Chapter Text
Moving in together wasn't easy. Grace had been used to living alone for years before getting put on the Hail Mary, and had anticipated to be alone for whatever amount of time he had left after finding a cure for the Sun.
So when Rocky had come up with a way for them to be on the Hail Mary together, suffice to say Grace was unprepared. Luckily the ball's construction took some time which allowed him to tidy up the space before his new alien companion moved in.
The ship was designed to hold three people, albeit with minimal belongings on them. This was not enough space to hold everything Rocky had to bring, not comfortably, at least.
Grace's efforts of cleaning up the place had not gone in vain, but had been practically undone in a matter of minutes. It was insane to him how a being so small could have the sheer volume of things he did, though Grace supposes that's because Rocky had a much bigger crew and therefore resources he needed to transport if he was going to be on the Hail Mary full-time.
It was very chaotic in the beginning, and Grace could only be grateful to Stratt for anticipating his clumsiness and making sure the lab supplies were extra durable. Not only did Rocky have to acquaint himself with moving around in his xenonite ball like an oversized hamster, but he had to do so with significantly less space than he was used to due to, again, all his luggage. As well as the fact that every aspect of the ship was designed for Humans and not Eridians.
But Grace couldn't fault the engineers of the ship for not knowing. Making first contact was not anticipated, especially not with aliens who were, for a lack of a better description, overweight rock spiders. What would a ship designed for use by Eridians even look like? Grace would never know, unfortunately. Unless Rocky would make a human-sized xenonite ball for him, but as it stood there was no reason for him to be on the Eridian's ship. None that were good enough given the timeframe they had to save their planets, at least.
Would the ship even fit him? It was big, sure, but maybe the inside was full of rooms and spaces that would be big for an Eridian but tight and claustrophobic for a Human. Either way, Grace thought it would be fun. If not for the scientific discoveries, then for getting payback on all the wreckage Rocky was doing to the lab, even if it was all accidental.
"Apology, apology, apology," Rocky said as he slammed into one of the lab counters and caused some of the equipment to fall on top of his ball.
A spike of worry shot through Grace despite having learnt how durable xenonite is, but was soon followed by further irritation as the Eridian repeated the same mistake.
"Rocky-"
Another clumsy roll, this time knocking over a box that Rocky brought onto the ship--or rather, had Grace bring onto the ship ("How I carry things, question? Me in ball.")--and spilling it's contents out onto the floor.
"No, Rocky-" Grace tried once more, but all his attempts at speaking were trampled over by Rocky apologizing and promising to fix things once he got the hang of his xenonite ball.
More bumps and crashes followed, and finally Grace had enough.
His hand raised up and with it he made the quiet coyote gesture--known also as the silent fox by other teachers and schools.
"Hey! Rocky, quiet coyote!"
Rocky stopped and turned around in his ball to face Grace.
"Good, you're listening," Grace said with his hands now on his hips.
"What is thing Grace do with hands, question?"
Grace pulled up his hand and looked at it before recreating the gesture. "Hm? Oh, it's called a quiet coyote. I do it so you know to be quiet and I can get your attention."
"What is word Grace say after quiet, question?"
"Coyote. It's an animal on Earth. When you put your fingers like this, it kind of looks like one of them."
Rocky lifted one of his arms and looked at his claws. He tried to recreate the gesture Grace was doing, but unfortunately it was a five-fingered task, not a three-clawed one.
"Human animals weird," Rocky declared. "Why is coyote quiet, question?"
"Oh, well, they're kind of not-" Grace explained.
"So Grace lie, question?"
"No. The point of the gesture is to-"
"Grace is liar, statement. Grace is ♪♩♩♫."
"What was that? What was that word you just said?" Grace asked. It was an entirely new sound, one he knew wouldn't be found in the translator.
Rocky did the Eridian equivalent of shaking his head defiantly, which in this case involved shimmying his carapace.
"Rocky not going to share words with Grace if Grace liar. Grace not deserve to know Eridianese."
And there it was, the third scariest thing Grace could've encountered after dying alone in Space and failing to save Earth: a missed learning opportunity.
"Wait, Rocky, no!"