Hiya! So straight off the bat I'm going to say this just in case you're not into it, but this will a one hundred and ten percent a Flowey/Frisk story, but first and foremost this will be a story about Flowey and his journey to growing up and becoming someone better.
The characters will be aged up little by little by almost every chapter, to progress things along, trust me this will really matter in the later chapters!
Also, this takes place after the true pacifist ending only, there will likely be reference fact bits from the Genocide run, but don't expect to see Chara (whether they're still hanging on to Frisk or not, perhaps they've moved on, take your pick.)
The first few chapters will feel a lot different than the rest of the story, especially the first one, that's because I intended it to be a one off thing, so expect a big shift change with the tone and story telling around the four or fifth chapter.
Another VERY, VERY important note, I started writing this story November 25, 2016 and finished it June 1, 2018 (because I'm a very slow writer and have a super bad habit of making tiny mistakes and not noticing them until months later) aannnd during all that time I accidentally became emotionally invested… as one tends to do, so, until I feel more confident with the content, only the first chapter will be available, we'll see how it all works out.
…One more note, there will be a Growing Pains TWO that I'm currently working on (I have the entire story planned out and finished in my head), so let's hope it doesn't take me as long to work on as the first one!
Until then, enjoy!
GROWING PAINS
Chapter 1 I Can Tell That We're Gonna Be Friends
Warnings? : Bees
Summary: Flowey is pulled along on a small picnic outing at the park with Frisk and Asgore, it turns out to be a soothing trip and a surprisingly nice idea, that is... until Frisk decides to show the world to Flowey in a much different point of view.
Inspiration Song: 'I Can Tell That We're Gonna Be Friends' by Jack Johnson
'Walk with me Suzy Lee, through the park and by the tree, we can rest upon the ground, and look at all the bugs we found, safely walk to school without a sound, we safely walk to school without a sound- I can tell that we're gonna be friends, yes I can tell that we're gonna be friends'
It is said all monster souls are composed of love, hope, and compassion, and when they die, their soul is lost forever…
Boss monsters being an exception, as their souls exist outside their bodies before shattering.
...
It had been a year since the Barrier was broken, and so far everything seemed to be going well for everyone, not entirely as perfect as some would hope, Frisk would have preferred Asgore and Toriel gotten back together, but some things just had to change . . . still it made Frisk really happy to know they both wanted them as their child, even if it meant that they had to share custody.
And after a lot of discussing, Frisk decided that while they really did want to be Ambassador they realized they weren't fully ready to take on the job just yet, so instead, decided that their biggest challenge should be finishing school, which to most didn't sound as exciting as being a child Ambassador, but Frisk disagreed, they were happy to live an average life with their amazing Monster family, it was more than enough excitement for them.
Besides, it turned out that giving the job to Papyrus instead had actually been a very good idea, as he turned out to be a surprisingly excellent Ambassador.
And of course, not long after the Barrier had been broken and despite his constant warnings, Frisk made frequent visits to Flowey in attempt to keep him company, they brought him books, Toriel's cooking, gossip, drawings, jokes, presents, whatever they could think of, until finally, they became fed up, deciding that no one should be alone or without family, so after a lot of persistent persuading and advertising, scooped him into a flower pot covered with colorful stickers and brought him home where he belonged.
And that was the start of where their friendship officially and truly began…
. . . . .
Today Frisk was out in the park with Asgore and Flowey, which… was proving to be both awkward and difficult… mainly for Flowey, due to him wanting to keep his true identity hidden, only Frisk and Alphys knew the real truth, thankfully, the two knew how to keep a secret.
So, logically, things were… uncomfortable… between him and his parents as he flat out refused to have any personal conversations with either of them, or even speak to them for too long- it was to 'keep them from getting suspicious' or so he told himself, and spending time with them like this only made it harder to do.
Because of this, he hadn't really wanted to go at first, until Frisk suggested that the sun and nature would make him stronger and that they would have lots of… fun, and that there was some pretty big trees or something like that.
At the time he just rolled his eyes, only deciding to go along because 'he didn't have anything better to', but as soon as they arrived and he was grazed by the gentle breeze and was warmed up by the summer rays and got a good long look around at the green, enormous park- he quieted down instantly, completely relaxed, it seemed to have a tranquilizer effect on the little monster flower.
The other much fluffier and bigger monster was equally as effected, as he immediately fallen asleep on the picnic blanket, his sunglasses threatening to slide off from his nose.
Frisk's wiped the last bit of the tea sandwich from their mouth, sitting between the two Dreemurrs comfortably, gazing at the trees, thinking amongst themselves.
Next to them, in the middle of photosynthesizing and sipping on a juice box, Flowey at the moment didn't have much of a care in the world, he was too soothed; he considered the idea of a nap too as his eyelids begun to feel heavy, but to his dismay, he suddenly found himself being picked up and stuffed into Frisk's magenta MTT brand book bag.
"Frisk!"
"Shhhh, you'll wake dad,"
"Frisk…," he quieted down, not sure why he bothered, "where are you taking me?"
The ten year old pointed to a rather impressively large magnolia tree off in the distance "you see that? That's the old tree I told you about, I'm going to climb it,"
"Okay? And then what?"
Frisk was off, "have a nice view? Be really high up? What else is there?"
"We had a good view where we were!" he fussed.
Frisk grinned, "but this is better! C'mon, if you come along, I'll finally plant you!"
He shut his mouth… that was a very good proposition, he had not been in real ground since Frisk had dug him up and put him in this pot back in the mountain a year ago, he hadn't allowed to be out until he proved to everyone that he could be trusted and be non-violent.
In the beginning, he despised to be so…stuck, and being denied (almost) complete freedom- a stark difference from his lonely life back in the Underground; it was like he was in a prison cell within another prison cell.
But over time, he learned to just… adjust to the changes and deal with it, this is what his reputation had earned him after all, because he already knew what would happen if he somehow escaped and went back to his old ways…
-Which he realized was not a lot, as it became apparent that if he did decide to go back to his old plan and attempt to steal souls to take over and destroy the world, he knew that someone- most likely Frisk, or someone like Frisk would eventually take him down again, and again, and again.
There was always going to be someone stronger that would beat him, because good always somehow defeated evil in the end, so, what would be the point?
He had learned this lesson especially after their big fight and feeling all the emotions that all the other's felt, and after having the talk he had with Frisk as his former self that- just, no, there was no way he could ever return to his old 'evil' ways, never again, not after everything he learned, it would be a waste of time anyway, especially when he could no longer had the Power to Reset and change time.
And while it was extremely frustrating to be stuck in a flower pot, unable to go where he wanted to all the time, he couldn't help but notice that he was still was listened to, and when he was listened to- people helped, more than he thought they would.
Actually, living with Frisk and being raised by his parents again wasn't as horrible as he had thought it would be, everyone always took him where he wanted to go, kept him company, always made sure he had something to do, always attempted to console him when he was upset, took him on outings on the regular (he was especially fond of the town's library), and was even quickly enrolled into school- because as Toriel had put it, was to…'ensure a better future for him'.
Which, at first, he put up a fight, as he didn't really see any kind of real 'future' for himself- but as he really thought about it, he figured he could use the knowledge and… some kind of… graduation if he ever did want to be truly independent someday, because it was easy to learn that life above was entirely more complicated than it was in the Underground, he had major doubts about his survival if he were to live alone without a house again, the world above had harsh ever changing weather, lawn mowers, and thousands of species of different creatures that depended on flowers as their diet.
So… in many ways, he wasn't totally stuck in a prison, he was in a lot better place and condition than he had been just a year ago, so all in all, he was… content.
But now as he looked at the large field of green grass…all he wanted to do now was get out of this damn pot!
"…Okay, fine! But you have to promise! If you end up getting hurt- I don't want you changing your mind!" he said to the weird little human that he'd recently grown just close enough to finally call his 'friend'.
Frisk grinned, "I promise! And I have no idea what you're talking about, I never get hurt,"
Flowey grinned as well, but it was a lot more hideous, "you're such a dirty liar,"
They gently laughed in response, unaffected by the comment; then changed the subject, "hey, by the way…I've got a question that's been bugging me for a long time, but what's … 'regicide'?"
There was a very confused pause in the air, "…what?"
"Back in the Underground, waaay in the beginning…when I was leaving the Ruins, you came up and tried to freak me out, and you said… something about… 'your plan not being… regicide'? But I still have no clue what you were talking about, what does regicide mean?"
"Ohhh, that!" He had to laugh "you're right, I was just trying to 'freak you out', clearly, but it means 'to kill a King', I'll- uh, um… I'll let you think about that one yourself," he explained.
"…You kinda did kill-," Frisk started.
"I did and I didn't thanks to me changing your Save file, the only thing dead is that Timeline, so don't make these things more complicated than they already are, you dummy,"
"Do you regret it?" they said softly- as if they were nervous about the answer.
Flowey was dead silent for a moment, as he had to contemplate deeply over his answer, and Frisk was beginning to worry, until finally they heard him let out a big sigh.
"Golly, why would you ask me something like that? Especially when you know I literally can't regret . . .," he frowned and shook his head to himself "…besides,it's not like any of that matters anymore, everyone is happy and on the surface now, not to mention completely alive, so, can we stop talking about this? It's dumb and pointless. Don't you have a tree to climb? Keep walking,"
The child blinked, they hadn't realized they had even stopped at all, feeling suddenly anxious and guilty that they had just asked Flowey these personal questions without thinking about the repercussions of risking the chance of seriously upsetting him.
Sometimes in the midst of their deep genuine curiosity they had for Flowey- they sometimes forgot about the fragility of the secrets that he always kept covered up.
In the midst of their troubled thoughts, Frisk suddenly realized that along the way… Flowey must have hit some kind of milestone- because comparing from when they had first met to how he was now-
Flowey had definitely changed, it wasn't very noticeable to most people, but Frisk had spent enough time with him to notice now that he'd grown considerably more socially patient (or at least he tried), and had become way less violent, he still was pretty rude- but that was okay; Frisk had been helping as much as much as a nonjudgmental ten year old possibly could, especially after the eventful day Flowey decided to talk about his dark Reset misadventures and what life was like living all alone.
Even after learning about his history, scars, and horrible flaws, Frisk had seen his true self and because of that still continued to see the best in him, no matter what, because the fact that he had even confided in them in secret about his past at all showed that he trusted Frisk big time, and to them, that in itself was improvement.
And that improvement is exactly what Frisk had always believed he was capable of, even when they had no idea when it would happen or how hard it would be for him to get there, all they knew was that Flowey had become their friend and that they cared about him no matter what.
But at the moment, they couldn't quite tell, did it seem like he was conflicted about his past actions? It was hard to tell when he was acting so vague about it, and he always claimed he was literally unable to feel guilt or regret, but even without a soul, Frisk couldn't help but be skeptical.
Something about him had definitely changed during the past year, but they just didn't know what exactly, but whatever it was, they were proud either way.
They continued walking.
Still that something continued to nag at Frisk. . .
"Mmmm, uhhh… ," they mumbled hesitantly.
"Oh golly, you're not going to stop talking about this, are you?" he said.
"I'm sorry! I know it upsets you, but I have to ask one more thing, is that okay? I won't if it's not, I just really want to know something," they said.
He heard them let out a short groan "ffffinne, go ahead, ask your dumb question,"
"Thank you…um, okay, if you had to go back… knowing what you knew now…would you still do it? Go through with doing all those bad things again?" they asked, they braced themselves for whatever reaction he would have, knowing full and well that he didn't like the subject, but this seemed critically important.
Flowey was very quiet for a while, thinking hard over his answer before speaking; his tone uncertain as he spoke "…I…really don't know anymore," he grimaced, "I don't want to talk about this Frisk, let's just change the subject now, okay?"
Something akin to relief filled Frisk, they weren't exactly sure what Flowey's hesitant answer meant, but they had a good feeling about that hesitance, and this was enough to settle their thoughts, still though. . . they hated that they had to upset him like that.
Frisk dared to look over their shoulder at their friend, he was peering down, his face hidden, but Frisk smiled warmly at him anyway, then walked faster to the tree.
"Hey…um…you wanna come up with me when I climb it?"
Flowey took a second to think over his answer before blurting out- "no! I'm not risking falling out of this cheap bag!"
"Suit yourself then, I'll be having all the fun while you'll be stuck on the ground," they teased.
"Hmph, I don't usually like to justify being a plant, but I'll have you know it's AMAZING to burrow underground, but you'll never understand that because you're not a flower,"
"But if I was a flower, I'd be a tree flower, so I'd still get a better view,"
"No you moron, fate doesn't work like that; you'd be a boring weedy dandelion and be stuck down here to suffer with ME!"
"That's not what dad says about dandelions! He's says they're good for you!" Frisk defended but then turned their head to smile cheekily at him "-and I'd be stuck with you, by choice, and not suffering, because I like you and you're attractive, like a hot sunshine magnet boy,"
At that Flowey made a loud noise of exaggerated revulsion "ughhh! Stooop! You're disgusting!"
Frisk quickly stifled their embarrassed laughter "sorry! Sorry!" yeah, even they had to admit, that flirty one liner was really bad.
Finally they reached the tree, stopping to carefully take off their book bag and sit Flowey (still inside his flower pot) onto the grass.
They sat quietly and looked around for a moment before they came to a quick realization.
"Hmmm, I don't have a shovel. . .," but then looked down to their hands and smirked, "oh wait, yes I do! I've had some all along!"
And with that, they unceremoniously began to dig their tiny fingers into the grass and dirt, uncaring about dirty hands and fingernails, trying their enthusiastic best but doing a poor job as they pulled up only small clumps up.
Flowey observed quietly, impatiently until finally he spoke up, "here, just dump me in, I'll root it myself,"
Frisk frowned "it won't hurt you will it?"
"Only if you mess it up!" he teased meanly, putting on his nastiest smile, but he knew it wouldn't, it would be just very briefly uncomfortable.
Then, Frisk perked up "I have a better idea, stay still and brace yourself,"
But before Flowey could protest, Frisk had leaned over close, and dove their tiny hands inside the sides of the pot, scooping down carefully until they reached the bottom, the flower's eyes went wide in shock, and despite the warning he'd been given, he found himself closing his eyes out of fear as he was manually lifted out of the pot and into the air.
It wasn't the sudden height change that bothered him, it was something about spending a year in the safe containment of his flower pot only to be abruptly physically taken out was what freaked him out, a similar feeling to sleeping only to have someone rip warm covers from off of you and pick you up high into the cold air.
"There- oh, please don't be scared," their small voice was gentle and sincere once they caught view of his expression.
He opened his eyes to see he was now on the earth, his pots' soil was a messy mound on top of the small hole that his friend had attempted to dig, and he exhaled a breath that he didn't realize he'd been holding.
"I wasn't scared," he scoffed and lowered his roots, finding access to the different dirt, he wasn't sure what he had been expecting it to feel like, but it wasn't that much different from the Underground soil, except for noticeable lack of magic, but that was okay.
Frisk grinned at both of their achievements, "how's it feel?"
He sunk his roots in deeper and wiggled them around, stretching them out, testing the temperature and softness of the dirt "just about how you would guess," he paused and couldn't help the genuine smile that grew on his face "roomy."
He smiled wider, looking away "it's good; I'm going to tunnel around….and I GUESS you can climb your stupid tree while I have more fun,"
He didn't catch the proud smile that appeared on his friend's face before he disappeared from sight, tunneling down.
Frisk then faced the tree, looking up into the branches that were far from their reach, causing them to be filled with Determination.
Underneath, Flowey was very fast finding out that humans had a bad habit of dropping things, which…wasn't too much different from monsters, but some of the things he found looked like they could be really valuable; he was sure they weren't lacking in money- but it never hurt to earn some quick bucks.
Or…maybe he could start a collection? Hmm, lots of options, maybe Frisk could have some good input on this, so, he tunneled back up, and found that somehow in a short matter of time, the small human had made their way up, and was sitting on a large stable branch, eating what looked like the big cookie they had stuffed in their book bag earlier.
(He couldn't say he was all that surprise by the feat, he had learned a long time ago to not underestimate the short strange human, the hard way.)
…That really did look like it was fun, he should have gone up…Flowey scowled at the gnawing feeling of annoyance at himself, but shook it off, attempting to remind himself of all the other stuff he could be doing on the ground, he had been waiting do this all year after all.
He watched for a few moments more as Frisk enjoyed their cookie, the parallels of doing all this human spying was not lost on him, remembering when he'd done the same back in the Underground, plotting and excitedly waiting for them to reach Asgore.
Now he was watching for very, very different reasons. One of them being was because he had nothing better to do; another one was because…that cookie looked really good, he knew Frisk would have probably shared if he'd gone up too and-
Ugh! No, no, he knew better than to get hung up on something so…so… insignificant.
He was about to go tunneling again when Frisk turned and looked down, instantly grinning and waving down at him once he was spotted, "YOU SHOULD SEE THIS! IT'S SO GREAT UP HERE!" they shouted down.
He played it off "yeah, whatever!" he shouted back up, no way he was going to give this…little…human the satisfaction, and if it was one thing Flowey hated, it was someone telling him 'I told you so!'
So, again, he decided to tunnel off when he noticed Frisk's attention snap over to somewhere else nearby in the tree and they moved, and suddenly he heard them utter something horrible-
"Wow! A bee hive!"
Flowey's eyes bugged out of his head and made a useless attempt to grow taller- but failed as he knew he would, this so called… 'body' of his was amazingly tougher than the average flower, and could morph into anything he so desired once he access to enough human souls, but out of all the things he couldn't do- it was grow taller, well, at least his vines could.
But he couldn't exactly see that well that far up, he didn't want to risk getting himself stung.
"FRISK! DON'T DO ANYTHING STUPID!" he yelled up to them.
He nearly cussed when Frisk began to climb toward where the nest was, clearly not taking his advice.
"IT'S FINE! I DON'T THINK IT'S… ACTIVE!" they yelled back down.
"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!"
"I'M GOING TO SEE IF THERE'S HONEY!"
"THIS ISN'T LIKE YOUR DUMB BEAR MOVIE FRISK!" he was so mad right now, and not to mention afraid, he thought about using his vines to stop his dumb friend, but he couldn't exactly see that well that far up, and he certainly didn't want to risk getting himself stung because said dumb friend COULDN'T CONTAIN THEIR CURIOSITY.
Honestly, there was probably no one who hated bees more than Flowey, who had quickly relearned about them in a new light not long after he was brought to the surface, they never stung him but he knew what those little horrifying fuzzy things wanted from him, and nothing was worse than a bee that wanted to sit on your eyes or crawl in your mouth just so it could fly off covered in your body's pollen- it was degrading and probably the seventh scariest thing he'd ever experienced.
And here he was watching helplessly as Frisk got near the very thing that was probably home to not few, but hundreds of the most disgusting bugs on the planet, it also really, really wasn't helping his nerves to know that some people died from bee stings.
Inside of him, around the upper part of his stem, a mysterious and annoying familiar ache he'd been suffering from about a year began slowly acting up, at first he'd guessed it was from being stuck inside the pot for so long, but… he was out now, wasn't he?
Whatever it was, he didn't have any patience to worry about it, so he ignored it.
He watched Frisk impatiently as they climbed closer…and closer, and then stop, not too close and not too far away, apparently they seemed to have changed their mind about the honey and decided to just observe instead.
But as soon as he began to think things were going to actually be ok- he saw Frisk suddenly twitch, jerkily bringing a hand to their left eye- lose their balance on the branch, saw their other arm wave in the air as they began to fall- for some reason he couldn't find in it himself to watch, Flowey grit his teeth hard, locked his eyes closed and
forgot how to breathe
..
…
… . . .
But there was no hard thump on the ground to be heard.
Flowey opened his eyes and sweet relief flooded his body, his breathing shaky.
Somehow, without thinking, he had acted fast, thankfully, and was now holding Frisk high up in the midair safely with five vines, it was amazing, his pain felt worse than ever now, but who cared, he'd just saved Frisk from what could have been a fatal fall.
He heard them gasp and sniffle back a cry- okay, he added a sixth vine and supported their back more, giving his friend an awkward pat.
Very slowly, he began to bring Frisk down to him.
Down
Down
Down
Very carefully, his vines shuttered slightly from the weight, but he held tight.
When Frisk finally reached the ground, they unsteadily sat down, head hanging low, their expression unreadable, and their hand still holding their eye, their face becoming slowly red as their bottom lip pouted out.
Flowey wanted to say something about Frisk 'being so stupid' and 'should have known better '- but the words clogged up in his throat as culprit tears finally began ran down Frisk's small cheeks.
He wanted to bring out another vine and pat their head, but it refused to leave the dirt, instead he saw Frisk pull down their hand to reveal their eye that was swelling up from the sting, and to his surprise they smiled a small, proud smile, they choked out a quiet little laugh that was mixed with a hiccup.
Then brought out a hand and gently petted Flowey's head, fingers softly ruffling over petals, it was a silent thank you...
He was dumbfounded- and was going to try to speak when he heard Asgore's loud running footsteps.
"MY CHILD!" he cried out, and suddenly Frisk was scooped away into the safety of their huge goat dad's arms, it was very strange how someone could suddenly shrink like that.
Frisk hid their face into Asgore's chest and clung to him, and Asgore in return cradled them like a baby, "there, there, it's okay, don't cry, you will be just fine," he soothed.
Flowey looked down, refusing to watch, Asgore's words burned with familiarity, reminding of him a tender past he'd never get back, the pain, which was currently yanking at him pulled harder than ever, he winced, holding his breath.
"I saw you fall from that tree and Flowey catch you," Asgore began and attempted to get a look at Frisk's face but to no avail, "can you tell me what happened?"
"I was…trying to look at a bee hive, a-an-and I got stung and fell- Flowey tried to warn me…but I didn't listen, it's my fault,"
Asgore gasped loudly when he finally got a good look at the sting, looking as if he was going to start crying too "oh no, right near the eye, we better head home and get you healed up,"
But Frisk began to scramble in Asgore's arms in attempt to get out "wait- I have to put Flowey back in his pot, I'll be okay! I was just scared,"
"Oh! Okay, down you go," Asgore laughed and smile warmly as he released the small wiggly human, tears in his eyes, there was a chance he'd been the most scared out of the three of them.
Not wanting to get pulled into the conversation or hear any gratitude about all this right now, Flowey tunneled under and over to where the dumped out pot soil was. He took a moment to himself underneath the dirt, waiting for the pain to subside a bit before coming back up.
. . .
He soon found himself back within Frisk's palms, the fear of being held up from earlier now gone… he cracked a small smile when he realized that they had both held each other up today, and as he did, he felt something pleasant shift slightly deeper within their relationship.
Frisk smiled back, adding some soil from the park and patting it down around him in the pot, "thank you," they said softly, almost shyly.
Flowey bit his bottom lip, thoughts deepening, finally remembering about Frisk's ability to Save…
It was their ability alone now too, as he could tell that at some point, Chara's spirit had left them some time ago, he hoped that his sibling had heard his last message, to 'let Frisk live their life and let them be happy'
He hoped wherever Chara was, wherever ghost kids went, he hoped they were happy too.
He rarely talked much about his sibling with Frisk, but when they did, they listened, they had told him that there had been a helpful guide or a 'presence' with them during all of their adventure when they had saved the Underground, but after they left, so did the presence.
But they had also explained that they were still able to Save (they hadn't tested anything else like Resetting and Reloading, out of fear and because, why would they?) which meant that Chara had left full control of the Power to Frisk, and he could feel it too, which was a very good thing, he couldn't think of anyone better he would have trusted it to.
He certainly didn't trust himself with it, neither did he want it back either.
So if they had fallen and died, it would have actually been ok, right? They would just go back to their last Save and everything would be just fine, or so they'd still like to hope, he knew they didn't want to risk the chance of the Power being broken somehow…
He knew that would never be the case, he knew that something that great could never be infallible.
But… for some reason, when Frisk was falling… he couldn't even bear the thought of them getting injured at all, much less dying..
He'd been scared for them. . .
"I wasn't even trying-I don't…I don't know what this means,"
His best friend grinned big, "I don't know either, but I know it's really, really good,"
And the look on Flowey's face is what confirmed to Frisk that, yes, something had definitely changed within him.
And they had a feeling it was only going to get better from now on, even if it hurt sometimes, it was nothing he couldn't handle.
...
...
So, that was the first chapter! Like I said earlier things will change, there will be tone shifts, and eventually later on there will be longer chapters, but yeah, I know there wasn't much to this one but I hope you guys will end up liking this story as much as I did writing it!