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Over the years spent hurtling through space at extreme speeds in a pressurized contained with what was, essentially, a sentient rock, Ryland Grace had to commonly remind himself that Rocky had been in space longer than he’d even been alive. 40 years, almost completely alone. Grace had at least gotten the (extremely traumatic) privilege of being completely unconscious for most of his trip, and could at least keep up superficial conversation with Mary. Rocky didn’t have that. So yes, he talked a lot, and he was terrified of letting Grace out of his sight, but at least he had a reason. Luckily enough, he was still a scientist at heart, and Grace could distract him with research. First, it was building things, and studying astrophage. Then, taumoeba. But on the way back to Erid, nothing.
He was laid out on the floor, head tilted to watch the stars whip past. It had been beautiful at some point, but now it made his head hurt. Still, he watched. “What Grace doing, question?”
“Just thinking, bud.” Rocky scuttled around the xenonite, letting out notes of irritation. “Grace sleeping, question? Come here, Rocky watch.”
“Not sleeping, just laying down. People do that sometimes.” More melodic notes danced around the ship, words that either didn’t exist in the english language or Rocky simply didn’t want translated. He was starting to understand bits and pieces of Eridian, and he had a feeling Rocky spent a lot of time swearing at him. “Do you need attention?” He rolled his head to the opposite side, finding Rocky pressed quite close to the xenonite, likely ‘staring’ as much as he was capable. “Yes.” They were getting better at establishing boundaries. For example, Rocky no longer made comments on the time he spent in the bathroom, and Grace promised to stop singing Queen. With boundaries came expression of needs, like Grace needing a hug, or the feeling of Rocky leaning against him, and very often, Rocky needing attention. A few minutes of conversation, or just having something ridiculous explained to him so he could feel Grace watching him, and hear his voice. “What do you need from me?”
“Hand, here here here,” he buzzed, scrabbling to the mesh part of the xenonite, where he could hold onto things. With a hum, he rolled over, and followed Rocky. He pressed his hand against the surface, feeling it bend against his touch, until it breached into where Rocky could hold him, The pressure of being touched by Rocky was nice, feeling a little boulder of weight fall into his palm, or the flat surface of his body. “Better?” He asked softly, curling his fingers in to scratch against his carapace. “Good good good.”
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After some trial and error, they figured out how to have Rocky use the computer. He had to learn the english alphabet to read and look things up, but once he got it, he understood maybe too much. First he looked into early science, (he wouldn’t speak to Grace for days when he found about animal trials during the space race) then current science. He looked into some cultures and religions, (explaining the idea of God was interesting, to say the least), and gave up on the difficult topics when he got to what he called ‘disgusting topics’. He wouldn’t elaborate, but Grace had a sneaking suspicion he discovered something like racism or sexism. When he abandoned wikipedia, he found something worse, an evil that Grace hadn’t expected to be on the computers NASA had sent him with. Reddit. He briefly considered parental locks, but had to remind himself that Rocky had been in a relationship since Napoleon had been around, and really, Grace had no right to control what he could see. Still, seeing him look at 3D amalgamations of Reddit porn wasn’t enjoyable. The worst, though, was when he looked at memes. “Grace,” he called into the ship. “Grace, Rocky have question.”
“Yeah, Rock? What’s up?”
“This word, what mean, question?” He gestured to the post he was reading. It was on ex mormons, which immediately made him anxious. He skimmed through it to look for words that Rocky wouldn’t know, and only one stood out. “Do you mean soaking?” He asked, face twisted in an uncomfortable squint. “Yes, that one, that one, what mean?” Grace sighed heavily. “Can I… opt out of explaining that?” Rocky stamped one of his legs. “No, Rocky eat in front of Grace, Grace now owe! Tell tell tell.” He stomped around some more, grumbling “annoy annoy annoy,” to himself while Grace gathered his thoughts. How did one explain the intricacies of religion based abstinence to an alien that only knew asexual reproduction? He leaned against the xenonite, pinching his lip between his teeth. “How much do you understand about… God?”
“Stupid human invention, kill many. Bad bad bad.”
“The Church would not approve that outlook, wow. Well, there’s some people who belive that sex should only happen between married people, like you and Adrian.”
“Eridian do not marry, Eridian mate. Rocky mate Adrain.” He sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Same difference, bud. Anyways, Mormons are those same people, they think sex is holy and should only happen between a husband and wife,” he paused briefly, but continued before Rocky could go on a rampage about gay rights, which he had recently discovered weren’t common. It was one of the things Rocky considered disgusting. “But young people, even mormons, want to engage in… sex. So they substitute.” Rocky chirped. “So what soaking, what do, question?” He drew out the ‘o’ in soaking for longer than strictly necessary, like he did with his name from time to time. It made Grace roll his eyes. He was just glad he wouldn’t have to explain the birds and the bees to the alien as he, for some reason, had already done extensive research. Maybe because Adrian was some form of biologist, and that’s how mates bonded on Erid. “Basically, teenagers have come to the conclusion that movement is what makes up sex, rather than actual penetration, so they… don’t move. Sometimes someone else will be on the bed with them moving it so they themselves don’t have to move.” Rocky chirped again, stamping his feet. “Thank, Grace can leave now.” He sighed. “Yeah okay. That’s your one awkward question, I’m not explaining any more internet stuff to you.” A cacophony of of ‘annoy annoy annoy’ followed him to the other side of the ship, where he sat and wished he hadn’t drank all of the vodka.