Coffee shop
(Look at this amazing and super cool phm gif!! Oh, you cant see it? Skill issue I guess...)
Lee!Grace Ler!Rocky
Rocky plays coffee shop for Grace's enjoyment, but Grace has no money to pay with. Thankfully, Rocky's coffee shop also accepts a different type of currency.
Author's note: inspired by a youtube video made by Jess Parker! She's cool, go check out her videos.
Grace woke up the way he did everytime he woke up, with Mary's lights burning his tired retinas. He grabbed the blanket and covered his face to block out the lights. "Five more minutes, Rock." Grace mumbled sleepily, bracing himself for Rocky's usual protests against going back to sleep after 8 straight hours of it.
Grace peeked out from under the blanket when no such protests came. Rocky wasn't there. Rocky wasn't even in the room. Grace sat up, his suspiciousness of the situation willing his tired body out of his blanket shield.
Grace sighed and swung his legs off the bed. He stretched his arms up over his head with a yawn, deciding to go find Rocky. His bones cracked and popped while he climbed the ladder up to the lab.
Rocky scuttled around the lab in his carapace tight xenonite suit, moving multiple computers around. Some of the computers had pictures of coffee cups and muffins, while others had videos of a coffee machine running on a 1 hour loop.
When Grace entered the lab, Rocky ran towards him happily. "Welcome to Coffee Shop Grace! Can Rocky take Grace order, question?"
Grace gave Rocky a confused smile, looking around at the "coffee shop." "You...made the lab into a coffee shop?"
"Yes! Grace sad and leaky, miss Earth. Rocky do research and bring Earth to Grace. Rocky own Earth coffee shop. Grace order now, question?" Rocky pointed to one of the computers. "That menu."
"You- you made me a coffee shop?" Grace's smile widened and the tips of his ears gained a light dusting of pink. It was nice, having someone care so much, but it was also a little flustering. Grace peered at the computer. "That's... just a stock image of an espresso, Rock."
Rocky shook his carapace. "Grace need to pretend. Rocky read about pretend on human psychology website."
Grace paused, his smile dropping a bit. "Why were you reading about human psychology?"
"No reason- what Grace want order, question?" Rocky quickly deflected.
Grace saw right through his deflection and crossed his arms. "No reason, you say?" Grace gave Rocky his teacher glare, but Rocky wasn't fazed. "We'll be talking about that later."
"No, no talk later. What Grace want order, question?"
Grace hummed, uncrossing his arms and resuming the game. "Well, what do you have?"
Rocky grabbed the "menu" computer and "read" it out. "Rocky have Armando's regular coffee, Armando's special coffee with milk, and Armando's regular coffee."
"Two regular coffees? And a special coffee with milk?" Grace chuckled "I'm not sure I'll be able to choose. It all sounds good."
Rocky waited patiently while Grace thought about what he wanted. However, Grace was milking the comedic pause. He rubbed his chin, hummed dramatically, and tapped his foot.
"Rocky pick for Grace." Rocky grumbled, making Grace laugh. "Grace order Armando's special coffee with milk." He decided for Grace. "Go to dormitory to get from Armando."
Grace groaned playfully, "youre making your costumer get his own coffee? What kind of coffee shop is this!?" He complained, but went back down to the dormitory to get his coffee.
Grace came back into the lab, sipping the coffee. Rocky waited for Grace to finish the coffee, then help out an open claw. "Grace owe Rocky 500 human dollars now."
Grace's mouth fell open at the absurd pricing. "You mean 5 dollars, right? Like, 5.00, not 500." Grace put the empty paper cup on the lab table. "I haven't taught you currency yet, the dot means something."
Rocky tapped a leg on the floor. "No no no, 500 human dollars. Rocky want to be RICH." He opened and closed his outstretched claw. "Grace need pay Rocky for coffee."
Grace shrugged. "I have no money. What can I pay you with?"
Rocky took his claw back amd tapped his carapace like he was tapping his chin. "Earth movie have dishes to wash when human needs to pay. But Rocky have no dishes to wash..." Rocky thought for a moment, then trilled excitedly with an idea. "Rocky know how Grace pay for coffee. Grace let Rocky tickle for 500 seconds."
Grace flushed and wrapped his arms loosely around his middle. "What- Rocky, that would never happen in a real coffee shop." A wobbly smile wormed its way onto Grace's face at the idea.
Rocky didn't seem to care, because he ran at Grace at almost full speed. Grace screamed and ran towards the control room. But Rocky was FAST. Compared to Grace, he couldn't run for long, but he made up for that with speed.
However, Grace didn't need to be caught. He did that all on his own. Stupid human feet tripping over each other. "Great sour cream that hurt." He grumbled, rubbing his nose. The pain was short lived, though, because Rocky was grabbing Grace's arms and turning him onto his side, making Grace forget the pain and remember the tickles.
Rocky used one claw to hold Grace's arms away and two claws to softly squeeze and pinch at Grace's belly and lower belly. Rocky had grown to like Grace's squishiness, despite at first being disgusted by it.
Grace squealed and kicked his feet, pushing his face into the floor. "Wahahait ROHOCKY- thahahat tihickles."
Rocky laughed with Grace, his claws moving to his sides and ribs. "Rocky know. That whole point."
Being on his side meant Grace wasn't able to twist or turn very easily. The lack of mobility made the tickles so SO much worse (or better, depending on how you looked at it.) "Thahats so bahahad! Gehet BACK- nohoho youre meheheAHAHA"
Rocky had started humming so low the sound waves that traveled to his claws made them vibrate against Grace's ribs. Rocky then leaned against Grace's tummy, making Grace's entire middle ripple with gentle vibrations.
Grace screamed, trying to hide his cackles in the floor beneath him. Key word, trying. His giddy smile and happy crickles by his eyes were clearly visible to Rocky.
"Grace happy, question? Grace seem happy. Grace like squeezes, question?" Rocky emphasized his question by letting go of Grace's hands and using it to plant extra squeezes to Grace's hip, which earned him a stream of muffled giggles.
Grace pushed at Rocky's claw with one hand, shaking his head wildly. Rocky's claws shot under his arms, making Grace clamp his elbows to his sides. "Nohoho pihits, thahats mehean!" Grace rolled onto his stomach.
Rocky giggled and poked along Grace's back with his third claw. "Grahace the ohone who not pay for coffee! Rocky not mean, Grace mean!" Rocky chirped.
Grace shook his head, yelping when Rocky's claws left his armpits to taze his sides rapidly. Soft giggles poured from him as Rocky pulled back, the 500 seconds apparently over.
"Grace pay in full, Rocky done." Rocky stood back, waiting for Grace to get his metaphorical shit together.
Grace sat up criss cross applesauce, rubbing his sides. "I- I dont lihike you sometimes." Grace muttered with the last of his giggles disappearing. Rocky hummed in amusement and pat Grace's leg.
"Grace want another coffee, question?" He asked playfully.
Grace shook his head quickly, "no, no thank you, Rock. Im- Im good, no more."
Rocky scuttled back to the lab. "Next coffee is 1000 human dollars." He called from the lab. "Since Grace have no money, next coffee is 1000 tickle seconds."
Grace scoffed "double the price of the first? What kind of business are you running here?" Grace stood up and followed Rocky to the lab.
Rocky's business didn't stay open the whole trip back to Erid. With the business, Armando ran out of coffee much quicker than Grace had predicted he would. Neither of them could figure out why...
