Scorpion Grass, a flower that means remembrance or lack there of. Also called "forget-me-not".

"Darling, can you pass me that pot?" You gesture to the largest one in the cabinet you had been rummaging. Papyrus nods and you pull the beast out, passing it over into the skeletons waiting hands.

"Here's the lid too." You walk over with it, watching as Papyrus measures out the water to pasta ratio. It was weird seeing him so quiet. Honestly it was weird that you could now eat his food. Not only was he cooking edible pasta but it was amazing.

But you should've known that already. It had been ten years, after all, since all of the monsters lived on the surface.

A time that you no longer could remember.

You hadn't told anyone about what happened at the anniversary. Part of it was because you didn't want there to be something else for everyone to fret about. Part of it was because you didn't know how to explain.

You still don't know exactly what happened.

The past ten years that you supposedly lived, thrived, on the surface with the monsters from that Underground were a blur. Sometimes you'd remember snippets of events, but those were starting to fizzle out too.

You remembered the Underground, your adventure there, as if it was just yesterday. And ever since the anniversary you've had no trouble remembering the days you've spent breaking down in your room.

The ten years between were just… Gone.

You only went by what people said. You tried not to be surprised by things that supposedly happened years ago.

For instance, you currently worked at a monster and human university that Frisk founded and also attended.

Trying to relearn a job you had for multiple years was annoying. But doable.

Trying not to lose your shit when you found out you and Sans were dating was a whole other thing.

Because that had happened. Apparently. You had found a picture of the both of you in your room. You hadn't thought much about it until you read the captain. "first date!", dated to the year after the barrier broke.

You nearly passed out.

At that point you had turned your room over to find any scrap of evidence that the two of you were still dating.

If the extra blue jacket, multiple single socks without a pair, and the numerous photos of the two of you weren't evidence, you didn't know what would be.

That night you had really broken down. A sobbing, gasping kind of breakdown that eventually caught the metaphorical ear of Sans.

That night he stayed with you, holding you, assuming you had a nightmare. You had told him to leave through your sobs, feeling wrong to accept his comfort when you never remembered it in the first place, but he wouldn't. He told you he'd never leave you.

He didn't ask what set you off.

You didn't tell him it was because you didn't remember your relationship with him.

You still felt disgusted with yourself.

"Darling?" You jerk as Papyrus slips the lid from your hands. You still weren't used to Papyrus's quieter talk and the pet name "darling". You had assumed he'd picked it up from watching so much MTT. You didn't dare ask. "I asked if you could get me the plates." You gave a jerky nod and hurried off.

You reached for a cabinet and paused when you heard Papyrus make a noise.

"Not that one." You feel your cheeks burn as you lean up and over to the one on the left. You check him to see him nod and then pull out multiple plates.

After he served his dish the two of you sat at the small dining table nestled in the corner of the kitchen. There were only two chairs, as the skele bros lived alone.

You were still trying to wrap your mind around that part. For some reason you thought the skeletons lived with Toriel, or at least closer to her than the other side of town.

Then again you also swore you lived with your mother. Come to find your mother was in rehab, sorry, back in rehab because apparently she'd gone, come out, and then relapsed- all events you don't remember.

At the moment you at least knew, for sure, that you lived with Toriel. You and Frisk. A morning or two ago she'd commented how much she had missed the two of you and how happy she was to have you both back. So apparently you had lived with Toriel, but then you had moved out? And then moved back in? You didn't know and you couldn't ask and it took too much of you to try and work it out.

What was nice was finding out that though you lived with Toriel, you had a place for you in multiple homes.

For instance, it apparently wasn't weird for you to spend multiple days sleeping over at Papyrus and Sans's house. Toriel had brought it up, wondering when you were going to go over. Over the ten years it seemed you had made it a habit. You originally chalked it up to you and Sans supposedly dating, but then came to find Frisk came with you more often than not.

A week ago you found a spare room for you in Undyne and Alphys place. And of course there was space for you at Asgore's, though small. Even Mettaton had come to you and wondered when you had time to sleep over.

You pick up the dishes from you and Paps lunch, offering to clean them since he'd cooked. He looked ready to put up a fight but paused when his phone rang.

"This is the great Papyrus." He answered. You snorted at the familiar flare. He stepped out of the room and you turned to the dishes.

You blink.

There's a pop.

You're standing in front of the sink, hand hanging in midair over it still holding the dirty plate, but the room is nearly pitch black.

The only source of light is the moonlight streaming in through the window. Your hands start shaking.

You take a step back, looking all around the kitchen you'd just been in. Seconds ago. It'd only been seconds.

"It's not nice ta jus' drop in, ya know." You jump at the sudden voice. Whipping around you see a faint glowing blue light through the doorway to the living room. "Don't know what kinda skeletons we got in our closest-"

Sans walks out, frown and glare in place, but stops, seeing you. The blue light in his eyes flickers out the same time the kitchen lights turn on.

"What…" He trails off, looking you over. "Kid what're you doin' here?" He looks to the dirty plate clenched tightly in your hands. "I mean if ya wanted some food…"

"Sorry." You blurt. You set the plate down and squeeze your hands together to stop their shake. "I didn't mean to wake you. Just woke up and wanted a midnight snack." You force a laugh. Sans pockets his hands and looks you over again.

"Were you up with Pap? I haven't seen ya all day." Guilt churns in your stomach as you avoid his pinpricks.

"Sorry, Sans. Me and Paps were just hanging out today." You rub your arm. "Imma head back up. I'm kinda tired-" You turn to leave the kitchen and quickly escape upstairs. You planned to wait for Sans to shuffle off to his room before you left the house entirely. You didn't feel well enough to stick around-

"You weren't with Papyrus." you freeze up. You feel your heart in the bottom of your stomach. "Paps said you disappeared after lunch."

You feel a chill go up your spine.

"What's goin' on." You whip around, ready for Sans to be angry with you.

You weren't expecting to see the broken look he leveled at you.

"I told ya if there's anythin' wrong," he shuffles up to you and gently, so gently, scoops up your trembling hands. "That ya could talk to me. Ya know I listen." He lets out a shaky breath and you feel tears prick your eyes. "Talk to me kid. When'd'ya start leavin' me in the dark?" He tugs at you, trying to pull you into a comforting hug. Your chest coils and you lurch away.

At the moment his touch, his pained look, it all hurt. You felt gross about yourself. You couldn't keep doing this to him. To all of your friends.

What was going on with you?

"Kid-" Sans starts but you're gone.

You slam into the front door and force it open. You stumble out and run

You keep running.

There's a fresh bed of snow waiting for you as you dart through it. Sans and Papyrus lived on the outskirts so immediately you're running into the black freezing woods.

You were crazy.

You were going crazy.

You weren't you and they weren't them and how could it have been ten years if you had just been in the Underground a week ago and-

"You are not supposed to be here."

You trip over your own feet and fall face first into the snow. Your arm is dragged over something hidden and sharp and you hiss in pain.

You heave in air, the coldness burning your lungs in a way that grounds you. You lay in the snow for a moment, trying to stop your racing, blank mind.

"I asked you before but I will ask you again…" The voice is in your ear. You shakily pull yourself up onto your chilled hands and knees. Your body is shivering, because you're in short sleeves in the dead of night in a pile of snow, but you can't feel the cold.

You watch blood run a river down your arm.

"Who. Are. You?"

"I don't know." You admit, your breath catching as tears blur your eyes. "I don't know anymore."

A different kind of black edges at the top of your vision. Looking up you see the same skeletal monster from before, at the anniversary.

He reaches out a hand. You stare through the hole in it down at your knuckles.

You let him drag you up to your feet.

"...Is this all happening because I'm… Not supposed to be here?" You ask as you drop his hand. It felt like bone, but cold and more like ice, unlike the bones of Sans which were warm to the touch.

"Perhaps." You watch his two hands move as he "speaks". It still wasn't a sign language you understood.

"The time skips, the memory loss…" You list and then, narrow your eyes up at him. "Hearing and seeing you." For the first time you see two white pin pricks light up his sockets. "You said your name was… Gaster?"

"I did not." He says, but he sounds happy and he doesn't correct you. "We are not apart of this reality, child, it is why no one sees or remembers me."

"But they know me." You clench your fists. "They seem to know me more than I know them…"

"Which is fascinating." He moves around you, looking you over. You notice you can't hear him stepping through snow. Looking down you see he isn't leaving footprints either. "Even I, who was once apart of this reality, was forgotten. But child you were never apart of it."

"I don't get anything you're saying." You spin around to meet him, stopping him from circling you again. "This is all because of you, isn't it?" When you take a step towards him he vanishes.

"I suppose your determination to be the solution to their problem was the reason…" You flinch and jolt back when you hear him behind you. Just when you turn and see him he's gone again. "But child, you solved their problem. You freed them. So now that Determination you felt to save is gone." Bony hands curl over your shoulders and you feel a breath on the back of your neck. "So there is nothing keeping you here. You have lost your purpose."

You throw an elbow back but it hits nothing. You scramble away, flattening yourself to a tree to keep your back blocked. When Gaster reappears he stands in front of you.

"So that's why my memories are going?" You ask. You curse the way your voice shakes. "I'm not supposed to be here? I'm going to- what, be forgotten? Like you? You said that you were apart of this, uh, reality, so does that mean-"

"I was Asgore's royal scientist." Gaster says. It's then that you remember hearing something like that from a monster, in Hotland. "I tried to free us from the Underground without souls. Without death. I was trying to play God." His voice gets softer as he speaks but it grows louder and closer in your ears even though he doesn't move. "I paid that price. Now my friends and family have forgotten my existence. My soul was shattered, but because of my playing with determination, I lived. Scattered across reality." He sounds tired, worn out.

"How long have you been like this?" That question seems to take him back. He looks off, as if this is the first time he's ever tried to grasp at time. The whites in his sockets die.

"I heard Queen Toriel was expecting." His hands clenched and he looked away from you. "The King asked for results I did not have. He wanted his child raised on the surface, free, not trapped in the Underground."

"So, hold on." You run your fingers through your hair. It's only then you realize you don't feel them. "You're...Gaster. Ex royal scientist that no one remembers because you built a… Machine? That was meant to break the barrier? But instead it backfired and erased your existence from this reality. And your soul separated and went to… What? Different realities?" You gulp when he nods, as if you just listed the weekdays in order instead of his wild story. "And I'm the only one that can see you because I'm not supposed to be here?"

"More so your existence is slipping from this reality. For now it is your memory that is lost. Tomorrow it might be the memories that your friends have of you that vanish."

That made your heart stop.

"They'll forget…?"

"You'll disappear."

"And be like you?"

"You'll cease to exist entirely."

Flight or fight kicks in again and you turn to run, just like how you did from Sans, but hands grab at you and hold you back.

"This can't be happening-" You try to tear yourself out of Gaster's hold, but more hands are summoned and you slide on the snow. "I can't-this isn't- this isn't real- I am real! I'm real and you- you're just a delusion, a nightmare-this can't be happening-"

"I understand your pain." He whispers and you tug violently.

"No you don't!"

"I know it is painful but you must accept reality-"

"Accept shit-" You jerk your legs over and up, kicking a wave of snow into his face. The magic hands loosen when his concentration is interrupted. Instead of finding footing you slip and fall without the support.

You slide over and scramble to your feet to run-

"Please."

It's a broken plea. You hear it just as you dart further into the woods. You run only for a second before you slow down and then stop completely. You turn around, seeing Gaster through the trees looking at you.

"I want to go home." He says and your heart trembles. "Let us help each other get what we want." He reaches a hand out. "What we deserve."

You stare at the monster for a long time. The woods are dark and the snow muffles any and all sound. You only hear the pounding of your heart and you only see the man's white glowing face.

You didn't get anything he was spouting. You didn't want to believe anything that he was saying.

But the chance that he was right… That your family and friends would forget you just as easily as you had the last ten years…

You walk back to him. He stares at you, waiting for you to speak your mind.

"Tell me how I can stay."

His grin turns into a large, twisted smile.