Chapter Text
Sun had gotten pretty good at watching the stars on the island these past few nights.
He could name more than a few of them. Could actually see a lot more lately without the clouds there to obscure them.
If anyone had asked him, he would've said he was just enjoying the evenings getting longer. The sky getting lighter. The clear air. The peace and quiet outside the house, away from the cats.
Not waiting for something. Not holding out all the hope he had left for anything to change.
Just …sitting.
Thinking.
Falling asleep and waking up later to a face full of sand, for all he cared.
Moon was back inside, like he was on most evenings like this, hard at work on something top secret upstairs on the other side of the house. Another defense system maybe? They always did seem to have an endless stream of threats to deal with.
Ruin - a tentative "ally" who no one could trust.
Eclipse - didn't seem to be up to no good lately, but that in itself hadn't always turned out to be a good thing.
Lord Eclipse - because there always had to be at least one of those guys lurking around looking for trouble, huh?
Dark Sun - he barely knew a thing about Dark Sun.
And then there was …
Sun stopped himself at the last name that popped into his head.
His brother's name.
Well. Someone he'd once called a brother.
(It was complicated.)
Moon.
Not the one inside. Not anymore. No.
The Moon he'd known and fought beside the entire year before. The one he'd known all that time.
…Thought he'd known.
Wished he'd …
The unburied thought made him sigh, like even saying it in his own head had taken something out of him.
Pulling the soft checkered throw blanket tighter around his shoulders, he shifted in his seat like he was trying to shake the thought back out, looking out at the swiftly darkening sky again instead as the first stars of the night began to show through, one by one.
He'd hurt Earth, in the heat of the moment.
Sun's hands tensed up slightly at the memory of it before he could stop them.
But …would he still hurt them now?
Would he come after them?
The warm glow of the house behind him stretched out across the deck in uneven bands of light through the relative darkness, painting the wood in shades of gold and softening everything it touched even if just for a moment, beckoning him back to familiar things. Familiar faces. Things that didn't hurt.
Back inside, the world was still turning.
He could almost picture it without even having to turn around. The cats were probably racing around on the open plan floor right now - chasing nothing, sending things tumbling without even having to try. Meanwhile, Moon would more than likely be buried in his work - probably ignoring the noise with a vengeance until they decided to burst into his room and make him a part of it.
Sun didn't move.
The light crept up against his back, warming the edges of his shoulders without ever quite reaching through.
They …they had to stay vigilant either way, right?
Sighing deeper into his seat out on the wooden deck, elbows pressed tight against his knees, he looked out at the way the moon reflected on the water.
Looked out at the fragments of it.
They had to keep an eye out.
His gaze lingered on the path leading up to the house, watching it without really seeing it. The calm hiss of the tide and the chirps of crickets were all he could hear for miles.
The world felt almost too quiet.
But …
He might still be coming back at any moment …right?
Staring out over the dark horizon, he exhaled a little artificial breath.
No. He was not going to fall for that big rock down by the dock again. Even if it did look suspiciously Moon-shaped. The right height. The same basic silhouette.
Ugh.
He looked back to the sky, eyes tracing the shapes of the stars to see if he could spot a familiar constellation to help take his mind off things, but it wasn't helping.
…Moon had probably put the rock down there just to screw with him. Back when they'd still been a family. How else had it made it all the way out onto the dock like that?
It wasn't like rocks just got up and moved.
He squinted down over the ledge at the thing like it had wronged him now. He knew he should probably get back inside soon, but this was a pretty grievous revelation he was facing.
Who the hell had the time- the energy, to …?
Moon. He sighed. Moon had. Once.
To add insult to …well, insult, the light crash of the tide lapping against the dock's edge was starting to make it sound like it was laughing at him too.
Sun huffed to himself under his breath.
"Seriously?" He muttered, as though the rock might hear him and feel appropriately judged.
Predictably, instead it did nothing.
Leaning back again in his seat, Sun shook his head and reached for his glass of water.
"You're stubborn, you know."
The voice from over his shoulder didn't break the silence so much as prickle through his circuits like ice in an instant.
Sun flinched at the sound of it, nearly dropping his glass, fumbling with it as he span back to see a face that was familiar and unrecognisable to him all at once.
He stiffened on instinct as he took it in.
The silhouette it belonged to towered over him, shadows clinging to him too closely now, sharpening the edges of his form, gathering in galaxy hues at the tips of pointed fingers where claws caught what little light there was left in the sky and held it in thin, gleaming lines. A half-eaten smile stretched thin across his mouth.
That red-eyed gaze Sun recognised in an instant looked feverish in the dark, so intense he felt almost trapped in place under the weight of it. Solar's goggles sat atop the brim of his hat like some sort of cruel mockery of one of the last straws that had broken them apart.
"So stubborn, in fact," he continued without blinking, "I think I must've picked it up from you."
Sun watched as the looming figure - a distorted version of his old brother - stepped into what little light the deck still had to offer, voice hoarse, words barely rising above a whisper.
"And that …well, I won't lie, it still kind of pisses me off to admit."
The movement of his frame almost lagged a step behind as he stopped not far from the table where Sun was sitting, afterimage bleeding through like a cold violet flame as he stared down at him.
"But," he added with a touch of false enthusiasm, "guess I'm all about honesty today. So."
He twitched at his own pause. "I know we both said some things."
His eyes burned fever-bright as they flicked to Sun. "Did some things."
The tiniest twitch of his mouth followed. "But anyway, let's talk."
Swallowing back a false breath as his disbelief slowly caught up with him, Sun finally replied.
"…Moon …?"
The Moon-like figure went still at the sound of that word, save for his twitching claws.
"So, I guess you do recognise …something." He forced out a chuckle.
"Guess we skipped through the dramatic confrontation part of our touching reunion a little early, huh?" His words were laced with a sick and bitter edge as he continued, eyes fixed on Sun, assessing every shift - every trace of a reaction with a focus that felt almost like his prey drive had kicked in. "Well, that's a damn shame. You and that whole family of yours always did seem to like those."
For a moment, Sun's attention broke despite himself, eyes flicking back to the house behind him. To the sight of warm light still spilling through the windows.
Nothing looked out of place.
It was …still untouched.
When he looked back, he noticed his brother's eyes had tracked his in a second.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you."
Sun tried to shake his gaze, tried to tear it away from him, his own eyes narrowing. "Do- ? D- do what?"
"Call for help." Moon shrugged, like what he'd just suggested was reasonable.
Like any of this made sense at all.
Then he hacked out a cough under his breath that made Sun's rays twitch.
Sharp, hitching, grinding sounds rattled through him as his shoulders tensed and his hand seemed to reach up to brace against something that wasn't there. Body folded forward, frame tense and half-dipped in shadow.
He forced himself through it anyway.
"Wouldn't want to cut our little conversation short," he went on, voice shredded thin in the aftermath of his coughing fit, "but I didn't get to practice this power enough to be clear on whether silencing someone works just yet …" a quiet, humorous edge crept into his tone as he trailed off, "…or how long it lasts."
Sun's frown deepened despite himself as he hissed the words out in disbelief. "You're …talking about using your power on me …?"
"I'm just saying, I've been working on a few things." Moon all but whispered back, fingers tensing as he clutched his own arm tight, like something had an unseen grip on him he was fighting to pin in place. "Well. Was." His eyes lost their focus for a fraction of a second. "…Still am. Maybe."
Tilting his head so hard it made his hat tail flicker audibly, he quirked a pained grin that sat unevenly on his face.
"Still kicking my ass every time I try to use it, but, like I said, I'm pretty stubborn myself." He shrugged.
Sun stared back at him.
At the way his hands tensed. At the way his stance shifted again and again, like he couldn't quite find his centre. At the way his words didn't match his tone.
Something in his core tightened and squeezed at the sight of his brother.
He was …hurting himself, wasn't he?
…Why was he doing any of this?
"I …don't care about your stupid power." Sun answered with some quiet irritation, trying to fight the feeling back. "I - I don't really get why you're here at all, actually."
His brother's smile thinned just slightly at his words as he watched him, like he had nothing to say to that.
"You're being this …" Moon swallowed, everything in his frame tensing like a wire pulled taut, "…frustrating level of brave right now, Sun. I'll give you that. Makes me want to keep talking."
Side-eying Sun with what looked like almost predatory interest, he continued. "But, I'll bet you wanted that. Gives you time to distract me so you can call Moon."
Sun frowned back at him incredulously, his voice low. "You told me not to call for help, and now talking annoys you?"
What was Moon thinking?
Why the hell was he saying any of this?
Talking like they were enemies. Like they were setting traps for him.
Like they were …
The thought twisted through Sun uninvited. The memory of jail bars. A cold blue cell in a large, lonely room. His brother looking back at him from the other side of it with nothing but a bitter contempt that leaked through every justification he tried to shoot back at him.
His chest tightened itself up in knots.
A couple of months back, he had to admit, Moon wouldn't have been wrong to be suspecting them like this.
Moon's head tilted at his words, the same off-kilter curiosity threading through him once again.
"Come on," he rasped, clasping his own wrist tight in his hand, "we both know you didn't change your mind about calling your real brother because I told you to."
A brittle edge slipped into his tone.
"You didn't listen to me, because why start now?" His clawed thumb pressed harder into his wrist, digging in. "You could've tried to leave."
"I am listening," Sun shot back, tired irritation burning through. "I'm listening to you monologue out here like you're Eclipse or something."
For a second, Moon just stared at him, the edges of his mouth caught in a look of halfway-agitated amusement. Then he wheezed out a laugh that sounded like it stung.
"…Eclipse?" He echoed back. "No. I'm just me."
He paused then.
"Disappointed?"
Sun let out a sigh.
"I told you …" he picked up his glass again, "basically everything I felt before."
Holding it almost a touch too tight, he muttered. "I don't know what more there is to say."
Taking a shaky sip, he let the edge of the glass hover against his mouth for a moment as he dropped his gaze, taking his eyes off of his brother for a long second. Noticing the way he still lingered close.
Too close.
The way the end of his hat flickered like a half-spent candle fighting to hold its shape. The way all of him felt like it was held together with spite and anger and misplaced shadows alone.
It made something coil up tight inside Sun - a quiet, instinctive urge to move. To put distance between them before the unfamiliarity could press in any deeper. Before it could hurt any more. To get out of there while a flicker of his brother's memory still remained intact.
But despite it all, something else inside of him completely refused.
"Well, yeah." Moon replied, quieter now, smile tense at the edges. "But that was before I did what I did."
Earth. He was talking about what he did …to Earth.
Sun gripped his ray before it could twitch out of alignment, but he could practically feel his brother's eyes on it in an instant, like he'd been waiting for some kind of motion to track.
Like he was trying to read …what, exactly?
What was he expecting to see?
"To be quite honest," Moon continued, his gaze averting to the water glass before flicking back tentatively to Sun, "I thought you'd wanna punch me the moment you saw me again."
Sun scoffed at that under his breath.
"Oh, so now it's about what I want?"
Moon's fingers tensed at his sides as he watched his brother, like he was fighting to keep his hands still as he considered the question.
"Have to admit," he answered finally, watching him with what looked like almost hesitance, "I'm kind of curious what you're thinking in all this."
His gaze dropped. "Especially considering your …choices, lately."
Sun's voice came out in almost a tired whisper.
"…You regretted it, didn't you?"
Moon didn't answer, but something in his posture hitched at the words, like he was trying to hold himself deathly still.
His hand twitched again before he could stop it, fingers locking tightly in place like he could somehow will all the motion left in them out of existence.
Sun drew in a sharp breath.
"What you did. You know you can't take it back."
A quiet, strained sound that might have been a laugh escaped Moon at that.
Sun didn't look away.
"You know me punching you wouldn't make us even." He tried to steady his voice. "Earth punching you wouldn't make you even."
That got a harder laugh - one that was less stable.
"Oh. She wouldn't do that."
"Maybe not." Sun's gaze held. "But you don't get to think she's weak for not wanting to take revenge on everyone and everything like you did."
His brother's eyes narrowed at that. Then he hacked out another cough he tried to steady into a laugh.
"That's the funny thing about thoughts, Sun." His eyes flickered dangerously bright as he stared down at his brother. "You don't get to choose."
He paused for a moment. "Now, I'm sure you've all got a lot of thoughts about me."
He studied Sun in the silence that followed, like he was bracing for impact - or like he wanted to keep sidestepping.
"Or maybe you don't," he added bitterly. "Maybe you don't need to anymore, because you got yourself another one."
It was then that Sun noticed his own hands had curled tight in his lap at some point during this conversation. He hadn't felt it happen. Hadn't noticed his fingers had drawn in on themselves. Hadn't noticed they were shaking.
Hadn't noticed how much it had mattered.
He let out a breath.
"…I miss you."
The soft words escaped him before he could think twice.
And Moon froze.
Expressions flickered over his face before he could stop them. Sharp, pained, conflicted, defensive and twisted. Expressions he didn't want. Expressions he clearly would've sooner clawed off of his own face than admitted to making.
Sun swallowed as he looked back into his brother's twitching eyes.
"That's what I think." His voice shook. "You - you want honesty? I miss you. All the time."
Trying to break eye contact, he muttered. "Maybe I shouldn't. You - you know? You did things."
"Everything I did—"
"No." Sun cut him off, lifting his hand without looking back at him yet. "G- give me. A second. To talk."
His brother went still again, the stitched on smile on his face juddering out of place with an audible hiss. Doing what he told him to just the same.
Sun frowned.
"I hate missing you." His rays shrank inward. "I hate it. Y- you did …all these things. You said things to us I never thought you'd …-" he faltered just for a second, trying to fight the way his voice cracked. "I thought you were better than that." He mumbled weakly. "I really did."
"…Yeah." Moon whispered after a moment, like he was fighting hard to force something down. "Well. That was then."
Sun squinted back at him. "That was then?"
"Yeah," A fragile edge crept its way into his brother's voice despite his words. "You know, I almost didn't come see you for this exact reason. This …" He gestured weakly between them, "conversation."
His eyes sharpened as he looked down. Looked at anything but Sun. "This pointless hurt."
Sun frowned back at him. "It's not pointless."
A soft, almost disbelieving laugh escaped him. "It is."
He swallowed a shaky breath. "It goes on and on. These feelings. These …attachments."
Shaking his head, he muttered. "I wish I could tell you to go fuck yourself."
Sun huffed back. "Really?"
"Yeah," Moon let out a rough laugh. "I wish I could tell you I didn't spare any of you a second thought."
Sun didn't interrupt him.
"But that would be stupid." Moon's fingers twitched at his sides. "Because I'm still here talking to you right now."
Another twitch. Like something inside him hadn't calibrated properly. Like he'd burned himself out on the motion.
"So, that's already pissing me off beyond what words can possibly convey." He tried to force his own words to steady, voice stretched thin trying to hold itself in place. "But still …the thought of you crying over that …blockhead version of me. The one you say you miss …" his mouth twitched unevenly, "…well, to that I guess I say …get over it."
"Get over it?" Sun echoed back, disbelief and weariness bleeding through in equal measure.
"Yeah." Moon looked back. "You heard me. No use crying over someone who didn't actually exist."
Sun blinked. Then his gaze returned to his cup.
"No." He muttered quietly. "I think he did."
"What makes you so sure?"
"I don't think either of us is sure about - about any of this crap," Sun admitted, giving his eyes a tired rub with his hand. "I think …you want to know. I think you want to tell yourself things. And …that's it. …Because not knowing's worse. So."
He shrugged his shoulders as he lifted the blanket off of his lap.
Moon didn't answer. A small, awkward sound halfway caught between a frustrated huff and a cough escaped him instead.
Shifting slightly in the uneasy silence that followed, Sun glanced down at the blanket in his hands. Then back at his brother.
Then he held it out.
"Here."
Moon blinked at that, momentarily caught off guard. His gaze snapped to the blanket, then to Sun, like he was trying to reconcile exactly what was happening right now.
"…What."
Sun's arm stayed extended.
"Take it."
Narrowed eyes flicking back to the blanket like it might have offended him in a language Sun couldn't hear, Moon watched it carefully.
"What does it do?"
"Keeps you warm." Sun almost huffed out a weary laugh he wasn't sure was allowed.
"I'm a robot."
"You're shaking like a leaf."
Moon stiffened up at that in an instant, hands clenched reflexively at his sides.
"I'm …shaking, as you call it," he muttered back almost too quickly, "because I'm filled with a volatile power and my new body is still …adjusting, to the energy fluctuations."
Sun tilted his head slightly, genuinely baffled. He gave a helpless shrug.
"I don't know what any of that means," he admitted, "but it sounds pretty crappy."
A short, stifled laugh broke out of his brother before he could stop it then. He grimaced and averted his gaze like he regretted it immediately.
His hat flickered again.
"Pretty crappy?" He muttered back.
Sun nodded. "Go on. Take it."
"…No."
"You're impossible. Come on."
There was a small, half-muttered growl of protest before Moon reached forward - the movement was anything but smooth.
Arm jerking out awkwardly like he'd argued himself into it at the last second, his icy claws caught the fabric before Sun could flinch back at exactly how close they were right at this second, and he finally took the blanket.
Relief washed through Sun as Moon didn't drop it or tear it in half. He watched instead as his brother pulled it almost defensively close, grip tightening around it as he broke eye contact.
He considered.
"H- hold onto that for one second."
Moon's head snapped up at his words.
Then he growled out in a strained, almost agitated voice. "What, so you can tell Moon where I am?"
Sun had already turned back to the house.
"No, Moon." He waved it off almost hurriedly. "I'm not telling Moon where you are."
Behind him, he could just feel the awkward tension rising. He knew this was a risky move. He knew that all of it was crazy. He knew. But …
Moon's eyes narrowed as he squinted at the blanket, turning it this way and that, pressing his fingers tight against it like he was expecting to feel anything but warmth there. Getting swiftly frustrated.
"There's …nothing—" Sun blinked, glancing back over his shoulder. "What are you doing with—?"
"There's gotta be a chip or something." Came the impatient mutter, his brother's focus refusing to budge from his new …possession? Enemy? (Sun couldn't tell.) "Something that spreads with contact. I know he puts devices in everything. Stupid, smarmy—"
Flipping a corner of it, then another, his movements were starting to grow more agitated and erratic by the second as nothing about it seemed to respond the way he wanted.
"He's not gonna microchip a blanket!" Sun waved a baffled hand. "Moon."
His brother turned back to him with a scoff. "And you expect me to wait here like a good little sitting target because …?"
"Because that's the only good blanket."
Moon blinked. "…What?"
"The only one that's not covered in cat hair." Came the defensive reply as Sun reached for the door, sliding it open, almost afraid to take his eyes off his brother. "Now j- just wait, Moon."
He waved a hand vaguely back at him as he stepped inside.
"Just— wait a second. I'll be right back."
The door shut behind him with an empty click, and silence settled in its wake.
Moon stood where his brother had left him, the blanket still clutched tight in his hands, the faint warmth of it seeping through.
His fingers stiffened as he noticed.
"It isn't …" He muttered quieter now, the words faltering, almost uncertain in the empty space as he blinked it in.
He paused.
"It isn't Moon anymore."