Chapter Text
Luna yawned as he woke up. The first thing he opened his eyes to was his planet giving the moon a gentle smile. “Well good morning Moo– uh, Luna!”
Returning the smile, Luna answered. “Good morning, Earth. I didn’t almost start crashing into you or anything this time right?”
Not that Earth would have any way of knowing this, but ever since that one episode of Luna accidentally approaching Earth in his sleep, Luna made sure to give Artemis full control over their shared body before going under. Just in case. It’d be out of character to stop worrying so abruptly without explanation though, so here Luna was, feigning ignorance, despite Artemis’ mental reassurance that nothing happened.
“No, no, nothing like that Luna!” Earth shook his head. “So, Luna, what do you want to do now that you’re up?”
The moon hummed in thought. He was going to ask Artemis if the “dark” side had any requests, but the presence at the back of his mind had gone quiet. Seems like Luna was the only one awake at the moment.
Seeing Luna’s hesitance, Earth decided to ask something he meant to offer for a while.
“How about we play a round of space poker, Luna?”
Luna immediately perked up, full attention on Earth as the planet brought out the oversized cards. Earth laughed inside at how the moon’s gaze seemed to be glued to the stack of cards, as if hypnotized. Hoping this was a sign that they were going in the right direction, Earth let the feeling of happiness at doing something right to fix what he did to their relationship wash over him.
Using his gravity, Earth distributed the cards in front of them both. “I’m sure you know all the rules already.”
Absent-mindedly, Luna nodded his head as he drew some cards to himself, a grin beginning to break out on his face. Pausing for a second, Luna shook his head. “Wait what? I don’t know the rules at all. Could you give me a tutorial and some tips?”
Earth pulled his expression into a deadpan one. “Luna. How dumb do you think I am?”
Luna opened his mouth.
“Don’t answer that.”
Luna closed his mouth.
Earth barreled on. “After watching us for so long, wanting to play so badly, I know you’ve learned how to play by now. You’ve definitely picked up a thing or two, or like, fifty. Don’t think I don’t remember how you hovered close enough to see everyone’s cards throughout a game.” As he spoke, Earth shuffled his cards around in a bridge shuffle. “You don’t need any tips from me.”
Luna rolled his eyes, grumbling. “Okay, fine. I guess I know. But at least go over the rules for clarification? What if I missed something? Are you really going to be so unfair as to let your only moon be absolutely clueless about how to play this when you could’ve easily done otherwise?” The gray celestial tilted to one side, his eyes wide – simply the picture of innocence. “Are you really going to make me suffer the humiliation? And after all we’ve been through, Earth… ”
The moon’s efforts were rewarded with a long, drawn-out sigh of pure mock annoyance. “Fine. But I’m only going through this once, so pay attention!”
Space poker barely had any understandable rules, to the point it couldn’t be connected directly to any card game, including its namesake. So any sane person listening to Earth try to recall all the little rules and conditions of the game would, to no one’s surprise, demand those minutes of their life back after failing to follow along.
After listening to way too many contradicting rules that barely made sense when put together to form a game, Luna gave a decisive nod – as if he truly understood everything Earth said. “I think I’ve finally got the hang of the rules this time! Can we try a round?”
“Of course!”
And so they played. At first, Luna played as if he had never heard of space poker before. Earth beat him soundly every time. However, it did take an oddly long while for Luna to fully lose, despite him seemingly playing with the worst hand in the history of space poker. [I know, I know. They don’t have hands. Let me be.]
Seeing them playing eventually attracted a bored Mars to ask if he could join. Mercury, similarly bored and out of Sun’s attention for once, did the same. The number of stacks dealt went from two to four. Earth was sure it would be better to play as a group with Luna than just him and his moon alone. It’d show better planet and moon relationships if more planets were playing after all.
…And it’s been a while since he’s seen Luna so openly giddy about something. The moon looked admittedly adorable, excitedly fanning out cards as big as him so that only his eyes were visible above them, though his grin was obvious to anyone there.
Venus, being the only rocky planet alone and in his orbit, eventually noticed the trio of planets and Luna finishing up a round. Wouldn’t you know it, a while later he joined too. Astrodude popped up at some point. It wouldn’t have mattered what everyone else thought, for Earth and Luna immediately provided him with his own array of cards. We’ll say that the Earthling used a robot arm to move the surprisingly light cards around.
That last addition might have been a mistake though. Astrodude thoroughly kicked everyone’s butts in that round. And the next. And the one after that. And another one. And he had to leave after the next one but he won it too.
Several more rounds were played. A nearby chalkboard kept track of the accumulated wins up until Sun finally noticed Mercury’s absence and the movement of the other rockies. Just before they were all sent back to their orbits under threat of a solar flare, they noted the final results. Mars was second only to Astrodude in the number of rounds won, while Venus and Mercury were tied at third place. Earth and Luna were tied with the lowest number of rounds won. Luna’s score could be forgiven due to the fact that he never played before and his main teacher was Earth of all planets.
As the other planets left Earth’s orbit, Luna softly chuckled, prompting Earth to look at him questioningly. “This is what happens when I’m taught by you, huh?” Luna joked as he looked up at Earth. “Maybe I should go orbit Mars. Or even Venus. Hope that their space poker skills rub off on me. Instead of whatever your abysmal space poker face is.”
The blue planet gasped dramatically. “Outrageous! Absolute hearsay. My own moon, a traitor! Another top ten anime betrayal…
“The poor, blindsided planet stared into the distance, at the vast speckled void of space, a far-off look in his eyes. He despaired as he felt the pain of Luna’s words, like a knife twisting in his… core.”
A snort interrupted Earth’s wonderful narration.
Earth raised an eyebrow at the offender. “Yes, traitor Luna? Have you decided to beg to be accepted into my orbit again?”
His blank stare as he waited for a response from the source of muffled giggles only made it harder for the moon to respond back.
Lowering his eyebrow, Earth leaned back, looking down at Luna. Haughtily, he simply stated, “It is far too late for such actions. Thou art forever banished! Off to orbiting Venus for eternity for ye.”
“Pfft– hahaha!” chortled Luna, unable to hold back his laughter. His planet followed soon after, the two guffawing at their own antics.
*Some unspecified amount of time [a few hours? a day?] later*
“Hey, Luna?”
“Yes, Earth?”
“Want to play a round of– ”
As soon as Earth got the word “round” out, Luna immediately interjected. “Yes!”
Earth chuckled. “I didn’t even finish!”
“Fine then, finish your sentence.”
“Want to play a round of SolarCards?”
No later than Earth finished saying the word “SolarCards,” Luna was already enthusiastically answering with a vehement “YES! YESYESYESYES– ”
“Okay, okay,” chuckled Earth as he brought out his own deck. “Want to have the others join us too? You remember how to play and everything right?”
“Sure, and duh, I was there when we all got introduced to it. Watching you guys play space poker and SolarCards for so long also helps.” Turning back to Earth with a sly grin, Luna continued, “It also let me know how all of you guys play too, so don’t be surprised if I beat you all.”
The planet fondly rolled his eyes. “Yeah sure Mo– ” He caught himself mid-word, a flicker of panic over his expression before he resumed with forced nonchalance. “I mean, yeah, sure Luna, that’s why you were losing to everyone and tied with me last time when we played space poker. You’re telling me you learned so much from watching us that you got wiped out by an Earthling?”
“Oh come on, everyone was losing to Astrodude, admit it.” Luna paused for a second, and smirked. “Besides, maybe I was just taking it easy on you guys so you planets wouldn’t feel threatened by a moon beating you so soundly the first time he was playing.”
Earth rolled his eyes goodnaturedly. The fact that Luna never lost first despite seemingly being so bad at the game, and how he definitely should have recognized their playing styles even if he pleaded ignorance, was suspicious. Honestly, Earth was pretty sure Luna was actually holding back just to get a better idea of how everyone played. But Earth could never admit that, obviously. That was simply unthinkable. It was a point of pride.
“Buuut, that was space poker,” dismissed the planet. “Now, it’s SolarCards time. Want to go get the others, Luna?”
Luna hesitated, not moving from his spot as he frowned at Earth. “I could, but I don’t want to leave you alone. Who’s going to help you stay on your axis?”
They both knew it was a weak excuse for why Luna refused to leave Earth alone for any amount of time.
Maybe Earth would have to employ some… secret weapons.
“I’ll be fine on my axis, I can hold it for a while. Don’t worry about me. :)”
“How did you say an emoticon– I don’t even think I want to know actually.”
“:)”
“But I’m not leaving you alone. Out of the question, Earth.”
“:(“
“Don’t give me that look, mister. This is for your own good.”
“:’(“
“Wha– did you actually just shed a tear?”
“:’c
“Earth, come on, you can wait to play a little longer. I’ve been waiting to play for years!”
“;-;”
“Hey, hey, I wasn’t trying to remind you of all that. I’m not really bothered by it anymore since I get to play with you all now.”
“:’<”
“But my point stands. We’re waiting until one of the others is close enough to call over, okay?”
“T-T”
“Earth!”
…
…
…
Luna won that argument by the way. Earth’s teary puppy eyes don’t work on his moon. They waited until Venus came around close enough to call out to.
Before they could do such a thing though, a small object zoomed up to the duo. Luna tensed in preparation, but relaxed at the sight of a face on the little (assumed) moon.
Upon arrival, the poor moon was out of breath. Somehow. [Don’t question how celestial exhaustion works, I can’t say either.]
As the moon gasped in exhaustion, Earth and Luna shared a look with one another before turning back to the moon.
A minute or two later, the moon was somewhat composed enough to stutter out, “M-moon Club *gasp* meeting, *gasp* right now.”
“Oh! Um, okay then.” Luna was mildly puzzled, and a little annoyed. He was just about to play SolarCards!
“You good little fella?” Earth asked the newcomer.
The tiny moon nodded. “Yes Mr. Earth sir! I never traveled this far across the solar system on my own this quickly, that’s all.”
The planet blinked in surprise. “No need to call me that uhh… ”
“Pan!”
“Pan. Aww, you’re a lil’ shepherd moon!”
Interrupting before he could see if Pan was insulted by that, Luna called out to Venus to come over. Earth and Pan visibly startled.
Luna sheepishly grinned at them. “Sorry guys, I just wanted to get him over here since it takes a while."
Accepting the explanation, Luna's planet turned back to Pan. "So you take care of Saturn's rings, right lil' buddy?"
Luna mentally facepalmed. There went the easy out he just gave Earth.
Luckily, Pan didn't seem offended. In fact, he seemed quite excited to talk to the planet like this. "Y-yeah! I'm one of Saturn's best shepherd moons, and I take care of his Encke Gap!"
"Huh, where's that?" asked Earth, tilting his face in confusion.
Pan beamed, immediately launched into an explanation of the different sections of Saturn's rings, from their names to their sizes and even how visible they were from Earth's orbit right now.
"Well the first one is the A Ring, which is the second farthest ring from Saturn! There's two main gaps in it, the Encke and Keeler Gaps, but Daphnis takes care of the second one. Mine’s bigger so I’m obviously a much better shepherd moon." This brought both Earth and Luna a small laugh.
Pan continued babbling excitedly about himself and his work, looking less and less uncomfortable by the second. He seemed to be losing his breath and tripping up on his words less from exhaustion and nervousness, and more from genuine joy. At the moment, he was explaining how he kept his gap clear and what the ripples and spiraling waves looked like to Earth.
“I keep the Encke Gap clear of any debris and small particles, keeping the rest of the ring tidy. And my movement actually leaves behind spiraling wakes in the edges of the gap, and it looks really cool up close!”
From Luna’s perspective, this was a precious moment for both of the celestial beings involved. Pan was getting to highlight his key traits and what he was proud of to someone who’d most likely remember more than the small moon’s own planet. And Pan was explaining everything to Earth.
To Earth, who probably knew something as oddly specific as all this after all the readings he did – reading up on all the planets and known satellites of the solar system after he tried to drill into his mind how everyone was special in their own way.
Earth, who was trying his best to make up for his behavior with Luna by paying attention to how much Luna wanted to play cards.
Earth, Luna's wonderful, well-meaning planet, who was trying to make the nervous little Pan feel a bit more comfortable while in a new, uncomfortable environment, by letting the shepherd moon feel seen. Something the planet knows has been bothering most of Saturn's moons, as Luna explained to him after a previous Moon Club meeting.
Yeah, that was Luna's planet alright. It warmed Luna's core to see the planet return bit by bit to his former self. Still snarky, but not as much of a jerk as pre-Moon-Revolution Earth. At least he was acknowledging his mistakes now. Pre-Moon-Revolution Earth was starting to be intolerable to be around. But Luna could see how the remorse weighed on the planet now. Even if he didn't show it. After all, this was Earth.
Earth, who was also trying to make up for what he did to his friends – by distancing himself from them. Which did them all no good.
Luna did say he saw Earth through all his phases. So he knows when Earth needs a push. Still, he felt a little bad for ruining the moment.
Luna took note of the annoyed Planet of Love and Beauty approaching, and interrupted during a lull in the conversation. "Earth, do you think you could stay with Venus for a bit while I check out the Moon Club meeting real quick? I’ll leave early, but I want to make sure you’re fine with this. You two aren’t on bad terms right now, right?”
Earth stammered. “Do you have to– Wait yes of course you can go but… I mean– maybe? No? We’re not on bad terms, I think? It’s going to be awkward though– ”
“Perfect! I’ll see you soon then~ ”
Luna zipped off with Pan in tow, letting the poor moon take a break on his return trip. He’d let Pan tell Luna more fun facts on the way to the meeting spot.
As for Earth, Luna knew he needed a bit of a push to talk to either Venus or Mars for a while. During some of his planet’s sessions with Mercury, Luna did individually talk to the two neighboring rocky planets briefly, and he was now sure that there would be no asteroids thrown in anger if Earth tried talking to them alone. So this was great! Even if the timing was horrible for Luna. He’d be back soon though! Hopefully not to disaster.
Another Moon Club meeting had been announced. Maybe the third official one? Who even keeps track of this? This time, it was declared by some very concerned Saturnian moons.
Now, previously, the moons of the giants were led by their respective “leaders”: Jovian moons by the Galilean moons, the Saturnian moons by Titan, the Uranian moons by Titania, and, of course, the Neptunian moons by Triton. They would arrive in order of their distance to the asteroid belt, with at least one moon sent out to collect the moons of the inner solar system. This time, it was a little different.
As expected, the Jovian moons arrived first to the asteroid belt hangout spot.
“Who organized this again?” Europa’s voice carried a hint of irritation, as if it was annoying to be there in the first place.
“Pan said Dione di-did!” Io piped up. “Pan came by and s-s-said the moons of Saturn wanted to d-discuss something? I d-don’t know what it was, b-but I guess it’s imp-portant if it’s only sup-p-posed to be the m-major moons.”
A scoff sounded from beside the stuttering cheese ball. “Probably so that we don’t have to deal with more kid moons having to deal with what the rest of us are worrying about. Wouldn’t want them to get caught up in something they don’t understand again.”
Europa’s gaze snapped to the speaker. “Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?”
Callisto looked back, unruffled by the glower aimed at her. “Whatever you want it to mean, Europa. It’s not like you and Ganymede used your sway to get all the moons to almost do something they’d regret.”
The two glared at each other, narrowing their eyes. Abruptly, they were pushed apart by Ganymede’s gravity.
“Girls, girls, stop fighting! I think we’ve had enough of that for the past few orbits. Anyway, I can see the others coming right now.”
The two looked away from one another, Europa scoffing and Callisto returning to her flat expression, but didn’t continue their bickering. Io, hovering by Callisto’s side, gazed between the two, troubled over the fighting.
Noticing this and also feeling the discomfort, Ganymede attempted to change topics.
“I see Earth’s m– ” The largest moon backtracked hurriedly. “Luna coming over,” he corrected. “With Artemis maybe.”
Europa squinted at the direction Ganymede was facing before rolling her eyes. “Looks like Earth’s moon is excited to share something. Probably something else about how his planet has gotten better again. Yay.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Ganymede noticed Callisto turning to face her.
“‘Earth’s moon,’ really?” Somehow, with her face barely showing any changes, the purplish moon could convey her disappointment. She drawled, “Come on, I think you know better than that by now.”
<*Flashback to some point in the last Moon Club meeting*>
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
“Starting with… Luna! Anything to say about your planet?”
“As I’ve told you before, Titan, I think good progress is being made. Nothing much to talk about here.”
Clearing his throat, Titan moved onto the Martian moons. The two, predictably, had no complaints about their beloved Mars.
Letting the other moons have more of a voice to lead the discussion, Titan backed away from the board where their main issues were listed. He glanced meaningfully at the Jovian moons.
After some time of frantically glancing and mouthing at one another, finally one moon stepped forward. Her face was set in a frown, but she spoke in a level voice.
“Hello, I’m Amalthea by the way.” She nervously glanced around. “A-and, Jupiter hasn’t really improved with his favoritism because he’s been weirdly absent lately. He’s not even with us like he’s supposed to be most of the time!”
Floating a little closer to the board, Amalthea glanced at the words written on it, before turning back to Titan and the other moons. “I’ll just write that down then?”
At the other moons’ collective nodding, she picked up the marker and wrote her complaints under the sketch of Jupiter, with no complaints or additions from the rest of the Jovian moons. As she scribbled surprisingly legible letters for a moon of her size, Europa broke off from the rest of the Galileans, her gaze steady.
“Jupiter’s still having the same issue favoring us as his A-team. We’ve had absolutely no change at all other than our planet growing even more distant from us!”
Seeing Europa beginning to seethe at what was supposed to be a calmer meeting than last time, Ganymede came forward to her side to offer some support. “But hey, at least he remembers our names because he thinks we’re important enough to remember. And tries with the others that he struggles to remember entirely.” Making eye contact with Luna, the largest moon smirked. “Unlike your planet, right, Earth’s moon?”
Startled at suddenly being talked to directly, Luna blinked back blankly for a beat. He recovered quickly, an annoyed expression replacing his neutral one. Luna shot back, “What did you just say to me?”
Continuing to taunt the ticked-off moon, Ganymede looked away in feigned innocence. “Oh, nothing. I’m just saying, I heard through the grapevine that you let your planet call you something that doesn’t even count as a name. At least my planet doesn’t call any of us as ‘Moon’ even when he can’t fully remember our names. Such a shame, Earth’s moon, that Earth can’t even remember your name when he has only one moon.”
Being turned away, the Ganymede didn’t have a chance to see the brewing storm behind him. So, the poor, unaware sod continued talking. “Like, have some self-respect or some decisiveness! Or did your planet convince you otherwise? One day you’re going by ‘Earth’s moon,’ the other day by ‘Luna,’ and then ‘Moon’?” Ganymede closed his eyes in mock disappointment, sighing. “Make up your mind, Earth’s moo– ”
“Finish that sentence and we’ll see how flippant you can be with a crater in your face.”
Eyes flying open, Ganymede startled back at the growling voice from right behind him. He turned around, hearing gasps from the other moons, and faced… Luna?
Or wait, the voice and patterns were all off. And it’s not like Ganymede got on Luna’s nerves to the point his eyes literally darkened… right?
Either way, that came secondary to the large asteroid held within the other moon’s gravity. Though the practically-snarling moon seemed just as threatening, as he approached closer and closer–
<*End of flashback*>
<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~>
Remembering how everyone was introduced to the sentient other side of Luna that day, Ganymede shuddered. Frowning at the memory, Europa acquiesced. “Right, right, Luna is almost here. Along with Artemis. The moons of Earth. Better?”
Callisto huffed in amusement. “Yeah, better for your sake.”
Ignoring that comment, no matter how true he found it, Ganymede went back to scanning the outer solar system for signs of the other planets’ moons’ arrival.
One by one, each planet’s moons arrived. First to greet the Jovians was Luna, who seemed to be in a good mood. Accompanying him was Pan.
Immediately, Luna gravitated towards Callisto and Io, being the closest to them out of all the other major moons of the outer solar system. Not that that was surprising of course: Callisto was the only one he could convince from the start not to go along with Ganymede and Europa’s plan, and Io seemed to be caught up eventually with her. Meanwhile, Europa ushered Metis to head back to Jupiter, before turning back to Ganyemede.
As they all talked, the Saturnian moons approached. Curiously, Titan was further in the back of their little group, with Rhea and Iapetus in the lead.
Io greeted them as they neared. “Hi e-everyone!”
A cheerful chorus of hellos responded back.
Dione separated from the rest of the group, dragging Titan behind her. As she used her gravity to toss him in front of all the other moons, it became clear that the reason he was being so quiet was the… tape over his mouth?
[How does that work with planets you ask? Maybe it’s water frozen over his mouth. I don’t know, and you probably shouldn’t question this further. :)]
Titan spun around, making eye contact with each of the other stunned moons, making muffled sounds under the tape. The moment his eyes fell on Luna, the overgrown orange paused for a second, before he whipped back around to his fellow Saturnian moons, his muffled words turning into muffled yelling.
Dione rolled her eyes at his antics as the other moons shuffled awkwardly at the display. “Don’t worry about him,” she grumbled. “He’s just being an idiot.”
At the blank looks of vague discomfort and confusion, Iapteus cleared his throat. “If it wasn’t clear, Titan was the reason we called this meeting. But we can get to him after we get pleasantries out of the way since he’s not as troubling as he could be right now.”
Rhea started, with a hesitant look, “Well, he was just saying what– ”
“I think most of us sane moons don’t want to hear more about what he’s saying, Rhea,” interjected Hyperion.
Enceladus put his own two cents in with an annoyed, “Let’s get started already.”
Glancing at Luna, Hyperion muttered, “We’re not even going to get to what we wanted to say anyway since someone didn't follow instructions.” Poor Pan wilted under the larger non-spherical moon’s glare. “You can head back now.”
As the unfortunate little shepherd moon hurried away, most of the other moons looked disapprovingly at Hyperion. “What? There’s nothing for Pan to do here anymore, he’s not supposed to be at this meeting beyond letting the Jovian moons know about it.”
“Well there wasn’t a need to be so rude about it,” argued Luna. “This was his first time doing such a long trip, on his own at that, so he’s tired and still got the job done. Cut him some slack for whatever he didn’t do.”
Pan was such a lively kid when he got to rambling with Earth, and a bit with Luna on their way to the asteroid belt. Luna didn’t have any major sway over the major Saturnian moons, but he’d say his piece and stick up for the moon as much as he could in this scenario.
It seems like Luna’s verbal disapproval was enough to make even more moons stare down Hyperion, who caved.
“Fine, fine. I’ll apologize to the kid when we head back okay?”
Good enough, I suppose.
Speaking up for the Uranian moons, Titania came forward. “Is there a reason you think we won’t be able to get to why you called this meeting? I’m confused.”
“And I– we came all this way,” groused a scratchy voice. The source adjusted his sunglasses. “Leaving behind all the kids and such, it’s going to be real annoying if we did all that for no reason.”
“So are you in a rush then?” inquired Titania, facing the Saturnian moons. Titan was now behind the other major Saturnian moons, though one could still notice his disgruntlement at his predicament. Not like he could say anything in protest.
“Actually,” began Luna, “I do have to go soon. Sorry if that’s an issue or anything.”
As he spoke, some of the Saturnian moons shared a few relieved glances.
“I could leave right now, I don’t mind if I miss whatever you need to discuss– ”
Mimas interrupted Luna’s nervous ramblings. “You can say whatever you have to say about Earth before you go. We’re not in a rush, right guys?”
The other Saturnian moons nodded.
“Uh, alright then.” Luna began clearing a spot of asteroids in front of the waiting audience.
Io whispered to Ganymede, “D-did we lose the b-board or something?”
Realizing Io was right, Ganymede leaned in to whisper back, “I don’t know, maybe someone moved it?”
“How about we listen to what Luna has to say so we don’t waste everyone’s time?” suggested a voice in a slightly louder whisper from behind them.
The two whirled around to see an annoyed Dione, and while Io sheepishly apologized, Ganymede muttered what was probably an apology under his breath before turning back to Luna. Immediately he started grumbling to Europa on his other side.
Dione sighed in annoyance. Some moons, honestly.
“So, hi! To be honest, I don’t have much to say from my end. As I said, Earth’s definitely less arrogant. We’re much closer now– ”
A few glances between some moons.
“–and look what he gave me!” Luna brought his headphones out into existence to show everyone. [From where did he pull them out? No idea.] “It’s not like I’ve been asking for these or anything, but they’re pretty cool for listening to music. Which is something I can do with Earth instead of on my own now.” Luna demonstrated a few features, much to the amazement of some moons.
“What about Artemis?” puzzled Ariel, next to a nodding Umbriel.
“W-well,” stammered Luna. “He’s asleep right now. As I said last time, Earth doesn’t know about him. None of the planets do. And we’d like to keep it that way. He also can use the headphones if he wants! I got Earth to listen to both some of mine and Artemis’ favorite songs under the guise of calling them all my favorites. I kind of regret some of those actually.” The talking moon grimaced in recollection. “Other than that… oh!”
Luna’s face split into a wide grin, his body jittery with excitement.
“Cards!”
A handful of expressions began to show some understanding at that singular exclamation.
Luna continued, his excitement not dimmed a bit. “I got to play space poker with all of the rockies! I didn’t even have to ask multiple times! It’s so much fun. I don’t think I’ve played a game with Earth in ages! It was just like old times for a while and I played up my ignorance and innocence well enough that none of them are going to expect the day I can thoroughly crush them all.” The near side of the moon laughed lowly. “As Earth will find out eventually, I know exactly how they all play and I’ve had ages to plan how to counter them!” Luna cackled happily before remembering where he was.
The gray moon looked away from the others, coughing in embarrassment before composing himself. “Ahem– and of course, this is a step for more planet-moon equality, at least in the inner solar system.
“Speaking of card games though,” said Luna with a normal smile growing on his face again, “I was promised one today that I was pulled away from! So, if you all don’t mind, I think I’ll take my leave now, unless you need me?”
“No!” exclaimed Mimas. Under the gazes of all the moons around him, he stammered, “I-I mean, no, that’s okay, our issue isn’t that important. You should go have fun with your planet! No need to stay! At all!”
“Uh huh,” replied Luna, his eyes narrowing at the nervous moon’s tone and the shifting of the other Saturnian moons, with the exception of Titan who was still attempting to dislodge the tape over his mouth.
‘Welp, not my problem!’ thought Luna. He promised he’d be back soon to Earth anyway.
With a brief farewell, he turned back to the inner solar system, approaching the Sun’s light and returning to where he just left Earth with Venus. ‘Hopefully leaving the two alone for a short amount of time didn’t leave any lasting harm. Or shouting.’
As for the moons still at the meeting…
Dione approached the clearing Luna left behind. “Everyone,” she started, “now that Luna has gone, even after Pan went ahead to fetch him, we can finally get to why we called you all here today.”
“Wait, Pan wasn’t supposed to get Luna?” Ganymede asked Dione.
Rhea turned to him slowly. “...No. Did you tell him to?”
“Yeah, he said all major and mature moons. Luna’s one.”
“He was too shy and intimidated to continue saying no to you I’m guessing. Wonderful. Well it worked out in the end at least.” Rhea faced Dione again, nodding for her to continue.
A nod of acknowledgement back. Dione’s expression was set and determined as she observed the other moons.
“It’s time we finally addressed the rumor we’ve all heard recently. Yes, that rumor. Rhea, if you would kindly remove the tape now.” As Rhea did as asked, Dione continued with a sigh. “I can’t believe that gossip is what’s causing issues in this system now but whatever. Let’s get this conversation over with.”