Chapter Text
I stay quiet as I stare at them, watching Grace’s heartbeat slow down at the same time that Rocky’s fastens.
“Is he asleep, question?” I ask him, walking towards the entrance wall.
Rocky doesn't move, frozen in place as he is. He might appear relaxed, particularly after it takes him a moment longer to stop his rumbling and answer me properly, but I know him better. He’s as tense as the xenonite guarding our atmospheres. His legs are probably going to hurt tomorrow if he keeps the position for too long.
“Yes,” he confirms.
I flick the translator in the room off, and try to keep my voice as low as possible. From what I heard, humans are irritably easy to wake up.
He doesn't even click in my direction as I approach. “Grace is asleep, we should take him to the nest”
I prepare myself for an uncomfortable conversation. “No, Rocky. He needs to go with the other humans to eat and report his findings. Then he’ll sleep in his own bed”
I feel more than hear the growl he’s trying to contain. He’s shaking now, forcing his body to stay still and silent when it wants to do everything but. “If we are careful, he won’t even wake up,” he mumbles, ignoring what I told him.
The anxious knot that had been forming inside of me since Rocky had hissed at me tightened.
“He doesn't want that,” I try to remind him.
“What do you know?” he spits at me. “He is mine, mine, mine. It’s my mark he wears in his body, and he loves it, and he adorns it and shows it with pride. He gave up his whole life to return to me, left Earth once again when he didn't even remember me. He held me close, close, close because he knows it’s right, his place, as his place is in our nest and he’ll know too that’s also right”
A low rumble escapes me, but he doesn't respond to it. He’s talking almost too fast for me to make sense of his words, and I try to remind myself he doesn't mean it. We had imagined that it might be risky, to be alone with Grace so soon, but figured it would be fine. The emotions had clearly run too high, and now it’s my job to calm Rocky down before he does something he might regret later.
His hearts are beating so fast, it’s starting to worry me.
“His friends are going to start getting worried,” I try to reason. I take a step towards him, and he lowers his carapace as close as he dares to the sleeping human.
“He didn't say they were his friends,” he retorts, “They weren't even worried about letting him come with us alone. If we were in Earth, I would have never let him out of my sight”
So, he had noticed his reluctance. That made it much more complicated, because he had been right. Rocky had pushed, and Grace had yielded, and now, despite the fear, the uncertainties, the tears, he laid asleep curled under my mate’s watch.
It would have been a delight to watch, in another life. In this one, Rocky hisses at me as I raise a hand, and fists his around the human’s clothes.
“I am not leaving him” He leans away from me.
It breaks my heart how afraid he sounds. My hand hovers next to his. “I’m not asking you to,” I reassure him. Slowly, and with great uncertainty, one of them lets go of Grace’s suit. I don’t react, not even when he places it against mine. I let out a happy hum when he curls it, and wait until he pushes it against my palm to curl it back. “We are not on Earth, Rocky. Or Erid”
I can hear his hearts slow down as he comes to the understanding that there’s no danger in the room. No monster hiding in the shadows, waiting to take his Grace away from him again. “Just us three, here,” I mumble, and offer another hand.
He’s quicker to grab that one.
I nuzzle against his carapace, and he does so back. I feel more than hear him let out a long sigh that has been waiting inside him ever since he woke up in his young body with an old mind.
“I missed him so much, Adrian,” he keens, as high as he dares without waking the human up. “Please, don’t take him away. Please”
I give him a short, low rumble. As much an apology as it is a comfort.
“I won’t. No one will”
He leans towards me. A little bit farther from Grace. “But I have to leave”
“Yes,” I tell him, voice short and clear. I watch his legs start trembling again, but he doesn't go back to curling into the human.
“Not fair, not fair, not fair” he mutters.
Taking a deep breath, I start pushing him towards me by our joined hands. Not enough to move him, but enough pressure to make my intentions clear. “When I asked you how you managed to fall in love with an alien like that, you told me it was an accident”. He follows me, slowly. One by one, he untangles his legs, and uses them to rise up. To yield to my request. “You had spent so long together, alone, that you forgot what it was like to feel anything else for him. And then, when being alone became a possibility again, the love and need was too much to waste time pretending it was anything else”
His legs leave the chair for my carapace. Soon enough, he’s climbing down.
But I know better than to think it’s over. I continue. “There was this new note inside your song, and it sounded like Grace, and you knew it to name it My Love” We are both on the ground, now. “And you heard it Echo in his, and knew it to be true”
He pushes his body against mine. A hug. “We made the most beautiful Melody,” he whispers.
“We did,” I agree. “But do you remember what else you told me?”
It’s not really a question. Rocky answers anyway. “I could never forget”
“You told me that, as perfect as it was, you were thankful for the chance to make things differently. To get to teach him the notes of his love for you. To watch with pride as he slowly starts to sing them” I hum a low tune. “To court them properly”
He shakes with embarrassment. “Adrian!”
I hold off a laugh. There’s my Rocky. “What, question? Anything you disagree on?”
We push away from each other. I can hear his heartbeat going faster, as he realises what’s going to happen now.
“Adrian,” he whines, and it breaks my heart. “He does not want to sleep in our nest”
I say nothing.
“I should leave now” For a moment, I consider changing my mind. Our plans. Dragging Grace to our nest, telling the pilots to run the Ship back home. Let the other humans stay, if they want, as long as they behave. But I am yet to find a foolproof way to keep a human happy against their will. “Please”
Such a small sound.
“I’ll take Grace back to the others. Make sure he finds his food and bed,” I reassure him. It’s not enough. He’s still in place. “Rocky. Leave the room now”
Just as hurtful as saying the words is watching him leave, carapace low to the ground, moving one leg at the time, as if his whole body is fighting his command.