C'mon, Frisk hit the redial button on their phone, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon! Signal! They frowned as the call dropped again. They raised the phone higher and hit the redial button, but the signal remained at a steady zero bars.

Next to them, Alphys bit her lip and put her phone down. "It's no use," she whined, "There are too many people here."

Frisk turned. Shouting over the clamor of monsters jammed in the Core, they asked, "Is that how this works?" They grunted as an elbow hit their back. "If I go to an emptier place, will this work?"

"Um, yeah, th-theoretically - wait! Frisk!" Alphys tried to follow them, but an array of limbs blocked her way. "Wait, Frisk!" Her shouts were useless; Frisk was too far away in a crowd far too loud, with eyes only for their phone. "Frisk, where are you going?" As another head blocked her view, Alphys sighed and resigned herself to many loops of dialing and redialing.

Frisk kept their eyes on their phone as they jogged out the Core into Hotland. Countless RESETs and SAVEs had carved once unfamiliar terrain into muscle memory. They kept up the brisk pace as they crossed the bridge and entered Waterfall. The signal remained a stubborn zero bars; nothing went through. They started calculated the odds of surviving Snowdin weather when the bars shot up to five at an intersection before dropping back down. Frisk quickly backtracked - and lo! The signal stayed strong. Sending a quick prayer up to whatever was listening, Frisk pressed redial.

"how's it shakin'?"

"Sans!" Their shaky sigh dissolved into giggles at the pun. Taking a deep breath, they said, "Sans, we heard the epicenter was near you, and - "

"oh, hey, kiddo. yeah, i'm fine."

"Oh. Good." Frisk cleared their throat. "Anyway, judging by your opening line, you must be expecting Papyrus, so I'm going to…"

"hold on." His voice interrupted Frisk's hanging up. "shoot the breeze with an old friend?"

Frisk smiled. "Hey, Sans?"

"Hm?"

"I bet the earthquake was quite a shock."

"heh, good one." They hear him inhale from the other end. "it's good to hear from you, frisk. you haven't called in a while."

"Yeah? Well…" Frisk struggled for something to say. "Well, you haven't called, either! How was I supposed to call if you don't call first?"

Frisk swore that they heard Sans wink. "right you are, kiddo, right you are. can't fault you for that one."

Frisk giggled. "I'm glad your taste in jokes haven't changed, Sans."

"same here." No one said anything for a while; Frisk had to check if their mysterious fortune had expired, but no, the call was still going. They had just held the phone back up to their ear when they heard, "frisk?"

"Yeah?"

"do you believe in parallel universes?"

Frisk paused; the question had thrown them in for a loop. They nodded before realizing that Sans couldn't see them through a phone call, dummy. But he had continued speaking anyway: "maybe in a parallel universe, we're together."

Frisk opened their mouth to protest no, none of the timelines had them together (especially not - well, better not to think about that, right?), and that this was the closest one, but they blew it. They blew it. "I envy them." Frisk smiled; what were they without hopes and dreams and determination? Maybe in a timeline yet to pass, a miracle would happen. Maybe.

"Yeah. Me, too." Light-seconds apart, two silhouettes gazed at stars hanging in a night sky they did not share.