crash landing

Hi, you read the title, you know what you're here for, right?

You do? Gooood. Now follow me, and we'll see what mischief we can get up to.

As if the words were drawing them in, Tetsu's friends all fell into line with each other at the sight of yet another convoluted way to say "let's hang today" distributed via pamphlet across their beds. He didn't know why he was so scared to tell them with his own mouth, maybe it was the fear of them saying they had better things to do, or maybe it was just the fact that they all teased him for his slightly high voice whenever he said anything remotely vulnerable.

"You comin, Tetsu? Or you just gonna stand there with a frown in your mouth and a boulder in your hip" Shouted Take, the tallest of his friends and by far the "coolest", at least by 1st year college kid standards. Wearing black with accents of navy and the coveted aviators that you never put on, just leave on your head.

"Yeah, just collecting these in case someone other than you bozos comes out and notices I spelled 'good' with four 'o's" Tetsu shouted back across the room. It would be possibly one of the worst things ever if someone decided to come into their dorm and saw not only the mess but some evidence of where they had all gone to.

Thankfully he'd left it super cryptic and left it to them to realize he had been waiting in the hallway for an hour and a half for them to wake up so they wouldn't get lost trying to find whatever it was this time he had said was a cool hangout place.

When they got to the site, just a half an hour walk away from their small-town college, his friends realized it had all been just to find... "A cool grove of trees?" Daniel, another friend said, eyeing the small copse of apple trees in the middle of a field of corn. "I'll bet you couldn't grab an apple with your cool small hands if you tried."

"They're not just any apple trees, these guys have been ripening aaall summer, and if we bump the tree just right..." Tetsu grabbed the nearest tree and shook it slightly, sending a few apples tumbling down onto the rest's heads. Leading to more than a few groans and grumbles.

"Aaaaand thats not all, folks!" He said in that car tv infomercial salesman type voice, leading them over to more of a clear area where in a divot in the ground revealed...

"A stream? Sick!" Hiro said, before throwing off his shirt and jumping in, beckoning his girlfriend Sammy to jump in as well.

As the rest of his friends began playing around, having fun, Tetsu just sat back against a tree and watched. He had never really been one to play around, he'd been the one to sit out and read. There was just something about being with friends that made books all the better.

It's not that he didn't like being around people, that might be a part of it, but he just didn't know what to do around them. People are different, and something that is normal to some might be off-putting to others, so it's best to just... Observe and figure out what not to do before you do something that might hurt them. That's what he believed, at least.

Just as it was getting dark and people were starting to walk back into town, Tetsu felt a light tapping on his shoulder, almost like a doe was trying to get his attention. He stood up slowly as not to scare whatever is was, and as he looked behind him, he saw a scene he'd never forget. 

From bright green flames came a dull brown smoke, and standing in the midst of it all was what could only be described as one of the most beautiful people he'd ever seen. White-blond hair flowing down from a fairly colored head with hazel eyes and pearlescent lips, resting on top of a petit torso, sporting a cherry red sleeveless blouse and some of those ripped up jeans.

As he watched, well, stared, the spell was broken as the mysterious stranger began patting out the small flames, beckoning him over to help. There was a small crater, probably about as big as the stranger, and in the center of it a partially buried, partially ruined platform, big enough to stand on but not much more. After the flames were gone, the stranger began to use their hands to bury the rest of the platform, and after they were done, they uttered a short phrase.

"Nero, She/Her, Canada, and Chocolate Truffles" The stranger said without a moment to lose. It took about a moment for Tetsu to understand what had just been said, before stammering out "uh, name, pronouns, country, and... favorite food?". Nero sighed shortly before correcting him with "dream vacation, but yeah", and then letting out a little laugh and smiling at him.

Just then, one of the few remaining came over while biting into an apple, and catching sight of them talking, butted in with a loud "So. When are you two getting married? Am I invited? Oooh I bet Hiro and Sammy are invited, right?" Both of their faces flushed and started stammering "n-n-n-n-not like i-its, its not like that!" Nero was the one to finally say a complete word. She followed it up with a full sentence to boot. "I am not his girlfriend, we are not getting married, and you would do well to throw yourself back into whatever pile of garbage you came from." She said with a triumphant "hmph!"

"Geez, it was just a joke, no need to go apples on me" Daniel said with a smile. "Well, I and the others will head back, you two lovebirds take as much time as you need" He winked, and then left them alone.

"What was all of that" Tetsu asked, waving at the now completely buried gadgets. "What are you?" Nero sighed the deep sigh of someone who was about to explain a lot more than they wanted to. "Well, simply put, I'm an alien that came down to earth to escape the wars happening everywhere else. That was my landing apparatus, and I intend to spend the rest of my days here in hiding, so I'd appreciate it if you told no one else about what you saw here today."

"Well, what are you going to do from here? Even if you have money, you need a job, you need an ID-" Nero jumped in at that last word. "Yup! I have one, I got one faked for me, and I can say I'm from Canada!" Tetsu wondered what he had gotten himself into. He could back out now, leave her on her way. She seemed like she'd do fine on her own, but there was that nagging feeling that she might not, that something might go wrong and he might've been able to solve it. "OK" He said maturely. "How about you stay with me for a while, at least until I can tell you how you can live completely by yourself with no assistance and without needing to ask questionable questions or have questionable answers to questions, alright? I've got many spare beds in my house." Nero pondered the proposal for a moment before nodding her head. "As much as it pains me to say this, but I think the cover story of being my girlfriend is a good one to use for now, and we can always choose to 'break up' and go our separate ways"

Tetsu's house was around 40 minutes away, so they had some time to kill while they walked. Tetsu had quite a few questions to ask, especially about her life before coming to earth and the situation in the stars, but that would probably be rude, and potentially even triggering, if she was hiding away from war for the right reasons. So he just decided to ask about thing pertaining to how she presented herself right now.

"So, is this your, uh, 'real', form? You look like a regular human to me." Tetsu definitely shouldn't have asked that question first, he probably should have gone for something about her manner of spe- "Yeah, as real as it gets. I did look differently, but with the magic of gene editing, I can look exactly like what I'd look like had I been a human" Nero cut off his inner voice with the answer without a hint of annoyance.

"Now it's my turn to ask you a question. Its only fair, isn't it?" She followed it up with pointing at a few man made objects and asking what their purpose was. A few were a bit complicated, like the exact reason why there were water fountains in parks, or the social context of having so many apartments so close to each other.

"That was quite more than a question, so uh, ha." Tetsu stated matter-of-factly after Nero was done asking questions. "Ah, how about this one. Why can you speak so well? I'd expect you to either have some speech quirk or some sort of translation software that has a horrible voice and messes up sometimes." Tetsu asked, not entirely expecting a satisfying answer. "Well, for one, my body is mostly that of a human one, so the syllables aren't all that hard, and as for actually knowing the language, I spent a lot of time on the internet." Tetsu was taken aback for a moment and paused. "The... actual internet? There are aliens on the internet???" Nero smirked. "Yeah, the actual, honest to goodness internet. We do have to bounce the signal off of satellites, and the connection speed is horrendously slow, but some of us make it happen. Can't say many do though."

Tetsu stopped. They had reached his house. "Well, here's my house," He opened the door and showed her through his modest house, showing her the spare bedroom and couch in the living room "here's the spare beds I have, there's the bathroom, kitchen, and dining room" Nero stopped him. "I'll take the guest room, I can find my way around a house." Tetsu went to bed that night wondering what his life would be like from now on.