It had been ten years since Susie and Kris had gone to the Darkner World. Now, both of them were 24. Not much had changed between the two of them. Kris looked almost exactly the same as they always had. Susie, however, had changed her style more drastically. Bangs still covered the monster girl's yellow eyes, but she had taken to putting her dark purple hair up in two high pigtails, and recently dyed it ginger, also getting a septum piercing and growing a pretty large pair of tits. Soon, it was time for their high school reunion. "Hey, Kris.", she greeted in the same raspy voice with the same toothy grin.

Kris waved with their right hand. "Still not much of a talker, I see... um, do you wanna try going through the portal? I mean, supply closet?" Kris nodded their approval, and the pair was soon in the Darkner World again. This time, they ended up nearer to the castle than the first time. "The king...", Susie winced, remembering Lancer's abusive father. Nervously, she knocked on the front door of the impressive castle.

Lancer walked up to the door. Who the fuck had come to visit him? The new king of spades had been pretty lonely since Susie left and didn't come back... Sighing and trying his damndest not to think of Susie, Lancer opened the door without much enthusiasm, only to see a vision of beauty before him. A purple lizard girl with two ginger pigtails and bangs covering her eyes. He could see her beautiful yellow orbs peeking through a bit. She had freckles and a big toothy smile, and wore a pastel pink choker with a matching babydoll dress. However, she was still the same Susie as always, proven through her jet black fishnet tights and combat boots.

"W-wow... you got pretty..." She chuckled. "So did you, kid." Susie honestly meant it. Lancer had gotten a lot taller and more... muscular.

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The two monsters just stood and stared at each other for a long time. "A-are you sure you're Susie?", asked Lancer. Susie rolled her eyes from underneath her hair. "Duh, I'm Susie. I just... grew up, I guess..." She giggled nervously, lifting a claw to play with one of her pigtails.

"Honestly, I sort of... I thought this world was imaginary for a few years.", confessed Susie. Lancer winced, thinking about all the time he had spent thinking about Susie, wondering how she was, what she was doing, and all the while she had apparently thought he was some sort of imaginary friend she had made up at age fourteen.

Lancer didn't say anything in response to that, so Susie continued. "But I didn't wanna believe you weren't real, so... I sort of changed myself. Dropped the whole goth thing for some cute pastel pink clothes, dyed my hair ginger. Sometimes I still miss really being me..." Lancer thought about this for a minute, remembering how Susie had helped him in his time of need, defending him from his abusive dad. He owed her something back, right?

Without thinking, Lancer rushed forward and hugged the now crying Susie. Surprisingly, her head only came up to his chest now. Susie apparently noticed this height difference as well. "Woah, guess I'm the little one now...", she said, expecting a boasting and amusing response from Lancer, but all she got was a half-hearted "y-yeah..."

Susie frowned. "You're not the Lancer I remember. What the fuck happened?" Part of her still expected him to say "Woah! That's a tier two swear word! You're awesome, purple girl!", and she would say, "Not really... I'm not the best person to look up to, kid..." and play with her spiky bracelets. But he said, "I've been l-lonely..." and stared at the ground. Susie wanted everything to be the same as it had always been. Overly confident little kid who wants to impress his dad and the edgy goth chick. But now it was the lonely young adult who wanted someone to love and the girl who hid her emotions and true self. Susie sighed.

Susie stood there in front of Lancer, her mind wandering back ten years in the past, when they had first visited the Darkner World.

"Hey, um, that wasn't too bad, kid...", Susie had grinned when she saw little Lancer's attempt at being scary. "Really?! You really think so, purple girl?!", he had beamed, bouncing up and down so much she remembered thinking he would cause an earthquake. Tears streamed down Susie's face as she wrapped her arms around Lancer. "...I-I missed you, kid...", she managed to choke out. "I missed you t-too, Susie...", said Lancer, blushing. "Wanna see my castle? I'm the King now, remember?" The monster girl nodded, and so he took her hand as they ran to his castle. If Susie closed her eyes, she could almost feel like she was 14 again, and he was 11. It was a lot less lonely than her apartment.

Lancer's room was really big. The walls were lavender, and his bed had a deep purple comforter. Susie noted how he seemed to like the color purple, but she never made the connection that it was because of her. "Hey, Lancer, do you still tuck your motorcycle into bed?", she giggled softly, a lot softer than Lancer thought Susie could ever be. It caught him off guard, and he couldn't respond for a few seconds, but eventually did. "O-oh, I don't have a motorcycle anymore...", confessed Lancer. A confused frown formed on Susie's face. "What? Why not?" "I-I've taken up quieter hobbies, like drawing." Every night, Lancer would stay up as late as he could remain awake and draw. Normally, he would draw Susie and him with their future children, or just Susie, or something like that.

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