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Chapter 25 The Misadventures of The Chicken and The Village Idiot

Warnings?: People with the fear of bugs… specifically… parasitic-like bugs, or aphids, might have a little trouble with this one- but I don't think it's too horrible, I just wanted to give you guys a heads up because rereading this makes ME itchy-but that might be me, I think I have a mild fear of swarms of bugs/parasites.

Summary: It's the next morning, except Flowey and Frisk quickly find that this version of the camping trip is going to be very, very, different from the original and a huge learning experience to boot, hopefully they can get it right.

Inspiration Song: 'Thank You' by Dido

'My tea's gone cold, I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all
The morning rain clouds up my window, and I can't see at all
And even if I could it'd all be grey, but your picture on my wall
It reminds me that it's not so bad, it's not so bad

I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life
Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life
Push the door, I'm home at last and I'm soaking through and through
Then you handed me a towel and all I see is you
And even if my house falls down now, I wouldn't have a clue
Because you're near me and

I want to thank you for giving me the best day of my life
Oh just to be with you is having the best day of my life'

...

...

The next morning Flowey was rudely awoken by the sounds of chatter and bushes rustling.

"NYEH HEH HEH! YES! RIGHT EXACTLY WHERE THE TEXT SAID THEY'D BE!" he heard Papyrus say happily.

"Aww, that's so sweet," Alphys commented in a hushed tone.

"It is a shame we have to wake them," Toriel mumbled, a sharp twinge of panic rolling through Flowey for a split second when the memory of his mother talking to him about the sacred secret flashed through his mind, but he brushed it off when he remembered that that particular moment in time was (thankfully) gone forever, she didn't know about them yet.

And this time, he was going to make sure that she'd never find out again.

Officially awake now and his face still hidden safely behind his petals, Flowey cracked open his eyes regretfully, he felt heavy and sluggish but that was no surprise after being woken up like this.

Looks like they had been found, and… wait a second… did Papyrus say 'text'?

He was just about to peek through his petals and investigate the subject when he heard Frisk shift around and make their usual sleepy noises and shuffles that they tended to make when being woken up.

"Oh . . . hi guys, what brings you to the pond?" they greeted playfully and slightly sheepishly, their voice masked by drowsiness.

"Do not give me that, you gave us all a frighten, why did you and Flowey not text me of where you would be?" Toriel scolded firmly.

Flowey tensed up, guilt over coming him, and against his more selfish judgment, he opened his petals, wincing as the dim morning light invaded his blurry eyesight.

"My fault," he croaked, bringing a vine to rub at his eyes, finally noticing the small prickly painful headache that had formed at the back of his head and down his stem, he could tell it had nothing to do with his soul, this was completely different . . . but whatever, it was the least of his problems at the moment.

All of them looked at him quizzically, some with more concern than the others, he uncomfortably eyed them back until he was able to think of a coherent enough explanation.

"We were talking, but Frisk accidentally fell asleep . . . and then so did I- so it's my fault, uh, you're right though, I should have left a message," he explained, the drowsiness in his voice rivaling Frisk's.

Toriel, who had her arms crossed disapprovingly, looked over at the sleepy teenagers thoughtfully, her expression softening slightly, "okay, as long as you know what you should have done- just do not let it happen again, you both had me very worried that something horrible happened," she said, then dropped her arms to her sides.

"Now that we have found you, I will go start up breakfast, we have a long day ahead of us," she added, bowing her head politely before turning and walking back to the campsite.

Everyone stood there awkwardly before Alphys perked up, "er- I'll go that way too," she said and quickly trotted off in Toriel's direction.

"IT'S TOO BAD YOU TWO GOT IN TROUBLE, BUT I'M GLAD YOU'RE ALRIGHT, WE WERE SKILLFULLY ABLE TO FIND YOU BOTH USING MY BRILLIANT TRACKING SKILLS, NYEH HEH, HEH," Papyrus said proudly.

"he snuck into your tent and looked at your phone, basically he saw a text from frisk," Sans explained.

At the mention, Frisk let out an embarrassed sound under their breath, meanwhile Flowey was unsure if he should be angry or not, what if he had a personal conversation with someone that he didn't want anyone else to know about? But then again… he usually erased ones like that for that very reason.

None the less, he decided it was probably high time to put a password on his phone.

"USING THE INFORMATION, I, THE GREAT AMBASSADOR DEDUCTED THAT THERE WAS A GREATER CHANCE THAT YOU TWO WOULD POSSIBLY BE STILL AT THE POND," Papyrus said, but then something passed over his expression, something akin to guilt.

"AND…I SINCERELY AND THOROUGHLY APOLOGIZE FOR GOING THROUGH YOUR PHONE FLOWEY, I KNOW HOW PERSONAL YOU ARE, SANS IS THE SAME WAY,"

Ugh, who could be mad after an apology like that, especially from Papyrus? Besides, Flowey didn't really have the energy to be angry anyway, or even care about the comment about being similar to Sans.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," he mumbled and yawned.

Then, Frisk pushed the blanket from their form and slowly got up and as soon as they began to show signs of walking away, something inside Flowey grew antsy.

"Where are you going?" he asked, embarrassed by the slight alarmed tone in his voice.

Frisk did a double take and smirked sleepily, "the little human's room, I'm pretty sure a cricket bounced off my face last night, I just found an ant on my leg, and I smell like grass so I'm just gonna go ahead and stop beating around the bush-,"

"heh, good one," Sans said.

"Thank you- and-,"

"you're welcome,"

"No, you're welcome -and go get cleaned up, you guys go on back to the camp, I'll meet you there in a bit," they said pointing over their shoulder with their thumb.

"Oh, yeah, um, okay, we'll do that," Flowey said, feeling pretty awkward now.

..

The three of them stood there silently for a few moments after Frisk was out of eyesight, with Sans being the first to speak up.

"that must have been a heck of a conversation last night," Sans said, bringing Flowey out of his thoughts.

He turned around sharply to look at the skeleton and gave him a skeptical look-

Oh- oh that's right! He wasn't sure how he forgot that Sans was aware of the time traveling Power and possibly remembered the unsaved timeline, Flowey and Frisk weren't the only two who had to redo the week over…

But of course, Papyrus would have no clue what he'd be talking about if he explained, so, he decided to cover, Frisk would probably tell Sans later anyway.

"Uhh yeah, no, we were just making plans of what to do for the week once we got back home," he said.

"HM, I THOUGHT YOU TWO WERE DISCUSSING FORESTER?" Papyrus chimed, confused.

Flowey blinked, and gave Papyrus a sneaky side grin as he abruptly remembered what Frisk's text message said, it seemed like such a minuscule thing now, of course he'd forget about that… it was no issue though, he could make up something for this too.

"We did, they just wanted to tell me that… they found someone…new! And then- we changed the subject," he said, technically this wasn't a lie, but then, at the back of his mind he started to think that maybe he had just messed up… somehow, but his tired mind dismissed it.

The skeleton brothers looked a cross between proud and slightly protective, as they usually did when the subject of Frisk dating ever came up, just as if they were Frisk's real brothers… or uncles, bruncles.

"that's cool, so who's the new creature that they found this time?" Sans asked curiously.

Flowey stared at Sans hard for a few seconds, damn it, he had to be careful, because if Sans remembered the erased timeline, then he could easily call Flowey out on his lie, but then again… Smiley Trashbag was never there to hear the conversation (both times) or visited much after they had gone back home from the camping trip, so he really had no idea about anything going on, so, this was okay, Flowey could nearly make up anything, in fact, it would probably help keep Sans off his (correct) hunch about Flowey's feeling for Frisk in general, so this was...ok, he was free to lie as much as he pleased.

Phew.

But then again, it was best to play it safe, "I have no idea, because that's when I changed the subject, I didn't want to hear any of their disgusting romantic talk," Flowey explained.

Papyrus let a laugh that sounded awfully patronizing, a bad habit he had picked up since becoming Ambassador "NYEH HEH, HEH, HEH, OH MY LITTLE FRIEND, YOU HAVE A LOT TO LEARN,"

Flowey gave his friend an honest smirk, wondering just what Papyrus knew about romance, becoming legitimately curious on what type of tips he could give him.

"Do you think so?" he asked.

"I KNOW SO," Papyrus grinned.

"and what have you learned little bro?" Sans asked teasingly, just as curious.

Papyrus paused for a second, wearing what looked like the face of a guilty, embarrassed person who…actually maybe didn't exactly know that much about romance and was just saying things to sound cool, and then abruptly pointed to the direction of the camp, "THAT I DO NOT WANT TO BE LATE FOR OUR MORNING HIKE!" and bounced off, "COME ON SLOW POKES," he called.

"Slow pokes?" Flowey grumbled, without another word tunneled off, it didn't seem like it took him that long, but by the time he got there, Sans was there and already deep in helping Toriel with the cooking..

...

The morning continued on as it had before, with some subtle changes this time of course, like Flowey's headache- which was getting worse, all of him was feeling worse actually, especially his fatigue, but he was too tired to really worry or care about it, only concerned with not letting it affect him, there was no reason to spoil the morning.

Frisk on the other hand was doing great through and through, they were a lot more talkative and cheerful this time around, their 'antsy-ness' and nervousness about starting a brand new relationship having worn off, now they were excited about getting to redo the camping trip, and Flowey was glad, at least one of them was feeling good.

Later, not long into the hike, Papyrus strolled over to Frisk and Flowey (whom was of course, sitting on Frisk's shoulder) with a hand on the side of his mouth, as if he was trying to be inconspicuous.

"SO, FRISK, FLOWEY SPILLED THE BEANS THAT YOU FOUND SOMEONE. . . NEW, IS IT SOMEONE WE KNOW?" Papyrus asked, he looked excited.

Flowey grinned just a little too big as Frisk looked at him with confused, surprised, skeptical eyes.

"Yeah, remember our conversation last night? You said you liked a new person, but I wasn't listening? Because you remember how I feel about romance right? It's disgusting. Can't stand it. Never want to be a part of it," Flowey explained, finally realizing there could be some kind of consequences to this lie of his, but Frisk was a quick thinker, he trusted them to be able to come up with something and not accidentally for real spill the beans.

Frisk threw Flowey a strong split second Look that read 'I can't believe you've done this', but smirked stubbornly and turned their attention back to Papyrus.

"Oh, yeah, I only just met her, but she's sweet and I think she really likes me, who knows what could happen," Frisk covered.

Papyrus gave Frisk an unsure look, as if maybe he could tell when his best friend was lying, or maybe was just unsure about Frisk dating someone new, but for whatever reason, shook it off and smiled proudly.

"I AM SURE IT WILL ALL WORK OUT, IT ALWAYS DOES," he said, and patted them on the head.

A few minutes later after Papyrus walked on ahead, Sans replaced him, walking by Frisk's side.

"so… you ok, kid?" he asked, concern evident in his usual lazy tone.

"Of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" Frisk responded, admiringly looking over and studying a big oversized leaf that Flowey had plucked from a tree branch and given to them.

"I think he's asking about your redo," Flowey said to Frisk under his breath.

Frisk blinked in realization and looked down at Sans from their leaf, their expression becoming apologetic, nodding firmly, talking quieter now "yeah, I'm fine, I'm sorry, I really am, I nearly forgot that you're affected by this too, it's just been a really long time, y'know?"

Sans shook his head, holding up a calm skelehand "its cool, i gotcha. it's just a few days,"

They were silent for a moment until Frisk decided to sway over, leaning down to give Sans a side hug as they walked, which was returned, with Flowey pretending to look unfazed.

"I'll text you the deetz later, okay? I think it's going to be important," Frisk said.

"understood boss." Sans said, giving them a firm thumbs up, then looked over at Flowey.

"what about you?"

Confused, Flowey looked sluggishly off to either side of him before pointing a vine to himself "...me?"

"yeah, you kiddo. you ok too?"

Frisk frowned and eyed their boyflower, "you do seem pretty exhausted, did you sleep okay last night? Did you hear any bobcats?" they asked, concerned.

He furrowed his eyebrows, "of course I didn't hear any bobcats, I would have woken you up if I did, wouldn't I? But . . . I did have a few nightmares, I think- but that's normal, I always have nightmares, I'm use to them," he mumbled.

Frisk's frown deepened, as did their concern, "'always'? You don't have any good ones?"

Flowey poked Frisk's fluffy head, "of course I have good ones," he said, letting out a little more tenderness in his tone than he meant to.

Frisk chuckled quietly "do you always exaggerate in those dreams too perhaps?"

. . .

Soon, on their way to the pond, they ran into Asgore and Undyne and happily reunited, with Toriel still teasing them about their time and everything.

It was all going well until Flowey was woken up from a deep nap that he hadn't even realized he'd taken.

It was the feeling of fingers gingerly touching at the back of his head where that annoying pain had been bothering him at that awoken him first, it stung badly, causing him to flinch on instinct.

"Aghhh! Quit it!" he groaned, hissing a pained breath through his teeth, wincing his closed eyes tighter.

"Sorry! Oh my gosh- I'm so sorry! I can't believe I didn't see these earlier, it's in such a discreet spot," he heard Frisk apologize anxiously.

"What are you talking about?" he managed to drone out.

And then he heard Asgore speak up "Asriel, son, I… we…have terrible news for you,"

He groaned again and opened his eyes to see that he was now being held securely in Frisk's arms facing them, he peered over and noticing the others staring worriedly and hovering back warily, he craned his head over to the other side and saw that his parents were standing behind him, looking intently back at him, he couldn't ignore the old familiar look of anxiety heavy in their expressions.

"Dear, you have . . . aphids," Toriel explained gently.

"I have wha-?" he droned, confused, the word not ringing a bell for a moment…
But then after a few seconds of thinking, it finally clicked and he remembered as much as he needed to, the sharp image of the plant lice appearing in his mind and sending a wave of panic through him.

"No- wait- wait- get THEM OFF!" he blurted, immediately regretting his outburst, leaning back as he grew dizzy, weak from shouting, his headache worse than ever, but the pain wasn't as distracting and terrible as the thought of the aphids were, he wondered if should have counted himself lucky that he couldn't see them, the pests had obviously found their new homes on the back of his stem near his head, perhaps hiding out securely in the corners of his petals.

Unfortunately he had a perfect mental picture of what was on him and it was freaking him out.

"Calm down, calm down, you will be fine, trust me my son, we will get rid of these horrible bugs, I promise," Toriel soothed.

Flowey looked at his parents, who both looked concerned, but at his panicking, confident reassurance spread across their features, he looked at the others as they followed their leaders, smiling bravely for him, it helped calm him down a bit, but he still shivered at the thought of those disgusting parasites feeding off of him.

"Should we use the bug repellent?" Undyne asked worriedly.

"No- that will not work on these… the aphids have leached out some of my son's magic and have gained his strength- and with the new found strength they have latched on too tightly, so bug repellent will not do much and it'll be too much of a bother to pinch them off, especially to Flowey. We will have to go home and remove them manually with a mixture of stronger medicine and water," Toriel said her tone tense.

Flowey rubbed at his bleary eyes, growing moody "can't we do that here? Or pinch them off, I can take it,"

Toriel shook her head firmly, "no dear, I do not want to risk making things worse for you, I need to make sure we do this properly and all my supplies are at home, I know it is hard, please hang on and be patient with us, we will hurry as fast as we can,"

Great, just great, he had just ruined the trip for everyone, the guilt built up inside of Flowey, making him feel even worse.

As everyone begun to hurry their way back to the campsite, Flowey could do nothing else but lay as deadweight in Frisk's arms, he imagined it would have been pretty nice if his body wasn't weak and racked with pain and unable to see them clearly, but nevertheless, he could still see them, finally fully realizing what 'a sight for sore eyes' meant.

As they walked, he noticed how hard they were staring at the ground, their thoughts obviously somewhere else, but smiled sadly at him when they finally caught his gaze.

No- they weren't just sad, he recognized that look, Frisk looked guilty too.

"Stop it," he grumbled.

"Stop what?" Frisk asked, now confused.

"You know what I mean," he said, sounding more annoyed than he meant.

"No, I really don't,"

"HE MEANS 'DON'T FEEL BAD, IT'S NOT YOUR FAULT HE GOT ATTACKED BY THE PLANT LEECHES,'" Papyrus explained.

"Thanks Papyrus. Because clearly, it's my fault," Flowey corrected.

"Oh my god," Undyne groaned under her breath, as she clearly she did not agree, and by the looks everyone else, they didn't agree either.

"It not your fault either son," Asgore said, with Undyne nodding at this, obviously speaking her thoughts.

"Yeah, it is. If we…," he winced as his headache worsened, but he stubbornly pushed on "..if we hadn't slept outside without a tent last night… I wouldn't have aphids and…and… we'd be able to continue on with our trip," Flowey said as if it were a matter of fact, he knew, he had his proof.

"How about, it's no one's fault but the aphid's because they literally and figuratively suck, so let's get back to the camp and pack up already?" Undyne said, motioning her arms in a big exiting motion.

Suddenly, as if they had remembered at the same time, Frisk and Flowey looked back at each other, thinking about a certain rowdy bobcat, both quietly realizing that the trip was always going to end early anyway.

. . .

A hour or two later, Flowey found himself in the backyard of their home, inside a large bucket of warm water filled with a cocktail of several different plant essentials, vitamins, and pest control, as Toriel scrubbed him down and Frisk rinsed him off using a smaller bucket, freeing her son from the awful aphids- to whom learned their collective lessons as they were all effectively washed away.

And if Flowey had to be honest, just like being carried, he would have genuinely enjoyed the bath if he wasn't feeling so terrible and lacking so much energy, even the water felt like it was weighing him down, it only added to his fatigue and thick, heavy fog in his head.

All he wanted to do was sleep.

"Frisk, when we're done, I need you to throw out Flowey's plant soil into the garbage, some of the fuller aphids may have fallen into it on the ride home," Toriel said as she scrubbed away.

"What about me? What do I do?" Flowey asked sluggishly.

"We will plant you back here where you can get some rest and photosynthesize your energy back, that is the only thing I require of you, do you think you can handle the responsibility?" she asked, pretending to be stern, smiling a motherly smile at him.

"Not sure, sounds difficult…," he mumbled back jokingly, nearly half asleep.

…

Sometime later

When he woke up, he found the fog in head was gone and he felt…considerably better, a little sore around the edges, and slightly groggy, but the heavy weight from the fatigue was gone.

"Oh good, my sleeping beauty, handsome face, sunshine boy is finally awake," he heard a comfortingly familiar voice say.

He rubbed his eyes and looked up and over to see Frisk (who was now dawned in sunglasses, their purple cap with their hair pulled up into a pony tail) had sat a blanket down on the grass and made themselves comfortable next to him, their notebook open, and their cellphone playing a cool, slow, jazzy song -which he finally noticed had been playing.

"How long was I out?" he asked, taking note that it was still daylight.

"A few hours, four or five maybe? Six? Are you thirsty? Toriel made some lemonade earlier, just for you… or.. do you want something to eat?" they asked, concerned.

"You've been sitting out here with me for that long?" he asked, raising a perturbed eyebrow at them.

"Of course, you were sick Asriel, I had to make sure you were okay and keep any more bitey bugs away from you, speaking of which, you may notice the unpleasant smell of the bug repellent that we should have remembered to use in the first place," they said, turning to face him as they did so.

He couldn't help but smile, but a thought passed his thoughts "wait…what about Mettaton? You're supposed to go out with him today," he asked.

Frisk smirked to themselves and shook their head, "well, he did come by…but because you had been attacked by the aphids- he decided to postpone the adventure for tomorrow, I was surprised he didn't wake you up, he was really concerned about you and put on some serious theatrics,"

He stared at them in wonder and still a slight bit of confusion, before finally remembering he should say something.

"Thanks… for all of this,"

Frisk frowned, taking off their sunglasses, studying a smudge then wiping the lens with their shirt as they spoke to him, "you're welcome, but I'm not sure why you're so surprised that I stayed with you,"

-and then, they paused to look him in the eyes with such a tender expression that it made him weak in the roots, he almost had to look away.

"-Or did you forget that I love you? C'mon mister, I thought you knew me better than that. Because you always get worried when I get sick, don't you think it'd be the same the other way around?"

Flowey nodded shyly, flustered now by their devotion and serious sincerity, "…I- I know, but, uhm, it wasn't like I was going to die or anything, you could have gone,"

Frisk scrunched up their face at his answer "are you kidding me? You literally fell off of my arm on our hike and were just barely functioning when you were awake after that, you had me worried sick, so the way I see it, if I had gone with Mettaton, I would have been too upset to shop and all that stuff,"

Before Flowey could respond again, Frisk stood up, "which now that I'm thinking about it, I'm definitely going to get us some lemonade, you need it, plus I need to tell Toriel your awake, she's been coming out to check us every ten minutes or so," and strided off into the house.

He watched them as they went in, awestruck.

And then the guilt came back, pouring itself on thick this time, this really was his fault, if he had just woken up Frisk and went back to sleep in their tents- none of this would of happened.

But he sighed, looking over at Frisk's phone, listening to the music that flowed from it. . .

'I want to thank you, for giving me the best day of my life
Ohh, just to be with you, is having the best day of my life~'

It happened, it was over now, and Frisk seemed to be doing okay, and he felt okay too, everything was okay now.

So, no reason to dwell on stupid things from the past, right?

Right.

Frisk soon came back out, two ice cold glasses of lemonade in their hands with Toriel by their side, whom was quick to check his health, over joyed that he was doing much better, then proceeded to rush back inside and make some important phone calls of the good news, wanting to reassure everyone that Flowey was going to be A-OK.

Meanwhile, as soon Flowey received his lemonade, he downed it in seconds, realizing that he was way thirstier than he thought

It was safe to say he got a refill.

On his fifth refill, he was feeling much better, and his mind was back into its usual clarity.

Actually, he was feeling pretty great, sitting there, absentmindedly talking to Frisk as they sat on the blanket while they doodled in their notebook next to him. . .

That was, until something came over Flowey that made him grimace and become visibly anxious, Frisk picked up on it immediately.

"What's wrong?"

"I just remembered something very, very, very important, we have to talk about it right now," he said quietly, looking back behind him at the house for a moment nervously.

Frisk narrowed their eyebrows in confusion, but understood, lowering their head in a secretive manner, "okay, let's talk,"

Flowey looked back at the house one more time before shaking his head, "no, not here, let's talk at the swing set, it's further away,"

Frisk stared at Flowey in surprise and curiosity, quickly complying "wow, this really is important, okay, I'll meet you there," but then they stopped and smirked, "or do you want me to carry you?"

He looked tempted for a second before frowning deeper, "no, it's probably not a good idea right now,"

Still slightly confused, Frisk accepted his answer and moved to get up, grabbing their phone and glass of lemonade before walking to the swing set, where Flowey already waited impatiently.

"So, what's the big deal, why are you suddenly so serious?" they asked curiously, after sitting down, and began swaying gently in the swing, sipping periodically on their lemonade.

He grit his teeth, "it's…about mom," he started.

Frisk stilled their movement and looked at him, becoming tense "…what about her?"

Flowey took a deep breath and let it out, "okay, so, do you remember the fight we had before you were sent back to your last Save?"

Frisk grew even stiller, "mmhm…,"

He stared at the grass now as he spoke quietly, studying the blades of green closely, he almost envied their simplistic insentient lives "well, some point after you left to go meet the kid, mom came in, and said she had heard parts of our conversations, and- and- basically she knew, Frisk, she found us out,"

Frisk nearly choked on their lemonade, almost dropping the glass in the process, gawking at Flowey in shock, embarrassment, and horror, wiping their mouth but leaving it there to cover it in the midst of the terrifying news.

"I can't believe it- what did she say? Was she upset?"

Flowey tried to think back, "I don't know, she was acting sort of awkward if I remember right, she seemed like she was trying to understand, but she didn't say much- she didn't get to, because that's when you died- reloaded, and sent us back,"

Frisk narrowed their eyebrows in deep thought, "so- so… she doesn't remember now, we're okay,"

"Yeah, basically, as long as we're extra careful this time," Flowey mumbled.

But then Frisk leaned down to frown at him, their eyes anxious "why did you wait so long to tell me this?"

Flowey frowned back deeper, "you died and sent us back in time for the first time in years, and then I got the life sucked out me by creepy little plant lice and then later slept for maybe six hours,excuse me if I've been a little distracted okay?"

Frisk stared at him, unpleasantly taken aback from his snippy attitude, but they nodded slowly as they understood his stress, arched over in their seat, putting their drink down to rub their face with both their hands languidly, sighing roughly.

"I'm sorry, I'm so, so, sorry, that just… really freaked me out, I just can't believe it was that easy for her to find out," they then looked back to him sadly, "this is going to be way harder than we thought, isn't it?"

He gazed back at them apologetically "yeah, I'm afraid so Frisky,"

They stared at each other like that for a moment, before finally, a spark flashed in Frisk's eyes and a slow smile returned to their face as they thought of something and leaned over towards Flowey.

"But, I do like the idea of being even more secretive, this could actually be a lot of fun now that I think about it," they said, their slow smile turning into something undeniably silly.

He raised an inquisitive eyebrow at them, "…we are sneaky, aren't we..," he answered back, a sly smile appearing on his lips as well.

"Aw yeah we are, and once I get my new bike we can go all sorts of secret dates! Oh my gosh, it'll be so much fun, I can't wait," they said, grinning excitedly.

Flowey held up a vine to his lips, "shhh! Quiet you idiot, not so loud," he said, despite unable to stop himself from smiling, watching as Frisk began to swing back and forth happily.

They continued to swing a little more before settling back down to a stop, giving Flowey a Look.

"Y'know, this just almost excuses you from making me lie to Papyrus this morning," they said narrowing their eyebrows, pointing to him accusingly.

Flowey grinned sheepishly, that was something else he'd nearly forgotten all about, he would have liked to blame the aphids again, but no, the idea to lie had been 100% his idea.

"I'm… uh, I'm sorry about that, I don't like lying to him either, it was just the best thing I could think of at the time, him and Sans were asking questions and were getting really suspicious, but you DO know we're going to have to do a lot more necessary lying if want to continue keeping this secret…,"

But then, an increasingly mischievous smile appeared on his face, almost bordering on flirtatious "..but... it wasn't actually a real lie once you think about it, you… did find someone new after all," he explained.

Frisk pursed their lips thoughtfully, trying to ignore his face, slowly failing.

"Fine, I guess you are right . . . to a degree…," they mumbled, trying hard not to give in to his smile.

"Hey, why did the chicken cross the road?" he started, grinning.

"I can't believe you're trying to change the subject with a joke, that's not your thing, that's my thing," they said with an amused pout.

"I said, why did the chicken cross the road?" he repeated, narrowing his eyebrows, motioning to them to answer correctly with a vine.

Frisk shook their head and smiled at him, crossing their arms "I don't know Flowey, why did the chicken cross the road?"

"To get to the village idiot's residence," he answered, then quickly added "knock, knock,"

Frisk's smile became ridiculous, as they realized where the joke was heading "…who's there?"

Flowey's grin grew annoyingly big as he attempted to hold back his laughter. . .

"The chicken,"

The Village Idiot and The Chicken started giggling together hard, taking them awhile for them to regain composure, but once they did, Frisk started up another one.

"Knock, knock,"

"Who's there?" Flowey answered.

"Honeydew," Frisk said, now barely hold back a new set of giggles.

"Honeydew who?" Flowey said, raising an eyebrow.

"Honeydew you know how fine you look right now?" Frisk finished, their voice breaking slightly with laughter and their entire face turning a deep coral pink as Flowey audibly gasped and started laughing shyly, looking away, his own face matching as it turned goldfish orange.

"That's literally the worst thing I have ever heard you say," he mumbled, embarrassed, but definitely in a good way.

"Then why are you blushing?" Frisk teased.

"The same reason you're blushing! You… you… gargantuan softie," he said, prodding Frisk's leg gently with a vine.

Frisk giggled softly, and then looked at him curiously, hopefully "you want to come up and swing with me? I'm sure Toriel won't get suspicious by that,"

Again he looked tempted, but this time gave in, silently nodding and began uprooting himself, smirking timidly when Frisk winked at him as they extended their right arm down for him like a ladder, which he climbed up, heading straight to the side of their shoulder, which seemed to be turning into his Signature Seat.

But before Frisk could start swinging again, Flowey did something they'd never forget.

"Hey, I think I figured it out," he started thoughtfully.

"What?"

"How I got you to fall for me, all my flower pots must be made out of boyfriend… material,"

Frisk gaped open their mouth in shock and stared at him, their entire face becoming rosier by the second.

"Did you just for real flirt joke to me?" they asked, bewildered.

He nodded, his face the very picture of smugness.

Frisk dramatically held a hand to their chest where their heart resigned, trying to contain their heart flutters, grinning and biting their bottom lip, "boy oh boy, us being secretive is going to be way tougher than I thought, because I have no idea how I'm gonna be able to contain myself anymore, let me tell ya baby,"

Flowey looked up at the sky shyly, too bashful now to look at them, wondering what exactly Frisk would do uncontained, he was certainly interested because a contained Frisk was sometimes more than enough than he could handle at times.

"How did you manage? Your feelings I mean, before you confessed," Frisk asked, both curious and possibly looking for some advice to help them contain themselves.

Flowey gave them a crooked smile, "not very well, remember?"

Frisk's expression saddened, "but other than that, what did you do?"

He twisted his mouth in pensive thought, and sighed wearily "you were there to see most of it... anyway, I don't really feel like talking about it right now, okay?"

They sighed as well in agreement "I completely understand, it's fine, you're fine~,"

Flowey was quiet for a few confused seconds before he spoke up…

"Are…are you validating me or flirting with me?"

Frisk grinned cheekily at him "both!"

...

...

BONUS! The flirty joke Flowey had originally wanted to tell, and why he didn't :D

.

But before Frisk could start swinging again, Flowey did something they'd never forget.

"Hey, I think I figured it out," he started thoughtfully.

"What?"

"How I got you to fall for me, all my flower pots must be made out of boyfriends."

Frisk gaped open their mouth in shock and stared at him.

I'm still on the fence about a few parts of this chapter, especially with the aphids part, I kept thinking 'how did anyone NOT notice them earlier? Especially Frisk?'

Well, I've come up with a few excuses like- 'the aphids were well hidden' and 'Flowey doesn't like turning his back to people (much like Mettaton)' or even 'once the aphids became magic, they gained the power of camouflage'