Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Having trouble at school and at home, Tyler slipped out of his house again. Everything felt too chaotic at home. Taking a deer path down to the house hidden in the trees, he trudged down the path. His tree house. He gazed at the sky and witnessed the stars shining, a beauty he had never understood.

A bright shoot start streaked across the sky, nearly blinding Tyler. As soon as it appeared, it was gone. Tyler’s wish was silly - to have someone be his friend - and he scoffed at the lingering hope.

He continued down the path, reaching deeper into the forest. It must’ve been at least an hour, with Tyler stopping every few feet to look at something. He stopped when he heard a branch break near him. Tyler stopped and looked around the area to see if there was some explanation for the sound, but there was nothing. He shrugged, pulling off his backpack briefly and pulled out his notebook, and he continued his walk. 

The sky seemed darker than before, a deeper blue than before. Tyler saw the old tree house in the distance and smiled. A sanctuary where no one could hear. Climbing up the ladder, Tyler threw his bag in before going over to the corner. 

The walls were covered with drawings, writing, and songs that Tyler thought would never be heard. He grabbed out his ukulele from his backpack and tuned it up. Playing a simple cord before going back to work on a song he had been writing for a few weeks. He tried on getting the right chords for the song, the right lyrics, the right everything, but couldn’t get it right.

He scribbled out the last line again and again. Getting more and more frustrated until he threw off his uke and groaned into his hands. 

Why was writing a song so hard? He did it before, but now he can’t even decide on the lyrics. Tyler laid down, staring at the broken roof. Seeing stars forming constellations he would never understand. He felt the claws of sleep pulling down his eyes, feeling himself drift into sleep. 

Maybe this time he wouldn’t wake up. 

In the night, there was a being watching Tyler. Silently watching him from the trees. Once the being confirmed Tyler was unconscious, they climbed the ladder to investigate him. Seeing a blanket in the corner, neatly folded, they grabbed it, looking at the soft fabric. They put it down, then look at the walls. Carefully examining the papers pinned to the wall. Fingers tracing around the drawings of a strange city, a hooded figure, and a torchbearer. 

Tyler mumbled something and turned over onto his side, startling the creature. Seeing Tyler curl up made the creature think of covering Tyler with the big piece of cloth. Carefully throwing it over the sleeping form then slinking back into the night not wanting to be around if Tyler woke up.

~~~

Tyler woke up just before his parents woke up, just enough time to get back before they came to check on him. Tyler jumped down from the tree house and ran off towards his house. He had the sense that something was watching him leave, but he didn’t have time to dwell on that. Right as the sun hit the windows to the east, Tyler was climbing into his window, he quickly threw off his clothes and threw on more appropriate clothes.

His mom popped in this time, seeing Tyler was already up and about. She told him to get ready for breakfast and continue on with the day. Tyler had already completed his work for the week and was basically free to do whatever, like to go back to the tree house. 

His parents basically let him have free range on things if he completed his work. After breakfast Tyler walked back to the tree house. Memories from the chaotic morning started to pop back up. 

Wait he didn’t have his blanket on, it was in the corner, nicely folded up. Tyler’s pace started to pick up. Something scraped against the wood of the floor like something trying to escape. 

It wasn’t long until Tyler was at the Tree house. As old and as broken down as he remembered. He cautiously climbed up the ladder, the blanket was where it was in the morning. There were 3 claw marks that either looked like something fell out of the hatch, or was clawing its way up. 

Tyler had a sickening feeling that the something was behind him, watching intently. Tyler slowly turned, feeling the fear wrap his body. As soon as he saw the yellow skin and big dark eyes, Tyler fell off the ladder. 

Before Tyler hit the ground, two hands wrapped around his arms. Tyler opened his eyes to look up to see the being holding on to him. The being had 4 arms, two that were grabbing Tyler and two that were bracing against the opening. The being seemed about the size of Tyler, but seemed so much stronger than him.

Carefully the being lifted him back up into the tree house, moved away from the hole and placed Tyler back down on stable ground. The being was actually smaller than him, by a few inches but still smaller.

They seemed to be more or less curious about Tyler and not threatening. Hand grabbing at Tyler’s clothes and investigating, lifting them to inspect the squishy flesh underneath, or well tried to until Tyler forcibly ripped his clothing out of the being’s hand and pulled them down covering his body once again. The being jumped back briefly before going back to investigating without touching him.

“What the… what are you? Who are you?” Tyler asked, watching the being look at him.

Their body moved much like a predator as they moved around Tyler. They tilted their head when Tyler spoke, obviously not knowing the same language. Tyler seemed to realize this. 

Well there were a few ways to communicate, body language and drawings. This being, this alien seemed to understand that Tyler was uncomfortable so investigated while not being intrusive. 

Tyler grabbed out one of his notebooks and flipped to a clean page and drew the Alien out and put question marks at the side and showed the drawing to the Alien. The alien looked at it for a moment, pointed at the drawing then at themselves. Tyler nodded, the alien looked at the question mark, looking a bit confused. 

Oh right, the language barrier would include the punctuation. Tyler pointed to question marks then shrugged and shook his head. The alien seemed even more confused until it seemed that they just understood what Tyler was saying.

The alien grabbed the notebook and pencil out of Tyler’s hands and started drawing out an entire galactic system. Making a trail from some unknown planet to Earth with the alien pointing to earth and pointing to the ground. They continued.

A ship with mechanical problems, them crashing, and finding the tree house. Guess that explains the blanket.

“Why me?” Tyler said quietly.

The alien cocked their head, Tyler looked up. He pointed to himself and made a confused look.

The alien processed it for a moment before pointing to Tyler then seemed to smile and give a thumbs up.

‘You’re good’

Chapter Text

Well, this was a strange situation. An Alien thinking that Tyler was good or whatever the thumbs up meant. Tyler looked deeply into their eyes, Golden irises, black pupils. Big eyes full of wonder, full of curiosity… full of life. Tyler felt tears prick his eyes. He saw the expression change to one of concern. 

Why was this alien concerned with him? 

Why was this alien happy with him?

Tyler started crying and he really didn’t know. The alien walked right up to him, wiping away tears. Their fingers were smooth. They then pulled Tyler into a hug, wrapping all four arms around Tyler. They were warm, comforting, despite the scaly skin, they were smooth. Tyler wrapped his arms around the alien and buried his face into their neck, quietly crying. 

He still didn’t understand why, but he had a feeling that this creature was right about Tyler being good. This was the most comfort he had, he felt like they understood the pain, the mental shit he’s been through, everything.

He felt the alien rubbing slow circles on his back, like his mother once used to do, but refused to due to the fact that Tyler wasn’t a kid anymore. He felt himself relax against the strangely strong frame. He felt like a kid who scraped his knee and was being comforted by his mother, unlike the 17 year old he actually was.

Once Tyler had calmed down and signaled to the alien that he was good, he felt the cool autumn air against his skin when he separated from them. The tips of their antenna glowed a somber blue, sadness and concern still evident in their face. Tyler had a feeling they could actually feel what he was feeling and trying to lie would only concern them more. Well, that’s another way to communicate. 

The alien wiped away the remaining tears then seemed to reassure him.

Well, what to do now? 

The alien sat back once they finished making sure Tyler was okay, watching him as Tyler awkwardly moved over to grab his backpack, dropping his uke on the ground while searching for something else, he needed to stop dropping it, it was getting annoying to tune every time. The alien grabbed the uke and investigated it, plucking a string and startling themselves. Tyler turned at the sound only to have his uke shoved into his hands and a startled alien backing away.

The alien watched the uke with what Tyler guessed was intense fear. Tyler pulled the strap over his shoulder, tuned it and then played a chord, making the alien flinch before becoming investigative again. Tyler sat down and played another chord, bringing the alien closer to him. Tyler took off the strap and held it out to the alien, they cautiously took the ukulele and held it like Tyler did. Tyler moved their fingers onto the fretts of the uke, realizing that the alien only had 4 fingers; no matter, they could learn how to play with their thumb. Making sure that the strings were pressed down correctly. Took the other hand and made it strum the ukulele. 

The alien was instantly in love with the sound. Tyler continued to position their fingers to play different chords.

Tyler didn’t even realize the time and his mom came out to look for him. Both of them heard her call out. The alien didn’t seem bothered, but Tyler started freaking out, which in turn made the alien start stressing out.

“Shit shit shit! What am I going to do? You don’t look like me!” Tyler quietly cursed.

The alien just watched Tyler wildly gesture and make sounds they couldn’t understand. Seemingly to somewhat understand, they shapeshifted into a human or at least to look like a human. 

It would be impressive to Tyler if the alien wasn’t completely naked. Good thing Tyler kept a change of clothes. He grabbed them out of his bag and threw them at the alien. The alien looked confused. Tyler walked over to help them pull the clothing on and looked at their head. The antennas were still there, Tyler quietly gestured to them and the alien shrugged. Tyler looked back to his back and remembered the beanie he kept in there. It didn’t look quite right, but it was the best he could do. 

Wait… shoes… Tyler didn’t have spare shoes. He’ll just say that they lost them. Tyler stepped over the alien and grabbed the uke that was placed down and walked back over to his bag and started packing up what he had brought. The alien can’t speak, he’ll just say they’re mute.

“Tyler! Dinner’s ready!” his mom said, popping up through the hole. 

“Oh, cool.” Tyler said, standing over the alien, who waved at her.

“Oh, who’s your little friend?” She asked.

“His name is… Josh. I was just teaching him how to play my Ukulele.” Tyler said, hoping she’ll just accept it.

“Where are his shoes?” 

“He lost them in the river.”

“Why are you speaking for him?”

“He’s mute. He can understand you, he just can’t talk.” 

She seemed to believe it and invited “Josh” back for dinner. Tyler had secretly hoped she wouldn’t but he knew better. 

They walked down the path back to Tyler’s house. Josh followed with ease as they jumped over logs and rocks. Despite the language barrier it seemed that Josh was actually starting to understand him. Maybe they learned through osmosis? Maybe it was something to do with the antennas.

Once they got back to the house, Tyler gave Josh more comfortable clothing, and gave them a baseball cap which looked a lot better than the beanie. They ate dinner quietly and afterwards Tyler brought Josh back up to his room.

“How are we going to do this?” Tyler asked quietly as Josh explored his room. They were being careful not to drop or damage anything. Tyler didn’t really mind but he also really did mind. This alien didn’t have a place to stay and he didn’t feel right kicking them out. Yet he couldn’t exactly keep them without cause. 

Well, he could sneak them into the house or hide them.

As the night started on, Josh pretty much made Tyler’s room comfortable for themselves. Tyler sat on his bed with Josh twisting and curling behind him, making themselves comfortable. Tyler was thankful his bedroom was on the furthest part of the house away from Tyler’s parents room. They wouldn’t be able to hear Tyler or Josh dropping or falling on the ground or anything. Tyler was also thankful that his bed didn’t squeak or creak. 

Once Tyler was tired enough from writing he looked over to Josh who was comfortably snoozing on his bed. Tyler walked over, his bed was big enough for both of them, he pushed Josh over to the otherside of the bed before going to lay down. 

In the morning Tyler woke up as he usually did, before his parents. Tyler was going to get up when he felt a few arms wrapped around him. Josh was back into their alien form, okay not bad, his parents aren’t up yet. His parents were going to be gone today so they could just hang out at the house.