The planet was small and uninhabited, so the mission was going to be relatively easy and immensely boring. It took nearly a week to reach Alduous 579 in the tiny craft Kirishima and Kaminari barely managed to pay off with the scraps of Units left in their pockets. Nearly a week to literally fly there, land, grab some dirt, check some readings, and fly back off. The whole 'surveying of the planet' thing would take maybe a total of thirty minutes.

The process after that was a bit more complicated. The results would get analyzed, then the planet would be analyzed, more trips would be scheduled, and more readings would be taken, but that was out of Kirishima's hands. He was being paid to do the most mundane part of the job which is probably why the work was contracted out. He could hear his boss' voice in his head now, correcting 'mundane' to 'crucial.'

Yes, his work was important. Yes, he did a good job at it and, yes, he did take pride in it. It wasn't always filling dirt into vials. Sometimes he would be part of a larger team where they would go and meet other races, learn about other civilizations, and actually get to immerse themselves in a new culture. Those were his favourite missions. The universe was unfathomably massive and always had something unique and exciting to offer up - that's why he took his job in the first place. A few missions here and there in his shitty ship to a boring planet with the only lifeforms being its local flora and fauna was a decent trade-off.

"Are you coming down with me this time?" Kirishima asked, flopping down in front of one of the ship's panels to bring up the planet's dossier once more before they landed. He shot a knowing grin in Kaminari's direction when all he received was a snort in response. It was basically a one-man mission, but the protocol required a minimum of two employees at all times when it came to going off-planet. Whether or not they both left the ship was a different story.

"I am on an incredible streak with this game," Kaminari replied, fingers tapping across the holographic screen he had projecting up from his communicator. "If I step outside of this ship, all of my talent and honed skills will step outside with me, and, dude," he paused, looking away from the game very briefly to his partner, "I don't think I could live with myself if I didn't come back with it."

"Right, okay. I wouldn't want you to make that sacrifice," Kirishima laughed, swiping the dossier closed once he confirmed the atmosphere and went over a few other notes he had marked down before. Simple and straightforward.

As far as he was concerned, it was Kaminari's loss. Kirishima was dying to take in some fresh air and to stretch his legs outside instead of pacing each room of the ship. Kaminari seemed to take comfort in getting absorbed into whatever games he had on his communicator, but Kirishima found it damn near impossible to sit still. The shorter missions, like the day-trips, were better, or even the ones involving a larger crew and a larger vessel. Something like this almost made him stir crazy.

A soft beeping sounded out when the craft began to make its descent to the planet's surface, using the pre-programmed coordinates. Pretty much every aspect of these missions was idiot-proof. (Good thing for them seeing as they both nearly flunked all of their academic requirements needed to get the job.) Kaminari let out a sigh, kicking his feet off the dash of the ship and closing his game. At least when it came down to it, Kirishima's partner still did his job. Kaminari pressed a preset confirmation on the screen that popped up, sending off the relevant information needed for their report indicating that they had reached their destination safely.

Kirishima stepped away to grab the supplies used for the samples, thankful that this atmosphere didn't require some of the more bulkier suits other planets needed. It meant he could pack light, carrying only one bag, instead of being weighed down by heavy material. "I'll be back in half an hour," he called over his shoulder, heading to the main hatch and using the grab bars to steady himself as the craft officially landed. Kirishima waited for a response before he started to enter the code needed to open the exit, shoulders sagging in frustration when his partner never replied. "Kamin—"

"Yep, yep! Keep in touch, be safe, and don't talk to strangers!" The blonde cut off loudly, clearly back to playing his game. Huffing out a sigh, Kirishima now punched the code in to release the hatch.

Another less stressed sigh of relief left his mouth as the narrow stairs dropped down to the planet, fresh and cool air flooding the ship. "You're going to miss out," he taunted into the communicator fastened to his shoulder, stepping down the stairs onto the sand. Once he was a few steps away, the stairs hissed and retreated into the vessel, the hatch clanking shut behind them. Basically Kaminari's way of saying, "I heard you, but no." Kirishima grinned to himself, laughing softly. "Suit yourself, then."

The ship had been programmed to land on a vast stretch of beach lining the edge of the ocean that covered the majority of Alduous 579. The sand was completely different than Kirishima's home planet, where all the beaches were covered in gravelly, black dirt. This beach was a startling white that would have been blinding if not for the fact that a soft, dusty pink was marbled in, toning the jarring white down. The strip of shore was narrow and, a few feet away from the green water lapping at the land, purple and pink foliage were sprouting up. The shrubs and vines twisted into tall, towering trees that bloomed with broad leaves that only got larger the higher up they grew. The trees dotted the beach at first, growing denser the further inland they went which caused a twinge of excitement to grow in Kirishima's chest.

This was a planet no one he knew had seen before and he got to be the first one to break through that treeline to see exactly what hid in that forest.

He tried not to let the fact that he wasn't supposed to explore dampen his mood.

Kirishima began his walk towards the plantlife, stooping down when he had put a decent distance between himself and the ship to scoop up some of the swirled, pearlescent sand into a vial. The shrubs were next. He didn't have to grab a sample of every single one, of course, but rather a small assortment to get a rough idea of the planet's flora. Kirishima spent the next few minutes clipping leaves and stems with tiny scissors, shaking seeds free from bulbous flower pods, and carefully removing a few new shoots from the soil to ensure their roots stayed intact. Each sample was sealed into a metal canister and information was jotted down neatly across the metallic surface. Straightening himself, Kirishima turned toward the trees. He was immediately drawn to the surface of the one closest to him - it was smoother than any tree he had ever seen before, resembling a deep, purple skin more than the rough bark the majority of trees seemed to have. He reached forward hesitantly, grimacing as his fingers grazed the oddly texture-free tree. When he pushed down onto the surface, he found it squished in a bit under the pressure like he was pressing into somebody's arm. Deciding that the tree was actually quite gross (scientific term), Kirishima recoiled his hand with a sound of disgust, making a mental note to report that the trees may fall more into the fauna group than the flora. Taking a chance and praying that the tree wasn't sentient, Kirishima took out a knife from his kit and carved off a square of the flesh, sealing it away with the subsequent sap-like substance as well.

A little unnerved, Kirishima very eagerly stepped away from the skin-tree and tried to peer into the forest. It was noticeably darker, but that was to be expected given the fact that the leaves grew to such impressive sizes that they effectively blocked out any light. It wasn't eerie like one would expect given how dark it was, however. It instead looked kind of peaceful, if Kirishima were to be honest. It reminded him of a canopied sanctuary - untouched and unfazed by the rest of the universe. Curious eyes scanned into the darkness, desperate to locate anything that required proper investigation. It looked to be the same plants and trees that he could sample along the edge of the beach and they were instructed to refrain from going any further than necessary until the first round of samples were analyzed. Still…

In the dark, Kirishima could see some luminescent plants glowing a soft blue. They could very easily be the same plants he had already taken samples of, just reacting differently when the light source was taken away, but it wasn't like he could truly know that without going just a little bit further in.

As if on cue, right when he found his excuse to enter and right as he took a step, the comm on his shoulder crackled to life. "Stay out of the forest," Kaminari's voice chided, sounding amused regardless.

"It's like two steps, dude," Kirishima laughed, continuing his stride despite Kaminari's half-hearted chastising.

"If you get mauled by something with eighty eyes, thirty legs, and a million teeth, that's on you. I'll fly right on out of here and you will be missed."

"It will be an honourable death and one I will gladly take," Kirishima responded, pushing some leaves out of his way and stepping over dead vegetation. "I'm just going to grab some of whatever these are and then I'll head back. I just need to run a few scans on the beach and we're done. Go back to playing your game."

"It's cute that you want to pick flowers in the name of science." Kirishima didn't dignify that comment with a response, opting to silently roll his eyes instead.

It was only a little annoying that Kaminari was right. The glowing blue plants did turn out to be very small and very delicate looking flowers. They were dotting a clearing, swaying in the wind amongst the grass like little, blue orbs. It gave the whole scene a very ethereal appearance and it felt as though he had stumbled into a sacred area hidden just behind the treeline. Unable to help himself, Kirishima reached forward and lightly touched one of the petals, face breaking out into a grin when the glow turned from that soft, powder blue into a rich violet which seemed to spread from one flower to the next.

Another mental note: Shared root system?

When another brush of his hand didn't seem to have the same effect, Kirishima plucked off a petal to provide another form of stimulus. The subtle lighting immediately went to a bright white that managed to decently light up the ground and the surrounding area. The sudden change in the environment startled a laugh out of Kirishima and, just as he was about to really rub it in his partner's face that he was missing out, something caught his eye once his vision adjusted to the light.

It made the smile immediately drop.

Now lit up, Kirishima could see his surroundings better, but what he saw was a body lying face down in the flowers. And another one a few feet away. And then another. And then three more clustered by a tree.

He swallowed.

"Isn't this planet uninhabited?" Kirishima asked over the comm, trying to keep his voice steady as he fumbled with his bag for the small gun they were given to use only in defense and only when needed. The bodies weren't moving.

They weren't moving…

"Uh… Yeah? Should be?" Kaminari's voice replied immediately, laced with static. There was a pause, Kirishima narrowing his eyes at the bodies around him. "Why? " The voice was irritated now when Kirishima didn't respond instantly. Irritated and perhaps a little concerned. Kirishima opened and closed his mouth a few times, unable to provide Kaminari with an accurate answer because he couldn't really tell what species the figures were.

"There… are bodies?" The statement came out as more of a question for lack of anything better to say. He had read the dossier. He had read the dossier a few times, actually. The only lifeforms on Alduous 579 were its plant life and a few non-threatening creatures. There was nothing on the planet that could be classified as intelligent life. That being said, Kirishima knew that encountering another species that maybe took interest in the same planet wasn't unheard of. It was just that Kirishima had never experienced that situation personally. He knew the protocol, sure, but he never had to use it. "I'm going to check it out." Screeching feedback shot out from the comm on his shoulder, forcing him to freeze and cringe, yanking the comm away as best he could to prevent it from assaulting his ears further.

"You are not! We're supposed to collect the samples and leave," Kaminari's squawking sounded out. "Don't. Get. Involved." That was the protocol. Do not engage, do not intervene - continue with the mission, but leave if it became compromised. A failed mission was better than a war caused by interacting with a hostile species. "Come back."

"They're not moving. They're lying face down in the dirt, dude!" Kirishima protested, still waiting where he stood, the fingers not holding the weapon nervously fidgeting at his side. He was torn. He knew the protocol...

"Come back ," the words were enunciated a little louder and a lot slower, almost as if Kaminari was convinced Kirishima couldn't understand him. He wasn't exactly wrong in doing so. Kirishima could understand him, he knew what Kaminari was saying and he knew why he was saying it, but something was pulling at his gut - an instinct.

"They could be hurt…" Who knows how long they had been there? Maybe he was too late, but he had to try.

"Not our problem. You're veering off course," Kaminari snapped in a panic when Kirishima began to walk forward to the three figures piled by the tree, "You're veering off course specifically to the things you're not supposed to veer to." Kirishima shook his head, holding his gun out in front of him as he drew closer to the bodies. He only crouched down for a closer look when not one of the bodies responded to the light kicking of his boot against theirs. Their chests weren't rising and falling with breaths and Kirishima couldn't feel a pulse point when he pressed his now ungloved fingers to their wrists and necks, but that really didn't mean anything when it came down to it. Many creatures looked similar in the universe, but it didn't always mean their internal makeup was similar. The circulatory and respiratory systems could very well act completely different than his own. Still, no breathing, no pulse, and not moving? He deemed it safe enough to try and remove one of the helmets. He clumsily felt around the unfamiliar equipment not wanting to just yank it off of a corpse's head and finally located a small button on the side just below the jaw of the helmet. The hardened material whirred quietly before retracting into itself and collapsing into an earpiece the body was wearing. Kirishima could feel his chest constrict with a shallow inhale as the face was revealed.

"It's a human…" he breathed out, speaking just loud enough for Kaminari to pick it up over the comm. It took nearly a full minute for his brain to process what he was seeing. Moving with renewed curiosity, Kirishima fumbled with the buttons on the helmets of the other two figures. "Holy shit. They're all human."

"What are they doing all the way out here?" Kaminari asked after a few moments of silence, voice undeniably piqued in interest, but remaining hesitant and cautious. "Wait, no, I don't care. Kirishima, we should leave. Earth hasn't exactly been open to the whole rest of the universe thing and now they're all bent out of shape over that missing weapon or some shit!" Kirishima ignored the surprisingly logical information, approaching one of the other bodies. Dead, too. "Who knows why they were here or what they can even do!"

"They're all dead," Kirishima continued without responding to his partner's words of caution. He checked the fifth body. Dead as well. They all looked relatively… fresh. They at least hadn't started any noticeable decomposition. They weren't warm, but they also weren't that cold yet either, and rigor mortis hadn't seemed to have set in completely. If Kirishima had to guess, using his very limited knowledge of humans and supplementing the gaps with his rough knowledge of other species, he would say that the had been dead for maybe a couple of hours.

He was expecting to see some kind of sign hinting at the humans' deaths, but he couldn't find anything noteworthy. They were bruised and scratched like there was a bit of a scuffle, and some of their uniforms looked as though something had burned the fabric. Other than a bit of blood from superficial wounds, nothing looked traumatic enough to kill them off. Internal then? A reaction to the atmosphere? "Do you think they crashed?" The question was asked aloud, but he really wasn't expecting an answer from the now thoroughly panicked and increasingly pissed off Kaminari.

"There's no wreckage. Let's go. Get back to the ship. I will leave your ass behind!"

Kirishima scoffed at that, approaching the last figure, the one that was in the middle of the luminescent flowers and the first one he had seen. This one was different. He appeared to be younger than the other bodies and lacked a uniform and helmet. He was still in all black like the others, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and basic pants, but his clothes looked to be more that of a civilian than something militant. Kirishima felt drawn to this body more, he morbidly realized, but it didn't stop him from dropping to his knees to get a closer look. Kirishima had never seen a human before this. He had heard about them. He roughly knew what they looked like from stories, but hearing about something and actually seeing something were two entirely different things. He felt a little disrespectful using the corpse as a means to fulfill his curiosity, but when would he get another chance to see one so up close?

"If you are fucking poking those things with a stick, Kirishima…" Kaminari muttered, decidedly done with the long stretch of silence.

"I'm not," Kirishima hissed back, neglecting to mention the fact that, while no, he wasn't poking the human with a stick, he was actively rolling him over to quite literally inspect him more. While the human looked significantly younger than the other five, he still seemed matured past adolescence. Kirishima imagined that the human looked even younger than he was due to the relaxed expression that came with, well, being dead; the dark circles under his eyes and blood caking the left side of his face being the only indicators that he wasn't peacefully resting. His hair stuck out wildly in all directions and was ash-blonde in colour - nothing like Kaminari's bright yellow. The blood had stained its way into the hair, plastering it to the side of the human's face where it dried.

Kirishima was still surprised to discover that they weren't so different in appearance, even though he had a slight idea of what humans looked like. The human's ears were rounded, whereas his were pointed. The human's face was smooth, whereas he had hard, plate-like structures resting high on his cheekbones and under his jawline. The extremely faint freckles spread across the other's nose caused Kirishima's lips to quirk upwards in a fond smile. He really wanted to see if humans had sharp, pointed teeth as well, but was positive that that would be pushing it a little too far on the morbid curiosity scale.

Kirishima almost felt guilty that he hadn't been there to help with whatever had happened. It was like rubbing salt in the wounds knowing that he had only been a few hours away, too. His heart felt heavy and it left a sick feeling in his stomach. Logically, even if he had been there, there may have been nothing he could've done anyway. He didn't even know what caused this mess! Sighing to himself, trying to push down the needless guilt, Kirishima reached forward to move some of the bloody hair away from the human's forehead.

He froze when the human's eyebrows twitched just barely in response.

Kirishima's hands hovered awkwardly over the blonde's face, unsure how to proceed. The movement had been so subtle and so fleeting that he wasn't even sure if he saw correctly. He touched the human's cheek that wasn't covered in blood, and his heavy heart was now leaving his chest and slamming violently into his throat. The eyebrows furrowed now, the human's mouth twisting into a deep frown. "He's alive," Kirishima said in a rushed voice, only now realizing that he had been holding his breath. He cleared his throat, tilting his face towards his comm a bit more, "Kaminari, he's alive."

"Fucking neat, dude. All the more reason to leave."

Emboldened by the fact (and a bit relieved) that he wasn't man-handling a corpse anymore, Kirishima's fretting hands surged forward again. He wasn't a medic by any means, but basic first-aid was a requirement and he needed to see where that blood was coming from. He parted the hair as gently as he could, wincing with the human as he revealed a particularly nasty gash running from his temple to about three inches onto his scalp. "He's hurt," Kirishima informed Kaminari, leaning away from the human as he waited for his friend's response.

"I'm sure there's help on the way…" Kaminari trailed off, his voice sounding more sympathetic than it was before. Kirishima knew that sympathy was more directed at him than the human, but he'd take what he could get. "We don't know where humans stand on these things. We have to leave him here. It sucks, I know, bu—"

"There are cuffs on his wrists," Kirishima interrupted, having gone back to inspecting the human again - trying to find anything to tug on Kaminari's heartstrings. "Or some kind of bind? They're broken though." An incredulous laugh blasted out of the comm now.

"So he's a slave or a prisoner! Now we really shouldn't be fucking around with this!"

"If he's a slave, he needs our help," Kirishima said quietly, fumbling with the metal around the human's wrists. The blood was obvious, but what he thought had been dirt turned out to be black soot trailing from the human's hands up to his elbows. He was able to loosen the cuffs a bit, to prevent them from further biting into the already raw and filthy skin, but they were going to need to be cut off to remove them completely.

"And if he's a prisoner?" came Kaminari's dark reply, forcing Kirishima to pause and glare ahead at the trees in frustration. He knew Kaminari thought he was too trusting. He arguably was too trusting, but he also wasn't the type to leave an unconscious being injured and bleeding on an uninhabited planet.

"So we secure him until we know. He needs treatment," his voice was firm, leaving no room for argument. Kaminari didn't respond, undoubtedly sulking but ultimately deciding that he wouldn't persuade Kirishima to change his mind.

"We don't have a brig." The words were ground out bitterly, bringing a smile to Kirishima's face regardless.

He had won.

He positioned himself into a crouch, tucking his arms under the human's back and knees to lift him. "I can override the door on my quarters. He can stay in there and we can hook up a feed to keep an eye on him." Kaminari made an indignant sound mixed with a laugh.

"Cool. You're not sharing my bed." It was Kirishima's turn to sputter in response, glaring at the ship where he figured Kaminari was watching from once he stepped back onto the beach, emerging from the trees. "You're the one making me harbour a fugitive. Do you seriously think I want to have a slumber party with your dumb ass?"

"I think you're being a bit of a child about the whole situation," Kirishima hissed back, "but fine. I'll sleep on the bridge. Not a big deal." He stopped by the indents under the ship that the stairs had left behind previously and waited, knowing full well that Kaminari had been watching his approach. Kirishima's shoulders sagged in frustration when the steps hadn't been released by his partner, shifting the human in his arms as gently as he could. "Can you please lower the stairs, dude?" There was more silence and Kirishima knew - he knew - Kaminari was sitting in front of the panel, arms crossed over his chest, and pouting. He also knew that in approximately five seconds, Kaminari would cave in again and let him in.

5…

4…

3…

2…

"You're going to get us in so much trouble," Kaminari's voice finally blurted from the speaker.

1.

The stairs unfolded from the ship with a creak and a hiss, and Kirishima began the climb - excitement, uncertainty, and determination brewing just under his skin.

A/N: This fic has a basic glossary that is updated each chapter! "citrusveins . carrd . co"