Bela.

“HELLO.” Josuke was talking far too loud, waving his hand right in front of your face. “I’M JOSUKE HIGASHIKATA. JO-SU-KE. THIS IS MY FRIEND OKUYASU. DO YOU SPEAK JAPANESE? JA-PA-NE-SE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?”

You were blinking fast, interchanging looks between Josuke who was crouched next to you and Okuyasu who was standing a few meters away with his hands on his waist. 

“Why are you screaming?” Your voice was rough and tired after the crash, but your body doesn’t hurt like before. 

“OH YOU SPEAK MY LANGUAGE.” His smile was instant, bright and big, his eyes closing with it as he fully sat crossing his legs in front of you. “ME AND MY FRIEND WERE WONDERING WHERE DO YOU COME FROM.” He pointed at Okuyasu, who awkwardly waved at you.

“Please, stop screaming,” you say, rubbing your hands in your face and evening your breath. “Could you tell me where I am, please?”

“Oh! Yes!” Josuke nodded fast, the smile never disappearing. He was oddly excited about this. “You’re on Earth, in Japan to be more exact.”

The confusion in your look became obvious to both of them, Josuke arching his eyebrows waiting for a verbal reaction. 

“Earth? What the fuck is that?”

Okuyasu blinked, Josuke’s mouth fell open. “You’re kidding, right?” Okuyasu finally said, scratching the back of his head. You kept staring at them, tired and very, very confused. 

“No. Should I know what Earth is?” Your lips formed a tight line, now Josuke and Okuyasu were just staring at each other trying to find the right thing to say. 

Okuyasu got closer to Josuke, who was fidgeting with his hands. “Dude,” Okuyasu whispered, leaning towards him, “she’s definitely an alien.”

“I know she’s an alien!” Josuke whispered back. “But like, she doesn’t know Earth?!”

You were watching them argue in hushed voices, your head tilting slightly to the side, then you looked around, finding the strange vegetation and the unfamiliar gravity that felt heavier than what you were used to. “Is this a hostile planet?” you asked carefully, you didn’t know if your weapons were in conditions to fight. 

Josuke immediately snapped his attention back to you. “No! No, no, not at all!” He waved his hands quickly. “Earth is mostly normal… “he glanced at Okuyasu. “Normal enough.” He sighted a little, shoulders falling relaxed. 

That didn’t sound very reassuring. You slowly tried to stand up, wobbling slightly as your legs adjusted, Josuke instinctively reached out to steady you with his hand hovering near your elbow. 

“Woah, you okay?” He looked you in the eyes, he had pretty eyes and a pretty face overall, you liked his eyebrows mostly and his hairstyle looked like nothing you’ve ever seen. 

“Gravity is stronger than I expected,” you said, clearing your voice and testing your balance at the same time.

“Whoa, really?” Okuyasu leaned forward, fascinated. “Where are you from then?”

You paused. “Far.”

Josuke grinned. “Yeah, I figured that out.”

You glanced back at the broken spaceship, your expression briefly softening. It was damaged badly, metal bent with lights flickering weakly. Your shoulders dropped just a little. “I don’t think I can repair it anytime soon.”

Josuke noticed how your expression changed, not only your shoulders but your… glow? He hadn’t noticed the pink halo around your body, making you glow in a pinkish shade, now it was a deep purple, almost blue looking. 

“I was meant to go to a planet much farther away,” you explained, meeting his eyes. 

Josuke was captivated by you at that moment, not only for your color changing glow or because you were beautiful, he has never felt the need of showing someone his boring town until now. He smiled at you, tilting his head as he said: “You can stay here while we figure out how to fix it!”

It took you a moment to understand what he was saying and why, a complete stranger, was willing to help you. On your planet people were way more reserved and not as… altruist? Was that the word? You were just perplexed about Josuke Higashikata and his way of talking to you. 

“If I am welcomed here,” you start, nodding slowly. Josuke’s smile was very warm. “I would appreciate the help.”

“Yes! Yes, of course! My friend here has to leave now, but I can show you around!” 

“What?” Okuyasu said. “I don’t have to le–”

“Yes, you have to do that thing, did you forget?”

Okuyasu opened his mouth to argue but Josuke gave him a look so pointed it could have popped a tire.

“Right! The... thing! With the stuff!” Okuyasu yelled, suddenly catching on (or just being overwhelmed by Josuke’s intensity). He gave you a clumsy thumbs-up. “Good luck with the gravity, space girl! See ya, Josuke!”

He sprinted off down the hill, leaving a trail of dust and confusion behind him. You watched him go, your head tilting so far to the side it nearly touched your shoulder. “Is this species always that loud?”

“That’s just Okuyasu,” Josuke chuckled, sticking his hands in his pockets and rocking back on his heels. “Let's get you off this hill. Standing in a crater isn't exactly the 'Welcome to Earth' vibe I was going for.”

As you walked, the strong gravity continued to be a nuisance. Every step felt like you were wearing boots made of lead. Josuke stayed close, occasionally reaching out to steady you when you stumbled over a stray root or a particularly stubborn pebble.

“So…” Josuke started, looking at you curiously. “I gotta ask. How old are you?”

You paused, trying to do the mental math of orbital rotations and light-cycles. “How do you measure age here?”

“In... in years,” Josuke answered, blinking. “Like, how many times the Earth goes around the sun.”

“Oh! Great. Then I'm seventeen,” you answered confidently.

Josuke’s eyebrows shot up. “No way! Me too! Well, almost eighteen. We’re basically the same age. That makes this way less weird. I mean, it’s still weird that you’re from space, but at least I’m not babysitting a five-hundred-year-old star-entity or something.”

He heard you huff a laugh for the first time at that moment, your blue-ish glow getting fainter. 

The walk down the hill was slower than Josuke expected. You kept stopping every few meters, crouching to poke at a dandelion or stare at an ant carrying a crumb three times its size. The glow around you had softened back to a gentle shimmer, shifting colors whenever you tilted your head in curiosity.

“Everything here is so small,” you muttered, gently touching the petals of a wildflower. “And soft. In my homeworld the flora has teeth.”

Josuke laughed, a bright sound that made your antennae (hidden under your curls for now) twitch. “Yeah, well, don’t bite any of these. Some of them are poisonous. Or just taste like dirt.”

You straightened up, brushing pink glitter that still clung to your suit off your sleeves. The glitter from the crash was still falling faintly in the distance, catching the last of the strange pink sky.

By the time you reached the edge of town, the streets of Morioh were quiet but not empty. A few people were still outside, pointing at the sky and whispering about the romantic aurora that had appeared out of nowhere. No one noticed the faint glow following Josuke or the way your boots left tiny sparkling footprints.

Josuke kept glancing at you like he was afraid you’d suddenly float away, he pointed at random buildings as you walked.

“That’s the bakery, it has the best melon-pan in town, now it’s closed but we can go tomorrow morning. That’s the arcade, Koichi and I go there sometimes! It’s fun, we could… uh, go sometime!” Josuke grimaced to himself, hearing how much that sounded like a date, but looking at you, completely unbothered and gasping when a motorbike passed close to you, he relaxed his shoulders again.

At that moment, your stomach gurgled, startling you and making Josuke’s eyes widen. “You’re hungry! Of course you’re hungry, you just crashed a spaceship. Come on, there’s a café nearby that stays open late. They have great shakes!”

He didn’t even realize he took your hand, looping his fingers around yours. 

The café was small with checkered floors and a jukebox playing something soft and jazzy. Josuke ordered two mango milkshakes and a plate of fries. When the food arrived, you stared at the fries like they had personally offended your entire bloodline.

You picked one up delicately between two fingers. “What is this?” You were blinking fast, sniffing it and looking at Josuke right into his eyes.

Josuke nearly choked on his own shake from laughing. “Just try it. They’re good, I swear.”

You took the tiniest bite imaginable. Your face immediately scrunched up, the glow around you flashing a violent lime green. “This is terrible. Josuke, why did you pay for this?”

Josuke was grinning so wide it looked like it hurt. “Okay, okay, don’t eat the fries then. Try the milkshake. Do you like sweet things?”

You eyed the tall glass suspiciously, it is true that you enjoy sweet things, so you decided to give it a try. The first sip made your eyes flutter shut. The glow around you shifted to a warm, sunny gold, pulsing softly.

“Oh,” you whispered, almost reverent. “This is very acceptable. The mango is dancing on my tongue.”

Josuke rested his chin on his hand, watching you with open delight. “You’re glowing again. Like, literally. It’s cute.”

You paused mid-sip, one cheek puffed out from the thick shake. “Is that bad? The color shifting? It’s an emotional display. I can’t really control it well when I’m… overwhelmed.”

“Nah, it’s not bad at all.” He reached over and gently tapped the rim of your glass with his spoon. “Means I can tell when you like something. That’s handy.”

You took another long sip, a small contented sound escaping you, Josuke only smiled softer.

Outside the window, the pink sky was slowly fading back to normal night, but the glitter still shimmered on the sidewalks like fallen stars. A couple walked by holding hands, laughing about the magic night. You watched them for a moment, then turned back to Josuke.

“Your species seems… openly affectionate,” you observed, on your planet, affection was only shown when alone. “Is this normal behavior or are you all in some kind of collective mating ritual?”

Josuke almost spat out his shake. “Wh— no! I mean, sometimes, but not right now. That’s just… people being people. Friends. Or, uh, more than friends. But mostly it’s normal.”

You tilted your head again. “Hmm… And what are we? You’re helping me and showing me around. Is this… friendship?”

Josuke’s cheeks went a little pink, matching the sky. He rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly very interested in the condensation on his glass.

“Yeah,” he said quietly, smiling. “I think we’re friends. Or at least, I’d like to be. If that’s okay with a seventeen-year-old space girl who hates fries but loves mango.”

You considered that for a long moment, the glow around you settling into a steady rose color.

“Then I accept,” you said. “You and I are friends now, Josuke Higa… Higaki…”

“Higashikata.”

“Higashikata!” you smiled, taking another sip of your milkshake, finishing it all at that moment.

Josuke’s heart did a strange little flip-flop in his chest. He stood up, fishing a few yen bills out of his wallet and sliding them onto the table. 

You watched his hands intently. “On my planet, paying for the food is usually a sign of courting. Do men on Earth do this when they are on a date with a woman?”

Josuke froze, his hand still hovering over the table. The tips of his ears turned a shade of red, he began to stammer, his usual cool confidence evaporating into the humid night air. “I uh, well, yeah! I mean, it is a thing people do on dates, but it’s also... you don't have any money, right? So I’m just being a good host! It’s not necessarily a—well, it could be—but let's not get ahead of ourselves!”

He laughed nervously, a high-pitched sound that made you tilt your head in a bird-like way. Your glow pulsed a soft, questioning lavender. “You are acting... awkward,” you stated plainly. “Your heart rate has increased by approximately twenty percent.”

“You can hear my heart?!” Josuke squeaked, walking quickly toward the door to hide his face. 

“I can feel the vibrations in the air,” you explained, following him out onto the sparkling sidewalk. “If paying for food is one way to show affection or 'courting' intent, how else do humans express these feelings? Your planet is very loud and physical. How do people show they care for one another here?”

Josuke slowed his pace, the cool night air helping him regain his footing. He looked at a couple sitting on a bench across the street: the man had his arm around the woman, and she was leaning her head on his shoulder. 

“Well,” Josuke started, his voice dropping to a gentler, more sincere tone. “It’s different for everyone. But mostly... people hold hands when they want to feel close. Or they give hugs to show they’ve got each other's backs.” He paused, glancing at you, then looked away quickly. “And, uh, if they really like someone... they kiss.”

You stopped walking, staring at him with wide eyes. “That’s so different from my planet.” You processed the words, your glow flickering through a spectrum of curious teals and oranges. “I have seen the hand-holding. You did it earlier to lead me to the cold fruit-milk.”

You stepped closer into his personal space, looking up at him with a clinical yet intense fascination. “Josuke Higashikata. I wish to understand this planet’s customs fully so I do not cause an intergalactic incident. Show me.”

Josuke blinked, his brain momentarily short-circuiting. “Show you... all of them? Right now?”

“No, not all of them.” Josuke sighed at your words. “We held hands earlier, it’s not necessary to do it again. Your hands were sweaty.”

“Sweaty?” Josuke gasped, he didn’t expect that sassiness from you. “My hands aren’t sweaty!”

“Yes they are. Will you show me Earth’s affectionate customs or should I look for your friend?”

Josuke’s expression changed from surprise to terror, there’s no way he was going to let you go to Okuyasu and… hug him or something. He raised his hands, waving them near your face while shaking his head. “No! There’s no need to bother Okuyasu. I can… I can show you Earth’s affectionate customs.” He tried not to think about how strange that sounded.

“Nice! You may start, Josuke.” You took a step toward him, invading his personal space again. His pupils were dilated while his brows were tense; he made you far too curious, and there was a fluttering in your stomach that you had first thought was hunger, but after the milkshake it went away, so you still couldn’t identify what Josuke made you feel.

Josuke, on the other hand, felt bad—terrible, almost. He felt that, somehow, he was taking advantage of you. You didn’t know what he was about to do, but you sounded so sure and excited to learn more about Earth, Josuke wanted to earn your friendship as much as your heart.

“I’m gonna hug you now, okay?” he said slowly, extending his arms. Your frown appeared immediately, telling Josuke that you didn’t know what to do. “You can extend your arms too, then wrap them around my waist.”

You did as he said, burying your head in his chest while he wrapped his arms around your shoulders. He was taller than you, not by much, and stronger. Warm, and he smelled nice even though his hands were sweaty. The longer you hugged, the more you wanted to sink into his warmth; being in his arms felt good, very comfortable. You could hear his heartbeat perfectly, fast and steady. Then he rested his chin on the top of your head and started stroking your back with his thumb. Josuke didn’t mention how you glowed a bright pink during the seconds you stayed pressed together.

When you pulled away from him, your face felt like it was burning and your blood was rushing through your veins at high speed. You convinced yourself it was because of how warm Josuke was, because his arms had wrapped around you exactly how you needed.

“Was that okay?” Josuke asked, terrified. He was sure you had hated it, that right now you would punch him in the stomach and leave. But you looked away from him, and even so, he followed your gaze. You were… embarrassed?

“It was perfect,” you muttered, now looking at the ground. “I liked it very much.”

It was the only thing you could think of to say to avoid sounding completely ridiculous. “That’s good! Yeah, good!” Josuke nodded, pressing his lips into a thin line and searching for a way to bring up what was still left pending.

“You keep looking at my mouth,” you tell him, because you are nothing if not direct.

Josuke makes a sound like he's swallowed something wrong. “I wasn’t.”

“You were. I counted.”

“You were counting?”

“I count things when I’m trying to understand them,” you say simply. “You look at my mouth and then you look away. Is this another custom I don’t know about yet?”

The pink in his ears has spread all the way to his cheeks and he looks away from you, jaw tight, like he’s having a very serious argument with himself that you're not invited to.

“Josuke.”

“Give me a second.”

You give him a second. You give him approximately five, which is very generous by your planet’s standards.

Then he looks back at you and something in his face has shifted, he made a decision somewhere in those five seconds and he’s committed to it now, terrified but committed.

“Can I,” he starts, and his voice is careful, lower than usual. “Can I show you the last one? The, uh.” He clears his throat. “The third thing. That I mentioned earlier.”

You blink. You run back through the conversation, through the couple on the bench, through everything he said standing on the sparkling sidewalk.

Hand holding. Hugging. And.

Oh.

Your glow flickers through three colors in about two seconds, teal then orange then a very flustered lavender. “The kiss,” you say.

“Yeah.” He’s watching your face very carefully. “Only if you want. You don’t have to. It’s totally fine if you don’t want to, I shouldn’t have even—”

“Josuke.”

“Yeah?”

“I want to understand Earth’s customs fully,” you say, which is true, but it is maybe not the only reason, and you think you both know that and neither of you says it out loud.

He exhales slowly. Nods once, like he’s steadying himself then he ducks his head a little, and he moves slowly, giving you approximately seventeen opportunities to step back, which you don’t take. His hand comes up and he hesitates for just a moment before he rests it against your jaw, very gently and your breath does something strange and catches in your chest.

His eyes are closed before yours are. You close yours a second later.

And then his lips are on yours, barely any pressure at all, he’s asking a question and waiting to see if you’ll answer. He tastes like mango and his hand against your jaw is so gentle you almost can’t feel it except that you can feel it completely.

When he pulls back his eyes open slowly and he’s so close you can see that his eyelashes are longer than you initially catalogued, and his face is so red it’s almost funny, except that your face feels exactly the same way and you’re pretty sure your glow has gone a color you’ve never produced before, something between gold and rose that you don’t have a name for yet.

“Was that,” he starts.

“Yes,” you say, before he can finish, because yes covers everything he might have been about to ask.

He lets out a breath as his hand drops from your jaw slowly, like he’s not totally sure he wants to let go.

You reach up and touch your own lips with two fingers, studying the sensation like data you need to file somewhere important. “I liked that,” you tell him, very honestly.

His smile starts small and gets away from him. “Yeah?”

“Yes.” You lower your hand. “But I think I liked the hug more.”

“What?”

“The kiss was good,” you explained helpfully. “Your lips are soft and I enjoyed seeing you close to my face. But hugging is superior. It feels safer. Also, I can hear your heartbeat better.”

There was a pause.

“What’s with you and heartbeats?” Josuke said, running a hand over his face between laughs.

You just shrugged. “You have a nice heartbeat, I guess.”

“Okay, fair enough.” He opens his arms, tilting his head at you like a question. “You wanna... try the hug again then? Since you liked it more?”

You don’t even hesitate, stepping into his chest and wrapping your arms around his waist, he folds around you immediately, his chin finding the top of your head like it already knows where to go. His thumb starts doing that slow thing across your back again.

Your glow goes pink almost instantly. Bright, embarrassing pink. You’re grateful you’re hiding on his chest so he can’t see your face.

“For the record,” Josuke murmurs and you can feel the rumble of his voice in his chest, “I think I liked it too. Both things.”

“Mm. You are very warm,” you say, which is not an answer but somehow it is. “You are approximately four degrees warmer than the ambient temperature.”

“Oh, wow. Really?” Josuke laughs and tightens his arms around you just a little. Around you, Morioh is quiet, the last of the pink glitter still catching the streetlights on the sidewalk below your feet, sparkling like something out of a dream.

You stand there for a long moment, just existing in his warmth, listening to his heartbeat slow from nervous to steady. Something that feels, even to you, with your limited understanding of this planet’s customs and its strange loud people, like it means something.

“Josuke,” you say eventually, not moving.

“Mm?”

“What do humans call it,” you ask carefully, “when they want to keep doing all of this? The hug and the cold fruit-milk. When they want to keep doing it specifically with one person.”

The heartbeat under your ear picks up again just a little.

“They call it,” Josuke starts and his voice is doing something funny, “a lot of things. Depending on how far along things are.”

“What is the first word?”

He doesn’t answer right away. His thumb keeps moving across your back. “Crushing,” he says finally, quiet enough that you almost miss it over the sounds of the street. “We call it crushing on someone.”

You repeat the word slowly. “Crushing.”

“Yeah.”

You think about the flutter in your stomach. The way his heartbeat sounds like something you want to memorize. The fact that when he let go of you earlier you had wanted to grab his jacket sleeve and ask him not to.

“I think,” you say, very thoughtfully, “that this word may apply to my current situation.”

Josuke goes very still for exactly three seconds. Then he laughs, a little bit amazed, his whole chest moving with it, and he squeezes you tighter. Your glow turns the most ridiculous, radiant pink you’ve ever produced in your life, lighting up the sidewalk around your feet like a second set of stars.

“Yeah,” he says and he sounds like he can’t believe his luck. “Me too.”