Work Text:
“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with A.”
“Asteroid?”
“Yep! Your turn.”
“I spy with my little eye, something beginning with A.”
“Hmmm… is it asteroid?”
A sigh.
“Yes.”
“Ok, my turn again, I-”
“Earth, if you say something beginning with A, I’m gonna…” There was a long pause from Luna, who narrowed their eyes in frustration as the threat never materialised.
“You’re gonna what? I’d love to see what you’re going to do when you’re stuck,” Earth said with a grin, though it quickly dropped. It was hard to have the advantage when you were also frozen in place with nothing but your moon and the asteroid belts.
Frozen. Unable to move with his darkened surface slowly icing over. Without his rotation or Luna’s orbit around him, he had no actual idea how long it had been since the sun had gone off with that little rogue planet to see the others. Less than a day. Maybe. Maybe only an hour. He looked down at his surface. The main bodies of water were still liquid, and the deserts had some warmth, though there were quite a few storms breaking out in the far north and south. The entire globe was lit up in the darkness of night. He hoped that they’d be able to cope. He had put the Earthlings through so much recently, the poor things needed a long break.
“I don’t know, but I’m sure I’ll think of it by the time I’m unstuck,” the moon bit back tersely.
“Dont wear yourself out, we’re pretty busy,” Earth said with a wry laugh. Luna signed and rolled their eyes.
“Can we play something else?” Luna asked, very grumpy.
“Sure, let me just get my cards out. Oh wait, they’re frozen too!” Earth shot back, voice shrill.
“Fine. I’ve got a new game. It’s called the silence game,” Luna bit back. Grimacing as they tried to turn away, like they always did when they were done arguing with the Earth, and realised that they couldn’t. Even worse was that Earth knew that Luna was stuck looking at him due to the tidal lock. Earth had an advantage of being slightly turned away from Luna, but the moon was still very present off to his left filling a third of his vision.
“Fine.”
“Fine.”
Though they were no strangers to spending most of their time together, something about knowing that you are unable to walk away at any point seemed to be fraying the moon’s nerves. Earth knew he had to rein in the teasing or have Luna lecture him for hours. Also with no escape.
They stayed quiet for a while. There was still no way for Earth to tell how long it had been, but he felt his irritation melting away. That couldn’t have been long. It was hard to stay mad at Luna.
Earth tried to move or stretch, testing how stuck he was for the hundredth time. Nothing. No movement at all, just his eyes and mouth it seemed. And the cold slowly seeping into his crust. His core and magma were still as hot as ever, but the difference in temperature between the layers was making it pretty uncomfortable.
“I can’t even shiver,” Earth muttered. At least shivering would have helped.
“How are you holding up?” Luna asked quietly.
“I’m fine. Nothing life altering yet. My core is still pretty strong. And the ocean is still pretty warm after the El Nino this year,” he replied.
“It won’t be long,” Luna said with a small smile.
“Yeah. Sun will be back before we know it.”
“The sun always rises, as they say,” Luna said softly.
The Sun had better come back. Soon. A dense feeling started to settle in Earth’s core that had nothing to do with heat dissipation. Perhaps his core had also stopped spinning when the Sun froze everything. He tried to remember that Earthling movie about his core. What had they done?
Even stuck in place, the gravity between all the asteroids, comets and trojans, and himself and Luna had shifted somehow, locking them in. Earth couldn’t even wrap his head around what the Sun could have done to just keep them in place. It must have been something at the quantum level. Something with strings or whatever. Earth really wasn’t that well versed on quantum mechanics. Maybe it was something he could ask-
Maybe not.
Earth could still feel some movement, possibly the solar system’s journey around the galactic centre. But where he should be moving on his own, feeling the small pulls and tugs of his trojans, of the asteroids, there was just a constant presence. Neither a pull nor push. Even Luna’s gravity that should be pulling on him felt frozen.
It made him feel a little dizzy not to be orbiting.
The dizzy feeling was not helped by the cold.
That might have been that dense feeling rising in his core.
He really hoped his core wasn’t going to cool again.
“Do you think he's ok?” Earth asked after the silence had dragged on.
“Yeah. He said he wanted to talk. And he’s been really reasonable.”
“As long as he keeps a lid on that temper, they should be able to talk it out, right?”
“Of course. The others are there. They may be angry, and not want to listen, but they wouldn’t hurt him,” Luna reasoned, brows knit together.
“But when the rogues were here, they almost crushed him. Like, they could have… What if they’d… what if they don’t want to talk?” Earth asked, looking off to the side, where the Sun should be. But there was nothing. Just the other side of the asteroid belts. It made his core churn more, making his ears ring. What if the Sun never took his place back in the centre of their universe?
“The others will make them see reason. They wouldn’t want to actually hurt the Sun. Even at their angriest, they wouldn’t hurt him. He’s still our Sun, for best or worst of all,” Luna said, looking to the side, towards the centre as well.
“Yeah.” Earth really didn’t mean that to sound so hopeless.
Earth hoped the Sun was ok. They had made such a breakthrough, getting him to finally see their point of view. Understanding their problems. Understanding how he was hurting his planets. Astrodude had been integral to that change, connecting to the Sun in a way the Earth wouldn’t be able to: the fear of messing up your kids. Planets.
Even then, the entire catalyst for even attempting to help the sun had been Luna and their core belief that anyone can change, and that forgiveness can be earned back. Luna had believed that Earth was worth a second chance. That the other moons were worth their friendship as well. They were utterly convinced that the Sun could also be given a second chance. Their conviction that the two of them had to at least try with the Sun was what kickstarted this whole 180 degree turn. The execution of said plan could have been better.
Earth was even enjoying just spending time with the Sun. It had been a long time since the Sun had seemed reasonable and that they had had such good contact. It was nice to be able to talk through all those feelings and hurt, and not be shouted at or hit with a solar flare. Earth wanted the others back desperately, but having the Sun all to himself had been better than he could have imagined. It was ok to be a little selfish. Especially with how sweet the Sun had been.
He wanted that to last. They all deserved it, to live with that kindness. Especially the Sun. To experience the happiness that came from being kind. Earth had relearned that since the Moon Revolution, that seeing people get happiness from your company was rewarding in ways he hadn’t realised.
He thought of the last moments the Sun had been here, gathering energy to travel faster than light, pulsing with so much energy that Earth thought he would explode, before disappearing in a blinding flash of light, leaving the Earth and Luna in a darkened solar system with a ringing in their ears.
Never had Earth even been without the light of the Sun. Even from the Kuiper Belt, the Sun was there, his heat was faint, and his gravity was weaker, but Earth could still feel him. Knew he was there. The safety net that he had woken up to.
There was nothing now. Only him, Luna and the sound of his quickening breath.
He looked to the centre of the system again. Still not there. Was this what being a rogue planet was like? Is this what the others felt like without the light of the Sun? In darkness, alone and cold. Could they really live like that forever?
“Do you think the others will come back?” Luna asked, staring at the Earth with a worried look. He returned a smile.
That was the question the Earth was trying to avoid asking himself. Would they see that the Sun had changed and give him another chance? Or was it too little too late?
“I think Mercury would. He really did believe in the Sun, that he could be reasoned with. I think that even the possibility of the Sun changing would bring Mercury back,” Earth answered, voice shaking with the cold. Mercury was an optimist at heart, even if he didn’t always sound it. He had helped the Earth in ways that the blue planet couldn’t even begin to thank him for. He had also seemingly fixed his friendship with Venus. Earth had no idea when they had made peace. If the Sun was willing to change, Mercury would be back in a corebeat.
“Mars would,” Luna added.
Mars. Earth couldn’t miss the pang in his core that overshadowed the creeping cold for a moment. Earth would do anything for the red planet to come back. Just being able to see Mars one more time would lift his flagging spirits.
“Possibly. He’s been let down by a lot of people he looks up to recently. But he’s the most level headed guy I know. I guess it depends if he’s happy with his new friends.” Earth wondered what these new friends were like. Other rocky planets? Maybe they’d come to visit and they could all play cards. He missed playing cards with the others.
He missed Mars.
“I reckon he’d be happier with his best friend around,” Luna said with a smile. Earth smiled back. He would definitely be happier with Mars around. He’d even suffer through one of Venus’ lectures about the dangers of asteroid dodgeball.
“That means that Venus would definitely come back, if Mars and Mercury did. Can’t have just three rocky planets,” Earth said. Except there were just three rockies together currently. And it did not feel right. He really, really wanted to play cards.
“I’m not sure about the giants. Jupiter was through with the Sun. You could see it. He’d had enough,” Earth said, trying to shake away the loneliness.
“Being honest with myself, I cannot see Jupiter coming back. That bridge is burned. I hope I’m wrong though,” Luna said quietly, looking downcast. Earth looked to the side. He didn’t want to agree, but in his core, it was probably right.
“And without Jupiter, Saturn wouldn't. And… I don’t even know with the ice giants. They’d either come back together or stay gone. I… I don’t know them well enough. Uranus was going through some big stuff, and who knows with Neptune,” Earth listed off, feeling more hopeless with every word. This conversation was taking a rather depressing turn, feeling the denseness in his core blooming at the thought.
“And the dwarf planets! I only know Pluto, and I’ve not spent any time with him in… I have no idea how long. I don't even know the names of most of the others. Why don’t I know anything about any of the planets outside of the other Rockies?” Earth yelled.
He had lived in the solar system for all his very long life, and there were others that lived here that he had no knowledge of. It wasn’t like life on his surface, where there were billions of Earthlings. There were so few people, how did he not know at least the other planets? He didn’t even know their hobbies, likes and dislikes. Not even their names? Dwarf planets were still in the planet family, and he still did not know them. Never mind the hundreds of moons. It should not be hard to know at least two dozen other bodies' names.
He could feel his temperature rising somehow, against all odds. Against the laws of thermodynamics. The Sun must have messed with that when he left. And he wasn’t here to stop it. Was his core still spinning? The dizziness became too much as the solar system lurched around him.
“Earth!” Luna yelled.
The moon's voice was a cold bucket of water that brought him back to himself, his breathing fast and ragged as he gasps, trying to quell that pit of dread that had been building inside.
“Earth. You never got a chance to see any of them. You got stuck in your orbit pretty early on, and they rarely came to the inner solar system. You can’t blame yourself for the way things were. Do they know you any better?” Luna said, straining to move, no doubt wanting to comfort the Earth.
The Earth continued to take deep breaths. His temperature wasn’t rising, still steadily falling. Thermodynamics still worked. So did his core. The solar system was still frozen. Luna was here with him. It wasn’t worth getting worked up over. If they came back, they could attempt to make up for it, and if they didn’t, he supposed that they would remain perfect strangers.
“What about the moons? You know the moons better than me, what do you think they would do?” Earth asked with an unsteady voice, trying to focus back on the conversation. He was happy to let Luna take the reins in this conversation.
Luna ponder this, mouth going taught as they thought. Luna had only just started getting to know the other moons. They were so happy to be part of the Moon Club. They would always come back and share the ‘Moon Drama’ that had happened. The way their eyes would crinkle as they spilled the gossip. They really did look like they belonged to something that was just theirs.
Now they were just as alone as the Earth.
“I’m not sure. We’ve all had problems with our planets in the past, some more than others, but at the end of the day, you are our planets. We’re a system for a reason. We all care for each other, even if we don’t communicate it well. I think most would stay with their planets,” Luna said.
If they were right in their predictions, that meant that only Phobos and Daimos would be back. None of the other friends that Luna had made would be seen again. The Galilean moons. Titan. He didn’t suppose Luna would get much amusement out of being the biggest moon in the solar system now.
“I’m sorry you lost all of your moon friends,” Earth said after a long pause.
“I’m sorry you lost your planet friends,” Luna echoed with a smile.
“Thank you for staying with me,” Earth said with a kind smile. Luna looked back, full of love.
“There was never a question of me leaving. A system for a reason. You remember what you promised back when we first woke up?”
We can stay together.
Promise?
Who was the Earth to deny Luna of anything?
“Cant break up a family,” Earth said, the sentence echoing in the quiet as the cold continued to close in.
Earth took a deep breath again, pushing down the dread and the cold. He could hang on. The Sun would be back. Either alone, or with the others, but he would be back. The Sun was their one constant. He had always been there, and would be here for a long, long time afterwards. Earth knew it.
He’d give anything to hear one of those awful sun puns.
“Eye spy with my little eye, something beginning with A,” Luna said, a smile pulling at their lips. Earth’s laughter rang out into the void, filling it up just a little more.