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“You know, humans are the apex predator on Earth, so why don’t you be nice for a change.” Grace scolded Rocky, who had been making fun of how inefficient Grace's stupid human body was.
“No way, human body stupid and fragile, no way humans predator of anything” Rocky swung back and forth, his tone vibratoed the way it does when he laughs, the small twinkles emanating out of his carapace when he finishes talking.
It was a pretty average afternoon on Erid, after a few years of living in the biodome, Grace had set himself into a rhythm. In the mornings he would walk to class, teach a bunch of Eridian children (technically, they were older than him, but whatever) all about human culture and general physics, walk home, and then spend the rest of the night relaxing.
He usually ended up reading. The massive amount of media stored on the Hail Mary made his life easy, he had every book he could imagine readily accessible. He was currently re-reading the lord of the rings, but next on his list was something called Seveneves, which sounded interesting.
Most nights Rocky and Adrian came over, they would all get cozy on the couch, the couch that was large enough to fit Adrian, who was about a foot taller than Grace and almost 5 feet wide, and still have space to spread out. Tonight was like that, they all sat on the sofa, cuddled up in a pile on top of Adrian.
They had started watching some random movie about a girl who was poisoned and went on a killing spree to figure out who had poisoned her. Very compelling. Grace had gotten up to get some water for his dry throat.
“Human body is so inefficient, why need to intake so much fluid when already have so much fluid in body?” Rocky shuttered at the thought of having to actually ingest fluids like water, let alone eat the way Grace does.
“MateGrace right, humans are top of food chain on earth. I have been researching on human thinking machine. Hunting habits very interesting.” Arian chirped as Rocky scuttled off the couch and into the kitchen to guide Grace back to the couch.
Rocky had been guiding Grace around everywhere since their days on the Hail Mary. Grace assumed it was in case he fell when he was starving on the Hail Mary or something. It reminded him of herding dogs.
“Thank you Adrian, and yeah, Humans are the top dog, basically. Intelligence and opposable thumbs will do that.” Grace walks back into the dimly lit living room and drops back to the couch, then sinks into Adrian's carapace. Rocky follows and instantly wraps four arms around Grace's torso.
Grace settles into the perfectly Grace shaped divot in Adrian's carapace, resting his head on a pillow. He slowly rubs circles along Adrian's arms which lays along him like a big body pillow, supporting his weight as he rolls slightly onto his stomach. Heat emanates from both of the Eridians and Grace feels so comfortable, he might melt
“I've talked about humans being adaptive endurance hunters, what about Eridian hunters? How did you guys become the big apex predator?” Grace lets his eyes close as he talks, he feels sleep wedging its way behind his eyes, it’s been a very long week.
Rocky rumbles a little, a weird little habit he developed to let me know he’s thinking.
“Eridians ambush prey. Can move fast fast fast with 5 legs, wait for prey to fall into trap and pounce, can chase for short distance very fast.” Rocky nuzzles his carapace into Grace’s back as he talks.
A shiver runs down Grace’s spine, he thinks back to his first moment in the biodome, when he ran across the beach, pretty slow for a human since he was still recovering, but he still ran. It felt amazing, it was even better to see Rocky burst off ahead of him like a rocket.
Rocky ran so incredibly fast, it surprised Grace. They had talked about general biology while on the hail Mary, with years of nothing else to do but talk shop. Rocky learned a lot about the ‘building blocks of life’ and how to study ‘exo-planets’, and Grace learned about almost every system on the Blip-A and the things Rocky built back on Erid.
“How long can you be fast?” Grace mumbles into the pillow, he can feel himself falling asleep.
“Not long, compared to humans. But Eridian sense of hearing is much stronger than humans.” Adrian chimes in. Their large arm presses itself harder against Grace's body and hugs him tight, squeezing out a satisfied hum from Grace’s lungs.
The two Eridians explain the advantages of their senses for hunting as Grace gently falls asleep. Eventually, Adrian scoops the sleeping body up in their arms, and carries Grace to his large bed.
Rocky climbs up and straddles Grace's chest, hugging around his ribs and gently resting some of his weight on his chest. Adrian sits on the bed next to Grace, gently laying his large arms across Grace’s body, and keeping him safe while he sleeps.
☆ ☆ ☆
For the first time in days, Grace has no classes to teach and nothing to do. His entire day is free, and he plans to spend the whole time doing absolutely nothing.
Rocky is also free! Work on Erid is very different from the money driven world Grace is used to. A lot of ‘jobs’ that exist on Erid are more favors than designated positions. Like asking your neighbor to help mow your lawn in exchange for some dinner.
Eridian’s don’t have a work week, they just go and do stuff when they can, which means they get time off whenever they want. Grace honestly doesn’t know how this kind of civilization can manage, but Rocky has told him it works because of thrums, which, honestly, didn’t clear much up.
But for whatever reason, Rocky was free today. Adrian wasn’t which sucked, so it was just Rocky and Grace, all day. They hadn’t had a day to themselves in so long, and Grace was ecstatic.
Last night's conversation about predators and how Eridians hunt had sparked curiosity within Grace. He all of a sudden really wanted to see an Eridian hunting, get an in depth view of what an Eridian does to catch prey. Especially since he missed most of the explanation since he fell asleep.
His scientist brain always wanted to know everything about Rocky and Eridians. Everything about them was fascinating, and he was lucky that Rocky loved to explain things. Even if he could be a little rude about it sometimes.
But his monkey brain, the one that had done all the evolving and the one that was a little stupid at times, wanted to experience the hunt for itself. Wanted to see if it could survive going head to head with an alien. An 800 pound Alien that is way stronger than him.
Grace and Rocky had set up a small picnic on the beach, the temperature had been cranked up to 75° F, and they had upped the humidity a small bit, making for a nice beach day.
Grace was sporting a pair of loose fitting polyester cut offs, the closest he could get to swim trunks. The Eridians had figured out textiles and fabrics that didn’t contain heavy metals of death and destruction ages ago, but some stuff was too hard to synthesize. So he took to cutting up some of his old track pants.
The two of them were lounging in the fake sunlight, Grace on his little beach chair, and Rocky on the blanket below him. Rocky hummed gently in rhythm with the waves from the artificial ocean, the vibrations rattled in Grace’s chest comfortably as the cold ocean breeze blew against his skin.
“I wonder what it would be like to be your prey” Grace interrupts the silence with a sigh.
Rocky tilts his carapace against the sand, chirping in confusion.
“You know, like you hunting me.” Grace's face goes red at the stupidity of the hypothetical. Why would they do that? Rocky hums quietly, waiting for Grace to explain further.
“I uh… forget I said anything, that was stupid” he pulls his Project Hail Mary trucker hat further over his face, trying to hide from the increasingly awkward situation he’s put himself into.
“Rocky cannot forget, why Grace embarrassed? Is good hypothetical!” Rocky stands, his feet sinking into the blanket and sand beneath him. His claws grip onto the hem of Grace's ‘swim trunks’ and tug slightly.
They stare at each other for a second, Grace can tell Rocky is staring at him. Rocky is incredibly easy to read if you know what to look for, Eridians in general are very open with their emotions, Grace has found.
“Really… you, uh.. You think it's a good hypothetical?” Grace’s face is even deeper red now. His folded arms squeeze tighter as he brings his knees to his chest, yanking the fabric out of Rocky's hands.
“Yes yes! Is very good hypothetical! Would like to show Grace how Eridian hunts very much. Sound fun fun fun.” Rocky spins in a little circle, when his ‘face’ is to Grace again, he bops from side to side. Again, very expressive people.
Grace’s posture relaxes at the sight, knowing that the weird thing he said was taken well rests the bit of nausea that was biting at his stomach. He wraps his arms around his shins and lets his head thunk against his knees, watching the adorable sight of Rocky.
He really adores his little alien, everything he does is adorable, the way he sleeps like a little kitty, the way he scuttles around like a little crab, his bird chirps, gosh he’s just the cutest.
Grace's mind wanders, thinking about how sexy it is when Rocky is in his workshop in the house, working on something new for Grace. The way his claws move around whatever the thing is and how good he is at it.
He thinks about what a genius Rocky is. How his brain moves so fast to calculate the things Grace would need a calculator to do, how he always thinks of the perfect solution to any problem Grace has. Rocky is just so perfect, and Grace is so infatuated it makes him sick.
It’s a good sick though. The kind that rushes through your blood stream and fills every crevice with warmth and pure adoration. The kind that makes you tear up a little just thinking about the other person.
Grace knows he would certainly die without Rocky. Not just because of all the times he did almost die and Rocky saved him, not just the fact that he’s on an alien planet that could kill him at any moment.
But because he can’t breathe right when Rocky is away. He feels like a hollow husk of nothing without Rocky, it hurts to be away from him for too long. The longest they've spent away from each other was when Grace was going back to earth, and he hated every second of that.
“Grace ok?” Rocky tips his carapace to the side, his little melody laced with concern startles Grace. He had been so zoned out he didn’t notice Rocky climb onto the lounge chair and lean on his legs like a big pillow.
“Grace's face looked sad, heart speed up too. Stress? Stress bad! Bad ba-” Grace interrupts Rocky's spiral abruptly by slamming his hands against Rocky's carapace, one on either side of his ‘face’.
“Dude, I’m fine, I was just zoned out, I'm good, we're both fine, we're chill. Its ok bud” Grace stares at the large crack along Rocky's carapace, it’s the closest thing to a facial feature he can find after studying Rocky’s Carapace for hours, he usually looks to it for intense eye contact.
Rocky leans into the hands on him, resting the tiniest bit. Grace's long legs are now sprawled out on the chair and Rocky rests between them, leaning against Grace's stomach. Grace moves his hands to pet along his vents, Rocky rumbles at the touch, humming at an octave higher than Grace's hearing range, making his ears ring slightly, a ring that's grown comforting for him.
They sit for a while, Grace watches the waves crash over the beach, gently petting at the xenonite around Rocky, thumbing at the crevices along the top of his carapace. Rocky listens intently to Grace’s heartbeat, steady and slow, relaxed.
“Grace still want to be prey, question?” Rocky taps one of his claws against Grace's side, it makes him giggle a tiny bit.
“Yeah, totally”
☆ ☆ ☆
Grace stands on what he’s pretty sure is the beach. He’s fully clothed now, in his jumpsuit turned stylish jeans and one of his many stupid pun shirts. The lights in the biodome have been completely turned off and the only thing he can see is the very faint bioluminescent creatures floating around outside the large dome.
He’s starting to regret his decision to let Rocky fully immerse him in the prey position. Rocky had spent almost two hours explaining how most of the old prey on Erid had no sight and terrible hearing, similar to humans. Makes sense that most life died out if that was how they were living.
All of a sudden, the darkness launches an old memory back at him. He’s in a child's bedroom, his bedroom. Him and his brother's bedroom. He looks up and sees glow in the dark stars on the ceiling, it's not very dark, but someone's crying.
He turns and sees his twin wrapped up in blankets, folded in on himself and sobbing. He crawls into the bed and hugs his brother. Ryland was never afraid of the dark, but Colt was, so when their dad took away their night light because Colt swore during dinner, it was awful.
Grace snaps back from the memory, he’s standing on the beach again, at least it feels like he is, it’s still so dark he can’t see anything..
“Grace ok? Face leaky.” Rocky chirps from below Grace. It sounds like he’s standing between his feet.
“Yeah, yeah.. I’m good” he wipes the tears off his face quickly. “Random memory, it was about Colt” he says as he looks towards what he thinks is Rocky.
“Ah, Colt, not Grace but look like Grace” Rocky subtly kicks at Grace's foot, trying to let him know where he is. The lights turning off changed nothing for Rocky, but he understands that it’s completely different for Grace, especially with how lost the human looks.
“Start experiment now. Remember, Grace need to find food to win, so find meburger on ground, is goal." Rocky leaves his claw on Grace's shin while he's talking, he knows even if Grace himself isn't afraid of the dark, the human brain is.
“Got it, and if you ‘get me’ before I find that food, then you win and you get to eat me.” Grace chuckles at that last part, Rocky had been very explicit about how he was absolutely not going to eat Grace, as if it was something Grace was afraid of happening.
“Rocky will not eat Grace, never eat or hurt Grace, like Grace too much” Rocky takes his hand off of Grace’s leg and scurries away. Grace can hear the sand crunching under his feet and realizes that he is now alone in a pitch black biodome.
“Ha ha Rocky, you like me.” Grace jokes at Rocky, who is now gone. Grace closes his eyes and tries to listen for Rocky’s constant hum or the environment around him, but he only hears the distant waves and a small gust of artificial wind.
“Alright, let's find that meburger.” Grace rubs his hands together as he starts walking in any direction. He brings his hands up in front of him to feel if he’s going to walk into anything, and steps across the soft sand.
As he walks, he can feel the presence of something watching him grow stronger and stronger. The feeling builds up in his spine and makes him shiver.
“I know you’re watching me Rock, I can feel it, I'm using my awesome human powers to detect you.” he speaks into the void.
“Humans do not have powers” Rocky’s voice startles Grace so badly he physically jumps and squeaks a little. “Human brain just remember Rocky is hunting Grace, understand that Rocky might be watching Grace. I do extensive research on human psychology before experiment.”
Rocky’s voice is strange, it isn't coming from any specific direction, like it’s being amplified from every direction. The sensation makes Grace swallow hard. It almost feels like he’s thinking the words instead of hearing them.
“I uh… didn’t know you could do that with your voice, rock… it’s cool” Grace’s posture slouches, trying to get smaller, less visible, almost.
“Thank! Is old hunting technique, use to communicate with others in tribe while on hunt in order to not scare prey, usually much quieter than this.” His tone was so sweet and joyous it almost made Grace forget he was actively trying to kill him. Sorta.
Grace continued to walk around in the dark, using his feet to look on the ground, scraping them along the sand in front of him. His hands still far in front of him to keep from banging into a wall. He stares on ahead in no specific direction with his eyes wide, looking at nothing.
The sight was a little creepy to Rocky. Grace’s eyes are very sensitive to light, he squints a lot, he’s explained that he’s a little more sensitive than most humans. Having his eyes this wide for this long is a very odd sight, or, sound to Rocky.
Eventually Grace could feel himself start to get scared, his skin got cold and he felt the need to stop moving to figure out what was going on. He figured that Rocky would follow him, maybe ruffle around some of the foliage around the beach, make some kind of noise, but there was nothing.
Grace was terrified. He couldn't see anything, he looked up at the fake sky for the bioluminescent things again, but he saw nothing. He was effectively blind. He felt a shiver run down his spine as the fake breeze blew across his back and ruffled his hair against his neck.
Tears began sprouting in his eyes. He hated this. He just wanted to go back to the house and turn on every light and sit with Rocky. But the thought of Rocky catching him was so terrifying that he refused to move.
He crouched down the ground, getting as small as possible. He pressed his hands to his ears and scrunched every muscle in his face together. His ears were ringing from how hard his hands were pressing.
His throat filled with bile, his mouth tasted disgusting. He felt like he was going to throw up and that just made him more scared.
Tears poured from his eyes, a sob echoed out of his mouth and he crumpled even further. His knees falling to the ground as he pressed his forehead into the sand.
Suddenly he was on the Hail Mary.
Alone and terrified.
No clue who he was, or what was happening.
Surrounded by nothing but the deep darkness of space.
Rocky listened from behind a rock nearby. He could hear Grace's heart rate pick up drastically. He could hear how fast Grace was breathing and how little air he was actually getting. He could hear every muscle in his body tense up.
He slowly crept out from behind the rock, going slow to not scare Grace. He gently approached the sobbing figure, reaching out a hand to comfort Grace. Rocky knew that touch was the best thing to comfort Grace.
Before he made contact, he spoke, to give Grace a warning of some kind, to not scare him. But it didn’t work. The second a note came out of Rocky’s vents, Grace's eyes flash up at him, somehow wider than before.
Grace screams at the sudden sound before flailing backwards and shuffling away on his elbows and back, still screaming in terror. He still can’t see anything at all, he can only hear unintelligible whale sounds and clicking, paired horribly with his own screaming.
Grace scrambles up and stands, quickly backing away till he feels the back of his shins get splashed with water, soaking his shoes. He instantly shuts his eyes and runs in any direction possible.
But without being able to see, and being so terrified, he doesn't hear Rocky move right in front of him, and his legs catch on Rocky’s carapace. He flips over Rocky’s body and slams face first into the densely packed sand.
He screams in pain and tries to scramble away but is restrained by Rocky's arms wrapping around his hips and chest.
He feels like he’s drowning, he struggles to take in any breath and his head throbs in pain. Blood trickles over his lips. Whatever is wrapping itself around him and constricting him from moving away is going to kill him. He is going to die. Right now, in total darkness.
He doesn’t stop screaming and hyperventilating as the arms flip him around in the grasp and lay him down on the ground, still hugging him tightly.
Rocky doesn’t know what to do. Sure he's seen Grace have a panic attack more times than he can count, but he’s never been so genuinely terrified he doesn’t know what's happening.
He attempts running his claw along Grace's cheek bone, which usually calms Grace down, but Grace just flinches away and screams at the foreign touch. Rocky pleads with Grace, his words beg Grace to calm down, trying to tell him he’s safe, he’s ok. But the words don’t make it to the part of Grace's brain that translates.
Grace doesn’t know what’s happening. He just knows that he can't see anything, he has no clue where he is, and something is holding him tight and trying to touch his face. He thrashes in Rocky's arms and sobs.
“Please, please, please! Don't kill me! I don't want to die! please!” he screams. He’s pleading with the unknown, begging not to take him.
Rocky lets him go. Grace thrashes slightly before scrunching up to a fetal position, pressing his palms to his ears again, his eyes shut tightly as he screams and sobs into the ground. His shirt sticks to his back from the sweat, and snot bubbles out of his nose.
Rocky can’t help but panic himself. The love of his life, the melody to his song, his soulmate, is on the ground at his feet, sobbing and terrified, and it’s his fault. He scrambles around Grace and clicks at an incredibly fast rate.
He really doesn’t know what to do, he could turn the lights on or grab the laptop to translate, but those are both so far away. He can’t leave Grace like this.
He takes his equivalent of a deep breath and walks around Grace to settle next to his head. He rests his arms on the ground and sits on top of them. Grace affectionately calls this loafing, like the earth animal called a cat, Grace thinks it’s cute, cute is good, cute is the opposite of scary.
Rocky settles and begins to hum, the same hum he does when Grace pets him, the same hum that always seems to calm Grace down, slow his heart a bit.
Through the violent sobs, hiccups, and sniffles, Grace can feel the vibrations. The gentle ringing in his ear reaching past the part of his brain that sends fear throughout his entire body.
He stops screaming, he quietly sobs into the sand as his heartbeat slows, and his breaths deepen. His muscles one by one unclench, and he rests against the solid ground.
“Grace? Can you hear, Grace?” rocky coos, not stopping the hum. He gently scoots a tiny bit closer, not touching Grace, but almost, keeping the space until he knows Grace can accept the contact.
He waits, he waits for Grace to fully realize where he is, what's happening, and who he is with. He waits for Grace, he always will. He spent 46 years in silence waiting for Grace, he would wait a lifetime for him.
Eventually, Grace lets go of his head. His hands snake around his waist and hug tightly at his stomach. He squeezes against his legs and cranes his neck to look at Rocky.
“‘M sorry Rock.” his voice is horse, scratchy and painful from the screaming. He needs some water, Rocky notes.
“No sorry, is my fault. Scared Grace.” Rocky pushes forward and presses his body against Grace’s forehead. Grace instantly presses harder, seeking out more contact. Rocky gently and slowly unfurls his legs and wraps them around Grace's limp body. More tears escape Grace’s eyes as the comfort spreads warmth through his whole body.
Rocky's hands all over him, two on his back rubbing up and down, one around his shoulders, one pressed behind his bent knees, and one gently scratching his scalp. The full body hug makes Grace feel so comfortable, but it fills him with guilt all the same.
Grace’s mind hasn’t slowed down one bit, he thinks a million miles a minute, thoughts of death, his past, and what Rocky might think of him dig into his skull. Rocky must hate him for this, his stupid human brain not trusting Rocky enough to keep him safe.
Rocky must think he is such a jerk. Grace ruined their fun experiment with his stupid idiotic fears. He knows Rocky would never hurt him, he knows Rocky loves him, but he can't stop thinking about how awful he must be to take care of.
“No no Rocky I'm so sorry, I ruined the experiment, you were so excited, I was so excited and I ruined it. I got so scared of nothing, I feel awful now you have to stop the fun and take care of me, I’m so stupid, I’m sorry rock, you don't have to hug me like this, I’m so sor-” Grace words spew out of his mouth before he can even consider what he’s saying before Rocky interrupts him.
“Grace, stop stop stop. Grace did not ruin experiment. Not scared of nothing, human brain very complex and evolved to be alert. Grace not stupid. Rocky scared Grace, is ok, Grace is ok.” Rocky hugs Grace closer, tighter against his carapace, squeezing the stress out of him.
“Rocky will always hug Grace, will always make Grace feel safe and loved. Rocky will always be here for Grace.” he sings against Grace's skin, which makes him cry more.
“Rocky love Grace, my leaky leaky space blob.” He pulls his arm from Grace's neck and wipes the tears off of Grace's nose, then settles along his cheek bone.
Grace leans his face into the touch, savoring the feeling. The words permeate in his mind, killing any self deprecating thought left in his head.
“I love you too, Rock, I'm sorry.’ Grace unhooks his hands from his shirt and snakes them around Rocky's Carapace and wraps them around his warm body. His fingers hook into cracks and crevices all along his body, like he was made for grace to hug.
“No sorry, bad bad bad, Grace panic was Rocky’s fault!” his tone wavers with a chuckle, trying to make Grace laugh with him. It doesn’t work. Grace scrunches up even tighter, tucking his face between his one arm and Rocky's Carapace.
Rocky pauses, usually Grace will laugh with him, laughing makes Grace feel better, why didn’t that work? What can he do? He doesn’t want to let Grace feel bad like this, he hates Grace feeling like this.
“My Grace feels bad, what can Rocky do?” he lingers on the last note, humming slightly longer than usual, trying to sound as casual as possible.
Grace doesn’t respond for a while, and Rocky waits, he waits for Grace to be ready, whatever Grace needs, he will give.
Grace sniffs loudly, the action would have sent a shudder through Rocky at the disgusting fluidity of it years ago, but not now. Grace would never be disgusting to Rocky, Grace is perfect and beautiful, the perfect melody.
“I wanna go home.” Grace says with a broken, almost silent sob. He squeezes Rocky tighter, digging his fingers into the xenonite so hard his knuckles turn white.
Rocky instantly adjusts himself and his arms around Grace and scoops him up, holding him like a bride. It's awkward, Adrian is much better at holding Grace, but Rocky will manage.
Grace drapes his body over the top of Rocky and hugs around him tightly. Rocky wraps an arm around Grace's back and beneath his thighs, supporting his weight easily. It’s hard to walk through the sand with just three legs instead of 5, but again, Rocky will manage.
☆ ☆ ☆
Rocky shimmies the door open with one of his free claws and quickly walks through. He rubs a small circle into Grace's back as he lays him gently on the couch, surrounded by blankets and pillows.
He for a moment takes all of his hands off of Grace in order to get a blanket to wrap around his shivering body, but Grace panics at the loss of contact.
“Please don't leave!” he pleads into the darkness, grasping at the arm he can find. His eyes stare blankly and wide past Rocky.
“Not leave, never leave, Grace is ok.” Rocky gently places the claw Grace is clutching onto his thigh. Rocky reaches past Grace and pulls a blanket over the shivering body and squeezes the flesh under his hand gently.
“Rocky is here.” he coos, he hums gently, right in the sweet spot of Grace's hearing, to show exactly where he is. He takes his hand away and pulls it out from under the blanket.
Rocky walks across the room to the dim lamp next to the large bookshelf, he reaches up to the small switch and takes it in his hand.
“I turn on light now, close eyes Grace.” Rocky has too many times hurt Grace's delicate and fragile eyes with turning on a bright light, the last thing he needs is to make Grace more uncomfortable.
Grace does so, he closes his eyes and hides his face slightly with the blanket. He hears the click of the button and the dim light floods the room. It reaches past the blanket and his eyelids. He takes a moment to adjust to it before opening his eyes and scanning the room for Rocky.
He finds him instantly, his dark brown carapace is a nice contrast against the soft beige of the walls. Grace reaches his arms out to him slowly and sobs at the sight of him.
Rocky quickly rushes around and grabs Grace's large water bottle and fox sweater from around the room before rushing over to the couch. He quickly manhandles Grace into the sweater and makes him take a large gulp of water before settling.
He coos at Grace as he climbs onto the couch and settles in the curve of Grace’s body, wrapping himself around Grace's small frame. Grace wraps his arms around rocky tightly, pulling him as close as possible.
It’s still not close enough, the xenonite around Rocky is incredibly thin, almost invisible, but it’s still there. Still a barrier between him and his soul. A barrier that will never be broken.
Grace digs his fingers into the xenonite, into the cracks of Rocky's body and cries. He silently sputters and breathes hard, trying to hide his crying from Rocky, even if he knows it's impossible to hide from him.
Rocky slowly traces along Grace’s quivering shoulders, following them as they jump with each sob. He scratches into Grace’s lower back, hiking up his shirt to reveal pale skin. His claws wander along his skin as gently as possible, leaving sparks in their wake.
Grace swallows his tears and lifts his head up to look at Rocky, still connected to him at the forehead, watching Rocky as he slightly shakes with worry.
“I'm really sorry Rock.” he whispers into the small void between them. He wants to be so much closer to Rocky, he knows this is the closest they can get. He wants to curl up inside of Rocky, be part of his skin. Share a body, to match their already shared soul.
“Grace does not need to be sorry. Grace did nothing wrong.” Rocky whispers back, his hums and notes low enough to vibrate through Grace's body, delivering the message directly to Grace’s brain.
“I don't know why I got so scared, I knew what was happening and I just froze, I got scared, I- I got scared of you Rock!” Grace lets go of Rocky, his arms try to find their way back to his stomach, but Rocky grabs them and holds them in place before he can reach.
“My stupid brain couldn't even remember where I was or that it was you. I couldn't remember that this was a game, I feel like such an idiot Rock-” he was hyperventilating, shaking again.
“Grace, stop, Grace is not stupid. Grace is genius scientist who saved Earth and Erid. Grace saved Rocky, my Grace never stupid. My Grace is beautiful, pretty, genius.” Rocky takes Grace's hands and rests them against his Carapace, forcing him to feel the vibrations of his words and feel the warmth from his body.
Rocky moves his hands away and towards Grace’s face, he wipes the tears off of his cheeks and holds him, forces him to look, forcing him to listen to what he’s saying.
It takes a long time for Grace to respond. No one had ever been this nice to Grace before Rocky. Past partners would call him sexy, but it never felt good, just like a surface level ‘nice’. It almost killed him whenever Stratt would compliment him, which she didn’t often do.
It was hard to adjust to Rocky and Adrian. Rocky of course bullied him for everything, but he also loved to make sure Grace knew how loved he is. And Adrian was worse, You couldn't talk to them without being called the sculpture of perfection or something.
“Thank you Rock… I.. I love you, a lot.” Grace says with a small chuckle, he can feel his cheeks heat up. Tears still pouring out of his eyes.
“I love Grace too. My pretty pretty pretty human." Rocky wiggles Grace's head in his hands a little, which makes Grace laugh harder. He smiles so hard it crumples the skin around his eyes.
Rocky points one of his fists and quickly presses it all over Grace's face while making a cartoonish kissing sound, Rocky's version of kissing Grace. It makes up for his distinct lack of lips.
Grace giggles loudly and grabs Rocky's hand and stops him. He moves his face closer to Rocky and starts planting kisses all over the ‘face’ or Rocky’s carapace, who giggles back.
Eventually Grace stops, and with a giddy smile, stares at his perfect mate, his other half, his Rocky. He stares at him for a long time, taking in how perfect his life is, how lucky he got.
“I love you so much Rock, thank you.” he pulls himself up towards Rocky’s body and hugs him.
“Rocky love Grace too”
“Should we tell Adrian about our dumb experiment" Grace shifts slightly in the hug.
“Not now, moment is nice. Adrian will be disappointed in Grace Rocky joint stupidity” Rocky shimmies against Grace's body.
Grace busts out laughing, he sits up fully and laughs loudly, it echoes through the house and makes Rocky's hearts shudder. His human is so cute when it laughs like this.
After Grace stops laughing and takes a deep breath, he turns to Rocky.
“You know, I still feel pretty awful, what if we stayed in tonight, just watch a movie and wait for Adrian to come over or something.” He grasps one of Rocky’s hands and holds it gently.
“Good plan, I like, but Grace need food, been 5 hours since last meal. Grace already starve enough for one life” Rocky scuttles off the couch and waits for a reply before scurrying off to the kitchen.
“Ca- can that wait? I feel better, but I, uh... Kinda still need you here a bit” Grace slouches into his shoulders, his cheeks flaring red again.
Rocky takes a moment before climbing back onto the couch and settling in Grace’s lap, pressing himself against Grace’s chest to ground him.
“Of course can wait, will wait forever if my Grace needs” Rocky rumbles against Grace's chest, relaxing him instantly.
Grace presses a kiss to the top of Rocky's carapace, which makes the rumbling swell for a split second then mellow back out. Grace chuckles a little at how adorable Rocky is.
Grace reaches over to the end table and grabs the remote. He finds some random movie about a dog show.
“Oh dude, you’re gonna love this one, it's hilarious.” he tosses the remote and settles back into the sofa, getting comfy and relaxing fully. Eventually he falls asleep, safe underneath Rocky and his careful gaze. Surrounded by love.