ShelterTale

ShelterTale Part 17

Wingdings sat at the desk in his room, propping his head up with his hand while he examined some documents. It was "nighttime" so the lights in the city had been shut off, but he had a little yellow lamp on his desk to help him see.

He was up too late, and he knew it because the scars on his skull were beginning to throb painfully. He reached for a mug on his desk. It was white with "THE MOST GREATEST DAD" painted on it in orange in Papyrus's large but neat handwriting. In little and kiddish blue writing beside it were the four letters "ster". DADster; a pun on their familial relationship and family name, and a very low-effort way for Sans to contribute. Papyrus insisted his older brother had ruined the cute gift, but it had immediately become the king's favorite.

Was he happy that his children had gone out of their way to make him something as a show of affection? Did he prize the mug on its sentimental value? Of course not. Wingdings didn't experience emotions like those. He had his own reasons for favoring this mug over others. He knew that stating those reasons, somehow, would be considered disrespectful to their feelings while they were making it, and so he kept them to himself. Wingdings kept a lot of things to himself.

Unfortunately, the mug was empty; no coffee to wake him up and drive off his headaches for a short time.

The king tried to focus back on the documents, but his vision was blurry from lack of sleep and his glasses weren't helping compensate for it.

He heard footsteps from outside his door. They were too light to be from an armored guard, and the only other person likely to be up at this hour was Sans. He will notice the light from under my door and realize I'm still awake and working. Will he be lazy and ignore me or check in out of curiosity?

A minute passed and Sans didn't enter his room. I suppose he's gone to his lab then, Gaster turned his eyes back to the papers and jumped when he felt a magical release beside him.

"heya, pops. shouldn't you be in bed?"

Gaster looked over his shoulder and saw his eldest son with a hot pot of coffee in his hand. Sans noticed his gaze and chuckled.

"if you're not going to bed soon, i thought you might want some."

"That was very thoughtful of you, Sans," the king smiled and held out his mug. He watched the brown liquid flow and chuckled internally. Sans has the least reason to be considerate toward me, but he is anyway. It's constantly throwing off my expectations. He did once say he admired my deliberate kindness. Could he be emulating me?

"you're wrong, dad," Sans said suddenly. "if you think i'm just copying you like some babybones, you're wrong."

"Now how did you know what I was thinking?"

"i've been reading you since i was eight, dad. are you really asking that?"

"Sheh heh heh. No." No matter how sly I get, Sans just gets sharper. He'll quite the king someday. "So then, may I ask why?"

"because if i didn't, i would be disrespecting all the effort you put in. you can appreciate that on principle, right?"

"Yes," Wingdings nodded and took a sip of the hot beverage. When he felt the caffeine enter his system he looked back down at the papers only to see they weren't there. The king turned around to see Sans flipping through the documents, the same silly grin as always plastered to his face.

"ya got a pen, pops?" the first prince asked, holding out a hand without looking away from the documents. Wingdings chuckled and handed him a writing utensil, smiling while Sans scratched a few notes down. "heh. done."

Wingdings took the papers back and admired the notes his son had made. His handwriting was a little sloppy, but his logic was sound. When Wingdings was this tired, it was no wonder his nearly nocturnal son could crunch numbers better than he could.

"I should be in bed," the king chuckled, making Sans grin.

"isn't that what i said?" The crown prince took his dad's coffee mug and poured the contents back into the pot. "i'll be needing this. you just go to sleep already. gerson and i are gonna need your help tomorrow."

"Yes, I know," Wingdings sighed pleasantly. "You win, Sans. I'll get some sleep."

***

The next day, three of the best scientific minds in the underground directed dozens of workers in installing many strange mechanisms into the ceiling of the area excavated underneath Hotland. It took a week to make sure everything was properly secured and in working order, and then the royal scientist took the liberty of starting the system up. It seemed like every monster in the underground had come to witness this moment.

The cold silver panels of metal came to life. A bright blue sky spread out over the ceiling, dotted and splashed with fluffy white clouds that rolled lazily over the surface. Directly overhead, a ball of light so bright you couldn't look at it blazed. It showered the large empty cavern with light and warmed the faces of the monsters staring up at it. It was the sky and the sun, right here in the underground.

Everyone had been really passionate working on this project; the artificial sky was as true to life as they could make it. There would be sunny days, cloudy days, and even rainy days where water would be funneled from Waterfall to drip through tiny holes in the sky panels. Over the course of the day, the sun would move across the sky, and at night the stars would show, with all the constellations exactly where they should be.

At the same time, Sans and Wingdings looked at Papyrus to see his reaction. His expression that was so happy tears had started to gather filled them with pride. The father and son shared a look and a small high five.

"IT'S MUCH... MORE THAN WHAT I WAS EXPECTING. YOU THREE WORKED VERY HARD FOR THIS. THANK YOU."

"like i said, bro: anything for you."

"I concur with your brother," Gaster grinned.

Chara and Asriel trotted over to give their thanks and congratulations. "So this is the sky?" The four-year-old goat child was nearly as tall as his older sister already. "It's amazing!"

"glad ya like it, kid."

Even Chara smiled genuinely, "Sometimes I forget how amazing magic can be. It looks just like I remember."

"ain't magic, kid," Sans thrust his hands in his pockets and peeked at her.

"Oh, I forgot," the ghost rolled her eyes, "you're a magic talking skeleton of science."

Sans pointed a finger gun at her and winked. "exactly."

Toriel and Asgore soon followed after their kids.

"It's wonderful, your majesty," Toriel bleated happily.

"It really is. I would love to put a new garden down here," Asgore put his furry hand around his wife's shoulder.

"Of course," the king nodded and signed. "But first, I think the people would like a few words to commemorate the occasion. Asgore, old friend, would you mind?"

"Not at all, your majesty."

And the newest area in the underground, Skylight, was officially announced.