This is a prequel that got away from me. This is AU in the way that a lot of writers are doing-in the end, Good Cop doesn't come back. At least not right away. (to be continued in the main story) I'm not an engineer/physicist, so forgive me for my fictional science. I'm also not a cop, so please overlook weird things like that, too.

Disclaimer: The Lego Movie and all associated Lego things are the property of Lego. I am not making money from this, and this story is free for distribution. This is the perfect chance to add something self-depreciating, but since the Lego Movie is involved, I can't do it. Out of principle.

1.

(Security detail.)

((Live with it, man.))

(Security detail.)

((It's one more step up the ladder.))

(We were not made for bricking security detail!)

"Oh, hush up, before somebody-!"

Every head in the room swiveled towards the person who just shouted.

"…hears you."

Good Cop covered his face in embarrassment as Bad Cop roared with silent laughter.

((Come on, if we do this job right, we'll be promoted for sure. Can you please be—))

(Good? You just had that little outburst, not me.)

((Oh, for the love of—))

Even though Bad Cop passed it off as a rote security job, only the finest officers were assigned to something as important as the Launch Base. They had to keep the crazy space fanatics corralled in the safe zones, keep an eye out for any sabotage or foul play, and evacuate the facility if anything went wrong. A launch day was coming up soon, and Good Cop/Bad Cop and a multitude of other police officers had arrived to familiarize themselves with the base. The Cops were using their lunch hour to wander the base independently, so none of their peers had been around to witness their slip-up.

((And thank goodness, too.))

(It doesn't matter what the others think. We're much better cops than them. When we get that promotion, we can rub it in their faces.)

((Ha, I knew this job was important to you, too!))

(Darn!)

"Oh dang!" said a voice that wasn't either of them, and someone rammed into Good Cop full-force.

The switch to Bad Cop was instinctive, and he grabbed the offender's arm, spun them around and pinned them against the handrails. "Hands above your head!"

"You've got my arm, dude, how am I supposed to—ouch!" the man yelped when Bad Cop pressed into him harder. Then he glimpsed his face.

No, wait—!

At Good Cop's exclamation, the man's identity registered in Bad Cop's head. He released his victim and stepped back so quickly that the other guy couldn't compensate fast enough and nearly beaned himself on the guard rail.

"My apologies. I thought you were an intruder."

To their shared surprise, the other man laughed. He was still laughing as he used the handrail to pull himself up.

"Ha-ha, wow, that is some security they've got running here. Are you here for the launch?"

"Indeed. I am Bad Cop, and-"

They pulled a face switch.

"I'm Good Cop, at your service."

"Cool," the other man stuck a hand out, "And I'm-"

"Benjamin Chu, one of the astronauts for the next space mission, active for-" Good Cop shook his hand as he cheerily recited the entire contents of the astronaut's personnel file.

The blue-clad man gawked. "Holy cow, that was right on! Are you psychic or something?"

Good Cop awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. He'd never handled a person like this. "It was in the employee logs. We have to learn them, so we know who's supposed to be here and who's not."

"That's phenomenal!" the astronaut said, starry-eyed. "It must have taken you forever to memorize."

"Only one week." For that one week, the Space Center employee log was the Cops' free reading. At mealtimes, break times, traffic lights and one time during a seminar about proper treatment of robots in the workplace. "Just doing my job, Mr. Chu."

"Mr. Chu's my father. Call me Benny." Benny's grin could outshine the sun. "How fast can you memorize a star chart?"

"Hey, Blue!" someone called before Good Cop could process the question.

Floating on the opposite end of the hall were four others, who, like Benny, were clad in jumpsuits which were pulled back and tied down at the waist, revealing t-shirts sporting the classic space logo. The only difference was that while Benny's outfit was solid blue, the other four astronauts were respectively clothed in red, black, white and yellow.

"Break's over, time for another round of assessments!" the black astronaut continued.

"I know!" Benny shouted back. To Good Cop, he said, "I'll see you around." With that, his feet rose off the floor. He pulled his knees to his chest and kicked off against the handrails, propelling himself through the air to join his friends.

Good Cop watched the quintet float away.

That's weirder up close, Bad Cop muttered.

I think he was really nice.

Neither Good Cop nor Bad Cop saw Benny in the following days. The launch went off without a hitch, and Good Cop/Bad Cop came off the assignment promoted to lieutenant. With their new duties, the blue astronaut faded to the back of their minds.

9.

When the portion of the building containing the TAKOS broke away, the robots panicked, and Bad Cop was carried along in their rush to leave the room. The doors to the Think Tank closed behind him. He was out of range of the electrified area. He was going to live, but Bad Cop felt like he'd rather die.

There was no one who was glad he was okay.

Lord Business killed his brother. He forced him to Kragle his parents in exchange for his own life. Then he left him to die in the Think Tank, along with the Master Builders he'd put there, held at gunpoint by the robots he once led.

There was no one to tell him to do the right thing.

Benny was still in the Think Tank. Benny was going to die.

Bad Cop promised Good Cop that he would keep Benny safe.

Before the robots realized their mistake, Bad Cop grabbed hold of a metal chair. With one swing, he took out the half dozen robots within immediate reach, and hurled the chair to flatten three robots in front of him. He snatched up a dropped blaster, sprinted over the fallen robots, jumped onto the chair (shattering the robot's head under it) and used it to vault over the rest of the enemy forces.

"I win," he gloated, and threw his weight against the door.

It didn't budge.

He looked at the door handle. It was a pull handle. The doors were pull-to-open!

A laser blast hit near his hand, and he danced back, dodging and returning enemy fire. The robots had swarmed the door again. He needed to clear a bigger space. "Alert, alert! We need backup-"

The robot didn't see the chair until it had smashed him in the face. Bad Cop did a flip off the chair, shooting in every direction. The fight was over within seconds. Triumphant, Bad Cop made for the exit.

A unit of robots burst through the opposite door.

Darn!

"Thirty-five mississippi," the computer announced.

Darn!

The battle was a blur of laser fire, crunching metal and flying chairs. No matter how many he took out, they just kept coming. How many reinforcements did that one robot call for?

No one answered back.

"Zero missi-Error. Termination failure."

Bad Cop smirked as swung a chair overhead, bashing in a robot skull. Using the chair as both a shield and a bludgeon, he crunched, smashed and crashed his way back to his destination.

Abruptly, the robots halted their attack. They snapped to attention, red eyes blinking. Bad Cop recognized this pattern. They were receiving new orders.

The robots turned and headed for the same door they had come in from, ignoring Bad Cop. Perfect. His hand grasped the door to the Think Tank and pulled it open.

The cells were empty and the window was broken. No one was there.

"Darn!"

Bad Cop followed the robots. He caught up to them quickly, and with chair in hand, he beat the living circuitry out of any robot he saw—until he was out of robots. With nothing left to dismember, Bad Cop saw that he had wound up in the film studio, with the Master Builders he'd captured with the Speci…with Brickowski.

"I'll hold these guys off!" he said to their disbelieving faces. "You go stop them!"

The mecha-pirate growled, "Great idea, but how will we get there?"

"I could…I could build a…a…!"

The raspy, stuttering voice was the second sweetest thing he could possibly hear. Bad Cop had kept his promise.

"Build away, B—whatever-your-name-is," he said, and tried not to let his relief show.

As his world fell to pieces around him, Benny built a spaceship.

2.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! Cops!"

Benny crashed into him. Out of reflex, Bad Cop switched in and slammed the astronaut face-first against a car.

"Benny! Don't startle me like that!" Bad Cop chided, letting go.

"Yeah, 'hello' to you too." Benny cracked his neck and felt his helmet for damage. "You should come with a warning label."

"I do. It's my badge," Bad Cop replied, dryly. "What makes you think it's okay to literally run into people?"

"I just got back from space. I haven't adjusted to gravity yet," Benny pouted. He brightened up. "Hey, I was just going to get lunch. Want to join me? You can tell me everything I missed on Earth these last couple of months."

Bad Cop checked his watch. He had nearly worked through his lunch break.

((Time flies when you're having fun.))

"Sure, I can use some food. Let's get—"

Good Cop forced his way in. "What do you want to eat, Benny?"

"Quesadillas!" the astronaut cheered, and took to the air. Good Cop broke into a jog to keep up.

(What's your deal, Good? I wanted a reuben!)

((Bad, think. The man's been up in space for months, eating freeze-dried baby food. Let him eat what he wants.))

"I see your uniform's different now."

"Yes, I made lieutenant shortly after you left."

"That's cool! Did you see any news reports of my mission? I want to know how good I look on TV. We do all these interviews and stuff but I never get to see them since there's no TV in space. Our computers can get data from the shuttle's sensors and from rovers and satellites and the base on Earth, of course, but television? Too advanced for us."

Good Cop nearly tripped over a park bench. "Benny, will you please slow down?"

The prattling spaceman didn't notice. In a bout of annoyance, Bad Cop switched in. "I said, wait up!" he roared. He jumped up, grabbed the astronaut by the ankle, and pulled.

The two hit the ground hard.

Good Cop thanked The Man Upstairs for the existence of helmets. Bad Cop groaned and looked for Benny.

He was already back in the air. Not only that, he was curled up into a ball, laughing. "That was fun!"

"You-!" Bad Cop growled.

"I bounce, silly," Benny smiled and touched down. "Gravity is an option for me." He reached out a hand.

After a quick inner struggle, Bad Cop let Benny help him up.

Throughout the entire meal, Benny rambled about his trip and the wonders of space. Good Cop and Bad Cop responded in all the appropriate places ("I dinnae know that!" "Hn.") and before they parted, they exchanged phone numbers.

"You can catch me up on all the latest gossip next time!" Benny proclaimed before drifting down the street.

8.

"Please, take this extended mission. Stay out in space a little longer."

"And what? Protect myself while you're putting my friends in jail?"

"They're criminals-"

"They're innocent, G! As far as I can tell, you're arresting anyone for being a Master Builder!"

Benny stomped to their room, flung his bag onto the bed, and violently began unpacking his things.

"It's not like that. President Business-"

"You're blindly following anything President Business says! Where is the law, or justice, or fairness in that?"

Good Cop took a breath. The words made sense when Lord Business said them, but in front of Benny…

"They're causing chaos in the city. Someone could get hurt with all that disorder and reckless building."

"It's what Master Builders do! Master Builders live to create, to imagine, to improve the worlds we live in."

"But they shouldn't run rampant. Under a guiding hand-"

"You mean a restraining hand."

"Benny, please, listen-"

"No, you listen!" the blue spaceman whirled and jabbed a finger into Good Cop's chest. "Master Builders saved my life! My closest friends are Master Builders. I'm a Master Builder," he finished in a wounded tone.

Good Cop couldn't handle this.

Bad Cop tagged in. "Benny-"

"Stay out of this, Bad! This is between me, and Good!" Benny all but screamed.

Bad Cop stopped breathing, and took a step back.

Benny's eyes widened. "Oh, Man Upstairs, B, I am so sorry, I didn't mean-"

"Benny," Bad Cop said. He wouldn't meet his eyes. "Please. Take the extended mission. Stay at the Space Station. Explore other galaxies on the Voyager. Please stay out there as long as you can. I need you to be safe. We need you to be safe."

Benny slowly started adding clothes back into his bag.

"If…when…you do come back to the surface, until this blows over, you can't let anyone know we're associated. It's on paper that you and your friends are Master Builders. We're just lucky that President Business hasn't looked yet. When he finds out, he'll make me bring you in."

Benny zipped his bag shut. He said something so quietly that Bad Cop had to strain to hear it. "Ben?"

"B, what are they doing to Black?"

In the back of their mind, Good Cop began to cry. Bad Cop shrugged him off. They would get accustomed to it. They had to. "That's Super Secret Police business, I'm afraid."

There was room for more in the Think Tank. Many more.

The spaceman smiled, a wavering shadow of the smile they loved. He kissed Bad Cop on the cheek. "I love you both. Goodbye."

"Goodbye," Bad Cop echoed as the front door swung shut.

They didn't have the heart to tell him that Yellow wouldn't make it to the next launch, either.

3.

"We saw you on the news," Good Cop mentioned while they were catching up the next time Benny returned from space.

"Really? How did I look? Dashing? Debonair? Does the camera really add ten pounds?" Benny mumbled around a tortilla.

(It's rude to talk with his mouth full.)

((He's just excited. It's adorable.))

(He's excited all the time. Does that make him adorable all the time?)

Good Cop ignored him and responded to the astronaut. "You can see for yourself. I recorded it."

His helmet was knocked askew with the force of Benny's whoop.

"I get to see myself on TV!"

Good Cop and Bad Cop struggled over the helmet. "Maybe you can tone it down when you meet my parents," Bad Cop got out before Good Cop forced the helmet over his face.

At that, the astronaut gasped. He folded his hands near his face and fluttered his eyelashes. "You're bringing me to meet your parents? I had no idea you felt that way."

"Um, well… you see-" Good Cop stammered.

Bad Cop switched in before his other half could make a fool of himself. "The recording is at their house. You have to come over to watch it."

On the "Day of Truth" (as both of them somehow wound up calling it), Bad Cop and Benny stood in the doorway of his parents' small suburban home. Beside him, Benny was gleefully levitating up and down. He hoped their parents could handle the dynamo that was Benny "Blue" Chu.

Bad Cop jumped when the front door slammed open and his parents burst out.

"Welcome!"

"You must be Ben!"

"We've heard so much about you!"

"You're nothing but skin and bones!"

"You must let Ma fatten you up."

They easily herded Benny inside, helped in part by how he was pretty much weightless from surprise.

((On second thought, hopefully Benny can handle our parents.))

Bad Cop adjusted his sunglasses and followed them.

"—and he tried to arrest me!" Benny was already seated at the kitchen table, a pitcher of lemonade between him and Pa Cop while Ma Cop made sandwiches.

Pa broke into uproarious laughter. "That's my boy, all right."

"You can't arrest all your friends, you know," Ma Cop chided.

"Mummy!"

"Don't be too hard on him, Mrs. Cop. I was going at a pretty high velocity."

"What a sweetheart you are. Just call us 'Ma' and 'Pa,'" she said, setting the plates down and taking a seat.

"Mummy, you're embarrassing him!" Bad Cop hissed.

"No, no, it's fine!" Benny beamed. "You two are the nicest people I've ever met!"

"Thank you, dearie, it pleases us you think so," said Ma Cop.

Pa Cop added, "That's because you haven't known her long enough, laddie. You should hear the stories they tell at the precinct…"

(Oh, no, here we go.)

((Oh boy, here we go!))

Benny sat through several anecdotes, helped with the dishes, and didn't even flinch when Ma exclaimed, "I can't believe our son is friends with a real life celebrity!" when they watched the recorded footage. That was partly because Benny was just as enthusiastic, if not more.

"That's me! On TV! I am so awesome!"

Ma sent them home with Good Cop/Bad Cop's favorite cookies and leftover pie for Benny.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, Benny-boy," Pa said, shaking his hand.

Ma gave the spaceman a hug. "Don't be a stranger, dearie." She peered down her spectacles at Good Cop. "You should bring him around more often, this one's a keeper."

"Mummy!" Good Cop's face flushed as he was pulled into a hug.

7.

"Five Master Builders arrested. This is a record for the most Master Builders arrested at one time, and the first successful raid on a secret Master Builder meeting," President Business announced. "Let's give this guy a hand!"

The robots in the room applauded, metal appendages clanking loudly.

Good Cop smiled weakly. According to his information, there were only supposed to be four Master Builders at that meeting. He didn't know Black would be there as well.

"Those Master Builders are elusive criminals, but I knew they couldn't hide from you! I've had my eye on you, Assistant Chief Good Cop/Bad Cop. Record holder for the most Master Builders arrested. One of the fastest men to be promoted to Assistant Chief in history. And now, the fastest man to be promoted to Chief of Police. Ever."

"Sir?"

"With the power vested in me by the citizens of the world, I now pronounce you Chief of Police Good Cop/Bad Cop."

Good Cop's breath caught in this throat. This was what they worked for their entire lives—to carry out justice, protect the peace. "Thank you, sir," he saluted.

Bad Cop switched in. "It's an honor, sir. I won't let you down, sir."

"You better not," President Business winked. "As the Chief of Police, you are also now the head of my own personal security force, the Super Secret Police! The Super Secret Police has one duty only—to find Master Builders, and stop them."

"You can count on me, sir."

"I know you won't let me down like the last guy did! Your duties begin now. Here is your brand-new Super Secret Police Badge, and almost-new Super Special Super Secret Chief of Police Laser Gun. Come here, let me show you something."

They got into the elevator, and President Business entered his code for the infinitieth floor of the Octan Tower. "The Master Builders are terrorists. They've declared war on the virtues of peace, safety and organization, and it is up to the Super Secret Police to stop them! Exposition motivation yadda yadda you know this stuff already."

Good Cop would have hung on every word, but Bad Cop tuned him out.

"Blah blah old news behold!"

Which is why he was caught by surprise when the President stepped off the elevator and was suddenly clad in a flaming helmet, cape and boots that were several bricks tall.

"Welcome to the Think Tank! Pretty cool, right?"

Bad Cop tore his eyes from his boss's outfit (which they both thought was ridiculous, even though Good Cop was too polite to admit it) and took in his surroundings. The walls were lined with holding cells, stacked all the way up to the ceiling. It could easily hold one hundred captives or more.

Twenty of the cells were occupied.

As the president strutted around, monologuing, Bad Cop got a closer look at the prisoners. He was responsible for catching most of them—a magician, a mime…and Black. Black was unconscious. Bad Cop turned away.

"—know where the other Master Builders are hiding. Get the information out of them. Use any means necessary."

(Wait what?)

((You really need to pay more attention.))

Good Cop took over. "Of course, President Business, sir."

The President brought his hands together. "That's right, I forgot to mention one—"

His colossal frame bent down…

"—little—"

…and swooped in, eye-level with Good Cop...

"—thing."

Good Cop backed up until he bumped into the control console.

"You will call me 'Lord' Business."

4.

It turned out that Benny loved freeze-dried baby food.

"Here!" the astronaut grinned, offering a multicolored block to the policeman.

Bad Cop protested in the back of his mind, but Good Cop smiled back uncertainly and took a chunk of the freeze-dried Neapolitan ice cream. Their fingers brushed, and Good Cop's face reddened ever so slightly.

(Oh, brother,) Bad Cop scoffed, but he didn't switch in. The threat of powdery dehydrated sweets was enough to keep him inside.

Good Cop took a bite and hummed.

((It's good!))

(It's not that bad.)

Benny beamed. "I knew you'd like it!"

They finished their snacks, and Benny jumped up. "Let's keep going!"

Good Cop grabbed a hold of Benny's wrist before the spaceman floated too high, and they continued their walk through the Bricksburg Arboretum.

"Oh, look at that!" Good Cop pointed, and switched with Bad Cop.

"Hn," Bad Cop grunted in appreciation at the purple hanging flowers. His eyes swept over the scenery. "Aren't those-?"

"I love fiddleheads, thanks Buddy!" Good Cop gushed, switching back. He dug out his phone with the hand that wasn't preoccupied with holding the astronaut like a balloon, and snapped a picture.

Benny burst into laughter.

Good Cop raised an eyebrow. "Do ferns tickle your fancy?"

That just made the spaceman laugh even harder as he touched down, feet lightly tapping onto the pavement. "It's just that you have really different tastes. You're really two different people!"

That caught the attention of both Cops, inside and out. "Y-you really think so?"

"Well, it's really obvious when you order two completely different coffees at the same time, and fight over pastries, and Bad always tries to fix my manners," he turned to face Good Cop and pointed, "but you don't."

Good Cop's mind raced, and before Bad could stop him, he blurted out, "Is there one of us you like better?"

"You're both my buds!" Benny's smile was pure sunshine. "Hanging out with you is always a party, because we're always three and never two. I mean, you can have a party with two people, but that takes work."

"How about a date?" Good Cop ignored Bad's increasingly frantic protests. "Can you have a date with three people?"

"Are you asking me out?" Benny took in Good's flushed countenance. "You are! You're totally asking me out!"

Memories flashed through Bad Cop's mind. The one who thought Good and Bad were two sides of the same person. The girl who liked Bad but thought that Good was too sickeningly sweet. The baker who Good dated briefly, but thought it was creepy that they were always accompanied by an invisible third wheel. Their situation was unique, and realistically, Bad Cop didn't expect people to love them the way they wanted to be loved.

Good Cop was always the less realistic of the pair.

"Yes, Benny. I'm asking you out. Just me," Good Cop said, looking the spaceman straight in the eye. It was important that he made this part clear. "Bad Cop would rather remain friends with you, if that's alright."

(This is going to be a disaster. Again.)

((Hush and let the man decide for himself.))

Benny's head tilted one way, puzzled. He tilted his head the other way, realization dawning.

"Of course!" Benny launched himself at Good Cop, wrapping him in a crushing hug. "I'd love to go out with you!"

Bad Cop grabbed Benny by the shoulders and pried him off. "You might be dating Good, but I'm always going to be here. In the back of his mind, we'll always be talking, or sharing food, or heck, he might just sneeze the wrong way. You'll never have private time, or be alone together. Do you understand?"

((Noooo, you're using the interrogation voice! Don't mess this up for me!))

(If I mess this up now, it will get messed up later, trust me.)

"Don't be so serious, Bad," Benny chuckled. "Good can be my boyfriend, and you can be my bro! It'll be fine!"

Bad was dumbstruck. Good Cop took advantage of his shocked state and switched in, smiling in relief. Benny grinned. "That was sweet. I think that's a record for how fast I've been threatened for dating someone. Hey, I've met your parents, and you already met my friends. That's perfect, we skipped all the hard steps in dating! Now we just have to kiss!"

"W-what?" Good Cop hadn't expected Benny to be so agreeable. He understood Benny's thinking though—technically, they already had multiple dates, and they held hands several times (to rein in Benny's floating)…

"Come on, lay one on me!" Benny spread his arms in invitation.

Good leaned over and pecked him on the cheek. The spaceman giggled. "Not like that! We're boyfriends now! Here, like this."

Benny leaned in. Good Cop's heart sped up. Bad Cop was still too stunned to say anything.

Their lips met in a gentle kiss. When Benny started to pull back, Good kissed him again.

After Benny and his crew left for another expedition, Good Cop was sitting in front of the television with his parents. They watched the news for Benny together, and his parents didn't mind inevitably re-watching the recording after the astronaut returned.

"—Robert, age 10, writes, 'What do you wish you can bring with you into space, but can't?' Everything I want is here in space—the view is out of this world, and I'm sharing it with the bestest friends a guy can possibly have…"

His jubilant grin faded into a more thoughtful expression. "Well, there's one friend who can't come to space with me. I kind of miss him."

He hardly noticed Ma and Pa Cop's encouragement over the sound of his beating heart.

"Great questions from you guys, keep sending them in and dreaming of space! This is Blue, signing out from the Command Base."

6.

Bad Cop was beat when he got back home. It had been a rough day—he'd caught a Master Builder creating playground equipment in an empty lot. There was nothing malevolent about it, but there were rules about that sort of thing. Just because he was a Master Builder did not mean he could build without a permit on someone else's property. Granted, it was unused property, but there were proper channels to take care of those things. So many Master Builders considered themselves above the law. Just last week, he'd arrested a Master Builder for putting wings and jets on a flower cart. All flying vehicles needed to be registered, and the flower girl was flying too low to boot. Someone could have gotten hurt. The chief of police had sent a notice to all the stations about the increasing number of Master Builder-related crimes, and to be on the lookout for suspicious activity from known Master Builders.

He wanted to order cheap takeout and take a nap in his room, but the shuttle crew had landed earlier that day, and Good Cop wanted to have dinner ready before Benny got home. Good Cop had just left the corned beef and vegetables resting in a covered pot when he heard the front door open. "Ben!"

He exited the kitchen to help with his bag, but stopped short. "Your helmet! What happened? Are you okay?"

The bag fell forgotten to the floor as Good Cop gathered Benny into his arms. Two eyes and two minds inspected him for anything amiss.

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm okay," Benny said, flashing his ever-constant smile, but it was wan instead of bright. "I missed you."

Good Cop ceased his inspection and kissed him soundly. "I missed you too."

A little later, they were cuddling on the couch, the broken helmet on the coffee table in front of them.

"Yellow and I were repairing an Octan satellite. Its panels wouldn't orient correctly, and one of the panels turned suddenly and smacked me in the face. When I woke up, I was way off course, and my helmet was cracked. I thought I was done for." He wedged himself tighter against Good Cop, pulling the blanket up. "But then I saw a light. For a minute, I thought it was 'the light,' you know? It kept getting bigger, and brighter…and it was the spotlight on a ship! Yellow stripped the satellite, made a spaceship and came after me! I'd never been so grateful to be on a team of Master Builders in my life! Red was so mad, because Yellow had taken off without saying anything-"

That's right. Benny's entire space group was composed of Master Builders. It had actually been in the files that Good Cop/Bad Cop read so long ago. For most jobs, being a Master Builder wasn't a notable factor—it was like if someone could whistle or not, so it wasn't listed on employee paperwork or personal records. However, since so many things could go wrong in the cold, dark void of outer space, there was actually a preference for Master Builders to be chosen as astronauts—they were adaptable to unexpected situations and could build their way out of almost any crisis, saving lives that would otherwise be lost. Like Benny's.

"—and we put all the pieces back anyway. He's just a big softie. Good?" Benny shifted to look at him. "You alright?"

Good Cop smiled for Benny's sake, and kissed the top of his head. "We're just glad you're safe."

"So am I."

5.

"You may kiss the bride."

Good Cop grasped Benny's arms and kissed him soundly, to the raucous applause of their friends and family. Benny's side of the church was most of the friends—workers from the Space Center and people he'd known from school. Good Cop's side of the church was most of the family—his parents, various uncles/aunts/cousins, and retirees from his parents' old station who had watched him grow up.

Someone wolf-whistled. Good Cop pulled back from the kiss, and sure enough, Benny had floated into the air from where he was anchored by Good Cop's hold. His legs had risen above the level of his arms, causing his dress to slide down. Bad Cop had made Benny wear shorts under the dress in case of this exact scenario. Thankfully, nothing was revealed due to the layers of chiffon and tulle.

They exited the church amid a shower of rice and confetti. They accepted congratulations left and right. The photographer was having a ball. He wanted a picture of them with Ma and Pa. He took a group shot of just Benny with his bridesmaids. Benny in his white gown with blue accents, and Black, Red, Yellow and White with matched dresses in their respective colors. All five proudly wore their Space Force pins. Bad Cop switched in for picture of the best man with the bride.

"Now you're really my bro!" Benny proclaimed, throwing his arms around him. Bad Cop awkwardly patted him on the back.

"I'm happy for you." He didn't know what else to say.

"Thanks!" Benny beamed. Then grimaced. "Ugh, I'm so hungry. I haven't had anything to eat since four o'clock this morning. When's the reception?"

"In another three hours."

"Oh maaaaaaaan! Hey, White, I know you got a space pizza in your bag. Give it here!"

Bad Cop switched with Good Cop to hide his mirth. He had an image to uphold, after all.

The reception was worth the wait. Bad Cop reminded Benny to take small bites, and Benny threatened to eat Bad Cop's boutonniere. During the parent dance, Good Cop didn't step on Ma Cop, and Benny and Pa Cop both stepped on each other. Good Cop and Bad Cop each had a slice of wedding cake and regretted nothing. Benny and his astronaut buddies danced above the revelers' heads, holding hands to form a ring and twirling in circles. The bridesmaid dresses were much less frilly than the the bride's, and they were not wearing shorts.

Days later, Good Cop was visiting Ma and Pa Cop again.

"Because I got promoted to Captain so close to the wedding, it didn't get onto the transfer paperwork-" Good was telling Ma, when Pa called from the living room.

"Young Ben is on the telly!"

Together, they watched the broadcast from the Space Station.

"—the only water you get in space is what you bring with you, so you have to ration it. When I'm at home, I can drink all the water I want."

A black gloved hand reached across the screen and shoved Benny in the shoulder. "All right, all right! Geez, some people…"

A pen flew across the screen and nailed Benny between the eyes. "That was uncalled for! I said I'll do it!"

He flinched at something offscreen. "But what I miss the most is my husband!" he blurted.

Good's face went tomato-red.

Glaring at the people behind the camera, Benny continued, "I got married recently, yay me, and my husband has to stay on earth while I'm up here." He flushed in embarrassment. "I love him a lot."

From a few feet away, from thousands of miles away, Good Cop said, "I love you too."