Chapter Text
“FuUUckk”
If Simon really focuses he can almost hear the undertones of the curse word in Rocky's notes. Either the pile of stones is getting better at mimicking human speech or he’s started to hallucinate again. Better to just believe the first option.
“Hmm that was better. Try again,” Simon takes a deep breath, letting his eyes close before looking deeply into where Rocky's eyes would be if he had them. “Fuck.”
Rocky scuttled in a tight circle, centering himself in his excitement, before trying again. Despite his best efforts, Simon was starting to find the freaky thing endearing.
“FuuuCKkKK,” the elongated chirp was simultaneously closer and further from the goal, the “ck” finally present but losing most of the “f” sound in the process.
Fuck, this wasn’t working. When Rocky had first cornered Simon to teach him curse words, the ex-con had thought it would be fun and easy— like when his brothers taught him these words behind his mothers back. The whole different vocal cord situation was proving to be more of a problem than he had anticipated.
“Eh better,” stated Simon, “but I’m not sure Grace would catch it if he didn’t know what to listen for.”
They sat there for a moment thinking, Rocky’s feet tapping a quick but steady rhythm against his xenonite ball. Just as Simon was ready to move on— maybe “shit” would be easier— the Eridian abruptly straightened up, bobbing up and down to get his attention.
“Rocky have idea! Rocky tell Simon worst word in Eridian language and Simon put new word in Grace computer.”
Fucking little genius, why hadn’t Simon just done that in the first place? Technically Rocky wouldn’t actually be saying English curse words but it would be enough to get some sort of reaction out of Grace.
Holding up a finger with a curt “wait here,” Simon braced himself with his remaining arm and pushed to get his legs under him. It had been a challenge, learning to sit up and down with his new sense of balance, but nothing he couldn’t handle. These days it was second nature, if somewhat inelegant when the gravity got funky.
Ducking out of the “don’t go crazy" room, Simon caught sight of Grace in the lab. He was fiddling with some science instrument or other, likely brainstorming some new improvement to the ship that would ease the long journey ahead of them. He was always trying to make Simon more comfortable, even after Simon had insisted this was the most comfortable he had been in his entire fucking life.
Not knowing what Grace was working on sure as shit didn't stop him from enjoying the view.
Grace had his hair mused as if he had run his hands through it a hundred times before Simon entered the room, glasses dangling from one ear in his signature look. There were slight bags under his eyes from restless sleep, an unfortunate side effect of the uncertainty plaguing the scientist about Sol’s fate. Simon had tried encouraging him to sleep more but despite his crewmates assurances that the work was over, Ryland Grace refused to give himself a break.
It wasn't uncommon for Simon to find him passed out over his work in the lab, having to heft him over his shoulder and carry him to the dorm area. At least Rocky was on Simon's side, calling Grace stupid when he didn't get enough rest and badgering him like a mother hen. That had actually been the beginning of Simon deciding to trust the strange alien.
It wasn't just sleep though, Simon couldn't get Grace to sit still long enough to read a book or watch a movie in the projection room most of the time. When Simon had showed up a few months ago, drenched in blood and spitting like an alley cat, Grace hadn't slept in days, running himself ragged, obsessing about if the beetles made it to earth and worrying Rocky.
He still feels a bit guilty about having made things harder on Grace at first, what with all the distrust and C.O.I accusations.
Simon crossed the room, grabbing the laptop with the translation software off one of the steel tables. Grace had implemented a ship wide speaker system so Simon wouldn't have to carry the laptop around with him but it had its limits. New vocabulary still needed to be input manually.
As he grabbed the duct-tape-and-technology abomination, the scientist looked up from his work. Grace smiled at him, causing a series of distracting flutters to go off in Simon's chest and stomach. It started about a month ago. At first Simon was convinced he was finally dying from some blood-ocean born illness but after Armando had checked him and found nothing wrong, he was forced to accept that he was dealing with a much scarier predicament. Attraction. Not just to Grace’s body— that he could handle— but to who the man was inside and out. He might even take AT-5 over dealing with the mass of feelings that arose when he interacted with the other man.
He lifted the laptop up, covering part of his face to hide his blush and indicating the reason he had entered the lab, finding himself unable to use his words, bringing back memories of his first days on the Hail Mary. That happened sometimes, but it was slowly becoming less and less frequent.
“You and Rocky learning some new words?” Grace leaned forward, his eager curiosity and hopefulness bleeding through his words.
Rocky and Simon had been keeping their current project a secret from Grace claiming it was a “surprise”, which had the scientist practically buzzing in his seat, hoping to hear more about it. Simon couldn't wait to see Grace's face the first time Rocky called him a little bitch, feeling his lips quirky up softly at the thought before shutting it down. He had a poker face reputation to uphold and he’d been tempted to break it way too often lately.
“I'm still not telling you what we're working on.” Simon turned on his heel and headed towards the exit.
Wasting no time, Grace got up out of his seat, sending the chair rolling away a bit while he approached Simon, coming up behind him and craning his neck to look at the laptop screen.
“Oh come on! Just a hint,” Grace's breath ghosted over Simon's neck sending a shiver through his entire body. He spun around, clutching the laptop to his chest and finding himself very VERY close to Grace's face.
“I haven't even put in any words yet so peeking is useless,” Simon narrowed his eyes, “I bet you could use that big brain to figure it out anyways.” That was one of Simon's favorite parts about the scientist. That stupidly big brain.
Grace rocked back on his heels, allowing Simon to take in a relieved breath at the distance while his feet itched to close the gap again. He was so fucked.
“Oh I'm sure I know what you're teaching him but I'll let you have your fun,” there was a hint of laughter in the taller man’s voice, “It's… nice. Seeing you two get along.”
Grace got that funny look on his face. The one that made it seem like Grace had everything he could ever want— as ridiculous as that seemed to Simon. He deserved more. He deserved Earth.
Simon forced himself to step back and let the small grin he'd been holding back slip through. Grace's eyes, impossibly, got brighter at the sight. Worth it.
Clearing his throat to avoid saying something stupid, Simon scrambled to get back on track, “I should get back to my student, I learned from the best after all,” he teased.
Grace gave him a light shove on the shoulder, the contact burning through Simon's borrowed science pun t-shirt, before turning back to his work and waving a hand in the air dismissively,
“Fine I'll let you get to it.”
Simon turned to head the rest of the way out of the lab when Grace called after him, “Make good choices!”
Huffing a small laugh under his breath, he retraced his steps to the projection room. Rocky was patiently waiting, his legs crossed unassumingly as he focused his attention away from Simon. He was such a little eavesdropper.
“Simon enjoy talking to Grace, question,” the little speaker attached to Rocky’s terrarium rattled out. It was set up so Rocky could switch between it and the ship-wide system depending on his needs, so he could still have one-on-one conversations with either of the humans on board.
Simon just narrowed his eyes at the alien— with no affection at all of course— and sat back down on the bridge connecting the two entrances to the room.
“Alright you little fucker, what’s the worst thing you can say in your language.”
Rocky must have been using his time not eavesdropping to come up with the perfect word to share, Simon had barely finished his sentence when the little shit let out a series of lower notes, punctuated by a piercing high note.
Simon diligently entered “fuck” into the database connected with the recording, “what does that mean?”
Clicking his feet again, Rocky thought for a moment before giving the full body drop Simon had started to interpret as a sigh of frustration, “Hard explain. Something you call someone who is very rude or aggressive. Can also be funny to some Eridians.”
Maybe just assigning words to each other based on how bad they were wasn’t the best approach. Simon felt his mouth twist into a small frown as he doubled clicked on the “fuck” entry, replacing it with “dick”. That felt more fitting, if not acknowledging its other meaning. Whatever, Rocky didn’t need to know about anatomical dicks. The fucker would probably want to see his “for science” or something. The weirdo.
“Why Simon replace word, question,” Rocky scuttled a bit closer, holding up his crystal contraption to get a better look at the screen.
“I put ‘dick’ instead of ‘fuck’,” he explained, “You can call someone a fuck but it’s more of an action or uh… something you say when your mad, I guess. Like ‘I’m gonna fuck you up’ or ‘holy fuck’”
“Why fuck have holes, question”
“It’s just something we say.”
“English weird. Tell Rocky what fuck mean so can provide better translation word.”
Simon sighed, how the fuck was he going to explain this. And would Grace kill him for it?
Playing it safe, Simon decided to stay vague, “it’s an action humans do to feel good sometimes. But it’s a rude way to refer to it so it’s a bad word. I don’t know… it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense”
The Eridian gave one of his full-body nods, carapace dipping slightly, “Rocky understand somewhat. Like hug feel good. Not understand why new action bad.”
If Simon was a more expressive man, his eyes would be bugging out of his head, “Uh no. Not like a hug. Don’t say that to Grace. How about we just put in a bad word that’s an action?” Simon positioned his fingers over the keyboard.
Rocky didn’t seem entirely satisfied with his answer but relented, reciting a quick series of chirps for Simon to record. “There. Bad action in Eridian. Not good translation but best Rocky can think of.”
Letting out a breath Simon hadn’t known he was holding, he wrote in the definition for the translation app. Crisis averted for now, if Rocky demanded more, Simon would have to bring Grace into this cultural exchange.
“Rocky want to learn more but must sleep now. Simon watch, statement,” the alien chirped as he rolled off towards the dorm, waiting at the entrance for Simon's reply.
That had been another adjustment, accepting that being watched while he slept meant safety and not that he was being hunted. There had been a period of time at the start when Simon would have refused but looking at the strange creature standing in front of him had him thinking of how proud Grace had looked the first time Simon had dragged himself out of his hiding place and into the shared bedroom. He couldn’t help but feel warm.
“Yeah alright, I’ll watch you sleep.”