4th Contact

Takeya stood there in the doorway, carrying somewhat alien-looking duffel bags. No longer a teen, the young man stood a few inches taller than she remembered, his shoulders finally filling out his form. His hair was the same short, disheveled mess she remembered, but now he had a veil of stubble around his mouth.

Natsuki's eyes went up and down, stunned. Takeya was wearing a red alien suit just like the DearS! It even had pink spots, and those weird spike-antenna-things!

The girl struggled to find words to express what she was thinking. Somehow, even seeing and feeling Nia, Natsuki was completely unprepared to see the brother she had been missing for five years.

"What are you two doing, doing weird stuff like that where anyone can see?!" Takeya finally choked out.

Immediately, the stunned expression left Natsuki's face, replaced by anger. The teen dropped the bread and threw herself at her brother, knocking him to the ground and grabbing him in a headlock. "What kind of way is that to greet your adorable little sister after ditching her for five years?!" Growling, she squeezed tighter, choking off the apology he tried to make.

Stupid onii-chan!

"Na... atsuki..!" he gasped out, flailing in her grip.

"What're you wearing that for anyway?" she complained. "You're an Earthling! Wear your Earth clothes proudly!"

"Unless it's a collar-nii~!" Nia added helpfully.

"What!" Takeya gasped out as Natsuki's face reddened.

"Can't... breathe..."

"Hello Na-chan!" another familiar voice called out cheerfully. Natsuki looked over her shoulder at Ren, prepared to give her the third-degree for taking her onii-chan away, but instead stared blankly.

The voluptuous DearS was just as beautiful as ever, her aqua hair cascading around her delicate purple clothing. The alien smiled, leaning down and looking straight into Natsuki's eyes, her maroon irises transfixing the teen. Then her eyes shifted down, noticing the rosy glow in Ren's cheeks... and the prominent bulge in her belly.

Ren mechanically patted Natsuki's shoulder. "Ren and Takeya missed you, Na-chan." Then, greeting properly addressed, the alien added, "Please relinquish your hold on Takeya." She was still smiling.

"Huh..? Oh." The teen reluctantly let go of her brother. He sat up and began coughing as he tried to gasp in breath. He flashed her an angry but amused look. Natsuki made sure he couldn't see it when she grinned.

Moving back up to her feet, Natsuki looked at Ren, her emotions warring within her. She was genuinely glad that Ren was well, and okay... but she was also angry with the alien for luring Takeya to outer space. Sighing, the teen finally leaned forward and hugged Ren, giggling a little. "It's hard to get my arms around you."

"Takeya makes sure of that! Ren is glad!" Ren said cheerfully.

Finally catching his breath, Takeya smiled over at Ren and Natsuki, but then flashed a suspicious look at Nia who was leaning casually in the doorway watching them. "Nia... what were you doing to my little sister?"

Natsuki's eyes widened and she quickly tried to come up with an alibi.

"Giving her a big, big kiss-nii~!"

The brown-haired girl hung her head in embarrassment.

Takeya blinked. "Well, uh... don't do that, okay?" He finally moved to get back on his feet, grabbing the railing behind him.

"Why not-nii~?" Nia asked, grinning and leaning closer. Her tail was twitching as the alien girl moved over to Natsuki. She threw one arm around Natsuki and pressed her face up against the girl's, growing redder by the second. "I never asked you not to kiss Ren-san-nii~!"

"That... that's different!" he exclaimed.

"I can handle myself, onii-chan," Natsuki intervened before he got all over-protective. Nia grinned, leaning back and throwing her arms behind her head cockily.

Takeya scratched the back of his head and sighed in defeat. The four of them stood there for a moment, Natsuki looking at her brother. He was back... Ren was back... Nia was back...

As the shock of the moment began wearing off, the feelings she had swallowed back all that time began welling up. Natsuki's eyes began to water, but she stubbornly stood there, waiting for she didn't know what. So much time and worry and fear and loneliness, not knowing if she'd ever see her big brother again or feel his arms around her, not knowing if she'd ever look into Nia's eyes again, hear her excited "nii" again.

Takeya scratched his head one more time and then took a step toward her, reaching as if to pat her head. "Ah.. Natsuki..."

Wordlessly, Natsuki ducked under his hand and threw her arms around him, burying her face in his chest. Her side-tail mashed against his alien suit, she squeezed tighter, until Takeya gently put his arms around her shoulders. Neither of them said a thing, but Natsuki soaked in the warmth of his embrace. She was older now, taller, but somehow in his arms she felt like a little kid again, her mind floating back to the times that he had saved her or protected her or just held her.

Choked with silent sobs, she lay there against his chest for a long time as he gently rubbed her back.

"You really have grown," Takeya remarked quietly. Natsuki smiled, finally pulling away and wiping her eyes. He laughed, rubbing his neck. "You got a lot stronger, too, but that might not be a good thing."

She stuck her tongue out. "Just you remember that."

Suddenly, Nia's arms wrapped around Natsuki's waist from behind. The DearS grinned at Takeya and declared, "Now I'm taking her back-nii~." She stuck her tongue out at Takeya.

A weird look crossed his face and he lifted a finger to say something.

"Ikuhara-san, Ren-san! You're already here!" The group looked over to see Khi walking up. The androgynous-looking young DearS shifted the drinks he was carrying over to one arm and waved, almost dropping the heavy burden.

"Khi-kun!" Natsuki called out. Then his words registered. She gaped and pointed a finger at the boy alien accusingly. "You knew about this? Agh, I knew you sneaky aliens couldn't be trusted!"

He blinked. "What..? But I..."

"Welcome back, Takeya," Neneko interrupted, walking up from behind Khi. "Wow, you're big as a melon, Ren." The extremely casual tone made it clear that she'd been expecting this.

Natsuki shifted her accusing finger to Neneko. "You, too..?" she asked, betrayed. The teen blinked... remembering all the comments at the market, all the surprise gifts and discounts. "Wait... everyone in town knew, too." She whirled on Takeya. "You told everyone except me!"

"I sent you a message!" he protested, holding up both hands to forestall any beatings. He pointed at Neneko. "She gave me your email address!"

The older girl adjusted her glasses. "So quick to shift the blame, are we? Are you sure you sent it to the right address?"

"I didn't get any email," Natsuki stated, frowning at Takeya. Then, suddenly, she thought of something.

"I'm sure I typed it just like you said it! I'm not that good with computers but..."

Neneko smugly nodded. "You're hopeless with computers. I'm sure you..."

"Found it!" Natsuki called from inside the apartment. She was kneeling in front of the laptop, reading the badly-typed note. "It filtered into the junk folder!" The girl stood back up, a frown twitching at the corner of her lips. "If you talked to her to get my email, why didn't you just call me?"

"I did," he replied, walking in and setting his luggage down. "You didn't answer. It was thanks to Khi that the spaceship had a phone at all, but..."

The green-haired DearS finished for him. "It was a pay phone. At the time, we didn't realize there were any other kind." He looked at Takeya curiously. "You didn't take much money with you?"

"Ren-san did!" The pregnant DearS walked up and put her arms around her master affectionately. "Ren saved enough marbles for two telephone calls!"

"Daddy!" a chorus of children yelled from the adjoining room. The trio of adorable angels came rushing into the room. Takeya grinned and went down to a knee to catch all three of them in a big hug.

They were chattering the whole time. "Teacher gave us really good food!"

"This place is so weird! I like it!"

"There's so much stuff here! I found this hat!"

Natsuki blinked at the little Natsuki, blushing furiously. "Uh, haha... you don't want to wear that! It needs to be cleaned!" She pulled the pair of school panties off the girl's head, in spite of her half-hearted protests.

Neneko crossed her arms and gave her a look over the top of her glasses. The teen just shrugged sheepishly. Nia snuck up behind her and snatched the panties out of her hand. "Hey give those..!"

"Come and get them-nii~!" the DearS teased, holding it behind her back.

The bespectacled landlord cleared her throat and Natsuki blanched. "Uh... let me tidy up real quick!" She paused. "Onii-chan, Khi-kun, close your eyes!" The teen hurried to gather up her discarded clothes before one of the toddlers stole her bra.