Familiar

Fandom: Wizards Vs Aliens

Rating: K

Genre: General

Pairing: None (although Jathro/Crisps should so be a thing)

Word count: 1287

Summary: In which Jathro is wandering the human world and sees a familiar face. ONESHOT.

AN: Happy New Year, WvA fandom! Thought of this little thing yesterday whilst masterofmadness and I were sitting in our usual kiddy park. Hope you all enjoy.

DISCLAIMER. I do not own Wizards Vs Aliens. You'd all know if I did.

He'd been in this human form for far too long. That was the problem.

Jathro kicked an unsuspecting leaf that lay in his way, sending it spiralling across the concrete path. He'd never really felt the need to leave the observatory before now - he had plans to work out, things to finalise, certain geniuses to lure into aforementioned plans - but today was different. Humans were not like the Nekross. They craved companionship and interaction amongst one another - something Jathro never had before today, when the four walls of the control room seemed to be shrinking in on him, and his brain wouldn't focus on the task at hand, and, before he knew what he was doing or where he was going to go, he'd risen from his seat and all but sprinted out of the building, into the fresh air and drizzling rain, and hadn't paused in his step once, until now.

His feet scraped against the ground as the swinging seat catapulted him forwards. He'd stumbled upon the little children's play park quite by accident some time earlier. Usually, odd human places like this held little interest to him, but today was proving to be a less-than-usual day, and so he'd taken refuge on one of the funny seats, absentmindedly watching a rotating cast of children climbing over the twisted pieces of spray-painted metal. What odd, simplistic activities amuse humans, Jathro mused to himself, using his feet to send the suspended seat higher. The park had been empty for a while now, giving him a chance to mutter away to himself. Finalising his plans seemed a lot easier now that he was outside. He shook his head slightly, pulling a packet of crisps from his pocket and popping them open. He'd been living like a human for too long.

The swing next to him creaked as someone sat down. Roused from his musings, he glanced to his left in interest, and almost fell off his seat as he did a double take. A tall blonde had taken the seat next to him, shrouded in her enormous overcoat, her blue eyes fixed on a small boy who had started kicking a battered football against the nearest wall. But, of course, it wasn't any of this that made him double take. Humans had blonde hair and blue eyes a lot. Humans had children a lot.

She looked...vaguely familiar.

Jathro could have been sure that he had seen her somewhere once. But he had never left the observatory before now...so how could he have met her before?

"Hello." The word was from his mouth before he even knew it. The blonde glanced in his direction, and he thought he saw something cross her face, before a wary smile graced her features.

"Hello." They sat in silence for a few moments, before Jathro offered out the packet to her.

"Crisp?"

She looked surprised by the offer. "Oh. Um, yes. Thank you." She took one from the open packet and bit into it, eyes lighting up.

"Why, it's delicious!"

"You mean you haven't tasted crisps before?" Hadn't all humans tasted crisps before? That was the impression he had gotten from the amount of crisps he had seen the other humans eating. She shook her head, brushing the crumbs from her fingertips.

"What's your name?" She asked after a moment.

"My name?" Oh, yes. A name. He'd never needed a name before now. "Why, it's, um - well, it's - I, er -" He glanced around for inspiration, gaze falling to rest on a vehicle parked a little way up the street. Wright&Co was printed on the side, but someone had painted their name over it - it now read Adam Wright&Co.

"Adam Wright," he said finally. The blonde nodded, smiling at him in an odd way, as if she knew he had just made it up on the spot but didn't want to say anything. Jathro nodded in agreement with her silent approval - Adam Wright did have a nice sounding to it. "And, what is your name?"

"Oh..." She looked away into the distance, suddenly guarded. "I'm nobody, really."

"It's very nice to meet you, Nobody-Really."

She gave him an odd look, before breaking out into a peal of laughter. Jathro wasn't sure what she was laughing at - yes, her name was a little strange, even for a human name - but, whatever it was that was so funny, he soon found himself joining in too.

"You know," Nobody-Really said suddenly. "You remind me of someone I used to know."

"Oh, yes?"

"A friend of mine. Well, I say friend," she corrected herself after a moment. "I suppose, in hindsight, he wasn't really a friend."

"Why?" Jathro asked, curious in spite of himself.

"He tried to murder my family." She let out a heavy sigh, as if this fact was a heavy load weighing her down.

"That's..." Jathro shifted, uncomfortable, reminded of his own actions towards a certain family of royals. "That's horrible. My condolences."

"I suppose it was our fault too. We didn't treat him very well. We could have done better - I could have done better."

I wish the royals shared that view also. "I am certain you were just doing what you thought was right."

"I was too easily influenced back then," she admitted with a half smile. "I think I still am now." They sat in silence for a a few minutes, Nobody-Really watching the small boy, who was still preoccupied with kicking the football. After a moment of consideration, Jathro held the remainder of the packet of crisps out to her. "Here."

She blinked. "Are you sure?"

"Please, I insist. I can always get some more." The observatory seemed to have an unlimited supply of them. That was how Jathro had first discovered them, after all.

"You're very kind." She took the packet from his outstretched hand.

"Kind," Jathro mumbled, more to himself than to her. "That's not the correct adjective."

Surprisingly, she heard him. "All the same, thank you." She took a crisp and chewed it slowly, savouring it, before pocketing the packet, and rising from her seat, setting it swinging behind her. "Better take shelter. It looks like it's going to rain again."

Ah. Rain. "There seems to be a lot of it here," Jathro said absentmindedly.

"I noticed that too." She re-buttoned her coat, calling to the small boy. "Benny!" The child grabbed his football and ran over. She ruffled his dark hair affectionately, before glancing back at Jathro. "It was nice to meet you, Adam Wright."

"Nice to meet you also, Nobody-Really."

She shook her head, a grin spreading across her face. "Lexi."

"Pardon?"

"Lexi. My name's Lexi."

It couldn't be. It couldn't be her. Could it? No. It couldn't. Jathro tried to rid himself of the icy feeling in his stomach. It wasn't that Lexi. That Lexi was somewhere else. On another world. There were plenty of humans called Lexi that were blonde and blue-eyed on Earth. That didn't make them a Princess of Nekron. And besides, Nekross Lexi wouldn't have gone near a child.

She took little Benny's hand in her own, squeezing it softly. "Goodbye, Adam Wright. Good luck."

"Good luck?" He looked confused, momentarily distracted from the panic that had started to rise in his chest. "With what, exactly?"

She smiled that odd smile again, shaking her head, not saying anything as she led Benny out of the park, and disappeared over the other side of the street, where a large, run down high-rise tower block loomed, leaving Jathro - confused, relieved, and intrigued all at once - alone in the park once more as the rain started to fall.

This was supposed to be shorter, but it just kinda spiralled off into this. And one of my New Year resolutions was not to procrastinate!