Work Text:
"Is- Is that..-"
"Say shit and you're fired from life."
Life has been going downhill lately. Sure, high school was over, so no more sitting around doing nothing while actual demons bitch and moan like little babies about wanting to go home. Sure, you got a job and therefore got some minimum wage dough.
But it was still terrible.
You worked in a corner shop, your boss was a bitch, if your classmates were demons then your co-workers were all Lucifer. Let's go over your nicknames for them: incel, cunt, handsy and—the one who pissed you off the least—co-worker.
Worst of all, your boss crimed all over the place or whatever—
How could you have known he had people working under him. How could you have known that when the police officer asked you for his alibi and you said he had been at the store the whole day, you were covering for a criminal? How could you have known that by trying to be a good employee, stay after hours to clean up and open the supply closet for just that, you'd find a woman, limp on the ground with a bleeding dent in her head, and him, holding the wrench he used in the act.
What else were you to do if he had people lurking all around, making it impossible for you to report anything to the police without dying in the process? What else were you to do but to avoid his eyes like the plague, feel the need to sucker punch him in the gut when he'd grab your shoulder and start small talk as if he hadn't just finished a business call?
If you had it your way, you'd make him bite the curb, as many times for as many people he's sold off to who knew where and who.
—and had to flee the state?? And because your contract sadly wouldn't end for another five years—as if that was the most crucial detail tying you down—you and your co-workers had to flee as well?????
So, you were basically forced to flee your home because of someone else's crimes, cut off all contact with your friends and family after multiple death threats, AND you now live in the shittiest city you could ever imagine to live in! DETROIT, MICHIGAN!
Or at least that's where your employer said you would go, but when you arrived, the big sign said "The City", which really didn't help raising your below-Hell-itself spirits.
Neither did the fact that your shop's name was—and always will be—"Groceries, Groceries & Groceries.."...Your employer literally just asked a name generator for that. That's how lazy it is.
For a while you had been sleeping in your car, using the bathroom in other supermarkets, cleaning up with wet wipes and the same toothbrush you took from home—despite desperately needing to change the thing—and snatching up whatever money you could find on the ground.
At times, when there would be a commotion at the supermarkets, you'd take the opportunity to steal by rushing through the isles and walking out of the store with the stuff above your head as to avoid the detectors. You kinda felt bad that when someone would get jumped in the store, no one doing anything to stop it and just watch, you'd follow suit and ignore it in favor of lengthening your criminal record.
At some point though, you heard of an empty, abandoned house just a few blocks away from your workplace, and you couldn't exactly tell why you decided to fall victim to the corniest horror trope. Maybe were you trying to have a normal life after everything that led you here. Maybe you wanted the possible ghosts inhabiting the home to end your suffering for you. You'd sure rather die in any way other than by the hands of your boss, despite the sympathy points you'd gain after your death.
Back on track, you tried looking for some owner of the property to buy the house from in the near future, but there was no phone number on the building nor any other contact info. So you decided then and there that that was your new home. Because there was no owner to pay for electricity, running water, etcetera, you had to implement those things manually and deal with them yourself.
The house was nice enough, though right next to a weird, tall building with gnomes everywhere in its front yard. There was a space for you to park your car—an Isuzu Hombre from your dad—, a fence separating you from the weirdo nextdoor, an abandoned garden with dead flowers, some nice pale yellow walls and a red roof, with a second story on top.
Once you've ventured inside the house, you took in the interior: living room with a couch riddled with a few cigarette burns, an armchair with similar issues, red carpet floor, dust flying up in the air with each step you took, and most surprising of all, a television on top of a cabinet table. You'd think the previous owners would at least take the TV if the house was haunted, or sell it. Who knows, maybe the TV was the haunted object.
The kitchen had utensils thrown everywhere, the bathroom had a few spider webs, and the attic was weirdly bare, it was almost uncanny how every room had been so messy up to this point and then there's a sudden emptiness on the top floor.
Back on the ground floor, there were four bedrooms, each with a bed and a few wardrobes and drawers, walls covered in paint that was chipping off but that still remained a deep blue and purple, pure black and a light teal in each room respectively. There was a cracked mirror in the purple room, which you kept the way it was and put it back up on the wall because it just added a vibe to the room.
What you would do with this many rooms had to be planned for another day, because as you stepped out of the house and lit a cigarette a brown car pulled up to the house across the street. Out the car came a kid with light brown hair, what looked to be a brown-yellow sweater, paired with some big and round geeky glasses and bowtie. You weren't that familiar with this city so far, but you knew from experience that this kid must get bullied every day, though it didn't really show in his in his demeanor.
The driver, was a tall man with slicked back dark hair, wearing a suit in different purple shades with a brown belt around his waist that gave him more shape. Appreciated shape, considering all other times you've seen men wearing suits they looked like Lego pieces, so the man had style.
You felt the kid's eyes on you while the man was supposedly talking to him—despite the short distance, his low volume was hard to pick up—, so you decided to set aside your frustrations with life to be a decent enough human being and wave at the boy, cigarette between your lips as the tip began to burn out.
The boy waved back almost immediately, you could now hear his voice as he excitedly cut off the man to point at you and announce the new neighbor they had. When the man's eyes landed on you, you were a bit more hesitant to wave this time, there was something so menacing and authoritive about his gaze, like he was a man with years of trauma and experience on his back.
The kid began to pull the two of them towards your yard, "Hello!"
You forced a smile despite your exhaustion, taking out the cigarette to flick the excess ashes forming on the tip onto the stone tiles leading from the sidewalk to your house. "Hey. You live across, right? Wild guess, I know." You cracked a joke that seemed to get the kid to laugh, but the man not so much.
"Yes, hello. My name is Mux and this is my son, Cik." The kid—Cik—gave a sweet smile that just radiated sunshine, which seemed to almost lift some weight off your shoulders.
"My pleasure, uh, my name's [Y/N]." You reached your right hand for a hand shake.
Mux stared at it, looking up at you as if expecting something, while the kid took some time to fully realize what was to be awaited, letting out a snicker. Confused, you glanced down and realized you were still holding that damn cigarette between your index and middle finger.
"Ah, sh-" You slap the same hand over your mouth at the near slip-up, only getting more snickers out of Cik and a sigh of—amusement? impatience?—from Mux. "Uh, sorry, I'll just," With that, you dropped the thing and stomped it into the ground before extending your hand again.
He took your hand this time, "Welcome to the neighborhood. We are quite new ourselves and our.. Housemates at the moment, but I'm sure you'll settle in just fine."
Cik balanced on his heels, "Do you want to come over to our house for dinner? It is only customary for newcomers to a neighborhood to be greeted with open arms!" The kid's voice was so squeaky, you almost had trouble understanding some words. In the end though, you began to think of the best way to decline.
It proved itself to be much more difficult when all the times you've had to refuse an offer in the past, it'd be easy to tell someone to fuck off. Hell, it was as easy to tell that to kids, no matter how big their puppy eyes were. But they never had their parent with them, they never had a giant man tower over, watching closely to make sure you watch your own tongue.
After a long string of the same "uhhhhhh, I don't know" to each of Cik's suggestions, Mux finally put a hand through the kid's locks of hair and apologized for his enthusiasm. "It would be quite intriguing to have you for dinner some night though. We always over prepare considering the many mouths we have to feed now, so you may prepare yourself any night desired and knock on our door around eight PM."
All you could do in the moment was clear your throat and nod as you shared a farewell with the two. All this talk about dinner made you hungry, so that night you made a quick stop at the supermarket and bought some chips.
A week into living in your new house, it was the one pleasantry about your current predicament. After some clean-up, you got the house up and running again and although you didn't have the money to buy any new furniture, that didn't stop you from renovating the place to the best of your abilities.
Plus, now you had four bedrooms and four beds all to yourself, you were basically set for comfort here.
However, it turns out that with your boss changing his identity came his retirement from the crime scene, which immediately impacted your paycheck which was already pretty damn low.
That fact made your stomach twist much more.
And now, already tired of the same microwave and cheap meals every day and night, you thought back to that family across the street. Maybe you could join them for dinner just this once?
Even though they said you could pop in any night, you still decided to go buy some eggs and instant noodles from the supermarket in case they were too busy for another guest.
You put on your trench coat and worn-out converse and head out. All the traffic drowned out any and all other sounds around you, which was so stress inducing you wished you'd brought your cigarette pack with you, but you knew it was for the best to leave it behind, considering how much it cost and how you should really let go of this habit. Your record was four days, as to be expected when taking your workplace into account.
There weren't many people in the supermarket, maybe seven. And after your brave mission to retrieve eggs from the back of the store without letting your eyes catch onto anything you didn't need, you hurried to the Asian/exotic food isle to find your noodle brick. There was a group of kids there with a tiny robot, one of the kids even had an electronic voice alike the android by their feet.
You didn't spare them another glance until you heard that same squeaky voice call you, "Oh, hi [Y/N]!"
You turned and saw Cik along with the three other kids, who now turned to stare at you too. "Hey neighbor. Who're your friends?" It seemed like the appropriate question to ask an acquaintance, you were pretty sure.
Cik excitedly introduced the three kids to be Dib, Zib and Gaz, and the robot Tip. Considering the ramen packs in their hands along with the many, many other snacks in their shopping cart, the four were disputing about game night snacks. Or at least "some event" night, the only reason you thought that it was a game night was Zib and Gaz's very gamer adjacent outfits.
"You having a game night, or..?"
"Oh! Yeah, well it's the weekend so I'm allowed to stay at their place for tonight after dinner. Ooh, speaking of which, you should definitely come tonight! I know we've already invited you, but the others have seen you around town and wanted to meet you."
"Huh," You stood there, glancing between the group and cheap noodles you were aiming for before the interruption. "Sure? I don't have much else to do, what time again? Eight?"
Right as Cik confirmed and you grabbed your noodles, you took notice of how quiet the Dib kid was while Cik was a chatterbox and the other three were back to arguing. So before heading for the check-out, you addressed him. "Cool jacket, kid."
"Huh?" Clearly startled by this, Dib jumped a little at your voice. "Oh, uh, thanks. You- you too."
You bid the kids your goodbye before leaving the store with $4.34 less.
Alright, you made it this far, you can press the doorbell like a normal person. Hell, you can knock like a normal, polite person! So why aren't you??
You caught a glimpse of inside the house through the window. What did you find? Aliens. Fucking aliens.
Of course—of FUCKING course—the first people to be nice and welcoming to you in this damn city—damn town—were aliens.
You could sort of hear voices inside, but it wasn't anything you could understand. All of a sudden, the voices quieted down, a woosh sound in-between that and the sudden opening of the door in front of you.
"Hi [Y/N]!" It was Cik.
You thought his name was weird this whole time, but now that you knew he was an alien it made more sense. Kinda.
You glanced around the now open living room. Along with Mux, there were another three adults in the room- Or at least you assumed the short albino sitting on the couch was an adult. Because despite their small stature, their features were mature enough to look at the very least like a young adult.
Wait, they were aliens in disguise, so either they live for a long, long time and barely age or they just don't know what normal human adults look like.
Besides those three, there were also two other kids, almost obviously twins, watching your every movement and you couldn't tell if they were a bit creepy but cute, or straight up weirdos.
One of the three adults, one with spikey hair and sunglasses(indoors??) was wearing a casual smile, if a bit strained, and held himself as such. Though you got the feeling part of the voices earlier were him and Mux arguing, not sure why though. Based on the way the other two—the albino and a tall woman—looked used to and tired of their bickering, it wasn't anything major.
"..Hello." You managed to let out while stepping inside. "Thanks for, uh, for having me."
"'Course," the sunglasses man walked over with heavy footsteps like he owned the place, probably to piss off Mux. "We casa ez your casa or something, I don't get what that means. Name's Chi, those little bugs are Tik and Tok," he gestured to the twins, then at the other two adults, "my buddies Rio and Taz, and you should already know the commander and his kid."
..Okay, more to unpack.
"Commander..?" You narrowed your eyes, subconsciously picking at the dead skin around your fingernails.
They all seemed to freeze up for a second or two, but then Mux saved all of their asses. "It's a- An inside joke. You don't.. Want to know."
Oh but you certainly did to some degree. You nodded, eyes bouncing between each person in the room before landing on the table off to the right, already piled with food. You couldn't help the suspicion falling off your face nor the growl of your stomach when you caught a whiff of the cooked, seasoned chicken.
"I say we gather around the table, it's not exactly polite to leave a guest starving." You felt your face heat up when the woman—Taz—caught onto how hungry you actually were, but you were relatively thankful.
The kids were sent to wash their hands leaving you five adults to sit down at the table.
"Sooo, [Y/N], right? Do you work somewhere or are you unemployed like the rest of us?" Chi asked, leaning back in his chair and you honestly preferred the awkward silence over the uncomfortable topic.
"Uh, yeah, I work, I work at a corner shop...wait, the rest of us? None of you work?" No one seemed to react like the first time Chi let something slip up. In fact, Mux explained it reasonably.
"Most of the money comes from deposits I've made along the years and support from Professor Membrane. He lives next door."
You nodded, though you couldn't quite place where you've heard that name before. The kids came back in a flash and sat down at the table.
"Finally! Time to dig i-"
"But Norman's not here?" You could see how Chi deflated on the spot when Cik's cheerful and confused tone cut in.
You were a bit lost, but guess the universe agreed with Chi to get this dinner evaporated as soon as possible because then came in a tall and lanky man, wearing a purple-pink sweater and a patch over his eye.
"Sorry for t-ta-taking so lo-ong. My- voicebox is still- a-annoying me.." He stammered out but it sounded like more than just that.
And voicebox? Yeah, this is definitely a robot in disguise.
You saw Rio reach up and pat him on the shoulder, as if to reassure him silently, which seemed to be appreciated by the guy.
"Now can we dig in??" With a nod from Rio, dinner with aliens officially started.
"It was nice having you over, [Y/N], you're quite pleasant company. Good night."
"You as well." Now, back outside in the cold with your trenchcoat hanging off you, you concluded that the dinner went well.
Sure, you were a little on edge due to the whiplash of seeing these people in their true, alien forms and then immediately being welcomed inside by human faces. But it was still pleasent.
"When else can you join us?"
Oh right. Cik was outside with you and Dib, who came in at the end of dinner to take Cik back to his house for the group's game night.
And through some context clues, not only did you remember that Professor Membrane was one of the most successful, intelligent and powerful scientist in the world, but also realized that Dib, Gaz and Zib were his children. And you lived across the street from them!
Living across from people of science and extraterrestrial beings... Wow.
"I don't know, it'll have to depend on whether I can afford good food for the night. But I also have some house renovations to do on top of that, so who knows. Maybe next time you see me I'll be a skeleton."
Dib laughed lightly, thinking you were joking, while Cik smiled but it seemed to be out of sympathy.
You shared a last "good night" before crossing the street and heading home.