Work Text:
“Rocky...” Grace was on his knees, head bowed down and pressed against the xenonite. “Please wake up.”
He knew it was useless. Rocky would wake up when his body was ready to, and not a moment sooner. He pressed his hand by his head. He wished desperately, not for the first time, that he could be there, actually be there for him. He wished he could hear like his best friend could, could hear him breathe, his hearts beat his mercurial blood through his veins, no matter how pointless supersonic hearing would be in this situation. The only difference between sleep and death for an Eridian is if they wake.
Everything still hurts. His face, from being crushed up against the controls. His ribs and spine from being compressed with the Gs that had ripped through the ship. His knees, but that could just be because he was on the wrong side of thirty. His arm. He clasped the bandage with his other hand, wincing at the pain of the still oozing burn. Proof that Rocky had saved him. And maybe doomed himself in the process.
Tears leak slowly down his cheeks.
“Leaky, leaky space blob,” Rocky’s soothing whistles sound in his mind. He wipes his tears away with the bandaged arm, and staggers to his feet.
The leaky space blob had work to do.
He didn’t want to leave him. The weeks of the ritual of watching each other sleep had made him grow used to being there while Rocky slept. Of going to sleep and waking up to have Rocky watching over him, hands fiddling with his creations. With Rocky insensate before him, even turning his back right now felt like sacrilege. A betrayal.
But he couldn’t stay there, not when just looking at the still form of his friend was making him dehydrated with how much he was crying.
He compromised. It was a mess, even more so than Grace left it on a day-to-day basis. Rocky hated how untidy – dirty dirty dirty why Grace make messes everywhere question – the ship got, and he didn’t have to leave the room to pick up in here.
So, he distracted himself as much as he was currently able, head twitching back around to see if there was any movement, ears straining to catch the tap tap tap of Rocky’s claws. There was nothing of course. Beyond the hum of the ship, and his own breathing, there was nothing. Clothes over on one side of the door if they were dirty. Clean(ish) clothes on the other side, to be folded and put away. Dishes, mainly coffee cups and spoons, in a bin on one of the only empty surfaces, to be gathered up and cleaned. Old food pouches, water pouches, candy wrappers and crumpled up paper went in a bag for garbage. Slowly, bit by bit, Grace looking back over at his friend every step of the way, the room grew cleaner.
He had to take it slow. Breathing hurt, moving hurt. His heart hurt. His eyes stung even as they overflowed, his throat aching and sinuses stuffed. He sniffed deeply, hands cupped over his eyes and forehead, trying to breathe, to calm down. To do what needed to be done.
He took the few steps back to the dividing wall. “I’ll be back soon, I promise,” he told Rocky.
He picked up the bin of dishes, and the bundle of dirty laundry, stopped at the door. Looked over his shoulder.
“Don’t wake up without me.”
After tidying the room as much as he could stand, he dragged his mattress and other bedding in, snug up against the barrier. Like he- heck he was going to sleep away from Rocky now. He was only a man, he had to leave the room at some point, but by gosh he was going to be as close as possible as often as possible. Once his bed-nest was set up as comfortably as he could manage with the materials he had, he flopped down onto it, angled awkwardly against the xenonite so that he could watch Rocky while still supporting his aching back.
“I miss you. I know it’s only been, what a couple of days? But I still miss you buddy. You gotta wake up for me Rocky.” He sniffed back more tears. “I can’t do this without you.” He leaned his head back, and closed his eyes, trying not to re-live what they had just gone through. “At least we got what we came here for, huh buddy? We just gotta figure out how to use it. And with both of us working on it together? Astrophage doesn’t have a chance.”
It seemed between one blink and the next the lights cycled over. A new ship day had begun. He rubbed his eyes and groaned at the pain that was, well, everywhere.
He tapped the barrier lightly, hoping without hope that Rocky had woken up. Silence. He breathed in deeply, breathed out. Tried and failed to hold back tears.
He thunked his head against the xenonite, twice, softly, so as not to make his aching head even worse.
“I can’t just sit here all day. I gotta, gotta start getting myself together,” he murmured, to himself or to Rocky or to both, he didn’t even know. “I’ll be back, I promise. I won’t leave you.” The room he was in was cleaner now, but that still left the rest of the ship. And he really should eat. He sniffed his armpit and recoiled. And shower.
He finally managed to push himself away from Rocky and get to the bathroom part of the ship, used the toilet, and finally stripped and washed the sweat, grime, and blood from his hair and skin.
Feeling a little more human, Grace got coffee delivered straight from Mary, and set up making up a plan to tackle what needed to get done. Otherwise he’d just leave a trail of half-clean destruction behind him, which would definitely get him accolades from his roommate.
He requested and got some music playing so it wasn’t just the hum of the ship playing in his ear, and got to work. He was only able to focus on any particular task for a few minutes at a time before he bee lined back to Rocky to make sure he was still alright, that nothing had changed. Checking to see if he had woken. Each time, it was the same. The collapsed form deathly still. Each look brought only a modicum of relief and another stab of guilt and fear, but he couldn’t stop. It was like poking at a sore tooth. Each time, he had to force himself to leave again.
Cleaning was unfortunately not one of his strengths. While it wasn’t necessarily difficult per say, it was time consuming, mind-numbingly boring, and filled with unpleasant odours and textures. It also left him with way too much time for him to think. Well, to spiral and catastrophize more like.
It wasn’t until the lights were starting to dim that he realized he had been kneeling by Rocky for far too long, not doing anything, just pressing his hand as close to Rocky as he could. Watching over him. He sighed, rubbed his hand over the xenonite affectionately, and stood, cracking his back – why Grace snap all his bones, question???? – and doing a once-over of the ship to make sure he hadn’t left any disaster piles hiding for him to trip over.
After cleaning up the one he found (by tripping over it), he reluctantly ate the meal the ship provided him, before hurrying back to his vigil. He resisted sleep, even when the lights lowered to the point that he could only see the barest impression of Rocky’s form. He didn’t want to look away. At some point though, he must have fallen asleep, because the next thing he knew it was another day cycle. Still awkwardly half-sitting, half lying down against the barrier.
“Morning Rock,” Grace murmured as he winced through the pain in his neck and turned more towards him, pressing his forehead against the xenonite. “I hope you’re sleeping well. I gotta get at least a little work done today, yeah? Otherwise you’re gonna scold me for being a lazy human, and I can’t have that. I’m the only example of my race, I gotta make a good impression, right?”
“Grace poor example for racing. Too clumsy, would trip.”
“Rocky!” His eyes shot open and he shoved closer to the wall. “You’re awake! Are you okay?”
“I hurt. Stupid human atmosphere.”
His voice softened. “You saved me bud. Thank you. I don’t think I can ever pay you back for that.”
“Why pay, question? Was right thing to do. Rocky Grace save stars. Can’t if Grace pass out.”
He huffed out a laugh. “You’re not wrong.”
“How experiments go with Taumoeba, question? Is in lab, question?” Rocky made to get to his feet, joints hissing and legs wobbling.
“Whoa, bud, wait a minute, you’re still looking really rough.” Oh. Right. The Taumoeba. Oh shhhhhhh- “Uhhhhh, about that...”
Rocky was still limping a bit, but that 72 hour sleep or so did wonders for his regeneration. It certainly hadn’t hurt his voice any. “Stupid, foolish, [whistle click], human, leaving Taumoeba out, [chirp click whistle whale song] experiment, what if all died? Would have to fish go again, does human want to die question? Rocky doesn’t want to die, statement.”
“I can hear you, you know.”
“Rocky knows.”
He threw his hands up, then winced. Ow. He was not ready for sudden movements like that. “I messed up, I’m sorry! But look, they didn’t die, and we can start experimenting properly now.” He waved some slides at Rocky. “See?”
“No.”
“Ha ha, very funny.”
Grace got to work, but he was distracted, and knew it. Even hearing the tapping and clicks that Rocky let out wasn’t enough to reassure him that he was okay. He kept turning around and making sure that his best friend was okay, was awake, moving, alive.
“I am okay, Grace. No worry.”
Nothing got past him, not that Grace didn’t already know that. “Human thing, maybe. If I can’t see you, I keep thinking that...” He let out a breath in a rush. “I keep thinking you’re still sleeping, and I don’t know when you’ll wake up.” He swivelled around in his chair and faced Rocky. “I gotta make sure you’re okay.”
Rocky tinkered with what was in his claws, winding the wire around and around with his ‘knitters’ as Grace thought of them. It was mesmerizing, to the point that he didn’t clock what Rocky said right away, too focused on the strangely fluid movements.
“Sorry, what?”
“Sigh, Grace no listen,” followed by a raspberry sounding noise that really needed no translation. “Rocky say Grace stupid deaf human. Focus on experiments, statement.”
“Thanks, really buddy, you really know the way to a guy’s heart,” he rolled his eyes and turned back to the microscope. If that didn’t stop him from turning back and watching the Eridian every few minutes, neither of them said anything about it.
When the lights started to dim in the start of the night cycle, Grace stretched out of the shrimp pose he had been, and stood. “I think it’s time for our favourite activity, Rocky,” he said jokingly. “Dinner.” Usually, Rocky preferred to stay as far away as possible, so he had taken up the habit of warning him when he was about to eat. Like usual, Rocky skittered off as Grace headed down to the ‘kitchen’ where he tried to eat most of his food so that Rocky wasn’t as put off as he could be.
This time though, just as he was getting his meal ready – this one was a type of chicken stir-fry, it looked like – he heard the distinctive clunking roll of Rocky’s ball.
“Rocky?” he asked, food halfway to his mouth. “I’m eating, bud.”
“Rocky knows. Rocky watch.”
Uh. What? The first and only time he had been willing to watch him eat – for science! – he had spent the whole time cringing back from Grace, and had booked it as soon as the last bite had been swallowed.
“I’m fine with that, I guess,” Grace said slowly. “But I didn’t think you were.”
“Grace eat. Rocky watch.”
Well, okay then. He shrugged and started to eat. He couldn’t hear much beyond his own chewing, but the familiar tap tap motion caught his eye. That was something the alien did when he wanted to ‘see’ more clearly. Which was weird. But whatever the case, Grace tried to eat neatly, and didn’t fill up the silence with talking, both to eat quicker, and because he’s pretty sure that Rocky would riot if he had to put up with both types of mouth sounds at the same time.
Having him there, watching, was unusual, but comforting. Even in the few minutes that they had been apart as he went to the kitchen and Rocky evidently was fetching his ball, there had been a lingering sensation, a shiver down his spine, an urge to make sure his friend was alright. Right now, he only had to glance up to see the familiar brown carapace, the green highlights glowing with reflected light as his foreleg tap, tap, tapped. Strangely, Rocky wasn’t fiddling with anything, something that the Eridian was usually doing near constantly.
He wiped his mouth on his sleeve, which caused Rocky to let out his first vocalization since the meal started, a quiet, “messy Grace” that he was pretty sure was affectionate for all that it was still an indictment. It was just on the edge of his hearing, so he ignored it as he tidied up from dinner – though that was really just rolling up the packet and tossing it and the spork in the disposal.
“All done,” he told Rocky with a smile, as he would have done for any other meal. “Movie time?”
Rocky visibly perked up “Yes, yes. Rocky wants to hear the malpractice medicine show.”
“Alright we can do that. Don’t-go-crazy room, or do you want to join me where I have my bed set up?”
There’s a moment of rocking back and forth, before Rocky chimed out “Bed, watch Grace sleep when fall asleep halfway through show.”
“Hey, that was one time.”
“Sixteen times. Rocky counted.”
All through setting House M.D up, Rocky stayed close beside him, ball rolling this way and that, bumping up against his legs.
“Look, I know I’m not the epitome of my name here, Rocky, but you’re not exactly making it easy for me. Can you please settle down?” Grace asked, after he had smacked into his knee for the third time.
“Need word.”
“Uh, epitome?” Grace scratched his chin while he fiddled with the laptop. “It means the perfect example, or ideal of something.”
“Ah, that is [low-high low song whistle click three clicks].” Rocky finally rolled away from his legs and bumped his way up on top of the mattress, leaving just enough room for Grace to settle down next to him.
It only took another minute before he was ready to sit down. Once he did, Rocky shifted even closer, so that the ball was nearly in his lap. Grace thought about asking what was up with this new-found clinginess, but he just threw his arm over the ball, curved his body against it, and soaked in the warmth emanating from it while they watched. He was pretty sure he already knew.
Grace’s eyelids were getting heavier and heavier, the last week’s stress and emotional roller coaster (plus his battered body) catching up with him. He bit back a yawn, unsuccessfully.
“Sorry buddy, I think you’re right.”
“Rocky always right. Grace sleep. I watch.”
“Mmmm, okay...” He yawned again, stretched luxuriously and then snuggled down further into the bed, still pressed up against the ball, no matter how uncomfortably the edges of the xenonite bit into already smarting ribs. “You’ll stay, right?” He tilted his head and gazed up at Rocky with sleepy eyes.
"Will stay.” One of his hands reached out, pressing though the flexible panel, tentative. Grace reached his hand out, letting his fingers brush against Rocky’s claws.
“Will always stay.”