I want to say, first and foremost, I appreciate all of you who have been reading and faving. You're all great and I love you~
x-X-X-x
His name is Alex and he doesn't know how to use chopsticks. The former they found out because Desmond asked while they waited for dinner to get there. The latter they found out when dinner was there, and watching a grown ass man try to work chopsticks was an amazing sight all on its own. Eventually Alex just snapped both the sticks in half, tossed them aside, sprouted motherfucking claws and carefully ate his food out of the carton that way.
Other than that dinner was rather quiet. It was more fascinating than anything to watch this happen. It was like they had front row seats to the mundane made bizarre, and instead of popcorn they had fried rice and kung pao chicken. Either way this whole day's encounter was getting really good and they couldn't exactly complain.
"Would you like a plate, Alex?" Lucy eventually asks.
"No" Alex snarls and continues to battle the carton with his claws. Fair enough, they don't offer him anything else unless he happens to ask. And ohhhhh did he not ask. For once, they had no leftovers, which was kinda disappointing because sometimes Chinese tasted a lot better at three in the morning as opposed to eight at night. But it seemed like after the monstrous nap, Alex had a monstrous appetite to boot, and whatever Desmond and Lucy didn't eat, he polished off.
"If this becomes a regular thing I don't think I'm gonna be happy" Desmond says after they throw empty cartons and grease slicked chopsticks into the trash. "Cause I kinda like having excess food and shit to eat, and if he's gonna eat it all, I don't wanna spend more time grocery shopping"
"Shut up, just shut up Desmond" Lucy tells him and flicks on the TV. "We're just…gonna carry on as normal, hope someone gets the message and leaves, and just not…We're not gonna make a big stink about it"
"Are you suuuure?" Desmond asks. "Are you really, reaaaally sure? Cause I dunno, I feel like you wanna be pissed about this, and I kinda wanna be pissed with you and- Hey! Bonehead!"
Alex leans back to look over his shoulder, one of his claws outstretched to tap at the TV screen.
"Get back here" Desmond commands. "You're gonna scratch the screen with those, don't fucking touch it like that," and after he says that, the claw shrinks back into a normal hand. "And two, don't sit so fucking close, you're gonna ruin your damn eyes, get over here"
Alex scrambles away with his ragged blanket in tow. Lucy is staring at him. Desmond stares back, and makes a face, what did she want him to say? But they just turn back to the TV and watch their show.
x-X-X-x
"Can't you go back to sleep in your box?"
"No"
"Well, how about the couch? I can put a sheet on it for you?"
"No"
"Is that all you fucking say?"
"No"
Desmond just pushes Lucy away and towards the bed, get in, just get in, lie down, go the fuck to sleep. There's really no point in trying to argue with Alex, he just sorta does whatever and Desmond can only yell at him so much before the neighbors start getting annoyed. So instead he just pushes his girlfriend into bed, shoves Alex out of the room, closes the door, turns off the lights, and hops into bed himself.
He wakes up the next morning with Lucy in his arms. The previous day's events feels like a distant memory, a dream almost. It's just the two of them, just as its always been. Desmond kisses the top of Lucy's head, pulling a hand back to gently stroke at her cheek. He wakes her up this way, but anything she could have said about it, he silences her with a kiss. And it starts out as a sleepy, lazy kiss, and it's so good, and so nice, and then someone's leg moves-
And their foot hits something solid. And when they look down the bed, they see a large lump with his raggedy blanket curled at the foot of their bed, knuckles jammed in his mouth again.
x-X-X-x
They dress in short and tank tops, lock the front door behind them, and hope nothing goes wrong from there. Hopefully Alex can read and will find the note on the kitchen counter with his breakfast. And hopefully they can leave him alone in the apartment and he won't utterly destroy anything. Desmond and Lucy make their way out of their apartment building and they hit the streets. They go for a jog every morning, rain or shine, hot or cold, alien in their room or not, they would not be stopped.
The city is slowly waking up as they jog along. Buses are already running, there's cars zooming by in the streets. The sidewalks already have people on their way to work or other joggers like themselves. They're happy to stop at lights and wait to cross streets, they have a long ways to go just on foot. They job all their way up to a newer, nicer building, up to the tenth floor, and knock on the door.
Shaun's none too happy to see them when he answers it. "Bloody hell" he grumbles when he sees them, and Desmond and Lucy flash cheery grins at him. "What do you sweaty pests want this early in the morning?"
"We have an alien in our apartment"
It's their ticket inside. They sit in Shaun's kitchen nook and explain everything that's happened the day before. Shaun calls Desmond a fucking idiot for being dumb enough to let something into their apartment like that, but Desmond doesn't argue against it. Shaun's initially skeptical, and mentioning the giant claws on Alex doesn't help either. None of it really helps. They sound crazy.
"But it's real Shaun, it's fucking real. You can come over and see for yourself!"
He doesn't take them up on that offer.
"I'm sure that's all fine and dandy, but you two sound ludicrous," Shaun says. "You both should know better by now, you know that. Have you two been sleeping okay?"
"Yes" Lucy says.
"Shaun, that's not the issue. We-" Desmond begins to say before he's cut off.
"Look" Shaun interrupts. "I can't be certain of what you're telling me until I see it myself. You didn't even think to bring 'it' with you, now did you?"
Their silence is the answer he needs.
"I worry about you two sometimes. We didn't come here for wild goose chases anymore, remember? Everything is fine here. Please don't go starting up drama. If this alien problem of yours persists, then you can come back again and I can help you. But until then…"
They thank Shaun for their time and head back home.
x-X-X-x
"Personally I think he'll like the frosted ones best"
"Desmond, I don't think aliens care about what's on their doughnuts"
"But the frosted ones are the best. Unless it's Krispy Kreme. Then the glazed are the best. We should bring him Kirspy Kreme next time"
Lucy sighs loudly as she unlocks the door to their apartment. They carefully inch their way inside, almost terrified they're going to walk into some sort of war zone. The apartment is completely fine. The plate on the kitchen counter is barren, the note left by it abandoned on the ground. But their "alien" is no where to be seen.
Lucy takes a doughnut out of the box and heads into the bedroom to look for him. Alex is not there on their bed where they left him. And he wasn't on the couch, so then where could he be? Lucy looks in the bathroom and find him curled up in the bathtub. His face is pressed to the cool acrylic, knuckles still sucked into his mouth.
She reaches down to pry the hand out of his mouth, and pops the doughnut in its place. Startled, Alex wakes up, but after a few moments, greedily shoves the rest of the treat into his mouth. An oddly relaxed and satisfied look spreads across his face, and he licks frosting off his lips.
"We have more for you" Lucy states. Alex's eyes gleam up at her.