Iridescence

by Serpent_Underscore

Settling in, part 1

Omaha Nebraska: Sunday January 22, 1995.

For the fifth time since I had started on my breakfast, my hand dashed out to prevent the milk carton from being tipped over. An entirely too mischievous chirp was the only response as a pair of almost disconcertingly large blue eyes peeked out over the rim of the carton then dashed back down again.

I firmly moved the carton of milk to the other side of the table, eliciting a squeak as I revealed her hiding spot. Her chitinous legs scrabbled against the hard surface of the table as she ducked behind a box of cereal, nearly tripping as she went.

The seconds passed in silence, and then the cereal box began to tip forward ever so slowly, accompanied by a giggle. I stuck one finger out to keep it in place as I ate, smiling at the frustrated noise that followed and the sudden increase in resistance as she tried putting all of her miniscule weight into trying to topple it.

The pressure eased and I thought she had temporarily given up, until a green aura unexpectedly enveloped the box. I withdrew my finger in shock as the box began to shake, then ducked in order to avoid it as it flew past my head and smashed into the wall behind me. It hung suspended against the wall until the green aura vanished a few moments later, then fell to the floor in a flattened heap.

When I turned back to look at Kerrigan her face was scrunched up in an expression of childish indignation, cheeks puffed out and eyes narrowed as she glared sullenly. With a swish of her tail and a flip of her head she turned her back on me and began to daintily walk away.

"Telekinesis?" I wondered aloud. Kerrigan paused and half-tilted her head back in my direction with a curt chirp, as though asking if I was apologizing for ruining her fun. "Oh come on, don't be that way." I said as I reached across the table to stroke her head. Her carapace was harder now than when she had first hatched, but still retained much of the softness and pliancy in its outer layers. "So you're a psychic shapeshifting alien then. I guess being able to move things with your mind would come in handy when you don't have hands or anything."

Kerrigan's head twisted as she pushed herself into my fingers, with her front half following suite. Her rear quarters valiantly struggled to keep her upright, then gave up as she flopped on her side with a pleased sound. As I scratched the back of her neck I felt a curious rough area across her otherwise smooth chitin, running in a line from the nape of her neck to her shoulders, with hard little bumps interspersed underneath the surface.

While I stroked her head with one hand, I went back to eating my cereal with the other before it got soggy. Kerrigan looked up from where she lay and gave an exasperated snort when she noticed I wasn't giving her my full and undivided attention.

Still on her side, she grasped her forelegs around my wrist and began pulling herself toward me. Shimmying and wriggling like a beached fish, she inched forward until she poked her nose against my bowl and made a chirping noise.

I couldn’t help but laugh at her antics, shaking my head slowly. When I finished eating my breakfast I scooped Kerrigan up and took her to the kitchen for her own feeding session. As I whisked the ingredients to her formula in the blender, I idly wondered how long the mixture would keep for, and if I could make up a large batch for future use rather than having to mix and measure everything each time. Maybe I could freeze it.

By now I was getting the hang of feeding her, slowly settling into a routine. Every few hours she'd loudly remind me of her needs, even when I was fast asleep. I had a funny feeling that for the next few months my sleep schedule would be even more messed up than normal.

After her feeding I changed her again and let her play with her toys on the floor while I threw away the ravaged nipple from her formula bottle. Walking over to the television, I shifted my attention to the 5:00 evening news, eyes peeled for any mention of aliens revealing themselves in Nevada. It was a faint chance, but one I'd have to keep an eye on for the foreseeable future. When the program ended, predictably with no mention of extraterrestrials, I turned to my laptop to surf the local news in the cities and towns closest to Area 51, looking for any kind of clue as to the activities of Kerrigan's traveling companions.

Somewhat surprisingly, there wasn't a lot of follow-up reporting on the green lightning storm and craters, nor was there anything in the local news that I could credibly pin on alien activities. No reports of strange black dog-like creatures, no large-scale manhunts from the authorities, no green fires or mysterious goings-on, nothing.

Just in case, I checked the local obituaries and missing persons reports for anything suspicious, but had a similar lack of progress there as well. Probably just as well. I thought with a sigh.

I started to stand up, but looked down and realized that sometime during my lengthy search Kerrigan had curled up on top of my feet and fallen asleep. I smiled and stooped down to scoop her up. She stirred as I touched her, but stayed fast asleep as I deposited her on the couch.

There was still a while before I needed to leave for work, so I turned on the tv, putting on a movie and going back to the couch to sit down next to her.

Not even halfway through the movie, Kerrigan lifted her head and trilled expectantly, ears flicking as she looked toward the window. A moment later I heard the sound of a car pulling up to the driveway.

Peering past the glare of the headlights in the darkening gloom, I could see that it was Nicole's car. That in itself wasn't entirely unexpected. The mattress lashed to the top of the car was however.

I went to unlock the door and let her in. Knowing Nicole, she was probably going to try and use the baby alien as an excuse to clutter up my place a bit. A longstanding debate between us centered around whether my lack of stuff was a valid minimalist decor choice, or whether my place looked creepy and empty because there was nothing at all visible except for in the sparsely-furnished kitchen and living room.

Truth be told, I probably would need to shift gears now that I was taking care of a child, but that didn't mean I had to change my lifestyle all at once, did it? Oh who was I kidding. With a look of pained resignation on my face, I went out to greet Nicole.

Her usual smile widened into a Cheshire Cat grin when she saw my expression. "I think you can guess why I'm here Shaun. I was thinking about our discussion yesterday, and I realized that if left to your own devices you probably wouldn't ever get more than the bare essentials. I thought I'd do my part to help you raise Kerrigan properly and help you furnish a room for her."

My response was deadpan. "It's only been a day since we got back. How do you know I wasn't planning on doing that myself once we had the chance to get settled in a bit?"

"Because I've known you since we were both just kids." Nicole said with a smirk. "If it were left up to you, I know you'd do your best to treat her well, but you'd just end up turning her into some kind of monk that spurns worldly possessions. Either that or she'll end up as a packrat later on in life to compensate for her early years."

Somewhat defensively I responded "It's not like I'm planning on depriving her of anything. If you haven't noticed, I've already gotten some toys for her to play with."

"It's a nice start and I know you must think it's a bit lavish, but three squeaky toys, a stuffed animal and a rattle just aren't going to cut it. Neither is that dog basket you got for her. Speaking of which-" Nicole twisted her head around to glance at the mattress on top of her car. "-want to help me get this inside?"

"Fine." I responded "But I'll have you know that I was planning on getting her everything she needed to be happy. It's just not necessary to rush out and get everything she'll eventually require right off the bat. You really didn't need to go out of your way to do this for me."

"Hey, this is something groundbreaking you're doing here. I wanted to help out too, and this seemed like the most logical place to start. Besides, I thought it would be easiest to push for this at the beginning and help overcome your inertia. Strike while the iron's hot and all that."

I snorted. "Speaking of hot irons, you should keep in mind that Kerri's a bit of a fire hazard currently. One reason I wanted to delay furnishing a room for her is because I'm a little worried about her setting the place ablaze if there's a lot of flammable stuff within easy reach."

Nicole's step faltered for a moment, but she recovered quickly. "Oh, right. Well, that just means we'll need to alter our choices accordingly. Fire-resistant bed covers, no more stuffed animals until she's a little older, blinds instead of fabric curtains, that sort of thing."

Together we got the bed inside. Kerrigan was now fully awake and watching us with interest, perched on the armrest of the couch. The spare bedroom was just as bare as the rest of the house, but the small stack of cardboard boxes sitting forlornly in the center of the room somehow made it feel even more empty. We set the bed down and started clearing my storage boxes to another room.

I heard the creak of the door behind me and turned to see Kerri pushing it open with her nose. She gave a happy trill to see me and clambered up on top of one of the remaining boxes. I gently set her down on the floor again and picked up the box. This particular one was filled with mementos of days gone by, things that I didn't have any immediate use for but couldn't bring myself to get rid of.

After we had cleared out the room and set up the bed we went back out to the car to collect the other things Nicole had brought.

There were an excessive amount of child-friendly decorations and knick knacks to place on the walls and surfaces of the room, a night light and several packs of plastic wall socket protectors, a few more baby toys, a collar and leash to be used when Kerri was in disguise outside, some curtains and a few stuffed animals that needed to be left in the car, a cheap dresser and shelves that we needed to assemble, and a few other things as well.

Setting everything up took over an hour and a half. By the time we were done, the whole room looked completely different. I still thought it all seemed a little much, but Kerrigan seemed to like her new surroundings.

There was still a little time before I needed to start getting ready for the night shift at work, so Nicole and I started exchanging ideas and plans for the future. We agreed that it would be best to lay the groundwork for Kerrigan's childhood early on and try to account for as many eventualities as possible before they became a problem.

I mentioned her display of telekinesis earlier, which Nicole found interesting. It was clear at this point that there were probably a number of other unconventional surprises waiting for us as she developed.

As I started to prepare for work, Nicole brought up a point that I hadn't considered yet. "Hey Shaun, while you're off at work, what's your plan for Kerri? I mean, you can't really leave her at home by herself, particularly with the way she can phase through solid objects. If she went looking for you she could easily get lost or hurt."

I sighed as I ran my hand through my hair. "I hadn't actually thought of that. Argh, I can't take her to work with me very easily either, since she'll be spotted before long. I can't rely on her to stay in her dog form either, and I can't bring pets even if she did."

Nicole looked thoughtful. "Maybe I could take her to my house for the night, and bring her back in the morning once you get back."

"That could work for now I guess. I'd like to come up with something better later on though, since ferrying her back and forth between our houses every day would open up a lot of opportunities for someone to spot her in her real form."

"Okay, just for now then. I'll be careful to keep her out of sight." Nicole said.

I paused as I remembered something. "Be sure to remember to move flammable things away from where Kerrigan's going to be."

"Right. See you later then."

Nicole took Kerrigan out to her car while I locked up the house. As I got in my own car and watched Nicole drive away into the night, I wondered just how long we'd be able to keep Kerrigan's existence a secret from the world.

Comments

[Scarheart]

Nice to see this up and going again!

[ssokolow]

For something this adorable, definitely worth the wait. :)

[kojivsleo]

Adorable.

[tsaukpaetra]

Forget sliding into boxes, pushing them over is just as cute!
Keep going! ;)

[FordPrefect]

Thanks for the update!