Chapter Text

Berdly was standing in front of the door. Although this wasn’t his first time coming to Kris’ house, it wasn’t something he was used to. Most of the time they played online, and half the times someone had visited each other’s house, it was his. 

He hesitated whether he should knock the door or ring the doorbell, not sure which would be the best option. If he knocked the door, perhaps they wouldn’t hear him. But if he rang the doorbell, perhaps they would be annoyed at him not knocking the door. 

The weather wasn’t especially good that day. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good either. It was a perfect day for doing what they were going to do: gathering in a house and playing Dungeons and Dragons the whole day.

Berdly had always loved Dungeons and Dragons. It had always given him what he wanted, the fantasy of choosing your own story. Of becoming a legendary heroine in a world infested by evil, magic and powerful deities. But if he wanted to do that, he would first have to enter Kris’ home. So, after finally deciding, Berdly took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

He stood there for what felt like an eternity. Should he knock again? Maybe he should’ve just rang the doorbell instead. As he was about to knock again, the door opened, revealing a familiar reindeer looking face. “Hi” she said as she let him enter the house. “We are still waiting for Susie, so…” she mentioned while closing the door once Berdly had finally entered the house.

“Alright, and hello as well” he replied. “Where is Kris, by the way?” 

Immediately after asking this, he saw Kris coming downstairs. “Hi” they greeted him while raising their hand, to which Berdly waved back. “Did you finish your character?” they inquired. 

“Of course I did!” Berdly answered with pride. He wasn’t like others, he knew to finish his character sheet before starting a campaign. That way, they wouldn’t have to waste their time preparing it, and it would save them an hour or two. He pulled a nicely folded paper from his right pocket and handed it to Kris.

Kris unfolded it and started making sure everything was on check. Noelle in curiosity went to Kris’ side and started looking at it as well. As soon as she saw it, she started grinning. She gave Berdly a quick look, as if they were both partners preparing a crime. Berdly however wasn't a partner in any sort of crime, and was left confused. 

“Looks like everything’s on check” Kris mentioned as they approached the table to leave the sheet along another one (probably Noelle’s), a bunch of books and a notebook whose cover read 'The underworld kingdom'  written in red permanent marker. “Susie’s the only one remaining” they muttered.

“So… we gotta wait huh?” Berdly wondered, to which Kris nodded. 

“We were planning on baking a pie, if you want to join…” Noelle mentioned. 

Berdly immediately thought of the offer. Baking a pie while waiting for Susan didn’t really sound appealing, but it would definitely be better than waiting for the angel knows how long while browsing Reddit. “Yeah I guess” he mentioned. 

“It will be fun!” Noelle added. If Noelle said it would be fun, then it probably would be fun. She was right most of the time, at least.

Not too long after, once the pie was finally in the oven, the doorbell rang. “There she is” Kris mentioned as they headed towards the door. 

However, Noelle was faster, and clearly more excited than them about Susie. She quickly opened the door. “Hi Susie! How are you doing?” she greeted her, almost stumbling her words as she usually did when she was excited. 

Unlike Berdly, Susie didn’t seem to be in any rush to enter the house. Instead, it seemed like she was going to stay on the porch for the whole day talking with Noelle. Susie said something, or at least that’s what Berdly guessed because Noelle started giggling while doing a hand gesture and bringing her right hand to her mouth. “Okay, that’s enough” Kris interrupted them as they separated Noelle from the door, almost dragging her away from it. Noelle finally gave in, and decided to sit on the sofa next to Berdly.

Susie, astonished, finally decided to enter and closed the door behind her. “Alright so what’s the plan?” she inquired while quickly examining the house with her sight, as if she was making sure that everything was still the place it should be. As soon as she saw Berdly, her face changed into a surprised one. “I didn’t know you were coming” she revealed to him. “Kris you didn’t tell me he was coming” she reproached them.

Berdly felt uncomfortable. Kinda. He knew Susie didn’t really despise him, but he felt a bit hurt after that reaction. But that was just the way Susie was, she always said what she was thinking without considering how others might feel; for the better and for the worse.

Kris gave Susie a deadly stare. “That’s because you stopped listening after I told you that Noelle-”

“Oh yeah” Susie interrupted them. She quickly gave Noelle a look, and she looked at her back. That was too gross for Berdly. Maybe today wouldn’t be as he thought, and instead Noelle and Susan would just get corny for the whole session. 

“Anyways!” Noelle broke the uncomfortable moment. “Are we going to do this or what?” she asked while looking at Kris. 

They shrugged, “I guess” they answered. 

“Cool! Can I make the honors? I brought my own knife” Susie said.

Unlike Kris, Noelle and Berdly quickly turned their heads towards Susie. “Susie… What are you talking about?” Berdly wondered with certain fear. What did they need a knife for? Today it was going to be just a normal DnD session, right…?

Susie immediately felt as if she had said something she shouldn’t have. “Nothing, I was joking” she tried to brush it off as she quickly approached Kris and started whispering to their ear. 

“I didn’t say that, I said we were going to play Dungeons and Dragons” they replied.

Susie looked mildly disappointed. “Well, this Dungeons and Dragons better be as good as a dark world because that’s not what I came for” she said out loud.

“A… A what?” Noelle asked out loud. “Susie you shouldn’t be thinking about-” 

“Sure, whatever” Susie tried to brush it off, interrupting her. “Not like they haven’t done it before” she gave them away as she pointed them with her thumb. 

“You did WHAT?” Berdly asked. “But didn’t that goat guy say…” 

“Listen, that happened and that’s in the past, I don’t wanna talk about it” they finally admitted. 

“I still don’t know how you managed to make your mom believe that everything was just a dream” Susie recalled, trying not to laugh. “At least she hasn’t noticed the hole in the carpet yet” 

Berdly looked at the carpet on the floor, and saw it. A clear hole right in the middle of it, as if something had drilled through it. He probably would’ve never seen it hadn’t it been because Susie had pointed it out, but once he had seen it he couldn’t stop noticing it.

“Anyways, I didn’t bring a controller so…” Susie said to the group, as if she was excusing herself. 

“We aren’t going to use a controller, it's a tabletop” Noelle added. 

Susie immediately looked confused. “Tabletop…? Like monopoly…?”

Immediately, Berdly saw his time to shine. This was his moment, his glory hour. He would finally be able to illustrate such an ignorant person in the marvelous world of Dungeons and Dragons, and hopefully introduce her to that fantastical world that had infinite hours of entertainment and storytelling. “Oh, my dear Susan, this game isn’t like monopoly. This is a real game, a game of imagination, of adventures, of…” as he was explaining this, both Noelle and Kris exchanged looks, as if they were saying here he goes again . “... in Dungeons and Dragons, you can be anything! From a legendary hero-” 

“I’m already a legendary hero in the dark world” Susie interrupted them while grinning. “Kris why can’t we just open a fountain instead of-”

“No” Kris and Noelle replied at the same time. 

Susie snorted, and Berdly kept explaining. “Well as I was saying, it’s a role playing game in which Kris is going to be the dungeon master and we will be the players”

“What the hell is a dungeon master?” Susie started laughing. “They gonna dress up in leather or what?” Noelle started laughing with Susie as well. 

“Not funny didn’t laugh” Kris muttered, trying to contain their laughter as well.

Berdly felt a bit confused. What was she talking about? “How do you not know what a dungeon master is? That’s common knowledge!” he reproached her. “A dungeon master is someone who basically plays god and takes the main direction of the story. We are the ones playing their game” 

Susie stopped laughing at her own stupid joke and tried to understand what Berdly had just said. 

“It’s like playing a videogame and what Kris says is the videogame” Noelle explained to her.

“Oh” Susie finally understood. “That’s cool I guess. And how do I play?” 

“First you need to create a character” Berdly started explaining again.

“Which is why I asked you to come here first, but whatever. I’ll help you create it now” Kris added, as they grabbed Susie’s arm and brought her to the table. They both sat in there as Kris pulled out another sheet from inside their notebook and opened one of the books. 

“What the hell are these?” Susie wondered as she picked up one of the dice. 

“Dices, we will be using them for-” Berdly started explaining, but once again was interrupted by Susie.

“But dice are cubes, and these are weird” she complained.

“Dice are weird and come in all shapes” Kris added. “Like monsters”

“So I can get a godzilla shaped dice?” Susie wondered.

“No” they replied.

“Oh well…” Susie said with certain disappointment in her voice. 

“So anyways, this is your character sheet and we are going to fill it” Kris mentioned as they showed her the empty sheet. 

Noelle decided to get up from the sofa and sat next to Susie. She handed Susie the other character sheets, “this is how it’s supposed to look like” she explained.

Susie started looking at them. “There’s too many letters and numbers” she complained. She started reading them carefully, trying to understand the way they were organized. As she started examining the second sheet, she pointed out something. “But these are two girls, Berdly are you going to play as a girl or what?” she asked with a roguish voice. 

Berdly felt attacked. What was wrong with it? Couldn’t he just roleplay as a girl?

“Yeah he usually does that” Kris mentioned, not paying too much attention to it. 

“But isn’t this like, roleplay?” Susie wondered. She knew she’d have to be careful with what she said. She was curious, but she didn’t want to sound mean. 

“Yeah…” Noelle muttered while gently shaking Susie’s left arm, as if she was trying to tell her to stop. Susie understood, and stopped asking about it.

It took them almost two hours, as Susie got easily distracted and Kris was the one doing most of the job. Berdly helped Kris as he only wanted to start the campaign as soon as possible, and Noelle just stared and tried to give Susie advice whenever she didn’t really know what to choose. In the end, Susie just ended up playing a barbarian. 

“Next time I’ll just prepare the character for you” Kris said. “At least the other two are already done so…” 

“Yeah so are we going to take a break now? I’m tired” Susie asked. 

Kris snorted and Berdly made a tired sound. They had just spent almost two hours trying to get the character over so they could start playing as soon as possible. But they knew Susie was right, or at least Kris did because they could feel their head spin. 

“Sure, thirty minute break” Kris muttered, tired. 

Noelle checked the time on her watch. “It’s almost lunch time, how about we have lunch now?” she suggested. 

That sounded like a good idea that everyone could agree with, so Noelle quickly approached Kris’ fridge and pulled out a big tupperware. Well, two big tupperwares. “What we eating?” Susie wondered.

“Oh, for you I tried to prepare some loin steaks…” Noelle started saying, as if she was excusing herself.

“YOU prepared the food?” Susie said incredulously. “For real?” she  asked excitedly.

“Yeah. WELL as I was saying, you know no one in my family is used to cooking meat so I hope it’s not terrible” Noelle finally finished. “And I also made some grated cauliflower” she added.

“I’ll just go with the steaks” Kris said. 

“I made steaks for two people and cauliflower for another two…” Noelle muttered.

Once again, it was Berdly’s time to be the shining knight. “Don’t worry, lady Noelle, I’ll take gladly endure the cauliflower” 

However, Noelle didn’t seem to like that reaction. “Hey it’s not that bad! I’m good at cooking!” she said without hesitation, clearly offended by the perceptions of her friends not wanting to eat what she had prepared. However, she took a deep breath and finally relaxed. “I shouldn’t have prepared cauliflower…” she started muttering. Maybe she should’ve prepared something with a wider audience, like some macaroni with tomato. But that was too simple, and she was bored of eating that almost every day.

“Princess, I’d eat the cauliflower but I’m a carnivore” Susie said as she hugged Noelle, trying to make her feel a bit better.

“Yeah it’s just…” Noelle muttered.

“It’s okay” Susie whispered. 

This was another mildly awkward moment for Berdly. He didn’t have the intention of hurting Noelle with his witty comment. “Hey Noelle I didn’t mean to…”

“I know” Noelle answered. “Whatever, are we going to eat or what?” she finally said, and Susie stopped hugging her. 

After microwaving the food and preparing the table, the group started having lunch while sharing some small talk. “So, how long have you guys been doing this?” Susie asked. 

“We haven’t done one in a while…” Kris said with a certain melancholy. “My brother used to be the DM, but now that he’s in college…” 

“DM?” Susie wondered

“Dungeon master” they replied.

“We’ve been doing this for almost two years” Noelle added. “Well, kinda” 

“We’re basically going to start a campaign today” Berdly added. “It normally takes a few sessions to finish one”

Susie snorted. “So we’re going to do this a few more times…?” 

Noelle chuckled. “I hope, because we never finished the rest” 

Kris grinned. “Azzy has a drawer full of campaigns we never finished, if you want I can show it to you later” they said.

“Maybe” Susie replied. “And do you like, always use the same characters or…?”

Noelle giggled a bit. “Nah, I mean yeah…? Like I always end up changing the race and class but I usually always end up playing a mage”

“Same” Berdly added. “I just change the race” 

“So you always play as a girl…?” Susie wondered.

Berdly, once again, felt attacked. This wasn’t just an attack to his tastes, this was a clear attack to his persona. “Is there anything wrong with roleplaying as a girl?” 

Susie felt she was going to say something wrong, but she wanted to say it anyway. “I mean, not really but usually guys don’t roleplay as a girl for two plus years” she muttered, trying not to break the thin ice she was walking on. 

“You know, Berdly, Susie’s right” Noelle added. “Like, I know you clearly like roleplaying as a girl and stuff. Have you really never wondered…?”

That was it. That was the tipping point. “Listen, JUST BECAUSE I like roleplaying as a girl, that doesn’t mean ANYTHING. It’s just a game after all” he tried to defend himself. But defend what? His manly pride? 

Noelle giggled and gave him an understanding smile. “Berdly…” she called him. “You’ve been doing that for the last two years! In every. Single. Campaign.”

“And?” Berdly inquired. That didn’t have to mean anything. He was just a guy roleplaying as a girl. That’s normal, wasn’t it? To just play D&D as some form as escapism, to become a legendary and powerful heroine in a shiny armor, to…

Susie chuckled. “Have you ever thought about all your friends being queer…?” she teased him a little. She wasn’t sure how to handle the situation, as she didn’t really know him. However, Noelle who clearly knew him much better than her, also shared the same suspicion. 

“That means nothing” Berdly defended himself. He could feel tension building up on his shoulders. But this was weird, it wasn’t as if he was defending himself from some unfair accusations. It was as if he was trying to keep a secret. And although he realized that, he didn’t believe that he was keeping any secret from anyone. There was no secret, he was just a normal guy roleplaying as a girl. 

“Berdly, your egg is almost TRANSparent” Kris joked. “Just admit it, oh god” 

That was the last straw. Berdly didn’t even know what an egg was, but he was done with the accusations. “Of course it is! I’m a BIRD! WE LAY EGGS!” he exploded.

There was silence. Once they were done eating, Kris went upstairs with Susie so they could show her their brother’s notebook collection. And in this moment of privacy, Noelle approached Berdly. “Hey Berdly- I don’t want to be annoying but…” she started excusing herself. Berdly looked at her. He didn’t really mind whatever she had to say to him. Noelle was always nice, and nothing she said could ever have any harmful intentions. And she was almost always nice.  “...but have you really never thought that it’d be much cooler being a girl?” she finally asked him. 

Berdly didn’t know how to reply. Had he thought about that previously? It felt as if he had an answer to that question, but he himself wasn’t aware of it. It felt as a familiar dilemma, but also as if it was new. 

Noelle, seeing Berdly’s face, understood. So she patted his left shoulder. “If you ever need anything you know you can talk with me, right?” she said as she giggled. “I have pretty good experience with this kind of stuff” she added. Berdly still said nothing. 

Kris and Susie finally came back to the living room. “So are we going to play or what?” Susie wondered as they sat at the table. 

“Sure!” Noelle replied. She then looked at her blue friend, and added something. “Shall we go, lady Mileena?”

Chapter Text

That night, Berdly couldn’t sleep. As much as he tried to make his mind go blank, it wouldn’t. The thought wouldn’t go away. 

But that was so stupid. Why wouldn’t it? Why couldn’t he stop wondering how living as a girl would be? Sometimes he had wondered about it previously, before quickly dismissing it. So why couldn’t he stop thinking about it now? 

When he realized, he wasn’t even wondering about that. He was wondering about why he couldn’t drop that thought. He didn’t even want to know how his life would be as a girl, he just wanted to know why he was finding that thought interesting in the first place.

Was it because Noelle had asked him? That could be it. That had to be it. He always thought a lot about everything Noelle said, that was the only way he managed to be the top grader. So the reason why he couldn’t get that idea out of his head was probably nothing else than his brain trying to analyze every single word that girl said in order to get better grades. But that didn’t have to mean anything, thinking about that surely wouldn’t get him a higher score on his next test. 

So he tried to sleep, even though he couldn’t and kept coming back to that thought. Until, when he realized, his alarm clock started ringing and he then noticed how tired he actually felt. 

His head felt dizzy, as if he had fallen asleep without realizing. But he definitely didn’t feel rested. His alarm always rang at 7:15 AM on school days, so today was definitely a Monday. He realized his bedsheets were different from what he remembered, so he definitely fell asleep and probably moved during a dream that he couldn’t remember. With some work and will to not get late, he got up from his bed and approached his closet. He opened it, to find the usual: a mess of t-shirts and the one pair of shorts he always wore. He picked one of them at random like he always did, and dressed up in no time. He checked at the time again, 7:23 AM. He was fine on time. 

After checking his bag and making sure it was prepared, he finally decided to leave his room and go straight to the kitchen, trying not to make any noise so as not to wake up his mom. His dad was already out of the house at work, so if his mom woke up that early she would probably blame it on her son. He grabbed some birdseed and poured them into a bowl. That and some orange juice would make his usual breakfast.

After finishing it, he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth as usual. However, this time he found himself staring at his own reflection. What was he even looking at? That was his face, the one he had been seeing for his whole life. What was in there that he was looking at? There was nothing new to see, nothing interesting. Just the same boring face as always. So why couldn’t he stop looking at it now? 

Maybe it would look better with some-

No, no, what was he even thinking about? His face was already perfect for a boy. He didn’t need to keep looking at himself, he had to brush his teeth. 

Once he was finally done, he checked on the clock again. 7:45 AM. He should have left five minutes ago, so today he would be just on time. He quickly grabbed his backpack and left the house, maybe if he ran all the way to school he wouldn’t have to worry about being so just in time, but he was too tired for that.

The walk was as boring as always. He walked through the pavement humming one of those songs from a video game he really liked, trying not to run into anyone. Not like he was running into anyone, but he still was carefully looking at the streets to make sure he was alone. 

Once he finally arrived at the school building, he checked the time again. 7:58 AM, he was fine, although he hadn’t arrived as early as he usually liked. He entered and quickly went straight to his classroom. 

Before entering, he poked through the glass panel. He sighed in relief, knowing that he wasn’t the last one to arrive and Alphys hadn’t arrived yet. He entered the classroom and went straight to his seat, next to Noelle who kept looking at him with that cheerful smile she usually had when she was near friends.

“Morning Berdly” she greeted him.

“Good morning Noelle” he greeted her back.

“Later than usual, huh?” She pointed out. “You look tired, did you sleep well?”

Berdly had the strong feeling she knew everything. It was as if she had been reading her thoughts for the last 24 hours. And he didn’t know if he liked it. “Sincerely, no, I didn’t sleep well” he replied. “Maybe we could…?”

The bell started ringing, marking the beginning of their first period. However, Alphys hadn’t arrived yet, for some reason. Kris immediately entered the classroom along with Susie, so Noelle seeing the opportunity quickly said “sorry, we will talk later” to Berdly before quickly getting up from her seat just to talk to Susie for a bit before Alphys finally entered the classroom and she started teaching. 

Whatever, he thought. He wasn’t that important after all. Clearly, Noelle had her own priorities, and he wasn’t one of them. At least not anymore.

Miss Alphys finally entered the classroom, visibly flustered and the class began as usual. 

It was finally recess time. He finally had 30 minutes to talk to Noelle… or that was if she wanted to talk to him. He got up from his seat and approached her. She was exchanging looks with Susie, but this was important. He cleared his throat trying to catch her attention, but she clearly didn’t notice. She was infatuated with the purple dragon. 

Berdly decided to touch her shoulder as he called her, “Noelle…?” 

She jumped from her seat. “Oh gosh Berdly you scared me!” She said alleviated while giggling a bit. “I’m sorry…” 

“Do you… do you mind if we talk?” He asked her.

Noelle took a few seconds to wonder what he was asking. What could it possibly be that Berdly wanted to talk about? As she started recalling, her face started lightening up. “YES” she replied excitedly. “But- Do you want to talk here or…?” 

Berdly realized that probably wasn’t the best place to handle a private conversation. They were still in their seats, and Susie and Kris were staring at them. And he wanted- no, he needed privacy. “Somewhere more… private would be better” Berdly answered. 

“I know the place” Noelle quickly answered as she grabbed his arm and pulled him out of the classroom, not without giving Susie a quick all according to the plan look. She brought him to the closet room and opened it.

“Noelle I’m not sure if the closet-“

“The closet is actually pretty fitting” she joked before pushing him inside. 

0v3rl0rd yesterday at 23:59

Hey

0v3rl0rd today at 00:02

Noelle you up?

I wanna talk

No L today at 00:15 

Sorry I was talking to Susie~

Didn’t get the notification cuz stuff

0v3rl0rd is typing…

0v3rl0rd today at 00:17

You know I

Nevermind

No L today at 00:18

You what

???

No L today at 00:23

Berdly u ok?

I can vc if u need to

I’m here for u

0v3rl0rd is calling

“Noelle?” she heard his anxious voice through the speaker

“Yeah”

“I can’t get it out of my head”

“And what do you want me to do?” Noelle replied. It was late at night and she should be asleep. “Sorry I’m really tired, but I can listen”

Some silence. “What did you mean with… why did you ask me that question?” 

Noelle groaned with frustration, softly as she wondered why she had offered to voice chat as using her voice was one of the last things she felt like doing at the moment. 

“Noelle…?”

“You know, it’s just…” she started. She audibly snorted before replying. “You know Berdly I’m not omniscient, I can’t TELL you what you are, it’s just that…” she groaned as she rubbed her face with her left hand, the one that wasn’t holding her phone. “You know that causation doesn’t imply correlation right?”

Silence. “Berdly?”

“What are you even talking about?”

Noelle giggled a bit. “Nothing is just… You just seem kind of like… an egg” she revealed.

“What 's that?” he asked. “I mean like, you aren’t talking about egg egg right?”

Noelle frowned. Should she tell him? Was this violating the directive™? Or was it just helping a friend?

Honestly, she couldn’t care less about whatever the hell the internet had to say about what she was about to do. She was tired and wanted sleep, and the quickest way of getting sleep was through helping her friend in need. 

“An egg is a trans person who hasn’t realized yet” she finally revealed.

“You think I’m trans?” Berdly genuinely asked. 

But Noelle didn’t answer.

“Noelle…?”

“Berdly I’m too tired, why don’t you ask Kris too? I’m sure they’ll help you gladly”

More silence. 

“Sure, I could try”

“Good night, Berdly” Noelle said before finishing the call.

0v3rl0rd today at 00:56

Kris!

I require assistance!

h00m4n today at 00:57

whats up

im talking to my brother rn so

0v3rl0rd today at 00:57

Noelle is saying I may be an egg

h00m4n today at 00:57

sorry if i dont read what u say

w8 wot

0v3rl0rd today at 00:58

Yeah

h00m4n today at 00:58

honestly im not going to say anything lmfao

have u ever heard of r/egg_irl

0v3rl0rd today at 00:59

Isn’t that like

A… nsfw sub?

h00m4n today at 1:00

ur mistaking it 4 another one

i think not like i would know

anyways go there

and thank me l8er

Berdly opened Reddit. What was that sub even about? So he opened it and browsed until he fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Noelle started looking at the slides, to make sure they were all correct. Because of… Certain unexpected situations, she and Berdly had had very little time to work on their project. But now they were in a hurry, as they would have to expose it tomorrow in front of the whole class. Maybe, just maybe, if they hadn’t offered to be the first ones to expose (as they always did) they wouldn’t have to worry so much about it. They were the ones who were usually expected to get the highest grade. Well, or at least Noelle was the one expected to get them the highest grade. 

She started looking at them one by one, making sure that everything was in check. Then she started counting them, one by one, only to realize that something wasn’t quite adding up. “Berdly, you were going to make slides sixteen to twenty, right?” she wondered. 

“Uh-huh” Berdly mumbled. 

“Berdly this is due tomorrow” 

“Uh-huh” he said again.

Was he even listening to her? Noelle suddenly realized that Berdly wasn’t even working on the slides, she was the only one connected at the moment. “Berdly? Are you working offline?” she asked.

Once again, Berdly answered with a careless “Uh-huh”, not even looking at her even though their faces were literally one against the other.

“Berdly are you even listening?”

“Uh-huh”

“Say Uh-huh if you aren’t listening”

“Uh-huh”

Noelle groaned in frustration. What was he even doing with the computer anyway? Whatever, she had already done her part so she could help him do his. She stood up from her chair and approached Berdly, who still didn’t seem to react, just scrolling down the mouse wheel like a zombie. 

Noelle looked at Berdly’s computer only to find him browsing Reddit, and scrolling through a lot of… Memes? “What are you looking at?” she asked him.

Berdly suddenly realized what was happening and in panic tried to close the tab, but instead misclicked and just made the window smaller. Immediately after he pressed Alt + F4 and looked back at Noelle, sweating and with a guilty look as if he had just been discovered by his own mother looking at some nasty things on the internet. “Nothing, haha” he replied with the most insecure voice Noelle had heard him ever speak with. 

Noelle bursted into laughter. She had seen pretty clearly what Berdly had been looking at, and although it wasn’t anything to be too ashamed of, Berdly’s reaction had been very funny to her. “Were you seriously looking at trans memes?” she said once she calmed a bit, with a cheerful tone. She tried to contain her laughter, although it was kind of hard. 

Berdly looked down, ashamed. “Come on, Berdly, it’s okay” she said as she wiped away a tear with her left hand. “You don’t have to hide that stuff from me” 

Berdly brought his hands to his head, before hissing violently. “I don’t even know what’s happening to me” he admitted. “Ever since Kris showed me that subreddit I… I haven’t been able to stop browsing it” 

Noelle finally stopped laughing, as Berdly’s tone definitely wasn’t as it usually was. He sounded insecure, so insecure… It was as if he was wondering the reason for his whole existence. Because, in some way, he actually was.

“Wanna talk about it?” Noelle asked. 

“I’m not sure” Berdly replied. “I… I don’t even know what I would talk about”

Noelle shrugged. “Whatever, but we still have a project to finish” she reminded him. “I’ll help you end your part, it will help you distract from that for a bit, promised” she said as she offered him her pinky finger. Berdly accepted the pinky promise and opened back the browser.

Once they were finally done, they logged off from the computers. Noelle breathed a sigh of relief as she had once again managed to save her grades. With the only thought of paying a quick visit to her father and then going straight to her home to collapse over her bed, she left the room after a quick “see you tomorrow Berdly”

“See you Noelle” Berdly mentioned without much enthusiasm. 

As soon as she stepped out of the library, Noelle remembered what Berdly had been doing before. So just to make sure, she entered back and headed to the computer room door to look through the panel and… There he was, sitting over the chair staring at his phone. She opened the door and entered, quick but trying not to make any noise. 

Berdly, after noticing her presence, looked at her with apathy. “Did you forget anything?” he asked without enthusiasm. 

“Yeah, I forgot you” she mentioned as she gently grabbed his hand. “Let’s go talk somewhere, shall we?” she offered.

Berdly didn’t seem to care. “Sure” he replied. “Although I have my turn in almost an hour” 

“That’s more than enough” she mentioned as they both left the library while holding hands. As soon as they were outside, Noelle started rethinking what holding hands with her best friend could be seen as for other people and she quickly dropped it in a nervous shake. “Let’s go for a walk” she suggested as she started heading towards the school. “It will help you empty your mind for a while” 

They walked all the way to the backyard of the school, where the small olympic field was. The place where she would run during cross country, where she could forget about everything that was going on in her life and just run until exhaustion. The place where, a long time ago, Dess and Azzy had been playing baseball together. But that's another story. “Berdly have you ever considered doing any sports?” she asked him.

Berdly laughed. “I already play Super Smashing Fighters” he said with that superiority tone he usually had.

Noelle giggled. “I mean ACTUAL sports, sweating, feeling like you can’t take it anymore, and then waking up the next morning with your whole body aching and lowkey wanting to die but also to repeat it and-”

“No” Berdly interrupted her. “Bird bones are too fragile for most of that” he explained, “so it’s either playing video games or nothing”

Noelle didn’t say anything for a moment. “Sorry, that was my bad, I didn’t realize…”

“It’s okay” Berdly brushed it off. “I don’t even like sports, honestly” 

They walked up to a bench where they sat. It was a nice place to be, it was relatively quiet, with the only minor disturbance being the school’s football team training almost a hundred meters away. “What a stupid sport” Berdly said. “All they do is just kick the ball and hope it goes between three sticks” 

Noelle shrugged. She wasn’t a big fan of football either, or sports in general. She just liked running, that was something personal. To her, sports were something almost private. Playing them with other people didn’t sound appealing at all to her, and even less watching them for entertainment. “My dad likes it” she said.

Silence for a moment. “League is better” he said, trying to start some conversation. 

“I thought you hated that game” Noelle wondered.

“It’s fun to watch, though” Berdly replied. 

And then there was some more awkward silence.

“So how are you doing?” Noelle finally asked. 

Berdly didn’t know how to answer. “Fine I guess” he replied.

“That’s not what I was asking about” Noelle revealed. “You know, I was wondering about…”

She didn’t finish the phrase. She started doubting if she was really doing the right thing, because she didn’t want to push him into anything. This wasn’t really her deal, after all.

“Honestly I don’t even know” he finally admitted. “Like, those memes…”

“Yeah?”

“Kris told me to go there, the place with those memes and it’s just… weird”

“I mean, it’s not like I’m saying the memes are weird” Berdly said. “They aren’t even funny, that place isn’t even…” he took some time to choose his next words. “Like, from what I’ve seen, it’s meant to be relatable?” 

Noelle shrugged. “I guess so” she replied.

“Yeah but they aren’t relatable at all” Berdly started explaining. “Like, all those people say stuff like I wish I was a girl, I hate being a boy, I wish I was trans and stuff like that and I just… Don’t really find any of that relatable” 

“I mean, I never stated that I thought you were trans, I just said-”

“But you kinda do” Berdly cut her off. “You kinda think so, don’t you?”

Noelle shrugged again. “Listen Berdly; I can’t tell you what you are, and honestly I’m kinda regretting having told you that”

“But it’s not about what you think about me” Berdly started again. “I’m pretty sure Kris also thinks that as well”

“Why do you even care what Kris has to say about you?” Noelle inquired. “Berdly you can’t just… Try to become what others expect of you. And I’m talking from experience” 

Berdly shrugged. “You know, you’re probably right” 

“But also I can’t… I can’t stop scrolling that sub for some reason”

That single line made Noelle’s transdar activate every single alarm. 

“It’s… It’s almost as if I just kept looking at it with the hopes of finding something that I can find relatable” 

That was a BIG RED ALARM. Noelle’s senses all started tingling. “What do you mean?” 

Berdly cracked a dry and ironic laugh. “It’s almost as if I wanted it to mean something”

“So… You're telling me that you wish you were trans?”

Berdly cleared his throat. “Noelle, there’s no way I’m trans” he stated fully convinced.

“And how do you even know that?” she inquired.

“Because I’m nothing like you” he finally revealed. “I have as much in common with women as a Jackal has with a Dog”

“You know both of those are canines…?” 

“I think you got the point”

“Yeah, the point is that you don’t even realize what you’re saying” she replied bluntly. “Berdly, you’re talking almost as if men and women were different”

Berdly didn’t reply to that. “You girls want to be pretty, and feel cute, and cheesy stuff like that and I’m nothing like it! I don’t wanna worry about makeup, or going shopping with my friends or matching clothes or…”

Noelle slapped his cheek, not too hard but enough for him to notice. “Ouch!” Berdly complained.

“Dumbass” she said. “For the angel’s sake Berdly do you seriously think that’s how we all are?”

Berdly brought his hand to his cheek. It didn’t hurt that much, but that had been unexpected. Maybe he deserved it. “If I ever wanted to be a girl, it would have to be a strong, powerful one with a cool armor” he replied. “Not like that even exists”

This time, Noelle poked his shoulder with force, but with enough force as to not hurt him. “Are you kidding me?”

“What’s your deal?” Berdly complained.

“Oh GOSH Berdly, are you SERIOUSLY telling me that STRONG HOT SEXY WOMEN don’t exist? Dear GOD Berdly, haven’t you SEEN Susie?” 

“Susie is-”

“Dear god Berdly. YOU HAVE SAMUS ARAN AS YOUR DISCORD PROFILE PICTURE! YOU PLAY AS A WOMAN PALADIN IN DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS! EVERY GAME YOU PLAY YOU END UP MAKING YOUR AVATAR A GIRL IN ARMOR! Are you SERIOUSLY not going to admit that you just want to be a cool girl with a cool armor?” 

“I’m not even sure I’d like that” Berdly replied after thinking about it for a while. “I don’t even want breasts! I don’t even have dysphoria! I-”

Noelle started laughing at that comment. “Berdly, you are a BIRD. BIRDS don’t have breasts!” 

Berdly looked down at his talons and started realizing. The only difference between him and his mother was his feather pattern, which was also in part due to both his parents being different kinds of bird.

“Whatever. I don’t have dysphoria, and I actually don’t mind being a guy”

“But you’d like it better if you were a girl” Noelle mentioned.

“No-”

“Okay, let me rephrase it: You’d like it better if you were an armored girl” 

That made Berdly silent. She was… she was right? Or maybe she wasn’t.

“Would you like to… try something?” Noelle suddenly offered.

“What do you mean?” Berdly wondered.

“Oh, nothing, just…” Noelle started thinking again about if she was doing the right thing or just pushing her friend into doing something. “...just come to my house and play with some stuff”

However, Berdly thought Noelle meant something different. While Noelle was talking about things like dressing up, Berdly thought she was talking about playing the console. And of course, he had been waiting for that for a long time. Going to Noelle’s house to play videogames? That was an offer that sounded too appealing to him, and he wouldn’t let it go to waste. “Sure!” he replied with excitement, and excitement that Noelle misinterpreted as excitement for dressing up, instead of excitement for playing Dragon Blazer’s in her basement. 

“Are you free on Saturday?” she asked.

“I’m free every day of the week for that” 

“Sunday then” she concluded.

Chapter Text

Dizziness. That was all there was, only dizziness. Then, the sound of TV. And then, the realization that he had just woken up.

But Berdly didn’t feel like waking up. His blankets were warm, and even though he couldn’t remember his dream, the state of unconsciousness that being asleep provided him sure felt good. 

His thoughts started coming after a while, after realizing what was going on. What day was it? It sure wasn’t any important day, as his alarm didn't sound. So it probably was a weekend. The bed just felt too comfortable. What time was it? The TV was clearly on, so his parents were already awake. Not like that even mattered at all, his parents could wake up at any hour. And his mind felt too foggy to even care about the time. 

He stayed like this for nearly half an hour, until he felt the urge to go to the bathroom. Even then, he still tried to delay the eventual moment, until he finally understood that he couldn’t resist anymore and finally got up from his bed.

The first thing he saw when he opened his eyes was his blurry room, of course. The sun gently lightened it through the window, although for him who had just opened them it felt almost as if he was sighting a neon sign. Of course, that was what his glasses were for. After picking them up, he went straight to the bathroom, hoping not to find his parents yet so he could get ready as soon as possible. He lifted the toilet lid and sat to pee as he always did, and to have some time for himself. 

With his glasses on, he could now start seeing things much more clearly. The light wasn’t as blinding as a while ago, but it was still kind of annoying. What was even the time? He checked his digital watch, and after staring at the numbers for a while trying to decipher them, he finally realized what was going on.

It was 1 PM. It was sunday. Last night was saturday. How long had he slept for? He usually had around 7 to 8 hours of sleep. But this time it felt as if he had slept more, maybe 10. And last night he went to bed later than he probably should’ve, as he had been trying to finally complete that quest he had been stuck on for almost a week by then. Yeah, that had been it, he clearly remembered finally beating that mission and the sensation of finally earning his sleep. 

Once he left the bathroom, he went to the living room to see his father on his laptop, and his mother watching one of those Korean dramas. “Good morning” he greeted them. 

“Morning” his father mumbled without looking away from the laptop. 

His mom didn’t say anything. “Good morning mom” he repeated, in case she hadn’t noticed.

Then she suddenly realized and looked at him. “Good morning Berdly, looks like you woke up later huh?” she pointed out. “There’s bread for toast in the kitchen, by the way”

“I think I’ll just have birdseed” Berdly said to himself. 

As he entered the kitchen, he realized something. It was almost lunch time. Why not just eat lunch directly? It didn’t make sense to prepare breakfast when he would be having lunch that soon. He went back to the living room and suggested “how about we have lunch early?”

His father gave him a quick look. “If you want to, you can prepare lunch now” he said. 

Sure, that sounded nice. He could prepare lunch and then his family would appraise him for doing so. That would be really nice, his parents telling him how much they loved him and how good of a son he was, and how proud, and…

And he realized he didn’t even know how to boil water. He didn’t know how to cook. What was he even supposed to prepare? God, he felt so stupid. He looked at the bread and had an idea. What if he just grilled some sandwiches? He definitely knew how to grill sandwiches, he helped Noelle do it once in one of their DnD sessions back when Asriel was still around. 

As he was done preparing them, he finally put them to grill and opened his phone for the first time that day. That had been a record, honestly. Usually, his phone would be the second thing he’d see each day, after putting on his glasses and before leaving his bed. The first thing he did was hit the clear notifications button, and then he started opening his social media one by one to see each one of them. 

He first opened Twitter. Nothing really, people usually didn’t interact with anything he posted aside from Noelle. Not like anyone else really used that platform that he knew. Or that he was even popular at all, just another wimpy loser. 

Next one was Reddit. Of course, the first thing he saw as he opened the app was another post from that sub. The one that had been slowly chipping away his vitality. He felt tempted to scroll through the feed again and become lost in the countless memes (if they could even be considered memes) of trans people in denial. But he managed to resist the urge and finally entered his notifications tab. Nothing really special, a few comments from people and a modpost notifying that his meme had been removed due to being low effort. 

Sure, whatever he thought as he closed it and opened Discord. No new friend requests. The few servers he was in had nothing interesting. Why had he even opened it in the first place? It’s not like anyone even wanted to talk to him. 

He then finally opened his messaging app, mainly to just mark the class chat group as read. However, as soon as he opened it, he saw something else. A few notifications from Noelle.

Noelle

Hey Berdly 10:13

So are you coming today or…? 10:13

Lost call from Noelle 10:25

I mean since you haven’t read my messages yet 11:47

I mean 11:48

Tell me if you aren’t coming idk 11:48

Like 11:48

Yeah just tell me whatever 11:50

He had completely forgotten about it. Although honestly, that sounded like a nice plan. Going to Noelle’s house and playing video games, that sure sounded good. And it sure could be just a one time thing, since he had never been to her house. 

Berdly nervously stared at his father eating the sandwich. He kept trying to analyze his expression, to wonder if he was enjoying it or not, but he didn’t seem to care too much. A neutral expression, as always. 

His mother also stayed silent during lunch. “So… Is it good?” Berdly finally asked. Even though he knew that if they hadn’t complimented it by now they probably wouldn’t, he still had to shoot his shot.

“Yeah it’s decent” his mother replied, with her beak still full of food. “Not too bad”

“Definitely more elaborate than the ones your mom cooks” his dad joked.

“Hey!” she grumbled annoyed. “My sandwiches aren’t bad!”

And once again, they seemed to forget to include their son in the conversation. But it had been nice, Berdly guessed. At least, his dad had complimented his sandwich. 

“I’ll be hanging out today” Berdly announced as he was done eating. 

“And that?” his mom wondered. “I thought Sundays were for studying”

“I studied yesterday” Berdly pointed out.

“Are you going to play games at that kid’s house again? What was their name, Frisk or something like that…?”

“It’s Kris, dad” Berdly corrected him. “And no, this time I’ll be going to Noelle’s house”

“Oh, I like that girl! She’s a good influence” his mom said. “But I can’t remember you going to her home before, is anyone else going as well?” 

Berdly started recalling. Was anyone else going? Maybe Kris…? Probably not. This had been between him and Noelle, and she hadn’t mentioned Kris. “Nah, it will be just me”

His father’s face suddenly changed, as if he was hearing something very important. “And will anyone be there, or just the two of you?” he asked. 

Berdly didn’t like that tone his father had used. It felt like a loaded question. But he wasn’t going to lie to him. “She said that we’ll be alone, because her mother will be spending time with her father in the hospital” 

His mother started looking at him almost the same way his father was. “And what’s your plan for the afternoon?” she asked. 

“Oh, we were going to play video games and stuff”

Berdly felt judged by his parents. What was the deal? 

“Berdly, son, I know you’re both at that age…” his father finally broke the awkward silence. “Listen, I think it’s wonderful that you are finally going to…” he said as he looked at his wife with awkwardness. “Just… make it safe okay?”

What the hell was he even talking about? This didn’t make any sense. “Dad, what do you mean?”

“Berdly, dear, what your father means is that…” his mother started explaining, with the same awkward voice his father used. “You know, when a boy and a girl love each other, they…”

NO NO NO NO NO. THAT WAS NOT IT. WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY EVEN THINKING ABOUT?

“BY ARCEUS SHE’S MY FRIEND WE’RE NOT DOING THAT ” Berdly yelled. “WE’RE LITERALLY JUST FRIENDS! SHE HAS A GIRLFRIEND!” 

His parents looked at each other in awkward silence. 

“Whatever, just be careful, okay?” his father finally said after a while.

“Whatever” Berdly said, as he furiously stood up from his seat. 

He couldn’t bring himself to even think about it. Why were his parents even thinking about it? Were they expecting him to do so? Was that what they wanted for him? Probably yeah. Maybe if he had a girlfriend his parents would care more about him. But that was just another thought that wouldn’t go anywhere. Right now, he had to go to Noelle’s house, and after that he would be able to figure out whatever. Maybe Noelle could help him get a girlfriend, he thought for a moment. What a stupid idea, to ask her for dating advidce. Although maybe it would work, since they were both interested in girls. But he would have to get there first.

Noelle was excited. Maybe excited wasn’t the best word, since she was also kinda scared. She was nervous, waiting for Berdly to arrive. She had been preparing for this day almost the whole week, and had been making sure that everything was on check for the whole day.

The doorbell finally rang. “Noelle? It's me!” She heard Berdly’s distorted voice through the speaker. 

She immediately turned off the TV and started running towards the door. As soon as she was about to open it, she remembered to pick up her keys first, just in case the door would close itself and they would get locked out. She went back to the living room and started looking for them, where could they be? She couldn’t find them, and she started getting even more stressed. Her friend was outside, waiting for her to open the iron gate, and there she was looking for her keys. “Screw it” she thought out loud and immediately went back to the door and left it open, not without putting a chair in between so that the wind wouldn’t be able to close it. 

As soon as she made sure it was safe to leave, she started running towards the gate. It wasn’t a long walk, but she didn’t want Berdly to wait too long. And also, she could see him. “Berdly! Hey Berdly!” She greeted him on the way while waving. She almost tripped, and then she stopped running. 

Once she finally reached the gate, she took the big padlock off the gate and opened it for him to enter. “Sorry for making you wait” she mentioned, still cheerful but hoping that he wouldn’t have minded it.

“Don’t worry, my dearest Noelle” Berdly replied with that certain air of superiority he usually had, but which Noelle had learned to not mind. “I also brought my own controller, so you may not have to worry about lending me one of yours” he added as they were walking towards the house.

“Why the controller?” Noelle asked. 

“Well, so we may play- what is that?” Berdly started laughing as soon as he saw the chair locking the door. “A chair burglar?” 

Noelle laughed at his joke as well as she could. Not that she found it even funny, but she didn’t want him to feel bad. “It’s- you know what? Yeah it’s a chair burglar” she replied as she didn’t really feel like explaining at the moment. “Can you hold the door open?” She asked him as she grabbed the chair and entered.

Once they were both inside, Noelle left the chair back on it’s place and looked at Berdly, whose face definitely showed astonishment. “So, is my house the way you expected it to be or…?”

“It’s pretty big” Berdly replied without looking at her, still examining the walls, the furniture, the decorations… “This feels like a palace in comparison to my flat” 

Noelle shrugged. “Welcome to the Holiday residence, I guess. Perks of my mother being the mayor” she joked a bit. 

“And that TV?” Berdly exclaimed as he pointed at it. “God it’s way bigger than mine”

“You should see the one we have in the basement” Noelle suggested. “That’s also where we play video games and stuff”

Noelle stopped for a moment. That was before. She used to play video games with her father, but now that he was in the hospital she didn’t find any reason to play them at all. The last few days she had been playing again with him, but that was in the hospital room, not there in the basement as things should be. 

“Well, let’s go play then!” Berdly said and brought Noelle back to the present. 

“Oh, yeah right” she mentioned as she started heading upstairs.

“Noelle…?” Berdly called her with confusion.

“Yes?”

“I don’t recall the basement being above” 

Noelle looked back at him with an equally confused face. “But we aren’t going to the basement…?” She replied unsure.

“Why not? Do you have an even bigger screen above?”

Noelle started realizing. “Berdly did you-“ and she realized. “Oh gosh Berdly I’m so sorry” she started breaking down. “Oh gosh I didn’t mean playing videogames I should’ve specified gosh I’m so stupid” she started mumbling, still on the stairs.

Berdly didn’t know what to do. What was he even supposed to do? He had gone to her house to play videogames, that had been the plan all along, right? Right?

“What was your plan?” He asked, trying to… to make her feel better? He didn’t know at the moment, but asking was the only thing that came to his mind.

Noelle started giggling as she cleared a small tear. “Oh nothing, it’s just…” she didn’t know how to follow. “I thought you wanted to… to…”

“To what?” Berdly asked with fear. And then he remembered for a brief moment what his parents told him. He felt disgusted, that sure wasn’t what she had meant but…

“To cr-crossdress” she finished with certain fear, excitement and some shame. “I meant playing dress up, like I- I used to do with Dess”

She sat down and stared at her hooves, not wanting to see Berdly out of pure shame. “Sorry I’m stupid” she excused herself. “But don’t worry, we can play video games as well” she added, hoping that maybe Berdly would forgive her for… for what? She hadn’t done anything wrong, everything had been just a dumb misunderstanding. But she felt as if she had done something deeply wrong. 

How stupid she felt. Even though almost six years had passed since that first time, she was still holding onto that memory of Dess. Of the times they would lock themselves in their room, and Dess would let her sister her old dresses so she could wear them in safety. Where Noelle was just some magical secret they both shared. Even though that had been long ago and she knew that her life during that time was terrible, she still cherished those memories. And maybe, she had been hoping to recreate them again. Maybe, she wasn’t doing this for Berdly. Maybe, the only reason she had been doing this was out of grief. Maybe, she was just being selfish. Maybe-

“Okay sure, we first do that and then we play games” Berdly replied with certain incredulity. 

Noelle couldn’t believe what was happening. “R-really?” She wondered.

Berdly looked to the side, avoiding eye contact, as if he was ashamed and didn’t want Noelle to see his face. “If it helps you feel better…”

But Noelle didn’t want it like this. “Berdly don’t pity me, I don’t want to-“

“It’s not… out of pity” Berdly cut her sentence with… with a voice that indicated that he wasn’t being completely sincere. “I guess it could… it could be fun?” He asked himself out loud.

They both headed upstairs towards Noelle’s bedroom. “How many floors does your house have?” Berdly asked.

“Oh, just three. The entrance, basement and this one, where we have our bedrooms” she explained. “It’s a big house, not a mall” she joked.

Berdly cracked a laugh. “That was funny” he complimented her. 

“Thanks”

They opened her bedroom door and entered. And Berdly was left astonished.

“This sure is a big bedroom” he said. “Almost thrice as big as mine” 

“It’s bigger than my parents’, lol” Noelle said. “The thing is, it’s technically two bedrooms but we threw the wall” 

That sure explained a lot. “Why?” Berdly wondered.

Noelle replied with one single word: “Dess”. And berdly knew not to ask anymore.

He looked at the decoration. He had never wondered how Noelle’s room (or in general how any girl’s room) would look like. The room seemed to be divided in two sections, with the bed on the right side. That side didn’t have anything special going on, aside from the wiffle bat that hanged on the wall. A bed, a big closet that covered almost the whole wall, a dresser and a few religious imagery. 

The left side, however, was packed with stuff. There was a table, some puffs, bookshelves full of (guess what) books, more shelves displaying various figures he recognized from some video games and others he guessed were from some anime… and of course, a computer. Not a fancy one, but it definitely seemed to do its job.

The walls… one of them was covered in festive lights, with the alphabet written under them, one letter for each light, just like in that show about a kid who goes missing he thought. The rest were covered in posters and… maps? There was a map of the earth, another one from the Middle Earth, another one from the Star Wars galaxy… “It seems that you possess way more culture than what I thought” Berdly mentioned.

“Just because I don’t show it doesn’t mean that I’m not a massive nerd” she brushed it off as she approached her closet.

Berdly kept looking through the room. There was a… a mannequin? With a weird dress on top of it, probably for cosplay. “What is this for?” He asked her.

Noelle laughed. “That’s for you!” She replied cheerfully. 

“I’m not wearing that” Berdly stated. “There’s no way I’m wearing that” he said incredulously but also… curious?

“Sure, I’ll just return it then” she replied without giving it much importance.

“Return it…? YOU BOUGHT IT FOR TODAY?” 

Noelle looked at him with that grin she did when she was fully committed at doing something, not matter how stupid it would be. “YES!”

Berdly was amazed. “But aren’t these things expensive?” 

Noelle shrugged, still with that grin. “Let’s say I didn’t pay all of it”

At each question he did, Berdly was left even more confused and perplexed at the limits that the girl had been willing to go for preparing that day. It sure had to be very special. “How?” He asked, not fully knowing if he wanted to know the answer.

Noelle giggled. “Kris offered to pay half the price if I sent them pictures” 

Berdly started blushing. Why, though? Was he… was he enjoying the idea of Kris seeing him wearing that?

“How about we start somewhere else?” Berdly said nervously. 

“Then come here and tell me what you like” Noelle ordered.

Once he was next to her, she started pulling out stuff from her closet. Dresses, skirts, blouses… and thank the angel a few hoodies and shorts. “I was starting to think you didn’t have any normal clothing” Berdly joked relieved. 

“So you say I dress like a weirdo?” She said kinda mad. “I’m sorry mister boy person” she joked while looking at her clothes, now laid nicely on top of the bed. “So, what are you going to try on?”

Berdly stared at them. What did he want to try? Nothing seemed too appealing. These were girls' clothes, not what he wore. Not what he would wear. Not what he could wear. “Take in mind we have roughly the same size so...”

Berdly immediately started discarding things. Most of the clothes had some sort of Christmas themed pattern, which he wanted to avoid. Whatever that had any kind of cleavage was instantly out, since he had nothing to show. The jeans were also out of the equation, since his bird legs didn’t allow him to wear them. Shorts were also discarded, he was always wearing the same pair and trying a different pair didn’t sound appealing at all.

“...feel free to choose!” she finished.

Berdly kept staring at them for a while. “Need any help?” Noelle offered. 

Berdly looked at her eyes. “Noelle, can you answer with honesty?” 

“Yeah”

Berdly swallowed saliva. “What do you think would look better on me?” 

Noelle started smiling again. She grabbed a green dress that she had worn a few times whenever she had been to an important event. “I think this would look perfect on you” she said as she handed it to him. 

Berdly tried to figure it out, but it wasn’t until Noelle grabbed it again and displayed it over his body and he saw it in the mirror that he started seeing it. It was an elegant dress, very modest although it showed the shoulders. The lower part was frilly and definitely seemed to be very comfortable, and the olive green color definitely looked good over his feathers. It was…

It was wrong. What was he even doing? He was a guy. He wasn’t supposed to be trying on another girl’s clothing. He-

He actually wanted to try it on. Because it was just this time, right? Not even like it was nothing serious, just some fun so that Noelle could feel better. It was just that. He was doing it for Noelle. And maybe also for-

No, not for himself. He was doing this for his friend.

“Where do I change?” He asked.

“Oh, just tell me when you’re done” Noelle replied as she left the room.

Berdly stood there for a while, without doing anything. He looked at himself again in the mirror. What was he even doing? Was this really what his life had come down to? To cross dressing in a friend's house because he wanted her to feel better? Because he…?

He started undressing and looked at himself again in the mirror. Nothing new to see, he thought. The same boring things as always. Still no nipples. 

After spinning around the dress, he finally figured it out and managed to fit himself inside. He looked again at himself in the mirror. 

At… himself? What was he even looking at? It felt… it felt…

“I’m done!” Berdly yelled. 

Noelle quickly entered the room and looked at Berdly. “Ohmygosh Berdly you look so pretty!” She exclaimed while hiding her mouth with her hands. “Oh gosh it looks better on you than on me!”

Berdly blushed and looked away. Noelle ran up to him and stood behind him, and looked at Berdly's reflection in the mirror. “Gosh, with some eyeliner you’d make such a pretty girl”

Berdly snorted. Eyeliner? That was makeup, right? He briefly looked again at his reflection in the mirror. That… That felt like a different person. A person he…

He didn’t want to think about. “Fine” he said.

“Okay sit on the bed” Noelle ordered as she approached her dresser and grabbed a few pens. “This will probably take a while”

She sat next to him on the bed, and started looking at his eyes, trying to guess how she should proceed.

“Is there anything on my face?” Berdly asked, confused as to why Noelle kept looking at his eyes.

“I’ve never done makeup to a bird so…” she muttered as she started painting in the air with her finger, as if she was trying to create a pattern. “I mean I’ve been watching tutorials but never tried it before” 

Berdly couldn’t believe it. What was he even getting into? Screw it, he thought. He was going all in, it was just a one day thing right? “So…?”

“So you stay still” Noelle ordered. “If you want it, of course”

Berdly took a few seconds. “All in” he finally said.

“Let’s go then” Noelle said as she removed the cap from the pen. “This one’s green, so it matches with the dress” she stated as she started to carefully paint Berdly’s left eye.

Berdly twitched. “Still!” Noelle ordered. However, although Berdly was used to having stuff very close to his eyes -since he sometimes wore contact lenses- he still twitched and made it very hard for Noelle to get it right. “Gosh, and I thought Kris was bad” she complained. 

After almost fifteen minutes of Noelle drawing and cleaning Berdly’s eyes and Berdly’s twitching, they were finally over. Noelle took some distance from her friend and looked at his face. She covered her mouth again with her hands. “Oh gosh Berdly you look stunning” she said with emotion. 

Berdly got up from the bed and looked again at his reflection. And for a brief moment, he felt scared. Who the hell was that? Certainly not him. That felt so weird.

Noelle stood up again and looked at Berdly’s eyes through the mirror, standing behind her friend. “And what?” she said, as she rested her hands over his shoulders. “Look at yourself, you make such a pretty girl!”

Berdly kept staring at the reflection. Noelle was right. There was a girl in the mirror. Well, there were two girls actually. And… he didn’t know how to feel. It felt… It just felt. What was that feeling even? It… It felt…

“So do you like it?” Noelle asked. Berdly didn’t know what to answer. He was too lost in his own reflection. “Berdly…?”

Berdly came back to that room, to that very moment. “It’s f-fine I guess” he tried to brush it off. “I guess I do look li-like a girl” followed with a nervous laughter. 

“Berdly it’s fine if you don’t want-”

“It’s fine” he replied, still looking at himself. Something, deep inside of his brain, of his soul, of his very being, not wanting that moment to end. To just keep staring at that reflection forever. To just…

“Wanna see something cool?” Noelle said, and Berdly stopped looking at the mirror. She opened her closet and then opened a hidden drawer. Then she pulled out two flags, one with red and pink colors and other one with blue and pink colors, both with a white stripe in the middle. “I usually hide them so mom doesn’t catch them, but right now she’s not here ”

Berdly kept looking at them, trying to decipher what they meant. He had already seen the blue and pink flag on reddit, but the other one... “What are those?” 

Noelle laughed a bit. “Pride flags, dummy!” She said as she opened them and laid them on top of the bed. “This one is for lesbians” she said pointing at the red one. “And this is the trans one” she said pointing at the blue one. 

Berdly felt confused. “Why are you showing this to me?” 

Noelle shrugged. “I don’t know, just thought they were cool and wanted to show” she replied. “And also, well you’re…” 

Berdly made eye contact with Noelle. “I’m what?” 

Noelle thought about what to say. There was her best friend, who looked just like a girl at the moment, who had been acting like the biggest egg she knew ever since they first met, asking her what she was talking about. “You’re Berdly” she replied, not really knowing if that had been the best answer. 

Berdly looked again at the flags. “Why do you hide them from her?” he wondered. 

Noelle didn’t reply immediately. Instead, she just folded them and stored them again in the drawer. “She doesn’t like that kind of stuff” she said. “Let’s say there’s a reason why we try to avoid each other”

Berdly understood, but there was still something that wandered his mind. “Does she know what we’re doing?” 

Noelle seemed to think about it for a moment. “I’m sure she sees you as my gay best friend” she replied while also avoiding the question.

Berdly felt offended. Her gay best friend? That wasn’t it. “But I’m not gay!” 

“Well, you definitely aren’t into me” she replied jokingly. “And besides-” she said as she pulled him to look again at the mirror. “You make a really good girl” 

Berdly blushed. “Okay that’s enough” he mentioned as he looked away. “Don’t call me a girl ever again”

Noelle wasn’t stupid. She knew Berdly too well, and she knew that deep down, he was actually enjoying it. But she also wasn’t going to push his boundaries… too far.

“I thought you wanted to be a strong woman with a cool armor” she pointed out.

And Berdly didn’t reply. Instead, he looked again at the cosplay on the other side of the room. It was a… A dress? It wasn’t exactly one, either. It was a battle dress. Elegant and pretty, but effective for combat. Actually, it was none of those things, but it surely was in whatever universe that dress belonged to. “What about the cosplay?” he suggested.

Noelle looked at it again. “Do you wanna cosplay as a strong woman in a cool battle dress?” she offered. 

Berdly, once again snorted, as if he was trying to keep some sort of… Dignity? Not like he was doing anything weird, but… “F-fine”

Noelle quickly pulled out her phone from one of her pockets. “Let’s take some pictures first, for…” she wondered if Berdly would be okay with it. “...for posterity” 

“Ugh, FINE!” Berdly replied. 

After a quick round of selfies and mirror shots, they were finally done. “Y-you won’t show them to anyone, right?” Berdly said. 

“Nah, don’t worry” she replied. “Maybe to Kris, IF you don’t mind”

Berdly thought about it. He looked again at those photos. He still couldn't believe them. Was that really himself in the pictures? I mean, it had his face -although much cuter- and certainly felt like him, but… It still felt… 

“Sure” he replied. “But only Kris. And m-myself if you don’t mind”

Noelle giggled. “Of course I don’t mind sharing them with yourself! These are your photos, Berdly” 

Berdly’s shorts, now laying over the bed, started vibrating. He quickly grabbed his phone from one of the pockets, and started to look at the photos Noelle had just sent him. Rapidly, he stored them in one of his secret folders and deleted the messages, so only he could see them. “Okay, so what about the cosplay?” he asked once he was done.

Noelle smiled again. “Sure!” she said cheerfully.

Chapter Text

Berdly poked through the glass panel. Only Noelle was inside, this time he was earlier than usual. He opened the door and entered. “Good morning Noelle” Berdly greeted her while approaching his seat.

“Morning Berdly” Noelle greeted tired, followed by a yawn. “Aren’t you earlier than usual?” She asked while rubbing her eyes.

That was true. He was ten minutes earlier than usual.  “Aren’t you more tired than usual?” He avoided the question.

Noelle giggled and buried her face between her arms, over the table. “Susie” she muttered while giggling. 

Of course, this gay disaster wasn’t getting any sleep because of Susan. “Noelle, I’m sure you already know this but sleep deprivation is something very serious and it’s not worth to stay up late talking to your crush”

Noelle didn’t say anything for a moment. “Uh huh” she replied, with her face still buried. 

Berdly snorted in frustration. “At least class won’t start for another twenty minutes”

Noelle nodded, or something like that. 

“Wait a moment, she's my girlfriend!” she suddenly realized in a burst of energy. “OH GOSH BERDLY I’M DATING SUSIE I’M-“ followed by a series of incomprehensible sounds that could only be described as a keyboard smash in real life. “BERDLY I’M GAY OH MY GOD!” she started shaking him by the shoulders.

Berdly didn’t know how to react. Noelle was having another ‘gay attack’, as she usually called them. Ever since her first date with Susie after the Cyber World, these had been becoming a thing. Still, he remembered how she reacted there after he confessed his crush on Susie, and had been scared of something similar happening again.

After some yelling, nose glowing and shaking, Noelle finally calmed. “S-sorry” she apologized after seeing Berdly’s shocked face. 

“It’s fine” Berdly replied. Even though he usually didn’t like physical contact, he didn’t mind Noelle doing that kind of stuff. As long as it wasn’t something too frequent, of course. 

Noelle suddenly remembered something. “So did you have fun yesterday?” She asked. 

Berdly blushed, and cut eye contact. Yesterday was supposed to be a video game day, and instead it had become… “M-mayhaps” he replied, trying to protect his pride. 

Noelle rubbed her eyes again. “We can do it again anytime you want, I’m always-“

“N-no” Berdly said before she could finish her sentence. “I- I shouldn’t be doing that kind of…” he took a breath of air. “…that kind of stuff”

Noelle shrugged. “Hey it’s fine, if you want to we can just forget about it” 

Berdly looked at her with certain… hope? “For real?” He asked.

“Sure” she replied. “I mean I’m always ready for it but if you want I won’t ask you again”

Berdly cut eye contact again, staring at the wall. He seemed to say something, but it was too low for Noelle to understand what he was saying. 

Suddenly, the door opened -which caught Berdly off guard, since he jumpscared- and Kris entered along Susie. “Hi Noelle” Susie greeted her while smiling.

“S-Susie?” Noelle replied happily, but confused. “Why are you so early?” 

Susie suddenly realized that they were the only four in the classroom. “Kris what time is it?” Suddenly asked them, confused. 

“Seven fifty am” they replied. 

Susie started counting on her fingers. “Ten minutes before class starts” Berdly added, which seemed to annoy Susie. 

“I know how to count, idiot” she replied. She realized Noelle was there again, and started smiling again at her. 

Those two were smiling at each other, like idiots in love when Kris finally decided to go to their seat. Susie remembered and she followed them, dropped her stuff on her table and went back to Noelle. And, just like that, Noelle was now busy talking with Susie once again, like they had been doing whenever both of them were in the same room ever since that Ferris wheel ride. Gross, it was gross, he just wanted to spend some time with Noelle, but now she was obviously busy talking with Susie. 

He looked back at Kris, who was grinning at them. What about that grin? What was-

OH GOD THE PICTURES! KRIS HAD SEEN THE PICTURES! Berdly wanted to disappear. He felt his face hot, his entire body felt hot. It was a mix of shame and another feeling he couldn’t describe. 

Kris clearly noticed this, as they signaled him to get closer. Berdly, feeling as if he was going to die, went to Kris’ seat and stood in front of them. “Wh-what do you want Kris?” He asked, hoping that he was just making it up and Kris just wanted to talk about anything else. Which probably wasn’t, as Kris never wanted to talk about anything. 

Kris pulled out their phone, and Berdly swallowed saliva. They opened their gallery and selected a few pictures. Then they showed them to him. 

Berdly froze in place. His worst fear was true, right in that place. Kris was showing him the pictures of himself dressed up as a girl. But these weren’t the cosplay ones, these were the selfies he took with Noelle. And they were grinning, as if they had some malicious plan prepared. Were they planning on blackmailing him?

“You look cute” Kris said, to Berdly’s unexpectancy. “I like it”

Berdly sighed relieved. “You won’t share them with anyone, right?” He asked, to make sure.

Kris seemed to think about it. “Why would I?” They replied back. “I would get more from them if I didn’t” they added in a sudden change of tone. 

Berdly started to sense this was going to go wrong. “What do you mean…?”

Kris put on that creepy smile they were well known for. “How about we make a deal? You do me some favors-” their smile suddenly disappeared, leaving a constrained face “-and I won’t share them”

Berdly didn’t like this. He should have known better, and not allow Noelle to send Kris those pictures. Kris had always been a shady kid, and even though this was something unexpected... Why then hadn’t he been opposed to Kris having those pictures? “Wh-who would you share them with?”

Kris didn’t reply. They seemed to freeze in place, as if they were in stand by. Berdly was left waiting for an answer, but Kris never replied. A few minutes later, the rest of the class entered, the bell rang and class started.

Berdly kept thinking about it the rest of the day. Kris was a big gremlin, and definitely loved causing chaos wherever they wanted. But they would never harm someone, right? It was true that sometimes their pranks could be distasteful, but they never intended any harm on anyone.  Although they had certainly been acting weird for the last few days. 

Let’s say they would send that picture to other people. Who would they share it with? Definitely not his parents, they didn’t have their phones. Maybe with the rest of the classroom? That wouldn’t be too terrible, most of them were queer so the worst that could happen would be just getting bombarded with questions from some of them. If they shared them with their family, it wouldn’t change anything as well. 

It didn’t really matter who saw those pictures, aside from his parents. Everyone would be cool with them. No one would find any trouble, maybe it could be even good, maybe-

He didn’t want anyone to see those pictures. It didn’t matter how well it would go, no one could see them. No one could discover it. His pride and status as the hyper nerd manly man would go down the drain. And he couldn’t allow it, no one could see those offenses to his masculinity. Because he was a manly man, a boy person as Noelle sometimes called him. He was a guy. And he would do anything to protect his clearly strong masculinity which was clearly his sole defining factor as a person and the source of all his achievements. 

And if he wanted to preserve and protect his masculinity, his manliness, his very own being, he would have to become Kris’ servant. That didn’t sound too bad, he thought. It would surely mean more time to spend with Kris, something that he had always wanted but they had always been very reluctant to hang out with anyone, something that had been different for the last few days. 

Thinking about this wouldn't go anywhere. When he realized, he had been staring at his computer screen for a solid fifteen minutes without doing absolutely anything, and those levels weren’t going to grind themselves. 

As he opened the game, he saw the Steam pop up notifying that Kris was online. “Cool” he thought out loud. Maybe they would be up for playing together? He opened the overlay to text them, but quickly realized that they were already typing.

h00man

ive been thinking

11/11/18 19:16

about what ur first task should be

11/11/18 19:16

Lombardi

…

11/11/18 19:17

h00man

i want 2 take u 2 the festival

11/11/18 19:17

Lombardi

Sure

11/11/18 19:18

h00man

And you are coming as a girl

11/11/18 19:18

Lombardi

W8 what

11/11/18 19:18

I’m not doing that

11/11/18 19:20

h00man

Yes you are

11/11/18 19:21

think of it as a d8 lol

11/11/18 19:21

Berdly thought about it for a moment. Not only were they asking him to dress up again, but this time it would be in public and it would be on a… date? That sure sounded nic-

Terrible. That sounded terrible. Doing that would be a suicide. A death sentence. Why the hell had he even thought it would be nice? And besides, it wasn’t even a real date, it was just-

And why the hell was he even complaining about it not being a real date? Berdly couldn’t understand anything, all those confused feelings just made him want to start plucking his own feathers, an urge he had in the past which faded away after some therapy.

cmon man no ones gonna know ur u

11/11/18 19:25

nole and i can help u with sum makeup and stuff idk

11/11/18 19:25

No one would know. He could do it freely, no one would recognize him. No one would realize. If anyone saw him, they wouldn’t see him, they would see her. He would be free .

Berdly grabbed one of his feathers. He felt it, the soft and fuzz of it. He wanted to pluck it so badly, to feel the small tick of pain once it abandoned his body. To be able to feel it. It would be just one, after all. As long as he didn’t pluck too many, no one would notice.

In a moment of self control, he stopped. He wasn’t going to do that again. One would only lead to another, and to another, and to another, and then he would have nothing but bare chicken skin. And he didn’t want that. 

He felt guilty. An enormous feeling of guilt, crawling upon his own back. Guilty of somehow enjoying that idea of dating Kris as a girl. It was wrong on so many levels, just thinking about it made him feel sick. But imagining it felt… good? And that only made him even worse. What the hell was wrong with him? That wasn’t right. He knew that wasn’t right. That wasn’t who he was, he was a guy and would always be a guy. He had been a guy his whole life. He had worked to enjoy being a guy. And even though he didn’t enjoy it, he didn’t mind it. 

That was the way it had always been. He didn’t mind being a guy. He didn’t mind having to use suits. He didn’t mind using the same shirts as always. He didn’t mind that his future was supposed to be with him marrying a woman, having kids and starting a family. Maybe it didn’t have to be a woman, but marrying as a man and starting a family was going to happen eventually. It was supposed to happen, he couldn’t change it. So he didn’t mind it. 

And he didn’t want it to be the other way. He didn’t want to be boring as girls were. He wasn’t interested in makeup, nor in making boys jealous, nor in looking pretty. He wanted to be cool, not just a stupid giggly girl. 

And even if he wanted to, he wouldn’t be it. He couldn’t be trans, there was no way he would. He knew Noelle. He didn’t know much of her past, but she was very clearly a girly girl girl girl. The kind that like pink, and giggle, and act a bit clumsy, and are also smart, and he was none of those things. 

Berdly had actually done some research a few days ago, and he concluded two things: that trans people either show signs from a very early age, or that they would come out once they were full adults. From the little he knew, Noelle had always been clearly a girl, ever since she was born. And he was nothing like her. 

Or I’ll share the pics

11/11/18 19:33

Berdly had already made up his mind. He was going to do it. But was it because he had to, or because he wanted to? 

He should just accept and forget about all of it for now. Thinking about it just made him feel weird, a mixture of emotions he couldn’t describe but was definitely unpleasant. 

Lombardi

Fine

11/11/18 19:35

I’ll do it

11/11/18 19:35

Kris sent back a thumbs up and disconnected. Berdly remembered what was going on, he was going to play and grind some levels. But now there was a strong feeling in his chest. An unpleasant feeling, as if something was gripping his heart. He just stood there, staring at his monitor, hearing the song that played on the title screen, with a million thoughts running through his head. He just wanted them gone, and they wouldn’t leave him. He didn’t even feel like playing. 

This wasn’t even about what Kris was doing. This had nothing to do with Kris. This was unknown. It felt as if he had just opened the Pandora's box. Lots of feelings and emotions, seemingly out of nowhere but that had definitely been with him for a long time, started flowing out. He felt scared. He felt the need to scream, but he wasn’t able to do so, and even if he did it would just upset his parents. He just wanted to curl up in a ball and disappear. 

The music felt unnecessary. As if his computer was laughing at him. He hated it, and unplugged his computer so it would stop. Then silence. Nothing was mocking him. Nothing was judging him. 

Maybe if he just accepted the silence, he would become silent as well. Maybe his thoughts would go away like this. Maybe he would disappear, which he didn’t mind given that his thoughts would disappear as well.

He had been used to not listening to them for so long. Just pushing them back into a deep corner of his brain. Those were just distractions. Those were lies, intrusive thoughts. The kind of intrusive thoughts any normal 16 year old boy had. They weren’t really his own, for sure. He wasn’t any of that. Maybe those thoughts could have belonged to Noelle. But he wasn’t Noelle. He was Berdly.

Or maybe he was like her.

Chapter Text

As he finished brushing his teeth, he stared at his reflection in the mirror. He looked at his face, and realized how nervous he was. In less than an hour from then, it would look different. He would look different. In less than an hour, he wouldn’t be him . Well, it would still be Berdly, but this time it would be her . “You can do this, you got this” he said to his reflection. 

Once again, he checked his phone to see if there were any new text messages. However, there were none. He looked at the time again, but it was still early. They had agreed to meet near the convenience store, but that was at 11:30 p.m., which meant that Berdly didn’t have any reason to leave for the next 20 minutes. 

The convenience store felt as the perfect place, far away enough from where everyone who knew him lived, but not too far from the center of the town, so he wouldn’t have to walk through all of Hometown dressed up. Not that he would really mind it, but-

He was supposed to mind it.

After a while, he received a text message.

Krismas Dreemurr

Hello Berdly    11:06

I wanted to apologize for forcing you to do this    11:06

I’ve realized this isn’t funny and I do not wish to harm you and I’ve grown as a person    11:07

So I want to say that I don’t want to force you to do any of this, I am deeply sorry about this and I hope you can forgive me    11:07

although itd b pretty fun if u did ngl    11:07

Berdly just stared at the messages. He had forgotten about… about all of it, really. He had been just… waiting for this day to arrive, not remembering why he was going to do this.

And he was excited. He had been excited about going out as a girl in secret to the festival with Kris. 

Berdly felt shocked, and sat on the floor of his room. What was the deal? This time, it felt as if there were no excuses left. He had been excited about going out as a girl on a date with Kris. Maybe he could have just focused on the fact that he was meant to do it by coercion, and told himself that he didn’t actually want that, that it was just him being stressed over doing it. 

But that wasn’t it. He had forgotten about all of it. He actually wanted this. He didn’t know why, but he wanted this to happen. 

He stared at his ceiling. He felt wrong. Everything suddenly felt wrong. Why did he want this? He wasn’t supposed to want this. None of this was supposed to happen. It was just supposed to be a day where he’d go out dressed up as a girl on a date with Kris just so no one would see those pictures. So why did he enjoy that idea so much? 

He suddenly realized that his phone was vibrating. Someone was calling him. Noelle. He picked it up. “Berdly? Where are you?”

Berdly’s mind felt foggy. “At home” he answered while looking at the clock. FUCK! It was 11:43 now. “Sorry I lost the flow of time”

“Are you okay?”

Berdly stared at the ceiling again. What was he supposed to say? He definitely wasn’t okay. Something was wrong, very wrong and deep inside of him. But he wanted to do this. He wanted to experience it. 

“Berdly…?” 

“I’m okay I guess”

“Berdly, Kris said that if you don’t want to-”

Berdly stopped listening at that moment. He wanted to. He wanted to. Even though it felt deeply wrong, even though it felt as if it was forbidden, he wanted to do it. 

“I want to”

Some silence for a moment. “Berdly do you really want to? Kris said that-”

“I want to”

Even though Berdly couldn’t see it, at the other end of the receiver Noelle was starting to understand what was going on. This wasn’t about those pictures. This was about Berdly, and only about Berdly. “Okay, we’re waiting here then” 

“I’ll be there soon” and he ended the call.

Noelle immediately looked at Kris, not really knowing how to feel about her childhood friend. “Why did you do that?” She confronted them. “My god, Kris I thought you were better than this”

Kris just shrugged their shoulders. “It worked” they simply replied.

Noelle looked at their eyes. Or at least at where their eyes should be, under those bangs. “Dear god Kris you can’t just- you can’t just-” Noelle tried to finish the sentence nervously, but she couldn’t.

Kris shrugged again. “I wasn’t going to do anything anyways”

Noelle grunted. She knew Kris would never commit to something like that, but… when Berdly told her that he would be going to the festival as a girl, the last thing she would have expected to come out of it was Kris being behind all of it. She had barely discovered it a few minutes ago.

After a few minutes of looking down the street, a well known blue figure appeared through the corner. He nervously walked up to his friends, and they awkwardly waved at each other. 

“Greetings” Berdly greeted them, trying not to explode from nerves. 

“Hi” Noelle greeted him back. Kris just waved. “It’s still okay if you don’t want to, you know?”

Berdly swallowed saliva, and looked down at the pavement. “I still want to do it”, or something along the lines is what Noelle heard him mumble. 

“You sure…?” she asked one last time.

Berdly just nodded in place, still not daring to look at them as if he was filled with guilt.

“Let’s go then” Noelle said while grabbing Berdly’s hand. 

All three of them went into the store, which thankfully was almost empty. Aside from the skeleton at the cashier and the shady looking guy who was staring at the adult magazines, they were the only ones in there. 

They searched for the restroom door, but couldn’t find it. “What do we do?” Berdly asked, trying to make as little noise as possible. 

Suddenly, Kris went to the cashier and said something to him. “It’s employees only” he replied in that smug voice he had. “Although…” he said as he somehow managed to lean into Kris’ ear and whispered something to them. Kris nodded and went back to Noelle and Berdly. 

“He says anyone who buys something can use it” they said quietly to them.

Noelle immediately went and grabbed a chocolate. “This one goes on me” she said as they all approached the counter. 

"that’ll be a dollar" the cashier said.

Noelle opened her purse and pulled out a dollar from it. The cashier took it and started printing the receipt. “Can I use the restroom?” she asked as soon as he handed her the receipt. 

"sure" he said, and opened the small door that separated him from them. "bottom left"

“Thanks” Noelle said as all three of them started heading there.

However, the cashier stopped them. "hey hey hey, let’s chill for a second. only she can use the restroom" he said.

It was then when they all realized how short he actually was. Almost the size of a human kid. 

“But we-”

Sans shrugged. "i don’t know why all three of you want to get into a bathroom at once and honestly i don’t care but-" he pointed at a printed paper on the wall "-i’m already doing all of you a favor by letting you use it, so you either pay or…"

“FINE!” Berdly exploded. He grabbed some jerky from the nearest stand and put it on the counter, along with another dollar bill. “Is this okay?”

The cashier accepted it without hesitation. "and you?" he asked Kris. "you aren’t going with your friends?" Kris shook their head. "okay whatever, have fun you two. and don’t take too long" the cashier told Berdly and Noelle. 

“Let’s go” Noelle said as she grabbed Berdly’s hand and started walking down the small hall. A turn to the left, and there it was. 

“I can’t believe I’m doing this” Berdly said as they both entered the restroom.

It was a disabled restroom, so it was wide fortunately. And thankfully, it was pretty clean, almost as if no one used it. Probably because no one really used it, since it was employees only and the seemingly only employee was a skeleton. Noelle left her bag on the floor and opened it. “You ready?” she cheerfully asked Berdly while pulling out a similar dress to the one he wore at her house. 

Berdly shook his head and grabbed it. “C- can you…?” he asked while signaling her to turn back.

“Oh yeah sorry” she apologized and immediately looked at the nearest wall. 

And there was Berdly, wondering how on earth his life had come to that moment. To getting into a convenience store bathroom by bribing the cashier, naked with a green dress on his hand next to a girl. 

“I’m done” he said after what felt like an eternity, and Noelle finally turned back. And there was Berdly. 

“You look great!” she approved while giving a thumbs up to her friend. “You can still back down, remember. Once we leave through that door, there won’t be much turning back”

Berdly shook his head, but this time he didn’t do it with guilt. “All in” he said.

Noelle smiled. “All in!” she said as she pulled out of her purse some makeup. 

Berdly went and sat on top of the toilet lid. 

“So, what do you want? I have eyeliner, eyeshadow, lipstick…”

“Whatever you think will look better” Berdly replied.

“Sure!” she replied as she pulled out… Berdly didn’t even know what she was pulling out. There was a palette, brushes, pencils, lipsticks…

“HOW DO YOU CARRY ALL OF THAT IN YOUR BAG?” Berdly asked, afraid of the physics implication of the neverending bag. 

“Well packed, and besides half of this stuff I got it for you so it’s not like I carry it around all the time”

Berdly was, once again, amazed. “You bought this for me? AGAIN?”

“It’s your makeup, not mine” she laughed while opening the palette and showing Berdly the wide variety of colors. “Choose” 

Berdly stared at them for a moment. The palette was divided into four sections, each of them having four different shades of red, green, yellow and purple. “What 's this?”

“The eyeshadow, dummy! Now choose which color you want”

Berdly kept looking at it for a while. “Green” he finally said. It was the one he already knew looked good on him.

“Okay, just close your eyes then” she ordered him.

As Berdly was closing his eyes, he suddenly remembered something. “Hold on a second! I’m wearing contact lenses today, let me just-” he said as he took them off. He looked once again at the shapeless colors that were Noelle and closed his eyes. “I’m prepared” 

He started feeling the soft brush against his eyelids. It was… kinda comfortable. Almost relaxing. “Done!” Noelle said after a few seconds. “Okay, now the liner just so you can put the lenses back again asap”

Berdly opened his eyes, and couldn’t see shit. “Blink a few times, by the way” Noelle asked him, and he did. “Okay, do you want green liner as well? The red one could-”

“The green one” Berdly said once again. “It’s the safest bet”

“The red one would also look good, though” Noelle added as she showed him both pencils. 

“Noelle I can barely tell which colors belong to you and which belong to the wall, I can’t see the pencils”

Noelle giggled. “True, I’m sorry Berdly” 

“Although the red one could be fun” he added immediately after.

“Red one then” Noelle said. “Okay close your eyes and for the love of the angel, don’t move”

Noelle started drawing the line. This time, it felt much easier than at her home. 

“Okay done, now you can put your lenses back again”

Berdly opened his eyes, and opened his palm. He felt Noelle gently lay the lenses back on it, and after some work he finally put them back in their place. Now, he could finally see. “Oh well, it’s nice recovering my sight” he mentioned as soon as he started recognizing things. 

Noelle showed him two lipsticks, a red one and a green one. “Okay which one do you prefer?”

Berdly looked at them. Then looked at Noelle. Then again at the lipsticks. Then started, once again, wondering what he was doing with his life. 

“This one” he said while pointing at the red one. 

“Okay this shouldn’t be too hard but please just close your beak and don’t move”

Berdly obeyed, and closed his beak. Noelle pulled the lipstick, and started carefully passing it through the tip. Berdly could smell it, it smelt like strawberries. Maybe it also tasted like strawberries.

“Okay so…” Noelle said as she took some distance from Berdly and started examining his face. “Okay wait a moment” she said as she went back and did some finishing touches with the lipstick. She took some distance again and smiled proudly. “Okay you’re done!” she cheered. 

Berdly stood up from the lid while trying to not lose his balance. Once he was finally standing, he went to the mirror and looked at the reflection.

“Do you like it?” Noelle asked.

Berdly didn’t answer. Instead, he kept staring at… himself? 

That wasn’t himself. That was herself. That was a girl. He was staring at a girl. And he liked her. Not in the sense of wanting to date her, but in a different sense. He liked what he was seeing. “I look like freaking Funtime Chica” he replied, but he didn’t sound sad, nor angry. He sounded… happy?

Noelle started packing her bag, making sure that nothing was left. “Remind me to give you your stuff later” she noticed once she was done. “Let’s go Berdly” she said as she opened the door.

Berdly, however, was still staring at the reflection. At herself. Noelle approached him from behind, and grabbed once again his hand. “Let’s go” she whispered with care to his ear, and they finally left the room.

As soon as they left the hall and went back to the store, the cashier who seemingly was talking with Kris looked at them and gave them a confused look. "well, that was certainly unexpected" he said, laughing out of nerves. He opened the small door so Noelle and Berdly could leave and waved at them. "good bye!" he said as the three teenagers left his store. "those kids are weird, Papyrus would love them" he muttered to himself.

As soon as they left the store, Berdly’s heart started beating harder than ever. He could feel, he could hear his own heartbeat. As they walked down the street, Berdly felt the stares of people, even though he couldn’t see them. “N-Noelle” 

Noelle turned back and saw her friend who seemed as if he was about to burst. “Is it too late to back down?” 

Noelle went back and hugged her friend while patting his back. “No, it’s not, don’t worry Berdly you’re doing fine” she said with a calming voice that helped Berdly feel more relaxed. 

“I can feel people staring at me” 

“I know the feeling” she replied. “Don’t worry, you’re doing fine! No one is going to tell it’s you” Berdly felt more comforted. “Better now?” Noelle asked one last time.

“Yeah, better now” Berdly said as he stopped hugging Noelle. “I desire to keep going” he revealed.

“Lets go then! We shouldn’t keep Susie waiting” Noelle replied, and they kept walking.

They had agreed to meet Susie in front of the town hall, since that was close to where she lived and as she wasn’t much interested in whatever was going on with Berdly, she’d have more time to sleep this way. And also, that was already next to the big bulk of the festival. 

As they approached the town hall, the loud music and people started getting louder. Berdly had never been a big fan of the festival because of this, but he didn’t really mind it. He started feeling more comfortable as he saw that more and more people were walking nearby, and most of them weren’t paying attention to him. He started feeling much safer that way, next to his friends. 

Once they finally arrived at the town hall, they looked around for a moment, until Kris suddenly started walking towards a well known purple figure. “Susie!” Noelle screamed as soon as she saw her, and started running towards her arms. Berdly soon realized that he had been left alone, and immediately started running approaching her as well. 

As he was approaching, he realized Kris pointed at him, and Susie stood in place staring at him. After a moment, she started waving at him, and he waved back. Once they were close enough, Susie greeted him. “Sup Berdly?”

“H-hello Susan”

Susie snorted, but she didn’t mind it. She had just become used to Berdly calling her Susan, even though that wasn’t her name. During the last few days she had learned to tolerate him a bit more, and now that he was there in a dress and makeup, more vulnerable than ever, she felt the most comfortable she had ever felt around him. “Zamn, you really do be looking fine” she complimented him as she put her hand on her chin. 

Noelle poked at Susie, who then looked at her. “What? You always look stunning, princess” she said and she gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. Noelle’s nose started glowing, of course.

“Okay so what’s the plan?” Kris suddenly asked.

They all looked at each other. Berdly looked at Kris. “Is this supposed to be a date?”

Kris shrugged. “That was a joke” they replied, as if they were trying to hide something.

Berdly nervously shrugged as well. “Yeah, thank god it was just a joke” followed by nervous laughter. “Not like I’d like to go out on a date or anything”

“Nope, not at all” Kris replied, also nervously. “This is not a date”

Berdly nodded. “This is not a date”

“So are we doing a double date or what?” Susie asked laughing, seeing both her friends being so awkward with each other. 

“N-no it’s…” Berdly started.

“…a double not date” Kris finished.

Noelle giggled. “Sure, whatever” Susie said. “So what we doing first?”

“Roller coaster” Kris replied without hesitation. 

“Can we- can we do something chiller? I can’t stand roller coasters” Noelle asked. 

Susie looked at her, a bit disappointed but still understanding. “What about the cyber world one?”

Noelle looked down and started nervously playing with her hands. “Th-that was different, that was flat”

Susie looked again at the numerous attractions that had been built for the festival. “How about the whip? It’s as fast as a roller coaster but flat” 

Kris shrugged, and Berdly once again didn’t say anything. “Whip then” Susie said as she grabbed Noelle’s hand and the four of them started walking there.

The sounds of the machines, the loud music, the yells of kids… all of it was unpleasant. Berdly knew he could stand it for a good while, but he realized that his day at the festival would probably end in a few hours, because he still had a limit. 

Once they finally were at the attraction, they waited until it was finally their turn to buy some tickets. “Four tickets, please” Noelle asked nicely while giving their money to the woman in charge.

“Here you go dear” she replied as she handed her the tickets.

Not too long after, the cars stopped moving and the people riding the attraction left. Since each car had four places, all four of them went to the same one. Once they were all sitting on their places and the security systems were on check, a siren started beeping. “Oh gosh here we go” Noelle said with both fear and excitement. 

At first, it started slow. The car started moving through the rails in the zero shaped circuit. Then it started going faster. Then faster. Then faster. “OH MY GOD” Noelle started screaming as she closed her eyes. Kris just kept laughing like a maniac. Berdly just closed his eyes and felt the speed through his body. Susie said something, lost between Noelle’s screams. 

Not too long after, maybe a minute and a half or less, the cars finally stopped and Noelle sighed in relief. “Was it too much?” Susie asked. 

“That was AMAZING” Noelle replied.

“It’s for babies” Kris complained. Not like they hadn’t had fun, but they wanted more adrenaline. “Let’s go to the slingshot”

“Not even dead” Noelle replied. “Gosh I heard that you have to sign some papers reading that if you die or something, it was your fault!” 

Susie drooled at the idea. The slingshot was an attraction she had wanted to try for a while, but it was for two people. And Noelle’s warning just made it even more attractive. “That just makes it even better!”

“Don’t worry Noelle, I’ll wait for them with you” Berdly added.

Noelle groaned, a bit worried of things going wrong for Susie. “Sure, I guess” 

They started heading towards the slingshot, and there, Berdly saw it in all its splendor. A giant metallic ball, with two seats inside well fixed. Two strong elastic strings, connecting it to two other metallic pillars that hung on each side. Suddenly, the ball started being pulled down, and after a few seconds, it was suddenly released. With great force, it went up in the air a few meters, maybe fifty, and after that it fell straight down. Once it was down, it went back in the air again, and again, and after maybe two or three bounces, it finally seemed to settle down. “You must be crazy” Berdly told Susie and Kris after realizing what they were getting into. 

Susie laughed. “Hey, I didn’t have breakfast this morning!” She said as she headed with Kris to buy the tickets. 

Berdly and Noelle exchanged looks. “You get it now?” She asked him. Berdly nodded. “Gosh I hope it goes well”

“I mean, if it’s still something people ride, then it should be safe” Berdly tried to calm her.

Noelle shrugged. “Yeah, I guess” 

They stared in silence at Susie and Kris entering the metal ball. Noelle looked really worried, making sure that Susie and Kris were correctly using the safety measures. As the ball started being pulled down, Susie waved at her with energy, and Kris did as well but with less enthusiasm.

Then, with great horror, both Noelle and Berdly saw their friends being launched into the sky. Berdly wasn’t sure about what he heard, but Noelle clearly heard Susie’s voice yell “YEEEET!” As the accelerating ball went up. After a few bounces, of both Noelle bouncing with anxiety and the ball, it was finally over. Once the ball door opened and Kris and Susie were shown to be safe and sound, although with their hair being a mess, Noelle sighed in relief and Berdly felt much calmer. They quickly approached the attraction, to wait for them at the exit. 

“That was fucking amazing” Susie said as she opened the door, with her hair being a great mess. Not that it wasn’t always a mess, but now it was even messier. 

Kris didn’t say anything, but they had a very wide smile. After a few steps, they tripped but thankfully Berdly was able to grab them before they fell to the ground. 

Kris looked up, to see Berdly’s worried face. Berdly saw Kris' eyes. Those red eyes he had always found interesting, almost mythological. For a moment, in that brief exchange of looks, Berdly felt something , and soon after he found himself hoping that Kris had also felt that something. Kris quickly got up and passed their hand through their hair, making sure it covered their eyes once again. “Thanks” Berdly heard them mutter, and they gave him a thumbs up.

“Okay so how about we do something more chill now?” Noelle asked. “I don’t know, maybe a shooting stand?” 

Susie smiled at the suggestion. “I like the way you think! Let’s go shoot some stuff!” She said with energy as she grabbed Noelle’s hand and both started running towards the stands. Berdly sighed again, and suddenly felt Kris’ hand on his shoulder. “Let’s go Berdly” they said and they both started walking together.

After a while, they finally reached Susie and Noelle. Susie kept complaining about the rifle never hitting it’s shots, and Noelle kept trying to correct Susie’s aim. 

“This shit doesn’t work Noelle! It’s fucking rigged!” 

“Of course it’s rigged! That’s why you have to aim this way!” She repeated as she corrected Susie’s posture. “Shoot now” 

Susie shot the rifle and the bottle was finally knocked out. “See?” Noelle said with pride. 

“Cool” Susie said, with some anger still in her voice. 

They quickly noticed Kris and Berdly next to them. “Oh sorry, we didn’t realize we left you behind” Noelle tried to excuse herself.

Kris shrugged. 

“Hey freaks, how about this? Shooting competition, the couple to lose pays for lunch” Susie suddenly defied them. 

Kris grinned at the challenge. “Sure” they said without thinking about it twice. 

“Yeah, okay” Berdly replied, but not being too sure about it. Noelle clearly knew how to aim the rigged rifles, but Kris also seemed very confident with their skills. 

“Okay sir! Two more rifles!” Susie yelled at the man at the counter while handing him some money, who pulled out two rifles from below. 

“Here you go, ladies!” He said.

Berdly felt a rush. Ladies. That sure was wrong, they were actually two girls, a guy and an enby. But the man said ladies . Right at that moment, he was just another lady . He didn’t even understand it, but it just felt really good being called a lady outside from a DnD campaign. Lady .

Susie started explaining. “Okay so here’s the rules! We have four shots, so two shots each. We can’t help each other-“ she said while looking back at Noelle, who made an elusive face. “-and the ones to hit more targets wins. Everything clear?” 

Kris nodded, and Bedly replied with an “Affirmative”. 

Noelle grabbed the rifle on the left, and Kris grabbed the rifle on the right. They exchanged looks, the looks of two friends who had done this thousands of times in the past, and now they were back on stage after a few years. Noelle aimed her rifle in a strange posture and shot. One bottle down. Kris did the same, and also knocked out a bottle. Noelle looked back at them, and saw them smiling. Without a doubt, they shot another bottle and knocked it down. They looked back at Noelle, who with confidence and a bit of cockiness shot down another bottle. She pulled out her tongue and pointed to her left eye. To which they did something similar. 

“Okay, our turn!” Susie said as she took the rifle from Noelle’s hand. Kris handed their rifle to Berdly, who took it without hesitation. 

Berdly aimed through the sight. He had never shot one of these before, nor anything in general aside from video game guns. However, this was neither a video game, nor a real gun, nor a precise weapon. This was rigged. He started recalling Kris’ pose and mimicking it, ripped out from his memories.

“Hell yeah!” He heard Susie’s voice along a bottle falling down to the wooden floor. He felt nervous. Now, he had to hit a shot if he didn’t want to pay for their lunch. He shot the first shot, and it missed. He felt pressure building up on his throat.

Susie shot again, followed by a “fuck!” And silence. She had missed. If he managed to hit this shot, he wouldn’t have to pay for her lunch. He started calculating the trajectory of the cork, remembering the deviation from his last shot. After some careful planning, he finally aimed and…

He closed his eyes. He didn’t want to see it fail. He heard the cork leave the rifle in a swift pop . He heard the cork bounce against something in a clok . A few seconds after, he heard a bonk as the bottle fell to the wood, and he opened his eyes. Only one bottle was left, he had successfully knocked it down.

“Good job Berdly!” Noelle complimented him as Kris gave him a high five. 

“I’ll be beating your scores before you realize!” Berdly bragged as he crossed his arms. 

The counter man stored the rifles again, and pointed at them a poster with the prices. “Okay, so both of you knocked down three out of four bottles, so you can get either a small plushie, three pins or two bracelets”

“We’re taking the plushie” Susie said without asking Noelle. The man showed them a few different ones, there were some penguins, knock-off cartoon characters and a Godzilla one. “Which one do you want babe?” She asked Noelle.

Noelle looked at them for a few moments, before finally deciding for the Godzilla one. “It 's you!” She joked while showing it to her girlfriend.

Susie laughed. “That way you can sneak me into your room” she joked. 

“Okay, and what about you two?” The man asked again. Berdly looked at Kris, wondering if they would also choose to gift him a plushie. “Is two bracelets okay?” They asked Berdly. 

“Sure”

“Two bracelets then” they told the man. 

He pulled out a few different bracelets. All of them were made of cloth. Some of them had pride flags. Others had dumb sentences like ‘coolest girl in town’, or ‘sharpshooter’. Kris chose the one with the enby flag without hesitation. “Okay, and which one do you want?” Berdly was asked one last time.

Berdly kept staring at them. The one with the trans flag felt appealing, but he wasn’t trans so he couldn’t have it. He looked again at the rest. They had pretty dumb sentences, as described previously. One of them, he couldn’t stop looking at. ‘Badass girl’ it read. It was so stupid, it was so dumb. He wasn’t even a girl. But he really wanted it. And the man at the counter clearly wouldn’t have any trouble handing it to him after all. Because right in that place, he was a lady . “You like that one?” The man said while pointing at it, noticing that Berdly had been staring at it for a while. Berdly looked at him and nodded his head. The man grabbed it and handed it to him. “Okay, here you go!” 

They left the stand and stood there for a while, around Berdly. He kept staring at the bracelet for a while, reading it again and again and again. It was such a dumb sentence, such a stupid title, but he just really liked it. He wished it could apply to him. 

“Badass girl, huh?” Susie pointed out, breaking Berdly from his immersion. “You wanna be like me or what?” She joked a bit. 

Berdly laughed nervously, realizing what was going on. His friends were looking at him, smiling. “C-can you…?” He asked Noelle as he showed her his arm and the bracelet. 

“Sure!” She replied, and then tied it around his wrist. 

Berdly looked at it again. Badass girl. That was written on his wrist now. He was a badass girl. Well, he wasn’t but he found that idea appealing. 

“Okay, how about we eat something? I’m hungry” Susie complained.

They all agreed to go have lunch, and wandered for a while until they finally found a food stand. All it had was hot dogs and salads, but that was more than enough for the four hungry teenagers. 

After waiting for a while, it was finally their turn to order. “Okay, what do you girls and human want?” The young girl at the counter asked them.

Berdly felt another rush. Girls . Girl . “I’ll have a hot dog” Susie replied.

“I’d like a salad” Noelle stated.

“Hot dog” Kris said.

“Another hot dog” Berdly ordered. 

“Okay, three hot dog menus and a salad menu”

“Two hot dog menus” Susie added. “I just want the hot dog” 

Noelle looked at her. “Why? That’s less food” she pointed out.

“It’s also cheaper” Susie revealed.

Noelle didn’t like that. “Okay, make it FOUR hot dog menus” she corrected the order. “That goes on me” she told Susie, who was perplexed. 

Once the food was ready, they started eating. Susie quickly devoured her two hot dogs, and then started picking up her chips one by one, so that she wouldn’t be completely over with her food before the rest. 

Noelle just ate her salad as normal, drinking from her soda every now and then. 

Kris ate their hot dog in a weird way. First, they’d let the sausage slide into their mouth, and then they’d start spinning it until finally taking a bite. Then, they’d take a bite from the bread. 

Berdly just ate it as usual. It wasn’t a terrible hot dog, but nothing too special. It was okay, he guessed. Maybe with some more-

“Berdly?” Someone suddenly asked behind his back.

Berdly was terrified. That wasn’t Noelle, nor Susie, nor Kris. Out of habit, he turned to look at who had called him, realizing that he had just signed his death sentence. Catti.

“Wow” she said, surprised to see her friend… like that. 

“Oh, hello Catti!” Noelle said, stepping between her and Berdly. “You don’t know each other I’m probably guessing! Reyes, this is Catti, Catti, this is Reyes!” She started presenting one to the other. 

Berdly didn’t know what to do. All he could do was to just play along, so he waved at Catti, trying to do the most non Berdly wave as possible. 

“Oh well sorry I probably mistook you” Catti said, with incredulity. “Have we really never seen each other? You look like Berdly’s family”

“That’s because she’s his cousin” Noelle lied. “You’ve never seen her because she’s from… uh…”

“She’s from Latin America!” Susie said. “She’s from Latin America, pretty far away”

“¡No me jodas! ¿De donde? ¿Hablas también español?” Catti suddenly started asking with excitement.

Berdly froze in place. What was he even supposed to do now? 

“She is also mute!” Noelle lied again. “I mean, she isn’t really mute but she is sick and can’t speak for now” 

This was getting out of hand. With each word they said, Catti clearly had more and more suspicions. “Oh well, that’s a shame” she said. “Didn’t know Berdly had such a hot cousin” 

Berdly felt his face hot. Hot. He was a hot girl . Or, at least, Catti considered her a hot girl . He felt as if he was about to burst.

“Whatever, nice to meet you, Reyes . Me pareces muy valiente, la verdad. Buena suerte chica” she said as she finally left them alone and continued her way.

Berdly’s heart was pumping faster than ever. That had been too close. “Do you think we fooled her?” He asked them.

Kris laughed. “Nope” they replied. 

“Maybe it did” Susie added. “It’d have fooled me”

Noelle gave Susie a deadly stare. “Latin America? Seriously Susie? It couldn’t be idk, Belgium or some African country! It had to be Latin America?” She reproached her.

“How the hell was I supposed to know she speaks Spanish? It’s not my fault!” She excused herself.

“Dear god Susie, she’s in our CLASSROOM! You see her EVERY morning! How did you not know her family speaks Spanish?” 

Susie didn’t reply. 

“Whatever, don’t worry Berdly, worst case she figured it out and she won’t say anything. Catti is pretty cool with this stuff” 

Berdly felt some relief. “So I’m safe?” He asked, to which Kris and Noelle both nodded at the same time. 

Still, he had been put at risk. This wasn’t part of the plan. He didn’t feel as safe anymore. “I’m not sure if this is still a good idea” he finally said once they were done eating.

Kris got closer to him, and grabbed his hand. “Sorry, this was my idea” they apologized. “Let’s do whatever you want now, okay?” 

Berdly looked at them. They had a neutral expression, not really knowing if that meant that they were actually sorry or if it meant something else. “I don’t wanna be here” Berdly replied.

“So, what do you wanna do?” Kris asked their friend. 

“Wanna play video games at my house?” Berdly asked, hoping that Kris would accept. 

“Yeah about that-“ Susie interrupted them. “Noelle and I are probably going to stay here longer, so we won’t be going” 

Noelle nodded.

“Let’s go to your house then” Kris replied to Berdly’s ear. They grabbed his hand, and Berdly felt… warm. He felt warm. This wasn’t a date, of course, but now he would go to his house to play videogames with Kris. 

“Okay, bye then!” Susie said as she grabbed Noelle’s hand and they headed back towards the multiple attractions the festival had to offer.

Berdly nervously patted his dress, realizing that he couldn’t find his keys. Of course he couldn’t, they were in his pants. And his pants were on Noelle’s bag, because they had forgotten about it. “I’ll call Noelle” Berdly said with stress. If any of his neighbors’ doors opened, they’d find him looking like a girl, and it’d be his doom. “She has my keys” he explained to Kris.

“Don’t worry about them” they said as they pulled out a Swiss knife from their pocket. “Leave this to me”

Berdly looked astonished at his friend lockpicking his house door. When had they learnt how to lockpick? And if they messed it up, or broke the door, then he’d be in deep trouble.

However, after a few seconds Kris finally managed to open the door. “Thank me later” they said as they held it for him to enter.

Berdly held any comment in regards to Kris’ lockpicking abilities. He entered the house, completely empty and started walking towards his bedroom, as soon as Kris was following him. Kris had already been there once or twice before, but never like that. It had usually been for working on some group project, but never for just playing video games. 

Berdly finally opened his bedroom door, revealing a messy bed, a few gaming posters, a small closet opened with a few clothes laying around the floor the angel knows for how long, and a desk with a gaming PC and an office chair. 

“This is my gamer pad, not many girls come in here because I get friendzoned so frequently, but that’s okay” he joked as Kris entered his room and examined the mess their friend lived in. 

“There’s one that lives in here tho” they joked.

Berdly’s face felt hot again, and he didn’t say anything about it. He booted up his PC as Kris laid on his bed. The RGB colors of the desk and the fans started working, in a true gaming fashion. “Okay, so what do you wanna play? He asked them as he opened his steam library, displaying the great amount of games at their disposal. Most of them for a single player, though. And almost none of them had a cooperative mode.

Kris shrugged. Berdly suddenly realized something. “Oh, sorry I’m a bad host. Would you like to have something?” 

Kris’ lips formed only one word. “Water”

“Okay then!” Berdly said as he left his room and went to the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle full of water and two glasses, and started heading towards his room. 

How strange, he noticed. The door was closed. He swore he had left it open. He managed to open it, without anything falling off his hands, and was met with a black void. 

That was NOT supposed to happen. “Kris?” He asked towards the void, but there was no answer. He started panicking. What was he supposed to do? He grabbed his phone and called them. “The number you are trying to reach isn’t available at this moment, please try later”

Screw it. He left the glasses and the bottle on the floor, and without hesitation he jumped into the void.

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Chapter Text

Berdly woke up in a shock. He quickly stood up from his room’s carpet and catched a breath of air. His head sure did hurt like hell, and although his body felt tired he didn’t feel terrible. What had just happened?

“Hey” he heard Kris’ voice coming from the left. He turned around and saw them lying on his bed, waving at him. 

Berdly suddenly remembered everything that had happened. He looked through the window, to see it was already dark. However, the light of his bedroom was lit up. “Did you turn the lights on?” he asked Kris just to make sure, to which they nodded their head.

Berdly sat on his chair, in front of the computer which now had a blue screen. “Oh god” he realized as he started reading the text displaying on the monitor. “OH WAIT MILEENA!” he said as he opened one of his desk’s drawers, searching for his D&D character sheet. And there she was. The character was still there, but now her hit points were all the way down to zero. He grabbed a rubber and a pen and restored her back to full health. “I hope you don’t mind this, Kris” he told them while showing it to them. 

“I’m taking that with me” they replied. “And a bunch of stuff, if you don’t mind”

Berdly sighed. “S-sure, I guess. Just don’t take anything too expensive” he replied, looking down at his character while handing it to them.

Kris examined it for a moment, sitting on Berdly’s bed in front of him.

“So, how did it go?” Berdly wondered.

Kris snorted. “I can’t remember how but you and that girl were both lying on the ground unconscious, so I just closed the fountain” they replied without giving it too much importance. “So this is the one, huh?” they wondered while showing him the sheet.

Berdly nodded with some shame. “Did you hear anything she said?” he wondered.

Kris shook their head. 

“Good, I guess”

Kris shrugged.

A door slam was suddenly heard, followed by footsteps and a familiar laugh. “My parents” Berdly said without giving it too much importance.

Then, things started clicking. His parents. They were now home. Because it was now late. And they would probably see Berdly. And he was in a dress and with makeup on. 

“OH CRAP MY PARENTS!” he realized. “OH GOD WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?” he started panicking in a loud voice. “KRIS THEY LITERALLY HAVE NO IDEA ABOUT ANY OF THIS STUFF!” he warned them.

Kris started freaking out as well, yet somehow keeping themself calm. The footsteps started becoming closer and closer, as if someone was approaching.

“Berdly, are you okay?” his mom’s voice was heard from the other side of the door, growing louder and louder each moment. “We’re finally home!”

Berdly felt his whole body shaking. They couldn’t see him like this. Kris quickly slid inside Berdly’s sheets, trying to hide inside his bed. Berdly did the only thing he could think of, which was to start undressing with the hopes of changing into his normal clothes before anyone could find him like that.

After a second, he managed to find the way to take off his dress and threw it at his talons fueled by anxiety. Now all he had to do was to-

“It would be nice if you didn’t-” his mother opened the door while speaking. She immediately stopped talking after seeing the room, and froze in place.

And Berdly knew he had fucked up.

Chapter Text

Berdly’s mom saw one thing first: her son. Her half naked son, wearing only his boxers. She soon analyzed his face. It wasn’t the one she knew, he was wearing makeup. His eyes of terror stared at her as he nervously tried to smile. That face she had only seen once before, that time she caught him entering one of those raunchy webpages a few years ago. The face of a teenager filled with guilt, who had just been caught doing something he knew he shouldn’t be doing.

“Berdly?” She asked, confused. Why was her son half naked with makeup on? What had he been doing that he clearly felt so ashamed of?

She looked at his talons and saw… a dress. A dress covering his talons, as if it had been thrown. Had he been crossdressing?

As she stared at the dress, trying to understand what was going on she heard the nervous voice of his son. “H-hi mom” he said wishing for his room to swallow him and disappear at the moment.

She looked back at her son, who had the most awkward and nervous smile and had his right hand raised, greeting her uncomfortably. She looked through his room for a bit, when she noticed something on the bed. It was a bulge, and some brown hair seemed to poke out of it.

The bulge moved, and the face of a human poked through the sheets. “Hey” they said in a playful tone without revealing much else of their body.

Berdly’s mom stared at the human. That was Berdly’s friend, right?

So, Berdly is half naked and crossdressing in his room, she clearly caught him doing something he didn’t want her to find out and his friend was hiding between the sheets and…

“OH MY GOD BERDLY I’M SO SORRY!” Her mom yelled as she covered her eyes with her hands. She immediately left the room and she slammed the door.

Berdly was left confused and Kris started laughing. Berdly looked at Kris, laughing like a maniac. “Kris this isn’t even funny!” He cried, feeling like he was about to explode at any time.

Kris wiped out a tear and looked at Berdly’s face. “She thought we were…” they said trying to contain their laughter as they made a hole with their left hand and started pulling their right index finger in and out of it, in and out, in and…

“OH NO!” Berdly recoiled in horror after understanding. He ran towards his door and opened it in a hurry. “MOM I CAN EXPLAIN!” He yelled as he started running through the hallway. However, as soon as he stepped foot outside he tripped on a water bottle and fell to the ground.

Kris chuckled. “Berdly we literally can’t explain” they mentioned.

Berdly hit the floor in anger and stood up. “MOM I SWEAR THIS IS NOT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE, I CAN-“ he said as he approached the living room.

As he entered, his parents were both there. His mom was sitting at the sofa, awkwardly trying to act normal. His dad was looking at him from the armchair, astonished.

His mom looked at him, clearly nervous. “Berdly it’s- it’s okay, you’re at an age where you need a certain privacy and-“

Berdly rubbed his hands against his face with strength. “Mom we weren’t… that’s not what it was”

His mom stood up and approached him, laying her hands on his shoulders and looking him in the eyes, with a clearly uncomfortable expression. “Berdly you shouldn’t be ashamed of having sex, it’s perfectly healthy for-”

Berdly blew up “WE WEREN’T HAVING SEX MOM! I DON’T WANT TO HAVE SEX! JUST LET ME…” he broke down and started sobbing “just let me explain, that’s not what was going on I swear mom I’m a good kid” he cried.

Berdly’s mom awkwardly tapped his shoulders, trying to comfort him. As Berdly cried, Kris appeared through the hallway and tried to sneak towards the entrance door, but Berdly’s dad noticed. “You stay here” he ordered them firmly. Kris froze in place and looked at them. “Is it true that you two weren’t having intercourse?”

Kris nodded.

“Then can someone please explain to me why my son was half naked and crossdressing inside his room with a human?” His dad asked in… a very not nice way.

“Their name is Kris” Berdly stated a bit mad. “Not a human ”

Kris didn’t react.

Berdly’s dad seemed to calm down a bit. “Okay Kris, why don’t we all talk this out and maybe we can make things clearer?” He said in a nicer tone. “And Berdly, please go put on something”

Berdly chuckled, a tear running down his throat. He was still in his underwear. With his heart beating, he slowly but steadily walked towards his room. Each step felt like an impending doom was getting nearer and nearer. Once he reached it, he looked at its floor.

The dress, laying down. That stupid dress. That stupid time he had decided to go to Noelle’s house. It was all because of that stupid decision. He opened his closet and started looking for stuff.

Only t-shirts. And formal clothes. His shorts were nowhere to be seen because of course, Noelle had them along his keys.

He felt his throat tighten as he stared at his closet. He had to wear something, of course. He had to pick up something to wear. Because now, he would have to talk to his parents. And he couldn’t do it half naked, he needed some decency.

He stared at his closet. He didn’t want any of that stuff. He wanted that moment to never exist. He wished everything had just gone as it should have. That he had remembered to ask Noelle for his clothes back. That Kris maybe hadn’t opened that fountain. That his parents wouldn't arrive, and then Kris would just leave after maybe some fun talk and then he would be able of removing his makeup stealing some of his mom’s wipes, hiding his dress somewhere in his closet, putting on his pajamas and then playing some video games while eating whatever he had microwaved from his fridge until he fell asleep.

But he still liked how something had gone. He liked how he had been able to be a girl at the festival. He liked how he had been able to feel like a pretty girl. How, with Noelle’s help, he had managed to enjoy that guilty pleasure. Because deep down, he had been enjoying it. And how no one had seemed to be bothered about it. And how Kris seemed to even enjoy it as well.

Berdly closed the closet and looked down at the dress. A blur of green over the blue rug, hard to see through his tears. He carefully picked it from the ground and felt its cloth. It felt so nice. He actually liked it a lot, even though he shouldn’t be allowed to wear it. He wouldn’t wear it to talk with his parents, but he didn’t want to wear anything else.

Feeling some warmth in his cold chest, he fitted into it and opened his closet to see the mirror he had never really cared about. He looked at himself. 

A pathetic girl. She looked pathetic. The makeup from her eyes had run down her face because of his tears. Her dress looked too wrinkled, because he had thrown it at his feet before. That was still the same girl he had seen before, but this one felt broken. But it was still a girl, after all.

Berdly sat at the rug, still looking at the reflection. At his worthless reflection. At her broken image. He closed his eyes, hoping that everything would suddenly go away. That had worked before. Sure, the situations had been much different, but maybe it would work again as well.

He didn’t know how much time passed, but someone gently knocked on his door. “Berdly, are you okay? We just want to talk” his mom’s calm voice was heard. 

Berdly chuckled. He wasn’t okay. And he didn’t want to talk.

“Berdly, I’m sure you’re going through a hard time right now, but we just want to help you” she continued.

He didn’t want it. He didn’t need their help. He could do it by himself, and then he would prove his worth once again.

“Berdly your mom said I can have dinner so we can stay here all night” Kris voice said through the door.

Berdly chuckled. Maybe Kris could help him. They probably understood him better than anyone else at that house. Maybe if Noelle was also here, everything would go perfectly.

“Okay that’s it” Kris’ voice said and the door opened.

Berdly didn’t want to open his eyes. He heard footsteps enter the room. For now, they were only sounds. But once he opened his eyes, everything would be real. 

He felt a hand lay on his left shoulder. No feathers, probably Kris. He felt them sit next to him, and be there with him.

“Berdly, we’ve been talking with your friend” his dad revealed. “And we just wanted to tell you it’s okay”

Berdly finally opened his eyes carefully. He looked at Kris’ blurry figure, with their right arm still on his left shoulder. He couldn’t recognize their face, but he felt calmer at that moment with his friend next to him. 

He wiped his eyes, trying to see them better, and realized they were looking at his eyes. He kept looking at their eyes. Those red, mysterious and powerful eyes they almost never showed to people.

After staring at each other for a while, Kris helped Berdly stand up and they both sat at his bed. Berdly sat while avoiding looking at his parents, staring at his talons and crossing his legs. He felt better next to Kris.

His mom laid on her knees in front of her son. She gently grabbed his hand, which he didn’t refuse. His dad sat on his chair. Kris laid their left hand on Berdly’s right thigh, which made him feel more comforted.

“Berdly, do you…?” His mom started asking. She suddenly chuckled. “Angel, this is so weird to ask. Berdly, do you wanna be a girl?” She finally asked.

Berdly’s hand left his mom’s. “No” he replied bluntly. “I’m a guy” 

His mom sighed. “Berdly, your dad and I have no idea about how this kind of stuff works but-“ she said.

She didn’t know how to continue. 

“You’ve got good friends” his dad added. “And they can help you better than we can, since apparently most of them are…” he didn’t say the word.

“Transgender” Kris muttered, only Berdly hearing it.

Berdly chuckled. “I’m not trans” he said to himself. “I would never be trans” he added.

He grabbed Kris’ hand and gripped it with force. As long as they were there, everything would go right.

“Berdly, Kris told us that sometimes, people your age need to figure some things out” his mom started. “And that’s perfectly fine! We just want you to know that you shouldn’t worry about any of this, you know we just want you to succeed”

Berdly looked up at his mom’s face. She looked so understanding… even though she clearly didn’t. “I would just be a disappointment” he mumbled.

His mom grinned for a brief moment, as if she hadn’t meant to. “Berdly, there are many ways you can disappoint us but this isn’t one of those” she bluntly said.

That stupid phrase, that pierced Kris like an arrow, felt like a relief to Berdly. 

Berdly chuckled, dropped Kris’ hand and laid back on his bed, looking at the ceiling. And he started laughing with sorrow. “I’m a disappointment, mom. I would be a disappointment. Because I’m a man and I’ll marry a woman and have kids and be rich and- nothing of this was planned out”

His mom chuckled as well. “Berdly, nothing that comes out of your life was planned out” she said trying to contain her ironic laughter. “And like, seriously where the hell did you get those ideas? We couldn’t care less about what you want to be, or who you want to date, or… we just want you to thrive! And sure, maybe that’s what thriving means for some people, but to others it means something different! Look at your dad and I! We aren’t rich, we have only one child, and here we are living our best life!”

Berdly didn’t really listen to half of what his mom said. But something got stuck on his head. Nothing to come off his life was expected.

Nothing.

That meant that just like he wasn’t expected to be going through… whatever the hell all of this was, he wasn’t expected to conform to what he thought he had to be.

He didn’t have to be a guy.

He didn’t have to marry a woman, nor to have kids.

He didn’t have to become rich.

He didn’t have to be top of his class.

He didn’t have to be nothing.

He just had to succeed, to make his parents proud. But what other way was there to do so?

That still didn’t really change anything. Because he was still a guy, right? He liked girls, right? He wanted to be the perfect husband, right? To be a successful guy. A successful man. Even if he could go a different path… wasn’t that what he wanted? What he had always wanted?

Eventually, his mom’s voice stopped and Berdly came back to the present. They were still there. Things were still at their place. And there was silence.

No one said anything for a moment, were they waiting for him to reply? How long had she been talking? How long had it been since he had been caught? Time felt blurry. It felt both as if an eternity had gone by, and as if everything had happened in an instant.

His father finally decided to break the silence. “Berdly, we just want to let you know that no matter what comes out of this, we will support you no matter what, and if you ever need some professional help just tell us and we will get a specialist to help you okay?”

Berdly chuckled, feeling dry tears in his eyes.

“Now if you don’t mind I’ll go make dinner” Mr Lombardi said before finally leaving the room.

There was still silence. An awkward silence.

“I’ll leave you alone” Berdly’s mom said. As she approached the door, she turned back to Berdly and said one last thing. “And also, if you want to clean your face there are wipes in the bathroom”

She left the room and then only Berdly and Kris were left.

They stood like that for a few minutes. Kris was just sitting next to Berdly, who was laid back on his bed staring at the ceiling.

“Thank you” Berdly muttered.

Kris didn’t reply.

“It could’ve been worse, don’t you think?” Berdly said with a sweet stressed voice.

Kris still didn’t reply.

Berdly decided to look at the time. It was almost eleven. This had definitely been longer than what he thought it had. But even then, when had they left the dark world?

“Two hours and a half” Kris answered as if they had read his mind. “We left the dark world at around half past seven, we entered it at around three o’clock” 

Berdly snorted. “What a day, huh?” 

Kris didn’t reply.

“So what did you grab from my room?” He wondered.

Kris started counting on their fingers. “Mileena’s sheet, an open pack of chocolate chip cookies from behind your computer, and a bouncy ball that looks like an eye along a sack of marbles from under your bed”

Berdly snorted again. “That ain’t too bad” he thought out loud.

Kris didn’t reply.

“I like the way the dress looks on you” they suddenly said after a moment of silence.

Berdly blushed. He didn’t really know how to answer that. That was just a compliment, right? “I also like how it looks on me” he replied in a higher pitch than usual.

Kris chuckled.

“KIDS! DINNER IS READY!” Berdly’s mom yelled from the living room. 

Berdly snorted. He was hungry, but he didn’t want that moment to end. Just Kris and him, in his room, next to each other. Nothing too special, but it sure felt nice. It felt warm.

Kris stood up from his bed. Berdly didn’t feel like moving. Kris handed him their hand.

Berdly looked at it, and then looked at their face. Their poker face. 

He accepted it reluctantly and with their help, he stood up from his bed as well.

They walked together grabbing each other’s hands for a few steps, until Kris violently dropped Berdly’s hand once they had crossed the bedroom’s door. Kris started walking down the hallway, leaving Berdly behind.

Berdly looked at the bathroom door and entered to clean his hands first.

And there she was. In the mirror. A pathetic girl, but a bit less pathetic now. Her makeup was still just a mess. Her dress still looked wrinkled. But she looked calmer now. She seemed to be at peace.

That girl walked all the way towards the sink, and opened the tap. She cleaned her blue feathered hands, and then looked at Berdly once again. They looked at each other for a moment, before they finally decided to clean their face. 

They grabbed one of the wipes from the pack next to the sink, and started cleaning their face. 

Once he was done, the girl was gone. There was only Berdly. That face he knew pretty well. However, he still remembered that girl. And he soon realized she was somehow still there. He was looking at Berdly, but also at that same girl from before, only that she no longer had any makeup on.

He quickly turned away from the mirror. He didn’t want to see her any longer, he was starting to feel something he felt he shouldn’t be feeling. So he left the bathroom feeling better to find Kris and his parents sitting at the dinner table waiting for him and everything suddenly felt normal once again.

Chapter Text

It’s the first day of grade school. Berdly looks at his classmates. He doesn’t know any of them, although some of them seem to know each other. It’s a small class, they’re only 6 kids.

Who should he talk to? He doesn’t have any friends, unlike the rest of the class who most of them seem to at least know each other. 

He should talk with the boys, of course. That’s what boys do. He approaches one of them and tries to catch his attention, but he’s too busy talking with another kid.

Berdly sees another one, but he looks too cool for him to even approach. He feels intimidated by that many people, even if it’s only 6 kids in the class, they feel too many.

Berdly decides to sit on one of the desks and wait for the teacher to arrive. After a moment, a tall goat lady enters the classroom with another kid in her hand. A human. The tall goat lady counts the kids and grabs a chair from a pile. Berdly is still looking at the human, who seems to be refusing any eye contact from anyone. They trade looks after a moment and the human looks away shyly.

After a moment, the tall goat lady had already placed the chair on one of the six tables, which means that someone will have to share it. The lady claps her large furry hands to catch her classroom’s attention. “Good morning kids! Welcome to your first day of grade school! My name is Miss Toriel-” she says as she writes it on cursive over the blackboard “-and I will be your teacher for the next few years! I can see that some of you already know each other-” she says while glancing at the human and at a cat looking girl “-but of course not all of you do. So we will start with some quick presentations!”

Berdly feels excited. That means that the boys will surely find him interesting, right?

The kids present themselves one after each other. Berdly’s turn finally arrives. “My name is Berdly Lombardi, I am a boy and I am five years old” he says proudly.

No one really seems to pay much attention to him.

The human is the last one to present. “My name is Kris” they say. That 's it. That’s all they say.

Berdly feels confused with the human. He has only seen them in pictures and on some TV programs, he has never seen one in real life. “Are you a boy or a girl?” Berdly asks them.

“I’m Kris” Kris replies without thinking about it too hard.

“And I’m Berdly” Berdly says.

“Berdly, are you a boy or a girl?” Kris asks him with some uncertainty in their voice.

Berdly feels lost. Why are they asking him if he’s a boy or a girl, when he has clearly said he is a boy previously? “I am a boy” he states with confusion.

“Well, I am Kris” Kris replies.

It's the first day of fifth grade. Berdly sits at his desk patiently, waiting for class to start.

He has one friend: Krismas Dreemurr. However, he isn’t the only friend Krismas has. They also are friends with Catti. Sometimes, Berdly wishes he was the only friend Krismas had so that they would pay him more attention. But that’s okay, he thinks. Talking a bit to them between classes is enough. And for now, they are the only person who hasn’t straight up told him to shut up because he is an annoying nerd.

A reindeer looking girl Berdly has never seen before enters the class. Berdly doesn’t notice it, but her body language reads as very nervous. She quietly sits on a desk next to him, and stares at the blackboard without talking to him, even though there are only two people in the classroom at that moment. Not like Berdly isn’t used to nobody talking to him.

She keeps staring at the door, as if she was waiting for someone to go through.

After a few minutes, Krismas enters through the door next to a few kids. Berdly feels happy because now they can maybe talk about videogames or something like that.

However, Kris goes next to the girl and starts talking with her. She starts looking more alleviated, and Berdly feels jealous. The way they talk means that they clearly know each other, and that’s something Berdly doesn’t like. The more friends Kris has aside from him, the less he’ll get to talk to them. And they are his only friend.

Sometime after, the class is full and the new teacher enters. A really old turtle looking man, who with some difficulty writes his name on the blackboard. ‘Gerson Boom’. He smiles at the class. “Since you all know me, I guess I don’t really need a presentation do I?” he asks in a sweet and nice voice. He looks at the new girl. “Oh my, I’m sorry miss. My name is Gerson Boom, and I will be your teacher for the next few years” he apologizes. “Would you like to tell us who you are?” 

The new girl freezes like a deer in the headlights. “M-my name…?” she stutters.

Gerson nods gently. “That’s right miss, do you have a name?”

The girl is silent for a moment. “M-my n-n-name is Noelle Ho-Holiday” she replies with some fear in her voice.

Holiday, Holiday, Holiday. That surname gets Berdly’s brain working. Where had he heard it before? Oh, that 's right. “Holiday like the mayor?” he asks genuinely.

Noelle covers her face with embarrassment. The class is filled with murmurs. “ Is she the mayor’s kid?” “Wait, is she the sister of…” “If she’s the mayor’s kid does that mean that she will be the next mayor?”

Noelle gets up from her seat and quickly leaves the classroom while faintly sobbing. Berdly wonders what just happened. Gerson looks at the kids with his finger on his mouth, asking them to stay silent, and leaves the classroom, probably looking for Noelle.

Berdly feels Kris staring at him. He turned around and effectively, they were looking at him with disappointment. After noticing, they quickly turn their head towards Catti and start talking about something.

Berdly feels bad.

It’s seventh grade, a few days after the spelling bee contest.

Berdly has been thinking about this for a while, and finally decides to do it. He approaches Noelle who is silently waiting on her desk next to him for class to start and decides to start a conversation.

“Hi” he greets her.

Noelle looks at him with surprise. She probably wasn’t expecting him to talk to her. “Hi” she greets him back not really knowing what to do.

“My name is Berdly” he continued.

Noelle shakes her head. “I know,” she says. “We were against each other in the spelling bee” she mutters without much energy.

Berdly nods. “Do you wish to be my friend?” he asks.

There it goes. There he said it. He feels brave for doing so, but he also feels a knot on his stomach. What if she says no? She will probably say no, she is smarter than him and no one really cares about him. Aside from Kris, that is, but even then he is nothing but a secondary friend to Kris.

And also, Kris has slowly stopped talking to her as well. And to anyone in general. Maybe if he becomes friends with her, Kris will pay him a bit more attention. And also maybe he will become a bit smarter.

Noelle looks perplexed. She shrugs. “Sure” she replies, although it comes off a bit like a ‘leave me alone’.

However, Berdly doesn’t really care, and he starts rambling about their latest assignment.

Noelle slowly starts to pay him a bit more attention, and sometimes even adds something to the conversation.

Once recess arrives, they go to a corner and keep talking. Berdly starts bragging about his latest Dragon Blazer’s warrior build, to which Noelle listens and gives some tips about how he could improve it. Berdly doesn’t really seem to pay much attention, but he still takes it into account.

It 's eighth grade. Noelle and Berdly are doing homework together at Berdly’s house. Noelle seems nervous, but Berdly doesn’t realize. After an hour of Noelle helping Berdly, they both go to his room and boot up Berdly’s Nintendo. He hands her a controller and they both sit on his bed, watching at the console boot up on Berdly’s monitor.

“Berdly…” Noelle suddenly says as they wander through the wide selection of pirated games.

“Yes my dearest Noelle?” Berdly wonders as he browses the catalog.

Noelle stays silent for a moment. “I… There is something I think you should know”

Berdly snorts. “I can assure you you did a good job teaching me the ways of arithmetics” he replies a bit upset.

“No it 's…” Noelle says. “You know what? Nevermind”

They boot up Mario Kart and start a tour.

Noelle suddenly pauses the first race. “Berdly I am trans” she spits the words. She quickly covers her mouth and looks away from Berdly, as if she was embarrassed by what she just said.

Berdly tilts his head a bit confused. “Like Optimus Prime?” he wonders. To Berdly, the only trans that exists is Transformers.

Noelle shakes her head energetically, still covering her mouth and looking away. After a moment, she finally takes her hands off but still refuses to look at him. “Like Kris” she adds. “I am a trans girl”

Berdly is left confused. Like Kris? But Kris… Kris is just Kris.

"I don't understand” Berdly wonders.

Noelle sighs. “I… I was born- I used to live like a boy, but now I’m a girl”

Something inside Berdly’s mind explodes. She… was a boy? “What?” Berdly feels so lost.

“I hated being a boy, but now I’m a girl, and I’m much happier like this” she finally says as she turns back and looks at his  perplexed face.

Berdly blinks many times. Something inside his subconscious starts working. He hasn’t realized yet, but that revelation by Noelle has awakened something deep inside his psyche, something so well buried he has never even suspected was there.

He has the feeling that he is about to say something incredibly stupid. He doesn’t even know why he wants to say it, but he says it anyway. “Isn’t that just how boys feel?” he asks, not even knowing where that question came from.

Noelle frowns. “I’m a girl” she replies upset.

Berdly realizes he shouldn’t have said that. Even then, for some reason, he suddenly feels more connected to Noelle than before. He cannot explain it. He’s a guy, and guys are usually friends with guys. Why then is he her friend? What is that strange feeling he feels now?

Is this… Is he in love with her? Is it maybe because she’s in love with him? He doesn’t really know what love is. Or, in general, what affection is. But this feeling is… It is new. And she’s a girl. And he's a guy. And they’re somehow friends. So… It must be love, right?

But Berdly isn’t dumb. He has seen in enough stories that confessing would be a bad idea. But… He still thinks he may have a crush on her.

“Oh, yeah. Stupid me” he brushes it off, and they keep playing the game.

As soon as the first track is over, Noelle makes up an excuse and leaves earlier than usual. Berdly wonders if it’s because of what he said.

Berdly opened his browser. He didn’t know why, but he felt an urge. The urge to understand what trans people were.

He felt as if Noelle had explained it pretty well. She was a trans girl, meaning she had been a boy but now was a girl, because she hated being a boy and loved being a girl.

Kris was apparently also trans. But why? Kris was Kris. They were neither a boy nor a girl. If Kris was also trans, then why had Berdly never minded it the way he minded Noelle being trans?

Why was he suddenly so interested in this?

He browsed and browsed. Article after article, he started learning. Trans people apparently suffered from something called Gender Dysphoria. And also they knew they were trans. He found many stories about parents of trans people and of older trans people. He saw a pattern. It was always either people who knew since they were little kids and transitioned early, or people who didn’t figure out until they were full grown adults and transitioned later.

Berdly didn’t understand why, but he felt disappointment. It was always either kids or adults. Never teenagers. Noelle was clearly one of those who knew since she was a little kid.

He felt something die inside of him. He didn’t understand what it was, or why. But he didn’t really mind it either. After all, he was just getting documented so he could understand her better. It wasn’t like he was looking for anything, right?

It’s not like he lowkey wished he could be like her.

Noelle walked down the street steadily, feeling the weight of her bag on her shoulder. She also felt a bit of guilt. She should have returned it to Berdly yesterday, but they both forgot about it and then she didn’t want to bother after he had gone with Kris to his house.

She reached the entrance of the building and looked at the different numbers in the intercom. Which one was Berdly’s house?

She wondered for a while. Although she knew the path, she couldn’t recall the letter.

She suddenly had an idea. She opened her bag and after looking through his shorts’ pockets he pulled out a keychain. She looked at the different keys, wondering which one would open the gate. After a few tries, she found one that worked and entered.

She quickly walked through the hall and went left. She took the stairs and started going up. First floor, second floor… Third floor. There were four doors, but she knew it was the bottom right one. 

She felt her throat tighten as she stood in front of it. She wasn’t sure, but she practically knew Berdly’s parents had no idea about what their son had been up to that previous day. And there she was, with a bag that had almost fifty dollars of makeup inside next to his shorts and a t-shirt.

She fantasized about no one being home, so that she could just open the door with Berdly’s keys and hide everything in his room, letting him know through a text message.

But she knew she couldn’t do that. She would have to call. And this was risky. She had been trying to contact Berdly for the whole morning so that she could give him his stuff without much suspicion from his parents. But he had neither read her texts nor answered her calls. And even though she felt as if this was incredibly risky, the feeling of guilt that came with knowing she still had his stuff because she had been making out with Susie instead of calling him to tell him was stronger.

After gathering some courage, she finally knocked on the door.

And she felt tense. Incredibly tense. And only felt even more tense as the door opened, revealing Berdly’s mother still in her pajamas. “Oh, hi Noelle” she greeted her a bit embarrassed. “How are you doing?”

Noelle swallowed saliva. “H-Hello. I was here to see Berdly” she managed to say. “I- He forgot- I’m here to give him- Homework! He forgot his notebook!” she tried to excuse as she highlighted the bag under her shoulder.

Berdly’s mom grinned. “At the festival…?” she wondered.

Noelle giggled nervously. “Yeah… At the festival” she said hoping it wouldn’t come off as unnatural.

Berdly’s mom raised her head as if she was nodding. She stepped to the side and Noelle entered.

“He’s in his bedroom,” his mom pointed out. “I haven’t seen him in the whole morning,” she added.

Noelle started worrying. “Maybe he is still asleep…” she wondered.

His mom shook her head. “I don’t think so, but…” she said as she took the liberty of placing her hand over Noelle’s shoulder. “Listen Noelle, I’ll be honest. I think he’s going through… something that you should help him with”

Noelle felt a chill down her spine. “Y-yeah” she said as she smirked.

She walked towards Berdly’s bedroom. The door was closed, of course. She knocked on it. “Berdly?” she asked.

No response.

“Berdly? It’s me, Noelle! Are you asleep?” she knocked again.

The door suddenly opened, revealing Berdly wearing his green dress and with a desperate and tired face. He pulled her in and closed the door, locking it from the inside.

Noelle gasped. “Berdly?” She said confused.

Berdly went and sat on his bed, staring at the mirror on the door of his closet.

Noelle sat next to her friend and looked at the mirror as well, seeing their reflection.

“You can see her as well?” Berdly suddenly asked with some fear in his voice.

Noelle didn’t know how to reply.

“She’s… she’s there, and won't leave my sights,” he continued.

Noelle shrugged. “I guess”

Berdly chuckled. “I… I saw her first in your room” he revealed. “Then I saw her at that restroom”

Noelle awkwardly hugged Berdly. She understood that feeling.

“I thought it was just… just the makeup, you know? But now…”

“It’s not the makeup,” Noelle said. “Nor the clothing, right? It’s just you”

Berdly didn’t reply. A tear left his eyes. But he didn’t say anything.

After a moment of staring at her image, Berdly stood up and closed the closet door, hiding the mirror. Noelle didn’t know what to say. “My parents busted me yesterday,” Berdly finally revealed.

Noelle hid her mouth with her hands in surprise. “Ohmygosh and what happened?” She asked worried. 

Berdly chuckled as he laid down on his bed, staring at the ceiling just like yesterday and feeling his dress’ skirt lay through the sheets. “They think I’m trans,” he said with uncertainty.

Noelle looked at his monitor. A black monitor, completely opaque but with some work she managed to sight their own black reflections. “And what do you think?” She asked to Berdly’s dark image. She turned her head towards her friend once again. “Are you trans or not?” 

Berdly sighed. “You should know, I’ve been thinking about this all night,” he said. “I’ve- dreamed about this”

Noelle chuckled. “You dreamed?” 

“It’s… it wasn’t really dreaming. It was… memories?” He explained.

Noelle didn’t answer, waiting for Berdly to continue.

“You know, like…” he didn’t know how to continue. He giggled a bit with desperation. “My brain is incredibly tangled up right now” he excused himself. “And I thought Evangelion was hard to understand,” he joked.

Noelle shrugged. “It’s okay” she comforted him. “Figuring your stuff out is usually confusing”

Berdly snorted as he rubbed his face. “No it’s not it shouldn’t- you'll see, when I met Kris, nothing felt… different?”

“What do you mean?”

Berdly thought about it for a moment. “I… don’t know? It… it was after I bonded with you” he revealed.

Noelle was confused for a moment.

“After you came out to me” he explained.

Noelle nodded as soon as she realized. “Oh” she said.

“It’s…” Berdly muttered. “I don’t even know, if I'm sincere”

Noelle looked at the closed closet once again. “Because you didn’t understand Kris, but you understood me?” She wondered.

Berdly didn’t know how to answer. “Kris… Kris is Kris, you know?” He tried to explain. “But you…”

Noelle softly nodded. “Yeah, I get it” she said.

There was silence for a moment.

“You know, if it wasn’t for Kris…” Noelle started explaining. “Well, since they were quite literally the first contact with trans people I had, they soon made me question things” she finally revealed.

Berdly chuckled with irony.

“I remember I… I don’t know, everything was so confusing…”

“Why was that?” Berdly wondered.

Noelle smiled. “I… don’t know. I was just a kid. I thought my life had to be a certain way, and then they suddenly revealed that I didn’t have to conform to it, and I could be me and…” she said with some melancholy.

Berdly hummed.

“I didn’t tell anyone for years” she mentioned. “I didn’t even know what I wanted to be. It was thanks to Dess that I realized I just wanted to be a girl” she nostalgically remembered. 

Berdly didn’t know how to answer. Noelle never talked about her sister. Not to him, at least. 

“I think…” Noelle interrupted the awkward silence. “That you never wondered about any of this stuff until you met me because…” she didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t dare to.

Berdly snorted. “You messed me up,” he confessed. “Not in a bad way, but…”

Noelle left him some time to think.

“Can I tell you something?” Berdly asked.

Noelle looked at him again. “Sure”

Berdly looked at her and closed his eyes. “I think I envy you,” he revealed.

Noelle didn’t reply.

“I’ll never be like you. I wish I could, but I’ll never be like you. I’m not smart, I’m not cute, I’m not even a girl. I’m just a wimpy nerd who wishes he could be so much stuff, but is none of that” he started sobbing. 

He felt Noelle’s arms wrap around him. Her embrace felt comforting. “That’s not true” she whispered to his ear.

Berdly shook his head. “I’ll never be any of that” he kept sobbing.

Noelle patted his back, trying to make him feel better. “Who said that? That’s not true, Berdly”

Berdly didn’t reply, just sobbing and letting his scarce tears run down his face.

“You’re actually smarter than what you think. You can be cute. You can be a girl. Sure, you can’t be me, but that doesn’t mean you can’t be any of that stuff”

Berdly chuckled. “I can’t be a girl,” he replied, feeling his heart ache. 

Noelle started drying his tears with a tissue and he opened his eyes. She placed her hands under his chin, looking at his head. “Who said you can’t?” She asked.

Berdly looked to the side flustered, forcing her to take her hands away. “I can’t be a girl,” he repeated.

Noelle made sure it was okay, before placing her hand on his back and caressing it.

“I wish I could, but I’m not. I lack dysphoria, and there were no signs” he turned his head towards Noelle once again, with defeated eyes. “Unlike you, I didn’t know”

Noelle grinned with irony. She knew this wasn’t the moment, but the arguments Berdly just gave were the same ones she had heard a few times ago. “Berdly, that’s- excuse me please- that’s bullshit” she said.

Berdly didn’t know what to say.

Noelle sighed. “Berdly, dysphoria is a bitch and if you don’t have it then good for you! But you literally- you don’t need dysphoria to be trans! That’s so stupid!”

Berdly looked at her with surprise.

“Like, honestly even then, many people think they don’t have dysphoria when they actually do! Some don’t, and that’s also okay! But you- okay this is an assumption but you definitely looked happier being a girl at the festival than if you had been there normally right?”

Berdly remembered the rushes of euphoria he had felt whenever people had mistaken him for a girl. “R-right” he replied with some embarrassment.

“And also, the ‘but there were no signs’ bullshit. That’s… that’s literally just that. That’s pure bullshit! Do you seriously think that there were no signs? Or maybe there were some, but they are repressed? Like, you know, the way you’ve been repressing for your whole life” she pointed out.

Berdly took offense and looked to the side again. “I didn’t repress,” he said proudly.

Noelle chuckled. “No shit you didn’t, mister boy person” she teased her friend. “The manliest manly man to ever exist who wants to date girls even though he’s- quite clearly- not into girls” she kept going.

Berdly felt his pride hurt. She was damn right. Even though he didn’t want to believe it, deep down he knew she was right.

“I like girls,” he lied.

Noelle laughed. “Yeah, that’s why your mom caught you watching gay porn” she said damn straight. “Berdly I’m not dumb, you took me to watch the freaking Aquaman movie, and none of us even like Aquaman!”

Berdly started blushing. “I mean Jason Momoa is kinda hot” he tried to excuse himself.

Noelle poked his chest. “He is, but if you only liked women you wouldn’t pay seven bucks to see a hot buff shirtless guy for around… two hours?”

Berdly started having a crisis. 

“And I’ve seen the way you look at Kris” she finished with a smug face.

Berdly didn’t reply. Noelle was always right. And this time, he knew she was right. He hated it, but it was true.

So he could be a girl.

“Then I can be a girl?” He wondered with hope.

Noelle smiled. “Do you want to be a girl?” She asked her friend.

Berdly didn’t know how to reply.

“Then you can be a girl, you don’t need anyone’s permission”

Berdly’s face lit up. She didn’t know that feeling but… it just felt right. A girl. A girl. She could be a girl. 

Noelle looked at her face, brighter than the sun with joy. “Honestly, being a girl is awesome,” Noelle mentioned.

Berdly didn’t say anything. She still felt the need to process some stuff. But… she was a girl. She jumped from her bed and opened the closet once again, staring at her own image in the mirror. That was her. That was her image. That was her reality. She felt tears come out of her eyes from pure joy. She felt euphoric. She turned to Noelle. “I’m a girl,” she said.

Noelle nodded cheerfully. “About time you realized it” she said, glad that her friend had finally understood herself. 

Berdly started bouncing around her bedroom, feeling her dress flow with her. “A girl a girl a girl a girl a girl a girl…” she said until she finally laid down on her bed once again, exhausted. “Dear Arceus, I am a girl” she cheered.

Things felt stable for a while, so Noelle decided to stand up and pick up her bag that was at Berdly’s bed foot. She placed it next to Berdly and opened the zip.

Berdly looked at it. “What 's that?” She wondered. 

Noelle started pulling out stuff. Her shorts, her keys, her t-shirt… and all the makeup she had bought for her. “Your stuff” she said as she placed each one of them over the bed. “Your clothes from yesterday and the makeup I bought you”

Berdly stood up and looked at all the makeup. That was certainly way more than she would ever use. If she was even going to use any of it. Different lipsticks, eyeliners, palettes…

“Noelle I- how much did all of this cost?” She asked. She felt guilty, knowing that she wanted to give her all of that. 

“It doesn’t matter, it’s yours now” she mentioned. She placed her hand on her own waist while giving Berdly a sassy look. “Consider it a welcome gift,” she joked.

Berdly looked at it. “I'm not skilled enough to use any of this,” she muttered.

Noelle giggled. “I can teach you,” she said, looking again at the pile. “But not now” she remembered, “I was going to have lunch with Susie”

Berdly nodded, looking at her own stash of makeup. She once again looked at Noelle. “Do you have time to help me with it now?” She wondered.

Noelle looked at her. “Sure, why not,” she replied. “What do you want?” 

Berdly looked at the pile, feeling lost at the many options. “The same as yesterday” she decided.

“Right” Noelle muttered as she grabbed the already opened lipstick, liner and palette. “Sit there” she ordered while pointing at the chair.

Berdly obediently sat and let Noelle apply the makeup on her face. It sure felt easier this time than the last two. 

“I should take you shopping one day” Noelle mentioned as she gently brushed Berdly’s eyeshadow. “You could use a new outfit”

“I guess,” Berdly replied, afraid of her beak movement throwing off Noelle. “But… I'm not really sure”

Noelle did a few more brushes, trying to hide the mess she had made with the eyeliner. “I mean, there’s lots of styles, you just have to find yours”

Berdly hummed. “I guess so,” she replied. “Although I still don’t know if there are many… geek clothes out there”

Noelle chuckled. “Girl, there are whole stores only dedicated to geeky girl clothing” she said as she stored the brush in the palette. “Where do you think half of Kris’ outfits came from?”

Berdly shrugged while blinking quickly. “I don’t know,” she replied. “I order all my t-shirts online” 

Noelle nodded. “I know,” she said as she opened the lipstick. 

Once they were finally done, Noelle drove Berdly to the mirror and looked at the bird’s image while laying her hands over her feathered shoulders. “You like it?” She asked her friend.

Berdly nodded. “That’s me” she replied proudly,

“That 's you!” 

“So now I’m supposed to come out” Berdly realized and she started grinning unpleasantly. “To the class, and to practically everyone I know” she started getting used to the idea.

Noelle shrugged. “You don’t have to come out yet” she mentioned. “I mean, not like it could go badly but…”

Berdly nodded. “However, I desire to come out” she mentioned.

Noelle rested her face over Berdly’s shoulder and wrapped her arms around her chest, still looking at their reflection. “I can help you with it,” she offered. “Do you want to tell your parents now?”

Berdly grabbed Noelle’s arms. She felt warm. Was this how girls usually behaved? If that was it, she definitely loved being a girl. “It can’t go wrong,” she replied. “And then I’ll grant you freedom,” she joked.

Noelle chuckled while unwrapping herself from Berdly. “Then let's go” she said as she grabbed Berdly’s hand and they both walked out of her room. “Do you want to do the honors?” Noelle asked as they both walked down the hallway.

Berdly started feeling nervous. “Could you do it for me?” She asked.

Noelle nodded. As they entered the living room, Berdly dropped Noelle’s hand and hid in the corner. “Mister Lombardi, Miss Lombardi” Noelle called her parents as they were both watching some TV program. “It is my pleasure to announce that I transed your daughter’s gender,” she joked.

She soon realized Berdly wasn’t next to her and was, in fact, hiding behind the corner. “Didn’t you say you wanted to come out?” She asked concerned, starting to worry that she had just messed up.

Berdly grinned. “Yes” she replied embarrassed.

Noelle went into the corner and pulled Berdly into the living room, her parents looking at them the whole time. “Just look at her! Isn’t she a cute girl?” Noelle playfully said as she did a stewardess presentation. “She’s smart, loves video games, won’t stop making pop culture references and is also my friend!” She said as she stepped behind Berdly, making sure she wouldn’t steal the spotlight. 

Berdly’s mom grinned. “So… a girl, huh?” She sounded happy. She turned towards her husband. “Guess now we’re two girls and one guy” she pointed out with a smug voice.

Berdly’s dad shrugged. “If it’s what makes you happy,” he said.

Berdly finally dared to say something. “Yeah, I’m certain it does,” she stated. “I- I don’t wish to rush things, but these past few days I’ve been trying it for a bit and I would like to do it full time” she dumped. 

Berdly’s mom stood up and gave Berdly a hug. “My daughter,” she said with pride.

Berdly felt three different sensations at the same time. She felt euphoric, because she was a girl. She felt relieved, because her parents were accepting. And she felt loved, as they seemed proud of her.

Noelle awkwardly stared at the scene. She felt she was no longer needed. She looked at the clock and gasped. “Yeah so… uh…” she started excusing. “Okay I gotta leave my girlfriend is waiting bye” she said before finally leaving through the door in a rush.

As she walked down the stairs, she still felt the adrenaline. That had just happened. And she couldn’t wait to tell Susie. 

Chapter Text

Berdly stared impatiently at the door. Would she arrive on time? Would she bring it with her? What if she had forgotten to pack it in her backpack? What if she wasn’t the second one to arrive?

Not like that really mattered, she guessed. Although it actually mattered. It actually mattered a lot.

After a few minutes, the door opened and Noelle’s figure entered with a sleepy face. She waved at Berdly out of habit and sat on her seat before sinking her head into her arms, not really talking to her.

Berdly swallowed her saliva. Had she forgotten about it? “Uh hum” she tried to catch her attention, but she didn’t react. She sighed and touched her back. “Noelle?”

Noelle got up in a jumpscare. She looked at Berdly with an annoyed face. “B-Berdly?” She asked nervously.

Berdly awkwardly smiled and looked at her backpack. “Did you…” she said nervously, worrying about… everything. “Do you have it?” She finally asked.

Noelle looked at Berdly perplex, and then looked at her backpack. She took a few seconds to remember. “OOOOH RIGHT!” She suddenly exclaimed while opening it and pulling out a pleated red skirt with green stripes forming squares. “Here you go” she said as she handed it to Berdly.

Berdly grabbed it and quickly put it inside of Noelle’s backpack. “Oh god Noelle don’t…” she said as she started panicking and hiding her face with her hands. “What if someone entered and saw it?”

Noelle sighed. “I thought you wanted to wear it” she pointed out.

Berdly started touching the feathers of her left arm, feeling each one of them. She wanted to pluck at least one of them. “I do” she mentioned while looking at the floor.

She wanted to pluck them. She hated this moment. Even though she actually wanted to wear that skirt and tell her whole class that she was now a girl and just have the rest of the day go normal, she couldn’t help but feel a massive weight above herself. Just as that time Kris had told her to go out to the festival as a girl, as herself. She kept looking to the ground, staring at it, feeling her breath get heavier as her fingers played with her feathers, finding a nice place to pull one of them out.

Noelle placed her hand over hers, and she calmed down. “Don’t” she muttered.

Berdly felt safer and looked back at her friend. She had that serious look she had whenever she was concerned.

“What if it goes wrong?” Berdly started wondering. “What if-“

“It won't,” Noelle interrupted. “It’s literally impossible for this to go wrong, Berdly” 

Berdly sighed. She knew that Noelle was always right. “Right,” she muttered.

Noelle grabbed her backpack. “Okay let's get you changed” she mentioned as she gave the door a look.

They both left the classroom and started walking towards the bathroom. Even though it was still pretty early in the morning and they were pretty much the only kids in there, Berdly couldn’t stop but wonder what would happen if someone catched them.

They finally arrived at the bathrooms and Noelle thoughtlessly entered the girls' one. Berly however didn’t enter. After noticing, Noelle went back to the entrance and looked at Berdly who was frozen in place. 

“What are you waiting for?” She asked the bird girl. “The sooner the less chances anyone will see you on the hallway” 

Berdly looked at her friend. “I’m not entering there ” she mentioned.

Noelle sighed. “Berdly it’s just a bathroom and you’re a girl no one’s looking no one will bat an eye just-“

“I’m not entering there ” she repeated. 

Noelle snorted. She went inside, grabbed her backpack and left the bathroom. “Okay then” she said as she entered the gender neutral bathroom, which Berdly followed without complaining.

Noelle opened one of the stalls and handed Berdly the skirt. Berdly accepted it without hesitation, entered the stall and locked the door. 

Noelle looked at her reflection in the mirror, realizing how tired she actually looked. “Just tell me you won’t enter the guys bathroom in a skirt” she asked Berdly, who was still changing.

After a few seconds, Berdly unlocked the door and opened it. She looked at the mirror, and saw what she was expecting to see. Just a geeky girl with no makeup, a t-shirt with the N7 logo and a cool looking skirt. Nothing else. Just a geeky girl. That’s what she was. She felt relief, which soon started fading away as she realized that’s how people would see her. 

“How do I look?” She asked Noelle.

Noelle looked at her through the mirror. “Not bad” she said. She wanted to mention that she could look better, but she restrained herself from doing so since the last thing she wanted was to give her more insecurities than she already had. She turned to her friend and quickly examined her look, from talons to head. “Okay we better leave now” she said as she realized class would start in a few minutes. 

They left the bathroom and walked together to class. Susie and Kris were already there, doodling things on the blackboard that clearly displayed their immature sense of humor. “Hi” Noelle greeted them as she left her backpack over her desk.

“Fuck!” Susie said as she grabbed the eraser and started getting rid of the various phallic shapes throughout the board not before eating the chalk used in the crime. Kris looked at Susie like they weren’t believing what they were seeing. She turned back to Berdly and punched her desk. “Tell Alphys what I was doing and-“ she started rambling, before suddenly noticing the skirt and her expression changed to a more affectionate one. “Looks good” she complimented.

Berdly blushed. “Thanks” she mentioned as she quietly sat on her desk. 

Susie quickly turned around and started talking with Noelle, as they had been doing ever since they started dating. Berdly looked awkwardly at Kris, who was staring at her. They mechanically went to their desk and sat in silence, still looking at Berdly but not doing anything.

Did they want to talk to her? Berdly certainly wouldn’t mind talking to them. She stood up from her seat and approached them.

“Greetings, Krismas” she said. 

Kris didn’t reply, now looking at the void.

“Would you like to have some friendly banter until class starts?” She wondered.

Kris still didn’t react. Berdly understood this wouldn’t go anywhere, so she went back to her seat and sat waiting for class to start.

As the bell rang, the class filled itself with students and Miss Alphys entered with her usual tired face of mondays. She turned on the computer and sat on her chair, looking with dread at the monitor. She usually did this every Monday morning, which gave the kids another few minutes before she actually started teaching.

Noelle and Berdly exchanged looks. This was the moment. Everyone would notice sooner or later that she was wearing a skirt, and coming out now would be the easiest way.

Noelle stood up from her desk and approached the blackboard, looking at the rest of the class with Berdly ready to get up at any moment. She clapped her palms to make sure everyone was paying attention. “Okay so, everyone! We’ve got an announcement to make!” She revealed, feeling the stare of seven different people at the same time. She gestured Berdly to get there, who finally stood up and went to the blackboard with Noelle, revealing to the whole classroom that she was indeed wearing a dress. 

“H-hi” Berdly raised her hand nervously. “Apparently I’m a girl so-“

There was an awkward silence. Berdly felt the whole classroom staring at her. “Are you still going by Berdly?” Catti suddenly asked.

Berdly nodded nervously.

“She her?” Catti continued.

Berdly nodded intensely.

“Cool” Catti finished.

Alphys stood up from her seat and approached the couple. “B-Berdly hi, I think it’s pretty brave of you to- to come out like this, but w-would you mind going back to your desk so I can teach?” She asked in that fearful tone she always had.

“Can we get a free day? She just came out!” Susie asked from her seat.

Alphys awkwardly smiled at the two, who finally went back to their seats. She soon started counting the kids, making sure the nine of them were in there. She chuckled and muttered “five out of ten” in a low enough voice that only Berdly and Noelle heard it. Class then went on normally.

The bell rang, indicating that recess time had just started. Which meant they had half an hour to eat their middle morning breakfast and talk about whatever they wanted to. Kris and Susie were the first ones to leave the classroom, as always.

And suddenly, they all wanted to talk to Berdly. 

Noelle would usually go with Susie, but this time the guilt of leaving her friend alone against the whole classroom asking questions was stronger. 

Catti and Jockington were the first ones to approach Berdly. “Hello, Reyes ” Catti teased her. “How’s it going?” She asked, doing what Berdly interpreted as the closest thing she would ever do to a smile.

“Yeah bird girl! Jockington wanted to pass by and ask how are you doing!” he asked while wiggling his… tail? Like he usually did.

Berdly shrugged, a bit nervous. “I’m fine” she replied, not really knowing what to say. She had never really interacted with them before. The time Catti caught her was like one out of the three times they had interacted during that school year.

Catti and Berdly kept looking at each other’s eyes. Berdly didn’t really know what she was supposed to say, although it seemed as if Catti didn’t need her words. She felt her cat eyes dive deep into her soul, analyzing each thought she was having through her mind.

Was this going to ever end?

“Well bird girl, if you ever need any help Catti and Jockington are always ready!” Jockington mentioned before the both of them finally walked away from the classroom.

Berdly sighed relieved. Noelle stood from her desk and the both of them were heading towards the entrance, when “Uhm… Burghley?” MK asked from behind them.

Berdly turned around to see both MK and Snowdrake, awkwardly smiling.

MK opened their mouth. “I-” Snowdrake poked them with his leg and they nervously laughed. “WE wanted to tell you that WE think it’s pretty cool for you to…” MK laughed awkwardly again.

“You’re a cool girl” Snowdrake finished.

Berdly blinked. This was getting awkward. “My name is Berdly ” she replied.

MK laughed again. “Yeah, yeah… We already knew” they tried to excuse themself.

“Yeah, it was a prank, ” Snowdrake mentioned.

Berdly sighed. “Of course” she replied as she finally left the classroom with Noelle.

Berdly mindlessly followed Noelle, all the way to the supply closet. “Why are we here?” she asked.

Noelle made sure no one was watching before putting her hands on the doorknobs. “Where do you think Susie and Kris go missing during recess?” she said as she opened the doors revealing the darker yet darker space. “I’m going with Susie, if you wanna join” she mentioned before jumping backwards into the endless void.

Berdly looked around to make sure no one was watching, and jumped.

Berdly looked again at her digital watch. 10 minutes before freedom, and Alphys was already ending the lesson. She finished copying what was on the blackboard and looked intensely at Alphys, hoping for her to finally say those magical words.

“And that’s it for today!” the teacher said as she took some space from the blackboard to see what was written in it. “Anyone have a question?”

Normally, Noelle would have a question. Or Berdly. In some very specific moments, Tem would ask something.

But today no one wanted to ask anything. They all understood that if no one asked anything that day, they would be able to leave ten minutes earlier. And everyone wanted to leave ten minutes earlier.

“Alright then” Alphys said as she stored her chalk in her pocket.

Susie jumped from her seat and ran towards the door. “S-susie it’s not the hour yet!” Alphys said.

Susie turned around looking at Noelle, as if she was asking for her permission.

“And also before you leave I must give you the authorizations for this year's trip!” Alphys suddenly mentioned, which immediately made Susie go back to her seat and impatiently tap on her desk.

Alphys grabbed a handful of papers and started giving one to each class member. “As some of you might have heard, we were planning to do this year’s trip before april so you could focus better on your finals” Once she was done she went back to her desk. “But for some reason the directory screwed up so the trip is happening next week” she revealed.

The class gasped. “Next week?” MK said.

“But-” Noelle audibly said.

Alphys sighed. “I’m sorry class, it is what it is” she mentioned. “And it is…” she started doing some drum rolls on her desk trying to get the classroom to cheer up. “A two day field trip at mount ebott! You can read the rest on the paper” she mentioned.

Berdly looked at the paper. A two days field trip at mount ebott. They would sleep on Mt. Resort and travel there on a bus, do some field work for biology class and history class, and…

“This shit is too expensive!” Susie roared. “Fifty fucking dolars?” 

Alphys nervously laughed. “Susie, don’t worry too much about it” she mentioned. “We will make sure all of you can go”

Susie snorted.

Catti raised her hand. “Yes, Catti?” Alphys asked.

“Are the rooms going to be individual, or…?” she asked while looking at both Noelle and Susie in a very not-subtle way.

“They will be for three, we’ve still got to decide who…” Alphys started explaining.

Catti smirked.

Susie and Noelle traded accomplice looks. Kris and Berdly looked at each other, as if they were saying gross.

Alphys cleared her throat. “Any more questions?” she asked one last time.

The doorbell finally rang.

Chapter Text

The alarm beeped, telling Berdly of the end of her turn. She gathered her homework and stored it on her backpack, ready to leave the library.

She impatiently tapped the desk, waiting for her replacement to arrive. A few minutes later, a teapot looking guy appeared. “You are late” Berdly pointed out mildly annoyed.

“Sorry, it took me longer than usual,” the monster replied.

Berdly sighed. “Anyways, good bye” she said as she left her place and headed outside of the library.

7 PM. Friday. The sun wouldn’t be out for much longer, as its golden light would grow dimmer by the minute. As she walked towards her home, she heard a honk which she ignored. The honk sounded again, not before a familiar red car stopped next to her. Berdly stopped and looked at the lowering window.

“Get in nerd, we’re going shopping” Susie roared from the passenger seat.

Berdly blinked. “Now?”

“Do you want to come or nah?” Susie asked with that passive-aggressive voice she usually talked to Berdly with.

The backseats window opened, revealing Noelle’s face. “Come on, it’ll be fun!” She mentioned.

Berdly sighed. “Okay, sure” she said as she opened the door and entered the car.

She soon noticed that Kris was the one driving, with Susie to their side. Noelle was sitting next to her behind.

“You know the way, Kris?” Noelle wondered.

“No” Kris mentioned as they pulled out their phone and started typing something in it. “Susie you tell me” they said as they handed it to her.

Susie looked at it for a moment. “Alright now you turn left” she said.

“I know how to leave the fucking town” Kris snorted.

“Hey chill dude” Susie complained.

Kris started driving, with Susie looking hypnotized at the map displayed on the phone. 

“I didn’t know you had a driving license” Berdly suddenly mentioned.

Kris shrugged. “Do you trust me?” They asked in a creepy voice.

Noelle nervously laughed. “As long as you don’t hit any cars like in the Cyber world…”

“You did WHAT?” Susie exclaimed. “Dude! Why didn’t you invite me?” 

“Because you were with Ralsei,” Kris replied.

“Oh right” Susie realized. “You ever been in a car crash?” She asked Noelle.

Noelle shook her head. “And you?” She wondered.

“Nah” Susie replied. “Kris can we crash the car?” She joked.

Kris chuckled. “I don’t know, do you wanna crash my mom’s car?” They mentioned. “A thousand bucks and I’ll do”

“Can we- not joke about that?” Berdly interrupted them. “It’s uncomfortable”

Susie snorted. “Whatever”

“So… where are we going exactly?” Berdly asked.

“Grand mall,” Noelle replied. “That’s where the shop I told you is”

Berdly thought about it for a while. “I can’t remember there being that kind of shop there”

Noelle shrugged. “I haven’t been there for a while, but Kris was there not too long ago right Kris?” 

Kris didn’t reply.

“Right Kris?” Noelle repeated.

“What?” Kris came back to the conversation. “Oh right, yeah there is a cool shop in there” they replied. “But I can’t remember it being this way”

Susie looked at the map again. “Uh… guys” 

Kris started looking nervous. “What?” They asked.

“We took the wrong road,” Susie mentioned.

Kris snorted. “Okay how do we go back?” they wondered with some anxiety in their voice.

Susie looked at the map for a while more. “Uh… there should be a roundabout in twenty kilometers”

Kris started laughing. “Fuck my life” they muttered. “Mom’s gonna kill me”

“It’s not that bad, Kris!” Noelle tried to cheer them up. “It’s just a longer travel” 

Kris snorted. “It was already a twenty minute drive. Now I screwed up, and this is going to add at least another twenty minutes.”

“Twenty more minutes with us,” Susie cheered.

“Twenty more minutes of trying not to crash the car” Kris complained.

“Now you go right,” Susie said as they approached the roundabout. Kris took the first exit and they kept driving. “And now in theory we should…” Susie suddenly stopped. “Kris it was actually left”

Kris started mumbling something, clearly upset. 

“No one’s behind us?” they asked as they kept looking through the mirrors.

Berdly turned around. “Negative,” she replied.

“THEN FUCK THIS SHIT!” Kris groaned as they turned around the car. “FUCK THIS SHIT MAN!”

Susie snorted. “Look at you, breaking driving safety laws”

Kris didn’t reply. They were too mad to even talk.

“Kris, maybe you-” Noelle started saying.

“Shut. Up” they replied harshly. “Just. Shut. Up”

No one replied anything again. The car started slowing down, until Kris finally pulled it out of the freeway and stopped to the side of the road. Kris pulled out the keys, and started taking deep breaths.

“Hey dude, it’s okay” Susie mentioned.

Kris didn’t reply, a tear coming out of their left eye.

“Thank you for driving us, Kris,” Noelle said. “It’s okay, take your time”

Kris chuckled and grabbed a tissue, blowing their nose.

They suddenly straightened their posture, and started the car again. “Don’t tell mom about this” they muttered as they went back to the road, driving slower than before. “By the way, do you still want to go to the mall? Or would you prefer the safer option of going back home?” they asked in a sarcastic voice.

“What do you want to do, Kris?” Noelle asked with concern. “You’re the driver after all”

Kris took their time. “Let’s keep going then!” They replied in an insecure voice.

“Are you sure?” Susie mentioned.

“Of course I am! Let’s go to the mall” they answered confused.

“Whatever” Susie mentioned as she started looking at the map again.

After driving for a while more, they finally reached the mall. They managed to park outside near the entrance. It was already dark outside, but not too cold. Berdly, Noelle and Susie left the car and waited for Kris to leave.

However, they didn’t really seem to have any intentions in doing so.

Susie tapped their window and they lowered it. “Hey dude, you okay?”

Kris didn’t reply at first, still staring at the void in front of their eyes. “I don’t think I’ll go,” they finally replied in a monotonous voice.

Susie glanced at the side, before quickly turning her head back towards Kris. “So you’re leaving?” she asked them. 

Kris shrugged their shoulders. “Don’t count on me” they answered as they raised the window.

Susie snorted before approaching Noelle and Berdly, who were waiting a few meters away. “They aren’t coming,” she announced a bit angry.

Noelle gasped. Berdly gave Susie a confused look. “But… why?” Berdly asked.

Susie shrugged. “Dunno,” she replied, scratching her own neck. “Sometimes they need space”

“They’ve been a bit weird lately” Noelle pointed out in a bit of a concerned voice.

Berdly felt a chill down her spine. She knew why that was, but she also knew she wasn’t supposed to say it. Was she supposed to play along and say that they were indeed acting weird? Or was she supposed to just brush it off as just normal Kris behavior?

“So will we have to go back on a bus?” Noelle wondered as she looked at Kris inside the car, who was still staring at the void like a zombie.

Berdly looked at her watch. 8 PM. “Then we should hurry up” she mentioned. “If my highly intellectual brain is correct, the last bus will pass in around an hour”

Susie gave Berdly a smack. “What’s with that?” Berdly complained.

Susie smirked. “I’m making you dumber, since you said you were on my level” she said with smugness. She quickly started looking guilty. “I didn’t hit you too hard did I?” she asked worriedly.

Berdly crossed her arms and looked to the side, closing her eyes. “I’m not that big of a weakling, Susan,” she said.

Susie gave her another smack, but softer this time. “My name is not Susan” she replied in a joking tone.

Noelle giggled. “Anyways, we should keep going,” she said as she grabbed Susie’s hand and the three of them headed inside the mall.

The Grand Mall. Berdly had been there a few times. Since Hometown didn’t have a mall and lacked a few shops, most of its residents would go shopping there. It was further away than a few other ones, but since this one was simply bigger most people wouldn’t mind driving a few more minutes.

Of course, it was pretty crowded because it was a Friday after working hours. Berdly blindly followed Susie and Noelle, feeling a bit envious of them being together while she was there alone without…

Fuck, why was she even thinking about that again? She wasn’t jealous. She was just grossed out, of course.

It sure would be nice if she could gross out people with-

She shook her head trying to get rid of that thought. “Hey Noelle, where are we going exactly?” she suddenly asked trying to get between Susie and her so they would stop holding hands.

Noelle gave her a dumb smile. “To that clothing store I told you, right?” she asked Berdly just to make sure.

Berdly remembered. “Of course, dumb me” she muttered.

They took some mechanical stairs to the second floor and stopped in front of a discrete clothing store. It had no windows, only two sliding doors and a stylish sign that read ‘Geeker’.

As soon as they entered, Berdly felt at home. The battle theme of Dragon’s blazers 2 was playing on the speakers, there were stands with loads of t-shirts, mannequins with cosplays…

Susie was also amazed. She had never been there. It was like being at a convention, but without it being a convention.

“Okay, so where do you want to start?” Noelle asked the both of them.

Berdly looked at the t-shirt stand. She already had enough t-shirts, but…

“You can’t live only with t-shirts, Berdly” Noelle pointed out soon after noticing. “There are also jackets, trousers, skirts, accessories…” she started recalling. 

“Yo, they got spiked wristbands?” Susie’s face lightened up.

Noelle shrugged. “Probably”

They headed towards the accessories section, which Berdly looked at with great interest. There were, indeed, spiked wristbands. And there were also pendants, and more wristbands, and some collars, and chains, and…

Berdly jumpscared as she felt a hand lay over her shoulder. “Boo I’m a ghost,” Kris joked.

Berdly turned around to see her friend. They were smiling, something Berdly wasn’t used to. “Kris! We thought you were coming back home” Noelle greeted them. 

Kris shrugged. “Changed my plans” they muttered. They looked at Berdly again, with that dumb face that made Berdly feel-

“Want a tour through the shop?” They offered. 

Susie snorted. “Don’t know, man. I don’t want to get tempted with stuff I can’t afford”

Noelle giggled. “I’ll stay with her” she mentioned while giving Susie that accomplice look she usually did before they would start being aggressively corny and touchy.

“Uh huh” Kris mumbled. “Anyways, want a tour?” They asked Berdly in a more intimate tone, as they were asking her and only her and-

“Y-yeah!” Berdly replied in a higher pitch than usual. She realized, but didn’t want to think about it.

“Then let's go” they said as they grabbed her hand and started walking away from Susie and Noelle, who were already getting a bit too close to each other. 

They first arrived at the jackets section. “Do you like Attack on Titan?” Kris asked her as they pulled out a jacket with a winged emblem from a hanger.

Berdly nodded.

“You have taste” they replied as they handed it to her.

Berdly tried the jacket on.  “How does it look?” She asked them.

Kris brought their hand to their chin. “Not bad” they replied.

After a moment, Berdly took it off and made sure that no feathers had been left inside. She checked the price tag. “Crap” she muttered as she realized how expensive it was. She reached down for her purse (it was actually a shoulder strap but she liked to call it her purse) and pulled out her wallet. 

She had brought no money. “Shit”

“You can pay me tomorrow,” Kris suggested. “Noelle and I guessed this would happen so we brought extra”

Berdly sighed in relief. “Thank you, Kris” she replied as she placed the jacket back on its place. “Unfortunately, this piece of clothing is beyond my financial reach as of now, so I’ll probably wait until my birthday”

Kris shrugged. “Cool” they mentioned as they started browsing between the rest of jackets, before finally pulling out a Cobra Kai one. “Try on this one” they said as they gave it to her.

Berdly tried it on, and Kris took a picture of her. “Can I see?” Berdly asked. Kris showed her the picture. A bird girl, in a pretty green dress and with a leather jacket taken straight out of an 80s movie. She liked it. 

Berdly looked at the price tag. This one was a bit cheaper than the other one, but…

“Still too expensive” she muttered as she placed it back in its place.

Kris shrugged. “Jackets are expensive” they mentioned. “Lets see something cheaper” 

They quickly grabbed her hand once again and the both of them went all the way to the skirts and trousers section. “Welcome to heaven” they joked as they dropped her hand and extended their arms as if all of that place belonged to them. “I’ve heard you like skirts”

Berdly nodded. “Yeah” she giggled.

Kris started pulling out stuff. Lots of stuff. “How long?” They asked. “Like your dress? Longer?” They suddenly put on a smug face. “Shorter?” 

Berdly chuckled. “This is as short as I’m willing to go” she mentioned while looking at her own dress. “Although a longer one would be very convenient”

Kris pulled out a beautiful cherry pink skirt with a cherry blossom pattern. It was quite long, but it didn’t seem long to be uncomfortable. They handed it to her, who gladly accepted it.

“I can’t try this on here” she thought out loud.

“That’s what changing rooms are for” Kris mentioned as they pulled out a shorter skirt with chains and skulls. “And try this one as well” they said as they handed it to her. “And like, are you looking for anything specific?”

Berdly thought about it. “Maybe we could look for some trousers?” She wondered. 

Kris hummed and then took her to the trousers. Berdly looked at them, losing herself on the different patterns of various symbols and styles. One of them caught her eye, a pair of cargo trousers with Pokeball stamps. She took them (not before making sure those were her size) and added them to the pile.

“Done?” Kris asked.

Berdly nodded. Kris took her hand and they went towards one of the changing rooms. Berdly entered it while Kris waited outside.

After a while, Berdly slid the curtain, showing her in the pink skirt. It was right above her heels, the perfect length. She spinned over herself, letting the skirt flow a bit. “How does it look?” She finally asked.

Kris shrugged. “Doesn’t go with the dress, but it looks good” they replied.

Berdly smiled as she looked at it. “I’m taking it,” she replied before closing the curtain.

The curtain opened again, with Berdly wearing the shorter black skirt now. “What do you think?”

Kris smiled. “Hot goth girl shit” they replied. 

Berdly giggled. “I’m not sure about it, though…” she mentioned. “A bit too edgy”

Kris shrugged. “You’re the one who’s getting clothes, I’m just giving you suggestions”

She closed the curtains, before opening them again with the Pokémon trainer trousers.

Kris couldn’t help but to whistle. “Damn, those sure have drip” they said as they bite their lip. 

Berdly chuckled. “And I’m sure getting these” she replied as she closed the curtain.

“Same” Kris mentioned while Berdly took them out. Once she left the changing room, they went for another pair of those trousers, which Kris immediately picked without thinking too much about it.

“Do you need pajamas?” Kris asked in such a way that Berdly couldn’t tell whether they were serious or joking.

“They have pajamas in here?” Berdly wondered.

With their hands together, they both walked to the pajamas section. “Ever tried on a Kigurumi?” Kris mentioned as they showed her a display of various full body pajamas that looked like different creatures. 

Berdly chuckled. “So I can pretend to be a different kind of monster while sleeping?” She joked.

Kris shrugged. “They’re cute,” they said as they grabbed a green dragon one. “Have you ever wanted to be a green fire breathing dragon?” They joked.

Berdly laughed. “Actually, I quite enjoy being a-“ she said as she suddenly saw one that looked like a blue bird. “…bird”

Kris noticed and grabbed it, placing it next to Berdly. “Have you ever watched Inception?” They asked her.

“Because I would be a blue bird dreaming inside of a blue bird?” She wondered.

Kris nodded cheerfully.

“That’s quite ingenious” she pointed out.

Kris placed the kigurumi back on its hanger and looked at Berdly, as if they were waiting for her to do something.

Berdly kept looking at Kris, as if she was waiting for them to do something.

They stared at each other for a while. It was a bit awkward, Berdly smiling like a total dumbass. She couldn’t help herself, though.

Kris finally made a funny face and broke the strange tension.

Berdly chuckled. “Anyways, I think I’m done” she mentioned.

Kris nodded. “Same” they said as they grabbed her hand. “Lets go with the lesbians, cool?” They said.

Berdly nodded. “Cool” she replied.

The lesbians were, unexpectedly, still at the accessories section. Susie was playing with the spiky wristbands, as Noelle touched its pointy edges and felt Susie’s arm.

“Lesbians, we’re paying” Kris announced.

“Cool” Susie replied as she took off the wristband and placed it back where it belonged. “I’ll wait at the door,” she said as she left.

Noelle sighed. “Poor girl” she thought out loud as she picked up the spiky wristband Susie had been enjoying so much. “Kris, how long have we been dating?”

Kris shrugged. “You fucking tell me” they harshly replied. “Susie started getting corny with you… I think three weeks ago”

After a short queue, it was finally time for the gang to pay. The cashier, a young human girl, scanned the different products. “That will be eighty dollars” she mentioned.

Kris pulled out a card from their wallet and quietly gave it to the cashier. She started typing something into the computer, and gave it back to them after she was done. “Then it will be 76 dollars” 

Noelle pulled out 15 dollars and placed them on the counter. After some quick maths, Kris pulled out the remaining 66 and the cashier gladly took them. “Remember you have fifteen days to refund, have a nice night” she said a bit tired.

After leaving the store, Kris handed Berdly the bag, who looked inside it seeing their new loot. “You owe me forty bucks” Kris mentioned.

Berdly nodded. “I’ll pay you as soon as possible”

Kris hummed a confirmation sound. 

“Hey Susie!” Noelle announced as she pulled out the spiked wristband. 

Susie took it after some hesitation. “You didn’t have to,” she muttered.

Noelle giggled. “Happy three weeks versary” she cheered.

And followed by that, the two of them kissed which awkwardly turned into an intense and unasked make out.

Berdly looked away, annoyed by the scene. “For fucks sake get an hotel room” Kris complained.

Susie looked at them with a devilish smile. “You’re jealous” she teased them before going back to eating her girlfriends’ mouth.

Berdly took Kris’ hand and they took some distance from the girlfriends. They sat at the benches as Berdly opened the paper bag once again and looked at that sweet sweet loot they had just earned with their money.

“You’re gonna look great on those” Kris mentioned.

Berdly giggled. “I hope so,” she said.

They waited in silence for the other two to finish. It was strange. It was kinda awkward, as they were literally waiting for their friends to stop kissing each other with very little public decency. It was also kinda nice, because it was just another short moment she got to spend next to Kris. They didn’t really need to make small talk or anything, just sitting next to them was enough.

Susie and Noelle finally arrived, with Noelle’s nose glowing red and that stupid look she had when Susie. “We gonna do something?” Susie wondered.

Berdly looked at the clock. It was now almost nine, dining time. “Dinner?” She suggested.

“Hey hey I have an idea” Noelle suggested as she rubbed her mouth. “Bowling pizza”

“The fuck is that?” Susie wondered.

“Bowling pizza” Kris repeated happily.

Berdly stood up from her seat. “You’ll see Susie. What these two are suggesting is that we should play bowling and eat pizza for dinner”

Susie snorted. “I guessed it, dumbass,” she complained.

“There’s a bowling alley in here that also serves pizza,” Kris explained. “Mediocre bowling alley and mediocre pizza but together they’re great” 

They went to the Bowling pizza. A blue bunny with a bad temper face was at the counter, waiting not for new clients, but for his turn to be over. Still, he gave them a fake smile as he saw them approach him. “Four?” He asked.

Kris, who was leading the group, nodded.

“Okay, and are you also going to order pizza?” He said as he reluctantly grabbed a pen.

They discussed it for a while, enough for the guy to start looking desperate and angrier. 

“We would like a medium carnivore one, and a familiar one half herbivore deluxe half Mediterranean” Noelle finally got the order. “The sodas are refillable, right?”

The bunny laughed in a mean fashion. “Not anymore,” he replied.

“Then I’ll have water,” Noelle said.

“Same for me” Susie mentioned.

“I’ll have the same,” Berdly said.

“Water” Kris ordered.

The bunny guy smirked as he finished writing the order. “That’ll be 55 dollars” 

Susie gasped, realizing that maybe it would’ve been a better idea to go somewhere else. Noelle pulled out the money from her purse and paid it. “You two owe me fourteen dollars” she told Kris and Berdly. “Thirteen dot seventy five, actually” 

“Wait a moment,” Berdly said. She actually had that money in her wallet. She pulled out fifteen dollars. “Got any change?” She asked Noelle. 

Noelle shook her head. “Excuse us sir, do you have change?” Noelle asked the bunny guy.

He reluctantly accepted the money and gave back the same amount in smaller coins. “Anybody else?” He asked.

Kris shook their head as they gave Noelle the exact money.

“Cool. Alleyway five” the receptionist mentioned.

They went to the fifth alley and looked at the touch screen for setting up their names. Kris started preparing it. Four players. It was now time to write the names. Kris wrote their name first, ‘gremlin’.

“Can I go next?” Susie asked as Kris stepped to the side of the screen. ‘Suziella’.

Next went Noelle, who wrote ‘No L’.

“I thought you were an L” Kris joked.

“Very funny Kris” Noelle replied.

“Isn’t it L G B T?” Kris kept going. “Sorry for spilling the T, but you definitely add the L”

Noelle laughed. “Shut up,” she said, although she wasn’t annoyed.

Berdly approached the screen, and started thinking of a name. What could she write? After a while, she finally decided on the usual ‘Berdly’. Can’t go wrong with your name, right?

The screen on top of them lit up, displaying the four names. “Cool” Susie muttered. “By the way, when are the pizzas coming?” 

“They should show up on the screen” Kris said as they approached the ball dispenser, which was making a sound indicating a ball was on its way. They grabbed it and looked at it for a moment, showing it to their friends. “Now, observe”

Kris felt the bowling ball in their hands. Its weight. Its curvature. They hadn’t played real bowling too much before, most of the time it had been in Wii Sports. With a gentle arm move, they threw it and closed their eyes, hoping that it would get them a strike, and…

“You fucking suck” Susie laughed as the ball immediately fell on one of the rails.

Kris looked at her annoyed. “It’s harder than what it looks like” they excused themselves. 

Susie grinned as she grabbed another ball. “Sure master”

Kris chuckled. “It isn’t even your turn, dumbass” 

Susie looked at them. “No…?”

“Susie, Kris has another throw before it’s your turn” Noelle explained.

Susie looked at Noelle. “Because you said so! Noelle please, say it is now my turn!” She begged.

Noelle laughed with Susie as Kris grabbed another ball. They prepared the throw and…

At least this time it travelled more distance than before. It still fell onto the rails, but it wasn’t immediately this time.

“MY TURN NOW BITCH!” Susie yelled. As she approached the line, she kept looking at the ball, feeling it. She had never bowled before. She tried to imitate Kris' movement, a bit unsure of how to replicate it. “Like this?” She asked while doing the arm gesture.

Noelle stood up and helped Susie learn the movement. “Like this,” she explained.

Susie nodded. “Cool”. She immediately threw the ball which automatically fell onto the rails. “Fuck!” She complained.

Kris chuckled. “You fucking suck” they said.

Susie snorted. “Lets try again” she said as she grabbed another ball from the dispenser. She readied it, rehearsed the move a few times, and…

It somehow started going straight. Straight into the rails again. Susie groaned in frustration. “This shit ain’t fun” she complained.

Noelle stood up and grabbed another ball. “It takes some practice” she mentioned as she carefully calculated her throw. 

Which also went into the rails. Noelle couldn’t help but giggle at her own clumsiness. She grabbed another ball, and calculated her throw again, but this time accounting for the error of the last throw. “And a bit of luck” she said as she threw the ball.

Noelle’s heart pounded as the ball kept moving. It was getting so near to the bowls, but also it was getting so near to the rails…

And she managed to score 3 points. “Yup! That 's me!” She cheered despite it being a pretty lame score. “Berdly, your turn”

Berdly looked at the balls. She picked a red one with silver linings. She felt it on her hands. She felt the way her fingers fit inside of it. She felt its weight.

She approached the line, and took a deep breath. It was only the ball and her. She had to very carefully plan her throw. The curvature, the speed, the force…

She finally got ready to throw. She rehearsed it a few times and- 

“Oh god you’re so slow, come on!” Susie complained, throwing Berdly off guard and dropping the ball inside the track. That was a lost one, as it fell into the rails.

“Fuck you” Berdly accuse Susie.

Noelle gently hit Susie on her arm, and Susie noticed. “Sorry for that, but be faster next time” she apologized.

Berdly picked up another ball. She felt it. She became one with it. She got ready, calculated and… threw.

And the ball kept going, and going, and going, and…

“Strike!” She announced as all the bowls fell down. “That 's it! That 's me! I am the strike queen!” She chanted while doing a silly dance.

“Beginners luck” Susie complained.

Berdly placed her hands on her hips. “You should know, Susie, I am a force to be reckoned with at Wii Sports bowling. It shouldn’t come off as a surprise that my supreme display of talent would transfer into real life” she strutted.

Kris chuckled. They grabbed another ball, readied and threw it. This time, they managed to hit half the bowls. They smiled, and went to grab their second ball. They readied, they threw and…

It went to the rails again.

Susie chuckled. “I think that your technique is just bad” she said as she grabbed another ball. “After thinking for a solid fifteen seconds I’ve discovered the best throwing technique” she bragged.

Susie felt the whole ball on her hand. She was going to throw the ball. Just like she had been throwing Ralsei and Kris in the dark worlds. Just like that one time Noelle asked her to throw her for some weird reason. She was great at throwing people, and those weighed more than this stupid bowling ball. The shot wasn’t that far-fetched. “Look and learn!” She said as she prepared to throw the ball.

“SUSIE NO!” Noelle warned but it was already too late. Susie had already launched the twenty kilograms round object into the air in front of her.

Which, unlike Susie’s calculations, quickly fell into the ground and in a loud ‘crash’ made a hole in the wood. “Fuck!” Susie complained.

Berdly and Noelle looked at the now broken alleyway floor. By Susie. One of the four of them. 

“THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING?” The receptionist came in angry. “THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING? ARE YOU RETARDED OR SOMETHING?” 

Susie looked at him with her sharp teeth. “Got any fucking problem? Not my fault your floor sucks ass”

The guy clenched his fists. “How. The. Fuck. Do. You. Even. Think. About. Doing. That.”

Susie crossed her arms with cockiness. “I don’t see any signs explaining how not to throw a ball” 

The employee pointed at her with his finger. “You are banned!” he said proudly. He looked at the group. “All of you little dipshits are now banned from Bowling pizza!”

Susie groaned. Noelle stood up. “Sir, I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding, why don’t we just talk?”

The employee laughed. “Sure thing! You come to this bowling alley, you destroy the floor because you are behaving like total morons and now you want to negotiate?”

Noelle cleared her throat. “Actually, Susie is right. There are no signs warning of how to not throw the balls and besides- we are still waiting for our pizza”

The employee nodded madly and smirked. “Smart girl. Yeah, you’re all very smart, right? Whatever, you win. But you’re banned from here tonight” he said angrily. “And you!” he said, pointing at Susie. “YOU ARE BANNED HERE. FOREVER!” 

He quickly went back to his place, where he pressed a button that shut down the fifth alleyway lights. Still, the screen was still working. The gang sat at the bench looking at it, hoping that sooner than later it would tell them that their pizza was ready.

“The fuck is wrong with that guy?” Berdly finally complained. 

Kris chuckled. “He probably gets no bitches”

Noelle shrugged. “Honestly, I’m pretty sure this guy is going to make them lose money”

Susie didn’t feel like saying anything.

“You know something funny?” Kris mentioned. “This dumbass did neither take a picture of you, nor ask for your name, nor saw your ID” they said to Susie. “You are as banned from this place as I am straight”

Susie started laughing. “Holy shit, you’re right” she mentioned. “Honestly I wouldn’t mind breaking more floors, if it gets that guy mad” 

Noelle snorted. “There is either something deeply wrong with this guy’s life, or…”

She didn’t finish the sentence.

“Don’t think too hard about it, you’ll feel bad for making fun of him” Susie replied.

The screen finally played a jingle and displayed a text. ‘Your pizza is ready!’

The gang stood up and approached the pizza zone. A human at the counter was looking at a paper when he noticed them coming. “Gremlin, Suziella, No L and Berdly?” He asked to make sure.

Susie nodded. “The fuck squad,” she said.

Kris hit her arm. “Oh, I’m sorry mx. gremlin. We’re actually called the Delta Warriors” she joked.

The man pulled out the pizzas from below the counter and a few water bottles. “Enjoy your food, delta warriors” he said.

The gang grabbed the pizzas and water and sat on an empty round table. Susie in front of Noelle, and Berdly in front of Kris. Susie immediately grabbed the carnivore pizza, her pizza, and started devouring it. Noelle started eating her herbivore portion, while Kris and Berdly took a slice of the cheese part. 

It wasn’t terrible pizza. “The most expensive pizza of our lives” Noelle joked.

Susie chuckled. “Say it for yourself, I’m eating for free” she mentioned.

Noelle snorted. “Keep playing with fire, you’ll get burnt” she said a bit angry. She didn’t mind paying for Susie’s dinner, but she didn’t like her joking about it.

Susie grinned. “I can’t stop playing with fire, you’re smoking hot girl” she said, which made Noelle giggle.

“Gross,” Kris complained.

“So anyways, how’s life going?” Noelle asked. It was a bit of a stupid question. She knew how life was going for all of them. But still…

“Oh, you know, as always,” Berdly joked. “My parents thought I was having sex with Kris and now I’m a girl. And you?”

Susie started laughing and almost choked on her pizza. “No shit, for real?” She asked.

Kris grinned. “Yeah” 

Susie pushed their arm. “No shit dude, you gotta tell me that kind of stuff!” She said. “But like, how?”

Kris started laughing. “A naked crossdressing guy in their room with a human hiding under their sheets. Two plus two is four” they recalled.

Berdly noticed something. “You did that on purpose?” She asked, concerned.

Kris shut up. “I got nervous and didn’t know how to react,” they said in a monotonous voice.

Berdly noticed something was going on. Better to not keep touching on the subject.

“And like, are you doing anything tomorrow?” Noelle asked.

Kris shrugged. “The usual” they replied.

Berdly knew what ‘the usual’ meant. It meant staying home all day and with some luck, getting them to play with her online. 

“Same” Berdly added. “Why? Do you want to hang out?” 

Noelle shook her head. “Just curiosity”

Kris grinned. “What are you doing tomorrow, Noelle?”

Noelle smiled while looking at her portion. “Nothing too special. Just doing stuff, you know?”

Susie grinned. “I’m stuff” she said.

Noelle laughed and threw a napkin at her.

Kris’ face changed. “Fahaha! Susie, you’re banging my daughter!” They joked with a really deep voice.

Noelle pushed Kris’ arm. “STOP!” She laughed as her nose started glowing red with embarrassment. “None of your business” 

Kris smiled, and kept joking with their deep voice. “Look at me! I am Rudy Holiday! My best friend has a crush on me and my daughter has the same taste in women as I!” 

Noelle kept laughing and threw a napkin at them. But Kris had been raised by goats, the napkins were nothing but a mere desert for them. They ate the napkins and calmed down for a bit.

“My dad is so fucking gay” Kris muttered while eating another portion. “You know, sometimes I wonder how your dad didn’t end up with mine” they told Noelle.

Noelle shrugged. “Simple answer, my dad isn’t gay”

Kris thought about it for a while. “They definitely had something going one though” they mentioned.

Noelle nodded while taking another bite of her pizza. “Yup” she said.

“And if they had married, only I would’ve been born since I’m adopted,” they pointed out.

Noelle thought about it for a moment. “I’m pretty happy with being born, thank you” she replied. “Although now that I think about it, having Asgore as a second dad…”

Susie chuckled. “Definitely better than your bitch mom” she mentioned.

Noelle didn’t reply. “Can we talk about something else?” She said.

“Talking about parents,” Kris said. “Mom has been taking part in organizing the sleep groups. For the school trip”

Susie opened her eyes. “Do you know if they put me with Noelle?” She asked.

Kris laughed. “Susie, my mom would never put you two in the same room to sleep together. ‘Because they would make the other kid uncomfortable with their passion and we should not be giving them opportunities’, her words not mine” 

“Uh huh” Susie said as she looked at her now gone pizza and at a leftover slice from theirs. “Mind if I get it?” She asked. They all shook their heads, and Susie swallowed the slice whole. “And do you know who is sleeping with who?”

Kris shrugged. “I know you’re sleeping with me and Tem” they mentioned.

Susie started laughing. “So annoying people ain’t okay but the two of us are sleeping together?” Tears started leaving her eyes as she thought of how terrible that night could go for Tem.

Kris shrugged. “Mom trusts us, so…”

“That won’t end well” Noelle muttered.

Berdly noticed something. “There’s two guys, two enbies, and five girls in class” she mentioned. “If they’re going for equal gender distribution and we count the enbies as wildcards that would mean that in the other room there will be two guys and an enby, those being Jockington Snowdrake and MK and in the other there should be three girls, those being…” She soon realized. “Holy shit I’m a girl”

Noelle chuckled. “Welcome to the club,” she said.

“Holy shit I’m a girl” she repeated.

“Yeah bitch, you’re a girl,” Susie replied.

Berdly started realizing. “I may not be right with my hypothesis however, because-“

“Berdly, mom knows ur a girl” Kris interrupted her. “If the rooms are different it’s not going to be because of any of that” 

Berdly laid back on her chair and looked at the yellow ceiling. 

Holy shit, she was a girl.

Chapter Text

It was a fairly small bus, since they were a fairly small classroom. The seats were distributed in two rows of two seats each, with a row at the end with three seats. Without thinking too hard about it, Berdly went and sat on one of the seats to secure the window side. 

“So how are we doing this?” Susie asked, looking at the seats. “Who’s sitting with who?”

Berdly traded looks with Noelle, since they were the ones who used to sit together during school trips.

But also, Noelle didn’t use to date Susie. And Kris also didn’t use to be Susie’s friend. And also Berdly didn’t use to-

“Uh…” Noelle started humming, as if she was about to say something but she had to take some more time before saying it.

“I’ll go with Berdly” Kris stated as they sat next to her.

Susie nodded. “Cool” she said as she sat in the window seat in front of them. She looked at Noelle and patted on the seat next to her.

Noelle sat as well next to Susie, and although Berdly couldn’t fully see it, she knew they were trading looks because Noelle’s antlers poked over the seat.

Berdly looked through the window, waiting for the ride to start. Nothing too special to see there, just a bunch of parents waiting for their kids to leave. None of them were hers, though. They were too busy as always.

After a while, the bus started to move and they left Hometown. The views soon became stale as all there was to see was the continuous landscape that always felt the same.

Susie snorted. “This is boring,” she complained.

“Susie, it's been twenty minutes,” Noelle said.

Berdly chuckled. “And it’s still at least four more hours of ride,” she pointed out.

Susie poked her head over her seat and looked at Berdly. “You kidding, right?”

Berdly shook her head. “You should’ve known better, Susan”

Her eyes met Susie’s disappointed eyes. “I mean, Sus-Susie”

Susie smirked and went down to her seat again, laying her head over Noelle. “This sucks”

Kris, who had been on their phone since they sat, pulled it down and looked at her between the gap of the seats. “We could play something,” they suggested.

Susie snorted. “Like what? No rocks to throw to the windows”

“Susie!” Noelle complained.

Susie chuckled. “You haven’t done it so you can’t judge”

Kris started browsing their phone. “Cards Against Humanity?” they suggested.

Susie stood up and looked at Kris over the seat. “Did you bring them?” 

Kris shook their head. “No, but we can play it online”

Berdly liked that idea. “Sure, why not,” she said. She had heard of it, but had never gotten the chance to play it.

“My mother would hate it if I played that game,” Noelle muttered. “Count me in”

Kris smiled and sent the four of them a link to a webpage where they would be playing. “Do you know how to play?” they asked.

“Nope,” Noelle replied.

“Something something we pick a card as an answer to another card” Berdly said.

Kris nodded. “Yeah, basically that. A player gets elected as the Czar at the beginning of each round and they’re the ones who pick their favorite answer. Anyways, you ready?”

“Yeah” the remaining three said at the same time.

Kris launched the game and the three of them, each on their phones, entered it. 

‘The Czar this turn will be Berdly’ the screen announced.

A black card appeared on screen. ‘My favorite ice cream flavor? _________’

“Because you’re the Czar, you will be the one to judge which is the best answer” Kris explained to Berdly.

After a moment, three white cards appeared on Berdly’s screen, and Berdly started reading the answers out loud.

“My favorite ice cream flavor? Ice cream” Berdly said.

Kris nodded. “Makes sense,” they said.

“My favorite ice cream flavor? Our lord and savior the flying spaghetti monster”

“My favorite ice cream flavor? ▇▇▇▇▇”

Susie started laughing. Kris looked a bit weirded at Berdly. “What’s with the blacked text?”

Berdly looked at them. “Kris we can’t say that without pumping up the rating of this fic”

Noelle giggled. “It’s still teen rating after all”

Berdly looked at the answers again. None of them were particularly funny. The ice cream one was quite witty. And the censored one sure was cursed. 

After a while she decided on the Ice cream one.

“Nice” Noelle cheered as she won points.

‘The Czar this turn will be Susie’

‘Sorry I was late! There was _______ on the way’

Berdly looked at the white cards at her disposal. Ten in total, and over a half of them were too cursed for this rating. After a while, the three of them finally decided on their cards, and Susie started reading them out loud.

“Sorry I was late, there was… how the fuck do you pronounce this?” Susie asked, showing Noelle her phone.

Noelle looked at it for a moment. “Sorry I was late, there was a cattywampus on the way. What the hell is a cattywampus?” 

Susie looked at the other answers again. “Sorry I was late, there was a ▇▇▇▇▇ for our overlord Harry Styles on the way”

Berdly chuckled. 

“Sorry I was late, there was a ▇▇▇▇▇ so smelly and so gross that it brought back my dead aunt to life on the way”

“How does that even happen?” Noelle wondered.

Susie shrugged. “Why wouldn’t it happen?”

After some whispering with each other, Susie finally picked an option and Noelle scored another point.

“Hey that's cheating!” Berdly protested

Susie grinned. “I picked the one I liked the most, which turned out to be Noelle’s” she lied.

“Right” Noelle muttered.

Kris and Berdly exchanged looks. There was no way those two weren’t rigging the game.

‘The Czar this turn will be Noelle’

‘Sorry kids, but ______ won’t be visiting this Christmas after ______’

“Literally me,” Noelle chuckled. 

After a moment, the three answers were submitted.

“Sorry kids, but Ronald McDonald and his mysterious meat won’t be visiting this Christmas after the allegations ”

Susie cackled a loud laugh, while the other tried to hide their laughter.

“That was a good one. Sorry kids, but ▇▇▇▇▇ ▇▇▇▇▇ won’t be visiting this Christmas after falling in love with ▇▇▇▇▇”

“Holy shit that’s fucked” Susie mentioned.

“Sorry kids, but the worm who hangs from ▇▇▇▇▇ won’t be visiting this Christmas after the surgery.” Noelle chuckled. “Who chose this one?”

Worm. Worm. Worm. Berdly suddenly remembered and opened her backpack to pull out a pack of worms. A nice snack for the trip, courtesy of her mom. She opened the bag and looked at the inside, those wiggly creatures that were so tasty. She started eating them one by one.

After some whispering between the two girlfriends, Susie scored a point. Kris and Berdly exchanged looks, both knowing what was going on.

‘The Czar this turn will be Kris’

‘I remember my first kiss. It was nice, save from _______’

Kris kept looking at Berdly’s phone, wondering which card she was going to pick. Once Berdly selected it, she noticed and they stared at each other’s eyes for a moment.

“Want some?” Berdly offered Kris the pack of worms.

Kris drooled at the snack. They started reaching into it with their hand, but suddenly stopped. “No,” their lips said.

But Berdly wasn’t so sure. She picked one from the bag and showed it to Kris. “You sure?”

Kris didn’t reply. Instead, they opened their mouth a bit, and Berdly gently placed the worm inside. They chewed it and seemed to enjoy it.

“Want another one?” Berdly offered.

As Kris opened their mouth, Susie interrupted them. “Hey Kris are you going to pick or what?”

Kris looked at the three answers. They turned to Berdly. “Which one is yours?” They asked without a care in the world.

Berdly blinked a bit perplexed. “But that’s cheating”

Susie snorted, but neither her or Noelle said anything. Kris shrugged. “And what?” they asked.

Berdly thought about it for a while. “The ▇▇▇▇▇ one”

Following the act, Berdly scored a point.

After some walking and a few nervous breakdowns from Alphys, the class finally reached their cabin. Alphys opened the door and stood in front of it, pulling out a paper from her pocket.

“Alright kids, there are four bedrooms here. One of them is mine and is smaller-”

“Mine is bigger” Snowdrake joked louder than he had intended to. No one save for MK laughed, and there was an awkward silence.

“As I was saying. As I name the groups you will go inside and pick which room you prefer. The first group is Krismas, Susie and Tem”

Susie rushed inside the cabin, making Alphys step to the side. Kris quickly entered following her. Tem entered the cabin while shaking as she usually did, although this time she seemed to be shaking a bit more than usual.

“The second group is Jockington, MK and Snowdrake”

Jockington looked at MK and Snowdrake. “Jockington is pleased to share a room with you” he said as he grabbed his bag and entered the cabin while wiggling. MK and Snowdrake followed him in silence.

“And you three make the other group” Alphys finished as she awkwardly smiled at them. 

Berdly felt so smart. So so so smart. She had guessed it correctly. Of course she did. She was the number one in class. Because she was the smartest-

“You coming or what?” Catti asked from the door. Berdly soon noticed that Noelle had already entered, and Alphys was waiting for them to enter before entering in herself.

Berdly rapidly went through the door and followed Catti towards their room. It didn’t have anything too special going for it, just three beds, a radiator, a lamp on the ceiling and a window on the side. Noelle was already organizing her stuff over the bed next to the window. Catti laid her stuff over the middle bed. That left Berdly with the left bed, the one closer to the door.

“Unwise decision, Noelle,” Berdly said as she started organizing her stuff. “The window side makes you more vulnerable”

Noelle briefly glanced at her, while pulling out her bed sheets. “The window is actually the best escape route. If a murderer came in, they would first come through the hallway”

Berdly opened her backpack and started preparing her bed as well. “If a murderer had the explicit intention of murdering someone from this room, entering through the window would be the quicker way. Plus, escaping through the window in the cold of the night would be worse than escaping through the hallway”

Catti snorted. “The middle bed is the best because I’ll never be the one who gets killed first”

That made sense. “What the fuck ” Noelle exclaimed.

Catti and Berdly turned to Noelle. Hearing Noelle swear was something as rare as finding a shiny Pokémon. And Noelle pulled out what looked like a gun from her backpack.

“Is that a Taser?” Catti wondered.

Noelle examined the weapon. “Yeah” she replied. “What the hell, I swear I didn’t place a Taser in my backpack!”

Catti snorted. “Bet your mother did”

Noelle sighed. “Bet she did”

Kris and Susie abruptly entered the bedroom. “Sup ladies?” Susie greeted them with a smile full of teeth. Kris raised their hand as a greeting.

The two of them soon noticed what Noelle had at her hand. “Holy shit is that a gun?” Susie exclaimed as she approached Noelle and looked at it closely.

“A Taser” Noelle corrected.

Susie looked at the Taser with desire. “Can I have it can I have it can I-”

“No,” Noelle answered bodly.

“You don’t trust me?” Susie asked while giving puppy eyes.

Noelle chuckled. “I trust you would probably get in trouble”

Susie groaned. “Come on, Kris would watch over me! You would watch over me! Come on Noelle please I love you very much please princess honey sweetie baby girl”

Noelle giggled. “What would you even do with it?”

Susie thought about it for a moment. “Go fight a bear with it”

Catti snorted. “Your guts would be on the dirt before you even realized” she said.

Noelle nodded. “ AS I said , you would just get into trouble”

“How about we just forget about this thing?” Berdly suggested already imagining Susie running around giving electrical discharges to people. “I don’t think Miss Alphys would like to know that we are in possession of a weapon”

Noelle nodded. “How about you leave the bedroom so I can hide it?” she suggested.

“Are you going to lock it?” Kris asked.

“You can lock the bedroom doors?” Berdly wondered.

“Ours can” Susie replied.

Noelle’s nose started glowing red, which everyone noticed but no one said anything about. Susie and Noelle exchanged furtive looks, and Noelle suddenly tried to hide her nose. “WELL, ANYWAYS PLEASE LEAVE THE BEDROOM SO I CAN HIDE THE TASER THANK YOU”

Berdly, Catti, Kris and Susie left the room and closed the door. Some banging was heard from inside, as if Noelle was hitting her bed. Some time after, a Noelle with now messy hair and a snuffed out nose opened the door with a smirk. “Done,” she said.

Berdly entered the bedroom again.

And there was something on the window.

Something blue and red, that had quickly ran away.

Something that could’ve been spying on them. Berdly thought to herself that it had just been her imagination, and felt glad that she wasn’t the one sleeping next to the window.

The golden sunlight gently rested through the leaves. The kids walked through the tourist path, through the dirt of the ground. They had been following Alphys for a while, who was taking them to a viewpoint.

Kris suddenly stopped and grabbed Noelle’s arm. “Kris?” Noelle wondered. “Is anything wrong?”

Kris started looking around paranoid. “Can you hear it?” they asked.

“What are we supposed to hear?” Berdly asked.

Kris looked at her. “You can’t hear it then” they said in a creepy voice.

Alphys turned around. “Come on kids! If we don’t hurry up we won’t see the sunset!” she yelled at the group.

Susie snorted and they kept walking.

Berdly’s neck suddenly felt a stream of warm air, and she jumped forward in fear. She turned around and saw Kris, looking at her with a ghostly face. “Not funny Kris” she complained.

Kris frowned. “I didn’t do that,” they said.

Berdly smirked. “Sure you didn’t”

A cold breeze passed right next to Berdly’s neck, and she shivered. “Not funny Susie” she said as she turned around.

However, Susie and Noelle were further ahead. “See how it’s not us?” Kris said.

Berdly frowned and they kept walking.

“Have you heard of what happened here?” Kris asked.

Noelle sighed. “This is one of your stories, right?”

Kris shook their head. “I found it in the library” they mentioned. “This used to be a normal mountain, you know?”

Berdly chuckled. “ Used to? Do you mean fifty years ago or almost a millenia ago?”

Kris stood in front of them, walking backwards so they could all see them talking. “After the last battle, the dust and corpses of the warriors fertilized the mountain” they started explaining.

Susie chuckled. “Like in any war, dumbass”

Kris frowned and stopped walking. “Legends say that the blood-thirsty spirits of the warriors still live in the flora, relentlessly waiting to devour lost travelers”

Noelle laughed nervously. “Sure” she said with a bit of fear in her voice. “And also the wood that our cabin is made of is cursed, right?”

Kris was about to say something when they tripped backwards. However, Susie was quicker and grabbed them before they hit the ground. “Dear god Kris you’re going to kill yourself like this” she complained as they stood up. 

“Thanks” they muttered and started to walk forward. 

“You know how the government releases secret documents every once in a while?” Kris suddenly said. “Conspiracy theories and stuff”

Berdly nodded. “Like JFK”

“Affirmative” Kris replied. “Last year they released something related to this mountain”

“No shit!” Susie exclaimed. “I had the feeling some shady shit was going in here”

Kris nodded. “Apparently, seventy- no, eighty years ago they did an extensive investigation related to this place’s environment, and the results were… anomalous”

Noelle laughed nervously. “B-but this is just a normal mountain, right? With some history, but…”

Kris turned to Noelle and stopped walking. “It was,” they revealed. “They found something, something within the plants ”

“The spirits of the dead?” Berdly wondered, a bit scared.

Kris started walking towards Noelle very slowly. “They extracted a substance from the trees. And then they injected it into themselves, hoping to attain immortality”

Noelle started walking backwards slowly in fear.

“And then, they all fused into a goo. A sentient goo, with multiple consciences that still wanders around this mountain. The leaves are its ears, and the flowers are its eyes”

Susie touched Kris’ back. “Kris we better keep going” she reminded them.

The four of them ran a bit until they finally catched up with the rest of the classroom.

“People say that it hunts at the sunset,” Kris kept telling Noelle. 

Noelle didn’t even laugh this time. “Kris, are you going to make me regret not bringing the Taser?”

Kris started laughing like a maniac. “A Taser can’t hurt it. Nothing can hurt it. It’s unstoppable, an immortal force whose hunger can only be satisfied with human flesh and monster dust”

Susie snorted. “I bet I could beat that shit up,” she said. “Or maybe we could befriend it”

Berdly chuckled. “I’m not sure if you could befriend it”

Susie shrugged. “It’s been working with the darkners so far”

Kris shook their head. “You cannot beat it. People say that in the end, everything will be consumed by the amalgamate ”

Noelle started laughing. “The amalgamate? What a stupid name you chose” she said trying to hide her discomfort.

Kris looked at her. “The first victims of the amalgamate are those who don’t believe of its existence” they said coldly.

Susie smacked Kris’ head. “Stop with it, dude”

Kris frowned, and they kept walking.

They finally reached the viewpoint. Noelle opened her bag and pulled out two large blankets, which she layed on the cold grass. The blankets were long enough for two people to fit inside, so Susie sat next to Noelle and Kris sat next to Berdly.

Kris and Berdly sat in silence. None of them felt like talking at that moment, they were exhausted from that long day of walking and history lessons. They just sat next to each other, watching the orange sky turning pink, and the sun slowly fade through the horizon.

Kris laid their head over Berdly’s lap. Berdly, without really thinking about it, started caressing their hair. Their messy hair, which they weren’t taking good care of. Their brown, soft yet gooey hair.

She could be like this forever. Just the two of them, watching the sunset. Berdly soon realized she was more focused on Kris than on the view. She looked down, and their gaze met for a moment. They stared for what felt like an eternity, before Kris started looking again at the horizon.

As soon as she finished dining, Berdly rushed into her bedroom and closed the door. The room was too cold to undress, so she turned on the radiator and waited until the room became warm enough. Berdly started to undress as she searched for her pajamas somewhere inside her giant bag.

Catti entered the room and closed the door. She looked at Berdly, who felt too ashamed to even say anything. She should’ve locked the door, because now Catti, a girl, was looking at her in her boxers.

Oh right, she.

Berdly finally found her Call of Duty pajamas and started to dress up in them, facing the wall to avoid looking at Catti. Once she was done, she turned around by accident and saw Catti undressing herself. Without a bra.

Berdly couldn’t help but stare. She had never seen breasts like this before. This sure was something different. She felt weird. She felt bad. She felt as if she shouldn’t be doing this. She wasn’t even paying attention anymore, she was just staring into the void, locked in place. She was a bird, which meant she wasn’t a mammal, and only mammals had breasts. It made sense for her to not want breasts. It also made sense-

“What are you looking at?” Catti brought Berdly back to that room. Berdly realized where her sight was pointing at, saw Catti’s poker face and covered her eyes in embarrassment. “Never seen tits before or what?”

“M-my bad, Catherine” Berdly apologized. “I’m sorry I-“

“Hey don’t worry, it’s cool,” Catti said. “The hell are you even hiding from? You scared of boobs?” She joked.

Berdly finally decided to take her hands out of her eyes, to see that Catti had already changed into her pajamas. “I don’t want to make you uncomfortable,” Berdly said.

Catti snorted. “It’s cool, don’t make it weird” she said before finally leaving the room.

Berdly stared at the closed door. That had just happened. A girl had just changed in front of her without really caring about it. She had just changed in front of a girl without it really mattering. It had just been… normal. That had just been normal. Like how during P.E. the boys would just change in front of each other without it really mattering. Like how during other times she had been sleeping out, her roommates hadn’t really cared about changing in front of her.

But that was different. Because then she was a guy. And now she was a girl. It made sense for things to be the same, but as a girl now, right?

Still something didn’t quite sit right with Berdly. Something felt wrong. Yet it felt right.

For some reason, she had never imagined things going this way.

Noelle entered the room. “Hi” she greeted Berdly as she closed the door.

“Greetings, Noelle,” Berdly said. 

“What’s with that look?” Noelle asked as she went towards her bed. “Everything okay?” She asked as she noticed the curtains were still open, so she closed them.

“Yeah…” Berdly replied a bit unsure. “It’s just…” she stared at the door again. “Weird. Being a girl”

Noelle chuckled. “You’ll get used to it”

Berdly sighed. “I guess.” She briefly turned her sight towards Noelle, who was still changing and quickly went back to staring at the door. She didn’t want to see it. “How did you even… adapt to it?”

Noelle shrugged. “I… don’t know? It just felt natural, I guess”

Berdly nodded. “Didn’t it feel weird at first?”

“Oh sure it did,” Noelle replied. “But you get used to it with time. It felt weird, but it also felt…” Noelle left the sentence hanging.

“Right,” Berdly added.

Noelle, now in a snowflake pajama, sat next to Berdly on her bed. “Yeah it’s like…” she took some time to think while looking at the curtains. “You know when you’re learning math, and it’s something you’re very interested in but you don’t really understand?”

Berdly nodded. “Like vectorial spaces”

“For example, yeah. You see it and think wow that’s so cool. Maybe you don’t even find it interesting at first. But then you start to understand it, and start to realize how interesting it actually is, and the applications it has, and suddenly you’re acing the tests and they just become free points”

Berdly shook her head. “Yeah”

“And then you get introduced to stuff like derivatives, gradients, and it’s all stemming from vectorial spaces. And because you’re already invested into these, you want to get into those. And step by step you find yourself moving between a lot of stuff that people outside wouldn’t get, yet you do and so do a lot of other people, and-”

“Noelle, one question,” Berdly interrupted.

“Yeah?” Noelle asked as she turned towards her friend’s face.

“This is a metaphor, right?”

Noelle looked at Berdly with a stupid face. “Yes”

Berdly slowly shook her head. “Of course, of course”

Noelle sighed. “Anyways, I don’t wanna keep Susie waiting so if you don’t mind” she said as she stood up from the bed and walked towards the door. “I’ve got a girlfriend to make Kris uncomfortable with”

Once Noelle had left the room, Berdly finally stood up and left it as well. 

The living room felt cozy. Tem was sitting in front of the chimney, watching the fire burn the logs. Jockington and Catti were next to her, with Jockington playing a calm song on his guitar while Catti listened in silence. MK and Snowdrake were chatting close to them, listening to Jockington’s cords. Alphys sat on one of the armchairs, while typing something on her laptop. And of course, Susie and Noelle cuddling on the sofa, with Kris in their goat Kigurumi sitting next to them awkwardly.

Kris noticed Berdly, who approached them and sat next to them. Kris handed her part of their blanket, which she accepted. The two of them sat together in silence, watching the fire.

“I like your pajamas” Berdly finally complimented them.

“Thanks,” Kris replied.

“So Call of Duty, huh?” They pointed out.

Berdly snorted. “Yeah”

Kris smiled. “Like a true gamer”

Berdly smiled as well. “Like an alpha gamer”

“You know, it’s been a while since we last played it together,” Berdly added.

Kris nodded. “You didn’t even like it,” they mentioned.

“I guess,” Berdly replied. “But the zombies were fun”

“Uh-huh,” Kris replied. “Maybe…” they didn’t finish the sentence.

“Maybe we could play it again sometime,” Berdly said. “For the good ol’ times” she joked.

Kris chuckled. “For the good ol’ times”

Someone knocked at the door. Alphys stood up and opened it. A blue ginger fish woman stood in front of her. “O-officer?” Alphys stuttered.

Undyne awkwardly smiled at her. She pointed at her as if she was trying to guess her name. “Alphys?” Alphys nodded nervously. “You can call me Undyne”

Alphys giggled awkwardly. “Wh-what are you d-doing here, o-officer?”

“Just call me Undyne” she replied a bit annoyed. “You know, just… let’s say the mayor gave me two days off and paid me for a nice trip here. And you?”

Alphys nervously laughed. “School trip, I’ve got to take care of my st-students”

Undyne nodded while smiling like a dumbass. “You’re taking care of the Holiday kid, right?”

Alphys stepped to the side, showing Undyne the room while looking at it. Undyne saw Noelle being with Susie… the way those two are usually together. “The Holiday kid is with Susie?” She wondered.

Alphys smirked. “It looks like it”

Undyne started nodding awkwardly while grinning. “I see,” she replied. “She ain’t that dangerous, is she?”

“Who?”

“Susie”

Alphys looked at the two of them again. Seeing Susie getting comfortable and even… normal with Noelle…

“She isn’t really that bad,” Alphys replied.

Undyne kept nodding. “Uh-huh”

“So anyways!” Undyne interrupted the awkward silence. “I’ll be in the fourth cabin”

Alphys nodded awkwardly as well. “Yeah”

“So like” Undyne started vaguely gesturing with her hands. “If you ever need… something” Alphys kept nodding awkwardly. “Just… you know where to find me”

Alphys closed the door immediately. She covered her face with her hands in embarrassment. She then turned to her students to make an announcement. “Alright kids, so it’s getting late and tomorrow we have to keep going at 10 AM. I’m going to bed, don’t fall asleep to late and please remember you’re still minors so I’m responsible for your every action during this trip good night”

The yellow lizard and her now red face walked all the way to her bedroom, and locked the door.

Kris touched Berdly’s leg and stood up. The both of them went next to Jockington, who hadn’t been playing the guitar for a few minutes now, and sat together. “Hello Kris and Berdly” Jockington welcomed them. 

“Hi Jockington,” Berdly said. “I didn’t know you could play the guitar”

Jockington wiggled. “Lacking arms or legs is not an impediment to Jockington. Jockington can play the guitar because Jockington is very determined”

Berdly nodded. “You haven’t been playing it for a while,” she pointed out.

Jockington sighed. “Jockington has run out of songs to play” he replied. He suddenly looked at Kris. “Although Jockington would be pleased to play a song of your will”

Berdly looked at Kris. “Which one do you want, Kris?”

Kris thought about it for a while. “Do you know Despacito?”

Jockington chuckled. “A Despacito for the young human” he said.

Jockington started playing the guitar. Those cords, that Berdly had heard so many times they were now ingrained in her brain, made her shiver. 

Kris and Catti started to clap to the rhythm of the guitar. Berdly joined, and Catti started singing along.

“ Tu

Tu eres el imán y yo soy el metal

Me voy acercando y voy armando el plan

Solo con pensarlo se me acelera el pulso ”

Jockington suddenly stopped playing. “Sorry, Jockington has forgotten how the song keeps going”

Kris chuckled. “It’s okay”

They tried to get themself a bit more comfortable, and when they realized their hand was now resting on top of Berdly’s. But Berdly didn’t seem to bother.

“I didn’t know you sang that well” Berdly complimented Catti.

Catti looked at her. “Thanks”

Catti’s look made Berdly uncomfortable. Her look always gave off an off putting vibe, as if she could see into your soul and learn things from you that you didn’t even know. She then started looking at Kris, who had nothing to hide. 

“ANYWAYS” Berdly said as she stood up. “As Miss Alphys said tomorrow will be a busy day. It is my advice that we all go to bed. Right now”

Jockinton chuckled. “Jockington is amused by your decision. However, Jockinton will stay up for some more time”

Catti nodded. “Same”

Kris stood up as well. “I think I’m also going to bed” they said while smirking. They turned around to look for Noelle and Susie, but they weren’t on the couch anymore.

Kris grabbed Berdly’s arm and they rushed towards Kris’ bedroom. Kris tried to open the door. Locked. “Un-fucking-believable” Kris complained as they started to knock on the door. “The fuck are you two doing in there?”

No answer. Kris started slamming their head on the door, until the door finally opened and they slammed their head on Susie’s chest. “Problem?” She asked a bit annoyed, with her hair made a mess and her face redder than usual.

Kris snorted. “In my bedroom?”

Susie chuckled. “In our bedroom” she corrected them.

Noelle was laying on one of the beds with her arms hiding her face. A single earbud hung from her ear which connected to her phone.

“Yeah well, I want some fucking sleep” they complained. “I don’t give a fuck of what you’re doing but I need my bedroom”

Susie groaned as Noelle stood up, cleaning her mouth with her hand. “Susie it’s okay, just let them in”

Susie grinned. “Cool! Whatever!” She said as she stepped to the side and Kris entered.

“Why did you even come here? You two seemed fine on the couch” Berdly wondered.

Susie frowned. “Because people could see us on the couch and her introverted ass needs some time to be away from the spotlight.” Berdly nodded. “Anyways, Kris I hope you can sleep with Noelle and me doing gay shit on the bed next to yours, feel free to turn off the lights”

Berdly closed the door, and walked to her room. She opened the door, turned off the lights, closed the door, entered her bed, and tried to sleep.

The door opened, and the lights turned on. Berdly groaned as she looked to the side, seeing Catti and Noelle finally entering the bedroom. Noelle noticed. “Oh… Sorry Berdly” she apologized.

Berdly closed her eyes and looked again at the wall. “It’s okay,” she yawned. “I wasn’t asleep yet”

Noelle and Catti both went to their respective beds, trying not to make any noise.

“What time is it?” Berdly wondered. She didn’t feel like opening her eyes again.

“2 AM” Catti replied. 

Noelle chuckled. “Tomorrow I’m going to need a lot of coffee,” she muttered.

Berdly chuckled as well. “That’s what you get for being irresponsible” she teased her.

Noelle giggled sleepy. “I’m not the irresponsible one, Susie is the irresponsible one” she replied.

Catti snorted, and Berdly giggled a bit. “You’re the one-” she yawned “dating her” Berdly mentioned.

The lights went off.

“Anyone still up?” Noelle asked after a while.

“Yeah,” Catti replied.

“I guess so” Berdly said tired. “Noelle can we just sleep?”

“Yeah, sorry my bad” Noelle replied.

“You still up, Noelle?” Catti asked after another while.

“Yup” Noelle replied.

“You okay?” Catti worried.

“What do you think Susie and-” Noelle yawned “Kris are doing right now?” she wondered.

Catti snorted. “Probably giving Tem hell on earth” she said.

“Uh-huh” Noelle replied a bit sad.

Berdly was still awake. “Sad that you can’t be there giving hell on earth with them?” she joked.

“Sad that she can’t make someone uncomfortable with Susie,” Catti teased her.

“Hey!” Noelle protested. “I mean, I won’t lie I wish I was sleeping with Susie but-”

Catti snorted. “You thought you two would be sharing a bed?” she laughed a bit. 

In that dark room, a dim red light came from Noelle’s bed.

“Oh my fucking god” Catti groaned. 

Berdly out of curiosity, opened her eyes, turned back and saw Noelle’s nose bright red. “Disappointing, Noelle,” she said. 

“Shut up!” Noelle said while covering her nose. “If yours did as well, it would be glowing every time you talk about Kris”

Berdly felt mad. That was a low blow.

“You what? ” Catti asked, confused while turning towards Berdly. “You like Kris?”

Berdly started sweating. “Noelle I’m going to kill you” she whispered to Noelle.

Catti chuckled. “Hey, it’s okay,” she said. “You shouldn’t be ashamed of being into one of the freaks” 

Berdly snorted. “They aren’t a freak,” she muttered.

Catti laughed a bit. “We are all freaks,” she said. “Well, at least I’m also a freak”

“Can I know more?” Catti asked after a while. “I want to know everything” 

Berdly felt her face hot. “I don’t like them,” she lied.

Noelle giggled. “Sure you don’t” she teased her.

“I don’t!” Berdly protested.

“Well, I think they like you,” Catti stated.

“How do you know?” Berdly wondered with hope.

Catti chuckled. “They’re getting touchy with you” she mentioned.

Noelle snorted. “That doesn’t mean anything,” she added. “We’ve all been a bit more touchy with her ever since she came out”

Berdly nodded. “And I’m glad you are, I’m certainly starved of physical interactions”

Noelle chuckled. “I get it”

“But what if they liked you?” Catti asked. “Would you prefer it if they liked you?”

Berdly started imagining it and her heart started pumping. Kris liking her back. Well, liking her because she clearly doesn’t have a crush on-

“Fuck, I like Kris” Berdly finally admited. “Holy crap, I think I have a crush on Krismas”

Noelle chuckled. “You’re pretty bad at realizing stuff, huh?” she joked.

Berdly snorted. “You’re pretty bad at hiding stuff, huh?” she talked back a bit annoyed.

Noelle giggled a bit sleepy. “Sorry I’m just-” she yawned “tired”.

Berdly chuckled. “Sure”

“Do you plan on making a move?” Catti asked.

Berdly thought about it for a moment. “What am I supposed to do?”

Noelle chuckled. “You have to tell them they’re a hot piece of work,” she joked. “And if they hit you so hard you black out, marriage is granted”

Catti chuckled. “That’s from your dad, isn’t it?” 

“Yeah” Noelle giggled. “It may only work on women who can kick your ass, though”

Berdly smiled like a dummy. “Did you try that on Susie?”

Noelle smiled like a dummy as well. “No, because if she hits me and I don’t black out then our marriage isn’t granted” she said a bit more seriously.

Catti snorted. “Berdly, do you even like women?”

Berdly felt nervous. What was she supposed to answer? Her heart began pumping. What if she said yes? Would they consider her less of a girl? What if she said no? Was that the right answer?

Were they even really considering her a girl? Like sure, they were being nice and a bit closer and definitely seeing her a bit differently, or at least giving her a second try. And more people had shown more interest in meeting her now than previously. But what if…?

“I’m pretty sure she’s straight,” Noelle yawned. “At least she doesn’t like women”

Berdly snorted. “I’m not straight”

Noelle chuckled. “And I’m not a lesbian”

“But I like Kris,” Berdly said.

“Are you saying Kris is a girl?” Catti asked.

Berdly repented having said those words. That wasn’t what she had meant, right? “No, rather that…” she didn’t know how to explain it.

“You just feel gay” Noelle chuckled.

“Yeah, that’s it” Berdly took refuge in those words. Words that somehow felt true, but still…

“But Kris isn’t a girl,” Catti said. “So liking them doesn’t make you gay”

Berdly thought about it for a moment. “But that also doesn’t make me straight because that would mean I only like men and they’re not a man either”

Noelle yawned. “Berdly, what was your gender again?”

Berdly felt a chill. She knew the answer, but even then it felt a bit forbidden to say it. “A woman”

“Very good, Berdly! Is Kris a woman as well?” Noelle sounded tired.

“No,” Berdly replied without thinking about it.

“So you like someone who isn’t the same gender as you, is that right?”

Berdly could feel the way this was going. “Affirmative”

Noelle chuckled. “Then by my book definition you’re straight, because you don’t like women and like people who aren’t your gender”

Berdly was left a bit bugged by this. “By that logic you would only date women because you’re a lesbian” she replied.

Noelle thought about it for a moment. “No lesbian means I just don’t like men” she tried to excuse herself. “Just like straight means you just don’t like women”

“Noelle, you have no idea what you’re talking about,” Catti said.

“Right…” Noelle sounded sleepy. “I think I should be allowed to say something stupid every once in a while”

Berdly chuckled. “That’s why you’re number two”

Noelle snorted. “Wanna study alone next time?” she said, and there was silence.

“You know,” Berdly said, not really knowing whether they were asleep or not. “I would’ve never guessed all of this would go so… quick”

No one replied. Maybe they were asleep, but she still wanted to say it now, because maybe she would forget about it in the morning.

“It’s literally been just a little over a week and here I am, sleeping in the girls bedroom, and I’m just another girl, and…”

She felt warm. She felt happy. She felt welcomed.

“Honestly being a girl is just awesome, and I’m thankful you can see me as one”

She felt as if she had finally found her place.

“It’s cool having you here” Noelle mentioned. “And it’s kinda funny as well”

“Why is that?” Berdly wondered.

Noelle chuckled. “Because Dess transed Kris’ gender and Kris transed my gender and now I transed your gender and-” she started rambling. “You get it, it’s a chain that never stops”

Berdly snorted. “Yeah”

Catti chuckled. “I’m the only cis in here, huh”

Noelle giggled. “Watch out or Berdly might trans your gender”

Catti laughed tired. “Pretty happy being a woman, thank you” she said.

And then there was silence again. And Berdly felt warm in that room. Not because of the blankets or her Call of Duty pajamas, but because of their presence. Because their presence meant that she was welcome. And she was welcome because she was a girl. And being a girl made her happy, for some reason she couldn’t explain.

And after no one said anything again, her thoughts faded away and she fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Cicadas singing. The captivating aura of the forest. Their ponytail swing from one side to the other with each step.

Everything feels so calm. Aside from some mild dizziness, everything feels so relaxing. Yet tiring. She feels tired. Berdly feels tired.

Berdly asks Kris if they can take a break, as she sits on top of a rock. Kris stops walking and looks at her. They grab their backpack and pull out a water bottle from the inside.

Berdly grabs the bottle and starts chugging. She chugs, and she chugs, and she chugs… Yet she doesn’t feel satisfied. She hands Kris the empty bottle, who grabs it and looks at her eyes. 

“You’re still thirsty” they point out.

Berdly nod.

Kris starts getting closer to Berdly. Closer than what two friends usually are. Berdly starts backing down. Before she realizes, her back is already laying over the whole rock.

Kris keeps going at it. They place their arms next to Berdly’s head and stare at her face. Berdly’s head is between Kris’ and the rock.

Kris gives Berdly a suggestive look. “Thirsty for me?” they ask.

Berdly admits it.

Kris starts pulling their face closer to Berdly, their lips closer to her beak, their-

A splash of water wakes Berdly up.

“CATTI!” Noelle yells.

Catti turns back to Noelle. “It worked”

Berdly passes her hand through her face and starts processing what happened. She felt as if she had just woken up from a month-long sleep. “Catti what the hell”

Catti chuckles. “Did you have fun making out with your pillow?”

Berdly’s head feels dizzy. “What?”

“Ever since we woke up you’ve been moaning Kris’ name” Catti explained. “Just look at your pillow”

Berdly looked at her pillow. Her pillow filled with drools. And some blue feathers stuck to those drools. Berdly wanted to disappear at that moment. “Please don’t tell anyone, '' she begged.

Noelle grinned. “Don’t worry, that’s normal” she said.

“So what’s the plan?” Berdly finally asked.

Catti glanced to the side. “I’m gonna take a shower now. If you want to, now is probably the best moment because once the others are awake the bathroom is going to be busy”

“I- was going for breakfast first,” Noelle said. “Showering here…” she started saying, a bit unsure.

Berdly nodded. “I understand, Noelle. Showering at a foreign place is, indeed, a scary idea”

Noelle nodded.

“You do you” Catti said as she grabbed a towel and a brush from her backpack. “See you later, otakus ”

Catti left the room. “Wanna go for breakfast?” Berdly suggested.

Noelle nodded. “Of course!” 

Berdly and Noelle left their bedroom and walked their way to the kitchen. Jockington was already there, watching as the microwave heated up his breakfast.

“Morning Jockington!” Noelle greeted him.

Jockington turned his head. “Good morning, Noelle and Berdly! Jockington is pleased to see you two woke up early as well”

Noelle chuckled as Berdly opened one of the pantry doors. A box of cereal, industrial bakery, some butter, bread…

“Is there any coffee in there?” Noelle asked Berdly as she tried to look inside of it as well over her shoulder.

Berdly grabbed the box of cereal, and a can of coffee. “Here you go!” 

Noelle grabbed the can and opened it. “Oh well guess we will have to grind it” she realized after seeing the grains inside.

The microwave beeped, and Jockinton grabbed his bowl of cereal from inside. Berdly poured her cereals inside of a bowl, and following the act poured milk inside of it. “So tell me Jockington, '' she asked. “What goes first? The cereal, or the milk?”

“Oh god not again” Noelle muttered.

“Jokinton thinkth dat de order doeth not mate ath lon ath you ad uthing a bol,” he replied while fitting a spoonful inside of his mouth.

“That’s what someone who pours the milk first would say” Berdly stated in a condescending voice.

“Berdly, it’s just cereal. Let people be wrong in peace” Noelle half-joked. “By the way, do you know where the grinder is?”

“Ove de micowav” Jockington replied.

“Thanks” Noelle said as she grabbed it.

In silence, Berdly ate her cereals while staring at Jockington’s bowl, trying to guess whether he had poured the milk or the cereals first. Noelle finished grinding the coffee and started to heat water while staring at her phone.

A familiar voice screamed across the entire cabin as Noelle had finally finished preparing her coffee.

“CATTI!” Jockington screamed as he dropped his spoon to the floor.

Noelle started running towards the bathroom, followed by Berdly and Jockington. Noelle knocked on the door. “Catti? Are you okay?”

No response.

Noelle knocked on the door again. “CATTI?”

“STEP ASIDE! JOCKINGTON IS GOING TO ENTER!” Jockington yelled as he tackled the door. However, Jockington was a runner, not a brute, and bounced from it. 

“Or you could just…” Noelle opened the door carefully and poked her head inside, hearing the water run. “Catti, are you okay?”

Still no response. Noelle entered the bathroom, watching the opaque shower curtain. “CATTI…?” 

Catti didn’t reply. Noelle swallowed saliva. What if Catti had fallen and now was unconscious. That was probably it. She had to help, but still… “CATTI, I’M GOING TO OPEN THE CURTAIN TO CHECK IF YOU’RE OKAY!” she yelled.

Noelle was sweating. She didn’t know if it was from the steam, for the tension, or if it was both. After taking a deep breath, she finally slid the curtain open, to find her friend laying on the bathtub, with seemingly no injuries. “Oh god Catti” Noelle gasped as she closed the cut off the water. She tried to grab Catti’s unconscious body, but she weighed too much. “BERDLY! I NEED YOUR HELP!”

Berdly entered the room and saw Noelle trying to lift up Catti’s body. “By Arceus! Is she okay?” Berdly asked.

“Help me get her out of here, -kay?” Noelle begged.

Without hesitation, Berdly grabbed Catti by her other arm and they managed to lift her body up. They recolocated her so that she would be sitting in a towel, with her back laid on the bathtub.

“What should we do now?” Berdly asked.

Noelle kept staring in Catti’s direction, a bit gone. “What? Oh right uh…” Noelle started humming. “We… Call Miss Alphys?

Berdly nodded. “A wise decision” she muttered.

Then she felt a sting in her arm. Berdly impulsively tried to brush it off. Then she saw what was in her hand. A small spider. “GET IT OUT OF ME! GET IT OUT OF MEEEEE!” Berdly screamed as she started shaking her hand as far away from her face as possible.

Noelle quickly picked a piece of toilet paper and grabbed Berdly’s arm. “Relax, it’s probably more scared of you than you are of it.” With care, she made sure the spider went over the piece of paper before wrapping it and throwing it out of the now opened window. “See?”

Berdly started scratching the sting. It was itchy. “It stinged me”

Noelle snorted. “Don’t scratch it or it’ll get worse. I’ve got some ointment in my bag if you need it”

Berdly sighed. “What if it’s venomous?” 

Noelle chuckled. “What if it’s radioactive? You’d be the sassiest Spiderbird all around” she joked. “You’re probably fine” 

Alphys soon appeared at the door. “What is happening? Jockington told me something about Catti-” Alphys looked inside and saw Catti’s unconscious body sitting on a towel. “Dear Angel! Is she okay?” she asked as she rushed towards her and started examining to make sure she didn’t have any injuries.

“Looks like she fainted while showering,” Noelle explained. “There was a spider, and she has arachnophobia, so-”

“Alright alright, looks like she’s fine” Alphys interrupted Noelle as she covered Catti’s body with a towel. “I’ll take care of her, why don’t you go and…?” she blanked for a moment. “Right, why don’t you go and do whatever you were doing before? Oh god I’m so dead her parents are going to kill me oh god ”

Once they were back on their breakfasts, Berdly took a spoon of her cereal. “Fuck” she complained as she realized they were already rancid due to the long exposure to the milk.

“Rancid?” Noelle wondered as she took a sip of her (now cold) coffee.

Berdly nodded.

Noelle chuckled. “The price to pay for heroism” she said as she hesitated looking at her coffee. Without thinking more about it, she completely downed it in a gulp. She then opened a pack of sobaos and started eating it. “I sure do love pastries. This joke makes more sense in Spanish”

Berdly pulled out her phone while eating her soggy breakfast. She looked at the time. “It’s already 9:30,” she announced.

Noelle seemed to think about it. “Everyone’s late,” she concluded. “Love waking up early for absolutely nothing”

As they finished eating, MK and Snowdrake entered the kitchen. “Sup girls” Snowdrake said as he looked at the shelf. 

“Do you need any help?” Noelle asked. She didn’t really know how those two would grab their breakfast. In fact, she couldn’t recall ever seeing them grab anything.

“Yeah, uh… are you two done?” MK wondered.

“Yeah,” Berdly replied.

“Well it would be nice if you left because it’s not… fancy to look at.” MK explained.

“Yeah. Secret methods to grab stuff. Super secret.” Snowdrake followed. “So you should probably leave before we uh- unless you want us to call the Men in Black to erase your memories.”

“Yeah yeah we’re leaving don’t worry” Berdly complained as she left the kitchen with Noelle.

“Maybe we should try to wake up Susie and Kris?” Noelle wondered as they laid on the hallway’s wall.

Berdly shrugged. “Those two are always late” she mentioned. “Quite fascinant lifeforms, completely devoid of the stressing alarm clock”

Noelle snorted. “Susie usually wakes up quite early,” she replied. “I swear I don’t understand how she manages to get by with like… I don’t know, she’s usually up when I’m up”

Berdly chuckled. “Are you sure she doesn’t do that because of you?”

Noelle shrugged. “Maybe. I mean, at least now she comes to class”

“Would you like it if Kris woke-” Noelle started asking.

“WHAAAT? NO OF COURSE I WOULDN’T MIND IT!” Berdly panicked at the mention of their name. “BECAUSE I’M quite clearly NOT INTO THEM”

Noelle started giggling. “Yeah I think they probably wouldn’t start waking up earlier because of you. Probably, you would start waking up later because of th-”

“LALALALALALALALALA I CAN’T HEAR YOU NOELLE!” Berdly yelled while covering her ears.

“Sure” Noelle grinned. “I’m giving you two a month or so”

“For what?” Berdly asked.

“Before you start da-”

“LALALALALALLALALALA-”

“Alright, alright. Do we try to wake them up then or what?”

Berdly looked at the door at the end of the hallway. “I mean, I don’t know. I probably just woke them up and if Alphys is still taking care of Catti…”

Noelle nodded. “Okay then” she said as she started walking towards their dorm. “We should keep getting ready”

Once they were back in their bedroom, they each went to their bags and started changing into that day’s clothes. Berdly grabbed the Pokémon trainer pants she had bought with Kris a few days ago (which reminded her of them although she didn’t want to admit it) and a basic black t-shirt. Noelle changed into her usual clothing, a gray pleated skirt and a red and green checkered sweater.

“Berdly, I was wondering…” Noelle said as she pulled out a pillbox from her bag. “Are you planning on HRT?”

Berdly turned around, seeing Noelle sitting on her bed looking at the pillbox on her hand. “Honestly… I don’t know”

Noelle shrugged.

“I mean, what would I get from it?” Berdly wondered. “It’s not like my body would change at all”

Noelle nodded. “Bird monsters”

Berdly sighed. “Bird monsters”

“Aside from like, the body stuff-” Noelle explained. “I know it’s going to sound weird but… I kinda like the way I just feel in general?”

“What do you mean?” Berdly wondered.

Noelle shrugged. “I don’t really know but… you know what? It doesn’t really matter”

“I mean, I guess I feel… comfortable?” Berdly said. “It’s… I think it’s comfortable. It’s not like I…”

“Not like you want to tear down every single bit of your body?” Noelle asked.

“Y-yeah” Berdly replied, a bit concerned. “Do you feel like that?” 

Noelle chuckled a bit sad. “Just with one bit though”

“If you could…” Noelle started asking. “Anything from your body. For free. By pure magic. Just… You know what I mean?”

Berdly didn’t want to answer that question. In fact, she didn’t even know if she had an answer to that question. Or to what she assumed the question was. “Noelle, are you okay?”

Noelle chuckled. “Nope”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Not like there’s much to talk about, is there?” She replied. “You know what? Forget it”

“You still got the ointment?”

“Uh-huh” Noelle confirmed as she grabbed a tube from her bag. “Here you go!” She exclaimed as she threw it to Berdly.

Or at Berdly, as it hit her face. “Ouch!”

Noelle giggled as she tried to hide her mouth. “I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY!” She apologized attempting to contain her laughter.

Berdly sighed as she grabbed the tube and chuckled. “Guess I’ll need some for my forehead as well” she joked.

“Did it hurt?”

“Nah- you’re still noodle arms”

“HEY!” Noelle protested joyfully. “I could do some good harm with these arms if I proposed to”

Berdly grinned. “Noelle there’s no magic in this world”

“Yeah but I can point at someone and Susie will go after them”

Berdly opened the tube and poured some of it on her hand. She spreaded it over her arm, right on the bite. A bit cold, but soft and comforting. “Here you go!” she announced once she was done to Noelle, throwing her the tube.

Noelle, however, was quicker than Berdly and gracefully catched it in the air. “Feeling better?” she asked as she stored it back on her bag.

“Yeah”

“Cool”

Alphys left the bathroom. “Okay kids, Catti is well, don’t worry.”

Catti left the bathroom with an annoyed face. The kind of face one would probably have if they had passed out in the shower almost an hour ago and had been unconscious the whole time.

“Due to this… Ehem; unfortunate accident, we are out of time and will have to skip the museum visit since-” she said as she looked at her wristwatch. “- we should’ve left twenty seven minutes ago…” she started feeling tiny. “SO THAT’S IT KIDS”

Catti started heading towards her dorm, followed by Jockington, her (unofficial) reassurance snake monster.

Noelle stood up from the sofa. “I’m going for Susie,” she said.

“Maybe we should-” Berdly tried to stop her.

“Berdly, we should’ve left half an hour ago. Half an hour, Berdly. Literally no one has left that bedroom yet.”

Berdly followed Noelle to their bedroom. Noelle knocked on the door. “Hey! Is everything alright in there?”

No response.

“Maybe they’re still asleep,” Berdly pointed out.

Noelle shrugged. “Well they better wake up.” She knocked on the door again. “SUSIE? KRIS? TEM? WE’RE LATE, WE SHOULD’VE LEFT HALF AN HOUR AGO!”

Still no response.

“Okay they sure can’t be asleep, the three of them right?” Noelle started worrying. “Like, you yelled before, I’ve been yelling…” she started knocking the door again. “IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT INSIDE?”

The door finally opened, to Susie’s tired but smiling face. “Good morning princess” she greeted her before yawning.

“You look like you slept in the freaking Nether” Berdly pointed out.

Susie started nodding when Kris left the bedroom. “That’s because we didn’t get any fucking sleep because she had the great IDEA TO OPEN A FUCKING DARK FOUNTAIN ” they complained as they let their face rest on the wall next to Berdly. “But we will talk about it later, where is the kitchen”

“Susie…?” Noelle gave her a killer stare.

Susie shrugged while laughing tiredly. “We just gave Tem the wildest dream she’ll probably ever have. I wouldn’t complain”

Kris chuckled. “We did a little trolling. Anyways could you please guide us to the sanctuary known as ‘kitchen’ so that we may perform the morning ritual known as ‘breakfast’?”

Susie laid her weight on Noelle’s shoulders while yawning. Tem nervously left the bedroom and walked towards the kitchen. “This way” Berdly said as she grabbed Kris’ hand and started guiding them towards the kitchen.

Although Berdly didn’t realize, Kris gave Noelle a smug face and started moving their eyebrows up and down. A gesture that, despite being invisible due to their impressive bangs, was still pretty present. Noelle grinned and pointed at Berdly, still unaware of their silent conversation, and brought her hands to her face the way she did when she was just crushing on Susie, but this time performing it much more Berdly.

“Ooooh, pastries” Susie said as she started to devour the sobaos. She gave Noelle an accomplice look and the both of them laughed. Kris grabbed some bread and started to spread butter on it… Without toasting it first.

“Why didn’t you toast it?” Berdly wondered, a bit annoyed.

“Why would I.” Kris replied. “Takes time”

“Because you’re meant to toast it,” Berdly said. “Hardens the bread and makes it easier to-”

“Well if I did what I was meant to do, I wouldn’t be Kris would I?” they replied defiantly. “Chaos is my element. Look at me, I’m soooo crazy spreading butter on a non-toasted toast.”

Berdly laughed like the silly lovebird she was deep down, and although Kris’ body didn’t allow them to, they also smiled inside.

“Okay and what was it about the-” Noelle looked to the sides, making sure that they were the only ones in the kitchen. “-what’s the deal with the dark fountain”

Susie chuckled. “We wanted to troll Tem”

Kris snorted annoyed. “Yeah but not with a freaking dark fountain, Susie”

“So what? You get to create dark fountains in your house and in Berdly’s bedroom but I don’t?” she complained. “Come on! Just admit we had fun”

Kris sighed as they took a bite from the bread. “I mean, we did, but Ralsei-”

“Now you care about Ralsei?” Susie started rambling.

Kris gave her a deadly stare. “I’ve always cared about Ralsei”

Susie frowned. “Listen, I’m just tired. Forget it, ‘kay?”

“Then are we still supposed to not make dark fountains?” Berdly wondered as she sat on a chair.

“Yeah,” Kris replied. “We aren’t supposed to create Dark worlds, although if there’s one already open…” they left the sentence hanging.

“I mean, it’s been like… What? Over a month since the Cyber World, and that Knight guy literally disappeared or something. If it even existed.”

“I mean, maybe it could come back any time” Kris replied as they stared at the scrap of bread they had left. They should finish it, but… “Why the hell are we even talking about this?” they suddenly realized. “This conversation won’t lead us anywhere, we should discard it immediately,” their mouth said.

“And was there something worth noting about the dark world?” Noelle wondered as she rested her head on her arms, looking at Susie. “Like… I don’t know, what kind of darkners did you find?”

Susie started recalling and counting on her fingers. “Well, there was… Bedsheet ghosts, Pillow yetis, Mosquito tablets…”

“We will also have to… acquire Tem’s toothpaste and tissues” Kris added.

“Oh and we also fought what I believe to be a ████ ████” Susie mentioned perhaps too enthusiastically.

“A what? ” Berdly was left scared.

“Oh yeah! It was so gross, like- I mean it wasn’t exactly a darkner, but a darkner was using it as a weapon. Makes you wonder what people-”

“Susie can you please stop?” Noelle begged.

Susie snorted. “Fiiiine” she said as she ate another sobao. “Hey at least I censored it”

“Sure you did,” Kris muttered.

“What if we went to explore?” Susie wondered as she kicked a small rock into a tree. “We’ve got an hour, right?”

“Yeah sure. Let’s get lost in a mountain” Berdly said with clear sarcasm in her voice.

“I mean, as long as we go through the paths…” Noelle said.

“Screw the paths! Let’s go on an adventure!” Susie exclaimed as she raised a pretty large stick she had just found on the ground.

“Susie, you know people go missing here right?” Kris stated.

“No they don’t, you’re just making that up to scare Noelle” she replied.

“I’m not fucking kidding Susie. People who deviate from the paths literally go missing. A kid did like, three years ago”

“Alright alright alright” she replied as she examined the large stick in her hands. It was as big as her ax. “No fighting bears, no going missing… Then can we at least fight?” she proposed as she took a fighting stance with her stick. “Soft combat. The first one to hit the other with their stick wins”

Kris grinned as they grabbed another large stick from the ground. As large as their sword. “Now you have my attention”

“You joining, princess?” Susie asked Noelle.

Noelle laughed a bit nervously. “No thanks, I’ll let you two-”

“And you, Berdly?” she asked her.

Berdly thought of the idea. It could be fun.

“This is better than in Dark Worlds. Real sweat and no healing magic.” Susie said.

“Wait, you aren’t going to hurt each other, right?” Noelle worried.

“Nah” Kris replied as they got used to the weight and feel of their stick. “Not voluntarily at least”

Berdly didn’t like the idea of sweating. “I think I’ll just watch your fierce duel,” she said.

“Cool” Kris muttered. “Okay so these are the rules. Best of three rounds. Each round ends when someone manages to hit the other player’s body with their weapon. Only on the extremities, so the chest and head are out. Capicci?”

“Capicci.” Susie replied as she took some distance from Kris and readied herself for battle.

“Berdly, why don’t you play some music?” Kris asked. “Some of that nasty battle music you like”

“Give me a moment,” Berdly said as she grabbed her phone. She went through her library of music (which was all video game music, by the way) and played The Only Thing I Know For Real.

The synthesizers blasted through her phone’s speaker. “SHOW ME A GOOD TIME, SUSIE!” Kris yelled as they started to walk around each other in circles.

The guitar started playing, and Susie was quick to swing her stick against them. Kris managed to sidestep it, and they clumsily swinged their stick in the air trying to hit her now exposed arm.

‘ Memories broken the truth goes unspoken I’ve even forgotten my name’

Kris tried to attack Susie, but she easily parried their attack. “Your stick is so lame against mine” she teased them as she tried to redirect their hit towards them.

‘I don’t know the season or what is the reason I’m standing here holding my blade’

Susie effectively managed to redirect their hit, hitting their leg with her bigger stick. “POINT!” she celebrated.

“Fuck” Kris muttered.

“POINT FOR SUSIE! YOU GO GIRL!” Noelle exclaimed.

‘A desolate place. Without any trace. It’s only the cold wind I feel’

Kris and Susie went back to their starting positions. Kris focused on the strategy they would follow. Susie’s stick was certainly bigger, so if she parried them they would lose. However, she was also clumsier than them.

‘It’s me that I spite as I stand up and fight. The only thing I know for real’

‘THERE WILL BE BLOOD-’

Kris started running towards Susie, who prepared her stick to hit them before they even reached her.

‘-SHED’

Kris backstepped as soon as they were about to reach Susie. Susie threw a swing at Kris, which didn’t hit them as they had calculated it.

‘THE MAN IN THE MIRROR NODS HIS HEAD’

Kris gracefully hit Susie’s arm with their stick. “Point” they cheered their own way.

“NICE JOB KRIS!” Berdly celebrated.

Kris looked at her and playfully threw a Kiss at her.

‘THE ONLY ONE- LEFT’

Kris and Susie went back to their positions.

‘WILL RIDE UPON THE DRAGON’S BACK’

Kris and Susie readied, but none of them acted. Susie tried to plan in advance to Kris’ possible plan.

‘BECAUSE MOUNTAINS DON’T GIVE BACK WHAT THEY TAKE’

Kris wondered if the bait would work again. Susie wondered if she should try to bait them. Instead.

‘OH NO THERE WILL BE BLOOD-SHED’

Susie leapt forward trying to scare Kris. Kris leapt backwards trying to avoid Susie.

‘IT’S THE ONLY THING THAT I’VE EVER KNOOOOOOOOOOWN!’

Susie leapt forward, but Kris didn’t leapt backwards. Instead, they leapt sideways and forward, completely disorienting Susie and gracefully hitting her leg.

Kris had won. The electric guitar solo came back to celebrate with them, as Berdly rushed and tried to lift them in the air. Tried, because she was too weak to even lift them a few centimeters. 

“It 's not fair! It’s that bullshit song!” Susie complained to Noelle. “It- it-”

“Good game” Kris said as they offered Susie a handshake.

Susie accepted it. “You know what? Yeah, g fucking g.”

“Want a rematch?” they offered with their devilish grin.

Susie smirked. “Only if we play my music. Deal?”

Kris nodded. “Deal”

“Are you sure you aren’t missing anything?” Berdly asked for the fifth time.

“I don’t even know how I managed to fit all of it in my bag,” Kris replied.

“Because it’s shared across all of our bags Kris” Noelle complained. “We’re stealing ”

Kris shrugged. “I mean, it’s not stealing. It’s… finding them a new home. We’re not the British museum.”

“Hey wouldn’t it be fun if we opened a dark fountain in the British museum?” Susie suddenly fantasized. “What would a mummy turn into? I mean it’s basically already a corpse. Would it resurrect the corpse?”

“I don’t think I want to ever know the answer to that question” Noelle laughed nervously.

“Do you think someone could be a Necromancer in a dark world?” Berdly wondered.

“Probably Catti” Kris replied.

The trunk of the bus finally opened and the four of them stored their bags inside. They then went up and took places following the same distribution as last time. Noelle with Susie, and Berdly with Kris.

“Susie, maybe you should cash in on the trip and like… sleep” Noelle wondered as she caressed her hair.

“Sounds nice” Susie said as she rested her head on Noelle’s shoulder.

Exactly sixteen seconds later, Susie had already fallen asleep.

“Holy shit” Berdly exclaimed. “How did she-”

“We slept like, three hours. That’s how” Kris replied as they pulled out their phone.

The bus started its ride, as the teenagers looked through the window looking at officer Undyne (who definitely was there just because of vacations and not some convoluted plot by Caroline Holiday to keep her daughter in check) who waved goodbye to Noelle Holiday. They saw as the cabins steadily became smaller and smaller on the horizon, and at the mountain range as they kept descending.

“Crap” Noelle exclaimed.

“What happened?” Berdly asked.

“I left the taser in the room” she laughed. Although she was laughing, she was terrified of how her mom would react to her daughter losing a taser (which by the way, she shouldn’t have been made responsible of since she wasn’t the one who packed it).

“It’ll be fine,” Kris replied. “Just tell her you didn’t see it and act as if someone stole it”

Noelle shook her head. “I’m dead.”

Kris pulled out their phone. “Undyne’s still there. I can ask my dad to tell Undyne to pick it up” they offered.

“Please do” Noelle begged.

Kris laid their head on Berdly’s shoulder as they texted their dad. Once they were done, they pulled out their earphones and plugged them to their phone. They fit one inside their left ear, and offered the right one to Berdly.

Berdly looked at the offering not really knowing what to do.

“Want it or not?” they finally asked, a bit tired of waiting.

Berdly accepted the earphone and fitted it in her right ear. Although they were resting their head on her shoulder, she rested her head on theirs.

Just the two of them. With the bouncing of the bus. Resting on each other.

Kris browsed through their music folder and finally hit a song that Berdly didn’t recognize by Twenty One Pilots.

Some sort of countdown. A guitar with a battery.

‘Sometimes you gotta bleed to know that you’re alive and have a soul…’

Chapter Text

Berdly was standing in front of the door. Although this wasn’t her first time coming to Kris’ house, it was something she would soon get used to. Most of the time they played online or just hung out, and the last time someone went into the other's house, it was hers. 

She hesitated whether she should knock the door or ring the doorbell, not sure which would be the best option. If she knocked on the door, perhaps they wouldn’t hear her. But if she rang the doorbell, perhaps they would be annoyed at her not knocking the door. 

The weather wasn’t especially good that day. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t good either. It was a perfect day for doing what they were (supposedly) going to do: gathering in a house and playing Dungeons and Dragons the whole day.

Berdly had always loved Dungeons and Dragons. It had always given her what she needed: escapism. Although she no longer really needed that escapism, as now she was a girl. And she was a heroine as well, at least in the Dark World. And after what happened with Mileena, she would have to create a new D&D character. Normally, she would’ve just remade her, but after actually meeting with her, fighting, rambling… It sure didn’t feel right to recreate her.

So, after finally deciding, Berdly took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

This time, however, she didn’t stand there for an eternity. This time the door opened almost immediately, revealing a goat monster certainly taller than her well in his 18 years old.

“Howdy Berdly!” Asriel greeted her while raising his palm. “Long time no see”

“Greetings Asriel,” Berdly replied. “It wasn’t of my knowledge that you were back in town”

Asriel smiled. “I see you also joined the skirt club” he joked.

Berdly shrugged, while giving a quick glance at her cherry blossom patterned skirt. “They sure are nice,” she said.

Asriel nodded and let Berdly in. “KRIIIIS! BERDLY IS HERE!” he yelled upstairs.

Kris went down the stairs still in their pajamas. “Sup” they greeted Berdly.

“Weren’t you-” Asriel started to ask Kris in a judgemental tone.

“It’s my home.” Kris replied boldly.

Asriel sighed, and went upstairs.

“Did I arrive too early?” Berdly wondered, checking again on her clock. 11:07 AM, the time they had agreed to meet at Kris’ house, right?

Kris shrugged. “Like, five hours early” they replied. “We agreed to meet at 4 PM, remember?”

Berdly frowned. “I recall very well you telling me to meet up at 11 AM”

Kris pulled out their phone and entered the group chat. They showed Berdly a message, ‘yeah so like, my place 4 pm cool?’. “See?”

Berdly pulled out her phone and went to her Discord chat logs with Kris. 

‘Berdly, my home at 11 AM, is that cool?’

Kris went blank for a moment. “Okay that was a typo”

Berdly nodded. “Indeed. A typo”

Kris nodded as well. “Yeah. Just a typo. Like, why else would I want you to be earlier than the rest”

Berdly started nodding more aggressively. “Of course. It’s not like, we would want to spend some time with each other right”

Kris nodded aggressively as well. “Indeed”

“Well, if you don’t mind,” Berdly said as she went to Kris’ sofa and laid on it. “I will spend time in your house until 4 PM”

Kris sent on Chairiel. “And if you don’t mind, I will make you company in my house until 4 PM”

“Okay and do you want to do anything” Berdly finally asked after a minute of the both of them literally just staring at each other in silence.

“Wanna play blideo bames,” they asked. 

Berdly stood up. “Which one,” she wondered.

“We have some zombies pending, remember?”

Berdly looked at the now plasma TV (when had they changed their TV to a plasma one?) and saw a PS4 next to it. “I don’t recall you having a PS4”

Kris stood up and booted it up. “It’s not mine, it’s Azzy’s. They brought it back from their college dorm.” They looked for a controller, but found none. “I’ll go for the controllers” they mentioned as they walked upstairs.

Berdly looked at the TV screen as it booted up. Then she remembered. She stood up and rushed upstairs towards their room. “Asriel Dreemurr, How to draw dragons is twenty-six-hundred seventeen days overdue. The library of Hometown reclaims what belongs to them.”

Azzy gave Kris a worried look. “Didn’t you return it?”

Kris shook their head. “I’m not the one who was down bad for the cover seven years ago”

Azzy shrugged and smiled awkwardly at Berdly. “I- I don’t know where it is” he excused himself. “Can’t we just pretend-”

Kris left the room and pulled the book from the furniture in the hallway. They handed it to Berdly and gave Azzy a disappointed look.

Azzy sighed. “Alright that’s it then, right?”

Berdly chuckled. “You know Asriel, the actual fine would be akin to… Eighty dollars”

Azzy started sweating. She definitely hadn’t forgotten about the fine. Of course she hadn’t, she had been complaining about it ever since she started working at the library. “C-can I get a discount? For… Dungeon Master. And student.”

Berdly brought her hand to readjust her glasses as she thought about it. “You know what? You’re right. I will give you a five percent discount for being our retired Dungeon Master, which would leave it at seventy six dollars”

Kris gave Berdly a dumb look. “Awww, c’mon bird girl! He’s my bro, you can surely give him a better discount.”

Berdly looked at Kris.

“For me? Pretty please?” They gave her puppy eyes.

Berdly sighed. “Alriiight. Seventy dollars and we’re set”

Azzy nodded and gave Kris a pat in their back. “Cool, wait so I go for the money”

Azzy entered their bedroom again and closed the door.

“You’re manipulating me, you know it right?” Berdly pointed out.

Kris shrugged. “You’re the one letting me do it” they replied.

Berdly chuckled. “You are stripping my will away” she joked.

Kris put on a duck face and pushed her shoulder. “You like it when I do puppy eyes, huh?”

Berdly pushed their shoulder as well while giggling. “Maybe I like it when-”

The door opened, and Azzy saw his sibling doing… that weird flirting with their crush. He couldn’t help but smile like a dumbass, but as soon as Berdly looked at his eyes he remembered what was going on. “Okay so like- I don’t have enough in effective, so if you give me a bank account for a transference or-”

Berdly sighed. “Alright” she said as she pulled out her phone. She copied the account number of the library and sent it to Azzy’s phone number. “There you go.”

Azzy nodded. “Cool, I’ll make it now”

Berdly nodded. “By the way, Asriel. would you make us company as we mow down hordes of zombies?”

Azzy opened his mouth to say something, but he seemed to quickly change his mind. “Oh, no thanks. I’m… Busy. And we don’t have enough controllers, just those two. So if you don’t mind- I’ll keep working on my game” and he closed the door.

Berdly and Kris went back downstairs, now with the functioning controllers. They both sat on the couch, one next to the other.

“If you don’t mind…” Berdly said as she laid, resting her head on Kris’ lap. She soon changed her position because she couldn’t concentrate on the tilted screen.

“So what map do we play?” Kris asked as the two available maps appeared on screen. “Shadows, or Giant?”

Berdly thought about it. “How do you have The Giant and no DLC?”

Kris shrugged. “No idea, ask Azzy” they replied.

Berdly laid back on the couch and thought about it.

“Shadows was harder than Giant. Giant first?” she suggested.

Kris selected The Giant. “Cool”

The cinematic started playing. Various shots displaying the nazi laboratory in which the map took place appeared on screen.

“Wanna skip the cinematic?” Kris wondered.

Berdly shrugged. “I don’t really care, it’s been quite a long time since I watched it”

Kris hummed and the cinematic kept playing.

‘Goodbye, doctor Maxis’

A mad scientist appeared laughing on screen, interrupted by the cock of a gun.

“Oh, this guy died right?” Berdly asked.

The mad scientist turned around to see a soldier pointing a gun at him. ‘This ain’t funny, doc’

Another guy with a hat appeared with a shotgun. ‘Turn around!’

“Nikolai my beloved” Kris muttered.

And a Japanese man, also armed. ‘Slowly’

The scientist was surrounded by the three men, all pointing guns at him. 

‘Do you know who I am?’

‘Yeah, we know’

“Where is Richtofen?” Berdly wondered.

‘That’s why you better do exactly what we say’

‘A great evil approaches. There is a chain of events that must be set in motion’

The scream of zombies alerts the group. Dempsey (the american soldier) and Nikolai (the russian with a hat) leave Takeo (the japanese) alone with the doctor.

‘The future hangs by a thread. You must awaken the test subjects’

The characters start getting ready for the arrival of zombies as a strange machine behind the scientist starts lightning, with ominous music playing.

“Wasn’t that like, a teleporter?” Kris wondered.

“Yeah I’m pretty sure”

The zombies arrive and the heroes start fighting back. Dempsey turns back to the scientist.

‘Richtofen! Whatever you think you’re doing… don’t do it!’

‘You do not want to meet what’s on the other side of that door!’

‘We cannot begin to comprehend the great EVIL you could unleash!’

The scientist doesn’t care and presses a button on the panel. The machine that had been powered by lightning previously starts opening, revealing a man inside whose face cannot be seen due to the blinding lightning. The scientist approaches the machine and watches in amazement as a younger version of himself (who isn’t crazy) steps out of it. 

Who then shoots him right in the forehead.

‘Damnit Richtofen I thought we were done with this!’

‘What can I say Dempsey? Things change’

The russian kills a zombie and turns back to Richtofen. ‘Only a fool would dare to change history!’

‘I am no fool! What I do, I do only to secure a better tomorrow’

The four heroes do their heroic poses, getting ready for the hordes of zombies to come.

‘Yeah, would love to live to see it’

And the four heroes lunge into the battle.

“What is going on exactly?” Kris wondered as the game finally started. The game had assigned them Nikolai, the russian. “What was like, the lore behind this?”

Berdly shrugged. “Something something time travel something something apothicon” she said as she started clumsily moving her character. She had been assigned Takeo, the japanese. “Arceus, it’s been so long since I played a shooter on controller”

“Yeah uh-” Kris suddenly paused the game. “If you don’t mind I have to set up my controls”

“You don’t use the default ones?” Berdly sighted in horror as Kris started going through different options on the control menu. “YOU JUMP WITH THE GATLING?”

Kris shrugged. “If you jump using the cross you can’t aim while jumping”

“YOU SLIDE WITH THE MELEE BUTTON?”

Kris sighed. “You wouldn’t get it”

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?”

Kris resumed the game and chuckled. “And I thought you were a gamer,” they replied.

They waited a few seconds until the zombies finally started spawning and slowly taking out the wooden barriers. Kris immediately started unloading bullets at the undead, although the starting pistol sure did little damage.

“You are supposed to knife them,” Berdly said. “Three shots to the leg and knife, best way to get points”

The round went on as the teens kept piling up points. The second round came and passed the same way.

“Shouldn’t we like, start opening the doors?” Kris suggested as they saw the third round start.

“Yeah, probably,” Berdly said as she approached one of the doors. “This one?”

“Sure”

Berdly opened the door and saw as her points went down. “That hurt my wallet,” she muttered.

Kris went and opened the next door. “You open one, I open one, cool?”

“Cool”

The third round was a bit more complicated. Mainly because they were still using that terrible pistol and the zombies now had more HP. 

Berdly clumsily walked right into the horde and got downed. “Crap!” She complained.

Kris sighed. “Seriously Berdly? On round 3?”

“Can you revive me please”

Kris threw a grenade at the horde and blew up all the zombies. “Sure” they approached her and held the square button, finally reviving her after that long animation. “Okay now if you don’t mind I’ve got a bunch of doors to open”

They kept opening doors until they reached the power switch. Kris turned it on and the electricity started running through the cables of the building.

And conveniently next to them, there was the box .

“Cool” Berdly said as she approached it and spent her points on a roll.

“You shouldn’t have enough points for that” Kris pointed out.

“Well, you shouldn’t have opened those doors”

Kris sighed.

A Ray Gun appeared and Berdly grabbed it. “Hell yeah baby! RNGesus is on my side!”

“Yeah, well how about you open the door?”

“Sure just let me-” Berdly shot at the foot of a few zombies, killing them and earning the needed points. “Alright” and she opened the door.

They eventually reached a machine identical to the one from the cinematic. The teleporter. “I REMEMBER I REMEMBER!” Berdly said as she stood inside of it. “We have to run from here to the starting area to unlock the Pack a Punch”

“True” Kris said as they stood on the platform next to Berdly. They pressed the button and started sliding and jumping all the way to the spawn. Even though they hadn’t played that game in years, they still retained the muscle memory of quick movement.

Some yelling, ranting and reviving Berdly because she had Ray Gun after, they had finally unlocked the Pack a Punch and gotten their hands on a couple of perks.

Although Berdly had the Ray Gun, Kris had managed to spin a Wunderwaffle, a rifle that chained electricity to zombies and always killed them.

They went to the spot they used to go in the past, that hallway over the first teleporter they had activated, and settled down shooting at the never ending zombies. Then hellhounds. Then zombies again. Then hellhounds again. Then both zombies and hellhounds.

Round went up. They were close to death a bunch of times. They joked and felt warm. The action wasn’t as exciting as they remembered, since all they were doing was simply shoot in the same direction at the same enemies again and again. But they were still with each other.

Until they finally ran out of ammo, and the both of them died.

“Well, we tried,” Berdly said.

“Shadows now?” Kris suggested.

“Sure”

Kris selected the map and the cinematic started playing.

Morg City, an American city from the 40s. There is a tempest going on, as the waves and thunder agitate the bay.

A phone recording starts. ‘Hey, you!’

The scene shifts to a man clearly nervous, sitting on a bed in a room with red lightning.

‘I know I yelled at you real bad. I know I said some things I shouldn’t have said…’

As the camera zooms out from the man, a woman’s legs appear framing the image.

‘But I was just angry…’

The shot shifts to an aerial view, in which the woman dressed in a pretty… interesting dress approaches the man.

‘Upset… You know how close I am to this movie dear’

The man lays on the bed and the woman gets on top of him, in a pose that certainly…

“Kris can we skip this one?” Berdly asks nervously.

“Y- yeah” Kris replies as they smash the square button.

However, the prologue keeps playing.

‘I mean, they know about my dancing, but…’

The woman pulls out some handcuffs and ties the man to the bed.

“Kris…!”

“THIS WON’T SKIP!”

‘Those pictures? You don’t wanna mess up my chance for star-’

The cinematic finally skipped, as Kris sighed in relief. “What the hell, dude? I didn’t remember this kind of thing ”

“Now that I think about it…” Berdly recalled. “I think she killed the guy”

“She did?”

‘You bear the mark. You are cursed!’

Jazzy music started playing as the two characters appeared on the starting alleway. Berdly had been assigned Jessica (the femme fatale from the cinematic), while Kris had been assigned Nero (the magician who would have also appeared in the cinematic if they had left it to play for long enough).

Berdly suddenly started laughing after realizing something. “Kris, I just noticed…”

“Yeah?”

“I only played as the girl”

“What do you mean?”

Berdly chuckled. “Whenever the game didn’t give me the girl, I would restart the map until it gave me the girl”

Kris facepalmed. “Oh my god and you said you weren’t an egg”

Berdly giggled. “And I said there was absolutely no reason at all why I always wanted to be a girl in video games”

“Anyways, what were we supposed to do?” Kris said as they approached a purple flame. They pressed the interact button, and soon found themselves transformed into a tentacle beast. “Holy shit”

Berdly examined for a bit the alleway they were in, while checking on Kris’ side of the screen. “Alright, hit the door with your melee”

Kris obeyed, and the door opened. “Wow.” They walked around the alleway with their new form, seeing the different indications. They hit a crate with their melee as well, and following the instructions on screen zapped a generator. “Cool”

Zombies finally started appearing, as Kris and Berdly started to shoot. Either the zombies were weaker, or the gun was stronger, because they died in fewer shots than planned. Once they had enough points, they opened the door and walked to the junction of the map.

“Weren’t we supposed to do like, a quest or something?” Kris recalled.

“Yeah” Berdly said as she explored the new area, trying to remember what they were supposed to do. “Something with the beast”

“Wanna do it?”

“I don’t remember it”

Kris sighed as they paused the game. They pulled out their phone and started looking for a guide on YouTube. “Are we doing the easter egg or the Pack a Punch?”

“Pack a Punch”

Kris played the shorter video they found, and they started watching together.

“Kris, mind if I ask you a question?”

Kris put down their controller and laid back on the couch, staring at the TV screen. “Sure”

“Is it true that… You know…?” Berdly played with her fingers.

“No, Berdly. I don’t know,” they sighed.

Although Azzy was still upstairs and they were the only ones in that room, Berdly approached Kris’ ear. “Is it true that no one is opening fountains?” She whispered.

Kris nodded. “Why is that?”

Berdly shrugged and laid her head next to Kris’. “Well, I was wondering… If there is ever another Dark World-”

“You aren’t planning on creating a dark fountain, are you?” Kris asked with concern.

Berdly shook her head. “No, no! But… You know, if you ever happen to find a Dark World… I wouldn’t mind going with you”

Kris stared at Berdly’s feathers. “Yeah uh… Honestly I’m not sure” they replied.

“Why?”

Kris sighed. “Berdly, you’ve already been in more dark worlds than you should’ve. Same with Susie and me. And obviously, same with Noelle”

“Besides, not to be hurtful or anything but…” Kris pushed her head to the side, so there would be some distance between their faces. “You suck at following orders”

“HEY!”

“But it 's true! You literally fight all the time. It 's all you do. Fight, and fight, and fight. You keep treating it like a game”

Berdly snorted. “I can do more than fight”

Kris chuckled. “Yeah. You can do whatever you want. But you know, you aren’t the one who calls the shots and if we’re not on the same vibe, it could go very very bad ”

“Then train me!” She exclaimed. “Isn’t there a Dojo in Castle Town? Train me so you can take me with you!”

Kris sighed. “You do realize we will likely not see another dark fountain unless one of us creates one, right?”

Berdly stood up from the couch and looked at Kris’ eyes. “And what? We might never know. And I could make a great addition. The four of us! You, Susie, Noelle and me!”

“And Ralsei”

“And Ralsei, yeah. The point is, the more the better and-”

“Which day are you free?”

Berdly blinked. “Tuesday is fine”

Kris nodded. “Tuesday after school we go for lunch. Then we go to Castle Town. Is that cool?”

Had it really been that easy? Just to convince Kris to spend some time with her? I mean, it’s not like they had never spent time together but-

“Indeed”

“Alright” Kris said as they scratched their nose shyly. They stood up and started heading towards the bathroom. “If you don’t mind”

Berdly stood there looking at the bathroom door close, still feeling a bit dumbfounded by Kris agreeing to train her. Well, to… train her, yeah. Not like that was a date or anything. Or like she had even asked them out. Because her actual reason for that was altruism. Yeah. She just wanted to help them in the dark world. Not to spend time with them. Not at all. Just like what was happening right now. She was just waiting for Noelle and Susie to arrive. Of course.

Not like she even liked them. But she actually liked them and dreamed of them and-

After some muffled screams and slams coming from inside the bathroom, the door opened. And Kris’ face looked a bit redder than usual. Which of course meant absolutely nothing at all.

At first, Kris started walking towards Berdly. Then they stopped, pondering their options. Berdly couldn’t tell, but they were sweating and their face certainly burned. Berdly sat on the couch, seeing how Kris just wanted to stand in there for no reason at all.

A few seconds later, Azzy walked down the stairs. “Heeeeeey Berdly!” He greeted her as Kris quickly went to sit on Chairiel and stared into the void. “IIIIII was thinkiiiiing…” he stretched the words. A lot.

“What?”

“Yeeeeah… Well, you’ll see- Because I’m studying audiovisual arts, the school hired me to organize the Sadie Hawkman and-”

“Oh wow that’s very cool”

Azzy nodded. “It certainly is. Anyways, since I’ll be… You know, DJing… Is there any song you’d like me to play? Perks of being friends with the organizer”

Berdly looked at Kris, who was definitely reading that magazine about snails and definitely not hiding their face. “Well, I wasn’t really planning on… attending the party” she confessed.

Azzy laughed nervously, clapping his hands. “Oh, woooow… Why is that, Berdly?”

Berdly shrugged. “I have never been fond of that sort of stuff. Besides, people usually go with someone else, and…” she looked at her talons, remembering how she and Noelle would usually go together to just sit in a corner and then awkwardly leave after not really knowing what to do “I don’t really have anyone to got with”

Kris pulled down their magazine with a really… Interesting smile. “Oh wow haha how curious I also have no one to go with” they interjected.

Berdly smiled at Kris, and Kris immediately pulled up the magazine to cover their face. “Truly a shame, Krismas”

Asriel cleared his throat, looking at Kris. He seemed to whisper something.

“So… Howww about you two… Go together?” Asriel finally proposed.

Kris pulled down their magazine. “As friends of course”

Berdly nodded. “Of course. As friends”

“Just two friends at a dance. Not a date”

“Of course. Definitely, absolutely, not a date”

“Just a pair of besties”

“Who couldn’t go with their other besties because said besties are dating”

“Yeah”

Asriel audibly groaned as he pulled his own face in desperation. “C-Cool! Then I’ll see you at the party” and he went back upstairs.

Berdly looked at Kris. Kris looked at Berdly. Berdly smiled at Kris. Kris grinned at Berdly. Berdly started giggling at Kris. Kris pulled up their magazine to cover their face from Berdly.

Were they really going as besties? No, they probably weren’t. Well, they probably were and Berdly shouldn’t get her hopes up, because they were just being awkward because Kris is always awkward. And Berdly is bad at picking up stuff, like when she believed Noelle was into her. So that must, of course, meant that Kris wasn’t really into her and this was indeed just a pity hangout.

And she was definitely wrapped around their finger. They had succeeded. Even if she didn’t really… No, that couldn’t be it. Noelle had insisted on them that she was actually into them. Because she was actually into them, wasn’t she? And they were also into her. And they would definitely not be going as besties. And then they would-

Nope, we can’t get into spoiler territory. Even if it is a minor spoiler and we are almost done, we won’t spoil what Kris has planned for that party. Neither what Berdly has planned.

“You haven’t met Azzy yet, right?”

Susie scratched her head. “Is there anything I should know?” she asked as they kept walking towards Kris’ porch.

“Pretty sure Kris has already told you enough about him”

Susie shrugged. “Probably, yeah”

Once they reached the porch, the both of them stood awkwardly, waiting for the other to knock on the door.

“Anyways, just one teeny tiny thing” Noelle said as she pulled away a leaf that got stuck on Susie’s hair. “Azzy is pretty chill, but be nice okay? He’s… pretty sensible and stuff”

Susie chuckled. “Hey! It’s not like I can let him down or anything”

Noelle nodded as she finally knocked on the door.

Knock knock knock.

A few seconds later, Azzy opened the door for the couple. “Well well well! If it ain’t Noelle and…” he pointed his finger at the dragon, trying to guess her name. “...Susie?”

Susie nodded. “Yeah! That’s me!”

Azzy offered a handshake to Susie, who looked at it not really knowing what to do. She wasn’t used to giving handshakes, and the few times she did she accidentally hurt the other person. “A pleasure to meet you!”

After noticing Susie wasn’t planning on giving the handshake, he pulled his hand down pretending as if nothing had happened weighed by embarrassment. He stood to the side so that they could enter, but he stopped Noelle after Susie’s entrance. “So- A purple dragon girlfriend, huh?” He smirked at her, a bit jealous.

Noelle chuckled nervously. “Y-yeah” she replied.

“Do you know if she has an older sibling? By any chance” he said as he brought his hand to his chin in what he probably thought looked cool and mysterious but just looked kinda lame.

Noelle shook her head. “Only child. And-” she approached Azzy’s ear. “Her relationship with her family is… not good, so you probably shouldn’t… ask”

Azzy’s expression changed. “Yeah” he muttered, now feeling a bit down as he looked at Susie, who was now laying on Chairiel while looking at the (definitely not) couple cuddling on the sofa.

Noelle finally entered, and she saw Kris and Berdly. And Susie on the other side of the room. “Hey!” she complained with a stupid smile on her face. “My girlfriend and I also need space for cuddling!”

Berdly gave Noelle a smug look. “Their house, their rules” and Kris nodded.

Noelle chuckled. “Kris, how about this: You let me cuddle with my girlfriend in my house, and I let you cuddle with your girlfriend in my house”

“HEY WE ARE NOT-” Kris got defensive. “She isn’t my girlfriend”

“No we aren’t- dating” Berdly said as she started feeling hotter. “W- we aren’t dating, right Kris?” she asked while taking some distance from them.

“You two are so fucking queer OH MY GOD JUST KISS!” Susie yelled from Chairiel.

Azzy started laughing. “So you actually-”

“NO” Kris covered their face with their hands. “We are-”

“We are just friends!” Berdly said as she tried to hide Kris’ body with hers. “We are just friends, right Kris?”

Kris didn’t reply.

“They are classmates!” Azzy joked.

“OH MY GOD THEY WERE CLASSMATES!” Noelle teased her friends.

“Stop.” Kris’ cold voice filled the room. “That’s enough.”

No one felt like laughing. They had always been good at making scary voices, but this sounded serious. It actually sounded scary.

“Kris, can I ask you a question?” Azzy finally interrupted the awkward silence.

Kris gazed upon their brother’s eyes.

“Why is it that every time you befriend a guy they end up a girl?”

Noelle tried to contain her laughter. Susie started counting on her fingers, but something didn’t add up. “Hey! Ralsei is still a guy!”

“Who’s Ralsei?” Azzy suddenly asked. He knew most of Kris’ friends, and he sure had never heard that name before.

“Ralsei is- uhhh” Kris started thinking of an excuse.

“Nobody. Ralsei is nobody. I just made it up” Susie realized she could have screwed up. “Ralsei is…”

“Her Pou!” Noelle added another lie. “Ralsei is the name Susie has given her Pou!”

That sure sounded weird. “People still play Pou in 2018?”

Susie nodded violently. She didn’t even know what a Pou was.

“Must be very special for you if you even named it”

Susie nodded with even more force.

“Look out or they may turn you into a girl too,” Berdly said.

Azzy chuckled. “Pretty happy being just a feminine guy, thank you.”

“Anyways, we were watching a movie in case you haven’t realized” Kris said as they raised the TV remote. “It’s barely starting, so like…”

“If you want to, we can watch the movie. And if not, we can do something else” Berdly finished.

“Which one?” Noelle asked.

“Shaolin Soccer,” Berdly said.

“It’s about Shaolin monks who create a football team and win a cup through the power of Kung-Fu,” Kris added. “Pretty funny”

“Sure” Susie said as she patted her legs. Noelle walked to Susie and sat over her legs, wrapping herself with her girlfriend. “Can you see like this?” she asked.

“Uh-huh” Noelle replied as she brought her hands towards her antlers. “These aren’t on the way, are they?”

“Nah” Susie said as she kissed her girlfriend’s forehead. “Nah I don’t think so”

Noelle giggled as she caressed Susie’s scaly arm.

Normally, Kris would’ve thought those two were being gross again. Normally, Berdly would’ve looked at those two in jealousy, wanting to have what they had.

But this time, these two were kinda like that. So, as Noelle and Susie cuddled on Chairiel, Berdly started cuddling with Kris right next to Azzy, and they pressed play.

Chapter Text

“So, where do you wanna go?” Berdly asked as they left the school building.

“Where do you wanna go?” Kris replied as they glimpsed at their mom’s car.

“Well, if you want my most sincere opinion: I didn’t have anything planned, so I’m fine with anything that isn’t too expensive”

“So you want cheap?” Kris wondered. “I mean, we could just buy some bread and ham from the convenience store and-”

“Not that cheap,” Berdly interrupted. “I’d prefer an already prepared meal”

Kris shrugged as they walked down the street. “We could go to Ice E’s. It’s the closest thing to cardboard but-”

“Is it cheap?”

“It’s so damn cheap. And-” they patted their pocket. “Azzy gave me some coupons. And I know one of the guys who works there so…”

“I see”

Once they reached the pezzeria (since there’s no ‘I’ in pezza) Kris held the door for Berdly. “Ladies first”

Berdly chuckled. “Sure…” as she entered.

The place was… Surprisingly empty, for a tuesday at lunch time. Only an orange cat-like monster was sitting on one of the tables. Not like it was too big as well, but…

“Pants?”

Pants froze and tried to hide his phone, as if he had just been caught doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. He sighed as he realized Kris had been the one to call him. “Little buddy! How are you doing?” He greeted them as he stood up and wondered first whether to hug them or not, before realizing hugging them wouldn’t be comfortable for either of them. “You scared me, you know?”

Kris chuckled. “You thought I was your boss? Then maybe you should be… working, dunno”

Pants chuckled. “Yeah well, are you here to talk or…?” He soon noticed Kris’ company. “And who’s this chick?”

Berdly raised her hand as a salutation. “My name is Berdly. I am Kris’ classmate and, mind you know, a better grader than them”

Pants nodded. “Sure. Anyways, you here for lunch?”

Kris nodded.

“Cool then take a seat wherever you prefer- Maybe here since this is the only clean table” he stood up.

As Berdly sat on her chair, she started noticing the many many flaws the place had. At least she (probably) wouldn’t get food poisoning.

“So, do you have anything in mind?”

“I’ll have a burger and a coke,” Kris said.

“I’ll have an…” Berdly kept looking at the menu in the wall screens. “What do you recommend?” She asked Pants.

“Running away,” he joked. Because that had been a joke, right?

“Kris, what do you recommend?”

Kris turned to Pants. “How long has it been since the last sanity inspection?”

Pants sighed. “Ice-E’s Pezza always has the cleanest kitchens always ready to prepare all sorts of meals.” He spitted the words. “That’s all I’m allowed to say”

Berdly’s concern started rising exponentially. “Kris, how likely are we to get food poisoning?”

Pants shook his head. “Listen, the food ain’t dangerous. It sucks, sure, but it ain’t dangerous. We haven’t had food poisoning since-”

“So you’ve had food poisoning?” Berdly worried.

“Since a few years before I started working here”

“Hey Berdly, it’s not that terrible. You aren’t going to die for eating here, if you’re unsure order the same as I”

Berdly nodded. “Then I’ll take the same as them”

Pants chuckled. “So you come to a pizza place to have burgers?”

“We could go to QC's,” Kris teased. “Although that’s more expensive”

“Cool” Pants said as he walked to the kitchen. “ TWO BURGERS! ” He shouted before leaving with two cokes. “Here you go!” He handed them to Kris and Berdly. “Mind if I sit here?”

“Sure,” Kris replied.

Pants sat next to Kris and started nervously tapping his fingers on the table.

“Is this place usually this empty?” Berdly wondered. “A tuesday at lunch time”

Pants laid his elbow on the table and his head on his hand. “Yeah”

“How haven’t you closed yet?”

“Pizza delivery. Very popular. Now my turn: How is it that you, who I’ve never seen in my life, is now hanging out with my little buddy at this angel’s forsaken establishment?”

Kris chuckled. “Because you don’t really know my friends, dumbass”

Pants started counting on his fingers. “That reindeer girl, Catty’s little sister…”

“I don’t even hang out with Catti anymore. Now my question, how are you doing with your girlfriend? ”

Pants looked sad. “Oh little buddy, you aren’t going to believe this little buddy. I got catfished”

Kris tried to look surprised, as they brought their hand to their mouth. “No way” they muttered.

“Yeah little buddy, I also can’t believe it. She looked so hot, just look at her!” He said as he showed them that incredibly blurry and pixelated picture. “We could’ve been everything!”

“How did you find out?”

Pants shook his head slowly. “She tried to convince me to visit her outside of the country-”

Berdly chuckled. “ Outside the country? ”

Pants gnarled. “You don’t get it, chick! Love comes in many ways! But anyway, she really wanted me to buy those plane tickets to Pakistan, and I was too broke for that”

“So sad”

“I know little buddy. I told Azzy and… Guess fucking what?”

“What?”

Pants opened his web browser and typed some keywords into the search bar. ‘Blurry pixelated image of a hot babe’. The first image that appeared was exactly the one that Pants had shown them earlier. “Can you believe this? I… I’m so heartbroken little budy, I can’t believe someone would just… Go to the internet and tell lies”

“Very sad, indeed” Berdly muttered.

“At least Azzy is back in town” he told himself. “Anyways little buddy, how is your love life going?”

Both Kris and Berdly chuckled nervously.

“I see” Pants started nodding smuggly. “So you aren’t just classmates, huh?”

“Yes we are- I mean, no we- I mean-” Kris started panicking.

“We are friends,” Berdly said. “Hanging out after class”

“Yeah”

Pants nodded slowly. “Suuure”

As they left the pezzeria, two familiar monsters left QC’s. “Susie?” Kris wondered as they saw the purple dragon close the door.

“Kris?” She greeted them equally as confused.

“What are you two doing here?” Noelle wondered.

“What are you two doing here?” Berdly asked.

“We are dating, dumbass, ” Susie replied. “And you two?”

Oh my god they were definitely on a date right?

“Let’s say we’re just hanging out,” Kris replied. “Anyways, we’ve got stuff to do if you don’t mind”

“Yeah, I should also go… visit dad” Noelle muttered.

The four of them started walking down the street on the way to the hospital.

“Anyways, bye! See you tomorrow!” Noelle waved goodbye at them as she entered through the door.

“You ain’t going with her?” Kris wondered.

Susie shrugged. “Nah, today is…” she left the sentence hanging in the air. “Her mom’s also visiting and she doesn’t like me”

“You think she’ll give her more trouble?”

Susie snorted. “I mean, she knows… I’m pretty sure she has at least guessed we’re dating, but…”

Kris nodded. “Yeah, she’s a bitch”

Susie nodded. “I swear she’s such a bitch”

Berdly noticed that Susie had kept walking with them towards the school building. “Aren’t you going home, Susie?”

Susie chuckled. “I’m already going home”

They kept walking in silence until they reached the school building. They entered not before checking their surroundings (as if no one was allowed to stay in the building after class) and walked down the hallway towards the dark world.

Before opening the closet, Susie looked to the sides to make sure no one was watching. And then they entered. And they fell. And fell. And fell. And-

“Hello!” Ralsei greeted the group. “It’s been a while since I last saw you, Berdly!”

Berdly stood up from the floor. “Greetings, Ralsei”

“Congrats on your transition!”

Berdly nodded as Susie started walking towards Castle Town in silence. She seemed tired.

Kris, Berdly and Ralsei walked behind her, giving her some space.

“Ralsei… Can I ask you a question?” Berdly wondered.

“Sure!”

“Is Susie… Living here?”

Kris snorted. Ralsei seemed to think about the answer. “Well, she has certainly been spending here a lot of time, and she has also been sleeping here for a bunch of nights”

Berdly couldn’t help but feel bad for her. She really really must have a good reason to just… avoid her home like that. “Do you know if…”

“Berdly” Kris called her. “You don’t have to worry, there’s not much you can do to help”

Berdly sighed. “Alright”

Chapter Text

“Aaand done!”

Berdly finally looked at the mirror. And there she was. Her mom was truly a makeup artist. “Wow…”

Berdly’s mom smiled. “That’ll be 25$”

What? She didn’t have that money…

“That was a joke, ” her mom announced.

Berdly sighed. “You got me right there”

Her mom placed her hands on her daughter’s shoulders and looked at her reflection in the mirror. “You’re going to be the prettiest girl at the dance”

“Definitely not”

“Well, you’re going to be the prettiest bird at the dance”

Berdly was about to say that she would be the only bird, but she refrained from doing so. She knew that she certainly looked pretty. She would just… Admire her reflection.

“Wait a moment wait a-” Berdly’s mom suddenly realized she had forgotten the lipstick. She grabbed it from the furniture and carefully but quickly applied it on her daughter’s beak. “Now we’re done for real”

“Thanks mom”

Berdly stood up from the chair and left the bathroom accompanied by her mom.

As they entered the living room, she noticed a violet purse over the table which she certainly had never seen her mom use.

“And… Berdly” Berdly’s mom grabbed it and gave it to her daughter. “This is yours”

Berdly held the purse in her hands. It matched with her violet dress. It actually matched pretty nicely.

“Th-thanks”

“Aren’t you going to open it?”

Oh right. Berdly opened the purse. Pretty spacious, although already packed with things. Her wallet, a phone charger, tissues, some wet wipes, a spray… “What’s this?” she asked as she pulled out a small tube.

“That’s for…” Berdly’s mom didn’t really know how to explain it. “You know, beaks can… harm lips?”

“No…”

“Anyways, if you’re going to… Kiss your… humanfriend? Put some of that in your beak to make it easier”

That made sense. “Oh” was all that Berdly replied. “Although honestly…” as Berdly stored the tube inside her purse, she found a squared envelope with a… Relatively well known logo on it. “Condoms? ”

Berdly’s mom chuckled nervously. “Just in case you and your date…”

Berdly sighed. “Mom, we aren’t even dating ”

Berdly’s mom nodded slowly. “Suuuure. Anyways, in case you two want to do something, please be careful and- You can take them home, alright? You could… catch something in some dirty bathroom or-”

“ Mom, don’t worry about it”

“Alright alright just… take care okay?”

“Sure, mom”

Berdly was about to open the door, when “And… One last thing”

Berdly turned to her mom, who kissed her forehead with care. “I’m… Proud of you. And I’m sorry if sometimes your dad and I seem distant and… And I’m glad that you are my daughter”

Berdly felt her eyes wet. She was proud of her.

“I have such a pretty daughter…” She caressed her chin. “Do you want me to drive you to school?”

“It’s just a 10 minute walk, you don’t really have to”

“But I want to”

“Sure then”

Berdly opened the car door and jumped outside. “Have fun!” her mom said.

“You too!” Berdly replied without thinking too much about it, and walked towards the football field, where the party was taking place.

The bass sure felt more and more powerful with each step. Whatever Asriel was playing, it sure had a tone of power. She checked her watch as she walked. They had agreed to meet at 19:30, and it was 19:28. She would probably have to wait 2 minutes. Or maybe not, maybe they were already there because their brother was already there. Or maybe they would be late, and those 2 minutes would turn to half an hour. Or-

Thump. Berdly soon realized she had stumbled with a tall skeleton. “Sorry!” She apologized wondering whether she should just run away or wait for the skeleton to acknowledge her apology.

“IT’S OKAY! DON’T WORRY ABOUT IT! I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, AM USED TO PEOPLE STUMBLING WITH MY MIGHTY PRESENCE!”

Well, this is awkward. Berdly felt the stare of the skeleton, as if he was examining her.

"My apologies," Berdly walked away as quickly as possible, hoping that the skeleton wouldn't try to start a conversation or, even worse, try to befriend her.

Kris, Kris, Kris, Kris. She had to find Kris. Where the hell were they? She checked her watch again. 19:32. And they were late. Or were they? Maybe she just was looking in the-

A hand tapped her shoulder. "Sup"

Berdly dropped a small shriek, before turning around and seeing Kris. In an elegant black suit with tie, and a nice knee length black skirt. "You scared me" Berdly complained.

"Nah" Kris replied. "I usually scare Noelle, not you "

"Very funny Kris" Berdly chuckled sarcastically.

The two of them just stared at each other in awkward silence.

"I… uh… I like your outfit" Berdly complimented them as well as she could.

Kris' face felt hot. "Yeah I also uh… like your dress"

More awkward silence.

"Do you want to-"

"Let's walk around," Kris said.

The two besties started walking around the field, not really knowing where to go. They could go to the dancing zone, although they weren't really fond of dancing at that specific moment. Maybe they could go to the snack tables.

They were going to the snack tables.

Berdly held Kris' hand, who shook it away. "Not now, dude. If my mom sees us like this she's going to kill me"

"You don't want her to know we do premarital hand holding?" Berdly joked.

"I don't want her to see me breaking the main rule-"

A screech was heard not too far away from them. "NO PHYSICAL CONTACT ALLOWED! SUSIE AND NOELLE, THIS IS YOUR FIRST STRIKE!" Toriel's voice screamed through a megaphone.

"Oh my god" Kris covered their face in embarrassment.

"Did she just…?"

"Yeah and she also knows our names. We're dead if she sees us"

"NO SUSIE I CAN'T-" Looks like Toriel had forgotten to turn off the device.

The megaphone amplified some violent sounds, as if it was hitting something. Then, Susie's voice. "I just want to say, this is literally 1984. No miss Toriel I'm not-" and the megaphone finally went silent.

"Should we go with them?" Berdly wondered.

"Nope nope nope" Kris noped. "Definitely nope"

The current song faded away, and a new one faded in.

'Oooh you're a loaded gun'

"Bon Jovi?" Berdly wondered. 

"My brother loves Bon Jovi"

'Oooh, there's nowhere to run

No one can save me 

The damage is done'

"SHOT THROUGH THE HEART AND YOU'RE TO BLAME!" Kris shouted along.

'You give love, a bad name (bad name)'

"I PLAY MY PART, AND YOU PLAY YOUR GAME!" Kris gestured to Berdly to join them.

"You give love, a bad name," she guessed.

'Hey you give love…'

"A BAD NAME!" the two yelled.

And the song faded away into a different one.

"Just that?" Berdly was left confused. "Just that part?"

Kris started giggling. "He did it"

"He did what?"

Kris grinned. "He called out mom"

"No way"

"I mean, I'm not sure but…"

Another screech. "YOU TWO! CATTI AND THE SNAKE! USING YOUR SNAKE FRIEND AS A LASSO GOES AGAINST THE RULES!"

"Oh god we need to take away her megaphone don't we?" Kris sighed.

They grabbed Berdly's arm and started running towards the snack's table. "Hold this" they said as they gave Berdly a cup full of soda. "Don't drink it"

"Why?" Berdly asked as Kris filled another cup.

"Just do what I say" they stated as they filled another two cups and grabbed them. "Follow me"

"What are we-"

"We're going on an adventure to defeat the fascist regime known as: my mother. Certainly as dangerous as a dark world"

Berdly obeyed and the two walked looking for Toriel, who wasn't too hard to find since her hawk mask stood above the multitude.

"Hi mom!" Kris greeted Toriel.

"Oh hello Kris! And greetings, Berdly! It is been quite a while since I last saw you. Are you kids having fun?"

Kris nodded. "Yeah mom, lots of fun. Anyway, we thought that you must be soooo thirsty after shouting at those indecent teenagers who just happen to be my friends"

Toriel snorted. "Kris, I am simply doing my job"

"Yeah sure whatever. Anyways, we brought you a cup of soda"

"Oh thank-"

Kris 'tripped' and spilled the soda on the megaphone. "Shit!" They screamed as Toriel grabbed their body to make sure they didn't hit the ground.

"Oh my god are you okay?" Toriel worried.

Kris stood up, cleaning some of the soda from their jacket. "Yeah, thanks mom. But the megaphone…"

Toriel grabbed the megaphone, which leaked soda. She shook it, and it leaked soda. "Do not worry, we can fix it with rice. Oh well, I guess I will not be able to use it during the rest of the night"

"I'm sorry" Kris muttered.

"It is fine, Kris. You two can go have fun!"

Kris and Berdly walked away, until Toriel was no longer in watch distance. “Mission accomplished” Kris celebrated.

“Can I drink now?” Berdly asked, still looking at her soda.

Kris grabbed her cup and took a small sip. Their face showed disgust as they returned it to Berdly. “It’s Pepsi, eugh”

Berdly took a sip. “You don’t like Pepsi?”

Kris cleaned their mouth with their hand. “Don’t you dare telling me you prefer Pepsi to Coke”

Berdly drank from the cup until it was empty. “Does that answer your question?”

Kris chuckled. “I can’t believe you prefer Pepsi to Coke, Berdly. I’m very disappointed” they joked.

Berdly shrugged. “I know, Krismas. With these sort of differences between us, I don’t think we can be friends”

Kris grinned. “Yeah, instead we could be-”

Berdly placed her hand over their mouth. “Not now ”

Kris licked Berdly’s palm, who took it away from their mouth in disgust. “Don’t do that ever again, cool?” they said.

Berdly sighed. “Alright Kris, alright…”

“Wanna go to the dance floor?” They suggested as they held her hands.

“Now we can do premarital hand holding?”

“Now mom can’t shame us in public” they teased her.

The two walked to the dance area, which at the moment was being completely dominated by the skeleton guy from before doing some really sick breakdance and a crowd of people around him.

Not too long after, Catti and Jockington entered the circle and started doing some badass hoola hoop with Catti spinning Jockington around her waist.

Kris and Berdly joined the cheering crowd. They sure seemed to be having fun.

“Wanna try something?” Kris asked Berdly to her ear.

“What do you mean?”

Kris jumped to the circle, joining the skeleton and their classmates, and started doing… The Orange Justice. As soon as Azzy saw his sibling perform the dance, he faded out the current EDM song and played in a hip-hop one.

The focus was on Kris now. Everyone cheered on them. The way they were bending their knees. The way they coordinated their arms and legs. The way they bent their ankles.

And Berdly jumped in, and started dancing it along Kris, with everyone clapping at the rhythm of the music.

‘Needless to say I keep her in check

She was all bad-bad nevertheless

Callin’ it quits now baby I’m a wreck

Crash at my place baby you’re a wreck’

Kris finally got tired of the dance moves, so they went back to the crowd cheering on Berdly. At that moment, only Berdly was the one in the circle.

It was her circle.

‘Then you’re left in the dust

Unless I stuck by ya

You’re a sunflower

I think your love would be too much

Or you’ll be left in the dust

Unless I stuck by ya

You’re the sunflower

You’re the sunflower’

Berdly finally dropped to her knees. She had been doing the same moves for the last minute. And everyone cheered.

Seeing how no one would join the circle, Azzy changed the song to a more slow paced one. The crowd disbanded and Kris went to help Berdly get up.

“Thanks” she said as she stood up.

‘I don’t want a friend’

“I know a place” Kris said as they held her hand.

‘I want my life in two’

Berdly and Kris ran (or walked as fast as possible) through the crowd outside of the football field.

‘Waiting to get there

Waiting for you’

Kris and Berdly started walking towards the school entrance. Although in the distance, the song lyrics were still heard clearly.

‘When I’m around slow dancing in the dark’

Kris and Berdly arrived at one of the school windows, which Kris managed to open without much difficulty.

‘Don’t follow me you’ll end up in my arms’

Kris entered the classroom and offered their hand to Berdly.

‘I don’t need no more signs’

Berdly managed to enter the classroom with Kris’ help.

‘You have made up your mind’

“Where are we going, Kris? We shouldn’t be here”

‘Can you?’

“We shouldn’t be doing many things” Kris said as they closed they walked towards the classroom door.

‘Can you?’

Berdly closed the window and the song stopped being so clearly hearable. Now it was just the muffled bass, and the ground vibrations.

“Let’s go” Kris held the door open for Berdly to pass through, and they left the classroom into the hallway.

“Are we going to Castle Town?” Berdly wondered.

“Nah” Kris said as they walked towards a door that was always closed. Surprisingly, it opened without the need for a key. “We’re going to the attic”

The couple walked upstairs until they found a door which was already locked. Kris pulled out their knife, and without too much work they managed to lockpick the door. “Voilá” they exclaimed as the door opened in front of them.

Azzy had already changed the song again. Although at that height, they could easily just ignore it. Even though the bass was still there, it felt much more peaceful than the field.

“It’s nice in here” Berdly said as Kris guided her towards another door.

“Yeah, it’s very nice” they said as they opened that door, revealing a closet with two folding chairs inside. “And I think there’s another couple here” they muttered as they grabbed one and gave Berdly the other one.

“ Another? ”

Kris clears their throat. “You know, because a couple is two people… A duo”

Berdly snorted and walked with Kris towards one of the borders, the one that instead of facing the field faced the town. And the forest. And the church. And the Town Hall.

They opened the chairs and sat on them, just looking at the distance.

And then Berdly quickly glanced to the side to find Noelle and Susie furiously making out. “Dear Arceus,” she muttered.

Kris looked to the side, and chuckled. “HEY LESBIANS! GO GET AN HOTEL ROOM OR SOMETHING!” they shouted.

Noelle covered her face in the distance in embarrassment, and Susie’s eyes glowing yellow in the dark. “FUCK YOU KRIS!” She gave them a middle finger.

“THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE?” Kris asked.

“THE FUCK DO YOU THINK WE’RE DOING HERE? SHE TOOK ME HERE YOU IDIOT!”

Berdly touched Kris’ shoulder. “Kris, how about we just leave them alone and pretend we’re also alone?”

Kris nodded. “OKAY HOW ABOUT WE ACT AS IF YOU WEREN’T HERE AND YOU ACT AS IF WE WEREN’T HERE?”

Noelle took away the hands from her face, and prepared them to shout, revealing her red nose that could very well work as an emergency light. “THAT’S A GOOD IDEA KRIS!” she shouted right before going back to work with Susie.

Berdly and Kris looked again at the distance.

And that silence sure felt awkward now that they knew their best friends were making out approximately thirty meters away from them.

“SO!” Kris tried to break the awkward silence. “How is it going?”

Berdly shrugged. “How did you know of this place?”

“Azzy, Noelle and I used to come up here during summer to see shooting stars. Mom always had the keys, but if someone asked we had stolen them”

“Wow”

Kris chuckled. “Yeah. Who would’ve said this school actually has something worthwhile”

“What about Castle Town?”

“That ain’t part of the school, is it?” Kris wondered. “That’s… It’s weird but it’s not school”

Berdly nodded. “Yeah”

“You know why I’ve taken you here, right?”

“To spend some time alone?”

“Right”

“I… I wanna tell you something” Kris finally confessed.

Berdly felt her heart flutter. I also wanna tell you something.

“You know, it’s… Fuck”

“I mean, I’m not sure if you really know because if you knew-”

“If I knew what?” Berdly asked.

“Berdly how about we stop acting?”

Berdly chuckled. “I mean it’s kinda dumb”

Kris sighed. “So we say it at the count of three?”

“Sure”

“One”

“Two”

“Thr-”

“This is definitely a date,” Berdly admitted.

“We are definitely a couple,” Kris confessed.

They both giggled. “So that was it?” Berdly wondered.

“Pretty simple, right?” Kris said.

“Is this the part where we kiss?” Berdly asked.

“This is the part where we confess our feelings I think”

“Shouldn’t we have done that before?”

“Before what?”

“Admitting we are on a date?”

Kris scratched their neck. “Uh… Sure”

Kris took a deep breath. “You know, it’s… Certainly been a ride. Getting to know you”

Berdly chuckled. “It’s kinda funny, we’ve known each other for so long…”

“And yet we knew each other so little”

“You and Noelle have been my only friends for so long,” Berdly confessed. “I’ve always felt a bit jealous of Noelle, because she knew you better than I did”

Kris chuckled. “And I was a bit jealous of you, because I distanced from Noelle and she got closer to you”

“It’s… Pretty wild” Berdly said. “After the Cyber World…”

“Yeah”

“I mean, aside from… The phenomenon of dark worlds and everything, they have pulled us closer”

“Oh definitely. If Susie and I had never gone to grab that chalk, then…” they held Berdly’s hand. “None of this would’ve happened”

“And… It’s been pretty nice to… Help you” Kris stated. “I mean, and it also made you more interesting”

“Hey!” Berdly protested jokingly. “I was very interesting previously!”

“I mean, one was a ‘cishet nerdy guy’ and the other one is a queer nerdy trans girl. I’m sorry but as you can probably guess-” They gestured throughout their body, remarking their outfit. “I’m going to choose the queerer one”

Berdly chuckled. “Being queer sure feels…”

“Liberating” they finished her sentence.

“You know, Kris? I’ve always felt like a loser my whole life” Berdly started opening up. “I’ve had to earn the… love, of my parents. I’ve never really had friends. I’ve never felt like I belonged anywhere, like a pest that everyone just wanted to shut up”

“I mean, you certainly get annoying sometimes,” they pointed out.

“Kris…”

“And I love that”

Berdly chuckled. “I’ve… always felt wrong. Like I didn’t really deserve anything. My good grades? All the merit was actually Noelle’s. My job at the library? Because my dad pulled some strings”

Kris laid back on their chair. “I mean, you certainly aren’t stupid. You know that, right?”

Berdly smirked. “I know because you say so. And then… When Noelle came out to me, the first thing I did was google it up. Transgender. And then I felt like crap and literally erased that thought from my mind because I should’ve known earlier and because I didn’t I couldn’t be trans ”

“You’re pretty valid, honestly” Kris snorted. “And I mean… You’re 16. We’re still basically big children”

“That’s true”

“ Teens Are Merely Big Children. And Adults Are Even Bigger Children ”

“You got that from QUEEN?” Berdly chuckled.

“Yeah”

“And they said AI was stupid”

“I mean, QUEEN isn’t an AI, she’s…”

“Nothing in the dark worlds makes sense”

“Definitely not”

“Anyways Kris… The point is… All my life I’ve felt like a burden. A misfortune”

“I get it”

“And now it’s like…”

“Like you’ve been blessed by miss fortune?”

“That’s a nice one. Yeah”

“You could say you’re the… Bluebird of miss fortune?”

Berdly cracked a laugh audibly. “Kris, that must be the lamest title drop I’ve ever witnessed”

Kris grinned. “Someone had to do it”

“Suuure”

“Can I ask you a stupid question?”

“There are no stupid questions, Berdly. Except when asking what goes first, if the cereal of the milk”

Berdly smiled. “That’s a discussion for another moment. Anyways… What are we, Kris?”

Kris shrugged. “Didn’t we just agree on being a couple?”

“Yeah but… Are we… Boyfriends? Girlfriends? Just a couple? I need something to call you, unless you want me to call you my ‘enbyfriend’ which honestly…”

“Well, I’m certainly not your boyfriend”

“Exactly”

“Nor your girlfriend”

“Right”

“We could be Gal and Pal,” Kris suggested. “You will be my Gal, my Gal, my Gal, my Gal…”

“Gal and Pal, huh?”

“Just a gal and her pal! At least that’s what historians would say”

Berdly chuckled. “Just a gal and her pal…”

And they spent the rest of the night together, under the stars. And their love would remain. Even though it was just a teenage love, volatile, fueled by passion and-

“HEY!” Kris shouts at me. “YOU CAN’T END THE FIC HERE, WE HAVEN’T EVEN KISSED YET!”

You two wanna kiss?

“OH MY GOD WERE YOU SERIOUSLY GOING TO END AN ALMOST 80K WORD FIC WITHOUT US KISSING? WHAT ABOUT THE READERS?” Berdly protests.

Sure. Whatever.

“Anyways, we want to kiss after all, right?” Berdly asked Kris.

“You don’t?” Kris teased Berdly, as they approached her beak.

Berdly placed her hand between her beak and Kris’ face. “Wait a moment, cowperson!” She opened her purse and grabbed the tube her mom had given her. She applied some of the lubricant on her beak, and passed her hand through it to make sure it was working. “Now!”

And Kris and Berdly kissed, under the stars. The two teenagers, sharing their youthful love in that town, which looked so small from that place yet was such a big part of their lives.

And even though they were just a small part, almost non-important in the greatness of the cosmos, they still had each other. And their love would always be bigger than any sort of dark world, otherworldly entity possession or…

The end