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do you think his face is so kind so soft it does not macth the life he was forced into it, he has the face of a caretaker the face of a loving mother who is so tired of figthing so much. at first he only puts it on fro his batles to protect himself and
The mask is protection—but not for the brutal world of gladiatorial arenas, but to the death matches that allow no emotion except anger.
And Soundwave has never been good at only anger.
He weeps.
Quietly. Constantly. Behind optics that refuse to harden the way the crowd demands. He looks at his victims with sorrow that lingers too long, too visible, too human for a place like this.
They call him weak. Soft. A waste of a frame.
He makes barely any revenue.
No one wants a crying mech in the pits, while it kills.
Megatronus—friend, caretaker of his cassettes between matches, the only one who ever bothers to sit beside him afterward without judging, tells him he has to improve. Not because he wants Soundwave to become cruel… but because he knows what the arena does to those who don’t adapt.
“You’re good,” Megatronus says, quietly. “You’ve never lost.”
A pause.
“That’s why you’ll die, they will eat you alive if they could”
Kind souls do not survive in the arena.
So they build the mask.
At first it is only a tool. A way to keep his face concealed thru the matches, to make sanix and keep the cassettes fed, to make sure they are not sold off, dismantled, or worse. His popularity rises the moment he no longer shows what he feels. The crowd prefers silence over sorrow. They prefer violence over mercy.
Slowly, the mask stops being something he wears.
It becomes a performance of deliberate silences and walking in shadows.
A way to hide the pain and sorrow that plagues his frame after each fight.
And he learns to perform it so well that even Megatronus stops looking at him like he is fragile.
Then Megatronus comes to him with a dream.
A future beyond the pits. Beyond the Senate. Beyond the cruelty that decides which sparks deserve to starve and which are allowed to burn bright.
A life where Soundwave’s cassettes—his children—would not have to fight for scraps or sleep on cold metal floors.
Soft berth. Warm energon. A safety that does not disappear when credits run out.
Soundwave believes him, with the desperation of a mech who has been brought to edge too many times.
Because no one has ever spoken of survival like something that could also be gentle.
He starts to follow him.
Support him.
Hopeful and carefully, because it feels like handling broken glass and he is afraid it might still cut him.
The mask begins to come off only in rare places. Quiet, hidden spaces. The calm archives with Orion and Megatronus after extraneous days. The bar at night with Jazz, where music drowns out the noise of the pits. Moments where he almost feels like a mech who could exist without armor.
It feels… like breathing.
Like maybe the world is not only built to hurt him.
Then everything explodes.
Orion Pax receives the Matrix instead of Megatronus.
And the world does not shift—it breaks beyond repair.
The revolution becomes fire.
The Senate falls by their hands.
The only time Soundwave smiled after the killing.
The streets become warzones. Names become weapons. Ideals become war manifesto .
There is no more caretaker Soundwave.
Only the silent terror of the pits surviving inside a mech who no longer has time to be anything else but.
Megatron’s most loyal supporter.
At night, the mask still comes off.
Because he needs air.
But even the air still tastes the same—metallic, burnt, heavy with spilled energon and the echoes of what they used to be. Still, he clings to it. To the only thing that remains consistent: his cassettes, curled close to his spark like they always have been.
Like they always will be.
Even if everything else disappears.
The revolution becomes war replacing everything that came before it.
No Senate. No reform. No future shaped by hope.
Only war generals.
Only broken sparks learning to survive by becoming something Soundwave has only seen in the pitts and Cybetrons most broken parts.
It sickens him, because the world changes but Soundwave does not, he just wears a mask that threatens to fuse to his face.
One cycle, he goes to Megatron’s chamber at night.
“Megatron… I think we could negotiate a peace treaty with Orion Pax. He is a sound mech. He stood by ou—”
The energon cube hits the wall before he finishes.
It shatters violently, like the peace they once had.
Liquid spills down expensive carpeting like something alive bleeding out.
“Do not say that fool’s name,” Megatron snaps. “Optimus killed Orion. He knows nothing about us. About what we have endured.”
His voice cracks—not outwardly, but Soundwave hears it anyway.
“As long as he is a Prime… he is one of them.”
Silence.
Soundwave steps forward anyway.
“Megatron… old friend…”
His fingers go to the mask.
A pause that feels like falling, like walking into live fire.
Then he removes it.
The room does not change, Megatron keeps looking at him the same—but it feels more fragile.
“Look at me,” Soundwave says softly. “Look me in the eyes and tell me that again.”
His optics are gold.
Not sharp. Not cold.
Just tired, sorrowful.
Full of something that never stopped being care, even when everything else turned into hate and pain.
“Tell me you didn’t love him,” he whispers. “Tell me you didn’t let your ego decide what he became after he was gone.”
Megatron freezes.
For a moment, there is no conqueror, no lord in the room.
Only Megatronus.
Only someone who remembers, someone who feels to much.
Soundwave doesn’t look away.
“Please.”
It´s a plea, because with Megatron with his old friend Soundwave has always shed the mask
The air changes, fractures.
A quiet collapse held together by loyalty that should not have survived this long.
Megatron’s expression hardens slowly like when the crowd had demanded a kill in a non lethal match but you still had to do so, like putting armor back on before the wound can be seen.
“Cover that face, Soundwave.”
The words are sharper than any sword they´ve used. Defensive.
Final.
“No Decepticon of mine will be caught looking at his victims with sorrow.”
His optics glow with cold authority.
But Soundwave has already seen what is underneath.
And that is what hurts the most.
________________________
This started out as a short headcanon, and now I’m sitting here with a oneshot that had me holding back tears because I’m apparently incapable of writing soft comfort.
Hope you enjoy it and suffer as much as I did writing it.
You can read this as part of the I LOVED AND I LOVED AND I LOST YOU fanfic universe. A fanfic where Optimus asks Megatron to stop the war again and again to no abail.
Why didn't rocky go back to Erid when his crew died?
HOLY SHIT. HOLY SHIT.
I just had a realization.
Why didn't Rocky go back to Erid when his crew died? Or even while they were dying? Is that ever explained? I don't remember, and I've read the book.
So here's my headcanon:
Rocky never went back to Erid because he thought he had some strange, incurable disease that he was somehow immune to. He didn't want to risk bringing it back and contaminating his entire species, so, in a way, Rocky was on a suicide mission too. He was prepared to die alone in space if it meant protecting Erid from whatever had killed his crew.
It would also explain why he stayed, because Erid would have been sent their most capable scientists to the Blip-A working on the problem. From Rocky's perspective, there was nothing he could do except keep himself isolated.
Then Grace explains radiation.
And suddenly Rocky realizes...
He isn't contagious.
He can go home.
He can see his mate again. His friends. His old life.
He gets all of that back because this weird leaky space blob took the time to figure out what had actually happened.
So of course Rocky gives Grace the fuel. Grace didn't just save Erid—he saved Rocky. He gave him his life back.
I'm losing my marbles over here. Please tell me I'm not the only one who thought of this. 😭
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ok I know I seem insane for watching project hail mary for the fourth time in 10 days but I got to watch it with the directors commentary tonight and it’s incredible how much thought and love went into this film by EVERYONE. the directors, ryan gosling himself, the sound department, costumes, set production, cameras. everyone has so much pride and the story is so beloved by all. anyway here are some of my favorite things from the commentary
no one knew how to pronounce eridani (air-id-ah-ni or air-re-deni) so they just literally never said it in the film
the “good luck” at the beginning is supposed to have been written by the astronauts on the ISS who delivered ryland to the hail mary
when ryland calls stratt after successfully breeding astrophage and he says “carl and I made a baby,” that was ryan gosling was calling sandra hüller on her day off and she had no idea that’s what he was going to say. that “what” was her genuine first reaction
the scientist whom ryland called a stagnating waste of carbon was the bearded guy sitting next to him and stratt in the initial phm meeting
the idea of the soundtrack being so hopeful was supposed to be like there were two different planets cheering him on
when ryland is sitting on the beach in that don’t-go-crazy room and sees a figure walking towards him, that’s him on erid at the end. he’s seeing himself
among the markings on rocky were the petrova line mission patch, his rank, family crest, and wedding band
rocky always stamped his claw on the ground twice for a question
they wanted to make it so that eridani could have different tones. so it could be a given series of keys for one word and then you could change the frequencies for happy, sad, scared, etc.
after rocky wakes up and asks ryland if they caught the taumeoba and ryland shakes his head no and then yes, the directors went “what an odd thing to do”
ryan gosling wrapped all the gifts that ryland gave to rocky himself
the entire reason that exchange panel was put on rocky’s ball was so that ryland could pass him the little beanie earth
the movie starts with an upside down shot of ryland waking up. the epilogue starts with a right-side up shot of ryland waking up. he also makes his bed and brushes his teeth to show how time has passed LOL
their headcanon for explaining the rocky nature of the beach is that the eridians tried to emulate sand but got the scale of the grains wrong
rocky had them create a beach, and wave machine for the beach, and a tree for ryland so that he felt closer to home, but rocky was all he needed for that
When Grace is six years old he receives his soulmate’s first lost item. It’s a strange hollow cylinder, similar to a pencil, semi-translucent and blotchy brown. It looks like glass, but it can’t be; Grace has dropped it several times in his clumsy enthusiasm, and hasn't broken nor chiped. He is absolutely overjoyed by the fact that he finally has a soulmate, even if he has no idea what the object actually is. His parents are mostly just relieved that their son has stopped crying over not having a soulmate.
Grace goes to class the next day and shows everyone his soulmate’s strange object. He tells them it’s a pencil cover, something to make pencils look nicer. The classroom stares at him strangely, and his teacher gives him a look of pity, Grace in his young enthusiasm doesn't notice, too enamored with the object in his hands.
His bullies catch wind of it quickly. Grace is a weak kid, an easy target. They rip the cylinder from his hands and throw it to the ground. The cylinder doesn’t break, but something inside Grace does. He feels small, insignificant. He cries to his parents about what happened, but his father only tells him he was stupid for taking something precious to school, where things are always lost or stolen.
Grace drags himself to his room, whimpering softly. He doesn’t know where to keep something so important without losing it. In the end, he places the cylinder inside a shoebox. He doesn’t have anything better.
__________
Grace is twelve when the second object from his soulmate arrives.
One morning he wakes to find the strangest thing sitting on his pillow. For a second, he wonders if he lost a tooth and this is some bizarre version of the tooth fairy, but that’s impossible. Which means it came from his soulmate.
He jumps around the room in excitement.
It’s a small figure, around the size of his fist, mostly turquoise with brown spots that somehow blend together beautifully. It looks like a mix between a crab and a spider, five limbs attached to a rounded carapace that spikes upward. The material almost looks 3D-printed, though Grace has never seen anything quite like it before.
It’s gorgeous.
The figure immediately becomes Grace’s most precious possession. He tells no one about it because he wants it to be his and his alone. He keeps it on his nightstand because he wants to fall asleep looking at it and wake up to the sight of something his soulmate once touched. Whenever someone strange comes to the house or his parents visit his room, Grace puts the figure into the shoe box.
With it comes a realization: his soulmate must be an artist, someone who loves arthropods and strange little creatures.
That realization quietly shapes Grace’s future.
He studies biology in school, always choosing every science elective he can. Eventually he discovers that molecular biology fascinates him even more. Sometimes he thinks, distantly, that he owes his soulmate everything. Without them, he might never have found what he loves.
Turquoise becomes Grace’s favorite color.
______________
Grace is eighteen, living in his tiny student apartment after starting college early, when the next item appears.
The box itself is the first thing that catches his attention. It’s made from the same strange material as the cylinder his soulmate sent years ago. Grace turns it over carefully in his hands, marveling at it before opening it.
The lid is covered in strange mathematical symbols.
Inside is, frankly, junk.
At least that’s the only word Grace can think of for the bizarre collection of trinkets, rocks, and crystals filling the box. Nothing looks functional, yet Grace loves every single piece anyway.
One crystal in particular catches his attention. It’s transparent with flat sides, though it isn’t any polyhedron he recognizes. A hexagonal prism sits at its center, and the whole thing glimmers beautifully in the light.
The next day, Grace visits one of those tiny crystal shops with incense smoke thick enough to choke. He asks the woman behind the counter if she has a way for him to wear the crystal safely.
The woman is older, dressed entirely in blue, her hair pulled into a tight bun. Her sharp green eyes settle on the crystal the moment he places it on the counter.
“Otherworldly,” she murmurs as she touches it briefly . “Your soulmate is unlike anyone else. Just like this gem.”
Grace freezes.
He never told her it came from his soulmate.
Still, he leaves the shop wearing a spiraling wire pendant that cradles the crystal safely without altering it. The word otherworldly lingers in his mind the whole walk home.
It feels right.
From then on, Grace never takes the pendant off. It stays tucked beneath his shirt, resting close to his heart. The junk box becomes the new shoe box and the upgrade heals something within him.
At twenty-four, he receives another figurine.
This one is smaller and rounder than the first, almost its complete opposite. Grace finds that oddly amusing and terribly endearing. It’s mostly brown, but three of its limbs are tipped with the same bright turquoise.
The figurine becomes his little companion while he works on his thesis in the research lab.
By now Grace has a few friends, enough people around him that he feels comfortable showing off the gifts from his soulmate. They coo over the little crab-like figure, fascinated by its curious design.
For once, life is good.
____________
When Grace turns thirty, life reaches its lowest point.
His thesis about water not being necessary for life is treated like a joke by the scientific community. No one gives him a chance. Linda, his girlfriend, cheats on him with Mark—her soulmate. Objectively, Grace knows it never would have worked; they weren’t each other’s soulmates. But the silent treatment and her sudden disappearance still hurt deeply. He spends days crying, trying desperately to understand where he went wrong. He wonders if something is fundamentally broken inside him. Maybe he doesn’t really have a soulmate. Maybe he’s simply meant to end up alone, because not even his parents love him, he hasn’t spoken to them in four years.
Eventually, Grace becomes a teacher because he has nowhere else to go, nothing else to, the best he can do is to put his science knowledge to work.
After his first day teaching, he returns to his tiny apartment exhausted, only to find another gift waiting for him.
It’s a scale model of a solar system. Not Earth’s solar system, but something entirely alien and impossibly beautiful.
Grace cries the moment he sees it. Because he does have a soulmate. Someone out there likes the same things he does. Someone out there exists.
The gift gives him hope.
So Grace throws himself into teaching. He teaches his students about space with colorful models and impossible enthusiasm. He takes control of his life again, and for the first time in years, it feels good to make a difference in the world, even if it’s only through children who leave his classroom loving science just a little more than before.
________
At thirty-two, Grace is a well-established teacher in his community. The kids adore him. He holds the unofficial title of coolest science teacher in the school, and nobody fails his class.
Life is genuinely becoming good.
Then Eva Stratt appears.
The Petrova crisis drags Grace into becoming the right hand of the most powerful woman on Earth. The pressure is unbearable, and the number of people they fuck over in the process is catastrophic. Part of Grace would rather stay in his classroom teaching children about planets and cells.
But another part of him is enthralled. Astrophage is everything he ever dreamed science could be.
And then it happens.
“Dr. Ryland Grace, you have to go as the Hail Mary’s scientist.”
“I put the ‘not’ in astronaut,” Grace jokes weakly, voice trembling around the words.
“You have three hours to decide.”
“I… I don’t want to go. I’m not made for that.”
“Yes, you are. You have the coma gene and are the leading expert in astrophage. Apprehend him.” Her eyes are cold.
“No—NO! I’m not gonna go!” They chase him. Karl included. That betrayal hurts far more than Linda’s ever did.
They force him to the ground.
“Don’t worry,” Stratt says, holding up a syringe. “By the time you wake up, you won’t remember any of this and will do your job right”
“You’re murdering me,” Grace sobs into the pavement, salt tears soaking into the ground.
Chapter 2 →
Thank you for reading!! Coments and kudos are highly apreciated.
They sleep together, or else Rocky would apparently have an aneurysm. By Eridian standards, it's a vestigial instinct from a time when their species was hunted by predators. Nowadays, though, it's more a symbol of a happy community and loving partnerships.
Grace hasn't slept beside anyone since Linda, and having company again feels surprisingly nice, even if it's a little strange. Rocky's underside isn't particularly pretty, but the little noises he makes are oddly soothing—soft purrs and happy chirps that fill the silence around.
Looking after Rocky also turns out to be much less of a burden than Grace expected. Eridians sleep like rocks, literally. Rocky settles as close to the barrier as possible and promptly conks out without even twitching. As long as Grace is there when he wakes up, Rocky is perfectly content, which means Grace is more or less free to do whatever he wants. Apparently nothing can wake an eridian up, which is exactly why they evolved to watch each other while they sleep.
It must have been difficult to tell if an Eridian was alive while they slept. Grace can't help thinking about Rocky watching over his crew for all those years, never knowing what had happened to them. Why did Rocky survive when the others didn't? He'll have to ask at some point.
The first time Grace rolls over in his sleep, Rocky immediately starts chirping anxiously until he wakes up. That, in turn, lead to an entirely new explanation about how humans sleep, dream, toss, turn, snore, and occasionally make deeply concerning noises for absolutely no reason.
Rocky is starting to believe whoever designed humans must have hated them, and honestly, he might be right. He's going to be horrified the day he learns about periods and discovers that only half the population has to deal with them. Surprisingly, though, he really likes it when Grace snores. To Rocky, the steady rumbling means Grace is alive, and the occasional incoherent mumbling sounds just enough like Eridian speech to make him happy.
Basically, Grace has discovered he can be as annoying as he wants while he sleeps, because every strange noise just reassures Rocky that he's still alive.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
"Hi, Grace."
"...You're in a ball!?" Rocky is, indeed, inside a giant xenonite ball, rolling around like the galaxy's biggest hamster.
He rolls into the Hail Mary, bumping into furniture and knocking loose tools across the floor.
"Dirty."
Thunk.
"Dirty."
Thunk.
"Dirty."
"Why room so messy?"
"I wasn't expecting company, now was I?"
"No wonder Grace loses so much stuff. Rocky received sock 3,000 seconds ago." Rocky chirps, far too amused with himself.
"I need that sock back. I'm running out of clothes. I don't even think I have matching socks anymore."
"Not true. Grace still has clothes from other crew members."
"That is not a justification for stealing mine. Why don't we trade? You can have some of their clothes instead. They'll probably fit you better anyway—Illyukhina was smaller."
"No. Rocky only wants Grace clothes." He's chittering happily now, stomping his claws against the floor.
"Rocky, there's going to be a point where I actually need those clothes. I can't just walk around naked."
"What naked mean?"
"It means walking around without clothes. All your skin is exposed. It's... kind of a social taboo."
"Eridians also prefer clothes because pretty appearance, but no problem if no clothes. Grace can go without clothes. Rocky not mind."
"Buddy, I know I'm your soulmate and all, but I'm not walking around naked in front of you. Just because Eridians don't mind nudity doesn't mean humans don't. We wear clothes for warmth and protection."
"Human body so weak. Bad design. Rocky want complain to creator. Rocky know because Rocky engineer."
"Sure. I'll get you a call with God."
"Grace being stupid. Now help Rocky move in."
"Wait, what?"
"Rocky come live with Grace on Hail Mary. Rocky finished preparing everything. Easier to live on Hail Mary."
"Hold on! When did you decide this? Why didn't I get a vote? Your ship is bigger—I should be moving into yours."
"Rocky ship atmosphere kill Grace."
"Mine kills you too."
"Rocky ship has no light. Grace cannot roll inside xenonite ball without breaking head. Rocky heard Grace trip with socks, and small things."
"...Is that why you keep stealing them?"
"No. But also good reason."
"...Okay, fair enough."
"But what are you actually going to do? Stay inside that ball forever? What about your life support?"
Rocky eagerly leads him outside the Hail Mary, where stacks of xenonite panels and neatly organized boxes are waiting beside the tunnel.
"Rocky thought of everything. Grace build enclosure for Rocky."
"...Buddy, I've never even finished a puzzle. I'm great at science, but absolutely terrible at building things. I sucked at lego."
"No worry. Rocky instruct."
It does not go nearly as smoothly as Rocky made out to be.
Rocky gives directions constantly, but between the language barrier and Grace's complete lack of construction skills—not to mention Rocky's perfectionism—it takes far longer than planned. Every time Grace thinks he's finally finished, Rocky produces another box full of xenonite panels.
Five straight days later, Grace is still gluing xenonite sheets together.
It feels disturbingly similar to helping Linda move into his apartment years ago, endlessly carrying box after box of random junk.
Rocky ends up claiming most of the bedroom, insisting that a proper nest is essential and that he needs to stay close enough to keep watch over Grace while they sleep. The laboratory receives only a single observation tube so Rocky can continue helping with experiments.
Thankfully, Grace manages to convince him that the bathroom remains xenonite-free.
Living together turns out to be... surprisingly fun.
They spend hours talking about their cultures while trying to solve the astrophage problem. Eventually they decide to travel to Tau Ceti and collect atmospheric samples.
One day Grace wanders into Rocky's room carrying a burrito.
Rocky is carefully constructing something out of xenonite threats .
"What are you making, Rock?"
"Rocky making base structure for nest. Nest keep same sleeping posture."
"That's actually kind of nice. Do Eridians have a preferred sleeping position?"
Grace takes another bite of his burrito.
Rocky freezes.
"...What did Grace just do?"
"What? I'm eating."
"Disgust! Disgust! Disgust! No eat with Rocky. Why so ugly?"
"...Excuse me? Rocky, I know how to use cutlery. I'm not drooling all over myself."
"No, no. Eridians never eat in front of others. Eating very private. Very ugly."
Grace lowers his burrito.
"...Really?"
"Humans always eat together," Grace says. "There's even a saying: food tastes better with company."
Rocky has completely stopped working. His claws are pinching together nervously.
"Eridians secrete waste, then eat through same orifice. Same hole. Very private …. and ugly."
"...So that's what the opening on your underside is for."
"Yes. Only hole in Eridian anatomy. Eridians much better designed."
"Yeah, yeah, stop reminding me humans are the inferior species. Still, it can't be that disgusting. Humans sometimes secrete waste through our mouths too, especially when we're sick."
"It taboo on Erid. Grace ask no more."
"...Fair enough."
Grace raises the burrito again.
"So... can I still eat around you?"
"Grace can eat near Rocky. As long as Grace not secrete waste from eating orifice."
"...Deal."
Grace grins.
"Now tell me more about Eridian sleeping arrangements."
"Eridians sleep together when mated, or with parents when pebbles," Rocky explained, his voice climbing excitedly in pitch. "If no mate, then friend or colony member watch sleeping Eridian. Nest only shared with mates. Very intimate. Place where sleep and eggs incubate."
He proudly gestured with his claws.
"Some burrows have two sleeping areas. One for partners and family. Other for friends keeping watch. Not as intimate."
Grace couldn't help smiling.
"Nests made with mates' always have sleeping positions in mind, so everyone fits perfectly and can keep watch. Better to have more than one partner. So mates can thrum while other sleep."
"That's... actually lovely, Rocky." Grace rested his chin on his hand. "Humans usually sleep alone if they don't have a partner. We like sleeping with other people too, but it's nowhere near as ritualistic as the way Eridians do."
A part of him ached.
He would have liked that.
To fall asleep wrapped around someone before he died in space.
The thought hit him harder than expected.
He'd never told Rocky.
The guilt settled in his stomach like a stone.
It was better this way. Better that Rocky never knew. It was good that Rocky already had Adrien—someone who would still love him and keep watch after Grace was gone.
When had he started thinking like that?
When had the strange sentient rock become someone whose happiness mattered more than his own?
When had he fallen for someone who had spent years throwing boxes full of gifts into space, hoping against all odds they would someday reach him?
He was down bad, wasn't he.
There were worse fates than spending the rest of his short life in love.
His fingers drifted to the crystal pendant around his neck.
"Tell me, Rock how do you sleep with Adrien?"
"Yes, yes!" Rocky chirped happily. "Rocky explain! Rocky already thinking how Grace fit into nest."
Oh, Rocky... if only you knew.
"Adrien bigger than Rocky. Rocky sleeps between two Adrien limbs, and Adrien curls around Rocky so Rocky not roll away. Rocky very round."
Grace laughed.
"Aw, Rock. You're the little spoon. That's cute."
"What being little spoon mean?"
One explanation involving kitchen spoons later—which required Grace to actually fetch two spoons from the galley—Rocky understood the concept and immediately decided he liked the phrase.
"Grace big spoon or small spoon?"
"Usually the big spoon." Grace smiled softly. "But honestly... I'd like to be the little spoon sometimes. I really like hugs."
"What is hug?"
"It's when you wrap your arms around someone and pull them close. Kind of like what Adrien does when you sleep. You hold someone close because you love them."
"Eridians do not hug." Rocky paused. "But Rocky really want wrap around Grace and not let go."
Grace laughed.
"I'd like that too. Why don't you get inside your ball and I'll show you?"
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Rocky now get in hamster ball!"
He still found the word hamster endlessly amusing.
Rocky climbed inside the xenonite sphere and rolled over until he stopped in front of Grace. Grace sat on the floor, opened his legs, and motioned him closer. Rocky rolled into the space between them.
Grace scooted forward until his knees surrounded the ball. He rested his cheek against the cool xenonite, wrapped both arms around it, and pulled it gently against his chest.
"This," Grace whispered, "is a hug."
“What does rocky do now” Rocky tapped one hesitant claw against the inside of the sphere
“Just get close and enjoy it” Rocky twitched in place pressing his carapace against the spot where Grace's cheek rested.
"How long hug last?"
"You kind of... just know when it's over."
Grace closed his eyes.
"But honestly..."
He hugged the ball a little tighter.
"I really needed this. Can we stay like this for a while? You're really warm... and I just want to feel you close."
"Yes. Yes. Yes." Rocky's purr rumbled through the xenonite. "Rocky stay close for Grace. Rocky like to bring Grace warmth. Rocky wish could hug Grace back."
The gentle vibrations carried through the ball and into Grace's arms. He let out a sigh he hadn't realized he'd been holding. His whole body slowly relaxing with Rocky's comforting purrs.
"Hey, Rock? Could you pretty up the necklace, like you said on the tunnel"
"Of course!" Rocky chirped. "Rocky make necklace beautiful. Grace will sound even prettier."
Grace smiled, thumb brushing over the crystal.
"Thank you, Rock."
I think I could love you so much it would destroy me.
← Chapter 1/Chapter 5→
_________
Thank you for reading!
At first, I really didn't like this chapter. I was feeling pretty unmotivated while writing it, and for a while I thought it just wasn't working. But then the ending came together after a burst of inspiration, and I'm actually really happy with how it turned out. I like giving each chapter a bit of emotional depth, and I think this one managed to find it in the end.
Sorry this update took so long—I almost made you all wait two weeks for it. Hopefully the next chapter will finally cover the fishing incident... assuming I don't get distracted by another emotional conversation between these two idiots. 😅
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When Grace is six years old he receives his soulmate’s first lost item. It’s a strange hollow cylinder, similar to a pencil, semi-translucent and blotchy brown. It looks like glass, but it can’t be; Grace has dropped it several times in his clumsy enthusiasm, and hasn't broken nor chiped. He is absolutely overjoyed by the fact that he finally has a soulmate, even if he has no idea what the object actually is. His parents are mostly just relieved that their son has stopped crying over not having a soulmate.
Grace goes to class the next day and shows everyone his soulmate’s strange object. He tells them it’s a pencil cover, something to make pencils look nicer. The classroom stares at him strangely, and his teacher gives him a look of pity, Grace in his young enthusiasm doesn't notice, too enamored with the object in his hands.
His bullies catch wind of it quickly. Grace is a weak kid, an easy target. They rip the cylinder from his hands and throw it to the ground. The cylinder doesn’t break, but something inside Grace does. He feels small, insignificant. He cries to his parents about what happened, but his father only tells him he was stupid for taking something precious to school, where things are always lost or stolen.
Grace drags himself to his room, whimpering softly. He doesn’t know where to keep something so important without losing it. In the end, he places the cylinder inside a shoebox. He doesn’t have anything better.
__________
Grace is twelve when the second object from his soulmate arrives.
One morning he wakes to find the strangest thing sitting on his pillow. For a second, he wonders if he lost a tooth and this is some bizarre version of the tooth fairy, but that’s impossible. Which means it came from his soulmate.
He jumps around the room in excitement.
It’s a small figure, around the size of his fist, mostly turquoise with brown spots that somehow blend together beautifully. It looks like a mix between a crab and a spider, five limbs attached to a rounded carapace that spikes upward. The material almost looks 3D-printed, though Grace has never seen anything quite like it before.
It’s gorgeous.
The figure immediately becomes Grace’s most precious possession. He tells no one about it because he wants it to be his and his alone. He keeps it on his nightstand because he wants to fall asleep looking at it and wake up to the sight of something his soulmate once touched. Whenever someone strange comes to the house or his parents visit his room, Grace puts the figure into the shoe box.
With it comes a realization: his soulmate must be an artist, someone who loves arthropods and strange little creatures.
That realization quietly shapes Grace’s future.
He studies biology in school, always choosing every science elective he can. Eventually he discovers that molecular biology fascinates him even more. Sometimes he thinks, distantly, that he owes his soulmate everything. Without them, he might never have found what he loves.
Turquoise becomes Grace’s favorite color.
______________
Grace is eighteen, living in his tiny student apartment after starting college early, when the next item appears.
The box itself is the first thing that catches his attention. It’s made from the same strange material as the cylinder his soulmate sent years ago. Grace turns it over carefully in his hands, marveling at it before opening it.
The lid is covered in strange mathematical symbols.
Inside is, frankly, junk.
At least that’s the only word Grace can think of for the bizarre collection of trinkets, rocks, and crystals filling the box. Nothing looks functional, yet Grace loves every single piece anyway.
One crystal in particular catches his attention. It’s transparent with flat sides, though it isn’t any polyhedron he recognizes. A hexagonal prism sits at its center, and the whole thing glimmers beautifully in the light.
The next day, Grace visits one of those tiny crystal shops with incense smoke thick enough to choke. He asks the woman behind the counter if she has a way for him to wear the crystal safely.
The woman is older, dressed entirely in blue, her hair pulled into a tight bun. Her sharp green eyes settle on the crystal the moment he places it on the counter.
“Otherworldly,” she murmurs as she touches it briefly . “Your soulmate is unlike anyone else. Just like this gem.”
Grace freezes.
He never told her it came from his soulmate.
Still, he leaves the shop wearing a spiraling wire pendant that cradles the crystal safely without altering it. The word otherworldly lingers in his mind the whole walk home.
It feels right.
From then on, Grace never takes the pendant off. It stays tucked beneath his shirt, resting close to his heart. The junk box becomes the new shoe box and the upgrade heals something within him.
At twenty-four, he receives another figurine.
This one is smaller and rounder than the first, almost its complete opposite. Grace finds that oddly amusing and terribly endearing. It’s mostly brown, but three of its limbs are tipped with the same bright turquoise.
The figurine becomes his little companion while he works on his thesis in the research lab.
By now Grace has a few friends, enough people around him that he feels comfortable showing off the gifts from his soulmate. They coo over the little crab-like figure, fascinated by its curious design.
For once, life is good.
____________
When Grace turns thirty, life reaches its lowest point.
His thesis about water not being necessary for life is treated like a joke by the scientific community. No one gives him a chance. Linda, his girlfriend, cheats on him with Mark—her soulmate. Objectively, Grace knows it never would have worked; they weren’t each other’s soulmates. But the silent treatment and her sudden disappearance still hurt deeply. He spends days crying, trying desperately to understand where he went wrong. He wonders if something is fundamentally broken inside him. Maybe he doesn’t really have a soulmate. Maybe he’s simply meant to end up alone, because not even his parents love him, he hasn’t spoken to them in four years.
Eventually, Grace becomes a teacher because he has nowhere else to go, nothing else to, the best he can do is to put his science knowledge to work.
After his first day teaching, he returns to his tiny apartment exhausted, only to find another gift waiting for him.
It’s a scale model of a solar system. Not Earth’s solar system, but something entirely alien and impossibly beautiful.
Grace cries the moment he sees it. Because he does have a soulmate. Someone out there likes the same things he does. Someone out there exists.
The gift gives him hope.
So Grace throws himself into teaching. He teaches his students about space with colorful models and impossible enthusiasm. He takes control of his life again, and for the first time in years, it feels good to make a difference in the world, even if it’s only through children who leave his classroom loving science just a little more than before.
________
At thirty-two, Grace is a well-established teacher in his community. The kids adore him. He holds the unofficial title of coolest science teacher in the school, and nobody fails his class.
Life is genuinely becoming good.
Then Eva Stratt appears.
The Petrova crisis drags Grace into becoming the right hand of the most powerful woman on Earth. The pressure is unbearable, and the number of people they fuck over in the process is catastrophic. Part of Grace would rather stay in his classroom teaching children about planets and cells.
But another part of him is enthralled. Astrophage is everything he ever dreamed science could be.
And then it happens.
“Dr. Ryland Grace, you have to go as the Hail Mary’s scientist.”
“I put the ‘not’ in astronaut,” Grace jokes weakly, voice trembling around the words.
“You have three hours to decide.”
“I… I don’t want to go. I’m not made for that.”
“Yes, you are. You have the coma gene and are the leading expert in astrophage. Apprehend him.” Her eyes are cold.
“No—NO! I’m not gonna go!” They chase him. Karl included. That betrayal hurts far more than Linda’s ever did.
They force him to the ground.
“Don’t worry,” Stratt says, holding up a syringe. “By the time you wake up, you won’t remember any of this and will do your job right”
“You’re murdering me,” Grace sobs into the pavement, salt tears soaking into the ground.
Chapter 2 →
Thank you for reading!! Coments and kudos are highly apreciated.
Sorry fot the late update,.Today more comunication going on.
Rocky was surprisingly easy to understand and get along with. His impeccable memory allowed him to learn English at an astonishing pace, and together they made remarkable progress combining their knowledge of astrophage. Even though saving their worlds should have been their highest priority, Rocky constantly asked personal questions.
Grace found it deeply embarrassing when Rocky started returning things he had lost over the years. The alien seemed endlessly fascinated by every little detail of his life. Rocky brought out stacks of papers he had collected throughout the years and asked Grace to explain them. Grace had to tell him that humans perceived the world through sight rather than sound, and that the reason Rocky could faintly hear the paper at all was because Grace had pressed hard enough into it to leave impressions while writing during stressful moments.
Rocky had somehow managed to preserve years' worth of notes. Some came from Grace's research days, including drafts of his failed thesis. Looking at them brought back a wave of unpleasant memories. Naturally, Rocky became fascinated by the research and asked endless questions. Grace explained everything: his ideas about life without water, the scientific backlash, and how thoroughly his career had imploded. Unlike many of his former colleagues, Rocky seemed genuinely interested. Even though biology wasn't his field, he offered thoughtful observations and surprisingly eloquent questions.
When Rocky declared that he intended to share Grace's ideas with other Eridians, something warm settled in Grace's chest, even though he was also dying from mortification on the inside.
"Then later, other papers came. Rocky could hear these better. Grace seemed more frustrated." Rocky waved around a bundle of colorful drawings.
Grace laughed immediately.
"No, Rock. Those are drawings my kids made for me."
"Grace has offspring and didn't tell Rocky? Mad, mad, mad!" Rocky trilled in exaggerated offense.
"Haha, no. I'm a teacher. Those are drawings from my students."
Rocky paused.
"Rocky not understand word."
Grace smiled.
"I teach. I pass information to the next generation. And I was a pretty cool teacher. The kids loved my class." He couldn't help the pride in his voice. Out of everything he'd accomplished in life, being the cool teacher was on the top 5.
Rocky tapped happily against the floor.
"Rocky understand. Eridian word is ♩♬♬♪."
Grace quickly typed the translation into the computer.
"Grace would be very good parent. All pebbles would love Grace and learn all human things."
Grace immediately felt his face heat up. People didn't compliment him often, and Rocky somehow managed to do it constantly. He was suddenly grateful Eridians couldn't see color.
"What made Grace become teacher? And why teacher on space mission?"
The question made Grace hesitate.
"I have to tell you something, Rocky." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I don't actually know. I know I became a teacher because I got kicked out of the scientific community, but I don't remember why I volunteered to save the stars."
Rocky tilted slightly.
"Grace also lost memories?"
"Yeah. Humans can't remember everything like Eridians can, but my memory is especially bad right now. The travel sleep the coma messed me up. A lot of things are missing. They're coming back slowly, but there are huge gaps."
"What else Grace not remember?"
Grace thought for a moment.
"The faces of my parents. Why I chose bioengineering. Why this necklace feels so important." He lifted the crystal pendant hanging around his neck.
"It looks like clear quartz with a black dot inside. I like it a lot, but every time I try to take it off, I feel awful. Like I'm doing something wrong."
The moment he finished speaking, Rocky practically slammed himself against the xenonite wall, trilling loudly enough to make Grace jump.
"Mine! Mine! Mine! Rocky gave to Grace! Gift so Grace could have piece of stars!"
Grace blinked.
"What?"
"Rocky sent crystal years ago. Rocky worried because gift came back. Rocky thought Grace died."
The words hit him like a physical blow.
A memory surfaced instantly.
Eighteen years old. A strange box from his soulmate, full of crystal and rocks.
One crystal that had felt special.
A pendant shop.
An old woman telling him his soulmate was otherworldly.
Grace laughed helplessly.
"Oh my God."
He touched the pendant lovingly.
"You gave me this."
"Yes!"
"Thank you, Rocky."
The alien practically vibrated.
"Thank you for giving me that memory back. It was important."
"Rocky happy, happy, happy to provide for Grace."
Then Rocky hesitated.
"Would Grace allow Rocky to improve courting gift? Metal holder ruins sound."
Grace felt warmth bloom in his chest. The idea of letting Rocky redesign the pendant should not have felt nearly as intimate as it did.
"Okay."
Rocky practically exploded into excited whistles.
Then another thought struck Grace.
"Wait. Rocky. What do you mean the box came back?"
Rocky's excitement immediately faded.
"Years ago Rocky suddenly received mountain of things. Many, many, many things. Then silence. Long silence. Rocky thought soulmate died."
Grace froze.
"The coma."
Rocky nodded.
"The moment I entered the coma, all my stuff must have gone back to you."
His mind raced. That wasn't supposed to happen. Soulmates occasionally received objects after severe memory loss, but comas? That didn't make sense.
Unless...
(You are murdering me!!)
The memory slammed into him so hard it stole the breath from his lungs.
No image.
No context.
Just terror.
His own voice screaming.
Earth beneath his face.
The certainty that he had not wanted to be there.
Grace went pale.
He hadn't volunteered.
Had he? He knew he wasn't meant for the stars, like the sacred nerd he is.
His stomach twisted.
Rocky had disappeared back into the tunnel before Grace could say anything, leaving him alone with the crushing realization.
A few minutes later Rocky returned carrying a familiar box.
"Rocky give Grace back box. Grace should have memories."
The box slid through the airlock.
Grace stared at it.
"So I get the box back, but not my clothes?"
Rocky immediately looked smug.
"Those clothes are Rocky's nest."
"You are evil, Rock."
"Correct."
Grace laughed despite himself.
Inside the box sat decades of memories.
"Oh, I remember this. It lived on my desk. My study companion." Grace laughed and held the figurine up for Rocky to listen to.
"That is ♩♬♬ ♩♬♪♪. Rocky wanted it back but felt bad taking it."
Something about Rocky's voice sounded strange. Was that sadness? Guilt?
"Who is that? You can have it back if you want. The one I really like is this one."
Grace pulled Rocky's figurine from his pocket and held it up, smiling.
"That is Rocky's partner. Living partner. Together for over one 180 years."
Grace froze.
"Wait. Rocky, you're married? Or... have a life partner? Do Eridians get more than one soulmate or..."
It felt like a bucket of cold water had just been poured over him. He had been starting to enjoy Rocky's company and the idea of him being his soulmate, but if Rocky already had a partner, then Grace would be nothing more than a homewrecker. Maybe Rocky's clinginess wasn't romantic at all. Maybe Rocky had simply been alone for too many years and was latching onto the first person he'd been able to talk to in decades.
"Grace not worry for ♩♬♬ ♩♬♪♪. Eridians can have more than one partner. Neither Rocky nor ♩♬♬ ♩♬♪♪ found soulmate, but we love each other very much. Very compatible. Created beautiful melody together." Rocky hesitated.
"Is Grace upset that Rocky has other partner?"
He had folded in on himself, making himself look smaller, as if he were afraid of the answer.
"No, no, no, Rock. It's okay." Grace immediately waved his hands. "I was just worried about interrupting your relationship. Your partner was already there, and I'd just be... an extra. Humans usually only have one partner."
"Oh." Rocky's claws rubbed together anxiously. "Does this mean Grace does not want relationship because Rocky is already with ♩♬♬ ♩♬♪♪? Humans only get one partner. Rocky cannot leave ♩♬♬ ♩♬♪♪. Love them too much."
The conflict in Rocky's voice made Grace's heart ache.
"Hey, hey, hey. We can figure something out if your partner doesn't mind. I just don't want to break anything between you two, okay?" Grace said gently. "Most humans are monogamous, but we can try. I can meet your partner first and see what they think of me. Im an alien after all" He attempted humor.
The idea of joining a relationship that had already existed for almost two centuries was intimidating enough. The fact that the relationship involved aliens made it even stranger. Still, that was a problem for another day.
"Grace wants to meet ♩♬♬ ♩♬♪♪?" Rocky practically vibrated. "Happy, happy, happy! ♩♬♬ ♩♬♪♪ is going to love Grace. Grace is smart, and ♩♬♬ ♩♬♪♪ is ecologist. Cares very much about others, like Grace"
"They sound lovely, Rock. I'd love to meet them someday."
Rocky chirped happily.
"Would you mind if I gave them a human name?" Grace asked.
"Please! Please! ♩♬♬ ♩♬♪♪ would love. Rocky wants Grace to love ♩♬♬ ♩♬♪♪."
Grace thought for a moment.
"Hmm... what about Adrien? Does that sound pretty to you?"
Rocky immediately erupted into delighted trills.
"Yes, yes, yes! Very beautiful noise coming from Grace."
Chapter 1/ Chapter 5
Sorry for the late update! I try to make each chapter at least 1,000 words long, though I'd like them to be even longer. I also aim to update at least once a week, but I've been feeling a little dry on ideas lately. This chapter covers the rules but barely.
This chapter was originally supposed to cover the fishing incident, but I got distracted by other things, and the fact I didn´t wanna go into heavy writing territory,honestly. Writing and exploring their growing connection is something I enjoy and necessary to the plot.
I hope the next chapter is a lot longer and includes all the scenes I originally wanted to write, because if I keep getting sidetracked like this, the story is going to end up much longer than planned—and I have several other projects I need to be working on too.
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When Grace is six years old he receives his soulmate’s first lost item. It’s a strange hollow cylinder, similar to a pencil, semi-translucent and blotchy brown. It looks like glass, but it can’t be; Grace has dropped it several times in his clumsy enthusiasm, and hasn't broken nor chiped. He is absolutely overjoyed by the fact that he finally has a soulmate, even if he has no idea what the object actually is. His parents are mostly just relieved that their son has stopped crying over not having a soulmate.
Grace goes to class the next day and shows everyone his soulmate’s strange object. He tells them it’s a pencil cover, something to make pencils look nicer. The classroom stares at him strangely, and his teacher gives him a look of pity, Grace in his young enthusiasm doesn't notice, too enamored with the object in his hands.
His bullies catch wind of it quickly. Grace is a weak kid, an easy target. They rip the cylinder from his hands and throw it to the ground. The cylinder doesn’t break, but something inside Grace does. He feels small, insignificant. He cries to his parents about what happened, but his father only tells him he was stupid for taking something precious to school, where things are always lost or stolen.
Grace drags himself to his room, whimpering softly. He doesn’t know where to keep something so important without losing it. In the end, he places the cylinder inside a shoebox. He doesn’t have anything better.
__________
Grace is twelve when the second object from his soulmate arrives.
One morning he wakes to find the strangest thing sitting on his pillow. For a second, he wonders if he lost a tooth and this is some bizarre version of the tooth fairy, but that’s impossible. Which means it came from his soulmate.
He jumps around the room in excitement.
It’s a small figure, around the size of his fist, mostly turquoise with brown spots that somehow blend together beautifully. It looks like a mix between a crab and a spider, five limbs attached to a rounded carapace that spikes upward. The material almost looks 3D-printed, though Grace has never seen anything quite like it before.
It’s gorgeous.
The figure immediately becomes Grace’s most precious possession. He tells no one about it because he wants it to be his and his alone. He keeps it on his nightstand because he wants to fall asleep looking at it and wake up to the sight of something his soulmate once touched. Whenever someone strange comes to the house or his parents visit his room, Grace puts the figure into the shoe box.
With it comes a realization: his soulmate must be an artist, someone who loves arthropods and strange little creatures.
That realization quietly shapes Grace’s future.
He studies biology in school, always choosing every science elective he can. Eventually he discovers that molecular biology fascinates him even more. Sometimes he thinks, distantly, that he owes his soulmate everything. Without them, he might never have found what he loves.
Turquoise becomes Grace’s favorite color.
______________
Grace is eighteen, living in his tiny student apartment after starting college early, when the next item appears.
The box itself is the first thing that catches his attention. It’s made from the same strange material as the cylinder his soulmate sent years ago. Grace turns it over carefully in his hands, marveling at it before opening it.
The lid is covered in strange mathematical symbols.
Inside is, frankly, junk.
At least that’s the only word Grace can think of for the bizarre collection of trinkets, rocks, and crystals filling the box. Nothing looks functional, yet Grace loves every single piece anyway.
One crystal in particular catches his attention. It’s transparent with flat sides, though it isn’t any polyhedron he recognizes. A hexagonal prism sits at its center, and the whole thing glimmers beautifully in the light.
The next day, Grace visits one of those tiny crystal shops with incense smoke thick enough to choke. He asks the woman behind the counter if she has a way for him to wear the crystal safely.
The woman is older, dressed entirely in blue, her hair pulled into a tight bun. Her sharp green eyes settle on the crystal the moment he places it on the counter.
“Otherworldly,” she murmurs as she touches it briefly . “Your soulmate is unlike anyone else. Just like this gem.”
Grace freezes.
He never told her it came from his soulmate.
Still, he leaves the shop wearing a spiraling wire pendant that cradles the crystal safely without altering it. The word otherworldly lingers in his mind the whole walk home.
It feels right.
From then on, Grace never takes the pendant off. It stays tucked beneath his shirt, resting close to his heart. The junk box becomes the new shoe box and the upgrade heals something within him.
At twenty-four, he receives another figurine.
This one is smaller and rounder than the first, almost its complete opposite. Grace finds that oddly amusing and terribly endearing. It’s mostly brown, but three of its limbs are tipped with the same bright turquoise.
The figurine becomes his little companion while he works on his thesis in the research lab.
By now Grace has a few friends, enough people around him that he feels comfortable showing off the gifts from his soulmate. They coo over the little crab-like figure, fascinated by its curious design.
For once, life is good.
____________
When Grace turns thirty, life reaches its lowest point.
His thesis about water not being necessary for life is treated like a joke by the scientific community. No one gives him a chance. Linda, his girlfriend, cheats on him with Mark—her soulmate. Objectively, Grace knows it never would have worked; they weren’t each other’s soulmates. But the silent treatment and her sudden disappearance still hurt deeply. He spends days crying, trying desperately to understand where he went wrong. He wonders if something is fundamentally broken inside him. Maybe he doesn’t really have a soulmate. Maybe he’s simply meant to end up alone, because not even his parents love him, he hasn’t spoken to them in four years.
Eventually, Grace becomes a teacher because he has nowhere else to go, nothing else to, the best he can do is to put his science knowledge to work.
After his first day teaching, he returns to his tiny apartment exhausted, only to find another gift waiting for him.
It’s a scale model of a solar system. Not Earth’s solar system, but something entirely alien and impossibly beautiful.
Grace cries the moment he sees it. Because he does have a soulmate. Someone out there likes the same things he does. Someone out there exists.
The gift gives him hope.
So Grace throws himself into teaching. He teaches his students about space with colorful models and impossible enthusiasm. He takes control of his life again, and for the first time in years, it feels good to make a difference in the world, even if it’s only through children who leave his classroom loving science just a little more than before.
________
At thirty-two, Grace is a well-established teacher in his community. The kids adore him. He holds the unofficial title of coolest science teacher in the school, and nobody fails his class.
Life is genuinely becoming good.
Then Eva Stratt appears.
The Petrova crisis drags Grace into becoming the right hand of the most powerful woman on Earth. The pressure is unbearable, and the number of people they fuck over in the process is catastrophic. Part of Grace would rather stay in his classroom teaching children about planets and cells.
But another part of him is enthralled. Astrophage is everything he ever dreamed science could be.
And then it happens.
“Dr. Ryland Grace, you have to go as the Hail Mary’s scientist.”
“I put the ‘not’ in astronaut,” Grace jokes weakly, voice trembling around the words.
“You have three hours to decide.”
“I… I don’t want to go. I’m not made for that.”
“Yes, you are. You have the coma gene and are the leading expert in astrophage. Apprehend him.” Her eyes are cold.
“No—NO! I’m not gonna go!” They chase him. Karl included. That betrayal hurts far more than Linda’s ever did.
They force him to the ground.
“Don’t worry,” Stratt says, holding up a syringe. “By the time you wake up, you won’t remember any of this and will do your job right”
“You’re murdering me,” Grace sobs into the pavement, salt tears soaking into the ground.
Chapter 2 →
Thank you for reading!! Coments and kudos are highly apreciated.
