fic for marmarci! (1/2)

[nino_mod]

For: marmarci
From: :3.

Title: My Heart in Your Orbit
Pairing/Focus: Sakumiya (main), Junba (side)
Rating: PG-15
Word count: ~ 72.200
Warnings: silly humour, a bit of alcohol consumption, mentioned puking and one character has a cold at one point of the story

Summary: When two strangers crashing at Nino's place one night tell him they came from a far away galaxy to Planet Earth in order to find their missing prince, Nino thinks they are lunatics. When his flatmate invites them to stay at their apartment during their search and Nino even agrees, he starts questioning his own sanity. And if this wasn't enough, the more the two supposed aliens get involved into his life, the more Nino has to admit that he comes to like one of them...

Notes: Dear marmarci, I tried my best to fulfil as many of your prompts as I could and I really hope you like the outcome. This is my first attempt on writing something sci-fi-y. In these past few years I discovered how much I actually love this genre, however, I'm still quite a newby so please excuse that I didn't go too much into detail with the actual sci-fi stuff and focused rather on the slice-of-life-y side of things :) Big big thanks as always to my lovely betas for mental support and error detection, and of course to our dear mod for being kind, understanding and patient as always. Happy Nino-month, everybody!


+ PLANET EARTH. JAPAN. MAY 4, 2018. 8:40 PM, JST. Nationwide Television Broadcast. +


Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen.

My name is Koyama Keiichiro and on today's "Starry News," I am reporting about an upcoming meteorite shower, which will be visible during the night hours over Japan – especially over the northern regions of Tokyo. Star-gazing friends all over the country are looking forward to the nocturnal spectacle. However, as always, experts demand caution, when searching for a proper spot to witness the event.

According to the opinion of experts from the Tokyo Astronomical Observation at Tokyo University, which operates as part of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, short NAOJ, the chance of meteorites falling down on earth is relatively small, as most debris use to burn up when entering the atmosphere, dying in their most beautiful shape – a shooting star. The results of calculations show, that only a few debris from the biggest of the meteorites – named "Baetylus IV" by specialists, which will certainly break into smaller pieces from the impact with the atmosphere – could reach the Earth's surface.

Further calculations showed that the spot for a possible minor crash is located in a rather rural area of northern Tokyo, most likely in the woods – as shown on our map here for demonstration. Experts strongly recommend avoiding this area during the night hours, just to be on the safe side!

Bearing this in mind, I ask you all to take care and wish you a mesmerizing night.

This was your host Koyama Keiichiro from TBS' "Starry News". Take care, and see you tomorrow night!


* + * + *

- - Note on: Baetylus IV
- A comet's name, given by specialists of the Tokyo Astronomical Observation at Tokyo University, part of the NAOJ
- Derivation of name: "Baetylus" (also Bethel, or Betyl, from Semitic bet el "house of god") is a word denoting sacred stones that were supposedly endowed with life. According to ancient sources, these objects of worship were meteorites, which were dedicated to the gods or revered as symbols of the gods themselves. (Source: Wikipedia)

* + * + *


+ PLANET EARTH. JAPAN. MAY 5, 2018. 00:07 AM, JST. Somewhere in a Forest, North from Tokyo +


Something was strange with the sky tonight. It was bright, brighter than usual, and it was moving, faster than usual. Bits of it, at least. It wasn't a common sight, at least not too common, and every time something like that happened, it was something to keep a close eye on, just in case it became dangerous.

A deer, hidden behind a line of bushes close to a pond, observing the situation, put up its long and steady ears and was ready to move even to the smallest noise coming from inside and above the woods. Its eyes were wide, staring into the night, taking notice of all the small white dots in the sky above its head. The deer's small, stressed heart was racing, its long legs trying to stand still, but shaking. It was ready. Ready to turn around and run, run as fast as it could, leaving everything behind, its hooves quicker than anyone or anything could even get a glimpse of it.

The deer was waiting, patient, nervous, anxious. There, the sky was moving again! A small piece of white, dropping, fast, almost too fast to catch the motion, but it was there. And then, there it was again. And again.

Still, the noises around were familiar to the deer's ears, like the soft rustling of leaves tickled by the night wind, a minor swish in the grass behind, caused by a rodent on its nightly foray. The distant howling of a night bird. Nothing unusual, nothing worth more than a slight flick of the deer's ear into the source's direction, before it focused back on the indeed unusual spectacle in the night sky beyond the trees' crowns.

The deer could hear it, before it came into vision, could sense the strange vibrations that made the pond's surface break in tiny little waves, before it realized what was going on. The noise cut through the cool night air, a swoosh, growing constantly louder, frightening.

The deer's large furry ears twitched, irritated. Suddenly, there was something flickering in the darkness of the sky and the deer froze. It flickered again, and again, and each time it did, it - whatever it was – had come closer and closer, until the deer finally decided that things were getting too dangerous around here.

Eyes wide open and shaking, the animal shied, rose its front feet, hooves high at its chest, before it turned on its hooves and dashed back into the woods, fast like a flash, tramping its way over the grass and earth and jumping over obstacles, as if on springs. With a last rustle of bush leaves, the deer was gone.

+

Just a few seconds after, just in the same place the animal had been standing, something big and round, with birdlike wings attached to its sides crashed to the ground with considerable speed, splitting off one of the wings. The impact was strong enough to cause a ditch in the forest's ground. The shrieking of metal could be heard, accompanied by the dull bounce of further debris flying off into every direction. The damaged object that had just fallen from the sky blinked at the edges, then flickered again, giving space to nothing, as if it had disappeared just now and then, before it fully came back into vision, and this time, it stayed, dark and dead.

Silence. Only the moon and the starry night sky, shooting stars still highlighting the black, were shining on the object.

Then, there was a loud hum; the edges started blinking again, in no recognizable pattern. Shortly after, hammering and clanking came from the object, and finally it gave another shriek, long and metallic, as if something was trying to break free from whatever this was.

A second later, some part of the metallic object – a door? - fell open, bouncing off the ground and raising dust, before it stilled, and someone – or something – resembling a human figure, but with considerably longer limbs and long, stringy wavy hair, emerged.

The figure looked around, lingered for a moment, as if in awe. The moonlight – just like the lights blinking from the inside of the object, which was accompanied by beeping noises – was reflecting strongly off the figure. Or was it its clothes? It was hard to tell, but the reflection was almost like a glow in the dark. After about a minute, the creature lifted its long limbs that must be functioning as its arms, to its body, wrapping them around before it slumped. It started trembling a little, and then, its shape started to shift. The figure shrunk in size and its limbs lost in length until it reached the size of a rather short man. The shiny glow was gone, replaced by matt, ordinary skin and a short haircut. Whatever it was, at a close look it was visible, that it had shifted into a normal man with brown hair and Asian features.

+

The man stretched his arms, wide, before he brought them together, clumsily, as if he still had to get used to the measurements of his new body. His clothes' sleeves were definitely too long for his short, slender body now, which made moving a bit tricky. He took a few steps, jumped, lifted one foot, then the other, while rolling up his sleeves and pulling up his too long pants. Good thing he had prepared and put aside some more fitting clothes somewhere inside of his ship. He could quickly change into them before continuing his journey.

He groaned, frustration painting the noise when he turned back to the crashed object behind him and took in its deformed shape. He walked up to the ruined plate lying on the ground and leaned against the metallic frame of the door that he had created, looking inside. Colourful lights, coming from all over the place, as the whole cockpit seemed to be almost turned upside down, were lightening up his face, and if anyone would be able to understand the unfamiliar language, the content of the conversation could be understood in a way of the following.

"Zat-Uhm, damage report, please," the man said, as if this was a simple routine check. "What says the first quick-scan?"

"I tried to re-start all systems but did not receive answers from all of them yet," a female voice – no, a female but somewhat artificial sounding voice – replied. "Obviously, the shell is damaged. One wing is almost completely missing."

It was hard to grasp the exact sound of that voice. It cut the edges of each syllable, not always noticeable, but still slightly different, and there was kind of a small echo to it, as if the voice was speaking into a tiny box. There was no visible source of the voice resounding from the inside of the cockpit, but there were colours flashing over a small monitor in the front, mimicking the voice's intonation and volume with a dance of short and long coloured stripes. Either, someone was speaking through a connection, or, the whole object must be the source of Zat-Uhm's voice.

"What’s with that reproachful tone?" the man asked, frowning, a cute pout on his lips.

"You kicked out one of the side walls instead of exiting normally." Zat-Uhm summarized the happenings neutrally, before her voice turned a little miffed. "Just because I can't feel pain, it doesn't mean that you can kick around and damage my vessel as you please."

"Sorry, Dear," the man sighed, reaching his hand to gently touch a nearby metal plate, as if he really wanted to convey a feeling of apology. "Normally just wasn't possible, since the door is currently kissing the ground, as you surely noticed."

"Indeed, I noticed that. And I know there wasn't any other option to exit. Still, damage was done. I am just stating the facts."

"OK," he lifted his hands in resignation. "I get it. I should have been more careful. I underestimated the meteorite shower, I admit."

The man climbed back further inside the metallic object and started climbing up to the ceiling – the actual floor of the cockpit – to take place in something that reminded of a stool, in front of thousands of displays.

"Arti-grav system rebooted," the voice from the cockpit said, a warm hum echoed through it, and immediately, the man's steps became easier and shortly after, he was able to sit down on his pilot's seat without being bothered – or even effected – by Earth's gravity at all.

He crossed his arms tightly in front of his chest and glanced at the displays in front of him, humming as he let his thoughts wander. In the process, he quickly brushed his fingertips over the display that indicated any change of the female, artificial voice – Zat-Uhm – in a caring gesture, before he reached his hand to touch another one of the displays. With only a slight touch, he activated a small beam of turquoise light that shot into the air in front of him and formed something like a list created from strange symbols. The hologram flickered and died. Upon another try of activation, it didn't react, and the man cursed under his breath.

"Holo-creator temporarily offline," it sounded from the cockpit, and maybe – just maybe – there was a slightly mean undertone lying in the female voice.

"I know," he sighed, slightly unnerved by the stating of the obvious. He tried to calm down, trying to remind himself that after all, it was his fault that all was ruined, and that actually, none of this truly mattered any more. "OK... Anything else?"

"Base board system running. Or else you couldn't use the displays at all," she really didn't have a good night, obviously. "I shut down the engine as a precaution to avoid an explosion."

"Good idea," the man chuckled, slightly nervous. Just because he didn't need this any longer, didn't mean he didn't mind getting blown up by it accidentally, now that he finally reached his goal.

"Navigation system most likely faulty, but I should be able to correct it quickly. Detailed damage still being calculated. You want a first estimate?" Zat-Uhm offered.

The man shrugged. "Sure."

"Our ship is broken."

"You don't say!"

Silence.

Humming, the man nodded slowly. "Well, to be honest, the only thing I am truly concerned of at the moment is the invisibility shield that broke right before the landing…"

"Damage noted and confirmed. I am not sure whether I will be able to fix that without a replacement of certain tech. This will be a problem for the return," for some reason, the artificial voice sounded worried.

"I told you, I don't think we will need it again, so I don't mind. I just hope nobody saw anything."

"Calculating the number of damage report messages that the invisibility system sent to my core, taking the intervals between them and crossing everything with our last trajectory – as far as those are trustworthy, due to the damaged navigation system – and considering the coverage we might have received from the still ongoing meteorite shower –"

"Zat-Uhm," the man said, softly but determined. "Please keep it short."

"Sure. Don't worry. I am sure, nobody noticed."

"OK. We'll take care of everything later on," the man then decided after a short pause. "For now, let's go check the area!"

"I hate to stop you in your enthusiasm, but first, shall I call for an emergency shuttle to pick us up again, your Highness?" Of course, she tried to get them back. Not only that, her voice did not only give a suggestion, but it could also be understood that she was really upset with her pilot, especially when considering the emphasis, she used on the title to address him. Which was rare, to begin with.

"Do I hear sarcasm here?!" the man arched an eyebrow before he continued in a calm voice, trying his best to soothe her temper. "You know not to call me that. I'm your friend. And no, we don't need an emergency shuttle to come here, thank you very much. You know the plan."

"Noted. Friend who damaged my shell," still, her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

The man should really know better than making her angry. Carefully, he tried to get her into a better mood. "Don't get me wrong, I really appreciate your sense of humour. Not every AI is talented in reproducing something like that."

"An AI can only be as smart – or as witty – as its creator," Zat-Uhm gave back adroit.

"Now, is that a compliment or criticism?" the man in the pilot's seat wondered, crossing his arms again and raising his eyebrows challengingly. After all, he was the one who fine-tuned and programmed Zat-Uhm, which was based solely on a basic AI that he fed with tons of databases to make her the best possible over years.

"Criticism is not necessarily a negative thing. Just sometimes. But mostly, it depends on the recipient and how capable they are to deal with the criticism they receive."

The man released a sigh, but the corners of his mouth curled up into a smirk. "You're too smart, Sweetie."

"And you are too smart to waste your talents hiding on a primitive planet like this one," Zat-Uhm shot back. "Are you sure we don't need the emergency shuttle I suggested?" she added stubbornly.

"I said I appreciate your sense of humour, I did not ask for your opinion," the man replied, his voice turning a bit stricter. "As I said, no, we are not going to call anyone; I am finally out of there. Now let us find a quiet place."

"But what about our ship?"

"We don't need it anymore. We'll just leave it here," the man suggested immediately.

"Excuse me?!" the artificial voice reached a higher volume than usual, echoing back from the cockpit. "And what will happen to me?!"

"No need to panic!", the pilot replied, lifting his hands and started to gesture. "I'll take you with me, of course. I'll carefully disconnect your core from your current vessel and we'll find you a new one... After all, you're the only one I need."

"You're trying to soothe me with your flirting, but that does not work with me!" the AI replied strictly. "What if somebody finds the ship? The invisibility shield is broken, like you noticed."

"I could just drown it in the lake," the man shrugged.

"What a waste!" Zat-Uhm exclaimed in shock. "Besides, my measurements showed that it's only some kind of pond. Probably not even deep enough to drown anything."

"What did I say about offering your opinion, honey?"

"If I was a living being, I would feel offended now," Zat-Uhm huffed.

Smiling, imagining the AI as a person with red, puffed cheeks, the man laid back in his seat in amusement and said, "You have been feeling offended since we crashed! I'm still amazed your personality is even capable of being like that."

Neutrally, but with certainty, Zat-Uhm answered. "It's not designated in my system to voice an opinion. I am solely following learning patterns and algorithms taught by you. So basically, I am imitating some of your moods of which I have data on over the past decades, and most likely I am currently voicing your own doubts."

Ouch.

"Too smart…"

"So, what if we need it one day? In case of an emergency?"

The man considered their options. He had to admit that indeed his AI did have a point.

"Hm… I guess we better hide it then. An invisible canvas will do for now. We brought some with us, didn't we?" the man voiced his compromise.

"According to my inventory record from before the start of our journey, yes. Two of them, in the storage space in the back," the AI agreed. "Granted, if they are not damaged from the crash, they should work just fine. Then everything that is left is to hope that no one finds the covered ship."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Not a very good plan, if I may say."

"You may not," the man said, lifting one hand to dismiss the cheeky AI's comment. "Oh, and don't forget to switch off your locating system when I put you off the core –"

"But—"

"No, Zat-Uhm, we talked about this! I don't want anyone to find us! Make sure, it's deactivated, or I will make sure of it!"

"Yes, your Highness…"

The man rolled his eyes but said nothing and got to work.


+ PLANET EARTH. JAPAN. MAY 5, 2018. 00:42 AM, JST. Somewhere in Tokyo +


Nino always thought his life was pretty boring, and he himself probably too. Sometimes, just sometimes, he wished that he had a more thrilling life, maybe a more interesting job, or some kind of special talent… but most of the time, he was content with his boring life, his boring job, his not so special talents, and he even very much liked being considered as a boring person by other people.

It meant that they would leave him alone. Which meant that most of the time, he had enough time to focus on his hobbies, like reading, watching good movies or his favourite TV-shows, or losing track of time over a thrilling game that he played all night until he would fall asleep just to wake up the next day, crouching over his controller, and almost running late for work.

Despite Nino's low opinion about himself, for some reason, there was always one person that did not consider him as boring, just because he did not have an outgoing personality. His best friend since childhood – Jun.

Nino and Jun were as different as day and night, but somehow, things with Jun were easy and comfortable. So easy, that it seemed to be the most logical decision to move into an apartment together after graduating from school. They were so comfortable that even now, years later, they still didn't even consider moving apart.

They had figured things out, and made things work. While everyone was responsible for keeping their own room tidy and clean (whatever their definitions of those terms were), for the common area of the small apartment, they had reached a silent agreement over time, derived from their preferences and talents, which had grown into habits. In short, this meant that Jun took care of the cleaning as well as shopping for groceries and other necessities in their household, while Nino took care of the laundry and the cooking.

Jun had a lot of friends, so he didn't spend each and every second at home, and Nino knew how to make good use of those precious hours of solitude, before the two met again and spent some quality time together in the kitchen or the living room. Jun was there, when Nino needed someone to lean on, and Nino was there, when Jun needed someone to listen to him. Nino was a good listener, and Jun benefited a lot on his friend's tips when he needed some. Still, Jun never forced Nino to talk when they spent time together, nor did he call him too quiet or anything like that. That was different from other people, and Nino appreciated that very much. However, Jun always made it clear that he was interested in Nino's opinion, in what he had to say about the sun and the moon and the world, and he also made clear that he was ready to listen to Nino too, whenever his friend was up for a talk. Which happened, sometimes. Pretty often, even, considering that Nino wasn't much of a talker with most people. But with Jun, Nino felt comfortable talking, and shared more secrets with him than with his family.

What Nino did not feel comfortable with was accompanying his friend to parties. Jun loved parties, and as the funny and interesting guy he was, he usually was the centre of them, surrounded by a considerable number of friends and people who mostly wanted even more from the good-looking young man, and usually with quite a few beers or cocktails in his system.

Even though Jun accepted Nino's tendency to be an introverted homebody, it happened, that for some special occasions, he would ask – no, beg - Nino to come with him to this party or that celebration. Especially when they were parties thrown for his sake, like Jun's birthday, or like his recent promotion at the fashion company where he worked as a designer. Talking about the latter, this was exactly what they were celebrating tonight, in form of a costume party.

Of course, as Jun's best friend, Nino made the sacrifice and went with him on these rare occasions (he even dressed up in a video game character's cosplay for Jun's sake tonight!). Though, Nino made mental notes that in exchange for each party he accompanied Jun to, Jun owed him a cinema ticket for a motion picture screening, he would accompany Nino to. The young man was of the opinion that this was a fair one-hand-washes-the-other-hand deal, especially because he was generous enough to pay for their snacks, in return.

So, bearing in mind his upcoming reward, Nino usually managed to go through such party evenings with Jun, somehow. When things got too loud or stressful, Nino would just search for a safe and calm corner to watch people while sipping on a drink, instead of pushing himself to have mundane small talk with people he didn't know or care about over much too loud and heavy music. Sometimes, he even ended up searching for a pet to keep company instead of dancing with the party people in the living room at a house party. Jun was OK with Nino disappearing from time to time, as long as Nino was available for a drink or two by his side, in between, and Nino was OK with that too.

Which leads us to why tonight was not OK, though.

First of all, Jun had introduced one of his co-workers to Nino, who apparently had seen him at another party that Nino already successfully deleted from his memory, and had developed a crush on him.

"She likes your cool, chilled aura, right?" Jun had said, throwing Nino a wink, who wondered if anybody had described his introvert behavior like that before.

Nino looked pretty confused with the situation and he was definitely not dealing well with it, especially, after Jun whispered into his ear that Nino should be the one breaking this poor girl's heart by himself instead of having Jun do it – which was what he had hoped for, to be completely honest. Just a little piece of information would have been enough to make the girl understand that she was wasting her time, but Jun was adamant about each dealing with their own shit, if possible.

Since Nino was not really used to and not really good in such things (when was the last time that someone had a crush on him?! As convinced single, he had long stopped paying attention towards such things), he had completely failed in telling the girl (dressed in a horribly trashy fairy outfit) that he was not interested. Not because she wasn't cute or friendly, or beautiful, but for other reasons that he didn't manage to convey. He just didn't have the heart to tell her that he didn't like girls that way. It wasn't that he had a problem with admitting that, per se, but apparently, he just really sucked at turning people down.

While Nino hoped to bore her away by being awkward rather than talkative, like he usually do with people other than Jun, that girl somehow made it to hanging around him for the whole evening. It was surprising, and at first, Nino honestly wondered, what made her interested in him in the first place, but as time passed, the more uncomfortable and anxious Nino became.

Which was probably the reason why, second, tonight it had not been over after just one or two beers, no, it had definitely been more that he drank and if just due to the nervousness caused by that friend of Jun. The problem was, actually, Nino wasn't used to more than two beers, and he wasn't going well with too much alcohol. The results thereof now were an amazing headache and a very uncomfortable feeling in his stomach.

In the end, Nino somehow managed to shake off the girl for a moment, and went searching for Jun, who was dressed like a pirate coming from a plunder, and – as expected – partying on a table, dancing with one of his male colleagues from work – Toma, if Nino remembered the name correctly - in a very tight embrace. One arm slung around the man's neck, the other occupied by a poisonous looking, red drink, Jun swayed to the rhythm of the music, the tons of fashion accessories hanging from his neck bouncing off his outfit.

"Jun! Hey, J!" Nino called him twice, when his best friend didn't turn around to him after the first time. "I'm feeling sick, I'm heading home!"

"What?!" Jun asked, excusing himself from his colleague and jumping down from the table, the drink in his hand swapping over the edges of the glass and the peacock feather at the brim of his pirate head swaying heavily, when he landed right in front of his friend. Concerned, he looked at him, reaching out his free hand to ruffle through Nino's black hair in a caring gesture, a worried look on his face. "You really don't look so well… Are you OK?"

Nino hummed. "Just too much beer, I guess…"

"Shall I walk you home?" Jun offered immediately, before taking a sip of his drink in an attempt to at least finish it and not let it go to waste, if he was about to leave the party.

"No no, it's OK," Nino replied, waving a hand in dismissal. "Stay here and enjoy the night. It's your night, after all, Head of Design."

Instantly, at the sound of his new job position, Jun lifted his glass and a joyous high-pitched cheer left his mouth, which got immediately echoed by the people around him. The young man grinned proudly, before he turned back to Nino, face all serious again and putting his free hand on his friend's shoulder.

"But I don't like the idea of you walking through the city just by yourself when you're feeling sick, Nino! I'm your best friend, I should take care of you," the young man said, nodding to himself.

Nino wasn't so sure if it was him who needed guidance, or if it was actually Jun, seeing how he swayed (it was amazing though how he was able to formulate full sentences, still, considering the amount of alcohol he must have consumed by now). However, Nino was sure, that someone – or more – would end up volunteering to bring Jun home safely later on – if not taking him with them for the night, which wouldn't be the first time either.

"Really, it's OK, I'll manage-" Nino said before suddenly, he got interrupted by a girl's voice.

A cold shiver ran down Nino's spine when he recognized the voice. Damned, and he thought he had gotten rid of her for tonight...

"I'm sorry, I accidentally happened to hear your conversation…," the girl – Nino had already forgotten her name again – said and the young man wondered if it really was an accident or if she had been stalking him. "I'm free, shall I walk you home?" she offered with a smile.

Oh no, please, no, Nino sent a silent prayer to whoever might be listening, but he feared it didn't work.

"Nino?" Jun arched an eyebrow. "You seem to get along well, don't you?"

Actually, Jun knew exactly, that Nino was not getting along well with that girl at all – even if it had turned out as a one-sided dislike – however, Jun was also of the opinion, that it was Nino's fault if he made people misunderstand his behaviour. Admittedly, he was right. Still, Nino didn't give in. Not yet.

"I'm OK, I don't want to bother you–" he started, before his friend cut him.

"Oh, I'm sure, you won't bother her, Nino," Jun sing-sang. His eyes though said, "Get rid of her like a gentleman, and don't get her hopes high."

Traitor, Nino thought.

"No, really, it's no problem," the girl smiled shyly, pushing back one of her long strands of wavy black hair. Damned, she really got her hopes high.

"You're not going home alone in your state, Mister, end of the discussion!" Jun decided.

Nino sighed, finally giving up when Jun's strict gaze didn't even leave him when the man aimed for another sip of his drink – missing the edge of his glass by an inch at first.

"OK. Well, then… Thank you," Nino bowed slightly into the direction of the girl, trying to bring as much distance between them as possible.

"Do you need help walking?" The girl asked hopefully, moving a little closer, which caused Nino to shy away again, though, smiling at her apologetically.

Jun was right. He really should make clear that he wasn't interested in her, before she was getting even more annoying.

+

Nino didn't manage to set things right until they reached his and Jun's apartment – which was actually located only a few blocks away from tonight's party – a distance he definitely would have managed by himself, Nino kept insisting in his mind. Instead, Nino managed to get rid of the girl by quickly thanking her for the walk and closing the door right into her face, faster than her lips could even form the words "Good night", let alone try other things that Nino definitely wasn't in the mood for. This admittedly had neither been the most gracious nor gentlemen-like or grown-up way to handle things, but it was effective nonetheless and if Nino was lucky, he would never meet her again.

Right now, more important than his reputation, was definitely the urge to search for an aspirin and a glass of water, as well as the not to ignore the call his bed was making.

Clumsily, he found the desired medicine in the bathroom in the mirror cabinet over the sink somewhere on Jun's side. He grabbed a not-so-clean-but-it'll-do glass that was hanging around there for some reason he couldn't remember, and while the aspirin was fizzing and bubbling up the water, he slouched through the apartment into his bedroom to pull out his pajamas from under the pillow, that were much more comfortable than his stupid costume, and changed into it.

He picked up the glass – the aspirin now fully dissolved, the fizzing noise gone – and brought it to the living room, where he slumped down on the couch, the room lit only by the low glim of a lamp behind the furniture. Nino sighed, shifted and leaned back his head, bedding it against the couch rest while stretching his legs that didn't even reach the other end. He closed his eyes just for a second, before he remembered the medicine. He gulped down the liquid, stopping halfway for a second to remind himself that his stomach was still upset, and he should probably drink a bit slower. He carefully finished it and put the empty glass on the coffee table in front of him before he leaned back again.

The world was still swirling a bit, but Nino willed himself to feel the medicine getting to work and focus on the healing process. He had no idea if that really helped, but trying to relax at least took his mind off the stress he had felt throughout the whole evening. He sighed deeply, relieved, before allowing his mind to slip away...

+

Nino had no idea how much time had passed before he opened his eyes again. Just a little bit perhaps. It was still dark outside, the dim lamp in the living room was the only source of light, and his head still felt heavy and thick, pictures blurred into Nino's tired mind, so that it was hard to tell if he was actually awake, or still half asleep. However, it wasn't a coincidence that the man had reacted to something, rather than just the strange set of noises that filled his surroundings.

Frowning, Nino closed his eyes again, trying to put the last bit of focus he could come up with on one sense – his hearing – to at least have a chance to figure out what was going on.

When Nino tried listening more closely, he figured that the noises he heard were actually voices - and they sounded like two men discussing over something. Increasing the frown between his eyebrows, Nino wondered, if he had forgotten to lock the apartment and some of Jun's friends followed him to find a place to crash for the night – which wouldn't be the first time – or if he was simply dreaming.

"Aiba, you should start speaking Japanese now," said one voice, lowered to almost a whisper. "We're here now, and we have to adapt properly."

Start speaking Japanese? Who was that person the voice was talking to, a foreigner? Well, if they were some of Jun's friends from the fashion company, that wasn't so unlikely, was it? Jun mentioned that he used to work with international colleagues from time to time. Though, "Aiba" sounded like a very Japanese name to Nino.

"And be quiet," the voice added. "There is an earthling sleeping."

Earthling?! Was that guy referring to him!? Maybe, someone was taking the costume party a bit too serious here, Nino assumed, but his eye lids were still too heavy from the sleepiness layering on top of his blurry mind, so he couldn't check if that comment was somehow related to him in particular.

"Ah, I am sorry, Sho. You sure we in right spot?" another whisper joined.

"We will still have to practice this a little bit," the other voice – Sho – replied calmly. "Well, the ship's last traceable signals were located somewhere above this area before disappearing from our screens, and Kee-ko's calculations on where it would be a safe spot to land came to this."

What kind of nonsense was that guy talking, Nino wondered. A ship? What kind of ship? The memory of Jun in his pirate costume slipped into Nino's mind, which lead his fantasy to imagine a pirate ship flowing on clouds over the top of the apartment building. As he thought – nonsense. Nino felt his mouth slightly twitching into an amused smirk before slowly, he tried to open his eyes again. He blinked a few times, trying to clear his blurry vision, lifting one tired hand to rub his eyes.

"But I can't see brother!" the second voice – Aiba –, who seemed to forget some words, if Nino heard correctly, tried to force in his whispering, before he stepped a bit forward, towards the couch, and he crouched over Nino, who froze in shock when a handsome man's head appeared in his vision and their eyes met. The stranger blinked. Nino blinked back. "This earthling not brother," Aiba then noted, pointing at Nino, slightly poking one of his cheeks. "And not sleeping!"

"Excuse me," Nino murmured, his voice slightly hoarse. "Could you please put your finger out of my face?"

"Oh, sorry," the man said, pulling back and standing up again.

"You woke him," Sho sighed, causing Nino to struggle sitting up a bit more and turning his head into the direction of the voice's source.

Again, Nino blinked, confused, when he took in the strangers' figures, who were both standing behind the couch, not too far away from him. They both were probably not that much taller or older than himself, and glancing at them from head to toes, Nino had to admit, if that Aiba guy was handsome, that Sho guy was gorgeous. What struck him strangely though, were the mismatching outfits of the two men. Shiny, silvery jumpsuits, with their sleeves and trousers rolled up, as they seemed to be a few numbers too big to fit them, which he considered strange, assuming that they were working in a clothing company, like Jun. Still, their appearance was impressive, and Nino seriously wondered, how came he didn't notice that strange couple before at the party. His lazy brain still tried to connect the dots, while Sho was rambling on in his warm but serious voice.

"However," the man said, "This spot can serve us as headquarters for our search. It’s not too tall, not too small, unimpressive and inconspicuous."

"Hey!" Nino frowned at the stranger. What a nice way to describe the unexciting and admittedly run-down apartment complex he and Jun were living in. He knew, it wasn’t fancy, but it was their precious home, so anybody who dared saying bad things about it should beware!

"Oh, he wants talk!" Aiba exclaimed, a wide happy smile on his face when he turned to Nino.

"OK, then," Sho cleared his throat and tried straightening his posture, pulling his slightly sloping shoulders up a bit, his look as serious as before. "We should try to apply our social skills to this new situation."

"Skills, sure, yeah, try," the other man nodded, turning his attention to his friend, waiting for him to start. "Sho, are you nervous?"

"He's an Earthling," Sho whispered, as if he really thought Nino who raised a questioning eyebrow at the repeated usage of that term, couldn't hear him. "It’s my first time to encounter this species, so yes, I am a little bit nervous."

"Relax," Aiba smiled.

"Will you finally tell me who you are?" Nino ended up asking, making the first step to reach out. "And how did you get in here? Did Jun give out a pair of spare keys again without consulting me?" the young man sighed.

"I am sorry for disturbulancing," the slightly taller guy said. "Name is Aiba Masaki and this is Sakurai Sho. Nice to eat you."

"What?!" Nino frowned, his look alternating between the two men, until he settled on the one called Sho. "What did he say?!"

"No worries, earthlings are not included on our menu," the man replied. "He just wanted to say it's nice to meet you."

Nino snorted. Maybe, that Aiba Masaki was a half-Japanese, half-something-else guy, he considered, bearing in mind the small linguistic misuses.

"Who are you trying to portray, some kind of alien species?" the young man then asked between two yawns.

Sho slightly tilted his head, which made him look unintentionally cute, Nino figured.

"Well, your species might see us as an alien species, indeed."

"I'm not in the mood for mind games at the moment...," Nino growled, more to himself than to the two strangers. He truly wasn't up for role playing games, now less than ever, but this was just too absurd. Maybe, he really was dreaming and mixing up bits from the party with his dreams, Nino wondered. The alcohol probably had a more confusing influence on him, as he expected. "If Jun allowed you to spend the night here, fine, but please, stop pulling me into this and just let me go back to sleep, OK?"

"Uhm.... OK," Aiba simply said.

"It wasn't our intention to make you feel uncomfortable," Sho added politely, but Nino just waved it off.

He tried pushing himself up from the couch, supporting his slightly swaying body with one hand lying on top of the back rest and shortly lifted his other hand to massage his right temple a little bit. The headache was becoming stronger again.

"Where we sleep?" Aiba asked, holding Nino back.

"You guys can figure out who's going to sleep on the couch and who's going to take the floor. There's a spare futon in the closet over there," the man pointed into said direction and then turned to leave after another big yawn.

"What a futon?" Aiba asked, but Nino was already out of the room, deciding that he could leave it to Sho to take care of the rest. He seemed a bit more capable than the other guy. Nino would deal with those strangers tomorrow when he was sober again – that was if they were still present and didn't turn out to be dream figures.


+ PLANET EARTH. JAPAN. MAY 5, 2018. 09:35 AM, JST. Ninomiya and Matsumoto Apartment +


Eventually, it turned out that Nino did not just dream about those strangers in the living room. When he woke up the next morning and passed the living room on the way into the kitchen to brew up some coffee, they were still there.

He stopped short, frowning at the strange way Sho was using the futon (the pillow placed on top of the blanket which was lying across the completely stiff lying man, revealing his feet) who apparently was the one who took the floor, while Aiba was draping half from the couch. Nino slightly shook his head, but ignored them and resumed his way, rubbing his forehead.

He opened the kitchen cabinet, pulling out the package of fresh coffee beans as well as his and Jun's favourite mugs. He didn't know if his friend was home yet, however, Jun also liked cold coffee, so he surely wouldn't mind. Nino hesitated for a moment, turning his head into the direction of the living room when he heard a loud snore coming from there, and then reached back to put out two more mugs before he started on measuring the coffee beans he would need for a whole pot of coffee. The coffee machine got to work – Nino cursing its loudness – and soon after, the scent of freshly brewed coffee pleasantly tickled his nostrils. He sighed, feeling comfortable, when watching the brown, magic liquid running in a thin stream from the top of the machine into the coffee pot.

When the machine had finished its job, Nino poured himself a cup of coffee, smiling at the warmth spreading from the mug between his hands, and taking in the delicious scent of the beverage. He smiled. His headache hadn't gone away completely, even if sleep had helped, but the caffeine would probably be enough to finish the task, and those strangers surely would appreciate a wake-up drink too, before Nino kicked them out.

Considering his options, bearing in mind his still a little upset stomach, Nino settled on choosing a not yet ripe banana, just so that he didn't only drink coffee for breakfast, and sat down at the small kitchen table which just held enough space for him and Jun to gather around in the mornings. He slowly started munching on the fruit and sipping his coffee, while listening to the apartment. The morning silence was only disturbed by a few snores here and there, and then, Nino could hear doors opening and closing, before the shower being turned on in the distance. Apparently, Jun had returned home last night, Nino thought, relieved. At least, he wasn't alone with those strangers anymore and could leave Jun to kick them out, as they were his friends, after all.

A few minutes later, Nino had just finished his banana, when Jun showed up in the kitchen, only wearing fresh underwear and a half-wet towel around his neck, his dark brown locks still dripping. He looked tired, which wasn't surprising, but he didn't look hangoverish. Nino couldn't help but envy his friend for that fact. He didn't even want to know how he looked like.

"Good morning," Jun chimed happily, flashing Nino a smile while reaching for his already prepared mug and the coffee pot to pour himself a drink too before joining Nino at the kitchen table. He took in the scent of coffee and took a sip, sighing contentedly. "You know, you're the best, right? Are you feeling better?"

"Better," Nino mumbled with a nod before focusing back on his own coffee.

They sat there in silence for a while, sipping their hot drinks, as they often did, before Jun finally tried to pick up the conversation again.

"By the way, who are those two guys in our living room?" he asked casually.

Nino frowned at Jun over the edge of his mug.

"I thought you left with Yuriko," Jun continued. "I mean, I'm not surprised not to find her around, but what did I miss that there are now two guys in our apartment, who I don't know?"

Nino's confused expression by now had grown into a sheer panicked face, and his heart was racing nervously in his chest as he slammed down his almost empty mug onto the kitchen table. Jun just raised his thick eyebrows at his friend, questioning, when Nino – his face pale like a ghost – leaned over the table towards him, his eyes widened in horror.

"What do you mean, you don't know them?!" Nino started, trying to keep his voice low. "I thought those are your friends and that they followed me from your party!"

Jun simply shrugged. "As I said, I don't know them."

"Oh gosh," Nino clasped his hands at the sides of his face, panic rising. "Who are those people then?! I allowed them to stay over at our place, for god's sake! They are even dressed up, how many costume parties were in the area last night?!"

"I have no idea," his friend replied.

"Considering that, you seem pretty chill about those strangers in our living room, don't you!?" Nino tried to not freak out completely. He didn't do all that well, he figured, especially when his hands started trembling and his breath started to hitch.

Jun quickly lifted his hands in a soothing gesture. "Wow, wow, and you are not chill at all right now, Nino. Calm down, OK? Breathe in, breathe out... keep going... slowly. That's it. Now... they didn't do anything strange to you, did they?"

"One of them poked my cheek last night...," Nino pouted and Jun frowned at him. He continued, "Besides that, no. They just talked a huge amount of nonsense and I sent them off to bed before I went to sleep..."

"OK, so there's no damage done," Jun summarized, nodding in understanding. "They don't seem to be dangerous people, and they simply crashed at our place. We'll wake them, and they'll explain who they are and how they got in here. And what kind of horrible costume are they wearing..."

"Seriously, that's your biggest concern about them?!"

"Sorry, matter of habit," Jun giggled before his face lightened up. "Oh, coming to think of it, they could be new interns or something... I don't know everyone in the company and I might have sent a circular mail to invite people..."

Nino sighed.

+

"Can we trust him?" Sho asked, about twenty minutes later, addressing Nino as well as Aiba, his look lingering on Jun.

"I think he look thrust worthy," Aiba immediately replied.

"Trustworthy!" Nino exclaimed, blushing embarrassed. "The word you're probably looking for is trustworthy."

Jun – by now fully dressed – burst into laughter before he turned his look at Aiba, wiggling his eyebrows at him. "You know, I probably wouldn't mind the alternative. You should get rid of that horrible jumpsuit first, though."

Nino rolled his eyes. Aiba's lips curled up into a silly smirk, and he glanced sideward at Sho, as if wanting to brag, but his friend didn't show any reaction. By now, Nino had figured that while Aiba seemed pretty carefree, and possibly with a tendency of being hyper, Sho to the contrary didn't seem big on showing emotions, and tended to be a rather serious guy. He was surprised though, that someone like him was so committed to a role-playing game, as Sho and Aiba seemed to be.

"Do you mind keeping your flirting for later, J?" Nino finally said. "And you guys, just stop fooling around and tell us already who you are and where you came from."

Sho cleared his throat. "As my companion already introduced us properly yesterday, his name is Aiba Masaki and I am Sakurai Sho."

"Right," Nino sighed. "And you are... from Jun's fashion company?" he offered with a question mark.

Even before any of the two men could reply, Jun jumped in. "To be honest, I think I would certainly remember some good-looking guys like you," the man glanced at the two strangers, a smug grin on his face and his eyes lingering a little longer on Aiba, who – again – grinned like a fool. Nino – again – rolled his eyes.

"Anyway," Nino continued. "Recollecting what they told me yesterday, they might be two lunatics, if you ask me – no offence – they claimed to be aliens."

"You called us aliens," Sho noted, directing at Nino.

"And you didn't deny it and refuse to give more information, so?" Nino gave back, challenging.

"Aliens?" Jun chuckled, deciding to pick up their role-playing game, even if just to tease Nino a little bit. When the two strangers didn't react on his question, he added, "Do you guys come from planet Mars or what?"

Aiba shook his head strongly. "No, not planet Mars. Our home planet is way farther away, it's not even located in your galaxy. Name is Ar-Rash."

"Never heard of it," Nino said, frowning as he tried to figure out to which Sci-Fi franchise Aiba might refer to. He exchanged a look with his flatmate, hoping he would be more successful. "Do you know where that comes from?"

"Excuse me," Sho chimed in, "But I doubt your species ever had any contact with one of us. According to my information, just now was the first time that our planet's name was mentioned in front of an earthling. Saying this, I hope it goes without saying that you are obliged to keep this information confidential, or we need to make sure you won't tell anyone."

Nino narrowed his eyes, considering for a short moment if he should take it as a joke or a serious threat.

"Jun, if anyone knows this strange Arash planet or how it's called, it's you." He turned to Sho and Aiba, pointing at Jun with his thumb. "He's a Treky, you know? If you're trying to fool me, he can tell."

"What's a Tracky?"Aiba frowned at Sho, who just shrugged.

"You're kidding me. The Sci-Fi TV show? Star Trek? He's an immense fan of that show – not so much of the current movies, although I have to say that I myself pretty much enjoyed them – so-"

Jun on the other hand, his cheeks slightly flushed, chuckled embarrassed. "That's too much, Nino. I'm a considerable beginner." However, he seemed to take the challenge and quickly fell in a thinking posture, as if he was actually scanning his brain for that name of the mentioned planet. To Nino's disappointment, the result was only a big frown, though. "Sorry, never heard of that…"

When Sho shrugged his sloping shoulders again and Aiba looked at Nino as if he just tried to explain astrophysics to a kindergarten child, the young man sighed. "Forget it."

They must be either stupid, or very good actors if they still tried to make fun of him. He had to admit though, that slowly but surely, he was losing patience.

"So if this isn't the name of some fictional planet –" Nino started. "Then they must be-"

"Real aliens?!" Jun concluded hastily, his eyes suddenly sparkling, Nino's "liars" getting completely drowned by his friend's enthusiasm.

"Seriously, Jun, you're too obsessed with Sci-Fi, recently, you can't be serious!" Nino directed at his friend, shocked, and definitely not in the mood for jokes.

"Calm down. Let's just assume, they are telling us the truth, for a moment," Jun said, trying to sound put together, but he wasn't able to hide his excitement from Nino. Jun cleared his throat and addressed the two strangers again. "Do you come in peace?"

Nino face palmed.

"We don't meany any harm to you," Aiba confirmed, flashing a bright smile.

"What brings you here?" Jun continued questioning.

"Searching for someone," the other man replied.

"We are searching for Aiba's brother, Ar-Rash's first crown prince," Sho offered in addition, to help clarify the matter.

"Wait, you are a prince?!" Jun burst in surprise, and Aiba nodded.

The sparkles in Jun's eyes grew with every second, exponentially to the frown between Nino's eyebrows. Those guys couldn't be serious!

"He flew away!" Aiba kept on, making an open gesture with his arms. "We need to find him! Need to take over throne together with him, or dad won't be able to retrire."

"Retire," Sho corrected.

"Retire," Aiba repeated, nodding thankfully at his companion.

"So… why did he run – I mean – fly away?" Nino threw in with a sceptically raised eyebrow, tagging along.

"He lazy," Aiba stated, rolling his eyes, as if this explained everything they needed to know.

"This is getting more and more absurd!" Nino exploded. "You show up in our living room, in the middle of the night, poke my cheek -"

"You're really salty about that, aren't you?" Jun threw in.

"I'm sorry that I'm not very comfortable with being touched by strangers!" Nino shot back, defending himself before he rumbled on, addressing Aiba and Sho. "I have no idea how you managed to get inside, unless I forgot to lock the door behind me, and now you claim to come from a faraway planet called Arse?!"

"Ar-Rash," Sho corrected, calm but determined.

"Oh please, stop being such a know-it-all, I don't care how your planet is called," Nino grumbled. "You tell us some stupid stories about runaway princes and whatnot, you must be crazy!"

"We not crazy," Aiba pouted, his cheeks puffed.

"Then prove it!" Nino demanded, finishing his speech.

+

They ended up on the rooftop, the wind was blowing, and Nino – wrapped up in his sweater – still tried to process what was going on in front of his eyes.

There was a metallic ball – a huge ball with freaking wings, in a strange way reminding Nino of a disproportionate version of the Snitch from Harry Potter – parked on top of their apartment building, in front of his very eyes, flickering into nothing and reappearing in his view, with Aiba pushing the surface of a device in his hand.

"Aiba, please stop," Sho asked his companion. Aiba played around once more, and eventually obeyed.

"This is our ship," Sho continued, directed at Nino and Jun, pointing at the huge metal ball. "What Aiba just demonstrated was the invisibility shield that we use to keep it hidden."

Nino still couldn't believe his eyes. He pitched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes, trying to come up with a reasonable explanation on just how on earth those two guys were able to trick his eyes so badly. They were crazy. Or was he the crazy one? Or, the most preferable option, perhaps, was he just still dreaming? What was in those drinks yesterday?!

"This is so cool!" Jun exclaimed, his eyes sparkling from excitement.

"This is insane!" Nino growled, a crease between his eyebrows and a disbelieving look on his face. He fell into a mumble. "This must be a joke..."

"Would be a bit too expensive for a joke, don't you think? I mean, look at this, Nino, it's a freaking spaceship!" Jun said, putting his hands on his best friend's shoulder, shaking him. Then, he turned sharply at Aiba, his eyes shooting a determined look at the supposedly alien prince. "Can I fly it?"

"NO!" Sho and Nino said in sync, immediately, leaving Aiba with his mouth open, even if Nino's voice was bordering on hysteria, while Sho sounded unexpectedly calm, considering this concerned his spaceship – in case it really was one.

Nino and Sho made eye contact, the straightforward look of the alien making Nino shy away.

"Anyway, do you need any more proof?" Sho asked, as he came closer to Nino, stopping right next to him. "We can show you a few pieces of technology inside if you want, or the stored star cards in our ship's system or you can talk to our AI system."

"AI system?!" Jun freaked out from excitement.

"Come here, come here!" Aiba, who had approached the spaceship and touched a spot on the outer shell which then opened slowly, said, waving at Jun and Nino excitedly.

Jun immediately started running towards the other man, his look resembling the one of a child, excited to try a new toy, while Nino kept standing there, looking very sceptical, until Sho gestured him to walk before him, and he carefully took a few steps closer to the strange object.

"Can we really go inside?!" Jun asked, receiving Aiba's nod as a positive reply, who reached his hand to help Jun inside. Jun gratefully grabbed it to get pulled into the ship.

When Sho offered a hand to Nino to help him climb up, the young man though refused, carefully examining the whole thing before he eventually decided to give it a try. He managed to climb inside on his own, even if it was a bit of a struggle, before he was followed by Sho. On the inside, everything looked as if it just sprang free from some new Sci-Fi movie, showing futuristic designs and countless screens, attached to the inner shell of the ship, as well as lightening up the air in turquoise, as holographs. Nino's mouth had fallen open, but unlike Jun, who immediately started asking questions about this and that, Nino wasn't able to voice a single syllable, and just kept staring, in awe. Oh yes, this was definitely too expensive to be a joke...

"Kee-ko, activate!" Aiba ordered after answering a few of Jun's questions.

There was a hum coming from the ship, before a female, somewhat artificial sounding voice echoed from the inside, talking in an unfamiliar tongue, and leaving Nino and Jun completely confused.

"Kee-ko, language setting: Earth language, modern Japanese," Sho added and shortly after, the voice returned, this time speaking in perfect Japanese.

"Welcome aboard. Greetings, Prince of Ar-Rash, and First Assistant to the royal prince."

"Don't be so formal," the prince chuckled. "For now, call us Aiba and Sho."

"Noted in my system. Welcome, strangers too," the voice directed at Nino and Jun. "May I ask for your names for easier reference?"

"These are Nino and Jun. They are our new friends," Aiba replied for them.

"Nice to meet you, Nino and Jun," the friendly voice said.

"Nice to meet you too, uhm… what was her name?" Jun asked, turned to the alien prince.

"Kee-ko."

"Or Keiko would be the Japanese equivalent," Sho contributed. "The AI system helps us to navigate through space, calculate jumps between space-time units and –" Sho said before a completely excited Jun cut his attempt for explanation.

"OK, wait! Slow! So... all the alien stuff is true?! The UFOs, the sightings? That we – here on Earth, I mean – are not alone in this universe?!" the young man almost freaked out – in a positive way. Nino on the other hand simply stood there, dumbfounded.

"In fact, there several universes," Aiba offered as a piece of knowledge.

Sho replied, "It's likely that some of the reported events were truly originating from research excursions from non-earthling species, indeed."

"So the UFO sightings, say that famous one in America, Roswell, was that you?" Jun asked.

"According to my information about the Roswell incident and the descriptions of the aliens sighted there, it sounds like a folk from one of our neighbouring planets has been responsible for that specific one," Kee-ko offered.

Jun clasped his hands in front of his mouth, marveling. "Oh my Gosh… And do those research teams really do all that probing and the experiments and –"

"Jun!" Nino finally snapped out of his rigor, his voice cracking from a trace of panic. "Don't give them any ideas, they could be dangerous!"

"Excuse me, but who allowed them to crash on our couch?" Jun gave back at his friend, raising one eyebrow.

"I thought they were your friends!" Nino almost lost his mind. He wasn't in the mood for being teased. "I blame you for all of this, just so you know!"

Jun slightly rolled his eyes. "But look, do they appear dangerous to you?"

Nino sceptically glanced around, taking in Sho with dark brown friendly eyes in his serious face, his stiff posture and his slightly sloping shoulders, and Aiba, smiling broadly at him with shining eyes, resembling a bundle of energy. While their behaviour was kind of strange, they definitely did not appear to be dangerous.

"No," Nino admitted.

"See?" Jun grinned at him, expectantly. "So, can we keep them?"

+

"OK, they can stay, but only until they found Aiba's brother!" Nino had said back up of the rooftop, arms crossed and a serious look wandering from happily cheering Jun and Aiba, to Sho, who just looked him straight into the eyes, serious as before, but with a hint of what maybe was gratefulness, until Nino slightly blushed and averted his eyes.

Back down in the apartment, they started to discuss some arrangements, like how they could make the sleeping situation a bit more comfortable (although Sho said he didn't mind using the futon on the floor while his prince took the comfier couch), or some other basic rules, until Jun dragged an enthusiastic Aiba into his bedroom, to go through his closet with him in order to find some more appropriate clothes.

Nino already had a very strong suspicion that Jun planned to turn Aiba into his new "victim" to stand as a model for his new collection, and to be completely honest, Nino didn't mind if he didn’t have to assist Jun in that, once in a while. Jun always emphasized on how much of a natural talent Nino was in modelling, and well, maybe, Nino wasn't completely crappy at it. He had to admit that some pictures Jun took for his portfolios, even Nino thought he didn't look that bad. He was quite rocking that "dreamy" look, and no matter what Jun dressed him in, he kind of looked "cute", but that was probably it. Nino knew, that he was by far not an ideal model and he seriously did not pursue that as a career anyway. He was thin, yes, but he was too small, especially for male clothes, and yes, Jun had put Nino in female clothes before, and Nino still wasn't sure if he should take that as a compliment or insult. Aiba on the other side, seemed to be perfect. He was tall, he was handsome, he had this carefree and self-confident aura that Nino completely lacked, and he would surely rock every single piece of male clothing that Jun might put him in.

"You can't wait to dress your new mannequin, right, J?" Nino joked when Jun was looking at the new flatmate with big sparkling eyes just a few minutes before, as soon as Aiba voiced his agreement on Jun's demand to change into appropriate clothes before they could leave the apartment to visit the convenience store.

"I don't mine to be man naked!" the prince said, smiling at Jun.

"Eh?" the other man chuckled, exchanging an amused look with his best friend.

Nino just bit his lips in order not to laugh out loud. After quickly getting used to Aiba's not perfect usage of Japanese, he had to admit that some of the man's phonetic accidents and misunderstandings were kind of funny – even if they could be completely embarrassing.

"He means, he doesn't mind to be your mannequin... at least I guess that's what he said, although I wouldn't guarantee..." Sho offered as a translation. Aiba giggled, sticking out his tongue cutely. "Sorry, his Japanese is not perfect yet. Even if we can learn languages quite easily, it's sadly not his forte."

Nino was about to ask how the two of them even managed to speak Japanese at all, considering that apparently, they came from such a faraway place (or maybe all of it still was a joke to begin with?) but decided to keep that topic for later.

"I have other forte!" Aiba said, his chest proudly swollen.

"Oh, I'm sure about that," Jun flashed Aiba a smug grin, and Nino would bet a fortune that at that very moment Jun was seriously considering Aiba's – accidental – statement of not minding to be a naked man, before he finally pulled him away.

As expected, it didn't take long until Nino heard Jun's ecstatic squeal from the designer's bedroom - obviously overly delighted on how amazing Aiba looked in that T-shirt from last spring's MJ - Collection, and the new cardigan Jun bought two weeks ago.

Of course, Jun promised that he would take care of Sho's outfit too, later on, but the latter didn't seem a quarter as enthusiastic and curious about earthling clothes, as Aiba, much to Jun's disappointment and Nino's amusement. He could relate to that feeling. Clothes were not everything. First and foremost, they should be comfortable. But don't you dare tell this to a designer...

Instead, Sho was now sitting there on the couch in the living room right next to Nino, stiff and still, not saying a word, and making Nino feel uncomfortable. Nino himself still had a hard time trying to grasp the situation, and he hadn't yet fully decided whether or not he truly should believe that his and Jun's temporarily new flatmates were real aliens. However, he couldn't come up with another reasonable explanation for all the things that were happening and all the things he saw and heard for the last few hours. He wasn't dreaming anymore, either – he checked by pinching his arm several times, until a bruise started to form, and Jun had to slap Nino's hand in order to keep his friend from hurting himself – and he was pretty certain, that he wasn't turning insane. OK, almost sure.

So now, he and Sho were sitting there, alone and in awkward silence. Nino didn't know what to talk about, if he even wanted to ask further questions, or what kind of talk might entertain the other man. Maybe he was lucky and Sho was just as a non-small talker as Nino and they could just keep each other company in silence. Admittedly, Nino could have retreated into his own room, but honestly, leaving someone he didn't even know for 24 hours alone in his living room did not sound like a very good idea, for several reasons. Not only because Nino had no idea what the alien would do to its new surroundings once it was not being watched. (Break things? Steal something?) But also because deep inside Nino, there was at least a sense of social obligation that told him that he probably shouldn't abandon a guest at the first possible chance.

However, right now, nature was calling and so, Nino – after clearing his dry throat – excused himself to the bathroom, only after receiving a short "OK" from Sho who continued staring into the air in front of him.

For a moment, Nino hesitated, wondering if the other was getting bored. Suddenly, he felt guilty for being such a wordless companion. Just considering that if this whole crazy story was true, and if that man really came from a planet far away from Earth... and if Nino put himself into the shoes of the stranger, wouldn't he at least have some questions? Wouldn't he be curious and want to talk to one of the inhabitants of the strange planet he landed on?

It was possible that Sho was just being polite, holding back, kind of sensing that Nino felt weird about the whole situation, or was he actually shy? Question upon question built up in Nino's head, until he decided that he should at least try reaching out a little bit and see how it would go. Lacking other good ideas, he eventually reached for one of his books that was sitting on the lower shelf of the coffee table and handed it to Sho. It was a start.

"Wait here," he said a bit awkwardly, blushing slightly at Sho's front-on questioning stare. That man had really beautiful eyes, Nino noted, and he already hated how nervous they made him. "Uhm... In case you're bored. And if you have some questions, I'll be right back and we can talk, if you want."

"Thank you," the other man replied, considering the object in his hand before looking back at Nino. "I'd appreciate that."

"OK," before leaving the room, Nino tried to force a smile, which might have gone wrong. Sho's neutral reaction didn't give any hint on that.

When the young man came back from the bathroom a few minutes later, Nino found Sho still sitting in place, just like he told him. He was still clenching the book Nino gave him, staring at it intensely, and Nino frowned a little confused. He stepped in front of the other man, watching him, and waiting for him to do something with the book, or at least say something. When Sho finally moved, the only thing he did was slowly pushing his tongue out between his lips and licking the book cover hesitantly. Nino blinked, seriously questioning himself if his brain just tricked him, but then, Sho did it again. He licked on Nino's book!

Surprised, Nino leaped forward, and quickly snatched away his book from Sho's hands, glaring at him.

"Excuse me, but what do you think you're doing to my book?!" Nino asked, directing a confused look at his guest.

Sho just looked back at him, blankly, before he started, "I just wanted to try-"

"To eat it?!" Nino snapped. "This is a book! It's for reading purposes, you know?"

A small frown formed on Sho's forehead. "I know, but I...," there was a growling sound coming from Sho's stomach.

Nino blinked once more, his eyes now glued to Sho's stomach.

"I was desperate," the alien said in a low voice.

"OK, I get it," the young human replied. "You're hungry, right? But seriously, what made you think that this-" he lifted his book again, holding it up by the not soggy edge, "-is something to eat?"

"It smells good," Sho stated simply.

Nino looked at him, dumbfounded. Well, Sho had a point. Most books smelled kind of good, even if in an odd way, and definitely not one that made Nino want to eat a book. The man sighed.

"When was the last time you ate?" he then asked Sho, whose eyes suddenly became bigger with hope.

Nino found it very cute, especially when the alien bit his lower lip, not breaking eye contact with the other man, before he finally said, "I... It's been a while since I ate, it was a long journey so-"

"You could have said something," the other man chuckled. "I guess I have to apologize, I just remembered that you and Aiba didn't even have breakfast today, right? It's my fault. I should have given you some proper food and you wouldn't need to lick my poor book...," Nino said while setting his book back down on the coffee table.

"I am sorry about your book," Sho said.

"Ah, don't worry, nothing happened," Nino waved off, flashing Sho a smile.

"So...," the alien continued, "Can I eat something else in here?"

His eyes wandered across the living room's interior, hopefully, lingering a little longer on one of Nino's house plants, an aloe vera, which technically could be eaten, but not without preparing it in a specific way.

"We keep our food in the kitchen, usually," Nino smiled at the other man. "So come on, let's get you something proper to eat, OK?"

Sho stood up from the couch, nodding heavily, and Nino couldn't help but smile again. He pointed in the direction of the kitchen, and gestured the other man to come with him, which Sho did immediately, following him like an obedient puppy.

In the kitchen, Nino rolled up his sleeves to free his arms before opening the fridge, scanning it for something he could offer his guest. While he was digging through a bunch of different vegetables, some fresh herbs, fruits, some leftovers from the past two days, and whatever else he and Jun stored in there, he could feel Sho walking up to him, coming closer. Knowing the alien so close behind him, Nino became a little nervous, and carefully glancing over his shoulder, he tried to read Sho's expression. The man's face wasn't easy to read, but his behaviour obviously showed his curiousness about the food, even if the small crease on his forehead looked kind of sceptical. While hearing the man making some interested noises, Nino began to wonder.

"Say, Sho... what kind of food do you usually have?" he slowly turned around, closing the fridge.

Sho – who was standing dangerously close to Nino, so close that Nino could almost count his eyelashes, but made no move to bring some distance between them – took a very serious thinking posture, his face growing a huge frown between his already slightly strict eyebrows, and his lower lip pushing forward, enforcing their plump look. Again, Nino realized, how cute the other man looked, even if he tried to pull his thoughts back as soon as Sho seemed ready to answer.

"If I try to translate the names of our food, I think it would sound very weird to you. I can't think of a proper equivalent in your language, so I'll spare you that," the man said, looking at Nino. "Our food looks very different from those things in there," the reached his hand and put it against the closed fridge right behind Nino, trapping the young man between himself and the appliance. Nino gulped, feeling his heart beat picking up. "But I'll gladly try everything you have to offer."

Calm down, Nino told himself. Of course, having his personal space invaded by an alien would make him feel nervous. It would make everyone feel nervous, Nino thought as he let his back slip down along the surface of the fridge in order to flee from the situation. Sho let his hand drop back down, watching Nino with expectancy. Ah sure, the alien was still hungry and wanted some food, and Nino promised to get him something.

"Hm...," Nino frowned, pacing the kitchen as he lifted his hand to slightly scratch his nose.

Doubts started coming up, especially after Sho's statement. Nino wasn't completely sure anymore, if this wouldn't actually turn into a problem. What if these aliens usually only ate some strange kind of supplement paste, like this tubed space food Nino saw on TV, and if they didn't go well with human food? But then, they wouldn't know if they didn't try, right?

"Uhm... Will a sandwich do for now or shall I make lunch already?" Nino asked, just to see Sho tilt his head in confusion.

Right, the man probably didn't even know what a sandwich was or at least didn't get what Nino implied with his question. Even if he might recognize the word – Nino had no idea how far Sho's Japanese vocabulary went – it wasn't granted that the man could actually picture what it meant. Nino glanced at the digital clock displayed on the microwave. Almost midday. Well then, lunch would be appropriate, he decided.

"How about pasta?"

"Pasta?" Sho repeated, trying to make sense of it.

"It's a dish originating from Italy," Nino started explaining. "Do you know about Italy?"

"A little bit, yes," Sho agreed. "I read some files about Earth's geography, among others some European nations. However, while I can understand political history and grasp intellectual concepts like a country's particular art, music or culture while comparing it with ours, it's hard to try recreating other senses. Like to imagine the texture of things, smells, and tastes..."

Nino nodded. "Makes sense. So, just let me tell you a bit about it, and if you don't think it sounds completely disgusting, I'll make some, OK?" When Sho simply nodded, Nino continued. "In short, pasta is noodles with sauce. There are different options, but since you're already hungry, I guess spaghetti with tomato sauce will do. It's simple, quick and delicious. Do you think you'll like that?"

Sho just continued staring at Nino, probably not understanding what he was talking about, but looking kind of curious. Nino took it as agreement.

"OK, let's give it a try then," the young man smiled. "I hope you'll like it."

+

"You are really going to cook it by yourself?" Sho asked, surprised, once Nino had gathered all the necessities for the dish he planned to make near the stove.

He had already filled a large pot with water, which he set onto the stove to let it boil. Next to it, he had collected a fresh tomato, a round white onion, some garlic, herbs, salt, olive oil, a package of tomato puree, and of course – a package of spaghetti.

"Of course, what do you expect?" Nino asked his spectator when he started to chop the onion and garlic while the water started to boil. He looked at Sho, raising his eyebrows. "How do you get your food done where you come from?"

Again, the image of tubed space food for astronauts popped up in Nino's head and he cringed when he tried to imagine the taste of that stuff. He proceed with putting the ingredients for his tomato sauce into a smaller pot one after another – first the oil to heat it up, then shortly after, he added the onions and once they were translucent , he poured in the tomato puree as well as the chopped tomatoes, and dropped in the garlic, herbs and salt to let everything cook on low heat. Once the water in the large pot was ready, he added salt, and the noodles. Sho watched every single step very closely, and in fascination.

"We have machines doing such kind of work... of course we can't really see how they actually do it, and we only see the finished product," the alien started to tell. "Cooking is a mundane everyday task that's only consuming time, after all, so we figured, it's better to leave it to machines -"

"A mundane everyday task?!" Nino, who was currently gently stirring the tomato sauce, burst out. He turned at Sho, gaping at him before he fell into a small sulk, adding in a low voice, "I kind of feel offended now..."

"Why?" Sho wondered, completely oblivious. "Did I say something wrong?"

"Well... You couldn't have known," the other man started, focusing back onto the food on the stove (not because it became hard to bear Sho's gaze, of course, just because he needed to pay attention...) "I'm a professional chef in a restaurant nearby. It's my job to do this mundane task every day."

And yes, even if on some days, Nino's job could be quite boring, cooking the same dishes over and over, spending the whole day in the kitchen, there were at least just as much days during which Nino very much enjoyed his work, and he indeed held a bit of pride in it and considered it as important.

"Oh, I see...," the alien nodded. "Well, I have to admit, watching you doing this, is indeed fascinating and not as boring as I expected it to be but still, it's time consuming, isn't it? Don't you mind it?"

Nino shook his head. "No, I don't mind it. How about you, do you think eating is a mundane everyday task too?"

Sho looked right into Nino's eyes, obviously thinking of what to reply.

"Well..." the man started. "It can't be helped, we have to eat to stay alive, but still, it doesn't matter where the food comes from and how it is made, does it?"

Nino sighed. He seemed to understand now. There were two possibilities – either, Sho wasn't that big of a glutton (strange thought, since he had classified the smell of books and an aloe vera plant as interesting), or other, the food on his home planet simply sucked. Nino probably shouldn't take it personal. However, this kind of motivated the young man even more to give his best. He tasted the sauce from the tip of his spoon and reached for some herbs to refine the mixture. Let's see, if he would be able to please that alien's tongue with his cooking and change his views on it.

The young man cleared his throat, before speaking again. "I personally think that it's important that someone – an actual person – is carrying out this task. I don't think it's mundane or low, or whatever you people might have classified it as, it demands a lot of caution, and... love."

When voicing the last word, Nino blushed slightly. It sounded weird saying cheesy stuff like that out loud, and he really wasn't used to it, however, trying to defend his job, the thing he was doing to pay his bills, and which he indeed truly loved, he wasn’t able to come up with any better word.

Nino always put a lot of heart and care into his dishes when cooking, especially when he was cooking for others. Having learned his skills and his attitude from his parents, who owned a restaurant in another part of the city, Nino's goal was it to create something that other people liked and helped them enjoy their day a little bit more than they already did. Food was important to stay alive, Sho was right when it came to that, but food was also so much more. It was something magical, something comforting, something... sensual. OK, now this was drifting off into a strange direction, Nino thought, however, his opinion stood. Cooking wasn't a mundane every day task, or at least, it shouldn't be. It was something supposed to make people stronger, and happier. It was important! And the more passion someone put into cooking, the better the result, at least that was Nino's philosophy.

"I did not mean to offend you," Sho said after a few seconds of awkward silence, while Nino was still stirring the sauce.

"Well, I will file this under cultural differences," Nino then simply replied, waving it off and trying to will away the red colour from his face. When he thought, he was ready, he turned to Sho and smiled. "Now, come and help me set up the table, it's almost done."

+

Just a little bit later, when Nino, Jun and their two strange new flatmates were sitting around the dining table in the living room, the young chef was extremely satisfied. Never before in his life had he seen someone eating a simple dish like spaghetti and tomato sauce with more zeal than what Sho was doing right now.

Especially after the conversation the two men had in the kitchen before, Nino was extremely proud of himself. OK, probably it wasn't his cooking skill or the exact recipe that made Sho almost lose himself, right now, more likely, the alien's usual food really tasted that boring. However, Sho's reaction made Nino strangely proud and happy, nevertheless. Not only, because it was the first time that he saw Sho showing any kind of emotional reaction to someone (or something), namely pure enjoyment, but also because he was really relieved that the man seemed compatible with human food and on top of that he honestly seemed to like Nino's cooking.

"Aiba, you have to try this, it's amazing!" Sho told his friend, completely excited. "I never ate something so delicious before in my entire life! I didn't even know food could be that delicious!"

"What you do to him?!" Aiba frowned at Nino, showing the most serious expression on his face that Nino had ever witnessed since he encountered the alien. "I not recognize this person, he's so... enthusiastic!"

Nino felt his mouth form into a proud smile. As it seemed, he really managed to get an obviously pretty uncommon reaction from Sho. He liked that.

"Does it really taste so different from your food?" Jun wondered, considering his fork full of delicious but not so special noodles with sauce.

"Our food tastes like nothing compared to this," Sho said nodding heavily, his mouth half full. Table manners where obviously something he still had to internalize.

Aiba agreed with a furious nod. "True, our food boring!"

"Not every food is as delicious as his, though," Jun added, pointing at Nino with a grin on his face. He was obviously proud of his best friend. "You're lucky you ended up in our apartment, guys!"

"Jun, please," Nino slightly rolled his eyes while he rolled up some noodles on his fork.

"Nino?" Sho's voice came from the other side of the table. When Nino lifted his head, the alien was holding his plate towards the other man, empty. His mouth to the contrary, was surrounded by stains of red tomato sauce. "This is truly delicious! Can I get some more, please?"

When Nino's heart made a little happy jump, the man jumped up from his seat, simultaneously. "Sure!"

"Aw, look, he's blushing, isn't that cute?" Jun said, leaned sideward to Aiba, pointing at Nino, who blushed even more.

"Stop that, Jun," he said, before he reached for Sho's plate as well as the noodle pot to arrange refills. "Eat up guys," he murmured after topping the portion with more sauce and pushing the plate back into Sho's grateful hands. He offered the small sauce pot around, in case someone else wanted more – which Aiba did.

"Truly delicious!" The prince smiled at him.

Even if he was a little embarrassed, Nino couldn't prevent himself from grinning like a happy fool. "Eat up!"


+ PLANET EARTH. JAPAN. MAY 8, 2018. 05:00 AM, JST. Ninomiya and Matsumoto apartment +


Voice-Log recording START.
Language setting: Ar-Rashian.

Current Position: Planet Earth, Japan, capital Tokyo.
Mission: Find the missing prince.

Entry No. 3, 2018-05-8 Earth Date, 05:00 AM Earth Time.


It's been three days since the second prince of Ar-Rash and I landed on this planet called Earth.

So far, we have not been successful in finding his older brother, the first prince, at all. Apparently, the locating system of his AI was deactivated, same goes for the prince's implanted chip. We do not know for sure if this happened on purpose or because it got damaged when the ship presumably crashed on Earth. Of course, we hope, the latter is not the case, as it might mean that he got hurt or worse.

The meteorite shower was a good thing to give the prince a cover for his escape from Ar-Rash, however, it's a dangerous thing to come into such a shower, and chances are indeed high that his ship got damaged. Since the second prince and I have been very cautious about our landing on this planet, we lost sight of the first prince's ship too early in order to locate and calculate the exact spot of his landing.

The area in which we chose to build our headquarter while spending our time on earth, is still to be further explored by us in order to find the older brother. First searches in the closest surroundings stayed unsuccessful so far.

Luckily, our hosts – Japanese earthlings Nino and Jun – have been very cooperative and are treating us nicely, although we jumped right into their home without asking for permission, which even I know is not a polite thing to do.

Besides a place to sleep, one of the earthlings – Nino – even kindly provides us with the most essential thing to guarantee us having enough energy for the continuous search – food, which is a delight, as we did not come with enough provisions to keep us energized for more than a couple of days. I admit, this is to be blamed on my inconsiderate planning before the unexpected journey.

[Personal note 1: I am strongly of the opinion that the dishes Nino cooks – by himself, by the way! – are a thousand of times more delicious than any Ar-Rashian food-machine will ever provide and I very much appreciate his talent and effort. Personal note end.]

For research purposes, since Earth-related data on food is almost non-existent in Ar-Rashian files, I take up the challenge to try gathering as much information as possible on this topic and file as many accurate information and descriptions as possible.

It is to be noted that for Earthlings, food is not solely a source of energy, even if this is still the primary function of it, but – other than on Ar-Rash – food also seems to serve as a source for enjoyment. Here, the focus does not only lie on nutrition, but also on taste. Earthlings apparently had enough time to find ways on upgrading their food with different ways of preparation, like among other cooking methods, frying or baking, and tend to refine their dishes with a variety of seasoning and herbs. Apparently, they accept that preparing food takes a lot of time and effort in order to create the level of taste they are aiming for. Some people took their skills to such a high level, that they do not only cook for their own needs, but perform on a professional level, even getting paid for it. Since this is a completely different concept to how the topic food is handled on Ar-Rash, I find this very interesting and worth filing information.

Our host Nino is one of those professionals who earn their livings by cooking food for other people. According to his information, he learned his skills at an early age from his parents, who own a restaurant (an Earthling facility focused on providing food, where people can go and order dishes from a menu) in an outer district of Japan's capital. After graduating from school, he decided to deepen his knowledge and skills on cooking and underwent several years of professional training, until he reached a level that qualified him to pursue a professional career. He is currently working as one of four chefs in a middle-sized restaurant nearby his home.

The dish Nino cooked yesterday evening, he called "Cha-Han", which is a Chinese origin rice dish adapted to Japanese tongues, seemingly varying for each family or even individual.

"Rice" is the seed of an Earthling grass species called Oryza sativa (Asian rice) or Oryza giaberrima (African rice), mostly consumed in Asian countries as popular side dish or base for various meals. The one that Nino used in his version of Cha-Han is a white form of Oryza sativa rice with the special trait of becoming soft and sticky when being cooked.

Find the complete recipe including instructions and information/pictures of all there mentioned ingredients, as well as of the finished dish, in attachment for later reference. Preserved samples of each food are stored in the space ship for further research purpose.

[Personal note 2: Both, smell and taste of the dish were fabulous, and I highly admire Nino for creating such a wonderful food. I will surely try to find a sufficient substitute for this kind of food, once I am back on Ar-Rash, although I doubt to be able to recreate the exact taste, even with the recipe I got from Nino (see picture thereof in attachment). Unfortunately, it turned out that I myself am not very capable of the task of cooking. After a first attempt, that did not go so well, I was banned from the kitchen – at least temporarily. I do not blame Nino for yelling at me. However, I hope I will get a second chance in the kitchen one day, and/or find a way to program a food-machine back on Ar-Rash to provide us with something similar to his cooking. Personal note end.]

The plan for today is to further search the area to find the first prince of Ar-Rash.

[Personal note 3: Also, hopefully we will get the chance to try out another new dish made by Nino, he said he's on early shift today at work, so he should be back for dinner... Personal note end.]

Will report again, tomorrow.

Voice-Log recording END.

+

Sho and Aiba truly had intended to search for Aiba's brother in city today, but – again – they had been way too distracted. To their defense, it was always interesting to land on a foreign planet, so a bit of exploration could not be prevented, no matter how important the initial mission was. And even if Sho quickly found quite a few similarities between his home planet and Earth, the differences were definitely overwhelming.

On the first day after the landing of the Ar-Rashians, Nino and Jun had taken a few hours from their day to guide their two new flatmates around, showing them nearby shops, in case they wanted to buy some necessities and just to find out that neither Sho nor Aiba were in the possession of Earthling money. Well, it was to be expected, since the two of them had not been prepared for a long stay on Earth, and thus had not come up with any plan to get Earthling money – Japanese Yen in this case.

Sho quickly had done some research, learning that on Earth paper money was a big thing, even if there was a digital option too. However, getting through the whole progress of opening a bank account sounded like a long and complicated process to him. Further, it seemed likely impossible for him and Aiba anyway, as they obviously lacked important documents they would need, like an Earthling ID, or any proof of Japanese citizenship and the likes.

According to Sho's opinion, the Earthling's way of handling those things was quite impracticable. On Ar-Rash, every citizen was provided with a small chip, which got implanted into their neck after birth. This chip did not only contain important information about the person wearing it, which gave it a similar function to an Earthling ID, but it also could be credited with Ar-Rashian currency to buy things and be registered to services that were charged on a regular basis. Registering the specific code of the chip or a simple scan was everything that was needed to pay and transfer money.

First, Aiba suggested that they could produce some Earthling money with the help of a system that would translate into Japanese as a "3-D printer software", however, Nino and Jun were strongly against that idea, explaining that reproducing money was considered a criminal act in their society.

In the end, the two Earthlings agreed to gather some of their own money in order to sponsor at least some toothbrushes and a few other necessary things that the two newcomers would need during their stay on Earth. (Sho made a mental note that modern Earthlings seemed to have a general sense of pride and fairness, that should not be underestimated, although his knowledge about Earthling history showed examples speaking of the contrary.)

There wasn't the need to buy clothes, as Jun was eager to lend Aiba and Sho some of his own. Nino had offered the same, but both, Sho and Aiba were a bit taller in size, so most of his things did not fit that well. The two guests were also allowed to use the other men's bathroom supplies, even if they were asked to use the products in small portions only, after Aiba had used up a whole bottle of Jun's shampoo on his first evening.

Something else that the Earthlings bought for Aiba and Sho, was a ticket for public transport within the city, so that they could freely use any means of transportation in the area, might it be the bus, the train, or the subway, by checking in and out of stations with a so-called "Suica Card".

Sho noted that the system was similar to the chips he and Aiba were wearing, however, by far not as developed. He found it a little old-fashioned, however, as planet Earth was apparently quite behind on technology compared to Ar-Rash and other planets, they had to take what they could get. Further, Aiba seemed to be very excited about the whole situation (even if he kept reminding his assistant that they weren't here as tourists), so Sho did not plan to diminish his prince's enjoyment.

As the prince and Sho had planned to go on their search for Aiba's older brother on their own this day, Sho had already looked up several maps of the area and uploading them through picture scan onto his AI-port, a small device that was functioning as a portable extension of Kee-ko, which he could carry around with him all the time. Sho recognized a similarity between this device and the things Earthlings called "smart phones". Additionally, he had memorized the maps within a few minutes, so that he and Aiba could move through the city without losing much time by asking or looking for directions. Then, they were good to go.

However, apparently, Jun, who sometimes seemed to carry out his work as a fashion designer from home, decided to take a break from drawing sketches, and offered his companionship to the two men and they gladly accepted any extra help.

"How do you even plan to find your brother?" Jun asked Aiba curiously once they stepped out of the apartment complex and started walking. "Yesterday we just walked around and completely distracted you. I guess we haven't been very helpful, sorry."

Although Sho wouldn't say that Jun and Nino were not helpful to them, what Jun said was true. Yesterday, exploring the area, the group of men had gotten lost in this shop and that store, checking out shop windows. Nino and Jun were recommending places to Aiba and Sho in which people could have fun (Nino had referred to something called a "game centre", while Jun had talked about "bars" that provided the best drinks in town). Today though, they had to take their search a bit more seriously.

"Hm... I don't really know," the prince replied, looking at Sho, searching for help. "We don't really have a strategy, do we, Sho?"

Honestly, and Sho did not like to admit it, the prince was right. They were blind. They had no idea where to start with their search and what they would find – or not – if they kept searching. They did not even have an idea on how Aiba's brother would look like. He surely would be in disguise here on Earth, too, just like they were, but Sho hoped that somehow, they would recognize one of their own species if they encountered him.

"I hoped to find some hints in the surroundings, maybe some people saw something strange, or someone strange... An Ar-Rashian here on Earth should stand out a little bit, I expected," Sho said.

However, he quickly learned that "standing out" was something that a lot of people did, especially in specific areas of this city called Tokyo. There were people dressing up in ways that stood out, compared to the norm, Jun called them "cosplayers", "lolitas", "punks" and more. While Sho had a hard time to memorize all the terms and apply them to certain styles, Aiba seemed much more interested, asking questions after questions regarding clothes and trends, much to Jun's delight, who gladly provided more insight.

Without much of a plan, the three men eventually ended up wandering aimlessly through the city again, until they reached a huge park, which radiated a strange calmness within the busy hustle and bustle of all the skyscrapers and shopping streets. Considering the character of the first prince of Ar-Rash, Sho for the first time had the feeling that this might be a place the man could be visiting, so he suggested checking it out.

"Nino could tell you more about all the flowers and trees here, he has a secret plant obsession," Jun grinned at the two men while he guided them throughout the park and tried giving them some more information on what exactly they could see here.

Actually, they did not really have the time for checking out plants anyway, Sho tried to remind himself, but he wasn't able to completely ignore his curious nature (he remembered seeing some of the flowers in files about Planet Earth, but not everything), so he stopped and took a few snapshots with his AI-port a couple of times of plants he did not recognize, in order to ask Nino about them later.

In the meantime, they had passed lots of people, obvious tourists, but also lots of families – especially mothers with their children –, often accompanied by what Sho recognized as an animal species called "domestic dogs". Sho was amazed upon how different these dogs looked from each other, wondering if they possessed a similar ability like Ar-Rashians, but he quickly learned from Aiba that their variety only came from the fact that there were lots of different breeds and cross-breeds counting towards the family of the species of the canis lupus familiaris.

As much as Sho was fascinated, he could not reach the level of Aiba's excitement when encountering those animals. The prince always had an interest on other species, especially those who used to live as either domestic companions or working animals, which was both not common on Ar-Rash, but often seen on neighbouring planets in their galaxy, and obviously also something common on Earth. If Sho had studied the files about history and politics of other planets curiously, Aiba had inquisitively studied material about animals, including dogs, who he was especially fond of, apparently.

To both – Sho and Jun's – surprise, they even found out that Aiba had learned a way of communicating with that species, starting with lowering his body height when bending down or kneeling on the ground, to be able to make eye contact with them, and finally starting to imitate their sounds ("He's barking!", Jun had called it, completely surprised). Apparently, the animals did understand Aiba's communication attempts very well, at least that's what Sho was able to discern from their behaviour.

The two men weren't the only ones fascinated by the prince's ability, the dog owners themselves were even more impressed, especially when Aiba started to tell them in his still rather broken Japanese things like "Your dog loves you much" or "He says his leg is hurt". As Aiba had gathered quite a bit of knowledge about dogs, he quickly fell into conversations here and there, exchanging some tips and gaining happy and grateful smiles, which he just as happily returned.

Aiba just had waved (and barked) good bye to a mother with her son and their family dog, before he continued walking through the park together with Sho and Jun.

"How come you can talk to dogs when you can't handle Japanese properly?" Jun marveled after he witnessed Aiba's special skill in action. He was completely dumbfounded. He turned to Sho. "Is this normal for you guys?"

Sho shook his head. "While it's not unusual that we quickly pick up language patterns with similar structure and sounds to our own, like most Earthling languages, it is uncommon to adapt to a language of a species that is categorized lower – like your animals. I cannot speak their language," Sho made clear. "But it seems to be a talent of Aiba."

Aiba smiled. "I honestly not know how I do it. Talking to dogs so much easier. They understand me!" he explained, the happy smile on his face growing even wider.

"You're really impressive," Jun complimented the prince, laughing.

"Tank you!" the other flashed another smile at him.

"However, we really should try to focus our search for your brother now," Sho added, remembering their initial plan, and earning a heavy nod from Aiba. Unfortunately, the park did not turn out as the place where they would find the missing man, so they should better move on.

"So, any further ideas?" Jun prompted, raising an eyebrow.

But instead of a reply, he received a horrendously loud grumble coming from Sho's direction that cut into their conversation. Both, Aiba and Jun looked down Sho's body, their eyes settling on the man's stomach.

"First eat something?" Aiba suggested with a grin, and Sho just nodded.

Jun grinned. He immediately knew where to go to take care of that problem.

+

"Welcome!"

Despite working clothes that consisted of a dark blue traditional Japanese styled uniform and a white hat, it didn't take Sho even a second to identify the young man who was looking up from his current task behind the counter with a friendly smile and a friendly greeting on his lips as the three men entered the restaurant. Nino, too, seemed to recognize his guests right away.

"Oh, hey guys, what are you doing here?" the young man added, surprised.

Jun quickly approached his friend, Sho and Aiba in tow.

"Hey Nino, everything good?" the man started before pointing at Sho with a grin on his face. "This gentleman here appears to be very hungry, so I figured we could pay you a visit and get some of your sushi. Aiba doesn't mind a snack either, right?"

When Jun turned to the Ar-Rashian prince, the latter flashed him his typical wide smile while nodding enthusiastically.

Sho noted that Nino's smile grew a little wider when he locked eyes with him for a second – or did he just imagine it? - before the young man averted his eyes and chuckled, amused. Sho didn't get what could be funny about the situation, and so he decided to say nothing and just wait.

"Then be my guests," Nino said.

Jun waved Aiba and Sho to step closer and the three men took place on the high stools right in front of Nino, a small row of tabletop and a glass plate separating them from the chef and the ingredients for the food he was preparing.

There was a number of small containers in front of the young man, which held different things that Sho did not all know how to name, yet, but he definitely recognized the rice which was placed in a large bowl next to Nino.

The restaurant appeared to be a so-called izakaya, as Jun explained, a traditional Japanese restaurant, and the most interesting part of it – according to Sho at least – was, that there was apparently the possibility of watching Nino from their position while he was preparing food behind a counter. Of course, Sho had to check that out – for research purposes. He had decided that it was necessary for the greater good back on his home planet, to learn more about the skill of cooking and food in general. He was indeed lucky to have chosen Nino and Jun's apartment as their headquarter. In this manner, he had the chance to witness the man cooking over and over again – at least once his kitchen ban was lifted, or like now where Nino couldn't keep Sho from watching, as he was an official guest of the facility. Sho became very excited about that, which he admitted to himself.

While a servant (or waitress, how Jun called her) greeted the three newcomers and handed them some print-outs (the infamous menus, apparently, which Sho had already learned about from Nino), Sho curiously craned his neck a little more to examine what was going on in front of Nino.

"So, that is called sushi, right?" he asked Nino, remembering what Jun had said during their entry.

Nino looked up, meeting Sho's eyes again shortly and then looked back down immediately, focusing on the plate in front of him and a large piece of something in bright orange that Sho did not recognize. He frowned slightly, but thankfully, Nino was quick to explain some details about sushi, what it was, how it was made, and Sho also learned that the orange block Nino was slicing into pieces evenly right now, was called salmon and apparently one of the most popular fish meat forms in Japan. After getting permission, Sho pulled out his AI-port, took a few snapshots and with quick finger movements took notes about a few things, while eagerly listening to what Nino could teach him about this new, interesting dish. With each piece of information, Sho felt his curiosity growing, something that he barely experienced, and exponentially, he became hungrier, until his stomach growled again, even louder than the last time, and interrupted a conversation between Aiba and Jun that he wasn’t paying attention to and only noticing now after taking in the sudden silence between the two men.

He glanced around, brushing off Nino's amused smile and Jun's raised eyebrow, before the latter reached out for the menu in front of Sho and tapped his hand against it.

"Did you choose what you want to eat? We have to place an order," Jun explained.

Sho quickly scanned the menu again, however, all the pictures and the letters depicted on it, indicating which type of sushi was suggested to go well with together, didn't matter at all. Feeling the excitement growing, he nodded, determined. Then he turned to Nino and searched for eye contact again, which he was immediately granted.

"I want to try everything, please!" Sho simply stated.

In front of him, Nino raised his eyebrows, Sho wasn't sure though if he should read the gesture as surprise or skepticism – he wasn't so good with distinguishing those human emotions yet, mostly – but the following comment from Jun made him think that he might have said something inappropriate.

"Uhm, listen Sho, I am not sure if you won't get a stomach-ache if you try everything, this is a hell lot here on the menu!" the man pointed out, and Sho felt his excitement vanishing at the outlook of missing out a chance he really, really wanted to take. But he was more or less at Jun's mercy, as he himself was not even carrying any Earthling money with him, that he would need to pay for the food he wished to have.

Sho let his look slide back to Nino, who just grinned before he voiced a suggestion. "You know what? I'll prepare you a normal portion of those types of sushi you're most curious about and for the rest, I'll make you a bento that you can take along for later. Deal?" he then quickly glanced at Jun. "And don't worry, I'll let my boss write everything down on my bill."

"Deal!" Sho replied after considering the offer for a second, before he started pointing out what looked the most interesting to him, to try those first, and Nino got to work.

The search for Aiba's brother, the intention of which Sho had started his day, was long forgotten once Sho finally tried his first set of sushi. Apparently, creating these tiny bits of rice topped or filled with meat and vegetables, were a delicate food that needed lots of care and skill to be prepared properly, and watching Nino's talented hands had Sho on edge, but now he could only think about trying those creations. He felt the inside of his mouth becoming wet at the sight of the food, wondering excitedly, if it would taste nearly as good as it looked, and his question did not stay unanswered for long as he immediately pushed the first piece of sushi into his mouth.

It was... impossible to describe.

Sho quickly decided that the sushi Nino prepared was his new favourite food, and that he definitely wanted to come back here to eat again, as soon as possible. He probably should start thinking about a possibility to gain his own Earthling money in order to have something to spend on food, instead of relying on Nino and Jun's kindness to provide him and Aiba with everything they had. Sho understood that this was and should not be taken for granted. Aiba might be a prince from a faraway planet, and he would be more than willing to pay for something this amazing, but probably, this was a topic for another day.

+

The shopping centre was crowded and loud. It was uncomfortable. A young man, looking a bit taller than he probably was with his brown hair standing on end, wearing a plain white T-Shirt, a pair of used blue jeans and a pair of sneakers was shuffling slowly through the corridors, a blend of different shops passing by as he walked. He was pressing a phone to his ear and looking around, a little lost, before he entered the next best clothing store and started to randomly brows the items closest to him, a stand of accessory. His look was brushing critically over the items, of which he had to admit that he did not know the purpose of most of them.

"Satomi, tell me again, why am I here?" he asked frowning, directing the question at the apparent receiver of his call. "It's full of people, it's too warm, it's loud, and I just want to relax... Do I have to remind you why I left home?"

"I thought you could need a proper shopping experience, now that we're here," replied a female voice from the device he was holding. "And you need more appropriate clothes."

The man looked down on himself, examining his outfit. He had grabbed those items in a shop nearby his hideout, getting them cheap for just a few bills that he had received from a kind old woman some days before, who he had encountered in the forest a few days before and who he had helped carrying wood to her house. It was a simple outfit, but it was clean and it served the purpose of not having him run around naked well enough.

"I can just stay inside all day and nobody will have a problem with which clothes I wear... or if I even do wear any," the man said with a silly grin on his face.

"I am sorry to ruin your dreams, but if you want to stay here, you will have to become a proper part of society, you have to fit in, get accustomed, and get a job, which is much easier with a proper set of clothes. The small amount of money you received from that kind lady is almost used up, so better invest what you have into something useful. This isn't just a fun holiday, is it? We're either going to do this right, or not at all. Enough with your laziness!"

"You sound more like a mother than a friend," the man pouted, reaching for a pair of sunglasses handing on a stand. "Why do these people care about clothes so much, anyway? It's enough if they are functional, isn't it?" He shifted a little until he could see in a small mirror that was stuck to one side of the small stand and checked out his appearance. "Oh!"

The pair of sunglasses sit well on his long nose; he could still see his defined slightly creased eyebrows over the upper rim of the glasses, which covered half of his slightly tanned face. The colour of the tinted glasses fit well to the colour of his skin and hair. He relaxed his expression. His well-shaped lips rounded the appearance. He hummed. Kind of, he liked what he saw.

"Do we have need for one of those?" the man quickly held the device in his hands in front of him as if showing himself to the person on the other side of the call and tried to look extra cool.

"I am not convinced that this is really useful for our purposes," sounded the voice from the device. "I rather suggest you get a few dress shirts and a nice pair of trousers. And don't forget a tie."

"I may say you are too well informed about this whole thing," the man rolled his eyes. "I don't even know what a tie is!"

"Those long colourful pieces of fabric that you tie around your neck. I thought you did some research about your new home? Customs and all."

When the man did not reply, it was clear, that his research - which he had done, occasionally – apparently had its flaws.

"Wait," the voice from the device in the man's hand said before it beeped. "I will send you a short clip for reference."

"Hm… Looks complicated. And dangerous," the man said when he glanced critically at the video that appeared on the small screen and played by itself, showing a man tying the long piece of fabric around his neck.

"Well, you have to do it right, of course. At a second thought, maybe you should not try one of those."

"Does that mean you think I can't handle it?" the man put the phone back to his ear, one of his eyebrows lifted challengingly.

"I am only concerned about your safety."

"I survived other things, as you might know!" the man countered, pride slightly showing in his tone.

He was ripping the pair of sunglasses from his eyes and pushing it back where he got it, before turning on his heel. In the process, he accidentally hit his elbow against something – no, someone – passing him.

"Oh, excuse me," he immediately murmured as the other person shortly stopped in his movement.

"No problem, I should have watched my way too," the other man immediately said, an apologetic smile on his face.

"Hold on for a second, Satomi," the other man said, the device in his hands slowly sinking a bit lower.

He took in the appearance of the stranger, letting his gaze wander all over the man. His hair was a mess of dark locks, and his eyebrows were even more defined than his. They were impressive! His long eye lashes surrounded the most beautiful brown eyes he had ever seen, and there was a small brown spot beneath the man's full reddish lips, making them look even more fascinating. Their short eye-contact broke just a second later, when the dark locked man turned back to another guy who was following him. "Come on, Aiba, I saw some really cool sweatshirts over there!"

For a moment, the man with the phone frowned at the slightly familiar sound of the name the other man had called out, but he couldn't quite make out why it sounded familiar. There was no chance that he knew anyone around here. He came from the forest in the north of the city by bus, it was his first time here, and in general, he didn't know many people besides the old woman living at the edge of the forest, maybe, if someone could even call that "knowing someone". The man had left home by choice, had left family and friends behind along with his responsibilities, to start a new life.

Still, something made him hesitate for a second, and he continued watching the scene and how another man followed the one with the dominant eyebrows, a wide smile on his face.

"Sho, you too!" Eyebrow called for a third man, who apparently belonged to the group too and was still standing at the entrance of the shop, holding two bags each in his hands, and a somewhat bored look on his face.

"I don't think I need more sweatshirts," the third man – Sho – replied.

Wait, didn't that sound a bit familiar too? Aiba? Sho? The man was sure that those could simply be common Japanese names, however, the sound reminded him strangely on the nicknames his brother and their friend were using. Could it... could it actually be? No. No, that would be just too much of a coincidence, the man thought, frowning at his own vivid imagination. Maybe he was a little paranoid...

"Just come and check them out nevertheless," Mr. Eyebrows tried to get his other friend to follow him, however, the man stayed stubborn.

"I'll wait here with the bags, just go on."

"Fine, but don't go anywhere by yourself, I don't want you to get lost. We'll hurry," the man said to his friend before he was pulled away at the hand by his other companion, who was already a step ahead of him, pointing at a display of bright coloured sweatshirts in the middle of the store with excitement.

The man with the phone drew his attention back to the conversation he had been holding, ignoring the tumult surrounding him. "Ah… yeah, what was I just saying?"

"What was that? What did just happen?"

"Nothing, I just met the most beautiful creature I've ever seen," the man replied snazzily. Not that he had planned to pay that much attention, however, the man with the impressive eyebrows surely stood out.

"Excuse me?!"

The man started laughing. "No need to get jealous, Darling."

"Oh please...," Satomi huffed. "As if!"

She was jealous, the man thought, smirking to himself, but decided to drop the topic and return to their former conversation. "So, we stopped at -"

"You claimed you can survive a tie," Satomi summarized.

"Absolutely!" the man replied, strolling further into the store, watching out for said items.

"Just don't tie yourself up by accident. Pick one you like and I'll teach you properly once you're back home in the hideout, I quick searched the internet for more specific instructions," the woman at the other end of the call said.

"Perfect, thanks, Satomi!"

"Your well-being above everything, your Highness."

"Joker," the man chuckled at the hint of sarcasm he could pick up, and then focusing on a variety of ties spread on displays in front of him. He lifted his eyebrows, slightly overwhelmed by the large choice, and in the end simply reached for a blue one, that surely would do.

When he exited the store, some new clothes in tow, that Sho guy was still standing there at the entrance of the shop, not moving at all. The man frowned a little and for a second, a familiar feeling washed over him. Something about that man, the way he stood there, the look on his face, he knew it. His thoughts drifted off to his brother and his assistant once more. No, it couldn't be, right?

Passing through the exit, suddenly, their eyes met, just for a second. Shocked, the man averted his eyes and kept walking, trying to pretend that nothing happened. No, he surely just imagined things. There was nothing to worry about.

+

"I'm home!" Nino called when he entered the apartment.

He dropped his keys in the small basket placed on top of the shoe cabinet in the entrance area, got rid of his jacket and sneakers and walked straight into the kitchen, carrying bags filled with groceries for dinner, that he placed on the kitchen counter. When he realized that he did not receive any reply (neither Jun's usually "Welcome back" yelled from the designer's room, nor an overly polite "Welcome home" by a curious Sho trying to sneak into the kitchen, accompanied by his cheerful companion Aiba, pushing him), Nino frowned.

"Hello? Anybody here?" he asked when he stepped back into the corridor, but still, there was no reply.

The young man shrugged and went back into the kitchen to unload his grocery shopping and to start preparing dinner. Honestly, he was a little surprised to be the first one, returning home. Actually, he had expected to return to a bunch of hungry mouths, asking him what he'd cook for dinner, especially after he had promised his friends during their visit in the restaurant earlier that day, that he would think about something new and exciting for the aliens to try. Especially Sho had shown immense interest in that, as always. The memory caused a happy smile to ghost over Nino's lips, until he caught himself in the act and forced it to disappear.

Well, according to their report, the men had been on their search for Aiba's brother, with which they did not seem to be very successful yet, so maybe they just forgot about time, or they actually found a trace and had to follow it. Anyway, somebody could have texted him, either Jun, or even Sho (who seemed to have managed to hack into the Japanese internet with a small device and was technically able to use it like a smart phone), Nino thought when pulling out his phone. No messages, no unanswered calls. He selected Jun's number on speed dial, just to check in.

"Hello?" It wasn't Jun's voice that replied.

"Oh, hey, Sho," Nino said, surprised. "Why are you picking up Jun's phone, where is he?"

"He and Aiba got very excited about something and they left their stuff with me... I don't really get what this is about, but I guess I am supposed to take care of it until they are finished."

Nino frowned. "Where are you?"

"A large building with different shopping facilities. In this particular one they seem to offer Earthling clothes," Sho's voice explained. "A lot of them..."

Sighing, Nino brought his free hand to his face, rubbing the inside of his eyes. "I understand," he murmured, knowing that he had lost Jun (and probably Aiba too) for at least a couple of hours. So probably, it would take quite some time until the three men would return.

"Did you find any trace of your missing prince?" Nino added.

"No…," Sho said, but for a moment, Nino thought he sounded hesitant. Did he find a clue or something? "No, not really. I think it was nothing."

"Let me guess, you guys completely forgot about your mission halfway?"

No reply. Nino chuckled softly. He seemed to have hit the nail on the head.

"Oh well, that's a pity. Anyway, I'm starting to make dinner so don't come home too late, OK? Tell that Jun," the man continued. "I'll make potato gratin. It'll take a while but still..."

"Potato gratin?" the sudden interest in Sho's voice was not to be overheard.

Nino smirked. "I'll explain to you later what exactly it is, OK?"

"OK! I will tell Jun that we have to return to your apartment as soon as possible! I'm looking forward to dinner!" Sho replied.

Nino smiled once more at the audible enthusiasm in the alien's voice, before he bid him good-bye and hung up. He couldn't help but find Sho's enthusiasm cute and even caught himself looking forward to seeing the reaction on Sho's face when he would try the actual dish. He really hoped it would be to the man's taste. Shaking his head to distract his thoughts, Nino forced himself to focus on his task.

About two hours later, Jun and the aliens returned home. The gratin Nino had prepared, was almost done, and the young man – the book he had been reading while waiting for the dish to finish cooking, resting somewhere save on the counter – was about to check on it. The cheese on top of the assembled ingredients had still not melted perfectly, when he heard the door open and Aiba calling to announce their return.

"Welcome back!" Nino yelled from the kitchen.

Just a second later, Sho entered the room with big eyes and a sincere, "Hello, Nino, it smells amazing in here!" on his lips.

Much to Sho's obvious disappointment, Nino was in the movement of pushing the casserole back into the oven to let the cheese get just a little crispier, in that very moment. He smiled at the alien, amused.

"No worries, it's almost done," Nino said, smiling even wider at the visible relief in Sho's eyes. His attention got caught by a set of four large paper bags that the other man was carrying, his surprised look growing wider when Aiba followed behind Sho with another at least four bags. "Did you guys buy the whole store or what?" the man prompted, his eyebrows raised.

While Jun – carrying even more bags – entered the kitchen too with a greeting, Sho and Aiba lifted the bags to place them on the kitchen table. One of the bags even fell down, since it did not fit on the table anymore, but Jun didn't care, just picked it up and reached inside to pull out a few clothes.

"Only half of it," Jun grinned, placing his bags underneath the table. "You should have seen the sales section, it was incredible! And before you say, anything, listen to me!" he began, lifting his hands in a defensive posture before Nino even said a single word. "As much as I like to lend my clothes to our two new friends here," he gestured at Aiba and Sho, as if Nino might have forgotten who he was talking about, "But... you know, it just did not feel right, OK? I think with my clothes, which are a bit..."

While Jun was searching for a word, Nino – his arms crossed in front of his chest – jumped in to help out, "Strange, at times?"

"Special!" Jun decided. "Let's call them special. Anyway, I figured that they do not represent everyone's style and as you know, I highly respect the personal style of people."

Nino simply pulled in his bottom lip slightly to chew on in order to not say anything and let Jun continue. He knew where this was coming from and going to, and he didn't like it, but basically, Jun was saying the truth - his truth, at least.

"I mean, look at Aiba. He's more of the casual sporty type, don't you agree?" Jun smiled, and Aiba nodded supportively. "I don't really have sporty clothes, so we needed something new, some T-Shirts, Sweatshirts and so on. And for Sho here," he turned to the other alien, "He's more the dress shirt type, not too fancy, but let's say smart casual, you'll see what I mean when we make a little catwalk show for you after dinner. Plus, we had so much fun, right?" he grinned. Sho only looked at him without any comment, but Aiba loudly confirmed how much fun he had while shopping with Jun. Nino still didn't say anything, so his friend asked, "Uhm... you can follow my reasoning?"

Nino glared at his friend, his arms still crossed, before he turned around to put the gratin out of the oven, which should be finished by now.

"Tell me, what did all of this fun cost you?" Nino challenged Jun while he pulled out some plates from the kitchen cupboard and asked Sho to put away all those bags so that they could set the table up for dinner, which the latter obeyed immediately.

"It...," Jun cleared his throat. "It was on sale."

"That's not the answer to my question, Matsumoto," Nino shot back at his friend with another glare, now holding a spatula in his hand, which made him appear a little dangerous, even if he was probably just planning to divide the food on the plates in front of him.

"Uhm... honestly... I might have you pay our rent for this month," Jun replied and if Sho had not been there to catch the plate Nino dropped at hearing that comment, things could have ended pretty ugly.

"WHAT?!"

"I'll pay you back once I get my pay check, of course, I swear!" Jun immediately set right, while Sho placed the rescued plate on the now empty kitchen table and then guided Nino, whose knees had become pudding in the meantime, to one of the stools to help him sit down.

Immediately, Nino pushed his elbows on the table, hiding his face behind his hands. "I don't even want to know the numbers anymore, Jun, I don't even want to know...," he murmured.

Not that it was a problem for Nino to jump in and pay the rent for the whole apartment by himself for a month or two. He had done so before during times when Jun had not been such a successful designer as he was now, but a quick calculation about how freaking much money Jun must have spent on clothes in order to reach this stage again, broke his heart.

Jun sat down on the stool next to Nino and tried to make him look at him.

"Listen, I... bought you a Supernatural fan-shirt," he said, offering a crooked smile when Nino put away his hands and sent him a confused, not less shocked look, despite the mention of his favourite TV series. "It looks pretty cool, black with a grey printed line art of your favourite character on it, that angel in the dirty trench coat who's in love with Dean Winchester, what's his name?"

"Oh, Jun, seriously!" Nino jumped up, heat rushing to his face as he blushed at the mention of his OTP. "As if this makes the situation any better!"

"No?" Jun asked, making puppy eyes at his best friend.

Nino groaned and aggressively grabbed two more plates before slamming them on the table (Sho had already taken one plate for himself), the pieces of gratin in the middle of the plates shaking slightly. He glared in the round, Jun looked guilty – at least –, Aiba confused, and Sho's eyes – of course – were glued on the dish in front of him.

"Now eat, and then you'll do your stupid catwalk, based on which we'll decide on a few pieces that you might keep, and the rest will be returned to the shop tomorrow!" Nino commanded while dividing forks and knives, frowning strictly at Sho, who froze in motion upon Nino's glare.

"Table manners, Sho, table manners," the young man murmured at the sight of the alien licking the fingers that he just had used to taste the gratin, clean. He looked at Nino slightly guilty, and Nino averted his eyes. He couldn't be mad at that man, he simply couldn't.

"But that's unfair!" Jun protested, returning to the clothing topic. "It's my money I spent on all the clothes! I even bought you something!"

"We both know that you have a serious shopping obsession when it comes to fashion, Jun, and no, the fact that half of the clothes you bought are for Aiba and Sho or even me, does not make it better!" Nino continued.

Jun gaped at him before he pulled a pout at him. "Then I'll bring back your Supernatural shirt too!"

"No no no," Nino immediately said. "Nobody touches Castiel. I'll pay for it, then," he set straight, and Jun couldn't help but smirk.

"Now, who's the one with an obsession here?"

Once again, Nino glared at his friend. Good that he didn't have any supernatural powers.

+

Nino did not want to admit it, but Jun had been right. Sho absolutely was the type for smart casual fashion. Wearing those chic blue jeans with different coloured but not too flashy dress shirts and on top various blazers, really suited him. Also, Nino couldn't help but notice that Jun had unbuttoned the last two buttons on top for Sho, which caused the alien to show a little more skin than Nino was used to see him do in the plain shirts and pullovers he had picked from Jun's spare clothes wardrobe section for the last few days. Yes... all those new outfits looked good on Sho. Or rather, Sho looked good in everything, and it would indeed be a hard choice on which pieces of clothing would be allowed to stay and which had to go back.

Jun killed Nino when he gave Sho a pair of trendy non-prescribed glasses with thick black frames, to round off the appearance and making Sho look not only more intelligent, but even a little nerdy. Nino knew exactly, that Jun was aware that Nino liked this look, and therefore, Nino wanted to slap his friend on the head. But if he didn't, despite Jun's triumphant grin that he sent towards Nino when he saw the other blushing at the sight of nerdy Sho.

This, followed by an overly happy Aiba dancing down the imaginary catwalk in front of them in order to present his new sets of bright and colourful clothes, made Nino give up eventually. Bursting into laughter, he told the three men that they should keep what they want, and took the T-shirt Jun bought for him – now insisting on Jun paying for it, though, as punishment, so to say. Jun didn't mind, Aiba cheered, and Nino – after accidentally locking eyes with Sho, who was still wearing the pair of glasses and looked simply gorgeous – blushed. He probably really wouldn't mind, seeing Sho wearing such an outfit more often, he thought to himself.


+ PLANET EARTH. JAPAN. MAY 12, 2018. 05:00 AM, JST. Ninomiya and Matsumoto apartment +


Although it was still early in the morning, Sho couldn't sleep. It was not the fault of Aiba's snoring coming from the couch, but rather because everything Sho could think about these days, was Nino. And because his stomach was growling, as he was hungry. Like always.

It wasn't something special, to be hungry, at least, for Sho it had never been, back on Ar-Rash. It never was a big deal. He simply would grab some nutrition bars from a food machine and eat it without much thinking, without much enjoying, just because it did the job to kill his hunger and provide his body and brain with the energy it needed. But ever since Sho landed on planet Earth, things had become different. Eating had become a big deal.

He had experienced such fantastic tastes, something the food on his home planet had never delivered. He had become kind of addicted to all these new and exciting things, making it a very serious mission to gather every information possible, and to try as much different food as he could. Yes, ever since Sho tasted Nino's cooking on their first day, food had become more than just a necessity. It had become something Sho was looking forward to, every single day. Just like he was looking forward to seeing Nino and spending time with him.

Perhaps, there was a connection, Sho thought. After all, Nino was the one providing him with all this incredibly delicious meals, and maybe, that really was the reason why Sho was happy to see Nino. However, he quickly noticed that he was not only happy to see Nino when the young man was about to cook something for him, but also when he saw him in general and there was no food involved, like when they sat in the living room together, Nino telling Sho things about life on Earth, or when they were just hanging out with each other.

All this started to manifest in a form that Sho had never experienced before, thus, the confusion, perhaps. But with each day passing, Sho's suspicion about what was going on, became more and more clear. He was developing a specific liking for Nino. Or something of that sort. Which was rare for Sho, to be honest, and so, even more special.

It wasn't like Sho was a complete stranger to liking someone. There was Aiba, of course, but that was a whole different case compared to the one involving Nino. Sho's relationship with the second prince of Ar-Rash was rather the kind of connection between two men who grew up like brothers and friends, like they did ever since Sho entered the royal court. From an early age, it had been his primary task to take care of the prince as his assistant and playmate. He also was on good terms with Aiba's brother, even if the older prince was more of a loner and mostly didn't want to accompany the two younger men, so it was probably just a natural conclusion that Sho and Aiba would develop a deeper companionship over the years that followed.

Moreover, Sho's connection to Aiba was probably the only one the man could remember as one he would categorize as affection. With the king and queen, he did not have any deep emotional connection as they pretty much treated him like a servant, which he technically was, even if back then, a boy at his age might have needed guidance of parents more than anything. With his own, physical parents – since he never saw them again after coming to the court – Sho wasn't connected either, memories faded. The concept of affection, or going deeper, love, which was rare, but theoretically not non-existed on Ar-Rash too, was something Sho was not very familiar with.

It was common practice, that on Ar-Rash, people used to connect or be connected in ways that were rather practicable than based on their own choice or feelings. Strong feelings were not meant to be displayed as the primary motivation of people's doing. One didn't often have the chance to choose, not the people they worked with, not the people they would socialize with (if there was even time for that), not even the people they would marry and build a family with.

Usually, almost everything that an Ar-Rashian would be able to expect from their life, was decided at a very early age. Due to the advanced technology on their home planet, Ar-Rashians were able to test genetic information and sort their people into categories of jobs they might fit in, as well as assign them to people they would make good DNA-matches with. While friendship was culturally accepted, even if in most cases still underdeveloped compared to its presence on planets like Earth, as Sho had to learn, love, was not. It existed, but rather as an exception from the norm and nothing people were supposed to yearn for. Instead, it was something for sentimental folks like the Earthlings with no advantage for the greater mean, only taught briefly in the curriculum as part of interspecies studies.

Anyway, people were aware of the concept and secretly, these ideals borrowed from that tiny blue-green planet called Earth, from galaxies far away, had set themselves into the heads of some Ar-Rashians too, made them want to dream, and to experience those emotions, even if this opinion was not very welcomed, and mostly kept secret.

Sho had not been too surprised when Aiba some years ago confessed to him that if he ever needed to marry someone, he wanted to marry a person he was in love with and not someone who was going to be assigned to him by some stupid software. After Aiba's parents turned their son's feelings on this issue down completely, Sho had just nodded, pretending that he understood Aiba's longing, even if he did not. At least, not at that point. Further, he was advised by the king and queen, not to encourage the crown prince to dream nonsense like that, and to ignore his talks about that issue, so after that, Sho tried to avoid any conversation surrounding that topic.

According to the royal family, if Aiba wanted to be a good ruler one day, he should rather focus on how to make the best out of the planet for his folk's sake, than having his head in the clouds and his heart in dreams that were not meant to become true.

Much to the disappointment of the king and queen, Aiba had always been a bit different from other Ar-Rashians, though, and same went for his brother, even if for different reasons. While Aiba's rather atypical soft personality, his open mind and his loving traits had quickly been filed as flaws, his brother tended to be much more pragmatic, however, his interest in becoming a ruler one day was practically non-existent.

"Why am I even supposed to become a leader if my talents and interests obviously do not fit the profile?" Aiba's brother had said just a few days before his escape from the planet.

He had a point, Sho had to admit. If there wasn't the lineage from the royal family, the princes would probably both have ended up somewhere completely different, in fields that matched their desires and potential more than the crown. But even with all modern technology, royal was royal, and the princes would have to learn how to fit in their roles.

Knowing that the situation was not perfect, the king and queen wanted their children to become rulers together in the future, making up for each other's flaws and using their strengths combined as a team. Sho, known as an intelligent young man with the desire to obtain as much knowledge as possible and an actual interest and talent in politics, was supposed to stand in the back as their confidant, be their voice of reason, help them and motivate them. It wasn't a coincidence that he had ended up in the royal palace, he had been sorted there for this purpose, after all. He was there to make up for what the princes lacked, and Sho even used to feel proud for his purpose.

Slowly, but surely, though, Sho started to wonder, if there wasn't more to the princes' flaws, like Aiba's way of seeing things, his longing for dreams, and for romance. Especially, since the young prince recently confessed to Sho, that he thought he was falling in love with Jun, Sho had become curious about the whole topic too. So he had started to do a bit more in-depth research, browsing the databases accessible through his AI-port for files with the keyword "love" in particular (mostly research material from planet Earth directly, as Kee-ko has connected to the biggest database available on this planet, called "the internet"), in order to gain a better understanding for it. Actually, he learned quite a bit of theory regarding the topic of love this way, even if he himself had no experience on that emotional concept yet, at least not before coming to this planet. Their landing here had changed everything, though and the more Sho learned, the more he wondered. Maybe, he should give those emotions a chance too?

One sentence in particular had stood out to Sho during his research. The saying read "The way to a man's heart goes through his stomach", which sounded gross if taken literally, however, reading it with various contextual examples quickly showed Sho what this saying really meant.

It referred to the possibility, that the task of cooking could gain a special meaning if done for someone the one carrying out the task held special feelings for. Those feelings became the motivation of being extra careful and putting extra effort into the task, "putting one's love and soul into making something". On the recipient's end, there were also very important factors. The feeling of gratefulness towards the other person, and the positive effect of a delicious meal onto the well-being, which would lead to satisfaction and joy, all feelings that could enforce an already present affection, and strengthen a bond between two people on emotional basis, especially if the meal was consumed together. (Earthlings were quite strange with their rituals surrounding food, Sho found, but he also found, that he personally very much liked them and got quickly used to joint breakfast or dinner with Nino and the others.)

Maybe the saying did not fit to Sho's situation with Nino exactly, as Sho was not able to read Nino's mind, but after a couple of days of self-reflection, he found it strangely fit to his own situation in respect to the position of the food's recipient. He was aware of the fact, that Nino was most likely not cooking for him specifically in a different way he was cooking for others, the man was a professional in this field after all and did it for a living. However, Sho could not deny the effect all this had on his end. The gratefulness he had developed for Nino had exceeded any type of gratefulness he had experienced before. He also had to admit that the delicious taste of all the meals Nino prepared, had not only triggered a positive feeling towards food in the Ar-Rashian, but that he had quickly proceeded to experience those positive feelings also – especially, even – towards the young man. Up to the point, at which Sho selfishly started to wish, Nino would cook for him only, with specific feelings in mind.

Sho soon realized that with the growing affection towards the man, his interest in him started to broaden far over the lines of "what might he be cooking next for me". His interest in Nino himself, the man's own preferences when it came to food, curiosity about his personality, about his past and present, his interests and hobbies, had become something that was dominating Sho's thoughts more and more. In the end, he had to admit, that – using his superb cooking skills as a way to enter Sho's heart – Nino had long arrived in areas of Sho's emotional space that no one had ever touched before. No matter what Nino's intention was, if he even had any intention at all, for Sho, the connection to this young talented man felt very special and important.

So far, Sho had not spoken with Aiba about this, but he was convinced, if he told his friend about his recent thoughts and feelings, the prince would tell him too, that it was clear – Sho was falling in love with Nino. And perhaps, Aiba would be right.

In the beginning, rationality, something that had always been very present within Sho's mind, had tried to convince Sho to step away from the issue. There were countless reasons, why it was not exactly a good idea to give in to such feelings. First, Sho's determined plan for his life did not include him falling in love with someone, especially not someone from a different galaxy, as this might cause various problems which were yet to discover in detail. His plan told that he would assist the royal family with all his might, to find the best way to rule their planet together with Aiba and his brother, and he better should focus on his job than anything else. Second, Sho had no experience in this field, at all, and third and most important, if Nino did not answer Sho's feelings, everything would go to nothing, anyway.

However, it was tempting to give in to all those newfound feelings, Sho thought. At least, it was rather rational to try this whole thing as long as he was away from home, in order to gain experience and file it as inter cultural studies. Love – according to what Sho had learned about it so far, especially with the newfound material from Earth – seemed to be a largely positive thing to discover, so it probably wouldn't hurt to broaden his horizon and enable him to become a person with a larger variety of social and cultural insight to draw from in the future. And since he had even been lucky enough to find someone who boosted his interest in going deeper with this complicated but fascinating mixture of feelings, Sho did not see any reason why to hold back and was motivated to explore the topic of "love" further. He knew, that affection was essential in this regard, so it would be impossible to just pick some random person for this, but since Sho liked and respected Nino so much, he seemed like the perfect choice.

Sure, there was no guarantee, that Nino would join Sho in this experience. The Ar-Rashian knew that, and of course, he did not plan to force himself on the young man in any way. However, he started to consider that he might at least try to get closer to him, and see if the interest would be reciprocal, or if Nino at least would be willing in helping Sho gain experience in all this. Against all odds, Nino had accepted Aiba and Sho in his home, even if he had felt uncomfortable with it at first, and Nino had introduced Sho to the beauty of Earth's food. That man had made him smile, something that Sho had not done that often in his life yet, simply because he tended to be on the lower side of experiencing positive emotions and did not easily get excited – in contrary to Aiba for example. But with Nino, things were different. And maybe, chances weren't so bad.

+

Nino looked cute when he was sleeping, Sho realised, taking note that this perception might not be just a simple fact, but also evidence for his developing feelings for the young man. He had decided to pay close attention towards any shift of his feelings, any new sensation, might they be interesting and unsettling at the same time, so different from what he had been before. It was fascinating, and Sho wondered, where all this would take him, eventually.

Right now, it had literally taken him into Nino's room, which he had entered a bit precautious upon knocking at the wooden door, but not receiving any reply from the inside. Thus, the man had let himself in, noting that this was the first time he saw Nino's room, which made him very curious, but right now, he had other things in mind than looking through Nino's personal stuff (not that he planned to do so without asking for permission, anyway).

"Nino?" Sho asked, his voice low, when he approached the bed the other man was sleeping in, peacefully.

The man's body was spread out over the whole width of the bed, bedsheets askew and exposing his upper body as well as parts of his legs. He was wearing the new shirt Jun had bought him the other day as pajamas, apparently, the grim looking face of a fictional character named Castiel over his chest (yes, Sho had done a little research last night) in contrast to Nino's relaxed face. The shirt had slipped up a bit, revealing some skin, and Sho wondered if he didn't feel cold, only half covered by the blanket. The young man's hair was a black mess.

Nino didn't move, and so Sho sat down on the man's bed and took the chance to simply watch the sleeping man, studying his features and taking note of every single one of it – the smooth skin, the cute small nose, the short straight eyelashes, the tousled black hair... his beautiful lips... Sho swallowed when he noticed that his throat had become dry upon watching the young man's face so closely. Yes, Nino was definitely a person who Sho would classify as cute, which in his mind equated to beautiful. Adorable. Desirable, if he wanted to take it further. Which, eventually, he probably did.

Sho became slightly nervous, something he did not experience often, which just might show how important all this was to him. How important Nino has already become despite the short amount of time they knew each other.

He didn't even realize it when he reached out to brush his fingers softly over Nino's cheek, but apparently, this was enough to pull Nino out of his sleep, as he first shifted, surprised at the touch, and then slowly opened his eyes, sighing relieved at the realization who was there with him. At least, Sho concluded that Nino was probably more delighted to see him in his room instead of... a burglar or something, maybe.

"Sho?" Nino asked a bit confused, trying to sit up after a few seconds and lifting his hand to rub his face. His voice sounded rougher than usual, Sho noticed. He also noticed that he liked that. "What are you doing in my room?"

"I apologize for surprising you," Sho replied, his hand long pulled back.

"Well, it's OK. But why are you... is everything OK?" Nino sounded worried, and when taken in context that worry, the social subtext, often implied affection, Sho wondered if he could take this as a hint thereof.

"Everything is OK," Sho nodded. He was about to say something along the line that he just wanted to talk a bit with the other man but started wondering if it was appropriate the second he parted his lips, so he shut up. Maybe it had not been such a great idea to wake Nino up.

"Good," Nino replied, yawning.

"Except, that I'm hungry," Sho added after a second of thinking. Maybe, that sounded a little more appropriate than "I woke you up because I missed talking to you"? Sho wasn't so sure. He still had to get used to those feelings he experienced, these new desires. He didn't quite know yet, how to handle them properly without appearing like a complete fool. However, at least asking for food was something he did quite often, so Nino wouldn't be so surprised about it, so he decided to use that as an excuse. "Can you help me out, please?"

Nino stared at the other man for a few seconds before he reached to his nightstand and turned the device standing there, checking the time. Another sigh, even if this time it sounded rather unnerved than relieved, as Sho noticed. The other man's reaction made Sho's feelings shifting a little more to the unpleasant nervous side of things. Did he do something wrong already?

"Sho, listen," the other man started. He pointed at the digital clock in his hand. "It's 5:30 in the morning and I have the late shift today, so I planned to sleep in as long as I can... Go make yourself a sandwich, will you?"

"I'm still not allowed to use the kitchen," Sho replied drily. "So I wanted to ask if you could kindly prepare something for me instead."

Nino pinched the bridge of his nose. "Ah yes... I remember. Well, you know what? I allow you to use the kitchen for making yourself breakfast. Just make yourself a simple sandwich, that should be safe. Do you think you can do that?"

Sho shrugged. "I think I can try."

"Good," a cute sleepy smile formed on Nino's face before the young man pulled his blanket up to his chin and let himself drop back onto the bed. He yawned again, before closing his eyes again. "Then see you later..."

+

In the end, however, it didn't take long until Nino came running into the kitchen.

"Sho! What are you doing, what's that smell and what was that noise? Are you hurt?!"

"Oh, Nino, I did not intend to wake you up again," Sho replied when he lifted his head from his crouching position on the floor. "I am trying to make a sandwich, like you said. In the process I broke a plate, for which I apologize. I'm about to clean up."

"Watch out you don't get cut," Nino mumbled as he carefully stepped around the other man and the countless pieces of the shattered plate, to come rescue the situation on the stove instead. "And you probably should not leave your food unattended here, look what you did to it..."

Sho stood up, putting a handful of shards on the kitchen counter and turned to Nino, who had already turned off the heat and pulled away the smoking frying pan Sho had been using with his sandwich in it – or what was supposed to be a sandwich – from the still heated hotplate. A skeptic frown appeared on Nino's face as he tried to identify the mess of ingredients that Sho had put together, checking if something that was not completely burned yet could still be saved. It was a hopeless case, unfortunately.

"I did nothing to it," Sho explained as he stepped right next to Nino.

"That's the point," the other man said. "You are supposed to make a grilled sandwich on medium heat and turn it regularly so that it doesn't get stuck, and the most important thing is to get it out of the pan before it turns to ashes. Apparently, you did not even use any butter or oil, no wonder everything stuck to the pan and got burned. I guess there was cheese?"

"I intended to make a tomato – cheese sandwich with a few more ingredients," Sho confirmed.

A second later, Aiba pushed his head into the kitchen, looking curious and critical at the same time. Apparently, Nino was not the only one who was woken by Sho's kitchen experiments.

"Good morning, what strange smell?" the alien prince asked.

"Your assistant here almost set my kitchen on fire," Nino explained.

"Again?" Aiba raised his eyebrow at his friend.

"Again!" Nino nodded.

Aiba sighed, looking at Sho who just stood there, slouched position and feeling slightly guilty.

"You trying to do Earthling stuff, nice, but burn kitchen is no good," Aiba said, coming around to witness the failed experiment.

Sho lowered his head. "I know. I apologize."

Upon giving the remains of Sho's breakfast attempt one last check, Nino sighed deeply and then turned to the trash bin to get rid of everything before he cleaned the pan.

"Well, it can't be helped," Nino concluded. "I guess, I have to make a new sandwich for you."

"That's very kind!" Sho replied, excited.

"I fear, it's necessary to prevent you from starving for real...," the other man gave him a tired look. "Aiba, you want one too?"

The prince of Ar-Rash nodded excitedly before Nino sent him out of the room to go and ask Jun if he wanted to join breakfast as well. Then, Nino reached for a small empty bag from one of the kitchen drawers, put in the shards Sho had picked up, and grabbing a dustpan, crouched to the floor to check if there was anything left that needed to get disposed. When he had put everything away, he turned to Sho again.

"You sure you didn't get hurt?" he asked concerned, reaching for Sho's hands to check them.

Sho pulled in the air between his lips upon the touch, holding his breath. He was not injured, but the sensation of Nino's small warm hands on top of his, made his heart stumble a little. A simple sign of nervousness, he tried to remind himself, just a side effect of feeling affectionate towards someone... He swallowed. He still had to get used to this.

"OK, seems like everything's fine," Nino gave Sho a relieved smile, before his expression turned serious again. "I'm reinstating the kitchen ban! At least... don't use the stove. Or the oven or any other electronic devices or stuff that can cause a fire, OK? You can also make a sandwich without toasting and grilling, you know? Even cold, if you choose fitting ingredients it can be really delicious too, I'll show you later on."

"Thank you," Sho replied.

"You can help me assemble the sandwiches, if you like?" Nino then offered while grabbing some fresh slices of bread and heading to the fringe. "Just leave the grilling to me, OK?"

Sho nodded, relieved that Nino did not seem to be too angry with him. Maybe, he was just too tired to make an effort to scold the other man, but Sho appreciated it, and was eager to help and make up for his mistake.

"I heard something about burnt sandwiches?" Jun stepped into the kitchen, yawning and stretching his arms. He frowned shortly – perhaps at the still slightly burnt smell in the kitchen but dismissed it once he saw Nino and Sho preparing new food. "Shall I make coffee?"

"Gosh yes please, that's the best idea I heard today so far," Nino chuckled.

Seeing the appreciating look on Nino's face, Sho noted that he should probably learn how to make coffee, too, but for now, he focused on assisting his friend in assembling the sandwiches. Soon, the smell of freshly brewed coffee and melted cheese filled the kitchen, and hearing his stomach growling, Sho only realized now within the whole tumult that he was indeed hungry. Aiba had already set up the table, while Jun was now serving the coffee and Nino divided the deliciously smelling grilled sandwiches on four plates. He handed one to each of his friends as they all settled down around the small table.

"Thank you, Nino!" Sho said, searching for the man's eyes. "Your cooking is the best!"

There was a smile on Nino's face, making him even more beautiful as he already appeared towards Sho, and Sho couldn't help but feel his own lips shape into sort of a smile, automatically.

"Don't mention it," the young man replied, picking up his own sandwich and starting to busy himself with eating, but the smile in his eyes did not vanish.

Nino did not only look cute while sleeping, or cooking, Sho realized. He also looked cute when serving his dishes to hungry people and especially, when people thanked him for his effort or complimented the outcome of his hard work. Sho swore to himself that he would never forget that. Seeing Nino smile, made Sho want to smile, too, and triggered him to feel all warm and cozy. He really started to like this newfound sensation.


+ PLANET EARTH. JAPAN. MAY 16, 2018. 6:40 AM, JST. Ninomiya and Matsumoto apartment. +


Time went by pretty fast, and even if Aiba and Sho didn't seem to be very successful with the search for Aiba's brother, they seemed to have settled pretty well on Earth, Nino thought. Apparently, the aliens were capable of adapting quite well to their new surroundings – even if Aiba still had some language issues, but it was getting better – and so it wasn't too much of a surprise that one day, Jun came up with an idea. A great one, if anybody asked him, a questionable one if anybody asked Nino.

"Come on, Nino, it's been over a week now that they moved in-" moved in, Jun said, as if this had become something permanent, "Don't you think it's finally time for a house warming party for them? On Saturday? Aiba thinks it's a great idea!"

Of course, Aiba would think it's a great idea, Nino thought, rolling his eyes. He wasn't the slightest surprised. It was clear that with his cheerful and open personality (apparently, he was even able to communicate with dogs, which Nino had not witnessed himself yet, but didn't even doubt for a second), Aiba shared quite some traits with Jun, and so Jun surely only needed to suggest the word party, and the prince was on board.

Nino didn't even make the effort of starting to list all the reasons, why this could actually be a bad idea, like the fact that the aliens did not officially move in with him and Jun (Nino assumed that Jun saw this as questionable anyway) or that they did not really need to make acquaintance with other people. That it was even rather dangerous for them to get into contact with others, since their camouflage could come down. But Jun (and Aiba) surely would have enough contra arguments against Nino's worries and so, he decided that struggling wasn't worth it.

"Whatever," he gave in – even too quickly for Jun, as his best friend's surprised face showed –, "But we need to make sure that those two are not going to jump around and tell everybody that they are aliens!"

"Hah! Nobody would believe them anyway," Jun chuckled, making a dismissing gesture with his hand and rolling his eyes.

Nino looked at him critically. "We believe them, apparently."

"Well... OK, OK. I'll tell them to be cautious and secretive, like they have been so far. No problem," Jun promised after a moment of consideration.

"And please, don't invite your whole company, we don't have that much space in our apartment and I don't want to cook for an army," Nino added, knowing his friend just too well and hoping that this would keep the circle a bit smaller than usual when it came to Jun's parties.


+ PLANET EARTH. JAPAN. MAY 19, 2018. Evening. Ninomiya and Matsumoto apartment complex. +


To Nino's displeasure, Jun had solved the space problem by relocating his planned welcome party for Sho and Aiba from their apartment to the rooftop of the building. Like this, there was no reason why he couldn't add a few more people to the guest list, he had said to Nino, who had just rolled his eyes and let his friend do as he pleased. Instead of starting a fight, he had taken it upon himself to make sure with Aiba and Sho once more, that the two of them wouldn't spill the beans on their true origin, no matter what people would ask or say.

As always, Nino was absolutely not in the mood for partying, but since he would have the late shift at the restaurant on the next day, he didn't even have a good excuse not to participate or to leave early. If he didn't want to leave town, there was no escape. Well, probably it wasn't that bad if at least someone would have an eye on the aliens during the party.

Further, Nino worried a bit about Sho, who seemed not to be as much of a party person either, compared to Aiba and Jun – and kind of felt responsible to keep him company. He also might have to pay a bit attention that Sho wouldn't eat the whole buffet and get a bad stomach-ache from that. The alien had developed such a deep love for food over the last two weeks that he mostly tended to overeat. Nino was surprised, that this did not show at all, as Sho didn't seem to gain a single gram, but then, he wasn't familiar with the true physics of those aliens and had no idea how their metabolism worked. Still, even they could feel sick when eating too much, and it had not been a pleasant view to see Sho with a stomach-ache a few days ago.

Jun was well prepared for the party, currently setting up a last few details on the rooftop and checking the music boxes that were placed in each corner of the rooftop, to make sure everything would work. The day before, he even had dragged a very uncomfortable feeling Nino with him to go from door to door and apologize in advance to their neighbours that it might get a bit loud Saturday night, offering them some sweets as excuse, and inviting them to join them, if they felt like it.

The party scenery consisted of a bunch of high tables (wherever Jun might have gotten them from), a huge buffet providing drinks and finger food (which was half bought, half prepared by Nino) and... the alien's spaceship. The metallic, round object had been made visible to everybody's eyes, the side door opened, as if to invite everyone in, and the whole thing blazoned with countless fairy light strings, which were wrapped around the object and spread to both sides of the scenery, surrounding the party area.

"Isn't it dangerous to make the ship visible?" Nino asked, a crease between his eyebrows and his arms crossed in front of his chest while watching the object in worry. "What shall everybody think about that?"

"Isn't it more dangerous to keep is invisible and risk that people bump into it all the time and get injured?" Jun gave back, raising his thick eyebrows. Well...

"You could have chosen a completely other location for the party then," Nino suggested, knowing well that everything was too late now, anyway.

"Then nobody would be able to see that awesome spaceship!" his best friend hissed, his lips spreading into a grin, not able to hide his excitement any longer.

Nino sighed in resignation. Once more, he gave up. He didn't stand a chance against party king Matsumoto Jun and he did not even have the energy to try doing so.

"Come on, Nino, chill out and smile!" Jun exclaimed, putting his hands on his friend's shoulders. "Nobody will believe that it is an actual spaceship, anyway. We'll just sell it to them as some kind of dummy that I'm using for a photoshoot for my new collection."

Nino raised a sceptical eyebrow. "You actually plan to use it as that too, right?"

Jun pulled in his lips before forming them into a pout, averting his eyes. "Aiba said it's OK... I mean, he is the prince. His words are our demand!"

"They are not, this here is still our planet, just in case you missed that," Nino said. "He might be a prince elsewhere, but here he has to obey to our rules, also for his own safety! I bet it was your idea, anyway. Don't lie to me!"

"Maybe...," Jun mumbled.

"You can be so manipulative, sometimes, really!" Nino said, the frown on his face growing. "This is risky. I don't feel good about it... what if something happens? To them? To us?"

"You are so not fun, Nino," Jun flashed his friend a smile. "You're over thinking everything again. We'll be careful, OK? Now come on, the party will be awesome!"

"You will be the one cleaning up the mess afterwards. So at least don't get drunk to the point of falling sick and leaving all that crap to me again, OK?" Nino concluded, and Jun nodded heavily.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of everything!"

+

As expected, it wasn't only Nino who found the idea not as great as Jun and Aiba obviously did. That's how a few hours later, once the party had already started, he found Sho standing near the edge of the roof top, looking down on the puzzle of lights through the roof top's security fence. So far, Sho had pretty much held back from all the business and Nino couldn't help but smirk. At least, he wasn't the only killjoy at the party.

Music was blasting in the air, and the fairy lights all over the place lightened up the night that had started falling over the city. Numerous voices by Jun's happy and well entertained friends could be heard from all around, Jun's and Aiba's voices especially prominent.

Sho looked kind of out of place here, just like Nino, and so, he instantly felt that there was a connection between him and the alien, as strange as it sounded. In fact, over the past two weeks, Nino had found several things that linked him and Sho. First and foremost, they both seemed to be the cautious type of person – the complete contrast to Jun and Aiba, who tended to be pretty carefree, cheerful characters.

He and Sho, though, they were the reasonable ones, trying to keep everything in order. They were quiet and did not need much talking, but if they spoke, it tended to be an interesting exchange of thoughts and words rather than just small talk. Also, they both seemed to be a bit weird, and were easily misunderstood by others. Not that this was a trait to be very proud of, but the fact, that they shared it, made Nino feel strangely understood by the other man.

Nino also appreciated that Sho's enthusiasm about food – especially Nino's cooking – was just as big as Nino's enthusiasm for cooking, so he figured, they were a good match in this respect. The young man had to admit that each and every compliment out of Sho's mouth felt like honey dripping into his ears. Because of their straight-forwardness, and because Nino could feel that Sho really meant was he said, the man's compliments felt stronger than any the man had ever received, and he would be lying if he said he didn't like that.

Nino breathed in and out, slowly, as he took a few steps closer to Sho. He hesitated to disturb the man in his observations, and even became slightly nervous at the thought of talking to the other man, wondering if he couldn't just keep standing there and looking at that pretty face. Nino quickly tried to brush that thought away. It wasn't like he was going to hit on him or anything, he just wanted to talk to him, right? So why was he even so nervous?

"Uhm... Hey," Nino finally started. "Beautiful night isn't it?" he asked, when Sho looked at him questioning, before Nino slapped himself mentally. That just sounded like a cheesy pick-up line. What was he even doing?

"It's indeed a beautiful night," Sho agreed in response, looking at Nino with his piercing dark brown eyes.

Not only the night was beautiful, Nino thought, his throat suddenly becoming dry and narrow, and his heart doing a strange little jump that he tried to ignore with all his might, but he couldn't. Maybe, he actually wanted to hit on Sho, and just didn't want to admit it to himself? Thinking about it, perhaps the connection he felt between himself and Sho wasn't just something like feeling understood by a similar personality, or a probably strange but strong friendship, maybe, there was even a little more. Jun had hinted on it several times now, even if he had been joking, Jun's teasing was mostly built on truth. So well, screw that, Nino finally thought, maybe he was attracted to Sho, maybe he indeed wanted to get to know him better, maybe he wanted to test the waters, even if he most likely still had no idea where this would be going, if even, and what he should do with his confused feelings, but so what? It didn't mean he couldn't just talk to Sho and spend time with him, right? Because if he was completely honest to himself, that was everything Nino wanted to do right now.

"Uhm... Want me to get you a beer or something?" Nino offered, when he saw that Sho was lacking something to drink.

"No, thank you," the alien replied. "It seems like my species is not good with what you call alcohol."

"Ah, right," Nino murmured, remembering Sho passing out a few days ago from a small glass of white wine that was served for dinner with a salmon dish. "I could get you some orange juice perhaps?"

"That's very considering but thank you, I am not thirsty at the moment," Sho replied.

"OK," Nino gave up.

"I... would very much appreciate to taste some of the – how did you call it – hand food, though," the alien then added after a few seconds of silence, causing Nino to smirk.

"It's called finger food," the man replied, amused. "Sure, I'll get you some. Any preferences?"

"The ones you prepared, of course."

Nino felt his cheeks blushing when he turned on his heel and rushed to the buffet to gather some food samples from all the plates he had prepared by himself, and got a bottle of beer for himself, before returning to Sho's side and settling right next to him, sharing the view. Sho gratefully took the plate from Nino's hand as the other offered it to him, and Nino couldn't help but smile warmly at Sho's eyes growing wide in anticipation. While the alien started digging in with visible vigour, Nino tried to calm that upwelling happy feeling inside of him down. However, it was just too much of a pleasure to see the other man enjoying his food to such an extent. It was impossible, not to feel proud.

"How can they do this to my shell? Sho, help!" Kee-ko's voice suddenly could be heard, making Nino startle as he was pulled out of his thoughts.

He looked around, a little confused. His eyes fell onto the from fairy lights lit object, just in time to see a couple disappearing inside.

"Look at them! They will ruin everything!"

Nino finally managed to locate the AI's voice coming from that small, flat device similar to a smart phone (Nino believed Sho called it an "AI-port" once, short for portable AI, most likely), pushed inside one of the chest pocket of Sho's brand new striped dress shirt that Jun had picked for him during that recent out of control shopping trip. (It looked really good on Sho, too good, for Nino's taste.) The device functioned as some kind of transmitter, a branch of Kee-ko's core that Sho and Aiba were able to bring with them and still connect to their ship. Sho apparently also could scan things with the device, take snapshots, and use it as a voice recorder among others. It was a very handy thing but the most impressive about all this was Kee-ko's personality – or what Nino recognized as one. He knew that an AI did not have a real personality but was rather shaped after its creator or owner and developed its own behaviouristic patterns the more it learned by itself from that point on. Kee-ko apparently had picked up not only the cheerful and emotional characteristics of Aiba, but also Sho's more sceptical and cautious trades, making her an interesting mixture of the two characters, which right now became manifested as a whiny, worried person. Understandably, concerning the circumstances, Nino had to admit.

"I tried to talk them out of it, Kee-ko," Sho said. "But you know Aiba, he can be very stubborn, especially if he thinks something is a great idea."

"How can this be a great idea, using the ship as attraction for this strange gathering?!" Kee-ko snapped.

"I'm sorry, I wasn't successful either. Jun can be very… persuading. Even I fall for his ideas, sometimes, or at least I cannot do anything against them being put into action...," Nino added, remembering especially the drunken night in which he first met Aiba and Sho, and thinking of the current party that had been forced on him here. The second party he was attending, within only a couple of weeks, it was ridiculous by itself.

"Nothing will happen to your shell, Kee-ko," Sho tried to sooth the AI.

"Yeah, don't worry," Nino said.

"Nothing will happen?!" the AI almost freaked out, surprising Nino that she was capable of showing so much more emotion that he had ever seen from Sho, who compared to her was an actual living being. "Did you ever do research on Earthling parties?! They will all get drunk and not mind their surroundings any longer and they will damage everything, and puke everywhere into the cockpit and everything will be ruined–"

"You might be a little bit exaggerating here, Kee-ko. They won't puke everywhere," Nino took a sip from his beer. "I hope..."

"We'll see, we'll see! Right now, this Earthling couple is making out in my cockpit, I... I can't believe it but I am at a loss of words. Oh, this is horrible…"

"Sometimes, she is over worrying," Sho explained to Nino in between two bites from a salmon-avocado sandwich.

"I can relate to that...," Nino murmured.

With Kee-ko voicing her doubts and worries continuously in the background before she finally decided to go in stand-by mode in order to not have to witness any mischief happening in her shell, and watching Sho finishing his sandwich with a satisfied expression on his face, Nino smiled. He let his eyes wander over the scene, brushing over a few more or less familiar faces of Jun's friends, and looked back to Sho, strangely feeling home. Yes, he actually could relate much better to a mostly emotionless alien and an AI, than to most people on his own planet. Life was weird.

+

Nino would have preferred spending the rest of the night feeding Sho (in moderation, of course) to being pulled into the actual party on the rooftop. But, of course, Jun would sooner or later try what he always tried to do – make friends of Nino and his own friends, even if he knew, that so far that had never turned out to work.

However, Nino was used to get pulled to Jun's side once in a while, and clinking glasses with him – and Aiba (who was drinking orange juice, just as a precaution after Sho's experience with alcohol). He left behind Sho for a while, promising to come back, not knowing if the other man even cared and while Sho continued watching down on the city lights, Nino spent a little time with his best friend and the alien prince. He was rather shocked, when he suddenly spotted an indeed familiar face – Yuriko.

The girl had not approached Nino yet, but apparently, she had spotted him already, and was even making eye contact with him now, while she walked by, apparently aiming for... Sho. Nino frowned, when he saw the young woman trying to start up a chat with the man.

"J, what's she doing here?" the young man asked, taking a sip from his beer, slightly growing nervous.

His friend gave him a meaningful look. "Nino, she's one of my closest friends at work, of course I invited her to our party. Besides, I think there's something you have to finish with her. She told me what happened that night and that you smashed the door in her face-"

"That's an exaggeration!" Nino protested. "I only closed the door before she was able to enter."

"Same thing, isn't it?" Aiba asked between two sips of his orange juice and Jun nodded.

Nino kept on, ignoring the two men's reaction "And what's she doing with Sho now, anyway?"

"I don't know? Go find out?" Jun suggested, smirking.

"Is she flirting with him?!" Nino asked in disbelief when he witnessed the young woman stepping closer to Sho and touching the alien's elbow. An unpleasant shiver ran down Nino's spine and he cringed.

"Don't tell me you are getting jealous now that she's going for another guy, all of a sudden?" Jun challenged his friend with a smug grin, even if he exactly knew that Nino was still not interested in any woman, and in particular not in Yuriko.

Nino just punished him with an unnerved look. He wasn't sure what exactly he was feeling right now, but he'd rather die than tell his friend that he was feeling quite unsettled, not about the fact that Yuriko was apparently flirting with Sho instead of with him, but that she was the one flirting with Sho, instead of... Nino refused to end his thought and lifted his beer to his lips, hastily, trying to drown anything that might come up his mind right now. As if flirting had ever been his field of expertise...

Jun shrugged. "However, I told her you had a bad evening because you were sick and everything, and that there is something you have to tell her. She still really likes you, you know? So, I hope this time you'll be man enough to explain things to her properly. And don't forget to apologize for your behaviour! Now go save Sho."

"Fine, fine, whatever," Nino sighed, giving in. He downed the rest of his beer before he abandoned the empty bottle, and set off to the corner of the rooftop, approaching Sho and Yuriko.

The man cleared his throat when he reached the two. "Hello. Uhm... Hi!"

At once, the young woman as well as Sho turned to look at Nino, Sho with his usual neutral expression, while in Yuriko's eyes, there was something glittering that Nino couldn't completely get a grasp on.

"Oh, it's you, hi there," the young woman said, pretending as if she hadn't seen Nino before he started talking to her.

She sounded upset. Well, Nino couldn't blame her for that, but he had a hard time not to simply roll his eyes and groan in frustration, trying to remind himself that it was his own fault the woman was trying to upset him now in return for how he treated her a couple of weeks ago. Still, he had no idea though what exactly he should say now, so he just let out what tremendously occupied his mind, anyway.

"Excuse me but could you stop flirting with him?" Nino asked, trying to smile and not to look upset. He was pointing at Sho now, who was still standing there, stiff like a broom, showing no reaction at all towards neither the young woman's advances, nor Nino's question at her.

"Oh, sorry," Yuriko said, acting shocked. She took a step back from Sho and brought her hands over her heart, clenching them. "I didn't realize that you were jealous. I can flirt with you instead, if you want," she directed at Nino, before quickly sending a look at Sho. "No offence."

"Yuriko-san... listen," Nino started, shifting from one foot to the other and lifting a hand to scratch his eyebrow. He looked at her, a serious expression on his face. "I know I wasn't exactly polite to you last time we met... and I apologize for that -"

"Exactly, Ninomiya-kun, you weren't very polite, that's true," the girl said, pouting her lips slightly and crossing her arms in front of her chest.

"You know, the point is that I haven't been completely honest with you, and I am sorry for that too," Nino continued. He took a step forward. "There is something I should have told you from the beginning..."

By now, the young woman looked at Nino with big eyes, obvious that she was still crushing on him and that her advances towards Sho had only been a desperate move to catch Nino's attention – which she succeeded in, obviously, even if not in the way she might have intended. A mixture of hope and fear was shining in her eyes. She gulped when Nino came another step closer.

"And... and what would that be?" the woman asked, her voice slightly shaking.

Nino stepped forward again, eyes still on Yuriko, but then he slightly changed directions, so that he slipped besides her and came to a halt right next to Sho. He quickly exchanged a look with the alien, who obviously had no idea what was going on, then looked back to Yuriko. He took a deep breath.

"Please let me introduce you to Sho, my... boyfriend," Nino said, his voice slightly shaky.

There was a moment of silence and blank stares, before Yuriko got a catch of herself again.

"Your what?!" the girl couldn't believe her ears. Her arms dropped from in front of her chest to next to her hips, and her chin almost hit the floor.

Nino cleared his throat and shifted even a little closer to Sho for demonstration purpose. He looked at Sho again before he finally was brave enough to lift his arms and slowly but surely snuggle into a hug that Sho luckily – probably intuitively – played along with. The two of them quickly found themselves entangled in an embrace, Nino's arms around Sho's waist, while Sho had put an arm around Nino's shoulder, and the latter leaned his head back to rest against Sho's chest. It felt warm. Warm and cozy, Nino realized, and like something he hadn't really had in a long time. However, before he could get too lost in this, he pulled himself together and gave Yuriko, who blanked at him, a crooked smile.

"My boyfriend. That's what I couldn't tell you, I'm... already taken. And gay, obviously," he continued, trying to hold eye contact with Yuriko, who was still gaping at the two men in disbelief. "So... it's not your fault, it's my fault that this with us...," Nino somehow gestured between the three of them with one hand that he loosened from his embrace around Sho, not sure who he should really refer to at the moment, "Won't happen. I am really sorry."

"I... oh," finally, the young woman's brain seemed to resume working. She blinked, tilted her head, and was silent for a moment, until she finally found back her speech. Her arms back in front of her, she crossed them, steadying herself. Then, she awkwardly broke into a laugh. "Well, you really could have told me! I completely embarrassed myself, now."

"You couldn't have known," Nino replied, smiling – not less awkwardly – at her, feeling really guilty now.

"Oh, but Jun knows, doesn't he? Of course, he does," the woman wanted to confirm, earning a nod form Nino before she puffed up her cheeks. "Why didn't he warn me?!"

They kept talking for a little longer, awkwardly laughed a bit more here and there, until the topic seemed to be over and Yuriko seemed to be done with Nino. Finally, after he apologized once more, she was off to probably complain to Jun for not warning her.

Nino sighed deeply, looking after her, before he realized that he was still holding on to Sho very closely. He blushed deeply, and backed off, leaving the other man look at him confused.

"I – I'm sorry for that, Sho, I didn't mean to-," the man started, embarrassed.

"Boyfriend?" Sho asked.

"I'm really sorry!" Nino repeated, nervously. "I just – you know, I wanted to get rid of her and last time I wasn't brave enough and, now I wasn't exactly brave either but then she started flirting with you and I... I don't know what I was thinking. It was just easier like this to pretend having a boyfriend and showing her that I'm not interested, I guess..."

"So you lied," the alien concluded. "And you used me as your alibi."

"Sorry that I made use of you. It wasn't my intention to make you feel uncomfortable," Nino mumbled.

Sho slightly shook his head. "If I could be helpful to you in this situation, it's fine. I don't mind."

"Really?"

"Actually, I wouldn't mind being your boyfriend."

Nino couldn't help but feel his cheeks blushing, and his heartbeat picking up at this statement. Sho looked at him, straight forward like he always did… Was Sho trying to be funny? He didn't look like he'd be making fun of Nino, but he couldn't be serious, either, could he? Nino wasn't even sure if Sho – who was smart, but as far as he got to know him, lacked social competence quite a bit – could completely grasp the concept of a boyfriend, and if, what it meant here on this planet.

"You're the reason why I am not starving to death here on Earth, of course, I don't mind helping you out in return," Sho explained.

Nino's heart fell. Not only that, it surprisingly hurt. What did he expect? Did he really think Sho meant his words literally? Even if Sho would know what it meant to be one's boyfriend, of course, why should he actually choose Nino as his crush and why should Nino even want that? Just because he liked Sho, it didn't mean he wanted to date him, right?

The young man averted his look, trying to pull his thoughts away from the topic. Sho had meant his agreement with the previous situation solely as some kind of pay back for the food, Nino provided him with. There were no deeper feelings involved, and it was good like that.

Not sure how he should handle the situation best, Nino eventually decided to ignore what Sho had just told him – trying to forget everything and trying to bury his disappointment, – and instead fell silent next to the other man. They both turned their looks back down through the meshes of the security fence. The music playing in the background intruded Nino's blurry mind and he tried to focus on the catchy beat of the song instead of the heavy beat of his hurting heart. A sudden, small gust of wind hit his face through the fence, and Nino closed his eyes for a second, allowing the cool night air to refresh him. He took a deep breath, opened his eyes and when he saw Sho staring at him, he smiled.

"By the way, you never really talk about your home planet," Nino said in a low voice, partly to break the silence between them, and partly, to try and distract himself from having to deal with the disappointment that was still nagging him, even if he tried to ignore it.

Sho looked back at him, slightly wondering. "There's not so much to tell about. It's not a very interesting planet and nothing interesting happens there. Different to that TV-show you recently talked about. How did the next episode go, by the way?"

"I'm sorry Sho, I'm not in the mood for nerdy talk right now. I'm really curious, so please share some things with me," Nino replied, leading his look back down on the city. He wasn't lying, because, when did someone have the chance to hear stories of an actual alien planet? However, in first place, de didn't feel like talking about himself. "Does it look very different from our world? How are the people there? How are the king and queen and how's your life there?"

Sho paused, maybe considering what he could risk telling an outsider, and what not, before he finally started to speak. "The king and queen are good people. They take care of their folk very well and keep everything in order. That's why it's so important to them that their successors will do just as a good job as they. Both of them."

"Why must it be both of them who take over the throne?"

Honestly, Nino had always wondered about that. The concept of a king – or emperor – ruling a country, or a whole planet in Ar-Rash's case, apparently, had long stopped working in his own and most other countries on Earth. At least, the political significance had changed from back then, but Nino remembered from history books that it had been rather usual that only one person was sitting on the throne, not two.

"Each of their sons has his own strengths, but also weaknesses," Sho started to explain. "They are still young and inexperienced, after all. But together, they would complement one another very well. They will make a great team."

"But with two people being at power, isn't there always the risk of disagreement and fights?" Nino voiced his doubts.

"You might be right, but a good team can figure out things and find to an agreement in the end," the other man replied. "That's why we need to find Aiba's brother. We need to talk to him and find a solution to get him back."

Nino hummed. "What's your part in all this?"

"I'm assisting the princes and will continue to do so."

"But... are you more Team Aiba or Team Aiba's brother?" Nino chuckled, trying to be funny.

Sho didn't find that funny, unfortunately. "I am closer to Aiba as we spent much more time together since childhood, but when it comes to assisting them in their royal duties, it's my obligation to be fair and loyal to either of the princes. So I am."

Again, Nino hummed before he added after a short silence, "You know, that sounds like a quite tough job. You must be really good at this. My respect."

"Uhm..." Sho looked at him, a little confused. Cute and confused.

"What?" Nino asked, raising an eyebrow and trying hard to hide a small blush.

"It's just...," Sho started. "I can't remember that anyone told me before that I was doing a good job or that I deserve respect."

"What?" Nino frowned. "Seriously?"

Sho shook his head. "Since it is assumed that we – I mean people living and working on Ar-Rash – are usually perfect for the job we get assigned to, there is no need to point out good work."

"Wow, that... sounds harsh," Nino replied. He fought the urge to hug the alien on the spot.

It was never nice to be taken for granted and to work your ass off and never get to hear you did well. There had been times Nino had gone through something similar, it wasn't like his cooking skills had been well developed from the start, but it had been a learning process and with getting better, the appreciation from his surroundings had grown too, and Nino was glad about that. Even if it should be a matter of course that one did their best, it was always nice to hear some appreciation.

"Considering that you people don't seem to be much used to praising others for their actions, I wonder how it comes you praise my cooking so often," the young man added, glancing at Sho, questioning.

"Well, it's just...," Sho started, looking Nino in the eyes. "It-'s just so good, I can't keep it to myself."

Nino laughed, now blushing for sure. "Thank you, Sho. Seriously."

"I'm just saying what I think."

"I like that," Nino smiled. "Your directness, I mean. It can be disarming but... honesty is a good trait that not everybody is capable of. You should keep that."

Sho still looked a little confused but nodded slowly. "I will."

"So, won't you tell me a little bit of your world?" the other man continued. "Now that you've gotten a taste of mine during these past two weeks, what are the differences? How does it look like, your planet? Come on, I can be curious too."

"Where shall I start..." Sho began, still a little hesitant, but once he found his starting point, it seemed like nothing could stop him. "Technology standards are quite high, so most things are designed to be easy and convenient, with the usage of AIs, either far developed ones, like Kee-ko, or simpler ones to organize and simplify everyday tasks, like for example in those food machines I told you about, you remember?" Nino nodded. "Most parts of our planet look similar to your cities, but a little more… advanced. We don't have such beautiful green landscapes as you do, and our water does not come from resources, but is made artificially by a chemical composition, on demand, whenever needed, just like our food."

Nino cringed at the imagination of the latter. Even if here too, chemicals were part of most foods nowadays, it still sounded strange to be able to produce water and food simply from chemical compositions. Where was the nature in this aspect?

"All this sounds really practicable... but not very beautiful," the young man said, looking at Sho, wondering how the alien felt about all this. He was used to it, after all, and only had two weeks otherwise to compare to his usual life and standards.

"I did a bit of research on the internet, and I'd say, our planet would fall into a category of modern aesthetics, when it comes to Earthling terms," Sho continued. "We use a monochromatic scheme and lots of plain and smooth surfaces to build things. No variety in structure or material, except for our spaceships which need to be more robust and are made from several layers.... compared to the variety of styles here on planet Earth though, I'd say our planet is rather boring."

"You really think so?" Nino wondered, although he knew Sho must be telling the truth. It was a little surprising though, weren't people usually more drawn to what was familiar to them? However, Sho nodded, enforcing his statement.

"The longer I stay here, the more I think so."

The two men exchanged a long glance, Nino's mind drifting off to wondering how it would feel for Sho when the day of his return to his home planet would arrive, if he would miss this planet here. If he would miss Nino...

Nino cleared his throat and quickly tried to distract his thoughts. "So, what do you like most about our planet?"

"Besides the food?" Sho asked, dead serious.

"Besides the food," Nino chuckled.

The alien took a thinking posture and looked at Nino, for a few long seconds, so focused, that Nino eventually started wondering if Sho was considering to say "You", or something along that line, which made the young man blush slightly. But then, why should Sho do that? And why should Nino even want that? He cursed himself and his slightly faster beating heart and tried to get rid of that stupid thought. Those thoughts concerning him and Sho needed to stop, seriously!

"I like what you call nature," Sho said. "Even if some parts of it might be cultivated, or also partially artificial, I like that natural style in between everything, even your cities, even within your apartments and houses. On Ar-Rash, nobody would care to create something like a park or a pond, or get themselves a house plant... It's beautiful, but inconvenient. It would cease to exist if someone created something like that on my home planet."

"That sounds pretty sad," Nino murmured.

"It's not like we are not aware of the potential aesthetic of nature," the alien man next to him continued. "It's just, that we can provide our planet and our people with everything they need in other ways. If someone wants to experience nature, we can re-create it with our technology. We can enter it in a virtual reality, so to say. But it's only a mimicry of what we saw on other planets, like yours and what we learned from files and reports. We can recreate the look, but nobody bothers to recreate the sounds, the smells, the texture, the feeling... it's an empty projection, nothing more."

"I can only try to imagine how this would feel like," Nino said. He wondered, if the virtual realities gaming companies were slowly but surely bringing on the market since a few years, could kind of compare to what Sho just described. He only tested one of those during a gaming convention a couple years ago, wearing a huge sample pair of 3D gaming glasses, and he didn't go well with it, as it caused major motion sickness to him.

"You know, where I come from, your planet is filed as to be a very romantic, peaceful planet," Sho continued, filling the silence between them.

Nino raised his eyebrows. "Romantic and peaceful?"

"The various landscapes, as mentioned, the variety of living beings, all sorts of animals – we don't have animals where I come from – all living in harmony… or that's how the legend goes."

Nino snorted. Even if he liked the idea of harmony, sadly, this was only something that could be found in the small things, within moments, but not as a whole, representing living on this planet.

"I'm sorry to crush your dreams but here's definitely not everything living in harmony. We had wars, we still do have wars, maybe more than ever and you can't even see all of them."

"Yes, I learned about that fact too," Sho agreed. "But at least your planet wasn't blown up completely by other species, other than many planets during wars in our galaxy."

"Well, true, Earth hasn't been blown up yet, but believe me, humanity will manage to destroy themselves and their planet on their own, sooner or later."

"You are referring to your climate change problem, aren't you?" Sho wondered.

"I am, among others. There are a lot of things going wrong here," Nino replied.

"But still, there are beautiful things too, here," Sho added in a low voice. "A lot of them."

Nino nodded slowly. "That's for sure."

"So, since Planet Earth is kind of an ideal for our folks, we assume that this is the reason why the older prince chose it to flee to. In order to retreat. And probably, because he thought we won't follow him that far."

"But he was mistaken, obviously," Nino said, biting his lips before he could add and I'm glad you came after him.

"We followed him right away and we managed to keep track of him quite well, until he got into the comet shower over Japan..."

"If your technology is so advanced, why is it so hard to find your prince then? Don't you have any... tracking system or such?"

"We lost the signal," Sho explained. "Which either means, his ship and the AI travelling with him was completely damaged, or that he disconnected the AI from the locating system."

"Which would mean he does not want to be found," the other man concluded. "Did you ever consider about just leaving him be?"

Sho looked at Nino, frowning. "But we need him. The prince needs him."

"I know, you explained that much," Nino replied. "But... it doesn't sound like your folk is very good in... letting people do what they want to do. Maybe the prince just needs a break from all this and will return by himself once he's ready. Ever thought about that?"

Sho gave Nino a dumbfounded look. Obviously, he – or any other member of his race – had not thought about that option. Sure, there was no guarantee that the runaway prince would come back after spending a few weeks of holidays on another planet, but more often than not, runaways tended to go back home sooner or later. It was probably a poor example, but when Nino had been a kid, he had run away from home too once, after a fight with his father, just to find himself returning only a few hours later. Not only, because he was too young to get around, or because he didn't have enough money on hand to even buy himself dinner, but because he wanted to be back with his family. Because no matter if they would fight and about what they might disagree, in the end, they loved each other. They needed each other. Maybe, for the first prince of that faraway planet, it would be similar.

"If Aiba needs his brother, his brother probably needs him too, and will come back when the time is right. Just an idea," Nino shrugged.

"Maybe you're right...," Sho murmured. "I admit I really did not think about that option."

The two men fell into silence again, the party around them still going strong. Aiba and Jun were still the centre of attention, the music playing, the wind blowing slightly, and Sho continuing to chew on some snacks that were still left on his plate (he had abandoned them during the conversation with Nino, which Nino counted as a very polite gesture). Nino smirked. It was nice to talk to Sho like that, and he hoped that they weren't done yet. It was interesting to learn more about his and Aiba's home planet, but what Nino really wanted to learn more about, was Sho himself. He knew, it was dangerous, and possible that the more he found out about Sho, the more he'd like him, but he just couldn't help himself.

"Can I ask you another question?" the young man eventually broke the silence. "It's completely unrelated, but I'm curious."

"Uhm," Sho glanced at him, hurrying to finish a juicy piece of karaage. "Sure, what do you want to know?"

Nino leaned his back against the fence surrounding the roof top and crossed his arms in front of his chest. He let his look wander over Sho's full height demonstratively, from head to toes and back up until they met eyes.

"How come you look like Asians?" he asked. "I mean, if it's not a huge coincidence that your folk looks exactly like mine... You even have Japanese names, but I assume those are not your real names, right?"

"Indeed, no," Sho picked up, putting his now finally empty plate aside. "Actually, our species looks quite a bit different from yours, even if there are similarities to the Earthling species."

Nino frowned critically, shifting a little nervous. "So... what does that mean? How can you look like that then? Are you..." he lacked another word, so Nino just said what came to mind. "Shape shifters?"

"Well, when the prince and I entered your planet's atmosphere and realized where we would have to land, we adjusted our physical forms to the most common race represented in that part of planet Earth. About the names, we transcribed our Ar-Rashian names to your language, based on the similarity in phonetics."

Even if all these information was a little hard to process for Nino (shape shifter? Like those in Supernatural?) the young man couldn't help but ask, curiously, "So, what's your real name, then?"

Sho replied, voicing a line of syllables and strange noises that sounded something like, "Za-coo Ra Eesho."

Nino blinked. He wasn't even sure if he had just imagined recognizing the "Sho" part in this, or not. "And... how would you transfer my name into Ar-Rashian? My full name."

Immediately, Sho made a few more of those strange noises that sounded just a little bit familiar if someone paid very close attention to it, making the other man cringe in even more confusion.

Finally, Nino chuckled. "That sounds horrible."

"Really?" Sho slightly tilted his head. "I think it has a beautiful sound. At least to my ears."

Nino burst into laughter, feeling his cheeks blushing slightly.

"But if you feel uncomfortable, I won't say it again."

"It's OK," Nino waved off. "I'm glad you like it, just... here on Earth, keep calling me Nino, will you?"

"Certainly. Nino."

The soft tone of Sho's voice when he said his name, sounding much more emotional than usual, and the hint of a smile on his lips, made Nino's heart jolt. He took a deep breath. He wanted to stay, talk even more to Sho, maybe even dig up the topic about Sho's comment regarding being OK with being Nino's boyfriend and wanting to discuss the seriousness of that statement, considering that it could also only mean the Sho wanted to be nice because Nino made his food... But in the end, Nino was too scared. This was too risky. Those were grounds he better did not step on. He should better leave before he said or did something he'd regret.

"Uhm... I think, I'm going to bed now."

"Oh, already? I thought you don't have an early shift tomorrow," Sho asked.

Nino cleared his throat and finally averted his eyes. "You're right, I don't, but if I stay here with you.... things might become complicated."

"I don't understand...," the alien next to him gave him a puzzled look, cutely tilting his head.

"Ah," Nino tried to play over his nervousness with a chuckle. "Nothing important, Sho, don't worry about it. I guess, I'm just tired."

"Too bad. I appreciate your company," the other man replied. "It's been nice to talk to you."

"Thanks. It was interesting to listen to your talk," Nino answered with a smile. "Do you think you can manage alone here?"

Sho looked around. "Probably I'll leave soon too. Parties are not quite my thing."

"I know what you mean," Nino smiled. "Ah, hey, before I forget about it, what do you want for breakfast tomorrow?"

Nino grinned widely when he saw Sho's eyes becoming bigger at that question.

"Oh, oh, wait," the alien started. "I really liked that dish you called something like French bread or so, a lot."

"French toast?" Nino chuckled and Sho nodded, excited.

"Alright. I'll prepare some for you when I get up and for lunch, I will precook some vegetables and rice and put it in the fringe. You know how to use the microwave correctly now, right?"

"I studied the object and will not make it explode again!"

"Good," Nino chuckled. "Well then, good night, Sho."

"Good night, Nino. Thank you," Sho smiled.

Nino answered with another smile and slowly turned away, waving his hand slightly at the other man before tucking it into his trousers pocket and making his way across the roof top to the door that lead downstairs. He couldn't help but turn his head to look at Sho for a last time, a few steps later, just to find the other still smiling at him. Nino had to watch out not to trip on the rest of his way. He bid Aiba and Jun good night on his way, who were both still having fun, now dancing closely together to the rhythm of a catchy pop song, and about fifteen minutes later, he was downstairs in his room and ready for bed.

It was becoming really dangerous, when Sho smiled, Nino figured. It had become too effective on him. By now, he had not only developed an immense pride when receiving compliments by the other man, he also had started feeling all warm and fuzzy around Sho, even became jealous, which was never a good sign... He liked, and didn't like that, at the same time. He knew for sure though, that he better had to regain control over this situation, over his feelings. Falling in love had not been an option for Nino in such a long time, and falling in love with an alien now, was certainly not a smart idea.

Love on its own was a complicated thing, according to Nino's opinion, even without having to bother about cultural differences and a bunch of other interstellar difficulties that might arise, and Nino was definitely not ready for losing his heart to someone from another galaxy. Especially not, if that someone only considered him primarily as his source for food. It had been surprisingly disappointing to realize his role in Sho's life, Nino thought, but that was enough.

No, whatever that growing feeling in his chest was, and whatever the growing affection towards Sho would mean, Nino would get hold of it, and store it away in a corner of his heart, so that it wouldn't be able to hurt him. Sho might be good at being honest, but Nino preferred to keep some things secret. It would be better for everyone.


Part 2