"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SANS HAS TO REPEAT THE YEAR!?" Gaster yelled at the head teacher as he stood from the chair and slammed his hands on the desk. Six year old Sans sat on a chair next to his father looking as though he couldn't care less as he fiddled randomly with a Rubik Cube.

The teacher gulped, he didn't want to be yelled at by the Royal Scientist but someone had to tell him, it was for Sans's own good. "Please, I know this will be hard for you to accept Doctor, but Sans has never gotten past the second question in any assignment, he just falls asleep. It's clearly too hard for him, we can't let him progress if he doesn't understand! It'll only get harder for him!"

"ARE YOU CALLING MY SON, MY PRECIOUS LITTLE BABY, STUPID?"

"N-no! Of course not, no child is stupid, he just needs a little extra help."

"HE ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT! IN FACT HE SHOULD BE SKIPPING A YEAR! IT'S SO OBVIOUS THAT HE'S FALLING ASLEEP BECAUSE IT'S TOO EASY, IT'S BORING HIM!"

"dad, come on," Sans spoke up not looking up from the cube, "it's not a big deal."

"IT IS A BIG DEAL!" Gaster turned to his son, he knew he didn't care but he wasn't just going to let Sans waste a whole year just because he was lazy. "I WILL NOT LET MY SON BE HELD BACK!"

"Doctor Gaster, please! We just want to help him."

"HELP HIM? HOW IS THIS HELPING HIM? YOU'RE WASTING HIS TIME AND MINE!"

Gaster glared at the teacher, he hadn't been so angry in a long time. He knew for a fact that his son was a genius, he loved science and maths. Gaster had tested him himself and Sans always got high marks. He knew that Sans was just lazy and wouldn't do anything that didn't interest him, he'd just pull him out of school if he could but Sans had friends and Gaster couldn't take that away from him.

"Look, I get that you want your child to be smart but in reality he's not finishing assignments, not even close to finishing one. We can't just let him go into the next year if he's going to struggle, that's not fair on him."

"HE'S NOT STRUGGLING! YOU ARE JUST STRUGGLING TO GIVE HIM A GOOD ENOUGH CHALLENGE. MY SON IS NOT STUPID, THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! HE EVEN HELPS ME WITH SOME EXPERIMENTS FROM TIME TO TIME."

The teacher sighed, "I'm sorry, but I'll need to see some kind of proof if I'm going to let him move on."

Gaster smirked, "FINE," he turned to Sans who had gotten bored of fiddling with the Rubik Cube and was now throwing it up in the air and catching it with blue magic. "SANS, YOU STAY HERE AND BE GOOD. I'LL BE RIGHT BACK WITH YOUR TESTS."

"ok."

"I MEAN IT, BE GOOD."

"ok."

"SANS."

"i'll be good."

"OKAY," Gaster glared at the teacher again and ran out of the principle's office and went home as fast as he could.

Running into the spare room and over to a filing cabinet, he pulled out the tests he had made for Sans, he stuffed them into a bag and opened another drawer in the cabinet. He knew that the tests themselves wouldn't be enough to prove that Sans wasn't stupid and was in fact a genius. After all Sans had done them at home, there was no proof that Gaster hadn't helped him with it so he brought out a test he had only just finished writing, Sans could do that at the school and they'd see how smart he really was.

Once he stuffed that into his bag he ran back to the school and burst into the office to find Sans sleeping in the chair he'd left him in and the teacher going through some paper work. Gaster opened his bag and slammed the tests on the desk, waking Sans, who jumped at the sudden noise.

"SORRY, SANS, YOU CAN GO BACK TO SLEEP IF YOU WANT," Gaster said as he stroked his skull and sat back down. Sans yawned and got up to sit in Gaster's lap as he looked at the teacher. Gaster hugged his son as he settled into his lap and smirked at the teacher.

As much as Sans didn't care if he was held back or not he liked the idea of his father proving the teacher wrong, that would be hilarious. Plus he wanted Gaster to be proud of him so he smiled smugly and took the Rubik Cube out of his pocket, this time instead of just messing around with it he began to solve it.

The principle didn't take long to look over the tests and then he looked back at Gaster, "alright, but how do I know you didn't just give him the answers?"

"THERE'S A TEST HE HASN'T DONE YET, I'LL LEAVE THE ROOM AND YOU CAN GIVE HIM THAT TO DO. IT WON'T TAKE LONGER THAN HALF AN HOUR, SHORTER IF HE ACTUALLY TRIES FOR ONCE."

"done!" Sans said happily as he held up the completed Rubik Cube.

"WELL DONE!" Gaster smiled and kissed the top of Sans's skull.

The teacher looked at them with a raised eyebrow. "Very well, let's do this test," he said with a sigh, trying to hide just how impressed he was with how fast Sans had solved the cube.

Sans laughed with his father as they left the school. The teacher took back what he said after Sans passed the test and agreed that maybe it'd be best if Sans skipped a year instead. That was going to be brought up in a meeting with other teachers and they'd call Gaster once a decision was made but at least Sans no longer had to repeat a year.

"i think we really tested that guy's patients," Sans giggled, "he really got schooled! what you did really was a class act."

Gaster laughed and shook his head, "THOSE WERE ALL TERRIBLE!" He said although he was still laughing.

Sans shrugged, "i am very punny!"

"YOU ARE, I WISH YOU'D PUT AS MUCH EFFORT INTO YOUR SCHOOL WORK AS YOU DO PUNS," Gaster sighed.

"but class is boring!" Sans complained, "and i get sleepy."

"STOP BEING SUCH A LAZYBONES, SANS. YOUR EDUCATION IS IMPORTANT, PROMISE ME YOU'LL DO YOUR ASSIGNMENTS FROM NOW ON."

"but-"

"NO BUTS! THEY SHOULD BE FAIRLY EASY FOR YOU JUST DO THEM QUICKLY THEN YOU CAN SLEEP FOR THE REST OF THE CLASS IF YOU REALLY HAVE TO."

Sans sighed, "ok, i'll try."

"GOOD."

"but not all classes are easy, you know. p.e, art and creative writing are hard!"

"I DON'T EXPECT YOU TO BE GOOD AT EVERYTHING. JUST DO YOUR BEST IN THE ONES YOU STRUGGLE WITH AND DON'T BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR HELP."

Sans nodded and took his father's hand as they began to walk towards their home. "hey, dad?" Sans asked.

"YES?"

"can we go to grillby's for dinner?"

Gaster looked down at his son, "YOU WERE AT GRILLBY'S ALL DAY YESTERDAY."

"please? his food is the best and i like grillby, he's really cool... for a guy made of fire."

Gaster smiled and gave in, he couldn't say no when Sans was looking up at him with cute puppy dog eyes. "ALRIGHT, I SUPPOSE WE CAN. YOU DID SO WELL WITH THE TEST SO YOU DESERVE A TREAT."

"yay!" Sans let go of Gaster's hand and threw his arms in the air before happily running ahead a little.

Gaster laughed lightly at seeing his son just light up and gain energy out of nowhere. "DON'T FALL!" Gaster called as he to sped up so he was close enough to catch him with blue magic should he slip on some ice.

They walked into Grillby's together and up to the bar. Grillby smiled at the two skeletons as Gaster lifted Sans onto a bar stool and sat down himself.

"Good evening," Grillby signed, "the usual?"

Sans nodded, "yep, that'd be cool grillbz"

"SANS, MANNERS."

"right, please?"

Grillby smiled and nodded at Sans then pet his head before going to the back to make their dinner.

Gaster enjoyed his burger with his son, the two of them messing around as they ate and bugged Grillby with fire puns when he wasn't serving other customers. Gaster did have to occasionally tell Sans off when he caught him loosening the lids on the condiments but otherwise that had a good dinner.

Gaster really did love his son very much, he savoured every moment he had with Sans, he spent as much time with him as he could and as Sans got older the more experiments he could help with and the more time they could spend together.

But Sans was growing up so fast, already six years old. Gaster didn't know just how much he'd enjoy being a father but it was the best thing he had ever done. He loved Sans more than anything and... He wanted another child.

But he was scared. Scared that if he repeated the experiment that created Sans, it would fail. Scared that his second child might be weaker than Sans was. Scared that he'd create a child only for them to dust immediately. He couldn't go through that, he was already worrying enough about his firstborn.

Besides he was very busy, he was a single father with a very important job, he had struggled a bit with Sans despite having his best friends to help him. He knew two kids would be much more work but Sans really was a very good child, sure he pulled pranks and clearly didn't pay attention at school but he never disobeyed Gaster. It wasn't like he never did anything bad but the only things Gaster ever really needed to punish Sans for was when he hid whoopee cushions around the house or lab when he had important guests round or when he drank all the ketchup and replaced it with hot sauce. Despite that Sans was rather mature for his age, he could take care of a little sibling and Gaster was sure that Sans would love being a big brother. He was really considering having another kid.

Gaster sat in his lab, Sans on the floor doing another test he had begged his father to give him. Gaster was looking at his soul research, his notes on the creation of Sans's soul, the notes he had made when Sans was just an experiment, before Gaster realised the soul was alive. He was making changes and adding other notes in pen over a printed version. Sans was never meant to be alive so his soul was weak because Gaster had never meant for it to be strong. He'd correct his formulas so that his second child would hopefully not have the same problems Sans did and Gaster could worry a little less. Gaster smiled at the improved notes and was confident that it would work. Now he just needed to look out the equipment and begin the process of creating another soul. He felt excitement at the thought of it, he really wanted another child to love.

"hey, dad, i'm finished," Sans said looking up from the test.

Gaster turned and smiled at him, "WELL DONE AND SO QUICKLY AS WELL, YOU'RE SO SMART!"

Sans giggled at the praise and stood up to hand Gaster the finished test, "i think this one was a little too easy, they're normally much harder."

Gaster laughed as he took the papers Sans handed him to mark. "WELL I DIDN'T HAVE ONE READY AND YOU PUT ME ON THE SPOT! I THINK YOU MIGHT BE THE ONLY KID IN THE WORLD WHO ACTUALLY ENJOYS EXAMS."

Sans shrugged, "only the ones you give me."

Gaster pulled his son in for a hug and turned back to his desk moving his research aside to replace it with Sans's test. He could take a break from that for now, there was no rush and began to mark the test as Sans crawled onto his lap and fell asleep.

Gaster had looked out all the necessary equipment and cleaned them, he couldn't believe he was really going to do this but he wanted it more than anything. This time he already told his friends what he was going to do and they all encouraged him to go through with it. He hadn't told Sans yet, however. He didn't want to get his hopes up if the new child were to die due to any kind of compilations. Sans was still a little too young to understand and Gaster didn't want to hype him up to be a big brother only to tell him that it'd failed.

It wasn't going to fail. Gaster wasn't going to let it, this soul was going to be much stronger than Sans had been at this stage and Gaster figured the changes of another earthquake hitting and affecting his unborn child was low and even if the power did go out they now had a back up generator. His second born would be alright.

He extracted his DNA again, not caring that it hurt a bit, it was much too exciting to care about a little pain, and injected it into the empty soul. Then he took a new needle and removed as much of his magic as he could and injected that into the soul as well. He wanted this child to be strong, so he didn't have to worry quite as much about them as he did Sans. He figured that having a strong sibling would be good for Sans, after all Gaster wouldn't be around forever and he wanted someone to protect Sans when he was gone, hopefully after a long and happy life.

There were so many reasons Gaster wanted another child but the main one was simply because he did. He loved Sans so much and he wanted another.

Gaster smiled at the small soul floating in the second tube Sans had been in, already connected to life support and in the magic fluid. This one would go smoother, it had to. Gaster placed his hand to the glass and smiled at the soul that belonged to his second child.

"GROW BIG AND STRONG FOR ME, LITTLE ONE," Gaster said and after a long time staring at it he turned away and set up a security camera to keep a close eye on his child when he wasn't there. He was going to be watching this one much more closely, after all he had missed most of the early stages with Sans because he didn't think he was alive. He'd only checked on his soul once a day. With this child he would most liking going to check the camera all the time and once he was sure they were stable and beginning to create a body he'd tell Sans about them.

"MY SECOND CHILD, ENTRY NUMBER ONE.

THEY ARE PROGRESSING MUCH FASTER THAN SANS DID.

SANS TOOK FIVE DAYS TO START FORMING A BODY, THIS ONE TOOK THREE.

THEY'RE STRONGER, WHICH IS GOOD.

THERE IS ONE OTHER DIFFERENCE.

SANS WAS A BLUE BLOB AT FIRST, THIS CHILD IS ORANGE, I WONDER WHAT THAT MEANS.

THE ORANGE SOUL WAS BRAVERY. I WONDER IF THAT MEANS THIS CHILD WILL BE BRAVE...

NO MATTER, THEY'RE STABLE SO I THINK IT'S TIME I SHOWED SANS."

"what is it?" Sans asked as he walked through the labs with his dad, hand in hand.

"YOU'LL SEE ONCE WE GET THERE," Gaster tried to contain his excitement as he spoke. It was so hard not to pick Sans up and run but he didn't want to scare Sans and make him think it was something bad.

"but i wanna know," Sans complained, "is it something cool?"

"OH YES, VERY COOL," Gaster said. He held his son's hand tighter and sped up a little, he wanted to get there was soon as he could. It didn't take long.

Gaster opened the door to the lab his new child was in and walked in with Sans at his side. Sans's eyes widened and he let go of Gaster's hand and ran over to the tube, where the little soul was surrounded by an orange blob.

"wow!" Sans touched the glass, a look of utter amazement on his face and Gaster laughed as he walked over and knelt besides Sans.

"THIS IS YOUR LITTLE SIBLING, YOU'RE GOING TO BE A BIG BROTHER," he told Sans with a smile as he put an arm around him.

Sans torn his gaze away from the soul and looked at Gaster, he was clearly excited. "that's awesome, when will they be born? is it a boy or girl?"

Gaster pulled Sans in for a hug, "WELL IT SHOULD BE NINE MONTHS BUT YOU WERE BORN IN EIGHT, HOPEFULLY THIS WILL GO RIGHT. AS FOR THEIR SEX WE WON'T KNOW THAT FOR A LITTLE WHILE YET... OUT OF CURIOSITY; WHAT WOULD YOU PREFER?"

Sans shrugged, "don't care. you?"

Gaster mirrored Sans shrug, "I DON'T MIND, IT'S JUST AMAZING THAT I CAN HAVE CHILDREN AT ALL."

Sans turned back to the small soul and just stared at it, "i can't wait," he said not looking away.

Gaster laughed and pulled over a couple of chairs for them to sit down on. "WELL YOU CAN HELP ME WATCH OVER THEM UNTIL THEY'RE BORN. YOU CAN STAY HERE FOR AS LONG AS YOU LIKE AS WELL. THEY'RE PERFECTLY SAVE IN THE TUBE, IT'S THICK GLASS SO AS LONG AS YOU DON'T TOUCH THE LIFE SUPPORT MACHINE YOU CAN STAY... ALSO YOU STILL HAVE TO DO YOUR HOMEWORK!"

Sans rolled his eyes as he climbed onto the chair and continued to watch his sibling. "i'll be good, don't worry."

Gaster smiled as he patted his son's skull. "I LOVE YOU," he said.

"love you too, dad, and i love my little brother or sister too!"

Gaster nodded, "I LOVE THEM AS WELL."

Everything was so perfect; Gaster had his lazy genius son and soon was going to have another child, who Gaster knew would be just as great as Sans was. How could any child of the Great Gaster be any less than great themselves?

After an hour Gaster managed to pull himself away from his children, he still had work to do so as much as he wanted to sit with Sans and the little soul, he couldn't. After all another human had fallen, that made four souls now. A human had fallen when Sans was two, a dark blue soul, integrity. Gaster had studied it like he had all others but didn't find anything new. There was still no breakthroughs.

Gaster left Sans in the room and went to the lab next door. The fourth soul was there in a capsule, a purple one, Gaster had already found out that this soul's trait was perseverance. He had a limited time to study the soul as Asgore wanted it back so it could be safely stored with the others, so Gaster had to work fast. He wished he could let Sans help but he didn't know how he'd explain it all to a six year old. The science wasn't what he would struggle to explain, Sans was a natural scientist after all. What he couldn't explain was the moral side of it, his son was very smart and curious, he'd ask where it came from and Gaster didn't know how he'd answer that. Sans was still too young, too innocent.

He'd bare the burden himself. He'd research the souls alone so no one else had to suffer from the guilt of experimenting on a real human soul and he would even bare the burden of killing the human children if Asgore let him. He had to protect his own children from that, they could never know their father was an accomplice in the murder of human children, even though he wasn't doing this for revenge anymore, he was doing it for them.