The doorbell rang at Idris' apartment in Singapore. He looked up from the couch and saw his mom walking to the hallway to open the door. A few moments later, he heard her gasp moments after she had opened the door.
"Ummm, hello, Mrs Lee Yeo," he heard a familiar voice speaking, "Can I see Idris?"
"Hayne!" he shouted, and sprinted from the couch to the door, and embraced his alien friend. His mom had been shocked by his Kalasian girlfriend's appearance, having two heads, one mouthless on top and one located below the waist. She would be far from the only one who would be shocked by Hayne's appearance.
"You must be Idris," he heard another female voice say. He looked next to her, and saw an adult Kalasian standing next to them, with the same milk-chocolate brown coloured coat as Hayne's, but dressed in a very elegant long dress. She turned towards Idris' mother. "I'm sorry we spooked you with our appearance, Mrs Lee Yeo. I'm Cilina, Hayne's mom. We've chatted before via text on Galaxanet, remember? May we enter?"
"Well, ummm... yes, come in," Idris' mom pieced her words together.
The two Kalasians entered the house, and sat down on the couch. Idris took the seat next to his girlfriend. Hayne seemed to be very excited and was holding a box in her hands. Idris had no idea what was inside of it.
"Ummm... tea?" Idris mom asked.
"Tea would be lovely," Cilina answered, "right, Hayne?" Hayne nodded with both heads, and Idris' mom went to the kitchen to make some, still a bit shaky from the initial shock of seeing Kalasians for the first time in the flesh.
"I was afraid mom would be too shocked seeing you," Idris said to Hayne.
"It... it's not the first time this happened," Hayne said. "I hate it that our people leave a bad first impression on so many other species, and there's nothing we can do about it. Just from our looks alone."
"They judge you before they know you..."
"Yeah..."
"But it has made us great diplomats," Cilina said. "Even if the first impression isn't that great, we've managed to get onto good terms with many civilisations, and hopefully we get a good name here as well."
Idris' mom came back from the kitchen with a tray with four cups of tea, and a bowl filled with cashew nuts. She seemed to have calmed down a bit, seeming to accept the two aliens that were sitting there in her living room. She put the tray on the table, and sat down in her chair with her cup. The two Kalasians grabbed the tea from the tray with their tail-hands and took a sip with their lower heads.
"Aaah, that's some lovely tea, Mrs Lee Yeo," Cilina said. "Your son was right; Singapore is a nice place to visit. Hayne has been enjoying it very much so far."
"I don't have enough eyes to see it all!" Hayne said.
"And you even have four of them!" Idris teased.
"But we're here for something we've talked about earlier," Cilina continued.
"The intergalactic student exchange programme?" Idris' mother said. "Yeah, you told me you would pick him up and house him on your world."
"Yes, we would be glad to take him in for the time being, but at least I wanted to introduce myself to you in this way to take away any concerns you'd have. It's nice to get to know the people who your son is staying over for a while, is it not?"
"Ummm, yes, I ... I appreciate the gesture, ma'am," Idris' mom replied, looking the Kalasian's upper head into the eye. Cilina gestured towards her lower head. "Oh sorry, speak to the lower head, yeah, Idris told me that about your kind."
"It's OK, first time people often make that mistake. You've got your suitcases packed, Idris?"
"Yeah, they're over there," he pointed at the corner of the living room.
"Good," Cilina took some cashew nuts "Hmmm... a very peculiar treat... but I think I like it. Oh, there's one more thing. We want to give your son the full Kalasian experience, and thanks to some magic here on Earth, we can actually give him more than we hoped for."
"What do you mean?" Idris' mom said.
"Hayne, show them."
Hayne opened the box, revealing a belt. The buckle contained a glowing blue crystal, one of those mana crystals Idris had seen before. He looked curiously, but didn't understand what it was for.
"What is it?" he asked.
"It's a Transformation Belt," Hayne said. "Mi'oki got us to a powerful Terran mage, who enchanted this for us. It contains my form." She grabbed it out of the box. "Here, put it on."
"Ummm... OK..." he hesitated. He took the belt from Hayne's hands and put it around his waist. When he clicked the buckle together, he felt light in his head for a moment, until his focus returned. He found himself suddenly at eye level with Hayne's lower head. He heard his mother gasp, and he looked towards her... at the same time he was facing Hayne as well. He had two points of vision now.
"Woah!" he was slightly disoriented. His upper head looked down, and he faced himself, his lower head, his Kalasian lower head, covered in dark brown fur, and his lower head looked up towards his upper head. It was a very surreal experience being able to look at himself without a mirror. He felt Hayne's hand on his shoulder.
"How's it, Idris?" she asked.
"It... it's all so weird!" he answered. "And confusing. I... I don't know what I'm looking at."
"You still need to adjust," Cilina answered. "The mage told us that it would take a bit of time."
"Oh, I can't wait to share my books with you!" Hayne said. "You must read The Ranger's Chronicles the Kalasian way, they're amazing!"
"I ... I finally can do that," Idris realised. "Oh my God, I can finally read your books! I've wondered about how you read those."
"We'll teach you along the way," Cilina smiled.
Idris turned to his mother, and he had never seen him look the way as she was looking at him now, a mix of wonder and unease.
"So... see you in a few months, I guess," he said to her, lost for any other words to say. His mom started to cry and embraced him.
"Please, stay safe out there, and please tell me you can turn back to human again."
"I'll be back to human when I take off the belt, right?" he looked at Hayne, who nodded again with both heads. "I'll be fine out there. I've got the best guide with me."
Her mom looked him in the eyes of his upper, mouthless head, looking in confusion.
"I don't know where to kiss you," she said.
"Upper head is fine, mom," he replied. She kissed him on the cheek, while Cilina grabbed his suitcases from the corner of the room.
"Well, I'd like to thank you for your hospitality, Mrs Lee Yeo," she said. "I'll treat your son as one of my own and make sure he will come back safe and sound. We'll keep in contact. Come, we have many lightyears ahead of us."
Idris took over the suitcases, and walked side by side out of the room. He looked back one more time towards his mom.
"See you later, mom," he said, and waved back at her.
"Take care, Idris," she replied.
He walked out the door with his Kalasian caretakers. He hadn't expected that he'd make this journey as a Kalasian. But perhaps this would help him settle there. And he was very curious about the books Hayne had been so enthusiastic about. A whole adventure ahead of him...

He was sure this would be a great time to remember...
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So yeah, I wanted to ship Idris and Hayne together after the whole Galactic Scouts storyline. Also wanted to know how he'd look like as a Kalasian. The two of them make quite a cute couple...

Drawn in Inkscape & edited in Affinity Designer.