Chapter Text
I woke up to the sound of deafeningly loud popping in my ear,
Ouch. The Earthlings are still playing around with fireworks? It’s been like three days since their new year! Why do they insist on torturing me?
I slowly open my eyes. I wait a moment as they adjust to the light, I’m sort of sitting in the shape of a very wide, and very slanted capital N which was comfortable when I woke up, but now that my senses are beginning to come more sharply into focus I notice a sharp pain at the top of my spine, traveling all the way down to it’s base. fuck
My hair is tangled up with my wings because of course it is, having wings on your head is not ideal is something I’ve come to realise in my billions of years of life.
I sigh, beginning to untangle my hair, freeing my wings, which have fluffed up in my annoyance, which in turn frustrated me even more.
I hate waking up.
I realise that my eyes have long adjusted to the light and I begin to look around, the pain in my neck flaring up as I do so, I restart, looking around more carefully this time. I see Luna a little beyond their orbit, they appear to be preparing for something?
That’s when I remember, Luna has a moon club meeting extremely early in the morning today.
(This thought sets off a train of thoughts that I was really trying my very best to put aside and forget about because they make me incredibly frustrated any time I think of them, but alas, it seems I am a guest within my own mind, for I never seem to be at the wheel.)
Why early in the morning you may be asking? Because everyone in the solar system goes by a different internal clock.
It’s sooooo annoying! Most of the solar system goes by a standard 30 hour day (excluding Mars, me and Luna. Probably a few others as well but I don’t know anyone other than the rockies “day” and “night” hours) However, even with the “standard system time” set by the sun, there isn’t a standard morning or night time! So Saturn and Jupiter have the same waking hours and their moons do too, but their waking hours are almost the exact opposite to Mars’ and mine! Leaving about a 4 hour window where we’re all awake at the same time. This means that when the moons have a meeting, the moons of Saturn and Jupiter set the time, and don’t even consider ours or the ice giant’s moons!
Poor Luna is awake at about 2AM getting ready for a several hour long meeting after a terrible night's sleep due to the extreme amount of fireworks still going off that can often be heard even from their orbit. I feel terrible, both physically and emotionally for vastly different reasons. Emotionally for them though.
I cut away from that train of thought as I shift up, now uncomfortable in my previously blissful position because my earthlings are asses and can’t let me have nice things. This new position is much kinder to my back, if not perfect. I think for a moment before conjuring up a coffee, iced macchiato, one of Luna’s favourites (Sorry to the earthling I stole it from, you are probably a nice person but I needed this coffee) and I slowly allow it to float over to Luna, carefully guiding it with my gravity.
Luna noticed the shift in gravity and looked up from their phone, they looked exhausted. They saw that I was awake first, smiling tiredly and calling “Morning Earth! Earthlings flinging more fireworks around?” I sigh, “You know it.” It was then that they noticed the coffee continuing it’s steady journey towards them. “Oh thanks!” They called, their smile looking less laborious. Gratitude written all over their face.
While caffeine wasn’t as effective when it comes to celestial bodies, it should be enough to get them through the day.
“No problem” I smile. Neither of us had the energy to hold a conversation, especially before the day Luna was going to have, so our brief talk faded and I was once more left to my thoughts as Luna alternated between rummaging through their different messages for more information on the meeting, and sipping coffee like it was a lifeline. I was left to think.
I still felt antsy about Luna attending these meetings, I know that they have an important role in the club so their attendance is pretty much essential, but after the whole moon revolution thing I still feel anxious when letting them out of my sight at all, only about a month ago did I finally stop needing their constant presence to know that they are and will be ok.
Honestly I think Luna feels the same way about me, the way they look at me when they’re getting ready to leave for the meeting as if they’ll come back to the same disaster they did… last time. We have been clinging to each other as if when we let go, we’ll simply watch the other fade away, it’s been this way for the past month. It’s probably a good thing that we have a little bit of time apart, as much as I hate it.
I turn my thoughts away from this as Luna’s voice cuts right through them, “I’m gonna tell Mars to get over here when I’m picking up the little ones, to stabilize your axis. Is that ok?”
“Yeah that’d be nice, tell him that I might be back to sleep when he gets over though.” I yawn in the middle of saying. (It does not occur to me that poor Mars shouldn’t be woken up in the middle of the night the same way I was just to look after me, however, I was far too tired to consider that.)
It would be nice to have some company, asleep or not. After the- incident I haven’t enjoyed being alone, though if I’m being honest- I don’t think I ever have. “Ok, that’s alright. See you soon Earth, stay safe!” they exclaim, too far away now to speak at a normal level to me.
I yawn, more this time, and settle into a more comfortable position, letting the world around me fade away.
Mars —--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I jolted up, coming into awareness immediately, as I sensed a large shift in the gravity around me, disturbing my peaceful rest, only to instantaneously relax when I saw the Earth’s m- I mean Luna approaching me. Annoyance flared up in me before I took in their appearance. He- no,
they looked a little bedraggled and absolutely exhausted, sipping a half empty cup of coffee. Dragging his feet behind him as if they were dead weight.
I instantly felt bad for them. However my head was still a bit down in the dumps because I was still a just awoken planet at 2 in the goddamn morning so my response went:
“Hey Luna, any reason you’re over here at about… 2 in the morning?” I say without hostility but definitely with a little annoyance creeping in there through the wording and tone, damn it.
“Sorry Mars, I just came over to let you know I was leaving for a moon club meeting, so I was wondering if you could help stabilize Earth’s axis? And if Phobos and Deimos are up for it they should probably come to the meeting too.” They sounded as exhausted as they looked and a little shame crept it’s way into my head, I ignored that.
Anyhow I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to hang out with Earth, especially after everything happened. I feel like I need to rebuild the foundations of our relationship, and while we’re doing well so far, especially after the venting session with the other rockies. I still feel the need to repent for my overly harsh words. Even though I was definitely correct at the time, I certainly wasn’t anymore and with the mark that I know words can leave, I need to make sure he knows that.
“Oh, yeah of course I’ll help out! Also those two took a nap far too late in the day to get any sleep so I think they’re playing card games and chatting just out of earshot, over there” I say pointing to the asteroid belt. Now that I opened my senses out to my surroundings, I could hear them arguing in the distance, if only faintly.
”Great, thanks Mars!” They say, starting to float over to them before pausing and finishing. “By the way, Earth was awake when I last saw him, but he said he was gonna try to go back to sleep so if he’s asleep when you get there don’t be surprised.”
I wasn’t at all surprised by this, I was more surprised that he’d woken up in the first place. He wasn’t a deep sleeper by any means sure, however he often goes extremely long periods of time with little to no sleep, and by extremely long I mean long even by planetary terms, planets can go 3 weeks maximum without sleep if they never leave their orbit, doing such things is bad for our mental health, most of us stay awake for about 4 of our days before sleep on average.
I recently learned that Earth however… likes to push his body to the limits, often managing to do so without anyone else noticing. 1 and a half to 2 weeks being average somehow! So to think that he could still be a light sleeper after 2 weeks of little to no sleep is madness, but, clearly, what do I know?
“As expected, no worries! I’m probably going to conk out as soon as I arrive anyway. Bye Luna! Enjoy your meeting!” Is the response I settled on
“I’ll try! Take good care of Earth!”
Those were our last words to each other as they floated away.
I turned around and began to make my way over to where I could see Earth in the distance, seemingly relaxed, in an interesting position to say the least.
When I arrived into the usual orbit I took on when stabilizing the Earth’s axis, a bit further away than Luna’s usual orbit. I settled in and got comfortable, I could hear the faint sounds of different places on the Earth’s surface, though it was mostly quiet as of now, as I was on the dark side of his surface. It was sort of relaxing.
I watched the Earth for a while, the soft glow coming from their earthlings' homes, very welcoming and almost warming, if more mentally than physically, he looked beautiful as he slept. His usually loosely tied back, long, wavy hair, now cascading around him, flowing freely. Framing his angelic face perfectly, the wings on his head so soft looking, not a feather out of place.
He looked like a sculpture and my hazy brain might’ve actually believed that if it weren’t for the slow rise and fall of his chest, and the sounds of life that surrounded him.
The sounds slowly faded into the background as sleep’s calm embrace wrapped itself around me once more.