Archive of Our Own ^beta

What was it that Flowey expected? Of course the spaghetti would turn out like this, considering Papyrus was the one instructing him on how to cook his ‘signature dish’.

It wasn’t that Flowey didn’t know how to cook, from all the resets he had been through while living with Toriel, he learned plenty of dishes. However, spaghetti wasn’t one of them, and he figured that seeing Papyrus failing so horribly after each and every attempt at making the pasta-meal, it wouldn’t hurt to try and make it himself to perfect on what the skeletal moron couldn’t do.

Every time Flowey had ever been forced (not actually forced, but felt obligated) to eat Papyrus’ disturbing excuse for a pasta dish, there were consequences. Plenty of reasons behind Papyrus’ failure as not just a chef, but as a living being that actually existed. Sometimes, the dish simply wasn’t fully cooked… whether it be the chunks of raw tomatoes or the crinkly crunch of undercooked pasta. The dish sometimes could even be overcooked to the point where everything was simply mush. There were even times when the tomatoes hadn’t been mashed properly-- other times when Papyrus literally just placed full tomatoes into the spaghetti noodles. The lanky skeleton had even tried boiling all the ingredients together at the same time; pasta, tomatoes, seasoning and the lot, all in one pot of water. There were so many wrong attempts and not once had Flowey witnessed a right one. Every scenario of every chance Papyrus had towards making a decent plate of spaghetti lead to this usual routine of mistakes; either it was under seasoned, or over boiled, or the worst case Flowey had ever dared witness; fresh tomato sauce having been replaced with ketchup.

That, however, was probably because of Sans. Papyrus was a fool, a gullible and naive one at that. Flowey couldn’t fathom how Smiley Trashbag managed to convince his own brother that tomato sauce and ketchup were one in the same. Papyrus was, after all, a self proclaimed master chef...

But then again Flowey had to give Papyrus a reality check and burst the skinny skeletons bubble one too many times as well. With Papyrus’ innocence came disaster, while some people he was less convinced of their ideas on what actually went with spaghetti, others would always creep into his brain to give him pretty horrendous ideas… ones that even Flowey wouldn’t pretend to like or even try to eat. The golden flower would never forget the last time Papyrus made Mettaton’s special sauce topper . Glitter, glue, and red paint do not make for a good food dish in any circumstance. There was even another time where pieces of cardboard were still stuck in the pasta because Papyrus would literally dump the whole box-- anyway, the list could go on and on with how many ways Papyrus fucked up a spaghetti dish.

And yet, it wasn’t as if Flowey was well acquainted with that many people in the Underground. He could only go to the skeleton brothers if he needed anything, like decent entertainment. Undyne, Papyrus’ teacher, wasn’t any better at making spaghetti. So Flowey figured if he attempted to alter some of the skeleton’s teachings, perhaps he could make it... better?

Of course he was terribly wrong. Papyrus was, overall, as shitty of a teacher as he was a cook.

But as Flowey mulled these thoughts over, he reminded himself that he shouldn’t have expected anything better than this. What was it that Flowey had expected to change? After all, if you ask an unskilled idiot to help you with something, you would turn out the same way; unskilled. And possibly having lost a few brain-cells.

Flowey returned his focus on the reality of the situation… a failed dish. Inedible, at least, by most species of the Underground.

Papyrus and Flowey both stared at the plate of spaghetti. While it looked fairly appealing and delicious, it certainly didn’t taste the part. Flowey had tried the sauce and his gag reflex shot the taste back out. Even Papyrus had struggled to keep one wet noodle down. But like all skeletons, he was forced to smile through the pain, even if he was in total agony.

“It’s… Um…” Papyrus attempted to give Flowey praise, even as Flowey stared down at the plate like it were a living nightmare “IT’S GETTING THERE! You just need to push harder, and believe in your skills more, my little friend! The next try will be the best one yet!”

As always, whenever Papyrus invited Flowey over into the house of the skele-bro’s, Sans was away and the house was dead silent other than the two of them. Flowey didn’t necessarily avoid Sans like he used to, however he wasn’t a huge fan of hanging around him for too long without Papyrus’ supervision. It was simply coincidence that Papyrus invited Flowey over and Sans had to leave due to some sort of ‘business’. And of course, Papyrus being the child that he was, thought it was some sort of rebellious act inviting a ‘friend’ over without having asked his brother first.

Flowey couldn’t count how many times he had to reassure Papyrus that he was a grown adult who didn’t necessarily need permission for anything.

It was while the two were simply relaxing in the livingroom that eventually made Flowey finally admit he wanted some pointers on how to make spaghetti, which made Papyrus ecstatic.

And yet, it all lead to this.

Flowey staring at the plate as if it were a funeral, and Papyrus slowly attempting to give it another taste. Even as he was lifting the fork to his mouth, his arm was shaking, and Flowey’s eyes suddenly shifted to gawk at the piece in disbelief as Papyrus attempted to coo once more “Let me try it again to see what might be missing--”

“Don’t touch it!” Flowey had snapped just as quickly as the fork had been dropped. In that quick moment, a long yet thin vine had sprouted from his tiny flowerpot, and it whipped right at Papyrus’ hand. The tall skeleton had yelped in surprise as he pulled his glove back, cradling it to his chest as if he were actually injured. Which, surprisingly, Flowey did manage to create a tear on Papyrus’ glove, and underneath it a rather light and dull gash showed on his bone. Flowey’s vine had twitched, as if still shaking with adrenaline and the rush of being angered. And as the flower realized what he had done, he pulled back with a weak mutter “ Don’t touch it . It’s ruined, Papyrus. It’s total shit and I’m tossing it in the trash.”

“It… it’s not crap, Flowey.” Papyrus said almost sorrowfully, carefully reaching out and lifting the plate in his hands. He held it up as if it were an actual masterpiece, removing it from the counter space that was already cluttered with sauce stains, napkins, and pieces of dried noodle “It is very close to getting there! It may not be as great as my dish, however I can tell how much you’ve improved! With a little more care and attentiveness you will be a master chef like myself in no time at--”

Flowey didn’t wait for Papyrus to finish. He groaned in bitter disgust, stretching his still twitchy vine that swiftly grasped the plate in the skeleton’s hands, and in a quick and rather violent gesture tossed it straight into the trash. The plate crashed at the bottom of the bin, the sounds of it breaking into hundreds of pieces rang in the immense silence of the kitchen, and Flowey groaned out once more, though this time in annoyance “I don’t think so, friend. The spaghetti turned out just as shitty as your teaching skills.”

“What!?” Papyrus was baffled, of course ignoring the jab at his ego, and he even hurried to the trash bin as if he could save the plate “Don’t give up just yet! You were doing so--”

“I’m not going to argue with you, idiot!” Once more, the golden flower snapped so quickly, Papyrus had no time to react. The vine lashed out, once again striking the lanky skeleton. This time it hit his arm, and with a force strong enough to cause Papyrus stumbling against the trashcan, making it rattle before falling over. Papyrus himself had hit the wall, holding his arm in pain from the sudden attack. He had let out a small noise from the shock of being injured twice in one evening, but other than that he tried to act as if it hadn’t happened “F-Flowey… it is really not that bad… please believe me--”

Papyrus’ cooking skills were as useless as he was, and Flowey simply stared with furrowed brows at how hard Papyrus still persisted and tried to show a kind reaction even after what he had done. Flowey was filled with rage, pissed that he wasted time cooking with a shit chef, annoyed that Papyrus kept lying to Flowey and even to himself, and ticked that on top of it all-- he failed to even comment or respond to Flowey’s attacks. Flowey had struck at the tall bag of bones… twice. Why didn’t Papyrus say something?

Flowey was confused as to why Papyrus didn’t mention anything about being hurt. What was keeping Papyrus grounded? What made him brush off being hit so easily?

He was always like this, every timeline Flowey had ever reset in, it was always the same reactions and responses. Nothing but pure kindness and innocence; Papyrus was practically a sugar skull oozing with diabetes.

But one thing the flower noted was that… interesting enough, Papyrus was shaking, in what Flowey could only relate to being a tinge of fear. Was he in that much pain? Was he afraid of Flowey now?

Flowey’s interest suddenly perked, his mood shifting from pissy to intrigued. And with a suddenly coy smile, he tilted his head gently towards Papyrus. Two vines outstretched themselves from the tiny flower pot, reaching out to help lift Papyrus to his feet, and the golden flower gave a small chuckle of satisfaction from feeling the bonehead stiffen in his touch “I’m so sorry Papyrus! I don’t know what came over me…”

Papyrus blinked, almost confused at first, before he relaxed and calmed just as easily as he had been afraid before. Papyrus was back to normal, just like that “Oh, it’s no bother, friend! We can all get a little upset at times!”

Why wouldn’t he fight?

“I know that’s definitely true!” Flowey gave quite an animated nod of his head, smiling widely “Golly, I can’t even understand how you can keep so cool under pressure! I hit you twice and you didn’t even bat an eye~”

“Because you’re my friend, Flowey!” Papyrus didn’t even hesitate to return a response, making Flowey almost gag as the skeleton continued “And true friends always forgive one another, no matter what happens!”

“Huh, really~?” Flowey narrowed his eyes “Interesting! What if…”

Curious.

The golden flower hummed “But what if I did this~?”

In typical Flowey fashion, there was no hesitation when it came to his actions. The plant tendril slid around Papyrus’ spine with fluid motion, before it tightened and snapped.

The noise that escaped Papyrus was definitely not happiness. It sounded almost distant, empty, drowned out any full of heartache. The skeleton easily collapsed, almost caving into himself from what had happened. The crack had affected his spine, and it left the lanky skeleton motionless as he fell apart and hit the kitchen floor almost instantly. Like a pile of bones, his legs rested in an unnatural position, one he didn’t seem to be trying to get out of either.

“Oops.” Flowey smiled from the counter top, pulling his tendril away slowly. Once it fully retracted, he waddled his flower pot towards the edge to look at the mess he had made. Papyrus emitted noises, groans of pain and agony, and yet not enough for Flowey to believe he had done anything that bad. Considering, of course, he made certain Papyrus could no longer walk again or feel a thing from the waist down.

His ‘battle-body’ rattled with his shaky movements, Papyrus lifted a bit on his arms, but his eyes were as wide as food plates. Flowey could only imagine there were so many thoughts racing through his head.

“F-Flowey…!” Papyrus finally let out a harsh breath, through clenched teeth and a tired whimper as his arms twitched with his attempt at lifting himself up, only to slip on his glove against the tiled flooring and fall back down again. He knocked his head against the floor, but it didn’t stop him from trying to get back up. As expected, he wasn’t using his legs at all to support himself. Under his breath he muttered the reality of the situation “I… why can’t I feel my legs…?” Before looking up to the counter’s edge, where Flowey remained smiling down at him “Flowey…! Why …?”

“ I was bored. ” Flowey shrugged his leaves, his half lidded eyes looked away from the skeleton “There’s nothing more disappointing than wanting to see something new… like playing with a new toy, and not getting what you expected or wanted from it. Haven’t you told me how often that occurs with Sans, Papyrus?” The golden flower scoffed, sighing out “When you finally get him to do something with his terrible life, a simple task of picking up those damned socks… only to find out he picked them up and moved them to a different spot? Yeah, that’s how I feel with you.”

“What?” Papyrus wasn’t entirely focused, it seemed. His eyes shook and shifted as if in a panicked state, looking around and away, his body had probably gone numb by now. It was probably pretty hard for him to comprehend anything or to stay solid, considering his legs were already showing signs of cracking and turning into dust.

“Let me be more clear, friend .” Flowey even cleared his throat a bit, as if he hadn’t spoken clear enough before “You are probably the most boring and uninteresting character in this entire existence we live in. If you think about it, all the alternate timelines and universes I’ve ever switched through to explore and figure out what makes a person snap-- what brings them to their limits-- your actions and reactions have always been the same. Everyone else seems to change, you’d figure if someone’s life depended on it then it was only natural to be less friendly and more assertive but… not with you. You have this… childish, idiotic attitude where you’re so gullible and naive that you’d believe anything. ” Flowey’s smile only widened “Like the idea that we’re friends. And how forgiving you are after what I had done before… and now this. What the hell is wrong with you?”

Papyrus shuddered “I-I… I don’t understand--”

“Of course you don’t.” The flower reached two vines down, each wrapping around Papyrus’ shoulders and pulling him up in a yanking motion. Forcing him to his feet that, obviously, he couldn’t support himself on. He simply held Papyrus up and let him dangle, Papyrus didn’t even lift his hands to try and defend himself. He almost seemed… willing. “Are you some sort of freak who finds this thing amusing? Why aren’t you fighting back? Why aren’t you pissed off or crying for help?” Flowey slowly shifted his face, morphing it, contorting it and mimicking exactly how Papyrus looked. Hollowed eyes, a long skull face, and he suddenly whined in a croaky voice “Sans! Undyne! Somebody help me~!”

“I-I don’t… need help…!” Papyrus managed, only to grunt once Flowey dropped him back to the floor. Flowey was slowly growing impatient again. Mulling over his own thoughts as he tried to figure out what he could do to get Papyrus going. Why the hell wasn’t he doing anything?

“Please…” Papyrus breathed out tiredly, though just as he had done so, a green vine had stretched itself out and forward, forcing its way into Papyrus’ mouth to silence him. There was a soft crack of his jaw bone, perhaps it dislocated a bit, but Flowey was only slightly pleased with the muffled cries that finally escaped him, gagged down by the vine that forced its way into the collar of the male’s ‘battle body’ through his own head, and slithered through his ribcage. The tendrils started to spread slowly, mimicking veins of the human body, as they cluttered his bone.

Papyrus choked, coughing and wheezing as he lifted his arms to try and grasp onto Flowey’s vine, holding it but being unable to pull it out. Flowey murmured “You have magic, Papyrus. I know you do… so do something with it. ”

Maybe he would use his blue attack? Summon a bone to slice through the plant?

Papyrus simply lurched, shuddering as his body shook, but that was it.

“Every single timeline,” Flowey huffed, his tendrils that spread and clung to each rib along his ribcage now started to pull Papyrus apart. One by one, they started to crack and cave in as the flower yanked and snapped them, but only muffled noises emitted from the skeleton, still silenced by the larger vine forced in his mouth “every single fucking timeline… every last one… it’s always the same thing. Your optimism, your inability to see how messed up people really are… you’re either terribly stupid or horribly naive .”

And of course, he had to add--

“And your cooking is total shit, by the way.”

Papyrus finally screamed once all his ribs had been broken and removed, a muffled yell of horror and pain choked down by the tendril that remained crawling down his frame. It started to spread once it reached Papyrus’ pelvis, stretching over the speedo-like bottoms of his lower ‘battle body’ suit and slowly turning. Flowey was pushing his pelvis to slowly snap off as well, twisting it, forcing it backward “Sans hated me… Undyne hated me… heh, even Alphys hated me once. But not you, no… never you--” The pelvic bone snapped, and as if on cue Papyrus’ scream had stopped immediately. Everything from the waist down had been removed, and as Flowey dropped it to the floor, it began to dissolve into ash and dust.

His spinal cord remained, Papyrus’ upper half hung onto Flowey’s support, however it slowly began to crumble just like all monsters did once they reached their limits. The dust fluttered downward, and Flowey finally sighed out “But why you…? Why won’t you fight me? Why would you let me do this to you?”

Flowey slowly let his vines crawl back out of Papyrus’ mouth, the lights in the skeleton’s eyes were flickering, as if he were a broken toy low on battery life. The golden flower let him drop, right on top of the pile of dust where his legs used to be.

"I betrayed you, Papyrus…” Flowey was dumbfounded. The rage from before when he failed at making a successful spaghetti dish, the curiousity when he started this ordeal… everything had reached a calm at the lack of reaction he was receiving from the lanky bones. Papyrus was lying on top of his own dust, crumbling before the flower’s very eyes, ever so slowly and almost in a taunting manner “Aren’t you hurt…? Aren’t you… so mad that… you could just destroy me--?”

“I can never be hurt by you…” Papyrus mumbled dryly, staring up at Flowey as his eyes flickered out.

And the golden flower stared on, almost past Papyrus, but right into his empty eye sockets as the skeleton fully disintegrated into dust.

Flowey was confused, grunting as he all too quickly outstretched a vine and dug through the pile of ash. It scattered, lifted through the air like a puff of smoke, and Flowey tossed it around as if searching for something. He huffed, his confused expression never changing as he pulled himself back and, in the blink of an eye, reset once again.

“I hurt you plenty--” Flowey mumbled dryly as the world skipped like a video cassette tape “Don’t tell me I can’t hurt you-- I hurt you plenty!”

He stared back down at Papyrus, who rested in the same position as before once reality started to play. Staring lifelessly up at Flowey as he repeated his same words as before “I can… never be hurt by you, Flowey--”

“Why?!” Flowey snapped, his confusion converted into anger “Why are you doing this to me?! Why won’t you just do what I say and fight me! KILL ME!”

“You’re my…”

Don’t say it…

“Best friend.”

Flowey shuddered, breathing out as he looked away from Papyrus. Once more, the skeleton crumbled into dust, leaving Flowey alone with the remains of his actions. Selfish, useless actions… that lead to nothing that Flowey thought he had originally wanted, but lead to a rather shocking confession of friendship. Papyrus was… something.

In the blink of an eye, Papyrus laid there again, lifelessly looking up to Flowey. Flowey felt light-headed, suddenly. Weakened… disoriented. What was happening to him? What was this feeling? It felt like shock-- it felt like being horror-stricken-- “Why?!”

“You’re my… best friend, Flowey.” In this reset, Papyrus smiled. The one thing that changed was that now Papyrus was smiling. Flowey couldn’t tell whether he was having a heart attack or if he was seriously starting to feel guilty over the torturous shit he forced the skeleton through. His answer wasn’t changing! No matter what he did, Papyrus seemed so certain and clear that Flowey was, indeed, his best friend! But why? Why?

“Why am I your best friend?!” Flowey demanded, his voice had cracked, revealing just how hard it was to pull through. There was no one like him… there was no one like Papyrus.

“Why would you even like me, Papyrus?!” Flowey demanded again, his vision started to blur, an unfamiliar tug seemed to pull at his nonexistent heart. He couldn’t feel. He couldn’t feel anything-- so what was this that he was surely feeling? What was this rough ache in his stem? “Why do you care so much about me that… that you’ll ignore anything that I’m doing to you?! I’m literally killing you just to see… what it’s like-- and all you can think of is how great friends we are?! Best friends?! Why--”

Flowey whimpered “Why does it have to be you…?”

“You always listen to me, Flowey.” Papyrus finally answered. As the cracks started to travel up his spine, along his arms, and pieces of him started to deteriorate into ash beneath himself “No one else listens as well as you do… I know it is hard to care, but you try… you try so hard…”

Flowey breathed out, opening his mouth to yell something else, but Papyrus suddenly continued “You are the only one who won’t treat me like a child. You’re the only one who… will listen to me, even when I’m not listening to myself and-- you’re… you’re honest, Flowey.”

Flowey snorted, blinking away what he would call tears.

“I trust you, Flowey.”

“As you can see, I’m not honest.” Flowey said lowly, the ache in his chest was driving him insane. This overwhelming emotion of anguish and sorrow, disappointment in himself, that he could even do something to the only person who would ever care about him. “I betrayed you, please… please just do something, Papyrus-”

“There’s goodness in all of us, Flowey… including you.” And in the blink of an eye, all that remained was Papyrus’ head as he continued smiling up to Flowey. The tiny flower stretched out a vine, pulling Papyrus’ head up and practically cradling him in what he mimicked as arms. Papyrus’s eyes flickered “And I know… no matter what happens, anything you do is not without good intention. You are a beautiful best friend, Flowey. And I will always cherish you.”

He breathed out softly “I believe in you.”

Flowey laughed a bit, but his small chuckle had been cut short as Papyrus’ head crumbled apart, the dust slipping out of Flowey’s tendrils.

Left to his lonesome, Flowey felt tortured by his own thoughts. There was nothing in this entire world that could ever help him feel a single thing about something, anyone or anything. He had always felt so hollow, his only amusement had ever been seeing different responses to certain events in random timelines… and yet he found himself in a deep deep pit of sorrow, mourning over the one he had killed.

And, just as before, in the blink of a tear-filled eye, the world started anew.

“It’s… Um…” Papyrus attempted to give Flowey praise, even as Flowey stared down at the plate like it were a living nightmare “IT’S GETTING THERE! You just need to push harder, and believe in your skills more, my little friend! The next try will be the best one yet!”

Flowey carefully lifted the pasta dish, stretching it towards the trashcan and, almost delicately, dumping it “I don’t think so.”

“Aww! Flowey!” Papyrus was practically pouting as he watched the flower then proceed to carry the dish to the sink, letting his vine dump it with the other dirty dishes “If you give up now we won’t have anything to eat for dinner!”

“You have plenty in your kitchen to eat.” Flowey snickered, a small smile crept on his lips as he let his tendrils begin their search through the fridge and cupboards. Thankfully he had been right, and he pulled out a rather childishly designed box “Huh… you guys have dinosaur oatmeal--”

“We do?” Papyrus questioned, rubbing his chin with a gloved hand as he watched Flowey prepare two bowls “I don’t even know what that is… I’ve never had it before.”

“You’ve had this sitting around and never tried it?” The golden flower cackled teasingly, pouring the oatmeal into the bowls and using some of the boiled water from the stove to add “It’s not the best, it’s just oatmeal, but it’s better than shitty spaghetti.” The flower pushed one of the bowls in front of Papyrus, as well as grabbed him a spoon. Papyrus slowly took a seat at the kitchen table as he stared down at the oatmeal, holding up his spoon almost as if he were preparing to stab it into submission.

There were colorful speckles of egg-shaped pieces throughout the oatmeal. The warm breakfast meal almost smelled like cinnamon, however the box mentioned it being ‘plain flavored’. Flowey and Papyrus both watched as the rainbow sprinkled eggs slowly began to melt away, revealing tiny dinosaur shapes inside. Flowey was only slightly amused, while Papyrus’ eyes widened as if he had seen the universe all in one glance “WHAT ON EARTH JUST HAPPENED DID THEY HATCH RIGHT BEFORE MY VERY EYES THESE TINY DELICIOUS LOOKING CREATURES HOLY--”

“Yeah.” Flowey nodded slightly, his amusement had slowly calmed back down to a neutral expression “That’s what it does. Melts into dinosaurs. It’s dinosaur oatmeal.”

Papyrus shoved his spoon into the bowl, scooping up a big helping and shoveling it into his mouth. While Flowey took his sweet time, Papyrus was suddenly making gratifying noises as he continuously scooped more and more spoonfuls into his mouth. He was practically half way finished with his bowl of oatmeal before he slammed his spoon down “FLOWEY! WE HAVE FOUND YOUR SPECIAL DISH! This is definitely my most favoritest thing ever! Friend, no one can make this like you can!”

Flowey reached to the box, wrapping his tendrils around it just so he could shake it “It’s literally just instant oatmeal--”

“FLOWEY!” Papyrus continued to pour praise on the flower “Wowee! This is your specialty I swear by it! It’s my favorite dish!”

The golden flower huffed “But Papyrus--”

The skeleton whined, starry eyed as he suddenly clasped his hands together and looked at Flowey “Please! It’s my favorite! Promise you’ll make it for me now and then!”

And Flowey rolled his eyes, turning his head away so he could hide the surprisingly wide grin that broke across his face “Okay… I guess I can make it now and again. Only for you though, since you’re so special .”

Papyrus let out a rather tiny cheer, before Flowey and him returned to finishing off their bowls.

The front door opened, but just as it had opened, almost out of nowhere Sans was walking in from a different corner of the room. It definitely wasn’t from a corner that the front door would be located at “Heya, what are you two up to?”

“None of your business.” Flowey murmured, taking another spoonful of his oatmeal. Papyrus had looked elsewhere for a moment, but apparently it was long enough for Sans to grab the spoon from him with his signature grin “Something different than spaghetti? Don’t mind if I do--”

With a loud thundering screech, a vine cracked across Sans’ hand, causing the spoon to fall over and back onto the kitchen table with a clank. Flowey hissed “Hands off, Smiley TRASHBAG! That’s only for Papyrus! And if you ever try to mess with my best friends oatmeal I’ll toss your body parts to the ends of the earth!”

Sans glared in annoyance at Flowey, his blue eye already lit aflame, however Papyrus seemed to completely ignore everything that went down, simply cooing in a caring manner “Best friend?! You always seemed to get mad when I called you that so what seemed to change your--”

Flowey blushed deeply, turning away “BUZZ OFF, BOTH OF YOU ARE IDIOTS!”