Fly Me To The Moon
by TwoDaysMaybe

Kris Dreemurr pushes back his bangs, his palm damp with a sudden cold sweat
He knows that he should probably be worried, angry, maybe even panicked
But he just can't quite work up the energy to be any of those
Right now he is mostly just tired
"Now, Veth... when you say you're going to steal the moon, what exactly do you mean by that?"
Veth folds her arms, one thin eyebrow quirking upwards
"I think it'th fairly thelf-explanatory."
In her defense, if ever there was a moon worth stealing, this one is it
It hangs low and massive in the sky, illuminating the forest clearing with a silver, noon-bright glow
Alabaster beams of light filter through the branches as it casts the treeline in dark relief against its surface
It's beautiful. Both the moon and the night in its entirety.
The muggy, cloying heat of the afternoon has finally faded into a damp but pleasant cool
A gentle breeze whispers through the leaves, carries with it the mild, sweet scent of honeysuckle
Crickets and cicadas chirp and buzz in the darkness around them, their songs echoing out into the sky
Kris rubs his temples, trying to rationalize the irrational
"But you're not going to steal all of it, right? I mean, some moon rocks would be a pretty cool souvenir, but-"
She scoffs, rolling her slate-grey eyes
"Of courthe I'm going to thteal all of it. What kind of moron would only thteal part of the moon?! Honethtly, Krith, I worry about you thometimeth. Where'th your thenthe of ambition?"
Holding back the retort is a nearly physical effort, so hard it makes his neck cramp, but he manages it
Barely.
"Okay, but you can't just steal the moon."
It's a pretty weak argument even to his ears, and Veth's smug smirk only makes him feel worse
"Actually, it thouldn't be too difficult. I won't bore you with the detailth, but..."
She snaps her fingers with a manic, gleeful grin

"Oh, or did you mean legally? Thee, the funny thing ith that nobody really ownth the moon in the firtht plathe. Really, you can't even call it thtealing, and they thay pothethion ith nine-thenth of the law, tho-"
"But what about the tides? Won't it... A lot of people could get hurt, Veth! People could die!"
He's hardly sure of the details himself, more a vague understanding from disaster movies he's binged with Susie
A general sense that it would be Bad but not exactly why
Hardly enough to convince any reasonable person
Let alone Veth
To his horror, though, she perks up, clapping her hands together and giggling
"I thought you'd never athk! Thee, that'th the betht part! I-"
"Veth."
He's not angry, not quite, not yet
But there's a note of steel in his voice that makes Veth stop short, pulls tension taut in her shoulders and makes the smile slink from her face
"I'm serious. Don't do this."
"But-"
His eyes spark crimson in the dark, his hands clenching into fists
"Don't."
She nibbles on her bottom lip with her buck teeth, her brow furrowing
Now and then her mouth opens, then closes soundlessly as she tries to put an argument to words and fails
Finally, she heaves a long, bitter sigh
"Fine. If you're going to be thuch a damn wet blanket about it, I won't even bother."
She turns away, running a gloved hand through her greasy umber hair and tugging irritably at her ponytail as she mutters under her breath
"All thith effort and thith ith the thankth I get. Great."
Even though "something nice" in this case was pulling a celestial body out of the sky, a little pang of guilt twinges at Kris's heart, and he rubs the back of his neck
"I... appreciate the thought, Veth. Really, I do."
"Oh, I'm thure."
He spreads his arms, takes a step towards her, but she pouts and scuttles away
"I just don't want you to do anything you might regret. Not for my sake."

"Yeth, yeth, yeth. Never mind. Jutht thought I'd do thomething nithe for you for oneth. What wath I thinking?"
For once.
The words give him pause, make the lecture unspooling in his brain stumble over his lips
There's a very un-Vethlike sentiment in them.
Kindness and generosity and...
Regret.
Regret that those sentiments are so un-Vethlike
And a shy but earnest determination to see that change.
Cloaked behind irritable sarcasm and wounded pride and a lisp so thick it could snuff a candle, yes
But still undeniably there.
"I jutht wanted to do thomething thpethial for your birthday, but I gueth that'th not happening."
He had forgotten. He often does.
"Oh. That's okay, really."
"It's NOT!"
Veth's voice rings high and shrill through the night. Kris hears the distant patter of wingbeats, a flock of sleeping birds startled into the sky
"You're the one who said I could change! You're the one who said I could be better than I was! And I, fool that I am, believed you!"
She marches up to him, presses a bony finger into his chest
"And now, when I'm trying to be different, when I'm trying to have one of my plans make someone happy for a change, you tell me to stop! So which is it?"
Frustrated, angry tears well up, start to spill down her face. An angry red blush creeps up her pallid cheeks, all the way to her forehead
"What do I have to do? How can I prove to you that you're right, when you won't even let me try?!"
She seethes, fists clenched
Breathing ragged, furious gasps through her nose as she stares at her feet
Slowly, the anger turns to worry
A horrible queasiness in her stomach, acid in her chest
She's really done it now, hasn't she?
All Veth wanted was to show Kris that he wasn't wrong to trust her
To do something, however small, to start paying back what she'd done to him and Noelle and Susie
She tried to figure out a normal present for him. She really did.

Asked his friends, his parents, installed a keylogger on his computer to snoop his searches
The normal ways of information-gathering for a birthday
"What'th Krith'th blood type?"
"Kniveth? I thuppothe. Do you think Mith Toriel would get mad if I gave him one with a ballithtic blade?"
"Yeth, yeth, yeth, but if you could get a beefthteak to tathte like butterthcotch, do you think he would eat one?"
None of it worked. Nothing seemed right.
She thought about it, long and hard, and finally realized why
It's because she's not normal.
This is who she is. How she thinks. In grand plans, in heists, in little apocalypses
And now, it seems to her, she's finally proven that way of thinking is incompatible with Kris and his friends
She's proven the exact opposite of what she wanted.
That he was wrong to spare her. That he was wrong to help her.
That he should have let her die down there in the dark, put her down like-
Veth startles as she feels Kris take her hands
Nearly scuttles away as he leans forward, touching his forehead to hers
"Thank you, Veth. I wasn't kidding when I said I appreciate the thought. I mean, how many guys can say their girl would give them the moon?"
She glances away, chuckling bitterly
"There mutht be at leatht a few."
"How many of those actually had a plan to do it?"
She looks up slowly, afraid to meet his eyes
Afraid of what she'll see
But there's no judgement.
No fear in his carmine eyes, in his gentle smile
Just a hint of confusion
"I know you're getting better. You've already proven it to me."
Veth scoffs, attempting to tug her hands out of his grasp
"Ath if me being able to tolerate you thimpletonth meanth anything. I could jutht be biding my time, planning-"
"Remember when I came down with that fever last month?"
She freezes
"I couldn't even get out of bed. Slept like twelve hours a day. And you came over and-"
Veth pulls her hands free, slams them over her ears as she flushes scarlet

"Thut up, thut up, I'm not lithening..."
Kris smirks as he raises his voice
"You came over because Mom was stuck at work and Susie and Noelle had to go to school. And since you knew you couldn't cook, not even to heat up a can of soup-"
She grabs his sweater, glaring furiously up at him
"Are you mocking me? Becauthe if you are, believe me, that'th the latht goddamn time I worry about you!"
Kris closes his eyes
"You brought over MREs. All of the different kinds. So I could try out all of your favorites, and even the ones that you didn't like."
Her hands tighten on the wool as she grinds her teeth
"Why the hell do you even remember that?"
"Because it was important to me."
Veth blinks, her fingers twitching ever so slightly
"It's not just me, either. Remember when you showed Susie how to build those robot models you like?"
Unfortunately.
It had been a grueling process, showing Susie how to use the nippers and the file, how to follow the instructions properly
Explaining that yes, it does matter if you buff out the stress marks where the parts were attached to the sprue because otherwise it looks terrible
The multi-hour search for a stray spring when Susie had insisted on playing with it even after Veth specifically told her to put it down
"Because she does. She had a lot of fun, you know? She even saved up some money from her part-time job at Dad's to buy a kit of her own."
Veth's hands fall to her sides, and her brow furrows
She could have sworn that Susie thought it was just as much of an ordeal as she did, but...
"And remember when Noelle's parents were being hassled by that true crime podcast because Dess came back and they thought it was some kind of hoax?"
She snorts, grinning with pride
"Even you have to admit it wath pretty funny when I DDOTHed them. And it'th not like they didn't have it coming."
Kris just nods
"It was, yeah. But it meant a lot to Noelle that you'd do something like that for her family."

"It wathn't for her family, it wath becauthe parathiteth like that make me thick."
Veth sighs as she rubs her forehead
"What'th your point, Krith?"
"My point is that you've already changed. You're already better than you were."
A little thrill runs through Veth's body
"I... I'm not. I wish I was, but..."
"You are."
The way Kris looks at her almost makes her believe it
Makes her want to believe it even more than she already did
"Those little things you did for me, for Susie, for Noelle... how much did you think about them? Were they all part of your plan?"
"Of course not! I only remembered they happened at all because you brought them up."
She pauses, eyes narrowing as Kris cocks his head
"So you were able to do all that, all those things that we'll remember for the rest of our lives, without even thinking about it?"
The trap snaps shut.
"Sure sounds to me like you've changed, Veth."
Veth is silent, a strange, distant look on her narrow features
"It's taken a while. I don't blame you if you can't see it yourself. But I want you to know that we do. Remember that."
She says nothing, stares through him, long enough that Kris wonders for a moment if she actually heard any of it
If everything he did, everything he said was for naught
And then Veth sucks in a long, slow breath
Lets it out in a grumbling, growling sigh
"...Fine. If that'th how you're going to be, then fine. I won't thteal the moon. I promithe."
She points at Kris, one fist clenched as her eyes gleam
But something crosses them for a moment, a ghost of a smile, a hint of joy
"But don't think you've won. I'll have my revenge, jutht you wait! Count the dayth until your birthday while you can and prepare, Krith, becauthe I'm going to thow you the birthday to end all birthdayth!"
Kris grins, his teeth sharp and bright in the moonlight
That ferocious hero's grin that always makes her heart skip a beat
"Looking forward to it."

Defeated at the last, Veth takes a moment.
She stuffs her hands into her pockets, sighing as she stares at the sky
Another day, another perfectly good plan thwarted by that damnable Dreemurr, she thinks
Part of her wants very badly to be angry.
But as she turns back to the trail and follows Kris's shadow home, a quiet, almost gentle smile spreads across her face
She used to want it all for herself.
The moon and the seas and everything that lies between.
But now it's meaningless if she can't share them with Kris
If taking the world means losing him.
She knows he doesn't want the world. Wouldn't take the moon even if she forced him to.
It's who he is.
Who she loves.
"How fruthtrating," she mutters under her breath, so softly that it's lost beneath the buzzing cicadas
And yet that smile lingers on her face, all the way home
While she brushes her teeth, while she changes into a shapeless grey nightshirt and stands outside for a while, watching the stars before bed
...Perhaps "frustrating" isn't quite the right word.
"Challenging" might be closer to the truth
And Veth isn't one to back down from a challenge.
He won't take the moon from her.
Won't let her give him the seas.
But the stars...
The smile splits into a devilish rictus
He did say he liked the smaller acts of kindness, didn't he?
Her head starts to buzz with ideas linking into plans that weave into plots, a steel-chain spiderweb of villainous intent
There are so very many stars in the sky, after all.
Surely nobody would miss one or two?