A/N: I almost forgot again! Good lord, y'all need to hit me with something. Please enjoy this short little chapter.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Grillby watched Gaster down the second glass of the evening. Something was bothering him. The fire monster could tell his friend wasn't upset about work; that usually led to several shots downed in a matter of minutes. Full glasses of whiskey were usually reserved for the serious stuff.

"So, what's up?" Grillby asked, leaning down on one elbow on the counter.

Gaster looked up and sighed. "I don't know what to do."

Grillby nodded. "That's a first. Gotta be frustrating for someone like you." Grillby always thought Gaster was the smartest monster there was. There had been many a time that Grillby sought out Gaster's advice on things when it was usually the other way around with most of his customers.

Gaster nodded. "I don't like it. This is…this situation is different. I know what I want to do, but it would hurt Sans, so I can't." That human brat had Sans convinced that she actually cared about him.

Grillby was intrigued. He probably should have figured it had something to do with family. It seemed as if Gaster was only ever flustered when one or both of his sons did something stupid.

"Anything I can help with?"

Gaster thought about that for a second. "I don't know. Sans has this…girlfriend." He shuddered at the word.

The elemental smiled. "Yeah, I've met her. Nice girl."

Gaster glared. "She's a human."

"Yeah, but just looking at the two it's obvious how much she loves him."

"Dear gods, not you, too."

Ah, so that's what this was about, Grillby thought. He knew his friend's thoughts about humans. Although he didn't share them, he could understand where Gaster was coming from. Even if Gaster wouldn't admit it, he knew that the physical scars were nothing compared to the mental and emotional ones.

"Have you met her?"

"Yes," he grumbled. "I met her a few hours ago. Sans just showed up with her. He didn't even bother to warn me first."

"I bet he had his reasons." Grillby reached out and put a flaming hand on his friend's arm.

Gaster looked up into the fire monster's face. "I was scared, Grillby." He looked down, ashamed to have admitted that. The alcohol must already be taking effect.

"That's not an absurd reaction, Gaster. When was the last time you were actually in the same room as humans?"

Gaster didn't want to remember the graduation ceremony for his third doctorate. He pushed the memories away. "That's beside the point. She's a tiny human girl, and I was afraid of her." He scoffed at himself.

The elemental wished he had something to say to his friend to make him feel better. Instead, he refilled the scientist's whiskey and went to help another customer at the bar.

As the evening went on, Grillby watched his friend get drunker. He was a little worried as closing time came around. He had one of his servers give his friend a glass of water—he was pretty sure he wouldn't be able to tell the difference now anyway—and went to lock the doors and turn off the signs.

"Come on," he finally said. "You're not driving. I got a couch you can crash on."

Gaster looked up at his friend, his thoughts swirling. Amid the murky images in his mind, the idea that Grillby being made of fire meant he was pretty hot formed. The thought made him giggle.

Grillby wasn't sure what that look was all about, but he found himself burning a little hotter with embarrassment. He had never heard that sound come out of his friend, either. It was like a laugh, but high pitched. He crackled to clear his throat and walked around the bar to help his friend.

"I got ya," he said as Gaster stumbled.

Gaster tried to push Grillby off of him. He could handle himself. After he tripped for the third time, he decided that he could probably use the help.

They went out the back exit, through the kitchen, and up the stairs to Grillby's apartment.

~LM~

Gaster groaned and put his hands on his head. If he didn't know any better, he'd say his head was splitting apart. His fingertips found the cracks in his skull.

For a brief second, he found himself strapped to a lab table inside of a machine he didn't understand. The mechanism looked like a large ice pick. The only thing he knew for sure was that his head was actually being split open.

He sat up too fast and screamed. Dear gods, not again! NO!

Once the room stopped spinning, he realized he probably wasn't in the laboratory anymore. It wasn't logical for him to be there; he had too many new memories. He had grown children now.

"Gaster?!" Grillby asked in alarm as he sat down next to his friend. "What happened?"

Gaster closed his eyes and held his head in his hands again. "A damn memory, that's all." The pain in his head hadn't diminished, which didn't help him put the memory back where it belonged. The edges of his consciousness still believed he was in a human lab.

Grillby had seen his friend through too many flashbacks to not know what was going on. Gaster handled his better than the elemental handled his own. He got up and grabbed some pain killers off the counter. He probably shouldn't have let Gaster drink that much the night before.

He sat with his friend on the couch for a while, keeping a hand on his arm or his back—somewhere to help remind the skeleton where he was—until he started to calm down.

As the pain started to fade, he finally realized he was in Grillby's living room.

"What am I doing here?" Gaster asked.

Grillby shrugged. "You were drunk off your ass last night. I had to make sure you were going to be safe. You know my couch is always open for you." He patted Gaster's shoulder.

Gaster attempted a smile. He leaned back and groaned. "Did I wake you up? What time is it anyway?"

"It's…" Grillby looked up to see the clock. "About four-thirty. You did wake me up, but don't worry about it. I'd rather be in here helping you past a flashback than let you go through it alone. You know I understand how hard those are."

Gaster knew. The last war with humans had been a nightmare of agony for his friend. He'd lost most of his family that year. It was only another reason he hated humans so much: they only seemed capable of putting those he cared about through hell.

Gaster nodded and smiled at Grillby. "Thanks."

"Anytime, old friend."

A/N: Thanks for reading! I'd love to know what you thought.