The team moved quickly through Snowdin, passing the local shop - stopping for brunch: three cinnamon bunnies and two bisicles - a handy inn, Sans and Papyrus' two storey house, and a library, with the word library spelt incorrectly, making small comments on the history or opinions of places. Eventually, they skipped over the fog-inhabited bridge that kept Snowdin and Waterfall together.
The scenery changed from cold yet warm to tranquil yet ominous. In the Underground, names never lied, for it was absolutely brimming with waterfalls. Water was all over the place, streams flowing on both sides of the navy path and falling from the damp, dark ceilings into small puddles and ponds where fish and other creatures swam. 'Stars' on the ceiling (white, glowing rocks, lodged into the stone above) and small, cyan mushrooms that shone dimly, littered about the roads were the only things that lit up the dusky place as the travellers strolled through.
They soon came to one of Sans' many sentry stations. Across from it was a tall, blue flower that interested Kirsty greatly.
"Hey, what's that flower thing?" she asked, standing over it.
"Hey, what's that flower thing?" it echoed, mimicking every aspect of the girl's voice, causing her to leap back in confusion.
"No need to be afraid." Frisk giggled. "That's just an echo flower. It echoes the last thing it heard, over and over and over." And it did just that, replaying Frisk's exact words without fail.
"Really?" Kirsty stopped and thought for a moment. "So, anything I said would be copied by the flower?"
"Yeah. Tell it anything: your name, your age, your thoughts, secrets, anything. It'll always repeat it." said Sans.
"Cool." Kirsty remarked, moving on to the next place.
The next room held a box, left by a lovely box lover, and definitely the biggest waterfall in Waterfall, rushing down and down into the darkness.
"Careful; last time I came here, there were rocks falling from that big platform above us." Frisk said, jumping into the water, splashing her companions and making them look like they'd just decided to follow in The Great Papyrus' great footsteps and showered in their clothes. "Hahaha!"
"Haha! Yeah, Frisk!" cheered Chara, landing on her front as she threw herself into the stream, staring at all of the water-bound creatures going about their day, unaware of the contained danger of the threateningly close human.
"Oh, Frisk!" moaned Kirsty.
"Eh. It'll dry when we reach Hotland." Sans reassured her, chuckling at what a mess Frisk had made. Kirsty rolled her eyes and carefully stepped across the lively ground.
Before Sans began to shadow the newbie once again, Frisk grabbed the hood of his jacket. "Huh? Yeah, kid?" he asked, halting.
"Hey, Sans. You look kind of...sleepy." Frisk grinned. "You're never sleepy. You sleep more than you make jokes, and you do make a lot of jokes. Have anything to say about that?"
"Uh... I had trouble getting to sleep last night." Sans shrugged, removing Frisk's hand from his clothing and turning to start following Kirsty (who was already out of sight with Chara, the two of them having fun encountering the tall grass) again, but Frisk blocked him.
"But you never have trouble sleeping. You can sleep at any place or time without trouble. Wanna explain that?" Frisk raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms triumphantly.
Sans thought for a moment on what to say next and sighed, defeated. He looked behind Frisk at where Kirsty's silhouette stood. "I couldn't stop thinking about her." he said, pointing in her direction.
Frisk's eyes widened and she gasped, letting out an awfully long "Aaaaaaawwwwwwwww! Sans! That's adorable! Oh my god! I'm gonna-"
"Hey!" Sans protested, cutting her off. Frisk clasped her hands over her mouth. "Don't tell anyone, okay, kid? I didn't tell anyone about your crush on Papyrus, did I?" The young girl shook her head, blushing, and made a gesture as if she was zipping her mouth closed. "Good. Now, where has she wandered off to?"
Sans and Frisk went after Kirsty and Chara, who were solving the first Bridge Seed puzzle, where they had to put the Bridge Seeds in a certain pattern for a bridge to form across the water. Frisk skipped to the other side of the second flower bridge and looked at Kirsty, quickly throwing a sorry look on her face. She had devised a plan in that it took them to finish the final seed puzzle.
"Aw, Kirsty, Sans, I'm so sorry." Frisk pouted. "I just remembered, I have to go to work today."
"Oh." Kirsty said.
Sans glared at Frisk. All she did in reply was grin innocently.
"Yeah, that means it'll just be you and Sans on this little adventure." she shrugged. "Well, I'll see ya soon then."
"See ya, Frisk." waved Kirsty, as Frisk ran ahead, smiling mischievously at Sans on her way out.
"Welp, I guess it's just you and me then, huh?" Sans spoke.
"Yeah." Kirsty sighed, walking on.
The calming sound of flowing water filling the area with tranquility, the pair wandered on to the next room. Meanwhile, racing to the nearest water-taxi, Frisk fished around in her deep pockets for her phone and started ringing.
It went to voicemail. "Sorry, darling! The fabulous Mettaton is not available at the moment, but I'd love to hear whatever it is you want to say, so just leave a message after the beep!" Beeeeeep!
Frisk took a short, sharp breath, and put on a voice that made her sound "Hey, Mettaton! I'm really sorry, but I'm kind of ill. Yeah, I messed up when I was making some food last night and now I am suffering the consequences. I won't be in today; I won't be anywhere but in my bed. So sorry. See ya when I'm feeling better! Bye!" After her message was sent, she sent a text to Alphys, telling her that she was on her way to the lab and added three mischievous winking emojis on the end.
Sans and Kirsty, on the other hand, were going slower than the snails in the local snail farm (no, actually, those snails, unlike others, are not actually that slow, so you can scrap that idea immediately), enjoying the scenery: a long, dark, blue hallway, an abundance of adorning, aqua echo flowers on the ground. The plants babbled back and forth to each other, over and over, words that were once something turned into nonsensical nothingness in all the confusion.
There was a sign hung on the left wall: 'WISHING ROOM', it said. The millions of sparkling stones on the dusky ceiling, Kirsty guessed, acted as stars, for them to wish upon. She and Sans both made secret, silent wishes under their breaths and hoped that none of the echo flowers had caught what the said - even though, if they were, they would've been drowned out by all of the other wishes that other people had made before them.
They continued walking in silence, reading the ancient words of the murals as they passed from room to room. The bullrushes in the swayed in the soft breeze as they crossed large, open wooden bridges and the tall grass was pushed aside as Kirsty thought back to when she used to play in the grass with her older sister on holidays when she was younger.
Sans stopped her in the next room. "Hey," he said, half dragging her into a small room with nothing in it, "can we stop a minute? We've been walkin' for what feels like hours."
"We have been walking for hours." Kirsty giggled, staring around at the calming setting, a small, tranquil haven for people who like quiet rooms, dimly lit by the glowing mushrooms and rocks. To be truthful, now that she thought about it, Sans had been behind her all the time, shuffling along slowly. He must not have liked that, moving that much, and for so long too. He sat down in the corner of the room, finding a comfy spot.
"Ya know what? I'm just gonna take a little nap, if you're alright with that." Sans said, leaning his head against the wall, either not bothered at all about its dampness, or excellent at hiding it.
"Oh, I don't mind." Kirsty nodded. She did mind a little bit, but she also didn't like to look rude or controlling. "Not at all."
The girl sat down beside him, legs crossed. As someone who had only napped when they were a baby, after a sleepover where she didn't do any sleeping, or when she had literally nothing else to do at that time, she didn't really like the idea of napping with Sans - who had drifted off before she knew it, sleeping so peacefully. She sat alone with her thoughts for a while, thinking about what her friends at school would be doing right now (it was a Wednesday, so they'd probably be doing P.E. and thinking about the current lesson, not her) before she realised that her companion wasn't going to wake up any time soon and she was actually a little bit sleepy herself. So, coming to the conclusion that she had no other options, she lay her head on his shoulder and soon drifted off to Dreamland too.