✧(ꈍᴗꈍ)✧

I roll over in bed with a sigh. The biodome is cozy. I can't complain. The Eridians are doing everything they can to continue making it as close to home as possible. Despite it all, I just can't get comfortable. Gnawing boredom weighs in my chest. It's almost as bad as my hunger. I toss and turn, trying desperately to fall asleep for a midday nap. It's just so...quiet. I can hear everything too clearly. The beach outside laps waves peacefully, but it's just unnerving to me.

Eventually, I sigh and sit up, staring across the room at my potted plant. My hosts were nice enough to give me a little companion in my enclosure. I mean biodome. Home. Whatever. I get up and head to the kitchen to water it when a rapid knock sounds on the front door. It's undoubtedly Rocky. His sounds were always borderline frantic now even when he was completely calm. I walk over and open the door. "What's up, buddy?"

Rocky instantly stumbles in with a trilling whine. His new fitted xenonite suit has proven very useful in doorways. "Rocky bored. Nothing to do. Too quiet. Bad bad bad," he grumbles. I can't help but chuckle dryly.

"You too, huh?" I mutter.

"Grace corrupt Rocky. Messed with my mind. Rocky can't think straight now." I do feel guilty, but can't stop the snicker that escapes me.

"Hey, it's not entirely my fault. We just needed something to pass the time. All five years of time."

Rocky makes a sound that can only be described as that of an angry seagull. That does not help my amusement. "Ok, ok," I start. "Sorry. But we can figure this out. We just gotta get through it. That's what I always used to tell my students. Trust me, some of them were...needing encouragement for their attention spans." I sigh. Fudge. I'm a grown man stuck in the middle of a childish crisis. I always told myself I'd never get screen addicted. I kept busy with reading and various projects back on Earth, but there was only so much a man could take on a mind-numbing space voyage.

I'm snap out of my thoughts by Rocky head butting me. Or body slamming me, I guess. "Grace Rocky play. Rocky bored."

I smile. "What do you wanna do?" I ask.

"Mario Kart."

"I-" I sigh. "No, no. We can't do that. It'll just feed into the addiction. Wait, didn't Adrian ban you from screens?" I narrow my eyes at him. Rocky shifts from one side to the other.

"Ummm..." He makes a trill that I've come to recognize as nervous thought. "...Maybe."

I shake my head. "Rock, did you come all the way over here so I can help you sneak around behind your mate's back?"

After a short pause, my alien friend chirps out a "Yes." I shake my head again and sit down on the living room couch. Rocky skitters over and sits next to me, resting a leg across my lap. It's disappointing that he can't lay on top of me anymore. I miss cuddling with him, as corny as it sounds. Or...maybe we could...

"Rocky, wanna wrestle?" I ask with a hopeful grin. Literally anything to ease my growing boredom sounds appealing. Even if it means getting crushed by a 700 pound alien. I just get a huff in return.

"Grace stupid. Rocky too heavy. Grace get crushed," he grumbles.

"We could be careful." I feel my face burn slightly at my whiny tone and am instantly thankful that Rocky can't see color. He doesn't respond, but if he had eyes, he would definitely be rolling them all the way into his head at my stupid idea.

"No. Dumb dumb dumb." Jeez. He really knows how to drive it home. What a wordsmith.

"Ugh. Fine." I flop onto my back. "I'm about to start gnawing on the walls, though."

"Is humor, question?"

"Is humor, statement."

"Amuse, amuse."

I snicker at his deadpan tone. I sit up again and look at him. "Ok. So what do we do? I already went on a walk. Twice. I don't think I have the strength to go all the way across the beach again. We can't play a card game cause you always cheat-"

"Rocky not cheat!" he protests. "Is how I see! Grace hold cards too low!"

"Suuuure. Anyway, I guess we could..." I trail off. Entertaining myself would be agonizing enough, but trying to figure out something we can both do is hard. It shouldn't be. But here we are. Stupid human brain relying on dopamine and getting messed up from screens. Now that I think about it, I should ask Rocky how he got addicted later. Does he rely on hormones for feelings? Is it a series of electrical signals? Is it something else entirely that humans just don't know about?

I'm snapped out of my thoughts by more head butting against my leg. I rub my hands across my face. "Ok, ok. This is gonna sound super lame and not fun, but we gotta deal with this. What if we just...sat in silence for a little while? Without doing anything?"

Rocky instantly made an angry trill and shook his carapace. "Grace suggest boring activity! Boring!"

"I knooow man. But we gotta train ourselves to not rely on...Well, I gotta train myself to not rely on dopamine hits. You gotta train yourself to not rely on whatever it is you got going on. And being bored is one way to do it. My students called it 'raw dogging life.'" I instantly cringe at the term. I really should've stopped them from saying it, but too late now I guess. Kids these days say crazy things.

Rocky taps a foot in thought and hums deeply. "Sounds awful. But...maybe work?" he said slowly. I nod and lay across the couch again, staring up at the ceiling. I should add some decorations to it. Maybe some fake stars and a model of my home solar system. I'll start on that tomorrow, maybe.

"Ok. Let's just...chill, I guess," I mumble. I feel Rocky move to rest a couple legs on mine. He's warm. It's comfortable. I can hear a small sound of mild disapproval from him, but he makes no more protests.

If I thought trying to nap was boring, this is pure hell. The silence returns and almost makes me dizzy. I cringe at myself because of it. I used to love silence. It was like a warm blanket after eight hours of teaching middle schoolers. I miss my kids. I hope they're all doing well now. My last class must've graduated college by now. I smile a bit to myself, proud of all of them even though I don't even know what happened to all of them.

I can feel Rocky fidgeting with my pant leg and rest a hand on the top of his carapace, tapping my fingers. He lets out a soft purring sound. Ugh. I feel like my brain is about to implode. I rest an arm on my face and groan softly. I don't even care about the hunger that I still have from malnutrition. I just want that sweet hit of dopamine. But I can't. I mustn't. I can do this.

Unfortunately, Rocky cannot. He squeaks and hops off my legs, immediately making a beeline to the tv. Oh, curse the Eridians. Those amazing, beautiful Eridians that did everything for me. Ugh. I can't even be mad. But why did they have to put the screens from the Hail Mary in here? Why why why? I sit up and dart over to grab the other controller. "Ok, one game. That's it," I tell Rocky.

"Yes! One game! Just one!" I haven't heard my friend sound so frantic in a while. Not since I nearly cracked my head open from hunger weakness a day after settling into my new home. I'm not sure how I feel about him showing the same amount of desperation towards this as he did back then. But whatever. I just want the relief of quick screen usage.

Rocky starts up a game of Mario Kart. We played many a game of it on our trip here and it was easily our go-to over everything else. I grin as I choose my usual. Can't beat Mario. I don't care if he's not the best and that he's kinda lame, I always use him. Rocky chooses Yoshi like normal. I'm not sure why he always plays as him. I wonder if it had anything to do with the pitch of his voice. He settles with his special synced texture screen and I can't help but think that his loafing position is absolutely adorable.

"I'm gonna beat you this time," I tease with a grin. Rocky chirps a small giggle.

"No, no. Rocky win. Rocky always win."

"Not this time, you won't."

The game seems to just fly by. And to my absolute pride, I do win. I laugh as Rocky smacks me with a hand and demands a rematch.

"Ok, ok!" I laugh. "One more game just to see if you win! But if you don't, we're done!"

Famous last words.

Time flies by. What started as a rematch turns into a full fledge tournament with no end in sight. I pause at the sound of tapping outside. "Uh...Is that a knock?"

I blink in confusion at Rocky's sudden cowering before realizing. Oh no. Ooohhhhh no. He must hear Adrian. They're knocking on the door. Fuuuuudge. I quickly turn the tv off before scrambling up to answer the door. I've never been good at hiding my emotions. I can feel the nervous smile on my face and hear the slight tremble in my voice. "H-hi, Adrian. Are you looking for Rocky?"

Adrian is still intimidating. I mean, it's only been a week since I moved in and met them, but still. The way they tower over me by about two feet is a bit terrifying. Yet they're still quite lovely with their emerald carapace and slivers of gold. I ignore whatever reason I might think that.

"Yes," they say. Their voice is deep and melodic like a lullaby. "He said he would be back by now. Still not back. Came to find him."

I nod a little and step aside. "Well, uh, we're just hanging out in here." I chuckle a bit nervously and hope that they haven't learned human tone yet. They duck down and step inside, heading straight for Rocky. He just chirps a bit guiltily and curls in on himself. Adrian huffs in mild annoyance and sits next to him, pulling him in for a cuddle.

"Adrian hear Rocky play games with Grace," they say. Rocky squeaks and leans into them.

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! Was too tempting! Rocky give in!" he responds quickly. I find myself staring a bit in interest. Learning about Eridian relationships has interested me for a while. I wonder how different and how similar they are to human relationships. Not that I have much to go off of personally, but still. I'm a keen observer. Adrian has always seemed so gentle with Rocky, and he's always been so affectionate in return. And I picked that up after just a week of meeting them. But maybe it's just because the two of them have been separated so long. I'm really not sure.

I blink when I suddenly register the deep, "Grace," coming from Adrian.

"O-oh!" I stammer and clear my throat. "Yes? Sorry."

"Come. Sit," they order. I walk over without hesitation and sit by them and Rocky. I squeak as I'm instantly pulled against the giant Eridian. I feel my face heat up a bit. Thank. Goodness. Eridians can't see color. I feel a soft purr radiate off of Adrian and relax into them a bit.

"Rocky Grace ruin selves," they say calmly. Rocky starts to protest but is just cut off. "Keep feeding addiction. Bad bad bad. Adrian hold until better."

I blink. "You're...holding us hostage until we're not addicted?" I ask.

"Yes. Rocky very annoying about it." I hear Rocky make an embarrassed squeak and feel Adrian adjust to pet him. "Adrian will hold out of love. Don't like seeing Rocky and Grace in distress."

I smile a bit and lean against them more. "Well...Thank you. That's really thoughtful. Even if it will be miserable." I mumble the last part, not wanting to offend Adrian. Not that it makes a difference. Eridians can hear literally anything it seems. Even so, they don't acknowledge it.

"Adrian watch. Rocky Grace sleep. Rest, my love." They pet Rocky affectionately, prompting him to snuggle against the crook of their arm. I chuckle softly and adjust to curl against their other arm. I can feel the boredom a bit, but it's more peaceful with my best friend and his mate here with me.