Chapter Text
The journey to Erid was exactly as expected. Long. But also incredibly informative and honestly enjoyable. After the constant stress of trying to save not one, but two solar systems and their respective intelligent societies... A few years alone in peace was a nice reprieve, albeit very boring. With all the spare time, Ryland Grace could learn and officially be dubbed proficient in Eridian, Rocky told him so himself. A great honor indeed! But all good things came to an end, and they readily found themselves mere hours away from making contact with the Eridians down on the surface. The two had been generally anxious in the weeks prior for a multitude of reasons. Grace's declining health was the number one problem of course but selfishly...
Rocky was nervous about reuniting with his mate.
What if Adrian had found another mate? Adrian would be perfect no matter what. Even if they had another mate, Rocky could still love them, their size, their texture, their low soothing cords and brilliant, kind, funny brain. Rocky loved everything about Adrian! It will hurt so much to return to Erid at long last only to find them with another. With nothing really to do on the trip but talk to each other, he had of course been eventually persuaded into telling Grace about this anxiety, which prompted to the leaky space blob to try and try over and over to reassure him that Adrian would still be mated to him, still love him... But 40 years alone had undeniably taken it's toll. He was even thinking in Earth units automatically now! New thoughts twisted darkly and took root in his internal organ system.
What if Rocky had changed too much? What if, even after all this time, Adrian hadn't taken another mate. What if they didn't like what Rocky had turned into?
That was painfully possible. His syntax and grammar were now habitually inclined towards being more readily understood by Grace- a stubborn habit indeed that he'd been trying to break for the latter half of the trip, as it would help both of them adjust easier to life on Erid. He was far more touchy with Grace than what came naturally to the average Eridian. Comfortable with watching him eat. Occasionally persuaded into sleeping at the same time as Grace (of course, this new development was only when the malnutrition and exhaustion had reached the point where Grace had to sleep longer and more frequently... To the point that he simply couldn't stay awake long enough to watch Rocky every time he slept- and vice versa).
This alien was changing him too much.
No, that couldn't be true. Rocky felt guilty for even thinking that way. Grace gave everything up to save Rocky, bring him back to Erid, save Erid.
Grace was the sole reason he'd be able to even return to Adrian at all! Their mingling of culture was pertinent to their success in saving their stars. If given the chance, Rocky wouldn't go back to do things differently- a decision he'd come to after much deliberation with Grace on the subject which included other fun hypotheticals about time travel and the theoretical science surrounding it- a subject that was able to energize Grace greatly, a rare occurrence these days due to the starvation.
But anyways, it was settled. If Rocky had changed, it was for the better. It was meant to happen, so whatever happened next also was meant to happen.
Grace hardly stirred as they finally attached to the dock of the space elevator. Still, relief flooded Rocky. Landing was arguably the most dangerous part of their trip down, as all the engineering had taken place over radio with mostly Rocky's limited information on the outside of the ship as Grace was too weak to go on a space walk once the arrangements started taking place.
After they docked, everything happened at what Grace would call 'break-neck speed' an idiom that had Rocky shuddering in disgust at the time, though now he completely understood. The science team appeared in the airlock with all four donning their own xenonite suits. A rush of praise hit Rocky's carapace, a mix of 'Welcome home' and a few rushed thanks as they all rushed into the room where the 'Savior Alien' laid thin and falling apart under thick layers of blankets on his bunk. Rocky shouted out before he could even think to compose himself-
"CAREFUL, CAREFUL, CAREFUL!"
He felt justified in the outburst! Afterall, they were roughly pulling the blankets off and out from under Grace, jostling him from unconsciousness. To their credit, the science team showed him all due respect. They paused their activity, and senior member spoke up.
"Savior Rocky! Don't worry, he's sleeping see? We're simply removing his restraining garments to be able to place him on the protected movement bed so we can all get down to Erid."
A perfectly reasonable response if not for-
"Urgh- Wha's hap'ning-"
Every Eridian (save Rocky) flinched back.
"How amazing! It woke up! Just like Savior Rocky said-"
The exclamation came from a younger member, they seemed more excited than anything. Certainly not guilty of their recklessness. It irked Rocky. Grace wasn't just some souvenir for them to unwrap and ogle.
"Yes! Said many times on the radio! Humans wake up to external stimulus! Savior Grace needs sleep! Very weak. Be more careful!"
Intrigued chitters sounded all around. Usually a fun sound, now only irritating to Rocky. He didn't have time to dwell or further admonish them though as Grace seemed to gain further lucidity.
"Rocky? I assumed we docked... Unless I'm seeing quintuple... Or you lied and Eridians really are capable of mitosis."
Rocky chirped a laugh before gladly answering in the affirmative, then translated for everyone else. They seemed more enraptured with the fact that 'it spoke' than what he actually had to say.
Now awake, Grace was able to assist with moving himself onto the stretcher. Though, he still seemed half asleep (as he had for weeks now, Rocky thought with scorn). It didn't matter right now. They just had to get to the surface, and hopefully soon they would be able to get Grace back to full health, especially with all of Erid coming together to make it happen. They'd even already set up a dome that could house Grace! All that was needed there would be some input for the scenery from Grace when he got better.
Once Grace was in his "climate-controlled bubble bed" as he called it, they wheeled him to the airlock, down an uncomfortably dark tunnel (which, Grace thought, duh. They don't see light.), and into the elevator. The ride down was faster than Rocky would prefer, as he knew how nauseous Grace got when he would turn on zero-G. 'Butterflies in my stomach' he would say, to Rocky's questioning (which at the time had only led to more questions). Still, Rocky and the Science Eridians had plenty of time to take off their xenonite suits. He saw Grace grimace at the sudden stop as they reached the bottom, but he quickly covered up the look with an excited grin.
They were finally here! Back on Erid! Back with-
"ROCKY, MY MATE, MY LOVE!"
"AAAADRIAN! ADRIAN ADRIAN!!"
Honestly they were the only thing Rocky could feasibly imagine having the power to pull him away from Grace- and pull they did! Well, not literally. Rocky did his fair share of sprinting (and stumbling over his legs a bit). Touching wasn't so common on Erid (simply because their carapaces weren't as sensitive compared to humans), but this was a special occasion. They harmonized instantly and rapidly ran their arms up and down each other to hear the staccato of noises and textures along with the hummed tune of their mating song. It was exactly what Rocky had been desperately craving for hundreds of Eridian years.
Both of their voices were so high pitched, Grace had trouble understanding them- though he understood the gist, and the rush of emotions from the long-awaited reunion was more than enough to have him blinking against an embarrassing amount of tears that fell down his face in a constant stream. Rocky was used to it, and if Adrian noticed then they didn't care enough to acknowledge it. The same could not be said for the science team, who didn't really seem to be trying to hide their disgust at all. Rocky still wanted to be sure everything was alright though.
"Grace make happy leak? OH! GRACE, Friend Savior Grace, this is Mate Adrian!"
"Yes, Rocky. Happy leak! Nice to meet you Adrian." He rubbed bony hands all over the skin of his face in an attempt to wipe away the tears, it hardly worked and just made him sound even more wet as the moisture spread around. This even had Adrian trying to hold back a shudder, though mostly for Rocky's benefit as there was no light that would allow Grace to see the faux pas. Understandable, Rocky thought. And still so kind as to try and suppress the reaction! Perfect mate! Perfect, perfect, perfect. He translated the greeting, which prompted Adrian's subsequent response and no small amount of thanks.
"Of course! No need to thank me. Anybody would have done the same."
"Not true! Many Eridians were surprised to hear an alien would give up its life for a species which is not its own. Especially one so physically fragile and mushy as Rocky described. And only II∀λ+ℓ∀ days old!"
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Ah. right. Grace thought off-handedly Rocky had told him about some culture norms on Erid, one such (that Rocky now considered outdated) pertained to how someone's character was reflected in the hardness of their exterior. It sort of made sense. Honestly it was strikingly similar to pretty privilege back on Earth where typically more physically attractive people were more easily trusted and more likely assumed to be smart or kind. Every culture has its flaws he reasoned. It wasn't exactly the same though. A smoother Eridian was expected to be wise, larger should be tougher, smaller should be creative, rougher should be braver, brittle should be kind, and so on and so forth. He wasn't really any of those traits compared to Eridians, so they didn't expect him to be the corresponding personality types. He didn't like it, but it made sense.
The other Eridians chattered their thoughts and general agreement on the subject. It was a very strange feeling to be so revered and thanked, yet taken so usuriously by these scientists simply for his physical body which by the way, wasn't even close to peak condition, thank-you-very-much! At least Rock seemed happy. Elated, even. All these emotions swam around in his head and he felt dizzy. Part of the vertigo was probably because there was still no light for him to see to orient himself in space, and his stomach still had that floaty feeling from basically dropping a few hundred miles straight down during the elevator ride. A couple thousand? The numbers didn't matter, and he didn't really have a way of knowing how high up the eridian elevator was unless he wanted to ask and have Rocky translate and then translate for him and ughh that simple interaction was too much to consider, and he was so hungry and so tired. He spoke up after the chatter went on for a few minutes longer than he could handle.
"Hey Rock, I'm so happy you're back with Adrian. Of course. And it's really cool to meet all these new eridians, tell them I say that much of course and I'm thankful they got me all the way down here. Not to mention the fact they built th-"
"Grace have request, question? Rambling. Summarize?
He was glad for the brevity. He was glad for Rocky.
"Hah, yeah you know me too well pal. It's just- could we start rolling me to the bio-dome sometime sooner rather than later? I'm kinda really tired. Y'know?"
He turned to the other eridians.
"Savior Grace says we are taking too long. Lets go to bio-dome now."
"NO! Rocky that's not what I said and you know it!"
Rocky had the nerve to chime a little laugh!
"But is what you meant."
He'd have to talk with Rocky later about being accurate with the translation, but for now he could stomach Rocky's playful antics and the slightly judgmental rumbles of the other Eridians, save Adrian who seemed content to follow along wherever Rocky went, much to his relief. The graciously smooth ride and total darkness accompanied by the tapping of Eridian movement and occasional hummed cords was enough to have Grace sleeping again in just a handful of minutes.