(FRISK POV)
I awoke when I felt movement in my arms.
"hff hff hff.... nooo i don't.. you can't...hff hff." Chara started to hyperventilate while muttering something in her sleep.
"Chara? Chara, wake up, come on, you're having a nightmare." I gently shook Chara awake.
"I... W- Frisk?" I smiled softly at her.
"You okay? You started to have a nightmare."
"Ughh, it's Asriel." Her dead brother? "I can't stop thinking about him. It's like he's haunting me or something."
"Why would he want to haunt you?" Chara was surprisingly calm about this. Usually when she talks about Asriel, she starts to have a breakdown.
"Because... I'm the one who got him killed."
"O-Oh..." Chara stood up.
"I... I need to investigate something." Chara walked over to grab his jacket from the wash.
"Chara, wait. It's 3am. You need rest—" She took a shortcut to... wherever she was going. "Chara... I'm really worried about you."
(CHARA POV)[F]
I stepped into the cold of Snowdin. Shortcuts are... wierd. A bit disorienting. Somewhat like walking through a doorway. The air felt different. Almost stuffier. I don't know why I came here. Usually I have a target when I take shortcuts, but I just... took off.
I made my way to a hill that overlooked the vast majority of Snowdin Forest. I don't know why I was attracted to this hill. I sat down on the edge. The snow crunched behind me.
"H—"
"Howdy, Flowey."
"How did you—?"
"Just a hunch." I patted the ground next to me. Flowey popped up from the snow a few seconds later. "You drink?" Flowey scoffed.
"I'm a flower." I shrugged.
"Just thought I'd ask, there are weirder monsters." Flowey stayed silent. "More for me." I held out my hand. Purple sparks flew from my hand, before, in a flash of light, a can of beer appeared in my hand.
"You're... surprisingly good at purple magic."
"Thanks. Magic is... complicated. I just kinda, well, do it." I took a sip and immediately spit it out. "Ugh this stuff has like, no alcohol in it."
"You made it."
"Smartass... You know Flowey, this is where me and Frisk had our first date."
"Good for you."
"Yeah.... I've been thinking, Flowey."
"About?"
"Before I died." I took a large swig of my drink. "And you know, the first person to see me as a real person, and not some threat... was you."
"W-What? I don't—"
"Oh, cut the shit. I remember the last timeline. You told her everything. She doesn't remember. But I do." Flowey was silent. "And it explains a lot, honestly. Why the world RESET when you saw me the first time, why I saw Asriel in my visions with my new body, why you've been acting weird around me ever since Hotland."
"You aren't... mad?"
"Of course not, I'd do the same thing in your situation. But Flowey—"
"Why?"
"What?"
"You know my secret. Why are you still calling me Flowey?"
"...it's like you said. Asriel Dreemurr is dead. Charaline Dreemurr is dead, I'm just Chara now. You go by Flowey now, so that's what I'll call you. Got a problem with that?"
"Why are you being so friendly to me? If you remember the genocide, you remember my plans, what I'm like."
"Simple. You understand." I threw my empty bottle into the woods and shot it to pieces with a bullet.
"Understand what exactly?"
"Dying. What it's like to stop breathing, turn to dust, have your SOUL break. That pain. The fact that you won't ever be able to see the ones you love again. You know what that's like. You've been through that. I'm not asking you to gain the ability to care. I was just hoping that understanding would be enough."
"... You've always been annoyingly good at know what to say."
"I get that a lot." Flowey's petals seemed to wilt a little.
"You know, I'm physically incapable of emotions. I can't care about you, or your feelings. I can't be happy or sad. I can't be friends with you like you need me to. Not like we used to."
"Oh I know. I'm am fully aware of your situation. And you know what? I don't care."
"W-What?!"
"Emotions aren't what's going to fix any of this. You don't need me trying to guilt trip you into caring with 'the power of friendship' or any of that shit. You don't need pity. I'm going to keep being friends with you because I want to. And for no other reason. You can just pop back underground and run away again if you'd like. Sure, it'd suck for me, but I'd get over it. Not that I want you to, that is. I'm just saying that you could've ditched me mid sentence at any time. But you didn't. So what if you can't care? That doesn't matter. What matters is that you are still making the active choice to still be here with me, right now, regardless of any ulterior motives you might have for doing so."
"..."
"What's the matter? Did I say the right thing again?"
"In all the RESETs I've been through. This is the only one where you try to befriend me. All of the other ones, you've either not shown up at all or you killed me after learning my plans. So the reason I'm still here, is so I can figure out what makes you so different than the rest of them. I mean, I can tell right now that you are truly and genuinely happy right now. I have no idea how you do it! Asgore is waiting to kill your girlfriend, and then the world. I'm not going to delay my plans just because of this insignificant interaction. You have almost a dozen metaphysical entities watching your every move, all with different motives for watching you. And you know all of that and yet you still are happy with your new life. How do you do it?" I let out a nervous chuckle.
"Im definitely not... happy, per se, but I'm not quite sure myself. Mabye it's Frisk. No matter what I'm doing, or if I'm lost in myself. She's my anchor. I mean, she literally anchored me to this world, before I could stand on my own two literal legs. And I don't know if there's still some emotional link between us or whatever, all I know is that when she's happy, I'm happy. And I finally figured out the whole 'Asriel' situation, so I'm pretty content with life at the moment."
"You don't even know the half of what happened to me. Don't claim you have it all figured out. And no, before you ask, I'm not going to talk about it. In fact, I'm done talking. Go talk to your human girly friend, Chara. I'm outta here." Flowey ducked back underground. I took a shortcut back to our hotel room, where frisk was waiting patiently for me while watching that anime from last night.
"Welcome back. Did you get things all sorted out?"
"Yeah... Do you mind if I ask a touchy question?" Frisk paused the show.
"Go on..."
"Do...... How much do you remember from the genocide timeline?"
Snail Fact #55
Snails are frequently coveted pets, but owning a pet snail is illegal.