Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Growing Pains: To the Stars and Back

(Light Hearts Arc)

Chapter 1     Small Bump In Their Road

Warnings?: Slight violence but nothing serious, long exposition in the beginning to explain events from the first story (sorry)

Inspiration Song : Ain’t No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

‘Listen baby, ain't no mountain high
Ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough baby
If you need me call me, no matter where you are
No matter how far, don't worry baby, just call my name I'll be there in a hurry
You don't have to worry

'Cause baby there ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough, ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you babe

Remember the day I set you free
I told you you could always count on me darling
From that day on, I made a vow
I'll be there when you want me
Some way, somehow

Oh no darling
No wind, no rain, or winters cold can stop me baby, 'cause you are my goal
If you're ever in trouble, I'll be there on the double
Just send for me, oh baby

My love is alive
Way down in my heart, although we are miles apart
If you ever need a helping hand, I'll be there on the double
Just as fast as I can, don't you know that there

Ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you babe’

“Hey mom, I’m going to go pick up Frisk from work now!” Fifteen year old Flowey called from the front door.

“Oh-! Did you remember your umbrella?” she called from the next room over.

He gave the long umbrella that he was holding an experimental tap on the carpet, “I sure did!”

“Your money and phone?” she continued.

“Yeah mom! Got it all!” he called, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he really needed to go now if he wanted to get them on time.

She peeked around the corner “your manners? You seem to forget those the most,”

He let out an awkward laugh, cringing slightly “I’ll behave,”

Toriel smiled warmly and nodded firmly, walking up to give him and his robot body a motherly hug, which he complied to, wrapping metal arms around her, making sure to pat her back with the free hand, sticking his tongue out in mild disgust as she gave him a cheek nuzzle seconds before pulling away.

“Do not forget to text me when you get there,” she ordered.

“I won’t,” he said as he began to open the door.

“You forgot last week,” she nagged.

He flashed her an extra big grin “I won’t this time, promise,”

Toriel merely laughed “it is fine, just hurry back home before the clouds do,”

Flowey couldn’t help but remember the first time he’d ever gone out to pick Frisk up from school, his grin widening fondly at the memory, it had ended with them getting home safely, but since then he made sure he always came well prepared with his umbrella.

“Will do,” he said and with the turn of his wheel, he was out of the house, waving to his mother as she watched.

As he rolled speedily down the sidewalk, a light rain started up, but it wasn’t bad enough for the umbrella yet, in fact, it was really nice, especially after it being so hot and dry out lately.

It was the beginning of August now and summer was just almost over, it wouldn’t be long until Frisk would have to start back to High school and Flowey with home school again, he knew he was going to miss them.

He’d already missed them when they had finally taken Mettaton’s summer job offer at Mettaburger, which (fortunately) they only worked at three to four days a week, from 7 AM to 1 PM.

But that of course was still nothing compared to school, geez, he didn’t know how he was going to be able to handle not seeing them, despite the job, he’d grown happily accustomed to having them around more during the freedom of summer break.

He’d always liked summer like any other kid, but now that he was with Frisk, it was easy to say he had learned to appreciate it a whole lot more.

The rain began to pick up a little more, still, he merely laughed and stuck out his tongue to catch a drink, doing a ridiculous little twirl and dance with his robot pot body and umbrella, he was so happy and in love, he didn’t give a damn if he looked idiotic.

He definitely wasn’t the same Flowey he had been a year ago, and nowhere near the same Flowey he had been when he was a kid.

He was still a big jerk, cynical (but getting better), and had major self-esteem issues, but was, again, absolutely nowhere close to the same desperate soulless creature he’d been years ago.

It was likely because at the age of fourteen, during…an adventurous doctor visit to Alphy’s- that he found out that he’d been harboring a soul all along, and not just any soul, but… his own, they’d suspected it had come back somehow on the fateful day when he’d taken all six of the human and the entire monster population’s souls and became the God of Hyperdeath.

…Which was an amazing miracle and all, except it hadn’t…fully formed correctly, what he had instead was something undergrown and malformed, and it didn’t quite completely process emotions the way it should, instead, whenever he felt positive emotions like compassion, love, guilt, all he would feel instead was pain, and the stronger the emotion- the stronger the pain.

It was because of the pain and the fact that he’d gotten used to the idea of living a life without a soul, so much so that he went through five years without knowing what he really had inside, silently and stubbornly dealing with the pain of a thing he was able to brush off and leave unchecked

But the mysterious pain only increased more and moreover the years as he grew to care about the people around him, so by the age of fourteen, he agreed to a doctor visit to Alphys, the monster who had brought him back to life (without a soul in the first place) had been an act of final desperation, eager to finally find the cause of the horrible ache and pains that had been steadily plaguing him since he’d broken the Barrier.

At first, when finding out that he indeed had a soul all along, he was in pure disbelief, but what was disbelief quickly turned into anger, which then turned into rage, which…pitifully cooled off into grief…

Because to Flowey, none of it had gone the way it should have and none of it was fair, because yes, one of his deepest wishes was to have his soul back, but if he was still stuck, trapped inside the body of a flower, with a soul that barely worked in the first place- then what was the point to having one at all?

It was as if a guardian angel had granted his wish, but instead of a kind, benevolent, guardian angel, someone in the grand scheme of the Universe had made a large error in their files and had sent him a cruel demon in disguise.

Or maybe it was karma? Sometimes he felt he deserved the pain, it would make sense that he paid for all the horrifying sins he had committed back when he was soulless and empty.

Still, later on, the same year, just as he’d accepted his tiny soul as part of his life, on the day of Alphy’s and Undyne’s wedding on the beach, he came to a conclusion about Frisk and himself that had almost ruined him and his short teenage life.

He had realized, much to his dismay, that he was shockingly capable of romantic love.

Frisk was the reason why that pain inside him had gotten worse, because along the way, under his radar, he had fallen in love with his best friend and realizing that truth had been more than he had been able to take.

But at the same time, he’d been overjoyed to know that he was in fact- capable such of deep powerful emotions, no matter how embarrassing or hard they were for him to handle, he was just relieved to have more proof that he wasn’t a black hole of emptiness, to distance himself from the creature he used to be and be more than just the cold, creepy, strange, talking flower with dark ulterior motives that he regrettably remembered being.

He had found being in love truly hurt, both literally and figuratively, but he refused to push the feelings away, however, there were multiple giant issues with why being in love with someone like Frisk was a blaring problem all in itself.

Well, first of all, other than being complete opposites in personality, they were also complete opposites when it came to the subject of species, Frisk was a flesh and blood human mammal, and Flowey… Flowey was…a…uh.. .

Well, to put it bluntly, Flowey was a bright yellow flower with a working face and teeth, reincarnated from the death dust of a fluffy white goat monster prince.

And because of these drastic physical differences between the both of them, he had been so unquestionably, undoubtedly sure that Frisk would never in a billion years, return his feelings, and…sure… Frisk was clearly attracted to monsters, but there had to be a line to draw somewhere right? He wasn’t a ‘real’ monster, he was more plant than anything else, and what human was ever known to fall for a plant? Even if it was a sentient one.

So, to save himself from the rejection that he had been so sure that would come, he vowed to never confess his feelings.  . . but he of course. . . eventually broke that stupid vow, and then later realized that the line that Frisk drew was pretty far out there and was and still were capable of more love than he had ever anticipated or thought possible, and was also probably insane.

The other big reason why his feelings for them were a big problem was because shortly after Frisk decided to live their life under Toriel and Asgore’s separate but respective roofs, they both adopted Frisk in shared custody despite their continued divorce.

But because his parents were raising him alongside Frisk, he automatically realized that it made things a lot more personal between them than it previously had before, and when things got personal, it risked for things to get majorly awkward.

Unlike Chara, while he saw Frisk as a best friend, he never once saw them as a sibling, nothing close, and Frisk felt the same.

So when the day young fourteen-year Flowey realized his feelings for Frisk, he knew that along with everyone else there was no way he’d ever tell his family the real truth, and he never would, he’d do anything for love, he’d burrow to hell and back- but he wouldn’t do that.

No one was to ever know how he truly felt for Frisk, it had become sacred to him that no one find out, and to this day that was still true…

Well, there had been some exceptions.

But all of that was a different story…                

Flowey blinked himself back to the present, momentarily distracted by the flashy giant desert ad on the glass door, entering the flashy fast food restaurant, his thick smile that had been painted on his face dropping hard when he found the whole place buzzing and bustling with customers

 So many… damn… customers. 

His eyes instantly flickered to the end of the room where the three cashiers usually stood, he could barely see any of them through the crowd, but as he craned his petaled head around and shifted a bit, he saw Frisk in their peachy pink colored uniform and sparkly-employee-of-the-month-Meta visor, their long brown hair pinned up into a bun, standing behind a rectangle-shaped cashier machine, looking up expectantly at a tall human man who made his order.

They looked pretty tired, which made sense considering it was Saturday, his frown deepened in concern.

He then checked his phone, growing annoyed as he saw the time, it was five minutes passed for them to clock out, what were those jerky managers thinking? How much longer were they going to keep them up there, tortured in that part-time purgatory? The next time he saw Mettaton they were going to be having some Words.

He thought about cutting in line, but he had tried that before, it never received well, so, begrudgingly he went to the back of the long line, making a point to cross his metal arms defiantly, but his mood couldn’t help but soften when Frisk finally spotted him and smiled warmly, giving him a short wave before they moved on to the next customer, but of course, he found them catching his gaze every now and then, he could tell they were trying their hardest not to wink at him.

As he waited, he couldn’t help but notice the pair of older humans in line in front of him, they looked to be somewhere in their twenties, man and woman, both fairly good looking and fit, and likely a (happy) couple as the woman casually leaned against the man.

Flowey didn’t pay too close attention, he was more interested in the view of the cashier area, but nonetheless, it was hard to ignore the sight in front of him when the man wrapped his arm around the woman, his hand dropping steadily lower and lower until it found itself fitted firmly into the butt pocket of the woman’s jeans- whom didn’t seem to mind one bit, bashfully laughing under her breath, and even going in to give her boyfriend a kiss on the cheek.

Flowey held back an embarrassed scoff, his eyes darting away from the PDA with mixed emotions, at this point of his life, he wasn’t sure if he should be taking notes, be envious, or just be disgusted.

Frisk and he had been dating (in secret) for nearly four months now, the first month had been full of surprises and learning how to be romantic with them behind the scenes was and still was time to time particularly difficult…

But by now he felt like he was really getting used to being someone’s boyfriend, it was always a nice feeling to remember that someone felt and returned the same feelings he did and he was glad it was with someone like Frisk.

Yet, when it came to seeing other couples being close in public like this, he was always unsure how to feel.

One thing he was sure of was that he felt… was guilt, he knew Frisk deserved someone better than him, someone who could express their feelings openly and wasn’t scared of what ‘other people’ would think, and definitely someone who had an actual body.

And he knew he felt envy, because since their relationship was secret, the pair couldn’t always do what they wanted, leaving them to pretend to still being just really good ‘best friends’ around their family- which a lot of time was kind of fun and exciting, but some days it was …annoyingly frustrating.

Then there was embarrassment and disgust, because…c’mon guys, can you not butt touch in public? Flowey was barely two feet away from them, he understood being in love, but this was too much ‘display’.

But… then again, would that be something Frisk would like?

At that line of thought, Flowey looked back to his significant other in question, but was then bombarded with a very familiar recent mental image, except instead of a hand- it was one of his vines curled snugly within the butt pocket of Frisk’s fitted jeans (an action that Flowey never tried before or even thought of trying until now)

Instantly flustered by his imagination, he ducked his head down, staring down at the floor in more embarrassment, he hoped the crowd around him didn’t notice the increasing orange blush in his cheeks.

This was another big problem, not only was he teenage monster boy, but he was a teenage monster boy trapped inside the body of a flower, which just made things like this all the more awkward and weird, it was an unexpected issue he never thought he would have to deal with when he was younger, but here he was, still unable to escape from the strangeness of puberty- even in flower form.

It didn’t make it easy that he was dating someone so insanely stunning, flirty, charming, and brave as Frisk.

Somehow, he had gotten farther than he’d ever thought he would with them, every first move had been terrifying but mystifying, and had surprisingly even conquered kissing and making out within the first month of their relationship.

…But…uh, doing anything other deeper than… kissing…????

No, Flowey was young but he wasn’t that entirely clueless and had realized very early on that- while as amorous and flirty as Frisk was, that kissing and snuggling was as far as their relationship would ever go, or would be able to go, and that was just completely fine with him… and Flowey hated to think about it, but there wasn’t exactly a lot of himself that he would be properly able to give in a real ‘mature’ relationship with a human anyway, he literally wasn’t built for it.

They were only teenagers and hadn’t been dating that long anyway, there wasn’t any reason to be rushing or even thinking of that sort of stuff right now.

But it was certainly hard to avoid the obnoxious subject of ‘sex’ when it seemed that the entire world around him seemed to adore to talking about it, especially Frisk, who was making it clearer and clearer these days of what they had on their hormone-addled mind, usually showing it in the form of tame dirty jokes.

Thankfully, Frisk respected him and for his sake usually kept conversations PG-13 between them, knowing how easily flustered he got and how he felt about the subject, they most likely saved those stranger topics for their human friends- or just people they could probably relate to better.

Most of the time he didn’t really think about things like sex, for him it was a weird alien topic and he was never going to have it, besides he didn’t feel things physically the same way most other sentient creatures did, so what was the point? That’s right, there was none.

Unfortunately, again, the combination of flower puberty and being in love.. did… unwanted things in his imagination sometimes and frankly? It was really annoying, and Frisk’s good looks and the pressures of the internet and media never helped.

…But then again, was putting a hand in someone’s butt pocket really that ‘bad’ or even ‘dirty’? Were the wires inside his mind crossed? Was he overreacting?

As he thought this over, he noticed the space between him and the couple ahead of him had widened, looking up to see that they were now walking over to a different cashier, leaving him to be the second to next one in Frisk’s line.  

Brushing all his previous thoughts away in a heap behind him, he rolled forward.

The customer in front of him didn’t take long with their order, walking away sipping on a small pink iced coffee and looking rather pleased- Frisk must have given them a pretty good compliment.

He made his way up to the counter and leaned forward, making sure to address the most important issue in hand first.
“It is waaaayyyyy passed time for you to go, they’re working you too hard,” he complained, glaring at one of the managers who zoomed by.

Frisk gave him a lopsided smile at that, this wasn’t the first time they’d had this conversation.

“Don’t worry, everything is fine, the girl filling in for me is a little late, why don’t you order something while you wait? I’ll buy,” they explained.

Flowey let out a sigh, deciding to comply “then in that case, I’d like one fresh Frisk please-not overcooked, the Frisk I ordered last week was completely burnt out and crashed all afternoon,”

Frisk pursed their lips, holding back what might have been a chuckle, but played along smoothly.

“Sorry to hear that sir, but I promise we’ll have the freshest Frisk ready for you in no time, and for today special, free of charge, I can add some sugar to your order, how does that sound?”

Flowey, taken off guard by this brilliant offer, his mouth hanging open for a few seconds before he gave them a shy crooked smile, leaning a little closer ever so slightly.
“Yeah, sure, of course, maybe some extra to go if that’s okay, maybe ten? Twenty? You can put it in a bag,”

Frisk’s smile widened, they were definitely holding back their giggles now, but held on tight to keep their composure, nodding to him in a customer service-ley manner.
“Okay, sir, it’ll all be ready in a few minutes, why don’t you take a seat?”

He let out a long sigh “ffffine, but if the order falls asleep when I get home- I WILL be coming back here and there WILL be some complaints for your managers,”

Wow, he had not meant to sound like a bossy high maintenance soccer mom, but there it was.

At that, they raised their eyebrows but gave him another little nod “completely understandable sir, but no worries, your Frisk will also be coming free with a coffee,”

Flowey decided to loosen up a bit, giving them a reassuring smile “you really are too patient for your own good, you know that?”

They let out a long quiet sigh at that, their own smile relaxing “I’ll see you in a bit Azzie,”

“Quit flirtin’ with the customers Frisk! I don’t care how cute they are, we need to keep the line moving!” one of their co-workers called out from the back teasingly.

At that Frisk started to laugh but covered their mouth, stifling themselves, “sorry, can’t help it, this is my favorite customer!”

Feeling increasingly awkward and self-conscience, Flowey remembered himself and begun to back up.

“I’ll be waiting,” he said and avoided any eye contact as he turned around to uncomfortably move through the crowd, feeling as if he were sticking out like a sore thumb, uuugh, there was way too many people here!

With not too many free tables and booths left in the lobby area, he opted for an empty corner instead, automatically blocking out the view as he pulled his cellphone back out, anything to occupy his attention.

And- uh oh, whoops, he’d almost forgotten to text Toriel, guess it better to do it now than never.

    ‘Hi, I’m here, they’re working Frisk overtime again, they said the person filling in for their shift is late.’-

As he waited, he did some betta fish fact-checking, he’d been on the prowl lately looking for a better working water filter and was Determined to find something high quality, but was surprised as Toriel replied two minutes faster than usual.

-‘Hopefully it will not take too much time, also, I have recently watched the weather channel, there is a thunderstorm approaching, would you like me to come to pick you two up?’

Flowey thought it over for a second, glancing out the nearby window as he did, it still wasn’t that bad and he could even see the sun peeking out- he then craned his head around and much to his relief, saw Frisk was moving out of the way as another co-worker anxiously took their spot at the register.

He looked back down at his phone and quickly typed up his next text.

   ‘Frisk has just been released from their cage, I’m sure if we leave now everything will be fine’ -

He didn’t wait around for the next text, instead he stuffed his phone back in his case and watched Frisk eagerly as they said their ‘see ya later’s’ and ‘take it easy’s’ to their co-workers, automatically smiling when they found his gaze and grinned at him back.

Through the crowd, they gravitated to each other like magnets.

“I’m out and officially- down to clown,” they greeted playfully.

He snickered “speaking of which, where’s the bag of sugar you added to my order?” he joked as they made their way to the doorway.

Frisk’s grin widened “don’t worry, you’ll get it, your glucose guardian has you covered babe,”

They stepped outside, the roof of the building protecting them from the weak downfall of rain, Frisk audibly taking in a breath of the humid air.

“...‘Glucose guardian’…? Can you decipher that for me?” Flowey questioned in confusion as he opened up the umbrella, revealing the vivid rainbow shooting stars printed on it, letting lose a burst of color amongst the wet grey weathered street.

Frisk couldn’t help but bite their bottom lip and let out a quiet tentative giggle “it’s a gender-neutral term for a sugar daddy or mamma,”

Flowey narrowed his eyebrows at them, unsure how to react because he’d heard of the term before- but was always unsure of the deeper context, never sure if he wanted to really know, guess this was a better time than any to find out, so with that, he pulled out his cellphone.

“What are you doing?” he heard them ask.

“Looking it up,”

“I could just tell y-!,”

“Shush.” he said, raising an index finger at them, if he let Frisk explain something strange he knew they’d do it in a laid-back, casual, sugar-coated way that would only make him all the more confused of the real meaning.

 And as he read the definition, then re-read it to be sure, his eyes grew wide and the hint of blush returning to his face, once again today flustered, looking back up to glare bashfully at his best friend, jamming the cell back in its holster.  
 “FRisk you FREAK!” he blurted out, shoving the handle of the umbrella into their hand.

 They looked mildly disappointed by his reaction, but were still unable to hide their laughter “aww- c’mon, I didn’t mean it like that!”

“Oh yeah? Then how’d you mean it?” he asked, giving them a crooked smirk but caught himself when he realized he was risking this conversation to go in a completely different territory that he knew could end up embarrassing him more “-or never mind, don’t even answer at all,”

“C’mooon, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it in a dirty way, I just like the way it sounded was all, it’s cute,” they pushed on anyway, obviously very concerned that they disturbed his sensibilities.

He let out a long obnoxious sigh, changing the subject entirely “SOOOOooooooOOOOoo, how was your day?”

Frisk shared a look with him, a little unsure of their boyfriend’s mood until he gave a slow smile and motioned for them to answer, he was legitimately curious.
 “…Mmm, crazy as usual, I don’t think it stopped being busy today, oh- but Monster Kid came in and had a breakfast date with Robin, that was really cute and exciting,” they said, following closely by Flowey’s side as they began moving, beginning their walk home.

“That’s nice, but how are you? C’mon, complain Frisky,” he pressured, continuing a habit he’d gained once Frisk had started working and revealed to Flowey what a retail job was truly like and all the pains it entailed, after researching further into this strange new world, he suddenly grew increasingly concerned and protective of their well-being, he was still unsure why they even took the job offer in the first place.

Their smile grew gentle “there were a few customers that were short with me- but it’s fine, I get over that stuff fast, and… my back was really starting to hurt from standing in one place for so long… but now that I’m walking it’s starting to feel better,”

“Are you tired?” he pressed on.

“A little, but I’ll be fine after a little bit of TLC,” they then swayed over to nudge the pot bot with their shoulder “how’d your day go?”

“Uhh, good, in a boring way I guess? I slept in for half of it, I helped mom with the gardening, as usual, aaannnd I think I’m nearly done with my book I’m reading- anyways, I was wondering if…you wanted to do something today? Not necessarily another date… but something close to it, a semi-date I guess? We’ve only got so much alone time together before school starts back up, and…well…you know I want to make these last few days count,” he asked, giving them a hopeful smile.

But to his disappointment, Frisk gave him a hesitant, saddened, but flattered expression that told him that he was about to be politely turned down.

“Oh- no, I’m sorry baby, don’t you remember? I’m going over to Muffet’s place to have a yoga spider tea party, and then I’m going to give Aaron and his gang some help with their current mystery that they’ve been struggling with,”

It was then, that he finally recalled the conversation that they had the night before, his memory seemed to be selective like that, he either remembered every little detail or completely forgot them altogether.

“Ughh...yeah, I don’t know how I forgot, and GOOD GOLLY, how on earth are you capable of juggling all these friends like this anyway? It’s impressive but insane, impressively insane,”

They gave a gentle pat at the back of his stem “thanks…and, I’m really sorry, maybe we can hang out and watch a late-night movie when I get back? ”

He thought over this for a few seconds, it sounded like a very nice idea but he just couldn’t get the image of a work exhausted Frisk out of his mind.
“Mmmmmmm, no, you’re already overextending yourself today and I’m not contributing to that nonsense, you’ll just end up falling asleep through most of it anyway like last time, let's just do something tomorrow,”

Frisk smiled warmly at him “sounds like a plan and I can’t wait, thank you for being so understanding Azzie,”

He let out a resigned sigh, just because he understood and wasn’t complaining- didn’t mean he still wasn’t disappointed, not to mention annoyed that Frisk was so prone to piling all these plans and events with friends and family onto themselves without much rest time, it was something he didn’t think about much or second guess when he was younger- going out and hanging out with their friends, having fun, and helping them out was just something Frisk did, but as he grew older and closer to them, learning to empathize with them in a deeper personal depth- he couldn’t help but become concerned how this busy lifestyle affected them in the long run.

“Yeah, well, I’m the one who forgot you had a stacked day in the first place- but seriously, how are you going to survive today?” he asked.

 In response, Frisk flashing him a bottle of Super ginseng tea from the deepest reaches of the Dimensional Box inside their phone.

“Hm, packing on the Good Stuff I see,” he acknowledged

“Aw yeah I am,”

The couple was quiet for a while after that, creating a serene mood as they walked together down the whites and grays of the wet street, the pitter-patter of the rain thumping against the fabric of the umbrella.

Flowey studied Frisk and the entirety of their tacky outfit, the peachy pink shade wasn’t really their color and the sparkly visor clashed severely with everything entirely (he wasn’t even sure how well they could see with it when they already had long thick bangs) but to Flowey- Frisk could wear a baggy clown costume with a wig and everything and he’d still be charmed by them and find them highly attractive.

In fact, this seemed a good time to compliment them.

“You look really nice today,” he spoke up.

They turned their attention to him, mildly surprised and in awe now, visibly flattered.

“Aww- really? Thank you…even though I’m wearing my uniform… and been working all day,” they responded, running a hand over the back of their hair consciously.

He shrugged and smirked “but that’s just it, you’re amazing all the time, and… as much as I hate the fact that you work at a place like that- I’d be lying if I didn’t say that hard work looks really good on you too,”

In response, Frisk giggled airily, giving him a very recognizable Look that told him that he was about to be severely flirted with.

“Boy, you’re smoother than the cream cheese I had on my toasted bagel this morning,” they began.

“Really?” he asked, unable to hide the held-back laughter in his voice.

“Yeeeah~, smoother than slow jazz music being played on a hot Friday summer night,” they continued.

“Oh- wow, that’s- that’s actually pretty smooth,”

“Smoother than a gorgeous model in a silk dress getting dipped kissed,”

“I really should have seen this coming,” Flowey said under his breath in flattered amusement, to which Frisk giggled again.

They then turned and began walking down a crosswalk, taking their time as they strolled across the road due to it being a particularly slow street.

As they started up again, Flowey couldn’t help but start to feel. . . weird, and not in a familiar soul ache kind of way, but more in a… static-y way…

He then gaped in surprise when he noticed that Frisk’s bangs and any of the stray hairs that had escaped from their bun was sticking straight up.

His thoughts went back to one of his mother’s science classes and oh no-

 These were signs that lightning was about to strike somewhere close, he had to do something and quick.

“Smoother than a leg in a pair of thigh-high-,”

“-IgetitFriskbut I think we-,” he started but before he could finish, an astonishingly flash of bright, white light temporarily blinded and deafened the both of them as straight ahead, on the other side of the street as a tall metal lamp post was struck by lightning, wild sparks of electricity spraying into the air and across the road- nearly reaching the stunned couple.

A small fire ignited at the top of the pole, flaring relentlessly through the rain.

“-Should go…,” Flowey rasped out in a whisper, barely aware that Frisk had clung to him, arms wrapped around him and his pot bot body protectively while squeezing onto their umbrella taut with white knuckles, having jumped to him in an instant amidst the shock of the moment, now attempting to steady their breathing.

The two of them could only stare at the now fire lit pole in bewilderment, he had known it was coming, yet still nothing had quite prepared him for what he had just seen, he was sure if they had been any closer- that they would have surely been struck instead.

As he stared- still lost in thought, Frisk caught his attention as they flinched and twisted a little bit next to him “ah…  could you loosen your grip a little?”

Ripping his gaze from the fire, he looked over to see that Frisk wasn’t the only one who had clung him in the heat of the moment, finally seeing that his robot arms had automatically clutched onto their body vigilantly, one around their waist, the other around their front- his fingers clenched onto their shoulder.

 He didn’t have to be told to see that he was holding them too tightly, it probably even hurt judging from how they flinched- but he was sure that they weren’t about to tell him that.

“Sorry, you know how this thing is,” he mumbled, focusing on the arms, becoming flustered when the device hesitated to move, his eyes widening as he worried for a second if it had somehow gotten short-circuited during the electric strike.

Oh god no, were they going to be stuck like this all the way home? Would it be able to move at all? He’d only had this thing for nearly four months and- and he-  did a double-take at the road-

Why wasn’t that car slowing down?!

Realizing that there wasn’t enough time to move out of the way, or hope that the driver was going to stop in time, neither was he sure if his robot body was working right, all he could do was go on belief and hope that it would work as he held Frisk in his arms and very sharply pulled them out the way from the oncoming collision.

Thankfully, the robot body complied, with Frisk yelping in alarm to being yanked around so jarringly, then gasp breathlessly in terror as they finally saw the car coming.

 Flowey could only squeeze his eyes tight and bury his face against the side of Frisk’s, accidentally knocking off their visor with his petals in the process, wincing and ignoring the burst of pain all over his body from his soul as he fervently prayed to any and all beings above and beyond that Frisk didn’t get hurt.

He heard Frisk unleash a muffled screech before he felt the impact, fortunately, the car wasn’t that big and had attempted to stop, pulling the breaks-

 But it was too late.

The two metals punched into the other.

The force knocked the umbrella from Frisk’s hand, but like a miracle, neither of them fell over, shaken up but both teenagers were physically unharmed.

But Flowey didn’t know this, the pain from his soul still rumbling, his system shot with its own form of adrenaline, anxiously panicking as he hastily backed his head away to get a good look at Frisk in restless worry, touching their face and arms with his vines for any wounds.

“Are you okay?!” he blurted out as he checked them over, his robot arms slowly but finally letting them go so he could see them better.

“Me?! You’re the one who just got hit by a car!” Frisk exclaimed, their eyes shiny and wet with oncoming tears, looking rather distraught by Flowey’s panic, and probably would have been attempting to check him too if he weren’t so busy with his examination first.

“I KNOW what happened! Just worry about yourself for one damn second! Are you okay?!” he yelled irrationally, upset tears forming in his eyes as well.

They took hold of his cheek with a palm, staring hard into his eyes “I’m fine Asriel! I’m okay, I’m okay, see?” they said, showing him their other hand.

 He stared at it for a few seconds, focusing on their gentle touch, almost absorbed by the feeling, his mind moving slowly as he stared fixated at the fine lines on their hand, he then was caught by the sight of Frisk’s lips as they formed a worried smile, his gaze drifting to their bright brown hazel eyes.

They were okay…

This all brought him back down to reality, letting out a shaky sigh as he processed the confirmation, Frisk wasn’t hurt and that was good-  he was still in quite a bit of pain no thanks to his indisposed soul, but other than that, everything was good and that was all that mattered.

With that settled and his fear and panic eased, he realized he was now angry that this had happened to them and directed that anger to the driver of the car, who was a young dazed and confused man.

To whom was now completely horrified as the angry flower in the strange robotic body glared down at him with dark teary eyes and a menacing expression, not missing the sharp red thorns appearing on his stem.

“MENTAL DEFECTIVE!” Flowey yelled, smacking the hood of the car with a gloved fist, annoyed that it didn’t leave any sort of mark or dent.

“Asriel!” Frisk gasped, flinching in disapproving surprise.

He narrowed a confused eyebrow at them “what? That’s nothing compared to what he could have done to us! C’mon, let’s get out of here,”

But Frisk stood still, conflicted for a moment, switching their gaze between Flowey and the driver in concern.

“Wait! We’re supposed to trade legal information!” they called, grabbing onto a metal arm as he attempted to roll away.

Flowey made a face of disgust, uugggghh, the last thing he wanted to do was deal with some brainless blind guy who couldn’t focus on the road.

 Flowey couldn’t avoid the fact that Frisk was annoyingly right and- well, he didn’t have much of a chance to protest as they walked away and made their way around the car.

As he followed them, grabbing up their visor and the umbrella on the way over, he watched intently as Frisk walked up and the man rolled down his window, readying himself for any kind of fight, the idea of beating up this guy to a pulp was feeling pretty appealing at the moment.

“Hi sir?”

“Are you guys okay? I’m so, so, sorry, all I could see was the pole on fire and by the time I saw you two it was too late,” he said, handing them a scrappy piece of paper to which Frisk took.

“You’re right, you could have KILLED us!” Flowey snapped, butting in.

The man grimaced at that, guilt clear on his face “I’m honestly really sorry kid, I’ll admit that this wasn’t one of my proudest moments,”

“All that matters is that no one got hurt, are you okay sir?” Frisk asked in an attempt to keep morale up, not wanting the conversation to go sour.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me, this car is practically junk compared to what you got there,” he replied “how’d it stay up anyway? It was just a little bump, but logically it should have knocked it down like a bowling pin,”

“It has gyroscope technology,” Flowey grumbled, eyeing the paper in Frisk’s hands, it was the man’s name (Cave Debero) along with his phone number and other legal personal information.

The three of them jumped as a loud clap of thunder rattled threateningly through the air, and Cave seemed to make his mind up.

“Look, don’t worry about me, just get out of this rain, don’t hesitate to call the police, especially if there’s any problems with your robot thing, I put a pretty bad dent in it!” he said.

“What?!” both Flowey and Frisk exclaimed in unison, both finally thinking to look down at the pot bot in alarm, seeing that- yes, there was definitely a nasty dent in the lower back end.

“Damn it,” Flowey uttered under his breath, not quite able to see all of it properly from his angle but was able to see enough to easily know it was bad.

“Nooo, this is awful!” Frisk groaned “yeah, Toriel and Alphys are going to have some words to say, I’m so sorry Flowey,” then looked up at Cave “one of our best friends is a police officer, we’ll call her right away,”

“Alright, same here, just hurry up and get out of this weather first!” Cave called as the rain began to kick up harder, making things a little more difficult harder to hear.

Flowey knew just the place to go too, looking to Frisk “let’s go back around the corner to the gas station,”

Upon hearing that, Cave nodded nervously and rolled up his window and drove away, leaving the teens alone.

“Okay, I’ll call Toriel to come pick us up there, and then Undyne,” they replied, causing Flowey to think back to his mother’s text, if he had just used some common sense and waited and let her pick them then they wouldn’t be in this mess.

 The familiar ache of guilt gripped him, sighing deeply as Frisk and he turned around and quickly began making their way back the way they came.

He watched in the corner of his eye as Frisk leaned in close next to him and held onto the robot arm, the both of them knew he couldn’t feel the touch through the machine, but there was something about the act of affection, still held the same sentiment to him, it was still comforting in its own way.

“You were very brave back there, I’m so happy you’re okay,” Frisk said, wiping the oncoming tears.

“Save your tears, none of it would have happened if I had just listened to mom in the first place,” he replied, his expression tense, he was so angry at himself right now.

“What do you mean?”

“She texted me right as you were clocking out, she told me about the thunderstorm and asked if we wanted a ride home, and I said no…you know, like a moron,” he explained begrudgingly.

They shook their head in disagreement, “don’t blame yourself for things you didn’t know were going to happen Asriel, sure none of this would have happened if we waited, but think of this way…what if we did? What if something bad happened in that timeline too? Would you still blame yourself?”

“...Probably? You should just go back to your last Save so we can find out and not be nearly run over by a two brain celled jerk and his two-bit piece of junk,” he said, half-joking- but forgot the part where he was supposed to smile.

Frisk gave him a serious look, staring at him almost questioningly, because they could turn back time, and was likely very open to the idea of going down the timeline where Flowey didn’t get hit by a car, but at the same time- they’d made a promise to him to only use the Power when absolutely necessary.

They always got really concerned when he made jokes like this.

“I’m KIDDING, you know I’m kidding! Just call mom already, don’t want to be late for your busy day, do you?” he said, brushing his anger and the emotional mood of the moment under the rug.

They said nothing to that, merely letting out a quiet sigh as they pulled out their phone.

He watched them as they talked, realizing that… if something lethally bad had happened to him, that Frisk definitely would have gone back to their last Save, in any situation really.

They would never let him stay dead.

…Such as he had also promised, they’d always talked about being there for him and more than once kept true to their word, but he had never thought that far into it, as long as Frisk had control, they would never let anyone they loved die, they would look for every possible way to save them.

It was a beautiful realization, and… a little scary one at that, because long, long ago, Flowey had learned all too well that there were fixed moments in time that can’t ever be changed, no matter what anyone does, for example, what if Frisk had a human friend that had an incurable life-threatening disease?

There would be virtually no way for them to find a way to stop or fix it, and that was the scary part, the idea that Frisk had this divine power that was seemingly invincible and omnipotent, when the truth was that it wasn’t, there were things that just can’t be changed.

He still remembered back when he had the Power, and the pain of being in control of so much… but completely powerless at the same time, all those countless times he tried to Reset, going back to his last Save, anything to go back before the time he was a flower, before Chara died, anything.

 The very idea that Frisk were to ever feel that same pain was terrifying.

“Azzie..? Are you okay?” he heard them say gently, catching his attention.

They were in the gas station now, standing in the middle of a small snack aisle, he’d been so lost in thought, that he’d been… only just vaguely aware of his surroundings but not really taking it in, he especially hadn’t been listening.

He gave them a weak smile “yeah, just…thinking how car accident-related deaths have got to be one of the most dumbest and ironic ways to go,”

They smiled back with uncertainty, “you sure you’re okay? You looked upset,”

“I wasn’t upset, but… other than the fact that I wasn’t listening to your conversation, I’m fine Frisk, what did mom say?” he said, resting a reassuring hand on their shoulder.

“That she’s coming to get us, though… I didn’t tell her about the accident- I didn’t want her to be stressed while she was driving,” they explained.

He raised his eyebrow “she’s going to want to know why I have this huge dent, either way, we’ll have to tell her, so I think she’s going to get stressed out regardless,”

Frisk let out a sigh “I know, hopefully we can break it to her gently,” they then held their phone up and stared hard at it “…now to call Undyne, wish me luck,”

He winced sympathetically “do you want me to do it for you?”

They looked back to him in surprise, pausing for a few seconds but a shy smile blossomed on their face.

“No, it’s fine, you’ve already literally stopped a car for me, you’ve done more than enough today,” they said, gazing at him with adoration.

His own expression softened, “..okay, just… remember that I can mimic voices, I’ll take the call if she turns angry,”

They smirked as they looked back down at the phone, pulling up their contacts.
 “Assuming I could ever forget something cool like that, but it’s fine, I’ve got this, I can handle an upset Undyne,”

And he didn’t doubt them, he was just fully aware of how hard Undyne could come down on people when she was in police officer mode and how protective she was over her friends, it was always a dangerous combination to mix up the two.

So, this time around, as he absentmindedly looked over the rows and rows of candy, gum, and chips, he made sure to listen.

“Hey Undyne, so, I never thought I would have to do this… but I… kind of have to report a.. car.. accident, or a vehicle smash I guess? I’m not sure what to call it,” he heard Frisk say.

There was a short pause as Undyne spoke.

“I’m fine, don’t worry about me, no one was hurt- it happened five or six minutes ago, maybe eight? I would have called you when it happened but it was raining really bad and we nearly got struck by lightning- but fortunately, it struck a pole instead, so...-heh, um, yeah it was shocking alright, we had to get the heck out of there,”

Another pause.

“Well… Flowey had picked me up from work, and we were on Thicket Street, walking down the crosswalk when the lightning struck the pole and it caught on fire, we were so stunned and distracted that we didn’t see the car coming, but…Flowey saw it before I did and pulled me out of the way, he was very heroic, I still need to thank him some more,”

The heroic flower boy in question glanced over at Frisk, finding that they’d been gazing at him, giving him a proud smile and wink as they listened to Undyne’s response.

Though, their smile faded as he could only guess that Undyne began to ask more serious questions, he could hear her tone of voice stern over the receiver, it was in a more professional tone now.

“Yes, his robot got hit- oh no- Floweys’ fine, he was untouched, nobody was hurt at all, but the robot does have a pretty bad dent from the impact…some important robo bits are showing…no, it seems to be working okay, but I’m sure Alphys is going to need to patch it up,”

He watched Frisk as they let out a quiet sigh, leaning to the side as they shifted their weight to one foot, unknowingly showing their stress as Undyne continued on, this was exactly why he’d offer to make the call instead.

“The driver was a human, his name was- uhm, Cave Diablo? Debelo? Han-hang on, I got the paper in my pocket-” Frisk began, urgently digging a hand in the pocket of their slacks.

“Cave Debero,” Flowey spoke up.

“Cave Debero- thank you Flowey,” they then finally fished out the piece of paper “Mr.Cave gave me some information, yeah, his address and phone number and all that… ah, oh no, he didn’t even ask our names…  … .. uum, he was mostly concerned about us getting out the rain and was very apologetic- no, no ride offers, but he did say he’d call the police too, do you want me to read you what he wrote or…?”

They raised their eyebrows.

“You know him? …Oh okay, I see, I hope this doesn’t hurt your friendship with him, he seems like a really nice guy,”

“A nice guy who almost squashed us like bugs,” Flowey muttered, ignoring the Look that Frisk threw him.

Their eyes then lit up as Undyne asked them a question.

“Oh, we got out of the rain, we’re actually at the Shellaco, yeah, the one nearby Thicket Street- ah, actually I called Toriel first, she’s coming to get us now- oh-no, I’m sorry, I know I should have called you first thing- I know, you’re the police, I understand, next time I promise I’ll call you first,” Frisk then glanced at Flowey in concern, “you want to talk to Flowey…?”

Flowey grimaced in response, begrudgingly holding out his hand for the phone.

“Okay, here he is,” they said before they handed the phone to him, giving him a supportive smile.

“Howdy Undyne,” Flowey greeted, still grimacing.

“Soooo, I hear you and Frisk got into a ‘fender bender’ and that you pulled Frisk out the way and took the hit for them, that is amazing work kid, how are you doing?” she asked.

“If you mean physically-I’m alright, but I’m still pretty angry…,” he replied.

“Are we talking ‘arrest him’ angry? Because I understand the whole thing was an accident, and that you and Cave are my friends, but I want to remind you that no one is free from the law, and if you feel that he-,”

Flowey raised his eyebrows in alarm, rushing to stop Undyne right there.

“-No, wait, I didn’t mean it like that, I don’t really want to make any drastic decisions yet, I get that this is serious so.. is it ok if we talk about this face to face? With my mom too? She knows more about this legal business than I do,”

“Good thinking, it’s never wise to make rash plans when you’re still angry, so, how’s this, I’ll meet up with you at your mom’s place and we’ll talk all this over? Does that sound good to you?” Undyne asked.

“Yep, it sounds like… something alright, but.. hm…Frisk probably won’t be available to talk for too long, they’ve got a busy schedule today,” he said.

At that. Frisk leaned over in a hurry, taking Flowey’s robot arm and halfway pulling it over to talk to Undyne.

“But it’s okay! I’m sure Muffet will understand if I’m a little bit late, I can make time for this,” they explained, proceeding to back away and giving back Flowey’s respective bubble of space.

“Gotcha, also, Flowey? I told Frisk this, but a giant word of advice, the next time you’re in any kind of car accident, call the police instantly, and I mean instantly- don’t wait to get out of the rain, take pictures and notes of any damage, make sure BOTH parties give their information, call 911 if there are any injuries, even small ones, okay?”

Flowey winced at that, staring hard at the floor now, these were all things he wished he had known beforehand, but then realized that Cave didn’t exactly follow these rules either and he was an adult.

All the more reason to get even angrier, but, as he thought back to the incident, Cave did give his information to them, the handwriting was extremely sloppy like he had written it in a hurry like he knew what to do and cared about the situation but had an urgent need to leave somewhere important.

“Okay, I’ll be sure to remember that…,”

“Good, I’ll talk to you later,”

“Bye Undyne, thanks for the help,”

“Bye hero- oh, and one more thing,”

“Yes?”

“Next time you plan on picking Frisk up from anywhere and you see one cloud in the sky- change your plans and let someone else drive them home, okay? It’s a much more safer way to travel, and you were brave today, which is- again, amazing, but you were brave in a situation that could have been easily prevented,”

Flowey let out a quiet weary sigh in agreement, still staring hard at the floor.
 “You don’t need to tell me twice,”

“Maybe I do! No more traveling during crap weather!”

                                              -beep!-

Without looking up, he handed the phone back to Frisk.

“That bad?” they asked softly, concerned as they took the phone.

“All I’m going to say is… that I think it’s probably time you thought about learning to drive…,” he said, finally looking to his partner and giving them a tired smirk.

Because he was pretty sure that after this whole mess was settled, that everyone would most likely feel better with Frisk driving themselves home than him walking them home, he knew he would.

Not too long later at Toriel’s home…

Explaining to Toriel what had happened had been painful, but sitting through the emotional ride that was the ten-minute lecture from both Toriel and Undyne had been excruciating.

During the lecture, they found out several things, one of being that Cave works at the BBQ joint nearby Undyne’s station (which filled in some of the blanks of the story of how they must have met) and was in a hurry to go visit his sister in the hospital and had also called Undyne after the accident, apologized profusely and explained that he didn’t want to press any charges for the minor damages Flowey had indeed left to his car and that he would help in any way he could.

To which Undyne then explained to the two that ‘you won’t always get this lucky in the real world!’

She then further explained, to both Flowey and Frisk’s further relief, that thanks to the fact that Flowey’s robot was technically serving as a part of his body and wasn’t legally an actual motor vehicle, and also because they were underage pedestrians, and that the damage wasn’t that bad- that no one was getting into any real trouble.

But all that great news wasn’t going to stop Toriel and Undyne from giving their two favorite teenagers an earful about safety precautions.

“Okay, so, one more time kiddies, repeat after me ‘I . WILL . KEEP. A . CLOSE . EYE . ON . THE . ROADS’!” Undyne commanded.

“I will keep a close eye on the roads!” Frisk complied in a more sing-songy voice.

The three turned their attention to the Flowey, waiting, who stared back with a tight frown.

 The copycat was stubbornly not copying for once.

He had been fine with the whole thing up to now, he was never fond of the patronizing attitude she adopted over the recent years, he never remembered her being this bad back when they were all stuck Underground, he had noticed Papyrus had gotten somewhat patronizing as well, but with Undyne it was a lot worse.

He thought back to the rogue teen monsters who used to hang out around Snowdin a long time ago, sure they’d lived an entirely different lifestyle from the one Frisk and he had now, but he doubted they had to deal with stupid stuff like this.

But, sensing a different type of lecture coming on, he passed on what might have been the satisfying opportunity to rebel, because really, all he wanted to do right now was get this over with, forget the drama, and have lunch, he was getting hungry.

“‘I will keep a close eye on the roads’, there, it’s nailed into my brain, are we done?” he asked, trying his hardest to hide his attitude but failed in the attempt.

At that, Undyne and Toriel shared a few displeased glances before looking back to the kids.

“Frisk is done and free to leave, they already have a full schedule today, but I do believe we still need to talk to you about a few more important subjects,” Toriel said, giving her son a stern but sympathetic expression.

At that Frisk grew worried and stood up hesitantly “are you sure? I know he’s been a little rude but you know he doesn’t mean it, it’s just that the whole thing was really rough for him and-,”

Toriel walked up to them and put a hand on Frisk’s shoulder gently, “it is okay my child, he is not in any trouble, we are only going to talk about the dent he received, now, you must hurry, we’ve already kept you long enough…unless, do you feel fit enough to go?”

Frisk was quiet for a second as they debated it, “no, I’m super fit, I’m just worried is all, but… well… he has you guys so- yeah, I’ll be good,”

Which probably meant that they’d be texting him tonight, a selfish part of himself hoped they’d just give in and reschedule on Muffet and Aaron, but they’d never do that, when Frisk made promises and plans- they always stuck to them.

…Except for that one time when they surprised him when he’d suffered from the after-effects of dealing with magic aphids, Frisk stayed with him, watched over him as he slept and healed, even when they knew Mettaton was going to take them shopping.

…Well, to be fair, he had been in pretty bad shape at the time and the circumstances were different…

But then a big sharp grin appeared on Undyne’s face, “if you tell Muffet and all the guys what happened, please- PLEASE don’t forget to brag about your bestie like you did over the phone with me, I know it sounds like I’m joking, but I’m dead serious, everyone should know what Flowey did today,”

Toriel perked up at that “oh! That is a lovely idea!”

Frisk grinned excitably with them in agreement, but as they looked over at Flowey, their grin eased up to a weak smile, “...only if he’s ok with it,”

And Flowey was…not ‘ok’ with it, sure he enjoyed being recognized for his better achievements from time to time, call it modesty, but the idea of everyone calling him a ‘hero’ gave him…deeply mixed emotions, it almost felt like the wrong word somehow.

Might have something to do with the fact he had spent a large chunk of his soulless half of his childhood believing himself to be ‘evil’.

“I was just doing the right thing, I’m sure you would have done something if you saw the car first Frisk, you probably would have just dodged it like you do with all bad things,” he said, giving a little shrug.

“That’s the thing though kid, lots of people call them a hero, it’s what they’re known for, but not so much for you, I think it’s high time you deserve some real recognition, it’ll be good for monster reputation,” Undyne said.

Toriel stepped over to him “yes! And remember when you rescued Frisk when they fell from that tree? It was such a shame that you were so embarrassed by the attention, but we were all proud of you nonetheless, and that was long before you showed us your true identity too,”

Flowey shook his head in desperation “you two are driving me crazy, can we just talk about this later? I’m not really in the mood for all this glamour talk,”

Frisk suddenly gasped as they caught sight of the clock on the wall in the hallway, “oh my gosh, I really gotta go,” they then peeked back inside and gave everyone a frantic wave goodbye, “love you guys, I’ll be back around ten-thirty….ish,”

“I love you too, have fun and stay safe,”

“Same goes double for me, see you later punk,”

Frisk smiled warmly at the two monster women as they made their way for the door, but then stopped as they thought something over and pointed to Flowey.
“You’re obviously not comfortable with this whole thing, I’ll just tell them a simplified version of the story, how about that?”

“Sure, fine, do what you think is best, see you later idiot,” he replied, giving them a lazy grin.

They countered it with a goofy grin back, “see you later, love you Flowey!”

A burst of butterflies flew through him at the sweet expression, followed by the usual and expectant crackle of pain, as well the small rush of adrenaline he felt these days whenever Frisk dared to be casually loving toward him in public.

“Ughh, just get out of here already! Shoo!” he snapped back, trying his hardest to hold back his nervous smile, a fake annoyed expression painted on his face.

And this was just the thing, Frisk was also well known for being loving and flirty, so, casually they had discovered that they could be sweet on him in front of others- as long as he played the part and pretended to be still disgusted by the affection.

It was a very risky thing to do and made them both equally anxious that someone would eventually see through it, but Frisk couldn’t help themselves sometimes, Flowey would know, he had nearly slipped up a few times himself.

They were technically leading a double life together, weren’t they?

“You know, it’s not that hard to say ‘I love you’ back to someone, right?” he heard Undyne say after Frisk left and closed the door behind them.

Flowey turned his attention to her in legitimate confusion, his mind already in a cloud “huh?”

Undyne shook her head dismissively “never mind, I’ll let your parents handle that one, you’ll eventually learn anyway,” she then took out her cellphone.

“Okay, so, a little while ago, while we were in the middle of the lecture, Alphys texted me about the picture of the damage that you sent her, and we….may have some bad but not terrible news that you might not want to hear, but you’ll have to anyway,”

“Then don’t tell me,” Flowey retorted, ugh, they were going to take away the robot weren’t they? When he saw the damage he had a bad feeling that he was going to have to give it up for a while, but still, he’d been hopeful anyway.

“Trust me, I would if I could, but I promised Alphys I’d do this for her, so here we are, but, the thing is, she and I are going on a paid vacation starting this week and we won’t be back until next Saturday, and none of us think it’s wise for you to continue riding around in that thing when it’s that damaged,” Undyne said, leaning on the wall.

Flowey’s mouth dropped at the accusation “are you saying I’m going to have to go back to normal flower pots- FOR A WEEK?!”

Undyne shifted uncomfortably, sympathetic but annoyed by his tone of voice.
 “Yes, I’m saying that exactly, maybe longer depending on the damage- the wife’s words not mine, but we promise it won’t take as long as it did when you lost your other one, so I’m sure you can tough this out,” she then let out a sigh “if you don’t mind miss Dreemurr, I’ll go start up a lunch while we wait for Alphys, I’m sure you two want to talk things over,”

And with that, she hurried out of the room, as if she could practically feel the anger building up from Flowey and was ready to get the heck out.

He grit his teeth in frustration, just barely holding back a few ugly swears in the process, how in the hell was he supposed to take Frisk on a proper date without his mobility?!

He attempted to imagine them carrying him around like the old days but everything he thought up was more unflattering than the last, there was no possible way he could make the experience romantic.

As he thought about the issue with the date, he continued thinking of having to be confined to the flower pot, unable to go anywhere without help from the others.

This just wasn’t fair.

He was then suddenly overcome with disgust at the thought of being babied again, the urge to prove his independence stronger than ever before, it was then and there that he made a tough decision.

“I’m not going to do it,” he said suddenly after a moment of silence.

“What are you not going to do?” Toriel asked, suspicious but equally concerned.

“I’m not going back to normal flower pots, I refuse,” he said, crossing his arms to get his point across.

Toriel raised her eyebrows in surprise, but seemed unsure of the news.
“Oh, Flowey dear…I understand this is hard for you but I am not sure being out of the soil for that long is such a good idea,”

There was a hint of a thoughtful smile on Flowey’s face as he remembered something.
 “Actually, I think I’ll be fine without any soil at all, I’ve slept overnight without being planted in anything at all, multiple times actually,”

She gave a small nod at that “I see, as long as you have evidence… then I will calm my worries, but- oh, how smoothly will you be able to get around?”

Flowey let out a laugh of uncomfortable bravado at that, because, well, while he did have practice in crawling (or tripping around) with the combination of his roots and vines, he wasn’t as terrible as he was in the beginning but he wasn’t entirely great at it yet either.

“I have practice!” he said with a too-wide grin.

Toriel raised a skeptical eyebrow “how much practice?”

His confidence began to slip a little “enough of it?” but then backed it up with “but this will be a big chance to practice even more!”

“Very well, but how will you see and reach tall surfaces?” she pushed.

“I can slingshot myself around and crawl up things, it’ll be fine mom, I’ll find a way,” he said, the confidence just as fast coming back as he attempted to convince Toriel, convincing himself in the process.

But to his surprise, she frowned “you make it sound as if you plan to be doing all this alone without any help,”

He gave a stubborn nod “yes ma'am, that’s my plan,”

A more concerned expression crossed her face before she let out a sigh, and smiled for her son.
 “I will be… painfully honest, I do not like this plan, but if this is what you choose to do, then I will not stop you…….. just remember I will always be here if you need my help,”

He couldn’t help but let a laugh slip, smiling awkwardly “it’s- it’s not that big of a deal mom, everything will be okay,”

Later…

The short lizard monster woman had been studying and assessing the robot’s damage for what felt like forever, until finally she put away her tools, got back to her feet, and dusted off her claws.

“So, uhhh.. um, Undyne told you about the wait?” she began, seemingly unsure of where to begin with the issue.

“I did,” Undyne spoke up.

“Wait-don’t say anything unless you can fix this thing before tomorrow,” Flowey cut in, holding up a hand, his tone snarky but there was a hint of desperation.

Alphys bit her bottom lip nervously, looking to Undyne- who nodded back in encouragement, so she let out a heavy sigh and looked back to Flowey.

“I’m really sorry, there are some parts I need to order that I’m sure won’t come until a few days…and I won’t be able to fix it until next Saturday and- um, I mean- it could have been A LOT worse, the car came veeerry close to knocking the third bottom Aetherium crystal loose, if it had- well… you get the idea, fortunately, most of the damage is cosmetic….but there is a hole and a few exposed areas, so… I’d recommend to just…um…not use it, for safety measures,” she explained, speaking in a hesitant tone as Flowey’s frown tightened.

There was a part of him that was still fairly angry about the whole issue, mainly the part of him that would have been passive-aggressive toward Alphys if he hadn’t already decided that he was going to make the best of this aggravating situation, he was better than that now.

He had an idea to fix this problem anyway.

“Can’t you just weld a temporary piece of metal over the hole until you get back?” he asked.

Alphys let out a long sigh and looked down, anywhere but at him “that’s part of the problem, my machine that I use to weld things has completely busted, there’s a bunch of things that I need that I’m ordering,”

“What about multi-purpose tape? You do have something like that, don’t you?” he quickly asked.

She gave a weak sympathetic smile “I thought about that too, but I realized there were some adjustments I could give it- which I can easily finish and do today…and I’ve also decided it would be just safer to keep it out of the way from any more accidents until I can completely fix it, I’m really sorry Flowey,”

Flowey’s current frown twisted, unable to find it within himself to force a smile back, a short, uncomfortable silence settling over the room as he struggled to think of the right thing to say. . .

“Alright… I get it, thanks anyway Alphys,” he said,  “…should I get out of this thing now or can I wait until you take it?”

Smiling in relief that Flowey wasn’t as angry as she feared, she visibly relaxed.
“I suppose you can stay in it until I leave, just be careful…so, um how are you feeling?”

He gave a little nonchalant shrug, but probably because he was emotionally exhausted now, so what slipped out of his mouth this time was a little less than nonchalant.

 “Well… I got into my very first car accident and as a result, am going to lose my robot for a week, so I feel about how you would expect…but then again… no one got hurt or died, soooo I guess I can’t complain too much,” but not wanting to make things even more uncomfortable, he quickly added “but more than anything… I’m starving, when is lunch going to be done?”

Undyne perked up at that “the hamburgers should be done in another ten minutes, maybe a little longer depending on how the sides turn out,”

He gave the three older women a half-hearted smile “thanks, uh… I’ll be in my room if anyone wants me…I need to check on my fish… and do some furniture rearranging,”

“Okay, I will come to get you when everything is ready,” Toriel said as he began to turn away.

As he left the living room and rolled down the hall, he overheard them talk in hushed voices.

“I was so worried, I was sure he was going to be a lot more upset than that,” he heard Alphys say.

“No, that kid was definitely angry, but I think he’s really taking it in stride,” Undyne said.

“Oh, yes, he was very upset over losing his source of mobility at first, but he seems to have a plan to work around it,” Toriel spoke up.

More than not interested to hear the rest of this conversation, he urgently moved faster to his room.

When he got there, he began to plan things out.

Let's see… on the ground without anything to boost his height, he was two feet and five inches tall (and still growing), and thankfully his face and flared out petals also made him look deceptively bigger and taller.

With his robot flowerpot, he was able to sleep almost anywhere and be happy with it.

But back when he still used normal flower pots- (in both Frisk’s and his room) he slept on desks or preferably- his favorite nightstand, right next to the lamp and the area where he charged his phone and tablet, keeping an array of handy knick-knacks and writing equipment in the drawer below, and was always able to get a perfect stream of sunlight through the blinds of the window in the afternoon (he had a much similar set up at his father’s house as well)

But the thought of sleeping up there without any kind of support…seemed like it would be cold, hard, and extremely uncomfortable, so he clearly wasn’t doing that.

Actually, a few months back he’d found that (of course) the bed that he had thought he would never need was really nice place to rest, he didn’t find it comfortable in the same way humans and monsters typically do, since his plant body wasn’t technically built for lying down and all that, but at the same time his plant body wasn’t originally created with a face or teeth either… so whatever, his body had its own rules it seemed.

He looked around a little longer and soon began to arrange his room, making mini staircases out of his less used books and a ramp out of his guitar case, because, deep down, he knew he was going to get too exhausted to climb and swing himself up so high all the time.

 He hoped by the end of all this that he’d be stronger, and if he did get stronger, he wondered if he would have in himself to continue that type of exercise, especially when the robot body made things so much easier.

Some odd minutes later, when he couldn’t think of anything else, he finally took the time to feed his pet fish, Orange Juice, like he’d promised, tossing the little bitey betta fish a pellet, and then another for good measure.

“If you could talk I’m sure you could help me figure this out,” he sighed.

Orange Juice merely stared at his owner’s face, always curious and ready.

“...Yeah, you’re right, I should probably text Frisk, I’m sure they’ll love this,” he mumbled, proceeding to take his phone out, judging by the timing they were likely in the car on their way to Muffet’s home, but since their chauffeur was Sans for this trip- he was unsure, especially when Sans preferred interdimensional shortcuts, still Flowey texted without guilt or worry of interrupting anything.

‘Guess what Frisky? I can’t use my robot until next saturday =]]]]]  but it’s fine, I’ve decided to take a more proactive approach on the situation, I’m not going to back to my normal flower pot, for this week I will be traveling by roots’ -

 It took them a couple of minutes to respond, but boy did he get a response.

- ‘WHAT? Oh my goodness, so does this mean you’ll be naked all week?!!? :O ‘

‘.…………….’ -

 ‘do you think these answers through before you say or write them or…do you just lose all impulse control when you talk to me?’ -

- ‘I think it’s prolly a bit of both, but seriously, how come you don’t want to use your reg flower pot again?’

‘Simple, I don’t want to be carried around like how I use to be anymore, I’m too old for it anyway, I’ve decided I’m going to go where I want, when I want, no more barriers Frisk’ -

There was a worrying wait as Frisk took their time with the next reply . . . . .

- ‘oh my god, using flower pots was my idea… I am so sorry Asriel, I didn’t mean to keep you in a barrier I mean, I remember you being fussy about it time to time, but I didn’t know you felt this strongly about it, keeping you in one just seemed like the right thing to do’

Flowey raised his eyebrows in sudden panic, he hadn’t meant to make them feel bad about this!
He rushed to type back quickly.

 ‘No, don’t feel guilty you idiot, you guys didn’t have a lot of reason to trust me back then, I GET IT, but it’s fine because I would never admit but… I didn’t entirely hate being catered to either, AND sure it was frustrating sometimes, but I didn’t mean to sound like you ‘trapped’ me, because you DIDN’T, you and everyone actually took good care of me ‘-

He was about to stop there until he caught sight of his dark blurry reflection on his TV, remembering something important and quickly adding it.

‘ what I’m feeling now is different, and what I meant is that I don’t want to be treated like a kid or a flower anymore’ -

- ‘so, you want to start being independent? Like, Adult Independent?’

Flowey’s eyes lit up, leave it to Frisk to figure him out- even through texts.

 ‘YES!! That’s exactly what I want, but first I need to show these adults I can do it first, because I know I can, I’ve had practice living on my own after all’ -

- ‘I wanna say I would help (AND i WILL IF YOU NEED IT!) But since I know you want to do this yourself, I’ll be cheering you on instead, because I know you can do this’

                                                                               ‘Thanks Frisk ’-

- ‘Sooooo, I guess this means you really are GROWING UP, huh?’

                                                                                             ‘Stop. Right. There.’-

- ‘really BRANCHING OUT into the world, I see!’

                                                                                             ‘UUUUUUGGGGGHHH’ -

- ‘I’M SORRY, you know what talking to Sans long enough does to me! THE INSTINCT TO PUN IS TOO STRONGLY INFECTIOUS! I CAN’T CONTAIN IT!’

Thankfully, there was a polite knock at his door.
“Flowey, the burgers are ready,”

“Okay, I’m on my way,” he called, finally noticing that he was grinning.

       ‘Would you look at that? It’s time for lunch, a perfect escape to get away from your disgraceful pun disease, jk, I’ll talk to you later you big giant idiot <3’ -

- ‘tALK TO YOU LATER! <3<3<3’

But as he put the phone down, his mood dropped as he re-remembered the date… sure Frisk would try to make the best of it, but there was no way it was going to work out the way he wanted, what was he going to do?

Eating made him feel better, as usual, but once they were all done and finished up, he attempted to keep the conversation going, taking his time as he helped clean up everything and put everything away, but Alphys and Undyne had to leave.

The worst part was that his robot was leaving with them.

So of course the goodbyes took a little longer than usual, forcing back his grimace as he uprooted himself from the dirt, dismissing his mother as she kindly attempted to help, climbing down to the floor and watched as Alphys began to manually push the odd cup-shaped machinery away.

There were a couple more goodbyes and reassurances that the week would fly by and then…the front door was closed and that was that.

Several hours later…

Flowey was woken up from a nap he hadn’t even realized he’d taken when he heard a few taps at his door, still too sleepy to bother with moving the tablet off his face.

“Hey, you still awake?” he heard Frisk say from behind the door.

“.….I guess…..?” he called back, his voice somewhat muffled.

He heard them very quietly open the door, there seemed to be a pause before they spoke (they were most likely gawking at the furniture shift)

 “Wow, you were really serious about this,” they commented under their breath.

Not able to think of anything to respond with and still in the process of waking up, he stayed still and silent, listening to Frisk as they just as quietly closed the door behind them and then felt them climb onto the mattress and crawl over next to him.

“Are you okay?” they asked, their voice soft and concerned.

 “M’ fine, just.. underestimated how exhausting crawling above ground is…,” he admitted “how is it that I can pick you up and dangle you in the air with my vines- but I can barely make it through the entire house on my roots without getting winded and tangled up on myself, I thought that… maybe, just maybe I could figure this crawling thing out… but like with MOST things…I have been proven completely and utterly… w r o n g ?”

Finally, Frisk removed the tablet from his face, nonetheless, Flowey decided against opening his eyes just yet as he remembered that he’d left his ceiling light on, bringing a sluggish vine to sleepily rub at his face.

“It’s okay, you’ve had more time to learn how to do different things with your vines and not so much with your roots, and… I know, let’s try it this way, you basically use your vines as your hands and your roots like your feet, right?” they asked.

“Yeah…basically…,” he confirmed.

“So, I think maybe, you learned how to walk by tunneling, and now you're trying to re-learn how to walk again in a new way,” they suggested “either way, I think all you need is time, you’ll get through this, you’ve had practice before, and it’s not too different from learning to swim or me trying to roller skate,”

“I know, I know… I just wish it wasn’t so damn hard to do,” he said in a weary groan.

He heard Frisk let out a concerned and worried hum, “I know… it sucks, just remember it’ll get easier, just be patient with yourself,”

“Mmm, thanks Frisky, you really know how to put things in perspective, but I’m getting sick of talking about me… so, how did everything go with you?” he asked, growing legitimately curious.

“I had lots of fun, I had mystery purple tea-,”

“It’s not a mystery, it’s spiders, it’s always spiders Frisk,” he interrupted.

Frisk let out a sigh “you would think, but she said it was spider-free this time,”

“Okay, I guess it is a mystery… . . did it have anything to do with Aaron’s mystery?” he asked.

He heard them laugh gently “actually no, but now that I think about it, this whole day has been kind of an elusive and crazy mystery hasn’t it?”

Finally, he cracked open his eyes, immediately finding that Frisk was comfortably lounging very close next to him, their head propped up on the palm of their hand, seeing that they’d washed up and changed into their nightwear clothes before visiting him.

They gave him a warm welcoming smile as their gazes connected, as cheerful as their smile was, he didn’t miss the faint weariness in Frisk’s eyes, they were very likely just as- or even more tired as he was.

“So… what else happened?” he asked.

They looked off at the ceiling as they thought back, their smirk widening as they spoke.
 “As usual I fell over several times trying to copy Muffet’s yoga exercises, cause, you know, I don’t have eight arms or legs? But like you with your roots, I know I’ll figure it out one day, and guess what?”

“What?”

They then brought out their cellphone and presented a lacy violet spiderweb themed baggie and handed it to him, “when I told Muffet about what happened, she gave me two huge assortments of spider baked goods, one for you and one for me,”

He took the bag and opened it, pulling out what looked to be a scone, a spider scone.

He gave it a test bite, finding that it was pretty good, just like all Muffet and her spider’s food- it had a nice spidery background flavor.

“Wow, I’m surprised, I don’t think I’ve made any real contact with her since the wedding? Guess I should thank her,”

A sweet smile appeared on Frisks’ face “I know she’ll be very happy to see you again,”

“What about Aaron and his gang? Did they give us anything for our troubles?” he asked, half-joking.

They let out another chuckle “no, but I did get a lot of fist bumps and bro hugs from Aaron, and one of the longest hugs I’ve ever been able to get from Woshua, they were all really amazed and proud at what you did today, and definitely impressed,”

“Of course they are, but enough with the small talk, what happened with the ‘big mystery’?” he asked, lazily winding a vine around a cascade of hair that hung nearby.

At that Frisk cracked a shy smile “well.. . heh, um, I was a little nervous to tell you this, but, they kind of…set me up, they said they wanted me to help them find their lost expensive pair of sunglasses, but what they really wanted to do instead… was to help me find… true love,”

He paused his actions and stared up at them, not quite sure how to take this “they…what?”

They ran a hand through their long bangs, their grin slowly fading.
 “Yeah, they made a lovely speech about ‘how I’m always trying to make people happy and that I deserved a sweetheart as sweet as me’, so they…made me…go through…four…blind dates,” they then looked at him through their fingers “I hope you’re not upset,”

He could only continue to stare, still unsure of things “who were they?”

“The blind dates? Well, the first one was a really cool Moldsmal, they were a pretty good date but they seemed a little more interested in getting dinner, the second one was sir Whimsalot…which I found out that he had been set up as well and wasn’t completely interested in dating, but I think I unintentionally worked some of my sweet love magic because at the end of it he seemed very thoughtful about the idea-,”

Flowey finally released their hair, finally deciding he very much didn’t like this brand of news, his face scrunching up in distaste, on the verge of jealousy, “why didn’t you just say ‘no’? You didn’t have put up with that,”

Frisk let out a distressed groan, rubbing their eyes, clearly conflicted “I know, Sunshine, but I also couldn’t exactly tell them ‘the truth’,” they then cleared their throat and lowered their voice to a whisper “I had to pretend to be single or else they would have gotten suspicious, you know very well ‘single me’ would never turn down a date, but it’s okay, because all you need to know is that I did what I had to and politely turned all of them down,”

He began to relax, feeling guilty and annoyed with himself.

Giving them a timid apologetic smile and casual vine on hand touch, he continued whispering to them, almost mumbling “sorry, I… guess I’m pissed that four weirdos got to go on a date with you today while I was stuck at home… did you have any fun?”

They curled their fingers around the vine just like he hoped they would, chuckling softly.

“Yeah, I did, they all were amazing in their own way… but none of them were as amazing in the way you are… huh, maybe you’re right, maybe I should have just made something up and left to go on four simultaneous dates with you instead,” they then paused as Flowey had a good giggle.

“Yeah, thought you would like that… but we still have our date tomorrow to look forward to and hopefully hundred more dates after that, today was just a tiny patch of pothole on our long and winding road,” they whispered, watching as he delicately wound his vine around their fingers.

Flowey went quiet after that, smiling as much as he could- but despite their positivity, he found he couldn’t hold his own.

“Thanks but, I don’t think our date tomorrow is going to work out Frisky, not while I’m like this, I’m useless to you,”

They were of course taken aback and skeptical of this comment “wha-? You’re not useless at all, don’t get so discouraged, of course it’ll work, we’re a flexible couple, we can make it work, I know we can,”

He let out a quiet exasperated groan “sure you say that now, but just you wait- the whole thing will just be awkward and weird for you,”

They narrowed their eyebrows at him “how? How will it be awkward and weird? How do you know?”

Flowey was ready for this one “because without the robot I’m so much smaller than you, without it I come up to your KNEES, I’m practically the same height as an average human toddler, do you want to have a date with a toddler Frisk? HUH?”

They tried their hardest to stifle their laughter “no! Of course not- not a real one anyway,” but they quickly composed themselves “and that’s the silliest example you’ve ever come up with, considering I’ve had feelings for you waaaayyy before you even had your robot body, I’ve never cared about how tall or short you were, you should know that by now,”

As Flowey thought up another example to combat Frisk’s romantic reasoning, his train of thought was brought to an instant stop as they brought their hand up to their lips and kissed the vine, all the while they kept eye contact with him.

“Please don’t stress this out Azzie, you don’t have anything to worry or be nervous about, okay? We’ll have a nice, relaxing, chill date, we can make this work, I promise you,” they whispered to him.

Flowey swallowed the lump in his throat, blushing and very close to swooning, all his doubt from earlier running out from inside him, now fully convinced that if there was anyone who could always promise him a successful romantic date, it would definitely be Frisk.

He wasn’t sure if it was because the bar was set so low, but they actually hadn’t had a ‘bad’ date yet, the closest they ever came to a bad one was their first date, which also happened to be his top favorite.

So, a slow smile grew on his face “okay, if you REALLY think it’ll work- then we’ll do it,”

He could see the relief in their eyes as they grinned back “yes, thank you, you can count on me that this date will go smoothly,”

“As smooth as you’re being right now?” he quipped flirtatiously.

Caught off guard, Frisk’s eyes lit up in surprise, covering their mouth in awe and amusement, trying their hardest to keep their flattered giggles hushed.

But they soon gained their composure back, relaxing further on the bed, they gazed at their lounging flowery boyfriend.

“How did things go after I left? You seemed pretty passed out when I came in,” they asked.

Flowey let out a weak scoff as he remembered.

“Well, you saw my texts, they basically told me what you would expect, ‘you put a huge gash in a priceless piece of machinery, blah blah blah, you’re too deathly accident-prone, blah blah blah, now we can’t trust you to use this any longer or else you just end up exploding it altogether and dying violently’ et cetera, et cetera,”

Frisk frowned firmly “they just didn’t want you to risk anything while the robot was vulnerable,”  

“I know…uughhhhh… I’m just hoping this whole week will blow over quickly, I can’t exaggerate how exhausting this is,” he groaned.

“I’m sorry you had a crap day, I know what we talked about, but if you really start to get tired tomorrow..I’ll carry you if you’re up to it,” they said, brushing their thumb gently back and forth of the vine.

He seemed thoughtful about the proposition but his mind would not be changed about this.

“No, not counting my vines, I’m completely out of shape- both literally and figuratively, I need to do this on my own, I have to be independent and I can’t do it if I’m a weakling,” he explained.

Frisk gave him a sleepy smirk “alright, you do you, sunshine, just remember that I’m here for you and that I’m rooting for you,”

Flowey scrunched up his face in playful disgust at the awful saccharine plant pun.

The two of them continued to lay there, the weight of their day making them both lazy, Frisk now on the verge of sleeping, but Flowey found himself relaying the day over, staring up at the ceiling.

“We were so close to biting the dust for real today and redoing everything if I hadn’t moved fast enough… twice if you count the electric strike, it could have gotten really ugly today,” he said, breaking the silence.

Frisk rubbed at their eyes, his words waking them back up.

“That’s true… but… you know, all that crazy stuff always seems to bring us closer together, so… I wouldn’t want it any other way,” they murmured, smiling gently as he looked to them.

He gazed at them before he finally smiled back.

“Yeah, me too Starshine,”

A few visual notes of Flowey's potbot (as a refresher!)

Chapter Text

Chapter 2  Reflections Of A No Body

Warnings?:  None?

Inspiration Song: Alice By The Hudson by AJR

Wasted, wasted love
You had so much to give, for giving me time
Darling, had enough, and now I understand
So put your hands in mine

Baby I will take you far away
Don't you know these are our golden days
Baby all the other boys they don't see what I see
Now won't you say you see it in me

Oh, tamarinds and skinny jeans
Oh won't you be my summer love?
Take you walking through the garden
And take my heart when summer comes

Take me, to your special place, the one by the river in summer
I'll keep you safe, and don't be afraid of the love that you have
I won't let you down like the other boys did
I found you, darling I found you, oh

Baby I will take you far away
Don't you know these are our golden days
Baby all the other boys they don't see what I see
Now won't you say you see it in me

Oh, tamarinds and skinny jeans
Oh won't you be my summer love?
Take you walking through the garden
And take my heart when summer comes

Sunday

It was noon before either Frisk or Flowey woke up, a slow start to a slow day, which was just fine, slow was what they’d been aiming for anyway.

Around one PM, the both of them met up in the kitchen, where Toriel helped them fix up a brunchfast.

Once the three of them sat down, Toriel chatted with Frisk over new interesting factoids and family gossip they’d learned recently, meanwhile, Flowey was silent, in the middle of getting used to eating at the table without the aid of his robo flower pot, it was a weird feeling to literally sit bare on top the table, uncomfortable even, like he was naked somehow- somewhere in the world, this had to be illegal…

But as he crunched on his bacon from his BLET sandwich and listened to the conversation, he steadily began to calm down, food and familiarity always made him feel better.

Midway through it, Toriel’s phone rang, her mouth full of food as she checked the caller, then struggled to get it down in time, fortunately, she succeeded, answering her phone.

“Greeting! Yes, this is she… oh! Yes, of course, I would! Let me go get a pen and paper,” she said, politely folding a napkin and sitting it over her food before ambling off, chatting to whoever was on the phone while she moved along.

Once she was gone, Frisk turned their attention to Flowey curiously.

“You’ve been pretty quiet so far, how are you doing?” they asked.

He thought this question over for a few seconds before he looked back at them.
“Mmmm, not sure…I’m still working on it, ask again later,” he eventually answered, feeling like a Magic 8 Ball toy, nonetheless, he turned the question back on them “how are you doing?”

They flashed him a playful grin, “I’m doin’ pretty fine boyffffffff-,” but the word they were working on froze up in their mouth as Toriel hurried back in, pen and paper in hand, going over to the table to write.

“-ffffflower, doin’… just.. fine,” Frisk finished, awkwardly chuckling under their breath, scratching at a place on their temple, unsure of which Dreemurr to look at.

Fortunately, Toriel was none the wiser, “so next Wednesday? Okay, I have it, and what were those numbers again, sir?”

She went back to writing again, with Flowey and Frisk sharing a series of looks, attempting to talk without words, but nothing too comprehensible got through to either side.

Soon enough the phone call was over and Toriel returned to her seat.

“It seems I’ve been invited to make a speech for a special Monster pride party back at the Underground’s capital, it sounds like it will be quite fun,” she announced, looking to the younger two eagerly.

“That sounds great, you already know I’m game,” Frisk said optimistically.

They both looked to Flowey, hope gleaming in their eyes.

“How about it dear? This sounds like just the occasion for you to finally make a visit to our old home,” Toriel asked.

But, Flowey didn’t even bother considering the proposal, ever since the day he’d left the Underground he made the harsh decision to never go back, it held too many dark memories, too many reminders of the creature he’d once been.

So far, despite his family’s many, well-meaning best attempts, they hadn’t ever been able to get him to go back, talking to him about it was like talking to an ordinary non-sentient rock.

But since he’d been progressing lately with other things, they were hopeful that maybe, just maybe, he had progressed with this one thing, they… unfortunately hadn’t been hopeful enough.

“Sorry mom, I’m going to have to give that a hard pass,” he said with a dismissive sigh, shoveling food into his mouth, looking away.

But before Toriel had the chance to press on the subject, Flowey flicked his attention to Frisk, he had something more important (in his opinion anyway) to talk about.

“So uh, I was thinking we could go out and do something today? Y’now, for our hangout thing?” he asked “I thought I’d give you the honors of choosing since you’re the one who convinced me that it would work out,”

Frisk was taken aback for a second before they finally laughed, “aww, thanks, but I’ve been brainstorming it and….um,  I’ve got nothing, I was hoping that you had something already in mind,”

He let out a fake scoff, considering he had the same exact problem “okay, well…let me think it over,”

“How about the movies- no, wait, too many stairs… we were going to do that at home anyway, uuuhhhmm…,” he began.

“What about the park?” Frisk attempted.

“Nooo, we go there too much, we should go someplace we don’t usually go,”

“Hmm, the little go-kart place- no wait, shoot, this is supposed to be a relaxing hang out wasn’t it?”

“Yep, not that I could go-karting like this anyway,”

“Hmmmmmmm….oh yeah! I got it now! There’s a cool new library cafe that just opened up downtown!”

Flowey looked thoughtful at that, interested “hmm, how far away is that?”

Frisk pulled out their cellphone and looked it up, looking pleased “not that far away-,” their smile then dropped in disappointment “ahh… no, they’re closed on Sundays, sorry,”

The pair was quiet for a few seconds before Frisk gave him an unsure smile.
“What about a normal library?”

It didn’t sound that bad considering that their town’s library wasn’t too shabby, it had two floors and even a public basement and attic, he used to beg to visit it all the time when he was a kid and still taking all the newness in, it was still one of his favorite places to go, but even then, he wasn’t sure if it was a good enough ‘hang out’ place for someone like Frisk.

“Nah, what good is a library without a cafe?” he persuaded.

“You could go bike riding, that is pretty relaxing activity, you could figure out where else to venture whilst doing that,” Toriel finally interjected, catching the pair off guard.

“That… actually sounds pretty nice,” Frisk commented, raising their eyebrows.

“Yeah, it does but, one problem, I’m not piggybacking anymore,” Flowey reminded them, sighing.

Toriel smiled playfully “well… would it still be ‘piggy backing’ if you had a basket to sit in?”

Frisk looked curious “...but my bike doesn’t have a basket,”

The playful smile on Toriel’s face grew “actually Frisk, I have been meaning to tell you this for a few years, but I saved your old basket from your old childhood bike, I thought it would make a lovely hand-me-down gift for any future grandchildren that I may meet down the line,”

Frisk lit up at that, genuinely touched by Toriel’s sentiment- for a total of three seconds until Flowey grimaced in total disgust and embarrassment, he didn’t voice his distaste but he didn’t have to, his expression said everything for him.

So, seeing this, Frisk dialed their excitement down several notches, they knew Toriel most likely would never expect her son to be the one to… have children of his own, it was of course- more likely that the comment had been directed at Frisk…

And clearly, the both of them couldn’t explain to Toriel why the subject of grandchildren was a big, gigantic no-no for many, many, uncomfortable reasons, so instead, Frisk did their best to be polite and change the subject.

“That’s really sweet of you, thank you Momriel, so… where have you been keeping it all this time?” they asked.

“In my closet, do you want it? I can go retrieve it now and install it if you don’t mind,” she suggested.

Frisk grinned “yeah, sure, if it’s no problem, I’m not sure how Flowey will feel riding in it again, but I’d love my little basket back,”

“Flowey feels…begrudgingly open to the idea,” Flowey responded with a lazy smirk.

 Soon

Now dressed and fully ready to start their ‘hang out’, the couple plus Toriel stood in front of the cute, pastel yellow bike, admiring the new but old familiar, ginger brown, wicker basket addition.

“This looks great, I always thought it was missing something, I love it even more now,” Frisk said, wrapping Toriel up in a warm cuddly thank you hug.

“I knew you would, I hope it makes your hang out go a little smoother,” Toriel said, reciprocating the hug happily and giving them a little motherly shoulder pat.

“It should, anyways, we’ll call you whenever we find a place to y’know…hang out at, wherever it might be,” Frisk said, giving her a curious smile.

Toriel nodded “just be home before seven, use your money wisely, don’t go too far or anywhere strange and we will be set,”

“Darn, I was really looking forward to us having a fun time robbing the city bank and having a picnic down at the ol' garbage dump full of used syringe needles,” Flowey sarcastically joked, flashing a big toothy grin at his mom when she squinted down at him, he then broke his grin and waved her off, “relax mom, at max tops we’ll probably be out less than four hours,”

Toriel sighed “yes, I know, there are no big plans, but sometimes we find ourselves taking more winding paths, I just wanted to remind you two to stay sharp, just in case,”

It was normal for their goat mom to be protective whenever either of them ventured out of the house, she had good reason too, but today- as supportive as she was, she seemed a little more on edge than usual, which was of no surprise considering how the day before went, any parent would be stressed after their kids were nearly struck by lightning then directly hit by a car.

So Flowey gave her his best Good Son smile “it’s okay, we’ll be careful,”

Frisk added to the sentiment, giving Toriel another hug “yeah, we may not know where we want to go, but I do know what movies I want us to watch when we get back, so I can promise we won’t be gone long,”

Ah, Flowey knew that look in their eye well, they were going to watch romantic comedies, he should have known, maybe he could throw a thriller in there somewhere.

Deciding this was a good time as any to get a move on, he wobbled over to the bike, threw a vine high up into the air, and aimed at the vicinity of the basket, but accidentally hooked around one of the steering handles instead- but that was fine, it was close enough.

Now latched on to where he wanted to go, he took in a large breath and held it as he pulled himself up vertically, using his roots and other vines to help him rock climb the bike, trying his damnedest to hold back his struggling grunts.

By now, Toriel and Frisk had learned not to interfere or attempt helping Flowey when he climbed, as it usually earned them a stubborn ‘NO!’ or a cold metaphorical shoulder of silence, he really was Determined to do this all by himself.

But of course, when he finally saddled himself into the basket, the other two couldn’t help but genuinely clap and quietly cheer for him, it was always good to celebrate the small victories.

He turned his attention back to them and rolled his eyes, “yes, yes, I ACTUALLY made it into the basket, CAN we go now?”

Frisk unfolded their arms and casually stuck their hands into their pockets and approached him, “we can and will Sunshine,’ they then pulled out their cellphone and handed it to him “play us off?”

He smirked, tapping into their music app, choosing their favorite genre, smooth jazz.

Before getting on, Frisk turned around and blew a kiss to Toriel “see ya later, we’ll be back soon!”

Toriel in return blew two kisses back, one for Frisk and one for Flowey “have fun!”

Flowey merely smiled back and waved bye to his mom, not wanting to draw this thing out any longer than they already had, he was READY TO GO!

Fortunately, he didn’t have to wait long as Frisk kicked back their breaks and pushed forward on their pedals, a pleasant soft gust of wind greeting the both of them, and the slow tune of the current jazz song easing them into a relaxed mood.

They rolled down the neighborhood street for a while, neither of them bothering to talk as they listened to the music, but eventually Frisk was the first to speak up again.

“Remember when we use to do this all the time as kids?” they asked, sounding calm, almost zoned out.

“Yeah, it was actually pretty nice…it still is,” he replied, already zoned out, staring down at the painted lines on the road “how come I stopped again?”

“..You stopped for lots of reasons, it was around the same time the basketball incident happened and Toriel made you start homeschooling and gave you all that hard homework, after that, you got addicted to finishing video games and getting high scores, you wanted to stay in the house more,” they reminded him, giving him a shrug and a weak non-judgmental but sympathetic smile.

He winced a little at that, he’d didn’t really like remembering the basketball incident and everything that had happened after, twelve-year-old Flowey had his heart set in the right place.. but he’d been still too rough around the edges, still too brash, aggressive and overprotective, it was embarrassing how he’d acted.

He decided to change the subject to sweeten the mood back, “uhh, well, good news, I still fit in the basket, but just barely, maybe we can start doing this again when we can’t think of anything better to do,”

Frisk’s smile brightened “is this funner than riding in your robot?”

He raised an eyebrow at that “not sure if ‘funner’ is the word I’d use, but yeah, I like it a little more,”

“I like it too, I hope we still keep this up even after I start driving,” they mused.

“Heh, I bet you twenty dollars that we’ll BOTH get used to the air conditioner and cushiony seats and forget all about this bike altogether,” Flowey piped up, giving them a lazy mischievous grin.

Frisk gave him a glance and smirked flirtatiously “I bet you thirty dollars that I won’t forget anything and make out with you in the back seat,”

At that Flowey had no words, his cheeks turning bright orange as his grin deepened in a dopey fashion, but soon recollected himself.
“Heheh, that’s what I love most about you Frisky, you’re bold, it’s a personality trait we share but you seem to do it so much better than I do,”

They smiled warmly yet shyly at him, biting their bottom lip, their eyes flickering between him and the road ahead  “aawwhh, stop it, you’re going to make me crash,”

He cackled happily at that, deciding to let them be, for now, turning up the volume for the music still playing on their phone, allowing it to fill the silence for a while.

When the song ended though, Frisk spoke up.

“You know, Toriel was right, this basket would make a super nice memory lane gift to any of ou- anyone’s future kid,” they said, their expression turning awkward at the close but obvious slip-up.

“Yeah, maybe we can give it to…Garbine, or one of the kids you use to babysit,” Flowey added nervously.

“Speaking of kids and babysitting, I’m calling dibs on being godparent to Dogamy and Dogressa’s future puppies,” Frisk said, curbing the subject much to Flowey’s relief.

“Pppffft, go ahead, I’m not going to get in your way,” he laughed, waving them off.

They continued to chatter about less sensitive topics, like a month ago when they went out with Papyrus and Sans to the authentic Italian restaurant they discovered, it ended with them nearly getting kicked out, it had been a thrilling time, to say the least.

“Do you  remember the look on that one waiter’s face?” Flowey said mid-conversation.

Frisk giggled “oh yeah, that reminds me of time when I went to visit Onionsan and they accidentally dropped a thirty-gallon-,” they said but abruptly stopped, pulling on the break just as abruptly- the bike squeaking in agitation.

“What is it?” Flowey asked, concerned by the look of intense focus on Frisk’s face.

“I hear the ice cream truck, pause the music please,” they said, looking back and forth between the crossroads in front of them, then back at the road behind them.

He did so and perked up as he heard what Frisk was hearing, the familiar looped cheerful jingle from the ever-gracious ice cream man’s truck, the tune bouncing off the roads, trees, and houses- creating something, particularly ominous sounding.

But Frisk wasn’t scared, in fact, the music encouraged them.

The two of them went very still as they focused intently, listening for the ice cream.

It didn’t take too long for Flowey to figure out where it was coming from, pointing to the road on the left.

“Cherry Grove Street!” he alerted.

“Good ears!” Frisk chirped and wasted no time, zooming down the street, the couple filled with Determination.

And very soon, they saw it, coming down the road their way, as if it were hurrying to meet up and greet them back, there were happy faces on the horizon.

“Yeessss, this is perfect,” Flowey commented in satisfaction at the turn of events.

A few minutes later…

The pair sat together on the parked bike, nearby the lawn of an empty house.

Frisk had bought a creamy strawberry crunch bar, and Flowey had bought an ice cream in the shape of a cartoon character with gumball eyes, he always enjoyed how awful they looked.

“Mmmmm, I love chilling out with you Flowey, with you in my life- anything is popsicle because this is a cream come true,” Frisk joked, really piling it on.

“Knock, knock,” Flowey began.

“Who’s there?” Frisked answered.

“‘I’m going to scream’,”

Frisk held back a giggle “‘I’m going to scream’ who?”

“I’m going to scream if you make another ice cream pun,” he said, gleaming at them with a tight, almost threatening grin.

Frisk giggled, looking slightly guilty “I know, that was a bit much, I can’t help it though, I’m so happy, you know I love our dates,”

His gaze softened “yeah, me too,”

They then raised their ice cream toward him “want a taste?”

“Sure, you want some of mine?” he asked, his grin warm now.

They nodded, having a small trade-off.

Then, Frisk touched their two ice creams together, as if to clink two wine glasses.

“To more wonderful chill dates,” Frisk toasted.

Momentarily caught off guard, Flowey chuckled but got the gist of what they were trying to do.
“To more wonderful chill dates,”

They continued eating their cold treats, finding that they both equally liked the other’s choice, switching and sharing back and forth, finishing up in less than three minutes, and ending up in a goofy giggle fit by the end of it.

After settling back down, Flowey began stuffing the wrappers in one of the Dimensional Boxes in his phone, saving them for when he had access to a real garbage can.

As he did this, he couldn’t help but be distracted by the way Frisk gazed at him, it was a deep cross between sheer stifled amusement and adoration.

“What is it now?” he asked without looking up.

“Nothing, your mouth is just covered in ice cream is all, it’s really cute,” they admitted.

He smirked sarcastically and instinctively licked at the corners of his mouth, “of course I do,”

They pointed to their own chin “it’s more in this area, it kind of dribbled,”

Without thought, he attempted to further stick out his tongue and lick at his chin, freezing up in cautious embarrassment when he noticed how hard Frisk was staring, instantly retracting his tongue back in his mouth where it belonged.

“What is it?”

Frisk’s smile dropped as they made the same realization of their staring, shaking their head at themselves, realizing something and grabbed for their cellphone, proceeding to pull out a lavender-colored hanky, quickly handing it to him, “sorry, I forgot, Muffet gave this to me yesterday, here,”

He stared at the hanky for a second, digesting the sentiment before taking the gift, turning his head away as he wiped his mouth in privacy, “thanks… heh, at least this isn’t as sticky as your lipgloss,”

They chuckled quietly at that, “I’m sorry for staring, I didn’t mean to make things awkward, I just got distracted… I had no idea your tongue went out that far, it surprised me- but not in a bad way,”

He turned back to them once he was sure his face was clean- well, clean enough, for now, he gave them a reassuring smile.

“Yep, I guess I’m still full of surprises, huh? But I’m fine now, no harm done Frisky,” he assured.

Slowly, they smiled, relaxing once again “good to hear, so… what should we do now~? Do you want to find someplace to go or work our way back home? I’m up for whatever,”

Flowey was able to make his mind up rather quickly “we’ll be able to fit in more movies if we get back home now, but I’m still enjoying myself so… let’s go down this street and turn back around, are you up for that?”

“I sure am sugar lips,”

“Frisk,”

“..Salty lips….?”

He let out a playful cackle “you cute freak,”

As they worked their way down the street, an adult dog, most noticeably a beagle, came trotting down the road, picking up some speed once it saw the other two on the yellow bike.

“Look, a puppy!”Frisk chirped, automatically slowing down.

“It must have gotten loose,” Flowey said as he noticed the rainbow collar it wore.

With that, Frisk stopped their bike on the side of the road once again, kicking up the breaks, and walked up to the dog to greet them, letting it cautiously sniff their leg, then their hand.

“Did you want to explore the neighborhood? It’s ok, so did we,” Frisk asked the dog, smiling more as the beagle allowed them to pet the back of its head “you’re a good pup, aren’t you?”

“That’s a very good pup,” Flowey confirmed.

Frisk giggled quietly and bent down a little more to read the collar, their eyebrows raising in light, pleasant surprise, “his name is Valley, looks like he belongs to the Mihn family,”

“Huh, didn’t you babysat for them a few times? For their rock-throwing beast?” Flowey asked.

Frisk nodded, continuing on with the pets, to which Valley seemed to thoroughly enjoy “yeah, but I keep telling you Percy doesn’t do that anymore- huh, I forgot they lived so close by,”

They then looked over to Flowey curiously “do you wanna get some pets in before we take him back home?”

For a second, Flowey was slightly uneasy by the concept- not because he was afraid of dogs, but because he was afraid of how the dog would react to him, sure he never once had a problem with the magic monster dogs from the Underground but regular un-magic dogs were… different, all regular animals were, they all went by a different code than the monsters and humans did.

Also, this would be one of the first times that he would get to pet a real animal.

But after doing a double-take of Valley’s happy panting face, Flowey wanted nothing more than to give the friendly dog a nice pet.

“Umm… sure! Bring him over,” he said, bringing out a vine.

Frisk did so, ushering Valley over further to the bike, “gooood puppy,” they cooed.

Once he was close enough, Flowey lowered his vine and hesitantly reached down, his smile growing when felt the soft fur, petting Valley behind an ear.

“Heh, you should have just babysat animals instead, Frisk, they’re so much better,” he commented, chuckling as Frisk joined back in and Valley sat down and contently closed his eyes.

After a few more seconds of petting, they soon noticed a man who was jogging up to them, a leash in his hands, he looked relieved and excited to see the group.

 Frisk instantly recognized the man, waving at him, “hello Mr. Mihn! Your doggo here dropped by to greet us, he’s a very polite little guy,”

“Phew! Thank you Frisk, yeah, Valley is new and is still getting used to fences,” he informed and clapped his hands to get Valley’s attention “c’mon buddy!”

Flowey was mildly disappointed as Valley turned away from him and bound over to Mr. Mihn happily, allowing himself to be put on the leash.

“You have a good dog, sir,” Flowey commented.

“Thanks, it’s one of the reasons we got him,” he then looked to Frisk “so, is there any chance you’ll start babysitting again? We’ve been extra busy lately and Percy could really use an influence like you around these days,”

Frisk gave him an apologetic smile “thanks, I’d love to hang out with him sometime, but… sorry, my job now has my hands tied and I’m going to be starting back to school real soon, hopefully Valley can be his new influence instead?”

Mr. Mihn smirked understandingly “yeah, hopefully, so, what grade will you be going into?”

“Tenth, I’ll be a Sophomore,” they explained.

“It won’t be long until we’ll be free,” Flowey mumbled jokingly.

The man laughed “yeah, High school is always an insane time, well, take care you two,” he said, giving the teens a firm wave before he turned away.

“We will, have a great day!” Frisk called “tell Percy I said hi!”

He looked over his shoulder one more time “will do, thanks!”

Frisk turned their attention back to their date, “that was nice,”

“It was… believe it or not, but that was the first time I’ve ever pet a regular dog,” he said.

They gaped “really?”

He nodded “yeah, normal dogs always kind of weirded me out before, but I completely see why everyone and their great-grandma likes them now,”

Frisk chuckled, pleased “I’m glad to hear that,” they said, and settled themselves back onto their bike, pushing back the break, “ready to go watch some movies?”

“Yeah, let’s get out of here,”

A few minutes later, midway to home…

“Soooo, it’s later, how are you doing now?” Frisk asked.

Flowey thought about it, his opinions and mood were a lot clearer than earlier and yet…

“I’m doing great, I ate ice cream and got to pet a dog, but…I feel like I’m missing something,”

“Hmm, like what?” Frisk questioned.

“Don’t know yet, but don’t worry about it,” he said.

Frisk scrunched up their face at that “I’ll try, but it’s going to be really hard,”

He laughed “it’s not that big a deal, it’s not like I’m miserable, I’ve had a really great time so far, this date just feels different from all the other ones is all… how about you just ask me again later and we’ll see if anything changes, okay?”

Frisk gave him a funny look and grinned in amusement “okay,”

“Enough about me, how are you?” he asked.

“Oh- you know it’s a perfect day for me when I get to go on dates with you,” they admitted in a honey-smooth tone, giving him a wink.

He eyed them “are you being honest-flirty or are you just flirting to flirt?”

Frisk’s smile dropped, looking rather perplexed “I’m being honest to be honest, I always love going on dates with you Azzie, I was just saying it like that so I could see you blush and make you feel good,”

Now very flattered and indeed feeling good and giving Frisk what they wanted- Flowey blushed “…oh… yeah, well, that’s definitely good, I love going on dates with you too,”

They shared a warm gaze for a few seconds before Frisk pushed on the pedals and continued their way back home with Flowey left to wonder how he doubted that this date would ever go wrong anyway, quietly laughing at himself.

Zooming into the driveway, Frisk parked their bike and got out, lending out a hand to Flowey.

Automatically without thinking, he pulled out a vine and rested it into their palm, proceeding to curl around it to hold it affectionately.

There was a few sweet seconds of hand-holding before Frisk crooked their head in slight confusion and then realized something, “ppft- hahah, oops, I can’t believe I keep forgetting like this,”

Flowey was confused as well until he realized what they were talking about, cracking an annoyed grin at them “seriously?”

“Sorry, it’s a force of habit to help- though this was a much sweeter idea,” they said, brushing their thumb over the vine.

“Yes… yes it is, but do me a favor and get in the habit of not helping me, okay?” he said, still holding on to their hand.

“I can’t promise I will, but you're right, you should be more independent!” they said, but there was a hesitant look in their eyes “but at the same time- the cement is probably really hot now,”

He scoffed in amusement and let go, in turn grabbing a hold of the steering handle just like he did earlier, then climbed to the edge of the basket and just like he’d been practicing- jumped off the bike, and carefully as he could, rappelled his way down.

“Is it hot?” Frisk asked.

Flowey squinted, yes, the cement was supremely hot.

 He was about to lie and push through the pain when he decided that… no, screw it, he wasn’t going to be like that, he wasn’t in the mood for perseverance- at least for now anyway, today was the day they RELAXED after all.

Without a word and unable to take the burning on his roots, he scrambled over to Frisk’s closest foot, climbing on top of their boot and holding onto their shin.

“Okay, you win, just don’t tell Toriel about this, I need her to stay convinced that I can do this thing by myself,” he insisted.

Frisk smiled understandingly “you got it,” and with that, walked on, giving a thumbs up to their boyfriend when they stepped inside and he hurriedly hopped off to the carpet.

Two hours later…

The couple lounged in Frisk’s bedroom, comfortably snuggled up on the floor in a fort built out of blankets and pillows, in the middle of a very good animated movie that Alphys had recently suggested (much to Flowey’s surprise).

Things in the movie were really starting to get exciting until they heard the doorbell ring, Flowey didn’t think of anything, but was ultimately disappointed when Frisk put the video on pause.

“I should get that,” they said, shifting from the covers to get up.

“You shouldn’t,” Flowey complained, attempting to hook a vine around their ankle but to no avail.

“Never know, it might be important,” Frisk said, resisting.

“Of course, but Toriel is just as capable of answering it, in fact, she’s more than capable since she’s the head of this house,” he prodded.

Frisk let out a laugh “you like this movie more than I thought you would, just be patient for a second, I’ll be right back, okay?”

He sighed and rolled his eyes “okay, fine, whatever, leave me alone to die of boredom,” laying back dramatically as soon as they stepped out of the room.

They were gone for a single minute, but Flowey smelled it before he heard Frisk’s footsteps come back down the hallway, growing excited as the enticing scent of cheese, butter, bread, and oregano wafted through the air and met him first, it pulled and lifted back into a sitting position.

He was then further met with the wonderful sight of his beautiful date holding a big box of beautiful pizza.

As soon as they closed the door behind them, he grinned widely “aawe, you shouldn’t have,”

Frisk giggled “I should and I always will,” they said, sitting the box in front of him and opened it, revealing several separate choices of toppings- because the both of them could never agree on any one favorite, so it was becoming a habit to have a mess of all of them.

They took their seat back next to him and began dispensing a few drinks from one of the Dimension Boxes in their phone.

“When did you call this in?” Flowey asked, already attacking a slice.

“Right after I came home last night, I thought maybe you’d like it,” they admitted “you deserve it for what you did, and…I of course knew it would help make our ‘hang out’ even better,”

Flowey gave them a gentle pat on the knee “thank you Frisky, I can’t emphasize how happy I am right now,”

…But then a mischievous look crossed over his face “actually, yes I can, c’mere,”

Frisk narrowed a curious eyebrow at him, but grinned blissfully when he raised a vine and tenderly curled around their jaw and pulled them down to his face, standing at the very ends of his roots to meet them halfway, catching their soft lips with his.

And- okay, he had promised he wouldn’t deal with the issue of persevering through pain today, but for Frisk, he’d do anything, especially if it was to kiss them, which always caused him an unfair amount of pain, no thanks to the stress of his misshapen soul, but by now he was more than used to it.

 Besides he’d found out that this type of affection almost worked as well as morphine time to time, temporarily masking over his soul’s aches.

Frisk dipped their head down, pressing further into the kiss, Flowey nearly losing himself as they let out a breathy elated sigh into his mouth, this was his favorite place to be.

It was then he realized and smiled deeply into the kiss, pulling back a few inches to snicker.

“What is it?” Frisk whispered hoarsely, opening their eyes in hazy confusion.

“This is what I was missing, these ‘hangouts’ just don’t feel complete without a kiss,” he whispered back, resting his forehead against theirs, inhaling deeply as a burst of pins and needles pain threatened to take hold of him, but he fought against it.

Frisk let out a soft chuckle, “so I guess I don’t have to ask you how you’re doing, do I?”

“Heheheh, nope, I already showed you…,” he said, running the vine back and forth against their cheek, “how are you though?”

“Wonderful,”

“Even if it didn’t turn out like our usual hangouts?”

“Why are you saying that like it’s a bad thing?”

Flowey stared at them for a moment, lost in the moment and his thoughts, until his smile returned and he laughed at himself once again, “I don’t know, maybe I keep forgetting I’m the real idiot here,”

Monday

At 2:35 PM,  Toriel brought Frisk home from work, who didn’t talk much when they walked in, instead, they pushed back to their room to immediately change clothes, came back out to eat lunch, and then went right back to their bedroom to take a nap- a clear sign that their day working for Meta Burger hadn’t gone so well.

It was 4:50 when Frisk woke up and wondered in, taking a seat next to Flowey on the couch in the living room, who was reading over something boring but equally important on his tablet, the trouble was that his eyes kept glazing over paragraphs without taking any information in, decisively giving up on the activity when his still sleepy faced best friend began talking.

“I’ve been thinking things over and…you know what..,” they began, leaning their head onto the palm of their hand as they leaned against the armrest, looking rather introspective and contemplative.

“What?” Flowey answered.

 “Working in fast food isn’t as glamorous as Burgerpants made it out to be,”

He narrowed his eyebrows at them in confusion “…are you serious?”

“I’m as serious as a vengeful Undyne, I’m planning to quit sometime during the middle of the school year- or maybe earlier than that, mostly to focus on my grades…,” but then they paused and looked over their shoulder, remembering that Papyrus was in the next room over (working on a difficult puzzle) then back to Flowey “it’ll put me at odds though because I’ve been using some of that money for our hangouts,”

Flowey gave them a more skeptical look now “why don’t you do what I do and use your allowance money?”

Frisk sighed “I guess I could, but I kind of want to save up as much as I can…like if I want to buy a super expensive gift or if we or someone else runs into hard or bad times…stuff like that,”

They then smiled cheerfully at him “you don’t always need money to have a good time anyway,”

Flowey wanted to say something that would prove them wrong, but he remembered the bad mood they were in earlier and decided to hold back, he was about to change the subject but Frisk beat them to the punch.

“And speaking of school and jobs, I’ve decided that after I finish High school I want to wait a year before I go out to college…so I can have time to fully plan things out without rushing, and y’know, have some special me-time before I get to business,” they then settled into the couch, crossing their legs, staring thoughtfully at the floor as the continued to speak.

“And then when it’s time to get down to business, I’ve decided that I want to move out somewhere close to the college- whichever one it might be, maybe live in an apartment, try new things, have fun while I get ready for when I finally become an Ambassador,” they said, a hopeful glint in their eyes “so, do you know what you want to do yet?”

The subject of his distant future always made Flowey oddly uncomfortable, back when he was soulless and his morals were corrupt- he had known exactly what he wanted and what he wanted to be, but now though…? He had no idea, he’d felt lost for a long time, as if he had no real purpose in the world anymore, he was absolutely certain if it weren’t for his family, Frisk, and his other friend’s support that he would have faded away long ago back in the Underground.

As for his schooling…

“Not sure, as far as I’ve gotten is ‘graduate high school’, and…I GUESS I could go to college someday, though I’m not so sure if it’s for me, who would even hire someone like me for a job?” he explained sorely.

Frisk looked flabbergasted at him “I would! Anyone would be glad to have you Azzie! You’re intelligent, crazy creative, talented, and…,” they then grinned in excitement “oooh, I bet you’d be a fantastic voice actor! Ooorrr since you love space and challenges you could be a brilliant astronomer!”

Flowey agreed that these were honestly great suggestions, but found that he couldn’t share their enthusiasm, instead what he felt was the beginning signs of being overwhelmed.

“Thanks, Frisk,but I… uh, I don’t know...,” he then took in a big breath and slowly sighed a great sigh, attempting to avoid any real anxiety before it could get to him “..but… I do know that I like your idea to move out, maybe I could come along?” he asked, a nervous, anticipating smile blossoming on his face.

Frisk gasped, almost as if they were shocked “of course Asriel! I can’t imagine living my life without you as my housemate,”

He began to relax, his smile growing stronger “me too,”

They grinned “meanwhile I promise to help you figure things out, I know planning for the future is really difficult for a lot of people, you’re not alone in it,”

But then they propped their legs up onto the cushion and casually leaned back, getting comfortable. “But at the moment.. we’re still fifteen, so let’s chill the funk out while we can,”

“LANGUAGE FRISK!!!!” Papyrus yelled from the dining room, causing Flowey to let out a snort, laughing under his breath.

“I SAID ‘FUNK’-,”

“HEEEEYYYYY!!!” Papyrus warned.

 “-WITH A ‘N’!” Frisk called back.

“OH!! OKAY, YEAH, I GET IT NOW! THAT IS FINE!” he answered happily.

 Frisk let out a quiet chuckle, shaking their head, their expression becoming dopey as they gazed at Flowey “so, enough of tomorrows, what did you do today?”

He made a shrugging motion with his vines “not a lot I guess, I finished my book, restarted some games, helped mom cook, and I was trying to read this syllabus that she sent me when you walked in but it’s not important right now, what I’m really interested in is what your work did to you today,”

Frisk let out a huff “you want me to vent, is that it?”

He gave them a lazy grin “you know I do, it’s the closest I’m ever going to get to hearing you actually bad mouth people, it’s already rare enough to catch you in a bad mood,”

They shook their head again dismissively “okay, if you really want to know, the whole entire workday was basically… terrible, from start to finish, I woke up not feeling very well, but it eased up as the day went along, but it made things worse because when I went in- I found out that a bunch of my co-workers called out, so I was extra busy, stressed out helping to fill in the gaps, everyone was moody the entire time and there was practically nothing I could do to snap them out of it,”

“And the customers…?” Flowey pressed on, concerned.

Frisk leaned back further, letting out a sigh “some of the regulars were nice, but mmm… it was like most of them were having a bad day too, a lot were rude, one woman yelled at me, and I cleaned like six spills, three of them were food spills too,”

“Forget waiting until the middle of the school year, quit now, that place is obviously cursed,” Flowey suggested with a disgusted scowl.

Frisk giggled softly “I know it sounds awful, but… no, I can’t quit just because of one really bad Monday, everyone has them, I want to pursue this job a little longer, I want to say that I did this thing and succeeded at it too, no matter what,” they then paused and added “just like how you’re doing and showing your independence without a flower pot,”

Flowey’s scowl eased into a stubborn smile “fine, you’ve made a good argument but I still say you’re putting up with too much,”

Tuesday

Toriel’s home had been bustling all day with extreme fun and chaos, Papyrus had decided on a barbecue party and invited anyone who was available to come over, it had consisted of- Frisk, Flowey, Toriel (because they lived there), Asgore, Papyrus (of course), Sans, Mettaton, Blooky, Muffet, a few dozen or more of Muffet’s spiders, Greater Dog, Lesser Dog, Doggo, Dogamy, Dogaressa, RG 01, RG 02, Heats Flamesman (the one and only), a few Vulkins, Gerson, and Undyne and Alphys if they hadn’t been on their vacation.

Twenty total dishes had been broken, the house had come dangerously close to burning down twenty-one times, the whole lot smelled like five different grilled objects and foods all at once, but everything had been delicious and all the guests left feeling optimistic and satisfied.

For the entirety of the party, Flowey had stayed in the backyard, stubbornly sticking with an environment that he knew best, not wanting to embarrass himself in front of the other monsters by tripping up inside on the carpet.

After everyone left, he finally went back inside to the bathroom to have a long sink bath, working on getting any and all of the leftover barbecue sauce off his face and petals, especially working on getting the annoying piece of meat stuck in his back molars loose.

Once he was cleaned back up, he slinked out from the bathroom, immediately forgetting where he was going when he entered the hallway, his attention was overtaken when he heard a sleepy tune being hummed by Frisk.

Curious, he followed the sound of their voice, crawling down the hall to find that Frisk’s bedroom door was cracked open, without really thinking it through- he slipped in.

He was met with the pretty sight of Frisk sitting at their art desk, slowly brushing their long hair, their humming slowing down to the tune of a recognizable song, but Flowey couldn’t quite place it, Frisk seemed to be turning it into something of their own.

He sat there for a moment, completely enchanted until he finally noticed he was staring and that Frisk hadn’t noticed he was there yet- oh, jeez, was this creepy? He hadn’t meant to spy!

He was quick to make himself known.

“Howdy I-,” he began but took a misstep with his roots and fell face-first into the carpet “ggghh, damnitall,”

Maybe too quick.

Frisk jumped to their feet, brush still in hand as they hurried over to him, kneeling down in worry, ready to help as he worked to push himself back up.

“I literally just bathed,” he grumbled, rubbing at his face in annoyance.

“If it makes you feel better, you’re really getting good at this,” Frisk said.

He looked at them and smiled thoughtfully “…okay, if you’re going to put it like that, then yes, I guess it does,”

“Are you alright?” they asked.

“I’m fine, go back to brushing your hair or… whatever you were doing,” he said, waving them off, not wanting to bring any more attention over his embarrassing fall.

They got back onto their feet, letting out a sigh before going back to their seat at their desk, looking to their mirror for a few seconds before turning back to him.

“Yeah, that’s what I started doing, but I kind of got lost in thought,” they said, leaning back in their chair.

Without looking back, Flowey reached back behind with a vine and pushed the door closed.
“What about?”

“I was thinking about starting back to school, well…actually I’ve been thinking about school all this week, I’m a little nervous,” they paused a cracked a small smile “but then I started thinking about…us, and it made me feel better,”

Ooh, so that’s what all that humming was about…

But he backtracked on their words, why would they be nervous about school? Was there something else they weren’t telling him? He glanced over at the brush and the mirror, backtracking…

Wait…

Wait a second…

Flowey crawled a little further to them, now worried and unsure of how to put his next question.

“Frisk you…uh…you aren’t one of those people who think that they’re ugly, are you?”

Instantly, Frisk raised their eyebrows in surprise, “wh- really?! Asriel, I’ve been part-time raised by people like Mettaton and Undyne! No way do I think I’m unattractive, I’m fully aware that I’m a babe,”

He pursed his lips, unsure what to say now, feeling awkward and ridiculous that he even thought of something like that.
“GOOD, because…I just wanted to remind you and make sure that you knew… that you aren’t completely hideous, and that your babe levels are… very high,”

At that, Frisk snorted and burst into goofy laughter, something that they usually did when they were especially flattered, but they might have also been very amused too.

“Th-thank you Sunshine! That means a lot to hear that from you,” they then giggled some more, but quickly sobered up, giving Flowey an extra warm smile “I think your babe levels are very high too,”

Finally, he gave in and started laughing too.

But mostly because he was flattered.

Wednesday

Toriel had taken Frisk out to do some clothes shopping, leaving the teen home alone and unchaperoned.

Everything was going fine until he found himself feeling peckish.

That in itself was also fine, heating up two… no, three simple easy to make frozen burritos, the big problem was a few minutes later after he finished his food and attempted to crawl back down the table when he lost his bearings and slipped off, falling down onto the hard floor below.

Usually, he was good and did well when it came to falling, he was lightweight so it was rare for him to get hurt from doing so, but this fall in particular hurt, a lot, maybe it was because of all of the extra burrito weight that he was holding inside himself or… the weird angle he’d fallen in, or… maybe it was from the armrest of the chair he’d smacked into on the way down.

 All he knew was that his head and left eye hurt and that he was dizzy and angry that no one was there to help him when he finally needed it.

He groaned in pain, he had felt worse, much worse than this, still, though, he was hurt and he was embarrassed he had fallen so unceremoniously.

…Maybe it was a good thing that no one had been here to see it happen.

When the pain began to ease off and he decided he was alright, he opened his eyes and looked over, taking in the familiar view of the underneath side of the table.

He began to think back to the first few years when he was still trying to adjust to attempting to be a better creature, still trying to get used to living with a family again…

On his more moodier days, Frisk would use to take him underneath the table where he could be away from the stress and stares, sometimes they would sit with him and listen to him vent, sometimes when it was really bad they’d leave him be- only coming back to feed him a snack, toys, or bring back some kind of activity to do.

He’d forgotten all about that until now.

Letting out a weak chuckle, he slowly pushed himself back into a proper sitting position, deciding it was time to reminisce as he crawled underneath the table.

He began to remember why he liked it so much, it was dimly lit, cozy, and as he looked up he instantly recognized his handwriting written on the wood- ‘Smiley Trashbag sucks ketchup covered pinecones’ ‘Frisk, give me a better coloring book next time, this one is boring!’ and random doodles that he’d done- there was also entertainment!  

He sat there for a while, musing about that part of his past until his thoughts flip-flopped back to the conversation he had with Frisk the day before.

He should have known better than to second guess their self-esteem, Frisk had always been self-confident, but despite the answer they had given him, how was Frisk’s self-worth?

It had always bothered him how forgiving they were, and how they were always concerned about OTHER people, always being helpful.

How well did they take care of themselves anyway?

He remembered the times when they’d be overly worried about him and ask him twenty questions, and he’d have to retort back ‘worry about yourself!’ to get them off his metaphorical back.

…

Or maybe he was wrong about this too and they were OK…

His thoughts were swept away to the back of his mind as he heard the front door click and creak open, hearing the familiar footsteps of his mom and Frisk, and the extra sound of plastic bags rustling.

His old hiding place was nice, but he didn’t really need it anymore, did he?

Oh well.

Thursday

Today was another laid-back day, Frisk was hanging out with Sans, meanwhile, Flowey was in the living room with his mother while she folded clothes while he munched and crunched on an apple that she had given him.

But then they began watching a documentary about the lives of adopted children and teenagers.

So casually, they both began thinking about Chara and Frisk. . .

Chara had never liked talking about their original (and most likely abusive) family, and made it clear how much they hated and despised humanity, declaring themselves an honorary monster, leaving their old life behind, and finding kinship and understanding within the Dreemurr family.

Frisk on the other hand… had been a much different case, they loved practically everyone, but they couldn’t talk about their original family because they couldn’t remember their original family, apparently when literally dropping into MT. Ebott, the cushion of the flower patch hadn’t been enough and they experienced some memory loss, so of course after making best friends with all the monsters that they had helped saved, accepting Toriel’s proposal of living with them had been the obvious best option.

A year ago though, Frisk had mentioned having snippets of memories coming back, they had explained that they’d remembered faintly what their parents looked like, but later when Flowey asked about it again, Frisk grew upset and said they were unable of remembering anything more, so, not wanting to make them feel worse, he decided not to press on the matter.

Nothing else came out of it.

And that was fine, Frisk was happy living with them and they were all happy to live with Frisk.

Because of that, Flowey never once bothered to ask Toriel or Asgore if they had ever found any information about Frisk’s real human family, as far as he’d been concerned, Frisk belonged with his family and his family only.

But as he watched this documentary, he began to realize just how selfish that type of thinking had been… and yet, at the same time, he felt scared of what the truth might hold.

 What if the day came when Frisk finally fully remembered their parents, or they came back somehow? Would they take Frisk away? The last thing he wanted was to have things change and to be separated from them, imagining the very scenario put anxious knots in his plant stomach.

“...Mom…?” he began, starting slow, he still wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the answer to the question he was about to ask.

“Yes, sweetheart?”

“When you and dad adopted Frisk… were you able to find out… anything about their…real family? Or anything like that?”

Toriel let out a long sigh “…unfortunately not, your father and I- we looked into it as much as we possibly could, but there were no missing child reports that matched their description at all, we still check time to time,”

“So… do you think they were abandoned?”

His mother looked disgusted at the very mention “I surely can’t believe such a thing could be possible, who in their right mind would toss out a child as sweet and caring as Frisk?”

Flowey gave Toriel a stern look “I believe it could happen, one third of the human population is cruel and insane, I’m sure that their parents either left them or that they ran away for their own good,”

Toriel tsked him, “and what if your theories end up being wrong? What if we someday find Frisk’s family and they are good people?”

He stared hard at his mom for a second before he turned his attention back to the TV “then I’ll be wrong, I guess it doesn’t matter anyway, all I really care about is that we keep Frisk,”

Toriel didn’t say anything to that, but she didn’t need to, Flowey could practically hear her smiling.

That night…

When bedtime came, heavy thoughts were still weighing hard on Flowey’s mind and he knew he would have some trouble sleeping, so casually, he shared a bed with Frisk in their room.

Frisk however had no trouble, falling asleep just a few minutes after settling in, leaving Flowey wide awake on top of the pillow nearby in the dimly lit room.

As he listened to their soft snores, he began replaying the car accident in his head, remembering how Frisk had seemingly only been scared for him.

He remembered earlier that Summer when Frisk had been accidentally killed by Garbine, the young kid monster whose magic powers rivaled Asgore’s but they had quite a hard time handling that power, it had been the first time in years that Frisk had experienced dying, but the first thing they did when they Reloaded was cry over Garbine and how she must have felt.

He then remembered back to a few months earlier that spring, when they had gone camping and Frisk had gotten stuck in a net trap, hanging up in the air, they’d been at ease and calm with the whole situation.

Either Frisk did fantastic under pressure or… they had become unafraid of the possibility of their own death.

He thought back to their adventure back in the Underground when they were kids, Frisk had experienced numeral deaths, forced to go back in time to their Last Save and face those dangerous encounters all over again…

Oh… he saw it now, they didn’t recognize their death as being something permanent, so why would they ever be that scared of it? He certainly hadn’t been back when he had control of the Power.

Knowing them, they probably even saw it as an opportunity for saving people.

Still, it was terrifying to think about morality, being so unafraid of experiencing pain and being pushed into that black abyss, it had been a very long time since he dealt with death, but he still remembered it well and what it was like.

He couldn’t stop himself as he remembered the fight they had when he had been in his abomination of an Omega form- automatically wincing in pain as guilt ripped into him, leaning over and gasping for a breath…

Whew, was it him or did it seem that the guilt was getting worse the older he got?

He’d been disgusting and horrible to them, yet they’d showed him Mercy and forgiven him and somehow even ended up falling in love with him.

For the longest time since becoming friends with them he had tried to work it out, why, why, why, WHY and HOW had they forgiven him, hell, he still couldn’t even forgive himself for what he’d done yet.

Eventually, he had come to a conclusion, that the reason for their overwhelming forgiveness was that Frisk must be insane, for a while he had been worried that they even had Stockholm syndrome…

But…he’d looked into it, despite the occasional nightmare, Frisk didn’t really have the symptoms for that to be the case.

No, it was likely that Frisk’s shell was just that tough and they were that Merciful, they’d long ago forgiven him and all the monsters who had tried to take them down…

He gazed over at them in wonder and awe.

Maybe there was nothing that could stop or break Frisk, maybe they were truly indestructible and he worried too much.

 Still, though, they deserved to date someone better than him, someone with fifty times less personal and emotional baggage, someone with an actual body and limbs.

But at this point, he knew better than to complain and question the better aspects of his life.

Friday

It was sun-shining out today, the trees and grass were an extra vivid green, birds were chirping cheerfully, and Flowey had found himself in a much more positive and less paranoid mood, relaxing and photosynthesizing in the backyard as he finished his book, crunching on a bag of banana chips.

He’d just finished the climax of the story and things were in the process of calming down, he was deep in the words but was easily brought out when he heard a familiar metal squeak from the wooden gate door.

Looking up he saw Frisk who gave him an upbeat hand wave, they were back from visiting Garbine.

He began to wave back with a vine, but was caught off guard when he noticed Frisk’s hair was different, it was pulled back in a long intense braid that hung over their shoulder, more importantly, it had been dressed and tied with bright, elegant, yellow ribbons.

“Did Garbine do that?” he asked, amazed and impressed.

They held out the braid proudly “yeah! She made some human friends her age and one of their sisters showed her how, she might just have a knack for hairdressing, don’t you think?”

Flowey grinned a toothy grin “yep, she did a great job! One sharp head turn and you could really take someone’s eye out with that thing, it’s the perfect stealth weapon,”

Frisk’s smile disappeared, in its place was worry, quick to cover their braid with their hands in a protective manner, “oh no! Maybe I should take this out,”

At that, Flowey’s grin disappeared as well, raising a vine out “a joke, it was a joke, don’t do anything to it, okay?”

Frisk paused for a second, but soon relaxed their posture, their expression shifting to something of annoyed amusement, “hmm, maybe you should start telling better jokes then,”

He scoffed with amusement, pretending to be offended.

They knelt down next to him “anywaaay…speaking of ‘stealth weapons’, hanging out with Garbine again made me think back to when he trained together for her fight… and how much fun it was, so, I was wondering if… you were up for doing a round? Nothing too long or rough though, it’s getting really hot out,”

Flowey raised his eyebrows and lowered his book in mild surprise “yeah!! I mean- yeah, of course!”

They grinned brightly “great, give a sec, and let me go get ready first,” they said and got back on their feet, turning back to the house.

“Don’t you dare take your braid out!” he jokingly yelled.

“I’m not! Just don’t expect me to use it in the fight!” they called back over their shoulder.

“Fair enough!” he said, snickering.

After an hour, Frisk decided they were exhausted, Flowey on the other hand was riled up, continuing to practice fighting with backyard objects, with Frisk on the sidelines cheering him on as they sipped on iced lemon tea.

 It had turned out that spending time outside and venting out his frustrations from all during the week through fighting had been exactly what he had needed, it was exhilarating!

However, at six PM, the exhilaration completely faded and he soon decided he was done and also starving, his plant stomach aching as a result, so logically, he tottled back inside.

But as soon as he entered the room, realized that he had come in too late, watching in disappointed and hopeless silence as he found himself in the middle of Toriel leaving the house to take care of a couple of quick emergency errands.

As much photosynthesizing and snacking as he had done before the training, he also quickly began to notice that all that magic use had pretty much zapped him of all the energy he had, staring despondently as he watched his mother walk out the front door, raw hunger gnawing at his insides, he was sure he didn’t have it in him to make it to the kitchen and put something together without some kind of collapsing.

…He didn’t want to admit it… but he was going to need… help.

  Ugh .

“FRISK?” he called out, they had gone off back to their room.

He heard their door open and the sound of their feet padding down the hallway “yes?”

“Is mom making anything tonight or are we eating yesterday’s leftovers?” he asked, wearily leaning back against the side of the couch.

They finally met up with him in the living room “… I think we’re eating the leftovers, why? Are you hungry?”

He grinned desperately up at them “something like that, yes,”

As they got a better look at them, they looked more concerned “no offense Azzie baby, but you look awful, I think maybe you overdid it out there,”

He cracked a weak smirk “heh, I’m starting to think that too,”

“Hang on, I’ll go get you a glass of water,” they said and without another word, walked off to the kitchen.

They quickly came back, delivering the goods.

“Thanks Frisky,” he murmured and gulping down the water in seconds.

“Anytime, and…I know how you feel about doing things yourself, but since you’re tired, how about we make an exception and I go fix you something to eat pronto?” they asked, practically begging to help him with their eyes.

He scrunched up his face, them helping him was exactly what he knew he needed right now, but…he was still too stubborn and bullheaded.

He was beginning to argue with himself in his head, that was, until Frisk continued to press on, leaning down to outstretch their right arm and hold out their hand to him.

“What if you be my arms and I can be your legs? That way I can take you where you need and you can grab and put your dinner together on your own, how’s that sound?” they asked.

He stared at their hand, his gaze drifting up their arm and to their face, letting out a fake defeated sigh, and smiled thankfully at them.

“It sounds like you’re rehashing old ideas,” he playfully teased.

They giggled “I am, but it worked really well before so why not try it again?”

He gave them a short nod “good point,”

With that he climbed onto their hand, curling around and balancing until he reached their forearm.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell Toriel about this either,” Frisk assured.

“I know,”

Together they made a plate not only for Flowey, but Frisk as well.

Because during the process, as Frisk carried him around and let him open the fridge and kitchen drawers, Flowey realized that somehow, he’d forgotten how fantastic of a team they made.

And that he didn’t have to learn how to do every little thing himself, he wasn’t going to grow up alone, he was going to have Frisk with him after all, wasn’t he?

Saturday

Today had felt like any other day, Flowey was now fully comfortable again with the idea of receiving help and being independent at the same time, sitting on top of Frisk’s head as he, Frisk, Papyrus played a three-player video game together.

After fifteen minutes Toriel came in, taking her place as a very supportive audience, cracking mom jokes and cheers until the gang ushered her in, turning it into a four-player game.

“Are you kidding me with that move my son? You can do better! Here, I will show you,” Toriel chimed, using her character to pull off the same move, but better, so much better.

“WOWIE, YOU REALLY SHOWED HIM,” Papyrus mused.

Flowey scoffed “mom, who told you that you were allowed to be good at video games?”

Toriel giggled “it is not too different from puzzle-solving, this is merely the same thing but in a different shape altogether and I’ve had a lot of time on my hands compared to you,”

“NYEH HEH HEH, SHE’S GOT YOU THERE FLOWEY,” Papyrus teased.

“A little supportive backup here Frisk?” Flowey grumbled, giving them a questioning prod on the forehead with a root.

Frisk grinned sheepishly at Toriel, concentration bending under the goat mother’s gaze “he’s younger so… uh, he has a different view of the world? Annnd has different ideas on how to get things done?”

Toriel laughed more “yes, I surely hope so! Everyone individual person usually has different ideas,”

Flowey scoffed in annoyed amusement “you know what mom I-,”

But he was stopped when the sound of a doorbell trickled through the house followed by a series of urgent door knocks.

Everyone knew exactly who was at the front door, everyone looking expectantly at Flowey, who was in the process of imploding with pure excitement.

He then threw his controller down at the floor, startling Frisk below.

“WHY ARE YOU STARING AT ME FOR?! LET’S GO!” he demanded, taking a hold of Frisk’s long hair, much like reins for a horse, “NUNC CITO! CITO! CITO! CITO!”

At that, Frisk broke into laughter, but got the picture, hopping to their feet, and turned to hurry out of the room, hurrying down the hallway.

“WHAT DID HE SAY?” Papyrus questioned to Toriel as they followed behind.

“Oh, he said ‘now quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly!’ in Latin,” Toriel answered proudly, “I am glad he still remembers his lessons,”

Apparently, Flowey’s excitement was infectious as a spark shined in Papyrus’s eyes.

“YES! I SEE!” he said and rushed up ahead, and grabbed up Flowey from atop Frisk’s head.

“NO OFFENSE FRISK, BUT WITH MY LONGER LEGS, FLOWEY WILL BE ABLE TO RECEIVE HIS ROBOT FLOWERPOT EVEN FASTER!”

Frisk raised their eyebrows, gasping “no offense taken, you go skeleman!”

“Hey! Great idea, but could there be less talking and more RUNNING? NOW?” Flowey snipped, getting impatient.

But as Papyrus began to bound off down the hallway, he let out an absurd alarmed shriek as the very thing they were running to get to, zoomed into view, moving on its own at high speeds, nearly crashing into the tall skeleton.

“Aww, it missed you!” Frisk commented in awe.

Flowey snickered, “rather I missed it, I summoned it to come to me,”

“AH, YES, I HAD NEARLY ALMOST FORGOTTEN THAT WAS HOW IT WORKED,”

Without wasting any more time, the pot bot’s robo arms reached up and carefully plucked Flowey from Papyrus’s arms and sat him into the dirt, where Flowey sighed a heavy sigh of relief.

“It is so good to have this thing back,” he said with a thankful smile, looking to Frisk “I am never taking it for granted ever again,”

On cue, Undyne and Alphys walked into view at the end of the hallway, both looking amused and perplexed at the same time.

“See? I told you he was only controlling it,” Alphys informed.

Undyne crossed her arms, giving the robot a suspicious look “yeah, yeah, but I still have my doubts about that thing, I swear it was trying to attack me, I’m serious here babe, if that thing developed an A.I., I WILL be the first to take it down if it goes rogue,”

“Hey, don’t even start, the last thing I need is my own body turning on me,”

“Technically….,” Frisk began, a familiar overly flirtatious look in their eyes- oh no-

“Don’t you DARE say it,” Flowey hissed, hopefully, if he persuaded them they wouldn’t do what he knew they were about to do.

Frisk hesitated, but sighed, looking slightly defeated “alright, I won’t, but you know I’m thinking it,”

He gave their cheek a poke, silently thankful and relieved that they had held back “I know you know that I know,”

“BUT I DON’T KNOW?” Papyrus piped up.

“No, no you don’t, and that’s all you need to know,” Flowey said with a crooked grin.

“ALL I KNOW IS THAT I’M CONFUSED,”

“Good,”

    . . .

After everything settled down and Flowey was done celebrating the return of his robot body, he rolled over to Alphys, so thankful to be a more average height again.

“Sorry for taking so long, but you should be happy to hear that with the adjustment that I made that you won’t have to worry about getting damage that bad ever again, unless…you…got hit by an explosion…then…um, it won’t do so well against that,”

“Thanks Alphys, so… these adjustments, did you happen to finally install the jets I’ve been wanting?”

She frowned apologetically “sorry, you know I wanted to, but your mom said no again,”

He scowled and sighed in defeat “should have known, she thinks I’ll fly off and get killed by an airplane,”

Chapter Text

Chapter 3    Anything  For Love

       Warnings?:  Loooots of mentions of alcohol use, and Flowey and Frisk being little weirdos (don't worry, the little weirdos don't drink alcohol)

Inspiration Song: Sunrise by Norah Jones

‘Sunrise, sunrise
Looks like mornin' in your eyes
But the clock's held 9:15 for hours
Sunrise, sunrise
Couldn't tempt us if it tried
'Cause the afternoon's already come and gone

Surprise, surprise
Couldn't find it in your eyes
But I'm sure it's written all over my face
Surprise, surprise
Never something I could hide
When I see we made it through another day

Now the night
Will throw its cover down, on me again
Ooh, and if I'm right
It's the only way, to bring me back’

Soon, school started back again, the family’s daily schedule becoming busier as it usually did this time of year.

In between free time, Frisk began studying how to drive, with practically everyone encouraging them every step of the way and with all that encouragement they soon received their driver’s permit… but after that- everyone was suddenly slightly less enthusiastic about them getting behind the wheel, it wasn’t a problem though because when it came down to it, Frisk had no problems with traveling by bike or Flowey.

 The months sped by quickly, and before they knew it, October had come.

It had been a long day, Flowey had gone to a therapy appointment (he was doing well!) after that, they had gone out to eat, went shopping and finally drove home to his mother’s to bring in the groceries.

However, just as they’d rolled in, so did Undyne and Alphys, they looked anxious.

Frisk was the first person to notice the key problem as the two monster women approached.

“Hey- oh, Alphys, did you forget your wedding ring?” they asked.

She let out an awkward laugh “no, well- maybe I did, or maybe you do, or maybe you didn’t… judging by the fact that you uh… um-,”

“Oh no, did you misplace it?” Toriel delicately cut in, looking rather alarmed.

“Yeah, we think she might have lost it at your place last night during our card game,” Undyne explained.

Ooh yeah, the Friday night card games, for four years Toriel had come up with an idea to get all her closest friends together and do something to take off the stress and pressures of their general every day lives, and with the help of Sans, he came up with the idea of a game of cards, which might and might not sometimes involved money…and…light alcohol…time to time, so, clearly it wasn’t for the younger friends and family members, Toriel had attempted to keep that side of the fun hush-hush, but it hadn’t taken Flowey very long to figure out why he or Frisk hadn’t always been allowed to join in on the fun.

Toriel’s eyebrows shot up, “oh my! This calls for a search party!”

Undyne grinned, closing her hands into Determined fists and getting pumped  “A HUNT! Good thinking Miss Tori! I say we split up into teams and rava- scavenge your entire house!”

“Yeah!” Frisk joined, now just as fired up.

Toriel clapped her hands in agreement, turning to Alphys “then it is settled Dr. Alphys! We hurry inside and will look for your wedding ring and not stop until it is safely returned to your claw!”

“YEAH!!” both Frisk and Undyne cheered out in unison.

“What about the groceries?” Flowey spoke up calmly, curiously.

The other three turned to him in surprise, ah, yes, they had forgotten about that. . .

There was an awkward, albeit comedic silence between the five.

She cleared her throat “once more, let us try that again.”

Toriel clapped her hands in agreement, turning to Alphys “then it is settled Mrs. Alphys! We will hurry inside and put up the groceries posthaste and then we will look for your wedding ring and not stop until it is safely returned to your claw!”

“HECK YEAH!!” both Frisk and Undyne cheered out in unison, even louder now.

“How’s those throats feeling?” Flowey asked, both somewhat concerned and amused.

Frisk rubbed their throat and smiled weakly “a little sore,”

“NEVER BETTER FLOWER BOY! MY BODY RUNS ON RAW PASSION!” Undyne flared happily.

“Quite inspiring! How about we team up, Mrs. Undyne?” Toriel asked, holding out her hand with a polite grin.

Undyne grinned “that’s unexpected, but SURE, can’t turn a powerful lady like you down! Let’s look for my wife’s ring!” she then firmly took her hand and gave it a strong short handshake.

“But first- we must get the groceries,” Toriel reminded.

At that Undyne’s boisterous energy was stifled for a moment, but she shook it off and was still roaring to go “RIGHT!”

And with that, she clicked open the backdoor of Toriel’s car and with a single scoop of her arms, she was able to carry what must have been eight, maybe ten large bags and high-tailed it to the front door.

“I am adoring her courageous energy today! It’s really contagious,” Frisk chimed, going to the back of the car and picking up a few bags.

“That’s my wifie for you, you know she’s always loved a good challenge,” Alphys said, reaching for a bag, but hesitated as Flowey easily picked the rest up, hanging the bags on his metal arms.

“Better hope she doesn’t end up finding your ring in the first three seconds of searching,” Flowey mumbled.

“Oh, I do not wish to see such disappointment in her eye,” Toriel mumbled back, walking on ahead to unlock the door as Undyne anxiously waited.

Flowey looked down to Alphys “how do you manage to lose a ring that big and ornate anyway?”

“You’d be surprised, this isn’t the first time this has happened,” she replied with a guilty lopsided smile.

“Gee whiz…,” he muttered under his breath.

 . . .

 In less than five minutes, the Dreemurr family’s groceries were put away and everyone split into teams, Undyne switched back and forth between Alphys and Toriel, and of course, Frisk and Flowey looked together.

After thirty minutes of finding absolutely nothing, Toriel grew Determined and called upon Papyrus and Sans for extra help, to which they gladly obliged to.

Flowey and Frisk were currently searching the living room for probably was the seventeenth time, but Frisk seemed to be on to something.

“Okay, so, we agreed they were all most likely under the influence when it happened…so, I think what we need to do is try role-playing it again,” they offered.

“I am not being mom again,” Flowey grumbled.

“I don’t want you to be her, I want you to try being Undyne this time,”

“Undyne? And you’ll be Alphys?” he questioned, looking intrigued.

Frisk grinned in romantic but playful amusement “yes, you will be my wifie,”

He snorted out a laugh, blushing a little “oh-okay, fine, I see where you’re taking this,”

Frisk happily clapped their hands at his eagerness “alright, just don’t forget, we are ‘under the influence’, so- y’know, get silly and stuff,”

He gave them a thumbs up “drunk, got it.”

Frisk then backed over to a chair and sat down, motioning their hands to where the pull-out game table would be, then pretended to hold up a few playing cards.

Flowey also took a spot at the invisible table, lowering his pot bot to mimic the act of sitting down, and just as Frisk did, pretended to hold his own playing cards then proceeded to morph his face into a nearly identical version of Undyne’s, transforming and blackening the area of his left eye to portray an eyepatch.

Instantly and with ease, Flowey fell into his role, becoming Undyne and slamming her cards against the table, shifting dramatically to look at where an invisible Sans sat.

“That’s four queens, shrimp! It’s all over for you!” Flower Undyne revealed.

Frisk stifled a giggle, biting their bottom lip, adjusting their voice as best they could to sound like Alphys, not making a terrible job of it either, they had practice after all “uhm, Undyne-,”

Flower Undyne softened her gaze, but slightly annoyed at her victory being interrupted “what is it babe? Can’t you see I’m about to win this round?”

Human Alphys giggled shyly “it’s nothing- I uh, um, never mind,”

“No, not ‘never mind’, speak your mind,”

“I was wondering if you wanted to get a cele-,” Human Alphys proceed to drunkenly hiccup, “-celebration snack?”

Flowey Undyne narrowed her eye in confusion, raising her hand up “celebration…smack?”

“SN-ack!” she corrected, stifling more giggles.

Frisk then broke character to hold a hand over their mouth and throw their voice, deepening it as best they could to mimic Sans, trying their best between laughter.

“i wouldn’t mind a snack, what about you tori?”

Frisk then changed to Toriel.

“Hehehee, sounds lovely, I could go for something light, perhaps a bag of grapes?”

“Grapes?” Flowey blurted in his regular voice.

“Yes dear, I am in the mood for grapes, so Sans can feed them to me,” Human Toriel informed, a fluttery romantic smile on her face.

“Yuck.” Flowey griped, now completely disgusted, scowling “do you really think she’s like that when she’s drunk?”

Frisk broke into laughter “I don’t know, you know I’ve never seen any of them under the influence, I was just making up things at the top of my head, I’m sorRY,”

Flowey shook his head “whatever, it’s fine, just go back to being Alphys and no more changing character, let’s keep this simple,”

They nodded, dropping back into their Human Alphys role  “so, uhm, wifie, would you like to go get that snack?”

Flower Undyne stood up “yeah, sure, nothing sounds better than leaving these losers and eating a giant bag of victory pretzels right now”

“Don’t you think you’re making Undyne too aggressive?” Frisk asked under their breath.

Flowey shrugged “I don’t know, I was going for ‘mean drunk’…should I tone it down?”

“Yeesss pllleeasse, she’s about to be alooonne~ with Alphys, her wiiiife~, she’s not allowed to be mean, she has no reason to be,”  

He nodded thoughtfully “you have a point…okay, let’s continue,”

Flower Undyne and Human Alphys moved away from the table, with Flower Undyne politely allowing to pass her first down the hallway.

As they shuffled along, Human Alphys held out her claws and gazed warmly at her ring and how it shined, but then gasped as she saw something wrong.

“What is it babe?” Flower Undyne asked urgently.

She turned to her wife “my ring is dirty-,” they then hiccuped “-better go wash it,”

“Good thing we’re heading to the kitchen,” Flower Undyne muttered, giving her wife a pat on the shoulder.

The couple soon entered the kitchen, both going straight to the sink, peering carefully around the area, but unfortunately, no ring was seen.

Flowey groaned “this is useless, we’re never going to find this stupid thing,”

Frisk on the other hand was still very optimistic.
“No, it has to be around here somewhere, for all we know it could be in plain sight and we could have passed it ten times over, we should try harder,”

He gave them a mischievous Look, “you just want  to role play more, don’t you?”

They grinned back, unable to lie “it does make it funner, you seem to be enjoying it,”

He chuckled lowly and shook his head at himself “yeah, yeah I am,”

“...Do you want to continue?”

“Do you…?” He pressed, almost daringly.

They giggled flirtatiously, their smile curling goofily “yes, wifie,”

At that, Flowey became Flower Undyne once more, proceeding to give her wife a nudge “well, are you going to clean your ring or not?”

Human Alphys blinked as if she were just pulled out of her deep thoughts, turning on the water and taking off her ring to wash off the mysterious muck “y-yeah, I was thinking of one of my projects, and uhm, other things,”

Flower Undyne went over to Toriel’s pantry, opening the door and grabbing out a decently large bag of salted pretzels “and those ‘other things’ would be…?” she asked before tossing a few into her mouth, crunching down vigilantly.

“Well.. I was thinking if you wanted a..,” they giggled softly “…celebratory… k-kiss to go with your snack?”

Flower Undyne stopped midchew to turn around to look at her wife with a romantic gaze.

“Hell yeah.”

Without hesitation, she strode toward Human Alphys, sitting the pretzels on a chair as they passed, not taking her eye off her wife.

Neither of them spoke as Flower Undyne passionately embraced Human Alphys into her arms, who complied and embraced her back, wrapping her arms around her waist, letting out a pleased squeak when Flower Undyne dove in and roughly kissed her.

Now completely lost in the act of intensely making out, the facade of the two monster women faded, leaving only Flowey and Frisk in the brightly lit kitchen in the very occupied house.

Twenty (?) seconds later…

“I told you guys, something really weird is going on! I swear I saw her wearing it here last night!” real Undyne’s voice was heard not too far away.

It seemed they weren’t completely lost as they both snapped into action, breaking lip contact in unison with panic, untangling their arms from each other, and urgently moving one foot away- leaving some extra elbow room.

When Undyne entered the kitchen, she found Frisk and Flowey casually standing by the sink, both pretending to look up at her as if they were just talking about something mundane.

“You know I scoured the kitchen three times already, right?” she said.

The odd couple looked back to each other, to which Flowey sighed, chuckling under his breath, more than embarrassed, flustered, but at least relieved to not be caught.

“Actually, no… we didn’t,” Frisk answered, giving Undyne a quiet awkward laugh.

Undyne let out a confused laugh, noticing the pretzels and grabbing them up, “well, now, you know,” she then paused as she stared carefully at Frisk.

They grew nervous “…what is it…?”

“Your hair is a mess and your face looks like tomato with how red it is, it’s a good look, but I think it’s time you took a three-minute break,”

  She then pointed to Flowey who nearly jumped “and you too! I want you to have a glass of water, the both of you look like a train wreck,”

“Tell me about it,” Flowey sighed tiredly, rubbing at his eyes.  

“Nah,” she uttered and crunched on a pretzel, walking out of the room, taking the bag with her.

The two stared at each other in mutual silence.

They were about to move, but as they found the other's gaze, they suddenly refused to go anywhere else.

They both knew what they should have been doing.

But something about getting almost caught, and the leftover adrenaline that coursed through their bodies that was still pumping away…the combination of both clouded their judgment and sense of time.

All they could think about now were the passionate kisses they had just shared moments ago, the urge to have even more- daring them to try again, just one more kiss, anything for one more kiss.

 Go on, do it, you know you want to… they want it too…

Without another thought, Flowey rolled forward to close that gap between them and leaned in close to whisper to them “do you want to-,”

“Yes,” they whispered back, nodding eagerly.

“More kissing?” he clarified, just to make sure they were on the same page.

“Yeah babey~” they were indeed on the same page.

There were a few faint thoughts of rushing off to a room with a door that could be locked- but all serious worries were ignored as Flowey’s robot arms found there place back around Frisk’s body, with Frisk gently stroking his cheeks in return, as Flowey’s vines lovingly graced their jaw bone.

 With that, they leaned in closer and their lips brushed together and reunited.

Now back in their shared world of bliss, they wanted nothing else but to stay there forever, the world slowed down, time feeling as if it were standing still.

Inside their world, the sound of footsteps didn’t quite meet their ears.

Neither did they hear the sharp gasp Alphys made.

But they did hear Papyrus’s blown away- “WOWIE!”

The comment gripped at the couple and suplexed them from their world of bliss and slammed them back into reality, jarringly landing them back in Toriel’s kitchen.

Instantly, Flowey and Frisk pulled their lips apart, their breaths still heavy, Flowey’s vines still wrapped around his partner as they lurched around to face Undyne, Alphys, and Papyrus who stared back at them.

The air was thick and heavy with shock.

Frisk was the first to jump into action “this wasn’t what you thought it was!”

“ARE YOU SURE…? IT LOOKED LIKE KISSING TO ME,” Papyrus questioned, unsure.

They smiled weakly “well-uh-yeah! We were-  but we- ah, were role-playing as Undyne and Alphys! We wanted to be as accurate as possible!”

Alphys’s eyes widened, blushing as she and Undyne peered at each other for a second, “really?”

“Seems like you were really getting into it for it to be role-play,” Undyne noted, a highly suspicious glint in her eye and a hint of sarcasm in her voice, still unsure of how she felt about this.

It was then that Flowey began to shrink where he stood, a horrible feeling of dread and fear trickling deep down inside of him as he began to realize that the group of older monsters was not going to be so easily fooled.

They had majorly slipped up and now the others had seen a small shred of the truth, and it had been enough for them to know what could be going on. . .

Frisk ran a nervous hand through their messy bangs, chuckling shyly “yeah, I guess it might have looked like that, but it was necessary, we were trying to pretend to be you guys to figure out where the ring might have gotten lost at,”

Undyne shook her head, “…I guess I can get behind that, especially for you, but…I don’t know, uh, listen, kid, if you two have something going on, maybe you-,”

“We don’t!” Flowey blurted out, growing anxious.

“Yeah! It was nothing!” Frisk was quick to add “I didn’t get to tell you the whole story, you see we were pretending to be you and Alphys, but then Flowey and I got into a conversation about drowning, and that lead to the topic of CPR and-you know how that can go, am I right?”

No, no, that wasn’t working, the vibe of the room becoming increasingly awkward and uncomfortable as the adults frowned accusingly, staring back in further disbelief.

Frisk let out a deep sigh, scratching lightly at their temple “okay, maybe that was a really bad lie, I’m a terrible liar, but would you believe it was only a best friend kiss and nothing more?”

“...Um, I’m sorry Frisk, but.. best friends don’t kiss the way that you two were,” Alphys spoke up, her voice soft and apologetic.

“YEAH…THAT WAS ROMANCE,” Papyrus added gently.

Frisk let out a pitiful and much quieter chuckle, nervously shifting their weight from foot to foot, “it really wasn’t, I mean, I realize how I could have looked, but I can promise you…that it wasn’t,”

There was a moment of silence.

And finally, Frisk took in a deep breath and slowly exhaled, they then looked to Flowey with pained but Determined eyes.

“I’m really sorry Azzie, I think it’s time, they’re not going to believe us,” they said, their voice so soft that it could have registered for a whisper.

He stared in horror as they held up their hand for him to take and hold, to prove once and for all of what was really going on.

Flowey grit his teeth as his old urge to run away from it all blazed white-hot inside of him, he hadn’t felt it this strongly in a very long time, because he-… he couldn’t do this, he couldn’t handle this, not yet, not yet, not yet.

He wasn’t sure if it was fear or Determination that grabbed a hold of him, but either way, he made up his mind and he wasn’t going to be stopped.

“No,” he uttered out.

“No?” they echoed, surprised.

“We aren’t doing this,” he confirmed, he then looked to others, “all of you are going to leave us ALONE! C’mon Frisk! We need to talk in privacy!” he demanded, his voice low and vicious, yet fear was clear in his dark eyes.

And with that, he zoomed ahead, pushing through the group roughly and storming out.

Anxiously Frisk followed, hesitating as they passed by their friends.

“Please, don’t worry too much, I promise we’ll explain everything soon,” they said, biting their bottom lip nervously before they ran off after Flowey.

Down the hall, they saw him almost run into Sans and Toriel, who was immediately concerned for him.

“Is something the matter?” she asked, hovering out her hand.

“Everything is fine,”

“Are you sure?”

Flowey paused, almost uncertain of what to say, eyeing Sans uncomfortably until he looked back and saw Frisk, he then turned back to his mother.

“Yes, everything is absolutely fine, nothings’ wrong mom,” he said, his voice almost too monotone, he then pressed further down the hallway until he found his bedroom and quickly slipped inside.

As Frisk passed Sans and Toriel, they gave her a comforting shoulder pat and nod to Sans, and without saying anything they hurried forward, loyally following their best friend’s path.

Once they entered, Flowey locked the door behind them and groaned fearfully through his teeth.

“I… I know that was horrifying Asriel, but I really do believe it’s time that they knew,” Frisk said, wringing their hands together.

Flowey snapped his head to stare at them with intense frustration, rolling over to them “no, no, no, no- didn’t you see how they stared? They didn’t understand! They were pitying us!”

He let out another groan and rubbed at his eyes with a vine “this is all my fault, I didn’t think it through, I wanted more, I was selfish,”  

But he stopped all movement when he felt Frisk gently hold his cheeks with their hands, opening his eyes, his gaze softening as he caught sight of their solemn expression.
“It’s not your fault, it’s mine” they insisted, voice stern “you wouldn’t have continued if I had just said no, but I couldn’t help myself either, I wanted more too, I’m sorry,”

They leaned forward and rested their forehead against his, letting out a quiet whine.

“It’s not fair that we should have to hide at all,” they whispered.

“I know,”

It was that answer that Flowey finally came to a fearful final decision with an option that had been at the forefront of his mind since he saw the older monsters standing in front of them.

He let out a heavy sigh…

“You’re not going to like this, but… take us back to your last Save,”

They lifted their head up, staring at him in deep serious thought.

 For a frightful moment.. he thought they were going to deny him.

“That was almost three weeks ago..,”

He smiled firmly “it’ll be okay, we can handle it,”

They narrowed their eyebrows, and caressed their hand against the side of his cheek  “I know I can, but can you? I don’t want you to have a panic attack like the one you had before,”

He wrapped a vine around their hand, “I don’t care Frisk, I’ll be okay, I promise, just please- take us back, I can’t do this, not yet,”

Frisk went silent again, their gaze hard and steely before… finally, they sighed, nodded.

“Okay, I’ll do it, for you,”

He smiled graciously, “I love you Frisk,”

They smiled back, wiping a tear from their eye “I love you too,”

 With that, they closed their eyes….

And suddenly

  The world went  

 s i l e n t

   and  

b l a c k .

All feeling was lost in Flowey’s body, filled with relief as he entered the familiar dark void, and with a sudden force, he was pushed backwards. . .

. .. .   . .    ..

.  . . .

.. .

.

When he felt the control of his body and the world around him return, he found himself back in his room, in a different position and the lights off, almost in complete darkness- save for the soft light that illuminated from his TV that he had left on from the night before.

His mind was in a haze, unsure of the date and time or what had happened prior.

As he blinked his eyes and let the seconds pass, he realized he had just woken up from sleeping.

Something…troublesome nagged at the back of his mind, but he couldn’t quite remember just yet, so, he rubbed at his tired eyes with a vine and reached for his cellphone, checking the time and date.

September 16 / Monday, 6:20 AM

Hm, Frisk had work this morning, guess they had made a noise and woken him up.

… No, wait a moment! Wasn’t it October now?

As he stared at his phone in utter confusion, flabbergasted, the events of three and half weeks later began to replay and unfold inside his mind until those last few hours…

Oh… they had been found out and he’d taken the ultimate emergency exit.

Long ago, he had promised them that he would never, ever, ask to personally use their Power for selfish reasons, but ever since they had started this relationship, he knew that deep down, that he would give in to temptation if something like this had happened.

Flowey glared down at the phone, realizing that he had broken the promise.

He had a difficult time biting back his self-shame.

Both Frisk and he had let their guards down and messed up big time, Frisk had been brave, ready for anything, while he on the other hand had been unable to face the others and deal with the truth of the whole world knowing, he had been a coward and used Frisk to hideaway.

. . .Still… they had managed to get away and keep their relationship secret once again…

No, this was the last time he was going to let it happen.

No more letting his guard down, from now on, he was going to do this the right way.

Their secret was never going to get out and he was going to make sure of it!

As he made this new and final decision, he let out a great sigh and put away his phone, it was probably best he checked on Frisk and made sure that they were doing okay.

Opening the door, he moved slowly, making sure to stay as silent as possible, not wanting Toriel to know he was awake yet, she was probably in the living room at this time, keeping herself entertained as she waited for it to be time to drive Frisk off to work.

Rolling down the hallway, he found that Frisk’s door was already halfway open.

“Hey,” he whispered, giving the door a light tap.

“Come in Sunshine,” he heard them whisper back.

Gingerly he pushed open the door and let himself in, quietly closing it behind him, then looked to find Frisk sitting cross-legged in their work uniform on their bed.

They looked up at him and gave a small, sleepy smile, a deep thoughtful look in their eyes.

“No one knows now, so we’re good again, how are you feeling?” they asked softly.

A matching sleepy grin grew on his face “you said it yourself, no one knows, so I feel great,”

Frisk looked down to their bed, their smile fading into something more sympathetic, “do you think you’ll be okay tonight?” they peered back at him “with your nightmares?”

He let out a weary sigh “I don’t know…,” but rolled closer, Determination glowing in his eyes “but I promise you that I’ll never let this happen again, okay?”

They stared at him for a moment before they finally smiled sweetly and nod “okay,”

. . .

That night, he did indeed had a series of horrible nightmares, the next one more gut-wrenching than the last, to the point where the anxiety got to him and he refused to go back to sleep into the late of the night, fully awake to see the next sunrise that greeted him the next morning.

But he rolled up the blinds on his window and stared up at the calm changing colors of the sky, he realized, that in the long run, that.. none of the nightmares mattered at all, Frisk and he had dodged a bullet, no one knew and their secret was still safe.

Because everything was and always was going to be okay.

 . . . . .

 Soon, the weeks sped by quickly and before they knew it, October was back.

It had been a long day, Flowey had gone to a therapy appointment (he was doing surprisingly very well!) after that, they had gone out to eat, went shopping, and finally drove home to bring in the groceries.

However, just as they’d rolled in, so did Undyne and Alphys, they looked anxious.

Frisk and Flowey were the first to notice the key problem as the two monster women approached.

She let out an awkward laugh “no, well- maybe I did, or maybe you do, or maybe you didn’t… judging by the fact that you uh… um-,”

“Oh no, did you misplace it?” Toriel delicately cut in, looking rather alarmed.

“Yeah, we think she might have lost it at your place last night during our card game,” Undyne explained.

Flowey perked up “you two can relax, if I’m right, Papyrus should have it,”

The four others turned their attention to him, surprised.

“What?” Undyne questioned.

He shrugged nonchalantly “all of you were making a lot of noise last night, so I went to check and you were making a call to him, said something about making a visit to his house so he can take it to the… cleaners? Or…something like that,”

Alphys gasped “OH! I think I remember that! ”

Undyne laughed “wow, to think we were ready to turn your entire household literally upside down to find it! You three got off easy today,”

Frisk and Flowey laughed as well, turning to look at each other, grinning and high-fiving in celebration.

Alphys and Undyne gave each other an awkward look, slightly confused by the overreaction, but hey, whatever, it was nice to know the two teenagers were enjoying small achievements.

Chapter Text

Chapter 4    Heart Over Mind

Warnings?: Intense make out scene! Uh-oh!

Inspiration Song: Out Of My League by Fitz and The Tantrums

‘More than just a dream...

Forty days and forty nights
I waited for a person like you to come and save my life
All the days I waited for you
You know the ones who said I'd never find someone like you

And you were out of my league
All the things I believed
You were just the right kind
Yeah, you were more than just a dream
You were out of my league
Got my heartbeat racing
If I die don't wake me
Cause you are more than just a dream

From time to time I pinch myself
Because I think my love mistakes me for somebody else
And every time they take my hand
All the wonders that remain
Become a simple fact’

After the Secret-Kiss-In-The-Kitchen fiasco, things soon had gone back to normal, except for Flowey’s guard, who had been keenly keeping it up, refusing on letting his heart control his brain, at least when Frisk and he weren’t completely alone.

Frisk had been keeping their guard up as well, no hugs lasting longer than five seconds, no cheek kisses, definitely no mouth kisses, not even hand-holding, even the text flirting had to be toned down, the odd couple absolutely refusing to let the incident repeat itself.

It was aggravating and frustrating, but experiencing one of their worst fears had taken a toll, so the restriction was a necessary pain- for how long, they didn’t know.

But it was okay, work and school kept them occupied, and after the first couple of weeks… they managed to get used to the distance…

Sans had been suspicious for a while after they’d been unable to come up with a good enough excuse for the Reload, he hadn’t been there to see what had happened to cause it, but he had seen enough of what happened afterward to know something regrettable went down.

. . .

But the months passed by once more, the leaves falling and winter fast approaching, December had come and now they were in the thick of it.

It was their time to stay at Asgore’s, and as usual, he was off at the Underground, tending to his duties, meanwhile Frisk and Flowey stayed behind at home, at the moment doing a set of chores.

There were certain temperatures of cold where it didn’t bother him too much, but once it got to that point of chilly and crisp, he couldn’t take it, so unless he didn’t have a hat or some sort of thick scarf or blanket to wrap around his flower body, he would begin to get stiff and exhausted, fortunately, he lived with people who cared for his well being and kept him comfortable as much as they possibly could.

 Today it was especially chilly, so as he went out to get the mail, adorned and almost completely hidden with one of his father’s scarves, he still couldn’t quite hide from the icy winds that pierced into his face and eyes.

“Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it-!” he complained as he rushed back down the yard and to the house, slamming the large door behind him as he burst in.

As he entered, he immediately summoned a few vines to rub at his face to conduct heat.

“MY FACE IS A BLOCK OF ICE!” he yelled, making himself loudly known and groaning tiredly.

He made his way through the halls, to the kitchen where Frisk was putting away the dishes in the dishwasher.

“It’s so damn cold outside Frisk! I don’t know why I bothered with agreeing to these chores,” he further complained, attempting to burrow himself deeper into the scarf.

Frisk paused to look at him, frowning in concern, they then dried their hands off and held their arms out to him.

“Then come here Sunshine, I’ll warm you up in my arms,” they reassured invitingly.

Flowey peeked at them with one eye from the cloth, they weren’t wrong, Frisk hugs were exceptionally warm and toasty, the idea seemed like a perfectly great one-

Until the anxious, paranoid, screeching voice in the back of his mind piped up and he let out a conflicted whine.

“SssssshhhHHHHhhh!! You know the rules, don’t talk like that in the house!”

Frisk stepped forward, still pretty keen on that hug “it’s fine, no one’s here, it’s just you and me, babe,”

“and me,” a familiar deep lazy voice piped up.

The pair turned to see Sans in the hallway, he had a note in his hand.

Frisk let out a quiet, nervous laugh, meanwhile, Flowey narrowed his eyes and grit his teeth, staring Sans down accusingly.

“How much did you hear?” he prodded.

Sans walked forward casually, “only what frisk said, why? was there something you wanted me to hear?”

Flowey narrowed his eyes to slits “…….no.”

“so there was something you didn’t want me to hear?”

“.………….. n o.” Flowey muttered out, stubbornly pulling his scarf further around his face, comically so.

“Do you have something for us to hear?” Frisk finally spoke up to Sans, eager to break the weird tension.

Sans then proceeded to hand Frisk the note, “your dad wanted me to bring back these things that he forgot, thought maybe you guys could help direct me to them,”

After a second of scanning the words, Frisk let out a small chuckle “poor guy, all the errands these days has him scattered brained,”

“What did he forget?” Flowey prodded, now concerned.

“His lunch, the laptop he got fixed for Mr. Tally Mall, some library books he needs to return, and his suitcase,” they said as they turned to the fridge, opening it to take out a fine Asgore-sized lunch box, tossing it over their shoulder and then turning down the hallway “this shouldn’t take long,”

As Sans followed Frisk down the hallway, Flowey decided to stay put in the kitchen, staring momentarily into space.

But the quiet, blank spell passed as he suddenly heard the muffled sounds of the two chatting about something.

Things had… settled between Flowey and Sans ever since the skeleton had admitted he could no longer remember their bad history or the awful things Flowey had done all those dead timelines ago.

It didn’t stop Flowey from feeling anxious about it though, especially since Sans… ‘vaguely’ knew about the secret relationship of the two teenagers, he had made it clear in his own way he would never tell anyone else- yet, one may never know when someone could change their mind.

It really didn’t help Flowey’s nerves that Sans was suspicious of the last Reload…

Sometimes he felt like he was edging around bombshells just trying to keep these damn secrets.

Letting out a quiet groan, Flowey rubbed at his eyes with a vine tiredly, lowering his head- all these thoughts weighing him down.

When he opened his eyes, he finally noticed the mail he still held with his gloved robot hands, he’d forgotten all about the errand.

With another groan, he sat the small pile onto the kitchen counter, rolled off to his bedroom, and promptly shut the door, finding something inane on the internet to do to distract him.

An undefinable amount of minutes passed by before Flowey heard his door open, but he only continued to stare at the web page on his tablet.

“Did Sans make you nervous?” he heard Frisk ask quietly.

He let out a huff in response, unsure of exactly what he wanted to say.

“I guess you could put it that way,” he mumbled out.

At that Frisk walked over close to Flowey, “I understand,”

They then reached up and began to stroke the back of his head, deep down inside, with each grace of their touch he felt himself unwind little by little.

“But we’ve got this thing on lockdown remember? I know Sans can be extra defensive, but I know he won’t do anything to jeopardize our relationship, we can trust him, he’s our friend,” they soothed.

Flowey let out a low grumble “…but what if he decides he doesn’t want to trust me? What if I mess up and he decides I can’t be trusted with dating you? I mean YES, he says I’ve progressed, and he says he’s forgotten, but he’s still aware that I did awful things in the past,”

Frisk’s frown deepened, and without another word, leaned their weight onto him, wrapping their arms around both him and his pot body, hugging him tightly.

“He’s also forgiven you, just like everyone else has, just like me,” they spoke, their mouth brushing against a flower petal, their gentle voice reverberating into his being.

And inside of his being, butterflies fluttered gently and thoughts went fuzzy, his stress quickly dissipating as the warmth of Frisk’s embrace managed to melt the last bit of the outside chill, any leftover bits of Flowey’s argument tumbling out of his mouth fruitlessly as he attempted to talk.

“But he’s…  and… I just…I just..don’t know what to do…,”

He felt them give him a comforting pat on the back of his stem, “and that’s okay, you don’t have anything to prove to him, not anymore, not to anyone,”

At that, Flowey let out a thoughtful sigh, his mind cycling on a new question as a familiar spark ignited inside of him, one that he hadn’t felt in quite a while…

He decided to allow his heart to take charge… just for a little while, and hold on to the feeling, it felt too good to let go of, he had missed it desperately.

“What about you?” he asked, curling his robot arms back around Frisk, hugging them back gently.

They looked to him in slight confusion “what about me?”

A subtle playful smile crossed his face “I bet I can prove to you that I can flirt with you in this house alone with you without a single paranoid thought in my mind,”

Frisk raised their eyebrows in surprised interest and let out a small chuckle “you don’t need to prove yourself to me at all for one thing! But- if you’re going to be making some Moves, then go ahead, prove away, babe,”

At that, a wide and overeager grin spread across Flowey’s face, then, without warning, he scooped Frisk up into his robot arms, literally sweeping them off their feet, his grin pushing its limits as Frisk laughed in surprise, shrieking joyfully.

He twirled them around for good measure, just to hear them laugh again- oh this was so nice!

Then, with them still in his arms, he rolled out of the bedroom, as they entered the hallway Frisk stifled their giggles, looking at him curiously.

“Where are you taking me mister?”

“Kitchen, thought I’d treat you to something tasty to eat,”

“Thank you, sweetheart, but you do remember we’re going out to eat with the fam in a couple of hours right? We don’t want to spoil our appetites,”

Flowey bit back an annoyed frown, he had forgotten about that, still, he attempted another route with his plan.

“An appetizer then?” he pressed on curiously.

Frisk’s eyes softened “okay, you drive a hard bargain Flowey Dreemurr,”

As they returned back to the kitchen, Flowey continued to hold onto Frisk until they were in front of the fridge, releasing them carefully back on their feet.

But before he could do any more, Frisk cupped the side of his face with their hand, beaming happily at him “does this mean you’re okay with us going back to normal?”

He touched their hand with a vine “yeah, I think it does, the whole restriction thing was a dumb idea to begin with,”

Before anything more could be said, he gave in to his emotions, allowing his heart full control over his brain and closed the space between the both of them, pressing his lips against theirs, letting out a soft muffled chuckle as Frisk wrapped their arms around him, pulling him closer to them.

Soon their surroundings clouded and their world became a golden haze.

An excited thrill ran throughout his body at the sudden intensity of it all, at Frisk’s closeness, at the warmth, the feeling enraptured him.

By this point in their relationship- he’d grown pretty familiar with the overtly friendly feeling, but no thanks to the distance he had put between them, it finally dawned on him that he’d grown… ‘hungry’ for the feeling, and especially for Frisk’s affection.

“Such a dumb idea,” he mumbled out after a particularly deep kiss, pausing to gaze at Frisk with heavy eyes “don’t know why we aren’t doing this all the time, don’t know why I stopped,”

As Frisk started to move their lips to reply, he misread the signs and dove back into to kiss them once more, his movements hasty and fervent, his robot hands quickly shifting position, the potbot lurching forward an inch- effectively fully pressing metal against Frisk’s body and pinning them to the fridge.

Frisk in response, let out a surprised but pleased gasp, letting out an airy laugh as Flowey nipped at their bottom lip teasingly.

It was then that a quiet rumble erupted inside the kitchen, followed by an odd clanging mechanical noise and suddenly-

 Frisk jumped and shrieked, eyes going wide as they jerked and pulled away from Flowey and the fridge.

And as they did this, a small burst of iced cubes fell out from the ice machine and on to the wooden floor with a clatter.

There was a moment of dumbfounded silence as the pair stared at the ice, then at each other.

Then they smiled and Flowey was the first to start laughing, mostly at himself at how easy it was to be overtaken by his feelings, especially when he allowed himself to be in the first place.

Frisk soon followed him up in the laughter, albeit a little shyer, rubbing at their bottom lip with their thumb, still somewhat in a thick daze from Flowey’s romantic and surprisingly rough performance.

He noticed the look in their glazed-over eyes and stifled his laughter “you okay?” he asked in concern.

This snapped them out of their thoughts and they blinked up at him “huh? Yeah, I’m great,”

He rolled over to them “are you sure? I didn’t hurt you did I? I was caught up in… a…,” he paused, attempting to figure out the right word, the memory of the romantic act a feverish haze, he’d been in the ‘haze’ before, but he finally came to the conclusion that he didn’t quite have an accurate enough word yet, so he improvised, “…zone,”

Frisk grinned “no, it’s okay, you didn’t do anything wrong, I was in a zone too, I’m thinking the same one you were in,”

Fully happy and satisfied with their answer, he matched their grin with a more mischievous, playful one, “looks like you’re still in it,” then rolled away and over to the cabinets, “anyway, I wasn’t just flirting earlier, I really meant it when I said I would make you something to eat, so do you want anything?”

Frisk chuckled, going quiet for a moment as they thought over the proposition “…well…I guess... can you make me some hot chocolate? I’m… going to take a quick walk outside and I’m thinking I’ll need it when I get back in,”

A judgmental, confused expression passed over Flowey’s face, who would want to take a walk in this weather?

But his disapproval of the cold was washed over by concern and he pulled off his scarf that he was still wearing, handing it over to Frisk without a second thought.

“Here, you’ll be needing this too, then,”

Frisk glanced at the scarf and quickly at Flowey, adoration blossoming on their face “thank you Sunshine,” they said, taking their gift and wrapping it around their neck- taking a moment to snuggle into the fabric, treasuring it.

Then they grinned brightly at him, blew him a kiss, and turned around- making their way out.

And… he couldn’t help but watch as they did so, taking in the way they walked, the way they moved, momentarily hypnotized… he didn’t know what it was specifically, but it was another thing about them that seemed to put him in that ‘zone’.

Once they were gone, he turned back to the cabinets, opening one to pull out a mug-

And almost dropping it as a sudden convulsing pain roared and reverberated inside his body, Flowey gasping in surprise as his malformed soul quaked, hitting him harder than it had in a very long time, his robot arms and hands shaking from the impact, his potbot voicing his pain in its own way.

 He managed to sit the mug onto the counter with a stilted clatter.

His mouth twisted and his teeth grinding from the agony, tears running streaking down his face as his soul seized inside of him.

It was responding late to the stronger emotions he had felt earlier- he hadn’t even noticed the lack of pain, he was so used to ignoring and tuning it out, that he hadn’t noticed…

Now it was all hitting him in all one go.

His potbot shuttered underneath him, his gloved fingers grasping at the counter.

Fortunately, this wasn’t his first rodeo, he’d experienced this all before and he was well prepared.

First off, he had to handle this quickly, he certainly didn’t need Frisk or anybody else catching him this doubled down in pain, especially after convincing them that they didn’t need to worry.

He himself was done being worried about his soul pain, he had learned to deal with it when it was at a manageable level, and when it wasn’t- when it was bad- well… he made an art out of faking a smile.

But right now, it felt worse than bad.

He closed his eyes and attempted to clear his mind, taking in a slow, deep, breath.

When he exhaled, it came out shaky and rattled, as expected, but he persisted.

“Y’know…,” he muttered out to himself between breaths, growing frustrated “I don’t care……I don’t care,” he paused, shuttering and taking in a few quick breaths, the inside of his body feeling like it was slowly pulling itself apart “it… was completely…worth it,”

He then opened his eyes and lurched over to another cabinet, his robot body swaying slightly- opening another door he grabbed for a branded can of chocolate powder mix.

“It’s just a. . . soul cramp, it’ll…go…away..,” he grumbled under his breath, taking the can over to the mug, dizzily looking for a spoon and finally making progress as he managed to toss a few spoonfuls in, “I’ll MAKE this work,”

As he persevered through the exhausting process of creating hot chocolate, he began to notice the pain slowly began to dwindle, easing upon him.

He also noticed it had started to dwindle the angrier he had gotten.

Maybe that was the key to getting the pain to go away?

Maybe all he needed was to focus on something?

As he waited for the beep of the microwave, he summoned his soul, taking a curious and concerned look over it. . .

It was still obscenely small and misshapen as before, no changes, none except the lopsided and not quite rhythmic pulsing it made as it processed the emotions, this, of course was its version of normal.  

Seeing that everything was in working order, his old paranoid fears were quelled and he recalled his soul back to him.

He scowled to himself, a soul cramp indeed, hmph.

Before he went back to the hot chocolate creation, he made sure to rub his eyes and face with a cold paper towel, getting rid of any pesky evidence that he cried, he could already imagine the argument Frisk and he could start if they noticed any dried tears, they were getting better at catching his lies all the time.

If Frisk knew that his pain was still capable of being this horrific, he knew the guilt that they would likely feel, and he wouldn’t allow them to feel bad over something that wasn’t their fault at all.

It was no one’s fault.

It was only a chronic problem he had to deal with until he figured out to heal his soul.

He fully accepted the pain anyway, because he flat out refused to avoid smooching Frisk just because it ‘hurt a lot’, it was a no-brainer, it was always a no-brainer from the start.

Not too much later, once Frisk came back in, they made a quick bee-line to the kitchen where Flowey was waiting expectantly, their arms crossed in an attempt to keep themselves warm, half of their face peeking out of the scarf, much like Flowey had earlier.

“You were right,” they laughed, shivering slightly.

“About which thing?” he questioned.

“Well, for starters, this scarf,” they began, then reached out for the mug that waited for them on the stove, “and then this hot chocolate,” they said, smiling as the heat warmed up their hands, “and those- really beautiful passionate kisses you gave me, those were a very good idea,”

His eyes lit up, his soul beginning to ache again, but his heart fluttered inside of him.

“Thanks, Starshine, I like to think I’m getting better at coming up with them,”

They grinned “I’ve got a good idea right now, actually,”

“Yeah? Wanna tell me about it?”

They gave out a sheepish giggle “nah, I think I’ll show you instead,”

With that, they leaned, pressed their lips against his- crooking their head to the side, moving slow and tender, then, they stopped, pausing for a moment to gaze over him curiously.

Still affection hungry, Flowey let out a love drunken chuckle and leaned back in, like a magnet, lips finding lips, his hands wrapping around Frisk’s- double securing the mug between them.

“Boy, December just isn’t staying very cold,” Frisk murmured, “‘cause I keep getting… really… really…,”

Before Frisk could finish their sentence, the sound of the front door unlocked and opening was heard a few rooms away.

Instantly, as if nothing had happened, the two pulled away from each other, Flowey not hesitating as he rolled out of the kitchen altogether, leaving to greet whoever was at the door.

Leaving Frisk to gaze happily, dreamily, down at the drink in their hands.

Their smile and the kisses from their lips were still lingering on his mind the next day, tiptoeing around and through Flowey’s thoughts coyly…

He rubbed at his eyes, blinking his concentration back, staring at the test paper at his desk, he had only one more question left to answer- after this, his home-school period would be over for the day.

‘Question 30: The gene makeup of an organism for a particular trait is its…’

     A.recessiveness
B.pedigree
C.genotype
D.phenotype
E. dominance

 
Ugh, he couldn’t quite remember this one, let’s see…

Uhh…

Genotype? Yeah, that sounded right. . .

Taking no time to circle his answer, he finished his biology test, hopping out of his chair and heading off to his mom’s workroom, where she was currently concentrating on her stack of paperwork, one of the lesser joys of being a Principal.

Despite her deep concentration, she held her hand out patiently as Flowey rolled up to her desk, not looking up as she read over something.

Casually, Flowey gave her a low five with a gloved robot hand.

An amused smile crossed her face, finally looking up to her son, returning his low five with a fist bump.

“I expect you want this too,” Flowey said, pretending to be nonchalant as he held out the paper with his other hand.

“Ah, yes, my favorite paperwork has arrived, thank goodness,” she said, giggling, taking it thankfully.

“Any chores you want me to do before I get my freedom back?” Flowey questioned.

She paused for a moment before she answered, thinking over a few things over before she shook her head “no, I think I shall spare you for today- but…what was that other- oh, your father called a little earlier, he said he wished to discuss something with you,”

Flowey scrunched his face at that “did he elaborate?”

Toriel shrugged “he did not, other than asking how you were, he simply said he wanted to talk,”

He sighed “he probably wants to train, he’s been talking about borrowing the high school gym,”

“How is your soul pain these days? You don’t seem to talk about as much as before,” she questioned, concerned.

He hesitated, his eyes widening for the briefest moment, thinking about what happened yesterday, not sure how to answer the question at first.

“. . .It . . .has it’s moments, but… I’m okay mom, the training has really been helping actually,” he finally said.

Toriel gazed at him thoughtfully, nodding slowly, “I understand, I am glad it is working out,” she then smiled gently “well, hurry and call your father, you know how he gets when he is eager to make plans,”

“Will do,” he said, quick to turn around and roll off to his bedroom, shutting the door.

He let out a deep sigh, going over to his cell phone, calling Asgore.

“Howdy son! How are you?”

“I’m fine dad, I just got done with a Biology test,”

“Very good! How did you do?”

Flowey rolled his eyes “I don’t know yet, mom has to grade it first, but I’m sure I A’ced it…are you okay?”

Asgore chuckled, sounding almost embarrassed “I am just well, it has been a busy and surprisingly taxing day so far, but I will get through it,”

“Oh.. huh, it’s Monday isn’t it?”

“Yes, quite,”

There was an awkward silence before Flowey remembered what he had called for.

“Mom told me that you wanted to talk about something, was it about training at the gym?” he asked.

“Ah- oh, yes! It seems that there are too many after-school curricular events going on there, especially with the holidays coming up, we will have to postpone training until it gets warm again, unless… are you still sure you do not wish to make a visit to the Underground?”

His face twisted in disappointment “I’m sure dad, I’m still not ready to go back there yet,”

“Very well, whatever you are most comfortable with, but do expect to get a call from me when the weather improves,” Asgore mused.

“Sure thing Coach,”

At that, Asgore burst out in a peal of hearty laughter, Flowey smiled with patient amusement.

They talked a little while longer, with Flowey considering venting to his dad about what happened yesterday with his soul pain- but he couldn’t quite work up the courage, and soon, Asgore was interrupted by another call, with Flowey deciding to end the conversation there.

“Talk to you later dad,”

“Until then, love you son,”

“Love you too,”

-Click!-

As he hung up, he noticed he had gotten a text message from Frisk sometime earlier, he opened to read-

-‘I just got pulled aside and got a big talking to from a girl who thinks I have a crush on her boyfriend D8’

Flowey’s eyebrows rose in surprise, his thumbs already tapping at the mini keyboard.

‘What? Did she hurt you?’-

-‘no! of course not, she was just mad, she was jealous because I’m friends with her boyfriend and was letting him copy my homework, she thought I was being ‘too’ nice, I hadn’t met her until then, I think some girls were gossiping to her’

‘Sounds like it,’-

‘But…’-

‘Do you?’-

-‘Do I what?’

‘Do you have a crush on that guy?’-

-‘Of course not! He’s a handsome kind of dude, but he’s not ‘Asriel’ handsome’

Flowey stared at the message, perplexed, he knew better now than to judge Frisk’s view of beauty, but sometimes he absolutely couldn’t piece it together, it was like a mystery begging to be solved.

‘Frisk, I’ve decided that I’m not dead in heaven anymore, instead, I’ve now decided that you are just partially blind’ -

- ‘Asriel, I’m very sure and very positive I’m not blind, I know you have the body of a flower, and I know you have a handsome face, and beautiful gold petals, and a strong green stem’

‘Ok, I am scrapping that last decision and I am now back to believing that you are insane, ’-

- ‘:C I never thought you were insane for falling in love with me, a human, I look completely different from you too, you know’

‘That’s not the same thing and you know it’ -

- ‘Is it? Then why is it that monsterxhuman relationships are such a scandalous thing these days? No matter what we look like, some people will think we’re equally confused for falling in love with each other’

Flowey stared hard at his cell phone now, thinking Frisk’s argument over, growing conflicted and frustrated, mainly because he never once thought about it from that angle before.

‘You know what?’-

- ‘what babe?’

‘Get off your phone and do your school work before someone catches you’ -

- ‘But I’m on break????’

‘Sssssshhhhhhh, do your SCHOOL. WORK.’ -

- ‘okay, okay, lol, talk to you later handsome <3 ’

‘Same to you Starshine <3 <3 ’ -

Flowey let out a sigh, putting his phone away, turning his attention over to Orange Juice, the betta fish.

“Do you think it’s weird for a monster to fall in love with a human?” he asked Orange Juice quietly, slowly rolling over to him.

The fish in response, floated over to his owner, flaring his gills at Flowey in excitement.

Flowey smiled weakly, lowering his voice to a whisper “them and I… we’re not that different from the other monsters and humans, but still… sometimes I feel so… disgusting because I know…deep down, I’m nothing like any of them,”

Sometimes, he didn’t know what he  was at all…

His smile then dropped.

He then turned and rolled over to the mirror on his wall, staring at his reflection.

But… then again… sometimes, if he stared long enough, he could see hints of his real self, in his eyes and in the shape of his mouth.

Maybe Frisk could see those aspects of himself better than he could, eyes were apparently the ‘windows to the soul’ after all.

He leaned in closely, raising a vine to rub around his eyes, staring into them with uncertainty.

Other than that, he still had no clue what it was about him that they found so physically attractive, if Frisk were anyone else, if they were someone shallower- he wouldn’t believe that they were romantically in love with him at all, that it was all a lie.

But for as long as he had known Frisk, they had always been full of love and seen the best in people, full of confidence and always absolutely sure of how they felt about their feelings.

He leaned in closer to the mirror, almost touching his face to it, searching harder, trying to figure out what it was exactly that they found so damn attractive.

He could understand that they fell in love with the Asriel on the inside. 

But for them to fall in love with the Flowey on the outside too?

Insane, they were clearly insane.

He leaned away from the mirror… despite Frisk’s wavering sanity, his curiosity still troubled him, still trying to figure it all, out, pressing a vine to his lips observantly… they’d willingly kissed this face, many, many times, happily too.

He then traced the vine down to his chin as he remembered yesterday fondly, remembering how they had made a habit of caressing him when he was upset, the vine lingering to his petals, paying attention to the feeling of his flower skin, tracing the shape of his head…

…He then thought over Frisk’s message…

They thought he was… ‘handsome’… what did that even really mean for him?

Of course, Flowey never considered himself insane for finding Frisk physically attractive, he had seen examples of what attractive humans were supposed to look like, and Frisk…

Well, it was hard for him to say, humans came in so many shapes and sizes and colors, he didn’t know how to compare, he had never looked at any of them in that sort of light until he started to fall in love with Frisk.

…Actually, did this mean he was insane somehow too? Was there something wrong with the both of them?

Whatever the problem was, he decided he didn’t want to solve it, he wanted to continue to stay selfish about it, Frisk was in love with him and shared his feelings, everything so far about their relationship was consensual and that was more than he could have ever asked for.

At least they were crazy together.

Chapter Text

Chapter 5   Starlight

Warnings?: Flowey has a very special dream and things get REALLY WEIRD and UNCOMFORTABLE FOR HIM, he also deals with dysmorphia, so discretion is very much advised!

Inspiration Song: Strange Magic by ELO

‘ You're sailing softly through the sun
In a broken stone age dawn
You fly so high

I get a strange magic
Oh, what a strange magic
Oh, it's a strange magic
Got a strange magic
Got a strange magic

You're walking meadows in my mind
Making waves across my time
Oh no, oh no

Oh, I'm never gonna be the same again
Now I've seen the way it's got to end
Sweet dream, sweet dream’

Winter had swirled by everyone, coming and going with the icy winds that it brought, but they trudged through it all, cheerfully celebrating the holidays, birthdays, and the New Years, despite the chill outside.

But after a few bleak months of the coldest weather their town had experienced in decades, with some enjoying it more than others, most not, March finally arrived, and with it, Spring reintroduced itself strongly and everyone happily welcomed it back.

The odd couple was both sixteen years old now, this fact not changing much between them, only used as a bragging device of their relationship whenever they talked to Monster Kid.

It had been a brisk Sunday and Frisk had recently come home from taking a Driver’s ed class, and was currently in their bedroom, texting someone very intently on their cell phone as Flowey played a video game across from them.

After twenty or so minutes of texting, it was then that Flowey grew curious, climbing out of his potbot to hop onto the bed where Frisk sat, crawling up their back to literally read over their shoulder.

He grinned in amusement as they typed out the words- ‘I’m screaming’

“No you’re not,” he teased, chuckling.

Frisk scrunched up their face, rolling the shoulder that Flowey sat on, “I’m screaming on the inside,”

He let out a cackle “pft! So what? I’m always screaming on the inside, all the time, even when I’m asleep, you don’t see me bragging about it,” he remarked, his mouth nearly touching their face.

Attempting to stifle their flustered laughter, “can you give me a little room here? I’m trying to concentrate and it’s hard to when a cute boy is taunting me so close in my ear,”

Chuckling more, Flowey pressed on playfully, “what if I don’t? Are you going to scream for real?”

Frisk eyed him “no, but I might decide to just scrap this very fun, very adult free, camping trip… ,”

At that, Flowey instantly let go, dropping off of Frisk’s arm, sitting at their side.

“No adults?” he questioned.

“None, just you, Monster Kid, our bunny buddy Hysopp, and me,” they explained.

“Hysopp? I haven’t heard from him in a long time, he must be at least seventeen…? So… let me guess, he’s driving us?”

Frisk nodded, “he’s bringing his mom’s minivan, he brought up the idea when I told him about how fun the last camping trip was, he says he wants to try it since he’s been stressed out lately and wants a break from Snowdin and the Underground,”

“Sounds like I’ve got a lot in common with him,” Flowey joked, he then began to think “do you know if he’s going to be sticking around us too much?”

Frisk rubbed the back of their neck thoughtfully “that’s why I invited MK too, so, when we want our together time, we won’t be leaving Hysopp all alone,”

“When is it going to be?”

They looked to him, making a face “well, I was going to surprise you with the news Friday and leave Saturday, but, you know, you teased me and all,”

Flowey smiled up at them earnestly “sorry,”

Frisk gazed at him for a moment, unable to stay annoyed, smiled back.

“Anyway, I’m in a group conversation with the both of them, at the moment we’re in the middle of planning supplies and figuring out a spot to set up at,” they explained.

“What has Toriel and Asgore said about this?” Flowey asked.

“They’re actually super cool with it, they both promised they’ll be calling us a lot, but it’s nothing we can’t handle,”

He then sharply stared into their eyes “how much bug spray are you bringing?”

“Eight cans, two for each of us so we’ll be protected from anything that wants to bite us, especially aphids,”

“Good, guess we’re going camping then,” he then paused, and smirked “anyway, what were you ‘screaming’ about?”

Frisk looked to their phone, then to him, smiling back playfully “can’t tell you, it’s a surprise,”

He grinned widely, mischief in his eyes “oh! A surprise? For me? Now I REALLY have to know!” he then outstretched his vines, aiming for Frisk’s phone- but Frisk swiftly pulled it away, raising it up in the air.

“No! I can’t let you spoil it!” they laughed out desperately, giggling as Flowey used them as leverage, climbing up them, summoning more vines to reach up to their arm as they held it up higher and higher.

“Just let me SEE!” he squawked, suddenly now more interested to play and tease Frisk for the phone than actually finding out the surprise.

Just before he was able to touch down on the phone, Frisk grabbed it with their free hand, laughing in triumph.

Their laughter was then immediately canned with a shriek as Flowey went for it, with a vine that had been wound around their other arm, automatically pulling them together and twisting Frisk two limbs around- not uncomfortably, just awkwardly so.

It was then Flowey’s turn to shriek as Frisk collapsed onto their back, the bed catching them.

Only stunned for a moment, Flowey went for the gold, grabbing onto the phone, snatching it out of Frisk’s hand.

“Got it!” he announced, quickly unwinding himself from them.

Frisk’s gasped and panicked, flipping back over, getting on their knees and grabbing Flowey with both hands, leaning in and tackling him with a heated kiss.

Effectively, the distraction worked as Frisk blindly took back the phone, licking him full on the mouth before they pulled away and shoved the phone down inside their shirt- gasping quietly in surprise as the phone simply tumbled down the other end and onto the bed- but they were quick to grab the phone and again stuff it down their pants instead, specifically on the inside of their right inner thigh.

And once again, Flowey was stunned, the feeling definitely didn’t go away as he stared down at the rectangle shape hiding inside Frisk’s leggings, his mouth going slack, his face changing to deep orange, now deeply embarrassed for several reasons, well…

Game over.

But the shy embarrassment didn’t last long as he looked up and got a look of the triumphant grin on his significant other’s face-  Frisk knew what they had done.  

“You dirty, filthy, ANIMAL!” he snapped, scandalized.

They laughed “I told you it was a surprise! There was no way I was going to let you spoil it,”

“But did you really have to put a phone in your PANTS?!”

They laughed more, sitting fully down “well, you saw, putting it down my shirt didn’t work at all,” they then crossed their arms, giving him a special side glance “and I know I can always count on you to be a respectable gentleflower,”

“You’re damn right I am, now would you… uh, please take that out of there? I’ve read that phones are ten times germier than a toilet,” he grumbled.

Frisk smiled proudly “it’s cool, I’ve been cleaning my gadgets, Woshua’s been getting me in the habit,” they said, still, to calm his nerves as they turned away from his view and discreetly summoned their cell phone from their pants.

“Whatever, just don’t let me catch you putting that around any more places where it shouldn’t be,” he griped, still embarrassed.

They turned back to him, “okay, as long as you promise not to spoil your surprise,” they said, pointing the phone at him, waggling it for some kind of emphasis.

He waved a vine “a weird compromise, but sure, I promise,”

There was a moment of silence before Frisk spoke up.

“By the way, um, Monster Kid really wants to hear you play your guitar,”

He scrunched up his face in disgust, but Frisk was quick to beg, cupping their hands together pleadingly.

“Please! It’ll make the trip so much nicer, and you play so beautifully~,”

He only scrunched his face up tighter, “as true as that might be-,”

“It IS true!”

“-It won’t be any fun for me, you know I hate playing in front of other people,” he said, his eyes straying from Frisk, it was hard enough to say no to them as it was, but the very thought of having Monster Kid and Hysopp (who was practically a stranger) staring him down made him want to hide in a hole.

Frisk let out a sigh, leaning back and going quiet, beginning to give up on trying, knowing full and well how it made him feel, they weren’t going to force him to do something he didn’t want to.

It was then that Flowey blinked and got a glimpse at Frisk, a sliver of guilt suddenly getting caught in his throat.

“What if you sweeten the deal? There’s nothing in it for me if I do this,” he spoke up.

Frisk gave him a slow, pleased smile, bringing a hand to their chin thoughtfully, thinking it over.

“What kind of thing would you like?” they began.

He thought this over as well.

“Hm, well, I can get affection from you anytime for anything… HMMM…,” he then squinted at them “what kind of food are we bringing?”

“We’re only going to be there one day and leaving next early afternoon, so…,” they pulled up their phone and looked through a list they made “several subs, apples, jerky, fifteen different kind of chips… umm…water, juice, energy drinks, canned coffee…,”

“What about pizza?” he asked.

They glanced at him from the phone “no… is that what you want?”

He grinned widely “yes, I’d really like a pizza, a large one with everything on it, with extra cheese,”

They grinned back “a pizza it is th-,”

“Just for me, an entire pizza, ONLY for ME,”

Frisk’s grin dropped like a rock “only for you?”

His grin only grew wider “yes, ONLY for ME, because I’m the ONLY ONE playing the guitar after all,” he then leaned a little closer “and no ordering a second box, I want to be the only one who has pizza, no one else gets any,”

Frisk stared for a moment, before finally chuckling in near disbelief, giving in and running a hand through their bangs.

“Why can’t I order pizza for the others?”

He cackled in pure amusement “because they’re already going to be enjoying my music, no need to spoil them any more than that,”

They let out a huff “alright, okay, fine, if that’s the price for a Flowey concert, then I’ll pay it if you play it,”

“Sounds like a fair price to me!”

Monday, Tuesdays, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday passed them by slower and slower the more Frisk hyped up the camping trip, to the point that the two of them had fully packed the night before, ready to hop on to a minivan and have a forest all to themselves.

By Saturday morning, Toriel watched in amusement as the two as they scrambled around the hallways, back and forth to the others room- bringing their luggage to the living room, making it ready to grab and go, then quietly but excitedly talking to each other as they passed, one going to the bathroom, the other rolling off to the kitchen.

Some minutes later, the two switched places, Frisk (now much more refreshed) trotting off to the kitchen, giggling cheekily to Flowey as he zoomed off to the bathroom.

“Is it me, or does it seem to me that you two are more excited for this trip than last year’s?” Toriel asked Frisk as they gathered their ingredients for breakfast, it looked like cinnamon oatmeal with strawberries on top was in order.

Frisk gave her an embarrassed grin, “maybe, we really had a lot of fun last year and I want to do it all over again,” they then frowned tightly as they remembered the aphids, awkwardly looking back to Toriel “except for the last part of it… but we’re prepared for anything this time, I’m Determined that we’re going to have a great time,”

Toriel gave her child a nod, then let out a sigh “the weather reports say there is an eighty-one percent chance of rain tomorrow morning, and, if it does…will you please promise me to call if something goes wrong?”

Frisk walked over to Toriel, hugging on to her (which was warmly received) “of course, I promise, but I’ve kept my eye on those reports, it shouldn’t be that bad, besides we have tents, we have umbrellas, we have blankets,” they then let go and held onto Toriel’s hands, grinning proudly “and best of all- we have a minivan- the mommiest van to exist, so if anything happens- we’ll be sheltered one way or another,”

Toriel giggled, petting at Frisk’s long hair “okay, okay my dear, you have made quite a good point,” she then guided her child back to their breakfast “either way, if there is trouble, of any kind, don’t hesitate to call us, any of us, we love you children dearly,”

Meanwhile, back in the bathroom, Flowey continued to brush his teeth, having only stopped to listen in on the conversation down the hall.

He was fully aware of the possible incoming of rain too, but like Frisk, he was less than concerned about it, they’d planned this trip out backwards and forwards and was ready for anything that would set them back.

An hour later the pair was ready and waiting in the living room.

It was then that sound of the doorbell was heard and Frisk hopped to their feet.

“I suppose that will be your chauffeur?” Toriel joked as she strolled in, going to the door.

“Yeah, I warned Hysopp that you would probably want to see his credentials,” Frisk answered,  following suit with Flowey following behind.

When she opened the door, there was, of course, was Hysopp.

He was a lanky, purple-furred rabbit monster, wearing stylish black sunglasses, a baggy dark navy T-shirt with an obscure video game reference across the middle, black sweat pants, and sneakers.

He grinned in slight surprise as Toriel stood before him, a hint of intimidation in his poster- his long ears twitching slightly, but he attempted to pull himself together.

“Miss Toriel! Mam’m! I’m here to take- uh, Frisk and…,” he motioned to Flowey, whose appearance was apparently not helping to jog any memory of names.

“Flowey,” Toriel politely interjected for him.

“Yeah! Of course! I’m taking them to the camping trip!” he finished.

She smiled kindly “as I’ve been told, it’s very nice to see you again Hysopp, how has your mother been?”

“She’s great, business is still going well, so she’s happy,” he said, his smile turning polite as well, but it was clear to Flowey that he was just trying to get on Toriel’s good side, humoring her with the small talk.

Toriel nodded “wonderful as always, now, I am fully aware you three are about to combust with excitement to escape, but, if you will, may I see your Driver’s License?” she asked.

On cue, as if he’d been waiting for it, Hysopp pulled the card out from his pocket, handing it up.

She flicked on her glasses, peering down to read, smiling in quiet amusement at the photo.

“And I am assuming you have all the proper paperwork in the vehicle?” she said, moving her gaze to the increasingly nervous teen in front of her.

“Yes mam’m, mom always makes sure before I go anywhere, I’m certified solid,”

Toriel was quiet for a moment, purposely making him skittish before she finally stood straight again, looking pleased.

“Okay Mr. Hysopp, you are free to take my children away now,”

Hysopp attempted to hold back his awkward laughter “alright, glad to take ‘em off your hands?”

Flowey rolled his eyes, patting at Toriel’s arm “just get it over with and hug us already,”

Grinning brightly at the comment, she complied, taking Flowey and Frisk into her arms, holding on to the both of them.

“Ooh, my goodness, the both of you are getting so big and grownup!” she said, then stepped back “you must stop or I might have to learn how to grow my arms out so I can hug you properly!”

Flowey had to stop himself from rolling his eyes again as Toriel smiled sweetly, embarrassment pulling at him.

Frisk didn’t seem to feel the same as they pulled Toriel in for another hug, “don’t worry, I shouldn’t have too much more growing to do, I’m starting to think this is as tall as I’m going to get,”

Toriel laughed gently, “thank goodness, that is a very big relief,” she then looked over to her son “we will have to keep an eye on this one though, I still fear he may have the potential to grow as tall as his father,”

Frisk looked in awe at that, most likely imagining it, their golden eyes glimmering.

No longer capable of staying in that spot any longer, Flowey grabbed the entirety of their luggage bags and rolled past Hysopp and straight to his green minivan, inside Monster Kid waited in the front passenger seat.

Once next to the back of the car, he turned back to the others, now wearing a more impatient expression.

“We’re burning sunlight! Mom will be here when we get back Frisk, let’s go!” he shouted.

Frisk scrunched their face at him but seemed to let it go when Toriel gave them an encouraging pat on the shoulder, saying their fair wells.

Hysopp, still looking rather awkward himself, followed Flowey, unlocking and opening the trunk for him, beginning to help him put everything away.

“Uh, so, it’s nice to finally meet you Flowey, sorry I forgot your name earlier, I forget stuff when I’m put on the spot, y’know what I mean?” Hysopp greeted, multitasking as he pushed in a bag.

Flowey stopped and frowned, narrowing his eyebrows, staring hard at the rabbit monster, confused.

He was so sure that he had met and made ‘friends’ with Hysopp a long time ago when they were kids, it was some point right before Frisk came along, it had been a while, but how did he not remember him?

As Hysopp turned his attention back to Flowey, he frowned too, “uhh…are you.. okay?”

It then finally dawned on Flowey that these particular memories were from a timeline that no longer existed, a past where he didn’t like the ending conclusion or had messed up somehow, flawed and unimportant, so he Reset.

Apparently, in the timeline where Frisk crashed into his life, he became distracted, and Hysopp and many others became unnecessary and a waste of time to talk and meet all over again.  

Old unwelcome familiar feelings of loneliness and shame filled Flowey, now embarrassed with himself that it took him this long to realize all of this and at how long he had forgotten, especially when Hysopp had always seemed like a pretty interesting monster.

Flowey sighed, “yeah, I just got a headache is all, that, and a bad case of deja vu,” he mumbled, but he shook it off and gave Hysopp a weak smile “but, never mind-  it’s nice to meet you too,” he finally said, there was nothing he could do about it anymore.

It was probably for the best that Hysopp didn’t have any memories of the soulless Flowey from long ago.

Hysopp returned the smile, closing the trunk then walking over so he could open the middle car door “I’m ready to go when you guys are,” he called to the pair, then made his way to his front seat at the steering wheel, looking over to shyly wave reassuringly at Toriel.

Right after Flowey made his way in and maneuvered his potbot into a sitting position on the seat, Frisk hurried their way in, closing the door and blowing kisses to Toriel through the window- who caught all of.

“You looked nervous out there dude, you really think Miss Toriel is that scary?” Monster Kid asked Hysopp as they began their way down the road.

“Any lady who can smile friendly like that and have the strength to blow me to dust in one shot is always scary in my book,” Hysopp answered, pausing as he quickly peeked at the two in the back seat “no offense to you guys,” he added.

“No offense taken, she only uses her strength for good and making stellar pies,” Frisk said earnestly, bragging.

“Actually, full offense taken from me,” Flowey blurted, having quite a bit of trouble keeping his grin back as Frisk automatically frowned at him in disapproval.

“Er, oh… I’m really sorry,” Hysopp mumbled out, voice filled with guilt.

“You SHOULD be!” Flowey snapped back.

“Don’t listen to him right now, he’s just messing with you,” Frisk explained, making sure to get their word in before Flowey could continue on.

“It’s what he does, dude, it’s his M.O.,” Monster Kid spoke up as well.

“It’s real super swell to see you again too, MK, my buddy, my pal,” Flowey said, tone fully and clearly sarcastic.

Acting fast, Frisk waved their hand up “okay! I’m starting to sense some real troubling hostility rising up and we don’t need any of that, Hysopp, why don’t you hook us up with something nice to listen to?”

“Of course, I think I’ve got exactly what you want,” Hysopp said eagerly, pushing a button at the dashboard, starting up a soft dreamy song with a repetitive beat, there didn’t seem to be any real lyrics, but it didn’t seem necessary “it’s hooked up to my favorite channel, it plays lofi hip hop all day, every day,”   

“Nice,” Frisk complimented.

It made for pretty good background music, and it was especially calming, but in Flowey’s opinion, it wasn’t something he’d actively choose to listen to himself.

He also began to wonder if Hysopp ever had accidentally fallen asleep while driving.

Because that’s what Flowey did as the music soon lulled him off to dreamland, sleeping for most of the duration of the ride to the forest. . .

During his sleep, he had a dream of sitting among a cloudy shaded meadow positively full of coriander, bellflower, red roses and carnations, plumeria, lavender, and honeysuckle.

 Gazing at the view with great curiosity, and then- amazement as the garden burst into life all at once, petals uncurling themselves as the sun beamed generously across the meadow, drips of dew sparkling in the morning light.

In the far-off distance, he swore he could hear Frisk humming a sweet song,  it seemed to drift in with the gentle winds, almost like it was looking to find him.

He hoped so, because now he wanted to find them… oh, where was he exactly anyway? He was in a meadow? Or… maybe…a forest? Had it changed?

But, Flowey was unable to find out, as his dream was ended by the minivan running over a large pothole in the road, bouncing him awake.

“Ughh, great driving,” he grumbled, then blinked as he caught a view of the forest not far away, hm, well that was good, the nap had saved him from a boring wait.

“Sorry!” he heard Hysopp call from the front seat.

“Stay up late?” Frisk asked softly to him.

He gave his stem a small stretch “ah, actually, yeah…I’d forgotten that there’s supposed to be a meteor shower tonight, I was chatting about it on the forum,”

It was then that a bright and excited grin formed on Frisk’s face, practically blinding him.

It was then that something dawned on Flowey.

“Was that what you didn’t want me to see on your phone?” he asked, his mouth gaping open.

“Surprise!” Frisk cheered.

He laughed in amazement “I just thought it was just a coincidence that it was happening at the same time! Have you been keeping up with the astrology news just for me?”

“Yeah! Well I was at first, but you’re right, space is brilliant, I’m as excited about this as you are now, it took a lot of patience waiting for you to remember!”

They leaned over to hug him, actively attempting to ignore the seat belt that pulled against them- with Flowey happily hugging them back with no trouble, his vines, and extendo arms easily wrapping around his love.

He laughed more, he would have kissed them but- well, that was clearly out of the question at the moment.

“Thank you Frisk, this means a lot to me, more than you know,” he said resting his face into the crook of their shoulder “I know I would have remembered earlier, but we’ve been so busy this week, funny huh?”

Frisk giggled softly, pulling away slowly to gaze at him “yeah, especially when I planned this trip just for you, consider it an early anniversary gift,”

“Anniversary? For what? Your guys’s marriage?” Hysopp joked.

At that, the couple fully pulled away from each other in surprise, concerned for a brief second before the both of them realized it was just an innocent joke.

“Hahaha, no… it’s for his anniversary for when he left the Underground to live with the family above ground,” Frisk explained carefully.

Coincidentally, the date when Flowey came to live with them and the date when he and Frisk deepened their relationship was not that far apart.

“Oh… that’s pretty cool actually,” Hysopp said, sounding a little embarrassed.

“Mm, how much have they told you about me anyway?” Flowey asked.

“That you’re seriously into astronomy and-,”

“No, I meant on a more personal level,”

 “…Um, just that you were separated from your family for a while until Miss Toriel and King Asgore adopted you,” Hysopp clarified.

Flowey momentarily exchanged short looks of approval with both Monster Kid and Frisk, it was the story they’d all agreed on whenever friends that were getting close became curious of Flowey and wanted to know a little more about him, it had seemed necessary seeing as they were trusting Hysopp to drive them into a forest and spend the night together.

“There’s a little more to it, but we thought we’d leave it to Flowey to tell you when he’s comfortable,” Frisk said.

“I get it, everyone has some kind of baggage, uh, no offense,” Hysopp said with a nod.

“Full offense taken, coward,” Flowey replied simply.

“You know, I’m starting to think we should have told you about his jerky side, sorry Hysopp, I promise you he means well,” Frisk sighed, giving their boyfriend a Look.

“Nah, it’s alright, I’ve met much bigger jerks,”

“I’m sure you have,” Flowey mumbled, remembering himself.

Soon, they found their camping spot, parked, and got out to take out their luggage.

And, as they began to set things down, Frisk let out a disappointed gasp as they managed to get a good look at their tent.

“What is it?” Flowey asked as he rolled over, then groaned as saw what the problem was.

Somewhere during the luggage transfer, the tent had been badly dented in several spots, most likely making it difficult or impossible to set up.

“Well, I knew this trip was going too well, of course something had to go wrong,” he grumbled.

“Maybe we can fix it somehow?” Frisk said, carefully attempting to pull at a piece.

From a few feet away, they heard Hysopp laugh loudly with surrender, “well, you guys will never believe this, but I actually forgot all of my sleeping gear,”

“Dude, that sucks, how’d you forget your tent of all things?” Monster Kid asked, perplexed.

Hysopp continued to laugh, mainly at himself “no idea, I was rushing around this morning and I dunno, I knew I felt like I’d forgotten something, but whatever, it’s fine, I’ll just sleep in the van,”

Flowey shook his head dismissively, “what about your tent, MK?”

“It’s all good, I might need a little help getting it set up though,” Monster Kid called back, turning it over with their tail.

“As long as you can tell me how to open it then I gotcha covered,” Hysopp said, fully pulling the tent out and setting to the ground.

Half an hour later…

Frisk and Flowey managed to set up their tent, it stood up and could be zipped closed, but it was vastly crooked and there was a foot-long rip on the roof- so, if the predicted rain came, they weren’t going to be as protected as they thought.

“You mind if we crash in your van too if things get messy?” Frisk asked Hysopp.

“Of course, what’s mine is yours,” he replied “besides, the thought of sleeping out here in the dark is a little terrifying so, uhhh yeah,”

“Actually, we can trade if you dudes want,” Monster Kid piped up with a polite grin, standing next to their perfect tent, it even was a little bigger.

Frisk frowned “that’s really, very nice, but no Monster Kid, it would be an uneven trade and unfair to you, what if it rains and you end up getting sick because of the hole?”

Flowey narrowed his eyebrows at Frisk “what if you get sick?”

“What if it doesn’t rain at all?” Monster Kid added.

“What if we all sleep in my van?”

It was then that Frisk snapped their fingers  “I know! We’ll use our umbrella,” they said, trotting over to the device, opened it, and stuck it into the hole of the tent, creating a makeshift patch.

It… didn’t look completely secure, but it also looked better than nothing, so that calmed the four teens down for now, so, problem solved!

After that, they finished setting up without any more hassle, soon ready to start officially having fun.

“So, what are you guys going to do?” Frisk asked to Monster Kid and Hysopp.

Monster Kid was quick to answer that, getting excited.

“I’m going tubing! I got deep into it last year and dudes let me tell you- it’s great, I love it,”

Frisk and Flowey looked at each other quizzically before back to their best friend.

“We’ve never tried it, is it really that fun?” Frisk asked curiously.

Monster Kid’s eyes lit up “it’s the best! You guys wanna try? I brought some extra tubes,”

Frisk smiled and looked to Flowey “I’m game, do you wanna try Azzie? I promise I’ll keep a good hold on you,”

He thought about that, so far, he didn’t exactly have a good track record with rivers, but… what the hell, why not, he was feeling optimistic.

“Sure, let’s do it,” he said with a shrug.

“What about you dude?” Monster Kid asked Hysopp, who was rooting around their food supplies, looking up with a hesitant smile.

“Uh, sorry, I’m gonna have to give that a pass, I don’t really like getting my fur wet,” he then pointed up to the trees “I’m actually going to go look for some bugs, I’ve heard that there are some pretty gigantic moths out here!”

“Moths?” Flowey echoed, a judgemental tone in his voice.

Hysopp shrugged nonchalantly “yeah, moths are cool, I think lots of bugs are,” he said, walking over to move some things over.

“As a flower who had the life sucked out of me by a bunch of ‘bugs’ last year, I can’t say I share the sentiment, but whatever, enjoy your hobby… just don’t bring any back,” he said, crossing his arms, watching as Frisk helped Monster Kid pull out two deflated tubes and an air pump.

Hysopp stared for a moment as he silently realized something and suddenly a guilty expression came over his face.

“Er- I, my bad, I didn’t think it through- I thought you were...-,”

“Judging you? …Kind of, but I don’t care, I have weird interests too,” he then pointed to his two best friends “and so do those weirdos, join the club, gooble goble, gooble goble, we accept you, we accept you, et cetera, et cetera,”

At that, Hysopp visibly relaxed- albeit with some slight confusion, as if they were unsure of how to respond to that.

Soon, the tubes were blown up to their full mighty donut shape and everyone was ready to get into the water.

Monster Kid and Frisk had changed into bathing suits and Flowey curled around his significant other’s shoulders, meanwhile, his potbot was safely hidden inside the van.

And, as they expected, floating around on top of the water was fun, enjoying the view of nature and the dapples of sunlight between the leaves that decorated the view as they slowly careened by.

Except, sixteen minutes later after a few rocky bumps and the water begun to rush a little faster, Frisk began to have some complaints.

“Oh boy… Az, my stomach is starting to feel a little flighty,” they grumbled, “getting a little dizzy too,”

Flowey’s current frown deepened with unease, as it began to seem like Frisk didn’t have the best track record with rivers either- and if his favorite source of dense bravery wasn’t feeling confident, then he definitely wasn’t as well.

“Do you…?” He began to offer.

“...Want to get out of here? Yes please!” Frisk practically pleaded.

“Great idea! I’ll fish for some land before this experience gets any worse,” he said.

With that, he threw out a few hardy vines at the nearby boulder closest to the ground, and slowly but surely began to pull them to the shore.

It took a few minutes, with Frisk almost falling in the process, but they managed to free themselves back onto land.

“Phew, well, I don’t think that was our jam, at least we can say we tried it,” Frisk sighed, hooking the tube around their left arm while Flowey took the right one.

“Yes, that’s definitely another thing I don’t have in common with MK,” Flowey said, propping his head against the side of Frisk’s “so, what do you want to do now?”

“Hmm, I can change back in my regular clothes and we can chill out for a bit, we have all day,”

“Is it me, or are we terrible at planning activities?” Flowey mused.

“Maybe, but we’re also fantastic at going with the flow,”

“Not on that river we weren’t,”

They giggled at that.

On their way back to the campsite, they spotted Hysopp in one of the trees, diligently staring at a branch from another tree, focusing on it with his phone.

“Hey Hysopp!” Frisk called out.

“Shh!” Hysopp hissed, not moving an inch.

“Sorry!” Frisk whispered out.

“Do you see a moth?” Flowey questioned.

“No, a bird, a really weird bird,” Hysopp answered back in a hushed voice.

“Is it an owl?” Flowey pressed on “owls are weird,”

“... I don’t know yet, I’m taking pictures,”

“We better go, don’t wanna disturb anything,” Frisk whispered to Flowey, proceeding to walk on.

“Frisk says you better show us your weird owl if you manage to get any pictures!” Flowey managed to call out before Frisk held a finger to his lips to effectively silence him.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Frisk removed their finger.

“So, I was thinking, we have the camping space all to ourselves now, do you want to… y’know…,” they spoke, a coy smile on their face.

Flowey was quiet for a moment as his imagination played several sweet, blush-inducing scenarios, but he was forced to make up his mind as a few of them quickly went awry.

“Mmm, you know I would like to make out, but…we don’t know when the others will be back,” he grumbled.

Frisk let out a small disappointed sigh “yeah, you have a point, I’m sure we’ll find time for it later,” then looked to him curiously, not missing a beat, “is it later now?”

He let out a chuckle “maybe for a second,” he murmured and leaned in to brush their hair back with a vine, kissing their cheek, right at their lower jaw.

They grinned and pointed a little closer to their mouth “what about here? Is that ok for now too?”

“Mmm,” he began, pretending to be thinking it over “ yeah, okay, fine,” happily leaning in a little further to kiss where they had pointed to.

They looked to each other for a playful moment.

And slowly, comically so, Frisk finger rose to point to their lips “and this? Do we have time for this too?”

A bubble of laughter floated up inside Flowey and he began to chuckle, “I don’t- hehe, I don’t know,” he wasn’t able to finish as he started laughing more, unable to contain himself.

Frisk began laughing too, biting their bottom lip “can I check? ‘Cause I think we have a little time for it,”

He was unable to fully answer, nodding, allowing Frisk to gently pull him in and kiss his lips as he laughed.

After that he went in for more, giving them quick mischievous pecks, laughing more whenever the pull away of their kisses made that special sound, a vine twirling down their arm and wrapping around their hand, holding it.

Amidst his giggling, Frisk pressed their forehead against his, watching him in amazement.

“Are you aware of how sweet to me you’ve been lately? It’s like when spring came- you’ve just emotionally skyrocketed, and you’re in the middle of exploding-in a good way, like fireworks,” they announced quietly, but the awe in the tone of their voice was strongly evident.

He grinned, pressing his forehead closer, enjoying the pressure and the feeling of their touch and warmth of their skin against his, slowly massaging his face against theirs “tell me something I don’t know,”

They giggled softly “hmm.. I’ve heard the human heart beats a one hundred thousand times in one day, but… thanks to you, mine usually beats five hundred thousand times in one day, in a good way,”

He paused his snuggling to think about that, his smile widening just a little further, “really?”

“Yeah, really,”  

“You cute idiot, I love you,” he murmured, continuing on with his snuggling, now rubbing his cheek against theirs, but didn’t focus in one place for too long, switching to their nose, to their other cheek, their chin, completely full of bliss, his mind floating serenely but diligently into a haze.

Frisk stood there for a moment, completely distracted and wonderstruck by Flowey’s face snuggling, the two of them had nuzzled many times before… but he’d never quite done anything so concentrated like this before.

Never before had he resembled the image of an extremely cuddly cat this much.

But Frisk soon remembered the world around them, began walking again as they allowed their boyfriend to continue with new unique affectionate face massage, trying their hardest not to distract him.

Funnily enough, the opposite ended up happening, finding themselves unable to focus on walking as his petals ended up blocking their sight, making them laugh in quiet amusement- albeit still slightly disappointed that they were going to have to stop him.

“Azzie?”

“Mmm~,” he murmured out.

“I hate to bother you, but I need to get us to the campsite, and…heh, I can’t see,”

“Hmm, mm, just brush your bangs out of your eyes,”

They chuckled quietly “that’s not the problem Sunshine,”

Then, without waiting for a response, they gently pressed his two top petals back- the ones causing the problem- and with this action, Flowey opened his eyes, not realizing he had closed them in the first place.

He blinked a few times as he was brought out of his haze, gazing at Frisk as his mind put the pieces together, he felt like he was waking from a deep sleep, he also felt really good.

“Oh… huh… were my dumb petals in the way?” he questioned.

They looked at him apologetically, “yeah, um, I would have let you continued, but we have a place to be, things to see, and I’d still like to change into clothes that aren’t partially soaked in river water,”

Flowey quickly sobered up as they spoke, beginning to feel his soul beginning to ache badly, slowly catching up to him, the pins and needles creeping up and in.

“Hmph, you know what? Now that you mention it, there’s some tunneling I want to do, so, I’ll meet you there in a bit,” he said, not hesitating to remove himself from them, quickly moving to the ground.

They frowned “are you okay? Did I say something wrong?”

He shook his head, absentmindedly rubbing at an increasingly sore spot at the back of his stem “no! Of course not, you did nothing wrong, this just seems like a good time as any to get what I wanted done with,” he then let out a weary sigh “I won’t be long, I’d never leave you alone out here, I promise,”

With that remark, he disappeared into the ground, dealing with his pain in soil solitude.

Soiltude.

Frisk stood there for a moment, staring at the spot where their boyfriend had been a second ago, confused and concerned before they began walking again, letting out a weary sigh of their own, making their way back to the camping site and to their tent.

Meanwhile, as Flowey shook off the last remaining aftershocks of another ‘soul cramp’ he began to wonder about what had happened earlier.

He really never had never done anything like it before, but at the same time… the process of the face ‘nuzzling’ had felt…strangely natural, and also, amazingly good. 

In fact, it had felt exactly like a massage, a muchly needed massage.

He remembered the look in Frisk’s eyes, beginning to wonder if he should feel embarrassed for letting himself loose like that… but then again, they hadn’t exactly been bothered by his actions, had they?

And as he thought about them, the more he wanted to see them again and get back to hanging out, and, at the last moment, decided to dismiss the ‘incident’, finding that he didn’t really care at all, honestly, it felt like the opposite of a problem.

Maybe if he got lucky and they found themselves perfectly alone again he'd try it out again.

After what was probably ten or twelve minutes, Flowey finally made his way back.

He was met with the view of Frisk in their freshly changed clothes, laying out a large blanket onto the grass.

“Hey, need any help with that?” he asked.

“None with this, but if you want, you can grab my drawing gear,” they said as they smoothed out a few wrinkles here and there.

“Sure,” he obliged, and with that, tunneled over to the tent and pulled out a large handbag, crawling over back to the blanket and sitting it down.

Deciding that the blanket looked pretty comfortable, he decided to uproot himself and plop onto the fabric, making sure to brush off any leftover dirt that had followed him over, and quickly found himself feeling cozy and relaxed- so he decided to sprawl out, enjoying himself.

“Thank  you Sunshine,” Frisk sighed, joining him, sitting cross-legged near by- then gazed at him, their eyes thoughtful “you look very fancy and picturesque right now, mind if I draw you?”

Instead of saying anything, he went into pose mode, holding a vine in the air in a dignified motion- staring at it with great focus, his body completely still.

Frisk grinned and grabbed their notebook and pencil, quickly turning to a blank page and began sketching.

“What a wonderful model you are,” they complimented.

“Exemplar nihil comparatur artifici,” Flowey replied simply.

“You know, I’ve never told you before, but you pronounce your Latin very pretty, I should really try to learn it, I could flirt with you in public and no one would know,”

He chuckled quietly at that, his smile widening ever so slightly “you already know how to kiss in French, isn’t that enough?”

Frisk’s focus and ‘professional artist’ composure completely cracked, going still for a second as the comment sunk in and their face turned shade pinker and they broke into flustered laughter.

“Bellus mea lusus naturae,” he said grinning, letting out a quiet chuckle.

Soon the two settled back down, Frisk managing to draw several successful sketches of Flowey.

Ten minutes or so later, Hysopp came trotting back, giving a wave to the pair before distracting himself by staring up at the nearby trees, slowly moving to a new space every once in and while to get a better look or to see something new.

“So I was thinking once everyone gets back we could consider starting up lunch,” Frisk spoke up.

“Are you getting hungry?” Flowey asked.

“Kind of, but it’s no big deal,”

“You should have some of your granola, we don’t know when MK is getting back,” he pressed, relaxing from his current pose “what time is it anyway?”

Frisk leaned over to their phone, but before they could see, Hysopp let out a shriek.

“SNAKE!!”

It all happened too fast as Hysopp lurched backward, tripping on a bag of luggage and crashing backward onto Monster Kid’s tent, bringing everything down with him in a crumpled heap.

“Oh my goodness!” Frisk blurted, dropping their notebook as they rushed to get up, nearly tripping themselves as they did so, but managed to get to Hysopp without fail.

Flowey watched from the blanket, stunned as the hectic scene unfolded.

Frisk was quick to assess the damage, relieved to see that Hysopp wasn’t visibly seriously harmed, just overwhelmed as he laid there, dazed from the fall.

“Are you okay?” Frisk asked as they leaned down.

“...Uh. .ugh, I’m a.. little… stuck, it’s ok, nothing hurts,” he grumbled, attempting to twist around, he then narrowed his focus behind Frisk, trying to look for something “be careful over there, I swear I saw a snake,”

Frisk looked around curiously, looking for the possible snake, but none was spotted.

 “Hm, I don't see any yet, either way it sounds like we need to use more of the snake repellent,” they then turned their focus back to Hysopp “but it’s okay, I’m not scared of danger noodles and I'll shoo them away for you, here, let me help you out of there,” they said, holding their hands out.

He smiled back, looking rather unsure of his situation before he reached for one of their hands, both struggling for a moment as Frisk pulled.

“Easy does it,” Frisk encouraged as Hysopp grabbed onto the other hand for leverage.

And, as they helped him up, the rabbit teen ended up accidentally squashing more of Monster Kid’s tent, wincing as he was forced to push and step on it, even more, to allow himself to get off it.

Thankfully, Hysopp was back on his feet, safe and sound.

The same could obviously not be said about the tent.

“God, I hope they aren’t going to be mad at me,” Hysopp said after attempting to grab an essential piece and lift it back up- only to have it fall back down pitifully.

“Don’t worry, you’re in luck, I’m certain MK isn’t capable of anger,” Flowey commented, but then backtracked “however, they may be wracked with disappointment,”

Frisk gave Hysopp a pat on the back “it’s okay, I don’t think they’ll react too badly, don’t forget Monster Kid is super chill- I’m sure they’ll forgive you,”

Hysopp sighed, scratching a place behind one of his long ears worriedly, “I hope so,”

Frisk let out a sigh as well, walking back over to their blanket and back to their phone, “ though, this does suck, I should probably call Toriel about the tent issue and ask her to bring us new ones,”

“Are you sure? You guys have been going crazy about us doing this all by ourselves, I mean, I still think we should all crash in the van together, it’ll be safer,” Hysopp said.

Flowey- who was still unsure about sleeping in the van, for the most part, agreed with Hysopp, he disliked the idea of any of the adults butting in, to help or not.

“Yeah, maybe we can fix it?” he pressed.

“Oh, sorry, no, I saw the pieces up close, that thing is unsalvageable,” Hysopp mumbled, embarrassed.

Flowey stared hard at Hysopp for a moment, quietly reminding himself to never get too close to Hysopp whilst in his potbot.

At the thought of his potbot, he began to feel restless, naked perhaps, he began to focus on it, calling it back to him.

Frisk- who was still talking to Hysopp, let out another sigh, “hm…maybe we should just wait and talk to Monster Kid first, see how they’ll feel about this, get their opinion on it,”

Hysopp’s ears wilted worriedly “are you sure?”

Frisk gave him a supportive grin “I’m one hundred and percent sure you have nothing to worry about, Monster Kid will be as cool as a cucumber,”

Flowey rolled his eyes and let out a long…

 dreadful…

 sigh….

“Hey…you know what else is ‘cool as a cucumber’?” he asked Hysopp casually.

He paused to think about that “...a.. Sunday morning?”

Flowey grinned widely “Nope! SNAKES!”

Hysopp then leaped into the air, shrieking as he was suddenly tagged in the back by two pairs of cold robotic fingers.

Automatically he and Frisk turned around to see Flowey’s potbot, its gloves resting gingerly inside on top of the soil, revealing the rarely seen ten metal digits- they weren’t as horrific and wiry as some might imagine, but they were off-putting.

Frisk immediately turned their attention to Flowey, they were surprised, but he could see the anger that tinted their edges.

“Rude! Why would you do that after what just happened?!” they demanded.

Flowey pursed his lips, only feeling a slight bit guilty, holding his laughter in by the seams, he was also holding in his fascination, he rarely got to see Frisk this angry anymore, he couldn’t lie, he really liked this side of them.

“It’s fine! Look at him, it’s fine!”

Frisk narrowed their eyebrows at their boyfriend before looking back over to Hysopp, “are you fine?

The monster rabbit in question gave an awkward, and slightly uneasy smile, carefully stepping back and away from the potbot as it rolled seemingly by its own free will over to Flowey.
“Uh, yeah… I can take a little…  joke,”

Flowey grinned wide, “makes sense, considering that you look at yourself in the mirror,” he then picked himself up with his potbot and sat himself into the familiar soil, holding back a pleased giggle as Frisk wrinkled their nose at him in annoyance.

“Hey, Flowey? I'm going to need you to turn down that bad boy behavior during this trip, okay? Why don’t you go take a chill stroll and put up more of the snake repellent for us so we don’t have another accident? Alright? Can you do that?” Frisk asked him, voice stern, their hands going to their hips, oh yes, they were definitely annoyed.

He bit back his grin, “yes, I think I can,” he then began to roll toward the supplies, then proceed to alter his voice into an eerie pitch “by the way, I've heard there are snakes that are big enough to eat rabbits, and we wouldn’t want anyone to get eaten, now would we?”

Neither of them vocally responded, but he could hear Frisk sigh.

As he got a little further away, he heard Hysopp murmur to Frisk under his breath, “is he like this with all his friends?”

“No, just new people he’s unsure of… but I kind of think he’s doing it to tease me too, it’s probably both, sorry, by the way, maybe once we get some food in our bellies he’ll calm down,”

 Hysopp chuckled quietly at that “yeah, I can get behind that,”

“I CAN HEAR YOU!” Flowey shouted.

“Good! Can you behave while you’re at it?!” Frisk shouted back.

“‘MAYBE I WILL WHEN WE EAT’! UNTIL THEN- NO!”

After Flowey was done with his snake errand, the three of them settled down momentarily for a small snack, and as Frisk had correctly suggested, Flowey did calm down to a degree.

About nearly two hours later, Monster Kid finally stepped into sight of the camping grounds, looking pleased and refreshed.

As soon as he saw them, Hysopp immediately got to his feet, guilt clear on his face.

“Whats up guys? I just- whoa, what happened to my tent?” Monster Kid said as they finally noticed the wreckage, looking less than pleased now.

Frisk was quick to answer, walking up to their friend as they did so, “well, while we were gone, a bobcat came and trashed the camp, we caught it at the last second before it ran off… and we tried our best to fix your tent, but it’s a goner, sorry,”

“Wh…?” Hysopp mumbled out, but wasn’t quick enough as Monster Kid piped up.

“Dude, that’s crazy! Isn’t that what happened the last time you went camping?” they said, bewildered.

Frisk nodded, smiling a small nervous smile “yeah, probably the same one for all we know, it was kind of funny too, Undyne wanted to take it home as a pet, named them Bobby and everything, oh...maybe it was Bobby who attacked again?"

Flowey gazed at Frisk warmly, this wasn’t the first time they’d lied for a friend unprompted, they’d done it many, many times for him, and now they were doing it for Hysopp, they’ve likely done it for other people as well.

It was just only more proof of how good a person Frisk was.

But…

What if…

 ...someone were to…  screw with their good deed?

“I don’t know Frisk, even if it was the same cat, I still don’t think Bobby was capable of doing damage like that, I think it had to have been something bigger that did it,” Flowey said, trying his damn hardest to hold back his devious grin.

Frisk turned to look him in the eyes, their eyes sharp with confusion and again- anger, yes, that’s exactly the emotion he was looking for!

“What? That’s ridiculous, of course it was Bobby, it wasn’t like any of us did it,”

“Yo, don’t sweat over it you two, it really sucks, but I’m not that butt-hurt over it, I’ll just sleep in a sleeping bag,” Monster Kid replied,

“You will?” Hysopp asked, worry in his eyes.

“Yeah, it’s cool, I can handle it, I’ve slept outside plenty of times- and if it rains, you’ll be seeing me in the van, it’s all under control dude,”

The tense conversation was soon ended by a scheduled check-up call from Toriel, and to Flowey’s surprise, Frisk didn’t mention anything about the tent issue, perhaps they didn’t see it as that big of a problem anymore and didn’t want to worry Toriel over it?

As soon as the call was over, Monster Kid spoke up again, now looking a little more sheepish than before.

“Uh, dudes, so I just checked the time, I had no idea I was floating out there for so freaking long,”

“You didn’t?” Hysopp uttered out, legitimately confused.

“No, I totally lost track of time,”

Frisk rubbed their chin and grinned “more like- lost in the zone, yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about, I’ve been there, done that, wrote the book and made money off of it,”

“Then use it for donations every Friday,” Flowey joked nonchalantly.

“Speaking of ‘donations’, I’m starving dudes, do we wanna start-up lunch?” Monster Kid asked.

“I’m already starting it as we speak,” Flowey responded with a cool smirk, twirling a spatula and a small cooking pan into view.

Together, with their combined cooking skills, they managed something of a tasty lunch, creating a cheesy nacho salad, chicken and vegetable skewers, with s’mores as dessert… it made Flowey wonder if he would have room for the entirety of a whole pizza that night.

He then imagined the scenario of the three others watching him longingly as he devoured an entire pizza that they couldn't have but so badly wanted a peice of...

Automatically he cracked an amused smile and decided that...yes, he would definitely have room for the entirety of a whole pizza.

As they finished up and began cleaning up, Frisk suddenly spoke up...

“Uhh, hey, where did Monster Kid and Hysopp go…?”

Flowey turned his attention from the red cooler, glancing around the campsite, silently confirming that- yeah, the other two had seemingly vanished.

“Damn, I’m pretty certain that we just entered into a murder mystery scenario,” he said, putting on his best fearful grimace.

Frisk let out a slightly frustrated sigh “I’m being serious here Asriel, they wouldn’t just run off like this without telling us first…,”

“Exactly my point, it doesn’t fit their goodie two-shoes personalities, they both were obviously kidnapped,” he explained, he was of course joking, but for a second…he felt a twinge of fear inside his plant stomach as he realized that there was actually a real chance that a vicious human would kidnap young monsters...then glanced at Frisk with worry, especially another young human too.

Frisk, who was becoming visibly annoyed with Flowey’s attitude was about to say something- until they paused, holding a hand up to their ear.

It was then that Flowey heard the quiet murmurs of someone talking off in the distance, it was Hysopp.

The two were quiet as they attempted to listen in, both having trouble making out what was said, so, of course, Flowey held up an index finger to the direction of the sound, then held his fingers up to his lips, signaling to Frisk to stay quiet.

And without any more warning, he stealthily zoomed off, following the sounds of mumbling.

 Ever curious, but mostly worried, Frisk quickly followed close behind him.

Soon enough, they found the other half of their camp members, actually not too far away and completely unharmed, sitting together on a log.

“Anyway, what I’m getting at is that I basically murdered your tent, not on purpose, it just happened it was a complete accident,” they heard Hysopp say.

Monster Kid let out a sigh, then a chuckle “it’s cool dude, people make mistakes… I kind of figured that Frisk and Flowey were lying anyway,”

Hysopp let out his own relieved chuckle “that literally caught me off guard, I was thankful that Frisk stuck up for me, but I just couldn’t handle the guilt, man…,”

Flowey’s interest in the conversation was immediately turned off as Frisk gave the shoulder pad of his potbot two tugs before they turned around and began walking back, motioning him to come along, which he of course did.

Once they got back, Flowey’s sly and flirtatious mood returned, zooming around Frisk to speak to them face to face, reaching out to hold their hand.

“Now that Monster Kid is back and we’re alone again, do you mind if I try that weird thing I did earlier? We both liked it and I really felt like I was on to something there…,”

Frisk gazed at him for a few seconds, taken off guard, “you did something weird…?”

Ah, of course they wouldn’t understand it described that way.

He began to attempt to explain it better, finding himself becoming embarrassed, not quite sure why, “you know… when I couldn’t stop… nuzzling?”

Frisk’s expression lit up, “oh, that!”

“SHHH!”

They smiled politely “sorry,” but then, a memory passed over their mind and they frowned tightly, unhappily, looking down at their joined hands “…but…no, babe, I really haven’t liked your attitude toward Hysopp today, if you want some sugar, you need to start being nicer,"

The realization that he had screwed up had finally hit him like a hard, stone, cold slap on the face.

Mixed feelings overtook him as he remembered how he had acted and how he had behaved just to feel the thrill of making Frisk angry, it was greedy and so strange of him.

Ever since he could remember, Flowey had always enjoyed messing with them, it was fun to see his best friend get angry, especially when it was so hard to do, it was like an achievement.

But today, it was different, today that same enjoyment had come from a different place…

Finally, it clicked, that he found that anger was highly attractive on Frisk.

The word 'HOT!!!!' also appeared loudly in his mind.

Ugh… it was all starting to make sense.

As usual, after this personal realization, he felt like a great, big, disgusting moron.

But before he could begin to apologize, he saw Frisk’s hand tighten and he looked back up at them, seeing that their expression had changed to worry.

“Are you okay? I guess when I said earlier that you ‘emotionally skyrocketed’ I guess I didn’t account for the other emotions…,” they asked gently.

He narrowed his eyebrows, “I don’t know? I guess I do have more energy, and I do feel… different…it doesn’t feel bad, I think it might be kind of a good feeling?”

“That’s great, but…what about your soul?”

He almost hesitated, “no, my soul is acting as it usually does…I think this is something else entirely…hmph, have you noticed anything else?”

“Well…aside from being aggressive and rude, it’s like I was saying earlier you’ve been very affectionate and playful, usually I wouldn’t think anything of it, but this week and especially today…your affection meter is just WAY UP THERE,” they explained, enthusiastically raising up their free hand into the air, making a fine example of the invisible meter.

Flowey’s eyes followed Frisk’s hand, his focus then drifted to the bright green trees around them, and blossoming flowers scattered about, the air always smelled so sweet here…

He then glanced back at Frisk and smiled shyly, “maybe it’s because we’re back in this forest again and I’ve been anticipating it? We do share some pretty interesting memories here,”

Frisk grinned, very pleased with his answer, “yeah, maybe that’s it,” they then paused and their grin fading slightly “so, what’s your excuse for being a giant jerk to Hysopp? There must be one for that,”

Flowey let out a restless sigh, he wasn’t off the hook yet.

“it’s… uh, complicated, and honestly, I don’t really want to tell you, I think it would be easier to lie to you and say that I’m just jealous,”

Frisk looked puzzled “hmm, not jealous…. then what? Do you have a little crush on him?”

Flowey gave his partner a sharp incredulous Look, “what?! Of course not! I mean, I won’t lie that he’s arguably a little handsome, but you already know I’ve got my sights set on someone else! You dumb idiot!”

To add to his comment, he gave Frisk’s cheek a playful prod with a vine- emitting a sweet giggle from them.

“I swear, you come up with the weirdest ideas sometimes,” he grumbled.

“I gotta when you’re full of so many surprises,” they replied.

They gave him a deep earnest expression, silent for a moment, “…how complicated is it? Is it bad?” they asked.

“No…well, maybe? It’s more embarrassing than anything else, I feel like you might be flattered by it, but…,” his mind backtracked “…never mind, no, you definitely wouldn’t be flattered in these circumstances,”

Frisk seemed amused, smiling a confused smile “well, if you can’t tell me, can you at least just apologize to Hysopp?”

Flowey’s expression twisted in disgust “ugh… if I do… can we…,” he then lowered his voice to a whisper “...try the weird thing again?”

“The.. nuzzling?” they whispered back, again, unsure of what he was talking about, in fact, this whole conversation had seemed somewhat confusing.

“...Yeah, that,” he answered shyly.

Frisk smiled sweetly, then nodded, “I don’t think it was that weird, Azzie,”

He sighed with some level of relief “didn’t you know? All new things are weird, Frisky,”

Not long after, Hysopp and Monster Kid came back, the four of them together returning to a more relaxed atmosphere, the rest of the day running on a more smoother pace…

But it was around six PM, Flowey had absent-mindedly picked up his guitar, and was shyly picking at the strings, not really playing any songs yet, just getting himself warmed up whilst ignoring the eager eyes that were currently watching him.

 It was then that they suddenly heard the intrusive noises of footsteps and rustling of tree limbs from far away.

“Frisk, is that what I think it is?” Flowey spoke up, putting his guitar down.

“It is, and they’re right on time,” they replied with a bright grin.

“Are you guys talking about the food?” Hysopp asked, looking up from his cell phone warily.

“They are,” Monster Kid said, getting up, “I smell it too,”

“Hey! Pizza monster guy here!” a voice called out, and out from the brush appeared a purple slime monster with three green eyes, he wore a damp company uniform around his oozing body and long thick waterproof gloves over his two hands, on his back was an interestingly shaped backpack-it was definitely where the goods were hidden.

Frisk walked toward him, their wallet in hand “that’s us!”

“Sweet, can I get a name for that?” he asked, checking a device.

“Dreemurr, that’s spelled D-R-E-E-M-U-R-R,”

“That’s it, and you ordered a double cheese pizza with everything on it?”

“You mean a ‘LARGE’ pizza with double cheese and everything on it,” Flowey corrected.

The Pizza Monster took another look at his device, and chuckled “yeah, you’re right, here you go man,” and with that, took his backpack off, and pulled out the goods, delivering it to Flowey who held out his own gloved hands expectantly.

“I’m not a man,” Flowey grumbled, taking the pizza.

“You are most definitely not, will be 'dude' okay?”

“Dude is acceptable,”

“Thank you, what’s your name?” Frisk spoke up.

“Grreth, but you can call me J.J.” J.J. answered, “and…your name is Frisk, right?”

“Yeah, that’s me, so, J.J., how much is the tip?”

He shrugged them off “consider this one a freebie, I never had a delivery to the forest before, it was a hella rad trip, consider that my tip,”

Frisk grimaced “I can’t not pay you for your work, c’mon,”

“Just forget it and thank the guy Frisk, we have things to do,” Flowey grumbled, tapping on the pizza box impatiently.

J.J. laughed “yeah, it’s cool, don’t worry about it,”

Frisk, always and forever the determined one, proceeded to dig into their wallet, they held out twenty dollars to the slime monster, who was surprised.

He hesitated to take the money “wow, this is… a bit more than I’m supposed to be getting, but…,”

Frisk held it even closer, “please, just take it, it’ll make me happy,”

“You know what they say, the customer is always right, dude,” Monster Kid interjected, snickering at the exchange.

“Sometimes the customer is an idiot,” Flowey mumbled under his breath.

Feeling pressured, J.J. finally took the money, laughing, “alright, you’ve convinced me,”

Now pleased, Frisk laughed along with him “it’s no problem, anyway, thank you for the pizza, I hope you have a good trip back,”

“I will, and thanks for the money, it was super chill of you,” he said and began to gather up his things, getting ready to move again.

“Anytime! I’ll remember to ask for you the next time we order again,”  

J.J.’s expression turned a little sad, “eh, don’t bother, I’m moving next week, I can only hope the folks over where I’m going are as cool as you are,”

“Let’s hope so, at any rate, good luck,”

“Thanks, you too,"

They then paused for a moment as J.J. walked out from their view.

“What a neat slime guy,” Frisk said before turning back to their friends.

Very soon, three teenagers watched as the cynical flower began to consume several slices of pizza, trying their best to avoid directly looking at the scene, or how delicious the golden triangles looked and smelled, that pizza would never be theirs, and there was nothing they could do about it, nothing.

It was exactly what Flowey had hoped for.

To fill the increasing growing holes in their tummies, they instead began to make their own food.

Halfway through, Flowey took a swig of cream soda and wiped his mouth with a napkin, turning his gaze over to his guitar.

“So, Hysopp, it’s come to my attention that I need to… apologize to you,” he said.

The rabbit monster in question perked his long ears up in slight surprise, “er, if…you want to..?”

Now annoyed, Flowey snapped his head around to look at him “don’t make this awkward!”

Hysopp raised his hands up in defense “my bad! Or- wait, no, uh-,”

Monster Kid began laughing “dude, Flowey, you’re making it worse, just say sorry already and get it over with!”

“GOLLY, FINE! I’M SORRY FOR ACTING LIKE VERMIN TOWARD YOU!”

Hysopp let out a snort of laughter “it’s alright! Apology accepted!”

Frisk clapped their hands together in applause, “fantastic job!”

Flowey narrowed his eyebrows and grabbed for his guitar “that was nothing, here, Hsyopp, you get first dibs, give me a song to play,”

He panicked for a few seconds, sputtering before quickly thinking of something, “‘Life Is A Highway’!”

Flowey nodded and begun to play.

But instead of the upbeat tune they were expecting, he began to play something significantly slower and much different…

It was then when he began singing, that it was confirmed he was not singing the right song.

“Life’s too short to even care at all, ohh~ I’m losing my mind, losing my mind, losing control, ohh~”

The other three began snickering.

“Azzie, that’s Cough Syrup!” Frisk blurted out, laughing.

Flowey broke his concentration and cracked a grin, stopping, “really? Didn’t notice, my mistake, here…MK, you give me a song, I promise I’ll play it,”

“Uhhm, heh, okay dude, do you know ‘Let The Games Begin’?”

“Sure, I think that starts with a trumpet riff, but I think I can manage it,”

As he began playing the beginning of the bouncy song, until, yes, they quickly noticed the rhythm and notes change into… a different song with more rock.

“I was just an only child of the universe, and then I found you, and then I found you~
You are the sun, and I am just the planets, spinning around you, spinning around you,
you were too good to be true-,”

“‘The Last of The Real Ones!’” Hysopp blurted out, he had been trying to think of the name for a while.

Flowey immediately stopped, “it’s a favorite of mine! I swear it’s been stuck in my head for a week, now,” he then turned his attention to his favorite person “Frisk, it’s your turn, give me a good song,”

Frisk clasped their hands together, “oh, Flowey I’m so proud of you!”

Flowey gave them a stink face “I didn’t ask for a compliment, I asked for a song, now hurry before I lose my steam,”

They smiled, wiping a tear from their eye “okay, can you do ‘If I Had You’?”

Flowey clicked his tongue in thought, “yeah… it’s a little poppy, but I’ll do it,”

As usual, he began the song, the rhythm and tune correct, but once he opened his mouth…

“Shining like a work of art, hanging on a wall of stars, are you what I think you are?”

“That’s ‘Satellite’!” Frisk blurted out once again.

But he didn’t stop, only slowly the tempo and melody to match up with what he was singing.
”You’reee myyyy satellite~ you’reee riding with me toniiigght, passenger side, lighting the sky, always the the first star that I find, you’reee myyyy satellite~”

As he did a momentary riff on his guitar, Frisk lit a match and begun slowly waving it in the air.

“Elevator to the moooooon~ whistling our faaaavooorite tuunnne~ trying to get a clossseeerr view~”

He continued on, singing his romantic song about stars, his voice echoing into the forest and the sky, welcoming the darkening night as the sun disappeared low behind the trees.

Having fun seemed easier after that.

The night continued on, around 11:40, Hysopp was the first to drop out, disappearing into his van.

At twelve, Monster Kid fell asleep in their sleeping bag.

It seemed like the two of them had forgotten about the meteor shower, which was due to start around two in the morning.

But Flowey had definitely not, happily biding his time as he waited, pacing around, reading one of Hysopp’s comics, sipping on a mild energy drink, and spraying bug and snake repellent around the campsite every once in a while.

Frisk was getting drowsy, but Flowey’s constant rolling around helped keep them awake, the both of them keeping quiet, careful not to wake the others.

But finally, Flowey checked the clock on his phone and excitedly zoomed over to Frisk, patting their shoulder and showing them the time.

They smiled and grabbed up a big blanket, tossing it around Flowey and taking him by the hand.

“I think I know the perfect place to see it,” they suggested warmly.

Flowey’s expression lit up “our spot at the pond?”

With a sparkle in their eyes, they grinned and nodded to him.

It had been easy to find and hardly looked much different from last year, the pink azalea bush having grown a little larger.

 Getting comfortable, they lay out the blanket and sat down next to each other, taking in the beautiful view of the sparkling waters and the view of the shining stars above.

“I’ve had so many dreams about this place, I missed it,” Frisk said softly.

Flowey pushed his potbot a little closer to Frisk’s side until they touched, wrapping his robot arm around their waist, proceeding to lay his flowery head on their shoulder.

“I understand, I think it’s become my favorite place to be at,” he admitted, “or…maybe it’s just because you’re always here when I am,” he added, Frisk could practically hear the love in his voice.

“I know exactly what you mean,” Frisk said, staring up at the sky with anticipation, “hm, think I feel a new nickname coming on, how do you feel about ‘shooting star’?”

He chuckled gently “I’ll think about it,”

“OH! Look! The first one!” Frisk blurted out excitedly, pointing as a shimmer suddenly shot through the sky.

Flowey saw it, nearly forgetting to breathe at the sight.

“We should make wishes,” Frisk said in awe.

“You’re right,” Flowey agreed, closing his eyes and winding a vine down Frisk’s arm until it reached their hand, lovingly winding around their palm and fingers, butterflies fluttering when they closed their fingers around the vines.

Together, the two then fell into a charmed and stunned silence as they watched the meteor shower, attempting to make more and more wishes, continuously amazed as astounding and prepossessing streaks of gold and silver light rained through the black sky.

 To the couple, it might as well have been sheer magic…

…

Later…

As the shower slowed down, Flowey came back down and became fully aware of his world on earth again, turning his gaze to the charming human who sat so close to him, finally overcome by the overwhelmingly pleasant warmth fluttering around inside of him, feeling as he was about to burst from the romantic tension that had built up over the day.

Summoning out two vines to sweetly brush their hair back, Flowey then leaned in close and kissed their cheek, fully winning Frisk’s full attention- kissing him back on the lips, which lead to another kiss, and another, and another-

 -And the more that came, the longer and slower the kiss lasted. . .

Then, to add to the best night ever, in between making out, Frisk turned their head to gently rub their forehead against Flowey’s, which elicited a happy chuckle from him.

The minutes seemed to fly by, it wasn’t until Frisk paused for a breath and checked their phone that they realized just how late it was, letting out a disappointed sigh.

“What is it?” Flowey asked in a mumble, half inside his potbot, half laying on Frisk’s shoulder, his vines lovingly wrapped around their arms.

“It’s four twenty, we should go to bed…,” they said.

He let out a pathetic groan, “do we have to?”

They chuckled softly and gave him a small kiss on his head, “I don’t want to stop either, but we gotta,”

“Fine.” He grumbled sternly, very slowly withdrawing his vines.

The disappointed mood didn’t last too long, as the couple was both equally love drunk, full of bliss, giggling at the slightest things as they packed up and made their way back to the campsite.

And… with no surprise, going to sleep wasn’t hard as the two found their way into their tent, the long day making its impact as soon as the teens got comfortable and closed their eyes.

…As Flowey drifted into a deep sleep, he fell even deeper into a dream. . . .

He was lost somewhere in the forest, the pine trees around him stretching far into the stratosphere, the giant moon gleaming down at him, leaving him helpless.

His long legs ached as he ran, his lungs burning, having a difficult time trying to catch a breath as he moved, panicked, where was he?

He was sure he’d never been in this part of the forest before.

Was this even the same forest?

Where on Earth was he?

He had to stop for a second, he was sure his body would give up on him. . .

And, as soon as he did, he saw Frisk in the distance, they also seemed unsure of where they were, but paused when they thankfully spotted him, a relieved and happy smile on their face, they took no time to run over to him.

Once they got close enough, they seem to stare curiously, carefully observing him head to toe “you look different…,” they commented.

He looked over himself, at his hands and legs, what was it? Did he have a stain on his shirt?

“Huh? I do?” he asked.

“Yeah, but it’s a good different, you’re looking handsome as heck, as usual,” they complimented, then sighed happily, “I am so glad I found you,”

They then stepped forward and hugged him, securely wrapping their arms around him, snuggling their face into his chest, taking a moment to breathe him in.

They then looked up to him, their gaze warm and sweet.

Without another thought, he leaned down, gingerly brushing their soft pouty lower lip with his thumb, his heart feeling full by just the sight of them alone.

“Me too, I love you so much Frisk,” he said, then leaned down further and finally kissed them.

Happily reunited, they continued where they left off at the pond, making out once again, once lost in the forest, they both now felt secure in it, feeling hidden from the rest of the world.

 Feeling free to do what they truly wanted. . .

It seemed so natural to be with Frisk like this, he held them closer, his fingers tightening and his hand pushing their waist closer to his body, he wanted more of them…

…And.. .

oh…

..Whoa… wow…

 ...It was that simple natural action that seemed to change the mood of the night, his body warming up, an overtly pleasant feeling in unfamiliar places that he wasn’t sure he’d felt before.

It was like a spark had gone off and it had blossomed into a fire into his blood and deep into his entire body and it was… so good…

Actually…

 It was TOO good, he really had never felt this before… it was so… alien..

It also felt like something he had been missing for a.. very long time.

As a flower, there were so many things he missed, so many normal things he didn’t have anymore.

But his thoughts stopped as he opened his eyes, realizing that Frisk’s skin was now glowing brilliant white and gold. . .

It glowed soft enough but bright enough that it shimmered beneath their clothes, shyly he didn’t linger too long at the view, his attention drifting to their bright hazel eyes, which were now glowing gold as well, glittering as they gazed back at him passionately.

It was if they’d become some sort of angel or divine deity. . .

He swallowed a lump in his throat, his heart beating excitedly, completely entranced and dumbfounded.

Then, watching intensely as Frisk smiled affectionately, held out their hand, and slowly put it on his now bare chest.

And when they did, he finally realized he had been glowing the same as them, his body bright and alive.

“It’s okay, you can touch me back too,” he heard them utter out, their voice tender, “I love you so much, my bad boy…,”

Without another word, he pulled Frisk closer to him again, hungrily grabbing their hips to his this time, pursuing them and the new and unfamiliar, but also wonderful feeling that they had introduced him to.

He kissed them passionately and intensely…his hands reaching to move to touch places he had never dared to touch before-

But then, suddenly-

 He was awake.

He trembled, feeling overwhelmed, his cheeks blushing a bright orange, and his mind dizzy, the entirety of his plant body felt hot, almost like he was on fire.

What was happening? He never felt like this before.

Mixed phantom feelings of pain and pleasure gripped across his roots and stem, practically everywhere, panicking, he scrambled around and pushed and uprooted himself from the dirt in his potbot, anxiously examining himself.

Absolutely nothing on the outside had physically changed, but he felt it, it was as if his plant body was attempting to process something that wasn’t there anymore…

Then, as hard as it hit him, the overwhelming feeling began to leave in dissatisfying bursts, until he was left with nothing but deep confusion, his heavy breathing easing up.

The memory from the dream then danced across his eyes and he swallowed, his breath catching… his gaze slowly drifting over to Frisk, who slept peacefully next to him, completely unaware.

He remembered their conversations about how he’d been acting differently, his reckless aggressiveness, the nuzzling, how affectionate he’d been, and the fact that it was spring…

The words ‘flower puberty’ erupted in his head and a deep, old, terrible feeling of self-disgust and shame rose inside his plant stomach.

His attraction for Frisk had matured, and his body was now maturing too, in its own unusual and disappointing way.

Flowey stared hard at nothing now, he wasn’t ignorant about this subject, he’d read plenty of health books and seen enough of media to know a few ‘things’ about what lovers did.

… So…had that even been a…a… ‘sex dream’? Nothing indecent even happened, no real nudity, just…nothing…

 But at the same time, so much HAD happened…

As much as he loved Frisk and found them beautiful in every way, he was absolutely not prepared to feel sexual feelings about them too, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to, or even how it was possible that he could.

It was then that a single raindrop brought him out of his introspection of the increasingly disgusting road that was his self-discovery, looking up, he saw that rain was beginning to leak in the roof of the tent- between the gap of the ripped hole and the umbrella.

The problem had not been solved.

He gasped when- without warning, a large gust of wind grabbed a hold of the umbrella and blew their poor protection away from the tent, allowing the full extent of the rain to finally greet the two teens.

Frisk woke up with a startled whine, grabbing a fistful of a blanket to cover their head, and from outside, they heard Monster Kid shriek.

For a few seconds, Flowey didn’t know what to do, watching helpless as Frisk attempted to pull themselves together, blanket wrapped around them as they stood up to their full height, laughing at the absurdity of it all as they peaked their head through the rip in the tent. 

“LET’S GET IN THE VAN BEFORE WE GET SOAKED, FRISK!’ Monster Kid yelled out “THE RAIN IS GETTING WORSE!”

“OKAY!” Frisk called back, then knelt back down, looking at Flowey, who was still very much out of it.

A concerned, puzzled expression crossed their face when they finally noticed that he was uprooted from his dirt or wasn’t as panicked as he should be, or that he seemed to be staring down at the ground.

“C’mon babe, we gotta get in the van, grab your stuff,” they said and began moving again, getting their own belongings together.

Their command seemed to sink in and, without a word, he did as he was told.

Once ready, the couple scrambled off to the van, slamming the doors shut.

Flowey quietly listened as the other three laughed it off, instead, he stared out the window next to him, it was still dark, water droplets messily running down the glass.

“Guess you were on to something about everyone sleeping in your van, dude,” Monster Kid said.

Hysopp laughed sleepily, “maybe you’ll start listening to me more now,”

“I’m sure we will,” Frisk said, “definitely no bugs to worry about in here either, isn’t that right Flowey?”

He didn’t look away from the window, “…mm-hm, it’s great.”

“Is Flowey.exe having trouble booting up?” Frisk asked jokingly, but their voice was soft with concern.

He laughed weakly and eyed them for a second, it seemed difficult to look directly at them right now, “I’m fine, just tired,” he said with a cool but crooked smile, trying his best to humor them.

They seemed pleased enough with this answer, “you want your blanket back? We should all probably go back to sleep anyway,”

“Mm, no, you keep it, you need it more,” he said with a sigh, looking back to the window, his thoughts growing heavier and heavier.

Despite his exhaustion, he had trouble going to sleep this time, due to the fact that Frisk sat next to him, but mostly because he was worried he’d have another… ‘dream’.

He decided to opt for waiting for the sun to rise instead.

Flowey had felt self-disgust with himself plenty of times, but he never had felt this weird and uncomfortable inside this body before.

 …

The next day, he had discovered that he had somehow drifted off to sleep, fortunately with no dreams this time.

 He also discovered that he was the last one to wake up, revisiting the waking world at nine in the morning to an empty car, the sun the only one to greet him.

Well, not entirely, he noticed a plate of eggs, bacon, and two biscuits (with four packets of grape jelly ready) next to him, and a hastily written napkin note that read-

 ‘Decided to let you sleep in, enjoy some breakfast, Sunshine, we’re outside packing up, love you! -v-’

He smiled warmly, then… groaned through his teeth when he remembered hours prior, his self-disgust meddling with his hunger.. .

 Did a freak like him even deserve food?

He winced at his thoughts, he hadn’t felt such self-loathing like this for quite a while.

Sighing, whatever, deserving or not, if he didn’t eat, he’d get more of those pitiful concerning looks from Frisk, which was the last thing he felt like he deserved now.

So, he had to eat, he had to prove he was still their version of… ‘okay’.

After he was done, he cleaned up after himself and quietly began to help the others pack up, attempting to ignore his more vicious thoughts at himself as he smiled and joked with Frisk and the others.

It was hard, dealing with self-loathing had always been hard.

It was a new subject to hate himself over, but the hating part was nothing new, he could deal with it.

But it was still so hard, it always was.

A few hours later, they were all back in the van, on their way back home.

“You know, it’s funny, I’ve been thinking, it’s a good thing none of us are dating each other or this trip would have been harder for our parents to let us do all this by ourselves, y’know what I mean? I know my mom would never would have let me go,” Hysopp said.

This comment…struck a sharp nerve within Flowey, awful words flooded the inside of his mouth, but he kept it shut, he didn’t have the energy, instead, he glared vicious daggers at him, his eyes darkening.

No one but Frisk saw, narrowing their eyebrows at him in intense confusion.

His expression immediately weakened as he noticed them, guilt biting him, he looked down and away.

And like nothing happened, the subject changed.

Chapter Text

(Heavy Heart Arc)

Chapter 6  Ignorance Was Bliss

Warnings?: Flowey has another intense dream- (very big discretion advised for mature and upsetting language), thoughts of self-hatred, suicide, dysmorphia

Inspiration Song: Creep by Radiohead

When you were here before, couldn't look you in the eye
You're just like an angel, your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather in a beautiful world
I wish I was special, you're so very special

But I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here

I don't care if it hurts, I wanna have control
I want a perfect body, I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice
When I'm not around
So very special, I wish I was special

But I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here

She's running out the door (run) she's running out
She run, run, run, run,
Run…

Whatever makes you happy, whatever you want
You're so very special, I wish I was special

But I'm a creep, I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here
I don't belong here

Once they got back from the camping trip, Flowey hid himself away in his room, and as he entered, he caught a view of himself in the mirror and a distorted wave of stress and disgust tore at him.

He darted his eyes down, noticing that his hands were balled up into tight fists and were shaking slightly, it was then that he knew he had to do something now, and quick before he did something stupid later.  . .

At first, he wanted to ignore his new problem altogether and try to forget that it even happened, things were going so great before he had his strange dream.

But, isn’t that what he did before? The last time a dream had upset him this much he ignored it and ran off to stay with his father as an excuse to separate himself from Frisk so he wouldn’t have to think about how he felt.

He rubbed at his eyes roughly with a vine “why are you like this?” he asked himself, then peeked over at his fish, “why am I like this?” he asked again, hoping for some shred of an answer, even in fish form.

He then narrowed his eyebrows as he stared down at his vines.

What if the dream had meant absolutely nothing?

What if it was just a simple effect of sleeping in the forest right after such a serious make-out session? It was the first time he’d ever had a dream like it, what if it was the only one he would ever have?

Now that would be truly lucky.

There was then a soft knock on the door “Flowey?” it was Frisk, of course, it was.

He didn’t move, “Flowey isn’t here right now,” he called back.

“What about Asriel?”

“He’s definitely not here either,”

“...I’m worried about you,”

He scrunched up his face, but let out a long heavy sigh, “there’s nothing to worry about Frisk, I’m just still tired is all,”

“Did you check for aphids?”

He paused, automatically touching the back of his head with a vine, checking, “…yeah, of course I did,” he said, he didn’t feel the same as he did when he had aphids- but the very mention of them made him paranoid.

“Did you find any?”

“Uhhh,” he mumbled, continuing checking, he wasn’t finding any, but the more he thought about it- he swore he could feel those headache-inducing little pinpricks…

His door then opened, giving him a direct view of their worry “oh my gosh, you found some didn’t you?”

He grit his teeth, embarrassed, “no, not yet,”

They walked up to him “do you need some help? I can look for you,”

Flowey’s eyes widened, he actually did want some help, but the last thing he wanted right now was to have Frisk touch him with that much magnitude.

“Or! I can get mom to look for me, she’s the plant expert after all,” he said, holding out a defensive hand, attempting to stop them from getting any closer.

Frisk seem a little surprised by his reaction, “oh…yeah, you’re right, she should probably be able to spot them better,”

After getting Toriel and thorough bug hunting…

“Good news dear, you are aphid-free! Clean as can be,” she announced, followed by applause from Frisk.

“Just as I thought, can I go back to my room now? I’m going to go take a nap,” he lied.

“Very well, sleep tight, if you need me, I will be here,” she said, sitting back down into her rocking chair, picking up a novel.

To his displeasure, Frisk followed him into his room, closing the door behind them… hm, it seemed they were serious.

“I need to talk to you…,” they said.

“Go ahead..,”

“I saw that mean look you gave Hysopp in the car,” they said quietly “and I remembered how you looked last night, something happened, didn’t it?”

Flowey looked down and away, his mouth twisted into a frown, his emotions conflicted.

“Is it something I did?” Frisk asked quietly.

He couldn’t take it anymore “no! Of course not! Look, all I had was another…nightmare, okay? If you ever think you’re my problem- you’re not, okay, it’s all me, every damn time,”

Frisk stepped closer, reaching out to caress his cheek.

And he let them, closing his eyes, stay still, focusing on the blackness of his eyelids.

“It’s okay Azzie… what was the nightmare about?”

At that, he opened his eyes and backed up from their reach, staring over at the TV “I had a dream that I was lost in the forest… but then.. something. . . strange happened to me. . .,”

Flowey then remembered the remarkable few times that Frisk and he had shared similar dreams… and then the heavy realization that Frisk very likely had …‘weird’ dreams of their own.

He then grew very, very, very shy.

“You…did…did, uh… you happen to… have a dream like that recently?” he asked, his voice just almost cracking.

Frisk seemed confused, “I can’t say I have?”

He twiddled his fingers, slightly relieved, although he was certain he hadn't been clear enough “that’s good,”

And then…an idea passed over his mind, one that he didn’t quite like, but at the same time, it would at least be partially honest and give him a chance to have some personal space for a while.

Without any more thought, he decided to go for it.

“Ah… Frisk, I need to..uh.. admit to you about something that’s very serious to me right now and- I… I’m, uh…,” he winced, ugh, he had learned to be vulnerable with others, still, this was hard to do, but he pressured himself, forcing the words out-

 “I’m extremely uncomfortable in my body right now.”

Frisk was quiet for a few seconds, their expression softening with compassion, but they were clearly puzzled, “…more … than usual?”

He nodded “the dream exasperated it, and again- it has NOTHING to do with you, but it’s just…I can’t handle being touched right now, especially in…the way…that you do it,”

It was like a light bulb went over their head “oh! Is it technically how you used to be bugged by hugs when we were first getting to know each other?”

He smiled weakly “yeah, I guess it’s something like that… it’s not easy to explain, I don’t mind some touching, but... I just…,”

Frisk’s gaze dropped and they lowered their voice “you don’t want any romantic physical affection, is that what you’re trying to say? It’s okay if is…,”

He didn’t want to admit it, but… “yeah. . . I’m sorry, I can’t deal with it right now,”

Flowey still wasn’t looking at them, but he could tell Frisk was now frowning deeply, they were most likely disappointed.

“Okay… I’m glad you told me, you know the last thing I want to do is make you uncomfortable,”

He let out a small chuckle, “thanks, I… um, don’t worry about this lasting too long…it’s not like I want to break up or anything, I just need some time to get my head straightened out,”

They let out a quiet sigh, “take as long as you need Azzie, I’ll be ready when you are,” they then walked over to sit on the bed, “maybe this was just the right timing too…I’ve been meaning to tell you that my grades have started slipping up lately, it’s starting to look. . .  bad, like… summer school bad,”

That was enough for Flowey to look up and over at them in surprise.

“What? I mean, I know I call you an idiot all the time, but I was under the impression that you did alright at school,” he said, now legitimately worried.

Frisk’s frown deepened “I know, I know… I’ve been having trouble concentrating, I’ve been… daydreaming more than usual,”

Flowey cracked a crooked smile, “is it because of me? Have I been distracting you? Should I feel guilty?”

It was their turn to look away from him, chuckling silently “…no, of course not, the only thing you’re guilty of is being a certified bad boy,”

He laughed, then stopped, remembering the dream, another wave of self-disgust hitting him, plus the actual feeling of guilt forcing him to look at the wall behind Frisk instead, “yeah...sounds about right… so, uh, I guess this is it for a while? We’re playing the fake ‘platonic card’ full time now?”

Frisk nodded solemnly, “mmm-hm, it seems we should, but…it’s okay, we did leave things on a pretty high note last night, didn’t we?”

He forced a grin for them, “definitely, let’s just hope for our sake that this hiatus doesn’t last for too long,”

This really was probably for the best though, at the moment, he felt undeserving of any of their affection right now, why should Frisk comfort a creep like him?

Sighing once again, Frisk got back to their feet “okay, I think it’s time I finally let you get your rest, I can see circles under those eyes,”

“I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you too,” Frisk whispered back, proceeding to blow him a kiss, “please take care of yourself, babe,”

He didn’t know how to respond to that, so, he merely nodded, watching as his best friend step out of the room, leaving him alone once again.

Hmph, well that conversation hadn’t been perfect, but it had gone better than he thought it would… last year he knew he wouldn’t have been able to tell them anything except for lies, he was glad they had confronted him when they did.

Unable to think of anything else to do, he flipped off the lights and dumped himself out of his potbot, and curled up onto his bed, digging under the covers, effectively attempting to hide himself.

Despite being honestly tired and telling everyone about the nap he had been trying to have… he absolutely didn’t want to sleep…or no, that wasn’t it… he didn’t want to dream anymore, it was just too much of a risk.

But at the very moment, he didn’t have it in him to care.

His body didn’t give him much of a choice to think about it any further as he drifted off to sleep.

As he entered his REM cycle, he found himself entering a dark room, but in the center, was an elegant golden statue of Frisk on a pedestal, dapples of light shined down on it, illuminating it in a mysterious way.

But what caught his attention were familiar vines that were possessively wrapped all over it.

He looked at his white furry hands in alarm- those weren’t from him, he wasn’t a flower here.

When he peered back up, he gaped shyly as he noticed the statue of Frisk had changed, they weren’t wearing clothes anymore, holding only a golden blanket to cover themselves up.

“It’s disgusting how attracted I am to them,” a small alien voice suddenly said.

Flowey backed up as he finally noticed the tiny talking flower in front of him, who had his back turned to him and was facing the statue.

“Don’t say that,” Flowey uttered, feeling angry, “and stop touching it like that, it’s creepy,”

The flower turned to face him, glaring back, “relax moron it’s just a statue, it’s not really them,” he then grinned, “but only would you freak out like that, I know you, I know what you really want,”

Flowey’s anger grew at the comment, without a second thought he lunged for the tiny flower, aiming to grab him by his fists, instead, he landed in the dirt as the rude flower escaped, tunneling away.

“Hee hee hee~,” he heard the laughter echo around him, where was it coming from…?

“I’ll play a game with you, if you can successfully catch me, I’ll let you kill me, sounds like fun…doesn’t it~?” he heard the voice say.

Flowey sat up, “it’s SUICIDE is what it is!” he yelled, pulling himself up from the ground, struggling a little as his long legs protested, “I’ve done it before, it’s not as fun as you’d think,” he grumbled, dusting off his shirt.

“Hee hee hee! But nothing is funner than murder, remember?”  the little voice called out again, still unseen “…or do you have better ideas?” he added, the childish teasing in tone sobering up.

“I have a million better ideas than murder now, so many I don’t have the time to list any,” Flowey responded, repeatably opening and closing his fists in frustration.

“Like sex?” the voice spoke up daringly “sex and VIOLENCE? I’m sure violence is the only way it would have to be done if you wanted it with Frisk, you know they would NEVER want to be with a flower!”

Flowey was speechless, gritting his teeth in sheer disgust and loathing, “SHUT UP!”

He heard the little flower cackle menacingly “you know I’m right, aren’t you~? Isn’t that why you’re fueled with rage and self-hatred right now?”

“NO! YOU of all creatures should already know that I would NEVER hurt them! Not anymore! Now come out so I can rip your head OFF!” he yelled, almost getting dizzy as he continued to look around the strange room.

“That’s ironic,” the little flower answered “I wonder what Chara would say about all of this, I bet they’d hate you, I bet they’d ridicule and torment you~,”

“Chara wouldn’t care about me or my problems! They’re dead! Just like you’re about to be if you’d stop being such a filthy coward AND SHOW YOURSELF!”

It was then Flowey spotted the little flower, he was resting comfortably on top of Frisk statue’s shoulder, he saw that the statue was now completely naked, but there were more vines than before and they covered Frisk’s nudity up like a green censor.

He watched as the little flower cuddled his head against Frisk’s cheek lovingly, seemingly lost in the affection.

Something about the sight twisted in Flowey’s chest and made him feel strange, was this envy?

It was then that… a conflicted sadness appeared in the small flower’s expression.

“It’s all true, I love them so much, I can’t bring myself to ever hurt them again, but now…. oh golly, now I want them in ways I’ve never wanted anyone else…. it’s.. weird, strange, new and I absolutely HATE it.” but as he looked to the statue, longing appeared in his eyes.

The teen watched as the flower caressed the statue’s cheek sweetly as if he had done it many times before.

“But… only because I know I can’t ever have what I want,” he then looked down at the statue, “I guess I can only dream about it,”

He then looked down at Flowey, “do you still want to kill me?”

Flowey winced at first but couldn’t help but grin menacingly at himself.

 “…Yes, more than anything.”

The little flower mimicked his grin, “guess you can add to the never-ending list of things you’ll never achieve, how pathetic!”

Suddenly, without any warning, the little flower was trapped in Flowey’s tight fists.

“You spoke too soon, idiot.” he growled, his grin growing wider as he pulled-

-and with an extremely satisfying but gut-wrenching snap! Flowey murdered himself with ease, watching his petals scatter elegantly around the room.

…But then…

…He blinked and realized in defeated shock that he was back in his plant body, peeking up at the Frisk statue’s naked body, losing his breath as saw that the vines were gone and the statue now towered above him like a golden skyscraper.

He shyly looked back down at Frisk’s toes, but something strange caught his attention as he spotted the color of real Frisk’s flesh begin to slowly flood the statue, watching in unending panic as the statue’s golden shine faded and be replaced by warmth, blood, and bones.

They were becoming alive and they were naked!

Flowey attempted to tunnel away, but he found that he couldn’t escape.

A guilty part of him didn’t even want to escape.

But before they fully became human, the world became dark and he began to wake up.

But for a split second, he noticed something that he hadn't noticed earlier, on the bottom of the pedestal that Frisk stood upon...

He saw the words 'amica mea' etched into the gold.

"My love,"

….……………………………..

….. . . .

. .   .

. .

When Flowey woke up, his memory was hazy and all he could mostly remember was talking to himself, being very angry, disgusted, and seeing a beautiful golden statue of Frisk. . .

Yet, he felt… surprisingly less overwhelmed.

He stared up at the blanket for a few minutes, noticing how clear his mind felt now, sure he still felt vastly disgusted with himself, but there was a better clarity to his thoughts than before to make sense of it all.

He realized better now why he had the reaction he did to his dream, and why he felt so horrible.

It was that it had uncovered and revealed his most repressed feelings in the most frustratingly taunting ways possible, showing him what he wanted in a fantasy world where he was his true self.

Compared to harsh reality, where he was denied his true body, missing parts, and physically incapable of so many things- mainly… well.. sex… specifically with the person he loved most.

 It all felt like a punch to the gut.

But one of the worst parts that chewed away at him was, that while he felt for them in such a mature intimate way, Flowey was one hundred and fifty percent certain, that Frisk would never see him in that same light.

Of course, he had been proven wrong many times before...

He had been sure that in life it was ‘kill or be killed’.

He had been sure no one would ever want to be his friend once they realized what he was really like.

He had especially once been very sure that Frisk would never romantically fall for him…

But 'romantic' and 'sexual' feelings were very much not the same things, and sometimes he was right.

Honestly, at the moment, he wished he wasn’t attracted to them like this, it probably would have made things so much less confusing for him right now.

This very subject was something he had been hiding in the back in the deepest corners of his mind since they began dating, every time he had started thinking of their future and the possibilities of their relationship- he had stopped himself, told himself not to worry, not to daydream, not to rush it.

Deep down, since the day he realized he was in love with them, he knew, he’d always been aware of their jarring physical differences and…

 It hurt, so, so bad. 

Letting out a sigh, he crawled from beneath the covers, taking in fresher air.

It seemed the shock of the strange situation had settled, but what now? Should he cry? Would it help? He certainly felt bad enough.

Suddenly his self-pity session was put on a sharp halt as his plant stomach felt like it was going to cave in on itself, aching for something- anything to be put in it.

“Golly,” he griped to himself, quick to summon his potbot over and climbing back into the dirt.

The idea of eating away his sorrows and the entirety of the kitchen sounded much better than pathetically crying them out right now.

But he wasn’t so sure eating was going to solve his problem.

Chapter Text

Chapter 7  A Speck in the World

Warnings?: Thoughts of suicide, self-hatred, depression, dysmorphia, and immensely uncomfortable talks, plus teacup damage!

Inspiration songs: Karma by AJR and Porcelain by mxmtoon

‘I've been so good, I've been helpful and friendly
I've been so good, why am I feeling empty?
I've been so good, I've been so good this year
I've been so good, but it's still getting harder
I've been so good, where the hell is the karma?
I've been so good, I've been so good this year

What, am I normal or not?
Am I crazier than other patients?
Right, I've done everything right
So where's the karma doc, I've lost my patience

Wait don't go away, can I lie here forever?
You say that I'm better, why don't I feel better?
The universe works in mysterious ways
But I'm starting to think it ain't working for me
Doctor, should I be good?
Should I be good this year?’ 

.

My skin is a story, with marks and lines, it makes me feel weary
My face is like a galaxy, with spotty freckle stars and no sense of gravity

But even with the good, the bad feels so much stronger

My inner demons, they always win and in my mind, they saunter

So many things that I've come to hate, they line my body and caress my face
I feel so frail and empty too like a china teacup with dried out glue

I am made of porcelain, I'm cracking now and then
It wears me down and I am made of porcelain

I look okay but I am breaking down, over and over again, oh, over and over again

Stretches and patches corrupt my flesh, slowly eating away any confidence that's left

And I really wish I wouldn't let my appearance dictate how much I fret

Because they say what's inside is what really matters

But I really can't seem to ignore the parts of me that I abhor
It makes me feel like I am weak and battered

'Cause I am made of porcelain, cracking now and then
It wears me down and I am made of porcelain
I look okay but I am breaking down, over and over again, oh, over and over again

Flowey began to spend more of his time alone.

Distracting himself from his worries, focusing harder on his hobbies- practicing with his guitar, playing games, talking on astronomy forums and staring at the night sky, helping his mother cook, and studying for his usual home school tests… anything to stop thinking about-… never mind.

Meanwhile, Frisk began taking tutoring lessons after school, combined with their driving classes, it became the norm to not see them at home until around seven PM.

The change of pace felt…disappointing and almost miserable, but at the moment, it was for the best, at least it seemed so for Frisk’s sake.

But, after three weeks of this around the end of March, Flowey’s depression and anxieties fortunately slowly started to ease back down, perhaps part of it was due to the fact that he hadn’t had another startling dream.

 Soon, everything began to feel… normal again.

Well, normal was a strong word, but it was normal enough.

However, today felt like a particularly lazy day, spending most of it being hungry, eating 68% of the food from the fridge and freezer combined.

That was something else that had seemed to change with him since the night at the forest, was that his already big appetite had only gotten bigger.  

And, today, he wondered if he had eaten too much as he loafed around lazily in his room, his head propped up on the inside of the potbot, watching a video on his phone- which he had rested in front of him, it was a special episode of Mettaton’s talk show, on this one, he was creating a party food surprise with Papyrus, as Flowey suspected, it had been very entertaining.

Once he was done, he decided to listen to music, specifically something that was too loud and would rattle his brain and cancel out all of his thoughts.

So, hooking his headphones into his phone, he sat up and pushed the device on top of his flowery head.

And as soon as he did, he was then forced to immediately stop, due to the fact that it had caused his middle left petal to come… off… in the process.

His breathing stopped as he stared hard at the large petal that had fallen onto the floor.

It hadn’t even hurt.

Which was a huge problem in itself, it had been such a long time since he lost a petal, years and erased timelines ago, but he remembered that every time he had lost a petal- it had always hurt and had always been from an accident or from a fight.

But never once in his existence as a flower had a petal just… fallen out on its own.

Was he sick? Was he dying?

Forgetting all about his music, he carefully attempted to take the headphones back off, and…

...To his horror, the top left petal was pushed off as well, flying into the air and gently swaying to the floor.

With that, he panicked and fully took off the headphones and violently threw them to the bed, taking the phone with it- which didn’t quite meet the bed and listlessly fell to the floor as well.

“MOM!! MOOOOMMM!!!” he screamed out in terror, too scared to move now.

“MOTHER IS COMING!” he heard her scream back from another room, already stomping down the hallway to him.

And in an instant, she was there, “what is it?!”

“MY PETALS ARE FALLING OUT!” he yelled, pointing dramatically.

She stood still for a second, staring down in bewilderment at the two bright, big, yellow petals, but very quickly she acted, walking over and picking them to study them.

Flowey didn’t let a second pass, “do…do you… think I’m dying?” he uttered out, finding the words almost too hard to say.

Toriel didn’t hesitate with her answer, “no. Of course not sweetheart.”  her voice and posture were a lot calmer now.

 Which helped Flowey’s nerves, but not completely, he wanted answers and he wanted them NOW.  

Narrowing his eyes, he pressed on “then what is it? This has never happened to me before,”

His mother continued staring hard at the petals in her hands, “never?”

“No, they came out on there own and it didn’t hurt,” he explained.

“Hmm…,” she hummed, “well, they’re still a lovely color, no signs of browning or wilting, I do not think you are sick either…,” she then looked up to him with concern “do you feel sick?”

“No,” he answered “but I do feel disgusted now,”

“I wonder if this has something to do with your increased voracious appetite…,” she thought out loud, “this could be a strong sign that you are simply growing more, though, it is curious how fast they are dropping, and I say ‘curious’, not ‘alarming’,”

Flowey didn’t know what to say to that, he didn’t know what to do at all…

He only knew that he was still scared.

Toriel looked back to her son, taking his upset expression, “oh, my dear, I am so sorry, please do not worry, I promise you things will be okay, I have a feeling that this will not be permanent,”

“This doesn’t feel okay,” he grumbled.

Toriel smiled sympathetically, “I will call your father and Dr. Alphys to come and visit you tomorrow, we will get to the bottom of this to prove just how much things will be okay, even if they do not  seem like it now,”

Flowey let out a frustrated sigh, he was NOT in the mood to be inspected and tested on!

 But…

 He couldn’t deny that his mother was right.

“Fine.” he said, rolling over to his mom, considering giving her a hug, but as he did this, he caught a view of himself in the mirror of his wall, and his eyes widened and his metaphorical heart sank.

Despite hating the body he resided in, one of the things he couldn’t help but take pride in was his petals, it was already horrible to lose them, but…

To actually SEE himself without them…?

It was like a human who was popular for their long beautiful hair, only for it to start falling out in chunks.

Perhaps from another person’s perspective, it was shallow to be upset over something so petty and small… but, to Flowey, what else did he have going for him? His ‘winning smile’? His ‘glittery personality’? It wasn’t enough, without his petals, he was just… a hideous crooked stem.

“I’M HIDEOUS!” he exclaimed, he looked to his mother “why didn’t you tell me how horrifying I look?!”

 “Because you are not!” she attempted to reason, “you are still handsome,”

He grew annoyed, scoffing, turning away from her “never mind, I don’t know why I expected you to understand,”

The room fell silent for a moment.

“Maybe you are correct, maybe I do not understand, but I am sure they will grow back, as all healthy petals do,” she spoke up, making another attempt to soothe her son.

“How are you so sure they’ll come back at all?” he asked grumpily.

“Because they will and they shall,”

“Hmph, and how long do you think it’ll take?” Flowey continued.

“As long as they need to, I am sure when they are ready they will be even more beautiful than before,” she said.

As Flowey thought about what to say… his bottom right petal released itself into retirement, falling into the dirt of the potbot in front of him.

“Oh my…,” Toriel whispered, covering her mouth in empathy for her son.

“That’s IT! I can’t do this! I can’t allow ANYONE else to see me like this,” Flowey announced, making up his mind then and there.

“‘Anyone else’?” Toriel echoed.

“Dad and Alphys are allowed, but I can’t deal with Frisk and the rest seeing me,” he explained.

Without a second thought, Toriel opened her arms and hurriedly walked over to her son to embrace him.

But he was quick to back away, “no mom! You’ll make the rest of them come out! I can’t risk it!”

Toriel put her arms back down, disappointed, but she respected her son’s wishes, “very well, but just know that I will be saving my mother hug in a special box, it will be there for the second that precious petal all come away,”

He rolled his eyes in good nature “fine, whatever.”

Soon, after more consoling, she left his room, but was surprised when the smell of his favorite cookies (oatmeal and chocolate chips) wafted across the house and into his room, Toriel soon back with a plate full for him.

Around seven-thirty that night, there was a soft knock at his door.

“Azzie, Toriel told me what happened, how are you holding up?” he heard Frisk ask.

“I’m bald now and I look and feel absolutely disgusting.” he announced bluntly, staring coldly at the mirror that he had recently taken off the wall, and it was true, in one day, all of his six petals had fallen out.

“You’re not disgusting! You’ll never be disgusting,” they said, sounding so sure of themselves, “I know you don’t want any visitors, but…is…is okay if I come in?”

“No, you should know that you of all people aren’t allowed to see me right now.”

“...Okay… fine, I don’t know if I fully understand, but I’ll respect it, I’ll just… text and call you then,” they said, sounding just as disappointed as Toriel, it almost made him want to open the door, almost.

“Thanks Frisky…,” he said, “spam me as much as you want,”

“I will, please feel better soon, I can’t wait to see you again,”

“Me too."

There was a moment of silence…

“Are you still there Frisk?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yeah, I’m not quite ready to go yet,” they responded, chuckling lightly, “I’m sitting next to the door, leaning on it actually, it helps to hear you better,”

“Did you have a bad day? You sound… sad,” he asked, casually moving over to the door, sitting his potbot next to it as well as he listened to Frisk speak.

“Kind of, school is starting to get easier, but it’s tiring some days with tutoring and drivers ed stacked on,” they explained “and on top of that, it’s hard to say ‘no’ to my friends when they want to hang out, and then on top of that, I come home to find out that my favorite boy has lost his petals and locked himself away, ”

He sighed, “mom said they’ll grow back, no idea when that will be though, with my luck, it’ll probably take six months, or most likely, a year… but… never mind me, just remember that summer is creeping up on us, this school nonsense will be over with soon,”

“It’s crazy how fast it’s all gone by, when I was a kid, time used to go so slooowwwlly, like a snail spilling his pudding,” they thought out loud.

Flowey laughed at the imagery, closing his eyes, he missed being with them so much… knowing how Frisk was, he highly suspected that they missed him as well.

This had only set them back further.

“You should go, I know you must have better things to do,” he said, staring down at the space underneath the door.

“What if I feel like that better thing is talking to you right now?” they asked.

“Then your feelings are wrong, I’m the one trapping myself in this room, you have the rest of the house and the entire world on your side,” he responded grimly “I… I don’t just mean now, I mean for our future too, I’m nothing but a freak, I deserve to be alone and you deserve to be with normal people that don’t lock themselves away from you, people who you can actually relate to,”

“...Asriel…,” he heard them say, their voice quiet and their tone felt…so pained.

Then, he saw fingers appear from underneath the door, “what IS normal, Azzie? You don’t have to keep living in that world inside your head anymore, and… how do you know what we truly deserve? What if I realize that I’m a freak too? What then?”

They were quiet for a second, making sniffling sounds, they were most likely crying.

“Please don’t do this to yourself, think about how happy you’ve been,” they begged.

Flowey tears were beginning to drip down his cheeks now, he wanted to hold their hand so much…no, more than that, he wanted to pull open the door and hug them close, he wanted to feel their warmth, feel and hear their heart beat-!

He winced as his soul began to ache hard, the pain twisting inside of him, crying more, holding back his sob.

He still felt like a disgusting creep, still unworthy of their affection, it was hard to take in their encouraging words of love, especially with his hateful version of himself arguing with Frisk inside of his head, battling them to prove that they should stay away from him.

But he just couldn’t take it anymore, and he couldn’t bear the thought of Frisk crying for him like this, trying so hard to get through to him, desperate to make a connection with a dead end, it was too much.

With a vine, he lowered it and gently twirled it around Frisk’s fingers, letting out a long relieved sigh.

Things became silent, neither dared to move now.

But after a few minutes passed, Flowey heard the sound of Toriel’s footsteps.

“Good evening, how is the talk going?” Toriel asked, with that, Flowey let go of Frisk.

“It’s… okay,” Frisk answered, their fingers shyly disappearing from his view.

“I understand, here, I will fix you both something to eat… ah, which reminds me, my son, how is your appetite today?” his mother pressed.

“It was about the same, the cookies helped,” he began, pausing to wipe the tears from his face “but all in all, this ugly issue has dampened my appetite… the thought of food right now is complicated” he explained “…but, you can bring me some anyway, I know I won’t risk coming out for a late-night snack tonight,”

 “…Very well, whatever you want dear,”

But after thirty minutes, Frisk sent him an urgent text, showing him that they weren’t done with him yet.

- ‘earlier, when you were talking about being alone… were you insinuating that we should break up????’

He almost slapped himself, he couldn’t believe he had said that, ugh, maybe it was time to book an early visit to his therapist, things were starting to spill out.

‘NO! Of course not!! don’t be an idiot ’-

-‘sorry!’

- ‘and I’m sorry that you’re hurting so bad’

He sighed to himself, this was exactly what he had been talking about, it wasn’t that he wanted to actively break up, no, he’d never have it in him to do that, instead he wished that Frisk would wisen up and realize how much happier they would be if they just forgot him completely and dated someone else…

But he also didn’t have it in him to explain that to them either.

‘golly, you sure do say sorry a lot for a person who never does anything wrong ’

The next day…

Flowey was woken up by Toriel, preparing him for his visit from his dad and Alphys.

Sleeping had been difficult, but not as much as it had been the night before, without his petals… he felt considerably naked and unprotected, so falling asleep had been harder than usual.

Still, he was eager to hear some kind of news, so, he forced himself to wake up and get ready.

At the moment, Frisk was currently at school, so, he felt comfortable to escape from his room and roll off to the bathroom to brush his teeth and wash his face and-

Oh…ugh, no, that had been a bad idea, a very bad idea.

Because, like most bathrooms, they owned a decent-sized mirror and had annoyingly bright lighting, his bald head practically shining at him malevolently, taunting him as he faced himself.

Biting back the urge to smash the mirror with a fist, he instead decided to vent his frustrations into creativity, got a single sheet of paper, drew a quick drawing of an angry face with sharp teeth and ‘X’s for eyes, and taped it up to the sleek metal, ah, an excellent improvement.  

After finishing cleaning himself up, he shoveled half a box of cereal down his throat and went back to his room.

Waiting on them seemed to feel like forever, but once they were and saw the looks on their faces once they saw him, he almost immediately began to wish this visit would be over with as soon as possible…

Especially when Alphys began to talk to him.

“You look…,” she began.

“Hideous, I know,”

“...Erm, no, of course not, I was going to say that you look cold, are you cold?” she asked, concerned.

“No, physically I feel ‘normal’, unless you count my hunger,” he explained.

“Yeah, your mom told me about that, I put it straight in your notes,”

“It seems about the right time, I was around your age when I had my growth spurt, it was the hungriest I have ever been in my life,” Asgore explained, smiling with humor.

Flowey narrowed his brows in thought at that, he was certain that he no longer physically functioned like his parents, but due to the fact that he was brought back to life due to his dust being on the flower, so it made him wonder- if his mind came through from the transfer, then what was the possibility that other quirks had come through as well?

“That’s interesting, Mr. Dreemurr… perhaps it’s a possibility,” Alphys said, absent-mindedly rubbing the bottom of her jaw in thought.

He beamed, then knelt down to get to a better eyeline with his son.

“I know this must not be the most exciting time for you, so Asriel, to whom would you like to speak with first?” Asgore asked.

“Alphys I guess,” he looked over at the short yellow reptilian woman, “mom warned me that you wanted to take ‘samples’ for real this time, so let’s just get it over with,”

She let out a nervous laugh “no- no need to worry! It’s nothing too invasive!”

At that, Flowey let out an obnoxious sigh “okay, fine, whatever, do what you need to do,”

Asgore nodded politely, “I had taken a guess that you would go that route, it is fine, I will go make us all some tea, as well there is much I need to talk with your mother about, so, take all the time you need,”

Soon after he left, Alphys began getting ready.

“Okay, um, so… let’s start off with the easy stuff, I need to get a dirt sample from you,” she said, taking out two empty test tubes.

“Can I?” he asked, reaching out with a vine, he wasn’t in the mood for Alphys getting that close to him, or anyone really.

She paused, confused “can you what?”

He narrowed his brows in aggravation “put the dirt in the tube myself,”

Alphys reacted quickly, visibly embarrassed “of course, s-sorry Flowey,” she started, grabbing one for him, “I haven’t done an examination like this an awhile, so-,”

“I understand,” he said, taking the tube and diving it into the dirt near his roots, getting as much as possible before giving it back.

“Great job, that should be plenty,” she said, then pulled out the next tube, her expression turning wary, “and for this one, I’m going to need you to spit in it, um, like a lot,”

He grinned tightly “disgusting!” his tone bright and deceivingly cheerful.

She let out a shy chuckle, handing him the spit device.

Before he could do anything though, he jumped when he suddenly heard the front door open from the distance and heard Frisk greet Asgore.

“Quick! Lock the door!” he panicked, growing even more agitated when Alphys hesitated for even a second “never mind I’ll do it!” he hissed and rushed over to the door, locking it.

“What’s the problem?” Alphys asked.

“I can’t let Frisk see me like this, that’s the problem,” he said, sighing, staring down at the empty tube he still held in his vine “golly, what are they doing home so early? I hope they aren’t sick,” he grumbled, and without warning, proceeded to fill the tube, which didn’t take much time either.

Once he was finished, he swiftly wiped his mouth and gave the last tube to Alphys.

“Are we done?” he asked.

“Um, unfortunately not yet,” Alphys replied, putting away the tests and pulling out her tablet, “I have some pretty important questions to ask you,”

“Hmph, fine,” he grumbled, fishing out his cell phone, deciding to send Frisk a quick text.

‘You’re home early, are you okay?’-

“Are you ready?” he heard Alphys ask.

“Yes! You don’t need to ask, just go,” he insisted crankily.

“Oh-okay, um… it’s just some of these are kind of embarrassing and you already seem…,”  she started to say, but she lost her steam as Flowey crossed his arms, glaring down at her with a sour expression.

“Get it over with Alphys, I don’t care, nothing is going to get worse than this,”

She nodded firmly at that, looking down at her tablet.

“For the first question, how has your soul pain been?” she asked.

“Same as it’s ever been, I’ve gotten better handling it though,”

She nodded, typing in the answer.

“Next question, other than your soul, have you been having any physical pain lately?”

He had to think about that for a second, “hm, no,”

Tika, tika, tika...

“Okay, so, here comes one of the big questions, but, have you ever experienced a pollen season of your own?” she asked.

He stared blankly at her at that one.

It took a few seconds, but his mind soon began working again.

“Do you mean… the yellow stuff that other flowers spread all over the place, right?” he asked, double-checking.

She merely nodded.

He began thinking back, unsure of himself, would he have been aware if he ever produced any at all? He guessed it would have come from his face…right? That seemed right.

He then shivered in disgust as he finally imagined it, realizing just how gross it would be.

With this thought process, he began to realize that he had never actually had a pollen season, he almost wanted to consider himself lucky, but… with all these changes he’d been experiencing, what if it was around the corner, waiting to pounce at his self-esteem too?

“No, I haven’t, and if I have… I don’t remember,” he finally answered.

“I see, I guess it makes sense,”

He rolled over to her, “what is that supposed to mean?”

She waved a defensive hand “nothing serious, I’m just thinking if all of this is due to your growing, it would make sense for you not to have a pollen season yet, since you do seem to be growing at the same rate of a regular monster teenager and less so of a flower,”

“...Alright… ugh, I can’t think of what to say to that, so what intrusive question do you have for me next?” he pressed, ready to change the topic.

“Let’s see…,” she began, looking back down to her tablet “do you happen to know your weight right now?”

“No,”

“Could we che-,”

“-No, I’m not in the mood right now… but, I’ll check it later and text it to you,”

“Er… okay, that’s…okay and understandable, so, do you know your current height?”

“Two feet and five inches,”

She smiled at that, quickly typing it in “that’s awesome, you grew a little since we last checked,”

“It’s only a three-inch difference…,” he mumbled.

She shrugged “it’s still a big deal for you though, I know the last thing you want to hear is more flower talk, but, compared to the other base flowers that your body came from, yours has wildly grown way passed its expectations,”

There was a small part of him that was…proud of this news, but mostly, he couldn’t find it in him to feel excited, he wanted to dismiss Alphys of talking anymore about it, but… he had already been rude enough to her… so he merely smiled weakly.

It was then he noticed he had received a message, eager for Frisk’s status, he checked it and then glared.

Junk mail, of course. 

“I was thinking Flowey, I have a few wigs you can borrow that I saved from my last anime con trip, I think you’d look really nice and flashy in them,” he suddenly heard Alphys speak up.

He blinked and stared at Alphys in surprised silence, his mouth agape, and then he began laughing in pure amusement when several mental images played in his mind, his laughter continuing the more he thought about it, nearly dropping his phone in the process.

It wasn’t until he noticed Alphy’s genuine confused expression that he realized that she wasn’t joking, his laughter slowing to a stop.

“Oh- heh, you’re… serious, I’m sorry..,” he apologized, wiping tears from his eyes, “but, uh, thanks, I haven’t laughed like that in a while,”

“It’s alright, I guess it is a little funny to think about at first, but I really do think you’d make it work,” she pressed.

At that, he began snickering again, “no, no, no, sorry, I think I’m going to have to pass, I don’t think wigs are for me, at all,”

She shrugged it off, “okay, but don’t hesitate to text me if you change your mind,”

“So, are we done now?” he asked, double-checking his phone in the process.

“Um… er… oh, I need to borrow one of the petals…,”

“Mom has them, she’s been trying to figure out what to do with them, personally I think she should trash them, but it sounds like she’d let you have one,” he explained.

Once again, Alphys nodded, her expression slightly sadder now “you know, Flowey, it’s not going to be this hard forever, okay?”

“Yeah, I know,” he said with a sigh, staring down at his blank phone now, “mom said she was sure my petals are going to come back,”

“Um, sorry, I’m not talking about the petals,

He closed his eyes and let out another sigh, embarrassed “ugh… do I really seem that depressed?”

“Sorry,” she began “but… um, y’know, I’ve been there, and I know you’ve been there too, so I get it if you want to talk about it…. or..most likely don’t want to talk about it,”

He rubbed his eyes, looking at her “great, then let’s don’t, I’m already saving my energy for my dad’s pep talk that I know he’s going to give me, I don’t need to waste it now,”

Alphys gave a small chuckle at that “okay, an-anyway, I know how important this is to you, so I should hurry up and get back home now,”

“Thanks Alphys, and…. uh…sorry if I’ve been acting like garbage…it’s nothing against you,”

“It’s no problem, don’t worry about it, just feel better as soon as you can… I’ll see you later,” she said, giving him the best encouraging smile she could muster and began to head toward the door.

“Wait,” Flowey uttered out, moving behind the door, unlocking it, and opening it for Alphys, and as soon as she left, he quickly shut the door, locking it back.

With that, he let out another sigh, this one especially exhausted.

Again, he looked at his phone for any new messages, there were none, so he sent Frisk another text.

-Frisk???

His stomach twisted, it really wasn’t like them to not answer their phone…

Suddenly there was a knock at the door that would have made him jump out of his petals if he still had them.

“Son? Are you ready?” he heard his father call.

Without answering, Flowey merely unlocked the door and opened it, backing up into the wall to properly let Asgore in.

“Hello?” Asgore questioned, confused as he immediately didn’t see his child.

“Boo.” Flowey teased, poking his bald head into sight, his tone had been stoic, but luckily still caused his dad to jump this time and gave him a good laugh.

“What’s up with Frisk? They won’t answer my texts,” Flowey asked.

Asgore let out a sigh, talking as he walked in “they were at lunch and tripped and had quite a tremendous spill, they likely are not returning your texts because they are in the shower, they will be returning to their studies as soon as they are ready to leave,”

Flowey narrowed his brows in thought as he once again closed the door, “was it an accident? Or..?”

“From what they have expressed to me, yes, it was merely a mishap, and they seemed to be laughing it off,” Asgore explained, taking a seat on the bed.

“That’s good to hear, I guess…,” he then paused, “weren’t you making tea?”

Confused, Asgore looked to his hands, which to his disappointment, were empty, he looked up to his son apologetically, “I am sorry, I swear I picked up the tea set… I must have forgotten,” he then began to get back up, “here, I will go fetch it,”

Flowey held out his hands “don’t, it’s fine dad,”

But Asgore wasn’t having that, getting to his feet, “nonsense, it has become our tradition to talk over tea and we mustn't break it, I forbid it,” and back out he went.

At least he closed the door behind him.

Flowey let out a chuckle, pleasantly surprised when he noticed Frisk had texted him back.

- ‘OH MY GOSH!!! I’m sorRY!! I was SHOWERING!!’

- ‘It was crazy, I had just got m tray of food and was on my way to sit down when I slipped onsomeone’s sloppy joe that was on the floor and bam! I hit the floor! and bam! my own sloppy joe and everything else was on me! it got in my hair and everything, it was such a mess! I Wish you had been there’

Once again today, Flowey found himself laughing.

‘I wish I had been there too, you didn’t hurt yourself or anything, right?’-

- ‘I’m fine Sunshine, I would have told you through the door, but I knew you were busy with your check up and I didn’t want to disturb anything important’

‘you wouldn’t have disturbed us, at least not me, it was as awkward as I had imagined it would be, THERE WERE TEST TUBES INVOLVED.’ -

It was then that Asgore returned, the tea as promised in his hands this time, Flowey took a quick few seconds to send one more text.

‘Dad is back with tea, I’ll talk to you later Frisky ’-

Soon, Asgore sat himself back on the bed, handing Flowey a cup of tea.

“I hope you do not mind, I went ahead and put the sugar in for you,” Asgore said.

“What kind is it-? Oh wait…” he then paused as the (pleasant) smell caught up with him “…yep, that’s lavender,”

Asgore chuckled warmly “and coriander, I thought it would be the perfect thing,”

Flowey took a sip, pausing, then taking another bigger sip, the coriander was okay, but the flavor of lavender wasn’t his favorite…

Although, his dad was always fantastic at making a cup of tea, “you’re right, it is, thanks dad,”

Asgore flashed him a pleased sharp-toothed grin in response, “you are most welcome,”

Flowey took a gulp, “okay, clearly you don’t have any test tubes with you, so…hurry and let’s get this over with,”

Asgore’s smile quickly dampened into a frown at that “are you absolutely sure that you do? We don’t have to do this, we can simply wait for Dr. Alphy’s results if you want,”

Another wave of frustration hit Flowey as he found himself glaring down at his tea, “no dad, I want to find out what’s wrong with me,” he then peered up “and that means exploring ALL my options,”

Caught off guard, Asgore blinked, but immediately shook it off and gave his son a stern and serious nod.

“You are absolutely right my son,” he said, then momentarily turned his attention to the front pocket of his pink shirt, taking a few cue cards, surprising Flowey, it seemed that his father had come more prepared than he had thought.

Flicking on a pair of reading glasses, Asgore focused on the small pieces of paper in his hands.

“Let us see…,” he mumbled to himself, “ah, yes, I did see your petals, they were indeed in good shape, and your mother told me they fell out without harm,”

He flipped to another card, grimaced at it, then flipped to another and seemed a little more pleased.

“Did you happen to spend time outside before your petals departed?”

“No…actually, I was feeling really lazy before it happened, but the day before that I was the most hungry I’d ever been, and…yeah, that day I did go outside, it was really sunny out too now that I think about it…,”

Asgore smiled, taking out a pencil and scribbling down something.

This was a good start but after that…Asgore’s questions were either similar or exactly the same as Alphy’s, it was when he asked about pollen season that Flowey’s mood began to drop drastically.

The more personal the questions were, the more Flowey felt like physically caving in on himself and dissolving into the dirt.

He hated thinking about the inner workings of his body, much less talking about it, why did he ever think this was a good idea? Why was he worried about himself in the first place? Why did he care? Why?

He was nothing more than a speck in a giant world of well-functioning people.

If he were to die…perhaps it would make an impact on a few people, but after that- they’d realize how easier things would be without him, they’d all become happier without him. ..

They’d live their lives without ever knowing what he was truly like inside.

They’d never know the awful, horrible, terrible things he had done in the past or the disgusting things he thought about.

“Son…?” he suddenly heard Asgore’s voice say.

Flowey blinked in hazy surprise, blinking back the real world, realizing that he had tuned his father out, he decided it was time to break this experiment off pronto, he really wasn’t in the mood.

“I don’t…,” he attempted, but his voice cracked, so he cleared it and tried again, but as he did that, a flood gate of emotion broke, “I don’t want to talk about this anymore!”

Tears began to burn at his eyes, so he closed them tight, feeling the tears drip down his cheeks uselessly  “I don’t want to THINK about it! I can’t DO this anymore dad!”

Damn it, not again, was he really breaking down like this AGAIN?

No, no, no, no- he needed to compose himself, he wasn’t going to freak out again in front of the people he loved, he had done this too many times now.

He then heard his father say… something…in response..

 But he couldn’t quite make it out, it only sounded like gibberish.

He attempted to say something back, but his words only got caught in his throat…he almost felt like he was choking…

Frustrated, he roughly attempted to wipe the tears away, and with blurry eyes, noticed just how hard his robot hands were trembling, causing the tea to splash and spill little by little, messy streaks of liquid pouring down his glove.

He heard his father say something else… but…at this point nothing was making sense anymore.

Not this, not himself, not his body, not his life!

Gritting his teeth, anger tore into him, sharp thorns of scarlet appearing all over his stem like an infection, his eyes darkening as he glowered at the precious porcelain as ideas poured hot into his mind…

With near blinding rage building up, he went for it.

With a vicious incoherent yell, Flowey raised his robot arm high and swiftly brought it back down and let go, the dainty teacup smashed into the nearby desk, tea and broken shards splattering onto the carpet.

For a few seconds, the air was thick with tension, Flowey’s breathing heavily as he stared thoughtlessly at the mess.

But his world suddenly turned dark…and surprisingly warm, and oh… fuzzy as his father had gotten up and closed in around him, hugging the entirety of him and his potbot.

And… for a brief moment, Flowey felt… comforted…

But inside, his mind screamed in protest.

He felt suffocated, the tension and anger still too strong, it pulled at him from all angles, and with that, Flowey began scrambling in his father’s arms, his robot hands pushing him away.

It didn’t take Asgore much to understand and let go, backing up in worry.

“Oh! Did I hurt you?” he asked his son, wide-eyed and worried.

“NO!” Flowey yelled, tears streaming down his cheeks again, “didn’t mom tell you I don’t want to be touched?! I CAN’T- I can’t…,”

 Feeling lost and unable to find his words and choking back up, Flowey let out a sob.

With that, Asgore sat back down, respecting his son’s boundaries, “I deeply apologize, forgive me, I forgot and acted out of habit,”

“Why are you apologizing?!” he took a moment to catch his breath and his thoughts “…didn’t I- didn’t I spike you?” Flowey sputtered out.

Asgore calmly shook his head, “it did not hurt and it does not matter right now,”

“Why aren’t you upset? I broke your cup,”

His father barely took another glance at the shards on the ground “which was part of a cheap set that I bought last Wednesday, I have no grievance over it, besides, you are now the one with a room that smells of lavender now, I am almost actually jealous,” he let out a near-silent chuckle “besides, there is no need for both of us to be upset; like the others, I simply want to know what ails you so deeply,”

Flowey glared down at the dirt in his potbot, “you should be angry with me, all of you never punish me enough,”

Asgore leaned forward, his eyebrows furrowed thoughtfully “it seems you are already busy doing such a task and making a rigorous job of it I must admit… I can’t imagine how tired you must be,”

At that comment, Flowey couldn’t help but start sobbing again, his body trembling.

Asgore looked over at his tea that he sat down, “it is okay my dear son, let it all out, I am here for you,” he said in a soothing hushed voice.

He smiled sadly as Flowey cried even louder now.

He continued waiting patiently for his son to calm down a little before he decided to speak again, his own thoughts heavy and full of questions.

…

Once he began to quiet down, Asgore finally spoke up, his voice quiet and calm.

“I know it is quite difficult, but I have one last important question for you, may I ask it?”

Flowey merely sniffled and nodded.

“Your mother and Frisk explained to me earlier that this all began before your petals fell out, that you have been feeling dark inside since after your last camping trip…did something happen?”

Bent down now and resting head against the edge of the potbot, Flowey sighed shakily.

“Yes.” he uttered out, his father had been right, he was so tired now, he was tired of butting heads with himself, this was a sensitive and embarrassing topic- one that he swore he would never tell anyone.

But so far, the past had proved to him that he could trust his father with uncomfortable subjects, and of all subjects, this was one that was probably the most embarrassing, but… what did any of this matter anymore if he was just a speck? It seemed he was out of options anyway.

“I. . . . had a ‘dream’, the kind that ‘normal people’ that you know- ‘my age’ have…,” Flowey began, trying his hardest to sink and hide himself further into the pot, and hm, it didn’t seem as easy as it used to be, he really had grown.

Before Asgore had a chance to respond, Flowey continued...

“And I think…. the ‘normal people’ would have considered it- the ‘dream’ good… or at least find it.. ‘interesting’, but to me…the dream just made me realize how much of a freak I really am, inside and out,”

Asgore was unbearably quiet for what felt like ages to Flowey.

But thankfully, he spoke up.

“Did you assume that you would never have this type of dream?”

Flowey narrowed his brow “…I don’t know, I never thought about the possibility at all, it shocked me, kind of like falling in love did… but…this.. this is worse,” … “do you even understand what kind of dream I’m talking about?”

“Of course, you’re talking about an intercou-,”

“-It’s okay, please, if you love me, don’t actually say it out loud,” Flowey quickly interrupted, his father nodding in understanding.

Asgore rubbed at his beard thoughtfully, “…I can see how embarrassing and taunting it could be, yet…hear me out, is it not more proof of how ‘normal’ you truly are on the inside if it is what other ‘normal’ people dream of?”

At that, Flowey hid his eyes with a vine and grit his teeth, wow, he really did not want to be talking about this with his dad.

“I guess… but…  you aren’t getting it, sure I’m dreaming about it, but…it’s even worse when I can’t…do what the normal REAL me did in the dreams..and..and.. ugh.. I can’t have a real... .. I can’t… … ugh, this is the worst conversation I’ve ever had- hold on, let me try this again,” he said, taking a breather.

 “…Basically, it’s upsetting for me because in the dream I was my REAL SELF, my TRUE self, but out here...in the real world.. I’m missing… the parts and pieces to…to…um, have a ‘physically romantic’ relationship with another person,”

“Then what say you about folk who are disabled?” Asgore answered immediately.

Flowey looked up, confused “what?”

Asgore smiled encouragingly “disabled folk, Asriel! There are many monsters and humans out there that are paralyzed and have missing pieces of their own, how do you think they accomplish a ‘real relationship’? I assume it is not too different from any other relationship,”

Flowey was speechless, he hadn’t thought about that before…

“...Do you think…that I’m disabled?” Flowey questioned, feeling uncertain.

His father gave him a thoughtful look “I believe that…there… is a chance that you could be, most of the time you seem as capable as any other person, but the fact you require your potbot- a mobility aid, and you deal with a great amount of stress and chronic pain that your soul deals out… you could be, in a legal sense, considered disabled,”

Flowey nodded slowly, gazing down at his potbot in deep thought, he never really thought of the possibility of being disabled, but the more his dad spoke about it, he realized that it made sense.

His father snapped his attention back up as he continued talking.

“Either way, there would be absolutely nothing wrong with it if you were, but I do know you do not have to let your physical problems rule over your life just as the fear of these dreams has caused you,”

A crooked frown appeared on Flowey’s face “it’s not the dream I’m afraid of,” he corrected, then sighed “I’m afraid of… . . me, I guess, or I guess maybe I’m disgusted in myself and… I’m also afraid other people will see what I see and be disgusted too,”

He then glared down at the dirt again “..yet…I still don’t even know why I even bother being upset about the whole thing in the first place, it’s not like… Magnola or anyone else would feel that way about me,”

At that, Asgore sighed heavily, seeming to backtrack on his thoughts, finally showing that this wasn’t an easy topic for him either.

“Asriel…do you remember how old you are?”

“Sixteen,”

“Yes, sixteen, it is still a very young age, you have many other things of importance to think about and because of that you do not need to worry about such intimacy for quite a while,” again, he sighed “but, I do understand the obsession-,”

“I’M NOT OBSESSING ABOUT IT!” Flowey screeched, clearly embarrassed.

Asgore gave a firm, quick nod “yes! Indeed and I apologize! Please forgive me, I am simply saying that I understand why the topic hurts you so, but… when the time.. does come when you are the right age and if you are with someone who truly loves you for who you are- I have a feeling that things will work out for the best,”

“No it won’t, even if they do love me, they’ll never…,”

“Ah! There you go with your worst assumptions again!” Asgore said, pretending to look annoyed, then pointed to Flowey “you have already forgotten what I said about disabilities! What of the people with facial or body deformities? Better yet, what about trans folk? Or intersexed folk? How do you think any of these billions of identities find love? Not all from pity, I should say! Some of that HAS to be genuine, don’t you think? It gives me great hope for you, my son,”

Again, Flowey found himself speechless.

“Golly…,” he breathed out, “.. I didn’t realize…ugh, I might as well be egotistical too,”

Asgore shook his head “it is not your fault, it is like I said, you are still young and there is still much knowledge in the world that you have not reached yet, besides, being a level of ‘egotistical’ is necessary for you during this time, how else will you get to find out about yourself?”

Flowey let out a weak chuckle “I guess you’re right…,” he then swallowed and wiped his cheeks as tears began to fall again, “you’ve…opened my eyes to a few things... but… it doesn’t change how I feel, I still feel like a freak, and I feel… I feel like I’m broken and there’s no way to ever fix me,”

Asgore nodded slowly, his expression sincere and solemn, “limitations are horrible, are they not? But do you know what I see when I look at you?”

Flowey glanced up at his father, “I have no idea,”

He leaned forward, his eyes sharp as gazed at Flowey “I see a kind boy absolutely filled with rage and sadness, betrayed by his own existence, but despite that, he is nowhere near finished with his accomplishments,” he then paused to relax his posture “at the moment though, you are burnt out, I think you need a long rest,”

At that, Flowey couldn’t help but chuckle weakly again, “...can I?”

“Rest? Yes you may,” Asgore said, nodding politely, “after that, I also feel the need for a rest myself, but, you deserve it more so,”

And with that, Asgore handed his son his cup of tea.

Flowey peeked at the cup then back to his father “do you really trust me with this?”

“Of course, just like there are many other cups in the world, there are many other chances too,” Asgore said, a smile forming on his great bearded face.

“Where did you get that from?” Flowey asked, taking a sip of tea.

“Your mother,” Asgore laughed, “believe it or not, you are not the only Dreemurr who has broken teacups, usually by accident. But fortunately, just as you will, I have learned there are different ways to handle difficult problems,”

“Thanks, dad, I think this was actually helpful, but I have a headache the size of two of you stacked together, so can you please get out of my room now?” Flowey asked, handing back the tea.

Asgore let out a hearty laugh, “very well, but ah…,” he said and pointed at the mess on the floor.

“Don’t do anything, I’ll get it later, just be careful of where you step,” Flowey said, “just get out, please?”

“Fair enough, I love you Asriel, and do not tell yourself otherwise,” he said, reaching out to give his son’s potbot a fatherly pat on the shoulder.

“I love you too dad,” Flowey said, the slightest hint of a smile on his face.

After that, as he promised, Flowey went right to sleep, allowing himself to get some well-deserved rest.

The conversation with his father turned out to be not a cure-all as Flowey had hoped, but, to no surprise, he did feel somewhat better after opening up about his dream conundrum.

Later that evening, Frisk sent Flowey a text.

- ‘Guess who aced their driver’s license test!?’ 

Flowey audibly gasped, typing quickly.

‘WHY DIDN’T YOU TELL ME THAT WAS TODAY?!’-

 ‘FRISK YOU IDIOT, I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!’-

- ‘thank you! thank YOU! And for my next trick, I will levitate a car!’

‘Or at least make it move ’-

- ‘I’m having a celebratory out to eat dinner with everyone! Well… almost everyone, I’m really missing you here’

‘Is dad there too?’ -

 - ‘Yup, he’s talked about you some, he said you guys had a pretty heavy talk, don’t worry, he didn’t tell us any details, but him, mom, and Alphys all agree that they love you a whole lot and want you to feel better’

‘of course. Are you going to bring me back something to eat?’-

 - ‘Of course, but it’s going to be a surprise’

                                                                       ‘Fair enough.’-

- ‘But, anyway, all this driving stuff has got me excited for the future, think of all the secret adventures we are going to go on, I want to take us to so many places Sunshine, just you and me with our own pair of cool sunglasses’

Flowey’s brows raised high at the thought, imagining it, butterflies fluttering inside his plant stomach, going on trips together was something they had talked about for a long time and something he hadn’t really thought much about until now.

A fleeting moment of happiness rushed into him and he almost had to stop himself from hugging his phone.

 After that, there was a talk with Toriel about the option of online therapy, something fast and didn’t require leaving the house, because after what had happened earlier, it had become clear that Flowey urgently needed help of some kind… and at first, he despised the thought, but after a few minutes of convincing, he changed his mind, deciding to make his mom and everyone else happy for a change.

Frisk also began making a ritual of having nightly talks with him through the door, sometimes it would be nice and almost romantic, sometimes it would be quiet with not much to say, but thankfully there were no tears again.

Soon another week of solitude went by.

Then one day while he was finishing up a history test, Alphys sent him a cluster of texts all at once.

- ‘Hi Flowey! ^_^ I finally got your results together! I’ll try to explain it the best way I can!’

- ‘You are 100% healthy, and 100% strong’

- ‘And you are also 100% a hybrid of so many things and have grown so much! I was very surprised to see how things have changed compared to your flower body’s beginnings, I am sure now it is because of your magic and Determination’

- ‘And, it seemed like your parents were right, you are RIGHT in the middle of a big natural hormone change, and it is very aggressive right now, and it looks like it should be coming in different stages than a “regular flower”’

- ‘It’s also part of the reason your petals fell, your body is trying to focus on bigger things right now and there seemed no reason or time to keep giving your petals any more nutrients, so they dropped them, however, I have a feeling when they grow back, your petals will be even prettier than before!’

- ‘My theory was also right, your results seem to be a crazy combination of flower and monster’

- ‘Soooo, if I had to explain it in the simplest way, I would say it is… puberty in Flowey form’ 

‘I had figured as much, thank you for the help, you’ve earned 50 Flowey points’-

-‘Gasp! Yes! It was no problem, I was happy to help! :3’

    ‘Anyway, do you have any idea when it’ll be over?’-

- ‘QwQ It is hard to say, but if we went off monster biology only, I’d say it could last anywhere to 3 to 7 more years, but I do have good news, I know when your petals should be back! AvA’

Three to seven years?! Flowey sneered in frustration, but let it go, for now.

 ‘Tomorrow????’-                    

- ‘Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! ^^;; But it’ll take a little longer than that, by the looks of it, I think they should be fully back in three more weeks, I’d say around April 18^th is when they likely should be back’

Flowey stared at his phone, at first he felt annoyed at how long it was going to take…but… he had a set date, it was something personal to look forward to, putting down his phone, he rolled over to the calendar on his wall.

He flipped the calendar to April and aggressively drew a big star on the eighteenth.

Flowey then smiled to himself as he looked over his work, hm, it really felt good to hope and get excited about something like this again.

He may have been nothing but a speck in a giant world of well-functioning people, but it was a bittersweet relief to remember that he was still functioning at all, even if it wasn’t in the way he wanted.  

 At least he wasn’t truly alone.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8  Counting Down The Days

Warnings?: More depression, dysmorphia, and uncomfortable awkward feelings.

Inspiration Song: April by Caravan Palace and Young and Restless by Siamés

‘Wild spring, raging in the street, April please, lower your gun
Cold wind, nude branches on the trees, April please, help me to run

  Running in the nature, away from the past
Pretty as a picture, I'm cheering up so fast

  Grey steam, waving on my street, April please, lower your gun
Blurred dreams, playing on repeat, April please, help me to run

  Running in nature, away from the past
Pretty as a picture, I'm cheering up so fast

  A child swing, hanging from my tree, my dear friend, you've been the one
Large fields, unexplored lovely things, April please, help me to run’

.

  Put your seat belt on, ‘cause I've been wondering for far too long
How to cure my sorrow (How to cure my sorrow)
The kind of high that makes me feel alive
And then I start to wonder, is it ever gonna be alright?

I've seen it all, I've seen it all, I'm still young and restless, how foolish can you be?

There's no room to hide, ‘cause I know, I know, I know, know better
Ain't no wrong that's gonna last forever, I'm no fool to cry
Yeah, I know, I know, I know, know better
Ain't so strong if it doesn't bring us together

Let the shelter burn, you were hiding there, far too long
Worried 'bout tomorrow, confused inside
But not afraid to try, ‘cause we are not numbers
Playing just another song

Life is not easy, it is not, don't try and make it that way
Life is not fair, it never was, it isn't now, it won't ever be
Do not fall into the trap, the entitlement trap of feeling like you're a victim, you're not

There's no room to hide
'Cause I know, I know, I know, know better
Ain't no wrong that's gonna last forever, I'm no fool to cry
Yeah, I know, I know, I know, know better
Ain't so strong if it doesn't bring us together

Today was April 1 ^st

Which also meant it was April Fools Day, his mother, Sans’s and many other family friend’s favorite ‘holiday’, which also meant he was being bombarded with the worst of the worst jokes and tricks, a few being sent by his mother through the door, the rest were online.

While Flowey did find some of them were legitimately funny, all he could focus on was the thought of his future petals that were due to come in by the eighteenth.

Ironically, he couldn’t wait until he started looking like a flower again.

He wasn’t sure what he actually resembled at the moment, a mutated alien perhaps? A worm? It had been a few weeks and he still hadn’t dared look in a mirror, he didn’t even like touching his weirdly smooth head.

Being depressed again was strange, sometimes, it was those brief glimmering moments of happiness, he began to hope that maybe he was alright, that maybe… he could do this, that he could move on.

But then, he’d turn around and look to his door and consider going out…

… and then wonder why his family still bothered to keep him around if he was going to be so useless like this, if so, then what was the point of trying at all?

Sometimes he’d be crying into the sheets of his bed at three in the morning, feeling so hungry that he felt as if he’d cave in on himself, but too afraid to go to the kitchen in fear of running into Frisk, and too full of shame to call and wake someone up to make food for him.

But then he’d turn on his phone, and see a food ad on a video, and be struck with either determination…or desperation, throw a blanket over his head and zoom off to the kitchen, giving himself a twenty-second time limit to collect as much as possible before returning back to his room in a flurry… very much resembling a famished and frightened ghost roaming the house at night.

The most surprising thing to come out of it though was his good grades, which was… embarrassingly the best it had been in a while, thanks to getting into the habit of studying for long periods of time, it really seemed to help keep his thoughts out of the worse corners of his mind.

Frisk continued with their welcoming door visits, making a spot for themselves as they sat on the other side, telling their boyfriend about their day and giving him encouraging talks, and when things got quiet, they’d slide their fingers under the door for him to hold.

That night, around ten, Frisk started texting him, sending him jokes and April Fools Day memes.

 ‘I get it, I get it, you’re hilarious, but don’t you think you should be getting to sleep now?’-

- ‘well, I’m already wrapped up in bed, but making you laugh is very tempting’

- ‘I really miss sleeping next to you, it’s so much easier when you’re there’

Flowey sighed wistfully at their words, after the Dream he had, would he be comfortable sleeping next to Frisk after his petals came back?

Or was he assuming too much? The act had always been a very personal and special thing between them, and things had always stayed fairly modest and well behaved.

 ‘I doubt you’d be able to sleep now, you wouldn’t recognize me’ -

- ‘what? Asriel, I’ve said this before, but you know I didn’t fall in love with you for your petals, right???’

Flowey stared at the phone, blushing in embarrassment.

RIGHT!! April FOOLS IDIOT!’-           

 - ‘mmmHMMM, Right, you got me’

- ‘I’ve been wondering, how would you feel if my hair suddenly fell out?’

Ugh, where was this coming from all of a sudden? Was Frisk getting into a mood? Nonetheless, he thought about it…

And… yes, he didn’t have to think very much about it, but he was certain he’d still love Frisk the same if they lost their hair, he’d feel awful for them, he would also be able to relate to them…

Sure he’d miss their beautiful, brown, cascading hair, but Frisk’s hair wasn’t Frisk.

‘I would feel the same about you as I do now, hair, no hair, I don’t care as long as you’re not dead ’-

And…

… oh…

‘I finally see the point you’re trying to make, well played Frisk, well played.’ -

-‘ ;D Now you know how I feel about you’

- ‘does it make you want to come out of your room to hug and smooch?’

He had to laugh at himself, why were some people like Asgore and Frisk so good at seeing and understanding things that he couldn’t?

'A little bit, but not enough, sorry Frisky’ -

- ‘Darn’

- ‘don’t worry, it’s ok, I still love you.’

- ‘I just miss you so much!!’

I miss and love you too Frisk’ -

He continued talking to them into the night.

But even after, Frisk’s words stuck to his mind like hot glue, his own mutual longing to see and be with them again, rising along with the guilt from selfishly shunning himself away from them in the first place.

Keeping himself hidden hadn’t seemed selfish at first, in fact, it had felt like a selfless act- as if he were saving Frisk from having to look at him.

And before that- when he had forbidden affectionate touching altogether, that had been to protect himself from feeling worse when he was disgusted by himself, he hadn’t meant for it to go on as long as had.

Now he only had conflicting feelings.

Still, neither the guilt nor longing was enough to change his mind, he continued to shy away, locked in his room.

  April 5 ^th

Flowey stared blankly at a passage in his book, his eyes skimming the same paragraph over for the third time but not actually reading it.

He couldn’t concentrate.

He probably wouldn’t be able to for a while.

It was likely due to the fact that…he had officially had his second ‘Dream’ the night before.

But, it had gone differently and had been strangely abstract, and again, had been surprisingly… tame.

Actually, he couldn’t remember most of what happened or who exactly had been in it, although…he had been sure Frisk was there somewhere- the details were fuzzy, all he knew that he woke up feeling entirely overwhelmed, his head in a deep haze.

Thankfully, his body’s response hadn’t been as traumatic as before.

But Flowey didn’t care, his body had caught him off guard and betrayed him once again, and now he only felt gross, lousy, and pathetic.

Up until that point, he had been hoping so hard that the first dream had been nothing but a one-time fluke, but no, apparently he hadn’t hoped hard enough.

He had also hoped that reading a book would help keep his mind off things, but that wasn’t working either.

Giving up, he planted his face onto the page.

It was then that he heard the front door click and open from the distance, listening intently as Frisk and Sans talk briefly, stiffening up at the sounds of Frisk’s boots walking down the hallway.

“Hey Flowey… I checked out of school and Sans took me to the doctor, turns out I caught a cold,” he heard them say through the door “I feel pretty bad and I got a head full of ache, and my nose won’t turn off,”

For a second, he hesitated to move, but pulled it together at the last moment, yanking his head up to speak properly.

“Did you get medicine?” he called out.

“Yes,” they murmured “I took some, too,” he then heard them sneeze.

“Good! Go to bed!”

“‘K, love you, good night,”

“I love you too moron!”

Silently, he listened carefully as he heard them go into their room and close the door.

He stared back to his book, tapping at the desk with agitation, damn it, he absolutely despised it when Frisk got sick, especially more so now since he was unable to help take care of them properly.

He decided to text Sans.

‘How long are you staying? You’re going to help take care of Frisk, right?’ -

- ‘yeah, asgore is on his way, you don’t have much to worry about kid, the medicine they gave frisk will help knock this thing out’

‘Do they have a fever?’-

- ‘A small one, it’s nothing to worry about’

 ‘when is Asgore going to be here?’ -

- ‘soon enough’

  ‘That’s not SOON enough!’-

Clicking the screen off on his phone, he listlessly tossed it to the floor, aggravated and tired.

As promised, Asgore soon arrived, no doubt taking good care of Frisk, but the day didn’t get any better for Flowey who felt increasingly stuck and useless, forced to talk through the phone and the door, listening to Frisk’s excessive sneezes and muffled whines through the wall.

Around five in the afternoon, Toriel came home from work, taking Asgore’s place.

And then, for a few hours, the house was quiet and calm, a clear sign that Frisk was finally sleeping, which was good.

But around ten at night, Frisk woke back up, apparently, their fever was back with a vengeance.

Flowey could only stare blankly at his phone.

He then narrowed his brow when he heard the sound of rain kick up outside, then a low rumble of thunder…

Usually, he loved listening to the rain, but, right now it only added to his frustration.

…But finally…

 Something inside of him clicked.

Hooking his phone back on the charger, he moved over to his closet and opened the door, inside were various hats, scarves, feather boas, sunglasses, different brands of bug spray, old dress-up clothes, robot pot gloves, boxes of memories, and several throw blankets.

Flowey stared at it all and swallowed nervously.

…He then took a long, deep, breath

Forcing himself to forget his insecurities and swallowing his pride, Flowey knew that there were more important things he needed to be doing than worrying about himself.

                            And then exhaled. .  .

He reached in and snatched out a pink hat, a long pink knitted scarf, a black oversized hoodie with a picture of the Black Eye galaxy on it, and a pair of dark sunglasses with black rims.

With the disguise he had in mind, he hoped Frisk actually wouldn’t be able to recognize him.

First, he squeezed on the hoodie down and around his potbot- nearly getting lost in the process, wrapped the scarf around his plant body until it hid his mouth, then he flipped on the sunglasses, tossing on the hat, and last- the hood, effectively pulling it over the hat.

Feeling more suffocated than anything now, he reached for his mirror and took a look at himself, and jumped in shock, distressed when he saw how humanoid he appeared now. . .

...For a second, he wondered if he’d be able to pass as a human, that was until he looked down and saw the metal shine of his potbot and its one metal leg and wheel- never mind. 

But after taking it all in, he decided that he was pleased with his outfit, there wasn’t a bit of plant skin to be seen, he could only see a stranger in the mirror…that was possibly half robot, hm, Mettaton’s cousin maybe?

“Okay, you can do this,” he whispered to himself, he then waved to Orange Juice “wish me luck,”

If Frisk threw up, it would be because they were sick and not because they accidentally saw his weird bald head and were made nauseous from the very sight of him.

With that unpleasant intrusive imagery in his head, he forced himself to turn to his bedroom door and opened it, anxiously, he moved forward and turned and made his way to Frisk’s bedroom, his robot hands balled up into fists as he got closer, reached out, and clumsily tapped his knuckles onto the door.

“Hello??” he heard his mother answer from the other side, ah, it was nice to know she was keeping Frisk company.

“Wait- Azzie?” he heard Frisk question, rising excitement tinting their tired voice.

Before he could get the nerve to answer, the door opened, and both he and his mother jumped in unison as they startled the other.

He panicked, unsure of what to do, and awkwardly attempted to make himself flat and small on the hallway wall, accidentally making himself look silly in the end result.

“Asriel…? Is that you?” Toriel asked, a curious smile on her face.

“Howdy mom.” he uttered out, staying still against the wall.

“Flowey! You came out?” he heard Frisk say, they still couldn’t see him.

“Yeah, I’m… out,” he called to them shyly.

Toriel gave her son a bright, proud, grin “this was a very brave act, would you like to stay there, or do you need some help?”

“Um…,” he began, he took another breath, “no…don’t worry, I got it,”

Slowly, he attempted to relax, rolling forward into Frisk’s room as Toriel stepped out of the way for him.

Frisk gawked for a moment in surprise as they took in his mysterious outfit, then smiled warmly “you look really cool, I like the black and pink combo you have going on,”

Beneath the scarf, Flowey smiled big, a rush of relief flooding his system.

Without another thought, he approached them and made his spot next to their bed, despite them being sick with messy hair and a goopy red nose, it felt so wonderful to see Frisk again, they looked charming and stunning as usual.

As he watched as they reached out to lazily pet his scarf affectionately, the silliest smile on their face widening as they gazed up at him, he realized that Frisk probably felt the same way as well.

“Sorry that I was gone for so long,” Flowey apologized.

Frisk’s expression softened, “it’s okay, you’re here now,”

“Yes, that is that all matters,” Toriel added “Frisk dear, would you like to postpone our movie or…?”

At the question, Flowey finally took notice of Frisk’s TV, it was on pause, and from what he could tell, it was a new movie that had recently come out that he had been interested in.

“Actually, Flowey, would you like to watch this with Momriel and me?” Frisk asked him.

A familiar warmth of happiness bloomed inside Flowey as he took in the sentiment.

 “Of course, I don’t have anything better to do,” he answered.

With that Toriel settled into a spot next to Frisk and they restarted the movie- which turned out to be not half bad, with the exception of Frisk pausing it several more times to go into a sneezing fit or to go to the restroom.

Flowey however, didn’t make it to the end of the movie, likely due to being wrapped up and warmed up in his disguise, without warning, his eyes fluttered closed and he dropped off to sleep.

...

When he woke up, Flowey found himself still in Frisk’s now dark, silent room, the TV off.

He peeked over, finding that Frisk was sound asleep, their blankets up and nearly covering up their head.

Sleepily, he sat there for a bit, remembering the day.

He felt ashamed of himself, several times he had thought about using a disguise, but had dismissed it every time, using other terribly thought up reasons as an excuse for why it wouldn’t work.  

The embarrassing truth was that he had been scared, again.

Why was it that he let fear control his life so successfully? It seemed to creep up on him and take hold when he least suspected it, taking form as his problems and intensifying his self-hatred.

But now as he gazed at Frisk’s sleeping form, he remembered the times they had shown him what love could do, how they continued to help him fight his fears without even trying.

Frisk truly did love him unconditionally. . .

And it was not just Frisk, his family and the rest of his friends did too, they all loved him when he had none for himself, how could keep forgetting like this?

At those thoughts, a wave of beautiful emotion washed over him, and carefully, he removed his sunglasses to wipe at his tears, gritting his teeth at the soul pain that gripped at him as well.

“It’s okay Azzie…,” he heard Frisk murmur softly.

He pushed his sunglasses back on and looked back over to see that they had turned over toward him and were gazing at him with sleepy eyes.

He didn’t know what to say back, so instead, he reached out with a gloved hand and caressed their head and the side of their cheek, mimicking the motions of the many times Frisk had done for him.

They smiled and sighed in comfort, bringing their own hand up to hold his.

“I’d ask if you would like to snuggle with me, but I don’t want to sneeze on you,”

Flowey snickered shyly at that “it’s okay, the blankets would end up ruffling up and ruining my disguise anyway,”

“You know, I definitely wasn’t going to say it in front of Toriel, but… I think you look really handsome and sexy right now,”

Behind the clothes, Flowey cheeks burned bright orange, after his recent dream, he wasn’t sure if that was something he wanted to hear right now, but at the same time…

He couldn’t help but feel some ounce of flattery.

Still though, even if it had an effect on him, Flowey decided to take the compliment with a pinch of salt, Frisk was sick right now after all.

“Hmph, you must have a fever again,” he reasoned jokingly, gently poking their forehead.

Frisk giggled sluggishly, finally giving back Flowey’s hand so they could turn over to get comfortable.

“You say that now, but don’t be surprised when I get better and say the same thing,”

He smiled warmly as he watched over them, snuggling up with them sounded like an excellent idea, especially after being separated and cooped up for so long.

There was no doubt that it was going to happen once he got his petals back, he was certain of it.

The couple continued sleepily talking with each other a little more, until finally, Frisk dropped off and went back to sleep, with Flowey soon following in kind.

After that night, Flowey’s quality of life became much less difficult after that, thanks to his disguise, nearly returning to his old status quo, except for affection, there were some bad days where he couldn’t stand to be touched, shrinking away from kind gestures, and other days where he would initiate the best hugs he could muster, although, he was still not quite ready for kissing again.

…Besides the scarf was in the way.

 April 9 ^th

As Frisk showed more and more signs of getting better from their cold, the more Flowey began thinking about taking steps to be closer to them again.

Staring down at his phone, he looked over their old messages. . .

‘what? Asriel, I’ve said this before, but you know I didn’t fall in love with you for your petals, right???’

As he read this, a feeling of daring curiosity swirled inside of him ominously.

When this all started, one of his top fears was Frisk seeing his bald head and losing them.

He began to realize that fear had been just an exaggeration of the combination of his low-self esteem and depression, and as his mental health began to heal, he began to erase the Frisk he had unknowingly re-created in the worse parts of his imagination by remembering that the real Frisk, the one that lived in reality, the one that would never act so shallow and do something so awful as to reject him for his looks.

Yet… for some reason, he was still nervous to reveal himself to them.

And he was really starting to get sick of the feeling.

Looking up from his phone, he looked to one of the blankets on his bed. . .  biting his bottom lip as he began to have an idea.

Maybe a bad idea…

But…what if this was just what he needed to prove to himself that his fear was basically an illusion?

He looked back to his phone and sent Frisk a text.

‘Are you in your room?’-

- ‘Yup’

  ‘Do you have time? I think I have something I want to show you’ -

- ‘of course, come on in :D ‘

“Fantastic.” he mumbled under his breath and rolled over to the bed, and forced his mind to not think about it as he hastily ripped off his disguise, yanked up the blanket, and pulled it over and around his head, to the point where his eyes only showed.

With that, he held his breath and rushed out of his room, exhaling once he was in Frisk’s room.

They sat on their bed, going still as they looked at him with wide-eyed surprise and curiosity.

“I’m going to show you how weird I look now,” he blurted out.

“Oh!” Frisk gasped in further surprise, “no wonder you-,”

“Please shut up, or I swear I’ll just forget this entire idea and go back to my room,” he quaked, he was so anxious right now.

In response, Frisk held up their hand respectfully and zipped their mouth close.

And then…

AND THEN….!

Nothing happened.

He couldn’t do it!

Letting out a frustrated noise, “damn it,” he grumbled to himself,  “you know what… Frisk, just pull the blanket off yourself, I can’t do it,”

“Are you sure?” they asked, watching him with concern.

“I’m one hundred percent sure, just… please, I want to get this over with,” he said, “rip the band-aid off,”

“Okay, just don’t hesitate if you change your mind,” Frisk said sternly, then moved from off of their bed and walked up close to him and gently took a hold of the blanket.

“Should I count to three?” they asked.

“No, just…,” he paused to sigh anxiously, closing his eyes tight “pull it down now,”

Frisk said nothing further, only moving their arms to reveal their flower boyfriend’s bald head.

Flowey didn’t hear any gasps or any hushed remark.

Feeling absolutely confused, he opened his eyes and was surprised to see that Frisk was smiling gently at him.

“So, what are you thinking? Be honest,” he asked shyly.

“I think that I’ve had plenty of time to get used to the idea of you being bald, so I don’t really think you look ‘weird’, but at the same time, I do miss your petals too….yet either way… I’d say you’re still pretty handsome and sexy,” they said, and as they did- a flirtatious grin grew on their face.

Flowey automatically blushed, unable to think of anything proper to say, so he merely scoffed at them, a shy smile growing on his face as well.

“I can see why you were so scared to show me, it really does make you look so much different,” Frisk said, “but, definitely not in a bad way,” they added, they stepped in closer, got on their tippy-toes, holding on to his shoulder pads for support and gifted him with a firm kiss on his head.

Lowering themselves back on proper foot level, they gazed at him tenderly.

“Can I…?” they asked in a near whisper.

He blinked, he was shocked, they kissed his head? They really kissed his head? They really did that?

“Can you… can you what?” he asked back as he attempted to get a grip on himself.

“Kiss you, on the lips this time?” they whispered, bringing out a gentle hand to caress his cheek, sending a small shiver down his body, the realization of the drawbacks of rarely receiving any affection sinking in.

“Go ahead,” he whispered out weakly, his words barely heard.

Fortunately, Frisk read his lips loud and clear, and with no more waiting around, leaned in further and kissed him once again, wrapping their arms around him, making a muffled sound of relief when Flowey melted and joined in and wrapped his robot arms around Frisk’s waist, summoning his vines to caress their cheek back, tickling at their jawline.

“Asriel! Would you like to come help me with the garden?”  Toriel’s suddenly called from the hallway.

With that, the couple begrudgingly unstuck themselves, trading each other looks of admiration, longing, and curiosity.

His mind in the clouds and unable to think of anything to say, Flowey gave them a warm smile and turned away to leave.

Frisk smiled back in excitement, touching their lips at the recently shared precious memory.

...

After that, Flowey retired the scarf from his outfit, hanging it back into his closet.

It seemed to be just in time as well, as of April 11^th, when six small soft yellow petal tufts appeared one morning around his round face, and by the next day giving proof that they were going to grow in rather quickly.  

Which Flowey was clearly happy about, but didn’t stay so happy for long as the petals began growing inwards, which cupped to his face- giving him a distinguished bowl haircut look.

April 14 ^th

“You know what I look like?” Flowey questioned as he stared at his face in the mirror.

“I’m not answering this one, it sounds like another trick question,” Monster Kid murmured.

“You look like a handsome guy that I would date,” Frisk offered.

“Yes but no! I look like a damn dog with one of those shame cones around their heads,” Flowey whined, annoyed as he fidgeted with his petals with a vine, hoping he could unstick them from his face.

“Don’t be so hard on yourself Sunshine,” Frisk said “I know you feel silly right now, but you don’t have too much longer to go,”

The three teens were hanging out in Flowey’s room, having finished with a group study, they were now relaxing, well, almost.

“Ugh, I better get control over these things soon before they grow out fully and blind me,” he grumbled, looking away from the mirror, looking to his phone and began searching something up.

“Aren’t they itchy?” Monster Kid questioned.

“No, just annoying.” Flowey said “..huh, they call them Elizabethan collars,” he mumbled out loud.

“Is that the real name for shame cones?” Frisk prodded.

“Yeah,”

“Now those sound itchy,” Monster Kid joked, they then looked over to Flowey “but, you’re feeling better now, right dude?”

Flowey sighed “I don’t know, I guess I could be worse,”

“I think you’re doing a lot better,” Frisk noted.

“Really?”

“Yeah, of course, you’re smiling a whole lot more than you did last week,”

Flowey narrowed his brows at them, “you didn’t even see my mouth for most of last week,”

Frisk smiled firmly “yes I could, I saw it with my heart,” they explained, patting at their chest for emphasis.

“Whatever you say,”

“Good, because my heart and I have a lot to say,”

April 18 ^th

At precisely seven in the morning during a spring storm, lightning flashed nearby, summoning thunder that rattled the house, and somewhere a large limb from a tree fell and crashed onto a power line, causing a power outage throughout the neighborhood.

All of this caused a rude awakening to Flowey.

Confused and shaken, there was just something so frightening to him about thunderstorms at nighttime, he knew he wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep now.

Or… wait a second, he clicked on his phone to check the time, oh, no, it wasn’t nighttime at all, it was morning now, apparently, the clouds were so dark and thick right now that it was blocking out the sun.

It was then that he heard the distant sounds of Frisk and Toriel talking.

Shouldn’t they have left for school by now?

Curiously, he flicked the flashlight on his phone and left his room to investigate.

“-Just don’t open the doors and stay away from the windows,” he heard Toriel say.

“What’s going on?” Flowey asked as he met the other two in the living room.

“Oh! Good morning dear, I don’t want to alarm you too much, but there seems to be a tornado warning in effect, and, as you can see-,”

“I can’t,”

Toriel chuckled quietly, “yes, it is obvious to say that the power has gone out,”

“We were actually about to leave when Momriel got the call to stay home, so, here we are,” Frisk added.

There was an uncomfortable silence until Flowey spoke up, making it worse.

“So do you know how bad is it? Are we going to have our house blown to pieces?”

“No, of course not Asriel! The tornado is not that close to us, although, this one in particular is proving to be quite the drama queen,” she noted with humor.

“Then what was with the talk about staying away from the doors and windows?”

“Ah, yes, I am simply taking precautions from what I heard from the weather woman earlier, the winds are still rather problematic, even if the tornado isn’t nearby, debris could still be blown about, so it is always wise to stay out of the way,”

He twisted his face in anxious thought, “do you have any idea when the power will come back on?”

“Ah, no, I do not yet, I believe I will make a call to our power company right now,” she said, making her way to her phone.

He looked to Frisk, “what do you think?”

They crossed their arms thoughtfully, “I think we’ll be okay, I just hope the power isn’t out for too long, I don’t want our new ice cream to melt,”

They were then interrupted by a serious conversation between Toriel and the operator on the other line, listening carefully. . .

It seemed multiple homes (their neighbors) were suffering the same problem that they were and that there would be more incoming news of what caused it soon.

And, as they listened to the conversation, Flowey took notice that Frisk was gazing very hard at him.

He eyed them and smiled awkwardly, “what is it?”

“Your petals- they look fantastic,” they said with a bright smile.

Flowey’s eyes widened, “it’s the eighteenth today, isn’t it?”

They grinned and nodded in excitement for him.

“I completely forgot! Hold on, I’ve got to see this for myself!” he said, rushing back to his room and straight to his mirror.

Despite his cell phone’s flashlight, it was still a little difficult to see, but it was just enough to tell the difference. . .

His petals had grown significantly over the past month, but as he looked at himself, he saw that overnight, his petals had their own growth spurt, and seemed to be an inch or two longer and bigger than the old set.

He studied them closer, it was hard to tell due to the white light, but he could swear that his yellow petals were notably more vivid in shade.

As Flowey gawked at himself, an old and pleasant feeling returned to him, and for a second, he wasn’t sure what it was, but once he did, he felt like laughing at the irony of it all.

It was self-pride.

For his petals.

After a month of self-loathing for the inside and out, the disgust of being stuck in a body that often felt so alien to him...

The body that was usually the kick starter for sending him into a spiral.

The body that had betrayed him over and over.

The body that forced him to turn away from mirrors…

And now, here he was, thrilled and happy to see his petals in such a thriving state.

It made him feel crazy how complicated it all was, none of these combinations of feelings made any sense to him.

“Flowey? What do you think?” he heard Frisk nearby, he wasn’t sure how long they had been standing there.

He didn’t know what to think, he could only start laughing at how absurd everything was in his strange little life, his emotions stewing and bubbling inside of him.

Surprised by his reaction, Frisk walked a little closer, a confused smile on their face

“I don’t- I don’t know,” he managed to get out between laughs, wiping his eyes as they began to tear up, swallowing a lump in his throat, his laughter bordering on hysterical for a moment…

But then he trembled and his laughter broke off into sobs, crying now.

“Azzie… it’s okay,” he heard Frisk say softly, leaning in close, gently petting the back of his head.

“Oh, what is the matter?” he heard Toriel ask in a hushed voice.

“I’m not sure… he saw his petals and.. I think he’s really overwhelmed,”

“That is quite understandable, it is a big change and it has been such a hard time for him lately… come here dear, do you want a hug?”

He blinked his wet eyes to look up and find his mother, sniffling, he didn’t say anything as he rolled over and hugged onto her torso, to which Toriel responded quickly to, hiding her son with her arms.

This only induced more sobs as Flowey’s emotions only rose and flowed through.

“Oh- no need to cry too, come here darling,” he heard Toriel say.

At that remark, he wiped his eyes to see that- yes, Frisk had also started crying too, may be out of empathy? Whatever the reason, both he and Toriel reflexively opened their arms to let Frisk in, making a three-way hug.

“My sweet children, whatever will I do with you two?” Toriel wondered warmly as she held both in her arms “it is of no issue, I just want you to remember that I love you both so dearly, cry all you need,”

Soon, after consoling Flowey and Frisk, the three went to the kitchen, making use of Toriel’s fire magic to make breakfast, carefully listening to the radio as they cooked.

And as they sat down, Flowey began to wonder. ..

“Mom, you didn’t notice that my petals fully grew in today, did you?” he asked before taking a mouthful of his egg and cheese sandwich.

She paused to look up from her own sandwich, studying her son for a second and flicking on her glasses, and holding up her flashlight in his direction, automatically gasping in surprise, “my goodness! Look at those colors!”

Flowey grinned cheekily “that’s what I thought,”

“I apologize for not noticing it earlier, I have been so wrapped up in this weather and your tears that I did not even notice my precious son’s dramatic petals!”

He chuckled to himself, swallowing his food before speaking “it’s okay, I’m not mad, your eyes aren’t what they used to be after all,”

Toriel smiled slyly “speaking of eyes, when do you want to schedule your first optometrist visit?”

“Ten years,” Flowey answered casually, “I can see fine anyway and you know it,”

“I don’t know Azzie, I think you’re a little bit nearsighted,” Frisk spoke up.

He pointed his sandwich at them, “hey, you’re supposed to be on my side!”

Frisk smiled “you forget that the only side I’m on is love, Flowey,”

To that, he looked back to his food and sighed with good humor “of course, how could I have forgotten?”

After breakfast, the three settled into the living room, opening the curtains to let in some light, and proceeding to get comfortable, all they could do then was wait…

And then, after two hours of lazy aimless chatting, the rain slowed to a stop and the miraculous sunshine flooded into view.

Toriel was the first to point it out as she looked up and closed her book “oh, how lovely, I think I shall go check with my tulips to see how they fared,”

Frisk stretched their back, getting up from their place on the couch “yeah, I’d like some fresh air,” they looked over to Flowey, “you want to come along?”

Flowey smiled lazily, shutting off his game, “sure, why not, everyone else is doing it,”

Toriel went off to the front yard, and the two teens split off to the backyard, with Flowey following Frisk to the swing set, half hazardously wiping the seat down before sitting.

It was then when more clouds cleared away that Frisk gazed at him, their jaw going slack as they stared up at him, practically gawking.

He snickered at the look on their face “what? My petals catching you off guard again?”

Catching themselves, Frisk blushed but wasn’t embarrassed, “actually… yeah, sometimes… when you stand in the sunlight, I can see the light through your petals, it makes them look like they’re glowing, it really emphasizes how beautiful you are, and you’re so gorgeous right now Azzie,”

It was now Flowey’s turn to blush, Frisk’s words sending a whirlwind of butterflies to flutter inside of him, he couldn’t handle it…

“So… what you’re saying is… that you think I’m better looking with my petals after all, don’t you?”

Frisk laughed, “oh no you don’t! I said ‘emphasizes’, meaning that your petals only highlights your beauty, it’s physically showing us how babealicious you are on the inside, ”

And, at that Flowey was unable to think of anything to counter their argument, there was no point to anyway as his heart melted, fighting against Frisk’s flirting was a battle he just really couldn’t win anymore, it was pointless now.

Instead, he grinned shyly and rubbed at his eyes, “alright fine, but, answer me this, is this why you call me ‘sunshine’?”

“Maybe… ,” they began, but their gaze then drifted off for a second as they thought about it before looking back to Flowey, “actually, no, I remember now, it was part of the theme of a drawing I did for you, where I drew the both of us outside, but I didn’t draw the sun, because you were the sun- my sunshine! Like the lullaby,” then laughed to themselves, “you really hated me singing that song to you,”

Flowey’s eyes sparkled as he began to remember too, “oh yeah…,” he then smirked to Frisk “that was a pretty impressive thought process for a ten-year-old, maybe a little convoluted, but it was cute,”

Frisk grinned big at the compliment, “thank you,”

The pair became quiet, taking in the peaceful calm of the atmosphere, listening to the happy chirps of birds in the nearby trees.

Without asking, Flowey rolled behind Frisk, putting his hands on their shoulders for a moment, sneaking a kiss on the back of their head before he gave them a gentle push on the back, helping them get a start on swinging.

Soon enough, they were getting more than enough air that they had requested earlier, swinging back and forth.

After a few minutes, Flowey remembered something and shyly broke the silence, slowing them down.

“So… when I was having my ‘break down’ earlier, why… why did you start crying too?” he asked from behind them.

Frisk moved to a stop, letting out a soft sigh.

“…I always feel like crying when I see you cry, most of the time I don’t, but, this morning was different, I think I was holding back a lot of my feelings while we were separated, I wanted to be with you so bad, but I knew how much you were hurting and I didn’t want to make it worse, so… I guess I got overwhelmed too,”

But then, they looked over their shoulder and up at him with their bright eyes…

“It’s okay though, the sun is out now, I don’t think we have any more reasons to cry,”

With that, Flowey had no other option than to lean down and kiss them again.

.  .  .

April 21 ^st

“Not again…,” Flowey hissed to himself as another ‘Dream’ woke him up.

He rubbed at his eyes and then furiously shook his head, much like a dog shaking its fur, literally trying to shake out the memories of his dream out, hoping it would help force it to fade away faster.

Again, it had been nothing too serious, having a dream of an alluring and charming half-naked human approach him in such a suggestive way, well… in the dream, he was considerably more acceptive of the situation.

But the very thought of it happening in real life-  it freaked him out, he would have no idea what to do.

After talking to his therapist, he had further discovered that usually, dreams were the brain’s way of dealing with good and bad emotions, a compilation of feelings, thoughts, and memories putting on a show, a way for the brain to play with scenarios and resolve issues without actually going through with it.

He also learned that, strangely, sometimes the reason for dreams was about people who felt about themselves or other things they feel about.

Once after hearing that and doing more searching on the web, he began to look at his problem with his intimate dreams in a different and more scientific light, coming to realize that there was nothing he could do about it, and the best thing he could do was try to get used to them.

It was still difficult to deal with physically, but, emotionally, as soon as he changed his stance on the matter, the less stressful it all became.

He also began to consider that the dreams weren’t just an equation of how he felt about Frisk’s physical attractiveness, but also that it was more proof of how he felt about them and their close-knit relationship and how curious and eager he was to see it grow.

There were still some issues that he still worried about, like the fact that they both had shared multiple dreams in the past… but he didn’t dare linger on that thought too long, it always left him feeling too shy and embarrassed.

He looked over at the mirror, annoyed when he saw that his face was still bright orange, fed up, he decided to follow another suggestion from his therapist.

Swaying slightly as he moved, Flowey headed off to the bathroom to splash cold water on his face.

It seemed to help.

April 25th  

Slowly, Flowey’s confidence began rebuilding itself, and once the base was secure enough, he asked Frisk out on a date, promising to make it an extra good one to make up for the lost time.

They started it by going on going on their first car drive alone together, an exciting time for the both of them.

 They drove aimlessly around town, pointing out interesting things, reading aloud out funny ad signs, and singing loud duets along to the radio.

After two hours and a stop at the gas station, the mention of finding food was finally brought up by Flowey, who offered to buy.

There was then an argument about where to go, with Frisk insisting on going to a cheap restaurant, it lasted for five minutes, but they settled it by both agreeing on going to a new pizza joint as they almost passed it.

Soon after they were given a table and ordered their drinks and a big shareable pizza, they settled down.

Frisk buttoned up their shirt jacket, shivering slightly, “ah, they really got the air conditioner going on in here,”

Flowey narrowed his eyebrows in annoyance “maybe I should say something to the waitress when she comes back…,”

Frisk frowned “no, don’t worry about it, I’m sure the pizza will warm us up,” they then inhaled and let out a sigh and gave him a slow interesting smile, “….hm! Sunshine, I don’t know how you feel about this, but, all today I’ve been smelling something really good and different, I was unable to figure it out where it’s been coming from…and now that I’m in here, I just now realized who it’s coming from,”

Flowey chuckled “what, did you use Toriel’s new shampoo on accident?”

Frisk grinned excitedly “no silly! It’s you! You finally got a scent!” they said in a hushed voice.

“I do?” he asked, surprised, but mostly unsure how to feel about this news, a long, long, time ago, he had come to the realization that he was a flower without a scent and… that’s just how it was, unlike his attachment to his petals, he never cared that he didn’t have any distinguishable smell.

Actually, it was sometimes amusing when people used to try to sniff him, only to be disappointed that his ‘sweet smile’ didn’t have a matching scent… until he got to a point where he didn’t allow people to get that close.

“Yeah! It’s nice and sweet and a little spicy, kind of like cinnamon sugar,”

“Huh…I guess this is another new weird body thing,” he said, thinking amongst himself, at least he hadn’t ended up with an awful smell like ‘rotting flesh’ like some other plants, this really wasn’t so bad.

A silence passed between them.

Flowey’s frown deepened as a sudden anxious thought skittered across his mind and he brought out his phone, and urgently began typing a question into the search engine.

“What’s wrong?” Frisk asked.

“Nothing, I’m just trying to remember something,” he muttered, but as he finally found what he was looking for, his teeth grit in frustration and embarrassment.

There was another silence now, this time an awkward tension hung in the air between them.

“...Did you remember…?” Frisk whispered, leaning in, confused and worried.

“Unfortunately.” he grumbled, glaring down at the phone screen.

“Do…I get to know about it?” they asked.

He was about to say ‘no’, but as he opened to speak, he looked up to Frisk and…

Something stopped him.

He wasn’t sure if it was the look in Frisk’s eyes, or the biting loneliness of keeping all these flower problems to himself, whatever it was, he changed his mind.

So, he closed his mouth and firmly sat the phone screen down on Frisk’s side of the table.

Hesitantly, they picked it up, looking back at him and waiting for the ‘OK’, to which he only shrugged at them, shyly looking away.

Finally, they turned the phone over and began reading what Flowey had searched for.

It was an article on the Smithsonian website, on the topic of why flowers produce scents in the first place…

‘-many flowers emit scents to aid reproduction. Some flowering plants are generalists and use their odors to entice a host of insects and birds to fertilize their flowers. Others specialize, releasing scents that only appeal to particular insects-’

“Oh…,” Frisk said, then looked back to their boyfriend politely “is this what’s bothering you?”

“Hush.”Flowey muttered again, attempting to casually cover his face from the view of the rest of the restaurant, trying so hard to keep composure in public.

They placed his cell phone back on his side, “those things are natural, you know?” they then lowered their voice to a whisper “but I kind of know how you feel, my body does things I still think are inconvenient too, but it’s not a bad or weird thing, it’s just….it’s nature’s way of y’know, preparing us…for…um, future things…that might happen…and I’m not an insect but…um..,”

He looked to them in sudden interest, their words ringing loudly in his mind, making an imprint, his mood shifting and his gaze sharp.

As soon as their eyes locked, Frisk stopped talking, licking their lips briefly as if their mouth had gone dry...

A new kind of silence passed between them, this one was more intense than the last.

And, as a tint of red appeared on Frisk’s face and looked away, smiling timidly to themselves, Flowey could only take a wild guess that his partner had gotten a clue as to why he was so embarrassed.

Thankfully, a waitress then walked over to their table, the couple’s drinks and large pizza in hand.

Flowey continued to keep his eyes on Frisk curiously, and, as soon as the waitress was out of earshot and he watched as they took a sip of their tea, a streak of Flowey’s confidence began to shine brightly as he spoke up-

“Don’t know how natural it is for humans, but I’ve always thought you smelled pretty good too,” he flirted nonchalantly under his breath before taking a bite of pizza.

At the comment, Frisk almost choked, nearly losing their drink in the process, rushing to grab fifteen napkins and hold them to their mouth.

And, at the same time, Flowey’s eyes teared up as his mouth was burned by the too-hot pizza, immediately losing his cool composure as he struggled to chew.

But once they got themselves under control, the couple looked back to each other and simultaneously burst into hearty laughter as they remembered just how much of a ridiculous and beautiful mess they were together.

After they were finished and got back into the car, Frisk smiled at Flowey.

“Where to next, Sunshine?”

He grinned back, “good question Starshine, we still have plenty more of the town to see,”

As they continued on to the long and winding road, Flowey found himself blinded by the sunset, so automatically, he pulled down the car mirror to shield his eyes.

And as he peered at his reflection.. he couldn’t help but remember the day he looked at himself in the mirror, trying to figure out what it was about him that made Frisk love him the way they did, always questioning their sanity at why or how they could ever be romantically in love with a flower…

It was then that he was distracted by the wonderful view of Frisk next to him, as they focused hard on the road in front of them, the sunlight practically making them glow, a small smile appearing on their face as one of their favorite songs came on, all of it adding to the magic of the moment he was feeling…

Flowey felt the content feeling of being in love and finally getting to really spend time with them again, his body filled up with a different but very familiar and welcoming type of warmth that just didn’t come from the sun…

Was… this what it was like for Frisk whenever he caught them gazing at him? Did their love for him make him more attractive for them too?

He then remembered what they had said to him before…

“-when you stand in the sunlight, I can see the light through your petals, it makes them look like they’re glowing, it really emphasizes how beautiful you are, and you’re so gorgeous right now Azzie,”

He grinned at himself awkwardly, chuckling quietly as his heart almost choked on the love he felt.

“What is it babe?” Frisk asked curiously

 “I think I finally understand what ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder’ means now,”

Chapter Text

(Deep In Love Arc)

Chapter 9 Old Roots

                    Warnings?: None! Let’s take a break!                                          

Inspiration Song: Golden Days by Panic At The Disco

I found a pile of Polaroids in the crates of a record shop
They were sexy, sexy looking back, from a night that time forgot, mhm
Boy, he was something, debonair in 1979 and she had Farrah Fawcett hair

Carafes of blood red wine, mhm

  In the summertime, in the summertime

 Oh don't you wonder when the light begins to fade?
And the clock just makes the colors turn to grey

Forever younger, growing older just the same

All the memories that we make will never change, we'll stay drunk, we'll stay tan, let the love remain
And I swear that I'll always paint you

Golden days, golden days, golden days, golden days

 I bet they met some diplomats on Bianca Jagger's new yacht
With their caviar and dead cigars, the air was sauna hot

I bet they never even thought about the glitter dancing on the skin
The decades might've washed it out as the flashes popped like pins 

Time can never break your heart, but it'll take the pain away
Right now our future's certain, I won't let it fade away

Another year had passed by, one would say that not much had changed…

Except for the two seventeen year olds who often spent the better of their shared time zooming down in their small sky blue car in the evening hours of the neighborhood streets, sometimes being seen singing along together to their radio or laughing, occasionally doing both, their vibrant smiles practically glowing where ever they went.

It was clear that whatever they were up to, that the couple had cracked the way to having a great time, ever since the day Flowey had regrown his petals, life for the two of them had been excellent.

And one day in June, after having an equally excellent movie date with Frisk, the pair returned back home, automatically flipping to ‘just friends’ mode as they spotted a troubled Toriel in the living room.

As soon as she noticed them, she turned on a smile and approached them.

“Good evening, did you have a nice time at the cinema?” she asked.

“Mm, the movie was decent enough,” Flowey answered first “we had fun despite it though,”

Frisk gave him an sweet smile “I loved the movie, but you’re right, having fun is the more important part,”

Toriel nodded, “you speak truth, and ah, Frisk, I have news, it seems you will have to go with someone else on our trip, I most recently got a troubling call from the school about a student, so I must attend the parent conference, I wish I could rearrange the scheduling, but this is a very urgent month for me”

Frisk frowned, “don’t worry, I can handle it,… hm,I guess I can go with Papyrus or…maybe Monster Kid…? They’ve been wanting to come along,”

“Where are you going?” Flowey asked.

“Oh, to Mt. Ebott,” Frisk answered “there’s some errands to run and stuff that Momriel needs,”

Flowey narrowed his brows in thought at the mention of the mountain.

“Don’t make a big deal out of this… but…what if I came along?” he asked.

Toriel and Frisk stared in bewilderment at Flowey as if he had suddenly started sprouting ten left arms.

“Oh my! Whom are you and what exactly have you done with my son?” Toriel blurted out jokingly.

Flowey rolled his eyes, “funny mom, very funny.. I just… I don’t know, I’m still kind of uncomfortable at the thought of being there, but at the same time, I’m interested in seeing what it looks like now, it’s been a few years, so… it only might be my morbid curiosity kicking in,”

A thoughtful and proud smile grew on Toriel’s face, “whatever it might be, I am glad, and I promise you that you will not be let down, our old home has changed so much since you were last there, I hope it helps to rekindle your feelings and heal your bad memories,”

Frisk nodded enthusiastically, “and, to help, I can be your lovely tour guide! I’ll show you all the best places,”

Flowey grinned in amusement at the ironic comment, “oh, you’ll show me around? I doubt it’s changed that much Frisk,”

“I don’t know, there is a lot more upgrades, houses and hotels than there use to be,” Frisk said “…except The Ruins, it’s had the least changes,”

Flowey rubbed at a spot behind his head thoughtfully, “that’s good, I guess,” and then he looked to his mother “so what are the errands exactly?”

“Oh, just a few multiple things that we are low on, here, I will give you the list I made,” she said, proceeding to pull out her personal notebook and handing him a page.

He looked over it, taking a second to adjust to the severity of his mother’s cursive handwriting.

1. Pick up Temmie for annual family Jamboree (do NOT agree to join) 
2. Arrive at Old Home Castle, say goodbye to Temmie, wish them well.
3. Take boat ride to Waterfall, collect river water and soil.
4. Take boat ride or leisurely walk to Snowdin, say hello, buy goods and extra Cinnamon Bunnies.
5. Go to The Ruins, say hello to Chara

Flowey nodded subtly, then looked to Toriel and Frisk with hesitant humor, “what’s wrong with the Temmie ‘Jamboree’?”

At that, downcast expressions appeared on the other two’s faces, they looked to each other in uneasy concern before looking back to Flowey.

“It is best if we do not explain such things,” Toriel warned.

“She’s right… maybe I’ll tell you when the time is right, but not now,” Frisk added.

Flowey knitted his brows in worry, “yikes.”

Two days later…

Flowey stared up at the ancient mountain that sat on the horizon, swallowing an anxious lump in his throat.

“Nervous?” Frisk asked beside him at the driver’s seat.

He chuckled quietly, “do I look nervous?”

“It’s okay dude, there’s nothing to worry about, we got your back,” Monster Kid said from the back seat.

“Ya! Temmie knows, Temmie allllllls about famblie and confurt today, Temmie will protects flower friend from scared moods!” Temmie said from beside Monster Kid, sitting safely in a baby car seat.

“Thanks…I guess,” Flowey sighed, ignoring the anxious knots in his plant stomach, deciding to watch the view from his door window, hypnotizing himself as he tried to focus on the road and grass that flew past him at amazing speed.

When they got close enough, Flowey let out a loud exaggerated gasp.

“Is that what I think it is?! THEY BUILT A PARKING LOT?” he barked out, unable to hide his giant, sarcastic toothy grin.

“Um, yes?” Frisk answered, confused at their boyfriend’s reaction.

He then let out a slightly unhinged burst of laughter, “haHAHAhaHAHA!! Oh golly, this one the best examples of consumerism that I’ve ever seen,”

Frisk frowned in thought, “I guess so, but, you know, lots of the monsters who still live underground are doing well because of all the people who visit,”

Flowey smirked, settling back down and resting a palm on his cheek, looking at the rows of cars with sarcastic humor  “Frisky, I betcha thirty dollars that the same ‘people’ who visit also treat the underground like a cushy theme park,”

Frisk rolled their eyes “you can talk all you like Mr. Half Empty, but most of the visitors are very respectful, I think you’ll be eating your words when you see what everyone has accomplished,”

His smirk grew wider and he flicked his eyes to Frisk “...you said ‘most of the visitors’, what are the disrespectful visitors like?”

Frisk’s frown deepened in return “I don’t know Flowey, I haven’t met them yet, I’m just telling you what Asgore told me and you know how proud he is,”

“Y’know dude, maybe you already met disrespectful ones and just didn’t realize it,” Monster Kid suggested.

“That’s a strong possibility, considering who their top best friend is,” Flowey said, his smirk turning back into a smug toothy grin.

Focusing on driving and unable to look at their boyfriend, they merely smiled and found their parking spot.

As they turned off the car, they looked back behind them and did a double-take, and sighed in mild disappointment.

“Temmie is asleep,” Frisk announced.

“Sorry dudes, I was hoping she’d wake up by herself, but I think she’s really in the dream zone,” Monster Kid said.

Hesitantly, Frisk looked to Flowey, “babe, would please you carry her? I would, but you know I’m allergic…,”

Flowey twisted his face into something of great displeasure, “……..yeah, fine, whatever, but if she wakes up and tries to snuggle me- I’m giving her to you,”

Frisk smiled warmly, “thank you!”

Soon, sleeping Temmie was securely held in the potbot’s arms and the gang began making their trek to Mt. Ebott…

As they passed a few humans on the way up, the anxious feeling in Flowey’s plant stomach slowly returned, but he attempted to push it away by theorizing.

“You know Frisk, this makes me wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn’t gone home with you,” he then gave them a small amused grin “I think after these ‘visitors’ started coming I probably would have just left anyway,”

At that, Frisk and Monster Kid chuckled.

Flowey then gazed at the rocks, reaching out with a vine to briefly graze them “hm, do you think this makes me a visitor too?” he asked warily.

“I don’t know, you were born here after all, right? I don’t know if you can be a visitor to the place you were raised in,” Frisk answered.

“You would think, but it’s been a really long time since I felt any real attachment to this place,” he said.

“Huh, so when you do think of home, where is it at?” Monster Kid spoke up.

“That’s a very good question MK…,” Frisk said with a serene smile.

“Isn’t it obvious where my home is? It’s where I live,” Flowey said, purposely looking away from the other two now.

“I meant emotionally, dude, you know the saying ‘home is where the heart is’ and all that?”

“Yeah, I know what you meant… I just refuse to give you the answer you want right now, people might overhear,” Flowey grumbled shyly.

“Here we are! Welcome to Mt.Ebott!” Frisk said cheerfully, it took Flowey a hot second to realize that they were proudly reading from the equally cheerful giant sign above the mouth of the cave entrance.

“Cute.”

Continuing on, Flowey held his breath as he returned back to his old roots after seven long years.

They walked silently through the rocky pathways, until, finally both his thoughts and anxieties were stolen away when he was met by the graceful sight of a giant mural on the white walls.

It was a larger-than-life painted copy of an old family picture of the Dreemurrs.

Toriel and Asgore sat happily on their golden thrones, while the young siblings Chara and Asriel stood in the front, wearing their matching heart lockets.

To most, it was a grand mural, depicting the Royal family of all monster kind.

But to Flowey, it was a silly but beautiful memorable family picture, he remembered how Chara and he laughed at their regal poses afterward, or how his dad requested taking another picture because he swore he blinked- starting up a ridiculous argument with his mom.

Tears filled Flowey’s eyes as he was overcome with nostalgia and emotion, he found it hard to look away, even after Frisk walked by his side and gently caressed the back of his head.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me about this?” he asked, sniffling.

“It was a surprise, it was one of the reasons why we kept begging you to visit over the years,” they responded, “…is it making you sad?”

He wiped his tears “aheh, of course it is, this picture has always made me sad, but, for some reason, seeing it like this kind of makes me strangely happy too…,”

Frisk nodded, smiling lovingly, a melancholic look in their eyes as they gazed up at the painting with him.

“Were you guys a happy family?” Monster Kid asked gently, quietly.

Flowey looked over to his friend briefly, “…yeah, we were for a while,” he said, then gave a long sigh and turned away, “I’m glad we got things back on track,” he then looked down at the small sleeping Temmie in his arms, “c’mon, let's go,”

As they continued walking, seeing less white wall and even more paintings of family pictures, of young Frisk, even him, proudly showing the world bits and pieces of their family history.

He noticed small things, like how Toriel’s throne had been moved back next to Asgore’s, or the subtle newly three built rooms, one that had a sign above it that read ‘Royal Office’ - quickly noticing that it was locked, which was interesting considering how welcoming his father is… or was?

“Hmm, I should go ahead and tell you that this is where they moved Old and New Home at,” Frisk spoke up.

He looked over at them “huh? What do you mean ‘moved them’?”

“Well, the door on the left is where Toriel rests at when she visits, and the room on the right is where Asgore rests, then they meet in the office when they need to work together,” Frisk explained, “they also told me that if something bad is to ever happen again, that this is their ‘safe bunker’,”

“Hm, I guess that makes sense…so…dare I ask what they did with the original Homes?” he asked.

“They added a few new rooms and turned them into free Inn rest stops,”

Flowey narrowed his brows, agitated by this news “right, okay, that’s fine, I guess.” he then took a deep breath and…exhaled… letting his hang-ups go for now.

Again, Frisk sympathetically gave him a pat on the back of his stem “sorry, we all had a feeling that you wouldn’t like it-,”

He waved a hand at them “-no, it’s fine, I don’t have the right to be upset, I’m the one who chose to disaffiliate myself from this place in the first place, I didn’t want to care or even remember that it existed, remember?”

Frisk nodded “mmm...so, does that mean you care about it now?”

He sighed at that, “I don’t know… I became a sociopath here, so I was afraid that coming back would rub salt in my bad memories, but it seems that’s not the case yet,”

Frisk smiled warmly “that’s great to hear, Sunshine,” they then leaned in closer so only he could hear, “just tell me if you start to feel bad and we’ll get out as soon as we can,”

He smiled back, nodding.

They then entered the long golden hallway, which had understandably gone untouched.

Flowey then suddenly tensed up.

This is the room where he’d endlessly fought against Sans all those dead timelines ago.

He could practically see the two of them brutally fighting it out as he looked around, bones, lasers, and friendliness bullets everywhere.

“I always thought this place was gorgeous, were balls ever thrown here?” Frisk asked suddenly, breaking Flowey out of his deep thoughts.

“Balls?” he echoed, scrunching his face at them in confusion, but silently thanking them for distracting him, now focusing on the conversation and keeping his gaze centered down on Frisk’s boots as they walked.

Frisk let out a small immature giggle “uh-heh, you know, like a dance party but fancy? Or I don’t know, a gala?”

He shrugged, “I guess, maybe a handful of times? But I hardly remember them, why don’t you ask Asgore and Toriel instead?”

Frisk let out a sigh, “I could try, but sometimes it’s hard to talk about underground history with them, I think I’ll have better luck talking to Gerson,”

“Mm, where’d you say he moved off to again?”

“Nearby where Mettaton lives,"

“Oh yeah, Fairaway city, isn’t that like a five or four-hour drive from here? Why’d everyone have to go somewhere so distant?”

Frisk smirked at him “are you avoiding the pun on purpose Sunshine?”

He gave them a Look full of determination “of course I am, I will never be controlled or caught in the web created by the lawless Joke Bureaucrats,”

Frisk laughed, “don’t worry, I won’t out you to the Joke Police,”

Flowey had to laugh too, “thanks, I knew I could count on you Frisky,”

As soon as they were out of the golden hallway, Flowey quietly sighed in relief.

Entering the next room, the group gathered near the elevator.

“So, do you want to check out the Inn real quick?” Frisk asked.

“No, we still need to get Temmie to their family thing, but… uh, maybe later…?” he then looked down and gave Temmie a little poke on their cheek “are you passed out or dead?”

As if he had pressed Temmie’s ‘on’ button, she jumped from his arms and onto the floor.

“We’re here! Jamboree fambily time!” she then looked to the three others with excitement, “would you like to do a join? Become part of Temmie deep lore?”

Frisk grinned shyly, “oh, no thank you Temmie, I’m afraid we can’t make it, we have lots to do today,”

Her excitement relaxed a little “no join? Free offer!”

“No join, we have our own deep lore to continue, but thank you so much for wanting to include us, have fun during your Jamboree!” Frisk said.

“okie! Thnks for carrying Temmie! boi!” she said, and with a final wag of her tail, she was off, departing from the three teenagers.

“Cool,” Monster Kid commented.

Flowey gave a high five to Frisk, “it’s also more proof of why you’re going to make a phenomenal ambassador,”

Frisk blushed, “it wasn’t much, I was just being nice,”

“Of course, but you handled that a hell of a lot better than I would have…. but, whatever, just accept the compliment,” Flowey said, giving them a teasing poke on the tip of their nose with a vine.

Giggling, Frisk smiled warmly “okay, fine, I will,” they then looked to the elevator, “next stop, Alphy’s pharmacy,”

“The Royal drug dealer,” Flowey blurted out jokingly.

Frisk attempted to stifle their shocked laughter, giving Flowey’s potbot a bat on the shoulder pad “shhh! Don’t be rude!”

“Why? Does she still have her cameras hooked up?” he asked.

“Yes and she sometimes keeps watch from her house! She could be watching now!” Frisk scolded.

At that, Flowey became serious, looking about and doing a double check around the room, “golly Frisk, I wish you had told me that earlier,”

“Sorry, I had wrongly assumed you weren’t going to make bad jokes,” they retorted, finally pushing the open button for the elevator, letting the two others go in first.

“Let’s not argue guys, let’s keep things cool, okay?” Monster Kid spoke up.

“I would like to,” Frisk said with a sigh, proceeding to look for their button on the wall and pressing the one they wanted.

There was a moment of awkward silence as the room vibrated them to their destination.

“...You’re still not going to out me to the bad joke police, are you?” Flowey asked gently.

Frisk smiled, “of course not, you may be a bad boy, but I would never rat you out,”

He laughed “thanks again,”

As the doors opened, he realized they had gone past The Core, a chunk of Hotland, and straight to Alphy’s Lab (now pharmacy).

The whole place was different, there were a few isles of shelved goods and foods, over-the-counter medicines and vitamins, on the walls were now fridge doors that held many drinks, basically it held the usual basic needs to live.

Over at the end where her computer used to sit, was a little room sealed up by a glass window with an electric cash register, it was of course where all the serious medication was held.

He looked up to the second level of the room and gasped the same gasp that he emitted when he saw the parking lot.

“IS THAT A SOUVENIR SHOP?!” he practically yelled, accidentally catching the attention of a few customers- but they weren’t bothered and at the moment he didn’t care.

Without hesitation, Flowey made his way over to gawk at the irony of it all.

“Oh boy, I forgot about that…,” Frisk sighed, following after him, and Monster Kid in the tail end, smiling with confused humor.

“Let’s see… water bottles, magnets, storybooks, blankets, shirts, and- PLUSHIES?!” Flowey exclaimed and showed a small sweet smiling plushie of Papyrus to Frisk “there's PLUSHIES?”

Frisk took hold of the plushie with care “of course there is, monsters are just that cute, it helps to paint them in a friendlier light too,”

Flowey scanned the bunches of the toys skeptically, “hmph, cute huh? I would ask why they haven’t made a plush of you, but I guess it’s because you’re a human,”

“It’s also probably why they didn’t make one of you, Asgore and Toriel don’t really like the idea of strangers cuddling up with toy versions of their kids,” they then held up a Mettaton EX plushie “there’s plenty of this good looking guy though,”

Flowey laughed through his teeth, still slightly frustrated and disgusted by all the consumerism, but at this point, there was nothing he could do about it, and if it was making money for his family and friends, then so be it.

He then looked over and back at the food, “I have a feeling we’ll be here for a little while, do you two want to pick up something to eat from here, or do you know a better place?”

Frisk smiled at the subject change “there’s a little barbecue restaurant not too far away, it’s pretty neat,”

Flowey thought about it, pausing in thought “…is it fire-themed?”

“Actually, no, it’s ice-themed but it gets a really good view of the lava outside,” Frisk explained, then smiled “and in Snowdin, there’s a sister restaurant that’s lava themed,”

Flowey narrowed his brows in further thought “so… what’s the theme of the restaurant at Waterfall?”

Frisk laughed shyly, “there is none, but there is a really tasty ramen shop…oh, maybe it’s water-themed?”

“Ramen shop huh? How many stars would you give it? Five being the best, one being 'oh no, there's a moldsmall in the food'!” Flowey asked, skeptically.

They rubbed their chin in thought, “hm, I guess four and a half out of five? Although there’s a special bowl that has snails that you might like, I know Toriel does,”

He smirked, making his decision “why four and a half?”

“Because Fuku is one of the cooks there and… she’s great at what she does, but sometimes she accidentally overcooks things, but it’s okay because a lot of the locals like burnt noodles, it’s… just not for me,” Frisk explained honestly.

Flowey raised his eyebrows, “Fuku fire huh? Are you sure it’s the burnt noodles that the locals like?”

Frisk laughed, grinning cheekily “yeah, that’s probably part of it, she is pretty hot,” but then they shook their head dismissively “don’t get me wrong, she makes an excellent soup, she’s just got the job not too long ago and is still learning,”

Flowey waved a hand at them “okay, okay, I get it, you’ve convinced me, let’s get some noodles, we have to go to Waterfall anyway,”

Frisk clapped their hands in success “great! Let’s find Monster Kid and get going!”

After grabbing their monster friend, the three teens exited the pharmacy and made their way down the nearby hill that lead to the river.

To Flowey’s slight disappointment, River person was not there and neither was their boat… he wasn’t surprised, after the barrier was broken and everyone officially left the mountain, River person had mysteriously disappeared.

It was possible that much like the other monsters, that River person had merely left as well and had gone on their own journey, but if they had, they must have gone very far because everyone that Flowey asked- all said that none of them had seen or heard from them in the past seven years.

Instead, a tall, lanky old woman with long grey braided hair sat in a wooden motorboat with the words ‘St. Anywhere’ engraved on the side and the Royal family rune printed next to it.

At the sight of the three teens, her eyes lit up, “ah! Frisk, Monster Kid, good evening!” she said, waving a hand, revealing that she was eating an apple.

“Good evening!” Frisk greeted cheerfully.

“Good evening, mam’m,” Monster Kid greeted politely.

“Howdy, nice to meet you,” Flowey said, “my name is Flowey,”

The old woman grinned at him “I know very well who you are boy, your parents have told me all about you, but I know you’re a real miscreant,”

The smiles on the three teen’s faces faded in confusion.

“He’s not that bad mam’m, he’s actually a gentleflower,” Frisk spoke up protectively.

“Yeah, you don’t have to worry too much about Flowey, he’s cool,” Monster Kid added.

Flowey on the other hand stayed quiet, not bothering to plead innocent to his case, instead of watching the woman in wonder.

She let out a cackle, “oh yes, I know that too, but I can see in his eyes that he’s got some secrets up his gloves,” she then took a crunchy bite of her apple, looking thoughtful “never mind that, you three need to get somewhere, climb aboard,”

As the three got into the boat, the woman sat herself into the driver’s seat, stuffing the half-eaten apple in her dress pocket.

“Where to?” she asked.

“Waterfall,” Frisk replied.

“So, what’s your name?” Flowey asked curiously.

“You can call me Vise,” She responded.

He nodded, “do you know anything about River per-,”

Vise looked back at him sharply “ah, here we go again! You would not believe how many times I get asked that! I swear they need to put up a sign ‘River person is gone, anyone who asks about it will be fined fifteen cents’!”

Flowey chuckled lowly “you didn’t ask my question, mam’m,”

“Well young man, the answer is ‘no’, I do not know anything and at this point, I am sorry that I don’t because I’m sick of hearing the question!”

Flowey narrowed a brow “okay, I got a new question, are you River person?”

The other boaters gawked at him for a second before Vise laughed loudly.

“Of course I’m not! I was told River person was a monster, do I look like a monster to you?” she retorted.

At that, a big toothy grin spread across Flowey’s face “FUNNY! We never even seen River person’s FACE, so we all assumed they were a monster, and your name is ‘VISE’, it’s clearly a shortened anagram for RIVER!”

Vise gaped at Flowey’s crackpot theory, but then started laughing again.

Meanwhile, Frisk and Monster Kid sat in stunned and confused silence, now waiting for Vise to give an answer.

After a moment of a giggle fit, she finally got a hold of herself and spoke up.

“You are a very funny boy, Flowey, but no, I will honestly say to you that I am not them, I’m just a crazy old woman who may or not be magic,” she replied.

Flowey twisted his face in disagreement, but sighed, giving up “okay, fine, whatever.”

“And-! Here we are, when you come back, I hope for my sake, that you bring better topics,” Vise tutted.

Flowey smiled begrudgingly at Vise “I’ll be thinking of them,” and with that, hopped off the boat with Monster Kid.

Frisk hesitated for a moment and turned to the driver “sorry about that Ms. Vise, he hasn’t been down to the mountain in a very long time-,”

She shook her head, “no need to apologize, I understand the type of person he is,” they then lowered their voice to a whisper “he will say sorry in due time, he always will,”

Frisk merely smiled and turned to make their way off the boat.

As soon as they were out of earshot from Vise, Monster Kid spoke up.

“Why in the world would you grill that poor lady like that, dude?”

“Because at the moment- it seemed plausible, I wasn’t actually sure though, and I thought maybe if I accused her, that she would give up and confess,” he then nudged Frisk, “do you think she might actually have magic abilities somehow? You know her better than I do,”

Frisk sighed and smiled “I think she’s just a fun person, but it’s very possible, maybe I’ll ask her when we see her again, because your methods are a little bit… invasive,”

Flowey rolled his eyes, “whatever… so, let’s talk more about the ramen shop, you’ve told me about the cook, but who’s the owner?”

“A nice middle-aged man named Taiki Matsuo, the story is that he came all the way from Japan to see the mountain and loved it so much that he decided to move in, he was also a chef in training and was really inspired to make a restaurant,” Frisk explained.

“Figures…so, where is it?” Flowey pressed on.

And as he said that, he was met by the sight of Undyne’s old fish-shaped house…

But like the other parts of the mountain, the home had undergone some big changes.

At first, he thought it was due to being rebuilt after the old spaghetti fire, but it didn’t explain the obvious glowing sign on the fish house’s forehead that read-

Sūpā Yama Men!

“He bought UNDYNE’S PLACE?! How in the HELL did he get permission for THIS?!” he blurted out, completely shocked.

Frisk grinned, “from what I heard it wasn’t easy, but he wouldn’t give up on it, and after giving Undyne a test taste of his food, she decided he could have it if…he battled her,”

 Monster Kid was nearly bouncing with excitement, “I was there too! It was amazing! Taiki ended up getting this really cool scar on his cheek and everything!”

Frisk smiled half halfheartedly, “didn’t he almost die?”

“Yeah, but she had Mercy on him, you should have been there Frisk, it was so amazing,”

Frisk sighed “I know, I should have been there, but I was too busy being ambushed by stinkin’ strep,”

Flowey crossed his arms “hm, so he’s been here nearly five years huh? You guys sure kept a lot of good secrets from me for a while,”

“They weren’t ‘secrets’ they were all part of the surprise! The very elaborate surprise!” Frisk corrected, then smirked sheepishly, “…is it safe to assume that you’ve been surprised?”

He grinned and rolled his eyes and wrapped his robot arm around their shoulder in a side hug, “yeah, that’s definitely one of the emotions I’ve been feeling since coming back,” he then pat their shoulder warmly, “but we can talk more about the surprises after we eat these noodles you keep hyping up, I’m dying of hunger, c’mon Frisky, c’mon MK,”

With that, Flowey practically pushed the two others inside with him, although, at the moment, he would blame his stomach for the rude actions.   

As they walked in, a middle-aged man with a long scar on his cheek and shoulder-length black hair greeted them, a bright smile appearing as he recognized Frisk and Monster Kid, this was definitely the owner.

“Hello! It’s so good to see you again! How many do we have with us today?”

“Just three of us today, Mr. Matsuo,” Frisk said, then patted Flowey’s shoulder pad, “this is my other best friend Flowey that I’ve been telling you about, he finally decided to visit his old roots!”

Mr. Matsuo chuckled at the pun, Flowey rolled his eyes in good humor and smiled awkwardly.

“It’s good to finally meet you Mr. Flowey, your parents have also told me a bit about you as well, so I am very proud to have you here,” he said, giving the teenager a deep bow, taking Flowey off guard, remembering that a bow that deep usually meant a person had a great deal of respect... Flowey guessed it was because Mr.Matsuo considered him a prince, he couldn't think of any other reason.

“Oh- uh, thank you..sir, Frisk and Monster Kid told me a lot of exciting things about your food,”

 Mr.Matsuo grinned at that, “excellent, excellent, then let’s get you three to a seat,”

As Flowey followed, he took the opportunity to observe, he found that the house had been rebuilt to be slightly bigger- but for a restaurant, it was still fairly small but was hardly recognizable, the tables, flooring, and walls a dark rosewood, with cyan flowers and glowing plants from outside that decorated the area, in the back, there was a long bar where various labeled bottles sat against the wall.

On the walls, there were painted pictures of the fish that were found swimming in the Waterfall streams.

Once at a table and their orders all taken, Flowey finally gave his opinion.

“I’m furious with you Frisk,” he hissed in a hushed voice, exaggerating a little.

Frisk’s mouth gaped open in shock “why?”

“Because you didn’t tell me about this place! Imagine, we could have been eating HERE all these years!” he then leaned closer, lowering his voice into a full-on whisper “we could have had our first DATE here instead!”

Frisk smiled apologetically, “sorry babe, I always wanted to, but you know how secrets are,”

Flowey’s frown pulled deeper “what if I had decided to never come back to the mountain? Were you really going to keep it a secret that long?”

Frisk paused at that, thinking it over before responding, “ um… maybe not forever, but would you have come back if we had told you about all these changes? You did feel really strongly about not returning,”

Flowey sighed, rolling his eyes again and rubbing at his cheek “…ugh, I don’t know anymore,”

Frisk gave him a timid smile, “it’s okay, you’re right… ,” they then realized something “I think we should have just told you about these places to lure you in instead, I’m really, really sorry,”

He smirked at them, “you just really like to surprise me that much, huh?”

Frisk nodded shyly “I do”

“Has it been worth it so far?” he asked.

Frisk grinned guiltily, practically sinking in their seat “yes… yes it has,”

Flowey laughed and gave Frisk another side hug.

Soon, Mr. Matsuo came back with their drinks and food.

Flowey had gotten the special spicy ramen that had snails and bits of vegetables.

Frisk ordered one with almost more vegetables and grilled mushrooms than noodles.

And Monster Kid ordered ramen that contained a boiled egg and juicy pieces of ham.

The teens were pleased as they found their meals delicious, taking less than thirty minutes to finish.

“Golly, I know you guys set my expectations high, but is it usually this good?” Flowey asked as he took a sip of his drink.

“Oh yeah, Fuku just keeps getting better and better at cooking,” Monster Kid said.

“Actually-,” Mr.Matsuo cut in, walking up to their table “I cooked your meals,”

Flowey held back what would have been cheeky laughter, “if you were attempting on making a good impression on me, then you succeeded big time,”

Mr. Matsuo smiled in humor “that was my plan, your mother warned me that you’re a very fearsome food critic, the moment I realized who you were, I trembled in fear,”

“Don’t worry sir, I know he’ll write you the best review you’ve ever gotten,” Frisk joked kindly, “by the way, is Fuku working today?”

Mr. Matsuo crossed his arms and sighed “no, today is her off day, but I’ll tell her that you three stopped by,”

“Thanks,” Frisk said, then looked to the two others, “are we done?”

“Yeah dude, I’m full,”

“Yes, I’m ready to go whenever,”

Pleased, Frisk looked back up at Mr. Matsuo and flashed a grin “check please!”

They then noticed the displeased look on Flowey’s face and spoke up before he could “don’t worry, Momriel gave me some money, she wanted to treat us,”

“Why didn’t she give me any?” he asked under his breath.

“Because it was part of the surprise,” Frisk answered, giving him a cheerful pat on the potbot shoulder.

Soon everything was paid for and the group fueled and refreshed.

As they stepped out, Monster Kid turned to the other two.

“So, I don’t get to come here much, and there’s some things I’ve been dying to check out, you guys don’t mind if I split off for a bit and we meet back up later?”

Flowey shrugged “fine by me,”

“Yeah, go do your thing, we’ll text you if anything comes up,” Frisk added.

“Cool! I’ll see you dudes later! Have fun, don’t do anything I wouldn’t!” Monster Kid said with a mischievous grin and walked off in the direction to Snowdin.

Flowey laughed in embarrassment, “shut up!”

 He then looked to Frisk who proceeded to give him a flirtatious wink, causing him to laugh more.

Shyly, as a distraction, he pulled out Toriel’s list and handed it to Frisk, “here, neither of you explained how to get the dirt and water so I’m guessing you’re handling it,”

Frisk took the note, re-reading over it briefly before handing it back, “yup, I got the gear, give me a sec,” they then took out their phone and from their Dimensional Box, they retrieved a shovel, a large metal box, and two pitchers.

He followed them over to the nearby river and watched as Frisk got on their knees and started with the pitchers, dunking both into the glowing cyan waters and filling the containers up, and sliding the tops back on with ease.

Once he was done gawking at how magnificent they looked bathed by the bright blue luminescence, he quietly rolled over and lowered his potbot to sit properly next to them.

“Here, I’ll dig the dirt for you,” he said as he grabbed up the shovel “to the top?” he asked, flicking his gaze to them.

“Yup, as much as you can get,”

He did as he was told, putting his strong robot arms to good productive use.

Not too long, later as he began to finish, he heard Frisk speak up…

“I’ll never forget how I felt when I first came down to Waterfall… I was so anxious with Undyne trying to hunt me down, never knowing when or where I’d see her next- but seeing this place and seeing how the water, plants, and rocks glowed in the dark… it distracted me… it put deep feelings in me that I never felt before,”

He looked back up at them, his breath swept away by the intense look in Frisk’s eyes as they stared into the waters, one that he’d rarely got to see.

“Was it a bad or good feeling…?”

“Both I guess…it was a melancholic feeling, but at the same time…I felt strangely soothed,”

He nodded slowly, “I know what you mean, this place has always had a similar effect on me,” he then let out a long sigh, “a long time ago, I once overheard adults talk about how this water was filled with ancient monster tears during the first days of being locked in the cave- that’s why this place makes us feel like this,”

“If that’s true… then they had very beautiful tears…,” they then smiled warmly to him, “I’m sure they’d be so proud that someone like you broke the barrier,”

A crooked smile appeared on his face, gazing into the water.

“I guess when they prophesized that the barrier was going to be broken by an ‘angel’, do you think they saw this face or my Hyperdeath face?” he asked jokingly, his tone slightly bitter.

At that comment, Frisk scooted closer and put an arm around him, he automatically reached for their hand with a vine, gripping it gently.

“Maybe they saw all of your faces and all possibilities, because one way or another, they knew that someone special was freeing them, and I have a feeling that it was always going to be you,” they said as they rested their head against his shoulder pad, “just don’t forget that your more than just a prophecy, Asriel,”

Flowey’s teared up at that, and he chuckled quietly, wiping at his eyes with another vine, “shh, stop it, this river doesn’t need anyone else crying in it, it’s bright enough,”

They smiled kindly “sorry, maybe we should get going to Snowdin now? Miss Shopkeeper knows we’re coming,”

He let out another sigh “yeah, you’re right, let’s go,” and with that, reluctantly gave them back their hand.

 As disappointed as he felt, it probably wasn’t the best idea to get so ‘comfortable’ in such a public place.

He then finally remembered his job and quickly finished up filling the last bit of the metal box before handing it back to Frisk.

With that, the couple got back up and returned to their errand, and after talking about the long path ahead, they both agreed to take Vise’s boat instead.

As they approached her, they saw she was now eating an orange, this lady really enjoyed her fruit.

“Hmm, what happened to your lizard friend?” Vise asked, she then stared Flowey down “did you have something to do with it?”

Flowey cackled “oh yes mam’m, I tossed them headfirst into the garbage and they never came out,”

Frisk rolled their eyes, “don’t listen to him, Monster Kid had some non-garbage related sightseeing to do on their own, we’re meeting back up later,”

Vise nodded “I see, well, don’t make me wait, get on in here if that’s what you need,”

“It’s what we need,” Frisk answered, getting on first and helping Flowey on.

“So, where to next?”

“Snowdin please!”

As the boat began rushing through, things were quiet for a moment until Frisk remembered something.

“Sorry to bother you Miss. Vise, but we have a question about what you said earlier,”

She swallowed her food to smile kindly to Frisk, “ask away,”

“But… are you magic? Like maybe a witch?”

Vise chuckled at that, tossing the orange between both her hands like a half-eaten ball, literally playing with her food “oh, I might be a witch, or I could just be a silly lady who knows a few magician tricks,”

As she said this and the fruit hit her left palm, it changed right in front of their eyes- turning whole again, completely round with its peel back on.

“Oh! Wow! That was amazing!” Frisk chirped, clapping their hands.

Flowey chuckled, “heh, your employment here makes much more sense now,”

“Whatever you say flower child, as long as you don’t call me a replacement, then I’m happy,” she said, pleased, putting the orange in her dress pocket.

Flowey narrowed his brows in agitation, “I’m not a child,”

She laughed, “funny boy! You can’t be older than twelve,”

“I’m SEVENTEEN!” he barked.

Vise continued laughing, as if that was the funniest thing she had heard all week.

Frisk looked at the both of them with some unease, “he’s not joking, he’s definitely seventeen,”

Vise wiped her eye, regaining composure, “with the way he acts, are you so sure?”

Frisk smiled awkwardly, letting out a small chuckle “um, yeah, I’m super sure,”

Visibly ignoring Frisk’s comment, Flowey pointed to Vise “you don’t act your age either, it makes sense you have no idea how to gauge mine, how old are you anyway?”

“Five and a half!” Vise answered without hesitation, pulling herself into another laughing fit.

Flowey was then never more thankful to see snow in his life as they pulled into Snowdin.

“Alright, as much I love chatting with crazy women, it’s time to get going, c’mon Frisk,” Flowey said quickly, hastily hopping out of the boat.

“I share the same feelings, I love talking to the local crazy women here, we usually get together and talk about annoying teenage boys who don’t know how to hold their tongues when they should,” Vise retorted.

 Frisk smiled nervously, “sorry about him again, I guess we’ll see you later?”

Vise nodded to Frisk, “you will, but not too soon,”

“Oh, okay, well thank you for the boat ride!” Frisk said and hopped off, running to join Flowey who already started rolling away.

And as they got a better view of him, they started giggling.

“What is it?” he asked, still slightly annoyed.

Frisk bit their bottom lip to stop themselves from letting out any more giggles, they then took out their phone, and with an easy ‘click!’, they snapped a picture of him.

They then showed him the picture, revealing that somehow, Vise had placed her orange on top of Flowey’s head, it was strangely a cute look for him.

Flowey gasped, reaching up to snatch the orange from off his head, and scoffed in annoyed amusement.

“If you show that picture to anyone I’m stealing all of your shoes, but just the left ones,” Flowey threatened.

Frisk laughed, “why steal my shoes? Wouldn’t deleting the picture be easier?”

“No, I need it to exist for posterity, also, hang on a second,” Flowey then pulled out his own phone and pulled out one of his scarves, almost performing a magic trick of his own “if I don’t put this on now I’m going to be regretting in a few minutes,”

“Oh yeah, I should probably zip up too,”

Once the couple was suited up for the cold, they began walking again, crunching along in the snow.

As Flowey observed the area, he saw that there were definitely more houses than before, the one apartment building towering above, and as they reached the main street, he found it bustling with a fair bit more people than the other places.

As they approached the old Shop and Inn, he discovered with some relief that absolutely nothing had changed about them.

He also remembered Hysopp, the two of them had barely talked since the camping trip… which by now he felt absolutely guilty about, because for the worst reasons- he hadn’t treated Hysopp very well, perhaps it was finally time to try to attempt a real friendship?

At second thought, he winced, suddenly hoping Hysopp wasn’t around right now.

With that, he opened the door for Frisk to let them in first and hesitantly followed in suit.

But as they stepped inside, he allowed himself to relax, it was hard not to with the warm atmosphere and the sweet smell of the cinnamon bunnies- this place really hadn’t changed, had it?

“Pumpkin! So nice to you again,” Shopkeeper greeted happily, “your mom pre-ordered everything to go, so I have everything ready for you in this bag,” she explained, pushing a heavy paper bag forward.

“Oh! Thank you, this makes it all the nicer to see you too!” Frisk said “let me get the money,”

“And Flowey! It’s been a long time since we saw each other! You were so much smaller then, your parents have told me so much about you, we’d almost given up hope that you’d never come back,” she chatted.

“Yeah, I was actually sure I wasn’t coming back for a while too, but, I don’t know, I guess I changed my mind,” he explained, quietly noticing the wrinkles under Shopkeeper’s eyes, he didn’t remember those being there before…