Work Text:
Flowery had known how this battle would turn out from the very beginning.
One could call him arrogant, an ass, or simply self-absorbed in the way he acts around everybody.
But one thing he wasn't was stupid.
He knew the prophecy, he what the Knight was capable of, what they could do.
Yet he still went after them, knowing very well he would not come out of it unscathed, if alive at all.
So when the blade cut through him, he felt no shock, no fear, no anger. Even as hot white agony shot through his body.
The one feeling he did have, besides the indescribable pain, was regret, regret that after everything Asgore did for the other flowers, for him, they could not even save him; Flowery couldn't save him.
He only got himself killed after failing at the one thing he had made his vision in this Dark World.
Though he supposed he couldn't complain; after all, in hindsight, did he really help Asgore at all?
Forcing him into Flower Castle and away from his child, playing the part of best friend even though Asgore did not know who he was. It had been nothing but a fantasy, one Asgore had forced himself to play along with.
The truth was that Flowery had been nothing but a stranger to Asgore since the very beginning, aggressively forcing himself on the goat in the most obnoxious ways possible, clinging to the man like a bratty child. So yes, Flowery was an idiot for ever believing this was the way to make Asgore truly happy.
Why did he ever hope otherwise? Until today, he had been nothing but a stupid, useless flower. A stupid little plant that couldn't so much as think for itself.
Yet Asgore had played along, Flowery inadvertently leading Asgore down a path of even deeper obsession than before. Making the man talk about parading bodies around town, it was sick, and Flowery had made him sicker.
In the end he had only hurt Asgore, hadn't he? pushed him even further away from his family, his actual real family, not this unreal one that existed here. Making the sweet man that had cared for him and the other flowers into a mad man.
Of course, that was only his fault; he was the one that had roped the other flowers into his plans. They had nothing to do with Flowery’s desperation, that deep-seated need to please Asgore.
The other flowers had their own dreams, things they wanted to do, people they wanted to be. Truly admirable goals. Yet Flowery was the only odd one out. His only dream was to make Asgore happy.
How ironic was it then that he had only done the opposite?
He never had something he dreamt of; his dream only revolved around Asgore.
Was he even his own person? Somebody that had no own dream, no own wants?
He did not know.
But it hurt more than the Knight’s blade ever could. Like a gaping hole in his chest, a hole where a real person would have a soul, where the other flowers still had their dreams, even now. All while Flowery’s was now empty, hollow, and dead, with nothing to be salvaged.
He would wither, and the other flowers would stay strong, because unlike him, they still held onto their dreams.
Flowery no longer could.
He did not know if he had cried or if he was already dead.
He wondered what the other flowers would think of this.
Seth would be mad; they would probably tackle Flowery in a hug, hiding their tears as they ranted of facts that might cheer him up… he ached for it, even if he knew it was impossible to happen now.
Orange would cry, trying to attack him and throw their fists at him, but never really hurting him at all. All the while crying, Flowery would, of course, cheer her up without hesitation, as he always did.
Yellow would try to shift the blame onto himself, having to be stopped by the others from doing something stupid. And Flowery would laugh at the end, like he had done before, even if the laugh would ring hollow now.
Blue would give encouraging words about love while Green would cook something for him.
Aqua would not understand why he was sad, but she would likely still try to cheer him up, even if it meant throwing knifes at him.
Heck, even Pink would have likely tried to help, rambling on about dates and love, while the other side called him petty insults, even if she was no flower, she would still wish to help him, if only to be included.
…
He wished he could have actually done all of those things with them; he wished the other flowers and he could have been individuals for more than just a few hours.
He wished all of them had actually been real.
If only for a single day longer.
He wished he could have actually given his family what they wished for so badly, instead of forcing them to try and help a man that did not want that help.
He had seen how Seth pulled back, how Aqua stopped hopping around, how Green stared at their counter in silence, how Blue’s dance lacked that edge, and how Yellow stopped trying to drown himselve in the hot tub.
Or how orange had stopped wearing her gloves for a moment. All of it after they tried and failed to cheer up Asgore, something Flowery had asked them to do.
He had seen it all: how they felt neglected and how Asgore simply did not care. Yet he did nothing. He did nothing as the flowers suffered, all because they wanted to help him.
Because he was egoistical, because in truth, he had only cared about Asgore, nobody else. Even if he treated them well, it meant nothing when he did not mean it. When ultimately, Asgore was his highest priority.
But all that didn't matter now, did it?
In the end, his plan had been doomed to fail from the start. Asgore was never going to be happy in this Dark World; with him and the other flowers, he would have always been more concerned with the Light World.
With his ex, with proving that he wasn't crazy, that he wasn't a lunatic, that the Dark Worlds actually existed.
Maybe Ralsei had been right; maybe… maybe one really couldn't change fate? Maybe Flowery’s philosophy had been wrong from the beginning.
…Flowery did not know if Ralsei would be happy with his current thoughts.
Perhaps when the Fun Gang had first entered this Dark World.
But now?
Flowery had seen Ralsei’s fear, that deep-seated anguish, as he tried desperately to heal Flowery, even if it was a fool's errand from the beginning.
So Flowery knew. Ralsei would call him an idiot, he would tell Flowery that he had been right, that he wasn't wrong about trying to change fate, even in his very overly obnoxious way.
And that was worse; it was worse that Ralsei had seemed to genuinely improve when challenged, when Flowery himself was forgetting his own lessons now.
Well, he supposed that didn't really matter now that he was at death's door.
In the end…
He really was just a useless little flower.
And now he could do nothing to change that.