"Dad! Daddy, wake up!" a high-pitched voice yelled. "Daaaad!" Gaster couldn't help but smile and sat up off of his desk, looking over to his son. "Yes, Papyrus?" he asked groggily.
"Can we go to Snowdin today, please? You've been saying we would for a week now!" the young skeleton said. "Ah… I suppose. I'm not terribly busy now anyway," Gaster said. "YES!" Papyrus cheered, running into his room. Gaster cringed at his volume before forcing himself to stand up, his bones popping and creaking as he did. He'd have to stop sleeping like that… What had he been doing at his desk last night again? Gaster glanced at the papers in immediate view. They were blank. He sighed and shook his head. Maybe he was trying to think of some new invention and fell asleep, or perhaps he was just reminiscing. Gaster could never be sure anymore.
After his failure to save Asriel, his wife had died and left him to care for a 100-year-old on his own. His skull had even begun to crack from the mental stress he was under. A single father royal scientist who felt responsible—and blamed, since Asgore hadn't said a word to him in the past few months—for the death of child. It was probably only a matter of time before he snapped. Or his skull broke. Either one.
"Dad, why aren't you ready yet!?" Papyrus shouted, snapping Gaster back to reality. He was already wrapped up in winter clothes and looked very impatient. Gaster smirked and walked over to the door. "I'll only be two seconds," he said, closing the door. He heard giggling behind the door as he summoned his magic. Exactly two seconds later, he opened the door to reveal that he had instantly changed into warmer clothing. Papyrus shook his head. "I'll never understand how you do that!" he said happily. "You will be able to one day as well, I'm sure," Gaster said as he picked his son up. "Now, close your eyes. I want to show you something even more amazing." Papyrus nodded and closed them, smile widening. Gaster closed his own and envisioned the door to Home, the previous capitol of the Underground. He opened them and smiled wider. "Open them." Papyrus opened his eyes and gasped.
"Oh my gosh! What was that, how did you do it, do you think you can teach me, is this-!?"
"Calm down, Pap," Gaster chuckled. "We shall see about teaching you later. For now, explore the forest. We will stop by Snowdin in a few minutes. I need to sit down after that…" Papyrus frowned as Gaster sat him down. He turned around and tilted his head. "Uh, Dad? A-are you alright?" he asked. "I'm fine, you go have fun. I just… Teleporting takes a lot of energy. I'll catch up in a minute. And no less." Gaster winked. Papyrus giggled and nodded, running off to play in the snow.
Gaster's smile fell and he slumped to the ground. His magic was more and more draining as time went on, and the crack in his skull was only making it worse. Soon he might not even be able to lift Papyrus and spin him around how he liked… Gaster sighed and leaned heavily against a nearby tree, closing his eyes. Perhaps taking more than a minute wouldn't hurt… He jolted awake as the door to Home opened slowly. He scrambled behind the tree he had been up against and looked out cautiously. There weren't supposed to be any monsters left back there… At least not any that knew how to leave…
If he had a heart, it would've stopped at the sight of what was stepping through the door. It was a young human carrying a book, crying and looking around fearfully.
And here's the first chapter of this fic! Sorry it's kinda short, but I want something out there to let you guys know I haven't forgotten you. Plus I've been itching to write Sans a backstory for a while, and a recent Game Theorists video helped me get Sans' character together enough to feel ready to start it! And if you've seen the video I'm talking about, I don't mean I'm directly using that theory. There were just some… interesting things that inspired me. Well, hopefully I'll update this again soon! Oh, and could I maybe get some help for my other fic? Please? I'm so badly stuck on what to do in the next chapter… for a number of resons… See you later either way.
