Sans was very excited. He watched the soul everyday and Gaster found it hard to pull Sans away from them when he needed to eat or sleep or go to school. Sans really couldn't wait for his little sibling to be born. Gaster had even ended up with several photos of Sans sleeping next to the capsule at various stages in the infant's development. He could tell that Sans was going to be a very protective brother and he knew that Sans definitely loved them a whole lot.

The child's development was going smoothly. Gaster discovered he was going to have another son and Sans was excited to know he'd have a little brother. He was definitely going to be stronger than Sans and Gaster was happy that Sans's weakness wasn't because he wasn't born the usual way. This child had move HP than Sans already and he was bigger than what Sans had been at that point too.

Everything went so smoothly and before Gaster knew it, it was time of his second child to be 'born.' It was much less panicked and Gaster got him out with no problems. Sans had insisted on watching, Gaster was worried that the now seven year old Sans would get in the way but he stayed to the side and watched with a huge smile on his face. He even asked a few questions.

As Gaster checked over his newborn son, making sure he was healthy, Sans came over and looked down at him. Gaster laughed lightly as Sans reached in slowly and poked his brother's cheekbone with enough force to move his head to the side.

"CAREFUL NOW, SANS," Gaster warned lightly.

"you said that he's stronger than me."

"WHEN YOU WERE THIS AGE, YES, BUT HE'S STILL JUST A BABY. DON'T BE TOO ROUGH."

The babybones wriggled a little when Sans moved away, he was yet to cry but Gaster wasn't too worried since he was awake and staring at his father and brother. He reached up a hand towards Sans and Sans looked to Gaster questionably.

Gaster smiled at his eldest. "I THINK HE LIKES YOU. PROBABLY BECAUSE YOU SPENT SO MUCH TIME WITH HIM WHEN HE WAS IN THE TUBE."

Sans grinned and carefully lowered his hand back into the crib and his brother took hold of his finger. Sans giggled, "he's so cool."

The infant squirmed a little, clearly already more active than his brother and made a sound much like laughter, "NYEH HEH HEH!"

Sans jumped at the sudden noise pulling away sharply, the sudden movement then causing the newborn to cry. "oh no! i'm sorry!" Sans lent back in to try to calm him.

Gaster took over, picking up the baby and shushing him, the baby stopped crying quickly and settled into his father's arms. Gaster was happy that he had made a sound so quickly as now he knew that his second son was an upper case like Gaster himself, making Sans the odd one out but more importantly the child now had a name.

Gaster hugged his youngest close and smiled at his oldest, "HIS NAME'S PAPYRUS."

"papyrus..." Sans echoed and gave his finger back to Papyrus to hold onto, "i love you, papyrus."

Gaster smiled at Papyrus, he was nowhere near breaking the barrier, there were only three more souls needed, he was running out of time. He should be desperate, he should be working 24/7 but he was happy; he now had two perfect children. He had a family again and he found thinking of anything other than his sons impossible right now.

"DO YOU WANT TO HOLD HIM?" Gaster asked, looked away from Papyrus again and back at Sans.

Sans gasped, the lights in his eyes shinning bright like stars. "can i?" He asked.

"OF COURSE, GO SIT DOWN."

Sans did as he was told and sat in his father's chair, Papyrus whined a little at seeing his brother move away but seemed to be relived when he saw that Sans didn't leave the room. Gaster let him get comfortable before coming over and teaching Sans how to hold an infant before handing Papyrus over. Sans was very careful and listened to his father's instructions and held Papyrus close to him. Papyrus seemed very content in Sans's arms and reached up to grab at his brother's face.

Gaster, seeing his sons together, felt very proud, proud of Sans for being such a good brother already, proud for Papyrus because he was so cute and strong. He was proud of himself for creating such perfect children. Now that he truly knew how to create children alone he could have more, although dealing with one baby at a time was probably a good idea, he couldn't spend all his time looking after kids but there was nothing to stop him having another once Papyrus was older.

Right now he had to concentrate on the two he already had. They were happy where they were for now, Sans was talking to Papyrus about all the things they'd do together when Papyrus was older. Gaster took out his camera and took a photo of his sons, Sans was still looking at Papyrus but looked up at his father when he saw the flash.

"SMILE FOR THE CAMERA, SANS," Gaster said.

Sans rolled his eyes and gave Gaster a huge grin as Gaster took another photo.

"you sure like taking photos of us," Sans commented.

"YOU GROW UP SO FAST SO I HAVE TO!" Gaster exclaimed, "WE'LL ALL LOOK BACK ON THESE TOGETHER ONCE YOU TWO ARE ADULTS AND YOU'LL BE GLAD THAT I DID."

Sans shrugged, the movement a little awkward with Papyrus in his arms and went back to cooing at his new brother.

Now that, that was out of the way Gaster decided to call Asgore, Grillby and the latter's family; they'd wanted to know once the child was born and Gaster was excited to share the news.

He grinned to himself, a thought coming into his mind, "HEY, SANS I'M GOING TO CALL ASGORE AND GRILLBY, WANT TO BET ON WHO YOU THINK WILL ARRIVE FIRST?"

Sans laughed, "asgore, obviously, he's closer and more excited than grillbz."

"YEAH BUT HE'S BUSIER TODAY THAN GRILLBY IS."

Sans shrugged again, "i still say asgore."

Asgore arrived as fast as he could, bursting into the room and looking at Gaster pleadingly, "where's the baby?"

Sans, still sitting with his baby brother in his arms, looked up at his father, "i win."

Asgore looked over to Sans with a confused frown, "you win?"

"WE HAD A BET ON WHO WOULD ARRIVE FIRST, YOU OR GRILLBY. SANS WON."

"Oh," Asgore said and let out a laugh.

Gaster, rolled his eyes, "ANYWAY, THIS IS PAPYRUS," he gestured to the child in Sans's arms.

Asgore was over in seconds as he looked down at the new Gaster. Papyrus, much like Sans was very curious and stared up at the new person with great interest and a few seconds of what looked like intense thought he raised his arms up to Asgore as though he wanted Asgore to hold him, however Asgore was hesitant to take him away from his brother.

Sans didn't seem to mind and smiled up at the King. "you can take him, my arms are getting tired."

Asgore was more than happy to do just that and he carefully lifted Papyrus out of San's arms. The babybones seemed very happy with this as he laughed and wriggled happily getting comfortable in Asgore's much larger arms and then reaching up to grab at his beard.

"Ow ouch!" Asgore carefully took Papyrus's little hand and pried his beard free, "my, you're much more active than your brother."

Gaster came over to stand next to Asgore and gave Papyrus a rattle to occupy his hands so he wouldn't decide Asgore's beard was a suitable toy again. Papyrus waved the rattle around making a large amount of noise as his giggles mixed with the sound of the toy.

"HE'S GOING TO BE MUCH MORE WORK THAN SANS WAS. HOPEFULLY HAVING PAPYRUS WILL MAKE SANS MORE ACTIVE AND LESS LAZY. HE NEVER DOES ANYTHING!"

"i am right here," Sans said, he'd made no effort to get up from the chair and had actually pulled his legs to his chest and curled up in it.

Gaster sighed, "LEGS DOWN, SANS. SIT PROPERLY. YOU'RE GETTING THE CHAIR DIRTY."

Sans responded by kicking his already untied trainers off. "won't get dirty now, think of that as an act of chair-ity." he replied.

Gaster couldn't stop himself from laughing at the pun, the act made it difficult to then turn around and scold Sans for being a smart-ass. Before he could react past laughing, however, Asgore spoke, "I think Papyrus just cringed at that joke."

That got Sans's attention and he got out of the chair, "really? isn't he a little too young to understand puns?"

Gaster shrugged, "NEITHER OF YOU ARE NORMAL, THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS HE PROBABLY SHOULDN'T BE ABLE DO TO RIGHT NOW BUT CAN; I GUESS IT'S BECAUSE YOU HAVE MORE MAGIC THAN OTHER KIDS. I REMEMBER WHEN YOU WERE ONLY A FEW WEEKS OLD YOU WERE LAUGHING AT PUNS."

"huh."

"He did?" Asgore asked, "who's?"

Gaster cringed realising that he'd kept that from Asgore for a reason. He couldn't tell him he'd gone to see Toriel, no one could know he'd been there, no one could find her. He shrugged, "JUST PEOPLES'. SKELETON PUNS ARE VERY EASY TO MAKE AND I HAD A LOT OF VISITORS. IT'S NOT IMPORTANT."

"i want to see if papy will cringe at another one!" Sans walked over to Asgore and stood on tip toes to look at Papyrus.

Gaster couldn't help but notice how quickly Sans had given his brother a nickname, he found it very cute. He scooped Sans up into his arms, something that was beginning to take more effort than before as Sans was bigger now. "MAKE SURE IT'S A REALLY TERRIBLE ONE!" He said.

"You encourage him too much," Asgore said fondly.

"HE HAS A TALENT FOR IT, ALL TALENTS MUST BE ENCOURAGED!"

Sans wasn't paying attention he was thinking up a really bad joke, "i've got one!"

"Let's hear it then."

"what does a skeleton order at a restaurant?"

"WHAT?"

"spareribs." Sans said quickly and blankly before he laughed at his own joke.

Gaster laughed out loud, Asgore tried to hide a snicker and Papyrus shivered and screwed up his face.

"he really hates them. i'm going to see if i can get him to laugh at one, one day."

"I think you've just found the best way to annoy him. Good luck dealing with that, Gaster. Siblings always try to annoy each other."

"OH I KNOW. I CAME FROM A BIG FAMILY AND WAS THE YOUNGEST, MY SIBLINGS ANNOYED ME TO NO END. I COULDN'T WAIT TO GET ENOUGH MONEY TO LEAVE. NOW I REALLY MISS THEM..."

Gaster hadn't thought about his old family in a long time. He'd told Sans stories from his youth of course but it still wasn't something he liked to think about. He missed them so much and he wished they could meet his children, he wished he could introduce his sons to their cousins. He wondered if his family would be proud of him, of what he's become, of what he's archived. There was no point in wondering what could have been, they were gone, they were dust and nothing could change that.

Sans, still in Gaster's arms and seeing his father looking very upset, wrapped his arms around his neck in a tight hug. He didn't know what to say to comfort him, he couldn't empathise with him as he'd never known loss so he said the only thing he could think of "i love you, daddy."

Gaster was pulled out of his thoughts of the past and back to the present. This was no time to be sad, he should be celebrating the birth of his second child, he should be concentrating on his children, not making his fragile seven year old worry about him. He kissed the top of his skull. "I LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH," He forced a smile but when he looked at the child in his arms and the baby in Asgore's the smile became genuine.

It wasn't long until Grillby came over as well. Asgore was still holding Papyrus but Gaster had let Sans down, the three of them were crowded around the newborn, happily talking.

They all turned when they felt the temperature increase announcing the arrival of the elemental. Grillby waved in greeting still not comfortable talking despite having to do so more regularly with Sans around since he sometimes was too busy sleeping or looking for food or pranking someone to see Grillby sign.

"AH, GRILLBY!" Gaster stood from where he was sitting to greet his other friend. "IF ONLY YOU CAME HALF AN HOUR SOONER I WOULD'VE WON THE BET! NOW I OWE SANS MY DESERT!"

Grillby knew better to ask, he sighed and shook his head, "you know it's not good to give children too many sweets, you shouldn't bet your deserts."

Gaster merely laughed and gently smacked Grillby's back, "MY FRIEND, I THINK YOU NEED TO LIGHTEN UP A LITTLE. WHERE IS YOUR SENSE OF FUN!?"

"papyrus cringed again!" Sans looked up at the two, "hey-ya, grillbz."

Grillby smiled at Sans and waved at him before signing a quick "hello, Sans."

Sans stood up and took Grillby's hand and pulled him over to Asgore and Papyrus. Gaster followed them and sat down on the seat Sans had previously been occupying, which resulted in Sans giving him a dirty look before he sat down on Gaster's lap with a thud. He responded by simply hugging his son.

"SO, GRILLBY, THIS IS PAPYRUS."

Grillby looked down at the newborn, who was staring up at him with a look of amazement. He stretched up to Grillby with a loud "NYEH!"

Grillby jumped slightly at the sound small sparks flying off of him with surprise. "Well he's much louder than Sans."

"More active too," Asgore added, "he's going to be much more work, I think."

In response Papyrus fidgeted in Asgore arms and reached for Grillby.

"I THINK HE WANTS TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH EVERYONE," Gaster laughed.

"It certainly seems that way," Asgore stood slowly, being extra careful with the restless child in his arms. "I don't think he'll settle unless you hold him, Grillby."

Grillby gave a small nod, he looked a little nervous; even though he'd held Sans when he was a baby, Sans was always very still and relaxed, Papyrus was the opposite and he really didn't want to hurt the child by accident.

He took a deep breath to cool his flames a little, he knew that burning bone was harder than burning flesh but he cooled himself all the same. The Gasters were his friends, he didn't want to harm the youngest. Once he was certain he was cool enough he carefully took Papyrus from Asgore.

Papyrus looked very happy to get what he wanted and he wriggled to get comfortable in Grillby's arms. Grillby looked uncomfortably to Gaster, who simply smiled at him, "YOU ARE DOING FINE, GRILLBY."

"... He's really... wriggly..."

"NYA!" Papyrus said as he pocked Grillby's chin and clapped his hands when he saw the way his flames rippled in surprise.

Grillby couldn't help but laugh, Papyrus didn't really seem to have any fear of fire with the way he just reached out and touched the elemental. "... Your kids are crazy, Gaster!"

Gaster hugged Sans tighter and kissed the top of his head, "YEAH BUT I LOVE THEM MORE THAN ANYTHING."

"my bro is the coolest," Sans said as he pushed Gaster off of him and jumped out of his lap, only to get pulled back up. "dad! stop!" he giggled as Gaster began to tickle him.

"NO WAY! LET ME SHOW AFFECTION TO MY BABY!"

"the baby's over there!" Sans pointed in Papyrus's direction.

"YOU'RE BOTH MY BABIES!"

Grillby rolled his eyes and Asgore laughed. Everyone was happy, it seemed that there was nothing that could ruin that happiness.

Almost.

Undyne ran though the labs as fast as she could, she'd gone to the palace only to be told that the Royal Scientist had just had his second son so the King had gone to see him so she was rather out of breath, especially with the heat of Hotland. It was no place for a fish monster, it was a good thing she was dressed lightly for training and not in any armour, not like she had any yet but she would once Gerson finally let her into the Royal Guard.

She burst into the room laughter was coming from. She was panting and looking ready to pass out as she looked over the five people in the room. A fire elemental was holding a baby skeleton, the Royal Scientist appeared to be playfully annoying his eldest and the King was laughing happily along with him but they all turned to her quickly.

The only sound was of her panting until the newborn made some kind of happy noise at seeing yet another new person to befriend. That seemed to knock everyone back to their senses.

"Undyne?" Asgore slowly approached her, "are you alright?"

"Human," she panted some more, "another human fell," more panting, "snuck past everyone," she took a deep breath, "they were spotted somewhere in Hotland."

Gaster let go of Sans who quickly jumped off his father's lap. "ANOTHER ONE SO SOON..." Gaster looked to Asgore. He knew this wasn't good, it was never good but a human fell about nine months ago, having to kill another so soon couldn't be good for Asgore.

Asgore stared blankly, his hands trembled but his voice was steady and commanding, "Where is Gerson?"

"He went to stop them and sent me to come and get you."

Asgore nodded and patted Undyne's shoulder, "good job, you did well. Please go back home and rest."

"I can help you fight!" She insisted.

"No, I will deal with them."

"But-"

"No, one day you will be in the Guard but as of now, you are a child. Stay away and concentrate on your education and training."

Undyne looked ready to argue but Gaster interrupted before she had the chance. "UNDYNE, IF YOU WANT TO BE IN THE GUARD YOU HAVE TO HELP PEOPLE THAT'S WHAT A GUARD DOES RIGHT?"

She shrugged, "yeah?"

"IF ONE HUMAN MANAGED TO GET THROUGH UNDETECTED, THERE MIGHT BE MORE. I DON'T FEEL SAFE SENDING GRILLBY THROUGH WATERFALL TO GET HOME, ALONE. IF THERE COULD BE MORE, IT'S JUST TOO DANGEROUS. WHY DON'T YOU ESCORT HIM? THEN KEEP WATCH FOR ANY OTHERS. PROVE YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES BY DOING THIS?"

Grillby nodded in agreement. They both knew Grillby would be fine, even if there was another human around, which was unlikely, Grillby was more than capable of taking care of himself. He won't let himself get drowned but it was a good excuse to keep the young preteen away from a potentially dangerous human that she wasn't ready to face yet.

She took the bait and agreed to take Grillby home and then go on patrol. Everything happened so fast after that; Asgore left in a hurry and Undyne and Grillby were not far behind. Leaving Papyrus in the crib Gaster stood and went to his desk to begin to prepare for yet another soul to experiment on.

"dad?" Sans asked, he'd been seemingly forgotten about in the panic and was left standing in the middle of the room, "what's going on?"

Gaster sighed but didn't look up at him, "HUMANS ARE DANGEROUS, THEY HAVE TO BE DEALT WITH QUICKLY."

"why?"

"HUH?"

"why are they dangerous?"

Gaster turned and looked at his oldest. He didn't want to tell him anything, he wanted to protect him but Sans was so curious and he knew that he would learn one day. Best he told him rather than having Sans learn the hard way.

"HUMAN'S HAVE THE POWER TO KILL US ALL. ONE WITH ENOUGH, DT, DETERMINATION, COULD DO SO ALONE AND RATHER QUICKLY TO."

"but why? why would they? we haven't done anything to them."

Gaster shrugged, "BECAUSE THEY'RE SCARED, BECAUSE THEY CAN, BECAUSE THEY FEEL THREATENED, BECAUSE THEY WANT TO. I DON'T KNOW BUT THEY ALMOST KILLED US ALL IN THE WAR, THEY COULD'VE BUT THEY SEALED US IN HERE INSTEAD. I DON'T KNOW IF THAT WAS A MERCY OR NOT, WE HAVE NOWHERE TO RUN SHOULD HUMANS DECIDE THEY WANT US ALL DEAD."

"so asgore has to kill them all?" Sans asked.

Gaster didn't know how he'd figured that out but he wasn't doing to deny it as much as he wanted to. He wanted to keep this from him and only show him the good things in life but the look on his face... Sans knew more than he let on, Gaster could tell. He was so proud of him for being so smart but for the first time he wished he wasn't.

"WE ONLY WANT TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE."

"what if the human is nice?"

"WE NEED HUMAN SOULS TO BE FREE, IT DOESN'T MATTER."

Sans looked shocked and a little upset at that and Gaster wished he could take that back. He wished he'd thought it through but he was shocked and freaking out slightly at the thought of there being another human so soon, only two more now...

"isn't killing wrong?"

"IT IS. VERY WRONG BUT IT'S SOMETIMES NECESSARY. SOMETIMES IT'S A MATTER OF LIFE OR DEATH." Gaster wished he'd just shut up and stop telling Sans these things.

Sans's eye-lights had gone out, he stared at nothing as he thought then very quietly he asked, "how many have you killed?"

"SANS..."

"are you a bad person?" He looked upset, like he was going to cry, "why don't you care?"

Gaster stood and hugged Sans tightly. Everything was all too much, his second child was born, he was thinking of the family he lost, there was another human, they only needed two...

"I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY I KILLED DURING THE WAR, TOO MANY. I WAS ANGRY, I WANTED REVENGE, I WANTED THEM TO BURN IN HELL. I WANTED THEM TO HAVE A BAD A TIME AS I DID. I PROBABLY AM A BAD PERSON BUT I LOVE YOU AND YOUR BROTHER SO MUCH. I DON'T CARE FOR REVENGE AS MUCH AS I DID IN THE PAST BUT I STILL CANNOT FORGIVE HUMANITY AND I'M SCARED THAT ONE DAY A HUMAN WILL TAKE MY FAMILY FROM ME AGAIN. I CAN'T LET THAT HAPPEN. IT'S TOO LATE FOR ME TO BECOME A GOOD PERSON MY LV IS TOO HIGH BUT I WANT TO DO EVERYTHING I CAN SO THAT YOU AND PAPYRUS DON'T HAVE TO SUFFER LIKE I DID."

Sans was shaking in Gaster's arms. "i don't understand."

"WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?"

"all of it. why didn't you tell me before?"

"I ONLY WANT TO PROTECT YOU." Gaster released Sans from the hug and got onto his knees before placing his hands on his shoulders. "SANS, ALL I WANT IS FOR YOU AND PAPYRUS TO BE HAPPY. PLEASE DON'T WORRY ABOUT HUMANS, I'LL DEAL WITH THEM."

"too late. i want to help you, dad. i don't think you are a bad person, all you do is protect, you just made some really bad decisions in the past."

"SANS..."

"let me help on the DT projects. tell me what LV is. i want to know, i want to understand. i want to help you!"

Gaster looked at his son, his amazing, smart, lazy son who was too mature for his age and sighed. "IF I TELL YOU NOT TO WORRY AND JUST BE A KID, YOU'LL IGNORE ME, WON'T YOU?"

"yep. i'll study alone if i have to."

Sans wasn't motivated by much, he wasn't motivated by the desire for knowledge, power or money. He was motivated by the happiness and well being of the people he loved and now Papyrus was here, all Sans wanted was to make the world better for him, to make his little brother happy and Gaster knew that. He also knew that when Sans really wanted something he got it, no matter how many times he told him no. It was better if Gaster was there to make sure he didn't get hurt.

"ALRIGHT BUT NOTHING DANGEROUS OKAY?"

Sans smiled and hugged his father. "please, dad, tell me everything."

Gaster reluctantly did. Beating himself up over failing to protect him from it and slowly panicking more and more as the fact that time was running out set into his mind, only two more souls...