XR took a swig from his oil can and gazed around the bar. He wasn’t entirely sure he liked it here; some of the other patrons kept shooting him weird glances, no doubt because of the Star Command decal clearly visible on his chest. XL had said the place was fine, he’d told XR that he came here all the time; but XL was more than a little screwy, and his idea of fine was starting look like anything but.

“More oil over here!” Shouted the copy-machine, flagging down the nearest barmaid. Great, XL was getting lubricated (or the robotic version of “drunk”) and that was not what anyone wanted to deal with. Why had XR agreed to do this, again?

Oh, that’s right, because XL was the only one who had any time to do anything with him anymore. Not that XL was his first choice, no; in fact, XL was pretty far down on the list. But as it were, that ever-so-lengthy list had all blown him off.

Booster was busy. Now that he’d been promoted to team captain, it seemed like he was always busy. The only time XR spent with his best friend anymore was when he was sitting in the co-pilot seat of their Star Cruiser, and then it was all mission this and traffic duty that, never anything fun, not anymore.

And Mira.

He didn’t even know what to think about her now.

He missed her. She’d been on maternity leave for months now, and though she’d been in to check up on them almost every day (sometimes to the point of being really annoying) she had Romac, her…husband, and if she wanted to go out, they went out together, just the two of them.

He missed joking with her, and the way she smiled.

XR sloshed his oil can aimlessly.

Buzz, what was he up to? He never did anything fun. Ever.

Even though XR had never really connected with Buzz the way he did his other teammates, he still sometimes missed having him around. Not so much for the company, since Buzz was something of a stick in the mud, but for the confidence that Buzz had, and how, if you let it, it would reflect onto you too. There was just something about the man. But Buzz was Commander now that dad had stepped down, and he was even busier than Booster.

They were all busy. Even Savy was out on a date with her hotshot boyfriend. What she saw in him, XR couldn’t imagine.

He sighed.

They had all moved on, they had their own lives to live now.

Not that he had nothing to do. In fact, as Booster’s co-pilot and a high-ranking Space Ranger, he had plenty of things to do, most of which involved saving the universe and paperwork. But, there were times, like right now, as he sat next to XL in a smelly Trade World bar, that he missed the way things used to be.

“I wonder what 42’s doing.” He said, voicing the statement aloud.

“42?” XL leaned over and gave XR a cross-eyed stare. He was either drunk or, well, actually, he sometimes looked like that with out the assistance of heavy weight oil. “You think she’d go out with you?” He sounded like he might laugh.

XR felt a stab of anger in a wound that time had not yet healed.

“She dumped you, didn’t she?” XL continued, his voice louder than usual.

“That was years ago, things could be different now.” Even as he said it XR knew it was silly thing to hope for.

XL rested his head on his hand. “Whatever.” He paused, as if thinking. “But, take it from me, she’s a pain.”

XR raised his eyebrow.

XL continued, though it wasn’t because he’d caught XR’s subtle gesture to do so. “She needs copies sometimes, she’s real bossy.” His voice became shrill in a terrible attempt to imitate 42. “XL, photocopy this! XL, fax that! XL, get me a new pencil!” He narrowed his eyes. “She’s a real pain.”

XR turned away. XL was drunk. Great.

* * *

“I know, let’s party, man!”

“Shh! XL, you’re going to wake up the entire station!” XR hissed, praying that no one had heard that rambunctious outburst.

“I don’t wanna be quiet!” XL pulled out of XR’s grasp and speed towards the command center. “It’s only 0-200 hours!” The fax machine tripped over something (probably the flat floor with the level of drunkenness he was at) and started shouting and cursing. “If I had my old weaponry, I’d blow you up for that!”

“Shush, XL!” XR grabbed his brother and dragged him in the direction of the offices, glad that they were far from the staff sleeping quarters. This settled it, he was NEVER going anywhere with XL again, at least not anywhere that served heavy weight oil.