Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Things really had started going too well, Grace supposed.

Ever since his first… intimate encounter with Rocky, things had developed… easily. Way easier than Ryland expected them to. He typically had this problem where once he got into a relationship, the horror, he would immediately realize things were going to change, and change in ways he wouldn’t be able to predict or control. This was usually far more than enough reason for Ryland to pull himself out of the equation, and when he forced himself not to run and had finally managed to get over the initial shell shock, he found his feelings would… decrease. He felt terrible admitting it, but it was almost always true that the chase was better than the catch, so to speak. He found himself feeling disinterested when the relationship with the person became too different, or especially when it came with too many expectations. He had worried so badly that this would happen with Rocky that he had a panic attack after he woke up from that first time. He cried so hard that snot kept coming out of his nose and he confessed that he didn’t want things to change. That he felt strong feelings for Rocky, but he didn’t want that to mean they’d be intimate constantly or that there’d be an expectation of physical touch coming from him all the time. That their friendship would become secondary to a relationship. Rocky was a piece of him taken from his heart and put light years away, and now that he had truly realized that the idea of that relationship getting hurt in any way was terrifying— paralyzing. It was the first time Rocky had seen him in such a state, as thankfully, Rocky still had no idea about how he really got onto The Hail Mary. He thanked his stars that at least Rocky didn’t know how much of a coward he really was, though, it only served to worry him further.

Thankfully, and contrary to what Ryland assumed would happen, Rocky met him where he was. Like he always did. Rocky explained that being mates-to-be wasn’t all that different from what they had been doing for years together on the Hail Mary, and that he didn’t want it to change either. Rocky promised they would go at a slow pace when it came to developing romantic behaviors with one another. Rocky also insisted that they’d take it by day, an insanely comforting thought to Ryland. They’d be cautious, they’d talk things out, they’d be true partners. It wouldn’t be like it had been before with other relationships, where Grace always felt like he was playing a game of pretending that he was half dissociated from. This was real. He would be present for his and Rocky’s relationship in a way he hadn’t been in any other setting. The thought was terrifying, but at the same time, so incredibly relieving. Rocky understood. Rocky wasn’t going to pressure him to hurry and get comfortable. Rocky didn’t expect anything from him. After he had finally calmed down, taken another shower to remove the sticky mess from between his legs, and eaten, he and Rocky officially started their courtship. They even shook on it… er, well. Ryland put his fist to the glass and Rocky put his back. As close to a handshake as they could get, for now.

Thus began a honeymoon stage that was completely unlike anything Ryland ever experienced before. For a good month or so, the two of them simply started drifting closer and closer to romance, albeit very slowly. Nothing had really changed much except the fun, fluttering feeling in his chest that rose now when Rocky’s melodic voice called him his mate-to-be, or his human. That and the fact that he now wore a ♪♬♩♬♩♩ around his neck that matched with one Rocky wore on his wrist. It was a cord weaved with thin colored strips of Xenonite that formed a thick band, and was then strung with various beads of different shapes, all of which were made from pieces of Blip-A, The Hail Mary, Rocky’s Xenonite, and most special of all— a small chunk of Rocky’s carapace in the center. It hung around his neck at all times, close to his heart, and Rocky’s carapace now bore a small dent just under his “front” side from where he had removed the hunk of himself. Ryland insisted on trying to return the favor, only for Rocky to point to the deep burns that had formed a “scar” on Grace’s rock-like skin. The scar was deep and opalescent compared to the metallic gold or rusty red of his other skin and deeply indented now. His heart ached that Rocky wasn’t wearing that missing piece of him the same way, but, he couldn’t deny they had both been marked forever by one another now. When they officially became mates, they’d be tattooed instead of wearing these bands, making their bond permanent. The weight of it constantly sitting on his neck was a reminder he belonged to Rocky now, just as Rocky belonged to him. He could feel their mental connection somehow getting even stronger every day, too. He thought that wasn’t physically possible, but it was getting to a point where the two of them could almost finish the other’s sentences. Ryland had already felt Rocky’s emotions before in moments of closeness they shared, but now, it was like he could predict what Rocky was thinking about, and the same was true vice versa. When they spoke about it a week or so after Ryland initially noticed it, Rocky had seemed thrilled to find out, trilling to Grace in excitement and nudging the top of his ball for a hug that Grace accepted before Rocky even began to explain.

“Grace Rocky develop neurological connection. Means your human brain becoming like my Eridian brain.” Rocky had explained briefly at first, hardly able to speak over his happy trills. 

The full explanation of it was, in Grace’s mind, very illogical. It made him feel like magic was afoot again, even though he knew such things weren’t real. Eridians had the ability to link together and perform something called Thrumming, something Grace already had known and been extremely jealous of. The way Rocky explained it was that a group of Eridians could get together to discuss something and, through what Grace had assumed to be some sort of vocal or tonal frequency, were able to speak about it as if they were one mind instead of several. This meant large groups could pool knowledge together and act as a pseudo-hivemind to solve problems far faster than a human brain— a living computer, as Grace called it. He always assumed that Thrumming had to be related to something akin to radio transmissions, or whale calls, a version of Eridian language spoken at a frequency that made it easier for the entire group to follow the thread of a conversation to the point they were thinking as one. Admittedly, he had just guessed at that, so he wasn’t shocked he was off base. Apparently, as Rocky explained, Thrumming was much harder to achieve with a group of strangers than it was with a team of Eridians who knew each other, because Thrumming was the activity that the mental bond between Eridians enabled them to perform. Grace failed to realize just how bonded Eridians could get. Eridian bonds were heavily based in conversing and intelligence, thus the brain of an Eridian was adapted to create links with those it found vital for its survival. This began with parents, as their world was entirely dark and baby Eridains (Pebbles, as Grace insisted.) lacked the highly tuned echolocating skills of their elders. This first neurolink is critical for survival of the Pebble, as it allows what could essentially boil down to mind reading. Ryland literally couldn’t wrap his human mind around it at first, before he felt what Rocky had described. If he focused, he could feel a pulsating, nagging thought in the back of his head, one that he recognized as Rocky’s incessant feeling of want towards him, then as he mulled it over again it developed further. He could tell what Rocky was thinking, that he wanted to touch Grace without a barrier at that moment. The thought was clear as day even though Grace hadn’t been the one to think it, and it came in Eridian, chiming melodic speaking instead of his own earthling English subconscious. He was completely baffled, because this aspect of his new biology was now entirely beyond his understanding. Humans could form deep mental bonds, strengthened by hormones, but that wasn’t akin to mind reading at all. The closest you could get was Twin Telepathy, which was scientifically shaky at best. Every other aspect of Eridian biology that had come to him at that point was something he could connect the dots for, something he expected. That had been the first time he felt truly out of his depth.

Until now.

Right around his and Rocky’s four and a half month anniversary (yes, they were counting months and half dates), Ryland had felt feverish again– odd, given that now his temperature was sitting at around 250 degrees consistently, and he hadn’t felt adverse effects from it in over a year. When it increased, he’d have these periods of feeling under the weather for a few days, then go back to normal. Instead of that happening, Grace’s fever symptoms mutated into what began to appear as a respiratory infection. When the feeling persisted instead of fading once his body adjusted, Rocky had attempted to place Ryland on bed rest. This only worked for the period Rocky could stay awake, however, which was only a few days. Eridian sleep recovered more energy in a shorter time, but that didn’t mean Rocky could go without it forever. With their Neurolink freshly developed, both of them understood that this was deeply serious. With how high Ryland’s internal body template was now, and how high a percentage of his blood was now mercury, his organs somehow failing to adapt would get ugly fast. Not having someone keeping eyes on him would be risky. The first few times in the process Rocky had to sleep, he was so worried about Grace having some sort of crisis while he was paralyzed that he had attempted to develop a solution. Rocky built a machine capable of delivering an electric shock directly to his own nervous system if Grace hit a button— it would be incredibly hard on Rocky’s body and disorienting, but in theory it would wake him up. The electric current would bring him out of paralysis in an emergency. It could also kill him. Grace refused to use the method, insisting even as he grew worse over the few weeks that he could handle himself. That he didn’t want to hurt Rocky more by voluntarily electrocuting him, and he certainly didn’t want to risk Rocky’s life. Rocky had been antsy, for lack of a better word, able to feel every sensation Grace was going through and every thought he was having. 

Meaning Ryland knew full well that Rocky knew he was probably going to run tests on himself without supervision when Rocky finally fell asleep this time. 

They hadn’t gotten anywhere with the tests Rocky had been doing, unfortunately, mostly because he wasn’t letting Grace help at all. The overwhelming feeling of worry Ryland was getting from Rocky was starting to make him antsy too, not to mention guilty, driving up his heart rate. He kept watching Rocky work tirelessly researching to help him, trying different treatments, but nothing worked.  Making him choose to run tests instead of rest as Rocky had been insisting he do. Grace felt terrible of course, disobeying a request from Rocky while he knew Rocky was correct in that he shouldn’t be working, but his curiosity was killing him. His lungs were starting to kill him, too. His coughing had gotten to a point he was bleeding from his raw throat, leaving him air hungry for several minutes after. Sometimes his nose would even start to bleed excessively too. These episodes had gotten to the point he had noticed Rocky expelling steam in a coughing type way whenever they happened, the tightness in Ryland’s chest was transferring to the Eridian. He had to do something, and it would be the least distressing to do when Rocky was asleep.

Rocky asked if he’d stay right next to him when he had curled himself into a loaf that night, clearly exhausted from worrying and trying to figure out what was ailing his human. They’d done so many tests that day and Rocky kept insisting their systems must not be able to test for what it was yet. His theory was that Ryland had managed to catch an Eridian virus from food, but both of them knew there was hardly any evidence of that. After noticing Rocky was wobbling on his legs, Ryland finally insisted.

“Rocky. Come on. Can we sleep?” Ryland asked, trying to sound innocent. He sat in the nest Rocky had made him days into this illness, where he had practically not been allowed to move for weeks. 

Rocky grumbled in frustration. “You lie. You not going sleep. You will do tests while I cannot help.”

Being able to read each other's mind had been comforting up until now. Ryland needed to look at the results himself. He knew more about his own biology, and he was more convinced this was to do with his human limitations than his developing hybrid state. He watched Rocky stumble again and grunt in annoyance.

“I’ll use the button. I-if I’m in trouble. Rocky, please, you can barely stand. Sleep, for real. A long rest. I’ll watch, and I won’t do anything too rigorous. I don’t think I could if I wanted to.” Ryland bargained. He left the truth unspoken again, that he’d simply push himself past the brink if he had to.

With that, realizing Ryland was desperate to help him, Rocky relented. Ryland laid next to him in the nest of blankets they had made by the dent in the Xenonite, watching Rocky’s body for signs of paralysis, guilt eating him alive. 

“Grace not die. Promise?” Rocky spoke sternly, even with the lilt of sleepiness in his voice. It made Grace’s heart ache knowing Rocky was that worried.

“Promise, sweetheart. M’gonna be on the laptop for a bit but I’ll probably sleep–” Grace suddenly coughed, feeling his chest tighten as he did. 

Rocky trilled and expelled more steam, exactly why Ryland was doing this. As Ryland looked down at the hand he coughed into, he observed the metallic reddish-silver blood coating his palm, trying to wipe it off on his pants before Rocky could see. They both knew the Eridian noticed, and said nothing outloud. It was too hard to acknowledge. Grace hated knowing he was transferring all this anxiety to Rocky most of all. He tried to finish his thought instead of thinking about it further.

“I’ll probably sleep too, eventually. M’really not full of energy like I usually am.” Ryland lied through his teeth. His anxiety was enough to suppress just how tired his body felt for now.

“Cough needs medicine. Will help when wake up.” Rocky said, tone lilting softly. “Grace everything to Rocky. Grace be careful. Know Grace lying.”

Ryland was the worst person in the universe. “You mean everything to me too, Rocky. My mate-to-be. I’ll be careful.” Ryland sighed softly, keeping a hand against the xenonite where Rocky’s claw was pressed against it. 

Before Rocky slept, Grace decided to lean his face closer to the xenonite, too. He had explained kissing to Rocky, who found the concept amusing to say the least, but they couldn’t really complete a kiss in the typical way. Still, Ryland wanted to express his affection so badly for his partner. He leaned into the xenonite and pressed a kiss over where Rocky’s general front-top half was, trilling to him with his own changed vocal chords. Rocky pressed his carapace up to “kiss” Grace back, before slowly slumping down again. He went incredibly still, and Grace knew it was only a matter of waiting now. Grace watched for Rocky’s body to go limp like it always did when he fell asleep, meaning he had entered the state of paralysis that would enable Grace to begin his work. He forced himself up and out of his comfortable, warm mess of blankets and sweaters, getting to the lab equipment he’d need. His brain was already foggy laying down, but standing up was starting to cause intense bouts of lightheadedness. This was no doubt due to the fact that Ryland could feel himself wheezing within the first hour of Rocky being asleep. His lungs hadn’t sounded wonderful for weeks, but this was new. He hadn’t fully stood up in a few days, and his body seemed to be having trouble compensating. It was a miracle he got into the lab. At that point all he had done was sit in front of the computer, only just finally concluding what tests he wanted to do to begin with. He decided to run through the checklist he and Rocky used every week: biopsies of various parts of his changing skin, blood samples, internal scans. Without Rocky the only option for an internal scan was a portable ultrasound machine, as currently the Hail Mary’s X-Ray was non functional. They’d taken it apart for pieces and bits for their other modified lab equipment, assuming with Rocky’s way of seeing, they’d never need it again. He cursed himself for becoming so complacent he really felt he didn’t need some kind of back up plan.

His mind was running at a snail's pace and was only getting worse as the time dragged on. It took hours to do those first three exams, which normally took less than 45 minutes. His skin was incredibly tough in all the areas it had been thickening before now, resembling full blown red rock stone, but when Ryland cut into his forearm for a biopsy the dust was beginning to flake off, revealing larger chunks of a light, glittering gold color underneath. It was the color of sunlight, Ryland noted, and was enough to briefly distract him from the heaviness in his chest. The dusty, red outer layer must’ve been protecting this layer of true skin as it developed, he assumed. His skin became his last priority as the computer flashed red, the way it always did when his blood work returned. His results came back with absolutely nonsensical readings, which wasn’t abnormal during a period where his changes were accelerating, but it wasn’t like this. In every other blood test he had over the time he’d been changing, his heavy metals were always in flux, but the pH of his blood remained relatively normal considering metallic mercury had no pH level of its own. Ryland assumed watching Rocky run tests and cared for him for weeks now that Rocky knew what a human pH was, but as his eyes scanned over his blood work, he realized he had never explained the concept to Rocky. The test came back indicating the pH in his blood was 7.10.

That is .25 from the minimum, 7,35, which would already be a medical condition. My blood is becoming way too acidic at an alarming rate. Grace thinks to himself, starting to panic.

To a normal human, this indicated critical condition. Hell, a pH that was 0.2 off of the maximum or minimum was considered critical, let alone .25 off!!! If he were to get that kind of test back and a real medically trained doctor could review them, he would’ve been intubated on the spot and anesthetized so life saving procedures could be performed. He knew the only reason he was conscious was because of his significantly Eridian-ized DNA, but that didn’t make it any less scary. His head began to spin with the stress, and his air hunger was only getting worse. His hand flew to his bond necklace to fumble with the chunk of Rocky’s carapace, the only piece of him Ryland could touch safely, desperate for any kind of comfort as he tried to figure out what he was going to do. His brain was working so slowly these past few days as symptoms developed that he had never fully checked Rocky’s work, which is where he probably would’ve noticed his blood becoming steadily more acidic as his respiratory problems had persisted. Grace began to do research on the effects of Acidosis which only served to terrify him more. There were possible metabolic problems, but the three major causes of Acidosis he could find were drowning (an obvious no), and various kinds of suffocation. Specifically what caught his eye was oxygen toxicity. When people like scuba divers or those who needed supplemental oxygen had their dose too high, levels of oxygen in the body would rise to the point that it would choke out any other gas the human body needed, causing suffocation like effects and high levels of acid in the blood. This shouldn’t have been possible, given the Hail Mary had a perfect atmosphere recreation system that had never caused issues for him before. He decided that he had to be wrong and kept working, because the alternative was curling up and accepting what his brain kept insisting these tests couldn’t be indicating. 

For whatever reason, likely his changing biology, his body was being slowly poisoned by the amount of oxygen in the Hail Mary’s faux atmosphere. A nagging thought began to make Ryland feel nauseous. If I don’t figure this out I’m going to suffocate and die before we get home. 

Ryland tried to find a treatment course they could follow while on The Hail Mary, listening to the audio tracks from several medical professionals saved onto the Hail Mary’s lab computer as he performed an ultrasound of his sternum, attempting to get a look into his lungs. He hoped maybe this was some kind of structural change that he’d adapt to, but, what he was honestly looking for was fluid on the lungs. It was useless, considering not only was Ryland not an ultrasound tech, but his lungs also looked insane. The diagrams he found online were no help for the ways his organs had been shifted inside him at this point. It took him far longer than it should’ve to finally find a part of his lung he could recognize, to which he confirmed his fear– cloudy, partially filled with fluid. Pulmonary edema.  When he turned the audio on the portable ultrasound machine up, he could hear bubbling like sounds on every inhale. That is really not good. Every medical professional he listened to, every article he read, all came to the conclusion that solving Acidosis meant solving the problem causing it first, then clearing out the blood via things like dialysis. Solving the problem in the case of oxygen toxicity usually meant increasing the amount of CO₂ the person was being delivered and lowering their oxygen dose. With no way of scanning his lungs more directly and assessing his level of edema, and no way of knowing if he needed more CO₂ or something… more alien, Ryland could only search through Rocky’s notes and hope he could find something to do with Eridian respiratory systems and their atmosphere. 

Grace decided that to be safe, as he read, he would keep the pulse oximeter on his finger to monitor his oxygen somewhat, given the weight on his chest was now confirmed as fluid on his lungs. The little thing quickly proved too annoying when it incessantly began to beep, indicating Grace’s pulse oxygen was 93%. That was bad, but not an emergency yet. He had time, so he got back to his laptop. Rocky’s notes are, of course, in his language. They’ve been working on inputting them to Grace’s laptop with translations so Grace can learn more about his own anatomy as he changes. It gives him a rudimentary understanding of everything he might need to know about Eridian anatomy, and once he boots up the program they’ve been working on the translations in, he keyword searches for any respiratory systems he can. What he finds is that Eridian’s only breathe in order to cool down their organs, which they do by pulling in their ammonia rich air and— 

In the worst possible way, bingo.

Grace’s lungs must’ve had no idea what to do, and now his leading theory was they were being overloaded with oxygen. He doubted his body was going to change to the extent that he wouldn’t need a conventional respiratory system, but he had no idea if he could breathe ammonia now either. That was a pretty big test with pretty big consequences if by any chance he was wrong. His theory had to be incorrect— his body couldn’t reject oxygen to this extent, right? He was at least 60-70 percent water, which was made of oxygen… that meant if his lungs were rejecting it, the rest of his body had the potential to as well. After all, Rocky had combusted when exposed to Grace’s atmosphere. There was no other logical conclusion he could find, whether due to panic or due to his mental decline in his poor health he wasn’t sure. Eridians only needed to “breathe” to cool down and heat up their organs for their steam-powered locomotion, a movement system (not to mention, several organs) Grace didn’t possess. In the desperation to have it not be that his body was now allergic to earth levels of oxygen, he had wasted time trying to come up with nonsensical theories, and now he was really in trouble. The gist of what was happening is his lungs were craving an air that was composed of chemicals found on Erid, not earth, and Erid had a significantly lower amount of oxygen in their air make up, causing him to be poisoned by it the same way someone using supplemental oxygen excessively might be. Trouble was he had no idea what the proper chemical make up would be, if he was correct. He frantically opened the document containing all of the minerals, gasses, and substances on Erid that they had spoken about so far, trying to find an exact make up of Rocky’s atmosphere so he could copy it and hopefully fix this problem before Rocky had to wake up and see how rapidly he was declining.

Naturally, with Grace’s luck, Rocky and him hadn’t translated that part of his notes fully yet. 

This left Grace with several choices to make. He could immediately try to test his theory by developing a blend of Ammonia with earth gasses to see if that would help his lungs, which could burn him alive from the inside out if he were to get the ratio wrong, among other possible complications. He could keep running tests and hopefully develop a new theory, wasting time and suffocating slowly like he had been for hours. Idiot. He could wake Rocky up, ask him his opinion, and go from there, hoping that the shock delivered to his body wouldn’t injure him. The last possible option, the worst option, was eating at Ryland’s brain. If he were to shut off the Hail Mary’s artificial atmosphere, he could break a section of Rocky's xenonite to allow his atmosphere simulators to slowly fill the ship. He shoved that thought deep down, as even in an emergency he could never risk Rocky’s life like that. Especially not just to save himself. With option D out of the question, and Grace feeling like it was much too soon to try option C, Grace decided he absolutely couldn’t idle. Plan A it was. He had to do his best to quickly guestimate a blend of gasses he could use, but he had a deep, sinking feeling. If this didn’t work, or he collapsed in the process, he wanted Rocky to understand what had happened. He decided to take the risk of writing a document explaining his findings to Rocky, and how to fix him if he was prone when Rocky woke. In theory, Rocky could either change the Hail Mary’s atmosphere simulation system to mimic that of Erid's, or he could produce a respirator with Ryland’s instructions. Ryland made sure to also explain the airlock release system, if worse came to worse. At the end he was sure to insist how strongly he felt towards Rocky, saying that he loved the alien, even if they hadn’t used the word out loud with one another yet. He ran it through the Eridian translation program they had been developing so that it could be played outloud, then he set the laptop next to Rocky’s sleeping body with a charger. 

Ryland grabbed the remote to wake Rocky as well, though he had no intentions of using it. The medical compartment he needed to reach was in one of the farthest sections of the ship from the laboratory, meaning he would have to make it clear across the Hail Mary and back to the airlock quarantine in the lab to begin working on an oxygen canister modification. With how weak he felt this was going to be a long trip, Ryland decided to run basic tests one more time and see how bad it was getting. Time began to drag as Ryland’s condition seemed to rapidly be deteriorating waiting for his test results. He took another blood sample which came back with an even lower pH than before. 7. With it Ryland could feel his lungs struggling, his cough was getting worse by the minute. He no longer found the energy to care about the cherry red blood now coating the sleeves of his sweatshirt as he tried to keep working, patches of it growing thicker every time he coughed into his sleeve. His hands were shaking badly, meaning it was getting even harder to manage the tools sitting in front of him or process any of the information. He decided at that point that the results beyond that meant nothing at this point. He struggled to stand up and grabbed onto a piece of rebar support that they had ripped out of the wall recently, using it as a makeshift cane to get himself to the Hail Mary’s medical cabinet. He also grabbed a large duffle bag that used to hold his clothes, one that had back-pack straps as well, to shove the tank into and carry back with him. He planned to fill the space with other equipment to set himself up a respirator, hopefully staving off his death by suffocation till Rocky could wake safely, without a shock to his central nervous system that could kill him.

Easier said than done, that’s for sure. The trip alone took Grace another hour. If he was keeping track correctly, that meant he had been deteriorating like this for a little over 7 hours, meaning he felt like he could close his eyes and fall asleep standing up right now. Rocky typically slept for over ten hour cycles and was up for days, but with Ryland being so sick he knew that there was a chance he might wake up sooner. At this point he almost found that idea preferable– he couldn’t imagine the Eridian’s distress seeing him like this. That was going to be hellish. He was so weak, so tired, and so desperate now to not die from suffocating. This hurt. He was so, so scared. He wanted it to stop so badly.

Finally, he reached the medical compartment latch. Ryland grunted even pushing the small latch open to the medical equipment supply compartment in the floor of the Hail Mary, after struggling to get himself on the ground to open it. He had no clue how he was going to stand back up with a metal oxygen tank in his hands. He got the cabinet latch to budge, finally, letting out a series of trills without meaning to. This would be so much easier if he had Rocky, those trills he had just made would’ve had his partner rushing towards him to help. Rocky had the strength to spare for this sort of thing. Ryland tried not to let himself get sad— Rocky was just sleeping. He could do this. He would prove that he could fix this and keep his promise. His breathing grew more inconsistent as he leaned over to look down in the deep compartment, finally seeing the oxygen tanks at the bottom, laid down between the square of shelves holding everything else. There were three rungs of a tiny ladder to climb into the cabinet and get to the things packed lower down— Ryland had never had to use them before because he had the dexterity and core strength to simply lean himself over the edge and sort through it with his arms. Now, though, Ryland was on his knees and sweating from exhaustion already just from having to open the door to assess the contents of the medical compartment. He took a deep breath to try to prepare himself, as if he were about to lift weights, just to tug his body forward towards the ladder rungs. It took so much concentration to spin himself around and lower himself slowly, making sure each foot made complete contact with the rung below it as he kept his hands tightly gripped on the one above. 

The compartment was barely 6 feet deep, about 6 foot by 6 foot wide. It had everything the Hail Mary crew would’ve possibly needed in a medical emergency, hence it being one of the biggest storage compartments on the ship. Despite it being one of the biggest, there was absolutely no reason it should’ve taken that much out of Ryland. It was the equivalent of stepping into a hot tub, pretty much, and he felt like he was going to pass out. His vision was spotty, filling with static as he clung to the ladder once he finally finished getting down there. If he hadn’t been holding it he thinks— knows— he would’ve fallen flat and hit his head against one of the metal oxygen tanks stored in a smaller compartment below his feet. He lowered himself down again, letting out a sob as his knees hit the floor. He was in so much pain at this point it wasn’t even funny, his skin felt like it was absolutely on fire. He couldn’t stop shaking for long enough to get his hands on the latch. He took a series of deep breaths, trying to repeat a mantra in his head with what little coherent thought he could keep in his head.

I promised Rocky. I told him we’d meet Adrian. I told him we’d be mates. I told him we’d have kids. I promised Rocky I wouldn’t die.

Ryland kept the thought on loop as he forced his hands to steady by pressing them into the latch, shrill chimes escaping him as he managed to release the seal. This one had been even harder to lift, considering he had materials packed on top of this door for years. The crack he had managed to create between the door and the gasket wasn’t big enough to fit a tank out, and he knew any strength he had left in his hands and arms would have to be saved for carrying the tank. So, Ryland leant his body forward while on his knees, wedging his shoulder under the latch of the door. His rock-like skin served to soften the metal edge of the door as he pushed upward, screaming in pain. His chest already hurt so badly that he honestly felt it was a good sign— screaming meant he was still moving air. He gasped as the door’s stuck-shut joints finally gave in and it hit the rack quickly, Ryland pushing himself up much too quickly as a result. He gasped much too sharply as he swung himself back into an upright position, beginning to cough hard. So hard he couldn’t get a breath in between. He felt warmth around his mouth and nose, realizing the cherry red blood on the floor was his, coming out of his nose and mouth. He tried to clear all of it that he could, his head spinning as his vision became static again. He had no idea how long he was sitting there waiting to be able to see again, all he knew now is he wanted Rocky badly. Still, he remembered that the button in his pocket could kill his soulmate. He wouldn’t risk that when it seemed like his vision was returning and he might still be able to do this himself.

This was, frankly, the bravest Ryland Grace had ever felt. Pushing through this extreme level of pain and suffering when he had a way of getting help felt so stupid, but at the end of it, he was braving all of this so he could spare Rocky’s suffering. He tried his hardest to remember that as he rolled the oxygen tank into the duffel bag he had brought with him. He forced himself onto his knees to open the compartment on the wall marked with Respiratory Therapy Equipment, just dumping the entire bin into the bag. He couldn’t be bothered at all to pick out specific pieces now, that would have to wait for when he could build a respirator. As he zipped up the duffle bag he realized the palms and underside of his arms, where his softer skin still was, was beginning to burn. The skin was irritated and hot to the touch. His more rock-like skin was starting to give off small amounts of steam. Not good.

Ryland shook his head, deciding he simply wasn’t in pain. He remembered doing this often on earth, for a broad range of things, but he never had to do it while suffering from Oxygen Toxicity. He slowly slipped the straps of the duffle bag’s back-pack side onto his shoulders, tying them in the middle of his chest so the pack couldn’t slip off as he slowly made his way back to the lab. He was in so much discomfort at this point it was all blending together, which was honestly pretty helpful for him. He found himself softly singing as he made his way back, repeating the lyrics of the song he remembered singing with his church choir in elementary school back on earth, This Little Light of Mine. It felt just as comforting to sing to himself now as it did his entire life, every time he felt like he wasn’t going to be able to do something. He had just gotten to the bridge of the song for the umpteenth time as his shoulder clipped the circular doorway of the lab. 

“Monday gave me the gift of love,” Ryland grunted, barely keeping a tune.  “Tuesday peace came from above, Wednesday’s home, and I-I have more f-faith.” 

Ryland kept mumble-singing to himself as he made it back into the lab, after an hour more of struggling. He did not have the energy to spare for that, but singing the church song over and over was the only way he was staying awake. He was so tired he really did feel like he would pass out soon. As a plus, he was back in view of Rocky now that he had made it to the lab. His home. It made him feel calmer just seeing him, even if his anxiety was still absolutely through the roof. At this point Grace knew his mental status had been altered, and now he was not confident in how well he’d be able to execute making a respirator. If he messed with an air canister too much it could explode, which was the opposite of the kind of thing you’d want on a spacecraft. He guessed he’d just have to be super careful with it, then! He made his way across the lab and into the small airlock quarantine room, where he had set up the materials he’d need for filling the canister prior to leaving. He would have put on a respirator or some sort of protective suit to go in there considering he was messing around with gas that could still be toxic to him in some way, but he knew he didn’t have the energy for either of those things. So he finally pulled the airlock door shut behind him, opened the hood to the larger vented work table where he would have to lift the canister, then slowly tried to undo the knot he had created in the center of his chest between the straps of his duffle back-pack. He hadn’t realized, however, that it had actually become an incredibly loose tie after how much jostling and limping he had done to get here, and the same jostling movement had pushed the zipper of the duffle open at the top, just above Ryland’s head. When both of his hands tugged at the straps to loosen it, the knot released immediately, and the straps of the duffle slipped off Ryland’s shoulders before he could make a quick enough move to grab them. 

What happened next felt like it occurred in slow motion. Ryland felt the duffle bag hit the floor before he heard it. With the zipper open partially, as the bag fell the air tank slid out partially, and it fell directly onto the output nozzle, breaking the seal. The pressurized oxygen tank thankfully didn’t immediately explode, but with the nozzle now broken off, it was releasing a powerful blast of oxygen against the floor. This blast then flipped the canister upward, so it was going to be blowing up Ryland’s back. Ryland screamed at his error before he finally heard the impact then the hissing sound and connected the two sensations, desperately trying to head for the door as he realized that this room was now filling up with even more oxygen. In the second it took for all of that to happen, he managed to barely move forward— not out of the way. The stream of oxygen hissing out of the canister blasted itself up and snaked under his shirt, burning Ryland’s back and causing him to cry out in horrific pain. Black smoke emitted off his skin and he watched as ash fell to the floor, just like what had happened to Rocky when he tried to save Ryland years ago. Ryland was going to lose consciousness in this room and die if he didn’t do something quickly. He began to shove his body at the door, which of course didn’t budge because he had engaged an airlock. He quickly tried to start working the control panel for the quarantine room, but he was starting to cough and every single heave shot blood across the buttons he was trying to read. He felt his legs giving out and he desperately tried to stay standing despite it. He repeated his mantra that he would keep his promise to Rocky as he finally managed to disengage the airlock, hearing the door hiss and release the gasket holding it shut. With it still partially stuck, Grace had no choice but to step back again, his back being burnt again with the oxygen blasting out of the canister. It hurt too badly, and Ryland lost his balance instead of planting his foot firmly when he had taken his step back. With that amount of disorientation combined with losing his balance, he fell directly on top of the oxygen tank.

The metal cylinder was about the length of his torso, so as he fell, his spine took a rather intense hit. The metal rattled his spine first and knocked any air he had in his lungs right out of him, leaving him gasping for a breath and filling his lungs with more poison. The air hunger he was experiencing at this point was equivalent to scrambling his brain like eggs, hence why he kept breathing in so heavily instead of trying to calm down. He cried out in pain and rolled over, trying to get himself up quickly, but the nozzle of the tank was directly at his shoulder. As he moved closer to it the pressurized air burned the upper right quadrant of his back, over his shoulder, neck, and up his jaw badly, to the point Grace couldn’t see for several seconds from the pain. He laid prone for much too long, finally rolling to the left and off the canister finally, grabbing whatever he could around him to shove himself upward. He had no clue how loudly he was trilling in the moment, subconscious songs of distress coming from the back of his throat as he attempted to escape this death box he created for himself. When his hand finally found a surface to grab, he struggled to his legs and screamed, feeling totally helpless.

“R-Rocky!” Grace called out, aimlessly. It just felt wrong not to call for him at this moment, even if he knew Rocky wouldn’t wake up at his call.

Grace finally gave a serious thought to the button in his pocket as he assessed how shaky his legs were, and how rapidly he was feeling himself lose consciousness. He needed help, more than anything he needed his mate, emotionally. He was in so much pain that it was killing him, he was struggling to breathe so badly that it was actually killing him. He couldn’t think straight. He was seeing static. He looked around the quarantine room for anything he could use to launch himself at the door and push it open, finally spotting a strip of metal piping above the filter hood he was desperately clinging to. He reached up and used all of his strength to rip it off, thankfully since it was just a piece of small detailing it didn’t take long. The strip was long enough for him to press under his hand as he propelled himself forward, giving himself a bit more leverage since he wasn’t entirely sure he’d be able to take a step. He figured it would work a bit like a small pole vault to replace his jelly-like legs in propelling him forward. He didn’t have time to even think about his plan further, he simply pushed the metal strip down on the ground to his left and pushed his right leg forward, too. Thankfully, he stayed up right. Ryland could only describe the feeling as overjoyed as he finally pushed off with his hand and his legs, jumping at the door as hard as he could. His left shoulder hit hard, knocking the door open finally and sending Ryland back onto the ground as it gave way. His collar bone cracked as he hit the floor, clear as day, eliciting further screeches of pain from him as he writhed onto his back. With one shoulder burnt and still emitting black smoke, his back sizzling still and spine aching from being hit with the tank, and now a broken collar bone, Ryland knew he had no chance without help. He had made it out of the airlocked room, so at least he wasn’t being gassed as heavily, but in his condition the oxygen levels on the Hail Mary were now causing his rock skin to burn. He had no other choice. Grace forced his burnt arm down, screeching in distress as he fished the remote out of his pocket. He brought it into his line of sight and then to his mouth, using his teeth to pull the clear cover off of the button since his collar bone hurt far too badly to move his other arm. He shakily gripped the remote and finally pressed his thumb down, forcing his neck up to crane his narrow line of sight towards Rocky as the signal from the remote lit up the charge box above his sleeping pod. 

This is my punishment. Grace thinks to himself as he watches the box charge up, getting ready to deliver a possibly life ending shock to his mate because he had been so stupid. If Grace had stayed in the nest instead of running around like this, maybe he wouldn’t be forcing Rocky to risk his life for him yet again. He knew watching was going to be agonizing, seeing Rocky disoriented and in pain was like torture. He felt overwhelmingly reluctant, everything in his brain screaming at him to shut his eyes, but he owed Rocky this. This is all my fault. I have to watch. No matter how hard it is, if I’m doing this to him, I have to have the decency to watch. At least that way he won’t be alone.

The charge box finally loudly announced that it was delivering some level of voltage Grace couldn’t register. He grit his teeth as he watched the vibrant currents of electricity– had he always been able to see those?– pass through the wires and into the vent system of Rocky’s thorax. Rocky had told Ryland that this was one of the most sensitive parts of his body, so in theory, the shock directly to it would send his nervous system into such overdrive it would force his hearts out of their resting state and wake him back up. Just as Rocky set it to, the shock hit nodes implanted into the squishy, spongey skin just between the cracks on the top of his carapace, and Ryland could hear the whirr and sparks of electricity. At first, nothing happened, for long enough for Grace to worry that it hadn’t worked like they thought it would at all. Then the charge box announced that it would be delivering the second of three shocks to the sleeping Eridian. When he realized the machine was set to deliver three of these shocks, he immediately regretted this decision. He shouldn’t have tried to wake Rocky up– what if that first shock had immediately killed him? What if the second did? He forced himself to roll over onto his stomach with a scream and placed the palm of his hand down on the ground to try to get up, screeching in pain and letting out desperate trilling sounds as he hit the ground yet again. With his noises, combined with the next shock delivering in rapid succession, Rocky’s body jerked. He began to shake, not just in a vibrational sort of way, in a way that looked like a seizure to Ryland. His limbs jerked aimlessly and he made a series of warmbling sounds that were completely incoherent, simply being forced out of him with every spasm of his body. Grace couldn’t suppress his sob watching it, Rocky was in so much pain, he couldn’t take it. He kept forcing Rocky’s name in Eridian through his throat, shrill calls for Rocky in his own language, hoping that it would reach him. Grace could feel Rocky’s thoughts entering his head again, finally, even more so as the machine delivered a third and final shock to Rocky’s still seizing body. With this, he finally let out a trill with some sort of coherent translation.

“Grace trouble. Grace.” Rocky’s voice was so small. “Grace, Mate, Grace, Where is Grace, question demand!?” 

Ryland had never felt so relieved in his entire life. Rocky’s body was trembling but finally seemed to be in his control. With the new found dexterity, Rocky reached up to pull the nodes out of the top of his head and ran through his xenonite to get to his newly built suit before he seemed to notice Grace was in the back of the lab, prone on the ground. The laptop explaining Grace’s findings was still playing on loop, registering finally to his partner who began to desperately squeak and click. Rocky was distressed, Ryland could feel it, distressed in a way he had never been before. He was starting to feel darkness creeping into the corners of his vision, and he wasn’t sure if he would be able to speak coherently at all, but Grace had to offer something before he blacked out.

“I-I’m so sorry, R-Rocky!” He absolutely sobbed, guilt more painful than any physical ailment he was experiencing. “I-I love you!”

Ryland heard Rocky’s screech and his rapid footsteps coming towards him through the xenonite, only getting to just barely see him again up close before the darkness took him. 

…

Ryland Grace died on the table as Rocky attempted to quickly change the atmosphere simulation on the Hail Mary. It took 3 minutes and 37 seconds of CPR to resuscitate him.

Rocky getting to his tighter, more dexterous suit took valuable time, and Ryland had laid unconscious and was slowly suffocating in the meantime. When he had finally gotten Grace’s body onto Armando’s treatment table, he scrambled to the atmospheric controls on Mary and transferred the settings from the inside of his xenonite enclosure to the entire ship, not having the time to make some precise mix that would allow Grace to slowly acclimate. As the ship began to filter the current atmosphere out as quickly as it could, Rocky had watched in abject horror as Grace laid completely limp, Armando announcing that his heart had stopped. Rocky squealed at the arm to show him what to do. Armando began verbal CPR instructions, and Rocky did his best to follow them. The air outside of his xenonite suit was heating up, no doubt his own ammonia based atmosphere filling up the ship, leading Rocky to begin desperately begging.

“Grace, Grace!!! Do not die, No No No No, Bad Bad Bad Bad!” Rocky screeched, his melodic voice full of anguish. “Need Grace, Grace, please!”

Rocky watched as Grace’s body slowly stopped emitting black smoke, indicating the atmosphere was no longer causing him to combust. Almost all of his deep, red rock was gone, burnt down to the golden iridescent skin below that glittered under the medical lamp above them. Rocky hadn’t kept track of the exact time until Armando finally demanded Rocky get off of Grace and allow it to take over, as it had been 2 minutes. Apparently for humans, Rocky considered, this was enough time for whoever was delivering CPR to tire. It was also enough time to administer Epinephrine and a shock, both of which did nothing to Grace. Armando began to methodically pump Grace’s chest instead, making Rocky cry in anguish in a way he had never had before. It took another minute and a half, give or take a few seconds, for Armando to suddenly stop as Grace’s heart rate appeared on the monitor again. Rocky could no longer stand the barrier he was trapped in, not being able to touch Grace directly when he had just suffered cardiac arrest was killing him. Realizing the atmosphere of Mary had to be equal to his own now that Grace wasn’t burning, Rocky reached one of his claws up to smash the xenonite suit, bracing for the pain that thankfully didn’t come. He began frantically ripping off the pieces of it from his body to free himself, scrambling up the leg of the medical bay table to sit himself directly at the side of Grace’s head, watching Armando attempt to treat his injuries. The broken collar bone, the burns, trying to encourage Grace to breathe on his own before the inevitability of intubation came up. Armando was going to have to heavily sedate Grace to treat his injuries, including reducing his collar bone and draining the fluid off his lungs. Rocky frantically reminded Armando of the current scenario as it grabbed Grace by the jaw to open his mouth.

“He c-cannot breathe oxygen– what will you give, question?!” Rocky screeched, feeling incredibly protective of Grace, even if it was towards a robot. “Rocky scared, statement! Do not want Grace to die, statement!”

Armando, now recognizing Rocky as a member of the Hail Mary’s crew thanks to Grace’s coding years ago, placated him. “Crewmate Rocky should not worry. I have access to all files on the ship. I will do my best to keep Doctor Captain Ryland Grace alive, Rocky.” 

With that, Rocky relented. He was exhausted and suffering from poor motor control due to the apparent seizure the charge box had caused, and he realized Armando would be a better help to Ryland than he would. Rocky felt helpless. He watched the terrible ordeal of Grace being intubated and couldn’t help but cry, not leaking fluid but releasing soft wind-chiming esque sounds. As brutal as it was, being fed the mix of ammonia rich air he needed finally seemed to cause Grace’s vitals to improve. He was safely sedated to reduce his broken collarbone, and given full body scans from Rocky’s echolocation given the lack of x-ray to confirm his back hadn’t been broken. The fluid in his lungs required draining via a chest tube, and Ryland’s heart needed to be monitored intensely. The problem was that he had been poisoned, causing his blood to become much too acidic, so in theory treating the underlying cause should have fixed it. In Grace’s case he required an extreme dose of sodium bicarbonate to neutralize how acidic his blood was, then several rounds of IV fluids to push it out of his body. Armando had to place a catheter due to this treatment plan, which Rocky had been especially beside himself about. He had never seen Grace during the coma he had to go through to get to space, and seeing this now, he was glad. He wished so badly that Adrian was there with them on the Hail Mary just this once. He had managed to never have that thought this entire time he had spent in space, given just how traumatic it had all been Rocky had never gotten selfish enough to wish Adrian had been there for any of it, but now? Having to watch Grace in a coma for several days, powerless to do anything about it? He wanted both of his mates. He wanted Adrian here to comfort him while they waited for Grace to wake, because he would wake. He had promised Rocky he would.

Rocky spent all four days Ryland was in his coma on his human’s chest, finally. WIth no barrier whatsoever. It was something they had both wanted for so long and Grace wasn’t even conscious to experience it. Rocky was so distraught that his body entered a state of shut down. He didn’t think to move. Not to eat, not to work, not even to check on their breeder tanks. It helped his nervous system slowly recover from the massive dose of electricity he had gotten to lay prone, so Rocky was at least functioning well enough mentally again, but that was torture when it meant sitting alone without Grace to talk to. Rocky hung on every update from Armando like it was gospel. He would nuzzle himself under Grace’s chin whenever he was being given his tube feedings of mushed up Eridian hybrid food, and he would press against his chest to listen intently to his heart. Rocky wanted to see it beat under his skin, bones, and muscles after watching it stop. It was the only thing that was bringing Rocky any kind of comfort as he was alone again for days. Armando finally suggested after four days that they could take Grace off sedation and see if he could have the tube in his throat removed to breathe on his own. Rocky gleefully agreed, understanding the risk before them but also fully understanding how strong Grace was. How thrilled he would be to wake up and find Rocky sitting on his chest, no longer burning him, Grace’s bones now so crystalized that they wouldn’t cave from Rocky’s weight. He watched Armando deliver a round of reversal drugs to lighten Grace’s sedation, both of them observing as Grace’s eyes began to twitch, trying to blink. With this, Armando unceremoniously yanks the breathing tube out of his throat, and Grace coughs. Thankfully, after clearing a small amount of blood out of the back of his throat, the fluid coming up was clear. Armando had told Rocky this would be a good sign. Rocky chirped in delight, finally seeing his human’s beautiful eyes open again.

Grace let out a series of quiet chirping sounds back, entirely on instinct. His eyes had changed in his sleep, and his vision felt… different. No matter how many times he blinked he couldn’t see distinct shapes until the chirping sounds coming from Rocky finally registered to him. He began to do it back without even realizing and suddenly, the blobs of incoherent color around him began to come into shape. His senses started coming back to him one by one, as he now felt the heft sitting on top of his chest and the pain in his collar bone. When he managed to crane his neck up, which hurt so badly he trilled in pain, he saw him– Rocky, sitting directly on his chest, without any kind of suit on. Grace immediately knew what that meant.

“O-oh my god, I died. I died. N-No, No, I can’t– send me back, m-my Rocky on the Hail Mary needs me, I can’t die.” Grace mumbled, tears running down his face in confusion. 

Rocky let out a coo-like chime, nuzzling against Grace’s chest and running his claw over his face. “Shhh. Shhh. Grace no die. Grace ok, Grace alive. Same atmosphere now.”

Grace’s brain slowly started to come back to him. Rocky was right. He remembered it all now in flashes of blurry memories, the oxygen poisoning, his struggling to get around the ship, his burns, having to wake Rocky with that horrible shock machine. He must’ve been comatose for god knows how long, and his poor, poor mate-to-be had been alone, waiting for him. His mate-to-be had a seizure being forced to wake up and save him. As quickly as his memories returned, so did the guilt. This was all because he hadn’t rested and he had insisted on trying to fix this himself. He didn’t stop crying, in fact, it only seemed to get worse. 

“I-I’m so, hic, sorry, Rocky. I should have listened. I’m so sorry.” Grace was speaking more of these words in Eridian than he realized, genuinely starting to lose control of his vocal chords in his anguish. “I’m such a t-terrible mate. I’m so sorry. Are you alright? You— you were shaking so much—“

Rocky made a noise that made Ryland’s hair stand on end. He pushed steam from his vents and pressed his body down against Grace as hard as he could, listening for Grace to grunt and let out a warbling whine so he knew he finally got him under enough pressure to slow down the human’s racing mind. Compressed, Grace felt his heart rate slow again, and began to softly purr. Finally, after a long while of being completely squished under Rocky, the Eridian spoke.

“Not Grace fault. Grace become like Rocky, knew would happen. Should not have left Grace to sleep.” Rocky said firmly, huffing. “Grace die die die. Rocky fine. Grace body not. We assess brain damage. No more discussion, statement.” Rocky demanded, not leaving any option for Grace to refuse.

Grace couldn’t find it in him to argue with Rocky. He barely had the energy and he was starting to fall asleep again from the way Rocky was compressing him. When he finally let up a bit Grace allowed a quiet trilling sound to come out of him, his hand reaching out to run over the top of Rocky’s carapaced thorax for the very first time. He had touched the piece on his necklace so often that his finger tips had worn into it, but now he could feel all of Rocky’s warmth against his soft palms. He smiled so brightly it could’ve rivaled the light of the sun. He was finally touching his mate, really touching him. He could finally hug him, if his collar bone wasn’t broken. He sticks to petting over Rocky’s topside instead as the Eridian trills to him.

“I can’t b-believe m’tocuhin’ you. Really doing it. It was worth it to me to be able to do this, everything ‘cept hurting you.” Ryland cooed, his voice delirious still with how much medication was coursing through him. “I r-really died?” Grace asked, not being able to fully register the information.

“Yes. Worst possible outcome. Rocky nightmare. Bad bad bad. Never going to happen again. Rocky never let Grace get hurt ever again, statement.” Rocky insisted. “Not worth it. But happy we can touch now, too, statement.”

Grace hummed, not necessarily in agreement, but acknowledgement. He leans his head back and upward to look up at Armando, the robot now responsible for saving his life yet again. He kept his arm over Rocky as it began to administer several tests on Ryland, mostly cognitive evaluations to see if the lack of oxygen caused brain damage. At the moment, Ryland could tell it had made any memories of earth even harder to recover, but he didn’t really mind that at all. He also noticed his change in vision and said as much to Armando, who with Rocky’s help had evaluated it as an Eridian adaptation. He was developing echolocation. His speech had been affected, giving him a slight slur to his words when he was trying to speak English, but his Eridain calls had remained unaffected. He was definitely altered mentally, but all and all, the fact he was still as competent as he was after being starved for air and then having his heart stop was a miracle. When they were able to, they_ would test for if his motor control had been altered, but the initial testing looked promising. For once, Grace’s luck seemed to be on his side, but he knew that wasn’t all. Rocky had saved his life yet again.

The two of them spent that night glued to one another. It took several hours for Grace to be able to sit up slightly again in the med bay bed, which finally meant he could very slightly lift the arm with the broken collar bone and rest his hand on one of Rocky’s limbs. His other arm stayed resting on Rocky’s thorax, gently petting over every part of him he could reach, given that shoulder was still recovering from oxygen burns. He was so lost in being able to touch Rocky again that he was starting to think he was in Heaven, again. Rocky was completely enamored with Grace in the same way Grace was enamored with Rocky, and given that Grace had nearly died in front of him the Eridian wasn’t keen on letting him go. Rocky had all five of his limbs wrapped around Grace’s chest as Ryland held onto him, and they were chirping at each other over and over. They spoke about what had happened all night long, about how scared they had both been to lose the future they had planned together. If anything, this had only cemented things further for both of them. If Grace had survived all of this happening to his body, if he survived it and was back conscious, clinging to Rocky again, then they’d be fine. There was absolutely nothing that could come between the two of them now.

“I was so worried I was g-gonna to die before I got to meet Adrian, before we got to be mates officially.” Ryland mumbled, his head now resting on Rocky’s thorax. “Before we got to have our kids.”

Rocky’s core turned back and forth slightly, nuzzling Grace in the gentlest possible way. “Rocky worry too. So glad Grace safe. Grace meet Adrian soon, Adrian will think Grace amaze amaze amaze. Grace die and come back, Grace brave, Grace so strong.” Rocky seemed absolutely fascinated with Grace, even more than before. “Grace heart too weak for intimacy, but Rocky want something. Missed Grace.”

Ryland’s cheeks heated up. Rocky was absolutely correct that there was no way they could have any kind of sexual intimacy right now. He was incredibly fragile medically. He did however understand what Rocky meant, because he felt the exact same thing. He had been so sure he was going to die, so positive he would never see his mate again that it had truly rocked him to his core. He wanted to confirm his intimacy with Rocky again immediately. He suggested the only thing he could think of.

“W-we could… Uhm, we could make out.” Grace mumbled. “It’s gonna be a little gross for you, it’s uh, leaky.” He clarified.

Rocky moved closer, insistent. “Rocky no care. Rocky monitor Grace heart while we preform make out.”

Well, how sweet. Ryland couldn’t help but smile again as he instructed Rocky to lift himself a bit closer to have his “face”, the indented part of his rock thorax that Grace had come to associate as his front, where he wouldn’t have to tilt much to kiss it. Grace’s neck was incredibly sore given his spine was bruised deeply from the canister hitting his back, so Rocky more than accommodated this– he was practically right up against Ryland’s nose already. He couldn't stop the giggle that rose out of him as he leaned in, finally pressing a kiss to something that wasn’t xenonite for the first time in their courtship. Rocky’s skin was still very warm against his lips, like kissing a rock that had been in hot water, but to Grace it felt absolutely perfect. He began to purr in a soft melodic way, cupping the side of Rocky’s front half with his hand to get better coordination. He turned his head to the side and opened his mouth more, which made Rocky squeak in surprise. He didn’t stop Grace at all, only moving one arm around Grace’s head to keep him there instead. Grace cooed at the feeling of Rocky’s claw in his hair, slowly starting to press his tongue against the ridges on Rocky’s skin. He whimpered pathetically, beginning to pant and then feeling a twinge in his chest. Rocky immediately pulled him back. 

“Grace heart too fast. Make out good, but be gentle.” Rocky reminded. “Rocky control Grace now. Not ever letting Grace be hurt again.”

Grace’s heart did not slow down from that at all. His head got foggy and he sighed, relenting to Rocky’s assertion with no question. “Y-yes, Rock. Ok.”

Rocky hummed in amusement. He allowed Grace to go back to what he had been doing, pulling his head back every time his heart rate went up too high. Grace kept kissing Rocky even with nowhere for the drool to go, so it just continued to smear over Rocky’s “face” as he added to it, much too happy with the situation to find it gross. Eventually, with his mouth covered in his own drool, Grace began to fall asleep into the kiss. Rocky chimed in amusement, pulling the blankets up and gently pulling Grace back again.

“Rocky feel so close to Grace. Grace is such good mate.” Rocky praised him softly. “Make out is fun. Grace make lots of wet noises, leak so much, sounds like a special song.” Rocky commented.

Ryland yawned, desperately keeping his arm around Rocky. “Mmm… M’sorry I can’t do more.” Ryland whined, remembering the last time he left Rocky hanging.

“Nonsense, Grace. Sleep now. Rocky watch.” The Eridian insisted, noting the quiet snore that came from Grace before he even finished speaking. He trilled happily and softly added: “Rocky love Grace. So much.”

– 

The Hail Mary was initiating orbit around Erid, finally. They had been traveling at such extreme speeds that Rocky and Grace determined it would be safer to enter Erid’s orbit for a month, allowing those on planet to prepare for the Hail Mary’s re-entry into the Eridian atmosphere, and allowing for the Hail Mary to slow down while being pulled into the rotation of Erid. This involved quite a bit of theoretical math, literal rocket science, and several educated guesses. As they both knew full well, Erid’s atmosphere was incredibly dense and didn’t allow for light to seep through to the surface. This was not to mention the fact the chemical make up of the atmosphere on Erid was almost entirely ammonia. It was also incredibly dense, due to the gravity on Erid being almost thirty times as powerful as it was on Earth. Neither of these things were a problem for the now very Eridian-esque Grace, but his very human built spaceship was going to need some modifications. Rocky brought most of his workshop from Blip-A onto the Hail Mary anticipating this exact issue. They had transferred the Xenonite work bench and various tools into one of the dismantled bed pods on the Hail Mary, making it cramped, but workable for Rocky. He had been building panels of Xenonite to cover the outside of the Hail Mary inside of it for the past year, Ryland being the one to go out and affix them to the outside on various space walks. Now, Rocky was hard at work on the other piece of equipment they transferred into the Hail Mary— a transmitter radio that would be functional once they were close enough to Erid. Ryland tries his best to help, but a nagging feeling kept eating at him. He knew what it was, he just didn’t want to acknowledge it, a risk both of them realized one absolute truth in this process that neither of them wanted to say out loud.

If they didn’t do this correctly, with all the resources at their disposal including scientists on the ground on Erid, and something damaged the Hail Mary’s hull upon re-entry, all of that work getting home would be for nothing. Rocky might survive, if he made it to the re-enforced xenonite ball in time, but Grace would have almost no chance. 

Grace was the one who added the almost in that equation. His condition had progressed quite extremely ever since the cardiac arrest incident months ago. Most noticeably, Grace had a third arm starting to form. It was small, half the length of his actual arms at this point, but it had begun growing out of the space just below his arm with the broken collar bone as it had started to heal. Something about his heart stopping, at least in Ryland’s opinion, must’ve accelerated the pace of his adaptations. Sort of like restarting a computer to make it go faster. The arm was mostly nonfunctional at the moment, given it was forming more like an Eridian limb than a human arm, but lacked a claw hand. Still, it was becoming quite a part of his personality, as every time he spoke with his hands he found himself wildly gesturing his new claw as well. This meant he was officially a five limbed being just like Rocky, but within a few weeks of this arm growing in, another appeared at the same spot on his opposite side. It was smaller now than the claw that had been growing longer, but both of them curled up at his sides now like little praying mantis arms. Eridians apparently ranged in limb amounts, five being pretty common, but six being slightly more rare. This continued a trend for Ryland as it would also seem his coloring was very unusual, too. After combusting under the oxygen as Rocky once had, Grace’s rock-like skin was left changed. The red-rock, sandy appearance had burnt off and turned to ash, only leaving small splotches of it over parts of him that hadn’t been as badly burnt. Now, his skin was the color of what had been within the cracks of it before, gold. He truly looked like he had been encrusted in the earthen precious metal. The rock-like ridges all over him became smooth, polished, and there were parts of him that literally glittered now. Parts of him that had been burnt like his shoulder and up his jaw carried what that set his skin truly apart from the appearance of true yellow gold: the slight opalescence, causing green flashes in parts of him like his forearms and over his cheeks, which now had small dots of his rock-like skin growing there. Grace thought it resembled yellow kinds of Mexican fire opal back on earth. The rock-skin had started to encroach on his forehead too, making him look as though he had some kind of crest that went down the bridge of his nose. The most striking change was the round shaped growth between his eyebrows that carried a significant amount of opalescence. It looked like a little tiara, as Rocky insisted, with a bit of more colorful fire opal in the center. His eyes had changed quite a bit too, his pupils permanently blown now to accommodate for just how little light he’d be taking in on Erid. This meant they now kept the Hail Mary dim, which was helping divert energy to the transmitter radio. Adaptations weren't always good, as Grace had learned, but he had grown comfortable again. He felt like he had truly gotten through any life threatening parts of this whole transformation when his lungs finally shifted.

This was all to say that he felt much more durable. Still, with their plan to land the Hail Mary on a water-based launching pad to allow the impact to be absorbed and the space for 

Rocky was no less clingy, nor was he any less controlling either. He was now in charge of most aspects of Grace’s life, and honestly, Grace did not mind. He had little to no energy as he had been healing and growing two new limbs, so having someone build his schedule, feed him, and care for him felt like a huge weight off his shoulders. Even as he healed more, Rocky was in charge of everything, including things as small as waking Grace and deicing when he slept. This was especially true in cases of days where they had things to do, like today.

Today, Grace was going to meet Adrian.

The long distance radio was finally working. The Hail Mary had been able to send messages and receive them for months, but exclusively for purposes of planning their reentry to orbit, and with no audio. This meant that even though both of them finally got to speak to other Eridians, they were told speaking to Adrian would have to wait until they had audio transmitters and didn’t have such precious little time to write messages. This meant Rocky and Grace had been working near non-stop on the transmitter in both of their desperation to speak to them. Over their last few months getting to Erid, Rocky and Grace had talked a lot about Adrian. Grace nearly dying barely knowing anything about them made him want to know more, and Rocky was happy to speak about them more and more the closer they got to home. They’d spend hours discussing Adrian’s intelligence, how attractive they were in Eridian standards, and how kind they were. Adrian was a scientist on Erid with a specialization in environmental biology and engineering, studying the natural world and the creatures inside of it– Rocky’s pet theory was that meeting Grace would be like a dream come true for them. A whole new alien to study with a completely different environment to them! The tapes they had been recording documenting Grace’s progress would be absolutely riveting to Adrian! The more they spoke about the Eridian, the more and more excited Grace was becoming. It was dominating his anxiety, even. Rocky had almost entirely assured him that this was going to go well. Of course that didn’t stop the nagging feeling in his stomach, but at this point, it made it much easier to ignore it.

Rocky had woken Grace up in an absolute frenzy, tapping his chest incessantly and squealing. “Grace, Grace! Radio works– already speak to landing team, they notify Adrian!” Rocky’s trilling was non-stop, causing Ryland to wake immediately. 

Ryland grunted, trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He could feel the excitement from their bond coursing through him, but it didn’t take long for a big smile to appear on his face, too. “W-Why didn’t you wake me sooner– let me g-get dressed!” Ryland said, quickly sitting up as Rocky transferred from sitting on his lap to hooking himself onto Ryland’s back. 

As Ryland brushed his teeth, now sporting small retractable fangs that would tear into his food better, happily listening to Rocky ramble on. “Time on Erid late at night, Adrian will be notified by messenger, if they not asleep. They use radio at home to tune to frequency. Rocky and Adrian built radio just like Grace and Rocky– is something you do with mate.” 

Grace snorted as he spit out his toothpaste, rinsing before commenting in an amused tone. “Rocky, there’s no way building a radio transmitter is a mating ritual, you’d have way too many of them on your planet!”

Rocky chimed in laughter. “Is joke! But how Grace know? We ask Adrian. You let Rocky talk first, will introduce.”

Grace’s heart skipped a beat. He quickly rushed to put on the nicest clothes he could find, the modified flight suit pants and a white blouse from Ilyukhina’s clothes. It looked like a weird sort of white suit, just minus the blazer, so he put on his fox jumper on top too. It’s not like Adrian could see him, but he wanted Rocky and himself to be able to remember that he was dressed the best he could be in this moment.

“I can’t believe I’m finally gonna talk to them. I can’t believe you’re gonna talk to them– Adrian is your mate!” Grace cooed, petting Rocky as he rested on his shoulder. 

“Grace is Rocky mate, too. But Rocky very excited, Rocky missed Adrian so much. So happy you two will speak, so so happy happy happy. Nothing make Rocky more happy than thinking about mates getting along.” Rocky sung back to Grace, squeezing him in a super tight hug.

Ryland trilled in response, so overwhelmed with cuteness aggression that he felt like biting the arm of Rocky’s closest to him. “I love you so much, Rocky. I cannot believe this is really happening.”

Rocky made another series of melodies, excitedly vibrating and emitting steam. “Rocky love Grace too. Is happening! Go to Radio, check for message!!!”

Grace laughed again, shaking his head fondly as he finally took off towards the part of the lab where they built their radio transmitter. “Very bossy, sweetheart!”

Grace hadn’t taken being able to run like this for granted ever since he had died. Taking more than an hour there and back to get across a ship that now took less than twenty minutes to take a whole lap around was unbelievable to him now, and had it not been one of the worst things that ever happened to him, he wouldn’t believe it was real. His mobility had taken a bit of a hit, he was noticeably less coordinated which was really saying something, but with their work rehabbing he was able to run the short distance this time. He was honestly shocked at how happy and pain free he was feeling today, really not realizing till now how happy he had been feeling almost every day since the incident, even while recovering. Grace was always the type to be able to get sad even in the best of situations, but now, he was starting to realize the “best of situations” on earth felt nothing like this. He considered that it might be the case that he had just never fully felt happy before. He couldn’t stop the anxious, butterfly feeling in his stomach as he realized he truly was near moments away from starting the rest of his life. He hoped so, so badly that this went well.

Rocky crawled off of Grace’s back as soon as they got to the transmitter, excitedly commenting on Grace’s physical progress as he did. “Grace healthy. Happy happy happy. Run faster now test!”

Grace considered this— his legs felt much stronger with his Eridian Skin strengthening them. That wasn’t important now, though! “Rocky enough about my body, Adrian could be calling!”

Rocky squealed, quickly joining Grace at the control panel of the Eridian transmitter. Grace put his headset on that would help to translate his English into the voice modulation system they used for Rocky, that way Adrian would be able to understand him. Ryland had learned a lot of Eridian by now. His vocal chords were burnt in the Oxygen Poisoning event, and it caused them to heal differently, meaning he actually felt more comfortable with it than English now. He could now speak it quite well, given his biology was now leaning towards song language rather than spoken language, but they wanted to make absolutely sure nothing got lost in translation here. They’d save Grace’s real Eridian voice for later, because they knew Adrian would eventually demand to hear it once they knew he could speak their language. Rocky imputed a series of commands into the various chord-like controls, all of which were coming through on a screen so that Grace could understand as well. He was checking the frequency for anyone else, repeatedly sending out signals that they were ready to be contacted. It took several minutes. As Rocky had said it was late on Erid, and there might be a chance messengers were tied up or that Adrian was sleeping. The idea of having to delay this any further made Grace’s brain feel like it would implode like that of an impatient child. Now that he was told he would meet Adrian he needed to, today, or he would go crazy.

Soon enough, the most beautiful voice Grace had ever heard filled his ears.

Rocky had told him a thousand times that Adrian’s song was one of the most beautiful on Erid. He had expected to hear something amazing, but this voice made his whole body relax without thought. His neck even lulled back before he realized what he was doing, his eyelids becoming heavy. He recognized it without needing a computer voice layered over it, keeping his hand off the automatic translation button so he could hear this fully. Adrien, saying Rocky’s name over and over in Eridian, was so incredibly happy and relieved. He watched in awe as Rocky’s whole body vibrated in excitement, clambering all over the room and loudly calling back to confirm it was him, that he would be home soon. That Adrian and him wouldn’t have to be separated for much longer at all, and that now they could even speak while they waited. Adrian was making such overwhelmed sounding chimes, expressing complex feelings of grief, joy, relief, all at once in a layered way that Grace only just started to be able to understand. He felt like the computer translation would simply ruin this moment, tears welling up in his eyes from the joy of it. All this work they had done, even if they burnt up upon reentry and the stress did end up killing Grace, would be worth it for this. Getting to see the love of his life reunite with the love of his life made Grace almost feel like he was intruding, until realizing just how quickly this conversation was starting to involve him. He heard his name several times in Eridian, but with the complexity of the conversation he couldn’t tell what was going on. He put his hand back on his translation button, even if he wanted to keep listening to their beautiful calls without modulation.

“—so beautiful, Adrian, you will be so happy. Grace saved my life, would be dead on ship without him. Grace is now mate-to-be for Rocky. Rocky want Grace to be mate-to-be for Adrian too.”

Adrian chimed in interest, extreme interest from what Grace could hear. “Rocky find incubator?”

Grace was starting to wonder if all Eridians started conversations about courtship off by bringing up children right away or if this was exclusive to the pair he had found himself between. The culture shock was one of the only things he was still getting used to about joining Eridian culture, considering he really did think Rocky had only done it because they were already so close. Apparently, this was something Adrian had been wanting too.

“Yes! We take Grace as incubator once you know him more. You will like. He has allowed body to change so much to be more like us, you will not believe. He will make such good caretaker for eggs. Has already told me how excited he is for it. He is here, dressed up to meet you, Adrian.” Rocky coos, so fond it’s insane.

Adrian sings again, this time joy mixed with extreme curiosity. Rocky had explained with the way their neurological connection worked, Adrian had been feeling these things and getting vague senses from Rocky the entire time he had been in space. With no real way of communicating they’ve had no way of putting a name to the way Rocky feels when he’s with Grace, which is probably why they sounded so happy and so curious. This person their mate had been projecting their love for from light years away was finally here, and Adrian had just been told that he was willing to be their incubator. Grace felt nervous at how embarrassed he was, but with Adrian’s song starting again, his body immediately relaxed like it had to begin with. Grace felt overwhelming familiarity, like he was finally coming home in a real way now that he had Rocky and Adrian. In a way he never felt on his home planet. Rocky noticed how relaxed and heavy-lidded Ryland had become now that he wasn’t so distracted, moving closer to Grace immediately. 

“Grace has proper response to your voice, Adrian… he goes limp. He has squishy things called eyes, they almost close when he hears you…” Rocky was purring, so incredibly pleased to finally introduce them. “Adrian, meet Doctor Captain Ryland Grace of the Hail Mary, savior of earth, savior of Erid, savior of stars!” Rocky turned to Grace as well. “Grace, meet The Noble Chief Environmental Doctor Adrian of Erid.”

Grace took a sharp breath and trilled nervously, trying to cover his mouth to stop the sound before it was the first thing Adrian heard from him. He had been told the direct translation of Adrian’s song name by now, but hearing it said to introduce them combined with the song name Rocky had workshopped for him was making him completely unable to compose himself. He felt so Eridian now. Instead of the shorter version of his name Rocky initially gave him, now his name was long the way Adrian was, carrying every important title Grace had earned throughout his life and his actual translated name in Eridian. Ryland on earth had meant quite literally land where the rye grows, and may have been some sort of biblical reference from his parents, but in Eridian Rocky translated it to Earth goer. Grace on earth had meant chivalrous, to do things well and carefully. There was already a word for this in Eridian that meant the same thing, which was added after the new songs to imply his being from off planet. He was thinking so hard he hadn’t even realized he was still making all those noises he had embarrassed himself with. Instead of being upset with him for his dazed pause or disgusted with his involuntary calls like Grace pictured immediately, Rocky and Adrian immediately began a series of fond chimes that absolutely scrambled Grace’s ability to tense up at all. They were cooing over him, finding his anxiety adorable. He cleared his throat after he was finally able to suppress the anxious chiming from his throat to speak.

“H-hello, Adrian. P-please just call me Grace. I’m so happy to be meeting you, Rocky has told me so much about you.” Grace heard himself— he sounded like some excited child right now but he just couldn’t help it. “You sound beautiful. Just like Rocky said you would.”

The connection is immediate. Grace can feel it in his body, in his heart, in his brain. Adrian already feels so strongly that he can sense it from the planet all the way up to their ship. Ryland Grace has for once made a good first impression.

“Hello, Grace. Happy to speak to you. You save my mate, bring him home. You must be so smart, so brave.” Adrian says, their very first thoughts of Grace.

Grace felt like his heart could explode right then and there. In fact it hurt a bit, and he couldn’t stop himself from clutching his chest a bit with his free hand. At this, Rocky trilled in concern, setting the microphone they were using to auto record the two of them before climbing into Grace’s lap where he was sitting, applying pressure to him to help him calm down. Ever since his cardiac arrest too much sudden excitement has caused slight bouts of chest pain, chest pain it would seem Adrian could sense.

“Grace ok, question?” Adrian asks, their voice lilted with anxiety. 

“Grace died months ago, like crew on ship, but come back. Now heart more fragile.” Rocky explains. “Humans only have one heart.”

Adrian gasps in apparent shock at this information. “Grace need us, then. Rocky right, Grace make good incubator.” 

Grace’s head was spinning. His chest pain subsided almost as quickly as it came, but it had been replaced with this lightheadedness from just how insane he felt about being spoken about like this. He would’ve rejected it out of turn on earth, the implication that he was weak inherently had always heavily triggered his dysphoria on earth due to the connotations he had grown up with in his household. This, however, was entirely different. They weren’t referring to him this way at all because of anything to do with Ryland’s gender, Eridians quite literally didn’t seem to have them, they were talking about him like this because to them it was true. He was an Eridian hybrid, part human, and because of that his body was less hardy than theirs. He’d still make a good incubator because regardless of how weak he is compared to them, he’s about ten times more resistant to anything a human would be— he simply can’t do harder jobs than Eridians without his soft underbelly and abundance of hearts could. This idea was fascinating to Grace, as fascinating as it was going right into the core of his belly and making him feel warm. Stop being a pervert about them calling you weak and say something, freak! 

Ryland clears his throat after his daze, trying to brush it off. “W-well, I mean, I’m not that fragile, Rock… I’ll still want to teach, if possible. I just don’t think I could become a builder or mine for xenonite or anything like that.” Grace was almost worried about saying that— Eridians enjoyed strength, didn’t they? Had he just ruined his chances leaning into his weakness?

Rocky tapped his thigh, seemingly understanding what his mate was thinking immediately. “Grace is getting dumb. Does Adrian confuse Grace, question? Adrian, human face is so cute, when they are meeting people they like they get so hot.”

Adrian hummed in excitement. “So interesting. Want know more. Grace, can you keep talking? Voice is pretty. Can hear accent.” 

Grace’s face only heated up more at that. “R-Really?” He squeaked out, desperately trying to suppress the stutter and slight cotton-mouthed lilt to his words he had gained post brain injury. “My vocal chords were slowly getting used to speaking Eridian, b-but since the accident, my English hasn’t been the best. I-I feel more comfortable singing actually. We just didn’t want anything to be mistranslated.”

Adrian trilled in intrigue, immediately saying something too quickly for the translator to process it. Rocky vibrated in excitement and chirped in response back to them. Grace really was caught in the middle of them right now, even with Adrian thousands of miles away on the surface of Erid.

“Yes, is so beautiful. Amaze amaze amaze. Will let you hear more soon.” Rocky cooed, moving his claw against Grace’s hand to hold it gently. “Grace amaze. So happy Adrian like too.”

Grace seemed a little shocked— Rocky seemed so sure Adrian would like him that he didn’t even know Rocky was worried. “I thought you said this would be alright?” Ryland asked, nervousness in his voice.

Rocky purred to calm him down immediately. “Rocky was sure. But Adrian and Rocky been apart so long— was worried Adrian would think Rocky dead. That Adrian… move on.”

At this, Ryland and Adrian both made noises of complete and total shock. Adrian squealed especially loud, speaking so quickly Grace could barely understand them, but he knew he shared the sentiment. Each of them spoke over each other in their desperation to understand why Rocky, the most perfect Eridian to ever exist, would think Adrian would’ve moved on. 

“Never!” Adrian cries, so distraught at the idea. “Adrian wait for years! So many of them! Never move on. Ever.” Adrian assured.

Ryland found themselves talking over them in confusion. “Rocky why would they have ever done that? You two are mates, you were mates first! No one could replace you!” 

Now it seemed to be Rocky’s turn to warble in embarrassment. Ryland could only continue to speak. “Adrian, he’s told me so much about you both— I know you would’ve never moved on. Rocky’s yours, right?” Like he was just as desperate to get assurance for his best friend as Rocky was.

Adrian trilled in agreement, but still corrected him. “Rocky ours. Grace now here, too.” Adrian cooed. 

Rocky seemed to perk up at that, almost like the pride of being called theirs was just too much for him. He squealed in embarrassment nevertheless. “Too much! Rocky understand! Too nice! Make Rocky vibrate!” He insisted as steam blew from his vents.

Adrian began to laugh, sending chills down Grace’s back. If Adrian’s voice was this attractive he worried for what would happen to him on Erid. He had never felt this instant of a pull, ever. Even his feelings for Rocky, while they had developed earlier than he thought, came on slower than this. His being somewhat significantly asexual and aromantic back on earth had meant he had virtually never experienced these feelings before, and even now they were almost entirely foreign to him. He had gotten used to his attraction and love for Rocky, but he had assumed Adrian would be a hurdle. That it would take years to establish anything close to a real bond with them because of his historically cagey behavior in every relationship before this. However, though it wasn’t clear if it was the Neurolink or just his own body, he felt deeply drawn to Adrian right away. He could feel Rocky’s feelings for them coursing through his chest and mingling with his own, but he felt entirely confident that most of the affection he felt right now was his own. Adrian’s voice was so instantly calming that Grace already felt addicted to it, not to mention how happy they made Rocky. It made his chest ache in a nice way, watching Rocky’s mannerisms become so enthusiastic and sweet while Adrian and him spoke. It made him so happy to hear that Adrian was accepting him so quickly too, something he also had never felt before.He was usually much too off putting for people to instantly grow a liking to him— even his “best friend” on Earth, Carl, had been somewhat perturbed by him at first. This was all just so new, things he had only ever experienced with Rocky prior. All of it served to show Grace this must be what he likes. Cosmic, neurological bonds formed with Aliens that are more like him than he ever was like a human. Before he realized he was even doing it, tears were falling from his face.

“Grace leak!” Rocky screamed in sadness, making Grace’s chest ache in a bad way. “Why why why? No like, question? Grace ok, question?” 

Adrian trilled in anxiety along with him, as Grace considered their neurolink must be so strong after hundreds of years together, and began to cry more. “Rocky, gentle, slow.” Adrian cooed. 

Adrian was the calmer of the two. Oh that just made Grace sob like an idiot. He shook his head desperately and tried to gain his composure back but all of this was so emotional. Eridians didn’t cry outside of situations of extreme distress, and now that they had reunited and were going to be able to talk often, Adrian and Rocky obviously didn’t feel like sobbing about how much they missed each other for long. It seemed they wanted desperately to pick up right where they left off. The fact their bond had remained so unchanged that Rocky bringing Grace into the mix wasn’t questioned at all, in fact welcomed, was enough to bring on the water works. Now he was getting to really see Rocky’s mannerisms with Adrian and see how close they were, he was getting to observe how instantly Rocky relaxed and softened his voice at Adrian’s instructions. Finally he managed to collect himself enough to speak after getting over the initial sobs at just how adorable this was.

“Grace just so happy.” Grace chimed, completely in Eridian now. He and Rocky had been practicing so hard and he desperately wanted to try it, feeling like his English being translated to Adrian wasn’t enough for this. Not to mention just how hard it was becoming to force English words out of his throat. “Grace thought this would be… h-harder.” His warbling tone became sharp, and he winced waiting for them to scold him at mistranslating a melody.

Instead, Rocky was now moved entirely up into Grace’s face as he sat in his office chair. Rocky wrapped all of his limbs around Grace’s chest as Grace wrapped both arms around him, holding him like one might hold an extremely large cat up to their face to kiss. Adrian was making all sorts of expressive sounds, too, and Grace could even hear their claws stomp impatiently when he stopped speaking.

“Adrian understand. Grace speak so well. Simple, but well.” Adrian praises, clearly so impressed with Grace’s progress. “Why Grace think this would be hard, question?”

Rocky seemed to squeak as if ringing a buzzer for a Grace-Quiz. “Human bonds odd. Mates very jealous.” He huffed in annoyance. “Grace worry Adrian think Rocky cheat.”

Adrian was obviously confused, saying exactly what Rocky had said when Grace tried to explain this to him. “But… mating not game. How cheat, question? We wanted incubator. Neither of us can do, statement.” Adrian seemed so matter of fact.

Grace was starting to feel his cheeks heat up again. He had to get used to them calling him that— to feeling how excited both of them got when they mentioned it. “Not just that. I mean, yes, little of that. Put human culture aside for now, statement.” Grace clarifies in his broken Eridian, barely layering any of this at all and instead speaking slowly like an idiot. “But… Grace have trouble bonding. Grace thought would take long time. B-but, Grace feel strong for Adrian now, statement.”

Both of them sang. The Eridians seemed entirely focused on him now and weren’t hiding their praise at all. A symphony of Good Grace’s, So Smart’s, and So Amaze’s were filtered into the translator to his ears that made his head grow dizzy. Rocky only squeezed him tighter, nuzzling under Grace’s chin in pure glee. Their noises were blending together and making Grace so dizzy he wasn’t thinking straight, and he certainly couldn’t have been recognizing his bodily sensations correctly. The heat in his stomach was becoming so intense that he believed he had to be imagining it. There was absolutely no way he was this turned on when the situation involved Adrian, who he had only known for a conversation at this point. It was too lewd, too fast. He and Rocky took years to even bring this up! 

Adrian cooed to Grace in a way that didn’t help at all. “Mating bond, Grace, cause deeper connection than time. Adrian already know everything Rocky learn about you.” Adrian admitted. “But… this different.”

Rocky hummed in agreement, his tone proud. “Rocky realize now, too. This different. Grace is our  ♫♬♪♫♬♬.” 

Grace looked desperate. He hadn’t realized he and Rocky were dating for more than a year last time he heard a word he didn’t recognize be used to refer to him like that. “Please tell me what mean. Please.” Grace squeals in Eridian in a rather embarrassing, shrill way.

“Mate fated. Not everyone have. Rare. Mate that connects fast because your dust is same.” Adrian explains. 

Ryland is hopeful for what they mean, but he doesn’t let himself jump to the conclusion without their say. “Wh— Dust?”

Rocky looks impatient. “Stardust. Everyone have, we made of it, all things. Adrian, Rocky, Grace, we all have same dust.” 

Good lord. They were calling Grace their soulmate. Saying he was made up of the same fragmented stardust as them. That this quick bond was rare, that it was special to them in a way other Eridians and certainly not humans would be able to replicate. Grace tried his hardest not to cry all over again.

“Soulmate. That is human word.” Grace spoke the word in English in order for the translation system to hear it, only to return to Eridian so they could hear his warbling, emotional voice. “To us, means you were bonded by souls, before you ever became person.” Grace holds Rocky’s little fingers tightly in his hand as he speaks.

“Exactly.” Adrian agrees. “Grace is soulmate. Grace bond quickly because Grace body already knows us. Same dust.” 

Rocky purrs in delight, agreeing softly by repeating Adrian. “Same dust.”

Grace tried his best to hide just how insane he was being driven by this praise, this affection, the assertion that these two aliens whose relationship he had been intruding on actually welcomed him. They seemed to have been waiting to find someone like him their whole partnership. For some reason Grace had the very distinct feeling he had been waiting for this his entire life, not just the years heading back to Erid. His curiosity was killing him, and he wanted them to speak more. Maybe he could remember why he felt that way.

Grace couldn’t help but ask questions. “W-why… why are you so ok with this, question?” Grace trills. “You ask Rocky if Rocky find incubator… you were searching?”

Adrian seems to hum in agreement. Rocky stays largely silent— seemingly a sore subject. “Rocky and Adrian want clutch, badly. Since before mission. But we would not do without soulmate. Knew there must be someone missing. Could not feel them on planet, statement.”

Grace watched Rocky adjust his grip on him, pushing ever closer and insisting on more contact with his trills. “You… y-you both know your soulmate was very far, question?”

“More accurate. Knew mate was alien, statement. Eridian not stupid. We not think we alone. When we build ship, Rocky volunteer. Think maybe he find you.”  Adrian explained.

Grace suddenly felt like dirt. Less than dirt actually, feces. He knew it was crass, but he couldn’t think of anything worse than this.

“Grace and Rocky both volunteer. Grace must know too, right, when Grace volunteer for Hail Mary?” Rocky asked, his tone clearly indicating how emotional this made him. 

It could get worse, then. Grace had no idea that Rocky had truly assumed he had voluntarily gone on the mission. He had never corrected Rocky or told him the truth, though, so this was his fault. Now Rocky thinking he was so brave made more sense. He used to feel such relief when he remembered Rocky had no idea how he got up here, and hadn’t been witness to any of it— now he felt dread. Not only did Rocky think Grace was as heroic as he was, but he had told Adrian. Now they both assumed he was some kind of hero. He decided to table that conversation. He’d tell them before they officially mated, of course, but now? When they were discussing soulmatism and he felt a stronger connection than he ever had before? He selfishly wanted to get through this moment without ruining it. He focused on the soulmate question.

“Rocky.” Grace choked out, unable to properly respond. “That… that is hard to t-talk about… Grace never thought would see anyone again…” he roughly translated in Eridian, hearing them cry softly in sympathy for him. “Humans don’t know soulmates that well. But…” Ryland trails off, he suddenly feels as if he’s speaking inaccurately.

Grace blinks. That’s not true. Not for me. 

His head feels foggy in a way it hasn’t felt for years. He had gotten brief flashes of earth memories since he had been with Rocky, sure, but the Eridian was always able to pull him out of it. He would’ve figured that would be even more of the case now with Adrian, who was making him so incredibly flustered. But this talk of soulmates, combined with this guilt. It served to dig at him enough to force him back onto the Farm he grew up on, and the view of the stars from the middle of the pasture. 

~~ 

Grace found himself looking up at the night sky, tracking different constellations with a book in his hands that felt much too large instead of his mate. He realizes he’s holding a large astrology textbook, one of the many textbooks his science teachers had given him at his tiny public middle school in the Midwest to keep up with his appetite for learning. He loved all things STEM, but microbiology and space fascinated him the most. Growing up the way he had to, pretending to be a girl to everyone he knew in this tiny religious town, this was the only place he could be himself. He would tuck his shaggy blonde hair into a beanie, and he would crane his neck towards his favorite view. 

His star. His sweetheart. His Tau Ceti. 

“Hello, sweetheart.” Grace would say in a sing-songy voice. “I had a bad day at school. But what else is new? How are you?” 

This was his favorite game in the entire world. It had been since he had developed the fixation on the star years ago, even more now that he knew exactly where to look in the night sky to affix his eyes on it. Talking to Tau Ceti, his sweetheart, was his only real outlet. Tau Ceti called him Ryland Grace, the name he picked himself. Tau Ceti didn’t care who he was. Tau Ceti loved him for his intelligence, for his kindness. He loved Tau Ceti for their steadfastness, their consistency— they were always there for Grace, after all. Their only real friend.

“One day, I hope we get to meet, sweetheart. Not actually— it would be so scary to go all the way out there to you as a human… but maybe once I go to heaven.”

Grace felt so sad. Tau Ceti continued to have a strong pull on him, his entire life. He followed it into science, thinking it must be a drive or a passion for the subject. He did love to learn, to teach, but it never felt like he was getting to the root of this connection with his sweetheart in the night sky. 

~~

At least, not until he realized he was looking at his Sweetheart. Rocky had been waiting for him on Blip-A by Tau Ceti before he had even been born. Somehow, despite having no Eridian DNA prior to their meat synthesis accident, Grace had the sense of their bond. Grace felt the pull towards space, too. All those times he looked towards the sky and felt a dull ache made so much sense now. He corrected himself immediately.

“No. Grace did feel.” He clarifies, so overjoyed to have remembered. “On family farm, would look to Tau Ceti as human pebble. Talked to it like friend.” 

Rocky let out a series of excited, loud, overwhelming sounds. Adrian wasn’t helping either, excitedly joining him in some sort of joint song. Grace didn’t even know what it was, but he began to do the same almost as quickly as it began. He felt the resonance within their brains get stronger. He could feel Adrian even more, understanding now how they were thinking of him. How overwhelmingly excited they were to find out they were truly soulmates. Rocky is pumping out the same thought, both of them quickly beginning to assimilate him into some sort of— 

Oh my god. Ryland Grace was part of a thrum. He was involuntarily joining them, merging the three of their streams of consciousness into one. Ryland opened his mouth to chime and ask how, why, what is going on, but he didn’t seem to need to. He simply changed the pitch in his warbling, melodic tones he was putting out and his mates immediately understood.

“Adrian wants to establish physical bond.” Rocky’s voice was somewhere on his chest, trilling against him. “This ok? Too soon?”

Grace was so far gone he could barely form a coherent thought. He had already been getting these jolts of electricity and warmth to his belly, feeling the two of them speak to him this way was just too much. Even if in the past he had never had any feeling like this some on so quickly, he understood completely why now. He already knew Adrian, just as Adrian already knew him. Their courtship would be a formality, thanks to Eridian mating bonds.  Adrian already had access to every memory of Grace Rocky has and vice versa for Grace with Adrian. He can even vaguely imagine Adrian’s crystalline, white skin, dotted with teals and blues and deep greens that looked like auroras. He could imagine how much bigger they were than Rocky. All of it was going right to the pit in his stomach and making all the emotional distress he had been feeling leave his brain entirely. He wanted to submit, the way an incubator would. 

“M-more than ok. Can’t believe.” Grace comments, shocked at just how willing he was to do this. “Grace want a physical bond with Adrian. Want to help Rocky this time, too.” Grace insists.

Adrian coos softly, seemingly understanding right away. “Now that both of you will be here soon, we begin soon as possible. Rocky, should deposit infertle eggs inside of Grace, start preparing body for clutch. Adrian can tell Grace small, weak. Will need much help.”

Oh, goodness gracious. Pun intended.

Grace moved out of the office chair at the command of Rocky and Adrian, his soulmates, laying on the floor in front of the radio transmitter with his clothes and headset off. He didn’t need either anymore. He may not have had a perfect understanding of Eridian, especially not the layers of their sentences, but in a thrum he found it didn’t matter. He understood what Adrian and Rocky were saying to him intrinsically. What they were saying to him right now was that the two of them would be preparing his body for eggs, and he should spread his legs to prepare for it. He was compelled to do just that, the thought of denying it felt impossible. Not that he wanted to anyway. He excitedly spread his legs, though Rocky's claws came to rest at his thighs almost immediately as the Eridian moved between them to slow his motion. 

“Grace still fragile. Rocky do for Grace.” He insisted, his claws already pushing Grace’s thighs apart hard enough to bruise. 

Adrian trilled over the radio, clearly feeling the sensations Rocky and Grace were feeling. Grace could just imagine the mercury leaking out of the bottom of Adrian, how obvious it would be on their lighter crystalline skin compared to the more stone like appearance of Rocky’s. He couldn’t help starting to let out small huffs of steam himself, overwhelmed with just how good he was starting to feel. This was far better than his and Rocky’s first and only time. No barrier between them meant that even with Grace’s incredibly high body temperature due to his transformation, Rocky’s body heat was enough to make him sweat. His weight was enough to manhandle and crush Grace like he’s a toy. Grace catches himself considering if Adrian is bigger and even stronger, could they break his bones having intercourse with him? It was frightening how hot that was.

“Adrian could.” Rocky comments, starting to push his primary claw into Grace’s folds. No warning, no asking— Rocky didn’t have to. “Break Grace bones. Won’t, though. Grace carry clutch, need strong bone.” 

Adrian hummed in amusement. “Grace like rough just like us, statement. Rocky picked so well. His noises are so pretty. What genitalia like, question?”

Rocky trilled like nothing could’ve excited him more. “Oh, it beautiful, Adrian. So warm, so squishy— so wet. Human very leaky, it very gross, but this perfect. Grace wet mean Grace can fit lots inside.” 

Grace immediately let out an involuntary moan. Rocky’s two claws were inside him already now, he couldn’t even remember the second going in, but the Eridian was almost fisting him. He whimpered in desperation and tried to kick away because it simply felt too good, and was too fast. He let out a moan when Rocky’s other limbs came down to trap him below, not letting him move. 

“R-Rocky, m’not, not gonna last long.” Grace warned, panting softly. He was already pooling thick, sticky fluid between his thighs where Rocky’s first was starting to push into him. His back arched off the floor as he cried out. “R-Rocky, Rocky! A-Adrian help, nhhhh, m-make him be g-gentle!” 

Adrian did no such thing. Their melodic purrs only became more encouraging towards Rocky. “Make Grace make more noise. So pretty. We fill Grace with egg to stretch him, get him used to this. Clearly much too sensitive now.” Adrian hums. “Not going to tell Rocky stop. Rocky do so well, yes, question?”

Rocky and Grace let out a duet of trills together for the next several moments. Rocky kept drilling his fist into Ryland, who was essentially a virgin at this point after not having anything other than his own fingers inside of him since his and Rocky’s first time. Before that Ryland had been celibate for years. It was like Rocky was punching out space for a nest, but the more Ryland used his brain, the more he began to understand what Rocky must be doing. Internal ultrasound via echolocation. Grace would’ve been ok with that had Rocky not persistently gone deeper— to the point Grace’s folds were starting to run over the ridges of tattoos and scarification. It felt like he was beating up Grace’s cervix, trying to get it to open to deposit eggs. Grace knew it should’ve been painful to feel this had he been human, and the intrusion certainly felt insane, but something about his new biology was taking this well. He felt like whatever Rocky was doing was working, evidenced by the amount of excessive fluid pooling between his legs and the sudden give he felt as Rocky punched against his cervix for the final time.

“Grace anatomy different inside. Not human. Have squishy cervix, got past easy.” Rocky noted outloud, like he and Adrian were studying him. “Human womb healthy, skin stronger now. Will hold eggs.” 

Grace felt like he was at the gynecologist. “Wh— m-my cervix? Easy???” He blurts out in a brief moment of curious clarity, then frustration. That was totally not easy!

“Shh. Grace no think. Thinking not for incubators being prepped.” Adrian demanded. 

This was different from the type of commands Rocky gave Grace. Ryland always loved to follow directions from Rocky, borderline felt compelled, but with Adrian? God, he couldn’t deny it even if he wanted to. Thoughts wiped out of his brain immediately. He wasn’t thinking of anything except the extreme intrusion between his legs and his mates, which is what finally brought his hand down to his midsection. Rocky’s arm was so large, still inside of him as Adrian and him trilled softly about something he couldn’t understand, but Ryland could now feel the bulge under his hand. The massive rock like appendage inside of his changed reproductive organs, spreading his cervix out to receive infertile training eggs. 

If Stratt had told Ryland Grace on earth about this incentive to his mission before he was offered it, he might’ve actually gone willingly.

Before Ryland could savor rubbing his hand over the intrusion in his midsection Rocky was pulling out. Ryland didn’t realize how loud he was whining until both Adrian and Rocky were trilling at him to relax, to be careful of his heart. Grace feels tears pricking his eyes as they ask him what’s wrong, and he desperately answers them by pushing his hips up, letting out Eridian mating calls. Calls that drove both Rocky and Adrian into a frenzy. 

“Need more inside, empty, need inside!” Grace sobs. Like he’s going to die if they don’t do what he’s asked for him right away.

Adrian shrilly cries towards Rocky, immediately instructing him to hurry. That their mate is in distress. “Grace sound so sad. Incubators need eggs, Rocky, waiting for Adrian could make Grace mate sick… Rocky must hurry.” 

Rocky chimed in distress himself. “Poor Grace. Rocky so sorry. Rocky make it up to Grace, statement.” Rocky insists, turning the thorax of his body toward the space between Grace’s legs. 

Finally, Grace got a look at what he had desperately wanted to see for years. Rocky’s ovipositor. The appendage was metallic and lighter in color than the rest of Rocky’s body, made of a squishier skin just like Grace’s new crème colored squishy insides that had replaced his pink ones. It was leaking what Grace could only assume was the mercury based secretions Rocky had expressed before, only now Grace considered in pure excitement, it would be going inside him. He squirmed, allowing himself to act as embarrassing as possible. He loudly squealed and trilled before finally making a distress call of his own, a sharp and pitchy melody that made both of the Eridians start emitting noises to calm him. Rocky lined up with Grace’s hole immediately to solve his Mate’s desperation.

“Grace is made for this, statement.” Rocky says in pure awe, moving to trap Grace under him even further as his orifice and ovipositor aligned with Grace’s vaginal opening. “Want it so badly. Adrian, Grace so pretty, statement. So leaky.”

Adrian cooed in excitement. “When was last time Rocky lay egg, question? Feel good for Rocky, too, question?”

Rocky trilled, agreeing with his mate wholeheartedly before shoving himself into Grace. Even with Rocky’s rock arm having prepared him for this, his vagina had to have become far more elastic to be stretching like this. Rocky’s ovipositor was long enough to reach past his cervix, and thick enough at the base to lock itself inside of Grace with small nubs of cartilage that oddly, clicked into place with some off part of his new anatomy. With Rocky fully mounting him like this Grace literally couldn’t help himself— he was starting to cry again. It felt too good. His set of smaller hands moved to his stomach immediately to feel for the small lump where his womb was, Rocky’s ovipositor inside of him. He could feel the incredible heat of the Mercury inside of him. He began to emit steam from his back and more sticky fluid from his hole, trilling incoherently as his brain turned to complete mush.

“It been years since Rocky lay egg. Avoid avoid, too stressful… now, have perfect incubator, never miss laying again. Grace take all eggs.” Rocky says with such relief, his own voice wobbling like he was barely holding composure.

Adrian cooed in agreement. “Adrian wish Adrian were there. Rocky put Eggs in Grace, get home soon, Adrian do same. We fertilize when we mate.” Adrian explained, clearly starting to sound breathy as well.

“Adrian touching themselves, question?” Grace asked in broken Eridian before his filter could stop him. “G-Grace want Adrian to touch themself.”

Grace was pretty sure he heard both of them do what an Eridian version of an awww would be at his request. He didn’t actually get embarrassed— he felt in fact like he should lean into this. 

“Is that what Grace really want? Adrian to expell genetic material with you?” Adrian asks, sounding so gentle, nurturing. Rocky even seems to purr at this.

Grace nods pathetically. “S-so close. Grace both of Grace mates to cum with Grace f-for our first time.” He sobs. 

Rocky squeals. He begins to move his ovipositor frantically inside of Grace— it’s prehensile, good to know— earning more cries again. Rocky seems so happy that he starts speaking more gently than usual.

“Rocky so happy. Grace perfect. Rocky found perfect soulmate, perfect incubator. So loud. So sweet. Rocky in love, statement.” Rocky cooed, so overwhelmed. “R-Rocky eggs close. Rocky going to put them inside Grace.”

With that, Rocky grabbed Grace’s hips and pushed them up. Grace cried out in surprise as he was manhandled into having his hips upright, so his backside was in the air. So everything Rocky put inside him would stay inside him. He understood instantly. He relented to the position immediately as Rocky pushed two limbs over Grace’s thighs, bringing his knees to his shoulders in some kind of mating press. With all of his limbs together like this he looked more Eridian than ever, which was enough to send Rocky over the edge.

“Adrian. Adrian soon. Adrian.” Rocky whimpered, starting to make a very specific series of melodies over and over. 

These sounds seemed to have a profound effect. Grace could feel the pleasure rocking through him from both Rocky and Adrian, who was quickly building to the brink more and more with every trill Rocky made. Almost like that was a special sound to draw an orgasm out of Adrian. Grace couldn’t wait to learn how to do that. With the Eridians keeping most of their intelligence between the two of them, they did actually manage to time it so all three of them came at once. Grace was no help. He needed to be pulled back from the brink multiple times as Adrian’s orgasm built up, and as Rocky’s eggs descended his ovipositor and worked into his entrance. Grace was so far gone his eyes were rolling back into his head at this point. Still, as he felt the eggs pop past the stretch of his hole then his cervix, he brought his smaller right arm to his midsection yet again to feel them. Finally, he had been allowed to cum, hand protectively holding his faux-clutch as Rocky trembled depositing it into him. It was less like orgasming and more like exploding, considering he squirted again with his stickier seminal fluids. Adrian’s symphony of sounds as they released over the other end of the radio was beautiful, the first memory Ryland got the sense would stick with him in a truly Eridian way. He’d remember every part of this moment for the rest of his life. The moment he took his first clutch and became a real Eridian Incubator.

Grace went unconscious for what he assumed to be several minutes. He was overwhelmed, his body still somewhat too fragile for the stress. Thankfully, he came back too within a few moments of being jostled awake by Rocky, now softly chirping and nuzzling his cheek. Grace’s whole body felt like jelly as he opened his eyes, clicking so he could get a better view of the Eridian that now laid just beside him on the floor with several arms over him, protectively watching the protrusion in his stomach. Grace trilled in excitement at the new weight in his midsection, the round objects inside him shifting around every time he moved. 

“Grace ok, question? Feel ok, question?” Adrian asked first, eager to find out clearly. “Rocky said Grace sleep suddenly!” 

Grace couldn’t help the smile on his face. “Grace felt so good that Grace pass out. Just so overwhelmed.” He tried to explain, earning concerned sounds from both of his Eridian partners.

“Rocky eggs inside Grace. Not fertilized, no clutch— practice. Grace incubator now.” Rocky spoke so proudly. Like he had been dying to do this. The protective arms he kept around Grace’s small egg bump said he probably had been.

“Adrian monitor now. Constant. Rocky and Adrian discuss much while Grace sleep.” Adrian demanded. 

“Yes, Adrian and Rocky make plan while Grace sleep. Tell Grace when Grace wake.” Rocky quietly excised himself to scuttle off and grab a warm washcloth from the bathroom of the Hail Mary— something he had read humans did after intercourse— and came back to wipe Grace down so that he wasn’t as sticky as he had been the morning after their first time. 

Grace felt bizarre. This new weight in his midsection was completely new, foreign, but at the same time the most comfortable sensation he had ever had. He was exhausted after all of that, even though he had only woken up hours ago to receive the message in the first place. He huffed in annoyance at his body’s requirements for rest. He pouted softly, but relented as he realized he now had a precious clutch of eggs to care for.

“Ok. Grace rest, Grace rest.” He spoke softly, smiling fondly at Rocky and running his hand over his beautiful mate’s vents affectionately. “Watch me sleep?”

Adrian and Rocky spoke in tandem, voices layered over each other so beautifully. “We watch Grace sleep forever.”

–

Grace, Adrian and Rocky had been speaking for hours on end every day. As the Hail Mary slowly worked its way down through the thick atmosphere of Erid and towards the landing pad that had been quickly engineered for them, they had nothing but time for a little over three weeks. They had little to do other than wait anxiously and hope the ship wasn’t being torn apart in this process. For humans, that short of an amount of time to consider children and marriage was rather unreasonable. He had met people who had been engaged in that time, but it either never lasted long or was based in a sense of shared interest, such as religion. In his case, however, he had known he didn’t need the formal courtship within a few days of speaking with Adrian, after every single night ended the same way as the first, with a mess of stickiness between Ryland’s legs. Ryland’s sex drive seemed to be increasing somewhat because he couldn’t control himself around Adrian. He knew right away that the connection he had with them  was just like the one he had with Rocky, and further talking with one another only proved this to him more. Because the three of them had become so sure of their intentions to mate one another, they had been planning to get married officially in the Eridian way, a full mating ceremony in front of the public. Their plan was to become mates-to-be as soon as Ryland and Rocky arrived off the Hail Mary, and within the month become mates officially.

So why did Grace feel so incredibly guilty, you ask?

Oh, because his mates were in love with a fraud! Grace hadn’t been a hero, he had been a coward who was ready to stay on his planet and let everybody die. He had refused the mission! He had run away and had to be tackled and drugged. Rocky and Adrian had told him frequently how brave he had been, how he would be given a Heroes welcome along with Rocky on Erid. Rocky, who had actually volunteered, who had gone to save his planet and to find his cosmically fated mate because Rocky really was brave. Rocky was a hero. Grace felt more sick to his stomach about it as the days passed and they got closer to officially meeting Adrian. Grace had carefully woven a ♪♬♩♬♩♩ for Adrian under Rocky’s instruction, and he had been told Adrian had one for him– they would exchange them and enter their courtship the moment Grace and Rocky stepped into the welcome party that was being thrown for them. Grace was thrilled, really, he wanted it more than anything, but what if Adrian and Rocky wouldn’t want it once they knew who he was? Once they knew he had been lying to them this entire time? He had to tell them about this before things became official. It would already break Rocky’s hearts to hear that the special bond he thought he had with Grace from their both volunteering. With one night to go before landing on Erid, he was running out of time, and his selfish excuse of “preparing himself” mentally was becoming cruel. It was time to accept his fate.

Grace approaches the radio transmitter room after his shower to find Rocky and Adrian still enthusiastically speaking back and forth. They had long since caught up on what they had missed in each other's lives over the month, but nevertheless they spent all their waking hours speaking of memories, of plans for the future, of plans for Grace. He had walked in on them discussing a lighting system being developed on Erid, one that will serve to let Grace use his color-optional Ecolocation to see. He could see very well now with his echolocation even in total darkness, however he had told them he enjoyed colors, so they were finding a way to make that happen. It made his heart twinge with guilt all over again. He brought one of his shorter secondary arms to his midsection, swollen with one of the rounds of infertile practice eggs inside of him still. At least if they left him this would be his last memories of them. He tried to savor the view before him and the feeling of the eggs inside of him before he finally stepped into the room, Rocky immediately noticing him.

I’m about to devastate them while they modify their planet for me. I am human garbage, a waste of space. Was the only thought in Grace’s mind. 

“Grace! Come, come, talk! We make landing tomorrow.” Rocky is clearly so excited to be going home. “We make plan for how to keep Grace from injury. Come, statement!” 

Grace’s stomach lurched. Landing was going to be rough. The water would slow them down, and they had been slowing down in Erid’s atmosphere consistently, but that still left the Hail Mary coming down at a rather intense speed. Grace was still plenty squishy enough that a good slam to the back of his head would be game over. It was because he knew this that he actually almost took the chance to not discuss the problem and instead talk about their upcoming landing on Erid, but he corrected himself. He had to do this now, before his life officially started with both of them. 

“Grace need talk to Adrian and Rocky about something else. Important.” Grace asked, looking so anxious as he realized he was really getting ready to ruin his life here. “About… about something bad. Something bad Grace did.” He was so happy they had switched to almost entirely Eridian now— at least he wouldn’t have to translate himself much.

Rocky grilled in anxiety and immediately began to step over to Grace after tumbling out of the chair in front of the radio transmitter. Adrian’s deeper melodic calls were softly beckoning them close, Adrian clearly worried for him just as much as Rocky was. When Grace was sitting down and Rocky was able to climb into his lap, Grace began to sob. He realizes this really might be the last time he has to hug Rocky, to hear Adrian. He squeezes the Eridian tightly and chimes softly to him, desperate for his comfort. Ryland chastised himself for being so needy, when he had been lying to them this whole time. What kind of a mate was he? It only made his sobbing louder and more intense. Rocky was now trilling in distress, asking Adrian what to do.

“Rocky, gentle… what Grace do, question?” Adrian asked, so gentle and so patient. Ryland didn’t deserve this.

“Whatever happen, we fix. It will be ok.” Rocky offered, trying his hardest to get a look at Ryland’s face as Ryland consistently tried to turn away from him.

“Grace has lied. Grace is liar. Grace not who you think he is.” Grace finally admitted. The words felt like acid in his mouth.

Both Adrian and Rocky trilled in confusion. They didn’t believe him whatsoever clearly. As Ryland tried to stop his crying, because he was not the victim here, both Rocky and Adrian trilled in confusion.

“Would know if Grace lie.” Adrian huffed, confused and hurt. “Bond strong. Would feel, Grace.” They insisted.

Rocky hummed in agreement. “Any lie Grace tell, we already know.”

Grace’s stomach was turning so hard he felt like he would be sick. He kept a hand over the swell of his lower abdomen like he was trying to comfort the eggs inside of him— keep them safe since he’d have to give them up soon. He shook his head in refusal and forced himself to say it.

“No. You do not. Grace not meant to be on The Hail Mary. Grace was on Hail Mary not by choice, statement.” Ryland finally spoke the words out loud that he hadn’t admitted to himself in all these years. This secret that had stayed locked inside him was finally coming out of his mouth and he braced for the impact, waiting for Rocky or Adrian to become enraged with him.

Instead, both of the Eridians go quiet. Grace blinks at Rocky’s still, quiet form and tries to listen for any soft sound from Adrian but he hears nothing. He chirps in search of their response, and Rocky is the first to make a call back. He sounds so measured, like he’s trying to keep his composure. He must be furious.

“What Grace mean, not on Mary by choice, question? If Grace did not choose, how did Grace get on ship?” Rocky asks. They must notice how Ryland’s heart rate spikes because suddenly, Adrian hisses. 

“Someone force Grace?” Adrian asked, tone in complete disbelief. Like the idea of it felt dirty to say. 

I want to die. I would rather them crush my skull in anger than do this. Ryland thinks, tears welling up again that he tries desperately to force down. “Someone force Grace.” He repeats, barely able to get the words out. His body begins to tremble like it did whenever he thought about this too hard.

Adrian and Rocky let out a call Grace has never heard before. The two of them are methodically thumping their legs in a drumbeat that makes Grace’s chest rattle. They let out grunts of sound, steam venting out of their thoraxes. Grace tries to reach them in their bond, expecting to find anger. Fury. He doesn’t find any such thing, however— he finds possessiveness. A sense that his mates feel like they can’t protect him and it’s driving them crazy. Adrian especially sounds beside themself. With everything that had happened with Rocky, Adrian had insisted how devastating it was that they hadn’t been there to keep their mate safe. Ryland had never thought that sort of retroactive protective nature would extend to him. Rocky seemed to be feeling it strongly as well, judging by how tightly he was now holding onto Ryland’s body.

“Who.” Adrian demands, stomping their foot. “Who force Grace? How? What happen, question?” They ask, filling the silence finally.

Grace begins to tense but Rocky only grips him harder, not letting him stress. “Not angry. Never would be angry at Grace for this.” Rocky says, assuring Grace before adding a caveat. “But Grace must tell what happen. What humans force Grace?”

Grace can’t help the tears that start to fall. They’re treating him like a victim when he isn’t, he can’t be. They’re making him feel like what happened was wrong, not inevitable. They’re making him feel all the things he felt the night he realized this in the first place, feel all the things he had so firmly shoved down. He was going to vomit at how badly this made him feel soon enough. They said they weren’t mad, that they needed to know what happened— how could they be serious? They’d change their minds once they heard the whole thing, surely.

“Grace was middle school teacher. Kids. Grace was also m-microbiologist, wrote bad stupid paper. When Stratt find paper, she go to find Grace.” He explained as simply as he could, leaning his head against Rocky’s desperately. “Grace help with project. Learn about astrophage, study it, so Grace could teach astrophage to scientists on mission.” 

Rocky seems to coo praise at this, petting Grace’s arm where the scar he had from Rocky was. “Noble. So smart, Grace.” He coos, Adrian trilling in agreement.

“No. Coward. Thought mission was insane. Grace think everyone crazy!” He insisted, looking so overwhelmed. “Grace teach instead of go because Grace scared.” 

Adrian interrupts before Grace can become too panicked. “How Grace end up going anyway, question?”

This was the hard part. Grace could still feel the heat of the explosion on his face, the sound ringing in his ears. “Measuring mistake.” He can’t say much more for a moment, getting choked up. “They give students too much astrophage. Whole building explode. Everyone dead, except Grace. Grace was with Stratt when explosion happen.” 

There’s a very long pause again. Adrian and Rocky don’t seem to get it. They share confused trills with each other before finally, Adrian confirms as much.

“Earth could find other scientist. Did all earth scientist die in explosion?” Adrian asks, seeming genuinely confused. 

Rocky nods in agreement. “Earth could wait. Prepare Grace. Why force, why why why question?” Rocky repeats it over and over because he genuinely seems baffled by this.

“There was no time. Stratt did what Stratt had to. Launch was coming up, Grace knew most about atrophage and mission at hand. Grace had no choice.” Ryland stopped himself to suppress a sob. This was never going to get easier. “But Grace was scared. Did not want to go. Knew risks, knew I was only option, but still. Grace selfish. Grace coward.” he spoke with such intensity and conviction, because he really did think this way about himself. 

Adrian and Rocky seem to gasp even though they don’t have lungs to fill with air. They both begin to sing at Grace in a way that makes his head feel fuzzy, like he just can’t think about all the things that are worrying him. They’re trying so hard to calm him down, but Grace can’t believe they aren’t mad. He can’t accept their kindness.

“Grace. Grace.” Rocky spoke softly, nuzzling against him and under his chin like they had grown used to doing. “They… they force you? Kicking and screaming?” Rocky asks, tone of voice just in total disbelief. Adrian seems to be waiting for confirmation.

“N-no. Grace was combative. Ran. Tried to scream at them, throw things at them, get away. Grace was tackled before Grace could run, given sedative." Grace began to shake even harder as he recounted the events. He hated how sensitive his body seemed to be to the memory.

This changes things entirely. Grace still doubts if they’re really wanting to comfort him or if they just want to understand how much of a liar he is, but suddenly Rocky is vehemently speaking along with Adrian talking over him. Their speech becomes layered and complicated in a way that clearly doesn’t register to Ryland, so they make an effort to calm down. He can hear Adrian insisting that Rocky be calm, and insisting that they promise to also be quiet and gentle— but that’s about it. He braces himself for a scolding. That had to be what they were planning. They were going to chastise him for his being a liar, and they were going to leave him once they were back on the planet. He sniffled, hanging his head like he had accepted his fate even if he was terrified.

“Our Grace.” Adrian starts, sounding so emotional. Their voice had been warbling like they were crying. “You had no choice. They give you pretend one, and trick you anyway. Who, who, question?” 

Rocky warbled in response to Adrian, seemingly just as distraught to hear what happened to Grace. “G-Grace say Grace in coma when on ship. They put— they put tubes in Grace, they hurt Grace with doctors.” Rocky sobbed. He truly didn’t seem to be able to handle it. “Grace say earth good. Earth bad, bad, statement! Only thing good about earth is Grace!”

Adrian agrees as quickly as Rocky speaks, adding on even more. “Stratt. Evil. Give order to hurt Grace. Grace could have been injured, could have died.”

The angry reaction Grace had braced for never came. In fact, quite the opposite happened. Adrian and Rocky seemed completely devastated for him. They seemed angry at earth more than they seemed to hold any ill will towards him. For some reason to Grace, this felt so wrong. He had lied! He had hid this disgusting secret from them! Their immediate switch to a hatred of earth was throwing him off, too– he felt a strong need to defend his planet, to defend Stratt of all people.

“Grace know what happened was necessary. Grace not hate earth. Grace not even hate Stratt.” Ryland tried his best to explain it in Eridian, though it feels like a very nuanced topic. “Grace feel Stratt had to. Grace gave her no choice.”

At this, Adrian hissed again, loudly. “No. We will not allow Grace to think this. Not true. Stratt did not have to force Grace, statement.” 

Rocky trilled sadly, still stuck on the idea that their human, with how sensitive he was, had been thrown into space against his will. “Grace must have been so scared, statement.” Rocky is almost whispering, his song was so gentle and soft. 

Grace steals his expression. He tries to shake his head. “G-Grace was. Now, Grace ok– Grace… Grace didn’t tell because Grace thought Rocky and Adrian would find Grace disgust.”

Adrian and Rocky coo sadly, the way Grace and Adrian had whimpered at the idea of Adrian moving on a month ago. They wanted to put the thought out of his head and the shared melody did just that, Grace felt somewhat dazed and less emotional. He blinked away tears he barely felt pricking his eyes. Rocky began to gently massage Grace’s back as he began to softly cry.

“Grace not disgust. Never. Grace so brave– braver than Rocky and Adrian thought.” Rocky insists before Grace can speak again. “Grace so strong. Grace never have to worry again– Grace not going back to earth. Stratt never coming to Erid.”

Adrian begins to sing the melody they used to put Rocky to sleep, modifying the pitch slightly so that it would be more suited to the frequencies Ryland preferred. He could hear them anxiously tapping their claws against the ground, almost like they felt like they weren’t doing enough. Grace still thought that couldn’t be the case, however. He thought Adrian must be reconsidering.

“They touch Grace.” Grace finally manages to say. “They go through Grace stuff, go over Grace body.” Ryland finally turns his head away from Rocky and closes his eyes. “I…I would understand if Rocky and Adrian do not want to be my mates anymore. I would understand.” He repeats the lie, knowing it would actually in fact kill him if it came down to that.

Adrian lets out a shriek of horror. They start to trill over and over, insisting No a million times as Rocky began to drive pressure against Grace’s body in his chair. The Eridian was caging him down and growling. Grace’s tears ceased as he realized where Rocky’s body was resting, right above their practice eggs. He shifted his lap to test the Eridian’s resolve and gave a pathetic sounding whine, wanting them to tell him that he really, honestly had nothing to worry about. He just couldn’t believe it without assurance.

“Grace never leaving us.” Adrian demands. It’s not punctuated the way their questions or statements are, it registers in Grace’s brain as a downright command.

This wasn’t even to mention the way Rocky was clamped around his midsection and lower half, trilling up at him in a possessive way that left no room for misinterpretation. “No one but us ever touch Grace again. Grace ours, ours ours ours!” Rocky insists, beginning to squeeze Ryland harder.

Ryland began to trill back at them, finally. He was able to let go somewhat even if he still felt guilty– Adrian and Rocky didn’t care. “So… So Grace still mate with Adrian and Rocky?” Grace asked, hopeful and desperate.

“Grace become incubator soon as possible. Mate as soon as possible.” Adrian coos, followed by an excited Rocky who repeats what they said about fifty times, at least.

Grace is so overwhelmed. He’s been like this a lot the past month, but this is another level. Adrian and Rocky love him so much. They were so possessive, so protective of their mate that the idea that someone else had touched him in a way he didn’t like was enough for them to change their perspective on an entire planet. They couldn’t even see the reasoning to Stratt’s actions like he could, the fact that she had to send him or risk humanity’s collapse– that meant nothing to them. She had put their Ryland Grace into harms way, launched him somewhere all alone, took his memories and his bodily autonomy from him all in one foul swoop. To them, it was totally unforgivable, regardless of the reasoning. They truly believed the only good thing was it bringing Grace to them, so they could care for him better than anyone on earth could. They made that much clear as they waited for Grace’s body to stop trembling at the memories and phantom sensations, trilling about how much they loved him and how excited they were. That now that they knew he was even braver than they thought, they were positive that he would make an excellent primary caregiver for their clutch. He would teach their children his bravery and perseverance even in the face of challenges that he didn’t want to face. 

Grace felt like he was dreaming, of course. He could not believe it had gone so well. He couldn’t believe any of this had gone so well to begin with, but now, he truly had to be living in some sort of alternate dimension where things weren’t held against him. Where his cowardice wasn’t enough to change their opinions of him. For longer than he could keep track of, he allowed himself to be lulled into relaxation by the two Eridians incessantly trilling and filling his senses with their voices. The thrum they pulled him into was so hard to resist, so warm and comforting. 

“Grace not worry about Earth again. Grace help with plan for landing, then Grace become school teacher on Erid.” Rocky said simply, like he and Adrian already decided for him. “Grace will be happy. Not forced to do anything again.”

Adrian hummed, tapping their legs in methodical circles. They agreed with Rocky wholeheartedly. “Grace will make perfect mate. Grace silly to think otherwise. This is why Grace need Rocky and Adrian. Leaky space blob will be safe with us once Rocky and Grace finish Re-entry.” 

Grace smiled in understanding. Rocky and Adrian had moved on so quickly from a lie he thought they’d hate him for that Grace was still kind of reeling. He found it hard to deny how much they clearly loved him when the rest of the night was focused on making him feel as safe as physically possible. When they spoke about bringing this massive space craft down onto Erid, their sole concern seemed to be making sure Grace survived reentry. He curled into the office chair to help in their thrum on the topic, eventually feeling well enough to be able to contribute. He was feeling all jelly-headed and loopy, though, so his math and his ideas on how to withstand the impact seemed a bit half baked, to say the least. Rocky and Adrian accepted his input willingly and wholeheartedly however, and wanted his input on their ideas as well. It felt like therapy, being given a voice at this discussion. He had no say in how he got on this ship, and now that Adrian and Rocky knew that, they were giving him an incredible amount of control in the process of getting off of it. They were giving him his job as a teacher back, too. Allowing him to go back to the life he missed so desperately, on a planet that would love him far more than earth ever had. 

God I hope Mary doesn’t blow up! Was the only thought Ryland could make out as his body began to grow tired from sleep after hours of thrumming. Rocky insisted he sleep to conserve his energy for their early morning splash down, but Grace forced himself to stay up a bit longer just to keep listening to Adrian and Rocky. Rocky curled around the infertile clutch of eggs inside of his midsection as Ryland finally began to doze off, giving Adrian an excited, sleepy trill before he finally shut his eyes on the Hail Mary for the last night.

“See you tomorrow, Adrian. Rocky and Grace cannot wait.” He cooed in the sweetest sounding Eridian song he could, listening to his mates coo over him as he breathed a sigh of relief finally.

At least if it does go kaboom, I know they love me. They love the real me.

...

Grace got a good four or so hours of sleep before he felt the ship lurch– the way a plane might’ve done in turbulence. For the first time since Fishing on Adrian, they were getting close enough to the surface of a planet for gravity, wind and atmospheric pressure to affect the Hail Mary’s hull. Rocky was on his chest when he recovered from being jostled awake, the radio transmitter tuned into a line that must’ve been Eridian mission control. He could hear the voices of many Eridians telling them their course path was perfect, and the two of them should begin to take cover now as they were merely an hour from their final splashdown on Erid. Grace felt the way one might feel if they had been on a long vacation, only to have to drive an hour home from the airport.

“Grace and Rocky get in supply compartment now. Grace bring pillows.” Rocky stated simply, squirming himself behind Grace’s back in the office chair he had slept in to push him into a standing position. “Hurry hurry hurry.”

Grace didn’t need to be told twice. He missed Adrian like crazy, given that this was the first time in a month he hadn’t woken up hearing their voice, but that just meant he had to move faster. Their plan had been to pile all of the blankets and pillows into an empty supply compartment in Mary’s floor, have Grace get inside, then have Rocky essentially act as a harness to keep him against the pillows as the Hail Mary rocked and shook in the stress of atmospheric reentry. This way, if Grace was to be thrown around, it would be inside of a compartment full of pillows, with a mate who could stabilize him easily. Grace’s contribution to this idea had been the padding added by all the pillows and fabric, given Rocky and Adrian initially had wanted him to use a compartment barely bigger than his own body to keep himself trapped in place. The idea of possibly burning up on reentry and being claustrophobic felt less than ideal to Grace, so he told Rocky to put everything from their nest inside of a slightly larger one instead. Now that Grace was curling himself into it he actually found it pretty comfortable, had the Hail Mary not have been shaking as badly as it was. He opened his arms for Rocky to join, the Eridian quickly getting inside with him and wrapping his limbs around the human, grabbing onto the dents they had made in the floor of the compartment to keep Grace pinned down, before closing the compartment above them. 

It was pitch black in the tiny box as they hurdled towards Erid’s northernmost ocean, the one with the last amount of obstacles they could possibly run into. They’d be hitting a giant manufactured net in the middle of it and then they'd be pulled to shore from the water, where finally, they’d be allowed onto the beach for their homecoming party. This all of course assumed they survived. Grace really found himself beginning to worry the more Mary shook, especially when he heard the emergency systems kick on outside of the compartment. He made a series of clicking sounds to get an image of Rocky on top of him, getting his mate’s attention, who gave him a hum of comfort in return.

“Is normal. Mary think ship still made of human metal– xenonite hold. Do not worry.” Rocky comforted him, his vents pushing up and down to make deeper thumping sounds without steam. “Grace ok, question?”

“Grace scared.” Ryland admitted, not knowing how else to describe it. “Grace feel like you both finally know real Grace, and now, Rocky and Grace might die in large impact.”

Rocky trills at him almost in a chastizing way. “Grace no say such thing. Grace not die. Grace gently hit pillows, then Grace survive, meet Adrian. Is plan.” Rocky says it like there isn’t even a question to the statement. It’s comforting, sure, but it isn’t a reliable assessment.

“Is plan.” Grace said mockingly, smiling softly. “Rocky so bossy. Not even Hail Mary will divert from plan?” He teased Rocky fondly.

Rocky gasped in mock offense. “Woooow. Grace call Rocky bossy while Rocky keeping Grace alive again. Grace ungrateful, bad bad bad.” Rocky’s lilt in tone indicated he clearly was kidding, at least about the first part, before continuing much more seriously. “Grace will learn what bossy mean. Adrian show Grace bossy.”

Oh, boy, Ryland really really hoped that he didn’t die.

They held onto one another like this for a long while. The Hail Mary was starting to burn up, Ryland could hear the warnings coming from outside the compartment as they reached critical temperature, and then the warnings that they were reaching too low of an altitude. Both of these things they expected. The Hail Mary had been built in orbit of Earth, requiring a rocket to get to– it was absolutely not meant to land anywhere. It was far too large and lacked any kind of base to rest on. Because Mary hadn’t been designed with landing in mind, she was being really torn apart upon reentry, and her systems were all screaming at them to get to the controls and pull upward. He tried to ignore the pull in his stomach to run and do just that, having developed some sort of muscle memory for piloting this massive ship by now, but the whole point of what they were doing right now was crashing this thing. He almost felt bad. This was like hurdling his and Rocky’s first apartment into a watery grave with them still inside. Sentimentally it was going to be sad if they lost a lot of their things on Mary, but physically he worried more about how much the ship was rattling. The intense up and down turbulence feeling had become more like a total nose dive. He and Rocky felt slightly weightless as they felt the ship continue to list forward, the same way it would’ve worked on earth, just slightly less effective due to the higher gravity. Ryland felt the eggs inside his stomach shift in a way that immediately made him nauseous– another expected outcome. He moved his hand around to look for an emesis bag, thankfully finding that Rocky had put both normal and bags with lids on them for if this gravity situation arose. He ducked his head into one as Rocky trilled in concern, nuzzling Grace by pulling his body down more.

“Grace sick, question?” Rocky asked, clearly feeling terrible. “Close to Erid. Almost home. Rocky promise over soon.” He offered comfort to Ryland, who gave a weak smile despite expelling the contents of his stomach into a bag.

“M’ok. Eggs do not like this.” Grace comments, sighing in exhaustion as another wave of sickness caused him to throw up again. “How much longer, question?” Grace asked, sounding more desperate than he meant to.

“Ten earth minutes. Grace doing well. Only leak from mouth, not eyes. That impressive.” Rocky comments. 

“Ohhh, ok smarty pants.” Grace retorts playfully, curling himself more around the Eridian. “Rocky will feel bad for that when Grace does leak from eyes!” Grace teases.

Before Rocky can respond with more than happy, giggling trilling noises, the ship lurches. They hit some kind of storm pocket that sends their fuel tanks upward, causing the Mary to become off balance. The force of the air combined with the counter balance of the ship meant that they were now spinning. Not spirally, like a football, but vertically. Mary wouldn’t just nose dive into the water now, she would hit it from the side while rapidly rotating. Grace’s eyes filled with panic immediately as he felt his stomach twist in fear rather than nausea. Rocky blew off steam in frustration, pushing Grace down into the ground his back was against further as the compartment began to rapidly rotate. Instead of the vaguely anti-gravity feeling they had in a nose dive, this was akin to being put on a giant spinning ride at a carnival. The pillows and blankets thankfully were seeming to do their jobs for now, covering the compartment as they spun over and over again and keeping Grace from hitting any part of the compartment too hard. Grace begins to gag dryly after about five of these turns, desperately trying not to add that problem to the mix considering the G force was so strong he couldn’t raise his vomit bag up again.

“This not good, Rocky!” Grace cries in a warbling, fearful tone. “G-Forces too strong!” 

Rocky huffed in annoyance at this assessment from Grace. “Rocky keep Grace safe! Grace conscious!”

Of all the times to be stubborn. “R-Rocky, promise! Promise Grace that Rocky not blame self. If Grace die–” Grace starts to say, desperate to clarify that this accident wasn’t either of their faults, before he’s abruptly cut off with a hiss.

“Grace stop saying Grace die! Grace no die! Rocky keep Grace alive, statement!” Rocky hissed, pulling himself down over Grace as the pressure from their spinning only increased.

Grace opened his mouth to argue, only to gag again and immediately shut it. They were getting close to land now, the spinning was starting too pull at Ryland like some sort of torture based roller coaster. He felt like he would pass out soon, the way he had been near unconscious when they were fishing on Adrian, unable to gain control of his equilibrium. His body was held against the floor of the compartment by Rocky consistently until the ship began to get through the last few layers of clouds, shaking exponentially. At this point Grace couldn’t even hear Rocky over the sounds of the ships alarms, warning that they were about to take a major hit on their side from a body of liquid and some massive object. The net and the Eridian science team would have to re-adjust for their new spinning target. Grace hugged Rocky as hard as he could, screaming at the effort it took to raise his arms up against the Gravity, bracing himself for impact. He knew they would hit soon, and then it would be completely up to chance what happened. 

“Grace love Rocky, Grace love Adrian!” Grace cried out in desperation, not wanting his last words to have been some expression about if he were to die. 

Before Rocky could respond, The Hail Mary hit water. It smacked down onto the side opposite of the storage compartments. When they hit, Mary took such a massive blow that many of the latches to various storage compartments blew open or broke off from the impact– including the latch of the compartment Rocky and Grace were in. Even if it hadn’t of come undone, the thinner metal composing the door of the compartment likely would’ve caved in when the punched-out hand holes Rocky was using to keep Ryland “strapped” down gave way from the impact. Rocky screeched, trying to find some way of holding on, only to feel the metal footholds give further every time he gripped on again. Ryland had fallen onto Rocky when he initially lost his grip, and with Mary still shaking from shockwaves, the space that was made allowed for Ryland to immediately smack the back of his head onto the floor (now ceiling) of the compartment. He blacked out instantly, falling directly onto the ceiling (now floor) of Mary along with Rocky.

...

Grace felt an incredible amount of soreness in his leg, first. He had no idea what happened past feeling the initial hit Mary took into the water. He had been entirely unconscious for the fall out of the compartment, where he had managed to fall directly onto his left leg. He had expected after feeling the ship start spinning that that would have been lights out, after all, he was really starting to run out of stamina near death experiences. When he began to open his eyes, he had expected to see the inside of the ship still, or maybe even just nothing. It would be his luck to die after getting an entirely perfect life in order for himself. Instead, as he began to chirp to get input from them, his eyes started to show him… blobs of color, all around him. All different shapes, sizes, all crowded around him. As he chirped more and raised his arm up aimlessly he was met with something sitting over his midsection. He glanced down to see Rocky, who was happily trilling as he hugged himself around Grace’s torso. Rocky seemed to have a new crack over one of his legs as well, and one along his body, but was largely unscathed other than that. Assured that Rocky was ok, Grace began to notice the rest of his body. He had ceremonial jewelry on, including somewhat of a crown that made him feel odd. He began to feel the pain of his injured leg being moved and hissed, only to be immediately calmed by a melody from Rocky. Grace’s leg was being immobilized by someone else’s rock-like hands, and when he hummed to look past Rocky and at their surroundings, he could finally see what was going on.

He was on the beach of Erid. The colorful blobs surrounding him were Eridians, all looking on the saviors of their planet, and the alien who had adapted to breathe their air. His leg was being wrapped up by a large Eridian with skin that resembled white pinfire-opal, glittering under the spotlights that had been set up for him to be able to see. Their body bore scars of dark brown and rust colors, with the same shape of Rocky’s mating mark in the same color on their forelimb. They bore aurora-like patches on their skin as well around their joints and across their carapace, and small blue diamond like pieces inset where the cracks in their skin was deepest. Grace didn’t have to hear anything to confirm who it was. He already knew.

“Adrian. Rocky.” Grace gasps, tired and concussed, but alive. Sitting on the beach with his mates tending to him. “Home. Grace home.” Was the only other thing he could manage to say.

“Grace alive. Grace home. Rocky and Grace survive, saviors of Erid survive!” Adrian announces loudly, their voice projecting across the entire crowd.

Grace was helped to sit up very slowly by Rocky, who unlatched himself from around Grace’s middle to prop him up for the massive crowd of Eridians to see. Grace was so dazed at the attention, the feeling of an entire population singing to honor him was already enough to totally overwhelm him. Now, Adrian was finishing bandaging up his leg, and moving closer to him finally. He smiled like an idiot and felt totally speechless as they reach into the bag across their body to pull out the ♪♬♩♬♩♩ they had made Grace. It was stunning, gorgeous blue-toned xenonite forming a strong, thick band to a choker like necklace that had one of the small blue diamonds from Adrian’s carapace inside of the center of it. Grace gasped, bowing his head to Adrian immediately to allow them to put it on the same way he had done for Rocky. Adrian came closer and wrapped their forearms around Grace’s neck to affix the choker with a lock made from xenonite. Unlike Rocky, they did not show him any kind of key. He assumed this would be permanent, which filled his stomach with an excited heat. He quickly rushed to grab the ♪♬♩♬♩♩ he had made Adrian out of his pocket. It had several pieces of his own carapace on it from every stage of his development, from the lab storage they had built up. Grace’s initial red rock skin made small beads that were strung on cording from The Hail Mary’s electronics, and Grace had affixed a piece of his most opalescent skin to the center of it. Eridians wore theirs like arm bands, so Adrian waited for him to lock it onto their limb. Grace turned to Rocky, who quickly borrowed Adrian’s smaller set of xenonite tools to help Ryland form the lock onto Adrian’s mating jewelry. The crowd, silent in interest as they watched this alien instantly mate with one of their own, began to cheer again at Adrian and Rocky’s insistence. They both crowded Grace and began to nuzzle him desperately.

“Grace mate now. Grace Rocky and Adrian mate.” Adrian cooed, pressing their front to Grace enthusiastically. “We retreat to private space now, statement. Then we join party.”

Rocky chimed in agreement, enthusiastically pushing himself under Grace’s rump to pick him up that way. Grace gasped in surprise, almost sliding off of Rocky as he was picked up before Adrian rushed to stop him from doing so. They seemed content to walk with Ryland like this, forming a sort of chair for him since his leg was definitely broken from his fall. It was embarrassing but it was also the most romantic thing Grace has ever had happen to him. So romantic in fact he barely had time to register the fact Adrian and Rocky just scooped him up and are running with him towards the nearest private area they can find. His stomach does a flip, and he brings one of his smaller arms to cup the swell there as he feels heat pool between his legs again. He was so excited for what was about to happen that he couldn’t come up with anything to say other than just that.

“Are we doing what Grace think we doing?” Grace asks, feeling the dopey grin on his face.

“Grace so smart.” Adrian coos fondly, giggling in a way that sounds just like the windchimes that were on his porch growing up.

Rocky trilled in agreement. “Grace need more eggs. Party can wait.” He said plainly, like he had never been more sure of anything in his life.

Grace did not need to be told twice. He allowed them to whisk him away into a small cavern carved into one of the shore’s cliff faces. It was beautiful, decorated with all sorts of shells and interesting crystals, texture based decor rather than color. Adrian hummed in acknowledgement as they placed Grace onto a soft bed like divot in the deepest part of the cavern, immediately climbing onto him as they spoke.

“Adrian clear out beach dwelling just for this. Rocky and Adrian home on beach farther away– Adrian could not wait.” Adrian explains, easily knocking Grace’s arms above his head as Rocky showed them how to remove human clothing.

“Is Adrian wealthy, question?” Grace couldn’t help asking, considering they just mentioned this was a beach house for them in addition to another beach house. 

Rocky trilled in amusement along with Adrian, who seemed to click in confirmation. “Adrian older than Rocky, statement. Adrian wealthy, from noble family on Erid.” Rocky quickly explained as he gently removed Grace’s pants, careful of his broken leg. 

Adrian hums, watching for how Ryland keens at that fact. “Grace and Rocky so similar. Chase older Eridian. Was Grace like this on earth, question?”

Grace was too wet to think like a normal person, so he answered more honestly than he meant to. “Grace not very interested in humans at all. Grace prefer Eridian. Rich, older Eridian… does not hurt.” He couldn’t help but laugh with them at his own joke.

Adrian pressed closer, looming over Grace in a way that suddenly felt overwhelming. Adrian was so much bigger than Rocky that it was actually insane– it was unlikely they’d be able to sit on him the way Rocky had grown accustomed to. Grace was lightheaded from his concussion and from the fact the two most perfect Eridians in the entire universe were now completely crowding his vision, each one manhandling one of his legs to spread them apart now that he had been stripped down. Rocky was in charge of Grace’s injured leg considering he had more of an idea of how gentle he needed to be with a human. Adrian was brand new to this– they had some idea of what they were doing with the neurolink, but Grace almost didn’t want to warn them that he was more fragile. He desperately wanted them to manhandle him, and Adrian was doing so without even realizing it. They shoved his good leg onto the soft moss-like mattress, causing Grace’s hip to pop, and immediately began humming loudly to observe Grace’s sex between his legs. 

“Grace did not wear undergarments like usual.” Rocky comments, clearly holding back his amusement. “Grace does not realize how perfect he is.”

“Ditto.” Grace blurts out, pointing at both of them like an idiot. He’s barely keeping his composure already and all they’ve done so far is force his legs open and study him.

“So squishy.” Adrian said softly, amazed. Their song was one of total curiosity as they began to poke at Grace’s sex. “Developing well? Adrian have eggs, many. Need to lay.” 

Grace eagerly offered his own assessment. “Rocky said Grace doing well. Grace have eggs inside for landing, none of them ruptured, Grace did not have to lay early. Grace strong.” Grace insisted, puffing his chest out proudly.

Rocky and Adrian both cooed in endearment at his assessment. Rocky gave his own assessment that Grace couldn’t quite make out, but he heard words like eager and flexible, as well as the sentiment being conveyed that Grace’s sex was changing to accommodate this more and more. He blinked up at them and felt his brain getting farther away from him by the second. 

“Grace take Adrian eggs, then. Prove Grace developing well.” Adrian cooed, not waiting another second before starting to tug Grace closer. 

Without Rocky there to remind Adrian about Grace’s human anatomy, they would’ve snapped him in half. They had no clue they weighed almost three times what Grace did, and that they didn’t have bones the same way he did. They didn’t even start with their claws like Rocky usually did, when they tilted Grace’s hips up Adrian simply instantly brought him to their orifice, connecting to him at the bottom and clamping their limbs around his body from between his legs. Grace began to quickly try to warn them, looking at Rocky.

“H-hey! Grace want to know how big Adrian– ngh!” Grace asked, getting cut off by the feeling of a massive intrusion against his hole.

“Grace developing well. Does not matter how big Adrian is. Will fit.” Adrian chimes happily, not giving any attention to Grace’s squirming as their ovipositor began to push inside of Grace without any prep beyond what Rocky had done a few nights ago.

“Grace not worry. Grace take well. Rocky here.” Rocky trilled, still keeping Grace’s injured leg protected from Adrian’s manhandling. 

Grace didn’t have any wherewithal to respond, at this point things were simply happening to him. He relaxed like Rocky always encouraged him to do during their practice sessions, giving his vaginal opening the elasticity to accommodate Adrian’s Ovipositor. He could feel his walls being pushed to their absolute limit, to the point he was suddenly very aware that his bladder was full. He squealed as he felt Adrian slipping deeper and deeper, starting to push against his now stretched, waiting cervix. Rocky had been so intent on abusing it that it wasn’t going to take much to push past at first, but with how much bigger Adrian was, it would get harder fast. Especially with the eggs coming. He frantically tried to adjust himself, as if he could make more space out of nowhere.

“Grace is going to void bladder!” Grace squealed, trying his best to convey the seriousness to Adrian and Rocky.

Naturally, neither of them moved to stop at all. Adrian actually sounded very intrigued at this idea given the tone of their moans, coming out as huff sounds one might hear from a steam pipe. Adrian was being so thoroughly squeezed by Grace’s insides, and it didn’t take long for Rocky to excitedly point out the obvious. 

“Grace’s soft belly pushes out when you are deep enough. It is so cute. You can see eggs inside of him, too. Adrian, see, question?” Rocky pointed to Grace’s midsection as the human’s eyes lulled back into his head.

“Oh?” Adrian asks, amazed and trilling in interest as their ovipositor pushes Grace’s insides out enough that his lower stomach becomes round, more than it ever had even with a full clutch of Rocky’s eggs. 

Grace was really starting to feel the pressure in his lower abdomen now. He was already close to orgasm, his cervix being stretched had actually turned out to be something Grace loved. The only issue was that he was also going to pee himself if they weren’t careful. He begins to squirm to try to lessen the pressure on his bladder, but the more he tried to squirm, the more Adrian gripped onto him.

“G-Grace, stop moving, demand.” Adrian commanded him, sounding lost in pleasure. “Do not care if Grace release bladder. Grace not meant to think about such things.” 

Oh. Well, alright then.

Grace decided he was just going to start assuming the opposite when it came to social norms on Erid. Apparently he wasn’t the one who should be concerned about losing control of his bladder. The thought made his head swim, and he couldn’t bring himself to deny the sentiment in the slightest. He simply allowed Adrian to keep going, allowing his body to succumb to the thrusts they were pushing onto him trying to get even deeper somehow. Adrian trilled in affection as Grace began to moan, his head lulling to the side to watch Rocky as he began to run his own ovipositor against Grace’s inner thighs, clearly waiting behind Adrian. They were both going to put eggs inside of him. The realization was enough for Grace’s moans to become even more high pitched as he felt the small nubs around the base of Adrian’s ovipositor lock inside of him. As soon as they did, an egg worked its way down through his vaginal opening. This one was so much larger than any he had taken from Rocky, and the ones following it weren’t any different. He began to let out desperate cries, especially as this first egg slowly stretched his abused cervix to allow it to deposit in his womb. Grace was drooling, and with his cervix forced open to allow egg after egg inside of his waiting uterus, he completely lost control. He came so hard that he could feel his chest heaving, and he lost all control of the pressure in his bladder he was trying to hold back. Adrian and Rocky both sang praises to him as Grace released finally, pee rolling down between his thighs and pooling along with his sticky cum and Adrian’s mercury based seminal fluid. It was such a mess, but for whatever reason, Grace found it amazing. Sex just kept getting better the more he found out about what it could actually be. He was only being stimulated further by the fact Adrian didn’t finish laying their eggs inside of him for several moments after he had already finished, and he still had eggs to take from Rocky. He doesn’t even think to tell them to stop, panting heavily as Adrian pulls out of him and immediately trills for Rocky to replace their length. With how stretched out Grace is from Adrian, the intrusion isn’t as difficult, but it still earns a grunt from Grace. He sobbed in pleasure, babbling in broken Eridian as Rocky immediately locked inside of him. He listened with a totally empty head as Rocky and Adrian praised him for taking his first clutch from both of them, even if it was still just practice.

By the time Rocky had finished, and counting the eggs he had been practicing holding prior to these, Grace now had over ten of these squishy, unfertilized eggs inside of him. They were so heavy, sliding past each other and pressing down on his cervix, which he felt like he couldn’t reliably close again. He felt so loose, so used. So good. Grace wanted to do this as often as possible. The embarrassment of the fact he has peed himself was barely registering to him.

“H-How Grace supposed to g-go to party like this, question?” Grace asked in amusement, still drooling a bit. 

Rocky chuckled softly looking at the excessive fluids spilling from Grace and the heavy swell in his midsection from eggs. “Adrian and Rocky carry Grace. Show Grace off. Must clean Grace up first.

Adrian cooed in agreement, immediately tugging Grace out of the bed and out of the puddle of his own fluids to bring them to what must’ve been an Eridian bathroom. The water they filled a small divot in the floor with was clearly steaming and simmering slightly, but Grace’s body temperature actually matched that of the water by now. It felt good as they lowered him into the tub, and he found himself totally relaxing as the two Eridians washed him off. They used pieces of the same moss-like fabric he had been laying on, which felt impeccably soft against his skin, and they were careful to keep Grace’s injured leg from getting wet. As they cleaned him and dressed him again, Grace was able to observe how incredibly covered in bruises he was. Adrian’s claws had left marks all over him, since they had no control over their strength yet. He hoped that they never learned it, either. 

“Grace ok, question?” Rocky asks attentively, helping Grace get his shoe back on considering the weight in his midsection. 

“Grace more than ok. Grace so happy. Felt good.” Grace mumbles, keeping both of his secondary hands over his midsection and the weight of both his mates eggs.

“Adrian happy. Grace perfect incubator. We become mates as soon as possible, make mating mark permanent. Grace have fertilized clutch.” Adrian hummed, helping comb Grace’s hair by running their claws through it.

Grace felt so incredibly content. As soon as he felt composed enough to go out again, Rocky and Adrian formed the chair-like walking pattern to carry him back out to the public. Grace was noticeably showing more than he had been when they pulled him out of the ship, so as soon as they returned, they asked many questions not just about the mission and Grace’s being an alien but about their mateship. As promised, Rocky and Adrian kept possessive watch over him the entire night. He was carried like royalty and shown off to the extent they were comfortable with, but the moment Eridians seemed to be too forward with Grace, they’d turn and take him away. He felt like some weird form of nobility here with the way he was being treated, and for tonight, he didn’t mind. Rocky and him had saved their worlds. They had made it home to Adrian. 

All that was left to do now was start their family.