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Despite the initial panic, Grace marked their beach day a success! It was mostly spent on land, but he didn’t want to freak out Rocky and Adrian more than he already did.
In hindsight he should have figured Eridians can’t float and therefore can’t swim. Well, he thought maybe they could hold their breath and walk underwater. He should have put more thought into it or at least warn them. He can’t believe it never came up in conversation.
Rocky and Adrian forgave him of course. They spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach. Grace lay on his quilt reading a book from his laptop. Adrian sat in front of him in a way that blocked the light from his face while they watched their mate play in the sand. Rocky continued to build a sandcastle…which looked more like a normal modern human house, but he was still really impressed. He notes to himself to show Rocky castles later. The day was definitely a success.
As successful as it was, it left Rocky and Adrian with a lot of questions.
Humans could “swim,” as Grace put it. This was not possible for Eridans. The thought of it was crazy. Eridans could not “float.” The fact that Grace could was…well it was kind of amazing. Adrian has spent a lot of time studying biology. When Rocky was gone for so long, they dug themselves into their studies and work.
When Adrian’s partner finally came home, they were overwhelmed. They thought they would never see him again. Their love… their beautiful missing piece. Adrian thought they might never be complete again but Rocky made it home. To say they were thrilled was an understatement. However, their mate brought home a strange alien. Adrian was confused and weirded out to say the least. The alien was clearly sick. The alien would make weird noises and move in their sleep. The leaking was bad. It was gross. Rocky tried to explain how some leaking was normal for humans. However, it wasn’t a normal human right now. It was barely responsive. Starvation, Rocky explained to them. Adrian might have not seen their mate in 50 years, but Adrian still knew their mate well. They could tell Rocky cared about this “human” a lot. They were also told about how this human saved Rocky’s life, not only that but all of Erid. Hmm they don’t understand this strange creature but for Rocky they would do anything. Even if it meant saving this soft leaky alien. Besides its biology was fascinating.
Adrian and a bunch of other Eridian scientists dedicated themselves to studying Human biology. Together they managed to nurse him back to health. It was difficult but Grace, as the human called himself, has made a lot of improvement.
Their mate grew happier as their human grew stronger. Good. Now they have their mate back and a new purpose. Humans were interesting and there was so much to learn, and Adrian was excited to learn more.
So, humans could “float.” They must explore this more. But their mate was not thrilled at the idea.
“No” Rocky chimed angrily at his partner. He can’t believe they would suggest Grace going back into the dangerous water. For the sake of “science.” No, he won’t allow it. Grace is his best friend. They have gone through so much together and he is not throwing it away for science.
“Grace says it is safe. Do you not trust Grace?” Adrian tries to reason with their partner.
“Rocky trusts Grace. Rocky does not always trust Grace with Grace's safety.” Rocky cared deeply for Grace, but he didn’t always show the best judgement when it came to his own health and safety.
“That’s why Adrian and other scientists will be there. We will make it very safe.” Adrian understood Rocky’s fear. They only had one human after all. It would be dumb to lose them due to their curiosity. Rocky also cared for Grace a lot. He had spent years in space with him. Losing Grace means they might lose Rocky. Adrian understood this. A trip like that changes someone but they love Rocky nonetheless.
“Promise? Grace will be safe” Rocky moves closer to Adrian and hums quietly to them. Adrian knew this was a lot for Rocky, but they think Rocky knew he was being a little overprotective.
“Promise.” Adrian draws themselves closer until their carapaces touch. Adrian hums a reassuring tone.
Adrian is excited to see Grace swim. First, he must ask Grace if he was down to demonstrate. Adrian had a feeling Grace would happily demonstrate. It was something they loved about the human; he was a scientist! Not only that but a teacher as well. Grace loved Eridian's curiosity. Of course, he still needed his privacy which they made sure he got. Grace was curious about them as well, so it all worked out.
Adrian put on their xenonite suit and went into Grace’s biodome. Grace should have finished his class by now and started winding down. Adrian made their way to Grace’s house and knocked on the door. Rocky told them it was human culture to knock and wait for humans to answer.
“Rocky is that you?” Adrian could hear Grace move around his house and make his way to the door.
“Oh Adrian, I wasn’t expecting you. To what do I owe the pleasure?” Adrian does not know what Grace means by owing pleasure but decides it must just be a human greeting.
“Hello Grace, I was excited to talk to you about something.” Grace looked at them with what they had learned was a confused look.
“Sure, what is it?” Grace does usually get Adrian here by themselves. It was not uncommon for Rocky to randomly come over. Sometimes Adrian would tag along but they never came by themselves. This was a good thing. He was worried that Adrian didn’t like him. This could be a good sign! …or a bad sign. What if they came here to finally tell him how they really felt. He would understand. It's not easy to deal with the love of your life bringing home a weird alien. He just knows it’s going to make Rocky sad that they aren’t getting along. But he’s getting ahead of himself.
“Adrian and other scientists want to learn about swimming”
Oh, that’s it. Grace was worried about nothing, of course it was a science question. He smiled at Adrian; this was very exciting!
“Of course! I could explain it. I could even demonstrate if you want.”
Adrian trills happily. They knew Grace would help. They happily explained the plan to their human and agreed to meet on the beach tomorrow with all the other scientists. Adrian said goodbye to Grace and hurried home to tell Rocky the good news. Rocky wasn’t thrilled but wasn’t surprised that Grace agreed. He trusts Adrian. He of course will also be there just to make sure everything went smoothly.
Tomorrow arrived and Rocky, Adrian, and two other scientists geared up in their Xenonite suits. Copper and Indigo were both scientists who dedicated themselves to understanding humans. They both were part of the team that nursed Grace back to health. They were worried but mostly excited when they heard what happened on the beach the other day. They were very ready to learn.
When they entered, they sensed that Grace was already on the beach. He was stretching? Yes, he explained to them what that movement was a while back. Rocky hurried over to Grace first.
“Hello friend Grace”
“Hey Rocky!” Grace smiles towards Rocky and turns to his fellow scientists.
“Hello Adrian, Copper, Indigo” Grace looks between them as he says their names.
“Grace sure he wants to do this?” Rocky chimes in a worried tone as he puts his claw on his leg.
“Yeah, don’t worry. I promise I will be fine. I grew up near the ocean and learned to swim when I was 3 years old. Plus, I’m sure none of you will let anything bad happen.” Grace reassures Rocky and Rocky just gives him a worried hum.
“Copper will ensure safety” Copper moves towards Grace with something that looks like a harness with a rope attached…huh guess Grace shouldn’t be too surprised by their caution.
“Whatever you want me to do but I promise I can swim without aid” Grace takes the harness from Copper.
“Grace wears harness or Rocky won’t let Grace swim” Rocky is bossy as always.
“Don’t worry I will wear the harness” Grace puts on the harness and secures it. He hears Rocky trill happily. He rolls his eyes at Rocky’s overprotectiveness.
“Grace explain how Humans swim?” Indigo piped up with a question. Grace turned to them and smiled. He was about to go full teacher mode.
“Great question! It’s actually simple physics. The word we use to describe whether something will float or not is buoyancy. Buoyancy is the upward force that water exerts on objects submerged in it. When an object enters the water, it displaces an amount of water equal to the weight of the object. This displaced water creates that upward force. If the force is greater than the object's weight, then the object will float. You also have to consider density. An object floats if its overall density is less than the fluid it's in.” Fluid dynamics is actually way more complicated than that, but Grace decides his explanation explains the basics of what they need to know. They can figure out the rest from a human textbook. Also, they probably already understand some fluid dynamics, they are scientists after all.
“So, humans float but how do humans swim?” Copper asks, clearly absorbed by the science and the thought of something swimming.
“Well humans have the ability to hold their breath. That helps keep water out of human lungs. Now most people can only hold their breath for only 30 to 90 seconds. However, some people can hold their breath for up to 5 minutes.”
“Humans are very cool!” Indigo exclaims and Rocky hums disapprovingly.
“Do not boost Grace’s ego, it will make Grace annoying” Grace shoots Rocky a funny look. This is not an ego boost, he was simply explaining what humans could do.
“Anyways, as I was saying, humans can hold their breath. The rest is simple. Humans use their arms to pull water back to generate a forward momentum. We also use our legs to generate additional propulsion.”
“Grace show us now?” Adrian chimes excitedly. They could see how tense Rocky was and move towards their love to comfort them.
“Of course!” Grace was so excited to demonstrate. He made his way into the water until he was deep enough to swim. He lifts his legs and orientates himself horizontally with his stomach facing down. He takes a deep breath and begins swimming. He starts with a basic freestyle.
“Look at Grace go!” Copper excitedly chimes as they step as close as they can. Indigo was right behind them just as excited. Adrian stayed back with Rocky. Their mate nervously watched their human swim around. Adrian could see everything they needed to from right here and decided they rather be next to their mate. They held the rope securely even though they were quite confident Grace knew what he was doing.
Grace proceeds to cycle through a bunch of different swim strokes. Each one had Copper and Indigo tripping over each other with excitement. It reminded Adrian of a pebble excitedly showing their parents a new trick. They were glad Grace got to swim. He looked like he was having a lot of fun.
“See everything is ok. Our human is having fun.” Adrian hums to Rocky. Rocky hums back in unsure agreement.
“Grace would probably have more fun if Rocky was happy as well”
“Adrian is right, but Rocky is worried.”
“Grace is ok. He would not want you stressed over him all the time. Grace is safe with us. We will take care of him.”
“Rocky wants to do all that he can-” Rocky tries to explain his worries but Adrian interrupts.
“Rocky is not in space anymore. Rocky is not alone. We will do all that we can together.”
“Rocky missed Adrian.” Rocky hummed and pressed himself against Adrian.
“Adrian missed Rocky too. Now go play with your human.” Rocky trilled happily and stood up and made his way to the edge of the water.
“Hey Rocky, check this out!” Grace yells and waves to Rocky before doing a flip in the water. Rocky tries not to immediately panic. Grace resurfaces and starts to laugh. Rocky trills along with his silly human.