Happy Holidays!

Sorry for the wait, if you happened to be waiting. Ah..I recently downloaded OFF, so ya know..I'm blaming that for the delay.

Anywho, uh...here's the next chapter!

Something was wrong.

It weighed heavily in your non-existent gut, leaving you uncomfortably fidgety as you thrummed your fingers against the wood of your station. You weren't exactly sure why you were so agitated. Nothing had even happened yet. Once, perhaps, you would have thought that to be a problem, but you had come to terms with the idea that sometimes it just took a bit for that door to open. It wasn't as if you could do anything about that, not that there would really be a point to it. In the end you could never stop whatever decided to shuffle out from the ruins, so why get dusted early? ...Well, honestly sometimes that felt like the better option.

Your hands shake slightly at the thought, it didn't really matter though.

You find yourself slipping off your mittens and ridding yourself of them along with the whoopee cushions inside them. You hesitate, if only for a moment but make no move to retrieve your possessions from the snow. What difference would it make anyways? Slowly you trudge away from your station, watching as your shoes disturb the white blanket of snow before you. It's cold out, as always, but you don't actually have a need to stay warm, so it doesn't bother you.

And yet still you shiver.

You accept the fact that perhaps a patch of flowers didn't do that great of a job cushioning your fall. It seems you were right to doubt their capabilities. Well, if anything you must have bashed your head pretty hard to end up with...this?

"Howdy! I'm Flowey, Flowey the Flower!" It seemed your concussed mind wasn't very creative with names, you scowl in response massaging your temples with a pair of gloved hands.

"You two must be new to the underground!" The words sounded gleefully scripted, and you had to wonder how a flower could manage that tone of voice.

"Uhm..." Alphonse was looking as put off as a suit of armor could. "Wha-"

"You both must be so confused!" The flower cuts off your brother with a sickly sweet smile that's bordering on a sneer. Something about the interaction between them sets off red flags in your head. You squint, furrowing your brow in confusion. It shouldn't be possible for Al to be interrupted by your hallucination. So how did...?

You open your mouth to speak.

Nothing happens.

It takes a moment but you realize you're standing there numbly in your confusion, feeling strangely befuddled, unable to act in such a situation that... That..this... shouldn't be happening, flowers can't talk.

"Someone ought to teach you fellas how things work around here!" You didn't have much time to ponder what exactly the flower meant by that before you felt an odd tugging sensation from somewhere deep inside you, and the flower was speaking again. "I guess little old me will have to do. Ready? Here we go!"

A golden light blossoms forth into existence from your chest, settling in front of you as a odd caricature of a small heart. Surprised, you take a step back from it but it follows you, bobbing softly from the action.

"See that heart? That is your SOUL the ver-..." There's a short pause in the flower's speech in which you realize it's smile has faltered, it was staring at your brother it's expression contorted into looking perplexed. It recovers quickly enough, giving off a peculiar giggle. "..the very culmination of your being."

It's hard to tear your gaze from the floating heart but you're suddenly feeling oddly chilled, despite the warm light emanating from what the flower has described as your soul. You turn to your brother, looking for something that isn't there.

He doesn't look back at you, too preoccupied staring at his own armor.

You understand why quickly enough.

Unlike you he doesn't appear to have any sort of dimly glowing heart hovering about him. There's nothing there, and if this is suppose to represent his soul then why didn't he have one too? It wasn't as if he didn't have a soul, you knew that he did. This wasn't right, how'd you even know if this...this weird little heart, was really your soul anyways? Since when did you trust talking flowers? You didn't. But the idea of something being wrong with your brother's soul was alarming. You didn't know how to fix something like this. Souls weren't meant to be messed with and Al's already had been, by you.

Your distress suddenly ebbs at the sight of a soft serene grey light emitting from the cracks of Alphonse's armor. Wait was tha-

The flower clears it's throat, (though you're not sure you could be describing that as its throat), disrupting your thoughts before they can even complete themselves. It's smile is starting to look rather strained and annoyed. It, however, keeps up its cheerful little demeanor with another laugh, though this one is more forced than the last.

"It's rude to ignore someone when they're talking to you." The flower cocks it head(?) it's smile widening to the point of it looking painful. You don't like the look it's giving you, even so, you opt to stay silent gritting your teeth. You don't understand whats going on and you're not dumb enough to insult the only thing that could possibly explain it to you...yet.

"Ah...Sorry?" The apology your brother offers up is confused and small but the flower seems satisfied with the response.

"Gooood." The reply is crooned in a mocking manner and your doubts about how helpful flowers are grows, making you huff through your teeth in annoyance. "As I was saying; your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV."

You definitely don't know what that could possibly mean but there's no point in asking, the flower was already explaining it.

"What's LV stand for? Why, LOVE of course!" Reflectively a frown forms on your face as the flower bounces on its stem cheekily. "You want some LOVE, don't you?"

"Uh, no th-"

"Don't worry, I'll share some with you two!" The flower doesn't seem to be tolerating anymore interruptions, despite the fact that it had technically just asked a question. As the flower began speaking once more, white seed-like pellets began floating about behind it, spinning lazily at first then picking up speed. "Down here, LOVE is shared through...little white...'friendliness pellets.' "

What.

"Are you two ready?"

Perhaps you couldn't say you hadn't been expecting this to happen, but it would be nice to be able to. Meeting someone who didn't want to kill you and/or your brother would be a pleasant change of pace. Well, at least Ed seemed to have gotten over his disorientation of the situation rather well, or...maybe he was just ignoring it?

As of now, however, your older brother was outright screeching at Flowey, tossing himself about the clearing in an attempt to rip the plant from the ground. He looked ridiculous, though, Flowey wasn't acting any better than Ed.

"It's still my turn you stupid midget!"

"Shut up!"

Ed seemed too out of breath to give one of his usual rants in response and you were thankful for it, if you had a body you were sure you'd have a major headache by now. Nevertheless you sound a sigh as several 'friendliness pellets' clink against your armor, they don't do any sizable damage but that didn't mean they weren't annoying you. You'd deal with whatever marks they left behind later, your brother was really just wasting time here. Ed didn't seem to be in any real danger, nor did Flowey, neither of them were actually managing to hurt each-other beyond few scratches and lost pedals. They both were growing increasingly frustrated, acting like children hissing out insults and growling whenever their attacks were dodged. The whole clearing was marred with bullet holes and signs of alchemical reactions (Ed had tried crushing Flowey several times to no avail). You weren't participating in the fight, the whole situation seemed, so...silly, especially when you had some serious business down here. A child was missing, and Ed was taking the time to try to beat up a flower...failing at it too...

"I'll...be up ahead." With the fight going no where fast you decide to keep looking for the child, listening idly to the bickering of the two opponents as you leave the area. The next room you enter is much larger than the last, brighter too, how though, you're not quite sure as you can't find any source for the light. Twin staircases lead up to a door that's framed by ivy. A sign of some sort makes it's home above the door, you attempt to read it but quickly discover you can't. Its too worn, faded from the passage of time, you suppose it doesn't matter. The child isn't here, unsurprisingly, so there's nothing here for you. You make your way up the left staircase and abruptly halt in your steps when you spot something just out of clear view.

For a moment you swear you could see a bright flash of a flickering light between the bases of the twin staircases but when you look back towards it there's nothing there but a pile of dry leaves.