Chapter Text
Flowery did not have long to live, and he knew this.
He knew from the moment he’d gone charging at the Knight, adrenaline coursing through his veins. He knew from the moment he’d pulled himself up against that cherry blossom tree, petals spilling out from where his guts should have been. Susie had tried to tape him up in the Light World, but… his time was coming up.
A flower was neither Darkner nor Lightner. A flower could not be taped up the way, say, a television or computer could be; it relied on nutrients, on water, on air to survive, and without even one of those three things, he was doomed to wither away. Despite Susie’s attempts at saving him, his xylem was already blocked off, and he’d begun to grow weaker and weaker without the water and nutrients he so desperately needed. In the plainest of terms, he was starving to death—and he’d accepted this, initially.
…Of course, acceptance was easier without being dragged into another Dark World.
It hadn’t been more than a few hours prior that he found himself scooped up by the monster girl, brought into the sunlight for the first time in years to move him to the elusive Castle Town. The sunrise’s rays kissed his cheek, the brisk air chilling his skin even from within his chamber of glass and soil; how long it’d been since he was held in Toriel’s arms, felt the breeze against his petals, truly enjoyed the fresh air…
He remembered it like it was yesterday.
As soon as it had arrived, though, the sunrise was gone, instead replaced with the dusty halls of Susie’s school. This must have been where their fantasy laid… and indeed, he was right. Susie opened the doors to a storage closet in the back and jumped into the deep, vast void before her, and suddenly, Flowery felt himself begin to take form.
The form he got to have for one shining day; the form that couldn’t protect Asgore.
“Dude, the hell happened?! You didn’t look that bad in the Light World!” he recalled Susie shouting when they touched down in Castle Town. Indeed, Flowery took a look at himself, and—
What was once fair, light golden skin had gone brown—not fully, but enough to signal the end, much like muddied, deep gold—and turned rough to the touch, brittle and growing numb. Trying to float, let alone walk, felt much like grinding rusty gears against one another, and his breaths were shallow, nowhere near able to cry nonsensically as he was before his grave encounter—but perhaps most importantly, the tear in his clothes revealed a nasty scar along his middle, barely held together with stitches and medical tape. He was dying, and dying flowers were even more fragile than living blossoms.
“It’s natural for my kind. Don’t worry, princess,” Flowery tried to reassure her. “Flowers like me aren’t supposed to have long.”
“No, hang on, I’ll go get some water—”
“No, Susie. That’s… not how it works,” he chuckled bittersweetly. “You’d need to cut my stem, and…”
“Then we’ll go do that! C’mon, let’s go!”
“Someone like you shouldn’t be handling me like that. I’m poisonous. It’s too dangerous.”
“I’ll just wear gloves or something, trust—”
“Susie… he’s right.”
Ralsei, having appeared suddenly behind Flowery, ran towards the two and scanned the flower man quickly yet thoughtfully, whimpering quietly when he’d finished assessing Flowery’s physical state. He hid his mouth in his scarf when turning to Susie, before pulling it down to flash a warm smile that seemed more tumoltuous than usual.
“Just… just make sure he has a good time here, okay?” Ralsei requested, arms crossed behind his back. “Why don't you show him around town for now? I'm sure he’d love to meet the others!”
“Uh… alright,” Susie conceded, though she didn’t appear as enthusiastic about it as Ralsei did.
Really, enthusiastic was the wrong word for it all. They were torn up about it, and trying to make light of it where they could. What else could you feel when you knew you couldn’t save someone? It didn’t matter if they were a Lightner, Darkner, or neither; in the darkness beyond dark, everyone lived indistinguishably from one another, even if they shouldn’t have been able to. That was why, after she clenched her fist and cursed under her breath, Susie grabbed Flowery’s decomposing hand and dragged him into the town square.
Castle Town was absolutely nothing like Flower Castle. It was dark, for one, with streetlamps illuminating the roads—and yet, it was almost just as bright out as back home. Perhaps the most shocking thing to Flowery was that there was no sun; without the sun, there should have been no light at all! The grass was black, the dirt pale blue and assorted debris white…
It defied everything he’d ever known as a flower. And given the sheer amount of knowledge he had on the world, he shouldn't have been so shocked! It was just… difficult to believe the folks here could be happy without any vitamin D. But they didn't need it, did they? Not like he did. Not that it mattered anymore whether he received it or not. It wouldn’t save him.
The first place Flowery was brought to was the nearby bakery, where Susie met up with a small, blue and white boy with a club for eyes—Lancer, he’d heard him called. The two of them played around for a tad, and then Lancer offered Flowery a Lancer Cookie, whatever that was; there was no reason not for him to try, so Flowery graciously accepted the cookie and took a bite, taken aback by the taste. It was… chocolatey, with hints of graham and plenty of tooth-rotting icing. It was delicious! He asked for more, but was told that since he’d already tookie a cookie, he couldn't have any more today. What an interesting young lad…
With Lancer in tow, Susie then brought Flowery to the church across the street. He'd… heard plenty of stories before, about the family’s past trips out for service; about the people who ran the show, giving sermons and praying to the Angel. Yet, there was no one here he recognized—perhaps to be expected given the fact he was confined to a glass chamber for so long. Instead, he ran into two young musicians named Sweet and K_K; they showed him to an electric piano they’d programmed together, and he sat down to play a small tune. Nothing special, of course, but a song he’d learned through hearing Kris play all those years ago. Exchanging gentle fist bumps with his entourage after he finished playing (including a very excited Susie who exclaimed that he could teach her how to play piano, too), he was shown to a large room down the hall.
A climbing room, dark like the outdoors but illuminated by small waterfalls spread throughout. If he wasn’t so weak now, Flowery would have absolutely shown them all what was what! He could’ve leapt up the wall with minimal effort, leaving a sparkling rainbow trail behind him as he tried to set the best time… but alas, his limbs were too frail now. Instead, he watched as Susie, with Lancer resting on her back, made a triumphant climb all the way to the top in roughly forty seconds, clapping for her from the bottom—at least, until a stinging pain ran through his fingers, and he was forced to stop.
“You did great out there, Sooz,” he applauded her in an uncharacteristic whisper.
“Thanks! But seriously, you’re not going to try?” Susie responded, grinning. “I bet you could halve my time!”
“I can’t, princess. I’m too fragile.”
“Oh. Right. Sorry, dude.”
With their visit to the church finished, Susie led Flowery to the Fighting Dojo, though it honestly wasn’t much of a fighting dojo anymore. Inside, folks were getting lovey-dovey, including the missing third of Sweet Cap’n Cakes, Cap’n. Susie hadn’t planned to keep him there long, but perhaps due to the sudden whiplash, their visit was cut even shorter; Flowery didn’t exactly mind, as his strength was starting to give way… so, their next destination was the TV studio, where fun games awaited the three.
Lead around by a green Pippins who insisted his name was not Battat despite what his peers said, Flowery spectated as Susie dressed up as Susiezilla and laid waste to the Shadowguy stuntmen attempting to desecrate the golden Tenna statue in the middle of the room. She’d done a pretty good job with just him controlling her strings, despite his general lack of energy, but the moment that strange paper-mache head entered the picture, there was too much going on for Flowery to keep up the pace… Despite that, though, Susie didn’t seem to be bothered—much less Lancer, who got to ride in a baby carrier strapped to Susiezilla’s back.
Next up (and the only other game they could play without Kris) was a rhythm game where Susie and Flowery had to play along with the music. While Susie rocked a bass guitar, Flowery was given a trumpet to play—and Ralsei even joined in, taking on the role of vocals! The former remarked afterwards how strange it was to hear Raise Up Your Bat with a trumpet lead instead (apparently, Kris was on electric guitar when they played back in TV World), but the latter simply smiled and said Flowery did a great job on his instrument. A little hard to believe, given how he couldn’t play so confidently—his lungs were too weak to give the proper breaths for the notes—but he took it in as much stride as he could, grinning and patting Ralsei’s shoulder.
“Thanks, Raly,” Flowery told him.
On their way out—Ralsei decided to accompany them all, as their Castle Town tour was coming to a close—Flowery managed to run into Tenna, who immediately stopped him to make conversation and catch up on the missed years. He must’ve been coming in to grab Mike’s help for something, he thought… Tenna always did like that fellow. He seemed to be a great help around the studio, too—but it wasn’t like Flowery got to know the true extent of that help, due to the Dreemurrs’ divorce. How strange it was, to take the wedding bouquet in the divorce…
“Flowery, old friend!” Tenna exclaimed, outstretching his arms for a hug, which Flowery accepted. He was a bit too strong for his frail body, but it was no matter; Flowery simply nuzzled into Tenna’s chest, allowing his body to relax for even just a moment. Bad idea. He immediately grew weak and had to use Tenna’s waist as a crutch to keep himself upright, struggling to catch his breath after the narrowly avoided disaster.
“Oh, jeez, are you alright?” Tenna asked as he stabilized, peering over to express his concern and firmly gripping Flowery’s shoulders.
“Yeah, I’m peachy-keen,” Flowery lied through his teeth. Didn’t want even more people worrying about him, or how useless he was in the end. “Fancy we’d meet each other in a place like this, huh?”
“Yeah, haha! Kris and the gang are looking for a new home for me, though,” Tenna explained. “You probably won’t see me around these parts too much longer, haha!”
Tenna pulled away, and Flowery stepped back now that he had his footing back, quickly checking on his fatal wound; it didn’t seem to have come apart after all the strain put on his body, but it was browning and turning brittle faster than he expected. He was losing precious minutes—precious seconds—in the blink of an eye. How much longer until…?
“Here—I’ve got a gift for you!” Tenna announced, reaching into nonexistent pockets to retrieve a plush toy in Tenna’s likeness.
“It’s a stuffed toy of yours truly! Totally not backstock or anything! Haha!”
“Hah, thanks, Tenna,” Flowery told the CRT, taking the plush from Tenna’s hands and bringing it to his chest. Surprisingly, it was quite warm; whether that was a result of the storage method or because it was meant to be warm was up to interpretation, but the zipper at its back seemed to imply it was—
IT’S! T! V! TIME!
…Okay, maybe that was for the voice box inside. Flowery had himself a good laugh, and Tenna chuckled alongside him, glancing towards the other’s cohorts briefly and returning to attention with a troubled look. When Flowery turned to look behind him, he found Susie and Ralsei in conversation with each other, though neither seemed happy. In fact, Susie looked… really, really upset. He wanted to know more, but…
“Don’t worry,” Ralsei mouthed at him.
Flowery simply nodded and brought his attention back to Tenna, who he wanted to chat more with, at least say thank you for taking care of Asgore when you could, but—
His vision began to fade, and his legs buckled under his own weight, accompanied by an unbearable burning in his abdomen.
The last thing he remembered seeing before the world went black was Susie running towards his dying body, throwing herself on her knees to check on him.
Flowery really didn’t have long before his time was up.
When he came to, he found himself nestled in blankets in a spiked, pink bed—Susie’s bed, it must’ve been hers—and in considerably less pain, though he still found himself weak and brittle. His skin was growing browner, and small pieces had begun to chip off where he’d landed on himself earlier, leaving wounds that were never going to heal. Could they be considered wounds at this point? They didn’t hurt the way the gash across his stomach did, but they were unnatural; they were mutilations of his once pristine being, and they would remain there until he eventually…
…He was fine with the idea before, but having gotten to spend time in the Dark World with Susie… Flowery almost hoped the inevitable wouldn’t come. That he wouldn’t pass away. And yet…
His spiraling thoughts were interrupted by a click at the door, and a familiar green-cloaked goat boy walking through—Ralsei. What was he doing here? Flowery thought he hated him! Nonetheless, he watched as the boy carefully approached his bedside, kneeling next to it with a glass of water in hand.
“…Here. It’s for you,” Ralsei offered him, mouth curling into a bittersweet frown. “Susie really wanted you to have this.”
“Why, thank you,” Flowery mumbled in return, taking the heavy glass with shaky hands and bringing it to his mouth to sip on.
Refreshing, just as he’d hoped… but he knew it was too late for it to mean anything. It was only to make him more comfortable. Credit where credit was due, it did help him feel a little more revitalized—enough to not need to worry about dropping the glass anymore, at least.
“How’s the princess doing?” he asked after a long silence made by drinking half the cup in one go.
“She’s… she’s managing!” Ralsei cheerily tried to reassure him. “She’s hanging out with Lancer right now. You met him, didn’t you?”
“I did,” Flowery recalled. “Seemed like a real sweetheart. Susie was happy to have him around when we checked out the town together. Even gave me a cookie!”
“A cookie? Oh, you must mean the Lancer Cookie!” Ralsei excitedly added on. “They’re delicious, aren’t they?”
“They are, but…”
Flowery paused, taking note of how Ralsei’s glasses had fogged over, hiding his true expression. The way his lip quivered was lending itself to less joyous readings, though… which meant only one thing.
“You came here for something else, didn’t you, Raly?”
Ralsei’s jaw fell open slightly, and he pushed up his glasses before readjusting his scarf, as if to make himself seem more composed than he was. His expression hardened soon after, and…
“You’re an idiot,” Ralsei said wistfully, and yet with equal hints of playfulness and resentment. “Going after the Knight like that? I told you, they’d kill you—”
“I knew,” Flowery responded as loudly as his perish song could muster, barely above standard speaking volume, “but you’d have done the same for Kris and Susie, wouldn’t you have, Raly?”
Ralsei shook his head, stifling a chuckle.
“Maybe I would have,” Ralsei admitted, “but it didn’t have to end like this for you. It didn’t have to…”
“What if that’s how I wanted it to end?”
“You… wanted to die?”
“…No, not at all. But if it meant protecting Asgore… I was willing to do anything.”
“…I see.”
Flowery laughed breathily before breaking into a cough, barely able to photosynthesize at this point. Damn it, flowers really were useless! One wrong step, and they would perish just like that…
It was a miracle he was still holding on as long as he had, frankly.
“Look… don’t worry about me, princess. You’ve got a town to run, don’t you?” Flowery eventually spoke, holding back more coughs.
Ralsei smiled, nodding and fidgeting with his scarf.
“I suppose I do. This is goodbye, then?” he replied, pushing up his glasses and wiping at his eyes. Poor thing.
“Hah. Nothing is stronger than a flower’s dream. If I just…”
Flowery fought to keep himself awake, but deep within him, he knew his time was up. The next moment he dozed off…
He wasn’t ready to think about that. He wouldn’t.
“Just go check on Sooz for me, okay? We’ll run into each other later, I’m sure.”
A lie—and a blatant one, at that—but for a moment, it almost appeared as if Ralsei believed it.
“…Alright. Take care, alright, Flowery?” Ralsei told him, smiling with tears brimming the ends of his eyes.
“I will. Don’t worry, princess.”
Ralsei grinned as tears began to roll down his cheeks and stepped outside of the doorway, slowly closing the door behind him as he went off somewhere. Probably to go find Susie, Flowery thought; she looked awfully upset the last time he’d seen her, and he could only hope she would forgive herself for what happened.
It was never her fault he didn’t make it. He wasn’t meant to make it. If she’d tried to handle his stem and accidentally got the secretions in her eyes or mouth, things… weren’t going to end well for her. He worried for Kris, having seen them take the remaining seeds from his chamber—what were they planning to do with those? Surely, it wasn’t planting them…
Flowery was getting too tired to think. Might as well enjoy the comfort he’d been placed in, right?
Yawning one final time, Flowery let himself relax,
dozing off,
never
to
wake
up
again.