I don't own D9, but I would gladly have Mr. Copley's babies.
Lots of Luke from here on out. Thanks for the favs and alerts, and a special thanks to SanguineSky for reviewing my boring first chapter :)
Iris took her calcium supplement with a grimace. It was supposed to taste like chocolate, but she really wasn't impressed. She'd tried plenty of different ways, the drink mixes, getting it straight from vegetables and plants and the vile chews that were supposed to taste like candy. Though it never really seemed to help, she kept at it. She'd just drink more milk.
The prawn, Luke, came back a few days after that first encounter, but they hadn't spoken again. She'd just leave the pitcher and a plate of meat out by the pine tree. It was always gone within the hour. For that reason, she began to suspect the he might actually be living somewhere in the thick trees.
The butcher questioned her sudden interest in lots of meat, and she told him that she was having trouble getting old Digger to eat. She'd talked to the kind younger man about dogs for a good half hour, but she'd satisfactorily thrown him off of any possible suspicions. Not that someone would suspect a nearly fifty-year-old white woman of prawn sympathizing, especially this far from District 9.
Luke hadn't been able to contain his joyous exclamations when he tried the steak she'd grilled. He'd watched her cook it, had even edged all the way to the truck as Digger glared at him with disdain from the porch. The old dog was growing accustomed to the prawn, even if he didn't trust him.
Iris had gotten a strange sort of delight from watching Luke eat. He didn't talk much, too afraid, but he was always cautious and respectful and polite. Even his size seemed to apologize for what he was. He was small for a prawn, like she'd noticed before, but Iris was short for a grown woman, and so the 'little' fellow was actually quite close to her own height.
Despite the absolute insanity of it, Iris did not report Luke. He was a good little boy… He was quiet, and he always said thank you. She even felt a little safer knowing he was nearby, even though she didn't live in a bad part of town. She found she liked the company, and apparently he liked hers. He slowly came out of the trees more and more.
One day in November, Iris was nearly in tears. Her petunias were all but dead. Luke had been hanging around the car eying the tires he was too well mannered to eat when he saw her face screwing up slightly. He got up and slowly went to stand at the other end of the planter.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Oh… nothing, Luke. My flowers are dying, that's all."
He made a gesture that almost seemed the equivalent of a shrug. "Things die."
She held up her hands. "I know, fellow. But if I could, I'd save them."
"Maybe they are weak. The strong survive."
"Yes, but… well, I like them. That's all. They remind me of my… the remind me of home."
Luke clicked nonsensically to himself a while, slowly walking next to her and crouching to look at the dying flowers with Iris. "The MNU men, they like to say, 'if at first they do not bleed try, try again.' Mostly when they're beating someone."
She translated what he was saying to English and frowned angrily. "That's not the way it should go, dear. Those MNU are the scum of the Earth. It should be 'If at first you don't succeed try, try again."
Luke's labial palps twitched around his tentacles for a bit, then stilled before he tentatively clicked, "I wish more humans would be like you."
Iris reached up and tentatively patted the dusty green shoulder of the prawn, who flinched but didn't jerk away completely. "Sometimes," she began slowly, "everyone who wants to do the right thing can't. There are lots of humans who want to help you prawns, but… We can't, because MNU controls everything."
Luke nodded as if this was an understood fact of life and changed the subject. "Other plants can grow here. Why not grow them?"
Iris sighed under the yellow gaze of the young prawn, drawing her hand back from his shoulder to turn over the dirt in the planter a little. "I'm a stubborn old woman, Luke. We don't like change."
Luke made a funny snort, then reached out to stroke the wrinkled leaves of one of the little petunias. "You say you are old, but you are not gray, and you don't walk with sticks."
She chuckled a little at that. "True, I'm not so old… but age affects some people differently. I… won't last as long as some people."
Luke stared at her strangely, trying to understand what she could be saying, then decided not to press it. If she wanted to tell, she would tell, and he didn't want to risk angering this otherwise abnormally friendly human.
"Would you be happy if these flowers grew?" He asked, wincing when the leaf he was fondling fell off from the stalk.
"Oh, yes… but they're past the point of no return, now." She laughed sadly. "Maybe I should just grow something else. It's not to late in the season to get something nice growing… Here, Luke, come inside and help me pick something nice."
Iris struggled to her feet, envying the ease with which Luke flowed to a stand. She started to head towards the house until she realized Luke wasn't following her. She turned back. "Come on now, son."
His eyes widened. "Son?"
She laughed. "Don't worry, I won't kidnap you, dear. It's only a friendly way of talking to people that are younger than you."
He looked down quickly, and his alien expression almost looked… disappointed? Really, she'd need to get the poor thing to talk about why he'd run away from District 9 soon.
Luke trotted after her, edging cautiously around the curmudgeonly canine sitting stiffly on the porch. He hesitated at the door. "Are you sure? I don't want to break the rules."
Iris laughed from the kitchen sink, where she was filling a couple of glasses of water. "It's my house, so they're my rules. I say you're allowed. Come on in, dear."
Luke edged into the house, jumped away from the propped door when Digger took this as his cue to stump his way inside. The dog growled only a little before hitching his way to his doggy bed in the living room.
"Close the door, please?" Iris asked, simply to see if the prawn would. He did without comment.
"Thanks, Luke. Here, have some water." She offered the glass to the prawn, another experiment. She wanted to see how he managed with it.
He didn't seem to have any trouble drinking from the glass, though he guzzled it as quickly as ever. He looked at her sheepishly as she sipped at her own in amusement.
"May I please have some more?"
She nodded. "Of course. You know where the sink is. When you're thirsty feel free to come in and get a drink."
Luke shivered, looking at her in mixed awe and suspicion. "Really? You mean it?"
"Of course. I'll leave a key under a rock by the flowerbed, that way even if I'm asleep or I'm not home you can come in."
A thought suddenly struck Iris, a taboo and probably dangerous idea, but she'd never been much to worry about convention. Even less so as she aged.
"Luke, if I said you could sleep here, in the house… Would you?"
Luke dropped his glass in the sink and she heard pieces break off and tinkle around.
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, backing away from the sink and hugging himself, hanging his head low.
"Shh, shh now. It's only a glass. I have plenty. Here, get me the little hand broom from that closet? Yes, there."
While she picked out the bigger pieces of glass and set them on a paper towel Luke fetched the little broom, which had a dustpan attached. He handed it to her and backed away quickly, as if afraid she'd change her mind and try to hit him with it. In only a minute or so the glass was swept up and put safely in the trash.
"There, no harm done, Luke." She put the brush back in the closet then turned back to the prawn. "Did I offend you, dear?"
Luke looked up at her and back down. "No."
"You were surprised?"
He nodded.
"I meant it, dear. You're a sweet boy, and it's nice to have the company. I don't have any friends, you know, since I'm such a grumpy old woman."
"You're not grumpy," Luke clicked softly.
She laughed. "Maybe because I like you, little fellow. I've got a guest room, it's only a twin bed, but you should fit it just fine. You'll have to take a bath first."
Luke trembled. "I don't like to get clean. It's so cold, it makes my plates hurt."
Iris frowned, clucking to herself. "I have hot water, dear, and a warm bath is probably one of the nicest things in the world. Here, while I get my old dinosaur of a computer running why don't we get a bath going for you?"
She headed out for the bathroom without waiting to see if the prawn would protest. She knew he was too used to being submissive to refuse, but that he'd also love it, so she didn't mind bullying him.
It was a large tub and there was a separate standing shower. The bathroom was about the only place in the house she'd allowed herself to splurge on the money she'd been willed. She got the water going, settling on a nice warm temperature, but not so hot that it might cook Luke like a lobster. She turned to the prawn standing nervously in the doorway and realized he didn't have any clothes to take off, but she didn't mention it. She'd just buy something for him the next time she went out.
"I'll give you some privacy dear. The green bottle is the soap, use as much as you want. I can always get more. I mean it, use it all if you need to. If the water gets dirty before you're done just drain it and refill it."
"Thank you," Luke whispered, so much alien emotion bleeding into the impersonal clicks that she very nearly teared up.
"You came to me for a reason, darling, and as long as you stay here with me, you don't need to thank me. These are things you deserved all along." She left the bathroom, shutting the door behind her. She'd barely gotten three feet down the hallway when she heard a soft splash and trill of pure bliss from behind the bathroom door. Her heart swelled, and she swore to herself that she would protect the abused prawn for as long as she could.