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Noelle Holiday is sitting at the vanity in her room, carefully braiding her hair while looking into the sticker-covered mirror. She runs her fur-covered fingers through the long blonde hair, soft from her earlier shower. The room has been enveloped by a peppermint-y smell from her shampoo. It’s been her signature scent since her childhood, comforting her and always reminding her of the best day of the year— christmas!
It's 2 AM on a warm summer night, and Noelle is finally getting ready for bed after staying up late watching theory videos on her favourite games and reading through forums discussing Cat Petterz and Dragon Blazers. She finishes off her hair, tying it with a red and white hairband. She looks into the mirror and smiles, excited to get into her cold bed in her favourite comfy T-shirt.
She goes and sits on the bed, opening her laptop once more. Nothing helps her fall asleep better than Minecrap playthroughs by her favourite childhood creators.
She finds one that she’s seen about a million times, and sets the laptop on her nightstand. Right as she’s about to lay down, Noelle hears a sudden noise at her window that makes her jump. She lets out a squeak, but tries to stay quiet to avoid waking her mom. She sits completely still, freezing at the sound, until she hears it again. Noelle stares with wide eyes, struggling to move. What if it's the severed hand from that one scary movie that has finally come to get her? What if it's the headless cat she accidentally made in Cat Petterz 2 as a kid? What if it's-
Bang. Bang. Bang.
Noelle springs up from the bed now, needing to stop the noise before her mom wakes up. The last thing she needs is a 6 AM lecture from her mom before she goes to work while all Noelle wants to do is go back to sleep. She pulls aside the curtains and sees…
Damn it.
"KRIS! SUSIE!?" She whisper-shouts while opening the window. Before her were her two friends, who had climbed up to her window onto the roof outside, with Kris hanging onto Susie's back. They were both smiling wildly, clearly pleased with themselves.
"What the hell!" Noelle continues. "It's 2 am!"
They finally make their way all the way up. Kris gets off Susie and they squat down next to the window.
"Hey, Noelle! What's up!" Susie says at a volume way too loud for the middle of the night. Noelle shushes her immediately. She sees Kris grinning next to Susie. What are they planning. What do they want!?
"The hell? What's wrong?" Susie says incredulously. "What's wrong!? You guys are at my window! In the middle of the night! On the roof!?" Noelle counters. Susie smiles, showing off her sharp teeth.
"We're just bored. Geez, can't we come see our friend?!" Noelle opens her mouth to argue, but can't find it in herself to even bother with these two, knowing their track record.
"Alright, get down. I need to sleep." Noelle says while closing the window.
"No! Wait! Noelle, please, please please we came all this way and we just wanna hang out pleaaase-" Susie pleads as she slowly closes the window. Kris grabs the window before it fully closes.
"C'mon, we just wanna see you!" Kris mumbles, dragging out their words with a playful smile on their face. Noelle looks at the two for a moment before opening the window again.
"Whatever, just get in.”
"Why are you guys actually here?" Noelle asks, sitting on her bed and straightening out her red shorts. Kris is sitting on the ground playing with a stretchy candy cane toy they found. Susie sits on her desk chair, hands in her pockets, looking around Noelle's room. She’s only been here a few times, the group preferring to spend time at Kris’ house or in Noelle’s living room.
"Told you. Wanted to hang out." Kris says without looking up, completely deadpan. Susie spins around in the chair, eventually landing on looking at Noelle's mirror. She leans towards it and messes up her already-messy hair. Noelle looks at the two for a while, just observing them, feeling both confused, annoyed, and slightly happy at their presence in her room.
Kris and Susie showing up unannounced isn't exactly anything new. They do things that confuse Noelle all the time, like spending way too much time inside the storage closet at school together with no explanation, eating random things they find and sleeping through entire days of school.
But this was definitely new. Despite the fact that the three have gotten closer the past few months, and have started to feel more comfortable hanging out without really needing to plan it, this felt quite strange. But the longer they stayed in her room, the less Noelle minded. Not that she was gonna admit that. She decided to keep up her annoyed demeanor.
"Well." Noelle puts her laptop away and lays down, pulling her blanket up to her chin. "I'm gonna sleep." She states, deciding to take control of the situation.
"What? No!" Susie argues, looking back at Noelle, but she just closes her eyes and sighs happily. Susie stands up and looks over at Kris, who looks back at her with an uninterested expression. After a short while, Susie speaks up. "Alright, let's go I guess. Maybe we could go smash old cans with baseball bats? Or maybe-”
"Hey, what? No way!" Noelle interrupts, sitting up suddenly. Her idea did not quite go as planned. The other two look at her, both looking so dumbfounded Noelle had to hold back her laughter. If they wanted to interrupt her night's sleep, they had to go through with their plan.
"You guys are just gonna leave?" Kris and Susie look at each other, confused at Noelle's sudden switch-up. "No. You can't come here making all that noise and then just leave. It's honestly a miracle my mom hasn't woken up yet, and I'm not risking it again, You guys are staying." She states before laying back down and closing her eyes. She giggles at herself in her head, finally confusing them more than they've confused her.
"The hell do we do now, then!?" Susie asks. Kris shrugs, looking mildly amused, before going back to their candy cane toy. Susie sits back down, seemingly defeated.
"You're kidnapped now. Shouldn't have come here if you didn't wanna stay." Noelle says with a mischievous smile, opening her eyes to look at her friends. Kris smiles, and seems fine to just go along with it. Susie already looks bored, which makes Noelle laugh silently.
"This is what you wanted, dumbass." Kris says smugly to Susie. She looks kind of embarrassed at that.
"Hey! Shut up, you wanted to come here too!" She says defensively. Kris just smirks.
"So, like.. can we watch TV?" Susie asks. "No." Noelle responds. "I told you, I have to sleep."
"It's only 2 AM." Kris says, as if that makes Noelle's statement any less valid.
"Not my fault you guys always stay up so late." She retorts playfully, trying to exude an air of righteousness.
"How do you know that?" Susie asks, slightly cautiously.
"Well, you're both always sleeping through class!! It's not exactly detective work I'm doing here!” She laughs. “Maybe try fixing your sleep schedules tonight or something."
"I'm not tired." Susie says stubbornly.
"What else are you gonna do, then?" Kris asks. "I'll try to sleep." They stand up and look around for a second. "... where should I sleep?”
Noelle blushes at that, realising that her genius "taking control of the people always pulling pranks on her" plan most likely involves sharing her bed with the two said pranksters. She sits up and starts running her hands over her braids nervously.
"Um, well, you can decide, like the floor is fine I guess if you want but like my bed also works like for me fahaha but you should totally decide and everything I don't wanna-”
"I'm not sleeping on the floor." Kris says in their monotone voice, heading over to Noelle's large bed and tries to lay down. Keyword: tries.
"Hey! Wait! No outside clothes on the bed!" Noelle says, regaining sanity at the thought of someone's dirty clothes messing up her bed. Kris stops themself and pauses. They look at Noelle with a look that says "What the hell am I supposed to wear then, surely you understand I didn't think far ahead enough to pack pyjamas.”
"Um, you can borrow some of my sleep clothes if you want. Like, only if you want and stuff but I have some things that you could wear and... yeah..." Noelle rambles again, trailing off feeling embarrassed. She ignores Susie smirking at her from the corner of her eye. Kris walks over to Noelle's closet, grabs a pair of black shorts and holds them up.
"Yeah, that's fine. Just take any T-shirt you want." Kris rumbles through her closet for a while before choosing an absolutely horrific Amongst ourselves shirt Berdly gave her as a "joke". She's still pretty convinced that he gave it to her seriously but then said it was a joke after he saw her laughing at it. She still feels a bit bad about it. Only a bit though.
Kris changes in the middle of the room, throwing their normal clothes on the floor Noelle looks away, embarrassed despite having seen Kris change countless times during their childhood. It was different now. Susie keeps her gaze on Noelle, mouthing something at her. It looked a bit like “You’re so awkward lol”. Whatever.
Susie starts rummaging through Noelle’s desk, trying to find something to do. She clearly fails, so walks over and grabs Noelle’s laptop instead. Noelle decides to let her, being distracted thinking about the situation she’s put herself in.
“Fuck yeah, the skateboard game…” Susie mumbles after she sits back down at the desk.
After Kris changed into their... unique? Outfit, they walk back to Noelle's bed and lay down. She moves over to make some room, and tries to act as normal as possible.
"We haven't had a sleepover in a long time." She points out blankly after a short awkward silence, not wanting to show whether she cares about that fact or not.
"Yeah. And the first one in years is due to a kidnapping." Kris says, deadpan.
"Okay, I'm sorry you could like leav- " Noelle begins while turning to look at Kris, starting to feel guilty.
"Nah, shut up, I don't actually mind." Noelle relaxes, even though she knew they were most likely joking in the first place. She's gotten quite used to distinguishing the different ways Kris shows emotion, and their interesting ways of expressing themself.
Despite not being particularly excited about the surprise visit, Noelle starts to feel quite happy about their presence. It's nice being so close to Kris again, and she's always secretly thrilled to see Susie.
Apparently not all that secretly, according to Kris.
“Alright, screw this, I can’t get the cheats to work.” Susie says while shutting the laptop. “Make some space for me!” She walks over to the bed.
“Hey, same rules go for you, Susie." Noelle says, feeling proud of herself for finally being able to speak more normally around Susie. Hanging out with her and Kris at school, or at her or Kris' house has helped her feel a lot less nervous in Susie's presence.
After the weird dream she had, Noelle decided to take dream-Susie's advice, and asked them both to hang out after school. She had still been too nervous to ask just Susie, but she soon realised that something about Kris made Noelle feel a lot more at ease. After a while, she started wanting to hang out with Kris just as much as Susie. She liked being around both of them.
"How the hell do you expect me to fit into your clothes? I know you and Kris are the size of like... I don't know, ants or something? Doesn't mean everyone else is." Noelle giggles at her stupid comparison.
"Just wear your T-shirt then. And... um.." Noelle struggles to think of what pants Susie could wear, but at the same time refusing to let her wear her normal jeans.
"Take your jeans off." Kris says, looking up at the ceiling with an extremely neutral expression. "You don't have to wear anything." Noelle blushes furiously at this, eyes widening and averting her gaze. "Kris, what the hell?" She whispered. Susie considered the suggestion for a while, also feeling a bit embarrassed at the thought.
"That alright with you, Noelle?" She asked, sounding more shy than Noelle had ever heard her. And that honestly wasn't saying a lot. She still radiated an air of confidence.
"UM, YEAH." Noelle said, her nose starting to glow red. She could feel Kris laughing beside her, but decidedly ignored them.
Susie took off her jacket and jeans and threw them onto Noelle's chair. She looked at the bed, and saw a concerning lack of space. Anywhere that wasn't taken up by Noelle and Kris was absolutely covered in stuffed animals. Kris was staring at Noelle, who was intently looking anywhere but their face. Or at Susie.
Noelle's embarrassment was quickly replaced by anger as Susie started taking her plushies and throwing them off the bed onto the floor. Noelle gasped loudly, and Susie looked at her, extremely confused.
"ExCHEESE me!! Be careful!!! These are precious!!!" Noelle said while gesturing at her plushies, quietly but still with so much intent that Susie looked slightly frightened. "That's Miss Bauble you're throwing!!”
"Yeah, Susie, show Mr. Snowy some damn respect!" Kris adds, which makes Noelle laugh and look at Kris incredulously. "No way you still remember their names!"
Susie looks between the two before continuing to throw the assorted animals-slash-anthropomorphic-christmas-themed-objects onto the floor.
"You guys are so damn weird."
Noelle decides not to argue.
"And then I was like SMASH and Kris like, FLEW through the air, it was SO sick!!" Susie recounted animatedly, expressing herself wildly with her hands. "They're like, always trying to beat me in a fight, as if that's ever gonna happen!" Susie laughs. "Not when you don't have Ral-"
Kris quickly cuts Susie off by whipping their head around to glare at her. Noelle looks at them both, confused, but way too tired to think too hard about it. She's lying between them, smiling contently at Susie's stories about her and Kris' hangouts. She could tell Kris has gotten more okay with speaking around her again, which made her feel weirdly proud of herself. Makes her feel like she’s… safe to them?
Susie and Kris are relieved that Noelle didn't seem to notice the slip-up.
Kris yawns and stretches out their arms. "What, already tired?" Susie teases. Kris thinks it's a stupid thing to be competitive about. But still... can't back down from a challenge.
"No."
"You always say that." She laughs.
"Wha'? You guys sleepover a lot or something?" Noelle mumbles sleepily.
"Yeah, kinda. Kris' house is way nicer than mine." She says, trying to seem like she's joking, but knowing that it's definitely true. Susie feels way more at home at Toriel's house than her own parents' shitty apartment.
She thinks about the fact that Noelle has no idea what her living situation is like... no way she'll ever tell her. Not when Noelle lives in a house like this. She'd probably think Susie is like, not worth hanging with anymore.
Nah, she's way too nice for that. And it's not like Kris is super rich either or anything.
"Oh, okay. What do you guys do?" Noelle asks, trying to seem cool and not at all secretly jealous that she hasn't been invited to a sleepover with them before.
"I don't know, not much. Do all-nighter monster movie marathons. Eat pie. Play games sometimes.”
"We mostly eat pie." Kris adds. Noelle giggles.
"That why you're both sleeping through class?"
"Wh- eating pie? The hell, why would that make us-"
"Fahaha, no! The marathons!"
"Oh, um. Yeah?" Noelle is giggling too hard to notice the weird response. If only she knew they were actually hanging out in a crazy world where objects come to life and they have countless friends that could never actually come visit them.
A world where they get to go on exciting adventures, using their skills to get through battles and puzzles..
A world Noelle only thinks exists in her dreams.
"Why'd you come here tonight? Got bored of monster movies?”
"Got sick of Susie hogging all the pie.”
"Shut up! No I wasn't!" Susie leans over to lightly punch Kris on the arm. "We were just fighting in the woods and Kris got sick of losing a million times." She adds in retaliation.
"Fighting?" Noelle says, furrowing her brow.
"Oh, yeah, but like, for fun. Like challenging each other and stuff. Not like I ever get a real challenge though." Susie says confidently, looking over at Kris.
"Hey, I win sometimes."
"Only when you climb on my back and refuse to get off, dumbass!!!" Susie says aggressively, which makes Noelle laugh. "And sometimes I don't feel like laying down to SQUISH you to death!! Humans are so damn frail, you know that, Noelle?”
"Oh, yeah." Noelle says, not pointing out that deer-monsters weren't much stronger anyways.
"What the hell, guys. I'm real strong." Kris says, lacking any real defensiveness. They hold their arm up above the three and flex. Noelle grabs their arm and laughs quietly. "Shut up.”
"How about this, then?" Susie says, holding out her much bigger arm in front of the other two. The difference makes Noelle giggle. Her and Kris grab Susie's bicep and pretend to swoon. "Wow. A big, strong lizard to protect us." Kris says with a smirk on their face.
"See? A real monster right here."
"I'm not even a monster, dumbass."
"Whatever."
"Look, guys, I'm a real monster too." Noelle says, stretching her arm out and letting it hang limply above her. The others grab her furry arm and laugh.
"Too tired to flex. But like, believe me." She says sleepily. Kris reaches up and tangles their fingers between hers, letting their hands fall to the bed again. Noelle smiles, feeling warm inside. Too tired to react properly, she just accepts it. Not that she'd mind, even if she was wide awake.
"So like, should we hang tomorrow?" Susie asks. "No. 've got stuff to do." Noelle mumbles.
"Can you cancel the stuff?" Kris asks.
"Yeah. Nothin' important anyways." she yawns. "I was just-" she cuts herself off with her own giggles. "-was just gonna study anyways." She keeps laughing. Kris and Susie look at each other and smile at Noelle’s delirious state.
"Alright, what do you wanna do tomorrow, Noelley?" Kris says, using an old childhood nickname to tease her, also wanting to keep hearing her half-asleep responses. She just bursts out into giggles again, squirming around in between her two friends. "Shut up, Krismas!" she mumbles, her eyes closed. Susie lets out a bark of laughter at the nickname.
"I wanna... I wanna.. bake cookies..” Noelle stammers.
"Oh, hell yeah. You guys can do that while I eat them all."
"I think people say like, 'taste test them'. Not just 'while I eat them all'. That doesn't even make sense if you wanna be like, sneaky.”
"Shut up, Krismas.”
"Um..." Noelle says mid-yawn. "Or we can like... play game."
"Play game." Kris repeats blankly. "I'd love to play game." Noelle bursts into another fit of giggles.
Susie yawns and puts one arm behind her head. Noelle opens her eyes and looks sleepily at Susie. She turns around to face her, bringing Kris' hand around and holding it close to her chest. They follow along, cuddling up to Noelle while she stretches her leg across Susie's stomach.
The three of them get comfortable, feeling more and more tired. Susie brings her other hand around, tangling her fingers through Kris' apple flavoured hair while they rest their head at the back of Noelle's neck.
The peppermint scent overwhelms their senses, bringing back countless memories of hanging out with Noelle as a child. They can't help but feel happy now that they've gotten closer once more.
Kris had missed Noelle— way more than they'd admit — during their teenage years. They had pushed everyone away, but regretted it most of all when it came to Noelle. She had always been such a good friend. Kris hopes they can make it up to her, eventually.
Noelle felt that they already had.
Noelle snuggles up to Susie's chest, feeling safe in between her two best friends. She falls asleep almost instantly, with Kris soon following suit, just as Susie expected. She looks at her two friends and smiles, finally feeling truly at home in this town.