Chapter Text
A lot had changed from the time Grace had first arrived on Erid. His first year had been pretty quiet actually. Figuring out his new normal for his life on the planet. Luckily, he had Rock and Adrian and all the other Eridians there to help him along the way. Honestly Grace had gotten use to his simply and chill life in his biome. He had his best friend, his class and hey! He wasn’t dead in space! All win-wins. Okay yeah maybe he was a bit lonely and missed human contact. But he was fine! Completely fine.
That was, until the day Rocky came storming into the biome trilling about a new human. A new and alive human. Grace had taken off like the Hail Mary to see this mysterious human. So many questions running through his head. And boy. Seeing the blood-soaked human did nothing but add to those questions. The first few weeks were rough. Waiting for the man to wake up. The recovery. The aggression the man had when he woke up. To the panic and then, finally, healing. Simon had shared his story with Ryland and Ryland shared his. The two crafting a friendship over their oh so fun trauma.
Which leads to now. Simon was Grace’s friend. And yet he had started find himself leaning a bit more into Simon when they stood near each other. Finding reasons to touch the other. Light nudges or hugs. Grace tried to brush it off as being touch-starved. Both he and Simon admitted to needing the physical assurance. But then came the more… distracting thoughts.
Grace watched as Simon jogged past on the beach. The ex-convict found he still enjoyed working out and staying physically fit even if he didn’t need to be a soldier anymore. As Simon past where Grace sat, he waved and continued on. His focus was cute, especially considering Simon had one of Grace’s students on his shoulder, another clinging to his pant leg and the rest of the class chasing after him. Only the tiniest upturn of the corner of Simon’s mouth showed his own joy.
The little pebbles loved Simon. Anytime the man showed up to one of Grace’s classes it took forever to settle them down. Today Grace thought a “field trip” into the biome would settle them. Instead, they joined the other human in his morning exercises finding them fun. So, Grace found a spot on the beach to sit and just… watched. Simon was good with the pebbles. Showing a lot more patience with them than he ever did with Rocky. Simon was also strong. Like really strong. He could carry a few of the pebbles that Grace could only struggle to lift! Must be all those muscles. Shoot, Grace still remembers when Simon first woke up and lunged at him. He’s pinned Grace to the ground like nothing and had growled over him and-
“Grace heart rate elevated. Grace well. Question.” Grace jumped as Rocky appeared beside him. He coughed in embarrassment but grinned at his friend.
“Nothing’s wrong, Rocky. I was just thinking.” He leaned back on his hands as he spoke.
“Grace watching friend Simon when heart elevated. Potential mate. Question.” Now that had Grace’s face heating up and choking on air.
“What?! No. Nononono. Nothing like that Rocky.”
“Then why Simon do mating dance for Grace. Question.” Rocky pointed and Grace, even more confused, followed where he motioned.
Simon was now doing pushups with the two small pebbles on his back. Their musical cheers rang out along with the other pebbles that were running around him. But that’s not what made Grace’s brain glitch. No it was the fact Simon was doing push ups shirtless. Ryland could see the way his muscles moved with every rep. How the muscles in his arms and chest tightened. The quiet grunts Simon let out as pebbles took turns riding on his back.
“Wha- no. No that’s not… not a mating dance.” Grace squeaked out.
“Heart rate even faster. Sure not mating dance. Question.” Grace couldn’t tell but it sounded like Rocky didn’t believe him. But no. No this was just Simon working out his hot body and- nope!
“Alright class! Field Trip over! Let’s head back to the classroom!” Grace practically ran ahead of his class as they excitedly followed their favorite teacher. None of them catching the almost panicked tone of his voice. Simon sat up and watched them go with a confused look.
“He alright?” He mumbled, looking to the Eridian. Rock shuffled in a way Simon knew was a shrug.
“Grace strange. Didn’t understand your mating dance.” Rocky scuttled away before Simon fully caught his words. Then…
“My what?”