Coretale

Chapter One

"It's ok, Ariel! Just breathe! You've got this!" Gaster encouraged his wife, who was currently giving birth.

In response, Ariel cries out in pain and keeps pushing, nearly crushing the hand she's squeezing and making Gaster grit his teeth. She's sweating bullets and switching between throwing Dr. Alphys (a student of Gaster who's delivering the child) pained and exhausted glances, and squeezing her sockets shut.

"J-Just a little more, Mrs. Ariel!" cried Alphys. "One m-more!"

She's sweating, too, but more from nervousness. She holds the child securely as Ariel lets out a scream of agony, pushing one final time. She huffs a few nervous laughs and gazes down at him, smiling. "…It's… I-It's a boy…"

Ariel drops her head onto the pillow, panting and sweating up a storm. She gazes exhaustedly at Alphys and her new child, who's begun crying. She gives a pained smile. "L… Let me see…"

Alphys nods and moves over to the other side of the bed, holding the small skeleton out to her.

Ariel takes the child from her and smiles down at him, Gaster doing the same. "Look… Look at him, honey…"

"I see him," said Gaster, who's also smiling at him. He rubs his cheekbone, wiping away some tears. "He's beautiful."

Alphys smiles at the family and rubs Ariel's arm. "C-Congratulations." She then moves down to Ariel's pelvis, hovering a hand over it. After a second, a green aura envelopes her palm, licking at Ariel's pelvis and soothing the pain.

Ariel lets out a content sigh at the sensation, feeling relief almost instantly. She rubs his head and stares lovingly down at him, then glances at her husband. "What should we name him…?"

Gaster gives her a small smirk. "You went through the trouble. You should name him."

Ariel breathes a laugh and turns back to the child. "If you're sure…" She thinks for a bit, unsure of what name would best fit him. After a while, she finally settles on… "…Sans…"

The smirk on Gaster's face broadens back into a loving smile. "…That's a wonderful name, Ariel." He turns his gaze to the child. "Welcome to the family, Sans."

Sans opens his sockets a little to gaze at his new parents, his cries dying down to sniffles. His left eye glowed a bright blue, not having the energy to replace it with little white pips. He stares down at them for what seems like years, taking it all in as best as he can manage. He starts feeling around and weakly grasping anything his tiny hands can reach.

If only Sans knew what he was getting into…

Thirteen years later;

The last time Sans did work was ten years ago. Ever since then, he's had problems with responsibility. He doesn't like doing work and wasn't easily motivated to. He looks down at his hot dog and decides to finish it later, so he puts the plate in the fridge and makes to go upstairs to his room when Gaster steps in.

"I know, Dad," said Sans before Gaster could speak. "I'm a teenager now and I need to start doing my own chores. I told you, I'll work on it later."

"Sans, I know what you're doing. You're going to go up to your room and sleep for the rest of the day, then use eating and making Papyrus ask you to play with him as excuses not to do your chores. You've done it three times now."

"Would you rather I do that or try to do the work and get nothing done?"

"If you actually did try to do the work, you actually would get something done around here. Besides, I'm not here to try to get you to do them right now."

Sans blinks and stares for a second, taking that time to process what he just heard. "…You're not? Then what's up?"

Gaster hesitates. "…I think it's time I trained you to use magic. After that, you'll do your chores."

Sans smiles and widens his sockets in excitement. "Magic? You mean, I can finally fight like you and Mom?"

Gaster sighs and rubs the back of his neck. "Yes, but remember. This is a process that can't be accomplished in one night. It takes time to learn to control your magic. Not only that, but you have to put work into it."

Sans groans and almost turns around to go to his room again, but Gaster puts a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "I don't want to hear it, Sans. If you want to be able to do magic like me and your mother, you have to put work forward. You may have been born with magic, but it won't work immediately until you train it to do so."

Sans hesitates and thinks for a bit, considering his options. Ever since he was eleven, he's met monsters whose parents hadn't waited to start training them to use magic. That, or some kids found out on their own. They'd brag about their powers and show off, especially around Sans. They knew he couldn't use magic and would often bully him because of it. The only thing Sans knows how to do is glow his eye at will, and that's only because he read one of Gaster's books without his permission a couple years ago and was grounded for it. He'd coupled that with some intel he'd gotten from Undyne, the daughter of the Head of the Royal Guard (Ariel had stepped down not long after giving birth to Papyrus, feeling she had too many responsibilities to take care of). Undyne bragged, but she at least had a sense of compassion that the other monsters didn't. He sighs. "Alright… I'll try…"

Gaster smirks. "Good. Follow me." He leads the way out to Snowdin woods. He doesn't go slow for Sans, but walks as if he's alone.

Sans is confused by this. Not only would Gaster usually wait for his son to keep up, but he would almost always teleport around places anyway. To see him walking his son to the woods was strange. Seeing as Sans never exercised a day in his life and didn't eat healthy foods when he could avoid it, he starts getting tired after a little over half the trip is walked. He's a good ten feet behind Gaster at this point.

"Dad…?" he pants. "Aren't you gonna teleport us to where we're going…?"

"You can't always expect the easy route," Gaster replied, not looking back. "You need to learn to use your legs some time."

"Does walking to my room not count…?"

"Unless you walk from a far distance or many times over again in a short time span, no, it doesn't count."

Sans groans and looks around, trying to quicken his pace to keep up with his father. "Could you at least wait up…?"

"No. We're not on a casual stroll through the forest. You can keep up."

"Dad!" he complained. After receiving no response, runs up behind him and catches up, losing even more breath and causing his heels to start aching.

Gaster leads him to a dummy he'd gotten from Waterfall. He stands to the side of it and faces Sans. "Alright, Sans. Do you know how to create an attack?"

Sans is left panting and sweating a bit when he arrives. "C… Can't we… take a five minute break…?"

Gaster sighs in annoyance. "Sans, we haven't even started yet. You don't need a break. Do you know how to summon an attack?"

Sans hesitates, then sighs. "No… None of the kids ever told me…"

"Alright, then. I want you to feel your soul's power. Feel the energy inside it, waiting to be shaped into a tool to defend you."

Sans looks down at his chest, where his soul rests underneath his ribcage. Compared to others, his soul is relatively small. Not by much, but enough to be noticed. As a result, when he feels the energy Gaster refers to, he doesn't feel much. "Um… O-Ok…"

"Do you have a feel for your soul's magic?"

"I think so…"

"Good. Now take some magic from it. Summon the power for your attack from your soul. Will it to travel to your hand."

Sans closes his sockets and tries to do as instructed. On the outside, he looks calm. On the inside, he's freaking out. How the heck does he expect him to do that? How do you pull magic from your soul? He stands there for a good five minutes before opening his sockets again. "I can't do it."

"Yes, you can."

"How?"

"There's no simpler way to explain it. You will it to go to your hand. It's as simple as that."

Sans still doesn't get how that's supposed to be simple, but he tries again anyway. After about thirty minutes of struggling, he sighs and drops onto his tailbone. "I can't do it…!"

Gaster shuts his sockets and sighs, then starts walking back to the house. "Come on."

Sans turns around and watches him walk away, then gets to his feet and follows him, looking down at his chest in failure. He doesn't even bother trying to catch up to Gaster, knowing full well he's disappointed.