{Handplates chapter references: The brother's first meeting, A brief and mostly unpleasant childhood}

{A/N: There is a lot of new fonts being added in this chapter and since Sans and Papyrus basically don't have names, I had to refer to them as 1-S/Subject 1 and 2-P/Subject 2 - just like Gaster does.

I would appreciate some feedback regarding these new fonts and the names/not-names of Papy and Sans to see if it causes too much confusion or disrupts the fluency of the story so please, please please drop a comment. If too many don't like the way this is written, I will readjust it but I did want to make it lore-accurate}

“This is it. Subject 1 and 2 are going to meet.
I'm keeping a tight hold on both their souls. So if they fall to fighting, it should be a matter of moments to separate them before either is hurt. It’s best to be prepared.”

Gaster guided the taller skeleton, Subject 2 or in short 2-P, into an empty room.

There wasn't much inside of it except for an office desk, an experimentation table and an empty steel shelf.

2-P tried his best to stay as close as possible to Gaster. As they walked through the door, a small clacking and rustling made 2-P back away and he immediately hid behind Gaster, holding onto his lab coat for protection and comfort.

Gaster flinched in response, lifting his arm to take a peek at 2-P before shaking him off.

“Don't touch me.”, he said with an authoritative voice, clearly irritated by 2-P's touchiness.

2-P just looked at him, a small smile on his face as he tried mimicking Gaster's words: “DUN TASH ME.”

The sound of 2-P's voice caused something to stir behind the office table.

The smaller skeleton, Subject 1 or 1-S, peeked warily around the corner, his eyes immediately landing on 2-P.

Gaster was not sure what to expect from this meetup.
His magic hands floated beside him as they continued to take notes on his clipboard while he silently observed them.

“They've seen each other…they seem at a loss for what to do.”

The small skeleton's souls were both glowing blue-ish as Gaster had a gentle hold on both of their souls.

He was highly alert, ready to act if they ended up being hostile or aggressive to each other.

1-S watched 2-P closely as he carefully approached the desk.

1-S ducked a little more behind cover, seeking for the safety of the metal desk but it did not deter 2-P.

“Subject 1 seems wary.”

2-P tilted his head slightly, glowing in a soft orange hue.
It made 1-S perk up slightly.
He seemed genuinely surprised, at ease even.

Gaster watched as 1-S started glowing in response, slowly stepping more and more out of his hiding place as 2-P approached.

“Subject 2’s eyes have begun glowing in a warm red-orange color. Subject 1 soon began glowing light blue in response. This seems to have calmed them a little.”

Soon, there were just a couple more steps left between them.
Then just an arm's length.

1-S smiled up at 2-P.

2-P hesitantly reached out towards him.

And suddenly…

With a small ‘wonk', 2-P had shoved his hand inside 1-S's eye socket.

There was a moment of stunned silence.

Gaster didn't dare to move, worried that this could somehow take a different turn but he soon relaxed as he watched 1-S starting to explore 2-P's skeletal structure with the same curiosity.

“They are curious about each other. As one may expect. They are the first living thing they've seen aside from myself after all.”

Gaster watched them silently as 2-P picked up 1-S to even the height difference, how 1-S put his arm through the empty space where normally a cheek would be.

They covered each other's eyes, felt each other's faces with awe and curiosity.

Both of them never stopped smiling.

2-P grabbed 1-S's wrist and held his arm gently.

“ARMM.”, he said loudly and 1-S tried to mimic his words: “ahm?”

“HEND.”

“pom.”

“They are very eager and quick to learn already their level of speech has advanced at an astonishing rate just by speaking to each other. As one learns something new…”

With a small plop, 2-P accidentally detached 1-S's forearm.

Both of them looked at it for a moment, speechless and dumbfounded before 1-S started screaming.

2-P quickly hushed him, putting his free hand over 1-S's mouth: “SHHH SHHH!!! NO CRY!!”

He quickly reattached the arm just how Gaster had previously shown him.

“SEE. ONE OKAY. ONE NORMAL.”

“So the other builds off of what they've learned to new heights.”

1-S's tears stopped before they could even fall and he inspected his reattached arm quietly.

He lifted his arm and started to shake it, his bones emitting loud rattling noises. 2-P watched 1-S with keen interest and intrigue, mirroring his movements.

Soon both of them were rattling their bones together, giggling and laughing along the sounds.

Gaster sat down on a chair in the office, still silently observing.

“A mutual scaffolding, they are indeed little skeletons.”

After a while, both of them stopped and 2-P reached out towards the smaller skeleton, before quickly pulling away again, holding his hands to his chest and looking away with uncertainty.

1-S smiled at him reassuringly, giving 2-P the courage to finally embrace him.

2-P pulled him against his chest, his hands wrapped tightly around 1-S's neck.
2-P buried his face in the top of 1-S's head, his eyes closed as he melted into the hug.

1-S stood there motionless, his eyes darting up at 2-P for a moment before he returned the hug and closed his eyes as well.

“…and they are getting very attached to each other very quickly…
If I want the two to mature rapidly, leaving them together seems the most obvious choice.
At the same time…emotional bonds like this carry their own risks.”

Gaster’s eyes moved from the clipboard to the two skeletons.
They both giggled to themselves and smiled as they kept hugging each other.

“On the other hand, perhaps those bonds can be exploited later, should the need arise.”

.

.

.

“Entry Number XXX:

Steady progress at a rapid rate.
They can speak in sentences now. Subject 1 is quiet and soft spoken…a lowercaser, I'm sure.
Without much attention to detail and taken to mumbling.
2, however, is more confident and clear – uppercase, like myself. A voice that demands attention.”

Gaster scribbled down the fonts he could see from the two skeletons.
It was a skeleton's special ability to see the font of people.

He called it magical synthesia.

He learned that subject 1 had the font comic sans and subject 2 had the font PAPYRUS.

However, as soon as he wrote these fonts down, he quickly scratched them out again, mentally scolding himself.

“It does not matter what their fonts are…I did not notice and it does not matter.”

.
.
.

“They cry and carry on whenever I have to separate them, but I cannot risk leaving them alone unsupervised until Subject 2 can understand 1's condition.”

“WHAT'S THAT MEAN?”, asked 2-P with a hint of uncertainty and confusion.

“It means that if you hurt Subject 1, even a little, even by accident, he will die.”, Gaster explained with urgency in his voice. 

“WHAT'S “DIE"?”, asked 2-P in response, trying to make sense of the words that Gaster threw at him so casually.

“It means he will turn to dust and you will never see him again.”, Gaster said coldly and 2-P started tearing up.
He hugged himself, the tears streaming down his face uncontrollably.

It was quite a nuisance how emotional he was.

“Stop crying. I am talking to you.”

“Since then, 2 has been very careful.”

.
.
.

“Entry Number XXX:

Since I moved them into the same room, they are much quieter and easier to work with. They chatter constantly…”

.
.
.

“Entry Number XXX:

Whenever I go see them, they are either holding or touching each other They are desperate for physical contact…at least they won't ask it from me. They even sleep sitting, leaning against each other for closure. It doesn't seem like it'd be comfortable. Sometimes their souls glow in unison… I believe it is when they are dreaming.”

.
.
.

“Entry Number XXX:

They are voracious eaters, given their rapid development. It makes sense. Out of curiosity, I gave them half a portion one night to see what they would do. They split the difference…I suspect given only a crumb, they'd find a way to share it. I don't know where they learned to be so selfless with each other. It's not a trait I’d think would be inborn.”

.
.
.

“Entry Number XXX:

I gave them one pillow to see who'd assert dominance and claim it for their own. When I checked on them, they'd torn it up and were playing with the stuffing.”

.
.
.

“Entry Number XXX:

They never stop asking me questions. At least their vocabulary is growing. I did make an annoying error once while I was distracted.”

Gaster was in his office. He took the two skeletons with him to supervise them while he was working on constructing a machine.

They were huddled together in the corner of the room, still hugging each other and watching Gaster with enthusiasm and curiosity.

“WHAT IS HE? WHAT ARE WE? IS HE…ME? AM I HIM?”, asked 2-P Gaster curiously as he finished drilling a hole into the surface and putting away the drill.

“No, you are not the same person.”, Gaster mumbled, still focused on his task at hand.

“THEN WHAT ARE WE?”, asked 2-P.

Gaster struggled to find the words, pondering for a moment before answering the question: “You are things…Though I suppose technically one could say you were brothers-“

Gaster stopped talking abruptly as he realized what he said.
Once again, his mind was faster at making connections with one thing to the other before actually acknowledging what he actually said.

A big mistake.

“brothers? he is my brother?”, asked 1-S curiously and gazed up at 2-P.

“ARE YOU OUR BROTHER TOO?”

“I made you both.”, was Gaster's reply in that regard.
He knew, now he had to be more careful with his wordings.

“BUT WHAT ARE YOU? WHAT ARE YOU TO US?”, asked 2-P with a curious look on his face.

The implication of them being brothers went already too far in Gaster's mind.
What that would make him if that statement was true – he did not want to think about it.

He did not want to say it.

He did not even want the mere implication to exist in this very moment.

“Quiet.”, was all he said, causing them both to go silent.

The conversation was hereby over.

“They unfortunately latched onto the word. Brother this, brother that. Perhaps they'll grow out of it. I should have been more careful with my wording. Things cannot be brothers.”

.

.

.

“Entry Number XXX:

They are starting to read.
I'm being careful about what I give them…I don't want them getting ideas about the outside world.

Subject 1 is a fast learner…2 less so. He struggles with reading and my hope is that h̶e̶ i̶n̶h̶e̶r̶i̶t̶e̶d̶ 
It's a physical problem, with his eyes and not a mental one, bad eyes can be fixed… even with 1’s help, he has difficulty.

He interprets even the clearest directions in strange ways.”

A skeleton has many bones. Write the name of at least five bones, read the top of the paper sheet that Gaster had given to Subject 2.

2-P handed it back to him with such a big and content smile, Gaster figured he finally did something right.

But he was wrong.

Instead of words or any kind of answer that was remotely close to what it was supposed to be, Gaster found himself inspecting a crude drawing of three stick figures:
Subject 2 was on the left.
Subject 1 on the right.
And in the middle, there was Gaster, holding both their hands and smiling.

“He seems intent on sabotaging himself at every turn. 1 at least seems very clever…”

“why don't we ever see anyone else down here? are we a secret or somethin?”, asked Subject 1 as Gaster walked him from the testing room back to the cell.

It made him momentarily lose his focus and a sense of guilt rushed over him for a mere moment before he composed himself again.

Gaster did not see a reason to answer him, nor was he in any way obligated to do so, so he just kept quiet and continued walking.

“Perhaps too much for his own good at times.”

.

.

.

“Entry Number XXX:

They smile when I come to see them…
They ask me what I do outside… They ask me if they can go outside.”

.
.
.

“Entry Number XXX:

...

Gaster felt warmth spread through his hand as someone reached for it.

It made his heart jump momentarily as it reminded him of you.
How gently you held his hand for comfort or just to be close to each other.

But it was not you. And it would never be you again if he failed now.

For a moment, he let the small hand that was grasping his linger.
His heart was torn but he quickly composed himself again, pulling away almost harshly.

“Subject 2 tried to hold my hand.”

Things were getting difficult for Gaster.
The more time he spent with the two skeletons, the more attached they seemed to grow to him.
They were happy to see him.
They enjoyed his company and working with him on the tasks he had given them.

That's not what Gaster wanted.
That's not what he had sacrificed everything he loves for.

It was wrong.
All of it went so wrong.

He can't hesitate now.

He came so far but the way they acted around him.
They way they smiled at him so warmly…it made him reconsider. Doubt himself and his decisions.

And he hated himself for it.

“Entry Number XXX:
.

.

.

I've made a huge mistake.”