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Grillby found him exactly where he expected to, unfortunately: his lab.
Gaster was sat behind his desk. Figure short and stocky but adorned by many spikes, two mismatched eye lights flicking between blueprints. Claws rapping on the wood in sync with his tail. If his assumptions were correct (and they had a high chance to be), he’d been shifted for about five days straight now. He took a deep breath.
“Gaster.” The Flametongue popped and hissed.
He barely looked up at him before turning his attention back to his desk. “Not now. I am preoccupied.”
Grillby walked closer, putting his hands onto the table and a bit more force into his voice. “Gaster.”
He bristled in response, but instead of shooing him off, tried to act like he wasn’t bothered at all. Even picking up a pen and noting something down, rather pointedly.
Grillby didn’t move an inch.
“Very, very busy. Go away.”
“Your coworkers haven’t seen you in days. They are worried about you. And so am I.”
Gaster growled, his Draconic growing thick with frustration. “There are things that need to be done, and I—” He paused, scanning over the notes he had in panic. “Wonderful. Wonderful! I have lost. Where I was!” He started gnawing on the pen cap. “Where— My position— And I—” Anger and frustration turned into desperation, whine working its way up from his ribcage. “I do not know—”
Grillby hated seeing him like that. “You need to r—”
“No!” Gaster slammed into the desk, making Grillby and several objects on it jump up. “It is crucial. That this is finished! O-otherwise—”
The elemental sighed, straightened and slowly walked around the table to get to the now-trembling scientist. “Please. Nobody will die if you take a break.”
“T-that is the issue. They might!” He choked and shook. “The plan of Asgore’s did not work. Not entirely. There— There are still monsters who— The Undergrounds needs— The CORE is needed so that it—” He jerked away as his spiral was interrupted by Grillby lightly touching his shoulder. Finally facing him properly, skull contorted into an angry scowl and tears threatening to fall.
“When was the last time you slept.”
A threat rumbled in Gaster’s chest. Tail lashed.
“When was the last time you ate.”
“You are. Distracting. Leave.”
“No.” Grillby stepped forward and grabbed his collar. “You need to rest before you hurt yourself.”
“You are not—” The protest was cut off by a surprised yip as Grillby pulled down and got a hold of the large pendant underneath. “Gr—” He grabbed the magic stored inside and yanked.
The air crackled like static and the next moment the elemental was hanging off the neck of an extremely cranky skeletal dragon. In a rather cramped office. He let go and scampered into a safe distance as Gaster attempted to find space for each of his six limbs and a tail. “Why did you— This is— I despise this, I despise you!”
“No, you don’t,” Grillby exhaled quietly, sitting by the door.
Gaster seemed to be of a differing opinion. He stretched over the desk to get a direct look at him, knocking half of its contents to the floor in the process. An angry whuff of air sent loose papers flying. “Very, very smart of you! Now monsters are going to be hurt. And you will be the r—”
Grillby got up and leaned against the cracked snout with his full weight. The jaws clattered closed against the floor and the only thing looking up at him now were mere pinpricks of light. Another threatening rumble travelled up his arms. “Maybe,” he shrugged. “But first, let me deal with the monster whose health I can feel dropping at this very moment, alright?” He called on his healing magic, pushing down harder as he felt his entire form turn green to match. Claws screeched against tile and a tail lashed not too far away from his face. “Hey there, no need to be so dramatic. I’d appreciate if you’d stopped growling at me.”
That didn’t happen up until the magic finally took effect. Thankfully, everything else went went quick. Wings fell, tension drained and sockets threatened to close.
“There.” Grillby was glad. He was getting tired himself. While he didn’t have to heal that much, his workday wasn’t exactly short. “Easier to relax when nothing’s hurting, hm?”
Gaster gave weak huff before he fell asleep, sprawled as he was.
Grillby slid down to the floor. If he wasn’t feeling up to something right now, it was making the trek back. He used the last of his energy to find a blanket (the sometimes-dumber-than-a-bag-of-rocks scientist kept several around for days when he actually remembered to sleep), and bundled up next to him. His internal clock would wake him up in time, for sure. And if it didn’t, Snowdin’s residents would have to survive the late opening for once.
Gaster woke up to muffled shuffling. Blearily blinking at Grillby moving stuff around. The clock read… far too early. He closed his eyes again.
Hang on, what was Grillby doing here? And why was he—
Memory of last night resurfaced and pulled him into full wakefulness. He didn’t mean for the whine he let out to sound so miserable, but it did.
Grillby turned to him, gently smiling in the way only he did — glasses sinking a tiny bit deeper into his flames as he tilted his head. “Good morning.”
“-orry.” Stars, his voice felt all sorts of sore. “I had not meant to…”
A warm, fiery hand patted his snout, seemingly holding nothing against him. Why the elemental had so much patience with him, he never figured out. It didn’t feel deserved. “I know. How about you make it up to me by eating something for once and stopping by on Friday?”
His confused look didn’t go unnoticed.
“It’s Wednesday. Just… visit in two days, alright?”
Gaster nodded as well as he could, eye lights trained to the ground.
“Thanks.” One more soothing motion up his nasal bone and Grillby let go. “Take care of yourself until then. Running yourself ragged won’t help anything. I’d recommend going back to sleep, actually.”
He hummed a weak agreement and watched his friend leave.
Somehow he kept doing this. And it’s been getting worse since… everything happened and he had to create the CORE project. He felt awful — he didn’t want to keep burdening Grillby with it as well. It wasn’t fair. He just wanted to be a good friend again.
He needed to make sure this moloch of a machine was finished as soon as possible. Then everything would be alright. Hopefully.
For sure.
Thankfully, exhaustion put him under before he could start working again.