Waterfall was a pain, both literally and figuratively. It was much worse than Snowdin, Grillby had to admit. But at least in Snowdin most of his hazard stayed on the ground. In Waterfall, Grillby was absolutely and completely surrounded by the element that wanted to kill him. Even the air itself was saturated with water. It burned at his throat when he breathed it in, gathered in condensation on his glasses, dripped and splashed from the ceiling and hummed around every turned corner. And it was dark, not something Grillby was too bothered by until it was combined with wet. The entire atmosphere of Waterfall left him feeling nervous and jumpy. He constantly felt like he was going to waltz into his death, even if he were perfectly balanced on some path away from the river.

But he had to go through here. He had to see Gerson.

So Grillby walked, minding his step and occasionally flinching away from local monsters. They all tended to use water magic, and Grillby didn't want to accidentally startle any of them into using that magic on him.

Gerson's house-turned-shop was deep in the Waterfall caverns, where the trash from above the mountain fell down and collected. Grillby was forced to brave several bridges and water-strewn paths to get there. But it was a sigh of relief to finally enter the crystal-filled sanctuary. Gerson's face lit up when Grillby entered.

"Well aren't you a surprise!" he'd laughed heartily, standing up to greet the elemental when he entered, "What the hell are you doing all the way on my side of the Underground?"

Grillby had laughed and offered the monster an embrace, "Oh you know, sometimes I just need to put some danger in my life."

Gerson laughed at this, breaking away from him, "I'll say. Putting yourself through a lot for a little adventure aren't you?"

Grillby flickered a smirk, "Well… actually I'm here for a bit more than an adventure."

This put a spark in the turtle monster's eye, and he flashed Grillby a shrewd grin, "Oh really?"

"Yes," Grillby said with a quiet smile, "I… doubt you'd have it but… I didn't think it'd hurt to ask… I'm looking for star charts."

"Star charts?" Gerson said with an incredulous tut! "Boy we're a little far Underground for stargazing, not sure if you've noticed."

"Yeah, I know," Grillby chuckled regretfully, "I just… well… I was hoping on making something for someone and… star charts would help."

To this, Gerson frowned thoughtfully, "Well… I definitely don't have any of those. It's not something humans throw away too often, I'll bet."

"Right," Grillby said with a tired sigh, "Well, thanks anyway."

"Now you hold on a minute," Gerson said, raising one of his eyebrows, "I might have something that'll help. Give me a bit to look around - help yourself to some tea if you like!"

With that Gerson bustled off, leaving Grillby to sit behind the counter and watch, sipping away at a cup of tea. It was good, a special recipe of Gerson's, and it felt refreshing to the soul.

Watching Gerson work was… sobering. Being a turtle monster, Gerson aged much slower than most other monsters did but… still not nearly as slowly as Grillby did - if Grillby even aged at all. There was a stiffness in Gerson's movements, a catch in his breath as he exerted himself rifling through his boxes of collected junk. There was a smoothness in his shell that showed the weathering that came from passing time, a greyness to what had once been vibrant color.

Grillby was very jarringly reminded of how stranded in time he was.

Finally Gerson came back, toting with him a small armful of things. He layed them out on the counter in front of Grillby, smiling excitedly.

"Alright! Here's what I have! Take a look."

Well, it certainly wasn't star charts, but it was definitely something. One was a worn, beaten old book, written in someone's scrawling handwriting. Some of the ink was smudged from water, but Grillby could still make out a good amount of the words. It was talking about the sky, mostly about planets, and which ones showed this time of year. Next was a small globe poked full of holes. It was empty inside, missing some apparatus for a light. But when Grillby lit the inside it projected little specs of light around the room. These were the only two things out of the pile that Grillby ended up taking. He smiled and gave Gerson the gold he asked for, as long and laughing a happy - come by the bar sometime and I'll give you a free drink.

When he was home he set to work, first pouring through what of the book he could read and then lighting the globe in his living room. It did a good job of projecting light but… that was all it was. Dead, sometimes faltering light that flickered out whenever Grillby wasn't concentrating enough. The globe itself was made of a weak material called plastic that had been showing up in the Underground more and more lately. Grillby had learned pretty quickly that it didn't take to fire very well, and he was loathe to melt the only key he had to anything involving the sky - the sky that he was realizing slowly that he couldn't remember all that well. It had… been too long.

But with this writer's description and this fragment of a map… Grillby thought it could make something brilliant. Practicing it was tedious. There was intricate smallness in what Grillby wanted to accomplish. It took control and precision on his part, an exercise in magic that his body wasn't used to in a world where fire magic was hardly ever helpful. But he could do this. For Gaster, he would do this.

It was a week before Grillby told Gaster very seriously when the two walked to the bar that morning, "Come back after your shift at the labs today. I have something to show you."

"Heh, I dunno Grillby," Gaster answered, frowning pensively, "We've got a deadline coming up. I might be staying the night over -"

"No, you're coming back here tonight," Grillby had said forcefully, "Please. I need to show you something."

Gaster had watched him worriedly then. Grillby didn't normally sound urgent, but right now he sort of did, and Gaster had no idea why. But he also didn't argue any further.

Grillby kicked his patrons out early that night. He needed time to prepare before Gaster got there. He needed this to be perfect.

Grillby moved all the tables and chairs out of the main barroom and turned every light low. Then he sat in the center of the room, that little globe in his hands, and flushed it full of light. For every point of light it made on the ceiling, the walls, Grillby released a spark and sent it there. Flickering and small, on the verge of burning out, on the very edge of Grillby's magic. Every new spark he released, he felt a tension growing in his soul. A little piece of exhaustion building in the pit of his stomach. But he kept releasing sparks. Dozens turned to hundreds, diamonds of light decorating every point they could reach.

And when they were all in place, Grillby started turning them. He flushed some brighter, others duller, doing his best to remember all the writer had said about what stars and planets looked like and why some were bigger and brighter. They all flickered a bit - it was the nature of fire, and Grillby didn't have quite the skill to change that. But he did manage to change some of their colors. Subtle reds and blues and yellows wove their way into the hundreds of scattered lights. Just putting them up there left Grillby breathless and tired. Holding them made him dizzy.

But it's worth it, Grillby thought, even as his own flame started to flicker lower and duller, this will definitely be worth it.

He was too afraid they would all flicker out if he moved, so Grillby stayed where he sat on the ground, waiting until Gaster arrived. Grillby waited for what felt like hours, subtly shaking as he held everything in place. Just a little bit longer… just a little longer.

At last the door cracked open, and before Gaster could even open it all the way Grillby barked.

"Don't look at the ceiling for the love of god please!"

Gaster had flinched, but he kept his gaze trained on the ground at his feet, "Okay okay! Sure! … why?"

"Just please do it!" Grillby said with a tense flicker, "And hurry up and get over here!"

Gaster jolted inside, and just the breeze from the opened door nearly blew out a dozen of Grillby's precious sparks. Grillby closed his eyes and hunched his shoulders, as if that could somehow help him control the little sparks any more. Grillby heard Gaster's shoes as he briskly paced towards him.

"Are you… are you okay?"

"Shh! Shhh! Yes I'm fine," Grillby snapped back, "Lay on the floor."

"Grillby?"

"Do it," Grillby insisted, "And close your eyes do not look at the ceiling."

"Okay!"

Gaster settled beside him, using Grillby's shoulder as a guide and keeping his eye sockets closed. Grillby let him lie there for a few seconds, a small flicker of a smile growing in his flame.

"Comfortable?"

"And nervous!" Gaster said with an incredulous laugh, "What is going on?"

"Open your eyes and find out."

Gaster did, first to glare at Grillby and then… and then to look up in amazement. A breath bloomed in the skeleton's ribcage and snagged there, wonder catching the breath up short. He reached a hand up to Grillby's shoulder, gripping the fabric of the elemental's shirt fervently.

"Grillby… is that… is that you?"

"Yeah."

"You made… you… aha…"

Gaster's hand slipped away to his face and he was laughing. Laughing and crying.

"They're stars."

Grillby grinned, pride swelling in his chest. He'd done it right.

"Yeah I… I wanted to try."

"You wanted to try?" Gaster laughed incredulously, his voice cracking from emotion, wiping hurriedly at the tears running down his face, "You made… you made stars Grillby!"

The elemental let out a tense breath. Hold it for a little longer.

"Tell me about them. Everything you know."

Gaster didn't need told twice. He started talking, rattling off everything he could possibly remember. That constellation! I know that one it's Orion! This is actually… I bet it's the wrong time of year for it but it's there! How did you make all the stars even the belt - and there's the two bears! You see there's a story for them! And that one has a story as well. That bright one there, that's supposed to be a planet, Mars I think it's called. You… it's red. How did you make it red?

Gaster's tears and laughter cycled back to wonder as he spoke. He pointed and talked and Grillby listened as best he could while holding his tiny world of stars in place. His vision was really starting to tilt now, he was feeling so tired he was nauseous. But even still he wanted to hold those stars there forever. He wanted Gaster to be like this forever. He wanted Gaster to be happy. He didn't want him to be miserable anymore. He just… he just wanted…

Grillby passed out, and when he did every spark in his fabricated sky flickered into nothingness. He wasn't out for long - just long enough for Gaster to have a small panic attack screaming his name and trying to wake him up. Grillby tried to brush it off but Gaster was having none of it. He helped the exhausted elemental into a seat and ran about the bar trying to find him something to drink that would actually be helpful.

Grillby curled up in the booth, his back against the wall, sipping away at a warm tea while Gaster glared him down.

"Why didn't you tell me to stop talking you moron?" Gaster asked angrily, "You can't just use your magic up like that!"

"It was worth it," Grillby smiled tiredly back, "Very worth it."

"It was not," Gaster said with a harsh laugh, "You passed out!"

Grillby chuckled, "We should do it again sometime."

"Are you even listening to me?"

No. Really he wasn't. Grillby was too busy remembering how Gaster's face had lit up, how he'd talked with so much fervor and happiness. How enraptured he'd been by the many twinkling lights.

It was worth it.

Gaster helped Grillby home, letting the elemental use him as a crutch as they shambled back to his house. Gaster walked him up the stairs, even though by then Grillby had mostly recovered. He just felt tired now, like he could sleep for ages if someone let him. There was an empty pit in his chest where his magic should be. Before he left, Gaster paused by the doorway and sighed.

"... thank you… for that."

Grillby flickered a small smile, and Gaster continued, watching the elemental with an exhausted sort of fondness, "I… you have no idea how much that means to me. I never thought I'd see anything like that again."

"You're welcome."

Gaster sighed and smiled, looking very much like he might start crying again, "Just… give me a time limit or something next time, moron. I'd rather have you alive and well than any stupid stars."

Grillby chuckled, "Sure thing."

With a final goodbye, Gaster left. Grillby sighed and laid back in his bed, not even bothering to change out of his work clothes. He could sleep through anything now, he figured. He slept dreamlessly, grateful for a few minutes' peace. The next morning, Gaster met Grillby like he always did and together they walked to the bar. All they talked about were stars.