"Nothing on this shelf either..." Flowey squirmed, trying to get comfortable in the tiny dirt-filled jar that smelt vaguely of pasta sauce. "Maybe someone checked it out?"

Papyrus gave him a strange look. "A BOOK CANNOT DISAPPEAR SIMPLY BECAUSE SOMEONE LOOKED AT IT."

"That's not what I..." Flowey shook his head, if Papyrus didn't understand what he meant then there wasn't any point in trying to explain.

He shuffled carefully to the next bookcase with a pair of roots and began reading the titles along the bottom shelf. Ever since the incident with Undyne's house she'd been staying with the skeleton brothers in Snowdin. Despite the circumstances, Papyrus had been so excited to have her over that he'd even invited Flowey along so they could all have one big sleepover. It had been... a fun few days, but today was the day that Undyne would be going back home and the whole event seemed to have left Papyrus with inspiration.

"Is this the one?" He said pointing to a book with the words 'Party Costumes for Dummies' written on the spine.

Papyrus shook his head. "NO, THAT'S NOT IT..."

Flowey sighed and kept looking... '73 uses for Snails, a sequel.', 'Monster History part 6', 'A Beginners Guide to Puzzles'... this color-coded sorting system really wasn't helpful, but naturally Papyrus loved it.

Flowey shook his head and shuffled to the next shelf. He'd about given up on helping Papyrus get into the Royal Guard, he stuck with the skeleton now for his own reasons... mostly for the entertainment. He could see what Belle had meant - Papyrus' optimism and enthusiasm could get contagious at times.

And yet... beyond Undyne and Flowey, Papyrus didn't seem to have any friends. Perhaps this was why he came up with the idea of having a costume party in the first place?

"I FOUND IT!" Papyrus called while hugging a book to his chest with 'Ice-E's Guide to Cool Costume Parties' written across the cover. "NYEH HEH HEH! COME ON FLOWEY!"

He grabbed Flowey's jar and bounded out the library without so much as a glance to the monster on the front desk. It was snowing outside but the weather didn't seem to dampen his mood as he jogged back to his cosy wooden house.

"did you find that thing you were lookin' for, bro?" Asked Sans casually from his spot on the couch while Papyrus shut the door behind him.

The space inside was a decent size with a couple of tables, a coach, a TV and a separate kitchen. Even though the brothers didn't have skin, they kept the place pleasantly warm.

Papyrus could barely contain his smile. "WE SURE DID!"

"that's great." Sans propped himself up on one arm to better look at his brother. "so... are you gonna tell me what you're planning yet?" Papyrus shoved the book into Sans' view, hopping from foot to foot in excitement. Sans' expression didn't change. "oh, cool. so then what are you dressing up as?"

Papyrus' smile only grew broader. "NYEH HEH HEH! I'LL GIVE YOU A CLUE!" He posed chivalrously, holding Flowey out in one hand like a sword and the book in the other as a shield.

Sans brought a finger to his chin thoughtfully. "hmm, so your going as the flower?"

Flowey scoffed, Papyrus faltered. "SANS DON'T BE RIDICULOUS!"

If it were possible for Sans to stop smiling, Flowey imagined that he would still be grinning right now. "you're so easy to wind up, you really shouldn't have let your guard down."

"MAYBE YOU'RE-" Papyrus conceded, then cut himself. "WAIT, WAS THAT A PUN?" He asked suspiciously.

"... maybe." Sans tapped his fingers together and looked to the side mischievously.

Papyrus watched him for a moment, then shook his head. "WE WILL BE IN MY ROOM."

"ok."

He charged up the stairs, leaping several steps at a time and reached the door at the top covered in labels reading 'NO GIRLS ALLOWED!', 'NO BOYS ALLOWED!' and 'PAPYRUS ALLOWED'. He pushed the door open and hurried to a table set beside his race-car bed, pushing aside an assortment of figurines so he could place the book down and Flowey's jar beside it. The room was meticulously neat.

Flowey took a moment to steady himself after the rough transit - he REALLY didn't like this stupid jar! The only reason he was in it in the first place was because he didn't know how long he could survive without soil. That would have been an embarrassing reload...

"HMM, LET'S SEE..." Papyrus opened up the book and began flicking through the pages. "ACCORDING TO THIS BOOK, WE MUST FIRST MAKE A LIST OF GUESTS! THEN WE NEED TO... THAT'S ODD, IT MENTIONS 'PARTY GAMES' BUT NOTHING ABOUT PARTY PUZZLES..." He double-checked the page then flicked ahead. "WE CAN GET TO THAT PART LATER! NEXT..." He flicked through some more pages and stabbed his finger onto one. "AHA, THE LEGENDARY PARTY SPAGHETTI!"

He rushed over to a box in the corner and rummaged through it, spilling bones and some weird skull thing onto the ground before coming out with a clean piece of paper and a pencil in the shape of a bone. He carefully placed the bones back into the box before returning to the table.

"What's with all the bones?" Flowey asked while Papyrus inspected the tip of his pencil.

"WHAT BETTER WAY TO PROTECT YOUR SUPPLIES THAN WITH YOUR OWN ATTACKS?" Papyrus answered while jotting down the recipe in his rough, bold handwriting. "UNFORTUNATELY IT DOESN'T DETER ONE PARTICULARLY PERNICIOUS PEST." He put the pencil down and sighed. "THAT MANGY MUTT HAS TAKEN A PARTICULAR LIKING TO MY BONES... I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW IT KEEPS GETTING IN!" Papyrus went back to flicking through the book.

A dog, huh? That would go a way to explaining some of the stranger sightings and disappearances Flowey had witnessed during his time at the house. He watched Papyrus flick through the book and his eyes glanced back to the piece of paper.

"Aren't you gonna write your guest list?"

"NO, I WANT TO MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS FULLY PLANNED OUT FIRST. AFTER ALL YOU CAN'T SPELL 'PREPARED' WITHOUT SEVERAL LETTERS FROM MY NAME!" Papyrus said without looking up. "HERE IT IS, HOW TO MAKE COSTUMES! HMM..." He frowned as his eyes traced over the pages and eventually his smile fell. "NON OF THESE LOOK LIKE THE COSTUME I WANT..."

Flowey edged closer and began examining the page himself. All of the costumes were meant for children to craft and wear; mostly cardboard masks of robots, owls and kitty cats with a mix of stockings and painted cardboard boxes for the body pieces. They weren't all that impressive, Flowey had seen Papyrus make more impressive things than this... even if his sentry station was made of cardboard.

"We can do better than any of those." He reassured, smiling up at Papyrus. "Draw what you want to make, i'm sure Sans will help us find whatever we need."

Papyrus looked into Flowey's eyes. Something all too familiar burned in those eye sockets which made Flowey's smile drop, but he didn't feel as frustrated as he used to. He'd gotten used to it.

The skeleton didn't seem to notice, he smiled extra for the both of them. "YOU'RE RIGHT FLOWEY, WE CAN DO BETTER THAN THESE! THESE ARE FOR BABY BONES! NYEH HEH HEH!" He pushed the book roughly to the side, for a moment Flowey thought it would fall off the table. "NOW I SHALL DESIGN A COSTUME ARMOUR WORTHY OF A TRUE FUTURE GUARDSMAN!"

Papyrus immediately got to work drawing out a dimensionaly accurate depiction of himself, then picked up a figurine on the table and put it beside the drawing. It had white and blue armor with yellow trimmings and a red cape. "SANS HELPED ME PAINT THIS ONE, I WANT MY COSTUME TO LOOK LIKE THIS." He went back to his drawing, adding a breastplate, boots, gloves and even the cape. "IT'S MY FAVORITE!"

"hows it going in there?" Flowey turned around, Sans was stood in the doorway with his hands in his jacket pockets.

"WE ARE DOING FANTASTIC SANS!" Papyrus beamed. "DO YOU WANT TO SEE MY DESIGN?"

"sure." Sans walked across to the table and looked over Papyrus' shoulder, his face, as usual, was difficult to read. "lookin' good. do you need any help making that?"

"WE NEED TO FIND SOME MATERIALS, BUT I'M SURE I CAN PUT THEM TOGETHER MYSELF JUST FINE." Sans backed out the way to give Papyrus more space. "HAVE YOU CONSIDERED WHAT TO WEAR FOR YOUR OWN COSTUME?"

Sans shrugged. "i'll probably come up with something." Papyrus looked skeptical, but didn't say anything. "i was just heading out, wanna tag along?"

Papyrus continued to eye him with skepticism. "YOU MEAN TO GRILLBYS?"

"yup."

"I THINK YOU KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION." He stated flatly.

"well then." Sans leaned up against the table, his pinprick pupils coming to rest, not on his brother, but on Flowey. "maybe your buddy would like to come along instead?"

Flowey opened his mouth but no words came out. This was the first time Sans had really offered him anything besides advice... which always felt more like veiled threats than anything else. Beyond those isolated incidents, the skeleton had always been content to ignore him, or at least pretend to.

"Sure." he said finally.

"BUT SANS, I NEED HIM TO HELP ME PLAN OUT THIS PARTY!" Papyrus protested, grabbing a hold of the book in both hands as though to use it as evidence.

Despite the childish outburst, Sans remained as calm and unfazed as usual. "don't worry bro, we won't be long." He picked up the jar and started walking back towards the door. "i know a shortcut."

They stepped through the threshold of Papyrus' room... and into a place Flowey had never been before. So THAT was how shortcuts worked?! It was more than a little disorienting, but judging by the pungent scent of grease and dogs which suddenly washed over him, this was Grillbys.

"fast shortcut huh?" Sans said with a twinge of amusement, then turned to the rest of the room. "hey, everyone."

"Hey, Sans."

"Hi, Sans."

"Greetings, Sans."

"Hiya, Sansy~"

Many monsters sat at tables and booths called out to greet him. Flowey knew some of them in passing, but non looked up from their drinks to acknowledge the two as they passed. Sans walked up to the bar where a fire monster was busy cleaning. He pulled himself onto a stool then placed Flowey on the counter. The bartender didn't look happy.

"i know, but can ya make an exception just this once?" Sans answered to the silent disapproval. "i mean look at him, he doesn't even have limbs. He's totally 'armless."

Flowey scowled at Sans. That pun was not only terrible, but also made light of his condition. He didn't like to think about it, he didn't like others joking about it. Regardless of how he felt, though, it seemed to placate the bartender who shrugged and went back to cleaning.

"sorry about that bud. needs must, ya know?" Flowey calmed down a bit and took a look around the bar, he could see why Papyrus was not overly fond of this place. "anyway, let's order. whaddya want...?"

He wanted to decline any food but decided that would be rude. He looked for a menu but couldn't find one anywhere, oh well.

"I'll have whatever you have, it's all the same to me." Flowey said finally.

"are ya sure?" He nodded and Sans seemed to study his face. "alright, then." Sans turned to the fire monster again. "grillby, we'll have a double order of burg."

Grillby set down his cloth and walked to door at the back of the room and went outside. Sans became strangely fidgety while he was gone.

"I'm guessing you didn't take me here just for lunch?" Flowey tested. Sans caste him a sideways glance but before either of them could speak again the bartender returned holding two plates with a big, greasy burger on each.

"grub's up." Sans said sounding a little relieved. "want some ketchup?" He rummaged around in his jacket and pulled out a full bottle. Flowey shook his head. "oh well, more for me then." He shrugged.

He flicked off the bottle cap and upending the entire thing into his mouth. Flowey watched with jaw agape. Straight ketchup? Really?! That couldn't taste good...

"anyway..." Sans said, wiping ketchup away from his mouth. "you're right, i didn't ask you here just for lunch. i wanted to tell you something." Flowey straightened up and watched the skeleton intently. "papyrus had been feeling pretty down over the past few months. he puts on a good show, but i can tell when he's really happy and when he's not. what i wanted to say was... that i haven't seen him this genuinely happy in a long time. having you and undyne as such good friends, it really cheered him up. so... thank you. thank you for being there for him when he needed it."

Flowey looked the skeleton up and down. The heartfelt 'thank you' of which had little effect on his non-existent soul felt like it was covering for something else... guilt, perhaps?

"You're telling me this, because you didn't trust me, aren't you?" He said slowly.

Sans let out a long sigh. "what gives you that idea?"

Flowey intensified his gaze. "I know you know my secret."

Sans fidgeted, he picked up his burger and took a bite. "and may i ask, what secret might that be?" He asked lazily between mouthfuls. Was he doing this just to annoy Flowey now?! "heh, relax bud. take a bite of your burg, aren't you hungry...?"

Flowey looked over at his burger and sighed. He extended a couple of roots to grab and hold it together as best he could, but much of the bread and patty crumbled and fell apart as he brought it to his face. The texture was greasy, grease ran down his petals and onto the counter - he felt disgusting.

"not bad, eh?" Flowey shot Sans a look that said otherwise. "what? am i wrong?"

He swallowed his mouthful and put the remainder of the meal back on his plate. He tried a different approach. "Please Sans, stop pretending that you don't know what i'm talking about. You trusted me enough to bring me here, I want to trust you enough to talk about it."

Sans slowly put down his burger and looked at Flowey for what felt like a very long time before he spoke again. "alright."

At that moment the room fell silent and still. Everything went dark, it was as if Flowey and Sans were the only two beings around, sitting together within a solitary spotlight. Like the spell of battle, but not - battles didn't make time stand still.

"yes, i know that you're soulless." He tapped his fingers rhythmically against the counter. "but what i want to know is how you know that i know? y'know?"

Oh, this might not have been such a good idea... "You once told me that you're good at reading people." Flowey paused, then added. "Don't think I didn't notice the way you would look at me."

Sans brought a greasy finger up to his lower jaw. "i don't remember saying that to you... but i guess i musta just forgotten." He shrugged, his eyes darting between Flowey and the remainder of his burger. "so were you going anywhere with this or...?"

"I want to get my soul back."

Sans' white pinprick pupils disappeared for a second. "what has that got to do with me?"

"You know enough about souls to tell when someone doesn't have one. Surely you must have an idea of how they work? How someone might get a lost soul back... or make a new one?"

Sans shook his head. "i'm a comedian. i do stand-up at the hotland resort, i read the faces of the crowd for reactions!" Flowey's metaphorical heart fell. His stem wilted, and he felt his petals wilt along with it. "i'm sorry bud, i wish i could help you, but souls are well beyond my understanding."

Flowey stared down at the counter-top, he didn't move or say anything. Eventually the lights and sounds of the restaurant returned, but he didn't look up. He couldn't think, it was like a gear had jammed in his head and he couldn't comprehend it.

"Is he alright?" Asked a voice to one side.

"he's fine, he just needs to go out for a bit of fresh air." Sans' hand wrapped around the jar and lifted Flowey gently into the air.

He didn't even try to stabilize himself and slumped over the sides as Sans walked him out of Grillbys and back into Papyrus' room. He wasn't even bothered by the shortcut.

"we're back, told ya it wouldn't take long."

"SANS I- IS HE OKAY? YOU DIDN'T FEED HIM ANY OF THAT STUFF THAT MAKES YOU SLEEPY, BUT GIVES YOU A HEADACHE THE NEXT DAY DID YOU?"

"nope, he did this to himself." Sans placed the jar on table. Slowly, Flowey looked up to see Papyrus standing at his computer while Sans backed off towards the door. "he'll be fine in a few minutes, don't worry. just let him be."

"OH... OKAY."

"so, what were you saying?"

"OH RIGHT, YES." Papyrus cleared his throat. "I AM MAKING THE LIST OF PEOPLE TO INVITE TO MY PARTY FROM MY UNDERNET FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS, AND FROM THEIR FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS!"

"that's great. how many have you got so far?"

"STRONGFISH91, SNAS... THAT'S IT SO FAR... OH NO WAIT! STRONGFISH JUST ADDED SOMEONE NEW TO HER FRIENDS LIST!" He leaned in close to the screen, the occasionally clicking of the mouse could be heard. "HER USERNAME'S 'ALPHYS'." Flowey's attention pricked up, he raised his head slightly higher at the name's mention. "WOWIE... SHES THE ROYAL SCIENTIST!"