Gaster wasn't really actually doing anything in his notebook.

He had planned to sketch up some (more) CORE designs, in hopes of maybe, maybe figuring something out (the solutions was there, he knew. It had to be possible to turn the geothermal energy into Magic electricity. It had to be, and he would figure it out.) but instead he had ended up drawing meaningless doodles while thinking over S642.

Truth be told, it had probably been more of a relief for Gaster when S642 had passed out than it had been for S642.

Watching what he had finally accepted to be his child, screaming and writhing like that...

But they had to keep going. They had to.

Gaster knew that a war was inevitable when the Barrier was broken. They needed something strong enough to fight the humans. And, he told himself, it wasn't just for winning the war. He was also making sure S642 would be able to defend himself, to keep from dying, when the fighting started.

He sighed, looking again at the small figure on the table.

... This was going to be difficult, wasn't it? This entire thing. No matter how many times he saw it, no matter how many times S642 was lying there, thrashing against the restraints...

It was going to be difficult.

At the very least, he supposed, he wasn't forcing S642 into doing anything. If S642 wanted to stop...

Would he? Would he let all this work go to waste? Could he?

... Yes. If it came down to it, he would stop. But only if S642 really wanted to.

And...

Gaster almost choked with his next thought, but he finished it anyway.

And if things didn't work out with S642, there was always the still-suspended S643.

Immediately after thinking that, he felt bad. Because that would mean giving S643 a Soul, and who was to say that would be any different from S642, and...

Gaster groaned, pressing a hand to his forehead.

Annoying Dog, what had happened? He never used to get this conflicted over the ethics of his work! Since when did he get this concerned about his test subject?

He sighed and looked at his hands, looked at the holes in them, the holes he himself had carved out.

No. He knew better. S642, and, yes, even the still-comatose, Soulless S643, they were both his flesh and blood.

Metaphorically, of course, as none of them technically had either.

But that was beside the point.

He didn't want to hurt S642. He loved S642 as a father loves a child.

Because S642 was his child.

And, if this went too far, if S642 wanted it to end, it would end. They would be done with the DTW project.

... If.

... He would... still continue with it.

For now.

... For now...

~o0o~

S642 woke comfortably, yawning and stretching. He was, he realized, still lying on the table, but no longer hooked up to the machines.

As he rubbed at his eyes, still yawning, he heard Gaster. "Awake now? How are you?"

S642 blinked, smiling up at his creator. "Better."

Gaster smiled a little. "Think you can sit up?"

S642 nodded, and accepted Gaster's hand when it was offered. As he pulled himself up, Gaster slipped his other hand behind S642, supporting his back.

It was a little disconcerting to S642 to hear his back cracking so much with the movement, but Gaster assured him that was only natural. After all, even if it wasn't visibly noticeable, they had, essentially, just made his bones thicker. It was no surprise that they would be a little out of place.

Once he was up, though, and had bent each of his joints a little, he felt a lot better. Good enough, even to walk around. Really, after each joint had been popped back into place, the entire procedure seemed only like a nightmare.

Of course, they would be doing it again...

But S642 was sure that it would get easier each time.

Besides, they were doing it to save monsters, and stop evil humans! S642 could think of no better reason to do things.

As Gaster wanted to keep an eye on S642, just to be sure he really was fine, they spent the day in Gaster's lab. This time was spent altering between Gaster at his desk and S642 on the floor, each doing his own thing, or S642 sitting in Gaster's lap as Gaster explained something to him.

Gaster had decided that, since they had the time, and he had nothing better to do, today would be a good day to get S642 started on the basics of algebraic equations.

"You see," he was saying as he wrote "5 = 5" on a piece of scratch paper, "this five, here, is always going to equal five, right?"

"Yeeeeaaaah...?" S642 responded slowly from where he sat on Gaster's lap, not quite understanding where this was going.

"Now, if I add one to the left side of this equation..." He added a + 1 to the left side.

"But..." S642 objected.

Gaster was silent, letting him work it out.

"But six isn't equal to five!"

Gaster nodded, satisfied. "Exactly. So, you either don't add one to this side, or you add one to both sides. Because that's what the equals sign means. It means things are equal. And if things are equal, then you have to do whatever operation to both sides, to keep it equal. Make sense?"

S642 nodded slowly.

"So, then, let's say we have this," he wrote out "5 = X + 3" "unknown variable, here." He tapped the X with the pencil. "This could be any number, and you want to find it. Keeping in mind that this is a balanced equation, how do you think you would-"

He was cut off by a knock on the door of his lab.

Making a couple quick hand gestures that S642 had been told multiple times he should not repeat, Gaster lifted S642 off his lap, setting him down on the chair as he rose.

Gaster walked over to the door and pulled it half open. Jeff was standing there.

Gaster leaned back on his heels, crossing his arms over his chest, peering down at the cat monster. "What?"

"You know what, doctor." With that, Jeff shoved past Gaster, ignoring the Royal Scientist's protest.

S642, who had still been sitting at the desk, turned around at the sound of Jeff's voice. He smiled up at the assistant as he neared. "Jeff! We're doin' algreba."

Jeff smiled a little, his eyebrows rising. "You mean algebra?"

S642 grinned and bobbed his head up and down.

"That's good." Jeff knelt down by the chair so he was eye-level with S642. "How are you?"

"Good!"

"You're sure? Nothing hurts?"

S642 shook his head. "Nuh-uh!"

"I told you," Gaster roughly grabbed Jeff by the shoulder, pulling him away, "he's fine."

"I am!" S642 added helpfully.

"Well excuse me for having doubts," Jeff wrenched away from Gaster's grip, turning to face him, "when he was practically turning to dust in my hands!"

Gaster scoffed. "There was no dust."

"I said practically."

Gaster grabbed Jeff by the shoulders again, forcing him towards the door. "Welp, thank you for your valued contribution, doctor, but I think it's time for you to go."

With that, despite Jeff's shouted protests, Gaster shoved him out the door. And, as this was the door to a very top-secret lab, it had some very impressive locks.

After finishing with the locks, Gaster clapped his hands together. "Well, then. That's taken care of." He turned back to where S642 was still sitting at the desk.

As he walked over, S642 gave him a funny look. "Dings, why're you so mean to Jeff?"

"Mean?" Gaster shook his head. "I'm not mean, I just... Sometimes have to forcefully show him that, as Royal Scientist, I obviously know what I'm doing much better than he does, since he's not Royal Scientist."

"Oh." S642 thought about that for a minute. "Huh."

"For the record, he probably never would have been able to do something so ingenious as creating you. Now then." Gaster reached for the paper they had been working on, pulling it off the desk. "Did you solve-... yes, yes you did. Good job."

S642 grinned.

"How's your multiplication? Wanna try something more challenging?"

"Yeah!" S642 shouted enthusiastically.

Gaster smiled, lifting S642 so he could sit again. "Alright, here, try this..."

~o0o~

The only time that Gaster left his lab that day was after getting S642's dinner ready. He had realized he had not eaten all day, or most of the previous, either, and was rather hungry.

He left the lab for a grand total of nine minutes, returning with a hotdog from the break room refrigerator in hand, another aluminum foil-wrapped one in the pocket of his coat.

When he returned, S642 was just finishing off the glass of the food solution. He looked at Gaster from where he sat on the edge of the table, lowering the empty glass.

"What's real food taste like?"

Gaster paused, mid-bite. "Hmmf?"

S642 gestured to the hotdog sticking out of Gaster's mouth. "What does that taste like?"

Gaster finished his bite, walking over to the table. "Riiiiiight. You've been living on that stuff your entire life." He pulled himself up, sitting next to S642 on the edge of the steel table. Then he held the hotdog down to S642, offering him a bite.

S642 hesitated.

"Go ahead. Try it. Just don't forget to chew."

Slowly, S642 leaned forward and bit into the hotdog. When he pulled away, chewing slowly, he let out a small moan of bliss.

Gaster laughed, before taking another bite himself. "Like it, huh?"

S642 just nodded, eyesockets half closed. After a moment, he swallowed. When he turned to look up at Gaster, he said nothing, but had a puppy-dog expression.

Sighing and rolling his eyes amusedly, Gaster held out the last bite of the hotdog to S642, who accepted it happily.

Gaster was suddenly glad he had thought to grab two hotdogs from the break room. He pulled the second, foil wrapped hotdogs from the pocket of his lab coat.

S642 watched, wide-eyed, finishing the last of the first hotdog, as Gaster unwrapped the second one.

Still laughing a bit, Gaster sighed and held it out to S642.

And together, they ate the second hotdog.

§

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed it! Remember, votes and comments are not only always welcome, but always appreciated, too!