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Titan twisted his mouth to the side, biting lightly at the inside of his lip. Far off in the distance behind all of the moons, Saturn had turned around, his back to them - he was stooped over something, but Titan couldn’t tell what it was. He sucked in a breath of air and then turned back around to the moons, who stared at him with something like anger in their eyes.
“Well, Titan,” Dione finally said, rolling her eyes with her arms crossed over her chest. “That worked out just perfectly.” Titan deflated just a little bit, his shoulders slumping - Dione just arched one eyebrow, no mercy in her stare. “We just spent who knows how long telling Saturn all of our names, all to absolutely zero affect.” Behind her, Enceladus stared at Titan with abject fury, his arms crossed tight over his chest; Iapetus loomed behind him, face emotionless.
“Just give him some time, it’ll turn out fine!” Titan knew he sounded desperate; but still, he widened his eyes just a tick as he stared at Dione, a horrible feeling roiling in his core. “There’s almost a hundred and fifty of us, he probably just needs some time to digest the names. Please, just don’t give up immediately.”
Several of the moons in the distance reacted to that, expressions of annoyance rolling across their faces; it sent another ache straight into his core, so sharp that Titan almost wanted to curl up and stop talking to anyone, stop seeing the disappointment reflected in every other moon, to stop seeing his own failures reflected back from every direction. Failed to get Saturn to remember their names, failed to get them any sort of recognition from the moon revolution, failed to even get close to the other moons of Saturn - Titan was just one big ball of failure.
He was drawn out of his thoughts by Dione’s voice again, sharp and cutting. “He’s had time, Titan! Billions of years of it!” Dione flung her arms out, pointing to all of the moons behind her. Her voice went low, an edge of disappointment and sadness lurking beneath her anger. “He’s had nothing but time. And he can still only remember you.” With that final word, she turned and glided off further away, most of the moons following her - Titan went to follow, but was stopped by Rhea, who gave him a disappointed look, her lips pressed together. She pressed one hand to his shoulder and shook her head.
“I wouldn’t, Titan,” she finally said, her voice soft as ever. “They’re all a little too disappointed right now. We both know it wouldn’t do anything for you to follow.” She stared with somber eyes for a couple more seconds before she nodded again and turned to follow, leaving Titan alone in open space. He looked again, his gaze cutting between the moons gliding into the distance, and Saturn still hunched over something in his orbit - and then he heaved a heavy sigh and made for the asteroid belt, shoulders slumped as something miserable flooded through his core.
He could just… wait in the asteroid belt until something happened. Either Saturn would realize the mess he’d made by neglecting the other moons, or the other moons would decide Titan was good enough to be with them again - but either way, nothing was going to happen if he tried to force it.
Titan pushed aside a couple asteroids with his gravity, worrying at his bottom lip as melancholy roiled in his chest. Things were so much easier before Titan had decided to meet the Earth - and then he reminded himself that it’d been easier for him, not the rest of the moons - and now everything had just fallen apart. Saturn was… Saturn; the other moons hated him, and Titan just didn’t know how to fix things…
He sighed once before rubbing his hands down his face, not sure what he was even going to do now. With anything. The failed Moon Revolution, the other moons disliking him, the dilemma with Saturn - it all swirled together in his mind until he finally sat down, cushioned by his gravity, and as a headache burst to life in his head, Titan grit his teeth together and weathered against the sensation.
It was only when his headache calmed down and Titan returned to full lucidity that he realized someone was standing in front of him - Titan stood up and jumped backward in one moment, his legs tangling and making him trip backwards into an outcropping of asteroids behind him. When he finally regained control of his limbs, Titan stood up and let out an awkward cough before meeting Ganymede’s eyes.
“Ganymede, what are you doing here?” Titan took a single step back, his eyes narrowing; the asteroids behind him reacted to his gravity, floating off in different directions. Ganymede just continued staring at him, one eyebrow propped, his head tilted just slightly to the side.
“What are you doing here, Titan? As far as I know, Saturn’s orbit isn’t in the asteroid belt. Of course, it doesn’t look like any of Saturn’s moons are with him - trouble in paradise?” He smirked, and Titan rolled his eyes, rubbing once at his forehead before sending Ganymede a forced smile.
“I needed some time by myself. There. Are you satisfied? You’ve got your answer. You can leave me alone, now.” He didn’t deign to acknowledge the second part of Ganymede’s sentence.
“Plenty.” Ganymede didn’t move at all, his smirk widening - and finally Titan heaved a short sigh before continuing the conversation.
“So why are you here, Ganymede? You better not be planning to start another moon revolution, that last one ended-”
“Whoa there,” Ganymede put his hands up, the amusement in his eyes sending a whip of anger through Titan’s core. “There’s no need to get wired up, Titan. I came to find you.” Titan’s anger disappeared immediately, and instead his brows furrowed in confusion, his shoulders slumping.
“You came to find me?”
Ganymede nodded, another smirk on his face. Before Titan could react, Ganymede reached over and flung an arm over his shoulders, pulling him against his side. “You’re going to help me with something.” Titan’s eye twitched - he didn’t try to get out of Ganymede’s grip despite the fact that he knew he could, annoyance coursing through his veins. How did Ganymede get him… fired up like this, so easily? “I know you’re not busy, anyway. Nobody’s ever busy in this solar system.”
“Couldn’t you ask the other Galilean moons? Your partner-in-crime, Europa? Literally anyone else?”
“Nope. See, I need you for this, Titan.” Ganymede’s smirk finally dropped, his eyes filling with a hard light. “It’s to do with our planets.”
Titan narrowed his eyes. “Saturn and Jupiter? What could we have to do that involves them?” He finally broke out of Ganymede’s grip with one sure movement, stepping far enough backwards that he could barely feel Ganymede’s gravity.
“Jupiter’s hiding something.”
Titan stilled. “Hiding something?”
“He’s acting… weird.” Ganymede started pacing back and forth - Titan kept his eyes on him, surprise flooding into his core when he noticed the obvious concern in Ganymede’s eyes, the worried set to his mouth. “He looks tired. Like, a lot more than usual. It’s not like I’m watching the big guy all the time, but…” He turned to Titan. “If you saw him, you’d see what I mean.”
“So, if it’s Jupiter that’s hiding something, why can’t you and the other moons of Jupiter figure it out?”
“Because I can see that Saturn looks just as worried about something?” Ganymede threw his arms wide, and Titan pressed his lips together. Wrong assumption, Ganymede.
“Saturn looks worried because the other moons got tired of him forgetting their names or calling them by the wrong name - they-” He paused and narrowed his eyes. “He’s not hiding something, he’s just dealing with the consequences of his own actions.”
“Oh.” Ganymede’s head tilted to the side again, the surety in his movements gone for a moment before he met Titan’s eyes, his gray-ish green eyes bright with confidence again. “But you’re still helping me. We’re going to the Kuiper Belt. That’s where Jupiter disappeared to when he first got worried about… whatever it is.” He crossed his arms over his chest, and Titan’s eyes widened, his head jerking forward slightly.
“Who said I was going to help you in the first place?”
“Because you’re a bleeding heart and if we can figure out what’s bothering Jupiter in the first place, maybe we can use it to get more leverage for the moons?” Something about Ganymede’s statement didn’t ring true for Titan, but still he bit at the inside of his cheek before nodding with a sigh. It’s not like he had anything else to do. Maybe if he figured this out… everything else would fall into place. And if he was with Ganymede the whole time, it’s not like he could somehow whip up another moon revolution…
“Alright!” Ganymede smirked, wide and happy in a way that dinged against Titan’s core. “Let’s go, Titan,” and he turned around and headed off. Titan blinked once, twice, three times; then he sighed and followed Ganymede out of the asteroid belt, already regretting his decision a little bit.
The two of them easily passed through Jupiter’s and Saturn’s orbits without any issues - Titan tossed one more glance Saturn’s way, worry dampening his other emotions before he sighed and pushed it off, determined to let Saturn learn on his own. Things will work out, he told himself. You’ve just got to give it time.
“Looks like you’re thinking hard there, Titan,” Ganymede’s rough voice came from beside him, breaking the comfortable silence without a warning. “Don’t think too much or you’ll ruin your pretty little brain-” He tapped one hand on the side of Titan’s head as Titan gave him a deadpan look. “And I need that, at least for now.”
“Don’t, Ganymede,” Titan slapped his hand away, eye twitching. “I’m already regretting agreeing to help you, don’t make it worse.” Ganymede just shrugged at him, lopsided smirk burned onto his face as Titan resisted the urge to roll his eyes, instead focusing completely on the Kuiper Belt far in the distance.
“So do you know anything about what Jupiter is hiding?”
“No,” Ganymede shrugged, his eyes narrowing. “Europa thinks he’s afraid of someone, but I don’t know who it could be. The big guy’s always been so… level-headed?”
“Afraid of someone in the Kuiper Belt? The only beings out there are dwarf planets.”
“The Kuiper Belt’s where we found him after everyone left the-” Ganymede coughed. “It’s where we found him. He was sleeping, or resting his eyes, or something? I don’t know.”
“But how do we know that-” Titan was cut-off mid-sentence as his eyes caught movement in the distance - he paused and squinted, trying to make out who it was; and then he let a short smile cross his face as he waved. “Titania!” he called out, leaving Ganymede behind as he glided towards Titania in the distance. She met him with a short smile of her own, eyes narrowing when she spotted Ganymede behind him.
“Titan… Ganymede. What are you doing around here? This is Uranus’s orbit.”
“We’re going to the-” All the air rushed out of Titan when Ganymede slung an arm over his shoulder, pulling him in close with a wide smirk. He blinked against the hold, too shocked to try breaking out of it as Titania looked at him with one arched eyebrow, an amused grin pulling at her lips.
“We’re going to the Kuiper Belt, ba-Titania. Nothing that’s your business.”
Titania blinked slowly, her grin disappearing. “None of my business?” She crossed her arms over her chest, hip jutting out to one side. “Mhm.”
“Ignore Ganymede, Titania. We’re going to look for any evidence of whatever’s got Jupiter so spooked. I don’t know if you’ve seen him lately, but apparently, he’s not looking too good.” Titan pulled out of Ganymede’s grip with one harsh motion, brushing at his clothes a second later, closing his jacket tighter. “I figure if we can get this figured out, we can probably-”
“Use it to our advantage to get the moons the respect we deserve,” Ganymede finished his sentence, voice rougher with annoyance. He threw one elbow into Titan’s side, but Titan ducked out of the way, stepping to the side. “Keep it to yourself. The less people know about it, the less chance there is that this gets back to one of the planets.”
Titania rolled her eyes. “You two.” Ganymede continued staring at her, eyes narrowed with something like anger - Titan just pressed his lips together and gave her the tiniest of shrugs when she looked at him, and finally she breathed out a heavy sigh. “Fine, Ganymede. I won’t say anything about whatever you’re doing. I’ve got to get back to the other moons.”
“Fine by me,” Ganymede said in reply, arms crossing over his chest. Titania tossed Titan one more look, something considering in her eyes; and then she nodded at him and continued on.
“Why’s she so far from Uranus’s other moons?”
“Who cares? We’ve got to keep going to the Kuiper Belt,” Ganymede responded, wrapping one hand tight around Titan’s wrist and pulling him with him as he started towards the Kuiper Belt in the distance. “Who knows if we’re on a time limit here?”
“It’ll take forever to get to the Kuiper Belt, anyway,” Titan said, testing his wrist in Ganymede’s grip - it was strong, and finally he gave up on resisting and just let himself be pulled along. “There’s no need to be so rude to Titania. She was just wondering what we were doing out here.”
“Are you-” Ganymede cut himself off, throwing Titan a look he couldn’t quite decipher. “Never mind.”
“What?”
“Nothing, Titan. Forget it,” Ganymede said, staring off in the distance. His fingers flexed against Titan’s wrist, warm and unyielding. “Let’s just keep going.”
The next obstacle came a short time later - they’d passed into where Titan imagined Neptune’s orbit was, the Kuiper Belt looming ahead like a spectre sending unease shooting through his core. Titan had finally pulled his wrist out of Ganymede’s grip, and now they were walking alongside each other, silent - but it was somehow a comfortable silence, not the awkward one he’d imagined. Titan kept finding himself looking at Ganymede out of the corner of his eye, studying his micro-expressions, every movement of his hands; he couldn’t figure out why he was looking at him so closely, the answer lurking on the edge of his consciousness, just out of reach.
He’d been so caught up in looking at Ganymede, Titan had been almost too surprised to react when he was bowled over from the side by a bunch of young-looking figures - and then Titan realized they were Neptune’s moons, and his head snapped up as he searched for Triton. And of course, Triton wasn’t far from them, looking utterly exhausted; leaving Ganymede behind as the younger moons crawled all over him and he protested, Titan strode towards Triton, taking in his appearance as he did. Triton looked a little shell-shocked, his glasses sliding down his face - Titan felt a measure of concern run through his core at the sight, and he cleared his throat. “Uhh, Triton, are you okay?”
“I’m fine, Titan. Just… learned some new information.”
“Not good, I’m guessing?” Titan immediately regretted saying that when Triton’s eyes rose up to meet his, a deadpan expression settling onto his face. He fixed his glasses after a moment, pushing them back onto his face.
“No.” They just stared at each other for a while, until Titan let out a nervous cough and looked away. Behind him, he could still hear Ganymede’s low voice as he told the smaller moons not to climb all over him; the edge of a smile curled onto his face before he wiped it away and met Triton’s eyes again.
“Have you seen anything weird in the Kuiper Belt, recently?”
“You moons have graduated from revolutions to detective work?” Triton lowered his glasses so that he could give Titan a measured stare. “I’m surprised you’re even with Ganymede, frankly.”
“It’s… new. But forget all of that, please. Just tell me if you’ve seen anything weird in the Kuiper Belt.”
“I haven’t.” Triton sighed, sliding his glasses back again. “But Makemake mentioned a strange… gravitational phenomena? I don’t remember much, to be honest.”
“Makemake?”
“A dwarf planet in the Kuiper Belt. He thought it was something that could destabilize the Kuiper Belt. I don’t know - I think it just turned out to be Ceres, another dwarf planet… but Makemake made it sound like something much bigger than Ceres was causing the issues.” Triton’s jaw worked once, and he glanced at the moons surrounding Ganymede. “Listen, that’s all I remember. I’m sure it’s nothing, okay?”
“Yeah, nothing.” Titan shot a glance at the Kuiper Belt in the looming distance, a sense of unease roiling in his core. “Thanks, Triton. I’ll let you go back to whatever you were doing.”
“Yeah, fun.” Triton sounded absolutely enthused; he glided past Titan with a heavy sigh and called out to the moons. “Come on, guys! Leave Ganymede alone, we’ve got to look for Neptune, remember?”
“Neptune!” A chorus of voices responded to Triton’s voice, and they all fled towards him, leaving Ganymede splayed out on the ground, blinking hard. Titan approached him, holding back a slight laugh; when he finally reached Ganymede, he put out a hand towards him, flexing his fingers as he waited for Ganymede to respond. Ganymede just blinked at him for a couple of seconds, and Titan bit at the inside of his cheek as embarrassment flared to life in his chest. He went to pull back his hand, but before he could Ganymede reached out and grabbed on tight, pulling himself up until he was standing right in front of Titan, almost too close.
“You alright?” Titan finally asked, taking one step back and pulling his hand out of Ganymede’s grip.
“Fine.” Ganymede crossed his arms over his chest and shuddered once - and Titan suddenly realized himself how cold it was this deep into the solar system, closing his jacket tighter. After another moment, he pulled his hair out of the usual updo and let it spill over his shoulders - it’d provide at least some warmth for his neck and ears. When he glanced up, he realized that Ganymede was staring at him, his lips slightly parted - Titan darted his eyes away and let out a short nervous cough, and Ganymede reacted suddenly, gliding towards the Kuiper Belt again without another word.
Titan frowned, unsure as to why Ganymede had reacted so weirdly; then he just shrugged, a half-smile on his lips before he followed, eyes on the Kuiper Belt in the distance.
“Triton told me that apparently one of the dwarf planets sensed some gravitational disturbances in the Kuiper Belt – and they investigated it and only found another dwarf planet. But Triton said that the dwarf planet made it sound like something bigger than that. You think it’s related?”
“What, do you think it’s something from outside the solar system?” Ganymede pushed aside a grouping of asteroids, tension in every line of his body. “That would explain some-”
Titan frowned, his head whipping around as he saw something move out of the corner of his vision. He latched one hand onto Ganymede’s arm, stopping him in his tracks, his voice cutting off - and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Ganymede’s own eyes narrow as he reached out and scooped up an asteroid.
“Who’s there?” Titan froze when more asteroids moved in the distance - but they didn’t move much, so whoever was out there must be small. He relaxed just the tiniest bit, letting go of Ganymede’s arm. “Hello?” he called out, keeping his tone neutral. “Is someone there?”
“Hello!” A quiet voice called out in response - Titan looked down to see a red-clad figure in the distance, small enough that he had to squint to see them properly. “You’re new to the Kuiper Belt! I’ve never seen anyone like you here. Of course, you’re not as big as Neptune, but you can’t be planets either-” The figure gasped, gliding closer, and Titan was finally able to resolve his features, the glasses on his face catching the shine of the distant sun and making one of Titan’s eyes close at the sharp glint of light. “You must be moons! But you’re huge, you must be a gas giant moon - I don’t think one of the rocky planets could have a moon as big as you two. Are you Jupiter’s moons? Ooh, or Saturn’s? Or one of Uranus’s? I know you’re not Neptune’s, he’s only got Triton and those younger moons-”
Titan blinked at the onslaught of words before pushing a lock of hair behind his air and clearing his throat. Before he could speak, Ganymede pushed forward, arm in front of Titan. “I’m Ganymede, the biggest moon in the solar system. Jupiter’s moon. This is Titan, he’s Saturn’s moon.”
“Wow!” The figure grinned wider, floating upwards so that he was close to Ganymede and Titan’s faces. “The only moons I see here in the Kuiper Belt are Neptune’s moons - and Uranus’s moons, whenever they visit Neptune’s. I can’t believe you’re visiting here! I’m Makemake, a dwarf planet!”
Makemake? That’s the name Triton mentioned… For a moment, Titan considered asking Makemake about the gravitational disturbances - but then he immediately rejected the idea. Triton told me enough. His thoughts slid to another idea as Titan was suddenly reminded that he was still surprised at how many beings existed in the solar system, that he could live in it for billions of years and still have plenty of unrecognized celestial bodies he’d never met. Of course, he also didn’t know any other dwarf planets… other than Pluto, who almost everyone knew of thanks to his loss of the planet designation.
“What are you doing here in the Kuiper Belt? Visiting someone? We only ever see the planets here occasionally, but I’ve never seen one of Jupiter or Saturn’s moons!” Makemake’s hands rested under his chin, and he leaned forward into Ganymede and Titan’s space. “What’s it like being the moon of a gas giant? With so many other moons? You must know a lot of other celestial beings.”
Titan finally spoke up before Makemake could continue talking, answering his first question. “We’re just…” he glanced over at Ganymede, meeting his eyes, and Ganymede sent him a shrug. Remember Ganymede’s reticence towards telling Titania what they were doing, he pulled back the urge to share and responded carefully instead. “…searching for something.”
“Oh, I could help! I know everything there is to know about the Kuiper Belt. I’ve circled it so many times, I could help you find anything!”
Titan sucked in air through his teeth. “It’s not really anything specific that we’re searching for. Just… evidence of something. We don’t even know what we’re looking for, right, Ganymede?” He shoved his elbow into Ganymede’s side, and he reacted by shoving Titan right back.
A second later, Ganymede’s eyes turned serious in a way that Titan didn’t recall seeing before; the words he’d been about to say froze in his throat, and instead he just listened to Ganymede. “Have you seen Jupiter in here before?”
“Jupiter? Hmmm,” Makemake put a hand against his chin, his mouth twisting to the side like he was thinking. “Not as far as I can remember! Must’ve been on the other side of the Kuiper Belt.”
“Was it?” Titan tossed Ganymede a look. Had they gone to the entirely wrong side of the Kuiper Belt?
Ganymede shook his head. “No, Jupiter was around here when we found him. I remember… Just because I thought it was weird.”
“Because you were worried?” Titan smiled, forgetting that Makemake was there for a moment. “You know, you can say you were worried about Jupiter, Ganymede. It’s not going to take away your… shtick.” Ganymede just rolled his eyes as he stared at Titan, before he looked back at Makemake with his hands on his hips.
“So, have you seen anything weird around here? Or heard anything weird? You’re a dwarf planet, you’re small enough to go unnoticed if anyone’s around here.”
Makemake notched one eyebrow before shrugging at them. “I haven’t noticed anything. Other than some interesting gravitational phenomena! But nothing came of our investigations,” he looked briefly put-out, an almost pout coming over his face. “I can ask the other dwarf planets, if you want?”
“No, that’s okay,” Titan threw a hand in the air. He really didn’t want to deal with anyone else right now, it was already hard enough dealing with Ganymede for so long. “We’ll be fine from here.”
“Don’t be strangers! Always nice to have new people in the Kuiper Belt.” Makemake grinned at them, adjusting his glasses with one hand before whipping around and disappearing into the distance; Titan blinked after him before shaking his head and turning to meet Ganymede’s eyes. Ganymede looked considering, worrying at his bottom lip with narrowed eyes - and for a moment, Titan found himself just watching, almost captivated before he wrangled his attention back down and cleared his throat.
“We should probably keep looking. I don’t think we’re going to find anything… here.” He gestured at the asteroids floating around them, the empty air between them. “Are you even sure we’ll find anything here?”
“This is around where we found Jupiter, I swear!” Ganymede’s brow furrowed, and his gaze darted around. “He was sleeping, but he looked… off.” Titan arched one eyebrow.
“Off?”
“He had bags under his eyes, and he wasn’t acting normal. It’s - you’d know it if you saw him, Titan.” Ganymede’s voice got lower and rougher than normal somehow, the edge of desperation creeping into his tone. “We just need to keep looking. We’ll find something eventually. We have to!”
Titan blinked and pressed his lips together - the reason for Ganymede’s desperation escaped him, but he wasn’t going to ask him why he wanted to find something so badly when he was so emotionally strung-out; Titan wasn’t good with figuring out other people’s emotions, but even he knew that would only end badly. “Alright,” he finally said. “Let’s keep looking, then.”
Titan wasn’t even sure how long they both traveled that section of the Kuiper Belt, searching for any evidence of anything - and found nothing other than a few suspiciously out-of-orbit asteroids, which could have been caused by them searching, or by Jupiter before. Ganymede only grew more annoyed as time passed, until finally Titan drew to a stop and let out a harsh exhale. “Ganymede, we’re not going to find anything here. I think we just need to face it.”
Ganymede turned to him, tensing as if he was about to yell - and then all the tension fled him at once. “So there’s really nothing here.” Ganymede’s shoulders dropped. “I- we came out here for absolutely no reason at all. There’s not even a hint of what’s got Jupiter so worried!” He threw his hands in the air and twisted around, picking up the nearest asteroid and throwing it into the distance. Titan just watched before tipping his head to the side.
“You could always just ask Jupiter what’s got him so worried. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if y’all asked him - you’re his moons, after all.” Titan shrugged when Ganymede looked at him, his eyes narrowed.
“If I ask him what’s going on, he’ll know that-”
“-that you care about him? Is that really so bad, Ganymede?” Titan furrowed his brow. “He’s your planet.”
“You don’t get it, Titan!”
“I don’t get what, exactly?”
Ganymede took a deep breath, a sudden emotion flashing in his eyes that Titan couldn’t quite read. “You don’t get anything, Titan! You started your strike in the first place just because the Earth insulted you. Did you ever care about what the other moons wanted out of an actual revolution? Did you?” Titan took a step back, his lips parting in surprise at Ganymede’s words.
Ganymede took one step forward into his space, one finger jolting hard into Titan’s chest, a sting of pain following. “You know, at least your planet pays attention to you! Did you ever stop and consider what I wa- what the other moons wanted out of the revolution? You got your apology from Earth, and that’s all that ever seemed to matter to you!”
Titan’s mouth opened and closed, a million different sentences on the tip of his tongue. “I-Ganymede-What?” Ganymede just stared at him, his eyes narrowed with anger, until all of the anger seemingly dispersed at once, and he turned away from Titan with slumped shoulders. Something wormed its way into Titan’s core, a cold feeling that made him shudder once, suddenly aware of the bitter cold of the Kuiper Belt pressing in against him. It wasn’t - Titan paused and considered it, worrying his lip between his teeth while Ganymede stood in front of him, seemingly ignoring Titan now. Suddenly aware of what he was feeling, Titan ducked his head and closed his eyes. It was shame. He was ashamed - of himself.
“Ganymede,” he finally spoke; Ganymede’s shoulders stiffened, tension outlining his entire body. “Why did you ask me to come along, anyway? You could’ve done this all yourself.” Titan let his legs dangle as he sat down in place, cushioned by his gravity - he stared into the distance at the deep black beyond the Kuiper Belt, the barest edge of discomfort rolling in. “You didn’t need me here at all.”
I don’t think anybody needs me, he internally added, a spear of dismay stabbing through his core.
In the distance, Ganymede relaxed just a tad, his shoulders slumping back down - he turned around and faced Titan again, but didn’t acknowledge him, just sat down next to him, the warmth of his body a welcome reprieve from the bitter cold of the Kuiper Belt. He mirrored Titan’s pose, legs kicking just the slightest beneath them; he toyed with an asteroid in his hands, tossing it into the air and using his gravity to fling it around before picking it up again. Titan only realized after some time of comfortable silence that neither of them had talked for a while, and he reached out and prodded Ganymede in the shoulder. “Ganymede? Did you hear me?”
“I heard you, Titan,” Ganymede responded, voice lower than usual. “Just give me a second, jeez.”
Titan shifted in place, reaching out for an asteroid of his own after another second. He spun it in mid-air, only half-focused on it - the rest of his attention was stuck on Ganymede, his downtrodden expression and the deft movements of his hands around the asteroid. “Ya know,” he finally said, “you aren’t totally bad, Ganymede. I don’t like what you did with the moon revolution… but I’m starting to understand why you did it.” Something roiled in his core, and he closed his fist around the asteroid and watched the fragments fly away. “I want the moons to be acknowledged and treated equally just as much as you do. I think we all deserve better.”
Instead of answering him, Ganymede launched his own asteroid into the distance and turned to look at Titan. “…I knew Saturn wasn’t worrying about the same thing as Jupiter.” Titan blinked; his hand twitched in his lap, as if he wanted to do something, but at the same time Titan had no idea what. He refocused on Ganymede and tipped his head to the side, his brow knitting in confusion.
“So why did you ask me to help? Jupiter’s not my planet, and you and I both know that Jupiter’s other moons would have a better idea of what could be worrying him than I ever could… y’all know your planet better. I barely know anything about Saturn, apparently,” Titan frowned. “So why?”
Ganymede’s face spasmed, a brief unreadable expression settling in before it was replaced by a smirk - one that didn’t seem quite right to Titan (but he couldn’t figure out why, his eyes narrowing just a tad before he forced his expression back into a neutral one). “Do I have to have a reason?”
“…No,” Titan finally answered.
Ganymede’s expression relaxed, his smirk dissipating, something more vulnerable in his eyes now. He pressed his lips together and looked away from Titan, hands intertwining in his lap before he disentangled them and placed them hard against his thighs - Titan just watched his every move, something aching in his chest.
“Come on, Titan,” Ganymede finally said, his voice lower than usual. “We’ve got to get back to our planets.” He splayed his hand out towards Titan, waiting, something shining in his eyes - Titan felt a small smile curling onto his face before he reached out and grabbed Ganymede’s hand in his own, allowing him to pull him up into a standing position.
They both just stood there for another minute, eyes locked - and then Titan let out a nervous cough and took a step back, and the moment broke. Ganymede looked away from him, his stance tensing; he strode off into the distance, following their original path.
Titan just watched him leave for another moment, the curious ache back in his core. Distantly, he swore he felt the sensation of being watched… but he pushed that aside, sighing once before following Ganymede.