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It takes an embarrassingly long time for Grace to even think of asking about the markings on Rocky's body. Any halfway decent anthropologist would have had all this information recorded and catalogued years ago, but Grace isn't an anthropologist. He's a junior high science teacher who was more preoccupied with showing Rocky all of Earth's best sci-fi films. Sue him.
He'd like to pretend he delays things like this on purpose. A way to make sure there's always something to talk about and distract them on the long journey home. But no. He just doesn't have the most logical priorities, even while hurtling towards an alien planet.
Nearly three years into their journey, Grace is bored enough to ask. "Hey, Rocky? You know all those gems and markings on your body?"
"They're on my body. Of course I know them," Rocky replies.
One downside of Grace's increasing comprehension of Eridian is that it makes Rocky impossibly snarkier. He was probably always like this, but Grace can actually pick up on it now. He nudges Rocky's xenonite barrier with his shoulder, the closest to a friendly shove he can get with their environments. "It's a human thing and I know you know that. Just a polite way of starting the conversation."
"On Erid, it's more polite to get to the point," Rocky explains.
"And the funny thing is, I used to be like that and everyone all through primary school trained it out of me." But Grace won't get into all that now. He gestures first to the green gems all throughout Rocky's body. "Do they mean anything? Or are they just decorative?"
"Both. Most adult Eridians have modifications like this. It is to make our bodies more beautiful, but also to communicate parts of ourselves to others. These are for Adrian." Rocky runs a gentle hand along the gems and his voice takes on an airy tone that Grace has come to associate with love. "They have similar ones. When Eridians choose to become mates, they go searching for decorations and pick ones together. Adrian and I were both hatched near the mines these stones come from. That is why we chose them."
Grace runs his fingers along the barrier, connecting the dots of where the gems on Rocky's body are. "That's beautiful. On Earth, in many cultures, partners exchange rings to show their commitment. That's sort of similar. What about your other marks? That Petrova line on you can't be a coincidence, can it?"
Rocky taps two claws together, agreeing that no, it's not. "All the Eridians on my mission received this marking. It was a very big honor to be picked. Many Eridians receive a marking to celebrate their greatest achievement, but usually when they are much older. I should not have received my marking so young, but our elders insisted."
"You deserve it, Rocky. Whatever the highest honor on Erid is, you deserve that and more," Grace insists, more than used to fighting Rocky's humility at every turn. Whether that's a Rocky thing or an Erid thing, he doesn't know yet. "New word: tattoo. Humans have tattoos. Some humans do. I don't, it seemed like way too much commitment, but it's fairly common. It's like drawings on their skin. In some cultures, it represents achievements or honors, like yours. I don't know too much about it, but maybe we could look it up together."
"Tattoo," Rocky repeats, coining a new word as they've both had to do many times on this trip. "Human skin marking. Perhaps it's time for you to get a tattoo, Grace. So you'll fit in on Erid."
"Uh... I think I'm good."
"That is fine. Most Eridians will likely be too distracted by your squishiness to notice you don't have markings. Hopefully they will be distracted. They might be offended otherwise and then they'll send you back to starve in space."
Grace scrambles to apologize before realizing that Rocky is shaking with the whistles of his laughter. Yeah. He definitely misses when their communication was bare bones.
***
Erid is good. Erid is great, actually. Grace spent the last few weeks of their trip unsure if he'd ever make it to the planet, as sick as he was. He would have been happy just to arrive and get a room half the size of his shoebox apartment, so long as he could figure out his food situation and Rocky was never too far.
Instead he's welcomed like a hero. When the Eridians are done fawning over Rocky, their hero returned from an impossible mission, they had turned their adoration onto Grace, this strange alien ready to give his life for a planet he'd never even seen. They tend to him, they feed him, they praise him at every interaction, they build him a home more gorgeous than Grace could have ever imagined. Erid loves Grace with a fervor that makes him squirm, certain that he doesn't deserve a shred of it.
And for his part, Grace loves Erid back. He loves how his world is full of song now, he loves the confidence with which they solve every impossible problem that comes their way, he loves their enthusiasm to learn about humanity and teach him about Eridians in turn. It's everything he's loved about living with Rocky, infinitely multiplied. The only thing Grace finds himself regretting is just that their incompatible atmospheres makes it so any interaction Grace has happens on the other side or a xenonite barrier. And unlike the Hail Mary, there aren't tunnels running all through Erid for Grace to follow along and explore.
It's a silly thing to be upset about, but Grace is a silly human with silly feelings.
He tries to keep it to himself. The last thing he wants is to appear ungrateful or make any of the Eridians feel like their hospitality hasn't been more than enough. Going off the Eridians he knows, they're likely to try rearranging the whole planet for him, apologizing the whole while that they didn't think of it first. It's sweet, how deeply they want to care for him, but it makes Grace feel like even more of an outsider.
Naturally, Rocky can spot him from a mile away.
"You're unhappy," is the first thing he says when Grace opens his front door.
"Humans usually start with hello," Grace complains, stepping aside so he doesn't get bowled over in Rocky's haste to come inside.
"I've told you many times. It's more polite to be direct," Rocky reminds him. "I know human memories are small, but you've been on Erid long enough to know."
And Rocky's right. Grace no longer asks Eridians how they're doing unless he wants a serious, ten minute answer, he hasn't remarked on the weather in ages, and when he last met with the chemist in charge of his diet, he'd launched right into his latest taste related complaints without feeling bad.
But bugging Rocky is too fun to let go of the habit entirely. "When we're out there, we follow Eridian customs. This beach here? This is the universe's first interstellar Earth embassy! You stepped foot on Earth the second you came through the airlock, so I hope you're ready to conform or face the consequences."
"What consequences?" Rocky asks. "More bad Earth moving images?"
You show your alien friend one underwhelming Star Wars movie and he never lets you forget it. Grace grumbles under his breath as he goes to take a seat. Since he knows Rocky will only ask and ask and ask until he gets an answer, he makes it easy for the both of them and says, "I'm not unhappy here, Rocky."
"But something is bothering you," he insists. "I can't fix if you don't tell me."
Grace can't help but smile. Just as he expected, Rocky is desperate to fix. It's what he does best. "I don't know that this is something you can fix. It's just odd to be here and feel like there's somewhere I can finally fit in, but there's a limit. A real, physical limit I can see and touch and it doesn't matter how much I try to blend in here, I'm always going to be a weird little alien on the other side of some glass panels."
Rocky hums pensively. He inches closer and settles just next to Grace's leg, close enough that Grace can feel the warmth coming from the flexible paneling of Rocky's EVA suit. Eridians don't really sit, but Rocky does something sort of like a sit. He even tilts his carapace up to Grace, like he's looking his way. "Do you think I am just a weird little alien on the other side of some glass panels?"
"Ugh." Sweet moment ruined. Grace throws a balled up blanket in Rocky's general direction and stands up. "No. Don't do that. Don't use my own words against me."
"Answer the question or I won't ask Adrian to fix your water temperature."
"Adrian loves me, I can just ask them myself."
"Answer."
"No, Rocky, I don't think you're just a weird little alien on the other side of a glass panel." Grace sighs. "But it's different. You're home. I'm the odd one out. And I want to be more than just a visitor that stays tucked away in my bubble. I want to be a part of this place."
Rocky braves the possibility of more bedding thrown in his direction to get closer once more. His voice rumbles soothingly, something Grace often heard during his sickest days. "You are already Eridian to me. To all of us."
Grace sighs and slides to the floor so he can lean against Rocky's carapace. "I don't really feel Eridian."
"I will fix this," Rocky promises. Gently, more gently now in this gravity than he even had to be while on the ship, Rocky settles one of his claws over Grace's hand. Try as he might, even his time on Erid can't rid him of enjoying some human comforts. "I can build you a suit like mine! So you can go through the city freely."
"I don't know, buddy. Making a suit that wouldn't kill me in your atmosphere flexible enough for that might be hard. And I'm way too tall to fit in most places here," Grace reminds him.
"We can fix that, too."
"Maybe I should get a tattoo like we talked about that one time. I could tattoo a bunch of Earth stuff on me, like you guys do. My mission patch, maybe the outline of California or something, a little fox because I love them. That would make me look more Eridian, right?"
"Ink on human skin would not be very noticeable to Eridians," Rocky reminds him. Under his words, though, there's a trill of something Grace hasn't quite yet come to recognize. "Also, you will still look like strange human blob."
Grace suspects the trill might be mockery.
***
It's a few days before Rocky stops by again. It's unusual for them to not see each other every day, but Rocky insists he has something important to do which, followed by an inconvenient sleep cycle, leads to almost a full Earth week before Rocky stops to visit.
Grace has made new friends since arriving to Erid and he knows he and Rocky should probably work on fixing the intense codependency they'd formed during their journey, but he can't deny he's ecstatic when his house dings with the notification that Rocky's come through his airlock. Grace runs out to meet him halfway, no matter how exhausting even a light jog is in this double gravity.
"You're back!" Grace comes to a decidedly ungrateful stop at Rocky's side and tumbles down to his knees to pull Rocky into a hug. A brief hug when he remembers his xenonite suit hasn't cooled from Erid's atmosphere yet. He hisses in pain as he pulls back, but his grin remains.
"Did you not sleep while I was away? You could hurt yourself!" Rocky chides. Still, two of his claws shake eagerly and Grace does jazz hands of his own. Eridian body language, the ones he can do with his human limbs, is coming more naturally every day.
Grace notices a xenonite container grasped in one of Rocky's other hands and he cuts himself off to point. "What's that? Did you bring me a present? Is it a shirt that says 'someone who loves me went to Erid and all I got was this stupid shirt'?"
"Earth humor?"
"Earth humor," Grace confirms. "But really, what's in there?"
"It's hot. I'll give it to you when it's cooled." Rocky holds onto it tighter, as though Grace really stood any chance at taking it from him with his superior strength, and makes his way towards Grace's house. Grace has spent most of his time on Erid interacting with doctors and scientists, but he's met enough Eridian children to recognize Rocky's pitch as one almost always used by parents scolding their unruly children. "Come on. This is a gift for your home. If you'd been patient, I would have met you there and saved you the walk."
Grace grumbles about the exercise being good for him and trails along behind Rocky. He's received endless gifts from both Rocky and the Eridians since arriving. This biome he lives in is a shining example of it. He tries not to ask for anything he doesn't totally need, especially from his team, but when it comes to Rocky, he lets himself be a little selfish and embrace the wonder of receiving gifts from the alien friend he'd made on a mission he wasn't supposed to survive.
After they've finished the climb up to his house - and as much as he doesn't want to bother his team, he might end up needing to get some landscaping redone when the gravity gets to be too much on his body - Rocky lets himself in and goes straight for the shelf of knick knacks Grace has started to collect.
"Make room," he says.
"Bossy!" Grace mumbles under his breath. He goes over, though, and sees what he can rearrange. "Kinda hard to make room when I don't know what I'm making room for."
"Impatient," Rocky retorts. "Sit. I'll put present on your table. Don't touch until cooler."
Unboxing gifts is half the joy, but Rocky's right about Grace being impatient, so he nods and pulls a chair over to the coffee table he'd had them make him. A little low for his liking, but perfectly Eridian sized when he has company.
(Not that he ever has coffee with any of the Eridians. Rocky can barely stand to see Grace sip water after all their time together. Anyone else would probably combust from disgust if they saw him eating his Taumoeba sludge.)
Rocky unscrews the container and a rush of still hot ammonia enters the room. As excited as he is, Grace leans back carefully. The smell doesn't bother him anymore, but the injury to his arm was more than enough ammonia burns to last a lifetime. Rocky keeps an arm extended between them to keep him away even if he did get overly eager. Grace is reminded of trying to run experiments with his human children and struggling to keep them from going rogue and hurting themselves.
Carefully, Rocky tips out the contents of the containers onto the table. Out come tumbling two coin sized green gems, just like the ones embedded onto Rocky's arms. Grace knows from experience that they'll still be hot, but he reaches closer, if nothing else, so he can feel the warmth radiating off them. Any jokes or teasing he might have been planning on is long gone.
"Are these like yours?" Grace asks, glancing Rocky's way.
He tilts his carapace like a nod and gleefully shakes his claws. "I took a trip to where I was hatched! To the mines where Adrian and I first got our commitment stones. Adrian stayed hereto look after your home, but I picked out two stones for you. One from me and one from Adrian."
"Rocky..." Grace swallows around the knot in his throat and rubs tears away. He's never going to live down his leaky reputation. "These are for me? Really?"
"I wouldn't say they were for you if they weren't for you. Eridians don't say what they don't mean like humans," Rocky reminds him. They're still too hot to touch, but Rocky pushes them closer regardless. "Your suit is taking longer than expected to design. I am sorry. But in the meantime, you can have these to remind you that you're Eridian to us."
Grace slides out of his chair so he can kneel next to Rocky and pull him into a hug. Human style with his arms wrapped around him, because the comfort of that is ingrained too deeply for a few months on Erid to be rid of, but he leans his forehead against Rocky’s carapace, as well, more akin to how Eridians express affection like this. Rocky, in turn, reaches two careful arms around Grace's shoulders.
"Are you sure? I know this is a big deal to you guys, I don't want you to feel forced. Or for Adrian to feel weird or like I'm trying to steal you away or something," Grace says.
Rocky chimes in a bright, happy tone. "It was Adrian's idea! I told them about our conversation and they thought you might enjoy something Eridian for your trinkets."
Grace's chest swells with more love than he ever thought possible. "You have the coolest mate, man. And you're sure they won't be icked out by me having these?"
"It's different from Earth traditions. More than two Eridians can share gem stones. Sometimes it's for more than one mate, sometimes it's for close friends, sometimes it's for family. You are family, Grace."
Yeah. Not a chance he doesn't cry. Grace squeezes harder around Rocky and marvels about how lucky he is to have come out of a suicide mission with a home and a family to call his own.
He grabs the gems before they're fully cool, deciding that the sting is more than worth it, and they don't leave his hands once the whole while that Rocky visits. While they catch each other up on the last few days, Grace fiddles and juggles them between his hands. When they go out to test his newly adjusted water temperature, Grace goes wading out with the gems firmly in his grasp. When they say goodbye, he opts for an Eridian forearm rub instead of a wave, in part because his hands are otherwise occupied.
Later that night, as he's falling asleep with the gems tucked away in the pocket of his sweats, he's hit with a sudden memory of being twelve years old and watching a group of girls on the playground pierce each other's ears with sewing needles, ice cubes, and apple slices.
***
Compared to everything he'd survived on the Hail Mary, piercing his ears with a mirror and a syringe from Armando is easy work. They're a little lopsided and he keeps snagging them on his glasses, but it's nothing compared to the many times he'd almost died in space.
Making earrings out of the gems takes a little arts and craft, but he just approaches it like maintenance on the Hail Mary and soon enough, he has his very own pair of Eridian earrings. They're a little bulky on his earlobes and the shade of green isn't the most flattering on his skin tone, but they're a little piece of Erid he can wear and that's enough. Grace hopes to never take them off again.
He's been practicing his written Eridian recently, so in the spirit of surprises, he pulls out one of the Eridian tablets he's been gifted and carefully writes out a message asking Rocky to visit him. Short messages like this are written on a material that Grace would compare to clay, like early examples of human writing. He still struggles with remembering letters and structures, but after close to half an hour of cross referencing, he has a few sentences to send off.
The Eridian who picks up the tablet - one of the many technicians who, for reasons Grace can't even begin to comprehend, is happy to provide around the clock maintenance for his biome - comments on Grace's new piercing with eager whistles and copious jazz hands. Grace doesn't stop grinning until long after they're gone.
There's no phones or GPS tracking on Erid. After sending his message, there's not much for Grace to do except sit and wait. It used to make him anxious, the not knowing, but he's gotten used to it by now. The nerves still sometimes tug at his edges, but it's easier every day to just sit and enjoy the waves. When he hears Rocky coming in through the airlock, he doesn't even feel the need to go rushing after him.
"Grace, your penmanship is very bad! Maybe you just write in English next time." Rocky scurries over and Grace can tell the exact moment he picks up on something different. His laughter stops, quickly replaced by high pitched, concerned hums. "You're injured! With my stones!"
Grace laughs. Maybe he should have explained the concept before showing up with two new holes on his body. "Rocky, it's okay! It's called a piercing. It's pretty common back on Earth, especially in women. You can pierce lots of places on human skin, but the earlobe isn't very sensitive and it heals quickly, so it's easy to modify. People on Earth will put jewelry through their piercings as decorations. Sort of like Eridians! I figured I could do the same and fit in a little more."
Rocky hesitates. He approaches, tapping incessantly to get a closer look at Grace. "It doesn't hurt?"
"No, Rocky. It's a little sore and I'm still getting used to the weight, but it doesn't hurt." Grace gives a shake of his head to demonstrate. "I'm actually really liking them, but if you think it's inappropriate or stupid or-"
Grace is cut off by Rocky's very sudden, very heavy weight on him. Rocky has enough sense to hold back from putting his full weight on Grace, but it's still enough to take his breath away. Rocky's voice is so excited, it pitches up almost past where Grace can hear. "Grace is Eridian! It's beautiful!"
"Careful, buddy, you're going to give me a concussion." Grace laughs, happy to be tossed back on the sand like this. "You really like it?"
"Yes, yes, yes! It's beautiful beautiful beautiful. We match now!" Rocky briefly falls into nothing but a long combination of happy hums and trills.
Grace grins proudly. "We do! I wish I'd thought of this earlier. We could have been gem bros this whole time."
"We are stone brothers forever now." Rocky declares. "And you are Eridian! You look Eridian now!"
Grace wiggles out from under Rocky to sit up, but only so he can lean against his carapace like an Eridian hug. "And proud of it, pal. You know, I was thinking, maybe I could get some celebration clothes too! Once the piercing heals, I could switch it out for other jewelry. We could make some dangling ones like yours. I could even give myself another piercing and wear our gems and celebration ones at the same time."
"I would like that!" Rocky agrees.
"I'll get to work on it," he promises.
They stay on the beach for a while, comparing gems and brainstorming other ideas of how Grace might feel closer to Erid. His ears are sore, he hasn't seen another human in years, and he's over sixteen lightyears from Earth. Somehow, though, he's never felt more at home.