“Big Brother?” Angelo braced himself for the shock on his brother’s face to fade into anger, but it never did. In fact, he smiled!
“I’m so happy to see you!” Leon welcomed him with open arms.
“You are…?” Angelo didn’t budge.
His brother looked at him with the same friendly eyes he always did. “Of course I am.”
Barely realizing it, Angelo took a step forward. A few more and he found himself sobbing in his brother’s arms. Fear, joy, and confusion blended into each other, filling his swollen heart. He didn’t know what he wanted to say, not that he could say it, crying so hard.
What he did know was that despite the circumstances, it overjoyed him to see his brother, his best friend, and source of comfort again. Leon couldn’t always take his pain away, but he made it more bearable just by being there. These past two months without him made Angelo feel so lost. He meant so much to him. Maybe too much.
“Shhh, it’s okay. I missed you too.” Leon patted him on the back. “When Mamá told me she was sending a care package, I never thought she meant you! And you told me you were at Gramps's house!”
…Ah. So that’s why he didn’t notice. Angelo did remember their parents mentioning something about a care package before he left. This was sure to blow up in his face later. For now, he wanted to enjoy a little comfort after a rough few days.
“Emil, did you know this whole time?”
“Heheh, it was a hard secret to keep.” Right, Emil existed. So did the others. Angelo realized he’d been crying in front of his coworkers. So much for a good first impression. “But it was all worth it for this! I still can’t believe this was all decided in a game of pin the tail on the donkey.”
Leon laughed. “I guess you’re the donkey then, huh Ángie?”
He sure felt like one.
“I’ll let you guys finish having your moment before I get my brother from upstairs.”
Angelo pried himself off of Leon and dried his face like the functional adult he pretended to be. He laid eyes on a red-eyed redhead who preferred staring at the blank wall beside her than the emotional reunion. She sniffled too, but not from crying.
“This is Mia!” Leon introduced, startling the freckled girl. “She’s from Lunaria, can you believe it? Also we’re jet armor buddies! I’m sure I told you about her before, she’s super smart and stuff.” Angelo remembered hearing about her, the girl Leon so desperately tried to befriend. The one who clearly avoided him on purpose, though he never seemed to realize. That just left him more time to text Angelo.
“Hello, um, it’s nice to meet you.” A mask muffled her words. She sniffled again. “Sorry, I’m getting over some allergies.”
“He’s probably happy to finally meet you too!” Leon spoke for him.
Angelo nodded despite not really feeling one way or the other about her. He turned toward the other side of the room, figuring she probably wanted to be left alone.
“You wanna meet the others, hm?” His brother caught on. “Okay! Well, you’ve met Emil already. The coolest guy on the ship, as you could probably tell.”
“He’s exaggerating.” Emil hid half of his face and laughed. “Sometimes I’m convinced that Rookie’s trying to kill me with compliments.” He abruptly faced the ceiling. “And if you’re listening, that was a joke, I do not think Léonardo Summers is putting me in any danger.”
“It’s true you’re the coolest guy, though!” Leon doubled down, unphased by whatever the heck that was. “Well, there is the captain too, but I find it hard to think of anyone else who could match you.”
Angelo stared up at him. He stared back.
“Don’t give me that look. Do you really think I could compete with him? He’s so funny and nice and–Ah, if you think he looks like a celebrity now, you shoulda seen him in casual clothes last week! People were asking him for autographs!”
“One person.”
“I wanted to ask you for an autograph!”
“Rookie, please, come on…!” The lieutenant covered his eyes, unable to stop laughing. He mouthed something. Ayúdame?
If so, his help came with the crack of the door behind him. It bumped him on the way open.
“Huh? You’re here early!”
“Have you returned with the new recruit?” A deeper voice came from behind it.
Out stepped the voice’s owner, a brawny, imposing figure despite being roughly the same height as Emil. An orange cap nearly shrouded thick eyebrows, and thick sideburns lay below. Its emblem signified his rank: Captain. As if he couldn’t be intimidating enough, he wore a long, yellow cape. Angelo didn’t even know anyone in the IF was allowed to wear one!
The room fell silent as he entered. Everyone fell in line.
“Attention. Hand, salute.”
Angelo’s hand shot up to his head, as told. The captain returned a salute, everything went as it should. One problem. Not knowing where to get in line, he stood out like a curled up wooden plank. The captain’s stare was enough to hammer him between Leon and Mia.
“Attention.” He finally allowed the crew to lower their hands. Still, he continued to stare. “You are the new ranger, correct?”
He nodded.
“Tell me, is there any excuse for your appearance?”
“He kinda got emotional when he saw me.” answered Leon.
“I did not ask you, Ranger Summers, I was asking Ranger… Summers.” The captain couldn’t distinguish them by last name. “Besides, I don’t believe that would explain his hair and uniform being so disorderly.” Disorder seemed to be the worst crime anyone could commit in his eyes.
Did Angelo have an excuse? Many, actually. He only had enough money for his Dryvr driver. Even if he thought to bring more, the guy robbed him. This left him with no money to do his laundry when his travel unit went to hotels. Hiding under a concrete fort probably didn’t help matters. Could he bring himself to say all of that?
Leon raised his hand.
“He is a star ranger.” The captain paid him little attention. “I expect he can speak for himself.”
Leon shook his head. “He can’t, sir. At least, not right now. We don’t really know what it is, but crying makes him not able to speak for a little while.”
“I see. Both of you are assigned to furnace duty. You for speaking out of turn, again, and your brother for his failure to comply with Interstellar Forces appearance standards.”
Once again, he raised his hand.
“You may speak, Ranger Summers.”
“But I was already assigned to furnace duty today.”
The captain glanced toward him, then away. “...Moving on, the Celestion-5 will officially embark on its journey to Neptune starting today. Let me remind you all how much of an honor it is for the eight of us to be representing America and the whole of humanity in this way. Orderly bodies and minds are required to complete such a task. It’s imperative to take their importance to heart.”
If an orderly body just meant staying neat, Angelo might be able to do that. An orderly mind though, he couldn’t remember the last time he had one of those.
“Ranger Summers.”
Both brothers perked up.
“No, the other one.”
That cleared up nothing. Angelo and Leon looked at each other then back at the captain.
“No, I meant–” He thought for a moment. “Both of you, switch places. Those will be your positions from now on.”
The Summers did as directed, and Angelo found himself standing between his brother and that person. He’d heard his brother mention her presence on the ship, but he couldn’t really believe it until now.
Jun Kim, breaker of the IF’s men-only rule, stood beside him. Tall and brave, some argued she was more of a man than Angelo or vice-versa, depending on who they wanted to mock. This gave him conflicted feelings. What she did was cool, but how come guys accepted her as one of their own? On the other hand, the insults about her looks hit a little too close to home. He wondered if they suffered the same way, but a smirk at him sent his eyes directly to the floor.
“Once again,” the captain continued, “we will enter a week of microgravity testing to make sure our newest member adjusts, then the Celestion-5 will change course and continue to the Moon. Any questions?”
No one had questions.
“Then let us proceed to the observation deck.”
“Question!” Emil’s hand shot up this time. His hand lowered, pointing at Angelo. “Shouldn’t I give him a tour first before we get going?”
“There are enough crew members who can introduce him to the ship. If you feel the need to do a tour, you can once we’re in orbit.”
“Aye-aye, Captain Bro!”
His brother simply stared at him.
“Yes, Captain…”
The odd duo led their crew from the tiny room to a wide open one. Bright light from the curved windows flooded the place and reflected off of metallic tiles below. To the right of the entrance, another spiral staircase winded up and into a room on the curved ceiling. Impressive, but it seemed strange to Angelo that such a big room had next to nothing in it.
“Please take your stations around the deck.” The captain raised his arms to each side. With a swish of his cape, he turned his back toward them. “I will then initiate takeoff.”
Angelo panickedly looked around the room. Should he know where his station was? Everyone else seemed to; they began walking to the edges of the room.
A hand slid up his inner arm, Leon’s. “Over here!” He whispered. “We can sit together.”
Leon looked down on him with gentle eyes and a bucktoothed smile as he led him over to the window. Angelo’s heart filled up with so much joy, he couldn’t help the smile creeping onto his own face. He fought the urge to cling to his arm like they were kids again.
Angelo looked back to check if anyone was watching only to see a podium with steering handles rise from one of the tiles. As the captain pressed a button on it, a whirring sound close to where Angelo walked made him take a few steps back.
Just a few tiles away, he caught a girl with curly red hair, not Mia, staring at him and focused on the ground instead. It probably looked like he was cowering behind his brother. That may’ve been a little true, but mostly he assumed Leon knew more about the weird looking slab in front of them than he did.
“Take this one!” Leon placed a hand on it. He made his way over to the one to its left, lowered the armrests, backed into the barely tilted portion on the bottom, and buckled himself in.
Angelo tried to do the same, but his feet barely touched the ground after getting himself “seated.” He looked at his brother to see if he did everything correctly, but wasn’t sure if the thumbs-up he gave was to say he did or just a general one out of excitement.
“Everyone buckled in?” Emil came around to check the seats, eventually coming to Angelo’s. “What about you?”
In response, Angelo pointed down and kicked his feet.
“Oh!” He understood right away. “Huh, looks like they didn’t really build these for your height.” The lieutenant turned to his brother. “Hey, is there a way to lower this? I dunno if it’s a good idea to leave him hanging.”
Footsteps clicked against the tiles, and soon the captain and his cape came into view. He stared down at Angelo, making him all too aware of the fact that he must’ve looked like a toddler in a high chair.
“The specs accommodate those as short as five feet.” The captain concluded. “He should be fine as long as he keeps his hands on the armrests.”
His cape slapped Angelo in the face as he turned to go back to his post. Emil and Leon stifled snickers as the captain muttered “My apologies.” before hurriedly leaving.
Smoke flooded outside of the windows. Soon after, a crackled voice came from the captain’s podium. “T-minus 15 seconds.”
Right. They were going to space. The reality of the situation hadn’t really hit Angelo until the countdown started. His heart raced faster as the smoke increased. Was it normal for the windows to be caked in white or a sign of something wrong? Did he grip his armrests tight enough? How could everyone else stay so calm?
Well, not everyone. Leon kept looking at him with the biggest smile he’d ever seen. That managed to calm Angelo down some. If anything bad happened, at least they’d be together. Then the ship started to shake, and he grew certain he would be breathing his last breaths soon.
“Admission, liftoff.”
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