Chapter Text
Darcy awoke only once during the night. The wet wood in the stove had let out a large pop, dragging her out of sleep as the wood crackled and spat. Her eyes had drifted open at the sound, blinking blearily into the darkness to see that the alien had shifted while she slept. Instead of being buried under the blankets he had kicked them aside and was now lying on top of them. His blue legs were sprawled out over the blankets and he was laying his stomach, clutching the pillow against his chest. A thin sheet barely covered his modesty and Darcy blinked at him, noting the reflection of firelight against the deep indents of skin on his back. The deep ridges of his built-in tribal tattoos were almost everywhere she sleepily noted. Really it was just the palms of his hand and his feet that didn’t seem to have any. She wondered if they served a purpose at all or it they were just for show as she sleepily remembered to take off her glasses and snuggle back down into the blankets. Bear was still at the alien’s side, furry head resting on the alien’s ankle as the two of them slept. Her alien looked comfortable enough and Darcy was wonderfully warm so she drifted back to sleep as the fire continued to softly hiss.
She sun was shining thinly through the clouds, the snow finally finished, when she awoke the second time. Bear’s face inches from her own, the dog looking at her expectantly as he huffed and wagged his tail. Blinking at the tricolored dog Darcy yawned heavily. “Shit, did I forget to feed you last night?” she muttered.
Bear just continued to stare at her, a silent confirmation of her failings as a dog owner.
Grumbling under her breath and rubbing her eyes, Darcy sat up and stretched. Grabbing her glasses she briefly wondered why she’d spent the night on the night on the couch before memories struck like a viper and her eyes went to the spot in front of the fire. To the empty spot in front of the stove.
The alien was gone. So were her blankets.
“Shit,” Darcy muttered, jumping off the couch. Her eyes darted around the room as she looked for her missing guest. “Hello? Mr Alien?” Her decorating couldn’t exactly be called Spartan but there wasn’t many places a human-sized blueberry could hide either. She checked under the table and in her overflowing storage closet and with that she was stumped. No alien.
Well fuck. Where did he go then?
Darcy checked the doors, front and back, finding them still locked. She hadn’t exactly gotten around to giving her guest a key so he hadn’t left that way. The windows were all shut and latched too. And she didn’t have an attic he could have crawled into.
Could it have all been a dream? Darcy wasn’t a stranger to weird dreams but usually they were of the ‘Ryan Reynolds and Colin O’Donoghue are battling over my affections! Better fuck them both just to be on the safe side,’ variety. She’d never dreamed about saving weird blue aliens from torture porn in the snow before. That really wasn’t her jam.
Bear was still staring at her though so Darcy gave in and fed the mangy beast. As he eagerly wolfed down dry kibble as if it was prime rib, Darcy glanced out the window at the thick snow. It was practically up to the window frame, the white fluff heavy with drifts all through the clearing in front of her cabin. Yeah, there was no way anyone was getting out in that. She’d probably be forced to call town to try and find someone with a truck to plow her out at this rate.
If her alien had gone out into that he was probably just as bad off as when she found him. Still, she had to check. She hadn’t put the snow shoes away and as soon as Bear was done eating he’d want to go out to pee. She’d just do a quick jaunt around the cabin to make sure that there were no aliens in snow drifts freezing to death just out of sight and call it a morning.
Darcy opened her bedroom door to change and walked into an ice box. Her breath puffed out in white bursts and she could swear she could practically see ice crystals in the air as she shivered in the doorway.
“What the fuck,” she muttered looking around. Had she left a window open? No, both windows were shut. Frozen shut by the looks of things. The tiny wood stove that she remembered carefully banking was ice cold as well, a thin layer of frost covering the cast iron. This was not normal and suddenly Darcy realized a hiding place she hadn’t even thought of checking as she’d searched for her missing alien. Apparently she needed coffee or something because this was a glaring omission in her search.
Pulling her long sleeves over her hands Darcy carefully turned the knob to her closet door and nudged it open. All of her clothes had been shoved to one side, a mound of blankets taking up most of the floor space between her shoes. The shape jerked back into the corner as the door opened. Red eyes peered at her from a dark gap in the fabric, nothing else of her guest visible as he cowered in her closet and apparently leaked cold into the air.
“Hey there,” Darcy said, trying for soothing and ending up with worried and starting to freak out a little instead. Since when did aliens have magical Elsa ice powers? She smiled at the alien then found herself wondering if flashing teeth at him was considered aggressive in his culture. Didn’t chimps smile only smile when they were trying to warn other chimps to the hell off? Dropping the smile she stared down at the pile of blankets as the red eyes stared back at her.
“Well this is awkward. Can you even understand me?” she asked the fabric mound. No reaction. The eyes didn’t even blink as they stared up at her. Darcy shifted her weight from foot to foot and sighed. This was getting her nowhere. Slowly she closed the closet door again, leaving it open a crack so that alien wouldn’t be trapped in total darkness. It was still freezing in her bedroom and she shivered as she went back to the main room and added another couple logs onto the fire.
So she had a blue ice alien hiding in her closet. That was definitely something. Flopping down on the couch she grabbed her laptop and opened a browser. There still wasn’t too much information on aliens out on the web, but there was enough to do a basic Google search. Of course there would have been more on Stark’s servers but then she’d have to contend with Friday possibly reporting her search to the higher ups. That wasn’t really her department so a search like that might lead to some questions she really wasn’t interested in answering right about now. After all, if her alien was so terrified he was hiding in the closet from little old her, SHEILD and Stark would be a complete nightmare for him. Better to keep things general and only go to the Stark network if she really needed help with her guest.
Navigating to AlienPedia, Darcy typed ‘blue alien’ into the search bar. One result. Some alien race called the Kree. There was barely any information there, the entry didn’t even have a real photo, just a crappy sketch. She scanned the entry, frown growing. A couple mentions that the Kree were humanoid aliens with blue skin, a reference that they may have been serving Thanos, and that was pretty much it. The entry was better than nothing, but only just. No mention of weird freezing temperature powers. No mention of any reason why she’d find a Kree with his mouth sewn shut tied to a tree in the forest outside her cabin.
So where did that leave her? Either Darcy had a Kree on her hands and she really needed to ask him some questions or she had some other alien race on her hands and she was on her own. Peachy.
Either way, she couldn’t exactly let him cower in her closet all day long. If nothing else she needed him to come out so she could do something about those stitches. Kree, other alien, or not he’d starve to death if his mouth stayed sewn shut.
Shutting her laptop, Darcy went to the storage closet and started pulling out boxes. The storage closet was where she’d put pretty much everything she’d been too lazy to unpack when she’d arrived. Where she stored everything she no longer needed. Like all the DVDs she could no longer watch, all her CDs, her iPod…
Blinking back tears, Darcy shook her head. It was no good feeling sorry for herself. She was better than that. Digging through the closet she grabbed the small box in the box labeled ‘Grandpa’ and hauled it out. Everything her Grandfather had left in the cabin before he’d been Snapped was inside. It hadn’t been much, but Darcy had insisted Stark’s workers box it up for her instead of getting rid of it. She hadn’t so much as looked inside since her arrival and her hands trembled as she took a deep breath and opened it.
Inside were a couple changes of clothes, a wool hat, some scattered gloves, and a few dog eared paperbacks. Her Grandfather had been the Spartan type yet strangely she felt disappointed as she gazed down at the meager possessions. This cabin had only been her Grandpa’s weekend retreat though. The place he went to hunt and not much else. Everything he actually owned was still at her parent’s house, the place she’d refused to even think about after the Snap. Pepper had mothballed it for her, securing the property and setting up Darcy’s accounts to automatically keep on top of the tax payments until she could manage to cope with it. That wouldn’t be anytime soon. Maybe not ever.
Picking out the clothes Darcy carefully closed the box and shoved it back into the closet. She haphazardly stacked the rest of the boxes inside, shoving the door shut with a bang. Picking up the small stack of clothes she went back into her freezing bedroom and slowly reopened her closet door.
The alien flinched back again as the door opened, red eyes peering at her from the mound of fabric. She risked a smile again, a small one, and held up the pile. “These are for you when you’re ready to come out,” she said and placed the folded clothes on her bed. The red eyes followed them, snapping back to her as she stepped back. Still smiling Darcy slowly left the room, shutting the bedroom door behind her but leaving the closet door wide open.
Sighing, Darcy pinched her brow. She could already feel a headache coming on. Not a lie induced one, thank goodness, but still. This was not going to be easy. Grabbing aspirin she marched over to the kitchen and lit the stove. She needed cocoa and breakfast stat. This day might not get any better, but a decent breakfast couldn’t make it any worse.
*****
It was snowing again. Darcy scowled out the window, stabbing at her eggs as the fat white flakes drifted past. Vermont had for sure been a mistake. She’d wanted silence and isolation, but she hadn’t wanted to be trapped in a Steven King novel. She was two creepy children and a croquet mallet away from recreating The Shining and she didn’t even have an empty hotel to play in all winter.
No TV and no beer make Darcy something, something…
The no TV bit fit. Though she was pretty sure she had some beer she’d been trying to ignore for the sake of her liver and mental health. Not every pop culture quote was perfect.
Bear rested his great fluffy head on her thigh, looking up at her with wide brown eyes as she continued to stab at her plate. Despite skipping dinner the night before she wasn’t all that hungry. Mostly she’d cooked to try and coax the alien out of hiding but that hadn’t worked at all. She still had a mountain of bacon left on her plate and no appetite to eat it. It was a crime to waste perfectly good bacon.
She looked down at Bear who wagged his tail eagerly, thumping it against the table. “No. Bacon’s not good for dogs,” she told him. He obviously didn’t believe it, brown eyes still pleading as he stared up at her.
Darcy sighed again, debating how far she was willing to go to spoil this dog when the floor creaked. She looked up to see the blue alien peering at her from around the corner, red eyes staring at her.
Darcy froze.
Swallowing hard she very slowly set down her fork, moving carefully as if she might startle a fawn. She smiled at him carefully, mentally trying to project that she was friendly and definitely not a threat. The AlienPedia article hadn’t said anything about the Kree being mind-readers, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t. To be honest no one really knew anything about any aliens besides the Asgardians and again, they were practically human in comparison.
“You hungry?” Darcy asked, her eyes still on the alien. Slowly she raised a hand, pausing when the alien flinched back and looked as if he would bolt. In the end he stayed, red eyes following her fingers as she pointed at her monster stove. “I can cook you some more food if you are. I have eggs, bacon, cereal, toast… I can make you a little of everything if you’re not sure what you’d like.”
The alien stared at her for another long moment. He seemed to take a deep breath and stepped out from behind the wall, staring at her as in in challenge as he stood there fully within her sight.
He’d changed into her Grandfather’s old clothes. They didn’t suit him. At all. Her Grandpa hadn’t been a big man, but he’d been heavier and shorter than the alien. His jeans hung off the blue man’s waist, coming dangerously close to falling down entirely and were shorter than waders on him. The plaid shirt was somehow even worse. While the red plaid almost came close to matching his eyes the rest of it was awful. Too tight in the shoulders, too short in the arms, too loose at the stomach. Her alien looked like an adult who’d tried to squeeze into children’s clothes. It was a horrible, absolutely ridiculous look and she couldn’t even laugh at him for fear he’d bolt.
Darcy pursed her lips, biting back a smile and the alien’s eyes narrowed. That was clear cross-species communication. She was being glared at. He squared his shoulders, holding his head up high as he glowered down his nose at her as if daring her to laugh. His sewn together lips were even twisted down into a frown, crusted blood shining at the edge of the stitches.
If anything that made him look more ridiculous and Darcy covered her mouth with her hand, faking a cough. It wasn’t particularly convincing. The alien continued to glare at her, Grandpa’s jeans threatening to fall at any moment and make the moment even more awkward. Just how tall was he anyway? Six foot and a million inches? She didn’t exactly think of her Grandpa as short but however tall this alien was he had him beat by a lot. She’d probably look like a midget standing next to him.
“Let’s get you some breakfast,” Darcy said. She stood and the alien darted back, hands raised as if he was about to either attack or shield himself. His red eyes were blown out and wide, his chest heaving as he looked at her as if she was the most terrifying thing in the room. He radiated pure fear and the worst part was that the inner mutant power inside of her screamed that his reaction was the truth. He was genuinely afraid of her. No one had ever been afraid of her before.
Darcy frowned, slowly stepping out from behind her kitchen table. The alien’s eyes followed her carefully as she slowly raised her hands to show that they were empty. “It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you,” she said, voice soft. “I found you out in the woods yesterday and brought you here because I thought you needed help. I’m not the one who did any of those things to you.”
The alien continued to stare at her then slowly lowered his hands to his sides. He nodded at her once. What that meant she wasn’t sure, but if she had to guess it was an acknowledgement that she hadn’t been the one to sew his lips shut or bind him to the tree.
Pointing again to the stove she smiled as the alien followed her fingers once more. “Are you hungry?” she asked.
He looked at her then reached up and touched his lips. The shadow of a frown crossed them and he winced.
Darcy mirrored his movement touching her lips as well. “Yeah, that looks like it hurts. I would have tried to remove them last night, but I didn’t want to frighten you,” she said gently. She took a step forward, encouraged when he only flinched but held his ground. “Would you like me to try and remove them now?”
More staring. His expression seemed to flicker between suspicion and fear, all of it reading truthful but conflicted as he gazed at her.
“We’ll have to remove them sooner or later,” Dary said, trying again. “It’ll be really hard to eat breakfast with your mouth sewn shut.”
The alien’s gaze drifted to her plate still stacked with bacon and his hand drifted against his stomach. Looking at her again he slowly nodded again and waited.
Darcy smiled. “Okay, why don’t you sit at the table and I’ll go find some scissors and gauze. Does that sound good?”
No response to that. The alien just stared at her as Darcy slowly walked past him, turning to follow her until she turned the corner and headed down the hall back to her bedroom. The room was warmer then it had been though the windows still looked frozen shut and there was a definite chill in the air. Rummaging through her drawers Darcy found the tiny mending kit she’d tucked away and grabbed the scissors.
When she returned to the kitchen she found the alien standing in the center of the room, a knife in his hand and his eyes closed as he held the blade poised to stab himself in the mouth.
“Woah, woah, woah!” Darcy shouted, diving across the room and grabbing his arm. She winced, almost letting go as soon as she touched him. The alien was cold, uncomfortably so. His skin was like grabbing hold of an ice cube, her skin starting to tingle as she tried to pull his arm down.
His eyes flew open, red gaze full of alarm as he stared down at her. Breath coming in short gasps he pulled back as she kept her grip on him. For a moment she thought he was going to stab himself or maybe her but then he froze, eyes closing tight as he cowered away from her. Darcy swallowed and gently reached up to pry the knife out of his hand. He dropped it as soon as she touched his fingers, stepping away as soon as she let go of his arm. He nearly collapsed against the counters, grabbing hold of them tightly as his chest heaved.
A panic attack. That’s what it looked like at least as the alien slid to the floor. Bear trotted over and shoved his head into the alien’s face and to her surprise the alien grabbed him, clutching to the big dog and burying his face into thick fur as his shoulders shook silently. Wetting her lips Darcy picked up the knife and carefully put it away, giving the alien a wide berth. Going to the other side of the kitchen she also sat down, not looking at him but just waiting silently for the alien to calm down.
Eventually his shoulders stopped shaking and his grip on Bear loosened. The dog wagged his tail and panted as the alien pulled away, leaning back into the counter with an exhausted air.
Darcy studied him carefully from the corner of her eye. If he’d been human she would have called his expression pained… And embarrassed. Hell, she was going to call it that anyway. That seemed to be as good of a description as any of how someone would feel upon being discovered about to stab yourself with a kitchen knife and then disarmed by a human half your size. The alien looked down at Bear, gently stroking his fur with trembling hands. Bear sat down next to him, tongue out and seeming content in that way dogs had of enjoying everything. His tail thumped against the floor as the alien stopped petting him to look at Darcy.
She risked another smile. The alien hadn’t seen insulted by them yet so there was no reason to stop. “Sorry about that,” she said gently. “I know you want those stitches out, but there’s a right tool for every job and a kitchen knife is not the one for this case. I didn’t want you to hurt yourself.” She held out the scissors, putting them on the floor in front of her. “I think these might work better. Would you like me to use them to cut the stitches out?”
Looking at the scissors the alien nodded once and held his hand out. He glared when she didn’t immediately slide the scissors over, face twisting up into a scowl.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Darcy told him. “You can’t see your own face. You might stab yourself with them on accident.”
He shook his head and held out his hand again. Confident bugger. He really did seem to think he’d do a better job of it. Darcy bit her lip and slid the scissors across the floor at him. He snatched them eagerly picking them up and inspecting them carefully before fitting his fingers through the holes.
The alien’s hands were still trembling though. His grip seemed weak, movements clumsy, as he lifted the scissors to his face and vaguely stabbed at his mouth. Darcy winced at the same time he did, dark blood appearing at the corner of his mouth as he braced himself and made another wild stab.
“Dude, wait,” Darcy said, holding out a hand. The alien froze, eyes watching her intently and pressing himself up against the cabinets. Lowering her hand, Darcy scooted back until the alien’s shoulders relaxed marginally. “That looks like it really hurts and you’re bleeding. Are you sure you don’t want my help? I’ll do my best not to hurt you or touch you if you don’t want it.”
Regarding her, the alien’s hand now trembling like a leaf, he finally nodded and dropped the scissors to the ground. Looking away, breath heaving again he shoved the scissors across the floor at her and closed his eyes tight.
Darcy picked up the scissors and slowly scooted across the floor on her butt until she was next to him. He was radiating cold like a block of ice, a sheen of condensation covering his skin. He smelled like cold too. Like the woods outside in winter and fresh snow. She wondered if he was too hot in her cozy cabin or if he was always this chilly. Something to ask when his mouth was free. He certainly seemed to understand English. Maybe movie clichés were real and he’d be able to speak it as well.
“Could you turn your head towards me a little? I’m going to try and cut the first stitch,” Darcy said.
The alien did as she asked, eyes opening a crack to watch her as she raised the scissors.
Being slow was the name of the game. She made every movement at sloth speed and deliberately, giving him time to watch her and adjust as she carefully navigated the scissors against the stitches. They were tighter then she hoped, the alien not even having the space to open his mouth a little. It took a bit of work to get the narrow blades under the thread and in a place where it wouldn’t cut his skin. The alien winced but didn’t jerk away though, still watching her with those red, red eyes.
“I’m cutting the first thread,” she told him and when he only blinked at her, snipped it. The scissors clicked loudly but did their job, severing the thick black thread. “I cut the first stitch. Moving on to the next one.”
Over and over she cut, talking to him and telling the alien exactly what she was doing with every move. It was heartbreaking work. Whoever had done it hadn’t been much of a seamstress. The stiches were all uneven, some of them going so high up that they nearly hit the gums, some so small and tight she had to tell the alien she was skipping that stich and coming back after she freed up some flesh on either side. Dark blood welled up as she worked, crusted scabs breaking as she cut the thread. The blood smeared red on the scissors and that was kind of interesting. She’d imagined that the alien’s blood would have also been blue or maybe even black considering the color of his skin.
“This is my Grandfather’s house,” she told the alien as they took a break. Darcy was maybe half-way through and had decided she needed a moment to rest her hands and give the alien some time to breathe. He hadn’t seemed to mind, eyes closing and his head thumping back against the cabinets as she moved back. For a moment she thought he’d fallen asleep, but his eyes flew open at her comment, gaze darting about as if trying to see where her Grandfather was hiding.
“I guess I should say that this used to by my Grandpa’s house,” Darcy corrected quickly before he could panic. “My Grandfather is… gone. Snapped. Did the Snap happen by you? It was supposed to erase half the universe but, well, it’s hard to imagine that power reaching all the way out there. It’s just me and Bear here now.” The alien’s brow furrowed. “Bear is the dog.”
Summoned by his name, Bear trotted over and looked at them both. He grinned a sloppy dog grin and pushed himself between them. The alien didn’t seem to mind, raising an arm to give Bear room then burying his fingers into the fur once he was settled. It was nice that the alien seemed to like Bear. The dog seemed to be the one thing the alien wasn’t afraid of, his fingers cording through the soft fur as his eyes drifted shut again.
“I lost a lot of people in the Snap,” Darcy said. She wasn’t quite sure why. Maybe it was the silence in the cabin, the need to fill it up now that she had humanoid company. Maybe it was because she wanted the alien to trust her and telling him about herself seemed like it would fit. Maybe it was because she hadn’t talked about this at all. To anyone. She didn’t dwell on it, leaning back against the cabinets herself.
“I lost my Grandpa. Both my parents. My brother, his wife, and all three of their kids. I’ve read that the Snap was supposed to erase only 50% of the people but it’s amazing how many holes that makes when your entire family is in that half.” Pulling her knees up, Darcy loosely wrapped her arms around them and stared at the wall. It was completely blank and painted a boring white. She needed to put some pictures up or something when she had the chance. “I lost a lot of other people too. Coworkers. Friends. I lost my best friend Jane…”
Darcy stopped, blinking back tears. “I really miss Jane. If she was here she’d know just what to do with you. She’d probably even be able to figure out how to send you home.”
The alien made a soft scoffing noise and Darcy turned to look at him to see that he’d been watching her silently. He reached out, fingers outstretched as if he was about to wipe away the tears that were dripping down her face but stopped before he could touch her. His eyes refocused and he stared at his own hand before his face flashed disgust and he entirely shut down. Dropping his hand he turned away from her, eyes tightly closing once more.
There was no need to take it personally, Darcy told herself as she wiped away her own tears with her sleeves. Just because she thought the alien looked kind of strange but interesting didn’t mean he’d find her interesting at all. Thinking she was so disgusting that he couldn’t touch her kind of hurt though. The worst part was that his disgust had rung so true in her mind. It wasn’t a lie, wasn’t something he was pretending. He’d been genuinely revolted at the idea of touching her.
Wiping her hands on her pajama pants Darcy took a deep breath and smiled. “Ready for me to get the rest of those stitches?”
The second half was the same as the first, Darcy carefully narrating her every step for the alien’s approval as she cut the threads. When she was done she peered at his mouth closely, nodding to herself. “I think I got them all. Can you open your mouth? Slowly, in case I missed some.”
A bright red tongue darted out between the alien’s lips, running over the bumps and still embedded thread that she hadn’t pulled out yet. With that the alien’s shoulders slumped, his entire being relaxing as he reached up to touch his mouth, opening and closing his mouth with what looked like total bliss. When he was done making weird faces and breaking open the scabs that ringed his mouth the alien looked at strangely. He swallowed audibly and took a shaking breath.
“Thank you,” he croaked. His voice was hoarse as if it hadn’t been used in a while. Which it probably hadn’t, considering the state of his mouth. He’d also been speaking English, proving that every lazy Hollywood stereotype of all aliens being able to speak English was true. That was almost disappointing really.
“You’re welcome,” Darcy said. She put the scissors down and gestured at his mouth. “Do you want me to get the threads too? I think I should have some tweezers to get those out. It’ll probably hurt like hell though.”
The alien considered her for a moment and shook his head. “No,” he rasped. “I… want…” He trailed off, looking weak and tired and Darcy nodded.
“Okay, we can leave that for when you’re ready,” she reassured him. Wondering what to do next she stood and offered him a hand up. He barely flinched at her movement, hesitating only a moment before allowing her to pull him to his feet. Progress. His hand was still noticeably cool in her own, but not as bad as it had been. She wondered if that was a good sign or not. “Come on. I’ll show you how you can freshen up.”
Leading him by the hand the two of them padded through the tiny cabin until they were back at the bedroom. She opened the other door though, gesturing to the bathroom. “This is the washroom if you want it,” she said, dropping his hand. Darcy dug around under the sink, pulling out a manicure set and removing the tweezers that she set by the sink. She showed him where the spare towels were, pointed out the toilet, and showed him how to turn the shower on as he gingerly stepped into the room, eyes darting everywhere except the mirror as he followed her inside.
“Take as much time as you want,” Darcy said after she was finished making sure he knew which taps were for hot and cold. Considering how frigid his skin was she really didn’t want to surprise him with a hot shower if he couldn’t stand it. She stood, drying her hands off on a towel. “When you’re ready come find me. I’ll be in the kitchen making your breakfast when you’re ready.”
The alien looked at her and nodded slowly. Darcy squeezed past, careful not to touch him but paused in the middle of shutting the bathroom door. “Before I forget, my name’s Darcy,” she told him with a smile. “What’s your name?”
He regarded her for a long moment before turning away. “Stianger,” he said quietly, hands clenching into fists.
Darcy flinched but forced a smile. “Nice to meet you Stianger,” she said and closed the bathroom door. Taking a deep breath she pinched her brow. Her head was throbbing again, a low even beat that told her one thing.
Her alien guest was lying to her.