Chapter Text
A violent buzzing from Han's desk stirred him awake, his eyes sore and heavy as he peeled them open. The crack in the curtains allows a small amount of orange light to filter into Han's bedroom and shadows from the trees outside dance around on the wall opposite him. Han rubbed his eyes and slowly lifted himself off his stomach, which he'd been sleeping on, face buried in his pillows. Another loud buzz rang through his ear and Han woke up enough to realize that it was one of his evening alarms, which he relays on a lot when he's at home; his schedules normally keep him in check but Stray Kids are on a small break right now and Han doesn't have any schedules for a while, so he sets alarms so he doesn't mess up his routines. Although, his horrendous sleep habits don't make it easy for him.
Han sleepily shuffled onto his side, his eyes still heavy with sleep, 'what a weird dream' he thought to himself as the previous night replayed in his mind. He stretched out an arm from under him, his hand bumping off something. Suddenly, as if he'd been slapped around the face, Han jolted up, his eyes wild with the realization that maybe his dream wasn't just a dream. As Han finally began to open his tired eyes he was greeted by a slow teal glow. Expecting to see the odd mass of energy on the bed beside him Han rubbed his eyes and scanned the space beside him.
To his dismay, the teal mass was nowhere to be seen, but instead next to him lay a body, a very naked body, curled up in a fetal position, its arms loosely wrapped around its legs. Startled at the sudden appearance of a being next to him Han jumped back, falling off of his bed and landing with a thud on his bedroom floor, the creature did not budge.
Han clumsily gathered himself and hurried over to his desk where he lifted his arm and blindly felt around for his phone, pulling it off from its charging dock. In a hurried panic, Han fumbled through his contacts, too nervous to look over at his bed and the body laying on it.
His arms shook violently as he raised the ringing phone to his ear.
"Hi Hannie" a soft voice answered, but Han was too shellshocked to reply, his breathing was loud and erratic, "Han?" A more concerned tone came through this time, "Hanji? Is everything okay?" A hint of worry arose from the voice now.
"Le-" Han began but his words fell short, the shake in his voice evident.
"I'm driving over." The voice on the line announced, "Do I need to stay on the line?" Another concerned question, but Han wearily shook his head in response and hung up his phone, placing it on the floor beside him with a shaking hand. He raised his eyes to meet the end of his bed and prompted himself up with his hands just a tiny bit to catch a glimpse of the thing that occupied the left side of his mattress.
Han needed to get dressed with someone on the way over, so he quietly shuffled his way over to his laundry basket and pulled out a black pair of tracksuit bottoms that he'd worn several days ago and a tee shirt that didn't smell all that bad and still on his hands and knees he crawled out of his bedroom and bolted to his living room, where he managed to finally dress.
'What the fuck? What the fuck! What the fuck?!' is the only thought he could manage as he picked the edges of his nails whilst he paced back and forth in his living room waiting for his door buzzer to go off.
Han's living room was spacy, the dark wooden floorboards were a nice contrast to the white of the walls, although they were livened up with colorful art, vinyl records, hanging guitars, and shelves full of oddities and trinkets. There was a reading nook with a white wooden cocoon chair hanging by chains from the ceiling with vibrant, golden yellow cushions inside that matched the fluffy rug that lay in front of the sofa. His sofa wasn't big, a two-seater, with room to stretch; it was light gray, soft to the touch, a glass coffee table sat in front of it, which a few music magazines messily left on its surface with a few drink coasters that had coffee stains on them. A large TV hung on the same wall as the front door, and under it was a thin cabinet with gaming consoles and controllers shut inside. That was all on the right-hand side when you entered Han's apartment, on the left-hand side there was his kitchen, a very sleek, modern, minimalist-looking kitchen with black cabinets, a large black fridge, and an island with yellow cushioned bar stools lined up along it.
As Han paced back and forth in his front room, he could feel the sweat in his palms build up and the tension in his chest growing tighter. "It wasn't a dream" he muttered to himself, "but how… what…" his rambling continued.
Whatever he'd woken up next to couldn't be the small odd little mass he carried home from the mountain, it looked… human?! If you looked past the teal hue of its skin and the slight glow that admitted from it, that is… "How did it…"
*Ding Dong* Han jumped on the spot at the sound of his doorbell, he wiped the sweat from his palms onto his tracksuit bottoms and made his way to the door. Through his eye hole, Han saw a familiar face looking just as anxious as he felt, restlessly swaying back and forth on the spot. The figure wore a blue fluffy jacket that's gradient went from light blue to dark blue and had white clouds all over it; with its hood up covering their face, a blue sweater underneath, thick light gray sweatpants, and black sneakers. They peered back into the eye hole at Han as he rattled the door open and Lee Know burst into the living room, grabbing him by both arms and looking him up and down, inspecting him for any oddities or injuries, before scanning the room.
"You're okay?!" Lee Know asked in a panic, still gripping Han's arms tightly. Lee Know's gaze pierced through Han, his eyes filled with worry and concern.
"Yes." Han nodded, and at that Lee Know relaxed his grip and let go of Han.
"You sounded… I got worried…" Lee Know sighed in relief, "What's going on?".
"I…" Han's eyes left Lee Know and traveled towards his bedroom door, "Er… Something weird happened last night," Han began to explain, still shaking from nerves. Lee Know made his way through Han's living room over to his sofa, gesturing for Han to follow him and sat down, "okay, breath" Lee Know calmly said as he gently tugged on Han's arm to join him. Han inhaled and exhaled but his body was too restless to sit, so he paced back and forth once more as he described his night's events in detail; from going out on a walk to seeing something fall from the sky, to the weird happenings with the streetlights and his phone, the huge bolt from the forest and finally, making his way up the mountain and finding the bizarre teal mass.
As Han walked back and forth explaining his story Lee Know followed along, nodding his head, umming and ahhing, and asking questions when he didn't quite understand, and Han tried his best to answer them although he wasn't sure how to. Lee Know looked just as confused and shocked about everything, but he could tell that Han truly believed what he was saying. Lee Know rarely questioned Han's words or his body language and Lee Know could tell that Han was on edge and a dream couldn't have made him this worked up.
"So you didn't see anything odd last night?" Han asked after he'd finished his recap of his night. Lee Know shook his head, "Nothing, it was super foggy and cloudy as I went to bed but nothing unusual. I later got woken up by the storm but fell back asleep shortly after," Han didn't understand, if Lee Know didn't see anything did no one else? Was it really just him that saw it? Was he going crazy? Han stopped pacing, staring at the fluffy, yellow rug underfoot, avoiding any eye contact with Lee Know "I bought it back…" He added, quietly. Lee Know shot him a stunned look as if to say, 'You did what?!' and Han knew, without even looking at Lee Know that he'd been given a look.
"I.. it spoke to me? Asked me to help it…" Han continued, his voice shaking, his eyes still fixed on the rug, "So… so I put it in my jacket and I ran home with it." He continued in a hurried mumble.
"It's here?" Lee Know scanned the room again from his seat and Han nodded towards the bedroom.
"But um…" he added, a look of worry flooding his face as he locked eyes with Lee Know, "well… it morphed? Or something? I.. didn't know but it's…" he trailed off, trying to find the words to tell Lee Know that there was a naked human-like, teal creature in his bed.
"... Morphed?" Lee Know furrowed his brow, "What if it's dangerous?!" His voice raised in an angry panic, "What if it hurt you?!" Lee Know's tone was stern, but Han could sense its underlined fear.
"I…" his head dropped to the floor again and he shuffled his feet, burying his toes into a sea of yellow cotton, "What if I'm the only one that saw it fall because it wanted me to find it?" His words were muffled in a whisper, not knowing if he believed them himself.
"What if you weren't the only one that saw it? You are putting yourself at risk, us at risk!" Lee Know wasn't one for getting worked up and Han could tell that his emotions were getting the better of him, but he also understood why. Han still had no idea why he felt so compelled to follow the light or why bought the odd little mass of light home with him after he found it, he couldn't explain the pull it had on him and how as he held it cost to his chest a wave of calm rushed over him. He had no answers and he had no idea how to tell Lee Know how the light made him feel without sounding even more off his rocker.
"I… I don't have answers to your questions and I don't know how to explain it, but…" Han tried to explain, "I think it chose me?" Lee Know sighed deeply and reached for Han's arm, taking him by the wrist before running his hand down his forearm and steeling their hands together. Han grabbed hold of Lee Know's hand in return and squeezed, allowing the tension in his body to fade with it. Han pulled Lee Know up off his sofa and began to lead him to his bedroom, where he'd left the creature in a panic. "Erm.. so.." Han nervously laughed, Lee Know cocked an eyebrow at him, "it's naked…" he continued. "It's naked?" Lee Know raised his eyebrow even higher and tilted his head to the side, "It was sleeping, I called you and I bolted out of the room.." Han nervously added, "just thought I should save you the shock I had." Han rubbed the back of his head and laughed once more as he continued to lead Lee Know to his bedroom.
Han slowly pushed his bedroom door open and peered into his room. The sun was almost fully set by now, and the glow-in-the-dark stars had started to gleam above them on the ceiling.
A pale teal light illuminated the center of his room, still pulsing in the same slow, weak rhyme from the mountaintop, a dim sea of light swam around the figure still curled up on Han's bed.
"What the…" Lee Know whispered behind him as he peered into the room over Han's shoulder.
Han reached into his tracksuit bottoms pocket and pulled out his phone and used one of his apps to turn on the moon lamp and changed its color to a normal yellow tone instead of its usual rainbow and they both slowly continued to make their way into the room. Lee Know gently pushes Han behind him and steps forward carefully, his feet light on the ground as he itches himself closer to the body, he can tell its breathing is exhausted and as he gets closer he can see that its unusual skin tone is faintly glowing in unison with its chest as it expands and deflates.
"It's hurt" Lee Know's voice a mixture of confusion and concern, Han continues to watch him silently from the threshold, "mmm" is all he manages to reply, as he starts to walk over to join his friend, "is it bad?" He says scanning the body slightly with his eyes.
"I don't think so? But we won't know until it wakes," Lee Know's reply seemed oddly calm to Han, but he always was able to keep his cool in crazy situations, unlike Han. "You said it talked to you?" He continued to ask Han, who nodded silently in return, "and you understood it fine?" Han nodded again at Lee Know's question and they both glanced down at the body again.
"Should we wake it?" Han asked, concerned for the creature. Neither of them was sure what to do, it’s not every day you have some odd, unknown humanoid being, who fell from space, laying in your bed. Lee Know reached out his hand and poked the creature's shoulder, it stirred but didn’t wake, he poked it again with a little more force, but still, the creature slept. “What if it doesn’t wake up?” Han’s eyes were wide with worry as he stared at Lee Know, whose face could only read that of someone who had no idea how to move forward from here. Han walked over to his wardrobe and shuffled around some selves, pushing around clothes and fabrics until he pulled a large soft purple blanket from one of the higher-up shelves, Lee Know walked over and joined him in taking down the blanket, being a few inches taller than Han helped, and with Lee Know’s help Han managed to pull down just one blanket instead of several, avoiding an unnecessary mess. They both walked back over to Han’s bed and the creature and Han gentled and placed the blanket over the still-naked being, avoiding as much eye contact with its body as possible. “The least I can do is try and keep it warm?” Han nervously laughed. They stared down at the creature once more and left the room.
Not knowing what to do with the creature, Lee Know decided it was best if he stayed with Han until the creature woke up, after finding someone to look after his cats, they fished out more blankets and pillows from Han’s wardrobe they set up camp in Han’s living room. Lee Know refused to leave Han alone with the possibly dangerous hibernating creature, even sending Han to the shops to get bandages and ointments for its wounds rather than leaving Han in the apartment alone with it again. They took turns checking up on it every few hours, cleaning its deep wounds, switching the bandages when needed, checking its pulse even though they weren’t sure if it worked the same as theirs, and swapping out heating pads as its temperatures dropped, as they both noticed it got unexplainably cold at points.
Days and nights passed and there was still no sign that the creature would wake up and neither of them knew what would happen when it did. There was an uncertainty in the air but Han wanted to keep believing that there was a reason only he was called to it, he so desperately wanted to believe that whatever this was that it wasn’t going to hurt them, and as much as he kept trying to soothe Lee Know’s worries he knew that the only thing they could do was wait and see.
They hadn’t told the others yet, Felix and Bang Chan were still in Australia with family and the last thing Han and Lee Know wanted to do was make them panic and fly home. As for the others, Lee Know made up a lie that Han had a bad cold and so he was looking after him, they bought it, Lee Know’s immune system had always been better than Han’s and he rarely caught illnesses from him, so it gave them time to figure out what their next move was when it woke up.
The hour was late, through the large wall-to-floor window in the living room the city lights danced in the night, the stars barely visible with the light pollution; in the distance, the faint line of the horizon on the sea could be seen through the mass of tall buildings and houses. Han sighed as he looked out, scanning the world around him, everything looked so small from the 14th floor. “Hannie, sit down, relax, you’ve been pacing again” Lee Know’s soft-spoken voice came from behind him, gently grabbing his arm and tugging him towards the sofa. Their blankets and pillows beaconing them to relax. Han closed the curtains, shutting out the busy world below them, and joined Lee Know, who was sitting on the sofa, remote in hand putting at the paused screen. “Howl’s?” Han asked as he threw himself down next to Lee Know, who nodded as he unpaused the TV.
Han threw himself down heavily and clumsy beside Lee Know and he pulled Han into his arms, leaned forward to grab the bowl of popcorn off the table, and placed it on his lap. Han nested into Lee Know, the pillows, and his blanket and allowed his body and mind to relax as they watched his favorite movie. It was the first time in days that he’d managed to forget that they weren’t alone, the first time his mind felt clear and at ease. He’d barely slept, all he wanted to do was to keep checking up on the creature in his bed, to see if it had woken, that it was okay. Its breathing was still shallow, its pulse weak and unsteady and that made Han unsteady; he couldn’t help but feel attached to whatever this being was, and as it suffered so did he. Lee Know had noticed Han’s health had declined over the last few days and he wasn’t fully convinced it was just due to the lack of sleep or eating, although Lee Know had been trying his best to get Han to eat as much as possible, Han didn’t seem to care. Han’s anxiety-fueled mind raced endlessly, his sentences half untold and his movements slow and drawn.
Han sleepily acted out the scene’s from the movie and lip-synced each line as his body and brain slowly melted into the comfort of his surroundings until he dozed off to the sounds of Howl’s Moving Castle on the TV. Lee Know placed the now empty bowl back onto the table, turned off the TV, and shuffled Han’s body so he lay down flush against the sofa, he removed Han’s socks and tucked him under the blanket before settling down on the makeshift bed on the floor beside him. Lee Know pulled off his hoodie, slipped off his socks, fluffed up his pillow, and curled up in a ball under his own blanket. The apartment fell quiet, the faint sound of a ticking clock from the kitchen the only noise to be heard, Lee Know’s body relaxed into his makeshift bed and he allowed himself to drift off as he let the ticking noise lull him to sleep.