Chapter Text
“You-you’re awake! Hi! Uh.. Simon? I’m Grace!” Grace checked he had heard the man right.
“Mhm, hello Grace.. Where am I?”
“Oh! You’re on Erid a-” “I’m where?!” Simon cut him off, sitting up in a panic.
“Erid, in a biodome to look like Earth and sustain us.” Grace explained, slower this time.
“Oh,” Simon looked out the window at the gentle, calming scenery. He felt his chest tighten at the sight of the water. “How did I get here?”
Grace adjusted himself in his chair, sitting with one leg under himself and fidgeting with the sleeves of his cardigan. “Well, my friends and I found your uh.. Ship? Submarine? Thing? Orbiting Erid when we went to go collect Astrophage samples to show that the Tauemeba was doing its job. So we…” Grace trailed off, noticing how Simon looked completely lost. “Do you know what Astrophage is?” He questioned hesitantly.
“No. What is Astrophage? And what is Tauemba? And why was I in space? Are you what angels look like? I’m pretty sure I’m dead.” Simon rattled off questions but the statement is what caught Grace’s ear.
The teacher had already assumed that Simon hadn’t meant to be in space based on his ship, and it could be reasonable that not everyone knew about Astrophage and Tauemeba. But Simon was supposed to be dead? Why?
“What do you mean you’re dead?” Grace interrupted something he hadn’t been listening to. Simon looked offended at the cut off but then his expression went blank. Grace regretted his question instantly. “Oh, I'm sorry, you don’t have to answer that!” he backtracked quickly.
Simon seemed to relax slightly at the retraction of the question. So asking things was certainly off the table right now. Darn. Grace was kind of hoping he could ask Simon about the extra features, where he came from, what happened to his arm, why he was covered in blood when they found him. That would have to wait though.
Slowly, Grace explained how Simon had gotten to Erid, trying not to use his science words if he could help it. All the while, he couldn’t help but… admire the other man. He was unique, while Grace was sure it would scare most other people, he found it intriguing. He wanted to learn what Simon was made of, how he had gotten them.
The man had nice black, wavy hair that seemed to have almost purpley-red highlights when it caught the light right. Simon was strong, so strong, and so toned, it was… Grace cut off his thoughts from that rabbit hole. Simon, more notably than his physique, had evidently mutated with something. He had a tail, it seemed to be something like a fish tail, sharp claws that seemed to be retractable, though it didn’t seem like Simon knew how to actually control them yet, a patch of almost rotten seeming skin on his cheek that held a set of sharp, jagged teeth that typically didn’t move with his mouth, and the last visible thing was that one of his eyes was entirely white and glowed slightly in dark lighting.
“You’re staring.” Simon’s deep, gravelly voice cut through Grace’s thoughts again. He had a way of pulling the teacher from his inner monologues. Maybe it was the voice, so deep and… “Grace.”
“Oh, sorry, I spaced off!” Grace sputtered embarrassedly, rubbing the back of his neck.
“So, you’re saying I’m not dead? That can’t be right, I remember dying.” Simon shook his head.
“You’re very much alive, and safe.” Grace assured him, though it didn’t seem to get through Simon’s head. The man was stubborn, that’s for sure.
After a few hours of getting Simon more accustomed to the area, Grace had learned a few things. Simon had some sort of PTSD, he flinched when the waves got too close to him and was quick to get violent and defensive, even at tiny things. Notably, though, Simon had never eaten real food. Grace wasn’t sure why, Simon refused to tell him, but he had only really eaten flavorless nutrient blocks back where he came from.
Grace decided he was going to learn to cook at that moment. He never cared to learn, he preferred doordash and instant noodles, but Simon gave him a reason to. He had a small garden that he had been working on from seeds that had thankfully been on the ship. As much as Grace had appreciated the Eridians helping him, the me-burgers did not taste good enough to excuse eating what was technically himself.
Simon was familiarizing himself with the water while Grace kept an eye on him from the kitchen. The teacher wanted to encourage Simon’s curiosity and not scare him off of things he was clearly struggling to be okay with, but at the same time he certainly didn’t want to risk Simon getting hurt. Grace had a basket full of vegetables on the small kitchen counter, rinsing off the less hardy vegetables while the other ones boiled in a pot with chicken broth. Soup wasn’t much, but it was the safest choice for Grace to try and make.
Through the window, Simon was crouched down on the rocks at the sealine, allowing the waves to rush over his hand. It was clear, it was water, and it was much, much safer than that fucking ocean. If he looked too long at the water, he could smell iron and feel his skin crawling all over again. The water wasn’t going to hurt him, he liked water, it had been a long time since he didn’t have to be afraid of it. Simon was still afraid. He couldn’t tell if the water was turning red on his hand because of his skin or because of his mind still not being used to seeing regular water.
Simon stood up, he felt unwell at the sight of the red on his skin. He flicked the water off his hand, but when he turned to go back to the house, one of the little rock things was standing in front of him and making weird musical noises.
“Uh…” Simon lip twitched in a grossed-out manner. “Can I help you?” The rock thing made a high-pitched trilling noise and started to headbutt Simon’s legs. “Hey- stop, cut it out!” He tried to push the rock away, kicking it slightly. The thing did not take kindly to that, it started to screech at Simon louder, so he just started to walk away. The rock tried to trip him as he walked away so he started running. It kept up.
“Grace!” Simon yelled from down the beach.
Grace instantly paused, turning down the heat on the stove slightly and abandoning a half-chopped crown of broccoli to go check on the disturbance. He opened the door to see Simon borderline sprinting towards the door with Rocky chasing him. That certainly wasn’t what he expected. Rocky was yelling something about Simon being mean. He walked out to meet Simon on the beach, standing in front of him to talk to Rocky.
“Hey, Rock, what’s the chasing?” Grace raised an eyebrow.
“Human bad! Human hurt Grace!” Rocky chirped angrily.
“I’m fine, Rocky, you don’t have to attack Simon. He didn’t hurt me, it just… looked like it.” Grace lied. Simon had hurt him, obviously, he still had bruises on his neck, but it was fine. Grace wasn’t mad, and he really didn’t want Rocky and Simon to not get along.
“You can understand that thing?” Simon asked, puzzled.
“Oh, yeah, Simon this is Rocky, he’s my friend, he’s just a little overprotective.” Grace smiled a bit at Simon, attempting to settle the tension before turning to Rocky again. “Rock, this is Simon, you can stop calling him ‘human’ now. He’s my friend too.”
“Simon still mean. Rocky does not like Simon!” The Eridian insisted.
Grace groaned, “you’ll have to get used to him one day, Rocky, he isn’t exactly going anywhere.”
Simon looked at Grace, a small seed of contentment blossoming in his mind. Grace wanted him to stay, it was a nice feeling to be wanted.
—
Grace was getting ready to sleep later that night when Simon walked into the bathroom with a question. “Do I have to sleep on the couch? It’s kind of uncomfortable.”
“Oh, no I guess not if you don’t want to. The bed is big enough for two people, Eridians have a thing about sleeping, it’s weird at first but you get used to it. Or I can move to the couch if you want the bed to yourself, I don’t know your sleeping habits.” Grace put his toothbrush away and turned to look at Simon.
Simon was quiet for a minute, considering his options. When his eyes scanned over Grace, he felt heat rise in his cheeks. That was an odd feeling, an unfamiliar one. Typically Grace only felt his face heat up when he was embarrassed, but he didn’t feel embarrassed this time.
Finally, Simon spoke, “will you.. Stay with me?” His voice came out more quiet than normal, less confident.
“Yeah, of course!- Uh, I mean, sure, yeah, I don’t mind” Grace stammered. Part of him was relieved. He was as touch-starved as Simon was, and had honestly been hoping Simon would want to be around him more. “Oh, do you need something to sleep in?”
“No, I’ll be fine like this.” Simon already had his shirt off.
Grace felt his stomach turn at the sight and had to resist staring. Simon in nothing but sweatpants was giving him that same hot feeling on his cheeks.
They each climbed into the large bed separately, Simon laid with his back to Grace, while Grace laid facing the ceiling so he could subtly look at Simon for a while. He had never considered himself to be attracted to men, or really anyone for that matter. Maybe this was just the result of having another human around him for the first time in years. Yeah, that was probably it. Realistically, Grace didn’t even know Simon well enough to know if had feelings for him. They were barely even friends! It would be silly to jump to such a conclusion so soon.
Grace rolled over onto his side, facing away from Simon, so he could sleep. It was a little weird to try and get comfortable with the fish tail Simon had taking up the space between them but he wasn’t going to complain about it. Although it seemed he didn’t have to because by the time Grace had made himself comfortable, Simon turned over to his other side. Now facing Grace. He tried to ignore that stupid feeling, he hated that it was returning to him so much tonight, but he felt Simon’s arm snake around his waist.
“Is this okay?” Simon asked quietly, voice barely a whisper, “being close helps me sleep.”
Grace swallowed the lump in his throat, “yeah, this is fine, whatever helps you sleep.” He managed to get out.
“Thank you, angel” Simon replied so softly it felt like a pillow against Grace’s heart.
Angel? Angel?! Simon thought he was an angel. He wasn’t even a functioning member of society when he was an actual member of society and Simon thought he was an angel. Maybe jumping to conclusions isn’t that bad. Grace could like someone, he mused silently to himself. He could like someone like Simon, at least. He could definitely see himself liking someone like Simon.