Chapter Text
“Do aliens exist ?”
If you asked Izumi Sena his opinion on the matter, he’d simply find it stupid. If not the dumbest question he’d ever been asked. He never seriously thought about it himself, nor did he understand why others bothered asking for his opinion on that matter.
His friends were quizzing him like he was some kind of all-knowing scholar, making it difficult for him to leave them without an answer, despite how much he wanted to. The model always complained about how annoying the question— and his friends– was. Yet he still found himself giving them an answer, just to be left alone.
“Hah ? And what does it have to do with me ?” he’d answer. According to him, his daily life wouldn’t be so different were there another species living far away in space, where he would never go. He couldn’t care less.
Extraterrestrial life was the last of his concerns, especially considering how busy his schedule already was; School. Work. Ballet training. Idol training. Skincare. Sleep. The model didn't exactly have time to waste with matters as irrelevant as “aliens”.
Following his usual routine, Izumi was making his way home after a particularly long and exhausting day. He only desired one thing : to go home and rest.
Izumi decided to take a stroll on the shore to destress, away from all the commotion of the city so he could focus on the cool breeze and soft sound of the waves. No fatigue, only peace. That was the reason Izumi enjoyed walking down the beach. That, added to the warm sunset making for a comforting setting, truly helped him to simmer down after a rough day.
In an attempt to relax and truly detach his mind from the taxing day he just had, Izumi took his ipod out from his pants’ pocket, looking for calming songs to play. Unfortunately, he could only take a few steps before his music got abruptly interrupted by the loud sound and vibration of something crashing near him.
The boy wobbles for a few instants before falling on the sand, unable to maintain his balance due to the intensity of the tremor.
“Shit.” Izumi curses, thinking he found himself at the center of an earthquake.
As he realizes the shaking has stopped, the model scans his surroundings; just to make sure everything is stable enough to be able to stand on his feet. Once he feels secure, he puts his weight on his hands before shifting it on his legs. Although a bit doubtful about being able to continue his way home safely, he decides to resume his route— he doesn’t exactly have a choice anyway.
Maybe some music would help uplift his mood, Izumi thought again, so he reached for his pocket a second time; looking for the ipod he just put back in. Unfortunately, said ipod was absent from his pocket. Izumi’s eyes widened as he sorrowfully shifted his gaze to the ground, where his ipod laid; broken.
“Shit.” He repeats.
Something good better happen to him as compensation for the things he had to go through in such a short amount of time, else he wouldn’t be able to keep the last vestiges of his sanity.
With another sigh, he reluctantly starts walking again; a frown forming on his face and growing each time his shoes hit the soft, warm sand. Needing a distraction from his own thoughts, the model decided to look at the sunset while walking; this would keep him entertained he thought, or at least more than if he simply kept walking, his head dropped to look at the ground. But maybe he should have. Because now that his attention was piqued by something else, he didn’t realize the sand he was walking on wasn’t exactly sand anymore.
Splish, splash.
The strange sound and sensation of hitting something liquid caught his attention, making him stop his steps to look at the source of the sound. Lowering his gaze, Izumi was met with some sort of… glowing liquid, one he never saw before, even during science class. His first reflex was, of course, to step away from the liquid; there was no way this thing wasn’t dangerous in any way. He tried moving away from the puddle but eventually tripped on something metallic. As he landed, Izumi felt the cold, hard metal hit his back, swearing upon the impact.
After an instant of confusion, the model sits and stands up, taking a few steps back to look at what he just tripped on. His eyes landed back on the object that caused his fall, meeting a small ufo— or, well, simply an unidentified object, as it was no longer flying. But judging by the shape, it definitely was an ufo, just like the ones you can see in science-fiction movies; not that Izumi was interested enough to know a lot about them aside from their stereotypical shape, though.
Remaining close enough to the ufo, it didn’t take much time nor effort for Izumi to notice a small humanoid form lying next to the metallic object. At first thinking he was hallucinating because of his fatigue, he saw the silhouette moving ; scaring Izumi out and waking his senses in the process. So it was alive. Whatever it was.
"Ah, an earthling ! And you're real ! Wahaha~ You're the first real earthling I see !"
The small figure suddenly stood up. It seemed oddly capable of standing up and maintaining its balance. It spoke to Izumi in a familiar tone ; too familiar for a stranger they met on the shore, next to an ominous pond of a weird liquid and unidentified metallic object, nonetheless.
Thanks to the setting sun still providing a bit of its light, Izumi could see quite clearly the face of the silhouette now that he regained his senses. With light hitting the individual in front of him, the model noticed how blazing their hair was, and how much the green of their eyes stood out in comparison. Now that he took a better look, they were quite captivating— curious, peculiar, especially with this whole situation going on.
Still, Izumi’s senses weren’t calmed in the slightest ; he was panicked, stressed, to say the least. The humanoid form must have noticed it— were they brimming with emotional intelligence, because they approached slightly during Izumi’s haze, getting closer, too close to Izumi’s liking, before pinching his cheek.
“Hey, ouch !” Izumi exclaims, slapping the other’s hand with the back of his own. “What the hell ?”
“Umm, oh, so you’re alive~” The individual calmly states, “I was disappointed and thought you weren’t real, but it seems like you were just spacing out, I’m glad !”
They draw their face closer to Izumi’s, analyzing his facial expressions as they shift from hurt to confused.
“What are you even saying ?” Izumi asks, confused and half expecting an answer.
He doubts whether the individual in front of him, unpredictable as they seemed, would give one or not. They weren’t making any sense, and they probably never will.
As their faces stood a few inches from each other’s, the model noticed how the stranger had a few scratches on their face, and that the same liquid he previously walked on dripped from these cuts. His gaze lowers and he inspects their entire silhouette as he spots some other scratches all over their body.
Yet, they seemed a bit too joyful, too excited for someone with as many scratches and cuts as them. Still, Izumi’s worries only rose the further he inspected the stranger. Their attitude only made him feel more uncomfortable, too.
“Wait.” He commands, his tone oddly soft, and gently moves the stranger’s arm up with his hand, inspecting their wounds. “you’re injured. Even if I don’t know you, I can’t let you stay like that.”
The idol surprises himself with such kindness that he usually only dedicated to his Yuu-kun.
Part of him wanted to just walk back home and forget whatever fever dream he was experiencing this evening, but another part felt bad to leave this puppy-looking stranger alone and injured. Even if they didn’t seem bothered by their scars, he knew they weren’t benign.
Izumi’s offer rings like music to the other’s ears, and he could’ve sworn the stranger was glowing in the dark, grinning at the suggestion.
“Wow, mister seaweed seems nice !” The ginger joyfully exclaims, light-heartedly mocking the grey haired model in front of them. “I’m glad you’re the first human I meet !”
“Excuse-me, what did you just call me ?” He snarls, the stranger’s arm remaining in his grip.
“The first human I met !” They laugh, a bit too loud to Izumi’s liking, judging by the slight frown— partly caused by the sight of the wounds on the other’s arm, too, on his face.
“No, the other—” He interrupts himself and groans instead. “Forget it, let’s go.”
Izumi brushes the stranger’s comment off, aware it would just be meaningless and only piss him off more. Instead he holds the stranger tightly, making sure they follow him closely and don’t get distracted.
“Where are we going, captain ?”
Again with the nicknames.
A sigh leaves the idol’s lips, his exhaustion the more obvious only for the stranger to ignore.
“My home.” He replies. “I don’t have the supplies to heal you on me so I’ll just go grab them.”
The smile on the ginger only grew bigger as his excitement. They really were Izumi’s opposite.
The stranger only grew weirder by the second, every word coming out of their mouth made less and less sense than the other to Izumi— though he would assume this would be the case for any normal individual.
However, Izumi’s nurturing, mother-like nature forbade him to be indifferent to others’ pain, no matter how weird they could be. So there he is, taking some weirdo to his place to take care of them.
“I can’t wait to explore Earth !” They shout eagerly, their arms lifting both theirs and Izumi’s, which snatches a groan from the idol’s throat. A melodious one, that is.
His delicate voice doesn’t go unnoticed to the strange individual’s ears, as their head spins multiple times until the third turn where it stops to look at Izumi with a much too bright pair of eyes. He feels like he could lose his vision if they maintain eye contact for too long.
“Your voice, it’s amazing !” They simply scream, as if stating the obvious, yet in a much more excited tone.
Another groan escapes Izumi’s lips, his tone shows his terror a lot more, however. There is no way a normal human being is capable of literally spinning their head multiple times, that he is sure of. His surprise takes over him and didn’t even hear the stranger’s compliment— they pout now. They don’t like being ignored, it seems.
The shock doesn’t wash away from Izumi’s face and spirit alike, he realizes something is wrong with this person— if they can even be called that. Still, he’d tend to this person’s wounds, anything else could wait for later. It’s not like they were some kind of criminal, after all; they seemed too young and fragile for that. It’s not like they seemed dangerous ; in a way, they seemed more inclined to be the victim of danger rather than the source of it, at least in that injured state.
It isn’t exactly a good idea to let a complete stranger into his house, where his family lived as well. Maybe he should call the police instead, but Izumi was unsure how he was supposed to present the situation to the officers, and he was too tired to bother himself with all the commotion it would cause ; taking care of them by himself seemed like less of a hassle. They aren’t exactly dangerous, just weird, he could work with that for a few more minutes.
But again, his judgment might be biased by the fatigue he was desperately fighting, and the puppy face the stranger was now making.
That curious glowing liquid, the scratches on that stranger’s body, all added to the unsettling iron scent filling the air, and the literal spinning of their head made Izumi feel more uneasy by the minute. He wonders how he did not lose his mind nor give his lunch back on the sand yet.
No human had such a peculiar behavior, and specially weird abilities.
A thought formed in Izumi’s mind as he recalled his comrades' bizarre questions and came to a conclusion, as much as he didn’t want to give in to this nonsense. He reluctantly admits that ; if aliens existed, this stranger definitely was one of them.