I told them everything I knew about Gabriel. I watched their faces, the faces of my crew, my friends, some stuck in stone, others with furrowed eyes. I couldn’t tell if they were mad at me for fraternizing with the enemy, not just any enemy, but one who slaughtered endless amounts of Anthros and humans alike.

I told them of my parents selling me off because of my sins, ending up on that hell-hole ship with the pirates, saving Gabriels life, and my journey around the galaxy, fending for myself, before finally ending up here in the Yiffin II crew.

My voice was shaky and quivering. The last thing I wanted to do was disappoint my crew. Pushing them away would cause my heart to break and my life to end. They were the best thing to happen to me my entire life, and loosing them would be the end of my world.

I finished my story and stood still, waiting for one of them to speak up. I nervously rubbed my hands together, not sure what else to say.

Outside the small room was the ruckus of Meowtlaws preparing the power plant for new arrivals, repairing battle damage, and setting up for the inevitable defense from counter attacks.

Mama, Echo, Yami, and Uwu were lost in thought. Their eyes shifted about just as fast as their thoughts. I just hoped someone would say something to break the silence.

Yami cleared his throat, “I don’t really know you guys, but are you all this bad ass? I mean, Mama’s like an unstoppable juggernaut tank, but this chick is like a damn secret agent living legend. They make action vids that don’t live up to her hype. Why wouldn’t you guys talk about this shit?”

Not what I was hoping for, but it was something.

“Language, dear.” Mama gave Yami the eye.

Echo’s raspy voice joined in, “We all have done things in the past we want to forget about. No sense in bringing them up. Just look to the future.” He gave me a reassuring nod, his eyes filled with sorrow and empathy, instead of the hate I thought they’d hold.

Mama nodded, “There something for all of us to regret, things we’ve done in haste or for survival that we’re not proud of, but what I am proud of is that you had the strength to share something this heavy with us. You had the strength to endure so much pain in your life.” Mama began to sniffle, “I need a hug.” She stood up, arms stretched wide, coming for me.

I held my arms out in protest, “No, no, I…ugh.”

She squeezed my tight while sobbing. It was crushing my chest, but it felt good to be embraced but someone I respected and loved. I started to tear up myself.

Mama set me down and backed up. I looked at Uwu, his face still stern and unmoving. I was wiping the sides of my eyes, waiting for him to say anything. Real tears were starting to form now that my mind was racing about Uwu not accepting me for helping an enemy. Gabriel was a changed man when I met him. I was just doing what I thought was right at the time. I didn’t know something so long ago was going to surface and bite me in the ass.

“Ahem,” Uwu cleared his throat. “Thanks for sharing with us. Echo and Mama are right. We’ve all done things in the past that we regret or were paved with good intentions, but everyone here needs to keep this a secret.”

Uwu turned towards me and smiled, finally, that beautiful smile, “I love you, more than the rest. Not everyone will understand, especially Speck. Let’s keep this under wraps. No one speak of it again.” Uwu glanced around the room, “Understood?”

Everyone nodded in unison. I jumped forward and grabbed onto Uwu, crying like a little girl who dropped her ice cream. I felt so joyed. I can’t believe I thought they would treat me poorly because of my past. I was such a dumbass.

Yami clapped his hands together, “You can trust me, sir. This badass bit…” Yami glanced at Mama quickly, then back to Uwu, “This awesome chick took out a freaking Missionary! Holy hell that’s awesome! You got nothing but my loyalty, sir.” Yami saluted.

Uwu held me tight, kissing my head. “Good to hear, son. We don’t need any more enemies on this moon.” Uwu stepped back, “Echo, Mama, take the new guy and do a sweep across the power plant, make sure everything is up to par. I don’t want to leave unless everything is on auto pilot here.”

The group nodded, leaving the room. Echo patted my back as he left, smiling at me. Mama nodded, blowing her nose on a rag found who knows where.

Uwu stood before me now, just us two alone in the room. I felt warm and loved now to have all this pent-up stress lifted off my chest. I felt lighter, happier now.

Uwu smiled at me, “I want you to know that you could have told me anytime, or never, and I would love you just the same. You don’t need to hold things back from me.”

I smiled, wiping away tears, “No more secrets from me then. I just want to get off this rock alive with you so we can get back to our own lives. Everything has been so messed up here.”

“That’s my fault. I could have left before any of this went down. I took the job as a big payday in hopes we could all take a nice long vacation. Things took a big turn for the worse. I wasn’t sure I knew what we were getting into. I feel like I’ve doomed us all.”

“You made a choice you thought was best for us all. I didn’t think the moon would delve into chaos either. At least we’re all still here.” I reached for his hand and smiled at him. I wanted him to feel safe for sharing his pain.

“I haven’t always made the best choices in life. The Yifffin I was clear evidence of that. I got a lot of good people killed on making a bad choice on a job. Lost my first ship, and my first love. I haven’t always been so cautious and it bit me in the back again.”

Uwu never opened up to me about the Yiffin I before, let alone someone in his past. I felt special to him. I felt sorry for him. I had too many emotions racing through my head now. I needed a nice long sleep to sort everything out.

“What happened?” I pushed a little to find out anything about this past, get him to open to and lift the stress from his shoulders.

“I was younger back then, more stupid, and more hateful towards humanity. In fact, there was a time where I would much rather jettison you out into space than keep a place for you in my bed.”

I swallowed hard. What could he have done in his past? Was it something I wanted to know? I had to be here for him like he was here for me.

Uwu took a deep breath, “It all started on Earth, back during the Anthro riots. Earth was different back then.”