Bring it Home [Kaitou Joker fic]

Chapter Three [edited]

By the time Aris was freed from the confines of the potato sack, she could hear the soothing whir of Akai's ship. It wasn't like that of a plane or car, it was smooth, like a quiet fan.

Akai wasn't even piloting the ship when it landed in an area in the middle of several different things. There were lights, lots of them. There were signs with symbols Aris couldn't begin to recognize. She crawled out of potato sack to get closer to the glass and get a good look around.

There were things flying everywhere, not just ships but 'people' too. They were like Phoenix, wide, graceful wings flapping to catch the wind and soar through the spaces that weren't consumed by the blinding lights.

If all of them could fly, then why were there still flying space cars??

"Alright, let's see..." Akai appeared from the floor— He just emerged from it! What the hell. "Rules, gotta make some rules."

"Well for starters, you can't let anyone know you're of another planet, we usually don't let visitors roam so freely around public areas, it's a hazard." Akai raises one finger to enumerate, "Two, don't make a scene, please. Don't talk too loud because they will recognize it's a different language and they will try to murder you."

"It's not like a talk a lot anyway." Aris defends half-heartedly.

"Three," Akai continues to raise a third finger,  "If you break any of these rules, I can't stop them from feeding you to the... things. I can't remember what they're called, just know that they're deadly and they eat about anything you give them."

Aris nodded along, Akai smiled pleasantly. "Great, lets get searching!"

Instead of the glass popping open like the usual spaceship does, a panel fell open in the back, displaying a beautiful wall of orange trees with blue leaves. "Wh— But, the city? It right over—"

"Yeah, we landed at a borderline? It's the precise points on the edges of the city, beyond those are forests where you'll find a variety of non-sentient creatures and hopefully, the plant we're searching for." Akai answers, flexing his wings subconsciously.

"What the hell do you mean, 'hopefully'?"

"Don't mind that, we'll find it." Akai insists, Aris stares at him in disbelief.

He leads her out of the ship and it disappears upon the pair exiting. Akai ventures straight into the forest. There were no paths and a lot of roots sticking out of the ground, Akai was strangely graceful while walking around, perhaps it was his bird feet that helped him get a grip on the roots.

"Slow the fuck down," Aris calls, noting that she was being left behind with the pace
Akai was setting. "I don't have the fancy ass chicken feet that you have."

"Thank you for calling them fancy."

"I said chicken feet."

Akai fakes a yawn to express his general disinterest in continuing their bickering. Aris clicks her tongue, but they keeps walking. There are lots of times when they pass by a bush of plants with flowers look really promising, but every time Aris approaches it,  Akai does either of the following:

He says "Don't touch that." or he doesn't say anything at all. As much as she hates to admit it, Akai knows what they're looking for, he knows what they're doing, so he's bound to say something if they stumble upon it. Aris can't help but feel a little useless while she lags behind the alien bird jump around a foreign terrain.

The rustling of a bush alerts Aris that something else is around. She turns her head slightly and spots a bush. It's green, like the ones on earth. It's bare except for a single flower.