Chapter Text
Picture a room, not the small one you might be sitting in but big, if someone call the room a “lab” everyone will agree that it has to be a big room indeed so I’m going to refer to it as a lab from now on. As I was saying, picture a lab, filled with science equipment (you can’t have a proper lab without all the science equipment, now can you?) and in the middle of it all a table with a skeleton snoozing in a chair.
This is Sans, he is a small skeleton who will tell you that he is not as special as his brother might tell you he is or as brilliant as his father always boast that he is. He is short and stocky, and will argue that he is not that attractive (although the captain of the royal guard will argue with him about it constantly) but he is quite funny (everyone will argue with him about that). He spends most of his time snoozing in the lab whenever his father is not in the facility, much to his lab assistants, a yellow fire drake called Alphys, chagrin.
Like now, Alphys was running around the lab, reading test results for their latest experiments while Sans slept soundly and with no mind nor care for his lab assistants stress level. (This will later play into a humorous scene involving the royal guard lieutenant, but I am getting ahead of myself.) All that was happening right now in the little lab was a skeleton sleeping and a drake running around, while the skeletons cell phone tries in vain to wake its owner.
A few miles away, in the royal castle, a taller skeleton is holding the phone to his ear (every now and again he moves it away to tell his youngest son to stop bothering the royal guards, but to no avail) he taps his foot on the floor in frustration. But he knows his boy is very busy, no reason to expect anything else, he might have the phone on silence. He gives up calling his son and calls his assistant instead, she picks up on the second ring.
“H-hello, Dr. Ga-gaster, what can I help you with?” poor girl sounds so distressed, he makes a mental note to tell Sans she might need a vacation. Snowdin was rather nice this time of year.
“Hello Alphys, my dear, I can’t seem to get a hold of Sans,” he heard her mumbling something but continued “Is he close to where you are standing by any chance?” more sounds and a quiet argument was all he heard from the other side before someone picked up the phone again, this time the phone sent Sans’ voice trough the microphone and into the receiver that was Gasters own phone.
“hello, dad,” he sounded a bit sluggish, but Gaster paid it no mind, work was probably hard, after all “do you need me to come pick up pappy before a meeting or something?” Gaster looked around for his youngest and saw him occupied with the lieutenant of the royal guard.
“No, he seems to be fine bothering the guards,” he watched as his youngest summoned a bone, which was immediately stolen by an annoying dog who seemed to reside all over this little land called mount Ebott, and then he watched the lieutenant and his youngest son give chase “Oh, look, he even made a friend.” He ignored his oldest sigh of disbelief on the other side of the phone “The King has asked for your presents, something about one of the human children he and the queen have adopted,” he heard more sighs from the other end, but this time it had a more annoyed feel to it.
After a short what most people would call argument, Gaster called it forceful negotiation with an outcome which always favoured him, his oldest was on his way and Gaster walked into the royal hall to wait. Stationed outside the royal hall stood his old friend, The Flames of Hell, demon of Hades, The Greatest Evil the World had ever known, Captain of the royal guard, but Gaster only referred to him as Grillby (it was easier, seeing as it was his first name, after all). He greeted the other cheerfully and got a nod and what he thought might have been a smile on any other monster, but on Grillby only manifested itself as something that vaguely reminded him of a mouth.
“Is his royal majesty present?” Grillby gave a short nod and then a crackling sound which for most people sounded like the crackling of a fireplace but Gaster, who knew the language of the fire monsters, it sounded like “……The King and Queen are fighting again…… I would not go in there if I were you,” he walked inside anyway.
He was greeted by the tense atmosphere which could only be made of a married couple fighting, Queen Toriel walked past him as he entered and he gave her a nod “Good afternoon to you, my queen, is the king here by any chance?” she greeted him with a smile “Oh yes, His royal dumbass is standing behind his throne, acting like a crude child,” the last part of the sentence was shouted in the direction of said throne.
“No I am not,” answered the throne and was replied by the doors slamming, the king sighed and came out of his hiding spot to greet his Royal scientist “The temper of that woman, I will never understand it,” he called in a maid and asked her to fetch his youngest daughter, the maid bowed and ran out the back door, before he turned to Gaster and frowned “I thought Sans was coming with you?”
Before Gaster could reply the doors opened again and the stocky skeleton walked in, still dressed in his lab coat, and with soot on his cheek. Gaster walked over to his oldest and pulled out a handkerchief to clean off the black spot “The day you decide to clean yourself up before meeting the royal family will be the day Papyrus stops cooking pasta,” he scrubbed at the blackened bone and tried to keep away from waving arms trying to keep him at bay, at the same time ignoring Sans cries of “i did clean myself up this time”.
Outside the hall the captain smiled to himself as he listened to the small discussion between father and son, Sans had indeed cleaned up before coming, but a kiss on the cheek always seemed to blacken the bone before an important meeting, and never when they were alone, or in the morning when they parted ways. You see, Sans and Grillby had lived together for the about three years, with Gaster thinking his son and his best friend had found a stable way to save money with each other. Their relationship was the best kept secret in the underground, so of course everyone except Gaster knew about it. Don’t mistake it for Gaster being, for lack of a better word, stupid. He just sometimes took longer to catch up on obvious things than others.
A little further from the door, in the royal garden, Papyrus was talking excitedly with Undyne, he kept telling her about soon being twelve, and when he turned twelve it was just six years till he could join the royal guard. And when he joined the royal guard he would get lots and lots of friends and then he told her what he wanted to make for all these new friends, like spaghetti.
“That sounds grate, Papyrus, don’t you go and forget about little old me then,” she caught him in a headlock and he squirmed to get out and gave little squeaks of protest. Little known to many in the underground was that Undyne are really good with children, what, with here once having been a child and all.
When Papyrus finally got free he started to chase her, giving a practised speech of vengeance, he tried to catch up to her but to no avail. So he simply plumped down and sulked until Undyne turned around and sat down in front of him. As soon as she was within arm’s reach he tackled her to the ground, making her admit defeat by the hands of the Grate Papyrus.
Grillby stood by his stove, he had been released from his post a little less than an hour ago, and he had taken Papyrus with him to his and Sans’ place for the evening, the meeting went on longer than what they expected. (mostly because halfway through the queen came back and the whole thing had ended up becoming a pun competition between Toriel and Sans.) He had placed Papyrus in the living room with one of his brother’s books about the stars, the little skeleton seemed to like the things almost as much as his brother did.
While the little one was occupied he started dinner (he and Papyrus had agreed on pasta carbonara) while he entertained the thought of retiring from the royal guard and start a restaurant (he had been the captain for over a hundred years already) but the thought was always just that. A thought. He knew Papyrus would be disappointed, and he didn’t think Undyne was ready for the responsibility just yet. (She would be as soon as she stopped suplexing everything in sight when she got exited)
He heard the door open and Papyrus’ squeals of joy, signalling his partner had come home and brought his old friend (technically father in law?) with him. He heard Papyrus tell his father and his brother about Undyne and how they had almost gotten the annoying dog, and Sans told him how awesome he was. Grillby could see that Sans ached to lift his little brother up, as he had done a lot when Papyrus was younger, but at 11 Papyrus was an inch taller than his older brother.
After a few moments Papyrus still found himself being carried by his brother, with Gaster beaming at the two of them, Grillby gave sans a little smile and a shake of his head before returning to dinner preparations.