Chapter Text
Grace was conflicted, well, the better statement was Grace was more conflicted than usual. When Rocky showed up to his little makeshift house with a body slumped over his rock carapace, he was confused to say the least, but he quickly helped Rocky bring the man to his room, and settle him into the bed while Armando looked over his injuries.
It had been four days since Rocky dropped the man off, and then left. He would have to talk with his alien best friend about bringing injured things by and then leaving Grace to deal with them, but that was a later problem. Right now, he was pressed against the wall as the man, who had been asleep not more than 10 minutes ago, held a pair of medical scissors to Grace’s throat.
“Hi. Um, hi, I’m Grace, well, actually my name is Rylan, everyone just calls me Grac-” Grace was interrupted by the man pressing the scissors into his skin a little harder. “Sorry, I’ll shut up.”
“Where the hell am I?” the man questioned. “How did I get here?”
“Well, my friend found you and brought you here. He left before he could tell me anything else.” Grace replied carefully, not wanting to spook the man any more than he already was. He figured waking up in the middle of nowhere in a strange man’s house was terrifying to begin with, add whatever this man had been through on top of that.
“Found me? How? I’m meant to be dead.” The man took a step back, lowering the scissors as he went. The look of confusion crosses his face like it wasn’t possible to save him where he was.
“Again, I don’t know a lot of what happened; all I do know is that they found you welded into a ship, and they brought you to me to help,” he replied gently. “I never got your name. You-you don’t have to tell me if you aren’t com-” Grace began to ramble his apology as the man cocked his head to the side.
After a few moments of hesitation and consideration, he spoke up, “Simon,” he murmured. Grace pauses, obviously, he hadn't heard the man due to his rambling. “My name. It’s Simon,” the man, now known as Simon, repeats.
Grace smiles down at Simon. “It’s nice to meet you, Simon.” He steps away from the wall, finally noticing he was no longer pinned to it.
“It is?” he looks at Grace, confused. Which Grace returns the confusion.
“What do you mean?” Grace questions. Grace figured this man, Simon, didn’t talk to a lot of people. Well, he couldn’t really say anything; he talks to an alien rock, his mate, and “pebbles,” as Rocky calls them, for most of his social interactions.
“Why would it be a pleasure to meet me? I just pressed you against the wall with scissors held to your neck.” Simon’s face only gave away confusion as he answered.
“Well, it’s been a while since I’ve been around another human. Rocky is great and all, but he isn’t here all of the time, so I’m mostly left to myself.” He pauses, noticing he was rambling again. “Sorry.”
“For what?” Simon was confused by the man in front of him. First, he says it’s nice to meet him; then he apologises for no reason.
“Rambling,” he raised his eyebrow, “Most humans back on Earth find it annoying. Sometimes I think Rocky just ignores me and lets me ramble. It used to be hard trying to determine what he was thinking, but after a while, I picked up on a few things. Still can’t get his annoyed face right though.” He pauses and looks at Simon for a moment.
Simon, who noticed the staring, shifted uncomfortably before pausing, thinking over Grace’s words. “Wait a minute. Did you say Earth? It’s still alive? You’re from Earth?”
“Yeah, Rocky and I stopped the Astrophage with Taumoeba, a small organism we got from the surface of Adrian, which is a planet we named after Rocky’s mate, and we sent it to Earth. The Eridian scientists helped me observe the solar system, and we noticed the sun had warmed back up.” Grace replied to him with a smile that Simon was sure warmed the sun itself.
“You saved Earth?” Simon relaxed more, his shoulders visibly slack. He couldn’t believe it: this 6-foot-tall, slightly muscular man and a rock saved the Sun and Earth.
Grace shrugged, “Do you have to sound so shocked about it? And it wasn’t just me. I had a lot of help from Rocky.”
“You mean the rock thing that drugged me so it could bring me here.” Simon snapped back at him. He had first awakened in a lab, with rock creatures working on him. So he had done the most sane thing he could think of and freaked out. He had tried to fight the Eridian doctors, and in the mists of his struggles, didn't notice the Eridian guard sneak up behind him with a sedative syringe.
"Rocky isn't a 'rock thing.' But I understand your frustrations. I was mad after waking up in a strange place against my will as well." Grace replied with a look of understanding frustration.
"What do you mean you were mad?" Simon looked at Grace suspiciously, noticing how he quickly straightened up, shoulders tensing slightly.
"Nothing to worry about, Simon. You look tired. You can take my bed; the couch is pretty comfortable." Grace quickly brushed it off, grabbing a pillow and blanket from the closet nearby, trying to make his escape past Simon.
Simon looked confused for a moment before he realized just how tired he was, as the adrenaline wore off. "You want me to take the bed? Why?"
"You're a guest. Therefore, you deserve the only bed in this house." He replied with ease, making his way to the door. "Goodnight, Simon."
Simon took one last look at Grace before he closed the door behind him. He would ask Grace about it in the morning. Right now, he was more concerned about whether Grace had just locked him in this room. So he quickly checks the lock, noticing it wasn't locked, and breathes a sigh of relief. This room was luxurious compared to the shared dorms that he lived in back in Eden. He wouldn't let the bed go to waste, with the owner asleep on the couch, he guessed that much from the distant snoring.
So as he grabbed the blanket at the foot of the bed and pulled it over himself, he faced towards the door, arm out of the blanket, ready for any possible attacks, and slowly allowed sleep to consume him.