Growing Pains: To the Stars and Back Again

by twix012

This is a post-pacifist slice of life story of Asriel, still on his way to growing up and facing all the nagging aches and pains, despite it all, he's Determined to continue happily live his life with Frisk by his side, no matter however difficult it is, no matter how bad the growing pains get. (Updates every Monday!)

1. Small Bump in Their Road

Chapter 1 Small Bump In Their Road

Warnings?: Slight violence but nothing serious, long exposition in the beginning to explain events from the first story (sorry)

Inspiration Song : Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell

'Listen baby, ain't no mountain high
Ain't no valley low, ain't no river wide enough baby
If you need me call me, no matter where you are
No matter how far, don't worry baby, just call my name I'll be there in a hurry
You don't have to worry

'Cause baby there ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough, ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you babe

Remember the day I set you free
I told you you could always count on me darling
From that day on, I made a vow
I'll be there when you want me
Some way, somehow

Oh no darling
No wind, no rain, or winters cold can stop me baby, 'cause you are my goal
If you're ever in trouble, I'll be there on the double
Just send for me, oh baby

My love is alive
Way down in my heart, although we are miles apart
If you ever need a helping hand, I'll be there on the double
Just as fast as I can, don't you know that there

Ain't no mountain high enough
Ain't no valley low enough
Ain't no river wide enough
To keep me from getting to you babe'

...

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I don't know where to begin, I've been working on this story for a very long time and I'm so proud and happy to say that I've finished, Growing Pains means so much to me and while this second half of the story is so much different than the first half, I hope you can still enjoy it as much as I have.

Now, for the warnings, Growing Pains 2 will touch on tougher and more embarrassing topics, I'll...address them when we get there, but please don't hesitate to tell me if I need to change the Rating to Mature or Explicit, I really didn't want to alienate any of the previous readers, but I just KNOW some of these chapters won't be someone's cup of tea, and that's fine, I've already accepted that.

Anyway, I thoroughly apologize for making so many people wait, but there it is! I hope you enjoy it!

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"Hey mom, I'm going to go pick up Frisk from work now!" Fifteen-year-old Flowey called from the front door.

"Oh-! Did you remember your umbrella?" she called from the next room over.

He gave the long umbrella that he was holding an experimental tap on the carpet, "I sure did!"

"Your money and phone?" she continued.

"Yeah mom! Got it all!" he called, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he really needed to go now if he wanted to get them on time.

She peeked around the corner "your manners? You seem to forget those the most,"

He let out an awkward laugh, cringing slightly "I'll behave,"

Toriel smiled warmly and nodded firmly, walking up to give him and his robot body a motherly hug, which he complied to, wrapping metal arms around her, making sure to pat her back with the free hand, sticking his tongue out in mild disgust as she gave him a cheek nuzzle seconds before pulling away.

"Do not forget to text me when you get there," she ordered.

"I won't," he said as he began to open the door.

"You forgot last week," she nagged.

He flashed her an extra big grin "I won't this time, promise,"

Toriel merely laughed "it is fine, just hurry back home before the clouds do,"

Flowey couldn't help but remember the first time he'd ever gone out to pick Frisk up from school, his grin widening fondly at the memory, it had ended with them getting home safely, but since then he made sure he always came well prepared with his umbrella.

"Will do," he said and with the turn of his wheel, he was out of the house, waving to his mother as she watched.

As he rolled speedily down the sidewalk, a light rain started up, but it wasn't bad enough for the umbrella yet, in fact, it was really nice, especially after it being so hot and dry out lately.

It was the beginning of August now and summer was just almost over, it wouldn't be long until Frisk would have to start back to High school and Flowey with home school again, he knew he was going to miss them.

He'd already missed them when they had finally taken Mettaton's summer job offer at Mettaburger, which (fortunately) they only worked at three to four days a week, from 7 AM to 1 PM.

But that of course was still nothing compared to school, geez, he didn't know how he was going to be able to handle not seeing them, despite the job, he'd grown happily accustomed to having them around more during the freedom of summer break.

He'd always liked summer like any other kid, but now that he was with Frisk, it was easy to say he had learned to appreciate it a whole lot more.

The rain began to pick up a little more, still, he merely laughed and stuck out his tongue to catch a drink, doing a ridiculous little twirl and dance with his robot pot body and umbrella, he was so happy and in love, he didn't give a damn if he looked idiotic.

He definitely wasn't the same Flowey he had been a year ago, and nowhere near the same Flowey he had been when he was a kid.

He was still a big jerk, cynical (but getting better), and had major self-esteem issues, but was, again, absolutely nowhere close to the same desperate soulless creature he'd been years ago.

It was likely because at the age of fourteen, during…an adventurous doctor visit to Alphy's- that he found out that he'd been harboring a soul all along, and not just any soul, but… his own, they'd suspected it had come back somehow on the fateful day when he'd taken all six of the human and the entire monster population's souls and became the God of Hyperdeath.

…Which was an amazing miracle and all, except it hadn't…fully formed correctly, what he had instead was something undergrown and malformed, and it didn't quite completely process emotions the way it should, instead, whenever he felt positive emotions like compassion, love, guilt, all he would feel instead was pain, and the stronger the emotion- the stronger the pain.

It was because of the pain and the fact that he'd gotten used to the idea of living a life without a soul, so much so that he went through five years without knowing what he really had inside, silently and stubbornly dealing with the pain of a thing he was able to brush off and leave unchecked

But the mysterious pain only increased more and moreover the years as he grew to care about the people around him, so by the age of fourteen, he agreed to a doctor visit to Alphys, the monster who had brought him back to life (without a soul in the first place) had been an act of final desperation, eager to finally find the cause of the horrible ache and pains that had been steadily plaguing him since he'd broken the Barrier.

At first, when finding out that he indeed had a soul all along, he was in pure disbelief, but what was disbelief quickly turned into anger, which then turned into rage, which…pitifully cooled off into grief…

Because to Flowey, none of it had gone the way it should have and none of it was fair, because yes, one of his deepest wishes was to have his soul back, but if he was still stuck, trapped inside the body of a flower, with a soul that barely worked in the first place- then what was the point to having one at all?

It was as if a guardian angel had granted his wish, but instead of a kind, benevolent, guardian angel, someone in the grand scheme of the Universe had made a large error in their files and had sent him a cruel demon in disguise.

Or maybe it was karma? Sometimes he felt he deserved the pain, it would make sense that he paid for all the horrifying sins he had committed back when he was soulless and empty.

Still, later on, the same year, just as he'd accepted his tiny soul as part of his life, on the day of Alphy's and Undyne's wedding on the beach, he came to a conclusion about Frisk and himself that had almost ruined him and his short teenage life.

He had realized, much to his dismay, that he was shockingly capable of romantic love.

Frisk was the reason why that pain inside him had gotten worse, because along the way, under his radar, he had fallen in love with his best friend and realized that truth had been more than he had been able to take.

But at the same time, he'd been overjoyed to know that he was in fact- capable such of deep powerful emotions, no matter how embarrassing or hard they were for him to handle, he was just relieved to have more proof that he wasn't a black hole of emptiness, to distance himself from the creature he used to be and be more than just the cold, creepy, strange, talking flower with dark ulterior motives that he regrettably remembered being.

He had found being in love truly hurt, both literally and figuratively, but he refused to push the feelings away, however, there were multiple giant issues with why being in love with someone like Frisk was a blaring problem all in itself.

Well, first of all, other than being complete opposites in personality, they were also complete opposites when it came to the subject of species, Frisk was a flesh and blood human mammal, and Flowey… Flowey was…a…uh.. .

Well, to put it bluntly, Flowey was a bright yellow flower with a working face and teeth, reincarnated from the death dust of a fluffy white goat monster prince.

And because of these drastic physical differences between the both of them, he had been so unquestionably, undoubtedly sure that Frisk would never in a billion years, return his feelings, and…sure… Frisk was clearly attracted to monsters, but there had to be a line to draw somewhere right? He wasn't a 'real' monster, he was more plant than anything else, and what human was ever known to fall for a plant? Even if it was a sentient one.

So, to save himself from the rejection that he had been so sure that would come, he vowed to never confess his feelings. . . but he of course. . . eventually broke that stupid vow, and then later realized that the line that Frisk drew was pretty far out there and was and still were capable of more love than he had ever anticipated or thought possible, and was also probably insane.

The other big reason why his feelings for them were a big problem was because shortly after Frisk decided to live their life under Toriel and Asgore's separate but respective roofs, they both adopted Frisk in shared custody despite their continued divorce.

But because his parents were raising him alongside Frisk, he automatically realized that it made things a lot more personal between them than it previously had before, and when things got personal, it risked for things to get majorly awkward.

Unlike Chara, while he saw Frisk as a best friend, he never once saw them as a sibling, nothing close, and Frisk felt the same.

So when the day young fourteen-year Flowey realized his feelings for Frisk, he knew that along with everyone else there was no way he'd ever tell his family the real truth, and he never would, he'd do anything for love, he'd burrow to hell and back- but he wouldn't do that.

No one was to ever know how he truly felt for Frisk, it had become sacred to him that no one find out, and to this day that was still true…

Well, there had been some exceptions.

But all of that was a different story…

Flowey blinked himself back to the present, momentarily distracted by the flashy giant desert ad on the glass door, entering the flashy fast food restaurant, his thick smile that had been painted on his face dropping hard when he found the whole place buzzing and bustling with customers

So many… damn… customers.

His eyes instantly flickered to the end of the room where the three cashiers usually stood, he could barely see any of them through the crowd, but as he craned his petaled head around and shifted a bit, he saw Frisk in their peachy pink colored uniform and sparkly-employee-of-the-month-Meta visor, their long brown hair pinned up into a bun, standing behind a rectangle-shaped cashier machine, looking up expectantly at a tall human man who made his order.

They looked pretty tired, which made sense considering it was Saturday, his frown deepened in concern.

He then checked his phone, growing annoyed as he saw the time, it was five minutes passed for them to clock out, what were those jerky managers thinking? How much longer were they going to keep them up there, tortured in that part-time purgatory? The next time he saw Mettaton they were going to be having some Words.

He thought about cutting in line, but he had tried that before, it never received well, so, begrudgingly he went to the back of the long line, making a point to cross his metal arms defiantly, but his mood couldn't help but soften when Frisk finally spotted him and smiled warmly, giving him a short wave before they moved on to the next customer, but of course, he found them catching his gaze every now and then, he could tell they were trying their hardest not to wink at him.

As he waited, he couldn't help but notice the pair of older humans in line in front of him, they looked to be somewhere in their twenties, man and woman, both fairly good looking and fit, and likely a (happy) couple as the woman casually leaned against the man.

Flowey didn't pay too close attention, he was more interested in the view of the cashier area, but nonetheless, it was hard to ignore the sight in front of him when the man wrapped his arm around the woman, his hand dropping steadily lower and lower until it found itself fitted firmly into the butt pocket of the woman's jeans- who didn't seem to mind one bit, bashfully laughing under her breath, and even going in to give her boyfriend a kiss on the cheek.

Flowey held back an embarrassed scoff, his eyes darting away from the PDA with mixed emotions, at this point of his life, he wasn't sure if he should be taking notes, be envious, or just be disgusted.

Frisk and he had been dating (in secret) for nearly four months now, the first month had been full of surprises and learning how to be romantic with them behind the scenes was and still was time to time particularly difficult…

But by now he felt like he was really getting used to being someone's boyfriend, it was always a nice feeling to remember that someone felt and returned the same feelings he did and he was glad it was with someone like Frisk.

Yet, when it came to seeing other couples being close in public like this, he was always unsure how to feel.

One thing he was sure of was that he felt… was guilt, he knew Frisk deserved someone better than him, someone who could express their feelings openly and wasn't scared of what 'other people' would think, and definitely someone who had an actual body.

And he knew he felt envy, because since their relationship was secret, the pair couldn't always do what they wanted, leaving them to pretend to still being just really good 'best friends' around their family- which a lot of time was kind of fun and exciting, but some days it was …annoyingly frustrating.

Then there was embarrassment and disgust, because…c'mon guys, can you not butt touch in public? Flowey was barely two feet away from them, he understood being in love, but this was too much 'display'.

But… then again, would that be something Frisk would like?

At that line of thought, Flowey looked back to his significant other in question, but was then bombarded with a very familiar recent mental image, except instead of a hand- it was one of his vines curled snugly within the butt pocket of Frisk's fitted jeans (an action that Flowey never tried before or even thought of trying until now)

Instantly flustered by his imagination, he ducked his head down, staring down at the floor in more embarrassment, he hoped the crowd around him didn't notice the increasing orange blush in his cheeks.

This was another big problem, not only was he a teenage monster boy, but he was a teenage monster boy trapped inside the body of a flower, which just made things like this all the more awkward and weird, it was an unexpected issue he never thought he would have to deal with when he was younger, but here he was, still unable to escape from the strangeness of puberty- even in flower form.

It didn't make it easy that he was dating someone so insanely stunning, flirty, charming, and brave as Frisk.

Somehow, he had gotten farther than he'd ever thought he would with them, every first move had been terrifying but mystifying, and had surprisingly even conquered kissing and making out within the first month of their relationship.

…But…uh, doing anything other deeper than… kissing…?

No, Flowey was young but he wasn't that entirely clueless and had realized very early on that- while as amorous and flirty as Frisk was, that kissing and snuggling was as far as their relationship would ever go, or would be able to go, and that was just completely fine with him… and Flowey hated to think about it, but there wasn't exactly a lot of himself that he would be properly able to give in a real 'mature' relationship with a human anyway, he literally wasn't built for it.

They were only teenagers and hadn't been dating that long anyway, there wasn't any reason to be rushing or even thinking of that sort of stuff right now.

But it was certainly hard to avoid the obnoxious subject of 'sex' when it seemed that the entire world around him seemed to adore to talking about it, especially Frisk, who was making it clearer and clearer these days of what they had on their hormone-addled mind, usually showing it in the form of tame dirty jokes.

Thankfully, Frisk respected him and for his sake usually kept conversations PG-13 between them, knowing how easily flustered he got and how he felt about the subject, they most likely saved those stranger topics for their human friends- or just people they could probably relate to better.

Most of the time he didn't really think about things like sex, for him it was a weird alien topic and he was never going to have it, besides he didn't feel things physically the same way most other sentient creatures did, so what was the point? That's right, there was none.

Unfortunately, again, the combination of flower puberty and being in love.. did… unwanted things in his imagination sometimes and frankly? It was really annoying, and Frisk's good looks and the pressures of the internet and media never helped.

…But then again, was putting a hand in someone's butt pocket really that 'bad' or even 'dirty'? Were the wires inside his mind crossed? Was he overreacting?

As he thought this over, he noticed the space between him and the couple ahead of him had widened, looking up to see that they were now walking over to a different cashier, leaving him to be the second to next one in Frisk's line.

Brushing all his previous thoughts away in a heap behind him, he rolled forward.

The customer in front of him didn't take long with their order, walking away sipping on a small pink iced coffee and looking rather pleased- Frisk must have given them a pretty good compliment.

He made his way up to the counter and leaned forward, making sure to address the most important issue in hand first.
"It is waaaayyyyy passed time for you to go, they're working you too hard," he complained, glaring at one of the managers who zoomed by.

Frisk gave him a lopsided smile at that, this wasn't the first time they'd had this conversation.

"Don't worry, everything is fine, the girl filling in for me is a little late, why don't you order something while you wait? I'll buy," they explained.

Flowey let out a sigh, deciding to comply "then in that case, I'd like one fresh Frisk please-not overcooked, the Frisk I ordered last week was completely burnt out and crashed all afternoon,"

Frisk pursed their lips, holding back what might have been a chuckle, but played along smoothly.

"Sorry to hear that sir, but I promise we'll have the freshest Frisk ready for you in no time, and for today special, free of charge, I can add some sugar to your order, how does that sound?"

Flowey, taken off guard by this brilliant offer, his mouth hanging open for a few seconds before he gave them a shy crooked smile, leaning a little closer ever so slightly.
"Yeah, sure, of course, maybe some extra to go if that's okay, maybe ten? Twenty? You can put it in a bag,"

Frisk's smile widened, they were definitely holding back their giggles now, but held on tight to keep their composure, nodding to him in a customer service-ley manner.
"Okay, sir, it'll all be ready in a few minutes, why don't you take a seat?"

He let out a long sigh "ffffine, but if the order falls asleep when I get home- I WILL be coming back here and there WILL be some complaints for your managers,"

Wow, he had not meant to sound like a bossy high maintenance soccer mom, but there it was.

At that, they raised their eyebrows but gave him another little nod "completely understandable sir, but no worries, your Frisk will also be coming free with a coffee,"

Flowey decided to loosen up a bit, giving them a reassuring smile "you really are too patient for your own good, you know that?"

They let out a long quiet sigh at that, their own smile relaxing "I'll see you in a bit Azzie,"

"Quit flirtin' with the customers Frisk! I don't care how cute they are, we need to keep the line moving!" one of their co-workers called out from the back teasingly.

At that Frisk started to laugh but covered their mouth, stifling themselves, "sorry, can't help it, this is my favorite customer!"

Feeling increasingly awkward and self-conscience, Flowey remembered himself and begun to back up.

"I'll be waiting," he said and avoided any eye contact as he turned around to uncomfortably move through the crowd, feeling as if he were sticking out like a sore thumb, uuugh, there was way too many people here!

With not too many free tables and booths left in the lobby area, he opted for an empty corner instead, automatically blocking out the view as he pulled his cellphone back out, anything to occupy his attention.

And- uh oh, whoops, he'd almost forgotten to text Toriel, guess it better to do it now than never.

'Hi, I'm here, they're working Frisk overtime again, they said the person filling in for their shift is late.'-

As he waited, he did some betta fish fact-checking, he'd been on the prowl lately looking for a better working water filter and was Determined to find something high quality, but was surprised as Toriel replied two minutes faster than usual.

-'Hopefully it will not take too much time, also, I have recently watched the weather channel, there is a thunderstorm approaching, would you like me to come to pick you two up?'

Flowey thought it over for a second, glancing out the nearby window as he did, it still wasn't that bad and he could even see the sun peeking out- he then craned his head around and much to his relief, saw Frisk was moving out of the way as another co-worker anxiously took their spot at the register.

He looked back down at his phone and quickly typed up his next text.

'Frisk has just been released from their cage, I'm sure if we leave now everything will be fine' -

He didn't wait around for the next text, instead he stuffed his phone back in his case and watched Frisk eagerly as they said their 'see ya later's' and 'take it easy's' to their co-workers, automatically smiling when they found his gaze and grinned at him back.

Through the crowd, they gravitated to each other like magnets.

"I'm out and officially- down to clown," they greeted playfully.

He snickered "speaking of which, where's the bag of sugar you added to my order?" he joked as they made their way to the doorway.

Frisk's grin widened "don't worry, you'll get it, your glucose guardian has you covered babe,"

They stepped outside, the roof of the building protecting them from the weak downfall of rain, Frisk audibly taking in a breath of the humid air.

"...'Glucose guardian'…? Can you decipher that for me?" Flowey questioned in confusion as he opened up the umbrella, revealing the vivid rainbow shooting stars printed on it, letting lose a burst of color amongst the wet grey weathered street.

Frisk couldn't help but bite their bottom lip and let out a quiet tentative giggle "it's a gender-neutral term for a sugar daddy or mamma,"

Flowey narrowed his eyebrows at them, unsure how to react because he'd heard of the term before- but was always unsure of the deeper context, never sure if he wanted to really know, guess this was a better time than any to find out, so with that, he pulled out his cellphone.

"What are you doing?" he heard them ask.

"Looking it up,"

"I could just tell y-!,"

"Shush." he said, raising an index finger at them, if he let Frisk explain something strange he knew they'd do it in a laid-back, casual, sugar-coated way that would only make him all the more confused of the real meaning.

And as he read the definition, then re-read it to be sure, his eyes grew wide and the hint of blush returning to his face, once again today flustered, looking back up to glare bashfully at his best friend, jamming the cell back in its holster.
"FRisk you FREAK!" he blurted out, shoving the handle of the umbrella into their hand.

They looked mildly disappointed by his reaction, but were still unable to hide their laughter "aww- c'mon, I didn't mean it like that!"

"Oh yeah? Then how'd you mean it?" he asked, giving them a crooked smirk but caught himself when he realized he was risking this conversation to go in a completely different territory that he knew could end up embarrassing him more "-or never mind, don't even answer at all,"

"C'mooon, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it in a dirty way, I just like the way it sounded was all, it's cute," they pushed on anyway, obviously very concerned that they disturbed his sensibilities.

He let out a long obnoxious sigh, changing the subject entirely "SOOOOooooooOOOOoo, how was your day?"

Frisk shared a look with him, a little unsure of their boyfriend's mood until he gave a slow smile and motioned for them to answer, he was legitimately curious.
"…Mmm, crazy as usual, I don't think it stopped being busy today, oh- but Monster Kid came in and had a breakfast date with Robin, that was really cute and exciting," they said, following closely by Flowey's side as they began moving, beginning their walk home.

"That's nice, but how are you? C'mon, complain Frisky," he pressured, continuing a habit he'd gained once Frisk had started working and revealed to Flowey what a retail job was truly like and all the pains it entailed, after researching further into this strange new world, he suddenly grew increasingly concerned and protective of their well-being, he was still unsure why they even took the job offer in the first place.

Their smile grew gentle "there were a few customers that were short with me- but it's fine, I get over that stuff fast, and… my back was really starting to hurt from standing in one place for so long… but now that I'm walking it's starting to feel better,"

"Are you tired?" he pressed on.

"A little, but I'll be fine after a little bit of TLC," they then swayed over to nudge the pot bot with their shoulder "how'd your day go?"

"Uhh, good, in a boring way I guess? I slept in for half of it, I helped mom with the gardening, as usual, aaannnd I think I'm nearly done with my book I'm reading- anyways, I was wondering if…you wanted to do something today? Not necessarily another date… but something close to it, a semi-date I guess? We've only got so much alone time together before school starts back up, and…well…you know I want to make these last few days count," he asked, giving them a hopeful smile.

But to his disappointment, Frisk gave him a hesitant, saddened, but flattered expression that told him that he was about to be politely turned down.

"Oh- no, I'm sorry baby, don't you remember? I'm going over to Muffet's place to have a yoga spider tea party, and then I'm going to give Aaron and his gang some help with their current mystery that they've been struggling with,"

It was then, that he finally recalled the conversation that they had the night before, his memory seemed to be selective like that, he either remembered every little detail or completely forgot them altogether.

"Ughh...yeah, I don't know how I forgot, and GOOD GOLLY, how on earth are you capable of juggling all these friends like this anyway? It's impressive but insane, impressively insane,"

They gave a gentle pat at the back of his stem "thanks…and, I'm really sorry, maybe we can hang out and watch a late-night movie when I get back? "

He thought over this for a few seconds, it sounded like a very nice idea but he just couldn't get the image of a work exhausted Frisk out of his mind.
"Mmmmmmm, no, you're already overextending yourself today and I'm not contributing to that nonsense, you'll just end up falling asleep through most of it anyway like last time, let's just do something tomorrow,"

Frisk smiled warmly at him "sounds like a plan and I can't wait, thank you for being so understanding Azzie,"

He let out a resigned sigh, just because he understood and wasn't complaining- didn't mean he still wasn't disappointed, not to mention annoyed that Frisk was so prone to piling all these plans and events with friends and family onto themselves without much rest time, it was something he didn't think about much or second guess when he was younger- going out and hanging out with their friends, having fun, and helping them out was just something Frisk did, but as he grew older and closer to them, learning to empathize with them in a deeper personal depth- he couldn't help but become concerned how this busy lifestyle affected them in the long run.

"Yeah, well, I'm the one who forgot you had a stacked day in the first place- but seriously, how are you going to survive today?" he asked.

In response, Frisk flashing him a bottle of Super ginseng tea from the deepest reaches of the Dimensional Box inside their phone.

"Hm, packing on the Good Stuff I see," he acknowledged

"Aw yeah I am,"

The couple was quiet for a while after that, creating a serene mood as they walked together down the whites and grays of the wet street, the pitter-patter of the rain thumping against the fabric of the umbrella.

Flowey studied Frisk and the entirety of their tacky outfit, the peachy pink shade wasn't really their color and the sparkly visor clashed severely with everything entirely (he wasn't even sure how well they could see with it when they already had long thick bangs) but to Flowey- Frisk could wear a baggy clown costume with a wig and everything and he'd still be charmed by them and find them highly attractive.

In fact, this seemed a good time to compliment them.

"You look really nice today," he spoke up.

They turned their attention to him, mildly surprised and in awe now, visibly flattered.

"Aww- really? Thank you…even though I'm wearing my uniform… and been working all day," they responded, running a hand over the back of their hair consciously.

He shrugged and smirked "but that's just it, you're amazing all the time, and… as much as I hate the fact that you work at a place like that- I'd be lying if I didn't say that hard work looks really good on you too,"

In response, Frisk giggled airily, giving him a very recognizable Look that told him that he was about to be severely flirted with.

"Boy, you're smoother than the cream cheese I had on my toasted bagel this morning," they began.

"Really?" he asked, unable to hide the held-back laughter in his voice.

"Yeeeah~, smoother than slow jazz music being played on a hot Friday summer night," they continued.

"Oh- wow, that's- that's actually pretty smooth,"

"Smoother than a gorgeous model in a silk dress getting dipped kissed,"

"I really should have seen this coming," Flowey said under his breath in flattered amusement, to which Frisk giggled again.

They then turned and began walking down a crosswalk, taking their time as they strolled across the road due to it being a particularly slow street.

As they started up again, Flowey couldn't help but start to feel. . . weird, and not in a familiar soul ache kind of way, but more in a… static-y way…

He then gaped in surprise when he noticed that Frisk's bangs and any of the stray hairs that had escaped from their bun was sticking straight up.

His thoughts went back to one of his mother's science classes and oh no-

These were signs that lightning was about to strike somewhere close, he had to do something and quick.

"Smoother than a leg in a pair of thigh-high-,"

"-IgetitFriskbut I think we-," he started but before he could finish, an astonishingly flash of bright, white light temporarily blinded and deafened the both of them as straight ahead, on the other side of the street as a tall metal lamp post was struck by lightning, wild sparks of electricity spraying into the air and across the road- nearly reaching the stunned couple.

A small fire ignited at the top of the pole, flaring relentlessly through the rain.

"-Should go…," Flowey rasped out in a whisper, barely aware that Frisk had clung to him, arms wrapped around him and his pot bot body protectively while squeezing onto their umbrella taut with white knuckles, having jumped to him in an instant amidst the shock of the moment, now attempting to steady their breathing.

The two of them could only stare at the now fire lit pole in bewilderment, he had known it was coming, yet still nothing had quite prepared him for what he had just seen, he was sure if they had been any closer- that they would have surely been struck instead.

As he stared- still lost in thought, Frisk caught his attention as they flinched and twisted a little bit next to him "ah… could you loosen your grip a little?"

Ripping his gaze from the fire, he looked over to see that Frisk wasn't the only one who had clung him in the heat of the moment, finally seeing that his robot arms had automatically clutched onto their body vigilantly, one around their waist, the other around their front- his fingers clenched onto their shoulder.

He didn't have to be told to see that he was holding them too tightly, it probably even hurt judging from how they flinched- but he was sure that they weren't about to tell him that.

"Sorry, you know how this thing is," he mumbled, focusing on the arms, becoming flustered when the device hesitated to move, his eyes widening as he worried for a second if it had somehow gotten short-circuited during the electric strike.

Oh god no, were they going to be stuck like this all the way home? Would it be able to move at all? He'd only had this thing for nearly four months and- and he- did a double-take at the road-

Why wasn't that car slowing down?!

Realizing that there wasn't enough time to move out of the way, or hope that the driver was going to stop in time, neither was he sure if his robot body was working right, all he could do was go on belief and hope that it would work as he held Frisk in his arms and very sharply pulled them out the way from the oncoming collision.

Thankfully, the robot body complied, with Frisk yelping in alarm to being yanked around so jarringly, then gasp breathlessly in terror as they finally saw the car coming.

Flowey could only squeeze his eyes tight and bury his face against the side of Frisk's, accidentally knocking off their visor with his petals in the process, wincing and ignoring the burst of pain all over his body from his soul as he fervently prayed to any and all beings above and beyond that Frisk didn't get hurt.

He heard Frisk unleash a muffled screech before he felt the impact, fortunately, the car wasn't that big and had attempted to stop, pulling the breaks-

But it was too late.

The two metals punched into the other.

The force knocked the umbrella from Frisk's hand, but like a miracle, neither of them fell over, shaken up but both teenagers were physically unharmed.

But Flowey didn't know this, the pain from his soul still rumbling, his system shot with its own form of adrenaline, anxiously panicking as he hastily backed his head away to get a good look at Frisk in restless worry, touching their face and arms with his vines for any wounds.

"Are you okay?!" he blurted out as he checked them over, his robot arms slowly but finally letting them go so he could see them better.

"Me?! You're the one who just got hit by a car!" Frisk exclaimed, their eyes shiny and wet with oncoming tears, looking rather distraught by Flowey's panic, and probably would have been attempting to check him too if he weren't so busy with his examination first.

"I KNOW what happened! Just worry about yourself for one damn second! Are you okay?!" he yelled irrationally, upset tears forming in his eyes as well.

They took hold of his cheek with a palm, staring hard into his eyes "I'm fine Asriel! I'm okay, I'm okay, see?" they said, showing him their other hand.

He stared at it for a few seconds, focusing on their gentle touch, almost absorbed by the feeling, his mind moving slowly as he stared fixated at the fine lines on their hand, he then was caught by the sight of Frisk's lips as they formed a worried smile, his gaze drifting to their bright brown hazel eyes.

They were okay…

This all brought him back down to reality, letting out a shaky sigh as he processed the confirmation, Frisk wasn't hurt and that was good- he was still in quite a bit of pain no thanks to his indisposed soul, but other than that, everything was good and that was all that mattered.

With that settled and his fear and panic eased, he realized he was now angry that this had happened to them and directed that anger to the driver of the car, who was a young dazed and confused man.

To whom was now completely horrified as the angry flower in the strange robotic body glared down at him with dark teary eyes and a menacing expression, not missing the sharp red thorns appearing on his stem.

"MENTAL DEFECTIVE!" Flowey yelled, smacking the hood of the car with a gloved fist, annoyed that it didn't leave any sort of mark or dent.

"Asriel!" Frisk gasped, flinching in disapproving surprise.

He narrowed a confused eyebrow at them "what? That's nothing compared to what he could have done to us! C'mon, let's get out of here,"

But Frisk stood still, conflicted for a moment, switching their gaze between Flowey and the driver in concern.

"Wait! We're supposed to trade legal information!" they called, grabbing onto a metal arm as he attempted to roll away.

Flowey made a face of disgust, uugggghh, the last thing he wanted to do was deal with some brainless blind guy who couldn't focus on the road.

Flowey couldn't avoid the fact that Frisk was annoyingly right and- well, he didn't have much of a chance to protest as they walked away and made their way around the car.

As he followed them, grabbing up their visor and the umbrella on the way over, he watched intently as Frisk walked up and the man rolled down his window, readying himself for any kind of fight, the idea of beating up this guy to a pulp was feeling pretty appealing at the moment.

"Hi sir?"

"Are you guys okay? I'm so, so, sorry, all I could see was the pole on fire and by the time I saw you two it was too late," he said, handing them a scrappy piece of paper to which Frisk took.

"You're right, you could have KILLED us!" Flowey snapped, butting in.

The man grimaced at that, guilt clear on his face "I'm honestly really sorry kid, I'll admit that this wasn't one of my proudest moments,"

"All that matters is that no one got hurt, are you okay sir?" Frisk asked in an attempt to keep morale up, not wanting the conversation to go sour.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me, this car is practically junk compared to what you got there," he replied "how'd it stay up anyway? It was just a little bump, but logically it should have knocked it down like a bowling pin,"

"It has gyroscope technology," Flowey grumbled, eyeing the paper in Frisk's hands, it was the man's name (Cave Debero) along with his phone number and other legal personal information.

The three of them jumped as a loud clap of thunder rattled threateningly through the air, and Cave seemed to make his mind up.

"Look, don't worry about me, just get out of this rain, don't hesitate to call the police, especially if there's any problems with your robot thing, I put a pretty bad dent in it!" he said.

"What?!" both Flowey and Frisk exclaimed in unison, both finally thinking to look down at the pot bot in alarm, seeing that- yes, there was definitely a nasty dent in the lower back end.

"Dang," Flowey uttered under his breath, not quite able to see all of it properly from his angle but was able to see enough to easily know it was bad.

"Nooo, this is awful!" Frisk groaned "yeah, Toriel and Alphys are going to have some words to say, I'm so sorry Flowey," then looked up at Cave "one of our best friends is a police officer, we'll call her right away,"

"Alright, same here, just hurry up and get out of this weather first!" Cave called as the rain began to kick up harder, making things a little more difficult harder to hear.

Flowey knew just the place to go too, looking to Frisk "let's go back around the corner to the gas station,"

Upon hearing that, Cave nodded nervously and rolled up his window and drove away, leaving the teens alone.

"Okay, I'll call Toriel to come pick us up there, and then Undyne," they replied, causing Flowey to think back to his mother's text, if he had just used some common sense and waited and let her pick them then they wouldn't be in this mess.

The familiar ache of guilt gripped him, sighing deeply as Frisk and he turned around and quickly began making their way back the way they came.

He watched in the corner of his eye as Frisk leaned in close next to him and held onto the robot arm, the both of them knew he couldn't feel the touch through the machine, but there was something about the act of affection, still held the same sentiment to him, it was still comforting in its own way.

"You were very brave back there, I'm so happy you're okay," Frisk said, wiping the oncoming tears.

"Save your tears, none of it would have happened if I had just listened to mom in the first place," he replied, his expression tense, he was so angry at himself right now.

"What do you mean?"

"She texted me right as you were clocking out, she told me about the thunderstorm and asked if we wanted a ride home, and I said no…you know, like a moron," he explained begrudgingly.

They shook their head in disagreement, "don't blame yourself for things you didn't know were going to happen Asriel, sure none of this would have happened if we waited, but think of this way…what if we did? What if something bad happened in that timeline too? Would you still blame yourself?"

"...Probably? You should just go back to your last Save so we can find out and not be nearly run over by a two brain celled jerk and his two-bit piece of junk," he said, half-joking- but forgot the part where he was supposed to smile.

Frisk gave him a serious look, staring at him almost questioningly, because they could turn back time, and was likely very open to the idea of going down the timeline where Flowey didn't get hit by a car, but at the same time- they'd made a promise to him to only use the Power when absolutely necessary.

They always got really concerned when he made jokes like this.

"I'm KIDDING, you know I'm kidding! Just call mom already, don't want to be late for your busy day, do you?" he said, brushing his anger and the emotional mood of the moment under the rug.

They said nothing to that, merely letting out a quiet sigh as they pulled out their phone.

He watched them as they talked, realizing that… if something lethally bad had happened to him, that Frisk definitely would have gone back to their last Save, in any situation really.

They would never let him stay dead.

…Such as he had also promised, they'd always talked about being there for him and more than once kept true to their word, but he had never thought that far into it, as long as Frisk had control, they would never let anyone they loved die, they would look for every possible way to save them.

It was a beautiful realization, and… a little scary one at that, because long, long ago, Flowey had learned all too well that there were fixed moments in time that can't ever be changed, no matter what anyone does, for example, what if Frisk had a human friend that had an incurable life-threatening disease?

There would be virtually no way for them to find a way to stop or fix it, and that was the scary part, the idea that Frisk had this divine power that was seemingly invincible and omnipotent, when the truth was that it wasn't, there were things that just can't be changed.

He still remembered back when he had the Power, and the pain of being in control of so much… but completely powerless at the same time, all those countless times he tried to Reset, going back to his last Save, anything to go back before the time he was a flower, before Chara died, anything.

The very idea that Frisk were to ever feel that same pain was terrifying.

"Azzie..? Are you okay?" he heard them say gently, catching his attention.

They were in the gas station now, standing in the middle of a small snack aisle, he'd been so lost in thought, that he'd been… only just vaguely aware of his surroundings but not really taking it in, he especially hadn't been listening.

He gave them a weak smile "yeah, just…thinking how car accident-related deaths have got to be one of the most dumbest and ironic ways to go,"

They smiled back with uncertainty, "you sure you're okay? You looked upset,"

"I wasn't upset, but… other than the fact that I wasn't listening to your conversation, I'm fine Frisk, what did mom say?" he said, resting a reassuring hand on their shoulder.

"That she's coming to get us, though… I didn't tell her about the accident- I didn't want her to be stressed while she was driving," they explained.

He raised his eyebrow "she's going to want to know why I have this huge dent, either way, we'll have to tell her, so I think she's going to get stressed out regardless,"

Frisk let out a sigh "I know, hopefully we can break it to her gently," they then held their phone up and stared hard at it "…now to call Undyne, wish me luck,"

He winced sympathetically "do you want me to do it for you?"

They looked back to him in surprise, pausing for a few seconds but a shy smile blossomed on their face.

"No, it's fine, you've already literally stopped a car for me, you've done more than enough today," they said, gazing at him with adoration.

His own expression softened, "..okay, just… remember that I can mimic voices, I'll take the call if she turns angry,"

They smirked as they looked back down at the phone, pulling up their contacts.
"Assuming I could ever forget something cool like that, but it's fine, I've got this, I can handle an upset Undyne,"

And he didn't doubt them, he was just fully aware of how hard Undyne could come down on people when she was in police officer mode and how protective she was over her friends, it was always a dangerous combination to mix up the two.

So, this time around, as he absentmindedly looked over the rows and rows of candy, gum, and chips, he made sure to listen.

"Hey Undyne, so, I never thought I would have to do this… but I… kind of have to report a.. car.. accident, or a vehicle smash I guess? I'm not sure what to call it," he heard Frisk say.

There was a short pause as Undyne spoke.

"I'm fine, don't worry about me, no one was hurt- it happened five or six minutes ago, maybe eight? I would have called you when it happened but it was raining really bad and we nearly got struck by lightning- but fortunately, it struck a pole instead, so...-heh, um, yeah it was shocking alright, we had to get the heck out of there,"

Another pause.

"Well… Flowey had picked me up from work, and we were on Thicket Street, walking down the crosswalk when the lightning struck the pole and it caught on fire, we were so stunned and distracted that we didn't see the car coming, but…Flowey saw it before I did and pulled me out of the way, he was very heroic, I still need to thank him some more,"

The heroic flower boy in question glanced over at Frisk, finding that they'd been gazing at him, giving him a proud smile and wink as they listened to Undyne's response.

Though, their smile faded as he could only guess that Undyne began to ask more serious questions, he could hear her tone of voice stern over the receiver, it was in a more professional tone now.

"Yes, his robot got hit- oh no- Floweys' fine, he was untouched, nobody was hurt at all, but the robot does have a pretty bad dent from the impact…some important robo bits are showing…no, it seems to be working okay, but I'm sure Alphys is going to need to patch it up,"

He watched Frisk as they let out a quiet sigh, leaning to the side as they shifted their weight to one foot, unknowingly showing their stress as Undyne continued on, this was exactly why he'd offer to make the call instead.

"The driver was a human, his name was- uhm, Cave Diablo? Debelo? Han-hang on, I got the paper in my pocket-" Frisk began, urgently digging a hand in the pocket of their slacks.

"Cave Debero," Flowey spoke up.

"Cave Debero- thank you Flowey," they then finally fished out the piece of paper " gave me some information, yeah, his address and phone number and all that… ah, oh no, he didn't even ask our names… … .. uum, he was mostly concerned about us getting out the rain and was very apologetic- no, no ride offers, but he did say he'd call the police too, do you want me to read you what he wrote or…?"

They raised their eyebrows.

"You know him? …Oh okay, I see, I hope this doesn't hurt your friendship with him, he seems like a really nice guy,"

"A nice guy who almost squashed us like bugs," Flowey muttered, ignoring the Look that Frisk threw him.

Their eyes then lit up as Undyne asked them a question.

"Oh, we got out of the rain, we're actually at the Shellaco, yeah, the one nearby Thicket Street- ah, actually I called Toriel first, she's coming to get us now- oh-no, I'm sorry, I know I should have called you first thing- I know, you're the police, I understand, next time I promise I'll call you first," Frisk then glanced at Flowey in concern, "you want to talk to Flowey…?"

Flowey grimaced in response, begrudgingly holding out his hand for the phone.

"Okay, here he is," they said before they handed the phone to him, giving him a supportive smile.

"Howdy Undyne," Flowey greeted, still grimacing.

"Soooo, I hear you and Frisk got into a 'fender bender' and that you pulled Frisk out the way and took the hit for them, that is amazing work kid, how are you doing?" she asked.

"If you mean physically-I'm alright, but I'm still pretty angry…," he replied.

"Are we talking 'arrest him' angry? Because I understand the whole thing was an accident, and that you and Cave are my friends, but I want to remind you that no one is free from the law, and if you feel that he-,"

Flowey raised his eyebrows in alarm, rushing to stop Undyne right there.

"-No, wait, I didn't mean it like that, I don't really want to make any drastic decisions yet, I get that this is serious so.. is it ok if we talk about this face to face? With my mom too? She knows more about this legal business than I do,"

"Good thinking, it's never wise to make rash plans when you're still angry, so, how's this, I'll meet up with you at your mom's place and we'll talk all this over? Does that sound good to you?" Undyne asked.

"Yep, it sounds like… something alright, but.. hm…Frisk probably won't be available to talk for too long, they've got a busy schedule today," he said.

At that. Frisk leaned over in a hurry, taking Flowey's robot arm and halfway pulling it over to talk to Undyne.

"But it's okay! I'm sure Muffet will understand if I'm a little bit late, I can make time for this," they explained, proceeding to back away and giving back Flowey's respective bubble of space.

"Gotcha, also, Flowey? I told Frisk this, but a giant word of advice, the next time you're in any kind of car accident, call the police instantly, and I mean instantly- don't wait to get out of the rain, take pictures and notes of any damage, make sure BOTH parties give their information, call 911 if there are any injuries, even small ones, okay?"

Flowey winced at that, staring hard at the floor now, these were all things he wished he had known beforehand, but then realized that Cave didn't exactly follow these rules either and he was an adult.

All the more reason to get even angrier, but, as he thought back to the incident, Cave did give his information to them, the handwriting was extremely sloppy like he had written it in a hurry like he knew what to do and cared about the situation but had an urgent need to leave somewhere important.

"Okay, I'll be sure to remember that…,"

"Good, I'll talk to you later,"

"Bye Undyne, thanks for the help,"

"Bye hero- oh, and one more thing,"

"Yes?"

"Next time you plan on picking Frisk up from anywhere and you see one cloud in the sky- change your plans and let someone else drive them home, okay? It's a much more safer way to travel, and you were brave today, which is- again, amazing, but you were brave in a situation that could have been easily prevented,"

Flowey let out a quiet weary sigh in agreement, still staring hard at the floor.
"You don't need to tell me twice,"

"Maybe I do! No more traveling during crap weather!"

-beep!-

Without looking up, he handed the phone back to Frisk.

"That bad?" they asked softly, concerned as they took the phone.

"All I'm going to say is… that I think it's probably time you thought about learning to drive…," he said, finally looking to his partner and giving them a tired smirk.

Because he was pretty sure that after this whole mess was settled, that everyone would most likely feel better with Frisk driving themselves home than him walking them home, he knew he would.

Not too long later at Toriel's home…

Explaining to Toriel what had happened had been painful, but sitting through the emotional ride that was the ten-minute lecture from both Toriel and Undyne had been excruciating.

During the lecture, they found out several things, one of being that Cave works at the BBQ joint nearby Undyne's station (which filled in some of the blanks of the story of how they must have met) and was in a hurry to go visit his sister in the hospital and had also called Undyne after the accident, apologized profusely and explained that he didn't want to press any charges for the minor damages Flowey had indeed left to his car and that he would help in any way he could.

To which Undyne then explained to the two that 'you won't always get this lucky in the real world!'

She then further explained, to both Flowey and Frisk's further relief, that thanks to the fact that Flowey's robot was technically serving as a part of his body and wasn't legally an actual motor vehicle, and also because they were underage pedestrians, and that the damage wasn't that bad- that no one was getting into any real trouble.

But all that great news wasn't going to stop Toriel and Undyne from giving their two favorite teenagers an earful about safety precautions.

"Okay, so, one more time kiddies, repeat after me 'I . WILL . KEEP. A . CLOSE . EYE . ON . THE . ROADS'!" Undyne commanded.

"I will keep a close eye on the roads!" Frisk complied in a more sing-songy voice.

The three turned their attention to the Flowey, waiting, who stared back with a tight frown.

The copycat was stubbornly not copying for once.

He had been fine with the whole thing up to now, he was never fond of the patronizing attitude she adopted over the recent years, he never remembered her being this bad back when they were all stuck Underground, he had noticed Papyrus had gotten somewhat patronizing as well, but with Undyne it was a lot worse.

He thought back to the rogue teen monsters who used to hang out around Snowdin a long time ago, sure they'd lived an entirely different lifestyle from the one Frisk and he had now, but he doubted they had to deal with stupid stuff like this.

But, sensing a different type of lecture coming on, he passed on what might have been the satisfying opportunity to rebel, because really, all he wanted to do right now was get this over with, forget the drama, and have lunch, he was getting hungry.

"'I will keep a close eye on the roads', there, it's nailed into my brain, are we done?" he asked, trying his hardest to hide his attitude but failed in the attempt.

At that, Undyne and Toriel shared a few displeased glances before looking back to the kids.

"Frisk is done and free to leave, they already have a full schedule today, but I do believe we still need to talk to you about a few more important subjects," Toriel said, giving her son a stern but sympathetic expression.

At that Frisk grew worried and stood up hesitantly "are you sure? I know he's been a little rude but you know he doesn't mean it, it's just that the whole thing was really rough for him and-,"

Toriel walked up to them and put a hand on Frisk's shoulder gently, "it is okay my child, he is not in any trouble, we are only going to talk about the dent he received, now, you must hurry, we've already kept you long enough…unless, do you feel fit enough to go?"

Frisk was quiet for a second as they debated it, "no, I'm super fit, I'm just worried is all, but… well… he has you guys so- yeah, I'll be good,"

Which probably meant that they'd be texting him tonight, a selfish part of himself hoped they'd just give in and reschedule on Muffet and Aaron, but they'd never do that, when Frisk made promises and plans- they always stuck to them.

…Except for that one time when they surprised him when he'd suffered from the after-effects of dealing with magic aphids, Frisk stayed with him, watched over him as he slept and healed, even when they knew Mettaton was going to take them shopping.

…Well, to be fair, he had been in pretty bad shape at the time and the circumstances were different…

But then a big sharp grin appeared on Undyne's face, "if you tell Muffet and all the guys what happened, please- PLEASE don't forget to brag about your bestie like you did over the phone with me, I know it sounds like I'm joking, but I'm dead serious, everyone should know what Flowey did today,"

Toriel perked up at that "oh! That is a lovely idea!"

Frisk grinned excitably with them in agreement, but as they looked over at Flowey, their grin eased up to a weak smile, "...only if he's ok with it,"

And Flowey was…not 'ok' with it, sure he enjoyed being recognized for his better achievements from time to time, call it modesty, but the idea of everyone calling him a 'hero' gave him…deeply mixed emotions, it almost felt like the wrong word somehow.

Might have something to do with the fact he had spent a large chunk of his soulless half of his childhood believing himself to be 'evil'.

"I was just doing the right thing, I'm sure you would have done something if you saw the car first Frisk, you probably would have just dodged it like you do with all bad things," he said, giving a little shrug.

"That's the thing though kid, lots of people call them a hero, it's what they're known for, but not so much for you, I think it's high time you deserve some real recognition, it'll be good for monster reputation," Undyne said.

Toriel stepped over to him "yes! And remember when you rescued Frisk when they fell from that tree? It was such a shame that you were so embarrassed by the attention, but we were all proud of you nonetheless, and that was long before you showed us your true identity too,"

Flowey shook his head in desperation "you two are driving me crazy, can we just talk about this later? I'm not really in the mood for all this glamour talk,"

Frisk suddenly gasped as they caught sight of the clock on the wall in the hallway, "oh my gosh, I really gotta go," they then peeked back inside and gave everyone a frantic wave goodbye, "love you guys, I'll be back around ten-thirty….ish,"

"I love you too, have fun and stay safe,"

"Same goes double for me, see you later punk,"

Frisk smiled warmly at the two monster women as they made their way for the door, but then stopped as they thought something over and pointed to Flowey.
"You're obviously not comfortable with this whole thing, I'll just tell them a simplified version of the story, how about that?"

"Sure, fine, do what you think is best, see you later idiot," he replied, giving them a lazy grin.

They countered it with a goofy grin back, "see you later, love you Flowey!"

A burst of butterflies flew through him at the sweet expression, followed by the usual and expectant crackle of pain, as well the small rush of adrenaline he felt these days whenever Frisk dared to be casually loving toward him in public.

"Ughh, just get out of here already! Shoo!" he snapped back, trying his hardest to hold back his nervous smile, a fake annoyed expression painted on his face.

And this was just the thing, Frisk was also well known for being loving and flirty, so, casually they had discovered that they could be sweet on him in front of others- as long as he played the part and pretended to be still disgusted by the affection.

It was a very risky thing to do and made them both equally anxious that someone would eventually see through it, but Frisk couldn't help themselves sometimes, Flowey would know, he had nearly slipped up a few times himself.

They were technically leading a double life together, weren't they?

"You know, it's not that hard to say 'I love you' back to someone, right?" he heard Undyne say after Frisk left and closed the door behind them.

Flowey turned his attention to her in legitimate confusion, his mind already in a cloud "huh?"

Undyne shook her head dismissively "never mind, I'll let your parents handle that one, you'll eventually learn anyway," she then took out her cellphone.

"Okay, so, a little while ago, while we were in the middle of the lecture, Alphys texted me about the picture of the damage that you sent her, and we….may have some bad but not terrible news that you might not want to hear, but you'll have to anyway,"

"Then don't tell me," Flowey retorted, ugh, they were going to take away the robot weren't they? When he saw the damage he had a bad feeling that he was going to have to give it up for a while, but still, he'd been hopeful anyway.

"Trust me, I would if I could, but I promised Alphys I'd do this for her, so here we are, but, the thing is, she and I are going on a paid vacation starting this week and we won't be back until next Saturday, and none of us think it's wise for you to continue riding around in that thing when it's that damaged," Undyne said, leaning on the wall.

Flowey's mouth dropped at the accusation "are you saying I'm going to have to go back to normal flower pots- FOR A WEEK?!"

Undyne shifted uncomfortably, sympathetic but annoyed by his tone of voice.
"Yes, I'm saying that exactly, maybe longer depending on the damage- the wife's words not mine, but we promise it won't take as long as it did when you lost your other one, so I'm sure you can tough this out," she then let out a sigh "if you don't mind miss Dreemurr, I'll go start up a lunch while we wait for Alphys, I'm sure you two want to talk things over,"

And with that, she hurried out of the room, as if she could practically feel the anger building up from Flowey and was ready to get the heck out.

He grit his teeth in frustration, just barely holding back a few ugly swears in the process, how in the hell was he supposed to take Frisk on a proper date without his mobility?!

He attempted to imagine them carrying him around like the old days but everything he thought up was more unflattering than the last, there was no possible way he could make the experience romantic.

As he thought about the issue with the date, he continued thinking of having to be confined to the flower pot, unable to go anywhere without help from the others.

This just wasn't fair.

He was then suddenly overcome with disgust at the thought of being babied again, the urge to prove his independence stronger than ever before, it was then and there that he made a tough decision.

"I'm not going to do it," he said suddenly after a moment of silence.

"What are you not going to do?" Toriel asked, suspicious but equally concerned.

"I'm not going back to normal flower pots, I refuse," he said, crossing his arms to get his point across.

Toriel raised her eyebrows in surprise, but seemed unsure of the news.
"Oh, Flowey dear…I understand this is hard for you but I am not sure being out of the soil for that long is such a good idea,"

There was a hint of a thoughtful smile on Flowey's face as he remembered something.
"Actually, I think I'll be fine without any soil at all, I've slept overnight without being planted in anything at all, multiple times actually,"

She gave a small nod at that "I see, as long as you have evidence… then I will calm my worries, but- oh, how smoothly will you be able to get around?"

Flowey let out a laugh of uncomfortable bravado at that, because, well, while he did have practice in crawling (or tripping around) with the combination of his roots and vines, he wasn't as terrible as he was in the beginning but he wasn't entirely great at it yet either.

"I have practice!" he said with a too-wide grin.

Toriel raised a skeptical eyebrow "how much practice?"

His confidence began to slip a little "enough of it?" but then backed it up with "but this will be a big chance to practice even more!"

"Very well, but how will you see and reach tall surfaces?" she pushed.

"I can slingshot myself around and crawl up things, it'll be fine mom, I'll find a way," he said, the confidence just as fast coming back as he attempted to convince Toriel, convincing himself in the process.

But to his surprise, she frowned "you make it sound as if you plan to be doing all this alone without any help,"

He gave a stubborn nod "yes ma'am, that's my plan,"

A more concerned expression crossed her face before she let out a sigh, and smiled for her son.
"I will be… painfully honest, I do not like this plan, but if this is what you choose to do, then I will not stop you….. just remember I will always be here if you need my help,"

He couldn't help but let a laugh slip, smiling awkwardly "it's- it's not that big of a deal mom, everything will be okay,"

Later…

The short lizard monster woman had been studying and assessing the robot's damage for what felt like forever, until finally she put away her tools, got back to her feet, and dusted off her claws.

"So, uhhh.. um, Undyne told you about the wait?" she began, seemingly unsure of where to begin with the issue.

"I did," Undyne spoke up.

"Wait-don't say anything unless you can fix this thing before tomorrow," Flowey cut in, holding up a hand, his tone snarky but there was a hint of desperation.

Alphys bit her bottom lip nervously, looking to Undyne- who nodded back in encouragement, so she let out a heavy sigh and looked back to Flowey.

"I'm really sorry, there are some parts I need to order that I'm sure won't come until a few days…and I won't be able to fix it until next Saturday and- um, I mean- it could have been A LOT worse, the car came veeerry close to knocking the third bottom Aetherium crystal loose, if it had- well… you get the idea, fortunately, most of the damage is cosmetic….but there is a hole and a few exposed areas, so… I'd recommend to just…um…not use it, for safety measures," she explained, speaking in a hesitant tone as Flowey's frown tightened.

There was a part of him that was still fairly angry about the whole issue, mainly the part of him that would have been passive-aggressive toward Alphys if he hadn't already decided that he was going to make the best of this aggravating situation, he was better than that now.

He had an idea to fix this problem anyway.

"Can't you just weld a temporary piece of metal over the hole until you get back?" he asked.

Alphys let out a long sigh and looked down, anywhere but at him "that's part of the problem, my machine that I use to weld things has completely busted, there's a bunch of things that I need that I'm ordering,"

"What about multi-purpose tape? You do have something like that, don't you?" he quickly asked.

She gave a weak sympathetic smile "I thought about that too, but I realized there were some adjustments I could give it- which I can easily finish and do today…and I've also decided it would be just safer to keep it out of the way from any more accidents until I can completely fix it, I'm really sorry Flowey,"

Flowey's current frown twisted, unable to find it within himself to force a smile back, a short, uncomfortable silence settling over the room as he struggled to think of the right thing to say. . .

"Alright… I get it, thanks anyway Alphys," he said, "…should I get out of this thing now or can I wait until you take it?"

Smiling in relief that Flowey wasn't as angry as she feared, she visibly relaxed.
"I suppose you can stay in it until I leave, just be careful…so, um how are you feeling?"

He gave a little nonchalant shrug, but probably because he was emotionally exhausted now, so what slipped out of his mouth this time was a little less than nonchalant.

"Well… I got into my very first car accident and as a result, am going to lose my robot for a week, so I feel about how you would expect…but then again… no one got hurt or died, soooo I guess I can't complain too much," but not wanting to make things even more uncomfortable, he quickly added "but more than anything… I'm starving, when is lunch going to be done?"

Undyne perked up at that "the hamburgers should be done in another ten minutes, maybe a little longer depending on how the sides turn out,"

He gave the three older women a half-hearted smile "thanks, uh… I'll be in my room if anyone wants me…I need to check on my fish… and do some furniture rearranging,"

"Okay, I will come to get you when everything is ready," Toriel said as he began to turn away.

As he left the living room and rolled down the hall, he overheard them talk in hushed voices.

"I was so worried, I was sure he was going to be a lot more upset than that," he heard Alphys say.

"No, that kid was definitely angry, but I think he's really taking it in stride," Undyne said.

"Oh, yes, he was very upset over losing his source of mobility at first, but he seems to have a plan to work around it," Toriel spoke up.

More than not interested to hear the rest of this conversation, he urgently moved faster to his room.

When he got there, he began to plan things out.

Let's see… on the ground without anything to boost his height, he was two feet and five inches tall (and still growing), and thankfully his face and flared out petals also made him look deceptively bigger and taller.

With his robot flowerpot, he was able to sleep almost anywhere and be happy with it.

But back when he still used normal flower pots- (in both Frisk's and his room) he slept on desks or preferably- his favorite nightstand, right next to the lamp and the area where he charged his phone and tablet, keeping an array of handy knick-knacks and writing equipment in the drawer below, and was always able to get a perfect stream of sunlight through the blinds of the window in the afternoon (he had a much similar set up at his father's house as well)

But the thought of sleeping up there without any kind of support…seemed like it would be cold, hard, and extremely uncomfortable, so he clearly wasn't doing that.

Actually, a few months back he'd found that (of course) the bed that he had thought he would never need was really nice place to rest, he didn't find it comfortable in the same way humans and monsters typically do, since his plant body wasn't technically built for lying down and all that, but at the same time his plant body wasn't originally created with a face or teeth either… so whatever, his body had its own rules it seemed.

He looked around a little longer and soon began to arrange his room, making mini staircases out of his less used books and a ramp out of his guitar case, because, deep down, he knew he was going to get too exhausted to climb and swing himself up so high all the time.

He hoped by the end of all this that he'd be stronger, and if he did get stronger, he wondered if he would have in himself to continue that type of exercise, especially when the robot body made things so much easier.

Some odd minutes later, when he couldn't think of anything else, he finally took the time to feed his pet fish, Orange Juice, like he'd promised, tossing the little bitey betta fish a pellet, and then another for good measure.

"If you could talk I'm sure you could help me figure this out," he sighed.

Orange Juice merely stared at his owner's face, always curious and ready.

"...Yeah, you're right, I should probably text Frisk, I'm sure they'll love this," he mumbled, proceeding to take his phone out, judging by the timing they were likely in the car on their way to Muffet's home, but since their chauffeur was Sans for this trip- he was unsure, especially when Sans preferred interdimensional shortcuts, still Flowey texted without guilt or worry of interrupting anything.

'Guess what Frisky? I can't use my robot until next saturday =]]]]] but it's fine, I've decided to take a more proactive approach on the situation, I'm not going to back to my normal flower pot, for this week I will be traveling by roots' -

It took them a couple of minutes to respond, but boy did he get a response.

- 'WHAT? Oh my goodness, so does this mean you'll be naked all week?! :O '

'.….' -

'do you think these answers through before you say or write them or…do you just lose all impulse control when you talk to me?' -

- 'I think it's prolly a bit of both, but seriously, how come you don't want to use your reg flower pot again?'

'Simple, I don't want to be carried around like how I use to be anymore, I'm too old for it anyway, I've decided I'm going to go where I want, when I want, no more barriers Frisk' -

There was a worrying wait as Frisk took their time with the next reply . . . . .

- 'oh my god, using flower pots was my idea… I am so sorry Asriel, I didn't mean to keep you in a barrier I mean, I remember you being fussy about it time to time, but I didn't know you felt this strongly about it, keeping you in one just seemed like the right thing to do'

Flowey raised his eyebrows in sudden panic, he hadn't meant to make them feel bad about this!
He rushed to type back quickly.

'No, don't feel guilty you idiot, you guys didn't have a lot of reason to trust me back then, I GET IT, but it's fine because I would never admit but… I didn't entirely hate being catered to either, AND sure it was frustrating sometimes, but I didn't mean to sound like you 'trapped' me, because you DIDN'T, you and everyone actually took good care of me '-

He was about to stop there until he caught sight of his dark blurry reflection on his TV, remembering something important and quickly adding it.

' what I'm feeling now is different, and what I meant is that I don't want to be treated like a kid or a flower anymore' -

- 'so, you want to start being independent? Like, Adult Independent?'

Flowey's eyes lit up, leave it to Frisk to figure him out- even through texts.

'YES! That's exactly what I want, but first I need to show these adults I can do it first, because I know I can, I've had practice living on my own after all' -

- 'I wanna say I would help (AND i WILL IF YOU NEED IT!) But since I know you want to do this yourself, I'll be cheering you on instead, because I know you can do this'

'Thanks Frisk '-

- 'Sooooo, I guess this means you really are GROWING UP, huh?'

'Stop. Right. There.'-

- 'really BRANCHING OUT into the world, I see!'

'UUUUUUGGGGGHHH' -

- 'I'M SORRY, you know what talking to Sans long enough does to me! THE INSTINCT TO PUN IS TOO STRONGLY INFECTIOUS! I CAN'T CONTAIN IT!'

Thankfully, there was a polite knock at his door.
"Flowey, the burgers are ready,"

"Okay, I'm on my way," he called, finally noticing that he was grinning.

'Would you look at that? It's time for lunch, a perfect escape to get away from your disgraceful pun disease, jk, I'll talk to you later you big giant idiot 3' -

- 'tALK TO YOU LATER! 333'

But as he put the phone down, his mood dropped as he re-remembered the date… sure Frisk would try to make the best of it, but there was no way it was going to work out the way he wanted, what was he going to do?

Eating made him feel better, as usual, but once they were all done and finished up, he attempted to keep the conversation going, taking his time as he helped clean up everything and put everything away, but Alphys and Undyne had to leave.

The worst part was that his robot was leaving with them.

So of course the goodbyes took a little longer than usual, forcing back his grimace as he uprooted himself from the dirt, dismissing his mother as she kindly attempted to help, climbing down to the floor and watched as Alphys began to manually push the odd cup-shaped machinery away.

There were a couple more goodbyes and reassurances that the week would fly by and then…the front door was closed and that was that.

Several hours later…

Flowey was woken up from a nap he hadn't even realized he'd taken when he heard a few taps at his door, still too sleepy to bother with moving the tablet off his face.

"Hey, you still awake?" he heard Frisk say from behind the door.

".….I guess…..?" he called back, his voice somewhat muffled.

He heard them very quietly open the door, there seemed to be a pause before they spoke (they were most likely gawking at the furniture shift)

"Wow, you were really serious about this," they commented under their breath.

Not able to think of anything to respond with and still in the process of waking up, he stayed still and silent, listening to Frisk as they just as quietly closed the door behind them and then felt them climb onto the mattress and crawl over next to him.

"Are you okay?" they asked, their voice soft and concerned.

"M' fine, just.. underestimated how exhausting crawling above ground is…," he admitted "how is it that I can pick you up and dangle you in the air with my vines- but I can barely make it through the entire house on my roots without getting winded and tangled up on myself, I thought that… maybe, just maybe I could figure this crawling thing out… but like with MOST things…I have been proven completely and utterly… ?"

Finally, Frisk removed the tablet from his face, nonetheless, Flowey decided against opening his eyes just yet as he remembered that he'd left his ceiling light on, bringing a sluggish vine to sleepily rub at his face.

"It's okay, you've had more time to learn how to do different things with your vines and not so much with your roots, and… I know, let's try it this way, you basically use your vines as your hands and your roots like your feet, right?" they asked.

"Yeah…basically…," he confirmed.

"So, I think maybe, you learned how to walk by tunneling, and now you're trying to re-learn how to walk again in a new way," they suggested "either way, I think all you need is time, you'll get through this, you've had practice before, and it's not too different from learning to swim or me trying to roller skate,"

"I know, I know… I just wish it wasn't so damn hard to do," he said in a weary groan.

He heard Frisk let out a concerned and worried hum, "I know… it sucks, just remember it'll get easier, just be patient with yourself,"

"Mmm, thanks Frisky, you really know how to put things in perspective, but I'm getting sick of talking about me… so, how did everything go with you?" he asked, growing legitimately curious.

"I had lots of fun, I had mystery purple tea-,"

"It's not a mystery, it's spiders, it's always spiders Frisk," he interrupted.

Frisk let out a sigh "you would think, but she said it was spider-free this time,"

"Okay, I guess it is a mystery… . . did it have anything to do with Aaron's mystery?" he asked.

He heard them laugh gently "actually no, but now that I think about it, this whole day has been kind of an elusive and crazy mystery hasn't it?"

Finally, he cracked open his eyes, immediately finding that Frisk was comfortably lounging very close next to him, their head propped up on the palm of their hand, seeing that they'd washed up and changed into their nightwear clothes before visiting him.

They gave him a warm welcoming smile as their gazes connected, as cheerful as their smile was, he didn't miss the faint weariness in Frisk's eyes, they were very likely just as- or even more tired as he was.

"So… what else happened?" he asked.

They looked off at the ceiling as they thought back, their smirk widening as they spoke.
"As usual I fell over several times trying to copy Muffet's yoga exercises, cause, you know, I don't have eight arms or legs? But like you with your roots, I know I'll figure it out one day, and guess what?"

"What?"

They then brought out their cellphone and presented a lacy violet spiderweb themed baggie and handed it to him, "when I told Muffet about what happened, she gave me two huge assortments of spider baked goods, one for you and one for me,"

He took the bag and opened it, pulling out what looked to be a scone, a spider scone.

He gave it a test bite, finding that it was pretty good, just like all Muffet and her spider's food- it had a nice spidery background flavor.

"Wow, I'm surprised, I don't think I've made any real contact with her since the wedding? Guess I should thank her,"

A sweet smile appeared on Frisks' face "I know she'll be very happy to see you again,"

"What about Aaron and his gang? Did they give us anything for our troubles?" he asked, half-joking.

They let out another chuckle "no, but I did get a lot of fist bumps and bro hugs from Aaron, and one of the longest hugs I've ever been able to get from Woshua, they were all really amazed and proud at what you did today, and definitely impressed,"

"Of course they are, but enough with the small talk, what happened with the 'big mystery'?" he asked, lazily winding a vine around a cascade of hair that hung nearby.

At that Frisk cracked a shy smile "well.. . heh, um, I was a little nervous to tell you this, but, they kind of…set me up, they said they wanted me to help them find their lost expensive pair of sunglasses, but what they really wanted to do instead… was to help me find… true love,"

He paused his actions and stared up at them, not quite sure how to take this "they…what?"

They ran a hand through their long bangs, their grin slowly fading.
"Yeah, they made a lovely speech about 'how I'm always trying to make people happy and that I deserved a sweetheart as sweet as me', so they…made me…go through…four…blind dates," they then looked at him through their fingers "I hope you're not upset,"

He could only continue to stare, still unsure of things "who were they?"

"The blind dates? Well, the first one was a really cool Moldsmal, they were a pretty good date but they seemed a little more interested in getting dinner, the second one was sir Whimsalot…which I found out that he had been set up as well and wasn't completely interested in dating, but I think I unintentionally worked some of my sweet love magic because at the end of it he seemed very thoughtful about the idea-,"

Flowey finally released their hair, finally deciding he very much didn't like this brand of news, his face scrunching up in distaste, on the verge of jealousy, "why didn't you just say 'no'? You didn't have put up with that,"

Frisk let out a distressed groan, rubbing their eyes, clearly conflicted "I know, Sunshine, but I also couldn't exactly tell them 'the truth'," they then cleared their throat and lowered their voice to a whisper "I had to pretend to be single or else they would have gotten suspicious, you know very well 'single me' would never turn down a date, but it's okay, because all you need to know is that I did what I had to and politely turned all of them down,"

He began to relax, feeling guilty and annoyed with himself.

Giving them a timid apologetic smile and casual vine on hand touch, he continued whispering to them, almost mumbling "sorry, I… guess I'm pissed that four weirdos got to go on a date with you today while I was stuck at home… did you have any fun?"

They curled their fingers around the vine just like he hoped they would, chuckling softly.

"Yeah, I did, they all were amazing in their own way… but none of them were as amazing in the way you are… huh, maybe you're right, maybe I should have just made something up and left to go on four simultaneous dates with you instead," they then paused as Flowey had a good giggle.

"Yeah, thought you would like that… but we still have our date tomorrow to look forward to and hopefully hundred more dates after that, today was just a tiny patch of pothole on our long and winding road," they whispered, watching as he delicately wound his vine around their fingers.

Flowey went quiet after that, smiling as much as he could- but despite their positivity, he found he couldn't hold his own.

"Thanks but, I don't think our date tomorrow is going to work out Frisky, not while I'm like this, I'm useless to you,"

They were of course taken aback and skeptical of this comment "wha-? You're not useless at all, don't get so discouraged, of course it'll work, we're a flexible couple, we can make it work, I know we can,"

He let out a quiet exasperated groan "sure you say that now, but just you wait- the whole thing will just be awkward and weird for you,"

They narrowed their eyebrows at him "how? How will it be awkward and weird? How do you know?"

Flowey was ready for this one "because without the robot I'm so much smaller than you, without it I come up to your KNEES, I'm practically the same height as an average human toddler, do you want to have a date with a toddler Frisk? HUH?"

They tried their hardest to stifle their laughter "no! Of course not- not a real one anyway," but they quickly composed themselves "and that's the silliest example you've ever come up with, considering I've had feelings for you waaaayyy before you even had your robot body, I've never cared about how tall or short you were, you should know that by now,"

As Flowey thought up another example to combat Frisk's romantic reasoning, his train of thought was brought to an instant stop as they brought their hand up to their lips and kissed the vine, all the while they kept eye contact with him.

"Please don't stress this out Azzie, you don't have anything to worry or be nervous about, okay? We'll have a nice, relaxing, chill date, we can make this work, I promise you," they whispered to him.

Flowey swallowed the lump in his throat, blushing and very close to swooning, all his doubt from earlier running out from inside him, now fully convinced that if there was anyone who could always promise him a successful romantic date, it would definitely be Frisk.

He wasn't sure if it was because the bar was set so low, but they actually hadn't had a 'bad' date yet, the closest they ever came to a bad one was their first date, which also happened to be his top favorite.

So, a slow smile grew on his face "okay, if you REALLY think it'll work- then we'll do it,"

He could see the relief in their eyes as they grinned back "yes, thank you, you can count on me that this date will go smoothly,"

"As smooth as you're being right now?" he quipped flirtatiously.

Caught off guard, Frisk's eyes lit up in surprise, covering their mouth in awe and amusement, trying their hardest to keep their flattered giggles hushed.

But they soon gained their composure back, relaxing further on the bed, they gazed at their lounging flowery boyfriend.

"How did things go after I left? You seemed pretty passed out when I came in," they asked.

Flowey let out a weak scoff as he remembered.

"Well, you saw my texts, they basically told me what you would expect, 'you put a huge gash in a priceless piece of machinery, blah blah blah, you're too deathly accident-prone, blah blah blah, now we can't trust you to use this any longer or else you just end up exploding it altogether and dying violently' et cetera, et cetera,"

Frisk frowned firmly "they just didn't want you to risk anything while the robot was vulnerable,"

"I know…uughhhhh… I'm just hoping this whole week will blow over quickly, I can't exaggerate how exhausting this is," he groaned.

"I'm sorry you had a crap day, I know what we talked about, but if you really start to get tired tomorrow..I'll carry you if you're up to it," they said, brushing their thumb gently back and forth of the vine.

He seemed thoughtful about the proposition but his mind would not be changed about this.

"No, not counting my vines, I'm completely out of shape- both literally and figuratively, I need to do this on my own, I have to be independent and I can't do it if I'm a weakling," he explained.

Frisk gave him a sleepy smirk "alright, you do you, sunshine, just remember that I'm here for you and that I'm rooting for you,"

Flowey scrunched up his face in playful disgust at the awful saccharine plant pun.

The two of them continued to lay there, the weight of their day making them both lazy, Frisk now on the verge of sleeping, but Flowey found himself relaying the day over, staring up at the ceiling.

"We were so close to biting the dust for real today and redoing everything if I hadn't moved fast enough… twice if you count the electric strike, it could have gotten really ugly today," he said, breaking the silence.

Frisk rubbed at their eyes, his words waking them back up.

"That's true… but… you know, all that crazy stuff always seems to bring us closer together, so… I wouldn't want it any other way," they murmured, smiling gently as he looked to them.

He gazed at them before he finally smiled back.

"Yeah, me too Starshine,"

...