Chapter Text
Waking up, Triton found himself within a wrapped pair of arms, causing mild confusion - were they keeping him from floating off? To keep him warm?? He can't tell right no—- “Are you up?” Oh… oh, Callisto. Was she there, holding him from behind the entire time...? “Mmmgh... I'm awake, I'm awake...” The smaller groggily muttered out in a hushed demeanour, causing Callisto to lean downwards slightly, her chin resting atop Triton's mussed hair. “Good.”
“Callisto, were you worried or somet—-” He cut off his own words with a strained grunt as he felt her arms slightly squeeze around him, presumably to answer before he even finished asking. “Both yes and no.” Triton sighed softly, a little annoyed, “Okay, okay… just- just be careful, yeah?” He began, his voice still hushed, “My torso's tender to touch from this infection, Callisto.” His hands absentmindedly finding their way onto hers. “I forget sometimes, my apologies.” She pressed a soft peck to his scalp, making his face subtly flush an Arctic purple. He heard Callisto murmur a question, one he didn't like to think about. “Are you okay? Like—Genuinely?” She began, running a soft hand through Triton's noticably neglected hair. He needs it washed, but he cannot be bothered about it at all today, he'll do it tomorrow. “I heard from the worried murmurs from Titan, Ganymede, Io, and Pluto...”
“Please, Callisto...” Triton drew out every syllable of her name in a worried groan, “Just tell me - how is Deimos...? I.. I just need to know...” He was scared for the Martian moon, and it felt like Mars would rip him apart for it; despite that he wouldn't, he'd thank him for getting him out of more harm's way, if anything. He heard her sigh quietly, “He seems... stablized for a moon of his size and behaviour. But he winces and sometimes sobs from the pain at times, since he's never exper–” Triton interrupted softly, “Because he never had to deal with that kind of pain before. I know.” His voice tampered off afterwards, shortly losing his bearings to actually let himself breathe, “But, any amount of pain from this is an amount too much - moons as small, and fragile, and... and as helpless as Deimos, they most likely can't handle this.” His throat became dry, constricted, even; his guilt was oh-so-obviously tearing into him, a sight Callisto knew she had to stop.
She leaned down further, her face buried into the messy, unkept hair that Triton had been too stressed to take care of, as she everso gently squeezes one of her hands around his waist; to get his attention, to get him to stop spiraling. It earns her a stifled whine from Triton, a sound she would like to hear more of from him a different time. “You need to calm yourself, you're panicking and too stressed; you have to know that not everyone can be saved from infection or that disease. Everything done correctly by your hands still might not be enough,” She utters to him softly, knowing that he physically cannot look out for all of the kid-moons, he's barely getting by with fifteen in his own planetary system! “We can't completely fight off this infection and disease from taking some of them. With where we are, and the time for eveything and everybody to settle back down; focus on what is happening in the present, not on what you could have done differently, Triton. Stay in reality, please?” She murmured into his hair, noticing his hands shakily snaking their way up to her upper arms, softly clinging onto her that way.
“Triton,” She began once more, pulling him closer to her, his back against her torso. “Ca.. Callisto...” She heard him choke out, voice on the edge of an almost pained sob, his hands quivering more. “You can only care for so many moons at a moment's notice, and it wasn't fair to you then, and especially now. Focus on the rest of Neptune's moons; Europa, Charon, myself and some others can handle the rest of the kids.” She muttered, her thumbs gently soothing soft, comforting patterns on the sides of his waist, attempting to calm him. Although it did help temporarily, he still felt like he had to just... sob, weep.
With careful hands, Callisto managed to turn Triton around, finally facing her and her overall stunning gothic beauty, even through those extremely teary eyes. “Do you...” She began, still trying to understand all of his unique traits and behaviours, “Does crying help you when stressed like this?” She thoughtfully wondered, and sees the smaller moon nod softly. Triton let out a choked noise when he felt her pull his head to her shoulders, taking to burying his face into it. “You're so exhausted mentally...” Callisto murmured, her hands softly reaching Triton's upper back to apply just enough pressure to both comfort and ground him. He absolutely LOATHES sobbing around others, it makes him feel so... so pathetic, but he's so.. so fucking tired of the stress that he had every waking moment, and he stayed quiet for a few moments; his frustration building up the more he dwelled and fixated on it, and he finally broke.
“I...” He tried to say, shoulders shivering with each shallow breath taken as the words just hurt physically; the infection pains making his distress that much worse, “I'm so sorry, Callisto…” Triton tiredly, brokenly sobbed out into the taller's nape of her neck, allowing to finally release pent up frustrations and pains throught those desperately needed sobs and tears (Sure, he'll hate himself for being helplessly pathetic and weak later, maybe even twofold since it was not only in front of Callisto, but as he was practically held by her). He hears her voice, but he's so mentally fucked right now to even register the words themselves, only the sound of her voice, which only did little to soothe his overall despair, but it was better than not having it do anything.
...
“You cried for a while,” Callisto utters quietly, brushing through Triton's noticably longer hair (He does have hair grow in faster than he'd like to admit, especially since Neptune can't be there to give him those trims and cuts when he asked...) with her fingers, seeing how the ends past his shoulders just the smallest bit. “But that's okay.” She heard a small grunt, she knew his voice was just in absolute ruins. She massaged his scalp, trying to lull him into some more needed rest, knowing the smaller may have a horrid migraine when he didnt after events similar to this. “You need more rest, and I want to be sure you received that.” She murmurs quietly, before leaning back against an asteroid, left with her own thoughts on what could be done to prevent more harm against any and everybody at the hands of the Iris.
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Chapter END.