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It was a pretty quiet night in Holiday Manor. Carol and Rudy had almost certainly gone to sleep by this hour, which left only the hushed murmurs of the children camped out in Dess’s room as the midnight ambience. Asriel was just around the age where his overprotective mother was finally allowing him to go to sleepovers unsupervised. Much to Kris and Dess’s chagrin, though, he decided to have one tonight at Pizzapants’s apartment. This left Kris to sleep all alone at home, something they weren’t very fond of… After much begging, Toriel and Asgore decided that they’d call up the Holidays to set up an impromptu sleepover. This was accepted by Carol on the condition that Dess would stay up and watch them responsibly like the big older sister she was supposed to be, which was accepted by Dess only on the condition that she would be able to hang out in her own room. Such bureaucracy boggled Kris’s 7 year old mind. A few times before, they had tried to go to the Holiday house on their own, but only succeeded in sending Toriel into a frenzy over her missing child who was literally one house away.
Dess’s PC monitor flashed and flickered with iridescent confetti from the movie they were watching. Dess truantly leaned against the edge of her bed lined with spare heart cushions plundered from the nearby hallway. Noelle and Kris were hesitant to take them considering how possessive of her belongings she had proved to be in the past, but Dess assuaged their fears by assuring them that she’d take the blame if Carol went ‘all snowstorm’ on them. “Heh, I’m in the doghouse so often already, it's a shock she's not making me sleep outside,” she whispered while ruffling the two little ones’ heads.
A spare blanket was sprawled underneath the three of them, though both Kris and Noelle were nestled under Dess’s arms. “Pff, glad I have two dorks for space heaters”, she teased as they huddled up to her. Half-empty chip bags and bowls of microwave popcorn littered the spaces beside their feet on the blanket. Kris was alert in Dess’s embrace, watching the horror movie Dess had picked out with intent and awe while they fidgeted with one of her pocket knives. Noelle, however, had her face buried in Dess’s flannel, only sneaking peaks at the movie out of morbid curiosity. It was a cozy, claustrophobic warmth, and some part of Dess felt satisfied keeping the both of them snuggled close to her. That was part of why she chose a scary movie: her little sister was annoying, but she was pretty cute clinging to Dess for comfort. It was a private feeling that she was allowed to indulge herself in, even though…
Dess nodded her head back a bit, snout jabbing skyward as her eyes traced the lights bouncing across her ceiling. This was not how she wanted tonight to go. She wanted to be with her newly secret boyfriend, to spend a night alone with him while her parents weren’t looking and while Kris and Noelle were busy doing their own thing. She wanted to practice kissing him again, and maybe even tease him to go further this time to sate her newly found hormonal craving for all things sex. She smirked imagining his hypothetical face blushing under all that white fuzz at the idea of herself pushing his hand under her bra.
“Heh, what's the problem, Dweeburr? Afraid your mom’s gonna flip out again?” she would say with a wry smile on her face, watching Asriel stutter in an attempt to contain himself.
She throbbed in her pants just thinking about it. There was a twinge of guilt, of being so flagrantly horny while next to her little sister and someone who may as well be her little sibling, but that only made her more guiltily excited at breaking a rule. Sex was always about breaking the rules, even before she knew what it was. Before Kris and Noelle were around, Dess used to flash Asriel like it was nothing, only understanding that it pissed her mom off. One Christmas she got a PC, and then it was really about breaking the rules. Just after she started to understand what sex was from the Internet, she started to learn to erase her tracks in case of an impromptu Internet history search.
While Dess sat impotently in boredom unbeknownst to them, Kris and Noelle both continued to watch the movie with fervor. Even Noelle could enjoy breaking the rules and watching something her parents wouldn’t let her if Dess was helping her out. She had pecked at the snacks every now and then, too frightened to really leave the comfort of Dess’s arms. Besides, Kris was the one with the real appetite. It was a tranquil feeling, being so close to the warmth of her big sister. The movie was scary, but Dess held her close in spite of her usual annoyance toward her little sister. She was always like that, coming through when she actually needed comfort, and pushing her out of her comfort zone when she needed it. It was a feeling beyond her 7 year old range to adequately describe, something more potent than the familial bond that her mother often tried to impress upon her so greatly. She always wanted to like Dess, even when Dess was yelling at her to get out of her room or leave her alone. Dess turned into a girl before her very eyes, which gave Noelle the courage to transition even earlier. It was all thanks to her. Dess was the one that she went to when she needed to tell a secret or to get out of trouble or cry. She wondered if Dess felt similarly.
As the movie started coming to a close, Kris’s mind drifted off to thoughts of how cool the girl next to them was when compared to everyone else. Being a fellow mischief maker, they had always held a sort of admiration for her as someone who didn’t care much for rules she saw as dumb. She was an outcast like they were too, being the obviously less liked daughter (a fact that Toriel scolded them about when they absentmindedly brought it up one time). Despite all her angst, she always managed to treat Kris with a font of tenderness that she only usually reserved for Noelle in private. Their mind traveled to an earlier memory, a nondescript blurb dislodged from temporal memory in a way that couldn’t properly be placed in the mental timeline of their life. Some prank which went awry that involved red spaghetti sauce to look like blood. The details of the mishap were fuzzy, as the most important part of the memory overshadowed them. Their little hands shaking in fear of parental retribution, trying to wipe away their tears as their voice shallowly mumbled “I… I didn’t mean to scare her that badly, it was just a joke…” The faded image of Dess appearing over them, embracing them in a warm hug. “It’s alright Kris, it’s gonna be okay. I’ll take the blame, it doesn’t matter to me.” There was a month of ensuing guilt over Dess being grounded, but when they saw her again in an attempt to apologize, their teary face was only met with a smirk from the older girl. “Really, I should be thanking you for such an awesome prank to take credit for. Cheer up, dork. I’ve been through worse, y'know."
Credits marched across Dess’s monitor as everyone collectively began to stretch. The ending ‘BLOOD CRUSHERS 3’ title lit the room ablaze with white and red light. Dess stood high on her hooves, reaching her arms’ full length above her to barely touch some of the decorations she hung from her ceiling. She relaxed her posture after a few seconds, no doubt realizing she was still at half-mast. “Well, at least they wouldn’t know what it meant even if they noticed. I gotta make some excuse and go rub one out in the bathroom before the next movie,” her mind schemed to herself. She peered down at the little ones, taking stock of her movie marathon companions. Kris was still fiddling around with the knife, and Noelle was scarfing down the last of the popcorn. Neither seemed tired, which meant that she probably wasn’t gonna get any time to herself in the next few hours, so the necessity for a bathroom break to relieve herself was mentally redoubled. Her shoulders slumped slightly in annoyance, but straightened back out soon thereafter. It didn’t seem fair for her to hold it against them. “Alriiiight, so next movie, what are we thinking? More scary movies? Anime? Comedy?”
“W-wait, but I thought mom said that we couldn’t stay up past twelve…” Noelle trailed off somberly as Kris inquisitively nodded.
“Well I mean…” Dess’s speech stumbled. This was her out, her way to get alone time she wanted and take care of herself. But as she looked from Noelle's face to Kris, she detected a subtle desperation. Neither of them wanted the party to be over, neither wanted to go to bed just yet. She could easily stamp her foot down and end things right now, but the thought of siding with her mother on something like this disgusted her somewhat. Besides, as much of a bitch as she could be, she didn’t think she had it in her to ruin the fun. Some part of her was pissed at herself, always being endlessly generous about things like this for these two at her own detriment. There was, however, another part of herself that was curious to make things go on longer. A stronger part of herself. A scheming part of herself. The warmth in her pants began to throb again, betraying a much needed repression that she was always seemingly using to keep herself in check. She sighed, “Neither of you are tired, right? Who cares about mom’s rules, this is our sleepover. So what do you guys wanna watch?”
The two kids seemed relieved as they began to delve into their respective suggestions. It amounted to a stalemate, Noelle’s ‘Cat Petterz the RPG: The Movie’ versus Kris’s ‘Dragon Blazers the Anime: The Movie’. Dess had to stifle a bemused snort at these dorky kids and their video games. It was a pretty heated debate between the two, with Kris trying to emphasize how cool and mature Dragon Blazers the Anime was compared to anything involving Cat Petterz. Noelle made a verbal rebuttal via insistence that Cat Petterz was actually ‘super dark if you're paying attention’ and ‘way more thematically complex’ than Dragon Blazers. The both of them gave Dess a sidelong pleading glance, an expression that to a stranger could be mistaken for two kids looking for an authority figure to settle an argument. Dess, however, was no stranger to these two, and saw past the superficial explanation within a few seconds. “Oh my god,” the recognition hit her, “They’re trying to make these dumb movies sound appealing to me specifically.” A sudden hit of self awareness for how they thought of her. She could never state aloud her secret appreciation for their adorable antics. Her face flushed pink under her own dark fuzz.
Her molars bit back her lip in an attempt to stave off the direction her mind wandered in, but it was not enough. A feeling of power coursed through her body like a nervous jolt of electricity. The direction was far, far off in the distance. A place shrouded in fog and clashing waves. Only troubled waters stewed there, but some morbid curiosity compelled her to pursue the wind pushing her further. Just another rule to break. It could be fun. “Well don’t look at me,” she scoffed nonchalantly, “I couldn’t care less which one we watch. But… If you two really can’t decide, then let’s play a game. Whoever impresses me most gets to pick the movie.”
The two stared at her pensively. Noelle had a slight pout on her face, as though leaving it up to a competition was worse chances than her suggestion not being favored by her older sister to begin with. This, however, was not going to be the average competition. Dess's melting heart and fiery desire ensured that. Neither of them were going to end up unfairly favored, because the game she had in mind only truly favored herself. It was a charade- a prank, even. Like the silly doujins she frequented online, just an excuse for the real show to happen. It was too late for the selfless self-hate which barred her from such an idea usually, as adrenaline worked its way into her body. Pulsing. “I can’t believe I’m about to do this. This is so fucked up,” a voice as scared as it was excited pleaded with her.
“Wh-what kind of game?” Noelle asked apprehensively, “Every time we end up playing a game to win something, Kris just cheats and you pick them anyway…” There was an almost imperceptible pout, as though she were trying to hide her emotions which were so nakedly on display to someone familiar to her. Dess blushed again, unable to mentally disregard how cute she thought it was.
Cool and collected as ever, she reached down to ruffle her little sister's hair in a fashion just rough enough to make her slightly squeak. “Ughhh it’s just like the fuckin’ hentai I read,” the lascivious voice in her head chimed in again, growing more eager. Dess crouched down on the blanket again, nearly leveling herself to them. “Ehh c’mon Elly, like I said, I don’t really care which one we watch. Promise I’ll be fair.”
“What type of game is it, though?” Kris reiterated Noelle’s question, both curious as ever and determined to win whatever the competition was.
“Well…” Dess started, careful to keep her voice under control and maintain her aloof persona. “Have you two ever had your first kiss?” Her heart was racing. No going back now.
She could see both of them taken aback by the question in their own unique ways. Kris’s face was a mixture of quizzicalness and incredulity, while Noelle’s lit up with her own shocked blush. Neither really knew why she was asking yet. Dess knew the answer to the question, of course. She figured Kris and Noelle might have already had their own exploratory ideatic thing, daydreaming about getting married or being the festival king and queen. Normal stuff that kids in close proximity to one another do all the time, just consequenceless role playing. They were young enough to fantasize about that stuff without considering things like lust and love, feelings which had yet to truly differentiate themselves from all other libidinal desires via future superegoic development. So the answer was no, they hadn't. Pretending she didn’t know all this and yet also still held secrets from them was part of the game, though. It had already begun.
Elly’s expression crooked up, not sure what to expect upon giving her answer. Eventually she choked out the words, “Umm… I-I don’t think we're old enough for that… Mom would be really upset if I did anything like that.” Kris nodded cautiously in concurrence.
“Heh, it’s a good thing mom’s all asleep then, hm? Seriously though, you two never kissed anyone before? Not even once???” Her feigned shock was enough for the kids to believe.
“I mean… Mom’s kissed me before, but I thought that didn’t count since she's family.” Kris mumbled as Noelle incredulously nodded this time. Dess thought it was nice to see them agreeing over something for once.
“Man… That’s a shocker. When I was your age, I already had my first kiss.” It wasn’t entirely a bluff: when she was 7, she stole a kiss or two from Asriel. Her mother was so incensed that she made Dess wash her mouth out with soap for a whole week. Yuck. Still, she felt that this statement was cutting it a little too close too soon. Might be too pushy. If there was still a line into this new territory that she could take without hurting Kris or Noelle, she wanted to walk it. A knife’s edge.
A silence hung in the air as the kids processed it. Dess continued, “It doesn’t matter though. You two should be on equal footing. It’ll be an easy game, you’ll see. The rules are simple: each of you gives me a kiss and then the one I like better gets to choose the movie.” Her tone was matter of fact, as though it were any other silly game. Maybe she even believed it was at this point. She could make it like that… It’d be fine… She studied their reactions. Kris was as stonefaced as they usually were, but Dess could still see what they were thinking. An element of incredulity had remained, but a fire was lit in the back of their eyes. They probably thought it was still a joke, but were ready to take it seriously if it wasn’t. She detected no such scepticism in Noelle, always unable to tell what was and wasn’t a joke. Still, there was hesitance present.
“S-stop messing around, Dess. Just tell us what you want!” Noelle impotently erred on the probability of it being a joke, but only likely out of anxiety at the possibility of doing something which might get her in trouble. She looked to Kris for assurance, but upon receiving none from them she tried to bargain. “Shes not even being serious, Kris. She’s just teasing us for being little.”
“Ellyyyy, relaaax. Maybe I make fun of you sometimes but like… Don’t you wanna do something crazy for once. I’m being serious, and I know you’ve probably at least thought of trying to kiss someone.” She watched as Noelle darted her eyes away at that last bit. “That’s right,” Dess thought, “Make this about them and what they want. It won’t hurt them if it’s what they want, too. It couldn’t. I’m not forcing them or anything.”
“B-but, I thought… Sisters weren’t supposed to do that kind of thing,” Noelle offered up her last protest meagerly.
“You heard Kris, didn’t you? If it’s just family it doesn’t count. You’ll only get in trouble if mom knows you kissed me.” She put her arm on Noelle's shoulder reassuringly. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t wanna do. It’s up to you.”
Kris muttered tentatively, “So… are we supposed to do it on your cheek… or..?” Always the intrepid one ready to take the first step into trouble. It was endearing. It was also endearing that they genuinely seemed to be asking if she wanted kisses on the lips or something more innocent. She had to stifle a laugh.
In the back of her head, though, she knew that if Kris was gonna try it first, Noelle would follow. Peer pressure, her big weakness… Dess tried to steal herself, “C’mon Dess. Have some faith in your little sister… She’s perfectly capable of deciding what she wants for herself, you haven’t been teaching her to break the rules for no reason. Yeah. Elly is a smart girl. If she wants it, she’ll do it. It’ll be fine, it’s not your fault. Just give her the space to choose for herself.”
She finally answered Kris’s question after an awkward moment of contemplation. “Heh, you already know the answer, dork. On the mouth, let’s be serious here.”
Kris nodded gingerly, as though they really did already know the answer. Then there was a pause, as if all particles around the three of them were suspended in midair. A saccharine dread shared between Kris and their mark. Or maybe it was Dess’s mark. This was what she had been steering everything towards, and yet a kind of horizontal vertigo crept into her as Kris's face began to timidly inch further towards her. No going back now! Too late!!! Her heart was pounding, ready to beat out of her chest and tear free from her body. That nasty compulsion which she had listened to in order to push things this far had won out. What’s just one more rule to break?!
Kris’s lips met hers. They were firm, yet shaking slightly. Determined enough to go this far, but still unsure what to do next. It was a familiar feeling that she remembered experiencing herself. Of wanting to do it, but still reticent to push things too far and mess it up. They were waiting for her to take the lead. Doing so meant she would be making it more about her own desires, but surely pulling away now would leave Kris with the impression that they did something wrong. That it was just another prank they were gonna get in trouble for. And her own heart, wanting what it wanted, decided that it was okay to give in this one time. It was for Kris’s sake, right? She didn’t want to hurt Kris, right?
Dess took the lead. She placed her hand gently on their chin, slightly tilting their head upward from the height difference. It was as though she were kissing any other lover, which she was still inexperienced at. But she was more practiced than they were. She closed her eyes, yet was unable to pretend she was kissing anyone other than Kris. Kris, the adorable little mischief maker next door. Her partner in crime. It was only then that she realized how much she had been wanting them. The feeling guided her lips, tenderly moving them and navigating by touch and lust alone. Surely Kris reciprocated, right? That’s why they responded in turn by mimicking her movements, trying so hard to be cool and mature. They were still shaky, though, and their copies of her actions were amateur. It was as if she could feel solely by touch their desire to impress her on the first try. To get it perfect. The dissonance only made it more charming, and her maw began to open and close further from the electricity. She could hold out no further, entering her tongue into their little mouth. It was met by a slight jolt from Kris, unsure again what they should do. Dess’s hand caressed their head in a lover’s attempt to comfort, and she couldn’t help but smile as they relaxed themself while leaning into her touch. “Such a good kid. They really did want it too, right?” Her tongue intermingled with theirs as they followed her lead, still waiting at her beck and call to follow her further. In that moment, all other worries faded away. She took them with all the grace she had to give.
She pulled away after she was satisfied, opening her eyes to meet the image of Kris’s now wet and sloppy face. They were both huffing and puffing like they had just ran a marathon. May as well have been with how much her heart was still racing. Kris looked somewhat dumbfounded, and yet there was still a pleading about them. They were seeking her approval. It wasn’t time for that yet, as there was still adrenaline in her. She turned to face Noelle with the last of her apprehensions left far behind her. Noelle was covering her mouth in shock, but it was hard to tell if it was in horror.
“Elly, it’s your turn now, c’mon.” She approached the girl as nonthreateningly as she could muster. She placed her arms on Noelle’s wrists, firmly guiding them away from her mouth. There was no resistance, just a compliant nothingness. Frozen in place. Scared. Dess could show her, though. Show her how fun it was. She loved scary things, after all, especially when her big sister was there with her. “I believe in you, Elly. You’re so brave, you can do this… Just trust me, okay?”
She didn’t wait for confirmation before diving in, and she could feel Noelle becoming more frozen under her touch. Dess embraced her little sister warmly, positioning her forearms behind her back. Noelle kept still, barely even shaking. She just let her big sister move her face on hers, falling into the rhythm. After a while, she went limp in Dess’s arms. Her eyes closed, and Dess did so in turn. It wasn’t like kissing a pillow now, but it was still only like she was kissing a mannequin. Dess knew that she just needed to make more progress for Elly to accept it, to let her sister help her through something new and scary. She retained her pace, and she began to slowly and patiently rock her little sister in her arms. Noelle was always rocking back and forth, it was a surefire way to calm her since she was just a baby. Just as planned, she soon went from limp to relaxed. When Dess pushed her way into Noelle’s mouth, she let her big sister in. Dess’s tongue flitted across her colorful braces, exploring them with care instead of pushing past them in disgust. “That’s right, Elly. I love everything about you. Let me show you my love,” her mind trailed off in bliss. When she felt the time was right, she mingled her own tongue with Noelle’s. The little one was not as quick or eager to follow her lead as Kris was, but she eventually began to mirror it in her own time.
An indeterminate amount of time passed before Dess finally pulled her face away from Noelle’s, and a thin trail of saliva remained to connect their tongues together. Dess was soaked all the way through her panties, pulsing with wetness. She gazed into her little sister's eyes at last. They were teary, but not fearful. The hazy look Noelle was giving her was one of dizziness, akin to a drunken stupor. Confused, but not necessarily still upset- or at least she hoped Noelle wasn't upset. Dess embraced her again, and Noelle finally wrapped her arms tightly around her big sister. “You did so well, Elly-bell. I’m so proud of you.”
As they pulled apart again, Kris meekly started, “So… W-who won the game?”
That's right. Dess forgot. This was a game. She took a few seconds to compose herself before saying, “Yeah I dunno, haha. You guys think I could pick just one of you? No way. You both did so well.” The wetness in her pants refused to go away even now. She had to take care of it soon, but this was as far as she was willing to toe the line tonight. The thought of the post-orgasm clarity terrified her, but she needed to touch herself now. “You two uhh… Just play rock paper scissors for it or something. I gotta go piss and then I’ll make some more popcorn, alright? In the meantime you guys can queue up the next movie when you’ve decided.”
She didn’t wait to see their reactions as she practically sprinted out of the door and across the hallway.
-
Dess didn’t know how much longer this was going to take. It had already been 15 minutes. She frantically stroked her dick, working the clear precum from the tip all the way down to her fuzzy sheathe. The bathroom looked like she was suddenly raptured, as her clothes were littered haphazardly around the cold tile floor. The toilet seat dug into her ass, but she barely cared enough to adjust her craning position.
Her free hand scrolled through some sketchy hentai site on her phone, trying desperately to find something suitably nasty to quench her thirst. She was looking through the lolicon tag, and occasionally opening a few that seemed interesting in new tabs. When she had accumulated enough, she began to tab through them, and skimmed the visuals to see if they would be worth reading closer. When she sorted through all of them, she then returned to read them more closely. The ones with good art, the yuri, the ones with little sisters… Her scrolling pace quickened, barely taking in the dialogue or any excuse of a plot these things had to justify sex happening. She grumbled, and her hand kept up its pace. It had probably been another 5 minutes now, which had probably made the kids wonder where she was.
The kids.
Her hardness redoubled at the stray thought of them. The doujins were hot, but something just felt lacking about them when compared with the two who were actually on her mind. Of course these things couldn’t satisfy her, she had just acted out a real life version of them. She dropped her phone, focusing entirely on stroking herself more vigorously. All she could think about was their little moans, their bodies, their mouths. Her mind replayed the memory of herself shoving her tongue into them over and over, and it slowly diverged into realistic images of her doing other things to them. Of shoving something else into them. She imagined Kris’s intimidated face still looking to please her on their knees. She imagined Noelle’s fear fading into sister-driven cockdrunkenness, too disoriented to push away. “I love you. I love you nhhh I love you I love you I love you I love youIloveyouIloveyouIloveyou you filthyfucking sluts I love youuu,” she could barely tell if she was only thinking it at this point, or if she was delusionally whispering to herself. It was a crescendo of sensation and completely unashamed filth. She was so, so, so close now.
-
Dess stared wide-eyed at her wet face in the mirror. How long had it been since she came? She lost track of time again. Surely, she needed to return to Kris and Noelle, but how could she after she, she…
She was right to fear the clarity. She gripped her antlers in frustration, wrenching her head down. There were a few strands of dark fur stuck at the bottom of the sink drain from washing her face with cold water.
“How could you be so stupid?! So careless?! What the fuck is wrong with you, you fucking pedophile!?” The repression which had since returned berated her ten times louder than normal. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I swear I’m so fucking sorry I didn’t mean to hurt you I swear,” she muttered to nobody in particular.
Her mind rounded on her stupid excuses, “You can’t be serious! How could you expect to do that and not hurt them, you fucking pyscho! They’re barely over half your age! Asriel is your outlet for your stupid perversions, you could have just been patient and waited until you saw him next! What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Her hands gripped her antlers tighter as she felt something warm start to trickle down her scalp which then fell to her snout, intermingling with her stream of tears. “You couldn’t fucking ‘walk the knife’s edge’. You passed the edge a long time ago. How are you supposed to face them now?! How?!!”
There was a sudden feeling of excruciating pain, like dislocating a bloody shoulder. Then, she was careening towards the ground, and the edge of the sink rose to punch her right in the snout on her way down.
She clutched her nose in agony as she heard something wooden clank against the bathroom tiles. Her tongue licked up the blood from her nose before it could make her face more of a mess. Eventually the pain started to subside into a dull aching, and she picked up her still naked body from the floor.
She felt painfully lightheaded and disoriented, but Dess started to put her clothes on again. They had grown uncomfortably cold, and her panties were still slick with wetness. It was an uncomfortable reminder of what she had done. They would have to do, though. But before she could put on her tank top and flannel, she noticed something on the ground amongst her clothes.
Speckles of blood stochastically laid on the pristine tile surrounding one of her antlers.
-
Once she felt she had sufficiently cleaned herself and the bathroom (and had tossed her antler in the trash bin), she stood outside of the door to her room feeling rather paralyzed. She needed to apologize to them. To tell them it was wrong of her to do that, that she’s very sorry, and that mom doesn’t need to know. “Then everything will be okay. It has to be.”
Her hand lingered on the doorknob, turning it ever so slowly. Before she went in, she decided to peek in to mentally prepare herself. She froze.
Noelle on top of Kris with her hands wrapped around their limp wrists. They were kissing each other.
She shut the door quietly before they could notice her. “Oh my god, what have I done? What have I fucking done.”
She knew that she couldn’t afford to have another spiral, so she decided to distract herself somehow. She said she was going to make more popcorn, right? That might give her time to cool down before she had to return to them.
-
Noelle leaned back as both she and Kris wiped spit from their mouths. They settled into their seating positions on the blanket again, now more disheveled than it had been before.
“Thanks for letting me try it on you, Kris,” Noelle said. She had regained a more usual chipper tone. Kris nodded kindly as if to say ‘of course, you’re welcome’. Noelle continued, “It was scary when Dess did it to me… So… I guess I just wanted to do it to someone else to see how it felt.”
“Yeah…” Kris replied, “It was kinda scary watching it happen, too. I liked it when you did it to me though, it was kinda fun. Like when we play-fight.”
Noelle nodded back. “Yeah, it was pretty fun trying it on you. Maybe that’s why she did it to me? I’m still afraid about earlier, but I think I feel a bit better now.” Kris smiled and nodded back at her again.
“Do you think we should try it again someti- AAAHHHH!” Noelle was interrupted by Dess bursting in out of nowhere with a plethora of popcorn bags in hand. Surely, if Kris’s eyes weren’t hidden again, everyone would also be able to see them wide-eyed at the surprise.
“Aw, whoops. Sorry for the scare, Elly!” She tossed the popcorn bags down onto the blanket. Before she could flop down onto the blanket between them, she noticed their faces agape in shock. Usually they would have cooled down from a patented sudden Dess Holiday entrance. Her mind began to wander, to worry. “Right. They must both still be upset at me. I have to apologize now. Here goes…”
“Listen, guys… I just…”
“Dess… Oh my gosh…” Noelle covered her mouth again. Dess’s heart sank. “No no no no no please don’t hate me Noelle I-”
“What the hell happened to your horn?” Kris interrupted her train of thought. Next to everything else, she had completely forgotten about her antler. She touched the side of her face, and her fingers ran slick with fresh blood. “Shit. No wonder they were staring, I probably look like a serial killer right now.”
Dess recovered swiftly, “Ohh, this?” She stuck her tongue out and pointed at the absence of an antler on her head, “Yeahhh, looks like I’m ahead of the curve in terms of my first molt. Feheh. How do you two like the new look? Probably gonna be a few days before I’ll be able to even it out.”
She flopped down on the blanket without waiting for a response, and pulled each of them under an arm to get in proper movie-watching position. It was strange touching them again after… She shut down the thought. If Kris or Elly weren’t going to bring it up, neither was she. Best not to ruin the moment. She told herself she’d find another time to apologize to them individually. “Yeah… Another time. It’ll be fine.”
Looking to change the subject to something that didn’t remind her of her previous stupidity that night, she said, “So. What movie did you guys settle on? I’m kinda excited to see whatever you dweebs have in store.”
“I mean, I set it up on your computer earlier, but like-” Kris was interrupted by Noelle this time.
“Isn’t it already like 1 AM?”
Dess sighed. She wanted to end this night on a good note, and that meant one more movie. “C’mon guys, neither of you are even tired still. You two have energy for one more, right? Promise I’ll enjoy it with you two, even if it's dumb!” She affectionately ruffled their heads again.
Noelle and Kris both nodded, and what was done was done. Over with. It was all behind her. Noelle was nuzzling into her as the movie started and Kris was leaning their head against her arm like a pillow. Right now it was like nothing had happened. Like nothing changed. She would apologize to them later.
“Yeah. Later.”