No One is Happy with This (Undertale)

50 ~ Stress Relief

Everything seems to slow down as you open the door, each heartbeat stretching into infinity as everything seems to be moving through molasses.

The door opens.

Gaster, standing in the middle of the room. Starts to turn.

Something in his hand. A mug.

He's facing you. His arm rising, the mug rolling off his fingers.

It's trajectory, straight for your face.

You can little more than watch, your heart pounding, as the ceramic beverage container whips towards you.

And then it stops, and you suck in a deep breath, seeing that one of Gaster's hands has materialized in the air and caught the mug, only seconds before it smashed into you.

"Frisk." Gaster says calmly, though there's an undercurrent of frustration and anger in his voice. "You're supposed to knock before you come in."

You chuckle nervously a little. "Right. Yeah. Learned my lesson...!"

Looking around the room, you see it seems to have been made for the explicit purpose of destroying things.

Well, okay, not really. But that seems to be its purpose at the moment.

A number of stainless steel topped tables have been shoved against some machinery to one wall, and Sans and Papyrus are sitting atop one of the tables. That seems to be the only area safe from Gaster's rage venting. The rest of the room is in near shambles, bits of broken glass and machinery littering the floor. There's even a soft shimmer of semi-luminescent dust and a tension in the air that says Gaster has also been using attacks to break things.

You look around a little nervously as Gaster accepts the unbroken mug from his hand. "So-... have you-... just been breaking things?"

Sans chuckles. "yeah, he says it's a good way to relieve stress."

Gaster, meanwhile, proceeds to chuck the mug at the wall, where it shatters with a loud CRASH. Before the broken pieces can even break apart that far, Gaster twitches a hand, a single much-more-draconic-looking-than-Sans' Blaster appears in the air and fires off a purple-tinted beam at the falling pieces. They're all engulfed in the Magic attack, and when the Blaster dematerializes, all that's left of the poor mug are a few charred bits of ceramic.

Then Gaster turns to you. Surprisingly, all remains of the anger in his eyes are vanished- either breaking things really actually works well for him, or else he's successfully shoved the emotion down enough that you can't see it anymore. "Was there something you wanted, Frisk?"

"U-um, yeah. I just wanted to make sure, y'know, you were all alright, 'cuz, uh, I know what happened was a little, uh. Yeah. It was a lot. And. Um." You glance at the brothers, still sitting together on the edge of one of the tables. "I wanted to make sure you all understood what happened."

Gaster gestures dismissively- he might be Speaking in Hands, but you think it's more just waving off your concern. "I already explained to them."

Papyrus slides off the table and walks over to you. "Yeah! He did! Frisk, is it true? Is Flowey really Prince Asriel?!"

"No!" You quickly say, waving your hands. "I mean, yes, Flowey came from Asriel's dust and he's got Asriel's memories, but... Even Flowey said. Without a Soul, he's Flowey, not Asriel."

Gaster snorts a little. "Good to hear that even the echo accepts that he's dead."

"But..." You frown a little as something begins to occur to you. "But he can come back. He fought me, so he can come back."

Gaster opens his mouth then hesitates, glancing around at the mess. "... Why don't we... go somewhere else? I can clean this up later."

You nod and agree.

A short while later, you and Gaster are walking into Grillby's restaurant on the Surface. Papyrus realized he had a sparring match with Undyne to get to, and he dragged Sans along in hopes of getting his brother to exercise a little. So it's just you and Gaster who are going to get lunch.

Really, it kinda makes you laugh a little. You went to Grillby's with Sans in the Underground, and Papyrus took you on a date. Now, you're going out with the final member of the family, lunch with Gaster.

You really don't think this is anywhere near a date, though. Aside from the rather large age gap that would make something like that, quite frankly, disgusting, you don't think Gaster really has any sort of romantic interest in... well. Anyone, least of all you. You can't imagine him being in love with anyone, at all.

Maybe more like... Getting lunch with a friend? You'd say, maybe, adoptive dad, since that seems about the right age for Gaster, but Asgore is your dad, and besides, you don't think Gaster would be happy with that.

So... getting lunch with... with... your adoptive uncles'/friends dad?

That just sounds weird. Really weird. You decide you're just getting lunch with a friend.

Lunch with your friend is hamburgers. Thankfully, Gaster doesn't unscrew the ketchup bottle lid, so you can actually eat your burger. And, as is per Grillby's standards, it is an excellent burger.

Once you've both finished eating, things begin in earnest. Gaster slides his empty plate to the side and leans forward against the table, folding his hands on top of it. "Now, then, allow me to guess what you're thinking: you're thinking that, since you've seen it happen, you know it's possible to bring Asriel back, and you're thinking that there's got to be a way you can do that. But, Frisk, dead things are meant to stay dead. They're not meant to come back, and neither is Asriel."

"I'm not so sure about that." You argue.

"Oh?" Gaster's brow rises above his working eyesocket. "I'd rather like to think that I'm right, however, as you seem so determined to do so, go ahead and explain your logic."

Asriel can be brought back, you know he can. So, now, you just have to convince Gaster of it, and you're absolutely certain he will make it happen.

§

A/N

Honestly, there was supposed to be a lot more that happened in this chapter, but it was getting to the long side, so I'll just have to put it in the next chapter.

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!