Apparently, Aenzel had parked their ship closer to the town so Surya didn’t have to climb all the way to the ravine where Aenzel normally kept their ship. Surya was so excited he bounced on his feet as he entered the barrier that made the ship invisible.

The ship was smaller than Surya thought, unlike UESA shuttles. It was probably the size of a bus, with less seats inside it. There were glowy lines along the wall that lit up the inside of the ship.

“Sit here", Aenzel pointed at the ledge that was embedded to the wall. Surya did as he was told and kicked his legs as Aenzel sat on the pilot seat.

The ship’s engine whirred into life and the wall immediately became transparent. Surya yelped in surprise, but quickly adjusted himself. When the ship began to take off, he pressed his face to the wall. They went up higher than Surya could even imagine, and he marveled at the sight of Sonoran Desert became smaller and smaller until he could see the whole Earth.

Space was a wonderful sight. Seeing it from beyond the orbit was so different from seeing it with a telescope. Everything was so small from up here—the Earth, the Moon, and even the stars seemed to fit within his palm.

“Surya, come and see this”, Aenzel called. Surya hopped down from the ledge and trotted to where Aenzel was sitting on the pilot seat.

On the front viewer was a large brown planet with wild, swirly pattern— “Jupiter”, Surya breathed out in amazement. It was even bigger than anything he’d ever seen, even bigger than Earth. There was no word to describe just how big it was and Surya felt really small.

Aenzel guided the ship to enter its atmosphere. Storm raged outside and shook the tiny spaceship. Surya was worried that it might destroy the ship, but Aenzel looked unfazed. They took the ship out of the planet’s orbit.

Saturn was next. It was big, but not as big as Jupiter. Its rings were so wide, though, and when Aenzel brought the ship to surf on one of the rings, the ring sparkled like they were made of diamonds.

“They're ice”, Aenzel explained. “Even this far out from any planet, water is everywhere.”

“Can we make ice cream from it?” Surya asked. That would be cool!

“What is ice cream?” Aenzel asked and Surya looked at them in horror.

“You never had ice cream before?!” That was unthinkable! Who hadn’t had ice cream in their life before? Aenzel, apparently. “That’s it! Once we get back to Earth, I’m gonna buy you ice cream. What flavor do you like?”

Aenzel looked confused. “… sour?”

Surya mimicked Layla’s tutting and crossed his arms. He couldn’t believe this. Who even liked sour ice cream? Did it even exist?

Aenzel reached over his head to ruffle his hair. With an annoyed yell, Surya dropped himself on their lap, causing the ship to shake—and Surya remembered that Aenzel was piloting the ship. He offered a guilty grin, but to his surprise, Aenzel didn’t look annoyed. They didn’t even tell him to move away.

Instead, they asked, “Do you want to see something awesome?”

With stars in his eyes, Surya nodded excitedly.

Aenzel pressed the buttons on the console. Surya wriggled to sit on Aenzel’s lap, trying to remember which ones Aenzel pressed but their fingers moved too fast. He caught a smile on Aenzel’s face—the smile reminded him of whenever Jamie was about to do something fun but dangerous.

“Ready?” Aenzel asked.

Surya nodded again.

Aenzel pushed the control stick and suddenly, the ship moved very fast. It was so fast that Surya was thrown backwards, his back to Aenzel’s chest. On the viewer, the stars were just a blur of lines streaking across the darkness of space.

“So cool!” Surya exclaimed, looking up to Aenzel. “This is so cool!”

“We are currently within the hyperspace, heading towards Anaes System”, Aenzel explained. “You will like it, you’ll see.”

When the ship suddenly jerked into a stop, Aenzel held Surya back so he wouldn’t hit the console. It took Surya a bit to reorient himself—and when he did, he saw the most amazing sight he’d ever seen.

Purple crystals were scattered all over the place. They twinkled and glimmered from the light that came from a nearby blue star. Aenzel took the ship closer to the crystals— and that was when Surya realized that some of them were bigger than the ship.

“Pretty!” Surya gasped in awe. “Are they diamonds?”

“No, they are called avenite clusters; one of the most volatile material in the universe”, Aenzel said. “That means, one bump will cause them to explode and destroy everything nearby.”

Surya blinked. “Uh.”

“And now—” Aenzel’s smile turned into a smirk. “We’re going to fly between them.”

Without warning, the ship took a sharp turn and entered the densely-packed avenite clusters. Surya screamed in fear when a large cluster appeared in front of the screen, but then he realized that Aenzel had full control of the ship. They weaved the ship between the clusters easily, much to Surya’s delight, and brought it out of there without bumping into anything. It was just like riding a roller-coaster!

“Again! Again!” Surya demanded.

“Ah, unfortunately we have to hyperjump you back to Earth, if you want to get home on time”, Aenzel chuckled.

“Aww…” Surya drooped, disappointed.

The ride back home, Surya decided, was kind of boring, but he still pressed his face on the viewer to take in everything. Outer space was so exciting!

—

After that, Surya’s daily routine changed. Aenzel began to wait for him at Surya’s school gate after school, and they would hang out at the oddest places around the town—with Aenzel being invisible all the time, of course.

One time, he even got Aenzel to try ice cream.

“Oh!” Aenzel exclaimed as they took a bite of it. “It tastes like hraljata.”

“What’s that?” Surya asked, immediately perking up at the mention of alien food.

“It’s a frozen sour-sweet dessert", Aenzel explained. “Much like this one, but less sweet and more sour.”

Surya made a face at the mental image. Aenzel chuckled.

“I admit it’s an acquired taste”, they said. “I used to eat them when I was younger.”

Surya tried to imagine a younger Aenzel, with less wrinkle and less frowning, eating sour ice cream; but he was unable to do it without giggling. “Do you like the ice cream then?”

“Of course”, Aenzel smiled at him. Surya beamed.

“Good. Then, can you eat this? Since I literally physically can’t eat it.” Surya offered his own ice cream to Aenzel.

“What do you mean?” Aenzel asked as they took Surya’s ice cream.

“Oh, I'm lactose intolerant”, Surya answered. “I'll get super sick if I eat something that’s made out of milk.”

Aenzel froze. “Wait, you mean this is a dairy product?”

As it turned out, Vaidesse couldn’t eat everything that was made out of milk. If Surya thought his lactose intolerance was bad, then Aenzel’s was even worse. Even though Aenzel said they’d be fine, Surya felt really, really bad. Living with so many people with dietary restrictions should have taught him to ask first before giving them something that could possibly be life-threatening.

The next day, Surya brought his dairy-free muffins that Layla made that morning as an apology to Aenzel. Aenzel eyed the muffins suspiciously before taking a cautious nibble of it.

“This is delicious, Surya”, Aenzel said, their ears perked up.

“Thanks! Layla made them!” Surya beamed. “She’s really good at baking stuff, while Jamie is good at cooking stuff. Together, they make the best food in the world!”

He ended up talking about Jamie and Layla while Aenzel listened. Occasionally, Surya would steal a chunk from Aenzel’s muffin. They seemed to pretend not to notice, so Surya kept doing it.

“You seem to like your caretakers very much”, Aenzel commented once Surya was done telling them about the barbecue party at Officer Lewis’ home for the Fourth of July.

“Yep. And like, I never knew about my mom until now, but like… I feel like, Layla is more like a mom than my own mom, y’know?” Surya kicked his legs.

“Sometimes those who have no blood relation are more dear to us than those who have blood relation”, Aenzel said, nodding their head.