~~Past Experiences~~

An exhausted sigh filled the air of the small cottage, as Sans ran a bony hand over the top of his skull. Even with his permanent grin still firmly in place, it was easy to tell the short skeleton's mind was somewhere it would rather not be.

Something was wrong. Something was most definitely wrong.

It was not something he could describe, it was but a mere feeling, a hunch perhaps. But if the past had taught him anything, it was that his intuition was never wrong. He had learnt the hard way the consequences of dismissing his instincts, and he preferred not to relive such ramifications a second time around.

A sound from upstairs caught the skeleton's attention. He spared a glance at the clock to see it was just past dawn, which meant that his brother would be awake. How Papyrus could wake with the sun each and every day still never ceased to amaze.

On a regular day Sans would have remained in his bed for many hours yet. Today, however, was different. Atypical of his usual routine, the comedian had spent the entire evening awake with only the sound of the ticking clock for company.

Several minutes passed before the short skeleton finally caught sight of his brother. Papyrus strutted right out of his room and down the stairs, but paused almost mid-step the moment his pupils landed on Sans.

"SANS?" Papyrus asked, blinking as though he did not trust the image his eyes were presenting to his brain, a flicker of confusion crossing his skeletal features.

"yeah bro?" Sans responded, providing a broad grin to the taller skeleton.

Papyrus simply continued to watch him for a good long moment before making his response, "WHY ARE YOU UP SO EARLY?" he asked, tilting his head slightly to the side in question, something quite possibly picked up from the numerous canine guards in Snowdin, "YOUR SHIFT DOESN'T START FOR ANOTHER FEW HOURS YET." He continued, his confused frown deepening.

"just felt like it i guess," was the best he could offer, his eyes softening causing his smile to appear laid back and relaxed, he didn't want Papyrus to worry. "'sides you should be more worried about getting ready for your training with undying today. you know she hates waiting around."

Papyrus didn't seem to quite buy into what Sans was selling, but apparently decided to merely let it go, "YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT SANS, I, THE GREAT PAPYRUS, CANNOT BE TARDY. NOT IF I WANT TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD!" he exclaimed, a generous smile making its way onto his face as his clenched fist striking against the chest of his battle body.

If it were possible for him to smile any wider Sans definitely would have, but as it were his grin was already as large as he could physically muster, "that's the spirit bro," he said, crossing his arms behind his head to create a makeshift pillow for himself and leaning back into the green sofa.

Papyrus bobbed his head in acknowledgement before swivelling on his heels and heading towards the kitchen, "SEEING AS YOU ARE UP ALREADY, I SHALL PREPARE US BOTH A HEARTY BREAKFAST." he suddenly came to an abrupt stop just short of the kitchen. His crimson gloved hand flew up to rest on his chin. He began stroking it contemplatively, all of a sudden seemingly lost in deep thought, "SANS…" he began, turning to face the shorter of the two.

By now Sans had let his arms drop down to his sides, his posture erect and his previous grin faltering momentarily, "yeah?" he almost timidly asked. He didn't like Papyrus' unexpected change in demeanour. Not in the slightest.

"DO YOU GET THE FEELING YOU ARE FORGETTING SOMETHING?" the slender skeleton inquired letting his hand also drop to his side, and staring back at Sans expectantly. It seemed like an innocent question, but it gave Sans a bad vibe.

Sans gave a slow shake of his head, "well if you forgot about it, it can't have been that important right?" he countered with his own question, feeling his grin falter for a second time and a less than reassuring expression claiming his features.

Fortunately, however, Papyrus did not pick up on it and merely shrugged his shoulders, his previous energy seeming to have returned within the blink of a metaphorical eye. "OF COURSE. YOU ARE RIGHT SANS, I'M SURE IT WILL COME BACK TO ME LATER." He beamed, waving the issue aside, his smile returning.

Sans was pretty sure that even if the world was ending Papyrus would manage to find something worth smiling about.

When Papyrus eventually turned back to his earlier task Sans let out a silent sigh, his eye sockets screwing closed for a moment. When he opened them he had regained his earlier resolve. He would get down to the bottom of this, and soon.

But first, Sans had to make sure his younger brother didn't burn down the house with his cooking. One close call was enough hazardous situations for one week. Curse Undying and her unruly cooking methods.

##########

The previous evening Alphys had left the labs early in order to head home. She had tried to sleep, but her mind was constantly plagued by fearful thoughts. What would she say if he had found the documents concerning her studies of DT? Or worse, what would she do if he had tried to access the True Lab and come across a few of her mishaps?

Alphys couldn't help the anxiety that seemed to climb higher and higher, building with every moment it took for her to enter the lab. For the past few minutes she had simply stood before the looming ominous door of the laboratory, trying to come up with a response to every possible worst case scenario she could think of.

Finally, after gather up what little remained of her courage, the bipedal reptile unlocked the pristine white door. It moved aside with a whooshing sound, and Alphys stepped into the relatively cool environment of the lab.

What Alphys saw left her speechless. The entire lab from top to bottom was simply glistening, she could quite literally see her reflection in every surface. The endless piles of used mugs had simply vanished, along with the unsightly piles of dog feed, and the scattered bundles of paperwork were all neatly stacked in piles.

The last thing Alphys set her eyes upon was the tall skeleton, who was lounging rather lazily in the seat in front of the computer's monitor, sipping at what she presumed was a cup of tea from the faint aroma that hung in the air.

She watched as Gaster swivelled around in the chair, fixating the reptile with a relatively warm smile, "Ah, Doctor Alphys," he greeted, placing his cup onto a waiting saucer on the now tidy desk, "I took the liberty of cleaning up the lab," he continued, gesturing around at his handiwork.

"Wow," was all Alphys was capable of in that moment, her jaw hanging slightly ajar in stunned silence. The only other person she had seen taking so much pride in a clean well organised living space was Papyrus. It seemed only too obvious that the two were related. Although, also taking into account the current lazy grin he sported it was quite easy to draw the connection between him and Sans.

Gaster was essentially the mixture between two polar opposite people. He was someone who took both pride in a clean and an organised workspace, and someone who enjoyed to simply put his feet up and relax.

"T-Thanks, I-I was going to start cleaning up today, bu-but-" she was cut off mid-sentence before she could continue any further.

"Nonsense, it was no trouble at all," the tall skeleton assured her with a dismissive wave of his hand to end the conversation there and then, "It took a mere few hours is all." He continued, standing from his seat and stretching out his limbs. Alphys was sure she heard one of his joints crack.

"A few hours?" she repeated aghast. Well, he was definitely where Papyrus received his persevering nature from.

He nodded in confirmation, brushing some unseen foreign object from his coat before striding towards the small scientist with no small amount of confidence in his every step, his hands coming to rest behind his back in their usual allocated position. The skeleton stopped just short of her, his placid expression still firmly fixated on his features.

"I trust that is alright with you?" he asked, looking over her facial features. She quickly realised she still had a shocked expression and hastily changed it into a rather awkward smile.

Alphys gave a soft laugh, though it did little to lessen the ever present tension that hung in the air like some foul smell. "No-No, ugh, that's perfectly a-alright, it's just that I wasn't expecting you to…" she trailed off, the tone of her voice lowering in a steady diminuendo.

Despite her unsure response, Gaster simply nodded again, smiling a little more, obviously trying to comfort the fretful lizard. In response she gave him another half-smile and wrung her hands together in front of her.

"Calm yourself Alphys, I meant nothing by it," he assured her, gently placing his slim skeletal hand onto her shoulder, moving slowly as though dealing with a startled animal, ready to bolt at the bat of an eye should he move too swiftly. And in all honesty, Alphys did indeed feel just about ready to do so. However, she knew the doctor could be patient, and that, given time, she would eventually warm up to him as with the rest of her friends, she just needed a little more time.

She nodded, distrusting her voice to further their conversation without somehow managing to mess it all up.

Evidently coming to the conclusion that Alphys was going to say nothing more, the skeleton removed his hand and took a step back away from her, restoring her sense of personal space, and straightening up, seeing as he had to lean down in order to rest a hand on her shoulder. He pivoted around on his heel, turning away from the bipedal reptile, "If you need me, I will be down in the lab." He told her, taking a step in the direction of the elevator.

Alphys felt her heart leap into her throat, he wasn't meant to go down there, "You can't go down there!" she blurted out, eyes wide as a feeling of panic began to seep in, quickly rising with each passing second.

Gaster seemed taken aback by her sudden outburst, turning so that he faced her once more, "If you are concerned I will discover your Amalgamates, then rest assured, I already know of their existence and am not bothered by them in the slightest," he assured her, maintaining a cool tone to try and calm her once more.

He wasn't concerned? How was he not concerned? She had done such terrible things to those monsters, so how was it he could just brush it off so easily, as though it didn't matter at all? She wasn't sure whether that was a good sign or not, "Oh-Okay th-then…" She wasn't sure what else she could say to that.

For the umpteenth time that morning Gaster gave Alphys a nod, yet again turning and swiftly covering the distance between himself and the elevator. He activated the lift, causing the doors to sweep open, and without hesitation he stepped inside. The doors closed and the skeleton was gone.

Alphys let out a breath that she had not realised she was holding. She closed her eyes for a moment to try and regain some of her former composure. Nothing could go wrong, right? Either way, she decided not to dwell on it for too long.

Snapping her eyes open once more, the doctor began walking towards her computer, deciding to catch up on anything she had missed while she was away.

To her surprise he computer was already open to a file. Her first response would have been to immediately close the document, seeing no worth in snooping through Gaster's files, but something caught her eye.

Fortunately, some of the document wasn't written in those strange symbols, and from a glance she could see it consisted largely of notes, various observations, even if she couldn't read all of it. She felt bad intruding on the skeleton doctor's private records, but for some reason felt inclined to continued.

The heading of the document was what caught her eye, Project Intercision. She was sure she had heard that word before, but couldn't quite place it. Whatever it was, the word didn't sit well with her.

On further investigation, it turned out the document was the file of a patient involved in said project.

ID: #19011419

Gender: Male

Age: 6 years

Species: Skeleton

There were many other short notes involving magic levels, behaviour, DT levels, but the dot point that stopped Alphys dead in her tracks was the patient's name.

Name: Sans