When Flowey woke up the next morning, Twilight was still there, curled up around him and fast asleep. Without waking her up, Flowey managed to get out of his pot and into the ground beneath the floorboards. He burrowed into the ground, New Home- and a certain human- in his mind.
As he burrowed, Flowey tried to push the details of the night before out of his mind, risking breaking down in the middle of his trip. He finally popped out of the ground in front of the castle. The guards immediately recognized him and were about to send someone inside to get his family and a flower pot for him when he stopped the messenger.
“Leave out the pot,” Flowey grumbled. “I want to talk with Princess Chara. Outside.”
The messenger bowed and rushed into the castle, not wasting any time to give the details of the flower’s visit. Only a few minutes later, Chara floated out wearing some kind of dress-robe hybrid that was definitely meant for royalty. How she got a ghost tailor, Flowey could never guess, but at least she looked pretty.
Chara looked annoyed, probably at the fact she had to wear the dress thing. As soon as she saw Flowey, though, her face relaxed into a smile. “Greetings, As- Flowey,” she said, floating over as if she were standing, hands clasped behind her back, rather than her usual lounging position. “You wanted to speak with me?”
“Yes. Can we talk someplace else?” Flowey asked. “Castleview, maybe.”
“Sounds good to me. I will meet you there.”
“What happened to you?” Chara asked after a long time without talking. “You look like you were run over by a train.” She floated next to Flowey, looking out into the rain and trying to see the castle past it.
“I feel that way too,” Flowey said.
“Why? What happened?” Chara tensed up, a look of disdain on her face. “Was it… Twilight? I had a bad feeling about her…”
Flowey flinched. “No! No… it’s not her fault,” he said quietly, looking at the wet ground. “It’s not her fault, it’s… mine, actually. But that’s not what I wanted to tell you about.”
“Then what is it?” Chara leaned down to him to hear better against the crashing water.
“Do you remember back when you first fell?” Flowey asked. “When I came running in, asking if you were okay.”
“I remember. Why?”
“When you… answered me, finally, I was so relieved. You asked me, ‘Am I dead? Are you an angel?’” Flowey interrupted himself with a bitter laugh. “And I answered, ‘No?’ Do you want to know a secret, Chara? Something I’ve never told anyone before.”
“Okay…?”
“I was in love back then.”
“Wait, what? With who?”
Flowey smiled. “You.” He shook his head, chuckling as if he made a joke. Suddenly, he was staring ahead again, a concentrated look on his face, talking quickly. “And I know I should have told you sooner, but… I couldn’t, you know? There was too much politics in the way. It made more sense for you to just be my sister back then. It’s funny, though… I honestly got over you before we even died. You see, the thing about love is you can’t really control it. Well, I controlled it anyway. I didn’t care about what was impossible, because it made sense. Isn’t that amazing? I pushed you away because it ‘made sense’!”
“Oh… I am very sorry, A- Flowey, I never even considered something like… that.”
“Yeah, I know. That’s the other reason why I didn’t bring it up,” Flowey sighed. “Back then, we were just kids. Little, stupid kids who thought they could just free the monsters all on their own. Really, love didn’t mean anything to us! If I had said something, it would have fallen apart anyway. But this time…”
“This time…?” Chara moved her hand in a circular motion, as if telling him to go on.
“This time I did what I thought I should have done all those years ago.” He struggled to keep his voice from cracking, eyes glazed over with tears. “And you know… it didn’t really work out. Ha… ha… ha…”
“Flowey? Are you okay?”
The flower was silent for a long time, staring at the castle with a detached expression. “Hey, you know what?” He shook his head slowly. “Nah.”
“‘Nah?’”
“I’m not okay. It’s not fine. I guess I’m just an idiot. I should have kept it to myself, you know? I acted on an impulse and… now I’m just sad. I’m just a stupid, idiotic little flower who thought he could have love if he just spoke up, and now I can finally see that it’s not that easy. You can’t just say you love somebody and expect them to understand, and you sure as Hotland can’t kiss them and expect them to actually like it! So, no! I’m not okay! I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again!”
“I… I would hug you, but I am incorporeal…”
“And whose fault is that?!” Flowey screamed, looking up into the rain, eyes squeezed shut as tears ran down his face and mixed with the falling water. “Everything I’ve ever done has ended in failure! Disappointment! Rejection! Even if there was someone out there who loved me, I wouldn’t deserve it!”
“Now, Flowey,” Chara said softly, floating down in front of him, “you and I both know that is not true. You deserve just as much love as anyone else does. It is not your fault that I am a ghost. I made the decision to tell you my plan, so it is more my fault than yours. Not everything you do ends in failure, okay? Do you remember the time I asked you to cut my hair?”
“Th-the time with the knife?” Flowey asked, now looking at her, drenched in rain and tears.
“Yes, that time. When you finished, did I say you failed?”
“You said it looked terrible.”
“I said that I liked it. I said it fit me. Do you know why I said it fit me, Asriel?”
“W-why?”
“Because it was messy. It was not perfect. And I was messy and imperfect- I still am, too! So are you, Asriel. You are messy and imperfect, you always have been, but does that mean I love you any less? No, no it does not. Everyone has their flaws, their little slip-ups and mistakes. It would not be fair or just if I judged you based solely on your flaws. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Flowey sniffled in response.
“Asriel, you are a wonderful person. You are not perfect in every way, no, but who told you that you had to be? Nobody. Whoever has told you that is wrong. In many ways, you are a better person than me. There is no possible way you can tell me that you are on either extreme. You are not the best, you are not the worst, but do you know what you are?”
“What?”
“You are you. That is what matters to me, at the very least. You think you made a mistake the last time you had a run-in with love. This time you tried something different. It is perfectly fine to be upset about it, but try not to blame yourself for something you could not control. It was her decision to say no, it was yours to ask in the first place. You are both responsible for the outcome you are experiencing now, in two very separate ways. I want you to understand the difference between your decisions and hers.”
“I… understand.”
Without much warning, Flowey felt a strange, but by now familiar feeling in his soul. It was growing- or repairing, rather. And then, there was a different feeling. A new feeling. He couldn’t quite place it. The sensation spread through his entire, tiny body, filling him with… determination… at an alarming rate.
“C-Chara?” he groaned, doubling over. “Something’s wrong.”
“What? What do you mean?” Chara scanned over his face, guiding it towards her with the motions of her hand. “What is wrong?”
“My soul… it’s…” Flowey felt a sudden urge to just… scatter. His body was consumed into mind-numbing warmth as the raw soul power coursed through his inadequate veins, up and down his stem, through each of his petals, down to the very tip of his vines. He was just barely holding onto consciousness.
Chara, slightly perturbed at the sight, tried to get his attention back on her. The realization of what exactly was happening hit her like a train: Flowey’s soul was complete.