A New Man
All things considered, the human handled 847's transformation quite well. He dropped into an armchair and fainted.
Then about ten minutes later he woke up.
After the initial shock had worn off he had let out a long stream of questions, but the kaiju didn't really know how to speak. He'd never spoken a word before. He honestly wasn't sure how.
He tried to say something- anything, but all that came out was a croaky sound that sounded nothing like human language.
Fortunately this caught the human's attention, and he saw some understanding light up in his eyes.
"You-can you talk?" He shook his head. He was fairly certain that meant no.
"Okay. But you understand what I'm saying?" the man asked, tilting his head and taking a step closer. He nodded.
"Alright then. I suppose yes or no questions will have to do... Are you human?" He shook his head.
"What are-no, you can't answer that. Hmm. Can you shape shift in more than one form?" He nodded.
"I see...." he trailed off, hands scrabbling through his hair.
"I don't know how to put this into yes or no format, but I have to ask anyway. Why are you doing this? You spent months here as a bird, and now you- you turn into my son," he said, voice cracking at the last word.
847 stood there uncomfortably. Even if he had the ability to speak he wasn't sure he'd be able to explain it. Experiencing all these emotions and acknowledging them was a very new process for him. He wasn't even sure he knew what it was that he felt. He just knew that it twisted up his insides to look at the man before him and watch him fall apart.
He looked around before stooping to pick up the picture that had fallen to the floor. He handed it to the human who took it warily. He pointed at the picture, then at the human, and reached out slowly to touch the wet marks on his cheeks.
The human looked dazedly back at him.
"You- you feel bad? About my son? Is that it?" He nodded his head emphatically. Yes, that must be what he was feeling.
"So you-" he cut off with a puff of air, sagging back into his seat. There were a few moments of silence as he figured out what to ask next.
"Are you trying to...to replace him?" he asked quietly. 847 tilted his head. He wasn't sure he knew what that word meant.
The human sighed, "Do you want to take his place? Pretend to be my son?" He suddenly felt much older than before. And he had already felt quite old, given the rest of the day's events, thank you very much.
847 nodded slowly. That was probably why he had done this...wasn't it? Honestly, he hadn't thought that far ahead. He'd spent most of the time thinking about whether or not it would be right to transform in front of the man, not about what he'd actually do once he had.
"This is...this is crazy," the man said, running his aging hands over his face. Then he gave a hesitant smile.
"But maybe I could use a little crazy. Do you plan on doing this for long?"
847 shrugged. He had no idea what he was doing. Hadn't had the slightest idea for months.
"Well... would you be willing to do this for a long time? Years even?"
Years? That was pretty long to stay in a tiny form like this. But it's not like he had anything else to do. Or anywhere else to go for that matter. If he reverted back to his true form the precursors and the humans would hunt him down.
He nodded.
"Well then. I'll have to call my wife. Have a talk about getting a new addition to the family. I was against having another child due to our age, but with you... I guess it changes things. We'll just have to see what she says, won't we?"
His wife was speechless when she showed up of course. When her husband asked her to come to the lake house right away she had assumed he just wanted her to de-stress and mourn with him.
Imagine her surprise when he pulled someone who looked just like her son out of the guest room.
It was uncanny how similar he looked to Fred- before the accident that is. In fact, he looked exactly like one of the photographs they had lying around there.
Needless to say, her husband had a lot of explaining to do.
And explain he did. At the end of his story he pulled her into a separate room to have a private talk.
"Look dear, I know this seems insane, but I think it's the right thing to do. I mean, you saw him. It's like he's new to this world. I mean, he can shape shift into a human and has intelligence, but he doesn't even know how to speak. Why would that be? I think he needs help. And who's better to give it than us?"
"Honey, our boy just died. Today! The wounds could not be fresher! We're not in any state to raise this- boy, or whatever he is," she whispered heatedly at him.
"Well, nothing says 'moving on from grief' like pushing it aside and distracting yourself with other problems." She slapped him on the shoulder.
"Stan!" They may have had years to come to terms with their son’s all too likely death, but there were lines.
"Sorry. That was inappropriate. The filter for my mouth turned off today. It's been hectic."
"Look, I get what you're saying, but what are we supposed to do? Pretend like he's our son? Who we just had a doctor pronounce dead a few hours ago?"
"...Yes. I mean, we'd have to pay off the doctor to keep it quiet, but that's exactly what we could do."
"Stan. He doesn't even know how to speak."
"Fred was in a coma for two years. It would be considered a miracle he even woke up. We can just tell everyone it affected his brain. It would explain us having to teach him new things, his not having memories of his old life, and any weird non-human quirks of his. Come on."
"I just don't know, dear...."
He reached out to hold her hand in his.
"Joan. Don't you miss being a mother? Let's be honest here- we haven't been parents ever since our boy took that hit. We have a chance to have a kid again. Someone to take care of. That can reciprocate our affection. Probably." She snorted.
"Come on. Don't you want that again?" he asked softly. And she did. She wanted it so badly. She had spent years wishing to have her boy back- to have someone to dote on. And now, here was an opportunity to have that again, served up on a platter. It wasn't the same; it could never be the same.
But it was close enough.
She agreed.
847 got a new name. Well, to be fair, he'd never had a name before. He'd just had a number.
But now he had a name. It felt...nice. Even if he'd only been given it because it had once belonged to someone else.
His name was Fred.
Fred spent the next year holed up in the family mansion learning to read and write and speak. He was a fast learner. It surprised his parents, but they didn't complain. In retrospect they shouldn't have been surprised at all- after all he'd learned enough English to piece together the questions Stan had asked him that first fateful day. And he'd only been on Earth for a few months at that point.
Yes, he'd explained what he was. He would have felt overwhelmingly guilty if he hadn't. Lucky for him they didn't try to kill him or hand him over to the government. He had been worried they wouldn't want to accept a kaiju into their lives, especially when one of his kind had killed their own son. But they took the news gracefully. There were some philosophical life questions to ask themselves, but they found they weren't actually that bothered by this information. It did explain how he could do something that no earth originating creature could do. It was odd how much more willing you were to accept things after going through life altering events.
After the first year he'd learned enough that he could actually pass as a human. A little odd at times maybe, but no more so than most people. He even developed his own personality. He wasn't allowed to have one of those back on his home world. He liked it. It was very freeing to be human.
He could do almost anything he wanted, and humans considered it normal. They really took for granted how much choice they had.
It was fun to try new things. It was fun to figure out what he liked and disliked. He like pizza and Chinese food. He didn't like brussel sprouts. He liked beer and hot chocolate. He didn't like being hung over. He liked to make people laugh and go on long walks. He didn’t like pity or the feeling of being observed.
He discovered he loved poetry.
He loved it so much his parents let him go to college and major in it. They had to explain what all that meant of course, but as soon as they had he had leapt at the idea.
They were sad to see him go, and more than a little worried, but they figured it was for the best. Besides, he would visit on holidays. Just like a normal college kid.
Being around so many humans all the time was an adjustment for him, but he liked it. He'd met plenty of them before, what with people visiting his home for various reasons, but it was nothing like college. College was much more colorful and diverse. People spoke their mind a lot more there. He found he preferred it that way rather than the hushed whispers creeping behind his back.
It was there he met Aiko Miyazaki.
He nicknamed her Honey Lemon because every morning without fail she'd have a mug of tea at her desk with a little slice of lemon (and a spoonful of honey, she told him). Plus she had a passion for saving the bees, liked anything that had the word honey in it, and used lemon scented everything.
She was in one of his core classes, majoring in Wildlife Studies. She had a particular focus on kaiju and had a lot more enthusiasm for studying his kind than anyone else he had met. The way she talked about the subject and her major had him talking to his advisor to let him minor in Wildlife Studies. And just like that, they were stuck together like glue.
It was a challenge sometimes to observe his species from a human standpoint that only had limited access to his kind. They knew so little about the kaiju. They didn't even know the precursors existed.
Sometimes he'd try to speed up their research by suggesting "insane theories" that actually had plausible origins. They were mostly scrapped by his classmates, although sometimes Honey would try to find more leads on them. Working with humans and not being able to flat out tell them everything he knew was hard.
He and Honey worked well together though. They had fun, optimistic personalities and enjoyed each other's company. They’d study together or go out to have fun, and every Friday night they’d order take-out and watch animated Disney movies. His favorite was Lilo & Stitch.
They graduated early, having loaded their schedules with as many credits as possible, including summer classes, online courses, and as many independent research possibilities that came their way. It was the busiest two years of his life, but it was extremely rewarding. They graduated with honors and got multiple job offers.
But the one they were most interested in was the position at the San Fransokyo Shatterdome as kaiju researchers.
They took it in a heartbeat.
A few months later they walked into their new job, eyes wide and hearts pounding.
It was there that he was truly reminded of what he was, and what had lead him there.
Because that first day was the day he met Tadashi Hamada.