Chapter Text
Twenty-five hours. Or rather twenty-two, as he’d managed about three hours of sleep. Twenty-two hours of stuffing all his emotions away into a corner to keep his kid’s spirit up.
Outwardly Prism appeared fine. They talked and laughed and had been so excited to get to hang out with Cheeto again just the next day, but Grace knew it was a facade. Or at least a coping mechanism. Their joy was fragile, underlined by the increased clinginess they’d shown since having run home yesterday. They always stuck to him like a koala whenever their thoughts were threatening to spiral. And just how they hadn’t keeled over and slept for a day was beyond him. He supposed the crash was going to come soon enough, preferably only after they returned from Cheeto’s.
So Grace had been filing all his opinions on every awful point Prism had brought up to him away into a little folder in his mind, to be released at the appropriate time.
The click of the front door opening echoed through the house.
That time was right now.
Cane in hand and scowl no longer able to stay off his face, he made his way to the entrance hall, seeing Rocky waiting for him on the other side of the xenonite.
“Everyone’s here,” he said, clipped. Grace nodded.
The walk down to the visitor’s area was completely silent. They both knew what was going to happen. They both couldn’t wait to finally let go.
Usually, Grace would make an effort to take deep breaths and redirect his rage. It could be an ugly emotion in the wrong circumstances, and he had a kid. He needed to lead by example.
In this case however, he couldn’t care less about his impact on others or his opinion of himself, as Prism was with Cheeto and both Rocky and Adrian were equally as pissed as he was. No matter how unproductive, unprofessional and unseemly this was going to get, these people needed to feel what they’d done to his kid.
Grace’s jaw clenched when he spotted the assembly of people sitting beyond the xenonite. Adrian sat close to the barrier inside the room, and Rocky had continued down the tunnel and across the hall to join them. On the left sat the three kids, two parents behind both Crimson and Ebony, and one behind Ivory. On the right of the room were various teachers assembled. The school coordinator who had organised the meeting, who he’d decided to name Glenn after an old colleague of his, sat in the middle with Cobalt, the school’s disability and mental health coordinator who they’d discussed Prism’s accommodations with at the start of term, and a third coordinator sitting on either side of them. Grace wordlessly dragged one of the chairs over to the divider, sitting down right in the middle of the clear panel. Rocky went to sit next to Adrian on the side closest to Grace.
He could see several of the teachers and parents tilt their carapaces and heard more active clicking, their curiosity and wonder at being in the presence of an alien getting the better of them. His scowl deepened.
“Saviour Grace,” Glenn greeted him. He simply nodded, not caring whether or not they knew what the gesture meant. “Now that everyone is present, the meeting can commence. We are here to discuss yesterday’s events at the school involving Prism, Crimson, Ivory and Ebony as well as the long ongoing bullying that lead up to them. Saviour Grace, if you could recount what Prism has told you.”
Grace had already taken a deep breath, translator on his wrist primed, when one of Ebony’s parents piped up.
“Apology, before we start, where is Prism?” they asked. “Wouldn’t it be better if the account came from them?”
They probably meant it as a genuine question since Glenn was unlikely to have divulged details about what had happened when setting up the meeting, but indignation flared up in him regardless.
“Because I don’t want them to break down again,” he bit out. Ebony’s parent slowly lowered the hand they’d raised when speaking, and remained silent.
“Yes,” Glenn said uncomfortably after a beat, “we’ve decided that it would be best for Prism if they didn’t need to repeat everything, or hear what happened to them being debated in a setting like this. Saviour Grace, please.”
Here it went. Maybe he could make it through this without leaking in front of them.
Yeah, nah, as soon as he’d get into the thick of it he was so going to start crying.
“Assuming your children either told you nothing or a warped version of what happened during their playdate here, I’ll start there,” he said, turning towards the parents. “First of all, they faked a friendship with Prism to get to meet me. Then they started asking intrusive questions, and when Prism tried to get them to stop harrowing me, they completely brushed them off.”
“The questions, by the way, triggered Grace to the point they had a flashback,” Rocky supplied icily, “so I also ended up having a flashback and we were both out of commission for a good two weeks.”
Ivory let out a small squeak, the other two kids looking equally as mortified. All five parents showed some degree of alarm.
“Granted, it wasn’t entirely on them but they were the final stone,” he continued. “And because they didn’t handle me kicking them out well, they took it out on Prism. They-” He swallowed. “They spread rumours, twisting the story such that Prism was presented as the reason they were asked to leave. This turned most of the student body against them. But on top of that, they harassed Prism. Constantly. Every opportunity they got, they called them crippled, a charity case, ugly enough not to be considered eridian, undeserving of having me as a parent, that the past abuse they’d suffered at the hand of their biological parent had been justified-” Grace’s voice cracked, his throat closing up as hot tears began to sting in his eyes.
If it had been adult humans who’d said these disgusting things to his child, he’d be doling out punches at this point. But they were children, made out of stone and separated from him by a virtually indestructible wall. He knew for a fact that if they’d been adult eridians, Rocky would’ve already pounced.
When he’d taken a few seconds to clear the lump in his throat, the same of Ebony’s parents who’d spoken up before did so again.
“You said all this to your classmate?!” they asked their child, sounding appalled. Next to them, Ivory’s parent smacked their kid atop the carapace, who flinched. Ebony stayed quiet. At least they seemed aware that they had royally messed up. Whether they felt bed about it or just bad about being caught remained to be seen, but-
“We were just curious,” Crimson blurted out, a hint of desperation in their voice. “We didn’t know the questions were offensive. And we were just messing around after. It just- it wasn’t nice to get thrown out like that, we-”
“They are just children,” one of Crimson’s parents said, a hand on their child’s carapace, and oh how he loathed that tone. He knew it all too well: It was that of a parent who thought their child could do no wrong. “I’m sure they didn’t mean to upset Prism-”
Oh hell no.
“Did you fucking listen?!” Rocky bellowed before Grace could. “They were outright trying to break Prism’s spirit!”
“Because you know what happened yesterday?” Grace kept going, his voice shaking as he got up and jabbed the xenonite with his finger. “They cornered them, said that I wasn’t really their parent and that Vantablack was right in how they treated Prism, and then they intentionally destroyed their Teddy, which was first of all one of Prism’s favourite toys and second of all one of the few items I had left of my dead crew mate. We both loved that thing and those three kicked it until its little suit ripped and it imploded, for the sole purpose of tormenting Prism.”
His chest was heaving, tears rolling freely down his cheeks at this point.
“Say again how they didn’t mean to upset my kid,” he challenged, his teeth clenched. “I fucking dare you.”
Right about now Grace was glad that Rocky insisted he add swear words to the translation software.
Neither of Crimson’s parents were stupid enough to argue back. Crimson however let out a long and low whine, the equivalent of such an overly coddled kid bursting into tears for sympathy points. One of their parents put a comforting hand on their carapace, but that was it.
“Saviour Grace,” Ebony’s other parent said, completely ignoring Crimson, “we would like to extend our deepest apologies to Prism. Rest assured there will be consequences for Ebony.”
He sat back down with a heavy exhale, not managing more than a curt nod.
“Same for Ivory,” their parent added.
Crimson was still whining, albeit much quieter than before.
“We’ll talk to Crimson,” their other parent said, the first still patting their carapace in a soothing motion. It was hard to feel hate towards children, but God if Crimson’s little victim act didn’t make him want to rip out his hair and scream.
Anticipating how Grace, Rocky and even Adrian would react to this very obvious shirking of disciplining their child, Glenn quickly rejoined the conversation.
“All three of you will be suspended for a week,” they said as the third coordinator handed them three little metal plates, “and will attend a mandatory bullying seminar at the district’s educational center in that time.”
“But I-” Crimson moaned when Glenn handed the informational plates about the seminar to each of their parents.
“Mandatory,” Glenn reiterated. It looked like Crimson wanted to keep pushing, but with an “It’s okay, sweetie.” from one parent and a few more pats from the other, they finally shut up.
Before he could stop himself, the words Grace had always wanted to say to parents like these slipped out.
“I pity your child,” he said with no small amount of bitterness. “You’re depriving them of learning basic decency, responsibility and generally how to function in a society. Can you not see that?”
Some of the teachers shifted in their seats and Grace just knew they wanted to yell out in frustrated agreement.
“Excuse m-” one of the two began, but their mate put a warning hand on their arm. The room was almost completely silent for a full ten seconds.
“After the suspension is over and Prism has also returned,” Glenn continued tentatively, “every staff member overseeing you three will keep a close watch on your behaviour.” They gestured to the teachers present, who all chimed in agreement. “Now, is there anything regarding the situation between Prism and Crimson, Ivory and Ebony that still needs to be resolved?”
“Yeah,” Grace said, crossing his arms. “You’re going to untangle all the lies you told about Prism to the other students. While you actively did the most harm, many other students were also on their case because of your bullshit.”
“And when you do,” Adrian chimed in for the first time, voice as imposing as always in public settings, “you make it very clear that Prism is not a ticket to meeting Grace. They are to be left alone unless someone truly wants to be their friend. Because on top of that, Grace is a person, not something to be gawked at. Understood?”
“Yes,” Ebony and Ivory said immediately. A few seconds later, Crimson said the same, much smaller and quieter than before.
“We’ll make sure they do so,” Glenn added. “Any other points?”
He could start a whole tirade against the kids, the parents and the teachers, but he’d already gotten the most important parts out of the way regarding the kids and parents, and they still had a second meeting right after this one with only a handful of the teachers. One without any children present. His anger towards the ableist teachers was much less intense due to the less acute nature of their harm, but he knew Rocky was going to absolutely explode. Best to save some of his fire for that.
When no one else brought anything up, Glenn adjourned the meeting. The parents and kids and most of the teaching staff shuffled out of the room, Grace only catching Ebony’s parents going “Why would you do that?” and “You have some explaining to do.” amongst the quiet chatter. Two teachers remained and two more came in. They all awkwardly gathered on the right while the three coordinators moved more to the left. Cobalt then took the stand.
“Apparently,” they said, voice hard, “you all had better things to do than pay attention during my start of term anti-discrimination talk. Saviour Grace?”
“Rocky?” Grace delegated.
“Who’s the singing teacher?” he asked, straight onto his prepared agenda. The smallest and most nervous of the four raised a hesitant hand. “You need to get your act together. Prism said you’re, quote, ‘really weird’ every time you need to give them pointers or when you’re praising them or really talking to them in any way. They’re just a kid. Treat them like any other kid.”
“Y-yes, of course, apology, Saviour Rocky,” they squeaked. Rocky let out his eye-roll chime.
“That’s it for you, you can leave.” They scrambled out of their seat, stammering thanks and apologies as they ran their fingers over their goodbye grooves. If they acted the same around Prism, then oh yeah, Grace could see what they meant with “really weird”.
As soon as the door shut behind them, Rocky’s entire posture changed.
“Language and storytelling teacher?” he just about snapped. The roundest of them, carapace a grey-greenish colour, raised their hand.
“What is your fucking problem?!” Rocky continued. Grace pressed his crossed arms tightly against his chest, glaring at the teacher in question as his contribution. “Prism told me you constantly speak over them, dismiss anything they do manage to say, treat them like they’re only just learning to talk and you’ve made multiple passive aggressive comments about how ‘knowing English isn’t a real language skill’. And apparently you don’t treat their friend Cheeto much better.”
The teacher in question, who Grace decided to call Bog, remained stoic. If he wasn’t mistaken, they even appeared disdainful.
“What is it?” Rocky kept pushing when he got no response. “Didn’t bother paying enough attention at that anti-discrimination talk or, you know, using your brain to know that being hard of hearing or having CC doesn’t equal stupidity? Jealous Prism speaks a language you don’t? Or are you just an asshole, plain and simple?”
Bog still didn’t respond, but the teacher sitting right of them very subtly winced.
“You have something to add?” Adrian asked, taking a single step closer. They fumbled with their fingers for a moment before answering.
“I know my treatment of Prism probably hasn’t been as, uh, constructive as it should’ve been, but…” they trailed off, then balled their hands into fists. “Bog, you’re a spiteful old ass who’s only employed because you’ve got tenure. You never shy away from letting everyone know who your least favourite students are, including the students themselves.”
“It’s not my fault kids nowadays don’t appreciate the artistry of-” Bog tried to defend themself, and holy cow did their manner of speaking give Grace a vivid flashback to Michael, his old middle school’s insufferably elitist French and history teacher.
“Don’t pretend this is about your subject,” the third teacher, sitting left of Bog, said with a scoff. “You called Prism’s double-layered voice ‘grating’ on two separate occasions in the teachers’ lounge.”
“You what?!” Grace and Rocky barked at the same time as Adrian let out an affronted “Excuse me?!”.
“♫♪♬ won’t fire them without an indisputable student’s report,” Cobalt said, sounding absolutely tired and done. “They’ve always managed to dodge one being officially handed in.”
“Because they’re never warranted,” Bog said snidely.
“You insulted my child behind their back!” Grace yelled. “Twice! And from the looks of it you pull this crap regularly. I’d say warranted is an understatement.”
“Coordinator Cobalt,” Adrian said, cutting off any further bullshit that might’ve come from Bog, “if you would be so kind as to pass along the information necessary for Prism to file a student’s report after the meeting.”
“Gladly,” Cobalt said. Bog however didn’t seem fazed, only annoyed.
“‘Indisputable’?” they sneered. “This will clearly be biased by parental influence, not a genuine student’s report. Just because the pebble’s gotten used to you handling all their issues for them with your fame doesn’t mean it will go through. Students like them always think they’re more of a victim than they actually-”
Rocky’s fist shut them right up. An immense wave of satisfaction came over Grace when Bog stumbled out of their seat with a yelp, to the point he felt a phantom stinging in his own knuckles. Before Rocky could get in a second swing, Adrian dragged him off the shellshocked teacher.
“Saviour Rocky, please, I-” Glenn trilled, both shocked and if he wasn’t mistaken, the tiniest bit amused, “I’ll have to-”
“Report me to whoever you like,” Rocky seethed, “but help us make sure they lose the right to be around children.”
Bog snapped out of their daze and fully righted themself. “You have no right-”
“Bog,” Cobalt interrupted them with a raised hand, “I am contractually obliged to express my commiseration for you getting decked. So, apology for Saviour Rocky’s actions. After the meeting you may visit the school’s doctor if you feel the need to. But know that if their fame finally gets you away from our kids, then I’m happy to allow this case of celebrity privilege to circumvent our policies.”
“You-”
“Please continue, Saviour Rocky,” Cobalt spoke over them. “Verbally, that is.”
Grace had already liked Cobalt when they’d first met up, and they might’ve just become his favourite staff member of Prism’s school.
Rocky made a show of flexing the hand he’d punched Bog with before carrying on with his agenda.
“You two,” he said, “you’re mainly grossly overcompensating your accommodations for Prism. As stated before, they’re not stupid, nor are they behind in any way. They just can’t hear as far. Stop treating them like a clueless hatchling.”
“Yes, many apologies,” the teacher on Bog’s right said. “I was trying not to be too demanding, but I know I can coddle a bit too much sometimes, I-”
“Just make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Rocky cut them off.
“Of course, Saviour Rocky, I’ll-”
“You?” Rocky continued, clearly out of patience and frankly, so was Grace. He wanted this to be over so he could curl up between Rocky and Adrian and let out whatever else was rattling around his brain without needing to defend against anyone trying to claim they “hadn’t actually meant to hurt his child”.
“Apology,” the other teacher said. “I won’t be as dismissive from now on.”
Rocky made his version of a harrumph, then gestured to Cobalt.
“Any final remarks?”
“I must-”
“Not you,” they said irritably, “we can talk after the report’s been handed in.”
Bog shut right up.
“Alright,” they said. “Just so you know, in the wake of these events, a school wide announcement will be held stating that if anyone is treated with bias from any student or teacher, they can come to me such that the situation may be swiftly resolved. And we’ll also have another bullying addressal.”
Grace, Rocky and Adrian all gave brief hums of approval.
“Then this meeting too is adjourned. Once again, we offer our sincerest apologies and sympathies to Prism.”
“Thanks,” Grace said, arms still crossed and brow creased, but the tension in his jaw already lessening. The four teachers and three coordinators – he guessed the third had mainly been here as a witness – filed out of the room, followed by Rocky and Adrian.
Grace let out a long and shaky sigh. It was over. Thank fuck, it was over. Don’t get him wrong, yelling at everyone and seeing them all be incredibly uncomfortable as they got what they deserved had been therapeutic but…getting this riled up always left him feeling so jittery. It was strangely similar to an overwhelm, where he had this nervous energy under his skin that he could only get rid of by doing something external, like self-harming stimming. Or kicking and screaming at whoever was the source of his anger. And it always dragged on way past the point the cause of his emotional flare had been dealt with.
After a few minutes of him clenching and unclenching his fists as he slowly breathed through his nose, the airlock chimed and Rocky and Adrian walked up to him in their suits.
“I almost punched that piece of shit again in the hall,” Rocky grumbled as he stomped up to him. Grace’s lip curled up.
“Coordinator Cobalt will call us later today with the information about the procedure to hand in a student’s report,” Adrian supplied. They were once again the most level headed out of the three of them, but Grace could hear the remnants of an angry tremor in their voice too.
He put a hand on Adrian’s arm, then put his other on Rocky’s carapace. He was going to say something poignant, give the rollercoaster of a situation some closure, but Rocky beat him to it.
“Let’s go watch Twilight.”
Grace let out a bark of laughter, Adrian giggling along with him. Rocky loved Twilight because he loved to hate it. Watching the movies with him was basically watching Rocky yell at the texturiser for a few hours. It was always good fun, giving Rocky an outlet and having a weirdly calming effect on Grace. When Rocky got mad, Grace felt like he didn’t have to be.
Especially now, it felt needed. They could continue to vent at home, but honestly, it wouldn’t lead to anything except more tears and Rocky potentially putting a dent in his floor.
“We should be able to squeeze in the first movie before going to fetch Prism,” he said, grinning when Rocky balled his fist in the direction of the house.
Now that the adrenaline was dying down and it finally felt like he’d done something to fix what had driven his kid over the edge, Grace figured sleep was going to catch up to him before they’d even make it halfway through the movie. He’d prefer to stay up until Prism got back, but if he did end up drifting off and they needed him, he knew they all knew he’d want them to wake him up.
With Adrian letting him hold onto their arm for support and Rocky ranting about how Edward gave sleep-watching a bad name, the three made their way back up to the house.
They didn’t have closure quite yet, but it felt like all their recent problems were either dealt with or in the process of being dealt with. And not just since Prism had been reported missing yesterday, but since they’d walked out the door on their first day of high school.
Finally Grace felt like this transition was wrapped up, and the next chapter of ordinary life with his family could begin.