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Rocky could just ask Grace directly for what he needs. They don't make fun of each other for things that are actually important to them. Grace calls these ‘cultural’ things, like sleep-watching, soundproofing Grace’s bathroom, letting Grace eat in common areas and Rocky eat in private.
Or like when Grace nervously asked if he could touch his hand through the panel of flexible xenonite on Rocky’s ball. Grace had started crying the moment their fingers intertwined, and Rocky immediately installed a flex panel next to Grace’s bunk and started to work on a less clunky suit for himself. He hadn’t realized Grace relied so heavily on touch, but of course he does, his whole shell is mess of exposed nerves.
So Rocky knows Grace will indulge him if he asks him to sing for him. If he explains how much it means to him, what a comfort it is, Grace would sing to him all the time. But he finds himself illogically nervous about it. Grace’s stupid anxiety must be rubbing off on him.
“We should do the sing-along again.”
“Karaoke?”
“Yes yes yes. Amplify voices in big entertainment room.” No big deal, Rocky just wants to play the silly singing game again for fun.
“But we’re terrible at it,” Grace chuckles. It’s a nice sound, a gentle rumble that makes Rocky feel warm. He’d like to be closer, to really feel the vibrations of the sound in his body, but he has to double and triple and quadruple check that the new xenonite suit he’s making will be safe for both of them. For now he just needs to convince Grace to be a little louder.
“Doesn’t matter, no one to hear but us. It will be fun.”
Grace smiles. Rocky stomps to see it better, but Grace mistakes this for impatience and laughs again.
“Alright buddy, we can give it another shot if you want. Any songs in particular you wanted to do?”
Rocky shrugs. It’s a habit he picked up from Grace. Originally he starting using some human body language to make Grace feel more comfortable, but he hardly even thinks about it anymore, it comes naturally now. Like how Grace has started doing ‘jazz hands’ to show excitement, and clicks his fingernails against the table when concentrating on something. Which is silly, Grace doesn’t perceive his surroundings with sound the way Rocky does, but Rocky has clicked his fingers together to get a better look at something they were both working on so many times that Grace claims the sound ‘helps him focus’ now.
He also triples words for emphasis, which Rocky pointedly does not feel embarrassed about teaching him. It’s not a common Eridian thing, it’s a quirk of the Northern dialect that Rocky used to get teased for, and scolded by his teachers for not speaking ‘proper Eridian.’ But they can eat it, because Rocky is the first Eridian ambassador to a real-life alien species, and the alien likes the way Rocky talks.
“I guess you don’t know a lot of human songs to suggest. I’ve been so caught up in showing you movies but we really should listen to more music.”
“Yes! Earth music is very interesting, some instruments can sound almost like Eridians.”
“Oh my gosh! I’m supposed to play you all the classic composers and stuff, they even sent a golden record. I’m really not good at this First Contact thing.”
Grace is one of the kindest and cleverest people Rocky has ever met, and he has given up his life to save Rocky and all of Erid. Rocky will not let him actually die of course, but in terms of first impressions Grace is making a pretty spectacular one for humanity.
“Is okay, I have accepted Grace’s shitty memory.”
Grace holds up his hand with the long middle finger pointed up as he starts to look for music on his computer. He still won’t swear out loud, and he is annoyed when Rocky does, but he likes to do the insulting hand signal that Rocky cannot replicate.
He plays the music through Mary’s speakers, calls it ‘surround sound’ even though the sound clearly comes from three specific points where small speakers are set into the ceiling. He also shows Rocky pictures of each of the instruments used to produce the music, and then a video of a large group of humans playing them together. It’s beautiful. The piano and string instruments are comparable to Eridian instruments, but Rocky is impressed and grossed out in equal measure by the ‘wind instruments.’ Humans do so much with their mouths so shamelessly. Rocky is getting used to it with Grace, but the rest of Erid is going to have some adjusting to do if they want to have diplomatic relations with Earth.
“Your crew did not bring any instruments, question?” Rocky has already shown Grace the few instruments he brought over from his own ship. He doesn’t play very well, but they had belonged to fellow crew members and it seemed wrong to leave them out in space to be silent forever.
“Not that I’ve seen, and you and I have scoured pretty much every inch of this ship so I’m pretty sure we would have found it if there was anything.”
“But you can sing.” Not a question. He has heard Grace sing. He is trying to hear Grace sing again, but he distracted him with ‘classical’ music. “We do the sing-along now.”
“Alright, twist my arm,” Grace rises from his folded up position on the floor (he is so tall). “But for the record, just because someone technically can sing doesn’t mean they should.”
“Everyone should sing!” Rocky says, affronted. “Is good for health, good for social bonds. This is not true for humans, question?”
“Huh,” says Grace. “I guess it is. I don’t know if it’s as important to humans as Eridians, but people do sing together in choirs and for religious services and concerts and, well, I guess it is pretty important to humans in general.”
“Good. Grace Rocky sing.”
When they pull up the karaoke program in the Don’t Go Crazy Room, Rocky tells Grace to pick one of his favorites. As much as Rocky would like them to sing together, for now it will be best to listen to Grace sing something he knows and then Rocky can sing something of his own in return.
Stars shining bright above you
Night breezes seem to whisper ‘I love you’
Birds singing in the sycamore tree
Dream a little dream of me
Say nighty-night and kiss me
Just hold me tight and tell me you’ll miss me
When I’m alone and blue as can be
Dream a little dream of me
Rocky was skeptical when he saw the song title. The concept of dreaming is strange and frightening, and witnessing Grace’s ‘nightmares’ has’t helped, but the soft swaying dance of Grace’s voice describes something different. Something gentle and comforting.
Sweet dreams til sunbeams find you
Sweet dreams that leave all worries behind you
And in you dreams whatever they be
Dream a little dream of me
When Grace finishes he chuckles self-consciously. “That probably wasn’t a great pick considering you don’t dream. Wouldn’t mean much to you.”
“It was beautiful!” Rocky insists. “Very impressive for small human vocal chords.”
“Gee thanks, I do what I can with my inferior human body,” Grace snarks and shoves Rocky’s ball. “Why don’t you show me how it’s really done then, huh? Sing me one of your favorites.”
Rocky centers himself in the room and sings Grace a bright playful melody from North Valley, full of syncopated stomps and clicks and bouncy trills. Maybe he should be singing Grace the more widely revered ‘classics’ like Grace showed him earlier, but he asked for one of Rocky’s favorites, so he is getting the sound of Rocky’s home.
“That was awesome Rocky! It sounds like a happy song, right? What does it mean?”
“Is mostly about dancing and sing-sharing, but a lot of it is just nonsense words. Some Eridians think more of the words used to have meaning, but language evolved and changed, and the song stayed the same.”
“That’s so cool, Earth has some songs like that too. Quite a few Celtic songs, I think, and I heard of this woman who used a lullaby her grandmother sang to find the village in Africa her ancestors came from. Her family wasn't sure where they were from, they'd been taken from their home a long time ago, but that lullaby was passed down exactly as it had always been sung, even when they didn't know the language they were singing it in anymore. The people there still recognized it when she found them decades later and they welcomed her like family.”
"Yes yes yes! Music very important for family. Eridian children know the tune of their parents' songs even before they know meanings."
Rocky feels bad that Grace will probably never hear the songs of his people again from their own lungs. Grace didn't seem to think singing was very important for all humans, but Grace lies sometimes. Maybe Rocky will make some human instruments to play for him.
They trade a couple more songs back and forth, and Rocky revels in the strong resonance of Grace’s simple tunes, and the echoes of his own music in the large room.
That ‘night’ (consistent dark-light cycles are important for human health, so they simulate this on the ship) Grace climbs into bed and curls up against the xenonite wall. Rocky settles next to him on the other side of the wall, with a couple arms working on his suit and one hand pushed through the recently added flex panel. He threads his fingers through the thick patch of soft tiny hairs that form the fuzzy halo on Grace’s head. This sometimes helps Grace sleep more calmly, and it is an interesting fidget for Rocky.
Rocky finds himself thinking about the first song Grace sang. “Humans can choose to dream about each other, question?”
“Huh? Oh like ‘dream a little dream of me’? No, it’s not really a conscious choice. Like I told you, it’s just the subconscious processing information in a sort of chaotic jumble. But if someone is on your mind a lot they’ll usually end up in your dreams a lot too. So that song is just saying… I hope you’re thinking about me so much that you feel like I’m with you even in your sleep.”
Rocky contemplates this a moment. “Grace should dream of Rocky,” he declares. “So you won’t be alone in the bad scary dreams.”
“Thanks buddy,” Grace says, his voice low and crackly. He presses a hand against the wall and Rocky returns the gesture, as always. “I’ll try to do that.”