Huh... I think I've got an idea for a new variation on the Grace & Rocky & Adrian relationships.
In the period just before the ship departed Erid, Adrian & Rocky's relationship had been floundering. The two had originally courted and become mates when they were both pretty young -- 'childhood sweethearts' -- but the anxiety of the whole "world is starting to slide toward apocalypse" situation was putting additional stress on cracks that already existed between them. Both Adrian and Rocky privately thought that if if weren't for Rocky being part of the ship's crew, they were likely on a course to formally part ways and end their relationship for good; however, neither of them wanted to invite the kind of public scrutiny and criticism that Adrian would suffer for separating from one of the future "heroes of Erid".
Before the ship left, Rocky & Adrian had a private, frank conversation where they agreed that whatever happened with Adrian while Rocky was gone, would happen -- if Adrian met someone new and fell in love, Rocky wouldn't stand in the way upon his return to Erid. By the end of that conversation, Rocky was already halfway to accepting that when he came back to Erid, one of the first things he'd likely be doing would be arranging a discreet divorce.
And then as Rocky endured the Blip-A's canonical fate, he found his thoughts drifting back to Erid and to Adrian. All the obstacles that had seemed so daunting in their relationship before... they really were just little things, weren't they? As time passed, and passed, and passed, with Rocky all alone on the ship with nothing but his own thoughts to keep him company, Rocky's perspective slowly shifted; in the moments when it wasn't too painful to wonder what he might do if he ever got to go back to Erid, Rocky resolved to himself that he would return to Adrian and ask for them to give their relationship another chance, a fresh start. But it seemed terribly unlikely that he'd ever get the chance -- wait, that instrument over there shouldn't be sounding an alert all of a sudden, what's going on --
*insert Rocky & Grace canonical friendship montage here*
From the moment Rocky mentions to Grace that Rocky has a mate back home, it seems like Grace is 100% invested. It's like it doesn't occur to Grace at all that Adrian would do anything but eagerly welcome Rocky home with open arms. Even though Rocky should know better than to let Grace's uninformed opinion sway his own, he can't help but get a little caught up in Grace's optimism. Whenever Grace asks Rocky to tell him more about Adrian, and Rocky obligingly does so, Rocky slowly finds himself falling back into love with Adrian all over again.
*insert Rocky & Grace's arrival to Erid as Big Damn Heroes here*
Upon meeting with Adrian again, Rocky is stunned to learn that somehow, despite being so far away, Adrian had been having near-identical thoughts about their relationship. On the few occasions when Adrian had halfheartedly tried to 'meet someone new', they'd somehow always found themselves comparing their potential new suitor to the absent Rocky -- and the new suitor never came out better in those comparisons. (Also, Adrian and Rocky had not even come close to anticipating the circumstances in which Rocky would ultimately return to Erid -- if Adrian separating from Rocky before would have been a minor scandal, a divorce now would likely see Adrian being shunned and sneered at by every Eridian who met them for a long, long time. Rocky wouldn't let that happen to anyone he even mildly liked, let alone Adrian.)
When Rocky introduces Grace and Adrian to each other, the two hit it off at once. Rocky is immensely pleased, though perhaps a little baffled, that the two most important people in his life get along so very well, so very quickly. When Adrian discovers Grace's rosy view of Rocky & Adrian's relationship, they're quite amused, and secretly deeply touched that Rocky had so clearly spoken so highly of Adrian to Grace, despite Rocky not even knowing if Adrian had moved on in Rocky's absence.
Adrian and Rocky and Grace find themselves at the center of a rapid whirlwind of activity, between setting the final stages of the Taumoeba solution in motion, and pulling out all of Erid's collective scientific stops to keep Grace alive. Life goes on, as it tends to do; Grace finds his footing on Erid, with both Rocky and Adrian happy to help provide whatever support their friend needs. Grace, in turn, is often encouraging Rocky and Adrian to 'keep love alive': shooing them out the door for a 'date night', or being a sounding board as Rocky brainstorms ideas for a gift for Adrian, or spending hours with Adrian listening to human music and helping them craft something Grace calls a 'mixtape' for Rocky.
And as it turns out: they do, in fact, keep love alive.
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