The Solar System (CLOSED I THINK STALKERS WELCOME)

"You should talk to Kai about it…I'm sure he has a specific girl in mind," Beau teased, looking up towards his older brother in an attempt to bother him. "Or Cas," he added, jabbing a thumb towards their other sibling.

Kai glared at him. "I –I do not!" He crossed his arms, slouching. "Even if I did, it's none of your business."

"No, I'm sure that you definitely have someone in mind, Kai. Who are they?" Beau teased in a sing-song tone, wanting to figure out who this 'mystery person' was. If there was even a person in the first place.

Mercury turned to Kai. “Wait, you have a crush on someone?” He asked, excitedly. “They’d probably be really impressed if you showed her your magic kit.”

(A comet?)

Kai realized too late what he'd just admitted. He tried to play it off, running his hands through his hair. "It's not a huge deal, weirdos. And there's no way I'm showing her a magic trick. She already thinks I'm an idiot."

Venus laughed, "Awww little Kai has a crush."

Pluto wanted to ask more questions, but decided that he had already spoken enough that day and fell silent, watching the strange scene unfold before him.

"You actually have a crush!" Beau exclaimed, a wide grin on his face as he looked up towards his older brother in thought. "There's no way that she could think you're an idiot…you're…you're the most unidiotic person I know!" He added, fiddling with his hearing aid when he realized how much he had just stuttered.

Mercury turned back to Pluto. “Anything else you want to ask? I mean, if you need an example, when you were three and I was eighteen, I was dating this guy, Daniel. It turned out he was cheating on me and that he wasn’t really that great of a person, but I did love him for a while.”

"Wait, guys can date guys? I thought it was just a guy girl thing?" Pluto had thought he sort of understood dating, but this added a whole new layer of confusion.

(OMG THE SMOL BEAN MY HEART)

"Yeah, guys can date guys too, Pluto…" Beau answered gently, looking over to his younger brother with a quick nod before he glanced away a bit quicker than he intended. The whole conversation began to remind him of a boy in his class that he had mixed feelings about, not that he would admit it to anyone at home. What if they thought he was weird for kind of liking a boy?

(OMG I TOTALLY NEED BEAU OPENING UP TO MERCURY ABOUT HIS FEELINGS BC MERCURY'S PAN AND AAAAAAAAAAAAA)

“It depends on who you like. Some people only want to date girls. Some people only want to date guys. Some people want to date both. Some people want to date people who don’t identify as male or female. Some people don’t want to date at all. In my opinion, gender doesn’t really matter in terms of dating, but that’s just how I feel.” Mercury explained.

(YES OPEN UP CHILD! MERCURY IS THE SUPPORTIVE OLDEST SIBLING)

"What if you don't like anyone? Do you still like the same or opposite gender or what is that?"

(Wait, I don't understand the question)

(Asexuality, essentially. He's asking if you don't like anyone are you still considered straight/gay and asking what that would be called. He just doesn't know all the proper terms for that)

(K, cool.)

"Well, some people don't like anyone romantically, so they just don't have crushes on anyone. They're called aromantic. Some people have crushes on others, but they don't really want to kiss or do anything.." he cleared his throat. "..Anything some couples might like to do. They're asexual."

"Could someone be aromantic and not be asexual? Or vice versa? Or do they always go together?"

"It's really common for them not to go together. You might not want to fall in love with someone, but you might want to kiss them. You also might want to fall in love with them, but you don't want to kiss them. You might also only want to kiss them after you've developed a strong emotional bond with them. That's demisexual."

"How many combinations are there?" I have a feeling this is going to be pretty overwhelming… Pluto braced himself for a long list.

"…. A lot. There's also a lot of different genders, but I'll spare you the list for both of those. You can figure it out when you're older. There's never really any set age for you to figure out who you're attracted to, so there's a lot of time to figure it out."

"What if I just like girls and that's the end of it? Is that the simplest route to go?" Pluto tucked his knees inside his hoodie again, laying his head on them.

"Well, nothing will be simple unless you are true to your heart. If you like boys, then you like boys. If you like girls, you like girls, if you like both that's cool too." Ana hummed from the door frame

"There's not really any simple route, because any way you go relationships are going to be difficult. You can't choose your gender, or who you're attracted to. You're just kind of born with it. I was born pansexual, and I identify as male, and it doesn't matter if I think being heterosexual would be easier, I can't change who I'm attracted to."

"But why can't you choose? You can choose who you date and stuff, so why not? Is it not that easy?" What have I gotten myself into?

"It's not all that logical," Kai explained, having gotten over his embarrassment. "It really just hits ya. Or it doesn't. It's random like that."

"…Okay? I'm still not sure I fully understand, but whatever."

"Yeah, I don't really understand either. It's like that. Anyway," Mercury said, sitting on top of the counter, "who wants to tell me about the things you guys did while I was doing things I definitely should not have done off at college?"

"I'd rather hear about all the weird stuff you got up to in college," Kai replied, smirking.