The alien seemed to ease up, and slowly straightened up. As for Lilith, she was still smiling. She pointed a finger towards her own chest, and pronounced her name.  The alien apparently understood, because he did the same :

"Rhaena", he softly said. He had a soothing voice, pure too. And this name, "Rhaena", sounded very feminine- or, according to the human standards. But on second thought, these beings looked so similar to human beings... And, now that she was right in front of the alien, the young human noticed that his pure white tunic highlighted a bit some kind of forms. Lilith blushed a bit.This alien boy was an alien girl !

Still communicating through gestures, accompanied every now and then by simple words so that Rhaena could begin to learn a few English words, Lilith offered to go and take shelter at her flat. The young human was undoubtedly right when she thought that the alien was at least as excited to discover a brand new civilization as she was : Rhaena looked a bit wary but accepted.

Lilith's mother violently startled when she saw this blue-skin and pointed-eared young girl standing next to her daughter. Lilith told her what had happened on Peckham High Street.

"She's a newbie in this world, and as curious as I am to get to know more ! Could we host her for a time, so I can teach her how to speak English and maybe she could teach me her language ?"

"Translation : for a little week, right ?", her mother answered, cheerful. "That's quite.... unusual, but well.... Let's say that it's just like a student exchange, when we have to host little Germans or French ! Even though it's not for school and she comes from a little further than France."

"Quite an euphemism", Lilith retorted with a smirk. "So, it means that you're okay with this, right ?"

"Well, as long as your new friend is alright with it and that her comrades won't start Interplanetary War One because we kidnapped her, I guess it's fine."

Lilith repressed a victorious laughter, and settled for a :

"Thank you."

As for Rhaena, she was exploring the flat. When Lilith joined her, the alien showed her human friend several objects while pronouncing a word in her beautiful language. Lilith understood that the young extraterrestrial was doing the same as she had done before, in the back alley, and her brain automatically began to learn every single word, every single intonation. After a few minutes, Rhaena turned her attention away from the shelves, took off her respirator and took out a strange device that looked like a mobile phone, although a bit larger and completely transparent. She skimmed it with one of her long, slender fingers and a face appeared. Rhaena exchanged a few quick words with the other alien, who seemed truly worried at the beginning of her conversation, but relaxed little by little. At one time, the young blue-skinned girl designated Lilith,, who felt even more intrigued (if this was even possible) and noticed that Rhaena was smiling when she mentionned the young human. When the alien put down her strange device, she looked at the young human, pointed a finger towards the flat's linoleum then gave her thumbs up just like Lilith had shown her earlier.

"You can stay ? Brilliant !! See, Mom, no Interplanetary War One !", Lilith exclaimed as she turned around towards her completely lost mother who nodded, looking puzzled.

A week went by, and the two young women understood each other more and more. Rhaena had proven to be as gifted with languages as her human friend and was currently fluent in English ; and Lilith could perfectly speak Rhaena's language : Lyrean. Lilith had found out that the young alien was the same age as her, even though the way to count it wasn't exactly the same from a world to another. They went out from time to time, avoiding the crowded streets and the humans who weren't used to see a blue-skinned girl ; Lilith showed her London through the roofs...

They spoke often, switching languages according to their mood and very smoothly. Lilith had never had any friend before, and she'd nver met someone as clever as she was ; the past few days had been the best of her life. And one day, Rhaena told her everything. Why she and her comrades were here, why they were wearing these strange respirators (their planet's atmosphere was similar as Terra's, but contained a bit more of ammonia. So, they needed to breathe some every now and then, before adapting to Terra's atmosphere) ; why they had to run away from their world.... Because indeed, they ran away. The Lyreans were a people of knowledge, mostly pacifists (speaking of which, Rhaena herself was Scientist Apprentice) ; but they had pulled too much on their planet, Lyra's resources. The core was therefore hypersensitive, and when the aliens living on the other planet of their binary system decided to attack Lyra, the planet just couldn't bear it. The seven spaceships that had appeared on Terra were subsequently all that was left from the Lyrean civilization, and had only narrowly escaped the cataclysm, saving the youngest and the most distinguished Scientists. According to Rhaena, the Lyreans cared more than everything about their offspring, because the births were very scarce (which was the reason why they gave a huge credit to science, to try and solve this dangerous fertility-problem). That was why her mentor looked so worried when she had called him the day she arrived.

"Those who attacked us wanted to take ownership of our science, our technology. They're a slightly more advanced than your species, but still less than mine- I'm not trying to show off or something...", Rhaena explained.

"So.... If your world as in a binary system, their planet must've been destroyed too, right ?"

"Yes. But they were already far away. They knew how to interprete the signs before the core's implosion... We barely escaped, like I told you, and it was only because we know how to use the dark energy to travel far faster than the light. As for them, even if they don't travel as fast as we do, they can find us again. That's why we tried to go as far away as we could, and find another life-form that could help us."

"Hold on, hold on !! I've got even more questions now ! First of all, you can use the dark energy ? The energy-form that flows everywhere in the Universe, especially in the void ? Really ? How ? Secondly, these little horrors can find you again ? So they can come here, right ? And thirdly : how could we ever help you ? We're far less advanced than you !"

"Well... Yes, we can control it ; yes, the one than flows in the void ; it's a bit complicated, even for you and me, so it'll have to wait ; yes, they can follow us and come here ; and my people would like to help you volv a little faster, if you know what I mean... Anyway, we can't go and look for a more advanced species in this part of Rhuva right now, so we need you. And I think we'd like it if your people accepted to host us on this planet...."

"Rhuva ?"

"Yes, the galaxy we all live in..."

"Oh, right ! Here, we call it the Milky Way. It's not as beautiful as "Rhuva" for a name, but well...."

"Rhuva means pretty much the same as the word "mother" in your language."

"Oh. It's poetic, I like it !"

Rhaena had then smiled at Lilith, in a way that made the young human blush. And then a thought popped up in her head, and Lilith came back to reality.

"D'you really think that everything'll go well on the inter-species cooperation side, knowing what happened last week on Pecham High Street ?", she asked her friend who came from outer space.

"If the Möreans come here, which will certainly happen, we're gonna need each other more than ever. Last week's overflow will quickly blow over, then."

"Yeah... Come what might."

They spoke further, often changing the subject, and Lilith learnt that the concept of a parent was not as important for the Lyreans that it was on Terra. The children were assigned as apprentices by the age of twelve to mentors, who therefore stood as family for the young Lyreans. She learnt that Rhaena truly liked music as well, and was wondering if the device she had seen her human friend use so often was to listen to music.

"Yeah, it's called a MP3 player. Hold on."

Lilth got up from her bed (on which the two of them were sitting), grabbed her MP3 on a shelve, then unrolled the wire of the earphones.

"Wanna try ?", she asked with a smirk.

"What are these sort of buttons for ?", Rhaena wondered as she fingered with the earphones.

"Oh, you'll see. Or hear. Whatever."

She placed an earphone in Rhaena's pointed ear and the other in her own ear. The young alien was staring at her with question marks in the eyes. Lilith turned on the little device, and the first notes of Helena rang out. Rhaena startled, looked around as if she wanted to find the music's origin and the earphone jumped out of her ear. She took it back, stared at it like it was the most fascinating thing in the Universe, then put it back in her ear, an expression this time delighted on the face.

"I like the melody !!", she exclaimed loudly.

"No need to shout, you know. I can hear you very clearly, even with the music blaring in my ears !", Lilith laughed.

They remained there for a while, next to each other, just like in a bubble that only belonged to them, or as if the world around had stopped existing. Nothing mattered. They were sitting next to each other, breathing at the same time, their hands joining on the MP3 player. Then the music changed, and they exchanged glances. They were feeling better than ever. Invincibles.

They leaned even closer to each other, until their lips grazed one another, then kissed each other truly, fully, as Greg Gonzalez began to sing Apocalypse's chorus.