#The other problem would be - I imagine Sans would basically always take Gaster's chest and Papyrus at his back | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

it-refused · 7 years

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Prompt: Sans x Gaster (no family relationship), one of them having a really bad day and the other one doing anything to comfort them.

Thank you for the prompt, @rag--tag, and no worries about sending me this ship. This Gaster’s a completely different dude with the same name than the other Gaster I’ve written.

Rating: G

Characters: Gaster (non-skeleton), Sans

Summary: Gaster is struggling with a problem at work, and comes home in a bad mood. I also wrote a little about them getting together, just to try and set in my head what their relationship would be like before I got to the h/c.

Sans was, in Gaster's opinion: 1. a slightly above average physicist, 2. drastically below average height for an adult skeleton, and 3. someone who was embarrassingly good at reading faces.

When his unimportant but increasingly distracting crush on Sans had become apparent to his friends, they encouraged him to subtly flirt and ascertain Sans' feelings from his reaction.

Gaster had approached the experiment with caution, took his time with his planning and mental preparation, and then just blurted out that he liked the shape of Sans' hands right in the middle of a conversation about something entirely different.

Gaster had taken part in experiments that had physically injured him that had left him in less pain than that single embarrassing comment had managed.

Most other monsters would have shrugged it off as the doctor being strange, as he sometimes was. Sans had taken one look at Gaster's face and known exactly what he was trying to get across. He would say later that Gaster was "not as subtle as he thought he was," but Gaster was certain most other monsters would have read the situation incorrectly.

"wow. you know i'm a popular guy, but i don't think i've gotten that one before," he said. He scratched the back of his skull. "uh. thanks."

Gaster had tried to think of something to say, but his hands stayed still and silent, refusing to translate thought into words.

"heh. you've really got, uh..."

Gaster had never seen Sans embarrassed before. He decided that it was important to remember that skeletons could blush.

It made sense that he could, considering what he was made of. Their deceptively different shapes hid that they were made of the same basic raw materials. Gaster was not a skeleton, but he could also blush. He could, and had actively been doing so, since before the conversation started.

Gaster attempted to move the topic back to the previous one, but trailed off mid sentence. Sans was staring at him.

Sans cleared his throat. "can't say you're bad at it when you can kind of guess i need to, uh, bone up on my skills in this, uh, area, too."

Bone-up. Because he was a skeleton, and was made of magic that was shaped like bones. He was saying that he needed to study to improve his skills. It was possibly also a pun on the term "man up," but Gaster was less sure of that. Gaster laughed, his mood lightening considerably. Whether he was about to be accepted or rejected, he enjoyed Sans' wordplay. When he noticed it.

"you want to get coffee or something?" Sans had asked. Gaster wasn't sure why he thought he needed to "bone up" on anything. He was not sure there was any simpler or more skilled way to get across his meaning.

Sans' talent at reading faces was impressive enough that Gaster did not return home in a bad mood under any illusion that Sans would not read his bad day off of him as soon as he saw him.

He tried to avoid that moment. Sans' methods for cheering him up were not always comfortable or pleasant. For some reason it usually involved oddly placed whoopee cushions.

Gaster spent more time than average in the kitchen making himself dinner. It didn't bother him that his experiments had gone poorly. Bad results sometimes said more than good ones. Why was the substance not reacting the way he expected it to? That was an interesting question.

He was more worried about the overheating problem in the Core. So far all the solutions required power, which they couldn't guarantee access to. The slightest power blip would cause a break in the cooling process and then there would start to be fluctuations that exacerbated the problem.

All his other experiments had to be set aside, no matter how interesting, when the Core acted up. No one was getting to the surface if they all died because of an explosion.

"hey, doc. that's some complicated sandwich you're making," Sans said, behind him.

"[THE PROCESS IS DELICATE,]" Gaster said.

"after an hour in here this better be the sandwich to beat all sandwiches."

Gaster looked down at his plate. He had just slapped some items in between bread. Whatever he found. It was a chips, ketchup, crab-apple, and more-bread sandwich. It didn't matter what was in it, really.

"if you didn't have a headache already, eating that would give you one," Sans said. "a bread-ache. heh."

Now that Sans mentioned it, his head was hurting a little. Maybe eating would solve that problem.

Papyrus had complained, once, that they both still ate like bachelors even though they were married, but Gaster wasn't sure how they were supposed to eat. Sans made quiche sometimes, when he wasn't tired. So. Very rarely.

"aw. not even a smile? i thought that one was pretty good. i've got more sandwich jokes, you know. call me sanswich from now on."

His name did fit very nicely into the word sandwich, even if the joke did not make much sense. Gaster laughed, which reverberated inside his ceramic head and made it ache.

"ouch. i'll keep these great jokes to a minimum, i guess."

"[THAT JOKE WOULD WORK BETTER. IF. IT WAS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE WORD.]"

"man. you're right. but you don't know what i'm doing until around the middle, right?"

"[IN THAT SENSE, I SUPPOSE IT WORKS.]"

"hey. you laughed."

"[I NEVER SAID IT WASN'T FUNNY.]"

Sans came over and nudged him. "you like 'em more when they don't work."

Was that true? He tried to puzzle out if Sans was making another joke, but if he was, it was over his head.

The sandwich crunched when he bit in to it. It tasted interesting, and he felt his headache ebb slightly with the extra energy, but it was otherwise a failure. The apple and ketchup clashed.

Sans noticed his distaste and took the plate away from him. He tried Gaster's dinner. "hey. not bad." Sans was fine with anything, so long as it involved chips or condiments. "go sit down. i'll make you something, since i had the whole day off and you have a look like the core spit in your eye."

"[...]" Gaster didn't sit down. He suddenly wanted to complain. "[ITS TEMPERATURE AT KEY LOCATIONS CONTINUES TO RAISE A FULL 2 DEGREES ABOVE THE ACCEPTABLE MAXIMUM EVERY FEW HOURS. WE IMPLEMENTED ONE OF THE EMERGENCY MEASURES AND IT DROPPED BACK DOWN. AS SOON AS WE TURN THAT OFF, IT GOES BACK UP AGAIN. WE NEED TO FIND A SOLUTION THAT EXISTS OUTSIDE THAT SYSTEM OR THERE WILL ALWAYS BE A RISK OF A CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE THAT PUTS THE ENTIRE UNDERGROUND AT RISK.]" He sighed. "[THE HEAT WILL RISE. AND RISE. AND CONSUME US.]"

"darn. but if your solution ends up being the one where a guy lobs ice into the core, i'm going to grow an ass i can laugh off," Sans said.

"[THAT SOLUTION IS. ASININE.]"

"asinine." Sans snickered. "welp. i'd say leave a note for the fire monsters when we're dead, but it'd probably just burn up."

"[WHAT WOULD IT SAY?]"

"i don't know. 'whoops?'"

"[THEY MIGHT GUESS THAT SENTIMENT. WITHOUT A NOTE.]"

"true."

"[PERHAPS. AN APOLOGY?]"

"nah. hey, maybe the whole mountain'll go, and the humans will have to look at the survivors behind the barrier all the time. we can set up a rotation to flip 'em off."

Gaster enjoyed imagining this.

"there we go." Sans went over to the fridge and pulled out a milk carton. It was for Papyrus, but Sans' brother never minded when Sans used it. On the rare occasions Sans did, Papyrus would usually pick up a carton for Sans to use, and then end up drinking it himself. "i don't get why you have to make this so complicated. if you're too lazy to make food..." Sans opened up a cupboard and got out a box of cereal.

"[I MAY NOT HAVE BEEN. PAYING ATTENTION.]"

"got it."

"[MY HEAD HURTS.]"

"ouch. all right, fine. if you sit down, i'll grab you your meds. and then i'm sitting down too and taking a break after all this running around."

"[YOU ARE TOO KIND.]"

"sure."

Gaster sat down in the living room with his bowl of cereal. Sans had left the TV on and the tape he had in was paused. A cartoon robot was staring at the screen, static partially covering them. Gaster had seen this show before, and knew that pretty soon the cartoon robot would start kissing another cartoon robot, and Sans would fast forward through that to get to the parts he liked. Gaster hit play and let the scene play out naturally.

"ugh. really?" Sans sat down next to him and handed him a small vial of purple, glowing liquid.

"[WHEN YOU SKIP IT. YOU MISS CRUCIAL CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT.]"

"or you're a sap."

Gaster made a face and downed his medicine. His head stopped throbbing almost immediately, but the taste was awful and he could feel himself start to sweat.

Sans yawned and stretched out, like he was going to slip his arm around Gaster's shoulders. Like they were teenagers in a movie theater. At the last minute, he changed positions entirely, laying so his head was on Gaster's lap. "i guess i can nap through it."

Gaster dropped the empty vial on the floor and set the bowl of cereal on Sans' chest. It rose and fell as Sans unconsciously mimicked breathing.

"you're a guy who likes to live dangerously. if i roll over, there's milk everywhere."

"[STAY VERY STILL.]"

"ok." He yawned again, and stretched, and the bowl almost fell.

"[THAT IS THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT I SAID TO DO.]"

"doctor's orders, huh."

"[I CONTINUE TO NOT BE THAT KIND OF DOCTOR.]"

"you sure? i got a rash i need someone to look at."

Sans was trying to distract him. It was working well enough.

Sans pulled up his sleeve and waved his arm in Gaster's face. The bowl somehow managed to stay on his chest.

Gaster grabbed his arm and peered at the strangely colored mark on the bone there. After a minute, he dropped it so he could have an easier time signing. "[...]"

"fatal, right?"

"[I CAN DIAGNOSE THAT.]"

"you missed your calling."

"[YOU SPILLED JELLY OF SOME KIND ON YOUR ARM. THE LAST TIME I RECALL YOU EATING JELLY WAS YESTERDAY, AT BREAKFAST. MY CONCLUSION IS THAT YOU HAVE NOT WASHED FOOD OFF YOUR ARM SINCE YESTERDAY. MY DIAGNOSIS IS THAT YOU ARE DISGUSTING.]"

"fair enough. when's the last time you had a bath, there, g?"

Gaster considered. He had a very good memory, but he was struggling to recall when it was. It had been very busy, at work.

"bro's right about us."

"[YES.]" He had to also diagnose himself as being disgusting. He looked down at Sans. "[I AM VERY FORGETFUL. YOU SHOULD RUN A BATH FOR ME SO I DON'T FORGET TO TAKE ONE AGAIN.]"

Sans snorted. "now you're just seeing how much you can get away with. that's what i get for being a little nice."

"[YES.]" It was true. "[YOU SHOULD TAKE ONE TONIGHT, TOO. IF IT IS AT THE SAME TIME, WE WILL SAVE ON WATER.]"

"that always sounds nice in theory, but then i end up with an elbow in my ribs and you're not the only one suffering."

"[THE WATER WILL HELP MY HEADACHE.]"

Sans laughed. "c'mon. you don't even have one anymore. you're trying to pull one over on me."

"[IS IT WORKING?]"

"i guess. eat the delicious meal i slaved over to provide for you, and then we'll go scrape some grime off."

Gaster nodded. He tugged Sans' sleeve back down for him, and took the bowl of cereal off his ribs.

"i can tell you think i'm a sucker."

"[YOU ARE VERY TALENTED AT READING PEOPLE,]" Gaster said.

"wow. thanks."

Gaster leaned down to kiss him. There was a clank as bone gently tapped against ceramic. Sans' bones were always a little bit warm. He took Sans' hand and kissed his fingers.

Gaster kept his phone on and nearby so that if someone called him to tell him that the Core was about to explode, he would know in advance. He didn't get any calls, so the day certainly could have been worse.

#sanster #my fic #fanfic #prompts #rag--tag

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