Work Text:
“Got it, Princess?”
It was a risk to say, Flowery knew that as soon as the thought occurred to him. But Ralsei could react in so many different ways, and Flowery is curious to see which one gets chosen.
Ralsei’s gaze flutters down to the tip of Flowery’s finger, an angry and indignant flush flooding their face. What a predictable creature, the voice clip almost bursts out of him - but then Ralsei does something he didn’t expect.
Their face crumbles. For a brief moment, they look profoundly miserable, before their expression evens out into resigned sadness.
“You can’t call me that,” they whisper. They’re trembling.
Flowery raises an eyebrow and puts his arm back down. “Why not?”
The indignation returns, which Flowery admittedly feels far more equipped to deal with than abject misery. Ralsei snaps, “What, d-do you think you just… made me realize something about myself?”
Flowery doesn’t reply, allowing Ralsei to keep going. They grip their green robe tightly—tattered at the hem, soft and worn. If they gripped it any harder, they’d surely puncture it.
“It doesn’t matter how I feel, Flowery. I can’t- If I’m not this—” Ralsei cuts themself off, inhaling sharply and blinking up at the ceiling. They let go of their robe, close their eyes, and exhale slowly. The flush of anger goes away. When their eyes open again, they look exhausted. “If I’m not a prince—No. If I’m not the prince, I’m… dangerous. I need the rules to keep me in check. I can’t- I just can’t. Please don’t… tempt me with this. It’s cruel.”
“Cruel,” Flowery echoes. What could be cruel about knowing yourself, about letting yourself live the way you want to? Maybe Flowery was wrong - Ralsei isn’t a predictable creature at all, not in the ways that matter on the inside.
“Yes, cruel!” Ralsei raises their voice this time. They stand up, and the three drink vouchers fly out of their hand. The green and purple vouchers fall onto the ground, but the blue-and-pink voucher floats off towards the water. Ralsei makes no attempt to save it.
“Wow, Raly, aren’t you worried Kris and Susie will hear you when you yell like that?” Flowery asks, waving his hand materializing a golden flower for the blue-and-pink voucher to land on. Ralsei doesn’t notice.
Ralsei startles in place. “No. They’re both somewhere else on another… you-know-what. They…” Ralsei’s mouth twitches before shaking their head. Interesting. “They can’t hear us.”
Flowery grins, unable to help himself. “I do know. I just wanted to hear you say it.”
Ralsei takes another trembling breath. They glare at the water, purposefully sliding their eyes away from the voucher Flowery so-kindly saved. “Was that everything you had to say to me?”
“No,” Flowery says. He just need to figure out how to say it in a way that Ralsei will actually hear. Ralsei clearly isn’t so ignorant as to not know their own desires, but knowing is very different from doing something about it. What do you do when you know what you want, but believe that getting it will doom the world to ruin?
Ralsei, gracious despite themself, gives Flowery time to collect his thoughts.
“You really do have a pure heart, you know,” Flowery says, and Ralsei turns away from him. Their hand moves to the spade emblem on their chest, clutching the worn fabric with less force than they had moments ago.
“I don’t, though. I don’t have a heart at all,” Ralsei whispers. “All I am… is a shadow. Like everything else.”
Flowery outright rolls his eyes. This kid…
Thankfully, Ralsei doesn’t see him do that.
Flowery nudges them with his shoulder, gentle enough not to jostle them too hard. “You’re not just a shadow, Raly. You’re not just anything. You’re Raly! Don’t you deserve to live? Don’t you want to?”
Ralsei shudders, staring into the water with wide, unseeing eyes. “O-Of course I… I dreamt of it changing, you know. And of course I tried to change it, too. I asked… I asked Kris and Susie to be nice. To try… to try acting instead of fighting, to see if things could change that way. I had hoped… But it seems the truth embedded glass is immutable. It always has been.”
Flowery purses his lips. To never try is one thing. To try and fail is another entirely.
“Susie told me we aren’t going to let it happen. And I don’t want to happen! B-But… I just feel so powerless.” Ralsei wipes harshly beneath their glasses, presumably to get rid of tears that Flowery didn’t know were there. “If making all my stats 999 won’t change that, how could a…” Their voice lowers to a scandalized whisper, “…a pretty pink dress do it?”
They’re so close to getting it. Flowery is almost frustrated hearing Ralsei talk like this.
If the end is immutable, why suffer now? Why not wear the dress, call yourself a princess, and be truly happy now while the end is still in the future?
Flowery can’t say that, though. Ralsei wouldn’t hear it anyway.
Instead, Flowery collects the vouchers again. He says, “Maybe it won’t change the ending. But maybe it could change the present? Maybe you and your friends could have a break and feel good for a few minutes. Isn’t that worth something, anything at all?”
Ralsei finally lifts their head and looks at Flowery. He holds out the drink vouchers, and with uncertainty, Ralsei accepts them again. They drag their finger along the same voucher they had almost let be ruined, and that tells Flowery everything he has to know.
“Just get the drink you want, Raly. Maybe it won’t change the world, but it’s always worth making a princess smile. Ciao!”
The indignant flush returns, but the misery doesn’t. Maybe the princess can be gotten to. It just takes some determination.
Luckily for Ralsei, Flowery has that in spades. With a flourish, he disappears back into the water from whence he came.