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Titan did not know this was going to happen. Jupiter banished from the system; a long-gone planet’s return, nor how did Saturn feel during Jupiter’s banishment.
His fingers felt cold even when he was close to the Sun, and his eyes widened with surprise yet also a pint of sadness as Jupiter had disappeared out of sight. The other moons of Saturn also stared in disbelief; Rhea holding onto Dione’s arms, and Enceladus’ mouth agape while Iapetus and Mimas shared the same blank expression.
In the back of his eyes, Ganymede and Europa's face looked almost like ... .guilt. Guilt for Jupiter’s banishment. Planet X (as Titan believed that was his name) did not share the expression, his eyes narrowed, and his lips thinned before heading back where Jupiter’s orbit once was. Titan wanted to talk to Ganymede and Europa about this, but he had things to deal with, namely his planet, Saturn.
It was no surprise to anyone that Jupiter and Saturn shared a special bond with each other. How they acted with each other. How they talked with each other. How they held each other’s hands while having a brief yet sweet conversation. How they told each other everything. How their history bound them together. And how they talked about each other.
They did not place a label on their relationships, but it was safe to assume–for everyone–that they were a couple . It was easy to see it. Jupiter and Saturn’s relationship was far more special than the label of “friends”.
To Jupiter, Saturn was the brightest planet, his light and joy. His anchor when there was no one to help him. His love .
To Saturn, Jupiter was the sweetest and most lovable celestial body. Saturn’s true “best friend”, his love .
But now Jupiter was banished, and Saturn had to watch it, eyes widened and almost in tears.
Saturn was nothing but quiet when they got back to his orbit, his moons following him and Titan next to him. Saturn’s quiet brought uneasiness to everyone of his moons. It was not usual for Saturn to be this quiet; he mostly tried to start conversations with his moons, which some (not Titan) ignored and rolled their eyes at.
His face was blank, staring into nothingness. Those once bright eyes shined no light anymore, instead a void of what used to be laid there. Saturn’s mouth twitched, and he sniffed, like he’s about to break down into tears anytime soon. Every moon exchanged glances, for they had never seen their planet like this before, even in times like the Moon Revolution.
“Dang, Jupiter’s banishment must’ve been hard on Saturn,” Mimas ignorantly stated.
Dione rolled her eyes, “What did you expect? Jupiter and Saturn were very close, thick as thieves.” Dione trailed off; her eyes looked away. Titan watched as it happened, even Dione was not in the mood of talking.
“Well?” Enceladus asked, “what should we do? Seeing Saturn like this….” he, too, had trailed off. Even Enceladus, a moon that had shared his dislike(?) of Saturn with clarity, did not sound annoyed but pained by his planet’s grief. “It doesn’t feel good,” he merely said.
“I think one of us should talk to him,” Tethys suggested, making the others jump as they didn’t know Tethys was here.
“Then who?” Iapetus' question left the major moons in deep ponder, but a decision was made quickly.
All eyes turned to Titan, the largest of them all. He jumped and blinked, not expecting this burden to be on him. “Me?” his voice did not appear to be stable as he pointed to himself, face twisted into an unsure face. “Why me?”
“Why wouldn’t it be you?” Iapetus crossed his arms, “you and Titan are close with each other after all, better than what we have with him.” A hint of envy was heard in those words that he spat out, and Titan knew what he was talking about. Saturn and his “close relationship”.
“Titan,” however, Rhea was the opposite, voice soft and encouraging. “Please, Saturn needs your help.” She placed her hand on his shoulders, reassuring Titan, and a choir of nodding heads in agreement was set off.
With no way to back down, Titan sighed. “Fine, I’ll go check on Saturn,” he mumbled to himself as he moved closer to Saturn, who was uncomfortably away from the moons, not like usual. As he moved closer, he could see the others face of brief joy before heading back to whatever they will be doing.
Saturn, as it seemed, had his sewing kit. His hands put to work, making something that Titan had not figured out what it was yet as he moved closer. And in his work, Saturn did not realize that Titan had come to him, but when he did, his voice was back to his usual self–cheery and jovial, unlike what he had been before.
“Titan!” Even if his voice was light-hearted, Saturn’s eyes remained the same void-like emptiness to them, and his face, even with that blank smile, was still pale. Was that tears on his cheeks? Titan did not know and did not make any assumptions. “Look at what I started!” He held up the thing that he was secretly sewing. And to Titan’s surprise, it was a brooch, one of a yellow lighting bolt, and underneath it was red roses, those flowers that Earth was joyful to talk about.
“W-wow Saturn,” Titan stuttered, “it looks amazing.” He was not lying, and, indeed, it looked amazing. Saturn’s sewing skills never seemed to disappoint Titan or the others, and he had seen those skills before. For example, the clothes that he was wearing, Saturn had made those out of his own two hands, same with Rhea’s, Dione’s, Mimas’, and the others’ clothes.
Saturn’s mouth tumbled into a small smile. He turned the fabric over and sided the needle under a stitch, basically finishing his work. “I’ve been working on this for a while,” he stated, lifting the brooch up to see it in its full glory. “Here, take it,” he brought the brooch to Titan, who moved backwards a little, surprised at the sudden action. “I want to see how it looks on someone.”
“Are you sure about this?” Titan hesitated, glancing at the brooch once again. In all his life, Saturn had given him many things that he personally had sewn; however, this felt….different for reasons unknown.
His planet let out a short chuckle, voice shaking. “Nonsense, dear Titan,” he simply commented, “trust me, this will look amazing on you.” With those convincing words, Titan slowly reached for the colorful brooch, hands shaking. Why was he so nervous? He had received many things from Saturn without feeling this nervous before.
After a while, the brooch sat on Titan’s shirt, and he bit his lips. The brooch was too large for his shoulders; therefore, it was made for someone much bigger than him, a moon.
Someone like a planet .
“Well?” Saturn’s voice brought Titan back to reality again. “How does it feel?” right, the brooch.
Titan adjusted it a little. “Feels alright,” he then stopped any talk about brooches and remembered why he came here in the first place. “Saturn-”
“Does it feel a little off by any chance?” Saturn interrupted, going on and on. “I can fix that if you want–”
“Saturn!” Titan’s voice rose, making Saturn stop abruptly, surprised and blinking. “Saturn, I,” he tried again, this time with a lower and soft voice than before. “I didn’t come here just to talk about a brooch.”
His planet’s face twisted in confusion, false confusion which made Titan frowned. “W-what do you mean?” he questioned, “what is there to talk about, Titan?”
“You know what, Saturn,” he assured, and his fingers touched the soft, silk-like brooch, one that was not made for him but for someone else, someone that was also important to Saturn. “What happened before, with Jupiter.”
Saturn did not respond immediately. His eyes went down, and any sign of pretense was gone from his face. Titan stared head-on at Saturn, waiting yet also nervous once again about his. His stomach twisted in ways he didn’t know it could. Was he too harsh? Too blunt?
“I knew you were here because of what had happened,” Saturn let out an empty and dry laugh.
“Saturn…”
He sniffed, and tears were coming back to Saturn’s eyes again. “Oh Titan,” he said, voice creaking. “Jupi-Jupiter’s gone….and…..”
Saturn did not finish his sentence before tears came down to his face, wetting his pale cheeks. Titan was sent here to talk to Saturn about what had happened, but he found himself watching, doing nothing to comfort his own planet.
“I should’ve known this was going to happen!” Saturn started to scold himself. When he looked back at Titan, his eyes were blurred by the tears, giving a glassy look to them. “I should’ve known he was coming back! But why didn’t I?” Saturn went on and on about how it was his fault that Jupiter had gotten banished; how Planet X was ejected in the first place. Yet, Titan did nothing. He couldn’t.
If Jupiter was here, he would’ve known what to do.
But Jupiter was gone, away from the system now. And Titan was here instead of Jupiter, helplessly watching Saturn break down in front of him.
Saturn had crawled into a ball, cradling himself, blaming himself for what had happened with the Sun and Jupiter. If Titan was honest, he had never seen Saturn like this. Sure, he's seen Saturn crying before but never like this.
“I miss him, Titan,” Saturn went on, “I miss him, Titan. I miss his smile, miss his laugh, miss his eyes, miss his voice….”
Titan’s breath hitched, and Titan went closer to Saturn.
Saturn’s head slowly rose up to see Titan. His cheeks, indeed, stained with tears. His lips trembling and wobbling than ever. His eyes red from crying, and his eyebrows trembled too. With Saturn crawled up into a ball like this, he was still bigger than Titan but not as much now. At first, the moon said nothing, gaining confidence.
Then he spoke:
“Saturn, I’m sure this was not your fault,” Titan said, his voice smooth and calming, unlike Saturn right now.
His planet’s eyes glinted from the Sun’s light but also from the tears. “H-how are you sure?” he croaked out, voice hoarse and using all his will. “How could you ever know that this wasn’t my fault?”
“Because,” Titan slowly mumbled out, a smile appeared on his face, reassuring Saturn. “I’m sure it was not your fault. And I’m sure Jupiter will agree with me that it’s not your fault.”
With the reference to Jupiter, Saturn broke down crying once again. This time, he hugged Titan, who let out a oof! in response, unaware that this was going to happen. Saturn grabbed tight on Titan’s shirt, sobbing unstoppable at this point with sorrow. Even with how big Saturn was compared to him, it somehow worked.
This reminded Titan of something. The aftermath of a fatal accident with a past friend of his–a past moon . When the moon died due to an accident, Saturn was the first person Titan went to, spilling about what had happened.
“I-I’m sorry, Saturn! I didn’t mean to- I….”
“Shhh. It’s alright, Titan. It’s not your fault that this happened. Everything’s going to be okay! Nothing’s wrong!”
With those words, Titan collapsed into Saturn’s arms, sobbing uncontrollably about what had happened, what he had done. To someone. To her.
Saturn cooed, whispering caring words into Titan’s ears. Telling him everything was going to be alright. He rubbed Titan’s back in reassurance.
Saturn continued to cry out loud in Titan’s arms.
And finally, Titan placed a hand on Saturn’s back in a reassuring way and closed his eyes while Saturn continued, patting his back.
“It’s alright, Saturn. Everything’s going to be alright.”