Chapter Text
Grace is sitting on the Hail Mary's cot, because there was nothing else that could reasonably be a human medical bed on Erid. He is finally getting some of his strength back, able to sit up on his own and eat semi-solid foods. He is able to stay up longer, talk more and finally talk to Rocky without passing out in the middle of the conversation.
Speaking of, his friend has been staying by his side for as long as they both reasonably can. Grace knows it isn't healthy, a psychologist would have a field day seeing what's wrong with him, but he doesn't think either of them are ready to fully separate anytime soon. It makes him feel bad, guilty, because he knows that Adrian is waiting, has been waiting, for Rocky.
And he knows that Rocky wants to spend time with Adrian, it's sometimes all he talks about, but he is scared to see them still. Afraid that he is too different now, is scared that Adrian will leave him once they have figured out how much he has changed.
"If they waited for you for over 40 years then I think they will be fine with you being not the same as when you left. Statement." Grace pointedly says, even as Rocky whistles back at him, grumbling.
It's at least the 10th time that I had told him, but Rocky, stubborn as always, doesn't believe me. However, he does leave me more, going to talk to Adrian. They are working on the biodome he's supposed to eventually live in, which is amazing. But it's a bit lonely without Rocky here, talking and working away as Grace tries to stay awake. He misses the whirs and musical chimes that used to accompany him wherever he went, and now it feels like he is missing something fundamental.
It's nothing he hasn't done before, when he was on Earth, so long ago, and when he first woke up on the Hail Mary. He was lonely then, he can handle being lonely now.
It doesn't hurt any less, though.
Rocky always comes in at the end of the day though, to watch Grace sleep and to pester the doctors about his condition. Seeing as Grace is no longer actively falling apart, and is getting consistent meals, he thinks that he is on his way to recovery. It is taking longer than usual though, as the stronger gravity pulls at his bones.
Today is different though.
The air feels lighter somehow, with Rocky prancing around the room and letting out happy trills as he does.
"What's got you so happy?" Grace chuckles, twisting the Rubik's cube in his hands.
"Surprise, good good good. Rocky very excited, statement." Rocky says back, even giving him jazz hands as he scuttles around. He's too excited to even form words, mostly just musical trills as he practically bounds around the room like a little kid.
It's endearing.
It also makes him more than a little worried because Rocky hasn't been sleeping. At least not where Grace can see him, and he doesn't think that he has been letting Adrian watch over him either. He hopes that whatever this surprise is, Rocky will be able to sleep afterwards. Grace hopes that he can watch over him, even though Adrian will want him back home, he still has hope that he would be the one to do it.
Just as he has for four years.
"You didn't have to do anything," he says, because he has to, because he truly already has everything he needs, " you, and the other Eridians, have already done more than enough."
"Grace save all of Erid, save Earth, have not done enough in Rocky's opinion. Statement."
Grace lets out a breath of air, knowing that he won't be wining that argument anytime soon.
A whir of noise, one that Grace has associated with something getting Rocky's attention.
"Rocky go get surprise now." Then he leaves, hurrying down the tunnel made out of the Hail Mary, his xenonite suit glinting off of the modified warm yellow lights.
Grace sits on his cot, fiddling with his quilt as he wait for Rocky to return, too nervous to concentrate on the Rubik's cube. He knows he will return, but it doesn't stop his thoughts from thinking otherwise, that something has happened and Grace is sitting on his cot, useless. That Rocky has finally decided to leave him, though he would be devastated, he would understand. But if something has happened and Grace wasn't there-
Footsteps, Rocky's that Grace can pinpoint even if he was blind and deaf, and another's. They are heavier, steady and he can hear their deep voice even from his cot. Another Eridian, one that he hasn't met before, because Rocky wouldn't be so excited otherwise. It could be another doctor, or scientist, one that will help Grace, maybe even one of the ones that has been working on his house-dome thing.
Or maybe-
Adrian
Maybe he will finally meet them.
It would make sense, how Rocky has had more energy today than the following week, how happy he is.
And Grace is getting excited too, to meet the Adrian that he has heard so much about.
He sees them round the corner, Rocky's brown and green carapace leading ahead of a larger Eridian. They were a gradient of blues and greens, the colors reminded him of turquoise, or maybe jade, and had spots of warm black dotted around their form. They had a splotch of brown on one their arms, mirroring the one he has seen on Rocky.
"Grace!" Rocky bounds over, the other Eridian swiftly coming with him. "Grace meet Mate Adrian. Adrian meet Friend Grace."
It really is them Grace thinks, giddy with joy.
"It's an honor to meet you." Grace says, and he would stick out his hand if Eridians knew what it meant.
"No," Adrian rumbles, their voice deep enough to rattle through his bones, it reminds him of church bells, "honor is mine, Friend Grace. Save my Mate, save my family, save Erid."
"Still," he says, flustered, "you've done a lot too. You're working on my dome and you've been waiting for a long time."
And Grace knows that they have, hearing the complaints and praise of what Adrian has had to deal with over the years that Rocky was gone. It was…hard for them, he knew that much. The grief, the waiting, not knowing if the person you loved most was ever coming back. At least everyone knew he wasn't coming back, while the Eridians were waiting for decades for their families to come back.
And only one did.
"You done much more, Friend Grace. Thank you." Adrian says, coming closer and putting their hand on his arm. They are being careful, so very careful to not hurt him. It almost makes him want to cry, but he doesn't. He has appearances to keep in front of his best friends mate.
He puts his left hand on top of their's, feeling the rough texture of it beneath the xenonite mesh. Adrian freezes, just a bit, before they press back, feeling his skin in turn.
"Soft." Adrian comments, fascinated.
"And squishy." Grace chuckles back, because he is to them.
"And leaky!" Is Rocky's contribution, having climbed on top of his mate.
And they all laugh. They talk about all sorts of things. Of how the biodome is coming together, how Erid has changed in the short month that he has been here and how Rocky is a little bit silly on occasion.
But the visit is long, and Rocky hasn't slept in who knows how long. Even Grace is doing better than him, which is concerning considering he's the one who is recovering from actively dying.
"Rocky needs sleep sleep sleep." Adrian whispers, it almost sounds like wind chimes. If they produced larger wave lengths.
"I agree with them Rock. I haven't seen you sleep since we got to Erid."
"But-"
"What if I was the one who was awake for a month?"
"Fine. I go to bed. Statement." He grumbles, finally laying down on top of Adrian, letting them take his weight.
He falls asleep quickly.
"Thank you. Take care of Rocky, when Adrian cannot."
"Oh," Grace finds himself flustered once again. He isn't used to so much praise "I'm not doing anything special."
"Do not need to."
"Still, I feel like I could be doing more." Grace always feels like he can be doing more, be more for those around him. He…doesn't want people to leave him again.
Be as lonely as he was on Earth.
"Do more than enough." Adrian settles down, tucking their legs underneath them like a cat. Loafing, if he remembers the term correctly.
He huffs, Eridians. Stubborn, every single one of them.
"Adrian wait long time for Mate to come home. Many were interested, wanted me as mate, I did not want. Friend Grace gave great great great gift. Return Mate Rocky. Now others no longer interested and Adrian happy happy happy."
He chuckles, patting their hand once again.
"I should've named you two Odysseus and Penelope."
The story, what little he remembers of it, sticks in his mind. It's so similar to what had happened to Rocky and Adrian.
"Question?"
"Ah, do you know what myths are?"
"Yes, story from long long ago. Not real. Myth of Odysseus and Penelope, question?"
"Yeah, from what I remember it's really similar to what happened to you two. Not a very fun story, if you could tell."
"Tell story, statement."
Grace laughs, reminded so much of Rocky in that moment. Makes him think that all Eridians are like that. Or maybe just them.
"Let me see what I remember. So there is Odysseus and Penelope, the King and Queen of Ithaca. Odysseus was very smart and tricksy. Could out-smart almost everyone, and did."
"New word after smart."
"Tricksy? It means cleaver, deceptive."
"Like ♫♪♩♬♩. Know word."
"Yeah and his mate, Penelope, was the same. Cleaver and very, very tricksy. She was also beautiful and loyal. Now there was a war, where every able warrior had to go, along with Odysseus. He didn't want to go, but he went eventually, taking his army with him."
"Like mission to Tau Ceti, question?"
Grace smiles sadly.
"Yeah, they had to go.
"Odysseus left to Troy, a city, to fight. It took ten years, a long time for humans. Odysseus was the one to end the entire thing, the Trojan Horse, it was a fake horse, type of mammal, that held soldiers inside, but the Trojans didn't know that and so brought it into their city. They lost because of it and it was Odysseus' idea."
"Adrian not seeing how this is relevant."
"I'm getting there!" Grace huffs, honestly, "So everyone decides to go home because the war was over. There were losses on both sides, but everyone mostly made it out okay. Odysseus loads up his boat, along with his soldiers, and starts to go back to Ithaca. However, things go wrong. Very, very, very wrong."
Grace feels Adrian's hand, hoping to ground himself for what he says next.
"Most of the crew dies on the way back." He can feel Adrian stiffen beneath his hand and he only tightens his hold on them, "It was through various means, it was dangerous back then and easy to get lost."
"Did not know about dangers, question?" Adrian is shaking. Grace starts to rub up their arm, hoping to soothe them, at least a little bit.
"No," he swallows thickly, "they didn't."
He pauses, just until that were both able to collect themselves. Then he starts once again.
"Back on Ithaca Penelope was waiting for Odysseus, along with their son, Telemachus. As more and more people came back, the more worried she got that Odysseus hadn't. Eventually, everyone came back, all except Odysseus and his crew. No one knew where they were, most thought they were dead, or were going to be."
"Bad bad bad."
"Yeah," Grace pets their hand, hoping that he can offer some comfort, "it was bad bad bad.
"Eventually people started to come to Ithaca to become Penelope's mate, to be King of Ithaca. Many tried to for her hand, but she rejected them all. She would say she was weaving a shroud, a big piece of cloth that was used in funerals, but she would unravel it every night."
"Smart. Adrian likes Penelope." Their other hands tap against the floor and there was a the faint sound of humming in the air. "Adrian do something similar, say I was busy busy when others ask. Say Adrian was waiting for Rocky."
Grace chuckles, I guess the stories were more similar than I thought.
"She was, and so are you." Grace flushes, just a little bit, but both Rocky and Adrian are very smart. He is lucky to have met them.
"But she was also tired and wanted Odysseus, if he was alive, or just his body so that she could finally bury him. Somehow, I don't remember, but the suitors found out about her trick with the shroud and they demanded that she finally complete it so that she would finally chose another mate."
A grating sound, but all Adrian does is gesture for him to continue.
"But she had one more trick.
"She completed the shroud, but there was something that she had. Her husband's old bow, a weapon that fires projectiles, and said that the suitors had to string the bow and then fire an arrow, the projectile, through 12 axes, a type of hand weapon."
"Complicated. Why did she not fight off suitors herself, question?"
"Human gender roles."
Adrian does their version of a huff.
"Also, they were important, royalty and stuff." Grace waves off.
"Anyways, the bow was weird, palintonos I think, and it could only be strung a certain way. Oh sorry, stringing a bow means to add a string to the bow to make it bend and able to fire arrows. And Odysseus was the only one that knew how. The suitors couldn't string the bow, so they gave up."
Louder humming.
"Until an old man came forwards and was able to do it, then he shot the arrow through the axes perfectly."
An Eridian gasp.
"It was Odysseus."
"Amaze amaze, mate make it back!" They do little jazz hands, clearly happy about the story.
"He did, but he was the only one to survive, the rest of the crew died."
"Sad sad sad, crew deserved to go home." They croon, one of their hands reaching up to touch Rocky.
Grace smiles sadly, he knows he's missing a large part of the story, but this is the part that matters .
"They did." His hand had been petting them, finding comfort in their steady presence. "Odysseus got rid of the suitors and went to go meet Penelope."
Another cheer.
"However, Penelope wasn't convinced. She had waited for so long and they had both changed. It could be her mate, but he could have changed too much, or it could be someone in disguise, trying to trick her into being mates.
"So she asks him to remove their nest."
Adrian lets out discordant noise, similar to that of nails on chalkboard. Grace winces and reaches up to rub his ears.
"Sorry sorry sorry."
"It's fine," he says, because he knows how important Eridian nests are, how sacred they can be to certain subsets of people.
"But Odysseus says that it's impossible, because he carved the outside of it from an olive tree, and its roots have long dug deep into the Earth. It couldn't be moved.
"And Penelope finally knows it was her husband, having been the only person to have ever tricked Odysseus, and finally welcomes him home."
"Amaze amaze amaze, like Adrian and Mate Rocky. Though Adrian know Rocky, still same, if different. Problem is Rocky does not believe he good enough, statement."
Grace sighs.
"I know."
Then he yawns, tired after such a long day. his muscles are tired, despite not doing very much of anything.
"Rest, Adrian keep watch."
"If you're sure."
"Sure."
He smiles and lays down, pulling the quilt over his body. As he lays downs he hears Adrian shift, getting closer to his cot. He can feel their heat, it feels nice against his sore muscles and makes his bone not hurt as much. He thinks he can hear them humming, purring almost, as he drifts off to sleep. The lights shut off and he falls into sleep as they do.
Adrian doesn't lift their hand from Grace's arm.
A few days later Rocky comes in, happier than Grace has ever seen him.
"Adrian tricked Rocky!" He exclaims, though he is doing jazz hands, so Grace doesn't take him so seriously.
"Yeah," Grace props his hand under his chin, "what did they do?"
"Asked me to move nest! I say bad bad bad nest cannot be moved! Built it together and we are still mates!"
Ah he thinks, I think I caused this
"And?" He encourages, knowing what is going on and only feeling a little guilty.
"Say that Rocky is still same as when we first met."
He sees Adrian coming up behind Rocky, picking him up so that he can lay on top of them again.
"Rocky is."
"Adrian play mean mean mean trick!"
"Mate being silly silly silly."
Rocky grumbles as Grace snickers, and nods his head in Adrian's direction. They both know where they got that idea from and Grace is happy happy happy that they put it to use. Though he did wish that they told him about it before him, he could have got on camera if he had known. Recorded it so that he could show it off later, or maybe even to remind Rocky when he gets sad again.
Still, it's a nice moment, one he is glad to be a part of.
Adrian rumbles and Rocky splays himself on top of them, still doing his jazz hands even as he complains. Adrian shuffles themself closer to Grace's cot until they are next to it and plops down next to him. They put a hand on his arm, another one going up to do the same with Rocky.
Grace, feeling bubbling happiness filling up his lungs, finally feels like he is home.