Emil picked his hair to fluffy perfection. This always ended his morning routine. After all, his family was nothing if not obsessed with looks, whether it be professionalism, aloofness, or in his case, being cute. And despite the life-shattering revelations lately, there’s one thing he didn’t forget.

He had a special day to plan.

The ship seemed a little gloomier in the past few days. Leon couldn’t be the ball of sunshine he normally was, and Emil focused all of his energy on trying not to think about why. Roxie wasn’t affected, but she’s only one person. Everyone could use a little festivity to lighten up the mood. Or maybe a lot. He needed to break out the big guns.

“Morning, Lorie. What’cha up to?” Emil gave his brother a quick greeting after leaving the bathroom.

“Have you seen Ranger Summers lately?” Not even a good morning first? Typical Lorenzo.

Emil spotted Leon in one of the camera panels, talking to Aiden. “He’s right there.”

“The other one.”

“Angelo shows up to jet training, doesn’t he?”

“Yes, but where does he go during the rest of the day?” Light from the camera feed reflected off of Lorenzo’s glasses.

“Oh. I dunno.” To be honest, Emil tried not to run into him.

“Where is he hiding…?” Ironic for Lorenzo to be so hung up on this. It’s okay for him to hide from everyone for days on end, but not someone else?

Before the captain could find his answer, an incoming call message filled up his camera feed, startling both him and Emil. The latter stood up straight in case it was one of their higher-ups.

An older woman’s face filled up the camera. “Oh, is this thing on?” She leaned back to reveal a mail carrier uniform. “Hi. I have a special delivery here addressed to the Celestion-5. It’s for a Leonardo Summers?”

Emil craned his head up. “Oh yeah, we have that guy!”

“Someone by that name is stationed on this ship, yes.” Lorenzo answered more formally.

“Permission to dock on your ship?” she asked.

“Permission granted.” He pressed one button to drain oxygen out of the loading dock. After that finished, he pressed another to open the door. “You may now enter.”

“Thanks!”

A tiny mail ship parked itself inside. Emil busied himself by digging under his bed until he finally found what he was looking for. His guitar and portable amp.

Lorenzo turned back to him, pressing the same two buttons in reverse. “Accompany Ranger Summers to the loading dock while I keep watch for his brother. Have him open the package there. Do not enter the upper area of the ship until he does. And make sure you wear your helmet and gloves while he does it, just in case.”

“Just in case what?” Emil stood back up.

“Remember AEMBA.”

He rolled his eyes. He remembered alright. “Any envelope might be anthrax. I thought Dad phased that one out. So wait, do you think Rookie’s mailing in poison? Rookie??”

“If the other one is up to something, it only makes sense that Ranger Summers would be involved.” Lorenzo reasoned, though Emil would hardly call it reasonable. “Or maybe he mailed it in under his name.”

Emil sighed, genuinely sad for him. “Lorie. I know you’re worried, but I’ll be fine. I promise.”

“Please just wear the helmet and gloves.”

“If it makes you feel better...”

If this was his reaction now, Emil couldn’t imagine what he’d do if he found out what was really going on. Maybe it would take suspicion off of Leon. But more than likely, it would lead to more suspicions down the line.

“I was gonna go downstairs anyway to set up the party. I take it you won’t be coming since you’re busy with the whole finding Angelo thing.” He picked up his guitar. “You want me to bring you back a slice of cake?”

“No thank you.” Lorenzo’s eyes fell toward the ground. They widened when he saw what Emil was holding. “You brought your guitar?? Where were you hiding that thing?”

Emil hugged his guitar, giving it a little smooch. “You know I can’t be apart from him for too long. He had to come with!”

His brother shook his head, no doubt thinking of interrupted–enhanced–study sessions in the past. “I suppose it doesn’t break any rules. Just. Just come back safe.”

“You got it!” He winked and started toward the door with his guitar.

“Remember your gloves!” Lorenzo reminded him, ruining his cool exit. After putting on the gloves, he left for real.

Emil burst into the kitchen, guitar strap slung over his shoulder to an audience of two–Roxie and Jun.

“Yooo, nice guitar.” Jun looked up from Roxie’s phone.

Roxie followed. “You brought your guitar with you!”

“You knew he had one?”

“Yeah, he played it when–”

“Oh yeah, I told her I had one a while back!” Emil aggressively winked to signal that it’d be bad news for either of them if someone happened to overhear that she and Leon were in the captains’ room.

“Ah, yes!” She returned the winking. “He told me once upon a time.”

Jun looked between them, obviously knowing that something was up. “Cool.”

“Anyway, what’re you guys doin’?” The blond started to open the fridge, but quickly realized that he forgot to take the cheesecake out from the freezer.

“Rox was just showing me pictures of her dad.”

“Her dad?” Weird. When he checked the freezer, the cheesecake was nowhere to be found.

“Yeah!” Roxie answered. “My dad has a wall of pictures of me in his office because he’s so proud of me!”

“Who wouldn’t be?” fawned Jun, somehow deadpan while doing so.

“Waaaaah~ So sweet! But I’m also really proud of my dad, so I took a bunch of pictures of him to show friends. Everyone on this ship will see him. This, I vow.”

Emil couldn’t see it, but he swore he felt eyes boring into his back. “I’ll take a look at him in a sec. I’m just looking for something.”

“If it’s that blue box, it’s in the fridge.” Jun directed.

He opened the refrigerator, and sure enough, he saw hints of a blue box hidden behind condiments and leftovers.

“I hid it in the back since it seemed important. Wouldn’t want anyone going through it.” They tilted their head toward the dorm hall. Must’ve meant Aiden.

“Thanks for lookin’ out, Jun!” Emil closed the door. “Did’ja take it out of the freezer, too?”.

“Nah. It was already there.”

“Huh.” That would be a mystery for another day. For now, he moseyed on over to Jun and Roxie, making sure not to hit either of them with his guitar.

Roxie shoved her phone in his face as soon as he got there. “This is my dad!”

On screen was a short, round little man standing with his hands clasped in a car lot.

“He’s a car salesman?” To Emil, he seemed a little meek for the job. He seemed a little meek to be related to Roxie, for that matter. But then again, he and Lorenzo share the same genes. So did Leon and–

“Yeah! Do you notice anything about his head?”

Emil plucked at a few guitar strings. “Well. He’s bald.”

“Exceptionally so!” Roxie pointed a finger. “He’s the baldest man in the whole county, and I made sure everyone knew it. I shined his head every single day. Trust is an essential part of the customer-seller relationship, and you can always trust a man with a shiny head!”

“You can always trust a man with a shiny head.” Jun repeated, as if it made perfect sense.

Emil had questions, but it’d be funnier to keep this going. “Yeah, obviously!”

“I’m glad you’re enlightened to the truth.” Roxie continued flicking through pictures. “Here’s one of him cooking on one of his days off. He makes a really good chicken pot pie! Although it probably tasted better because I was not the one tasked to cook, huhuhu! But I did help.”

“That’s more than I can do. You used to cook all the time?”

“It’s a skill I have in my tree.” Emil pretended to understand what she meant by that. “Since we were only two strong, I had command over the kitchen while he peddled wares at the car shop.”

Roxie was a latchkey kid? “I can’t imagine what it must be like being all alone. Even when Dad wasn’t home as often, Lorenzo was still around. I think I’d lose my mind.”

“Yeah, that’s what happened to me! Here’s one of him on the phone in his office.” She brushed past that comment before Emil could catch his breath. “You can see the wall he’d show his customers. Everyone knew of my achievements!”

Sure enough, behind her dad was a wall covered with pictures of Roxie. He posed with her in some of them. They looked so happy together, it brought a smile to Emil’s face.

“You two must be so close.” He found himself wondering how it would be to have a father who didn’t spend his time drowning in worst case scenarios.

“Yeah.” A weird pause followed. “Yeah.”

Roxie stood up from her seat abruptly enough to nearly knock Emil back. He held his guitar close for protection.

“Nature calls to me!” She announced. “I must be going now!”

“Oh, while you’re gone, can you get the others to come to the kitchen?”

“Will do!” She called back, power walking through the door.

Before Emil could take another breath, the intercom clicked on.

“Lieutenant. The mail.” Lorenzo’s message ended as soon as it started.

“Oh yeah!” Emil slapped his head. “I can’t leave that mail lady waitin’ much longer.”

“Mail lady?” Aiden lifted his head from the refrigerator. “And what’s this blue thing?”

“When the h–? Where did you–? Uhhhh.” Emil stepped back and forth, not sure where to go. He finally shoved his guitar into Aiden’s hands. “Hold this for me until I get back. Jun,” he turned to them, “You take the box out on my signal.” He pointed at himself winking.

“Got it.” Only Jun answered.

Emil gave them a thumbs up as he barreled through the door. He stopped at the next one, knocking as a courtesy.

“Come in.” A faint voice answered.

“Hey Leon, how ya doin’, we gotta go downstairs to pick up some mail for you.” Words fell out of his mouth before he even registered the room in front of him.

“...Mail?” Leon responded listlessly. He sat alone on his bed, staring at his phone the way he had been for the past three days, only coming out when he needed to. The window panel shut out the stars outside. It hurt to look at. But it also made Emil more determined. He would make him smile on his birthday no matter what it took.

“Yeah.” Emil slowed down, leaning against the doorway. “We should probably get going. I got sidetracked for a bit. The mail lady’s probably wondering where we are. Put your gloves on on the way out.”

Without a word, Leon stood up and followed him into the hallway. They passed through the kitchen with nothing more than a lethargic ‘Good morning’ from Leon to Jun. Finally, they made it to the stairwell.

Emil opened the panel to the loading dock. “Hey. Happy birthday.”

“Thanks, Emil.” Leon smiled, or at least pretended to. It was the kind of face Emil felt in his bones. He hoped no one noticed this kind of smile on him.

The lieutenant went downstairs first, trying not to cringe as he passed the incinerator room. He saw the mail woman and her ship waiting on deck.

“Sorry to keep ya waiting!” He broke the silence. “My fault. We’ll get this signed off quickly so I don’t waste any more of your… time…”

As the two approached her, Emil noticed that she wasn’t annoyed. She looked terrified.

“Are you doin’ alright?”

The mail lady looked down at the package in her trembling hands, then back at him. “I-Is this safe to hold…? Your captain forgot to turn off his audio the first time, a-and–”

“O-Oh, nonononono.” Emil’s eyes went wide in realization. “It’s not–” He stopped waving his hands and placed his fists on his hips to think. “Tell ya what. We’ll open this after you’re safely outta here.”

“What’s in the box?” asked Leon.

She eyed Leon warily. “You don’t know?”

“Whatever it is, it’s probably not dangerous.” Emil reassured both. He tilted his head toward Leon. “Sign the clipboard, Rookie.”

Leon did as told. The mail carrier thrust the box into his hands and safely got into her ship. He waved goodbye, completely unaware she thought he might be a terrorist.

Emil tapped him on the shoulder. “We should put on our helmets.”

“Hm? Why don’t we just go upstairs?”

He tried to come up with something on the fly. “Uhhhh. Procedure!”

“Okay.” That didn’t take much convincing.

With their helmets on, Lorenzo’s voice clicked in over the headsets. “Is everyone’s oxygen secured?”

Everyone gave him the okay, including the mail woman.

“I will now commence draining oxygen out of the area.”

The other three waited around while that happened. After that, the loading dock opened up into the starry abyss, and the mail ship did its best impression of peeling out of a driveway. The loading dock door closed, leaving the two of them alone with the captain’s voice.

“You may now open the package.”

Leon looked around. “Oh, I was hoping to get back to my room first.”

“You may not enter the rest of the ship until you open that package. It’s a safety procedure.” His excuse wasn’t much better than Emil’s.

A scanner swept the room when Leon opened the box and concluded with a green flash. Surprise, surprise, everything came up clear. Oxygen presumably filled the room, since Emil started to hear his own footsteps while pacing.

“The air is clear of any contaminants. You may now take off your helmets.”

“Thanks, bro. Don’t forget to turn off the intercom this time!” Emil warned.

“What do you mean? Lieutenant, did I–?” The intercom cut off as soon as Lorenzo realized what happened. Emil hoped he’d be okay. Maybe he should bring him that slice of cake.

“What’cha got?” Emil peered over at Leon’s box as they put their helmets away. “Anything good?”

Leon lifted something round. “They sent me these little cheese wheels. They’re my favorite.” He smiled genuinely, not as much as he would’ve normally, but it was a start. “And some crackers to go along with them. There’s these packs of lemonade powder, too, wow! Annnd some gummy bears. That’s really sweet. Both the sweets and the gift, I mean.”

“Aww, that’s nice.” Emil smiled. For a second, it seemed like Leon returned to his normal self some.

“Huh? What’s this?” Leon dug around the package and pulled out a handwritten card. “‘Missing you from planet Earth. Hope our star is shining out there.’” he read.

“I think I see something on the back.”

Leon flipped the card over to reveal a photo. A man who looked like a blond, green-eyed version of him held the phone camera, and in the background stood a smiling woman who shared his teeth.

“Hm? Oh wow, it’s,” his mouth twitched, “it’s my mom and dad.” He moved his thumb down. “And…”

Off to the left stood Angelo in a bike helmet, waving. This might’ve been the first time Emil saw him smile. He looked haggard and frankly a little pathetic, but he smiled. Leon’s happiness, on the other hand, died.

“Those aren’t the only things you got!” Emil broke the emergency glass of his birthday plans with a wink and a smile.

“Wha?” Leon sniffled. Emil needed to act fast.

“Yeah, follow me upstairs!”

Emil hightailed it up the stairs with Leon in tow before coming to a smooth, composed stop in front of the kitchen door.

“After you, birthday boy.” He rolled out his hands.

Leon entered the kitchen first, then Emil. Around the same time, Mia entered from the other door.

“Is… something going on?” Mia looked around, confused.

“Looks like we’re all gathered here for the man on the hour!” Emil winked, motioning to Leon.

Jun stood up to head toward the refrigerator.

“Wait, I didn’t mean for–” He shrugged. “Ah, you might as well.”

Roxie burst through the door. “Did birthday commence??”

“Whose birthday?” Aiden slouched at the table with Emil’s guitar laying there lifelessly.

“It’s my birthday.” answered Leon.

Emil clapped. “Now that we’re all caught up, let’s wish our boy Rookie a happy birthday!”

Everyone wished Leon a happy birthday. They didn’t do it with any coordination or matching enthusiasm, but they did it! That’s what counted.

Jun took the cake out of the refrigerator and placed it on the table. Emil swooped in fancily grabbing–and nearly dropping–a plate and knife before popping open the box to a big, beautiful cheesecake. Half was covered in a lemon glaze, the other, in orange.

“A lemon cheesecake?” Leon reacted, mystified like his normal self. “That’s all the things I love in one! H-How did you know??”

“Only the best for my crew~” Emil tried to hide his pride. He held up the knife. “Let’s dig in–”

“Wait!” Roxie looked around. “Where’s the captain? And Angelo?”

Of course it would come to this. “My bro’s busy with somethin’ right now and unfortunately can’t come down.” The last thing Emil wanted Leon to think about was Lorenzo hunting Angelo. “And Angelo…” Emil looked toward the ceiling. “Hey Captain!”

“Yes, Lieutenant.” Lorenzo answered.

“Can you do a ship-wide call for Angelo? He’s gonna miss the partyyy.”

“Ranger Angelo Summers, report to the kitchen.”

Emil waited for about 5 seconds. “Any sign of him coming?”

“Negative.”

“Darn!” He snapped his fingers. “I’d hate to continue without him, but if he’s not gonna show up… Oh well. Thanks, Captain Bro!”

The intercom clicked off.

“Hey, wait!”

It clicked back on. “Yes, Lieutenant?”

Emil hovered a hand over Leon’s shoulder to prevent another incident like with Angelo. Once he got the okay, he slung an arm around his shoulder and pointed to him. “You gotta wish him a happy birthday!”

“...Happy birthday, Ranger Summers.”

“Thank you, Captain!” Leon waved, smiling as the intercom clicked again.

The lieutenant turned him around toward the cake and began slicing it into sixteenths. They weren’t even, but they were 16 slices.

He served Leon the first slice. “Here ya go.”

Leon accepted it with the deepest of gratitude. “I…I can’t believe you did this for me.”

“Ahhh, it’s only a cake.”

“Maybe to you, but you really don’t know how much this means to me right now. Thank you so much!” He looked like he was about to cry.

“No problem!” Starting to get embarrassed at all this heartfelt emotion, Emil busied himself serving cake to the others.

“Can I have a slice of the orange one?” Aiden pointed to it.

“That side’s off limits until the 23rd!”

“Okay.” He didn’t seem too bothered, either way.

Emil served slices of cheesecake to everyone else, leaving three for Lorenzo, Angelo, and himself. Instead of eating his slice, he took pride in seeing everyone’s enjoyment of the cake.

“I’m not like the biggest cheesecake fan,” Jun started inbetween bites, “but this is nice. Good cake.”

“It’s good.” Even Aiden gave his vote of approval. To get his and Jun’s praise must mean it’s a pretty cool cake. But then again, he didn’t seem that picky about food. Emil celebrated anyway.

He also hovered his forkful of cheesecake dangerously around Emil’s precious guitar. Just as he feared, the cheesecake plummeted toward it.

“My baby!” Emil snatched it up just before the cake hit the table. He paced around, rocking it in his arms, until an idea came to him. “Why don’t I play a little somethin’ while you guys eat?”

“On your guitar??” Leon lit up.

Emil strummed it. “How else?”

The table wouldn’t give him enough room to play, so instead, he decided to use one of the boxes of food in the corner as a seat. Just his luck, he picked a heavy box. A really heavy box! It was kind of embarrassing how much he struggled with it.

“Whew. I didn’t know I was this outta shape.”

“Do you want my assistance?” asked Roxie. …Were her eyes wet?

“It’s all good. I won’t let this box beat me!”

“That’s the spirit!” She seemed chipper as usual, but Emil couldn’t shake the feeling that something was up. If she’s anything like him, he’d catch her slipping up some other day.

Emil flexed one of his noodle arms, then got back to work. It took using his whole body to get the box to budge. Finally, he got it where he wanted it, and sat down.

Guitar slung over his shoulder, he checked to make sure it was properly tuned. He plucked it a few times just to be certain, and adjusted the volume on his amp so it wouldn’t blow everyone’s ears out.

He played a rendition of Happy Birthday to You, with embellishments, of course. Roxie and Jun joined in. Aiden didn’t, too busy eating his cake. Emil was pretty sure Mia only mouthed the words. He didn’t care.

Looking around, he saw nothing but smiles in the moment. The biggest one on Leon’s face, as it should be. Emil gave him a wink, and somehow it grew even bigger. Eating cake, singing, and laughing, everyone enjoyed themselves. He swore he could hear humming along with the song, but that could just be his imagination. All was well.

Despite everything that happened in the past few days, this party was almost exactly how he’d imagined it. Now if only the other two were here to enjoy it.