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“Movement detected,” was the first thing Simon heard after he shot up. The room around him was all white, random objects you’d see in labs scattered all around. And there was a man.
He was blond. He had facial hair, glasses hanging from one of his ears, a dark navy shirt that had the periodic table and the words, ‘I wear this shirt periodically’ were written underneath.
That man was asleep, but after hearing the room (?) speak, he shot up just as Simon did. “Armando, wh—“
“Where the fuck am I?!” Simon screamed, falling onto his side. Right, his arm was missing, he couldn’t lean on that anymore. His head was pounding, the room was spinning, but thank God his body wasn’t aching anymore.
The man rubbed his eye and stood to his feet. “You are on the Hail Mary.” He said. “Welcome.”
“What the fuck…” Simon whispered. “Are you real?”
He laughed at that. “Yes! I know, this is probably really strange, haha.” He fixed his glasses and wore them like a normal human being. “You are concussed, and—“
“I know.” Simon grumbled, glaring at the blondie in the nerdy shirt.
“I.. yes. And you have been asleep for quite a few days.” He continued despite the interruption.
Simon stared at him for a moment, before pushing himself back up and standing from the bed. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m Ryland Grace!” He smiled, and then pointed to the side of the room that Simon hadn’t taken the time to observe. “And that is Rocky.”
“Hello friend!” The creature waved. His name summed up what he was.
“Oh my God.” Simon swayed, and sat back down. The creature in the sphere rolled over clumsily to the bed, muttering robotic comments on how he looks. Simon was covered in blood, head to toe. “Why am I here? What—“
“Well, Rocky and I kind of needed a pilot… and we noticed you were floating around in your ship—“
“It’s not a ship.” Simon interrupted as he so often did, his voice gruff and angry. “It’s a submarine.”
“Rocky does not know word.”
Ryland Grace’s eyebrows furrowed, puzzled. “A submarine? In outer space?”
“What?!”
The rock grumbled, “Loud, loud, loud!”
“Rocky.” The scientist sighed and rubbed his nose bridge underneath his glasses. “Let’s slow this down.”
“No! I need answers!” Simon demanded. “Answer me, fuck!”
Grace reached out and placed a hand on Simon’s shoulders. “Can you be quiet?”
Simon felt his veins popping in his forehead.
“I’m trying to explain. But you keep interrupting me.” He let out a breathily laugh, pulling his hands away. “Let’s start by introducing ourselves a bit more.”
Simon took in a shaky breath. “You’re shitting me.” Grace gave him a look, and he let out a toddler sigh. “Fine, fuck! I’m Simon, the butcher, the convict… whatever you want to call me.”
“Sweet! Glad I know your name!” Grace was clearly trying to lift the spirits in the room, but he looked a bit pissed off and tired. Probably because Simon woke him up and immediately started yelling in his face. “Why were you on that submarine?”
“I was sent on a… an expedition to collect a scrap. A bone.” Simon replied, shrugging his armless shoulder. “It was a suicide mission. I was supposed to die in that thing—am I dead? Is this heaven?”
“You’re not dead, Simon. We’re gonna bring you somewhere safer, I swear to God.” Grace soothed him sternly, deciding against soft parenting him this time.
“Okay… Okay.”
“Do you want to tell me more?”
Simon swallowed thickly. He could’ve told Grace that he was a murderer. That he destroyed Filament Station and sent their generation way back…. but he didn’t. He shook his head.
“Okay.” Grace said. “Well, let me tell you a little bit more about me. I’m recovering from amnesia, so I’m learning too.” He laughed, but the look in his eyes showed a different emotion. “I was a science teacher at Grover Cleveland Middle School. I was a good one, apparently, so I was kind of forced into this project. Project Hail Mary.”
Simon scratched some of the blood off his face. “What’s Project Hail Mary?”
“It was a suicide mission, similarly to yours. A microscopic organism called Astrophage is eating the sun, and me, as well as two others, were sent on this ship to trace it and y’know, save humanity.” He said casually, fiddling with a glass rubix cube, similarly to the sphere that Rocky was inside. “My crewmates died. So, for a while, it was just me up here. Just a scientist. I tried to be an engineer, and I’m working on being a pilot…” Grace winced, feeling like he was only good at the thing he knew most about: science. “But now I have Rocky, and he is an amazing engineer. He made a ton of these things—he made this!” His tossed the rubix cube to Simon, who caught it with ease. “Isn’t that amazing?”
“…Yeah.” Simon was quiet, not really in the mood to respond after getting an earful. “Anything else?”
“Yes, actually!!” And then Grace went on and on. Simon sat through it all, nearly falling asleep halfway through. Grace was throwing a whole bunch of scientific terms at him like he knew what it meant. For Christ’s sake, he was concussed! He should be resting, not listening!
“—And that’s why we need you! You are the pilot that we need!” Grace smiled, putting down one of the glossy containers with cells inside, squirming around.
Simon blinked at him. “Can I think about it?”
Grace gave him a look, a sad one with no explanation. Simon almost felt like he had said the wrong thing. “Uh—yeah! Of course. Take all the time you need.”
Simon tried to crawl back into the bed, but Grace stopped him. “Hold on,” He said.
“What?”
“Let me go grab Rocky.”
“Wh— why?”
Grace turned and looked at him with fear in his eyes. “Well, one day—“
“Stop, doctor Grace… I don’t need a whole backstory. Just tell me.” Simon groaned, itching at his skin which was being irritated by the blood.
“…Right, sorry.” He chuckled. “I just haven’t been around another human being in so many years.”
“But you were in a coma for majority of them.” Simon scoffed, and Grace gave him an upset look.
“I was still aware in that coma. At least part of it.” Grace stopped himself. “Sorry, off topic. In Rocky’s… culture, they watch each other sleep, because when Eridians sleep, they’re kind of dead to the world. So if danger happens and they’re alone, then they can’t defend themselves.”
“…Oh.”
“Rocky’s convinced it’s the same for us.” Grace clapped his hands and stood tall. “Now let me go grab him!”
“O-okay.” Simon was really weirded out by this guy. But he wasn’t intimidated, and he didn’t feel unsafe at all. He thought about what the scientist had just told him. Rocky was traumatized.
“Rocky is here! Rocky is here!” He rolled into the room, and once he stilled, he partied.
Simon looked at him, unamused. “Hello Rocky.”
“Hello, Grace mate!”
“W-what?!” Grace shouted, and Simon’s jaw dropped. “Rocky, no! No, no, no, no, no!” He laughed for a split second, “That’s not what this is at all, oh my God…”
“Simon is not Grace mate, question?”
“Yes, Simon isn’t my mate…” Grace snorted, nudging at Rocky’s orb. Simon just watched their antics in silence, stunned. He really needed to wake up from this dream, go back to being a fucking tree.
“Rocky is sorry.” The creature sounded like he was lying, or plotting something, but neither of the humans took the time to say something about it. Instead, Grace finalized it with a clap of the hands.
“Let’s just go to sleep.” He sighed, climbing into the bed with Simon.
“Wait a second. What are you doing?” Simon furrowed his brows at him. “Why are you climbing into my bed? There are two other beds.”
“Those are dead friends beds.” Rocky answered the question.
Grace ignored him. “They have a weird smell. That’s all.” He shrugged.
Simon opened his mouth to say something, but ended up closing it and lying down. Grace did too, his back pressing right against Simon’s. It was hard to sleep in this position, but Simon did not want to roll over and like… spoon Grace on accident somehow. With his singular fucking arm, he could somehow do it.
Only a few hours later, Simon woke up to Grace pulling on his arm. “Hey. Heyyy.”
“Fuck. What?” Simon grumbled, glaring at the blondie.
“You smell really bad.” Grace said, smiling. “We have water though. It kind of slipped my mind to wash you, sorry.”
“What the hell…” Simon sat up and let Grace pull him to wherever the water was. “Doctor Grace, do we have to do this while I’m half asleep?”
“Yes. Because I want to sleep too.” Grace moved his glasses so that they were hanging off his ear. “I’m gonna show you how to turn the shower on and off, and then I’m gonna give you your privacy. Okay?”
“What if I fall asleep mid shower.” Simon put his hand on his hip. “Will Rocky like, have a panic attack or something because he can’t ‘watch me sleep’?”
“Oh! No, no. He’s probably gonna watch you through the walls. Did I tell you that? He can see through walls and he has crazy good hearing.”
“What the hell?”
“Yeah. Privacy is on a… a premium.” Grace joked, before finally showing Simon how to use the shower. The convict just had to act like he was okay with the Eridian watching him at all times. That was normal. Totally.
“You spend a lot of time in here.” Simon heard. It was doctor Grace. Simon was sitting inside that room with the huge TVs surrounding the area. He would lay there and watch videos of earth, of concerts, of what life was before he nearly lost it. “I don’t blame you. When I woke up, I spent a lot of time in here too.”
“What was it like?” Simon mumbled into his arm that he used as a cushion.
“It was really strange. I was on earth, and then I woke up so many light years away from it.” Grace chuckled, sitting down next to the convict. “Being an amnesiac made it weirder. I didn’t know my own name for a while.”
Simon tilted his head to look at him. “Why did you come here?”
Grace looked at him somberly, connecting their eye contact. Simon noticed that he pouts a lot. “Well, our science crew all died in an explosion except for me. I was the only other option. Doctor Stratt wanted it to be me especially, because I didn’t have any family. I didn’t even have a dog, she said.”
Simon frowned at that. “Just because you don’t have a family doesn’t mean you’re suicidal. The fuck?”
Grace shook his head. “It didn’t matter if we were suicidal or not. What mattered was that we were brave. Well, it mattered for the people that were volunteers.”
“You weren’t a volunteer?”
“No. When the science crew died, the original scientist for the project passed in the explosion as well.” Grace inhaled with unsteadiness. “Stratt’s people chased me down. They’re partially why I got amnesia.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah.” Grace pouted deeper.
“But you are a teacher.” Simon uttered, sitting up now.
“I was, yes.”
“Were you able to say goodbye to your students?” Simon asked, observing Grace’s face, which was now turned away. He was crying.
He let out an excuse of a laugh. “I wish. It would’ve been cool to tell them that I was going to save earth.”
Simon didn’t know what to say. He turned his body and reached out, wiping away Grace’s tears.
“What about you?” He asked, sniffling. “Why did you go on the submarine?”
Simon felt bad. He didn’t want to tell Grace because the scientist had so much hope in him. If he told him why, then he’d probably be kicked off the ship. Killed.
I just want to live.
“I can’t tell you.” Simon mumbled.
Grace looked surprised at that. “Oh. Okay.” He smiled, fidgeting with the cuffs of his pants. “Anything else you want to talk about?”
Simon shook his head, but he had one question. “How much longer until we reach our final destination?”
“We reach Erid in two years.”
Simon blinked, and nodded his head. “Okay. Let’s go back to bed now.”
“Sounds good.” Grace clapped his hands and stood up. Simon noticed that the doctor did that before making a decision. He claps his hands… Maybe some of his teacher habits never left him.
“Okay, I’m gonna be honest.” Simon said, sounding nervous once Mary stated that the pilot has been detected. “I’m not an actual pilot.”
“What?” Grace asked, bewildered. “But you were guiding the submarine—“
“Rocky is confused!” He cheered, interrupting Grace.
“Well, I learned how to use that shit by like… pressing buttons and pulling levers. I never got a tutorial.” Simon’s hand hovered over the thousands of buttons and levers on each wall of the cock pit.
“…Well, same thing here?”
“Not really!” Simon scoffed, turning in the chair to look at Grace. “There were like, ten buttons on the controls, and a single lever.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh.”
“But you seemed to learn it pretty easily, right?”
Simon facepalmed. “I wasn’t so good at it if the submarine I was driving ended up going to space. I was below sea level!!”
“Okay! Okay. I can help you. We can both be pilots for now.”
“Rocky does not like idea, statement.” The creature raised his hand, interjecting his opinion.
“That’s great, Rocky. But what other plan do we have?” Grace sighed, exasperated.
Rocky looked over at him for a while, unsure and unknowing of a better idea.
“This isn’t an ordinary piece of aircraft anyway.” Simon complained. “Airplanes have half the amount of controls.”
“Well, yeah. Like, we’re going farther into outer space than any other.”
Simon furrowed his brows. “How the hell are we not dead?”
“Because Rocky!!” The Eridian answered in a sing-song voice.
If they were going to spend two years together, they were gonna have to get over this invisible wall between them. Simon had noticed the way that Grace reaches out for him but holds back. He doesn’t know why he’s holding back.
Simon spends majority of his time figuring out the controls. Armando helps him handle his amputated arm. Grace is either in the cock pit with them or in the lab, working on whatever specimen he can, usually something along the lines of disproving the relevance of H2O. Rocky talks to Simon about his mate, Adrian. Or he’s building something with crazy speed and skill. Or both.
These crew mates are all spectacular, and Simon thinks, for the most part, he’s comfortable with them. But he doesn’t believe that they are comfortable with him.
Probably because they’ve all been around each other for so long that they just work. Simon feels like the new kid at school, joining premade friend groups.
It was strong with Grace. It was like there was a wall that the teacher was building around Simon, like he was holding back from a bad idea, a temptation. But what was that temptation?
Simon felt so clueless sometimes, like when Grace would rant about those microscopic specimens eating the sun. Somehow, Simon had never heard of those before. He couldn’t have been in the submarine for that long..
Again, Simon found himself in the TV room, watching videos with tears in his eyes. He missed life before the Filament Station accident.
“Simon, you should go to bed.” He heard a groggy voice.
“I can’t sleep, doctor Grace.”
The man took a deep breath in, walking over to Simon. He coughed into his San Francisco shirt before saying, “I have melatonin, if you need any.”
Simon wiped his face, shaking his head. “I’m just not in the mood for sleeping.”
“That’s… That’s what melatonin is for.” Grace grumbled, wincing at the brightness of the screen. “C’mon. Come lay down with me…”
Simon shuddered. Grace sounded so needy saying that. “I-I—“
Grace huffed pathetically, pouting like he always was. He pouted when he was focused. He pouted when he was sad. He pouted right then and there. “Can I be honest with you?”
“…Yeah?”
“Being around a human again has made me so… like, I don’t know. Touch… hungry?” He sounded sorta flustered saying in, and Simon was sorta flustered hearing it.
“…What?”
“I just want like, a real hug! God!” Grace hid his face in his hands, clearly frustrated and embarrassed with himself. He squatted down. “Hugging Rocky is… fine and all, but I can’t actually hug him with his orb around him. I can’t have him wrap his little arms around me. Armando doesn’t do hugs. But you…”
“Fuck. Grace, just shut up and get over here.” Simon spat.
“What?”
“Get—ugh!” He reached out and tugged on Grace’s arm. The teacher collapsed right in his lap, and he wrapped his arm around him, swearing in his ear about how insane Grace makes him.
The man in his lap nearly had smoke coming from his head, he was so red. He buried his face in Simon’s shirt which was actually Grace’s shirt. It was his one that said ‘I had potential’ in small white text.
“Shut up.. You make me insane too.” Grace whispered. “Because when you woke up, you were so cranky. And… And it makes sense why you were, but…” He shrugged, “Now I kind of associate you with that personality.”
“I am a very cranky person though.” Simon replied.
“You’re not.” Grace stopped him, pulling back so he could look the convict in the eyes. “You’re not.” He repeated. “I’ve heard you joke with Rocky, tease him for his obsession with Adrian. You’re funny, and you’re more patient than you think, too. When I talk about scientific things that you don’t really understand, you nod your head and ask questions to stay present.”
“Grace…”
“I’m just saying!”
“Fuck.” Simon leaned forward and kissed him. Grace gasped against his lips before melting, leaning into him. He tasted like his strawberry toothpaste, old and expired but it was better than nothing. They separated, panting. “You can’t say these things and deny you’re an angel.”
Grace wheezed, pushing against Simon’s chest. “You’re crazy.”
“I know.” Simon smiled, taking Grace’s lips against his own. The teacher couldn’t help but moan, taking it all in. Fuck, he wished Rocky was asleep. Simon was having bad ideas, ones that went along the lines of him being underneath Grace.
As the kiss carried on, Simon knew that Grace could feel him growing underneath, but he did nothing to stop it.
Pulling away from the kiss, Simon asked, “Are you happy now?”
“Mostly.” Grace smiled. “I wish we were… alone. For privacy reasons.”
Simon snorted, pressing his face into Grace’s neck. “We’re on the same page.”
“I can tell.” Grace gave him one last kiss before standing up. “Now, let’s head to bed?”
“Once my heart stops racing, yeah.”
“Oh my God.” Grace seemed to start blushing at that. Simon laughed before standing up too, and adjusting himself.
Simon huffed. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Lying down in bed, Simon made sure to sleep close enough to Grace to the point of feeling his pulse. His heart was also racing.
“I can’t believe you’re real.” Simon whispered, tears pooling in his eyes.
“Wha’s that?” Grace reluctantly opened his eyes, already half asleep.
“Nothing. Go back to sleep, doctor Grace.”
“Mmng’kay…”
“Just measure his arm and if the model is a different size, then we fix it.” Grace explained to Rocky. The two of them were working together to build an arm for Simon, who was sitting on the bed in silence—in awe. “Here. Give.”
Rocky lifted the xenonite arm, handing it to Grace. “Is Simon fully healed, question?”
“I am, Rocky.” Simon answered, Armando doing jazz hands behind him. The Eridian did jazz hands back.
Grace put the arm on the bed and began untying the bandages. “I put some fabric and cushion at the top so you have some comfort.”
“Okay.” Simon mumbled, staring at focused, pouting Grace. He placed a compression garment around what was left of Simon’s real arm, before lifting the glassy one and placing it on.
“Feel okay?”
“Feels good.”
Grace did a few more things to get it really on there. “Okay. Now try to move it.”
Simon started by lifting it, before slowly wiggling his fingers. “Oh my God.” He had spent almost a year without an arm, and he had already forgotten the privileges of having one. Squeezing his xenonite fingers over his palm, his eyes got teary and wet.
“Oh no! Simon is leaking!” Rocky panicked, which made the convict laugh.
“Oh, Simon..” Grace pulled him in for a hug, and Simon wrapped both arms around him. For once he could give his angel a proper hug.
“Fuck…” Simon sniffled, letting the rest of his tears out. The second he stepped off the Iron Lung and into the Hail Mary, he had transformed into a leaky space blob, as Rocky would call him.
Grace had his arms over Simon’s shoulders, his hands in his long black hair. The convict had his face buried in Grace’s neck, crying harder now. “It’s okay, it’s okay..”
Simon wanted to respond to that, say that it’s not okay, but he couldn’t without making any embarrassing sounds.
Then he heard a soft grumble come from the Eridian. “Rocky want hug too…”
Grace and Simon laughed and separated, letting Rocky join in. Armando just watched and danced happily.
Later, Simon was found tossing a ball in the air, like he was teaching himself how to juggle. Grace leaned against the wall, watching him quietly. “Rocky is complaining that you’re not learning how to fly this ship.”
“I already know how to fly it.” Simon said. “There’s nothing to do right now.”
“You’ve already learned all the controls?!” Grace gasped. “See! You are a fast learner!”
Simon dropped the ball of ‘lava,’ which was actually earth, on the floor and walked over to Grace. “Yeah. It’s pretty simple the way everything is in order. Not only that, but it was built for people to be in comas the whole time. Or.. most of the time, same difference.”
Grace snorted, pulling Simon back into his arms. He knew this was going to be addictive.
“So… the ship knows how to control itself mostly.” Simon finished, pressing his face against Grace’s.
“Still. Took me four years to get the hang of it.” Grace chuckled, running his hands through Simon’s soft locks. He purred at the soft touches. Grace took a shaky inhale in and said, “Rocky is asleep.”
Simon’s eyes widened. “Do you…”
Grace bit his lip, before pressing his lips to Simon’s. “We have privacy.” He mumbled against the kiss.
He was then lowered to his butt, gasping as Grace started to undress him. They were going to fuck on the floor of the lab room. “Do you want this?” Grace asked.
“Yes. Fuck..”
The rest of his clothes disappeared, and Grace’s clothes followed.
He had oil meant for the organisms he was supposed to be studying, but here he was now, pouring it over Simon’s entrance. They were going quickly.
Grace had a pack of gloves by his leg, and Simon knew why he had them. Makeshift condoms.
The teacher dipped his first finger in, catching Simon off guard. He gasped and whined out a, “Fuck, Ryland!”
Grace shuddered, his eyes going darker than ever. He fixed his glasses before grabbing Simon’s hip and fucking his finger deeper inside the convict. He was trembling already. It had been too long since either of them had sex, and Simon knew he was gonna come quickly.
Simon tightened his grip around Grace’s shoulders, hooking his legs around the man’s waist. Their swollen cocks were pressed together as Grace dipped another finger inside, stretching Simon more. “Oh my God…”
“Still okay?”
“Yes, fuck.”
Grace smirked, pulling his fingers out. “Ready?”
Simon blinked, nodding his head with slight excitement. He couldn’t act too crazy about this, as much as he wanted to.
Then he felt it press against him. He felt Grace move his hips so he could take him easily, and fuck, his head was spinning from such a simple action.
“Ahn…” He heard from Grace, and then he heard him say—
“Fuck!”
Simon’s eyes widened. He’s never heard Grace come even close to swearing. “Did you just…?!”
Grace looked dazed, but he was still able to smirk at Simon. “It slipped.”
“Yeah, fuck. I don’t think you’ve ever sworn around me.”
Grace chuckled, letting out a pant as he bottomed out. “Yeah… it’s been a while since I’ve cussed. Being a teacher has really dried it out of me.”
Simon whined when Grace started to thrust. “Holy shit…”
“Yeah… holy s-shit…”
Simon moaned, “You did it again!”
“I know.” Grace leaned over Simon, pressing their lips together as they fucked.
“That’s so fucking… hot.” He mumbled. ‘That’ being Grace swearing only when he was fucking Simon.
The scientist chuckled against him, picking up speed and swallowing his sounds. “Mmnn… I’m already close…”
“Me too.” Simon gasped out, digging his nails into Grace’s back, right over his burn scars.
“Oh God!” Grace choked out, moaning pathetically as he filled the blue, latex glove wrapped around his dick. He kept thrusting, encouraging Simon to come too, and he did, giving up on holding back.
“Fuuuckkk—“ Simon’s head rolled back as he came all over himself, milky whites dripping from his tip.
“Mmmffhhh…” Grace panted, pushing in his last drives before pulling out. “So perfect…”
Simon let his legs fall and the rest of his body go limp. He knew Grace was going to take care of him.
Adjusting to Erid took so long. The weather was unusual, and for the times that it would be suddenly cold, Simon was thankful for Grace’s always hot body. He was his (most of the time) portable heater.
Simon would stay at home with Armando when Grace would go out to the sea shore to teach the pebbles. He was insanely good at communicating with them.
Simon was still getting the hang of the Eridian language. Sometimes, he would go out towards the sea shore, going on walks with Adrian, only to snoop on Grace’s teaching. It made him weirdly maternal seeing the way Grace was so good at handling kids.
“I wish I could get him pregnant.” Simon said, sighing happily as he watched Grace start dancing halfway through class. Jazz hands.
Adrian made a sound, similar to a laugh. He was laughing at him. Simon groaned and said, “I’m being serious!”
“🎶🎶🎶🎶”
“Well, neither of us have a uterus, so we can’t make a baby.” Simon frowned, and Adrian comforted him, saying that he and Rocky can make one and have them adopt it. “That’s… sweet…”
Grace’s class was over and Simon saw him trudging over. “Hey Si! Hey Adrian!”
“Hey, Ry.” Simon stood up and melted in Grace’s arms as he so often did. He had to make sure that Grace’s heart was still beating.
“My class really wants to meet ‘Grace mate’!” He laughed. “Do you want to come to class tomorrow?”
“Mmn… maybe.” Simon smiled, pressing a kiss to Grace’s neck. “I’m gonna finish my walk with Adrian.”
“Okay.” Grace smiled. “Have fun, you two!”
“We will.” Simon and Adrian rubbed their fist over their arm. “I love you.”
“I love you too; I’ll see you at home!”
“See you.”