Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ken

Ken carefully walked around the porch, trying to keep his socks from getting soaked in the tall wet grass. When he reached the basement window he placed the sugar cube diligently on the slip of paper in front of the small opening in the metal mesh.

He had seen the alien twice already. The first time had been when he arrived at the house two days ago. Ken had gotten bored, waiting in granny’s old car. So he had gotten out to walk around a bit. It had been then that he had seen the chubby bobtail cat pouncing about under the bushes near the house. When he walked closer he saw a tiny creature moving among the shrubs. Auburn hair and pink fabric standing out in the green of the garden. One moment it was there and gone the next.

He had told his grandma about it, but she had just grumbled that his head was full of shit. It still surprised him how an old woman like her cursed so much. Also, she was surprisingly lax when it came to screen time, bed time or eating snacks, which Ken didn’t mind at all.

The second time he had seen the alien in his bedroom. He had seen the tiny creature ascent the desk next to his bed and climb onto the tissue box. He had watched her (he was pretty sure it was a girl), a little scared, but decided that he couldn’t miss his chance:

“No need to be afraid of me.” he had said softly “I saw you out in the garden today. I know what you are!”

But the little girl had jumped off the tissue box, then the desk, loosing something in the process and then disappeared from his view.

He hadn’t seen her since then. But he had found the sugar cube this morning, clearly proving that it hadn’t been a dream! The alien had been in his bedroom that night and he had to find them.

So he had decided to reach out to her. He had written a letter and placed it along the sugar cube, in a place he suspected she might pass, when she ventured into the garden again.

First he had thought about actually writing her, but he couldn’t just assume that she was able to read his language. So he had decided to keep it simple and just made a sketch he hoped she would understand. That’s how NASA did it after all and they most certainly were the experts.

Momo

Momo had been out gathering leaves out in the garden, when she had seen the boy for the first time. He wasn’t as tall as the other big people she had seen, his back gave the impression he was slouching, even when standing and his big brown eyes had seemed a little lost, when he had looked around the garden. She had crouched in the shrubbery and hurried back inside.

Her grandma had told her that she shouldn’t walk this far.

“Your parents were eaten by a toad!” was what she’d always say, when Momo told her she had been outside.

But Momo didn’t care about that old tale. She was old enough to make her own decisions!

Her uncle Peeny had said so too, when he had taken her out borrowing for the first time last night.

It had felt great to finally join him, not having to stay behind with her little cousin Chiqui. They weren’t blood relations, but the closest she and her granny had to other family.

Uncle Peeny was very smart. He had all kinds of cool gadgets he used when he went borrowing. Coils and ropes and all kinds of fantastic stuff that could help a girl to get around the weird huge place that was the inside of the big people’s house.

When her grandmother had heard that not only had they almost been noticed by the human boy, but that Momo had also lost the sugar cube because of that, she had been pissed.

Though Momo knew that secretly she was just glad they’d both made it home safe. They could do without sugar or tissues.

And Momo had even made a really good haul on her first trip: A nice sharp needle she could use as a rapier! She had practiced fighting with it in front of her mirror all morning.

Now she decides to try it on the big bob cat that roamed the garden behind the house.

Carefully she slipps out her home and up the tiny stairs, towards the basement window.

She is surprised to find a crowd of ants gathered in front of it. They are busy picking tiny bits from a sugar cube. One that looked just like the one she’d dropped last night! It even had the crack at the corner where it hit the guest room floor.

And there is something underneath it! A large sheet of paper. It takes her a moment to unfold it, because it is almost as tall as herself, but she eventually manages.

There is a crude pencil drawing of a huge person with short hair and glasses, holding a tiny person with longish hair in a skirt on their hand. Both figures are smiling.

Momo growls as she crumples the paper, before putting it in her bag. Swiftly she picks up the sugar cube as well and makes her way to climb up to the guest room window. She finds it open.

Ken

He is just reading the latest article on lizard people, when a sugar cube falls through a small opening in the mosquito net onto the window seat and onto his pillow.

“We don’t want your handouts!” a tiny, but non the less impressive voice calls.

“It wasn’t meant to be a handout.” he stammers, moving closer to the window.

“I don’t need a ‘big man’s’ help, you know?!” the tiny shouts. And now he sees her. The tiny girl.

“That was not at all what I was imp…” he stammers.

“So, what were you implying then?!” she yells, hands on her hips, leaning forward.

“I just wanted us to be friends!” he yells back.

The tiny girl is looking at him with big eyes and somehow he’s got the feeling that she is just to familiar with this longing for company.

“I don’t really have anyone to talk to. The kids at school think I’m weird, my parents are hardly around and when I saw you I though, maybe we could be friends.”

Somehow this seems to have calmed her because her voice is much gentler when she replies:

“I’m sorry.” Her hands are now resting against the mosquito net, her gaze locked to his.

“I’ve always wanted to meet an alien.” the he says, while wiping his eyes underneath the big round glasses.

“Hahh?!” she replies, opening her tiny mouth wide.

“Yes! I’ve read so much about you and-”

“I’m not an alien, damn it!” the little girl shouts, stomping a tiny foot onto the windowsill.

Chapter Text

Momo

“I’m not an alien, damn moron!” Momo shouts, stomping her foot on the ground.

The boy looks at her with a smug expression on his face, then picks up a colorful magazine from his bed and holds it up to the window so she can see it.

“I know you people are trying to hide it, but you’ve come to earth and infiltrated the government. It’s a known fact that the president of the United States is a robot that’s piloted by tiny aliens!”

The magazine shows the profile of what seems to be a human shaped machine. It is sectioned into areas much like her families flat. The thought of being able to live among humans like this somehow intrigues her.

“Do you know this man? Do you know how I could get such a machine?” she asks on pure impulse.

“Well,…” he says, seemingly caught off guard “I haven’t met him in person. But what would a girl like you do with a robot like that anyway?”

“Go out and discover the strange world of the big people of course!” she shouts. This boy has to be an absolute imbecile, she thinks. What else would anyone do with a machine like that?

But then he has the atrociousness to laugh in her face:

“You don’t need a president shaped robot to do that!”

“Hah?” she looks up at the giant idiot in disbelieve.

“I could just put you in my pocket and take you.” he says, and suddenly there is something genuine in his smile.

Ken

“That’s the bathroom mirror and this is my toothbrush.” he holds her closer, so she can inspect herself in the reflection.

“Wicked!” she says with huge eyes. She has said that a lot since they’ve started wandering around the house.

“What’s that?” she asks. Something she has also done a lot.

“Oh, that’s just the toilet.”

“What’s that button for?”

“That’s for flushing it.”

“Wicked!” she says again “Can me show you how you use it?”

“The toilet?” he gasps “Are you an ignoramus?!”

“No, you shit head! The flushing!” she yells with raised fists.

So he shows her, making sure that she doesn’t accidentally fall into the water vortex.

“Wicked!” she says again “Does every house of you big people have one of these?”

“Oh, this is actually a rather simple one. There are some that come with all kids of technology.”

“I want to see that!”

“Well, I can take you to the city some time, I guess.”

After walking around the house for a while they end up in the kitchen.

“This is the fridge.” he says as he opens the door.

“I want to go in!” Momo beams.

“Be careful, it’s cold in there! Wait, let me get something real quick.”

He walks over to the cabinet and picks up one of the knitted egg cozies. He cuts of a small bit in the top and hands it to Momo. She pulls it over her head like a giant poncho.

He helps her to climb onto the bottom shelf of the fridge, where she walks around a box of strawberries.

“Those are huge! Much larger than the ones I usually find in the garden!”

“I wasn’t aware there were strawberries in the garden.” he says, his head placed on his hands, while sitting in front of the open fridge.

“What the hell are you doing there?” a voice calls from the other side of the room.

Quickly he slams the fridge door closed.

“Just thinking out loud!” he stutters as his granny walks into the room.

“Don’t leave the fridge open like that! You’re wasting energy and money.”

She walks over to the sink and refills her watering can, watching him with wary eyes. Eventually she leaves the kitchen to keep watering the plants in the living room.

Ken immediately opens the fridge and finds a shivering Momo who wrapped herself tightly in the egg cozy.

“Are you trying to kill me?” she hisses, her whole body trembling.

“I’m sorry! That was my grandma. I don’t think she would like that I hang out with tiny aliens.”

“I’m not an alien! I’m a Borrower! I’ve explained you at least five times already.” she sighs.

“And now I want some of those!” she points at the strawberries.