No One is Happy with This (Undertale)

38 ~ Christmas Morning

The morning after Gaster moves in, Christmas Day arrives. When you jump out of bed and race downstairs, Flowey's flower pot in your arms, you find both Gaster and Papyrus are already up.

"Frisk!" Papyrus grins at you, happily greeting you. "Look! Dad gets up early, too!"

It amazes you a little, how easily Papyrus went from calling Gaster "Gaster" to calling him "Dad". You could swear you see Gaster smile every time Papyrus addresses him as such.

"Well it's not that surprising, Papyrus." You say. "He is your dad, after all. You had to get that trait from somewhere!"

"Yeah," Flowey adds, "I bet it's also where you got your idiocy."

Gaster shoots Flowey a dark glare. "Shut it, weed." The tall skeleton seems to have taken up a position in the kitchen, and appears to be attempting to make... breakfast. Of some sort.

"What are you making?" You ask him.

He gives you that annoyed look he's done every time you ask him a question. Then, "Pancakes."

You look at the bowl of batter that he's left sitting on the countertop while he gets a pan out. (He somehow seems to know exactly where everything is in your kitchen, despite having come there only last night.)

"That doesn't really look like pancake batter."

Gaster snorts a little. "Well it's not normal batter, no. I would never settle for ordinary pancakes. I made this stuff myself."

You look up at Papyrus, who's smiling widely. You look back at Gaster. He's melting butter on a pan, one hand in his pocket.

"Well, okay, what's in it?"

Gaster just summons one of his hands to make a dismissive gesture. "...Pancake... stuff."

"Pancake stuff?" You watch with concern as Gaster takes a cupful of the batter and dumps it on the pan. "Do you really know what you're doing?"

When he looks at you, he's wearing an expression of admonishment. "Of course I do! I'm the Royal Scientist!"

"an' he can do whatever he wants." Sans mumbles sleepily as he stumbles into the kitchen, half awake.

Gaster grins at him. "Oh! You remember!"

Sans gestures vaguely. "not really. you kept saying that last night and then i heard it a bunch in my dreams."

Before anyone can respond, the pancake on the pan bursts into flames, right about as Toriel comes into the kitchen.

Things get a little chaotic after that. You're not entirely sure what's happening, except that there are things on fire, both Gaster and Toriel are trying to put out the fire, Papyrus is trying to keep you away from the fire, and Flowey is cackling madly.

Eventually, they get the fire out, and Toriel proclaims that she'll be making breakfast. Gaster agrees.

Toriel's pancakes are remarkably less flammable than Gaster's.

After breakfast, it's time to open Christmas presents.

Papyrus gets a bunch of new action figures. Sans gets socks.

Like.

A lot of socks. He seems strangely happy with this.

Toriel gets a new cookbook full of recipes she's never seen before. You and Flowey both get the newest Smash Bros game.

And then...

"But, Dad," Papyrus speaks up, "Santa didn't bring you anything!"

Everyone hesitates for a moment.

"I bet it's because he's on the naughty list!" Flowey chortles.

Gaster gives him a withering look. "Yes, because a man who doesn't exist is going to be on the naughty list, but a soulless demon flower who's also an attempted murderer and a serial killer in other timelines isn't, and still gets a Christmas present." Gaster glances at Papyrus, then quickly continues. "No, I think it's more likely that Santa did not have the time to prepare anything. And we must forgive him that; after all, I didn't exist four days ago."

Papyrus seems to find this answer acceptable, but still looks a little distressed. "But-... it doesn't matter if you didn't exist! You do now, and you should still get something!"

Gaster is silent for a moment. Then he motions for Papyrus to come over. "Actually, there is one thing you can give me."

Eager to please, Papyrus scrambles to his feet and hurried over to Gaster. As soon as he's reached the Royal Scientist, Gaster reaches up and pulls him into a tight hug, and just holds on to him.

After a little bit, he pulls away. "There. I got everything I wanted."

"Seriously?" Flowey snorts, ignoring the dark look Gaster is giving him. "You just wanted a hug? That's so... boring."

Papyrus has other reasons to complain, though. "But what about Sans?"

Gaster just laughs. "Alright, yeah. You too, Sans, come here."

Sans just walks over to Gaster and climbs into Gaster's lap, quickly settling down. Gaster seems perfectly fine with this. And then Papyrus sits down next to him, leaning against his shoulder, and Gaster just looks so content.

"Y'see?" He says, snuggling his sons closer. "Perfect gift, right here. And Santa didn't even bring it!"

Gaster, you decide, is a very good dad.

For a while after that, the group of you just stay in the living room, around the Christmas Tree, mostly enjoying each others' company. 'Mostly' because Flowey doesn't enjoy anyone's company, and Gaster certainly doesn't seem to like Flowey.

Eventually, there's a knock at the door.

"I'll get it!" You shout, running to open the door. All your friends are coming over to celebrate Christmas, too, and now is right about when they should be arriving.

Flaming pancakes and rude flowers aside, this Christmas is already shaping up to be a good one.

§

A/N

Hmm, this Christmas scene is turning out to be a lot longer than I expected! I think next chapter will be the last part of it.

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!