Galactiquest

A few weeks passed, changing Jun’s life dramatically. Everyone knew about Jun Kim, both on the Virgo and on Earth, but knew of them as the First Female Star Ranger, which though understandable, was annoying. For safety reasons, Jun had been moved to a different room after being discharged from the hospital. They no longer had a roommate to talk to, but they had enough messages from their parents and interviewers to make up for that. Stephanie texted far more frequently, not to ask about her friend, but to gleefully inform them about all the misogynists they upset back on Earth. She didn't seem to care about the fact that Jun risked being jailed for fraud, as well as herself if they mentioned her involvement. Still, Jun had some unfinished business to tend to.

They knocked on the door to their old dorm.

Aiden opened the door, mildly surprised. “JK? They let you come back here? Alone?”

“Oh no, there’s bodyguards right outside.” Jun walked in. “I just came to get my stuff. Dr. Kingsley made some arrangements and got me a room upstairs. This’ll be all yours now.”

“I could get used to it.”

The shorter ranger crouched down and reached under their old bed, pulling out a suitcase.

“So you’re a celebrity now.” Aiden commented. “Everyone’s talking about whether you should stay in the IF or not. I heard Captain Phelps even called you into his quarters today.”

“Yeah.” Jun extended the handle on their suitcase. “It was kind of a shock. He said he’d fight tooth and nail to keep me on the crew.”

“He said that??” The blond reacted in disbelief. “Huh. I thought he would’ve been the type to complain about you throwing off the honor or tradition of the IF.”

“Nope. Instead, he told me how proud he was of my accomplishments as a star ranger.“ Jun grimaced. “He did add in some weird stuff about me being able to ‘calm you down’ with my ‘womanly intuition’ or something like that.” They wiggled their fingers to add emphasis to certain words.

“Ew. I didn’t calm down for anyone but me.” Aiden’s green eyes narrowed. “Just who does he think I am?”

“He doesn’t know you bro.” The dark-haired ranger assured him. “He just doesn’t know…”

He cracked his knuckles. “Maybe I should stir up some trouble again to stir his memory.”

“Please don’t.”

“You can’t stop me, not with that arm of yours.” He pointed at Jun’s sling.

Two guards peered into the room as Aiden said that.

“It’s okay guys.” Jun told them. “He was just joking. Everything’s cool.”

The guards retreated.

“You weren’t joking about the guards, huh…” Aiden stared blankly at the door.

“Not at all.” Jun returned to the previous topic. “Technically, it’s, like, not even my problem anymore, but it’d still weigh on my conscious if you did anything too rash, so don’t. Besides, the ship’s hectic enough as it is, right? Would you really stand out?”

“Wanna bet?”

“Actually…” They reconsidered. “I’d rather not.”

“Thought so.” Aiden sat down on the single bed. “That reminds me, what’s been going on with you lately? Run into anybody that needs a beatdown?”

“I got bodyguards for that, Aiden.” Jun sat down on their bed for one final time. “But I gotta say though, things turned out as less of a trainwreck than I thought they would. More people seem to be for me than against.” They leaned back a little. “Kinda reminds me of, like, No Woman’s Land, where it only seems like there’s a lot of pushback because of a few really vocal guys. But there’s also been vocal guys in support of me! And I can get any bathroom I want all to myself, so it all evens out, I guess.” Not that Jun used the public ones anymore. They had their own in their new room.

“Good for you.” Aiden looked away. “I’ve been… less popular these days. Some people have gotten the idea that I knew the whole time and was ‘holding out on them.’”

“Oh gosh...“ Jun covered their face. “Ugh, now I see where Captain Phelps was coming from. Groooss.” They remembered something. “Hey! I know something that’ll cheer you up!”

The bearded ranger waited for an explanation.

“Annoying our superiors!”

He smiled.

Jun laughed to themself. “See? I knew you’d be happy about that! So, like, my room’s up with all the more important people. Captain Phelps, some of the staff majors, higher ranking warrant officers, people like that. There’s actual security and stuff up there. Anyway, as you can probably guess, some of the old guys up there aren’t so thrilled about me being here. I passed one of the warrant officers in the hallways and I was like,” they waved, “‘Sup, brah?’ I mean, I didn’t say that exactly, but he had this, like really annoyed look on his face, but it’s not like he can do anything about it.”

“Niiiice!” Aiden’s smile grew wider.

“I guess I can think of it as payback for setting me up to babysit you when they didn’t wanna do it. That was really chill of them. Righteous~” They added sarcastically.

“Think of it this way, you got to meet a cool guy like me.” The blond ranger pointed to himself.

“Yeah.” Jun agreed sincerely. “I did.”

“And so did I.”

“Awww, dude, bro, you like, warmed my heart place!” Despite the exaggerated surfer accent, Aiden’s words really warmed their heart.

“I never said it was you!” Aiden quickly turned away. “But… If anyone, it would be you. I guess.”

Jun stifled laughter at their friend’s stubbornness toward expressing affection but acknowledged that he was at least trying.

“Well, I’d love to chat with you some more, but I feel bad for my bodyguards having to wait around like this while we talk.” To be honest, Jun wished they could have the chance to talk to Aiden without the bodyguards around. Coming out to anyone else would be next to impossible with the amount of media coverage around them supposedly being a woman, but they trusted Aiden. Even if he didn’t understand, which was likely, they trusted him. Telling him would have to wait until some other time, though. They stood up and grabbed their suitcase. “We’ll probably see each other again, though.”

“Yeah.” Aiden stood up too.

Jun held out their fist, and without hesitation, Aiden bumped it with one of his own. The shorter ranger opened theirs up and wiggled their fingers, as if it exploded. Aiden… did not follow. Instead, he laughed.

“No matter what, you’re still the same dork you always were.” That almost sounded sweet, but Jun could just have gotten used to him at this point.

“You too.”

“Whatever!” He scoffed.

Jun gave Aiden a casual salute with two fingers before grabbing their suitcase again. “Catch you later.”

He returned it. “Good luck out there.”

With that, Jun left their old room behind, flanked by a few bodyguards. They ran a mental check to see if they forgot anything, but nothing came to mind. What they knew would never forget was their newfound friendship with Aiden Kelly.