Your eyes locked with Flowey's for a moment, drawing all of your attention. He looked… almost sad. It was a strange expression to see on the flower, but before you could do anything about it another large splash hit you square on, sending you back a couple steps in the shallow water.
"NYEHEHEHEH! Rule number two of combat: NEVER TURN YOUR BACK TO YOUR ENEMY!" Papyrus declared, more magic bones flying down at the water, causing a miniature wave to topple over you. You did your best to stand your ground, giving him a quick splash back once you got the water from your eyes. "Rule number one is to always be yourself and have fun!" He smiled, putting his hands on his hips.
"Of course." You nodded as if thanking a wise teacher for his information, and promptly leapt at Papyrus to try and pull him under the water. You managed to grab onto his left shoulder, but apparently he was much stronger than you thought. And apparently taller than you remembered.
"Interesting technique!" He admired, looking at you as you hung from his shoulder, completely unfazed. You adjusted your feet to stand on his hipbone, pulling at his shoulder and trying to use your own weight to pull him over. How in the world was he still standing fine?
"Come on! You are supposed to fall!" You gritted your teeth, bouncing and leaning as much as you could without falling off yourself.
"Oh! My apologies!" Papyrus looked surprised, finally realizing what you were doing, and immediately started leaning.
"Waitwaitwai-blllgggghhhh!" You flailed as the skeleton fell on top of you into the water, realizing your mistake too late. Some of the salty water rushed up your nose, burning the inside of your mouth a bit before you were pulled out of the water, sputtering.
"There we go! Was that satisfactory?" Papyrus asked, goofy grin on his face. You coughed a bit, trying your hardest to smile back to the skeleton.
"Yes you-cough-did great, Papyrus." You pat him on his arm. He looked proud of himself and you couldn't help but laugh a little. "I need some-cough-time on land. You can keep playing though." You smiled to him and started heading for shore. Papyrus seemed disappointed for a moment, before sending more bones into the water and splashing around him. How in the world did people still think monsters were a threat?
You scanned the sand for the flower again, but he was nowhere in sight. Instead, you noticed a semi transparent, amorphous monster beside Sans under the umbrella. You felt a familiar shiver down your spine and quickly, but calmly, headed towards it.
"What are you doing?" You asked quietly to the monster… Gaster, you remembered. It seemed shocked that you saw it, jumping slightly and tucking its head more into its dark body. It looked between you and Sans for a moment, before 'standing up' again, pointing a holed hand to Sans. He was still asleep, but you could tell he was likely in the middle of a nightmare. Hands balled into fists, body shaking ever so slightly, mouth twisted into a frown.
You felt a dull anger build inside of you, and being this close to the monster was dulling the sensation in your hands to dull static at your fingertips. "Are you doing that?" You asked, kneeling by Sans. Gaster held out his hands and rolled his head side to side slightly. Whispers of some other language started teasing the edges of your mind, but you tried your best to ignore it. "Go on, shoo. You're giving him nightmares." You focused on Sans, resting a hand onto his skull. The effects were immediate, and Sans' features softened and relaxed just at your touch.
Gaster leaned down, tilting his head while looking between the two of you, a twisted smile replacing his worried frown. His mouth opened. "HerrISPeN heem IEM pleb whuEEb." His strange voice clashed with itself, sounding like itself was something that didn't belong in this reality. Smiling even more, he backed up out of the shadows, and vanished into the sunlight, taking the numbness and the whispers with him.
Exhaustion hit you like a truck, suddenly feeling like you just finished running a marathon. Your nerves felt almost painfully oversensitive now that you could feel again. You took a few breaths and closed your eyes, trying to calm yourself.
"Hmm?" Sans hummed under you, shifting slightly. You pulled back your hand and looked down at him, seeing him crack open his eye sockets. "Oh, hey there."
You forced a smile. "Hey. How'd you sleep?"
"Pretty good I guess, I was having a decent dream until something happened… I can't quite remember it. But I guess it got better again before you woke me up, so that's something." He sat up, stretching. He smiled at you a moment before noticing something off. "Hey… everything okay?"
You nodded, sitting back and trying to keep your nerves under control. "Yeah. Just, uh, had to scare away Gaster when you were sleeping." You gave a quick laugh, deciding it would be best to be honest.
"Oh. That explains the dream then, heh." Sans rubbed the back of his head. "You don't have to worry about him, just so you know. He used to hate humans, but now he's kinda… cool with them, I guess. Not like he can do much either way. He doesn't exist here, so there's no shame in ignoring him if he's just… around." Sans tried explaining.
"Wasn't he your brother? Doesn't this… upset you?" You asked, somewhat confused that his main reaction to a haunting brother would be to 'ignore him.'
"If you haven't noticed by now, it can get kind of hard to feel anything around him. I've been dealing with this for many years by now, it just got old. Though to be honest, I'm surprised you're taking it so well." He looked confused.
"Ha… I guess I was just more worried what he was doing to you than anything else. I didn't want you going through another Gaster Blaster transformation if I could help it." You ran a hand through your hair, trying not to think more about those days. Sans nodded, agreeing. He started to stand up, but you kept sitting on the sand. "Besides… he does seem pretty chill now. He even tried speaking to me."
Sans froze. "What?"
"You know, he looked at me and was all 'bloop blop eeeep' and stuff." You tilted your head for every mock word for Gaster, trying your best to impersonate the blob monster.
"Do you know exactly what he said?" Sans asked, looking rather concerned. You regretted not paying more attention to the gibberish.
"Uh, no, I have no idea. Sorry, to be honest it sounded like random sounds." You shook your head, and Sans only looked more worried.
"That's… okay. Most of the time it is just nonsense, but he lives in an entirely different plane of existence so you can't always be sure." Sans held out a hand for you, and you accepted it, pulling yourself up. "For now though, maybe it'd be a good idea to relax back at home.
"Right." You nodded. Sans called out to Papyrus as you rolled up the towel, and the three of you started heading home.
.
The walk was rather uneventful, mostly Papyrus excitably talking about Mettaton, and how he was eager to see the pictures when they were done. He was such a positive monster, it felt contagious and gave you a smile as well.
Once you got to the door to your apartment however, you remembered seeing Flowey look upset back at the beach. "Actually," you started, opening the door and letting the brothers in. "I think I'm going to… train. With a friend."
"You sure?" Sans asked, seeming slightly uncertain about you going before catching himself. "Well, grab something to snack on at least. You want me to come with and watch?" He asked, heading to the kitchen.
"No, thank you though. We'll mostly be talking anyway." You grabbed the clothes you brought from the beach and slipped them on over your swimsuit now that you were dry again.
"Okay, sounds good. Though, if it starts getting dark, best just stay with them, alright? Text me if you need anything, and I'll be there before you can blink." Sans walked back to you, handing you a paper bag with a wink and smile. You smiled back.
"Sure thing, vertebae." You gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, and left the apartment with the paper bag in hand. Closing the door, you stretched, feeling a slight excitement at thinking of seeing Flowey again. Who knows what you two would do today. You weren't entirely feeling up for a fight, but you did want to at least talk to the flower. Maybe figure out why he looked sad. Did he remember resets as well?
You turned to walk down the sidewalk, freezing a few yards away from the alleyway entrance. Your heart hammered, and the world seemed to darken slightly as you stared at a part of the sidewalk. The buildings around you shifted, seeming like everything solid suddenly sputtered, squares of misplaced color floating in the air for fractions of a second at a time. Sans was on the ground, but then with a flicker he wasn't. Ugly voices echoed without a source, all-too-familiar lines being spoken.
A gunshot.
You yelped, stepping back with newfound control of your body. Gaster stood in front of you, head tilting. Your body was numb already from his presence, but he simply stood within inches of you, looking down at you with hollow droopy eyes and a slight smile. You couldn't help but notice that he seemed much more real than back at the beach.
He stared at you for a moment, before turning his attention to the road. He looked to his left, then right, and left again before finally crossing the road. He moved a bit like a slug, you observed, though you've never seen a slug that big, or dark, or fast, or actually made of slime… okay, not much like a slug, but you were trying your best to compare him to something real. Once he got to the other side he turned and looked at you.
"Oh." You blinked, realizing he thought you were following. You looked both ways before jaywalking after him. The further you got from the alleyway the better you felt, and the world felt more solid in general. Gaster nodded to you, walking-well… rolling? Sliming? How does one move when made of slime? Well, however they do, he continued to do it down the sidewalk.
"Gaster?" You stepped beside him, and he looked down at you. It was rather startling when he did, as his body didn't shift around and bend to look at you, like most bodies. Instead his mask-like face simply moved across the slime till it faced you, sending a chill down your spine. "Are you a good guy?" You asked, unsure. He only smiled, mask shifting back up to normal position like he was looking where he was going.
"Okay. Just wanted to make sure." You walked with the monster, trying your best not to stare at him while you were in public. It seemed like no one else could see him, yet a man talking on his cellphone appeared to consciously walk around him. You continued to quietly walk beside him until the park became visible, and he suddenly vanished.
Feelings returned, along with some exhaustion. You tried to shake it off, and stepped into the trees of the park.
"Hehehehehe…. What are you doing back here?" A voice moved around you as you crossed into the trees, making your way to the clearing.
"Figured I should chat with my friend." You said loud and clear for the flower, breaking into the clearing. Flowers of all kinds we growling beautifully, giving you an idea.
"…Friend?" Flowey's rough voice softened, and he appeared beside you. "You… remember?" He asked, seeming confused.
"Of course." You kneel down by the flower, looking at his startled face. It was strange, his entire face shape seemed able to shapeshift, and looked slightly longer than usual. "I figured we could talk. All we've really done so far is spar, and friendships need more than that." You give him a quick pat on the head before standing.
"I… but… Really?" He seemed confused, face shifting back to its old self. "Why the sudden change of heart? How can you remember the reset?!" He demanded, ducking under the ground and appearing beside you.
You shrugged and walked towards the willow, grabbing a few pretty flowers here and there. "No idea." You said as casually as you could, deciding to hold onto the proper answer for later, and continuing to grab pretty flowers.
"And…. you're cool with it?!" Flowey reappeared in front of you, utterly confused. You nodded, walking past him and sitting against the willow tree, placing the flowers beside you. He appeared to your other side. "Oh." He seemed at a loss for words. "So… you really just wanted to talk to me?" He asked.
"Yep." You answered, grabbing two of the flowers with longer stems and started to tie them together. "I want to know more about you." You give him a smile, pulling the knot of the stems tight and grabbing another flower.
"There isn't much to say about me, I'm just-"
"Just a flower that was left in the underground all alone." You finished repeating what he said when the two of you first met. "I think 'just a flower' is enough to start with. There aren't any other flower monsters that I've seen, and these flowers certainly are not sentient beings." You motioned to the chain of flowers you were tying together. "So you aren't a monster, not a human, and most definitely not 'just a flower.'" You put down the flowers for a moment, looking at him. "So… What are you?"
He was frozen, baffled by you. "You… you think you're so clever, don'tcha?!" He suddenly asked as if he was offended.
"Yeah." You reply plainly, completely catching him off guard. Again.
"Well! ….You aren't entirely wrong." He admitted, looking away. "But I really am just… a flower. I don't have a Soul like you or other monsters out there." He sank slightly into the ground.
"How'd you lose it?" You asked, continuing to tie flowers together.
"Wha-what? How'd you know about that?!" He jerked up, looking at you with a panicked expression.
"A guess. You said you 'forgot' that folks with Souls need to give permission for it. So that means you either were in a friendly enough relationship with someone to learn that, or you had one in the first place. Seeing how you were a 'lonely little flower left in the underground,' I figured if you had a friendly relationship with someone then they wouldn't have left you alone for all that time. So, I figured you had a Soul at one point. Then there's the way you reacted to the question, soooooo…." You spun a finger in the air. "I made connections."
Flowey looked shocked, like you had beaten him at his own game. "You really are clever…" He mumbled under his breath. "But why should I tell you that sort of thing?! It's not like I know your life story!" He yelled at you, and you simply dropped the small flower crown onto his head, stopping his anger short.
"We'll take turns. You first."
