Chapter Text
Before Rocky was Rocky, they were someone else.
Life then, was defined by two phases in their life. There was the pre-flight, and the post-flight.
But in the stars, none of that mattered. Not when everything went wrong, when their crew grew sick and they could not fix it- could not save anyone- nothing mattered because life became something else.
It was redefined.
Then, it was the before-death, and after-death.
Roughly, their name translated to- Unwavering Perseverance, Foundational-Stone-Holds-True. In other words, their mate, Elegant-Melodies, Sound-of-River-Silt-Running, said that it was a poetic way of calling them a stubborn ass. Perseverance had only laughed in return, and answered every time-
"And yet you still love me."
Melodies had merely chortled. "Always."
Yet, in the years of solitude, they became nothing, became an it, became nameless and soundless. After all, what was sound if no one was there to hear you scream? What did it matter, if there was no one but itself?
When it met Grace, met this gift from beyond the stars, it became Rocky, became himself again.
Forever changed, and in some unspeakable way, grateful beyond belief for it.
The truth was, that Rocky had lost his mind. There were times in those dark days where he thought it was all a delusion, that somehow, maybe he had died too and in his failure to save his people, he had been cast away to some sort of hellscape, cursed to an eternal existence of solitude, lost in the abyss of space and forced to roam forever as a wandering soul. In those days, where he had gone crazy, he had- in his desperation, clawed at himself and etched the meaning of The Mission onto his very being. In those moments of fear, he had made sure that he could always remind himself of why he was there, why he was being punished.
Then, he had prayed.
And he was never really religious, never believed in the myths of creation or the ideas of a benevolent being that his parents had.
But at some point, he thought, damn it all if you can cast me to hell, surely you can hear me? Can't you hear me begging for forgiveness? And if you can, if you can forgive me for my failures, for dooming my world, please send me a sign, send me an angel, send me someone to save myself.
Perhaps someone, something, out there had deigned his prayers worthy of a response, because years later, he met his hail mary.
There was a saying that humans used, apparently. Spring cleaning. What it meant, Rocky hadn't been too sure of, but he had searched it up using the laptop gifted to him and found the origin of the phrase to be pretty fascinating. Spring cleaning, as Wikipedia defined it, was a thorough cleaning of a home in the springtime season that Earth experienced. Apparently, prior to spring, humans lived through a different weather season known as winter, a period of time through the year where everything was coldest and oftentimes, they traditionally stayed warm by burning things like wood- which was also fun to learn about, earth flora such as trees were beautiful things. Alas, the burning of wood usually led to accumulations of soot, and anyways it all boiled down to the fact that humans were messy, messy, messy. No surprise there, and Grace, as Rocky found, was actually even messier and clumsier than the average human.
Thus, spring cleaning.
Though, Grace only committed to it after Rocky had nagged him for the fifth time in the past three days.
So in a way, Rocky's predicament was his own fault.
In the long months following their reunion, Rocky had committed himself to a new mission. That was the creation of a tighter suit, with smaller knitted bits of xenonite. This mission required the time consuming task of breaking xenonite bits down into small plates that he had to individually piece together into a shape that closely resembled his own body. Hence, his attention was focused on this project until Grace made a noise, a sound that had Rocky pausing as he listened to the human pull something out from the bottom of a box that he'd been knelt over for the past half hour.
"Oh, wow," Grace said, and Rocky slowed his fiddling down as he turned his full attention over to his companion. "Can't believe I missed this."
"What are you holding, question?" Rocky asked, and took a closer look at Grace, stamping his foot down and watching as the man fumbled with what he had found. There was a slim part to it that he was holding it by, and then something round at the end. Grace pulled at something on the end piece, plastic wrapping that crinkled under his touch until he tugged it free and threw it down. It fluttered to the ground. Messy, messy.
"It's a lollipop." Grace answered him, as he twirled the thing around by the stick-end. "It's a candy."
"Like your skittles, question?" Rocky asked him, and watched him bring it closer to his face.
"Yup," Grace said, and then he smiled. "It's a different kind of candy, not really sour, just sweet. I think it's watermelon flavored."
Rocky tilted his carapace. Though he had an idea of what Grace was referring to, it was still adjacent to the true experience. Yes, they had once had a conversation about the sense of taste, Eridians like himself didn't exactly have that sort of sense, at least not to the same level of sensitivity as a human so that was quite a unique feature of Grace. Watermelon, from what Rocky remembered, was a type of fruit back on Earth. Rocky watched the man sniff at the round-end, before he smiled.
Then, he proceeded to do something that had the Eridian squeaking in shock.
He licked it.
"Mm!" Grace said, when Rocky could only keep watching and hearing the way his mouth watered, the flood of saliva and the way his tongue- that damn muscle, darted out again for a second taste. "I was right!"
What the fuck!? Rocky thought furiously. This guy was insufferable. How dare he- how dare he, with his tongue and his everything- and-
As the human saying went, it was like watching a train wreck, and he could only keep standing there, the xenonite in his claws slipped down and hit the ground with a thud. Grace's mouth was wet, and he was curling his tongue around the lollipop, and Rocky could see it- it didn't matter if it was in his mouth, his tongue was curling around and stroking the candy. His mouth was wide open, gaping hole of wetness-
Obscene!
He squealed, this time, steaming so hard that Grace looked over at him in alarm.
"Rocky?" He asked around the lollipop, swallowing saliva and rubbing the tip of his tongue around in a circle- Grace, you fuck-! "You okay? You fogged up the wall."
You're killing me, asshole. Rocky did not say, as he turned and walked down the corridor.
"Need space to think." He only trilled nervously, and felt like a degenerate for tapping his feet with each step- why the hell was he trying to get a closer look-?
He turned the corner to curl up into a ball, tucking his feet under him as he listened to Grace sucking on that damn lollipop.
Just end me, he thought, as Grace's mouth made a wet pop when he pulled the stick out of his mouth.
"I love watermelon," Grace said, the fucker following after him. Right, because the particular room of the ship where they had been was meant for storage and it wasn't even that big, not like there was any space to himself anymore. Privacy these days was only in name and nothing in practice.
Rocky made a soft noise, something like a gurgled grunt of frustration.
"God," Grace said, laving his tongue on the candy, the entire muscle was lolling out of his mouth. Rocky sank down further into the floor as if he could melt into a puddle of nothingness. "You know I used to have watermelon popsicles every week in the summer."
Rocky stilled.
"New word." He finally warbled.
"Popsicles? Oh, they're another food. They're like these icy things, people would take watermelon juice, and freeze it into a stick and you'd eat it." Food, of course, obscene as usual.
Then, Grace sucked the lollipop back into his mouth, twirling the stick end around with his fingers before he pulled it back out and then in again-
Enough.
Rocky stood up abruptly, and turned to skuttle into the next hall.
"Grace finish lollipop there, I will work on suit here. Talk later!" He practically shrieked, as he finally made his escape.
He needed to get out of Grace's sight before the man saw him leak.
"Huh?" Grace called out to him. "Uh- okay, buddy. I-I'll see you later!"
As Rocky rounded the corner, he didn't bother to respond, too preoccupied with the fact that his ventral seam was about to split open, and a wave of release liquid would express itself.
I gotta get the fuck outta here, was all Rocky could think.
It was too bad for him though, that he didn't pay attention to the scene he was leaving behind because Grace had wandered back to the storage box and when he dug his hand down to the bottom, he made another noise of delight.
"Oh wow! There's a whole pack of lollipops here!" He announced. "Assorted flavors, oh my god! I hit the jackpot!"