Chapter Text
As the sun rose past the horizon and the first few rays of sunlight entered, one would assume Kris to wake up in this uncomfortable position.
Light hit their hair, which mostly stopped the sun from hitting their eyes; still, it warmed them up. With warmth from one side and the coldness under their arms and head, faint voices from outside the door, talking about the sudden appearance of Kris, they'd wake up under normal circumstances.
But this time they were tired and oddly comfortable. Softly grumbling into the blanket that covered their face. The blanket… it appears that they have moved a little while being asleep, with their upper body now lying on the hospital bed, face-planted onto the blanket that covered their friend.
“Kris… Kris.” They could hear one of the nurses calling out to them, or at least they assumed this to be the case. When a quiet yet annoyed groan pushed out of their throat, Kris moved their right hand atop the back of their head in an attempt to disappear. Of course, this did not work, and they heard their name called out again.
And again. And again, it simply wouldn't stop repeating itself, getting louder every single time until finally, they snapped as something touched the knuckles of the hand on their head, trying to push them over.
“Leave me!” They shouted, quickly moving the right hand off their head and swinging into the air in an attempt to get any bystanders to move away from them. They quickly pushed themselves off the bed with their left hand gripping onto the bedsheets under them.
To their surprise, when Kris turned around to glare towards the entry door of the room, they didn't see anyone. No one far nor close who could have talked to them, at least not a person who could have disappeared so soon after they moved… weird.
Kris stretched their body, their back curving slightly like a stretched bow in the same motion as they raised their hands up to their face. They were still sleepy and simply assumed to have imagined these voices; maybe they dreamed about something? But it was challenging to remember—too much to bother. Until they could hear a voice once again, while they rubbed their eyes with the back of both of their hands.
“Kris, what are you doing!?” This time the voice was crystal clear… Berdly?!? In an instant, Kris snapped their head around. Hands dropped an inch or two, with both their elbows pressed against their waist on both sides. Their right hand reached across their chest, while the left one was left awkwardly hanging in the air a few inches distanced from their body, with a slightly curved index finger pointing at their…friend? At the hospitalized monster, at the... was this still a dream? He was awake!
“You!” They shouted, swaying their head a little from side to side in an attempt to get the hair out of their face, but it was pointless. Quickly they used their hand, being a little messy and careless about it, but as they couldn't believe their eyes, Kris quickly moved their left hand up into their hairline to move all the hair out of their face. Some fell down over the back of their hand again, but it was enough to get a clear view of Berdly. They stood an inch or two apart from the hospital bed now, with their back hunched a little over.
“You're awake!” They shouted without more than a second or two between the first time. It was...a miracle! He was awake! And yet, despite their amazement at his awakening, despite the large smile drawn upon their face, Berdly did not seem as happy. No. The exact opposite; he seemed irritated...angry? No, not angry. That was the wrong way to describe his expression. Kris couldn't identify it, but something was off; this was not the expression of someone who just woke up from a three-day-long coma. He seemed annoyed by something, and soon his words would bring light to Kris' now shared confusion.
“What, Kris! Of course, I am awake when such a restless sleeper like you lays right next to me! What were you doing that for anyway?!” The monster raised an eyebrow. Sure, he had already noticed that he was in a hospital; that really wasn’t the hardest part to figure out. But without any clear signs of damage to his body, Berdly did not understand what had happened. He didn’t understand why he was here in the first place, nor why Kris out of all people was here.
After all, Berdly wasn’t conscious for the past few days; he had no idea how long he had been out or that he had been unconscious in the first place. He seemed more bugged about the fact that Kris disturbed their sleep than anything else.
“My beauty sleep… You, Kris, you have ruined it! Nine hours, that’s how long you are supposed to sleep, and, sure, I do not have a watch with me… but your noisy snores have reduced it to mere minutes, I can tell! Your sleep schedule... it must be terrible! Do not dare to share it onto my file!”
Berdly, oh sweet, blissfully unaware Berdly. He had no idea how glad Kris was to hear him going back onto a ramble the second he was awake again. This was the Berdly they knew, the Berdly they hoped to see last evening.
“You see, Kris. Unlike you, I have mastered the art of sleeping. And you! Too, could exploit this cheat if you had just read the instructions! Really, look at yourself; you’re…smiling, and yet you look, well, like a gamer after a long weekend. I can see these eye bags from miles apart!” And he wouldn’t stop, only pausing for a few seconds to catch his breath when he caught himself calling Kris a gamer, upon which he immediately frowned at Kris, as if it was their fault for him saying it.
“Mhm… so, now we’re both gamers?” And they knew just too well that they shouldn’t let this opportunity escape and latch onto it instead. Yet, this was still... odd, to say the least.
“I-… Well, yes! But you see...” Something something, they were not a true alpha gamer; Berdly was obviously superior to them; they didn’t even know the Konami code, etc.
They’ve heard this spiel a million times before, and every time it was annoying. It’s as if he rehearsed a million ways to piss them off. Just this time. This time, familiarity was nice.
“Shut up.” Yet, they didn’t want to hear this going on for so long, something. Something was bugging them. The fact that this was so familiar was good, but at the same time, it was weird to go from one of the worst days in their life, right back into this casual setting.
Berdly was clearly taken aback, even if the silence did not last for too long. Kris slowly moved the hand out of their hair, dragging it down on their face as they took a few steps away from Berdly, while he tried to pick up where he was stopped.
“… Though I do sup-”
“Shut up!” They shouted a little louder this time. Though it wasn’t entirely obvious how sincere Kris was with this demand, considering they were laughing into their hand. The same laughter irritated Berdly as well, who had been interrupted a second time by now.
“Kris, it is rude to interrupt someone while they are talk-”
“Shut… Shut up, I said!” And again, they shouted, and once more they laughed in between every word, having to repeat themselves once as their laughter swallowed the beginning of their demand entirely. Berdly pushed himself back on the hospital bed, not to create distance between the two, but to sit up in the hospital bed to look down on Kris, who was leaning forward more and more. Only now did he notice his limbs struggling to move, but he still did not further question it as he still managed to move himself. Instead, he continued to question Kris’ behavior. Kris, who was bending forward at the knees, held his stomach with one hand as if it were in pain from the excessive laughter.
“… Kris, one would guess you need to be in this bed instead of mine, heh, if…
… Wait, why are you crying?” Eventually, he noticed. Whether he saw the tears dripping from Kris’ hands, or if he heard the nasty sob further muffled by Kris practically crushing their nose flat with their palm in an attempt to go unnoticed, even if it was pointless.
“…Berdly.” They spoke up, slowly dragging their hand down to only cover their mouth. They really weren’t sure where to walk, if they should sit back down on the chair on the other side of the room again, or if they should stand or kneel by his bedside once more. So, in an indecisive attempt to clear their mind, they walked two, three circles before awkwardly standing in the middle of the room again. Eventually, Kris uncovered their mouth, letting both of their arms simply hang off to their sides.
“… Why do you think… What reason, do you think, you are here for?” Their face was a little red, mostly around their eyes, for now.
“Ah. You see, Kris, you obviously do not know; your brain must be crying… as, oddly enough, you are. But contrary to such simpletons, I am-”
“Please… Be serious.” Kris sighed in defeat, raising their right hand yet again to hold it against their forehead, as if they had to stop themselves from falling over. Not out of exhaustion, this time, out of disbelief that Berdly could talk so much nonsense in this serious of a situation. For a second, Berdly looked annoyed that he was interrupted yet again, but eventually, he pulled himself together. Somewhat.
“… I do not remember. But, fear not, poor clueless Kris, this will not be difficult to deduce!” He announced, raising a hand to scratch his jaw like an old man caressing his beard.
“Last thing I remember… we were in the library!”
“Mhm…and?”
“And because I don’t recall leaving, I must have passed out, as we were studying for too long! At least me and dear Noelle. You and Susan!? You must have…sneaked away.”
“… And the whole hospital part?” Kris raised an eyebrow, tears still dwelling from their red eyes, even if the main struggle seemed to be over by now.
“… Ah.”
He was silent, his eyes moving in circles and locking onto various objects in the room, before he shrugged.
“Well, whatever the reason, I am sure that it was the smartest thing to do!” For once, he didn’t have a smartass response, maybe because Kris told him to drop it like ten times already. Either way, it was an exception, but Kris couldn’t even comment on it. Or perhaps they didn’t want to, as they stepped closer to the hospital bed again, kneeling in front of it so they could once again rest both their arms and head on it.
This time they did it to muffle themselves, not because they were exhausted.
“Youmff, three days…”
“…Kris, I cannot understand anything you’re saying while you are actively eating the mattress; maybe you should consid-”
“You’ve been out cold for THREE DAYS!” But they couldn’t keep quiet when he was about to ramble again, raising their head to look up at the monster, and with that loud of a shout… Yup, it brought another tear up. No… Not just one; they kept coming.
And Berdly just didn’t answer.
Not a word, his eyes now wide open, Kris managed to steal his tongue for the first time this morning. And their own, too. They could feel their chest dragging on themselves with every breath, with all this rage built up previously being released…it was a relief, but it didn’t exactly feel good either.
“… The nurses… didn’t know when… when you would wake up again… If, if you would wake up again.” They eventually added, with constant sniffing interrupting their words as they spoke. Berdly seemed even more irritated by this, but at least this direct approach with the news seemed to silence him.
But as the time passed and the silence made things more awkward, Kris turned their head to look away, huffing breathlessly with their view locked onto the wall instead of the perplexed and silent Monster.
“… Please talk.” Now the silence was becoming unbearable for both of them.
“I… know I told you to shut up. But for fuck's sake. Don’t take it this seriously. Please.” They quickly added, shifting their head to look up at Berdly again, as they could feel their breath becoming shakier with every minute of silence. It was torture.
Berdly swayed his head away for a second when they looked at him.
“… Three whole days?
And, you were here the whole time?” His tone was much more serious than any given sentence previously. Completely dropping that smartass voice as if he had any actual concern for what he was saying.
“… No.” Only now did he dare to look back, his gaze meeting with those eyes of Kris, who shook their head after they got his attention back.
“Only this time. The others I visited… for a bit.”
“… I see.” He replied with such few words; it wasn’t exactly much better than pure silence. A little better, but not much better.
“… Kris.”
“Yea?”
Berdly sighed, dragging it out way longer than necessary, as he pushed the pillow behind himself a little further against the wall to get more comfortable leaning into it.
“I, did not think you cared.”
Kris immediately raised an eyebrow hearing that, but for once, his beak was still open after finishing a sentence, so they waited. He never shut up and thought about what he said before when there was something left to say, so they didn’t want to interrupt his apparent thinking this time.
“… I know you are… not like the others. I know that you don’t, not like me. But if we only hung out because I don’t mind your… weirdness, or… this. That’s...”
And then he hung up, his beak closed and eyes avoiding their gaze once again. It didn't seem like he was going to finish that sentence.
“… You’re annoying.” They chuckled, once again a wide grin pulling through their face, which immediately pained them as they could feel the tears around the corner, knocking on their face to break out. This conversation wasn’t going to give them a moment’s rest, would it?
“Very, extremely annoying.” They doubled down on it, causing Berdly to huff.
“… But you’re my friend. Nonetheless, you are annoying times three.” Now their rougher chuckle was becoming more of an ugly and softer giggle that mixed with tears running down their face. No longer could they lean onto the hospital bed as the tears were dripping past their nose, forcing them to wipe them down as they didn’t want this salty taste near their mouth.
“Hey! Cut it! And you can’t exponentiate a word!” Seems like annoying times three was too much, noted. They are going to stick to annoying times two for the future.
Kris nodded at that statement, moving their hand to wipe their eyes dry as if there were any chance of doing so without hurting themselves, eventually giving up as they put their hands back onto the bed.
“Yea yea…” They tried to sound annoyed, but their tears and smiley face exposed too much by now, that Berdly simply had to keep his eyes somewhere else. They couldn’t act nonchalant anymore; it wasn’t going to work.
“… You do not have to sit down there. Just, factually, there is enough space to sit on here.”
“… Sure.” And so, they followed up on the invitation, pulling themselves up on the bed with their butt barely on the edge of it. Their wide smile slowly faded as their legs dandled off to the side, with their back to Berdly for a few seconds, before they turned their head to look at him over their shoulder when they heard his voice yet again.
“I am...glad you are here.” Kris tilted their head towards their right shoulder, a quiet huff pushing past their lips again.
“Same.
… Same.” A short reply, but right now, the silence was okay again; even though their face was still a red teary mess, at least not many new tears were coming along the way.
Remembering where the hell they were, Kris raised their hand after a short while, slowly moving it towards Berdly’s head, who moved an inch back at first, only to be backed against the wall.
Their eyes met for a few seconds, in which Kris stopped their movement, but once Berdly rolled his eyes, they proceeded to lay the back of their hand against his forehead.
Warm. Warm! No longer was he ice-cold. They kind of assumed this to be the case, considering he was looking rather healthy by now, but with this whole dark world stuff, one can never know… One can never know.
“… Did you do that every time you were here?” Kris nodded at that question, keeping their hand against his forehead a little longer, at least until he frowned and pushed their hand away with that weak movement of his right wing.
“Say…” Kris sighed, moving the hand up to their face, pushing most strings of hair that covered their face up to keep proper eye contact with Berdly at this time.
“… Would you be interested to go to the festival, together?”
It was quite funny.
How the face of a bird-like monster with blue feathers covering his face could turn redder, than the face of a human who bawled their eyes out for the past half hour.