Chapter Text
since that evening on the cliff, eve's friendship with sou had become something rather significant to him.
the both of them often ate lunch together, with eve's continuous promises to kradness and the others to make up for the lost time (he always did, sticking by the many notes on earthlings about how badly they reacted to 'betrayal' and 'jealousy.) instead of spending free classtime listening in on his classmates’ conversations, the alien found himself in regular conversation with sou; sometimes, the duo would just sit in comfortable silence and that seemed to be enough. the people that he saw bother sou that day didn’t seem to come anywhere near him when that began. the brunette definitely seemed more happier.
it didn't mean anything though.
the mission was always at the front of his mind, of course. eve was simply here to investigate how earthlings act and report in regards to invasion. what he had with sou wasn't a friendship. it was all just a tactical move; after all, the brunette acted much differently to other humans he'd come across and any discovery of an outlier in the mix needed to be investigated.
still, eve would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the time he spent with sou.
they met up at the cliff a lot since they'd become closer. it was rather nice, eve figured, to be able to sit back and watch the city move without the stress or the involvement; he did this sort of thing back at the spaceship when he and yurin watched the many planets they passed live in their various ways, though typically resulting in natsuhiro scolding them and telling them to get back to their work. there was just something so calming about seeing something that felt so huge and significant to the people in it (whether it be the bustling cities or the crowded planets) from so far away, viewing it in a completely different, smaller perspective. the fact sou clearly felt the same as him.
it was just the two of them against the gigantic city, staring up at the sky in all of its glory.
**
on that note, actually, the sky had been pretty big topic of discussion recently.
he'd overheard it being mentioned by a few of his classmates a few days ago but now, after reol and matsushita mentioned it, he couldn't deny the sky's colour was really odd ...to say the least.
eve hadn't been on earth too long (how long had it been now...a few months?) though he was fairly certain the sky was some sort of blue before. definitely not a neptune shade of blue, but it was surely a blue... nothing like the almost salmon hue it was now. the fact everyone was talking about it like it was some sort of phenomenon confirmed to him that this wasn't a normal earth thing. no wonder naruse hadn't mentioned it in the pre-mission briefing.
this was definitely worth updating homebase about.
**
"homebase? hey, homebase? are you reading me?!"
an exhausted groan, followed by a "yes, i can hear you eve. i see you have signal this time around."
smiling at naruse's holographic form in front of him, eve reassured sheepishly "yes, it's all working fine this time, leader!"
"i do wish it wasn't sometimes with you." naruse was clearly in one of his moods, though eve knew well he didn't mean anything by it, "your updates, eve."
the blonde alien flipped through several of his notes over the course of the week, relaying information about some of the older humans he'd come across, alongside their scientific advancement he'd been reading up on. whilst he didn't see much of the amusement in their libraries, they were extremely useful in cluing eve onto what varying humans seemed to enjoy and give him information about their several history. there was way too much for his taste, although he vowed to keep looking anyway.
"oh, there's also the issue with the sky too." he added as an afterthought, not missing the way naruse's eyebrow quirked.
"what about it?" his voice remained exhaustingly flat, but that didn't stop the alien from continuing.
eve pulled a face, "the sky seems to be changing colour, sir. it's gone from blue to, well...some sort of red."
naruse nodded intently, seemingly logging this all down.
"i see...any reason why, do you think?"
"no, sir. people are becoming aware though, and increasingly concerned." he frowned, adding for clarification, "i don't think the sky's ever looked like that for /them./"
the pink haired alien hummed in confirmation, definitely never hearing of something like this before. it seemed like a mundane change, although eve was certain they'd investigate anyway. they never risked a chance of possible endangerment to the invasion.
"right, we'll look into that." naruse stopped logging information, suddenly staring back at eve with a hardened expression, "also, eve."
"yes?"
his next words were hard hitting, blasting his heart more forcefully than any meteor ever could.
"remember you have a mission to carry out." a pause, "watch your back at all times."
wordlessly, naruse cut their contact. antennas retreating back into this head, eve couldn't help but feel slightly pissed off at his leader's words. naruse was clearly having an off day for whatever reason (no matter how serious he was about invasion, naruse never spoke to him that coldly) but that wasn't justified. just because he was feeling particularly frustrated that day, it didn't mean he had to take it out all on eve. fuck, have a go at natsushiro or shin. at least they're on the ship with you.
the thing he'd said before hanging up annoyed him the most though.
eve was targeted. he always was.
earth was such top priority that he had no choice but to always be targeted towards invasion.
watch your back...he was! every 'friend' or whatever he let into his life were simply superficial to him; he didn't care about them now and he wouldn't care when his kind came down to destroy humanity.
"eve!"
...well.
from the path emerged sou, clearly exhausted from the walk up the cliff. despite his exasperated sighs and heaving, the brunette still shot him a genuine smile before joining him on the edge of the cliff.
they hadn't agreed to meet here, for the record. they'd arranged to meet at the cliff after most school days but this wasn't one of those days; eve was here and now, by extension, so was sou. the alien offered up a smile in return, trying to ignore naruse's scolding in the back of his mind.
ok, rewind. eve still stood completely by the fact that every 'friend' he maintained on earth was solely for the purpose of gaining information for the invasion. as horrible as it was, the moments he shared with people like kradness, luz, reol, anku and matsushita didn't mean much to him than a few points in his earth logs. that sentiment extended to everyone he met, including sou.
well.
about that.
sou was not one of those people he came across on the daily. the brunette wasn't like any other human he'd come across before, instantly enticing him to learn more. he came across as shy, but refused to stick to those who stood around in a crowd, pitying themselves and how the world seemed to be against them. he didn't say much to anyone (other than eve, he supposed) unless prompted to, and even then he would sometimes refuse a word. the boy was still somewhat of an enigma in how he too seemed to have given up hope in much of anything.
maybe that, then, accounted for his current issue with sou.
every time they were together, eve felt...different. much more different to how he was around anyone else.
he still enjoyed the time he spent with his friends, even though it was all for null. that being said though, there was something /different/ about the time he spent around sou. the brunette smiled a lot around him, feeling close enough to open up a bit more to eve; with every shared memory or laugh, eve felt his heartbeat quicken.
the first time it happened, he didn't think much of it.
the next few times however, something was definitely wrong.
looking at sou now smiling at him with those striking blue eyes, that feeling returned all at once.
he didn’t want to dote on it too much. the feeling was weird, yes, but not unwelcoming. in eve’s eyes, it was just a simple glitch in his system, an aftereffect of meeting someone as unique as sou.
nothing more, nothing less than a glitch.
“hey, eve?” sou started up again, staring down at the city before them, “i really like this.”
eve pulled himself from his own musings, looking at the brunette in curiosity, “like what?”
a hum of consideration, “this. being your friend. you’re really different, i think.”
the blonde repressed a laugh. of course he was unlike everyone else; he was an alien, afterall. there was no way of him actually revealing that though, so all he could really do was nod sheepishly. they lapsed into further conversation about the usual things before slipping into their typical comfortable silence.
perhaps it was because they were so high up on that cliff, but eve couldn’t help but feel his heart soaring as if in another galaxy.