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Adrian loves having Grace in the lab. The human is caring and silly in a way that Adrian believes is important for the crew. He’s usually carefree and uplifts everyone’s moods when he visits the labs.
The past couple of hours, however, erm… not as much. His face is stuck in an insistent pout, he’s quieter than usual, his heart rate is irregularly slow, as is every movement he makes, he’s been knocking over equipment or bumping into surfaces, he bounces between mopey or trying not to be angry- Adrian caught him more than once backing away from his work to put his hands into his hair and just start crying with no clear reason as to why.
Adrian recalls Rocky having mentioned something about how Grace will get like this when he hasn’t gotten enough sleep. Adrian trills as they step next to the human, towering over him, and reaches over to gently rub his back, contact separated by their suit. “You’ve had a long day, question?”
Grace immediately slumps and leans into the touch, “Yeah, I was up late studying and then I made next week’s lesson plan and time got away from me.” Grace rubs his face, then speaks with half muffled words as he’s trying to physically scrub the exhaustion from his face, “And then next thing I know, I needed to get to class and I just kinda forgot and kept going.”
Adrian studies their friend, trapping him into admission, “And then you came straight here after class, busy busy busy.”
“Mhmm, but in a few hours, the results from the scan will be-” Grace whips his head around when Adrian suddenly withdraws and walks away, realizing his fetal error, “Wait, I, uh, I did nap last night, though! You don’t have to send me home!”
“Oh, don’t worry honey, I won’t be sending you home, just get comfy.” Adrian won’t be doing shit. Their best friend, however. Different story, you see. “Do me a favor and tell me what you see in that sample on the table.”
Grace hesitantly listens to Adrian’s orders, slinking back to in front of the microscope.
While the teacher is focusing, badly, on the task asked of him, Adrian opens the computer device that Simon, Grace, Rocky, and Adrian themself had collaborated together to design for more accessible use to Eridians. And with this, Adrian is instantly and silently able to send a message.
——
Simon’s elbow deep in the garden when his music gets disrupted with a gentle note that he had picked as Adrian’s text tone. Leaning over, he squints at the screen.
Adrian: Grace needs to sleep. Come get him.
Yep. That’s why his partner was gone before he even woke up. Simon cleans the dirt off his hand before looking for the ball Adrian had made for him.
Grace has been avoidant all week, Simon’s barely even seen the man longer than the length of a meal. Simon is the clingy one between them, don’t get him wrong, but Grace usually prefers to have them attached at the hip half the time. Hmm. Well. Simon is the more overtly clingy one of the two. Wrapping himself around Grace whenever possible, or allowed. Leaning on Grace while he reads. Pressing kisses against his mate’s skin, sometimes for no other reason than to pull giggles from his lungs. Rubbing his wrist along Grace, to soothe his mind when he gets too lost in his thoughts. Dragging Grace to bed when he tries to stay up late working. Usually works, but the past week Simon has seen less and less of him. He hasn’t done that since…
Shit!
Simon just remembered that this is around when Grace usually gets clinger than ever. And rather than ask, he’ll isolate himself. Simon rushes out the dome faster, through the dark halls. His partner often falls into one of two traps. One, he forgets to seek out the contact just like how he’ll forget to eat or brush his teeth. Or two, he’ll feel bad asking for it so he doesn’t. Simon usually offers it for him, but assumed the other had just wanted space the past week. Was he withdrawing intentionally? Or subconsciously as the time came closer?
Once he makes it to the Joint Lab that was designed for long term visits by Grace or Simon, Simon pushes out of the ball, causing Grace to look over from his work, swaying where he stands. “Simon? How-”
“Grace,” Simon tilts his head at that, “how do you think?” Both pairs of eyes flicker over to Adrian, who is pointedly ignoring them as they study their own sample. Grace’s faint scent of coffee and fog makes it’s way over to Simon, the culprit of why it was difficult for him to catch on faster throughout the week. “C’mon, let’s go.” Simon gestures to the ball. He still feels ridiculous using it. Though, it hadn’t taken Adrian long to talk him into it.
Grace just shifts at the table, eyeing his work from the corner of his vision. “But-,”
“Ryland Grace, I love you, but either you are walking into this ball or I’m picking you up.” Simon places a hand on his hip, eyeing his partner up and down. “It is your choice, but I will have to figure out how to do it one handed. How easy are you gonna make it for me?” Simon pretends not to hear the bells of Adrian’s snickering.
Slumping his shoulders, Grace walks over to Simon, defeated.
The engineer rolls his eyes, slipping his hand into Grace’s and pressing a kiss to his temple, which has the man melting into his side in an instant and purring. The once faint scent now hits Simon like a freight train, causing him to swallow harshly. Pulling his mate into the ball and sealing it, Simon wraps his arm around Grace as they walk, slipping his arm under Grace’s shirt to rub his wrist along his abdomen. “I’m sorry I didn’t catch this sooner, Grace.”
Sighing in content, Grace loops an arm over Simon’s shoulder, now freely seeking his touch. “It’s not your fault Simon, I was just… busy.”
“It’s the weekend, and Adrian would be more than willing to give you the time off from the lab.” Simon presses another feathering kiss to Grace’s cheek before peppering them lower, along his neck. “We could make up time at the house.”
“And do what?” Grace’s tone is playful, but masks his nerves.
Pausing inside the biodome, Simon leans up to kiss Grace’s lips, gentle and kind, chaste. When he pulls back, he presses their foreheads together and nuzzles Grace’s nose with his own. “What do you think? I’m going to cuddle the ever loving shit out of you.” Simon gets out of the fucking ball and holds a hand out for Grace.
Grinning, Grace gingerly places his hand in Simon’s, who presses a kiss to his knuckles before interlacing their fingers to walk across the beach, the one that blends Grace’s scent. They’re barely even to the door when Grace leans down to begin pressing kisses along Simon’s jaw, carefully pressing them along the teeth embedded along his cheek.
Simon grabs Grace by his collar to pull their lips together, each of them taking turns swapping kisses back and forth. Humming, Simon’s hand slides around Grace’s shoulder.
Chuckling, Grace scoops Simon up into his arms, who in turn gasps.
Glaring at him, Simon grasps the back of Grace’s shirt for stability.. “I thought you haven’t been working out.” You’ve been overworking yourself and not resting near enough.
“I wanted to surprise you, because you’re so patient with me.” Grace shyly buries his face into Simon’s neck as he opens the door and brings Simon to their bed, wanting to drown himself in the other’s scent, in his safety. Sighing, Grace relaxes, “You do so much for me, even though I’m not the the greatest-”
“Ryland, you’re perfect the way you are,” Simon helps guide Grace by brushing their scent glands along one another’s. “You’re my perfect omega, fuck what anyone else has ever told you about how you’re supposed to be.” Simon wraps his legs around Grace’s waist, “You just need to rest more often,” Simon brings his hand up to Grace’s cheek, brushing his thumb over it, “later lets re-work a timetable, yeah?”
Grace melts further into Simon’s touch and affection, hands roaming Simon’s body under his hoodie, wrists covering as much skin as possible. Simon laughs as Grace begins to nip and nibble at Simon’s neck. The older man pulls back to smile down at the alpha, his grin soft and affectionate. “Yeah. We can do that.”
“Good, now hold me, dammit.” Simon huffs a breath of laughter just before Grace collapses his weight onto him, letting Simon take his time scenting and cuddling his omega. Perfect perfect perfect. Gentle and sweet, and his.