Chapter Text
Petals…
It seems as though he had accidentally trailed a few in from his garden without realizing.
“Ash, you’ve got something on your pants.” Blue pointed out, gesturing to the small collection of petals at the bottom of his overalls.
“... Oh.” Leaning down and picking off the white petals, he palmed the soft texture in his gloved skeletal hand. “Thanks for telling me. Sorry for making a mess.” He looked a few feet behind him, the occasional petal here and there.
“It’s no problem!” Blue replied cheerily. “You can go ahead and get cleaned up, there’s only a couple here, I’ll pick them up. Try not to let those fall though!” He walked away to get a broom and sweep up the other petals. There were maybe four on the floor.
If Blue had already begun cleaning up, he may as well clean himself up and keep from spilling the ones in his hands. He didn’t want to give him any more trouble.
Although, he was curious as to where these came from. Thumbing the white flower petals in his palm, he tilted his skull to one side and headed into his room. He hadn’t planted any white flowers yet.
. . .
Oh… this wasn’t good.
He’d been trailing around these strange white petals for a few days now. He really thought he made sure not to come into the house with any leaves or dirt on him after he was in the garden. Yet, somehow he was still managing to leave them everywhere. Even more strange was that Doomfanger was beginning to sneeze around him a lot more. From the pollen of his garden alone, sure the cat’s nose may be tickled enough to sneeze a few times, but- every time he walked into the room?
He didn’t really know that anything was wrong until he finally found an entire flower on the floor of his room. He had been changing into a new set of overalls; his previous one apparently so dirty that his brother ushered him to his room to change. Poplar said that he needed to be ready for dinner in less than ten minutes, so he should make it quick before Blue came knocking on his door instead, likely bursting with more energy than he knew what to do with.
Picking up the flower that had fallen from his other set of overalls, he stared at it in confusion. He’d seen this flower before. It was white - the center a faded but reddening pink, and the petals felt like soft velvet.
A magnolia.
Why was there a magnolia flower stuck in his clothes? He wasn’t growing any in his garden, and actually, he hadn’t seen any around the area either. So where did this little guy come from?
It was beautiful though. And strangely healthy looking; as if it had been grown with a nutritious soil and freshly picked. Perhaps he would keep it until he solved this little mystery. Maybe he’d bring it up to Blue if he got a little too confused, knowing that he loved a good scavenger hunt.
“ASH!” Blue began knocking on his door. “Come and eat, dinner’s ready!”
A smile grew a little wider on his face at the enthusiastic voice, his snaggletooth grazing just against his outer ‘ lip ’. “Coming.” He muttered back, placing the flower onto his windowsill. Perhaps he’d try and keep the flower alive. Put it in a planter and grow more.
Magnolias were quite beautiful, after all.
They reminded him a little bit of you.
. . .
What… was happening to him?
He stared at his reflection in utter shock. His bones were nearly rattling together as he gazed into the mirror. This… these vines hadn’t been here yesterday. What was going on?
A mess of leaves, petals, vines, and flowers intertwined themselves into his ribcage and pulled them together. Even as his bones clattered against one another in fear, his ribs remained sternly fastened to his spine, and refused to move. What was this?
Fear began creeping into his soul, an old habit forcing its way forward as he continued to stare at his scarred body. One hand traced the outline of his right eye socket - the other gently running his phalanges over his ribs and the vines. His fingers touched one of the ripened flowers, causing the area’s petals and leaves to litter the bathroom floor. Why was this happening?
He just wanted to take a shower. How was he supposed to explain this ? How was he supposed to fix this? He thought he was getting better. He thought they said that gardening was a good hobby. Was he always going to be this broken?
This wasn’t normal. He couldn’t even see his soul through his ribcage with the foliage covering it. He hadn’t been in pain because of the vines, but something told him that he would be soon if he didn’t find a way to ‘ solve ’ this problem. Who was he supposed to turn to though? He didn’t even know what was wrong with him.
Deciding a shower could wait in favor of finding out what was happening, he put his clothes back on and rushed out of the bathroom, throwing his unused towel onto his bed and going upstairs to his alternate’s personal office. He knocked on the door four times in quick succession before he opened it. Four quick knocks meant that there was a minor emergency, and it didn’t matter if Sans was a little busy with something, this was more important.
“Ash?” Sans looked up from where he sat at his desk, previously typing away at his computer. “What’s wrong?”
His words caught in his nonexistent throat, not entirely sure how to explain the situation. “... I don’t know.” He said finally, hand running over his now clothed ribcage again. He could feel leaves and petals fall under his shirt. “I… I don’t know.” He scratched anxiously at his right cheek.
“Whoa, whoa - ok.” Sans noticed the nervous tick immediately and stood from his seat, rushing over to him and pulling his hand away from his face. “Why don’t we start with-” His words caught in his throat as he looked down at the floor.
More petals. More leaves.
Sans’s eye lights shrunk and he stared at the greenery on the floor before looking back to Ash. “What..?” He was utterly confused.
“I don’t know.” Ash repeated as he slowly lifted up the hem of his shirt to show the growing vines.
“Holy shi-” Sans took in a sharp breath to steady himself as he took a startled step back. “When did this happen?” He asked, leaning down to look at the damage done.
“Today - I think…” Ash muttered in response.
“What do you mean, ‘you think’ ?” Sans was trying his best to keep his voice as gentle as possible. It was obvious how disturbed Ash was by this sudden… growth.
“... I’ve been leaving petals in the house for a few days now, but I didn’t see anything on my bones until today.” Ash hesitated, seeing the worried, ‘ Why didn’t you tell anyone? ’ look on Sans’s skull. “I… thought it was just coming from my garden.”
Sans could do nothing but sigh, and he stood up straighter again. Ash pulled his shirt back down and followed his alternate to his desk. “Let’s try and find what’s wrong.” Sans said as he sat down at his computer again and began looking for an answer.
There were… very few reasonable answers, until he finally saw something.
“Hanahaki…?” Sans tilted his head to one side and clicked the article. “A medical condition where the diseased coughs up petals and flowers that grow in their lungs. Usually the result of… an unresolved or unrequited love?”
It took a moment for Ash to realize what that meant, but when he did, his bone brows knitted together in confusion. “Love..?”
“So who’s got you so suckered that ya’ve got flowers growing on you?”
His mind stalled. Ash glanced at Sans, and despite that there was still worry on his skull, there was a considerable amount of teasing in his eye lights.
“N-no one…?” Oh no - your name was the first one to come up in his mind. “Maybe?” He turned around, deep in thought and almost muttering to himself as he felt his skull flush with a little bit of magic the longer he thought about it.
No, he couldn’t be in love with you, could he? I mean - sure, he was thinking about you quite a lot lately, but he wasn’t in love with you, right? Oh dear, his face was getting a little hot. He placed a hand on his cheek, and he could feel the steady hum of his silvery magic flooding to his face.
“Heh, you’re looking a little Ash grey , there, buddy.” Sans felt the need to desperately diffuse the situation. “Look, don’t worry alright? There’s a part here that describes the cure.”
Sans read without thinking, and the solutions to Ash’s problem were… sketchy, to say the least.
“You can get a surgery that removes the flowers… and apparently all chances of feeling romantic love - ok, yeah uh… I don’t know if you wanna do that, but that’s on you… I guess. Or you can confess your feelings to the person and hope they love you back - otherwise it will suffocate and kill you- … ok, so this is pretty bad…”
Bad? No kidding, this was terrible .
“Well?” Sans turned back to him. “What do you wanna do?”
Knitting his bone brows together, Ash leaned away from his alternate, trying to train his eye lights on anything except him or the screen in front of him. This… was a predicament. He had no qualms against a surgery. After all, who would ever want to love someone like him? But he had a feeling that he risked dusting if he did. He and his brother were still bouncing back from a famine - their HP was a fragile thing - and he’d really rather not die of suffocation either. Especially when it was so obvious that you most certainly did not like him back.
Sans could see the internal conflict, so he spoke up. “You could always tell them how you feel.”
“No.” Ash shook his head, immediately shooting that idea down.
Sans’s eye sockets widened. He hadn’t expected such a firm and quick answer. “Why not?”
“They… don’t like me like that.” Ash had turned around completely, settling to stare out the window with his shoulders slightly hunched.
Sans had to stop himself from laughing. Ash was joking right? All you did was talk to Ash whenever you came over - or spend a lot of time gushing about him to anyone who was in the same room with you for more than ten minutes. “What makes ya’ say that?”
There was another silence before Ash began mumbling. “They’re dating someone else already.”
“Whoa whoa - wait, what?” Sans’s eye sockets nearly doubled in size. This didn’t seem right. There was something missing here.
“Charlie…”
“... Who?”
Ash let out a defeated sigh. “The one who runs the flower shop downtown.” He muttered, slowly twiddling his phalanges together. “They’ve… been going on dates for a few weeks now. I met them, too. They’re really nice.”
Sans was stuck in a confused, shocked silence so Ash continued without thinking. “They’ve been going on lunch dates and… they haven’t come to help me in my garden for a little while.”
That… actually explained why you hadn’t been out to lunch with any of them on your freetime like you usually did. It turns out you’d been spending it with this “Charlie” person, but why? Sans knew for a fact that you did like Ash - so why were you spending so much time with this new florist?.. Wait… Florist ?
“I just… don’t know what to do.”
Ash’s final comment caused Sans to snap out of his bullettrain thought process. “Well Ash, whatever you want to do, I’ll be here to help. Just make sure not to tell me when it’s too late, ok?”
He earned nothing more but a nod, but it would have to suffice for now.
“Now, let’s take a closer look at those vines and schedule you for a doctor’s appointment.”
+ + + + + +
“So.” Sans took a sip of his much needed coffee. “You’re dating someone other than Ash?”
You proceeded to choke on your own drink and fell into a fit of coughs as Sans stood beside you in front of a familiar cafe. The two of you would run into each other here often.
“W-what?!” You were still clearing your throat. “Where did you get that idea?”
“I dunno.” Sans shrugged. “Something tells me you haven’t been going to lunch with any of us like you usually do, for a reason.” His eye sockets were lidded more than usual, but not just in a tired way. Something was bothering him, and he was pinning the reason on… you?
“O-oh.” You barely noticed the slightly sharpened look in his eye lights, but it wasn’t enough to cause your cheeks to turn any less pink.
“‘ Oh. ’, huh?” Sans was becoming increasingly irritated, and you were beginning to feel like you might be in danger. “So you are?”
“I mean - it’s not!.. Ok, look, Sans I am going to trust you with this information. Please don’t tell Ash. Not yet.” You floundered about as you tried to calm down your flushing face, along with the worried feeling bubbling in your chest.
You were waiting for his answer, so after giving you a nod, you took a deep breath and continued. “You know the flower shop downtown right? Papa’s Poppies? Well, I have a friend named Charlie who works there with their dad, and… they uh… may or may not be helping me every afternoon on their lunch break… to impress Ash.” Your voice became more and more quiet as you continued, your hands clutching around your cup tightly.
“Oh.”
You glanced back at Sans, face still flushed with embarrassment as you registered his reply. “‘ Oh. ’? That’s it?”
“Yeah, that’s it. It explains everything.”
“Oh… wait - everything? What do you mean by ‘everything’ ?”
“Heh. Don’t worry about it.”
“Wha- hey! You can’t just leave me with a cryptic message like that again!”
And he was gone. Sans disappeared before your eyes, taking his cup of coffee and your last bit of understanding the situation with him.
A new voice entered the scene. “(Y/n)?”
“Charlie, I need your help again!” You cried, not even bothering to look away from the spot where Sans had disappeared from. “Sans left with another cryptic, unresolved line of dialogue covered in symbolism that I don’t understand.”
Your friend laughed, shaking their head. “Don’t worry about it.” Charlie waved it off and you finally looked towards them. “We’re almost done with your lessons, so you don’t have to worry about that! A couple more weeks and your garden will look amazing. It’ll definitely impress.”
They seemed confident in the knowledge they gave you - tips and tricks and wise words for both plants and your mediocre understanding of love. Soon enough, not only would your peonies be blooming, but so would your relationship with a certain soft spoken skeleton.
“C’mon, let’s talk about those hydrangeas you wanted to plant. You said you wanted to do a spectrum of colors?” Charlie walked into the same coffee shop you had just walked out of, and you followed behind.
“Yes please. Ash started rambling about it, but he had a flower petal stuck on his skull and I got distracted.”
They laughed and shook their head, knowing full well how whipped you were for him.
+ + + + + +
“You… can’t come?” Ash visibly deflated, and you could feel a small piece of yourself die.
“I… I’m sorry, Ash.” You nervously wrung your hand over your other wrist. “I really wish I could go with you, but I just - I have something else planned.” He’d asked you to go with him to the park tomorrow.
Currently you were both tending to his garden for the first time in almost three weeks, which was triple the time you’d usually help him out. It began normally; the two of you would speak idly with each other about light topics. The weather, his flowers, what he needed to do today, how you’d been, what strange thing Blue had put in his mouth yesterday and immediately regretted. Then he started talking about going places.
Normally Ash liked to keep away from the spotlight, and he didn’t do too well in large crowds. Suddenly asking to go to the park tomorrow, when it was going to be a Friday, and several families and children would likely be there - it surprised you - and it also conflicted with other plans. It killed you inside to deny him when you’d seen very little of him lately anyways.
You used to see him everyday, and now you’d only passed him a few times within the week. Honestly, you were craving his calm demeanor against your hectic lifestyle, but every time he asked why you were so busy - well, you couldn’t tell him. After all, most of it was in preparation for him.
You were putting on the finishing touches to your garden and Charlie was coming over tomorrow to make sure that everything was perfect before you finally showed it off. You’d been working on it for months. A small paranoid part of you wondered if Ash was finally catching on and was prodding you for information you weren’t ready to release yet.
“No, no it’s fine.” Ash shook his skull, an understanding smile shining through despite his hidden disappointment. “No need to worry.” He knew you were a busy person.
“Thanks so much.” You said, gripping the flowerpot in your hands a little tighter. “Can… can I make it up to you?”
This caught his attention and he nodded.
“How about next week?” Your flowers should be just ready for him by then. “Come by my house. I want to show you something I’ve been working on.” You had a slight blush dusting your cheeks as you thought about what his reaction might be when he saw all the work you’d been doing; most of it for him.
His grin grew a little more, his grey magic dusting his cheeks just a little bit as well. “Sure. I’ll come by.” His gaze shifted down to the ground as he tried to smother the fluttering feeling near his sternum.
“Great!” You may have said that a little too loud. “Umm, for now we can get started on these flowers you wanted to plant. What were they called again?”
He gently caressed the budding flower’s petals as he held the potted plant, a warm, but sad smile on his skull. “Magnolias.”
+ + + + + +
This was it. Today was the day. You were going to present your garden and confess to Ash. You had to. No flaking out! Not anymore! The amount of times you’d begin your confession and cut it short were enough to fill your ancestors, your friends, and the rest of the skeleton house with disgrace and second hand embarrassment. Today that would end!
You clutched the small bundle of roses you’d picked from your own garden in your right hand as you stared at yourself in the mirror. You’d cleaned up quite a bit for today and set up a romantic dinner date in the garden. With Charlie’s advice of course. You couldn’t have wax candles in a place covered in plants, so you settled for the magic ones that Boss had lent to you. He didn’t tell you why he had magic candles, but it was best not to dig too deeply into that conversation.
Taking several deep breaths, you stormed out of your room with a purpose. Five more minutes until he arrived at the agreed upon time. You knew he would arrive on time because you called Sans to make sure he reminded him, just in case. Ash could be… forgetful. Which wasn’t a bad thing, but honestly it wouldn’t do wonders for your shot nerves. So you’d told Sans the other day about it, and he’d given you a thumbs up. He would remind Ash, should he forget. Although, to be quite honest, you were realizing how unreliable that may be, considering Sans could be taking a nap right now and - oh goodness, you were thinking yourself into a downward spiral.
You had to distract yourself! Otherwise, things would just continue downhill, so you walked out into your new garden. The entire place was covered in flowers; everything from shrubs of roses and hydrangeas to daffodils and carnations. Not to mention the newly installed a wooden overhang patio; vines of flowering wisterias climbing all along the sides, and fairy lights dangling from above to provide a little more light.
You’d finished making dinner already, and the magic candles were lit - fire magic flowing gently from them so they wouldn’t burn anything. Sure you’d never been the biggest romantic, but it was Ash . He was so precious and beautiful and perfect that you had to give your absolute best. Even if that meant you spent more than a couple hours watching cheesy romance movies and looking up how to set up a romantic backyard date.
Whoops, had it been five minutes over the specified meeting time already? Had you really been admiring your garden and fussing over the table setting outside for that long? Stars, you hoped Ash hadn’t rang your doorbell already and you’d missed it because you were spacing out! You rushed back into the house and peaked out of the front door, finding no one there. Well, there was no point in worrying yourself to death. After all, it was only five minutes right?
. . .
Nope. Alright, you couldn’t do this. You had to know if Ash was coming over or not. You had only waited another five minutes, but you couldn’t take this tension! If you waited any longer, you’d probably flake out and not confess. Again! Which was completely unacceptable.
Maybe you’d just… check in on him? Yeah. That wouldn’t hurt, would it? Gosh, your nerves were going completely haywire. By the time you’d reached the skeleton house, Stretch waved hello from the front porch and gestured with his skeletal thumb towards the backyard. You used the outside gate, and it clicked shut behind you when you entered from the side.
“Umm, Ash?” Your voice almost cracked and it made you cringe. Were you that nervous?
“uh oh-” His muffled voice came from around the corner. Walking past the shed, you found him sitting on his knees in the middle of the garden, his back turned toward you. He seemed to be quietly trembling, flower petals littered around him.
“Ash! What’s wrong? What happened-” Before you could finish your ramble about why he was on the floor without any other gardening tools around him, he turned around enough to glance at you. “... Ash, did you try to eat your flowers??”
He had one hand at the bottom of his jaw and the other inside the top of his shirt, both of which were overflowing with beautiful white flower petals. It looked as if he’d shoved flowers into his mouth and down the front of his shirt. To say you were utterly confused would be an understatement. You were sure your brain had blue screened for a moment.
A long pause between the two of you would have been enough for a tumbleweed to trail through, but Ash broke it with an unsure “... yes…?” His awkward pause was even longer than normal for anyone in the skeleton house.
“You’re lying.” Your tone was flat, and a little hurt, to be honest. “Why are you lying?”
Another long pause, this time his skull contorted into guilt, and he could no longer meet your eyes.
“Why are there petals everywhere? Are these…” You knelt down and picked up a fully intact flower. “... Magnolias..? But we just planted them last week. They shouldn’t be blooming like this yet-”
Ash could literally see the gears in your mind turning as soon as you stopped your sentence short. When you looked up at him, completely horrified at the realization of what was going on, he could only dig his skull deeper into his jacket. “Hanahaki?” You questioned in a whisper.
He began fidgeting again, pulling more petals from his mouth so he could speak without sounding as if he had stuffed his cheeks full. “sorry. Sorry for being late to the… ah - you wanted to show me something, right? I think Sans mentioned something about a garden? I… was excited to see what you had to work with or if you uh… needed my help.” He mumbled more and more as he continued to speak, neither confirming nor denying your assumption, which only caused worry to bloom more heavily in your chest.
“Who cares about my garden!?” You suddenly burst, causing him to flinch slightly. You also bit your lip as you realized that you said that far too loud. “Ash, you’re so much more important to me than a bunch of plants I spent months on!”
Dropping the flower in your hand and gently coaxing the petals from his phalanges out and onto the floor, you gripped his shoulders with shaking fingers. “You know you can die from this disease, right? Why didn’t you tell me? Please tell me you at least told someone else? Please tell me you at least saw a doctor about this!”
He could only offer a trembling nod as you dropped from your crouching position and onto your knees as well. You looked so defeated - almost in agony, and Ash ran his eye lights over your slumped figure. “Um… those are some fancy clothes.” He whispered, trying desperately to scavenge some sort of normalcy. “I uh- don’t know if you should be wearing those to work in a garden.” He was trying to deflect the problem, but it didn’t go unnoticed. No way, you were not letting this slide.
“They’re not for gardening.” You said with a lightly snappish tone as you crossed your arms. “They were supposed to be for a date.”
This caused the vines in Ash’s chest to tighten, and he could feel his bones begin to rattle against one another. His soul felt tight - the largest of the flowers had bloomed in the middle of it, after all. “Oh… well, have fun on your date with Charlie…” He sounded just as defeated as you did. He was only a few minutes late right? Had you already rescheduled for an event with the florist in the short time he’d been late?
“Charlie?” You were confused again. “Why would I be going on a date with Charlie?”
Ash felt the need to fidget again, but his movements were terribly restricted with the pain he’d been feeling in his bones thanks to the vines. “You’ve been going on lunch dates together for a while, right?” Stars, he sounded so petty. “It’s ok, I… I don’t mind.” He did. He did mind. He minded a lot, but he wouldn’t rain on your parade.
“Ash, I’ve only been on those lunch dates with Charlie so they could help me set up my garden for my date with you !” You hadn’t realized what words fell out of your mouth until they had already been said. Your face began flushing.
“... what?” He was also thoroughly confused. Stars, the two of you needed to communicate more.
“That’s what tonight was supposed to be.” You may as well just bite the bullet and say it while you still had the courage to. “... I know you’re probably in love with someone else right now - if those flowers are anything to go by… but, I care about you, Ash. A lot… and I can’t stand to see you like this. I hope whoever you love returns that love. You deserve it… and… if they don’t, well… you’ll… you’ll always have mine.” Your face was a decent shade of red by now, and your gaze was terribly tender, but you couldn’t help it. You loved Ash, how could you not?
There was another long pause, as there were always a lot in the skeleton house.
You cared for him too? You liked him? You… you loved him? Ash didn’t realize he’d been staring until you began staring back. He didn’t hesitate anymore - he couldn’t. Pulling you into an embrace, he laid his skull on your chest, just to hear your… you called it a heartbeat, right? He could feel the vines and flowers in his chest slowly loosen their hold. Petals fell, one by one, down his shirt and began littering the ground around the two of you.
You hadn’t noticed yet, of course, you were just glad that Ash accepted your affection. Gently hugging him back and placing your cheek against the side of his skull that did not have a massive hole in it, you simply held him. You hoped whoever he loved appreciated him the same way you did. Perhaps even more. Even if he hadn’t said anything in return to your confession, you’d be happy enough with him being happy.
. . .
The back door opened and closed. “Hey Ash? Don’t forget your date with-” It was Sans, and he was staring at the two of you on your knees and holding each other close with flowers surrounding the two of you.
Click!
Flash!
Did the bastard just take a picture?
“Did you finally confess, Ash?” Sans asked casually, clicking away on his phone as he texted the others in the skeleton house the picture. Blue, Red, Rus, and Undyne owed him twenty G each.
“WAIT, IT WAS ME?!” You squawked.
Make that thirty G.
There was a reason why he hadn’t intervened when and where most should have.
Sans had known the ending to this chapter all along.
Even if you hadn’t.