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It was the first year anniversary of the makeshift Hail Mary crew arriving on Erid, and Simon could tell Grace had something planned.
Something more than the mini party there were having on the beach, complete with IV bags of vodka Grace had foraged from the Hail Mary. Rocky chittered by Grace's side, the two of them engrossed in a lengthy discussion on the possibility of an afterlife. Adrian sat by the water, watching over their newly hatched pebble — who has been fondly named Skittle — play in the waves.
"Grace is planning something, isn't he?" Simon settles beside them in the sand.
Adrian rumbles. "Grace tell Adrian not to tell."
"So he is, then."
"Adrian not say that."
Skittle gallops over, tittering excitedly as they use Simon's body as a climbing ground. Once they reach his xenonite arm, their little claws can't get a good enough grip, and they begin to slide down back into his lap.
"Skittle is getting quite heavy." he remarks.
"Yes, very amaze." Adrian untucks one of their limbs from under themself, plucking Skittle off of him by their shirt. "Adrian Rocky hatch healthy healthy pebble. Growing like pebble should."
"I'm glad." he smiles, watching as the little pebble digs a little hole in the sand to plop their body into. "Will they be getting their family crest soon?"
The Eridian perks up. "Yes, yes! Soon Skittle get family crest, ceremony very soon! Simon Grace come to ceremony, question?"
"Of course we will!" Grace's voice comes from behind them, cheerful as always. "We wouldn't miss it for the world."
Simon nods in agreement as the other man sits with them, cane across his knees, Rocky joining them shortly after. Skittle scampers over to their other parent, chirping gleefully.
"Though, I was hoping we would have another ceremony." Grace adds, rooting around in the pockets of the skirt he had "borrowed" from Ilyukhina's bag. He pulls out a small ring of xenonite, with a small red gem embedding into it. "Only if you'd want it to happen, of course."
Simon's eyes widen, a blush tinting his cheeks pink. "Ry, what… what are you asking me?"
"Will you marry me, Simon?" his face is flushed completely red, blue eyes as big as saucers.
"I-I-oh my tree…" a hand comes up to his mouth, tears blurring his vision. "Yes, please, yes, I'll marry you."
Looking like he's barely containing his excitement, Grace slips the ring onto the ring finger of Simon's non-xenonite hand. He shakes his own hands out in elation, before practically pouncing on Simon, crashing their lips together.
"Disgust." Rocky comments, but they don't truly sound upset. Adrian thunks them on the carapace.
Rocky's voice doesn't make it to Simon's ears, as he's completely enamored by Grace. The two pull away for a breath, still holding onto each other, whether it's by their cheeks or by their shirt. Their lips meet again, unable to stay apart for long.
When they finally do part, Grace grabs him by the arms with a big, goofy grin. "I want to dance with you."
"How- I would love to, but you- you can't dance with your…" Simon can't seem to get his tongue to work properly, stumbling over his words.
A month into being on Erid, something had made itself apparent. The gravity on the planet was much heavier than either of them were used to, and it hit Grace the hardest (they have a theory that it effects Simon less due to temporarily living on Mars when he was young). Early onset arthritis made his joints painful, stiff, and inflamed. He's barely able to walk across the house without his cane now. Dancing was obviously out of the question.
"Well, the buoyancy of water helps take the weight off of your joints, so it would really help with my knees and ankles." Simon will never get tired of the way Grace's face lights up when he finds something science-y to yap about. "Plus, if I fall, I'm just gonna get my hair wet."
It's not a bad idea, but it's an idea that makes Simon anxious. Simon, always anxious. Grace calls him a worrywart, a nervous wreck. Grace also always says that it's normal for trauma survivors to be overly worried, paranoid, even.
"Okay." he agrees eventually. "We just have to be careful."
"I'm always careful." Grace informs him.
Simon gets to his feet, offering a hand to help the other man up. The two of them remove their shoes and roll their pants up over their knees. They dip their toes in the lake, shivering at the coolness and giggling like teenagers. They slowly wade into the water, adjusting to the temperature.
Once the two of them are up to their chests in water, Grace intertwines the fingers of their left hands, guiding Simon's left to his chest while putting his own on his shoulder.
"Have you ever danced before?" Grace asks as he begins to gently sway them side to side.
Simon shakes his head slightly. "No, never had time to. Or a reason."
"Well, we have all the time in the world now." he takes a step back, pulling him with him. "Just let me guide you, we'll go slow and steady."
Simon steps on the other man's foot after only a few seconds, over and over again, no matter how much he tries not to. They go back and forth with "I'm sorry"s and "it's okay"s each time.
The water sloshes against them with each movement, as if it's dancing with them. Rocky whistles notes from the beach, Skittle chirping in excitement. Fake seaweed tickles Simon's ankles.
"Water is such a wonder, isn't it?" Grace says as he leads them in a careful line. "I can dance and it doesn't even hurt that much!"
"But it does hurt?"
"I've come to accept that there's always gonna be a little bit of pain." he tells him. "But it's a small price to pay to dance with you. I've always wanted to. You know, I danced with a mop that I dressed up in Ilyukhina's clothes in the Don't Go Crazy room when I first woke up on the Hail Mary. I think I lost some brain cells on there."
"We all lost brain cells on there. Confined space with an alien for years with limited things to do will do that."
"That's why they had us in comas for the first four years until we got to Tau Ceti. They were worried we would try and kill each other." Grace spins them around. "Technically, if Ilyukhina and DeBois's chosen ways of death didn't work, Yao would've killed everyone. Ilyukhina chose to die from a heroine overdose, and DeBois wanted to die from nitrogen asphyxiation. Yao chose some gun to shoot himself with, and also in case either of the other's didn't die."
Simon didn't ask for that information, nor did he really want it, but he knew as soon as something began to cycle in Grace's mind, there was no way of stopping it from spilling out of his mouth.
"Now that I think about it, they didn't make me choose a way of death before they put me on the ship. I guess they assumed I'd just use the nitrogen they had on the ship for DeBois." he pauses. "I should stop talking about death."
"Maybe you should, Angel."
"You're right. We're getting married!" he grins widely. "When should we have the wedding? Sometime after Skittle gets her familial crest?"
Simon nods, smiling back at him. "That sounds perfect."
"Can we get out of the water please? I'm freezing my willy off."
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While the group of them continue what Grace calls a "barbeque," Simon can't stop staring at the ring around his ring finger, unable to believe that Simon the Butcher was getting married.