The Time Before (Undertale)

33 ~ The Only Good Thing

"Saaaans! Wake up!"

Sans moaned. "noooooo, pap! five more--" Then, suddenly, Sans snapped awake, rolling over to grab up the smaller skeleton in a hug. "papyrus! you're here!"

Papyrus hugged Sans back. "I am! Dr. Gaster said I was well enough to get up today!"

Sans looked over Papyrus's shoulder to where Gaster was leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed over his chest, a small smile across his face.

Releasing Papyrus, Sans grinned at Gaster. "well, whaddabout me, doc? can i get up today?"

Gaster nodded a bit. "You should be fine. Papyrus had more recovering to do than you, so if he's alright, I don't see why you shouldn't be."

"cool." Sans flopped backwards, settling back into bed and closing his eyesockets.

"Wha-!! Sans!" Papyrus complained. "Aren't you going to get up?"

"nah."

"But Sans! You can get up now!"

"well, just 'cuz i can doesn't mean i have to."

"NNNNNGH!!" Papyrus let out a roar of frustration, and attempted to grab Sans by the shoulders and hoist him up.

Sans resisted for a few moments, then allowed Papyrus to pull him to sit back up.

"Now get out of bed!" Papyrus intoned. "You've been lying there all week!"

"yeah, because i was sick!"

"But now you're not!" Papyrus said with a smile "So you don't have an excuse to not get up!"

Sans sighed as he clambered out of bed. "fine, fine. but only 'cuz you're my brother and i love you."

Papyrus just laughed victoriously.

~o0o~

Despite the fact that the brothers were well enough to get up, Gaster wouldn't let them out of the hotel rooms. He said they should stick around there for a while, just in case they weren't quite entirely healed.

The Royal Scientist expected that, at that point, Sans would dismiss him with only so much as an agreement to call him if anything was wrong.

But Sans made no move to do any such thing. In fact, Gaster was surprised with the level of affection with which Sans addressed him. It was almost like-...

... Almost like before.

~o0o~

Sans had just finished tucking in Papyrus for the night, and was now flopping down on the opposite end of the couch from where Gaster sat. Soon the Royal Scientist would be leaving, Sans knew. Heading home for the night, to return to check in on them in the morning.

But first, Sans wanted to talk to him.

"hey, uh gaster," he began, "so, i guess i wanted to thank you."

Gaster looked genuinely surprised and confused. "Thank me? Sans, what in the world would you have to thank me for?"

"uh. you know, for not... for not doing anything to us. me 'n' pap. for keepin' your word and only helping us, and not... not starting the dtw project again." Sans paused a moment. "... and, uh, on top of that, sticking around to make sure we were okay. 'cuz i know you're the royal scientist, but you didn't just do what ya had to, you brought us home and took care of us, instead of going back to work."