Chapter Text
•[7:00 a.m.]•
•[February 14th, 2024]•
•[Mercury’s orbit]•
•
Today was Valentine’s Day! Mercury didn’t have a Valentine, in the traditional sense of the word, but he still had something to do. He had to give a rose to all the planets, as well as the sun.
This was because Mercury was, on average, the closest planet to not only the sun, but everything that orbited the sun. He was the ‘mostest closest’ planet.
In this part of the Milky Way, the tradition went that the planet with the closest orbit to their star, the ‘mostest closest’ of their system, would have to give a rose to all the objects orbiting their star that classified as planets.
Mercury hadn’t heard of this tradition until a few months ago, so today would be the first day he would be going on this adventure. And the small planet was absolutely ecstatic. He finally had an excuse to leave his orbit, and talk to other planets he had never even seen before! He also had an excuse to give roses to the planets he liked, under the guise that he ‘had to give them to anyone’.
Mercury had all the roses packed, as well as some extras, because he never knew what could happen with this solar system. He decided to start with the Sun and make his way outward until he reached Neptune.
Mercury winced as the sunlight hit his eyes, but blinked a few times and was able to adjust to it.
The sun was sitting in his spot, looking over the Solar system with a wide smile on his face. Eventually, his eyes landed on the small brown planet in front of him.
“Hi, Mercury!” The sun grinned.
“Hey, sun.” Mercury craned his neck upwards. He was much, much smaller than the sun, and even when he was sitting down, making eye contact proved to be difficult. “Can you, uh..” Mercury’s cheeks flushed pink in embarrassment. “Can you pick me up? I can’t really see you..” He never liked admitting to himself how small he was, especially not after Venus teasing him for it. Oh, shit. Venus was next on his list. Was Mercury biting off more than he could chew?
Mercury was pulled out of his thoughts, and pulled off the ground, as Sun used only one arm to lift him up. He held the arm Mercury was clinging onto close to his chest. The roses nearly fell out of the bag.
“Is this better?”
“Yeah..thanks.” Mercury sheepishly smiled, trying to find a way to position himself. The sun was so warm. The pink flush on Mercury’s face was probably noticeable by now, but the sun wasn’t saying anything. Mercury tried to steady himself, but almost slipped before the sun finally used both of his arms to cradle Mercury like a doll.
“Stop falling, silly.” The sun looked down at him fondly. Mercury huffed and nodded, before remembering what he was here for.
“Oh, wait.” How should he start this? “Happy Valentine’s Day.” Mercury clutched the bag with the roses against his chest.
The sun raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t that an Earthling holiday?”
“No? This entire spiral arm of the galaxy celebrates it.”
The sun tilted his head. Mercury watched the rays around him tilt with it, sending new waves of light to the grassy floor. “I’ve never heard of it. What’s it about?”
“You’ve never- Well, it’s about love. On Earth, they give flowers and chocolates to the people they love.” Mercury watched the sun’s eyes widen with something that looked like anticipation. “But, uh, in space, the planet with the lowest orbit gives roses to every other planet, including their star.”
“So, I get a rose?” Sun smiled, but it wasn’t his usual grin, flashing his sharp teeth. It was a small, genuine smile. His eyes crinkled ever so slightly, and seemed to shine more than the rest of him. Mercury nodded, fishing a rose out of his bag, before pricking himself on a thorn.
“Yeah, you do- Ow!” Mercury forgot that part about roses. The sun’s smile dropped instantly.
“What?” The sun searched Mercury’s small form for where he got hurt.
“I just pricked myself on one of the thorns. It’s not too bad.” Mercury squeezed his finger, but stopped when spots of bright red appeared in a line. He shook his head and handed it to sun. “Be careful, don’t get pricked like I did.” At least Mercury learned his lesson to tell everyone else he gave it to.
“Thanks, best friend!” Mercury felt a warmth coming from inside of him, instead of from the heat of the sun.
“You’re welcome.” Mercury settled into his arms further, before checking the time. 7:30? How had it been thirty minutes since he woke up? He still had extremely long distances to go. Mercury had to get home and get his roller skates. “I have to go! Sorry!”
Sun frowned. “You don’t want to hear a sun pun?”
Mercury shook his head. “Uh, maybe later! Happy Valentine’s Day!” He called out one final time to the Sun before hopping out of his arms and running away.
Mercury got the roller skates, and tied them onto his feet in a panic. He was taking way too long. Thirty minutes didn’t seem like a lot, but he had astronomical units to cross. And he had to do it all before midnight, when Valentine’s Day ended. He really should have woken up earlier.
When Mercury was done regretting, he decided to scribble a quick checklist on a post-it note.
- The Sun ✓
- Venus
- Earth
- Mars
- Jupiter
- Saturn
- Uranus
- Neptune
Mercury sat on the edge of his bed with his head resting on one of his hands, the other hand holding up the list. Venus was next. Just the thought of dealing with him made the small planet fall onto the bed with a sigh. He was definitely biting off more than he could chew.
Oh well, no time to waste.