Chapter Text
It’s been such a grueling year for Rocky. Not because he just came home to his home planet, but mostly because he’s spent more time ruining his own marriage with Adrian by being too busy with Grace’s Earth biodome, Grace’s health, and Grace’s nutritional needs. Everything has been Grace-related since the moment his claws stepped back onto Erid. He might as well have wrung himself dry right alongside Grace in the process.
But Grace is sick, so of course Rocky can’t really be bothered to care for his own physical and mental well-being. It always has to be Grace first. Has to be Grace. Always Grace first. Rocky owes his whole life—his whole clan, even—to Grace.
He saved Rocky. He saved two planets, Earth and Erid. The entirety of Erid owes their lives to Grace, in fact.
This is also why he ruined his marriage with Adrian.
It was always about Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace.
His health, his happiness, his sadness.
Rocky made it his business, his job, to make sure Grace was happy in his little Earth dome. He gave him a house, mountains, oceans, rivers, his own little forest of trees, and Eridian plants safe for humans. His own greenhouse filled with genetically engineered plants that Rocky and his whole team of Eridian workers painstakingly made sure resembled Earth's.
Heck, Grace even has his own school where he can continue being a teacher, educating Eridian children. A brand-new EVA suit that lets Grace visit Erid outside the biodome for meetings with other scientists—or simply because his human gets bored.
Rocky lives and works around whatever Grace needs. Some days, he doesn’t even remember how he used to live before joining the space mission.
Some days, Rocky starts to feel like all he thinks about is Grace. Grace. Grace. Grace.
An utter obsession, as Adrian once called his "problem."
It is not a problem! Definitely not. Rocky cares for Grace. Loves Grace very much, and Grace knows that well.
...Okay, maybe Adrian leaving him does make a little sense.
Yeah. Okay.
Rocky will take the loss like the fair, understanding, and respectable Eridian he is.
Rocky can’t be apart from Grace for even a single day, but, well, Rocky does have other commitments. Even though, sometimes, it feels like his only commitment should be Grace.
Being project head of the biodome is a full-time job. He leads all the department heads. Science, engineering and maintenance, medicine and healthcare, security, education, and everything else in between. He has an entire workforce of Eridians under him, all working toward the same goal:
Keeping Grace alive and happy in his dome.
It’s something Rocky still isn’t quite used to, having so many Eridians looking to him for final decisions. Especially considering Rocky is probably what one would call a...
Human expert.
Which is why, even when he and Adrian were no longer together, Rocky still appointed him as second head of the project. It helps that Adrian is head of the science division, arguably the second most important team in the biodome. The first would be engineering, which keeps everything running twenty-four hours a day.
Rocky trusts Adrian with this.
And as embarrassing as it is to admit that their marriage failed, their friendship remained intact. They were friends first, after all, long before they became lovers.
Adrian has told him many times that he never expected Rocky to come back the same Eridian who left. Though Rocky still remembers hearing Adrian cry in their nest after that conversation.
It’s...
Rocky signed up for this, really.
The space mission. Being Grace's expert. Being Grace's caretaker. Even if it cost him the first person who ever believed in him.
※ ※ ※
“You took in a new personal bodyguard for my Grace without telling me? Adrian,” Rocky scolds, one claw holding a transmitter, another clutching a stack of reports he had just gotten from yet another meeting he's unfortunately been forced to attend in another city regarding biodome logistics, materials needed for his science team's ongoing research, as well as updates and proposals from his engineering team for future biodome upgrades.
But now he’s pretty much free from the chains of what you call a job and responsibilities. He can go back to doting on Grace!
“You have been gone for ten weeks. The resumes have been gathering dust on the shelves. I almost threw them away in my office! These are applications from Eridians waiting and expecting a response. And you did not bother telling me about it,” Adrian replies, letting out an annoyed, grumbling note.
Rocky almost trips over himself, his satchel dragging behind him. Damn it, he should have tightened the strap over his carapace. He was in a rush to get home.
He’s tired, and he’s spent weeks resting in hotels with no Grace to watch over. No Grace to cook fried rice and sausages for. No Grace to take small walks along the shore with.
It’s madness.
Rocky is one step away from clawing his own carapace off.
He’s experiencing a Grace relapse, as Adrian likes to call it. He’s been gone for ten weeks. Two-point-three months. 70 days! It’s horrid. He barely gets a moment to even call Grace.
Erid doesn’t follow a circadian rhythm. Rocky calls Grace at night because that’s the only free time he gets between meetings and the small thrums he’s attended, and Grace is always so tired by then. Teaching children is no easy feat. Rocky tried it once and was almost certain he’d lose a limb from all the children pulling on him from every direction in excitement over having another savior in their class.
Working itself is tiring. Rocky knows that very well.
“Alright, alright, stop grouching at me. I did forget. Forgive me. But it was not such a big deal. It won’t be until the twenty-eighth of—oh.”
Rocky stops in his tracks, nearly colliding with another Eridian who lets out a curse at him. The train station is packed with so many Eridians that it’s becoming overwhelming.
“It is past the twenty-eighth. Grace currently has no Eridian assigned to guard him. Klein already began her maternal leave,” Adrian says.
Rocky groans loudly and slaps a claw over his carapace in annoyance.
“Ugh! I forgot! How can that be?”
“Did you even rest at all throughout the seventy days you’ve been gone?” Adrian asks.
“I sleep. At certain... times,” Rocky says slowly.
He continues walking. Jogging.
Okay, running.
He wants to get home, greet Grace, watch over him while he sleeps, and maybe cuddle him.
“Alright. I am neither your mother nor your lover to tell you off,” Adrian says.
Rocky huffs at that as he falls into line at the station counter. “That sounds suspiciously like telling me off.”
He hears Adrian snort through the transmitter. “Who did you get, anyway? Please tell me you at least ran a background check. I do not want the Cupcake Incident to happen again,” Rocky says with a groan.
The Cupcake Incident, as everyone calls it, involved an Eridian bodyguard that Grace named Cupcake.
At the time, Grace had simply been swimming in the ocean. Cupcake assumed he was drowning.
And, as everyone knows, Eridians can’t really swim in normal Earth waters because they sink. Eridian oceans are much the same, but at least there they have a chance of staying afloat.
Inside the biodome? They just sink like stone (no pun intended of course)
Cupcake jumped into the water and immediately sank. Rocky and Adrian had to call in the emergency response team, get a rope, and haul Cupcake back to shore. It was a mess. Grace was crying as if Cupcake had died. The most Cupcake had experienced was a front-row view of the machinery beneath the water and a few robotic fish. Eridians can stay underwater for a whole twenty-four Earth hours before the water starts entering their systems and ultimately killing them. Which really just gives them plenty of time to get out. It isn't that big of a deal.
“She’s good. That’s all I have to say. Don’t worry, I did a background check. Yes, she’s smart. Yes, she’s logical. No, she won’t have a panic attack every time Grace burps. And no, she will not insist on holding Grace’s hand while he defecates.”
An Eridian standing in front of Rocky swivels their carapace toward him at that, letting out a strange chirp. Rocky immediately lowers his own carapace in embarrassment.
“I am in public. Please refrain from talking about defecating,” he whisper-yells into the transmitter.
The Eridian finally receives their ticket, and Rocky tosses a crystal shard onto the counter. In exchange, a thin transit sheet is handed to him. He takes it and continues on his merry way.
“You started the conversation. I merely finished it,” Adrian replies.
Rocky groans. When did Adrian become so snarky? Before the mission, Adrian was perhaps the sweetest Eridian Rocky had ever met. It was one of the reasons Rocky fell in love with him.
“You are crazy. You make me mad,” Rocky mutters.
“Excellent. Because you do the same to me. It is the only way I can keep up. Now, if you do not mind, my children require me for their nappy time.”
Rocky boards the train and settles into an empty seat with a deep, weary sigh. Then he sighs again.
Right. Children.
Adrian had found a new mate. It was surprising. But at the same time, not really. Rocky was never the best mate. Adrian never explained the timeline, but Rocky has always suspected that Adrian met his new mate before the divorce papers arrived.
The children are not Adrian's. They belong to his mate's former partner, who unfortunately wanted nothing to do with them. A bastard move, really. But who is Rocky to judge? He was a bastard too. He let his crew die. And he failed Adrian. Failed at being the perfect mate because his love for Grace grew so large that there was no room left for anyone else.
“Alright. I’ll be back in the dome soon anyway.”
Rocky hears high-pitched squealing in the background. Adrian immediately begins scolding someone. Rocky snorts. More scuffling. More squeaking. More shouting. Then silence.
“Did you kill them?” Rocky asks.
“Close. I merely placed them all into a bowl.”
Rocky laughs, because the idea of five little pebbles is interestingly funny for him, he loves Adrian’s children, they’re rowdy and loud. But he loves them. “Funny. Well, enjoy your bowl full of children. I am going to read reports now. I will get off your claws.”
Adrian pauses for a second, then. “Be safe.” The call ends.
Rocky places the transmitter into his satchel and leans against the wall beside him. The train is soundproofed, though there are viewing sections—windows, in human terms—where passengers can still hear the world outside.
He's not going to read any reports. Not yet. He's too excited to go home to Grace.
Is Grace as excited to see him as Rocky is to see Grace? Will Grace give him a kiss again, like he always does whenever Rocky returns from one of these month-long trips?
The thought alone makes Rocky's vents flutter. He wishes the train would move faster.
The ride is painfully boring. Nothing to do. Nothing to think about except how he wants to spend the day with Grace once he arrives. He misses Grace's voice. His touch. Talking through transmitters is not enough. It's maddening. It feels like Grace is always one step away, just beyond Rocky's reach.
Rocky hates it. Hates hearing him without sensing him.
It reminds him too much of the time alone on Blip-A. Too much of the silence. Too much of pretending he was speaking to crewmates who had been dead for years.
Rocky lets out a quiet sigh and shakes his carapace. No. Not now.
These memories belong in private. Where nobody can hear him. Where nobody can sense him. It would be humiliating for the Savior of Erid to react like this in public. People would call him unstable. Defective. Mentally ill even!
And worse— What if Grace saw it or heard about it? What if Grace stopped seeing him as dependable? As strong? Rocky cannot allow that.
So what if he struggles to sleep whenever Grace is away? So what if the silence sometimes makes him want to claw his own carapace apart?
It is not a problem. It will never become a problem as long as Rocky keeps it to himself. Everything is fine. Everything is going well.
His life belongs to Grace. His work belongs to Grace. Everything is about Grace.
Why should Rocky stop and think about what he needs? He's healthy. He attends his monthly medical checkups.
Well. Mostly. Except during the months-long work trips. But those do not count. Work for Grace’s bio dome comes first after all. Health be damned.
His doctor always gives him a nine out of ten. Physical health. Mental health. Nine out of ten. So clearly, everything is fine.
Rocky almost forgot his satchel on his seat the moment the train reached Orralis. Thankfully, the conductor called after him, and he had to rush back, sling the satchel over his carapace, and hurry out of the train, nearly stepping on another Eridian who was inches shorter than him. He didn’t even have time to apologize.
He just wanted to get back home to Grace, and he was the savior of Erid, surely he could be forgiven for an accident like almost stepping on someone, right?
“Savior Rocky!” Matilda greeted him by the entrance of the bio dome, tapping her claws noisily against her carapace in greeting. Rocky returned the gesture, though a little rushed.
“Good day, Matilda. Good work,” he said automatically.
Matilda laughed and opened the door for him.
“Always so excited to see your human, aren’t you? Glad you had a safe and productive trip!”
Rocky hurried down the hallway.
Unfortunately, no matter how eager he was, he still had to go through the decontamination process. Thank goodness his house was inside the dome in its own partition with an ammonia atmosphere, or he would have gone crazy doing this over and over again. The idea had been his, along with a few workers, to move their homes inside the dome. Now they had their own little city within it. It had cost a tremendous amount of materials and months of meetings, all while Grace was busy fighting for his life aboard the Hail Mary, cared for by multiple doctors Rocky had personally selected.
“Good day, Rocky.”
Lyra already had Rocky’s XEVA suit waiting in its unit while his belongings were decontaminated and sterilized, then sent along a conveyor under a scanner while Lyra monitored the screen. Rocky stood in the chamber as jets of air blasted him from every direction, forcing him to spin around to ensure he was completely clean and sterile.
Even with XEVA suits, they always made sure they never accidentally brought any illness or harmful contaminant into Grace’s environment. The process took an hour, and by the time Rocky had suited up, he was practically vibrating with impatience.
“Goodness, you’re too excited. It’s good to see you too.”
Rocky groaned. If he had a human face right now, he would have been rolling his eyes.
“You can’t blame me. I’ve been gone too long.”
“Fair enough. I can’t blame you for missing your human.” Lyra purred teasingly as he handed over Rocky’s satchel and reports. Rocky let out an embarrassed chirp.
“Am I the talk of the town again?”
“When aren’t you, hero?” Lyra tapped a claw against Rocky’s carapace, pushing him back slightly with pressure in a playful manner. Rocky merely brushes Lyra’s claw away with a huff. “Not that. I mean about Grace. I’m sure everyone knows by now how much I care for him. I don’t intend to hide it. I’ll show my excitement whenever and however I want.”
Rocky couldn’t stop the delighted trill that escaped him, his carapace trembling with excitement.
Of course he was proud to show how much he loved his human. That was his Grace, his savior. He would build anything Grace wanted, do anything Grace wished of him.
Lyra chuckled softly.
“Right. Just don’t let Matteo hear that, or she’ll get jealous. You know how human culture is. Best friends have a habit of complicating relationships.”
Rocky answered with a confused chirp.
“Anyway, you’re cleared to go.”
Lyra practically pushed him toward the exit. Rocky let out another puzzled chirp before continuing on his way.
That was odd.
Who was Matteo?
Rocky stepped into the next chamber as the ammonia atmosphere was flushed out and replaced with oxygen. When the inner hatch opened, the full expanse of Grace’s bio dome spread out before him.
He was home.
Oh goodness, he was finally home.
He broke into a run, claws slipping on the sand, but he didn’t care. It was six in the morning, which meant Grace was almost certainly still asleep. Perfect. He could surprise him by sitting beside his bed and waiting for him to wake up. Then he’d get his usual hug, Grace’s inevitable tears, and a kiss on top of his carapace.
He was so excited he started making the little snorting noises Grace teasingly called pig snorts, but Rocky couldn’t help it.
When he reached the house, he found the door locked. Strange. Grace usually forgot to lock it, and Rocky was normally the one reminding him. Still, it wasn’t a problem. He pulled a slim unlocking tool from his satchel, slipped it into the mechanism, twisted, and heard the satisfying click.
Maybe Grace finally learned his lesson, he thought with a pleased trill.
He slipped inside and quietly closed the door. ARM-ando stood nearby and immediately broke into a happy little dance when he saw Rocky. Rocky returned the greeting before heading toward Grace’s bedroom.
He reached for the door.
It opened.
And Rocky came face-to-face with a five-foot-seven Eridian standing inside.
What the hell?