Chapter Text
He wakes up the next morning to the soft whistling chatter of Rocky and Adrian, and for a moment his brain hears their voices only as music. They sound beautiful together, Rocky's high warbling trills wrapping around Adrian's lower, bass notes. They're talking to each other in a more fluent Eridian than they can use with him.
He can't pick up all the tones they use. Grace had once joked about them using it to talk about him while he was still in the room, and had been assured by Rocky that he would murder anyone who tried to do that. It was considered very rude, which made sense.
"Grace will be awake in moments – his heart rate has increased," Adrian says, and Grace realizes he's awake, on Erid, and absolutely happy as a clam in that order. He's also kind of humiliated at whatever brain mush-sex talk had come out afterwards, and the mini fight about...ugh, protein. He hopes he'd been a cute, silly human and not a weeping, weird mess.
"Good morning Grace! How are you feeling after sexual intercourse question," Ricky chirps as soon as Grace opens his eyes.
The simulation of morning light has been designed to gently ease him into wakefulness, but it's gloomy today. The atmospheric thrum has been working on cycling the weather to match a 2014 weather report archive. The tidal team is working on the same.
He thinks a rain storm with the proper waves would be amazing to witness, but Rocky and Adrian (and Dr. House, and the Mother Rock and every Eridian who meets him) all act like he's asking to shoot himself on live radio or something. He had been cursed with sunny weather for two whole weeks before they calmed down enough to give him a drizzle of rain after that particular argument.
"G'morning," He grumbles out, extending a hand outside of his blanket nest. He wants his glasses, and coffee. Not required in that order. Instead he gropes around until his hand grazes against something solid, and he closes his hands around it.
It's a claw.
Adrian's claw, actually, and Grace realizes with a ridiculous flush that he's holding Adrian's claw. It shouldn't be anything. He holds Rocky's claw like a hand all the time! But he hasn't done this with Adrian – Also, the last thing that these claws held was his wrists while he ground off on Adrian's husband, so.
Adrian doesn't flinch at all though, and even gives Grace's hand a squeeze back before his glasses are gently placed into his palm.
"Thanks," he murmurs, and the room slides into focus.
"Good morning Dr. Grace," Mary's voice chirps, and a moment later Armando descends clutching a cup of what is not at all coffee, but kind of does the trick hot liquid. It's really water, along with molecules from some of the ash based soil carefully spliced and reconstructed to give it flavour and colour. It's even got a shot of synthetic caffeine, which he had nearly sobbed in happiness the first time he had felt it buzzing in his veins. Of course caffeine was easier to replicate than any of the stuff he needs to not die, but at least he can have this small joy. Like a burger for an elderly dog at the park.
"Thanks Mary," Grace says, and accepts the cup. The plastic is warm under his fingers. It's one of the cups from the Mary, and he wonders how many he has left before it'll be pouch city for all his plates.
Abruptly, he misses ceramic. He wants to feel it under his hands again. He wants the fragile press of clay and glaze, warm from the drink inside. He wonders if Erid has clay. It's probably chock full of heavy metals, but with some purification maybe they could make it safe to touch. A pottery wheel would be no problem, and he basically lives in a kiln.
An image of Rocky behind him at a pottery wheel, Ghost style, makes him grin. Eridians would be better at pottery, maybe. They have a lot of arms. Still, could be fun.
"Grace Grace Grace answer now demand," Rocky says, pulling his bossy self up onto the bed with Grace and pushing pillow after pillow behind him until Grace is half propped up. Rocky hates talking to Grace laying down. He's never said why, but he suspects it has something to do with their conversation getting more and more floor based as Grace had lost energy as the trip to Erid continued.
Adrian is on the floor though, which seems to be his preferred spot for conversing. Eridian's don't really do furniture so it makes sense. Rocky however is well accustomed to sitting on furniture in his ball and his suit. He likes to be very close to Grace.
"Geez Rocky I just woke up, gimme a few seconds to remember how to be a person," Grace says, rolling his eyes a little as the siren call of fake coffee pulls him towards being fully awake.
"No no no, Grace lies when he thinks too much. Tell RockyAdrian now please."
"Fine, fine. I feel good. Rested. I slept well," he grumbles out, feeling his cheeks flush.
"And you are not experiencing any negative impact from the loss of vital fluids?" Adrian asks, his voice a gentle rumble.
"No! Like I said, it was a good sign that I had fluids to lose. Ugh," he says, and soothes himself with a swig of perfectly hot dirt water. He then nearly chokes because he's still mostly reclined, and because the universe hates him.
"Rocky is sorry for upsetting Grace last night," Rocky says suddenly, and any annoyance at his personal nursemaids that has managed to linger through nine hours of sleep and a cup of coffee is abruptly gone.
"Hey, S'okay, I know you worry," Grace says, and then he wrinkles his nose, because he really doesn't want to be sidetracked again by this kind of thing, and sometimes Rocky interprets his social niceties as permission to trample more boundaries.
"But you can't do that until it's been…5400 seconds, at least – okay? Humans call that 'afterglow' and we like to have it after being intimate," Grace says, picking an arbitrary number.
"Glow question. Grace glow after sexual pleasure question. Adrian did not notice any changes in light waves after the red was gone from your skin," Adrian says, perking up like he was a guy who'd just spotted a rare bird in a swamp on the annual bird watchers trip.
"Hah, no, sorry buddy – just a metaphor. Means humans like to feel good and be happy for a while after sex," Grace says "Makes us feel good, like light does, so I guess that's the glow?"
"Rocky will ensure at minimum 5000 human seconds after finishing copulation is designated for after glow," Rocky says, sounding delighted. Damn. Grace is absolutely going to regret being so specific – but also Rocky is intentionally knocking 400 seconds off to be a dick.
"Sure, sure, 5250 seconds," Grace agrees, and then he pulls himself up from laying down.
Oh, ow. His hips hurt. He glances down at himself and can see the skin on his stomach and pelvis is red, tender. Damn. He's not the most familiar with sex based injuries, but this is going to bruise. It's definitely more a symptom of the malnutrition, and he really hopes that neither of his sonar-equipped guardians have notice all the blood pooling under his skin.
"Grace is injured exclamation," Rocky says with a sharp noise like a bagpipe being stabbed. Yeah, damn, no way was he getting out of this one.
"Ah, it's just bruises. I pressed a little too hard, but it'll be fine. It was good," Grace says, but he feels very strongly that he is on thin frickin' ice.
"No more sex for Grace," Adrian says from the floor, his voice firm. He's tapping his claws together, getting a better look at Grace. "Until he is healed."
"Oh come on Adrian!" Grace yelps "It's just malnutrition!"But he knows that was the final nail in his sex coffin for now.
"If Grace want to experience Eridian sex, he cannot be bruising from just pressing," Adrian says, "We will not injure you, Grace. You are most precious to us."
Okay, now Grace is feeling weepy from being sex banned. He decides to ignore whatever Eridian Sex is, and why he can't bruise during it, because if he isn't supposed to be getting turned on he cannot even begin to extrapolate how they might adapt Eridian sex to his body.
He shifts up a little more and drains the rest of his coffee. His hips really, really frickin' hurt, but he can't help the bubbling joy in his chest from forcing a smile onto his face. Imagine that - Ryland Grace, happy!
Take that, everyone on Earth.
—
As promised, the courting continues, even if the sex ban will not be lifted.
It's so intensely weird and sweet, and Grace is loathe to admit that he absolutely looks forward to date days. He's running his internal schedule roughly on human hours, but on a 6-day week to better work with Eridian math. Half of his time is spent being poked and prodded, and the other half is taken up by walks on the beach, playing a highly modified games of chess, checkers and something Eridian's call ♬♪♫, which is really similar to monopoly minus the rampant capitalism and with the edition of these very clacky little tokens that Grace feels confusingly inclined to eat.
Rocky and Adrian obviously have some kind of system in place for this entire thing, as they have a seamless rotation going. Grace feels kind of lazy, actually. He thinks he was never a good partner on Earth, and he's surprised by how much that bothers him now. Not so much the idea of Linda and her feelings (he thinks he should feel worse about that, but he helped save two planets so he thinks maybe he can be a little shitty about someone he dated…eugh, with time dilation nearly 17 years ago?), but more around the fact that he has no idea how to be a good partner in an alien polycule.
So he turns back to his care team. He's moved on from the basic books provided by Garnet, and is working his way through a dense one about social norms in courting. It's a little academic, but Grace supposes the only other option would be Eridian romance novels, which…
Actually…
—
"This one is called ♬♪♫♫," Brittany, a bright yellow Eridian who studies social sciences says, holding a sheet of punched metal. "And the story focuses on two mates who fall in love with a thrum-mate and are unsure if the feelings are reciprocated."
He's asked Brittany to bring some recommended resources on Eridian courting (romance novels, okay!) on their last visit, and they've brought a new selection for him this time.
Okay, so Eridian romance novels are startlingly close to Earth novels, with only the edition of a bunch of social stuff that makes no sense. Grace is reminded a little bit of when he tried to read a Japanese horror novel at Linda's begging, so they could talk about the story and Grace would focus on something that wasn't his class, his failure of a life, or science.
That novel had been fine, but not scary at all until the main character had started murdering her friends. Grace had been confused by the sudden change in tone, and it had taken him a long time on the Wikipedia to understand that the creeping sense of horror came from the way the character pushed past Japanese social norms.
The Eridian novels he's been reading are like that, because the the third mate in the book he's been working through ♬♪♫♫♬♪♫♫ has done something to upset the first mate socially, and Grace cannot figure out what or why, and he thinks he is missing the creeping sense of horror.
"And this one is a favourite of mine, because it has aliens," Brittany says, hefting another thin sheet of metal on the table "But not Aliens like savior Grace. Author did not know about humans. This alien has three ovipositors exclamation."
So Grace dubs Brittany as his personal Eridian pornography curator, and does what he does best when faced with a big problem he can't avoid.
He decides an experiment is in order.
—
Before Grace can put any planning into motion, the universe seems to remember that it wants him dead, and gets back to its regularly scheduled nightmare fuel creation.
Grace has obviously been born under a bad sign (his horoscope would have been frickin crazy if he could get the Sunday paper, he's sure) because he would like to officially record his request for a freakin' break.
His care team is pretty sure he's developed an allergy to one of the sugars produced by the Taumoeba, and the implications of that are very not good.
It wasn't much at first – indigestion, a sort of upset stomach after his meals, but nothing majorly concerning his digestive tract is massively screwed up from everything, so it wasn't uncommon for his food to reappear through whatever hole was closest.
The next morning he had woken up with a raised rash on his cheeks and hands. His face had been swollen, like he's been in the hot sun for too long.
They'd chalked it up to a variant of the latest iteration of the me-meat they had been testing, one infused with little worker cells who have been trained to make ascorbic acid.
If it works, it'll be a huge nutritional issue solved. Scurvy sucks. But not if he can't digest it. So it's back to the lab for that batch, and Grace gets a shot of antihistamines. Within an hour he's feeling fine again.
It happened again at lunch, and the rash was hot and itchy. The joints on his fingers were tight as well. It was an exaggerated inflammatory response, and neither Grace nor his care team were particularly thrilled with this sudden change.
He'd been ordered firmly to bed, and given another shot of Antihistamines while Dr. House had ordered a small thrum from the nutritional sciences team.
It took a few meals worth of cycling food in and out before they realize the problem – the Taumoeba.
Taumoeba are survivors. It's why they had been able to breed them to be nitrogen resistant on the Mary in less than 100 life cycles. It's also the reason they had evolved to get through Xenonite so easily.
They're evolving so Grace can't digest them.
This news is delivered to him, Rocky and Adrian via Dr. House and small, nervous looking scientist who asks to be called Leslie. An Eridian giving themselves a human name is novelty enough that it takes him a few beats to really parse what Leslie is saying.
"Okay," Grace says, speaking over Rocky who is basically in the middle of one continuous swearing fit. "So what do we try?"
Of course they have plans. They're not going to just shrug and let him starve to death. The plan basically boils down to "try a bunch of stuff to bash them back into something that can be digested and then feed Grace some." It's a pretty good plan, and Grace agrees with some of the methods, although he isn't sure he's comfortable with the idea of ingesting Eridian developed solvent.
Dr. House and Leslie leave with a plan, an a promise to return tomorrow with a sample. Grace nods, agrees, and waves as they skitter into the airlock to go save his life.
Then, because he's feeling very calm and collected about another thing trying to kill him, Grace bursts into hysterical tears as the strength leaves his body in one devastating wave. He's shaking, he realizes dimly, and he isn't sure if the ringing whistle in his ears is Rocky, Adrian, or his own panic.
And Grace is panicking, because he has realized he wants to live.
And that's really, really unfair. He can admit to himself that he'd been floating around in a haze of passive desire for death since he'd started to starve on the Mary in year three of their journey. It's not that he wanted to die, but rather it was such an inevitable ending that it'd made sense to make peace with it as best he could.
That making peace had turned to something else for a while, when he'd been in the worst of his health crisis. He'd daydreamed, in the worst of his pain, about someone flooding the recovery dome with nitrogen while he slept, putting him out of the endless well of pain and delirium that had been his constant companions.
But he doesn't want that, and it feels so incredibly unfair that now, now he has people who care if he lives or dies, and he can't stop dying to even enjoy it.
He realizes he's sunk to the floor, mostly because he can feel the bones of his knees aching dimly. He'll regret that later, when the bruises are deep and inflamed, but for now that reality feels muted.
He isn't sure if he's still making noise, or if he's gone silent. He knows he isn't alone which is good. His eyes are blurry and swollen, and he thinks he keeps opening and closing them in wide, panicked blinks. He's gasping, he thinks, can feel his lungs like wet balloons in his chest, heavy and unwilling to inflate.
He feels familiar Xenonite covered claw on his head, gentle pushing pressure. He can hear something that he knows is Rocky, a high trill that Grace is far too familiar with, one that says "my human is in trouble."
He can dimly feel Rocky and Adrian holding him, laying him back against the couch. He feels the breeze from Armando descending on him, and then a prick in his neck and it all floats away.
—
It turns out that the problem can be solved a few ways, which is great.
The ultimate idea is to reverse evolve the Taumoeba until they ones without the desire to eat Grace alive from the inside are the dominant strain, and continue to make adjustments to limit their ability to hurt Grace. It seems like the Taumoeba, in their evolutionary push to make more sugar and calories (the little jerks are like space junk food, all calories and no nutrients. And they don't even taste good,) have started to produce some kind of new sugar which Grace's usually adaptable body can't break down without releasing a massive dose of inflammatory hormones.
The sugar can be removed by two methods, once via a long session in the centrifuge to break down the cell wall, and the other what is essentially a flash boil at 210c which makes them explode into a hot Taumoeba calorie mush.
Relatively easy, and the caloric density remains unchany from either of the new preparation methods, which is better luck than they ever have.
The only problem is that Grace simply cannot keep it down. Something about the breaking of the cell wall has released a flavour that Grace's human body cannot be convinced to eat. He's convinced it must be something released by a dead body - cadaverine, maybe because the smell of the sludge is also worse than it's ever been.
"Tube needs to go back in, statement," Dr. House says. It's her latest examination of him, and Grace is aching in remembrance of when he thought he might he able to see her once a month. Now she's back every three Eridian days, and her newest subordinate who Grace calls Dr. White (yes, they have a white carapace. No Grace is not at his best right now) Who's been assigned to the team for the ugly event that's going to follow.
Rocky is attending this meeting, although Adrian had politely opted out. Grace can't blame him. He doesn't want to be here either. He suspects Rocky is here more as a Grace handler than any scientific reason, so it's fine. Not every Eridian needs to see him at his most pathetic.
Grace knows Dr. House is correct. He's a scientist, and the math is accurate and indicative of further decline he can't afford to put his body through. He's lost 7.43 pounds in the last 12 days and he feels like trash. His mouth is raw from puking, and his teeth are fighting for their lives between the gum issues and the twice daily soak in stomach acid.
Grace is backsliding all his progress. The tube needs to go back in, but he also is thinking about heading back up on the space elevator, getting into the Hail Mary, and then pushing himself out the airlock as a less crappy alternative. The moment passes quickly. He wants to live, which is why this whole thing is such a nightmare.
"Okay," Grace says after a few seconds. He knew this was coming before he walked in, so he's had time to prepare. No member of his team would ever force this, but coming in he already knew that he was going to be cajoled and begged until he allowed it.
"Okay, fine," Grace breathes out after a moment, running his tongue over a gap in his teeth. The gum is soft and sore, inflammation battling with what passes for his immune system.
He can tell everyone expected him to throw more of a fit, because there is a pause which can only be described as awkward, before Dr. House perks up.
"It would be best to perform the procedure immediately," Dr. House says, and Grace might be projecting but he thinks she doesn't sound thrilled either. Maybe she's grown fond of her squishy science experiment. He wonders if maybe someone will ask him to run a maze or something one day, test his cognition like a rat. He would do it for cheese, totally.
Oh man, cheese. Ugh.
"You obviously have the kit ready, so let's do it," Grace sighs, and Dr. White pulls out the small Xenonite case the feeding tube materials are stored in. They looks a little guilty, maybe, but again - Grace loves to project emotions onto flat rock faces.
Inserting the tube isn't technically difficult. It's done all the time to children, and patients who wear one often insert and replace them without much fuss. Grace, of course, finds the entire thing to be an experience so harrowing it's like he's at war. He's not sure if it's PTSD, or some medical quirk with his throat, or he was always kind of a weenie about this kind of thing, but he can already feel himself starting to sweat.
Dr. White scuttles over and places the NG tube kit on the table beside him.
"Okay, who's gonna tap me to make sure I don't drown myself in lunch?" Grace says, trying to make a joke of it. Rocky makes an anxious whine at that, and Grace blinks, shakes his head, says,"Sorry buddy, it just sucks. I'll be fine though."
"I will view the insertion," Dr. House says, "And Dr. White will provide secondary visuals. May I touch you to get a better image?"
Dr. House is big on medical consent now, especially after the first few procedures where Grace flipped his shit out and hurt himself when he was touched without notice. He assumes that Rocky had been less than fond of that, so these days Dr. House always asks for permission.
"Go for it," Grace says, and Dr. House raises a claw and presses it gently to his chest. He breathes deeply, and she clicks softly, a ripple of sonar he can't feel but imagines he can.
"Nothing blocking the passage, you can proceed. Right nostril is recommended," She says after a moment, and Grace snorts out a laugh, says "Lucky me," and opens the kit. Armando drops a pouch of water beside him on the desk, like the worlds worst capri-sun.
Grace sanitizes his hands with something that isn't exactly Purell but seems to work well enough. It's only his germs, anyway. Snapping on a pair of nitrile gloves, he picks up the flexible length of tube and measures it against his cheek, dropping a length down to where his empty stomach sits.
Well, it's now or never.
Inserting an NG tube isn't difficult, but it does suck. His hand shakes just a little, but before he can talk himself out of it Grace slides the tube up to his nostril, takes a steadying breath, and pushes forward.
Oh, it feels bad, bad, bad.
His eyes are watering immediately, and his throat clicks as he suppress a gag and a sneeze. His shoulders raise up and he shudders, long and slow. Okay, okay, keep pushing. Grace applies pressure to the tube, and once it meets the soft back of his throat, he gropes around for the water pouch. His hand doesn't find it right away, but before he can panic, Rocky gives a comforting chirp (not a word, just a tone,) and then the water pouch is in his hand.
He presses the straw to his lips, swallows, swallows.
Pushes the tube, swallows. A tear drips down the side of his nose, and his eyes are so wet he can't see. The tube needs to go in. Grace can get the damn tube in.
"Tube is nearly in position, Savior Grace. One more swallow should be sufficient," Dr. House says, and Grace, drenched in cold sweat swallows again. There isn't any kind of click or feeling to indicate it's in correctly, but he stops the motions of his throat and sits still for a moment. The urge to throw up is still strong, but rapidly settling. His throat feels raw from gagging, and overall he feels damp and wrung out.
"Are we good?" He asks, and after a few small clicks and one low trill, Dr. House says "Yes, tube is correct inserted. Please feel free to anchor the device to your orbital area."
"On Earth, they give kids fun tape for these," Grace muses a he tapes the tube to his cheekbone with a strip of white medical tape. He wonders if we should draw on his tape. A petrova line, maybe. Or flowers. He isn't a great artist. He doesn't even like to look in the mirror, so he's just being silly.
"Wanna push a feed?" he asks, gesturing at the capped off end of the tube resting on his collarbone
"Yes, you should begin right away. Dr. White has developed a feeding plan to reduce any discomfort for you while your systems adapts to the new preparation. This will be communicated on our return. 2500 seconds is expected," Dr. House says.
"Cool," Grace says with a weak thumbs up, and Dr. House and Dr. White scuttle away, the hiss of the airlock following as they depart. Grace is cold now, the sweat and tears drying in the air of the dome. He feels wrung out, and all kinds of gross. He needs a nap, and a cuddle, ASAP.
"Rocky hates Taumeoba," Rocky thrills after a moment, and Grace laughs so hard he hiccups.
—
It's not like he isn't being courted still, it's just been adjusted to make way for the changes in his routine; and he hasn't forgotten his project either. The tube is helping with his energy, and while it's certainly put a damper on his mental health, he's working with the tools he has to deal with that.
Phillips, his LLM chat bot therapist is useless with this stuff. He keeps directing Grace to articles made for parents who have children with feeding disorders, but Grace is trying to adapt some of the tenants into his routine. Mostly, distracting himself with tasks so he doesn't focus on too much on the tube, his health, or any of the horrors that are always in the back of his brain. So, project "Romance like an Eridian" is back on deck.
Right now, Grace is carefully laying out small pebbles on the beach in something roughly like a star. It's more of a childish method of expressing interest as far as courting displays go. Eridians with jobs and tools would make models, or create songs for their potential mates. Grace can't really do any of that, but he's determined to try as best he can.
So, he's making what is sort of like a clumsy mandala design for Rocky to walk in. Eridians do these grand mating displays, but Grace figures they're pretty similar to peace gardens with their rings of stone to walk through.
The scrap of beach he liked to visit on the weekends on earth had one of those. It'd been one of his favourite places, barely any sand and salt on his skin.
Four rings interlock into a large circle, designed to loop the walker back together, and in the middle he's put a clumsy star, to represent Rocky.
Speaking of, Grace can hear the hiss of the airlock spinning, so he pulls himself up to his knees. They ache horribly still from his Taumoeba panic attack. Adrian says he can see micro-fractures and "fluid irregularities" in the joint, whatever that means. All Grace knows is that he shouldn't be kneeling for this or any other reas– for this.
"Grace, Rocky is here to visit! Courting visit, very official statement," Rocky trills out, his song buoyant and joyful. He's in a good mood, and it makes Grace happier already. Rocky in a good mood is his favourite Rocky, just under Rocky with an idea, or Rocky feeling mischievous, or, more recently, Rocky curious about touching Grace…aaaand it was not the time to get caught up thinking about that. He was romancing!
Grace grins and calls out "Me too, buddy! Come outside."
Grace hears what can only be described as a clatter, and he before he hears Rocky's frantic pattering a moment before the front door swings open.
"Grace Grace Grace," Rocky chants. He's in his suit, and is holding a familiar canister "Gift for Rocky question?"
Grace grins, feeling unbelievably fond of Rocky. He's just so fudging cute. He hopes he likes his gift. He had his doubts, but the same idea had shown up in two romance novels now, which makes him sure it's a common tactic.
"Hey Rocks," Grace says as Rocky skitters outside. He's so cute. Just seeing him makes Grace's heart feel kind of fluttery and ridiculous. He's got a flipping crush, what can he say. He doesn't think he's ever felt so…blushy.
"What Grace give gift for question," Rocky asks, and Grace snorts.
"Courting goes both ways, you dummy. You weren't ever going to mention that?"
"…Rocky didn't want to assume Grace could do everything under courting."
"Well, I can't, but still. Human twist, right? So let me give you an Eridian twist! I made, uh, ♫♫ ♪♪," Grace says, and then awkwardly clicks out two unfamiliar notes. It's not perfect, because the tone is a little difficult for the human vocal box, but it's the gesture that counts. Probably.
"You made a ♫♫♪♪," Rocky says, and Grace can see that one of his vents is open. Is Rocky turned on by this? Is this a sexy mating display? It had really seemed like the tamer options presented in the books he's been working his way through.
"Yeah, sort of? We have something like this too."
"Humans lay rocks as courting display question?"
"Okay, not exactly the same," Grace says, laughing "They're kind of like, on Earth sometimes people will lay stones down in big circles and the idea is you walk them. So uh, I thought we could walk it together?" Grace trails off awkwardly. He's flushing so furiously now he thinks it might be enough to be seen from the upper atmosphere of Erid.
Rocky squeals out a glissando of notes, and Grace finds himself being tugged back down onto the sand for an enthusiastic hug.
"Yes yes yes RockyGrace walk and hold hands," Rocky declares "Like human date from movies."
"Hah, yeah, exactly like that," Grace says, a blush warming his cheeks. This is so silly. Rocky loves him, this romance stuff is just…another layer of that love.
"Thank you, Grace. This is very good courting gift."
"I'm glad. I wanna do this right, you know. You're best best friend, and Adrian is important too."
"RockyAdrian also have small courting gift for Grace," Rocky says "Rocky made mostly so get to give to Grace."
Grace presses up a little up from the sand, and makes 'gimme gimme' hands at the capsule that Rocky is holding.
"Gimme, please," Grace says, wiggling his hands again when Rocky doesn't hand it over right away.
Rocky places the capsule into his cupped hands, and his claw lingers for a moment as the object is exchanged. Grace passes his fingers gently over Rocky's claw, and takes the gift. Grace cracks it open, twisting sharply to the right. It's a movement that has never felt natural, not even after so long using Rocky's containers. He shakes out the object into his hand.
The gift is a bracelet, about ¾ of an inch wide it's made of some kind of flexible metal and Xenonite. It's beautiful, and Grace can see Rocky's careful work in the band. It's sturdy, but beautiful.
The design is what makes him, of course, start to cry.
It's Earth. A beautiful blue circle with chips of brown embedded in it. Grace knows with a soul deep certainty that the stones are actually small chips of carapace from Rocky and Adrian. He recognizes the colours like they're part of him.
"Design sound very very very good to RockyAdrian. Look nice to Grace question," Rocky says in a rush, his whistles and chords betraying his nerves.
"It's beautiful, buddy," Grace says, his voice thick.
"Grace is more beautiful," Rocky replies, and Grace laughs, and ducks his face into his hands. He is so smitten, it's ridiculous.
"Okay, how come you came here just to show up my big romantic gesture, huh!" Grace jokes after a moment, sniffling back the worst of his tears as he hooks the beautiful cuff around his wrist. The inlaid design is so beautiful, his planet glinting up at him in familiar blue and brown. Wearing his heart on his wrist, he supposes.
"Grace gesture means everything to Rocky," the Eridian replies firmly, and Grace flushes, another errant tear creeping from his eye. Maybe he was on anti-depressants on Earth. He cries a lot.
"Grace confirm tears romantic movie type question," Rocky says, and Grace snorts, dragging his sleeve across his face to mop up his tears.
"Yeah, buddy, romantic movie type," Grace says, grinning. It's romantic as heck. Did Grace wear jewellery on earth? He doesn't think so. It feels right, though, here. Grace on Erid wears jewellery from his partners.
"Grace kiss question." Rocky cajoles. Grace grins, and bends down to deliver a smacking kiss to the top of Rocky's carapace, and exaggerated 'Mwha'.
"Grace better kiss," Rocky demands with a huffy stomp of of his leg, and Grace rolls his eyes "Better kiss? What does that mean, huh? You want me to slip you tongue?"
"Disgust disgust disgust. Yes Grace slip tongue," Rocky chirps, like the little pervert he is.
Grace sticks his tongue out, waggling it from side to side. Rocky makes a noise of annoyance and fondness and says "Show in kiss. Grace kiss Rocky with tongue, statement," Rocky says, and Grace flushes, swipes his tongue over his bottom lip unconsciously.
"You sure? Isn't that gonna be kind of gross?" Grace says, biting his lips. Obviously Rocky is not entirely opposed to Grace and his fluids, But still.
"Rocky like Grace gross. Now tongue please," Rocky replies
Well, he is trying to listen to his partners needs.
Grace presses his mouth to Rocky's carapace again, and this time he lingers. He feels the small scales of the Xenonite plates against his lips, and if he presses can feel the outline of a crag in the texture of Rocky's carapace. Rocky chitters and presses up on his hands, the way he used to when they hugged when Rocky was still using the ball.
Grace drags his lips across the scales, and with a soft sigh opens his mouth a little, and slides his tongue along Rocky. It's not a true french kiss, obviously. There's no slippery tongue meeting his own, but Grace has privately always thought that was kind of gross, so this is just fine.
Rocky makes a noise that sounds like a steam powered piano being smashed with a hammer, and Grace assumes he's enjoying it. He licks again, leaving a trail of saliva on the Xenonite, and Rocky twitches away with a frantic propulsive movement, and Grace presses his hands to his mouth. It doesn't feel swollen, but he wonders if he rubbed his mouth across the Xenonite scales if they would get puffy and sensitive. If he could dig his teeth into his bottom lip until it rides the edge of too much.
God. He needs to get this stupid tube out so he can have a repeat of their…intimacy from a few weeks ago.
"C'mon Dr. House, figure out this Taumoeba thing," Grace rumbles, and Rocky chitters, and says "Yes agree agree agree."
—
Adrian and Grace get on very well these days, which is a relief. Grace doesn't feel the same towards Adrian as he does Rocky (He can never feel for anyone else what he feels for Rocky, he knows) but they have something growing between them. It's a little flirty, and a lot sciencey. They talk a lot, and listen to radio dramas, which are kind of rad. Grace can't always keep up with them, but he's getting much better at spoken Eridian that isn't as dumbed down as the pidgin they developed on the Mary.
Grace is practicing on his new keyboard, too. It was a gift from Adrian, although Rocky had also helped with the construction. With it, he can play a whole host of tones his human body could never produce. It's still tricky, remembering register and length of each note, but he's getting better.
He wonders if maybe he could use it to play some kind of mating song or something. He was never a good singer, and he can't imagine Adrian would be as charmed by Grace's failures as Rocky is, but he wants to give him something anyway.
Today their conversation has been growing more philosophical, and of course they've stumbled into gender.
Grace is, again, a cool and liberal guy. He knows about pronouns. He's taught the mandatory homeroom health class which included something called the Genderbread man as a diagram. He'd even thought he could get down with a he/they situation if push came to shove.
What he is not prepared for is to be an alien in a polyamorous relationship with two other aliens having a gender and sexuality crisis.
"Did Grace give Rocky and Adrian male markers because you preferred human men on Earth, question" Adrian asks, and while it takes him a few seconds to match all the words, he's pleased that the simplified Eridian makes sense to him.
Gay crisis in space hadn't been on his agenda today.
"Uh, I don't think I was gay on Earth," Grace says, squinting slightly as he casts around his fragmented memories. He thinks he slept with some guys in college, definitely had a little crush on Carl before the whole "space death betrayal" thing. He'd dated Linda though, and maybe someone named Sam before that. Gender unsure for Sam.
"I think I was bisexual," Grace says, and while there is no great clicking of a part of his identity recovered, it doesn't feel wrong, either.
"Dating both sexes question," Adrian asks, and Grace nods, shrugs.
"So why Grace call Rocky and Adrian him," Adrian asks. There's no judgment in his tone, and Grace is working so hard not to put Earth standards on fudging aliens, but he feels weirdly defensive anyway.
"I don't know – I think I just went with what was the most familiar," Grace says after a moment, shrugging. He's already had to see if he was a deep misogynist in space, and while his general thought is 'not really but society, right?' he doesn't love diving into this stuff. He's a science teacher, not a sociologist.
"You gave me male pronouns," Adrian notes "Do you perceive us to be in a homosexual relationship question?"
"Well only one of us is from genus homo so no? I don't think so," Grace says, because he has never actually thought dating two rock aliens was gay. Is it gay? Does he need to be worried about this?
"Do you want other pronouns?" Grace asks, suddenly very worried he's given gender dysphoria to an Eridian. Maybe Adrian is a she/her. Does that make him trans? No, fudge, of course not. Adrian is a rock with no concept of gender. All of this is Grace's Earth stuff.
"Adrian feels neutral about perceived gender identity," Adrian says peaceably, and Grace feels himself relax a little.
"Cool, cool," Grace says, and there is a beat of silence in which Grace feels very sure he's managed to side-step out of this awkward conversation. He's about to move onto something else, when Adrian shifts slightly and asks.
"Why does Grace not wear flowing clothes that are available in storage?"
"Uh, gender stuff, mostly. And size. Ilyukhina – she was our engineer – was shorter than me," Grace says "But I think I'll have to figure out how to knit or something if I want to have more clothes."
"Knit question" Adrian asks.
"Weaving cloth using handheld instruments," Grace says, even though that isn't actually correct.
'Eridian have ♮♬♫, they are thin instruments used to weave soft fibres together. Perhaps similar to what Grace means," Adrian says, and Grace nods, thinks about the little he knows about fabric art. Gosh forbid if Earth ever sends someone with hobbies out here.
"Humans use their clothes to express personality," Grace says.
"And jewelry question?"
Grace looks down at the cuff around his wrist. He takes it off to sleep, and it's the first thing he puts on in the morning
"Yeah, like jewellery," Grace says "Hey, neither Rocky or you wear a lot of jewelry – preference or status thing?"
Adrian gives a little trill "Grace smart smart smart! Yes, jewelry more popular for celebration or honored person. More decoration, more status."
"I can't imagine anyone more honored – did the thrum give you a new title too?"
Grace and Rocky are officially known as "Saviors of Erid", and Rocky got some fancy new engineering crest carved into his leg.
Adrian got some fancy title as well, Grace is pretty sure. There was a ceremony, but Grace was pretty out of it. He's pretty sure the only reason it happened that soon after landing was because they wanted to give him a title before he dropped dead so they could engrave it on his tomb.
His actual title is very long, something closer to "the-golden-one-from-Sol-who- traveled-the stars-to-bring-our-salvation-home-at-loss-of-his-own," but he really prefers just Grace.
"Yes, yes. Title is ø♬♬♩" Adrian says, clacking his claws together in a show of discomfort "Means the one who waited and did not give up on Rocky return. Held desire and thought that Rocky come home even when felt untrue."
"Hope," Grace says, mouth a little dry "You held hope. Adrian the Hope Holder."
Grace can't begin to imagine what Adrian went through. To watch Rocky climb on that ship, unsure if he would return. One of the first Eridians to leave their orbit, with a mission to save everything. Grace has known Rocky for a fraction of the time, but he thinks he wouldn't survive watching Rocky go to space.
"Hope is same word?" Adrian asks. Grace is reminded of the time Rocky had asked him the meaning of sacrificing yourself on the Mary. They were aliens, yet so much of them was the same.
Adrian waited for 52 years for Rocky to return. He was courted, but never accepted another.
"Yes. Humans have a poem about it, well, we have a lot of them, its a big thing for us, hang on, hang on," Grace says, picking up his laptop and cracking open the literature files.
"Okay, it goes like this: Hope is the thing with feathers," Grace read out loud as Adrian listened very carefully.
Dickinson lead to Frost, which led to Mary Oliver. Adrian seemed to enjoy poems more than any other art from from earth, and Grace found the the rhythm of his own voice soothing.
They pass the rest of the afternoon that way, and Adrian stays until the lights in the dome had dimmed to a twinkling dusk.
Adrian hesitantly asks if Grace might have more poems for them to read next week, and Grace promises he'll find more. After a moment, Adrian bends his carapace down to allow Grace to press his lips against him in a sweet good night kiss.
—
It's double date day on the courting schedule and the sunlight in the dome is bright and butter warm.
Grace is wearing a skirt. His conversation with Adrian from a few days ago had stuck with him, and he's found himself poking through the storage cube with Ilyukhina's clothes in it. He's been saving the silk robe already for some kind of special day, and a lot of what she packed he had written off as too small for him. It turns out he's a lot closer in size to her now, which is unpleasant to dwell on, but it also means he's wearing a black skirt with a delicate yellow flower print and feeling mostly unbothered by it.
New clothes! Hey, that's a dopamine hit for a lot of people. He didn't get to go shopping, but it's something.
His ankles are getting some air, which is pretty fun. They hurt though, the double gravity determined to wreck his joints. He has no doubt that the second he mentions it he'll have all the space mobility aids he could desire
They're walking the circles Grace had designed outside. Grace is in the middle, and he's been bullied into holding both Rocky and Adrian's hands. He feels very secure, and a little like a grandpa. He has to remind himself that compared to the Eridians he is basically a newborn.
Grace has something that he's been nudging at his brain the past few weeks, and the thought is that Adrian and Rocky seem to have endless time to spend with him. Surely Rocky is in demand as a savior of Erid. Are they putting their lives on pause to be with him?
"Do you guys have like, jobs?" Grace blurts out as they walk. Adrian and Rocky don't even pause, continuing on their slow walk which leaves Grace being gently tugged between them.
"I am working part-time on the dome design team, but otherwise am on leave," Adrian says "My team feels that I would benefit from time with my Mate and Courted one, but the routine of work is important to me".
"And before the dome?" Grace asks, curiously.
"Designed buildings. Before dome was working on design for saving as many as possible from climate shift," Adrian says "Dome was first project that was not about the doom of Erid."
"Well, you're welcome I guess," Grace "For needing the most complex hamster cage ever".
"It was an honour to design the dome for Grace," Adrian says in the way that always knocks Grace sideways with how sincere it is "Even when I feared you were trying to steal my mate."
Grace stops dead, eyes widening "Oh my god Adrian –," only to be cut off by a bubbling laugh he's only heard a few times. Adrian is laughing! Adrian told a joke! This is kind of huge.
"A joke!" Grace says, "Dang, okay you're a comedian!"
"No, no, Adrian is architect," Rocky says, and Grace can't help it, he starts to laugh too. Rocky joins them too, and for a moment the only sound on the beach is laughter and the waves.
"Okay, okay, I gotta sit. My knees hurt," Grace says after a second, and allows himself to be gently tugged across the ring of stones.
"Grace should not fall down," Rocky grumbles, guiding Grace down to one of the raised ledges that have been added to the beach in a natural stone, "Then knees will not hurt."
"I was having a panic attack, Rocks," Grace says, rolling his eyes as he settles down. Adrian nudges closer, extending two legs out to brush against Grace's thigh.
"Rocky has seen Grace trip over air," Rocky says, and if he had eyes Grace knows he would be rolling them. The little jerk.
"Sure, sure, well I'm not trying to hurt my knees again, so you can stop figuring out how to make knee pads out of Xenonite," Grace says. Rocky settles into a little loaf shape beside Adrian, tucking himself along their side.
"What about you, Rock?" Grace asks after a moment of comfortable silence.
"Grace is is Rocky job," Rocky says, and for some reason that hurts.
"Ow," he says. He knows he's being ridiculous, but still. He doesn't enjoy the idea of any part of him being a job to Rocky.
"Grace not in physical pain question," Adrian says, tilting his carapace a little. He looks beautiful in the sunlight of the dome, green and blue swirls like the foaming sea. Grace imagines Adrian in the Mediterranean waters, and in his mind the Eridian is still the more beautiful one.
"I mean ow that I'm a job," Grace says, "It kind of implies a level of not wanting it."
Grace knows he is a job for a lot of Eridians. The Ryland Grace economy. He doesn't keep count exactly, but his primary care team, even forgetting about dome support, is 18 individuals. He really is like a very fussy zoo animal.
He just doesn't like the idea of Rocky viewing him as a job. Grace knows he isn't the easiest to take care of, and emotionally he's pretty stunted. He's got the lifespan of a dog, and every syndrome or disease possible right now. But he had thought…well, he's been enjoying the courting process. Maybe Rocky hasn't been enjoying it?
"Grace is Rocky's job to look after, make safe safe safe safe," Rocky says, rising from his loaf position and climbing half onto Grace, balancing on two leg. It's like a half collapsed hug, and Grace throws his arms around Rocky. He's touch starved as hell – nothing makes him turn down a hug.
"Great honour for Rocky," The Eridian finishes, and gives Grace a good squeeze.
"Oh," Grace replies, the ice in his stomach melting a little.
"Rocky can return to engineering thrum whenever he wants, but not want right now," Rocky says "Rocky maybe take on small projects when more settled."
"You love engineering," Grace says. He doesn't know why Rocky and Adrian having something to do outside of him feels so critical to him.
"RockyAdrian work on Grace dome, Grace health, and now also get to love Grace," Rocky says, "All good for job."
"Starting to think job isn't the right word." Grace says, realizing that this is a cultural thing, maybe.
"Job not right word question," Rocky says.
"On earth a job can be a vocation, something that makes you really happy or fulfilled. But sometimes it can just be what you do," Grace says "You get paid to do it."
"No, not right. Word is wrong. Grace is not job, Grace is…Grace is like Adrian. Is like finding reason for making. For being made," Rocky says. His voice is layered in a way Grace can't fully understand, but he knows this is important.
"Purpose," He says, his mouth dry, voice soft. It seems to carry. "Word is purpose,"
"Grace is Rocky's purpose now," Rocky says "Purpose might change a little when Grace is well, but right now Rocky know purpose and is happy happy happy."
Grace lapses into silence while he thinks that over. Rocky, for once, doesn't interrupt him. Adrian doesn't either.
They sit in comfortable silence, and suddenly Grace finds himself spilling out words he hadn't known he needed to say.
"I don't know my purpose anymore," he admits, and it feels like digging into a sore muscle, tender pain flaring into something hot and bright for a moment.
Rocky makes a little trilling noise, and clambers more fully into his lap. Adrian scoots closer, pressing his claws firmly into Grace's thigh. The pressure feels good, and the radiant heat from Adrian is even better.
"I guess I've been thinking that I outlived my suicide mission and feel kind of weird about it," Grace says "Like what am I supposed to do for the rest of my life?"
"You don't have to decide that right now," Adrian says "You are healing. Do all humans worry about the future so much question?"
"Yeah, part of the human condition," Grace says "I know it'll seem stupid to you guys because you live so long, but I've been healing for nearly 5 months and it feels like all I'll ever be is sick," Grace finished, feeling raw.
"You feel time much more sharply," Adrian says, and Grace nods, feeling miserable.
"You will not always be sick Grace," Rocky says "Sickness is phase. Healthy is normal."
"On Erid, time to heal is important," Adrian says, "So Grace must not rush. Must listen to body-song and then when ready can find purpose."
"Grace purpose to heal and be loved right now," Rocky says, and Grace hugs him, squishing his entire body against him. It feels like hugging a rock, and Grace wishes he never had to let go.
"You're right," Grace says, smiling softly. He's really lucky.
"Get fat, also," Rocky says, pulling himself from their half hug and standing on all of his limbs and craning upwards in the way he prefers when making an announcement. A natural Eridian power pose.
"Hey, I don't wanna get fat! I was so ripped on the Mary, I was like a Hollywood style guy," Grace protests. Heck it, he's vain! While he might be wearing a skirt right now, he would still prefer to be kind of ripped again.
He was always kind of skinny-fat on Earth. He biked to work, but he also ate eggs and bacon five days a week. He'd lifted weights at the Vatt to pass the time between existential horrors, but also ate his weight in skittles and Twizzlers.
Balance. Moderation.
Of course, waking up ripped like an actor after a space coma and then saving the world, getting some chemical burns, before slowly starving to death did some weird stuff to your body. He was not prepared to deal with body dysphoria in space though, so he was refusing to prod too deeply into that box of complex emotions.
"Want Grace soft soft soft stomach have layer of healthy fat," Rocky says, and Grace smiles a little, keeping his bottom lip curled a little over the tooth he'd given away to Rocky. He's got to see if they can make white Xenonite – maybe they could make fake teeth.
He can train the first Eridian dentist! Ugh, they would be a freak for sure. No normal Eridian is signing up for the "add teeth to the aliens mouth,' job. Yikes.
"Okay, so you want me to stop starving. Me too, bud," Grace says, touching the NG tube taped to his face "Hopefully whatever fight my body has decided to have with these little jerks can be resolved soon."
"Yes good," Rocky says "When Taumeoba stop being bad, or Grace meat enough for all food, then sexual intercourse can resume."
"Oh! Bold to assume I even want to have sex again," Grace says, his heart thudding in his chest. Yeah, he's ready for the tube to be out and the sexual intercourse to continue.
"Grace asks for sexual intercourse with RockyAdrian," Rocky says boastfully "Grace beg for RockyAdrian, sexual intercourse activities."
"Nnnh," Grace replies, suddenly very aware that he's tucked away on the edge of the secluded beach, surrounded by both of his…boyfriends. And he was getting hard.
"Grace blood directs to penis," Adrian says "Grace enjoys when Rocky is rude."
"Okay well unless you've decided to waive the rule about me not wasting vital fluids or whatever, we gotta stop talking about sex," Grace says. His cheeks flush, and he is trying very hard to resist the urge to shift his hip around until he can get some friction from the seam of his skirt.
"Absolutely not," Rocky says immediately
Grace sighs, grins, says, "Well, a guys gotta try, right?"
—
Three weeks later Grace is delivered, well, a miracle. The taumoeba problem is fixed! Through some intense genetic engineering, and what amounts to not just playing god but basically becoming a god for a billion of the these bacteria fellows. They've forced evolution to take a hard left, injected a bunch of other stuff into their cellular structure, and told them to get on with it.
What results is Taumoeba V.2 – more nutritionally dense (calcium! Iron! Trace amount of beneficial metals!), and with a benefit that Grace really cares about – the new cell engineering has enabled them to add something like an artificial flavour compound. He has two whole freaking flavors of Taumoeba now!
Heh. He sounds like an old timey commercial host. Taumoeba, in two new flavours! Children's banana flavoured penicillin, or campfire smoke with apple! Baffling to eat, but keeps you alive, sorta!
The breakthrough with the Taumoeba is incredible, and Grace is so happy to have the NG tube out. He's regaining weight, and his knees have mostly healed.
So when the fudge is he going to be allowed to have sex? Now that he's back on the mend, he's returned to project "Romance like an Eridian." The problem is that romance books don't have endings that make sense. He doesn't want to break up with Rocky or Adrian and then be nearly killed by a ♫♭ – a giant scorpion type of predator – before being tenderly coaxed back to health in a cave. That one feels kinda close to his actual life.
He also doesn't want to be forced to take a job outside of his dome, and then make Rocky and Adrian chase him down on a crowded train with a beautiful song, either.
Ugh.
"Ugh," Grace says, putting down the last sheet of the book he's been skimming. Ramona is choosing between two mates, and Grace knows she's going to choose James, the charming biologist over Mickey, the miner with a heart of gold from the mountains. Poor Mickey!
A familiar knock on the door (knock is far too polite, really - Rocky built the door to his house to be able to withstand a small bomb as far as Grace can tell.
"RockyAdrian here for official courting visit!" Rocky chirps
"Official courting? It's it supposed to be a solo date day with Adrian today?" Grace says, and Rocky doesn't even waste time with an answer.
"Hello Grace," Adrian says, bending his carapace down a little. Grace leans up on his toes and kisses Adrian through his Xenonite suit. It's a sweet little ritual they've adopted.
"Rocky kiss time!" Rocky says immediately, scuttling over and standing tall on all five legs.
"You are such a jealous brat, you know?" Grace says, and kisses Rocky's carapace. He even gives him a little flick of tongue, because Rocky is a pervert and would make Grace lick him all day if he could.
"Okay, break in the courting routine," Grace says, leading them back to the living room. The two carapace pieces still take center stage on his shelf, but he's started adding more trinkets to the house. The delicate rose, some of the books he's been given by Brittany.
He's added some colours to the walls, too. The soil in part of his dome is deep red, and with a little finessing Grace has been able to turn it into something like an oil pant. He's not great at art, but he's been trying to recreate some of the images from the Chauvet Cave, maybe some overlapping hands like one of the caves in South America he remembers reading about. He's planning on trying to get the gold plates from the Mary, too, maybe hanging them on the walls. It feels important, somehow, to be the keeper of his scraps of humanity.
Plus, it gives him something to do. His health has been improving by leaps and bounds with Taumoeba V.2. He's been assured a V.3 is coming soon, with, and this is making him kind of giddy, amino acids. This is all amazing, but it's left Grace with more energy than he's had in at least a year, and with that has come an increase in energy, and also increased restlessness.
He's flipping bored, basically.
So this off schedule courting visit has him pretty damn jazzed.
"Okay! What's on the roster today then?" Grace asks, and Rocky holds up a container, shakes it around and says "Grace want sexual intercourse today question"
Grace's brain skips a beat like a needle on a bent record, and then it restarts with a whoosh.
"Oh heck yes – my last blood work was super good, right?" Jesus, is that what counts for as horny talk for him these days?
"Yes, Grace health is much improved. Grace is softer now, body less fragile. It is enjoyable to hear," Adrian says, and Grace feels a little shiver curl up his spine.
"Flirting," He accuses, and Adrian laughs, a deep rumble that Grace's nervous system has accepted as a desired sound.
"Yes," Adrian says. Rocky trills to get their attention, because he really is an unbelievable brat, and he shakes the Xenonite canister at them "Rocky make sex invention!"
The sex invention turns out to be an alien fleshlight, if Grace is going to be honest about it.
He's been deemed as still too delicate to have full Eridian style sex (he still has no idea how they are planning on doing that, Grace definitely doesn't have the right bones in his pelvis to ease open their ventral seams) but that doesn't mean that they can't do this.
They've switched up the dynamic today – Adrian touching him more than before. Grace feels nearly dizzy with the size of him. He feels very small, aaaand yeah that does it for him!
Rocky is stroking over Grace's hair and neck, and Grace can already see a dribble of mercury on his leg. His seam is already opening, fudge. Do Eridians do dirty talk? Only one way to find out.
"Uhhhf, Rocky, you're wet," Grace gasps out, rubbing his face against whoever has their claw closest to his face right now.
"Yes, Grace make Rocky wet wet wet," Rocky trills, petting two sets of claws over Grace's chest. He's exploring what feels like every inch of his skin, poking, proving, scraping and pinching. Gosh, he hopes he's bruised tomorrow. He doesn't bruise as easily now, but he wants to wear the evidence of this night on his skin.
Rocky's claws are so delicate though, even as he arches into the contact and sighs. He's so warm between them, but it's been weeks since he's felt the bones deep hunger of starvation. His mouth still hurts, teeth loose, and his collagen production is so low he he thinks his skin texture might look like a photo-shopped advertisement. Doctors hate him! He just won't die!
"Grace leaky leaky leaky down here," Adrian says from his place at Grace's pelvis. His low rumble creates a vibrato against his skin, and he finds himself whining low and wanton.
"Touch me, please," Grace says. Adrian chuffs out a laugh, and because he is in a kind mood puts two claws on Grace's hips to hold him down, and then slides the space fleshlight down onto his cock.
The inside of the tube is warm and soft, and oh, it feels like he's fucking a person, holy shit. Grace's brain stutters, blinks, and then comes back on line with a scream of colour and texture. He's moaning, mouth open and wet. He can faintly hear Rocky and Adrian, high chattering and lower notes blending into an orchestra that's just for him.
"Grace wants more question," Adrian asks, and he nods, shakily. He doesn't know what more means, but he wants it.
Want is the primary emotion he is composed of right now, like a raw wire sparking in the elements. Adrian fiddles his something for a moment, and then without any gosh darn warning at all the fleshlight proceeds to suck his brains right out of his dick. Grace jackknifes up, or he would if he wasn't being restrained by at least four hands.
"uuufnnnn," He moans out, and Rocky hooks two claws into his mouth. Grace sucks swallowing around Rocky's fingers like they're, well, a cock.
"Wet wet wet," Rocky chants "Good good good Grace, being so good for RockyAdrian,"
Grace slurps and swallows, shaking as his dick is enveloped by the heat of the sleeve around him. the heat is immense. He can feel his orgasm building in the base of his spine, white hot waves of pleasure falling onto him like a torrent.
"M'mgonna — pleashh," Grace gets out, trembling on the brink of his orgasm. Just as he feels he's about to tumble over the edge, crying out and pushing is hips up, he suddenly feels a band of iron clamp around his balls. It should hurt. Well, actually, it does hurt, but the hurt carries the pleasure so much further. He jerks up, trying to free himself from the pressure, but he's held immobile by the Eridians holding him. His orgasm slides away from him, the edge retreating.
"Nuuoooooo," He slurs out around the claws in his mouth, twitching weakly. He's sweating now, frustration in his chest. He wants more.
"No, not yet," Rocky says "AdrianRocky have big plans for Grace, no orgasm yet unless Grace wants to continue afterwards," And oh, oh isn't that a mental image. Him, limp and worn out between rounds, Rocky and Adrian moving him as they like. They don't even orgasm in the same way. They could use him all night and still have energy to keep using him.
Oh god. His stomach clenches.
"Uughhhn," He says, and Rocky slides his claws put of his mouth, taking great pleasure in dragging spit across Grace's lips and jaw, leaving him filthy.
"I would like to anally penetrate you," Adrian says, apropos of fucking nothing.
"Uhhh," Grace says, because he might have a fully nuked memory but he knows that he usually had a routine before letting anyone stick something up his ass.
"It is okay if this is not of interest," Adrian hurries to say when Grace doesn't reply right away. Grace thinks dimly that maybe he should introduce Adrian and Rocky to safe sex principals. Stuff like, it can make consent blurry when you ask to do something after edging someone.
What would the traffic light system even look like here? Grace imagines himself tied up, squealing out 'medium rough texture,' as a green light.
He barely stops himself snorting out a laugh, and says, "I didn't — it's not that. It's uh, of interest. It's just usually there's some stuff involved before," Grace says, horny and horrified at the concept of explaining anal sex hygiene to a pair of aliens. Like, is he going to give himself an enema in space? Right now it's fine, probably, because he eats so little solid food — but these are the types of questions he hates that he needs to think about.
"Okay if Grace want to think more about prep! Whatever makes Grace comfortable," Rocky says "No pressure. AdrianRocky just think inside Grace wet wet, soft and good. Want to touch inside,"
And damn, if that isn't enough to get him nodding like a horny idiot, what else would?
Adrian easily pushes his knees up, practically around his ears. His hips click unpleasantly, but before his muscles can begin to burn he finds his legs placed neatly in Rocky's claws. It's a little bit like a living gynecologist chair and Grace would laugh if he wasn't so horny his heart might explode. His cock is still so hard inside the fleshlight, and it's hot and wet. He feels pinned open, like a butterfly on a corkboard. the vulnerability only makes his heart pound more.
There are so many hands on him it makes him feel a little overwhelmed, but in a good way. Something fuzzy is pushing at the edges of his consciousness, and he thinks, oh that hasn't happened in a long time, as his focus slides away. He feels so taken care of. Rocky and Adrian have him. He's safe. His fried nervous system slides into sweet silence, and he feels tension drains out of him that he's been holding for years.
A warm claw toys with his hole, coated in something slick and warm. The fleshlight around his dick isn't moving as much as it was earlier but it ripples occasionally, enough to keep his cock warm and interested.
"Grace good good?" He hears Rocky asks, and he manages a nod, slow like he's dipped in honey.
"S'good," He says, and Rocky slides two claws back into his mouth. he sucks around them absently as Adrian presses a claw against his hole. It feels nothing like a human finger, or any sex toy he's ever tried. His claw was hard like stone, but warm through the scaled Xenonite.
A lazy spark of pleasure travelled up his spine and he finds himself relaxing, letting his body follow a map it already knows. Adrian presses forward, the curve of his claw catching slightly at the edge of his rim. There's no pain, just a flair of hot sensation, a yielding of muscle.
Adrian is in him.
Grace moans, long and low. He thinks he might sound stupid, but he doesn't care. Rocky is petting over his hair and face, claws so gentle. The only problem is that he's left Grace's mouth empty to use his hands, which Grace hates. He whines a little and opens his lips, chases Rocky's claw a little until the Eridian gets the idea and presses his mouth full again.
"Grace wants in all holes," Rocky says softly, and Grace's entire brain melts out of his ears. He moans, nods as much as he can. He does want it. He wants to be taken fully by Rocky and Adrian. Wants to be kept safe between them. Wants to be filled up and pried open and owned, and —
Ughhhnnn oh fuuck. Adrian's claw brushes his prostate and Grace sees stars.
"Grace likes when I press here," Adrian says, not even a hint of question. Grace is glad that he's in the fleshlight still; he knows that if his cock was exposed to the air he'd be dripping by now, stomach slick.
"Pleaasee," Grace says around Rocky's claws in his mouth. He thinks maybe Adrian is holding one of his legs up now. It's hard to tell. Ten potential hands is too many for his brain to keep track of in any situation, let alone sex.
Adrian doesn't make him beg more, which is a relief. He knows Rocky would have. Instead, he applies himself to liquifying every brain cell Grace still has left after 10 years of space travel, head trauma and PTSD. It feels incredible. Adrian is stronger and more steady than a human hand or toy ever could be. His body yields his claws, not the other way around. He feels dizzy with the idea of being speared open and as though he's got a direct link from his ass to his mind, Adrian is pushing in a second claw.
Grace gurgles, moans around Rocky's claws in his mouth. He's opened from both ends, his fragile soft body being pushed to its limits.
"When you're healthy, Rocky wants to mate with you as an Eridian would," Adrian says, two claws rubbing steadily against his prostate. The fleshlight around him is getting faster, and it feels like the worlds weirdest mouth. Oh, he's so fucking close.
"He wants to put his ♫♫♬ in you," Adrian says, and Grace hears Rocky chitter out "Adrian!" in admonishment.
"Its true! Rocky wishes to be inside Grace, close close close," Adrian purrs, the voice lower than usual. Grace moans, tries to express how much he wants that. The fleshlight sucks and swallows around him.
"Adrian test Grace, see if can take Rocky. Grace is soft and open, good for taking," Adrian continues, and Grace moans as he floats gently above his body. Everything feels so good, urgent and yet cotton pad soft. He wants it, wants anything and everything he can take. Wants Rocky to fuck him like an Eridian. Wants Adrian to make him take it.
He can feel the edge of his orgasm rushing up, and Adrian presses his claws right against him as he says "Grace can take Rocky eggs, inside" and Grace comes so hard tears stream from his eyes.
—
Oh man, if Grace had thought fixing the Taumeoba had been cause for celebration, he had no idea , because he just got kind of the best news ever.
He's about to get a cure for scurvy.
For months now his food scientists have been working on a solution blending the best of earth science with Eridian biology. Using his own genes, which have already been successfully cultivated into me-meat, and get them to marry Eridian worker cells trained to create vitamin C and a handful of other beneficial acids. The final sample should be ready to try tomorrow.
Grace looks in his mouth in the mirror, and points at his front tooth which is looking puffier in the gum by the day. "Stay in there," He orders sternly.
The next day the sample arrives, and Grace enjoys his first dose of vitamin C. He knows the turn around will be quick, but ohhhh, wow okay! It only takes around 48 earth hours for his mouth to feel better than it has since they landed on Erid. One week in, and his fatigue has cleared up so quickly that he kind of can't believe he was just walking around with ¾ of his brain gone. He's smart again! He can do math! Wow, he really missed being able to do math.
He nearly has a nutritionally complete diet! On an alien planet! Holy crap.
Something happens then, in his brain. Some deep shifting realization. Grace is not going to just survive – he's going to live.
Ryland Grace is going to live.
Oh, and isn't that kind of terrifying?
—
"Heya Rocks, Adrian, – I think we've earned a party, Hail Mary Style, whatcha think?" Grace says the day he is officially declared to be basically as healthy as he can be given his whole life story.
Scurvy? Cured! Nerve in hands and feet? Never going to be fully right again, but the constant pins and needles is mostly gone. He hasn't felt his pinky toe on the left side for a long time, and he thinks maybe he just needs to say goodbye to the little guy emotionally. We had a good run, little toe.
Philips, the LLM therapist thinks he's going to blow his own brains out maybe, but it really doesn't have the scripts to realize that Grace is doing pretty well by any standard. Typing in "pretend I'm an astronaut who's experience unimaginable terror, horror, and fear while on a suicide mission for my entire species. How would I deal with my resultant PTSD if I didn't actually die?" hasn't been very helpful.
"Hail Mary Style, question," Adrian asks, perking up in interest. Grace and Rocky don't tend to talk about the specifics of being on the Mary much. Most of the stories boil down to "and then we thought we were going to die, and didn't. Then we had to sit in a tin can and think about how we almost died, and how it might happen again. Then I starved nearly to death, and we both have PTSD about it" which are kind of a bummer.
"When we got Taumoeba to the three-world nitrogen levels, we had a party," Grace says. This is actually a great memory — the saviors of the universe party. It'd been tinged with sadness at the idea of being parted from Rocky, but the fact that they had done it! They had saved the damn world(s).
"Eridians like parties too. What makes it a Hail Mary party question," Adrian asks
"We wore hats, and watched fireworks, on the screens, sang karaoke" Grace says "But we can do whatever we want. It just has to be a big big big celebration,"
And it is a big celebration.
Grace's whole medical team comes to visit, along with a few researchers from the local biology thrum, and what is sort of like a mayor for the Mother Rock this town is built on. There's no food, because that would be closer to an orgy, but Adrian and Rocky have helped him decorate with curls of spiral metal that make pleasing noises when touch, and the fleet of Eridians in XEVA suits scuttling around his dome are proving more than enough music. It should be scary as heck, watching all these spiders move around. Instead, it just makes him feel really, really happy.
Grace is kitted out in Eridian best, because Adrian and Rocky apparently have been waiting to dress him up. Besides the cuff they made him, he's also been bullied into wearing long drapes of Xenonite chains around his ears, like the worlds most dramatic dangling earring, and matching jangling cuff on his ankles. He sounds like a tiny chorus of bells when he moves.
He's wearing the silk robe without a shirt and pair of flight pants and he knows that Rocky and Adrian are enjoying the textures around him, because Rocky keeps purring at him whenever he gets too close.
"I am most pleased that Savior Grace did not die," Dr. House says to him "I feared professional and personal failure if that came to pass,"
"Thanks, Dr. House," Grace says, quirking up one side of his mouth in a smile "I wish I could say I'll miss seeing you so often, but I'm glad to be not dying,"
"As am I, Savior Grace," Dr. House says, before she scuttles away to join her colleagues in the little thrum happening in the corner.
"Savior Grace, you have healed well," Says a musical voice he didn't think he would ever heard again. It's Ella, his first nurse from the isolation ward on the Mary. Her green and white carapace is very shiny tonight.
"I wanted to apologize for being so bold," Ella says "I was very taken with your beauty, but I let that get in the way of my professionalism!"
"Oh, that's okay! I had not idea what you were asking, anyway," Grace says with a grin. He's actually grateful to Ella and all the other Eridians who had shot their shot for romance with him — who knows how long Rocky had planned to avoid the topic.
Speaking of, he hears a familiar clicking of Rocky's feet. Grace has gotten very good at picking up walking patterns, but even if he hadn't he would know Rocky was close.
"Ella," Rocky says "It is good to see you again,"
"Savior Rocky!" Ella chirps, and Grace gets the sense if she could blush she would be bright red. "I was just telling Savior Grace about my recent mating!"
Here, she extends out her front left leg to show the bright orange gem embedded into the side of her limb.
Grace feels the fight drain out of Rocky like someone has pulled a plug, and he nearly laughs.
"Congratulations, Ella on your mating," Rocky says stiffly, and then turns to Grace and says "Adrian is waiting for us both, Grace,"
"Oh, sure, okay," Grace says. Adrian is not waiting for either of them, but Rocky likes to pretend he isn't a jealous beast. As if Grace could ever have been with another pair.
"Sorry," Grace mouths at Ella as he lets himself be tugged away. Rocky and Adrian keep him close after that, gently passing him from conversation to conversation.
The party goes on for hours, but finally Rocky and Adrian insist that the attendees leave. Many of them have left gifts for Grace, and Grace promises he'll open them tomorrow and let them know if he enjoys them. Eridians genuinely want you to enjoy a gift — so much so that if you don't enjoy it returning it it the polite thing to do.
Finally, the airlock hisses as it's fully closed for the last time, and Grace is left with his two favourite Eridians. There's a moment of silence, before Grace is smiling, eyes crinkled, and saying:
"So, after party with a more exclusive guest list?"
"Yes, but Grace must go drink water and eat something," Rocky says chidingly "Adrian and Rocky will clean up party,"
Well, he isn't ever going to fight to do more chores. He settles down at the kitchen table and prepares himself a pouch of fake banana taumeoba. He likes it watered down so the texture is better — if he closes his eyes, he can pretend it's some kind of very expensive drink he's been duped into buying at a wellness market. Still, he drinks it quickly. He wants to be with Rocky and Adrian, not alone.
"Grace is happy question" Adrian asks when Grace return back to the living room. He's kept on all his accessories, and he has to admit he's become rather fond of the bells on his ankles.
"Very happy," Grace says, and then, because he's extremely normal, bursts into tears.
"Oh," Adrian says, and clacks his claws together before saying "Rocky, Grace is having a moment!"
"Cry if sad! Cry if happy! Cry when orgasm! Humans are wet wet wet," Rocky complains as he skitters back into the living room from wherever he was, and Grace laughs snottily, blows his nose on one of the rags that's been converted into something like a box of tissues.
"Sorry, Sorry," Grace says after he's stopped sobbing "I just had a nice night,"
"Grace cry when have nice time," Rocky says "Like sex, and now big party,"
"Yeah, I guess," Grace says, and then, because he doesn't know how to not ruin an evening with complicated and difficult feelings says
"You know I've been so much more healthy,"
"Yes, you are," Adrian chirps "Healing very well! Happy happy happy,"
"and Rocky you're already back to consulting on some engineering work," Grace says, chewing on his lip slightly. This is something that's been sitting with him for a while, and it's been getting heavier since he realized he wasn't going to die anytime soon.
"I will drop that work if Grace wants Rocky here more," Rocky says immediately, standing up on his limbs in a way that indicates he's distressed that Grace might be distressed.
"No, no! I'm so happy that you're back at the cluster part time, don't worry," Grace says, because he really, really is. Adrian and Rocky are both working part time again, and Grace knows it's made Rocky happy to be back with his old thrum. That happiness is part of the reason this has been eating at Grace.
"Then why Grace mouth sad," Adrian asks, his perception for Grace's minutia of emotions frustratingly good.
"Do you remember when we talked about purpose – shit, it must have been a few months ago? Ugh," Grace says
"Yes it was X days ago," Adrian says helpfully.
"Yeah? Okay time flies when you're having fun, huh," Grace says.
"Grace, no avoiding whatever you need to say," Rocky says, hopping up beside him on the couch. The dimmers have switched the lights in the dome to late evening, and inky blackness presses against the windows. The lights in the house are warm though, and Grace feels as safe as he ever has
"We talked about purpose, and jobs," Grace says, speaking carefully. He wants to get this right. The longer he's on Erid, the more he knows this is the right thing for him. The more he knows that this is something important.
"Yes," Adrian says,
"Back then we said my purpose was to heal and get fat," Grace says, and Rocky shuffles closer, draping himself half across Grace's lap and reaching out to touch his belly with two claws. Grace isn't fat by any margin, but he's the least skinny he's been since they ran out of coma slurry on the Mary.
"Yes and Grace is doing good good good at that," Rocky purrs, kneading two claws into Grace's stomach.
"Pervert," Grace says affectionately as Rocky gives him the equivalent of a good groping, and then "Okay well I'm all healed. And kinda soft again. I think I need a new purpose," He says in a rush. Rocky perks up, a beautiful trilling note in his voice. It sounds happy, happy, happy.
"Oh! What does Grace desire in a purpose, question," Rocky says "We can thrum about it,"
"Aw, that is so sweet but – well, I already know," Grace says.
"Oh!" Adrian says "What purpose has Grace decided?"
"Well, you know on earth before the Petrova Line project I was a teacher," Grace says, and it's like he said the magics words because Rocky is off like a shot.
"Yes yes yes Grace teacher!" Rocky chirps, rolling around from side to side in a series of cartwheels. Adrian is doing jazz hands, too. The room is filled with a few beautiful seconds of overlapping song, so full of joy that it makes Grace's chest hurt.
"Grace can teach earth science to pebbles and other Eridians!" Adrian says "Teach big earth science to Erid, share human knowledge,"
"Rocky says Grace do science too if he wants! Can have lab!" Rocky says, pulling pout of a cartwheel and clambering back onto the couch "Whatever Grace want!"
"Yeah?" Grace says, a grin forming on his face "I don't know why I was nervous. I thought maybe Eridians wouldn't want to be taught by me, let alone their Pebbles,"
"Any Eridian would be beyond honoured to have their pebbles taught by the savior of the stars," Adrian says firmly.
"And Rocky would yell at anyone who said no," Rocky says helpfully.
"Yeah. It's gonna feel good to just…be a teacher again. I think," Grace says, and he knows it's true. For over 10 years now he's been Captain Dr. Ryland Grace of the Hail Mary. Maybe he can be Mr. Grace again, if that's what he wants.
"Good good good," Rocky says, sounding happy and content "Happy for Grace to have purpose. Now Grace get other half of promise for healing question"
"Other half?" Grace asks, because he has no idea what the other half of his promise is.
"Grace – this was a Hail Mary celebration, but maybe it's could be Eridian celebration, too," Adrian says carefully. His tone is gentle, steady, and deep. It makes the hairs on Grace's leg stand up as it vibrates over him in a wave.
"Oh?" Grace says, suddenly breathless.
"Yes," Rocky says, and clacks two of his claw together in a way that Grace's brain has apparently firmly placed into the 'sexy' category of body movements.
Oh.
Well then.
—
The celebration silk robe stays on during sex, too. It feels amazing on his hot skin. Grace thinks he should feel weird about it, but actually he feels kind of like a hot slut.
The first thing about Eridian style sex is that it's loud. Grace has spent most of his life trying to muffle any noises during sex, but he's been pushed into his favourite position (on his back arms above his head,) and he couldn't muffle his sounds if he freaking tried.
Because Adrian and Rocky have been singing since the moment they got him mostly naked, and he can fucking feel it on his skin. The hum is like a drone of bees, two tones matching and soaring. The sound is more than sound, too. It has a physical presence to it, like something living inside the very sound.
It feels like static is building inside of him, and his dick is so, so hard. He thinks he's been crying for a little while, but he can't be entirely sure. He feels flayed open and wanting, a creature of need and heat and nothing else. His mouth is empty, and he wishes he had something to suck, claws or something to keep his mouth full and busy.
"Yes yes yes, Grace mouth hungry, hungry," Rocky chirps out, and Grace realizes he's saying whatever horny shit he's thinking out loud.
"Grace mouth hungry, open and wet like a cunt," Adrian says, and Grace yelps so loudly he thinks he sounds like a car alarm, a movement which has him clenching down, which makes him moan even louder.
Adrian has him worked open over nearly his entire hand, and while it's still smaller than a human fist would be, it feels huge inside him. He's already come once, and he's drenched in sweat, shaking with it. But he wants this. He wants to push his body further, wants to enjoy the fact that he can push himself without getting sick. Wants to have Rocky and Adrian take him like he's an Eridian, like he's their bonded mate.
"Grace is nearly open enough for Rocky" Adrian says, gently rotating his closed claws inside of Grace, brushing against his prostate with devastating accuracy.
"Ahhhnn," Grace slurs out, swallowing with a dry click "F-fuck, Adrian, please,"
"Grace want Rocky inside?" Rocky chirps, his voice an octave or two lower. He knows that both Adrian and Rocky have their ventral seams open, knows the inside of their XEVA suits is sticky with liquid mercury.
"Yes, yes, please go inside," Grace groans out "Please, please, please,"
Adrian trills with a delighted noise, and begins to slowly work his hand back out of Grace. He feels open, and slick, and so, so empty. Rocky is wearing something else on the front of his suit, something more flexible. Grace thinks it's been designed specifically for this, to stretch around an ovipositor, to fill him up with Rocky's clutch.
"Rocky put ♫♫♯♬ in Grace now," Rocky says "Fill Grace up with ♫♫♬, make round and big with eggs. Grace take whole Rocky clutch,"
God, he is never getting over the freak allegations, because he wants that so bad he feels sick with it.
"Please, do it, give me your eggs," Grace moans, and Rocky finally, finally presses into him. Oh, oh it feels so damn good. Rocky's ovipositor isn't thick, but it's longer than a human cock could ever be. He can feel the prehensile tip exploring inside of him, filling him and pressing down on his prostate.
"Grace feel soft soft soft inside," Rocky chitters out, his song deep and mellow. Adrian is holding his wrists above his head now, the switch between his lover seamless.
"Rocky won't last long," Rocky says, "Have wanted to give Grace eggs for so long. Grace want eggs? Grace want to be big round with RockyAdrian clutch?"
"Yes, yes, please," Grace wails out, and he can feel the first egg descending down Rocky's ovipositor, stretching into him.
"P-please, Rocks, please give it to me," Grace gets out as the first egg slides into him. They're not huge, smaller than a chicken egg, closer to a quail, but they feel big inside of him. His body doesn't know what to do with the sensory inputs, but thankfully it decides to be horny about it instead.
"Rocky give to Grace, give Grace anything he wants," Rocky is saying now, high tones and crackles making his voice warp like an old record. This must be his version of horny nonsense.
Grace's body is fluttering and pulsing around the intrusion muscles working to milk the eggs out of Rocky and into himself. A second egg pushes into him, followed by a gush of warm liquid. It feels so alien, like nothing he's felt before. He feels so full, his body forced into willing submission.
"Ahhh, how many in a clutch?" Grace asks suddenly, eyes opening wide as he feels a third egg slide inside of him. He feels stretched now, like something is keeping him open.
"Five eggs, Grace is taking so good, not many more now," Rocky says, and Grace turns his head to the side, breathes through his nose. The eggs feel big, but it's good too. They're jammed up against his prostate and pleasure is pulsing through him. He doesn't know if he can take another.
"Rocky," He gets out, and then feels a tremendous shifting inside him as Rocky deposits the last two eggs. The fullness is enough to push him over the edge, and his cock twitches, spurts against his belly.
Rocky is singing, a song of satisfaction and completion as he chitters "Leaky, leaky, leaky Grace,"
"Achhh," Grace whimpers as the eggs press against him from the inside, forcing more dribbles of jizz to leak onto his stomach. He feels so oversensitive he could cry. He tries to catch his breath, tries to convince his lung that he isn't running a freaking marathon.
"Rocky is greedy, I want to lay in Grace now," Adrian says, and before Grace can say anything Rocky is pulling out, but the eggs are still inside him.
The eggs are still inside him. Oh god. They should be burning him alive, but they're not. Instead, Adrian is slipping between his legs now, smoothly passing his wrists to Rocky. Rocky is crooning, satisfied and low, and pulling Grace's legs up around his ears. The bells on his ankles jingle merrily, and Grace thinks he'll always associate the noise with this moment right now.
He's pinned open, and the change in position shifts the eggs inside of him. He finds himself clenching down to keep them inside, the sensual roll inside making him shake.
"Grace breathe deeply now," Adrian says softly, and then he's fucking his ovipositor into Grace. Adrian is bigger than Rocky, and his ovipositor is thicker. It pries Grace open, and he can feel liquid dripping out of his hole as the first clutch of eggs are pushed further inside him. His cock isn't hard anymore, but it's dripping and twitching, liquid pooling on his belly.
"Nuuuuuaaaahhh," Grace warbles out, and Rocky traces his claw over Grace's head, through his hair. Adrian lays almost as soon as he's fully seated in Grace, and Grace thinks his eggs must be bigger than Rocky's. Another egg moves down his ovipositor and pushes into Grace. It's too much. He can take it. He doesn't even know what will happen, but he can't do it.
"Adrian, Adrian, Adrian I can't," Grace sobs out. He's so full. His stomach feels swollen, and he's only taken two of Adrian's eggs. He can't take two full clutches, he can't, he can't – oh, oh.
"Grace wants to be a good mate to AdrianRocky question" Adrian asks, and Grace wails a little,nodding frantically. He does, he wants to be so good.
"Grace can take," Adrian says simply, and presses one claw down against Grace's belly, a sharp humming noise in the air. Something about the noise is having an effect on Grace, because he can feel the muscles inside him growing loose, opening him to accept more.
This is kind of like the Eridian version of poppers, he guesses. His brain is fuzzier now, too, and he realizes that Rocky is singing again.
He's still crying, and he feels claws on his temple, on his cheeks. His cock is leaking steadily against his belly now, prostate pushed on to such a degree that he couldn't stop it even if he wanted to. He's slick with sweat and drool and whatever liquid is being pushed into him with the eggs
"Grace want to be good mate question," Adrian's asks again, and Grace sobs, moans, practically screams out "Yes, yes, yes, please I can be good — p-please, ahhh"
"Then take my clutch, little mate," Adrian purrs out, and Grace feels two more eggs slide into him, locking him full of both clutches. The final eggs barely have space to push inside, and Grace feels a shifting sense of pressure within him as his body stretches, and something like an orgasm slams down on him. He feels like he's been shaken into atoms, feels like his sense of self is blurring and coming back together. He's so full, filled with two clutches of eggs, loved and safe and taken care of.
Rocky is still humming a low tune, forcing his muscles to stay tender and open inside of him. Adrian is singing too, and his ovipositor is still locked inside of Grace. He thinks that he should be in pain, but all he feels is a sense of syrupy sweetness and endorphins, dopamine flooding his synapses. Adrian and Rocky are still singing gently, deeper
"Whass' happ'" Grace gets out, slurring a little.
"Song to help the clutch come out," Adrian says gently, pressing slightly on Grace's stomach. It has a clear curve to it now, and Grace has just enough time to think "Oh my god do I have to lay these now?" before Adrian begins to pull himself from Grace's body, and the eggs are moving inside him in a sickening roll of liquid and pressure. In a decision that Grace will be endlessly thankful for ain few hours, his body decides it's had enough of what's happening, and he doesn't need to be awake for anything else occurring this evening.
"'Mgonna pass out, statement," Grace gets out before he does exactly that.
—
The next morning it's raining.
Grace wakes up tucked gently into a nest of what must be all the bedding in the entire dome, cradled between Rocky and Adrian. Well, he assumes it must be Rocky and Adrian, unless they've gotten really cool about group sex in the last 10 to 15 hours.
Rain is pattering down on the roof above him, the gentle noises and grey tinged light soothing him in and out of sleep as his body recalibrates. His eyes are heavy, and he feels…
Well, Grace feels like he was hit by a bus that then had sex with him. Every single muscle aches, and he's scared to even think about anything below his belly button.
He's naked, and when he goes to stretch several muscles in his body let him know they disagree strongly with this attempt. Grace's eyes open, and he's greeted by two beautiful trills and "Good morning Grace!"
"Nhhhhff," He groans out. A moment later there is a familiar whirling noise as Armando descends and presses a cup of coffee into his limp hand.
"Grace should not move very much," Rocky says fretfully, patting at and rubbing Grace's head in the most inconsistent head message ever. "Mary said Grace will be sore, sore, sore,"
"M'not moving anywhere," Grace gets out, pressing his head up just enough to get a good dose of caffeine into his mouth. Rocky and Adrian seem content to let him wake up as slowly as he needs
"So," He says after a few minutes of blissful coffee silence "One hell of a party,"
"Grace was very beautiful," Adrian says softly, their resonant voice gentle as their clever claws are, soothing and petting him "Took clutches very, very well. Adrian and Rocky…most enjoyed,"
"Do I wanna know about any of the clean up?" Grace asks, and he really hopes the answer is no.
"Eggs went in, came out, and Grace sore – Adrian apply salve and Grace sleeps for many hours," Rocky says, chirping a little as he applies his claws to Grace's temple, soothing away any traces of tension.
"Yeah, I bet," Grace says, and then something occurs to him - Adrian and Rocky had called this being together like Eridians…
"Does this mean we're like official mates now? Or are you going around laying eggs in all the humans you keep around here?" Grace asks with a grin, because that's exactly who he is, recently alien married or not.
"Grace is obviously fine because his sense of humor is bad bad bad as usual,"
"Rude! You should be nice to me forever because we're mates now! We got Eridian married!" Grace says, reaching out and smacking his hand on Rocky's carapace.
"Yes, you are most beloved to Rocky, Grace is good good good to have as a mate. Rocky is happy, happy, happy," Rocky says, and Grace flushes,
"Adrian also happy, happy, happy. Adrian says, petting his claws over Grace's chest "Adrian thinks GraceMate is soft and brave clever, much happiness to be bound with him,"
"GraceMate, huh? Do I get to call you that now?" Grace asks, with a little grin.
His alien…husbands? Well, technically he's unmarried. Not that it matters, but he didn't walk down any aisle.
A dawning sense of something in his chest is telling him that perhaps he would like to walk down an aisle towards two sentient rocks.
"I kind of want an earth style wedding," Grace says with a little laugh, because if you can't express your wants and needs after having eggs laid in you, you really have no chance.
Adrian obviously has no idea what this means, but Rocky, who consumed over 1000 hours of movies, TV and podcasts while Grace slept does and he is delighted.
"RockyAdrian give Grace human style wedding like in poetic classic cinema film 27 dresses," Rocky sings out, and he's so excited he's trampling the bedding.
"Okay, okay watch it, careful Rock," Grace replies, but he's grinning – a wide helpless smile. He's getting married! Take that government officials who sent him to die – he's a Mate now
"Grace have perfect wedding!" Rocky is saying, but his trampling has moved slightly further away from Grace's squishy limbs, so it's fine.
"27 dresses question," Adrian asks, and before Grace can answer, Rocky is rushing to explain.
"Yes! Is earth myth about a woman who is cursed to attend 27 weddings by a blood curse," Rocky says very confidently "Rocky has learned everything about humans weddings from Rom-Coms,"
"No, it is not about that at all! What are you talking about?" Grace cries out, because Adrian is about to get a really stupid view of human weddings.
Rocky promptly ignores him, and begins explaining the importance of Grace wearing white to "keep demons of divorce away,". Grace isn't actually sure if Rocky is messing with them, or if he really doesn't remember the plot of 27 dresses.
As Adrian and Rocky chat, Grace sips his coffee and lets to warmth of his partners seep into him, every muscle soothed by the ambient heat.
He thinks about what Rocky and Adrian had said all those months ago about purpose.
A reason for making. A reason for being made.
Thinks about swimming in the ocean they've built for him, thinks about sharing earth knowledge with as many Eridians as possible, thinks about mornings like this, warm and sore and so, so loved.
Thinks about a classroom.
He taps the cuff on his wrist, rubs his fingers over the image of the earth, carefully laid out in carapace chips. Earth, forever with him on Erid.
Purpose.
The end.