Chapter Text
Grace, sitting with Rocky, was enjoying his instant Cup Noodles. He was lucky that he had extra food from Yao and Ilyukhina’s share. Well, unfortunate that they, you know, died, but now that Simon was on the ship as well, the extra food was particularly useful. They still had to ration, but it wasn’t as bad as having to share one person’s worth of food. With only one week left in their journey to Erid, saving food wasn’t much of a concern; it was the final stretch.
“Grace still look disgust when eat!” Rocky chirped. Grace rolled his eyes.
“Not like you look much better, bud,” Grace retorted. He had grown very fond of the rock alien, but his eating habits still unsettled him. Grace loved Rocky with all his heart. But his heart only seemed to grow when Simon came into the picture.
Simon, Grace thought. He thought about him a lot, actually. Even when he wasn’t in the room. Simon was once fearful and distrusting, but had learned to trust Grace and Rocky. Grace didn’t blame him; he was surely traumatized after everything he went through on the blood moon, trapped in a submarine with no way out. Luckily for Simon, Grace was very patient, a trait he acquired when he started teaching. Grace didn’t miss the brown in Simon’s eyes, or the way his hair fell and framed his face, or the fact that he was the most beautiful person he’d ever seen.
Footsteps approached the two scientists. Grace was taking a bite of his noodles when Simon walked in.
“Hey Si- woah.”
Grace did a double take. Simon was not wearing a shirt. He had a harness on. The harness was over-the-shoulder, with a strap lining his chest. It accentuated his pecs perfectly. Grace felt his face heat up 10 degrees. He never saw Simon shirtless before, and the sight made him drop his noodles.
“OW! Mother… fudger!” Grace exclaimed, the scalding hot ramen noodle soup spilling all over his lap. Rocky let out a little squeal, concerned for his friend.
“Oh my god, are you okay?” Simon asked, worry filling his voice. “Here, let me help you clean up.”
Simon grabbed some napkins and dabbed Grace’s lap, drying his pants. The touch made Grace shiver, despite the soup being hot. Once Simon was done, he threw the napkins away. “I’ll be in the ‘Don’t Go Crazy’ room if you need me.”
Grace let out a sigh of relief. He wasn’t sure he could stand to be next to Simon right after embarrassing himself.
“Grace okay, question? Grace very tense. Grace Rocky already save stars, why still tense, question?” Rocky asked.
Grace was hesitant to tell Rocky the truth. However, Rocky did save his life, so he decided to tell him. “I’m okay, Rocky, I just… I have a problem.”
“More problems, question?”
“I like you Rocky, and I also like Simon. But I don’t like Simon the way I like you. I like Simon the way you like Adrian,” Grace replied.
“Ah, understand! Why problem, question? This good good good! Grace have mate!” chimed Rocky.
“That’s the thing, Rock… It’s probably impossible that he likes me, too. You see, humans are sexually dimorphic. They’re not like Eridians where everyone has the same sex. Humans have multiple sexes, but most are male and female. Back on earth, males who like males or females who like females aren’t accepted by a lot of humans. I don’t even know if Simon likes men, let alone me. Plus, he’s the only opportunity of human friendship I have, and I don’t want to ruin that.”
“Rocky confused. Humans don’t like other humans who like same sex, question? Humans stupid!” said Rocky, exasperated.
“I know bud, it still doesn’t make sense to me, either.”
“Rocky think Simon like Grace. Simon look at Grace a lot. Rocky help Grace court Simon!”
“Really? You think so? And you’d do that for me?”
“Yes yes yes! Grace help Rocky save Erid. Rocky help Grace court Simon.” Rocky nodded.
Grace wrapped his arms around Rocky’s xenonite ball. “Thank you, Rocky.”