A year ago, Frisk would have drowned. But Undyne had taken him to the beach over the summer and hadn't stopped dunking him under the salty water until he was able to swim like a future piece of sushi. He opened his eyes, the icy water stinging his corneas as he searched below the surface of the bitter water for Flowey.
He saw his little companion writhing about, sinking swiftly, and swam towards him. The flower was already beginning to turn blue. Soulless being though he was, even Flowey could drown.
But Frisk wasn't going to let that happen. He grabbed his roommate and swam to the surface, lifting Flowey above the water before even he allowed himself to take a precious gulp of air.
Both of them coughed. Frisk clumsily swam with one arm while keeping Flowey above the water with the other.
"You okay?" he panted, already beginning to become tired.
"Ok…ay…ok…ay? Of course I'm not okay! That lousy son of a…daughter of a…that idiot nearly drowned us! In what universe would I just be okay after-?!"
"All right, all right! I was looking for a short answer. Don't waste oxygen. Deep breath."
Flowey paused his tirade and obeyed, taking a big gulp of air as Frisk was forced to go back under the water. Frisk looked around for something he and Flowey could cling to and he was able to spot a large block of ice. Seeing no other option aside from drowning, he swam towards the block. He placed Flowey on the icy square first and then climbed on himself.
"W-well…" stuttered Frisk, getting situated in the center of the ice cube and gazing off at the disappearing dot that was the River Person and their boat. "N-not exactly as warm as the boat…but…this'll t-take us right to the Hotland."
"Slowly," Flowey pointed out, wringing out his leaves and trying his best to get rid of the superfluous water that had gotten into his pot.
"Better s-slowly than not at all…" Frisk muttered, hugging himself and shivering terribly. Flowey noted the boy's quivering and became moderately concerned. For all of his determination, Frisk was actually a rather fragile child. He wasn't as strong as the sentient flower and he was obviously freezing. Without a blanket, and given the fact that it would take a few hours to float all the way to Hotland on the ice cube…
Flowey grunted and lifted himself out of his pot, stretching out his vines, retracting the thorns on said vines, and wrapping the vines around Frisk. The child let out a tiny yelp of surprise before a smile came to his cold-nipped face as Flowey wrapped his entire body in vines, giving him a warm floral embrace.
"Thanks, Flowey," squeaked Frisk, snuggling into the vines while Flowey himself got situated on Frisk's head.
"Humph!" humphed Flowey. "If you ever mention this to anybody, I will murder you. Slowly. Painfully."
"Love you, too!" sighed Frisk happily.
"Don't get any ideas, you little pervert; you've already flirted with every monster in the underground-including your family members, for that matter!"
"I wasn't gonna flirt with 'ya, Flowey! Not unless you want me to!"
"Eugh!"
"What noise was that?"
"My noise of 'You disgust me!'"
"What's disgusting? Flirting's just a way to show someone you really love them and wanna be best friends!" cried Frisk innocently. "That's how I became friends with Moldsmal and Napstablook and a whole buncha' other people! I love everyone, so I flirt with everyone! It's just plain logic!"
Flowey burst into a bout of condescending and moderately amused laughter.
"Oh, golly," he said. "When you finally become a teenager, I am going to have no shortage of embarrassing stories to tell about you. Your reputation will be decimated."
"Mom told me once that she wants me to RESET before I become a teenager so I'll stay cute forever…but Dad made her take that back."
"You're not even cute now, so no RESET will help."
"Aww, don't be mean, Flowey!"
"Well, I'm assuming that the River-Person was just overwhelmed by your ugliness and that's why they tried to murder us."
"You…really think that?"
"No, idiot, I'm being sarcastic."
"So why do you think they knocked us off, Flowey? They never did anything like that before. It can't be because you were with me, they took both me and you back to the Hotland when I came to get you last time…"
"Well, they always have been a few boats shy of a navy," said Flowey with a chuckle that was a tad nervous. That nagging feeling of wrongness was stronger than ever now. His stem felt like it was about to burst with trepidation.
Or maybe that was just Frisk cuddling up to him. He would have normally chastised the child for being so snuggly, but the kid needed to keep warm and so he decided to let it pass even as he felt tremendously awkward…but strangely enough, not entirely frustrated.
"Frisk, take a nap," he commanded. "You'll stay warmer that way."
"Like a hibernating bear!" declared Frisk.
"Yeah, sure, whatever."
"Dad says bears hibernate for months on end! He says he wants to hibernate like that! We're both gonna get as much food as we can and then we're gonna find a little place in a basement and hibernate together for one whoooole winter!"
"Oh, will you stop prattling on about that pathetic excuse for a father and go to sleep!?"
He snapped out of frustration, but when the child fell totally silent, becoming as tense as a stretched string, his glare melted into a soft, curious frown.
"Ahhh…Frisk?"
"Flowey…" whispered Frisk, his normally bright and cheerful tone disturbingly melancholic. "Did I ever tell you how I ended up down here? Why I fell down?"
"I…" muttered Flowey clumsily "I had just assumed you climbed the mountain, found a hole and, being a world class idiot, dove right in."
"I was looking for a stick."
"A…stick?" repeated Flowey with disbelief, that feeling of uneasiness in his being becoming utterly overwhelming as he could practically sense the sorrow emanating off of the small child. "You climbed the mountain to get a stick?"
"I already had the stick…and it wasn't for me, it was for my foster-dad."
"Foster…?"
"I murdered my mother."
It was such a direct, cold statement. The same statement that Flowey had uttered to himself many times after many runs where he, in his morbid curiosity, had ended up slaying Toriel. But here it carried a certain weight, the weight of an act that could not be easily retracted.
"You…what? But…Frisk…"
"When I was a baby, while I was being born, I murdered her."
Flowey blinked. Oh. Oh.
He laughed uneasily. "I… I've murdered alotta people alotta times, buddy, so trust me when I say that what happened to your mom, that wasn't your fault. That wasn't murder."
"It was, though," sniffled Frisk, barely subduing a sob as his little voice began to crack. "And…well, I guess he's not my real father, but, you know, that one…he wasn't ready for the responsibility. So one day…the day before I turned three, he just took me to the park, sat me on a bench, promised he'd be right back…and he never came back."
Flowey shook his little head. Abandonment was unnaturally rare amongst the monsters. Parents adored their children no matter what, no matter how much of a burden they could be, no matter what they were, no matter if they had arms or legs or not.
No matter what, even if they were human. Even if they had been turned into a soulless plant that couldn't return their love no matter how much he tried…
But even he had tried before simply running away, and he was the child in the equation. He could never imagine Asgore or Toriel or Sans abandoning their own (or even someone else's) just because they weren't ready.
The floodgates of Frisk's past had been opened and he wasn't about to stop. Flowey felt his nonexistent soul sink like a heavy stone in water as Frisk continued:
"I got picked up by a police officer…she told me I was really lucky, but I never really felt lucky until I fell down here. I was in a place called a…I forget, it started with an 'O', it was hard to pronounce."
"'Orphanage,'" supplied Flowey.
"Yeah, I think that was it, but I wasn't there too often because they kept giving me to these people, they called them foster parents. I had a few nice ones, but I didn't get to stay there too long with them. I kept getting moved around and a lot of the foster people I went with really didn't like me that much."
"Then why did they take you in?"
"'Cause they got money every month for taking care of me, and as long as I didn't cost them too much they got to make a lot of money. So I had to wear hand-me-downs and I never got my hair cut. That was okay, though: I like my clothes and my hair. But…I got some really bad ones, and a lot of the time they wanted me to do a lot of work, and if I didn't they'd…well, they'd hit me. And it hurt worse than friendliness pellets when they did that, Flowey. And they'd yell at me…and, well…"
He inhaled deeply. "The last person I was with lived right next to Mt. Ebott, and if I didn't keep everything clean he'd tell me to go outside and find him a big stick. Then I'd bring it back and he'd thwack me with it. Well, one time I messed up and…I'd messed up the bother day too and he hit me really hard, that's why I had that old bandage on. Anyway, I went out, got the stick, saw Mt. Ebott…and…I just couldn't go back there! I figured it'd be better to see what was up there and never come back. I thought maybe I'd meet someone up there that was nice, so I just ran and ran and…I fell. And I got everything I wanted. I got friends, a nice house, a great Mom, a great Dad…"
"So that's just the thing, Flowey. I don't need a dad who's all tough and royal and stuff…I jus' need someone who'll take a job to pay for my college…and who'll tell me jokes and make me laugh…and who'll dunk me into bed…and who'll help me prank call the kids at school who bully me. And who'll take me to the park and take me home right afterwards That's all, really, that's all."
Silence descended upon the pair. The only sound to be heard was the sloshing of the water. Flowey wasn't sure what to say. In another lifetime, he recalled Asriel having nothing to say when a certain little girl had told her own sad story.
He shook his head. That lifetime was gone. He was Flowey. This was Frisk. He couldn't just say nothing.
"Uh…Frisk…I'm…sorry…you had to go through that…" he stumbled. "You…a person like you really doesn't deserve that. You deserved a lot better."
"Flowey," said Frisk, peeking out from under Flowey's protective vines and smiling gently at his roommate. "It's okay, it really is. I'm happy now. I'm really, really happy. I've got friends and family and a Mom and a Dad and an Uncle and you…so don't feel too bad for me…and you don't have to stop making fun'a me if you don't want to, don't feel guilty about it! I consider it affectionate!"
Flowey chuckled. "Oh, don't worry about that, buddy, I'm never gonna be completely and totally nice to you. But, uh, I mean it, you do deserve better, and…well, if you're happy, that's good…"
He looked away awkwardly and he heard Frisk snicker.
"Flowey, Flowey, Flowey," sighed the boy, "You're such a Tsundre-Plane!"
Flowey's face heated up. "W-what? What the heck is that supposed to mean!? Whatever, I don't even care, just go to sleep and don't freeze to death! We're gonna be floating for awhile now and I'd rather put up with your obnoxious snoring than your obnoxious singing!"
"Ohhhhh…!"
"No…."
"Row, row, row, your ice, gently down the lake! Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, then we'll take a break!"
"Ugh, me and my big mouth…"
Well, that was depressing to write.
Please do NOT take Frisk's back-story as a slight to foster parents; there are plenty of wonderful foster parents out there. Unfortunately, however, there are plenty of gold diggers amongst them. Since foster parents get money from the government, some people who want extra cash will take in a foster kid and treat them more as a job or a source of income than a child. The show 'What Would You Do?" did a good episode on it if you want to look it up and get some hope in humanity back.
Also the thing with Frisk finding the stick for his abusive parent…believe it or not, that was based on my grandmother's childhood. The 20s were not a fun time to be a kid…
Well, now I'm upset. I'd better cheer myself up by thanking everyone who reviewed!
CryptologicMystic
Guest #1: I may have ol' Blooky in here, but I'm not sure.
Mkdeal13: Hope you didn't freeze!
DarkFoxKit
Guest #2
Sehcturc: Thanks! Although I would count myself as lucky to have snow if I hadn't strained my back trying to shovel away a pile of snow that was bigger than me. Eh, at least school is closed!
Peace
And lastly, I'd like to respond to a comment made by UndertaleGarbage (which probably hasn't shown up yet because it is a guest review) concerning Frisk's gender.
He/She/They say: I'm really trying so hard to enjoy this story, cos it has a good plot, but I honestly cringe every time Frisk is pronouned as "he"
Come on now, there's a reason everyone says "They" and "Them" and "Their"; they have no gender.
To which I respond: Nope.
Toby Fox specifically made Frisk the way they are because both he/she and Chara were sort of supposed to represent the player: Frisk and Chara are whatever the player says they are, boy or girl or otherwise. THAT'S why Frisk and Chara are both referred to with gender-neutral pronouns in the game. They could be agender if you so choose, but that's not canon and it's not the only interpretation.
I'd also like to address the argument that "Frisk is referred to as 'they' by other characters in the game, so they must be agender'. Not at all. If we, the players, can't tell Frisk's gender at first glance then I think it's safe to assume that the monsters can't either, and it's more than likely common curtsey in the Underground to refer to someone by gender-neutral pronouns if you just can't tell or they don't specify what they are. (For example, if you go into Mettaton's house and call Undyne, she, not being able to remember the house's occupant, will refer to Mettaton as 'they', obviously not because Mettaton is agender but simply because she doesn't remember his name, much less his gender). The monsters are too polite to even ask Frisk's name until the end of the game, so you can't really use their use of pronouns as absolute proof of Frisk's gender (or lack thereof).
Contrast that to Napstablook, who has lived in the Underground for years and is constantly referred to as 'they' by friends and family, including Mettaton, their cousin. They, I believe, are gender-neutral. Of course, just because that's my personal opinion doesn't mean I cringe every time I hear them referred to as a 'he'. That would be a dumb thing to get upset over.
I'm sorry, but it drives me up a freaking wall when people have a freak out over Frisk's gender and act like you're a horrible person and/or just dumb and insensitive if you refer to Frisk as he or she. As Papyrus would say, "IT'S NOT WRONG! IT'S JUST MY HEADCANON!"
So that's that. If reading about a male Frisk is honestly so painful to you that it's ruining the story…well, maybe you should get off the internet for a little while.
But for all of you sticking around, thanks for reviewing, and thanks to everyone who read/faved/followed. Please review and I hope to see you soon!