Archive of Our Own

Rocky was watching Grace. 

This, in it of itself, was not so unusual. Rocky watched Grace while he slept all the time. At the moment, however, Grace was not asleep. He was awake and sitting at his lab bench, hunched over and looking with extreme focus through his microscope. 

Now a few months into their journey to Erid, Grace had begun working on what he deemed “fun science”. These were projects that didn’t just focus around mapping their course and carefully calculating food rations, the latter of which always left Grace in a bit of a depressive slump. 

But that, of course, is where the “fun science” came in. Grace claimed he was working to make “important and revolutionary discoveries,” but Rocky thought he was probably just bored. Either way, Grace always got completely absorbed by this work, occasionally pausing to exclaim excitedly or mutter to himself under his breath. Rocky would never admit it, but he found it terribly endearing. 

And so, Rocky watched from his side of the xenonite barrier as Grace did his “fun science,” waiting for the human’s silly little quirks to make an appearance. Just a few days prior, Rocky had gotten the distinct pleasure of watching Grace upend everything on his desk in a desperate search for his glasses - that odd device that apparently helped his less than perfect light sensing - only for them to be hanging down around his chin, a fact that Rocky kept to himself for some time. 

Now, however, Grace was doing a different behavior, one Rocky had not seen before. As he stared focused down through his microscope, Grace was absentmindedly rubbing his right hand up and down his left arm. At first, Rocky worried that perhaps Grace’s old ammonia burn scars were sore. However, then Grace’s hand continued up to rub at the back of his neck, then back down his arm, then back up to his neck again. This repeated six more times before Rocky had to ask.

“Is Grace’s arm sore, question?” 

“Cheese and crackers!” Grace yelped, his whole body flinching at the sudden sound. Rocky resisted the urge to laugh and wondered, not for the first time, if all humans were this jumpy or if it was just his human. “You about scared me to death, Rock!” 

“Apology,” Rocky said unapologetically. “Grace not answer question. Is arm sore, question?” 

“My arm?” Grace sounded confused and looked down at both arms as if he was not sure which one Rocky was referring to. “No, all good here. Why?” 

“Grace was rubbing arm.” 

“Huh, I didn’t even notice.” 

“Grace not notice what own limbs are doing? Grace need sleep, question?” 

“Oh, don’t give me that,” Grace huffed. “As if I don’t see you clicking your little claws when you’re thinking.” Grace raised his hands and pinched his fingers together in what Rocky would call a poor imitation of eridian claws. “You’re telling me that that’s not an absent minded movement?” 

“No, Rocky’s mind is never absent.” 

Grace huffed and grumbled under his breath, waving one hand in Rocky’s direction in a move that Rocky had come to recognize was a dismissal. He turned back to his microscope and Rocky turned back to his own work bench. He had been working on trying to make a device to control his portable earth thinking machine from inside his side of the ship. They still had not quite figured out how to bring the laptop to his side without his atmosphere destroying it and Rocky was eager to be able to explore all of human knowledge without Grace having to operate the controls for him. Speaking of Grace…

“Grace is rubbing arm again, statement.” 

Once again, Grace jumped and once again, Rocky resisted the urge to laugh. It never got old. 

“You know, if it bothers you so much you don’t have to watch me.” 

“Does not bother, just curious why,” Rocky hesitates. “Grace is sure burns are not sore, question?” 

Rocky still felt extremely guilty that Grace had gotten so severely injured in his efforts to save Rocky. 

Grace sighed and turned to face Rocky. 

“I promise my burns are fine, Rock.” 

“Then why rub arm and neck, question?” 

“I don’t know, it just feels… nice? It’s been a long time since anyone has… you know,” Grace gestured to himself. 

“Rocky does not know.”

Grace sighed and hung his head. “How do I explain this? Um… humans are a social species, right?” 

“Yes, like eridians,” 

“Right. And do eridians ever… touch each other? Like just to be friendly or show affection?” 

Rocky thought about this. He supposed they did sometimes, like sitting on each other’s chests to watch someone sleep. They often greeted friends by knocking their bodies together. He told all this to Grace. 

“Really? That’s cool. Does it make a loud sound when you knock together?” 

“Yes, sound is point. Louder the sound, more sincere is greeting.” 

“Huh. Does it hurt?” 

“No, do not do it hard enough to hurt. And eridians are very tough.” 

Grace let out a little chuckle. “You got that right. Wow, eridian culture is fascinating.” 

“Yes, yes, now why Grace bring up, question?” Rocky was an expert now at catching when Grace was trying to dodge a question by redirecting the conversation. The grimace on Grace’s face told Rocky that that was exactly what he had been trying to do. 

“So, humans are… very touchy by eridian standards then. Friends and family give each other hugs and pats on the back. Sometimes we hold hands like this,” Grace held up his hands and clasped them together, lacing his fingers together. 

“Is inefficient, now only have use of one hand.” 

Grace huffed a laugh. Rocky noticed he did not unclasp his hands. 

“Well, yes, but it also keeps us together. Sometimes little kids will walk in these long lines where they’re all holding hands with each other. It’s very cute.” 

Rocky didn’t know much about human children but he did have to admit that imagining little eridian pebbles tumbling around in a line grasping each other’s claws did sound extremely cute. He let out a little cooing sound at the thought. 

“Human skin is very sensitive. We evolved to release happy chemicals when we exchange friendly touch with each other, probably as a way to encourage us to stay together or something, I don’t know.” Grace stared down at his own still clasped hands. A sudden thought occurred to Rocky. 

“Grace misses human touch, question?” 

“Grace misses human touch, statement.” Grace affirmed quietly. 

Rocky let out a sad note. If human touch released happy chemicals then Grace had gone a long time without them. 

“Happy chemicals released when Grace touch self, question?” Rocky asked, just in case, but his hopes were dashed when Grace sighed and shook his head. 

“No, not quite. It’s just been so long, it’s almost like I’m… itchy. Like my brain is making up sensations to compensate.” Grace chuckled in that strange way he did sometimes that didn’t sound happy and sat up straight, unclasping his hands and rubbing them on his knees. “Sorry, I must sound crazy.” 

“Must be touch from other human, question?” 

“Huh?” 

“Friendly touch to release happy chemicals. Must be from other human, question? Could get from Armando, question?” 

“Oh, ah, no. I’ve… tried that.” Rocky made a disapproving chirp. He did not like how that implied that Grace had been secretly putting up with this for a while. “It’s just not the same when it’s not another living thing.” 

Huh, Grace hadn’t said “human” that time, just “another living thing.” 

“Rocky is living thing,” 

“Well, yes, of course you are,” said Grace with a smile. “But there’s sort of this wall between us.” 

“Grace hug Rocky ball,” 

“It’s just… not the same.” Grace sighed, pulling his glasses down around his chin to rub at his face. “Hugging you in the ball is nice. It’s like, almost a hug. I’m just not getting… you know…” 

“Grace is not getting hug back.” 

Grace was quiet for a moment, his face still in his hands. Then he took a deep breath in and out before sitting up straight and turning to face his microscope once again. 

“It’s fine, Rocky. I’ll get over it. There’s nothing we can do about it and besides, we’ve got bigger things to worry about.” 

As Grace focused back in on his project, Rocky quietly set his own work aside. He had a new, much more important project to work on now. 

~~~~~~~

So, as it turned out, inventing a full suit out of extremely thin yet very robust xenonite was not as easy as Rocky had first imagined. The first iteration of the suit had actually not taken Rocky very long to produce. All he did was take his flexible panel from his ball and make it bigger. Simple! 

Except when he went to put it on, he quickly realized that it was more like wearing a loose bag than a suit. He took one step and immediately fell flat to the floor. And this, Rocky thought to himself as he extracted himself from the failure of a suit, was exactly why he was doing this little project while Grace was sleeping. He would never have let Rocky live that down.  

The second iteration of the suit had honestly not gone much better than the first. This time, Rocky made the suit much more form fitting to avoid tripping, but it seemed he had gone too far in the opposite direction and now the suit was so unbearably tight that he could hardly move in it. It had actually been so hard to extract himself from its tight confines that he barely made it out in time before Grace woke up. So a happy medium between the two then. 

Rocky’s third try at the suit was not too tight and not too loose. He put it on and paraded around his side of the ship for a bit, testing the way it bent this way and that. The material was so thin that it felt like it was barely there. This was perfect! His final test before declaring victory was to open the port where he and Grace passed objects back and forth. He took off the suit, pumped it full of his ammonia rich air until it was inflated like an invisible Rocky was weaning it, and set it in the drawer. Then he pushed the drawer over to Grace’s side of the ship. 

“Warning! Foreign particles detected.” Immediately, Mary started to blare alarms. Muttering every curse word he knew, Rocky scrambled to pull the suit back to his side of the barrier and slam the drawer back shut. The alarms stopped just as suddenly as they had begun and Rocky drooped in relief. That is until a voice called out from the direction of the bedroom.

“Rocky?” 

Damn humans and their unnaturally light sleep. Quickly, Rocky stashed his failed suit attempt - too thin, the membrane had been too thin and the ammonia had leaked - and scuttled through his tunnels to where Grace was frantically pushing himself up from his bed, eyes barely open and hair sleep-toussled. Grace had once told him that this was called “bed head,” and Rocky had to admit, he was a bit obsessed with it. How did those strange structures on his head stay up like that? 

“Rocky, what was that? Did you hear an alarm go off?” 

“Ah… that was Rocky. Is no problem now. Grace go back to sleep.” 

“What do you mean that was you? What happened?” 

“Rocky was… testing something, wanted to see how it interacted with Grace atmosphere, test failed. Is not problem now.” 

“Wha…” Grace looked around blearily for a moment, voice still thick with sleep. “Do you need help with it?” 

“No, no help needed from Grace,” Rocky was quick to reassure. He really wanted this to be a surprise. “Rocky know how to fix. Grace go back to sleep now.” 

“Hmm, I guess if you’re sure…” Grace muttered, sinking back into his blankets and almost immediately going back to sleep. Rocky waited until his breathing had fully evened back out before he scampered back to his failed suit. 

He hadn’t been lying to Grace; he did think he knew how to fix this problem. He would have to make the material a bit thicker, but it would be worth it to not be leaking ammonia all over Grace’s side of the ship. 

Finally, this led to his fourth and final version of the suit. He had made the material a bit thicker, but not too thick. He had also managed to get a copy of the manual for Grace’s EVA suit for some ideas for how to cycle his atmosphere within the suit and control the temperature. 

He had finished testing this suit while Grace was in one of his - extremely frequent by eridian standards - sleep cycles. So then, suit finally finished, Rocky had donned it and stepped out of his airlock. It was fun to be on Grace’s side without the cumbersome bulk of his ball. He had access to so much more of the ship now! He could actually push buttons and work controls. Maybe Grace would teach him how to pilot the ship… 

But, later! Now Rocky had a much more important task. This was great! Often the clanking of the ball was enough to wake Grace from his strangely light human sleep, but now Rocky could move around without worry. In fact, he could walk right up to where Grace was sleeping in his little soft nest on the floor. Now he could watch Grace sleep the proper eridian way! Or, at least, mostly. If Rocky put his full weight on Grace’s chest, he thinks he might crush the human. 

But that would have to wait. Rocky didn’t want to touch Grace until he had gotten a chance to see the suit. It sounded like touching was very important to humans and Rocky wanted to respect the rules around it. So Rocky waited. 

When the telltale signs of the end of Grace’s sleep cycle began - increased breathing and heart rate, some moving around - Rocky had to contain a squeal of excitement. He was so eager for Grace to finally see his new suit! 

Grace blinked blearily at the ceiling. 

“Hi, friend Grace!” 

“...R’cky… five more min’tes…” he mumbled, rubbing at his face and clumsily turning onto his side, back to Rocky. Sometimes, Rocky was willing to let Grace go back to sleep, but not today. Didn’t Grace know Rocky had something very important to show him? Rocky let out an impatient buzz. 

“No, no more minutes. Grace awake now.” 

“Mmmmm…” 

“Graaaaaace,” Rocky drew the name out, but the human’s breathing had already evened back out. Fine. It looked like Rocky was going to have to resort to extreme measures. Surely Grace would not mind a light touch. Rocky slowly reached out a claw and wrapped it around Grace’s bicep. 

“Grace-” 

Immediately, Grace shot up with a yelp and scuttled away, right hand flying up to grasp where Rocky’s claw had been. Almost equally as startled, Rocky squeaked and held three of his arms up in surrender. 

“What - what was that?” Grace sputtered, his voice still thick with sleep as he looked around wildly. “Did something grab me?” 

“Apology, was Rocky,” 

Grace’s gaze finally settled on the eridian and he froze. His mouth opened and closed without making any sound. He blinked hard once. Twice. Then, finally, said eloquently, “What?” 

“Surprise!” Rocky trilled, unable to contain his excitement any longer. He held two of his arms out and spun in a circle so Grace could see all sides. “Rocky make new suit! Is much much much improvement on ball. Xenonite is just as strong, but thinner, more flexible. Now Rocky can do many things on Grace side of ship! What Grace think, question?” 

“What do I think?” Grace let out a breathy laugh as his brain seemed to finally process what he was seeing. “Rocky, this is amazing! You’re amazing! How did you even do this?” 

“Thank,” Rocky began, insides squirming as they always did at Grace’s praise. “Rocky studied design of EVA suit and combined with ball design. Was not hard.” It had been extremely hard, but Grace didn’t need to know that. 

“And you’re sure it’s safe? It can’t rip or anything?” 

“Yes, yes,” Rocky reassured with a wave of his claw. “Rocky test many times. Is safe.” 

“Wow,” Grace breathed before he said again, louder, “Wow! This is going to be amazing! There are so many things I can show you now. Oh my gosh, think of the games we can play now. Have I told you about Twister? Man, you’d probably be really good at it.” Grace gasped, his arm movements becoming more and more animated. “I can teach you how to pilot the ship! And oh, you can do equipment repairs yourself without having to talk me through doing it. And -” 

Rocky recognized when Grace was working himself up into an excited rant, which any other time he might indulge, but he was impatient to begin fixing the main problem here. 

“Rocky can touch, question?” 

“...and I can show you around the - huh?” Grace cut himself off. “Touch what, bud?” 

“Rocky can touch Grace, question?” 

“Me?” Grace looked down at himself and then back at Rocky. “Oh, yeah, I guess that would be a good way to learn about the human body.” Grace sat down to be more on Rocky’s level and held his arms out in invitation. “Have at me. Or… er…” Grace cringed, seeming to not like that phrasing. “Go ahead,” 

Rocky cautiously walked over to the human. Suddenly, he was a bit nervous. What if he overlooked some aspect of the suit and it was too hot for human skin? What if Grace didn’t like the way it felt? He reached out a claw and hesitated. 

“Where can Rocky touch, question?” 

“Um.. any-anywhere,” Grace’s voice had gone a bit quiet. 

Rocky hesitated for a moment longer before settling his claw gently on the center of Grace’s chest. He felt and heard Grace’s breath hitch at the same time. 

“Suit is not too hot, question?” Grace just shook his head. “Good, good, good. Rocky can hug now, question?” 

Grace sucked in a short breath before nodding vigorously. 

“Y-yeah, yes. Yes, please.” 

Yes! This is what Rocky had been waiting for! It was time for him to fix Grace. He remembered seeing humans hug in some of the movies he and Grace had watched, so he had a rough idea of where to put his arms. Rocky leaned forward with an excited trill and wrapped Grace in a hug. 

“Hrk!” Grace made a funny sort of sound and started frantically slapping at Rocky’s sides. “R-r’ck - ‘s t-too tight -” 

Rocky immediately let go and skittered back a few paces as Grace sucked in a breath and wrapped his arms around his middle, groaning. 

“Ahhhh… wow, you’re strong…” 

“Apology, apology, apology! Rocky hurt Grace! Humans are fragile, fragile, fragile!” 

“Rocky,” Grace held up one hand as he regained control of his breathing. “It’s okay, no harm done,” 

Grace said that, but Rocky wasn’t so sure. Though brief, their hug had been enough for Rocky to feel and hear some of Grace’s skeleton, those delicate bones in his middle called ribs. There had been an unsettling amount of give to them. 

“No, no, no, bad, bad, bad,” Rocky shifted nervously from one leg to another. “Apology, Rocky will not hug again,” 

“No!” Grace’s response was sharp and unexpected enough to briefly still Rocky’s nervous movements. “No, I mean…” he started again, softer this time. Grace’s hands began to rub absentmindedly up and down his arms in a movement Rocky now recognized as trying to hug himself. “Please, Rocky,” 

It took all of Rocky’s self restraint not to run right back up to the man and wrap him in another too-tight embrace. “Human bones too fragile, Rocky will break.” 

Grace shook his head. “No, I trust you, Rocky. Here, come here.” he scooched his way over to the eridian and held up his left forearm. “I promise I’m not that fragile. Wrap your claw around my arm and slowly increase pressure. I’ll tell you when it hurts.” 

Rocky let out an indignant buzz. “Rocky will not hurt Grace on purpose!” 

“Come on, Rock,” Grace huffed, his arm still held out in front of him. “You’re not going to hurt me. Just get a sense of how much pressure the human body can handle. I mean, think about it practically. If something happens to me, you may need to touch me to get me to Armando. Wouldn’t you rather figure out how to not crush me now instead of during an emergency?” 

It was a low blow, and Rocky was pretty sure Grace knew that. Because, of course, that exact emergency had happened after the fishing incident. It was dawning on Rocky now that he was extremely lucky he had not accidentally crushed Grace’s arm then. Because he hadn’t known how much force the human body could take. Because he had never tested it. 

“Grace must tell Rocky before it hurts.” 

The human perked up and nodded vigorously. “Of course, bud. You won’t hurt me.” 

Rocky reached out a claw and hesitated a moment before gently setting it on Grace’s forearm. For a moment he just left it there, marveling that he was actually doing this, touching Grace without either of them dying. Grace was cold through the suit. Not uncomfortably so, more in a refreshing way, like the early morning air on Erid. He supposed that for humans who preferred such abysmally cold temperatures, this must be normal.

“Go ahead and slowly squeeze; I’ll stop you before it hurts,” 

Rocky was still hesitant, but he had heard and felt through their little point of connection how all of Grace’s muscles had relaxed some when Rocky had gently grabbed him. Could it already be working? Was this one point of contact releasing those happy chemicals in Grace? This encouraging thought was enough to finally get Rocky to - slowly, oh so slowly - begin to increase the pressure on Grace’s arm. He held up two other claws and clicked them together in Grace’s direction so he could keep a very close watch on him the whole time. If Grace winced at all, Rocky wanted to know immediately. 

“This does not hurt, question?” Rocky checked after a minute, still unsure. Even with his slowly increasing pressure, he was still hardly using any of his strength. But humans were very fragile. 

Grace chuckled lightly. “No, bud, it’s fine. Keep going.” 

Rocky hummed uncertainly but continued. 

After a few minutes of gradually increasing pressure, only occasionally interrupted by Rocky’s nervous check ins, Grace spoke up. 

“Okay, go ahead and stop there - but don’t let go,” Rocky stopped himself from immediately pulling away. “That’s about as much force as is comfortable. I could take more without breaking anything, but it would start to hurt.” 

Rocky marveled at this for a moment. It was somehow both more and less force than he had expected. More in that he was surprised to find he could use about the same amount of force he would use for holding a tool, if not a little but more. Human bones were stronger than he had feared. But less in that he still had so much more force he was physically capable of using. An eridian really could crush a human if they weren’t careful. Oh, Rocky was really going to be a mess when they got to Erid, wasn’t he? It was going to take all of his self restraint to stop himself from getting between Grace and any other eridian, even when Rocky was confident that the planet would welcome them both as heroes. Adrian had accused Rocky of having an overprotective streak in the past, and… well… Adrian was right about most things. 

Now that he had an idea for the appropriate amount of force a human body could take, Rocky released Grace’s arm. Grace slowly lowered his arm and looked down before saying softly, 

“So, about that hug?” 

Rocky trilled and moved in much more gently this time, carefully wrapping two limbs around Grace’s middle and one up around his neck, claw resting on the back of his head. He applied slightly less pressure than he had on Grace’s arm, just to be safe. 

Then Rocky felt two arms snake up to wrap around his carapace as Grace’s legs simultaneously folded in to bracket him on either side. Grace’s torso bent forward until his head came to rest on top of Rocky and - 

Ohhhh. 

Rocky had not considered this. In all his planning around being able to give Grace this moment, for some reason it had not occurred to Rocky that he would also be getting a hug from Grace. Suddenly, he fully understood why Grace had missed this so much. Humans were truly on to something here. 

With Grace wrapped around him like this, he was so loud. Rocky could feel the steady thump-thump of his heartbeat in his carapace, could hear the soft whoosh of blood circulating through his body, the way his breath hitched and muscles began to shake - 

Wait. 

“Grace is leaking, question?” Rocky started to pull back slightly, but Grace’s limbs tightened around him, stopping any movement. 

“S-sorry,” Grace’s breath hitched. “It’s just been s-so long and I really missed this and -” 

“Is okay,” Rocky interrupted. Grace didn’t need to explain. “Rocky understands. Is happy leaking, question?” Grace had explained before that humans leaked for all kinds of reasons. It was very inefficient. 

Grace laughed wetly. “Yeah, yeah they’re happy tears. Sorry I’m getting them on your new suit.” 

Rocky hadn’t even noticed. “Is disgust, but is okay.” 

Grace laughed again. “Thanks, Rocky. I…I think I really needed this,” 

Rocky trilled lowly but said nothing. He focused back on the hug, trying to recall the scenes from the earth movies he had watched. He thought his arms were in the right spots. Sometimes the humans would move their hands up and down the other’s back. Rocky tried that now. 

Yes, that was definitely the move. Beneath his claws, Rocky felt as all of Grace’s muscles relaxed and he slumped forward with a heavy sigh. 

“Rocky, you are so good at this. This is the best hug I’ve ever had,” Grace’s voice was muffled from where his face was turned into the top of his carapace. Inwardly, Rocky preened at the praise, but he still had to check one more time. 

“Is not too tight?” He felt Grace shake his head against the suit. 

“No, not at all. You, um. You can actually squeeze harder if you want. A tight hug feels really nice.” Rocky increased the pressure of his limbs incrementally until he felt Grace nod. “Y-yeah. Yeah, that’s nice.” Rocky mentally cataloged this away as the optimal hugging pressure. 

“Grace is very squishy,” Rocky said after a minute because, well, it was true. Squeezing Grace like this, Rocky could feel where his soft outer layer met his harder inner skeleton. He moved his limbs around Grace’s middle down so his claws could feel the lower part of his sides where he could hear that there were no bones, just below the ribs. He pinched at the skin there lightly. “Soft, soft, soft.” 

“Hey,” Grace laughed, leaning back slightly, and Rocky noted he was no longer leaking. “I’ll have you know that I am in very good shape by human standards.” 

“Yes, shape of squishy blob.” 

Grace let out a puff of air that would have sounded outraged if it hadn’t been undercut with a shake of laughter. He leaned forward and pushed one hand against Rocky in an attempt to playfully shove him. Rocky, of course, did not move an inch. 

“Correction: squishy and weak blob,” 

“You’re lucky I’m still riding the high of receiving the best hug ever or I would have taken real offense to that.” Grace griped, but Rocky could hear the smile on his face. 

“So hug cause Grace to release happy chemicals, question? Rocky fix?” 

“Oh yeah, I’m chockablock full of - hang on,” Grace cut himself off, fixing Rocky with a suspicious stare. “Rocky, did you make this whole suit… just so you could give me a hug?” 

Suddenly Rocky got the distinct feeling that he was in trouble. “Is not… only reason. Lots of use for suit! Much excite! But…” Rocky fidgeted slightly. He had moved his limb back from where it had been resting on Grace’s neck as he had sat back, but his other two limbs remained loosely at Grace’s sides. He pinched the fabric of Grace’s shirt in his claws, examining it absently. “...hug was main purpose, yes.” 

“Oh Rocky, you didn’t have to do that,” Grace’s voice wobbled in the way it always did when he was trying not to cry. It sounded remarkably like a pebble learning how to use its vocal cords for the first time and never failed to pull on Rocky’s heartstrings. He quickly tried to reassure him. 

“Rocky knows, but Rocky wanted to,” he paused, trying to think of the right way to phrase this. “When Rocky was on Blip-A after… after,” Rocky knew he didn’t have to elaborate. Grace understood. “It was very quiet. Eridians are used to lots, lots, lots of sounds. Is how we perceive world, but also each other. Without sounds of crew, it was too quiet. Rocky starts to hear things that are not there, starts to make loud sounds just to hear echo. Was very lonely.” 

Grace didn’t say anything, but reached out and placed a hand on Rocky’s carapace. Slowly, Rocky reached up and rested a claw on Grace’s chest, just above his heart. “Then Rocky meet leaky space blob that is always loud, loud, loud. Grace always talk to self or to Rocky. Rocky can hear sound of heart from anywhere on ship.” He took a moment to listen to the steady sound, all the clearer for how close they were. Thump-thump, thump-thump. “Suddenly, Rocky is not alone. Rocky thinks touch for Grace is like sound for Rocky. And if Grace give Rocky sound, then Rocky give Grace touch.” 

“Ah, Rocky,” Grace sniffed and leaned forward, once again wrapping Rocky in a hug. Rocky returned the gesture enthusiastically, hugging Grace back as tight as he dared. “I’m sorry that you were alone for so long. But you won’t be alone again, I promise.” 

Rocky hummed contentedly, allowing himself a few moments to just listen to Grace, to the proof that he was alive and that Rocky truly was not alone. Eventually, Grace let go and sat back again, rubbing the back of his neck in a gesture Rocky had learned meant embarrassment. 

“Sorry, I promise I won’t need constant hugs from now on. This whole thing is probably super weird to you.” 

“Is different,” Rocky agreed. “But is not bad. Is good, good, good. Rocky like human hug! Understand why humans like this. Wrapping limbs makes Rocky feel safe, but also feels like Rocky is keeping Grace safe.” Rocky decided to keep the part about hearing Grace’s heart especially loudly to himself. Grace usually didn’t like it when Rocky mentioned being able to hear the inner functions of his body. 

“Well in that case, I’ll need a minimum of ten hugs a day then.” Grace’s tone was joking, but Rocky knew that he would do this in a heartbeat if the human asked. There was very very little he would say no to if Grace was the one asking. Perhaps Rocky should find that troubling but, well. Rocky had never been one to follow social norms, even back on Erid. 

“Is there anything else you wanted to know about the human body?” Rocky could recognize when Grace was slipping into teacher mode to try and steer away from more emotional conversations, but Rocky allowed it. Mostly because he did want to know more. 

“Can Rocky examine structures on top of head, question?” 

“Structures on..?” Grace raised a hand to the top of his head. “Oh, you mean my hair? Yeah, of course. Hair is dead cells, so you don’t have to worry about hurting me. I can’t feel it.” Grace leaned forward, bowing his head to give Rocky better access. 

Rocky had been fascinated by Grace’s hair for a while now. It was so strange. It grew all over his body, but there was so much more of it on the top of his head for some reason. It was easily moved, often being tousled this way and that as Grace ran his hands through it or moved his glasses up off his face. From the movies they had watched, Rocky had observed that humans had all kinds of different hair, that Grace’s hair was relatively short compared to other humans. They would even sometimes weave the hairs into braided patterns. He wondered if he could weave Grace’s hair. 

“Is so soft!” Rocky exclaimed as he slowly moved a claw across the top of Grace’s head. He pinched some of the strands between his claws. “Is delicate, question?” 

“Not really,” Grace said. “Or, well, I guess a bit. Like, I could tear a strand if I wanted to, but it’s not just going to fall apart from you touching it.” 

“Amaze,” Rocky muttered. He now had two claws running through his hair, making it stand up every which way. It was actually a pretty good replication of what it looked like when Grace woke up. 

“Why Grace keep hair short, question?” 

Grace shrugged. “I don’t really know; it’s just how I’ve always had it, I guess. Where I’m from on Earth, it’s pretty common for men to have shorter hair. Although, when I first woke up on the Hail Mary, my hair was very long. Armando cut it for me.” 

Rocky hummed disapprovingly. He went back and forth on any given day on his opinion of Armando. He kept Grace alive which was great and Rocky appreciated, but he also could do a lot for Grace that Rocky wished he could do himself. Cutting Grace’s hair shorter in a way that was less fun for Rocky to play with was definitely a point against the robot.

“Grace grow hair long again, question?” 

“You just want it long so you can play with it,” Grace accused, though Rocky wasn’t the only one enjoying this if the way Grace’s heartbeat and breathing had slowed was any indicator. 

“No, Rocky want to study. For science only.” Rocky lied. 

“Uh huh, sure,” Grace drawled, raising his head to look at Rocky. “You know, I was about to take you to the pilot’s chair, but that’s only for friends who don’t lie to each other…” 

Grace was bluffing. He had to be bluffing. 

But Rocky really wanted to sit in that chair. 

“Fine! Rocky want to play with strange, strange, strange human hair! Rocky lie, but now Rocky tell truth, so Grace has to take Rocky to pilot chair now!” 

Grace leaned back and rubbed his chin. “Hmm, I don’t know, Rock, I don’t know if I can trust you with that kind of responsibility now…” 

“Can trust! Grace can trust Rocky!” 

“Hmm…” 

“Grace take Rocky to pilot chair please please please please please -” 

“Okay, okay!” Grace acquiesced with a laugh. He pushed himself up off the ground and paused for a moment before reaching out and patting the top of Rocky’s carapace. “Let’s go, pal.” 

Rocky stayed still for a moment, pushing up into Grace’s hand, before taking off towards the cockpit. 

“Rocky fly ship now!” 

“Wait - fly? No! Rocky, come back, you don’t know how to fly! Rocky!” 

~~~~~~~

Things started to look up on the Hail Mary after that. Grace didn’t rub at his arms and neck anymore. He was also making a strange sound now. The first time he had done it, Rocky thought that he was attempting - poorly - to speak eridian. 

“It’s called humming,” Grace had explained nonchalantly when Rocky asked. “Humans just do it when we’re thinking or working sometimes. Usually it means we’re in a good mood. I can stop if it’s bothering you though.” 

“No!” Rocky schooled his tone to try not to sound so desperate. “No, does not bother Rocky. Grace can make humming sound.” 

In truth, it did the opposite of bothering Rocky. There was something about the sound that Rocky found deeply comforting. The tones didn’t quite sound eridian, but it was close. It was also one more human sound that reminded Rocky that he wasn’t alone. Rocky had a suspicion that maybe Grace was doing this for that very reason due to what Rocky had shared about his ship being too quiet. It seemed like something Grace would do - he was very kind. 

But it also could be, at least in part, due to Grace’s improved mood. The shift in his mood from lack of touch had been so gradual that neither of them had really noticed that Grace had been more withdrawn until the problem had been fixed. Now Grace was back to joking and laughing again. He panicked a little less about the ever looming threat of starvation. 

For his part, Rocky was really perfecting the act of casual human touch. The hugs were nice and Rocky was willing to give as many as Grace wanted - and receive them, too - but Grace hadn’t been lying when he had said that humans were touchy by eridian standards and there was a bit of a learning curve. Mostly, Rocky just copied what Grace did to him. Pats on the side in passing, leaning against each other when watching movies, playful jabs and pushes (this last one done very, very gently on Rocky’s part). Every touch seemed to calm Grace, to cause his muscles to relax and heartbeat to slow. 

And now, every night as Grace was laying down to go to sleep, Rocky got to settle in close, throw one leg over Grace’s middle, and use two other limbs to study (play with) Grace’s hair. Grace would sigh contentedly and fall asleep in record time while Rocky fiddled away. 

 He was very very close to achieving a braid.