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Noelle lounged lazily on her family’s couch. She craned her neck upwards, looking up at the barren, white archway that marked the transition between the foyer hallway and the living room.
Her family used to hang mistletoe from it when she was a kid, but there wasn’t one of those beautiful bundles of Christmas there anymore.
She couldn’t help but let her mind wander, let her thoughts travel back to when she was a kid. Back when there used to be a mistletoe hanging from that same archway. She couldn’t help but think back to when she was seven or so—not sitting on the couch, but standing under that entrance instead—a fair few feet shorter then.
After some amount of time, she broke her intense eye contact with the bundle of tied, spiked leaves. She looked back towards where the large, dark brown couch was, seeing her best friend, Kris, fiddling with the zipper on one of the walnut colored couch cushions. They briefly glanced towards her, with their eyes quickly darting back to what they were doing once they met hers. Glimpsing their maroon irises, she thought of the similarly red berries nestled in the mistletoe above her.
That was back when they didn’t feel the need to hide their eyes from the world. Back when they weren’t ashamed of those beautiful red irises. Now and then, thoughts of those captivating little circles drifted into her thoughts. Thoughts of how she wanted to see them again. It was weird, but she didn’t know why she latched onto that aspect of them so much.
Her mind quickly returned to that memory, however.
What she was doing was dangerous—she knew that. Maybe not physically, but they were definitely some particularly risky ideas if put into action.
Back then, she had something akin to a crush on Kris. It was a bit more complicated than just that, though—given they’d been best friends since they were four. It was a confusing sort of admiration that mixed into the already colorful connection they had as kids. She knew they must’ve felt something similar.
Still, it was always so embarrassing how flustered she got from their stupid pranks and jokes.
It was only when she wasn’t a kid anymore that she realized that all those tricks were just attempts to make her smile. Weirdly genuine, authentic endeavors to make her feel better; all in their own uniquely Kris-like way.
Though, as a kid, her mind kept getting stuck in a loop of remembering seeing her mother and father sharing kisses of affection under the mistletoe—that same one she stood under. Remembering those however-million Christmas movies she saw of adults doing the same under similarly festive bundles of plants.
It never really occurred to her back then that she’d never seen a human and monster couple on television. When her sister asked her mom about it once, she just heard her muttering some vague notion of “tradition” as a response.
Still—her mind revolving thoughts of those idealistic scenes of mistletoe in her head—she called over Kris with the name she knew them by the best.
“ KRISMAS ! C’mere for a minute!”
Their head popped back up from the couch. The paused TV screen behind them, backlighting the fluffy, brown hair that sat atop their head.
“Yeah, Ellie?” They called back.
Their head briefly cocked to the side, snapping back into position as they shuffled over to where the archway was—where Noelle was. She was able to see them better when they got closer, the hallway light contrasting against the dim living room. Both were separated by the snow colored archway between them.
“What do ‘ya need?” Kris asked, clearly a little confused, but mostly just curious.
She stepped back just slightly, hooves shifting nervously on the floorboards when they got closer. Almost close enough to be standing under the mistletoe with her. Her nose blinked red for a second.
Her face was already starting to heat up. For some reason, she couldn’t help but keep her eyes glued to the ground. She saw as their feet stopped a foot or two away from the line in the floorboards that separated the two rooms.
“Hey, Kris? D-do you mind coming a little closer, please?” She instinctively grabbed her left hand and started squeezing it. “I really wanted to s-see that new shirt your mom got you b-better…”
Admittedly, it took her a few minutes of thinking beforehand to come up with that ruse.
One of their eyebrows was slightly cocked at seeing how much she was melting under their gaze, but both of them shot up in excitement when they heard her inquiry.
She looked back up to see how their eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as they started to ramble on about the shirt they were wearing, proudly showing it off as their smile grew.
“Oh! You know how my mom doesn’t really like to buy a ton of stuff right? Well, we were out shopping like two months ago or something and I was able to get her to get me this cool shirt for Halloween and it’s really cool and it’s like a pumpkin—no—a jack-o’-lantern, right? And she got it ‘cause I was like ‘mom please, mom please can I get it’, and she got it for me and it’s really cool and like I really really like it cause I like, really like Halloween and stuff! And it’s a Halloween shirt!”
Noelle knew very well of Kris’s love for Halloween—well, anything creepy, really—but hearing them wholeheartedly gush about the orange shirt with a spooky jack-o’-lantern pattern on it made her feel a lot warmer than what was natural for how cold the AC in the house was. It was already the last month of the year, so the Halloween shirt was definitely out of season, especially in her mom’s eyes. Even so, it was still a pretty cool shirt.
When they eventually stopped detailing the orange shirt they were wearing, Noelle realized she’d spent that entire time staring into their eyes.
“Th-that’s really cool, Kris!”
They gave her a slight smile and raised a firm thumbs-up to show their thanks for the compliment. Once their arm fell back to their side, they suddenly turned 180 degrees on their heel and were about to walk away, but Noelle grabbed their hand and pulled them back around towards her. With that, they were moved much closer to her than they originally had been.
The blush on her face flared up as Noelle timidly but anxiously spoke.
“Don’t… don’t you r-recognize where we’re standing?!”
Kris, once again, cocked an eyebrow in confusion, as they pensively replied to Noelle.
“…The living room?”
She smacked a furred hand against her face, letting out an exaggerated sigh, and furrowing her brow. She took the hand she’d facepalmed with and pointed it rigidly to the sky, clenching her eyes as tightly as she could. “NO, you dummy! We-we’re st-standing under the m-m-mis-m-mistletoe!!!” She squeaked out, voice pitching up an octave higher. “We have to—y’know, do the… the thing we’re supposed to do.” The words fell out of her mouth as smoothly as a rock rolling down a hill of jagged spikes.
She kept her eyes shut, lowered her arm back to her side, and leaned forward expectantly. She was shaking profusely all the while, her caramel fur standing on end, as her nose flashed a bright red flare. Waiting for them to join her felt almost as agonizing as it was embarrassing. Every second felt like an hour.
Eventually, she felt the smooth skin of their palm lie gently on her shoulder. Her nerves didn’t know whether to calm down or ramp up at that. Rather than pulling her into them, Kris lightly shook her around by the shoulder, saying, “Noelle, what are you doing?”
She slowly opened her eyes again, seeing the taller human with furrowed brows and wearing an equally confused expression on their face. She looked off to the side, stuck in a haze of bashfulness, and repeated herself.
“We… we’re standing under the mistletoe…”
The remark came out much quieter and meeker-sounding than she’d expected. However, what Kris said after that completely shocked her out of that awkward feeling.
“What’s a mistletoe? Is it that thing hanging up there?”
Noelle’s jaw dropped like an anchor. The embarrassing nature of the entire situation completely disappeared from her mind at that.
What were they talking about?! Everyone knows what mistletoe is, right ?!
“You… you really don’t know what mistletoe is?!”
“No?” They replied, as they threw their arms in the air with a halfhearted shrug, including the arm she didn’t realize had already left her shoulder.
Noelle thought to herself that the idea of someone not knowing what a mistletoe was was basically impossible. She thought back to those however-many movies she’d seen with all those cute couples kissing underneath the plant. It occurred to her that maybe she couldn’t even remember first hearing about them before; it just felt like something she must’ve known since birth.
Obviously, that didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Maybe her parents just gave some extra Christmassy instructions to whoever had taught her how to speak. That person might have even been Toriel!
Wait, that’s Kris’s mom ! Why didn’t she teach them what a mistletoe was?!
Wait! She was pretty sure she remembered that there was a mistletoe in Kris’s house! How did they still not know what one was?!
She was knocked back out of her thoughts as Kris snapped their fingers in front of her face.
“Helloooo? Earth to Noelle?”
With that, she replied. “Oh, um… a mistletoe is like a type of plant with red berries that people put up on their doors or ceilings, or something.” They nodded at her, urging her to continue, even if the words felt harder and harder to spit out. “And… and um…” the blush coloring her face from earlier started to reappear in full force, “w-when two people… when two people are under it, they’re supposed to, like, ummm…”
She looked back down at the ground. Seeing their crimson eyes staring into her expectantly made speaking the right words harder than it already was.
“They have to, like, k-ki-kiss? Like, by law, I think?”
Kris blinked at her. The curious look they wore dropped away to reveal a much more grave expression. “Wait, is it like… illegal if you don’t do that under it?!” They said.
“I… I think?? Maybe?” Noelle replied. Her nose blinked to life, once again.
“So… I have to kiss you? Like, by law…?” They said back, clearly befuddled and plummeting into a pit of embarrassment themselves.
Noelle couldn’t take it anymore. She smacked both of her hands over her face, hoping it would hide the blush that threatened to engulf her. Despite that, she still gave them a slow, steady nod, confirming their inquiry.
After about half a minute of silence, she heard them take a deep breath in and out. Then, they said, significantly more composed, “Okay. Okay, sure. Yeah… I can try to do that, I guess.”
She reluctantly lifted her hands away from her eyes, seeing as Kris was glancing around their sides and above them. They were probably looking out for her dad, who was, thankfully, still upstairs during the entire debacle.
Kris breathed out another deep exhale from their nose and silently stepped closer to Noelle. She shut her eyes and lifted her head again. She felt her little heart beating faster than she could reasonably count.
Ever so softly, she felt their lips press against her nose, and after a second or two, they swiftly withdrew them from her snout. It felt nice, even if it was a little short. It almost felt like the feeling of someone putting their finger on her nose, if a lot softer. She didn’t expect them to kiss the tip of her nose, exactly, which was a pleasant surprise, but she couldn’t help but feel like it wasn’t “enough” for what the sacred Christmas plant demanded.
Despite that, with her eyes still shut, she quietly squealed with her mouth closed. She clenched her fists tightly to try and keep the growing giddiness from spilling out.
Opening her eyes, she saw Kris looking off to the side. They were clearly a bit flustered, but they were considerably more coherent than she was.
“It wasn’t that bad.” They muttered.
She nodded a few too many times in agreement. “Yep!” She replied. What she was going to say next made her face warm.
“I… but I think it’s supposed to be on the…” she trailed off, as she put her index and middle finger up to her lips. She could see in their eyes that they quickly realized the implication of her action.
At that, she could see a faint blush light up their cheeks, for once. They stared at her just like they had when Dess chased after them with a wiffle bat the first time; a mix of panic and disbelief.
“Really?! You’re sure?!” More panic filled Kris’s voice.
Noelle just gave them a subtle nod, if a bit nervously. Of course, she wasn’t at all sure if it had to be a kiss on the lips.
Once again, she heard Kris take another deep breath. “Okay…” They said as they stepped much closer to her. She reflexively grasped at their elbow, expecting to grab onto a sweater; she was met with the very different texture of skin instead. She leaned her face towards theirs again, but chose to keep her eyes open that time.
Very slowly, their faces met each other. Kris’s squishier nose awkwardly pushed into her snout. Their lips met at an odd angle—not very optimal for a kiss, as neither of them puckered—instead, just pressing into each other gracelessly.
They sheepishly pulled away from each other after about eight seconds. They both stepped away from the mistletoe as their eyes refused to meet each other’s.
It technically counted as a kiss—her first kiss, mind you—but it was better described as what it actually was: two seven-year-olds trying to smush their faces into each other. It was defined by its inexperience. It was two kids trying to make sense of love by replicating what they’d seen of it from adults and the media that raised them. In some way, it was an attempt to conform to the expectations of the world around them; a world that they didn’t yet fully understand the nuances and impermanent nature of.
It wasn’t really anything special—it was actually pretty bad, for a kiss—but neither of them would ever forget the strangely comforting feeling of the soft skin and even softer fur on their respective faces pushing into one another.
It took about a minute or two for either of them to think of anything to break the silence. Noelle just let out a quiet hum of affirmation and bewilderment. She didn’t know how to feel—Kris didn’t either. Were they supposed to be something else? Could they still be friends after that?
Kris appeared to turn around to head back into the living room again, when they suddenly gasped and spun back to face her once they were reminded of what they’d been previously working on atop the couch. She saw their face was extremely surprised and eager; it was nothing like the bashful expression they’d just been wearing. Excitedly, they called out her name.
“ELLIE!” Her ears perked up at that. “I just remembered, I still need your help so we can finish the pillow fort for the couch! Come on!!”
Unconsciously mirroring them, Noelle also gasped in surprise. How could she forget about the pillow fort?! That was part of the reason for the sleepover in the first place!
“Oh! Oh! Oh! We can eat Christmas cookies too! My parents baked some earlier and I-I had one and they were really good and th-they said we could have some if we wanted!” She hastily blurted out. The stuttering wasn’t so much embarrassment anymore, more so the product of her similarly exhilarated state of mind.
The promise of sugar cookies brought those excited sparkles back to Kris’s eyes again. They reached out and grabbed her hand as they dragged her back into the living room again, both laughing along the way. They were both so caught up in the sudden burst of childish liveliness that they didn’t even notice how the air of awkwardness that surrounded them had completely dissipated. Blown away by a subject change that reminded them that, yes, they were still friends—best friends.
At that point, the mistletoe felt kind of pointless; it didn’t change anything between them, really. Yet, it was still a small detail in the decorations of that mid-December night that made her love the holidays so much.
It was nostalgic. Just about anything from back then was to her.
Her sister probably would’ve laughed at her in that uniquely warm way she used to if she’d heard about her trying to kiss Kris. Maybe she’d told her about it already; she couldn’t seem to remember if she had or hadn’t. The fact she couldn’t even remember if she’d told her or not fucking terrified her.
It wasn’t the mistletoe that changed things between them.
It was Dess.
Two years and a few weeks after the kiss marked the day she lost her sister, and a part of herself by extension. Life continued to fall apart around her, though. It wasn’t too long after that that she and her best friend became strangers. Strangers who’d known each other so incredibly well; strangers who barely interacted anymore, but had kissed at some point in the past. They became strangers who kept so many little secrets about the other, unsaid. She couldn’t help but remind herself of that memory, that stupid, beautiful memory, every time she saw them walk by her in class without speaking to her; every time she saw them playing the piano in the hospital.
The contrast of that nostalgic memory and the bitter reality around her was dissonant. She remembered Kris had always been able to make dissonance sound beautiful, whether it be a cheap hospital piano or the dusty piano her mother used to play—that her sister also used to play.
Eventually, Noelle’s consciousness shifted back to where she was in the present. She wasn’t seven anymore; she was sixteen. She was more than twice the age she was when the kiss happened, and she was staring up at that archway again—from the couch, instead of underneath it—and there wasn’t a mistletoe there anymore, even if the rest of the house was decorated accordingly.
She never talked to anyone about the kiss, especially not Kris. It felt like it was so personal that she’d burst into flames if she dared tell that information to anyone.
She’d almost told Catti once. Last year, she had the urge to suddenly spit it out one night while sharing secrets. But every time she tried to say, ‘ No, my first kiss was with Kris ’, it felt more and more like her tongue wouldn’t even let her, the more she tried. She’d imagined that Catti probably figured out what she was trying to say at some point, though—probably just from how blushy she’d gotten. She couldn’t know for sure, though.
Her mind snapped back to the present. It was the middle of December again. She was sixteen years old, sitting on the couch, and a little over two months before that, she’d almost seen the end of the world.
Two months before that December, right after the world almost met its end, she started talking with Kris again. Two months before that December, they’d started being friends again. Finally, she could confidently say, ‘we’re friends, Kris and Noelle are friends’, again; and god , it felt so fucking good to say that again.
It was the middle of December, and she was staring at the empty archway. She eventually broke her gaze away from it and looked over to her left. There, similarly lazing around on the other side of the couch, looking at their phone, was Kris.
The two of them had been sitting in silence—a comfortable silence—for about thirty minutes or so. It was so nice being able to share a voluntary presence with them. Still, Noelle decided it was time to break the silence.
“Hey, Krismas?”
They looked over to her, pocketed their phone, and gave her a subtle nod, urging her to continue.
She scratched at the side of her cheek. “Y’know how there used to be a mistletoe hanging up there from there on the living room entrance?” She took her hand off her cheek and aimed a finger towards the archway.
They glanced at the arch and back at her. They nodded at her and moved slightly closer towards her on the couch. She couldn’t see their eyes behind their coffee colored bangs, but she knew that’s what they must’ve done.
Noelle turned slightly to face them and continued her thought. “Well… I was just kind of lost in thought for a bit there. And I was just wondering why my mom didn’t put it back up over the past couple years. It feels a little weird to get all ‘attached’ to Christmas decorations, but everything just feels a little off without it there.” Kris turned their head slightly at that. “I mean, like… she’s really adamant about the decorations she puts up, and she has basically a whole arsenal of decorations that she puts up each year. I love decorating too! But every year, she puts up just about every single ornament and holiday decoration we have! It’s a little crazy, even for me, fahahaha!” She chuckled. Kris cracked a small smile of their own.
Noticing that quickly dissipating smirk on their face, Noelle realized they’d gotten quite a bit closer to her on the couch while she was talking. It was a little odd, but the sight brought back memories of her childhood with it—memories of feeling them snuggle up to her under the blankets while watching movies with their families, of brushing each other's hair before school after a sleepover, of walking to school together with interlaced hands, of being a shoulder to cry on for each other whenever being a kid had its difficulties.
There was a weird upwelling of some emotion she felt deep in her chest, a beautifully dissonant chord that forcefully thrummed through her heartstrings. She scooted closer to Kris and slowly, softly wrapped her left arm around their waist. They startled immediately, but after a few seconds, they untensed their muscles significantly. She kept the fluffy arm around their side loose enough that they could push her off them or escape from her grasp at any point. The least she wanted to do was make them feel trapped; they already had felt enough of that feeling for a lifetime. “Um… is this alright, Kris?” She timidly asked. They avoided her eye contact—mainly so she couldn’t see how they’d been so easily taken off guard—but they eventually leaned into her grasp. Kris laid their head against the back of the couch and looked back up at her. They craned their neck up and quietly mumbled into her ear. “… I’m good.”
Noelle continued, trying her best not to get too distracted by the soft sweater and warm body temperature leaning into her side. “Li-like I was saying, she’s definitely a little tinsel-crazy! I mean, I can’t really complain there… but yeah. She’s been like this for years, ever since she started working a lot more, but she always decorates the entire house in one night, usually sometime in November, while I’m sleeping. And it’s usually with, like, no warning at all. Some nights, I’ll just go to sleep and wake up to see the entire house completely decked out in just about every decoration we have. I can’t lie, it’s a little exhilarating! It’s also just, kinda sweet… I think? Though… there's no way she isn’t, like, in a random manic state when it happens!”
Again, Kris almost-whispered something to her. “Sounds like her… she kind of scares me.”
Noelle firmly nodded in agreement.
“Yep. But I think that’s a part of the reason it not being up there anymore bugs me so much. She’s really adamant about putting up everything we have, like, decoration-wise, to the point where it’s sometimes a little overcrowded… but she still doesn’t put up the mistletoe anymore. She hasn’t really done that in like, maybe six or seven years. There’s no way there's not a… like, it’s definitely a purposeful decision, y’know? I feel like I’m kinda reaching here, but I can’t not feel like… like she’s given up on some part of hope—if any of that makes sense. Ugh! And, like, for some reason, every year I’ve been thinking, ‘Oh, is this going to be the year she puts the mistletoe up again?’ And I’ve- I’ve been looking forward to walking downstairs and seeing it hanging from the archway again, year after year, but it’s never there; never has been for quite some time now. I mean, god, she’s probably already thrown it out at this point!” She frustratedly threw her other arm in the air.
“ARGH!! I don’t even know why this stupid little detail is messing with me so freaking much!” She clenched her eyes shut and pinched her brow with her free hand. She didn’t realize she could even get that loud around her other friends. Maybe it was just something about being around Kris that let her express those fervent emotions so much easier. “Sorry if I’m not making any sense. Thanks for letting me ramble like that, Kris.” She finished.
There was a small moment of silence between them, once again.
While Noelle was trying to calm herself down, she felt something on her shoulder—something soft. On instinct, she opened her eyes and snapped her head back towards the right.
Apparently, Kris had laid their head against her shoulder while she wasn’t looking. They looked up at her with a slight smile on their face; their bangs had fallen to the side, letting her see their eyes much clearer than she could before. It had been so long since she’d been able to get a good look at those blood red irises of theirs, and they were even prettier than she remembered them being. It definitely helped her calm down, a little more than the breathing exercises, at least.
Before she could muster up something to continue the conversation, they mumbled into her shoulder. She could feel the vibration of their voice against her brown sweater vest.
“My parents used to have one on the doorframe. Mom stopped putting it up before the divorce…”
She hugged them slightly closer into her side; they didn’t tense up. The wool of their sweater in her grasp was softer than she thought it would be. “I’m sorry that I never really got to talk with you about the divorce when it happened. I could tell it was hard on you, even if we weren’t speaking much then.” She spoke. Their comment marked a minor shift in their attitude back to gloominess; she could tell from the way their attention drifted from her hair to the floor, and how they grabbed onto their elbow with their other hand. They shook their head and spoke aloud again, still slow and whispery. “Needed to happen… even if things suck between them now, would’ve been worse if they were still together.” Kris took in a patient breath through their nose. “… Sucked ass when the divorce happened… don’t know if I could take it if they still lived together, though.”
They looked back up at her again — there was a dim gleam of hope in those eyes, slowly glowing brighter. Brighter at the sight of her. “Thanks, Noelle. Being here really helps.” There was that subtle smile again; it made hers reappear, consequently. She could say the same to them.
It didn’t occur to her until then that she’d grown taller than them; Kris always used to be the taller kid when the two of them were younger. Well, of course, she’d noticed it over the years, but it never crossed her mind that day until that moment. There was something funny about Noelle being taller than them, now they were older. It was such an insignificant detail about their relationship, but to be fair, so much about the two of them was “insignificant details”.
The two of them weren’t dating— that childhood crush didn’t really exist anymore, or, at least, it morphed into something completely different over the years. Despite that, they were certainly a lot closer, emotionally and otherwise, than what should’ve been more than normal for friends.
But the two of them had never really been anything close to “ normal ”. It was weird. They were weird—both of them.
She’d gotten lost in their eyes again. There was an unusual, incredibly impulsive idea that spawned in the very depths of her thought process; her brain latched onto it immediately, though. It was a similarly dangerous abstraction as the one she felt nine years ago, but still, it stuck to her conscious thought like that stain of red wine on the carpet her mom had just thrown out.
She took her hand off their waist, off the insanely comfortable sweater they inherited from their brother, and used the other one to turn them to face her. Without a word, she snaked her right hand up their arm, past their shoulder, and eventually up to the left side of their face. Her furred fingers clutched the side of their jaw as lightly as she could; her fingertips pushed slightly forward into their curly, chocolate locks of hair, pushing some of their hair out of the way of their eyes. Her hand stayed on the soft skin of their jaw while the two of them tried to read each other’s minds. Kris’s eyes showed apprehension, but she tried looking past to see if there was something more than just that in those sanguine waters.
It took a whole minute of uninterrupted silence before Noelle spoke. They’d come to a conclusion before either of them even uttered a word.
She inched her face closer to theirs and motioned to their unclaimed cheek with a thumb from the hand on its opposite side. “Kris…? Can I…? Y’know… on your cheek?” She said, stuck in some undefined emotion between shy and determined. Kris knew what she was going to say, but despite already thinking through that situation over and over in their head, they couldn’t muster a direct answer; they looked off to the side again. They avoided her gaze, but didn’t pull away from her touch—they never shook their head in defiance, or tensed up in discomfort. At some point, when she had her fingers around their jawbone, they’d subtly leaned into her hand—even still, they hadn’t leaned out of it.
After a moment or two, they gazed back at Noelle. Their cheeks had a faint dusting of blush painted across them, but their eyes reflected something much more than just a flustered appearance.
Instead, their eyes burned with trust—trust in her. Eyes that didn’t need speech to tell her they cared for her, and that they knew for a fact she cared for them just as much. They looked her dead in the eyes and nodded into her hand; they knew she saw their answer.
Silently, she slowly moved closer and closer to their right cheek. After inching her face closer and closer to theirs, she halted when her snout was mere centimeters away from their skin. She softly breathed a deep breath out from her nose; she felt the air lightly ricochet off their skin, feeling the cold breeze bounce back against her lips.
At that, she closed the gap; she puckered her lips and leaned into their cheek.
The immediate sensation was softness. Their skin had always been soft to her, always so much smoother than hers. But their cheek was especially soft, especially smooth; she felt almost as if she could continue pressing further and further into their skin, that it would just continue stretching onward and onward if she did. An interesting thought came to mind, that of pushing herself more into Kris, in an abstract sense, feeling that soft skin against her fur. That was a nonsensical idea, though. It wouldn’t even have been possible either, due to their cheekbone—that’s what it was called in human biology class, at least—blocking her snout from pressing further into their cheek. The other main feeling she felt against her lips was warmth. Kris—most humans, she guessed—had always felt so warm to the touch. Not to say most monsters were necessarily “cold”, or anything like that, but, apparently, humans’ blood made their resting body temperatures much warmer than mammal-type monsters were. Even without any fur, they’d always felt particularly warm to Noelle; it made being around them particularly more comforting and homely than she’d like to admit to anyone, really. The sweater they always wore helped with that, especially. Interestingly, she felt a lot more grateful to finally have that warmth back in her life again.
With Kris blushing a little bit, she assumed that the temperature in their cheeks must’ve been higher than it would’ve been in normal conditions. Would randomly kissing your childhood friend be normal, though? That thought made her blush, as well.
After a moment, she finally pulled her face away from theirs, letting her lips smooch off their skin with a quiet smack. She breathed out from her mouth as she craned her head back to a normal position; her breath felt a little bit hotter than it had been before.
What was intended to be a relatively quick peck had extended to a single, unbroken, seventeen-second-long embrace between her lips and their cheek. It was definitely much more of an actual kiss than the one they shared around nine years before. Although that oddly comforting feeling of fur on warm skin persisted through both.
Noelle gazed upon them again, seeing they were a little more flustered than before she kissed them. They seemed to be trying—and failing—to suppress a goofy-looking smirk on their face. It was pretty cute, she had to admit.
She gave their cheek a soft squeeze with her fingers before pulling her hand away from their jaw, sitting back against the couch. Kris chuckled slightly at the feeling as they sat by her side again. They gave a small hum of acknowledgment and leaned into her arm. Noelle—slightly louder than them—also chuckled. They raised their head and whispered into her ear.
“I can get you a new mistletoe if that’s what you want...”
Noelle snorted violently, almost choking. “Fahaha! Gosh , you’re a dork, Krismas !” She called out, trying not to get too rattled by the implication of their teasing. Kris whispered back in her ear. “Look who’s talking.” Before playfully shoving her with their shoulder.
Noelle huffed and laid her head against the back of the couch cushion, trying to gather her thoughts. She hadn’t even realized until then that her nose had been emitting a soft, red glow the entire time.
She hadn’t kissed Kris because of anything like a crush, really. Truly, she did it because it was something that showed that she cared for them. It showed Kris that they really were friends again, even if weird ones. She didn’t even mind being “weird friends”; that was completely fine with her—hell, probably preferable .
And, funnily enough, she also did it just because she wanted to.
It was good for her to want things in life. It was good for her to be brave for those she cared for. Kris even said as such.
She learned back in again.