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Every single time Grace laid eyes on the little pebbles, he had to make a conscious effort not to pick them up and squeeze them until he hurt himself. Today this was a particular challenge because for the first time they were all physically in the dome with him in their adorable little suits.
The cuteness aggression was real.
“Grace, Grace!” all five kids called simultaneously, barrelling and tumbling towards him across the beach in a mess of limbs. Rocky and Adrian followed a short distance behind, both trilling in amusement.
“Kids!” Grace exclaimed, lowering himself down into a crosslegged position and putting his cane aside just in time to catch Zinnia and Hibiscus as they jumped into his lap, Lucy, Plumeria and Clivia clambering in right after.
He hadn’t intended to name all of Rocky’s sibling’s kids from their most recent clutch after flowers, but these things happened. The bio-dome illumination team all got named after Greek gods. The anthropology thrum he was a part of were split into first names of human scientists and generic first names mostly based on his former colleagues at Grover Cleveland Middle. The kids he taught got named after old students of his, Lord of the Rings characters and beetle genera.
Since he’d decided to give Rocky’s sibling ♬♬ the name “Hortensia” based on their large tattoo that was vaguely reminiscent of the flower as well as their purple colour with some mother of pearl elements, their kids all suffered similar fates. Not that they minded. Quite the opposite, they all wore their English flower name like some sort of badge of honour.
Rocky and Adrian’s child – and his – he had named “Lucy” from the Latin for light. Adrian and especially Rocky had adored the choice.
“We wear suits now, we can visit!” Plumeria chirped, nestling against his legs, stubby encased arms playing with his shoelaces.
“Yes, we visit like Lucy,” Zinnia continued, wiggling in his hold on them and already halfway up to his shoulder. The pebble in question was the calmest out of the five, having loafed down on his thigh and leaning against his side.
“Happy to be with Mom Grace with kin-siblings,” Lucy chimed in, and God these kids were really testing his grip on his waterworks. He managed to fight it off with nothing more than a sniffle, but despite still being a good thirty feet away, Rocky obviously heard.
“Are you sure you can handle them without leaking?” Rocky teased, which Grace didn’t even dignify with a proper response – apart from heavily rolling his eyes. He leaned forward a bit to make sure Zinnia and Hibiscus wouldn’t tumble off his back from where they were perched on his shoulders, inspecting his hair with great interest. Clivia was now draped over his forearm, Plumeria was still fascinated by his shoelaces and Lucy was just about purring from where they sat smushed against his abdomen.
He really tried to keep up the annoyed expression at Rocky’s jab, but in the end he couldn’t fight the wide grin that spread itself across his face.
“Hey, Adrian,” he said instead. “How was your thrum meeting?”
“Very productive,” they said, carapace rising a bit in pride. “The appeal was accepted. We will make plans to reconfigure prey habitats soon.”
“That’s great!” Grace said, letting out a small chuckle when Clivia slid off his arm and ended up lying on their top in his lap, arms flailing to right themself like an inverted turtle.
“Grace soft,” they whined, as if it was his fault they couldn’t hold onto him when climbing him like a tree. He picked them back up, cradling them in both his arms this time.
“I’m glad it went through,” he continued, at this point awkwardly leaning sideways to keep Zinnia and Hibiscus balanced on his shoulders. They might be small but they were still rocks.
“Yes, thank you,” Adrian chirped happily, looking like they wanted to keep going but was interrupted by Rocky tapping their arm.
“Yes, yes,” they said with their fond-eye-roll tone, “we now go to inspect the point of wear on the far side of the dome.”
Adrian had messaged him about it yesterday evening, saying they had only just about managed to stop Rocky from storming the dome to fix it right then and there.
“We will fix and return later,” Rocky said, holding up a hand in the human goodbye. “Have fun with the children.”
“Thanks, bye!” he called as they began their trek along the beach, wanting to raise a hand in goodbye as well but having all his limbs occupied by several pebbles and opting to just nod in their direction instead.
“Grace is so squish,” Hibiscus said, bouncing up and down on his shoulder a bit. Multiple chimes of agreement came from the other kids.
“Grace is very squish,” he confirmed, Lucy automatically translating for the others. They weren’t nearly fluent in English, not like Rocky was and Adrian was close to being, but they knew enough to communicate in some version of the pidgin he and Rocky had cobbled together all those years ago. Hortensia’s kids knew a handful of words, but without his keyboard here they mostly relied on Lucy’s translations.
“Can we play Jump Catch, question?”
A chorus of pleas and begs to play rang out, and soon Grace was on his hands and knees, proving how horrible of a reaction time he had. The goal of the game was to stand opposite each other, completely still, until either one shot forward to try to tap the top of the other’s carapace and the other evaded. If after five steps the attacker couldn’t tap the other, they lost.
Grace lost every time. Apparently he had painfully obvious tells for when he was about to move, and when he did move he was either too slow to just reach out his arm to tap the tiny carapace or too slow to pull his hand back so they could tap it.
After they all tried and failed to coach him on how to properly ambush someone, he decided to show them how pursuit predators played. Despite not being the youngest anymore and operating in a much higher gravity than a human body was meant to, he won the only game of human Catch they played. There was no second round as the only reason he had won was by, you know, slowly but persistently pursuing them until the little ambush predators had completely tired themselves out.
So now he was lying on the beach spread out like a starfish, five pebbles either nestled against him or on top of him, rambling on about different types of Earth animals as the kids replenished their energy.
“-they live in big big groups and build big big pile as nest, much bigger than one ant. They are very strong, they can carry up to 50 times own body weight. They-”
Lucy interrupted their stream of translations to chime in wonder.
“Human 50 is Eridian 122, correct, question?!” they asked to confirm.
“Yep,” Grace said, smiling. “Ants are very very strong.”
“Amaze, amaze, amaze!” Plumeria and Zinnia exclaimed.
“Grace, humans are how strong?” Clivia asked, clambering up onto his leg.
“Not that strong, not like ants,” he said. “In normal Earth gravity, most humans can carry up to about 1.5 times their body weight, I think. Here on Erid, I can carry half my body weight, maybe a bit more.”
“How much Grace weigh?”
“Last I check my mass should be about 70 kilograms, so 140 in Erid gravity.”
When Lucy converted the numbers to Eridian units, they exploded in a fit of giggles.
“Grace so light!”
“Grace weigh like older sibling ♫♪.”
“Grace fly away in wind.”
“We can carry Grace like strong tiny Earth animal!”
Before Grace could pretend to be offended, the kids had jumped up and begun to squeeze underneath his back.
“Woah, hey, careful!” he yelped as he was hoisted a couple inches off the sand.
The kids continued to giggle in high-pitched chirps as they held him aloft, unable to pick a direction to carry him off to.
“Okay, okay, you are very very strong, Grace is very light, you can put me down now,” Grace laughed. After some more titters and tiny hands digging into his back and his legs as they figured out how to clumsily lower him back down without being trapped underneath him, he was lying on his side in the coarse sand and immediately got attacked from behind.
It was moments like these that Grace never wanted to end. The kids’ laughter ringing through the air, as close as he could get to physically interacting with them, having a day off to just be with his family.
Zinnia was jumping up and down on his shoulder blades, yelling something about defeating the big scary blob monster, the others scattered across his back and crying with them in victory. Grace was playing along, wailing dramatically about being crushed by the mighty pebbles.
Up until one of them sat down squarely on the left side of his ribcage, providing just enough pressure to force a small whoosh of air out of his lungs and to briefly make him feel trapped.
His heart spiked in panic, suddenly hyperaware of the sensation of the small stones cutting into his cheek and his hand grasping at the ground.
For a second he tried to reason with his spiralling mind, but then another one of them sat down, forcing his body against the ground, keeping him down with rough hands twisted into his raincoat on his back and his arms and his shoulders as he desperately struggled to escape.
They were going to take him away from his family, they were going to drug him and shoot him into space and kill him and it didn’t matter how much he pleaded them not to do this, they still jabbed a needle into his neck as he choked on his tears and clawed at the grass and they just watched and held him down as he begged for his life.
He couldn’t do it again, he couldn’t leave Rocky and Adrian and Lucy and the wonderful life he had been given just to die all alone in space not knowing who he was and with the constant terror of making one tiny mistake and killing himself and dooming humanity and leaving Rocky stranded and oh God, not again, please.
Please, don’t do this. I can’t do this. Oh God, don’t do it, leave me alone, please, don’t.
The low level tension that had been buzzing in Rocky’s arms since yesterday evening finally subsided. The dome monitoring system had alerted them to a small structural change in panel 17, which Rocky had wanted to investigate the moment Adrian informed him, but they had ensured him that it was more than minor enough to check it out during the dome light cycle’s next daytime when they’d take Hortensia’s kids on their first visit inside together with Lucy.
Like Adrian had said, it really had only been a minor chip in the panel. His best guess was that the waves had launched a small piece of xenonite having ended up between the sand and rocks of the beach against the panel. Even though the tiny indent posed no harm to the structural integrity of the dome, Rocky had insisted on filling it up and adding a small patch on top of it just to be safe.
“Satisfied?” Adrian asked when Rocky emerged from the water, stashing his in-dome tools in his bag.
“Yes, the patch will hold,” he said as Adrian helped him loop the strap of the bag over his suit.
“Good, good, good,” they said as they began to walk down the beach. Rocky appreciated that they didn’t try to talk him out of his excessive worrying anymore, knowing it was easier on all of them to just let him double and triple check anything that might pose a threat to Grace’s health. He really did try not to be too overbearing – he had managed to wait till now to check on the panel, thank you very much – but he simply needed to be as sure as he could be that nothing would happen to Grace if he didn’t want to live in a constant state of anxiety.
When they were halfway back to Grace and the kids, Adrian slowed to a halt and promptly sat down in the sand.
“What are you doing?”
“Come, sit,” they said. “Grace doesn’t get much time alone with the children, let them play.”
Rocky listened to the faraway squeals of laughter from the kids mixed with the deeper but light chuckles from Grace, making his hearts swell, and he conceded.
He set down his bag and nestled up close to Adrian, feeling their warmth radiate through the xenonite. The suits were well insulated, but spending any time in Grace’s atmosphere always ended up leaving one feeling a bit chilled.
Adrian spoke about the details of their thrum meeting earlier that day, who had been difficult again, how ♬♫ had been surprisingly supportive and helped achieve a consensus much faster than Adrian and Meredith had expected, and which of their long list of policy ideas were going to be implemented first.
Somewhere in the middle of Adrian’s account, Grace and the kids had stopped their running, now lying cuddled together on the beach. Rocky really wanted to go join the pile, but Adrian had, as per usual, been right. Grace didn’t get to interact with the children nearly as much as the two of them did, he deserved to have them to himself for a while. That didn’t stop him from constantly listening out for them though.
Adrian was in the middle of ranting about the blatant hypocrisy of Free Range’s prey rights activism when concerning sounds carried over from the other side of the beach.
“Mom? Mom Grace okay?”
“Why are they breathing weird?”
“Get off, get off them!”
“No, please, don’t do it, I can’t do it, please.”
Rocky shot up, startling Adrian up along with him.
“Rocky, what-?” they began to ask as he barrelled down the beach as fast as he could, but then they also registered the anxious chittering from the kids and the terrified begging from Grace and ran right after him.
Rocky knew exactly what was going on, and hated hated hated that it had to happen on what had supposed to have been a nice, calm, fun day for both Grace and the kids.
“Mom Rocky, Mom Adrian!” Lucy yelled, arms waving frantically as they stumbled to meet them. “Mom Grace is hurt, we- we don’t know what happened, we were just playing and-”
“We didn’t mean to,” added Hibiscus, coming around to meet them too.
“What’s wrong with Grace?” asked Clivia nervously from where they stood, trembling, next to Grace’s head.
“Did we hurt them?” came Plumeria’s small voice.
“I don’t want to die, don’t send me to die,” sobbed Grace.
“It’s okay, come here,” Adrian said with a steadiness to their voice that Rocky would not have been able to achieve, gesturing for them to step away from Grace.
Rocky only about managed to tilt his carapace in thanks at his mate before assuming his position at Grace’s side, sitting down on four of his arms with the fifth in reach of Grace’s hand grasping at the sand but not yet touching.
“Grace not believe what Meredith say about Rocky today,” he began, reverting back to their Hail Mary language that had proven to be more effective in pulling Grace back to the present, his voice only a little bit shaky. “Adrian and Meredith talk after thrum meeting. Grace know Meredith study environmental science and physics both. So Meredith explain to Adrian about voltage regulation, but Adrian remember what Rocky explain before and say to Meredith. But then Meredith say this is incorrect because it is approximation, and that Rocky not know proper way because engineering only applied physics! Rocky could not believe how rude.”
Rocky continued to tell silly little random stories, Grace’s panicked and choked breaths continuously calming down to the point where he seemed lucid enough for Rocky to attempt the next step. Slowly and gently he reached out his hand to touch Grace’s. He flinched, so Rocky simply let his open hand lie next to Grace’s, the fine mesh of xenonite pressed lightly against Grace’s skin.
“Grace is safe,” Rocky said softly. “Grace is in dome on Erid with Rocky. Only Grace and Rocky and Adrian and children on the beach. Safe safe safe.”
After a few more shuddered breaths, Grace’s fingers curled around Rocky’s. Good. That was good. Sometimes Grace was so stuck in his brain that he needed much much much too long to recognise Rocky.
“Grace is on Erid,” he repeated, gently squeezing Grace’s hand as he held onto him like a lifeline. “Grace is home with family and safe. Rocky not let anything happen to Grace.”
“Rock,” Grace whispered hoarsely, eyes squeezed shut. He tilted slightly to the side, pulling up his walking-arms as he curled in on himself.
“Rocky is here,” he warbled, shifting closer. “Grace want hug, question?”
All he got was a small nod followed by a whimper, so Rocky closed the distance between them, letting go of Grace’s hand to put two arms around his still trembling torso. Grace’s arms stayed pulled close to his own body as he let Rocky hold him, sniffles and hitched breaths and erratic heartbeats slowing down with each passing moment.
Rocky used to feel gross hearing all of Grace’s organs shift around and his body produce every squishy wet noise possible, but as he had come to identify which sound meant what, they had ended up giving him a fairly detailed overview of Grace’s current state of being. Having Grace huddled up close to his suit – or whatever other xenonite barrier that was always always always between them – allowed for Rocky to feel all the movements and noises of his body and assure himself that Grace’s heart was beating, his breathing-organ was drawing in oxygen, and even if it was all still a bit irregular, Grace was alive.
Eventually Grace’s heart had settled, his breaths were mostly even, and he let out a long gust of air. He shifted, head tilting in a way that indicated that he was looking over at where Adrian was sitting, the kids all huddled up close to them as they watched and waited for Grace to come back.
“I’m sorry,” he rasped, stupidly apologising for something he had no control over like he always did.
“No apologies,” Adrian tutted straightaway.
“Mom Grace okay, question?” Lucy asked, shuffling closer but hesitating.
“Yeah, I-” Grace cleared his throat. “I’m okay now, sweetie, I’m sorry for worrying you.”
“We’re sorry sorry sorry for hurting Grace,” Zinnia piped up, their siblings immediately voicing their agreement. Before Grace could try to answer with another unwarranted apology, Adrian calmly explained the situation.
“It’s not your fault,” they said. “Grace remembered something bad that happened to them in the past. Their mind tricked them into thinking they were back in that bad situation.”
With a sad chime, Lucy launched themself forward to press themself against Grace’s side. He immediately scooped them up, hugging them close.
“I’m okay now, I’m okay,” he whispered. “I’m sorry for-”
“You are not sorry because there is nothing to be sorry for,” Rocky cut in with a finality to his tone. With an agreeing hum, Adrian sat down on Grace’s other side, the four kids settling down close on and around Grace’s walking-arms.
Grace nodded, a small smile tugging at his lips. He let himself drop tiredly against Adrian’s tall torso, one of Rocky’s arms still around his back.
“Was the trigger lying down with the kids’ weight on your back?” Rocky continued, softer. After a pause, Grace nodded again.
“Next time you play with Grace, don’t get onto their back when they are on the ground,” Adrian announced. “It reminds them of their bad memory.”
The kids promised and assured that they would never do it again, apologising to Grace once more as they all snuggled closer to emphasise their point.
Rocky heard fresh tears dripping down onto Lucy’s suit, so he hummed a few comforting notes and raised his hand to card his fingers through Grace’s hair as best as he could manage through the suit hands’ fine mesh. Grace melted against the touch, fresh sobs making their way out of his throat. Rocky knew Grace well enough by now to know that these were overwhelmed-by-too-much-happy-emotion sobs, so there was nothing to worry about.
“I love you,” Grace cried, “so much.”
They all echoed the sentiment, which only caused Grace to leak more.
The kids all stayed cuddled around Grace very patiently as he let out his emotions. After a while though he could tell they were getting a little antsy, and before a worn out Grace could fall asleep against Adrian right here on the sand, Rocky made a suggestion.
“We could go watch an Earth light-story in Grace’s house.”
The kids immediately perked up at that – especially Hortensia’s kids as they hadn’t had a “light-story night” with Grace yet.
“Lord of the Rings?” Grace asked with a small pleading voice and a tiny self-satisfied smile because he knew Rocky would agree to whatever he asked for right now, even if he suggested a trilogy Rocky had already seen more times than he could count on all his fingers.
Adrian miserably failed at suppressing a laugh when Rocky did in fact agree. None of the kids seemed to notice as they bounded up onto their arms, chirping about what such a human light-story could possibly be about and how Grace was going to feel better and who could make it to his house first.
Rocky fetched Grace’s cane from a few paces away, handing it to him after Adrian helped him upright. He was still a bit shaky on his walking-arms, keeping a hand on Adrian as the three slowly followed after the kids. But Grace was smiling again, his heart calm, and Rocky’s hearts calmed in tandem.
About VVℓℓℓ seconds later, they were all sitting in one big pile again in Grace’s living room in front of the Don’t Go Crazy room light panels and the big texture panel Rocky had installed next to it, Grace just having fallen asleep as Merry and Pippin ran in to join the Fellowship.
Lucy shifted from where they sat on Grace’s walking-arms, wedged between his stomach and one of his arms.
“Mom Grace is sleeping?” they asked quietly, having watched him drift off enough times now to be able to tell.
“Yes,” Rocky confirmed. As a reminder to the others, he added, “Don’t speak too loudly or move too much, otherwise they will wake.”
“But Grace will miss light-story,” Plumeria said with a hint of protest.
Adrian chuckled. “They have seen it many many many times before, don’t worry. Best to let them rest.”
Quiet hums of agreement rang out, and the kids’ attention was back on the light-story. Rocky however was focused on Grace. Despite being surrounded by enough people that direct sleep watching wasn’t necessary, Rocky still hadn’t been able to let go of the habit of keeping track of every expansion of Grace’s breathing-organ as he slept.
Carefully, Rocky reached up to take Grace’s dangling eye-aids and put them aside, once again wondering how in the world they hadn’t broken yet. Grace shifted, going from head dipping down against his torso to leaning sideways, one arm hugging Lucy close and the other draped across Rocky, his head coming to rest on top of him. His heart and breathing indicated that he was in that strange semi-asleep state that humans were able to experience.
“Thanks, Rock, love ya, statement,” he mumbled as he made himself comfortable.
Any residual anxiety still left in his hearts from the earlier incident dissipated, and Rocky too was able to get comfortable for the first time since the structural integrity warning.
He reached up to gently ruffle Grace’s hair.
“I love you too, statement.”