Chapter Text
The short walk between the librarby and the hospital is one Noelle has made countless times, but never has it felt as vibrant as today. The birds are singing, flowers are blooming, love is real and nothing could ever go wrong! Noelle’s never felt as plain old happy as this very moment.
Susie!!! Knows!!! She!!! Exists!!! Susie showed up to the librarby to study! With her! Susie has the world’s cutest tail ever, finally confirming Noelle’s long-held hypothesis. Susie threatened her! Finally! And it was just as incredible as she always imagined—with her fangs which oh my GOD they’re—they’re—
They’re just like in her dream.
Noelle takes a glance down the street towards Catti’s house as she crosses. She’ll have to bake that girl like, three dozen cookies to thank her for introducing her to this astral projection stuff. It might have taken months of patience to get it to work, but the results speak for themselves.
Her reflection stares back at her through the glass hospital doors. It sounds impossible, but she thinks looks so different than when she left this morning. More confident, maybe? That’s probably it!
A gentle breeze blows Noelle’s hair into her face, and with it, whatever she thought she saw vanishes. She re-adjusts her hair, smooths out some creases in her skirt, and enters the very familiar lobby.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Lips!” Noelle says, walking up to the receptionist’s counter, sparing a glance at the dusty piano. It brings back memories, back when the Dreemurs came to visit Dess here. “Uhm, is my dad ready for visitors?”
“You know he is, Noelle.” She makes a noise that sounds something like laughter. “I don’t think he’d let us schedule an appointment during your visit if he was actively on fire.”
“T-that sounds like dad!” Noelle laughs, slightly awkwardly, before turning towards the door. Noelle turns back and waves at the other monster. “Thank you, ma’am!”
The stroll down the hallways towards her dad’s wing is, thankfully, quiet. It gives her mind plenty of time to wander. The more Noelle thinks about the way Susie jumped at her, the more she imagines what if Susie had actually closed the distance and—and, well, the list goes on.
Yet somehow, despite finally getting to experience the rush of Susie acknowledging her existence, the main thing Noelle finds herself drawn to is that weird dream. It’s kind of confusing.
Like, Noelle has had good dreams before, duh, but they’ve never stuck with her like this. Usually, she’ll wake up and go along her way. Feeling happy but forgetting all the specifics. With this one, though, Noelle could recall details as if she’d been there. Every intricate plotline, every physical sensation, every emotion: it’s all there, clear as crystal.
Dad’s hospital door arrives quickly though. It’s a pretty small hospital, and the long-term care area is even smaller. Noelle lightly strokes her wrist. If this dream stuff is still on her mind later, she can look into it; right now, all Noelle wants to do is play some RPGs with her dad and tell him all about her day with Susie!
(Or, some of the stuff about Susie, anyways. All that stuff about the fangs is definitely staying private.)
Noelle raises a fist, gently rapping a rhythm on her dad’s door while bouncing on her heels. She knows he’s not being seen by anyone right now, but it still feels nice to give him some sense of privacy.
The voice from the other side responds. “Come back with a warrant, sweetie!”
She sticks her tongue out at him as she pushes through the door. “Hi, dad.”
“So?” He says, pointing towards her backpack, and dropping his voice to a whisper. “You bring… the stuff? The contraband?”
“Wait, am I supposed to be a cop or a dealer?” Noelle gently plops her bag on the chair, admiring the flowers a certain former police chief brought by. She hesitates again for a moment. The Dreemurs—or, the Dreemurs and Asgore, now—sure have been coming up a lot for her recently.
“You could be a crooked cop, honey! Never sell yourself short.” He grunts slightly as speaks, re-adjusting himself to be sitting up in bed.
She laughs as she digs through her backpack. “Thanks for the encouragement, dad. Uhm, but, yeah, I brought it! Just gimme a second…”
Noelle hums a little tune as she sorts past the color-coded spirals and well-worn textbooks, in search of her trusty Nomando Swap. Just as she starts to fear that she’d forgotten it, her fingers grip the console’s carrying case. With a dramatic, “A-ha!” she thrusts it into the air.
“Well, aren’t we in a good mood today!” He laughs a little at her performance, and Noelle can’t help but feel a little silly. “Teasing me back, striking poses. Let your old man in on what’s got you so eager today!”
“Well, uh, nothing in particular,” Noelle says. She gently climbs on to the bed, half-leaning against her dad. It would be nice if these beds were just a bit larger—maybe mom could get some funds set aside for that. The sheets are all old and scratchy, too. They should be made of the same material as that robe she was weari—
No, no they shouldn’t, because how could someone make sheets out of a material that doesn’t exist?
“Nothing in particular?” Her dad asks, providing an excellent segue from the train of thought Noelle promised she’d avoid. “What, you didn’t use my ‘hot piece of work’ advi—”
“SUSIE TALKED TO ME TODAY!”
Noelle’s not sure whether she or her dad is more surprised by her outburst. Instantly she slaps a hand over her burning face, while he seems to be frozen mid-sentence. For a brief second, she’s worried that time has stopped.
A sudden slap to the back alleviates that fear, however. A small squeak escapes her as she jumps a bit, more than a little surprised. She forgets her dad is still so strong, even being cooped up inside these days.
She turns back and stares at him, a small, bashful smile on her face.
The look on his, however, makes her turn even redder. He looks so proud, the way his smile beams and his eyebrows are raised. It’s almost enough to make her cry.
“Look at you, Miss Lady Killer!” he moves his hand up to her shoulder, shaking her slightly. “So, when’s the wedding?”
She sits up stiff, flustering her way through some attempt to correct him. “D-dad! Wha—”
They both devolve into laughter before Noelle can finish her thought; his is loud, jovial, comforting, while hers is quieter, more reserved. They’re nice contrasts, Noelle thinks.
Eventually, though, he starts another one of his coughing fits. It’s awkward, sitting there, waiting for him to finish. But he doesn’t like for her to worry—“I get that enough from the doctors here, kiddo!” he always says.
Like always, however, it passes, and the room drifts back to silence for a moment.
His voice somewhat flatter, he calmly points towards her left hand. “Seriously, though, d’she give you that ring?”
Ring? What ri—
Somehow, there’s a real, physical, actual ring on her finger. How… how she not noticed that? When—where? When and where? How? What?
Noelle slowly raises her hand to her face, eyes transfixed on the mysterious object before her. The rest of the world fades away as she carefully examines it, moving and rotating her hand slowly as to get a better look.
It’s just one of those lollipop rings, the kind with the hard candy on top. The plastic ‘ring’ feels as cheap as one would expect. Its matte silver frame is already bent and scratched in places, and the serial numbers are so poorly etched she doubts anyone could ever read them if they had to.
But the sugary ‘jewel’ on top is strange. It’s cold to the touch, as if it’s straight out of the fridge. Small ice crystals have even formed on it in places.
Where had she gotten this? Noelle definitely didn’t buy any candy today. Mom’s been pushing her to do better at track meets so she can get scholarships and so wants her to stay in shape and ca—
“Hello? Dad to Noelle!”
There’s a hand waving wildly in front of her face—or, another hand, one that doesn’t belong to her. She jolts, the rest of the world coming back in one fell swoop.
Her dad’s eyebrows are furrowed, and while his voice and smile still seem jokey, his eyes send an unspoken ‘you okay?’
“Y-yeah! Uh, uhm,” Noelle blurts out, flailing her hands. “Yeah, she, uh, Susie gave it… to me?” Her voice rises like, three octaves, and Noelle can feel herself starting to sweat to what is, frankly, a gross degree.
His eyes bore into her, deathly serious. Dad’s always been too good at reading her—it’s how he clocked her crush on Susie in the first place. For a moment, Noelle is worried he’ll pry, try to get some answer out of her.
Thankfully, he pats his lap, smiling at her again. Noelle lets out a sigh she didn’t know she had been holding. How would she have even explained that? “Oh yeah dad, I just woke up with this on, who knows where it came from!”
“Well, c’mon!” Her dad sits up taller, looking over Noelle’s shoulder at the unused console. “What part are we on? We’ve gotta kick some dragon ass!”
“Drakes, actually,” Noelle corrects, pressing the power button. She clicks along to the start-up noise with her tongue. “I, uhm, finally beat the dragon chapter last night.”
As she catches her dad up on the story that she’s positive he knows by heart, Noelle’s mind can’t help but wander back to that ring. Seriously, where’d it come from? There’s no way she had it before she fell asleep. It—it was almost like the ring in…
That wasn’t possible. Come on. Grow up, Noelle!
Kris had been there when she woke up. Maybe they slipped it onto her finger, hoping she would lick it and get her tongue stuck to it! Embarrass her in front of Susie! That seems like something they’d do.
Her brain must have just incorporated it into the dream. Of course. That makes sense. Just a silly prank that didn’t work out. Ha-ha, Kris. Joke’s on you, this time!
Besides, this ring is clearly some cheap toy. There’s no way it could let her cast the snow and healing magic she did in her dream. Catti says you need, like, really good crystals to cast even basic spells.
So Noelle lets the 16-bit tunes of 90s JRPGs take her away from that line of thought. The cheesy plot of Dragon Blazers III makes more sense than anything she’s thinking about.
She and her dad take turns reading the dialogue, assigning themselves each a few characters. It’s a tradition started back when she would play on the couch with dad and Dess—and, very rarely, even mom! It was just to help her play when she was still learning to read, but it brings back such good memories. It almost, kind of, feels like they’re back on that couch again, playing Super Racing Kartz!! or Dario Party—though with far less screaming.
Occasionally, when Noelle’s focusing on grinding her party, the conversation starts to drift away. Almost always to a certain reptilian girl.
“So? How’d you woo your fine damsel?” He nudges her with his elbow, more carefully than his earlier slap to the back.
“It wasn’t really wooing or anything, dad. I just gave her some chal—some candy, that Kris told me she likes. They actually, uhm, helped a lot, I think.”
He smiles in a way Noelle can’t quite understand. He looks relieved. “It must be them making up for all those pranks they pulled on you!”
He laughs for a moment and pauses. “They’re a good kid,” he states. His voice is earnest, careful, deliberate.
“Yeah, they really are, I think.” Noelle says. She’s not quite sure what’s gotten into him. “I’ve kind of missed having them around since, y’know, everything. I should probably do something for them, huh?”
“I think they’d like that. I think Ms. Dreemur would like to see you two closer again, too.”
This time, Noelle elbows him. “Sounds like you would too, dad.”
“Bah!” he says, “Me? I’m a crochety old man, sweetheart. I just want them to get off my lawn!”
“Sure, dad. I’ll make sure to have a wifflebat with their name on it.”
“Good! Can’t have them caught up in the lights without me there to drag them out of it.”
Maybe Susie had been right about that dream not needing to be just a dream. Maybe, maybe they could all three adventure together. Susie would leap in front of Noelle to keep her safe, and Noelle would find some way to tend to her wounds, and Kris would—Kris would be her friend, again. That’d be… really nice.
Even if it would mean facing more pranks. Maybe Susie would protect her!
(Her heart flutters a bit at that idea. She’d really really really like that.)
More pressing matters call than romantic fantasies, however. Noelle takes a deep breath, steeling herself as she enters the lair of the fearsome Silver Drake. This is the first time she’s ever actually gotten this far herself.
Normally, she’d hand over the controller, too afraid to let her party wipe; for some reason, Noelle’s always felt guilty when she gets a game over. It’s like she’s let down the characters relying on her!
This time, however, she feels confident. She can do this, all by herself! Just, uh, with a little advice from dad. It’s still on her own, though! As she navigates through the inventory menu and selects the blaze potion, she makes a mental note to stop by the last village to buy a replacement, afterwards. The cursor blinks next to the item, and Noelle prepares for the massive damage she’ll inflict as she presses the A button.
A big, fat, pixelated zero pops up over the beast; instead, her party is left barely clinging onto life.
Right. Silver Drakes reflect fire. Why!? They’re not even red! They’re silver! They should reflect, like, snow or something! And without a healer, there’s no way—
Noelle shakes her head. She knows where thinking like this leads. There’s no point in focusing on an impossible wish.
“If only she were still a healer,” her brain says.
Ugh, another reminder of a made-up fantasy. And—and she’s saying something like that loud, isn’t she? And now she’s talking about mom, and she knows It’s hard for dad to hear how her and mom’s relationship is strained.
There’s an awkward silence. Even without looking back up, Noelle can feel her dad tense up, his ever-present smile falter, a slight sigh. Her body feels heavy, drooping downward.
It passes quickly, just like the handful of other times Noelle’s accidentally brought this stuff up. He pats her back again, far more gently, and reassures her he’s getting better, that he’ll be good enough for church tomorrow.
He’s said it before and… hasn’t ever actually been able to, but for some reason it still does the trick. Noelle relaxes, some tension that she wasn’t aware she had been carrying leaves her body. How could she feel bad after dad’s corny family catchphrase?
She exits to the home menu. As much as it sucks to leave after such a downer, it’s past time to go. Mom might even be back by now, which is already way past where Noelle wants to push it. The consequences of taking a nap, she supposes.
Noelle hops back to her hooves, stretching her back slightly before bending over and grabbing her bag. Despite the ending, it had been nice getting tell her dad about—
“SUSIE!?!” Noelle shrieks, “WHY ARE YOU HERE!?!”
Susie is in the hospital room, why is Susie in the hospital room? The hospital room with her dad, and the hospital room Noelle is currently standing in, where Susie is also standing? That’s the hospital room that Susie is in and how did she even know to come—
Kris.
What’s up with them!? Why do they keep trying to embarrass her in front of Susie? If they’re trying to play winghuman then she wishes they’d do a better job at it! How’s setting her up to freeze her tongue and introducing her hopefully-one-day-girlfriend to her dad helpful?!
Her legs feel like jelly, and she might actually be trembling right now. It looks like her dad is joking though? So… that’s… good? Right?
Okay. She needs to be polite to prove to Susie she can be a good girlfrie—to show that she is a nice person, that’s all. A person who is totally platonic and normal and not head over hooves and doesn’t fantasize about Susie at night. She’s normal! Noelle is the definition of normal!
“Ummm… dad… this is… umm, Susie!” Noelle’s hands are firmly clutching her skirt. She’s pretty sure the only thing keeping her from collapsing to the floor is focusing on the texture of the fabric between her fingers.
“Ohhh,” her dad drawls, and Noelle’s knees buckle for a second, threatening to collapse under this new factor. Introductions were a mistake, a huge mistake, because now her dad is absolutely going to—to do something, and she doesn’t know which is very scary. “This is Susie!”
Out of the corner of her eyes, Noelle sees him wink back at her. Her dad just winked at her, oh my god, he’s not going to try to be a wingman, is he? She doesn’t need a second one, Kris is already more than enough!
“Susie! Nice! Heard a lot about you!”
Oh my God he is.
“You, uh… have??”
Oh my God he did.
Her heart is about to beat out of her chest, it’s going to explode, and then her brain will explode, and—and if that happens, would Susie give her mouth to mouth?
No, no, she doesn’t want that in front of her dad, and if her heart and brain exploded then there’d probably be no point to mouth-to-mouth anyways. Also they’re in a hospital, it would definitely be a nurse or someone. That plan is quickly tossed aside in favor of something a bit simpler:
“COOL, THINK I HAVE TO GO NOW!!!”
Noelle shoves her way pass Kris, trying to shoot her attempt at a death glare at them as she does so. But given how flustered she is sure she looks, it probably comes off more as, “Please don’t let my dad show her any baby photos,” which is an acceptable alternative.
She sprints through the lobby in a flash, taking a mental note to apologize to the receptionist lady tomorrow. Even the warmth of the setting sun is nothing against her burning face, so red that she’s slightly worried cars will confuse her for a stop sign and cause another traffic jam.
Her hooves carry her faster than she’s ever gone before, concrete and asphalt flying underfoot, wind flowing through her hair. It’s not until Noelle is outside the gate home that she stops, leaning against one of the nearby trees for support. Her breathing is ragged—why is she so exhausted?? Noelle’s run way longer distances for track before.
Actually, why is her body so sore in places? They’re—they’re the exact same places that she was hit in the—
Whatever—whatever, it doesn’t matter! It doesn’t matter right now! There’s so much more important stuff that just happened! Susie! In the hospital! Why! Why! Why!?
Oh God, that happened, that really happened. She lightly slaps herself on both sides of her face to make sure yes, she is actually really awake this time, and that her facial features aren’t melting into goop quite yet. It suddenly dawns on her that abandoning ship and leaving those three together was maybe not the best choice.
But there’s no way she’s going back in there!
Unless, like, Susie asked her to go back. Other than that, no way. Right now, the only thing Noelle’s mind is to bury her head under her pillow and scream for like, an hour, maybe two. That’s all.
She re-adjusts her hair for the millionth time today, moving the pieces that had caught on her antlers. If Noelle had known she was gong to run so much today, she would’ve tied her hair back! God—God, this is crazy, her heart is beating so fast.
Okay, breathing exercises, calm down—hand over heart, deep breath, hand over heart, deep breath, hand over hear—OW!
There—there’s something sharp? On her chest? Noelle looks down at her hand once again to find a nasty papercut, blood already starting to redden her palm. But the only thing on her chest is her normal vest and a…
A circular sticker, right on her vest. The design is…bizarre. A dated Red Gala computer smiles back at her, in all its translucent teal glory. On its monitor is three red ampersands and a white parenthesis, turned sideways to look almost like a smile. Stuck inside the ‘eyes’ is a marionette puppet—like the one from that one horror movie Dess liked. His puppet strings are all tangled up around him. Written around the edges is, “ONLY YOU CAN PREVENT SPAM EMAILS!”
Geez, how old is this thing? The colors all look yellowed, and the font looks like something from one of those dated anti-drug PSAs that Ms. Alphys had to show them. Plus, how can you prevent spam emails!? You’re not the one sending them!
Whoever printed it must have been super cheap, too. The sticker feels grainy to the touch, like sandpaper. Its’s even pointy in some places, which is remarkable for a completely round and flat shape.
No, no, no wait—no that computer, it—it looks just like the Queen and—and it’s in the same place where that pin she gave her was—that’s, that’s—that’s, how? What?
Noelle feels her breath start to hitch, panic setting in. There’s a rational explanation for this, she’s sure. Maybe, maybe some nostalgic librarian left this sticker out, and when she fell asleep, it stuck to her jacket. Maybe she caught a glimpse of it before she fell asleep, and it was incorporated into the dream. It’s fine. It’s all okay. There’s no, no secret dream world, and Noelle definitely didn’t say all that stuff to Susie, and she isn’t going crazy.
So there. All coincidence! No need to keep this silly thing around. Noelle rips off the sticker without a care!
… before placing it on the back of her Nomando Swap, joining the sticker collage.
It’s retro! Who would throw away a perfectly good sticker? It might clash with the rest of her cute, wintery stickers, but isn’t that kind of an aesthetic, too?
Keeping her injured hand curled tightly into a fist, Noelle digs through her backpack and pulls out the gate key. She shakes her head for what must be the billionth time today. Why do these thoughts keep coming back? They’re not bad thoughts, just… weird. Why does she keep thinking some weird, techno-fantasy world exists?
She’ll… just look into lucid dreaming tonight. To make sure. That’ll settle her mind. And maybe—maybe to try going back there. As a test. That’s all.