The unending Stars: Part 3 ⋆⁺₊⋆☀︎⋆⁺₊⋆
The final chapter of The unending Stars! Strap in folks, this is a long one! Hope you have a great day and hope you enjoy!:
Tw:Description of Starvation, Mention of Suffocating, Mention of Drugging, Mention of passing out, Feels.tm
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The headache you have when you wake up is almost worse than the one you had when you hit your head above Adrian while Ryland ejected the leaking fuel tanks.
Surprisingly the skull splitting headache is not the first thing you notice though…
It's the fact that the bed is empty.
No arms around your waist, no shoulder below your head, no warmth of another body laying next to you.
You don't think that's ever happened before.
Opening your eyes to confirm your suspicion, you see: No Ryland. Turning around: No Simon.
You can hear them though…down the hall, in the kitchen. You can't really make out what they are saying but you can tell it is their voices clear as day.
Getting up feels like a Herculean task at the moment but somehow you manage, emboldened by the wish to see your lovers again. Slowly stepping into the hallway and towards the noise.
It doesn't take them long to hear your uneven footsteps crawling down the hall, the quiet chatter dying down completely. When you reach the kitchen doorway two heads are already turned to your direction, expecting you.
They look so…tierd. Had they slept at all since you were gone?
“Morning Star…i made breakfast!” Ryland’s chipper tone is badly forced, cracks of his true feelings seeping through despite his best attempts. He has always been a bad actor.
Simon isn't even pretending, already turning away from you to glare at the wall the moment you step fully into the space.
“Will you at least let me try to explain?” “Not even pretending with the pleasantries are you?” “No Simon, I'm not… obviously I hurt you and I'm sorry. I'd rather talk about it than ignore it and have this all get worse. We are adults. I hurt you by not communicating before. I won't repeat that same mistake twice.”
Simon's glare softens, his features moving back into the usual soft scowl he wears with almost anyone that isn't you and Ryland. Somewhat calmed, appreciating your straightforwardness and seemingly learning from your mistakes.
“…I was in over my head trying to get a project finished that included technology way too complicated to be finished as quickly as I'd have liked it to…obviously that didn't work so I got really frustrated and tried to force it to.”
Your eyes lock onto the ground refusing to look anywhere else, almost ashamed at your next words.
“Usually I had Rocky and Adrian there to regulate me and remind me of normal human stuff like eating and drinking… but either we send Rocky to check in on you two or both of them got just as absorbed in it as I was. So we…didnt look at the clock…for 3 days straight…”
You bury your head in your hand not even believing your own stupidity.
“God 3 days. How did I not notice anything for 3 whole days?”
You finally look up at Simon, your voice becoming increasingly frantic. “That isn't an excuse and I should have known better and I'm sorry. I shouldn't have let this project take over me the way it did. I shouldn't have forgotten to text you. None of this should have happened at all! I know you must have been worried sick and that is my fault and I take full responsibility!”
You feel like you can't breathe. Tears rushing down your face, voice turning into nothing more but a whisper.
“...Just please…please dont hate me...I couldn't live with myself if you did.”
Simon's eyes go wide, something shattering in them before quickly regaining his neutral expression. Walking up to you, taking your head in his hands and kissing your forehead softly before kissing away the tears you didn't even know had spilled.
“I could never hate you. By the tree petal you had me worried sick…but I could never hate you. You two are everything to me. I'm sorry I shouted at you. That wasn't fair of me and I won't let it happen again.”
You know it's serious when a man pulls out prayers to a god he saw die with his very own eyes. A God he didn't even believe in anymore and hasn't for a long time…and yet here he was. Praying for you.
Especially if it was a man who still struggled with being vulnerable and looking “weak” from time to time thanks to his time in prison.
You wrap your arms around him tightly, pulling him in as close as your body would allow. He jumps a bit still not used to quick motions even after so long but settling quickly, wrapping his arms around you in return. Staying like that for a moment just breathing. That is until your eyes find Ryland, still off to the side watching you two with both love and pain in his eyes.
You shuffle sideways awkwardly not letting go of the ex-convict but trying to make your way over with the limited mobility you have.
Simon is confused but in the year he's spent with you and Ryland he learned to just go with the flow sometimes so he goes along with it, shuffling towards the counter towards a more and more confused looking Ryland.
“Wha-” You grab him by the shirt opening up your and Simon's arms just enough to pull him between you. “CAREFUL HOT STOVE GUYS! HOT STOVE!”
Hugging both of them as close as you could now. “I'm sorry to you to Ryland…I should have been better to both of you..." “Its okay i-“
"It's not. Your emotions matter too.”
He sighs, deflating a bit because yeah he had been acting like his feelings didn't matter just to keep the peace. Trying to pretend that if he didn't feel it it couldn't hurt him just like he had done on the Hail Mary because keeping on moving was easier than thinking about his own situation and eventual death.
He gives you a short nod, tears threatening to spill, he just...didn't want to lose the people he cared about most. He had already sent one body into space; he refuses to do it a second time… for the next 60 years at the very least.
You 3 stay like this for what feels like forever holding onto each other, a much needed break after the emotional high of the last few days. But not all good things can last forever.
A thought hits you. You jump out of the hug circle, two surprised faces following your movements.
“Let me show you.” “Wh-” “What I have been working on. Give me a day to set it all up. I'll be back at 5. On the dot I promise.”
“I don't know about this. You just came back and collapsed i don’t-” “Please…trust me on this.” Simon and Grace look at each other, expressionless for only a moment, it doesn't take long for Grace to raise a cheeky eyebrow and a smile though.
Simon can only fight a smirk, shaking his head and rolling his eyes before leaning towards the teacher kissing his temple and looking back at you exasperated yet lovingly resigned.
You pull Simon in by the cheeks kissing him with force very quickly doing the same to the microbiologist next to him, running out the door before either of them can react whatsoever. Leaving both of their heads spinning.
It didn't take you long to get the last of the preparation done at all, returning home with the setting sun shining on your back, throwing open the door at exactly 5 to a waiting Ryland and a nervous looking Simon.
“I'M HERE! OKAY? I'M HOME!”
Something still apprehensive in Simon's expression seems to melt. You had kept your word.
Ryland seemed almost giddy; he always loved your projects.
“Soo...what are we doing?”
You smile at the ex-captain of the Hail Mary. “All you have to do is follow me!”
Throwing open the door you were still standing in, stepping to the side and bowing dramatically. Simon chuckles, both of them stepping out the door before following you.
“Did you…lay a path?” Simon can't help but comment on the small line of randomly placed stones going from your home to presumingly all the way to where you were going.
“Rocky did! I was busy doing some final calculations!”
His eyes leave the ground finding you instead.
You can't help the probably concerning smirk crawling its way onto your face.
You reach the canopy even quicker than you thought you would . Quick excited steps taking you there faster than you had calculated. Adrian and Rocky still setting up the final details when you arrive.
Luckily neither Grace nor Simon really seemed to mind though, both of them to busy staring in wonder at the white canopy ,pillows and chairs in front of you.
You stop just short of the display turning around and doing little jazz hands at your partner. “Surpriseee!...I thought it would be better if I just…showed you what I have been working on instead of trying to explain sooo…here it is!”
You sit down on one of the 3 chairs walking past Adrian and Rocky who had already nuzzled themself into one of the bigger pillows…well Adrian had done that Rocky had nuzzled himself more so into the bigger eridian than the pillow itself, it was still cute though.
They stand unsure for a moment only approaching when you wave them to sit next to you. Simon sitting down on your left and Grace on your right.
“So…is this what took you so long?” Simon chuckled the teasing smile you missed so much returning to his face.
“Not quiet…” You pull out a remote. A comically large red button right in the middle of it you had insisted on despite Rocky's constant complaints about it “not efficient plus looks stupid.” Holding it out between the 5 of you.
“I feel like we all deserve to do the honors...”
Adrian and Rocky chitter happily both holding out on of their appendages while Grace and Simon look at you each with their own flavor of questioning but do extend their hands eventually at their own pace.
All of you press down the button at the same time. On the horizon 5 small silver flying objects can be seen shooting up towards the sky at unimaginable speeds like shooting stars leaving Erid’s atmosphere and starting their seemingly endless journey to the blue planet oh so far away.
“Wh-” “They are drones… I have been working on them basically since we got here. Cutting edge technology combining only the best of human and the best of eridian knowledge.”
Rocky chirps happily something you only half understand as: “∆°^∆•><∆” “Something something of course Adrian was the best.” Adrian chitters in response, their version of blushing, flustered at their partners praise even if it was very much deserved.
You chuckle before going back to your explanation, looking at the jr. Beetles soaring off into the sky.
“They have 2 missions…search the surrounding space for any signal that may tell us how Simon got here AND get home to earth in under 5 years… if my calculations work out at least…”
Adrian whistles disapprovingly, like a mother telling her children not to panic, that everything will work out and to stop worrying.
It does calm you a bit not being able to keep the smile off your face at that image.
“Under 5 years? That's crazy how?-” “Rocky and Adrian mostly and many...many hours wrecked breaking my brain. They are fueled with a genetically modified version of astrophage…you'd find it fascinating I'll show you the blueprint sometimes.”
Silence spreads between you for a only a moment quickly broken by a very confused sounding Ryland: “Why didn't you tell us anything..? Modified astrophage?...that's literally my thing!" The literal leading researcher of astrophage points at himself, laughing a laugh that sounds more tired than joyful.
“...We could have helped. Especially if you were so worried about getting this done.” Your eyes find Simon, deflating a bit and letting out a sigh. “I guess I was worried you would have tried to stop me... I put so much into this project… I just wanted to see it through. For me … and for you. I also didn't want to be a burden.”
“Even if that meant locking yourself in a room for 3 days and passing out.”
Simon leans onto your shoulder softly, his eyes still following the drones in the sky “That's one thing we have in common alright. We’re both stuborn…even if we just… break our heads trying to get through that wall.” You smile at each other, a sad smile, but a smile none-the-less.
You kiss his head softly “Next time I'll be better. I just… keep forgetting we're not up there anymore. Forgetting I don't have to …deal with everything on my own.” Ryland takes your hand in his.
And just like that you're dumbstruck.
Adrian pipes- well more like sings up next, something you luckily (or un-luckily depending who you might ask) understand this time.
“<∆°∆°•>∆<” “Didnt know human pass out after only 3 days! No would have let happen if know!”
Ryland continues, hand still firmly in yours : “This is a marvel of technology… but why-”
“You can't lie to me Ryland. I might have been an idiot but i’m not blind. I have seen the way you woke up way too early because of a nightmare. I have seen the worry eating you alive that we didn't do it, that something happened to the Taumoeba or that we were just too late.” You turn to the scientist.
“I have had those same fears. And I know Simon is worried too. That that thing could come here after us or, or if somehow his stars could be saved as well. Even after everything they did.” Eyes finding the sky once more, the drones now barely in sight.
“This is the job of the Jr.Beetles… they will give us all the answer we need… i promise.”
Tears start welling up in your, Ryland's and Simon's eyes (despite the latter trying to pretend otherwise.)
“You broke yourself for a whole year, working every breathing moment, to help us sleep a little better?” Simon asks incredibly.
“What can i say… id do anything for you.”
That shuts the ex-convict up fast.
Ryland chuckles. “So… Jr.Beetles?”
“Yeah haha… inspired by the original drones we sent home. I know I'm soooo clever.” “You are. You made all of this happen. Things that should have been impossible yet here we are…”
You laugh again louder this time.
“Says the man who saved humanity as a whole."
Ryland squeezes your hand.
“We saved humanity. Together. All 3 of us.”
Rocky lets out a loud shrill.
“5 Adrian and Simon in spirit of course."
Your hand finds your pocket. Watching the last remaining Jr.Beetles hit orbit and run out of sight. …guess this was it then.
You’ll never get a better moment then this.
You stand up off the chair. Turning toward both Simon and Grace once more.
“Ryland Grace…Simon… If you had told me 20 years ago I would end up in a spaceship against my will trying to save humanity… I would have called you crazy. But if you would have told me I'd find the loves of my life on that same trip… I would have punched you and or called the police.”
“What im trying to say is... Everything has been so crazy and i… i love you. So incredibly much. I keep repeating it so I wouldn't forget what it's all for but i do mean it… If I had to do it all over and over and over again just to end up here in the end I would.”
You get down on one knee the tears in your eyes spilling over as you present them with the eridian mate bracelets.
”Will you give me the honor… to let me call myself engineer Grace…and marry me?”
Tears flow from your eyes wildly years of work, of injury, of hunger finally all leading to this.
Ryland holds a hand in front of his mouth, shell shocked. Simon though… he leans down to you picking you up hugging you tight, twirling you two around much like he had done back when Ryland was teaching all those days ago. Spinning you around wildly before placing you down on the sand holding your face and kissing you even harder than the kiss you had given him that morning, leaving you both breathless and gasping for air.
"Is..is that a yes?" "Yes. god yes." he places his forehead on yours laughing and crying.
This seems to finally wake up Ryland. Getting off his chair and approaching both of you or well more so failing to, collapsing to his knees.
Both you and Simon rush to the man immediately.
"RYLAND!" "Are you okay??"
He wipes at his eyes furiously, glasses falling half of his face like they usually do.
"When Stratt… when Stratt told me, I had no immediate family ...I didn't even have a dog... and that’s why they were sending me, i thought it was so unfair. That she wasn't even giving me the chance to… I-I thought I'd never get to have this. That I'd die a horrible death in space in so many different ways."
Rocky's voice rings out from behind Grace.
"Rocky thought you made peace."
An obvious reference to the last time he saw the man crying this badly, a joke to lighten the mood. Ryland chuckles, looking around wildly yet sluggishly like he didn't quite believe it before locking on you and Simon.
"Am I dead? Is this a dream? Did I suffocate up there? ...if so don't wake me up please."
You lean down, taking Grace's face and kissing him deeply yet softly. His arms wrapping around you, hands burying into your shirt tightly.
You pull only a hair away from his lips: "I don't think so… but if this is death that would explain a lot... like how im seeing an angel." "That fucking nickna-" "And it fits perfectly" the Convict who used the nickname even more than you did joins in, kneeling down next to you and pulling you both in. Foreheads pressed together once.
"Christ Ry! You saved us. Both of us. If that isn't angel behavior I don't know what that is…” Simon chuckles tearfully.
“I stopped believing in a god long ago… but if this isn't heaven I don't know what is. Not Eden's heaven. But my heaven.” Simon joins you on one knee, a bit awkward but trying to get this right. “Ryland Grace... Will you give me the honor and finally give me a last name and become Simon Grace?" A dopey smile adorns Simon's face, free and loving.
Ryland can't help but pull both of you in once more. "YES! A THOUSAND TIMES YES."
You hold both of them close.
The moment you had been waiting for.
Your project complete, your friends close and your loves finally in your arms.
...Now all that's left to see was if the Jr.Beetles would come back with usable data…but that would be a worry for another day.
Usually eridians wore their mating gem on their left arm, that wasn't really an option for you however. If Simon was going to wear his on his right arm, so would you.
Taking the bracelet out of your pocket softly, pulling Ryland's right arm towards you and closing the clasps around it softly. One closed by you and one closed by Simon. Tears still flowing freely, now accompanied by a giddy grin on the man's face.
A perfect imitation of the stone embedded in someone like Rocky's and Adrian's arm: in an eridian’s arm.
This was made worlds easier by the fact that all 3 of you basically lived in Rylands t-shirts (no sleeves to fight with).
Simon is already holding his arm towards you when you go to reach for it, eager, giddy. You smile, taking a step back and making room.
Handing the bracelet to Grace with a loving smile.
Both of your hands touching for only a moment. A short yet loving kiss exchanged between you two before he pulls away, walking towards Simon and wrapping the bracelet around his arm.
Grace closes one buckle, looking into Simon's eyes lovingly, the ex-convict reaching down and kissing the man's own bracelet and then the man himself. Ryland burying his hand in the shorter man's long black hair. They forget themselves for a moment.
This might be the truest thing you could watch forever.
They pull apart, love sick smiles on their faces, staring at each other's eyes like they were Simon looking at the stars for the first time all over again.
Ryland pulls away completely, leaning down and kissing your temple, making room like you had done for him.
You don't need to be told twice.
Eagerly talking his place, reaching towards the bracelet on Simon’s arm and kissing it like he had done to Ryland.
You're not the only one though, Simon reaching down as well, placing his hand on your hip lovingly.
"How long were you planning this..?" "The launch? Because I told you, almost as long as we have been here. Proposing?... well let's just say...I had a little helper with that."
Your eyes find the eridian still happily curled into Adrian’s side... if eridians had faces... his would be so smug right now.
Simon puts a hand under your chin softly, pulling you towards him and kissing you, whispering against your lips, pulling away only a hair. His tone amused when he asks: "Do I want to know?"
All the hundreds of times Rocky had complained about you not giving Simon and Grace the bracelets earlier simultaneously start playing in your head.
You state decisively, pulling his arm towards you once more, placing a kiss on the scared flesh before finally closing the final clasp on the bracelet. Simon chuckles.
He extends his hand towards you causing you to look at him, confused at first, before quickly remembering the final object left in your pocket. Pulling out the final band, your band, and placing it in your lovers- well husbands now you suppose- mates? waiting hands.
They are gentle, careful in a way that only confuses you even more how a man like this could have ever been called a Butcher.
He was no innocent lamb, none of you were, but how someone can only see a monster you'll never understand.
He closes the first buckle leaning down and kissing the bracelet just like he had done to Ryland earlier.
You can't help it, fresh tears spilling from you even harder now, a dopey smile that must rival Ryland's breaking out across your face.
You knew what finality felt like.
You had felt it when you were drugged and forced on the Hail Mary. You had felt it when the fuel tanks above Adrian had caught a leak and you were ripped to the ground unable to help or do anything but suffocate slowly. You remember it from when the 2 of you decided to abandon the idea of returning to earth and decided to go help Rocky.
Finality… but in a form you have never felt before.
Beautiful. Warm. You never wanted this to end.
'I would do everything for you.' That sentence now rang truer than ever and you now they would do the same for you to.
Simon pulls away from you nodding at Ryland who quickly takes his place. "So...did you make these?" "Rocky did." "And he didn't give them to me? I'm insulted." The sarcasm is obvious but you're still glad the rock didn't catch that…
He still struggled with tonal differences sometimes.
You are not Rocky though, the statement making you laugh softly.
"You snooze ya loose pal."
Now it was Ryland’s turn to laugh. As beautiful as his laugh was to you, sadly it didn't last long. The scientist's face turning into a more serious and somber expression. A little smile remaining all the while however.
Surprised you look at his face once more. "For what..?"
"For waking up when I thought no one else would. For being there by my side through everything… For just being you."
"i didnt really do much…” You chuckle awkwardly. “You were the scientist saving the earth... i just fixed some stuff you dropped-"
"You did so much more than that star …more than you could ever know.”
He brushes his hand across your cheek, kissing your neck softly before leaning down even further and closing the finale clasp on your bracelet as well.
Adrian and Rocky whistle triumphantly. The smaller of the two getting up and twirling in excited little circles. Singing something that sounds like: "∆•°<>∆!∆•°<>∆!∆•°<>∆!" "Mates! Mates! Mates!"
The 3 of you laugh lovingly at the eridian’s excitement before facing each other once more. Tears streaming down your faces, smiles bright. You can't help but say it laughing and crying all the while:
"I now pronounce you spouses! You may now kiss the love of your life!"
Ryland laughs a big belly laugh before leaning in and capturing your lips with his own, kissing you breathless, only interrupted by someone burying their hand in Rylands hair and pulling him off you to kiss him himself.
Ryland yelps in surprise but gladly accepts the kiss of his other lover. Eventually having to hit Simon's biceps softly to signaling for air, the shorter man letting him go with a chuckle breathing heavily but turning to you with a come-hither motion almost instantly.
You throw yourself at him, wrapping your arms around his shoulders, determined to take his remaining breath, only stopping when you accidentally bump in the corner of the canopy. Rocky yelling something or other about how long it took to set up.
You both breathe heavily. Chuckling at each other awkwardly but with nothing but love in your eyes.
"<>∆•∆<]<>." "Human disgust."
You chuckle even harder at the eridian’s remark.
Pulling Ryland back into the pile, standing forehead to forehead, heavy breathing chest to heavy breathing chest, your own little triangle.
Eyes going up following the long gone Beetle's path to the sky…
You launched those drones.
You gave them the bracelets. .
..and you will give them that piece of mind eventually.
And bla bla bla do it all over again, who cares, things you have repeated a thousand times before, because right now you didn't need to repeat it to yourself.
Right now what mattered most is that you have them by your side.
And you were holding each other. Nothing more and nothing less.
And what truely mattered most of all... you now got to call them husbands.
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You loved these kinds of mornings.
The beautiful soft kind of mornings waking up in the warm embrace of both your husbands. You honestly couldn't believe that a year had already passed since your wedding day.
Opening your eyes groggily to find Ryland looking down at you, nothing but adoration on his face.
Your voice is small, still half asleep just like the rest of you.
God he was way to chipper this early in the morning.
"What are you up to?" You look up at him from where still you're currently laying on his shoulder, laying on his back, his laptop on his lap.
"Getting some stuff for class done." He did this most days now… if he wasn't surprising you with breakfast in bed he was staying in getting his work done so he could be there when both you and Simon woke up to cuddle a bit longer. The latter mentioned still nuzzled affectionately into your back, both arms curled around your waist tightly.
It took him a while to get used to the xenonite prosthetic Rocky and Adrian had built for him but now? It was basically second nature.
Sadly that peace wouldn't be yours forever though.
A crash sounding out in the hallway and what sounded like glass shattering waking all 3 of you fully.
Despite having been the fastest asleep Simon is the first jumping out of bed. Throwing the covers of him and running out the door.
Both you and Ryland looking at each other before running after him.
It doesn't take you long to find him. Kneeling on the floor looking at one very mischievous blue little eridian.
"Gracie..." You say, your tone exasperated yet loving.
You look down at the pebble currently being cradled in Simon's hands. The smallest of Adrians and Rocky pebbles had also taken to you 3 the most, begging to sleep over and in its excitement to come wake you must have run straight into a vase.
You run your hand over their head softly, little hiccups leaving the tiny body.
"You okay?" "They got a little scared" Simon replies for them, petting a finger over their upper carapace softly.
Rylands teacher training immediately takes over at the sight of the little eridian.
"Heyy it's okay you didn't mean to! No one got hurt! We'll just have to make an even cooler vase this time!"
The eridian child chitters happily at that. Simon handing them over to you so he could cover his mouth while yawning softly.
Gracie chirped softly, nuzzling into your chest and happily being handed around.
You pet their head once more.
A knock ringing out from the door.
"And there must be the proud parents!” You chuckle.
Ryland leaning on your left shoulder and Simon on your right.
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