DT Serum, Primary Testing In Progress

True returned, still ignoring Lex, and gave Paul a gentle poke.  "Come on, little bro, we need to finish those math problems, first.  Okay?"

Shuni nodded, though he didn't look any more thrilled about Lex's presence than True.  "Help?"

Paul sighed and shuffled the drawing papers away and returned to struggling with the math problems.

"Let him be for now, Shuni." Gaster said gently. "Lex is allowed to look and even interact, as long as he stays nice about it, and he knows it. How is Mama?" He asked in an attempt to change the subject.

True stuck with him, patiently helping him work through the problems one at a time.

"Mama is okay.  She sleeped a lot today and seems to feel better," Shuni reported, smiling.

The poor kid just keeps seeming more and more confused about how True got that answer. (Is Lex watching Paul and True, or Gaster and Shuni?)

Gaster smiled. "That's good. I'll get that special cat food I promised after dinner, all right?"

(True and Paul, particularly Paul)

True was getting lost as how to help Paul, but he kept his cool.  

"Can I help with Dinner?" Shuni asked hopefully.

Paul started to get upset again. He genuinely wanted to do well in school, but this was hard and confused him.

Gaster smiled. "Of course." He instructed Shuni on how to mix the meatloaf together with the spices and barbecue sauce and how to make single serving sized balls out of it.

True sighed and gave him a hug.  "Let's take a break, okay?  I'm sorry, Paul."

Shuni followed Gaster's instructions to the letter, absolutely delighted.  He liked cooking!  The meat felt funny as he mixed and rolled it, but he still enjoyed it.

Paul nodded and hugged True back. "Okay. May I draw some more?" he asked.
(Can Lex try and help Paul, or is that not a computable response yet to him? XD)

Gaster was glad that Shuni had something he liked to do. As he grew more confident in the kitchen, Gaster was confident Shuni would cook up some amazing things all on his own.

(He would if Paul happened to go near him.)

"Yeah, go ahead and draw a little," True told him.

"Like this?" Shuni asked, presenting his first finished meatloaf ball.

Paul nodded. "I'm going to draw in the living room. Maybe going away will help?" He asked True before gathering his drawing stuff and a hardback book to draw on top of.

Gaster smiled. "Exactly like that." He encouraged.

True nodded, not really thinking about it as he watched Shuni.  "Someone has talent!"
Shuni smiled happily and got to work duplicating his efforts.

Lex watched the kid guardedly.  What was he up to?  Looked like drawing, maybe?

Paul plopped down on the other couch and started to draw. The kid didn't seem to even need guidelines; he just picked up a color and drew the right places that color before getting a new one. As Paul worked, he started to smile again and even hum softly.

Gaster worked on slowly cooking the baked beans.

"What are you drawing?" Lex finally asked.  He hadn't gone this long without talking to anyone in a long time.  Not since Ashton came into his life.

Paul smiled at Lex in the sweet, innocent way only a kid his age could. "I'm drawing my family. See, here's Dad, and Sam, and Shuni, and True, and Miss Kat, and all these are the kitties." He showed Lex. He pointed to each half colored mass as he named them off. "It's not done yet though. I need to put more colors on it."

"Why draw them when you have them?" Lex asked.

"Because it's fun." Paul said happily. "And it's like a picture you take with a camera, but better. You can draw people wherever you want them, even in the sky." Paul giggled at the thought of someone being drawn in the sky.

"Doing what?  Jumping from building to building?" Lex asked.

"Well, if you drew buildings, then yeah." Paul said. "But if you wanted, you can draw anything. Sam sometimes draws designs for his robot. Dad showed me some of his nature drawings before, and they looked like actual pictures. Do you want to see some of my drawings? Or do you want to draw too?" Paul offered.

"No thanks," Lex answered.  "You go ahead."

Paul nodded and continued to draw. The more colors he used, the easier the picture became to see.

Lex watched for a while, bored.  What else was there to do?  The cat kid was on his knees glued to the oven window watching the meatloaf cook, so he figured this family was pretty hard up for entertainment.

Sam finally exited his room and went to the garage to work on his robot. He paused at the door before he looked over at Lex. "Shadow? Will you please help me with my robot? I want to attach some parts to it, but I would like some help. If you want to help, that is."

Lex huffed, annoyed, but grumbled, "Sure, fine, bring it here if you can.  I ain't moving.  This couch is a h- lots comfier than my old one," he caught himself.

Sam nodded. It took several trips, but the boy managed to bring the robot, pieces, and tools into the living room. Sam shooed away some of the more curious cats on the last trip he came back. he didn't want to hurt one of them by accident and get an earful from Shuni. "I'm trying to work on putting these small but very strong pistons on the arm that will pull the other robot onto the saw blade, but I don't have enough hands to hold everything in place while I also attach it."

Lex grunted.  "Not doing anything else, so why not?"  He started to let his hand drop then paused when Lynx appeared under it as if by magic.  The cat was sniffing the bot curiously and just happened to be right under his hand.  "Okay..."