Chapter Five

Fries

Frisk woke up. They yawned and turned onto their side, eyes still closed. It was so warm and the bed was so comfortable. Yet… no one had woken them. Where was Cameline? "Cammie?" Frisk mumbled and sat up. They yawned and rubbed their eyes. A flower bloomed in a boot beside them. There was only one bed, and that was the one they slept on. Even then it was a bit big. The walls were plain. Were they in their parent's room? A flash of fear bolted through them. "C-Cammie?"

The flower raised itself so that it was upright. "Frisk? What are going on about?"

Frisk stared at the flower. Suddenly, the events of the days prior caught up to them. Frisk shook their head. "Oh, it was nothing. A weird dream is all. We should get going." They got up, made the bed, and stretched.

Frisk walked out of the building and through the town. They stopped before the great conifer tree. "Whoa!" they breathed. "This tree is so big and fluffy! It's like the Christmas trees my family gets for Christmas!"

"Christmas?" Flowey prompted. "Is that a human holiday?"

Frisk looked down at him in surprise. "What? You've never had Christmas before?"

Flowey hesitated. "I… I remember… I think I heard the name somewhere."

Chara looked up at the tree. A faint smile spread across their lips. "Ask him about New Year's instead."

"Oh. What about New Year's?" Frisk prompted.

Flowey perked up. "New Year's? Oh, yeah. That's the most major holiday in the Underground. Is Christmas like that?"

Frisk shook their head. "No. But they're super close together. What's the New Year like here?"

"Well, everyone gets together with family," Flowey replied. "They bring gifts and often stay home for the entire day of the holiday and sometimes the day prior. It's a… fun holiday. One of the few days the Underground ever sees anything happy without killing something."

"Oh, that sounds beautiful. Christmas is a lot like that. People get together and decorate the house. They buy a big tree like this and decorate it as well. Then we get gifts for each other. No one works on Christmas because everyone's at home with their families. It's one of the happiest days of the year to most people where I live," Frisk explained. "The New Year isn't as special. Everyone gets together to celebrate the New Year. Traditionally, everyone stays up until midnight. On the final minute of the last day of the year, everyone counts down the seconds until the new year. Then we make a promise. We have to promise to do something that year. That's a New Year's Resolution. Do you guys do stuff like that?"

"Most people stay up until midnight to count down until the New Year. But it sounds more like your Christmas than anything else. Anyway, why are we standing here? I think we should get moving."

"Oh, right. We can talk later," Frisk agreed.

As they walked, they found that some people were outside. They were just behind or beside buildings so that Frisk and Flowey couldn't see them from the entrance to the town.

Frisk stopped beside the burger joint known as "Grillby's". "Ooh… it feels pretty warm." Frisk put their hand on the door. Heat radiated out of the place.

Flowey glared at the door. "I don't know. There's going to be plenty of monsters here…"

"Well then… all the more reason to go!" Frisk purred. "People are always friendlier after eating."

"Riiiiight," Flowey agreed and then sighed. "I guess I can't stop you, anyway."

Frisk smiled and walked inside. The spacious room was made smaller as many bodies filled the room. The two hooded dogs were sitting beside each other at the table. Although they ate peacefully, they'd shoot glares at each other on occasion. Greater Dog sat beside Lesser Dog, who barked happily. Ketchup ran down Lesser Dog's snout as he currently ate a hamburger. Greater Dog nearly swallowed Lesser Dog's entire plate of fries whole. Between Greater Dog and Dogeressa, Doggo ate a hamburger. As he couldn't see it without moving, he had to sniff it out in order to eat it. That led to some ketchup, mayonnaise, and grease dirtying his muzzle.

Frisk tentatively approached Dogamy. He sniffed the air but didn't turn toward them. "Beat it, kid."

Dogeressa glowered at Dogamy and turned to them. She asked in a sweet, fake voice, "What do you want, kid?" Dogamy rolled his eyes but didn't retaliate.

"You're sentries, right?" Frisk inquired.

"Yes, we certainly are."

"So, you get to go on patrols and stuff?" Excitement returned to Frisk's voice.

Dogerressa shook her head. "No. We're stuck in that same stupid place all day long. The only people allowed to roam about is, well, Papyrus. He doesn't run the Royal Guard, but he pretends to. The actual leader of the Royal Guard, Captain Undyne? She's no one to mess with, either. She's the real one in charge. I wish that damn skeleton would realize that. But of course no one here's tough enough to defy him. I've seen him in action. He's… not an equal opponent for anyone. Not even my husband and I together."

"So, you don't like them?" Frisk inquired.

"No one likes those two," Dogerressa huffed, quickly losing her "good mood". "At least Sans is tolerable. He's weaker than my husband's ax handle, and is a snarky little shit, but at least he knows not to talk big like his brother. Papyrus won't let anyone touch him so he's basically invincible and he knows it. Doesn't mean he isn't weak."

Doggo huffed, "Tolerable? He's more annoying than Lesser Dog!"

Dogamy ignored Doggo and snickered, "Yeah. Watching them is a blast, though. That little skeleton follows him around like a puppy. If it wasn't for his snarky attitude, I'd think that he was more obedient and easier to roll over than Lesser Dog, too. Speaking of which…" Dogamy turned to the two playful dogs. They barked at each other and wagged their tails. "Shut it! If you're not eating, go outside!" The two immediately stopped and started to whine, round eyes on Dogamy.

Doggo barked, "Ugh! The whining! I rather like them yapping than whining, Dogamy."

"I like neither," Dogamy growled.

Dogeressa turned to the two whimpering dogs. "Go ahead and get another round- on us."

"What?" Dogamy hissed.

"It'll shut them up." Dogerressa shrugged and went back to their meal. Immediately, the two dogs rushed to the counter. A fish and duck leaning on the counter shuffled to the side to allow the two dogs room. The fire monster behind the counter set down his rag and cup and vanished through a wall. He came back with another two servings of burger and fries. The swaying horse on the other end of the counter raised his cup to the two dogs and took another drink. The dogs rushed back to their place.

Dogamy bared his teeth. "That's our money, Softheart!"

Dogerressa turned on him with such speed he nearly jumped back. "What did you just call me?"

Dogamy's ears lay flat against his head. He leaned away from her and pointed his muzzle away. However, her breath still breathed over his muzzle. Dogamy growled in a low voice, "Softheart. You go way too soft on those dogs. They aren't your puppies and never- ALP!" Dogamy yelped as Dogerressa snapped down on his muzzle. She ended up throwing him to the ground. Their axes clattered to the wooden floor. She concentrated all of her weight onto her husband so that she could tear him apart. Although he kicked and hit her and attempted to bite, his struggles were weak. It was as if he couldn't physically hurt her.

Frisk glanced at the bar. Grillby, sighing, brought out a laser-like stick from under the counter. The rest of dogs backed away. The entire bar was now concentrated on them. Frisk took their plates and slammed them together as hard as they could above the quarreling dogs. The married canines, shocked, paused their fighting. Frisk took off their coat, which caused Flowey to hit the ground under them, and held it between the quarreling dogs so that instead of seeing each other, they only saw red and maroon stripes. The plates clanged against the table. Frisk got between the once quarreling couple. "Stop." Their voice took a hard command none of them expected them to hold. The Dogi didn't make a move against them. "I'm going to back away. You will not continue your fight. Understand?" The couple didn't move. Frisk took a few steps back. If they had the will, the dogs could attack each other again. Yet they did not. They stayed watching Frisk with wide eyes and open mouths.

Frisk took a deep breath and put on their coat again. Their voice did not waver from the command they'd taken on. "Is this how you treat each other? All I've ever heard here is that people kill each other. It's hard, isn't it? Living in a world where you don't have friendly neighbors? Where you clock in and know that you'll be attacked? If you don't do your job correctly, you'll badly punished? Yet you've just mauled your husband, Dogerressa! He's badly hurt. Not to mention you attacked her, Dogamy. Where I come from, couples do everything in their power to make sure their loved one doesn't get hurt. I don't want to want to hear any excuses. You're both in the wrong. Now I want you two to get back to your business. You two will not even bare your teeth at each other. Understand?"

Dogamy, snout tipped down so that his teeth didn't accidently show, prompted, "And what do you think you'll do, Pup?"

Frisk bristled and took a step toward him. Dogamy shuffled back and whimpered. "I told you so, that's why! And it's the right thing to do. Now you both know as well as I that I would never hurt you." Their voice softened and they got out of their aggressive stance. They picked up Flowey and zipped up their coat again. "I do think the both of you deserve mercy. But your fighting is out of control. By your scars, this isn't the first time it's happened. But this will be the last, okay?" Frisk held out a hand. Dogamy recoiled. "Come on. Take my hand. I won't hurt you." The dog shut his mouth tight and flattened his ears. However, he still took their hand and accepted their aid in getting up. Frisk let go and turned to Dogerressa. She accepted their help, too. "I'm not going to hurt either of you. I absolutely refuse to do so. You two do have the ability to be kind. I know that you two love each other. So, this is going to be the last time you two ever get in a fight like this, okay? I won't have to intervene again. Those wounds look pretty nasty. I don't know how to heal. But I am good at helping people. So, if you need any help, just ask, okay? I'll be glad to do so."

Dogamy's mechanical voice piped up, "Er, yes, Frisk."

Dogerressa gave them a pained smile. "Yes, Puppy. You are quite kind. I will pay forward your kindness. You need only call for our help and we will be there. We're not good at diplomacy, but we're good at kicking tail."

Frisk giggled. "Thank you! Hopefully no one will need to get hurt, but it's always great having new friends! Good-bye!" They waved to the dogs and bounded outside. Flowey bundled up deeper into Frisk's jacket as the cold smacked the two in the face.

Flowey looked up at them. "Frisk?"

Frisk stopped. "Yes, Flowey?"

"What was that? I've never seen you act like that before."

"Huh? Telling them to stop fighting? Oh! Well, my sister taught me that. We had dogs at our house. Sometimes, dogs will fight. I didn't mean to come off as aggressive, just assertive. I didn't want to hurt them. I just want them to know what they did was wrong and hope that they don't do it again. Does that make sense?"

Flowey nodded. "Yes. But you… I didn't know you could talk like that. You're always so… enthusiastic or quiet."

Frisk chuckled, "Yeah! Well, sometimes, you just need to give people a bit of… tough love!"

Farther down the road, they passed the library and then the large wooden house. Flowey looked up at it. "Well, it's the biggest house on this street. There's a creepy shed beside it. And this house gives me bad vibes. So, it probably belongs to someone, or some people, who we don't like."

Frisk nodded. "Maybe. But… um…" They stared down the road. A snowy storm had picked up farther down the road. Although a heavy wind carrying snowflakes swept through the town, the snow in the road out of the city was thicker.

"Go find a save point again," Flowey advised. "Then… well… this is something we have to do."

"Maybe I can reason with him," Frisk offered, turned, and walked back to the save point. "I mean, he was happy with the way I solved his puzzles, right? Maybe I can convince him to… um… not fight…?"

Flowey shook his head. "I want to believe you. But… but I don't. Frisk, this guy is very dangerous. Everyone's afraid of him! If we're not careful, we could get killed! Or worse!"

"I know." Frisk touched the yellow sparkle. No commentary came in response. "I just… don't like this."

"I don't either," Flowey reassured them. "But we can get through this. If we believe in ourselves… and if you can run really fast… we can do anything."

"you aren't thinking of running, are you?" Frisk jumped at turned around. Sans stood behind them, leaning on the inn's doorway. The door was open a crack so cool air filtered into the warm inn. An unheard complaint came from inside. The word 'Sans' dressed it quite well. "not only is that cowardly, and maybe you think it's smart, but he'll track you down. he always does."

"…yeah…" Flowey replied. "Let's go, Frisk."

The smaller skeleton swept in front of Frisk to effectively cut them off. "hey."

"Oh! Hello, Sans!" Frisk smiled. Flowey grimaced. "Um… what are you up to?"

"not getting killed. you?"

Flowey mumbled, "Probably going to get killed."

"Flowey! Don't say that!" Frisk scolded. "We'll be fine. We just have to stay determined!"

"yeah, yeah. nice." Sans waved his hand. "so. i'm going to grillby's. wanna join me?"

Flowey hissed, "Frisk, no."

Frisk nodded. "Flowey, yes."

"Frisk no!" Flowey groaned and flopped his head forward.

Sans smirked and strolled into the diner. "welp. good thing we're close, huh?"

Frisk nodded and followed him into the hot building. "At least it's warm here, Flowey."

Flowey grumbled and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah."

Sans sat down at the bar and waved for Frisk to join them. The young human immediately sat beside him. They glanced back. The Dogi had sat back up and were now eating another round of food. They were no longer bleeding and were only mildly hurt, now. The other dogs were quiet. When they noticed Frisk had reentered, the married dogs made sure that Frisk saw their smiles. Lesser Dog and Greater Dog showed off their teeth in doggy smiles. The bird who was on the stool next to Frisk and Sans glanced at the human and then back to his fish friend. "so, uh, frisk, right? yeah. fries or burg?"

Frisk looked down at Flowey. Flowey huffed, "I wouldn't eat what he gave me if I was starving."

Frisk pouted and looked back up at Sans. "Um… sure. French fries. But, uh, I can't spend anything."

"eh. sound's good. i'll cover it this time." Sans raised his hand. "grillby! we'll have a double order of fries!"

Soundlessly, the blue fire monster turned and swept into the next room. He came back within moments with two plates of fries.

"hey! it's not burned this time! step up, eh?" Sans chuckled.

Grillby stared at him for the longest time before walking to the drunken horse, who was out of drink.

Flowey huffed, "See? No manners."

Sans went on, "so. i've been meaning to ask you: i have just the oddest feeling around you. like, uh, i'm forgetting something. but i have something more pertinent to you: my boss. i have this feeling that you are really not going to have a good time fighting him."

Frisk shook their head. "I don't want to fight Papyrus. I just want to talk to him."

"well, i'm not sure you're going to have a choice, kid," Sans pointed out. "mustard?"

"Huh?" Frisk tipped their head.

"mustard. the condiment. do you want some?"

"Er, no thanks," Frisk denied with a short shake of their head.

"whatever you say," Sans shrugged, took off the cap, and drank it.

Flowey bared his teeth in disgust. "What the- are you literally drinking that?"

"yeah? so?"

Flowey rolled his eyes. "Why am I surprised?"

A hand created of blue-red flames hit the fireproof bar table. Grillby's eyes were censored behind small, rectangular glasses. Sans raised his hands. "hey! what's that look for? i'm not doing anything wrong!"

Flowey grinned. "Hey! His coat is super fluffy! Is it fireproof, too?" The bartender shot an odd look at the flower.

Frisk gasped and pouted. "Flowey! Come on! Wishing bad on other people is horrible."

Flowey turned around and looked at Frisk. "Frisk. I love you, but please."

Frisk shrugged. "I'm just saying. If you're mean to someone whose mean, are you not stooping to their level? It's much better to be nice to people, even to people you hate."

Flowey sighed. "Moral of the day. Can we leave?"

Frisk gasped, "Oh! Right!" They turned back to Sans. "Sorry, what were we talking about?"

"nothin' really," Sans replied and lay his hands on the table again. "but as i was sayin', you don't have a chance against my boss. he's the best, after all."

"So… you wanted us here to gloat?" Flowey inquired.

"pretty much."

"Well then we don't need an adorable little bundle of fluff wasting our time," Flowey huffed. "We have a fight to get to."

"adorable?" Sans' pupils vanished. Activity around the place came to a slow as the anticipation of a fight with Sans, and inevitably Papyrus, was about to take place.

"And fluffy," Flowey cooed. "Oh golly! Your coat makes you look so cute and fluffy."

San's shark-tooth smile turned in a sinister grin. He raised his hand almost as if to prop his head but instead let his fingers brush the furry lining of his jacket. Grillby backed off with a standoffish stare at Sans before meeting the horse. The bird and fish nearby looked at Sans, then Frisk, and then back to each other. The once rowdy dogs started to move their hands to their weapons. "is that right, little flower?"

"Quite right," Flowey agreed. "Is that why you roll over for him all the time? Is it because you're fluffy and adorable and can't actually fight?" Not one laugh came in agreement.

"now where would you get an idea like that?" Sans inquired.

Flowey smirked. "No one needed to tell me, Sans. Just like no one needs to tell me that he's a skeleton with standards and you're his lazy lackey."

Sans laughed, the little red lights coming back to his eyes. He set his hand back down on the table. "have you been practicing this on frisk because i'm pretty sure no real monster would fall for that."

"Are you trying to pretend you're a real monster, now?" Flowey inquired. San's fingers clawed into the table and his eyes, completely black, narrowed into slits. All attention was taken away as people stared at their meals in complete silence.

"what, exactly, are you trying to say?"

Frisk froze, eyes round. Flowey's smirk wavered. He glanced about to find that not one soul looked at him much less encouraged him. Chara set their hand on Frisk's shoulder. "You should move." Frisk didn't answer them.

Flowey straightened and looked at Sans. "You and your stupid brother don't scare us."

"Flowey!" Frisk squeaked. "You're going to get us killed!"

Flowey bared his wicked teeth in a sneer. "Yeah? What's he going to do about it?"

Sans' forced smile widened. He gently hovered the fingers of his left hand over his collar. "oh, don't worry, little flower. you won't have to worry about anything any longer."

"What are you talking about?" Flowey's voice wavered in the slightest.

"Frisk. You have to go! Now!"

"I-I-I- c-c-can't," Frisk squeaked. "C-c-c-c–"

Chara groaned in exasperation and shoved their hand into Frisks' chest. A sudden heat flowed through their chilled veins. Frisk's conscious was pushed aside. Their eyes glowed scarlet. Sans raised an eyebrow. Chara smirked. "Two can play at that game, Sans the Skeleton. Calling on your brother, hmm? Well, thank you. He was just the person we wanted to talk to." Chara took Sans' hand and then grabbed his collar in the same one. Sans gasped in surprise as Chara not only grabbed him, but threw him off balance so that he fell to the ground. "I'm sorry Sansy, I truly am. But we have- have to-" Frisk's eye dulled brown. Chara appeared beside them. "Grrr- Frisk!"

"No!" Frisk snapped, one hand on their head. "I'm not hurting him! I'm not hurting anyone. I told you that!" They knelt and held out their hand for Sans. He stared at them and recoiled from their touch. "It's okay. I won't–"

CRACK!

Frisk jumped back with a yell of fright. A scarlet bone splintered a portion of the counter.