Work Text:
Fang had successfully been hiding on- no, blending in with the Earthlings!- for a solid seven months, and by now he'd had it down to a science.
Navigate out of the abandoned house. Offer the crazy-no-longer cat a tin of food. Pet the cat while it's eating the food. Meet up with whichever one of his friends happens to be making their way to school at the moment- if not, meet them in the classroom instead. Make small talk with the lunch lady. Purchase his donut. Head to class.
A simple morning routine to any of the humans he shared space with, but one he'd struggled to get used to. But now he could confidently say he was comfortably acclimated to the planet.
Which is probably why, in a moment of weakness, he'd allowed himself to take off his glasses to rub his eyes.
This was a totally normal thing to do, for humans and nonhumans alike. However, Fang should have remembered that his frie- closest allies on the planet were really, really nosy! And the second he slipped his glasses off, they pounced.
"Woah, Fang!" came Gopal's voice from slightly closer than expected. Fang startled, looking directly at him. He was staring, unabashed.
Immediately, his heart rate racheted up, as a cold feeling settled into his spine. He could hear the echo of his brother's voice, raised to drill in the importance of keeping his cover while on Earth.
Gopal, though, didn't seem to notice. "Your eyes are so cool!"
Fang's eyes shot to Boboiboy, who turned around in his chair at the declaration. He held frantic, furious eye contact with the other, who didn't seem to notice anything off.
"Huh, you're right, Gopal," Boboiboy declared, tilting his head to the side. "They're red! Hey, that's pretty cool. I wish mine were a cool color."
"What are you even talking about," Fang snapped, trying not to let his panic show on his face. Boboiboy's currently brown eyes hadn't budged from his own. "Don't your eyes turn blue and gold?"
"Oh, I guess they do," Boboiboy said thoughtfully, scratching his cheek. "And red, too, yeah."
At this point, Yaya and Ying had noticed the commotion. Fang braced himself for more questions.
Yaya chimed in with, "Wow! I really thought your eyes were brown! But they're absolutely red!"
"Yeah, they really are," Ying said, reaching a hand out.
Fang was too rattled to stop her from plucking the glasses from where they'd been dangling from his limp hand. He tried to grab them back, but she easily avoided him as she propped her own glasses up on her forehead.
"Oh, wow," Ying said as she squinted through Fang's glasses, completely ignoring his protests. "Are these custom? They're pretty dark."
"Um, of course they are!" Fang swiped at her again, gritting his teeth at the muffled snickers from Gopal and Boboiboy's direction.
The glasses were fitted with special lenses designed to hide his real eye color, and protect his eyes from the light of the Earth's nearest star, which shone brighter than his eyes were comfortable with at a baseline. After months on Earth, he didn't really need them for that, but ever since gaining his powers he'd found that he appreciated them more.
Thankfully, Ying relented, and handed them back. "Hah! Your eyes are really bad, you know?" She informed him.
"I knew that," Fang seethed, putting his glasses back on, and safely hiding his unnatural eye color once more. (Unnatural for humans, anyway.)
Yaya came up behind him, and laid a deceptively gentle hand on his shoulder. "Fang…" She waited for him to acknowledge her before continuing. "Are you embarrassed about your eye color?"
"It's-" It was really difficult to not blurt out anything regarding how normal his eye color was. "I'm not embarrassed!"
He really wasn't! His eyes were a perfectly normal color, and so was his hair for that matter. And even if his eyes weren't normal, which they were, then he really had no reason to be embarrassed of them. Boboiboy's eyes literally changed color whenever he used his powers, so his eyes which never changed color weren't anything to be embarrassed about!
"Awwwww," Gopal said in a tone bordering mockery. Fang whirled around, but he wasn't near enough to shut the other up. "It's totally okay to be embarrassed about your super cool eye color. They're definitely not contacts or anything. Right, Boboiboy?"
"Nope," said Ying, not even giving Boboiboy time to speak. "His eyes are way too bad for that. If he was wearing contacts, he wouldn't need the glasses."
"Right…" Gopal said. But he didn't relent, nudging Boboiboy, who took it easily. "But he definitely dyes his hair though. Nobody is naturally that edgy and mysterious."
Boboiboy turned a disbelieving squint on Gopal, then Fang. "Uhh… Fang, are you really that good at dyeing hair?"
Fang could not believe this conversation. He ignored his heart, only now returning to its resting rate. "Of course not! This is all-natural, you know!?"
"Oh, mine too," Boboiboy agreed brightly. He tilted his head again, still making eye contact with Fang. "You know, I got my eye and hair color from my dad? A lot of people say we look alike."
Yaya frowned. "Boboiboy… no one was doubting your hair color is natural. Or your eyes…"
"You have the most normal hair and eye color here!" Gopal laughed with his entire belly. "Even if you do have that lightshow going on whenever you transform."
Boboiboy rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah…"
As students began trickling in, Fang slowly relaxed his muscles, primed to flee. That could have gone so much worse, but luckily, his friends didn't even think about why his eyes were a different color. More importantly… they weren't scared of him, or anything.
That… was good.
For the mission, Fang meant! Yes, it would be massively inconvenient if Earthlings were scared of him because of his eye color. It was good that they weren't even the slightest bit put off by the reveal, because that would allow him to remain undetected for longer.
…Idly, Fang wondered what his brother would think of these people who called him 'friend'.
==
Life went on, and Fang really didn't notice anything different about how his friends acted. They'd either forgotten all about it, or they truly couldn't care less.
Which was totally fine by Fang, and even preferred! But after a series of arson incidents and a trail of clues, one thing led to another, and Boboiboy Api's emergence revealed something equally surprising.
(Fang still couldn't believe his lullaby didn't make any of them sleepy! He'd gone and brought his guitar just in case, and none of them were even impressed by his guitar skills, which he'd learned in a month. How ungrateful, these humans!)
Waking to the blast of heat was nerve-wracking; they hadn't been sure Adu Du was lying, but this confirmed he hadn't been. Despite the heat, Fang couldn't help but shiver as he met Boboiboy's gaze, set in an unreadable face.
And then Boboiboy's face bloomed into a smile, and he waved at them, greeting them cheerfully.
"Woah! I can't believe everyone's here! Hi!"
Fang stared in confusion as his friend went about greeting everyone like he'd never met them before. That.. really wasn't what they were all expecting? "How come he's so… happy?"
Oof, that didn't really come out right. But he had no time to amend his statement before Boboiboy took notice of his existence and gasped loudly. "Fang!"
The person in question blinked as the most cheerful version of his friend he'd ever seen descended upon him, chattering about how they should do a "combo attack, fire and shadow, that would be cool!"
But Fang's attention was caught by something else. The way Boboiboy was wearing his cap, brim propped about as high as it could go, revealed a bright shock of white hair.
Fang blinked at it, dumbfounded. He turned his face in Ochobot's direction without taking his eyes off the pale strands, and asked, "Hey, uh, does the Elemental power watch make your hair turn white?"
Ochobot did a double take, and started scanning Boboiboy. "Um, it really shouldn't be?"
Boboiboy was suddenly in Fang's space again, grinning brightly. "Oh, are you talking about my hair?" He chirped, lowering his head so Fang could get a better look. "Here, take a look!"
Fang supposed he could. The white streak went all the way down to the root, and there was only one from what he could see. The rest of his hair was a solid dark brown- oh, that was interesting. He'd thought it was black.
Boboiboy was still smiling. It wouldn't surprise Fang if he literally hadn't stopped, aside from when he pouted for dramatic effect. "Cool, right? You can touch it if you like!" He offered.
Touch it? Was his friend insane!? "You can't just offer to let people touch your hair!"
The other looked at him like he was stupid. "Uh, I can? And I just did?"
"Uh, I don't really wanna touch your hair," Ying said, wrinkling her nose. "No offense."
"Speak for yourself!" announced Gopal, appearing on the other side of Boboiboy and ruffling his hair. Boboiboy, for his part, laughed and started rubbing Gopal's head right back.
"Oooh, yours is nice and fuzzy!"
"Heh, of course!"
Annoyed that he hadn't been listened to, Fang crossed his arms. The troublemakers of the group obviously noticed, and started snickering at him.
"Awww, are you jealous, Fang?" Gopal teased.
"I can touch your hair if you really want," added Boboiboy. The nerve of this guy- he looked way too excited at the prospect!
"Hey, Boboiboy," Ochobot interrupted, thankfully getting everyone off the topic of head-patting. (Fang was only glad he'd dodged that particular bullet, and definitely didn't feel anything about the others' easy skinship.) "Why don't you ever take off your hat?"
That knocked the smile right off of Boboiboy's face; for a moment he was back to unreadable, before he looked away, scrunching up his nose.
Ochobot tried to gentle the question. "I've just never seen it before! And I live with you. So…?"
"Well, I guess he really was telling the truth when he said he normally wore it to bed," Gopal remarked.
Boboiboy was looking increasingly nervous. "Umm," he said. "Cause I don't want to!"
He was clearly sweating, so Yaya took pity on him by instead asking, "Have you had that white strand of hair your entire life?"
Sure enough, he beamed and turned to face her. "Yep! My dad had it, and my dad's dad had it-" He cut off with a gasp.
"Atok! Atok, show them yours too!" He pulled on Tok Aba's arm pleadingly. The old man nearly unbalanced, but managed to pull himself up thanks to Ochobot balancing them out.
"Oh, Boboiboy…" Tok Aba chuckled, shaking his head. "I'm afraid you're several years too late! My hair has long gone completely white."
"Aww…" Boboiboy pouted, but relented.
"Okay, enough hair talk!" Ying finally said. "She pointed a finger at Boboiboy, who looked at it curiously. "Are you, or are you not, the culprit behind the recent arson incidents?!"
Boboiboy blanched, and looked to the side sheepishly. Oh boy.
Fang suddenly felt the exhaustion of the day weighing on him. Arsonist he may have been, but that was still Boboiboy. And he clearly felt bad about it, among other things.
Oh well. Fang was pretty sure this was what he'd signed up for; having frien- keeping his cover and his allies happy was really taxing. But they had a way of making it worth it.
It was still a little funny, though, that none of them had ever seen that white streak of hair before.
==
After-
(After his reckoning. After Fang's two worlds had collided in the most horrible way possible. After he'd been forced to choose, and no matter what he would choose wrong, and he'd chosen-
After he'd thought he would have to give up everything he'd built for himself, and yet found himself right back here, like nothing had happened, like he still belonged-)
After everything. The evening found Boboiboy lying on the grass a ways away from the kokotiam, and Fang tasked to retrieve him.
"Hey, Boboiboy," Fang started, before trailing off as he registered the unusual sight.
"Hey, Fang," replied Boboiboy, almost absentmindedly. He was lying down, hands folded across his chest, and most pressingly, he hadn't bothered to make sure his hat covered that white streak of hair the way he usually did.
Without looking, Boboiboy patted the grass next to him, so Fang obliged and sat down. Silence enveloped the two for a long and short moment. Distantly, Fang could hear the sounds of the victory party still underway, but the wind picked up, shushing the voices into a vague blur.
"Your brother, huh?"Boboiboy finally spoke, eyes still skyward.
Fang shifted, uncomfortable. "I thought it was obvious," he said.
"Heh," Boboiboy finally looked at him. "You really look alike."
"…Yeah." It was a point of pride, for him. No matter how different from Kaizo he had become, the same blood still ran in their veins.
They were still family. And Fang would always remember that, even as he continued to stay on Earth.
"Did I tell you that I got my hair from my dad?"
The complete nonsequitur caught him off guard. Fang frowned, trying to remember. "…Hm! Yes, you have."
That day… it was the first time he'd really felt like he could keep his friends, even after lying to them for so long. At the time, he hadn't realized that the declaration of hair color was something even noteworthy- but after seeing what that ever-present hat was hiding, he finally understood what it was. That it had been meant as a comfort.
"We really do look alike," Boboiboy sighed, a wistful note in his voice. "But I haven't seen him in a while. Since you come from space… maybe you have?"
It took a moment for the statement to register, but once it did Fang's head snapped up. "Your… your father is in space!?"
Boboiboy laughed at his incredulous tone. No doubt he was making a stupid face, but Fang couldn't wrap his head around this news.
"No, you can't just tell me that and laugh at me!" Fang insisted, reaching over to grab and shake the other. Boboiboy twisted away, still giggling, and something in Fang's chest eased at the sight. At least that weird look on his face was finally gone. "How would I have possibly met your father, huh!? I didn't even know you before I came here!"
"Okay, okay, stop attacking me!" Boboiboy sat up, but his words stopped Fang dead in his tracks.
Of course, Boboiboy immediately noticed. "…Hey, are you still feeling bad about attacking us?"
Fang scoffed, but it was weak. "Of course not," he tried.
It didn't work. The other softened, placing a hand on Fang's shoulder. He let it happen.
"Fang," Boboiboy began. "Just because you're an alien and betrayed us, doesn't mean we don't still want you to be our friend, you know?"
Fang knew. Of course he knew, his actions wouldn't have hurt them so much if they didn't still like him. If they didn't think he was beyond redemption.
"I mean, we literally helped Adu Du out, and he and Probe literally try to kill us all the time," Boboiboy pointed out. Fang immediately felt a flash of annoyance. "You didn't even go through with it fully. You turned on your brother, like, immediately."
"Well- that's different!" Fang yelled, feeling his cheeks heat up. "You guys were coming after us anyway, I didn't want you all to fight an unwinnable battle."
"Pfft!" Boboiboy smirked at him. "Okay, Fang. I believe you."
"You…" Fang shook his head, and stood up, brushing his pants off. "Come on! We should go back. They're all waiting for you."
"Let's go!"
As they made their way back, Fang pondered. Why would Boboiboy ask if Fang had ever encountered his father? Space was vast, and the odds of knowing one specific person lowered exponentially when you had to take more people into account. Maybe Boboiboy's father was famous?
…Fang snorted at the idea. Honestly, that seemed like a stretch. Earth- no, the entire solar system in general- hadn't really been on anyone's radar at all; that's why he'd been sent to live there, once powerful energy signatures were detected. They'd needed to know what they were up against, and it was a complete stroke of luck that he or Kaizo could reasonably pass as a human. Granted, Boboiboy and his friends really weren't the type of people to misuse their power, so it would have been fine… probably.
(If Adu Du ended up with the power that Ochobot could grant… well. It was a very good thing that hadn't happened.)
But yeah, it probably wasn't that. It's not like he really knew many human-shaped celebrities with dark hair and a white streak in… their hair…
It was very unfortunate that they had made it to the kokotiam at that point, because it meant that everyone at the celebration had a front row seat to Fang yelling, "Your dad is MECHAMATO!?"
"Eh? Mechamato?" Yaya and Ying said at the same time.
"Oh, wow!" Boboiboy laughed, looking impressed. "You actually know him!"
"Wait, why does Fang know Boboiboy's dad?" Gopal asked, looking confused. "Wasn't Fang in space before he came here?"
Fang couldn't deal with any of this. He couldn't. "Mechamato is a galactic hero, traveling the cosmos with his companion," he hurriedly explained. "He's never revealed his origins, but he's saved lots of power spheres and has never been known to lose!"
"Woah…" Ochobot said in awe. He nudged Boboiboy. "Your dad sounds like such a cool person, Boboiboy!"
"Oh, that? That's nothing," Tok Aba dismissed with a smile. "You should have seen him in his younger years."
He sighed. "Now if only he'd call this old man more often… and of course, his very own son…"
"Hm! But, isn't it a good thing Boboiboy's dad is so well-known?" Yaya pondered.
"You don't understand!" Fang raged, unable to keep it in any longer. "He's my brother's idol!"
There was complete and total silence.
And then, everyone exploded with noise.
"EH!? Your brother's idol!?"
"Huh!? Oh, what has Amato been up to…?"
"What kind of person even is this Amato if that guy looks up to him!?"
"That just makes him cooler…!"
"Wait, does he know? Can you wait for me to be in the room when you tell him!?"
But below the din, somehow the thing that stood out to him most was:
"Heh. That's awesome."