De todo un poco

and, for a while, things are okay. rocky has two mates, and those two mates get along. maybe a little begrudgingly from adrian's end, but grievances fade with time.

they get to know each other. adrian talks to grace regularly. starts calling him a friend, at some point.

then, the feelings start. they're slow, creeping up on them over the years. a small twinge of something when grace smiles. a stutter of their hearts' rhythm when grace laughs. lingering whenever rocky and grace hug. straining to listen to the soft sounds of them kissing.

but it's nothing, right? they push those feelings aside. not because they're suppressing them, but because they attribute affection to fascination—they mistake their love for curiosity. they think grace is a scientific interest, and they think that for a long time...

by the time adrian realizes they're in love with grace, grace is on his deathbed.

he is old, frail and plagued with the many illnesses that come with age. he forgets many things now. sometimes he doesn't recognize rocky or adrian. still, he smiles at them all the same.

adrian has spent the last few decades studying the human body, tracing the features of grace's face, mapping the curve of his smile.

it is only then that they realize: this is an infatuation that goes beyond the sciences. they've fallen in love with grace.

why now? why not a century from now, when the memory of grace will be but a plesant ache settling in their appendages? why not decades before this, when grace was still at his physical peak, when they still had the rest of his life to spend together?

why now?

why did they fall in love with grace after he already spent an entire lifetime waiting for them? why did they reach out to grasp at an opportunity that already passed them by?