A/N: Hey, peeps! I felt really bad about not posting for almost a year, so I've decided to finally start uploading this. It may be the darkest thing I've ever written, so be warned that it does get very intense at times! And yes, I know there is already an AU called DollTale. While this is not the same AU, the title of this fic is an allusion so readers can make a connection between what is happening symbolically with the characters.
WARNING: This fic is EXTREMELY DARK. There are several instances and references to child abuse, psychological torture, and much more. In this AU, Gaster has gone completely crazy from his accident in the CORE; take anything from his perspective with a grain of salt!
DOLLTALE
-{[-(*)-]}-
While Gaster pretended to enjoy each of their interactions, he really wasn't fond of his wife. She was pretty, yes. But she was also demanding, rude, whiney, clingy, and a hundred other things that made him want to dust her each night. He didn't know how she ever convinced him to get her pregnant, and he was regretting every moment of it since conception.
She had cravings and urges and needs, and she just never shut up about it! She complained her way through the whole nine months, practically refusing to let him go into the lab. He found himself making constant runs to and from the store, and Waterfall, and Hotland, and a thousand other places that made him want to dust himself.
He hated her.
Gaster hated her more than his clueless lab assistants, and the judgmental shop owners, and the king. He wanted her out of his life, and he still had no idea how they had gotten married.
But then...
But then she went into labor.
At first, he could honestly care less if she was screaming in pain. The doctors would take time to get there, and there wasn't much he could do for her other than force her to walk and reminder her to keep breathing.
The doctors did arrive, though, and they started to set up everything they would need. A nurse flitted over and took over for Gaster, handling his upset wife. Hours passed like this, until the doctors asked if he wanted to leave. His wife demanded he stay, but the only reason he remained was to see the child.
From that point, there were several more hours of labor and birthing, and Gaster was so done with his wife's voice, he considered conjuring some earplugs for himself. She kept screeching at him and clawing at his arms. Her face had flushed a nasty red and her hair was a mess. She had lost anything beautiful about her.
Then, the doctors started chattering excitedly. 'They could see the baby', the hushed whisper spread through the nurses. They went to prepare even more things, then asked about a nursery.
"We don't have one," Gaster muttered, even more angered by the fact. There were two bedrooms in this house. One was used as the master bedroom, and one was used as his office. He tried to move the things from the office into his bedroom, but his wife refused. 'It would make their bedroom too small.'
In the next hour, their was a whirlwind of activity. The nurses had to prepare some kind of place for the baby, because it was coming very quickly now. Gaster was glad to escape his wife and help the nurses for a while, crafting a tiny bed and turning a pan into a tiny baby bath.
Suddenly, a new cry filled the house. It was small, and fragile, and helpless. It wasn't very loud, just frightened.
Gaster rushed into the room, realizing his wife had finally shut up because she was unconscious. But he spared her no other thoughts, instead rushing to his new child's side.
The father gasped.
The little baby bones was so... tiny. When it saw him, its little face smoothened out, and it reached a tiny hand for him. Gaster forced himself to be extremely gentle as he let the baby grab one of his fingers.
The scientist looked up to the doctors with a look that was equal parts wonder and questioning. They glanced at each other with small smiles, apparently pleased that he liked his child.
"It's a boy," someone answered his unspoken inquiry. "He's quite healthy, despite being a bit small for your species. But he'll grow up big and strong, just like his daddy."
"Your wife should recover well," another doctor informed, even though he could care less. "She just needs rest and a good meal."
Gaster nodded, trying not to roll his eyes, then looked down to his sweet child. Much like every skeleton in the Font family, this little one needed to be named something unique. His name could very well shape his entire future...
The baby looked up at him and gurgled something, like it was trying to speak. Gaster smiled, and the tiny baby giggled softly.
"You're a little comedian, aren't you? Think you're so funny?" Gaster mumbled. The baby swiped at him weakly, then giggled even harder. This drew a small chuckle from Gaster.
The man snapped his phalanges as he was hit with an idea.
"Comic Sans. But we'll just call you Sans, for short."
The doctors shared another look.
"Sir, we don't mean to tell you how to parent your child, but maybe you should wait until your wife is awake to-"
"She won't care!" Gaster snarled slightly. He let out an aggravated sigh and carefully reeled his bitter emotions back in. "Thank you for your work, doctors. You've done an excellent job. But I can take it from here, really. Just one moment, please."
He hurried into the office and returned with a checkbook. He quickly filled out a check and handed it to the main doctor.
"It's not much, but we want to thank you for helping us with this," Gaster offered. The doctors murmured among each other, stunned. But eventually they all thanked him, gathered their supplies, and began to leave.
One of the nurses handed Gaster some pamphlets on the way out. As he looked over them, he learned they were about basic care of babies and about parenting. He saved them gratefully, knowing he could use all the help he wouldn't be getting from his wife.
When all the medical personnel had left, he bundled Sans up in his arms and relocated him to the make-shift nursery. The baby began to fuss slightly, but Gaster easily calmed him by letting him hold the man's finger again.
"I know, I know," Gaster sighed. "It's not much. But we'll get you a nursery soon. We'll get this all sorted out."
-{[(*)]}-
Ever since the incident with the Core, Gaster had found it almost impossible to love his wife anymore. Anything he might have loved about her were things he quickly came to hate. And it seemed like his feelings were returned! She refused to let him do anything he liked, forcing him to work around the house on his days off. She spent all of her off-time hanging out with the ladies in Waterfall. She demanded things of him constantly, always having him running all over the Underground.
But after Sans was born, it seemed almost like their relationship could be back on track. Gaster willingly stayed home to take care of the baby, and he willingly did things around the house, if only to make sure Sans stayed safe. She started to come home as well, and her irritating attitude started to fade.
But Gaster did have one major issue with her.
She kept just... leaving Sans places unattended. She would set him on the couch, then vacuum the living room. She would put him in the bedroom, then pay the bills in the office. Once, she even left him on a park bench while she talked to some of her friends she had seen.
Thank the stars nothing had happened yet, but the irresponsible parenting was completely unacceptable! Gaster brought it up to her every time he saw her doing it, and she insisted Sans would be fine.
"He's a healthy baby with 10 HP!" She yelled at him one evening. "He can be left alone for a few minutes!"
"He's a baby!" Gaster shouted back. "And 10 HP is nothing! A small child could deal a blow worse than 10 HP!"
They were both heaving and panting and frustrated until his wife lunged forward and dragged him into a heated kiss. He struggled against her, still angry and wanting to argue, but she managed to get him behind the bedroom door and that was that.
Still the issue didn't go away, and Gaster grew more and more anxious each time it happened. Eventually his wife must have made some sort of decision, because their relationship drastically turned for the worst. In fact, it was near non-existent.
She was never home, always out with her friends or sneaking into some kind of party. She never added money from her job to their banking account, making him the sole provider for their family. She refused to take care of Sans, leaving Gaster to act as the only parent. And the few times she did take care of the baby, she left him in strange, dangerous places.
Sans was barely a year old when everything came to a head.
It wasn't until hours of frantic searching later that Gaster found his son. His wife had seemed to disappear into thin air, leaving only a note. And Sans had been missing as well. Gaster knew very well that she would not have taken Sans with her, so she had to have abandoned the poor baby somewhere.
He searched through Snowdin for hours, checking every snow poff he came across and even climbing trees to see if he could find his poor child. Sans was just a year old! The little thing couldn't possibly survive like this!
But hours later, Gaster was trudging through the woods, feeling like his baby was gone forever, when his foot hit an odd lump. It was buried deep in the snow, and at first, he thought it was a rock. He raised his foot to kick it again.
But then there was a small huff of breath, certainly not from him.
Thinking he could have almost kicked his son, Gaster quickly dug down in the snow. Instead, he found Sans's blanket, frozen solid with ice. Gaster gasped softly and dropped down beside it.
"Sans..." He murmured, eye filling with tears. He pulled the blanket close to his chest. "Sans..." His eyes started to light; his wife would pay for this. He was going to-
Another small sound slid through the air, a hiccup this time.
Gaster turned and found his baby tucked under the low branches of a fallen tree. The child was shivering and unconscious. No matter how many times he called for his sweet baby, Sans did not awaken.
Gaster quickly checked him.
His soul dropped.
Sans's HP had fallen down to a single digit.
1.
Monsters were beings created mostly with magic and very little physical matter. Their very existence relied on the positive emotions emitted by their souls and those around them. If a monster began to experience serious despair or upset, it could destroy them.
If Gaster hadn't found Sans...
Gaster clutched his baby close, pouring out all the love his soul had. The child squeaked in sleep and shifted. But Sans did not awaken, and his soul didn't seem to heal. It had leveled out at that single HP.
-[]-
Officially done with anything the Underground might have previously offered him, Gaster packed their bags the moment he got home. He bundled Sans up tightly, and Gaster escaped into the night with his child.
On the edges of New Home were a series of smaller caverns. It was easy to find a house for sale there, and Gaster quickly set up anything they could need. Sans had the ideal nursery, Gaster had his own room connected to the office, and the other rooms were wonderful for their little family of two.
Gaster went through and baby-proofed everything as his wife had refused to do, and he decorated every room with the fragile baby in mind. The carpets were plush and soft, almost all furniture was low to the ground, any sharp corners in the house had been rounded out, and anything that could fall or be knocked over was secured in place.
Once the house was ready, he took all pictures of his wife out back and burned them.
Then he set about caring for Sans. He washed the skelebaby carefully with warm water, dressed him in warm clothes and bundled him in blankets. He fed Sans some warm soup, which he had carefully filled with his own magic.
By putting his own magic in the soup, it would be like directly injecting Sans with love and warmth.
The baby began to awaken then, but he wasn't able to stay awake for long. He soon went back to sleep, and Gaster finally let himself relax. His baby would be okay...
His baby was going to be okay.
-{[(*)]}-
A/N: This may not seem too bad now, but just wait until next week's update! ;)
QUESTION OF THE UPDATE: I want to have a discussion about Yuuri on Ice! While I enjoy the show, I'm not sure how much it deserved some of the awards it received. What do you think?