Warnings: Loss of a good parent
When the core began to crumble the doctor went to fix the problem. That was what he did after all.
While many like to think his unchallenged brilliance and intellect were indeed flawless, these many were most certainly misguided.
Yes, he was smart and he had achieved much in the several centuries he had spent as The Royal Scientist but he was far from flawless.
His second finest creation was about to, in a sense, kill him after all.
Not that he was aware of that just yet.
No, right now he was hurrying down the hall away from his office to comfort his finest creation.
Well, creations technically.
Opening the door he was greeted with a very small and frightened whimper.
Stepping into the room, he allowed his vision to adjust from the harsh florescent to the soft glow of the the star lamp on the bedside table.
"Sans?" He called softly.
He closed the door in an attempt to muffle the alarm sounding in the hall. It helped a bit.
Another whimper and the softer voice of his eldest answered.
Crossing the the room, the doctor knelt by the bed and running his hand fondly over the fleecy rocket ship sheets, dipped his head to look underneath.
There, from the farthest corner against the wall, two pairs of trembling eye lights stared back at him.
"Dad, what's happening?" Asked Sans.
He and his younger brother were curled up holding one another securely wrapped up in Sans favorite blue hoodie, the one from the dump. The doctor kept telling himself the boy would grow into it and that his decision to let Sans keep it was, in fact, just as practical as it was sentimental.
He reached out a hand letting it rest palm up. The action making the angle at which he was kneeling a bit more awkward than before.
"It's the Core. I am going to fix it now, will you come out and go back to bed?" He smiled in a way he hoped translated as reassuring.
The alarm meant that things were serious. A just barely bridled anxiety was rising up behind his ribcage.
Very carefully he helped the two little skeletons back into bed. He handed Papyrus a small binky, being the youngest the boy found it soothing, though to an outside eye it was logistically confusing. That was part of the fun of being skeleton monsters in the doctor's opinion. While perfectly logical, his anatomy and now in turn his sons' proved to be a proper conundrum to many of his fellows. The possibilities for a good jape were seemingly endless.
The youngest boy snuggled into the pillows , the tension in his little bones easing, though not completely. His small hands raised to clutch the blankets to the side of his skull.
"The alarm will stop soon, Papyrus." The doctor lifted a finger and took this rare opportunity to boop his son's nasal ridge. The indignant Nyeh, was well worth the extra second wasted.
"I will be back as soon as I can. Sans, stay here and keep an eye socket out for your brother, alright?" He stooped to hug each of his little boys before rising to his proper height. The magic in his joints cracked.
You accidental a couple of kids and suddenly you get old. He chuckled internally at the thought.
Accidental, maybe at first but certainly deciding to be their father had been deliberate.
"I love you, my little funny bones." He said, his soft tone still rivaling the sounds of growing chaos outside the door.
Leaving the boys, he quickly made his way to the core. The energy surge had left it unstable. A few calibrations and he'd have it back to normal and operating smoothly for the next two hundred years.
When the catwalk collapsed he tried to hang on. He certainly wasn't through with existence and if the little blue bundle by the core entrance was any indication neither was his family.
Family. That was what they truly were.
He'd never get tired of that.
From where he was supended now he could just reach the final computer panel. A minute more and he could have this all sorted.
A shame that his phalanges were slipping and a minute would cost him the ability to climb back up to safety.
A shame Sans had, unsurprisingly, snuck out of his and Papyrus' room and would have to see it happen.
A shame that physics didn't have the capacity to care.
The doctor looked up at the too small figure in the doorway.
Ignoring the heat and the deadly gravitaional pull from beneath him, he smiled at the two people who meant the most to him in this world.
"I chose you." He said, though he doubted they'd hear him.
Letting go of the bent metal railing with one hand the doctor finished fixing the problem. He was good at that, it was what he did after all.
He pressed the final key and the blaring alarms cut off instantly.
Swinging his hand back up to grip the railing there was a sickening lurch as the metal finally gave out against the core's gravitational pull.
The doctor felt his grip fail and then he was falling.
"I chose you, and today I chose you both again."