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Half the ship found some reason to help. People Charlie had never worked with turned up with an hour to give and a skill with the same slightly sheepish look, like they'd been waiting to do something special for the Captain.

Not a single crew member had to be talked into it. That was the part that kept squeezing Charlie in the chest. Reyna spent her whole life being the one who noticed everybody else, and it turned out the entire ship had been noticing her right back the whole time, just waiting for her to let them in.

The one thing Charlie knew was that, on a ship like the Emberkind, no party would be complete without animals. So, Charlie went to the only person on board who could make that happen.

She found Selowen in the habitat wing, moving without any need to be in a hurry. Immediately, Charlie, who was usually in a hurry about everything, felt her own heart rate slow down just by walking in.

"I want to bring some animals to Reyna's party," Charlie stated after she'd greeted Selowen. "Ones who'd be okay with the noise and celebration. A real Emberkind party needs to haveanimals. It just wouldn't be right without them." She hesitated with her next question, hoping she wasn't asking for something that would be restricted. "Would it be possible for Pinlo to come? Is that... would that be okay for her?"

Selowen's slow smile appeared. "You are fond of Pinlo."

"Yeah," Charlie said with a soft laugh as she dropped her gaze to the floor. "She's been on my mind since that first day you let me hold her." Her eyes returned to Selowen. "She made me feel like I can do anything. Her little magic wonder works great on humans, apparently." Selowen smiled at Charlie's sentiment. "Not to mention, she's super cuddly, and who doesn't love cuddly space animals?"

Selowen looked at Charlie a moment as something soft and knowing moved behind her eyes. "I will ensure that Pinlo will be there. I think she will be very glad about it herself. In fact, I think a great many people will be glad to see her."

Charlie smiled broadly. "That's wonderful news."

The musicshe saved for Tavi. Naturally.

He was in the library annex when she went looking for him. He had the sound system half-apart with wires everywhere, deep in the particular bliss of being trusted with a job he cared about, maybe too much.

Charlie sat down on the floor next to him and handed him her datapad with her song suggestions for Reyna's Earth Night Birthday party. They sat together for a while, just building a playlist for the event, arguing happily about tempo and the particular order of the songs, such as whether you placed dance songs alongside slow songs or no slow slows at all for a birthday bash, or whether you opened with something big or eased intothe bangers of the night. Basically, all the physics of a good party with good music.

They worked like that for a while, easy, and Charlie was halfway adding the slow songs they'd decided on to the birthday playlist when Tavi took her by surprise, not even looking up from the wires.

"So," he said, pulling Charlie's attention. "How are you doing?"

"Fine?" Charlie said, slightly confused. "Why?"

Tavi looked up then, right into Charlie's eyes. "... Charlie."

Just her name, just the one word delivered by her best friend on this ship, sitting in a nest of cables, and all the emotions she'd spent a week keeping tightly coiled came right back up her throat.

She let out a long breath. "I'm okay, Tav. I just..." She paused. "I don't know what to do."

"What would youliketo do?"

Charlie gave him a look.

"Besides the obvious, Spark Plug," Tavi grinned, then let his voice go gentle. "What would you do if you had nothing to be afraid of?"

Charlie was hit the question without knowing how to answer. She thought about it and found the answer was just sitting there. To be honest, it had probably been sitting there for weeks.

"Honestly?" She turned the datapad over in her hands. "I guess, maybe find some way to tell her."

Tavi stared at her quizzically. "Why can't you just do that now?"

Charlie scoffed, letting her head fall back. "Because she's the captain of an interstellar starship and I'm a human. From a non-contact planet." Charlie heard her own voice climbing and couldn't stop it. "I'm not even the same fucking species, Tavi."

Tavi turned to face her fully now. "From what I've been told, oh dumb Earthling," Tavi paused, his teasing tone drifting away. "Kaelari and human are pretty similar, aren't they?" Tavi set down the wire. "And besides, who the fuck cares if you're a human? From a non-contact planet? That little age accident of yours made you one of us now."

Charlie realized she didn't have anything for that.

"What even makes you think Reyna cares that she's a captain and you're..." He waved a hand. "What. Only a lowly Chief Engineer?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "Come on, Charlie. I know you're smarter than that." He paused. "I know you knowReynabetter than that."

Charlie looked over at him, deep set into his gaze for the first time in the whole conversation.

"You... you think I can tell her?" She asked in a whisper.