No One is Happy with This (Undertale)

79 ~ Sans is Helpful

With Sans' promise to talk to Gaster on your behalf, the better part of your fear has vanished. You're still nervous, though, and it's sort of an almost worse nervousness. A sort of stage fright fear, nearly, twisting in your gut as you wait for Gaster to judge you.

An entire day passes like this before anything happens. You're pacing the floor of your room while Flowey sits on your desk, his usual look of irritation on his face. "Will you stop already?"

You just kinda make a strangled, anxious noise, gesturing frustratedly.

Flowey's frown deepens and he makes a similarly irritable noise.

You're about to respond with a more anxious noise when your phone buzzes in your pocket. You quickly snatch it up to see you have three texts from Gaster:

"Need to talk to you"

"Come to my lab"

"Immediately."

You slip your phone back into your pocket and, with only a short explanation to Flowey, run out the door.

Not much later, you're hesitantly walking into the lab, nervously keeping an eye out for the tall Royal Scientist. It takes you a while to find him, though; when he said his lab, he meant his personal lab, in the basement. So it's some time before you take the elevator down and step out into the brick-and-tile hallway of the Laboratory Basement.

Trying to tell yourself that your knees are most definitely not shaking at all, you walk over to the big heavy door at the end of the hallway with the frosted glass window and the plaque with Dr. WD. Gaster inscribed on it. You pause a moment in front of the door, hesitating, trying to steady your breathing.

You try to focus on something else to calm down. Something like- like the plaque on the door!

Yeah...! I still don't know what WD. stands for. I wonder if I can ask Gaster, or....? Would that be kind of... insensitive of the-.... current situation? I don't-

"Frisk."

You spin around with a small shriek to find Gaster standing just behind you, fairly looming over you. He's frowning. "... Were you ever planning on actually coming in? Or were you going to waste all my time today as I sit and wait for you?"

"I- I- uh—"

You see a flicker of Magic out of the corner of your eye, and when you turn, you see one of Gaster's hands pushing open the large door before gesturing for you to enter.

You suppose you don't have much of a choice, What with Gaster standing directly behind you. So you walk forward.

Gaster's lab is much the same as it was the last time you saw it, a mess of odds and ends all over the place. You're relieved to see Sans, leaning over one of the tables, working on something or other. With Sans here, Gaster probably won't kill you.

Probably.

"Hi, Sans," you say.

"kiddo." He raises a hand in greeting, but doesn't look up from what he's doing.

A hissed sigh escaping between Gaster's clenched teeth, the Royal Scientist stalks around you and twists around his deskchair to face you before taking a seat. For a long moment, he just looks at you, a deep and thoughtful frown on his face.

"well?" Sans asks, still not looking up. "i thought you were gonna talk to 'em."

Gaster lets out another frustrated breath. "Yes. I am. I'm working on it."

"doesn't sound like it."

"Shut up, Sans."

"yessir, dad, sir!"

You can't help but let out a little laugh at that, and Gaster's attention snaps back to you. You fall silent.

Gaster takes a deep breath then stands up, his hands twitching with erratic gestures. Going of his facial expression, you don't want to know what he's saying right now in Hands.

The Royal Scientist paces for a moment before he begins to speak. "Frisk. I admit that I was, perhaps... slightly mistaken, in two regards. First, in misinterpreting the fear-driven stammerings of a panicked child, and second, in allowing myself to act as I did in front of such a young and impressionable mind."

Sans snorts. "some apology there, dad."

"Sans. I'm working on it."

You get the feeling that this isn't something that comes naturally to the Oh-So-Great Royal Scientist, and that maybe Sans isn't just there for you, but also for Gaster.

Gaster turns back to you. "This said, Sans has explained to me the reasoning behind your... inquiry the other day. I admit I understood it in an entirely different context than you had intended, and apologize for reacting to a threat you hadn't meant to convey."

"dad."

Gaster lets out a growl of frustration, eyes scrunched shut for a second. "The point is, Frisk, you have no reason to be afraid. I am entirely in control."

There's a dark look in Gaster's eyesockets. He says it with such force, there's no doubt. He is in control of himself.

You pause for a moment. "So, then... we're okay? We're still friends? You don't hate me?

One of Gaster's hands rises to his chin. "Hm. No, I suppose not. It would be such a shame to have to hate you after I put all that work into saving your life."

Sans lets out another snort at that.

You just smile up at Gaster. "So, then... Can I ask you a question?"

Gaster gives you a slow look. "So long as it in no way pertains to... all that, yes, I believe you may."

"Okay. Can I ask what the WD. in your name stands for?"

Gaster gives you a look. "You may absolutely not!"

You hear Sans laugh. "it stands for wi-"

Sans abruptly lets out a yelp, and you hear a crash quickly after. When you turn to look, you see Sans sprawled out on the floor, one of Gaster's Magical hands having apparently yanked out his chair from beneath him to get him to shut up.

When you look back at Gaster, he's got a look of sheer incredulity on his face. After a second, he looks at you. "Frisk, you may go. Sans and I need to have a serious discussion about not divulging family secrets."

Sans laughs as he pulls himself to his feet. "what's the big deal? it's literally just w-"

You suddenly find yourself in the lab elevator, the doors already closing as it begins its ascent from the basement.

This doesn't really help your case of thumbless-cat-ness, though, because if Gaster's so intent on hiding his name, it just makes you more curious about what it is.

But, you decide, this doesn't really seem like too crucial of a mystery to be solved, so maybe for now you can let it be. 

§

A/N

So it seems the general consensus is that if I wrote a HL novelization, people would read it. So you can expect that maybe sometime in the future eventually!

Also, I'm just gonna leave this here because it's epic music.

Enjoy!

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!