Grace has never seen Simon's injuries.
When Simon was first brought onto the Mary, after they found a distress beacon on a random moon, Simon was covered in blood. Most of it wasn't his on account of the blood ocean on that moon. But some of it most certainly was.
Grace left most of the handy work to Armando. He wasn't a medical doctor; he had no idea what to do. And Simon had stayed clammy and closed off about getting help with his treatment, so Grace never really got to see his injuries.
Well- till now.
It had been an accident. They were messing around, play fighting about something meaningless, when Simon's bandages snagged on some random wall panel behind his head. They'd slipped right off.
He stared at Simon wide eyed.
Simon fidgeted. He thinks I'm a monster... This should have never happened. It was bound to happen... Simon was never gonna let Grace see what was under the bandages. I couldn't wear the bandages forever...
Simon averts his eyes, even closes his eyes. He can't bear to see the look on Grace's face. This was it. This is when his comfortable life on the Mary would stop.
It's not like he was gonna get shot out of the airlock. Grace was too kind to do that. But maybe he'd be locked in a separate room. Grace was too kind for that too... Maybe they wouldn't talk to each other again. Grace wouldn't want to see his ugly mug again.
Simon brought his knees to his chest, about to try to curl up in the tightest ball he could, when he felt a small brush of a finger on his face. Grace traced the lines of the teeth that bore a hole in his face.
The silence between them was suffocating for a moment. Simon felt crushed beneath Grace's gaze.
Then he was being pulled up from the floor and dragged across the Mary.
Simon still wouldn't look at Grace. He stared at the floor while he awaited his fate.
"Sit!" Grace piped up. The first thing he said to Simon after seeing his mutations up close.
Simon recognized that tone. It was that tone that Grace had when something was taking up all of his scientific attention. He was... Excited? Maybe that wasn't exactly the word. Who'd be excited to see this?
Simon looked around and saw the med bed. He sat as instructed.
Grace rolled up to Simon on this tiny stool with wheals. He got between Simon's legs and all up in his personal space.
Usually, that would bother Simon to hell and back. But he had already accepted that he wasn't welcomed here anymore, so things were bound to change.
When he finally saw the look of Ryland's face, though, he felt his face flare up with heat.
Grace was looking at him with such... He looked at Simon as if he was so precious and interesting and facinating. He looked at him like he did his taomeba.
That was the stuff that was gonna save the stars! Simon couldn't live up to that!
Grace was too close. He was being too touchy.
Grace unravelled all of Simon's bandages, letting out astonished gasps every time he uncovered something new. He spent his precious time analyzing every inch of mutated skin.
When Grace poked at the gills on Simon's neck, that was too much. He shoved his hand in Grace's face and pushed him back with just enough force not to send him hurling into the wall behind him.
Grace stood there blinking for a moment.
"OH MY GOD I AM SO SORRY!" He suddenly exclaimed when his brain cells finally clicked back into place. "I was WAY into your personal bubble," He let out a nervous laugh, hands reaching for his glasses.
Simon had noticed that nervous tick. Grace would suddenly have no idea how to wear his glasses. It made Simon laugh.
"It's just- THAT'S SO COOL!" Grace continued. He stood up from his stool and put his arms in the air. "How did that even happen- No, no, you don't have to answer that."
Simon wanted to cry.
He got so scared that this comfort and safety was going to get ripped out of his hands all of a sudden. Maybe I should've let him help earlier...
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