Chapter Text
Summary: You are a wildlife photojournalist in the Amazon. The rainforest is full of dangerous creatures, but you never thought you’d be housing one of them. Especially not the most dangerous of them all.
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You lay in the hammock, reading. There wasn’t much to do this far from human civilization. You could try a nature hike, but it was growing late and the wildlife here was dangerous. You weren’t too keen on being injected with venom, mauled, or even harassed by thorny undergrowth in the pitch-black forest.
With all of these standards, many people would ask you why you even bothered going to spend your time in such a place. Part of it was that you needed to be here for your career- you were a photojournalist and you were documenting the predators in the local ecosystem, away from human intervention. Then there was another reason- a personal reason.
The door to your humble little hut burst open and you jumped. When I had said the things that resided in this place were dangerous, I failed to mention the deadliest thing there. Yeyin-thwei. His name was hard to pronounce, and it even took you a few times to actually understand what he was saying when you had asked for it. Quite some time ago you had resigned to calling him Yin.
Yin closed the door and wordlessly stomped to the water basin. He discarded different components of his armor and splashed water onto his face and arms. You watched curiously, closing your book and setting it aside.
“How was scouting?” you asked. He turned his head slightly and clicked in annoyance and waved a hand in the air dismissively. Your bottom lip jutted out subconsciously and you furrowed your brow. Clearly his search didn’t go well. Due to the language barrier, you didn’t know exactly what he was looking for- just that he was trying to find something. You were about to say something else, but your companion came over to you and plopped onto the hammock next to you, nearly launching you a foot into the air from the force of the impact.
He leaned his head back and something akin to a sigh escaped him. You awkwardly rest your hands on your stomach and sit in the silence. Yin wasn’t the greatest conversationalist. Hell, he hardly conversed at all.
Some may ask how exactly you came to be sitting by a… whatever he was. In truth you would never tell them and deny Yin ever existed, but you could recount the events to yourself just fine.
Your camera softly clicked as you took another picture of the creature. A harpy eagle, a rather large one at that, sat on an overhanging branch above the river preening itself. You shuffled forward to take a better photo and almost toppled over as a deafening noise soared over you, accompanied with a gust of wind. You cursed and caught yourself before landing face first into the water, which was likely filled with caiman and other predators who would love to get a bite of something invading their hunting grounds.
“Damn! What was that, a military plane or something?” you dust your hands off on your pants. “There’s not a base in over a 70 mile radius.”
Something didn’t sit right with you here. After some consideration, you decided you would check it out. It took you about 20 minutes to get there and you couldn’t believe your eyes. In front of you was an odd looking aircraft, perhaps a prototype for the air force in Columbia? About 15 feet away from the wrecked vessel, you heard a crash from the foliage behind you. You whirled around just in time to see an armored figure stumble in front of you and collapse to the ground.
“Holy shit! You scared me! Are you okay?” you gasped and knelt down next to them. Something unintelligible and almost inhuman came from the suit as you placed your hand gently on their shoulder. Long and strange looking locs hung from behind the metal mask. What the hell kind of pilot was this?
“Urk..” they gurgled out. Apparently an injured one. Okay. You grunt and helped them stand, supporting them with one shoulder, and lead them back to your makeshift home where you took care of them.
It had been a week or so before he had actually removed his mask(you couldn't for the life of you figure out how to get the dang thing off) and when he did, you had feinted. It took some time for you to adjust to the fact that you had been harboring an extraterrestrial for nearly a month, but you slowly grew to accept it. What were you going to do? Walk to the nearest town and hope they had a phone that could reach the U.S government? I don’t think so. You had a scheduled pick up and that wasn’t for another several weeks.
So, you and Yin coexisted and you helped him whenever you could. He found many uses for the tools that you used for your photography equipment and often borrowed them. Well, picked them up and pointedly shook them at you and then himself until you understood.
You turned your head to look at Yin. His eyes were closed and he looked clearly exhausted.
“I know this is basically hopeless, but what are you even looking for out there?” you ask. He shifts to return your gaze and clicks again. You must look as lost as you feel because he sits up and gestures to you and then to him.
“Uhh, us? No? Ok. Me? Nope, alright. Two… people? Also wrong… Person? Friend?” he nods. “Oh! You’re looking for someone else who was on the ship with you! How are you supposed to find them, this place is huge and from what you’ve taught me, you guys are really good at hiding.”
Yin makes a crackling noise and pulls a device from his belt. It was a box with a screen and different nobs and buttons. This is what he often used your tools on. So far, he had only ever been frustrated at it and yielded no results.
“What is that, like, a phone or something?” you chuckle. You’re surprised when Yin nods. “Oh. What if you can’t find him?”
Yin sits still and you sense he is unsure how to explain it to you using only vague gestures. You had to teach this guy ASL or something. Careful not to flip over, you get out of the hammock and start to get ready for bed.
“I’ll keep an eye out for your buddy while I’m in the field tomorrow.” you promise him. Yin again nods and reclines in the hammock. It’d be fine if you lent a helping hand, what’s the worst that could happen?