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Susie was in her room, telling Lancer (and Queen, who was also there, having claimed Susie’s closet) about her latest adventure in the flower shop. She mentioned wishing she could’ve brought the flowers to Castle Town, but their fragility and short lifespan made it impossible. Then, Queen piped up with a suggestion.
“Why Don’t You Just: Press Them Or Something”
That gave Susie pause. “What?”
“Press The Flowers To Preserve Them Duh”
“We can do that?! How?”
“Hey, can I preserve dirt too?” Lancer asked eagerly. “What about rocks? Oh, or holes!”
“IDK Probably” Queen answered. “Printing: WikiHow To Press Flowers (And Other Things) For Dummies”
While she printed the article, Ralsei arrived with a cake he had just made for them. Susie’s attention immediately snapped to him.
“Ralsei, would that work?!”
“Would what work?” he replied, confused.
“Pressing the flowers. Then could we bring them to Castle Town safely?”
“That, um… Well…” Ralsei put down the plate with the cake and hesitated before answering. “Pressing flowers doesn’t… keep them alive, you know? It only preserves their bodies. So, even if they became Darkners again, they might not be… the ones we knew, exactly.”
“Oh…” Susie frowned. She definitely didn’t want to kill them.
Even though they’d probably die soon anyway… No, she shouldn’t think like that.
“But I’m… not completely sure?” Ralsei continued. “They were never normal Darkners, so it’s a bit beyond my area of expertise. Maybe if, um… After they… die, you can try?”
In truth, Ralsei doubted it would work, but he mentioned it anyway because he hated dashing Susie’s hopes. Unfortunately, her sad expression didn’t go away yet.
“Why do they have to die…?” Susie murmured.
“I still wanna press holes!” Lancer said, oblivious to the atmosphere.
“Yes Let’s Go” Queen agreed. “Philosophical Questioning About Life In The Darkness Is: Not My Thing LMAO”
The blue pair marched off to Lancer’s room, almost stepping on the cake if Ralsei hadn’t quickly picked it back up again.
After a few seconds, Susie spoke up. “I think I wanna see if it actually works.”
“Pressing holes?” Ralsei asked.
“That too,” Susie snorted. “But I meant pressing the flowers. At least try it with, uh… Flowery.”
Ralsei winced. “How was he, after you sealed the fountain?”
“…Sliced from the stem. And his glass case was all broken. Kris and I tried to tape him together, and we gave him Blue’s glass and put Blue with Yellow, but… I don’t know if that’ll really…”
“It… won’t work,” Ralsei confirmed. “I’m sorry.”
“So, if he’s already… y’know… we may as well try, right?”
Ralsei debated what to say. Ultimately, he settled on encouraging and believing in Susie, and he smiled.
“I think it’s a good idea to try. Just… be prepared if it doesn’t work, okay?”
• • •
Kris had just caged the Soul when they heard something small hit the window. They looked outside and saw Susie in front of their house, throwing little pebbles.
“Yo, Kris!” she whisper-shouted. “Get down here, I have an idea but I need your help!”
Despite everything, Kris smiled. They did like Susie’s ideas. And Susie in general. The next day was going to be so stressful, they decided to enjoy the time they had now, while they still could. After taking a few seconds to get used to the weight of their Soulless body, they pulled themself out the window.
“Wait, Kris—!”
They had a way to land safely, of course. It wasn’t the first time they snuck out. But Susie gave them more reassurance, rushing to catch them after they willingly fell.
“Heh, you’re carrying me now,” they mumbled.
Susie laughed. “You coulda just asked instead of jumping out the window, dumbass. Anyway, we gotta go back to your dad’s shop real quick. You wanna lead the way or—”
Kris cut her off by snuggling into her arms.
“Fine, you big baby. But I’m dropping you as soon as we’re there.”
She explained her plan on the way to the shop. Kris knew nothing about pressing flowers—their father always preferred keeping them alive—but Susie had apparently learned from Queen. Except she wasn’t sure if she could be as careful as she needed to be, hence why she wanted Kris’s help. Kris stumbled a bit when she put them down, but they brushed it off saying they were just tired.
They reached the seven colored flowers, and Susie held Flowery’s glass casing so that Kris could carefully take the taped flower.
“Should we give this back to Blue?” Susie wondered.
“Too much work,” Kris replied. “Plus he’s probably happy with Yellow.”
“Fair enough.”
After that, it was a matter of following the steps Queen’s article provided. Susie noticed something was off about Kris, their voice quieter than usual and their movements more slow than they needed to be, and she considered asking if they were okay. But then she remembered their dad had just been captured a few hours ago and they were probably exhausted, and it seemed like a stupid question.
• • •
Kris and Susie stood in front of the school closet.
“Time to see if it’ll work,” Susie said, holding the pressed flower. Then she remembered something. “Oh, by the way, I told the Darkners about bringing Noelle, so you might see them decorating to welcome her. You know her better than any of us, so tell them if something looks stupid, okay?”
Kris gave a stiff thumbs-up, and the two of them jumped in. The golden flower in Susie’s hands turned into a sparkle that floated down with them. As they reached the bottom, where Ralsei was waiting, the sparkle took a familiar form. His hair had lost some of its shine, his vest was still partially torn, and a scar ran across his body up to his neck, which was covered by a semi-transparent scarf. But he looked, undeniably, like—
“Flowery?” Susie and Ralsei both gasped, the girl with excitement and the prince in disbelief.
The flower man stared at them blankly. Then, he very eloquently said, “What the flowers?”
“Sounds like him,” Kris mentioned.
Flowery smiled, though it was shaky. “Man am I happy to see you guys! But, uh, I’m pretty sure I died heroically. Is this heaven? Do flowers go to heaven?”
“Do you, um, remember everything?” Ralsei asked.
“Of course! How could I forget you finally seeing my charm in my dying moments, Raly?”
Ralsei’s surprised and hopeful expression soured slightly. “Even if we didn’t see eye to eye, I didn’t want you to die! Please don’t joke about that!”
“Hey, it’s okay, Raly. I’m okay, see?” Flowery looked at his body. “Well, kinda. My head might just leaf my body if this sticky scarf didn’t hold it. How am I here, anyway?”
Kris pressed their hands together in response.
“Yeah, we, uh… pressed you,” Susie explained. “Since it could save your body. We thought maybe that would be enough for a Darkner, since most of the other guys are… y’know, things? But, you’re…”
“Ah, I see. So I am dead.”
“We’re sorry,” Ralsei said quietly.
“You’re acting like yourself, though,” Susie pointed out. “So it looks like it worked! We could save… at least a part of you, right?”
“I think so. My body feels a bit light, but other than that…” Flowery began to hover, a faint rainbow trail following him. “I feel dandy! I’m still moving. I’m still… able to dream.” His feet returned to the ground, and he seemed downcast. “Which reminds me… how are the others? And… and Asgore?”
Kris and Ralsei looked down too, not answering.
“The other flowers are still alive,” Susie finally answered. “But the Knight took Asgore… and, without him…”
“…They won’t last long,” Flowery concluded.
“We could save them too!” Susie suggested. “But right now, while they’re still alive, it feels… wrong.”
“I agree, thanks for your consideration. But… when the time comes, can you save their dreams?”
Susie nodded. “Yeah, of course, dude! We didn’t know if it would work, but since you’re here now, they can probably come too!”
Ralsei chimed in, “We’d be happy to have all of you! I can make you a room! Sorry that there isn’t one yet, I didn’t expect—”
“All good, my goodbuddies!” Flowery reassured them. “Now, how about a tour of the place?”
“Hell yeah!” Susie quickly agreed. “We gotta show Kris the new decorations, too…” She trailed off after seeing the human, who looked kinda miserable. “Uh, unless they’re too tired. It’s pretty late, after all…”
Kris seemed to shake themself awake. “Nah, it’s cool. Gotta tell them what looks stupid.”
“Pfft, right.”
• • •
Eventually, the time came to press the remaining flowers. It was sad, but Susie was determined to see them again. However, she was not determined enough for this particular issue.
“I give up. Noelle, can you untangle Blue and Yellow?”
“Um, sure thing, Susie!”
Noelle had accepted the truth of the Dark Worlds fairly well. Her not-dream in the Cyber World had actually been pretty fun, and even though things were more serious now, she wanted to help her friends—and maybe even girlfriend, if things went well with Susie! Knowing the flowers were people (kinda), she took extra care not to damage them as she worked on separating the two.
Susie turned to Kris. “If you’re done with Aqua for now, check on Green and Orange.”
Kris nodded and got to work. Meanwhile, Susie pressed the purple flower.
“Hey, d’you think Seth would like this?” she asked, remembering their attempt at pressing a Floradinn.
Kris didn’t answer. Due to the Soul, they were currently unable to. That was probably for the best, considering their first thought was that anyone would be lucky to be pressed by Susie. Noelle, not having met Seth, was thinking the same thing.
“Eh, they probably would,” Susie decided by herself. “They’re in a book now.”
• • •
Other than their bodies being lighter and their colors being a little faded, all the flowers were doing just fine in Castle Town. Green became the next owner of the Bakery, and they occasionally helped out at the Café too. Aqua and Orange had fun at the renovated dojo… until Aqua was technically banned, but no one could actually stop her from going back. Seth spent most of their time in the new Library (or Librarby, as Susie and Kris insisted on calling it) and occasionally chased after Aqua to make sure she wouldn’t terrorize the rest of Castle Town. Yellow and Blue often performed for other Darkners, whether on the streets or on the repurposed stage when others weren’t playing the TV World’s music game. All the while, Flowery did his best to support his siblings and make everyone smile.
Then Orange asked, “Where’s Pink?”
Susie groaned. “Dammit, I knew we forgot something.”
Had Kris been able to move on their own, they would’ve face-palmed.
• • •
It was nighttime when Susie and Kris went to the house next to the flower shop. Susie recognized it was the one they’d donated Tenna to, and she wondered if they could borrow him for a bit to visit Castle Town again. Kris knocked, but there was no response. Susie knocked a little harder with similar results. They were about to knock together a third and final time when a voice spoke up from inside.
“What. What! WHAT!!! Some of us are trying to sleep here!”
“Are you Pink?” Susie asked.
“…Huh? You mean, that wasn’t a dream?”
Susie realized that maybe she should’ve let them continue to believe that. “Uh… (Kris, help me out here!)”
Kris used their Soulless freedom to its full potential and helpfully meowed.
“Weirdo. Your dog impression’s better.”
Kris helpfully barked.
“Well? Well?! WELL??!! Did it really happen? I can be Pink? I can be… me?”
“Yeah,” Susie admitted. “You deserve to know, and the flowers miss you. Just don’t tell anyone else, it’d make things difficult.”
“Okay, I understand. So, um, how do I…?”
“Oh, right, Castle Town is in the school supply closet. I don’t remember if we brought the doll, but—”
“I have her. She’s MINE.”
“Uh, okay, just bring her there and you should be set. You can come with us, if you want.”
The voice behind the door hesitated. “I’m… not comfortable with that, right now… but I’ll see you there! As my real self!”
“Alright! And if you can, it’d be pretty cool if you bring Tenna—er, the TV for a visit too.”
“I can’t really carry—wait. Wait! WAIT!!! You’re the TV kids! That’s why you looked familiar! Is our TV a person too?!”