No One is Happy with This (Undertale)

43 ~ Diverting Disasters

A few weeks pass after your conversation with Gaster. You still don't see him much, but now it doesn't seem like he's actively avoiding you, but more like it's just because he's busy. Asgore has confirmed Gaster as the Royal Scientist, and said Royal Scientist is doing a major overhaul on his new- Alphys's old- lab. They've even decided that they're going to build a living quarters onto the lab, instead of rebuilding the brothers' house.

Gaster's dedication to his work makes it seem like Alphys was just sort of playing around in the lab. Gaster works hard and fast, and expects results.

And your original suspicion was right- whenever Sans and Gaster stand to watch the progress on the building, Sans stands slightly to the left, giving Gaster the center of the room. More often than not, when they're standing like this, Gaster will have an arm around Sans' shoulders. Sometimes, if Papyrus is standing with them, him too.

And Gaster's settled nicely into the skeleton family. Honestly, you can see a lot of Sans and Papyrus in him. It's almost like someone took the two of them and mixed them together into one person, then added an extra bit of snarky, confident ego and a lab coat. He fits in perfectly with the brothers, and it's clear they all love each other immensely. You always see them snuggling each other or laughing together, and sometimes you've gone into the basement to find one of them, and instead found all three of them cuddled together on the couch, sound asleep, all with content smiles.

And Gaster has a peculiar affect on the brothers, both of them. He's the only one, it seems, who can get Sans motivated and working. He can get Sans excited for things, looking forward, working hard. And Gaster is the only one who can calm Papyrus down. You've seen him get Papyrus in the space of five minutes to go from his usual hundred-mile-an-hour speed to actually dozing off in the middle of the day, lying with his head and shoulders in Gaster's lap.

Yes, skeletons are very cuddly monsters.

With each other, anyway. Gaster still really doesn't like you. He speaks to you in a condescending tone and always looks down on you.

But it's better than the avoidance and hostility, you suppose. So you can deal with it. You just have to stay determined.

And then you get an opportunity to talk to him.

It's after school. You're walking out the doors with your friends, a few of the monster kids who come to school with you. It was a little difficult at first, and for a little while, the monsters were bullied pretty badly. But you've come to realize that kids are a lot more accepting of the strange and unnatural than adults, and, while everyone's a little nervous around the monsters, they're generally left alone.

Still, you're usually the only human to be hanging out with them.

As the monsters disperse, their parents arrived to pick them up, you look around. But you don't see Toriel's car anywhere. That's strange, normally she always texts you when she's running late, and it's so unlike her to ever forget-

"Frisk."

You jump, twisting around with a start. Gaster was standing right behind you- in front of you, now- looming over you. How he got there without you knowing, you're not sure, but maybe he can do that thing that Sans does.

You quickly recover from your shock and smile up at him. "Gaster! What are you doing here?" As you glance around, you notice everyone in the parking lot is staring at the tall, darkly-dressed monster. He's not one they'll have ever seen, and you more than realize how intimidating he can appear.

He just sighs a little. "Toriel found herself in a predicament, with a flat tire and no spare. I was... volunteered to come pick you up. They didn't seem to realize what a horrible idea sending me to pick up a child from a building full of human children is." He pauses a little, then gives you a dark look. "It was a very bad idea."

You shiver a little. On the surface, Gaster looks annoyed and haughty, but if you look in his eyes...

It looks like there's a blaze of unparalleled heat burning behind his eyes. He's just holding back, you realize, and could very well attempt to wipe out the entire school.

And then one of the worst things that could possibly happen, happens. You see your teacher, Mrs. Callen, a middle aged women with children of her own, approaching from behind Gaster. She looks a little concerned.

"Frisk," at the sound of her voice, Gaster twists around. He doesn't seem surprised like you did, though, when he was right behind you. "Frisk, who is this... um... monster?"

Gaster just stares coldly at her as you smile, a little nervously. "Mrs. Callen! This is Dr. Gaster! He's the Royal Scientist! He's also here to take me home."

Mrs. Callen smiles, but you can tell she's a little nervous. "Dr. Gaster? Nice to meet you, I'm Susan Callen, Frisk's teacher." She holds out her hand for a handshake.

For a long moment, Gaster just looks at her. Then, slowly, he says, "Humans slaughtered my whole family, in the war. Unprovoked, they lunged on a peaceful group and killed them all. If you think that I am, in any way, going to be remotely civil with you, human, I am afraid you are quite mistaken."

Mrs. Callen quickly pulls her hand back, laughing nervously.

You can tell this isn't going to end well if you don't do anything. So, you do the only thing you can think to do.

You grab Gaster's hand, and start to pull him away. "WellitwasnicetalkingtoyouMrs.CallenbutwereallyhavetogonowOkayBye!"

And with that, you and Gaster leave the school parking lot and you only just manage to successfully avert a crisis.

§

A/N

Gotta be honest, I'm pretty excited for the next chapter. There's gonna be one heck of a conversation.

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!