Bip bip bip

 

The alarm was buzzing, flashing an annoying red light in the grey, plain room. The young man groaned, struggling to get out of his covers. He had a habit of wrapping himself in them and sometimes fell from the bed, his feet getting caught in a blanket when he got up. He reached out to what was not an alarm clock but a phone on his silver night stand.

 

"Mmh," he grunted in the speaker with an angry tone, not able to make a correct sentence because he just woke up and his throat was a bit sore. His head was still resting on his ice blue pillow, blond strands going wild as he tried to tame them unsuccessfully.

 

"Good morning to you too," the blond heard a voice way to familiar on the other end of the line. 

 

"What do you want, JunMyeon?" He wanted to get straight to the point and finish what ever it was as fast as possible. He needed his sleep, dammit.

 

"I wouldn't be bothering you if it wasn't really important, LuHan ge," JunMyeon said, emphasizing on the 'really'.

 

LuHan smiled at the 'ge'. He liked it when the younger one called him that. You see, LuHan was Chinese, and apart from his dyed hair he was very much proud of his origins. And being an only child, he loved being called gēge, which meant 'big brother' in his native language. 

 

But all he answered was a cold, "Shoot JunMyeon, I don't have time for this." 

 

Of course he had plenty of time. Time was the only thing he had, really. He was the proud owner of the Ariadne, the most beautiful and fastest spacecraft in all the galaxies. All the galaxies he's been in anyway. He traveled from star to star, on an neverending journey, not even keeping a log book. And what did it matter. Dates and time and space. It was all messed up by now. What did you care if we were in this year and this space and what the weather was. He couldn't bother with it anymore. I mean, he was captain LuHan for crying out loud! And journals were just lame. 

 

"I-I can't really speak on the phone," JunMyeon whispered. "Can we come over? I had JongDae check you up on the radar and saw that you were on the orbit so," he trailed off, uneasy. 

 

LuHan hated being stalked, especially by the GSI, the Griffith Star Industry, JunMyeon's father's space firm. One of the, if not the greatest, company in the whole star system. If the young captain wasn't friends with the heir of GSI, he would probably be in jail by now. JunMyeon always directed JongDae, his secretary, to cover the Ariadne's tracks whenever she was flying where she wasn't supposed to. Which was quite often if you ask me. 

 

But LuHan stopped on something else. 

 

'We'

 

He knew exactly who it referred to and knew better than to ask about it on the phone. Mr. Griffith wasn't very fond of her and would do anything to keep 'that creature' away from his son.

 

"Okay," LuHan finally said. "After all, I owe you." He couldn't see but he just knew JunMyeon was smiling.

 

"Thank's ge! We'll be there in an hour," and the young British boy hung up.

 

An hour. Enough time to take a shower and laze around with a nice cup of coffee.

 

 

 

 

LuHan was in front of his fridge, hair still humid from his shower, a towel on his shoulders and clothed with his favorite grey body suit, when he realized there was nothing to eat.

 

He cursed and went to the storage for better luck. But when he opened the door he didn't see any food either. No. Instead he was met with a strong, green, piercing gaze.

 

"What the-!" LuHan jumped in surprise.

 

There, between a shelf of cans and dehydrated noodles, was a boy, sitting knees to his chest. He was curled up in a bowl, LuHan wondered how he managed to fit in such a small space. But that wasn't the only thing that struck him. The boy was wearing a dirty red sweater, with matching shorts, shoes and even hat. 

 

Way to be discrete, kiddo.

 

"Who are you? How did you get on my ship?" His voice was hard but LuHan was actually curious to know.

 

"I-I-," the boy stuttered.  

 

"How old are you?" the captain asked, sighing. He buried his face in his hands, making them slide, messing up his skin and deforming the shape of his dark eyes. He didn't wake up this morning for this.

 

The boy was obviously young and really skinny. Probably why he fit between the shelves. But LuHan was surprised and confused. The boy didn't touch any of the food in the storage. He could use some thought. But he had a really nice jaw line. His skin was smooth, he didn't seem sick or anything. If he tried he could surely build up his body pretty good. He reminded LuHan of Peter Pan, actually, with the hat and the cherubic face. Well except, in red.

 

"H-How old do I look?" the boy lifted his eyes to meet the man's.

 

The young captain could've sworn the boy's orbs were green when he found him. Now they were like... grey.

 

"About seventeen, maybe eighteen," he said truthfully. What's this? Some kind of guessing game. "Underage, in any case," he finished harshly.

 

The boy stayed silent for a while. "Then that must be my age," he finally answered shyly and faced back down.

 

OK. If he wasn't before, the blond was definitely pissed-off now.

But he was actually more bugged out about the multicolored hair sticking out of the boy's woolly hat. LuHan had a color too, yes, but what the hell was with that?

 

"What's that?" he asked ironicly. "Are you trying to hide your rainbow hair with that stupid hat?" He tugged on it, messing up the boy's strands and showing his ears.

 

Pointy.

 

"You're-!" The man stepped back in surprise.

 

The young one grabbed the red beanie abruptly to put it back on his head. But failed to hide his ears.

 

"I- I'm-" He stuttered. His face was all red and he was staring at the floor.

 

"OK. Your eyes are now ing purple! What the hell are you?!" LuHan backed away some more, honestly freaked out.

 

An alien. The answer was obvious. And captain LuHan had seen many of those. Believe me. But this, this was new. Weird faces, indescribable textures, animal-like, vegetation-like, any form really, you name it. But eye color-changing, rainbow-haired, pointy-eared Peter Pan? Nope. That was a first.

 

"I'm sorry," the boy stood up, showing his palms in surrender. "I didn't mean to- I was just-" His eyes were grey again.

 

Now that he was fully in view, LuHan saw that his clothes weren't only dirty but also torn up. And he was taller than him. Damn. The boy was an intruder but he was just that. A boy. And the Chinese captain couldn't ignore that.

 

"I'm sorry," the boy said again. "I didn't steal anything, I swear." He was almost whining.

 

"It's okay. It's okay," LuHan tried to steady him. "What's your name?" he asked calmly this time. 

 

"Se- SeHun." The boy was clutching his dirty sweater and flinched when he saw a hand coming towards him.

 

LuHan was just going for a handshake but obviously not working, he patted SeHun's shoulder. "I'm LuHan, captain LuHan. And you're on the Ariadne, my ship." He tried to be nice but he was still curious about what this little alien was doing and more importantly how the hell did he manage to board the ship without him knowing.

 

SeHun opened his mouth but an alarm cut him off.

 

Po beep po

 

Door, LuHan thought. Nice timing JunMyeon! 

 

He cursed and pointed a warning finger at the boy, "Don't move," and left him in front of the storage.

 

LuHan wanted to curl back up in his comfy feather bed. Why was this happening to him? He cursed some more before reaching the door. He typed in the code and the heavy metallic airlock opened on JunMyeon and Krystal, as the captain had guessed earlier. 

 

They were pretty much the same than the last time the Chinese young man saw them. JunMyeon was still auburn and small, with his British freckles and Krystal was still sinfully beautiful with her fiery hair and emerald orbs. LuHan didn't understand why Mr. Griffith thought it was such a bad thing that his son was heads over heels for her. She was young, graceful, could handle her scotch and stand up for herself. Yeah, that last one might be the problem. And maybe also the fact that she wasn't human like them. Krystal was a Nereid. But ain't nothing wrong with that, right? LuHan didn't know, and honestly didn't care.

 

"This is actually kind of a bad time," the blond said, leaning against the door.

 

"But on the phone you said-"

 

"I know what I said," LuHan stopped JunMyeon with his hand. "But it appears that a lot can change in an hour." 

 

"But this is really important. Remember?" The auburn-haired boy seemed desperate.

 

"Yeah. But I kinda got a...," the captain didn't know how to explain about red Peter Pan, "a situation, here." 

 

"Well we've got a situation too!" JunMyeon was yelling at this point. "Krystal and I are getting married."

 

LuHan was about to argue some more but that shut him up. Yep. Shut him up real good.

 

"Excuse me. What?" 

 

The blond heard clearly what his friend had said. All too clearly. And he didn't like where it was heading one bit.

 

"Krystal and I are getting married," JunMyeon repeated slowly.

 

LuHan stared at them for a while as the short man was waiting for an answer and his fiancée was nodding at the statement.

 

"Well congratulations!" The captain clapped his hands. "Send me a picture, will you," he stepped back, "'cause I don't think I'll be able to make it to the wedding," and tried to shut the airlock but JunMyeon grabbed him before he could.

 

"We need you LuHan ge! You're a captain, you can marry us! You know how my father feels about Krystal. I thought you'd help me! You're my friend! Please, I'm begging you!" the British young man blurred out.

 

Way to throw all your good cards at once, JunMyeon.

 

LuHan sighed heavily. The heir of GSI was usually a very diplomatic man, due to his work. So this showed how desperate he was.

 

"Listen," he looked at his friend and the latter let go of him. "It's not that I don't want to. Actually I'll kill you if you don't let me do the ceremony." JunMyeon smiled at that. "But I really got a thing going on here. And besides, we need to prepare and such."

 

"Don't worry about that," the younger said cheerfully, seeing that he had won. "We're all set."

 

Indeed. Krystal was holding a big duffle bag behind her back. LuHan knew he was in for a lot of trouble. But nothing he couldn't handle and anything to piss Mr. Griffith off.

 

"OK," the captain said. "But just wait here, I'll be right back."

 

He was about to leave the couple in the entrance when Krystal spoke for the first time since they arrived.

 

"You really don't want us to see your guest, huh? Makes me wonder who she is."

 

Damn her and her Nereid senses! She got the 'she' part wrong, thought.

 

"What guest?" the British boy asked.

 

They really were like water and fire. Where JunMyeon was naive, Krystal was devious and where JunMyeon was mature, Krystal was playful. A deadly combination.

 

"Let's go and see," she said with a smirk, suddenly leading the way.

 

There was no point hiding it so LuHan just walked along. They found the little alien sitting in front of the storage, playing with

 

"Jason!" the blond yelled and SeHun's eyes went from brown to grey as he jumped in surprise. "Where the hell have you been?" But the pink furry pet just mewled and curled up in his master's arms.

 

Jason was an European lynx-rabbit that LuHan had won gambling with some Colonians three years ago. The poor creature had been modified for money making. They had implanted some mechanical wings to make him fly. Oh he flew, alright. But Jason was a rare survivor of the operation and the junction between the metal and the skin was painful to see. The captain didn't even want to think how it felt. So he asked for a trade but the Colonian circus was too greedy and it ended up in a gambling game. The Chinese man had won fair and square if you can believe it. Luck seemed to always be on his side. He had packed up the lynx-rabbit and quite some bit of gold. Ah good times. He had crafted a little backpack to hide the ugliness on Jason's back and the little animal seemed fine with it, as he could fly freely. He had been the ship's mascot ever since.

 

If Jason likes him, LuHan thought, he can't be bad. The pointy-eared boy had eyes full with innocence and the blond's guess was he was just scared. The question was Why? Or of what? But JunMyeon shook him out of his thoughts. 

 

"What have you done to him?" He shot a judging look at his friend. "He's just a boy! What is wrong with you?!"

 

LuHan didn't get it at first, but as he set eyes on SeHun with his dirty, torn up cloths and Are those bruises on his neck? 

 

"Wha-!" the captain was shocked. "You think I did this to him?!"

 

"Who else?"

 

The blond was about to protest but Krystal stopped her fiancé by putting a hand on his chest. 

 

"Thank you, Krystal," LuHan said relieved. "Someone who understands that I'm not a psychopath with a kink for little alien boys." He was the one to send a judging look at the short man this time. 

 

But what came out of the Nereid's mouth was different entirely. She wasn't just stopping JunMyeon, she was backing him away.

 

"What the hell are you doing letting a Therianthrope on board?" Her voice was too calm to be good. "Are you out of your freaking mind!!" 

 

And there was the shouting.

 

Wait. A what?