Chapter Text
Ralsei blinked. "Huh?"
"Yeah. I mean, it's crazy, right?"
"That's not..."
"I mean—I'm not technically a flower, but neither is Pink and they're letting her on the team, so I guess I'm just on the team. Like that."
"This isn't—" Ralsei took off his glasses. Underneath his voice's thin veneer of kindness boiled a storm. "Susie. What are you doing?"
"Do you think it's ugly?" Susie touched her hand to her new attire, a dapper set of black and violet evening wear composed entirely from petals. "I mean... it was pretty imtrompoo."
❤️ Impromptu?
"Yeah. That."
"Susie," Ralsei cut through. "You can't be a flower."
"Uh... Yeah. Dumbass."
"No, I mean you can't be a flower flower—you can't, you can't be on the team. That's not how this goes."
"Why not?"
"Because it's not—" Ralsei stopped himself. "Are you just going to fight us now?"
"Hell no." Susie stared at them like what she was saying was the most obvious thing in the world. "I read some of Seth's diagrams. You guys can't get to the fountain without me, so it's like. Peaceful. You know?"
"I—you—what—I????? The dark fountain???? Sealing the Dark Fountain???? Stopping the Knight???"
By the time Ralsei had managed to start making actual words, Susie had already left the room.
❤️ Okay
Susie stared out at the majestic sprawl of cliffs and valleys beneath her and the pink sky framing it all. Blue the Flower sat cross-legged behind her, braiding her hair into an intricate weave.
"How long do you plan to stay?"
"I don't know." The imprint of Susie's smile remained a shadow on her face as she stared out. "I just... think I should be here. You know?"
"The heart will always want what it wants. To fight it would be to fight the falling weather."
"I did that once."
"Really, now?"
"Yeah, we made them break up. Then we fought them again but they were a throuple."
"Fascinating."
"Yeah." Susie watched the sun, eternally on the horizon. "Do you think Kris and Ralsei will understand?"
"If your love for them shines through—"
"Don't... Not... No—none of that. Will they understand?"
"...Maybe. Maybe not." Blue hummed a strain of melody. "If you are certain of your path, then you are certain of your path. That is all the guidance I can give you."
"Damn..."
"Blue?" Blue's and Susie's head jerked in unison as the sliding paper door opened to Seth, striding in with a clipboard. "Are we almost done? I don't mean to rush any good work, but..."
"Yes. Timing is everything." Blue took his hands off of Susie's hair. "We must introduce you."
"...Alright."
"I do hope I helped, at least somewhat, to ail your worries."
"This might just be something I'll figure out alone."
"Dear. You're never alone. Not anymore. You're with us, now."
"Yeah! We've all got each other's backs. That's the point! Tight formations... camaraderie... it's axiomatic!"
"What does that mean?"
"—Urk—Um—"
"Let us away, now. Susie, you look beautiful."
"...Really?"
"Always."
Susie thought about Noelle. Thought about the world she was leaving behind. As the flowers stood there, silently waiting for her, she found she wasn't one for such hard decisions. It was usually Kris who made those. The only profound thought she could come up with in the heat of the moment stuck to her like glue as she walked with the flowers, through the garden and to the café.
What's the worst that could happen?
"I don't know what she's thinking! I don't! I—we need to convince her. It should be easy, right? There's no way she'd—right? She wouldn't—right?" Ralsei had been talking like this for quite some time now, and Kris couldn't help but get a touch annoyed. "We're her friends! She wouldn't—I wouldn't—She wouldn't—"
Ralsei crunched his can of Flowery Soda and tossed it at the vending machine, which loudly exclaimed in pain. It calmed him to hear Flowery in pain, but not enough to placate his simmering and roiling waves of anger.
"Right?"
❤️ yeah man | what?
"Yeah! I just—" Ralsei sighed. "This wasn't... How this was supposed to go."
Kris was silently agreeing, quite distressed at the turn of events for multiple reasons.
"If... When, Susie comes to her senses... We've got to move fast, Kris. The Knight could be here in any second."
Kris coughed.
"Are you okay?"
Before Kris could present their SOUL with dialogue options, the door to the café exploded with the stock explosion graphic and out paraded all 8 of Asgore's 7 Colored Flowers to the sound of jubilant music. A banner was constructed out of a menagerie of aprons, blankets, overcoats, tights, and boxing gloves somehow stitched together and embossed with bright colorful words on it.
"W—Welcome Susie?"
"Oh hey, guys! Didn't know you'd uh, still be here."
Susie walked up to them. It was strange how different she looked. She could've passed for a different person, in the right light.
"Wild stuff, huh?"
"Susie—Susie Susie Susie Susie Susie." Ralsei straightened up, clasping his hands in front of him and staring straight up at the now petal-bedecked Susie in front of him. "We have to get out of here. The Knight could come at any moment!"
"Oh, yeah, I think we could beat 'em. Did it before. Kinda."
"A—a titan?"
"The Old Man helped us out against the Titan. We did it. Flowery can help us out against this one, and we can kick the Knight's ass."
"Flowery could not help us out!"
"Why not?"
"He—He just can't! That's not how this works! That's not how any of this—" Ralsei's gaze caught visage of Flowery, currently playing keep-away-but-with knives with Aqua. "You!"
"Flowery," Flowery agreed. "What's up, newbuddy? See the celebration? Your friend's a human now!"
"You're—no one is—you!"
"Flowery."
Ralsei leaned in, his face a hair away from Flowery's. He raked his voice along the bottom of his register, growling and glowering both at once. "You did this to stall us. You know you can't win, so you're just stalling."
"Lighten up, pal," Flowery said, not deigning to lower his volume. "Your friend made a choice. And now she's happier. Just look at her!" The two diverted their gazes briefly to watch Susie, Pink, and Green at the café's counter, currently looking at a comically large book of recipes, all of which seemed to involve some form of incendiary or explosive. "If you want that to go away, just tell her that!"
Flowery's unblinking gaze and burningly-bright smile wilted Ralsei, but not his rage. "You—we'll seal your fountain. Right, Kris?"
Kris was too busy juggling knives with Aqua to respond.
"Kris!"
❤️ chill brah
In the time it took for Kris to say that, however, the delicate flow of knives was disrupted and all of them were sent careening toward Ralsei, who managed to dodge them all quite adroitly.
"You can't—it can't—" Ralsei stormed up to Susie and pried her away from the bomb she was currently trying to either defuse or eat with a fork. "Is this really what you want?"
"Ralsei." Her voice took on a softer tone. "Look. We'll seal the fountain. We'll get The Knight. But... I've been thinking. Actually thinking, you know? I think... This might be the way out."
"Out?" Ralsei's voice was porcelain, lusting for a shatter.
"Of... the final tragedy. The prophecy. It's up to us, you know, to be the ones to not follow the prophecy but... that's all we've been doing. Right? We keep making the same choices and expecting things to go our way, and they never do. This... This is something new."
"Susie, you can't do this just to defy the prophecy! It'll come true, one way or another. It will, I know it."
She pursed her lips. "It's not just... just to defy the prophecy. I mean, I like all of them. They're all amazing people. You know Green."
"Well, yes, but..."
There was a silence between the two of them, immovable forces both. Eventually, Susie broke eye contact and turned away. "These can be my friends."
"Susie..."
By the time Ralsei knew what he wanted to say, she had already been whisked away by Yellow, to play the rancher in his new cowboy drama.
"So... this is my room?"
"Yep! And here's your key! It's Violet. After you! Violet."
"Can I be, just... Susie?"
"Uuu, what color is Susie?"
"Clearly, she's Orange!"
"You can't just say that everything you like is Orange."
"Yeah, I can!" "Yeah, she can!"
"Susie." Blue cut through the voices to put his hand on her shoulder. "You're welcome here. Always."
If she could cry, she would've. Being friends with Kris and Ralsei and whatevers with Noelle was all one thing, but this was something else. She couldn't lie and pretend like she was selfless here.
"Okeydokeys! See you whenever~!" Flowery flew away, leaving behind only a rainbow trail which dissipated like mist.
"When do I learn how to do that?" Susie smiled.
"I never did. I fashioned these wings to fly, myself."
"And I just walk!"
"Purty wings, indeed. I'dt've gottun those wings if'n I didn't learn how to fly m'self."
"And I would've sewn them for you, darling."
"Gee, you certun? Would I look purty?"
"The prettiest." The two lovers whisked themselves away and, slowly but surely, the rest of the flowers filtered out. Susie used the VioletKey on her room and opened the door. The inside was beautiful.
It was decked in plants and trees, slices of jungle cut up by wooden planks carpeted with thick velvet as they reached a crossroads, each with their own staircases leading up. She walked idly inside and, looking around, found her bedroom. Her bed was a bed of flowers, of course. Her drawers were drawers of flowers, and she could hardly make out the petals in the paper windows unless she squinted.
On her bed was a letter. She opened its tripartite fold.
Welcome Susie
It was signed by everyone, each in a sparkly pen of their own color. She looked at it for a second and folded it up back neatly again.
There's no way I made a mistake, she thought. This... It's okay for me to have friends, right? Different friends. A lot of friends.
Kris and Ralsei are still my friends, they just...
I need this. I need this right now.
Weighing sleep and further goings on of the castle, she decided to go to sleep, assured that she would awake again to that eternal sunset.