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Panic. That was the first thing Simon felt as he woke up. Why was he awake? He should be dead. In fact he should have died several times over, so how was he not only alive, but also in very little pain. Cracking his eyes open, Simon looks around the room, taking in his surroundings.
His panic increases tenfold when he notices all the tubes and machines connected to him. No, nonononono, this- this can’t be real, he can’t be here. There are so many resources being wasted on him, and god knows what the people who saved him will make him do to repay them. Simon tries to rip everything– anything attached to him out, but he can’t make his arm move more than a little twitch. Oh god no, why can’t he move!? Apparently sensing his distress several sentient rocks make their way into the room.
What. The. Fuck.
He thinks they might be trying to communicate with him through the musical notes they are somehow producing. A tall, blue and green rock-creature makes some noises at a smaller brown one, who scuttles out of the room in a hurry. The rest make their way towards him, for a moment Simon is terrified, until they begin to detach the tubes, except for the thin one that leads into his arm.
Just as they finish, the little brown rock runs back into the room, it’s holding a very small computer. It sets it on a counter and presses a few buttons before it walks closer to him. Simon can feel the effects of whatever they gave him start to wear off, regaining feeling throughout his body, pain starting to ebb its way into his consciousness.
“New Human feel pain, question?” A robotic voice comes from the device as the rock-creature makes more musical notes.
“No, I uh, I’m fine.” Simon winces at how rough his voice sounds.
It stares at him, as much as it could, for a good minute before moving its body up and down in what Simon thinks might be a nod. It leaves the room, saying something to the blue and green one as it exists. Confused, he turns his head to face the ceiling again, listening to the sounds of the rock-creatures move around the room.
Tears begin to spill from Simon’s eyes as he finally processes the fact that he’s alive. He might have been kidnapped by aliens, but he’s alive! He tries to wipe the tears from his face but he still can’t move his hand enough to do so. A frustrated sound leaves him as the tears start to flow more heavily.
The aliens don’t seem to like this, making, what he deems to be, distressed noises at his actions. He doesn’t register the blue and green creature moving closer to him until it’s at his bedside. Simon jumps as he notices the towering figure, the most movement he’s been able to do since he woke up.
“New Human is leaking. What is wrong, question?”
“I’m fine. This is just a lot. I should be dead.”
“Eridians save New Human. Find you in ship, floating around Erid. Heal New Human, keep alive.”
Sighing, Simon tries to sit up, wanting to be able to speak easier. He doesn’t manage to push himself up more than a few centimetres before he falls back, wincing as he hits the mattress.
“Stop.”
Simon freezes at the command. Fear crashes over him in waves as the Eridian reaches behind him. His nerves are soothed when the back of the bed rises, pushing his body into a sitting position, and it moves away.
“Thank you. Uhm… you said you found me floating around Erid… what is that? Is it a station?” His throat is beginning to feel raw from the speaking, but he ignores it.
“Erid is planet. Home to Eridians and Saviour Grace. Can be your home too.”
“I– what? What do you mean planet? And my home? Does that mean you aren’t going to give me over to the COI?” Simon’s voice falters as he speaks, the pain and emotion on the verge of overwhelming him.
“I mean what I said. Erid is planet. Don’t understand.” The Eridian shakes its body, as if imitating a human shaking its head. “Don’t know ‘see oh eye’, but if New Human don’t want to go, then New Human stay.”
A fresh wave of tears run down Simon’s face as he takes in the information he’s been given. He’s on a planet, a real planet! They’re not all gone! And they’re offering him a home, somewhere away from Eden and the COI. He might finally be safe.
“New Human leaking again! Bad, bad, bad! Why leaking, question?”
He doesn’t respond to the question, just whispering a quiet ‘thank you’, as he sobs. The other Eridians in the room begin freaking out too when he continues to cry, offering no explanation to them. Gripping the blanket draped over him, Simon wills himself to calm down, he doesn’t want to annoy his rescuers. Clearing his throat, he apologises for crying.
“Is no problem. Saviour Grace very leaky as well.”
“Saviour Grace?” Simon recalls hearing them mentioned earlier in the conversation, curious he asks for clarification, “who’s that?”
“Saviour Grace other human, help save Erid. New Human live in biodome with Saviour Grace.”
“Another human…?”
“Yes. New Human get own house. Construction started 1800 seconds ago. Will be done in one Earth week. New Human stay here until complete. Need make sure New Human healthy.”
And for the third time that day Simon breaks down into tears again, this time he doesn’t bother shutting it down or feeling embarrassed by it. He lets himself feel the full force of his emotions as the Eridian by his side attempts to comfort him.
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Grace is sitting at the edge of the water, with his knees to his chest, staring out at the waves. He’d just gotten back from class and wanted to relax. Today had been particularly stressful as for some unknown reason his students were hyped up to an insane degree, and did not want to sit and listen.
“Grace, Grace, Grace!”
He turned to face the source of the shouting and saw Rocky scurrying down the beach towards him, waving two of his arms in the air to get his attention. Grace stands up, wiping the sand off himself, and heads over to Rocky, eager to find out what’s got his friend so excited.
“Hey Rocky! What’s going on?”
“New Human on Erid! Finally awake!”
Stunned Grace opens and closes his mouth a few times before he’s able to form a proper response.
“What– what are you talking about!? A new human?”
“Yes, yes, yes! Grace dumb, Rocky just said that. Ship found orbiting Erid, New Human inside, Grace medical team keep New Human alive. New Human finally woke up, new house being built, New Human will be moved to biodome when house complete!”
“What- I- wow okay. That’s… a lot. And why do you keep calling them ‘New Human’? Don’t they have a name?”
“Rocky forget to ask, too excite to tell Grace…” Rocky answers sheepishly.
Grace shakes his head affectionately, motioning for Rocky to follow him as he heads to his house. He can chastise him for his lack of manners another time, right now he just wants to know more about this mystery human he’ll be sharing a biodome with.
. . .
The entire week leading up to the new person being moved into his biodome, Grace was on edge. He didn’t know much about them, only that his name is Simon and that he was so severely injured when he was found by the Eridians, that he’d lost an arm. He paces around his kitchen waiting for Rocky to let him know that he’s here.
Today is the day Simon is being moved into his house in the biodome. Construction finished earlier that day, and the human specialists have decided that he’s healthy enough to live without constant medical supervision. He’s brought out of his thoughts by a knock at the door.
“Hey Rocky, you don’t usually knock–”
Grace stops in his tracks when he opens the door, his visitor is not Rocky, but instead an unknown man. Well, not just ‘man’, he has teeth growing out of the side of his face, his mouth stretches almost to his ear to accommodate them. His ears also look… strange… but they’re covered by the man's hair and aren’t completely visible, and there’s something on his neck he can’t quite make out. Rocky warned Grace that he wasn’t entirely human, but he was expecting a tail or something, not this. He looks sort of shocked, like he wasn’t expecting anyone to answer.
“Oh, uh, hi. Adrian thought that it’d be better if I came over to introduce myself. So… I’m Simon, it’s nice to meet you.”
“Well, hi Simon! Would you like to come in? It’s about time for dinner, so I can make us some food.” Grace steps aside to open the door further, and allow Simon to step through.
Simon looks a bit hesitant at first, before he slowly nods and walks through the door. Unsure of what he’s allowed to do he stands just to the side of the entrance, watching as Grace shuts the door.
“Take a seat.” He gestures towards the dining table, “As amazing as the Eridian scientists are, they haven’t been able to synthesise a whole lot from what little food was left on the Hail Mary, so there aren’t that many options.”
Grace continues to chatter as he prepares two me-burgers for him and Simon. The latter participating in the conversion only through the occasional hum to let Grace know he was still listening. He takes both burgers to the table, taking the seat across from Simon - the one facing away from the door - and sliding a burger over to him.
“Oh! Before you start eating I should let you know that the meat is adapted from my muscle tissue. If you aren’t comfortable with it I can get you something else–”
“It’s fine. Adrian explained it to me. They asked to do the same with some of mine but I said no… I wasn’t sure it was a good idea because of all the…” Simon gestures vaguely to the left side of his face, “you know.”
“Oh, right, yes.”
The two men sit in silence as they eat their me-burgers, neither knowing what to say. Grace finishes his way before Simon does, the other savouring every bite as much as he can. As Simon finishes his meal the front door bursts open, and Rocky runs into the living area, followed, in a much calmer manner, by Adrian. Simon flinches at the sound of the door, and locks onto Rocky as he places the device he has come to recognise as a translator on the coffee table.
“Calm down Dear” Adrian gently chastises their mate, curling an arm around him.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry. Rocky too excite to wait for Grace. Grace too slow to answer door.”
“Hey! You can’t insult me just because you’re impatient!”
“Rocky not impatient, Grace just slow… and dumb.”
“Whatever. I see the new xenonnite suits are working well.”
“Yes, yes, yes. Work great, can move much easy now.”
They continue talking about what they’ve each been working on, making the occasional jab at each other. Seeing the way Grace and Rocky banter, Simon curls into himself, feeling like he shouldn’t be there, like he’s intruding on something precious. Stuck between wanting to leave, and being unsure whether or not he’d be allowed to, Simon shifts back and forth in his chair. Noticing the movement, Rocky steps forward, moving slightly out of Adrian's hold.
“Simon okay, question?”
Simon's head snaps up, and he freezes, acting as if he’d been caught doing something he shouldn't be.
“I- yeah. I’m fine.”
Grace turns to face Simon, his gaze questioning, like he’s looking for any signs that he might be lying.
“Are you sure? You look very uncomfortable.”
“I’m just tired, it’s fine.” Simon mutters, looking away.
Grace’s expression softens at that.
“Oh! Well of course you’re tired, this has been a big day! You should have said something, you don’t need to stay here if you’d rather go home and sleep.”
Simon nods mutely, and heads out the door. Grace watches through the window for a moment, making sure he’s alright, before turning back to the two Eridians that are now cuddled up on his couch. Making his way over to the chair next to them, he hums almost silently, briefly reflecting on the interaction he just had
“Grace like new human, question?”
“Yeah, he seems nice. And maybe a little scared.”
“Grace Simon friends, question?”
“Not yet, but I think we could be.” Grace smiles to himself, thinking about the possibility of finally making a human friend.
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Grace stands there, hesitating, hand poised to knock on Simon’s door. He was going to ask if Simon would want to watch a movie with him, but now that he’s there, he’s having all kinds of reservations. What if he doesn’t like me? What if he thinks movies are dumb? What if he thinks I’m coming on too strong, I mean we only just met yesterday! He takes a deep breath, calming himself, and raps his knuckles against the door three times. Returning his hand to his side, he shuffles slightly, trying to distract himself from his anxiety.
“Grace.”
“Hey Simon! I was just wondering if you’d maybe, perhaps, want to watch a movie with me?”
Simon doesn’t say anything, he just stares at Grace. Yikes. That didn’t go down well.
“You- you don’t have to! It’s perfectly fine if not! Yeah- I’ll just… I’ll go.” He tries to retreat, taking a few steps back, waving his hands in front of himself.
“I uh, I’d say yes, but I don’t exactly know what a movie is…”
That admission stops Grace in his tracks, shock evident on his face.
“So you’ve never seen a movie before, not even one?”
Simon shakes his head “we didn’t have time for anything other than work on Eden.”
“Okay. You know what. We’re fixing that. Come on, I’ll put on my favourite.”
Grace reaches for Simon, about to grab his arm, before he thinks better of it. The man still seems quite nervous around him. Instead he gestures for Simon to follow him, then he turns and heads back to his house.
. . .
Once both men had settled on his couch, Grace grabbed his laptop, searching through the enormous library of movies he had access to. As he scrolled through he thought, not for the first time, how grateful he was that Stratt had uploaded essentially the entire internet on the Hail Mary. Finding what he was looking for, he sets the laptop back onto the coffee table, and wraps his blanket around himself.
“Are you sure you don’t want a blanket or a pillow or anything?”
“I’m fine.”
“You sure say that a lot.”
Simon huffs a little in what Grace thinks might be a laugh. As the movie starts, he relaxes into the couch a little more, listening to what the little gnome on screen has to say. Several times throughout the movie he catches Simon leaning closer to the screen, invested heavily in what’s going on. When the movie ends he leans back into the cushions, looking mildly contemplative.
“So they’re garden gnomes… and they’re alive?”
“Yup.”
“But how? And how can they do all that without breaking?”
Grace shrugs, “it’s just for entertainment, it doesn’t really need to make sense.”
“Oh. Can we watch another?”
Grace smiles so wide at that that his eyes start to crinkle.
“Of course.”
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Over the last few weeks Simon had come over at least once a week to watch movies with Grace, which is something he was enjoying greatly. Sometimes Rocky and Adrian would join them, but it was usually just the two of them. Grace fixed up the mess he’d made while teaching, then stuffed his hands in his pockets and headed towards the beach. He hadn’t gone on a beach walk for the sake of it in a long while, and was intent to change that.
Around twenty minutes into his walk Grace sees a figure in the distance. Figuring that it had to be Simon, Grace started into a light jog, eager to talk to the man. As he gets closer he sees that Simon has his hair tied up. Slowing down back into a walk, Grace waves at Simon, wanting to let him know he’s close by before he gets close enough to startle him. Upon seeing the blonde man excitedly waving at him, Simon smiles slightly and waves back.
“Hey Simon, I uh like what you’ve done with your hair.”
Now that he’s close enough to get a proper look at Simon, he’s able to figure out why exactly his ears look strange. They don’t look human at all, they look like something he’d see in a YA fantasy novel. Where the shell of a human ear would be, it split into 3 large spines, connected by some kind of webbing.
“Oh, your ears…”
Immediately Simon flushes red, he rushes to take his hair down and cover his ears again. He looks embarrassed and kind of upset, partially because he forgot his hair was up and partially because Grace found out.
“Yeah, sorry, I know they’re weird.”
“No, they’re really cool actually. I wonder…”
He moves to reach for them, before realising that that’s inappropriate. He scratches the back of his neck, embarrassed, as he apologises.
“Would you uh… like to join me on my walk?”
He looks up at Grace, surprised, “yeah, that’d be nice.”
Simon keeps his hair down as they walk across the small bay, but the next time he turns up at Grace’s house to watch a movie he’s got it up in a half-bun.
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Grace still had at least half of his lesson left when his usually well behaved class stopped listening and started talking amongst themselves. He notices some of them pointing behind him, annoyed he spins around, softening as he sees Simon walking up to them. He shoots a warning glare at his students, telling them to stop gossiping. Simon wasn’t fluent in Eridian yet, but he knows enough that he would have been able to tell they were talking about him.
“Hey Simon, whatcha doing here?”
“I was curious about what you teach, so I thought I’d sit in on a lesson or two. If that’s okay…”
“Of course!” Grace moves his chair from his desk, putting it off to the side, “you can here, I try not to sit while I teach so I’m not using it.”
Simon gives him a grateful smile. He tries to get on with his lesson, shooting a look at students who start trying to whisper again. He manages to get about 5 minutes of teaching in before one of the kids, Spot, raises their hand to ask a question.
“Yeah Spot, what’s up?”
“Why other human only have one arm, question?” The red and black coloured Eridian asks.
Grace sighs, “he’s here to observe, not answer probing questions. Now do you have any questions about the material?”
“No. Just about other human.”
The other Eridians in the class begin to make sounds of agreement.
“Okay, ‘other human’s name is Simon, you know that, you heard me say it. And if he’s okay with it, he might answer some of your questions. If you’re nice.”
He sends Simon a questioning look, asking if he’d be willing to answer some questions. Shrugging, Simon stands up, moving closer to the students. Grace beckons him over, wanting him to stand by his side.
“You know you don’t have to do this.”
“It’s fine. I don’t fully understand them, and the translator isn’t here, so you might have to translate. Sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologise for. Now, let's get started.”
Excited, the Eridians all start chirping loudly, talking over one another, all wanting to ask their own questions.
“Okay, stop. One at a time. Hands up if you have something you would like to ask Simon.”
All at once every student in the classroom put a claw in the air.
“Oooookay… uh, Ken! What do you want to ask?”
A multicoloured Eridian, with swirls of pink, blue, and yellow across his carapace puts his arm down, “Why Simon have more teeth than Grace, question?”
“Uhh okay… that’s a hard one to answer. To put it nicely: before I was found, I was being attacked by a creature, and this creature did very bad things to me, and changed my body to make me more like it.”
Simon looks a little sad as he talks about his experience. Several students put their hands down, either having wanted to ask the same question, or one they now think might upset him. Grace looks at him with concern in his eyes before Simon tells him to pick the next student to ask him a question. This time it’s a purple Eridian named Waluigi, they ask the same question Spot did.
“Why Simon have less limbs than Grace, what happened to other arm, question?”
“I had to uh… take it off, to get away from the creature I mentioned before.”
“Will it grow back, question?”
“No. It's not supposed to.”
Now almost every student has put their hands down, the only two who still have a question they would like to ask are Drew, and Danny, two almost identical Eridians, white in colour, with a little bit of brown on top. Grace looks at the time before addressing the class.
“We have time for one more question, you two decide who gets to ask.”
After a brief conversation, which was really just them saying they wanted to ask the same thing, they decided it would be Danny.
“What colour Simon, question?”
When Simon didn’t answer right away Grace looked over at him, seeing that he’s incredibly confused by the question, Grace explains.
“Eridians can’t see colour. I’ve told them what colour they all are, and that my hair and skin are pale, and my eyes are blue.”
“Oh. Well, my hair is mostly black, there’s a little bit of white on my left. And my right eye is brown, while my left eye is almost completely white.”
Happy with the information they were just given, the Eridians chatter amongst themselves, discussing what they were told. Grace claps his hands and announces that class time is over. They all scurry out of the classroom, eager to talk to their friends about today's lesson. Grace turns to Simon, a genuine smile on his face.
“Thank you for doing that, you really didn’t have to. They’d been asking about you since you got here, I'd've been able to shut them down if you wanted.”
“No, it’s alright, they all seemed nice.”
“They are. I’m sure they all really enjoyed you being here.”
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Grace left his house, heading to the beach to go for a walk, it had been a week since Simon had joined his class. Upon seeing Simon sitting at the edge of the water, looking somewhat downtrodden, he headed over there instead. Sitting down next to Simon, Grace says nothing, instead being a comforting presence until Simon wants to talk. Without looking at him Simon begins speaking.
“Have I told you what happened to me before the Eridians found me?”
Noticing the way Simon stares out into the ocean as he speaks, Grace doesn’t turn to face him either. He shakes his head and gives a little ‘no’ before Simon starts speaking again.
“This group of people, the COI, had me prisoner. They offered me my freedom in exchange for completing a research mission for them. I knew they would be welding me into a submarine and dropping me into an ocean of blood, but what they didn’t tell me was that there was something alive down there.”
Horrified Grace opens his mouth to ask a question, quickly being cut off by Simon.
“Don’t. No questions right now. Please.”
Hearing the pleading tone in his voice Grace shuts his mouth and nods, keeping his gaze to the waves, not wanting to overwhelm the other man. Simon recounts his experiences in the blood ocean, on Eden, and with the COI, tears streaming down his face as tells Grace the gruesome details of his past. Unable to stop himself, the moment Simon finishes talking and turns to look at him Grace launches himself onto him, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. Tears streaming down his own face, as he attempts to comfort Simon.
“I’m so so sorry, you didn't deserve any of that.”
Simon wraps his arm around Grace, and shoves his face into his neck, trying to hide the fact that he’s openly weeping now.
“It wasn’t the eel that turned me into this,” he lifts his arm from Grace to gesture vaguely to himself, “it was the blood, I think they’re separate beings. They might not have been, but the blood was definitely alive. As I was submerged in it I could feel my body changing. The face and ears and hair isn’t all of it.”
Grace is insanely curious now, gulping he asks, “would you be willing to show me?”
Simon mutely shakes his head, pausing for a minute before speaking, “not now… I’m not ready.”
“That’s okay, you don’t have to show me ever if you don’t want to.”
They sit on the beach in each other’s arms, Simon still occasionally sniffling, for hours until Simon feels ready to peel himself away from Grace’s embrace. Only going their separate ways once it begins to get dark. Grace did offer Simon to stay with him for the night if he needed it, but he rejected the offer, saying that he didn’t want to be a bother. He leaves before Grace could say anything else.
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Shutting the front door, Grace pressed his back to it and slid to the floor, he was exhausted. He enjoyed hanging out with Simon, he really did, but maybe a little too much. Which is exactly why he needs to distance himself, the last couple of months have been great, but he needs these feelings to go away. As much as he’d like to pursue a relationship with Simon, he absolutely will not, he doesn’t want Simon to feel like he’s forced to agree just because there’s only two of them. And he might not even be interested in men!
Taking a deep breath, Grace feels a tickle in his throat. He clears his throat in an attempt to get it to go away, but it just ends up making it worse. Unable to stop, he coughs, and coughs, and keeps coughing. It takes several minutes for him to calm down from his coughing fit, and at the end he sees a handful of long, thin petals in a variety of pinks, purples, and blues laying in his palm.
He’s read about this before, when he was young and would spend hours on his phone. He distantly remembers it being called Hanahaki Disease.
“Oh. I see.”