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Grace’s eyes felt dry as he woke out of a shallow sleep. There was a distinct chill in the air, causing the man to shiver under his quilt. He lifted a frigid hand to his nose to find that, unsurprisingly, it was also freezing cold.
Not good.
As Grace rose, he took the blanket with him. He had fallen asleep with a t-shirt on which was not doing him any favours against the sudden temperature drop. The unsatisfactory sleep made him slow as he willed the cogs to turn in his head.
What happened? Was the heating malfunctioning? Was there a hole in the hull? No there would be alarms blaring. Why weren’t alarms blearing?
Simon’s bed was empty, not an uncommon thing for him. Grace knew he often suffered nightmares where he’d wake up screaming. It was almost endearing how the dark haired man would sleep somewhere else so as not to disturb him. But then again it was hardly comfortable to sleep in lab chairs or in a pile of cushions on the ground.
Though something told Grace that Simon wasn’t a stranger to being uncomfortable.
Unhooking his glasses, Grace rubbed his eyes thoroughly. Another shiver made its way violently through his body. He had to find Simon and Rocky. It wasn’t easy but he managed to climb the ladder with his blanket still around him, resorting to stuffing it in his teeth.
“Simon? Rocky?” He called out through the open door at the top of the ladder. No matter how loud he called, he knew at least Rocky would hear him. He would be right as he was met with the familiar tapping and scrambling of the Eridian making his way through his tunnels.
“Grace? Sorry, wasn’t watching sleep. Grace mad, question?” Came a rush of worried chords.
“No I’m not mad, bud.” Wait. “Why weren’t you watching me sleep?” It wasn’t crucial to human survival by any means but it was still an odd thing that Rocky would let Grace sleep without someone watching him. Whether it was their new addition or Rocky himself, he always made sure Grace was watched. So why not now?
“New human said ship got cold cold cold. Rocky not feel because Rocky in tunnels with life support system. Trying to figure out with new human help but new human useless!” Rocky threw his hands up in exasperation. Grace rubbed his eyes once more, trying and failing to clear the fog from his mind.
“Ok. Yeah it’s darn freezing in here. Where is Simon now.” He made sure to put some emphasis on ‘Simon’. Rocky didn’t like to use peoples names when he was mad at them, especially for Simon.
“‘Simon’ is in control room. Is pressing random buttons! Not know what is doing! Going to kill us all!” Rocky spat out Simon’s name like a swear word. The indignation was hard not to laugh at as Grace made his way to the cockpit.
Simon was sitting on the floor with one of Grace’s hoodies wrapped tightly around him. One sleeve hung limply at his left side, sending another shiver through the scientist at the memory of seeing the raw stump when they first found him.
“Hey.” Grace nudged the man with his foot. Simon looked up at him through his thick black hair. He looked defeated, not returning the greeting.
“Your little friend doesn’t like me very much.” He mumbled. Grace huffed a laugh and sat beside him on the floor. Immediately, he could feel the warmth of Simon even through the blanket. It took every scrap of self control he had not to sit on his lap and slip his freezing hands under the hoody to harvest that warmth.
They were both still new to being around another human being and Grace was terrified of crossing some invisible boundary. Terrified of losing Simon like he had lost so many relationships. He tried not to think about it.
“Yeah…he gets stressed when he can’t help. Poor guy probably thinks we’ll freeze to death.” Grace cringed at how that sounded. Would they freeze to death? He couldn’t help but lean into Simon. That heat was so enticing, he wondered if the dark haired man felt the same. He was always so hard to read.
“What?” Simon sounded confused. Grace started. He had been staring.
“Sorry, nothing.” He knew his cheeks would be glowing red if they weren’t so cold as he averted his gaze. Though he could feel Simon’s eyes still on him. He was so focused on a spot on the floor that he didn’t see a hand come up to his face.
Knuckles pressed gently against Grace’s cheek then promptly withdrew. Oh how he mourned the loss of that touch.
“You’re freezing, Ryland!” Simon hissed out. His name on the other man’s tongue never failed to do something to Grace. It sent a shiver through him, now glad he could disguise it as just him being cold.
“We- we’d better um, share body heat if- if we can’t get the heating back up- until we can get the heating back up…if you wanted…” real smooth Grace. The words all came out in a dumb stutter. Now his face was surely red. He still couldn’t look at Simon, fully shaking now. Whether out of nervousness or cold, he didn’t know anymore.
To his surprise, Simon’s shoulder rattled him in a chuckle.
“If I didn’t know any better I’d think you’d disabled the heating just to get to snuggle up to me.” Grace glared at him, slightly offended.
“Oh you big baby. Yeah we’d better do that. Don’t want humanities last hope to get hypothermia.” Simon grumbled with a smile as he stood, offering a hand to the still blanket clad Grace.
The two made their way back down to the bunks. They figured the only reason why they weren’t freezing to death was because of the heat being put out from Rocky’s xenonite tunnels. A small amount but still there, especially given the high quantity in the bunk room.
Simon took off the hoodie before he got into a bunk. Grace was confused for a moment in his still weary state before remembering what he’d always heard about surviving in the woods. He assumed Simon was not willing to withstand full skin on skin contact with Grace’s ice cold body. Fair enough.
“You coming? I’m getting cold here too.” Crap, he’d been staring at Simon again. He was far broader than Grace or Yao for that matter. Either of their shirts always stretched tightly over his chest. It was damn hard not to stare.
Grace shook himself out of whatever daze and almost jumped onto the man laid out in front of him. It was awkward to get into a comfortable position. Grace essentially crawled over to lay on top of Simon as there was no space to have it any other way. Not that either of them would have it any other way.
In the end, Grace had to shyly spread Simon’s legs so he could sit comfortably between them and be able to lay his head on his chest. His oh so warm chest. It was too much and not enough all at once. It was not an easy feat to stay calm through the process of arranging himself.
Even with the blanket over the two of them, Grace couldn’t stop shaking. This man was going to be the death of him. The warmth was seeping through the fabric of both t-shirts and blooming over Grace’s skin. It felt like life. Though he was still shaking.
“Ryland, we’ve been here for a while, how come you’re still shivering?” Simon was almost indignant as if to say ‘am I not enough?’
“‘S not the cold…” Grace mumbled into the other man’s chest, hoping he didn’t have to explain further. He was met with a humoured huff that he felt more than heard.
“What is it?” Grace felt his voice more than heard them. A few words (a string of three specific words) tumbled around in his mouth for a moment or two. Words were always so difficult. Either they wouldn’t come out right or they wouldn’t come out at all.
So he settled for the latter option, shimmying up higher and nestled his face into the crook of Simon’s deliciously warm neck. How was this man so warm? Grace hoped this was enough. That he was enough.
“Not good with words.” Grace’s voice was as unsteady as he felt. Say something, why won’t Simon just say something. Anything. Push him off, kiss him, anything to let him know where he stood. The silent prayer was answered with a gentle hand on the back of Grace’s head. Despite the softness it made him jolt.
“Me neither…” came another rumble but quieter this time. Then soon, fingers were combing through his short golden hair. Grace relaxed into it completely and when nails raked lightly over the back of his scalp, he almost purred. It was all so much it made his stomach flip.
This was how Grace wanted to spend the rest of the three remaining years it would take to get to Erid. Right here on Simon’s chest, his heartbeat pounding in a rhythm with his breathing (which was quite fast at the moment), wrapped in his sweet warmth. Forever.