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"EXPLAIN." Rocky says, and he's not fucking around.
The little science tech makes a bunch of trilling noises right at the edge of Grace's hearing, it sounds panicked as...Heck. Grace is not far behind in terms of hysteria.
He's sat with his knees up on one of the counters in his home-lab, hiding his face behind his hands. His glasses are...somewhere on his head. He needs to be more careful with them. But he needs to be hiding his stupid, red-flushed face more, right now.
Adrian and the little guy (not Rocky, the tech is smaller even than him. Grace never knew how small Rocky was by Eridian standards) had walked in partway through his and Rocky's screaming-fit. They hadn't been exactly, fighting?? It was more like mutually absolutely losing their absolute, just. Fucking. Shit.
And that's how he knows he's really panicking, when the fear bypasses Teacher Brain.
Adrian is completely nonplussed. They are wisely staying out of it. Grace peeks between his fingers and sees them pick up a pack of cards (from Mary) and start on a card tower. They've been building more and more elaborate structures since he got them started, more like castles, obelisks. Adrian is amazing. And just, flustering cool, to be honest. More than once he'd whispered to Rocky, "Rocky mate bad as heck statement", after Adrian had placidly exited the biodome, Rocky nodding smugly, making trilling "pleased with himself" noises.
"]}{;,+**;./- NEVER AGAIN WITHOUT OUR CONSENT." Rocky's yelling pitches back down into a register Grace can actually process. He thinks he maybe should step in now. The little tech didn't mean any harm, they couldn't have known something like this would happen. This was Grace's fault through and through. But he's still frozen on the counter, all rigid. His flight/fight defaulting just to...freeze. As usual.
Adrian is looking more concerned now, pivoting to listen first to the scene in the lab, then to their creation in progress. They set down their claw-ful of cards with a sigh, delicately balancing them together, on top of the foundation layer.
Adrian comes over and rolls Rocky off the tech as if he weighs nothing at all like 300 something pounds. Rock's still shaking and twitchy with rage, carapace jetting steam. This has gone on long enough.
"Can you stop terrorising the scientists, please dear?"
"Only if the scientists stop terrorising ME."
'What on Erid are you talking about, dearest?"
'Urrhhmm, they did some, Updates, to the translation software." Grace groans out. "Without...telling us..."
Adrian pivots between all three of them. The little tech is hiding under the lab bench.
"I think you'd better go home, now," Adrian says to them, and they're off and scrambling away before the words have finished leaving Adrian's ;__€~. They're clumsy in their xenonite suit, there have only been so many made, so the techs have to share and they really aren't as one-size-fits-all as they could be. Adrian makes a note of this.
It's quiet in the lab, apart from Rocky's angry puffs. He was always...Grace calls it "Spicy".
but it'd been worse since he got back from the mission. It's understandable, but it can be a little unsettling. Adrian has calm and patience enough for both-for all three of them. However, they Are finding this previously limitless-seeming patience to be tested a lot more frequently these days.
Adrian picks up Rocky in one hand and Grace in the other. They make matching "Eep!" noises.
They carry the children (not children, just Behaving like children) over to what Grace has named the Conversation Pit. "Pit" sounds a bit too much like "Dungeon" in Adrian's mind, but this is fitting today. They are most certainly in Time Out.
Adrian lets them fester for one whole earth minute. Then they rumble "e x p l a i n." They are not pleased.
Grace cracks first, as usual.
"Ok, so, no one meant any harm, at All."
Rocky lets out a little whine. He collapses his legs, hunches down low to the floor. He's so Dramatic.
"h a r m?"
Grace stammers, "It's, th-the t-translation software, ok? The one I made in. Space. To learn Rocky's language, teach him mine. We haven't used it since we arrived on Erid, because I don't need it anymore, right? And we have the chimes for me to speak to anyone who doesn't know English. So."
"Yes, redundant." Rocky chirps.
So far, so nothing. "Why is this a problem now, then? And what Is the problem?" asks Adrian, normal register. They're too confused to bother to be intimidating.
Rocky slaps Grace on the thigh, nearly as hard as Adrian knows Rocky knows Grace can take. That had been an interesting day in the lab. "For science." Right.
"OW!"
"Grace's fault even more than tech's fault. Rocky sees this now. Will apologise to tech later."
Well, that's something. Grace is gnawing on a soft digit, their "thumb", with their exposed skeletal mouth bones. He's such an oddity. He's quite disturbing sometimes.
But, ultimately ridiculous.
Adrian hears that Grace is starting to "flush" and "tear up", signs he's feeling overwhelmed with emotions. Adrian softens (as much as an Eridian can), and even Rocky seems remorseful over the slap.
"It can't be anything that bad," Adrian consoles. "I think you'll both feel better if you tell me all about it."
---
That morning
---
Grace is feeling a bit sentimental, a bit nostalgic. He may be possibly feeling a bit homesick. He pushes away the suggestion that he might be feeling homesick for Earth, because that's just not relevant anymore, is it, and thinks it's probably for Mary.
Eight years is a long time, even if four of them are spent in a coma.
He sits in the window seat for a while about it, looking at his personal sea. This usually helps with most things. His new family made him the Sea! That's just crazy. He had thought the sea and the tree, and the waves, and the whole entire precipitation cycle they've got going on, might feel weird and fake and artificial and make him get Interesting, psychologically speaking. Thankfully his inner squishy monkey brain doesn't know the difference and it doesn't give a damn. He Loves it here. He's never owned his own house before!
(Granted, the Eridians didn't really have the same concepts of...real estate and down payments or capitalism or even. Money. In the same way as Earth. But he'd written out a property contract for the hell of it just to feel, I don't know. Vindicated?? Victorious? And his Eridian buddies had gone along with it, because they went along with all his silly harmless nonsense, because they were super super chill and cool like that. Suck it, San Francisco rental market!
Rocky's going to be visiting shortly, so Grace gets up and tries to pull himself out of the doldrums. Granted, time with Rocky usually helps with that, but he wants to make the effort for him. Show him he's not taking him for granted, even though they've been togeth-best, best buddies for a while now.
He has a flash of inspiration, something that might settle the pit of longing for... familiarity maybe, that's dug itself into his chest.
He pulls out a laptop, and...there! Translation software back on. He's gonna get such a kick out of hearing Rocky's voice in the funny, adorable little computer-speak again. He's missed it. It's gonna be funny to see Rocky's reaction too.
Oh hey, here he is now!
Grace opens the door with a wrench. He's put on shades, a big leather-type coat he poorly stitched from spacesuits and flight chair leather. He even whips out the finger-guns.
"What's up, Daddy Long-Dick!"
---
Back in the Conversation Pit
---
"That seems an...unusual way to refer to Rocky."
No-one replies.
Therefore, Adrian must continue, they suppose.
"Namely, his ovipositor is relatively small-"
Rocky screams wordlessly at Adrian. Adrian puts a blanket over him.
Grace is back to hiding behind his hands. Considering Eridians can see through walls, Adrian isn't sure what use he thinks those squishy little "sausages" will be. Grace likes me-sausages nearly as much as he likes me-burgers.
"It...is not what I Intended Rocky to Hear."
Adrian rumbles. Apparently, this is what humans call going "hmm". A thinking noise.
"But it Is what Grace intended to Say," Rocky groans, pulling the blanket off. "Grace reactivated the translator without telling Rocky. Grace Lied All Along."
"l i e d?"
"I did, I suppose I really did, I'm. I'm really sorry buddy."
"Oh, Now Grace calls Rocky buddy. Rocky sees how it is. Gets caught and changes tune."
Grace lets out a long, slow sigh.
---
2 years in to the long way to Erid
---
It starts as a joke, sort of. Grace gets away with it, so the joke continues, and then it slowly becomes...not a joke.
See, one time Grace had called Rocky "cutie" spontaneously because, well, Rocky was really gosh darn cute. He just was. Grace had asked Rocky to nudge over a piece of lab equipment with his ball, Rocky had, and he'd made a little "ta-da!" chirp as he did, and a "thank you, cutie!" had just slipped out.
And when Rocky replied "need word, question?" Grace had panicked and said "oh, That. that's just another word for buddy, buddy (cutie)."
And it's funny, it's satisfying to pull one over on him, ya know? He knows Everything, and he Sees everything. Grace tells him every single thing about himself, partly because they become scarily dependant scarily fast, partly because Grace is terrified of forgetting all his memories again, and if Rocky knows them also, then he'd be able to remind Grace, if it ever came to that. Photographic memory and all that or something. But mostly he tells him everything just 'cos he really wants to.
But this he wants to keep for himself. It's selfish, but he can be selfish, sometimes. He knew this even before he remembered he wouldn't sacrifice himself for everything he'd (previously) held dear. Not even for his kids. And then he'd sacrificed ever having any of it, never seeing his kids again, even if they were older than he was now, all for this freaky little alien guy, and he would absolutely, unquestioningly make the same call over and over again, if he had to. So he thinks having done that, he's re-earned the right to just a little, little, teensy-tiny bit of selfishness. Maybe. He pushes the doubt aside.
First it's just endearments - "cutie", as aforementioned. "Sunshine", because, well, he's like Grace's portable sun, isn't he. Blasting out heat and bringing a smile to Grace's face, every single day. Keeping Grace's heart warm in the cold, endless vacuum of space. "Dear", because he is, so very dear to him, and because it makes Grace feel a sense of domesticity he's never had before. He never got to the pet-names stage with anyone else before, not even with really close friends like Rocky is. It's nice.
"Honey" gets added for the same reason, the domesticity, and because it just really really tickles Grace to call "Honey, I'm home!" like a sitcom dad whenever he comes in from a space walk.
The only time he truly feels maybe a bit uncertain of it, and maybe a bit guilty, is when Rocky remarks "English language so many synonyms for "buddy", very friendly people, statement," right as he's drifting off to sleep. So of course, it would be inconsiderate for Grace to put him right then and there, because he's sleeping. About the pet names thing and also about the English people thing, because they are just objectively Not friendly, in his experience.
Anyway the thing is, he doesn't come clean then, and in fact he gets worse.
Look, it's very understandable that one might utterly lose their marbles when spending four years in a tin can with just the one little funky alien guy, even if said funky alien guy is Grace's favourite person he's ever met. Statement.
And another thing that is the thing. Is that Grace maybe has the smallest competency kink.
This makes sense, considering how little patience he's ever had with Incompetency. (In grown adults, that is. Hence the change of career.)
Anyway, Rocky is very competent. This is a well-known fact. And Grace maybe comes across him working on something absolutely genius genius genius in the space lab one time, and his little claws are moving so deftly, and somehow his face that isn't a face seems set in diligent, focused, so damn intelligent concentration, so Grace just goes, "Hey sexy, whatcha workin' on?" and it's all downhill rapidly from there.
He just calls him whatever he feels like from then on, and he doesn't translate it. There are just a thousand synonyms for buddy, bro, for good pal. It becomes second nature. It all just slips off the tongue.
---
Present
---
Then some helpful little guy added the code for Grace's big, proper, progressively all-encompassing translator he'd been very slowly working on, to his original bog-standard, slap-dash but very dear to them both programme, and.
Grace is a bit worried he's really upset Rocky. He did absolutely lie to him for years, Grace realises this now. He's not sure why Grace was lying to Himself, about the fact he'd been doing that.
"I'm...really sorry buddy. I...shouldn't call you one thing, and say it's another. It's not cool. I'm sorry I lied to you, Rock."
Rocky is quiet. He fiddles with the blanket, like he wants to be hidden underneath it again.
Adrian does something Grace calls "twiddling their thumbs". They have a feeling about where this could be going, and they want Rocky and Grace to get there themselves. They can't solve everything for them both, after all. They'd get as "spicy" as Rocky, if they tried to, and Adrian wants this for Rocky. Wants him to find his way there himself. It wouldn't be the same, otherwise.
"Ah, is that the time? Well, I must be going now."
Rocky and Grace both look up, stricken. The fools.
"Goodnight to you both, I must sleep early for my conference tomorrow. Don't rush, Rocky," because Rocky has startled upright, "I have another sleep-mate tonight."
Their other partner, who Grace named Casper. Adrian has no idea why. They found each other while Rocky was away. Adrian feels they never would have survived Rocky's absence without them.
The "boys", as they refer to themselves, are silent as Adrian leaves. They'll manage just fine.
---
"So." Grace and Rocky say simultaneously.
"After you" they both say.
"You," again together.
Rocky lifts up his claw and puts it physically over Grace's mouth. Grace is relieved. Wishes he could've been gagged the entire journey home, because then he couldn't have royally messed up like this.
"Rocky isn't mad Grace calls him cute, and...other things."
Grace brushes Rocky's hand away. Rocky lets him, Grace wouldn't have been able to shift him otherwise.
"You're not?? Because...it's ok if you are. It was pretty inappropriate of me. Especially the...other things."
"I." Rocky says, stops. Thumb-twiddles.
"I call Grace things like "cute" too. Just in carapace. In Rocky brain."
"...you do?"
Rocky nods. He'd picked that up from Grace.
"I thought I was just...Leaky space blob, question? Just kinda...gross. And grumpy stupid stupid, a Lot. Not to mention Disgust - disgust disgust Disgust statement."
"...No. Well, yes. Grace is grumpy stupid and also disgust, often."
"Cool, thanks pal."
"..."
"...Rocky never purposefully mistranslate, but meant different things sometimes when say disgust, and with other words too."
"You're Kidding me."
"Not kidding, Grace friend."
"Like what, Rocky? What did you mean, then, when you were all, "disgust disgust disgust", huh? You got to hear what I was really saying."
Grace feels mad, and frustrated, and also something weird. Squishy.
"...sometimes when say stupid mean...english so inadequate annoyance annoyance...stupid but in fond way. Like to infant who doesn't know yet, or like to small life form of endearing lesser intelligence. Rocky does think Grace equal in intelligence to Rocky though. Just sometimes not. Is ok."
"...Huh."
I mean, that's still a little belittling, Grace thinks. But just on very occasional occasions, when Grace had been very tired, and feeling fragile and sensitive, the "stupid stupid stupid"s had stung a little. It's nice to know that there was a sense of...Endearment, intended with it.
But he is a scientist after all, and therefore, Grace has more questions. And he intends to receive answers.
"And what about Disgust, Rocky."
"..."
"Rocky, I just called you Daddy Long-Dick, it cannot possibly be worse than that."
Rocky pulls the blanket fully over himself.
"Fine! You can hide, but you still have to tell me! I thought you were Furious with me, bud. I thought I'd really hurt your feelings, not to mention how you treated the poor little technician guy."
"Rocky asshole."
"Yeah, you can be sometimes, but so can I. Often, statement."
"Rocky not mad, well yes, was mad Grace lied. Mad with puny science nerd technician because interfere with something important important important to Rocky, Grace."
"Continue. Demand. Statement."
Grace pokes him in the carapace with every word. Rocky jolts, it tickles when Grace does that, Grace knows this. When the first skin-tight suits got made they'd spent a really scientifically fascinating day in the lab, figuring out what things like force and sensation felt like with the new technology. They'd started out with a hug, of course. It had been the best hug of Grace's life.
Rocky pulls off the blanket. Rocky is brave.
"Rocky predominantly mad because...could have just said what meant all along. Four Human Fucking Years, Grace. Saying Disgust when mean."
Rocky shakes himself in frustration. Then it all just floods out.
"Mean, Grace put tongue on Rocky right now, take fifth appendage, shove Right in Rocky's aperture, get gross body fluids All over xenonite wall, paint Rocky like french girl, say Darling Darling Beloved Beloved One. Say Grace Rocky's sweetheart. All these and more. Wanted to say forever but couldn't. Mad Grace did what Rocky couldn't first, and did secretly. No secrets anymore, statement. Please, strongest request from heart."
Grace is utterly still and quiet. He's staring at his feet, like he had been before Rocky spoke, and his mouth (disgust digust Disgust perfect perfect hole for ovipositor, damn girl what that thing do question FOCUS Rocky) is slightly open.
Rocky hears Grace start to tear up.
"Grace speak now before Rocky end it all for Real, statement."
"I'm ok, I'm ok!" Grace rubs away the tears rapidly, turns to face Rocky.
"You really mean all those things?? And...you don't mind what I said?"
Rocky shakes his head. Then hurries to nod his head, then shakes it again. No is yes and yes is no still, sometimes. Eridians have clearer terminology.
"I'd say it was a joke, the "sexy" stuff."
Grace's voice is raw, like his throat is hurting. Rocky wants to soothe the tissues there.
"But I actually meant it, Rock. Not just the..."cutie", "honey", "sweetie-pie" stuff. I think that's why I didn't tell you. I didn't want to stop."
"Rocky doesn't want Grace to stop either."
Grace gasps a sob. He feels his lip wobble a bit, just a tiny bit.
Rocky pets it gently, the lip. It's squishy, like all of him is. Rocky's Squishy Grace.
...
Rocky speaks.
"Maybe not call, "Daddy Long-Dick", though."
"No," snorts Grace wetly. "That one Was a joke. Statement"
"...Grace can call Rocky "Daddy" though."
Grace feels like he chokes up a Lung.
The coughing goes on for a long time. Rocky pats him gently on the back. He often does this, when Grace chokes on foods or drinks, which is vexingly often. Whoever put the human airways and food pipes so close together was a poor poor poor excuse for a bioengineer.
When Grace has finished doing all That, Rocky comes in closer, and cuddles him. Grace goes "mmmmmmmm" and cuddles back. Grace loves cuddles so much. He needs them just as much as food or drink.
"Does Grace not want to call Rocky, "Daddy", question?" Rocky asks softly. "Ok if so. But feel strong strong strong protective over Grace, want to cuddle, care, keep safe, keep happy. Like human gay porn "daddy" role-" Grace spluttered- "And Grace is so So good, so good for Rocky. Rocky's beloved, good good Good boy."
Grace gasps, face still pressed against Rocky's carapace. His breathing picks up. Rocky can feel, hear his heart rate increase.
He can also hear Grace's boner. Rocky had been well-acquainted, (but not as acquainted as he -happily and miraculously- can now say he'd like to be) over the last four and a bit years. In Rocky's defence, it's hard not to hear things when you can't close your sound organs, unlike how Grace can close his eyes and wear headphones when Rocky had needed "private time". Rocky had just pretended he needed more sleep than he did, sometimes. It had been the polite thing to do.
They don't need to be polite anymore, and indeed Someone hadn't been polite from the beginning.
When Adrian had finalised the plans for Grace's biodome, Grace's house, they had sound-proofed it. Not all of it, that would've been impractical, it was helpful to have sound bubbles in some areas so communication could happen without the constant need to fumble in and out of xeno-suits. But the rest was completely sound-proof, like all Eridian dwellings were. "Just in case Grace, or you, should want more privacy, for any reason at all." Adrian had said, in their lovely sensible way. Rocky had asked "what reasons?" and Adrian had changed the topic.
Hearing how Grace had started rhythmically pressing his hips, and accordingly his appendage, down into the cushions of the Conversation Pit, presumably without realising he'd started doing so, Rocky was starting to think of a few reasons himself.
"Grace, beloved?"
Grace actually let out a musical, dreamy little sigh. He sounded so Eridian when he did that. Oh heck, Rocky was So in trouble.
"...Want to see how long "Daddy Long-Dick" ovipositor truly is, question?