The path led to a waterfall. The sound of rushing water filled them with determination.
"Yo!"
They turned around to see Monster Kid.
"Oh, hey Monster Kid!" said Yakko. "What's up?"
"I'm sneaking out to see Undyne. She's the coolest, right!?"
"Actually we haven't met her," said Dot.
"Oh. Well, I wanna be just like her when I grow up...Hey, don't tell my parents I'm here."
He chuckled.
"Our lips are sealed," said Yakko.
Another voice called out to them.
"All that gives my life validation is explaining the Echo Flower..."
They turned around and saw a blue flower. Apparently, it had a message pre-recorded inside of it.
"No one can know..."
The guy on the left, who was a fish monster, didn't like the flower's message.
"Never trust a flower...That's one of the constants of this world."
"I wonder why..." said Yakko in a sarcastic tone, realizing he forgot about the unpleasant encounters with Flowey.
The flower repeated what the fish man said.
"Oh," said Wakko, "so that's why it's called an Echo flower!"
They took a few steps forward and saw a sentry-station with Sans in it.
"Sans?" said Yakko.
"hey kids."
"What are ya doin' here?"
"what? haven't you seen a guy with two jobs before?"
"Yeah," said Yakko, "but we never thought you'd be one of 'em!"
"well, two jobs means twice as many legally-required breaks."
"Smart," said Dot.
"i'm going to grillby's. wanna come?"
"Sure!" said Yakko.
"Count me in!" said Wakko.
"well, if you insist. i'll pry myself away from my work..."
Yakko chuckled as Sans walked away from the sentry-station and stood in front of the kids.
"Ya comin', Dot?" said Wakko.
"Nah, you guys go on without me."
She looked at Sans.
"I have a date with that brother of yours."
Sans chuckled, approving of the match.
"you have good taste, kiddo. well, have fun."
"Thanks, Sans."
"See ya later, sister sib!" said Yakko.
Dot waved and started to walk away until Yakko got her attention again.
"Oh, and Dot?"
"Yeah?"
"If the date goes well, marry the guy."
"One step ahead of ya," said Dot.
She went towards the direction of Papyrus' house.
"over here," said Sans. "i know a shortcut."
He walked the opposite direction, Yakko and Wakko following closely behind him. In a split second, they were teleported to the bar they passed by earlier that day.
"fast shortcut, huh?"
"And people wonder why we use 'em all the time!" said Yakko.
Sans turned to look at everyone in the bar.
"hey, everyone."
Dogamy and Dogaressa were the first to respond.
"Hey, Sans."
"(Hi, Sans.)"
A big-lipped monster and a drunk bunny went next.
"Greetings, Sans."
"Hiya, Sansy~"
Yakko, Wakko, and Sans walked forward and found three seats next to a bird and a fish.
"Hey Sans," said the fish, "weren't you just here for breakfast a few minutes ago?"
"nah, i haven't had breakfast in at least half an hour. you must be thinking of brunch."
Everyone laughed, including Yakko and Wakko.
"Man, you're on fire today!" said Yakko, slapping Sans on the back. "And ya know what? So's he."
He pointed to a living flame behind the counter as Wakko played the drums to accompany the joke. Everyone else laughed even harder.
"not bad, kiddo."
"Thanks, Sans."
"here, get comfy."
They sat in the seats. Wakko noticed a whoopee cushion on his and slid it under Sans' chair at the last minute. Yakko saw this, then held his nose to tease Sans as he sat on the whoopee cushion.
"Yeesh, Sans! What did ya eat?!"
"Watch where ya sit down," said Wakko, "'cause somebody keeps puttin' whoopee cushions on the seats!"
Sans realized he didn't catch them off guard until it was too late. It surprised him, as no one was ever able to dodge his pranks before.
"you guys are good. anyway, let's order. whaddya want...?"
"Fries!" said Wakko, sticking his tongue out excitedly.
"I'm in the mood for a burger."
"hey, that sounds pretty good. grillby, we'll have a double order of burg and fries for him."
He pointed at Wakko, whose mouth drooled. Grillby, who turned out to be the flame, walked away to prepare their orders as Sans wiped his head with a nearby cloth.
"so, what do you think...of my brother?"
"He's so cool!" said Wakko, thinking of the battle they had earlier.
"Totally," said Yakko. "He's so cool that nobody except Dot'll ever think he's hot!"
Wakko laughed as Yakko patted Sans' shoulder.
"No offense, by the way."
"none taken, i make puns about him all the time."
"Seriously though, he's a blast. And you're lucky Dot's not here; she'd probably go on for days talkin' about him!"
"of course he's cool. you'd be cool too if you wore that outfit every day. he'd only take that thing off if he absolutely had to."
"Yeah, we kinda guessed."
Sans shrugged.
"oh well. at least he washes it. and by that i mean he wears it in the shower."
Yakko opened his mouth to make a dirty-minded comment, but was cut off when Grillby brought their food.
"here comes the grub. want some ketchup?"
"Nah," said Yakko, "Wakko's already got some in his Gag Bag."
Wakko pulled out a bottle of ketchup from his Gag Bag, proving Yakko right.
"more for me."
Sans grabbed the ketchup bottle and started drinking the whole thing. Yakko and Wakko were wide-eyed and on the edge of their seats, repeatedly slamming their fists on the counter.
"Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!"
They cheered as Sans finished drinking all the ketchup and put the bottle back on the table.
"Faboo!" said Wakko.
"That was awesome!" said Yakko.
"eh, it's nothin'."
Wakko tried to open his bottle of ketchup, but the lid was stuck. When he finally opened it, almost all of the ketchup sprayed onto the fries. Sans would've offered Wakko his burger had he not seen the smile on his face.
"Just the right amount!" he said happily as he scarfed down his fries.
Yakko stole a few, then put the remaining ketchup from the bottom of the bottle on his burger. Sans momentarily scratched his behind, then continued talking about Papyrus as he and Yakko ate their burgers.
"anyway, cool or not, you have to agree papyrus tries real hard."
"Yeah," said Yakko, "like how he tried his best to make our battle fun."
"or like how he keeps trying to be part of the royal guard. one day, he went to the house of the head of the royal guard...and begged her to let him be in it. of course, she shut the door on him because it was midnight."
Yakko and Wakko snickered.
"but the next day, she woke up and saw him still waiting there. seeing his dedication, she decided to give him warrior training."
"Cool!" said Yakko. "How's it goin' so far?"
"it's, uh, still a work in progress."
"Well why don't we stop by and help out? We're the best fighters around! Just one hit and they're done for!"
"it's always that easy for you toons, huh?"
"Yeah!" said Wakko.
"well, i guess it could help."
There was a brief moment of silence.
"oh yeah, I wanted to ask you something."
"Sure," said Yakko. "Whaddya need?"
Time stood still and the room went dark, as Sans wanted some privacy; Yakko and Wakko couldn't see anything except themselves and Sans. And quite frankly, it was the same way for the big-boned skeleton.
"have you ever heard of a talking flower?"
Yakko froze, immediately thinking about Flowey. Did Sans have something to do with the flower who tried to kill him and his siblings? Wakko nodded nervously, answering Sans' question.
"so you know all about it. the echo flower. they're all over the marsh. say something to them, and they'll repeat it over and over..."
Yakko and Wakko felt relieved that it was wasn't him. But their relief was short-lived.
"Well," said Wakko, "what about it?"
"well, papyrus told me something interesting the other day. sometimes, when no one else is around...a flower appears and whispers things to him. flattery...advice...encouragement...predictions. weird, huh?"
"Totally," said Yakko.
"someone must be using an echo flower to play a trick on him."
Yakko and Wakko exchanged worried glances. Due to the description of the flower, it sounded like Flowey was trying to deceive the naive skeleton. Besides, it only happened the other day, when the Warners left the Ruins and stumbled upon Snowdin.
"keep an eye out, ok?"
"Don't worry," said Yakko, "we've got his backbone."
Sans chuckled at the pun.
"thanks."
Time unfroze and they could see the rest of the bar. Yakko, Wakko, and Sans also finished their meals. Sans got out of his chair.
"welp, that was a long break. i can't believe i let ya pull me away from work for that long. oh, by the way...i'm flat broke. can you foot the bill? it's just 10000G."
"Gotcha covered!" said Wakko, who started to reach for money in his Gag Bag.
"just kidding. grillby, put it on my tab."
He started to leave, but turned around by the door.
"by the way...i was going to say something, but i forgot."
He walked out the door.
"Take care of yourself, ok?" said Yakko.
"Bye, Sans!" Wakko shouted.
Grillby looked at them.
"..."
The bird next to them spoke.
"Grillbz said that he hoped you like the food."
"We did," said Yakko. "See? Not a single crumb!"
He pointed to his plate, proving him right again.
"I 'put out a line' for some girls today," said the fish. "Someone told me there are plenty of fish in the sea...Well, I'm taking that seriously. I'm literally going to make out with a fish."
"Good for you," said Yakko.
As Yakko and Wakko started to leave, the other monsters in the bar tried to talk to them. Dogamy was the first to converse and sounded seemingly menacing.
"You better watch where you sit down in here, kids."
"Why's that?" said Yakko, challenging the dog man he fought the previous day.
"Because that big guy WILL jump into your lap and give you lots of love and attention."
Dogamy smiled at them as Greater Dog barked.
"I thought so," said Yakko, smiling back.
Dogaressa was next.
"(We're sentries, but we never get any respect. I wish those skeletons would throw us a bone. We love bones.)"
"I'm thinking of getting a spiked collar to show off my personality," said Doggo. "It makes a statement like...'Attach a leash to me and take me for a walk please.'"
"Go for it!" said Yakko, giggling with Wakko over the ironic comment.
Lesser Dog was playing poker against itself and appeared to be losing. The bird talked to Yakko and Wakko about the dogs, since the boys were still confused about the Royal Guard.
"Those dogs are part of the Royal Guard, the elite military group led by Undyne. She's rude, loud, and beats up everybody who gets in her way...It's no wonder all the kids want to be like her when they grow up!"
"I like how they think," said Wakko.
Then, a donkey-horse hybrid next to the broken jukebox spoke up.
"The capital's getting pretty crowded, so I've heard they're going to start moving here. Hmmm...I don't want to see the erasure of our local culture. But I definitely want to see some city slickers slip onto their butts!"
"Hmmm..." the big-lipped monster pondered out loud, "Isn't human food different from monster food? It does things like 'spoil.' And when you eat it, it passes all the way through your whole body."
"Sounds about right," said Wakko.
"Disgusting. I'd love to try it sometime."
"No matter where I go," said the drunk bunny, "it's the same menu, the same people...Help! I want some new drinks an' h-h-h-hot guys!"
Yakko and Wakko shrugged as they left the bar. Feeling the snow below his feet, Wakko thought about his sister.
I wonder how Dot's doin'...