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It was a chance encounter, really. She needed inspiration. He needed his facts. US/fem!UK for the USxUK-Club's Double Contest, written for the fanfiction category.

Part Three Departure

It had now been four months since Alfred had arrived on earth. During those four months, he had crash landed into the lake, met Rose, met new friends, met his sister, had fallen in love with Rose, told her almost everything about him while she did the same to him, and now, it was a month after they had begun dating. They were obviously happy with each other, and Tony had eventually had come to accept them together, but he still grows wary of the pair. Even so, Alfred was still living with Rose in their apartment, 36A, keeping her company, and in some ways, giving her ideas for stories.

One day, three men moved in next door in apartment 36B. They were rather quiet, so Alfred and Rose didn't mind them at all. But, when they did hear them talk, they had accents. Rose couldn't identify specific accents, but they were recognizable as European accents. There was a tall blonde with glasses, a medium-sized one with longer light brown hair, and one short one with messy brown hair. They didn't speak to each other much, but whenever they had saw them out in the hall, or had run into them somewhere in town, it seemed like the man with glasses was always pushing the other two to do something, the shortest one was nervous for most of the time, and the man with the long hair seemed to be the one keeping them together even though he wasn't even doing much.

Rose had noticed that the trio or at least the man with the glasses was making glances at everyone, as if they were observing them. Other than that, they rode the elevator most of the time; they also wore suits a lot even though it was summer. But then again, they might have just resided here because the rent was cheaper, plus, they could just take the subway or a taxi to get to the city. Even so, it had caused Rose to look up alien related searches.

Alfred was clearly human. As he had said, when he was little, he was just playing outside, some things happened, then he was rescued by his foster parents. As simple as that. Alfred should be a born American citizen, but his records were yet to be found. To this date, Alfred and Maddie had gone into town every week to keep track of the progress of finding Alfred's records. They offered to help to speed up the process, but were denied because the other files would be confidential too.

Whenever she could without Alfred noticing, she looked up information on mostly anything alien related. Even though Alfred was not an alien, there was still a fact that he was basically harboring one in the woods. There wasn't actually any proof, but hey, it's not like they were trying to prove anything, to anyone, right? Rose would have been more public on her researching, but one, Alfred would tell her not to worry; two, she didn't want to worry him; three, he would tell her to write on her story. Apparently, on her research, these alien hunters located the aliens who were mixed in the human domestic life through elevators. There were more details on it, but Rose ignored all the other facts and focused on the major points: elevator, locate, alien. 'Capture and retrieve' weren't on that description, but she was sure that it had some subtext on that matter.

"Are you ready?" Alfred asked as he emerged from Rose's no- their room. It's been their room for the past month, and he still couldn't believe it.

Rose zipped her laptop bag close as she nodded. She stood up, and Alfred rushed over to push in her chair for her. Rose formed a small smile as he did this. This was one of the reasons she fell for him; he was sweet, he had helped her through many things, he was open with her, and she felt so comfortable being around him. It was as if they had known each other for years instead of mere months.

When they had exited the apartment, Rose had locked the door as the three men made their way to the elevator. When they were walking down the hall, the one with shoulder-length brown hair smiled. "Are you going down?"

Rose looked up and shook her head. "Thank you, but we'll just take the stairs."

The man nodded as the blond with glasses sighed impatiently and pressed the 'door close' button.

"What was that, Toris?"

Toris rolled his eyes and remained at his spot. He remembered when Eduard wasn't so prissy all the time. When Eduard first came into the agency, he was a generally happy man who loved to work with the computers. He had loved the challenge of working with the higher advanced computers and had helped translating some alien languages by simply relating them to computer coding. Eduard, like with Toris and Raivis, had worked under the care of Ivan, their former leader of their group. A couple years after being in the agency, Toris had remembered Eduard constantly talking about this girl he had met while on the job. She wasn't a part of the mission; rather, he had met her on his way to the mission.

He had remembered Eduard telling him the story in full detail. Eduard was on his way to one of their missions a couple years back, and he had to wait for the train to come as he had missed one already. While at the train station, he had met this woman named Yekaterina, but she had said that she didn't mind being called Katerina or Kat. She had platinum blonde hair, in a pixie-cut hair style, accompanied with a head band on her forehead. She had a rather big bust, but that wasn't what Eduard had noticed. It was her kindness and her way of speaking. And he hadn't met or had spoken to a person with that peaceful sounding tone for a while. She had fascinated him greatly in their conversations, but then, her train had arrived. Luckily, before forgetting and then later regretting it all, Eduard had caught her name and phone number.

On the mission, Eduard was on the brink of dying, having no will to move any more. He had been trapped in a warehouse, left for dead, but after an hour of self-pity, he had remembered what had happened before. The girl. Katerina. Then suddenly, he regained all will to move and strength to get out of the ware house. And it was all because of her. So in a way, she had saved his life. A bit cliché, but Eduard didn't mind at all because as soon as he called for help, right after, he had called Katerina and scheduled a date whenever they were free.

After that, they had begun dating, then Eduard had found out she was related to Ivan. He wasn't that angry. Eduard had been telling him about a girl, and Ivan didn't notice that the girl was his sister. And because he heard nothing but good things from Eduard about his sister, he had no choice but to approve of their relationship. Ivan at the time had a fiancée. She was a Chinese woman named Wang Yu-An. She taught a class on hand-to-hand combat and a tai-chi class. Yu-An had sparked Ivan's interest greatly, so he had decided to sign up for both of her classes. After a while, they had started dating, and then became engaged. Even so, Yu-An never found out about Ivan's job.

When she did, she had accepted his job, and had sworn to secrecy. But things seemed just wanted to end band for the couple, the same for Eduard and Katerina. Long story short, their loved ones had mixed into their jobs, Yu-An had fallen into a coma, and as for Katerina, she had either gone missing, had been dead, or was abducted. The two mourned for their misfortune, then Ivan eventually quit, moving to a small town in New York, as for Eduard, he dug himself in the job and swore he wouldn't rest until he knew what happened to Katerina.

And this is where they were now. The three were in a quieter location on the island of Manhattan, assumed as visiting Ivan, but in reality, Eduard was just here to check on the calls and he had the ability to pester Ivan, asking him questions the man would hang him up on the phone for.

One more time before the three exited the building, Toris made a quick glance at Eduard, who instead of impatiently tapping his feet, fussing about timing, or had crossed his arms due to anger, he was holding the photograph of Katerina. Toris looked away before Eduard noticed.

He just needed some closure to move on.

"Hey Rose," Alfred began. "Why did we take the stairs?"

"Well," Rose tried to find an excuse. "I heard while on your trips to the city, Maddie's been taking you out to McDonald's."

Alfred snorted. He laughed nervously. "Psh, who told you that?"

"I was bluffing," Alfred sighed in relief before Rose continued. "That, and I found a McDonald's wrapper lying around."

"But it's so good! We didn't have stuff like that back home. It's too fattening they said, it's going to give you a heart attack they said. But have they ever tried it? I don't think so!"

She chuckled. "It's if you eat too much of it, love. It's fine if you eat it, but not too much."

Alfred scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, I guess."

As she was walking, she boosted her height by the tip of her toes for a few inches and kissed Alfred's cheek and wrapped an arm around his waist. "I still love you dear."

Alfred smiled and kissed Rose's forehead before giving her a big bear hug. "Aw, Rose! Not in public!" Rose squirmed in his hug as she tried to pry herself from him.

"I could say the same thing to you!"

Alfred chuckled as he placed her back down on the ground, but even so, they walked the rest of the way to the cafe, holding each other's hands.

Across town, Eduard knocked on a glass door. As he waited, he, along with Raivis and Toris observed the outside of the building. It had the sign of 'Ivan and Lili's Garden', a sign that had needed its retouches. Speaking of retouches, the paint outside looked as if it had to be painted again. There were some crates outside right in front of the building's windows. From it, he could see that the inside had wooden floors with shelves filled up with things like fertilizer on the right. On the left were books, most likely plant based. That took two shelves to fill. Between in had a table with pamphlets also plant based and business cards either referring to them or advertising others. Next to the counter was a door, most likely leading to the garden outside.

It took a while for the door to be answered, so he checked the sign. The sign said open and they had arrived on store hours. Eduard looked at his feet and saw the welcome mat, to which he scoffed at since the door wasn't being answered. He was about to knock again before Toris sighed deeply as he pushed Eduard gently aside and pulled the door open.

"We aren't in the agency right now," Toris reminded him. "Stores are like this in the outside world, remember?"

Eduard rolled his eyes and walked in along with Raivis. Toris was the last to get in as he held the door for the two. He looked around the store and saw that everything was placed like how he had seen it outside. He walked over to the counter and read the paper next to the button.

'Please ring for service.'

So he pressed the button. It took a while for someone to answer, but when they did, it was the wasn't the person they had expected to see. "Hello," The girl greeted them. She had short blonde hair, a ribbon tied in it. "I'm Lily Vogel, how may I help you?"

Before Eduard was to speak, Toris had interrupted him. "We would like to speak with Ivan, please."

Lili blinked before she nodded and went out the door again. Eduard glared at Toris. "Why do you always do that?"

"You don't want to scare her, Eduard, now do you?" Toris replied. "Plus," He continued in a hush tone. "I would have let Raivis do so, but I think he couldn't say anything. It looks like he has a little crush on someone."

Eduard was about to say something before chuckling a bit as he made a quick glance at Raivis, whose face was a bit redder than it was earlier. "I suppose so."

The door had clicked open, but this time it was Ivan who entered the room. He took a look at the three and smiled. "Hello, my friends! What brings you here today? Have you finally decided to take a day off and visit your former boss? Well, come over and give me a hug, I've missed you as well."

The three walked reluctantly towards their former boss and were only going to give him a small and quick hug, but he had gathered the three of them in a big embrace. "So, how have you been doing? Is the agency been the same as ever-"

"S-sir," Raivis spoke up. "I'm sorry, but we didn't come here to visit."

Ivan frowned. "I see that you wanted a direct approach. I've taught you three rather well. Alright, what do you want of me?"

"We want to know any strange occurrences that you've seen," Eduard said.

Ivan paused before he went to the back of the counter. "I have not witnessed anything. I don't want to talk about it. And if that is it, then please leave."

Eduard was about to speak up before Raivis stopped him. He looked up and nodded to Toris; he agreed and led Eduard outside of the store. Ivan sighed deeply and unlocked a drawer. Inside was a photo frame. He touched the glass gently and tried to smile as he stared at the photo frame of Yu-An.

Lili had returned and was about to say something to Ivan, but had held it back as she saw him with the photo frame again. She gently closed the door and concluded that she would just have to talk to him later.

Hours later, Rose had to leave early because she had remembered that she had to do some research at the library. Alfred frowned at this, to which Rose had responded by rolling her eyes followed by a kiss on his cheek. "Oh don't be such a big baby, I'll be at home by the time your shift ends."

Alfred nodded before she spoke up again. "And do me a favor, Alfred. Don't use the elevator, okay?"

For the rest of his time at work, Alfred had questioned why Rose would tell him to that. He tried to figure out all the logical reasons to avoid the elevator as he was cooking the orders. As he did, he was listing them in his mind. For one thing, there was the risk of the elevator getting stuck, or even the risk of the wires getting caught. Maybe he would get stuck with very suspicious passengers. After all, Rose had been keeping an eye on their new neighbors for a while now. Maybe it was just an act of instinct on this planet- to be suspicious of everybody until they deemed themselves innocent. The three men next door were rather suspicious, Alfred thought. Mostly everybody in the town wore casual clothing, these men always wore suits, but maybe they worked in the city and only stayed here for financial reasons?

At the end of his shift, Alfred had concluded that riding the elevator wasn't that big of a threat. The chances of a technical difficulty while on the ride were slim, as he calculated the odds on his spare time. Plus, maybe the three men weren't going to go on the elevator when he would, anyways. What could possibly go wrong? When his shift had ended, it had started raining a few minutes before, and Alfred carried no umbrella with him. Elizaveta had offered to lend him her umbrella, but Alfred politely refused, saying that he only had to go down the block. An offer he shouldn't have refused, he thought as he walked through the rain. The walk from the apartment to the cafe wasn't long, but because of the heavy rainfall, it seemed like a mile. Once Alfred had reached the apartment, building, he quickly opened the door and without thinking, he ducked into the elevator.

He was tired, he was drenched, and all he wanted to do was dry up and go to bed with Rose after the long day without her. He leaned against a wall of the elevator, settling in a corner as he grieved about his situation. Water dripped from his hair and his jacket. His sneakers contained some water in them and along with his socks, they were damp, making his feet feel disgusting, uncomfortable, and cold. Alfred had understood that there were other people with worse problems than he had, but he was definitely having a bad day today.

While he was complaining to himself, he had noticed the elevator wasn't moving at all. The doors were closed, but he didn't feel like he was being lifted up to another floor. Looking at the panel in front of him, he had realized that he didn't press the button for the third floor yet. As he was about to, the door slid open, three new passengers boarding. One of them had quickly pressed the third floor button, and had turned to face Alfred, expression asking him what floor he was on. Alfred merely shook his head and smiled at the man. The man nodded and stepped back to his friends, but as he did, he accidentally bump into Alfred, but he had quickly apologized right after. The ride was short, but Alfred felt like one of the three was staring at them. Throughout the ride, he heard whispers coming from them, and when he would turn his head, the whispers would automatically stop.

When they got to their floor, Alfred had stepped out first, turning to his left to go to his room with Rose, the three men doing the same. As Alfred searched for his keys, he felt a tap on his shoulder. It was the man with the glasses. The man smiled, it seemed so sincere, yet something about it felt so sinister, but Alfred disregarded the feeling. "I think you dropped your keys."

As he handed Alfred the keys, he quickly identified them as his keys and began unlocking the door. After that, the man with the glasses walked into the apartment next to Alfred and Rose's apartment. Making a quick glance to his side, Alfred saw the man with the glasses smile at him, but it felt more threatening more than friendly. Realizing this, Alfred tried to open the door to the apartment quicker. As soon as he entered the apartment, he shut the door close, taking his keys with him. Eduard, on the other hand chuckled at Alfred's jittery attitude and walked back into the apartment.

After hearing the door slam close, Rose ran to the hallway, and had saw Alfred soaking wet. When she did, Rose dashed to the bathroom to get a towel. When Alfred had sat down on the dining chair, Rose had raised the temperature slightly and dried his hair.

"Alfred, dear, why didn't you ask for an umbrella from Kiku or Elizaveta?"

"I didn't think that I would need it," Alfred chuckled. Rose sighed deeply and rolled her eyes. "Rose."

"Yes?" She said as she continued drying most of Alfred off.

"I took the elevator."

"You did what?" Rose asked, in disbelief. "Did anything happen?"

"Not really, but one of the guys next door kind of creeps me out."

Rose grumbled, as she stopped drying Alfred off, now slumping into a chair. "I told you not to go on the elevator specifically because of that!"

"What do you mean?" Alfred asked as he took the towel from Rose.

"While you were with Madeline in the city, and today, I was doing some research on any threat that would come our way," Rose confessed. "I never really thought of doing such a thing before the three guys next door moved in, but..."

Alfred had momentarily stopped drying himself. "What did you read about elevators?"

"That they put some weird high-advanced shit in it to detect if you're from this planet or not," Rose answered. Alfred frowned; Rose cursing either indicated that she was pissed, stressed, or both. "Something along those lines, I just paid attention to the major points. God, Alfred, I told you to not use the fucking elevator."

Alfred stood up and bent over to hug Rose. "I'm sorry for worrying you, Rose."

"Sometimes, Alfred," She sighed deeply.

"If it makes up for anything, I've been having a bad day," He said.

"Wash up, dry off, and get in bed right after," She pulled away from his embrace for a moment and looked into his eyes. "Got it?"

Alfred chuckled and nodded. "Got it, I've learned my lesson, always listen to the almighty Rose."

"Good," She gave him a quick peck on the lips and motioned for him to go to the bathroom and do what he was told to do. After washing up, Alfred had walked into his bedroom with Rose, closed the door, slid under the bed sheets, and for the rest of the night, held her in his arms as he tried to forget all his troubles. Something he could only seem to do with Rose at his side.

Meanwhile, next door, Eduard was laughing triumphantly. Toris, who was cooking dinner didn't bother asking him what got him into such a great mood, so Raivis had done so for him.

"D-did anything turn u-up, Eduard?" Raivis asked, stuttering a bit.

"Yes! Yes something did turn up," Eduard boasted. "Who's willing to go with me into the forest?"

A little while before, Eduard had rushed into his room as soon as he got in the apartment. He logged on to his account on his computer, and as soon as he was online, he checked his alien tracking program, and the man next door was proven positive of alien interaction, which meant one thing. If the guy got the results of alien interaction, it means the girl was the alien. It made total utter complete sense. She was more aware of the dangers of alien hunters, plus she kept her guard up more than the guy did. But she couldn't be the only one here, right? So after concluding the data, using the information he got from the guy- Alfred, he was able to locate another alien in the area, which was in the woods. Perfect.

Toris had looked at Eduard for a second before he turned back to his cooking. Raivis sighed deeply and raised his hand, offering to go along with him. A couple minutes later, they were now in the forest. The rain had cleared up, but it was still showering. It was damp in the forest, causing it to have a funny smell that they would have to look over if they wanted to find anything. As they walked around, they tried not to slip on any mud created by the rain. They had reached the lake in a matter of minutes. It would have taken them a shorter time, but it was their first time in the forest. When they had reached the lake, they spent a good thirty minutes scouting the area, but in the end, turning up with nothing.

"L-let's just go back, Eduard," Raivis shivered as he walked on the shore. "There's nothing here."

"There is! There has to be!" Eduard said. "We just have to look harder."

Raivis grumbled and started scanning the area more thoroughly so that Eduard can decide that they've looked hard enough and they can go home already. He wanted to take a break from searching, but he had decided against it so he wouldn't have Eduard shouting in his ear. Sometimes he questioned why he even joined the agency in the first place. He grumbled and leaned against the object behind him. But after a while, he felt the surface of it and found it to be smooth and cold. Taking off some of the leaves, he saw that it was a large chunk of metal. But when he searched around it, it was not just a chunk of metal. It seemed to be a spaceship.

"Um, Eduard! I think I f-found something!" Raivis called.

The next morning, Alfred was stirring in his sleep before he woke up in cold sweat. Something felt strange, missing, out of place. But what was it? He tried to think of possible answers, but thought of none. Rose grumbled, got her glasses from the nightstand next to her bed.

"Is something wrong, love?" She asked as she placed her glasses on.

"Something feels wrong," Alfred said. "I don't know why, but... can I go check on Tony?"

"Of course you can, you don't need my approval Alfred."

"Can you come with me?" He asked.

"Sure, just let me get ready."

After they washed up, they took the stairs and went immediately to the forest. Alfred took a detour to where the space ship was instead of taking the usual route. He needed to speak with Tony. Sure, he had just spoken to him a couple of days ago, but something felt off. Something about him. That's when he realized it. When he got to the ship, it was in a circle of yellow police tapes. He couldn't believe it. Because of this, it was only logical that Tony wouldn't be in there either being taken away or already taken away.

"Alfred..." Rose whispered. "Let's go before we're caught."

"But Tony-"

"We'll find him. But if we stay, we'll be questioned and we won't be able to find Tony," She explained. "Let's go to the cafe first, okay? Inform Elizaveta that you'll have a day off, she'll understand."

Alfred nodded. After they fled the scene, they had gone to the cafe, Alfred telling Elizaveta that he suddenly didn't feel well. Elizaveta let him have the day off, adding the fact that if he had just took her umbrella, he wouldn't feel as bad. Alfred chuckled and agreed before he said his goodbyes and walked back to the apartment with Rose. As soon as they had entered the apartment, Alfred began freaking out.

"Rose," He whispered. "What if they got Tony? Wh-what if they're doing some weird stuff to him right now?"

"Tony's an intelligent creature, plus, knowing him, he wouldn't give up without a fight," Rose assured him. "You have to think about yourself too, Alfred."

"Rose," Alfred inched closer to her.

She wrapped her arms around his head and kissed his forehead. "Yes, love?"

"I'm scared," Alfred said. "I'm more scared than I am after a horror movie, Rose. No, this feels like a horror movie now."

For a few minutes, the apartment was silent as Alfred cried silently on Rose as she tried to comfort him. He held on to her tightly as she did the same, stroking his hair slowly and gently. Right now, she, like Alfred, felt so defenseless and useless. Alfred was out of ideas on how to save Tony, and Rose couldn't do a thing about it. He was suffering right now and all she could do was comfort him. It wasn't much, but it did help somehow. They had remained like this until they had repositioned themselves, lying down, them still holding on to each other. Alfred's crying had ceased when they did, him only breathing heavily as Rose was trying to calm him down. When Alfred had fallen asleep, Rose took his glasses off and placed it on the table next to the couch. After doing so, she did the same with hers, adjusted her position a bit and fell asleep with Alfred.

For a few hours, the pair had slept soundlessly on the living room couch, the two holding on to each other. They had been like this until Rose heard a rustling. Apparently, Alfred had heard it too. "What was that?"

Alfred placed his glasses back on and readjusted his position so he would be sitting down, Rose doing the same. After doing so, Alfred crept slowly to where the sound was coming from. As he walked to the cabinet under the sink, the rustling had increased. For a moment, it had stopped right before the cabinet doors flew open, with a figure emerging from it, attacking Alfred. The figure and Alfred were wrestling around in the kitchen before Alfred had managed to pin it down.

Rose squinted her eyes before she switched the kitchen lights on. "Tony?"

Alfred's eyes widened and sat up, Tony doing the same as he caught his breath. While Tony was doing so, Alfred caught him in a hug and squeezed him tightly, Tony sighed and patted Alfred's back. "You're a fucking cry baby, Al."

It had been raining all night yesterday, and even though it had decreased later on, it was still raining. Tony had dreaded the rain, saying it was far too gloomy, plus he hated the humidity and how damp everything was afterwards. During rainy days, water would always hit the space ship and if it was also windy, leaves would hit the space ship and Tony would always have to clean it afterwards. Today he had decided that he would just do so the following morning. He was far too tired tonight and all he wanted to do was drink a hot beverage and knock out.

But just as he was about to go to bed, he had felt something bad. It was strange, as this was the first time he had felt this. Something was off. He had realized that. After a few minutes of thinking, he had concluded that it was most likely Alfred getting into trouble again. As always. This had settled his conscience for a while, and he had decided to eat a snack to calm himself down more. As he walked towards the kitchen, he heard voices outside of the ship. Tony rushed over to the control room and monitored all the screens. Everything seemed to be normal as they could, until he saw a little man poking a side of the ship.

That was not good.

Tony sat on a rolling chair and rolled off to the other side of the control room. Maybe he can just scare the little human off with some noise. That was a classic scare on Earth, as in the horror movies, the humans would be frightened by mere sounds. It increased the paranoia and fear among them.

"Um, Eduard! I think I f-found something!"

Fuck. Too late. Tony tapped on the keys rapidly, making sure to lock everything down after he would flee the ship. As soon as he made sure everything was locked down, Tony fled to the woods, a blanket wrapped around him, and he navigated himself to where Alfred said he was residing in. He climbed in through the fire escape, but the window was close. Damn. He had the worst luck today. Tony covered himself with the blanket and slept the night under the blanket.

Hours passed and it was afternoon when Tony noticed the window next to him was open. He smiled to himself, taking the opportunity to get in the apartment. But when Tony heard the door knob jiggling, he quickly jumped into the room and under the bed. When he was under it, Rose sighed deeply, shut the window close, then closing the door again.

"And then after that he just apparently stayed in there until we saw him," Alfred translated. "Tony, you were giving me a heart attack."

"You're still a big baby," Tony replied. "By the way, yesterday, a message came in."

"He said a message came in."

Rose blinked. "What was it?"

Tony spoke, and Alfred translated for her. "Yesterday a message came in saying the rescue ship has to come. But now since I'm under suspicion, I have the decision of staying here and risking it or leaving. Rose-"

Rose couldn't believe her ears. She didn't want him to leave. She wanted him to stay with her, but she couldn't be selfish; she couldn't put Alfred's life at rise for her sake. "Alfred. Even though I want you to stay, you know that I have no choice but to let you leave. Your safety matters more, love. I don't want to see you get dragged away and- and be taken apart."

"You can come with us," Alfred suggested.

Rose shook her head. "It'll only raise suspicion."

Alfred nodded. He held Rose's hand and kissed it. "Then I'll just have to find you when I come back."

In the middle of this, Tony stared at the couple with a disgusted face, all while making gestures of himself vomiting. God, he hated the sight of a couple being overly sappy. For example, these two. And he just ate, lovely.

The next morning, they were getting ready to go to the shore for the rescue ship to pick Alfred and Tony up, with Rose tagging along to see Alfred off. Alfred got a free backpack from the spare room and Tony was told to climb in the bag for him not to be seen. Rose grabbed her keys and as she was about to open the door, she paused, but continued. "I was about to ask if you had your keys, but..." The two chuckled a bit.

After Rose locked the apartment, the group had started making their way down the hall. As they did, they had noticed that the three men from next door had stepped out from the apartment, when they did, they quickened their pace, and sped up as soon as they noticed more men. "Get the girl!"

This shocked them both. The girl? Were they planning to take Rose as hostage, or did they mistake the alien to be her? Either way, they knew one thing: they had to make a run for it. They grabbed each other's hand and dashed their way through the men and made it way to the second floor. Seeing as there was no one near the fire escape, they ran across the hall to it. When they got there, Rose quickly unlocked the window and pulled it up. She stepped through the window, and hopped off of the second floor. She looked up and saw Alfred who just closed the window and was hesitating to jump down.

"Just get down, you dolt!"

Alfred ran down the stairs and as soon as he had stepped on the ground, he and Rose continued to run, trying to avoid the men who were currently surrounding their building by hiding behind trees and buildings from the other side of the street. They couldn't retreat to the forest, as it would lure them to the rescue ship; they couldn't retreat back to the space ship, as it had already been discovered; the cafe was too near; so where would they hide? It took them a block to figure out, but they changed their paths and made their way to Madeline and Francis' house.

As she was baking, Madeline was humming along to the radio. Earlier that day, the mail came in. It was the usual; bills, requests for Francis, snail mail from Canada, but this time, there was an official looking envelope, as it was sealed in a manila file. Madeline was surprised when she found it in the mail, but she quickly rushed in and took a look at what was inside. To her disbelief, it was Alfred's birth certificates. Although, it was only his birth certificates, no adoption papers or anything, just the birth certificate and a couple of pictures. But she didn't have time to think about that at the time, oh no, she was far too excited that her brother's birth certificate came in.

She had planned to call Alfred later on the day as a surprise, but for the time being, she wanted to bake something like pancakes (pancakes were good for any time of the day, Madeline concluded) to celebrate. However, other than going to the store and buying more pancake batter, she had decided to just buy the ingredients for the pancake batter and just bake from scratch. Because of this, it took her a bit longer to bake the actual pancake. As she was mixing the batter, she hummed to the music on the radio.

Francis, from the other room heard the music from the kitchen, and he knew what it meant. Madeline was cooking. He smiled to himself and leaned against the door way as he watched his girlfriend walk around the kitchen, too lost in her work. She was humming along to the radio, and sometimes singing along to it in a low voice. Francis took his liberty and walked in, joining her. He walked behind Madeline, grabbing the bowl she was mixing the batter in. Instead of discontinuing her singing, she walked over and raised the volume and started singing louder. Naturally, Francis had joined her and started singing louder as well.

As they moved around the kitchen, they danced along to the song. As their fun escalated, they tried their best to not make a mess in the kitchen like the last time. Even though food fights are fun, they had to remember that it was their house and they had to be the ones to clean the mess up afterwards. When the pair finished putting the last batch in the oven, they made their way to the couch, Francis' arm wrapped around Madeline's waist. When they were near the couch, Madeline gently pushed him on it, but Francis had caught himself and Madeline. When she fell on the couch with him, he kissed her forehead.

The two were planning to just lie there, but they had to call Alfred and Rose. They would have called them when the first batch would be ready, but they should get there so they'll have more warmer pancakes. So when they heard a knock on the door, the two groaned, but Madeline was the one who ended up having to go and answer it. She tip toed and looked in through the peep hole and saw Alfred and Rose out there, so she opened the door.

"Oh, I was about to call you guys," She said, but the two ran in and caught their breaths.

Alfred sniffed the air. "Do I smell pancakes, or is it just me?"

Rose slapped his arm. "This isn't the time to think of food Alfred."

"But yes, there are pancakes. They're in the oven," Francis informed them. "But what I would like to know is why you two are so out of breath."

"I was about to ask the same thing," Madeline said as she took a seat next to Francis. "Who are you guys running from?"

"Our new neighbors," Rose answered. "They think I'm not from this planet. It's either that, or they're going to take me as hostage to lure Alfred."

Madeline sighed. "Your neighbors are weird. If you guys need to stay to wait them out, you're more than welcome to."

"Though, it doesn't surprise me that they're going after Rose," Francis chuckled. "Now it seems like old times now, doesn't it."

Rose glared at Francis as she grabbed a pillow and threw it at him. "Very funny, frog. Speaking of frogs, it reminds me of that time when you croaked in front of the audience for Princess and the Frog."

Francis gasped. "I thought we were not to speak of that ever again."

"Oops, I guess it slipped my mind, as yours did when you mentioned-"

"Guys," Madeline interrupted them. "This is no time to be fighting. But as long as you guys here, guess what I found in the mail?"

As Madeline made her way to where she placed the mail, Rose and Francis were silently arguing with each other while Alfred was trying to calm Rose down. Madeline got an envelope and handed it over to Alfred and smiled. He stared at the envelope, Rose and Francis ending their argument. He uncoiled the thin piece of thread and opened the flap. Slowly, he sat down and took out the contents of the folder. It was his birth certificate along with pictures of him and Madeline as babies.

He stared at the certificate before going through each individual photo. As he did, Madeline was talking to him about how it was found and such, but it was all toned out by Alfred. He looked over at each photo, with the collection being in order, as he saw him and Madeline grow older. But at the end of the stack, there was a final picture of him and Madeline, but with their birth parents. The room was silent as he touched over the picture of his parents.

This was total and complete utter bullshit. He had settled down and had already gotten used to the planet and the people surrounding him. He had found his sister in a matter of weeks, and he had gotten confirmation about it quickly. Other than that, he got other things that he wasn't expecting to get when had arrived. Alfred was offered a place to stay by Rose, he had gotten a job, and he eventually fell in love with Rose, who had fortunately for him, returned his feelings. And when everything was just about to fall into place, it was already being torn to pieces. Three men and a matter of weeks- that's all it took to shatter what he had.

Alfred took a deep breath, and placed his hand over Rose's. She blinked and looked at him. All she needed was that look and she knew what he was saying. She nodded to it. "Go tell her."

After that, Alfred had begun explaining his life story on how he really grew up, and where, most of all. It took a while for him to explain it all, making commentaries here and there to lighten the mood up. But it also took Madeline a while to take it all in, the same with Francis who was listening to Alfred intently as well. At the end of his explaining, the room was silent. Alfred was waiting for her reaction, while Madeline was still figuring out what to say.

"Well," Alfred looked up. "I think if that envelope hadn't come in the mail today, I would have thought you were crazy as your neighbors. It's still hard to understand that you weren't... raised here, and you don't exactly have proof but," She picked up the certificate along with the other photos. "This is more than enough proof to tell me that you are my brother."

Alfred smiled and moved over to hug his sister. Tony moved around in the backpack, wanting to get out and have some more room. Rose had noticed this and was about to open the bag up a bit before Alfred stopped her and took the book bag himself. "Well, if you still want proof," Alfred opened up the bag and revealed Tony, who jumped out of the bag as soon as it opened. "He's Tony, my adoptive brother."

Tony took a look at Madeline, sighed, and extended his arm for her to shake it. Madeline was a bit shocked. She wanted to shake its- no, his hand, but something held her back from doing so. In the end, she had reluctantly shook Tony's hand.

"Alfred," He said. "Hurry it up. The rescue ship's coming in thirty minutes."

"Question," Francis spoke up. "If you say that you are being hunted down by your neighbors, and most likely their friends, how do you expect to get there?"

"Run?" Alfred shrugged. "I guess we've never thought of it."

"Why doesn't the rescue ship just come and get you guys here?" Madeline suggested.

"One," Tony began. "The rescue ship needs a lot of room. Even though it's not gonna land, there are also other factors to suggest. Two, we don't want to attract even more attention, let alone pass it on to you two along with Rose. And three, it doesn't even know we're here. It just assumes that the lake is still safe to get us."

"Oh."

Tony nodded and stepped back inside the backpack. "The only option I can think of right now is to run without being detected. That means be agile, fast, and quiet."

"Or we can just drop you off. Does that work?" Madeline didn't drive 24/7 as Francis did more of that. The two owned one car, and shared it. Even though both of them could easily drive it, as both of them had their licenses, Francis was the one who drove it the most as he drove the car going to the office along with dropping and picking of Madeline from her university. Madeline preferred to walk or take the bus, the only reason at that time for her to learn how to drive was that she had appointed herself the designated driver amongst her friends. Now, seeing the predicament her brother and his girlfriend were in, it turns out that her learning how to drive was going to be put into more use other than being the designated driver.

The drive was quiet and wasn't that long as they got to the forest in a matter of minutes. Before the two got out of the car, Madeline spoke up. "You are coming back right?"

"Don't worry, Maddie," Alfred smiled. "As soon as these guys get off my case, I'm taking the first ship back here."

"Alright, I'd love to see you off," Maddie began. "But I might get suspected too. If I'm needed, I'll be parked at the cafe, ok?"

The pair nodded. "I'm gonna miss you Al," Alfred stretched over from the back seat and gave his sister a hug.

"I'm gonna miss you too, Maddie."

Alfred and Rose walked through the forest trying to be quiet as possible, being careful not to make too much noise for any of the government agents to locate them. Alfred had remembered that only four months ago, he and Rose had met here. She had told him how paranoid she had been when they had met, and Alfred completely understood. In turn, Alfred told Rose of how he was quite nervous as he was talking to her, also adding in the fact that it wasn't just because of the fact that she was the first human he had talked to, but that he had trouble talking to girls. Rose laughed, of course, and Alfred was a bit offended by it, but laughed it off with Rose.

He looked at Rose, who was holding his hand, walking right next to him. He wasn't the best in 'reading the atmosphere', as Rose had called it, and he had known that. But at times, he could tell when people were upset, and right now, Rose was. Although, it was more of a worried upset than an angered one. He couldn't exactly pinpoint on how he knew, he just did. Alfred wanted to reassure her that everything's going to work out and so, but he had to keep quiet. He didn't want to give them more trouble than he had already done. He gently squeezed her hand and took another look at her.

It wasn't long before the fleet arrived. Thankfully it was around night time, so it wasn't too noticeable. Alfred began walking towards the ship and has successfully made it under the ship and was being lifted up. As he was, Rose was looking up from her hiding spot and when Alfred was halfway through, she heard some rustling behind her just before she felt a hand grab her shoulder. Rose almost began to panic when she felt the hands grab her arm but she tried to shake them off by wiggling around. When she finally did, she got up and started running away to the other side of the forest, only to find more men. Most likely the agents that were chasing them away from their apartment. She groaned and began to turn around, but there was another group of agents.

"Damnit," She cursed under her breath. "What do you want from me?"

Eduard rolled his eyes and pointed up. "If you're not the alien, then you should be the accomplice," He looked up and grumbled. "And since they've already gotten away, then you can help us by telling us everything you know."

"I know nothing," Rose stated. "And I were to tell you, you have no proof if aliens do exist or not. For all they would know I would be just a raving lunatic and you were foolish enough to believe what I had to say. You have nothing on me."

"On the contrary," He smirked. "We did take pictures. So you better be ready to talk," Eduard turned around to face his men. "Take her to the van."

Rose continued in trying to get out of the agents' grasp as they were leading her to their van. But just as she was about to be thrown in to the van, she saw the lights around her flicker right before a complete blackout took over the town.

And that was all of what she remembered before she woke up in her room, a letter addressed to her on her nightstand. She blinked, reached for it and had begun to open the letter. When she did, there were only a few words written upon it. Thank You. Love Alfred.

The letter had confused Rose greatly for the past three years, but even so, she had completed her book. One week after she got the letter, she had been struck with inspiration and had started on her writing almost immediately. The story was about this boy who was plucked from his planet and taken to another only to be told to find his true family. A fish out of water story, basically. And during his time on Earth, he would be taken in by a woman who would help him adjust to society. But as he would be residing on Earth, he would also meet his family.

Truthfully, Rose had no idea where she got this idea from, but after looking at the letter, which she had still kept with her by the way, she had just gotten an idea from it. The story had ended with the boy having to go back to his home planet because there were some complications due to his stay. After that, it had ended. Figuring out what to name the characters and the actual title was a difficult mission for her. Francis helped by writing a list of things of what not to name it, but Rose had settled down with the name that had fairly described the protagonist. 'Star Child'. It was because the character was placed in a location he thought was near to him, in a way, but was really distant from him, in another way. The 'Star Child' would take the name of Arthur and for the woman, her name would be Amelia. Amelia's character was placed in a suburban location of England, and she would find Arthur roaming around.

Rose felt that the book had sold pretty decently, and as of right now, she was sitting next to a stack of the books where the book signing Francis had arranged would be. The day was long, even though she had only sat in the seat for an hour or two. But at that time, her hand was cramping and she was getting hungry. After Madeline pestering Francis, he had decided to let Rose go on a break for an hour. Rose smiled and thanked Madeline before she made her way to a restaurant next to the book store.

Over the three years of writing the book, a lot of things happened. Ivan, the flower shop owner had taken a month off. Lili, his assistant explained that his girlfriend had woken up from her comatose state, and Ivan visited her every day to help her. She had also told Rose that Ivan's sister, Katerina was found after years of being missing. Apparently, she had gone through a period of amnesia until she had recalled some of her memories. Raivis had asked Lili out, to which she had agreed to. Madeline and Francis were due to marry in a couple of months, and as for Rose, she was taking a break from the book signing.

When she had sat down in a table, she sipped her tea and looked at the crowd of people. As she did, one of them looked over his computer and smiled at her. Rose smiled back and had returned to her meal before the man walked over to her table. "Is this seat taken?"

Rose shook her head. "No, it isn't."

"May I?" She nodded. He sat down and extended his arm for a handshake. "Nice to meet you. You're Rose Kirkland right?"

"Indeed I am," Rose smiled as she shook his hand. "And you are?"

"Happy to have met you again," He replied.

"Again?" Rose asked, blinking before she looked at him again. And now, she had remembered what happened three years ago. "Alfred?"

Alfred only replied to this with a small smile. "I'm sorry that I had to make you forget, but-" He was interrupted when Rose had pulled him into a hug when she had walked next to his chair.

"I'm going to kill you for that later," Rose grumbled as she hugged him. Alfred smiled and returned her hug. Now he felt like it was home again.

Audrey's Notes At the end, to explain: Alfred used some sort of method for there to be a black out and erased the town's memories of him, including the agency Eduard works for. Rose's memories of Alfred were also wiped out, but she regained her memories when she met him again.