"Are you saying I did all that for nothing?!" Flowey cried out once he was reunited with Asgore and Frisk in their hotel room the next day.
"You did free one person and allowed everyone to find out more about monster history", argued the boss monster.
"Seven people are dead."
And so was the silence that followed.
Asgore and Frisk were looking anywhere but at the flower.
"Well, not like they had much of a life left, anyway. But don't go begging for my help again if you're just going to waste my time."
The travel back home was done in complete silence.
It was only once he was back alone in the Underground entrance that it dawned on Flowey that he had gone farther from his old home than he had ever been. It was weird how easy it had been for Frisk to convince him this time, after over two years of repeating again and again that he did not want to go to the Surface. Maybe he had just been bored. Maybe he had wanted to see if anything good could happen to him up there.
Now that he had time to think again… well, he still felt like he had wasted his time, but at least that was better than being attacked and dying, he guessed. He wished he still had shoulders to shrug.
He looked at the outside world through the cave's entrance. Everything was still wet and cold from a recent rain and the sky was entirely grey.
Getting to be Asriel again sure was nice while it lasted. Why did he have to give it up once more? Flowey swore his old self was too good for his own good.
The flower shook his head. Then he peeked farther outside, his face just coming out of the cave. A bird flew overhead and disappeared into the distance. Flowey inched the rest of his body closer to the outside world. He didn't feel ready for it in the slightest ; however if a bit of exploration could offer a distraction…
He hesitated, frozen in place for what felt like hours (but was most likely a few minutes) before advancing slightly forwards. He didn't have to go with Frisk or anyone. The Underground could still be his home, it just didn't have to be the only place to go to for him.
He advanced again. He didn't want to think about what happened anymore. So he went hiking.
"i dunno, kid", Sans admitted to Frisk as he sat down next to them on Toriel's couch. "do you think you could have made it better?"
The human kept staring blankly in the general direction of the coffee table.
"ya know, i'm not even sure how you still can SAVE after all this time. when we got out i expected you to lose that once on the surface…"
The conversation, if it could even be called that, was cut short when Toriel got out of the kitchen with some drinks and leftover pie.
"What are you two talking about?" she asked, setting everything on the coffee table.
"oh, not much", the skeleton lied. "just lazybones doing nothing."
"I would say you two are like bread", the boss monster countered. "You are… loafing around!"
The two monsters kept exchanging puns of the same calibre for hours. It almost made Frisk smile again.