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Grace is shivering, it’s incredibly uncomfortable, and not entirely ideal with how much energy it consumes considering he’s trying to conserve food. He can’t stop the tensing and the shaking, even wrapping the quilt around himself hasn't helped so far. Gosh– he doesn’t remember ever having been so cold, even during winter on Earth. The worst part is he doesn’t feel terribly cold anymore, nonetheless he won’t stop trembling. He had tried to work for a while through it, but it was too much. Sure, he’s probably lost a lot of body mass since having to partially starve himself for so long, but he hasn’t had this be a problem. He was meant to be watching Rocky sleep, but he obviously wasn’t doing a good job considering the xenonite ball currently knocking into his shins too suddenly. He didn’t even notice Rocky get up.
“Grace okay, question?” The rock-like alien spoke, shifting his carapace towards Grace.
“Yeah- I’m okay, just- just cold, bud…” His jaw tensed, teeth baring down a bit with the shivers wracking his body.
“Why Grace not fix, question?” He sets a claw down to emphasize the question.
“Well, I’m trying, it’s just- not working. I don’t have enough body mass anymore to keep me warm.” He tries explaining but Rocky is already bumping his ball against his legs again.
“Rocky fix, Rocky fix, statement. Grace come.” He repeats over and over again.
“Where? What do you want me to do?” He looks confusedly at Rocky.
“On floor, Grace sit on floor, let Rocky close.” Grace raises his hands placatingly, moving to the floor.
“Okay! Okay-” He laughs slightly. “I’m on the floor, what do you want?” Rocky rolled the ball forward just to be between Grace’s legs, then pressed his carapace against the xenonite close to Grace.
“Grace closer. Rocky higher temperature than Grace, Rocky warm.” He still pressed expectantly against the xenonite.
“Oh- thank you Rocky.” He smiled a bit, shuffling till he could put his arms around the ball a bit, pressing as much of his body against it as he could, leaning his head against the top.
“Is not problem, Rocky fix Grace.” He chirps contentedly, relaxing a bit against the xenonite. Grace sighs a bit, trying to force his muscles to relax as well, a few small tenses here and there, but nothing the warmth of the xenonite didn’t remedy within a while. He breathes against it, feeling the tension ease itself out of his muscles. He can hear the soft drone that Rocky always seems to emit along with a sort of lower rumbling frequency that he doesn’t usually hear from the alien.
“Hey, Rock?…” He can’t help the itching scientific curiosity in his mind. “What’s that sound? Like- the low frequency?” He looks at the small creature.
“Is ♩♪♬♫♬… Eridian make sound when- happy.” He hums the unfamiliar word, so Rocky’s… Purring? Or- whatever the Eridian equivalent is.
“It’s nice…” Grace exhales, blinking slowly. Rocky chitters and hums.
“Rocky watch Grace sleep, conserve energy.” He trills.
“Okay, bud.” Grace laughs slightly. “Okay…” he leans against the xenonite, letting his eyelids fall closed. He feels his body get heavier slowly until giving out on him and letting him fall into sleep.