Six-year-old Yuma waited eagerly for his father to return. He was sitting at the window, looking at the darkness outside, when he heard something crash. The child perked up at the sound and, against the wishes of Akari and his grandmother, snuck out to see what the sound was. It was still late at night, and Akari and Haru were just leaving the airport to pick up Kazuma and Mirai after their trip to the mountains. There was a babysitter, of course, but she thought that he was already asleep, so she herself was in bed.

Yuma silently opened the door and peeked out of the house to see if the thing that caused the sound was in the immediate area. Upon seeing nothing, however, he went back inside and brought out a flashlight from the storage closet so that he could see in the dark. Since it was cold, the child threw a coat over his footed pajamas and slipped his feet into some shoes. Finally, he ventured outside.

It took a while to find what caused the sound. Whenever a car passed by the street, Yuma jumped and stopped moving in case it was Akari with his parents and grandmother. She would surely yell at him, but as long as he didn't get caught, everything would hopefully be fine.

After wandering around and finding his way to the outskirts of the city, Yuma finally spotted something white and glowing in a crater. It was a wonder no one noticed this! The child hurried over to his find and crouched in front of it. What was it? It looked like a giant version of the pills Akari took when she was sick, but it couldn't have been a pill, right? Those were normally tiny! So what was this?

Yuma jammed the flashlight into his mouth as best as possible to examine the thing with both hands. It was hard to keep it in there, though, and the pill-looking thing was already glowing, so he just spat the flashlight out into his hand and set it on the ground.

There was only one button on the thing. Other than that, there were no windows, no clear parts, and no color other than white. On top of that, it seemed to be releasing some kind of smoke. To any person older than ten, it would seem like a bad idea to open something that was smoking and had no discernible features, but Yuma was only six, and very curious at that. Any worries of anything that would happen were nonexistent.

He noticed the white button and immediately pressed it, not even thinking of possible consequences. Immediately, the pill-looking thing hissed and spilled more smoke as something like a door opened. A brighter light spilled out, nearly blinding the boy, but he managed to look through his fingers without blinding himself. Soon, the light dimmed down enough so that Yuma could pull his hands away from his face.

Inside, a small, blue, glowing body laid in a kind of soft bed. It had hair that was the same color as its skin and that arched forward. Its face and body were covered with small, diamond and rectangle markings. On its elf-like ears were elegant earrings that seemed to only stay together by some kind of force. Its eyes fluttered open. Yuma caught a glimpse of white and gold under the eyelids. The right eye was white, and the left was gold.

"Whoa..." the child breathed, hanging over the little body in the capsule.

The alien child looked up at Yuma, his face burning into his memory before he started gasping and wheezing. The foreign air seemed to constrict his lungs tightly.

Yuma saw this and panicked. He didn't think he would meet what he thought would be his imaginary friend here only to find it having trouble breathing. From what Akari told him, being unable to breathe properly wasn't a good thing.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how one views it), Akari's car came into view. When she looked out the window, she was horrified to see her little brother sitting outside on a cold night in front of some kind of capsule. She was more concerned than furious, so she stopped the car and stepped out since Haru, Mirai, and Kazuma were all asleep. 

"Yuma!" she called. "What are you doing here!?"

Yuma looked up at his sister. She was eighteen now and just got her license. "Hi Akari!" he exclaimed, forgetting that she may be mad that he went out of the house on his own. "Look what I found!"

Akari looked at the capsule. She heard a strange, rattling breathing coming from inside the capsule. Looking inside, she was surprised to see a strange alien gasping for breath.

"What's that?" she whispered, but she shook her head. "No, we can't worry about that. Yuma, get in the car before you catch something."

Yuma stomped his foot defiantly. "No! I wanna help him! He looks hurt!"

"We don't have time for this." Akari picked up her brother, but he just kicked out and made a whole scene. "Fine, fine! But if it looks hopeless, then we leave him."

"Okay!" Finally satisfied, Yuma allowed Akari to buckle him into his car seat.

The young woman walked over to the crater and looked into the capsule. The little alien inside was now flushed and breathing shallowly. She had to admit that she was also a little worried. She located the only button and pressed it. The door closed once more. Figuring that would do for now, she loaded the capsule into the back of the car. Then, she climbed into the driver's seat and drove back home.

~.The Next Day.~

Yuma woke up on the weekend excitedly, and surprisingly early. He scrambled out of bed, looking for the capsule he found last night to see if the little alien was okay.

He found the capsule in the living room by the wall by the door. It was untouched and left alone for the entire night; Yuma had to wonder if the alien inside was hungry. He touched the button on the capsule.

He hung over the capsule to watch it open, and immediately after it did, he saw the little alien inside. Surprisingly, he was awake!

"Good morning!" Yuma exclaimed. "Are you hungry? Wanna eat? Akari can make you something!"

The alien inside looked at the boy and said nothing. He reached a hand up, and the boy grabbed it immediately.

"We're gonna be friends, right?"

Once more, the alien didn't respond for quite a while. Then, he spoke. "I feel sick..."

Yuma frowned. He didn't like that tone. Not only did he sound like he couldn't breathe, he also sounded tired even though he probably spent the entire night sleeping. On impulse, the boy tried to grab the little alien out of the pod. After a few seconds of struggle, Yuma looped the alien's arm over his own shoulder and dragged him to his bed.

He laid the child down and covered him with a blanket, even going so far as tucking him in. He felt the other's forehead, recoiling when he felt a burning in his hand.

Yuma hurried downstairs as fast as his little legs could take him and clumsily wet a towel in the bathroom. Akari did this whenever he had a fever, so maybe it would work! He wrung out the towel, but it was still dripping by the time he made it back to his room.

He arranged the towel so that the alien's forehead was covered with it. It soon heated right up, though, so he hurried back to the bathroom to soak it again. After a few trips, though, he settled on bringing a bucket of cold water (complete with ice) into his room.

Akari walked into the room, yawning, to wake up her little brother only to see him already awake and tending to the alien from last night. His sleeves were soaked with water, and his face was scrunched up with determination. "Yuma?" she called. "Do you need help?"

Yuma looked over to his sister. The determination disappeared, replaced with sadness. "He's too hot, Akari," he complained. "He's making the water hot!"

The young woman walked over. She rolled up the sleeves of her loose shirt and knelt beside her brother. She made sure her pajama bottoms were away from the water. She felt the alien's forehead just as Yuma did and was surprised at the heat. "Yuma, get Mom awake and ask her to bring the fever medicine."

Yuma was reluctant to leave the child's side, but Akari knew best. So he ran out of the room on soggy feet and knocked on the door. "Mommy!" he exclaimed.

There was shuffling before the door opened. Mirai, obviously still suffering from jet lag, yawned. "Good morning, Yuma," she said with a smile.

"Mommy, Akari needs the medicine!"

"The medicine?"

"For when your face is hot!"

Thinking the worst, Mirai immediately hurried down to the kitchen and opened one of the cabinets, pulling out the fever medication. She rushed back upstairs, waking Kazuma in the process, and entered Akari's room.

"Akari?" she called.

"Something wrong?" Kazuma asked from behind. Yuma was settled in his arms.

"Akari said she needed the fever medicine," Mirai explained. "I'm wondering if she's sick. She could have caught a cold yesterday."

"Not for Akari!" Yuma exclaimed. "For my friend!"

The parents shared a glance. "Your friend? Who would that be, buddy?" Kazuma poked Yuma on the nose, making the child giggle.

"I don't know his name, but he's in my room!"

The three of them made their way to Yuma's room, which was under the attic. They found the floor dry and Akari kneeling beside something on the bed. Mirai and Kazuma approached the bed and saw an alien being laying on the bed, clumsily tucked in, and breathing shallowly.

"Where did you find that?" Kazuma asked as Mirai gave the child some medicine.

"Yuma found him last night," Akari explained.

"The poor thing..." Mirai whispered. "He's so sick."

The alien child opened his eyes and saw a whole family, including the boy who found him. He laid his hand on the woman's gentle hand. He felt instantly cooler. Whatever they gave him seemed to work.

"He's awake again!" the boy squealed. The alien child watched as he wiggled out of the man's grip and snuggled under who looked like his mother. "What's your name? I'm Yuma!"

The child took as deep a breath as he could. "A...Astral..." He then closed his eyes again.

Remember the oneshot I called Liar, Liar? Well this is the story based off of it! ^^ It took a while to actually come up with the title and premise, but it's finally here! It'll update every Sunday, so look out for it!

-Chibi Astral