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Luna idly fiddled with the hem of his poncho as he sat in his orbit around Earth. He lightly sighed under his breath, and he laid back a little.
For what felt like the first time in a while—everything was okay.
Nothing was happening; nothing detrimental or dangerous going on.
Earth was humming an Earthling tune as he occupied himself in entertaining himself with something that Luna didn’t bother to recognise, or pay much attention to. The moon could clearly tell that Earth was happy though, and that’s what mattered.
Earth’s orbit in the Goldilocks Zone was perfectly warm as usual, and comfortably quiet. From this view, Luna could see the other planets in their orbits from afar—and when he leaned forward and narrowed his eyes, he was able to make out and differentiate the other planets’ moons.
The Solar System, for the most part, usually was buzzing with activity of all sorts by everyone and practically everything.
Of course, it was easy to imagine just that, considering all the work that needs to be done in a place so large—things to be checked, things to uphold, things to fix. So, obviously for most days in the Solar System, there were things going on.
Oftentimes, it was things like astronomical-related events. It could also just be something simple—like group games (which everyone found they really enjoyed), or less-liked meetings; planet and Sun meetings, or for Luna’s case, Moon Club meetings, which, although are relatively new compared to other types of meetings, have pleasantly proved to be of merit. Especially in recent times.
Moon Club meetings, for the most part, were generally useful. The moons would gather together and they’d all talk about the current state of the Solar System, especially regarding situations or relationship status with their planets. And if there were discrepancies or impediments somewhere, they’d do what they can to work together and attempt to try and fix it.
Much to their surprise, they learned they actually had quite the impact when coming to solve things together. Luna had hoped so with hundreds upon hundreds of moons—regardless of size.
And even if there are no problems with anyone, the moons can all meet together anyway to just talk; it was good for all the moons to be able to come and relate with each other. They could all relax for a bit, perhaps play games—or, as some moons might say, get a break from their “annoying” planets.
Though Luna found that amusing, that wasn’t usually the case for said moon. He went to Moon Club meetings as someone that could be of genuine help in other places of the Solar System.
And he also goes to the meetings because he has made friends. Good friends at that.
Surprisingly, other moons like himself unironically have a lot in common with him, and Luna has found himself enjoying talking to other moons. They were all so interesting, and their personalities were so vastly different from what he was used to. Which is. Mostly Earth.
But regardless. Luna definitely enjoyed the Moon Club meetings; it gave him something to look forward to besides… orbiting. And watching Earth. Being a moon. That sort of thing. Now I understand why Earthlings always keep themselves busy.
Because unlike most periods in the Solar System, this was a quiet state in particular—for everyone. There were no games or meetings going on.
And—as of now, Luna found himself bored out of his mind.
Luna wasn’t even this bored when watching Earth and the other planets play cards for days, and he would get pretty bored.
…Well. That example is a bit outdated—since as of late he has been playing cards with the planets. And it was awesome. He didn’t realise he learned so much just from watching, but he wasn’t a shabby player.
But unfortunately for the moon, no one was playing cards right now. Everybody was rather burnt out thanks to all the drama that has happened. All the Rockies were in their own orbits—resting, presumably. If Luna focused hard enough, he could hear one of them snoring in the distance.
Luna didn’t really want to listen to anyone snore, though. Talking with Dark even sounded nice, but he was conveniently asleep. Like usual.
…It was really weird, actually. Luna wasn’t used to being so bored. He felt like some sort of moonlet searching for constant stimuli—wanting to get his hands on whatever could entertain him.
It’s not like he was really desperate. But having something to do would be more than nice.
At least in Moon Club, he has things he has to do—like stuff to keep track of or to plan or suggest. Right now, he wasn’t doing anything.
Well, besides watching his planet. And that was important. But it was going to be uneventful for the foreseeable future.
Which was a good thing. A very good thing. Luna didn’t want any more eventful situations regarding his planet. He was good in that category for the next aeon.
In agreement to his thoughts, Luna momentarily looked up to peer at Earth—just out of the subconscious thought to ensure his planet was alright.
…
Yep. Everything was A-OK. Earth with his back to Luna was just materialising random crap like planet-sized armour and other miscellaneous things.
…
…Wait.
Luna quickly looked up again to try and see what Earth was actually doing.
Well, he couldn’t see whatever his planet was doing now because Earth was literally right in his face, smiling widely. It was a wonder Luna didn’t feel his gravity—their noses were basically touching.
Safe to say Luna was caught off guard, Luna yelped out a surprised “eep!”—and he backed away out of instinct. Earth’s smile just widened a little more.
To save his dignity rather than to actually chide his planet, Luna reproved—albeit with no real bite. “Earth!”
“Hi, Luna!” Earth smiled and blinked innocently.
“Earth, don’t scare me like that!” Luna tried to resemble seriousness, but the moon ended up chuckling, along with his planet. Luna however did place a hand over his chest to emphasise his fright, which had been genuine. Earth shrugged a bit. “Sorry!”
Earth was definitely not sorry. He had that smug grin on his face like he always did.
Luna brushed nonexistent (well, an infinitesimal amount of) dust off his clothes, and huffed as an attempt to cover up his momentary fluster. “Whatever. What are you doing?” he asked with a genuine, if a bit concerned, interest.
Earth shrugged again and turned back around to his collection of random crap. So I WASN’T seeing things. “Oh, y’know.”
“No, I don’t know,” Luna sassed with a barely hidden laughter. “What is all this? I- is that a freaking breastplate!?”
“Yup!” Earth was very proud of himself, clearly. He grabbed the bronze(?) breastplate to show it off to Luna.
Luna then had a very vivid flashback of Earth gesticulating and excitedly rambling about breastplates and how they were worn by Earthlings in armies, especially during the ancient or medieval times.
…Not long ago, really. Earthlings change so quick. Earth pressed the breastplate against the front of his body for size-comparison; it seemed to be his size. Well, obviously.
“See, I made it my size.”
…
Luna made a face.
“What, you don’t like my armour?”
“Earth, why would you make this. When are you ever going to need this.”
“It’s to protect me from stray asteroids, obviously!”
“Big ones don’t even come our way, Earth.”
“It’s for the small ones.”
Luna couldn’t hold back a smirk. “The small ones burn up in your atmosphere.”
Earth playfully snarled. “Shut up.” He then sighed dramatically, “Fine. I see you don’t like my ancient Roman bronze breastplate.”
Luna watched on in amusement as Earth dematerialised the copperware with an overly sulk-ish expression. The moon’s focus was then brought to the other objects his planet materialised.
Luna squinted. “...What the heck is all this?”
“Stuff.”
The Moon was thoroughly entertained. “Very helpful explanation, Earth.”
“I know. I’m just so good at elaborating.” Earth grinned. Luna rolled his eyes with a smile.
Earth must have been really bored, because more than half of the stuff floating around was literally the definition of random. There were also a handful of fidget toys—or, really, they were just toys. Luna naturally floated closer to Earth so he could grab one—one with a bunch of buttons for different sensory purposes, as Luna tried to recall.
“...Huh.” The moon hummed.
“Look at all these fidgets I made,” Earth announced. Luna took a moment to genuinely take in the sheer amount of toys surrounding Earth. How in the Universe did I miss this.
Luna let out a little laugh. “So, like, did you plan on playing with all of these within a reasonable timeframe?”
Earth shrugged. “Honestly, just kinda wanted to see what I could make—oh!” The planet grabbed a fidget. “Look at this dino Pop It!”
Earth proceeded to show off a dinosaur-shaped, really it was more Gozilla-shaped, rubber, indented fidget toy. The planet looked very proud of himself, and seemed to be expecting an equal reaction. Luna leaned forward and poked a couple of fingers into the bubbles of the Pop It, making soft clicks as the material popped out the other side.
“...Heh. Cool.” Luna decided to discard his original fidget and choose a new one—another Pop It, except unlike Earth’s, it was a plain circular shape. It was also grey, with different, darker shades of grey in particular spots—covering area mostly above the middle of the toy. Hmm. “Hey Earth, this one looks like me!”
“I know! It’s a little Luna Pop It!” The planet poked Luna’s fidget with a pleased expression. It made Luna smile and his core filled with warmth.
Luna observed his Pop It before a thought came to mind. “Wait! Aren’t these the toys that got really popular in… um.” The moon snapped his fingers repeatedly as if it would help him remember faster before pointing a finger at Earth. “Covid? Corona?”
Earth paused for a second, staring blankly at his dino Pop It. “...Yeah,” the planet replied before he looked back up at Luna with a beaming smile. “You remembered that!”
Luna’s own smile tugged at his face as a natural reaction to his planet’s. “Kinda hard not to,” the moon reasoned. “That’s, like, all you talked about. Besides from how ‘Vine was so much better than TikTok.’”
“Hey!” Earth exclaimed. “Vine was so much better!”
“Here we go again,” Luna droned, lightly rolling his eyes. Earth in response shoved his moon with both hands, which Luna theatrically scoffed at. And just like clockwork, he shoved Earth back, which led to a petty match of pushing back and forth between the two. It was a very serious fight, but they had suspiciously entertained expressions as they fought.
Somehow, it turned from shoving each other to just plain tackling each other head on, thanks to Earth who clearly thought it was a genius idea to jump on Luna like some sort of wild space cat—thank the Stars that gravity didn’t really fall in space. And Luna, the brave moon he is, fought back with all his might—and actually managed to break free from his planet’s vice-grip, only now it was him to be the one tackling Earth, repeating a vicious cycle.
Breathless laughter escaped the both of them as they wrestled. Luna couldn’t tell if Earth was taking it easy on the moon or if the laughing was wearing the planet out. Or Luna was just a very strong moon—and Luna liked those odds the best, anyway. They kept twisting and turning, clearly trying to out-manoeuvre each other in whatever ways possible.
After the quick stand-off, they both ended up as a thoroughly tussled and tangled panting ball of limbs. It wasn’t clear who won—but it had definitely been Luna. Giggling like younglings as they extracted themselves from the pile, Luna took a moment to catch his breath, and grabbed his fidget that had been so rudely knocked out of his hand. Oh my Stars, that was so fun.
The moon debated whether or not he should put his hood up, ultimately deciding to leave it down. After a second, Earth floated a bit towards all the toys to dematerialise all of the other fidgets besides the ones he and Luna had. As the planet’s hand reached out towards the accumulated pile of things, something caught Luna’s eye.
“Headphones!” The moon gasped and immediately reached over his planet to snatch the headphones before Earth could dematerialise it as well.
They held eye contact for a good ten seconds. Earth looked incredibly amused.
“...Can I keep this for myself?”
“Knock yourself out.”
Luna made a little sound of victory and put the headphones on around his neck. “Thanks,” Luna grinned. Win.
Another thought came to Luna’s mind. “Why did you make headphones?”
“To—to be able to enjoy listening to stuff? Earthling music? Duh.” Earth snorted.
“Okay, but you literally never wear headphones.”
“Pfft, yes I do?”
Luna deadpanned. “Since when.”
The moon’s mouth went agape when Earth snatched the headphones from around his neck and put them on his own head. “Since now.”
“Hey! Give them back!” The moon reached out to grab the headphones, more than willing to tackle Earth again in that second, but then deemed it unfruitful and huffed in defeat. “I thought those were mine, now.”
Earth simply smirked, smugly stretching his arms behind his head. “Well, I made them, so they are technically mine.”
“You said I could have them!”
“I never said that!” Earth laughed. “I said ‘Knock yourself out’!”
“Unfair! I’ll knock you out if you don’t give them back!”
“W-What??”
This caused the both of them to burst out laughing, which lasted for a moment.
“Can I have the headphones?? Please!” Luna begged with a stifled smile, even clasping his hands to really set the image.
The planet groaned, but he began taking off the headphones—even if he was acting like it was the most difficult thing ever. Earth also had a held-back grin.
“Ugh! Fine, you greedy moon!” Earth threw the headphones (that he stole from Luna that Luna had rightfully obtained) at Luna. The moon caught them with a practised ease, and once again they both found themselves chuckling when neither of them could hold back their smiles.
As Luna put the headphones back around his neck, Earth rested his head against the moon’s shoulder, letting out a barely audible sigh. The two of them played with their fidgets for a moment in comfortable silence, with nothing else but overlapping clicking from the Pop Its they played with sounding in space. It was very pleasant and soothing to Luna, and he found himself comfortable.
The moment of silence was nice while it lasted. But of course, nothing lasts forever. Earth made that very clear when he groaned—unnecessarily loud—and threw himself back to make his displeasure known to Luna.
“Luna.” Earth fake-sobbed from his sprawled position.
Thanks to his planet, Luna wasn’t that bored anymore. “What?”
“I’m bored.” Well, great.
“I can tell.”
Earth sat up to dramatically cry into Luna’s shoulder before immediately pulling away and tossing his Pop It somewhere behind him to fly aimlessly through the field of space. Earth then leaned over to grab a glass bottle—no—container of… what’s that called again?
“Look.” Earth showed off the container of ‘cologne’. My planet is retarded.
“...So, what if I don’t want to? Hypothetically.”
Earth pouted.
Luna sighed but decided to humour Earth, and squinted at the label on the glass container. “...So… log neh.”
Earth’s face contorted with barely contained laughter. Luna made a face again in genuine, albeit amused, confusion. “...What?”
“Luna, it’s kuh loan,” Earth barely squeaked out. Luna lightly flushed in both embarrassment and realisation.
“Whatever! I can’t help it that your freaking Earthlings spell it weird like that!”
Earth seemed entertained. “What, did you forget what cologne was?”
“No??” Luna shot back before his dignity crumbled further. “It’s—”
He hurriedly gestured with his hands as he spoke to save face. “It’s that alcohol that humans spray on themselves to smell nice or whatever!”
Earth stared at Luna before he hummed with a sceptical sort of look. “...Lucky guess.”
“It wasn’t a guess,” Luna snorted. “I knew what it was, I just… forgot that it’s spelled like that.”
“Let’s pretend I believe you,” Earth drawled with a wave of his hand.
Luna proceeded to flick the side of his planet’s face repeatedly, using both hands. Said planet squealed. “Ah! O-Okay, okay! I’m sowwy!”
Luna grinned, satisfied. “You better be.”
Earth stuck his tongue out at Luna. Luna reciprocated. Earth blew a raspberry instead—and successfully one-uped Luna, causing the moon to giggle. This caused Earth to grin in turn—and the corners of the planet’s eyes crinkled with affection before the look of an idea flashed on Earth’s face.
Unfortunately, before Luna could interrogate, Earth raised his hand that held the cologne and proceeded to send a single spritz of it at Luna. The action seemingly answered the moon’s question without him even needing to ask.
Luna was able to shut his eyes in time. He felt the light mist be pulled in by his gravity until it stuck to him, especially his face. Lovely.
“Ugh. In my face?” Luna deadpanned again, opening his eyes when he was sure nothing got into them. Now it smelled very pungent of… cologne. Only cologne. He snorted. “Really?”
Earth ignored Luna, looking at the bottle. “...Eau de toilette.” The planet muttered, before looking up at his moon in a manner telling poor Luna that Earth was gonna start yapping to his core’s content. “Did you know that it means ‘toilet water’?-”
“Yes,” Luna interrupted, rubbing at his nose with the back of his hand to try and get rid of the stubborn scent Earth very helpfully sprayed on him. “Yes I did.”
Earth proceeded to spray some of it on himself, a spray for either side of his neck. His face contorted into that of discontentment. “Eugh. I don’t like that scent.” The planet also dematerialised the thing of perfume. Oh, that was the word I was looking for.
There was a moment of quiet. Luna looked at his planet fondly, watching as Earth got rid of a few things he had made previously and then created a couple new things—one of them being a card game. Subconsciously, Luna dematerialised the fidget he held.
As Luna observed his planet, he noted the way Earth’s posture was slightly stiff, and how the planet bit his lip—like he wanted to speak but was holding his tongue.
…
The moon sighed.
“...Remind me why they call it that, again?” Luna asked Earth—and Earth completely lit up at the question. Literally. Luna saw the way his planet’s eyes sparkled.
“Well, actually they call it that because ‘toilette’ from French originally meant ‘dressing’ or ‘washing’! And then, over time, it…”
Luna unintentionally was beginning to zone out, and his planet’s words were but an indistinguishable murmur. Earth was very animatic as he explained in detail, Luna could see.
He really enjoyed listening to Earth talk. Even if the planet had an endless pile of things to say, it was so good to hear Earth’s voice be carefree and laid back—not worried or stressed—just something as simple as being happy.
Seeing his planet comfortable enough to play around was definitely a rewarding feeling—it was overwhelming. Luna felt like he had nearly forgotten how fun it was to laugh and play and joke around with Earth. After everything, it’s felt like forever since they got a chance to take a break and joke around.
And, boy. It was so awesome to be able to joke around.
And sure, there was always a time and a place to joke. But being able to joke with his planet after the hardship of it all just solidified their relationship even further, Luna felt. It showed that the two of them were comfortable enough with each other in that way to mess around and lay back—because in the end, Luna knew he could trust Earth, and vice versa, to be there for each other and build each other whenever it was needed, even when it sometimes seemed otherwise.
But that was what made their relationship stronger. What was that Earthling saying? Brother sharpens brother?
Luna clicked back into reality, and now Earth was staring at his moon with a bright, expectant smile. Clearly, Earth must have finished his spiel. The planet also looked at Luna like he had anticipated that the moon would be able to catch every detail.
Luna nodded idly, since Earth awaited a response. “...Interesting.” I… didn’t catch any of that.
Earth seemed to be sufficiently pleased, and he grinned. “Right? The history behind it is super neat! Most of the time, labels on sorts of things like these have a real, generally useful meaning. In fact, usually when these bottles of perfumes have the words ‘eau de’ and then whatever, the last word is telling the alcohol percentage and content in the perfume versus the other liquids! For example, when it has ‘eau de parfum’ as the label, it-”
“Earth?”
Earth paused before chuckling sheepishly. “...Heh, sorry.”
“N-No,” Luna followed suit, in turn chuckling sheepishly—putting a hand up to gesture. Dummy. I should have specified first. “I don’t mind, really. I just…”
Earth looked at him patiently. Luna opened his mouth to speak.
…
…Aaaand he forgot what he was gonna say.
“...I, uh… forgot what I was gonna say,” the moon shyly chuckled again. Earth simply grinned at that.
“That’s okay,” Earth spoke sympathetically before making a sound of remembrance. The planet reached behind him to grab the deck of cards he made. “Oh, Luna, do you wanna-”
“Thanks,” Luna interrupted abruptly before adding, “...for… messing around with me, I mean.”
Earth paused in his tracks. The planet blinked and his expression softened in a way that made Luna’s core pang.
There was a moment of silence, and Earth floated a little closer to Luna.
“...You’re welcome,” Earth murmured.
They both shared a look, and Luna looked down—beginning to feel something fuzzy well up inside him. Both of their demeanours seemed to soften slightly.
“...I like messing around with you,” Earth admitted quietly, drawing the moon’s attention again. He offered Luna a little smile, which Luna returned with warmth. The planet’s face softened further, “And I’m sorry. That I’ve… neglected that with you-”
“I-It’s not really your fault, Earth,” Luna quickly assured, shaking his head. The moon felt a wave of something wash over him—and it made his chest feel slightly tight. “We’ve… had a lot going on, lately.”
“...Yeah,” Earth mumbled. “...But… I could have tried harder.”
“We both could have tried harder,” Luna corrected, placing a hand on Earth’s shoulder. Earth looked down in thought with a slightly furrowed expression.
Luna spoke up, letting his hand fall. “...I’ve kinda been neglecting it, too.”
Earth looked up. “No you haven’t?”
“Yes, I have. I just…” Luna swallowed a little, fidgeting. “I haven’t really been… initiating, either. Y’know?”
“...That doesn’t mean you’ve neglected it.”
“Yes it does.”
They both seemed to take a moment to think. The silence was strangely comforting.
“...You didn’t mean to neglect it, though?” Earth offered quietly.
“Neither did you,” Luna pointed out. Much to Luna’s displeasure, Earth still looked more guilty than the moon liked.
“...I guess not,” the planet mumbled. “But that doesn’t make it okay.”
Luna couldn’t refute that. The circumstances of recent events had just made it so that no one was really given time to relax and put their guard down. And it was true—it wasn’t okay, for anybody; it was unhealthy not to have a break at least every once in a while. Unfortunately for most everybody, that was the case for quite some time—especially for Luna’s planet. But that didn’t make it Earth’s fault.
Luna didn’t want the Earth to be carrying a blame that wasn’t really even his. And truth be told—it wasn’t Luna’s, either.
But Luna would be blatantly lying if he said that it didn’t hurt at all. It did hurt when he couldn’t hang out with Earth. It hurt a lot.
After a good couple of seconds, Luna nodded. “...Yeah,” the moon ended up sighing.
“When was the last time we messed around, anyway?” Earth asked himself, if anything—scratching the back of his head. Luna also found himself pondering Earth’s question.
Much to Luna’s own surprise, he couldn’t pinpoint the last time they messed around. “I’m not sure,” the moon mumbled, sounding fairly surprised as he rubbed his nose again. He couldn’t even come up with an estimate. Before the Kuiper Belt thing, but definitely after… agh. Freaking itchy nose.
Before Luna knew it and could catch himself, Luna sneezed. His planet stared at him before attempting (and failing) to hide the following snickers.
“Pfft,” Earth ended up grinning a bit, “was that from the cologne?”
“...I think so.” The moon rubbed at his nose a little more before the itch thankfully disappeared. “I think you got some up my… nose.”
“I didn’t even aim for your nose,” Earth defended halfheartedly.
Luna smirked at his planet’s immediate defense. “Still got up my nose.”
“You shouldn’t have breathed it in.”
It truly was a talent how Earth could make Luna deadpan so much. Really, the amount of times in a single orbit, let alone one of Earth’s days-
“Fine…” Earth sighed heavily like it pained him. “I’m sorry.”
“Forgiven,” Luna humphed, tilting his chin up. After a second, he laughed, “Did you have to do it in my face?”
“Yes.” Earth’s answer was a statement. He grinned, “The face you made was funny.”
Luna couldn’t hide his amusement in his planet’s response, letting out a sound that was half chuckle, half scoff. The two of them shared a knowing laugh.
No one said anything for a minute, and Luna simply absorbed the feeling of being in the presence and gravity of his planet. Earth moved closer to the moon again. “...Luna?”
“...Yes?”
Earth showed Luna the deck of cards in his hands—it was Uno. “...Do you wanna play cards with me?”
Luna blinked at the small sounding question. The way Earth had asked him made it seem like the planet wanted to play with Luna—and it reminded Luna like that of a child, or how a child would’ve asked. It almost reminded him of Phobos and Deimos. The thought endeared him to no end.
The moon also found that he was incredibly appreciative, unable to keep an affectionate smile from tugging at his face.
He nodded. “...I’d like that,” Luna murmured.
Earth smiled back. “Okay,” he murmured in return, grinning. Seating himself in a crossed-legged position, the planet began taking the game cards out of the box. “Shall I shuffle? Or will you do the shuffling?”
Luna instinctually imitated Earth’s position, also sitting down with his legs crossed. He hummed, and offered his hand palm up to Earth. “I’ll do the shuffling,” the moon volunteered. Luna felt as Earth gently slapped the deck of cards into his hand. Luna smiled, “You suck at it.”
“What?” Earth chuckled. “No I don’t.”
Luna grasped his fingers around the cards, bringing them to himself and using his other hand to split the deck into two. “Last time you shuffled, I got the same colour for every card.”
“That was one time!”
“One time too many.”
Earth reached over to swat at the deck with a playful smile—and fortunately, Luna saved the cards with fast reflexes, yanking his hands away from Earth’s. As Luna began shuffling the cards, the moon smiled to himself, thinking about how glad he was to be playing cards with his planet—and how the day seemed to be going by faster already.