((Silver and Gold))

This story told us about the importance of a certain... Golden flower. The entries went along with the themes of the episodes it was paired with by focusing on Asgore and parenthood.

((Asgore walked into Asriel's room, where the lights were off, only illuminated by the gold light from the window and, Asgore noticed, a lamp from the desk. As he looked he realized the lamp was over top of a tiny golden flower, just barely blooming any petals at all. Asgore gasped in excitement, turning to Asriel, who was sitting on his bed.

"Since when did you start gardening?" Asgore asked, nearly bouncing with pride, "You know you could've grown it in the garden with the rest of the flowers, right?" Asgore opened his mouth to continue, but noticed Asriel in anticipation. He was a quiet child for the majority of the time, and preceded his words with a little lean forward-- something most wouldn't notice-- and therefore often got over-spoken.

"It's just me and Chara's." Asriel smiled, "We take care of him together." Asgore, beaming with joy, inspected the dinky flower. Surprisingly, he didn't recognize the species. "What kind of flower is it?" Asgore asked, much more interested in seeing what Asriel would come up with than finding the real answer.

Asriel got a little shy, giving an embarrassed smile, "It's um... He's a flower from the surface, we think. When Chara fell, I guess the seed sort of stuck to her, and we've been growing it ourselves." Asgore straightened his back, understanding this. He made his way to Asriel's bed and gently sat down next to him. His weight made the bed uneven, and Asriel slid against him. "That's very noble, son." Asgore patted him on the head.

Asriel continued, "Chara has a hard time to, like, talk to people, you know? She didn't think she could live down here, and that everybody thought she shouldn't either." Asgore made sure to keep silent, as any interruption would shut Asriel up about the topic. "I asked her: do you think this flower from the surface can thrive down here? And she said yeah, sure. And I said: then so can you!" After a pause, Asgore realized Asriel was done talking.

"I bet that means a lot to her, Asriel." Asgore smiled, rubbing Asriel's shoulder. Asriel played with his shirt, his back leaning against the side of Asgore's torso. "Uh hum." Asriel grinned bashfully. Now, a year later, Asriel stirs in this memory, clutching the pot that houses the golden flower. He tries to clear his mind and focus on the task at hand: find Chara. Stop everything.))