Why Is There An Alien Princess In My Room? (ONC 2023 - Alien Romance - Complete)

11: Vyrsa Eats The Universe

After days of trawling through droves of data, Vyrsa had finally found something. Hidden beneath cat videos, memes, and Twitter feuds, she'd stumbled upon a record of a lab in New Mexico that had recently managed to produce the elusive element astatine. Due to astatine's fragile nature, the molecules had shattered within milliseconds, but the lead was nonetheless promising. Because Vyrsa's people had long ago mastered the secret to stabilizing the crucial element that made traveling beyond the speed of light possible.

Now she just needed to get to this faraway place, and once there, she would hopefully remember her Universal Chemistry lessons to get her hands on the element she coveted.

"Hey..." Tristan's voice called her away from the sea of data and back to the human dwellings that had become her base the last few days. She hadn't even noticed him arriving back home. He'd said goodbye a few hours ago, leaving for work at something called a movie theater. Before running out the door, he'd tried to explain the concept of the place to her. She hadn't quite grasped why humans would want to gather in dark rooms to watch unreal events on a big screen but he had been mighty cute when trying to convey it to her, so she'd smiled and nodded along.

"Hey..." Vyrsa replied, twisting around on the couch to face him. She's been lying flat on the pillowless sofa—because Bobby's throne was still in place and currently occupied by a snoozing feline—with her legs draped up the back. For some reason, that appeared to be the optimal position for data retrieval.

"How is your... scanning thing going?" He pointed at his laptop, which Vyrsa's palm still rested on.

"Fine," she replied, suddenly feeling torn about her recent discovery. Because New Mexico wasn't here, that much she knew about Earth's geography, and she'd grown fond of this apartment and its inhabitants, human and feline, since her arrival. Leaving to chase the key to enable her journey home would mean never returning here again. "Hopefully I find something soon." Her attention wandered toward a square box in Tristan's hands. "What is that?"

A wondrous smell emanated from it, unlike anything she'd ever experienced during her travels across the universe. Whatever was in it, she needed to taste it before leaving.

"Oh, I-I got some donuts," he stuttered, a light red glow spreading across his cheeks. "It's like a treat, I guess. I figured maybe you needed something like that after working hard all day scanning data. If your kind eat stuff like this?" Tristan opened the box to display rows of round delights with holes in the middle.

Vyrsa marveled at the presented treats. "They're in the shape of the universe!" she exclaimed, grabbing a powder-dusted ring. This planet must really be more advanced than told by the council if they had figured out that the plane in which everything existed folded in on itself in three dimensions.

"The universe is a... donut?" Tristan mumbled, grabbing a sweet treat to examine it.

"Mmmmhmmm," Vyrsa confirmed, her mouth full of dough and sugar. It tasted even more delicious than stardust sprinkles, her favorite frozen lava topping back home.

"So you don't just eat books?" Tristan asked, apparently forgetting about having had the shape of the universe revealed to him.

"My kind mostly eats cellulose," Vyrsa replied. "But we can also digest other types of glucose." She held up the universe-shaped pastry. "This seems to have a lot of that luckily."

"Donuts aren't exactly lacking in sugar." Tristan smiled, causing a cascade of flutters in Vyrsa's body. Or maybe that was the glucose energizing her? "I also had another idea..." he mumbled with a slight wobble in his voice. "Maybe you wanted to go outside for a bit? To see a bit more of this planet, I mean. You've only been inside with me and Bobby so far. Since it's dark outside, no one would... see you glitter."

"Where would we go?" she asked, forgetting all about astatine and New Mexico.

"Up on the roof maybe?" He nodded upward, to showcase what he meant. "There's a patio up there where no one really goes. We could watch the view and eat donuts, maybe? It's a cloud-free night so the stars are all out. You could tell me what you know about them. For science... I guess." A flashed a nervous smile.

Vyrsa had always dreamt about seeing unknown parts of space. So she couldn't say no. "I will tell you about the stars, Tristan," she said, reaching out her hand toward her earthling host. "And you can show me your world in return. I want to see it with your eyes."

New Mexico could wait. She needed to have donuts on the roof with this cute alien boy first. For science.

Author's Note: Yes, the universe may be a donut (there actually is such a theory).