Arc II: The Lab
Chapter IV
How dare they?
The moment Gaster had put his hand on the door and found it unlocked he'd felt a strange kind of anxiety in his chest. Confusion and worry worming their way into his mind. The feelings had only been compounded when he didn't see the children where he'd left them, didn't hear them respond when he called their names. Where were they? Had someone gotten into the house? Or worse, had they run off? Not knowing something had never caused him so much stress before, and he didn't know how to handle it. He almost tore up the building looking for them.
Then he'd found a very crudely written note atop the desk he'd set out for Papyrus to work on.
W E WENT OWT WITH ALFIS B BACK SOON
And then all of the worry collecting inside him transformed into rage.
When he had left for Hotland that morning he had left very clear instructions for what he expected them to do that day. Nowhere in those instructions had he given permission to go on an outing with his intern. His irresponsible, dumpster diving intern.
Now, his fingers tapped along his arms, eyes narrowed and firmly set on the three children squirming nervously before him. Or rather the two children squirming and Sans who was stock still with his eyelights out. He had only just gotten home—there hadn't been enough time for the anger to pass and the rational part of his mind to start determining a punishment.
"You can all start—" He waved a finger between them threateningly, gritting his teeth slightly. "—by telling me where you two went and what is wrong with your clothes."
The three of them didn't immediately respond, glancing between each other. Briefly brushing his thumb over his cheekbone towards the crack in his eye, Gaster leaned down to focus on Papyrus. "Have I asked a difficult question?"
"WE WERE—UM—" The boy looked over at Sans, as though looking for approval, but his brother merely grinned and said nothing. "WE WERE WITH ALPHYS AT THE DUMP…"
"The dump?" His eyes flashed at that—not sure if he should consider it a "learning expedition" like she always tried to paint it or just become even more frustrated. "Well that would explain why you smell like garbage."
Sans coughed and it sounded like he was covering up a laugh. Gaster directed his gaze towards him and felt some measure of satisfaction at how quickly the smile drooped on his face. "Did I say you two could go to the dump? Is that what I told you to do? Clearly there has been some confusion. Tell me, Sans, tell me what I asked you two to do."
"…work on learning wingding."
"Very good, you are capable of listening." Of course, Gaster was capable of smiling too, the crease in his brow making it look a fair bit more cruel. "Say something to me in wingding, Sans."
Instead of doing as he was asked—because of course he wasn't able to—Sans murmured, scuffing his feet, "…to be fair, you didn't say we could…not go to the dump."
Before he could object to that—as if he wouldn't be angry at them on a technicality-Alphys stepped forward, attempting to raise her wavering voice. "D—Dr. Gaster it—it's not really their fault, I-I—"
He shot a stern look at her and from the way her expression changed one would think he'd just stabbed her. "I will deal with you, later."
"-Y…yes sir…"
"I think for now you should go home, don't you think?"
"Yes—I—" She looked between the two brothers, eyes practically crescents beneath her glasses and feet stumbling to move away before the rest of her body could catch up. "I'll see you two later, um. Bye."
"BYE ALPHYS." Papyrus' voice was lower than usual, even if he was still shouting. "WE'LL SEE YOU TOMORROW."
"That is up for debate. Come along." He put his hands on the collars of their T-shirts and easily dragged them both inside the house, out of view of their friend. Sans pulled away with much more energy than his brother when Gaster let go to close the door, straightening out his clothes and frowning.
-What right did he have to be angry?
"we didn't do anything wrong."
"You didn't do anything wrong?" The tone of incredulity was hard to mask, watching Papyrus sidle up to be just behind his brother, who stood as though prepared to fight him. "You don't think that sneaking out after I told you to work on your studies without even leaving a message letting me know where you were counts as doing anything wr—what do you have there in your hands?"
He'd finally noticed a rolled up poster gripped in Papyrus' small fingers—tightly enough to put creases in the material. Without really waiting for a response, he reached over and snatched it from him, unrolling it and pausing to blink at the singed flaming skull design it was printed with. After a moment he looked over the top at them.
"What is this?"
They both glanced at each other without answering him initially—a gesture he was growing very very tired of at this point. But soon Papyrus stepped forward, wringing his fingers together and only half looking up.
"DO—DO YOU LIKE IT?"
"Do I what?" Truthfully it wasn't really all that bad. Fairly intricate linework, interesting flame patterns—even if it wasn't the kind of thing he would personally keep around the house. But the question seemed like a non sequitur. Although granted—it's not like he needed to be told that what he was holding in his hands was a poster, deciding he'd seen enough and beginning to roll it up again.
"THAT'S—THAT'S WHY WE LEFT, WE WANTED TO HELP YOU DECORATE A LITTLE BIT, AND SANS DIDN'T GET ANYTHING BUT I FOUND THAT AND I THOUGHT YOU WOULD LIKE IT OR LET ME PUT IT UP IN MY ROOM OR—" The growing string of babble cut off at another look.
"[You two worried me over a poster?]"
He had never been before such an odd mix of flabbergasted and angry, reverting back to wingding to mutter to himself and strongly, strongly resisting the urge to whap them over the heads.
"WE WEREN'T TRYING TO WORRY YOU."
That stalled him.
…Had he been understood? –Certainly not by Sans, who was looking at his little brother with the same amount of bewilderment. Gaster frowned down at him in confusion, switching back to aster. "…Be that as it may, the fact is that you did."
"WE DIDN'T THINK YOU WOULD BE HOME…"
"it's not pap's fault, i told him you wouldn't be home before we got back." Sans stepped forward again, arms crossed uncomfortably over his front. "so…it's my fault."
Gaster merely waved him off, although the anger was starting to seep out of him. "You are both at fault. Don't talk as though your brother can't make his own decisions."
As though to hammer that point home, Papyrus opened his mouth to speak—Sans cut him off. "-it's not like you ever really spend any time with us anyway. you're always doing other things."
Again another reason to pause, because it was…true.
Naked attempt to change the subject though it was.
When did children become so astute?
Gaster sighed. "To be honest I didn't think that bothered you. You don't seem to like it when I'm around." The comment was directed at Sans in particular, although perhaps he should have specified because Papyrus then proceeded to vigorously shake his head. Before either of them could protest or make more excuses for themselves, he interjected with, "Perhaps I have not been giving this the attention that I should."
They both looked a little bit surprised at that. Which meant that they believed in his sincerity.
Not that he intended to be…insincere.
"I will…put more effort into being there for the two of you. I realize it is not fair to leave such…exceptional children to their own devices without anything to really amuse themselves with."
"wow."
He held his teeth together and handed the rolled up poster back to Papyrus, murmuring for his benefit, "[You may put that up in your room.]" The child seemed confused for a moment at that, frowning—but the intent of the sentence appeared to have gotten across when a smile broke out on him again. "Perhaps we can start by going to a proper store and getting some things you might actually enjoy. Whatever you want."
"REALLY?"
"—But for now, the two of you are grounded. And those shirts are going into an incinerator."
Because they were grounded, the next day they were once again left alone in the house while Gaster went to work. This time though he promised to come back on time instead of working late into the night on whatever project it was that he got so excited about.
Sans wasn't holding out hope on that one. But then he didn't really do that for anything.
Papyrus told him that now was a good chance to make up for their disobedience by actually studying, which Sans didn't really want to do either. So he puttered around the house a little, occasionally coming back just to drive his brother up the wall—break the pattern of concentration and hopefully save a few erasers from being mangled in the process.
It wasn't bad here.
They'd been told that if they walked even one step outside the confines of the house, Gaster'd know about it and do something "terrible" to them. The minute he'd been out of sight at the window Sans had opened the door and pretended to walk outside. Papyrus had shrieked, and it had all been very fun and entertaining….but he didn't think he could actually take that step. And that bothered him. He didn't think he was afraid. But he still felt better the minute the door was closed again.
He was inside Papyrus' room, attempting to put up the poster on his own despite being short and some of the singed edges crumbling under his touch, when he heard the front door open again. Sparing a glance to the clock he realized that Gaster was indeed on time to get home.
Coming down the stairs he overheard Papyrus say, "—BUT PROMISE YOU WON'T BE TOO MAD AT HIM BECAUSE IT'S NOT HIS FAULT."
"woooah paps are you selling me out or something?"
Both of them glanced his way, his younger brother beginning to break out in a sweat and wringing the hem of his shirt. "NO NO! I WAS TELLING HIM TO NOT BE MAD AT YOU!"
Sans would have followed that up with a crack—maybe a joke about weasels or snitches or something—when he caught sight of the state of their returning caretaker, covered in ash and bone bruises. As he started to unbutton the coat he'd walked in with, more damage was visible underneath.
"uh, what happened to you?"
Gaster shrugged as he was hanging up his coat, a slight sanctimoniousness to his tone. "Well you would know that if you weren't grounded, wouldn't you?"
Maybe the two of them would be always side-stepping each other.
"–Speaking of which-" He then quickly switched to something more like a school-teacher would use, looking over the two of them with half-lidded eyes. Or, half-lidded eye, as one of them was always partly closed. "Have you done the study work I told you to do?"
"I DID!" Papyrus looked like he was about to actually run to his desk to show him the worksheet but thankfully he didn't. "I LEARNED A LOT TODAY! ALTHOUGH I STILL CAN'T SAY ANY OF IT…"
Laughing and patting him on the head, Gaster murmured, "That is alright. Quite honestly I would be surprised if you were able to at this point. But we'll follow up on that later, hm? …What about you, Sans?" He added something—but it was completely unintelligible. Probably a test of some kind.
"no, i did not."
"No? Ah well. I have something else I wanted to talk to you about today anyway. –May I ask why not?"
That surprised him a little. Both the question and the fact that he wasn't being reprimanded. "uh—i didn't—feel like it?"
"Why didn't you?"
He suddenly felt helpless to explain himself, glancing at Papyrus. "I just…don't like doing stuff. Sometimes it's really hard." He didn't specify that he didn't like doing things assigned to him in particular.
"SANS IS JUST LIKE THAT." Sometimes it was worse when they had a bad day, or week. Especially if they had nowhere to go. "HE'S ALWAYS BEEN LAZY."
"not always."
"Well, maybe there is something wrong with you."
They both stared.
"Physically, I mean." Gaster was preoccupying himself with some kind of jelly-like substance that wouldn't come off of his arm. "I could look into it. I believe Dr. Likker does some specializations in monster physiology, though granted he's never had skeletons to work with. …Why are you looking at me like that?"
"NO, SANS IS JUST—I MEAN HE CAN STILL DO THINGS? IT'S JUST THAT HE DOESN'T LIKE TO IF HE DOESN'T HAVE TO?" Papyrus seemed a bit more taken aback by it than Sans himself, wringing his shirt again while Sans merely shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Perhaps there is something wrong with him psychologically then." Clearly disinterested in pursuing that line of inquiry he started fumbling around in the pockets of the coat he'd just hung up. "In any case, Dr. Arbogast did bring something for you today, Papyrus. And since you have been so good and so dedicated recently I thought it might be a suitable reward."
"—REALLY?.?" All other thoughts were pushed out of the boy's brain at that, running up as though to try and sneak a peek at what Gaster was fishing out of the coat. "WOWIE, WHAT DID HE GET ME?"
Gently nudging him back for space, Gaster presented a clear plastic bag filled with jagged, curved pieces of…something. Something glittery with odd red and white markings on it. Even Sans went in to get a closer look.
"IT'S AMAZING!" Papyrus snatched the bag out of Gaster's hands and looked it over, the light bouncing off his teeth as he smiled. "…WHAT IS IT?"
"It is a 3D jigsaw puzzle. You put the pieces together. Like-" He pauses, head inclining a little bit. "Perhaps I should show you later. …Why don't you just put this in your room and then get ready for dinner?"
"OKAY!.! I'LL BE BACK IN A FLASH!" He took off for the stairs as fast as his short legs would carry him, actually stumbling over the first step as he climbed up. The door began to swing back shut from the force of it opening, and Sans decided he should probably go wash up too because he didn't like the way Gaster was looking at him earlier when he said he had something else to talk about.
But when he tried to pull away, he felt a holed hand on his arm holding him fast. The boy looked up in confusion.
When Gaster murmured, "Alphys tells me you have been a great help to her in finishing the extractor," he then felt a little sick.
"uh…why would she—say something like that?"
"Words just have a habit of falling from her mouth, I've noticed. Perhaps she thought it would be placating." He did let go though, after a moment. Amusement playing on his features. "What's the matter? You look as though I have fed you bleach."
"—it's—nothing's wrong. –and i'm not really that much of a help, i just…pay attention to things sometimes." Maybe he shouldn't help Alphys anymore. –She should be doing that kind of stuff all on her own, right?
Gaster rested his fingertips on the top of Sans' head, causing him to shudder a little. Remembering the way he'd spoken to them when they first met. But the next time he said something his tone was actually…somewhat soft. Understanding? "Well, we are in limited supply of people who 'pay attention to things' down here, Sans."
He looked up, not quite understanding.
"All I am saying is that I think you would be much more engaged in the lab if you had actual tasks to do."
Sans was unable to keep a vague tone of repulsion out of his voice, like some small child told that they had to eat broccoli before they got their dessert. "like…work?"
That prompted a vaguely irritated sigh. "If you are doing it on your own time anyway it wouldn't count as work. You might find it very enjoyable. I know I do."
"i'm absolutely shocked that the man with no sense of humor has fun crunching numbers."
"Don't be a smart alec. Just promise me you will at least consider it as a possibility. ….I have a policy of not wasting potential when I see it."
Sans almost objected more strongly, but…it felt less obnoxious when something was being offered to him, instead of being ordered to do it. So though he didn't think he would, he shuffled his feet on the carpet and shrugged. Head bobbing somewhat in a nod.
"Good." Gaster paused, as though there was something else he wanted to say. Something complicated, probably, judging by his expression. But he merely shook his head, turning Sans around and pushing in between his shoulder blades to get him moving. "—Go wash up. I'm ordering takeout tonight."
Author's Note: I can't really respond to individual reviews with this format and I don't want to spend each author's note going "thank you thank you thank you" for all the wonderful reviews I'm getting but really-thank you guys. I'm so used to writing for fandoms that are either dead or large enough that people in them don't interact much, I'm very unused to getting responses.
