Work Text:
It was 3:28 am in the morning of an uneventful Saturday, and Venus couldn't sleep.
It wasn't that he didn't like his bed or anything. Earth had given him multiple heated blankets, a hot water bottle, and even turned up the heating in his room a couple degrees. He was grateful (though he would never admit it) for the familiarity of his room. It reminded him of his orbit. The orbit that he hated. The orbit that he forced himself to keep, as a reminder of how badly he failed her.
But anyways. That wasn't the problem why he couldn't catch a wink of sleep. He knew he felt exhausted. But he still just—couldn't! Every single time he closed his eyes and tried to lie flat under his multitude of blankets, his limbs would start itching with a desperate want to move. He lay in his bed, shifting constantly on the mattress. Venus sighed in defeat. Was this the universe's cruel way of punishing Venus for whatever he did? (He couldn't think of a single thing worth punishing.)
And not only that, but the annoying pipsqueak's voice kept worming its way into his brain and stuck like a leech.
"Hey Venus, did you see where Mars went?"
"Stop calling me that, Venus!"
"Hah! I win this round!"
Damn. The universe really did hate him.
Venus groaned loudly. If he was going to stay awake all night, he wasn't going to do it brooding over his thoughts for hours. Venus kicked off his blankets, pausing for a moment to enjoy the slightly cooler air hitting his bare skin. He couldn't bear wearing fluffy pajamas—Mercury and Mars might like wearing those, but Venus stuck with shorts and t-shirts. The feeling of weird material constantly sticking to his skin as he slept made him feel itchy and uncomfortable. He shuddered at the thought. Yuck. He was fine with normal jeans and stuff during the day, but pajamas, especially fluffy ones, was where he drew the line.
It felt as though every sound he made was amplified by a hundred times. Venus winced at the bed frame groaning and the sticky sounds of his bare feet on the wooden floor. He gently opened the door, closing his eyes in defeat when it decided to announce itself to the house.
Creeeaaak.
"Astroids," Venus swore under his breath, cursing the door and its poorly oiled hinges. Cold air rushed in and he stepped out of his room, placing his feet down carefully and listening for any telltale squeaks of an unstable section of the floor. He didn't bother closing his door. Why would he risk another deafening creak that could wake up the other idiots? (Yeah, that was not gonna happen.)
He decided to go to the kitchen. Earth wasn't here to stop him from eating whatever he wanted, so he was going to take advantage of that. Plus—he was hungry. The last thing he ate yesterday evening was a couple tacos Jupiter made before he decided he wasn't hungry anymore, just as an excuse to get away from everyone else. Clearly the tacos were a favourite of the system; especially the pipsqueak, for some reason. Venus could still remember the stupid face Mercury made when he tried one of the tacos—wait, why was he thinking of Mercury?
Venus shook his head aggressively, forcing his unacceptable thoughts of the pipsqueak out of his head. Then he stopped himself and sighed. What was he doing here, standing in the dark hallway and fighting with his mind? There were definitely bigger fish to fry—or whatever Earth called it. What? Venus couldn't perfectly remember every earthling saying!
Venus tip-toed through the house, testing each step on the stairs, and holding his breath as he went past bedrooms. In one of them, he could hear the rumbles of deep snores. Clearly someone was having a good sleep. He snickered inwardly, trying not to make a sound.
Venus had never taken as long as he did now to simply travel from his room to the kitchen. Of course, it was a big house, but his normally short journey was often interrupted with the shuffling of sleeping celestials, which forced him to stop in his tracks. From another room came the sounds of someone mumbling in their sleep, which almost gave Venus a core-attack. (Would it be heart-attack, since they were humans now?)
Ugh, this is getting out of hand. Venus couldn't bear being sneaky any longer, and simply walked normally in the final stretch to the kitchen. He didn't bother turning on any lights. He felt safer in the dark, as if turning on the lights would immediately tell everyone he was in the kitchen.
The marble kitchen tiles were colder than the wooden flooring of the rest of the house. Venus walked over to the fridge, his eyes already adjusted to the darkness by now. A tiny sliver of moonlight was coming in through the window, but didn't really contribute to brightening the room. He opened the fridge, shivering at the temperature drop in the air next to it. The white light in the fridge made him blink rapidly, but he got used to it quickly.
There was nothing good to eat in the fridge. He could eat a leftover taco, but he didn't feel like eating one at the moment. Venus opened the freezer next, grazing his fingers against the lumps of ice on the insides of the drawers. He took out a small tub of ice cream. Strawberry flavour, it read on the label. Venus remembered going to the shops with the other rockies to buy ice cream a while ago during their first time on Earth's surface, since it was a pretty hot day. Huh. Guess the tubs were still here. Earth had bought tons of it, getting every different flavour. He had given Venus a tub of lemon ice cream at first, thinking he would enjoy it; but if he had to be honest, Venus much preferred the sweetness of the more tropical and fruity ice creams.
After grabbing a spoon from the cutlery drawer, he sat on the floor while leaning against the counter, leaving the fridge door slightly open. At least the small amount of artificial light wasn't as conspicuous as the room lights.
Venus listened to the quiet ticking of the clock. It was still too dark to see what it said, but he didn't care what time it was. No one was going to wake up this time in the night. He ate the ice cream slowly, savouring the flavour of each spoonful. Venus stared at the wall, mindlessly bringing the spoon to his mouth continuously. It was much calmer eating ice cream now, without Earth yapping in his ear about different flavours he wanted to try or the origin about ice cream. Venus couldn't care less about where in the universe ice cream came from—he just wanted to eat it, for star's sake—so at least now he could enjoy this earthling delicacy properly.
Venus had barely gone halfway through the tub before a sound coming from the stairs down the hallway made him pause with his spoon in his mouth.
Thump.
Creak.
Thump.
Someone was coming down the stairs. Venus closed the fridge door quickly and moved to sit on one side of the island in the middle of the kitchen. Maybe if he hid in the dark here, if someone came in they wouldn't see him. He ate a little more ice cream, straining his ears to listen. The slow footsteps sounded quite light, so it probably wasn't one of the gas or ice giants. Then again, Neptune's footsteps sounded almost silent. The blue ice giant often scared the other celestials by popping up behind them without making a sound.
It probably wasn't one of the minor moons either. They wouldn't get up at this time, right? And none of them walked that slowly. Those rambunctious moons usually tumbled around the house in an extremely hyper fashion.
While Venus sat thinking, the footsteps grew closer and closer to the kitchen, until the wooden floor stopped groaning and the steps sounded quieter. Venus could hear soft breathing nearby but didn't dare take a look. Of course he was interrupted while eating his ice cream! It was like the universe cursed him to never be able to enjoy his ice cream in peace.
For some reason, the footsteps had stopped. Venus didn't move either, his heart pounding in his ears. This was getting really creepy. He silently stuck his spoon in his ice cream and set it down on the floor beside him. Venus carefully moved into a crouching position and peeked over the top of the island. Someone was standing in the middle of the kitchen, staring into space. Venus couldn't tell who it was; it was too dark. He continued to watch them. Uh...
The person suddenly shuffled to the cutlery drawer, opened it, and took out a fork. They stared at it for at least two minutes before setting it down and mumbling something Venus couldn't hear properly. Then they went over to the fruitbowl, stumbling around and grabbing a bunch of bananas in their hands. Venus stood up, confused by the absolutely bizarre behavior. He edged closer to them, catching a bit of the muttering.
"...Nope, that one's too loud..."
Venus paused, his eyes wide in surprise. Mercury? That was Mercury's voice. Venus walked around to stand in front of the pipsqueak, and frowned at his completely unfocused eyes. Venus snapped his fingers in front of his face.
"Hey. Pipsqueak. What are you—" Mercury turned away suddenly, muttering more nonsensical things.
"I think the ceiling is leaking asteroids again..."
Venus froze, remembering something Earth had mentioned a while ago. Sleepwalking. It was something a character did while they watched a movie, right. Venus' memory was fuzzy, but he did remember Earth saying something like...don't try to wake up a sleepwalking person, or something?
Venus sighed. Great. Now he had to deal with a sleepwalking Mercury.
Mercury was now sitting on the floor, looking around with wide, unblinking eyes. "...The floor is doing it again..."
Venus moved to sit beside Mercury, ignoring how the chill of the tiles seeped into his skin even more. The pipsqueak's rambling had disappeared now, and he was now staring at Venus blankly. Venus raised an eyebrow, feeling extremely awkward. His gaze travelled downwards onto Mercury's clothes. For some reason, he was wearing an oversized gown; it looked ridiculously out of place on Mercury, and would probably fit one of the giants better. It was slipping down his shoulders, revealing his bare arms.
Ignoring Mercury's strange fashion choices, Venus adjusted his gown. The smaller didn't react at all, and his head lolled onto one of his shoulders, trapping Venus' hand. Mercury's eyes fluttered closed and his breathing slowed.
Oh boy...
Venus slid closer to Mercury, forcing himself to in an uncomfortable position to avoid pulling his hand away from Mercury's shoulder and possibly disrupting his sleep. At least he wasn't acting like a maniac anymore. They stayed there for a while, and Venus silently thanked the stars that no one else was coming to find them like this. He stared at Mercury's sleeping form, trying to match his relaxed breathing.
Venus had never been this physically close to the pipsqueak before; at least, not like this. Most of the time he was just teasing him. Like this, it felt...wrong. But also weirdly comfortable. Venus remembered this feeling. His mind drifted back to his memories with Theia—the ones before he started feeling jealous of Proto. The ones where he felt—he felt...
...
It was so familiar. That same warm feeling of comfort that gathered in his chest. Why would he feel it now, being next to Mercury?
Venus blinked at the ceiling in horror. The pipsqueak, with that grating voice that seemed to follow him everywhere? The pipsqueak, with those eyes that seemed to look into your soul? The pipsqueak, with that annoying grin he wore every time he won a game of cards? Venus had to be losing his mind. Venus' heart rate picked up as he glanced back down at Mercury.
Venus bit his lip, thinking. He wasn't going to stay here any longer. It would be much better if he returned to his bedroom and forgot about all of this. His mind was probably playing tricks on him! Yeah, that was it. He was definitely sleep deprived. Venus tugged his hand out from between Mercury's head and shoulder and stood up.
The kitchen window was already getting lighter, and Venus could easily see the time shown on the clock now. It was harder to understand than the digital ones Earth gave out, but he got there.
4:41 am.
Wow, how long was he sitting here for? That had to be another trick of the mind. He didn't even take that long going to the kitchen and eating his ice cream. Mercury's crazed sleepwalking was surely infecting him. Was he going to start sleepwalking too? Was he also sleepwalking? Was this all a dream—
Ugh, stupid thoughts getting out of hand. Venus turned back to Mercury. Before he even realised what he was doing, he was lifting up the pipsqueak in his arms, careful to not wake him up. He didn't want Mercury to wake up while they were in this embarrassing position.
Mercury was surprisingly lighter than he expected, and he carried him to his bedroom with ease. It was a lot hotter than his own room—probably to replicate how close his orbit was to the Sun. Still, why would he wear that heavy gown in this temperature?
Venus gently set Mercury on the edge of the bed, leaving space for Venus to be able to move the covers away. He moved Mercury into the middle, and pulled the covers on top of him. Venus turned away, but a cool hand grabbed his own.
"Venus..."
Venus quickly spun around.
"...Stay here."
Mercury promptly fell into deep sleep again, his mouth falling slightly open as a soft snore escaped him. Venus felt his face growing warm, and knew that it wasn't because of the heat in the room. He settled down on the floor, bringing his knees up but not pulling his hand away from Mercury's. Mercury had shifted closer to the edge of his bed, and now his face was in clear view of Venus. Venus studied it for a while, gazing at his multitude of freckles that replicated his cratered surface in space.
"Ugh...you're a pain in the core, you know that?" Venus whispered loudly. He laid his head back on Mercury's bed, closing his eyes. It was nice here. He could stay for a little bit...
The strawberry ice cream was left forgotten.
"Too warm..."
Venus' eyes flew open. Mercury's room was brighter than before, and a pale light filtered through the window. Mercury's alarm clock told him only half an hour passed since they left the kitchen.
The pipsqueak was rolling around in his bed, getting tangled in the sheets. Somehow, his loose gown was still wrapped around him—but it had ridden up to his waist, and left his legs and shorts exposed.
Venus rolled his eyes with a heavy sigh and fixed Mercury's bed covers, making sure he didn't look at the pipsqueak at all.
Mercury suddenly slid his legs off the side of his bed and sat up, seemingly not noticing Venus' presence at all. He took off his gown and dropped it on the floor, leaving only his tank top and shorts behind. Venus watched him silently with raised eyebrows. Was he sleepwalking again?
Mercury threw himself backwards into his bed. His half-lidded eyes drew closed once more, and Venus shook his head in exasperation. This idiot.
Mercury's hands lay limp, and Venus eyed them for a moment before dropping back onto the floor and squeezing his eyes shut. He could leave now; Mercury seemed a lot more comfortable than before. His sweaty flush from before was already fading away, and his constant movement stopped. But Venus stayed anyways. At least in here he could actually fall asleep. Staying in his own room made his thoughts wander to places he didn't want them to go to.
Venus already felt himself drifting away, lulled to sleep by the soft breathing of Mercury above him.
The sound of pounding on Mercury's bedroom door rudely threw Venus back into consciousness.
"Yo, Mercury! You in there?"
Earth's voice filtered through the sides of the door, and Mercury stirred in his bed. Venus launched himself to the side and tried to make it look like he was there the whole time. There wasn't anywhere for him to hide, so he silently hoped Mercury wouldn't notice him. Mercury sat up in his bed, hair ruffled and eyes sticky. He yawned before talking.
"Yeah, Earth. I'm—" Another yawn. "...coming."
"Saturn's helping the younger moons make toast. Come down quickly if you want some!" Earth's voice faded away, followed by rapidly retreating footsteps.
Mercury hobbled out of bed, completely missing Venus' whole presence while he picked up the gown he wore last night from the floor. Mercury turned around to toss it onto his bed—and dropped it back on the floor when he finally spotted Venus, who stared back at him sullenly.
Mercury shrieked and jumped backwards, hitting his heel on the edge of the wardrobe to the side. He hissed in pain and clutched at his heel, hopping on one foot. His head flicked back towards Venus either way.
"Venus?! What—why are you in my room?!" Mercury was still staring at him as if he was some sort of weird alien.
"Keep your voice down!" Venus grimaced and stood up, ignoring how his legs felt shaky from the awkward position he stayed in all night.
Mercury looked less shocked now, but he watched Venus suspiciously. "Why were you in here? Did you try to scare me? Because—because it didn't work!" Mercury folded his arms across his chest defensively.
Venus rolled his eyes and smacked his forehead with his palm. "Why would I stay in here just to scare you? You're already scared of everything, pipsqueak."
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are! Anyways, I was here because you were sleepwalking last night!" Mercury froze and his arms fell to his sides.
"Sleepwalking? You mean, that thing Earth told us about?" Mercury stared at the floor, obviously thinking hard. "I...I was doing that?"
"Uh, duh? Why would I say that for no reason? I barely know much about sleepwalking." Venus tapped his foot subconsciously.
The pipsqueak looked unsure of what to say, so Venus took over again. He ignored the high pitched squeals coming from outside the room (some of the little moons were definitely full of energy). "You were being really annoying, walking around and talking nonsense. So I—ugh, I brought you here."
Mercury touched his temples lightly, frowning. "Weird, I don't remember anything. The last thing I can remember is going to sleep after watching a movie with the others. Wait, so...you carried me here?"
"Why did you assume I carried you here?"
Mercury's face turned red. "I didn't! It just sounded like that's what you meant!" He spluttered indignantly.
Venus' thoughts were already racing when Mercury said that, and he needed a moment to recollect them. "Whatever, pipsqueak." He walked to the door and grabbed the handle, about to leave.
"Wait!"
Venus turned around, raising an eyebrow toward Mercury. "What?"
Mercury fidgeted on the spot, turning an even darker shade of red. "Uhm...thanks. For taking me back to my room."
Venus fought to keep any reaction from showing. He curtly nodded and flung the door open, striding out without another word. The hot rocky paused, forcing his racing heart to slow down once again. What was wrong with him? Why didn't he say anything back? Was he getting soft? Eugh.
He closed the door, stepping out of the way as Deimos ran past, giggling and holding something that looked like a piece of fabric. A bandana? Venus watched as Titan yelled from behind the little moon.
"Give that back, Deimos!" Titan sprinted after him, almost knocking Venus down. "Ah—sorry Venus!"
"Hey, watch it next time!" Venus didn't know how many times he sighed since last night, but that number was about to increase.
"Is that a half-eaten tub of melted ice cream on the floor?" Earth turned to see Mars inspecting what was definitely a half-eaten tub of melted ice cream on the floor.
"Looks like someone was hungry during the night!" Earth laughed. He poked his head through the doorway leading to the dining room where Mercury and Venus were already sitting there, munching on toast.
"Do you guys know anything about this?" Earth pointed with a thumb behind him as Mars came up beside him, holding out the tub. Mercury shook his head, brows furrowing. Venus rolled his eyes at them, smirking.
"Do I look like I would wake up to eat strawberry ice cream in the middle of the night?" Venus took a large bite of toast.
"How did you know it was strawberry?" Mars asked, his eyes narrowing jokingly. "You can't even see the label!"
"Idiot, yes I can! You're holding the tub right in front of all of us!"
"Yeah, but the label is turned away from you! There's no way you can see it from where you're sitting!" Earth watched as a grin slowly crept its way up Mars' face. "...Did you eat this ice cream without telling anyone, Venus?" Venus pointedly looked away while Earth roared in laughter.
"I didn't know you liked strawberry ice cream Venus!" Mercury piped up.
"That's because I don't, pipsqueak! These idiots are being stupid. And I didn't eat that ice cream!" Venus' face was already growing red from anger—or was it embarrassment? Earth couldn't tell sometimes—and he got up from his seat, aggressively chewing on his last piece of toast. "And also, I hate ice cream. It's the worst earthling food ever made, Earth!" Venus stomped away, leaving a distraught Mercury left to clean up the mess he left behind.
"Venus didn't think that when I saw him trying mango ice cream that one time!" Mars commented with another cheeky grin. Earth burst into laughter again.