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

12: Tristan Asks An Important Question

The sheer scope of the dark space, sprinkled with thousands of bright dots, always boggled Tristan's mind. And it appeared even more awe-inspiring now, when an entity hailing from the vast unknown sat beside him on a rickety lawn chair, chewing on her fourth donut of the night.

"Your sky is so dark," Vyrsa marveled, her eyes fastened in the distance. Perhaps she was looking for her faraway home. "On Isola, the seven moons light up our nights, which are much longer than yours, and dim the sheen of the stars. But here, I can see them all."

"Which one is your star?" Tristan panned his hand across the panorama of the night sky. There were so many stars and knowing that each of them might shine upon entities such as Vyrsa's kind was an overwhelming realization. Humankind wasn't alone, and he, Tristan Conway, a Canadian college sophomore, might be the only one on Earth aware of this enormous truth. "Or sun rather, I guess," he corrected himself before she could answer. Because every star was only a star until you came close, then they were the center of a whole system of planets.

"My sun can't be seen from here," she explained. "Its blue light is shaded by bigger and brighter stars around it when seen from afar. But it does belong to the same jurisdiction as Earth. So in space terms, Isola is quite close." She sighed wistfully. "So close, yet so far away."

"You'll be back there soon," Tristan assured her, despite the mere thought making him miss her. His life would be so mundane without her glittering presence. "Have you not found any clues so far that can help you?"

"No..." she mumbled, looking away from him. "Nothing yet. No clue where to find astatine."

Driven by an instinct to comfort, Tristan cradled his hand around Vyrsa's. He wasn't even aware of his movement until a light pulse streamed into his palm, making his veins tingle pleasantly. "Oh... is it alright if I-I... I mean, can I?" he stuttered. The darkness of the night luckily hid his blossoming cheeks.

"You can," Vyrsa consented, her glittering smile illuminating the space between them.

Her hand squeezed his and for a moment, Tristan lost the ability to speak, which was quite an impressive feat, as Tristan usually blathered a lot. His friend Robin had told Tristan that he was always happy when they had a shift at the movie theater together, because then Robin, who was a bit more reserved, didn't have to bother coming up with small talk. Tristan never had such problems. He loved to talk about everything between heaven and earth.

But the girl beside him was neither from heaven nor earth, rendering him mute.

Vyrsa smiled again, twirling a cork screw-like test of her hair between her fingers. While she, of course, was alien, there and then she didn't feel like it to Tristan. At least not in the sense of being unfamiliar or strange. She was just a girl and he was just a boy, and while their worlds may be different, their desires weren't.

Feeling awkward and unaccustomed to not finding anything to say, Tristan finally spurted out, "I didn't know your hair could do that?" He pointed at the intricate plaits that stuck out underneath the oversized black hoodie she'd borrowed from him in an attempt to hide her obvious alien nature from bypassers.

Vyrsa wrinkled her nose, looking down at her hair. The current more subdued hairstyle made her look much less imposing than before. "I can shape it however I want," she explained, demonstrating the skill by making one plait end twirl in the air. "Flat hair is just so unfashionable." She sighed overdramatically. "No one on my planet would ever voluntarily wear it like this."

"It's... pretty," Tristan assured her. "I mean, your hair is always pretty. Even when it's a bit... scary. You kind of look like Marie Antoinette or something."

Vyrsa raised an eyebrow, obviously not recognizing the name of the infamous French Queen. It seemed her research of Earth's history hadn't gotten that far yet.

"She's—" Tristan prevented himself from going on a long rant about French monarchy. That wasn't important, and not what he wanted to talk about with this other-worldly beauty. "She was also very pretty."

"You really think I'm pretty?" Vyrsa asked, an enigmatic smile on her lips. "You don't think I look weird?"

"Definitely not!" Tristan replied, a bit too quickly and a bit too eagerly.

Glitter rose on her cheeks, shining in tune with the starry night above. Tristan wondered if that was how her kind blushed. "You're... not weird looking either," she said, scooting a bit closer to him with the lawn chair. Although maybe he was just imagining things? "I mean, you're pretty to me. You're different from the boys on Isola, but in a good way."

He scooted closer as well, making the legs of the chair squeak. Her hand remained in his. The pleasant current reverberating between them continued, growing more rapid by the moment.

This felt like the moment to ask a certain pertinent question that had been on his mind for a while. It was now or never, as Vyrsa may be gone tomorrow. Perhaps she would simply poof into a glittering cloud and disappear from his life, making Tristan wonder forever if she'd been real or not. Even if he told someone about her, they would never believe him. Perhaps he would go crazy in the process.

"I-I been wanting to ask you something." Unable to meet her eyes, Tristan stared up at the faraway stars as he gathered courage. "Do...your kind only kiss to put someone to sleep? I mean, like you did when you first arrived in my room. Or do you... kiss for other reasons too? Because humans do, sometimes, when they like someone. I mean, we only do it then, I guess. Not for other stuff. So do you do that?"

Feeling like he was about to faint from forgetting to breathe throughout his ramblings, Tristan leaned forward to inhale deeply.

"Yes," Vyrsa replied, her voice ringing clear through the night. Although considering how many questions Tristan had thrown out at once, he wasn't sure which one she'd replied to.

"Yes?" he asked, looking up at her nervously.

In a pause that felt like light years, she released her hand from his and instead let it caress his jaw, tilting it toward her. Everything tingled and vibrated, and he wasn't sure whether it was because of her unusual properties or because of his nervous state.

"Yes," she repeated. "We do kiss when we like someone too."

The very next moment, her lips were on his own, fizzling with a current that made his whole body hum. The whole world sparkled like stars, spun like planets, and shone like the moon.

Tristan didn't fall into slumber this time. It appeared that was a feature Vyrsa must be able to turn on and off at will. Instead, he felt more awake than ever, as every cell danced in tune with her vibration. Every slight movement of her lips against his made him gasp in wonder.

It appeared alien princesses did kiss, or at least this one did, and she was darn good at it.