“What the hell is that?!” James shouted over the roaring sound that had suddenly filled the air after the violent shaking. Was it an earthquake?

Maze slowly got up from his seat and looked up towards the ceiling for a second. When he lowered his head and his eyes met James’, he looked terrified and his only response was a hissed “Fuck.” before he moved faster than James had ever seen.

In the blink of an eye he had moved to the door, pulled it open without unlocking it leaving the door frame splintered and disappeared up the stairs. James tried his hardest to keep up but by the time he made it up the stairs the alien had already disappeared. A loud curse and the front door hanging on only one hinge told James where he had gone and he hurried out the door.

Maze was standing on the front lawn, face turned up to the sky, spewing a string of curses; some of which James had never heard before and assumed was his native language. He looked up to see what Maze was swearing at and his mouth fell open.

Moving quickly across the night sky were what James could only assume were alien spaceships. He watched, both fascinated and terrified, as at least twenty of them passed overhead whilst Maze continued to hurl curses at them.

“It’s not possible!” the alien shouted once they had disappeared from sight.


“Isn’t this a good thing though?” James looked down from the sky to frown at him. “We don’t have to hide in the basement any more.”

“Have you not heard I word I’ve been saying?!” Maze snarled, rounding on him and baring his teeth angrily. “If they make it back to Enen that heinous bitch will tell my father where I am!”

“So?” James frowned. He couldn’t see the problem, so the king would know where his son is, why did that matter? “He can’t force you to go home if you don’t want to.”

“You stupid human,” Maze gave a bark of laughter that in no way sounded as though he found the situation funny. “He would rather see me dead than return.”

“What? Why?” James stammered uncertainly. The way Maze was looking at him, as though he were prey, was making him uncomfortable.

“That is none of your business,” he hissed in James’ face angrily.

“Alright fine,” James snapped back. “But look, it’ll take them time to get back to … whatever your planet is called right? And then even more time to get back here. Not to mention they have no idea where you are. They didn’t even know who I was, remember?”

The scowl dropped slightly from Maze’s face as he considered what James had said. It took him so long to react that James’ was beginning to feel the cold and had started to shiver when the alien finally nodded.

“Ok so they don’t know who I am or where I live,” James summed up. “So all you have to do is just … lay low here for a while.”

Maze’s head shot up and he stared at James. “Stay here?” he said slowly. “With you?”

“If you have somewhere else you have to be…” James trailed off. Part of him desperately wanted the alien to say he did have somewhere else to go, but another smaller part wanted him to stay.

“No,” Maze shook his head, still speaking slowly. “Nowhere else to be … but why would you offer to let me stay here?”

“You saved me life,” James shrugged. “It’s the least I can do.”


“This is the spare room,” James explained as he lead Maze into the room next door to his. He was just about finished giving the alien a tour of the house. “It uh … a little childish, sorry about that. The only people that usually come and stay are my nieces and nephews so I made it a bit more homey for them. We could probably bring up some of the stuff from the basement for you if you want?”

“It’s fine, I don’t sleep for long anyway,” Maze stared around the room, his black eyes scanning every piece of furniture and decoration. “Interesting theme.”

“Yeh sorry,” James looked down at the rug with a galaxy printed on it. “They voted on what the theme would be and chose sci-fi so … Although it just seems tacky with an actual alien standing in here now.”

“Oh not at all,” Maze rolled his eyes and chuckled quietly. “It’s just like home.”

“If you don’t like it you’re welcome to stay in the basement,” James bristled instantly. “Or not stay at all. Ungrateful arse.”

Maze’s head slowly turned to stare at him. James raised his chin and met his gaze, refusing to back down this time; he wasn’t the one being a rude jerk. 

“It was a joke,” Maze said quietly, still gazing at him steadily. “I wasn’t trying to sound ungrateful. I am, in fact, very grateful to you for allowing me to stay here.”

“Oh,” James said lamely and couldn’t stop his eyes lowering to the floor again.  “Well, alright then. Um … ok well I’m going to get changed out of these awful clothes you got me.”


He was just outside the door when he heard Maze chuckled again and call out “Now who’s ungrateful?”