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Erid’s heavy atmosphere felt more weighted than usual when Simon woke up. Eyes not yet open, the heavy weight of another body strewn across his own quietly begged him back to sleep, but something felt… off this morning. He put slow, careful consideration into each part of his body, mentally checking his physical state. Nothing felt off - more than his new normal, anyway - so it was something else. Simon kept his breathing deliberately slow, not wanting to call attention to his wakeful status until he was sure there wasn't an immediate threat.
Simon took stock of the other body lying on him - Grace, his Grace, was lying half on top of him, both arms wrapped tightly around his torso, and his face firmly planted in Simon’s neck. If not for the warning alarms going off in his own head, he’d stay like this for days if permitted. Sure, Grace was snoring like an engine, and his drool had created a small lake in Simon’s collarbones, but- semantics.
Ryland was fine; he was here, he was okay. The blond was sleeping peacefully, so it hadn’t been a nightmare, so… what had woken him up?
Simon finally opened his eyes, gaze sweeping the room and confirming what he already knew; there were no immediate threats.
Unable to lie still any longer (not that his silent sweep of their surroundings had taken more than 30 seconds), Simon tightened his arm around Grace’s waist, hand rubbing his side until groggy blue eyes slowly fluttered open, eyes lazily finding his husband's.
Simon wanted so badly to savor one of his favorite parts of every day; Ryland, his husband, as crazy as that still was to him, was his morning routine. Simon more often than not woke up before Grace, and would savor watching him slowly wake. Grace would lazily open his eyes, looking for Simon before anything else. As soon as their eyes would meet, no matter the time, a crooked, goofy grin would spread, followed immediately by a full body stretch, accompanied by what they’ve adoringly dubbed his “old man groans.” Ryland would proceed to curl back into Simon’s embrace, or pull the younger into his, and they’d lazily talk through the hoarse scratchiness and kiss through their morning breath before getting up and enjoying breakfast together.
Simon yearned for their usual routine, but as soon as their eyes met, he knew that was out of the question. Ryland immediately sat up, scanning his partner’s face, knowing something was off.
“What’s wrong?”
Simon huffed out a breath, too forceful to be considered a sigh.
“I- I don’t…” He shook his head. “I’m not sure. I woke up, and the air felt- heavy? I don’t know. Maybe it’s nothing, I’m probably just-”
“Hey, don’t do that,” Grace chided. “Trust your gut, right? Tell me what’s going on, Si.”
Simon pushed himself to sit up, now well-practiced in the art of being an unwilling amputee. He had just opened his mouth to explain the strange feeling when there were loud thuds coming from the front door, as well as frenzied Eridian humming.
“Grace open door!” Rocky’s musical tone was urgent, almost frantic as he continued to attempt to bust down their door.
“Grace, Simon urgent! Open door now,” warbled Adrian’s deeper tone, clearly holding themself back; otherwise, their door would be in pieces.
Simon was out of bed and flinging the door open before Ryland had managed to untangle himself from the sheets, one hand scrabbling for his glasses carelessly deposited on the bedside table the night before, the other seemingly losing a fight to the sheets. He quickly freed his ankle from the bedding, grabbing his cane and staggering out the door to prevent more structural damage to their house.
Both Eridians were talking loudly over each other, carapaces clicking in agitation.
“Wait, wait,” Simon starts, raising his hand in the universal ‘slow down’ motion. “Start over, you said a ship was spotted?”
“See small aircraft in atmosphere, yes statement!”
“Very small! One life force detected! Maybe human! Came down very fast!”
Rocky shoved in front of Adrian again, their carapace clicking with mild frustration.
“Grace Simon come now! Eridian scientists stop small maybe-human ship crashing!”
The two humans exchanged a quick glance before running inside to quickly get dressed, then following the two Eridians closely behind.
‘Ship’ and ‘aircraft’ were kinder words than the craft deserved. It was indeed small, escape pod small. The Eridians had quickly created a net of sorts, for lack of a better term, to slow the ascent of the craft. Simon was sure the landing was still rough, but would have been fatal if not for the Eridian’s mastery of xenonite.
The pod was- it was man-made for sure, and clearly not meant for far travel. The entire thing could probably fit in their living room, Simon mused. They had moved it into the dome on the beach, Rocky and Adrian working on getting the hatch open in their xenonite suits. The Eridian’s scanners had read the life form as human, but with only having two specimens to go by, and Simon’s strange mutations from the Blood Ocean making him slightly less than human, it was more of a guesstimate than a scientific theory. But, closer to human anatomy than Eridian meant it was probably safer to open in the oxygen.
After a bit of work, the airlock hissed open, Rocky and Adrian’s claws clicking together in excitement before quickly backing away, letting Ryland and Simon step forward.
Grace threw his cane to the side, Rocky quick to grab it from the sand, before scrambling up to the airlock at the top of the pod and dropping to his knees with a grunt. He pushed his glasses up and askew onto his head to look inside. Simon tensed when his husband gasped, his eyes going wide before snatching his glasses back off his head and shoving them onto his nose to see better.
“Grace?”
Ryland flapped his hand at him and Simon scoffed at the flippant ‘hold on’ motion, instead choosing to ignore his husband and climb up to join him.
He looked down into the airlock, taking in the tiny space; there was nothing. No compartments of food, water, medical supplies, anything. There was a nauseatingly familiar robotic voice warning of low oxygen, a hull breach, and other probably-concerning messages being broadcast through the tiny ship. It did indeed look to be an escape pod, but why-
Simon startled as Ryland dropped down into the hold, not quite quick enough to grab his arm to tell him to wait. No, because while Simon was taking in all the mechanical failures, the desolate space, and the head-stabbing warnings, Ryland, his saving Grace, proved who between them was more human. He had zeroed in on the single passenger, strapped into a high-grade safety harness seat. Without hesitation, the blond hustled to undo the safety straps, wasting no time before scooping the prone figure up in his arms, holding them close. His hands were shaking, his breaths grew frantic, and Simon bemoaned the fact that the space was too small for him to get down into as well.
“Grace,” he croaked, “what- what is it?” He crouched down, offering out his hand to help haul Ryland back out of the craft.
Bright blue eyes met his, swelling with tears, before securing the person closer, accepting the proffered hand. Simon wrapped his arm around Ryland’s waist, the figure pressed between their chests (small, why were they so small?), easing them down off the craft and onto stable ground before taking in what, or who, Grace held in his arms.
It was- it was a child. She was unconscious, cradled close to Grace’s chest. She had dark brown hair tangled into an absolute birds nest, skin a few shades darker than his own, and- and she was small. She wasn’t a baby; she looked older, maybe two? Or maybe, five? Okay, maybe Simon wasn’t great at guessing the age of children. To be fair, the only children he’d interacted with in the past years have been Eridian, but he was sure that wasn’t the only reason.
He was never around children much, even when he was one. As he got older, he hadn’t been sanctioned to be in a relationship, as he reported to The Elders he didn’t want kids. The most important part of Eden was to keep Eden strong, keep growing in numbers, no care that they were already in a famine. It wasn’t that he never wanted kids, per se, but… Simon hadn’t wanted to bring another life into the world he grew up in.
Instead, Simon looked for a different purpose in life, and put too much trust in those who turned out to be untrustworthy. He thought they were brothers; they had been his brothers, but he had gotten cocky. Then… Filament Station happened, followed by prison, and then the godforsaken Blood Ocean that still haunted his nightmares; he didn’t think he would survive, much less somehow develop a life with another person. That wasn’t meant for people like him. Or so he thought.
A rasped-out “Simon” brought him back to the present, refocusing on Grace. Ryland Grace, who was holding a child. His husband, Ryland Grace, was holding a seemingly human child, as they stood on the artificial beaches of Erid.
He was speechless.