It was saturday morning, only a few days after Gaster had returned and joined the little family. Sans and Papyrus were out and making arrangements to get an extension on their house to make room for their father. Gaster was left at home to take care of Frisk for the afternoon.
Frisk sat at the kitchen table moving her eggs around on her plate, not really eating them. She would take a bite every once in awhile but not often.
"What's wrong Frisk?"
"You...You saw everything in the void, right?" She asked looking up at him with sad eyes. Gaster was a bit surprised by this question. A little weird for a child to be talking about this at 9 am.
"Well, um, yes."
"Do you...do you know about...Flowey?"
"...Yes."
"Do...Do you know about-"
"Asriel."That one word was all it took and Frisk burst into tears. Mumbling over and over again about how sorry she was. Why was she so sorry? Gaster knew she did everything she could, but sometimes everything just isn't enough. "Frisk, it's ok. I know you did everything you could. Please don't cry." He whispered into her hair as he held her tightly.
"No, it's not ok. He's still down there. I've been feeling guilty for months, I want to save him. I want to go back down there and get him out of the underground. I want to do something. I wish I could give Torial and Asgore their child back. But I can't! Now it's almost Christmas. When people are surrounded by their families and other loved ones. I don't want him to spend Christmas alone." She cried into his jacket.
"Ooh, child. Calm down. He won't spend Christmas alone."
"You're right, he'll spend it as a flower with no soul! I feel like I've been lying to everyone for so long, but I don't know what to do! Before Asriel turned back into Flowey he told me not to tell his parents. He didn't want me to break their hearts!"
"Child. Asgore knows about Flowey. After Asriel's death Flowey taunted the king with Asriel's final words. He knows-"
"But what about Torial!" She cried. Gaster had nothing he could say to comfort the child with this. She must have been feeling this way for so long and was too afraid to talk to anyone about it, but now that he was here and he knew everything she could talk. She didn't have to worry about him judging her, because he already knew. He knew before they even met. Why Frisk thought that the others would judge her is ludicrous. Sans and Papyrus both loved Frisk and would never judge her for something she couldn't fix. Gaster couldn't speak for the other monsters, but he felt as if they would all forgive Frisk, she was only a child. Granted a child who tried their best, but not even that was enough.
Gaster stood there holding his grandchild in a tight hug trying to calm them down. He started to think. What on earth could he do to help her? Even though he had only lived with her for a few days he truly loved this child. He wanted to do everything in his power to help her.
He was DETERMINED.
"Child, you know that i am the previous royal scientist correct?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"After Sans gets back i will go to the underground and take Flowey to the true lab, and I will do everything I can to help turn him back into Asriel." Frisk looked up at him with hopeful eyes.
"L-Let me finish eating then I'll come and we'll work together."
"No. I'm sure your father would kill me if I took you back into the underground, none the less if i took you to the true lab to do work. Besides you've done so much for our kind, especially for my boys. Let me do something for you."
"Thank you grandpa."
Once Sans returned Gaster explained that he was going out for a bit. Sans was hesitant at first but figured his dad could take care of himself so he let him go.
Gaster walked into the underground holding a pot, ready to scoop up Flowey at the first sign of the plant. He walked all the way from the barrier to the ruins where he finally saw him.
"Huh? Oh would you look at this. I have a visitor?" Flowey giggled until he saw it was Gaster that stepped out of the shadows. "How are you-" Flowey didn't even have a chance to finish his question before Gaster lifted the plant up and into the pot. "Let me go you freak! I'll kill you! I'll murder you! I'll kill-"
"Asriel, I'm going to save you."
"Oh? What makes you think you can, old man?"
"Do not underestimate me." Gaster said as he continued to walk back through the ruins on his way to Hotland.
Gaster returned home that day empty handed he knew there had to be some way to save Asriel. If Gaster was here and able to be saved, from the void none the less. Then surely Asriel could be saved.
As Gaster walked through the door Frisk leapt up to greet him with a hopeful smile.
"geez kid, he was only gone for a few hours." Sans teased.
"She was just excited because I told her I'd read her a bedtime story tonight." Gaster made up a quick lie. "She must have just been worried that I wouldn't be home in time."
"alright." Sans shrugged, but both Frisk and Gaster knew that Sans knew something was up. Frisk however, ignored this and took Gaster's hand to lead him to her room. Where she closed the door.
"Well?"
"I took him to the true lab and began working. I haven't made much progress yet, but it is only the first day."
"Can I come with you tomorrow? Please, I want to see him."
"Child, all of us care deeply for you. I care about you too much to let you come to the true lab while I'm working. Remember, I disappeared because one of my experiments went wrong."
"I won't touch anything, I promise!" She said giving him a pair of puppy dog eyes. Gaster had seen this plenty of times before from Sans mostly. He used to be so weak and would break and give his boys whatever they wanted, but not anymore. Especially not with this.
"I'm sorry Frisk." he shook his head. "Come I'll tuck you in."
Gaster continued to work day after day to try to get Asriel back. Everyday when he would come home Frisk would greet him at the door and he would take the two of them somewhere private. He would tell her of his plans and what he was working on. He had a plan to make a artificial soul for flowey, which in theory should restore Asriel's consciousness. He was getting closer and closer everyday. This continued for a week.
Gaster decided to head out early one morning as his hand touched the knob and he pulled the door open it became engulfed in a blue light and slammed shut.
"Sans!"
"dad, what are you doing? I'm not an idiot, i know something's up between you and frisk." Sans told him looking down with his hands in his pockets. Gaster thought for a moment. He had been leaving an awful lot lately. "come on, what's up?"
"Sans, for as much as i would like to tell you it's not my place. However, you are very smart. Part of me wants to ask for your help, but another part of me wants to keep you away from all this."
"dad please tell me."
"How about this. I think getting close to finishing my project. If I am not done today then when I return I will explain everything, but if I do finish today then everything will explain itself."
"dad it's not just that you're going out. i've seen you walk back into the underground, why? i can only assume you're going down there to do more work. what if you don't come back."
"I will always come back to you. After everything that's happened I refuse to let another day go by where I don't have dinner with my family. I will always return to you my boy. I promise." Gaster told him holding Sans by the shoulders.
Sans didn't want to let him go, but something inside him told him to let his father go. "fine."
"Thank you son." Gaster smiled and headed for the door.
"but you better keep your promise."
"I will."
Gaster was working hard, he had almost finished the artificial heart.
"Almost...Almost…"
"Come on doc, you've been working on this for a week." Flowey groaned. "Just give up."
Gaster had learned to ignore him by this point. So he just continued his work.
Gaster walked into the house again, this time he was greeted by both Sans and Frisk.
"well?" Sans asked.
Gaster opened the door more and reviled Asriel. Frisk ran to the goat and hugged him tightly as she began crying and apologizing.
"Frisk, its ok. I told you to go, i told you to." Asriel cried into Frisk's shoulder.
"what?" Sans stared at the child.
"Why don't we get the king and queen here, then I'll explain."
Torial and Asgore were at the skeletons door within the hour. Asriel was taken into Frisks room until both monsters were seated.
"Is everyone alright?" Torial asked as she came through the door.
"Yes, um, actually things are about to get better then ever." Gaster explained. "You can come down now!" he yelled up the stairs. They all heard a door open. The monsters looked to the stairs and saw their son.
"A-Asriel. Asriel!" They both yelled and ran to the child holding him tightly within their arms. "What happened? How are you alive?"
"I'm sorry." Frisk started. "He's been alive this whole time as Flowey. Before we all came up here he made me promise not to tell you both who he was because he didn't want me to break your hearts."
"As Flowey he didn't have a soul. As such Frisk was unable to save him. However, once I came back Frisk asked for my help." Gaster explained seeing as Frisk was teary eyed and sniffling. "She truly did everything she could, but she didn't tell anyone because of the promise she made."
"I'm sorry!" Frisk cried into her hands. "I wanted to tell you all so bad, but i didn't want to go against Asriels wishes. I wanted to save you so bad Asriel-"
"Frisk…" he interrupted her. "I'm happy that you didn't tell them. I didn't want my parents to see me as Flowey, then me breaking their hearts because I had no soul. I knew if they knew then they would have searched me out. That was the last thing I wanted. Thank you. And thank you for having Gaster help me and reunite me with my parents. Thank you Mr. Gaster."
"It was my pleasure child."
"frisk." Sans said and turned her to look at him. "we know you must have done everything you could. there is no way you'd leave a monster down there if you knew how to save it. im proud of you for doing everything that you did kid."
"ME TOO, I HAVE THE BEST NIECE EVER!"
"Thank you, Frisk. Thank you, Dr. Gaster." Asgore said through his tears
"Thank you all so much." Torial managed through her sobbing as she held her son, just like she was always meant to.
A/N: Let me make something clear first, despite the name of this chapter it is NOT the last one. Expect many more!
Okay so this chapter wasn't really fluff but it opens the door to a lot more opportunities for happy things. I really wanted to get this chapter out before Christmas. Which I absolutely will be writing a Christmas story for this. Expect either a long Christmas chapter or maybe one or two more chapters and then the the Christmas one.
Also I feel like the monsters would want to experience every holiday. AKA Hanukkah and whatnot. However, I myself have only celebrated Christmas. Same with all my friends. So as much as I want to write stories for the other holidays I don't feel like I can properly write it having never experienced these holidays myself. So therefore I want to apologize to people who don't celebrate Christmas. As I feel I can not write something to celebrate your religious holidays, not because I don't want to write it I just feel like I can't do it justice as someone who hasn't celebrated it.
