No One is Happy with This (Undertale)

36 ~ Papyrus's Dad

At first, you don't understand why Dr. Gaster lets you stay in the lab. You'd've thought, especially what with him being Sans and Papyrus's dad and all, that he would have had you left.

Especially especially after he told you he hated you, then told you to shut up so he didn't keep talking to you.

But, surprisingly, Dr. Gaster lets you stay. In fact, he more or less ignores you, alternating between checking on Sans and Papyrus, both still unconscious, and cleaning out the filing cabinets against one wall.

He goes through each drawer individually, setting some folders in piles, putting some back in drawers, and haphazardly throwing some, presumably discardable ones, over his shoulder.

Eventually, you doze off, sitting on the floor, back against the wall.

When you wake up, the majority of the floor is covered in strewn-about papers, and Dr. Gaster is almost finished with the filing cabinets.

Not long after, Papyrus begins to stir, and then you realize why Dr. Gaster let you stay.

As he wakes in a strange place, his brother lying on the table beside him, and strange sounds filling the room (Dr. Gaster trying to shove a dented drawer back into the filing cabinet while snarling some very mean sounding words, both in Common and another language), Papyrus starts to panic. But when his gaze falls on you, a familiar face he knows he can trust, he calms down.

"Dr. Gaster," you shout over the ruckus the doctor is making, "Papyrus is waking up!"

The banging and cursing stops immediately. Dr. Gaster scrambles up, almost slips on a loose paper on the floor, regains his balance, tries to hurry across the room, almost slips again on more paper, but manages to make it over to Papyrus without falling.

You're not sure, but when you see the way Papyrus is smiling, just a little, at Dr. Gaster's clumsiness, you think that maybe the whole thing was just an act. Nonetheless, once he reaches the relatively-clean floor of the area around the table, he straightens up with a small sigh. When he looks at Papyrus, Dr. Gaster smiles, just a bit.

"Papyrus. You're awake. Feeling alright?"

Papyrus smiles and nods. "Yes! You were right, I feel much better now!" Before Dr. Gaster can get a word in, Papyrus continues. "But what about Sans?"

Gaster smiles just a bit. "Actually..." He strides over to one of the machines, a few stray papers fluttering in the breeze created by his long coat. "Actually, give it another day or so, and I think we could probably take him home."

"Really?" Papyrus is grinning now. His fear and panic seem to have left him entirely, traded for his usual enthusiasm and hope.

"Yeah. Sans is pretty strong, despite how he acts. He'll pull through just fine."

With a happy "NYEH HEH HEH!" Papyrus leaps out of the chair and slams into Dr. Gaster with a one-armed hug, careful not to jostle his broken arm too much. Sleep, it seems, has worked miracles on the younger skeleton brother.

Dr. Gaster returns the hug with, for the first time you've seen it on him, a look of pure contentment.

And you just have to. You can't not.

"Hey, Papyrus. Did you know Dr. Gaster is your dad?"

Both monsters stiffen, still hugging, and you hear one of them suck in a sharp breath. Then they pull apart, Papyrus's hands resting on the slightly taller skeleton's shoulders.

"Is-... is that true?" He asks, looking at Dr. Gaster. Evidently, he didn't catch it when Chara said so.

Dr. Gaster just nods.

"NYEH HEH HEH!! I HAVE A DAD!" Papyrus lurches forward, wrapping Gaster in yet another bear hug, which Dr. Gaster returns just as eagerly, actually lifting Papyrus's feet a few inches off the floor.

You can only watch and smile as they pull apart, then hug again, Papyrus letting out peals of his trademark laughter and Gaster chuckling softly. Both look so, so happy.

And then, "NYEH! If you're my dad, then you're Sans' dad, too! Oh! Just wait until he wakes up and I can tell him! I'm sure he'll be just as happy, and he'll agree with me that you should move in with us, but we're living in Toriel's house-"

"Right, because I destroyed yours. Sorry. About that. I, uh. Yeah."

"-but that's okay because she has a really nice basement where Sans and I have been staying until our house is rebuilt, and I'm sure there's room for you, so we can all live together as a family-"

"That would be nice. I'd like that."

"-because you're our dad! NYEH HEH HEH I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU'RE MY DAD AND I HAVE A DAD AND THAT'S YOU AND YOU'RE THE ROYAL SCIENTIST AND MY DAD!! NYEH HEH HEH HEH!!" Papyrus sweeps around again to hug Dr. Gaster again, then hesitates. "But-..."

"Yeah?"

"But Sans said our dad Fell Down. So-..."

"How can I be your dad if your dad Fell Down, but I'm still alive?"

Papyrus just nods. The question kinda makes sense, you guess.

"Well," Dr. Gaster explains to Papyrus in a much friendlier tone than he explained anything to you in, "you see, I didn't Fall Down, I just fell. Fell out of time and space, fell into the Void, fell from existence. And Sans... well. You know how he is. I doubt he had the energy, emotionally, to properly explain what had happened, especially when you didn't remember me. So, easier to just say I fell, and leave it at that. Make sense?"

Papyrus nods, and then suddenly, he's grinning and laughing again. "I HAVE A DAD!!"

§

A/N

PAPYRUS HAS A DAD!! NYEH HEH HEH!!

... I just felt like that needed to be emphasized a little bit more.

Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Comments and votes are my Favorite Things, and every notification I get makes my day!