The brown haired child stared wide eyed in wonder at the skeletal man, then glanced down at the tiled floor quickly, realizing he must have appeared quite rude. He nodded and stepped further into the room, closely followed by the first monster he had met.
"Don't worry, Chara, the doctor's really, really nice!" the goat-like child 'whispered', though it was loud enough for the adult to hear, "I've known him since forever, so trust me."
The human stared into the other child's earnest brown eyes and smiled, nodding again. Asriel grinned and ran up to the Royal Scientist, who smiled fondly, familiarly, patting the small child's head softly. Then the doctor motioned for the younger boy to step forth, and the brunette did so, shedding his shy and apprehensive exterior into a bolder one, even if, within, he was still frightened.
There was a limited amount of flinching from the human when Gaster picked the child up and set him on a table, but it was obvious enough for the man to take note of it. Perhaps he was just unfamiliar with monsters?
"Hello, child, my name is Doctor W.D. Gaster. I work for young Asriel's parents."
The boy nodded to show his understanding.
"May you tell me your name?"
The child remained silent, and after a moment, shook his head. Gaster sighed, and observed the little boy's eyes grow wide, and his lips tremble slightly as he did so.
"Asriel called you Chara?"
"Y-yes," Chara said softly.
"What a lovely name. So, Chara, how old are you?"
The young one held up both of his hands, displaying all of his fingers.
"Ten?"
"Mmhmm."
"Where are you from, Chara?" as the doctor asked this, he knelt down slightly, so he was more level with the little boy and began taking notes on his observations about the child's apparent physical health.
"Ttobe Village."
The adult paused. "From…the surface?"
"Uhm…y-yes?"
"And how did you get here?"
"I fell," he looked at the man who seemed to want more information than that, "I-I was climbing the mountain, uh, Mt. Ebott, and there was a hole and I tripped. And then I fell someplace dark."
"And then I found him!" Asriel, who had been trying his best to be quiet and not disturb the doctor's work, chimed in, "He was hurt bad and really scared."
"I-I wasn't scared!" the human argued.
"He was crying," the goat child also mentioned, looking up in surprise when his new friend growled and began to shout.
"I-I wasn't crying! Big kids don't cry! I don't cry!"
Chara attempted to climb from the table, but Gaster's reflexes were faster than the infuriated boy, and he grasped the child by his sides, firmly keeping him seated where he was intended to be. The adult looked between the prince and the foreigner, contemplating sending Asriel to wait outside, but it seemed the prince was the only one around who could provoke emotion aside form apprehensiveness out of the human.
"Calm down, child. Prince Asriel wasn't trying to upset you."
"I-I'm sorry, Chara!" Asriel ran over to the table, looking up at his friend sadly, "I didn't mean to!"
The brunette looked at the other child and then lowered his head, mumbling something that neither of the others could make out.
"Why did that anger you, Chara?" Gaster asked.
It was a risk. Clearly this was sensitive to the human child, but it could aid in determining the child's origin and mental stability. As he questioned the boy, he lifted him in his arms and set him down onto the tiled floor, taking measurements of height and weight whilst the child answered.
"Big kids don't cry," was the simple answer, much quieter this time.
"And who told you that?" the doctor questioned, inspecting Chara's once injured arm.
"Daddy."
The skeleton stopped and crouched down, setting his thumb on the boy's collar bone so his boney fingers curled around the space where his glenohumeral rested. "And, where is your father?"
"Surface."
"So you would like to return to hi-"
"No!"
Gaster paused, releasing the child from his grip when Chara jumped backward. So much hurt shone in his green eyes.
"Don't make me go back to Mommy and Daddy, please. I don't want to go back there!"
The skeleton stood. "Asriel, may you go wait outside for a moment?"
"Why can't he stay?" the human protested softly.
"Just for a short while."
Asriel looked from his friend to the grown up, nodded, and retreated outside the room. When the door closed with a small clicking sound, Gaster placed the little boy on the table once more, determining that physically, the child was healthy.
"Why do you not want to return to your mother and father, young one?"
Chara spoke not a word.
"Why did you go to the mountain, Chara?"
The boy shrugged.
"Were you trying to run away?"
A nod.
"Why?"
Chara shook his head.
"Chara..?"
"I wanted to go away."
"Why would you run off to the mountain? Do you not have a friend you would have rather stay with?"
"I don't have friends. I wanted to go away."
"What do you…mean?"
Silence.
"How about this. Can you describe a typical day in your life?"
"Uh, like, on a school day?"
"Um, yes. And when you are off from school, if you could."
"I wake up earlier on school days and go to school. I come home and usually try to just go to my room so I don't do something Daddy doesn't like. When I don't have school I go outside for the day or stay in my room unless I have to get food."
"Chara? Did your parents provide you with food?"
He nodded.
"How often?"
The boy held up three fingers, then said, "And sometimes a snack or dessert."
"And what happens when you do something your father doesn't like?"
Silence.
"Did your parents ever…hurt you?"
He did not respond.
"Chara," Gaster gently took the little boy's chin in his skeletal hand, forcing the little boy to meet his eye sockets, "This is very important. May you answer my question, please?"
Chara nodded, "Daddy hits me a lot or pushes me."
"Where does he hit you?"
Chara hiked his sweater up a bit, revealing the bruises that danced along his stomach and ribs. Then whispered, "And sometimes my back or face."
The doctor wrote something down quickly, but Chara was unable to see.
"Do you have any siblings, Chara?"
Mn mn. Just me, Mommy, and Daddy."
"Do you know what season it is right now?"
The brunette gave the man a quizzical look. What did that have to do with anything? Still, the doctor was awaiting an answer, so the child obliged.
"Fall. But a lot of the leaves haven't changed yet."
"Do you know the month?"
"September. I always thought that was summer, but my teacher told us it was fall."
"Your teacher is correct," Gaster smiled, jotting down a short note, then turned back to the human, "How high can you count?"
"Over a thousand," the boy declared proudly.
Gaster chuckled, "May you count to ten for me?"
The child did so.
"Now may you do it backwards."
Chara did that as well.
A few more tasks of the same nature and suddenly the doctor held up a pen with the peculiar question, "What is this?"
"A…pen?"
The skeleton nodded and continued this with a few more very recognizable objects.
"Now, when I tell you to start, can you name all the words you can think of that begin with the letter, 'A'?"
Chara nodded, and, when prompted to do so, began spouting off random words, "Arrow. Ark. Arch. Answer. Axe. Ant. Airplane. Arm…"
And so this continued. There was a test of morality, which the child passed almost perfectly, save for the question, "What would you do if you found a large sum of money on the ground?"
"Keep it," had been the answer, but this could easily be written off as youthful selfishness and not understand the value of money to its full extent.
More questions to determine orientation, cognitive thought, and memory.
"Soon you will be able to leave, child. I know you must be bored. I am going to take your pulse for a minute, would you mind pulling up your sleeve?"
Chara looked up suddenly, biting his lip, but at this point, he had realized that there was no getting around anything the doctor needed to do to determine his mental and physical health. He tugged on the loose fitting sleeve just enough to reveal the pressure point needed, he had learned about it in science just a few weeks ago. It didn't seem to be enough, however, as Gaster gently folded the fabric back to show more of the pale skin of the child's wrist. The man paused.
Across the boy's arm were long, jagged scars, shining white against the flesh. Gaster took in these scars, and as he did, Chara observed his expression.
The human spoke up, "My Dad…" was all he said.
The bone of Gaster's skull scrunched near the forehead, then rose, likening a raised eyebrow, but he spoke not. He set two boney fingers against the boy's wrist, causing the child to finch slightly at the cold, unfamiliar touch to his sensitive skin, then once again, the man took note of something. The doctor snapped the binder which held his notes shut, pulled the boy's sleeve down, and stood, setting the boy on the ground. He cast Chara a kind smile and strode toward the door. When he opened it, Asriel turned at the sound and grinned, running in and hugging his friend.
"That took forever! You must have been so bored, Chara! Let's go to my room and play now!"
Gaster cleared his throat. "We should probably seek her majesty first, and then go from there."
"Oh yeah. Come on, Chara!"
The monster child took the human's hand and ran off. Behind them, Gaster sighed, but not without a smile upon his face. The castle was definitely very lively with the royal child around. It had changed him. Had changed the King and Queen. The birth of their son had given everyone, even the doctor himself, hope for the future.
He walked calmly after the little boys until the three of them ran into the Queen herself. The woman turned and approached the Royal Scientist. Both adults spoke softly, much too quiet for either child to hear, until Toriel cleared her throat and turned to her son and the new occupant.
"Boys. How about you two play in the garden for a little while? I will come get you for dinner later."
Asriel nodded enthusiastically and before Chara could even have a reaction, the human was pulled off once more in the direction of the garden. When both children have left the range of hearing, Toriel brought her attention back to the skeleton, who wore a troubled expression.
"I am concerned about the child," he said.
A/N Honestly, I feel like child abuse is a rather miniscule occurrence in the Undeground. I think that the majority of the monster population was wiped out during the War (especially at this time, because this isn't too drastically separated from the time of the war, but it is far enough that the war did happen before Chara was born and the humans generally don't talk about the monsters as if they were real, even though the adults know they are). And on top of that, the monsters try to be more friendly toward each other because their numbers are so low. I also have the weird headcannon that, while it's still not a huge issue, I feel like domestic abuse is a much higher problem than child abuse. Anyway, I wanted Gaster's questions to be similar and different from how a real doctor may handle the subject of abuse, mostly because I'm not so sure social services exist in the Underground.