Chapter Text
After all the chaos of setting up for Noelles arrival, what with Queen deciding midway through that Noelle would require a castle of her very own and converting every other darkner to the construction project, two of three heroes from the prophecy sat within Ralsei’s newly furnished room, each with a cup of tea in hand.
Susie was slumped on the floor next to Ralsei’s bed, tapping her finger against the fluffy green carpet nervously and staring off into the distance. Ralsei stares fondly at her from the other side of the carpet, asking;
“What are you so nervous about Susie? I thought you would know all about this flirting stuff, what with all the practice you get in our battles.” He giggled, taking a sip from his blueberry tea.
“You know this is different dumbass!! In fights I just say whatever weird shit comes to mind whenever Kris tells me to flirt… today at the beach was the first time I’ve actually cared about how I was coming off to someone. The whole time I was just worried about fucking up and making her leave….. someone like her, she has options and stuff, y’know?” Susie ranted anxiously, long having gulped down her apple juice that barely passed for tea.
As Ralsei poured her another cup of the Kris tea, in commemoration of them not being at the fun gangs tea party, he reflected upon his own little experience with romance, saying;
“Well Susie… it seems very obvious that she likes you a lot, at least from what you’ve told me today. It doesn’t seem she wants any other ‘options’, you just need to tell her how you feel, wait… how do you feel?” He questioned.
Susie, having once again finished her mug of Kris juice while Ralsei was talking, stared at the ceiling in deep thought, pondering his question.
Ralsei was doing the same, but while Susie was thinking of Noelle, Ralsei, after having poured another cup of tea for Susie; thought of Flowery.
After all, how did he feel about Flowery in the end? That flower was an invasive, smart ass who really didn’t know when to shut up. But, when he talked to him privately… ‘Got it, Princess?’ That meaningless throwaway comment of his had been all Ralsei could think about for hours now.
But Flowery had lost to him. Lost to Kris. All of the golden flowers sentiments on the power of friendship and his moral drivel amounted to nothing against the heroes of the prophecy.
That’s how it’s intended to go, why he ended up dead by the blade of the Roaring Knight.
But… when he was eventually cut down by the force of the dark, Ralsei’s screams were real, Flowery ended up being the only darkner Ralsei genuinely cared about, the only darkner which made him wish for the prophecy to maybe…. Not come to pass?
He wished he could just talk to him one last time and demand why he insisted on calling him Princess, why he genuinely believed he could defeat them despite knowing the prophecy, why he mistrusted Kris so much when Ralsei wanted nothing more than to naively believe in them.
Ralsei sighed, thinking about the fate that awaited all of the flowers within Asgore’s empty store and sinking further into the soft carpet.
Meanwhile, Susie thought of Noelle and her bright, inviting smile.
Noelle had been nothing but kind to her, buying her a warm cinnamon bun and accompanying her in all the silly festival games and rides. She had done it all with a warm smile and a certain look in her eyes that made Susie want to hold and protect her forever, feeling embarrassed at this fact; she slammed her once again empty teacup onto the carpet and declared:
“So what if I can’t forget her smile? If, when I picked her up today I never wanted to put her back down! If I don’t know what to fucking do about it because apparently my flirting skills are hopeless without Kris directing me, then nothings ever gonna happen between us.” Susie yelled quietly, mindful of Lancer who was likely sleeping in the next room over.
She then sighed, saying quietly “I’m really not used to this soft romantic stuff dude, I’ve always been the tough scary girl, Noelle… could never want someone like that” She said dejectedly.
Ralsei poured her more tea from his now empty teapot, having been snapped out of his stupor by Susies outburst. He thought for a moment before responding nervously,
“I really don’t think I should be the person you look to for advice on this subject, I know even less than you about romance Susie…”
Susie looked deep in thought, muttering “I wish Blue or Green were here…. they were talking to me in the flower world about how to be all romantic and stuff. I wish they were here so I could get advice from them and stuff.”
She side eyed Ralsei causing him to shift uncomfortably. “Also, I dont know what the hell was going on with you and Flowery… but you two probably need to talk too, huh….”
Ralsei fidgeted on the carpet, “About the seven flowers Susie…with how delicate they are and Asgore being kidnapped, I don’t believe they’ll survive much longer in the light world.” He admitted, facing his head towards the carpet, fearing Susie’s response to yet another thing he hasn’t told her.
Instead of getting upset, Susie just sighed dejectedly, her fears being confirmed.
“Yeah well, I kinda knew that dude, I just wish there was a way to bring them back here safely. We spent like ages trying to prevent Yellow from blowing himself up, and now we’re just leaving them all to wither? Feels bad man, I think Noelle would’ve really liked them too.”
The two heroes sat there for a moment, before Ralsei began to prepare another pot of tea, wandering over to the kettle in the corner in his room before- BAM, Queen kicked down the door simultaneously dribbling Lancer, who was in ball form.
“Oh Yes Hello My Favourite Purple Light Nerd Susie And The Other Green One Whose Name I Forgot Cause LOL- My Second Favourite Almost-Son Lancer Has Advanced To The Big Leagues In: Lancer ball. This Calls For: Mass Celebration.” She declared, starting to juggle Lancer before scoring a 3-pointer with him straight into a hoop that did not exist before.
Ralsei grumbled from the floor, as he was right in front of the now kicked in door. “Queen, we’re in the middle of something right now could you please leave?” He grumbled in exasperation.
But this statement has the opposite of the intended effect on Queen, causing her to conjure a throne to perch on along with a gallon of battery acid.
“Oh Ralsei My Third Favourite Almost Son, You Know Mommy Queenie Just Loves Being In The Middle Of Things, Come Perch On Mommy’s Lap And Tell Her What’s Wrong.” Queen declared regally.
“Did I not tell you literally just this morning to please never call yourself mommy?” Ralsei chided, holding his head in his paws “I don’t see how you’d be able to help us anyways as its a lightworld issue.”
Susie suddenly perked up “Wait Ralsei, dude, Queens like an all knowing computer right? She might be able to tell us how to save the flowers!” She exclaimed, turning to Queen.
“Queen how could we bring seven real delicate flowers into Castletown without hurting them? Wouldn’t you like some new roommates?”
“OMG Is There Another Evil Ruler Coming To This Town. I Cannot Stand This Totally Pathetic And Non-Evil CRT Any Longer, All He Does Is Complain About Being: Totally 100 Percent Useless.” Queen denounced, the screen on her face displaying loading symbols as she searched the web.
“Yeah!! You could hardly even call him a lesser dad! He doesn’t even make splat noises when I press him!” Lancer piped up from the floor, rolling out of the room and down the hall as he spoke.
Ralsei and Susie looked at each other, beads of sweat dripping down their faces as they recalled Tenna’s pleas for a new purpose.
“Ah…..yeah, me and Kris haven’t found anyone to take him in for now, he’ll be… fine right?” Susie muttered.
Before Ralsei could tentatively respond to Susie, Queen began loudly printing a botanists article on how to press and preserve flowers.
“Here You Go Nerds, Now Go Retrieve Mommy Another Evil Ruler Or Mommy Will Be Very: Disappointed In You” Queen ordered, following Lancer down the hall, demanding he return to Lancerball practice.
“Oh! Fuck yeah that’s actually a pretty good idea, Ralsei do you think this could work?” Susie beamed.
Ralsei thought for a moment before responding in the affirmative, “I mean… the Floradinn that Seth pressed today seemed fine afterwards, I think it would be okay for us to try? Especially because they’re going to wilt anyway.”
Susie immediately grabbed the newly printed leaflet, dashing out of Ralseis room with an enormous grin on her face. “Kay well, I’m gonna go test it out now so the flowers can be pressed by morning, it can be a surprise for Kris too when they get here!”
Ralsei watched from the entrance of his castle as Susie returned up to the light world, a small smile on his face.
Seemingly talking to himself, he muttered “I do want to talk to him again… I suppose I owe him anyways. His… genuine, uncaring hope that the prophecy could be defied, I’ve never seen that before, even in Susies naive hope there has always been doubt.”
Not wanting to think about the golden flower any longer, Ralsei decided that he should busy himself with preparations for the flowers arrival, so he got to work.
Assembling a team of Swatchlings and Terakotas, Ralsei decided to expand Castletown to create a new ’suburb’ for the flowers, adding a few new public areas and a home for each of the seven flowers.
First he got the swatchlings to build a library for Seth (and himself), then he asked the terakotas to build a dance studio for Blue with guidance from a few sheary’s. While the public area buildings were being assembled he started assembling an apartment block for the seven flowers to live in.
He decided to have Aqua and Seth occupy the first level, as he didn’t want a slightly psychotic child to be up too high in general, and it would give Seth easier access to the library.
Ralsei went for light blue walls with purple furniture, because it would feel strange to add other colours to the mix. Aquas bedroom contained many child friendly weapons for her to play with, as well as some other, differently coloured accessories for her to experiment with.
Seths room mainly contained bookshelves, stacked high with books on lightner and human behaviour with a large desk in the centre of the room to top it off.
The second level was for Orange and Green, so that Orange could get her energy supply easier and maybe be slightly less annoying to Ralsei in return.
He ensured that level two would contain an enormous kitchen for Green to use as well as a punching bag in the corner for Orange to punch something that hopefully was not him.
Greens room had a…. Green colour scheme with a tea party set in the centre and a bookshelf filled with cookbooks from each dark world they had visited.
The tea party area was so the Fun Gang could pop by and see them, Ralsei hoping that Susie could spend some aforementioned quality time with her favourite flower- Green. Oranges room was more basic with simply a bed and a shelf of different boxing gloves.
The third level is intended for the couple Blue and Yellow, two of the older flowers who could hopefully look after the younger ones on the lower levels.
The third level contained only one bedroom with blue flower wallpaper with yellow targets hung on the walls for Yellow to practice his shooting with. He hoped Blue would appreciate the vase full of a familiar bouquet of yellow and blue flowers in the centre of their joint apartment.
The rest of the apartment consisted of a large pile of cowboy hats and a book on famous ballet performances. It also had a tea party set to be used when Susie hopefully visits Blue, as Susie seems to really like tea these days.
Finally, the top level would be kept for just Flowery, the spoilt flower. That way he could overlook both the town and his friends homes.
Giggling to himself, Ralsei put up a large ‘bromide’ of his own onto Flowery’s wall, overlooking the large dining table in the middle of the apartment. He attempted to imitate the apartment of a spoilt college pretty boy, with the exception of various romance anime posters, mocking his romance protagonist personality.
Other than that, Ralsei ended up pretty clueless on what else to put in there, eventually deciding that Flowery could do it himself.
Drinking his favourite blue and pink drink in the Castletown cafe after having finally finished setting up the apartments for the flowers, Ralsei sat back and watched Rouxls Kaard and Lancer perform a duet of Goofy Goober Rock in mild exasperation.
He tapped his paw against the table rhythmically, awaiting Susie’s arrival.
After a long night of Ralsei busying himself all around the town, ensuring that everything was prepared for both Noelle and the flowers arrival; Susie landed in Castletown, she instantly ran towards Ralsei beaming-
“It’s 4am in the light world I didn’t wanna wait around for Kris to wake up again… sooo I ended up pressing the flowers and bringing ‘em here on my own.” She ranted excitedly, standing aside just in time for the flowers to land in Castletown.
Nothing about them had changed, save for the fact that their pigment had faded, and they all looked thoroughly shocked.
Flowery touched his hand to his torso, feeling the large scar running across his body. Smiling bitterly to himself, he turned to his friends behind him and spoke “It seems…. We’ve been given another chance at living as humans thanks to these Princesses over here.”
Susie went over to speak to the flowers, attempting to answer all of their many questions and concerns, while Flowery walked over to Ralsei and said solemnly "I think you and me are going to need to talk." Ralsei sighed, nodding and leading him towards the castle.