"Naui Look out!" Aruin shouted.
The older boy's fist slammed into Naui's cheek regardless of the warning from his friend. The brunet was sent backward into the dirt and grass. With the way he was sprawled out on his back combined with the hair covering his eyes, it was hard to tell if the smaller boy had been knocked unconscious by that last blow or not. The other human kids watching all murmured amongst themselves pointing, some even giggling. Naui's right hand twitched and he sat up. Blood trickled out of one nostril, his bottom lips shad a sheen to it, making him wonder if he'd bit it on impact.
The golden brunet stumbled to his feet like a drunkard, swaying on unsteady legs like a flower in a storm. Did that last punch give him a concussion? Naui was clearly unbalanced and his legs were shaking so bad they appeared ready to give out at any moment.
The other monster children were disinterest and avoided the circle, it was a brawl between two random humans to them. The humans were eager for more blood, and by the way, there were cheering on the other boy, it was his friend's blood they wanted to see.
Naui was once more sent sprawling into the dirt, this time by a blow to the shoulder. This time he struggled to one foot, still sitting, one eye squeezed shut, the other squinted open and a fire burning in its amber depth. Fear for his friend's like bubbled up in his soul. Naui couldn't take much more of this.
"Stop this right now! The bastard isn't worth a broken head!" Aruin demanded, shouting.
Naui normally had an easy time to dodging attacks from kids older and heavier than him, but that wasn't the case now. The older boy was able to predict his movements and act accordingly, his accuracy spot on. It had been unwinnable for Naui from the start, and yet the younger boy refused to back down. Even now, despite how beat up he was, he refused to stay down and stumbled back up to his feet.
Then a pair of two more kids entered the circle, both as tall as his fallen friend. One stayed close to the side lines, it was clear by their mannerisms they didn't know how to fight, but they weren't quite willing to let their platinum haired friend go it alone. Their friend was a different story, either they did know how to fight or was just that willing to stand up against the older kid. The platinum kid was as fast as Naui, but he still ended up on his knees from a low to their stomach, the saliva in their mouth forced out by the strength of the punch.
Fear turned to anger when their cocoa haired friend ran over to their side, only to be sent flying.
"Dad, aren't you supposed to be at the lab working?" Sans asked.
"Not today, today's a day off for me." He answered.
Actually, Edna had left a message along the lines of "Gaster, take the day off or I swear to the wishing stones above I will change the pass code and hide all of your important files and paperwork". And Edna was the type of monster to follow through with every threat she made. So, in the name of not having an angry coworker scolding him for not taking enough time off, he'd do as he was told. Besides, the flowers in castle park were said to be in bloom. That was something he'd been meaning to show Papyrus, certain that the toddler would like it.
"We'll be spending the afternoon at castle park, so go gather up any toys you want to bring with- and no Sans, you cannot bring your favorite whoopie cushion." He said with full parent authority.
They weren't the first to arrive at the park, a family of dog monsters were there already. Sans immediately took off to go join the puppies in what seemed to be a game of tag. Papyrus decided that climbing up and down the slide was more fun. He made sure to keep an eye on both of them, but opted to sit down on a bench near the flowers and relax. Within the hour, more kids and their parents arrived and Papyrus joined a group of fellow toddlers in the sand pit.
He stepped in, ignoring Aruin's loud protesting. The ebony haired boy would not be happy with him when everything was said and done.
"I'll be your opponent now." He said.
"Gaster what the hell are you doing- oww!"
"Don't do this!"
"What are you doing- He'll hurt you really badly!"
He ignored the already defeated kids as they tried to talk him out of it. Instead, he focused his attention on the one responsible for inflicting so much pain upon his friend.
"I'm ready whenever you are, that is if you aren't backing out now." He goaded.
That got the bastard's attention. He side stepped the oncoming fist as easily as Naui normally did, it passed by his left arm by inches. The next first he avoided by stepping back. He didn't even need to teleport to dodge these attacks. His movements were slow, accurate and powerful, but slow none the less. The kids around them had fallen silent as they realized this wasn't the one-sided fight they'd been expecting. Naui and Aruin were even quiet as they watched.
"You might have impressive accuracy and force behind your punches, but without proper speed, you'll never land a hit on me." He said. "I've sparred with disabled elders faster than you, one of them is an actual turtle."
The kid turned red, anger born from humiliation adding extra speed and force his each fist. Alas, he was still too slow to touch him.
"With a wave of a body hand, he turned the kid's soul blue and sent them crashing into the dirt like he had Naui and the platinum blond. It hadn't reduced the other's HP by much, but he felt it was enough to call it a victory. Walking away back over to his friend, he heard the other boy get up. Then he caught the look in Aruin's eyes; panic.
"Look out!" Naui screamed.
'Thunk'.
The boy's fist collided hard with the back of his skull, he could feel it drain away a third of his HP. Things went graveyard silent.
"You brat." The kid spat behind him. "You think I'd just let you walk away after humiliating me like that?"
Now he was pissed. He dove forward, spinning around to face the brat who didn't know when to step down. He watched as the kid went pale, he must have noticed the purple ablaze in his eye sockets. It must have been haunting for everyone watching as spectators, even his downed friends. With a snap, he summoned a blaster and fired. He watched with satisfaction as the boy's HP dropped down to half.
"I gave you the chance to walk away with only a few bumps and a bruised ego, but you just had to push it, didn't you." He growled. "This time, stay down."
He did his best to ignore the stares of the others around them as they bore into him. He hadn't meant to go to such extremes, and wouldn't have if the other boy had just stood down.
"You all okay?" He mumbled.
They all nodded.
He was taken a bit by surprise when Aruin trapped him in a vice grip of a hug and glared angerly at him.
"Never ever do that again, got it?"
He nodded.
"The same goes for you three on the ground."
"Dad!"
"Hnnn?"
He opened an eye socket to find the funniest sight: Sans with a bouquet of different colored flowers sticking out of an eye socket. Off in the distance he could see the puppies covered in flower chains.
"It seems I've missed several things while I was out, like when you decided to become a vase." He said, the faint wisps of a smile on his face.
"Hehe, very funny dad," Sans deadpanned. "Papy has something he want's you to see."
What Papyrus had wanted him to see was the sand castle he and the others had created. It wasn't anything fancy, they were only toddlers after all. But as a parent, he thought it was nice none the less. They certainly appeared to have had fun decorating it with petals and stems, the moat was even filled with former.
"It's marvelous, you all did well." He praised, patting his youngest son on the head. "It seems we have a little architect in the making."
"Dahh!" Papyrus squealed.
The next thing he knew, his sons had teamed up to tackle him to the ground, giggling and laughing as they sat on his chest, beaming with pride. Sans still had the flowers sticking out of his eye.
"My, my, what a sight to behold, right Gory?" A feminine voice said. A voice he recognized.
He nearly jumped when he'd heard Toriel speak. This was a development he hadn't expected.
"That it is, Tori, that it is." A deeper male voice replied.
It was one thing to be the royal scientist and attend a meeting with the king and queen(sometimes), but it was something else entirely to be meeting them as a parent outside the lab or castle with his sons clinging to his sweater.
"Hello King Fluffybuns, Queen Fluffybuns," Sans said.
"Kwing Dweemoo!" Papyrus greeted.
He already knew how the two royals would react, skull turning purple. Comesnce royal boss monster laughter in 3, 2, 1. Both Triel and Asgore burst out laughing so hard tears were peeping out of the corners of their eyes.
"King Dweemoo, that's a new one!" Asgore chuckled. "It's certainly something new, I like it."
"Agreed, both of your sons are so very adorable," Toriel added.
"Dad talks about us?" Sans asked
"Yes, when they're a break here or there. And he uses this fond tone of voice that's reserved for only when he's talking about the two of you." Asgore answered.
"DadDadDad!" Prince Asriel shouted, running over to them. "Can Chara and I go pl- Oh Howdy! Are you Dr. Gaster's sons?"