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Chapter Text

“Hey mercury!! Why do stars faint so easily?” Another sun pun. Mercury was so tired. He had been hit by a solar flare pretty recently, and while it didn’t leave a scar, it still ached. The sun had promised to not burn him, hadn’t he? He hated the sun. Mercury stayed silent. “Mercury?” The sun asked again, louder. Mercury avoided eye contact and stayed silent again. “Mercury!” The sun put on his loud, roaring voice that could even have Jupiter trembling. Mercury finally caved in.
“Why?” He forced the sound out of his closed throat.
“Because we’re iron deficient!” The sun started cackling at his own joke. Mercury didn’t get it, why would the sun have an iron deficiency? He would just ask Jupiter on the rare occasion that the sun left Mercury alone. “Mercury!” He hated the sun’s grating voice. “Was it funny?”
“Yeah.” Mercury didn’t want to get yelled at again.
“B-but you’re not laughing!” The suns smile was slowly fading. That wasn’t good news for the small planet.
“Ha-ha.” Mercury gave him the most authentic sounding fake laugh he could muster.
“Nooo, that’s fake!” The sun whined. He started getting angry.
Mercury jolted. “No, no it was very funny! I-I’m just tired.”
“Tired from what?” Your solar flares, mercury wanted to say, but that would get him into even more hot water, literally. He fished around in his brain for a reason, but the sun beat him to it. “Tired from hanging out with the other rocky planets without me?” The sun roared.
“No, I wasn’t!” He most certainly was. He loved their card games, though most of the time, because of the sun, mercury would settle for watching them from afar.
“Am I not good enough for you?” The suns voice was getting unbearably loud. He was past the point of being able to hear mercurys little mumbles to defend himself. “After everything I’ve done for you-“ The light from above overwhelmed mercurys eyes. The sun blasted a solar flare at him. Mercury cried out for help to no one in particular as he fell to the ground.

He hated his orbit. He hated the sun. He hated how he got hurt so easily. He should be used to the solar flares by now, but he’s just too weak. He knows the sun can’t control his emotions, and instead of being sympathetic, he doubles down like this. He ignores the sun when he’s just trying to connect with mercury. Mercury makes everything seem like the suns fault in his head, but in reality, he’s the one trapping the sun, circling him closely like a sick. little. vulture. He’s the one that’s hurting the sun, forcing the sun to burn him and then forcing him to feel bad. The suns booming voice tore up his ears. It was mercury’s fault.

The solar flare had ended, and the smoke cleared. Mercury coughed, but it hurt, like his lungs were burned. Maybe his lungs were burned. He looked down and saw the blackened half of his pale body. The skin there felt brittle and dry, like it could crumble off. It would take at least a month for that to go away, supposing the sun didn’t get mad again. The sun was turned away, looking at Jupiter and Saturn talking. They were the only ones on that side. Or maybe he was just avoiding looking at mercury. He felt tears brimming at his eyes. At least he had closed them in time, or else his left eye would have gotten burnt too.

Mercury slowly tilted his head and saw Venus walking towards him. The smaller planet fought back the tears with his life. He couldn’t let Venus, of all people, see him cry. He hated Venus’ voice. It was like sandpaper against his ears, just like the sun’s. He hated Venus just as much as he hated the sun. Now that floating hot trash planet was going to say some unfunny pun like, “you look smoking hot, pipsqueak!” Or “did you get a sunburn?”. Mercury hated puns.
But he didn’t say any of that. “Are you okay?” That caught Mercury off guard. Maybe it was mars that he saw, and his mistook his red surface for Venus’ orange one. But that was unmistakably not mars’ voice. It was Venus. Mars didn’t care enough to cross that distance. Mercury looked again. As clear as a painfully sunny day, there he was.
And he looked.. concerned. Mercury didn’t trust it. He was exhausted enough as it was, but the solar flare nearly took him out. He was not going to tolerate any more bull. Venus reached out a hand and mercury glared at him. The smaller planets eyes were freshly red and one half of his lower face was as crumbly and blackened as his body. The fiery planet drew back his hand and sat down next to him.
“Do you want water?” Venus asked. Mercury shook his head. He just wanted to cry. “Do you want, like, food…or something…” Mercury thought for a moment. Venus didn’t hurt him, and he didn’t call him a pipsqueak yet. He was just being helpful, for once. And mercury could tell it was very hard for him. Venus gingerly placed a hand on his unburnt shoulder.

Mercury sniffled, and then started crying quietly, so the sun wouldn’t hear. Venus still had his hand lightly squeezing his shoulder, and it was hot to the touch. It was making him feel that much worse. Venus had only been hit a few times in his life. He didn’t know what it was really like to never fully recover from the pain before being burned again, and again. Venus had an atmosphere. Venus had his size. Venus had Earth and Mars to talk to. They only included Mercury in the card games after he talked the earth out of suicide, because that made them feel like they owed him something. They did owe him something. They owed him better neighbors.

He gazed at Venus’ face. His brows were furrowed, and his eyes were looking over mercury’s shoulder with regret. Mercury’s silent anger dissipated. Maybe Venus was genuinely trying to make him feel better. Mercury felt guilt pang in his chest for what he thought earlier.
“What are you doing?” Mercury asked.
“I’m trying to be nice, are you stupid?”
“Why?”
“You’re sunburned, and it’s not like anyone else is gonna do anything about it.” Another pun. Venus laughed at his own cruel, stupid joke.
Mercury was so tired.

Chapter Text

At least on the day of the attack, mercury was in too much pain to feel guilty. It really was a stupid idea, wasn’t it? The same sun that fought tirelessly to protect the solar system was now telling him a simple sun pun, but mercury was just too absorbed in self pity. He shut his mouth and turned away just when the sun needed him the most.
And now the burns were actually getting worse instead of better.
He silently shrieked when he realized the sun was in his bed, arms around him like mercury was a doll. That was why the burns were getting worse. That was just the price to pay, mercury thought bitterly, for trying to upset the sun.
And yet, he got what he paid for.
Mercury tasted a few drops of-self respect? Power?
After all the emotional turmoil he put the sun through, he could only think about himself. And now, in his selfishness, he was thinking of squeezing out of the suns grasp and going on with his day. He felt like such a bad person. He longed for that delirious state of being too out of it to feel the guilt that was eating him alive.

Mercury had half a mind to let himself be burned up completely, just to maybe hear a justifiable sorry escape the suns fiery mouth. But he didn’t. He slithered away, and kept a pillow in his place. The sun squirmed, but didn’t wake up.

Mercury leapt into his regular morning routine, but he couldn’t help being hyper aware of the suns presence. Mercury judged himself in the mirror. He lifted up his track jersey to reveal the blackened, brittle skin spreading across his pale torso. He looked over at the sun for about the seventh time in two minutes. There it was, sleeping on mercury’s tiny bed. The pain that made him forget about the guilt.

Mercury needed breakfast. He wondered if he should have dry cereal or go to the grocery store to get milk. He needed other things, too. Like strawberries, lemons, bananas… his fridge mostly consisted of fruit. But there was no way he could cover up the scars. He checked the time. 7:30 am. None of the planets were usually awake by then. He was an early bird. The only store was way in the asteroid belt, which was quite a trip. The sun would definitely be awake by the time he got back. What would the sun do in mercurys house alone? He couldn’t go. But what would the sun do in mercurys house with him? He had to go. If he managed to get even a little more burnt, mercury felt like he wouldn’t make it.

Despite his concerns, mercury found himself trudging on to the asteroid belt. If he wanted to go, he had to cover up. He wore full pants and full sleeves to cover his body. The belt was cold anyway. As for his face, he just wore a mask. It looked strange, sure, but not as strange as the burn marks. He left his orbit nearly sweating under all the layers, and he saw Venus’s house nearby. He hoped Venus’ sudden and unhelpful change of heart wasn’t going to interfere.

As he ran through the rocky side of the solar system, which was much faster than his walking speed, he let out a sigh of relief. Venus was asleep. Earth was asleep. Luna was asleep. Mars was-
“Mars?” Once he finally got near the asteroid belt, there was the red planet, calmly watering his terraformed garden with two his little moons playing near him.
“Mercury! What are you doing out here? What’s with the mask?”
“Oh, I’m a little sick, and I’m just getting groceries.”
“Hey, you wanna see my garden?” Mercury knew it was in his best interest to decline and say he was in a rush, but mars was nice, even if it was just because Mercury saved his best friend’s life. Mercury took any kindness he could get.
“Yeah, sure!” Mercury agreed. Mars began explaining every bit of detail in his little earth-like patch of land. Truthfully, mercury wasn’t listening. He was more basking in the company of someone who was never out to get him. And the weather in his orbit was so peacefully chilly. Mercury forgot about all his worries. For a moment, he forgot about the sun and the burns. Everything was alright.
“What’s that on your neck?”
Mercury gulped hard. He forgot to cover up his neck. A scarf would have worked, but he didn’t own a scarf. He was so stupid.
“I…I’m sick.” He muttered.
“Yeah, you said that.” Mars started getting suspicious. If he found out. He would try to confront the sun, and both of them would end up getting burned. He hated the sun. Still, a part of him liked getting constant attention from the sun. A part of him wanted to stay in his grasp and never leave.
…
But he had to leave.
He had to leave.
An idea was sparking in his head. A dangerous one. He had to leave. If he was somewhere else, he would never get hurt again. It was all so clear now. He had to leave. He wanted to run away right then, but he had to plan. He had to prepare. First and foremost, he had to get mars off his case.
“I…um…” He was so caught up in the sweet nectar of freedom that he couldn’t think of anything else. He just walked away. He had to leave-

He got the milk. He got the strawberries and the lemons and the bananas. He brought them all to a house now with hints of smoke in the air and a still sleeping sun.
This really was a stupid idea, wasn’t it?

Chapter Text

A few days later, the sun had a conference with some other stars near him. Today, mercury had the inner solar system all to himself. The sun always had the earth in tow in his habitable zone, but more often than not, he also brought mercury to the other stars to show off. Mercury had no idea why. Other planets were much more impressive, like Jupiter or Saturn. But maybe he only brought mercury along to show him how relatively far away his orbit was, and how wrong he was to feel suffocated. Other planets were much closer to their star, but then again, their stars were much more…mentally stable.

This time, Mercury’s body was still half blackened. The sun didn’t want anyone else to see that, so he left him behind. The stars might have called planet protection services like they had child protection services on earth. But it probably didn’t exsist, and he didn’t want the sun to hear him ask anyone if it did. So for today, he was alone. But that was a good thing. He could plan.

“Yo, pipsqueak!” Mercury sighed as he heard two loud raps on his door.
“You wanna play cards with us?” Mars’ voice rang in the hot air. Mercury was already stuffing himself in covering clothing.
“No, we should play asteroid dodgeball!” Venus insisted. No, they should not, mercury thought. That was going to be a nightmare.
“Let’s let Mercury decide. Aren’t you trying to be nice to him?” Hands down, mars was his favorite rocky planet. He wrapped his face in the mask and opened the door.
“What’s with the mask?” Venus asked.
“He’s sick.” Mars answered for him.
“No, he’s just trying to hide the fact that he got hit by a solar flare.” Shoot. He forgot Venus was there to witness that.
“What?” Mars yelled. “Is that what’s on your neck?” He quickly took the mask off of the resisting smaller planet. Mercury watched his eyes widen in horror. “Oh my god…when was this?”
“Um..a few days ago…maybe?” Mercury hesitantly said.
“Can you take off your sweater? Show him the full thing.” Venus had that strange look of concern on his face again, like he actually cared.
Mercury did as he was asked and took off the sweater. He had a white, short sleeved shirt on underneath, which made the burns all the more apparent. Mars gasped.
“It’s all over your body. And I-it was a few days ago-why didn’t it go away?” Mars was acting like his mom. It made Mercury feel weak.
“Hey, I’m fine. It happens…” mercury trailed off. He was going to say that it “happens all the time”, but that would probably worsen mars’ worries.
Venus cleared his throat. “Do you still wanna play asteroid dodgeball with us?” Yes. Yes. A million times yes. But he had to be smart. Today was one rare day when the sun was actually gone. He had access to his house. Best of all, he could pack a bag to run away without him noticing.
“No, sorry. I’m feeling a little- out of it -today.”
“No wonder, look at those burns! But I still feel bad leaving you alone.” Mars said.
“No, seriously, it’s fine.” Mars and Venus didn’t seem convinced. They looked at each other for a moment, and then mars started coming closer. He wrapped Mercury in a gentle hug. Venus considered it for a moment and followed.
Mercury was stunned. He had no idea what to do, or if he was supposed to do anything. He was only used to being hugged by the sun, and it hurt. A hug from mars and Venus didn’t hurt at all. Venus’ hands were in his hair, but it didn’t burn like it burned yesterday.
“We’ll be in earths orbit if you want to join us.” Mars said softly as he pulled away. Mercury watched them leave, with his mouth slightly agape.

He had to leave. Asteroid dodgeball and card games were fun, and hugs were nice, but none of it was going to help. If he was in the suns sight, he was in the danger zone. He was going to have to go farther than he thought. His plan was simple. Go until you have nowhere else to go. Then, and only then, would he be safe.

He hit his burned leg on the side of his bed, and fell on his unburned side and winced. No, he thought, you can’t be hurt by a little bump like that. Being weak is what caused this. Being strong will fix it. Mercury sniffled and hoisted himself back up. He couldn’t run all the way there. When he ran at full speed, there was a blazing light that could be used to identify him immediately. If the trip to the grocery store took 7 hours when he wasn’t running, and it was 2.4 astronomical units…he didn’t know if any of that was correct, but he had to get a rough estimate of how long the journey would take. Mercury paced around his room. He first needed to decide what the journey was. Where was he going? The sun knew mercury to go to the asteroid belt whenever he could for stupid reasons, so that wouldn’t work. Also, mars had told him stories of a scary dwarf planet living in there. He had never seen it for himself, but he shuddered. He had only ever seen ceres, and that little dwarf wasn’t scary. He must have been talking about a bigger one. Mercury crossed out the asteroid belt in his mind. He couldn’t be caught by any of the gas giants, except maybe Neptune, because he didn’t know who mercury even was, so the Kuiper Belt was his only option. Wasn’t that where Pluto lived?

The Kuiper Belt was 30 astronomical units away from the sun. It would take 3 hours to cross one astronomical unit by walking. If he was running, people would surely spot him. He blazed half as bright as the sun when he was at his full speed. 3 times 30 was…90 hours! That was almost four days! He recomposed himself. He had to leave. He tossed the idea around in his head. What foods would last four days in a bag? Granola bars? How many granola bars could keep him fed for four days?

Mercury realized he needed money. He slipped into the suns big house. The sun left the windows ajar, but didn’t take into account the fact that Mercurys tiny body could squeeze through. His money had to be around here somewhere. He found a drawer. It opened with a creak to reveal stacks of twenty dollar bills. Just use a credit card at this point, mercury thought to himself. The sun didn’t trust credit cards, and instilled that fear into mercury as well, so he took the paper money.
If a whole stack went missing, the sun would notice. Instead, mercury took one bill from each stack. He had well over 200 dollars now, surely that would be enough. Right? He packed 10 granola bars and some water bottles from his own house as well as the money. He would use it to buy more useful food at the asteroid belt. Now what? Mercury knew he should plan more, but Venus and mars were still playing. He ran over to earths orbit.

“Mercury!” Mars called out to him long before he reached there. The noticeable blazing light when he ran was just as much of a problem as he thought. Mars’ smile softened when Mercury got there. “How are you feeling?”
“Good! Can I play asteroid dodgeball with you guys?”
For a moment, he had the entire inner solar system to himself. It was a shame he had to leave it behind.

Chapter Text

Today was the day. Go until you have nowhere else to go, mercury thought. The sun was rattling off sun puns, and mercury tried his best to laugh and respond. He was hoping the sun couldn’t tell his mind was somewhere else.
“Because I already have a million degrees!” Mercury fake laughed. Didn’t the sun tell him that one already? It didn’t matter.
“Um, sun?”
“Yes, best friend?” Mercury wanted to scream every time the sun called him that.
“I have to go to the asteroid belt.”
“Why?”
“To get groceries.” He hoped and prayed that the sun didn’t notice that he got some not too long ago.
“But..but..who am I gonna talk to?” The sun whined. His malicious smile faded.
“Um- you can- you can talk to yourself!” Mercury’s mind was screaming at him. He couldn’t afford to get burned another time. Please, he internally begged, just leave me alone. The sun stayed silent, with a blank, unreadable expression. He stared at the trembling Mercury with big, dark eyes.
“…sun?”
“Okay!” The sun chirped. Mercury breathed a sigh of relief. He walked to his house. He didn’t want to seem like he was in a hurry.

He grabbed the bag. It was a pale yellow felt bag that was halfway full. Mercury already had a sweater on, so he didn’t need another one.. did he? He took his gum, his keys, because he didn’t want anyone else to have them, and opened the door.
What was that thing on the doorstep?
“Feel better?” Mercury muttered to himself.
There was a paper card on his doorstep. It was unevenly folded, and the front said, in big red letters, “feel better”. He picked it up.

Mercury,
It sucks that you got hit by that solar flare. I hope the sun doesn’t do that again, but he probably will. If you get burned again, I guess you can come over to my house. I have some aloe vera. Earth and mars aren’t the only ones with plants.
From, your favorite neighbor.

Mercury stared at the letter for a good moment. Venus wrote that. He put it in his bag, not knowing how to feel. He stared at his burned arm. Aloe Vera wouldn’t fix that, but he appreciated Venus for trying. If he was really running away, he wouldn’t come back, so he should probably say goodbye before going, he thought.
He knocked on Venus’ door. He wasn’t expecting him to be awake. Venus slept for a very long time. Against all the odds, there was a tired and groggy Venus opening the door, with his long hair all tangled, rubbing his eyes.
“What- oh. Hi.” He groaned.
“Hi.” Mercury couldn’t say goodbye, because Venus couldn’t know he was leaving. He had to say something else. “I just wanted to say thank you for the letter. It was really sweet.”
“Yeah, yeah. You’re welcome.” Venus stared at mercury for a moment with a look he couldn’t discern. “Your face is getting better.”
Mercury touched the burned area. It was healing, slowly but surely. “Oh, yeah, I didn’t notice that.”
“Alright. Bye.” Venus closed the door. Mercury waited outside, almost wanting to knock again.

Mercury walked past earth’s orbit, taking in the sights of all the beautiful plants that nearly covered his home. He wished he could run around in them. He felt locked when he couldn’t run, but that was just the way it was. Mercury consoled himself by thinking of how he could run circles all day in the Kuiper Belt and light it up. He wondered what it was like there. Was it as threatening and hectic as the asteroid belt?
“Hey, mercury!”
“Earth, hi. I was just looking at the plants. They’re really pretty.”
“Oh, thank you.” Earth shuffled his feet and looked down. “Um, do you.. wanna…come inside?” Mercury never got invited to earths house. He really did wonder what the inside looked like if the outside was like that, but he was on a time crunch, and he could practically feel the suns hot eyes burning into his back.
“Oh, no thanks, I’m in a rush.”
“Wait, what’s on your face?” Earth said, suddenly coming closer.
“It’s…” mercury feigned nonchalance. “I dunno.”
Earth gave him an all too familiar look of concern, but ultimately he didn’t know him well enough to feel like he should intrude. He walked back in his house.
“Alright, maybe another time.”

Only maybe an hour left. He saw a house in the distance and once again fought himself back from running.
“Mars!” He called out.
“Oh, hey, Mercury. A bit of a bad time right now.” He was getting tackled by his two moons-what were their names? Phoebe and Democrat?
“Oh, yeah. Sorry.” Mercury kept walking. He wanted to say goodbye so badly, just to see if mars would give him one of those strange hugs again.

Mercury was finally nearing the belt. He shoved a few asteroids out of the way.
“Ceres? Ceeereeeessss?” He used a baby voice that made him sound like he was talking to a puppy. Oh well. Maybe it was sleeping. He was just happy to be back out there. He turned back and looked at the sun. The powerful and menacing being now looked like a little shining ant.
Mercury finally got to the store. It was ran by tons of tiny robots that called themselves “sar”, whatever that was. What kinds of foods would last a long while? He found some dried mangoes and bought several packs. He didn’t know where his next food source would be, but it had to be somewhere. He left the store pretty quickly.
On the outer edge of the asteroid belt, the cold was getting to be too much to bear. The sun, from what he could tell, was about to start a solar flare rampage. He could only hope the others weren’t in the way of it. Mercury shivered, but he knew he couldn’t turn back. The sun already knew he was up to something.
He had to go until he had nowhere else to go.

Mercury had crossed the inner solar system in 6 hours- he was ahead of schedule! He felt more than confident about the journey ahead. It couldn’t be that different, could it? He looked off into the distance. All he could see was emptiness. Maybe Jupiter and Saturn were on the other side. He took a deep breath and kept walking. Was this really a good idea? He had no idea how much 30 astronomical units were. He would just have to find out, he reasoned. Behind him, he heard a loud booming noise. He jumped and turned back. Panic settled in his chest. It was a solar flare. And worse, mercury knew it was the first of many. He could faintly see mars running out of his house. He would hear the news soon enough, and hopefully tell the sun mercury was just late, and the asteroid belt was a scary place. Mercury had to pick up his pace. The asteroid belt was scary, and a four day journey was scary too, but not nearly as terrifying as the sun. He lived under the suns fiery thumb for his whole life, but he had enough.
He walked a little faster until he noticed little sparks near his shoes. He reminded himself once again that he couldn’t run, or he would light up and then sun would immediately locate him. The sky was getting darker. It was morning when he started his journey, but now at least he had the blanket of darkness to protect him. Mercury paused. How would he know which direction to go? He decided that when he got lost, he would just look at the sun, and then walk the opposite direction. As the sun got smaller and smaller in the runaway’s vision, mercury grew more and more fatigued. He needed a place to stop. He looked closely and saw Jupiter’s huge house in the distance. Mercury breathed a weary sigh of relief.

When he finally got to jupiters house, it was too dark for him to see anything. There were a few large fake plants on the outside, so mercury hid in those. He began longing for mars’ tiny garden, and just wishing mars was there. Maybe he was wrong about the red planet. Maybe he did actually care, and he wasn’t just acting nice with mercury because he helped the earth one time. Loneliness engulfed mercury as he remembered mars’ hug. He forced the memories down with a sigh and shut his eyes as he leaned his head back on an uncomfortable fake plant. He shivered from the cold, but eventually fell asleep.

Chapter Text

“You can be the dog!” A young adult Sun suggested to a child Aphrodite.
“No! I wanna be a human!” Aphrodite shrieked. Ares and Terra had the idea to play house, so now they were all sitting around a wooden dollhouse each holding their respective figurines. The Sun had decided to play too, despite being much older than all the little kids.
Terra was on one side sitting between Theia and Ares, and Hermes was on the other side sitting between the Sun and Aphrodite, his best friend. Hermes spent nearly every waking moment with ‘Dite. The Sun usually told him he was a bad influence, but he had never done anything bad before.

Aphrodite’s hair was long, curly and a beautiful blue and slightly green color. Hermes found himself with his hands in ‘Dite’s hair pretty often. He loved gently pulling on the curls and watching them bounce when he let go.

“How about Hermes can be the mom, and I can be the dad?” The Sun said again with a wide smile.
Hermes shook his head. “I don’t wanna be a girl!”
“Me and Terra are gonna be the mom and dad, because I’m a girl.” Theia said.
“Then what will I be?” The sun asked.
“How about you be the dog?” ‘Dite pointed at the sun. The sun scowled, but ultimately couldn’t disagree with children, so he kept quiet. Hermes noticed and scooted a little closer to Aphrodite.
“Ares can be the uncle, and ‘Dite and Hermes can be the two brothers.” ‘Dite rolled his eyes, but agreed.

When they got to playing, it was pretty fun. Theia loved bossing Hermes and ‘Dite around, and Hermes liked watching him argue with everyone. They took turns doing things as their roles in the family. They were doing youngest first, so they started with Hermes, and the Sun came last. By the time it got to the Sun’s turn, every kid was giggling and eagerly awaiting what came next.
“So, what do I have to do?” The sun asked with glee.
“You’re the dog right?” Ares asked. The sun nodded. “So, you have to do what a dog would do.”
The sun thought for a moment. “I’m gonna…Bite Hermes!” Hermes squealed.

The sun grabbed Hermes by the wrist and dug his fingernails into his arm. Hermes yelped and tried to pull away, but he couldn’t. For a moment, everything stopped. The world around then went quiet. It was just him, the Sun, and pain. His arm was stinging where the Sun was grabbing it. What was that stinging sensation? He wanted to tell the Sun to stop, that it was hurting, but it felt wrong. So he just kept trying to squirm out of the sun’s grip to no avail. When his eyes finally met the eyes of his captor, he gasped.

The sun usually had very light brown eyes. Hermes thought they were nice, but he preferred the deeper brown that him and ‘Dite had. He never told the sun about his preference, obviously. But right now, Hermes shook as he watched the Sun’s pupils dilate more and more until they took up his whole eye. The nice light brown color was completely gone. He was staring into pools of darkness, and he couldn’t look away. Hermes froze up.

Meanwhile, his arm was stinging more and more. Hermes finally recognized the pain as a burning sensation. His arm was burning! He just kept staring at the sun with trembling eyes. His head wings, that usually stuck out, were now practically glued to the side of his head in fear.

“Sun! Stop!” Aphrodite yelled. He started prying the sun’s fingers off of Hermes’ hand. The sun finally relented and blinked. In that one blink, his eyes returned to normal. Hermes snapped out of his trance and stared at the patch of red on his arm. He was still shaking.

Aphrodite was now sitting between Hermes and the Sun, seperating them.
“Bad dog!” ‘Dite yelled. Hermes clung onto ‘Dite’s arm. That was his favorite thing to do, back then. He loved clutching his arm like a koala bear wrapped around a branch. They smiled at each other as he buried his face in Dite’s blue curls.

••••••••

In his sleep, Mercury took a cluster of fake plant stems and clung onto them while shivering.

It wasn’t the same.

Chapter Text

“Hey, look at this!” Mercury woke up with a jolt to a loud voice followed by heaves and coughs.
“Ew, is that a homeless person?” Was that a girl voice?
“Hey guys, what are you looking at?” A gruff voice.
Mercury finally rubbed his eyes and opened them at the three figures standing above him. There was a guy that was probably the same height as him, a girl that was much shorter with pink lips, and the coughing one, who had yellow hair. Mercury backed into the plants further.
“Who-“
“We’re the biggest moons in the solar system.” The tallest one said with pride. They were moons….they were Jupiter’s moons!
“Who are you?” The yellow one said with a smile. If he said he was a planet, they could go straight to Jupiter, who, in turn, would tell the sun. Mercury darted his eyes. They were moons, so…
“I’m a moon.” They leaned in closer with suspicion.
“Oh, really?” The girl said with a smirk. “What planet do you orbit?”
“Um..Venus!”
“Venus doesn’t have any moons, stupid. Who are you really?” Mercury silently prayed for someone, anyone, to step in.

“What are you guys doing?” A deep girl voice came in. Mercury jolted again. He was met with a purple haired girl with blue lips staring down at him with what seemed to be annoyance.
“Who are you?”
He decided to stay true to his original story. “I’m a moon of Venus!”
“Venus doesn’t have any moons.” The girl said with disinterest.
“Um- well- he does now! He just…got me.” That was so stupid. What did that even mean? Still, the purple haired girl’s eyebrows raised. Did he say something right?
“You’re a.. captured planet?”
“Um- yes! Yeah, I was captured a while ago.”
“Oh, he’s just like triton!” The yellow one interjected. He helped the planet up. “We should take you to Jupiter!”
“No! Don’t! Um..” mercury fished around in his brain for an excuse. “I ran away because Venus was mean to me. If you tell Jupiter, he’s gonna make me come back.” Venus was mean to him up until now, and mercury was on the run, so it wasn’t a complete lie.
“Oh,” The pink lips girl looked down. “I guess we won’t tell.” mercury smiled.

The tallest one abruptly stood up right next to mercury and the others rolled their eyes like they knew what was coming.
“Who’s taller? Come on, measure us, Europa!”
The pink lips girl, Europa, sucked her teeth and turned away.
“You’re taller, Ganymede!” The yellow one said.
“Thanks, Io. At least someone feels like being helpful. Still the biggest.” Mercury looked down in shame. He was shorter than a moon?
“Hey, it literally doesn’t matter.” The blue lips girl said. “Ganymede’s the only one who cares about this stuff.”
“Venus cares too. He calls me pipsqueak because I’m smaller than him.” Mercury admitted.
“He sounds like a pain to orbit.” She said. Mercury orbited someone much worse than Venus. “My name’s Callisto.” Mercury nodded. Callisto gave him a look. “So? What’s your name?”
“Oh- um…” was he supposed to tell her his real name? It sounded risky. “My name is Mendax.”

While he was talking to Callisto, he noticed Ganymede and Europa whispering at each other nearby and giggling.
Europa came up to him with a grin. “You know, you look really similar to titan.”
“Who’s titan?” Mercury asked.
“He’s the biggest of Saturns moons. Hes a little bigger than you, I think.” Callisto explained to him. So he was smaller than two moons. Wow.
“No, you look really similar.” Europa continued.
“Yeah, you told me.”
“So…I was thinking….”
“No, Europa.” Callisto got up angrily. “You have the worst ideas.”
“This one is good!” She insisted. “How about we disguise you!”
“Um, no.”
Ganymede stepped in. “Let me rephrase her words. If you don’t let us disguise you, we rat you out to Jupiter.” Mercury gasped. Callisto shook her head as Ganymede moved in closer. “So, what’ll it be, Venus boy?”
“I..sure?” What else could he say?
Io cheered in the distance and immediately started coughing again. The three other moons rushed over to him, and mercury followed slowly. A disguise as a moon of Venus? What was mercury getting himself into? And he slept for at least seven hours. He hadn’t taken into account sleeping and setbacks when he thought it was going to take four days to get to the Kuiper Belt. That was only if he was walking constantly. The real length was going to be much more than four days. Mercury felt much less than confident about the journey ahead

Chapter Text

“No, the captured one is triton with an O and an R, and the one that looks like you is titan with an A and no R” Europa angrily explained the moons to the planet. Mercury was too busy looking out into the distance. He felt like such a bad person. He lied, stole, hid in someone else’s house, ran away…
“Do you get it, mendax?”
Mercury nodded absently. “Trident is the one I look like, and titanium is the other one?” Europa glared at him. Mercury frowned. “Sorry. I’m just.. nervous. The Kuiper Belt is really far away.”
“You’re going all the way to the Kuiper Belt? Why?” Europa looked at him like he was stupid for that idea, and maybe he was.
“Um, I don’t have to tell you.” Mercury was much taller than the girl who was berating him, but he felt so small.
“Ugh, why are we even helping you?” After this remark, mercury apologized meekly again. Europa simply turned away and went to get the other three moons, who ran out panicking.
“Jupiter’s coming out of the house! He’s gonna see the Venus boy!” Ganymede yelled.
“So-what-what do I do?” Mercury stumbled on his words as his heart raced.
“We have to sneak you into the house.” Callisto furrowed her brows. “Come with me.” She grabbed mercury by the arm. Io followed the two.

Jupiters house looked huge from the outside, but even bigger from the inside. Mercury and the moons entered from a window into Callisto’s room.
“All the moons have their own room? Aren’t there, like, ninety of them?” Mercury asked.
“Not all of them. Just the four major moons, the ones you met. The other ones have rooms of three or four, or theyre in the nursery depending on how young they are!” Io explained. Mercury imagined having a community like that. Being a moon of a gas giant didn’t seem so bad.
“You guys are so lucky, I wish I had a lot of siblings.” Mercury said, while looking around.
“We aren’t siblings. We’re just living with the same planet.” Callisto looked offended. Mercury apologized for the umpteenth time in response. Io started coughing up a storm again. “Io! Not again...” Callisto was now preoccupied looking for ios inhaler. Mercury took the opportunity to look out the window. Ganymede and Europa were still outside, and Jupiter was outside too. Jupiter started walking in the direction of Saturn as he waved goodbye to the two. Ganymede and Europa quickly rushed to callistos room whispering about the plan. Mercury thought to himself, they clearly had bad intentions. This wasn’t going to help him. How similar did he and trident even look? If he got caught with a disguise on, that would lead to an even worse punishment than if he just got caught as himself.
“Um, guys, I really appreciate the help, but I don’t think I wanna do this.” Mercury started towards the door. Jupiter was gone, maybe if he took a small detour, he could sneak past both him and Saturn.
“Can we remind you that you literally don’t have a choice?” Ganymede crossed his arms. “Callisto, io, get the stuff.” They ran out and quickly closed the door behind them.

Mercury was about to open the door until Ganymede grabbed him roughly by the shoulders. Mercury tried to squirm away, but Ganymede was strong, probably almost as strong as Venus. What was even worse was that he was grabbing mercury the same way the sun would grab him when he was mad. He didn’t want to go back to the sun. Mercury started kicking and thrashing around. His thoughts were racing. He was in danger. He had to leave.

“Mendax, it’s okay. Calm down!” Europa yelled. Her raising her voice was not helping. “Think of it this way, if you were titan, you could slip past Jupiter without a second thought. And Saturn loves you, he would let you go anywhere. We’ll take care of the real titan.” Europa waited for mercurys response.
“Um- I don’t- I-“ mercury’s breathing got erratic. He didn’t want the go back to the sun. He could almost feel the solar flares, the yelling, everything. Fear clutched his heart and squeezed it. “Please don’t hurt me!”
“We aren’t going to hurt you! We’re trying to help you!” Mercury pondered what Europa said. He turned his head back to look at Ganymede, who looked back at him with a blank expression. “Gany, let him go.” The smaller moon commanded.
“He’s gonna run away!”
Europa glared at him, hard. “Let him go.” Ganymede sighed and put him down. Mercury looked at the door, then looked at Europa. After a second of standing there, he backed away from the door and sat on the bed. Europa smirked and gave Ganymede a look that said, “I told you so”.
Ganymede sat next to him. “Hey, dude, are your shoulders okay? I didn’t mean to, like, hurt..you..” Ganymedes apology sounded genuine, but then again, so did all the other apologies mercury fell for.
Still, mercury muttered a small, “it’s fine.” Ganymede didn’t seem convinced. “No, seriously, you didn’t hurt me. I just thought you were going to, because-“ mercury stopped himself. He couldn’t mention the sun, or what the sun did. He couldn’t even tell Jupiter or Saturn. He couldn’t tell anyone.

Callisto and io came back with blue hair dye, green hair dye, an orange spray bottle with “atmosphere” labeled on it, a green sweater with Saturn’s symbol, and jeans.
“Why does it have Saturns symbol? You guys don’t wear jupiters.” Mercury asked.
“Titan is a planet pet. Saturn is, like, in love with him.” Europa snarled. Mercury tried to memorize the name that would soon be his. Titan. Titan. Titan. “Go sit in callistos chair. This is going to be so much fun!”

Before he knew it, he was getting a full new hairstyle. The four moons surrounded him, grabbing at his hair, and smearing blue and green dye on it.
As Europa started putting very little on his eyebrows, mercury spoke up. “Is this, um, permanent?”
“Well, you would need to shampoo it deep to get it out, but, no, it’s not permanent.”
“Oh, thanks!”
“But if you wash it off immediately, I’m gonna be really mad.” Europa said jokingly.
“So, where did you come from?” Io asked.
“What- oh.” Mercury forgot he was under the guise of a captured moon. “I, uh, came from out of the solar system. Like, from above.”
“Woah, what’s it like there?” Ganymede asked. His green eyes widened in fascination. Mercury had no idea.
“Um, I don’t remember.”
“That’s suspicious.” Europa said.
“No it’s not, triton doesn’t remember what it was like before he got captured either.” Callisto said. Mercury tried to memorize the name triton as the one that got captured.
“Oh, Mendax, in case you didn’t know, Callisto’s, like, obsessed with triton.” Europa said, laughing at the purple haired girl.
Callisto’s face turned crimson. “I am not!” Mercury kept taking mental notes. He could need this for later.
As the cold dye got near his head wings, mercury fluttered them without noticing. Ganymede noticed, however.
“Oh wait, guys, what do we do about the wings and the weird black stuff?” Mercury knew the weird black stuff was referring to the burns on his skin. When would they go away? He looked down in sadness.
“We could…Oh! Somebody get some tape and my foundation.” Europa exclaimed. Io jumped excitedly to go get it. “The cheap foundation, io” she called out as an afterthought.

After they put a lot of foundation on his face and hand, Callisto wiped the dye from mercurys face with her sleeve. Europa taped down the wings and covered it with hair. Mercury looked in the mirror and gasped at his new appearance. Callisto and io went away again, leaving him with Ganymede and Europa.
“Do you like it?” Europa asked eagerly.
“Yeah, it looks cool. Thank you guys, you’re really nice.” Mercury was so grateful, he didn’t know how to act.
“Yeah, we know.” Within a second, Europa’s whole demeanor shifted. “So anyway, since we did this favor for you, we want you to do a favor for us.” Mercury gulped and looked around nervously.
“What?”

“Make Saturn mad at you.” Mercury thought about it for a moment. He was, apparently, really good at making people mad at him.
“Um, sure.”
“Make him really mad. Make him hate you.”
“Wait, won’t the real titan-“ Ganymede stopped him.
“We’ll invite him over to our house.” Ganymede proposed.
“But when he comes back!”
“By the time he comes back, you have to be far away from Saturn. And plus, we’ll tell him everything about you. He’s gonna feel sympathy. He’s really nice to other moons.” Europa said.
“Except us, for some reason.” Ganymede added. Mercury tried to imagine what titan was like. He seemed like a really nice guy. He didn’t want to ruin his relationship with Saturn. And mercury knew Saturn. He could be easily hurt.

“I kind of feel.. bad about this.”
“Does it matter? Don’t you wanna be free, Mendax?” Europa grabbed him by the shoulders, which made him panic again. Was she doing this on purpose? He thought about the sun, and the lasting effect he had on mercury.
“Yes! I never want to go back there again!” Mercury screamed. “I hate them all!” Mercury felt the pressure on his throat that came when he was about to cry. He stopped talking. Europa took her hands off his shoulders, seemingly sensing that she went too far. Still, she kept pressing on with the plan.
“We have no idea what you’ve been going through in your orbit, but we still gave you an actual shot at escaping. Without us, I’m not trying to be mean, but, there would be no chance for you.” Europa gave him a sympathetic look. “I know hurting peoples feelings puts you off, but…”
“I get it.” Mercury finally said, after successfully repressing his fears. “I- I can do it. Thank you again, really.”
Europa smiled. Mercury felt like such a bad person.

“Mendax, we’re having dinner!” Mendax was the planet’s name now. Jupiter wasn’t there, thankfully, because he would be able to tell the difference between titan and mercury, or maybe he wouldn’t. Europa would know. Mercury trusted her more than anyone else he had met so far. She empathized with him, even though mercury never told her the exact situation he was running away from. Mars and Venus saw mercury suffer with their own eyes, and turned a blind eye to it until it was too late. As for Europa’s boyfriend, he seemed a little aggressive, but he was still trying. Mercury trusted him, as well. He didn’t know the other two Galileans too well, but they seemed nice.

“Mendax, get down here!” Callisto called out. “I made spaghetti. Wait, are you allergic?” Mercury knew the moons were having dinner, but he didn’t expect them to give him dinner too. He missed eating a meal that wasn’t just some cheap snacks in plastic wrappers.

“Thank you so much!” Mercury smiled. He stared at the four moons sitting around the table. There was a fifth empty seat next to io.
“It’s nothing, seriously.” Callisto deadpanned. “Sit here, but i do have to warn you, io’s gonna cough on your food.” She glared at the yellow haired one.
“I will not!” Io pouted. “I can cough on Ganymede’s food. Also, if you’re allergic, we can’t do anything about it.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m not allergic to anything.” Mercury couldn’t stop smiling. He had only ever eaten dinner with the sun, or he just skipped dinner entirely to avoid him.
“By the way, you’re not done with your disguise.” Europa got serious again. “We still need to spray an atmosphere on you, and give you the kind of clothes titan wears.” Mercury nodded.
“Also, titan has this weird accent.” Ganymede laughed and imitated him. “I’m the second biggest moon in the solar system” He said in something the earth would call a “southern” accent, whatever that meant.

When Europa and mercury finished eating, Europa rushed mercury back to callisto’s room excitedly without waiting for the others. She had the orange atmosphere spray along with the clothes.
“Keep your arms in a T and stand there.” She commanded. Mercury did.
“So where did you guys get all this stuff? Like..the hair dye and the atmospheres?” Mercury asked.
“Oh, one time us four dressed up as the rocky planets.”
Mercury raised his eyebrows. That included him. “So, who was who?”
“Callisto was earth, so that’s where we got the blue and green hair dye from.” Europa gestured to mercury’s hair as she talked about it. “Ganymede was Venus, so that’s where we got the orange atmosphere from,” She sprayed some atmosphere onto mercury. “Io was mars so he wore red, and i was mercury, even though we have no idea what he looks like.” Mercury thought of Europa dressing up as him and chuckled to himself.
“So how did you dress up as him?” The planet asked.
“Oh, i just wore brown. Jupiter told me he wore brown.” So no wings or anything? Mercury was at least relieved that she didn’t know what he looked like.

Mercury always used to wonder what his atmosphere would be if he had one. He was the only planet without an atmosphere, and instead had a strange exosphere which wasn’t even visible. Now, he felt like if he had an atmosphere, it would be titans orange.
“It’s cold!” He yelped while squirming away.
Europa laughed. “Everything must be cold to you, you come from Venus. Oh, i can show you a picture of ganymede dressing up as him!” She went to callisto’s desk and showed him a Polaroid of the four. The costumes were fairly accurate, so mercury was a little stunned to see himself kissing Venus on the cheek. He hastily reminded himself that it was just Europa kissing Ganymede. “Does it look like them?” Europa asked.
“Yeah, it does.”

The others came in once the atmosphere was done and he had put on the clothes, and began to teach him the southern accent for the rest of the evening. Most of it was laughing at ganymedes impression of titan. Eventually, Jupiter got home, and in hushed whispers, everyone scolded each other to be quiet while forcing down giggles. Even the panic he felt from nearly getting caught was fun, because they were all panicking together.

When they dared Callisto to go and check if Jupiter was asleep, and he was, mercury knew he had to leave.
“Bye, mendax.” Ganymede said. “Remember our plan with Saturn. Don’t forget!” He furrowed his brows.
“Yeah, I’ll remember.” Mercury nodded.
“And say hi to triton for me.” Callisto told him.
He nodded again. “I will.”
“And say hi to him for me, too!” Io spoke, and immediately started coughing. They all quickly shushed him.
“They’re saying too much to remember, take this.” Europa handed him the Polaroid she showed him earlier, with words on the back.

Mendax,
-don’t forget the plan! make saturn hate you at all costs
-say hi to triton for callisto and io, and tell him callisto likes him
From, the Galileans

“Bye, Mendax.” She whispered to him as he carefully dropped out of the window. He stuffed the Polaroid for Mendax in his bag with the card for mercury. The newer name settled on him like a heavy weight on his shoulders. Mendax wasn’t just his new name, it became his new identity.

Chapter Text

“My planet’s gone!” The sun wailed. Earth and mars feigned concern. Venus rolled his eyes. He had places to be and things to do, mainly being at his house and doing nothing. “Where did you hide him!” He had called all the rocky planets to where mercury’s orbit once was for a meeting.
“What do you mean, he’s gone?” Venus asked. Mercury couldn’t just disappear, he thought. And he didn’t do anything, this time. “I saw him three days ago.” When he said thank you for the letter. He looked a little happier that day. Maybe Venus’ letter worked.
“I’m saying this out of love, Venus, are you slow? You’re supposed to see him every day. You’re right next to him!” Earth said. Venus could almost visibly see the green on his surface browning. “Anyways, sun, my earthlings cannot take this heat. I have to go.”
“Fine!” The sun yelled. “Go, but you’re at the top of my suspect list!” Earth took the opportunity to run away from this absurdity, confused.

Venus took a good look at the sun. Was mercury this close to him all the time? He was blindingly bright, and when he yelled, the light only shined brighter. Mars was sitting next to Venus, wiping his forehead and sweating buckets.
“Can I go too? My polar caps are melting.” Mars asked politely. Venus wanted to strangle him. He didn’t want to be left alone with this maniac. Sure, Venus was the hottest planet, but that wasn’t a blessing that the sun bestowed on him. It was a product of the Sun being, well, a sun. He didn’t have any connection to Venus because of it.
“No! You don’t even have life!” The sun roared. Venus had to look away now, he was so bright. “Nobody else is leaving until we find out what happened to mercury!”

Everyone stayed silent. Venus thought about mercury being missing for three days, just when he started to be nice to him. If that pipsqueak didn’t appreciate him trying, he could go right back to being trash to Mercury when he returned. Venus wasn’t waiting for that, though.

“Venus!” The sun yelled. The fiery planet muttered a “shut up” underneath his breath. “You ejected him from the solar system!”
“What?” Venus was shocked. “I didn’t even leave my room while he was gone.”
“Stop! I know you pick on him! Why do you hate mercury so much!” Why was the sun, of all people, talking about hating mercury?

Venus still remembered coming to mercury’s orbit after deciding to be nicer. Maybe he would like his orbit more. Maybe he wouldn’t feel so lonely. Maybe he would hate himself just a little bit less if Mercury didn’t hate him either. Mercury was curled up, sitting on a burned up piece of ground. Half of his damn body was charred because of the sun, and the sun thought Venus was the one that hated mercury the most.

“Why do you?” Venus stood up and roared without thinking. Oh shoot. He slowly sat back down, awaiting the suns response. Mars was giving him a look that was a mix of frustration and fear.
The sun stared him down for the longest ten seconds of his life.

Then, in the quietest voice the sun had ever spoken in, asked, “..What..What do you mean?” Mars was signaling Venus with his hands to shut up, but he wouldn’t. He wasn’t a coward. The sun couldn’t talk about hating Mercury after he hit him with a solar flare so bad that Mercury cried in front of Venus. He never cried in front of him, except for that moment. He must have been so…scared. Venus didn’t feel any sympathy, though, definitely not for that pipsqueak. He only felt anger towards the sun for being a hypocrite. He continued calling out the sun.

“Why do you throw all these solar flares at him, and not let him leave his orbit, and-“
“I’m not the only one!” The sun went back to yelling again. “You don’t let him leave either, and i still remember the time you threw an asteroid at him, and almost killed him!” Venus opened his mouth to say something cruel, to say something that would make the sun into a little brown dwarf, but nothing came out. It was all true. Venus looked down in shame.

Mars spoke up. Mars, mercury’s only advocate. Mars, mercury’s favorite. Venus liked mars, but in that moment he gritted his teeth. Why did Venus suddenly care who Mercury’s favorite was?
“I think he just needs a few days to..um…collect himself. He got hit by a pretty nasty solar flare-“ mars immediately realized his mistake.
“Be quiet! He’s my planet, not yours!” The sun yelled. “I decide what to do with him!”
“It doesn’t matter now.” Mars said. Everyone went silent again. It really didn’t matter now.

After long moments of silence, the Sun’s anger dissipated and he had a strange look on his face. It almost looked like regret. He turned away and left the two orange planets to their own company. Venus wondered if he made the choice to be nicer out of his own regret.

Maybe regret was the reason he felt so worried about Mercury, and felt like trash after finding out he was missing. Either way, Venus was trash, and that was all he was ever going to be. He wasn’t a worried, shaky little planet. They had Mercury for that. Well, they didn’t have him anymore. Venus’ breath hitched at that thought.

Mars took the opportunity to lean over and whisper to Venus.
“I know he went to the asteroid belt.”
“So, is that where he is?” Venus whispered. His voice was coming out unstable. He was worrying over something he shouldn’t care about, and he didn’t like it.
“Well, probably. Where else would he go?” Mars reasoned.

“What if he’s not coming back?” Venus murmured. Mars and the sun, who was listening in now, glared at him. “What if he ran away to the asteroid belt?” Venus felt his throat closing around the words.
The sun furrowed his brows. At this point, mars had his head in his hand, rubbing his temples. Venus got up suddenly.
“Where do you think you’re going?” The sun was beginning to get red.
“I’m going to the asteroid belt and looking for him.” Venus snapped. The suns eye twitched.
“Earth! Come back here for just a second.” The huge star switched his entire demeanor and sounded cheery. Too cheery. “Just one last announcement!” Earth had now fished a fan out of his house and switched it on while running back.
“Yeah, sun? Do you guys know where mercury is?” Earth said with a smile. Venus wanted to scream at him, but he was too busy watching the sun glow brighter and brighter, and redder and redder. There was a manic, hollow look in his eyes.

“If Mercury isn’t back in his orbit within the next five days, you all die.”

Chapter Text

Mercury kept walking to Saturn. There was so much emptiness in between the gas giants. Between the rocky planets, there were satellites and lost cards for space poker, and stuff. Maybe there were just as many objects out there, but, because of the distance, he couldn’t see any of them. Mercury checked his food supply. He had barely spent any of the money, so if he was running out, he just had to find a store. His granola bars would probably last the whole rest of the journey, but he didn’t count on it.

It was dark out, past midnight.
“Titan!” Mercury looked around and found a soft spoken girl, smaller than any of the ones he had met before.
“Um, who are you?” Mercury put on his best southern accent and prayed.
“What do you mean? You know me!” Mercury slandered himself internally. He was titan, so he should have knew everyone that titan knew.
“Well, I just, can’t see you. It’s so dark out.”
“It’s Rhea.” Mercury guessed that she was a moon of Saturn.
“Oh, right, Rhea. My best friend!” Rhea stared at him. Was Titan not best friends with her?
“Um..okay?” She turned back towards Saturns house. Mercury erratically laughed it off.
“Hey, uh, what are you doing out here?” He asked.
“I’m just walking around. You?”
“Oh, yeah, same.” Would titan say same? “Uh..you wanna go back to Saturns house? It’s getting late.” Rhea asked. For a guy supposedly named Mendax, he was really bad at lying. But then again, being named Mendax was in and of itself a lie…
“No, I think I’ll stay. You should go, though. It’s dangerous for small moons.” Rhea scowled at being called small. Mercury bit his tongue.

He hid behind Saturns house and slept when Rhea was already in. Europa wouldn’t be able to “take care of the real titan” until morning. They said they were going to invite him over, didn’t they? Or course, hiding near as gas giants house to sleep didn’t work well last time, but he was willing to push his luck. He was in a disguise, after all. And if Rhea’s reaction was anything to go by, it was fairly convincing.

Mercury was sleeping in a garage. A garage that was 10 astronomical units away from his home. The entire distance was 30, so.. he was a third of the way there! There was really no going back now. He had nowhere else to go where he would be safe. He couldn’t imagine what the sun would do to him if he came back, and Venus…

How was Venus doing right now?

He pushed the question out of his mind. He had wore titans sweatshirt on top of his own, so he wasn’t feeling too cold. Still, he would kill for a blanket. He couldn’t risk going further into the garage, so he stayed where he was. Mercury felt exhaustion lure him in. His eyelids grew heavy, and he fell asleep.

Chapter Text

“What’s your new name gonna be?” Aphrodite asked. They were hiding from the others in a garden. It was breezy, and the grass was green. They sat on a log, with Hermes clinging onto the taller kid’s arm as usual.
“What do you mean?” Hermes replied.
“When you get your new name.”
“I don’t know. I still have a lot of time to think about it.”
“You might not. The sun said we get our new names when something really big happens to us, that changes us forever.” ‘Dite’s eyes widened and he shook Hermes gently, trying to create suspense. “It could be any day now.”

“So..like…do I have to decide now?” Hermes looked up at him with big eyes.
“You had to decide a while ago, Herm.”
“Don’t call me Herm! My new name isn’t gonna be Herm. It’s gonna be…” Aphrodite waited in anticipation. “Mercury!” ‘Dite rolled his eyes.
“Why?”
“I like thermometers?” This made his friend laugh. “What’s yours gonna be?”
“Venus.” He didn’t want it to be a girl name, like Aphrodite.
“Like a Venus flytrap? That’s scary.”
“Yeah, it’s supposed to be scary. I wanna be threatening when I’m older. The Sun’s never gonna mess with you, cause he’s gonna be too scared that I’ll beat him up.” Hermes had stopped listening to ‘Dite’s rambling, and was playing with his blue curls again.

“Hermes!” Hermes jolted and sat upright. He breathed a sigh of relief when he was met with ‘Dite’s face.
“Oh, it’s just you.”
‘Dite faked anger. “So I’m a ‘just you’ now?”
Hermes shoved him. “You know how I meant it.” He was clutching his little plushie, Vulcan, in his hand.
“You’re too old to have a plushie.”
“Maybe you’re just jealous!” He retorted. Panic rose in ‘Dite’s chest, because he really was just jealous of that stupid plushie getting more attention from Hermes than him. He realized Hermes meant ‘jealous he didn’t have a plushie of his own’, which he was not.
“Jealous over that ugly thing? Never.” It was a toy planet, and it was old. One half of the dark maroon faded into more of a reddish beige, which made it look like it had really bad burns on half of its body. One of the button eyes was popped out after Theia got mad at Hermes once and pulled it a little too hard. Theia always said she would fix it for him, but she never did.
‘Dite doubted that he cared. Hermes loved it anyway, and Aphrodite understood why. He would still love someone if they had one eye, or no eyes, or half of them was all burned up.

‘Dite looked at Hermes’ arm for a while. It was still red, but less so. Hermes said it didn’t hurt, but he yelped everytime someone accidentally grazed it. He asked Hermes exactly what happened with the sun that day for him to react like he did, but he wouldn’t say. It wasn’t like Hermes to be all scared and sad.

‘Dite took his arm out of Hermes’ grasp and put it around him instead.
“You know you’re my best friend, right?” Aphrodite looked right in his deep brown eyes. He loved that they had the same eye color. It looked better on Hermes, in his opinion, on account of his paler skin.
“Yeah, I know.” Hermes replied.
“And you can tell me anything. Literally anything. I won’t get mad, or make fun of you, or-“
“It’s not that.” His high pitched, chirpy voice got quieter, and more solemn. He already knew what ‘Dite was going to ask. “I just can’t…I just can’t tell anyone.” ‘Dite frowned. Hermes thought of something to say to make him feel better. “But, if it was really hurting me, I would tell you.”
“Yeah, and I would beat the Sun up.” ‘Dite was dead serious, but Hermes laughed. Aphrodite decided to laugh too, and gave him a quick hug.

Before leaving for the asteroid belt, Venus grabbed his pillow and hugged it.

It wasn’t the same.

Chapter Text

This time, Mercury woke up alone, still hiding in the garage of Saturns house. He stared at the rusty clock on the wall. It was…12:35? He had slept for so long!
Mercury walked through the door cautiously. What if the real titan was there?
“Titan!” Saturn was standing in front of him, leaning down and reaching out his hand. “What are you doing down there? I thought you were on your way to jupiters house?” Mercury was shocked. Hadn’t Europa said Saturn loved titan? If mercury loved someone, he would be able to tell the difference between them and a fake.
Like Venus, for example. Not that he loved Venus, he just knew him really well.

Saturn was still staring at him, now reaching out a hand to help him up.
“Thanks.” Mercury said, without the accent. He quickly remembered to put it back on. “I was just…playing hide and seek with the moons!” That was stupid.
“Wow, you’re getting along with the other moons? That’s surprising.” Saturn smiled. So was titan not liked by the other moons?

Mercury walked up some stairs to find a small, grey, female moon.
“Hi, Rhea!” Mercury pretended to smile. Maybe he could ask her why the other moons hated him so much.
“Did you just call me Rhea? Are you stupid?” That was not Rheas soft spoken voice and calmer demeanor.
“Oh! Um… what’s your name?” Mercury wanted to dig himself in a hole. He was asking a moon of the same planet what her name was. He was going to get caught for sure.
“Dione.” Mercury tried to remember that. “Of course you would forget our names. First Saturn, then his favorite moon.” She spat out with jealousy.
“Oh, sorry.” Mercury felt bad. He was giving titan a bad reputation, or, worse than it already was. Saturn didn’t seem like the type to have favorites, but he supposed with that many moons, Saturn couldn’t be expected to love all of them.

“What’s with your voice?” Dione asked.
“What?” Mercurys voice got quieter. “What do you mean?”
“You sound different.” Dione accused.
“Do I?” Mercury croaked, slinking further into silence. He had no idea what titans voice sounded like, apart from the accent. He didn’t know how to mimic him.
“And aren’t you supposed to be at the Galileans house?”
“Oh, I was just there-“ He cut himself off immediately. The real titan was not at the Galileans. He had just given himself away.

“You’re not titan, are you? Who are you, and what are you doing here?” She walked closer to him. Mercury backed away slowly. He tried opening a nearby door, but it was locked. “Saturn!” Dione yelled.
“No, no, please don’t! You can’t-“
“Hi, Diane!” Saturn slowly made his way up the steps. Dione looked away and scowled.
“Her name’s Dione.” Mercury corrected him. Dione finally looked at him with something other than hatred.
“So what did you call me here for?” Saturn said, instead of apologizing. The moon looked at Mercury with squinted eyes.
“Nothing. Leave.” She shooed him away. Saturn frowned and left. Mercury felt a little bad, but was ultimately happy he didn’t get ratted out.
“I’m giving you one last chance. Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
“I’m..I’m Mendax. I’m an exoplanet that got captured by Venus.” All of that was lies. “I ran away because I wasn’t safe there.” At least that was true. He hadn’t been “safe” for years.
Dione stared at him for a moment. “So, you’re running away? You’re gonna have to keep running. You’re not welcome here.”
“I wasn’t planning on that, I’m going to the Kuiper Belt.”
“So why are you dressed up as Titan?” Dione eyed him up and down, judging his disguise.
“Europa and Ganymede said it would be a good idea.” Mercury answered. He watched Dione’s face light up with recognition. “Do you know them?”
“Yeah, they were some of the leaders of the moon revolution. They made us fight Venus and Mars.” Mercury’s heart stung at the memory of those two covered in blood and bruises, with mercury desperately trying to carry them both to a safer orbit. He had forgot about that. He immediately felt bad for trusting Europa. “Ganymede’s an ass, but Europa’s fine, I guess.” She continued.
“They told me to make Saturn mad at titan.”
Dione’s eyes widened, and she actually smiled. She grabbed mercury by the wrists. “ You have to do it, please!” She insisted. “Make him kick you out of the house or something. Ruin Titan’s life!”
Mercury shook his head and tried squirming away. “I don’t wanna go too far! Titan seems nice.”
“I mean, sure, whatever, but Saturn loves titan so much, he doesn’t even know the rest of us exsist. Do you have any idea how it feels to orbit someone that doesn’t care if you live or die?” Dione shook him by the wrists.
The sun probably wouldn’t care if mercury lived or died as long as the sun still had access to the body. But in the sense that Dione meant, no, he had no idea what it was like. The sun was really attached to mercury. All his life, he had someone watching over him in some way. He couldn’t imagine being forgotten, or invisible.
“No, I don’t know what it’s like. I’m sorry.”Mercury looked away.
“We need this. Not just me, all the major moons of Saturn.” Dione said, still tightening her grip around the planets wrists. She had a look on her face that seemed hopeful, like she saw a light at the end of the tunnel. Mercury had been there before, so he nodded, unsure of how to object.

Dione had gathered all the major moons of Saturn, except, of course, the real titan.
“This is Mendax.” Mercury winced. What if one of the other moons spoke Latin? “He’s running away from his planet, Venus.” There were murmurs from some of the moons.
“Venus doesn’t have a moon.” Iapetus corrected.
“He captured me.” Mercury said. “Like Triton got captured!” Please, let them know Triton, Mercury prayed.
“Oh yeah, him, we met him once.” A gray male moon with a busted eye remarked.
“Who, triton?”
“Yeah, but I was talking about Venus.”
“Oh, you guys fought against him, didn’t you?” The planet remembered trying to heal Venus after the fight. He didn’t accept any bandages, or medicine, or anything. He wouldn’t even look at Mercury, but in the half a second that Mercury caught a glimpse of his eyes, he saw shame. Shame that he lost, and even worse shame that Mercury of all people wanted to help him.

“Yeah, and we beat him and mars up.” A white and blue moon bragged. Mercury winced.
“Where were you during all of that, Mendax?”
“During what, the moon revolution? Oh, nobody knew I was there yet.” Mercury said.
“Not even Luna?” A moon with vitiligo asked.
“Who’s Luna?” They all collectively rolled their eyes. “Oh, Earth’s moon.” Mercury remembered.
Another moon gritted his teeth. “How would you feel if we called you Venus’ moon instead of Mendax?” He wouldn’t feel anything, actually. He wasn’t either. But he got the message.
“Sorry.” He mumbled quietly.
Rhea gave him a sympathetic look. “So you were the Titan I met last night? I knew something was off about you.” He sheepishly smiled again. It was the best friend thing, wasn’t it?
“So, what are you guys gonna do?” The planet asked.
“We told Saturn you left just now, and you showing up in the morning was just because of a delay.” Dione responded. “How about you hide in the garage for a few hours, and when that’s over, we’ll let you back out?” Mercury had already been in the garage. It wasn’t that bad.
“Yeah, that sounds good. Thanks again, for getting Saturn off my back, and stuff.”
“Hey, don’t mention it.” Her smile faded. “But remember, now, you’re not just doing this for Ganymede and Europa. You’re doing this for all of us, too.” She gestured to the whole house. All the 145 other moons of Saturn were being neglected. Mercury felt sorry for them, but at the same time, Saturn seemed so nice. He seemed so easily hurt, too.

He waited in the garage. It didn’t smell good, and there was nothing to do, so he took the time to make an inventory list of sorts, on the back of Venus’ letter. He searched around the garage for a writing utensil that wouldn’t bleed through the paper. When he finally had a pencil, he emptied out his bag on the dusty garage floor.

-one letter from Venus
-14 granola bars
-4 packages of dried mangoes
-1 Polaroid from the Galileans
-150 sollars
-1 pack of mint gum

That was it? That was all he had? Mercury checked around the garage. He had already stolen from the Sun, so why not Saturn? He had plenty of little things laying in his garage that he wouldn’t notice the absence of.

Mercury took a Rubik’s cube, even though he didn’t know how to solve one. He doubted Saturn or the other moons knew either. He stuffed it in his bag regardless.

He held a deck of cards in a box up. He didn’t know the gas giants played cards too. But then again, they looked really old and browned, so Saturn probably didn’t use them anymore. More for me, he thought. Card games reminded him of the rocky planets. The realization suddenly hit that he was never going to see them again. Mercury tried to tell himself he was never that close with any of them, but he was.

Mercury found a dirty little cat plushie. It reminded him of his plushie, Vulcan. Whatever happened to that old thing? One day it was there, next day it was nowhere to be seen. Venus was always so jealous of that thing.

Next, he found a little ring chain on the floor, collecting dust. He wiped it on Titan’s sweater. Saturn probably wore it back when his rings were small and unimpressive. This wouldn’t fit on them, now. The charm of the chain was a little star.

There was another keychain, too. It had two parts. One said “Love” and the other said “Forever”. Why did Saturn have both of these? Wasn’t one of them supposed to be given to someone else? They were very chipped and cracked.

A tennis ball? Mercury was reminded of Ceres. On the occasion that he came to the Kuiper Belt, the little guy would be there too. They played catch once or twice when he remembered to bring a ball. Maybe he would find a dwarf planet like Ceres in the Kuiper Belt to give it to. Were all dwarf planets insane like Ceres? That only added insult to when Venus called Mercury a dwarf.

He added the useless items he stole to his list. He just wanted to fill up his bag, mercury thought. It would be more to carry, but it helped him feel a little less empty knowing he had things, even if they were useless and a little weird. He had 20 astronomical units to go, and most of it was nothingness.

Chapter Text

“Titan’s gonna be back soon! Make him hate you, quickly!” Dione barged into the garage and whispered.
“What? Why didn’t you just make me go out earlier?” Mercury whisper-screamed back.
“My bad.” Dione laughed. “We forgot about you.” Mercury frowned. They were not nearly as helpful as the Galileans.
“Forgot about what, Diane, dear?” Saturns melodious voice filled up the garage. “Titan! You’re back!” Mercury looked behind him in panic, before suddenly remembering that he was Titan.
“Oh, yeah.” He didn’t exactly have his accent down, but Saturn ate it up anyway. “I’m back!” He choked out while making stupid jazz hands. His impression must have been accurate, because Dione was once again giving him the look of a neglected child glaring at the favorite.
“Did they give you dinner there? Because I made soup!” Saturn chimed. Mercury really wanted soup. He had been trekking nonstop for maybe ten hours from Jupiter’s orbit to Saturn’s. Granola bars weren’t cutting it.

Dione stormed away, but Saturn didn’t notice. He took Mercury’s hand and led him to the kitchen.
“My baby!” Saturn wrapped him in a tight hug. “I missed you so much!” Mercury’s eyes widened and almost filled with tears. He missed hugs. They were much better than he gave them credit for. He wanted to hug Saturn back and cry in his arms, but he remembered the promise he made to… one hundred and forty eight people. One hundred fifty if he could count Callisto and Io. He had to do it.

Mercury found a nearby glass and shoved Saturn away. Saturns smile dropped and was replaced by a look of surprise and sadness. Mercury bit his tongue, hard. Don’t apologize. You have to do this, he thought. He grabbed the glass and threw it near Saturn’s foot. He watched with big eyes as little spots of red decorated Saturn’s ankle.
“Titan, what’s gotten into you?” He screamed. Mercury bit his tongue, harder. So many people were counting on him. If they found out he failed, they…they…

They would send him back to the Sun.

Mercury hit Saturn on the arm and fished his hand in the sink. He pulled out another glass dish. He threw it on the floor. With a shattering sound, it broke into pieces. It was like and explosion. He watched Saturn scream again and shield his face with his arms.

“What the hell?” Saturn kept screaming. Mercury breathed heavily, but it felt like no air was coming to his lungs. He bit his tongue harder than before, and he could taste blood. Did Saturn hate him yet?
The gas giants arms had a few bright red cuts on them, and so did one of his ankles. But the thing that killed him was the look in his eyes. He looked sad and scared, not scared of mercury, but scared for mercury. He felt so, so bad.

Mercury bit the wound on his tongue once more to fight the urge to say sorry. He desperately wanted to say sorry and beg for Saturn’s forgiveness. Saturn started walking towards him. He stopped biting and blood dribbled out of the wound on his mouth when he tried to speak. So gross. Saturn would surely hate him now.

Saturn grabbed his wrist and looked straight at him. Mercury didn’t want to look at Saturn’s light brown, almost yellow eyes. If he looked, what if pools of darkness would be looking back, just like the first time he got burned? The whole universe around him would stop. And there was no ‘Dite to save him. He was alone in the room. He barely opened his eyes for a moment and saw, in a sliver of vision, Saturn’s hand close to his face. Mercury turned his face away.

Mercury felt a hand caressing his cheek. He opened his eyes fully. Saturn was kneeling on the ground with him. He looked concerned, but he wrapped the person he thought was his moon in his arms anyway.
“What got into you?” He asked. Europa and Ganymede’s plan got into me, he wanted to say. Oh, the plan. Had it worked?
“Do you-“ He choked on his words. “Do you hate me?” Had he done it?
Saturn expression changed. He wrapped his arms around Mercury and rubbed his back. “Of course not, baby. Just calm down, okay? And then we’ll have a serious talk about your behavior.” Mercury sniffled, and, against the will of over one hundred people in the same house as him right now, he buried his face in Saturns chest and closed his eyes. The realization of the things he never had came crashing down on him. He never had an older person hug him like Saturn did. The sun hugged him…different. It felt like a disgusting nightmare from the past now. A nightmare he never wanted to have again.

“Titan, what got into you?” Saturn asked again. He wanted to tell him everything that the Sun did. From the playing family when Mercury was a child, to breaking into his house and sneaking into his bed only four days ago. Everything. But he still couldn’t tell anyone.
“I can’t tell anyone.” Mercury answered truthfully. He still kept the accent.
Saturn put a hand on the back of his head. “Was it something with the Galileans?” The ringed planet asked softly. Mercury shook his head.
Saturn felt the shake and asked, “What was it?” Mercury shook his head again. Saturn sighed. “It’s okay, dear. You don’t have to tell me just yet. But I’m very worried. This isn’t anything like you.“ The smaller planet could see the beginnings of tears in the ringed’s eyes.

Saturn got up to lean against the wall and rub his temples. He didn’t hate Titan, but he was clearly mad. Mercury hoped that was good enough for the moons. He was going to go far away from them, anyway. He was going to go far away from everyone.

Mercury jumped when he heard a soft knock on a door. Saturn didn’t, he was too busy staring down at his cuts and crying. Mercury tried his best to ignore him. This was weak, and Mercury couldn’t afford to be weak. Look where that got him.
Through a circular window in a door to the rooms, he saw Dione. He walked up to the door and opened it slightly.
She whispered, “Titan’s going to be back in an hour. You should leave now.”

Mercury looked at Saturn, and looked at the door to the house on the other side of the room. He bolted out and quickly closed the door behind him. He could hear Saturns screaming for him to come back for a split second. He sank to the ground, still pressing his body weight against the door to keep it closed.

Saturn was going to force the door open soon, and Mercury’s stuff was in the garage. In his panic, he dived onto a dirty concrete floor. He forced the pain down and grabbed his bag. It was only a little heavier. He gasped as he looked at Venus’ card on the floor. And, of course, there was the inventory list on the back, too. But he nearly forgot the card! He grabbed it hastily and shoved it in his bag.

He heard noises on the door, but it didn’t open. Mercury looked through the window, praying Saturn wouldn’t see him, and he found the major moons holding Saturn back from opening it. The moon with the busted eye looked out the window and motioned for mercury to run, so he did.

OK HERES THE ARTTTT I drew the other Rockies too but didn’t color them so maybe next chapter??

Html code isn’t working I fear so have the link

https://i.postimg.cc/Gt4jqqXy/Untitled622-20240731165555.jpg

Chapter Text

Mars ran up to Venus after saying goodbye to the Earth.
“Sucks that Earth and his moon can’t come along, right?” He always pronounced “Earth” as “Arth”. Mars tagged him on the shoulder and ran off.
“Why can’t his moon come?” Venus didn’t bother to chase after him.
“Axial tilt. If the moon disappeared, the Earthlings would have an apocalypse.” Venus remembered when he had life. The little bugs and flora on his surface didn’t need a moon.
They finally reached the asteroid belt and Venus shivered.
“Why is it so cold out here?”
“Look, if I had to handle Mercury’s orbit when the Sun called us all over, you can handle mine. You’re wearing a sweater.”
“Still!” Venus stopped in his tracks for a moment. “Mercury must be cold, too.” He muttered, not expecting mars to hear. Mars gave him a sympathetic look.
“Just when you were starting to fix your friendship..” Mars stopped walking too. “By the way, why did you decide that.?”
“None of your business.” Mars just chuckled, like he knew the answer. He didn’t.

They both fell silent for a moment. They knew what they were afraid to say. Someone had to ask the question.
“Do you think he’s dead?” Mars barely whispered. Venus saw it coming, but his breath hitched nonetheless.
“I…I don’t know. Is it dangerous out here?” Venus needed to hear mars say it wasn’t.
“Yeah, remember when Ceres threw that asteroid at me? It would have seriously hurt me, if I was just a little smaller.” Mars inhaled. “A little smaller..like mercury is.” He pursed his lips. Venus couldn’t bear to see mercury hurt. It was so backwards. He hurt mercury so many times throughout being neighbors, and now he was pining for him to come back to a warm, safe place. A place like that didnt exsist for Mercury. This past week had proved that.

He thought about what he would do when, if, he found mercury. He decided he didn’t want to go back to the way things were again. He would bring him back home and apologize for everything. He would apologize for not letting him leave his orbit. For throwing asteroids at him. For yelling at him. For calling him pip-squeak. For making everything so much worse.

That was all Venus did, it seemed. He couldn’t help but make everything worse.

But, no, when mercury came back, he would make it up to him. He would find a way to make Mercury love him again, as his best friend. Where was he now?
“Why did he even come here? He has no chance.” Venus kicked some asteroids near his feet. He imagined mercury, cold and alone. He didn’t want to imagine the other possibility, which was his dead body.
“Maybe he wanted to get away from..you know..”
“No, I don’t know.” Venus snapped. Did mars mean Venus? At least Venus was trying. Mars didn’t respond, he only tilted his head to the sun. Oh, the sun. There was always something wrong with the Sun. He seemed a little short of sane, and it only got worse after the incident. “I hate the sun.” Venus said. It was true, truer than mars could imagine.
“Don’t say that!” Mars said in a hushed tone.
“He can’t hear us from here.” Venus looked back. The sun looked smaller than he had ever seen him before.
“What if he can?” Mars winced.
“Let’s test that theory.” Venus grimaced. “I hate the sun!” He yelled out. The sound filled up the asteroid belt. Mars started panicking immediately. Venus simply pointed to the sun, unmoving, unchanged. He gave mars a smirk and kept walking. “Mars?”
The red planet stayed glued to the ground, staring at the sun as it got redder, and redder. Then, in a blast, a solar flare. Venus and mars jumped.
“You- it’s gonna hit the Earth!” Mars screamed.
“The Earth isn’t close enough to that psycho. And he has a magnetic field. He’ll be fine.” Venus said it to calm mars down, but mostly to calm himself. Did he cause a solar flare? If he eradicated life on Earth, he would never forgive himself.
“Yeah? What about the moon?” Mars was hyperventilating. Venus shoved his emotions aside and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Who cares about that pipsqueak anyway?” Mars’ breathing audibly stopped. He turned, slowly to look at Venus, but decided against it. He just turned his entire body away. Venus realized what he said and pulled on his eyelids. He inhaled sharply.
“God, should we check if the Earth is okay?” Mars turned back to him, face contorted in worry. “What if he loses his life? Mercurys not there to keep him stable right now. He- he could do something crazy again-“ mars covered his own mouth. He was clearly worried. Venus hated to admit it, but the Earth was more “important” than Mercury. The Earth had over 8 billion intelligent souls to care for. Mercury had just the one. But still, he didn’t want to leave his imagination of Mercury in the asteroid belt alone.
“You can go check on him.” Venus looked down.
“You’ll be fine out here alone?”
“If Mercury can survive here, so can I.”
“We don’t know if-“
“Shut up.” Venus didn’t want to think about that possibility. “Leave!” He shooed him.

Venus walked along the asteroid belt. He searched for every suspiciously close together clump of asteroids. When he found them, he would hold his breath. He would picture Mercury, completely fine and only a little cold. Venus would tell him whatever he had to say. He had to say “I’m sorry” first, but there was something else that needed to be said too. Oh well, if he couldn’t pinpoint it, it didn’t exist.
Venus shoved aside the asteroids, gently.
Nothing.

Despite everything, Venus knew Mercury was alive. If he could take solar flares, and Venus’ bullying, he could take a little cold. Venus hadn’t found anything but cold in the asteroid belt so far. Mercury was alive, with his core beating.

He heard that Mercury had a disproportionately large core ever since the incident. He wondered if it did anything to that little pipsqueak. He wondered if it showed in his big brown eyes, when Venus was standing over him, Mercury’s wings fluttering in fear. Was Venus looking back into his core?

Mercury always shut his eyes and cowered before he could get a good look, nowadays, at least. God, Venus had been searching for mercury for hours. Only because his life was on the line, he told himself.

Venus dropped onto the ground. His legs hurt from getting shoved by asteroids. He couldn’t do this anymore. Where was Mercury? He looked past the asteroid belt into the darkness. Nothing was there. He laid down on the dirty ground, he had been in worse conditions before, and tried to shut down his thought. If mars came back and found him like this, it would be embarrassing, but he didn’t care anymore. Venus closed his eyes.

••••••••••

‘Dite sat next to a sleeping Hermes on a log in the garden. He just fell asleep so easily, and ‘Dite didn’t want to wake him up, even though the Sun wanted to call all the rocky planets for lunch or whatever. Oh, wait, lunch. ‘Dite wanted lunch.
“Wake up!” ‘Dite grunted and shoved him lightly. Hermes’ eyes slowly opened.
He picked his head up for a second. “Mmph-what?” Hermes mumbled. He sat up, but then buried his head in ‘Dite’s shoulder and fell asleep once more.

Aphrodite waited for a second before shoving him again. This time, Hermes’ head popped up and he got off the bigger kid’s shoulder. He jumped off the log and nearly fell when his high top sneakers met the ground. “Sorry!” He kept stumbling away and rubbed his eyes. ‘Dite laughed and got up.
“It’s lunchtime, stop falling asleep! How tired do you get?” Hermes pushed ‘Dite in response.
“Theia, Ares and Terra made me play tag with them, except there were like, a million people trying to tag me and I was the only runner.” He closed his eyes and slurred his words.

That probably happened in the morning. Aphrodite usually woke up at noon or later, unless he had to do otherwise. Hermes was tipping over in every direction. ‘Dite snapped in Hermes’ to try to wake him.
“So did you win?”
“Obviously.” He stretched out the “y”. ‘Dite shook Hermes by the shoulders to wake him up. Hermes blinked a few times and fluttered his tiny wings. He did a little hop or something. “Okay, I’m good now.” They started walking in the direction of the sun.

“I could run anywhere.” Hermes stated confidently. ‘Dite chuckled.
“Like, you could run into a black hole?”
“Only once.” This made ‘Dite keel over and cackle.
“Into…the sun?” Shoot. “No, never mind, I’ll think of a different one.” Hermes clung onto Aphrodite’s arm. “I’m thinking! Could you…run to the Kuiper Belt?” ‘Dite raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah! Yeah, I could. The Kuiper Belt seems better than here.” He said. He looked at the sun, still holding ‘Dite’s arm. “It has all those dwarf planets.”
“So you’re gonna move away?”
“I don’t think that’s possible, but if I could choose..” Hermes loved the Kuiper Belt, despite the fact that he had never been there.

•••••••••••

Mercury probably forgot about the whole Kuiper Belt phase now.
But what if he didn’t?
What if he wanted to get as far away from the Sun as possible? Maybe he knew that Venus and Mars would be sent to go look for him and find him in a day, so he had to go further.

“Venus! Dude, are you sleeping?” Mars laughed.
Venus jolted up. “No, you reckless idiot!” He collected himself. “Is the Earth doing okay?”
“Yeah, you were right about the magnetic fields.”
“And how about that moon?”
“Eh, he just hid behind the Earth. He’s good.”
Mars looked at Venus lying down on the asteroid belt ground. “Get up, it’s dirty there. Why were you sleeping on-“
“I was not sleeping!” Venus yelled. “I was thinking.”
“About what?”
Aphrodite knew Hermes like the back of his hand. Wherever he hid, ‘Dite would find him.
“…I know where Mercury is.”

Here are the rocky planets in my style they look a little goofy but oh well
Once again html code is acting up so have the linkkk

https://i.postimg.cc/K8yrVYKP/Untitled622-20240803153052.png

Venus’ line is from is mercury not a planet
Earth and mars’ are from the rocky planets MARTHHHH

Chapter Text

Mercury sighed as he looked at the emptiness in front of him. An hour had passed, hadn’t it? Titan would be back now. He wondered if the other moons would be able to convince Saturn that Titan had been back the whole time.

Curiosity got the best of him, and he spun around on one foot and started back to Saturn’s house. He wasn’t too far away, he could see the house in the distance. It stuck out like a sore thumb against the darkness.

He finally reached Saturn’s house. He was wasting precious time, but he didn’t care. He peeked through the window and gasped when he saw Titan. He tried to hide but ended up tripping against one of the walls. He winced at the loud noise, but kept looking anyway.

Titan was standing in the middle of the living room, staring down at the ground which still had glass all around it. It seemed like Saturn wasn’t in the room with him. It was pretty late night. Mercury watched as he looked all around the floor. He couldn’t see his face very well, but he could see Titan bringing a hand up to his eye. Was he…wiping away tears?

Mercury stood frozen at the window. When Titan was done rubbing his eyes, he turned to the window. Mercury quickly hid again. He looked around, panicking. Where could he run? Where could he go? He saw the garage again, but the door was closed. Maybe he could find the switch to open it and-

Titan barged through the door. “You.”
“I-I can explain!” Mercury would for sure panic if he found someone that looked exactly like him watching him from outside the window, but Titan wasn’t panicking at all. He just looked angry.
“No need. Ganymede and Europa told me about your plan.” He seethed. Finally being face to face with Titan was like looking into a mirror. His eyes were a little red, adding evidence that he was crying, but other than that, they really did look alike. And his voice was nothing like Mercury thought it was. It was a miracle he didn’t get caught. Titan’s gritted his teeth. “Saturn was so scared. He was asking me why I went crazy and trashed the place.” That was all Mercury.
“I’m sorry.” His throat ran dry. He got off the wall that he was clinging to.
“You tried to make Saturn hate me!” The moon was glaring at him with dark green eyes. That was the only difference, but he could barely see it.
“It wasn’t my plan, it was Europa’s!” Mercury felt like such a coward throwing her under the bus, but it was true. Titan closed the door behind him.
“They told me you’re running away from your planet.” Right. Mendax. He forgot about that secret identity. He was Mercury, disguised as Mendax, who was disguised as Titan?
“Yeah.” He whispered.
“I won’t tell Saturn about you.” Mercury couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“After everything I did? Why?” He was so overcome with guilt.
“You’re a moon.” No, he wasn’t. But Mercury didn’t correct him. “I was the leader of the moon revolution. I made a commitment to help all moons with their planets.” Titan walked back into the house and motioned for mercury to follow. “Even if that moon took my identity and tried to ruin my life.” Mercury muttered a “sorry” again, but he didn’t think Titan heard it.

Titan handed him a jacket. “They told me you’re going to the Kuiper Belt. Is that true?” Mercury nodded. “It must be cold out there. Especially for someone coming from Venus.” The secret planet shyly thanked him and observed the jacket. It was green, and on the inside of its neck, had Titan’s name written on it.
“Thank you.” Mercury said softly. He felt so bad for trying to hurt him. Titan was so nice. “I’m so sorry-“
“You should go.” Titan turned away from him. “I have to clean up your mess.” His words were laced with anger, but not hatred. He took after his planet, for sure.
“I can help! After what I did, I wanna-“
“Go!” Titan still refused to look at Mercury. He stayed perfectly still until mercury backed into the door behind him.

“Actually, there’s maybe one favor you could do for me.” Titan muttered. Mercury perked up.
“Anything!” Mercury immediately realized his mistake. He should have been cautious.
“Return that bike to Titania.” He pointed to a bike resting on one of the walls. Had it always been there? If so, Mercury hoped the glass didn’t slash its tires.
“Oh, just that?” He was expecting something much worse, like, put people’s lives in danger. Or drown. “Sure. Wait, who’s Titania?”
“A moon of Uranus.” Mercury nodded as he took the bike and closed the door behind him.

Mercury leaned against Saturn’s door and clutched the jacket in his hands. The feeling of being a bad person was becoming more and more recurrent.

He had to stop getting caught into the moons business. These side quests, including the one Mercury just agreed to, only increased the risk of being caught. He didn’t know anything about Uranus and his moons, but Uranus probably knew him. He could rat him out. He got off Saturn’s door. He had 20 astronomical units to go, and 5 days had already passed since he left. 20 astronomical units couldn’t be that far. Right? He started walking, carrying the bike he didn’t know how to ride along with him. He would be walking for a really long time.

Chapter Text

Everything about the journey seemed annoyingly frustrating. Like the fact that mercury didn’t know how far he had been going. There were no milestones that he could keep track of. It was night when he left Saturn’s house, and now it was about midday….? He should have brought a watch. And carrying the heavy bike was really hurting his arms.
Oh, wait. The bike.

Mercury mounted onto the bike, despite not knowing how to ride it. The planet and the bicycle both fell to the side, his burned side. The burns were covered up with Europa’s foundation, but the brittle texture was still noticeable. Mercury was still in disbelief at how Saturn couldn’t tell him apart from the fake. He walked off his injuries and slung his bag over his shoulder. He tried again.

Mercury decided he would just start pedaling as soon as he got on. He made sure the bag was stable and positioned himself above the bike seat. The moment he sat down, he pedaled.

The bike wobbled just like it had the other two times, and then straightened out. It was going pretty fast after a while. Almost as fast as Mercury’s running speed, which was ridiculously fast. He was the fastest planet; after all. He loved the wind blowing on his face. So this was how riding a bike worked.

Mercury internally slandered himself for his stupidity. How come he never learned how to ride a bike when he was younger? He knew everything else, like scooters, skateboarding, even roller skates. And he learned it all himself. He adored the feeling of moving fast without causing that glowing phenomenon that happened when he ran. But the bike, he had never learned.

The sun had promised to teach him.

He vividly remembered how him and the Sun’s friendship started after the incident. The sun always protected him when he got hurt, or teased, or anything. The sun was always watching over him, and he was eternally grateful. He decided to forget about that weird time when the Sun had first grabbed him and burned him. Maybe it was just an accident, or imagination. He didn’t have the red on his arm anymore, so for all he knew, it never happened.

But Mercury knew it happened. He could play the memory over and over in his head like it was clear as day, even if he didn’t want to. Even if he was trying to sleep and didn’t want to think about that. The image of the Sun’s hollow eyes was burned into his mind forever.

The sun got so affectionate with him. He never felt it was coming from a romantic place, because, well, the Sun was like his caretaker. When he grabbed his torso so tightly that he couldn’t squirm out, Mercury assumed it was coming from a place of familial love, and he was alright with it.

But something changed. Maybe it was the solar flares. Over the years, the solar flares had gotten more and more common and more and more dangerous. But sometimes after, the sun would wrap Mercury in a big hug and tell him he was sorry, that it was an accident. Mercury believed it every single time. Maybe the sun sneaking into his house that day was an attempt to hug him and comfort him, but it still felt so weird. It was another memory he couldn’t shake out of his mind.

••••••••

The Sun was sitting in Mercury’s room. He remembered giving the Sun his keys to watch his house one day, and then asking for them back. The sun refused. Mercury thought it was funny, back then.
“I’m so bored, Mercury.”
“Oh, um..” Mercury wasn’t feeling bored at all. Frankly, he was feeling kind of tired. He wanted to sleep, but the Sun was there and it felt strange to sleep when someone was watching you. But he was a guest, and he couldn’t bore a guest. “Do you wanna play a card game?” Earth and Mars had gotten into the habit of playing cards, recently. Mercury wondered if he had some cards lying around for him and the sun to play.
“No, card games are for kids.” Mercury nodded silently. When he was hanging out with the Sun, an adult, he felt so mature. The sun always told him all the other rocky planets were childish. Mercury was so grown up, despite being the smallest.
“Well, do you have any other ideas?”
“Let’s play truth or dare!” Sun suggested. Mercury tilted his head.
“Isn’t that supposed to be played with more than two people?” He wanted to segway into the question of hanging out with people other than the sun, but he sort of liked being special. And who would he even ask? Definitely not Venus.
“Not necessarily!” The sun chimed. Darn it. “We can play with just us.”
“Oh, alright.” Mercury swayed from side to side. “Truth or dare?”
The sun smiled wide. “Truth!”
“Okay…” Mercury had never actually played truth or dare before, but he had seen it in movies. He just asked the question he had seen everybody in the movies ask. “Who do you like?” Mercury thought about his own question for a moment and realized it was stupid. There were no other stars around for the Sun to like. He hoped he hadn’t accidentally triggered some loneliness in the yellow star.

Thankfully, the sun kept smiling. “You.” His smile softened.
Mercury laughed. “No, sun, I mean who do you like romantically?” The sun had obviously misunderstood the question. He was so much older. Mercury was actually astonished why the Sun was friends with him at all. If mercury was an adult and he was met with an awkward tween, he wouldn’t befriend him. At least, not in the way that the sun did.
The sun only laughed. He didn’t say “Alpha Centauri”, or another star name. He didn’t go back on his original answer. He didn’t say “I don’t know”, or “nobody”. He just laughed at Mercury like he didn’t get it.

Mercury was met with an urge to run away. To tell someone else. But who would he even tell? What could he say? Mercury was special to the Sun, and therefore alone in everything that involved the sun.

“My turn!” The sun snapped the planet out of his thoughts. “Truth or dare?”
“Truth?” He felt like truth was the safer option.
“Mercury, we can’t both pick truth.” The sun informed him.
“Why not?”
“It makes the game boring. And then we’ll go back to being bored like before.” Mercury agreed. Besides, the dare could have been something fun, like egging Venus’ house. Or ringing Venus’ doorbell and running. Or Mercury calling Venus a pip-squeak for once. Or-
“Truth or dare?” The sun repeated, putting an emphasis on the word ‘dare’.
“Dare.” Mercury bounced on his bed, waiting for what the sun might say.
“Kiss me.” Mercury swore for a second he saw the same hollow look in the Sun’s eyes as the solar flares when he said that.
“Um, what?” Mercury’s heart was pounding. His throat went dry. Did he mean it like that? Time slowed down to an excruciating extent.
“It’s a dare.” Mercury knew he didn’t have to do it. Mercury knew he could call out the star on his behavior, and the age gap, and the Sun would have nothing to say. But he didn’t want to hurt the Sun. If he said no, the sun would be sad. Mercury would for sure be sad if he gathered up the courage to ask someone to kiss him and they said no. And after all the things he did for the rocky planet?

Mercury got off the bed and walked over to the spinny chair. The time had finally slowed to a halt. The sun had frozen, the sky had frozen, the clock had frozen too, and Mercury was the most frozen of them all. But he kept walking forward.

His lower face got closer to the Sun’s cheek. Mercury didn’t know what a kiss actually meant at that age. He was about to just put his mouth on the Sun’s cheek. After about five seconds of the planet staying frozen, unsure of what to do, the sun grabbed Mercury’s face and put a real, adult kiss on his lips. Mercury’s eyes went wide and he stopped moving altogether. He couldn’t try to squirm away. Him and the sun were frozen in time together.

Mercury really wanted to tell someone else. He didn’t want to be special anymore. He didn’t want to keep all the Sun’s secrets.

The sun pulled away and laughed, which made Mercury flinch and back off. “You got so nervous!” That was nervous?
The sun kept laughing, so mercury laughed too. It came out as a shaky chuckle from a shakier smile. The whole room was spinning.

And it was Mercury’s choice. Mercury chose to get close the sun. He could have just said no. Mercury chose to let him into his house, and let him into his life. He, again, could have just said no. But he needed a friend so badly after the incident, to fill the hole that Venus left. The sun was always there, whispering about how Venus was a bad influence anyway, good riddance to him, so Mercury finally chose to give in to the Sun when the incident happened. Mercury chose everything.

He used to think that if someone made him feel bad, that was…well, bad. It was supposed to be so black and white, but if he ever actually told someone what happened, it would come out shades of gray, and no one would even understand.

The sun reached over to pat his head. What used to feel so normal felt disgusting now. Mercury stayed there, with a fading smile pressed uncomfortably on his lips, staring hard into the ground below him. He didn’t want to look at the Sun’s eyes. He was scared of what he might have seen.

••••••••

Mercury kept biking away from Saturn, faster and faster. It didn’t happen, he told himself. If it didn’t leave a scar on your body, it didn’t leave a scar on your mind. And if it didn’t leave a scar on your mind, you don’t remember it. And if you don’t remember it, it didn’t happen.

Chapter Text

Venus and Mars rushed to Earth’s orbit. Venus could feel the cold thaw a little, but not enough for his liking. Venus would definitely bring a jacket to the Kuiper Belt if he owned one, but he didn’t. He had no need for it, after all. Maybe Earth would have one that he could borrow, they were the same clothes size.

Venus pushed past the plants in annoyance. Why were there so many? Now he was just showing off. Venus banged on the door.
“Chill, Venus.”

Eventually, Mars felt a little movement on the door and backed away from it, nearly tripping into the endless sea of leaves and vines. Earth came out, looking worried. His bright blue and green hair was still the same color as ever, so the solar flare hadn’t done any damage.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” He asked.
“Nothing bad, Earth. Venus has a..” Mars waved his hands around, as if trying to collect words from the air to describe it. “Hypothesis-“ This smart ass. “About where Mercury could be.”
Earth nodded. “Okay, cool. Wanna come inside and tell me?” Venus shrugged nonchalantly, even though he really wanted to see the Earth’s progress with his depression room.

Earth’s house was cluttered as hell after the whole…thing. But he was working on cleaning things out with Mercury, who actually really liked cleaning. Venus found himself overcome with grief when he thought about the planet.
Anyways, the house was looking a lot better. There were empty cups here and there, sure, but it looked nothing like it did before.
“I hope you know you have Mercury to thank for all..” Venus gestured to the room around him. “This.”
Earth smiled weakly. “I have a lot more than this to thank him for.” He barely whispered. Earth cleared his throat and spoke again. “So, where’s he at?”
“The Kuiper Belt.”
Earth had pretty much the same reaction as Mars did, a raised eyebrow and then a weird smile that said “sure, buddy, whatever you say”.
“Um, Venus-“
“No, trust me! When we were kids, he…” Venus’ voice broke and he stopped.

He apparently forgot the unspoken rule that they never talked about their lives before they got their planet names. This was mainly because the Earth didn’t remember any of it, including losing Theia. That was “the incident” for Earth. That was when he got his name. He was lucky enough to forget, Venus thought bitterly. Mars’ “incident” wasn’t in a quick moment. It was over a long, excruciating while that they saw the chirpy Ares lose his sparkle, the blue rivers in his orange hair run dry. He hid it well, but not well enough.

Now, the two terraformed planets were shifting in their seats, waiting for Venus’ next move.
“Please,” his voice wavered and got quiet. “I know him better than anybody else.” The rocky planets breathing slowed, and they could hear nothing but the wind blowing against the plants outside the house.
Earth laughed to break the tension, which startled Venus and Mars. “What brought this on? Don’t you hate that guy?” He said a little too loudly. His smile grew strained as he realized this wasn’t the time.
“He was trying to change his ways just before Mercury left.” Mars answered matter-of-factly. He put a stress on “change his ways”, as if he was mocking the fiery planet. Earth gave them a knowing look, but Venus felt left out, like he was telling something to Mars with his eyes.
“What?” Venus snapped.
“You know…” Earth sang while smirking. Mars had that same stupid smirk too. “Well, I hope you two can reunite. But seriously, if you think he’s in the Kuiper Belt, go for it. That’s our best lead right now. Follow your gut.” Earth made a motion with his hands through the air, like his last words appeared in the sky in big rainbow letters. Venus rolled his eyes.

“By the way, do you have a jacket? For Venus?” Mars pointed to Venus.
“Sure.” He started to get it, but then turned back. “Hey, I wonder if Mercury has a jacket to keep him warm out there.” Earth dropped the thought like bait in the ocean, and Venus took it like a bloodthirsty piranha.
“Shoot! We should take one for him, too!” He put his hand on Mars’ shoulder. “You’re closer to his size, pack an extra.” He ordered.
Mars and Earth started laughing.
“What?” Venus asked, again. He suddenly walked much closer to the two, putting on his usual intimidating persona. His voice lowered. “We don’t have time for this.” Mars nodded and hurried to get the stuff.
“Good luck in the Kuiper Belt, guys!” Earth waved. “Wish I could come along.”

Venus suddenly realized how strange he must have sounded from the outside. Venus acted all tough, and hated Mercury most of the time, but as of late he was stressing out everywhere he went about him. And now he was dragging mars to the farthest reaches of the solar system in desperation, with no way to explain it other than, “trust me, bro”. Mars was a good friend for actually trusting him. Venus almost didn’t trust himself as he was hit by another gust of cold, cold air.

Every time he felt cold, he could only think about how cold Mercury was.
“Did you remember to bring that jacket?” He asked Mars.
“Yeah- oh. Well, it’s not like we can turn back.”
“What, you forgot it?” Venus started rummaging through mars’ bag. Only one jacket, that Mars wasn’t wearing because he was used to the cold. He went to Jupiter’s house often, usually avoiding the major moons. “Go get it!” He pointed in another direction.
“That’s…not the direction to my house, dude.” Mars took his pointed arm and lowered it. “We’re already at Jupiter’s orbit. Besides, the gas giants must be in on his plan. We haven’t heard anything from them. If they were on the Sun’s side of things they would have ratted him out by now.” He put a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“Yeah, you’re right. The gas giants must be helping him.” There was also the possibility that he snuck past Jupiter and Saturn, but what were the chances of that? They had over two hundred moons put together, so they had eyes all over their orbits. Unless the moons weren’t all as obedient as the moons of the Rocky planets. Mars laughed again. “What? What do you keep giggling about? What is so funny?” Venus furrowed his brows.
Mars swallowed hard. “It’s just… how do you feel about Mercury?”

Venus raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
“Just answer.”
“I don’t get it.” Venus grumbled. Mars could be so frustrating sometimes with his and the Earth’s mind games. Even after the moon revolution, they were a pair that had the tendency to leave other people out.
“I’ll go first.” Mars offered. “I think Mercury’s a good person, and he’s adorable, but he’s not really..part of our group.”
“Okay. Good for you, I guess.” Venus, truthfully, had no idea where the red planet was going with this
“So…what about you?”
Venus decided to go with the obvious answer. “I hate him.”
“What else?” Venus didn’t want to go deeper than that into the mess underneath, but mars was making him.
“Ugh, I dunno, we used to be friends, before our incident. But you already know that.”
“Not really. It was a long time ago.” Mars said. He didn’t remember? The whole solar system knew them as best friends back then, and then they just…forgot?
Mars continued. “Me and the Earth don’t remember anything from that time. I mean, I did, but I just kind of pushed it away.” Was Venus supposed to push it away, too?
“So it’s just me?” Venus asked.
“And Mercury, maybe, but we never asked him.” Mars said. “So…that’s it? You used to be friends and now you hate his guts?”
“Yeah.” Venus started running his fingers through his tangled, fried hair and looked away.

“You sure?”

Mars was trying to pull on all the metaphorical strings in Venus’ tangled psyche, trying to brush through it. There was no brushing through the way Venus felt about Mercury. It was too much work. It was going to stay tangled and matted, just like Venus’ long orange hair that he had stopped taking care of a long time ago.

•••••••

Venus remembered his bouncy blue curls he had only a few days ago before the incident. Now, he was standing in the bathroom with his coarse orange hair wet, not knowing what to do, how to get back to the way things used to be. Before, he usually had to put some conditioner in it once it was fairly dry and scrunch it with his hands for a while, and his cooperative curls would be defined enough. Sometimes, Hermes would beg to help with that step. Hermes loved ‘Dite’s hair, so ‘Dite loved it too. He seemed to love everything that made Hermes happy. He always knew that he didn’t just care about Hermes in the way a friend did, that it was something more than that.

But Hermes was gone now, and nothing about Venus’ hair seemed good enough. He found himself too unbothered to do anything with it, really. He ran his fingers through it, messing up the curls that took too much effort to keep. He decided to just take a straightener to it once it was dry. He didn’t have the capacity to care anymore.

•••••••

“Venus, look. It’s Jupiter’s house. We can ask him if he has any idea where Mercury went.” Venus snapped out of his thoughts and nodded to Mars. He was tired, and wanted to stop to sleep, but they had already wasted a day picking apart the asteroid belt. They had to speed up. Mercury could be anywhere.

Chapter Text

When Mercury started biking, it must have been early night. Now, the sky was blushing shades of pink and purple through clouds. Lots and lots of clouds. The wind hitting his face was not as pleasant as it was near Saturn’s orbit. The tip of his nose felt colder than anything. At least the jacket Titan gave him came in handy.

It was getting increasingly redundant, just Mercury riding someone else’s bike against cloudy skies and air that got colder and colder.
The grass had begun to develop little ice that crunched under the wheels. He recalled the objects he took from Saturn. He took them for boring moments like these. His legs were really burning now, and nobody was around, so it wouldn’t hurt to stop?

He could try to solve that Rubik’s cube. Or he could play solitaire. But he didn’t know how to do either of those things. He looked into his bag, and was met with Venus’ card.

He couldn’t afford to remember Venus and Mars and start missing home, he told himself. He was playing a dangerous game. He could easily start regretting his decisions, and regret was dangerous. Mercurys mind was screaming at his hand as it ignored its warnings and reached into the bag, grasping the paper.

It’s just a letter, he told his mind. He was losing it, holy hell-

Mercury,
It sucks that you got hit by that solar flare. I hope the sun doesn’t do that again, but he probably will. If you get burned again, I guess you can come over to my house. I have some aloe vera. Earth and mars aren’t the only ones with plants.
From, your favorite neighbor.

Mercury actually audibly gasped at the letter he had already seen, as if he was never really sure if it existed or it was just a product of his imagination.
He read the card more times than he would like to admit, mentally beating himself up about it all the while.

“It sucks that you got hit by that solar flare.”Sympathy? He thought that was only reserved for mars and Earth, on a good day. Mercury internally screamed, though not from fear or anger. It was from another place he didn’t want to pinpoint.

Mercury shook his head. His knees felt weak. Venus- Venus was cruel, unfeeling and resentful. After the incident, Venus swore would never be nice to Mercury ever again. But, still, against all the odds of Venus’ nature, it was in writing. This wasn’t Venus, it couldn’t be. This was Aphrodite, ghostwriting his letter as Venus passed it off as his own.
But Aphrodite was gone, as well as his Hermes. Now, it was Venus and Mercury, worlds away.

This was exactly what Mercury was scared of when he opened up his bag. He would read the letter, and a certain feeling he had been pushing away for eons would come back and punch him in the face. But it wasn’t regret about running away, Mercury didn’t regret escaping the Sun. It was another, much older feeling that he would not ever name.

Mercury let go of the letter, and it fell gently on the grass, getting wet from the ice. He covered his mouth as if he didn’t want anyone to hear him think this in the middle of nowhere. Mercury loved Venus.

He loved Venus from the start, too. Ever since he was able to love. Even worse, he never stopped. Even after the incident. Even when Venus said he would hate him forever. He pushed it to the back of his mind for all his life, and now it was here.

Oh well. Nothing to do about it now. Mercury got up and recollected his things. He picked up his letter and tried to dry it off and got back on the bike, starting to pedal away. He ignored his aching, racing heart as he saw Uranus’ orbit in the far distance.
Was he really going to give back the bike? He had 10 more astronomical units to go, and the bike was helping him a lot. He would give back the bike later, he thought. Yet another sin to add to his list of sins, that had just started when he ran away. Mercury rode past Uranus’ house.

Now that he was past the last sane planet, all the people he met from here on out would have no idea who he was, and he didn’t have to keep the disguise.

His wings, which had been aching from being pulled back for so long, were set free when Mercury pulled off the duct tape. It hurt, but the feeling of fluttering his wings again felt so freeing.

Mercury kept them closed against his head most of the time, for whatever reason. They only fluttered a little bit. Now, he could wave his pure, untouched wings out in the cold air, commanding the wind to go back and forth when he swept the feathers.

His wings made him feel more like a planet. All planets had special features about them, like rings and stuff. Maybe dwarf planets had them too, but he had never seen them on Ceres.

He looked up at the sky ahead of him. The colorful sunset had turned into grey clouds. Mercury stared into the coming storm, speeding up on his bike. There was no way he would reach the Kuiper Belt before it started, but better late than never.
Besides, how bad could a little rain be? It didn’t look like any lightning was forming.
Rain was just water.

Mercury continued riding into the storm. It was so tiring. The sky had grown dark, only amplifying the clouds dark presence. Finally, a shiny and clear drop fell from the sky. It landed with a tinkling sound.

What? Mercury dashed over to where the drop was, only to find it wasn’t a drop at all.
It was a diamond.
He had heard the ice giants had diamond rain on their surfaces, but he didn’t think that was true for the weather in between their orbits. He picked it up and it pricked his finger. Damn, this was sharp.

…And there was going to be a slew of them falling from the sky.

Oh, shoot.

Mercury got back on his bike and sped up, going as fast as he could. He only got faster as he heard another tinkling noise. And another, and another, and-

The diamond rain was getting heavier now, and Mercury’s legs were paining from going so fast. The terrain was slowly changing from cold grass to patches of ice. He tried his best to avoid the ice, but he couldn’t maneuver at the speed he was going.
He slowed down a little, but immediately regretted it as a diamond stabbed his back. He shrieked out loud. Another came right after it. He tried ducking his head down.

How did Neptune cross this distance safely? Oh right, all the gas giants had cars. Mercury wished he had a car, but up until now, the rocky planets never had that far of a distance to go.

He covered his face when he got up to look around. This was his payback for cutting Saturn with glass, he thought as the diamonds started biting into his hands as well. He saw a frozen over lake up ahead. He dropped the bike, and his stuff, but quickly grabbed it again as Venus’ letter threatened to be carried away by the wind which was picking up. He weighed down the contents of his bag with his bike and bolted off without it.

It was getting unbearably cold now. Every part of his body ached in some way or the other. He saw a small hole in a frozen lake, and he stomped on it repeatedly until the ice gave way for a hole, still small, which Mercury could squeeze in through. Maybe he could hide under the ice. The diamonds were hurting so much, and the rain was only getting worse. He slipped under the freezing water.

Oh right, he forgot that the water was freezing.

Mercury gasped underwater from the stinging cold, ever worse than the diamonds.
He hoisted himself up out of the water to cough desperately and quickly take the deepest breath the smallest planet’s lungs allowed him. Another diamond drove into his shoulder, so he sank back down again, but not before seeing an asteroid. Was he close to the Kuiper Belt? No, he wasn’t. It was just a stray.

He swam away from the hole and watched from afar as the diamonds crashed into the water at high speeds, then slowed down as they succumbed to the ocean. He continued watching the diamonds, shining from an unknown light source. Crashing, then sinking. Crashing, then sinking.
It was a second of calm that felt like a lifetime.
It was distracting him from the fact that he was drowning.

The water filled Mercury’s jeans and pulled him down. Suddenly aware, he thrashed around again for everything he had. Mercury fought back every instinct to breathe desperately. He returned to the opening using his last remaining bit of energy, only to find it had frozen over. Mercury brought his fist up to punch through it, but all that did was push the rest of his body back down.

His lungs gave out. His vision went blank. He slowed his erratic motions to a stop, crashing, then sinking, just like the diamonds.
The tinkling noises of the diamonds seemed to merge together into one, loud crash, repeating over and over again, as if it was trying to break through the ice.

Mercury fell deeper into the diamond filled water.

Chapter Text

Hermes was sitting behind Aphrodite, who had his head leaned back, so that his thick curls fell into Hermes’ grasp. The smaller planet scrunched leave-in conditioner in them over and over. He always made it take longer than it needed to.

“You’re not even having fun.” ‘Dite’ voice rang out into the clear sky.
“Yes, I am!” Hermes said. ‘Dite had always noticed the way his eyes brightened when he talked. He could imagine it clearly, despite being turned away from Hermes.
“You’re not talking.”
“I’m having fun in silence.” Hermes’ fingers got dangerously close to his scalp and ‘Dite felt his cheeks flush. Since when had this started? Since when had every time Hermes got even a little close to him, his grass grew and his flowers bloomed on his surface? And when did his clouds begin to involuntarily part to make a better sight for Hermes to see?

His neck was aching, so he leaned back further. He closed his eyes as he felt the other’s hands on his hair.
“‘Dite, you’re getting conditioner on my clothes.” Hermes gently pushed his head away.
“I’m tired.” He responded. Hermes let go of his head and let the bigger planet’s hair ruin his shirt .
“Fine, but I’m not done.” Hermes whined, despite letting ‘Dite lay down on his torso. ‘Dite picked up a strand of his hair. It was almost greasy.
“Yeah, you are. You’re wasting it.” He reached behind him to grab the bottle of conditioner. He closed it up and threw it a few feet away.
“Hey!” Hermes was about to get up and get it, until ‘Dite leaned all the way back and put his full body weight onto the smaller one. Hermes fell onto the grass with a laugh.

‘Dite repositioned himself so that his back was on the other’s legs, and his hands were on the back of his head to protect his newly washed hair from the grass. He finally got the opportunity to look at Hermes’ face when he sat up and looked down at him.

Aphrodite once again felt his face get hotter. He could practically feel new species evolving on his surface when Hermes smiled at him. He was blocking the sun like an angel. Theia always wanted to be smart and tell ‘Dite that angels were scary with a million eyes, but he knew better. He knew that an angel was smiling at him right now.
This wasn’t just a “best friend” feeling.

“Do you think we’re old enough to love people?” Aphrodite asked. He instantly began to berate himself for asking that, but Hermes just thought about it.
“Yeah. The sun tells me I’ve been old enough.” The sun.

Every time Hermes talked about the sun, he was describing some sort of mentor, or savior. Like he had forgotten whatever the sun did that day so many years ago. The sun was so much stronger than everyone else, and he could to whatever he wanted. That thought killed ‘Dite, because what if he wanted to do something bad? Hermes would be his first target. ‘Dite and the sun weren’t exactly friendly with each other. The only thing they had in common was that planet.

And look who came in from behind the trees. Just in time. The sun.
“Looks like I finally found your little hiding place.”
“Oh, hi, sun!” Hermes waved. He had the same brightness in his eyes that ‘Dite thought was reserved just for him. Anger boiled under his surface and he suddenly stood up, followed by Hermes.
“Go away, Sun!” ‘Dite yelled. The sun looked surprised, but ‘Dite didn’t care. “How did you find this place?”
“Oh, I showed him in the morning.” Hermes replied, his voice wavering.
“Why? This was our secret-“
“This is your friend, Hermes?” The yellow star put a possessive hand on Hermes’ shoulder and squeezed it just a little too hard.

The touch to his best friend triggered alarm bells in his head. He ran over and threw the star’s hand off the smaller planet’s shoulder.
“Uh- ‘Dite, be nice!” Hermes said, with tears in his eyes from the brightness. The love and angelic look in his eyes were all gone now, replaced by light from the Sun. Everything was all about the Sun, who now looked at Hermes like he himself had pushed him.
Hermes looked at ‘Dite, and looked at the angry look on the suns face.

Hermes pushed Aphrodite, nearly to the ground. ‘Dite was already going crazy from the heat and the heartbreak that hadn’t even happened yet. And this push, even though Hermes didn’t try to hurt him, was the final straw. How dare he. Aphrodite just wanted to protect him from this shining maniac. Nobody else would even dare to cross the sun for anything, and ‘Dite was doing it just for his best friend. But all of it was for nothing.
Why did he even try?

Aphrodite punched Hermes.
It seemed, then, the whole world had stopped. Everyone was shocked, Dite more than anyone else. Hermes clutched his shoulder where he got hurt. Dite’s heart was racing, painfully, at the sight of more tears welling up in Hermes’ eyes, not because of the brightness of the sun, but because of him. Dite couldn’t watch Hermes cry because of him.

Hermes started sobbing, not even because it hurt, which it did, but because ‘Dite actually wanted to hurt him. ‘Dite stared at him with wide eyes.

‘Dite should have just said “I’m sorry” before anything, and once he was done begging for forgiveness, tell Hermes he loved him, even if he wouldn’t believe it. He had every right to not believe it. But he didn’t do any of that. He stood with his hands over his mouth, stopping any sound.

“Aphrodite! Why would you do that?” The sun yelled. And he wasn’t even saying it to make a point to Hermes. He was genuinely asking why.
The sun put his arms into the air, waiting for Hermes to walk into the hug. But he didn’t. He stood there, and glared at ‘Dite, hard. Sun drew his arms back, actually looking worried.

Hermes put his hand on his chest and drew out an orange light that enveloped him. His core. His core was tiny, like the rest of him, but what was he planning to do with it? ‘Dite couldn’t believe he was actually getting into a fight with the only person he loved, but if he did, he was going to win. Unsure of what else to do, he did the same with a stronger, green light, and took his core out.

‘Dite was expecting a punch. Or a kick. He could tell the Sun was expecting something along those lines, too.

They didn’t expect Hermes to throw his entire self at him.

Chapter Text

Hermes woke up in the Sun’s house. He had never been there before. It was so painfully bright. His eyes stung when he tried to open them, and they filled with tears.

“Oh, you’re waking up!” The Sun’s voice. Hermes felt the bed he was on shift as the Sun got off of it. Hermes gasped as if he had been underwater, running out of breath.
“Open your eyes.” The sun said. Hermes coughed a little, trying to clear his throat to speak. His voice still came out quiet and coarse.
“Too..bright.” He wanted to bring his hands up to cover his eyes, but it seemed as if something was holding it down.
“Open them.” The sun asked, unflinching.
Hermes coughed again. “Do you have sunglasses?”
“No. Open your eyes, I’m getting worried.”

Hermes finally tried to open his eyes once more, and they flooded with tears once again. It was too bright.
“Keep them open. Look around.” He felt the sun get off the bed. With painful tears streaming down his face, he turned his head side to side and all he saw was light. Still lying down, he tried to lift his arms up to rub his eyes, and finally gathered the strength to move. He rubbed his eyes for a while, which only made the pain worse. He closed them again.

Hermes tried sitting up, but it was so painful. His entire body was weak.
“Um, can you help me get up?” He asked the Sun, embarrassed.
“Sure thing.” Sun held the planets waist and lifted him up. His touch burned so bad. As Hermes noticed the burning, he also noticed all the other pain in his body. He was aching all over, but mostly on one side of his torso. There was also a burning sensation wherever the sun touched him, like his skin was so much thinner than before. And his core was so much bigger.

He opened his eyes one more time, and kept them open. Hermes blinked out the tears, and they dripped down his jaw.
“What happened?” He turned to the sun as he asked, but immediately turned away. He was so, so bright.
“You collided with Venus.” The sun said like it was the most casual thing in the world.

“Venus?”
“Yes, he got his new name. That was his incident.” The sun calmed a little, but Hermes didn’t.
“Is it mine, too?” With the amount of pain he was going through right now, surely that must have been it. There was nothing more painful than that.
“Yes.” Oh, god, no. Hermes thought incidents were supposed to be great, powerful explosions of light that just turned him into who he was meant to be. He didn’t think they were…this. The sun rubbed his back. It burned, as usual. Don’t touch me, Hermes thought, but he didn’t say it. “What’s your new name?”
“Mercury.” It was the only one he had. “My wings are bigger.” He touched his head. His pure, white wings.

The memories flooded back to him. The punch from ‘Dite. Them both bringing their cores out. Throwing himself at the only person he loved. Hermes wanted to leap out of the bed and see how ‘Dite was doing, but his body ached so bad, he couldn’t do anything but fall back down and cover his face.

The sun patted his head.
“It’s okay, I took you to my house! You were dead as a doorknob for three days. It was so fun with you around.” Hermes literally could not comprehend anything the Sun was saying. It was white hot gibberish.
If he was this bad, how was Venus doing?

“How’s Venus?” Mercury tested out the new name. It felt wrong in his mouth. He moved the Sun’s hand off his head. “Is he hurt?” He opened his eyes just a little. The sun looked like a vague silhouette of light.
“You wiped out his life.” The Sun’s voice got quieter. Mercury sat up despite the pain with a hand over his mouth.
“What? What the hell!” He was hyperventilating now. “Where is he?” He started getting out of bed.
“Hey, no, you have to stay here and rest.” The sun pushed him down again, effortlessly, but Mercury didn’t give up. He got out of bed again, and the Sun held him by the wrists and forced him back down.

His eyes were hollow. His pupils were fully dilated. They just looked like black circles in the white. None of the light brown in the Sun’s eyes was visible.

Mercury felt panic overtake him again as he was reminded of the first time he got burned. It felt like chains of fire were on his wrists. The sun looked down at him with a blank face. Too bright. He was too bright.

Mercury thrashed around wildly, using all his energy.
“I have to see ‘Dite! Please! Please!” He had to apologize as soon as possible. The suns burning got hotter until Mercury screamed as loud as his dry, scratchy throat could. This snapped the sun out of his trance and he backed off.

Hermes got up and stood shakily next to the bed, taking in the bright sun in all his glory. He was glowing like never before, almost red.

“Let me see him.” Hermes commanded. The sun was standing between him and the door. He got redder and redder.
“Fine! Do you want to know the truth?” The sun yelled. “‘Venus doesn’t want to see you! He hates you now!”
Hermes just shook his head. ‘Dite didn’t hate him. They were best friends.
But then again, Mercury thought, he did collide with him and wipe out his life. He had every right to hate him now. He sat back onto the bed.

“Why did you scream earlier?” The sun said with something looking like sadness. “Don’t try to scream, Mercury. People are going to think I did something bad to you.” The sun said. He went back to smiling, but this time it looked wretched.
“You did do something bad to me!” Mercury cried. “You burned me!”
“If the other stars find out, they’re going to take you away. Do you want that? Do you want to get taken away?” The sun reasoned with him. Mercury quieted down, and the sun put a burning hand on his shoulder. He couldn’t tell anyone. He couldn’t tell anyone.
“It’s okay, Mercury, I-“

Mercury darted off. If there was one thing he was good at, it was running. He was going to run to the Kuiper Belt, and never look back. But first, he was going to find Venus. He bolted out by a window and sprinted away. He just needed Venus. Venus never let anyone hurt him.

He ran all the way to the old garden where they always hid. It was all burned up now. Mercury gasped at the sight. Even worse, Venus was burned up, too. There were orange stripes along his arms. His hair was orange, and the curls were messed up and fried. That didn’t matter. Mercury could fix it later.
“Venus!” Venus didn’t smile. He looked at him like he was looking at a rat. His eyes were red and puffy. Had he been crying? “What happened to your hair?” Tears formed in Venus’ eyes and his face contorted in anger. He shoved Mercury to the ground.
“Go away, pipsqueak!” He had never seen Venus be so mean without regrets before. Hermes sat up off the now charred grass.
“What?”
“I said, go away. And don’t come back.” The tears streamed down his face as he said the last sentence. “I hate you.”

Mercury’s whole worldview was shattered. The one person that could protect him. The one person he loved. Venus ran out of the garden, and the Sun ran in.

“Mercury! How dare you run- oh.” The sun found Mercury sitting on the floor and dropped next to him.
“You..you were right about Venus.” It felt so humiliating to admit to the Sun that he was wrong, but the Sun didn’t laugh at him, or get more angry than he already was.
“It’s okay, Mercury. You always have me!” He wrapped his hot arms around the kid like he was a doll that had all the cotton taken out.
“It’s okay.” Mercury quietly repeated. It was all going to be okay, now that he had the sun. But for some odd reason, he felt more tears well up in his eyes.
“Let’s go somewhere cold, okay? Let’s go back to my house, we can put the air conditioning on.” The sun proposed. He picked Mercury up off the ground like he was nothing. Everytime he touched Mercury, he did so like the planet was a doll that he could push and pull around and do whatever with. And that was true. He could do whatever.

The sun had been chipping away at Mercury for a while now, hadn’t he? He had been chipping away at him, piece by piece, but nothing was working until he finally got the load bearing hit. His friendship with Venus. Once that was gone, Mercury crumbled.
He went limp in the Sun’s arms and let him carry him back to his house.

Chapter Text

Venus and Mars rang Jupiter’s doorbell.
“Huh- oh!” A small yellow moon answered the door, but it wasn’t Ganymede. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw them, and immediately had a coughing fit. Mars and Venus backed away, unsure of what to do.
“Hey, you good?” Mars asked when the moon heaved in a deep breath. He didn’t reply. He just ran off screaming.
“Venus is here! Ganymede! Europa! Calistoooo!”

None of the three he called were the next to come to the door. It was Jupiter himself.
“Hey, guys. What do you need?” He asked in his usual calm tone. Did he not know about the disappearance of mercury?
“We need your car to help find Mercury.” Mars said.
“Find Mercury? What do you mean?” Mars was about to explain, but Venus jumped in.
“Don’t act dumb. I know you know where Mercury is and you’re helping him run away.” Jupiter looked clueless. “I know he was in a bad situation, but we’re going to be in a worse one, if we can’t find him in time.”
“Look, I had no idea he was missing and I have no idea where he is.” Jupiter insisted. Venus knew he was lying. There was no way Mercury could get past him. Unless-

“You!” Ganymede and Europa. Ganymede was giving him a glare at first, but met Jupiter’s eyes and it turned into a smile. Europa elbowed him. “I mean, who-who are these people?”
“Uh- okay, Ganymede.” The gas giant sighed like a disappointed parent. “This is Venus, and this is Mars. They’re looking for Mercury.”
“Mercury‘s missing?” Europa asked, confused. “I thought you lost your moon-“ She covered her mouth and suddenly looked very angry. She dragged Ganymede and the other two away by the wrists.
“Um-they don’t get around much. Sorry.” Jupiter shrugged. Mars grabbed Venus’ wrist in the same way Europa did and dragged him out the door, leaving Jupiter in his living room, confused as ever.

“What?”
“Jupiter doesn’t know about the moon revolution.”
“Yeah? Oh. Yeah, he doesn’t!” Venus could tell he was thinking the same thing Mars was thinking. “We can blackmail the moons to tell us whatever they know.”
Mars put a hand on Venus’ shoulder. “We really do make a good team.” Venus shoved it off, trying to hide his smile.
“Okay, let’s go get the moons and Jupiter’s car.”

Venus and Mars rang the doorbell once more, and just as Jupiter opened it, sped past him in the direction they saw the moons go.
Venus turned the doorknob of a room that said “Callisto’s room”, but it didn’t open.
“It’s locked!” There was talking coming from the room that hushed down when they heard Venus yell. “We’ll tell Jupiter about your little revolution!” Venus grumbled, and then checked to make sure he wasn’t behind them. They heard more whispering coming from the door, until an unfamiliar dark purple moon opened it up.
“I’m assuming you’re Callisto.” Mars reached out a hand to shake. Callisto scoffed and looked away. “Um- okay.” He closed the door behind them. “Have you guys seen Mercury?”
Europa shoved the other moons out of the way, thinly veiled anger apparent on her face. “We’re trying to figure that out.”
“We can describe him.” Mars started, but Venus quickly interrupted.
“He’s a little shorter than Ganymede, last time we saw him there were black burn marks over half of his body,” the moons stiffened, but Venus was too lost in his own world to notice. “He has these wings that flutter when he’s happy, or scared, or if you touch the wings, big brown eyes-“ Mars gave him the same funny look he was giving him earlier, while the moons looked angry.

“Mendax is a liar!” The yellow coughing moon cried.
“Yeah, that’s what it means in Latin.” Mars nodded.
“What?”
“Mendax means ‘liar’ in Latin?”
When he said that, Europa shrieked and facepalmed. “That stupid planet!” Venus immediately got defensive on Mercury’s behalf, but she continued. “He told us his name was Mendax!” The orange planet calmed down and laughed.

“You wanna know what else he told us?” Callisto said from the corner. “He told us he was a captured moon of Venus, that ran away because you-“ She pointed straight at his chest. “-were mistreating him. Is that true?”
Venus’ throat ran dry. He stared at the ground.
“He’s not a captured moon, but…” mars tried to answer for him.
Callisto, finally seeing their weak point, continued. “He told me you were a pain to be around, and that you pick on him because he’s small. Is that one true?” Her face remained expressionless.

Venus’ hands dropped to his sides. A pain to be around. Venus felt like trash in that moment. The person he once loved hated him, and he couldn’t even be mad. He deserved it.
Mars gave him a sympathetic look, but Venus didn’t look back. He tried to not show any sadness on his face. He wasn’t mad at himself, but then why was it so hard to talk?

“Where’s he going?” Mars asked, not expecting any of the moons to answer.
“The Kuiper Belt.” Europa answered, still fuming with her head in her hands. Venus’ head perked up. He was actually right? “We disguised him as Titan to get him past Saturn’s house. He looks really similar to Titan.” Venus elbowed Mars to go get Jupiter, and they ran out the door without saying goodbye.

“Jupiter!” Mars called out. He was nowhere to be seen. “Where are you? We need your car!”
“Already starting it!” A voice called out from the garage, but it wasn’t Jupiter.
“Oh my god, it’s Saturn.” Venus rubbed his temples.

Venus and Mars sat on either side of Saturn in the back, with Jupiter in the front.
“So, where to?” He flexed his hands on the wheel.
“The Kuiper Belt.” Venus cut straight to the point.
“Um, are you..sure?”
“Yes.” Venus didn’t make eye contact.
“Wait, actually-“ Mars interjected. Mars, why? “Can we go see Titan? We really want to meet him.”
“Aren’t you guys in a rush-“ Jupiter raised an eyebrow, but was quickly cut off by Saturn.
“Oh, goodness, Titan! He’s just not acting like himself!” He wailed. Mars glared hard at Venus to make his point. That wasn’t Titan- that was Mercury disguised as Titan.
“Yeah, uh, maybe we could cheer him up!” Venus said through a forced smile. Saturn nodded instantly.
“Alright, Saturn’s orbit it is.” Jupiter switched on the car.
Venus put his seatbelt on in a hurry. “And then the Kuiper Belt!”

Chapter Text

Hermes woke up in the Sun’s house. He had never been there before. It was so painfully bright. His eyes stung when he tried to open them, and they filled with tears.

“Oh, you’re waking up!” The Sun’s voice. Hermes felt the bed he was on shift as the Sun got off of it. Hermes gasped as if he had been underwater, running out of breath.
“Open your eyes.” The sun said. Hermes coughed a little, trying to clear his throat to speak. His voice still came out quiet and coarse.
“Too..bright.”

•••••••••••••

“Too bright? You want sunglasses?”
“What?” Mercury’s eyes were still closed as he felt sunglasses on his face. He opened his eyes without pain. “Where am I?” He sat up to find a silver haired man with stubble and a leather jacket, surrounded by multiple toddlers. He had eyes that looked like nebulas. “Who are you?”

“Triton. Who are you? Why do you look like Titan, and what are those black marks on your face?”
“Oh, uh, I am Titan.” He lied.
“Here’s your bag, Mercury.” He handed him his yellow bag, still with everything in it.
“What? How did you know?”
“I looked through your bag and saw three names.” The letter, the Polaroid, and the jacket. “Also, the wings.”
“Oh. That’s smart.” Mercury looked off. “But don’t tell your planet!”
“Don’t worry, even if I tell him, it’s gonna be fine.” Mercury shook his head. “Mercury’s here!” He shouted. The planet instantly grimaced, and hid in his sheets.

“What’s a Mercury?” That wasn’t Uranus’ voice. Neptune showed up. Mercury gasped at his appearance. His lanky body was almost all blue! The bright blue on his skin ebbed and flowed like waves. Other than that, he had frazzled long hair, looking like it hadn’t been brushed in forever. His eyes had sort of a manic look to them, like the Sun, except Mercury couldn’t help but trust it.
“What? I thought you were Uranus’ moon?” He turned back to Triton in awe.
“I’m nobody’s moon. But I orbit Neptune.”
“Right.” Mercury nodded. “Wait, how am I not dead?”

“I’ll tell you later. Are you good to walk?” Mercury shifted his legs and nodded. He gave Triton his sunglasses back. It wasn’t that bright. “Then sit by the fireplace. You were in freezing water.” A toddler ran up to Mercury and hugged his leg as soon as he got down. “Galatea! Gala-“
“No, it’s fine. Is she another moon?” Mercury smiled. Triton nodded exasperatedly and took her in his arms.

Triton led Mercury to the fireplace. It wasn’t nearly as warm as his orbit, but he relished in any form of heat he could get.
“You need a change of clothes? Neptune might have something. It’s gonna be loose, but it’ll be comfortable.” Triton began rummaging through Neptune’s closet.
“Wait- where are the other moons of Neptune?”
“They’re all here.” Triton gestured to the kids.
“Oh. There’s no other adult moons? You have to take care of all of them?”
“Yeah. Sometimes Uranus and his moons come along, but..” He pulled out Neptune’s tiniest shirt, which was still much too big for Mercury.
“That must be lonely.” Mercury looked at him with sympathy.
“Nah, I got the dwarf planets in the Kuiper Belt.” Mercury perked up.

“The Kuiper Belt is close to here?”
“Yeah, it’s probably a ten minute walk. I go after I put the kids to sleep.”
“That’s where I’m headed!” Mercury leapt up from the fireplace. “Can you please take me there?”
“You sure you don’t want to rest? This place is much nicer than the Belt, and you almost died.” Triton pointed to a bathroom. “Change in there. And, uh, maybe take a shower while you’re at it.” Mercury sheepishly nodded and ran in.

The water was so cold, even on its hottest setting. When Mercury dried himself and changed into Neptune’s clothes, he found a belt on the floor to hold the loose pants up. He looked a little funny in the loose clothes, even though most of the time he wore baggy shirts and jeans.

“Thank you so much.” Mercury said to Triton. “Oh, do you want anything from my bag? I got a lot of stuff-“
“Your hair!” Triton’s eyes widened. Mercury noticed it was back to light brown.
“Yeah, my hair isn’t green and blue. It was hair dye that the Galileans put on, because they were disguising me as Titan, so I-“
“You have a really long story to tell, don’t you?” Triton made his way to the kitchen, and Mercury followed.
“You first. How am I not dead?”
Triton laughed again. “I’ll tell you on the way to the belt. I just need to make the kids dinner first.” He brought out some Kraft Mac and cheese from the fridge and Mercury winced.
“I can make dinner.” He offered. “I need to thank you somehow for letting me stay here.” Triton looked at him skeptically.
“Alright, but I’m watching you like a hawk.” Mercury acknowledged that and got to work instantly.

The only “proper” foods they had were lentils and rice, so he made lentil rice. He showed it to Triton with pride, and he eyed it like Mercury slipped poison in while he wasn’t looking.
“Take a bite.” Mercury gave him a spoon. Triton furrowed his brows.
“You first.” Mercury shrugged and did as he said.
“See? Not poisonous.”
“Is it safe for kids?”
“Safer than Kraft Mac and Cheese, that’s for sure.” Triton shook his head, but smiled with gratitude.

“Kids, Mercury made lentil rice.” The little kids were sitting around a table, eyes wide. Neptune ate with them, too, but decided to sit on the floor.
“Who’s Mercury?” The oldest asked.
“The closest planet to the sun.” Mercury answered, and the kids lost their minds. They all started running toward him.
“Hey! Hey! Back in your seats!” Triton barked. They all nodded and sat back down, but we’re still giddy with excitement.

“Oh, wait, I’m a planet that orbits the Sun, too!” Neptune chirped.
“Yeah, I know.” Mercury awkwardly smiled. Triton put his head in his hands.
“Neptune, just.. don’t.” Triton said like an embarrassed teenager.
“No, it’s fine.” Mercury insisted. “So uh, do you, uh…” What else did they have in common. “How long does it take for you to orbit the sun?” Mercury asked.
“Hundred and sixty five years!” Neptune said like it was nothing. Mercury nearly spat out his food. “What about you?”
“Eighty eight days.”
“Days?”
“Days.”

“Thank you again for letting me take a shower here and stuff.” He said, once all the kids were asleep, and Neptune took his pills.
“No, thank you for not letting me feed my kids slop. I mean- Neptune’s moons. They’re not my kids.” Triton put a hand on Mercury’s shoulder.
“So, can we go now?” Mercury jumped with anticipation.
“Sure.”
“And tell me how I’m not dead!”
“Okay.” Triton opened the door and let Mercury pass through first.

“So, somehow, my oldest, Proteus, escaped Neptune’s orbit and was walking towards Uranus.” Triton said. “And I could see the clouds coming on. So I rushed there, and I saw Proteus running towards the lake.”
“In the diamond rain? Didn’t he get hurt?” Mercury could still feel all the tiny cuts on his body, but he didn’t want to bring it up. Triton had done so much already.
“Nah, he took a metal umbrella. We have those, for this kind of weather. I took one too, and I saw you in the lake. I used my trident to-“
“You have a trident?” Mercury gasped.
“I used it to break the ice, and I jumped in and pulled you out. I still have this nasty cut from the diamonds.” He lifted his leather sleeve to show a deep and crimson cut. Mercury recoiled. “I carried you on my back to Neptune’s house.”
“Wow- that’s- that’s insane.” Mercury was at a loss for words. “Thank you so much.”
“It’s nothing, you’re pretty light. Are you sure you’re a planet?” Triton teased. Mercury stayed silent.

“So, uh, what about you? How’d you get here from there?” Triton pointed to the center of the solar system. Mercury’s heart skipped a beat when he couldn’t find the sun. Was he looking for him and causing destruction?
“Where’s the sun?” Mercury’s heart rate picked up.
“See that sort of bright star? That’s it.” The planets mouth was open.
“He’s… so tiny.” He looked like all the other stars in the sky.
“You’re really far away from him now.” Triton assured.

“And then Titan told me to give the bike back to Titania, and I didn’t, I just kept riding into the storm. And, well, you know the rest.” Mercury started the story from when he left the asteroid belt.
“Okay, so that’s how you left, but why?” Mercury didn’t want to answer. The answer seemed all muddled in his head.
“Uh- Callisto and Io say hi!” Mercury tried to divert his attention.
“I know. I looked through your bag.” Triton responded, unimpressed. He shoved some asteroids out of the way. “So how’s Venus?” The captured dwarf looked at him. Mercury’s heart nearly skipped a beat when he said that, and he stumbled over an asteroid. “The goddess of love and beauty invited you to her house?”
“No, uh, Venus is a guy. And he hates me.”
“Damn.”
“Yeah, damn.”

“Triton!” Mercury heard an unfamiliar voice say.
“Here we are.” Triton moved a final clump of asteroids aside with a huff. “Welcome to the Kuiper Belt.”

••••

Mercury felt happy tears brimming in his eyes as he looked around. He was finally here. Asteroids, cold weather, and not a single planet in sight. Except, of course, the dwarf planets that were looking at him with agape mouths. They all sat circled around a game board he had never seen before, but when they saw him, they all jumped up.
Triton chuckled watching the dwarf planets stand frozen, as if they were scared. Finally, a dwarf planet with a large heart on his face walked up to him.
“Who are you?” Mercury asked.
“Ouch.” He responded. The dwarf then gave him some time in silence to figure it out.

“Oh, my god. Pluto!” It was like meeting the Tooth Fairy. Mercury heard about him a lot, but never actually met him. Pluto nodded his head. “I’m Mercury.”
“I know.” He smirked. “Everyone knows who the planets are.” Oh, right. Pluto wasn’t a planet.
“I-I’m sorry about your demotion.” Mercury looked down at his feet. Mercury knew all too well the feeling of not really being in the “planet club” of sorts. Pluto didn’t look sad, weirdly enough. Mercury would be so sad if he got demoted.
“Hey, I’m sorry I left you to be the smallest planet!” Pluto put a friendly hand on Mercury’s shoulder and changed his perspective entirely. Venus talked about Pluto like his life was a horror story that Mercury was going to suffer through one day, but he seemed to be doing well for himself. In fact, his friend group was bigger than Mercury’s.

“This is Charon, my twin planet. She’s technically a moon.”

“This is MakeMake. Stay silent, Make!” A red planet with glasses was just about to talk frantically, but clasped a hand over his mouth. He had pink bunny ears. So dwarf planets had those special features too? Pluto had the heart on his face.
Another dwarf actually had rings!
“This is Haumea.” Pluto gestured to the ringed planet.

“And this one is Eris.” She wore dark eyeliner, contrasting against her light skin and face.
“Hi.” Mercury said meekly. Eris looked him up and down, and looked away.

“This is Triton-“
“He knows who I am, Pluto.” Tritons gruff voice spoke up.
“Oh, and we can’t forget Ceres!” Pluto called out to the air. “Ceres, come out! We have a visitor!”
“Wait, I know Ceres. I used to play fetch with him in the asteroid belt, and then he just disappeared.” Mercury said. Ceres recognized his voice and came out of the asteroids, giggling maniacally while crashing into him. “Hi, Ceres. What are you doing out here?” Ceres just leapt around.
“Mercury!” Ceres could speak? Mercury gasped.
“I’ve never heard him talk before.” He started inspecting his mouth like it had developed speaking abilities while he was gone.
“Yeah, Charon taught him or something.” Eris responded. Her voice was coarse and low.

“Can I ask questions now?” MakeMake pleaded.
“No.” Triton said. He materialized the trident and pushed him away gently.

“Maybe me and Pluto should show him around.” Triton motioned for Pluto to come as he walked into another area in the Kuiper Belt. Pluto quickly followed.
“How did you do that? With the trident?” Mercury asked. Triton put it away.
“I’m the ‘king of the sea’ in mythology. Neptune has a trident too, but he forgot how to use it.” Some people had powers based on mythology, or just their status. Sun was a star, so he could shoot solar flares just like any other star. Earth had life. Maybe that was a power.
“Oh, yeah, I’m messenger of the gods in mythology, but I can’t message anyone. I can run really fast, though.”
“Oh yeah? Show us.” Triton commanded.
“Wait, can the sun see me from here?”
“Nope.” Pluto assured him.

Mercury got into a running position and felt the sparks on his legs appear. He took off for a while and an orange light filled the Kuiper Belt, bouncing off of asteroids. When he heard the dwarf planets calls to come back, he spun around on one foot and slowed to a stop just a few inches from Pluto’s face.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry, that was so cool! The journey must not have taken that long.”
“No, it did. I was too scared to run because of the glowing thing. I thought the sun would see me.” Mercury answered.
“Why did you decide to visit, anyway?” Pluto asked.
“I…I was actually planning on staying? If that’s okay with you, of course-“
“Sure. I don’t own the Kuiper Belt, Mercury.” He laughed and the heart on his face lit up ever so slightly.

The three walked in silence until Mercury decided to break it.
“Uh, was the moon revolution fun?” He said through shivers. Even with a jacket, he was so cold. His body wasn’t made for cold weather, but it wasn’t made for solar flares either. His ideal temperature would probably be Venus. He wished he could hug Venus right now, but the fact that he was 30 astronomical units away was only the first of many reasons that he couldn’t.
Pluto stifled a laugh while Triton gave him a strange look and his glasses lowered. “No.” He answered plainly, making Mercury realize the stupidity of his question.
“Yeah, it wasn’t fun for me either.”
“How were you involved in the moon revolution? You don’t have any moons.” The captured dwarf eyed him skeptically.
“I had to talk the Earth out of suicide, and help Mars and Venus when they got beaten up.” The planet would always remember the look in Earth’s eyes when he genuinely thought it would be better for him to die than continue on. He was still on the edge when Mercury left, but hopefully he wasn’t doing that bad. He still had Luna.

“And none of us were even friends before that. They used to pick on me, and call me Pluto 2.0.” The mention of his name made the dwarf planet perk his head up.
“Why?”
“They said I was going to become a dwarf planet like you, and none of the planets would talk to me anymore.”
“Hey, that’s not how it works. The only reason the planets don’t talk to me is because I’m so far away.” Pluto gestured to the solar system. Jupiter and Saturn weren’t even visible. Maybe they looked like stars. “I only talk to Neptune sometimes, and he’s a little- you know.”
“Don’t talk about my planet like that.” Triton interrupted.
“I thought he wasn’t your planet.” Pluto laughed. Triton pursed his lips.

“Well, he’s not your planet either.” Triton said. “And you know you’re a dwarf planet now, right? Your orbits not cleared.”
“What?” Mercury’s worst fear came true. Strangely, he was okay with it. He had been so scared of being a dwarf planet, when it wasn’t nearly as bad as all the other things out there. All the other things he already had to deal with. “Oh. Actually, I don’t really care. Is that weird?” Pluto smiled at him.

“Not weird at all. How did you clear your orbit back home? There used to be tons of asteroids there, from what I heard.”
“I guess the Sun cleared it for me.” Mercury muttered. It felt wrong to call his old orbit his home. He wanted this place to be his home now.
“Wow, that’s a nice neighbor.” Mercury nearly choked and hoped they wouldn’t notice, but of course they did. “What’s the sun like, by the way?”
“He’s…” The planet struggled to find the right words. Saying he was a bad person felt like a lie. “Uh, he’s good.”
“Are you sure?” Triton asked. “Why did you run away?”
“The sun hit me with a solar flare.” Mercury gave the simplest answer he could. “That’s where all these black burns marks are from.” He rolled up his sleeve and regretted it as he felt the cold air around it.
“Oh, my god.” Pluto’s eyes widened in shock. “What-What did it feel like?”
“A really bad burn, I guess.” Mercury answered. His voice got quieter.
“What does getting burned feel like?” Both Pluto and Triton were looking up at him in curiosity.
“You guys have never been burned before?”
“I mean, there’s nowhere to get burned out here. Even the fire’s lukewarm.” Triton said, recalling the unhelpful fireplace at Neptune’s orbit.

“Oh. Well, a burn feels like-“ His breath hitched. He had been experiencing burns all his life, but when he had to put it to words, nothing came out. What did a burn feel like? It felt like crying staring down at your blackened body. It felt like your body and mind getting weaker and weaker. Your eyes tearing up from all the light. It felt like the Sun’s suffocating touch all the time until the end of time. But he couldn’t explain that.

He couldn’t tell anyone.
And it wasn’t because the sun would hurt him if he told, he realized. It was because he didn’t have the words. Everything he said would come out murky, even if he had to testify against the sun for his life. He wouldn’t be able to do it. Nothing felt right, no words fit what the sun made him feel. Maybe nothing really happened after all.

“Mercury?” Mercury tried to talk, but the only sound he could make was shaky inhaling, like he was fighting for air. Like he was drowning underwater again. His throat ached and his eyes teared up.
“Oh.” The two dwarf planets stopped walking. Triton raised his sunglasses onto his head. “You need a moment?”
Mercury just shrugged. He didn’t know. He didn’t know anything, and even if he did, he wouldn’t know how to say it. Tears filled his eyes and blurred his vision. He couldn’t see anything but hazy colors until he blinked the tears away and quickly wiped them off his face. He kept his hand to his face, and covered his mouth. Triton and Pluto stood next to him, confused and uncomfortable from the sudden change in mood.
“Sorry. I’m sorry.” Mercury forced out. He felt so weak. He had just met them and now he was crying in front of them.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Pluto found a clearing and motioned for Triton and Mercury to sit beside him. When they did, he carefully put an elbow on Mercury’s shoulder. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“No-no thanks.” He hiccuped and quieted down again. “I’m sorry for crying. I mean, you just met me-“
“No, it’s okay! Triton cried the first time he met me, too. And the second.” Triton sneered at Pluto.
“Oh.” Mercury felt the pressure on his chest drop. He liked talking about other people’s problems much more than his own. “Why? What happened?”

“I had a flashback to the time I got kidnapped.” Triton said like it was nothing. “Make said it was because of P-STD or something. I don’t have an STD.” He pushed his sunglasses back down on his nebulae eyes.
“I think he said PTSD? Like, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?” Pluto corrected.
“The order of the letters doesn’t matter.” The captured dwarf said confidently. This made Mercury laugh weakly, then wipe the last of his tears away with a sniffle.

“Feeling better?” Pluto took his hand off his shoulder. His words made Mercury think of the “feel better” card from Venus, but he pushed the thought away.
“Yeah, I think it gets better if I just ignore it.”

“Titan’s jacket and Titania’s bike are still at the house. I can steal Neptune’s car tonight and return them, if you don’t need them anymore.” Triton offered.
“Oh, really? Thanks.”
Triton checked his watch. “It’s getting late. I gotta go back to my kids-I mean- Neptune’s moons…” He stood up and started walking away.

“Do I still have to tell you why I ran away?” Mercury asked.
“No, I kind of figured it out. Maybe later. For now, enjoy your freedom, I guess.” Pluto laid down on the snow. Mercury couldn’t copy that action. Sitting down on the snow was cold enough. Before this “adventure”, Mercury never knew too much cold would hurt. He found his teeth chattering again.
“Oh, is it too cold?”
“No, I love it here!” Mercury smiled so wide that it almost hurt. He didn’t care if he was freezing. He wouldn’t even care if he got stage ten frostbite or something and had to amputate his limbs. He was exactly where he needed to be.
“I’ve never seen someone so happy to be a dwarf planet.”

Chapter Text

The car came to a screeching halt. “Saturn’s orbit!” Jupiter called out. Venus tried to push away the sensation of his eyelids growing heavy, and he could tell Mars was doing the same. Saturn motioned for Venus to get out of the car, and he stumbled, nearly tripping. Saturn steadied him and sent him in the general direction of his house.
“And be careful around Titan. He had an…outburst, recently.” Saturn called from behind, while clutching Jupiter’s hand.

“What do you think that outburst was?” Venus asked.
“Mercury.” Mars simply answered.
Venus saw the ruffled hair, now dyed blue and green.

Without thinking, Venus ran up to the person. “I-“ Venus was never good with talking. His words got jumbled up and most of the time didn’t even make it out of his mouth. But he was better with actions. He grabbed both of the smaller one’s wrists with one hand, squeezing it, as if it would transmit the last warmth Venus had in his body to the person sitting in front of him.
Titan gave him a strange look. “Uh, have we met?”

Venus covered his mouth in seeing that it wasn’t Mercury disguised as Titan. He was literally just Titan. Mars grabbed his arm and pulled him away from the confused and slightly violated moon.
“We need to have a talk about this later.”
Venus yanked his arm out of Mars’ grasp and turned away. Mars was never going to forget that for as long as he lived. What was Venus going to do when he met the real Mercury? That went horribly.
“Whatever, I’m sitting in the car.” Venus stormed off.
“Wait, he probably knows something!” Mars reached out to him.
“Then find that out yourself.”

Mars came back a few minutes later with Titan, looking less livid than Venus was expecting, who replaced Saturn’s seat in the car so the ringed planet could sit shotgun. Jupiter stayed driving.
“What? Why is he coming with us?” Venus asked. Mars mouthed “moon leader” without letting Saturn and Jupiter see it. Venus just laid back in his seat, which was next to the familiar looking moon. But he wasn’t familiar with him. Why did he look so much like Mercury anyway?
“Oh, hello, Titan.” Jupiter didn’t look at him, but a smile could be seen on the mirror.
“Titan! You’re coming with us?” Saturn squealed.
He nodded. “Yeah…I..I can talk to moons.” He said as if moons spoke a different language, and he was the sole translator. That might as well be the case, Venus thought, for the gas giants.

Venus had never actually seen Titan from up close before. Apparently he was bigger than Mercury, but he looked exactly like him, except with water, an atmosphere, and no burn marks. He looked like Mercury in another life.
“Hey, why are you looking at me like that?” Titan said. Venus let out a sigh. His voice was different than that pipsqueak’s.
“You look-“
“I know.” Titan gave him an awkward smile that still had hints of sympathy. “I gave him a jacket.” He whispered. Venus only turned away and nodded in response. At least mercury had a jacket, no thanks to mars.

Venus found that he really wanted to go to sleep until they reached the belt, but couldn’t sleep without the Vulcan plushie. Yes, Mercury’s old Vulcan plushie. There it stayed in the bottom of his bag, hidden under everything else so that it wouldn’t be found. He slept with it every night back at his orbit, and he didn’t know why. Without it, he found himself plagued with nightmares and just a general looming sense of loneliness. As if that plushie made him any less lonely.

•••••••••••

It started maybe a year after the incident. When he was only a very young teen. He had been jolting awake multiple times in one night. He kept dreaming about Hermes. How he watched the Sun carry him away. How Venus left him. But then again, he thought bitterly, he killed all the life on my surface! If someone had done that to Terra, now known as Earth, they would be ejected out of the solar system.

Despite himself, Venus covered his head with blankets when he thought about Mercury being ejected. Mercury couldn’t make it out there.

He remembered that stupid little plushie. It had one eye gauged out, and it was torn to shreds, but Mercury loved it. And now, he loved it more than Venus. Venus wanted to burn it. Lord knows I have the temperature to burn it now, he thought sarcastically.

He got out of bed and ran to the garden, trying his best to be quiet. Unsurprisingly, Vulcan was already burned, like everything else in that little patch of land. However, it wasn’t burned to ashes, so Venus had to finish the job. Maybe he would put the ashes in a little jar like he cremated Vulcan, and pour it on Mercury’s hair and watch him scream.

But Venus doubted that Mercury cared about Vulcan anymore. Or the garden. Or the past.

Venus laid down on the grass and curled up. His mouth twitched into a frown, but he felt better when he took Vulcan in his arms and held that plushie like it was his own heart. He fell asleep within minutes with no nightmares on the charred grass. He swore it had the smell of Mercury’s burnt, brittle skin, like he had just come out of a solar flare, but maybe he was just deluding himself.

•••••••••••

So he took Vulcan the plushie home. Out of all of Venus’ secrets, that was by far his most embarrassing. He would not take it out in the car and let everyone see it.

“You’re still staring.” Titan said. Okay, this time he wasn’t staring. He just happened to zone out in Titan’s general direction.
“Titan can’t help being so beautiful!” Saturn
chimed.

“I’m not in love with Titan or something!”
“That’s not who I think you’re in love with.” Mars said, but Venus didn’t hear it.
“We have important stuff to worry about and you’re doing stupid shit like this?” The gas giants were about to scold him for swearing, but he cut them off. “Mercury could be dead right now!”
“Venus! I’m not saying you’re in love with Titan.” Mars’ smile widened. He was looking at Venus like he was dumb for even trying to hide it. “I’m saying you’re in love with Mercury.” The Jovians in the car collectively gasped. The car steered just a little off course for a second.
“Mars.” Venus’ eyes were wide and the rest of his face was expressionless. What the hell?
“Am I wrong?” He got louder.
Venus could almost cry in anger. The only thing holding him back from actually mauling this know it all was Titan sitting in the middle between.
“No.” He said as quietly as he could while letting Mars hear. And of course, everyone else heard too. They were in a silent, cramped car. Mars looked surprised, but still expected it.
“It’s okay.” He gave him a smile like they were the only ones there. “I’m sure he feels the same way.” Absolutely not. Venus hadn’t even considered the possibility of Mercury returning his feelings. That was thrown out the window years ago.

••••

“How long have we been driving for?” Saturn whined. “Just let me take the wheel, Jupi, you’re gonna fall asleep and crash.”
Jupiter mumbled something that none of them could make out.
“Uh, Saturn’s right, this doesn’t seem safe.” Mars added, kicking Jupiter’s chair to jumpstart him.
“Ugh, yeah, got it.” Jupiter pressed on the brakes.

Saturn didn’t immediately jump into the driver’s seat. “You know what? We should all get up and stretch our legs. Sitting down this long isn’t comfortable.” He hopped out of the car and started roaming around. As soon as his seat was open, Jupiter collapsed onto it.
“It’s so dark outside, how are you this energetic?” Venus groaned until Saturn opened his door and took him by the wrist outside of the car.
“I slept on the way, like you all should have done.” Saturn chided the rocky planets and moon.
“I snore. I don’t want you guys to deal with that.” Mars said.
“I’m sitting in the middle. I don’t wanna accidentally sleep on anyone’s shoulder.” Titan fixed his collared shirt. The people on the other side of the Goldilocks zone were insane, how did they handle this cold? Venus and Mars were the only ones wearing a jacket, and Mars’ was basically a sweater. Only Mercury would get the kind of cold Venus was feeling. But maybe the cold would be sort of refreshing to him, after… everything.
“What about you, Venus? What’s your excuse?” Saturn raised an eyebrow.
“Uh, snoring.”
“Excuse stealer.” Mars whispered under his breath.

“Oh, that’s Uranus’ house!” Saturn pointed to a house in the distance. It wasn’t as grand as Saturn or Jupiter’s, but it was still huge compared to any of the rockies. “That means we’re halfway there, kids!”
“Do not call us kids-“ Venus was about to yell, but Saturn wasn’t listening. He was on his way back to the car, pushing a sleeping Jupiter out of the drivers seat.
“Welcome to being a moon.” Titan said, walking past him.
“So this is what you started the war for?” Venus sneered.
“Ganymede and Europa turned it violent! I didn’t even know they were going to attack you and Mars.” Venus avoided Titan’s face when he spoke. All he saw was Mercury.

“Hey, who’s that at Uranus’ door? Why is he ringing the doorbell this late?” Mars distracted them from their argument. Venus saw a guy with a leather jacket, a bike under one arm, and a green jacket slung over his shoulder.
“Oh, I know him. He’s Triton. A dwarf planet that got captured by Neptune..”. Titan started. He really did know all the moons of the solar system. He had a blue car with him. That must have been Neptune’s car. Venus didn’t know moons could use their planet’s cars, but what was stopping them?
“Why does he have all that stuff?” Venus asked.
“Wait- that’s the jacket I gave Mercury! And the bike I told him to give to Titania!” Titan started running up to the smaller moon.
“Triton!”
Venus and Mars couldn’t hear what they were saying, but could see him give the jacket to Titan and set the bike against Uranus’ window. Venus eventually got annoyed with the silence and ran up to them.
Triton had sunglasses covering up eyes that looked like nebulae. “Who are you guys?”
“We’re Mars and Venus.” Mars answered, struggling to catch up.
“…Right.” Triton sounded like his throat had ran dry. “Uh- Cool, nice to meet you.” He went back to the car.

“Wait, why did you have that stuff that Titan gave Mercury?” Venus asked.
“Look, it’s really late, I gotta-“
“Where’s Mercury? Or- Mendax or whatever the moons are calling him.”
“What? Okay, bye.” Triton was about to close the door until Venus grabbed his wrist and pulled him out. “Stop! What are you-“
“Where is he?” Venus roared.
He towered over the smaller moon. Triton was smaller than anybody he met, but he wasn’t going to get pushed around for it like Mercury.

No, when Venus grabbed him, Triton punched him in the gut.

“I’m not getting kidnapped by another planet!” He called out and drove off as fast as he could.
“Get in the car! Chase him down!” Mars urged Titan and Venus, who was still reeling from the punch. They ran back to the car. Jupiter was sleeping on the window of the shotgun, only a little bit stirred by the chaos.
“Start the car, Saturn! Follow that blue one!” Saturn panicked and started it frantically.
“Okay, okay! Please don’t yell at me!” Saturn started tearing up. This was why Venus didn’t want to bring Saturn along.

The car started, and sputtered, and stopped. Venus shoved his head in his hands and bit back a scream. What the hell? This would almost be funny if he wasn’t so mad.

“Quick! Let’s use Uranus’ car!” Saturn cried. He ran as fast as he could, rings making a cacophony of tinkling noises, to the ice giants house.

“Uranus!” He banged on the door just as the rocky planets and moon caught up to him. Jupiter was still sleeping in the car.
“What the heck do you want?” A sharp female voice yelled. Titan perked up instantly.
Saturn kept banging on the door screaming until the female voice opened it. She was tiny, but Venus took caution anyway. It seemed like the smaller the moons got, the more aggressive they got as well. He would never admit it, but his gut ached from the punch Triton had gave him.
“We need to use Uranus’ car! It’s an emergency! Please, please-“ Saturn made a pleading motion with his hands until Uranus showed up, half asleep.

“Holy shit, shut up-“ Uranus rubbed his eyes.
“Mercury’s missing- it’s an emergency- we need your car!” Saturn screamed like he was going to start crying.
Uranus sighed and fished some keys out from a stand next to the door and tossed it to Saturn, whose mood changed instantly.
“Thank you! I love you!” Saturn called as he ran away.
“You’re married…” Uranus shook his head and stopped himself, as if that was too much to get into. The small female moon took the bike from Titan with a guarded nod, and the planet and moon closed the door.

“Jupiter! Get up! We’re using Uranus’ car.” Saturn shook the gas giant, and the voice of reason finally started up again.
“We can’t just leave my car out here!”
“It’s so desolate here, it’ll be fine.” Saturn looked almost manic. “And this is an emergency!” Why did he care so much about Mercury? Only Venus was allowed to care about Mercury. Venus stopped himself at the thought and focused on the situation at hand. He used all of his strength to pull the gas giant against his will out of his car.
“What did we get ourselves into?” Jupiter asked no one in particular as they got into Uranus’ car, same seating arrangement as last time.

Venus was about to choke somebody out, but the only person next to him looked too similar to the person he ‘loved’.

It still felt so wrong in his mind saying he loved Mercury, when he had been telling himself the exact opposite for years. But it was true. He loved the way he spoke, the way he smiled, his ruffled brown hair, his eyes that had that same shade of brown as Venus’, his freckled craters across his nose… it was hard not to love him. Mars said he was gonna help, but what could possibly help? Mercury and Venus hated each other. That was just a fact of the solar system now.

Venus remembered the day of the incident. The day the hatred started.

‘Dite should have just said “I’m sorry” before anything, and once he was done begging for forgiveness, tell Hermes he loved him, even if he wouldn’t believe it. He had every right to not believe it.

That was what Venus was going to do when he found Mercury again. What he should have done years ago, he was going to do it now. It might be too late, but it was all he had.

“At least we know Mercury made it to Neptune’s orbit. That’s basically the same thing as the Kuiper Belt, right?” Venus said. He never thought he would be the one to calm people down. He was mostly there to rile them up, and make everything worse, as always. But as of late, he really, really wanted to make things better. Not just for Mercury, but for the rest of his friends.
“Yeah. The Kuiper Belt probably isn’t that bad.”
“Oh, no, I’ve been there.” Jupiter’s eyes widened at the memory alone. “It’s a terrible place.” It seemed the second Venus was trying to help, everyone wanted to push him down.
“Why?” Titan shifted in his seat trying to peer into Jupiter’s troubled expression.
“There’s nobody there.”
“What? There are the dwarf planets, right?” Mars asked. “Pluto, Eris-“
“Oh, I’ve met Eris!” Saturn turned back to look at them, but every time he did, the car would veer off its course. “What a nice girl.”
“Eyes on the road!” Venus yelled.

Chapter Text

Mercury shivered on the floor of Eris’ room. All the dwarf planets lived in a sort of “house”, except the rooms weren’t connected. They shared the same kitchen, and a few bathrooms, but the beds were scattered around in the area of the Belt they lived. Pluto and Charon shared a room, while Ceres just slept on their floor like a dog for now. MakeMake and Haumea shared one too. Eris was by herself, so she was the best option for Mercury to share a room with tonight.

They had flipped a coin to decide who slept on the bed, and Eris won. Mercury would feel bad if he was taking someone’s bed in their own home, so he was glad for that. But still, he imagined a bed would be much warmer.

He shivered hard under the covers. His teeth were chattering loudly. He tried putting his tongue between his teeth to stop it, but he accidentally bit into the wound he caused in Saturn’s house. He made a short whimpering noise at the pain, and immediately silenced himself. He hoped Eris didn’t hear, but she was probably sleeping. He went back to shivering and chattering his teeth as quietly as he could.

Mercury felt a blanket get thrown onto him. His eyes fluttered open and he turned to face the bed. Eris was sitting on the edge of it in pajamas, looking at Mercury with a smirk.
“How cold do you get?” She asked.
“It’s a lot warmer where I’m from.” Mercury remembered the warmth. Sometimes it was pleasant, sometimes it was suffocating, and sometimes it was burning, but it was always there.
“Yeah, I bet. I can start the fire.”
“You have a fireplace in your room?” Mercury didn’t see it.
“No, but we could go to the living room if you want. It’s slightly warmer there.” Eris offered. The planet got up and took his bag.

Mercury watched the weak flames dance in the living room in silence. Kuiper Belt fire wasn’t even real fire. Eris leaned back against the couch.
“Have you ever been burned before?” Mercury asked. He and all the rocky planets had been burned at some point, but the dwarf planets hadn’t.
“No, why would I do that?” Eris looked at him like the question was weird.
“Like, by accident?” Would solar flares count as accident? “Or by something out of your control.” Yeah, solar flares classified as that.
“Does that happen a lot in the inner solar system?” She asked.
“Yeah.” Eris didn’t ask the follow up question of what being burned felt like, but Mercury needed an answer from himself anyway. The fire was right there.

Mercury found himself moving closer to the fire. Maybe this time he could put words to it. And when he could describe what being burned felt like, he could describe what the Sun felt like. He could testify against the sun- to himself, at least. Who else would he tell this to?

He reached a hand out to stroke the brightest flame.

“Mercury, what the hell?” Eris yelled. Her sudden change in volume snapped him out of it and he drew his hand back. What did he feel when he got burned? He couldn’t say. Did he even feel anything? “Wow…Did that..not hurt?”
“I don’t know.” Mercury replied.
“If it did hurt, you would know.” Mercury thought about that for a moment. He didn’t really know for all of his childhood if what the sun was doing was wrong enough to try to stop, so it didn’t hurt at all. But still, he felt hurt. And he had burn marks littered on his body, the oldest one being from when he was six.

“Do you even want to go to sleep?”
“Not really.” Mercury answered.
“Can I look through your bag?” She got dangerously close to the bag that housed the letter and the Polaroid.
“No!” Shoot. “I mean..sure?” She found the letter first, because of course she did.
“From Venus? The goddess of beauty?”
Mercury told her the exact same thing he told Triton. “No, Venus is a guy, and he hates me.” Nonetheless, Eris started reading his letter aloud. His heart fluttered with every word. Now that he had come to terms with his years old, albeit hopeless, crush on Venus, it was hard to pretend he didn’t like him.
“Mercury-“ she stopped and looked up at him. “Why are you, like, smiling and stuff.” Mercury didn’t even notice the giddy smile on his face. He covered his mouth with his hands, as if that made it any less obvious.

“I don’t know.” He wasn’t even going to try to lie anymore. “Um, he’s-“
“What, do you like him?”
“I guess, but he hates me.” Mercury thought “like” was an understatement. In the deepest reaches of his mind, he dreamed about being in Venus’ arms every time he felt cold. He pushed himself out of his thoughts and realized he just confessed to Eris he liked a man.
“Why? What did you do?”
“I-“ Mercury hadn’t thought about that in years. “He used to have life. Not intelligent life, but flowers and bugs.” Eris’ eyes widened. The first time he had seen shock on her pale face, like she already knew where it was going. She let him talk anyway. “I collided with him. They all died.” Mercury said bluntly, but his voice got quieter and quieter.
“Oh. Yeah, I don’t know how you’re going to get back from that.” She laughed, but Mercury’s expression remained solemn.
“Now he bullies me. I mean, not anymore, because I ran away.”
“What about the sun? Doesn’t the sun do anything about it?” Eris asked. “Wait, what’s the sun like?” That question. It was so much harder to answer than what being burned felt like.

Mercury didn’t know what to say. Maybe his best bet was telling her the stories and letting her answer that question for herself.

“He hits me with solar flares. A lot. They feel sick.” Sick was a good word to describe it. “I just…I just feel sick whenever I’m around him. Does that make sense?” He tried reading Eris’ expression.
“Oh. No.”
“Yeah. That felt so- I never told anyone about him before.”
“What about the other planets? They don’t see the solar flares?”
“They see that, but, they don’t see everything else.” The solar flares were just one part of his life with the sun. There was so much more.
“Everything else?”
“Um- there’s other stuff in my bag, too.”

Eris raised an eyebrow, but ultimately decided she didn’t want to push him. She emptied out the bag on the floor.
“A Polaroid? Why is someone dressing up as-“
“Yeah- uh- there’s cards…and stuff.” He stuffed the Polaroid back in his bag.
“Oh. MakeMake was always talking about these things.” She held up the Rubik’s cube. “Says he knows how to solve it.”
“Yeah, he can have it. Most of these are just things I took from Saturn’s house for no reason.”
“Saturn? He’s..” Eris’ face contorted in disgust. “Whiny.”
“He’s really nice, though.” A lot nicer than I deserved, Mercury thought.

Eris hummed and pulled out a plushie he got from the garage.
“Is this yours?”
“No. You can have it.”
“Huh. I’m not really a plushie person.” Eris dangled it in the air by its foot. Mercury reached over to take it back, until she pulled it away sharply and kept it behind her without saying a word.

“Oh, a tennis ball!” Eris exclaimed. “Ceres won’t shut up about how much he wants one.”
“I took it because it reminded me of Ceres. I thought all dwarf planets were like him.” Mercury covered his mouth again realizing what he just said and who he was talking to, but Eris didn’t seem to care.
“So we can take this?”
“Yeah, you take that keychain, too.”
“Love Forever.” She read the chain out loud. “I can give this to Pluto.”
“And Charon?” Mercury asked.
“Maybe. I haven’t figured that out yet.”

“What’s this?” Eris held up the other oddly shaped keychain. Mercury recognized it as the ring keychain.
“It’s probably a ring keychain. From back when Saturn’s rings were-.”

Before Mercury could finish his thought, Triton burst through the door.
“Why are you guys not in your room?” He yelled, clearly stressed.
“What’s wrong?” Mercury stood up.
“It’s Venus and Mars- They’re looking for you! I saw them at Uranus’ orbit, and they’re on their way.” Triton urged him.

Mercury’s head was spinning. Eris got up, and started running out of the door to wake the other dwarf planets.
“Mercury has people looking for him!” She ran out calling.
“What do I do?” He pleaded Triton to come up with something.
“They already know you’re here…so we can’t really hide you.” Triton held his arms to calm him down, but it wasn’t working. Mercury couldn’t go back. He couldn’t have done all of this for nothing.

“We probably have a few minutes.” Triton looked off into the distance and couldn’t find anything. “And they had Jupiter, Saturn, and Titan with them.”

“Titan?” Mercury wasn’t surprised. He only decided to help Mercury because he thought he was a moon, and if Venus and Mars were there, he would have figured out Mercury was lying. And the gas giants, Jupiter and Saturn? There was no point in running. “I can’t- I can’t go back.”
“I know.” Triton manifested his trident out of thin air again. “If Venus tries coming near you, I’m gonna impale him.” Mercury guessed Triton had started seeing him as one of his little moons to protect, even though he was bigger than him.
Mercury pushed the trident down. “No! Did I tell you the thing about me and Venus?”
“Yeah. He hates you.” Triton said, still respecting Mercury’s wishes and putting the trident away.
“Um- not that. I love him.” It sounded so pathetic to say out loud, the first time and the second.

Triton looked like he could slap him.
“What, so you want to go back?” Mercury remembered the burns. Maybe nothing bad actually happened with the Sun. It was all in his head. And he would give anything to feel the warmth of Venus again, just for a second. Mars and Earth were his friends, and he missed them dearly. Why was his regret coming up now? Was it to cope with the fact that they were going to take him back anyway? Triton took his silence as an answer on its own.

“You traveled through hell to get here- you almost drowned! And now you want to turn back for love?”
“You would do the same for your kids!” Mercury yelled. “If you left them, you would come back, no matter how bad it was there. Wouldn’t you?” He was making assumptions based on knowing him for a day, but it seemed to work. Triton stayed silent until Pluto and Eris came in, the demoted planet was tired but alarmed.

“Mercury!” Pluto started, but Triton stopped him.
“He might want to leave.” His expression was still sour.
“What?” Pluto looked at him, confused.
“I don’t know!” Mercury pressed his hands against the side of his head.
“Well, make up your mind quickly, because they’re already here!” Eris pointed just beyond the inner edge of the belt.

Mercury almost fainted at the sight of a light blue car driving towards the belt. Triton pulled him back inside the living room and slammed the door. Titan was going to be livid. Jupiter and Saturn would be so disappointed. Mars would keep asking questions Mercury had already tried and failed to answer. And Venus- he didn’t know how Venus would react anymore.

Mercury leaned against the door frame until Triton harshly pulled him away, while Eris and Pluto closed the blinds and locked the doors.

It was so over.

Chapter Text

The car brakes screeched to a sudden stop. Venus wasted no time in getting out of the car and running straight for the Kuiper Belt. The relentless cold now seemed to get angry at Venus. It felt like icy fire on his skin, burning him up.

He pushed asteroids out of the way and found a playing board with nobody around it.
“What the hell is this?” Venus was about to tear it apart before Jupiter, huffing from trying to catch up to the desperate younger planet, stopped him.
“That’s Dungeons and Dragons.” He responded. “It takes at least four people to play, so we know there are at least four dwarf planets.”
“Why does it matter how many dwarf planets there are?” Venus snapped the board in half. He didn’t know what was going on with him. It felt like his heart was being grabbed from inside his chest and shaken around violently. He tried taking deep breaths, but the cold air scratched against his lungs. He started having a coughing fit while Jupiter explained his thought process.
“Well, that means the house they live in will be easy to spot, since there’s so many of them. It won’t just be a little shack, probably.”
Venus barely recovered, and just as the others caught up, he took off again, and what did he find? A little shack.

He banged on the door violently, his whole body lunging forward from the punches at the wooden door. Nothing. On the door it had a sign saying “Make’ and Haumea.” Venus circled the structure in a panicked frenzy, and finally found a window. Without giving it a second thought, he picked up an asteroid and chucked it at the window with all his might, and it gave in.
“Venus, what are you doing?” Titan, who looked a different kind of panicked than Venus, tried grabbing him by the shoulders to hold him back. “That’s illegal!”
“Who’s gonna fine me? The sun?” Titan still wouldn’t let go of his shoulder, so Venus pushed him down.

Big eyes stared up at him from the floor. He looked just like Mercury did. The resemblance made his heart stop for a brief moment.

Venus begrudgingly held out a hand, and Titan took it, lifting himself up.
“Sorry.” Titan just nodded and went to look at the window. Two scared dwarf planets were looking back, covering their mouths. One of them had red hair and bunny ears, and another had grey hair and rings.
“Oh my god! Are you V-Venus?” The red one pointed to him with a shaky finger. Venus wasn’t thinking about how scary he looked with his manic eyes, destroying everything in sight. The dwarves ran away, and Titan ran to where Saturn was.

Venus ran to the next shack he saw. It had a sign saying “Eris”, and the door was slightly ajar. He swung the door all the way open, but no one was in it. He grabbed some band poster on the wall, and for no reason in particular, ripped it off.
Titan came back with Saturn, who clutched his rings while he ran, as if they would fall off. “Venus! What’s gotten into-“

Venus didn’t even let him finish. He ran to a slightly bigger shack. Why couldn’t all the dwarves just live in the same house? “Pluto and Charon and Ceres” was written on the door. So this was where the famous Pluto lived. Venus banged on the door, nearly scratching the side of his fists on the wood until he heard high pitched female cries.
“Who’s in there?” He yelled.
“Please don’t h-hurt me! I’m a moon of Pluto! I-“
“Open the door!”
“Um-no!”
“Open the door or I’ll break it down.” Venus lowered his voice. He was sure he had enough energy in him to break down a door, and he didn’t know why. Part of him wanted to calm down, but he couldn’t. His chest got tighter every second. He pressed a hand to his forehead and leaned against the wall.

The door barely unlocked before Venus snapped back to his senses and nearly tore it open. The moon was still hanging onto the doorknob for her dear life, completely off the ground.
“Please don’t hurt-“

“We won’t.” Mars stepped in from behind them. Mars gave Venus some semblance of calm before he spoke again. “Where’s Mercury?” That name reignited the unforgiving fire. Venus dug his nails into his skin as a last ditch attempt to stop whatever attack he was having right now.

Mars kneeled down to the moon’s eye level, but she wouldn’t open them.
“I don’t think I’m supposed to tell you that.” She said, tears forming in her closed eyes.
“Well- uh- then we might have to hurt you.” Mars tried sounding threatening, but his voice was shaky. The moon was petrified nonetheless. She was about to speak up until a small giggle was heard. “Oh my god!” The last bits of Mars’ scary facade fell apart when Ceres rushed over, lunging at him in all fours. Mars and Ceres both ran off screaming to god-knows-where in the Kuiper Belt, but the moon girl ran in another. The same direction the other dwarf planets had ran in. Venus put two and two together and chased after her.

The only thing going through his mind was Mercury. Mercury was here. The wailing moon led him to a much bigger building than any he had seen before and started banging on the door for entry, but not before Venus was there too. It had no names on the door. Was this their grouping place or something?
“Wait, don’t open the door! Venus is here!” The others reacted to her warning too late, and Venus shoved his whole body into the room.

He saw the red and grey dwarf planets from before. He saw Triton and some other girl, both looking ready to fight him. He saw Pluto holding the crying moon into his chest.

Venus saw Mercury.
He looked so different. He was wearing blue clothes that were too big for him. The burn marks were barely visible anymore. His wings weren’t pressed against his head, instead they were out in the open. And he was staring down at Venus’ letter, the one he gave before Mercury decided to run away, until he looked up. Venus finally saw the face he had been waiting to see, and it just looked somber. Like he already knew everything Venus could possibly say to him, and none of it wasn’t going to help.

Everyone backed away as Venus and Mercury looked at each other, probably because they were scared of Venus attacking them too. They didn’t have to worry about that. Venus was in such a frenzy before, but now he was frozen. His anger dissipated, and it left absolutely nothing behind.

Mars carefully walked up to them all, and checked to see that Jupiter and Saturn weren’t around. Or maybe he was checking to see if he was safe from Ceres.
“Mercury.” Mars spoke. Venus couldn’t even speak. But Mercury didn’t look at Mars. His deep brown eyes stayed plastered onto Venus’ face, prying out the things Venus wanted to hide. “Mercury, if you don’t come back, the sun said he is going to kill us.” Venus forgot about that part until Mars brought it up.

Mercury snapped out of his trance.
“What?” He spoke quietly. Venus wanted to hug him so badly.
“The sun is going to kill us if you’re not back in your orbit in..two days now. We don’t have a lot of time.” Mars urged. God, what would Venus do without Mars?
“I-.” Mercury looked down. “I don’t have a choice, do I?” He sounded somewhat more confident than before, which wasn’t saying a lot. Still, his voice broke ever so slightly. As for Venus, his painful adrenaline rush was wearing down, fast. It left an ache behind.

“The sun can’t do that!” One of the dwarf planets said.
“The sun can do whatever he wants.” Mercury sounded so hopeless. Venus suddenly didn’t want to bring him back. He wanted to leave him here and let him be happy far away from Venus. But what choice did he have? Mercury stood up shakily. Venus quickly ran up to him to steady him, or to just get a little closer, but Triton stepped in. Mercury pushed the moon aside gently, and his arm grazed Venus’ as he walked past him towards Jupiter and Saturn.

Chapter Text

Mercury sat in the shotgun next to Saturn, with his face pressed up against the window. Jupiter, Titan, Mars, and Venus were squished in the back. They protested the seating arrangement, but eventually agreed that Mercury needed some space. Mercury needed more than space.

He stayed silent as he got dragged into the car. The dwarf planets gathered around like they had just watched a loved one die. Everyone was going about the whole thing like they were holding a funeral, and they might as well have been. After he got back, there was no telling what the sun would do. The sun always teetered on the edge of caring for Mercury or not, but it seemed that he had finally fallen off. Threatening to kill the other rocky planets? He had no mercy left.

As the outside got warmer and warmer, Mercury cherished the cold that previously hurt him. It seemed like he could only appreciate things when he went away from them. Like Venus, for example.

The only sounds heard in the car were of Venus digging through his bag. Those stopped too after a moment, until Titan spoke.
“If lost, return to Hermes?” He sounded like he was reading something out loud. Mercury knew that tag anywhere.

That was Vulcan, the plushie he had lost a year or so after the incident. He went and cried to it after his preteen self got hit by solar flares. It was always there in the garden, but one day, it was gone.

But eventually he forgot about the plushie. And eventually, one day he snuck into Venus’ house at night - only because Venus had stolen his roller skates and was planning to destroy them - and saw Venus sleeping with Vulcan, holding it close. Mercury didn’t say anything about it, and he didn’t think anything about it either. He had no attachment to the plushie whatsoever anymore. But now, he was contemplating the incident again. Why did Venus have Vulcan? And he still had it now.

Mercury looked back in the space between his car seat and the window. Venus was sitting behind him, hiding the Vulcan plushie from the others in the backseat as he held it in his arms pressed against his chest. Venus met eyes with Mercury before looking away, embarrassed, ashamed, and something else.
“Can I have it?” Mercury asked quietly. He forgot what it was like to hold it. And it was his, not Venus’. Maybe he would feel a bit better.

Venus wordlessly gave it to him. Their hands grazed for just a moment before Venus sharply pulled his hand away. Mercury felt a comfortable type of warmth, one he was willing to let go of the cold weather for, but turned away just as fast. Loving Venus was a really bad idea.

“Mercury,” Jupiter’s cool and collected voice came from the backseat. “I don’t understand why you would do something like this.” His voice slipped into anger.
Mercury stayed silent. He was not going to have this conversation. He buried his face into the Vulcan plushie and felt absolutely nothing from it, other than Venus’ body heat. That did actually make him feel a little better. But the plushie itself, he had lost all attachment to.
“Running away from home? You could have died!” Jupiter started raising his voice. “There was no reason for you to leave your orbit, Mercury.“ There was no reason? Mercury had a reason, alright.

“You don’t understand!” Mercury yelled at full volume. The whole car jumped. “I had to leave!”
Saturn gave him a look of sympathy. Sympathy, never empathy. “I know Venus was mean to you, but-“
“It wasn’t Venus! It was never Venus.” Mercury let the Vulcan plushie fall out of his arms and into his lap. “Nothing that Venus does is ever as bad as the sun!” Mercury quieted down after that word. He had never told the gas giants how the sun could be like. He always just assumed they knew, but maybe they didn’t.
“What? What do you mean?” Saturn asked. Mercury gave the automatic response. “I can’t tell anyone.”

“No, why shouldn’t you?” A more familiar yelling voice started. Mars. “The sun told us that if Mercury wasn’t back in his orbit in five days, he would kill all of the rocky planets. Including Earth!” Jupiter, Saturn, and Titan looked horrified.
“I’m sure he didn’t mean that.” Jupiter tried to be rational.
“He did. Have you seen what he does to Mercury?” Venus shouted. Oh no. Oh, god, no. Mercury couldn’t talk about this now, or ever for that matter. “Half of his body was burned up the day he left. He probably still has some scars.”
“What? Mercury- is this true?” Saturn looked at him, and the car veered of its course.

“I don’t want to talk about this. None of it even matters.” Mercury pressed the back of his head into the car seat. “And you have absolutely no right to talk about this, but I guess that doesn’t matter either, because you’re stronger, and I’m just a pipsqueak!” He spat out. His own voice sounded so unfamiliar when it was spiked with anger like this. “Right, Venus?” Venus looked heartbroken when Mercury turned back to look at him. Mercury had never made Venus look so sad before. He felt a pang of guilt, but pushed it aside and turned facing the front again.
“Wait, Mercury. You don’t know the whole story-“ Mars started, while trying to get Venus to talk again.
“No, you don’t know!” Nobody knew, and there was no way they were going to get it unless they all had to go through what Mercury went through. Mercury was stuck with the sun forever. His life was over.

“Please! Quiet down!” Jupiter suddenly shouted. The car went silent instantly.
“Mercury has to say something.” Venus blurted.
“I don’t have to say shit!” He turned back around to Venus with fire in his eyes, and Venus returned it. Mercury could. Not. Talk about this.

“At least explain what Venus was talking about before.” Titan asked his lookalike. Mercury wanted to tell Titan to shut up.
“I don’t want to.” Mercury’s voice broke ever so slightly. He pursed his lips hard, as if the story could slip out if he didn’t.
“Mercury…” Saturn looked at him with teary eyes. It definitely wasn’t safe to be cry in while driving. Mercury already made him cry once, under the disguise of Titan, and now he was doing it again. Mercury felt like a horrible person.

“Please.” Venus murmured, his voice rough. “We’re worried.” His words fell underneath the sound of the car and Mercury could barely hear him. He felt horrible again, and he didn’t know why. He didn’t owe Saturn or Venus or anyone the truth- but it really felt like he did. Mercury hated it so much, but he took a shaky breath and started speaking.

“When- Well,” Where should he even start with this? From the beginning? “The first time the Sun burned me was when I was six. He grabbed my wrist and burned it with his touch.” The people around him looked vaguely concerned. Or disgusted. “Then, when me and Venus got our new names and started hating each other, I became best friends with the sun..because-“ His voice broke again, forcing him to stop and swallow hard. “I had nowhere else to go.” He waited for a reaction, for someone to say something, but everyone was silent. Was he supposed to keep talking through the silence, and let them watch him cry like a gallery piece?

“But it didn’t feel like a normal friendship. He was..a lot.” Mercury didn’t want to make the sun seem like some sort of groomer, but he had no other way to describe it. “Like, he would grab my torso really tightly and insist on sleeping in the same bed as me, even when I said no. When I said no, he got mad.” It was just sleeping in the same bed. Why was Mercury being dramatic? Still, he kept talking. Like his voice and his brain were two different people.

“When I was twelve or something, he kissed me- on..on the lips when we were playing truth or dare. I didn’t say no.” Mercury admitted. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back. This hurt to say. It felt more like admitting to wrong things Mercury had done instead of recounting the wrong things the sun had done. “And he only did it once. But, it felt gross.” He was barely whispering by now. His words would be inaudible if it wasn’t for everyone else being dead silent.

“That’s it.” That was it. That was all the excuse Mercury had for running. The sun never did anything sexual with him, and only kissed him once, which he never said no to, but Mercury was too weak to handle even that.

When Mercury was done talking, it was silent. Too silent to bear. It was as if he had spewed his guts out all over the car and everyone else was just staring at the mess with invasive, scrutinizing eyes. He felt so exposed.

“That’s...” Venus was the first to talk after what felt like an eternity of silence. Mercury didn’t know how to respond. He didn’t even want to talk to anyone, and it wasn’t out of hatred. He didn’t hate anyone in the car, but he hated what they were doing, guilt tripping him into talking about the most personal thing. “I’m sorry.” Venus added suddenly. What was he sorry for? He had nothing to do with this. Venus seemed to read Mercury’s mind and clarified. “I’m sorry for abandoning you and leaving you with the sun.” …oh.

“That’s terrible.” Saturn muttered. And now they were going to give Mercury a pity party for something that didn’t even matter.
“No, it’s not.” Mercury said. It felt wrong to call the sun evil, or abusive. If he was so evil, someone else would call him out already. No, if he was so evil, Mercury would be dead by now.
“Yes it is!” Saturn frowned. “I feel so bad for letting you live with that monster-“
“No! Don’t call him a monster.” Mercury shook his head. “If it wasn’t for the sun, we wouldn’t be here right now.”
“It’s still grooming.” Jupiter said. Jupiter with his fancy words. Mercury turned back to look at Jupiter, and silently pleaded him to just shut up. Mercury felt so pathetic.

“I’ll fix this!” Saturn concluded. His rings made tinkling noises. “I owe it to you.” No, he didn’t.
“What can you do?” Titan asked. “The sun has the final say on everything.”
“Not all the time. Mars, Titan, when we get to my orbit, we’re taking my car and splitting off. It will take a few days, but-“ Saturn got interrupted by Mars.
“What? Where are we going?” Mars asked. The whole time, Mercury had his head in his hands. He didn’t mean to start some sort of uprising. He never should have told them.

“Just trust me. Me and Jupiter have overridden the Sun’s demands before. It’s possible.” Saturn insisted. Jupiter’s eyes went wide, and he seemingly got what Saturn was talking about.
“Yes! Do that!” Jupiter said. “I’ll take them back home. And Mars, does the sun care where you go?”
“Not necessarily. I can be gone a few days.” Mars looked determined. The sun only really cared about Mercury’s whereabouts, and maybe the Earth.
“Don’t do whatever you’re planning.” Mercury finally spoke again. “The sun isn’t a bad person! I just made him sound bad. I don’t want to be taken away!”
“What?” Saturn tilted his head. “You won’t be taken away. Did the sun tell you that?”
“Y…yeah?”
“That lying bitch.” Saturn bitterly muttered, which finally earned a chuckle from Venus behind him. Mercury had never heard the gas giants swear, ever. Saturn seemed so proper.

“But what’s the plan?” Mars asked.
“I’ll tell you on the way.” Saturn kept his eyes fiercely on the road. “We’re going to a far away place.”
“Wait, how far away?” Titan asked. Saturn stayed silent.

He stopped the car when he reached his house. “Jupiter, you take over from here.”

“I think it’s best you sit in the back with Venus, Mercury.” Jupiter said before starting the car.
“Why?” The gas giant didn’t give an answer, but Mercury just wanted to be close to Venus, so he did as he was told.

Jupiter gave him one last concerned look- which Mercury wanted to hide from- and plugged in his earphones listening to an audiobook. Venus didn’t look at Mercury when he sat next to him, and maybe that was for the better. Once the attention was finally off Mercury, the disgusting feeling that had been twisting in his gut slowly dissipated. He hated being watched in silence while practically throwing up his deepest secrets, but it was over now.

He watched the stray asteroids go by. They didn’t have a lot of distance left to cross before he was back again. Before that train of thought could even start up, about going back to the sun, Mercury pushed it down.

Mercury leaned on one window with the Vulcan plushie, while Venus leaned on the other. Venus seemed to love Vulcan. More than he loved Mercury, that was for certain. Mercury pushed down the jealousy he felt over a literal piece of felt and cotton and gingerly put the plushie on the middle seat between them.

Chapter Text

Jupiter was listening to an audiobook with earphones, completely tuned out to anything Mercury and Venus in the back were doing. Venus watched the window fog and unfog as he breathed on it. Now was as good a time as ever to say what he had been meaning to say. “I’m sorry”, and then, “I love you”.

“I’m sorry.” He grumbled. He turned to face Mercury, only to find the Vulcan plushie sitting between them. Venus was about to grab it, but decided against it. Mercury turned back to face him, like he was waiting for something more, so Venus continued speaking. “I’m sorry for treating you badly. For years.” He really was so sorry. “I had no idea you were going through all that.. stuff with the sun. And I feel bad for making it worse. I feel like trash-“ Venus cut himself off. He didn’t need to go into his troubles right now.

One apology wasn’t going to cut it. They hated each other for years. “I’m sorry.” Venus said again.

Was that it? Mercury was just going to stay silent? No. He came up with his own apology immediately after.

“I’m sorry for taking out your life. That was a really serious mistake. I don’t know how to come back from that, but if there’s a way….” Mercury spoke. Venus forgot about his life, honestly, other than the bolts of jealousy he felt when Earth talked about his earthlings. “I want to be friends again.” Mercury nearly whispered. Venus tried hiding his expression, but he couldn’t stop a smile and heat rising to his face. Mercury smiled, too.
“We’re even by now. I’ve thrown asteroids at you, called you names-” Venus choked over the words. That was more than enough price to pay for taking out Venus’ life. And Mercury didn’t object, Venus had been brutal. “But I won’t do that again.” He hoped Mercury could just read his mind and know how sincere he was.
“Okay. I trust you.” Mercury said. He trusted Venus. Wow.

The Vulcan plushie was still sitting in the middle. That plushie helped him sleep every night when he had nightmares, but it probably didn’t have the same effect on Mercury.

How could that even happen with the sun? Why didn’t he say no? Venus wanted to ask, but that seemed exceptionally cruel.

“It was partially my fault, what happened with the sun.” Venus spoke up again. “You only had nowhere else to go because I left you.” His eyes darkened just a bit, which Mercury noticed immediately.
“But you were a kid! And I took out your life.” He looked at Venus with genuine compassion, and regret. Mostly regret. “You had every reason to hate me.”
“And you have every reason to hate me.” Venus casually pointed out without skipping a beat. He still remembered what Callisto said.

“A pain to be around, and you picked on him because he was small. Is that true?” Venus didn’t respond to the Callisto in his head and instead turned away, pressing the side of his face against the window. He could still feel Mercury’s eyes on him.

“But I don’t hate you.” Mercury said. “You were trying to be better, and I see that now. I’m sorry I didn’t see that before I ran away.”
“Stop apologizing.” Venus turned to look at him.
“What?” Mercury’s brows furrowed in confusion.
“Just stop. It makes me feel even worse than I am.”
“Venus, that’s not…” Mercury shook his head in disappointment until a smirk took over. “I’m sorry for apologizing.”
“You’re not funny, pipsqueak.” Venus rolled his eyes, turning away once again.

Did Venus have to say the other part now? ‘I love you?’ Pouring his heart out to Mercury in what was already an emotionally charged car ride would overwhelm the both of them. Venus decided to leave it as it was. But then again, it was killing Venus to sit in silence when Mercury was right there.

“Are you cold?” Venus sifted through his tangled hair once before giving up. It was a lost cause.
“Yeah, but I’ve been cold for a while now.”
“I’m warm.” Venus offered. Mercury gave him a slightly confused look.
“Uh…Yeah. Okay.” Mercury nodded.
“Do you-“ Venus was going to ask if Mercury wanted a hug, but what kind of idiotic idea was that? Mercury had just told them about the sun forcing Mercury to be..close with him. Of course he would have an aversion to hugs. Venus didn’t want to make him feel the same way he did with the sun.
“What?”
“Nothing, pipsqueak.” Venus looked at him through the corner of his eye. Mercury was staring at him blankly. “Shut up.”
“Just say it!” Mercury pouted.
“I was going to offer a hug, but since you’re deciding to be such a-“ He turned his face away, but was cut off by Mercury unbuckling his seatbelt and sitting in the middle seat, moving Vulcan to his lap.
“Sure.” Mercury smiled gently. Venus almost smiled back, but then decided Mercury didn’t get to see that. He slung his arm loosely around Mercury’s shoulder, and waited for him to lean into it before holding him any tighter.
“You’re cold as hell.” Venus said blankly, earning a chuckle from Mercury. It felt so good to hear him laugh. Mercury’s head finally settled on Venus’ shoulder, looking up at Venus for him to give a short nod that it was okay. Of course it was okay. What was even better was the plausible deniability. If Jupiter turned to look at them they could just say they had to warm each other up. They were the two hottest planets, after all.

“You two doing fine back there?” Jupiter spoke.
Mercury nodded, even though Jupiter couldn’t see the nod. God, he was so brainless. While also being smarter than Venus could ever hope to be. “Yeah.” Mercury finally said, realizing his mistake.
“Because it shows on the screen here when you take off your seatbelt.” Jupiter chuckled lightly.
“Oh- okay.” Mercury answered again. Venus couldn’t care less what Jupiter knew or didn’t know, but Mercury did. He buckled the middle seat’s seatbelt. Venus thought middle seats didn’t have seatbelts. He never paid attention to it until Mercury was sitting there.

Mercury’s head was on his shoulder. Venus didn’t let the thought sink in before, but now he did. Mercury was right here, safe and warm with him after…one week. This whole thing was one week, give or take a day. Venus ran his hand up and down Mercury’s upper arm before stilling and pulling him closer, feeling the warmth and the cold at the same time. He wanted this moment to last forever.

The car stopped.
“What?”
“We’re at the asteroid belt.” Jupiter took off his earphones. Before they got out of the car, he gave one final word. “You guys can tell me about anything. I’m sorry you didn’t feel safe telling me these things before, Mercury, but if it happens again, don’t stay silent. Please. I want to be here for you.” Jupiter turned to Venus with an equally stern expression. “And you too, Venus, I’m here for you. I know you need it.” Venus scoffed, pressing his lips together.
With that, Jupiter dropped them and Vulcan off at the edge of the asteroid belt. “Now I need to get my car from Uranus’ orbit.” He muttered.

Venus was so cold there. Sure, it was warmer than the Kuiper Belt, but everything past the Goldilocks zone was the same to him. His jacket was wrapped tightly around him.

Mercury only shivered slightly. But still, he shivered.
Venus wasted no time in using all his willpower to pry off his jacket and face the cold. He held the jacket up to Mercury.
“Oh. No thanks, you’ll be cold without it.” Mercury declined.
“I’ll be fine. Take it!” He barked. Mercury laughed nervously and took the jacket. His wings always fluttered when he laughed.
“Okay…uh, thanks.” He put it on and stopped shivering. There was a pink hue on his face, but maybe that was because of the cold.

“Do you want to go to my house and warm up?” Venus offered. “We’re ahead of schedule. We don’t have to go to your house right away.”
Mercury considered it, and finally said, “Yeah. My face is really cold.” He pressed his hands to his cheeks. “Are you still ‘trying to be nice to me’?” Mercury put it in quotation marks.
“You could say that.” Venus remembered when he told Mars and Earth about that plan, and they laughed. They knew Venus’ true intentions before even he did.
“It’s working.” Mercury beamed. His gap tooth was on full display.
“Shut up.” Venus turned away quickly before Mercury could see his face breaking into a smirk of his own. That pipsqueak’s smile was just so contagious.

Venus let Mercury overtake him by a few feet so he could stay behind and watch him. He couldn’t explain it but something seemed sad. Like he was walking to his certain doom. Venus just wanted to postpone it as much as possible.
“We should go check on Earth.” He suggested. Not only for Mercury, but Earth had been left alone for a while now, missing all the action.
“Oh, okay.” Mercury bent his knees, and without a second warning, started running, really fast. Before Venus could even react, the orange glow trailing behind Mercury was halfway to Earth’s infamous garden.
“Pipsqueak!” Venus yelled, before taking off as fast as he could.

Mercury waited, lightly bouncing in place, until Venus caught up to him to ring on Earth’s doorbell, and he answered. He looked really worn out.
“Mercury!” The tiredness faded from his eyes in an instant. He wrapped Mercury in a hug. Mercury smiled at first, but then pain took over and he let out a short scream. Earth dropped him instantly and started apologizing.
“What? What’s wrong?” Venus frantically asked.
“Oh- I just have a few cuts on my body.”
“From what?” Earth asked.
“Diamond rain…” The smallest planet meekly responded. “But it’s not bad if you don’t touch it!” He assured. Diamond rain? He had cuts all over his body?
“Right. Sorry, still.” Earth looked at Venus, and looked at Mercury. Venus could visibly see the Earth’s adrenaline slowly rush noticing mars’ absence. “Wait- where’s mars? Did something happen-“
“No, he’s just going with Saturn to… some place. They didn’t say.” Where were they going again? He looked to Mercury, but Mercury only shrugged.
“Okay, I hope he’ll be back soon.” Earth bit his lip in worry.

“What happened to you? You look..bad.” Mercury put a hand on Earth’s shoulder, filling Venus with jealousy.
“I had to take care of those little demons, Phobos and Deimos.” Earth sighed and slumped onto the couch. “They keep activating Luna’s dark side and-“ Mercury and Venus heard unfamiliar yelling from outside. Panic overtook them, but Earth rolled his eyes and opened the door again. Luna had blackened eyes, and the moons of Mars were pulling on his hair, giggling.

“Luna! What happened to your eyes?” Mercury squealed. Venus immediately stepped in front of Mercury.
“I’m not Luna. I’m the Dark Side of the Moon. Can you guys help get these off of me?” Venus only slightly let his guard down and pulled one screaming kid off his face. Dark Side took care of the other one. They handed them back to Earth. He went up to the television and put on some weird show with singing toilet heads, but it seemed to calm the moons down. Their eyes were glued to the screen.

“I’m sorry you couldn’t stay there.” Venus was actually sorry, but it came out more jealous and bitter. Mercury gave him a sad look. “No, I’m seriously sorry. You were happier, and safer.”
“What? Why are you not happy and safe here?” Earth asked Mercury.
“The sun.” Venus replied. Mercury winced at the oversimplified answer, but didn’t disagree. Earth just nodded.
“Hey, we’ll make it better when you come back, right? Even if he hits you with a solar flare again, we’ll be here. Just tell us.” Earth was so good with words, and affection. Venus longed to be like Earth. Maybe then Mercury would hate him less. But Mercury didn’t hate him anymore, so he was clearly doing something right.

“Why are you wearing two jackets?” Something that looked to be Neptune’s jacket, and the one Venus had forced him to wear.
“I shivered and Venus made me wear it.” Earth gave Venus a knowing look. “I don’t need either of these anymore.” Mercury took off the first jacket, and Earth took it. “Where do I keep Neptunes?”
Earth shrugged. “Just leave it with me. He probably has lots of jackets.”

“…You guys wanna play cards?” Venus raised an eyebrow.
“No!” Earth exclaimed. “It’s not the same without mars. And you need to tell me everything, Mercury!” Earth’s eyes lit up in excitement, but Mercury’s only widened in panic. Earth was never there to see the gravity of the situation.
“It’s not a fun story to listen to.” Mercury weakly smiled. Earth’s expression grew solemn.
“Oh.” He looked down for a moment, before perking up again. “Ugh, fine, I guess we can play cards.”

Chapter Text

“Mercury!” The Sun’s booming voice scattered through the inner solar system. “Come back! I know you’re here.” Earth hadn’t even finished distributing the cards.
“I should go.” Mercury got ready to leave Earth’s house.
“No-“ Venus was about to protest, but he had to go back to the sun. Venus looked almost worried. On one hand, it was so sweet that Venus was worrying about him, but on the other hand, it made Mercury feel that much weaker.

He ran to the Sun pretty quickly. The sun was doing nothing. When he looked at Mercury, he smiled.
“I’m so happy you’re back!” The sun beamed. Mercury was just waiting for a solar flare, and he was terrified. The sun was cheerful now, but Mercury couldn’t forget the times when he wasn’t. The times when the Sun’s eyes went hollow and his touch got hotter. He never thought he would be so scared to talk to his own star, but after getting the chance to reflect on everything, and seeing what life would be like without him… the sun felt like a nightmare come to life.

But now he was happy and smiling and all of Mercury’s fears were irrational.
“How was your adventure?” The sun put stress on “adventure” like he had just came back from his first day of kindergarten. “Was it fun?”
Mercury didn’t know what to do. He wanted to go to his house, but he just nodded. Sure, it was fun. Being free was fun.

“Did you get hurt?” The sun gave him a look of sympathy. Where were the solar flares? Where was the yelling and the grabbing?
“Uh..no.” Mercury lied. Where was the manic sun he was used to?
“Good.” The Sun’s smile dropped ever so slightly. “Was it cold out there?” Again with the caring questions.
“Yeah.” Now the solar flare was coming. It had to be.

But no, the sun kept making small talk. “Wanna hear a sun pun?” What? That was all the consequence of his running away? The sun had threatened to kill all his friends unless Mercury stayed with him forever, and now he was acting all sweet, still telling him sun puns.

“What’s wrong, Mercury? You look stressed.” The sun put a burning hand on his back. It didn’t actually burn that much, or maybe it did. Mercury had no idea what hurt him and what didn’t anymore.

“Why did you run away?” The Sun kept a hand on his back, and looked at him with genuine care in his eyes. Sun always cared deeply about Mercury in his own way. What was Mercury going to say? The smartest option would be to pin it on Venus and his bullying, but he didn’t want to do that.
“I…can we talk about that later?”

The sun stared at him, watching the tiny figure.
In an instant, the sun pulled back. “Whatever you say, best friend!” That title always felt wrong to Mercury, at least when it was coming from the sun.

••••

Only a day later, Mercury was in his room, waking up with a jolt. Was the sun there? No, the sun was nowhere to be found. His hot arms weren’t wrapped around Mercury’s waist. He wasn’t in his spot in the center of the Solar system, either. Mercury panicked. The sun could be near Venus! Or Earth! He ran around frantically looking for him. He didn’t even bother getting ready.

“Sun?” He called out. “Sun, where-“ It was then that Mercury saw the man Saturn brought.

He looked like a pitch-black silhouette, even when he was standing right next to the glowing sun. And he was taller than the sun, too. Mercury had never seen anybody taller than the sun in his life. The sun looked like he was about to cry. Saturn, Mars, and Titan were standing with them.

“Mercury!” Saturn called out. “There you are.” He motioned for him to come over, but Mercury felt frozen. So they all walked over to him, the sun first, but the dark silhouette figure was quick to stop him. The sun retreated somewhere with Titan and Saturn. Mars went to get Venus.

The dark and very tall figure finally reached him. Mercury stumbled. He looked like the exact opposite of the glowing sun, only much taller. He didn’t even want to think of the sun right now. That was a whole other can of worms.
“Hello.” His voice was low, and calm. “Don’t worry, planet. I won’t hurt you or anyone here.” He kneeled down to be face to face with Mercury. “Do you mind introducing yourself?”
Mercury swallowed hard. “I’m Mercury.”
“And you’re a planet? One of eight planets?” The figure asked. Mercury nodded. He tried telling himself he was going to be okay, but he already knew what he was here for.

“I’m Sagittarius A. I’m the black hole at the center of our galaxy.” Mercury gasped. Why was he here? Mercury didn’t mean for his situation to escalate this much.
“Oh my god!” Mercury and Sagittarius turned around to hear someone holler. It was the Earth, with Venus and Mars by his side. He quickly ran up to Sagittarius.
“I take it you’re planet Earth?” He nodded. “I’ve heard of your Earthlings. That adrenaline ability is wonderful. I’ve never seen anything like it!” Sagittarius commented. Earth looked like he could faint, until Mars held him by the arm to steady him.

“You okay, pipsqueak?” Venus asked. It was so strange watching him try to be polite, but he wasn’t complaining. Venus put a firm hand on his shoulder.
“I just came here to ask a few questions about how Sol has been treating you all.” The black hole said. “How would you describe him?” He asked all of the rocky planets, but looked at Mercury.
“He’s manic. When Mercury ran away, he threatened to kill us if we didn’t find him in time.” Mars answered.
“Mercury ran away? To where?”
“The Kuiper Belt.” Mars said. “It’s thirty astronomical units away from here.”

“Why did you run away?”
“I don’t know.”
“Please, think of an answer.” The black hole urged him. Venus squeezed his shoulder, as if he was trying to comfort him without words.
“Well, when Mercury was-“ Venus started. Sagittarius cut him off with a hand to his face.
“I think you three should leave.” He gestured to the other rocky planets. Venus and Earth were about to get defensive, but Mars pulled the other two away with a sheepish look.

“Solar flares.” Mercury answered while they were out of earshot.
“Is that all?” The black hole looked concerned, and he was noting everything down. Should he tell him or should he not? He didn’t want to tell on the Sun, but it was the truth. And he didn’t want Saturn, Titan and Mars to have gone all the way there for nothing. “No.” Mercury took a deep breath. “He’s really…touchy. He gets mad when I don’t want to sleep in the same bed as him- and he burns me when he gets mad, and he…makes me feel sick.” That was stupid, why did he say that? “He kissed me once when I was twelve, but-“

“Saturn already told me everything you told him. I just wanted to check with you.” Sagittarius confessed. “But thank you, we have been concerned with Sol for a while-“
“Wait, I’m sorry.” Mercury’s chest tightened. He was sorry to the sun for ratting him out like that.

The sickest part was, no matter how much the sun hurt him, or how long it had been since the last Solar flare, or even if a black hole stepped in and tried making things right, Mercury would always care about the sun. The sun was a part of his life forever. His first kiss. His first burn. His first time running away.

“Please don’t hurt the sun. Don’t tell him I told you!”

The black hole shook his head.
“We always knew Sol was a little off, but to prey on and abuse the smallest planet he had…” Sagittarius stopped. “That’s disgusting. And I will ask him if all this is true, so do you have any proof for me?”
“No!” Mercury almost screamed, but stopped and collected himself as well as he could. “Don’t tell him I told you.” He could almost see the heartbroken look on the sun’s face hearing the things Mercury had to say about him.
Sagittarius sighed, and looked deep into Mercury’s eyes. “He won’t hurt you anymore, if you can give the proof. You have my word.”

It sounded too good to be true. But it sounded good nonetheless, so Mercury decided to give in, which was partially fueled by the fear he had for a black hole right in front of him.
Mercury had proof. He slowly pulled down the neck of his shirt. “It’s here.” He revealed the black burn marks that hadn’t faded. They weren’t all over one half of his body anymore, but they were starting at his waist, and continued up to his shoulder blade.

The black hole took a picture on some device he had never seen before, making mercury jump. “I’ll show the sun this picture, thank you.” Mercury let go of his grip on the fabric, and was about to plead not to again, but Sagittarius interrupted him. “It was good that you chose to speak up. I’ll send someone from your spiral arm of the galaxy to check on Sol every now and then. I’m so sorry we let his behavior slip under the radar for this long.” Mercury kept looking for the Sun out in the distance, but couldn’t see him anywhere. They would send someone to check on Sun routinely and make sure Mercury was okay? But what would that do?

“He won’t hurt me? What if he does?” Mercury asked. It felt cathartic to outright admit the sun would hurt him. All this time he had been downplaying it, but that wasn’t going to help now.
“Well, it’s going to be hard to discipline him, as he has a planet with life on it, but we can shift around your orbits.” Was this Mercury’s fear?
“Please don’t take me away.” Mercury shook his head.
“No, no, I meant you can be a moon temporarily, or permanently move a little farther. But here’s hoping that it doesn’t come to that.” The black hole smiled softly and put a hand out for Mercury to shake.

Was it really over? A joy that Mercury never thought he would feel took over his core. All the times Mercury got burned, all the times he wanted the sun to back off…he would never feel that helpless again. Mercury ignored the handshake and hugged the black hole, which actually didn’t hurt at all. The black hole made a surprised sound and hugged back, awkwardly patting his back.

“Okay, you go back to your..uh..friends. And don’t feel bad for telling the truth.” Sagittarius started walking towards where the sun and Saturn disappeared.

The Sun wouldn’t hurt him again.
The sun would probably start crying, and calling Mercury a liar. The sun would probably try to make him feel bad for telling as soon as Sagittarius was gone.

Mercury didn’t know what was going to happen to the sun, and for once, he didn’t care.

Chapter Text

The sun sat in his house with Saturn and Titan. Dead silent.
The sun was so angry, but he couldn’t do anything with Sagittarius in the area. All he could do was stare deep into Titan’s soul and pretend it was Mercury.

Mercury. He loved Mercury so much. Even after all this, he wasn’t the least bit mad at him. He never was. Mercury was his favorite planet out of all of them, and he wasn’t even a planet. He was originally a moon of…that.

Titan coughed and started to speak. “Uh, Mercury actually told me he was a moon of Venus.” He followed it up with a forced laugh. Sun made a buzzer noise in his head. Wrong! He was actually a moon of Saturn. But he stayed silent. It seemed like silence was the only thing they wanted from him, the only thing he could do right. “Isn’t that crazy?” Titan grinned. He was really pushing it.

“He’s a moon.” Saturn blurted out suddenly.
“Saturn-“ Sun was about to start, but the ringed gas giant shook his head.
“Titan needs to know. He’s probably wondering why he and Hermes look so similar.” Sun buried his face in his hands. Let him tell the whole truth to Titan, he didn’t care. He only cared about Mercury.
“Titan, when I was younger, maybe less than your age..I got into some trouble.” Trouble was a word for it. Saturn was possessive and manic, exactly how the other rocky planets would describe Sun. Except Saturn never picked on the little ones, so that made his actions okay? “And to condone for my actions, I gave Sun one of my moons. That moon was your twin.”
“Mercury is my twin?” That useless moon spoke again. Sun never forgot the way that Saturn cried giving Hermes away. He thought Saturn only cared about Jupiter, but he was proven wrong.

Sun only understood how Hermes could have that effect on people after he got him. Hermes lit up his world. He was only four, and Sun was seventeen, but Hermes was a better friend than any of the other stars. Nobody else understood their bond, and nobody else needed to.

The other stars would push Sol around for his unpredictable nature. They would dangle their friendship in front of him and laugh watching him try to catch it. Sagittarius was no better, even though he defended Sol when Rigel called him a ‘pipsqueak’. He told Sol he was too young to understand love. He was seventeen, what didn’t he understand? Sagittarius told Sol that Sol was too young for him, and swore he would grow up someday and realize why a relationship between an adult and a “teen” was wrong. It wasn’t. Mercury proved that.

Sun and Mercury were never in a relationship, but they had something romantic. They had even kissed once.
Mercury wouldn’t tell the black hole about the kiss, would he? Of course not, but he may have told Saturn.

“Did Mercury tell you guys anything about me?” Sun tried to appear casual, but his grating voice gave him away. Neither Sun nor Saturn were ever casual.
“No.” Sun could see Saturn roll his eyes through his translucent rings. That overdramatic bitch.
“Did you tell anything to Sagittarius?”
“Yeah. I told him I have rings now.” Was that supposed to be a joke? He was referring to the only other time Saturn had gotten Sagittarius’ help, to avoid the consequences of his actions all those years ago.

“No, silly!” Sun forced a laugh and a wide smile. Titan wasn’t even listening anymore, but watching his newfound twin outside the window. “I mean, this time around, what did you tell him?”
“Nothing you don’t already know.” What a bitch! Sun didn’t know he was hurting Mercury so much he had to run away. Sun didn’t know any of that.

Mars and Venus opened the door.
“Hey, sun.” Mars smiled. It was so fake. Everyone was so fake. Sun only had Mercury.

Truthfully, Venus wasn’t fake like all the others. He was aggressive, he was a bully, he was Sun’s second least favorite planet after Saturn, but he wasn’t a liar. He hated a lot of people and he made sure they knew it. He hated Mercury, too.
“It’s not fair how you treat Mercury.” Sun told Venus. He watched Venus’ expression shift from annoyance to pure rage. Like, so much rage, that he would have lunged at the sun had mars not stopped him. “He cares about you.” The anger simmered down just a little.

“You are a sick, disgusting, person.” Venus hissed. He was angry all the time, but now he seemed almost heartbroken, instead of just furious. What did Mercury tell him?

Venus would never understand what it was like to be Sun. None of the other stars understood either. It was just Mercury.

But maybe Mercury didn’t understand. He left Sun just when he needed him the most. But, to be fair, he needed Mercury ‘the most’ all of the time. Was the sun too much?

Sagittarius walked in after more unbearable silence, looking calm. He was always so level headed. Sun could be begging on his knees for Sagittarius to not leave him, and he would barely raise an eyebrow. But he wouldn’t beg this time. He wanted Sagi to leave.
“All of you, leave. Go back to your orbits.” He waved the others away. They hurried out the door, Saturn clutching Titan because Titan was the moon that he didn’t have to give away.

“Sol.”
“Sagi.”
“Don’t call me that. I’m not a kid.” His light eyes narrowed. “And neither are you.” What was he trying to say?
“What? What did Mercury tell you?”
After looking down at the ground for a long moment, Sagittarius walked up to him. He towered over Sol. “He told me you abused and groomed him.”

…What?

“I…” Sol was absolutely speechless. No? What? Nothing made sense. He had sent solar flares his way, and there was an age gap..but…“Mercury didn’t say no.”
“Still, you were much older than him. You should have been the one to say no.”
“Like you did to me all those years ago?” Sol hissed at him. The black hole didn’t react.
“Yes, like I did. I wouldn’t prey on one of my smaller stars.”
“You broke my heart-“
“That’s off topic.” Yes, the topic was Mercury. Lying, backstabbing, Mercury that Sol still loved more than anyone. That he would do anything for.

“So, are those accusations true?”

…

…

“Yes.” Sol really wanted to just die. He wanted to kill himself in front of Mercury and make him regret everything. But then all the Earthlings would die. He was forced to stay alive.

Still, he could dream of holding the knife up to his chest, Mercury crying and begging him to not follow through with it. He could dream of betraying Mercury and plunging it in anyway. And in his final moments, Mercury would rush over to him and give him the apology he deserved. Not just from Mercury, but from everyone. Mercury would be sorry. Stupid Saturn would be sorry. Sagittarius would be sorry. And-

“I’ll send a blue giant star from this spiral arm to check on your system every now and then.” Because Sagittarius couldn’t be bothered to do it himself, and Sol meant nothing to him. Maybe Sol groomed Mercury, but he never left like Sagi did. Mercury had it so much better than Sol.

“I always knew you were unstable.” Sagi’s calm facade dropped for the first time in this entire era of the solar system as he spat out the last words and spun around, slamming the door behind him.

Chapter Text

Venus had just washed his hair. He was ready to comb it out and straighten it after it dried, but he wanted to get his curls back. Ever since he started trying to become “nice” to Mercury, he had also gotten new a bottle of leave in conditioner that wasn’t years old and unused. And then Mercury left and his whole world was thrown upside down, topped by the realization that he was actually in love with the pipsqueak. But now he was back on track.

So why was he taking the conditioner to the burnt up garden?

He was there, and it was beautiful. You could barely tell this was the place where two planets collided. The wind was warm. The only giveaway of the area’s past was that underneath the smell of grass, there was the smell of ashes from long ago. Other than that, it was just like how it used to be.

Venus shoved the leaves blocking his view aside, and jumped when he saw Mercury, lying down on the log, staring at the sky. He stirred from the sound. Venus ran back to the other side of the leaves.

“I can see you, Venus.” Mercury said.
“M-move.” Venus grumbled. He pushed the leaves aside again and entered, motioning for Mercury to move aside on the log. Mercury groaned but sat up anyway.

“Why are you here?” Venus asked.
“Why are you here?” Mercury retorted.
“…I don’t know.” He answered. Mercury just nodded.
“Oh, are you…putting conditioner in your hair? I didn’t know you still do that.” Mercury eyed his orange, fried hair.
“I don’t. I just started before you ran away. Or, well, I was going to.” Venus looked away.

“I could help!” He heard from behind him. Venus felt heat rising to his face. “Please?” Venus shouldn’t have turned back, but he did anyway. And it was big brown puppy eyes, like Venus was expecting. Eyes that he found himself unable to say no to. He wordlessly and expressionlessly gave Mercury the bottle, and the smaller planet smiled. His smile was brighter than the sun could ever be.

“How are things going with the sun?” Venus cautiously asked. He knew he had to tread lightly. Mercury still had the last of the burn marks on his body from the Solar flare that started this whole thing.
“…Um…” Mercury’s smile faltered just a little. “Well, Sagittarius is sending a blue star to check on Sun and make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone. So no more solar flares.” Mercury fiddled with the bottle, avoiding Venus’ gaze. Solar flares weren’t everything Mercury had to go through, though.
“If he ever tries anything, and I mean anything, tell us.” Venus said. “Please.”
“Okay…” Mercury sighed and got back to the bottle of conditioner. “I’ll tell you guys, and the blue star.”
“You promise?”
Mercury nodded, his eyes crinkling ever so slightly. “I promise. I won’t let myself get hurt anymore.”
Venus felt he needed to tell Mercury how none of it was his fault, but it was clear Mercury wanted this conversation to end.

Mercury sat on the log like he was riding a horse in Venus’ direction. Venus just put his legs on the log and leaned his head back. The smaller planet scooted just a little closer and Venus’ heart started racing. He wasn’t even paying attention to the hair anymore. He was just hyperfocused on every little thing pipsqueak did.
“Are we friends?” Venus asked. That was such a weird question, why did he ask that?
“Can we be?” Mercury responded. So he actually wanted to be friends with Venus. After everything he did.
“You tell me, I asked first.” Venus dropped his head back a little. Was he doing a good job at hiding his emotions or was he miserably failing?
“…Yes. We’re friends.” Mercury declared. Venus’ face felt hot, but it always did, he told himself. He was the hottest planet.

“Your hair is still beautiful.” Mercury said suddenly, then his eyes went wide and he looked away. Venus couldn’t help but laugh, but he stopped.
“If you’re making fun of my name-“ Venus started, brows furrowing.
“I’m not!” Mercury exclaimed. He let go of his hair and sat normally, swinging his legs and not daring to look in Venus’ direction. Venus could describe his own face in a number of ways, none of them positive. And pretty was not one of them, for sure. But Mercury called him pretty, so Venus was…pretty?
Venus sat up, too. “Look at me.”
“No.” Mercury laughed.
“I just want to see if you’re pretty, too.”
“You don’t get to decide that.” For a second Venus wished he had Mercury’s confidence. Mercury turned to look at him anyway, and Venus‘ face only got hotter. Mercury’s face was pretty, not whatever Venus had above his neck.

Maybe some demons took control of the orange planet’s body that he couldn’t fight off, but he felt compelled to gently lift Mercury’s face up by the chin. Mercury looked at him absolutely shocked, but didn’t resist. Venus studied his face, bringing it only a little bit closer. He could look into those eyes forever. He wanted to waste time counting all those freckles. Mercury made a high pitched sound, so he dropped it. Venus should have asked before getting close like that. And now he made him uncomfortable. He was making everything worse, again.

“So?” Mercury snapped him out of his thoughts. “Am I pretty?” Yes.
“Eh…” Venus made a “so-so” motion with his hand, snickering as he looked at the pipsqueak’s appalled face.
“Well, I take back what I said! You’re not pretty either!” Mercury crossed his arms, pretending to be mad.
“Fine, you’re cute.” Venus admitted. Mercury covered his face. “Why’re you covering it?”
Mercury made a flustered noise, and his wings flew out from the sides of his head. Venus could see hints of a smile.

Did he like him back, or what?
Venus coughed and cleared his throat. “Are you gonna finish putting the conditioner in, or what, pipsqueak?” Was he allowed to call him pipsqueak?
“Yeah, yeah, okay.” Mercury huffed.

Venus felt almost confident enough to say the other half of what he wanted to say back in the car. Almost. There was a big jump in telling someone “you’re cute”, and telling someone “I love you”. Maybe he would have to wait a little longer.

But he had done enough waiting. He had been in love with Mercury since before his name was Mercury. They had known each other for years. Still, it was going to be so awkward.
Mercury ran his fingers through Venus’ hair and his breath hitched. Just say it, Venus. Rip the bandaid off. Now or never-

“I love you.” Mercury said.

Venus choked on air and sat up straight.
“What?” He asked way too loudly. His heart was hammering inside his chest. He whipped his head around to find Mercury looking down at the ground meekly. There was no way Venus heard that right. He was never that lucky. “What?” He calmed down and asked a little softer.
“Nothing.” Mercury was still looking down, refusing to make eye contact with him. He looked like he really, truly regretted saying that.
“What did you say?”
“It’s not-“ mercury stammered, but repeated it anyway. “I said I love you.” Venus could barely hear him.
“You asshole.” Venus gritted his teeth. “I was gonna say it first.” His expression shifted and he smirked at Mercury.

It took him a second to get it, but when he did, Mercury perked his head up, surprised. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. His entire face was shades of pink.
“O-okay.” Mercury finally murmured.
“That’s it? Okay?” Venus raised an eyebrow.
“Yeah.” Mercury brought his knees up to his chest to bury his face in.

“Can I kiss you?” Venus said, and immediately started yelling at himself in his head. He looked confident to Mercury, or at least he hoped he did, but on the inside he was losing his mind.

Mercury nodded hesitantly. He really didn’t want to force Mercury, or make him uncomfortable.
“Are you sure?” He scooted only a little bit closer to Mercury, trying to find a strange balance between holding him tight and giving him space to. Mercury nodded again, the smallest smile tugging at his lips.
“If you don’t want to, you know you can just tell me, pip-“ Mercury shook his head and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

The smaller planet smirked watching Venus’ eyes go wide and his face turn crimson, but matched his expression when Venus narrowed his eyes and got closer to his face. He closed the gap, and watched those big brown eyes close slowly before closing his own. Venus ran his fingers through Mercury’s hair.

Mercury tilted his head. His hands found Venus’ chest, and clutched at the tank top covering it. Venus’ tongue slipped between Mercury’s slightly parted lips, analyzing his body language for any hesitancy at all, but there was none. Mercury wanted this as much as he did.
Venus pressed more into the kiss, tilting his head too to lock his lips with the smaller planet’s, before he heard Mercury make a short pained sound and pull away.

“What?” Venus was still holding Mercury’s head.
“It’s just a wound on my tongue.” He answered.
Venus’ brows furrowed. “How did you get a wound on your tongue?”
“I bit it.” Mercury saw Venus’ eyes widen in worry and backtracked with a smile. “It doesn’t matter, it’ll heal in a few days.” Mercury pressed another kiss onto his lips, hands going from clutching the fabric to lying flat on Venus’ chest, feeling Venus’ racing heartbeat. Venus had to make Mercury tell him everywhere he got hurt on his journey. Right now, Mercury was wearing short sleeves, letting a scratch on his arm be visible.
“How did you get that?” Venus furrowed his brows, lifting Mercury’s forearm.
“I dived straight onto concrete- it doesn’t matter.” Mercury almost laughed. Venus knew it was unexpected how concerned he was, Venus was surprised at it too, but he had a justification to be worried now. They loved each other, after all.

Venus couldn’t stop a smile from taking over. That sounded so sickeningly sweet. They loved each other. He didn’t turn away this time. He let Mercury see his smile, and see how happy Mercury made him. He plastered another kiss onto Mercury’s forehead. If Venus heard before this whole thing that he would have The Pipsqueak in his arms, he would have never believed it. Venus didn’t even believe it now.

“I should get back to putting this in your hair.” Mercury lifted the bottle.
“How long does it take?” Venus raised an eyebrow.
“Well, your hair is a lot longer now.” Mercury got back to threading his hands through Venus’ hair. There was no way it could take this long. Venus wasn’t complaining, but he also couldn’t spend all day in here with Mercury. Mars and Earth would suspect something was up.
“Are you done yet?”
“Um- I don’t remember when to stop..” Mercury trailed off, confused. Venus felt a strand of his hair. Pipsqueak put too much conditioner again. Venus rolled his eyes.
“You were supposed to stop five minutes ago, pipsqueak.” Venus stood up, looking down at the other.

“Am I allowed to call you pipsqueak?” After everything that happened, it felt sort of wrong, but it just slipped out when he was talking to Mercury. Mercury just nodded.
“Sure, I don’t mind anymore.”

Venus knew he and Mercury should meet up with Mars and Earth at some point to stop those two from getting suspicious, but he could only stare down at the scratch on Mercury’s arm. And Mercury had to face diamond rain at some point, which Venus knew he had other hidden cuts from. And there were already burn marks from that disgusting star.
“You’re coming to my house. I have to take care of all these injuries.” Mercury was about to protest, but Venus shook his head. “Pipsqueak, let me do this for you.” He tried to make his voice sound as stoic as possible, but the words gave it away.
The smaller planet looked right into Venus’ eyes, and then smiled. “Fine.” He held Venus’ hand, interlocking his still cold fingers with Venus’ warm ones, and took him out of the garden.