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Titan needed to focus.
This was important—they were going over the schedule for the next couple moon club meetings and if he didn’t pay attention he wouldn’t know what was going on. And he needed to know what was going on because he was one of the moons running it. And if he didn’t stay on top of the information he—well it wouldn’t be good. Probably. He had to be here. He was the leader, so even if he didn’t want to he had to go. He didn’t have the luxury of staying with their planets like some of the really tiny baby moons—he had a job to do.
At least he didn’t need to think to know that, the clenching of his core telling him far more than his mind.
Ugh his mind wasn’t very helpful right now either.
He needed to focus, c’mon brain just tune into what (Ganymede? Is that who was speaking? Well, probably because the muffled voices sounded far too low for one of the female moons but Titan wasn’t sure he could trust what his mind was telling him) the speaker was saying and then you can relax when you get back to your orbit and you won’t have to think at all.
Stars, he was tired.
Titan blinked a couple times, forcing himself (through the weirdly sluggish mind of his) to tune into the conversation. And….yeah, yeah Ganymede got it. And it was Ganymede talking because—because of something. The way his voice curled over certain words? Sure. Probably. Ganymede knew what he was doing. Probably didn’t even need Titan to say anything. Just stand there and look pretty.
Ugh, he was definitely not pretty in that moment—clammy skin attesting to that—but he still liked the expression. Saturn probably said it at one point. Saturn did that a lot too. Because he was very pretty, and always said that Titan had such pretty hazel-green eyes. Pretty moon for pretty planet. Pretty planet. Pretty planet. Heh, he liked the way that sounded in his mind.
“—itan? Have anything to add?” Huh? Was that—okay so that was definitely Ganymede talking by how gravely the voice was (did he already find that out?), so he at least had that going for him. Titan blinked a couple times, squinting through the sudden lightheadedness that made it even harder to think because now he had to focus on stopping swaying before fell over and then would make the nausea rolling up his throat even worse from the sudden movement and he just wanted to take a goddamn nap. Please?
…Oh. Oh wait. Whoops. It took Titan far longer than he’d wanted to realize that Ganymede was talking to him.
And only after he was nudged by another moon (Luna?) for a hint that he had to respond.
Titan took in a shaky inhale when he came back, voice far raspier than he’d imagined, “I—oh—uhm it—”
He cut himself off with a cough.
A loud, painful cough.
Titan heaved in a breath, chest burning—having enough time to realize that something was wrong—before he doubled over, the coughs turning wetter a much, much stronger. It—He couldn’t stop it. It just—ow ow ow ow. He tried to breathe, breaths rattling in his chest, but it only triggered even more coughs and now he couldn’t breathe at all and he—
—when did he get on the ground? He was just standing? Right?
Another painful cough ripped through his chest, Titan desperately gasping for breath with the brief moment of clarity he had. He—what was happening? He wasn’t this sick when he’d left. He just had to focus for the Moon Club meeting and then—
Another coughing fit. Another gasp of pain. Another wet, unnatural, dying sound coming from him.
He felt hands grasp his shoulders, but was too focused on the bile rising up through his throat to register that as he gagged, the snacks he’d nibbled on earlier showing back up again.
Ugh, was all Titan could think through the haze of everything.
He tried to take another breath but every single time it caught in his throat and he burst into another round of hacking coughs, the pain tearing through his body and leaving him—blegh. Ugh. Owwwwww.
Oh—wait!!! Yes!!! Another moment of freedom was granted to him! Where he had a few blissful seconds where he could breathe and sort of think.
Titan heaved in a grateful breath, gulping down all the amazing air he could before it was inevitably snatched away yet again. The stars beneath him swam—and he wasn’t sure if that was from the dizziness or the tears or something else entirely.
Was this karma for everything he’d done? The Moon Revolution, almost killing the Earth, everything with Planet X—please no he’s gone through enough already.
“—ey! Titan! Titan!” Oh. Ah. Luna. Titan would recognize that nasally voice anywhere. Oh how happy he felt when he heard his voice cutting through everything he was feeling. Luna’s…concerned voice? And now that he could think a little clearer, he could feel Luna’s cratered surface holding onto his shoulders tightly. Ouch—maybe a little too tight.
Titan grimaced, bracing for another coughing fit when his breath caught in his throat but it didn’t. He didn’t get subjected to another round of torture—and Titan never felt happier. Oh this was so much better than the panic and confusion previously. Now he could breathe (maybe not very well but he was breathing nonetheless!!!) and…maybe could try talking?
By Sagittarius A* please let him talk without dying again.
Titan clenched his teeth, willing his way through the raspiness in his throat. He worked his jaw, closing his eyes when the stars spun too much, focusing on his breathing and how his voice felt where it would begin. He blew out a breath, the gravely-ness and nausea in his throat clawing its way up—and for a split second of terror Titan thought that he would be subjected to the absolute agony again—but much to his relief the all-encompassing feeling faded just as quickly as it came.
Titan sighed in relief, balling his fists together into tightly (tighter than they already were), willing his voice not to break as he spoke, “L—Luna?”
Okay wow, he sounded horrible.
But he heard a sigh of relief from somewhere above him, quick words being exchanged that he could not catch for the life of him, and the hands on his shoulders loosened. He felt a hand come under his chin, but hummed an immediate refusal—the dizziness still hadn’t faded and he was not moving his head until it showed any signs of stopping.
Luna’s hand fell away, “Oh—okay. Well—um—can you stand?”
Probably not.
But the grunt he gave seemed to give the moons around him (because there were more than one—he could feel several recognizable gravities close to him and could almost see some of the other’s feet from his position keeled over) the wrong idea, taking it as a yes! instead of the hell no! it was.
Welp, if he was going to pass out (again?) he might as well get it over with.
He felt more hands reach towards him, locking under his arms and back and he felt Luna’s move to his hands, slowly guiding him up (and by slowly Titan meant very slowly—he stopped and started every time the wooziness got too close to passing out for his liking (which happened a lot so they stopped a lot)) but it seemed nobody was rushing him.
And thank the stars for that, because if he was getting rushed he would probably die. If he had any more sense of what was happening he probably would be feeling like that from the embarrassment alone—but because his mind still felt mushy he just went with it. The others knew what to do. They would make him feel better again. And yeah, Titan blindly trusted them, but what else was he supposed to do? Die again?
Or at least feel like he was dying again?
Eugh he never wanted to feel like that ever again.
Titan kept his head in the same position, fixated on the stars twinkling beneath his feet, his vision gradually becoming less and less blurry with every small shuffle they took. He still coughed every so often—throat raw and burning every time (so fun!)—but it was nowhere near the level it was before.
It could’ve been hours or minutes that they were walking—all Titan knew was that he just wanted to stop and sleep, the full force of the exhaustion slamming into him like a…a really big asteroid.
Moons moved in front of his vision, concerned faces appearing and dissappearing in and out of his view and muffled voices trying to talk to him, but Titan only cared about one. One thing. One sentence said to him that would allow him to rest, finally.
And then, it was said, by none other than Luna himself.
Luna’s ever-so-gentle voice snapped Titan out of his lucid thoughts, “Hey Titan? We’ve called for Saturn and you can rest now. He’ll come and pick you up—and you’re not missing much either ‘cause the meeting is ending—not because of you! It was ending anyways you just…sped up the process.”
Sure. Whatever. All Titan cared about was Saturn and Rest.
He could rest.
And Saturn would be there soon.
Saturn would make everything better.