Saran Falls, Montana. A small city surrounded by mountains and fields, a river that leads to a dam that inspired its name.

This is where a young adult, Aiden Celestis, lives. On one of the most humble streets in the city.

Aiden spent a lot of his time at his friends Kai Choudhury and Ally Thompson's house, playing games like D&D or watching movies and sharing hobbies.

During the day he worked at the local daycare center in town, Sunset Daycare. He loved his work, even though his boss was a bit strict with him. But at least it was worth taking a lecture from her to bring a smile to these children's faces.

From the beginning of the day to the end of the afternoon, he always had an open smile, his smile seemed to instantly brighten the children's day, his kindness and affection was more than admirable, the children loved him.

Tho, this job can be quite stressful, and on days like this it's not always easy to be the target of jokes, get surprise hugs and drawings from children.

For them, he was their best friend. And that made Aiden happy, as he told them stories, helped them with problems and comforted them when they were sad. He wasn't perfect, but he had a gift with children that no one understood.

But that day was more difficult, the children were more agitated and making a mess, at least he had help from the other attendants who helped him when they could.

The little ones had a simple reason for doing all this.” "Happy birthday, Mr. Aiden!" One of the children, a little girl, hugged him from behind, holding a doll in one hand and a drawing in the other.

Aiden, a little taken back, smiles hugging her back patting her head. “Oh, thanks Alicia, let's see what we have here." He crouches down to her level and she hands him the drawing.

It was a little drawing of him with her and the other children and a little sun in the corner, smiling. "I tried to capture your smile, did you like it?" She asks with her arms behind her back, leaning to the side waiting for his answer.

Aiden smiles, "Of course! I'll keep this close to my heart." He gently brings the drawing to his chest, folding it and putting it inside his pocket.

Alicia smiles and kisses his cheek before skipping over to the other children. Aiden strokes his cheek with a gentle smile, before looking to the side where his colleague was. A girl with short, platinum blonde hair with a pink streak and blue eyes, wearing the same light blue shirt as his, that being their uniform.

“So who told them?" He asked in an accusatory tone. "I'm sure I kept that date with some of you, so how do the kids know it's my birthday?” He turns to her, crossing his arms with a suspicious look.

The colleague swallows, being caught in the act. "Look, man, I didn't think it would be a big deal, it's just your birthday after all!" She defends herself with her hands raised in front of her.

“For me, this is a private date. Now the kids are all excited and wanting my attention." He pinches between his eyes. Aiden sighs and uncrosses his arms, placing a hand on his waist. "Anyway, we're closing in half an hour, I have to meet my friends. They promised me a ”birthday surprise" for me.” He says in parentheses with his hands.

“Well, happy birthday.” The colleague smiles, giving him a card. It was a birthday discount card for one of the local restaurants. Specifically Damon Dinner, a family restaurant that Aiden normally wouldn't be able to afford.

“Wow! Mackenzie, you didn't have to!" He smiled, taking the card in his hands. His colleague, Mackenzie, smiles back.

“It's nothing, man. Just doing something nice for my favorite coworker!" She says, stroking his curly hair which makes him laugh.

Aiden pulls away, combing his hair with his fingers and adjusting his shirt. "Well, we better prepare the children for their parents.” He says as he turns back to the children.

The two continued the rest of the hour organizing things and waiting for the parents with the children, one by one they left accompanied by their guardians, saying goodbye to Aiden and Mackenzie.

After all the children have gone, they finish cleaning the daycare and get ready to leave. "Celestis.” Aiden froze, looking in the direction his name came from, his boss was waiting for him with crossed arms.

"Y-yes, ma'am?" He asks somewhat nervously, scratching the back of his neck. She stares at him for a few seconds before handing him a piece of paper, his monthly check.

“Since it's your birthday, I'll give you your check sooner, after all it's already the end of the month." She says, giving him a sharp look, "don't get used to it. Just continue your work as usual.” She says sharply, cutting eye contact between them.

“Th-thanks boss!" He thanks, seeing Mackenzie giving him a thumbs up in the background. After finishing getting ready, they say goodbye, close the daycare and head their respective ways.

Aiden, instead of taking the bus home, went to one of the streets near his work. This street was a commercial area full of shops. Upon arriving on the street Aiden headed towards one of the main stores, a music store.

The store was decorated with music-themed paintings and patterns, band posters, and old vinyl records tacked to the walls. Shelves with records, CDs, music players from various eras, and a separate wing just for instruments, as well as a back room near the cash register that could be seen from the entrance. 

As he enters, ringing the bell as he opens the door, Aiden pokes his head inside. "Hello, earth to Kairav!” Aiden walks into the store with a smile on his face, waiting for the answer.

“Yo, earth to Celestis!" A young man with tanned skin and long, wavy hair held in a ponytail steps out from behind one of the shelves filled with discs.

The young man places a box he was holding on the floor and walks over to Aiden and welcomes him with a hug. “Happy birthday man!" He says hugging Aiden, who compared to him was smaller and physically weaker than him.

“So, are you ready for today?" He lets go of Aiden and goes back to the box, taking the records inside and organizing them on the shelves by color. “I planned a trip to the movies, followed by a half hour of rollerblading and then..." He pauses dramatically before turning to Aiden with a smile. "You know.” He says with a wink.

“This is awesome! Ah!" Aiden pulls the promotion card out of his bag, "I got this from Mackenzie, she said it's a birthday discount!" Kai pauses to look at the card and smiles.

“Diamond Dinner?? Man, this is one of the best restaurants in town!" Kai says excitedly as he puts in the last disc. “Man, Ally is going to freak out when she hears this!" He says with one hand on his hip.

“Speaking of which, it'll be a while before she-" before he could finish speaking, a redhead quickly opens the door looking tired. "Never mind."

“AIDY!!!!" the redhead runs and hugs Aiden from behind, almost making him fall, "happy birthday bestie!!” The girl smiled, rubbing her cheek against his, which made him extremely embarrassed.

“Are you ready for today Ally?" Kai asks, separating the two lightly. The plump girl clears her throat, adjusting her glasses.

“Of course! My bestie is celebrating his 24th birthday today! How could I not be happy for him?" She waves her hand with a smirk. "In fact, I prepared something for him that he will definitely love!”

“Seriously? It better not be one of those fireworks displays like last year, you almost got us in trouble with the neighbor!”

“HEY! That was an accident, I already apologized, and the dog wasn't hurt!" She points accusingly. 

Aiden laughs, "Okay, what did you have for me?" Ally looks at him and gives him a mischievous smile. Aiden goes from curious to nervous in seconds. I guess it wasn't a good idea to ask.

“A date with Maya~”

They pause for a few seconds before Aiden lets out a "WHAT!?" with his face all red with embarrassment. “Why would you do that??? You know I'm a train wreck around her!!”

Maya was a coworker of Ally's. Aiden met her at Ally's birthday party, a barbecue at her grandparents' house. The moment he saw her he felt butterflies in his stomach.

“That's why it's going to be something simple and quick, so you can get to know each other better! I know she'll love you, who wouldn't?" She says pinching Aiden's cheeks who was looking at her anxiously.

“Are you sure this is a good idea? Does she even know this is a date? Also, can you stop planning things without telling me??” Kai asks with a worried and bothered expression.

“Of course! I mean, no, she doesn't know it's a date... b-but she knows she has to meet me at Vanilia's in three hours!" She gives a nervous smile. "Also, sorry.”

Kai crosses his arms with a raised eyebrow. "Well, at least it will be quick now which I HOPE won't interfere with the rest of our planning for today.” Kai puts a hand on Aiden's shoulder, "You can tell me if this isn't comfortable for you, okay?” He smiled understandingly.

Aiden smiles a little more comfortable with Kai supporting him, "N- no, it's okay. After all, one of my milestones is that I want to be more confident!” He says raising a fist in front of his chest.

“Okay, there's time for us to get ready. I'll text you when it's time to meet!" She says, heading to the door. Aiden and Kai give her their thumbs up and she leaves with a satisfied smile.

“Well, my shift ends..." Kai looks at the clock on the wall behind the register, "in two minutes. I'll give you a ride home.” He says holding up the keys to his car that was parked across the street.

“No need, I can take a bus." He says with a smile.

“Nah, I know you get sick of them. And also, all I need is a change of shirt, which I happen to already have in my bag.” He says scratching his chin. Aiden chuckles, smiling at his friend. "We can talk in the meantime.”

Aiden smiles as Kai picks up the box and heads to the store’s backroom. He follows close behind and Kai leaves the box on a table next to a shelf full of other boxes.

The room was a little disorganized, there were display cases with old instruments and vinyl records and several old posters. There were speakers and remixers on one of the tables, one of Kai's colleagues was working on one of them.

“Hey Carlos, remember Aiden?" Kai introduces Aiden waving, the red-haired colleague with a white streak with brown eyes and a uniform similar to Kai's turns towards him, holding a screwdriver.

“Hey! Are you the guy this idiot talks about so much?" He laughs, "Bro, you're almost exactly what I expected." He says pointing the tool in his direction before going back to working on the speaker. "By the way, here's one of the parts you asked me for." 

He says, giving a small mechanical part, throwing it behind his shoulders which Kai catches before it falls to the ground.

“Thanks." He says holding up the mechanical piece. Aiden had no idea what it was, but it looked almost like a large key mixed with a screw.

“What's that?" He tilts his head to the side curiously.

“Ally asked me to find this thing, I forgot the name." He lightly tosses the piece up and down like he's playing with a ball. “I wish it was for one of her inventions." He rolls his eyes.

“I just hope she doesn't do anything stubborn.”

“You know her, she's always stubborn.”

They both laugh. Aiden greets Carlos as Kai gets ready to leave, "It's nice to meet you Carlos, how long have you worked here?”

"Ehm, I've been here a few weeks now. I don't do much besides help fix these things." He says, stopping his fiddling with the insides of the speaker and closing it with a soft thud. “Honestly I'm just doing this for a quick buck, what I really want is to open a podcast!" He emphasizes with his hands and a wide smile.

“Oh, what kind of podcast? I love the one that talks about constellations and mythologies related to them!" Aiden starts talking, holding tightly to the handle of his bag, "There's also this one that recounts strange contacts and-" he stops mid-sentence, "s-sorry, I got excited..." 

Carlor laughs, standing up and putting the screwdriver away in a toolbox. "Nha, I know how it is. You must be talking about Stargazers, right?" Aiden's eyes widened in surprise.

“Have you heard of them?" He gives a shy smile.

“A little bit, I just know that one of the hosts lives in Saran Falls, but from what I've heard the podcast ended recently.” The atmosphere suddenly gets a little quiet. “Do you believe in life outside of Earth?" Aiden looks at him confused.

“I mean, maybe? Like, why would we be the only intelligent beings in the universe? It makes sense for there to be more out there.” He says nervously, scratching the back of his neck.

“Yeah." Carlos stares at Aiden for a few seconds, "It was nice meeting you, Aiden Celistis." He says walking past him, a cold smile etched on his face, saying goodbye and heading out the door.

Aiden is left feeling uncertain. Something about Carlos struck him as strange, his eyes seemed to investigate something in Aidem that he didn't know what it was, as if he was hiding something that not even he knew about.

It didn't matter much, Kai had left and they both met again. "Time to go Aid." He calls him by his nickname, making Aiden turn towards him. They both walk out the door, Kai clearing everything on the way out before locking the entrance and heading to his car.

Buckling up and leaving the parking lot, Kai drives to the end of the corner where they turn, disappearing from the store's view.

Carlos, leaning against a pole not far away from there, watches them go, disappearing between the city's buildings and moving away from him every second.

His cold expression fixed on the street corner directed his eyes to what looked like a transparent phone in his hands. A sun symbol flashed on the screen, moving away from his location.