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"Grace, Grace, wake up," Rocky hesitated across the room through his protective sphere.
"What's wrong? Let me sleep," Grace replies, half asleep, and turns over to the other side and falls asleep again.
"WAKE UP, Grace! It's important, a declarative sentence." Rocky comes closer to the bed and knocks on it to force Grace to wake up.
"Uhhhh, okay," Grace reluctantly sat down on the bed. He was sleepy and his hair was messy. "I'll just make some coffee if you let me," Grace announced, getting out of bed and heading to the "kitchen.” It wasn't really a kitchen, he just called it that.
"Why coffee again, question? You had it than you were sleeping" Rocky already knows a lot about people, but he still has a lot to learn.
"Because people usually can't function without coffee, Rocky"
,,strange habit of people” Rocky says in his robotic voice and goes to Grace, who is already in the kitchen making strong black coffee. "Rocky has a question and-"
"Can I at least sit down in peace?" Grace sighs.
",, ummm yes yes"Rocky moves through his sphere into the protection of the chamber so he can be closer to Grace's table, where Grace himself has already sat down with his dream coffee.
"So... what do you need?" Grace asks and he and drank but Rocky interrupts him
"Why doesn't Grace have a partner, question?"
He almost spilled his coffee... "What?"
"Rocky has Adrien. Does Grace have her Adrien too, question?" He doesn't understand why Grace is surprised by the question.
"Well...how do you say it..."
"Grace is alone, question?"Rocky sounds a little sad
"There are people on our earth who... well, they are Aroaces" trying to explain Grace
"I don't know the word" Rocky said
Grace suddenly gets up and goes to the end of the room where Rocky's translator is and writes him a new word, "Aroace"
"And what does that mean?" Rocky still doesn't understand because they don't know this on his planet.
"A person who is Aroace does not feel anything romantic or sexual and does not need it either"
"So... Grace doesn't like sex, question?"
"Basically yes, but it's more complicated"
Grace didn't talk much about being Aroace because it's weird to others. According to them, this doesn't exist, they just pretend to be interesting and secretly have a relationship.
When he was younger and in high school he had a girlfriend, Nelly, he liked her, but not in the way everyone thinks. And she knew that he wasn't happy in the relationship and they broke up on good terms and were friends, but Grace couldn't remember what she did for a living before he flew away.
"But have you ever done this, question?"
"Yeah, a few times, but I didn't feel comfortable"
Grace sits back in her chair and finally drinks her coffee, "Look, even though I don't have a partner, I have great friends, like you," and taps her finger on the glass that divides the barrier between them.
"So you have friends rather than a partner, question?" Rocky probably already understands what Aroace is.
"Yeah" Grace nodded.
"Can Rocky Grace hug me, question?"
He didn't have to say it twice, Grace hugged him through the glass, and he accepted it.
it is their expression of friendship
"I'm glad I have you as a friend" Grace is touched
"Me too"