Too soon did Mia step back into the airlock of her house. She spent her time waiting for oxygen to fill the narrow hallway bracing herself for the fires she’d have to put out once she entered—maybe literal if luck hated her enough. Tension took her by the shoulders, the first familiar presence to welcome her home. The butterflies in her stomach were new, but expected.

For the first time ever, she had a guest.

“We venture into uncharted territory!” Roxie’s voice chirped over her helmet speakers.

“It’s just my house.”

“But I haven’t been here, so it’s uncharted to me.” Her head swiveled around as if something worth looking at hid in the barren chamber. “Come to think of it, I don’t know anyone else who lives outside of the dome. This might as well be a new discovery.”

Her excitement got a smile out of Mia, but before she had time to worry about that, artificial gravity pulled her down and a green light came on.

“I wouldn’t take off my helmet just yet.” warned Mia. “There’s something I need to check first.”

Flicking the combination to the lock box, she tugged her house key from the opening and unlocked it before letting the attached cable yank it back into the box, relocking it.

“How convenient~” Roxie marveled. “You never have to worry about losing your keys.”

“Yeah, it’s really handy.” Mia opened the door to find the spacesuit rack empty. “Oh. No one’s here.” The surprise hit her like a gift on Christmas morning. “It should be safe to take off our helmets.”

Roxie’s helmet came off to reveal light purple curls instead of her usual red dye job. She put it in her shopping bag. “Would it not have been safe if people were here?”

“Uh, there’s been cases of someone mixing chemicals together.” Mia held the door open for her.

“Wow, that’s concerning! Hoh?” Roxie’s pointer finger flew toward the shelf by the doorway. She leaned forward to inspect it more closely. “Triplets?? You never told me you had triplets!”

“I didn’t have them.” Although Mia might as well have raised them. “But yes, three of my brothers are triplets.”

“And there’s a babier one!” Roxie cooed. “You have a whole army of little brothers! I wish I had an army of little brothers.”

Mia peeled her spacesuit off from her IF dress uniform underneath. “Feel free to borrow mine.”

“Borrow? Now there’s an idea. My dear Wattson, you’re a genius! I shall craft my own sibling army, and soon, I’ll share in your power as an eldest sister. No one will stop me.”

“Good luck.” She hung up her spacesuit on the rack, noticing that Roxie made no move to take hers off yet. “You can hang your suit here, if you want.”

Roxie bent toward the shelf, staring at it with an intensity Mia had only seen when she tried to prevent her from suffocating.

“Um, are you looking for something?”

She cocked her head to the side. “Where are your pictures?”

“There’s some around, but I’m not sure if–”

“Aha! There!” Roxie pointed to a picture frame far in the back.

Mia picked it up, and sure enough, it framed a family photo from when she was no older than five. Her mother smiled serenely, palming Mia’s face into the side of her triple pregnant stomach. She winced just as she did in the picture upon remembering the sensation of her brothers kicking her. A sticker tastefully covered the face of the man who placed his hands on both of their shoulders. Mia still spotted the furious marker scribblings underneath.

She also spotted Roxie’s eyes glancing away from it.

“Waaah~ What cute little side buns!” Roxie focused on Mia instead. “They look like cinnamon rolls!”

“They made for good earmuffs. Pressing them to my ears blocked out three crying babies. Somewhat.”

“Cute and practical, just like the wearer.” Roxie’s words gripped Mia and squeezed the air out of her lungs like a bagpipe. At this point, she had to be somewhat aware of her effect. Maybe she found it cute? She found alligators, elephant seals, and trilobites cute, so maybe Mia filled that same niche. What a hassle. A sweet, loveable hassle.

That’s why Mia had to stay away. “I’m going to check my room first, make sure it’s decent.” She set the picture back on the shelf. “Then I’ll let you know when you can come in.”

“Wait, who’s that girl?” Roxie pointed at the older, dark haired girl her mother’s free hand wrapped around, the other reason this picture stayed buried in the back.

Mia thought of an explanation that wouldn’t raise many questions. “She’s, um, she’s a relative. One I haven’t seen in a while.” She placed the picture back where it belonged. “I’ll be right back.”

She sped off to the one room she truly called home and locked herself in its walls of soothing, pastel… dark grey?

Right. She agreed to let her brothers have this room during her absence. Only stopping by long enough to sleep on the couch last night, there hadn’t been an opportunity for her to see it. Hopefully, her clothes were nearby, otherwise the whole reason for coming here would vanish. That’d honestly be a blessing for her but an inconvenience to poor Roxie.

Mia meandered between the two beds in her old room, unrecognizable due to the clothes strewn around. Gone were her nature posters and paper chandelier. Instead, printouts of ViewTuber merch and b-movie posters littered the walls. On top of her bookshelf lay a few psychology books. No two brothers took this room, all four must’ve been cycling through it.

Using a nearby cardboard katana to sweep away dirty clothes, she parted a way to her drawers, where her clothes had been replaced. Her closet was her last bet. The door wouldn’t budge when she turned the knob at first, but in the blink of an eye, it flung open with the force of an avalanche. With a yelp and a thud, she found herself buried in her own clothes.

“Mia, are you safe?” Soft footsteps bounded to the door.

“I’m okay.” answered Mia. “You can come in now.”

The door opened, and within a few seconds, Roxie crouched down beside her.

“Thank you.” Mia took her hand, wrapped in a long, black fingerless glove. “Sorry, it’s not usually like this.”

Roxie pulled her up. “Cool room! Which side is yours?”

“This side.” Mia pointed to where her clothes piled on the floor.

“You live in a closet??”

“Not normally.” She tried to ease Roxie’s concern. “But it’s always been a point of contention that I had this room to myself while my brothers had to share one, so I lent them mine.” She never said they could paint it. “Um, anyway, here’s my clothes.”

Roxie pressed her hands together. “Let the costuming commence.”

Mia stood watching as Roxie flung clothes left and right. “You don’t have to pick out anything special.”

“Nonsense!” Roxie waved a finger in the air. “The only thing I love more than dressing up in cute clothes is dressing other people up in cute clothes. Besides, it’s for the mission!”

The mission. The mission assigned to the Celestion-5 crew during the two days they had to prepare to leave for Mars. The mission standing in the way of Mia and one last day at the library.

She sighed. “Is this really in our job description? It seems condescending to send us after someone playing hooky.”

“What ever are you talking about? The nice commander man told us we looked like very hip and fashionable youngsters.” Roxie rested her face on her hands in a saccharine sweet way.

Correction, most of them had the looks for it. Clothes in Lunaria ran notoriously small, and spacepunk fashion in particular covered only the trimmest. Even those as fit as her and Captain Galhardo needed to shop in the larger sections.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

“Only we have the looks to blend into the spacepunk subculture and track down our target!” Despite the theatrics, it was clear Roxie believed in those words as little as Mia.

She did blend in, though, in her blue spaghetti strap shirt with a planet decal. Her star-patterned black jeans might have been wide enough to fit a second pair of legs, but the top left little extra room for her waist. She bought some other things too, so in her own words, her outfit had only reached a fraction of its potential.

Mia, on the other hand, was lucky to walk out of the same store with a shopping bag. She checked the contents once more: A pink fuzzy coat, pink sparkly boots, a matching phone case, and green alien sunglasses, all at Roxie’s suggestion. She had no idea how this would turn into a stylish outfit, but standing around while Roxie dug through her clothes felt rude.

“O fashionable one, do you require any assistance?” Mia stooped down beside her.

“Why, I would love help from such a knowledgeable apprentice as yourself.” Roxie’s smile warmed Mia’s heart almost enough to distract her from the realization that she made a grave mistake.

Mia longed for these playful private moments with Roxie, so much so that she undid her progress toward cutting unnecessary connections.

“Mia?”

“Huh?” She shook herself from her thoughts.

“I asked if you have anything in–?”

“Green?” Mia remembered the rest of Roxie’s question as she repeated it, muting her emotions inside and outside. “I have a few things.” She busied herself laying green clothing off to the side.

For the past two weeks, her plan went smoothly. A new arrival on the ship and the bizarre happenings that came with him distracted anyone from noticing her absence. She only really had to worry about Roxie. The others, she’d barely interacted with outside of polite detachment before her visit to Earth put everything back into perspective.

In the life dealt to her, no comforts stayed permanent, not even her room.

Her hands lifted a pair of green shorts from the pile.

“Those!” Roxie pointed.

Mia presented them to her.

She took them. “Yes, these are fantastic. Now all we need is–Aha! Perfect.”

A hand plunged into the pile and pulled out an article of clothing that made Mia’s heart stop.

“Uhh–Whoopsie–That’s not what I meant to–Here you go.” Roxie placed it into the hands of Mia, who threw it far into the closet. “This is what I was looking for.”

She then pulled out a navy blue sleeveless shirt with a white crescent moon from the pile. Mia had no recollection of it being in her closet.

“What a cute halter top! It goes with this scarf I found.” Roxie assembled her chosen clothes into a pile. “This is a den full of the most colorful items I’ve seen. Where do you get them from?”

“My mom.” Specifically, these were maternity clothes Mia’s mother used to model, but no one needed to know that information.

“Ohhhh, I feel like I recognize her from somewhere. Has she done any commercials?”

“Yeah. You’ve probably seen her.”

“Wowie! That means we’re both children of local celebrities.” Roxie flipped her hair. “But your mom has to have been seen by at least five hundred people! Maybe even a thousand!”

“A few more than that.”

“Two thousand?”

Mia nodded, though the number was probably far higher.

“Wooow.” Roxie’s big, brown eyes sparkled with wonder. “Anyway, don thy garments.” She shoved the outfit into Mia’s hands.

Mia looked between the outfit and Roxie, who didn’t budge. “Um, are you going to–?”

“Oh, I can turn around if you want.” Roxie faced the back wall and covered her eyes.

“...Thank you.”

Not having the heart to shoo her out of the room, Mia let her stay while she put on the clothes from her closet and from the store.

“You can look now.”

Roxie uncovered her eyes and turned around to look up at her. “Excellent, excellent.” She tapped her fingers together deviously. “I’ll have my revenge yet, but something is missing.” From the pile, she flung a transparent pink skirt in Mia’s direction.

“Revenge?” Curiosity got the better of Mia. She put on the plastic skirt.

“On our fashion-forward lieutenant, of course. It’s no fair!” Roxie whined. “He got to dress all the boys, but nooo, that wasn’t enough for him, so he hogged the nonbinaries too! But even he has flaws.” With a wink, she started her impression of Emil. “‘Hey Roxie, can you do me a favor? I don’t know how to dress girls.’” She stood up triumphantly. “Well, dress girls, I will!”

“Um, I don’t know what to do with this.” Mia held up the scarf.

Roxie took the scarf, marching past Mia to the vanity table. “With this, my pretty, we’ll show him who knows how to dress.” She tapped the chair in front of it. “Please sit.”

Mia sat.

“You may be wondering how this proves anything when he already confessed to not knowing how to dress girls.” Roxie tied the scarf around Mia’s face. “Well! We’ll be the spacepunkiest of spacepunks, and that’ll show him that he should’ve let me dress more people!”

“Oh.”

She tilted her head from side to side. “Hmmm, this is nice, but the back’s a little lumpy. Could you release your hair from its containment?”

Mia took the band out of her ponytail.

“Thank you~ Yes, yes. It’s all coming together.” Roxie retrieved the sunglasses and phone case from Mia’s shopping bag. “Put these on.”

These instructions too were carried out.

Roxie examined her work like a specimen through a microscope. With a quick strike, she slipped one of Mia’s bangs out of the scarf, finger briefly grazing against her cheek. Another, and she plucked the fuzzy jacket off of her shoulders.

“There.” Roxie lifted her hands. “My revenge is complete!” She leaned on the chairback, smiling in amazement at the results of her experiment. “You look ready to blend in among the stars! Red-carpet ready, if I do say so myself.”

Mia detected no trace of a lie on Roxie’s face, but she saw herself in the clothes of a star with none of the grace. “Thank you for dressing me.”

“It’s my pleasure.” Roxie bowed.

Mia stood. “We should meet back with the others soon.”

“Wait!” Out of her pants pockets, Roxie pulled a vial of blue paint and a brush to go with it. “Can you paint a star over my eye? I worry I may sacrifice precision or my vision if I do it myself.” She pretended to poke herself in the eye.

“I can try.” What else was Mia to do than be of use?

“Water is needed to free the pigments.”

With a nod, she took the tools, left, and returned from the bathroom with wet paint. A few paper towels were brought just in case.

“You have returned.” Roxie turned the vanity seat to face her as she set the paint down. “Let the painting commence.”

Her face tilted up, eyes closed. Mia rose the paint brush toward it but never made a connection. What if she messed something up?

Roxie opened an eye. “Mia?”

“Oh, sorry. I wasn’t sure if my hand was steady enough.” The brush wobbled in Mia’s hand.

“You can hold my face if it helps.”

It did not help the wobbling. Still, Mia had no choice but to reach out if she wanted to avoid turning Roxie’s face into abstract art. “Like this?”

“Yes.” Roxie’s eye shut again. “My face is your canvas. Do with it what you wish.”

Artists didn’t normally paint on finished works.

“Hee hee, that tickles!” Roxie twitched at the first brush stroke.

Mia found the strength to press on, fighting against the instinct to draw away, an instinct as natural as not touching a hot stove.

“Your hand is soft.” So was Roxie’s face. Someone like her found beauty in anything, even blank canvases. She spent her affection in amounts far beyond Mia’s imagination. No wonder she had friends anywhere she went. May that kind of love always cradle her and keep her safe.

“I’m done, I think.” Mia drew the brush away. “I tried not to get your eyelashes.”

Roxie’s eyes snapped open. “It’s so clean, thank you!” Miraculously, the star over her eye was fully filled, with straight lines. “That was fun. I should buy more colors. Then maybe I can practice on you~” She took the brush, waving it in Mia’s direction.

“Oh, um, maybe, yeah.” Mia tried to ignore how nice that sounded. “I should probably clean that off.”

She excused herself the second the brush touched her hand. Upon returning, Roxie fished out an eyeliner pen, a capsule, a belt-buckle necklace, and ring-shaped hair clips out of her many pants pockets.

“Here’s your brush back.”

“Thankies!” Roxie stashed it and the paint container into a pocket. She then took a pair of black, star-shaped earrings out of the capsule. “I must check on how my outfit is coming together.”

Mia decided to busy herself by cramming what she could back into her closet. Her mother’s old clothes weren’t alone in the pile; she found the nature posters, paper chandelier, old dolls, and forgotten notebooks, among other things. She set those things aside, wanting to protect them from further damage under the weight of the clothes.

“Behold! My outfit approaches its final form.” Roxie stood over her, looking like she just stepped out of a rave. Star earrings dangled from her ears, the necklace snugly fit around her neck, and her hair was pinned up into two buns that looked like planets, thanks to the ring clips. A tiny black star was drawn on the opposite cheek from the one Mia painted.

“It looks really nice.” Mia offered the bare minimum politeness.

“Do you require my assistance, O knowledgeable one?”

Mia stopped to consider her options. “Yeah. We need to be back soon. If you see anything that isn’t clothing, can you put it over to the side?”

“Okie-dokely.” One salute, and Roxie dropped down on the floor. She picked up a notebook decorated in cupcakes, with Mia’s full name on the cover. “McKenzie is your middle name?”

“Oh yeah.”

“I will remember this.” Roxie set the notebook down. “I wish I could’ve seen your room before it was seized by your brothers. So many cute things are here. All I can do now is imagine what it looked like.”

She lifted up a poster of moon-specific rocks. Checkmarks were by ones Mia and—ones that Mia found.

“Where are they, anyway?”

“Who? My brothers?”

“Yes. For a boy-filled house, it is strangely boyless right now.”

Thank goodness for that. “I don’t know.”

“Is that normal?” A little concern showed on Roxie’s face. She held a radio now, one that looked familiar, though Mia never listened to radio stations growing up.

“Um, not really, but if they’re all gone, they’re probably together.” Mia reasoned. “I’d be more worried if only a few of them were here.”

“Ohh, that’s good, then.”

Roxie certainly took interest in Mia and her life, no matter how empty she made herself. This conversation gave Mia deja vu of when they first met. Sitting alone in the Moon Base mess hall, she understood how she might’ve stood out back then. It made it easy for someone like Roxie to zero in on her.

Someone like Roxie found beauty in even the blankest of slates.

Now, the Celestion-5 had only eight people, but the other six had colorful enough presences to distract anyone. If that distraction held long enough, no one would notice Mia slip into the background. It’s the least painful way for things to end.

Mia pulled a green purse from the pile.

“Oooh!” Roxie pointed at it. “You should keep that! It goes with your outfit.”

“Wait, I need to check something first.” Mia never owned any purses. “My mom might’ve left it by mistake.”

Image: Mia holds a purse, looking confused, while Roxie points at it excitedly. They sit on the floor of a dirty bedroom. [https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/69652222_9XdDTOmUKkSndLm.png]

Unzipping the top, she dug around the loose change and old lip balm until she found a label that read ‘If lost, please return to K. Rose,’ with the house’s number attached.

“It’s… not hers.”

“Yay!” Roxie clapped. “Into the bag it goes.”

Mia placed the purse into her shopping bag like Roxie wanted. That was much easier than telling her the truth: The bag belonged to neither of them.