You should make the hat with green and yellow stripes too, he likes those.

Frisk sighed in annoyance. Chara had not honored his promise to leave her alone during the school day. He'd been quiet during science and english, but then math class began, and he took the opportunity to raid her thoughts right when she was trying the hardest to pay attention.

You said you'd leave me alone at school.

But math is so booooring! And it's not like you were actually going to pay attention anyway. Might as well be productive about day-dreaming, huh?

Chara had a really bad habit of distracting Frisk as he pleased, especially since there was little she could do about it. After all, if she went up to the teacher and said, "There's a ghostly boy in my head who's distracting me and he won't shut up," she'd be more likely to get referred to a psychiatrist.

Not that a psychiatrist would even help. An exorcist, maybe. But not a psychiatrist. She was possessed, in a way. Not delusional.

Why are you so annoying?

Why do you ask so many questions?

If you aren't going to leave me alone, then you can at least have the decency to answer my questions. Like why Flowey hates us?

Chara! I'm serious! Papyrus says he thinks Flowey's so bitter because he's really sad about something. Do you know what he could be sad about?

Okay. I'm going to assume you're leaving me alone now and go back to math—

No! Wait! Maybe we can take him out on a picnic or something!

What?

Seriously. He hasn't really had a chance to see much of the overworld, has he? And he likes pie as much as he likes things with stripes. Pie and nature. He'll love that!

I don't know, he doesn't really eat anything—

"Frisk! Could you please tell us what the next step of the problem is?"

Frisk snapped back to reality and glanced up at the board. "Uh, you—you add the three?"

The teacher shook her head. "Not yet. You have to multiply by two and then add the three. Remember the order of operations! Multiplication and division come first, then addition and subtraction."

Frisk nodded. Right. Multiply first, then add. Order of operations. Multiply first, then—

Hello?! I'm still here.

Yeah, I noticed, Mr. Subtle.

Frisk almost rolled her eyes in frustration, but she didn't want anyone to be under the impression that she was frustrated at her teacher when the opposite was true.

Anyway, as I was saying about stripes, he really likes those, especially yellow and green stripes, those have always been our favorite colors. Also, he really does still love Mom's pie. I guess that's why he usually steals the pieces of pie she leaves in your room for your midnight snack? He likes cinnamon over butterscotch, though, especially after the, um, incident that happened with Dad…

Chara? Can you please just leave me alone right now? I promise I'll talk with you more later, but right now…

Alright, fine. I get it. You don't want me around anymore.

No, just…Not now.

Okay. See you later.

Thanks.


Frisk came into her room with a large bag slung over her shoulder.

Flowey eyed it suspiciously. Was the human finally getting sick of him? Was she going to take his advice and murder him and hide his corpse in the bag? Or had she already killed someone else, like Sans, or a stupid human, and was going to ask him for advice on how to dispose of the body? He liked that idea. Maybe Frisk was trying to get interested in his hobbies to get along with him better—oh, that would be rich! She was trying so hard to be so good and to 'save his soul' and all that crap, but in the process was becoming just as murderous and cold-blooded as he. Oh, the irony! The sweet, sweet irony!

Wait, there was some sort of smell coming from the bag—human corpses didn't smell like cinnamon, did they?

His eyes widened. No, no she wouldn't try to—NO! She wouldn't stoop so low as to bribe him with pie. And he wouldn't be so stupid as to fall for it.

No matter how delicious it smelled.

He grinned at her, waggling his eyebrows. "Don't even bother, Frisk. I'm not stupid enough to fall for your bribery."

Frisk stumbled a bit trying to pick Flowey up and shifted in trying to balance his weight with the bag's, but then got to a good position and started walking.

Flowey started to panic on the inside.

"Y-Yeah! I know all your stupid tricks, Chara. You can't fool me! You'll never be able to fool me."

Frisk ignored him.

"W-Where are you taking me?" Inside Frisk's head, Chara snickered. Flowey was failing miserably at hiding his anxiety.

Frisk smiled. "Outside."

Whatever composure Flowey had shattered immediately. "OUTSIDE?! NO NO NO NO NO NO…." Instead of flailing around like he normally would if he was upset like this, he actually shrank back into his pot and stared up at Frisk with wide eyes. "Oh, nononono! There are…BEES outside! HUGE ones! Ones that crawl all over you and drive you crazy with their incessant buzzing and STING your faces!"

Chara broke out laughing. Frisk couldn't help but gush at how cute Flowey looked, so afraid and vulnerable and for once, not threatening or vicious at all.

"Don't worry, it's too cold outside for bees this time of the year," Frisk giggled.

Flowey didn't answer. He just kept whimpering.

I told you he was a huge crybaby.

Frisk rolled her eyes and attempted to make her way downstairs. Easier said than done, as she was still struggling to carry the flower and the heavy bag.

"Just take it step by step," she whispered to herself.

"Step.

By.

Ste—ARGH!"

Frisk could feel herself falling and shut her eyes, bracing for the inevitable pain. Falling was terrifying, especially if you were falling down the stairs with a full load of stuff. She could feel her heart racing. Wow, this moment was really feeling strange. She'd fallen down loads of times before, including when she'd fallen down Mt. Ebott. It always felt like forever in a moment, but never quite like this.

Hey, we've been falling for a long time.

Her eyes snapped open, and she realized she was floating in a blue aura. Sans released his magical hold on her and gently placed Frisk and her stuff down at the bottom of the stairs. "Going on a trip, eh? Maybe you should take the elevator next time," he said with a wink.

Frisk nodded and scurried to grab Flowey and the bag. Sans glanced over at the flower.

"So, what're you up to, Frisk?"

Frisk shrugged nonchalantly. "Just…Y'know. Stuff."

Sans would've raised an eyebrow, if he had any. "Stuff with Flowey?"

"Um, yes, kind of."

He sighed and patted her head. "Alright, kiddo. I don't like what you're doing, but I trust you, ok? Please be back before Tori gets home. I don't want to have to explain to her just why you weren't back in time for dinner."

Frisk grinned and attempted to hug him with her arms full. "Thanks, Sans! I promise I'll be back by then!"

"Alright. Stay safe, kiddo!"


Frisk found a lovely little spot in the neighborhood park. It was right next to a bunch of half-dead trees that really set a gloomy atmosphere, but had a great view of the late-autumn sun as it started to set.

She spread out the blanket on the ground—bright green with blue squares, one that Chara insisted she bring. She didn't know why, but she didn't question him.

He knew Asriel best, after all.

Flowey kept looking around at everything. "So, that big ball of fire in the sky is the sun? Aren't you humans afraid of it crashing into earth and setting it all on fire?"

Frisk shook her head. "No, that's not going to happen for about a bajillion more years, after all of humanity and life here has died off."

"Why are these trees all dead?"

"It's almost winter. This always happens when it's turning from fall to winter. If you want to, we can come back in the springtime when they're in full bloom."

"No, I like them better like this."

Flowey kept drinking it all in. He almost seemed to be enjoying himself.

Almost.

Frisk reached into her bag and pulled out the food she'd stashed. Snail casserole, some iced sea tea, and—of course—butterscotch-cinnamon pie. She was especially happy that the pie had survived its trip down the stairs.

Flowey finally looked over at the array Frisk had spread out. She was sitting there, smiling at him. Almost as if she expected something from him. Maybe she really was, but he knew she knew better than to seriously expect anything like a compliment or a sign of gratitude from him.

The silence finally got to him. "What are you staring at?"

"You really do look cute in your little sweater when you aren't complaining about it."

He scoffed. Frisk would swear she saw him blushing. "I'm only wearing this because it's cold outside and you had the bright idea to drag me out here."

Chara snickered.

Yeah, right. Ever since you put it on him, he hasn't demanded once that you take it off of him.

Frisk offered him a slice of pie. "I know you don't eat, but I was wondering if you wanted some anyway."

He eyeballed the piece. "What do you want?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean," he huffed, "that you must be brain-dead or something if you genuinely think that I'm going to let myself be toyed with like this."

Frisk sighed. "There's nothing you can give me Flowey. The only thing I want from you is your friendship, but since everybody insists that you can't give it to me, then there's nothing I could ask for from you."

Flowey blinked. "Oh. Why'd you get me pie then?"

"Because I'm stupid enough to do things just out of niceness."

Flowey stared at the pie again. "Well, if you're really that stupid, I guess I can take advantage of your stupidity and take the pie."

Sure enough, Flowey actually ate the pie. It was the first piece of actual food that he'd eaten willingly in front of Frisk.

"I still hate you," he said, after finishing his last mouthful.

Frisk smiled. "I can live with that."


A/N Flowey is such a tsundere. Maybe that's why Omega Flowey's arm-tentacle-things are cacti? They are the most tsundere of plants, after all.

I'm on to your symbolism, Toby!

I don't know when the next update will be. Could be in a few days, could be in a few weeks. Like Frisk, I need to focus on my schoolwork, especially since finals are next week.

When I started this, I thought it was going to be insanely hard to actually commit to writing more chapters. Amazingly, it's been getting easier and easier to write, but I hope the quality is consistent. Free-writing is one of the ways I tend to relieve stress, and I've been under a lot more than usual in the past several days. I apologize if the pacing seems a bit too slow or too rushed, but I'm not used to writing multi-chap stories and I'm mostly just making it up as I go along, even though I have a clear idea of what direction I want to take it in.

Thank you, allen Vth, for suggesting a picnic! It would've taken much longer for me to finish this chapter without that idea :) Thanks to everybody who's reading and reviewing. It's nice to know that y'all are really enjoying this.

Question of the day (or week, or however long it's going to take before another update): Do you think it'd be kind of cool or annoying as heck to have someone like Chara in your head?