Chapter Text
Rocky hated pulsers. Especially the directional ones where when you walked by them it felt like someone was lightly punching you while yelling right at your skin, over and over and over again. If it were one single sound blast, them being rather low and quiet, it wouldn’t bother them. But why did they have to send out a pulse every second? How on Erid did anyone find that “fun” and “enjoyable” and that they “set the mood”?
And then they didn’t even bother to have the ones at different stalls sync up, nooo, it was much more enjoyable to be continuously bombarded by dozens of small sound fists from all around in neither a coherent pattern nor a completely random one.
The only reason Rocky hadn’t long since run out of the jewellery market was because Adrian was having such a good time. They had been incredibly busy with work lately and had been looking forward to this event so much. Several of their friends had stalls here, and while Rocky had absolutely no qualms perusing their work, asking them all about their crafting methods, letting Adrian pick a new armband for them and so on, it was the overall ambiance that chiselled away at Rocky’s energy reservoir with every screaming child and blast of the pulsers and person bumping into them and random people interrupting their conversation with a “I haven’t seen you since-”.
Pulse. Pulse-pulse. This one hit them right to the vents, this one to their family crest carving, that one was a spherical wave, pulsing in sync then out of sync and fuck Rocky sometimes really wished they could claw off all their sound receptors.
“What do you think of this one?” Adrian asked and Rocky tried to drag their attention back to the piece of jewellery they were holding but then someone sidestepped against them followed by an absent-minded “sorry” and the little pulser at the top of ♪♫’s stall was pointed directly at Rocky and they had to pay attention, pay attention, pay attention. “I think it could make a nice addition to your muscovite beads.”
The small pendant seemed to be biotite, maybe, but Rocky couldn’t properly make it out because everything was buzzing and their skin was churning and they just had to hold on a little longer, after this it was just one more of Adrian’s friends they had to stop by, then they would stroll past the last few stalls and leave leave leave.
Rocky raised an arm to shake their open hand in approval. On one hand, they trusted Adrian’s taste in aesthetics much more than their own. If they thought it would match their Year Feast beads, then they would. On another, they simply couldn’t handle any in-depth discussion about the shape and form and absorption qualities of beads right now. They couldn’t hold any kind of in-depth discussion right now because they were focusing most of their brain power on trying not to explode.
“Are you okay, Rocky?” came Adrian’s concerned question, and Rocky immediately pulled their carapace up.
“Yes, yes,” they managed to force out. “Beautiful.”
Adrian stayed silent for a moment. “Do you want me to go outside with you for a bit?”
Yes, please please please, I want to leave and go home and not be near anyone for a month.
“Is fine, continue.”
They knew Adrian always got suspicious when they clipped their sentences, but they couldn’t manage anything more eloquent right now and they didn’t want to ruin Adrian’s time with their friends because they were sensitive so maybe they would just drop it.
Selfishly, Rocky didn’t want them to drop it.
Pulse pulse pulse-pulse pulse pulse-
“Let’s go outside for a bit,” Adrian announced, putting the pendant back and running a quick finger over their goodbye-grooves. Rocky barely registered being lead out of the market hall by their hand, the whirring in their brain only slowing down enough to really take in their surroundings once they were halfway down a small side street.
It was so quiet. It was probably about normal levels of ambient city noise out here given the fact that Rocky had a clear perception of their surroundings, but compared to the Market Hall of Torture, it was virtually noiseless.
Relief washed over them, making their arms lose a significant portion of the tension that had been building up since arriving at the market – but then they registered Adrian silently strolling beside them, completely casual as if Rocky hadn’t just pulled them away from all their friends, and shame followed right after.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry,” they blurted out, breaking the silence that had been hanging between them because Rocky couldn’t keep themself together and Adrian was so so patient. “I’m fine now.” Am I though? “We can go back.” I can’t go in there again. “We-”
Rocky trailed off when Adrian sat down on a bench next to a small empty playground. They patted the spot next to them. Still jittery, their hearts thumping and skin buzzing, and now confused, Rocky opted to just go along and sit down next to their mate.
They sat together in silence. Rocky was still waiting for them to elaborate on what exactly their plan of action was, but with every passing second, the anxious crawling all over their body dwindled down until their mind actually felt mostly clear again. Rocky accepted that their current plan was to simply sit here now, for whatever reason, but they certainly weren’t about to complain.
Well past the point Rocky’s mental state had fully settled down to “calm”, Adrian spoke up.
“How are you feeling?”
Their tone was kind and gentle with the tiniest hint of smugness. Rocky felt a whole range of different emotions shoot through them, guilt to indignation to love, but ultimately only one of them mattered.
“Better,” they admitted quietly, shifting closer and pressing up against their mate. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” Adrian warbled in return, carapace tilting to press back against them.
All the love and the affection and the gratitude stayed and clenched Rocky’s insides so hard they were going to explode for real this time. How did they deserve a mate who was so understanding and so tolerant and so kind?
“Let’s go home,” Adrian said next, and once again hope flared up at the same time as the guilt did.
“But-”
“Do you want to go back to the market?” they asked very rhetorically because they clearly knew the answer, but they also still wanted Rocky to actually say the answer out loud.
“No,” they mumbled.
“Then we go home.”
“But your friends-”
“I’ll see them again,” Adrian said decisively as they got up from the bench, stretching their arms.
“But you-”
“I had a good time,” they continued. “I won’t be having a good time if we go back in there knowing you’ll be a second away from vibrating your carapace to pieces.”
Rocky climbed off the bench, fumbling with their fingers.
“You could go back in alone,” they suggested. “I can wait here.”
“Rocky,” they said with fond exasperation, “will you truly feel comfortable waiting out here for another +ℓℓℓ seconds or so?”
“No,” Rocky conceded with a huffy trill because Adrian always knew exactly how to win arguments like these. Always twisting Rocky taking care of themself into the logical conclusion.
“So you would say that you need to go home right now to feel comfortable?”
“Yes,” Rocky grumbled, fake annoyance barely able to stay in their voice.
“Then why should what I want be more important than what you need?”
Rocky stomped their arms on the ground in a feeble final attempt at expressing their displeasure before launching themself at their mate.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” they babbled, “you are the best mate ever, I love you, love you, love-”
“Okay, okay,” Adrian chirped with a laugh, raising an arm to pat the top of Rocky’s carapace. “I love you too, but this really doesn’t warrant such a reaction. I’m just being decent.”
“I disagree,” Rocky immediately shot back, but left it at that. Walking so close together that Rocky was just about clinging to Adrian’s arm, the two began their trek home.
As soon as they arrived, Rocky would take the radio messenger and ask ♪♫ and ♬♫ when they were going to have time for Adrian and Rocky to come over so they could properly have a look at their jewellery with all the time Adrian needed to choose whatever they wanted.
With that plan in mind, Rocky was able to let go of at least some of the guilt still bubbling deep inside them.
“Show me what you bought?” they asked, eagerly tapping the ground twice. Adrian’s carapace bobbed up and down in glee and soon Rocky was chirping and humming along to every item they pulled out of their bag.
Adrian had, of course, been right. Rocky hadn’t completely ruined their day after all.