Chapter Text
Tsukasa Tenma was having a very pleasant Saturday morning, having finished all of his revision and work for the school week ahead.
All completed, as expected of a star such as himself!
He walked to the fridge, intending to grab himself a glass of juice to reward himself for his efforts. He opened the fridge door hopefully, grabbing the carton from the side. It was disappointingly light.
A tragedy, but not one that was insurmountable!
“SAKI!!! I’M GOING TO THE STORE TO GET JUICE!!!!”
He yelled out (or, in his terms, spoke at a normal volume) his greeting, slamming open the door as soon as he heard his sister’s: “Okay!”
He began his walk to the store with his wallet in hand, before promptly tripping over something. He looked down, expecting to see a tree root he forgot about, but then…
”WHAT?!!!!!”
He felt his heart race at a million miles per hour, a scream tearing itself out of his throat unintentionally.
Deep breath in.
Deep breath out.
He forced himself to breathe, because he was pretty sure he would have a heart attack if he didn’t.
There was, in the most calm, detached sense, some kind of organism in his backyard, and it was currently staring up at him with a pair of big, watery yellow eyes for apparently stepping on its tail…thing. It was either a tail, or an arm, or a leg, or a….
Tsukasa felt himself physically recoil at the idea. Yeah. He would just assume it was a tail for now.
“Um…hello?!”
Tsukasa tried, before panickedly beginning his usual introduction.
“O-of course, I’m sure you’re wondering who I might be! W-well, my name is Tenma Tsukasa, Tenma, meaning- God, why are you looking at me like that?!”
The…thing was gazing up at the blond with an expression that could only be described as pouting.
It was a vaguely humanoid looking creature, with pale, vaguely glowing (?) skin and four human-looking limbs. The appendages at the end of those limbs (which Tsukasa assumed were most likely some form of fingers and toes) were a lot longer than any regular human’s and were a soft, pale sort of purple that blended into the white of its hands(?) and feet(?). From shoulders up it looked normal enough, save for a pair of blue, purple-tipped floppy antennae protruding from its purple hair.
From afar, it could probably pass as a very long, strangely-proportioned human, but if one stood as close as Tsukasa was standing now it was blatantly obvious how…strange, this thing was.
Tsukasa had been standing still, staring down this…alien (?) for the past thirty seconds. And at the same time, it didn’t say anything back. Not as a response to his introduction, not for an introduction of its own. Hell, Tsukasa was beginning to doubt if it could even talk at all. It just sat there, crosslegged.
The pose looked a bit uncomfortable, given the unnatural length of its legs, but the creature didn’t seem to mind too much.
Tsukasa awkwardly clapped his hands together with all the confidence of an extremely, extremely confused person trying to pretend everything was just dandy. He hoped the…thing couldn’t smell his fear.
“So! If you don’t mind, I’ll be on my way to the store as I intended-”
“Hello~”
”WHAT?!
Tsukasa screamed unintentionally. He, however, immediately felt guilty for this when the alien, which was clearly neither mute nor deaf, flinched at the sudden noise.
Its long, webbed fingers lifted to cover its antennae, which stiffened at the sudden overstimulation. Tsukasa felt a stab of pity slice into his heart. He was confused, yes, but how could it be feeling? Lost on a brand new planet, in a brand new place?
For the first time since the encounter, Tsukasa stopped thinking of himself.
Tsukasa kneeled down to meet it- no, it felt wrong calling this clearly sentient being an “it”. Tsukasa kneeled down to meet his eyes.
They were big and wet, a soft butterscotch yellow like seas of molten gold. Tsukasa could’ve sworn he could see all the swirling storms of Saturn inside of them.
“Hey, I’m sorry for yelling…”
He made an attempt at a soft, comforting whisper.
And it was certainly a good attempt, for his standards, because the volume of an average person’s average, if a bit on the louder side, voice was enough for the alien to visibly relax, antennae going back to their previous, droopy state.
Tsukasa didn’t know anything about aliens, given the fact that he had just found out they existed, but he guessed that this was probably a good thing.
Feeling bolder now that the vaguely human looking creature, he decided to continue.
“My name is Tsukasa, I- I’m a human. And you are…?”
Tsukasa stood up, reaching down to offer the alien his hand, which the latter quickly accepted.
The texture of his skin wasn’t exactly like that of a human. In fact, it wasn’t like that of any other thing Tsukasa had ever touched before.
It was cold, very cold, but not in the way that ice was. Instead, it felt more like…a gel? His fingers were almost disturbingly long, firm to the touch. Almost like bone.
“Kamishiro Rui, it’s truly an honor.”
The alien – Rui – stood up, now towering significantly over Tsukasa. Hell, the blond was at his shoulder!
Tsukasa averted his eyes, silently hoping the blush he felt heating up on his cheeks was just a trick of the mind. He wouldn’t admit it, but this ridiculously tall alien was beginning to make him feel quite insecure.
Tsukasa nodded, trying to hide how incredibly awkward he was feeling. Seriously, how was one meant to react to a very tall, very purple, very… alien alien randoming appearing in one’s backyard?! He couldn’t even scream his feelings out now that he knew that the poor thing was probably extremely sensitive to sound!
Seriously, why him of all people? What kind of cruel trick of fate led to this creature appearing in his home?!
Well, he told himself, straightening up in a futile attempt to feel less short, I might as well make the best of this situation!!
“Soo…!”
Tsukasa began, forcing as much confidence into his voice as one could possibly muster when one was met with a literal alien.
“What brings you…here?”
He winced at how unsure he sounded. He half expected the other to laugh in his face.
Thankfully, Rui didn’t do anything of the sort, instead offering a sort of confused smile.
Tsukasa frowned a bit at his expression. Shouldn’t he be the confused one here?
“Well, I was hoping you would be able to tell me.”
Tsukasa suppressed the otherworldly scream he knew was preparing to escape from his chest, instead opting for a very controlled sigh.
They were so fucked.
Somehow, Tsukasa managed to shepherd the purple alien into his room without Saki noticing.
Hell, even he had no idea how he managed to do it, knowing full well of his sister’s natural curiosity, and of how much of a ruckus he was undoubtedly causing. But no matter! All that was important was that he had managed to get Rui into a safe place without any prying eyes!
Rui was sitting on the floor, (extremely) long legs crossed, elbows resting on the ground in front of him. It would have been endearing, maybe even cute, if this was a regular human being and not some otherworldly being that was now in his room.
Meanwhile, Tsukasa was pacing around nervously, contemplating all his life decisions that led up to this point, and all the decisions he had to make now that he was at this point. What was he even supposed to do in a situation like this?
Tsukasa felt a metaphorical lightbulb appear over his head.
Whatever you are going through, someone online has been through the same thing.
As much as Tsukasa was (incredibly) skeptical that someone had walked out to the store only to meet a literal alien, it was still a non-zero chance. He grabbed his phone hurriedly, clicking on the first web browser he saw, before starting his desperate search for information.
What do I do if there’s an alien in my backyard?
No results found
Well! Maybe that was just too vague! Undeterred, he tried again, desperately forcing himself to ignore the thing sitting on his floor.
weird tall purple human looking thing what type of alien
The page took a second extra to load in fully. Tsukasa assured himself that it was a good omen. After all, something had to have been loading in!!
No results found
…nevermind.
This was going to be fun.
Tsukasa walked over to the alien, who was currently examining the grain of the blond’s wood floors. He looked so engrossed, long fingers tracing the patterns with almost terrifying care, Tsukasa didn’t have the heart to tell him that they were fake.
Instead, he opted to focus on the current, more pressing matter at hand: The fact that aliens, apparently, didn’t place much value on modesty.
It wasn’t like Tsukasa could see much that looked indecent, per se. Despite how humanoid Rui looked, it was pretty clear that he didn’t share…certain structures with humans.
“Oh? Have you been looking? You do know I can read minds, yo~?”
Tsukasa immediately let out a very loud, very unholy noise that could only be described as a shriek. Seriously, what the hell? This damn alien’s been reading his thoughts this whole time? The other winced at the noise, antennae curling inwards unhappily. Tsukasa couldn’t find it in himself to feel guilty in the slightest.
Serves him right for doing…all that, Tsukasa thought bitterly, earning a displeased purr from the other. So he couldn’t be mean even in his thoughts, huh?
He could feel a headache coming along already.
God, I need to sit down.
He got himself comfortable next to Rui, before finally (albeit very uncomfortably) asking the question.
“Um. We kind of need to get you clothes.”
The purple creature tilted his head out of what the blond assumed was confusion. Much like a puppy…it was pretty endearing, actually.
But what was decidedly not endearing was how the confusion implied that, wherever he came from, his home planet probably couldn’t care less about these…human customs. Tsukasa forced back a groan.
“W-well, not to worry, my dear extra-terrestrial friend! I assure you, it is never too late to learn!”
Tsukasa proclaimed, although it certainly sounded more like he was trying to convince himself, rather than to comfort Rui.
Still, he started his explanation, desperate to not have a completely naked human-looking thing sitting in his room. Before he could doubt himself and sprint right into the nearest hole to hide himself in forever, he threw open his closet and pulled out the most oversized clothes he had, throwing them at the purple alien.
“Here! You can…try them on!”
The way Rui tilted his head slightly at the pile of fabric with a curious perplexity was equally cute and concerning.
Cute, because, well, who wouldn’t be charmed by what was essentially a sweet, Venutian puppy?
And yet it was also incredibly concerning, since, well…if he didn’t even know how to wear clothes, what else would he be utterly ignorant of?
Tsukasa held back a scream, instead deciding a quiet, long-suffering sigh would do the trick.
This damn alien was making him learn new coping mechanisms!
Tsukasa grabbed the top, which looked like a…hoodie? It was pale blue, a calming color that made the piece into something he would have definitely considered a wardrobe essential if not for the fact that it was several sizes too big.
Honestly, he had no idea why he hadn’t thrown it away yet, or donated it to someone that could actually wear it. But it was lucky he didn’t, though, right? If he had, he wouldn’t be able to clothe this…thing!
(Tsukasa really needed to come up with better names to refer to whatever Rui was.)
The blond gestured for the other to bend down a bit. Once he was low enough to reach (still far too tall for comfort, though — a fact that made Tsukasa feel incredibly jealous), Tsukasa pulled the hoodie over Rui’s head, taking care to keep the fabric from brushing against his long, thin antennae. They were sensitive, right?
They weren’t stiff anymore, at least. Just floppy and lax and strangely…cute? Wait, he’d been calling this alien cute the whole time?! Tsukasa could have sworn that his face was beet red.
“Okay…now slide your arm through…”
Tsukasa gently grabbed the other’s upper limbs, guiding it through the sleeve with care. Rui was, to his credit, very cooperative, following Tsukasa’s instructions to the best of his ability.
Now, for somebody that had just put on a piece of clothing for the very first time, he was doing beautifully well. But for someone that looked to be far older than the average age of people that wore clothes for the first time (that is, significantly greater than one), he was seriously struggling.
“Ah…Tsukasa-kun? Is it supposed to be this…small? It- It’s a bit tight.”
Tsukasa glanced up, already preparing to tell Rui that yes, it is meant to fit on the body well, that’s how clothes work here on Earth. But as soon as he opened his mouth…well, he would have closed it immediately if not for the fact that his jaw was physically dropping.
It really was small on him. Exceptionally small.
The hoodie served less as a baggy, comfortable garment, and more of a literal crop top. The supposedly long sleeves, the sort that was meant to hang over the hands, were extremely short on him. Hell, the hems barely touched the beginnings of his forearms!
And the knee-length shorts he had coaxed the purple-haired into? Well, they looked less like classic cargo shorts and more like something that would be worn by a stereotypical teenage girl in one of those old coming of age movies Saki loved watching.
“...no…I don’t think it’s supposed to fit like that…”
Tsukasa sighed for the umpteenth time in the past hour.
“Okay. Let’s get you new clothes.”
This only served to make Rui even more confused, like the idea of needing to wear clothes was incomprehensible.
“Hm~? But what’s the point?”
Inhale. Exhale. Tsukasa forced himself to have patience. After all, this was Rui’s first time on Earth.
“Rui. If you walk around completely naked there will be a lawsuit. Please just…ugh.”
The other nodded, although it was obvious he didn’t actually get the rationale behind it.
This was going to be a long day.