" 🕈︎☜︎☜︎🏱︎ ☹︎✋︎❄︎❄︎☹︎☜︎ ☹︎✋︎⚐︎☠︎ 💣︎✌︎☠︎📪︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎🕯︎☼︎☜︎ ☠︎⚐︎❄︎ ✌︎💧︎ 👌︎☼︎✌︎✞︎☜︎ ✌︎💧︎ ✡︎⚐︎🕆︎ 🕈︎☜︎☼︎☜︎ ✌︎❄︎ ❄︎☟︎☜︎ 💧︎❄︎✌︎☼︎❄︎. "

It was about time that the two of you left Waterfall, but not before you were to found out which direction you needed to go in order to leave.

"We're going back already?" You asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sans stood there in front of the cave exit with an expression you couldn't place, completely silent for a good while before speaking up again. "... didn't you just want to see the echo flowers?"

"Well yeah, at first." You admitted. "But then you showed me the cave stars, and now I wanna see more. Isn't there anything else around here that's interesting?"

There was, but Sans was hesitant to take you anywhere else. What if you were caught? How would he explain to an adult that you were technically protected under law, and not to be killed on sight, unless certain circumstances were met? He supposed he could just teleport the two of you out of any sticky situations. He'd still be keeping his... ' side of the deal'.

"i guess there's one thing." Sans gestured for you to follow him, and the two of you trekked through a different part of Waterfall, the grass becoming luminescent, and the water beside you glowing brightly. How did it glow? Probably magic, again.

The two of you didn't walk too far. Eventually the two of you reached wooden platforms that seemed to be built over another abyss. There seemed to be countless edges that you could look over and see a void. But like the saying goes: "If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you."

But... Who says that?

"you coming?" Sans snapped you out of your thoughts, finally tearing your attention away from the endless edge.

"Yeah." You muttered nervously, following Sans through the bridge like platforms. There seemed to be no end to them though. "Where are we even heading? I can't see anything other than this bridge."

Sans smirked as he finally reached the end of a shadowy platform. "Don't worry." He said, chuckling menacingly. "w e ' r e  h e r e ."

His tone of voice sent shivers up your spine, and caused your breath to catch in your throat. You turned around with a terrified expression on your face, but you couldn't even say his name before he pushed you off the edge and into the abyss bellow.

You snapped your eyes shut, feeling like you were screaming and falling forever, waiting for the inevitable rough impact of a hard cave floor, but nothing came. When you finally realized that you weren't falling to your death, you heard something that made you even more furious.

Sans's echoing laughter.

He had his left eye glowing blue and he was doubled over, holding his 'stomach' as he laughed and laughed and laughed at your scare. His magic turned your soul blue, and there was a fluctuating blue aura around your whole body, and his. He had actually let you fall a good distance before grabbing your soul and slowly levitating the both of you downward.

He was still laughing hysterically, and you were starting to loose your cool.

"What the fuck!?" You hissed, allowing another string of curses to flow from your mouth.

He finally stopped laughing as he lowered himself onto the floor, but kept you up in the air, watching as you struggled and flailed. He was sure you said somethings like "Oh when I get my hands on you-!" and the other curses that you spoke so readily. He found it amusing.

"aww c'mon, it was just a trust Waterfall." He snickered.

"Oh my God, the amount of bullshit that comes out of your mouth-" You never got to finish your sentence as he dropped you onto the same bed of grass he was standing on.

"tsk, tsk." He shook his boney finger in front of you with that ever growing grin. "such a potty mouth."

You scoffed and rolled your eyes. "As if you're one to talk. I've heard you cuss."

"but I have restraint."

The two of you continued to bicker back and forth for a while longer before Sans finally gestured for you to follow him once again. You were unsure because of what happened last time, but continued onwards. This area was covered in junk and garbage, and the rest was flowing heavily with water. You really didn't feel like getting your socks wet, so you jumped from garbage pile to garbage pile.

Sans had actually been walking through the water, and watched in surprise as you jumped from pile to pile, the garbage not falling or tumbling on whatever makeshift platform you were standing on. Huh. He should of thought of that, but the jumping around looked tiring.

"Why are you walking through the water?" You finally asked, standing atop of a medium sized pile of garbage and looking down at him. For a second there, Sans thought you looked like one of those heroes from a fantasy book he'd read. "Doesn't it get annoying when your shoes and socks get wet?"

Sans shook that thought out of his head quickly. "heh, well it's less annoying than having to jump from place to place just to shuffle through the garbage anyways."

You rose an eyebrow at him. "Can't believe that Papyrus was serious when he said that you were lazy." You said with a smirk. "But what do you mean 'shuffle through the garbage'? You can't be serious - right?"

Sans smirked in return - he was setting up for a joke, and you were getting to know that look well. "no, i'm not serious. i'm Sans."

The two of you chuckled at his bad dad joke. "That one was horrible." You kept smiling regardless, and he only shrugged in return.

"but yeah, there's some cool stuff here sometimes you know." He lifted objects with his magic and moved it aside until he reached something interesting. He picked it up and inspected it, before throwing it over his shoulder after deeming it unimportant or boring. This continued until he found something of interest and stuffed it into his jacket or under his arm.

He seemed pretty skilled at this kind of thing, as he managed to go through a single medium sized pile in a few minutes. You only continued to stare until he finally looked at you again, raising an expectant bone brow.

"well? what are you waiting for? help yourself." He said gesturing to the pile you were standing on. "who knows, maybe you'll find something useful."

You weren't sure what that tone in his voice was, but you could tell that he was suggesting something. Whether it was a warning, a threat, or a genuinely helpful comment - you couldn't tell, but you decided to get to work. You bent down and began shuffling through the garbage pile in a similar fashion to Sans, until you noticed something glittering under it all.

Digging your arm deep into the garbage pile, you caught it just with your fingertips and gave it a rough yank out of the clutter, surprising Sans with the noises of several other collapsing objects. He might have turned his attention to you after all that commotion, but you were preoccupied - your eyes fixated on the nearly crushed music box in your hands.

It was a rectangular shape and fit snuggly in your two hands. Some of the springs were sticking out, the winding function was a little twisted, and obviously lots of water damage, but what you were focused on, was the carving at the top.

There was a heart engraved on it, feathered wings carefully wrapping it in what looked to be a warm embrace.

It looked familiar, but not familiar as in 'I've seen this before'.

But in, "This is mine." You whispered. "This used to be mine." Your breath hitched.

There was a long silence as you stared at it. Sans hadn't said a word after you pulled it out, and after hearing you whisper those words, he saw your face twist up into a confused pain. As if you wanted to cry, but couldn't, and you weren't sure why.

He had ideas about what emotions could be tied to such an object that would have made you react like this, but for now, he would show a little kindness. "i can fix it for you." He offered.

Finally looking up from the music box, you found that you couldn't meet Sans's eye sockets. Not that you didn't want to, but that there was a slight blue dusting across his cheek bones, and his white pinpricks were averted. You weren't sure what urged you to agree, but you felt secure just by doing so.

"I'd like that." You said, your voice still a whisper, and flooding with the gentleness you'd been overcome with. It made Sans a little uncomfortable, only because he was sure he didn't have skin, but he felt the warmth in your voice crawl across his bones as if he did.

The two of you stood there in silence until Sans's awkwardness reached a point where he couldn't take it any more. He'd reached his hand out for you to give him the music box, but was surprised with you placing your hand in his and jumping down from the pile and into the water. It wasn't so bad.

"C'mon, let's go." You said calmly, urging him to lead the two of you forward.

Sans could hardly think, let alone respond verbally, so he just nodded, trying desperately not to be freaked out by your sudden change in demeanor - oh and the fact that you were still holding his hand. Holy crap, you were still holding his hand! Why were you still holding his hand?

He was the only one freaking out though. You were still in your serene state from finding the music box.

The two of you didn't walk far before you heard a sudden screech that broke the calm. "HUMAN!"

You both flinched, your hands letting go of each other to cover your ear. Both you and Sans were holding objects you'd found in the garbage dump. Who in the hell could even yell that loud besides Papyrus?

Both of you shook your heads clear to see someone standing at the exit of the dump. She had long red hair tied in a pony tail, her scales blue, and gauze covering her left eye. "HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" So much for not getting caught.

She held a wooden sword, and was actually a little shorter than the two of you. She looked a little younger than you and Sans, maybe by a few years. "You're not going anywhere!" She was almost as loud as Papyrus was when he was throwing a fit. "Fight me!"

This was sudden, but you exchanged a single glance with Sans, and there was an entire conversation.

I'm gonna do it.

don't you dare.

I'm gonna do it.

i swear to fuckin-

I'm doing it.

You smirked smugly and pushed the music box gently into his arms, rolling up your sweater sleeves with with a shit eating grin. You couldn't help but chuckle. This kid was smaller and younger than you. You should be fine, and if anything goes wrong, then Sans would just jump in to help you. Probably.

"Okay." You said calmly turning to the fish kid in front of you. "But shouldn't I learn your name before you beat me up?" You played along.

"I am UNDYNE the UNDYING!" She hollered.

Your eyes widened slightly. "Cool name. It rhymes. Did you come up with it?" Why were you so calm? She was going to fight you, and the last time you got in a fight, you were violent as hell. Now you were just standing here like the two of you were just going to have a calm conversation.

"what are you doing?" You heard Sans hiss from beside you.

"She's not trying to hurt anybody, she just wants a fight. I can do this." You whispered back to him.

"Remember what happened last time?" He spat with a serious expression. He was threatening you this time. "Don't you dare."

You glared back at him, "I won't hurt her. She's not trying to bully anyone." You hissed back.

"Nope!" She replied, ignoring your whispered conversation with Sans. "The hero of the Underground, GERSON the HAMMER OF JUSTICE gave me it." She sounded proud and you couldn't help but smile. She kind of reminded you of Papyrus, but with a little more pent up violence.

"Cool, you should introduce us next time." This comment caused Sans to glare at you even harder, his white pinpricks disappearing from his eye sockets. Ok, note to self, do not ever meet with this Gerson character. If Sans was looking at you like that after such a comment, it probably meant that he was one of the many people who could and would kill you.

"Yeah don't worry!" She said with a smirk. "You'll get to meet him as soon as I capture you and take you to him!"

"Wait, what?" The two of you stopped bickering with each other to turn to her.

So if anything went wrong, she'd drag you down to Gerson herself?

"Please tell me he lives far from here." You whispered to Sans.

"um, no. he lives about a five minute walk away." He whispered back.

"Should I even try to fight her then? Let's just get out of here."

Sans couldn't agree more, but he couldn't act on your mutual agreement either.

"NGAHHHH!" Undyne came flying at you, leaping through the air to tackle you, only to launch and land on your back.

You stayed standing though. "What the f-!" You couldn't even finish your curse before she waved the wood weapon in her hand around with a roar and flailed on your back.

"HAHAH! I knew you would fall for my surprise attack! Now, it's time for a real fight!" She cried, letting go of you and tugging out your soul from your chest.

The world around you turned black and white in sudden flashes, and before you knew it, your soul hovered in front of you, surrounded by a white box. Undyne stood in front of you with a malicious grin, and as you tried to turn around to face Sans - you realized you couldn't see him.

His absence filled you with fear, but Undyne's battle cry forced you to have courage.