Henry fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. He'd just locked his scooter in place next to a bike. Now he was in the hallway of an apartment complex. A lot of military and military-affiliated people and families lived around here. But that's not what made him nervous. Henry wasn't a wanted man, and he wasn't wearing a top hat. He could say or sign hello to someone without fear of being arrested.

Henry took a deep breath. "Calm down, Henry," he whispered. "It's just Charles. You saw him around Easter. You talk to him pretty much every night. He won't bite. Neither will Ellie. Don't be scared of your own friends."

With that, Henry walked down the hall. He tried to put down the dread that mingled with the excitement inside of him, but it was difficult. Why was he so nervous now? What was different between now and last Easter when he met Charles or about two months ago when he saw Ellie? Absolutely nothing, that's what!

Henry raised his hand and knocked.

Something inside shuffled. Then, the door was open. Standing before him, polite interest turning into glee, eyes gleaming like emeralds, was Henry's best friend. "Henry!" Charles laughed. Suddenly, Henry was no longer standing on his own as Charles pulled him in for a bone-crushing hug. "Henry, it's been forever!"

Henry hugged him back, the slightly wrinkled beige fabric of Charles' t-shirt under his fingers and his short auburn hair whisking over his nose. His scarlet headphones were wrapped around his neck, as always when they weren't over his ears. The man was on his toes, being a few inches shorter than Henry, but didn't seem bothered. Henry prompted, "We hung out last Easter, remember? Got to hide a bunch of eggs for your little cousins?"

Charles let go, but only long enough to let Henry inside and shut the door. "Well, yeah, but that was in April. It's July."

Henry rolled his eyes. "Well, it's better than having met on Valentines' Day or something."

"Yeah! Speaking of which, wasn't that when you met Ellie in Colorado? I was almost able to go, but I had a mission."

Henry hummed. Yeah, he remembered that. God it was awkward trying to explain to people he and Ellie could be together on Valentines' Day as perfectly platonic friends. "Yeah. You know, I tried to pretend we were siblings, but she refused 'on principle.' Later that next month I met her at a truck stop. We were going in opposite directions, so we didn't talk long."

Another knock came to the door. But, before Charles could answer it, Ellie opened the door with a, "Honey, I'm ho-ome~! Oh, hey! You're here!" She punched Henry's shoulder. "Let's get this party started, eh?"

Charles tensed and grinned. "Definitely! I rented a few movies and got some dinner!"

Ellie smirked. "And I brought flashy new cards. We are going to be up to the sunrise!"

Henry chuckled. "Are you sure? Dad's not going to call and make sure you're not up past your bedtime, right?"

"Oh, shut it! You always fall asleep first."

"And you make it a competition!"

"'Course I do! If you can't compete, is it really worth doing?"

"Yes," said Henry and Charles.

"Pfft. You two! So, what's first? Catch up over dinner? Cards? Maybe whatever concoctions Charles dug up from the movie store?"

Henry glanced at his watch. "Dinner sounds nice. Charles?"

"Oh, yeah, guess I am kinda hungry," Charles admitted and then walked further into the apartment, waving his hand to summon them as he went. "I made some hamburgers ahead of time and got some drinks."

Henry perked up. Yes, now he could smell it! A plate covered in an inconspicuous cloth sat on the counter near the fridge, a few glasses ready to be filled and three plates stacked on top of each other there as well. Charles withdrew the cloth from on top of the trio of hamburgers as well as the container of French fries. He held out the first plate without looking back, giving Henry the opportunity to grab his dinner first.

Henry sat at the singular table in the kitchen. Ellie and Charles quickly joined them, though Charles left to grab a bottle of lemonade, water, and soda. Henry set his elbows on the table and rested his chin in his hands. Ellie snickered at him and leaned back in her chair. "Dude, didn't you say your Dad was extremely particular about how you ate?"

"Yeah, well, he's not here, is he?" Henry prompted. "Besides, didn't your dad tell you it was a bad habit to stay up past eleven?"

"Okay, point taken," Ellie replied with a shrug.

Henry said, "So, anyway, what has life been like to you guys?"

Ellie replied with a flippant wave of her hand, "You know, same-old, same-old. Still hard trying to scrounge up jobs–probably because I'm not an old man who's been a cop or in the military or something–but when I do get one, I'm usually in for a treat! Charles?"

"Oh, it's been great!" replied Charles, pouring himself some lemonade. "Galeforce told me that he's keeping me on special missions only!"

Henry grinned. "It's because you're an amazing pilot, right?"

"Yep! I-I mean, that's what people've told me!"

Ellie took a bite out of her hamburger. "Welp, between flying literally anything better than pretty much anyone, you've got potential as a cook."

The pilot chuckled, taking his own dinner. "Thanks, Ellie! What about you, Henry?"

"Yeah, you haven't told us anything," Ellie agreed.

Henry chuckled and grabbed his own dinner. "Ahh, well, there really hasn't been a lot to talk about. My job gets pretty boring sometimes, you know. Uh, but I did move to New Mexico. Dad still insists on calling every other night. I probably told you that, right?"

The mercenary chuckled to herself. "Man, oh man. Do I know that feeling. Mom goes out of her mind if I don't call her at least every other day. If I haven't talked to her in over two days, she threatened to get Charles' parents to fly her over to wherever I am. Apparently she thinks being a mercenary is dangerous."

"It is dangerous," Henry pointed out.

"Details. Hey, isn't your job just as dangerous, Charles?"

"It can be," Charles replied with a tipping of his head. "But when I'm in my helicopter–er, the military's helicopter–nothing can take me down. Except maybe a SAM Turret."

Henry stated seriously, "Then stay away from those."

"Henry, you talk like I would fly straight into a base full of SAM Turrets and crash my helicopter into a building or something."

Henry and Ellie exclaimed, "Because that's exactly what you'd do!"

Ellie pointed out, "You've been trying to crash your helicopter into stuff for forever Charles."

"Not my big helicopter," Charles pointed out.

Henry smirked. "That's because one of my dad's friends fixed it up to be the ultimate helicopter and you didn't know how to fix it if it broke again."

Ellie tipped her head. "Well, he had no problems with that mini copter you got him for Christmas."

"Okay," relented Charles, "–I sometimes did that. But! That one time was worth it!"

The mercenary raised an eyebrow. "Until we were all grounded to Hell for knocking over a fence and almost hitting two kids and a dog."

Henry pointed out, "But I grabbed the copter without getting caught by the owners of the house."

"You vaulted the neighbor's fence like an absolute pro," agreed Ellie.

Henry finished the last scrap of his hamburger and looked at his hands. Huh. That was fast. He shrugged and started on his fries.

Charles asked, "So, what kind of games did you guys bring?"

Henry patted his pocket. "A deck of cards."

Ellie nodded to her backpack. "Cards Against Humanity and Monopoly will keep us busy."

Charles grinned. "Ohhhh, this is going to be great! Just like old times!"

Henry downed the last of his water. "What first? Monopoly?"

Ellie finished off her fries. "I'm okay with that. Charles?"

"Sure! Then can we play Cards against Humanity?"

"Oh of course!" Ellie wiped off her hands on her paper towel and dug through her purse. Henry took their plates and went to the sink. Charles refilled their drinks and moved the water pitcher and bottles of drinks to a counter nearby.

God, Henry had almost forgotten what it was like to sit down with a board game to play with Ellie and Charles. Ellie was cutthroat, gathering as much land as she could. Henry's roles tended to be the luckiest, though he did go to jail for rolling three doubles in a row. Twice. He wasn't even trying to cheat! Charles hardly had a chance to buy land what with already owned land soaking up his money. Unfortunately, this meant Henry and Ellie bashed their heads together as they competed and made the worst mistakes of the game: trading a few railroads and utilities with Charles in return for their own monopolies. Charles, regaining his luck, managed to swamp them both with a couple of monopolies on the train, utilities and the dreaded Boardwalk. In fact, just landing once on Boardwalk, which held a hotel, forced Ellie to go bankrupt. Henry managed to squeak by a few turns more until blowing his money on a last-minute railroad before he could pass go.

Henry set down his cards with a shake of his head. "How?"

Charles, giggling as he gathered his wins, replied, "It's one of our favorite games on the base."

"Well," stated Ellie as she brought out a long black box of cards, "Let's see if you're good at this one, Pure Boi."

It turned out Charles was a little good at the game. Unfortunately for him, Ellie was sharp as a whip. Even when the men tried to team up on her, she somehow managed to trick the current Card Czar into mixing up whose cards were whose and made the pointed rounds null.

Three rounds later with an almost straight winner–Henry got his first win of the night at the last second–that box was put away.

Henry looked over his deck. "Eh, you guys want to play or watch one of the movies Charles got?"

Charles and Ellie looked at each other. Charles shrugged. "I guess whatever you guys want to do."

Ellie gave them a sharp nod. "Movie it is! I'll put this away, Charles you put on something fantastic! Henry, you pop the popcorn. You have popcorn, right?"

Charles hopped up and ran to the pantry. He immediately pulled out a pre-popped bag of popcorn. "Gotcha covered!"

Henry pushed himself to his feet, his chair squeaking back. "Then I'll start on the popcorn."

Charles tossed the package to Henry and went to the TV, collecting a couple of movie cases that were next to it. Ellie, gathering her cards, answered Charles' question before he could ask it, "Whatever you want, Charlie!"

Henry knew Ellie's weird taste of popcorn. So, as the movie food was popping, he brought out two bowls–one larger than the other–and the season salt.