A/N: It took me a little longer than the previous ones, but here's Chapter Five. Thank you to everyone that has been reading so far; I'm glad you enjoy this as much as I enjoy writing it. Anyway, happy reading!

Rin sat there silently as Dib approached the bed, her entire body quaking as thousands of thoughts circled through her mind. This couldn't be true—she couldn't be in this boy's room right now, for she was supposed to be halfway to Andromeda. She should already be out of Earth's atmosphere and far beyond its small chunk of a moon. Maybe she was just asleep; she'd set her ship on autopilot, anyway, so it wouldn't be that big of a deal, and she had been quite tired. No big deal. All she had to do was wake up.

She took a deep breath and clenched her eyes shut tight, covering her face with her hands as she tried to concentrate on bringing herself back into consciousness. After a few seconds, she slowly removed her hands from her face and opened her eyes. Dib still stood before her, his eyes transfixed on her face, waiting for her to move.

Oh, no. This wasn't a dream—this wasn't even a nightmare. She really was in his room, in his bed, completely defenseless. Something must have gone wrong, and now she was still stuck on Earth.

No need to panic, she told herself, although she could feel her muscles beginning to tighten. Just find a way to escape.

She quickly glanced around his room and found the window to her right to be the best option. Abruptly, she jumped up and unlatched the locks above the window and slid it open, tumbling out into some shrubbery. She could feel branches getting tangled in her hair and tried to ignore the aching sensation as she ripped her head free and crawled out into the lawn. She could hear Dib calling out her name from within the house, but ignored him and got to her feet. She had almost made it to the sidewalk when she saw her ship.

"Oh, no," she whispered, approaching the ship with slow feet and a heavy heart.

She must've been so completely absorbed in the crushing feeling of despair that she didn't even hear the front door slam, or the crunching of the grass as Dib trotted up next to her.

"My ship," she mumbled, gingerly running her hand along the side and taking a moment to pause as she examined the various dents and scratches. She looked into the cockpit briefly, but quickly looked away once she started to feel a sour, nauseous feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"It took me such a long time to restore it," she said to herself, although it was loud enough for Dib to hear as well. "It was my only chance out of here . . . ."

"So you were trying to leave," Dib commented, sounding very thoughtful but placid.

Rin whipped her head around, only then realizing that she was in Dib's presence. He simply stood there, a few feet away from the ship, his hands in his pockets as he watched her intently. She started to regret not hightailing it out of there when she'd made it out of the house; now that Dib had caught up with her, he probably wasn't going to let her leave so easily.

She waited for her heart rate to return to normal before responding. "Yes, I was trying to leave. It didn't go as well as I'd planned, though."

"I can see that," he said with a smile. "Still, I don't understand: why would you want to leave? Earth is in a lot better condition than Anadolia right now. Why would you want to go back?"

"I wasn't going back . . . and how do you know about Anadolia?" she asked as she cocked an eyebrow.

"Oh . . . I thought you knew why you were in my room; you took off so fast. I did a bit of research while you were unconscious."

"You ran tests on me." She grit her teeth. "While I was completely vulnerable and unable to defend myself."

"Well, when you put it that way, it sounds really bad."

"How am I supposed to put it?" she asked sarcastically while she stood akimbo.

"Look, don't get all worked up. I just took a DNA sample and compared it with mine. Then, I was able to look up everything on Anadolia using my computer—and the other alien ship I have in my garage," he boasted, though Rin was anything but impressed.

"I don't remember giving you any verbal consent before you took that DNA sample."

"I didn't think I needed your consent. Besides, if I had asked, you would've just said no, anyway."

"That still doesn't excuse what you did."

He exhaled, becoming quite aggravated with Rin's stubbornness. "I didn't do anything to harm you—that should count for something. And anyway, there's one thing you're forgetting: I know you're an alien. Aren't you going to try and do something about that?"

She shrugged and leaned her back against her ship. "What can I do? I can't convince you to keep it all to yourself, and I don't like hurting people. That's why I was trying to leave—if I'm gone, you will no longer be a problem, and I can finally live in peace again."

He gawked. "You were leaving because of me?"

"Yes, Dib. I was leaving because of you," Rin repeated. "I've lived here a lot longer than you have, and I've never caused a problem with your people, but you just can't seem to let me be. You must be a very obsessive person."

He rubbed the back of his neck apprehensively. "Yeah, actually, I am. But . . . if you're not planning to do anything evil—like annihilate all of humanity—then it really isn't fair for me to chase you away. Especially since you've probably got nowhere else to go, huh?"

"Yes . . . I really am all out of options if I leave Earth." Rin looked at him with hope clearly reflecting in her eyes. "Are you saying you're going to stop pursuing me as your ticket to stardom?"

"Yeah . . . I guess that is what I'm saying," he admitted begrudgingly. "If I'm going to become famous for my genius, I don't want to feel guilty about it afterwards."

"Thank you!"

Suddenly, Dib found himself engulfed in the ethereal sweetness of Rin's scent as she wrapped her arms around him. He began to feel overwhelmingly lightheaded, to point where he could no longer feel his feet touching the ground, and had to let out a sigh in order to keep his head from lifting off into the clouds. Not only did she smell lovely, it was nice to feel her soft arms embrace him with such radiating warmth . . . it was so unreal, he found himself stumbling backward when she finally let go.

If it always feels that good to hug a girl, I've really been missing out, he thought to himself.

"I was afraid I'd really have to go—Earth is such a beautiful planet, it would break my heart to have to leave it." Rin's voice broke him from his daydreaming. "Anadolia was so industrialized, consisting of only metal and concrete. Earth has such a diverse and natural beauty . . . you humans are truly lucky to be born into such paradise."

"Yeah . . . ." He tried focusing in on what she was saying, but all he could think about was the way it felt when she'd hugged him.

"I'm very happy you're not going to tell anyone about me, Dib."

He caught that one. "Wait . . . I can't tell anyone, either?"

Rin's smile vanished. "Of course you can't. I need to stay as well hidden as possible."

"But . . . but what was the point of me doing all of that research if I'm not going to let anyone else know about it? Please, Rin—I'm obligated to share this with at least one other person," he whined.

"Dib, I don't even like you knowing all of this about me. I really don't want someone else to know, too."

"But I need to tell someone!"

"I'm sure you can handle keeping it quiet."

"No, you don't understand! This will eat at me if I don't let it out, Rin! It'll gnaw at my brain, slowly tearing at my frontal lobe until there's nothing left but . . . slimy, mushy goo," Dib pleaded, clasping his hands together as he went to his knees. "I like my brain the way it is, Rin. Please! I have to tell someone."

She rolled her eyes. "You know, you can be quite the drama queen."

"I'm not being dramatic. I'll think about this every day for the rest of my life until it finally just bursts out of me, like some hideous, pus-filled blister." Dib stuck out his bottom lip. "Please? You can't think of one other person that wouldn't pose a threat if they knew about you?"

Rin held out a hand to help Dib get to his feet and began thinking everything over while he brushed off his knees. "Well, definitely no one in our class," she said, then shrugged. "I don't really know anyone around here well enough . . . you'd probably be the better judge, in this case."

It took him a moment, but eventually, he came to conclusion. "I could tell my dad and Gaz. They'll listen to me . . . I don't know if they'll believe me, but they'll listen. And I'm sure they won't do anything to hurt you."

"Okay, then it's settled," she said with a smile. "I'm glad we were able to work all of this out, Dib. I didn't like being angry with you; you seem like a genuinely good person. We just got off to a bit of a rough start, eh?"

She yawned. "I really need to be heading home now, though. If it's not too big of a hassle . . . could you possibly keep my ship here overnight? I'll come by after school tomorrow to pick it up, but I don't have the proper tools with me right now to move it."

Let me see . . . would I be able to house another piece of alien spacecraft for one night? "You didn't even need to ask."

"Thanks. Oh, but you'll need this." She sifted through her pockets momentarily and came up with a small remote with only a single button in the center. She lightly tossed it to him and headed for the sidewalk. "Press it, and the ship will become invisible to any onlookers."

"Cool . . . but won't they still see the skid marks in the grass?"

"That will just look like an accident with the lawnmower, or the results of an overly-zealous person with a weed wacker," she replied over her shoulder. "Don't worry about it . . . and see you in school tomorrow."

"Yeah, tomorrow," he mumbled to himself as he eyed the remote in his hands, clicking the button and watching in awe as the ship disappeared. "Maybe befriending an alien won't be so bad after all."