stop?” Kris just laughed and grabbed part of a broken car door, holding it up like a shield.
The sight of them reminded Susie of how Kris looked in the dark world. Armor, sword, shield; they were the very image of the knight in a story book. She started thinking of the times they saved her with their shield, and got so lost in her thoughts she didn’t even swing at the next pitch.
“You okay?” Kris shouted out, snapping her back to her senses. Susie gave them a thumbs up. The next three pieces of junk were struck dead on, sailing far over the fence and into the empty field behind the yard. They’ll have to remember to look for those later.
“Hey,” Susie tossed the pipe aside, a new idea in her head. “Good as you are at pitching, think if I throw some shit up real high you can knock it out of the air?” Kris nodded, and she started finding things to throw that would make a satisfying noise when hit. Loud crashes and bangs rang out, as Kris flung rocks and small pieces of junk up at flying pieces of sheet metal and plastic.
Wanting to find something really satisfying to smash, Susie searched the back of a beat up car. Nestled in the seat cushions was a snow globe, slightly cracked but still filled. A tiny Santa and some pine trees stood inside it, surrounded by fake snow. She admired it for a moment, and considered just keeping it. She quickly changed her mind, though, thinking instead of how cool it might look being smashed open twenty feet in the air.
“You better not miss this one!” Susie held out the snow globe towards Kris. She threw it high into the air, where a rock perfectly passed through it. The globe brilliantly exploded into a cloud of water, glass, and glitter. The evening sun caught the shattered pieces perfectly, causing them to glisten as they floated in the air. Susie walked over to Kris, and wrapped her arms around them, as they quietly gazed up at the scattered lights.
Even with the time spent hunting for the scrap that got launched out into the field, the pair made it to the theater well before the movie would start. It gave them plenty of time to take turns brushing junkyard dirt from each other. They didn’t want to look so filthy that the theater staff might refuse entry.
Once inside, they got in line at the concession stand. Susie used the last of the cash she’d saved up for the date, earned through some odd jobs around town, to buy a couple drinks and the largest popcorn size they had. After dispensing so much butter onto the popcorn that it started to pool at the bottom of the bucket, they started walking through the theater to find which screen had the movie they were there to see.
“Can’t believe you picked romance instead of horror,” Kris teased her as they sat down in the back row. “This what you wanted to see, or just buy the wrong tickets?”
“Shut up, I can try something new if I want,” Susie snapped back. “I mean, is this sort of movie okay with you?” She was never all that interested in romantic movies. She just heard that watching a movie on a date was less about the movie itself, than it was about being in a dark theater together for two hours.
“It’s cool. I like this sort of stuff too.” She first thought Kris was just teasing her still, until she looked down at them. Their eyes had that soft look to them that they always did when they were being genuine. Shivers ran up Susie’s spine at the sight of them.
“Of course you do, weirdo.” Susie tried to restrain herself from kissing them, wanting to at least wait until the movie started. The attempt failed, and she pulled Kris so close that they nearly crushed their drinks between them. As much as she wanted to devour them then and there; she held back, barely. The two locked lips for a moment before parting.
“Um…” Susie felt a little anxious at her sudden forwardness and looked away, “just, wanted one that didn’t taste like butter.”
“Better be a lot more of that later then.” She didn’t even have to look at Kris to know they had a stupid grin on their face.
Thankfully even once the movie started, it was a mostly empty theater. It meant there was no one sitting nearby to stare at or complain about the two idiots fighting over a popcorn bucket. They kept snatching it away from each other, while trying to keep the other from doing the same, until they had gotten more popcorn on the floor than they managed to actually eat.
Finally, Susie held the bucket over her head, and poured the remaining popcorn and butter into her mouth. Before she could bite down, however, Kris reached in, grabbed a handful of kernels, and shoved them in their own mouth without hesitation. She was so surprised that she nearly choked.
“The fuck?” She whispered harshly at them, “Are you trying to lose a hand?”
“Got a spare,” Kris laughed back, holding up their other hand.
Susie immediately learned forward and closed her mouth around the exposed limb. She thought about biting down a little to see if she could get Kris to panic, when she felt teeth clamping down on her own fingers. It didn’t take long for them to get self-conscious about biting each other in public, even if no one in the theater was watching them. They both backed off, feeling incredibly awkward, and just watched the movie in silence for a while.
Eventually, Kris got over that awkwardness, and climbed up on Susie’s leg. They cupped her face with their hands, and gently turned her head towards them.
“Aren’t we supposed to be watching the movie,” Susie asked, but she couldn’t help but smile, seeing that face in front of her.
“Said earlier I should only be looking at you.” Kris leaned in and kissed her - payback for earlier.
“You’re damn right you should be.” Susie grabbed the back of Kris’s head, making sure they didn't dare pull away again.
Kris and Susie got so wrapped up in each other, that they didn't even notice the movie ended until the lights came on. Quickly the couple slipped out of the theater, not wanting anyone to see them in their current state. Once they got out, Susie checked the time, and realized the movie ran later than she thought it would.
“Hey, uh, I think we missed the last bus.” She muttered, trying to think of other options.
“Yeah. Texting my dad,” Kris pulled out their phone and started typing for a moment, "Convenience store about a block from here. He’ll meet us there.”
At the store, Kris bought some drinks, while Susie swiped as many paper towels from the bathroom as she could. Most of their time waiting was spent with Susie trying to clean Kris’s face. She was worried what their dad would say if he saw them covered with bite marks and popcorn butter. By the time Asgore’s truck rolled up, she had Kris looking almost presentable again.
Not that the efforts were really needed. Kris barely exchanged a word with their old man, then helped Susie climb up into the bed of the truck with them. There was just barely enough room for the pair to lie down between all the gardening supplies. Spilled potting soil covered the truck bed in a thin layer, which at least made it softer than lying down directly on the metal.
When the truck started moving, the two of them stayed still for a few minutes, not wanting to draw attention to themselves while still in city limits. No sense in ruining the night by getting Kris’s dad pulled over. Once they were on the highway, Susie started shoveling the soil onto Kris with her hands.
“What are you doing?” Kris asked, a bit amused.
“Trying to plant an apple tree.” She replied with a wide smile on her face, causing Kris to completely fail at stifling a laugh.
“God, you’re so stupid.” Kris rolled over and draped their arm across her chest, “Still love you though.”
Kris quietly laughed again as Susie’s face flushed a deep red. Kris had already said plenty of times that they loved her, but she still got affected each time just as strongly as she did the first. Her arm curled under Kris’s body, and she scooped them up on top of her.
She gazed into those red eyes that she had always loved, the stars above them a perfect backdrop framing their face. “Love you too, idiot.”