"Sans! Papyrus! Come on, we're leaving early today! I have a meeting!" Gaster called to his children. Papyrus, age 8, and Sans, age 13, were the scientist's two sons — Sans was lazy and nerdy, and polar opposite Papyrus never seemed to get tired of running around and screaming... for some reason. Papyrus peeked over the banister. "Coming Dad! Just needa get dressed!" Sans called from his room. Gaster grabbed his coffee and hastily threw on his lab coat — the skelefamily always seemed to be in a rush in the morning.

Papyrus slid down the banister and jumped off, nailing the landing, and Sans just jumped over the banister and onto the couch. Those two were always competing to see who could pull the most dangerous stunt without breaking something — poor Papyrus was so desperate for validation and victory, and awesome big brother Sans always tried to humour him by intentionally being less impressive.

The skelekids grabbed their backpacks for school, and Sans snatched his sketchbook on the way out. He liked to draw in his free time, when he wasn't getting hell from his teachers for sleeping or slacking off in class. Papyrus nabbed a muffin for breakfast and tossed one to Sans before the three skeletons were rushing out the door.

Gaster dropped his kids off at school and gave them a hug before taking the Riverboat to his laboratory in Hotland. He had lied about the meeting — really he just wanted some time alone to think before work started about some things that had been happening lately. He sat down at his desk and put his head in his hands, a lot of thoughts coming to his mind.

King Asgore Dreemurr, kindhearted king of the Underground, was definitely going through a rough time in his life — his children, Asriel and Chara Dreemurr, had died — Asriel being killed by humans and Chara dying to a mysterious disease — and his wife, the softhearted Queen Toriel Dreemurr, had left him after a disagreement over what to do in the wake of that specific problem. There were several things that crossed the scientist's mind when that topic came up.

For one, King Asgore's Royal Guard had begun sending out search party after search party to look for the Queen. No success so far. Some monsters believed that she had killed herself, but Queen Toriel was definitely not the kind of person to do such a thing, no matter what happened or what she lost.

For two, Asgore was now considered by the kingdom to be single, although he and the Queen never got a divorce. It was probably for the best that they didn't, because it kept his hopes up that he would see her again someday, which helped a lot for his emotional stability. Gaster was always concerned about his King no matter what was happening, not only because they were inseparable friends, but because he had different feelings for Asgore too.

For a long while now, and Gaster had been nervous to accept the thought, he had had a crush on his King. He was such a lovable monster — sense of humour, amazing personality, heart of gold, he was everything anyone could ever want in a partner. He's just my boss, why the hell am I thinking about him so much? Gaster always told himself. It took a while for him to realize why, and it only clicked when Sans had admitted to his father that he had a crush on one of his classmates — Grillby, to be specific.

The young skeleton's exact words when describing it were "I thought he was just a friend to me — someone to work on homework with together, someone to pass test answers to in class, someone to get detention with for pulling pranks, and someone who I would always be there for. But I kept thinking about him so much, and I had this feeling that I felt more about him than just friendship. Now I know that I do, and I don't know what to do..."

By the way his son described his feelings for his classmate, Gaster could tell he shared the same kind of feelings for Asgore — thinking he was just an amazing friend when he really meant so much more than that. Gaster had been hesitant to accept it, but he knew it wasn't healthy to bottle up your emotions. After all, Asgore always told him that when he thought he was hiding something. He laughed and facepalmed. "Why, out of all people, did I have to be gay for my adorable boss..."

There was no point in denying it. Asgore was an amazing person that had managed to light up Gaster's life when he had needed it, back when they met so long ago. He had found and adopted two orphaned, homeless skeleton children that he had not the slightest idea how to care for, as he had no parenting experience whatsoever — Sans being 5 at the time and trying his best to care for his infant brother.

Gaster worked at the Charcoal Diner near their house at the time, not yet a Royal Scientist despite his unmatchable intellect. He was going through rough times — having two kids and struggling to provide for them, as he was up to his neck in new responsibilities. What made him feel special was that the two children never gave up on him, and looked up to him like he was the best person in the world. And to them, he really was. Gaster started to recall the day he found them...