***

“Why do you wear ties?” Ellis asked.

Florian stared at the kid, incredulous.

Ellis wore a t-shirt and jean shorts. He was the kind of kid who probably spent all his time on the indoor soccer fields, who had probably never put on a suit in his life save for funerals and weddings.

They stood in Baldrick’s office, a room that was almost as big as a studio apartment, replete with two leather couches, a refrigerator, a bar, and two televisions, one that played cartoons, and another that played the news on mute. Outside, the city lay ahead, skyscrapers cutting through the foggy clouds. The ocean surged far, far away.

Ellis sat on his father’s wooden desk playing with a set of ball bearings. He fidgeted them with his thumbs, massaging them around his fingers.

“Only old people wear suits,” Ellis said.

“That’s not true,” Tatiana said. “And it’s rude.”

Ellis shrugged. “What’s with the lunch bag?”

He eyed Tatiana’s red backpack.

“We packed lunch,” Tatiana said, pulling out a bag of pecans. “Would you like something?”

Florian grabbed the bag.

“Those are mine,” he said.

“I don’t need food,” Ellis said. He hopped off the desk and opened the refrigerator, revealing soda, cake, and sushi. “I got plenty.”

Florian looked around. Then he sat on the couch and pulled out his Game Unit.

“What game is that?” Ellis asked.

“Galaxy Invaders,” Florian said.

“Nice,” Ellis said, pulling out his unit. “I bet my score is better than yours.”

“Why do you care so much about yourself?” Florian asked.

“What?” Ellis asked. “You don’t like to play?”

“You’re a selfish brat,” Florian said. “All you care about is yourself.”

Ellis threw his Game Unit aside and jumped on Florian.

“Stop!” Tatiana said, pulling the two boys apart.

Florian swung at Ellis but missed.

“You fight like a Crystalith,” Ellis said.

A tear sprung from Florian’s eye and he hated himself for it.

Tatiana stood between them.

“He just lost his mother,” Tatiana said. “Go easy on him.”

Ellis’s face changed from angry to surprised.

“Oh,” he said. “I…didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

Florian grunted in assent and grabbed his Game Unit.

But it wasn’t his.

It was Ellis’s.

Florian read the scoreboard. Then he smirked.

“My score’s way better than yours.”

“Heh heh,” Ellis said. “Then I take that as a challenge.”

***

On the television screen, two warships cruised through space; one red, one blue.

“Florian, you take the left, I’ll take the right,” Ellis said.

“Got it, Ellis.”

“Only my grandma calls me that,” Ellis said. “Everybody else calls me Hux.”

“Got it…Hux.”

A wave of slimy green alien ships appeared far in the distance.

Almost immediately, gunfire began.

“Let’s get ‘em!” Hux said.

***

“Time to go, Florian,” Annaliese said, standing in the doorway to Baldrick’s office. Baldrick stood next to her, grinning with his arms folded.

Florian shot a cluster of alien ships and Hux cheered.

“High score!” Hux cried.

“Do we have to go?” Florian asked.

Tatiana, who was asleep on the couch, startled and jumped up, grabbing her backpack. She tossed Florian’s bag of nuts to him.

“Time to go, kid,” she said.

Florian groaned.

They paused the game.

“I’ll save it for next time you come,” Hux said.

“Perhaps you two can play again soon?” Annaliese said. “Baldrick?”

“No opposition from me,” Baldrick said. “We’ll put Tatiana in touch with our nanny and make something happen.”

Florian tucked away his Game Unit.

“Maybe I’ll see you around before school starts,” he said.

Hux extended a hand.

“Nice to meet you,” he said. “And…sorry about your mom.”

This kid seemed like a brute in the beginning, but maybe he wasn’t so bad.

Florian shook his hand.

***

“I’d say that was productive,” Annaliese said as they drove toward the spaceport. “Ellis seems like a nice kid, doesn’t he?”

Florian was too engrossed in his Game Unit to reply.

“He is very nice,” Tatiana said. “He and Florian played video games the whole time.”

“At least someone knows how to connect with my nephew,” Annaliese said.

Florian paused, then continued playing.

He’d hurt his aunt.

He felt a twinge deep down, that maybe he was being mean.

Hadn’t he felt like this when he hurt his mother?

He pressed the keys on his Game Unit harder now.

A hand pushed his Game Unit down.

It was his aunt.

“You’re my responsibility,” Annaliese said. “And whether you like it or not, you’re my nephew and I love you.”

“Then act like it,” Florian said.

Annaliese frowned and puffed.

Florian returned to his Game Unit, irritated at the whole exchange.

***

Florian stared at a cloche on his plate at a dinner table set for two.

The dining room was lavishly decorated with hutches filled with expensive China, and oil artwork that his aunt had picked up on her travels across the galaxy. Overlooking them tonight was a digital painting of “Midnight at the Event Horizon,” a Whistler-esque masterpiece of oranges, blues and greens that simulated one crossing over the event...