Four and a half days of peace. That’s what Leon ruined the moment he and his brother stepped foot into Aiden’s room.

“You’re in luck Ángie, looks like Aiden’s not here right now!” Of course, Leon didn’t see him hovering on the wall beside the door.

“Boo.”

Both screamed, with the pipsqueak launching himself halfway across the room before his brother caught him by the shirt tail. He hung sideways in the air, desperately clutching at his pocket. Must’ve nearly lost his phone or something.

Leon stood him back upright. “There you go.” He patted him on the shoulder, too busy gawking at Aiden to notice him flinching every time. “Aiden, this is my little brother, Angelo.”

While Aiden got a better chance to take in the shivering little weirdo, his hand still gripping his pocket for dear life. Wide eyes darted in every direction, as if he fought for his life by just standing there. The kid looked haunted. “Is he good?”

“Oh, Ángie gets nervous around new people. I told you about the ghost thing, right?”

Aiden shrugged. Everything Leon said went in one ear and out the other. “Probably.”

Leon clamped both hands on his brother’s shoulders. “He’s really shy.” He continued, completely oblivious to the poor kid hyperventilating. “So please don’t be too mean to him.”

Aiden gave a non-committal grunt. He didn’t want this new guy to get too comfortable, but he had no interest in messing with him. Angelo seemed like the type to crumble to dust if Aiden even looked at him wrong. He didn’t want a heart attack on his hands.

“It’s okay, really…!” Angelo jerked away. “I-I-I don’t wanna make you guys change because of me.” His hands folded over each other as his head lowered. “Just pretend like I-I’m not here.”

“Okay.” Aiden pushed himself off the wall and over to his bed.

Leon pointed to the bunk above it. “I guess that’ll be your bed for now.”

“Th-That ladder looks really high…” It didn’t, but someone as short as Angelo might think so. Aiden wondered if his arms could even handle the strain of climbing up; they looked like they could snap under any pressure.

“I’m sure you can climb it! We’re in zero gravity anyway, so you shouldn’t have to worry right now. See?” Leon drifted over to the ladder and pulled himself up with one hand. His feet rose above Aiden until they stopped with a faint thud. “Ow! Be careful of your head.”

Aiden snorted, only to have his amusement interrupted by bug eyes staring daggers into him. Funny for someone on the verge of tears two minutes ago. What did Angelo think he was gonna do, cry him to death? Aiden stared right back. That got him to stop looking and focus on his pocket.

“Ángie, come up here!” A hand reached down from the top bunk. Angelo took it, getting lifted up and out of Aiden’s way. Good riddance. “There’s seatbelts to help strap you in while you’re sleeping. You also wanna make sure your covers are tucked in good so they don’t float away.”

“Kind of like a human pizza pocket?” With a bed between him and Aiden, Angelo’s voice could barely be heard.

“Yeah!”

“Where’s your bed?” Process of elimination should’ve told him it was the single bed on the other side of the room.

“This one!” Leon kicked himself off the top bunk and down to the single bed on the other side of the room. He lifted an orange bag at the foot of it. “Your backpack’s over here. I realized there’s no space under your bed to put stuff. Well, technically there’s a lot of space, but Aiden probably wouldn’t be too happy about you using it. The good news is that you’ll be safe from seeing…” He trailed off after making eye-contact with Aiden.

“Seeing what?” goaded the only one who could grow a beard.

“You’re not… always the best at covering yourself when you put on clothes in the morning. And since you sleep nude…”

Aiden lifted his hands. “Hey, I do what I can. If you’re looking so hard, then that’s on you.”

“I try not to.” Leon’s eyes wandered to the desk between their beds. “Anyway, this is the desk. I mostly use it for charging. The super cool thing is just above it.” He opened the window covering to a starry sky. “Gosh, I can’t get enough of this view! I don’t know why we even had this closed in the first place.”

“Captain told us to.” Aiden remembered Galhardo’s orders back when they were moving from the ship to a hotel. He mentioned something about privacy concerns, as if anyone would scale 40ft up military spacecraft just to break in and steal the laptop sticking out from under Leon’s bed.

“Oh, right.” Leon lifted his chubby face toward the top bunk. “Ángie, come down and look at the stars!”

Angelo propelled himself off the bed. He got that step right, but instead of going down, he floated across the room, softly splattering into the other wall. Leon had to pry him off by the ankle. Once that spectacle resolved itself, Aiden headed toward the door while the two bunched up by the circular window.

“We should go back up to the observation deck sometime.” Leon told his brother. “I wanna make sure you’re able to get a better look at space before you have to go home. Maybe some pictures too!”

Aiden stopped himself on the doorframe. “He’s going home?”

“Yeah, he’s gotta be back in time before school starts.”

That opened up several questions, but the only one that concerned Aiden at the moment was what he could eat. He left his roommates behind and glided toward the kitchen door.

Jun, Roxie, and Emil sat inside watching TV on the couch. Sort of. Only Jun sat on the couch like a normal person. Roxie hovered crisscross above the cushions. While parts of Emil’s body touched it–his hip against the armrest and his elbow on the back–no one in their right mind would call it sitting. On one hand, what a waste of a couch. On the other, he kind of had to respect the chaos of it all, mild as it was.

Image: Jun sitting on the kitchen couch, Roxie sitting crisscross above it, and Emil leaning on the armrest winking. All three are looking at the viewer. [https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/49958146_UP9KTdJF0fFxn4E.png]

“Hey Aiden, what’s up?” Emil waved.

“What’s for lunch?”

“Uhhhhh,” Jun tried to remember, “There was like, tomato soup? Cheese sticks, a pineapple drink thing, some pretzels, and some dried oranges.”

“Cried oranges.” corrected Roxie.

“Oh yeah, there’s a typo on the menu.”

“They cried all of their juices out, how sad.”

“Relatable.”

“What the–?” Aiden glanced over his shoulder to see Angelo hovering behind him, clutching a few food packages. Leon followed suit.

“S-Sorry!” Angelo cowered.

“Are you following me?” Aiden distanced himself, making his way over to the boxes on his left.

“Angelo mentioning pizza pockets reminded me that I was kinda hungry.” Leon answered. He looked down at his brother. “What were you saying?”

“Nothing.”

“Well, there’s cheese,” Emil lifted a finger toward the boxes, “tomato soup’s kinda like a sauce, and pretzels are like a really crunchy crust if you believe hard enough, so there’s pizza here in theory.”

“Wow, theoretical pizza. Yummy!” Leon chuckled. “What’re you guys watching?”

“The beautiful game of béisbol~!” answered Emil. That was baseball in Spanish. Aiden knew this because it sounded almost exactly like baseball in English. Otherwise, he mainly knew curse words.

“Oh, who’s playing?”

“I have no idea!” He checked the screen. “The Corvids and the Lynxes. The great thing about watching baseball is that you really don’t have to pay attention to the game at all. Me an’ Roxie have mostly been chatting about our sports careers. Roxie here was the star pitcher on her softball team.”

“Really? Wait, didn’t you do baton twirling?”

“I contain multitudes, Rookie.” Unable to stay in place, Roxie continued floating upward. “The captains are baseball boys!”

“Yep!” confirmed Emil. “I had to beg Dad to let us play sports, but he caved in and let us play one year.” He craned his head backward in order to view Aiden, who at this point moved to the water dispenser by the table. “What about you? I feel like you’d be good at track.”

Aiden smirked. “Probably, but it’s kinda hard to be on a sports team when you don’t go to school.”

“Oh, it doesn’t have to be like, formal or competitive or anything like that.” Jun tugged Roxie’s doctor’s coat to keep her from drifting away. She snuggled up to him. “People kept trying to get me into competitive surfing, but it wasn’t my style.” Typical Jun response.

“I got my exercise in other ways. Running from the law is great cardio.” The notch on the water dispenser had already been flipped to heat, so all Aiden had to do was fill a syringe so he could hydrate his soup. Working with needles always gave him the creeps.

“What about you guys?” Emil uncontorted himself to face the Summers brothers, not caring that his nurse hat drifted off. “You play any sports?”

“I used to play soccer in middle school!” Leon answered. “If my high school had a team, I probably would’ve played then too, but I got a job instead. The good news is I know how to fry a lotta seafood.”

“Important question. Does ‘a lotta seafood’ include shrimp?”

“Yeah, I cooked a lot of shrimp!”

“Yes yes yes yes–!!” Emil could’ve set off a fire with how fast he rubbed his hands together, but soon he coughed and tried to play it smooth. “So how about you Angelo? You play any sports?”

“No.” Angelo looked away. “I’m not very athletic.”

“Ahh, no need to feel bad about it.”

“Yeah, everyone has their skills and weaknesses.” added Jun.

Angelo let out a feeble laugh. “S-Skills?”

“You have skills!” Leon argued. “You’re really good at putting models together. And you’re better than me at video games!”

“Not really, I just practice more.”

“Don’t sell yourself short, fellow gamer!” Roxie vaulted herself over Jun. “Also you have other high points like being polite and muffin-shaped and you follow directions like a good little lamb.” More like a sheep. “I would rate you an A+ in being a patient, very good teaching material for my assistant.” She tapped Emil’s arm. “By the way, did you consume your protein yet~?”

“Oh yeah!” Leon patted his brother’s back. “You should probably go eat at the table while I get my stuff ready.”

Angelo took a step forward, then stopped himself a little past the couch. “Big Brother? Are you sure you don’t want me to get your food for you?”

Leon blinked, then sighed. “Don’t worry about me, I can cook my own food. Besides, this is your first time here!”

Aiden stopped mid-swig of his soup. “Big Brother? You call him that all the time?”

“Oh yeah,” Emil turned his head, “I wanted to ask about that, but I didn’t wanna sound rude.” Lucky for him, Aiden didn’t mind.

“I do it out of respect.” The shortest boy stared at nothing but the table as he sat down. “Like how it feels rude t-to call your mom and dad by name. Th-That kind of thing.”

“I don’t have either of those.” Even if Aiden did, he doubted he’d care.

Angelo’s eyes somehow grew wider. “Oh gosh, I’m s-so sorry!”

Aiden shoved a few pretzels into his mouth and resumed soup-drinking. They went good together.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

“Oh, now that you mention it,” Leon grabbed his lunch, “I haven’t called home in a while! Ángie, can you hand me my phone?”

His brother’s hand went into one pocket, then the other. It came up empty both times. “I-I don’t have it. Did I lose it…? I sh–I should look!”

“That’s fine, I’m not in a hurry. We can go look for it after we eat, okay?” Leon moved over to where his brother sat. “Besides, you’ve only been in this part of the ship. There’s not that many places it can be, right?”

Wrong. Two days later and they were still searching the same three rooms. Aiden couldn’t take a nap or use the bathroom in peace without them showing their faces. Both of them, every time. Leon could be empty-headed for sure, but it took a special kind of brainless to lose a phone in the most cramped area of the ship. Did it run in the family?

The weirdest thing of all was that sometimes Angelo would look up at his bed as if he sensed something there. One time, he stopped just as Leon left the room.

He looked at his bed, then at Aiden. “Did you hear anything?”

“No…?”

He left. Weird kid.

The third day was different, though. Not because they found the phone, absolutely not, but because the Celestion-5 completed its week of zero gravity. Things went back to normal, and the whole crew got called up to the observation deck.

“Our jet armor training protocol is set to undergo some changes.” Captain Galhardo paced back and forth. Allegedly, he actually showed his face during the past week. Not that Aiden would know. He was too busy soaking up the sweet silence in his room. “First of all, a change in partnership to account for the full crew. Lieutenant,” his cape swished as he turned to his brother, “you will no longer be paired with Ranger Kelly.”

“Fun while it lasted.” Emil gave a pitied smile. Aiden would miss showing off to his fanboy.

“Instead, Ranger Kelly will be paired up with the new recruit.”

This matchup didn’t excite Aiden. To be honest, he felt a little on-edge. Dorky as he could be, Emil knew Aiden’s skill and cut him just the right amount of slack. Aiden could also talk to the other blond without worrying that he’ll cry and go mute. Even on his best behavior, he wondered if his voice was a little too gruff or if he’d say something in just the wrong tone to set Angelo off.

“You’ll also notice that the helmets and observation panels have been upgraded with a modified version of the Interstellar Forces Coordination Simulator software, and as such, your training regimen will change to reflect this. Lieutenant, you may provide an explanation.”

“Alright!” Emil clapped. “So whether you’re flying or observing, you’ll notice green rectangle targets. What you do is you wanna guide whoever’s flying into as many of them as you can before training stops. Simple enough, yeah?” It sounded simple enough to Aiden.

“You may now decide on which task each member of your group will handle today. Jet armor users shall then proceed to the loading deck.” The pairs got together on Galhardo’s command. Out of the corner of his eye, Aiden saw his new partner trudging toward him, more of his scalp than his face. Neither of them spoke when they stood by each other.

“Captain Galhardo?” Leon’s voice came from further away.

“Yes, Ranger Summers?”

“Is Angelo also gonna be deciding?”

“Yes, Ranger Summers. Is there an issue with that?” Though Galhardo asked Leon, he glanced at Angelo suspiciously. Thankfully, the smaller one’s back was turned, otherwise he probably would’ve combusted.

“Oh. That seems… kinda dangerous to let him go out into space.”

For once, Aiden agreed with Leon. “I’ll go.”

“Well, that settles that!” Emil winked.

Aiden left Roxie, Leon, and Emil behind to direct Angelo to the observation panels. Jun and Mia joined him on the way to the loading deck.

“Mia, you’re not on panel duty today?” Jun asked on the way down the stairs.

“No.” It was weird of her to do space flight instead of Leon.

“Guess Leon wanted to show his bro the ropes.”

“Captain Galhardo told us we should switch up once in a while.” She didn’t seem happy about it.

“Ohhhh.” Jun waited at the bottom of the stairs with the other two. “Aiden, how do you feel about your new guy?”

Aiden sighed.

“What’s up? Gonna miss Emil cheering you on?”

More than he wanted to admit, but he also had other problems. “I don’t know how I’m gonna talk to the kid without scarin’ him to death.”

“Ah yeah, he seems pretty nervous.” Jun smiled. “Just be nice.”

Aiden gave him a blank stare until he finally got a sense of what he was working with. “How do I do that?”

“Can’t believe you asked.”

“I’m serious.”

“No, yeah, me too. I’m genuinely glad you asked me.” Jun checked the oxygen panel to the Loading Deck. Almost green. “Uhhh, hold on. This is kinda short notice for a crash course on kindness.”

The oxygen panel turned green. Mia opened the door and went down first.

“Okay, here’s a good opportunity. Hey, Mia!”

“Yes?”

Jun followed Mia down the stairs. “Thanks for opening the door. That’s like, way helpful of you.”

“Thank you.”

He tapped Aiden’s arm. “Now you try.”

“I can’t just say the same thing you said.” The blond closed the door behind them.

“You’ve known Mia for like 2-3 months by now, dude. There’s gotta be something you like about her.”

Aiden thought for a moment. “Hey.”

“Y-Yes…?” Mia froze at the bottom of the stairs.

“You’re not as annoying as Rookie.”

“Thanks…”

“That’s. That’s a start.” reassured Jun. “Now do it without putting Leon down.”

“You’re not annoying.”

“I’m glad.” Mia felt just as awkward as Aiden.

Only Jun enjoyed this. “Cool! We’re getting somewhere. Now try to turn that into a positive.”

“...That was positive.”

“That’s a double negative.” he corrected.

“What’s the difference?”

“You’re focusing on what she isn’t.” Jun strapped on his jet boots. “Focus on what she is.”

Aiden looked at her awkwardly glancing their way, then back at Jun. “She’s uncomfortable.”

“Ah. My bad.” Jun apologized. His eyes returned to Aiden. “I notice you have a hard time giving direct compliments. With you, it’s always ‘You’re not terrible, I guess,’ or ‘I don’t want to punch you as much as that other guy.’” Aiden rated his impression of him a 3/10. Kindly, of course. “The closest thing you’ve said to a compliment is ‘You’re weird in a cool way.’ Like, you like Emil, right?”

“I don’t hate–” Aiden caught himself falling into his trap.

Jun wore an expression that said ‘See?’ “See? You should really loosen up a little. Not just to be nice, but like, I dunno, that seems like such a tiring way to live. Enjoy things openly. It’s good for you.”

“Showing your cards like that is a good way to get scammed. Or worse.” Aiden put on his chest plate. “Which reminds me. I can be nice!”

“You can?” Jun flipped his bangs back, so Aiden could see the confusion in both eyes.

“When I conned people outside of bars.”

“Weird definition of nice, but cool.” He pulled his neck covering over his scalp. “When you’re talking to Angelo, just think of it like a con.” Like that’s so easy. It didn’t work like that! Aiden needed a goal in mind. “Speaking of,” Jun’s voice lowered, “have you noticed anything… weird about him?”

“A lot. Be specific.” Aiden didn’t bother whispering, startling Jun. They both caught Mia staring at them. She looked away.

“Maybe I shouldn’t gossip.” he backpedaled.

The tallest ranger glanced at Mia again. “She’s not gonna tell. A crime could happen right in front of her and she’d keep her mouth shut just to save her own skin.” He turned to her. “I wouldn’t want you around if I was getting stabbed, but sometimes you gotta mind your business to survive and I respect that.”

Mia blinked, shocked, but then tilted her head in reluctant agreement. She started to put on her helmet. “I’ll take that as a compliment?”

Once he recovered from shock, Jun went to pick up the conversation. A click from above cut him short.

“Everybody ready?” Emil’s voice crackled over the intercom.

“Just a sec.” Jun put on his helmet. So much for Aiden finding out what made him suspicious.

Helmets secured, everyone let the lieutenant know that they were ready for training. Captain Galhardo took over and began a countdown as oxygen drained from the loading deck. At least Aiden guessed so, it’s not like he could see the air disappear. Finally came the moment he’d been waiting for. The door lifted into space and so did he, leaving the other two in the dust.

A green rectangle appeared down and to his left. Sticking a leg out, he used his ankle jet to turn himself around before blasting toward the target with the jets strapped to his back.

High-pitched muttering broke his concentration. Aiden missed his target by a few feet. Whatever. He turned himself around to try for it again, but before he could move toward it, the muttering distracted him again. It must’ve been the kid.

“Hey, can you speak up?”

Angelo audibly jumped. “S-Sorry! Is th–Is this better?”

“Yeah.” Barely.

“I-I was just going to t-t–to t-t-tell you about the rectangle right there, but it looks like you found it already.”

“I did.”

Aiden stopped spinning in circles, angling himself right at his target. Just then, someone floated by, taking it for themself. Jun.

He caught a glimpse of one up toward the Moon and headed for it. The mumbling continued every so often. Aiden considered ignoring it, but it just kept going, taking up his precious focus.

“What’s that? I can’t hear you if you don’t speak up.”

“Sorry. Th-There’s one above you.” explained Captain Obvious.

“I see tha–”

“You’re about to crash into s-s-s–Look on your left!!”

“Oh sh–” Aiden lowered his legs and used his boots to brush himself just above someone, spinning them instead of hitting them straight on. It looked like Mia judging by the wider shape. Never in all his years of training had he come this close to crashing into someone.

“Are you okay?” Angelo’s voice quivered and squeaked. “Sorry! I’ s-so–I’m so sorry, it was my fault, I should’ve paid more attention! I’m so s-sorry!”

Time to lay down some ground rules. The million-dollar question was how to do it without sending him into more of a panic. Million-dollar question. Having a goal like that would make things so much easier, but maybe he did have one. After all, Angelo’s silence was worth a fortune.

“Is everything alright?” Emil’s voice came through clearer than Angelo’s even without headset.

“Tell him I’m okay.” Aiden waited for the rest of their conversation to play out before continuing. “Hey, let’s make a deal.” His voice took on the same tone as when he explained the rules of a rigged card game to his opponents. “You just sit back, don’t say a word. I’ll handle getting all the targets, and we can walk out with a good review. Sound good?”

Angelo hesitated. “Okay…”

“Good.”

Aiden went to work getting the next target. Straying farther from the ship than the others would dare to, he passed through a couple more, though it took minutes to find each one with how spaced out they were. Angelo did as told like a good little lamb. All in all, things went great.

“Ranger Summers.” Captain Galhardo’s jolted Aiden out of his zone.

“Yes, sir?” Leon responded.

“Not you.”

“Yes, Captain…?” Angelo must’ve not known how to mute his headset.

“Why are you not communicating with your partner?”

“He s-said he’d do fine on his own, sir.”

“If he’s doing so fine on his own, then why is his score so low?”

“Wait, what??” Aiden reacted on impulse.

“I don’t know, s-sir.”

“Communication is an important aspect of jet armor training. Don’t forget that.”

“Yes, sir. My apologies, sir…” Angelo’s voice faded out in a whisper.

Silence followed. Galhardo must have left the area.

“What was he talking about?” asked Aiden. “I don’t see a score!”

“You don’t?”

He wouldn’t have said that if he did.

“S-Sorry. We have 20 points right now.”

“Sounds good to me. How many are we s’posed to have?”

Angelo took a few seconds to answer. “Jun and Roxie have 105.”

“How?? I’ve been going in circles and haven’t seen jack!”

“You keep missing targets.” he explained. “Th-There were three you missed back where you came from. A little to th-the right of the Moon.”

Aiden looked in that direction, but couldn’t see anything at first. Then, a speck of green jumped out at him, nearly microscopic. If Angelo hadn’t said it first, he’d chalk it up to his imagination. “...You can see that far?”

“Yeah.”

Time for a new set of rules. “You can talk now. Let me know if you see more on the way.”

“Okay.”

Image: Aiden in his jet armor, flying through space toward the three targets near the Moon, along with a semi-transparent image of Angelo's eye. [https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/49949398_GnBMWbT2DkaIEI8.png]

New targets showed up much quicker under Angelo’s guidance, though sticking to ‘left’ and ‘right’ led to confusion. They settled on a system of directions related to clock times. He may’ve stuttered on his threes and sevens, but he made up for it with his eagle eyes. It turned out that they were good for more than just crying. As long as Aiden reminded him to speak up, things functioned smoothly. He passed through nearly double the targets he did alone by the time he and the others had to return to the ship.

Aiden slowed down, letting the loading deck scoop him up with Jun and Mia. “How many points do we have now?”

“55.”

He whistled. “I made it to the loading deck. You can turn off your headset now.”

“Okay… How do I turn it off?"

Aiden switched off his connection instead. Two flights of stairs later, he and Angelo found themselves waiting with the others for their evaluations.

Captain Galhardo started with Mia and Leon first. “Your score totaled 55 points. Average, but I would suggest you pay more attention to the task at hand instead of treating this as a conversation session.”

“Yes, sir.” Aiden got the feeling Mia wasn’t doing most of the conversating.

“Will do, sir!” Will Leon really?

“Great for a first try, though!” Emil encouraged.

The captain moved onto Jun and Roxie, with Emil trailing behind him. “115 points. Excellent teamwork as always, but it’s no excuse to slack off at the end.”

“Understood, sir.” Jun answered for his laziness. Aiden would’ve probably done the same, though.

“You guys were fantastic out there!” Emil swooped in with a compliment, as usual.

“Thank youuu~” chirped Roxie.

Finally, Galhardo made his way over to Aiden and Angelo, his giant eyebrows weighing down heavy on the lids with contempt. He turned his mug to Aiden. “I’ve already explained this to Ranger Summers, but communication is a pivotal part of these training sessions.” Big talk for the shut-in. “Trying to undermine that is unacceptable. It’s a miracle you two managed to achieve 55 points.”

“Great comeback!” Emil whispered.

His brother closed his eyes. “As punishment, you will both be assigned to furnace duty for today.” They opened to look past Angelo. “You will also be required to do it the next time, since you were unable to fulfill your punishment last week. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes, s-sir.”

His eyes shifted toward Aiden, but not directly at him.

“Yes. Sir.” Aiden forced out a response.

Galhardo whipped around, hitting Angelo with his cape. All of his firmness vanished in an instant, revealing him as the awkward nerd Aiden knew him to be. “My apologies.” He cleared his throat. “That concludes your evaluations. You are all dismissed.”

After the captain scurried to his room, Aiden looked down at his training partner, shaken up from the scolding even though very little of it was directed at him. “Hey.”

Angelo lifted his head slightly.

“Good eyes.”

Those same eyes widened, shimmering directly at him as if he were made of diamonds. A little dramatic for Aiden’s tastes.

“I-I did good?” Had the kid never heard a compliment before?

“Yeah.”

Aiden started to get creeped out by the staring. That kind of admiration felt like too much responsibility for a guy like him. Instead, he looked over at Jun, who gave him a goofy-looking smile. If people acted this weird when he gave out compliments, could they handle more?