Chapter Text
The wind that blew through this gallery of caverns was always bitter cold. Lacking anything that could suffer frostbite, neither of them were bothered by the chill. On the contrary, Flowey savored every small scrap of sensation he could get, angling his face into the breeze to feel the prickle of minute ice crystals against his petals.
An hour or so of pointless but amusing chatter had lapsed into a comfortable silence. Papyrus reclined in the snow, contentedly gazing up at the “stars” on the distant ceiling. He wasn’t one to relax like this often, unlike his worthless slug of a brother, but at this time of night even he started to slow down. Flowey took the time to appreciate it. Any event that was even slightly unusual was a treasure to him.
Papyrus was his favorite toy. He was one of the only monsters who wasn’t afraid of or unsettled by Flowey. It simply didn’t occur to him to be frightened, and he was one of the few who could actually hold Flowey’s interest for any length of time. The sentry was endearingly stupid and narcissistic in a harmless sort of way. He was also kind and merciful to an absolute fault, and needy as all hell. It was an interesting set of variables. They’d become friends in dozens of timelines now, not that that was an accomplishment on Flowey’s part. Papyrus leapt at any scrap of affection like a starving man. Some time, Flowey would have to figure out why that was, but it was low on his list of curiosities at the moment. Right now it was simply amusing and useful, like the skeleton himself.
Generally speaking, Papyrus served as a break from Flowey’s heavier experimentation. A palate cleanser, of sorts. That routine was starting to get a bit stale, unfortunately, and as they enjoyed the night air together, Flowey went over some options in his head. It wouldn’t do to get too extreme right at the start, or anything to follow would feel anticlimactic. Besides, sadism was one thing, but thoughtless brutality on its own was dull. He could do better than that. The real deal was seeing how far he could push a personality off the rails. To see how much he could disorient them, to see just how much it took to flip the switch. To take someone apart, learn how they worked on the most intimate level possible, and then rewire them any way he wanted.
Some monsters were easy to remake into all sorts of cool toys. Some were just easy to break, or broke in spectacular ways. He was curious to find out which kind Papyrus would be.
He didn’t have a long play worked out quite yet, but he felt like whetting his appetite. There was nothing but time to refine his methods. This go-round would just be a warm up for later projects.
“Hey, Papyrus?” he said.
“Yeah?”
“You’re my favorite skeleton.”
“Of course I am!” Papyrus beamed. It was a sight to see from someone who was anatomically predisposed to smiling already. “You’re my favorite magical talking flower!”
Flowey poked his tongue out, grinning. “Aw, shucks! If I had blood, I’d be blushing right now.”
“A flower with blood sounds pretty gross, Flowey.”
“Yeah,” Flowey said, with a genuine chuckle. He loved that Papyrus could surprise him like so few other monsters could, even if it was in such small ways. “That would be pretty messed up.” They were quiet again for a few minutes. There was no rush. Finally, at what Flowey judged to be the proper moment, he spoke. “Papyrus, we’re friends, right?”
“Yes,” Papyrus said, before Flowey’s ‘right’ had even passed his lips. “We’re great chums!”
Flowey smiled. “I’m glad,” he said. Papyrus needed reassurance like flowers needed water. He responded even better to others calling on him for reassurance. It was always a good string to pull.
“Um…” Papyrus said, after a minute of oblivious silence. “Is something on your mind, friend? Because I’m a great listener.”
“As a matter of fact, Papyrus, yes. There is something on my mind. I was just thinking about how tough you are.”
“Really?” Now this really had Papyrus’ attention.
“Yeah. I feel really safe hanging out with you,” Flowey said. “You wanna know a secret?”
Papyrus nodded furiously. Enthusiasm practically radiated off him. A funny thing about him, Flowey thought, was how his prodigious self-love tended to extend to others. One would expect the opposite. He was a regular sweetheart.
Flowey wiggled his leaves thoughtfully. “Did you know I wasn’t always a flower?”
Papyrus pushed himself up on his elbows. “Get outta town! Really?”
“Yeah, silly goose.” Flowey winked. “There’s a reason there’s no other magical talking flowers around here, you know.”
“Well, so what were you before? Were you cursed?” Papyrus asked, steamrolling over any chance at answering. “Are you under an evil spell? It’s not the kind that has to be broken by a kiss, is it? Because I’d like to point out right now that I don’t even have lips, and as much as I-”
“Papyrus, Papyrus, there’s no need,” Flowey said, gesturing for his friend to settle down, which he did. Papyrus always listened to him. He was good like that. “You certainly have an active imagination, but no, I wasn’t put under a spell. What happened to me was stranger than that.” He paused briefly for the sake of building a little suspense.
Papyrus was back to hanging on his every word. Such a good boy. The skeleton would have been on the edge of his seat if he weren’t sitting on the ground. “Well?”
Flowey beckoned him to lean closer, and he did so. “I used to be a really strong monster; a really rare, special one. I was a boss monster!” Flowey bounced on his stem and watched Papyrus’ jaw drop.
“Wowwie!”
“I know, right? Don’t tell anyone.”
Papyrus shook his head. If there’d been any kind of a brain in there, Flowey mused that it’d be getting pretty scrambled.
“I bet you’re wondering how a boss monster ended up as a li'l old flower, huh? It’s a super big secret, so I’ll whisper it to you.”
Papyrus obliged to lean down close enough that Flowey could whisper into the spot where his ear would have been. “I died.”
For a second, Flowey was sure Papyrus would fall over. He shot upright, gasping.
“Crazy, huh?” Flowey said, cutting Papyrus off as the skeleton opened his mouth to speak. “I should have disappeared, but instead I got stuck here, in one of the flowers I fell onto when I died.” He shrugged his leaves. “Don’t ask me how. I could see my own dust around me when I woke up.”
“That’s awful!” Papyrus clutched his cape around himself. He settled back down on his knees, looking down at Flowey with deep pity.
Flowey’s parents had both given him that same look, once upon a timeline. It didn’t piss him off nearly as much coming from Papyrus. Papyrus hadn’t been the one to drop the ball and let him get killed in the first place.
“Yeah,” Flowey said. “A bunch of humans came after me when I was just a kid. They beat me to death,” he chirped.
“Oh my god!” Papyrus gasped. He covered his mouth with a gloved hand. “No…”
“Sad, huh?” Flowey drank in the sight of Papyrus shaking in the snow. He enjoyed Papyrus’ compassion, even if it was the emotional equivalent of tossing diamonds into a bottomless pit. The pit would accept the tribute gladly.
“That’s the saddest thing,” Papyrus said, fighting back tears, “I’ve ever, ever heard.”
“Nah.” Flowey winked. “The real kicker is that I was strong enough to have easily killed them. I could have wiped that miserable village off the face of the Earth.”
Papyrus started.
“Sorry!” Flowey said, giggling. “It’s a sore spot. I’m sure you understand. Getting murdered is no fun at all, gosh!”
“I…I bet not,” Papyrus stammered, settling back down.
“I didn’t believe in fighting back then. I was just a kid! A nice kid.” Flower bobbed on his stem cheerfully. “You weren’t born yet, but I bet if you’d been there with me, you’d have protected me for sure!”
Papyrus straightened his back. “Absolutely! No way would I, the great Papyrus, have let those humans harm you!” He frowned, staring down at the snow. “How could they have done something so terrible to a child?”
Flowey leaned forward to catch his friend’s gaze. “The world is a cruel, cold place, Papyrus. It’s kill or be killed out there, you know? I didn’t want to believe it, and look where mercy got me.”
Papyrus had no response for that but to pull his cape tighter around himself. He had no body heat to warm him– just a self-soothing reflex that accomplished nothing.
“You always pull your punches, too,” Flowey said. “I don’t know how strong you are for sure. Could you really have saved me?” He dropped his placid smile. “Could you have killed them, or would you have made the same mistake I did?”
“I…” Papyrus glanced around at everything but Flowey. At least he had enough awareness to know this much about himself. Merciful to a fault. It was what was holding him back from his goals; he was either ignorant of the realities of the world, or chose to ignore them in favor of how he felt things ought to be. Flowey had never quite been able to decide which it was. Either option was a mark of stupidity. It would be interesting to see how much of that stupidity could be corrected.
Flowey’s smile slipped back into place. “I don’t want to bum you out, Papyrus. I’d like my sad fate to do some good in the world, you know? I told you my secret because I thought it might help you.”
Papyrus cocked his head, a habit he’d no doubt picked up from the town full of mangy mutts he lived with. “Help me? I don’t follow you.”
“Well, silly, I want you to learn the lesson I died to learn.” Flowey stretched, pulling more of his form above ground. “We’re going to try a little exercise, if you don’t mind,” he said, voice dripping sugar and tar.
“I, um…” Papyrus backpedaled, an awkward crab-walk that had him stumbling over his cape. “I think I mind. A lot. If it’s all the same to you.”
Flowey ignored his protests. It felt good to get more of himself out in the open; he hadn’t indulged in a while. “I’m going to attack you, Papyrus,” he said. His stem creaked as he flexed some of the stiffness out of it. “For real. And I want you to fight me. I want you to fight me for real. I want to see what you can do when you don’t pull your punches.”
While he was talking, Papyrus managed to stumble to his feet. He was trembling. “I-I don’t want to fight you,” he said. He was tall, but he now had to crane his neck up to meet Flowey’s eyes. He took a step back, hands raised in supplication.
“I know you don’t, friend,” Flowey said. He pouted. “But if you don’t, then I’ll have to find another way to teach you the lesson.” He stretched a few handy roots out of the ground; they swished through the chilly air with satisfying whip-cracks, fencing Papyrus inside the small circle that would serve as their arena. “Now, I know the great Papyrus wouldn’t dream of running away like a coward, would he? That would disappoint me.”
Papyrus was shaking so badly Flowey could hear him rattling. “Please,” he said. “Please, don’t. We’re…we’re friends, aren’t we?”
“Of course we are, you silly goose. You are my favorite, after all.” Flowey prepared his first attack, his favored ring of bullets coalescing around them. “Now, are you ready to fight like your life depends on it? Because guess what?” His grin split his face wide, showing teeth. “It does.”
That did the trick, at last. Papyrus dropped unthinkingly into a defensive stance, raising a hand wreathed in the blue will-o-wisp flame of his magic.
“Good boy!” Flowey crowed, and then he lunged.