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“Grace want to meet Adrian, question?”
Somehow, it felt more significant than it really should’ve by now. Grace stumbled slightly where he stood, catching himself on the wall as he shot Rocky a glance.
“…Would you want me to?” He asked. Oddly, with trepidation.
He’d thought about it. Of course he had. Hearing anecdotes about them, about their intelligence, about their Eridian equivalent of beauty, it was impossible not to be curious. But Grace hadn’t thought to ask. Didn’t want to impose, after everything. It was an area he’d always felt slightly alien in, even back on Earth.
But Rocky, judging by the immediate stamp of his leg, wanted Grace to impose very much.
“Adrian funny. Grace funny most of time.” He said, starting to run his hand slowly over the indents on his stone. “We all laugh on Erid. Fun. Grace want to, question?”
Back and forth, back and forth. Rocky’s foot shuffling slightly against the ground, too. Nervous. Rocky was nervous about this.
And Grace simply couldn’t have that.
“‘Course I want to, bud.”
“Ah, of course, of course. Good good good.”
—
He hadn’t thought about the actual logistics of meeting your best friend’s beloved century-long partner until they were months away from Erid. What do Eridians normally do when they meet their friends’ mates? Was it a big deal? Grace hoped it wasn’t a big deal, but the way Rocky had asked had made it seem pretty big.
So now, Grace was stood in front of a pile of his clothes. And he was sweating a bit.
“I gotta give a good impression,” he mumbled to himself, picking up graphic tee after graphic tee and wincing slightly at the colours and pop culture splayed on the front, “right? You’d think that’s a given, right?”
Armando offered no words of encouragement to that.
Grace turned back to his musings. Would Eridians see the humour in periodic table puns? Perhaps they’d prefer the iconic stylings of Cats: The Musical? …No. No, probably not.
He glanced at his spacesuits next, wondering if leading with his mission would be a more suitable choice. Did he want to be an astronaut to Adrian? Perhaps dressing more teacherly would be better. Or, was that too professional? Too stuffy for an intro?
He was sweating more.
He knew he could just ask Rocky, but something about it made him shy. He wanted to get this right on his own.
Grace sifted through more clothes, digging up items he barely ever touched, ones he was surprised the him of the past ever wore. Maybe he hadn’t. Maybe they were packed to encourage new styles in him. One item stood out the most. A truly bizarre inclusion for a one-way space mission; perhaps it was a joke he didn’t remember, or some strange attempt to provide them a way to feel special whilst drifting through the stars.
The more he stared at the item, the more he felt himself sinking under the truth. This was the one. He shoved it back into the bag and decided he would deal with it when the time came; he had months to spare.
It’d be fine.
—
“When I meet them, is there anything I should do? Or say?”
Rocky stalled where he was fiddling with his visualiser, turning to him with a quiet little hum. “Grace mean when Grace meet Eridians, question?”
“Yeah,” but then he doubled down, “or, no, I mean- yes, all Eridians but, uh, Adrian in particular.”
Rocky perked up in that keen way he always did whenever Adrian was mentioned, giving Grace his full attention now. “Why Grace ask, question? Grace just be Grace, Adrian will like.”
It was a very nice thing for him to say, but it didn’t exactly help.
“I wanna know if there’s, y’know, customs on Erid or anything like that.” The wool on his sweater was starting to fray, he fiddled with it as Rocky rolled his ball a little closer. “I’m representing all humans here.”
Rocky was quiet for a little while, before sitting down beside him and speaking a bit softer.
“Grace just be Grace, not ‘all humans’. Most Eridian customs not possible for humans anyway.” The edge of the ball nudged into Grace’s shoulder a little, Rocky bumping into him through their shared barrier. “But… Do jazz hands. Adrian will like.”
“Jazz hands are enough?”
“Jazz hands enough.”
Grace felt himself smile, leaning onto the ball, but really onto his friend. He could hear in the upwards lilts of Rocky’s voice that he was being genuine, if it weren’t apparent enough from him pressing tight against the barrier, as close as Rocky could get to him. Some days Grace wondered how thin they could get the xenonite to go, whether he’d ever be able to lean on Rocky and feel his heat through the wall.
Those were thoughts for another day. A mopey day, not like this one.
“Humans have customs when meeting, question?”
He thought about it a little. “Depends on who you’re meeting, and why. If it’s really important you wear fancy clothes and bring flowers and it’s a whole ordeal. But, uh, not everybody knows what the right way is all the time. It can be difficult to know how to act.”
Rocky huffed a little, “human social habits always so confusing. Why humans make so confusing, question?”
“I wish I could tell you, Rock. I’ve never been good with this stuff myself.” Grace smiled, tinged with something he didn’t want to admit to. “Some people naturally have it and some people don’t, like me.”
“What you not have, question? Grace good for socialising, Rocky enjoy Grace company, even when Grace leaky or sleepy or grumpy!”
Warmth was filtering through his chest, gentle waves of it, “well, I’ve been told by a lot of people that I don’t always say the right thing or act the right way-“
“Those humans wrong. Grace act like Grace, is perfect perfect perfect.”
And, well. That kind of bowled him over a bit.
“You think so?”
“Yes. Rocky say so. Silly question.”
They had a while to go until Erid. The worries Grace had about this new life he was flying into were slowly fading, only because he knew Rocky would be with him every step of the way. He’d never had that before. He’d never thought he could. It just wasn’t the way things worked for someone like him, back on Earth at least.
How apt that he had found it all the way up here.
“…Thanks, Rock.”
“Grace getting leaky again.”
He said it fondly, so Grace didn’t mind.
—
One night some time later, Grace found himself listening to their audio recordings as Rocky lay beside him. He often took to replaying his favourites over and over to fill the void whilst his friend was asleep. Rocky’s voice was a comfort now, the little swoops and trills of his language such a happy sound aboard the ship. Grace found himself strangely saddened in the lonely hours when Rocky was resting, missing his friend despite him being right there next to him. He’d never really had that with another person before.
The recordings looped on, soothing in their familiarity. Grace smiled when the audio log for Adrian came up, that beautiful but admittedly long-winded refrain that Rocky always took great pride in singing.
He paused it. Rewound it. Set the playback speed to 0.5 and listened even closer, taking note of every pitch, every tone, every moment of their elongated moniker. His vocal cords were humming with it before he even realised what he was doing, slowly sounding out the notes of Adrian’s name to himself as the rest of the ship creaked in quiet accompaniment.
He wasn’t that good at Eridian. He realised he would have to get better.
Time rolled by as he sang softly to himself, over and over and over, attempting to match the earnest sounds of his friend as they echoed from his laptop. Perhaps hours had passed by. Grace couldn’t tell. All he knew was that it felt like a victory the first time he sang it all the way through; enough for him to smile over at Rocky’s sleeping form, gently leant against their barrier in the quiet of the room, and put his hand against the glass.
Perhaps one day they would sing together.
But this, for now, was enough.
—
“Are gifts a big thing on Erid?”
He pointedly hid the paper beneath his hands.
“Oh, yes, yes,” Rocky answered immediately, still busy fusing more compartments into his protective chamber for purposes Grace was not privy to yet, “gifts very popular; special for Eridians.”
“Mhm. What sorta stuff do you guys normally get each other?” He prepared to make detailed mental notes, metaphorical pen and paper in hand.
Rocky chirped a little, maybe just from the memories he was resurfacing. “Birth celebrations, name carvings given. Wedding celebrations, mate carvings given. Job celebrations, work carvings given-“
“Okay, okay, lots of carvings, I hear you.” This wasn’t going to work was it? “I meant more like physical items rather than, y’know, bodily engravings?”
“Jewellery popular, or clothes, or tool for Rocky. Rocky gifted tool many times. Most times.” He had abandoned whatever it was he had been doing to now give Grace his full attention, perhaps more into this topic than the others they’d had over the past few days.
“You a big tools guy, huh?” Made sense, being an engineer and all.
“Mm. Not so much. I like tool but… Sometimes tool is all Rocky ever get.” Ahh. Grace knew what that was like; being a teacher, you could only get academia-themed mugs so many times before they started to lose their charm. He still appreciated them, though, which he assumed was the case for Rocky.
“If you could get any gift, a real one-of-a-kind one, what sorta thing would you want?” Grace tried not to lean in too obviously.
Rocky immediately perked up, doing that little tappy dance he sometimes did when he was excited and couldn’t contain it. “Science shirt! Like Grace science shirt! Want want want!”
The smile that spread onto Grace’s face was wide and toothy. Rocky just got him, y’know?
“They are pretty great shirts, aren’t they?”
“Bad science joke shirt would be very useful on Erid.”
“Hey, they’re not bad jokes-“
“Gives opportunity to teach about Earth science! Also, shirt remind Rocky of Grace. Even when Grace not there.”
Shucks. He always said the nicest things, likely without even realising it. “D’ya think Adrian would want one, too?”
Rocky stalled in his jazz hands-ing at that, taking the time to consider the question properly. “Mm, no, don’t think so.”
Darn. There goes that idea. “No? They not into, uh, wearing clothes?” That sounded bad.
“Adrian like pointed things, spiky things. Spiky like Adrian. Nice to look at. Fun to hold.”
Grace glanced briefly at the ideas list he’d been hiding all this time, honing in on where he’d penned ‘TEXTURE?’ and making a mental note to circle it in red marker and also surround it with exclamation marks for good measure.
He now had an idea, at least. He hoped Rocky wouldn’t catch onto him too quickly. But, judging by the way his friend was already talking about something else entirely, he thought he wouldn’t be exposed too soon.
—
Turns out, there’s a pretty glaring reason why Grace was a science teacher and not an art teacher; his flawed attempts at crafting something worthwhile for Adrian were coming up staggeringly poorly. He just couldn’t get anything to sit right, no matter how he tried to fuse metal rods together or thread beads on strings, his creations just fell apart and looked completely incomprehensible.
He’d have to go back to the basics. Back to kindergarten-level basics. He glanced into the bucket of junk parts he’d been messing with and spotted a coiled spool of spare wire, and immediately had visions of pipe-cleaner crafts flash before his eyes.
Everyone likes flowers, right? Even if they’re sharp and grey and made of old bent bits of wire, right?
Right…?
—
Eventually, they were mere weeks away from their destination, and the anxiety of it all was truly starting to wear at Grace’s conscience. Rocky was as comforting as he could be, reassuring Grace that he was going to be revered upon arrival. …It was hard to explain why that didn’t bring him much relief.
He’d turned this into much more of an ordeal than it likely needed to be, as was his habit. He’d worried himself into a hole, and was now stood in front of the mirror practising what he was going to say, what he was going to wear, what he was going to do - and he felt a fool about all of it.
Rocky had gone to sleep hours ago, leaving Grace with ample time to fret in solitude.
“Greetings from Earth! No, that’s too cliché. Pleasure to make your acquaintance? Mm, too formal. Maybe …Howdy? God, no, Eridians have no concept of Texas.” He’d been at this for a while, and was still getting absolutely nowhere.
Perhaps he needed to set the scene to properly launch his brain into gear. Visual learning, or whatever. With a huff, he gathered everything he’d prepared so far in a haze of nerves, tripping over practically every item strewn in his way and sweating down to his socks.
He changed into his special outfit (that he still couldn’t believe they’d packed). He gathered his handmade gift. He cleared his throat, humming what he’d learnt. Heck, he even brushed his hair. And, for good measure, he placed an empty instant ramen pot upside down beside the mirror; a stand-in for Adrian, obviously.
His reflection felt formidable now, Grace was almost too nervous to look in it. Was this silly? Was he being silly? Was dressing up all fancy to talk to an upturned noodle pot really so silly?
Don’t answer that.
“Come on, it’s for Rocky. It’s for Rocky, and for Adrian, and for making a good impression on behalf of all humans that have ever existed-“
“Grace?”
…Ah shoot.
He hadn’t been paying attention to the time.
Rocky was behind him in his ball, with a sleepy yet undoubtedly amused tilt to his head. If he had a mouth, Grace knew it would be grinning. If he had eyebrows, they’d be waggling, too.
This was silly.
“Hi Rocky.”
“Hi Grace. Looking different.”
“It’s, uh, it’s not-“
“I like triangles on neck, very fun.”
Grace pulled at his bowtie sheepishly, aware that Rocky didn’t understand the concept of black-tie, yet also aware that his species had their own special attire for important occasions, and also that Rocky could easily put two and two together.
Gosh, why did Stratt even pack them all a tuxedo anyway?! On a space mission?! And why did he put the dang thing on-?!
“What’re you hiding behind back, question?”
The wire flowers felt even more ridiculous than the suit, if that was even possible. Erid doesn’t even have flowers, what on Earth had he been thinking?
“Nothing important.”
“But important enough to hide, question?” Grace could hear the mirth in Rocky’s tones and felt his ears turning warm.
“…Yes?”
“Show.”
“No-“
“Show, show, show! Want to see!” Oh gosh, he was rolling over now, gaining on Grace like a very determined hamster. Before he could even begin to escape, Rocky had already skidded around him, and now had a clear view of the homemade bouquet clasped meekly in Grace’s sweaty palms.
Funnily, his friend didn’t say anything. Didn’t tease, didn’t laugh. Just stared at the shapes in Grace’s hand, at his attire, at his face with such intensity that Grace started to panic he’d done something wrong rather than foolish.
“Rock?”
“Flowers, question?”
Grace looked down at them. Metallic little daisies, eight of them, tied together in a bundle. Nothing at all like the fields and fields of them he’d shown Rocky in the projection room.
“Well, they’re supposed to be.”
“And… Grace in fancy clothes, question?”
“Heh. Yeah,” his neck was feeling warm now, damp where his hair curled against the skin, “yeah, these suits are, erm, definitely not casual. Not at all.”
Rocky was quiet then, his fingers flicking up and down as he thought to himself. Grace let him prepare whatever jest he was coming up with, his shoulders sagging beneath his tux.
“Flowers and fancy clothes are only for important Earth meetings. You said so.” Rocky began, gently, quietly. He still sounded somewhat confused. “Rocky heard… Eridian, too.”
Grace felt himself crumple a little bit. “I was trying to learn in secret, bud.”
Rocky didn’t like that, his hind leg stamping down in shock. “What!! Why secret, question? I teach, I very happy to teach!“
That was kind. He’s always kind. Even when dealing with a leaky human in a tuxedo on a spaceship with bent metal flowers in his sweaty hands.
Grace sat down, running his fingers through his hair, messing up the neatly brushed strands and feeling a fraction more like himself again. Rocky watched him, waiting for his reasoning.
“I wanted it to be a surprise.” He mumbled. “I’m pretty awful at it, though-“
“Shush. Show me.”
Grace huffed, a little smile coating his embarrassment. Bossy, as always. He took in a breath, having to glance down at his shoes and fiddle with his crappy little flowers, before he meekly attempted to sing the only word he’d practised.
Rocky was quiet as he listened. It was a long word, full of complex tones; Grace had to hum it slowly to sound it out properly, which only elongated the ordeal even further. Outside the windows, the stars rolled by beyond them, the universe so silent as it listened in, too.
He finished with a small, shy nod. All too aware that his Eridian was arguably still quite-
“Bad.”
Grace kicked his ball. “Hey, I’m a beginner!”
“Grace learn alone, now Eridian is bad. Stupid. Always ask Rocky.” Rocky was tutting like a disappointed schoolteacher, shaking his carapace back and forth. “Never need to do things alone.”
He felt his lip wobble through his smile, “I know, Rock, but-“
“But, word you tried to sing…” And, gosh, Grace could hear the happy little lilt to Rocky’s tone as he pieced everything together. He watched as his friend suddenly sprang up, like a lightbulb had turned on in his head, “was Adrian! ‘Important meeting’ is with Adrian!”
Grace felt himself turn red. “Aaand there we go. Look, it was all meant to be this incredible, super impressive surprise for you-“
But Rocky slammed into him, ball be damned, shoving himself into Grace’s legs as close as he could go. “Grace so stupid; hug, right now!”
“We’re hugging-?!”
“Yes, hugging,” he pushed in even further, enough that Grace had to slide to the floor to save his knees from bruising, “I tell you ‘Grace just be Grace’, now look what you do. Get all stressed and wear weird clothes all for nothing. Silly, silly, silly.”
Grace smiled against the xenonite, unable to stop himself, his cheeks pink and warm. “Adrian’s important to you; it needed to be special-“
“Grace already special!” He said it with such conviction. “More than anyone else.”
And… Well. There wasn’t much he could say to that.
The words made him feel a little bit like he was glowing. He knew his face already was, but now his insides were warm and fuzzy to match. The most he could do was press his cheek against Rocky’s ball, smile pushing against it, the transparent panes turning foggy with the clouds of his breath. He blinked a lot, too. Something in his eye.
“…Thanks.”
“Thought Rocky made it clear enough.”
“I’m not good with sentiments like that, bud.”
Rocky chirped against him, vibrations filtering across Grace’s skin. “Get good, then.”
It made him laugh, a wet but tickled thing. “I’ll try.”
“Do.” Rocky hummed, leaning back a little and perking up his head. “We learn Eridian together. …And Grace not wear strange fancy clothes anymore.”
“Yeah, this suit itches.”
“Stupid.”
But he said it so fondly, so Grace didn’t mind.
—
The day he met Adrian, he was dressed in his normal attire. Hair messy, glasses askew, with his laces coming loose in his shoes.
They liked the flowers, Rocky knew that they would. Grace felt pleased that he’d made them at all.
He sang their name perfectly, Rocky helped him through the tune. Adrian’s chirps were overjoyed at the effort, and the three of them laughed, and sang, and smiled.
“Thank you for something so special.” They said. Their hands full of daisies, their voice full of awe.
Rocky watched on proudly. Full of love, Grace was sure.
…And somewhere in the distance, deep in the depths of space, an abandoned tuxedo drifted through the cosmos, never to be worn again.