A/N: One of my FF reviewers requested an alien one-shot, so here it is. I hope you like it :) (Warning for mention of Blaine and Eli C.)
Kurt looks over the sleek control panel of his ship, running his fingertips lightly along the pristine liquid display screens, admiring the fine details put into this masterpiece of engineering. Even at over six hundred years old, it's still head and shoulders above and beyond what most Class M civilizations he's visited have been able to come up with. An Imperial Star Cruiser – one of only three of its kind, and this one in particular the crowned jewel of the royal empress's armada under his control…for at least a few minutes longer.
The whir of the warp engine.
The subtle beep-beep…beep-beep of the life support system.
Kurt will miss them all, but in a way leaving it behind will be a relief. He is finally getting everything he truly wants. A life without hiding. A future of being and living, not just observing.
And love. He can't forget love.
Kurt settles into his command chair and lets the supple material form to his body, cradling him in one of the more familiar comforts of this glorious ship, but he doesn't want to delay and postpone his new life any longer. He turns to the communications console, his finger hovering over the green button that will hail the Imperial Ambassador for Terrestrial Relations.
Otherwise known as his boss, Sue.
He knows she's waiting for him.
He takes a deep breath in, blows it out, and lets his finger fall.
"Kurt."
Sue's impatient voice responds immediately to his hail.
"Hey, Sue." Kurt leans back farther in his chair, closing his eyes, preparing mentally for the conversation they're about to have.
"So, agent, do you have a specimen for me?"
The voice coming in over the receiver is severe, apathetic. Kurt is used to hearing it, and even though he doesn't have anything against Sue personally, he kind of hates her. He hates her constant façade of authority, hates her cut and dry attitude toward an entire race of thinking, feeling, sentient beings.
Hates that for so many years he has behaved like her; he shared her clinical opinion of the human race, referred to them as specimens, until recently when something unexpected and surprising changed his mind.
"Agent," Sue says, sounding slightly irritated at his lack of response, "I asked you if specimen T.P. 247 is ready for transport?"
Kurt snickers at her use of the term 'T.P.' as it refers to 'terrestrial planet', but the minute he found out it was an Earth abbreviation for 'toilet paper' he couldn't stop thinking about it every time she asked.
He clears his throat before he begins again.
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about." Kurt stalls. He doesn't like talking to Sue. In all of the hundreds of years he's spent on this planet, he did his best to never call on her if he could help it, and now he has the worst reason to talk with her of all.
"Well, what is it?" Sue barks. "I haven't got all the time in the universe to sit here and listen to you aspirate."
"I don't have a specimen for you," Kurt says.
"Well, why the hell not?" Sue growls. "I thought you were pursuing one. I have about a thousand notes from you about the way he does his hair alone."
Kurt blushes but stays tight lipped.
"The last specimen you sent me was fifty years ago," she continues, her aggravation levels rising as she berates Kurt.
"Yes. They haven't evolved physically since then, so I don't see a reason to send you a new one."
Before she has a chance to argue he rushes on.
"I have compiled a thorough report that encompasses their cultural development for the last hundred years. Technological advances, their launch into the so-called 'information age'; their society is still centuries behind ours. They pose no threat, and if my projections are correct, they won't be for close to another seven hundred and fifty thousand years. So, I'm recommending we close off this planet for further study until that time."
Kurt hears Sue's finger tapping against her desk.
"What are you saying, agent?"
Kurt folds his hands in his lap, giving himself moral support.
"I'm out, Sue," Kurt says. "I'm not doing this anymore."
The tapping stops.
"So, that's it? You're packing up shop and coming home?"
And here it was.
"I'm resigning my commission," he says firmly, hoping to leave no room for debate. "I'm not coming home."
He hears the sound of Sue's sigh and knows he's in for a long, uncomfortable conversation.
"Kurt, you've been on that puny planet for…"
"A lot longer than I'd care to admit, ambassador," Kurt finishes, not so willing to own up to his advanced age.
"You're a decorated officer. One of the highest paid in your rank. You have more honors and recommendations than…well, me, and you're going to throw it all away?"
Kurt knew this was coming but it doesn't make these points any easier to debate. Listening to her lay it all out sounds insane, even to him.
"It's not a decision I made lightly," Kurt says in his defense. "And it's not as if I don't have a reason. I do. I have a good reason."
An amazing reason, he thinks with a smile.
Sue is silent for a second and Kurt tries to imagine the look on her face as his meaning sinks in entirely.
"You fell in love," she accuses. "You fell in love with one of them, didn't you?"
More silence.
"You fell in love with the specimen!" Her incredulous tone shoves him back like a slap in the face. "Now why would you go ahead and do something stupid like that? You're one of the best officers I have. You're cold and frigid…like me. You don't have a heart."
"Technically we have seven," Kurt deadpans.
Sue groans with exasperation.
"You know what I mean."
"I know." Kurt shakes his head.
"Wait," Sue says suddenly sounding thoroughly confused, "aren't you heart bound to be joined to a man here? What was his name? Blaire?"
Kurt rolls his eyes.
"His name is Blaine, and Sue, we broke up over two hundred years ago."
"Really?"
"Yeah. He's married now to some guy named Eli, in the biodivergence department."
Sue gasps.
"Isn't that the guy that replaced you when you left?"
"Yup." In more ways than one, apparently, not that he cared. His betrothed cheated and Kurt broke it off. Other than some bruised pride there was really no love lost there.
"How do I not remember this?" Sue mulls out loud. "Oh, that's right. I don't care."
Kurt smirks. In her own way, she does care. She cares very much, which is why she launches into another lecture.
"How do you know your specimen will accept you?" Sue argues. "Have you been intimate with him?"
"He's not a specimen," Kurt says. "His name is Sebastian. And not that it's any of your business but yes, we have been intimate."
"In your true form?"
Kurt, in his natural form, is a sight of wonder and envy to behold. Humans would liken him to a lycanthrope – large and canine with eyes like diamonds and silky brown fur. Since his race of people have been observing the planet Earth since its infancy, one of his kind out late at night is probably where the legend of the werewolf began.
Thinking about the possibility makes him laugh, and has made him partial to human werewolf movies and t.v. shows en masse. Teen Wolf currently holds the title as his favorite secret pleasure.
Now that the human race is more developed, Kurt and others of his kind take potions and tonics to alter their form. They have to be taken daily since their bodies change and adapt quickly.
"No, I have not," Kurt affirms, "because then there would be no way you'd let him alone. He'd have to leave."
"Damn," Sue mutters. "I was sure I had you there." Kurt hears Sue curse under her breath and he knows she's almost out of arguments, but the hardest ones to hear she's left for the end; the ones he himself has thought to death until he almost became numb to them…almost.
"Once you're gone, you can't come back," she presses. "After 24 hours of drinking their water and breathing their air, your body will start to change, to adapt, and you'll turn into one of them."
"I know."
"Your longevity will be gone, Kurt." She clears her throat to cover the choked sound she wasn't quick enough to hide.
"I know."
"Well, what about your dad? Your stepmom? All your friends? You have people back home who love you, though the heavens only know why."
"I've spoken to them already," Kurt says, biting his tongue to keep from crying. "They understand. We've said our goodbyes."
Sue is silent again, but not for too long.
"So, there's nothing I can say to change your mind?" she asks finally. "I can't up your pay or raise your commission? Possibly send you a more advanced ship."
Kurt smiles at her attempts at bribery.
"My mind's made up."
Kurt hears the moment when Sue realizes she's lost, and her persona changes, switching back to the hard-hearted commander he's a touch more comfortable with.
"You know the protocol," Sue says somberly. "Set the ship to auto pilot and…"
"It'll return on its own, I know." Kurt stares at the screen and sighs. "It's been an honor serving for you, Sue."
"I don't know how you can honestly say that, Kurt," she says with a sad laugh, "but thank you. It's been an honor having you in my service." Sue sniffles, a muffled sound that Kurt might have missed if he wasn't standing completely still. "Now, go. Go to your human lover and make a bunch of ugly, hairless babies."
"We're both men, Sue…" Kurt wipes a few stray tears from his eyes. "You know that's not how it works down here."
"Like I care," she mumbles. "I'm sure you'll figure it out."
As happy as he is with his decision, Kurt can't bear to stay and watch his ship lift off and leave the Earth's atmosphere, returning home without him. He switches the ship's controls to autopilot, dialing in the coordinates and setting it for a thirty minute delay to give him time to get away.
It takes a while for Kurt to make it to Sebastian's penthouse from the outskirts of the city where his ship had been kept, cloaked in invisibility in a barren field, but after decades of riding subways and buses he's fine without his portable transporter. Kurt stands outside Sebastian's door and waits a few tense moments longer, trying to decide what exactly he's going to say.
Sorry I said I was leaving and never coming back?
Sorry that I told you I didn't really love you?
I was actually a space alien trying to collect you as a specimen for an intergalactic zoo?
In the end, he doesn't have to say a word. The door opens and Sebastian, preparing to go out for the evening, stops short at the sight of his ex-boyfriend darkening his doorway.
A small, excited smile creeps onto Sebastian's face but for only a second when he squashes it with a bitter smirk.
"You came back."
"Yeah," Kurt says, his own smile more apologetic. "I did."
"Do you think it's that easy?" Sebastian scoffs. "It's been twelve hours already. I've moved on, baby. In fact…" Sebastian holds up his car keys and his coat, "I've got a date."
"No, you don't," Kurt says, pulling the coat from Sebastian's arms and walking forward slowly, crowding Sebastian back into his apartment with the persistence glowing from behind his dark eyes. "You're going down to that bar on 54th, but just to drink me away."
Sebastian sighs, stepping back unconsciously.
"I hate how you know me."
"No, you don't," Kurt says, kicking the door shut behind him. "Actually, you kind of love it."
Kurt tosses the coat to the couch and takes Sebastian in his arms, one snaking around his waist and the other smoothing up his back, his lips insistent and determined as he claims Sebastian's mouth, kissing him possessively.
"So…are you staying this time?" Sebastian pants against Kurt's mouth; Kurt has no intention of letting Sebastian get too far away.
"Yes, I am."
"But…" Sebastian struggles between kisses; kisses that almost succeed in making Sebastian forget everything but the man in front of him, "I thought you said you had a job to return to."
"I did," Kurt agrees, reaching for the buttons to Sebastian's shirt now that he's sure Sebastian isn't about to push him away, "but as it turns out my boss is an ass so I quit."
"You only figured that out now?" Sebastian mumbles, craning his neck so Kurt can reach that spot below his ear that drives him wild.
"Actually, I've known that for decades," he murmurs along the stretch of tan skin he's trailing kisses along, "but I didn't have a good enough reason to resign until now."
Kurt feels Sebastian start to give in, his fingers fiddling with the belt to Kurt's pants, undoing the leather strap.
"You said you'd been away from home for a long time."
Kurt tilts his head, kissing Sebastian one more time, steering him swiftly for the bedroom.
"As it turns out," Kurt whispers, "home is where the heart is, and my heart is here with you."