Work Text:
A lot of strange things can happen in any given day. People tend to pretend that the world is predictable, easily understandable, even if the contrary is clearly shown. Non one can ever truly expect the unexpected even if they try their best. There is only so much space that someone’s mind can set aside to worry about the impossible before they short circuit. Though, arguably, people don’t normally expect anything to fall from the sky. Or, more accurately some one.
Will certainly wasn’t the kind of person to look to the sky with any meaningful expectations. He thought the idea was novel at best. Artistically it spawned a lot of great ideas, movies, and art but it couldn’t be real.
Sure, the universe was large enough that there was a high likelihood that there was a vast arry of life out there, but it didn’t make much sense that they would want to come to Earth. It made sense logically to expect it somewhere out there. If he thought about it for long enough maybe that possibility would start to sway him, but never in a million years would he ever think it’d be real enough to expect a UFO to pop out of thin air.
Just cause logic said it made sense didn’t mean that it had to have any sway over how he looked at the sky. Though, that didn’t take into account if someone just found something.
As previously mentioned, Will wasn’t the kind of person to look for anything in particular when it came to the otherworldly. Especially not that night. Really he wasn’t looking for anything other than a quiet evening, but that didn’t stop him from hearing something outside.
He froze up as the sound itself came off as odd. It wasn’t uncommon to hear soft creaks from the house settling or trees tapping against windows. There were a variety of options for what noises could be outside, but this didn’t sound anything like that. Rather, it came off akin to something metallic. And there was nothing metallic outside of his house.
Though, saying it was just metallic didn’t fit quite right either. It was a strange mix of metallic and organic, maybe, but that didn’t make sense. Nothing he could come up with made sense in the moment and it almost made him think that it didn’t happen.
Still, he started to approach the back door to at least check that there wasn’t anything there. Better safe than sorry and all that. As he opened the door, though, he immediately became sorry when he saw a figure vaguely outlined in the dim moonlight.
The way the indoor lights stretched out into the darkness made it so that the person looked more imposing out there. Already on baseline they’d be intimidating as hell out there, but then Will noticed that they were drawing closer.
One step, two step, three steps they just kept drawing closer. He recoiled toward the inside of his house before he paused. As they got closer so too did the light more readily cover them. With that, he saw that they were eerily green. Not even fully bright green either, but a strange yellowish light green. They’d practically be a stereotype of it wasn’t for that off shade their skin made up. That wasn’t taking into account the antennae that started to twitch back and forth.
That got him to slam the door shut.
His heart beat practically a mile a minute as he put his back to the door and tried to control his breathing. His throat was already sore from the nerves and his mind could barely make up what a reasonable response to this would be.
911 wouldn’t work. He could hide it behind a person being on his property or breaking into his house, sure, but that felt wrong. Yes, there was a strange person, entity, thing on his property and slowly approaching his house, but there was no obvious sign of malicious intent.
They were just walking.
Walking toward his house, yes, but just walking nonetheless. Even if that was a horribly off putting thing to see, a green man with bright red hair and a blue suit walking toward him, it didn’t stop him from being as none threatening as he possibly could be.
There were no obvious signs of him wanting to cause harm. He was just walking. People, or aliens, could always just walk forward. That was what people did. Just because that alien ended up in his backyard didn’t mean that he had to be the one to damn him to whatever it was the police, and then the army, would do to them.
Just because they were a walking stereotype didn’t mean that he had to be the one to make their life like the stories people see in the movies.
Besides, maybe his eyes were just playing tricks on him. That possibility was always going to be there until he turned back around. He just had to pretend he didn’t see anything and then it’ll just be–
He felt the knock on the door before he processed the sound, though. The way his body moved slightly with the wood made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end, and he already knew that he was done for.
He turned himself back around then and decided that if this was the kind of bullshit he was about to have to deal with better to deal with it head first.
He turned back around, opening the door in the process, before he tilted his head down and was met with those two antennas perked straight up.
“Hi!” the voice came out like a quick chirp though there was still an odd mechanical undertone. Almost like a it was being filtered through something. “Are you a human by chance?”
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A routine had sort of been set up since that night. Will hadn’t quite been sure how to react, yes, but he’d done his best with what he’d been given.
There was no way he could justify turning over the alien to any authorities. They’d just treat them poorly, like in the movies, and they gave him no reason to do so. He was weary for awhile following their sudden intrusion into his life. Will couldn’t stop them from waltings into his house and burrowing into his life.
He couldn't even complain. Beyond the inherent eccentricities that came with having an otherworldly companion in his life suddenly, Gerard, the name he found the alien claimed for themself, really was a fine person to be around. He emanated such a genuine excitement for life and all it’s mundanities that Will wasn’t couldn’t find it in himself to be frustrated by them.
They were just so excited to be on Earth and to have a human companion that there wasn’t any doubt in Will’s mind that they didn’t mean any harm to him or the planet.
The way his large yellow eyes would widen before the largest smile possibly would appear on their face, it was endearing. Not to mention the over flowing elation that appeared on their face when he introduced them to his rats. That was a real joy to watch.
The moment that Will would hold most dearly, though, was when Gerard first got to listen to him play piano.
He didn’t expect anything to be different when he sat down at the piano and started mindlessly playing with the keys. It wasn’t like he was trying to come up with anything in particular when he sat down. It was just something he did to pass the time after a certain point. The keys felt easy to understand from the sound alone. It didn’t need to be leading to any one melody per say. He just needed to be there and let the flow come from there.
When he looked up form the keys, though, he discovered that Gerard was watching him. His eyes just as wide as ever there was that look of wonder in them again, and Will felt something twitch inside of him.
It wasn’t the same feeling he was used to when he’d perform in front of people. He’d long since gotten used to the swelling of nerves and excitement that would come over him whenever he would undertake that experience. Rather, this was something else entirely.
It was similar, sure, with the baseline feeling being excitement, but the joy in Gerard’s eyes made it feel different somehow. Was it just pure joy from someone gleaning that much enjoyment from something that he was doing, or was there something else going on inside of him?
Will’s guts were already constantly in a state of being twisted up. He didn’t need another reason for them to tangle themselves up anymore. Still, as Gerard began to slowly approach him he couldn’t help but catch that his internal temperature was rising and it wasn’t at all from embarrassment.
He didn’t have the time to unpack what the hell that said about him, though. Instead he chose to focus on Gerard asking him, “Can you do more of that?”
“Playing the piano?”
“Is that what it’s called? It sounded beautiful!”
Will’s fingers twitched over the keys slightly. His throat dried up despite his best efforts as he motioned Gerard to sit next to him. He found his heart was already pounding too.
This wasn’t an uncommon experience when it came to all the odd, and mildly terrifying, things Gerard had hiding up his sleeve. The feelings were just not being derived from any level of fear this time. Will knew that well enough, but he was still horrified that he was feeling them at all.
Why was he feeling his hands shake and his heart beat so fast he could hear it in his ears? Why did he feel his stomach contorte even more when Gerard scooted up next to him and their legs briefly touched.
It was too much.
It was too stupid.
Still, as he grabbed a hold of Gerard’s hand and placed it on the piano he didn’t hesitate for a second before placing his own on top of it. He didn’t think twice when he began pressing both of their fingers down and then started to guide Gerard’s hand to follow his own. No, he didn’t even considered anything else was he helped his new found companion play his own special tune.
He didn’t need to look over at Gerard to see that their eyes were probably as big and as bright as the moon. No, he could already see that image in his head quite clearly, but he still did it. He glanced over and saw the exact overjoyed expression he expected to find, and it still made him crack a smile.
It was so fucking stupid.
He knew it was stupid, but the still was being charmed by it.
Fuck, he felt so foolish when it came down to it, but Gerard was still there beaming like a light house in the night. Maybe that was what it all came down to. Just how bright of an alien they were.
Will had met plenty of people like them before but that still didn’t stop him from being caught off guard by how much joy flowed through their veins. Humanity was a wonder to them, and they weren’t going to ever forget that fact whenever they encountered something new.
That light was rubbing off of Will even if he didn’t want to admit it. Because when he looked at that green alien’s grin he felt one coming over him as well.
Gerard wasn’t going to fix him or anything. He knew all the issues that were bubbling inside of him were still going to be there at the end of the day. But he could at least find a small restbite from it all with them.
And as he squeezed Gerard’s hand over those piano keys he knew that there was going to be something else there. Even if he wasn’t ready to speak it into the world it was still going to be there waiting for him.
Waiting until he was finally ready to let Gerard know just how much they meant to him after all.