It was nearing evening and Vexen still wasn't content with the arrangement of potted plants in the little garden.
"Goddamn it, Vex, it doesn't even matter," Larxene, his younger sister and cohabiter, complained from the doorway as another heavy pot was heaved up and dumped unceremoniously somewhere else. "It's getting cold,"
Five o'clock and the sun had already taken its leave; the winter night was clear and the moon was full, glowing with almost eerie menace.
"There's just this last one I need to find a place for," Vexen replied, motioning to a large pot that was home to a plant with leaves not dissimilar to Swiss cheese. It stood squat in the middle of the patio.
"Forget it. It can wait until tomorrow," Larxene grumbled, lifting her head to look not at her perfectionist brother but up into the cloudless sky with a long suffering sigh.
Vexen followed her gaze and they both saw the shooting star flash past.
"Wow..." Larxene simply said, eyes still lingering where the comet had been. "Not every day you see one of those,"
"No, now come over here and help me with this plant," Vexen said, never one for being in awe at perfectly normal scientific phenomena.
Larxene sighed, not for the first time that afternoon, and pushed herself away from the doorframe. She happened to glance up again.
"Woah - Another shooting star. Look,"
She pointed to the blazing comet in the sky. Odd, it looked almost as though it was coming towards them.
"That's not a shooting star, Larxene," Vexen (a knowledgeable scientist) said, frowning. "It looks like something coming through the atmosphere,"
They both stared at the advancing object, whatever it was.
"A rocket?"
"Too small,"
"It really does look like it's coming our way, doesn't it,"
Vexen dropped the plant.
"Get inside," He ordered.
"What?"
"Get inside," Vexen repeated, voice rising. "I don't know what that is, but it's headed straight for us. Quickly!"
They rushed inside just as the thing became a brilliant flare, and even as Vexen slammed the sliding glass door shut, impact was made hard enough to shake the entire house. Dust billowed up from the newly formed crater.
"Damnit," Vexen said quietly, in a moment so surreal and pivotal that only menial words can ever come to you. "I liked that plant,"
"I don't think that's the last you'll see of it," Larxene, hands pressed against the glass, whispered in reply. "Look,"
Vexen peered through the clearing cloud of dust. In the epicentre of the collision, in amongst shards of smashed pottery and a pile of soil, something was moving.
In front of his very eyes, the plant was morphing, leafy appendages uncertainly growing, twisting, shaping into something barely recognisable but somehow steadily becoming more and more humanoid...
Horrified, Vexen backed from the glass.
"What is that thing..."
Larxene, on the other hand, was grinning in amazement.
"It's awesome,"
She made a move to open the door and Vexen grabbed her arm.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"I want to check it out,"
"You have no idea what it is! It-"
"It's an alien, Vexen,"
Larxene motioned to the thing, with its long spindly legs, green skin and leaves still sprouting out of its body. It was calmly inspecting one woody stalk, which was attempting to grow fingers.
"It could be hostile," Vexen replied, biting his lip, partly with worry, but mostly with fear.
The alien tried a step towards the house, wobbling as it did so.
"Look," Larxene said. "He's all confused. We ought to help him,"
"What we ought to do is call the police," Vexen muttered as Larxene pulled the door open.
She stepped into the moonlight, walking across where the patio had been, down into the crater. Vexen followed uncertainly, tense as a bowstring and ready to run like hell if the alien made any unexpected move.
"Hello," Larxene said slowly, raising a hand to show she meant no harm.
The alien looked up, a quizzical expression on its featureless face. Before Vexen had time to contemplate how that could even work, it rearranged itself, slits forming in the middle of what could be described as the alien's head. A moment later, they opened as two eyes and a mouth.
The thing croaked. It shut its proto-mouth and then tried again.
"Hello," It repeated uncertainly, raising its - for lack of a better word - hand in a similar way to Larxene's.
"I'm Larxene," Larxene said, gesturing to herself, then the alien.
It gave her a look of passive, well meaning incomprehension.
"Larxene," She repeated slowly. "Me. Larxene,"
"Larxene," The alien repeated, gesturing to her with sudden understanding. "Larxene?" It asked, pointing to Vexen, who was frozen in shock.
"Vexen," Larxene helpfully supplied.
"This is insane," Vexen finally managed to say. "You're talking to an alien that has just landed in our back garden and... possessed, or something, one of our potted plants. This has to be a dream,"
"If it's a dream, it's a wicked one," Larxene said. "Not every day you make extra-terrestrial contact, right?"
"I'm scared out of my wits,"
The alien suddenly gave them both a look of utter realisation.
"Language!" It said gleefully. "Of course!"
"You can understand us?" Larxene asked, pleasantly surprised.
"I can now," It replied, giving a jerky nod. "Words, of course you use them. I should have realised. Larxene must be your name, then?"
Larxene nodded back.
"Yeah. And this is Vexen,"
"Greetings," The alien said, bowing low. "It is indeed a great honour to meet two such trustworthy specimens of this planet. My name is Marluxia,"
"Marluxia," Larxene repeated with glee. "See, Vexen? He's perfectly friendly,"
"I'm still terrified. What are you?"
"That would depend whether you are referring to a physical or metaphysical sense," Marluxia replied. "If it is the former, then that should be self evident. I hope you don't mind,"
"Don't mind what?" Larxene asked.
"Fusing with your plant. It was necessary on impact, otherwise I surely would have diffused,"
Vexen frowned in confusion.
"You what?"
"Be polite, Vex!" Larxene said, pushing his shoulder lightly.
Marluxia only smiled.
"I understand your confusion," The alien said. "Let me explain. I don't normally have any physical form, per say, like you do. But upon entering your planet's atmosphere, I came under a lot of strain and had to anchor myself to this body. The bond is permanent, but I will make a great effort to recompense you for what you have lost,"
"Oh... Okay," What could you say to something like that?
"So why are you here?" Larxene asked, fascinated.
"I'm searching," Marluxia said.
"For what?"
"For my soul mate. Without him I am incomplete. He... went missing nearly thirty of your solar rotations ago now. I've been seeking him ever since,"
"That must be terrible," Larxene said sympathetically.
"I feel as though I am very close to the end of my search, though," Marluxia said with a slightly lopsided smile. "I can feel him. He's here, somewhere, I'm sure. But I think he may have fused accidentally with one of the bodies on this planet and lost his memories, so his signal is very weak,"
"Well, good luck with your search. I hope you find him," Larxene replied. "Do you want anything?"
The alien paused for a moment.
"Yes," He finally said, thoughtfully. "How do you get your skin that colour? All I can seem to get is green, but of course without the chlorophyll-" He trailed off a little uncertainly.
Vexen sighed.
"I have some books on human anatomy. You can look at those,"