The shiver continues when you feel a pair of hands on your shoulders, large and gloved, you stiffen under their hold on you, you feel scared although you knew whose hands they were. His breath pats the back of your neck, raising goosebumps in your skin, the hands drifts down to your arms ever so slowly, you can hear your heart beat with each second that passes.

Memories start to resurface again, those of that dammed flower, where he touched you was close to where the skeleton is touching you now. Hell, even the atmosphere is similar to that time with the flower. Your body tenses as you feel the urge to defend yourself. . .but. . .the person is different this time. You don't want to hurt him but those memories flash in your subconscious so fast your head starts to hurt.

You sniffle slightly, drawing Papyrus' attention to you in a more focused way, "HUMAN, WHATS WRONG?" He says in a concerned tone.

You sniffle harder and your body shakes in his grasp, he lets go of you and your knees buckle, your breaths are shaky and you tremble as you hug yourself. You hear his footsteps move from behind you and go towards the door, the light turns on and he runs back to your side.

"HUMAN! I'M SO SORRY! I DIDN'T MEAN TO SCARE YOU!" He pats your back but that only makes you tremble more.

Although you're still shaken you have to ask him something, even if your hands are shaking violently.

*You ask him why he was behind you.

"UH. . .W-WELL. . .I-I'M A LITTLE EMBARRASSED TO SAY. . ." He looks away with a sigh but starts to speak again, "YOU SEE, I READ IN A DATING MANUAL FROM THE LIBRARY THAT WHEN YOU LIKE SOMEONE YOU HAVE TO MAKE THEM COMFORTABLE. SOME MONSTERS PREFER THE DARK RATHER THAN LIGHTED AREAS SO I SUSPECTED YOU WERE THE SAME EVEN THOUGH YOU ARE HUMAN. IT SEEMS I HAVE FAILED AT MAKING YOU COMFORTABLE," he attempts to rub your back again, his touch burns against your skin but you let him touch you, "(PLUS YOUR SCENT IS VERY NICE. IT WAS QUITE INTOXICATING AND I COULDN'T STOP MYSELF) I AM DEEPLY SORRY FOR WHAT I HAVE DONE, HUMAN. . .DO YOU HA-!"

You hug him tight, well more the armoured part of his body, weeping into his chest, he jolts but rubs your back and pats your head, shushing you softly for you to stop crying. He's warm, even through the armor, it's soothing. You two stay like that until you cry yourself to sleep, Papyrus picks you up bridal style and places you in his bed which has the frame of a race car, he's about to leave when he realizes you have an iron grip on his scarf.

He tries to pry your hand away but your grip only tightens. He sighs and undoes the scarf, wrapping it around you and you smile softly in your sleep. He tiptoes out the room, still gloomy about what just happened but smiles when he saw how happy you are now, it's late and he's rather tired so he thinks he will sleep with his brother and beg him for a bedtime story.

Time Skip!

When you wake up, your face feels puffy and your eyes burn, you sit up slowly, clutching your head as you look around the room you are in. It's a bedroom but whose? Oh wait- you're in Papyrus' room but where's Papyrus? Memories start to flood to you again, of last night. Oh no, Papyrus must think you're scared of him, damn flower! It's his fault you're all 'no touchie, no touch!' Emperor Kuzco style now!

You sit up slowly, your head spinning but you ignore it and get off the bed, making sure you still have the beanie on your head and your tail is tucked in. You walk out the bedroom (which was open) and onto the balcony, no one is in the living room but you hear clattering, from the kitchen maybe? You head downstairs and walk to the kitchen, finding Sans at the table and Papyrus at the stove.

"Hey kiddo," Sans waves, "good to see you're up, almost thought you were a lazybones like me." He winks.

You hear Papyrus groan but then he perks up when he sees you, "GOOD MORNING, HUMAN!!!" He runs to you and hugs you tight, you stiffen but relax and hug him back, "HOW ARE YOU FEELING?" You know he's talking about last night but it seems he hasn't told Sans.

*You tell him you feel better.

"What's wrong with him?" Sans says raising an eye ridge.

"THE HUMAN WASN'T FEELING WELL ENOUGH FOR OUR DATE SO I HAD TO END IT EARLY." He lies, Sans doesn't look like he's buying it but shrugs anyway.

You sit at the other end of the table when Papyrus said you could, he goes back to the stove, you assume he's cooking spaghetti again.

"So," Sans says while turning to you with his head propped in his hand, "you're a human. . .why?" He sounds so confused although he already knows the answer to that question.

"OH MY GOD SANS!" Papyrus yells while turning around with a plate of spaghetti in his hand, "YOU CANT JUST ASK HIM WHY HE'S HUMAN!!"

"Why not?" Sans snickers.

"WELL BECAUSE-!" He throws his hands up in the air, completely forgetting the plate's in his hand, and throws said plate behind him. It lands with a crash and they both flinch, Sans is trying hard to not laugh and you're there dying trying to keep yours in.

"COULD YOU PLEASE EXCUSE US FOR A MOMENT?" He says to you.

You lean backwards in your chair too far from laughing and fall, you aren't hurt but laughing is making your stomach hurt. When you settle down you climb back up in the chair, Sans has a bruise on his face but a big ass smile on his face and Papyrus is grumbling over the pot of spaghetti. It's a funny sight, but all seriousness aside you have to get back to business. You have to know how to get to the barrier.

*You ask Sans if he knows where the barrier is.

"The barrier? Uh. . .isn't that in the King's Palace?" He asks more to Papyrus.

"OF COURSE IT IS!! SANS YOU KNOW THAT!!" He says, he places a fresh plate of spaghetti in front of you and his brother, sitting in the seat opposite Sans.

"Hehe, oh yeah. You know I don't have the brains to remember stuff sometimes." He winks with his left eye to him, it caught your attention that he only winks with his right eye to you. It doesn't seem like a big deal but it's still bugging you for some reason.

Papyrus grumbles under his breath and glares daggers at him.

*You ask how far it is from here.

"Pretty far kid, you gotta go through Waterfall, Hotlands then the CO- wait. You don't plan on going there, do ya?"

You nod.

"B-BUT HUMAN! THE JOURNEY TO THE BARRIER IS VERY TREACHEROUS, LOTS OF MONSTER WILL BE AFTER YOUR SOUL!"

*You say it's a risk you will have to take.

"THEN I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, SHALL ACCOMPANY YOU ON YOUR JOURNEY!" Sans flinches slightly, like he wasn't expecting his brother to say that.

*You tell him he doesn't have to, you can go by yourself.

"NONSENSE!! HOW IS THE GREAT PAPYRUS SUPPOSED TO CONTINUE HIS DATE WITH THE HUMAN IF THEY ARE NOT IN THE SAME PLACE?!?"

You giggle at him softly and he blushes slightly, he's hell-bent on doing this date with you so it seems.

"Alright Paps, if you wanna take the human to the barrier it's fine by me but I got a bone to pick with him. If you don't mind." He winks at this brother but says the last part to you.

You shrug and nod to him.

"Alright," he says standing up, "we're going to Grillby's."

"B-BUT WHAT ABOUT MY SPAGHETTI??"

*You tell him he can make it to go.

"YOU'RE RIGHT HUMAN!! YOU'RE SO SMART!! NYEHEHEHE!!" He's so adorable.

You and Sans walk out the kitchen and out the door, the town is small but lively and has a sort of Christmasy feel to it, Sans takes a left and leads you to a large diner called 'Grillby's'. The name seems familiar to but you can't place why. Sans opens the door and motions for you to follow, inside is larger than outside and rather warm, all the dogs that you met before are there at a table playing poker and some other monsters are there too. You two walk to the back of the bar to the counter where a fireman was cleaning a glass, wait no- a fire man. He literally made of fire!

"Yo Grillby," Sans says hopping onto a chair, "howzzit glowing?" A feint blue on his face.

Grillby looks up to give Sans an unamused look behind his glasses though you can't see any eyes (or facial features for that matter) but his 'eyes' fall on you. You two make visual contact, you remember this man or at least a little about him, you worked with him for a while in the diner, he was a friend of yours. . .but why aren't you now? He seems to remember you too, he gasps and the glass in his hand slips from his grasp and falls into the sink, possibly shattering.

The whole diner goes silent and everyone turns their heads to you two, including Sans. You cower under everyone's gaze, feeling rather uncomfortable as everyone looks directly at you. The fire man- Grillby clears his throat and tells everyone everything is okay and that the glass just slipped from him, everyone seems to go with his word and everything goes back to normal.

"Woah Grillbz, what has you so rattled?" Sans pipes.

". . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .I'm fine Sans." Oh God, that voice, it could make you melt from just a whisper but he seems a lot quieter than you remember.

The sobbing fire elemental stood in front of you, yellow lava dripping down his face and sizzling as it came into contact with the wooden floor, clutching two butchers knives whose handles whined under his grip. You smiled sadistically as you gripped your own knife, dusty and worn but still sharp. There was a silence between you two, the diner deathly cold even though he was there.

"How could you?" He said, just barely above a whisper, "after all the good times with everyone. . .you choose to do this."

He was wearing a blue jacket with furred hood over his bartender's uniform, you could smell the ketchup from afar, the scowl worsens as he stares directly in your eyes.

"If only your parents could see you now."

Y-Your parents? What did you do? Why was he so angry with you? The memory ends as you two lunge at each other, murder on both your minds.

Your gazes meet again and you feel fright claw at your heart, this man whose voice could melt your heart with a single sound suddenly had you thinking he would burn it to ashes instead.

"Kiddo, you okay?" Sans waved in front of you, you shake out of the stare and look at him with wide eyes, "I said you want some fries?" You nod frantically, "Two orders of fries there, Grillbz."

Grillby nods slowly, still looking at you though, then walks off to a green door with the sign 'fire exit' on it. You smile slightly at the irony, although it feels like you made the connection before.

"Hey kiddo, I wanna ask you something before anything else starts," you nod slowly at him, unsure of what he's going to ask, "have you met Grillby before?" The question is the same one that currently swam through your mind, besides the memory that just popped up.

*You tell him you're not sure but it feels like it.

"Oh. . .okay then. You two looked like you haven't seen each other in a long while, like long lost friends. . .or relatives. . .but no bother if you can't remember." Sans waves off the conversation like a fly buzzing around his food, you feel like he knows more on this topic but decide not to ask. you would prefer to ask him in a private place rather than the busy diner.

Grillby comes back shortly after with two plates of fries and places them in front of you two, he goes back to sink with a cloth and starts to carefully pick up the broken glass and its remains and goes back to the kitchen with the cloth and shards.

"Want some ketchup?" Sans asks, showing you a bottle of ketchup that came out of nowhere. You shake your head and tell him he can have it, he looks at you with a brief shocked look then shrugs, chugging the bottle of ketchup quickly. Like you expected him to do that, but the thought of skeletons consuming anything still puzzles you.

There is a short silence between you and it seems time has slowed to a stop, you look behind you and time did stop, everything is dark and people are stopped in mid action. It's cool yet kind of creepy, the only people that appear to be moving or aware of what is going on are you and Sans.

"So," he says, moving his head slightly so you were in his peripheral vision, "have you ever heard of a talking flower?" He asked you that before, well you know he did, why were you remembering things from people you never met before?

*You tell him you knew about both talking flowers.

Now he is really surprised, like he didn't expect you to say that, like you weren't following the script and he was freaking out inside.

"Y-You do?? Wait, how?"

*You tell him you had this conversation before, you tell him he first talks about the Echo Flower then talks about a different flower that talks to Papyrus sometimes.

Now you feel your hatred for the flower increase knowing he has been around your sexy skeleton.

"Oh. . .so you know about him huh? Has he tried to hurt you?"

*You tell him in the past but not when you fell.

"Oh. . .okay," the color drifted back to the world and everyone started to move again, "well that was interesting, you saved me the trouble explaining again," he sounds so relieved, "so you're still going to the barrier huh?" You nod, "welp, I guess that determination of yours isn't gonna let me stop ya so just be careful out there would ya?" He winks with his right eye again, "take care of my bro too okay?" You nod with enthusiasm, "great!" He ruffles your hair making you chuckle and swat his hand away.

Just then, the doors burst open.

"BROTHER!!!!!!!!" You don't have to think twice to know who that was, "BROTHER! YOU ARE TAKING TOO LONG!!!!!" Sans chuckles and you two look at him, he's flustered and huffing like he ran all the way here.

"Oh come on bro, we were just about to-"

"BROTHER DON'T YOU DARE!!!!

"Spaghetti outta here." He smiles wider, Papyrus groans and you and everyone else laugh.

"NNNNNNNNNGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!! LET'S GO HUMAN!!!! BEFORE HIS PUNS INFECT YOU MORE!!!!!!" He picks you up by your waist and throws you over his shoulder like a fireman, of course you let out a not-so-manly shriek and hold on for dear life, blushing slightly but no one saw. . .except Sans, he gave you a shit eating grin.

Sans laughs and waves goodbye, Papyrus waves too and walks out the door with you in his grip, no one bats an eye at his behavior. Like it's normal when he's involved. He continues to walk East to where you had fought him and walks easily through the fog, 'Nyeh heh heh'ing along the way.

The next part of your journey is beginning, you are closer to getting answers, closer to freeing the monsters from this underground prison, closer to finding out more about your past.

*The journey ahead of you is a treacherous one, filled with different perils that will harm you, monsters that want your soul, but despite all of that. You are filled with determination!!!!!!