Work Text:
Stars above it was hot.
Sticky sweat stuck to the back of Neptune’s neck, pooling down his face and making his curly hair all greasy and ew. He didn’t dare touch it—in fact, he didn’t want to touch anything. He could feel his skin in ways he hadn’t been able to before, all sticky and icky and making Neptune wish he’d just stayed in his nice and cold orbit.
But he didn’t say that out loud. Because that would be mean! Earth was doing something nice for everyone by taking them to something called a “pool!” He said it was like a beach, but without the sand, which was great because Neptune hated the sand!
Sand was just so…bad. It got everywhere and was so rough and hurt every time Neptune tried to walk on it. The last time they’d gone to a beach, Neptune stayed in the car with Uranus (and it got really hot in there too…but that’s another story!), refusing to go and endure that torture.
“Eugh,” Uranus grumbled beside him, dragging Neptune’s mind back to the present. He tugged on his long braid, his hair already frizzy, and Neptune was probably much the same, “Bloody hell mate, I’m gonna melt in this heat!”
“Mmm yup. Samsies,” Neptune hummed, squinting past Sun’s harsh, brilliant light as they followed behind the other planets. Why did it have to be so hot? Did Earth say it was nice on his surface? This was almost as bad as when they were all in Earth’s orbit! And Neptune almost died there!
The two shuffled along in silence, trailing behind Jupiter and Saturn, it too hot to use their brains to talk. Seriously! What was wrong with these bodies? Why were they so weak and flimsy. Was it just him, or was the heat making it harder to breathe?
If only there was an invention that could cool him off instantly. Like…like how Uranus and his moons’ wings could sometimes blow air and cool others off. That would be so nice right now.
Maybe if he—
Oof! Too caught up in his own thoughts, Neptune stumbled into a big, brick wall of…soft fabric? Huh?
The wall moved, revealing a surprised face looking down at Neptune in amusement. “Woah, there! You okay Neptune?” The voice rumbled, a hand settled on his shoulder to steady the smaller planet. Jupiter just offered him a smile—one Neptune returned full force.
“Yupperoni!” Neptune grinned, shaking off the shock still clinging to his mind. (That’s another annoying thing about these bodies—they get so worked up and worried over every tiny thing!). He leaned over, cocking his head to the side as he peered behind Jupiter’s big form to see the Rockies in the front, “Hey, why’d we stop?”
“Earth just wanted to—”
“LISTEN UP EVERYONE!!!” The shrill voice cut through whatever Jupiter was about to say, the big planet sighing and swinging his attention to the front of the line. Neptune grabbed Uranus’ hand, ignoring his surprised yelp and scurrying in front of Jupiter and Saturn (because he if were to listen, he should probably be able to see whoever was talking to pay attention to them! Earth hated it when they didn’t listen, and Neptune wanted to be as helpful as he could), squeezing in right behind…uhhh what was the big angry one’s name again? Venus! Yes, that’s right.
Earth stood at the front of the group, drawing Neptune’s attention as he waved to everyone gathered in front of him. “There’s a few ground rules I want to say before we can swim,” the planet began, pointing to the concrete with water in them—ohh he just now noticed that, are those the pools?—behind them. “Firstly! Everyone needs to put on sunscreen. Sunburns are nasty and hurt like hell, trust me you don’t want to find out.”
Sun burn? What is that? Sounds scary…Neptune gulped, swallowing past the lump in his throat. He’s probably fine, right? Earth likes to exaggerate. It probably isn’t that bad. The Sun…he wouldn’t hurt them. Not on purpose.
“—shallow areas? Okay?” Earth’s voice trickled through Neptune’s thoughts—shoot he wasn’t paying attention! Come on Neptune, you need to be better than this! The planet with Life scanned the group, eyes narrowing like he could read their minds if he tried (which…this was his surface, so who knows how many weird and crazy things Earth could do), “You got that?”
The planets nodded, and Neptune didn’t really know what he was agreeing to, but he nodded as well.
“Good.” Earth nodded back, turning to unlock the gate, “Now please try not to get into trouble or get hurt. This is a public pool so there will be other humans here, so I’m taking a big risk by trusting you guys. Can you promise me there won’t be any incidents?”
The planets nodded, and Earth hesitated for a split second, hand lingering over the lock of the gate. Neptune shifted his weight from side to side, excitement buzzing in his ears. Just open it already! He wants to swim!
Earth sighed, muttering something under his breath and, finally, opening the gate.
Neptune rushed through first, ignoring the annoyed squawks from the Rockies as he pushed them aside, dragging Uranus along with him. Oh he was so excited! What does he do first? There’s so many “pools” to choose from. Oh, oh maybe the little one with the cool contraption dumping water on the Earthlings—or maybe that big one where people were jumping off of high platforms.
Hmm…
“What do you think, Ura?” Neptune turned, blinking in confusion to see Uranus walking away from the pools. Huh? What is he doing? You’re supposed to go in the water, did Uranus not know that?
“Ura!” Neptune chased after the other Ice Giant, padding alongside him with a frown, “Why aren’t you jumping in the water?”
Uranus just shrugged, eyeing the pools with the loud, splashing Earthlings in them with a vague sense of disgust, “Uh…not right now mate. I’ll join you later though!”
Hmph. But he really wanted to swim with Uranus…it was going to be so fun! Disappointment settled in his mind, but Neptune hid it with a beaming smile, flashing two thumbs up at Uranus, “Alrighty then! Have fun!” The other planet just nodded, already walking off and leaving Neptune standing there.
Eh, oh well, it’s Uranus’ loss! Neptune was going to have so much fun, maybe he’ll even make an Earthling friend! Who knows what could happen!
Neptune lingered for a moment longer, before turning and jumping into the nearest pool with a hollering whoop.
“Saturn!” Neptune called out, bouncing from foot to foot and waving to the planet lounging on a chair. If Uranus didn’t want to play with him, then he could show Saturn the cool trick he’d learned! Neptune called out again, this time successfully catching the other’s attention, Saturn waving back to Neptune with a smile.
“Watch this!” Neptune shouted, and before he could hear Saturn’s reply he kicked off the wall, plunging back under the water. The sounds and sights fell away, muffled in a strangely peaceful way as the planet dived deeper, cutting through the cool water.
A part of him felt at home here. Like a missing piece of a puzzle was sliding back into place. Even if he wasn’t the best at swimming (which, he knew his clumsy flailing couldn’t really count as “swimming,” but it worked well enough to move him along that he didn’t really care. As long as it was fun, Neptune didn’t worry about any of the technical bits), it still felt amazing.
His fingers brushed against the wall, and Neptune just grinned, resurfacing with a gasping breath. His lungs burned, but he couldn’t be happier at his success. Look at that! Look at how far he’d just swam! The entire pool length, completely underwater!
“Saturn!” Neptune called, twisting around, glancing left and right to try to find their little spot, “Saturn did you see that?”
“Yes, sweetie, I saw!” Saturn cheered from the corner, “Great job, very impressive!” Neptune’s heart flip-flopped with joy as he just grinned wider. Look! Look he’s being paid attention to! His heart squeezed tighter, happy energy buzzing in his ears and just filling Neptune up to the brim with giddiness.
Neptune took a deep breath, his cheeks puffing up with air, and dove back under.
He twirled and kicked through the water, squinting against the burning feeling in his eyes as he dodged humans left and right, swimming circles around them. Above him, the Sun’s light hit the surface of the water and refracted into beautiful shimmering glow.
If he closed his eyes and let the water pull him down, it was almost as if Neptune was back in his orbit. He stopped kicking, movements slowing as he just…sunk. His butt hit the pool floor, but the blissful silence wrapped around him like a thick blanket, blocking out all the racing thoughts spiraling through his mind as he just stayed there, under the water, resting in peace.
The water rippled, someone passing by close to him, but Neptune paid no attention to them. Nothing could break this wonderful feeling—the feeling of being nothing.
A few more seconds passed, before the discomfort in his chest began to rise. It felt like a rubber band was wrapped around his lungs, squeezing and squeezing and only getting worse as the seconds ticked by. His heart pounded, louder and louder as the ringing in his ears picked up, quickly making the peaceful environment way more chaotic.
Aw man…why’d these bodies have to be like this? Humans should’ve evolved better. How’d they take over Earth’s surface if they couldn’t even stay under water for very long? Peculiar beings they were…
Neptune grimaced as his head started to hurt, pounding annoyingly like a bunch of asteroids were hitting against him—which was impossible because they were on Earth’s surface, and if an asteroid hit them here, they would all die! Or something. So no asteroids, just a big headache.
Neptune pouted, his body really not liking he hadn’t taken a breath (why couldn’t he be a fish instead? Or one of those animals that could go on land and in water easily that Earth had told Neptune about one time. Like a…seal or a turtle!), taking control of his lazily floating limbs. He kicked off the floor of the pool (ew ew ew bad texture too rough), swimming up, up, up, to the beautiful light and—
And was stopped.
A confused sound slipped from the planet, Neptune squinting through the shimmering water up at the surface. Why…why couldn’t he go up? He had to take a breath! He tried again, kicking harder this time and trying to break the surface of the water.
But it stayed the same. Bright, colorful things caught the Sun’s light, shining into Neptune’s eyes as he floated just beneath the surface. There were people in them—he could see their legs dangling in the water, while the rest of their bodies stayed dry in the floating debris. Everywhere he looked, the surface of the pool was covered by them, more and more joining in by the second.
Panic struck through Neptune’s core, his lungs screamed for air but there was nowhere he could surface! He couldn’t—the strange floatation devices were everywhere! No matter how hard he pushed, they wouldn’t budge.
His heart hammered in his chest, and Neptune just barely resisted the urge to inhale sharply—if he did, then he would breathe in water, and that would be bad. Something something water going down the pipe for air was not supposed to happen something something.
He doesn’t know. He should know but he can’t remember. It hurt to think. His head ached, entire skull throbbing mercilessly, vibrating his brain in a way that made it very hard to think. The panic snaked across his throat, the clenching fear swelling like a bubble about to burst, rising higher and higher and turning Neptune’s smooth strokes into frantic flailing.
Okay. Okay. It’s fine. Don’t panic. He—he just has to swim to somewhere safe! Somewhere he can breathe! These things can’t be everywhere, right?
…right?
Neptune moved his head left and right, up and down, but the darkening spots in his vision were very distracting. His eyes burned, and not just from the…the chlorine? Is that what the chemicals in the water were called?
Stars, please. Please just let him surface! Move out of the way!
Neptune let himself sink a little bit, before pushing off from the floor, movements far more frantic and wild, tinged with the rising panic. His hands brushed plastic and he tried, tried with all his might to push it up and out of the way.
But it didn’t work.
It stayed, stubbornly blocking out the one ticket to freedom.
PLEASE!!! His mind screamed, begging and pleading, the once peaceful waters turned to a raging ocean dragging him down to its inky depths. Huge, heavy weights tied to his limbs, and Neptune thrashed, fighting against it as he clawed through the water, the light getting further away as he sunk.
His vision flickered, and he whimpered, a sound that surprised the planet. But any further thoughts were ripped away by the storm of panic, looping over and over again as the waters darkened, stealing away the light Neptune grew to love, his heart leaping to his throat in fear, horror, terror—chaos whipping through his mind.
It didn’t help that every instinct in his body screamed at him to take a breath—an instinct he tried so, so hard to ignore.
But…
But he couldn’t.
He wasn’t strong enough.
The order flashed through his mind, and before he could fight back, Neptune complied. He gasped for air, a split second of wonderful, wonderful relief flashing through his body…before agony replaced it.
Water rushed into his mouth, choking the tiny planet as he screamed, the sound silent under the water’s control. He thrashed, writhing as his body tried to expel the water, only to be suffocated as more rushed into his throat. Lungs, eyes, arms, legs—it all burned like he was on fire.
I don’t want to die! Neptune cried, the waters darkening—and not just from the floats crossing overhead. Useless limbs scrabbled for something to grab, exhaustion sinking deep into his bones as his body just spasmed, continuing to sink.
The hurt ripped away his mind, lifting it up, up, and away from the pain lashing through his body. And Neptune let it. He was so tired…he didn’t fight it, anymore. Half-lidded eyes stared up at the light getting further and further away, a high-pitched, terrified whine slipping through his lips.
Help me…
His back hit something, but Neptune was far too gone to recognize it as the pool floor. A wave of sadness crashed over the planet, an apology for ruining the fun trip.
I’m sorry, Neptune thought, vision finally fizzing out (completely missing the figure diving in the water and swimming towards him), the tiny planet greeting the fog with open arms.
I’m—
I'm...
...ALIVE!!!
The planet suddenly heaved, chest spasming as he coughed and spluttered, gulping down panicked, desperate gasps for air. Air! Air! Air!!! Oh thank the stars! Haggard, shaky inhales ripped through his chest, incoherent, pained sounds tearing through Neptune’s throat.
“It’s okay—it’s okay sweetie just breathe.”
Hands rubbed circles in his back as Neptune just whined, the pain slamming back into him full force. Ow. Ow. Ow. His lungs burned, the taste of—of something stuck to the back of his throat. Muffled voices blurred together, his brain all mushy and blegh. But air! He could breathe! He’s alive!
“Neptune, hey, hey I’m here.”
The voice—he knows that voice, right? Yes. Yes. He must. It’s…
…Saturn?
Neptune’s eyes fluttered open—something he immediately regretted as the world spun, tilting uncontrollably in every direction. Nausea climbed up his throat, flip-flopping his stomache while Neptune felt like he was about to slide off a cliff, pitching side to side like he was on the world’s most chaotic boat ride. He just groaned, clenching his eyes shut again as his head lolled to the side, the slight movement sending bolts of pain shooting through his head.
Ow…
His chest ached with every breath he took—and he took a lot of breaths, each shaky inhale clearing more of the fuzz in his mind. Slowly, his senses started to cooperate, awareness creeping back and allowing Neptune to realize he wasn’t alone.
Voices—more voices—trickled through his ears, turning from mush to something somewhat legible.
“—appened? Earth, is he going—okay?!”
“Yes—breathing. Just…easy.”
“Bloody hell!”
Uranus!
Tears pricked in the corner of his eyes, relief settling over the tiny planet. Uranus was here. Saturn was here. It was okay. He was safe.
Neptune made the only sound he knew how to make, catching the other’s attention with a pained groan.
“—tune? …hear me? Neptune can you hear me?”
The planet clenched his jaw, but nodded nonetheless, the crushing dizziness gripping him by the throat yet again. Eugh. Why couldn’t he just stop spinning. Just stop it! Stop! Please, he’s had enough of these bodies. Why can’t he just go home? It hurts.
“Neptune?” The feeling of touch brushing against his cheek stalled the spiraling thoughts, the planet immediately melting into the hands. A crackling hum rumbled from his chest (igniting further coughing…ow), a choked feeling rising in his throat.
“—turn,” Neptune rasped, peeling open his eyes and squinting past the sudden blurriness. His vision swam, but even through that Saturn’s golden hair, skin, eyes—entire face came into focus, pinched with worry and fear, which just reminded Neptune of what just happened, the fear rushing back into his racing heart. His shaky breaths hitched, eyes burning with another set of tears, “I th-thought I w-w-was going to d-die.”
Saturn’s eyes glimmered with tears, ducking out of Neptune’s limited view as two planets took his place.
“You bloody idiot!” He barely got to see Uranus’ face before the planet was clinging to him, arms wrapped so tight Neptune could barely breathe. Which, normally, wouldn’t be a problem because he wouldn’t care, but after nearly drowning he would very much like to be able to breathe, thank you very much.
The other planet—Earth, that’s Earth—said something loud that hurt Neptune’s ears, but it seemed to make Uranus let go. A little bit. But still, it seemed to be enough for the planet with Life, as before Neptune could take a better look at Uranus, Earth crowded his vision.
“Neptune, do you know where you are?” The planet asked, his eyes intense in a way that scared Neptune, “What hurts? How long were you under the water? How many fingers am I holding up?” The questions flew at Neptune rapid fire, his sluggish mind struggling to keep up with the overwhelming sensory input.
“Hey, Earth, how about we wait until he’s a little more…lucid before attacking him with questions?” Who…oh! Jupiter! That was Jupiter speaking! Also yes, please stop, it still hurts to think (everything still hurts) and Neptune just wants to take a nap. A very, very long nap.
Earth paused, backing away from being all up in Neptune’s face with a grumble, “…fine. But I want…” He continued listing off things the Ice Giant didn’t care enough to pay attention to, droning voice falling to the rest of the background noise buzzing in his mind.
Utter, draining exhaustion like he’d never felt before clung to his body and mind, sinking deep into his very bones and making it harder and harder to keep his heavy eyes open. He was scared and tired and just wanted this torture to end, please, please just let him go back to his orbit. That’s all he wanted right now: to be with his moons, up in space, away from the threat of drowning.
Saturn’s voice floated through his ears, Neptune’s half-lidded eyes fluttering open in surprise. “Just rest Neptune, we’ll take care of you…” he whispered, voice tight with something the smaller planet couldn’t name. But the permission was all he needed to let go, the last of the fight draining from his body as he went limp.
The darkness reached up, swallowing him whole and whisking his mind off to the happy place, free from the fears and dangers of the waking world.