★彡[ɴᴇᴘᴛᴜɴᴇ'ꜱ ᴛʀɪᴅᴇɴᴛ ᴏɴᴇ]彡★

☾☉☉☉☽

Cupid's embrace is gentle and angelic. Kind-too kind. Sao blinks away the tears gathering in the corners of his eyes.

He could stay like this forever. He could not stay like this for another second.

At least it was nice. For a moment.

Cupid chuckles. "You act like you've never been hugged before." He's right: Sao is stiff, as if taken by surprise, as if he would flinch away at any moment, and his arms rest at his sides like he isn't sure what to do with them. "You're allowed to hug back if you want. I won't bite."

Sao hears this and thinks about it and kinda wants to die.

Cupid releases Sao and steps back. "Kidding," he says, if only to relieve Sao from the stress of choice. "Did that... help?"

Of course not, is the response written on Sao's face.

"Is doing this too much for you? You don't have to do it-you can quit. Nobody will be mad." Cupid says it like it's a promise: Nobody will be mad. But how can it be a promise? Cupid can't guarantee that-he's just a liar. Is Sao supposed to be thankful? That Cupid lied to make him feel better? It's gross, that Cupid pities him that much.

"I have to do it," Sao says simply.

Cupid nods in understanding. "Okay."

So Sao does it: the houses of the Mercurian Colony may be squashed under the Kuiper Belt's foot like a bug, or torn away from Mercury's imperfect surface like a blade of grass, or kicked around like loose pebbles. It's disgustingly easy to do.

It makes Sao feel queasy. He wants to vomit, or to weep, but he won't do either-it takes everything in him to not crack and fall apart. Sao can't bring himself to be that weak in front of Cupid-he already regrets the hug. He already regrets any of the truths he's fed Cupid. He feels a great weight on him, especially as he destroys the last of the Colony's buildings, as he watches it crumble into pieces.

It's so heavy. The weight of the heavens is slowly crashing on to his shoulders.

He isn't Atlas. He can't handle this for an eternity.

It's only a matter of time before Sao breaks under that pressure.

...That day is not today, so what does he care? He tugs at his sleeve.

Just as the last traces of the Mercurian Colony are annihilated, a low-pitched droning sound comes from the Kuiper Belt's control panels. Someone is calling, which can't be good news.

And it isn't! It never is. But because it's Caju, Sao finds himself smiling anyways.

✦✧✩✧✦

Caju had let Saturn slip away when they were both satisfied.

In the aftermath, through all the dust clouds and the lonely hearts, Caju had picked up what'd been broken: plastic fingers and a plastic hand from their stupid-silly toy fight. He clutched it all tightly in the palm of the hand that was still attached. Part of him wanted to hurl the severed pieces into the distance out of sheer frustration-they're a cruel reminder, mocking him for being weak-but Cupid won't be able to reattach anything if Cupid doesn't have the parts to reattach.

So he took them to Neptune.

✦✧✩✧✦

The not-good news is that Caju's mecha needs repair. It's not a big deal, just a few missing parts-nothing Cupid can't fix. All Sao has to do is take Cupid to Neptune's Trident, where Caju is waiting.

(Neptune does not have a colony, but it does have a laboratory-port-thing, which has been used numerous times as a ship repair center-it's whatever it needs to be at any given time).

Sao is very welcoming of the detour: he wants to see Caju and he needs the break. But the news also makes him feel left out: how come Caju and Saturn get to fuck around without him?

"You're so obvious," Cupid says when the call is done. He laughs, but its not out of malice. If anything, Cupid is amused (and a tad concerned). "If you're jealous, you should say so-your silence is compliance, after all."

"I'm not jealous," Sao insists. His words do not sound the slightest bit truthful: not to Cupid and not to himself. Cupid decides to spare him, though, and doesn't call him out for it.

Instead, Cupid exhales and looks out at the stars.

And it feels like, in the blink of an eye, they're there.

On Neptune, past that atmosphere of hydrogen and methane and helium, there is an ancient storm. Diamond rain falls from above as the Kuiper Belt descends towards Neptune's mantle.

A normal person might nervously glance around with every thud of the diamonds pelting down onto the metallic shell of the ship, but Sao and Cupid are not normal. Despite its state, the ship will be okay. It's always been okay.

There's no cause for worry. The Kuiper Belt lands safely.

The lab-Neptune's Trident-is placed in the middle of a water-ammonia ocean, surrounded on all sides by an endless blue expanse.

Neptune's Trident is dark: it's a navy-blue that clashes against the rest of the planet, making it painfully obvious that it's not supposed to be there, unnatural. There are three ports (which make the tips of the trident), although they are more like plane runways than the ship ports you'd see on Earth.

On one of the ports, the Kuiper Belt rocks. The winds outside from the storm are stronger and colder than the worst weather on Earth-Neptune is freezing. The lab consumes lots of power and energy with each passing second just to keep its interior warm.

The temperature does not go unnoticed.

Sao shivers from the chill. Cupid quivers for a different reason.

Neptune's Trident sure does bring up a lot of memories! It's the only place beyond Earth that Cupid has regularly visited-perhaps one too many times.

✦✧✩✧✦

"Wait!"

Cupid reaches out, grasping the wrist of the boy he's chasing after-and then releases, realizing his mistake. The boy turns around and Cupid expects his face to be full of disgust, but it isn't. The boy looks at him like he's anyone else. Like he's human.

Cupid grins without realizing it. "Hi," he says. "I just wanted to tell you that you looked really cool earlier." He's fourteen. Cosmos Administration normally doesn't bother with anyone that young, but Cupid has become an exception, and apparently, so has the boy he's speaking with. "I've always wanted to be a pilot, but they say I'm too smart and that it'd be a waste." The boy doesn't say anything in return. "I don't mind too much. I mean, I think it's a privilege to be here regardless, isn't it? I'm excited! Aren't you? Or do happy things make you sad?"

The boy looks at him blankly for a moment before laughing bitterly. "I'm glad someone's enjoying it here, at least."

"You're not? Why?" The boy glares into the distance, refusing to answer. "I'll make sure you have fun, too!"

"I'm not in the mood," says the boy. Today is one of those days, in which Pandora shoves him along from one test to the next. There's no fun to be had on days like this.

He wants to be a pilot, but he also wants to be a kid. Why won't they let him?

"Then tell me when you are," Cupid replies. "I can share my joy with you, can't I?"

The boy isn't convinced Cupid is being genuine. He frowns, conflicted, and decides its best to leave. He strides away.

Cupid doesn't move, yet he never stops chasing after Saturn.

✦✧✩✧✦

Cupid did not join Cosmos Administration-did not fly all the way to Neptune-just to be an errand boy, but he doesn't put up a fight when he's asked to transfer a stack of blueprints from one person to another.

He really doesn't think much of it. He hums cheerfully as he makes his way through Neptune's Trident.

But then Cupid is stopping in his tracks, surprised to run into Saturn. He opens his mouth and shuts it again. Oh, Cupid thinks. Saturn is crying.

Saturn freezes when their eyes meet, as if he's a deer in headlights. Nobody has ever seen him cry before and he's not sure how to react.

Cupid doesn't know why Saturn is crying and Saturn never tells him. It's not important. Cupid doesn't even bother to ask.

"It's okay," he says instead. He can share his joy, and he can share this as well. He recognizes this pain-the kind of pain from being alien. The kind of pain that Cupid has had for ages.

In this moment, Cupid realizes he is not alone.

And in this moment, he hopes he can help Saturn come to the same realization.

Cupid pats the top of Saturn's head like he's comforting a child (they are children). The contact, that touch, makes his heart pound. It feels selfish, so Cupid pauses.

He doesn't want to leave Saturn's side, though, so he stays. There are a lot of things he can say to Saturn, but he doesn't say any of them. Sometimes it's nice to enjoy the silence. Sometimes just being there is enough.

✦✧✩✧✦

Saturn embraces a man every night.

He makes it obvious. Cupid watches from afar as Saturn flirts with someone new. It's almost never the same person, perhaps because Saturn doesn't want it to be, or perhaps because they end up avoiding Saturn after playing around once. There's only one person that Cupid can think of who has stuck around Saturn-that newer pilot, what was it? Caju? Cupid tries really hard to remember every face and every name of every person he meets, but he can only do so much.

And Cupid watches from afar as Saturn and that someone new walk off. Cupid does not know where they will go, but he does know what they will do.

Cupid scribbles absentmindedly, ignoring that twinge of envy. It's not a resentful, angry kind of envy, nor is it that sad, self-loathing kind of envy. It simply is what it is, existing.

"Cupid, are you listening? You need to be writing this down."

"No. I'm sorry." And he is.

✦✧✩✧✦

Cupid shakes his head. There is a time for reminiscing.

-That time is not now.