Chapter Text
The wind sang softly through the stone arches of the cemetery.
To human ears, it would have sounded hollow and low, like a distant whale call. But to Eridian, every shift in the air carried texture and meaning. Grief. Memory. Love.
The mission to save the stars had changed Enid forever.
Ryland Grace had decided to spend the rest of his life on Enid and eventually passed away due to natural causes.
The Eridians built a memorial garden with shaped resonant stone towers that chimed whenever the wind passed through them.
At the center stood Grace’s tomb.
Not elaborate. He would have hated elaborate.
Just smooth black stone with human lettering beside etched Eridian chords.
RYLAND GRACE
Teacher. Scientist. Friend.
He came from one world and saved two.
Rocky visited every day anyway.
The engineer slowly approached the grave, his claws clicking quietly against the stone path. His mate walked beside him, carrying a basket of fresh metal flowers the children in the school had welded for Grace that week.
”You think Grace laugh at these?” Adrian asked warmly.
Rocky hummed in amusement, “Grace laugh at everything.”
”He especially laugh at your first welding.”
”Cruel mate.”
Adrian's musical clicking echoed through the garden.
They placed the flowers beside the tombstone. Rocky rested one claw carefully against the engraved human name.
For a while, neither spoke.
That was normal.
Sometimes they simply sat there together listening to the wind and remembering the impossible human who stumbled face-first into their lives and somehow became part of the family.
Then Rocky froze.
A tiny note drifted through the air.
High.
Small.
Not wind.
Adrian tilted their head immediately. “A youngling?”
Another sound answered. A curious little trill.
Rocky slowly rounded the back of the memorial stone.
And stopped moving entirely.
Tiny.
Very tiny.
A little Eridian sat tucked against the bae of the tomb.
Their crystals glowed a warm amber-orange under the evening light. One of their front claws was wrapped around a broken piece of stone like a comfort toy.
But that was not why Rocky nearly passed out.
Across one of the little Eridian’s upper arms was a jagged pale line.
A scar.
In the exact same place Grace had, the exact one where Rocky had grabbed to drag Grace to safety.
The child turned to Rocky and made a tiny questioning cord.
Rocky stared.
Adrian came around the stone behind him and abruptly clicked in shock.
”No,” Adrian whispered.
The little one chirped again and toddled forward on unsteady legs.
Rocky crouched instinctively.
The child reached out and tapped one claw gently against Rocky’s limb.
A rush of memory hit him so hard his chest tightened painfully.
Grace grinning while holding up his scarred arm.
”Occupational hazard, Rocky.”
Grace asleep against warm reactor pipes after working too long.
Grace laughing.
Grace teaching.
Grace dying peacefully in his home, surrounded by those who loved him.
Rocky’s voice shook. “Impossible.”
The child tilted their body.
Then, in broken uneven notes—
“Rocky?”
Adrian made a startled sound.
The little Eridian tried again carefully, as if repeating something long memorized.
”Grace Rocky save stars?”
Rocky felt something crack deep inside his chest.
No pain.
Something warmer.
The child shuffled closer until they leaned directly against Rock’s side like it was the most natural thing in the universe.
And for the first time in years—
Rocky did not feel like the cemetery was empty anymore.