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Mercury stepped over the puddle of grime, cringing and making a mental note in his head to talk to Earth more about how his Earthlings were treating him. It was cruel how they hurt the planet that nurtured them and gave them life. They would be having a long talk about all of that—and don’t think Mercury wasn’t glossing over the fact that Earth even letting them come down here was a big step. Earth was working towards trying to stop hiding what he was feeling, and Mercury was so proud of him for it.
“Hey! Pipsqueak! Keep up!” Venus’ gruff voice broke Mercury out of his thoughts, the smaller planet snapping his head up to see Venus looking back, waiting a couple strides away from him. Ack—whoops! Mercury threw one last look at the disgusting puddle, scrambling back to the other planet’s side. Venus’ longer strides had Mercury almost breaking into a jog to keep up, but at least in this form Mercury wasn’t that shorter than Venus.
Just…a head shorter.
It was still better than when they were up in space!
The sounds of the city wrapped around the two of them as they continued walking, Venus occasionally glancing down to the phone Earth gave them so they could communicate while separated. Mercury didn’t know why he always ended up paired with Venus during these types of days—Mars and Earth running off to do their own thing to who knows where—but he wished that he was paired up with someone different. At least once would be nice, he didn’t like how the feeling that settled in his heart when Venus made it very clear that he didn’t like him.
In fact, Mercury was desperately trying to ignore that very feeling right now!
Venus suddenly stopped, Mercury stumbling to avoid running face-first into Venus’ jacket with very sharp spikes sticking out the back. Eugh that would’ve not been a very pleasant experience for either of them. But it seemed like Venus was uncaring as normal (or just didn’t see what just almost happened), and continued typing away at the phone.
Mercury just awkwardly stood there, not sure what to do because his own phone was dead. Does he ask Venus what he’s doing? Does he just look over his shoulder? Would that risk getting threatened to be punched in the face or would Venus not do that here surrounded by Earth’s Humans. If it was really important Venus would surely tell him—right? So it’s probably not that important, but Mercury still kind of wanted to know because he’d been out of the loop for far too long.
Mercury swung his hands from side to side, clearing his throat, “So—um, who you texting?”
Venus sent a sideways glance at him, answering after a pause, “Earth. That idiot sent us the wrong address so now we gotta go to a whole new place.”
Mercury blew out a breath, amusement flooding his voice, “Heh, that’s Earth for you!”
“Sure.”
Mercury felt his mood sour, but quickly brushed it off because he was not like Venus and didn’t hold grudges and was—or tried to be—nice. He…what was that phrase Earth used? Let it roll off his back like water off a duck’s back? Something like that, he tried to do that with how Venus acted towards him. Don’t let it hurt you too much, because it’s just how Venus is. Mercury himself didn’t do anything wrong, it was just Venus being a bully.
Venus looked up from the phone, and before Mercury could react he was being pulled down an alleyway—and his first thought was that Venus was going to beat him up. Right there and then. Where nobody could see them and nobody could save him.
That thought was quickly eliminated when Venus let him go, Mercury’s skin tingling from the contact, and looked back down to the map app on his phone, his face pulled down into a frown, “This is a short cut that the phone gave us. Doesn’t look very short-cutty to me but Earth said to just follow the directions and if their hearts rang true we would find him—whatever the hell that means.” Venus took a couple steps forward, and then looked back as Mercury didn’t follow, still caught up in the moment of contact and the relief that he wasn’t in danger—at least not yet.
Venus arched an eyebrow, “You comin’?”
Mercury scrambled to look normal, like he wasn’t just thinking about the feeling of Venus’ rough and callused hands holding his, “Ah—yes! Definitely! Absolutely!” Venus just shot up a weird look and continued, and Mercury picked up his pace to catch up with him.
They weaved their way through the disgusting alleyway, dodging puddles and trash and mysterious substances that made Mercury gag just thinking about what it could be, and finally came out on the other side, Sun graciously basking them with his warmth.
And then they both stopped as they were met with the biggest market the two of them had ever seen. It stretched on forever in both ways, every single space on the ground filled with something. Tents, crates, food, people, bags, picnic benches, it seemed they’d stumbled upon a key part of the Human’s culture.
Fascinating.
Not wanting to be the one left behind this time, Mercury walked forward, out of the stinky air of the alleyway, and approached one of the vendors. He ignored Venus’ grumble behind him about staying focused, too excited at the fact that he was actually going to be a part of the Human’s traditions.
The lady standing behind the booth smiled warmly as he came up to the stall, her poofy hair surrounding her head in a way that reminded Mercury of the Sun. She gestured to the brown, finger sized and looking like fingers as well, things in the crates, her cheery voice inviting Mercury in, “Hello boys! Welcome to Nuts Galore, where we have everything peanut, hazelnut, walnut, and every and any other type of nut you can think of! Would you like a free sample?”
Before Mercury could say no (he wasn’t going to, the lady seemed really nice) the lady plucked one of the nuts from a paper plate saying Free Samples!!! and shoved it into Mercury’s hands. She beamed, and out of the corner of his eye Mercury spotting Venus roll his eyes, “Enjoy!”
Mercury stared at the tiny nut in his hand, holding it up against Sun’s light to look at it better. A small laugh from the lady and Mercury flushed (he probably looked so weird), popping it into his mouth without a second thought.
The crunchiness of the nut was very apparent as Mercury chewed, tastes flashing across his tongue that he couldn’t put a name to. It was pretty good, all things considered, and he let out a happy sound as he swallowed to let the the women know. It wasn’t the best thing he’d ever eaten—that had to go to the time Earth took just him and Luna out to five star restaurants for a thanks of helping him through everything—but the peanut, or whatever it was called, was still pretty good.
He didn’t like the weird tingly feeling it left in his mouth though, that was a big turn off. And—eugh maybe he didn’t like them so much after all if this is what it would feel like to eat them. But, still trying to be polite despite Mercury not knowing how someone would want to sell these, he smiled through his tingling lips at the lady. She tried to get Venus to eat some too, but he just walked away (uh—rude) and left Mercury thanking the women—surprising himself with how raspy he sounded—scrambling after the other planet as he stalked to another booth.
Mercury panted, wheezing through each breath—stars the horrible city air must’ve gotten to him already. He scratched at his arms, the feeling of burning suddenly slamming into him like a truck. He—ow it was inside him. That’s—that’s not normal? Right? He wheezed again, trying to breathe but breaking into a hacking cough that hurt so much. He should—should do something. Call for someone—Venus! Where…where was Venus? Venus would know what to do. He could call for Earth and then Earth could tell him what was wrong.
Mercury took another step, his feet tangling with one another clumsily—and suddenly he was falling.
And then he was in someone’s arms.
From the rough arms that wrapped around him, and the unnatural heat that radiated from the body of the other (or maybe that was just Mercury—it burned everywhere), Mercury had the right to assume that it was Venus.
Ah good. Just…just the person he needed.
…Ow.
Venus put down the apple he was looking at, turning around just in time to see as Mercury tripped over his own feet. Out of instinct he jerked forward, pain shooting up his arms as he caught Mercury, hooking his arms underneath the other’s armpits to keep him stable.
It took a second for Venus’ mind to catch up to what just happened, and when it did he was not happy about it, grumbling and almost letting go of Mercury.
But the annoyance quickly faded when he heard Mercury’s breaths—Mercury’s wheezing breaths so raspy that itsounded like Venus’ own horrible voice. Huh. That’s…not normal. Especially for Mercury. He was the one out of all of them to not get winded-being able to run such long distances and what not without getting tired.
Venus pushed Mercury a little further away, skin sticking together uncomfortably for a second as he grimaced. “Ugh, ew.” But then he took another second, looking to his hand shining with sweat that wasn’t there a second ago, and realized that it was far more then he’d realized, “Why are you so sweaty?”
“…Mercury?”
When he didn’t get an answer Venus shook Mercury by his shoulders, but the other’s head just lolled to the side, another shaky, wheezing breath escaping his…his swollen lips?! And to add fuel to the fire—Mercury’s face was unnaturally pale, quickly turning a snowy white—okay well now something was definitely wrong.
And Venus, stupid as always, acted on impulse, hand slapping the side of Mercury’s face to get him to snap out of whatever this was. Horrible decision but he didn’t know what to do. Was this a cruel joke, maybe? Payback for all the years that Venus spent picking on the smaller one?
And yet Mercury just groaned, his wild eyes looking everywhere but Venus, his gaze hazy and not all there.
And—stars above—he was practically drenched in sweat now, red bumps quickly appearing all over his skin.
Yeah so this was definitely not a joke. Someone couldn’t fake—whatever this was.
It was too real.
Venus automatically tightened his hold as Mercury’s body slackened against him—what? Was he—what’s happening? Venus didn’t know what to do. What does he do in a situation like this? He’s stuck in the middle of an Earthling market, Mercury slumped against him and way too close to him for Venus’ liking but did he pass out? Is he dying? Is that why Mercury’s breathing is so weird?
Does he call Earth? Can he even reach his phone without dropping Mercury to the ground and risk injuring him more? Does he call for an Earthling to help him? Ugh why did it have to be him?
He didn’t know what this was so it’s probably not that bad—right? Mercury’s…probably just overheating from how hot and sticky it was while they were walking in the city. That’s a thing. That’s definitely a thing. He has declared that it’s a thing so it’s a thing now.
Someone walking by them smiled at Venus, commenting on how sweet the two of them looked—and did that Earthling have rocks in their head? Were they so blind that they didn’t see how Mercury gasped for breath and couldn’t stand?
It wasn’t a hug! Venus was keeping Mercury from collapsing.
Venus squeezed Mercury—maybe a little too hard but he was trying to get him to come back—muttering into the other’s ear, “Mercury this is not the time for this. Snap out of it. I can’t—we’re in the middle of a busy market and you chose to do this now? Stars you can be so—”
“Venus!”
Venus jumped, Mercury’s body almost slipping from his grip before he managed to grab hold of him again, looking up to see Earth’s form running through the parting crowd, Mars right on his heels. Oh thank the stars—Venus’s arms were starting to go numb and he could finally get a goddamn answer.
Venus raised his voice over the commotion of the market, “Earth! It’s Mercury—”
Earth stumbled to a stop in front of him, eyes wide and panicked and he immediately reached out for Mercury, “—I know. I felt it. He’s having an allergic reaction—Venus what did he eat?"
Venus let Earth take a hold of Mercury, ignoring the way his stomach churned when Mercury didn’t react at all, wheezing breaths fluttering out of his purple lips. Venus couldn’t take his eyes off a Mercury’s body as Earth carefully sunk to his knees with the smallest in his arms, lying him down and frantically looked back up, “Venus!”
Venus snapped out of his trance, shoving away the fear to deal with later, “I—uh…” Think Venus think! What did Mercury have when they got there. They’d walked out of the alley and Mercury had gone to the closest vendor—what was the name? It was an annoying name that Venus had—Oh! Nuts Galore!
“A nut!” Venus burst out, sighing in relief when he finally remembered what it was so Mercury wouldn’t die, “It was a nut. He ate a nut—a peanut if I remember correctly.”
Earth looked back down to Mercury’s frail, shaking body, brushing a strand of sweaty hair out of his eyes as he nodded, “Okay. Alright. So Mercury has a peanut allergy. Noted. I—Saturn can fix this. Saturn will fix this. We need to go back.”
Earth gestured for them to crouch down—surrounding Mercury’s body—and grabbed hold of both of their hands, Mars and Venus tangling their free hand into Mercury’s hold. The weird red bumps scraped against Venus’ hand, the sweat sticking to him and Venus wanted nothing more than to let go and wipe it all off because it was disgusting—but he couldn’t. Everyone needed to be touching each other in order to get transported back into space and if he pulled his hand away then it wouldn’t work and through his own stupidity he would kill Mercury and that—
—he blinked and he was suddenly in space twinkling stars replacing the bustling Humans. A red blur was all he saw of Mars as he took off towards the Asteroid Belt and Saturn’s orbit, and he felt Earth’s gravity wrap around Mercury as he picked him up and ran.
Which just left Venus, dumbly standing there as everyone else grew further and further away from him, quickly turning into small specks in the distance. He should go after them. He was the one that was there when it first started. They would need to ask him questions in order to help Mercury.
He didn’t know why he didn’t sprint after them the second Mars took off. He should’ve. He should be there. But he couldn’t move.
…maybe it just hit him that Mercury could’ve died—was actively dying at this very moment.
He couldn’t get himself to see how it ended. To see Mercury’s panicked yet hazy eyes and pale surface and rattling and so wheezy breaths that were not normal because Mercury was dying. Venus didn’t quite know what an allergic reaction was—but it had to mean something bad for Earth to be that panicked when he found them.
Stars, what if Earth hadn’t found them in time? What if Venus just let Mercury fall—it was an instinct not a choice to grab him when he fell after all. What if Venus had just dragged Mercury through the market and refused to stop at anything and then everything that happened could’ve been avoided. Mercury probably would be mad at him but it would’ve stopped Mercury from almost dying. But Venus didn’t do that because he liked seeing the way Mercury’s face lit up when he chatted with the Human, something that Venus never saw directed towards him—and for good reason.
But he wasn’t mean for once and Mercury still paid the price.
Ha, how ironic, no matter if he’s nice or mean Mercury always gets hurt.
But—but Mercury would get better. He would definitely get better. No questions asked—because they were taking him to Saturn. The best healer in the entire goddamn Solar System. Saturn would fix what Venus couldn’t. Saturn would save the day while Venus just stood there like an idiot unable to do move or speak or do anything but remember the haunting look in Mercury’s eyes as he passed out.
Saturn would heal Mercury and then everything would be better and they could go back to—to normal things.
And Venus would never have to see Mercury like that ever again.
Venus didn’t think he could handle seeing Mercury like that again.
Which he wouldn’t have to. Because Saturn was fixing Mercury up right now so Mercury would be fine. He would be okay.
Mercury would be okay.
He had to be.