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Grace looked to the door of his hut, taking a long sip of his coffee. He took a peek to his clock on the wall and saw it was past the time that Rocky usually came by. Taking a peek out his window, Grace didn’t see his best friend in his xenonite suit to survive the atmosphere of Grace’s biodome making his way unevenly across the sand.
There was no class scheduled for today. As much as Grace loved to teach, even he needed break days. He often followed the ‘weekday work, weekend break’ schedule he had on Earth and the eridians were happy to follow it. They were just eager in general to have one of their saviors – an alien savior at that – teach them all the science that they had yet to discover for themselves.
Usually, pretty much every weekday, Rocky would come retrieve Grace and the two would spend some time together before Grace would begin teaching class for the day. During that time, Rocky would go spend time with Adrian or taking care of business in the city – or cluster as Grace was told they called it on Erid. Ever since he returned with Grace and the solution to solve their astrophage problem, Rocky had become somewhat of a high-level official on Erid and a boatload of responsibilities came along with that.
Even with that, Rocky still made it back to the biodome by the time class was done for the day and Adrian would often join their mate. The three of them would have their evening meal together with both eridians going into the section of Grace’s hut made for them for the exact reason of eating together. When not, Rocky and Adrian would stay in their xenonite suits outside of their area with Grace. Many days would end with Grace falling asleep watching whatever Earth movie they had playing from the warmth radiating out of the two xenonite suits cuddled on either side of him.
On the weekend, Rocky was always there bright and early to spend as much time with Grace as possible. Rocky had made it non-negotiable with his peers that he would not work on the weekends baring an emergency that absolutely needed his attention. It was important to Rocky that Grace didn’t feel alone.
So far with this schedule, Grace could only remember that happening once and that was because there was a part of Grace’s biodome failing. Rocky didn’t trust anyone else completely the job perfectly but he had given Grace a warning that he would be late. Adrian had been the one to deliver the message and then spent the day with Grace in Rocky’s stead.
But here Grace was with no warning from Rocky that he would be a no-show on a weekend.
“Where could he be?” Grace murmured to himself, knocking back the last bit of his lukewarm coffee. Armando whirled in the corner and Grace patted the robot on the arm. “I’m sure Rocky is fine. Probably got caught up in something.”
Finishing his coffee, Grace padded over to his sink and placed it in there to clean later. Grace pulled his brows together in a frown as he still wondered where Rocky could be. It was beginning to worry him about where Rocky could be.
There was a sudden rapping on his door that had Grace grinning. There was only one eridian that would knock like that on Grace’s door and it definitely wasn’t Adrian.
Jogging over, Grace grabbed his fox cardigan that had definitely seen better day and swung it on. The rapping continued as Grace ran over, nearly tripping himself on an untied shoelace but Grace caught himself at the last second. There would be time to tie his shoelaces later…if he felt like it.
“Rocky!” Grace beamed upon throwing the door open.
“Why Grace take so long to open door?” Rocky huffed.
“Are you going to complaining about that every time?” Grace laughed and exited the doorway, making sure to grab his glasses and hang them by his ears in case he needed them later. He made sure to close it when Rocky pointedly angled his carapace towards it in a silent hint.
“Because Grace always take so long to open door,” Rocky said, gently flicking a claw against Grace’s leg. It wasn’t something eridians usually did but Rocky had picked it up from Grace during their multiple years together flying back to Erid.
“You could just let yourself in,” Grace huffed back.
“Not polite.”
“Oh, you say that but where was that politeness when I was trying to make video logs for Earth?” Grace teased.
“Rocky wanted to know who Grace talking to,” Rocky said, straightening his legs to stand as tall as possible.
“What about all the times I tried to use the toilet on the Mary by myself and you came busting in?” Grace challenged, an eyebrow raised on his face.
“Rocky curious about human waste disposal process!” Rocky argued.
“You can see through walls!” Grace barked with laugher.
Rocky shrunk in on himself in embarrassment. Shaking his carapace, he flicked Grace in the leg again. “Grace waste time. We go now! Statement!” Rocky said.
“Go where?” Grace asked as he followed Rocky down the path that led up to his hut. The only ones who ever used it were Grace, Rocky, and Adrian. Whatever few eridians that had authorization to enter the biodome were Grace’s life-support team and if they needed to come in, they used the hidden backdoor that led right into the hut to cut down on time.
“Rocky has surprise for Grace,” Rocky sang, his entire body vibrating excitedly.
“Is that why you were late this morning?” Grace asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets. The air had a slight chill to it – just like it would be like back on Earth – but Grace found it perfect.
“Surprise took longer to prepare than Rocky expected,” Rocky answered. Grace snorted when he watched Rocky slip on one of his steps on the sand but that didn’t stop Rocky’s trek. Rocky had plenty of time to get used to the uneven path walking on sand was. “Rocky sorry for worrying Grace.”
“Hey, as long as you and Adrian are alright, I don’t mind,” Grace said easily.
“Rocky and Adrian more than alright,” Rocky trilled happily.
Grace rose an eyebrow as he continued to follow Rocky. So, the surprise involved Adrian. That didn’t give Grace any hint at what this surprise could be.
After arriving to Erid, Grace had been weak from malnutrition and the wide array of lacking-nutrients illness he incurred from it. Grace didn’t remember much about his first couple weeks on Erid as the population put together a task force just to synthesize food to reverse Grace’s nosedive decline. Rocky had been there everyday when not taking care of bureaucratic formalities that came from being the sole survivor of their Petrova line solution team, as well as bringing back said solution and a dying alien that needed their help.
When Grace started to get better, Rocky was pulled away more to take care of things he pushed aside in favor of Grace’s health. What Grace remembered was Adrian coming around when Rocky wasn’t available and staying at all hours of the days. If one of them wasn’t available, the other was sure to be found at Grace’s side.
Adrian and Grace had become fast friends during those moments together once Grace’s health started to recover. It was much to Rocky’s chagrin, though, to have his mate and best friend become so close as they took to sharing stories of Rocky’s embarrassing moments together. If Rocky had a face, Grace was sure he would have seen it bright with a blush from all the stories Adrian regaled Grace with of Rocky trying to court them.
Those were some of Grace’s favorite stories, made funnier but Rocky entering the conversation midway and trying to redirect them in a hurry. After Rocky, Adrian was Grace’s favorite Eridian and some days when Rocky was purposely riling up Grace, Adrian became his favorite. Adrian would always play along when Grace would declare his new favorite Eridian and the two would have to hold back their laughter as it was then Rocky’s turn to get riled up.
Needless to say, if Adrian was involved in this surprise, it was going to be a good one.
Grace followed Rocky to a small alcove near where he taught his Eridian students. It was half the height of his classroom but still contained the xenonite barrier that Grace could see through. This space was for more private meetings, like when Rocky would stop by but not have enough time to get in his suit before having to dart off to take care of things.
On the other side of the barrier, Grace could see Adrian waiting for them. “Hey there, Adrian,” Grace greeted with a polite smile on his face.
“Hello, friend Grace,” Adrian waved one of their claws at Grace. They were slightly bigger than Rocky with their carapace coming to a point on one side. While Rocky was brown in color, Adrian was more of a gray-blue that Grace found very pleasant to the eye.
Grace squatted down to be more level with Adrian’s shorter form. “I hear you two have a surprise for me,” Grace grinned.
Rocky vibrated with excitement at Grace’s side. “Big surprise,” Rocky sang. “Make Grace happy. Statement.”
Adrian trilled something happily that Grace didn’t catch. While he was leagues better at understanding eridian thanks to his time with Rocky, there were still some words that he missed. Before he could ask what Adrian had said, they tilted the top of their carapace towards Grace.
Grace narrowed his eyes and watched. He didn’t notice anything different but there clearly was if Adrian was showing the top of their carapace like that to him. Grace watched for a long moment, eyes scanning to see what was so different.
Then something moved on the top of Adrian’s carapace.
Grace leaned in closer, narrowing his eyes further. When that didn’t help clear his vision, Grace remembered the glasses hanging from his ears and pawed them back up onto his nose. Immediately, the world became clear and Grace could fully make out the two eridians in front of him.
Two.
Not one.
Two.
Because there was a small baby Eridian on top of Adrian’s head.
“Oh, my word!” Grace exclaimed, hands on his face. Grace hovered closer to the xenonite barrier between him and Adrian, trying to get as close as possible. Adrian clicked happily and leaned closer as well. “A baby! That’s a baby!”
“Rocky and Adrian’s baby. Statement.” Rocky said smugly next to Grace.
“You two had a baby!” Grace continued his amaze, his hands moving to his hair to grab at it. He needed something to occupy his hands.
“Grace very excited,” Adrian noted with an amused tone.
“How could I not be?” Grace said in a rush. The smile on his face was so large that it hurt his cheeks but that was a small price to pay for joy. “You two made a baby!”
“Good surprise, question?” Rocky teased.
“Good?!” Grace sputtered. He leaned over and pulled Rocky in for a side hug. “Rocky, Adrian, this is amazing!”
Rocky stood up on three legs and did jazz hands with his two free claws. “Rocky and Adrian’s first baby. More to come in future.”
“More?” Grace smirked. “Rocky, you dog.”
“No understand,” Adrian said, turned their carapace to show a different ‘face’. “Rocky no earth mammal.”
“Is Earth saying,” Rocky explained before Grace could. “Grace teasing Rocky.”
Grace laughed. Adrian was still learning the Earth lingo that Rocky had mastered during their years together in space. Grace found it happening so much less that he had to explain to Rocky his idioms and found Rocky also saying some of them back to Grace. “Good naturedly,” Grace added on.
“Oh, okay,” Adrian nodded their carapace.
Grace sat down on his butt as he knew he was going to be here for a while basking in the presence of his best friend’s baby. “They really are cute,” Grace said, petting a finger on the glass in lieu of being able to touch the eridian baby. “They have your shape, Adrian, but Rocky’s coloring.”
Rocky grumbled at Grace’s side. “Rocky wish to see colors,” Rocky pouted.
“You can see through walls,” Grace deadpanned, flicking Rocky on his xenonite-suit covered suit. “I think that’s a fair trade-off.”
“No! Rocky want to see colors! Statement!” Rocky protested.
“Rocky, do not forget we have our surprise for friend Grace,” Adrian softly tutted at their mate.
“Oh? Little wonder here wasn’t the surprise?” Grace asked, leaning back on his hands.
Rocky vibrated again with excitement and it seemed even stronger this time. He snapped two of his claws in the air like he couldn’t contain himself. “Baby part of surprise but not all. Big surprise now.”
“Yeah? What is it then?” Grace asked.
“We have name for child already,” Adrian said with fondness in their voice.
“That’s exciting,” Grace grinned broadly again. He started to go through a mental list of what equivalent the eridian name for their child would be in his tongue. Only the best name for Rocky and Adrian’s child would be accepted. “What is it?”
Rocky leaned over and nudged his body against Grace. “Grace, meet Grace Jr.”
Silence rang through their tunnel then, only the artificial waves far behind them making any noise. Grace was sure both Rocky and Adrian could hear how loud and fast his heart was beating. All the moisture in Grace’s mouth has disappeared like astrophage chasing the light frequency of Venus’ atmosphere. Gulping, Grace licked his lips as he tried to find his words.
“You named them…after me?” Grace asked in a soft whisper. “Why?”
“We wanted to honor the human that let our child exist,” Adrian answered. “Without Grace, Rocky would never have come home and Erid as whole would have died.”
“Without Grace, Rocky would still be out there alone,” Rocky said, scooting up close to Grace. Two of his claws fiddled together. “Rocky would have to go to sleep alone until Rocky die. Grace save Rocky. Grace let Rocky come back to Adrian. We name our child after Grace.”
Grace would not be too proud to admit to say that he burst out in tears. One hand covered his face as he started to sob while the other wrapped around Rocky in his xenonite suit. It was loud and wet, echoing around their alcove.
“Grace leaking, question?” Adrian asked. Grace Jr. perked up slightly at the new noise, chirping softly.
“Happy leaking. Statement.” Rocky answered for Grace, knowing the human couldn’t do it for himself at the moment. “Grace very happy at his surprise.”
“Good, surprise success,” Adrian chirped. “Adrian happy Grace happy.”
Sniffling hard, Grace wiped his face with the cuff on one of his sleeves. “I don’t know what to say, you two,” Grace chuckled.
“Grace say nothing but hello to Grace Jr.,” Rocky said, nudging his best friend from another planet. “Very important for Eridian babies to learn voice of family members.”
“We’re family?” Grace grin returned as a new wave of tears started to form.
“Of course, Grace part of Rocky and Adrian family. Grace stupid stupid stupid for not thinking that,” Rocky tutted.
The tears fell down more on Grace’s cheeks but he didn’t wipe them away in a hurry. Instead, he leaned over and hugged Rocky. “Thanks, bud. This is the best surprise ever,” Grace said earnestly.
Rocky returned the hug. “Rocky happy that Grace love surprise. Happy happy happy.”
Leaving the hug, Grace cleared his throat and scooted closer to the barrier. Adrian moved themselves as close to the barrier as they could. Grace Jr. on top raised one claw in the air and snapped it weakly.
Grace sniffled hard and poked a finger at the barrier where it would be level with Grace Jr. “Hey there, little buddy. I’m your uncle Grace,” Grace introduced himself. “It’s nice to meet you.”
Grace Jr. trilled and snapped their claw again.
Feeling his heart melt, Grace let himself settle into his new world as an uncle.