Work Text:
It wasn’t until we got to Erid that I realized just how much Rocky had neglected to explain about Eridian culture.
We’re scientists, both of us. It goes without saying that we exhausted every possible topic of scientific inquiry during our four-and-some-change years aboard the Hail Mary: physics, obviously, and chemistry and biology, but also computer science, oceanography, even a little bit of psychology. We didn’t only talk about science, obviously. Rocky spent a fair amount of time poking around on my laptop, watching television and movies, playing video games (surprisingly badly), and once he figured out English syllabary, reading every book, comic, and Wikipedia article that struck his interest. So Rocky had a pretty good grasp on Earth culture by this point, though I would be the first to point out that his scope of knowledge was mostly limited to American culture since he only knew English.
But it was an unbalanced cultural exchange, really. The entirety of my knowledge about Eridian culture was filtered through Rocky, and he was hardly an unbiased observer. He spoke plenty about Eridian science, sure, but that was mostly it. He didn’t care to discuss Eridian fiction, which he seemed to find boring in comparison to the contents of my laptop—the grass is always greener on the other side, I guess. Eridian music… existed, from what I could tell, but it wasn’t like I could listen to any aboard the Hail Mary. All in all, outside of our collaborative research time, Rocky spent our journey becoming a rather cultured human anthropologist, and I mostly spent it beating him at Mario Kart and rewatching all of Golden Girls. Twice.
This is why, after about two weeks in my brand new Eridian biodome, I’d honestly expected my first time meeting Adrian to go well. Why wouldn’t it?
Adrian was bigger than Rocky by a solid few inches. They were shaped differently, too, sharper-edged with a taller carapace, and their skin was smoother and darker, almost like rough obsidian. Or onyx? Listen, I’m a microbiologist, geology is not my field. They had etchings on their skin just like Rocky, though Adrian seemed to have less of them. I wished I could see them without the xenonite suit so I could make out the designs.
I didn’t notice most of that off the bat, though, because when Adrian strolled into my little seaside house, I was kind of distracted by the immediately judgemental tilt of their body and the chime of their voice: “Dirty. All dirty. What Rocky do here question?”
I’d quickly learned that Rocky’s bluntness was an Eridian cultural trait, but still, this was pretty brutal. Usually you get a ‘hello, how are you’ before they start dissecting your personal failings. To be fair, the house was definitely a mess. Rocky had totally sprung this meeting on me with only a few minutes’ notice. I got the sense he didn’t have much say in the matter, either.
“Ha, yeah, sorry.” The English-to-Eridian translation software on my computer chimed my words back in Eridian. I shuffled in front of my overflowing bureau to block it from their view, then promptly remembered that Adrian could literally see right through me. “Listen, it’s great to finally meet you—”
“Not talking to you,” said Adrian immediately. Their voice had a different timbre from Rocky’s, smooth and pitched slightly lower. “Rocky.”
Rocky poked his carapace in from the adjoining room. “Yes question?”
“House dirty. Human messy. Stay here for two weeks and only now let visit question? Forty eight years in space and you forget all 🎵♪ question?”
“What was that word there?” I asked, and was summarily ignored.
“Is busy,” said Rocky defensively (I was good at reading his tone by now). “All thrum want to talk, build biodome—”
“Adrian build biodome,” they cut in. “Adrian perform calculation for elevator docking, delegate thrum representatives, coordinate schedule…”
Suddenly I felt as though I was in the middle of a marital spat. “Should I, um. Maybe I should take a walk?”
“Stay,” said Adrian immediately. “Scientist Grace point of whole conversation. Rocky answer.”
Rocky wilted. I felt kind of bad for him. I’d been chewed out by a girlfriend once or twice in my life; I knew how he felt. “Apology.”
“Yes, apology. Correct.” Adrian tipped their carapace in my direction. “Introduce.”
And then—alright, this is where I got confused on a few different levels. I’d met other Eridians before, and it was mostly just like meeting a human. You say hello, tell them your name and your job, and move on with the conversation. It occurred to me that Rocky had in fact not introduced me to any other Eridian before. He’d always let me introduce myself, then translated for me. Suddenly I wondered whether that meant something.
Rocky executed what looked to me like some sort of complex bow, bending three legs and straightening two others, and then tapped a staccato rhythm on the ground using the leg closest to me. Still bowing, he said, “♪♩🎶♩. Grace, Earth. ♪🎵🎵. Adrian, primary.” He tapped a rhythm again, quickly, then straightened. “Grace cannot do.”
Adrian gave a minor-key hum of consideration. “Can try.”
They both turned their attention to me.
I waited for one of them to say something. Neither did.
I cleared my throat. “I’m gonna be honest, I am really, really confused.”
With a slow, enunciative cadence that reminded me of the tone I used to explain things to particularly stubborn students, Adrian said, “Rocky ♪🎵. Now it is Grace turn.”
“Rocky did what? What was that second word?”
“♪🎵,” they repeated. “Is just—” Adrian stopped mid-sentence. Their body rotated toward Rocky.
Rocky made a tinny little noise that I had come to associate with the sound, “Ah.”
“Rocky not explain question?” asked Adrian slowly.
“Busy,” said Rocky, sheepish.
“Had four years on ship.”
“Busy then too.”
Adrian skittered back and forth, which I think equated to a human throwing both hands up in exasperation. “With what question?”
“Science!”
“Whole time science question? Four years!”
“Is much science in universe!”
Adrian let loose a discordant chorus of notes, which were definitely not words, and I chose to translate it in my head as something like, “Gahh!” To me, they said, “Grace not ask question? Not once Grace ask Rocky about Eridian 🎵♪ question? Stupid stupid. Both stupid.” Adrian only used a single repetition for emphasis; Rocky’s triple repetition, I had learned, was part of a regional dialect.
“Adrian, all is well. Grace learn soon. Adrian turn now,” said Rocky, and then seemed to immediately realize that was the wrong thing to say, though I couldn’t for the life of me tell you why.
“Adrian ♪🎵 question?” Adrian asked stormily. “When Grace cannot ♪🎵 because Grace does not even know what ♪🎵 is question? Next you will say ♩🎶 can leave cave before solstice! You forget yourself. You forget all 🎵♪ as I said.”
They turned and headed for the door. I had, obviously, no idea what the heck was happening, but clearly it wasn’t good.
“Wait,” called Rocky, shuffling his legs anxiously. “Apology—”
Adrian stomped on the pressure pad by the threshold. The door swung open. “I will return when you remember.” Then they swept outside. The door slammed behind them.
Rocky stood frozen beside me.
“That seemed intense,” I said cautiously.
Rocky said nothing.
“So, do you want to explain what all that was about?”
“No.” Rocky let a gust of steam out of his vents, something like a sigh, or maybe a groan. “Explain sometime later. Now I find Adrian.”
Without waiting for me to respond, Rocky followed Adrian out the door.
I didn’t see Rocky again until the next day. I barely slept that night. I hadn’t realized just how much I’d come to rely on Rocky’s presence to fall asleep.
I spent the entire night lying awake trying to figure out what Adrian was so upset about. My working hypothesis was that there was some sort of special introduction that Rocky was expected to perform when someone met his mate for the first time. Here was the problem with that: I’d met other Eridians’ mates before. One of the doctors overseeing my physical health had brought his mate to meet me just a few days ago (perks of your mate being the doctor of a celebrity alien, I guess). It had been totally normal. No special introduction at all.
So, alright. What was different about Adrian? Or, maybe, what was different about Rocky? Was there some special Eridian cultural group they were both a part of? Or was their relationship different in some way? Maybe Adrian was like… Eridian royalty? I had a million theories, and very little supporting evidence. Weirdly, I kind of wished Carl was here. He was always good at picking up on social cues that I missed.
When Rocky knocked on my door around lunchtime, I opened it to find him looking just as tired as me. You’d think a rock couldn’t look bedraggled, but you’d be wrong.
“Good morning!” Rocky chirped. His carapace was raised perkily. It was definitely not morning, but he was still figuring out human time-based greetings so I let him have it. “Time for walk on beach. When Grace teach question? Not until tomorrow correct question? Nice walk!”
I didn’t buy his cheery act for one second. “Nice try, bud. Is everything ok with Adrian?”
His carapace sunk back down. “Is… complicated. Will be okay.”
“Are you gonna explain?”
He trilled a few frustrated high notes. “Rocky dislike Eridian 🎵♪. Too much history to explain.” He tried to scuttle between my legs and into the house, but I mustered every ounce of my one year of high school basketball experience and narrowly blocked him. He backed up and scuffed one claw in the sand, dejected.
“You’d rather let Adrian hate both of us than explain just one complicated Eridian thing?”
“Adrian never hate Grace. Grace save Erid. Grace Rocky friends.”
“Well I definitely wasn’t getting a friendly vibe from that interaction. But maybe I’ll understand if you just explain. Come on.” I closed the door and scooted past him, nodding for him to follow me down to the beach. I figured the walk would help. He always seemed calmer on the beach. We had that in common.
“Where start question?” Rocky asked.
“What was that word before? The one I didn’t know.”
“Which word question? History? 🎵♪?”
“That one. The last one.”
We reached the sand and Rocky stepped onto it carefully. They didn’t have much sand here on Erid; the atmosphere was so heavy that sediment usually compressed back into glass or stone before it could tumble itself into bits. Rocky seemed to enjoy the sand, though it took him some getting used to every time we crossed onto it. It reminded me of re-learning how to roller skate after I hadn’t been to the rink for a while.
He danced around in the sand for a few moments before he stopped, cocked his body to one side, and said thoughtfully, “Complicated concept. All Eridian art, language, religion, ideas, music. Intellectual achievement. Mode of thought. All together, is 🎵♪. Different depending on place. One Eridian city has different 🎵♪ than another. But also the whole planet has 🎵♪, too.”
“Culture,” I told him, feeling triumphant. “That’s the word in English.”
He started walking, leading our way across the sand. “Yes. Human culture strange. Many guns.”
“I told you, that’s just America.”
He whistled a dubious note, but didn’t argue. “Eridian 🎵♪ complicated.”
“Human culture is, too. Stop stalling. Tell me why Adrian was so mad.”
He picked his way over some rocks and waded into the water. “Adrian is Rocky mate.”
“I know that.”
“Never know what Grace forget. Human memory bad bad bad.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Adrian mate, and Grace mate also. Eridian have rules—”
“Whoa,” I cut in. I’d stopped dead without realizing. “Whoa, back up, buddy.”
“Back up question? Just started explaining! What possible confuse question?”
I started to speak, but the words came out as a squeak. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Uh, Grace mate?”
“Yes question?”
“Rocky, I…” My stomach dropped. This suddenly felt terribly familiar.
I’m back in my scummy San Francisco apartment, the one I had right after grad school. The sun sets through the blinds. It’s already started to dim, but nobody knows that yet. A woman stands in front of me, arms crossed.
“What’s so confusing?”
“I just,” I say, feeling strangely betrayed and not knowing why, “I guess I thought we were friends.”
“We are,” she says. “And also we’re dating.”
“I feel like if we were dating I would have known.”
“I thought you did!” She seems upset with me. “We’ve been going out for weeks! What else did you think was happening? I don’t get why you’re acting like this. You should be jumping for fucking joy right now, Ry.”
“I mean, I—I’m flattered.” Am I? I don’t know.
She saunters closer and looks up at me. I think it should make me feel something. “Don’t you want to kiss me?”
I almost lie to her. I almost tell her yes. I almost kiss her, just to shut her up. Instead, I say, “Listen, I really like you…” and trail off, and I let her fill in the blank.
And that’s that.
I told Rocky, gently, “I’m not your mate. I’m your friend.”
Rocky went still. “What question?”
“A mate is… I don’t know what made you think… I mean, we couldn’t even…” None of that was a complete sentence. How do I explain this to him? How do I let him down easy? What could possibly have even made him think—?
“What is human mate question?” he asked. He was standing in the shallows still, waves lapping gently over his legs. He didn’t let them sway him.
“We’ve been over this,” I started, but he cut me off.
“Explain again. More thorough. Human mate do what question?”
“They, uh, human mates live together.”
“Eridian mates also. Grace Rocky do that.” That was true. He’d been staying with me every night to get me comfortable here on Erid, but that… was temporary, right? He had to go back and live with Adrian eventually, didn’t he?
“Human mates kiss.”
“Eridian mate do not kiss. No lips.”
Despite myself, I chuckle. Point Rocky. “They cuddle, I guess.”
“What word question?”
“Touch for comfort.”
“Eridian mate do sometimes, and Grace Rocky do also.”
Alright, fair. We were separated by his xenonite suit, but it still counted, probably. But here was the rub: “They have sex.”
“Eridians not do. No sex.”
This came as somewhat of a surprise. We’d gone over Eridian reproduction, but only in the most clinical of terms. “Wait, what about the egg thing?”
Rocky clambered out of the water to plant himself defiantly in front of me. “Lay egg. Two egg fuse. No sexual intercourse in lay egg.” He illustrated by hooking two claws together, as though I was a child who needed a physical demonstration. Puppet show, I thought distantly.
“So does it not feel good? To lay eggs?”
Rocky jerked back in a motion I’d come to recognize as a grimace. “Good question?”
“Yeah, like. I don’t know. Good. Passionate.”
“Feel… comfort. Safe. Connection with mate.”
“Same as human sex,” I argued.
“Not same good,” he shot back. “Rocky observe many human sex on television program. Very very very different.”
“Different how?” I asked. This was getting frustrating.
“Fine!” Rocky burst out with a little jump. “Grace twist leg, Rocky explain start to finish! Embarrassing! Grace not explain human sex when Rocky ask. Grace said watch movie for show human sex. But noooo, Rocky explain Eridian egg lay because Grace stupid stupid stupid tiny human brain not understand and Rocky very magnanimous friend. Grace listen question?”
I couldn't help but grin. “Yeah, Rock, I’m listening.”
Rocky hopped up onto an outcropping of rocks and sat down. “Grace sit and no interrupt.”
I sat down next to him. The rocks weren’t exactly an Ikea couch, but it’d do. “No interrupt.” I gestured for him to go ahead.
Rocky paused—bracing himself, probably. He said, “Many many many years ago early Eridians start lay eggs for first time. This is not real, it is… need word. ♩♪♪. Fake story old Eridian tell children for teach lesson.”
“Myth,” I supplied. “What’s this have to do with—”
“No interrupt,” Rocky snapped.
I mimed zipping my mouth shut and throwing away the key, then realized Eridians don’t have zippers and their locks work differently. Rocky seemed to get the idea anyway.
“In real world Eridians evolve to lay eggs. But in myth, first Eridians travel very far to find children. Story varies by continent, but similar structure. Here, we say that famous Eridian named ♩🎶 go under ground to large cave, sacred cave, called 🎶♩♩. They find stones. Must find perfect stone for to become eggs. First Eridian mate ♪♩🎶 find stone for each other and sit together in belly of cave to wait. On cool solstice they have special intimate ritual. Of course, this story is helpful tool for real Eridian in history, so Eridian know to mate on cool solstice for baby to hatch in warmest time of year. Maximize survival rate. But in myth, cool solstice is when mate ♪♩🎶 connect and love each other so much the stone turn to egg and fuse so first Eridian baby hatch.”
“Hold on, what was that word after mate? Another name?”
“Mate ♪♩🎶 question?” Rocky rumbled a discontented diminished chord. “Not name. Small group. Mates together.”
I frowned. “Group?”
“Group of mates. Yes.”
Holy crap. Hoooly crap, I am an idiot. Eridians are naturally polyamorous.
“Rocky,” I said, “We don’t do that.”
“Do what question?”
“We don’t mate in groups. It’s just two humans. Or, well, I guess some humans are alternative and they have multiple partners, but that’s pretty unusual…”
“Yes, I know. Always human in movie must pick between two human instead of take both for mate. Confuse confuse confuse. Easier to choose both. Two hands.”
I laughed. “What, a mate for each hand?”
Rocky cocked his carapace to one side. “Yes,” he said, like it was obvious. “Eridian have five arm, five side of body. Five city in county. Five county in province. Five planet in star system. All five, important number. Symbolic number for Erid. Five mate also.”
How. How had this never come up? This seemed pretty important! “Why didn’t you tell me that before?”
He rocked his carapace in a shrug. “Seemed obvious.”
It really didn’t. But then again, there were probably plenty of things about humanity that seemed really obvious to me that I’d never thought to explain to him. Just the other day I had to explain why we have to swallow our food, since Rocky thought it’d be easier to shove food down into our stomachs with a hand like Eridians do.
“But you only have one mate,” I said.
“Still young,” he told me. “Someday if Rocky is lucky will find three others to make mate group five in total. But now Rocky have two mate: Grace Adrian.”
“Rocky, buddy, we are not mates,” I said. Now that I knew he wasn’t not planning to leave Adrian for me, it had crossed over from sad to amusing. Rocky was an Eridian celebrity these days, it wasn’t like he’d have a shortage of people lining up to be his mate, anyway.
Rocky shot to his feet, frustrated. “Grace wrong wrong wrong. Still no understand. Stupid. Why think we are not mates question?”
“Because I don’t—” God, I’d had this conversation before. It always sucked. Something might have been wrong with me, I realized, because who the heck has had to say this as many times as I had? “I love you, Rocky. But I’m not in love with you.”
“In love question?”
“Like in the movies. You know, remember The Notebook? Like when the guy sweeps the girl off her feet? That’s being in love. What we have is friendship. It’s different.”
“Not understand. Eridian do not have that.”
I blinked, taken aback. “You have love.”
“Of course have love. Do not have in love.”
“You’re not in love with Adrian?”
“Rocky feel for Adrian same as for Grace. Big big big friendship. Want to be friends until death. Live in same place. Help each other in sad time. Grace…” For the first time in the entire conversation, Rocky’s carapace tilted downward sadly. “Grace does not feel the same?”
“I do!” I said quickly, and it was the truth, obviously. “But that’s not being in love.”
“Do not understand. What does in love feel like question?”
I opened my mouth to respond, but. Well. It was like asking a virgin to tell you what sex is like. I could explain what I’d heard, but I’d never been in love. And now, here on Erid with nobody to judge me, I could admit that I wasn’t even convinced I’d ever felt romantic attraction. I certainly never had crushes when I was in school. Had I even ever wanted sex? Or did I just do what I thought was expected of me? I’d be perfectly happy never having sex again, frankly. It always felt kind of like a waste of time. What did that make me?
Alright, I was spiraling a little.
“It feels different,” I said simply. “We aren’t in love, we’re just friends.”
“Just,” Rocky repeated. The word sounded so shameful in Eridian, a short cluster of flat notes. “No just about Grace Rocky friends. Grace Rocky save stars together.”
And, yeah. That stung. Mostly because he was right. “That’s… yeah, buddy. Sorry. There’s no just. We’re best friends.”
“Grace always…” Rocky huffed a couple of annoyed notes, and started again. “Grace have human idea. That is fine. Big human idea in brain, like I have Eridian idea. But Grace always try to find human idea to match Eridian idea. Eridian egg like human sex, Eridian eat like human defecate. But it is not the same. Grace Rocky from two different planets. Different star systems. Thinking only in human ideas cause misunderstanding.”
I let out a slow breath. “Alright,” I said. “So, okay… just to be totally clear, here. Whenever an Eridian meets someone they’re really good friends with, they… mate?”
“Really really really good friend,” Rocky amended. “Best friend. Five mate only whole life and almost never separate. Eridian must choose very carefully. Take long time with normal friendship first.”
I supposed it made sense. Eridians raised their young in collective villages, so it wasn’t like there was any mating instinct necessary beyond that, from an evolutionary perspective.
“Understand why Adrian upset now question?”
“I think I’m getting there. So, because we’re best friends, that means I’m supposed to become part of your mate group?”
“Hopefully.” Rocky’s carapace sank to the rock beneath him. “Trial period first. All mates must consent. Obvious. And Adrian mad mad mad.”
“Because I… didn’t introduce myself in the right way? Or because you didn’t teach me how?”
“Too simple explanation but yes both.” Rocky clambered off the rock to pace. As he spoke, he gestured widely with his limbs. This, I’d learned, was a Rocky-specific habit. Some Eridians spoke with their hands, just like some humans did. “Custom from cave myth time. Famous Eridian called ♩🎶… Grace give human name question?”
“Aphrodite,” I decided. “It’s from a human myth.” I hadn’t explained Greek myths to him yet. I should get on that.
“Explain later,” he said. He held up one claw open, and another claw with one finger extended: four. “Aphrodite had four mates already, but the mates did not meet each other until they were all inside 🎶♩♩ cave. When they met she showed them to each other, and spoke of them each with highest honor for many months.” He brought his claws together and laced his fingers. “They all formed big big big love. That is why they did not mate until solstice: it took much time for them to form group together. Today tradition is much reduced. In history, mate meeting took much much much time so mates could repeat all words of Aphrodite praise. Now is short introduction, but still important. Show respect for each other. Good first impression. Use old words, modern Eridians do not usually use outside of mate meeting.”
I felt like I should be writing this down to send back to Earth. This was important cultural context. Maybe soon I could record all of it for posterity.
Rocky dropped his arms. “This is why Adrian upset. Rocky in space for many years and return with new mate. Now not showing Adrian respect by proper introduction. Feels like… Adrian being ignored.”
“Ah,” I said.
“Now understand question?”
“Yes. Understand.” I was the shiny new toy, and poor Adrian was getting the short end of the stick. “So how do we fix it?”
“Depends.” Rocky stopped pacing and scampered up to me. “Grace mate question?”
I hesitated. It felt… weird, to use that word.
Rocky shook his carapace, as if to shake off my discomfort. “Stop think mate for 🎵♩. Bad translation. Human mate means sex romance to you, cannot separate meaning. Think of new word, feel better.”
It wasn’t a bad idea. “Uhhh.” I screwed up my lips and tried to come up with a better word. I’d never been very creatively gifted. Spouse? Partner? Bleh. Those both still felt way too romantic. “Bestie?”
I replaced the word for mate in my head when he said it this time: “Grace bestie question?”
I snorted a laugh. “No, sorry, that’s stupid.”
“No no no Rocky like!” He spun around happily. “Grace bestie statement. Think bestie.”
“Alright, okay. That works for now, I guess. We’re besties.” I felt pretty juvenile saying it, but whatever. Who was going to care? I was literally on an alien planet.
“Happy happy happy! Already knew we were besties but good that Grace also knows now too.”
It did sound nice—not my stupid name for it, but the concept itself. A really close friend group who lived together and always had each other’s backs. I’d never had that, not even on Earth. I made friends easily enough, but best friends were a horse of a different color. I’d always been too focused on work. On my kids. And when friends got too close, they always tried to set me up with girls (or guys, on one rare occasion). I was starting to think that had made me more uncomfortable than I’d realized at the time. I thought of having Rocky by my side forever, just as we were now, with no further expectations, and felt warm.
“So now problem easy to fix,” Rocky continued, steamrolling over my deep emotional moment as usual.
“You just teach me how to do the introduction, right?” I asked.
Rocky squeaked out a doubtful chord. “I will try my best.”
I finished my part of the introduction with the taps Rocky taught me, feeling monumentally silly, and glanced at Adrian, trying not to look nervous.
Adrian was standing in my living room looking stony (yes, pun intended, sue me). For an uncomfortably long moment, they did not move. Then I heard, at a very high frequency, a sort of stuttering titter from their carapace.
“Adrian,” said Rocky. I couldn’t read his tone at all.
“Apology, apology,” said Adrian, and I realized that the tittering was laughter. Once they spoke, they clearly gave up on holding it back. The laughter burst out of them with such force that they doubled over—which, for an Eridian, was more of a buckling at the elbows.
“Aaaadrian,” Rocky said, but the notes were wavering. Wait a minute, was he laughing too?
“Apology!” Adrian was still laughing. “Was good, was very good! Is hard with only four limbs and human mouth!”
“Hey,” I said, not sure how offended I should be. “I tried my best!”
“Grace did very good job, clearly try very hard to learn. Impress impress!”
I felt kind of like a dog being congratulated for wearing a hat, but I’d take it.
“Adrian turn,” Rocky reminded them as his laughter quieted.
“Yes yes,” said Adrian. They let some steam out of their vents, seemingly to calm themself down. They executed the bow with far more aplomb than I had, and seeing them do it, it became clear that Rocky’s rendition had been pretty clumsy, too. Adrian made it look almost like a dance. Their tapping fell in perfect rhythm with their movements. “♪♩🎶♩. Grace, Earth. ♪🎵🎵. Rocky, primary.” They tapped again and straightened gracefully. I felt thoroughly outclassed.
“Good good good,” said Rocky. “Adrian does introduction perfect. Next time Grace learn from Adrian.”
“Next time,” I said faintly, already out of my depth.
Rocky bumped up against my legs. “Now Grace can come to cave at solstice! Excite. Cultural experience.”
“Cave?” I asked. “Wait, the egg cave? Hold on—”
“New house soon under construction next to biodome,” Adrian was saying over me. “Make bigger than old house for Grace to have tunnels for watching sleep. Xenonite barrier will work for interior, but with bigger 🎵🎵🎶 it may need ♪♪♩ and can modulate the cellular structure—”
“Guys? Can we rewind a little to the egg cave?”
Neither Eridian was listening. They’d already started discussing construction at a level I couldn’t hope to comprehend. I’d nearly forgotten Adrian was an architect by trade.
My two besties. Ugh. That still sounded stupid. I’d have to come up with something better. But for now, I couldn’t deny it felt good to have two best friends.
And I certainly wouldn’t get bored any time soon.