"Alan!" I yell, running to be by his side as he lies unconscious on the kitchen floor, his shoes sticking out from the end of the table. "Oh, Alan! Say it is not so!"

From a day of joy and transformation to a night of horror, I had slain Alan at the sight of my human form and ill-fitting garments when all he had wanted was to eat his meal and frost his cakes in relative peace. His heart had been no longer able to take such trauma.

"Please! Do not be dead!" I whisper and drop down beside Alan on the floor, slowly scooting closer until my nose is inches from his mouth and I'm peeking over his still form. He had an amazingly handsome profile, a strong chin, and large lips, which were currently parted slightly.

Everything looked intact, and he appeared to be breathing fine, but I was concerned about a possible head injury from falling so hard and hitting the floor.

I carefully extend one chubby finger to poke Alan in the face, but he jumps upright at the last second, and both of us scream when his head smacks directly into my face. It was an agony that I had not felt since my last sparring match with a warrior three times my size.

"Holy fucking shit!" Alan screams again and quickly scoots back on his hands and feet so that his back bumps against the metal counter behind him. 

"I am so sorry, Alan!" I yell, looking around for my shirt and apron to put back on, tears welling up in my eyes from the pain radiating through my nose and Alan's evident disappointment. "I had no idea how strong of a reaction you were going to have to seeing me in my new form! I will find my clothes immediately and put them back on!"

Alan watches me scramble for my shirt, but before I can put it on, he reaches out and grabs my wrist, stopping me from doing more. "No," he replies breathlessly. "Wait a second, it's not your clothes, Honey. Your clothes are fine—better than fine, actually. But you can't just spring this kind of stuff on a guy like that. Crap, I nearly felt my heart stop for a minute there."

"I do not understand," I whisper, holding my shirt to my chest. "I was told that these clothes would make you pleased to see me and might possibly make up for leaving earlier."

Alan laughs breathlessly, but I realize it's not one of malice when he moves to help me stand and shakes his head. "I was already happy to see you when I walked in and realized it was you covered in chocolate frosting. Changing your clothes isn't going to change that. I mean, it might make me pass out on the floor again, but we're going to look past that right now."

I gaze up at Alan, and the pressure in my chest that I had felt the night before in his car spreads through my body. Before I know it, I find myself reaching up to touch his arm, just wanting to feel his warmth radiating through my fingers for a moment.

"Alright! Who's ready to frost some fucking cakes? Let's do this shit!" The door to the kitchen slams open, and Alan's sister explodes into view before catching sight of us and freezing. 

"Kiki? Jesus! It's not what it looks like!" Alan shouts and covers my mostly naked form with his apron while I stand there and glance back and forth between both of them.

"Oh, Alan! You sly fucking dog!" Kiki shrills, glee spreading across her face. "In the bakery? Couldn't you have done it in the back room, at least? I know you haven't gotten laid for like, two months or something, but dude, seriously?"

"Hello, Alan's sister," I tell her. "Alan and I were just engaging in some quality time together."

"It's not..." Alan sputters, "What he means is...."

Kiki's smile turns smug, and her eyes narrow in what appears to be contentment. "No, that's cool. I just stopped by to see if Alan needed some help, but it looks like you guys got it covered. I'm going to check my dough for the croissants real quick, and then I'll be out of your hair. And hey, you look twice as cute as a human. I'm digging the lavender eyes, Honey."

My hands rise to my cheeks, and I flush a little, pleased at her compliment, while Alan's tongue falls out of his mouth and he stumbles to find the proper response, which fails to happen.

Kiki checks her dough in the freezer while I get dressed, and she is long gone by the time I come back to the kitchen, wearing my new clothes from Roswell Mall. "Alan? Are you still here?"

"Over here!" Alan calls back, and I go and find him in the lobby at one of the tables with a whole entire meal set out for both of us. Oddly enough, it did not resemble In-N-Out at all, and several round, white, and black shapes in different colors were lined up in individual containers. 

As soon as I come over, Alan does a double-take when he sees me in my jacket and new shirt. "Wow, someone was busy today, huh?" He asks me with a chuckle, and both of us sit down across from one another at the same time. "I knew you guys could change forms since the last time you did it in my living room, but I'm super curious about how it works."

"It's simple, Alan; if you have a star, you have the ability to transform." I lean over the food items, which Alan called sushi, and he passes me a set of sticks wrapped in paper, which is bizarre, to say the least. What sticks had to do with eating was beyond me. "There is so much you don't know about the Tau that I wouldn't even know where to begin," I say, glancing up at him.

Alan unwraps his sticks and breaks them apart. "If it's alright with you, I don't mind listening, and we got a lot of sushi to clear between the both of us. Besides, I'm sure you have questions about humans that you're dying to ask me, right?"

"I am not actively dying at the moment, no," I reply, furrowing my brows in confusion.

Alan grins, reaches over, and plucks my sticks out of my hands, then snaps them apart. "Open your hand," he tells me gently. "I think learning how to use chopsticks is a good way to start."

I slowly open my hand for him, but Alan hesitates when he spots my four fingers and seems to debate where to place the sticks so that I may hold them properly.

"I saw Noah Kennedy in the bakery earlier," I tell him, thinking of what Malik had told me about Alan possibly still having feelings for Noah. "You two seemed very close today."

"Oh," Alan replies, rolling his eyes a little. "Yeah. He's starting a new job at this fancy bistro down the street and needed some papers from me. Like I said, I'm not going to act like an asshole just because he was an asshole to me. I'm going to be the better man, you know?"

Asshole?

"Do you still have warmth in your heart for him?" I question before I can help myself, "And do you still feel something called love for Noah?"

Alan gives up on placing the chopsticks in my hands and instead hands me a tiny trident with prongs on the end of it. But he tenses at my words and pulls his hands back. "Uh--negative. I'm never going to be in love with him again. And actually, I still feel kind of like a used idiot for letting it happen, if I'm going to be super honest with you."

I watch Alan pick up a little white circle with colorful bits in the middle of it, then raise it to his lips. "I do not think you are an idiot, Alan," I tell him softly. "In fact, I think you are very brave and honorable for not slaughtering Noah and displaying his head on a pole in front of your bakery for all to see. It takes a certain warrior to have that kind of control."

Alan almost spits out his sushi and covers his mouth with a hand.

"You're really strange," he tells me after a moment. "Like, I can't tell if you're being serious or not, or if I'm just a dumb cow to you and you're playing games with my head. People always talk about aliens coming down and probing them and stuff, but you're not scary at all."

I reach down to sample a piece of sushi and examine it carefully, then look over at him in confusion. "Do you think I'm playing games with you?"

"I don't think so," Alan replies after thinking about it. "And I like that about you. I've never met someone who's so honest before."

I put down my sushi and tried my best to look Alan in the eye from across the table. He towered over me even as we were sitting across from one another. "You are not wrong," I reply simply. "I will never toy with your heart, Alan."

Alan nods his head a little and reaches for his sushi again.

"You are right about one thing, though," I tell him, arguing angrily in my mind over how to respond. "Would you like to see my probe?"

I swear Alan ceases to exist at this point.