Chapter Text
Grace had never made friends as much as he had more accidentally stumbled into relationships.
It was a curse on his end, really. He struggled to relate with the other scientists in his field when he was in academia, he could barely get any words out to his fellow teachers at Grover Cleveland Middle before awkwardly turning in on himself. Even as a kid and through his own time in school, he barely made any friends. And if he did, he didn’t keep them for all that long.
But then there were the occasions where he more or less just happens to stumble into somebody. Stratt, who just walks into his classroom one day, plucking him from his life and then becoming one of the people whom he confided in the most over his time working on the Petrova Task Force. Or Carl, who was really just meant to ensure that Grace didn’t blow something up or kill himself while working alone, turns into a person Grace can be himself around.
At least that’s how it felt before those people who he trusted took it into their hands to personally shoot Grace up into space.
“What Grace doing, question?”
Grace is suddenly thrown off his train of thought from the sound outside his door, quickly he turns back and gives a small chuckle to show the Eridian that he was doing fine.
“Nothing, Rock. Just thinking about stuff I need to get done today.”
Rocky trills at Grace with suspicion.
How could Grace forget surely the strangest friendship that he had stumbled upon, one with an alien whose place he now lives on. And though maybe it would seem embarrassing for him to say aloud in front of others, relationships with non-humans so far had been the best he had ever been a part of. Maybe it was just because the two of them had been floating in space alone for years (decades on Rocky’s end) before meeting each other, but being Rocky’s friend may have been the best friendship he’d ever had.
Then after coming to Erid? He suddenly had more friends than ever before. Rocky introduced him to his mate, Adrian and the two of them hit it off. Unlike the microbiologists that Grace knew on Earth from his academia days, Grace found Adrian so easy to talk to. Both of them were so fascinated in the other's biology and seemingly had endless things to converse about with one another.
Of course, he didn’t find Eridian pebbles all that different from kids on Earth. Who he, maybe also embarrassingly, found the easiest to talk to. Much easier than people his own age.
But it was strange, it was like a whole new realm of possibilities had opened up for him once he had settled on Erid. Even if humans were pack animals or needed the contact of one another to survive, Grace felt like he was always meant to be on Erid from the moment that he got there. Like communicating with the Eridians came so naturally to him as to where it didn’t when he talked to other people on Earth.
“That not important right now. Eridian scientists make big discovery. Big big big!” Rocky bounces up and down excitedly.
Grace snorts at his enthusiasm. The Eridians had made many “big discoveries” in the time that he’s been here. The cloning of his muscles for protein in the form of “me-burgers”, synthesising soil to help grow crops inside the biodome, the ability to create precipitation inside the biodome. The list goes on. And Rocky is just as excited to run and tell Grace every single time. Of course as cool as Grace thought that these advancements were himself, at this point, he was more excited for Rocky being excited.
“Big discovery, ay? Am I going to faint? Should I sit down?” Grace moves from the place where he was standing looking out the window to a desk chair not that far off.
“Grace no joke about that. Is serious.” Rocky trills in annoyance as he walks into Grace’s room, circling around the chair once before stopping in front of him.
“Right, right. Serious. That’s why I have my serious face on.” Grace sits up straight in the chair and trains his face to an interested gaze.
Rocky does whatever the Eridian equivalent of a sigh is.
“Okay, really.” Grace laughs, giving Rocky his actual attention. “What is it? I wanna know. You’re putting me on edge here, pal.”
There is a pause on Rocky’s end, seemingly for dramatic effect.
“Eridians find new human in space!” he trills with loud excitement.
Eridians couldn’t see color. But nobody but Grace needed to know that his face went white as a ghost after Rocky’s happy chirps.
“What.”
“Yes yes! New! Human found inside weird space junk! Asleep in Eridian medical bay right now.” Rocky starts bouncing up and down again.
Grace has no words. In fact, his throat and mouth have gone completely dry. He wants to say that that’s insane. That that’s impossible. He wanted to ask how a human could be found this far away from Earth, be in a piece of “space junk” and still be alive.
“Grace heart rate increase, statement.” Rocky chirps, a bit of concern within the sound. “Something wrong, question?”
“No…” Is the only word Grace is able to mutter out from his lips. But it’s a lie. There is something wrong. Very wrong. There’s something wrong with this situation. With this circumstance. Heck, there was something wrong with himself. Something was wrong with the way he was feeling right now.
Rocky waits a moment before starting again.
“Grace want to see new human, question?”
Grace nods, but he doesn’t know why. Maybe it’s because he’s naturally curious. Darn him and his curious brain.
But as Rocky moves out of Grace’s room and out of the house, Grace finds himself following slowly behind. Because he knows how he’s feeling about this. He knows why he feels wrong.
Grace was scared.
Grace was scared to see another human again for the first time in over a decade.