Work Text:
Morisuke was tired. Very tired. He wanted to be at home, napping in his room, or maybe curled up on the couch with Kenma and Suga as the three roommates watched a movie of some sort.
But no. He was here. Setting up a camera that wasn't his for a meteor shower he didn't really care to see, and really he needed to stop indulging Oikawa so much, damn it .
… Okay, fine. Morisuke was just bitching. Even before Oikawa had asked him, he’d been prepared to come here. He was that good a friend.
Didn't mean he wouldn't complain like hell though.
Once the gear was set up to his satisfaction, Morisuke settled down on his yoga mat (which he’d brought because he hated sitting on damp grass) to wait for the show to start.
It didn't take long, although really the five minutes felt like years-- mostly because Morisuke had made a mistake of bringing his thinner hoodie, and of course it was cold enough tonight that the flimsy jacket wasn't much help fending off the chill.
Morisuke did appreciate the sight though, he found, as he watched the shooting stars rain down above him. It sort of reminded him of fireworks, but with less noise. It was… definitely beautiful to witness.
He lay back with a sigh, letting the tension seep from his body. It wasn't quite a movie like he'd wanted, but maybe this was better. He didn't need to keep his mind focused on any plot or character or backstory… he could simply let his thoughts go where they pleased. It wasn't quite enough to distract him from the cold, but it was close.
As he watched more and more stars falling, Morisuke had to wonder: were there always this many shooting stars during a meteor shower? Was it always this fast? This bright? It had never seemed so, the first few times Oikawa had bugged his friends into watching the videos he’d captured, but… cameras rarely ever caught the full beauty of life, right?
But also… Morisuke had known from the beginning that this shower was an abnormal one-- how could he not? Oikawa had talked about nothing else the past few days-- and the fact that there was a glowing ball of something getting larger and larger just proved he was right to have worried.
He should move. Now.
Morisuke hopped to his feet and snatched up the camera as he went, yanking it roughly off the tripod (which was probably broken now, but fuck it anyway, he shouldn't have even grabbed the camera when his safety was at stake). He backed up a significant distance from where he expected it to land, watching warily as it sped towards, then crashed onto, the hill.
He was expecting a meteorite. He’d been pretty good at science, he knew what a meteorite was and what it was typically composed of. He’d never actually thought he might see one in person--
And he’d been right not to, apparently, because when the dust cloud began to clear, Morisuke saw something stand up from the impact point. There was no stone or iron or mixture of the two. Just a freakishly tall humanoid, currently using its lanky limbs pushing itself up to its full height.
“What the actual fuck, ” Morisuke breathed, curious and terrified and livid all at once. Why the fuck had he agreed to this, had Oikawa fucking known this would happen??? Holy shit, were the others okay??? He fished his phone from his pocket and dialed.
Yaho! I'm a little busy at the moment, but leave a message and I'll get back to you soon, ‘kay?
Of course he wasn't picking up. He better have had a good excuse for that. “ Oikawa Tooru ,” Morisuke hissed into the receiver, “I don't know if this is some sick prank or hoax or whatever to prove your stupid alien theories, but you better not be fucking dead-- and also if I get killed or one of the others gets killed by a strange meteor creature, I swear to god I will destroy you! If this is a joke, you’ll really fucking get it. You little shit. Let me know you're fucking okay, all right?”
He hung up.
Morisuke started to tap out Suga’s number-- or, actually, Kenma would be better??? The others could take care of themselves but Kenma was a little on the weaker side… but then, Kenma was smart. Almost sly.
Oh whatever, Suga’s number was already in. He pressed the call button--
“Hi, do you know-- oh wow you're tiny, did humans, like, shrink while I was gone?”
Morisuke whipped his head up, and without even thinking, snapped, “I am not tiny , you are just a walking skyscraper!”
Wait.
Morisuke’s eyes flicked to the crash site, and… yep, the thing was gone. Which meant this… this was the thing. Meteor-creature. Whatever.
Eyes widening, Morisuke stumbled back a few steps, holding his hands out as if to fend it off. “What the fuck are you? What do you want? And what do you mean, ‘while you were gone’?”
How had he gotten so close? Why was he grinning so much? When had it even become a he in Morisuke’s mind?
“You're funny,” he-- it -- said. “I’m a person! Like you!” There was a pause, and it tilted it's head like some sort of confused pup. “What's a skyscraper?”
Morisuke’s brow furrowed. “A person? As in, human?” Well… it was true that it… okay, fine, he was remarkably human-looking, if a little out of place here in Japan, with his bright green eyes and silver hair.
He blinked at Morisuke. “What else would I be?”
“I don't know!” Morisuke replied, throwing his hands up in frustration. None of the past few minutes had made any sense . Ugh, he was really going to kill Oikawa. This was way too much stress for after finals. “An alien? A weird star-creature? Something else? Humans don't fall from the sky!”
“Hmm… but I just did.”
“Exactly my point!”
“Eh?! But I’m human! Really! I'm Haiba Lev! I was only a constellation because the gods put me there!” The man-- Haiba-- waved his (ridiculously long) arms wildly, as if that would help convince Morisuke. It didn't.
Morisuke simply quirked an eyebrow. “The gods? Really? Okay, if I doubted it before, I don't now. This is a prank, right?”
Haiba only frowned a bit. “It’s true! They all got mad at me, you know, because I kept saying things about them.” He tilted his head up, almost as if he was expecting to see these gods he mentioned. When nothing happened, he continued, “I don't think I was all wrong. But they didn't like what I was saying. So they punished me.”
Despite himself, Morisuke was curious. He almost asked for specifics, but caught himself at the last minute. Whatever this thing going on was-- joke or not-- he refused to play along so easily.
His disbelief was written clear on his face, and Haiba must have seen it, because he insisted, “It’s true! Zeus and Athena and Hera and all of them-- they put me up there!”
Morisuke’s brow only rose a little higher. “Uh-huh.”
“I’m serious!”
Before Morisuke could respond, his phone chimed. If that was Oikawa, he thought, tapping in his passcode almost viciously, he was going to have some harsh words with the setter. A text? Really--
Oh. Not Oikawa. Suga. Worry for Oikawa began to gnaw at Morisuke’s gut, but at least he knew now that Suga was okay. A beat later and another message came in from Kenma. That was good. Bokuto and Oikawa still hadn't said anything, but… if the other two were fine, maybe they would be as well. Probably. Morisuke himself was fine, so…
“Hey!” Haiba blurted suddenly, startling Morisuke from his thoughts and almost making him drop his already-cracked phone.
“What?” he snapped.
“You never answered my question! Did everyone get shorter while I was up there?” Haiba flailed one of his noodly arms (was this a habit of his?) to indicate that ‘up there’ meant the sky.
… So Morisuke was not actually fine. He was stuck with a very irritating idiot who kept calling him short. He was definitely not fine.
He clenched his hands into fists and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath. He would not, absolutely would not, hit this fool hard enough to knock his soul out. Absolutely not-- if only because he didn't know enough about him yet to be sure he wasn't dangerous somehow. Although, it didn't seem like he was. He seemed too much like a childish, clueless sort; the very definition of harmless, really, even if his appearance seemed to indicate otherwise.
“Heyyyyy,” Haiba whined.
“No,” Morisuke finally gritted out, “people did not get shorter.”
Haiba’s face split into another grin. It was almost endearing, but Morisuke refused to be charmed by someone who had called him short twice in the span of ten minutes. “Aw, you're upset! Is it because you're smaller than everyone else? That's what you said, right? People didn't shrink? Which means you're tiny !” Morisuke had no idea how Haiba had managed to say that much so quickly. Or why on earth Haiba decided it would be a good idea to repeat the insult, despite clearly understanding it bothered Morisuke.
He did know one thing though. Possibly dangerous or not, Haiba Lev was getting kicked.
“Ouch!” He fell forward as Morisuke aimed his strongest possible kick at the back of Haiba’s knees. “That hurt!”
“Good. Quit calling me short!” Morisuke huffed, satisfied, especially since Haiba didn't suddenly turn lethal or anything. He really was as harmless as he seemed. Probably. Morisuke still wasn't ready to completely let down his guard.
Still pouting like an oversized child, Haiba got to his feet once more.
For a blessed moment, there was silence. Then:
“You know, it's kind of cute that you're so little and angry!” With that statement, Haiba patted Morisuke lightly on the head.
Haiba was a dead man now.
/////
Conversation with: Sugawara Koushi
YAKU PLEASE DON'T KILL
YOUR STARPERSON!
Kenma showed you
our texts?
YES. DON'T KILL HIM.
He patted me.
On the head.
Yaku, come on. Be a
responsible mom who doesn't
commit murder.
You can be the responsible
mom.
Why am I a mom anyway?
I don't know. I’m one too,
remember.
I just roll with it.
… I'm killing him if you aren't
here in five minutes.
Already omw.