ヽ(〃´∀｀〃)ﾉ

You would think that space, being silent, would be a phenomenal place to sleep.

There was no air outside for sound to travel through and the sounds of the Hail Mary were negligible after months of exposure. The only sounds to occasionally catch Grace's attention were that of his roommate, who still insisted on watching him sleep.

"Eridian culture".

The new "because I said so".

Grace huffed, turning to his side and tightly cocooning his blanket around his shoulders.

Despite the seemingly optimal conditions (and going to bed over two hours ago), sleep still hadn't come.

He tried counting sheep, only for his mind to wander as soon as it got bored.

He tried meditating, but the silence was way too loud.

He tried remembering all the elements of the periodic table in numerical order. Then when that was too easy, alphabetical order.

This was silly. He felt silly.

I can identify single-cell star-eating organisms, be kidnapped from my everyday life to help save humanity, get launched into space, survive an induced coma, and only cry a little bit about it, but I can't make myself fall asleep?

After his attempt at deep-pressure soothing via his thin blanket, Grace rolled to his back, flopping his arms to the sides with a dramatic sigh.

Maybe Armando would have warm milk if he asked?

Heavy footfalls and the clinking of a xenonite hamster ball approached.

Great. Grace thought. My nanny is here.

He had kept his eyes closed through all his attempts, but hadn't tried to mask his breathing or sounds of frustration. He knew Rocky would hear him regardless.

"Grace okay, question?" Rocky asked, his musical voice spoken over by the translator.

He opened his eyes, rolling his head to look at him. His carapace was tilted as if looking up at him, the stoney surface showing more emotion than it should.

"Yeah... Yeah, I'm alright." Grace said. He rubbed the bridge of his nose, sitting up and crossing his legs underneath him.

The spin drive was active, a test in the lab needing to be run "overnight". Sleeping in gravity was nicer anyways, more natural feeling.

Grace had half a mind to give up on sleeping and just get back to work. If he couldn't rest, he might as well be productive.

"Why Grace not sleep, question? Rocky too loud, question?" Rocky asked, concern in his voice. Or, at least, what Grace had begun to interpret as concern.

"No, you're not being too loud." Grace said, shaking his head. "It's my brain that's too loud."

Rocky made a curious noise, his front legs tapping excitedly. "Humans can hear brain? Amaze!"

Grace held up a hand, chuckling. "No, I can't really hear my brain. I can think in words and sounds, but I can't hear the tissue."

Rocky tilted again, seeming to understand.

"I mean, my brain is busy. Too many thoughts."

Rocky thought for a moment, rocking his hamster ball back and forth.

They had talked about their biological differences enough that they both somewhat understood what "sleep" meant for one other. For Rocky, it was more of an involuntary hard shut-down than what humans had, Grace having to explain circadian rhythm a few times before it clicked.

Being unable to sleep was something briefly brought up, but Rocky hadn't seen until now.

The Eridian looked around the room, thinking.

"Rocky help, question?" He asked. "Don't know how, but Grace show."

Grace hummed, trying to think if they shared enough biology for sleep tricks to be shareable. It was hard to say, but not necessarily impossible.

"I'm assuming you wont let me go back to work without sleeping first?" Grace said, leaning his head on his hand. Rocky shook his carapace.

"Must sleep. Sleep important, statement. Human stupid without sleep."

Well, he wasn't wrong.

Grace sighed, nodding slowly.

"We can try. Any ideas?"

Rocky paused before shaking again. "No. Human sleep different from Eridian sleep. What help humans sleep, question?"

"Generally," Grace started, fidgeting with his hands. "There's a few known tricks. Counting things in your head, clearing your mind, moving your pillow to the other end of the bed, warm drinks. Some even recommend pretending to be asleep, funny enough."

Rocky nodded, taking it all in.

He raised his hands, looking between them as his fingers twitched like he did when working something out.

He looked up.

"Thirty-four." Rocky said, nodding definitively.

Grace paused.

"Thirty-four what, buddy?"

"Things in your head. Thirty-four. Twenty-eight teeth, one tongue, two eyes, one nose, two ears. Thirty-four things in your head." Rocky said, trailing off in confusion when Grace laughed. The human flopped to his back on his mattress, sighing.

"Grace sleep now, question?" Rocky said, hopeful. He looked up at him eagerly, front legs straightened to peak over the edge of the bed. Grace shook his head.

"I meant counting objects or animals to tire your brain out." He said, grinning.

Rocky let out an embarrassed hum, sitting with a loud thunk. "Strange... Understand."

Grace stared to the ceiling, thinking.

"Music helps sometimes. What does music sound like on Erid?"

Rocky paused, thinking.

"Need new word."

Grace sat up, leaning for the nearby laptop. Even with their growing shared vocabulary, he kept it nearby just in case.

"Music is..."

Huh.

How do you describe music?

"Its like, sounds and words to a rhythm, meant to sound pretty?" He tried, hoping it was enough to get close.

"Sound that tells stories?" Rocky asked. "Makes emotion, question?"

"Exactly!" Grace said, finding a slot to create the new word.

"Eridian word is 🎶." He said, the musical tone resonating.

Grace entered the word, nodding thoughtfully.

"What does Eridian music sound like?" He said, setting the laptop aside and turning to him.

"It sound beautiful! Like Eridian word, but longer..." Rocky said, his tone sounding unsure. "Need more words but don't know what words."

Grace laughed. "It's okay, I think I understand."

He reached to the laptop, pulling up some audio recording software.

"Can you sing something for me? I want to hear it."

Rocky tilted again. "Need new word."

"Its when you make music with your voice."

Rocky started, suddenly nervous. He stood, rolling his ball to move back from Grace.

"Rocky is bad at music. Bad, bad, bad." He said, scuttling back and forth as if anxious.

"It can't be that bad! Just something short, I'm really curious." Grace insisted, offering a sincere smile.

"Grace sing first!" He said, stomping a foot into the xenonite.

Now, it was Grace's turn to be nervous. "Oh, no. I'm very bad at singing. Totally tone deaf, actually!" He said, flushing slightly.

"Don't know those words. Grace sing first or Rocky not sing." Rocky said, grumbling.

Grace raised his hands in surrender, blush deepening at the insistence. "Fine, no one's singing today!"

Grace crossed his arms, tapping his fingers as he leaned back against the wall. Stage fright, he guessed, was also a strange universal phenomenon.

"Maybe I just need some exercise or something. Run my body to exhaustion so I can conk out." Grace said idly.

Rocky perked up. "Idea!"

He rolled closer, tapping his legs. "Rocky and Grace play game, question?"

"Game?" Grace said, quirking an eyebrow. "What kind of game?"

Rocky gestured wildly, his voice excited. "Exercise game! Need new word, Eridian game. Players try to keep each other on floor?"

Grace immediately understood.

"Wrestling?" He typed it into the translator as Rocky gave his version. "Like, two people fighting, but not to hurt each other?"

Rocky nodded. Grace chuckled.

"Rocky, you would win. You're much heavier than me."

"Yes, yes, yes! Rocky heavy, make Grace tired fast!" He backed up, making space between them and waving Grace over, offering to let him have the first move.

He did have a point.

"You're also in a ball. You could just run me over."

Rocky scuttled his legs rapidly, trilling. "Rocky will play fair. Trust! Come fight Rocky, squishy human!"

Grace chuckled at his enthusiasm, shrugging and throwing his legs over the edge of the bed. "Okay, just be careful. I'm pretty sure you could snap my bones if you wanted to."

Rocky made a sound akin to laughter, moving into an overblown fighting stance. He stretched his legs in a slow pattern around himself, steps wide like a five-legged cowboy in a quickdraw match.

"Rocky will be careful."

Rocky suddenly lurched forward, making Grace yelp as he latched onto his ankles through the "mesh" front section of the xenonite ball. With a tug, he dragged Grace off of his bed with surprising ease.

Grace winced as he crashed to the floor before yelping as Rocky tried to clamber on top of him. He kicked, connecting with the ball and rolling it backwards a few feet as the Eridian scrambled within to regain his footing. Grace rolled to his front, crawling on all fours to gain some distance as his friend charged again, knocking him onto his side.

Grace gasped as he fell, feet flailing to gain purchase to escape. On his side, he couldn't get very fair before Rocky rolled into his chest, making him lie flat on the floor as he climbed up to stand on top of him. The human took a moment to regain his breath before struggling again, cringing as Rocky rapidly shot out his arms to adjust the ball with every movement.

With how Rocky looked when he ran and skittered, Grace was very glad he didn't have too bad of arachnophobia. It was a little unsettling.

"Y'know, you're pretty scary when you're running at me like that." Grace said through gritted teeth, trying to catch the Eridian off guard and throw him off. Rocky just balanced his weight, unbothered, much to the humans dismay.

"Scary, question?" Rocky asked, voice incredulous. Grace nodded.

"Yeah, like some kind of big spider monster."

Rocky quirked his carapace. "New word?"

Grace laughed, the sound further pressed out of him under the weight and the rush of endorphins. "Predator animal that's not real, made up as a scary story."

"Oh!" Rocky said, perking up. "Eridian word is 🎶🎵!" He rocked back and forth in his ball, making Grace wheeze. He still tried to squirm, but it was clear he wouldn't be able to get away.

"Eridians have many of those stories!"

Grace looked up with wide eyes, suddenly curious. "Really? You'll have to tell me some sometime." He grinned, excited by the idea of sharing campfire tales with someone brought up in a completely different culture. He'd have to jot some down for the scientists back home.

"Rocky tell Grace one right now!" Rocky said, backing up a little so the ball sat over his stomach. It wasn't the most comfortable, but he could breathe a little better, so Grace took it.

Grace propped himself up on his elbows to look at Rocky, curious. "Right now? I thought we were wrestling."

"Story is relevant, statement." Rocky said, tapping a leg as punctuation. Grace shrugged.

"Long time ago," Rocky started, his voice carrying a dramatic tone over the sound of the translator. "There was 🎶🎵🎶🎶. She was a large 🎶🎵, like Eridian, but big, big, big."

As he spoke, he gestured animatedly, making many different signs and movements with his arms as if acting out the scene. Grace was captivated, imagining a massive Eridian with powerful legs that shook the ground with each step.

"🎶🎵🎶🎶 was a kind being. Big, but gentle and calm. Old Eridian story say she watch over lonely Eridians when they sleep and keep dumb Eridians out of trouble."

In Grace's mind, he pictured the lumbering beast of a creature standing guardian over an Eridian dwelling, a loyal sentinel in the eternal night of Erid's dense skies. Grace smiled as he listened, allowing his overtired imagination to wander.

"She was known for another thing too. A punishment all Eridians fear." Rocky paused dramatically, his hands freezing in the air as if waiting. Grace raised an eyebrow.

"Punishment? I thought you said she was nice."

Rocky nodded, waggling his carapace. "She is."

Grace made a confused face, his nose scrunching up. "Then what..?"

"She was also known as 🎵🎵🎶🎵🎶🎶." Rocky said, looking down in a way that made it seem like that was supposed to strike a chord.

"Uh... I don't know what that meANS-" Grace shouted as Rocky dropped his arms, pressing his hands through the xenonite mesh to skitter briefly over Grace's stomach. He pulled away, watching as realization bled across his human friends features.

In the early biology explainations, there was a shocking number of shared traits between humans and Eridians. Nerve endings were one that had confused Grace, originally thinking that Rocky's sense of touch would be dulled by his carapace. In reality, that was the furthest from the truth. Rocky had reported that Eridians were actually extremely touch sensitive.

Which meant Eridians could be ticklish. A theory that was confirmed as Grace felt a familiar, overwhelming swirl of anxiety in his gut.

Eridian legends had a tickle monster.

And he had just fallen for it. Hook, line, and sinker.

"Oh... Oh god no..."

A nervous smile began to push it's way across his face, sleep deprivation preventing him from suppressing it. Rocky clicked his hands together, chirping in amusement.

"Actually bud, I think I'm tired out. The wrestling and the story did it for me!" Grace said, arms shaking with the instinct to protect himself. Rocky shook his carapace.

"No, Rocky not done helping. Must make sure you sleep."

Grace tried to scoot backwards, unable to slide himself from under Rocky's weight. Rocky chittered.

"Rocky will be careful to not hurt stupid squishy skin." He reassured, adjusting before digging in.

Ryland Grace, humanities last hope, squealed.

Despite the xenonite and the rock hard fingers, Rocky was surprisingly gentle. Grace knew this, logically, after watching him with his xenonite building device, but who'd have known?

Grace threw his head back, his arms shooting to push against the hamster ball as he let out a stream of high pitched giggling. Rocky only had two hands working him over, pinching and scribbling across his belly and lower ribs, but it was so bad. Grace couldn't tell if it was the months without physical contact or if he was just unbearably sensitive.

"Rocky-! Knock it off!" He begged through his laughter, yelping as the tormenting fingers vibrated into his sides. Behind Rocky, he kicked his legs, banging his heels against the floor. Rocky was unfazed.

The Eridian rolled forwards to reach a little higher on Grace's torso, poking at his ribs. With each prod, the human jumped, trying desperately to grab Rocky's hands. This got a laugh out of the alien.

"How human so squishy, but have hard stuff in some places, question? Why not hard on the outside? Human body make no sense." Rocky teased as he poked, making frustrated laughter burst from his friend.

"I've told you about bones before!"

"Yes, but still make no sense." A third arm joined in, all three moving in rapid succession to make Grace collapse into hysterics. "Humans laugh funny."

What the human wanted to say was "Yeah? Well, yours is funnier!".

What actually came out was a garbled, alphabet soup of a sentence, not even registering with the translator. Rocky looked far too amused.

Suddenly, he stopped. Grace wiped tears from his eyes as he looked to his friend quizzically.

"T-that was mean." He said, residual laughter bubbling up.

"Rocky have idea." Rocky said, quickly moving off of his torso. Grace rolled over, planning to stand up, but he felt a weight roll over his lower legs.

Then, the weight started pulling at his shoes.

"Rocky! Rocky, don't you dare!" He turned as much as he could, putting on his angry-teacher voice. Rocky wiggled one shoe off, pushing it to the side.

"Rocky hasn't seen weird human feet. Want to see for science, statement." He pulled at the other shoe, the third arm pulling off the sock of the previous foot. Grace tried to kick out, but he wasn't able to do much more than bend his knees, making his upper body slide back towards Rocky.

"No you don't! You're just messing with me!" He tried to army-crawl away with his arms. They just slid against the floor uselessly.

"No~ sarcasm. Rocky is always genuine, sarcasm."

If he weren't already laughing in anticipation, he probably would have snorted.

"You suck!" Grace said, giving up and bracing himself. He tucked his arms under his chest, pressing his face into his hands.

"Grace suck more."

With that, stoney fingers swiped over his soles.

Grace cackled.

He writhed, struggling renewed as he clawed at the floor, pulling at his legs with all of his strength. Shrill screams laced the mirth, echoing off of the walls and through the ship. He curled in on himself, reaching back and swiping at the xenonite ball. He stretched out, reaching to grab something, anything, to pull himself out of Rocky's grip. The feeling sent electricity up his legs and straight to his spine, making him flop around like a fish.

"Grace is loud! So loud! Hurts Rocky ears!" Grace could make out over his hysteria. He shook his head, gasping as he tried to throw a retort back. He couldn't form the words.

Rocky was agonizingly thorough. He scratched at the soft inside of his sole, dragging the sharper edge of his fingers over the arches, scribbling lightly over the ball, then worming under and between his toes in a repetitive circular pattern. Every touch was exploratory, but precise as if he had some idea of what might work. He made sure no skin was left untouched, only slowing once Grace's laughter began to come in wheezes.

He didn't stop completely, switching to slow dragging up and down each foot. He listened intently as Grace damn near melted under the touch. Gasping breaths made way for breathy giggles, the human relaxing against the floor as his friend watched him, unaware of the attention.

To Rocky's sight, Grace looked more calm than he'd ever been.

Sure, his heart still beat rapidly, but his breathing was leisurely. It didn't carry the same stress it did before. His heartbeat sent soundwaves through his form, revealing unclenched shoulders, heavy limbs, and a dreamy grin. While Eridians didn't laugh the same way humans did, the effect was the same.

Rocky withdrew, backing off of his ankles and rolling to sit beside Grace's head. He watched as the laughter slowed, but the smile remained. The human looked up at him through tousled hair, not moving to stand.

"You're mean." He said, pointing at Rocky with a wavering hand. Rocky hummed.

"But, Grace is tired now, question? Can sleep?"

Grace thought for a moment, feeling the weight in his limbs and eyelids, how his breath was deep and slow. He felt how his mind was a little lighter, buzzing with happy chemicals.

Sighing, he nodded.

Rocky made a victorious sound, throwing his hands in the air.

"Grace go to bed now, get off floor." Rocky said, moving to get out of Grace's way. Grace didn't move, lying still. Rocky could hear his breathing deepen further, his eyes closing.

"No. Grace not sleep here, statement. Go to bed." He rolled closer, nudging the human on his shoulder. Rocky startled as Grace scooted towards him, wrapping around the ball and pressing his forehead into the xenonite mesh.

Rocky stared in confusion as Grace drifted off, spooning around the outside of the hamster ball. He couldn't imagine that was very comfortable for a being without carapace, but there he was. Pressed against the hard floor and the hard shell.

Oh well. At least he would sleep tonight.

Rocky settled in, lowering to lay in his ball next to Grace. He pressed a hand through the mesh to bury in the humans hair, trilling as he sighed in his sleep.

As he watched his friend sleep, feeling Grace deserved a reward after the torment, he began to sing softly.

The notes resonated through the xenonite like crystal bells, ringing in pure tones. It was an old melody from his younger years, something his parents used to sing while he was getting ready to sleep.

He had sung it to Adrian the night before he left, one last song to soothe her before saying goodbye.

He sang it to his crew the day they didn't wake up, a prayer that they knew someone still cared for them. An apology for failing them, it being the only comfort he thought he could give.

He sang it tonight as a promise. To himself, to his human companion, and to Earth and Erid.