Flowey gazed lazily across the snow as Papyrus, huffing and shaking his head, tore away at the sodden cardboard sides of his 'sentry station'.
"THIS IS THE FOURTH TIME IN TWO MONTHS. WHO KEEPS SABOTAGING MY MASTERWORK?!"
He ripped out the lower corner and the other three sides slumped slowly into a collapsing heap. Papyrus clearly didn't understand how snow worked.
"SIGH..." He slumped a little "LOOKS LIKE I'LL HAVE TO REPLACE THE ENTIRE THING. SORRY FLOWEY, YOUR TRAINING WILL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THIS IS DONE."
Flowey had been following Papyrus around for several hours moving from puzzle to puzzle, shifting things around and making sure they all worked. This was just another inconvenience, but he didn't mind spending the time with the skeleton, Papyrus was actually pretty funny.
"How about building it out of wood this time instead?" He suggested in a helpful tone.
Papyrus frowned and knelt down to scoop up the remains of his 'masterwork'. "BUT I ALWAYS BUILD MY STATIONS OUT OF CARDBOARD." He protested. "THE BOXES ALREADY COME IN A CONVENIENT SENTRY STATION SHAPE!"
"Wood would be a lot less easy to 'sabotage', and I can help you build it."
"THANK YOU FOR THE OFFER BUT NO. THIS IS SOMETHING I NEED TO DO MYSELF. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PROVE HOW GREAT I AM IF I'M NOT THE ONE DOING THE WORK? EVEN SANS BUILT HIS OWN..." He stood back up, arms overflowing with the cardboard he could barely contain. "IT'S PRETTY GOOD ACTUALLY, BUT DON'T TELL HIM I SAID THAT! HE'LL GET EVEN MORE COMPLACENTLY LAZY THAN HE ALREADY IS..." Papyrus sighed "I WISH HE WOULD PUT AS MUCH EFFORT INTO HIS SENTRY DUTIES AS HE DID INTO THAT MACHINE."
A machine? Flowey's curiosity was piqued, did this machine have anything to do with the strange task Sans had been given by Asgore? Whatever it was, it had certainly sounded like something they both took seriously.
"WAIT HERE, I WILL BE BACK MOMENTARILY!"
Before Flowey could open his mouth a loud crash sounded from the nearby trees. A blue birdlike monster ran across the path with its wings covering its face.
"Please come back, he didn't mean it Snowy!" A similar looking green monster wearing shades rushed to their side and brought his own wing over Snowy's shoulder.
"Yes I did."
The green bird puffed up and spun around to sneer at the voice's owner, still half hidden in the trees. "Fuck off Jerry!"
"LANGUAGE!" Papyrus snapped. "DO YOU KISS YOUR MOTHER WITH THAT MOUTH?"
The teenagers stopped in their tracks, the green bird glared at the skeleton. "I don't give a shit what you think!" He retorted scathingly as wild magic began to crackle in and out of existence around him. The blue bird wriggled out from under his wing and ran into the trees on the other side. "Snowy wait!" He chased after them while Jerry watched and laughed.
"So lame you can't handle the truth!" He called as he plodded behind. Was this guy really that oblivious?
Papyrus watched the whole spectacle looking a little crestfallen. "WELL ANYWAY, I'LL BE BACK IN A MOMENT..." He said, then walked away.
Flowey stared at the treeline where the teens had disappeared. What was that all about? It was probably just overblown drama... but he was curious, and he had time to kill while Papyrus was away anyway. Better set a SAVE point down first, just in case...
He ducked underground and attempted to follow their trail through the forest. It didn't take long before he could hear the snapping of branches and faint crunch of pine needles nearby.
"Why are you still following us?! Seriously Jerry this isn't funny, you went too far this time!"
"He's just too sensitive. If I didn't say it someone else would."
"You're a real piece of work you know that?"
"Pff... tomorrow we'll all be laughing about it. Now can we get out of here already? The pine needles are hurting my feet!"
"Go hang out with the Icecaps. You aren't welcome with us!"
"Whatever. You guys are total losers anyway..."
He surfaced to witness Jerry plodding away while the green bird monster glared daggers into his back. if looks could kill. Once he was gone, the bird turned his attention back to his friend who had finally stopped moving and now quivered and sobbed under his wing. Neither monster had spotted Flowey yet.
"Howdy." He said quietly.
The green bird puffed up. "Leave us alone! Sno-" He cut off when he spotted the source of the voice. "Hey, didn't I see you with that skeleton dude?... What even are you?"
"Oh, my name's Flowey. Flowey the flower... heh... I just came by to see if your friend there was alright..." He tried to use a disarming tone, it appeared to work.
The green bird visibly relaxed and the blue bird peeked out from under his wing. Their sobbing stopped for a moment when they spotted him, a flicker of curiosity flit across their face.
"A... talking flower, okay, that's a new one." The green monster raised an eyebrow behind his glasses. "You should leave, my friend doesn't need your concern."
"Wait, it's -hick- okay Chilly. I'm fine." The blue bird finally spoke up, he brushed his friend's wing aside. "I'm Snowdrake, and this is Chilldrake, but we just go by 'Snowy' and 'Chilly'. It's very ice to meet you!"
The birds snorted at the bad pun and started laughing, but Snowdrake soon descended into sobbing again.
"I'm... i'm just gonna go for a walk, i'll be back in a bit..." He said then slowly waddled away leaving Flowey and Chilldrake together.
They stared after him, Chilly still looked concerned but not as defensive as before. Eventually Snowy walked out of sight and Chilldrake let out a long sigh.
"He isn't normally like this, ya know. When someone's feeling down, Snowy's always the one to lighten the mood and make everyone laugh... It's kinda weird to see him so down, it makes me mad." His eyes glazed over and he flexed and unflexed his wings.
He looked... contemplative? Flowey was uncertain about what to say, but decided to push for more information. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Well, You could have laughed at his pun!" Chilldrake snapped suddenly, the air filling with white magic. "The guy just had a massive row with his dad, how-" He stopped himself, but the damage was already done. Chilldrake turned away and cursed under his breath at his own outburst.
Such a display of emotion. Flowey remembered that feeling, that aggressive indignation in defense of another, it had felt like such a noble emotion at the time. Now he almost felt bad for finding the bird's rant so amusing. Almost. The information given away was interesting, too.
Chilldrake took a deep breath and tried again. "Sorry, I don't usually lose my chill like that... it's just a very touchy subject, so don't bring it up, okay? And laugh at his jokes... even if sometimes they aren't the best. My bud means well and he doesn't deserve the crap he's going through right now."
A project for later then. "I understand. Maybe i'll see you around at a better time?"
"Maybe. You seem nice enough so I'll give you a chance. If you wanna hang out, we'll be in the woods after school every day and all day on weekends. The forest is our element... and yours too from the looks of it. Literally."
Flowey was confused for a moment but then the realization clicked and he looked down at his floral body. "Oh, i'm not a forest flower."
"Then what sort of flower are you?"
He smiled slyly, this looks like a good opportunity to have a bit of fun. "I wasn't always a plant you know. Once I was a very wise monster indeed." He paused to check Chilldrake's expression, but it was hard to make out behind his sunglasses. "Yeah, I told the best advice, helped everyone, solved all their problems. You could say I was a real sage."
Chilly put his wing over his beak to cover a snort. "So what happened?"
"Well my thyme ran out, and I came back as a re-in-carnation."
Childrake couldn't stifle himself any longer and burst out laughing. Flowey felt dirty for using those terrible plant puns. His mother would have been proud.
"Hey, I'M the comedian around here!" They turned to see Snowdrake watching them from the trees, looking a little peeved.
"Hey dude, feeling better now?" Chilly called to him.
There was a pause before he answered. "Yeah it's cool now, i'm totally chilled out. Heh heh..." The puns felt forced, he still seemed to be having difficulty keeping himself together, but Flowey laughed along anyway.
It seemed to brighten him up a bit, Chilldrake looked pleased. "I'm gonna call the Icecaps and ask if anyone's with them right now." He stated while extracting a phone from his plumage.
Snowy nodded, then Flowey remembered he was supposed to be waiting for Papyrus. "I need to go. See you guys again some time."
"Later dude."
"Later."
As he burrowed away, he soon realized that he was deeper into the woods than he'd first thought. Finding the location of Papyrus' sentry station was proving tricky, he skirted the treeline and eventually heard the familiar sound of Papyrus' voice; he was calling his name.
"FLOWEY! FLOWEY ARE YOU THERE?!"
"maybe something came up and he had to go?" Sans' voice.
Flowey decided not to reveal himself right away, he surfaced instead behind a tree to watch. The two skeletons were standing around a fresh cardboard box, Papyrus looked frantic while Sans leaned against a nearby tree, his smile was still plastered across his face. Could he even move his jaws?
"HE WOULD HAVE LEFT A NOTE! FRIENDS DON'T JUST LEAVE WITHOUT SAYING SOMETHING!" Papyrus refuted while stomping the ground.
"well, i guess he's not as great a friend as you thought he was?"
Ouch, Sans. I might not have a soul but I am trying to be nice!
"WHAT IF HE GOT HURT? WHAT IF HE GOT LOST? WHAT IF HE GOT TAKEN?... SANS, WHAT IF A HUMAN CAME THROUGH AND KILLED HIM... AND I WASN'T THERE TO PROTECT HIM?!"
Papyrus was freaking out, he gripped his head with his gloved hands and was marching in circles. Sans made very little movement as he regarded his brother, only a slight change to his brow betrayed his concern.
"tell ya what bro. i'll do a sweep of snowdin right now, and if i find your flower friend or any humans, i'll let you know. k?"
Papyrus visibly calmed down, he stopped moving and smiled at his brother. "THANK YOU SANS..."
Sans started walking in Flowey's direction, he was about to duck underground when the skeleton became obscured by a tree and didn't reappear out the other side. What? Was Sans really so lazy that he would promise something important to his brother, only to hide in the woods? Flowey moved to get a look around the other side of the tree... Sans was gone.
"heya buddy."
He spun around with a start, Sans was leaning against the tree behind him. He wasn't there a second ago. "How did you...?"
"shortcut. and to answer your next question, yeah, i saw you. yellow and green on white is kinda hard to miss."
Unease welled in his stem, what else did this skeleton know that he wasn't letting on? "Then why didn't you say anything?"
"and upset my brother? telling him his new best pal is watching him suffer from the sidelines instead of rushin in to apologize? some friend you are... but then again, i guess i couldn't expect much else. i'll be honest with you bud, when i look at you i feel like i'm starin into a void. it kinda creeps me out."
Flowey's eyes widened. "You... you know I don't have a soul?"
"i wouldn't be much good at my job if i couldn't read people, but i try to give everyone the benefit of the doubt. my brother seems to be pretty taken by you, so it would be a shame if you didn't turn up and apologize to him. i suggest you go do that."
Sans pushed himself to a stand and put his hands in his jacket pockets, then lazily walked behind the nearest tree and vanished. That was it. That was the evidence Flowey needed to confirm that his initial feelings towards that skeleton weren't just unfounded paranoia. That guy knew more than he let on, was more perceptive than anyone should have any right to be... and it scared him.
But... perhaps he could be won over? Flowey didn't want to be in conflict with Sans. If the guy knew anything about souls, enough to recognize the lack of one, then maybe... he also might know a way to help Flowey feel again? And this situation was a terrible start towards that goal! He closed his eyes and concentrated, pulling himself into the time-frozen void.
Continue?
Yes.
Flowey watched as Papyrus walked away with the sodden remains of his sentry station, still holding himself dejected after Chilldrake's outburst.
Snowey's problems would have to wait.