A commission I did for a friend of mine. A bit of lovely platonic fluff for all your skeleton/flower romance needs...

1.

Papyrus thinks Flowey looks quite lovely, for a talking flower. His movements are always slow, elegant and precise. Papyrus has to admit he can be rather clumsy himself, so it's almost mesmerizing to look at.

Flowey's eyes are big and round and when he talks they almost look as if they're changing color, shining with mischief or amusement or just plain cynicism. For a creature who claims to lack a soul, a lot of emotion is conveyed through those eyes.

Papyrus tells him, tells Flowey how wonderful he is to have as a friend, and the flower smiles, maybe a tad surprised.

"I think you're great too, Papyrus," he says, turning his head, and Papyrus doesn't know why, but it feels nice to hear Flowey say that, nicer than when anybody else does.

2.

When he becomes king, he often gets lonely, because nobody is around anymore. All his friends are gone, vacations, and even Flowey doesn't show himself like he used to.

Papyrus whiles away the time on the throne, waters the flowers or reads the many books in the royal library.

He misses sparring with Undyne and blowing up her house together. He misses watching movies with Sans and laughing at how stupid some of the scenes are. He misses life in Snowdin, simple things like going for a walk to work on his puzzles or talking to the shopkeeper.

But most of all he misses his best friend.

Papyrus talks to the golden flowers in the throne room sometimes, but it's not the same. They don't talk back, and they don't understand him the way Flowey does anyway. Nobody does.

And if Papyrus could have any of his friends back, he would know who he'd want.

3.

On the surface, things are very hectic, Papyrus finds out. There are a lot of colors and sounds and lights, and everything goes really, really fast.

It is wonderful and amazing but also sometimes a bit too much. So he's always glad to be home.

Because it is quiet and dark, and Flowey is there.

He was a bit grumpy about being in a flowerpot at first and Papyrus can't blame him. The sudden lack of range of motion is frustrating, he imagines. But there was no way in the world anybody would convince him to come to the surface without his best friend.

So they had to make do.

"Good, you're finally back," Flowey huffs, before he's even properly through the door.

Papyrus smiles, tries not to bound across the room like an excited baby bones because he knows it would irritate his friend. "I missed you too, Flowey."

Flowey rolls his eyes and scoffs, but touches his hand carefully when he comes close enough.

"What should we do?" Papyrus asks, gripping softly before letting go almost reluctantly.

"I suppose we could watch that dumb series you like so much," Flowey mumbles, then more firmly adds: "But you should eat something first. Don't think I didn't notice you skipped breakfast."

Denying or protesting would be useless, so Papyrus doesn't.

4.

The sun is bright and the sky is blue, Papyrus and Flowey are sitting in the garden because on beautiful days like this it would be a crime to stay inside.

Frisk is kicking a ball around the grass, sometimes they look up and wave at them. Papyrus happily waves back while Flowey just smirks. Undyne and Alphys came by too. They're sitting at the garden table, talking in low whispers. Sans and Toriel are inside, god knows what they're up to.

"Are you happy?" Flowey suddenly asks, his voice is curious, frail. Something in that tone makes Papyrus feel giddy, like his soul just skipped a beat.

"Of course," he says, closing his eyes to bask in the sunshine. He can feel Flowey stare at him, assessing his answer with a single gaze.

"Are you sure?" his friend presses, narrowing his eyes, and Papyrus laughs.

"I'm sure. What about you?"

"Oh, I'm fine," Flowey says, perhaps too quickly, and he looks away as if he doesn't want Papyrus to see his face. He looks at Alphys, who is now almost sitting in Undyne's lap as they give each other stray kisses between talking and sticks out his tongue.

"Ugh, can't they go do that somewhere else." But the way he says it is not disgusted. It's something else, something that makes Papyrus feels strange again though he isn't sure why. He picks up the flowerpot, turns it around, and puts it between his crossed legs so that Flowey faces him instead.

"Better?" he asks, grinning for some reason.

Flowey rolls his eyes and sighs. "Better," he confirms.

5.

"You two sure get along well," Asgore comments one day, while he and Papyrus are tending to the flowers together. It's something of a habit now, usually done in silence.

He looks over at the porch, where Frisk is currently entertaining a very disgruntled Flowey.

"It reminds me of Toriel and myself, at the very beginning." The king remarks idly.

Papyrus startles, nearly drop the watering can. "Really?" he asks, and for some reason, his face feels warm.

Asgore laughs, softly and unintruding. "I'm sorry, it's just. I so rarely see either of you not accompanied by the other, I assumed-"

"No, it's fine," Papyrus says quickly, more than just his face feels warm now and when he looks at the porch again Flowey stares back and smiles.

+ 1.

He brought the dating guidebook from Underground. It should contain all the things he needs to know and it is leagues better than resorting to asking Sans for advice.

It has a list of signs, stuff like 'always wanting to spend time together' and 'feeling happy when they're happy' and a lot of other things that only confirm his sinking suspicion.

Papyrus is in love.

Papyrus is in love with his best friend.

The book mentions this is a very common occurrence too, he is glad it does because it makes him feel less nervous. Furthermore, it gives him perfect instructions on how to proceed.

"Flowey, would you like to see a movie together?" he asks, smoothing out his scarf and hoping it makes him look nicer.

His friend looks at him strangely. "Sure..."

"Oh, great. That's great. That's really, really quite great." Papyrus can't keep the smile off his face, he might be bouncing a bit on the spot and he wonders if he should kiss Flowey.

The book didn't give any definite pointers in that regard, but he kind of wants to anyway.

"Why are you doing that?" Flowey stares him up and down. "Stop it, we watch movies all the time and you're being annoying."

Papyrus stops dead in his tracks, confidence gone in a second. Apparently, he worded his proposition wrong.

"Actually, what I meant-" he starts, trying not to meet Flowey's gaze. "Was us going to the theater. Possibly followed by drinks and a walk in the park, where we will share our first lip-to-lip encounter under a full moon at midnight exactly."

"We don't have lips," Flowey deadpans, then smiles. "But... you mean a date?"

Papyrus thinks it over then nods, regaining his grandeur by the second. "Yes, a date. Would you care to go on a date with me?"

For a few moments, Flowey seems to consider it, then he pokes the skeleton's chest gently. "Obviously."

And yes there will be a sequel to this I have no shame

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