I bet you are wondering what happened to the cube.

The cube which had borne this beautiful, pet-like alien had disappeared when I stepped outside to hide it away from the neighbors, only to be found just under my foot, the size of a rubix cube once more. Rubbing at the pain and biting my lip to keep from shouting out, I picked up the cube and felt it warm with the heat of my hand.

As of now, it rests on my desk, a reminder that my pet wasn't from around here. I shouldn't let myself get lulled into the false sense of normalcy his curious puppy-eyes created. It was hard though. I've never seen anyone so innocent and harmless-looking before.

And to make things harder, he was hot. I prided myself on keeping fit, and thought that I shouldn't be so attracted to a body so similar to mine, but he had serious abs and darkened skin that always looked so flawless. He was shorter, which only made him look better, not having the same awkward lankiness my recent growth spurt had me at. Staring at him was becoming a hobby of mine and being stared back at didn't bother me back when he wasn't talking.

As he got more into the habit of greeting me and speaking simple words, he became human in my mind and my body reacted accordingly.

Little touches with Kai had been no big deal. A pat on the head here, a brushing against his arm as we passed by there, a trailing hand across his shoulder. With the pet-like Kai, these touches were nothing. I was simply patting a dog for being a good boy, petting a cat on the back of the neck to feel the soft hair at his nape. The talking Kai was the one who made heat flash across my body with every accidental brush and affectionate touch.

He was very much into snuggling and cuddling and hugging and it was getting to be too much for my stupid hormones to handle. He'd run his fingers over my red-tinted cheeks, asking questions brokenly of why I'd become like this, why I'd shy away when he got even closer. How could I answer him? This attraction was wrong on so many levels. You wouldn't feel romantically inclined to your pet, would you? And I absolutely should not feel so taken by an alien, no matter how handsome.

***

Leaving the TV on while I was out helped a lot with Kai's communication skills, but it was teaching him other things too.

Exactly twenty days after I had found the cube, I decided to let Kai outside, seeing as how he was looking more and more human every day. No one glancing at him would notice the fluid agility to his movements since he was becoming more accustomed to moving more like I did and the people on TV did. Still, he moved with the grace of a dancer and I often wondered how he'd do if he was ever taught this art form.

Here in the sunny yard, he would crouch down and observe the insects crawling about the grass and the stirrings of wind that blew at his clothes. Everything was fascinating to him.

“T-Tao... Look!” he exclaimed, eagerly showing me his hands closed around something small. I expected an insect, but there in his hands as he peeled them back lay the head of a pink flower, the many petals falling back onto his palms. His eyes turned from their usual brown to the golden timbre of the pool and a flash of light the same color spread through the veins of the flower petals, highlighting the edges and setting his skin aglow just briefly. And he smiled brightly like he had done something to be proud of.

I didn't know what to say, what to do. He handed me the flower, no longer alight in gold, and I just took it wordlessly, astonished.

Was he getting sunburned out there? He had been sweating a lot when he handed me the flower.

Setting down the little gift, I turned the squeaking knob on the side of the house that the water hose. Handing the hose to Kai, I told him to use it to cool down while I got some sunblock for him. Whether or not he understood what sunblock was, he obeyed without question.

Coming back, I nearly dropped the bottle I was holding.

Why did I give an already flawlessly gorgeous being control of vast amounts of water? Kai's shirt stuck to his form, white cloth turning transparent. He lifted this and wiped his eyes, showing the abs I hadn't seen since I taught him to dress in privacy. Water weighed down his hair, which he combed back with his fingers. Surely he had just stepped out of a magazine and not a metal cube from outer space? All I could see as I popped open the sunblock bottle and smoothed some of the cream on his arms were droplets gliding down his skin.

And... was that a smirk?

Putting a rough, wet hand on my cheek, I barely had time to worry that he now knew for himself that he was gorgeous. I was too busy processing the fact that my alien pet was pressing his lips to mine.

What the hell have I been letting him watch, I thought as I melted into this beautiful dream that should never end, ever. I let myself believe this couldn't possibly be reality and enjoyed the warm, wet boy's lips under the hot sun.

Until the neighbor, Luhan, whistled down at us from his balcony.

I reluctantly pushed Kai away and raced back to the porch with him where we couldn't be seen.

“You don't have to be so shy. I already knew you were seeing someone.” he called out, laughing. “A male someone. So, how's life on the gay side? You enjoying your stay? Let me know if you need any to- ouch!”

Any what? Was he about to say toys?

I peeked over and found him and his boyfriend, Xiumin, exchanging angry whispers with weird gestures I really didn't want to interpret.

“Hey,” Xiumin stopped me as I started to duck back under the cover of the roof. “Are you going to introduce us? We won't tell your dad. Right, Luhan?”

The other boy nodded very quickly. “We just finished baking... well, it's supposed to be an apple pie, but it kind of-”

“Fell apart when we tried to slice it in pieces-”

“And it's basically apple mush and crust bits in scoops, but it's pretty good with ice cream.”

Was Kai ready to meet other people? His vocabulary needed work, his pronunciation was still off, he moved like a cat, he glows with weird lights every now and then, he doesn't quite understand a lot of social expectations and common sense...

But apple mush sounded good. And who would possibly believe he was an alien? I still wondered every now and then if my memories of the cube and the golden pool were all just figments of my imagination. I wouldn't be surprised if Kai himself was a part of my imagination.

A hand was slipped into mine and I looked up to see Kai smiling encouragingly. He was leading me down the steps, walking backwards without any problem at all.

This could be a bad idea.

But he needed to get out of the house sometime, right?