Work Text:
“Do you really think this is a good idea?”
Bracatus looked from the book he was engrossed in just a moment ago to look at a Yoshinori— or Yamago, depending on the individual— that was watching him already. Although his face is solid like an outer skeleton or shell, he assumes his shorter friend can pick up on the frown he tried to express.
“I don’t see why it would be a bad idea, so I think it’s a good idea, actually.” With that, Yoshinori looks back down to the simple white table sporting scattered parts of a device in the process of being given its final touches. Even with his full attention on the work once again, Bracatus sighs and continues, closing the book with a soft pop.
“You’re stressing yourself again, Y.”
“No.” Comes his curt reply. “I’m not. I’m just trying to help you.”
“You are and I appreciate that. Really, I do,” He steps around the mechanical mess and boxes on the floor, up to Yoshinori where he leans down to his eye level and strokes his back, just between the spider legs. “But, Yoshinori, I’ll be fine. I’ve survived this long, haven’t I?”
“There was an assassination attempt on your head!” Yoshinori throws his hands up and steps away— Bracatus promptly takes his claws back so the sudden outburst isn’t irritated by touch. “I know you’re more than perfectly capable of taking care of yourself, Bracatus,” Yoshinori swipes the small wristwatch-like object back into his hand and reaches for a screwdriver in the other. “However, you can’t just expect me to be sitting ducks and do nothing for you. You’ve done so much for me—“
“You do not need to repay me.” He answers calmly but to no avail Yoshinori’s nerves are getting the best of him still.
“It’s not that I feel like I need to repay you for basic decency and help! It’s that I want to help— We’ve been childhood friends for light years. You think I’m not gonna help someone I care for?” Even if Yoshinori tousled and moved around the lab room, his mechanical legs kept him safely off the floor and from colliding with any fragile or hazardous objects. The young emperor’s ability to multitask while simultaneously boiling over is impressive but concerning.
His success in the apparatus calms him by a mile and Bracatus breathes a sigh of relief when Yoshinori isn’t stumbling all over the place or stressing over his livelihood. Yoshinori reapproached him and beckoned him closer, now his turn to lower himself to proper eye level— which wasn’t by much. Compared to a 7ft tall alien next to a 5’10 one— just a little bit nearing Moonera's emperor’s height with the spider legs— Yoshinori was still short.
“Here.” He tosses the screwdriver away. “This should help you with a human disguise.” And he safely deposits the odd wristlet into a clawed hand. Unlike Sernicians’s natural abilities to disguise themselves as humans, Moonerians required the aid of technologies to achieve something past their ‘chameleon’ disguise of a human astronaut. Something about evolution and how humans went to the moon, prompting his kind to develop these skills to somewhat blend in for protection.
Regardless, that didn’t quite matter now. The Earth’s Moon was abandoned for another more habitable Moon, so Moonerians didn’t have to worry about the humans too much. What they did have to worry about were civil wars or other galactic threats— and in the case of those with an emperor status: assassination attempts.
Yoshinori has not dealt with an assassination directed to him but rather his mother. The next thing he knew was Bracatus could’ve been killed and he was having none of that. So, that brings them to the present at hand.
Yoshinori steps a considerable amount away and lowers himself to the ground, retracting the spider legs and crossing over his uniformed chest. Bracatus hummed, curious as he inspected his friend’s work, the field of technologies and mechanics the strongest of his skills. Not to mention, he’s got a knack for fashion and the wristlet was like an item made straight out of Moonerian’s materials.
“Forgive me for not being tech savvy here, but your specific development in technology is still a bit of a mystery to me. How do I…?” Bracatus wraps the thing around his slim wrist and flails his wrist uselessly.
“You can enter voice commands in settings like you can for ships, otherwise you gotta navigate the settings manually. Here.” Yoshinori steps closer again and takes the taller’s wrist. His claws are sharp and pointed, perfect for the small screen’s touchpad. He clicks and taps fast, mumbling things to himself and typing some words here and there from what Bracatus can see past Yoshinori’s head. Then in a moment of bewilderment and suddenness, Yoshinori stepped back like he’s been burned but looks passive all the same. It takes Bracatus a good second, but he catches on when he raises the same arm with the apparatus and sees something more human akin to Yoshinori’s own form.
“Oh?” Bracatus whispers and blinks up at his friend. Yoshinori now grins and takes a nearby convenient mirror to hold it up to his fellow emperor— lo and behold, he looks human down to his clothes that have taken on the look of a long black cardigan and a white shirt underneath.
They retain the design of his shoulder pads but subtly in the form of earrings and his head’s a mess of white, tousled hair kept under a black dandy hat. He can’t see his eyes under the mystery shades that have appeared on him and before he can ask, Yoshinori reads the quietly gobsmacked man.
“It seems your organic helmet has taken a more human approach. The dandy hat may be part of it, I’d have to look into it but your shades are definitely an obvious adaptation! Fascinating. They cover some of your most important features like the helmet.”
“Do they now?”
“Of course they do. You know that, big guy.” Yoshinori purrs and pats the other’s arm. “Your clothes have taken the appearance of your uniform and you even have naturally painted fingernails to match the black claw tips of your real form! See? I told you it’d work.”
“I never doubted you, small friend, but wouldn’t this form be even more telling as to who I am?” He finally has the mind to take off the rectangular shades— they really do a good job at hiding his eye color. Even if he’s aware they’re still gonna be a blinding gold, the human properties of their eye’s anatomy is now present in him. He’s impressed. He’s always been with Yoshinori and his work. He whistles low, noise unheard over the scoff of the Sernician.
“Not if you don’t use it to diddle diddle outside the palace, outside your home planet in general and most other places that often, if at all. Didn’t you crash on Earth once, though?” He scrunches up his nose, but there’s a smile there. “You can try out this form on Earth.”
“…You do have a point.” Humans don’t exactly have the technology to take on any aliens in war. Bracatus slides his shades back on and takes a step to further admire himself in the mirror; only to notice he’s wearing shoes. Boots? High heeled boots? That’s both new and not new. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to try— just not right now. I gotta sort out the mess that came with the assassination attempt.”
“And that’s more than alright by me. Just be careful, Bracatus,” That one, tired smile Yoshinori sports past the anger of issues out of his control replaced the mischief of the other. Bracatus feels for him and offers a visible smile of comfort.
“I’ll be. I’ll take you to Earth with me, too— I know you miss your adoptive family. But you’re gonna have to teach me how to use this thing or I’ll shift between involuntary moments!”
Yoshinori snorts, loud and from the belly. “Alright, alright! Deal?”
“Deal.”