Chapter Text
Never would he have thought there would be a chewed up piece of meat on the floor of his spaceship.
And what made it even worse, is that it was alive.
Grace could not believe this man was still breathing.
Just a few minutes ago him and Rocky where flying above a weird moon, trying to find their way back to Eriadan because Grace forgotten where they where, but then a blip popped up on their transmission software.
They where both immediately surprised, as there seemed to be a ship sending out a distress signal.
From the middle of a blood ocean...
Him and Rocky where both very interested, so they decided to swoop down. Because who in the right mind was in a submarine under several hundred feet of human blood?
Well they found exactly who. He was clinging to a life vest, and was barely human shaped anymore.
Which was when the funniest part happened.
Over the radio, a woman spoke,
"Whoever you are do not pick up that man, he is a convict, he is dangerous, and he belongs to us."
Grace immediately told Rocky to swoop down the ship, jumping at a chance to annoy the people who sent him to his death.
So he stood on the loading bay, holding a booey tied to a rope.
"DO NOT TOUCH THE MAN, THERE WILL BE DIRE CONSEQUENCES IF YOU DO"
the person over the radio blared.
But Grace didn't care, they had failed to keep his planet alive, even when they sent him to save it.
So he wants to cause them as much pain as possible.
So, out of spite, he tossed the booey.
And the man grabbed on.
Grace reeled him in, laughing as he did, the feathers on his wings puffed up because of adrenaline,
The adrenaline of doing something he definitely wasn't supposed to do.
He pulled the so-called dangerous man out of the blood, and sloshed him onto the ship. The man immediately tried to stand up, and when he stumbled, he fell into Grace, who immediately tried to push him off.
There was blood all over him now, and he sighed as he started to run around his ship, trying to stabilize this convict.
It didn't help that Rocky was driving like a maniac and the meat piece was flopping around like a fish.
"Noooo, don't touch me,,,,, evil-!"
The man cried, flinching away from his touch.
Grace hasn't hurt him that bad when he pushed him away, so he wasn't sure why he was acting like this.
"Stop moving, unless you want to die-"
Ryland snapped back.
And surprisingly the man stilled enough to get an oxygen mask on him.
The ship swung sideways violently knocking both the space convict and Grace into the wall, getting blood everywhere.
"ROCKY GET CONTROL OF THE SHIP, IM SAVING A DYING MAN OUT HERE!"
he yelled, repositioning himself and the man.
Then standing up to retrieve a roll of bandages that had slid to the other side of the room.
"ROCKY WOULD IF GRACE DIDN'T MESS UP CONTROLS!"
His friend countered, and Grace just sighed, narrowing his eyes to look at the convict.
He look up at him with barley open eyes, and Grace pursed his lips.
He felt slightly bad for yelling at the man, he had clearly been through something horrible.
Although Grace wasn't sure if he had deserved it or not, he was convicted after all.
But then again, he was too.
Shaking those thoughts off, he focused on trying to staunch the bleeding.
But after whipping off most of the blood on his wounds, he realized the blood wasn't even his.
Despite being half-dead, he wasn't bleeding, just covered in open wounds.
So Grace resorted to just bandaging the places that looked like they should be bleeding.
And when he was finished the poor man looked like a kid in a glorified mummy costume. He was missing an arm and he had a fish tail and fins on the sides of his head.
Grace couldn't help but snicker, and the man stared at him sadly, almost like a kicked puppy.
"Yeah, yeah, I'll get you some pain meds,"
He murdered, turning around and heading to the Med Bay.
After retrieving and IV drip of morphine from their storage, he walked back to the loading bay.
Only to see Rocky standing over the man.
"Why Grace not put him in med bay, question?"
"You try dragging a bloody man all the way over there without losing a finger,"
In reality, despite the fact he was dying, the man had been quiet and calm.
Grace just didn't want to touch him any longer than he needed too.
"Grace fair"
Rocky replied, going back to staring at the man.
When Grace joined Rocky in standing over him, the man finally spoke.
"Angel..."
He said, barely above a whisper.
"Buddy, there are no angles here, they've abandoned us a long time ago."
He said, tone harsh, but it came out a bit more hurt then he wanted to.
"But,,,-"
Protested the convict, pointing towards Graces wings.
Grace was mildly offended by that, in his condition this man had no right to point out his abnormalities.
But, he was smart enough to realize this man probably ment it as a compliment.
"They don't mean anything, useless cosmetics given to me in hopes of making me a better human."
He murmured bitterly.
The man seemed to understand though, and he nodded.
"Grace should put friend to bed"
Rocky said, gently nudging Grace.
"Yeah yeah, I'm on it,"
Grace replied, walking around the man to see the easiest way to pick him up.
"No, no, man stay here, bring bed, statement"
Grace turned and blinked at Rocky, feeling a bit stupid.
Of course they wouldn't want to move him, he was too fragile in this state to move, but they wouldn't want to leave him on the floor.
A bit embarrassed, Grace walked to the other room to pull a mattress off of one of the bunks. He was curious about the convicts past, and where he could have come from.
But, nevertheless, he figured his curiosities would have to wait untill the man could actually speak normally.
Putting down the mattress next to the man, he stood there expectingly.
The convict blinked at him.
"Hey, I'm really sorry, but I can't move-"
Oh huh, so he could speak, but couldn't walk.
Wonderful.
Grace moved around to scoop him up by his armpits, half dragging half carrying him onto the mattress.
He was apparently looking at him weird, because when he was set on the bed, he meekly asked
"Did I do something wrong-? If so, I'm sorry."
Grace blinked at him, he was kinda shocked. This was the second time this man had apologized to him for no reason.
Great, he was now in charge of an apologetic space-convict and an alien rock.
"No, you're fine"
He said, not very convincingly.
He didn't care though, and he hooked up the man to the morphine drip.
It had been a couple hours of sitting next to him in silence, Rocky sleeping next to him.
Grace had one arm wrapped protectively around Rocky, his back facing the convict.
"You really don't need you to guard me, I can't do much of anything in this state."
The Convict said dejectedly.
"We aren't guarding you, I'm watching you."
Grace replied, a bit annoyed.
Silence stretched between them for a long moment.
Then the convict asked;
"What's the difference?"
He was about to respond with something snarky, but then realized that this was a human, and he wasn't aware of his and Rocky's normal routine.
So, Grace sighed, and started to explain,
"It's traditional in Rocky's culture for one person to stay up and watch while everyone else is asleep, to protect them."
"It's mainly because they sleep like they are in a comma, and can't wake up until morning, so we sleep in shifts to watch over eachother and protect eachother if something happens."
The convict stared at him, and he seemed to teared up a little.
Very odd,
He turned around and went back to watching Rocky.
But this guy really seemed to want to talk.
After a few moments,he spoke again,
"So, your name is Grace, right?"
Grace was about to tell him to shut it, but the guy was probably just lonely, so he threw him a bone.
"Well, kinda. Grace is my last name, my first name is Ryland."
He turned to look at the convict.
"But Rocky calls me Grace, so that might as well be my name now."
The convict nodded, his eyes darted back and forth, and his bottom lip quivered,
Almost like he wanted to say something.
Oh,
"What's your name?"
He asked him, with all the gentleness he could muster.
The convict blinked at him, and he started to tear up again.
But once he controled himself, he responded.
"Simon, my name is Simon Alderman."
Grace nodded, still thinking it was weird how much he was crying.
And he spoke as if he was trying to convince himself it was true.
"Simon, do you mind watching me and Rocky while we sleep?"
Simon stared at him, as if he had offered him water after days of dehydration.
"It would be my honor, Angel."
He responded, somehow managing to sit up and dip his head.
Grace was too tired to question him about calling him angel.
So, he curled up around Rocky and wrapped his arms and wings around him in his hamster ball.
"Night."
"Night"
Simon echoed, as if savouring the word.
What the hell was this man on about?