Chapter Text
Dear Diary,
Things seem to be back to normal after… well … everything. The moon revolution, the planet revolution, the rogue planets, yadda yadda ya. The rockies have been doing their own thing in the inner system. From what I’ve seen, just a lot of asteroid dodgeball (which I have to say- Mercury’s gotten a lot better, mate) and their card games. The gas giants have been spending more time with their moons, and Neptune and I have also been hanging out more. It honestly feels nice not having to worry about some solar-system-ending threat. I think I can see now just how much stress the Sun was-
“EVERYONE.”
Uranus jumped in surprise at the coincidental voice of their star, glancing up quickly from his diary wondering what was wrong now…
“S-Sorry if I interrupted anything, but I wanted to host another sun competition! I- understand if some of you don’t want to participate,” the Sun looked down at Mercury almost as if for reassurance that he was doing this right, “but I think it would be a good bonding activity for everyone!”
Uranus stared at the Sun for a moment longer before he caught the movement of the other planets. “I guess we don’t have much else to do anyways… so, why not?” He sighed to himself as he put his diary away. He accounted for all his moons first before following the Gas Giants towards the Asteroid belt.
“Is this really a good idea? I understand wanting to be a part of this for the others, but these competitions never end on a good note,” Titania frowned. She’s always been the type to verbalize her worries out loud and even step up when needed. Especially when the risks become too many to count.
“I-I agree. What if the Sun ends up getting mad and shoots a solar flare at you?? Oh gosh, you could barely handle the heat in Earth’s orbit for the amount of time that you did… a s-solar flare could end you!” Oberon freaked. The smaller ones breaking into distressed chatter.
Uranus blinked in surprise, still not used to his moons expressing their concerns over him! Don’t get him wrong, it felt good to know they’ve grown to like him enough to worry over him…
“Calm down guys. I appreciate the worry, but I think I’m with the Sun on this one. We planets haven’t really had the opportunity to actually hang out without the loom of a threat hanging over us for quite some time. Even if the Sun was that threat for the longest, but still. Besides, the Sun does seem to strive for change.”
Uranus took the hums of agreement as a good sign before pressing on towards the asteroid belt. Though, he decided to pause once on the other side of the belt, wanting to wait for Neptune.
“Uranus?” The cyan ice giant looked to his left where all his moons looked back at him, Titania in front of them all before continuing, “I think we’ll wait here with the other moons while you and the other planets compete… if that’s alright with you?”
“Oh! Uh, sure, mate! I’ll pick you guys up on my way back out?”
Titania smiled and nodded, turning to the smaller moons who thanked Uranus and murmured cheerfully, before guiding them back into the asteroid belt.
Uranus watched them disappear, a small smile tugging on his mouth as he pondered over how far he’s come with earning the little ones’ trust. Of course there’s still some awkward moments between them that he hoped time would help resolve, but it was clear as daylight just how much more comfortable his moons have gotten around him.
Uranus shook himself out of his thoughts once he remembered that the others were still waiting on him and Neptune. He frowned and glanced back at the belt before yelping and moving back in utter shock. “Bloody hell, mate! Don’t do that!”
“Hmmmm, dooo what?” Neptune hummed before sticking his tongue out, his eyes slowly moving apart.
The smaller ice giant had managed to cross the asteroid belt and stop right in front of Uranus without pulling him away from his thoughts. Granted, Uranus did often dissociate and scare easily… but still!
Uranus deadpanned Neptune before sighing. “C’mon, mate. The others are surely waiting for us to start this competition.” At least he hoped they were.
“We’ll crash the game if they didn’t! Wouldn’t that be an entrance!” Neptune laughed as he basically rolled off to find the others, Uranus following close behind.
“You know, I forget how far you two really are from the rest of us.” Mars piped up at seeing the ice giants move beside him.
“Tell me about it. I don’t know how my moons do it all the time with those moon club meetings,” Uranus sighed. They were tiny things, but he could see just how strong and determined that made them. Something he’s learned to admire.
“That’s one of the reasons I wanted to host this sun competition today,” The Sun interjected, the planets all looking up at him in confusion. “The moons have been able to put in time and effort into getting to know one another better. To bond.”
That’s one way to put it. They bonded over wanting to make a statement using the Earth… but the Sun wasn’t wrong either. Even after the moon revolution, the moons all managed to still make time to hang out. They managed to form real bonds with one another before they, as the damned planets, ever did.
“But now, as I look at you, I see that I’m mostly to blame when it comes to you all not being completely friends… Even after billions of years together as the solar system.”
“Don’t beat yourself over it, Sun. Even when we had the chance to be actual friends… our fears and insecurities stopped us.” Venus hummed, avoiding any sort of eye contact. The Earth and Mercury both looked down in slight shame with his words.
“Not to mention the distance between us all,” Jupiter eventually added. “Of course we’re all further from one another than we make it out to be, but the rockies are a lot closer to each other than we are on the other side of the asteroid belt.”
Neptune shook himself as he tsked at Jupiter’s words, his reading glasses appearing on him as if he’s had them this entire time. “That is quite the understatement, dear Jupiter. If we take the relative distance of the two furthest rocky planets-”
“Which would be Mars and me, right?” Mercury asked hesitantly.
“Correct! It would be a difference of about 1.13 astronomical units. Now apply that to the two furthest gassy planets-”
“So Jupiter and you?” Uranus answered when Neptune looked at him.
“Yup! We get a difference of 25.4 astronomical units!”
“What!? Seriously??” The Earth basically shrieked.
“Neptune’s right. Which is why Mercury suggested I host these competitions more often!” The Sun practically beamed in excitement.
Uranus noticed he wasn’t the only one worried about how this would go, basing off the expressions of the others. Sure he told his moons to give the Sun the benefit of the doubt, but that didn’t mean he didn’t still worry. These usually ended with the Sun getting overly competitive and stealing the sun trophy or overly playful by scorching the winning planet with it! Bloody hell was it a gamble.
“I-I saw how much the Sun wanted a reason to get everyone together after everything and I thought this would be a fun way. He promised he’d tone it down and is even giving everyone a choice in participating this time!” Mercury rushed. It was clear that he was nervous about the way they would react.
“Well, I wouldn’t mind a friendly competition!” Saturn smiled with his eyes closed, stars almost glimmering behind him to strengthen the heart-tugging effect he had.
“Me neither!”
“Sounds fun actually!”
“Don’t let this be an X type of competition or I will beat all of you!”
Everyone paused and looked at Venus warily.
“What? Too soon??”
“Too soon, mate. Too soon.”
“Ahem. Let’s get this started, shall we?” The Sun smiled once everyone agreed. “I’ve had to do a lot of thinking for this particular round! I just knew I had to come up with a specific enough question that would get everyone talking about all your similarities and differences until the most brightest idea-”
“Sun…” Jupiter warned, already seeing the other getting carried away before they’ve even started.
“R-Right! Answer me this, which two planets reflect each other’s similarities yet end up as complete opposites.”
“Which two planets can I call two sides of the same coin?”