Chapter Text
The girl’s slender, delicate fingers tugged at his collar, pulling him into the room. Amidst the dizzying mix of alcohol and perfume, the two of them tumbled onto the bed together.
Steve smiled as he felt the sting of his calf hitting the edge of the bed, that sensation reminded him he was still alive, and he liked it. As a flurry of kisses rained down on his burning skin, he reached out to wrap his arms around her, ready to return her passion.
Medicine bottles and scattered paperwork lay strewn across the nightstand. Not far away, the phone receiver hung off the hook, because he’d finally decided to cut all ties with this damn world after his routine call yesterday with his parents, who were God knows where. When he needed the comfort of someone’s embrace to soothe his already hollow heart, he’d rather use a fake ID to buy a colorful cocktail at a bar in exchange for a night with some hot girl, or boy. What guaranteed his success was his handsome face and his fabulous house with a pool. Steve considered this, in a way, the best end-of-life care his bastard parents had ever given him.
This is Steve Harrington: a decadent, exhausted, terminally ill bastard who’d already ruined his life at just seventeen and was now waiting to die——
“BOOM——” Suddenly, a thunderous roar accompanied by a chest-tingling tremor interrupted their intimacy. At the same moment, the entire house shook slightly.
“Oh my god, oh my fucking god, is that an earthquake?” The girl looked at Steve in panic.
Steve stared at her blankly for a while, rubbed his temples, suppressed the vulnerability that nearly slipped out due to his headache. He then slowly climbed out of bed, walked toward the window, and pulled back the curtains.
From his window, he had a direct view of the pool below his house. It was no longer a pool, all the water had been violently flung out. A massive object that was impossible to identify from above lay embedded in the pool’s basin, with a ring of searchlight-like lights flashing mechanically and rapidly.
It must have crashed down at tremendous speed, for the surrounding trees were still trembling slightly in this windless, oppressive season.
The girl behind him saw it too. She let out a scream, said goodbye and rushed to leave.
“Damn it...” Steve cursed. He’d finally finished processing his withdrawal from school and was at last free to wait for death in peace. Just as he was preparing to enjoy what little life he had left, something always came along to disturb him——some damn thing that gave him a headache. Poor Steve already had a damn tumor in his head, and if he was pushed any further, he felt he’d never be able to spend his final days in peace.
Seething with anger, he went downstairs. Without a second thought for whether this unknown object was safe or not, he grabbed a baseball bat and headed toward the pool.
He cautiously approached the machine. It had something resembling landing gear, a streamlined body, and a partially glass-encased exterior. It looked like some kind of aircraft. Steve had read about UFO legends in science fiction magazines and seen posters in malls, but this thing didn’t quite look like one of those flying saucers. Could it be a Soviet aircraft that had crashed? Should he call the police?
Just as he was about to turn back to call the police, a sound came from the top of the object. He held his breath, gripped the baseball bat tightly, and stared intently at a small, loose hatch on the roof.
Immediately afterward, the small door clicked open, and a human-like figure crawled out slowly,.
The creature looked up, appearing dazed, it staggered to its feet, and in the dim light, its form gradually came into focus.
It...no, IT was a HE. He wore a silver-gray bodysuit and looked almost exactly like a human. The exposed skin was slightly darker than a human’s, with a faint purplish tint, though not overly so. Two pointed ears peeked out from beneath his curly hair, and a pair of round eyes glinted an eerie bright blue against the light. He looked almost like a teenager. He stared straight at Steve, then flashed a huge grin.
“Ah-woo-ji-li-gua-la!” The strange boy grinned and waved at Steve, who stood completely frozen in place. Then, as if suddenly realizing something, he pulled a device resembling a headset from his pocket, put it on his head, and spoke again: “Sorry, I forgot to turn on the simultaneous translator. Hello there, Earthling!”
About five seconds later, Steve shouted in utter disbelief, “What the hell is this???”
His legs were shaking as he raised his bat and pointed at the boy who had just jumped down from what looked like a flying machine——no, not “looked like”! It was a flying machine. The guy had called him an “Earthling,” so he was obviously an alien. What the hell? How could this even be real?
The boy looked a little dejected, his pointed ears drooping slightly——the fact that this guy’s ears could droop had Steve’s attention inexplicably fixated on them, but aside from his slightly bizarre appearance, he looked almost harmless.
“Come on, I won’t hurt you. Don’t be like that,” the boy said softly, stepping a little closer. There was a slight lisp to his voice, and only then did Steve notice that he had fewer teeth than a human, but a pair of prominent, sharp fangs like those of a feline.
“Who are you? No, what are you? Why did you fall into my house?”
Steve’s heart was pounding, but his voice grew weaker as he spoke. At the same time, a sharp pain shot through the right side of his head, forcing him to close one eye and crouch down, the baseball bat in his hand clattering to the floor.
“I thought you are an intelligent being. Do you think I crashed my ship on purpose?” the boy muttered, his tone a bit sharp.
Yet his voice grew fuzzy in Steve’s aching head. Out of the corner of his eye, the alien boy was getting closer and closer, but the pain left him unable to do anything to protect himself. This was probably how it would end——dying at the hands of an alien instead of cancer. It was almost laughable.
But what followed wasn’t an attack or more pain. On the contrary, a cool sensation blossomed against his temple, somewhat like snowflakes melting on his skin. And immediately, all the pain and burning vanished, as if the agony had been nothing but an illusion.
Steve slowly opened his eyes and found the boy’s hand resting on his head. His alien skin was cool and soft, showing no sign of aggression, just gently stroking his head.
“That...What… was that you?”
The boy broke into a smile. “If you want to thank me, help me fix my spaceship! Earthling!”
Before Steve could react, the boy yanked him to his feet and started walking toward Steve’s house.
This alien has absolutely no sense of personal space!
“Hey! I don’t even know your name, or where you’re from! Do you realize how strange you look?”
The boy stopped at the sound of his voice, turned around, and looked up: “My name is Dustin, Dustin Henderson. I’m from the Great Aponia, and I’m an interstellar traveler!”
“Okay... Hi, I’m Steve.”
Steve had Dustin sit on his couch and went to rummage through the fridge for food. The little alien looked disheveled, he probably hadn’t eaten in a while. Steve didn’t know if aliens needed to eat three meals a day like human do, or if they could even eat Earth food, but just to be safe, he figured he’d better treat this harmless-looking guy to a meal.
As he pulled a box of leftover pizza from the fridge and popped it in the microwave, Steve glanced back at Dustin from time to time. The little alien was tilting his head back, curiously looking around. Kinda cute, Steve thought, but still pretty weird—after all, his skin was a bit purple.
“Are all human houses this big? Ancient travelers from our planet visited Earth and said Earthlings were still living in caves.”
Steve rolled his eyes. “Genius, you know that was ancient history.”
He set the heated pizza on the coffee table in front of Dustin, then plopped down next to him.
“Have some. You look like you haven’t eaten in ages.”
Then he noticed as Dustin’s eyes widened, looking at Steve with a mix of surprise and delight: “A feast from an Earthling! I must record this in my logbook!”
Steve was momentarily stunned by the look of joy on his face, it had been a long time since anyone had shown him such pure, unadulterated kindness.
“...It’s just pizza, a very ordinary Earth food. Just have a try.”
Dustin nodded, picked up a slice of pizza, took a deep sniff, and then took a big bite.
“It’s delicious. I’m already looking forward to the days ahead, Earthling.”
“Um, speaking of the days ahead, how long are you planning to stay?” Steve asked.
“Until I fix my ship,” Dustin said, speaking with his mouth full of pizza. “So I need your help. Maybe I’ll need you to help me get some parts.”
“Why do you think I’d help you? It’s not my fault you crashed here.”
“Because my ship is in your backyard, and neither of us can move it. If you don’t want it taking up space here forever, you’ll just have to wait for me to fix it,” Dustin said with a smile. Then he raised his greasy finger and tapped Steve on the head. “Also, is there something wrong with your head? At least for now, I can make you feel better. Deal?”
A rich, cheesy aroma wafted over from Dustin’s finger.
“How do you know there’s something wrong with my head? And how did you do that?” Steve asked, somewhat surprised.
Dustin gave a mysterious wink. “It’s a natural ability of us Aponian race.”
As the sky grew darker and the lights in the room remained off, Steve realized that in the dim light, Dustin’s skin was actually quite similar to that of an Earthling. The purple hue was actually a shimmering substance resembling stardust, glowing with a purple fluorescence in the dark night, forming a strangely beautiful sight.
“Aponian?” Steve repeated, committing the alien-sounding name to memory.
“I come from a planet called Aponia, 180,000 light-years from here. Our eyes can see the parts of any living creature’s body that are in pain, and we can eliminate that pain through just a slight touch.”
“Eliminate pain?” Steve gasped, almost in surprise. “You mean my headaches...”
Dustin shook his head. “We can only eliminate the sensation of pain, but we can’t cure it for real.”
The look of surprise lingered on Steve’s face for only a moment before being replaced by disappointment, which he quickly masked with a smile.
“...I’m sorry,” Dustin said after a moment of silence, raising his hand to gently touch Steve’s cheek with the back of his hand. The cool sensation startled Steve, he turned to look at Dustin, whose expression betrayed a hint of guilt. He realized the alien boy was expressing concern, and a wave of warmth actually flowed from that cool hand into Steve’s heart.
After all this time, the first person to genuinely care about him was, of all people, an alien.
Perhaps sensing the unusual shift in Steve’s mood, Dustin awkwardly withdrew his hand. “This is how we Aponians comfort people... If you don’t like it, I won’t do it again.”
Steve shook his head and smiled. “Not at all. Thank you.” He raised his hand and gently pressed the warm back of his hand against Dustin’s chilly cheek.
Dustin burst out laughing, his fluffy curls trembling along with his body.
“Steve, you’re the most interesting alien I’ve ever met in all my travels across lots of planets!”
Steve found an old set of his own clothes for Dustin. He was a bit taller and bigger than Dustin, so this was the only way to avoid making Dustin look like he was wearing an oversized sack. And now Dustin finally looked a bit more like an normal human teenager. After all, Steve didn’t want his hard-won new friend to get snatched up for research. Before long, they finally got the conversation going. The little alien was a chatterbox, eager to share his stories.
Dustin’s home was a beautiful, peaceful planet where everyone lived a tranquil, utopian existence. Peace had reigned there for nearly ten thousand years, a society that truely has lasting stability. The planet’s sole intelligent species, the Aponians, possessed the ability to instantly perceive a living being’s pain and temporarily alleviate it. This had spurred rapid advancements in their medical technology, making them renowned even among neighboring planets that had already developed interstellar social capabilities.
Dustin, however, was an outlier among the Aponians. Unsatisfied with a life of peace and tranquility, he relished adventure and loved to challenge everything his elders warned him to avoid.
“I’m basically a freak on Aponia,” Dustin shrugged. “How do you think I’d be allowed to fly a spaceship at sixteen? By the way, our age system is pretty similar to yours on Earth.”
“Sixteen??” Steve eyed him up and down in surprise—this kid was actually around his own age. “You look like you’re twelve or thirteen at most.”
“You can’t judge another species by Earth standards,” Dustin said.
“...Alright. So how’d you manage to get out here?” Steve asked.
Dustin gave a slightly sheepish chuckle: “I stole the ship my dad usually flies to other planets on business trip. He is an interstellar doctor.”
Steve was silent for a moment, then let out a chuckle laced with humor: “That’s exactly the kind of thing that someone like you would do.”
“Whoa, you’ve known me for less than a night, and you’re already this familiar with me?” Dustin squinted, flashing a slightly goofy smile.
Steve stared at the figure glowing with a faint purple light in the dim lighting, and his eyes suddenly sting with a sore sensation.
He had grown up in a family that was materially well-off but emotionally deprived. His parents don’t really care about his feelings. Starting in middle school, they often left him home alone, and by high school, they had simply stopped paying attention to him altogether. Any attempt to reach out was met with explosive arguments or even physical abuse. This left him with no expectation of love from his parents. So he began to squander money, using both his wealth and his pretty, popular face to win the affection of his peers. Girls, boys——as long as they were attractive and enthusiastic enough, he accepted most of their advances. This made him the King Steve at Hawkins High, a textbook example of a popular jerk.
But this love was also an illusion. He couldn’t bring himself to confess to anyone around him the fact that a time bomb was growing inside his brain.
It wasn’t the first time Steve had heard that line from a flirt, but this time it wasn’t a flirtation, it was a genuine exclamation from a friendly, open-hearted guy.
“Man, you’re an open book,” Steve said with a chuckle.
“...Oh, what does that mean?” Dustin didn’t understand Earthlings’ metaphors.
“It means that, in return for the stories you’ve shared, if you want to learn more about Earth besides just fixing spaceships, I’ve got plenty of free time.”