Upon entering the diner, all the monsters lowered their voices and chattered amongst each other as Frisk strolled in behind Sans. The bar inside was not nearly as packed as Frisk remembered Grillby's being, but there were a few monsters gathered around the tables. Upon hearing the jangling of the door, Grillby looked up from his cleaning. His whole body was a glowing purple flame and his smirk reminded Frisk of Papyrus. He was slowly cleaning a glass cup in his hands while scowling in their direction. Frisk cowered away from the glare and braced herself for confrontation but as she neared the bar, she realized Grillby wasn't looking at her but was staring very intently at Sans. Reaching the counter, Sans pulled up a stool and sat down without a care in the world, while Frisk warily sat down beside him.
"Well well well, if it isn't the scum of the underground. What's a motherfucker like you doing here?" Sans rested his elbow on the counter and settled his skull into his hand with a grin.
"I came here to eat obviously! I thought you were smart enough to at least understand that much." Grillby's frown deepened even more and he held his glare with Sans. The proceeding tense minutes were the longest in Frisk's life. Suddenly, their broke apart and started laughing. Taken-a-back, Frisk jumped at their sudden outburst.
"Man, it is good to see an old face again." Pulling away from the counter, Grillby set back to work cleaning, all the while, Frisk glanced between them trying to understand what had just happened.
"Yea... well..." Sans smile dropped but with a glance at Frisk, he smirked slightly. Grillby watched from the corner of his eye and followed Sans gaze with a curious glance to look at the human. Frisk twitched nervously when she noticed Grillby had looked at her, and she tensed expecting hostility, instead Grillby continued his work.
Without looking up from his cleaning, Grillby asked nonchalantly, "so who's this?"
"Just a random human I picked up..." Grillby paused.
"We both know that's bullshit... you know as well as I that you would have killed her when she first appeared... so what happened?"
Sans red eye faded and in replace, two white orbs flickered to life. Casting his eyes to the ground, his expression fell and he went quiet.
When Grillby didn't get a response, he continued talking, "I had heard news of a human entering the underground and the rumors were spreading like wildfire that the head of the royal guard's useless brother was guiding them around."
Sans continued to remain silent. Realizing he wasn't going to receive a response from Sans, Grillby turned the question on Frisk. "Since Sans won't answer, mind filling me in?"
Frisk looked down at her tightly clasped hands resting on the counter and spoke slowly.
All the monsters in the diner tried to look disinterested, but the silence that filtered through the building suggested otherwise.
"This is going to sound farfetched... you probably won't believe what I am about to tell you..."
"I've heard some weird shit in my life time, lay it on me!" Frisk looked up at Grillby nervously. Despite how soft his eyes were, his jagged mouth still made his features appear hostile and unfriendly.
"Okay... well... I am from another timeline... in my timeline, the monsters have all escaped the underground. I was adoped by Toriel and Asgore... while Sans and Papyrus were like my big brothers. We all lived together in a decently sized home on the surface..."
Grillby shifted his stance to lean up against the counter, with each arm placed on either side to hold his position. The other monsters in the diner let out a couple disbelieving grunts and gasps of surprise but they immediately fell silent again. Frisk glanced around nervously and caught a couple of the monster's eyes, but they quickly looked away. Turning back around in her seat, she shook off her nervousness and continued with more enthusiasm.
"Four years have passed in my timeline and most humans had accepted the monsters living among them, except... quite a few still feel threatened by your presence; but in all honestly, humans always feel insecure with anything foreign... Anyways, everything was perfectly fine and normal when...
A loud popping sound caused Frisk to shriek in surprise and fall out of her seat. Looking up from her new position on the floor, she realized Sans had popped off the cap on a mustard bottle and was drinking the condiment. His white pupils were wide with surprise at her reaction before he burst out laughing.
"Holy shit, did that really scare you?!" Setting down the mustard bottle, he rested his skull against the counter as he bellowed out his laughter. Grillby also laughed, while the rest of the monsters coughed to hide their amusement. Blushing furiously, Frisk puffed out her cheeks in frustration. Sans turned his head to look at her and snickered.
"Ah come on, you're seriously pouting? I thought you were more mature than that!"
Sighing, Frisk stood up and slid back onto her stool.
"Well... as I was saying, everything was perfectly fine and normal, Sans was reading Papyrus and I a bedtime story as he did every night..." Sans awkwardly inhaled before choking and spitting out the mustard in his mouth. Taking hagged breaths, he looked over at Frisk with disbelief, while Grillby's laughter increased tenfold.
"Pfttt~ Hahahahaha." Frisk's eyes teared up with how hard she started laughing, she had not expected that reaction. Suddenly, that unique red glow from before, when Sans had summoned his tongue, flickered to life within his eye and a red glow settled over his cheekbones. Frisk's laughing cut short when she noticed it. Acting on impulse, she reached forward and blushed her fingers along the glow out of curiosity, his bones felt warm and the sensation tingled her fingertips. Startled, Sans bolted off of his stool and put some distance between them. Realizing what she had done, Frisk's face turned even redder than Sans and she ducked her head down.
"Sorry..." she mumbled out embarrassed.
"Uh... *cough*, that's alright..." Sans tensely sat back down.
Frisk felt too awkward to continue the story, she opened her mouth repeatedly, but closed it promptly afterwards. Once Sans realized her struggle, he barked out loudly, "so ya' goin to finish the fuckin story or not?" His aggressive tone for once helped calm her nerves and she retorted back, "yea, if you would stop interrupting."
"So back to the story, after Sans finished reading the bed time story, " Sans made an almost inaudible groining noise but for the most part, showed no other reaction. Frisk internally giggled, enjoying his discomfort. "We all feel asleep huddled on the bed, but then... there was this light... it just kind of came out of nowhere. As we continued to stare at it, it became brighter and brighter, before it opened up into this flashing vortex. After that, I woke up in the ruins and everyone had forgotten everything. Not only that, but everyone's personality somehow got reversed in a sense." At the conclusion of her story, Grillby's eyes were downcast deep in thought, while Sans was chugging more of the mustard.
"That still doesn't explain why Sans is hanging around with you." Grillby looked at Sans again. Sans set down the bottle and shrugged.
"Just a feeling I guess..."
Grillby wasn't buying it. "Sans..." His voice lowered with frustration and Sans in turn set the bottle down, his eye flashing red as a warning. They held their glares, both to stubborn to back down until the door to the diner was thrown open and a panicked Flowey darted inside.
"Frisk!" He called out desperately. Frisk turned in his direction with worry. "We've got a problem."
Flowey's tone of desperation immediately broke Sans and Grillby apart and they turned their attention to the flower.
"What's wrong Flowey?" Frisk rushed over to the door and dipped down to pick him up. Curling around her forearm, he pointed his leaves towards the end of the cavern leading out of Snowdin.
"Undyne is on her way here!"
"Whelp, that's the closing to this chapter. Come on!" Sans grabbed Frisk's wrist and yanked her out the door. Frisk yelped at his tight hold but she was far more worried about Undyne to be concerned about his painful death grip. The second they were out the door, a loud crack reverberated off of the walls and Sans crumbled to the ground. Frisk's eyes widened in dismay to see Papyrus standing behind them.
"What did you do to Sans?" Frisk yelled out in anger and concern. Dropping down next to Sans side, she checked him over to make sure he was okay. His skull had a crack running along the backside, which was concerning, but beyond that, he seemed okay, just out cold.
"I wouldn't kill my own brother, but he is getting in the way." Picking up Sans, Papyrus threw him over his shoulder and started walking away.
Frisk tried to follow but Papyrus turned on her with a scowl.
"Don't follow me filth. Because of you, you've caused a lot trouble for me. Undyne will be here shortly to pick you up, so wait like an obedient pet, and stay put."
Frisk froze as his words sunk in and she watched him walk away, feeling numb. Flowey tried waving his vines in front of her eyes to snap her out of her trance but he was unable to get her attention.
As soon as he spotted Undyne approaching in the distance, he summoned his vines and dragged her off to the forest. Frisk's eyes came back into focus after feeling her feet lift off the ground and she gripped the vine tightly in fear. She looked down at Flowey questioningly, until she looked up and saw Undyne. Flowey gently lowered her back down to the ground and they ducked down behind the trees.
Her attention was nowhere where it should be, her full focus was watching the area Papyrus had walked off to and decided to chance following. Frisk was terrified of losing Sans, he was the last connection she had left with her own timeline. Keeping low to the ground and being as quiet as possible, Frisk slipped through the trees, carefully watching her every step. Flowey was unaware of her departure until he turned to check on her and realized she wasn't crouching at his side. Closing his eyes, he linked with the trees of the forest and quickly spotted her a few feet away, making her way over to the last area they had seen Papyrus.
Keep his eyes peeled on Undyne, Flowey slipped backwards through the trees, using his vines and connection with the plants as a guide to navigate around. Shortly after he caught up to Frisk, he looked up at her with a frown.
"What are you doing?" He whispered under his breath, with a slight tone of frustration.
Frisk paused and looked over at him.
"I'm gonna go find Sans."
"Right now? Are you crazy? Let's just wait until Undyne leaves. If you keep moving around, she might hear us!"
"If I wait, I might not be able to catch up to Papyrus."
"Papyrus won't hurt Sans, they might be a couple of shits but they are still family and care for each other, even if they don't show It in the best ways..."
Growling annoyed, Frisk raised her voice without thinking.
"Why must you always insult them? They are my family and I don't want to lose them!"
Flowey's eyes widened in bewilderment at her outburst, all thoughts of Undyne escaped their reasoning.
"Aren't I family to!?" Flowey demanded in annoyance.
Frisk feel silent, taken-aback by his own outbreak before she gritted her teeth in anger and stood up.
"You're just a nuisance that keeps getting in my way!"
Her retort stung worse than any damage any monster had inflicted upon him. Frisk stormed off while he sank to the ground. Since they had first entered Snowdin, Sans was all she cared about... he was just a third wheel, with no place to go or family to call his own. He had been so excited to call Frisk his sister but it seemed she did not feel the same. Slinking off into the forest, he disappeared into the foliage.
...
Frisk couldn't believe Flowey's rude, insensitive behavior. How dare he insult her brothers and then try to guilt trip her... suddenly, a glowing blue spear landed a few feet away, startling Frisk. It took her only a second to recognize the attack and with dread, she turned to face Undyne the undying. She stormed towards Frisk with a grin. Turning to flee, she made a run for it, but Undyne wasn't messing around. A rain of spears clattered around Frisk, trapping her on all sides. Frisk tried gripping a spear to pull it free but the energy from the spear burnt her palms and she released it hissing between her teeth at the searing pain. Suddenly it occurred to her that she could just reset to before Sans had been captured and avoid all this contention but as she attempted to pull up the world coding, error signs filtered around her hand and the action boxes never appeared. Confused, she tried again, but the same results occurred. Knitting her brows together, she desperately tried to summon the reset button but nothing responded. Frisk's down fallen expression cued Undyne in to her little problem and she howled out laughing.
"Finally, capturing humans is never an easy feat. I was planning on killing you and just brining your soul, but I presume Alphys would like to study you first." Snagging Frisk by the back of her jacket, she lifted her off of the ground and swung her over her back. From Undyne's grip on the hoody, the jacket tightened around Frisk's neck and she had to grip the front of the jacket with both hands to pull it down, just enough to breathe, the whole trip back to Alphys' lab.