Chapter 6:

The Soulless No Longer

This will be the last chapter in my story, so I decided to make it a bit lengthier. I will be opening a second story shortly after I tie this one off. I just didn't want to label this story as a romance and leave people tied to it for seven chapters before the romance actually kicks in. But anyways, on with the fic!

Dug into a flower pot, Flowey felt slightly claustrophobic. He normally had some freedom on the open ground he was used to. He used to burrow himself underground to travel. But now, he was stuck in this stupid prison. Keep calm Flowey. He thought. You just need to suck it up for a few hours, then your back on your feet. Literally.

Frisk kept eying the flower closely. Not because she was distrustful of him, as she should be, but because she couldn't help but admire the smile he was wearing. It was strange, but warm and affectionate. The strange factor was likely played into effect because she hadn't seen him smile in a long time. It seemed out of place, but in a good way.

Flowey started to take notice of his surroundings, and Frisk's stare. "Is there something on my face?" His mocking tone tracing the remark.

Frisk seemed to blink back into reality. "Sorry, it's just strange seeing you smile. You've worn the same solemn scowl all these years. It's nice though."

The small buttercup flower seemed confused, but quickly regained his composure, and his excitement. "Well you'd better get used to it, because after this, it's going to stay." Frisk just grinned and nodded.

They finally reached their destination after the seemingly endless combinations of corridors and hallways. The testing room. There was a smaller version of the soul forming syringe attached to a mechanical arm. Flowey shivered. He always despised needles, and this one was rather large. It was a childish fear, but that's what he is at heart. A child.

The shiver did not go unnoticed by his carrier. "Something wrong Flowey?"

The said flower turned to meet Frisk's concerned blue eyes. "N-nothing! Forget about it!" Frisk was going to push into this little problem further, but she decided not to. He was just jittery with excitement! So she did as the flower instructed her to and forgot about it.

"Well, get settled in. This will take a minute." Both of the room's occupants were startled to hear Alphys' voice break into the comfortable silence via loudspeaker.

Steeling her nerves, she figures that Flowey could use some help calming his own. He seemed like it would help for him to open up some more. He always treated the world like he couldn't trust anyone, like it was "Kill or be killed!" So Frisk sat down beside him, and tried to pry whatever was bothering him out into the open.

"So. Anything you want to get out?"

Flowey just let out a small chuckle. Not the dark giggle he squeaked whenever his intents were murderous, but a sad kind. The kind someone would let out when they've seen too much, done too much. Just like Flowey. "Nah, I'm fine." Frisk wasn't letting this go. She was Determined to pry this out of him. It was clearly chewing him up!

"Flowey, you're looking more depressed now than ever. Something's up. Tell me." He was going to deny it, but when he looked up into Frisk's eyes, he saw genuine concern, and endless reserves of Determination. He wasn't getting out of this.

"I'm just ashamed. I've been trying to kill you. I've succeeded at it too, multiple times, but here you are. Helping me when I've tried so many times to hurt you."

Frisk just shrugged. "You'd have done the same for me if our places were swapped."

Flowey was shocked and aggravated that she wasn't taking this seriously. "You don't understand. I've killed everyone so many times before you came down here. This place was my murderous playground before you stopped me!"

Frisk was now confused. "Wait, what?" The flower sighed with defeat. She hadn't known all this time, now he'd screwed it all up. There was no way she would help him after telling her what he's done, but…

"I have the ability to alter time too. And unlike you, I've abused it. I've won every game, I've lost every game. I've appeased everyone, I've killed everyone. And it all got so dull and boring. Everyone became so predictable. It stayed this way until you fell down here. I could never predict you." Frisk was taken back by this new information. She had no clue that he could alter time like she could. "Now you probably think I'm some kind of hellspawn, unfit for this world. I wouldn't blame you if-"

She stopped him mid-sentence with the largest hug she ever gave anyone. "You don't need to be ashamed Flowey. You just couldn't feel. And without your feelings, your love, you didn't know what to do. So you resorted to violence. It's alright though. We'll change all that very soon."

As if on cue, Alphys disrupted their small moment of confession. "A-alright, we're all r-ready in here. F-Frisk, you may want t-to leave th-the room, w-we're about to pull the l-lever." Frisk nodded, and made her way to the door. She flashed Flowey one last, sweet smile and made her way to the observation room.

She made it just in time to see Alphys pulling the metaphorical lever, and typing commands into her computer. Frisk watched as the mechanical arm made its way down to a terrified Flowey. Frisk noticed the flower's shaking, but this had to happen. Impossible odds couldn't stop this, so a fear of needles had to be put aside for now. She had to remember to tease him for this later though.

After what seemed to be ages, the needle finally made it to Flowey. It began to sink its sharp tip into the stem. His face scrunched up in pain, but he would survive. They could've made the needle a bit smaller though.

After several minutes of waiting, Frisk finally decided to check up on Flowey via loudspeaker. "Hey, Flowey! are you feeling alright in there?"

The flower just slumped back into his container. "It didn't work Frisk! Your stupid experiment didn't work!

Frisk was in tears. "Can you- Can you feel anything?"

Flowey was enraged. "What does it matter if I can feel anything or not!? The shot didn't work! I'm not Asriel!" He calmed down a little. "Why did I even get my hopes up?"

Frisk was so ashamed. She'd gotten his hopes up, and crushed them all in the same week. This was horrible. It wasn't supposed to go this way.

Alphys broke into the situation once again. "Well, he's got a soul. He should at the very least be able to feel again."

Frisk looked to Flowey sympathetically and expectantly. "Sure I can feel, but-"

Frisk cut in. "That's enough for me."

The angry flower then looked at his friend in a small tantrum. "What!?"

Frisk sighed. It wasn't an exasperated or an exhausted sigh, but a soft one. "I just wanted to make you feel again. That's what you wanted, right?"

Flowey just shrugged in a pouty way. "Well, be happy. Think optimistically." He took a deep breath, sighed, shrugged, then looked back up to his friend. The friend, whom he reminded himself, devoted much of her time and energy to make him happy. He swallowed his grumpy pout, and smiled. "I guess you're right." He mumbled so low it was barely audible, but Frisk heard it, and acknowledged it with a close hug.

"C'mon. Let's get you home."

Flowey spent that night at Frisk's room in the royal manor. Frisk decided it was best to keep the flower a little secret that her friends gladly agreed to keep. She kept him at her bedside whenever she slept, and snuck him outside from time to time to give him a little freedom. They enjoyed their life while it lasted, but that life eventually evolved into something that was expected, yet unexpected. It's complicated. But it happened on the night before Toriel and Asgore returned from their meeting with the human government about a month after Flowey was given his own soul…

Frisk sprawled out across the sheet of her bed, covered in her blanket. She kept her favorite buttercup flower at her side, when she was awoken by a strange and foreign feeling. Not feelings, but she was literally feeling something else in her bed. It was warm, and furry, but it sure wasn't a Temmie, so she got startled. And we should know by now what a female Frisk does when she's startled in these fanfictions. She let out a little squeal. Not enough to wake up anybody else in the household, but it was just enough to wake up whatever was sharing her sheets.

"Wha- Wha'd I do?" The unidentified person shot upright while it said those muffled words. Frisk just stared at it. Or him. He looked like a younger, brawnier version of Toriel. He just looked back at her, confused. "Morinin' Frisk. It's a little bit early though, isn't it?" She just stared.

When she finally managed to form the words, they came out as sputtered nonsense. "Wha- Who- Asriel?"

"Calm down Frisk, let's just go back to sleep. It's way too early to be up and around." He covered himself into the sheets again. Frisk just ripped them off of him.

"Look at yourself!" He groaned, and looked down, shocked. He found, not a green stem, but he could make out with the dim light a white, fur-covered torso. "You're Asriel again!"

Frisk's quiet shout broke him out of his stunned stupor. "I- I am! I'm me again. Thank you so much!" His gratefulness drove him to throw off the sheets, and tackle an unsuspecting human back to the bed. Once the prince pulled off, Frisk noticed he looked different. He had small horns protruding through the fur, but because of its white color, it looked to be made of the fur itself. He was also a fair bit taller than she remembered. He looked like he may be in his late teen years, much like herself. While scanning his appearance, she came across a certain, exposed area of his body that made her blush the darkest shade of crimson.

"Uum, Asriel? You may want to do a quick double-take on yourself before pinning me like that."

He was a little bit confused until she started pointing down. He looked where she was motioning, and blushed just as badly. "It looks like soul-fueled transformation doesn't have the common courtesy of giving you some pants."

He quickly pulled the covers over himself. "Y-Yeah. Do you know where I could by chance find some?"

She giggled. "You look a bit older than last time, so I'd have to say your best bet is one of Toriel's cloaks." He nodded. She took his hand, and led him out the door.

Unfortunately, the well seemed to run dry again in the luck department, as Papyrus came running down the hallway. "Welp, busted."

Frisk sighed as the worried skeleton came to a skittering halt. They just stood in silence, until Papyrus cut that silence with the sharp knife that is his voice. "What is going on here!?"

Frisk shushed the now confused skeleton. "Please don't wake up the others, I wanted this to be a secret." Papyrus was now beyond confused. "A nude Asgore clone is running around, and you want to keep it a secret?"

Frisk couldn't keep a straight face after that. She stifled back her laughter as best she could. "He's not a clone, this is Asriel." She noticed he was going to shout, but she closed the distance between the two instantly, and covered his bare, skeleton teeth before a word could be uttered. "And we need to keep this a secret until Toriel and Asgore come back." Papyrus nodded with even wider eye sockets than she'd ever seen. "Now go to bed. We'll all talk about this in the morning." He nodded again. She released her grip over his mouth, forgetting it was there, and watched as the skeleton quietly made his way back to bed.

Asriel sighed with relief. "Glad that's over. I thought for sure he would wake up the entire house, and I'd rather have some clothes on before the others see me."

Frisk nodded in agreement, and they resumed their journey to the monster queen's bedroom to pick out one of her older cloaks that she wore in the Ruins, where she first made her acquaintance with Frisk. Ahh. The memories. Frisk shook her head to clear her thoughts and memories that came in droves.

"Here's my clothes!" Frisk looked over to see Asriel holding a green striped jumper that he wore as a child.

"How about no?"

Asriel looked up. "Why not?"

Frisk motioned to his whole body, trying to keep eye contact above the waist. "Look at yourself. You're way too big to be wearing those anymore." Asriel sighed in defeat. "But don't worry, I've got a cloak that just might be your size." Frisk pulled out a cloak that looked like it might fit the prince. He slipped into it easy enough.

"This thing is really scratchy!"

Frisk mentally rolled her eyes. "Stop complaining. You've got clothes now, don't you?"

He sighed with defeat. " Frisk." She smiled her ever infectious smile, and soon, Asriel joined in.

"C'mon, Let's get to bed." They walked back to their room, grinning like fools.

"Goodnight Asriel."

He smiled. "Goodnight Frisk" The light flicked off with the flip of a switch, and the two friends were soon fast asleep.

PAST: Well, closing chapter. One last reminder, I'm gonna be making a second story in continuation of this one. So stay tuned. Thank you for all your support, and I will see you guys in the next fiction. Goodnight!

PRESENT: I guess what I aught to say it I'm going to make a reboot of a second story, one with considerably less smut. Any of you veterans from my profile from before know exactly what I'm talking about. Once more, Ariel as it Gets is going to take a while to post, as it is going to be pre-written and I am also likely going to end up posting my Frisk x Chara story and will have to stay on top of that, so as past me said, stay tuned for more. Bye-a.

PRESENT (Just before posting): Oh, before I forget, no new reviews! If you did review, it must not have gone through, because I don't see anything new. And also, someone recommended a Muffet x Frisk fanfiction story. I don't know about you guys, but to me, that sounds unique. Reason enough to mull it over if you ask me, but what do you guys think? Should I do it as a fully fleshed out story, a quick five-shot or six-shot, or should I not do it at all? Don't know why you would recommend the last one, it's not gonna hurt anybody to actually make another story, but let me know what you think! And now, for the fourth time this post, goodbye!