This is the very start of my Undertale AU that I have finally actually started writing out. It's the AU that the story "I'm Fine, I'm Just Tired" takes place in. Although Frisk doesn't normally have lyme disease as she did in that story. This AU has an rp blog on tumblr: determination-and-familiars.

...

Frisk gave one more glance across her room. One last check to make sure she had everything ready. There were large bags of fertilizer in the far corner, a watering can, a large tub of dirt, a trowel and a few smaller flowerpots. Yeah. That should do it. Grabbing one of the pots and the trowel, Frisk placed them in a backpack before heading downstairs.

"Mom, I'll be back in a bit, just going to get a friend!" Frisk raced out of the house before her mother could even respond.

The sun was beginning to dip below the trees, giving everything a slight orange hue.

Sprinting down the road, Frisk only slowed when she finally reached the forest. Not wanting to trip and fall again, the girl made her way carefully through the twisting branches and vines, stopping only when she reached a familiar pit.

This time she searched around the hole, finding a thick tree root sticking out of the dirt and descending into the darkness below. That must have been what she tripped on before. Frisk gave the root a tug. It seemed pretty stuck in there. She'd survived the fall unharmed before, sure, but climbing down would be better.

Turning around, Frisk began to lower herself into the hole, holding onto the root until her knuckles whitened. As she descended, Frisk felt eyes watching her. That feeling was soon joined by a familiar high pitched and slightly distorted voice.

"The root's gunna end."

Huh? Sure enough, the root she was climbing down began getting too thin to support the girl's weight.

Sighing, Frisk glanced down over her shoulder. It wasn't that far. Moving one hand to hold her glasses on, she let go with the other.

Moments later, green vines shot up from the ground below, wrapping tightly around Frisk. She sucked in a small startled gasp, looking down to find the golden flower glaring up at her. "What kind of reckless freak are you?" His vines began to lower her down.

She just smiled down at him. "Wow, thanks for the catch, Flowey!"

When she was about a foot above the ground, the vines released her, and slithered back underground. She landed with a thud on her rear. Not the best but a lot better than the full fall.

"It's been a month, what are you doing down here again?"

The smile dropped from her face as she stayed on the ground next to the flower, only shifting to a more comfortable position. "I'm sorry it took me so long. I meant to come back down sooner. It's … not easy being ambassador for everyone."

Flowey rolled his eyes. "What'd you expect? You brought a bunch of monsters up to a place they'd been banished from." He then narrowed his eyes. "And I don't need your pity-visits. I'm fine here on my own! If you came for that, you wasted a trip!" After a moment, his irritated glare, shifted into a twisted and fanged grin. "Or wait, it's too challenging isn't it? ~ You came back down here to reset, didn't you? ~"

"No, I'm not resetting. "

Flowey's toothy smirk fell into a grimace. "Then you wasted your time, go away."

Frisk sighed, giving the blossom a tired smile, before shrugging off her backpack. "Actually, I – just hear me out ok? – I have a question for you." Flowey blinked slowly with pure impatience, though he stayed quiet. "I didn't come down just to visit you. I was hoping," Frisk unzipped the bag and pulled out the flowerpot. "You'd come with me?"

"No." Flowey's petals flattened, and reminded her of an angry cat. Frisk opened her mouth but Flowey beat her to it. "I said no! Didn't you listen to what I said before or are you deaf as well as dumb? I said to just forget about me! I can't be him anymore!" Sharp red thorns began protruding from Flowey's stem, as well as the few vines Frisk suddenly felt wrapping around her. Tightly. "I will never be him again!" Frisk winced as the thorns pierced her skin. "I don't have a soul! I had one! I had many!" Flowey continued to squeeze Frisk tighter with his vines. "I gave them up so everyone could see the stupid surface! I-"

"I didn't come down here for him!" Frisk finally shouted. Flowey's crushing paused, though he didn't loosen his grip or even withdraw his thorns. "I came down here for you, Flowey. The little flower that greeted me when I first fell down here!"

"That was a trick to kill you and steal your soul."

"I know. But you were still the first one I met down here." Ignoring the pain of thorns digging into her sides, Frisk smiled at the flower who clearly didn't expect her to smile at a time like this. "While we're being honest here, it was actually your motto of 'it's kill or be killed' that made me want to find an 'option c.' And I did! – We did! Together! We freed everyone after so many years of being trapped underground!"

The thorns finally retracted and the vines slinked back underground. Frisk couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

"…All of that was just because I told you it was kill or be killed?" He was staring at her hard, as if trying to read her face.

Frisk nodded. "I was scared and didn't really know what to do. That gave me something to focus on. It's harder to be afraid when you have a goal to work towards."

Flowey turned away, falling silent. Frisk took this moment to peek inside her sweater to see how bad the thorn cuts were. There were little red dots across her chest, but luckily they weren't leaking too much. The sound of a throat clearing caused Frisk to snap her head back up and let go of the top of her shirt.

"Why do you want to bring me to the surface?"

A wide grin spread over Frisk's face. This was progress! "A couple reasons! For starters: if we can free an entire civilisation, imagine what other amazing things we can accomplish together!" Her grin faltered a little, but didn't fall completely. "But also, you said I took the power to reset from you. So you know what it's like: to die and be able to come back. It would be nice to have someone to talk to about that who gets it."

It was Flowey's turn to sigh, but he didn't deny it would be nice to talk to someone who understands. Frisk waited patiently until the flower finally spoke again. "There's going to be some ground rules." Frisk beamed and nodded. "No one finds out who I was. He's dead. And it's going to stay that way. As far as you're aware I am and always have been just Flowey. I don't have to spend time with anyone I don't want to. If I need to be alone for a while, my privacy is respected. And …" Flowey turned away. "…Don't be surprized when I mess up everyone's happy ending." A hand with the pinky extended moved into his line of vision. "What are you doing?"

"It's a pinky-promise. The strongest form of promising someone can make. Breaking it is the worst thing that can be done to someone."

Flowey let out a dry snort. "I think I can think of a few worse things." He gave the human a side-glance. "Aren't you going to set any ground rules for me?"

Frisk blinked, keeping her pinky out. "I guess, don't kill anyone, and just … be yourself." She gave his stem a gentle poke with her pinky. "c'mooon."

Flowey's small black eyes darted from her face to her hand and back up. Finally a vine slithered from the ground and wrapped around the finger. Frisk closed her pinky as best she could around his vine, giving a joyful giggle. "You're so weird." After a moment he pulled his vine back.

"I know." Frisk reached for the flowerpot she must have dropped at some point, but nearly jumped when her phone blasted to life, ringtone filling the small cavern. Fishing her phone out of her pocket she swiped to answer. "Hello?"

The voice that came through was loud enough for both to hear and caused Frisk to pull the phone away from her ear. "Franziska! It's after dark, where are you?!"

Moving the phone back to her ear, Frisk responded. "I know mom, sorry, I'm heading back now. I'll see you soon – yes, love you too, bye." She hit the button to hang up. "Huh, I didn't think the signal would reach down here."

"Franziska? I thought you said your name was Frisk."

She turned back to the flower who was tilting his head a little to the side. "It is. Well, it's more of a favoured nickname since 'Franziska' sounds too … formal." For what seemed like the hundredth time that night she grinned down at Flowey. "I guess we both have our preferred names." He nodded in understanding at that. Another similarity. Frisk shoved her phone back in her pocket. "We should go before she organizes a search party. It turns out if your daughter goes missing for a few days and shows up with a large group of monsters rumoured to be dangerous it makes a mom worry. If there's anything you want to bring with you, you can put it in here." Frisk held open her knapsack. "Tomorrow I'll get you a set of drawers you can keep your things in."

"I don't have any… Wait. I do." Flowey disappeared underground.

Frisk stood and brushed the dirt from her legs and clothes while she waited for him to return, hoping that he would.

A moment later he did. Frisk picked up her bag and held it open for him. Flowey shoved a rolled up green and yellow stripped sweater wrapped around something shiny into the bag.

Setting the bag down, Frisk picked up the flowerpot. "I forgot how long your vines are, you might not actually fit in this."

Flowey snickered. "I make them larger with magic. Only can in dirt." He paused. "But I'm not going into it. I'm not a houseplant."

Frisk raised an eyebrow. "But you are a flower, don't you need dirt?"

"I'm fine for a few hours out of it." Grabbing the pot with a vine, he shoved it back into her bag.

Zipping the bag closed, Frisk slung it back over her shoulders. "If you're sure. Ready to go?" She fished her phone back out of her pocket.

"How-Who are you calling?"

"Sans, he can telepo-Hey!" A vine wrapped around her phone and shoved it back into her pocket before she could even finish the sentence. Before she could say anything else, more vines sprouted from the ground and wrapped around her middle. Frisk was lifted until she was able to grab the tree root from before. The vines then unwound and sunk back down into the soil. Frisk looked over her shoulder. "How are you going to get up?"

Her question was answered as Flowey began digging his way up the wall. He climbed it like a ladder: digging his vines in, pulling himself up, and then reaching up to repeat the action. Once he reached the root, he climbed onto Frisk's shoulder, carefully pulling his own roots free. Wrapping his now much smaller vines around her arm, Flowey glanced back down, and then turned to face her. "Alright, go." He then fell silent, letting the girl focus on climbing out of the hole.

Once out, Flowey looked around. "It's dark. I think there's more light in the ruins."

"It's night." Frisk pulled her phone out. "Don't worry, not calling anyone." Hitting a few buttons, the phone's light flashed on. Using it, Frisk made her way slowly through the woods.

"…Frisk?"

Frisk side-glanced to the flower perched on her shoulder like an awkward parrot. "Yeah?"

"I meant to ask before but… when did you get glasses?"

She giggled softly, turning back to the woods ahead. "Pretty much my whole life. They broke the first time I fell. I had to squint to try and even make anyone out."

"That's why you were making such a dumb face?! That must be why you were so bad at dodging."

"Yeah…" Frisk sighed. She chose to ignore the 'dumb' comment.

Flowey snickered. "Staggering around like an idiot, blind as a bat!"

Frisk didn't respond, paying more attention to getting out of the woods rather than getting lost.

After what felt like a week, Frisk finally found the road. Flowey had been making fun of her the entire time. She glanced up, and then smirked at the flower. Perfect! She knew a way to get him to quit teasing. "Hey Flowey, look up," Frisk said, turning off the flashlight.

"Why?" Though he did. Flowey's little black eyes widened. It was a clear night and now that they were out from under all of those trees, a sea of stars could be seen, going on and on and on. Flowey could only stare, mouth open slightly.

Frisk smirked. Yep, that got him to quit the rude comments. Frisk continued walking home while Flowey just kept staring up.

"It's like that room in Waterfall but … more. It's like this every night?"

"Sometimes it's cloudy but on clear nights – like tonight – yeah." Finally reaching and heading into her house, Flowey kept looking up until he was forced to stop once a roof was over his head. Flowey grumbled in annoyance, though he let his gaze wonder boredly around the house.

Frisk called out. "Mom, I'm back, I brought my friend."

A blonde, blue-eyed woman in casual and yet still tailored, professional clothes, walked out of a side room. She smiled warmly. "Good. I'm sorry dear, after what happened I can't help … but… worry." Halfway through her sentence, her eyes fell on the sentient flower perched on her daughter's shoulder. "Your …. friend?"

Flowey's eyes narrowed at the tone she used.

Acting fast, Frisk forced a smile, and held the hand Flowey wasn't wrapped around just under him. "This is Flowey!" Her hand moved to gesture to her mother. "Flowey, this is my mom, Luna."

"It's a … plant."

Oh dear. Before Frisk could say anything Flowey shifted his face to something creepier: larger pure black eyes with little red pupils and fangs. He then hissed.

Her mother's eyes widened in alarm while Frisk did her best to hide Flowey's sudden demonic face behind her hands. "Mom, he's my friend – and also the reason I was able to come home! Please be nice." Frisk began inching towards the stairs, before sprinting up them. As she darted into her room, she called down: "'Night mom, see you tomorrow!" Frisk shut the door with a sigh before glancing at the growling flower on her shoulder. "Easy there, Flowey."

Flowey glared at Frisk. "I'm not an it!"

"I know, I'm sorry. She just needs time to get used to you. She's still getting used to the others." Frisk hesitated for a moment before reaching up to softly pat the flower just behind the petals. Flowey froze at the light touch before narrowing his eyes even further, however he didn't yell at her to stop. "She's …. iffy about monsters. She also calls the others 'it's. Once she gets to know you, she'll warm up to you. I know she will."

Flowey's face finally shifted back to normal. He still looked annoyed but at least the anger had subsided. Turning his attention to the room, Flowey climbed down Frisk and began exploring and snooping around the room. Anything he could poke his vines into, he did.

Frisk took her bag off and walked over to the tub of dirt. Unzipping the bag she set it down next to it. Turning around, she caught sight of vines disappearing under her bed. Frisk giggled before full on laughing.

A golden petal-framed face poked out from under the bed. He was raising an eyebrow. "What the heck's so funny?"

Frisk tried to wave her hand dismissively while she continued to erupt with bubbly giggles. Finally she managed "I-I've got a monster under my bed!"

Flowey only blinked at her, not getting the apparent joke. "Humans are weird." While Frisk attempted to regain her composure, Flowey crawled out from under the bed. Scuttling across the floor, the blossom investigated the tub of dirt. The container was large enough to hold ten of him, far better than that tiny flowerpot Frisk had shown him in the underground.

Dipping one of his roots into it, Flowey's face scrunched up. It felt nice and cool but there was something … off about it. Not enough to keep him from sinking the rest of his roots into, but still weird.

By then Frisk's giggles had finally died down, so she crouched next to the flower climbing into the dirt. "Everything ok?"

"What kind of dirt is this?"

"It's fertilizer!" Frisk grabbed one of the bags to show him.

Scanning the bag, Flowey let out a horrified gasp when he found the ingredients. "There's poop in this?!"

"It's been treated!" Frisk said quickly. "It's really good for plants! And look!" She pointed out some of the other ingredients. "All the vitamins growing boys need!" Flowey growled. "And I mean regular dirt is worm poop and that's not even been treated, just straight worm poop!"

Flowey's face showed pure disgust. "Ew! You're just saying that! That's a lie!"

"Nu-uh! It's true!" Frisk sighed. "Alright how about this, it's late now, so please put up with it for tonight and tomorrow we can go look for a type without that ingredient. They DO make pure chemical kinds, I just didn't want that kind making you sick, and this really is healthy for plants. What if you woke up tomorrow 20 feet tall with leaves!"

Flowey narrowed his eyes and bent down over the dirt. He sniffed it. "It doesn't smell bad, just like regular dirt…" It was more a comment to himself than to Frisk. She watched him debate his options for a moment before a thought came to her.

"Hey Flowey?" Frisk asked, causing the flower to look up at her. "Are you able to eat food?"

Flowey nodded. "You better feed me while I'm up here."

Frisk beamed down at him. "Great! Tomorrow after we pick out better fertilizer for you I'm gunna get us some pizza!"

Flowey raised an eyebrow, though didn't bother asking. Instead he turned back down to the fertilizer he was in. He glared at it for a while before shutting his eyes and sighing. "Fine. I'll stay here tonight." Frisk smiled and reached down to softly pat the top of his head. A vine lifted from the soil and pushed her hand away. "Stop."

Frisk pulled her hand back. "Sorry. No more headpats." Standing up, Frisk stretched her arms above her head. Heading to her closet she pulled out a light blue night-dress. "I'll be back in a bit." Leaving her room, Frisk went to go change and brush her teeth in the bathroom.

Flowey shifted around in the soil, getting himself comfortable, before reaching a vine into the backpack. Leaving the locket, he pulled out the sweater and slithered into it popping his head out of the neck hole, letting the rest drape over him like a blanket. He then folded up the sleeves to make a pillow. Once satisfied he curled up in the dirt, resting his head on the makeshift pillow.

Soon Frisk returned, dropping the clothes she had been wearing in her laundry basket. Glancing over at Flowey it took a lot of Determination to not comment on how adorable he looked snuggling into the sweater like a kitten.

Closing the bedroom door and climbing into bed, Frisk looked over at the flower. "Goodnight, Flowey. Thanks for coming to the surface with me."

"Go to sleep, Frisk."

Smiling, and figuring that was the best she was going to get out of him, Frisk reached over to hit the light switch by her bed, flooding the room in darkness. She then snuggled into her own covers, falling asleep soon after.

Flowey sighed, staring into the darkness for a moment before yawning. Closing his petals over his face, he was soon sleeping as well.