A knock on the door causes every head in the room to turn. Adam stands sheepishly outside the glass slide doors, with a look of regret on his face. He starts to mouth words while waving his hands around apologetically. Marina goes to open the doors.

"...fine, I can go. I don't have to-"

Marina cuts Adam off. "Adam, no. It's okay. What's up?"

Adam rubs the back of his neck. "Uh, Sam's mom started talking to Malcolm, so I felt really, um, uncomfortable, and I sort of escaped, here. Is... that fine?"

"Yeah, you're part of this cool kids club, man." Nine pipes up, sniggering.

"Please stop," John says, groaning.

Marina rolls her eyes and lets Adam in. "You're fine. Come on, we're just hanging out."

"We have pretty much about...," Six says, glancing around the room, spotting a clock on the farthest wall, "... forty-five minutes till the ceremony starts."

"You know we can start before that since we're both ready," Sam suggests.

Six huffs. "Yeah right. Any more time I can put between me and this ceremony thing is welcome." Sam looks hurt and Six notices. She grabs his hand. "Just nervous, sorry."

For the remaining time, the reunited group just mingles. And talks. Everyone catches up with each other to fill in the two year gap that had separated them. Sat in a lazy blob on the floor and discussing meaningless topics while joking around, it was like nothing had changed. Not true, of course, everything was vastly different. But the atmosphere was light, and for the first time, every heart in the room was filled with hope, not despair.

"So how's the new arm working out?" John asks Nine, "I heard Lexa built it. It looks awesome."

Nine flexes his shiny appendage. The metal arm moves seamlessly without a sound. There are layers of metal plates that connect subtly on top of the arm-shaped piece of machinery. Nine's metal arm is almost undetectable beneath his dark long-sleeved button-down. "Oh yeah. This thing's rad. It's even programmed with the same strength as my other arm, so there isn't much difference. I feel like it needs to be named or like, decorated. Or both."

"You should paint a red star on it," Sam chimes in, "Like Bucky Barnes."

"Who's Bucky Barnes?"

Sam rolls his eyes and gives an exasperated sigh. "Bucky Barnes. In the Captain America trilogy?"

Blank stares fill the room.

Sam raises his eyebrows in surprise. "Seriously? None of you guys have heard of Captain America? I think John would actually make a good Captain America, and Nine could be Bucky. He's got the hair." Sam squints at Nine, nodding, not really seeing him.

"That's a ship you know," Ella adds.

"What does this have to do with boats?" Marina asks with a confused look.

"No no no, not that kind of ship." Ella pauses for a moment before continuing to try to explain. "It's- it's like, an OTP. No, you guys don't know what that is either. I mean, it's- it's just a ship. It's so popular; it's all over the internet, on Tumblr posts. I can't believe how cut off from the world you guys are."

"I'm lost," Six says.

"What's a Tumble post?" John asks.

"Tumblr." Ella begins to look around unbelievingly at the group. "OTP stands for One True Pairing. It's a fan term for... you know..."

A room full of raised eyebrows.

"When you ship two people..." Ella holds up two fingers and touches them. "... together."

"So what are you saying?" Nine asks slowly.

The auburn alien sighs for what seems like the hundredth time. "For Captain America and Bucky, it's called Stucky. That's their ship name. It's basically squashing their names together. And I've been on Tumblr. There's a ship name for you two-" She points at John and Nine. "-and it's called Stohn. They use Stanley and John. It's actually really really popular."

The small beach house room erupts in laughter.

"Ella, whatever you're doing on the internet," Six says in between hiccups, "keep doing it."

"Sweet, babe," Nine says with a wicked grin on his face. "We're internet famous." Nine reaches around John to pinch his ass and John jerks, his face bright pink.

"Shut up," the blonde boy replies, slapping his friend's hand away. Nine howls with laughter.

Someone knocks on the door again. Sam rises from the hysterical group and pulls it open. Lexa stands outside, a questioning expression on her face about the scene in the house.

"It's already 2:04. Where are you guys?" Lexa asks.

Sam twists around to see the clock, which proves Lexa's words correct. "Shit." He calls to Six and runs and grabs her hand to pull her to her feet.

"What is it?" she asks.

Sam grins ear to ear excitedly. "It's showtime."