New Kid on the Ship

“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.”

Angelo’s stomach dropped, and so did the ground beneath the ship. He couldn’t tear his eyes away from the shrinking spaceport and trees. Clouds as white as Angelo’s knuckles began to speckle the quiltlike fields and cityscapes. It should remind him of flying in planes, but those were in his family’s blood. Rockets were a different, much faster beast.

Only after a sheet of clouds covered the Earth below did Angelo begin to accept that the ship wouldn’t crash and burn. Probably. What he’d give to lay his head on those clouds, though. Just the thought of it nearly put him to sleep.

“Hey!”

His eyes snapped open. He turned to the sound of his brother’s voice.

“Wake up, sleepyhead.” Leon teased. “I’m not letting you miss this. Look up!” 

A sea of black dotted with twinkling white stars greeted Angelo. 

“We’re in space…?” Angelo covered his mouth, not sure if he should talk yet. Still, he couldn’t believe it. He made it to space. Things didn’t turn out quite as planned, but he managed to do it while keeping his bodily fluids from spilling.

“Aren’t you excited?”

Angelo nodded vigorously. While his stomach wouldn’t stop doing backflips, he felt so light his shoes could hardly touch the ground. Actually, they couldn’t touch the ground even if he tried.

He was floating.

“We’ve reached orbit.” announced the captain. “You may now unbuckle your seatbelts and do whatever you wish, provided it fall within your duties and the Interstellar Forces guidelines.”

The chairs sank back into the floor after everyone left them, leaving Angelo with nothing to anchor him to the floor. Like almost always, his brother came to the rescue and pulled him to the ground. 

“Psst. Aren’t you forgetting something?” Emil asked the captain.

“What?”

“You haven’t welcomed Angelo to the crew yet!”

“Of course I have. Haven’t I?” The captain turned to the Summers. “I initiated Ranger Summers into the crew, right?”

Leon answered. “No… I don’t think so. I can’t remember if you told him your name, either.” He turned to Angelo. “Did he?”  

Angelo shook his head. His trashiness among the pristine crew disgusted the captain so much, he forgot to introduce himself.

“I’m Captain Galhardo. Welcome to the Celestion-5.” Delivering the world’s quickest intro, Captain Galhardo floated away from everyone and to the front of the deck. He seemed kind of awkward, but not awkward enough to not intimidate Angelo.

Emil watched his brother flee. “I guess I can give my tour now, if you’re ready.” He winked. “But I’m sure you wanna stick around to enjoy the view, right?”

“You read my mind!” Leon’s excitement burst through. “Ángie, Ángie! Hold onto me. I wanna show you something!”

A socially acceptable opportunity to cling onto someone he knew and loved? Angelo jumped on it in a heartbeat. He slotted Leon between his arms like a forklift, then clamped them shut.

Leon laughed. “I’m gonna need my arms, y’know.” He freed his arms, wrapping one around Angelo’s side. “There we go. Hold on tight!”

Angelo nodded, his cheer turning to fear once he saw the floor fall from beneath them. When he looked up, he found them flying in midair, halfway to the ceiling. “How are you doing this??”

“We got these super cool ankle jet prototypes a month ago. They let us get around the ship much faster in zero gravity without having to rely on walls and stuff!” Leon placed his hands on the ceiling to stop them. He gasped. “Look at the Earth from here!”

Breaking up the black expanse, a big, blue ball marbled with white lay below the brothers. Angelo couldn’t see the whole thing, just a wide, curved section, but even still, it was hard to register that he looked at his home from so far away. 

“Isn’t it beautiful?”

“Yeah…” Angelo had to agree. He also made the mistake of glancing down at the floor, prompting his instincts to remind him that humans were not meant to fly. Alarm bells rang in his head to warn him that the disorienting distance to the floor meant danger. He felt sick just glancing at it.

“Let me show you my jets!” Leon separated himself from Angelo and left him hanging at the mercy of zero gravity.

“Aah! Please don’t leave me!!” Angelo blurted out, sounding more desperate than he’d like to admit. Hopefully no one heard.

“It is time for me to make my grand entrance!”

Curly red hair attached to a body came into view. 

“Take my hand if you want salvation.” The hair parted to reveal the girl who stared at him earlier. She lowered a brown hand toward him.

“It’s okay, I got him.” Leon hooked his arm around Angelo before he got the chance to take her hand. 

She pouted. “Rookie, how dare you?” She pointed in Leon’s face. “How dare you not tell me about hiiim?”

“I could’ve sworn I told you I had a brother.”

“You did, but how in the heck did you forget to mention how cute he isss??” Her finger moved to Angelo, wagging. “You were already adorable, but look at him! He looks like a cute little muffin with his cute little muffin hair! I can’t stand it!” Was she about to cry?

Now Angelo knew how Emil felt earlier. He covered his face in a failing attempt to hide how much he did not know how to respond.

“C’mon, you’re gonna make him explode!” Leon half-warned, half laughed. 

“Well that makes two of us. Hi, I’m Roxie!”

Angelo removed one of his hands to see her extending a hand and a bright smile toward him. 

He shook it. “Hello, I-I’m Angelo.”

“Awww, even your voice is so kawaii!” Oh, she must be the other anime fan Leon mentioned who kept blowing his cover. “I am going to pick you up one day.”

“Th-thank y—What?”

“Provided you are comfortable with it, of course, of course.” She nodded sagely. 

“Roxie’s really strong!” Leon told him. “If I can carry you, then she should be able to do it, no sweat.”

She gave Angelo a purposeful smile. “That will make you the first in my quest to lift all of my friends. With your belief in me, I will make my goal!”

What was this girl’s deal? It didn’t matter. Angelo was helpless to do anything but love her. He would lay down his life for Roxie. His mind struggled to find a way to say he would be honored to be the first step to her goal without coming off too sappy or strong. Before he could, a new person rose into the conversation.

“I believe in you, Rox.” Adjusting black bangs over one eye, Jun Kim joined the rest.

“Thank you, Junzie!” Roxie latched onto the older ranger similar to how Angelo latched onto Leon. 

Jun’s remaining eye focused on Angelo. “‘Sup? You’re Angelo, right?”

Just like that, Angelo’s mind imploded. Every word in the English language disappeared from it. Spanish too, not that it would help much. How did he get to the point in his life where his name came out of Jun Kim’s mouth?

“Yeah, that’s Jun Kim!” Leon answered the question he couldn’t ask.

“You are basking in the presence of a legend among us!” Roxie added.

“I-I-I–” The words finally began to load, “Yeah, I-I’m… S-Sorry, it’s just an honor to meet Th-The First Woman of the IF.”

“Ángie, uhhh… Jun is…” Leon and Roxie glanced back and forth at Jun worriedly. Did Angelo do something wrong? He must’ve done something wrong. “Should I—?

“Nah. I got this.” Jun’s head turned to Roxie. “Rox, can you let go for a sec?”

Roxie let go of Jun, allowing what Angelo assumed was the opportunity to murder him either physically or emotionally. Angelo braced for his punishment, but instead, Jun took out three pamphlets from her uniform coat. After studying them, two went back in the coat and the last one was offered to Angelo. He took it with shaky hands.

“I got a feeling something like this would come up, so I made this. I dunno if it, like, makes any sense at all, so if you have any questions, just shoot.” Jun fired a finger gun.

Angelo opened up the pamphlet, still expecting the words on it to lash out at him for a mistake he probably should’ve known to avoid. What he found was something he didn’t expect at all. 

‘I’m Nonbinary and What That Means,’ read the title. Helpful, since Angelo had no idea what that meant. He opened the inside, filled with hastily drawn doodles in DigiPaint. 

‘Long story short, I’m not a man or a woman.’ That confused him for a few reasons, but the next sentence addressed one of them. ‘Now you’re probably wondering “Didn’t this weirdo get famous for being a woman? Were they lying about that too?” 

So you know how when you’re a newborn, the doctor slaps your butt and tells your parents that you’re a boy or a girl? The doc told mine I was a girl. By their standards, they’re not wrong, technically, but I’ve found over the years a lotta weird assumptions are based on whether people think you’re one or the other. Personality, interests, ability, things like that. It never really vibed with me, but I only ever found out there were words for what I felt after the whole pretending to be a man incident. Now I’m stuck with everyone seeing me as a woman except for me (and these 6 cool people.)  

You may not get why any of this matters to me, but imagine if everyone saw you as the wrong gender and treated you accordingly.’

The last sentence stopped Angelo in his tracks. He didn’t have to imagine. Genetics played a cruel joke, giving him the soft features of his mother’s family and the soft voices of his father’s. Combined with having long hair for most of his life, people often mistook him for a girl. Even short hair couldn’t save him all the time. Jun’s situation sounded like a nightmare scenario.

“I-I understand.” Angelo looked up from the pamphlet. “You’re… not a woman. I’m s-so sorry for calling you one!”

“It’s cool. You couldn’t have known.” Jun waved it off.

“They’re so cool, aren’t they?” Leon smiled at him.

“Yeah, th-they are.” Angelo looked up at them. “Is it okay if I keep reading?”

“Take all the time you need.”

Some concepts and clarifications presented in the rest of the pamphlet took Angelo some time to grasp. Others he didn’t follow at all but desperately wanted to. Jun and Emil weren’t exactly the same as him, but they understood him on levels no one ever had before. He needed to repay that back. His ‘would die for’ counter increased by two. 

Leon poked a thumb into his chest. “If you can believe it, I’m the only straight and not-trans–what was the word for that again?”

“Cis~” answered Roxie.

“Yeah, that! I’m the only straight and cis guy on the ship! I know I can’t exactly relate to you, so I’m super glad you got to meet everyone here.”

“Really?” So that’s what Emil meant when he said Angelo wouldn’t have to worry. Little did he know, worrying was in his DNA. Did he really deserve to be in a place where people understood him that way? He didn't deserve their tolerance.

But he hadn’t met everyone yet. One part of the pamphlet reminded him as much. ‘Don’t freak out if you hear Aiden call me masculine terms from time to time, I’m cool with it. He’s also nonbinary, but is still fine going by he and stuff.’ A doodle of the ranger with tall hair and a goatee had been drawn below. ‘(He doesn’t care if I mention it here.)’

Aiden. Angelo could now put a face to Leon’s roommate. Scouring the room, he spotted him on the floor in a conversation with Emil. Angelo’s brother texted him about Aiden’s antics. His rudeness to Leon didn’t go unnoticed, no matter how much the latter tried to sugarcoat it. 

Angelo had a bone to pick with him.

The bearded ranger stood at least a foot taller than the newest recruit, with a noticeable scar across his face and muscles chiseled with sculpture-like definition. All of this terrified Angelo, but not as much as living in a world where anyone could disrespect Leon.

Seeing his smug face made Angelo sick to his stomach. Really sick, actually. He forgot how woozy it made him to look down at the floor from so high up.

He gave the pamphlet back to Jun. “Big Brother,” he turned to Leon, “is th–is there a bathroom nearby?”

“Bathrooms are down on the first floor. Why?”

“I-I don’t feel–” Angelo quickly covered his mouth to prevent his McBeefy’s from becoming McBarfy’s.

Roxie felt around her clothes. “Darn! I thought I brought them with me! Rookie, take him, and follow me.” 

“Okay!” Leon held onto Angelo’s arm.

“Muffinhead, keep those big beautiful peepers of yours shut until we get there, okay?”

Getting his own nickname would make Angelo happier if his insides weren’t in the process of a rebellion. He closed his eyes as told. Without visuals, he couldn’t tell if he and his brother moved at all, but upon hearing Emil ask if they were ready for the tour, he could guess they made it to the ground. He heard a door open, then shut behind him.

“Halt right there!” Roxie demanded from… below?

Leon’s voice came next. “Where are you going?”

“To the infirmary!”

“Shouldn’t we go with you?”

“Later. For now, this will be the easiest room to clean if things go wrong.”

Angelo kept his eyes shut not only because he felt less disoriented, but because he held onto the hope that maybe, just maybe if he couldn’t see anyone, they wouldn’t be able to see him. He held onto that hope as tight as he held onto his breakfast.