Beneath the Stars (AU of an AU...?)

A Contest of Strength

A/N

So this obviously takes place some time pretty early in Firhaur's revival, as this is the first time he's witnessed Gaster's temper towards his less cooperative projects.

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The Royal Scientist was getting rather frustrated.

Well, one of them, at any rate. Gaster was getting beyond annoyed with his current project- or, rather, the failure of said project. Firhaur, on the other hand, remained calm as usual.

He was, though, a little shocked to see the method of stress relief Gaster had seemingly developed in his absence. He was also mildly concerned with the damage expenses the lab must have been charging. Mugs, pens, chairs, and other such commodities weren't particularly expensive, but the costs racked up! Especially when this was apparently a common occurrence!

So Firhaur came up behind Gaster and wrapped him in a tight hug, pinning his arms to his sides, just in time to prevent the smaller of the two Royal Scientists from putting yet another dent into the side of a filing cabinet. "Brother! Calm down! Surely, there are less... destructive methods to vent your anger!"

Gaster struggled in the dragon's grip. "Firhaur-! Let- go!"

"No." Firhaur replied stubbornly, sticking his nose in the air, partially to avoid being head butted in the face, partially out of snarkiness. "Not until you calm down."

Gaster let out a sort of grrrrRRAAAAHHH noise and attempted to break out of Firhaur's arms, but Firhaur just squeezed him tighter.

"I said, no."

After a few minutes, Gaster let out an annoyed hhrmph and crossed his arms as best he could. "Fine. There. I'm calm now. Happy?"

"As long as you're not going around breaking lab equipment, yes, in fact, I am." Firhaur released Gaster.

For a long second, Gaster just looked at Firhaur, a funny look in his eyes that Firhaur thought he maybe should have been slightly concerned by. But then Gaster turned away without a fuss, back to his project. Firhaur gave a nod of approval, and turned back to his own work.

Less than a minute had elapsed, though, before Firhaur found himself not in the lab, but in a grassy field, evidently having been teleported by Gaster- and before the dragon could really even fully take in this information, he heard his brother letting out a savage scream to his left.

Turning with feline reflexes, Firhaur was just in time to avoid getting whacked by the bone in Gaster's hands. It was non-damaging, Firhaur had no doubt, as Gaster would never do anything to harm him, but it was still something of a shock.

"Now just what do you think you're doing?" The dragon huffed, sinking into a defensive position as he moved warily around his brother.

Gaster stayed crouched and ready, gripping the bone with both hands like a sword. "You said as long as I wasn't breaking lab equipment." He responded shortly through gritted teeth.

Firhaur smiled, just a little, showing off a number of his sharp teeth. "Well. If that's the way you want to relieve stress-" here, he lunged forward, around Gaster, and whacked Gaster with the fan of his tail in passing, sending his brother sprawling- "then I suppose I'm game."

As Firhaur began to circle him again, Gaster climbed to his feet, his snarl shifting to something that was almost a grin. "Good!"

And with that, the battle was on.

Having been in a healing hibernation throughout most of the war, Firhaur had not been around for the invention of Gaster's weapons. He had not seen Gaster in action, not with bones nor the Blasters made in his own likeness, and as such, knew not what to expect. He did, however, possess incredibly fast reflexes, his own natural Magic in the form of purple fire he could breathe out at will, and the power of flight that Gaster didn't immediately possess.