Race to the Next World

"Happy birthday, Aurora." A group of friends were sitting quietly in the hallway. Each of them had a gift in their hands for Aurora.

It wasn't a good time to be celebrating anything. It wasn't Aurora's fault that he was turning nineteen in the middle of a war. His friends saw how upset he was and wanted to cheer him up.

No one deserves to be miserable on their birthday.

"We shouldn't..." Aurora was turning red.

"I made cookies." Taurus handed him the small white box.

He couldn't turn down her cookies. He really liked them. He took the box from her but he didn't open it. He didn't want to share.

"So I made glow sticks." Hags gave him a box as well. "I know you like that synthetic stuff that glows green so I put it in there."

"Thanks." Aurora said, sarcastically. "I've always wanted a night light-"

"I know you're going to love it." Hags was proud of himself.

Aurora did open the box and saw the glass casing that covered the green string like material. Aurora didn't want to shake it yet, he'd rather do it in the dark.

"Okay, my turn." Donri snuck over so he could be with them. He liked his American friends, he thought they were quiet. "This was last minute so I couldn't wrap it, but..." he handed it to Aurora.

A new white jacket.

He couldn't get the blood out of his other one.

It was longer and the material was shiny. Aurora put it on and smiled.

"Thanks." he was blushing.

His friends were nice to him.

"Serberous couldn't be here because he's training new recruits, but he sent this." Taurus handed him another gift.

It was a glass case that fit in his hand. Inside was a hologram of Aurora and his sister together. They were smiling. Aurora didn't have anything to put in his room that reminded him of family. He thought it was easier to cope with everything if he didn't put anything of value there. But he liked it.

Aurora continued to smile, but he was sad.

Everything wasn't going right. With what's been happening, it's not a good thing to be happy. He almost wanted to cry. He had this sad look in his eyes as he tried to keep his smile on his face.

His sister was still unconscious.

It was his birthday and he couldn't talk to her.

They saw that he was upset.

Taurus was the first to make a comment. "So, did Sirus get you anything?" she was curious, more so to spark up a conversation. She knows that Aurora forgets about everything else when he talks about Sirus.

"No." Aurora lied.

Sirus did in fact get him a gift. This morning, Sirus had disappeared. That was usual. He barely ever stays in one place for long. And Aurora woke up in his bed. That was also usual. Aurora finding himself in Sirus' bed was not uncommon.

But placed in Aurora's bed was a small cube.

Aurora wasn't sure if it was a prank so he was hesitant to touch it when he saw it, but he was so excited when he did. The entire room lit up with a hologram of the old galaxy system. He hadn't seen anything cooler.

But he wanted to keep that to himself. He was sure that Sirus didn't want him parading the fact that he was kind enough to get Aurora a gift for his birthday.

"Isn't Sirus' birthday coming up, too?" Hags asked.

"We're...two days apart." Aurora admitted.

Forty-four hours if he was being accurate.

"What?" Taurus was surprised.

"Yeah, his birthday is in two days-"

Taurus got up quickly and she ran off down the hallway. When she turned the corner, she disappeared. That was it. Aurora already knew what the problem was. Taurus was the one to celebrate birthdays. She just found out Sirus' birthday was in two days and she didn't make enough cookies.

"I hate when she does that." Aurora said.

Sirus doesn't deserve anything. Aurora was quick to take that thought back. He deserves things in moderation. Aurora didn't know Sirus was going to get him a gift, but he had been making one for Sirus, too.

These past few days were rough.

Aurora felt bad enough because of what happened. He didn't want Sirus to be moody on his birthday so he thought making something would be nice.

Sirus doesn't celebrate his birthday. He hasn't for years now. All he wants is to not be bothered and sleep. He won't do what he's told, he'll blow off tasks, and won't leave his room. He always gets written up on his birthday, but he doesn't care because people leave him alone and let him sleep.

Aurora didn't know this rule yet.

He was going to find out.

That morning, Aurora had shuffled in bed, finding that he was alone in it. When he looked up, he saw that Sirus was about to leave.

It was four in the morning. Where was he going at this hour?

Aurora was still in a daze. It was too early for him to move out from under the blanket. He caught the sight of Sirus leaving.

"Happy birthday." Aurora murmured quietly before putting his head back on the pillow.

Sirus heard him. He was hoping that Aurora wouldn't have found out but there was only so much he could hide from him. Aurora tends to search for information.

"Thanks."

Sirus left.

"Uh..." A young woman had gotten in Sirus' way before he could place his hand on the scanner. "Where do you think you're going, young man?" she put her hands on her hips and stood in his way.

Sirus was not in the mood.

"Alya, I'll kick you if you don't fucking move." he warned her.

She smiled widely as she opened her arms wide for a hug. Sirus shoved her aside instead so he could put his hand on the scanner. The large doors opened and he walked through without a word.

"You're so pissy all the time." she tagged along. "You're not going home with that attitude, are you?"

"Go away." Sirus said through his teeth.

"I told your mom I would come this time." she didn't turn away. She walked beside Sirus, but she wasn't quiet.

Sirus always snuck away to be home for a few hours on his birthday. He wouldn't say it was pleasant because he had a lot of siblings and they were loud, but he had to admit -not to anyone else- that he wanted to see his mom.

He wasn't like her.

She was happy all the time. She lived free. She enjoyed her life. And she had a big family. That's one thing Sirus couldn't stand. He had so many half siblings that at this point he thought he was related to everyone on Civilian deck two.

Sirus was a middle child. His older siblings were already gone, starting their own families. His younger siblings were in school, about to choose their own occupations. He was the only one to leave at such a young age and he was resistant to change his mind.

What people didn't know was that being on the fighting force was not his first choice.

His mom welcomed him home with open arms. His expression never changes, even when he sees her. He was distant.

"Mijo! You came home!" she hugged him tightly.

It was five in the morning. His siblings were up and ready for school. When they heard their mother, they rushed over to see who it was that was home. Which older brother was it? They ran over to Sirus and Alya to greet them.

"And look at you." His mom had pulled Alya inside, too, and got a good look at her. "Your mother's not going to believe you got so tall." she said.

"No one said I would make it." Alya laughed. "I told everyone I got my dad's genes." she said.

Sirus had quietly walked inside. His younger siblings had crowded around him. The youngest was lucky enough to be picked up in his arms.

"Sirus! Look!" His sister had lifted up her tablet to show him the letter. "I got my occupation. I'm going to be an architect." she was happy. He was the one that convinced her to do it.

No one would know why Sirus changed his first choice for occupation. His sister told him the news, but deep inside, something broke in him. She got what he wanted.

"Good for you." he told her, rubbing her hair.

"You have so many bandages." Another sister came over to him and tugged on his arm. She even lifted his shirt to see. "What's wrong with you?" she asked him, curious about why he looked like he was patched up.

"You don't see me asking why your hair is chopped up badly." Sirus told her.

"Mom!" she yelled loudly and ran off.

His other siblings tried to catch him up on everything he's missed. Sirus doesn't come home often, and they were happy to see him when he does show up. His younger siblings gave him gifts they made themselves for his birthday. Sirus wouldn't take them with him. He thought it was easier to cope with what he deals with if he wasn't constantly thinking about his family. He loved his siblings but it was hard to be around them sometimes. They can be loud. And they always want attention.

But to say Sirus isn't like that would be another thing.

His mom got him to sit down at the kitchen table. Alya joined because she didn't have anything else to do. She was amazed every time she came with Sirus to see his mom.

He looked like her. He had thick hair just like her, dark eyes like her. If he smiled, it would be her smile. But personality wise, he wasn't like her. He wasn't welcoming or kind. He definitely wasn't loving.

He wasn't care free.

He has so much to stress about and all of it is building up inside him.

He wasn't like his mom.

"You always have so many bruises when I see you." his mom was looking at his face, checking the bruises on his neck, too. "You're not taking care of yourself." she was concerned.

He tried to push her away because she was being touchy.

"He works himself to death." Alya told the truth. "Always training, never sleeping."

"He's been doing that for years." his mom wasn't surprised. She pushed Sirus' hair back from his face. "When are you going to come back?"

"I'm nineteen." Sirus couldn't get her hand out of his hair.

"I lost you at fourteen." his mom said. "You're not taking care of yourself with them. Look at all this."

Sirus had a lot of bruises and scars. He had bandages on his hands and those were the ones that could be seen. There's more.

"I didn't come here for you to nag me." Sirus didn't want to talk about it. He wanted things to be quiet on his birthday. He came back to get away from the force, not talk about it.

His mother sighed as she looked at him. Sirus was a rebellious child, but she already knew. She was still happy to see him once in a while.

"Can I make you breakfast?"

"You can make me food anytime." Alya answered before Sirus could.

"I tried to leave her behind but she followed me." Sirus told his mom. "Can you get rid of her?"

"She's your friend."

"Yeah, Sirus, I'm your friend." Alya smiled widely at him as his mom started making breakfast for them both.

Sirus was laying in bed when Aurora came back into their room. He thought he wouldn't see Sirus for the rest of the day, but there he was, just laying there.

How was he going to tell Sirus about the gift he made?

Should he wake him up?

"Taurus made cookies." Aurora said quietly.

"I don't like sweets." Sirus didn't move in bed. He didn't want to eat anything that would make his teeth tingle, he hated that feeling.

"You told someone you liked salted caramel cookies and she found out." he said.

If Sirus didn't take the cookies, Aurora wouldn't shut up about it.

He pushed the blanket off him and sat up in bed. He looked tired, his hair was a mess, his clothes ruffled, his bandages unwrapping. He wanted to go back to sleep, though it was taking him a while to actually fall asleep. It wasn't a good time to celebrate his birthday, it doesn't feel right to blow off his tasks.

The timing was wrong.

Aurora handed Sirus the small box, and he looked inside. Sirus doesn't like sweets and that could be seen on his face as he looked at the cookies.

"Try it, you might like it." Aurora urged kindly.

His friend was kind enough to make Sirus cookies. The least Sirus could do was put one in his mouth.

Sirus did try one, but he didn't say anything.

He ate another one quietly.

Aurora didn't know what to say. He wanted to ask where Sirus always disappears to but he didn't. He sat down on his bed and watched Sirus take another cookie quietly.

"I liked the gift." Aurora said.

"Great." Sirus didn't want to talk about it.

"I made you one, too." Aurora found the right time to bring it up. "I can't exactly carry it around, but we can go get it if you're interested."

Sirus was tired of all the gifts, but he definitely had to see what Aurora made for him. He hoped it was something stupid so he could make fun of Aurora for it. He didn't say that out loud.

They were quiet for a moment.

Then Aurora spoke. "You know, you can...talk to me..."

Sirus looked towards him slowly. This is what he has to deal with on his birthday. He didn't talk to Aurora on his. It's common courtesy to leave him alone.

Sirus knew exactly what Aurora wanted to talk about.

Things haven't been great lately.

People were hurt, others died, things are trying to be rebuilt, and they're scrambling around. They've seen things.

It's not easy to talk about.

"I just want to go to sleep." Sirus said instead. He was more interested in being under the blanket right now. "Tell Taurus these are good."

Aurora smiled. There's actually something normal that Sirus likes.

That's nice to hear.

Before he could say something, the alarms started flashing. There was no sound, just a change in lights. Sirus groaned miserably but he didn't move.

He wasn't going anywhere.

Aurora didn't know. He had gotten up but looked down at Sirus when he didn't. "You're not coming?" he asked.

"I'm going to sleep." Sirus set the small box down.

"Oh." Aurora didn't know what to do with that. So he sat back down on his bed quietly.

Sirus didn't know what Aurora wanted. He was staring. "You can leave." Sirus said.

"Well, if you don't go, then I won't." Aurora said. "Why create unnecessary work for myself."

He wouldn't have said that months ago. Aurora was so uptight about following the rules, but things changed. He's gone through too much. So if Sirus wanted to stay in then so would he. There was nothing better to do, and Aurora didn't want to find out what was going on.

Sirus got back in his bed and turned over.

He didn't say anything.

But there was enough space for Aurora to get in so he did. Aurora was quiet as he pulled the blanket up over his body, too. He stared up at the ceiling, his thoughts going crazy because he had no one to talk to about what he was thinking about. It was a lot to hold in.

Sirus seemed to do that pretty well, keep things to himself.

Aurora didn't understand how he could do it.

After a while, Aurora fell asleep. It was quiet for too long, and he was mentally tired. Sirus hadn't fallen asleep yet. It was the first year he didn't pass out. But lately it's been hard to sleep. There was a lot on his mind, and it was like he couldn't shut it off.

He turned over to look at Aurora.

He was jealous how quickly Aurora fell asleep. If anyone had insomnia, it was Aurora. But today it was easier.

Sirus was staring.

He thought Aurora was absolutely insane, and he hated Coordinators that were crazy. Aurora had this need to be on top, to be the best, to be first. But Sirus knew something changed. Aurora was more concerned about everyone else, wanting to protect people and make sure they were okay. Sirus couldn't stand that either, how Aurora put other things before himself.

Then there was that terrible side of Aurora. He gets into people's business. He's nosy. He's sneaky. He seems like the type for world domination.

Sirus had to admit that he would protect Aurora though. They've gotten out of bad situations because of him. If Aurora was gone, there would be some terrible things happening. Sirus knew that much.

It wasn't fair that Aurora got to sleep and he couldn't.

"Hey," Sirus pushed him. Aurora jolted awake and looked around frantically. The lights had stopped flickering a while ago, but Aurora thought it was go time. His heart was racing. He looked over at Sirus, wanting to know what was wrong. "Where's my gift?" Sirus asked.

He wasn't going to forget that he was supposed to receive something hand made.

Aurora closed his eyes and took a breath. He had to calm himself down because so much was going on. "We have to go get it." he said as he got out of bed slowly.

Sirus wasn't up for leaving, but if he couldn't sleep, neither could Aurora.

"I would really appreciate it if you could keep this between us." Aurora walked into one of the engineering rooms. No one was inside.

"I'll see what I can do." Sirus followed behind him.

"I should tell you that this is not a toy and it's not, but..." Aurora went searching for the hidden item in one of the boxes. It was placed underneath a few others, but he wrote his name on it so he would remember where he put it.

He held up two gloves and went over to Sirus. He took Sirus' hands and put them on for him. Both gloves lit up blue and activated.

Aurora wasn't done yet.

When he walked over to another door, one that was larger, one that had a sign that said 'equipment ahead', he pressed his hand on the scanner and it opened to a much bigger room with multiple platforms.

There was a room for armed machinery, but it's not known among everyone else. Coordinators play around with new equipment, trying to find something new to use in their war to be first on the planet. Aurora never comes in here, but he thought he might as well let Sirus do something fun for a change. So Aurora made something useful, well he thought it would be useful.

Sirus was stunned to be staring at everything he couldn't touch. There were a few models of different ships on the platforms. In the shelves against the walls had different weapons, helmets, uniforms, and various other things.

"What the hell is this?" Sirus hadn't seen this before. If he had known that Coordinators were having fun, he would've came over, too.

"You wonder why we're always so stressed out." Aurora said. It's their jobs as engineers to keep upgrading everything.

This room was for things that were almost fully functional. Some things couldn't be used even if they were functional. Coordinators were great at making stuff, and sometimes they got bored.

Aurora definitely got bored. He spent an entire day making Sirus' gift. "I was supposed to be upgrading the new ship systems, but I decided to make something fun." he said and took Sirus' hands again and moved them.

There was something moving across the large room.

Other machines were shut down, and placed in their right space, the largest ones on the platform. There was a few prototypes for the new ships but they weren't fully functional yet.

Aurora lifted Sirus' hands higher.

One of the ships thrusters lit up, the system turning on. The lights glowed blue, and it was bright.

"I know how paranoid you get when I try to do a maintenance on your ship so I didn't put it on." Aurora said cautiously as he let go of Sirus' hands. "Plus it's not fully functional, so don't go waving your hands around." he warned him.

Sirus went closer to see the ship that was on. He didn't need to be inside to have the system working. He closed his fists and the thrusters fire came out stronger.

"Holy shit." Sirus didn't believe it. He twisted his wrists, and a few small compartments opened up, where the weapons were.

When he lifted his hands higher, he heard the quiet whir of the ship get louder, like it was just about ready to take off. "This is awesome!" he shouted, his voice echoing in the room.

He got too excited.

"Wait!-" Aurora had warned him before, but Sirus wasn't paying attention.

The system crashed when Sirus moved his hands too fast. He couldn't hold it though, he was happy. The gloves stopped glowing, and the system turned off.

"I told you not to move too fast!"

"You have to make another one!"

"You're joking." Aurora gave up an entire day to make that, and it wasn't easy begging a group of Coordinators to let him borrow one of the prototype ships.

But he had seen the largest smile on Sirus' face, and he couldn't tell him no. Aurora almost thought he wouldn't see Sirus smile on his birthday, but it happened. There it was. Aurora actually made him happy.

Aurora didn't have the resources to make another cover system for Sirus' ship. So they quickly got over that idea.

Aurora was laying in bed with Sirus, and he held his gift in his hand. The galaxy was lighting up their room. Aurora knew each planet. He knew facts about the sun he couldn't use in an everyday conversation. He was staring up at the stars that covered every corner.

Sirus was watching Aurora.

Aurora had this innocent look to him, his maroon eyes always lit up when he learned something new. Sirus thought it was misleading, considering how mean Aurora could actually be.

Not as mean as Sirus, though.

"Do you think it will be as nice as it was before?" Aurora asked.

Sirus wanted to say he didn't think they'd make it. He wanted to say that they'd be lucky if they even got close enough. There's been talk about seeing stars, and a planet in the distance, but that was about it.

"I wonder what real grass feels like."

"Uh." Sirus was pretty sure that everyone knew what grass feels like. The Civilian deck was pretty close to a real planet. "You're delirious." he said.

"Well, what are you interested in?" Aurora looked over to him.

Sirus didn't want to be on the new planet. Things will change once they get there. If they get there. He wasn't sure if he was going to enjoy it.

Sirus didn't have an interest. There wasn't something he wanted to see when he got there. He knew what a tree was. He knew not to look at the sun. He knows what animals are.

He did have a question. "I saw a dragon for the first time." He said.

"Those aren't real." Aurora didn't miss a beat to tell him. It was almost like he knew Sirus had comments about things that weren't real.

But Sirus truly didn't know.

He paused for a second. "Oh." Aurora almost wanted to call him an idiot. "Can you make one?"

"You want a toy dragon?" Aurora didn't believe that. He turned his head to look at Sirus, wanting to find out if this was real, if Sirus was asking for a toy dragon.

"After that crap you made broke-"

"You broke it." Aurora had to correct him but Sirus wasn't listening.

"-you owe me. It's still my birthday."

Well he wasn't wrong. It was still his birthday. Aurora stared at him for a second, his maroon eyes on Sirus' face. He had to decide if this was a true request or if he was being messed with.

"A dragon isn't real, Sirus." Aurora complained. "And it's not like I have the resources to make it do anything if I wanted to make it do something. It's not going to just fly around or breathe fire. Why do you think I can make that?..."

Sirus didn't know how one person could talk so much.

Every word that Aurora said went through one ear and out the other.

"You never shut up." Sirus said to him. "Just stop talking for five minutes."

"That's your gift." Aurora wasn't going to take Sirus' rude comments. "Happy birthday." He looked at the ceiling again to watch the Galaxy system that was projected from the cube.

Sirus could no longer be alone on his birthday.