UnEarthing Toroid

Part 8

Declan snapped awake first thing in the morning. The moment the sound of the birds reached his ears, he jolted upright with a fearful pounding in his chest. What happened!? Something had happened last night, something important that his half-asleep brain was urging him to remember.

But as the fog of tiredness dissipated from his brain, he relaxed. Oh yeah. The aliens. That's what happened. That wasn't scary. He liked aliens. It wasn't like...a break-in, or a kidnapping, or something like that. Just guests.

That was why he was on the couch and not in his own bed. Right. He remembered now. And...one of the aliens should be asleep on the other couch, right? He glanced over, and sure enough, there was Tuanhai sleeping peacefully. He looked fine. Everything looked fine.

So, with a sigh of relief, Declan rolled over to get more sleep.

He awoke again to the sound of the front door shutting, and then clacking footsteps down the sidewalk. A car started. Drove away. His mother was off to work.

Declan sat up, a bit disappointed. He had wanted to talk to his mom before she left this morning, even though he wasn't quite sure what about. It's not like he could come clean to her about the aliens. But maybe he could still get some advice, however indirectly.

He checked his phone. There were notifications from his VPN, from all the news stations he followed, from online message boards he was a part of, from a groupchat with his friends...And yes, even one from his mom.

|I know we discussed you having guests, but we didn't talk about them staying the night over. Please ask me next time. Remember, your dad's flight gets in at 7 tonight and I want you home to greet him.|

Okay, I can be here, but what do I do with them...? He glanced over at the still-sleeping Tuanhai. Mom won't want guests over right when Dad gets home. Declan felt kind of responsible for these aliens. It was like they'd been given to him for a reason. He was one of the only people in the world who would believe them and take their side, probably. So he felt an obligation to keep them safe.

Oh well. I'll think of that when I get to it. He sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, then he stood up. He didn't want to wake Tuanhai, so he moved as quietly as he could over toward the kitchen.

Breakfast. They would all need breakfast. Wouldn't they? He assumed that aliens still had to eat, even if they were aliens. But could they eat human food? Was it even worth it to try? He could've woken one of them up to ask, but he didn't want to disturb them for something that trivial.

Besides, he...He kind of enjoyed the idea of making breakfast for his new friends, showing off delicious food in front of them right when they first woke up in the morning. That would probably be a nice way to wake up. He hoped they could actually get to enjoy it.

But there was another problem too: Declan was not a good cook. He couldn't do a thing with food. He would get distracted and let it burn, or get too nervous and take it out early. He made a mess; spilled too much of this ingredient and forgot enough of that one. Even when he tried to use a recipe, it seemed like everything he touched just turned out flat and bland and terrible.

So he would not be cooking for them himself. But...If he got food delivered here quickly enough, maybe he could pretend...

Tuanhai woke to the smell of eggs and shrimp. It was a familiar smell that made him think, in his first waking moments, that he was still at home and everything up to this point had been a dream. But when he opened his eyes, he was still in the living room of some unfamiliar house, on some unfamiliar planet.