Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It had to be just another rotation around the Sun. More chats with Earth, more of watching him play card games with Mars, Venus and Mercury, more of… all the usual stuff. Meetings of the Moon Club, now that those were a thing.

But Luna could feel himself become tired, and no matter how much he fought it, his eyes were closing against his will. His last thought was that hopefully, just hopefully, this time his Dark Side would actually make an effort and they wouldn't nearly crash into Earth.

Once he wakes up, he nearly wishes that that was what happened indeed, because the reality is much more confusing and scary.

He's… somewhere. Somewhere that's not space at all, the familiar vast darkness dotted with stars many astronomical units away replaced with claustrophobic walls. It's like when you pull a mass of asteroids with your gravitational force to shield yourself off, except these are solid and look like they're made of one material, encasing him in a rectangular shape with a roof above him and a floor below.

Whatever it is, he has to get out. So he tries to move – and freezes in place in horror.

In an unexplainable way, his entire body is misshapen. Like a collision with an asteroid, or perhaps a planet, broke it into parts and then gravitation pulled them back together wrong and forgot to round them up into a sphere. There are entire parts of him, four to be exact, that feel nearly separate, only barely connected to his elongated main body, to which, in turn, his core with his face is connected just as loosely.

It's not painful, and that almost makes it worse. Pain would be a sign that something is wrong, that something's happened and needs fixing, yet there's none of that, and the fake normalcy makes Luna want to scream. But that's not productive at all, so instead he flexes his new body as well as he can and changes his position to a more vertical one.

Soft, smooth piece of matter falls off his body down to the two lower separate parts of it. He leans on the upper two, something he has never done before but that now feels like an automatic action, and looks around.

What catches his attention immediately is a square opening in the encasing wall to his left, covered just barely with a transparent material. None of that is more important than what he sees outside, though: the infinite light blue above, the rich greens of plants below, and Sun – no, just sun, a shining circle in the sky that hurts to look at.

Luna is on the surface of Earth, against all odds.

He looks around further, noting his immediate surroundings. There are a few more objects lined up near the walls, all rectangular and brown and entirely odd, unlike anything he's ever seen in the billions of years of his existence. He himself is currently placed on a weird object, but its surface is soft and comfortable so he can't mind it.

He really minds his next discovery, though.

Because right there, near him, lies his dark side. The Dark Side of the Moon. Peacefully asleep in blissful ignorance, his equally disfigured body plastered on the… bed , it must be a bed that they woke up in. The soft cover on him is off, revealing his full being, and Luna can't help but wince in horror.

His core looks fine. Round, with his face on it, all the terrain features in their rightful spots (or so Luna assumes; not like they have ever been face-to-face in such a way before). But under it, his body extends, partly wrapped in black matter, not by the kind of it but by colour. It takes a moment or two to remember from one of Astrodude's nervous explanations that these are called clothes , soft matter that earthlings wear to protect or decorate their bodies. And now Dark Side has those on himself, just like how an earthling would…

Deep in thought, Luna's sight wanders to one of Dark Side's… arms , and notices its end splitting into five.

Slowly, he lifts up his own part, only to see a similar picture, with soft blue fabric of earthling clothes reaching up almost to his hand .

He's an earthling.

"Hey, what the heck- Luna?!" Dark Side exclaims in annoyance as he's woken up by Luna's shriek of horror. His own expression slowly morphs into confusion upon seeing the state the other part of him is in. Realisation settles for him as well, leaving him speechless, and Luna helpfully fills in the formed silence.

"We're earthlings!! We turned into earthlings!! We're on the surface of Earth and we're tiny earthlings!!" He nearly cries out, hiding his face behind his hands, and a second later jolts them away and glares at them, getting only more emotional.

"...Not exactly earthlings. We still have our terrain," Dark Side argues nervously, his sight fixated on his counterpart and on the changes his body experienced. Uncertain, he reaches out, and his fingers trail over the maria on Luna's palm, feeling the texture under his fingertips. "It's real. Maybe it's not so bad and someone here should stop being a scared crybaby," he rolls his eyes, burying his own fear deep inside his core.

"Sure, we don't have hair or skin or other stuff that earthlings have, but we have their bodies and size!! And we're literally on Earth!! Just look at Sun and how far he is!!" Luna continues spiralling into panic. Dark Side tries to look over at Sun indeed but winces in pain; Earth's atmosphere blocking the full light of their star doesn't help too much.

"That's it, you can keep on crying but I'll go and figure out what's going on," Dark Side gives his counterpart another eyeroll and then tries to float forward through zero-gravity, but Earth's gravitational pull together with the limitations of his current body make him just awkwardly shift in place on the bed with his head stretched forward, and Luna can't help but giggle hysterically at the sight. "I despise you, I hope you know that."

"I'm sorry! You just looked so funny!" Luna tells defensively and then moves himself, able to stand up from the bed; his body trembles but he stands his ground more or less confidently. "Here, this is how you do it. Oh stars, I think I'm gonna be dizzy with all this gravity," he soon proves his words by lowering to the floor, now sitting on it, his body still adjusting to… the way it is. He has another chance to look at it, the weird elongated shapes of his arms with fingers at the end which all move independently in every scary way imaginable; the torso separating awkwardly into legs which are now the ones to hold them upright instead of space's vacuum and gravity; the clothes on all parts of himself but the head that rub against his surface at every movement and even without it as well.

"Okay, you stood up, lasted a second or two. What then?" Dark Side huffs sarcastically but tries to follow his other half's lead. It takes him a couple tries, his body refusing to follow his silent commands, but eventually he manages to work with the right muscles and stand up from the bed as well. "...This. Alright. How do earthlings even deal with this all the time?"

"Well, they're born like this and live their whole lives like this, they're used to it," Luna reasons as he stands back up, this time able to stand without nearly fainting. He sees Dark Side sway in place with a distraught expression and grabs him by the hand to stabilise them both; their fingers interlock, and the sensation of that is so new and foreign they both let out a gasp of surprise. "Maybe we can get used to it too."

"I don't want to, though? I don't want to be an earthling, I don't even know why we are those now!"

"Then maybe we should go and find out," Luna concludes and makes a step forward.

They both nearly fall at times and their pace is slow, but they make their way across the room. Luna's movements seem more coordinated while his other side struggles worse, but he's always near, aiding in each step. Of course they are both happy to be in separate bodies for once, Dark Side especially, but on a subconscious level they still, – and rightfully so, – expect each other to help.

"Alright? This is just a wall? What now?" Dark Side asks with an eye roll, unenthusiastic.

"It's a door! Earthlings use them to block off ways when needed and then open them when needed."

"Okay, nerd," he simply huffs, watching as Luna first touches the door, then tries to push it, and then finally reaches for the door handle and twists it right. Dark Side backs away in surprise when the door opens in front of them, revealing a hallway.

"Maybe I'm a nerd, but sometimes it's useful," Luna taunts and pulls them forward, leaving his other side no option but to follow or risk falling down and discovering what kinds of pain earthlings can have in all parts of their ridiculous bodies – the first option is much more preferable in the end.

"Would you then, please, as a professional nerd, tell us where the heck we are?" Dark Side groans sarcastically once they stand in the corridor. Their room, presumably, is behind them; on the left there is one door at the closer end of the hall, with light beaming through a small window on top of it. On the wall that spans right in front of them are four doors, with three spaced more or less evenly and the very last one being closer to the other end of the corridor. On the wall behind them they see four more doors besides theirs. The space, lacking windows, is perhaps even more claustrophobic than their room, although the plants lining the walls make it appear more cosy.

"It seems to be a… house? Earthlings live in those," Luna concludes uncertainly.

"So, what, like an orbit?"

"I guess you could say so. Except that it always stays in place. And then a city would be like our solar system," he agrees and steps into the corridor fully, with Dark Side following suit, letting the door behind them close fully. "The door on the left probably leads out of the house, but I'm not sure if we're really ready to go there yet."

"Uh, duh? We can't even know if that won't kill us. Dying as an earthling sounds even more pathetic than just dying normally," the other huffs. "Let's go to this one instead," he lifts his arm up, and Luna barely manages to hold in giggles as Dark Side struggles to curl his fingers in a pointing gesture. Once he's done with that relatively successfully, they walk forward, and Luna repeats the trick of opening the door.

In front of them lies a spacious room lit with sunlight from a pair of windows on the left. There is a large sofa in the middle with a couple armchairs to either side of it, all rather soft and comfortable at a glance. They're placed in front of a large black rectangle hanging on the wall, which Luna is unable to name to his equally confused other side. They're still able to note more pots with large green plants growing in them, as well as a desk with a pair of other unidentifiable black rectangles above it. Most importantly, on the right from them is another door in the wall.

"Will we go forward? I don't see anything too interesting here, and it's better if we don't test these things," Luna starts but pauses in confusion when Dark Side lets go of his hand and walks towards the desk instead. "Dark Side?"

He doesn't elaborate, and instead walks towards the table – with only two cases of a near-fall on the way – and sits down on one of the chairs placed in front of the desk. Its legs are placed on little spinning circles, and the name 'wheels' pops up in Dark Side's mind soon after. Moreover, the seat of the chair is connected to its lower part only loosely, so once he adjusts himself and pushes himself against the ground with his foot…

"You're spinning!" Luna exclaims in surprise, walking closer quickly, watching as his other half spins in place on the chair. He probably hopes his wide excited smile isn't visible because of the motion, and Luna decides not to point that out. Instead he sits down on the other chair near his, and in a few seconds the two halves of one moon are both spinning, exchanging looks and smiles when their rotations coincide briefly.

They only calm down a few minutes later. Neither of them speaks a word of it, one too embarrassed with that moment of weakness and the other tactful just enough not to ruin that. Instead, they hold hands again and head to the other door present in the room. This time Dark Side volunteers to open the door and Luna lets him, watching with a smile as his other half fights against the door handle and eventually manages to pull it down and let them in.

The new room is also large, huge, even, though the effect of that is less visible as a large table with chairs around it takes up most of the space in the main part of this room while the smaller part, separated by a table-like structure, is full of various other pieces of furniture, this time in stricter blacks and whites compared to the warmer tones of other furniture in the house so far. There is a door on the right in either part of this room, and the lightning is dimmer since there's no direct sunlight passing through windows.

"And what is this?" Dark Side huffs immediately once they walk inside. They pass by the large table with too many chairs to count (or rather, precisely twenty five) and go to the smaller part of the room, which seems much more interesting, and that's when he spots a bowl with bright objects in it on one of the counters. "This, in particular?"

"Oh stars. If that's what I think it is…" Luna stretches uncertainly. Dark Side gasps in surprise once his other side takes a red circular object from the bowl and, against better judgement, brings it to his mouth and bites it. Luna's eyes widen, but instead of fear or disgust it's excitement again as he bites into it again and chews.

"Luna? Bro??" Dark Side lets his worry show perhaps a bit too much but he doesn't even notice.

"It's food! It's an apple! And it tastes great! Take one and try too!" The other's encouragement makes him groan, but in the end he reaches out for a piece of food too – a small one in his case, as a test, a violet elongated shape that fits nicely between his thumb and his index finger. Dark Side takes a bite and fresh juices flow into his mouth, granting him a sweetened sensation he never before thought he needed. Soon the whole piece of fruit is in his mouth, and then he takes another one, and another, unable to stop as the grapes satisfy some needs deep inside him that he didn't know he had.

"Okay. Fine. Earthlings got it figured out with food. This is incredible." Luna chuckles at that reaction but then pauses in sudden realisation, hearing a different crunch present there in Dark Side's chewing.

"...I don't think you have it figured out, though, Dark Side. You know there are seeds there, right? That you have to spit out?" Their eyes lock.

"But it's tasty this way."

"...Sure."

They take a few more minutes with their fruit before Dark Side finally complains they're not satiating his hunger enough. Luna, after a quick look around, opens the door of one of the cabinets, and it reveals to be freezing cold on the inside but also piled full of various foods. Luna settles on a snack of cheese cubes, since they seem to not need any preparation.

"Cheese, really? Aren't you made of it?" Dark Side taunts as he rummages through cabinets full of cereals and other raw products in search of something edible for himself.

"I think someone here is already beginning to forget that we're usually the same celestial body," Luna huffs back, though he soon gets a chance to switch their roles and laugh at Dark Side when the latter takes cheese-flavoured chips as his food of choice.

They settle in the dining room – at least that's what Luna assumed the larger part of this room to be. He sits at the table while his other side sits right on top of it, swinging his legs in the air. The sensations are new still, but overtime the two are growing accustomed to them as they get to use their new bodies more.

"Hey, Dark Side? I've noticed something. Why do you use your left hand?" Luna asks suddenly. "You're eating with it, and you've opened the door with it, too."

"Why wouldn't I use it?" Dark Side looks at his hand holding a half-eaten chip in confusion, then moves his sight to Luna, seeing as he holds a piece of cheese in his opposite hand. "Why do you use your right? You're the weird one here, bro."

"No, actually, I'm pretty sure most earthlings use their right hands for most things, and only a smaller part uses left hands," the other explains and Dark Side falls silent, only to huff a quiet 'nerd' again and end the talk.

Once they are done with the snacks and find a trash bin to throw the packages in, with Luna mumbling something about plastic and pollution, the two head out of the kitchen through a door in it, only to end up in the main corridor again.

"So the door that we skipped must be this one!" Luna realises, pointing at the door to the right from them. Dark Side tilts his head, frowning.

"I guess? I think I lost track of all of these damn doors. And we have a whole wall of them left to check out!"

"And one more door before that," Luna sighs and leads them to the last remaining room on this side of the corridor, which reveals itself to be a bathroom.

"So, what is this?" Dark Side huffs as Luna's eyes widen in embarrassing realisation. He leans closer to his other side and whispers to him quietly. "...Holy supernova. Earthlings are so weird."

"Yeah. But we could wash our hands after eating? I think that would be nice," Luna reasons, and his other half can't argue exactly as his fingers still hold pieces of chips on them. They stand in front of two sinks present in the room and turn the water on, and it's truly surreal to feel its moisture against their hands, droplets running on their ragged grey skin.

Once they're done, they head back to the hallway and straight to one of the doors on the opposite side, but are met with an unfortunate discovery – the door is locked. Just as every single one on this side besides their own, as they find out soon after.

"Great, now we're not even allowed in!" Dark Side groans as Luna does one last check by pulling on the handle, but the door doesn't yield still.

"And we're alone," he concludes, which makes both of them go silent for a while. Without anything better to do, they return to their room to explore it better, noting a small sign with the image of a circle with a 'plus' sign inside – Earth's symbol – on the upper part of the door. Inside the room, the previously unidentified objects reveal themselves to be wardrobes and bedside drawers. They each look in their closets; Luna's seems to be full of cosy clothes like sweaters of different colours, while Dark Side's is predominantly black or dark-grey and short-sleeved.

Not too much else happens until it's evening. They wander around the house, at first together but by the end of it they're confident enough to be by themselves in different rooms. Luna is naturally gifted by the virtue of having a larger knowledge of humans, but Dark Side is a quick learner and is able to make up for that.

They consider going outside, trying to find other earthlings or figure out what even happened to them, but in the end decide it's too dangerous. There's no guarantee earthlings would understand what's happening or be nice towards them – Astrodude was because he was a tiny speck compared to celestial bodies, and now they are those tiny specks themselves. They don't even know if there are earthlings around in the first place, as the only things they can see through windows are grass and trees.

Or maybe… Maybe it's all just a weird dream, and once they wake up it will be over.

Now it's late, and the two are in their room again, preparing for sleep. Luna already spots a navy-blue pyjama shirt, sitting on the edge of the bed, while Dark Side in an oversized black T-shirt is under the covers already. They decided to stay in one bed in the end – it's large enough for both of them, and they're still used to staying near, especially in sleep. They are two halves of the same whole, after all.

"What is it?" Dark Side leans on his elbow, looking up at Luna. The other turns to him and then nods with his head towards the window, so he moves closer too and sees…

"That's us," Luna breathes out quietly, watching the white disc in the sky. That must be how earthlings see them, just a circle in the night sky and not alive, conscious beings. But perhaps that's the best, since, considering Astrodude's example, they don't seem to fare well with such knowledge.

Luna expects questions now, but he honestly doesn't have answers to them. He has no clue why their real body is out there while they're forced to exist as eartlings. Is it alive now, or is it as dead as an asteroid? But those have no consciousness at all, and here it has been stripped away and removed to live on a planet, while the body remains in space.

Also, it's been a whole day, after all. Has Earth noticed their disappearance? Luna's, at least, perhaps? What would he even think if he learned where they truly are? And what would all other moons think of their disappearance? What would Titan think?..

But Dark Side asks none of that, not out loud at least, and simply turns away with a frown.

"No, that's you. Only your side is visible from Earth. And I'm just the Dark Side." Luna looks at him in concern, furrowing his eyebrows softly.

"...I know you envy that Earth and I get to be around earthlings more properly, but on the bright side," the pun gets no reaction and Luna swiftly continues, "you kind of are one now. So hey, that's closer to earthlings than even Earth will ever be! How cool is that?"

"Pretty cool, I guess," Dark Side huffs. "Now go to sleep already. That 'us' is in the sky, busy at work, we can rest." Luna chuckles at that description but doesn't argue and simply lays down in bed near his other side.

"Good night, Dark Side."

"Good night, Luna."

***

Well, this was bound to happen.

Dark Side sits up on the bed, tired but not enough so to actually stay asleep. Maybe it's the reflex of staying awake while Luna sleeps instead, he isn't sure, what matters is that he's up now. He looks at the bed near himself, seeing his other half peacefully asleep indeed, a little drool running down from his mouth as usual, his body illuminated with moonlight, ironically enough. Which earthlings also get only from Luna…

Deep in thoughts, he doesn't notice immediately the faint light coming from under the door and the quiet noise from the outside, but once he does he's on his feet immediately. A thought passes in his mind to alert Luna, but he decides against it – maybe it's nothing serious, and even if it is, he can deal with it himself perfectly fine.

Dark Side steps into the corridor, making sure to keep the door as quiet as possible, and there he can see right away that the source of light and sound is the door next to theirs, one of the locked ones. He slowly walks closer to it, tensed, and then pulls on the handle to open it, yet it remains locked. Confused, Dark Side pulls again and receives the same result. He waits, and waits, and nothing changes, and at some point that's enough to actually make him sleepy again. He yawns, deciding to leave that to tomorrow's Luna and himself to figure out, and returns to the room.

Just as the door closes behind him, a sign appears on the other door with a circle and an arrow coming out of it.

Chapter Text

Dark Side yawns but slowly opens his eyes, feeling as if sunlight is cutting right through them. Must be in that part of his rotation where he faces the Sun, just incredible, now he also risks catching a stray solar flare. Disgruntled, he stretches in bed, his left arm and leg pushed in the air because of that

wait

what the

HECK.

He sits up, glaring around feverishly, and then focuses his sight on his hands in front of himself, five fingers on each. Only after that do his peaked breathing and heartbeat rate begin to slow down gradually.

No, it wasn't a weird dream, he's still very much an earthling.

Dark Side sighs heavily and then looks over at his other half, who's just as peacefully asleep as last time, hugging a piece of rolled up blanket with his arms and legs. He realises his own leg is lying on top of Luna and huffs as he removes it.

Well, Dark Side gave him a pass at night but it won't be happening now.

"Wake up, sleepy head," he calls out, pushing Luna's shoulder, and he blinks his eyes open in confusion.

"Five more minutes, Earth… oh, oh stars, we're still like this," he realises slowly. "Did something happen?"

"Nope, just felt like waking you up," Dark Side grins and earns a groan from the other, although their little fight ends quickly once they hear a sudden noise from outside of their room most resembling footsteps. "Oh heck, there's someone else here, just as I thought."

"What do you mean?" Luna looks at his other side in worry, the two of them speaking quieter now.

"Did you not hear that? What are you, deaf? I guess we don't have ears, but still."

"No, I meant, what do you mean 'just as I thought'?" Dark Side looks away from him at that and stares at the door of their room instead.

"There was something weird going on at night. The door next to ours was glowing and there was noise coming from it, but I still couldn't unlock it. It's probably that," he explains reluctantly and then gets up from the bed. "I'll go check it out now."

Dark Side tries to go forward quickly but feels Luna grip on his hand with his; in a second his other half is up as well and is giving him a weak supportive smile. The two of them walk forward to the door and go out in the hallway which, thankfully, remains empty besides them. The noises from the door next to theis grow much more prominent, and besides footsteps they swear they can also hear speech and… laughter?

Dark Side tenses and takes one of his haphazardly put on slippers in his hand, ready to defend the two of them like it's Late Heavy Bombardment again. Luna hides behind him but slowly frowns as they near the door.

"...Do the voices sound familiar to you too? Wait, is that-"

The door slams open in front of them and two figures of earthling-like kids with irregularly shaped heads rush outside. The taller and slimmer one is brown, dressed in light blue and green colors besides the bright red socks with yellow stars, while the shorter one is beige with orange hues and covered in bright red, yellow and blue mismatched clothes.

"Stop, Deimos, we shouldn't go outside of the room yet!" The taller one grabs his brother by the collar of his sweater, stopping him in place.

"Come on, Phobos, let's explore!"

"Phobos? Deimos?" The two of them turn to the new voice and pause at the sight in front of them. Luna is staring at them with wide eyes, hiding behind Dark Side's back and gripping on his clothes, while the latter stands tensed with his hand with the slipper raised in the air.

"Woah! Earth's Moon! Oh, wait, no, Luna!" Phobos smiles at them. "And, uh, Dark Side of the Moon? You're earthlings too?"

"We thought we were the only ones!" Deimos gets out of his brother's grip that relaxed because of mutual surprise and now runs closer to them. "Oh man, it's so weird to see you apart like that."

"And it's weird to see you like this." Dark Side rolls his eyes and steps aside. "Well then, if my existence is just so weird to you, go talk to Luna."

"...So, uh, hey, guys." Luna waves his hand awkwardly for a start and immediately receives excited 'hi!' and 'hello!' from the younger moons. "I get that it must be very weird and new for you to exist in these bodies, it was for us as well, but we've been getting better at it over the last day, so we'll be ready to help you with it and with adjusting to this life overall."

"Okay? We're pretty good at it, though." Phobos shrugs. "We don't need help, we figured it out already!"

"Yeah! These bodies are so fun!" Deimos waves his fingers in the air in different directions and the brothers giggle at the sight of that. Luna and Dark Side exchange looks.

"I guess they learn all of this faster because they're kids? It's easier to learn at their age," Luna concludes uncertainly as he looks at the Martian moons again. "Or did you actually appear earlier and had more time to get used to it?"

"Nope! We woke up here today! So maybe we just learn faster so that one day you grown-ups are the ones who will need our knowledge and help!" Deimos's proud voice makes Dark Side grit his teeth in annoyance.

"As if something like that could ever happen. You're moons, you don't grow up like that. Unless you start accumulating a ton of space dust, you won't ever get even close to us."

"Aw man, don't ruin Deimos's hopes like that, he still thinks he can outgrow me!"

"Hey!" Deimos looks at Phobos in slight offence while the latter laughs at him. Dark Side, getting pretty annoyed with their high-pitched screaming by now, just walks down the corridor past them while finally putting his slipper back on.

"You do whatever you want. I'll go make myself some breakfast." He hoped he'd be able to do at least that in peace, but Phobos and Deimos trail behind him, whining about being hungry and asking Luna to feed them, so he follows suit. Almost makes Dark Side miss the time when it was just the two of them.

They're settled in the kitchen. Dark Side is nearly forced to press himself into counters just so that Phobos and Deimos wouldn't crash into him while running around. Luna is looking through the fridge, trying to find something that the Martians would eat, but they decline every option presented to them. Meat is too 'adult but not in a cool way but in a boring way!!!!' – whatever that means, – frozen salad is plainly 'too boring', and even his trusted option of cheese cubes sparks enthusiasm exclusively in making fun of him for that.

"I want sweets! Candy!" Luna sighs at Phobos's admission while his brother looks at him in surprise.

"Phobos? What's 'candy'?"

"It's great, Deimos! It's sweet and cool!"

"Oh! Then I want candy too!"

"Guys, I understand that you want candy, but it's not good for you! It's bad for health." Luna frowns, already hearing the kids' disappointed chatting. "Think about it this way: sweets corrode your teeth, so they destroy the material of you, so you become less massive objects! Isn't that the opposite of what you want?"

That seems to make them go still and quiet for a short time. Dark Side huffs and finally moves to get his own meal from the drawer but flinches in surprise and then groans once Deimos talks again.

"But we're also eating food, so we're getting more massive!"

"Yes! And we're totally eating more quickly than our teeth can corrode!"

"Candy! Candy! Candy! Candy!" The two chant together. Luna is frozen in place, thinking desperately of what to do, but then all three flinch when Dark Side sets a cardboard box on the kitchen isle loudly. It's red, with a blue animal on it holding a bowl with colorful toruses in a white liquid.

"Fruit loops. Still sweet and candy-like but also not as bad for health, especially with milk. Just take these and leave Luna alone." Dark Side turns away to the drawer and takes another pack of chips for himself. He heads out of the kitchen past the newly excited Phobos and Deimos, who are already trying to reach for a carton of milk in the fridge.

"Thanks, Darksie," Luna tells gratefully, smiling in relief to his other half, but Dark Side just huffs in response.

"Don't call me that."

Obviously he doesn't get a chance to stay alone while eating. Phobos and Deimos are nosy and talk more than they eat, making their bowls stay mostly untouched by the point they should've been done already. Dark Side sits as far away from them as possible yet it doesn't save him at all. Worst of all, the two kids are naturally curious, which of course means infinite questions. Luna answers as much as he can until his head starts hurting from trying to access all that knowledge that he'd never before think he'd ever need.

"Hey Luna? What's 'milk'?"

"It's a liquid that earthlings drink and use to make food. They make… cheese out of it, for example," he explains as patiently as he can.

"Then what's cheese?"

"And where does milk come from?"

The worst is when both of them ask a question, multiplying Luna's task by two.

"Cheese is a kind of food, it's usually yellow and solid and pretty tasty, and milk comes from cows."

"But Luna, what's a 'cow'?"

"Can't you read about it in a book?" Dark Side snaps at them yet again, though this time they seem to be treating that far less seriously.

"What's a 'book'?" Phobos high-fives Deimos for that. Dark Side buries his face in his hands, the motion barely doesn't make his pack of chips fall and spill. Luna tries to tune in and explain again but gets interrupted by his other side.

"It's a thing where you get your knowledge from." The Martian moons look between each other and then at him in clear interest.

"What's a 'thing'?"

"And what's 'knowledge'?"

"Both of those exist in space as well, questions dismissed." Dark Side smirks when the brothers stretch a disappointed 'awww', having lost at their own game.

"We probably should actually give them books, though, Dark Side. That could help with their thirst for knowledge, and they would keep them occupied," Luna suggests thoughtfully, finally able to eat a spoonful of salad he was denied while he had to be giving explanations to the younger moons.

"The ones from the living room? Sure. And maybe reading them will actually keep them on track and they won't just be talking the whole damn time." Dark Side stands up from the table as he realises he has to be the one to do this and then heads to the living room. There he picks up a few books from the bookshelves, once that look the best for kids – with bright colourful images and large letters. "I hope they can read," he announces his presence once he walks inside the kitchen again and then lays the books in front of the younger moons.

"Wow, they're so bright!"

"Look, Deimos, this one is about animals!"

"What's an animal?"

Phobos opens the book and places it on the table in front of them, leaned against a small pile of other books. Luna and Dark Side are extremely happy to learn they can actually read – the two sit closer together, their sights focused on the first page of the book.

"Oh! That's what an animal is!"

"Shhh, Deimos, don't interrupt it!"

"Sorry!"

So invested in reading, the two don't notice their hands feeding them and their mouths chewing automatically. They're done with their cereal in no time and Luna has to collect their dishes while they sit near and read. The sound of running water returns them to reality and Deimos raises his head to Luna and Dark Side curiously.

"Hey! It says here animals can have babies! Can planets have babies? Or moons?" Luna looks at the younger moons uncomfortably, but thankfully his other side quickly starts talking instead.

"Sure! So if two moons like each other a lot, what they do is that they get close… very close… and then even closer… so close that they crash into each other and die! And in their place from pieces of them and dust is where new moons form!" Dark Side smirks. Phobos and Deimos look at him with wide, scared eyes.

"D-dark Side? Did we form like that?" Phobos manages to ask quietly as his brother hugs him fearfully.

"No, you're probably just asteroids that Mars captured into his orbit and that gave you consciousness," the other shrugs.

"...Phobos, I don't like this. Let's just go play with toys?" Deimos looks up to his brother, who nods quickly.

"Yes! Let's go, Deimos!" And at that, the two get up and run off out of the room. Luna stares at the door they've just left through in disbelief for a few more seconds before he turns to his other side.

"Dark Side, what was that?" His strict tone makes the other's confidence deflate a little, though he still picks up the last bits of chips from his pack like it's nothing.

"You can't seriously expect me to do right with kids one hundred percent of the time, right? You were the one being all soft towards them, bro! You should be tougher."

"And you should be softer." The two look at each other, and a sort of mutual understanding goes between them. "The fact that we're two halves of the same moon doesn't mean we have to be opposites, Dark Side. We can be similar! Be similarly nice with kids, for example."

"I'll pass on that one, bro."

While these two settle it between each other, Phobos and Deimos run to their room that they had a chance to explore in the morning. It's big enough for two kids, with two cosy beds full of stuffed toys on either side. Virtually every shelf, closet and box in the room is filled with toys, so they take turns to bring the ones they're interested in the most into the living room.

Phobos drops a pile of stuffed animal plushies onto the sofa and arranges them to be sitting together and holding hands (or whatever animals have – they haven't quite gotten to that part of the book, and by now with all the toys around it's forgotten completely). He stands with his hands on his waist, admiring the result, and then hears Deimos rush in with a large box in his hands.

"Deimos? What's that?" The colourful shapes inside alert his attention immediately.

"It says it's a train! No idea what that is, but it sounds really fun!" Deimos falls to his knees, and because of running so fast he slides half a metre further on the floor, but, unaffected, he just starts clawing onto the box in tries of opening it. "Go bring more toys while I take this out, Phobos!"

"But Deimos, I want to play too!" He gets no response from his younger brother and rolls his eyes but then quickly heads back to their room for more. He saw a box of different figurines in the morning, and now he safely recovers it from the corner of the room and brings it over, seeing as Deimos is already arranging pieces of his toy on the floor. Phobos drops off the box near and then moves closer to his brother. "So? How do you play with this?"

"We have to connect these pieces together, Phobos!" Deimos points at a pile of colourful details. Some of them are straight, others are curved, and a few more have unique and odd shapes. The two of them get down to business, connecting the pieces together, slowly forming a track. They realise that there's a piece that redirects the train, and then there's one that boosts it. Slowly, they connect the whole track together, equipped with two stations and diverging tracks.

Their hearts beat quicker in excitement when they connect the train carts to the train and then set it down on the track. A flip of a switch is all it takes, and powered with some invisible strength it starts moving forward along the lines of the track. It passes over special tiles and they play a simple tune, making them gasp in surprise.

"Look, Phobos!" Deimos turns a switch, and instead of going forward the train turns.

"Now you look, Deimos!" After a loop, it's Phobos's turn on the switch, and now the train rushes forward. The brothers move closer to watch but there's not quite enough space so Deimos ends up hitting the track with his boot and breaking a piece of it apart. "Deimos!"

"I'm sorry?" Their angry looks snap back to the train that's gone off the rails and now drives through the room away from them. The moons jump up and run after the train to catch it before it can bump into anything; instead Phobos trips on the box he put down and Deimos catches the train at the expense of his own knees. "Aw! There's too little space here!"

"Yeah! There's more of it in… space," Phobos sighs in response. Suddenly an idea hits his mind. "That's right! Deimos, we should go outside! There's more space!"

"Yeah! Good idea, Phobos!"

Deimos walks back with the train in his hands while Phobos starts collecting the pieces back inside the box. Somehow they don't fit as well as they did before and some are sticking out the opening, but the brothers don't mind it. Deimos picks up the train box; Phobos can't argue with his explanation of 'I took it first', so instead he grabs the box of figurines he chose earlier, leaving the plushies behind to stay in the room.

They leave the living room and quickly head to the front door. A piece of the deep blue sky greets them welcomingly from the little window on top of it, and they can't wait to get more of that. Phobos puts his box down for a moment and reaches for the door handle…

"Phobos, Deimos, wait!" Luna's voice makes them pause and turn around just before they're able to leave, and if anything, they're more surprised with the absence of Dark Side near him.

"What is it, Luna?" Phobos lets the door handle go for now and turns to the other moon.

"It's unsafe to go outside! We don't know yet what could happen if someone did," Luna explains with clear concern to his voice which makes the Martians frown.

"But we've been outside! Earlier today! And it's okay there!"

"You have? Really?" Even more concern together with confusion appear on Luna's face as he looks at Deimos.

"No, we haven't," the latter admits suddenly and looks away. Phobos glares at him.

"Damn it, Deimos, why did you tell that?"

"I got scared it would actually be dangerous! Would you want something to happen to us?"

"No, I wouldn't!" The two hug each other with the train box being between them, and Luna sighs.

"Why did you even want to go outside in the first place?" The younger moons turn to him after hearing the question, and the box drops on the floor with some pieces falling out of it. "I'll help," Luna reassures and then walks closer to put the details in the box again.

"We wanted to go outside because there's not enough space here! And we want to play and have fun!" The younger moons tell that nearly in unison.

"I get that, but, please, let's stay inside and play together, I'm sure we can make it work," Luna offers. The other two look between each other but then turn to him and nod; Phobos picks his box up from the ground and Deimos helps him by holding it from the other side, and like that, the three of them return to the living room.

"Will I ever be left alone in this house?" Dark Side looks at them in desperation from the couch, which he's safely occupied while others were away. Only a small part of the book about animals from earlier is peeking out from under a couch cushion, so thankfully for him nobody notices it.

"I don't think so, sorry," Luna chuckles awkwardly while they bring in the toy boxes and put them on the floor again.

"Great."

"Still, Luna, are you sure you can play with us? All you grown-ups are boring, you don't ever have fun!" Phobos tells suddenly and then he and Deimos look at him in clear judgement.

Luna looks back at them thoughtfully and then smiles. Instead of replying anything, he walks to the desk and pushes one of the chairs away from it.

"Just as I said, boring grown-up things at the desk- woah!!" The Martian moons look at Luna spinning on the chair in fascination and then run closer to claim the other one to themselves. Laughing, they manage to both sit down on one chair, and in a second they're spinning themselves.

Dark Side only pays that a quick glare and uses the fact that others are distracted to arrange the stuffed toys near himself by color nicely, only to continue reading the book afterwards.

The rest of the day goes approximately the same: Luna tries his hardest to keep Phobos and Deimos in line while Dark Side tries his hardest to avoid them. Phobos and Deimos, in turn, just try to have fun, and they seem to be the only ones successful in their task today. Any further attempts to make them read are futile, since they claim they've already 'read enough'.

After Luna's failure to hide the sweets properly at lunch, their dinner consists of yoghurt and fresh cut fruit. The younger moons resist it at first, demanding sweets again, but then Phobos catches onto the fact that peaches, strawberries and especially bananas can be sweet as well. It doesn't take long until they're both taking spoonfuls of yoghurt and decorating them with pieces of fruit to see who can do that the best.

Once it starts getting dark – and, since by Luna's estimates it's summer, that only happens rather late in the evening – Phobos and Deimos are sent to sleep. Luna sets them in beds and is ready to leave, but before he can do so he notices them sit up again.

"What is it?" Luna frowns in confusion. "You should be going to sleep now. Little moons like you need a lot of rest at night."

"But Luna! Mars always reads us bedtime stories!"

"Yeah! He always does! And now he's not here," Deimos's expression turns into a frown. "And we miss him!"

"We really do!" Phobos repeats after his brother and both of them look at Luna pleadingly.

"Okay, okay! If you really want it. Uh… I'll tell you a story about two little moons," Luna starts and that pacifies the two immediately. They're back in their beds, looking up at him with slight smiles. Luna smiles back and continues the story, making it up on the way until the younger moons are finally asleep.

***

"Hey, so, reporting live, I'm in the outer Solar System now! God, I thought I would die in the asteroid belt, there were so many rocks flying at me there-"

"That's not relevant right now. Is that everything that you wanted to share?"

"I actually had a question. How many of the Jovian moons am I supposed to do this to, exactly? There's ninety five of them and I don't have nearly enough equipment for all of them!"

"Wait a minute, what the hell are 'Jovian moons'? There isn't a planet that's called like that."

"Well, 'Jovian' is actually an adjective for Jupiter! There are historical reasons for that, because it comes from Latin and all."

"Ah, of course, Jupiter. Just take the main four ones, what are they called, Copernicans or something?"

"Uhhh. Galileans?"

"Exactly! Take them and then move on to the next planet!"

"Okay, okay. Will be done, Houston."

"Thank you, Astrodude."

Chapter Text

He's floating in his orbit peacefully, basking in Sun's close glow. It won't be long until he hides behind his planet and stays in shadow, but he doesn't mind it.

He hasn't heard from his brother in a while, though. Curious, he floats closer to his orbit, although he takes a moment to look at a rocket passing by in awe. Are earthlings trying to colonise his planet again? Well that's fun!

Finally back on track, he nears his planet and thus his brother's orbit, and it doesn't take long until he sees him floating through space. But he doesn't even turn to him!

"Hey?" He floats around him.

But there's no face there either. Just silent dead rock.

Deimos jolts awake, his hand clutching at his core heart as his whole body is trembling. A tear runs down his cheek and he wipes it off with a quiet sob. There's movement near him, and as soon as he sees Phobos open his eyes slowly he nearly falls out of the bed and runs to his one.

"Phobos! Y-you're okay!" Deimos sobs and hugs his brother tightly as soon as the other sits up. Phobos seems dazed, still asleep with one half of his core, but he snaps out of it soon enough.

"Of course I am, Deimos!" The two hug each other. Deimos's shaking gradually slows down. "Pretty bad today, isn't it?" Phobos gives him a slight sympathetic smile, much more serious than any of his usual behaviour would be.

"Y-yeah… what about you?" Deimos's voice still trembles, but the light pats of his brother's hand on his back help him calm down further.

"Nothing tonight. I hope it'll be nothing for you next time, Deimos!" He smiles more. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, Phobos. Just stay with me…"

The brothers stay in the hug, sitting on Phobos's bed near each other. Maybe it's been five minutes, or ten, or an hour, they don't know – the closure and support is all they need, just like any other time either one of them wakes up from a nightmare, which is almost every time with them.

Eventually Deimos backs away from the hug and they exchange smiles.

"So, I guess we're still earthlings? That's weird! I almost thought it's actually just a nightmare, and then it got better and better and didn't even seem like a nightmare anymore!" The older brother laughs and then stands up, and the younger soon follows suit.

"Yeah! This is so weird… Do you think Mars is looking for us? I miss him so much already," Deimos stretches, which makes Phobos sigh.

"I miss him too. But, hey! Maybe we can see him from Earth! They're neighbours, right?" They run to the window and look at the bright morning sky through it. But there are no stars or planets in sight, nothing, just the sun rising on the left and…

"Is that Luna?!" Deimos's surprised voice makes Phobos turn his head immediately, and there in the sky they see the faint white circle of the Moon. They press their faces to the glass, probably leaving marks on it, but that's the least of their concerns now.

"It is! Why did they leave us?" Phobos gives the sky one more look before he turns around and runs to the door. "Let's go see if they actually left, Deimos!"

"Let's go, Phobos!" Now both of them rush to the door to the corridor and open it to run out. "Oh, hi, Ganymede!"

"Yeah, hi, Ganymede! Have you seen Luna?"

It takes them a moment, but then they look between one another and then at the four people in front of them in sinking realisation.

"Ganymede?! Callisto?! Io?! Europa?!" Phobos and Deimos exclaim in shock, looking at the Galilean moons standing in the corridor near the previously locked door. On top of it now shines the symbol that most resembled the number '2' with a stroke through the lower line of it – Jupiter's one.

"Yeah, that's us. And you are, uh… right, Phobos and Deimos," Ganymede definitely looks at wrong Martian moons upon naming them but they pay it no mind.

"Yes! That's us!"

"H-h-hi! You look cool as earthlings!" Io waves his hand at them with a smile but then coughs, yellow fumes flying out of his mouth. He quickly covers it with the back of his palm, only to jolt it away soon after in surprise at the reflex he didn't know he has.

"Oh yes, about that. Um, any idea why we got turned into earthlings ?" Europa rolls her eyes, her arms crossed on her chest, and the attention of younger moons switches to her. Deimos goes nervously quiet, though, still plagued by his nightmare, so Phobos is the one to talk.

"No! No idea! We just appeared here yesterday, and there are also Luna and Dark Side here!"

"But they're gone!" Before the Galilean moons can ask about it any further, though, another door opens into the corridor.

"We're not gone, we're still here, what are you… oh stars." Luna (and Dark Side, from behind his back) stare at the four new moons. Phobos and Deimos rush to Luna immediately with wide smiles on their faces, chatting about how happy they are to see him and to know that he's not gone in the end. He in turn tenses and frowns, not taking his sight away from the Galileans.

They, indeed, are also earthlings now, and are dressed appropriately yet every single one has a different style. Ganymede, for example, is spotting a blue blazer with orange details on it, most prominently a number '3' on his chest; the 'sporty' feel is accentuated only further by red-and-blue trainers and a cap he, for some reason, is wearing backwards.

Europa near him is in more unitary pastel pinks and oranges. Her shoulders are left naked and her skirt flutters at every her movement. The pink shoes she's wearing totally add her some height if you look attentively.

Callisto is also in style with her terrain, her clothes being fully dark and covering her entire body safe for her face and hands. Her sweater and tights have a patters of stripes, both colors being shades of grey. She's also in a skirt, although hers is shorter; her tall boots on platforms make up for her poor posture.

Finally, Io is dressed in simple T-shirt and shorts, the former decorated with Jupiter's symbol on the front. He makes up in terms of colour in details – there are colourful bracelets and bandaids on his arms and all over his body respectively.

While Callisto and Io are a welcomed surprise, the same can't be said about Europa and Ganymede. Luna, nonetheless, manages to focus on the most rational problem of this situation.

"Is it just the four of you? Or the other moons of Jupiter are here too?"

"Last time we checked, it was just us," Callisto shrugs. She sees Dark Side walk from behind Luna towards them and steps aside cautiously while also pulling Io with her by the hem of his T-shirt.

"You." Dark Side exhales heavily, standing in front of Ganymede now, and he looks down at him with a frown. Europa does the same, but the smaller moon doesn't seem to acknowledge her.

"Yeah? Me? What about it? Also, who are you?" His confusion turns into anger rather quickly when Dark Side reaches up and slaps him on the cheek all of a sudden. "What is that for?!" Even Europa backs away now, afraid to be caught up in the fight.

"Oooh, violence!" Luna has to hold both Phobos and Deimos down by their hands so that they wouldn't get involved either.

"I'm the Dark Side of the Moon. And that was for attacking Earth. I have to stick around for billions of years and take so many asteroids falling into my surface to protect him, and you go on and collect a whole army to mess that up?"

Ganymede doesn't seem particularly pleased with the attack and raises his hand too, but before he can actually get to Dark Side he's smacked again, now on the other cheek.

"And that is for hurting Luna in that fight! I won't tolerate him getting hit like that. If it were bad enough, it could've cracked us entirely!"

"Okay, alright, I get it, you hate me, can't we just-"

Ganymede doesn't get to continue his words.

"And this, this is for the fact that you started a whole damn war and still failed and I didn't get to have any fun myself." Dark Side stretches his arm forward and lifts up his hand with just the middle finger sticking out. Luna gasps and covers Phobos's eyes with his hand; the other is confused but, just in case, covers Deimos's eyes himself in a similar manner.

"...So anyway, what is that supposed to mean?" Ganymede even forgets about his anger, too confused by this sight.

"The middle finger. A really rude gesture for some earthlings," Callisto huffs and does another step aside. This time Io follows her without a word, watching his fellow moons in concern.

"Right, I almost forgot," Dark Side announces suddenly with a smirk, and before anyone can react he just shows another middle finger to Ganymede, now on his other hand. "This is for attacking Titan."

"...Great. Hey, Europa, do you think one little half-a-moon here should be taught a lesson on not being rude?" He has to make a cautious step back upon hearing that, watching as Ganymede looms above him with a threatening smirk.

"Definitely. Guys, let's do it," Europa agrees – and then she's met with silence. "Um, guys?" She turns around to look at the other two Galileans. Callisto is looking away to the other end of the corridor, pretending that's the most important thing ever, while Io is equally busy staring at the wall. "Ugh, guys? Hello? You are supposed to be on our side."

"Not interested in any more fighting."

"Let's just not fight. Please." Luna uses the confusion to stand between Dark Side and Ganymede with Europa. "Nobody here is happy with you two, but… let's pretend that Dark Side's attack makes up for that. Let's just spend some time in peace without any wars. Moreover, I'm sure you still need time adjusting to being earthlings," he gives them a weak smile.

"Oh come on, don't baby us, Earth's Moon. What's possibly so hard about being earthlings? Why do you think that's something us moons couldn't-" the untied laces of his trainers get in the way and Ganymede stumbles on them and then falls on Luna, earning a surprised yelp from him, a gasp from Europa and excited chanting of 'Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!' from Phobos, Deimos and Io, though the latter is soon shushed by Callisto.

Luna doesn't look at Ganymede a single time again while he conducts the tour like the one that was given to the Martian moons a day prior. Living room, dining room, kitchen. The moons take turns at making breakfast: Luna helps Phobos, Deimos and Io with baking some chicken nuggets; Europa instructs Ganymede on which fruit to wash and cut (nobody is exactly happy with him being given a knife, especially with how badly he operates it, but an attempt of taking it away by force is a concept that's even scarier than that).

Dark Side is the last to walk into the dining room and he soon regrets it. It's loud, and crowded, and truly makes him horrified of how many empty seats there are still. No, he decides, there's no way he'll be eating in the presence of Phobos and Deimos screaming and especially Europa hand-feeding cherries to Ganymede – so he makes his escape through the kitchen and corridor into the living room.

"Oh, hey. Also don't like the crowd?" He's a little startled to see Callisto sitting on the sofa with her plate of food, but it's a much better option still.

"Specific parts of the crowd, at least." He walks to one of the armchairs and sits down, placing his pack of Doritos between his legs. Before he can start eating he's startled by a sudden noise, and once he lifts his head he sees…

The blue mass of water glowing right on the wall. Little shapes – fish, as Dark Side realises – swimming through it, shining in bright shades of all colours that exist on Earth. Music is playing softly in the background together with the sound of waves.

Before he can even ask anything, he hears a voice sound right from the image, speaking slowly and clearly.

"This fish is popularly kept in aquariums all around the world, but here, in its dense natural habitat, is where the neon tetra truly thrives," it narrates, and the image shows a shoal of tiny colourful fish with red and blue stripes on them swimming together.

"What the hell is this?" Dark Side is unable to move his sight away, his black eyes locked on…

"A TV. Were you not using it before?" Callisto huffs and presses a button on a little remote she's suddenly holding, and the narrator's voice goes quieter, not disturbing their talk. "And here I thought you were the experienced ones."

"We just haven't gotten to it yet," Dark Side huffs back, staring at the glowing screen, and then feels the usual by now odd sensation of earthling knowledge coming to his mind. All that there is to see in the world, contained in one screen on the wall. Maybe in some things earthlings have it better than they do.

"Sure. So you're the Dark Side of the Moon? Pretty surprising to see you separated like that. But also, nice to meet you, I suppose. We've never really talked before," Callisto stretches her arm towards him; they both fall silent for a moment before Dark Side processes the situation and shakes her hand.

"As long as you're not as annoying as everyone else here, that's mutual," the other huffs.

All of a sudden, the door to the room opens and Io walks inside. Before he can say anything he's caught up in coughing, pressing his face in his elbow. Callisto waits patiently once it's over, looking at her fellow Galilean moon, while Dark Side ignores him, choosing to focus on the screen again.

"O-o-oh hey, is it just you two here? Can I join?" Io smiles. Callisto nods and pats the sofa cushion near herself, to which the other walks quickly and sits down. "Wow, what's this?"

"Imagine not knowing what a TV is," Dark Side rolls his eyes, and Io looks at Callisto chuckling about that in confusion.

"It shows things from all over the Earth. Might be useful for us," she explains for him and increases the volume again to let them hear the narration better.

"The blackwater rivers of the Amazon basin are a vital habitat for many species of fish. Take a look at the altum angelfish. The domesticated form of this species displays various colorations, but the wild form is typically grey with dark stripes."

"Wow! S-s-so cool! Just don't show this to Phobos and Deimos, or they'll just be stuck watching forever," Io laughs and coughs again briefly. "I wonder if Luna is dealing with them well…"

Luna is not dealing with them well.

Who knows if it's because of the doubled count of people present, or just for no reason, but the younger moons seem to be especially hyperactive today. By now Luna is forced to run around the table in tries of catching the Martian moons, who in turn just treat it like a game.

"Um, guys, can you please calm down already? Ganymede and I are talking," Europa huffs. Luna stops in his steps to look at her in offence, and Phobos and Deimos, a lap around the table ahead of him, end up bumping into him from the other side.

"You know what? I'm tired of this! You two," he points at Europa and Ganymede, not looking at the latter still, "are always all about the rights of moons but don't even care about any of them! I've had to take care of the kids this whole morning and you two have never done anything to help!"

"And that is one part of the problem, Luna. The planets treat smaller moons as children, when in fact-"

"They are literally kids, Europa. I understand your point, but they are literally kids." She goes silent, pouting, and that's when Ganymede pushes his chair away from the table and stands up abruptly.

"Challenge accepted, Earth's Moon."

"Luna."

"Whatever. We'll be taking care of these two now. You'll see that it's actually you who's incompetent at that!" Phobos and Deimos are clearly surprised but then cheer and run towards Ganymede.

"Fine! You can take care of us!" Deimos allows, smiling widely.

"But if you start acting weird again, we're going back to Luna!"

"Yeah!"

"We'll see about that," Ganymede moves his leg under the table and then suddenly rolls out a ball. It's filled with air, like how earthling-made balls tend to be, but it's also brown and has darker spots on it, making it resemble an asteroid. Phobos and Deimos gasp in awe, all the previous offences immediately forgotten.

Hoping he's made a right choice, Luna picks up the dirty dishes from the table and goes into the kitchen to wash them; once he returns, he sees that the two Galilean and two Martian moons have already left the dining room, and the only reminder of them are the chairs that stand near the table out of order. Thankfully it's not a hard thing to fix, and when he's done, Luna finally heads to the living room.

"Hi guys", he waves his hand tiredly at the other three (or rather, two and a half?) moons present in the room. The TV catches him by surprise like how it did with Dark Side and Io, but in this case Luna asks no questions while his brain quickly fills in the gaps in earthling knowledge by itself. "Oh, you've figured the TV out. Was it Dark Side?"

"Callisto, actually!" Io argues proudly and Dark Side just nods along. Luna looks at Callisto in clear surprise but then smiles.

"I guess that makes sense. You have a dark surface, and the craters on it look like lights. You kind of look like a TV, in a way."

"I guess." She's much less certain about that comparison but doesn't argue against it.

Meanwhile, Ganymede, Europa, Phobos and Deimos are in the hallway already. Ganymede is balancing the ball on his knees and it's going quite great for his first day as an earthling, not counting the fact that Europa is holding him by the hand firmly so that he doesn't fall.

"So, who wants to play some asteroid dodgeball?" Ganymede grabs the ball in his hands.

"Are you sure this is necessary?" Europa's sudden question makes him turn to her, one eyebrow lifted in confusion. "It's so loud and dangerous. Let's do something calmer. Make-up, for example!"

"Make up. Really." Ganymede huffs; the Martian moons don't seem enthusiastic either.

"Really . Apparently I have a lot of it here, and just look how nice it is," Europa closes her eyes, making her long dark eyelashes more visible against her terrain, as well as pink eyeshadow with glitter that twinkles like tiny stars. "What do you say?"

"Dear, you look very beautiful, I can't deny that, but we already planned to play together," Ganymede tells, placing his hand on her shoulder.

"But I want to have make-up too! It looks cool!" Phobos's sudden announcement makes everyone turn to him.

"But Phobos, I want to play," Deimos does a sad expression and his brother sighs.

"Fine! We want to play!" He turns to the Galilean moons with the same determination as before.

"Yes! We want to play!"

"Ugh, fine. Just don't destroy everything here."

After being granted Europa's permission, Ganymede lifts his hand up, gripping the ball in it firmly. Phobos and Deimos turn around and run away at a safe distance where they take a stance. Ganymede squints, aiming the ball.

"Ready or not, here I go!"

Phobos and Deimos manage to avoid the shot, but a plant pot standing by the wall is far less lucky.

"I knew this would happen." Europa frowns, her arms crossed on her chest. The other moons look at the fallen plant guiltily; its leaves are scattered on the ground and some dirt from the pot has spilled out as well.

"There's just not enough space here!" Phobos explains, already headed to put the plant back up, and Deimos runs along to help, as the stem of the plant is taller than either of the smaller moons.

"Yeah! But Luna prohibited us from going outside!" Deimos collects the dirt with his hands and then throws it back in the pot, apparently not caring about getting himself dirty.

"Did he really?" Ganymede is curious immediately, turning back to the two younger moons with the asteroid ball already secured in his hands.

"Yeah! Because it's dangerous and we don't know what's out there!"

"Well, it's not Luna taking care of you anymore, is it? It's me, or, well, us!" Ganymede quickly corrects himself once Europa steps closer and gives him a look . "And I say that we should go out of this house and explore it! There's no way that anything on the surface of Earth could be dangerous enough to stop us!"

"Yeah! Yeah, let's go!"

With such unitary support, Ganymede doesn't waste time and heads to the front door of the house. Europa walks with him, smirking, invested as well, and Phobos and Deimos trail behind, already chatting to each other about what adventures might soon await them.

"Guys, where are you going?" For the second day in a row, the moment Ganymede's hand is on the door handle, Luna is out of the living room and in the corridor, looking at them in concern. Phobos and Deimos immediately go quiet upon being caught, but the older moons don't seem to give up so easily.

"Outside, don't you see? They wanted to play, and there's not enough space for that here, so we're going outside whether you want that or not, Earth's Moon."

"His name is Luna." This time Dark Side is the one to remind of that, already standing near his other half together with Callisto and Io.

"You can just play a different game that doesn't need much space," Luna argues after a nod of gratitude to Dark Side. "There's no need to go there."

"Oh no, there is. It's not about this game anymore. Do you just want us to sit here all day, every day? I don't want to stay on Earth a second longer than needed, and if we stay here, we won't ever return to our orbits!"

"G-g-ganymede is right," Io agrees suddenly. "We will just stay here forever if we don't explore! And-"

His voice cuts off with coughing as the moons near him make a step aside.

"Just look at this. The air in here is so stale, do you also want poor Io to struggle?" Europa looks at Luna who pauses for a couple seconds from such an accusation.

"Of course I don't want it! I just want everyone here to stay safe!"

"You are not our mom, Luna." Europa smirks, enjoying how Luna falls silent immediately.

"Exactly! You don't get to boss us around and tell us what to do and what not to do just because you're Earth's moon and think that you know better," Ganymede huffs.

Callisto sighs and suddenly walks to stand near the door as well, just like Io did prior to her. 

"Somebody's got to keep them in line."

"And that leaves just, would you look at that, Earth's moon, both halves," Ganymede concludes, looking down at Luna and Dark Side standing in front of him. "Honestly, I expected more of you, Dark Side."

"Yes, didn't think you're just Luna's and Earth's bodyguard. Our entire moon liberation movement went right by you, didn't it?" Dark Side grits his teeth in annoyance, showing his sharp fangs to Europa and Ganymede in annoyance.

"This isn't about that. There's no reason for me to go out and try to put us back into the orbits."

He's firm in that. He's been granted a separate body ever since he woke up on Earth, and he's been enjoying the freedom it grants so far. He can stay with Luna but he can also walk away whenever he pleases and do things on his own however he pleases. This freedom of choice feels like something he's needed for a long while.

And then again, if their absence does result in a global catastrophe in the Solar System, then at least he'll be there to watch everything crash into each other.

So really, only just benefits for him. There's no way he'll choose the other side.

"Then I guess you're just the same as Earth's Moon is."

Dark Side freezes in place, glaring at Ganymede.

"What?"

"I said, if you're so sure about that, then I guess you're just the same as Earth's Moon – Luna, whatever – is."

There's a beat of silence and then Dark Side quickly walks over to the opposite side and stands near Callisto.

"Dark Side?" Luna grips onto the edge of his sweater nervously, looking at the literal crowd in front of him, slowly realising his side was the losing one. "Why did you…"

"...No matter if we're more like earthlings or more like moons still, going outside won't kill us. If earthlings survive in these circumstances, we will for sure. And come on, bro, can you really say you've been on Earth without stepping on the actual surface of it a single time?" Dark Side gives him a small smirk and Luna sighs.

"I guess I can't."

"We're all going outside! We're all going outside!"

Phobos and Deimos chant in excitement as Ganymede opens the door and then makes first steps outside. He stumbles a little on the stairs leading to the ground but regains posture, and in the end he steps on the ground.

"See? Nothing scary, guys!" He turns around and waves his hand, inviting the others out, and the fresh breeze of air sweeping through the house through the open door is also a huge encouragement. Phobos and Deimos run outside first, hopping and jumping around, bending down to each blade of grass and every bug to watch them more closely.

Io together with Callisto walk out next. Io heads forward while the other moon pauses, and Dark Side, walking outside as well, gives her a look. She seems to be busy, holding a strange device in her hands and tapping on it with her fingers, so he decides not to bother her and goes downstairs to meet others.

"So are you going, or are you too scared and I should just close the door?" Europa… teases? Luna isn't quite sure, the way her skirt flutters on the wind now is just so fascinating that it takes an effort to look away or to pay attention to much else.

"I… no, I'm not scared, I'm coming," Luna huffs once he snaps out of it and quickly walks out before his fear can stop him.

The sight in front of him is unlike anything he's seen before. Observing the green on the surface of Earth while orbiting him is one thing, you learn where his land masses are and where his oceans are and that's it. You know inside that it's important, but from your size and distance it tends to appear insignificant.

Here, however, that green is everywhere . Tall trees rise up on thick trunks and spread their leaves closer to the sun, rich shades of green hanging over the ground and casting shadows with occasional beams of sunlight snapping between them. Bushes grow in every spot where trees don't, clouding the horizon that's already invisible because of many trees spanning vastly around them. Grass and wildflowers cover the ground, making it feel smooth and pleasant to step on.

Their house stands in a clearing, and now the moons can finally take a proper look at it. It's a single-story house indeed, and to make up for that it takes up a larger area of land. The outside walls are white and the roof is black, contrasting nicely against the surroundings that seem to be just forest. No roads, no other houses, no earthlings in sight.

"So, what now?" Europa walks closer to Ganymede. The other turns around, looking at the forest, smelling the fresh scent of trees and flowers from it.

"We should go forward and explore. We don't know how big this place is, so it's the best if we split." Ganymede turns back to the moons and gives the group a thoughtful look. "I'm definitely taking… the younger two with me, they're under my care today and I promised to play with them," he tells, and in a second Phobos and Deimos are already near Ganymede and jumping in excitement. "Next, Luna will definitely be with-"

"I want to go with Callisto," Dark Side announces loudly before he can continue. Ganymede gives him a long look and then smirks.

"Sure, if she's not against it."

"And if you're taking the boys with you, then, honestly? I'll go with Luna. I don't want to be hit with a ball or anything worse," Europa huffs and walks over closer to the smaller moon. Luna looks between her and Dark Side in confusion, but it seems that everything is already settled without his input.

"...Okay, if you say so." Ganymede is disappointed with that decision but just sighs and turns to the last remaining moon. "Io? Who will you go with?"

Io pauses, looking around at the three groups of moons that have formed. His main choice is really between Ganymede and Callisto: the former as the main leader of theirs and the latter as his best friend, and that's a choice that is hard to make.

"I-I-I want to go with Europa!" He announces after a bit of thinking, evidently deciding it's best to avoid that hard choice, and walks closer to his fellow Galilean moon; Europa rolls her eyes but doesn't say anything.

"Alright. I go forward with the Martians, Europa, Io and Earth's Moon go left, Callisto and Dark Side go right," Ganymede shows the directions with his arms broadly. "In… I don't know, three hours, we meet back here and discuss what we found. Any objections?" Everyone either nods or simply stays silent. "Then let's do this."

"Adventure! Adventure!" Ever-excited, Phobos and Deimos chant, hopping along with Ganymede as they walk away from the house and into the forest. The trees are sparse enough to walk between them comfortably so the three of them don't waste any time, heading forward.

No matter how much they want to go quicker – to be the first to discover something or to have the best adventure, depending on who you ask – they still end up slowing down from how fascinating everything around is. The different shapes of leaves that grow near them and occasionally slap them lightly as they walk by is only just one of the things, and soon enough Phobos and Deimos turn it into a competition, jumping to reach the leaves with their hands as they pass by. At one such slap, a bug drops onto Deimos's hand and he gasps in surprise.

"Phobos! Take it off of me!" He waves his arm in the air frantically but the bug is resilient and stays in place.

"Wait! I've got it, Deimos!" His brother leans closer and takes Deimos by the wrist, stopping his movements. His other hand moves closer and his fingers pinch the bug. "Look!" Phobos places the bug on his hand instead and watches as its hard cover shimmers under the sunlight, changing from black to hues of deep green and blue.

"Wow…" The brothers take a moment to look at the insect before it suddenly opens its wings and then flies away. "Aw. Hey Ganymede, we just saw a cool bug!"

They turn around, only to see the older moon crouching near the ground and picking up wildflowers with large pink pellets. He's already holding a handful of those, their shade ranging from white to cream and pink. Ganymede is taken by surprise and lifts his head to the Martian moons.

"Uh, yeah, that must be cool." He takes one more flower and then stands up, holding a whole bouquet now.

"Ganymede? Why are you picking up flowers?" Both Phobos and Deimos look at him in confusion as he walks closer.

"Europa was mad with me for some reason earlier, maybe this will make her forgive me. She likes pretty things, and these flowers looked… pretty." Ganymede huffs when he sees the younger moons laugh and steps forward. "Anyway, look over there! There's a spot ahead with no trees, we can play there a little before we continue forward," his little plan works well: Phobos and Deimos are already distracted and head forward to the clearing.

The pile of flowers is left on the edge of the clearing. Chatter and laughter are loud in the air while Phobos and Deimos run around, avoiding Ganymede's throws. The tall grass catches the asteroid ball, preventing it from flying too far away and getting lost. Time flies by, and it takes multiple rounds before Ganymede finally pauses his attacks.

"Alright, not bad! But we have to go forward. Uh, I'd say something like 'the revolution calls', but it's not about it right now. Just, let's go." He takes the flowers again, happy to note that all of them stayed in place, and is ready to head out when he sees Phobos and Deimos looking at him in confusion. "What?"

"Uh, Ganymede? Where should we go?"

All three of them look around. It wasn't apparent at first, but now they realise that the rows of trees that they've passed by are now blocking their sight, and all the moving they made while playing made them forget which direction they came from.

"Ganymede? Do you know where we should go?" Deimos grips on Phobos's arm as both of them frown.

"...Of course I do. We should just go… that way!" He points blindly into the forest and that seems to be enough for the younger moons to restore their confidence. They rush forward, and Ganymede sighs heavily to himself, hoping deep inside that his guess is right.

Meanwhile, Europa has to pull Io away from yet another plant he got curious about. It's easier said than done, his unassuming physique hides a great strength just like in his planet form his unassuming volume hides a stronger gravitation – Europa is no match for him and her pull on his T-shirt is fruitless. Io, however, backs away by himself with a loud sneeze from all the flower pollen.

"Um, will you finally stop this now, Io?" Europa huffs and still receives a shake of the other moon in response. "Let's just go already."

"Guys, wait, be careful," Luna warns before they can properly continue moving. "We need to make sure the house stays exactly behind us!" He turns his head, careful not to move his body, and looks back at their house that they've left behind and that is still faintly visible from between the trees.

"Okay, that is enough. You need to stop being so paranoid about this. Even if we turn by a couple degrees, that won't change anything," Europa argues in annoyance.

"Actually, it might. We have to meet in three hours, so let's assume we walk for exactly a half of that, so, an hour and a half. Average earthling walking speed is around five kilometres per hour, but we can say it's four or so because we're not too fast. So, under perfect circumstances, we will cover the distance of six kilometres. Now let's assume that on the way back we miss the direction by exactly two degrees. Using trigonometry, we can calculate that by the end of our journey the difference between the point where we came from and the point where we arrive can be a little over two hundred metres! We'll just miss the house completely that way!"

"W-w-we could still see it between the trees, though," Io argues, which helps Europa snap out of her confusion.

"Exactly, Io. Also, from now on, Luna should walk in front of you. He should learn to look behind less."

Luna presses his lips together but in the end decides to give it a try. Maybe he's a little too paranoid indeed, and this will help.

They continue their journey through the woods. The change of places does help Luna most of the time, as Io trailing behind him is quite an obstacle for his view; he predicts that the back of his sweater will forever be stained by the sulphurous fumes that the other moon keeps on coughing out.

There's also enough distractions besides that. The nature around them keeps on giving, from the rich plant life to the occasional singing of birds in the treetops that all three of them tend to listen to. And another thing, of course, is making sure Io stays on course and taking pauses for him to get through the coughing fits.

And apparently, there's one more thing.

"L-l-luna? Why are you looking at Europa so much?" Io's sudden question makes the other pause in his track. It's quiet enough for Europa not to hear between the sounds of the forest, but nonetheless Luna turns around and presses a finger to his lips.

"I'm not? I don't understand what you're talking about."

"You're just staring at her skirt whenever I look at you, man, that's a bit odd," Io says and a faint yellow blush appears on Luna's cheeks.

"...I'm walking right behind her, there isn't much to look at. And it… moves nicely when she walks. Now let's go before we get left behind," Luna changes the topic and heads forward quickly to catch up to Europa.

"Boys, do you hear that?" Once Io and Luna near her and hear the question, they go silent and listen more attentively. Indeed, there's a new noise to the forest, and yet it sounds familiar, as if they've heard it today.

"It's water," Luna realises. "Sounds like there must be some water over there," he turns in the needed direction and realises he can see a glint of blue between the trees.

"That's something new. Let's go there," Europa's already turned right and is headed towards the river. Luna gasps.

"Wait, Europa, but our path? We won't get home if we abandon it!"

"I've got it under control, let's go already."

Realising he won't change her decision, Luna just desperately tries to remember their surroundings on the way there to give them at least a sliver of a chance not to get lost.

While the other two groups are off-course already, Callisto and Dark Side traverse the forest in peace. Rare rays of sunshine tickle them after passing through the rich leaves; or perhaps it's the bugs that fly around them and sometimes tend to crawl onto their bodies. Callisto pushes all the annoying critters off of her body rather quickly every time, but at some point she notices that Dark Side doesn't do the same. He tends to slow in his steps as he takes the insect in his hand and then gives it a closer look, observing them. A smile slowly appears on Callisto's face while she watches the other completely pause at one point, looking at a little bug crawling on his fingers with a dark hard cover that shines with green and blue light at a right angle.

"What?" Callisto is torn out of her own observation by Dark Side's question, and that's when she realises he's looking at her.

"You're getting distracted with the bugs again," the Galilean moon tells and the other huffs.

"What do you mean 'again'? I'm not distracted," Dark Side says defensively and then flinches when the beetle flies away from his hand. He looks at Callisto again and crosses his arms on his chest. "You're imagining things."

"Of course. So the green bug you were looking for is just my imagination?"

"It was actually more blue than green, I think that colour mostly appeared purely because of how much green there is around us and because of the reflectivity of its husk." Dark Side pauses his explanation when he feels the other's glare on himself, and then blushes faintly and looks away. "What are you trying to prove with this."

"Nothing, really. Just realised that you're quite similar to Luna, in a way."

That phrase sets off something in Dark Side's head. He tenses, frowning, gritting his teeth. Well that's just incredible, as if being compared to his other half by Ganymede and Europa wasn't enough, now he's getting the same treatment from Callisto, who seemed like the only adequate one out of the Galileans!

His whole body is struck with offence and anger, making his hands curl into fists.

"I'm nothing like him."

"I didn't mean it in a bad way," Callisto sounds a little apologetic but more so concerned as she looks back at Dark Side. "You're just both a little nerdy at times, it's just that-"

"Leave me alone!" He snaps, turns around and heads away from Callisto through the forest quickly. The image of him flickers between the trees which are denser here, and in a few seconds he's gone, with just the muffled sounds of his steps through the forest growing more and more distant.

"...you don't like to show it." Callisto sighs heavily. Without any better option, she opts to continue going forward – eventually Dark Side should calm down and wait for her or at least slow down enough for her to catch up. At least she hopes that he has enough consciousness not to go off-course and get lost, on purpose or not.

Their group isn't the only one that splits. Ganymede runs after Phobos and Deimos that apparently saw something between the trees and headed to check it out. Leaves and tree branches hit his body and face so he's forced to use his arms to push them away, but finally, he ends up on a clearing around a forest river. Its flow is calm, and the surface of it reflects the sky above them and the green treetops that overhang the stream.

"Look, Ganymede! This is a cool thing!" Phobos and Deimos hop around; now that the older moons has reached them, they're pulling him closer by his hands.

"Oh stars- yes, I see, calm down, guys," Ganymede huffs nervously. "Wow. Earth's water. Right on the surface. How cool." He tries to sound sarcastic, but he can't deny the fascination with which he walks closer and then kneels to feel the water with his hand. It's pleasantly cool against his fingers, pushing them lightly as if trying to carry them away. Ganymede pulls his hand back out and shakes the droplets off of it. "What now?"

"It's a cool thing! A discovery! A breakthrough!" Phobos announces proudly.

"We should go back home and tell others!"

"Yeah!" The brothers high five each other and then turn to Ganymede. "Lead the way!"

"Uh…" The latter scratches the back of his head nervously. "So there's this one little issue… I think we're kind of lost."

"What?!" Phobos and Deimos both frown as they hold hands. "Are we stuck here? Forever?"

"I want to go home! I'm hungry! And tired!"

The Martian moons look like they're about to cry. Ganymede bites on his lip, looking around, desperate to think of at least some solution to their problem. Suddenly, there's a noise to their left, and then they see three other people walk closer by the river bank.

"Luna! Io! Europa!" Phobos and Deimos immediately rush to them, tears drying on the wind, and wide excited smiles replace them.

"Do you know how to get home?" Deimos asks first and foremost, tugging on Luna's sleeve, while his brother stands right near.

"We do… do you not? Did you get lost?" Luna looks back at them and then Ganymede in clear concern.

"We might have." Europa immediately walks closer to Ganymede upon hearing that.

"Um, are you kidding me? I have been leading our group closer your way because I thought you had a plan!" She raises her voice, her arms crossed on her chest, while Ganymede looks back at her with wide eyes. "Did you even have one? What were you even doing on the way here?"

"I thought you had a plan?? And we just… played together. And I got you flowers," Ganymede mumbles and stretches forward his arm with the bouquet in it. Europa rolls her eyes at first, but in a few more seconds she accepts the flowers with a sigh.

"Gany, dear, I love you, but you're such an idiot sometimes."

"And this is why we moons can't have nice things!" Luna snaps suddenly, making everyone – even Phobos and Deimos who were beginning to tear up already – turn to him. "Don't you see? Because of you two always plotting something between each other, now we're lost in the middle of the forest! Because you couldn't even agree on something between each other!"

Ganymede and Europa look at each other slowly and then turn back to Luna.

"...Okay, we're sorry. We won't act like this again," Europa starts and the other continues after her,

"Yeah, we won't be plotting anything behind your backs anymore."

"Okay. Thanks. Now-"

"I-i-it's not okay!" It's apparently Io's turn to argue loudly, because that's exactly what he does, turning everyone's attention to himself now. "You say you won't do it, and then you'll do it again! Just like how it always happens! Why can't you just actually keep your word? I-I-I'm tired of seeing my friends argue!" His exclamations are interrupted by a fit of coughing, but that seems to be enough. Ganymede and Europa look between each other once more.

"Okay. We will… try," Europa tells hesitantly and Ganymede nods along. Io smiles through the coughing, and so does Luna, more confidently now.

"Okay, but, how do we get home now?" Phobos's question returns everyone to the actual problem.

"Let's just turn away from the river and go that way. At some point we have to find it, even if we'll have to search for a little longer. Come on, what could even happen on the way?" Ganymede encourages, but a new voice makes him flinch and turn around.

"Many things could happen." Dark Side walks to them from the other side along the river, his hands stuffed in the pockets of his jeans.

"Dark Side!" Luna smiles to his other half immediately, and this time gets a slight smile in response.

"You got here as well? Do you know the way back, at least? And where's Callisto?" Ganymede asks as soon as he notices the absence of his fellow moon.

"We separated on the way, and… I'm not sure if I know how to meet again." Dark Side is as vague as he can be. Everyone looks disappointed immediately and he frowns. "I'm sure she'll just be going the same way as me, though, it's hard not to turn when you come across such a river."

"And that is exactly the point. We all got lost," Europa huffs.

"And I've told you already, Europa, we'll go some way and at some point we've got to find our house again," Ganymede repeats in a confident voice, turned towards the forest. "What could happen?"

"Wolves, bears, poisonous snakes, poisonous insects," Dark Sides starts counting on his fingers. "All of those could easily hurt or kill us, we don't know if our bodies are resistant in any way or if they are the same as of earthlings. And who knows how death would work for us, if we'd actually be gone forever… We really should've thought of this first."

"Probably. Damn, I guess you nerds can be useful sometimes."

"...Yup." Europa sighs in agreement.

"Come on, no need to call him a nerd, he just knows some things," yet another voice sounds suddenly.

"C-c-callisto!!" Io runs towards her and grabs the other Galilean moon in a hug. She chuckles quietly and hugs him back.

"I'm glad to see you too, Io." She looks forward at the other moons; Dark Side smiles to her gratefully, Luna waves his hand, Phobos and Deimos do the same but significantly more actively, and even Ganymede and Europa smile to her. "So… why is everybody here?"

"W-w-we all met each other and then realised we're all lost!" Io explains before anyone else can and immediately coughs. "And now you're here and we're all lost!" He adds right after he recovers enough for that.

"How are we possibly lost? We can get home using GPS," Callisto says in quite genuine confusion. "Do you not know what that is?"

"I don't!" Phobos tells immediately.

"I do!" Deimos's words make his brother look at him immediately. "GPS stands for Global Positioning System! It's a group of earthling-made satellites orbiting around Earth that you can use to understand where on Earth you are!"

"Wow!"

"Yes, but, even with that, how do you access those satellites? We can't really see them from here, especially at day," Luna frowned.

"...With a phone?" Callisto briefly frees herself from Io's prolonged hug and then reaches for a subtle pocket in her skirt to take a small rectangular object in her hand. She presses on a button on the side of it and a screen making up most of the device glows. Dark Side's eyes widen as he recognises this object from earlier. "Do none of you have phones. Seriously."

She's met with an embarrassed silence.

"I guess I'll have something to teach all of you, for once, when I bring you back."

***

The moons are settled in the Galileans' room. It's spacious enough for the four of them, neatly split in four corners with completely different atmospheres in all of them. The pink one is Europa's, the dark one is Callisto's, the one that's mostly blue and orange is Ganymede's while the last corner, painted in all bright colours, is Io's.

The blankets that are placed on the floor are arranged in a circle, with Callisto sitting in the centre. Phobos and Europa are instead on the latter's bed, so that nobody disturbs her while she's busy.

"So, is everyone ready?" Callisto looks at Ganymede, Io, Luna, Dark Side and Deimos sitting near her. "If so, turn on your phones."

Everyone takes the phones that were found in bedside drawers and cabinets just prior and presses the buttons on the side. With Deimos it takes an additional couple tries, as he goes not for the power button but the volume ones, but eventually he's successful as well.

"Now, let me show you how this works."

The first 'lesson on phones' goes relatively well. Callisto explains the basics including the calls and the contacts. The moons take their time labeling others: Luna simply writes down their names, Dark Side does the same but never uses capital letters. Deimos makes spelling mistakes in nearly every single contact but refuses to correct them, insisting he's actually right – at one point Callisto just stops trying to argue. Io adds emojis to names and makes sure to make the colour of the hearts as close to the surface colours of respective moons as possible. Ganymede refuses to show his screen to anyone but Callisto, and everybody is left to wonder why she laughs at the sight – which is contact names such as 'Earth's Moon (Luna)', 'The smaller kid (Phobos?)', 'Angry Nerd (Dark Side)' and near all those, 'My Dear Europa <3'.

"Now, onto the next lesson: the Internet. Europa, are you done there?" She lifts her sight up to the bed, and the motions of Europa's arm quicken.

"Just the finishing touches… Yup, all done. What do you think?" She lifts up a mirror, and Phobos shrieks in excitement while flapping his hands in the air at the sight.

"It's perfect!!" He looks at his reflection, leaning close and barely not touching the surface of the mirror with his face. Bright shades of yellow, orange and purple eyeshadow are applied above his eyes in a gradient, decorated with glitter and small rhinestones. "Deimos, look!!"

His brother gets up from the floor, his phone held firmly in his hand, and looks at Phobos in shock.

"Wow, Phobos! I didn't think it would fit you so well!"

"Um, that's what shows that a professional was at work here," Europa says proudly. "And said professional can finally go on and have some actual fun now." She collects her make-up kits and hides them in the bedside drawer before she gets down on the blanket reserved for her. Phobos, in turn, settles near Deimos, though he's still eager to show off his new look to everyone willing to check it out – and while Deimos isn't overly enthusiastic himself, for the sake of his brother he makes sure that it really is everyone.

"As I was saying, next up is the Internet. In this app you have the search bar. Enter anything you'd like in it and tap 'search', and it will give you the results you want. I think it's best if you explore it yourselves, so, you have half an hour for that."

The time flies by. Callisto spends it by sitting on her own phone with headphones on her head, listening to music. This earthling invention turned out to be incredible – the soundwaves tickle her brain in all the right ways.

Once the time runs out, she pauses the song, takes her earphones off and begins leaning closer to other moons one by one to see what they've found.

Finding both Luna and Dark Side right on Wikipedia independently from each other isn't exactly what she's expected, but, on second thought, it's clear it couldn't be anything else. They both seem simply interested in their topics, so she approves both of them and moves on to her next 'student'.

Io, upon being asked, shows Callisto multiple open pages with different food recipes, all being of different kinds of soup. He coughs a bit and tells that he wants to try cooking these tomorrow, as they remind him of his own surface, and she has to admit that the resemblance is definitely present. She pats his shoulder in approval and continues further.

Europa is on Instagram, scrolling through photos of beautiful make-ups, nails and clothes. Callisto nods along to her brief explanation of some style without really listening and then moves on to Ganymede, who instead blasts her with TikToks. For that one he's given a brief warning – she wouldn't want to see him fall down some odd rabbit hole on accident – but all that seems to concern him is Subway Surfers gameplay attached to Reddit stories, so she gives him a pass for now.

"So, what have you two found?" Callisto finally leans to Phobos and Deimos. The former suddenly appears shy, looking away, and Deimos, used to going second after his brother, smiles at him in encouragement. "Can you tell me? Please? I need to be extra sure that you don't find anything weird."

"Okay! I was looking at different things, it's a long story, but then I somehow ended here," he shows his screen to Callisto, his browser open on a page of some niche LGBTQ+ wiki. "There are these neopronouns things-"

"The cringe ones?" Deimos tunes in immediately but Callisto's frown and a finger pressed to her lips make him go quiet.

"Yes… I just thought that…" Phobos closes his eyes. " Do you think fear/fear/fears/fearself would sound good or not?" He manages to say it quickly in one breath and then falls silent, as does everyone in the room upon hearing that. (Besides Ganymede's TikTok story still going about a guy cheating on his girlfriend, but in the end he just turns his phone off completely.)

"It sounds good to me," Luna smiles a little. "So, correct me if I'm wrong, but does it go as follows… Fear is Phobos." There is a couple suppressed giggles but neither of the two mind it. "I know fear. Fears brother's name is Deimos. Fear… should appreciate fearself," he concludes, and Phobos nods actively with a smile.

"Okay, it does sound cool! Not cringe!" Deimos announces in the end.

"S-s-so, when Phobos is afraid of something, does it mean fear fears fears fear?"

The room falls silent. After a considerable amount of thinking, Phobos nods.

"Anyway!" Deimos continues quickly. "My turn! Look what I found! Games!" He proudly shows his screen to Callisto. He's already downloaded the app for Roblox, and, apparently, a pirated version of Minecraft as well.

"That is absolutely great, Deimos. Now it's time for your next lesson: Internet safety."