The air in the room was thick with the smell of coffee and baked goods, the aroma seeming to wrap itself around every person who entered the cafe. Caden stood leaning against the front counter, absentmindedly staring off at an inconspicuous part of the wall. It was that odd spot between morning and afternoon where business slowed to a trickle, and Caden was so incredibly bored. He sighed, blowing a copper curl out of his face as he waited for something even mildly interesting to happen.
Suddenly, a jingle rang out through the silence, and Caden’s attention snapped to the entrance door. He put on a smile and waved. “Steven! Right on time.” A gangly black-haired boy stepped into the cafe, stepping towards the front counter.
“Hi,” Steven greeted quietly. He was a regular at Extraterrestrial Beans, frequenting so much in fact that Caden had already written his order on a cup in sharpie.
“The usual?”
Steven nodded, face staying neutral. He pulled out a crumpled wad of cash from his pocket, not checking the exact amount in his hand but somehow getting it right regardless.
Caden was intrigued by this guy. Maybe it was something about the way his face was shaped, or maybe it was something about his odd demeanor. Either way, he had wanted to talk to him for a minute, but he seemed to fumble every chance that presented itself to him. Caden opened his mouth as if to say something, but quickly shut it and took the cash. “Your drink will be ready in a bit, you can pick it up at the end counter!” He stated, embarrassed at his lack of resolve.
Steven nodded. And then, something odd happened. Steven blinked, but not like how a person should blink. The action seemed almost reptilian; translucent lids sliding from the corners of his eyes and meeting in the center before retracting back to the sides as if nothing had happened. Caden’s expression contorted in confusion. Steven noticed. Instead of waiting by the end counter for his drink, he pivoted and walked out of the cafe entirely. Caden stood in shock, the cash still in his hand. He thought for a moment, staring at the wad he held and then at the door. He dropped everything on the counter, the change clinking on the hard top as he scrambled to follow after Steven.
He found himself on the sidewalk outside of the cafe looking around, briefly spotting a shock of black hair turning a street corner. He followed after, not yet knowing whether or not he was following to apologize or to ask about what he just saw, or if he even wanted to really say anything at all. Cars went past in a blur, and Caden finally spotted him. He tried to wave him down, but Steven broke into a run. He was faster than he should’ve been considering his build, and Caden was mildly impressed before remembering that he had to actually catch up. He walked, then jogged, then ran, the chase taking a greater toll on Caden than it should’ve considering how young he was. The only reason Caden ended up catching up with Steven at all was due to the fact that he accidentally trapped himself in a dead-end alleyway. Caden panted, catching his breath, while Steven seemed to be more anxious than tired. He seemed to puff up like a cornered animal, shielding his body behind a dumpster.
“You— huff huff— forgot your— huff— coffee,” Caden panted out, putting his hands on his knees, eyes facing towards the ground.
“…Is that really why you ran after me?” Steven questioned, seeming to relax some.
Caden stood up, taking a breath to collect himself before he looked at Steven directly. Now that he was really seeing him in the hot Californian sun, he noticed something that he had failed to see in the dim lighting of the cafe. “Your skin is… glittering,” Caden pointed out.
Steven studied Caden’s face, looking for any hint of fear or disdain. He only saw curiosity, maybe at most confusion.
“I know that this might be a weird question to ask, but.. What are you?” Caden pondered.
Steven paused, and then he relaxed. He glanced over Caden’s showulder, then he stared at him directly. “I’m human, but not in the same way you are.”
“What do you mean?”
Steven slowly put a hand to his own chest, pushing into it in a way that flexed his sternum farther in than it should have been able to go. His skin rippled and flowed, slithering around and shifting colors as opalite fractals sparked from his body, his form morphing into something cosmic and inhuman. It seemed like limbs became torsos and heads became limbs, an ouroboros of transformation beyond anything Caden had ever seen. There was a glaring grotesqueness in regards to the metamorphosis in front of him, but it was so unsettlingly beautiful that he couldn’t look away.
Limbs emerged with finality, marking the end of the transfiguration. His skin shimmered with a pearlescent quality, clinging to his towering bone-thin frame. His clothes that he wore before awkwardly wrapped around his body and seemed to tug uncomfortably at his inhuman anatomy.
Most notably, however, Steven’s face was scrambled. An eye seemed to infinitely stare a hole through Caden from where his mouth should’ve been, dozens of nostrils framed the outside of his face like a crown of breath. He had two mouths, slanted perpendicularly towards one another. His hair was gone, leaving instead a shimmering skin.
“I was sent here…,” Steven began, his voice echoing and distorting through his inner chambers in a cacophony of insectoid hums. “…In order to gather information about this planet. However, when I arrived, I realized that humans were more akin to myself than many of the members of my own species.” He stopped speaking for a moment, gasping, before pressing on his sternum again. He morphed, body flowing into itself before gushing back outwards to his human form. He coughed, doubling over after the transformation, before recovering and standing up straight. His clothes were stretched but he otherwise looked exactly like the regular who frequented Caden’s coffee shop. “…I chose to live as one of you after a few months of staying here. My people can shift and change into anything that we want, but being human feels the most… Authentic.” His voice seemed more clear. Confident.
“But… Why?”
Steven shrugged. “I don’t really know.” He slumped against a dumpster, sinking to the concrete ground. Caden followed, moving to sit next to him “I mean, I guess that when I first took on this form, it felt right. After years of feeling lost in shapes and ideas of who I could be, I became who I am. Being me, being Steven, is exactly where I think I should be.”
Caden took notice of the shimmer still on Steven’s skin, how universes seemed to reflect in his eyes. He was cosmically elegant now that he had a chance to look at him up close. And yet, he seemed so undoubtedly human. He seemed so Steven. From the way he breathed, to the way he spoke, it seemed more true than the form he took moments before. He paused for a few moments, drinking the situation in and turning everything over in his mind.
“That makes sense,” Caden finally stated. He didn’t feel like there was more to say, and wasn’t even sure if there was anything else he could add that would make sense. The two stared at one another, then smiled, then began laughing. “Do you want to go back to the cafe? I can make you a cup of coffee, on the house.”
Steven grinned. “That sounds good.”