•Ray• @astrxpup - Tumblr Blog

21h

That's mine (you're mine)

College au! Ryland Grace x Reader

College life would've been so much easier if your group mate hadn't taken credit for the presentation that you worked your ass off on. And If a random molecular biology student hadn't decided to squat in your favorite study spot.

Wc: 13.7k || fluff, both reader and Grace are absolute tsunderes.

a/n: This fic is based on this request! That I just realized I completely misread TT I'm so sorry anon, I hope you enjoy this nonetheless

I have no idea how colleges in the US work so I based everything on my experience here in my country. Anyways brief mention of Coltland twins because they're on my mind 24/7.

I apologize for any mistakes in the fic, this is not proofread because I don't want to read this again or else I might just completely hate it<\3

Requests open!

The sound of pencils tapping on the table covers the room, a few people sighed in frustration while erratically moving their feet up and down.

“Okay..flood control and we mix that with a park? There's already a drainage system in parks, how do you suppose we make it better.” A voice from across the table spoke up.

You're currently in a café with your group mates, brainstorming about possible innovative ideas– it was the project assigned to all of you, the professor gave around 2 weeks to complete things, some people complained but you thought it was doable, since the only thing the professor was asking for is an idea.

“Isn't that why we're all here to brainstorm? If you have a better idea then speak up, at least some of us here are contributing.” Another voice was heard, that's Alex, she's one of the few women in your civil engineering department– well technically there were a lot more but in your specific sections, she's one of the few that you know.

“Okay smartass whatever.” The guy who complained about the idea seemed to have given up on criticizing it.

You sat there quietly while also working your brain overtime– being a woman in a field that has mostly men definitely has its challenges, you had to prove yourself to be smart and exert more effort than others just to be taken seriously, you'd think that people giving you the position of group leader would mean that they respect and recognize your skills but no, it's because they know you try hard, you'll do anything to have above average output, and you won't put up with lazy shits– your group mates, so long story short, it's fucking exhausting.

“Oh! What about, like, an automatic gate shutter, like the ones from stores, but instead of manually opening it, we provide fingerprint sensors so it lifts up on its own!”

Another dumbass.

How the hell did these people get into college?

Whatever divine being that is controlling everything from up there is really testing your patience,

That is currently running thin. So before they add something more to that already dumb idea, you give your thoughts– when you still have the patience to talk nicely.

“No offense but that would give us a zero, it has no correlation whatsoever to what professor asked us to do, he said infrastructures.”

The idea he pitched in was innovative, sure but it's not even related to your course, that would be closer to robotics, still you try not to be condescending, but it's pretty hard when he's looking at you like you just called him stupid.

Well you wanted to.

And you definitely think so.

“Okay leader, what do you suggest then if you're so smart?”

You let out a shaky breath trying your hardest not to snap at your immature group mates, is it so hard to work together and act civil? What is the problem that got them all worked up when for the past 30 minutes all that had happened is someone suggesting an idea of implementing flood control In a park.

“well,”

You drum your fingers on the table.

“We could go with the previous idea of flood control using parks, we don't have to be limited to parks, we can expand it to schools and such.”

You could see the guy audibly clicking his tongue while subtly rolling his eyes.

You did everything you could to stop yourself from throwing your chocolate croissant towards him, he's very lucky you value your sweets and the croissant also doesn't deserve to be wasted on someone so dumb it genuinely might be contagious.

“That literally doesn't answer what I asked before, there's already drainage systems everywhere there's no point, we'll also get a zero with that idea.”

You sighed “you didn't let me finish, as I was saying,” you collect your thoughts for a moment.

“Okay so, our drainage here is made of concrete more often than not, it's easily subjected to clogging, which is why floods still happen.”

Everybody was looking at you, waiting for you to finish explaining– the guy that somehow has animosity with you (you genuinely have no idea why, you've never talked to the guy besides today) is glaring at you, like he's already thinking of a witty comeback.

“which is why I think we can innovate that and use a layered underground water storage system instead, when it rains heavily, it'll fall into permeable pavement. Water will filter through gravel and sand, the storage I mentioned earlier, it'll store excess rain water temporarily, and we'll have sensors to monitor water levels. The water that was stored will be gradually released to nearby canals or reused for irrigation.”

Your group mates were silent and stared at you.

“...which is why.. theoretically, it won't flood.”

As seconds pass, you start to overthink that maybe that was a shabby idea that you should've just kept to yourself and let it dissolve somewhere in your brain.

“well– it's a quick idea on the spot, we can talk about other options or expand the idea more to fill up some gaps or–”

“I think it's a great idea.” Alex states while she leaned back on her chair.

“It's a dumb idea.”

You knew it, the guy would never just agree to whatever you say, you already saw it from the way he was staring earlier.

“yeah you got a better idea shit head?” Alex spits back.

That shut him up real quick.

“Okay…then if everybody is on board with the idea, we can start dividing work and start on the presentation.”

___________________________

It was as you expected, the whole project was basically managed by you and Alex, the two guys who are in charge of giving the maps, flood data, and statistics. The easiest part of the whole thing and they still gave excuses on why they can't pass it on time.

“oh sorry I have to go somewhere, I'll send it to you by tomorrow morning.”

“Calm your boots, the deadline is in 1 week, we have plenty of time.”

In the end you were the one who covered their parts because you really don't trust them enough to believe their words, by tomorrow morning? Screw that, you'd bet your whole kidney they won't even look at the group chat till midnight– if they'd even do that!

.✦ ݁˖

The night before the presentation, you were still going over the slides one last time, making sure everything was in order and not a single mistake had slipped through.

The glowing numbers in the corner of your screen read ‘9:00 pm’ thankfully, you'd actually be able to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight.

You and Alex had finished the presentation a few days ago, the two of you hadn't expected your other group mates to contribute much so you'd plan accordingly, it was frustrating, but at least you weren't scrambling to finish everything last minute.

Tomorrow.

The presentation was tomorrow, and you were nervous– not because you were afraid of speaking in front of the class. No, you were afraid that the dead weight in your group hadn't even bothered to read the presentation. You already picture them standing there, stumbling through the slides and sounding like lost ducks.

Your phone, lying face down beside your laptop, vibrated.

You picked it up.

A message from one of your group mates.

‘Sorry I was busy, did you finish everything?’

A beat passed.

The nerve of this guy.

You stared at your phone, your fingers hovering over the screen

Busy, yeah right.

A tired sigh escaped your lips, rather than argue you sent one final reminder for everyone to review the presentation before tomorrow. If they were going to stand by you during presentation, the least they could do was know what they were presenting.

The day of the presentation, you were relieved to find out that they did take the time to review the slides, even then you were still anxious. That will never go away when it comes to these kind of stuff, you just managed to learn how to tough it out

All in all everything went smoothly when your group was called to the front, each slide was explained thoroughly. Nobody needed to basically read off of the slides– which can result in them not facing the crowd, which got your group an approving nod from the professor. You can practically smell the high grade that was about to be given to all of you, but then–

“That was impressive,” your professor said, staring at all of you. “Now don't be nervous, I'm not here to fry any of you. The concept is genuinely innovative, I simply want to know, who came up with the idea?”

Your heart skipped.

Finally.

You opened your mouth but before you could even say anything—

“It was me.”

His words cut straight through yours.

You turned your head in disbelief, speechless at this guy's audacity to claim the work that you and Alex have worked so hard on, as his.

You'd think he'd have some sort of hesitation or regret lingering on his face by what he just did, but no, he stepped forward with an easy grin, his hands in his pockets as if the answer had always belonged to him

“I pitched it during one of our meetings,” he continued smoothly– acting like he just didn't take credit for the various sleepless nights you and Alex had endured because he and his little buddy were too busy doing God knows what. “Everyone else just helped refine it”

The room was quiet for a moment, then came the nods.

“Well done,” praise came out of the professor's mouth. “It's a good idea, you should be proud.”

Applause echoed across the room while you stood frozen.

The words caught in your throat, swallowed by the sound of clapping.

Alex's turned towards you, her eyes widening just the same. She knew exactly what you had gone through to make this presentation outstanding, because she was there. She was there when the two of you stayed up late sketching diagrams, rewriting calculations, and piecing together the proposal from scratch, while the other two from your group had barely done anything– even looking at the group chat seems like an impossible task for them.

He accepted the praise with a modest smile, you could only stare, your fingers curling tightly into a fist until your knuckles turned white.

The rest of the day was blurry, you couldn't pay attention to any of the other group's presentations, you could just say it was your idea, actually, you are planning on saying something. It's just that no matter what you say, the humiliation you just felt earlier wouldn't just disappear instantly once you make it clear that you were actually the one who thought of it.

You let out a frustrated sigh and left it at that, you didn't have the energy today so you postponed telling your professor that your group mate is actually dead weight and didn't help in the entirety of two weeks that was given.

Once your class was over you got out of that room as fast as possible, not wanting to deal with any of them at all. Thankfully you have a vacant– an abnormally long one at that, your next class starts at 5:30 pm, it's only 1 pm…

Well, you have plenty of time, you haven't eaten, and would very much like to be alone. You know just the place.

The building that was catered to civil engineering students was huge, the same as other departments. Naturally you made it your mission to find the perfect spots to relax or kill some time before your next class during your freshman year. And boy did you succeed, on one of the hallways there's a corner that was just a huge empty box, and it's the part of the building that stores equipment, so barely any students come by, it's your perfect spot.

That's why you're here currently, squinting your eyes in disdain when someone that you don't recognize, is occupying it. The audacity! You're already in a bad mood, you genuinely don't want it to get any worse because God knows what you might do.

“Excuse me.”

The guy with dirty blonde hair, stuffing his face with a sad looking sandwich, looked up to meet your eyes.

“...yes..?”

“this is my spot.”

“I don't think so.” He said before turning his attention back to his laptop, his hand bringing his sandwich to his mouth once again.

“No you don't understand, this is my spot.”

“Pretty sure this is a public space.”

You groan in exasperation. “can you just move, I've been using this space before you even found it.”

“theres plenty of room.”

“thats not the point–”

“I don't see your name anywhere, how can you say it's yours?”

The guy said while looking at you directly, stuffing the last bits of his sandwich to his mouth. You're tired and you don't have the energy to drag this out more than you have to, this will probably be a one time thing, the guy will move on and you'll have this place for yourself, and yourself only again. Yes, right totally, hence why you decided to tolerate his presence for the time being– it doesn't help that he's by your favorite spot, the corner with the charging port, now you're stuck on the other side with just walls around you.

Just great.

You didn't bother asking for his name since you have no intention of getting to know the guy, you want him gone as soon as possible. You can't help but glance from time to time though, you managed to catch the fact that his lace had ‘molecular biology’ on it. What is a molecular biology student doing in a civil engineering building?

“You're a biology student.” you blurted out

“Molecular Biology.” The guy mumbled

“Yeah I get that, why are you here then?” screw ignoring his existence, you wanna know why he went out of his way to go to a completely different building for the sole purpose of occupying your precious spot.

“Is it your business?” he said, merely looking at you for a split second before continuing to type on his laptop– that was covered in stickers, not that it's relevant.

“No but I'm wondering how you got here, your building isn't even close.”

“By that you mean a minute of walking?”

“There's plenty of places you could've gone to.”

“Right, like this one.”

You glared at him for a moment longer before looking away, fine whatever. It wasn't as if he was doing anything wrong, you suppose you can tolerate his presence– for now at least. Even if the idea annoyed you more than you'd like to admit.

.✦ ݁˖

The next day, you finally gathered the confidence to speak to your professor. You explained everything, how your group mate took credit despite contributing close to nothing.

He frowned, asking why you'd waited until today instead of bringing it up immediately after the presentation. A brief lecture followed– more about speaking up for yourself rather than the incident itself, but once he'd heard the full story, his expression softened. Thankfully he was understanding and assured you that your group mates grades will be adjusted accordingly.

It feels as if a huge weight has been lifted off from your back, finally those pests will get the grade they deserve. He's probably still boasting about getting praise from the professor himself– along with the class, as far as he's concerned he'll receive a high grade for it. God you wish you could pay front row tickets to see his reaction in full 4k 60fps, when his grades resemble that of an egg.

Once again, you have a free period after your class– which you'll very much use to nap and fool around in your secret hideaway.

The very reason why your feet carried you towards your spot without thinking, by now it had become second nature.

And lo and behold–

“You're late.”

“You're still in my spot.”

You stared at the same guy who intruded into your space yesterday, still in the same corner. Your favorite corner.

“You really want to argue about that again?”

“No, I'm in a good mood.” You stated before sitting down opposite from him, same position as yesterday.

“Care to share?” The guy, who has his glasses hanging on his face weirdly, it's definitely a choice you give him that.

“I don't trust strangers.”

He stared at you with a deadpan look, his fingers halting from typing on his laptop.

“...Grace,”

“What?”

“Ryland Grace.”

Now it's your turn to give him a deadpan look.

“This feels weird.”

“Just what happened in your life that making friends is weird for you?”

“Who said I want to be friends with you?”

Grace, now that you know his name– rolled his eyes at your retort before putting his attention back to his laptop.

You mumbled something quietly.

“What?” Grace looked up at you, at that you finally stated your name..reluctantly, atleast you try to make it sound like it.

“It was not nice meeting you.” Grace muttered under his breath.

“Hey!”

Grace had become a frequent visitor of your self proclaimed hideaway, if you can even call him visitor because at this point, might as well be another member based on how often he would be there.

Thanks to the strange coincidence of your schedules lining up, you always seemed to run into him during your free periods.

You were annoyed, sure but for the most part, Grace never really bothered you unless you started it– which more often than not, ended up in the two of you bickering, you don't know just how things had become this way.

You were so insistent on driving him away when you first met him, but after weeks of silent companionship, the way he never stepped over your line and vice versa, it felt nice..you don't feel obligated to entertain him nor do anything like what you usually would do when you're on the early stages of friendship– wait friendship? No.. You'd rather cut off your feet. You barely know anything about him, you know he wears his glasses weirdly, he studies molecular biology, he loves his sad looking sandwiches and he comes here whenever he has a free period. That's all, can this even be considered friendship if you've never had an actual conversation with the person? Well he did mention friendship first so–

“How long are you gonna keep staring at me like a creep?”

A voice snapped you out of your thoughts, right, of course, you're doing it again.

“Sorry, I didn't get a lot of sleep last night.” you blurted out while your head slumped against the wall.

Grace didn't stop typing and kept himself busy with whatever he's working on, figures, you weren't exactly expecting anything so–

“Ow–” A cold object bounced off your stomach, you fumbled before catching the culprit. One of those tiny bottled coffees from the convenience store, it was cheap, chilled, and currently leaving a damp spot on your beloved shirt.

You held it up while squinting your eyes at him in confusion.

“I accidentally bought extra.”

“We're broke college students, you don't accidentally buy extra things.”

“You don't know me.”

You glared, he's right and you're annoyed. Still you were thankful for the coffee, he didn't need to help you, but he did, even if he won't admit it. Like come on who'd believe that.

You twist the cap open and let the taste of mediocre coffee flood your mouth. “Thanks, this was nice of you.”

Grace scrunched his face in disgust. “Don't act nice, it's weird.”

“just accept my gratitude!”

“I'd rather eat living worms.”

It became a routine, how the two of you tolerated each other's presence whenever you're killing time and waiting for your respective classes to start. Small talk here and there but never an actual conversation just for the sake of it, despite it all, you actually like the set up.

Weird things started happening though, like extremely weird. You started to suspect that Grace had been possessed or controlled by some unknown entity, you even devised a plan to make a journey towards the great vast of the underworld for the cure.

The weird thing in question is the sad, soggy, sandwich that's currently vacating your hands right now.

“What's this?” you looked at Grace, if that's even the Grace that you know.

“.. A sandwich?” he looked up to stare at your shocked face. (it was funny, if he had no decorum, he probably would've whipped out his phone to take a picture.)

“Yeah thanks captain obvious, I mean what is this?”

“I just answered your question”

“Why did you hand me this?” You looked at him suspiciously

“Geez, you could've just given it back if you hate it so much.” Grace set his laptop down and was about to stand up to take the sandwich from you.

You however, shielded the sandwich and pressed it against your chest. “I never said I hated it.”

Grace sat down again. “You sure acted like you did.”

“I was just confused why you gave me one.” you said before taking a bite, it wasn't anything special, it's a sandwich.

“The ingredients were about to go bad, if I didn't make an extra sandwich it would've gone to waste tomorrow.” He reasoned, popping his earbuds in and going back to his work.

“How thoughtful,” The sarcasm in your voice was very much evident. “Thank you for the nearly expired sandwich.”

“You're welcome, it's nice knowing I'm helping a starving college student” he said with unwavering seriousness.

The shift in your relationship was natural, at some point, the animosity quietly fizzled out. You still complained that he's intruding– mostly out of principle, and because you feel like it's a given at this point, but the protests had long since lost their bite. Apparently he reached the same conclusion, because neither of you questioned the arrangement anymore.

Just like today, you made your way to your spot and saw that Grace was on the other side where you normally sit– well where you sat when he took over your favorite corner, the one with the charging port.

“You changed places.”

“It's the same place.”

“You're in a different corner.”

Grace turned his attention to you. “Do you want to sit there or should I move? I could use the charging port, my laptops battery drains fast.”

You were quick to reject his very generous offer. After all, you weren't about to waste the chance to finally sit in your one and only corner– the one a certain someone shamelessly claimed as his. Well, former claim, thankfully.

You both minded your own business, because unfortunately for you, college isn't just shit and giggles, apparently there's actual work to do, a tragedy really.

The frustrated sigh that Grace had let out caught your attention, not that you want to pry but–

“You good?” you raised your eyebrow.

“yeah yeah, batteries low that's all.”

You blink once.

You blink twice.

Right he did mention the trash battery his laptop had.

You reached towards your bag and pulled out an extension cord– now there's a completely valid reason you decided to bring one, you had expected Grace to sit by the charging port so you simply brought an extension, that way you could also use it, right problem solved.

You plugged it in and threw the extension towards him. Grace managed to catch it hastily, in his defense, he didn't expect you to throw it.

“payback for when you threw the coffee at me.”

For the first time you heard the guy laugh– a laugh might be an exaggeration, more like a small chuckle, still! You stared at him in awe, man it looks weird, especially when you were used to his deadpanned face.

.✦ ݁˖

It all happened in a flash, all before you could even think about what you were doing, because by the looks of it, you have his number.

And he messaged you.

You stared at your phone for what felt like hours, really only a few seconds had passed.

‘You're late.’

Is what the message said. He's not wrong, it just so happens that right after class, your mind has decided that it needs a fresh, juicy, cheeseburger or else it'll melt itself off your head.

Unfortunately for you, your go to Burger place is a few blocks away from campus. Which isn't a problem, you have about 2 hours to fool around. (you procrastinated on when to enroll for your next semester, which resulted in you having a very inconvenient schedule, but alas you can't really go back in time to slap some sense into your lazy self of the past.)

‘cheeseburger.’

‘The hell is that supposed to mean?’

You're already on your way back when your phone vibrates, out of pettiness or maybe just for the sake of it– you didn't bother replying to Grace and instead took your time to get to your hideaway.

Something warm and suspiciously squishy bounced off Grace's head, startled, he whipped his head around to search for the culprit, only to relax when he spotted you. An unapologetic grin plastered on your face with a half eaten burger in your hand.

You make your way towards your corner while he examines the thing you threw at him, which now he knows is a burger.

“Is this poisoned?”

“Why is that the first thing you ask when I just gave you a burger out of the goodness of my heart?”

Grace raised his eyebrows before taking a bite, still looking at you suspiciously. For a guy that just asked if the burger was poisoned, he sure is devouring it like there's no tomorrow.

As usual, once you sat down and got your things out. You pulled the extension cord from your bag, you plugged it into the wall before throwing the cord towards Grace.

Without missing a beat nor taking his eyes off his laptop, he caught it midair.

Not a single word was exchanged, you connected your charger, he connected his. Without even realizing it, this whole thing had become a routine for the both of you.

“What”

“What?” you lifted your gaze from your laptop to Grace.

“You just sighed four times in the span of one minute.” He says, at the surface it does sound like he's annoyed but you know him enough to know the difference between his tones.

“oh.”

“Yeah, oh.”

“Nothing really, just that the guy I was paired up with is the same guy that took credit for my work back then.” A sigh leaving your mouth once more.

“Took credit?” Grace was now looking at you directly, his laptop moved just a tiny bit to the side. “Yeah well, we had this whole presentation thing, ideas for innovation and I thought of an idea and we sorta just built around it. I'm not taking credit for the whole thing, Alex, my other group mate helped me throughout. I already talked to the professor and everything, it's solved.”

You hadn't realized it but for the past 10 minutes or so, you've been rambling, finally letting out all your frustration, (and possible hatred) towards that guy, sure the whole thing was already solved, he got a bad grade but even then, you still got humiliated, he still got praised, it still happened.

“And then he just–”

Your words halted.

Grace was staring.

Not absentmindedly like when people are waiting for someone to finish talking so they can finally go back to their own business, no, he was focused. His eyes followed every expression that crossed your face.

“What?” You ask.

“Hm?”

“You've been staring.”

“I've been listening.”

“That's somehow worse…”

Grace blinked. “How?” You shuffled awkwardly while your head slumped against the wall. “I feel like I'm being analyzed.” That earned a quiet huff of amusement from him. “I study cells, not people.”

You hummed. “You sure?”

“I'm fairly certain.”

You narrowed your eyes.

“Keep going.” Grace says, breaking the silence that suddenly intruded itself into your ramblings.

“I forgot where I was.”

“You were talking about wanting to stab him with a stick and roll him around in a fire like a kebab.”

You clicked your tongue. “right..right right right.”

A beat passed.

“I was just frustrated about the whole thing, I don't even care about the praise, I just hated that he got to harvest the fruit of my labor.”

“That metaphor is terrible.”

“Hey!” you huff, still stumped. “...you were actually listening, thanks.” After getting the words out, you found yourself unable to meet his gaze. Your eyes settled anywhere but him.

“Of course, why wouldn't I.”

.✦ ݁˖

The day was exhausting, like any other, which is why you immediately collided with your bed, hugging your pillow and seemingly melting in it. Never mind the fact that you still haven't changed your clothes, nor taken off your shoes.

There's just some days that you absolutely should just be lazy and not let your body do anything else but lay down. For the amount of work you've had to do for the past week, you definitely deserve it, more so since you had to endure that guy who loves taking credit for others' work, for a full 4 days. As expected, he didn't bother doing anything once again.

You also didn't forget to talk Grace's ears off about absolutely any inconvenience that you've had to experience, after that day where you accidentally talked for longer than you had expected– Grace was there listening. Not annoyed, he also didn't give any fake sympathy or some lame advice that you've probably heard a million times. He simply listened, and that helped you more than anything he could've possibly done that day.

It was hard to deny now, you feel comfortable around Grace.

Something that would probably send you into a coma if you told that to your past self, the guy that stole your designated spot? Him? You don't mind him now?

Only a few weeks had passed since your first meeting, but for some reason, you couldn't imagine your day without seeing Grace, even a simple text would do– anything as long as the two of you have some sort of interaction.

The fact that you had less energy than usual whenever your free period didn't match with his didn't go unnoticed. Neither did the way your mood soured on days packed with nothing but back to back classes that not only drained you but also irritated the living crap out of you. Was it because you didn't get to visit your hideaway? Probably. You refused to acknowledge the real reason– that you long to spend time with him.

You really can't go a day without having some sort of interaction with your friend.

Yeah friend.

This is getting ridiculous.

Another thing that's ridiculous is that you're currently staring at your phone, totally not waiting for a certain someone to message you.

Yeah definitely not, you're just checking your phone. Repeatedly.

Entirely coincidentally.

The fact that each glance ended with a tiny ache of disappointment had absolutely nothing to do with him.

Probably.

With an exasperated sigh, you closed your phone and tossed it somewhere on the bed.

You had assignments to finish, and staring at your previous chats with Grace isn't going to make him magically pop up and chat.

Not even a minute later your phone buzzed. Your eyes darted towards it before you could stop yourself, talk about magic.

‘you busy?’

A message from Grace that definitely did not make your mood better.

‘yeah’

‘liar, your chat bubble kept popping up earlier’

Oh. Right, it pops up when the keyboard is up even if I'm not typing anything. Who the hell thought that was a good idea?

As you were about to type back, your hand slipped, the phone landing straight on your face.

“Ow..” you rubbed your nose with one hand while reaching for your phone with the other.

The pain was replaced by something much, much worse.

‘Calling Ryland Grace…..’

“No..”

You panicked and quickly tried to press the end call button, but before you even get to press it–

“What's up?”

Too late, his voice answered from the other end.

“I think the ceiling.”

“Real smart of you, I didn't know that.”

A brief pause hung in the air.

“You pressed, call by mistake didn't you?” Grace spoke up, breaking the unbearable silence.

“yeah..”

“why don't you hang up then.”

“I don't want to.”

“hm.”

Another silence, neither of you moving to end the call.

“I got paired with an idiot today, I had to do most of his work.” Grace muttered.

“What's up with people not taking college seriously, do they think it's like high school or something.”

“Well, to be fair he wanted to help,”

“what.”

“I was just impatient, that's why I did his work for him.”

You rolled to your side, tucking a pillow between your legs. “Who would've known there are actually people out there willingly doing other people's work.” you chuckled.

“I really wasn't in the mood to be patient earlier.”

“hm what a coincidence, neither was I.”

The two of you don't acknowledge the reason why.

You know why.

He does too.

Conversation flowed naturally, everything you've wanted to say earlier was said, and Grace was right there to hear it. What surprised you the most was how talkative he was on the phone.

When it was the two of you in your hideaway, most of the talking was done by you, and Grace would reply, he would make snarky comments here and there and would often bicker with you– but never actually initiated and talked about himself.

Now though, you were starting to learn more about Grace, you didn't even have to ask, once he got talking, the stories just kept coming.

Surprisingly he'd been on the Dean's list every semester. You hadn't expected the guy you're hanging out with to be such an academic overachiever.

Or maybe he really is just that smart.

“Why are you surprised?”

“Can't a girl be surprised?”

He let out a skeptical hum. “You just think I'm stupid.”

“You said it, not me.”

As it turned out, he also has a twin brother. You remind yourself to pester Grace for pictures later– not that you expected them to look all that different, you're just curious whether their personalities were anything alike.

Almost three hours had passed before either of you realized it, you were still laying on your bed like a starfish, wearing the same clothes you went to school with, shoes and all.

You could only convince yourself for so long. If you really think about it, you wouldn't spend that much time with someone you don't enjoy talking to– sure you call your friends occasionally and it would last hours, but this is different. It feels different.

Hanging up during calls with your friends was easy, you can call each other again in the morning. What's the big deal? But now you really don't want to, you're dreading the moment this call has to end.

You went quiet. Grace's voice was still on the other side of the phone, talking about some work that irritated him.

You stared at the ceiling.

You stared some more.

A realization hit you like a bucket full of ice had just been dumped on you.

“hello..?”

Grace's voice pulled you right out of your internal crisis.

“oh yes hi, totally listening by the way.”

“No you weren't.”

“Who are you to dictate whether I'm listening or not?”

“What did I say then?”

He's unfair. Really unfair, he should be punished for acting like this–

“Have I told you just how much your glasses suits you?”

“Yeah you weren't listening.”

The two of you bickered back and forth, neither willing to let the other have the last word.

“You know,” Grace said after a glance at the time. “It's almost midnight.”

“Mhm you're right about that one, want a medal?”

Neither of you made any move to hang up.

As more time passed, words became less frequent, replaced by the occasional yawn and quiet laughs. Somehow without talking about it, the two of you came into a mutual understanding: Neither of you was hanging up.

With that knowledge, you gave yourself strength to stand up and finally change into new clothes, taking the time to kick off your shoes as well.

“You sleepy?” he spoke through a yawn, his voice warm and lazy.

You hummed, your body colliding with the bed. The softness of it further lulling you to sleep.

A comfortable silence stretched out.

“Goodnight.” His voice came out slow.

“Goodnight, sleep well.” With that last word, the exhaustion took over, your eyelids that had been fighting to stay awake earlier finally surrendered.

Your phone wasn't on the bedside table. It was right next to you, with Grace's name illuminating from it.

.✦ ݁˖

The morning light streamed through your curtains, bathing your face warmly. Unfortunately though, you couldn't stay to enjoy it for long– you have class at the godforsaken hour that is 7:30 am.

Your annoyance quickly dissipated when your eyes landed on your phone, still in the same spot you left it last night.

Still displaying Grace's name.

You picked it up, lowering the brightness in the process before it permanently caused you eye damage. For a moment you simply stared at the ongoing call, almost 10 hours.

You wondered if he was already awake. Unlikely though, you think. He had mentioned before from a fleeting small talk that his class starts at 11, the information just somehow managed to stick to your brain.

“Grace?” you called softly.

Silence.

You were about to assume that he's still asleep if it weren't for the rustling coming from the other end, followed by what sounded like someone stuffing their face further into a pillow.

“..Mm..”

A few seconds passed.

“...good morning..” Grace mumbled, his voice was thick with sleep, it almost didn't sound like him.

Before you even realized it, a smile was plastered on your face. “Goodmorning to you too.”

“What time is it..?”

“five thirty five.” You heard a dramatic, miserable groan from his end. “I'll need to get ready soon.” you said, a subtle note of reluctance lacing your words.

“mm..”

You can't blame the guy, he probably isn't used to waking up this early.

As for you though, you really need to get ready or else you might be late. You propped your phone against your desk, leaving the call connected as you got up.

The occasional rustle from the other end indicates that Grace hadn't hung up. Almost an hour had passed and you finally got changed, packed your bag, and fixed yourself up. You made one last check of everything to make sure there's nothing you forgot.

Another rustle came from your phone. “You alive?” you asked.

“Thanks to you.” Grace says, now sounding more awake than earlier.

“There you are, for a moment I thought they finally took you”

A yawn answered you before his voice did.

“...Who's they?” Silence. “Morning again by the way..”

You smiled to yourself, slinging your bag over your shoulder.

“Morning to you too,” You picked your phone up from your desk. “I should really get going.”

“You should.”

Neither of you moved to end the call.

A beat passed.

“I'll see you later?” You finally said, you really didn't want to hang up though, but it's not like your professor will accept the excuse ‘yeah sorry I'm late, didn't want to hang up because the guy I have confusing feelings with is on the other side of the phone.’

“See you later.”

Only then did you finally tap the red button.

Your day went on as usual, nothing really interesting happened. Boring lectures, lazy professors, (Showing up and reading off slides or not showing up entirely.) and some short meaningless projects. Seriously, why wasn't this left behind in high school?

Which is why– without thinking your feet followed the familiar path towards your hideaway the minute your class ended.

When you got there Grace was nowhere to be found. It's not out of the ordinary, there were days that you arrived later than him, and days when he arrived later than you.

Instead, you sat in your corner already plugging in the extension cord and placing it towards his side.

Now that you have some time alone, you couldn't help but think back to the things that happened last night. You mentally screamed, your hands colliding with your face while the sting lingered on your skin.

‘Sleep well?’

‘Sleep well!!?!?’

You groaned at the thought, no way you really said that last night. You're lucky Grace was also tired and sleepy that the idea of teasing you didn't cross his mind.

“Why did I say that..” you huff as your body slid further down the wall, wishing that the floor would just open up and swallow you whole.

You're over thinking it, you try to reason with yourself. That was a completely normal thing to do, it's just words. Words that friends say to each other all the time, so there's no reason to feel weird about it right?

“Say what?”

Your head snapped towards the voice so quickly, you swear you heard your neck crack.

It's Grace, he was already setting his bag down and making himself comfortable by the time you registered what he said.

“I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Sure.” He looked at you suspiciously while his hands worked to plug in his laptop.

Silence stretched between the two of you. Then almost absentmindedly, Grace muttered. “Video call.”

“What?”

“We could video call instead. You suddenly go quiet sometimes, I have no idea what you're doing.”

“Okay.”

Grace tilted his head. Why did you answer that so fast? Now he's over thinking it.

“You sure are nosy, curious about what I'm doing and all.” You decided to tease him, might as well before he could get the chance to do it to you.

“What? No– I– that's not what I–”

“Relax, I'm joking.”

“Oh. Yeah I knew that.”

You smiled as you watched Grace unsuccessfully recover from his own embarrassment. For someone who seems to always have a dry remark and snarky comebacks, it was surprisingly easy to catch him off guard every now and then.

As always, conversation flowed between the two of you naturally. Current assignments, recent gossip, and generally mundane things such as the grasshopper he accidentally stepped on, which he admitted he felt terrible about.

You didn't forget to mention the fact that some of your friends have started asking where you kept disappearing to. You feel bad for not spending as much time with them, you really do.

The only thing is, you can meet up with your girls off campus. But you couldn't do the same with Grace. Which is why you're cherishing every single chance you get to spend time with him.

Is it so unlike you?

Yeah, but it's been so long since you last felt this way. You would be lying if you said you didn't miss it.

The moment you got back to your dorm, exhaustion had already settled into your shoulders.

You dropped your bag somewhere across the floor, you can't be bothered to act properly at the moment. It's not like the bag will suddenly disappear anyways, so you leave it like that.

You change into something more comfortable before throwing yourself onto the soft mattress that hugged your body so well, really you can fall asleep just like this. If it weren't for the fact that you're waiting for someone to message you– or actually, to video call you like he had suggested.

It's currently 8 pm, you have no idea if he's home already. Is it considered weird if you suggest to text each other once the both of you got home? Is that too much? You didn't have time to think further because your phone lit up, catching your attention.

A video call.

From Grace.

You stared at your screen for a second longer than necessary before a smile quietly found itself on your face.

You answered after the third ring. The first thing that you saw was Grace with a plate in his hand, he's eating.

“Took you long enough.” He said mid bite.

“In my defense, you were the one that took forever to call.”

“Your honor,” Grace sighed dramatically. “I was cooking. I apologize from the bottom of my heart for not calling you sooner.” he said, looking straight at the camera.

“No.. I don't think that's enough, you made me wait for a long time.”

“What I'm hearing here is that you were waiting for me.”

You stared at him with the most dumbfounded look you could muster up.

“...that is not what I said.”

“It sounded like it.” The scraping of a metal spoon across his plate lingered.

“It absolutely did not.”

“It kind of did.”

A beat of silence passed. You don't know just how Grace always manages to turn the tables, you were supposed to be the one getting on his skin! How did he twist your words to something that isn't true? (It is.)

“I was waiting for the call,”

his eyebrows raised as he took another bite of his food.

“Which just so happened to be from you.” you continued.

“Hm.”

“What do you mean Hm.”

“I mean hm, you're awfully confident today.”

Your eyes narrowed, glaring at him.

“You know, I liked you better when you were apologizing.”

“The court has already accepted my apology.”

“There was no court.”

“There was. I won.”

You let out an exasperated laugh, dropping your head into your hands. “You're insufferable.”

“Yet you answered the call.”

“Shut up..”

A smile tugged the corners of Grace's lips, the exact look that made you have weird and confusing feelings towards him that you're refusing to name.

The video call– as expected, had lasted way longer than the two of you intended. It definitely doesn't help that Grace had mentioned a research project his professor had assigned, something that he probably should be working on instead of talking your ears off about some article he saw that was ‘extremely inaccurate’ as he put it.

“Mm I think they're right, I don't know…they have plenty of evidence.” His reasoning did make sense, and frankly, you're on Grace's side. However, what kind of amazing friend would you be if you didn't try to get on his nerves and disagree with everything he says, right?

“Now, HOW did you even come to that conclusion when they didn't–”

“Well I don't know…”

“Stop cutting me off!”

As for you, spending your entire night calling Grace presumably isn't the most productive thing that you can do, matter of fact it's probably right there on the very bottom. Do you care? Maybe just a tad bit, you pride yourself with always getting top scores and never leaving the Dean's list, still you chose to stay and hear Grace's definitely, most certainly, undoubtedly annoying voice.

Yeah, that's for sure.

No reason why you'd rather do that instead of working.

By the time sleep began tugging at your eyelids, neither of you reached to end the call. The conversation had faded minutes ago, leaving nothing but the sounds of the two of you doing your final chores– the sound of plates clanking together, a vacuum humming from your end as you cleaned up the floor, the sound of clothes rustling, and so on. A comfortable reminder that the other person is still there.

Neither the two of you talked about it nor arranged a system, it's just something that you both unanimously agreed on.

The call would stay.

Until one of you inevitably has to leave for class tomorrow morning.

.✦ ݁˖

You were the first one at the spot again, lately Grace has been turning up later than usual– not that it matters really. After a while of spending time together, you've grown aware of his schedule and vice versa, it's perfectly normal to wonder about what he's doing that made him late, right? Nothing weird about it.

Totally.

You busied yourself with random stuff to kill the time– flipped through your notes, checked your phone more times than necessary, and reorganized your bag for what felt like the 3rd time. Anything to distract yourself until Grace arrives.

You don't know why you're so eager for him to arrive– well actually, you do know.

You know this feeling all too well, you can't possibly mistake it for something else. And yet you can't bring yourself to embrace it, you can't risk losing the relationship you currently have with Grace, no. Everything is perfect as it is and doesn't need changing. Which is why whatever you're feeling will stay inside.

You know, you're aware.

And that's enough.

You simply can't give this burden to Grace, knowing him, he'll try and act as if everything is fine. He'll act like nothing happened and continue whatever it is that you do daily– he'll try to avoid it but it'd be futile. Calls would become awkward, even simple talks would be as well. You're not even sure if he'd be comfortable to meet with you everyday as he always does when he learns about this thing you're harboring.

It's frustrating, all the years you've spent in college, you learned to never depend on anyone else but yourself. Hoping and waiting for someone with nothing but faith is something that you simply cannot do, it does nothing but hold you back, the same goes with relationships. Sure there are times where you'll find somebody attractive but that's usually where it ends. You don't try to be closer to the person nor make an effort to at least have some sort of interaction with them.

With Grace it's different. You don't know what it is that made him stand out from everybody else, you don't feel the urge to turn him away like you usually do with other guys– well, you kind of did in the beginning, he simply managed to break down the wall you carefully built around yourself.

He never underestimated you, never belittled you, nor did he ever questioned your knowledge. He simply saw you as smart and capable. Being a woman never influenced his opinion of you, it felt refreshing. You didn't even realize just how much you craved it, and to think you'd get it from a guy who'd invited himself into the quiet corner you stubbornly insisted was yours.

The whole situation was so absurd that for a moment, all you could do was stare at the floor in disbelief. You spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to convince yourself that it's simply adoration, and not anything romantic– even just expressing that thought made you recoil.

Grace was smart, that much was evident. Despite his personality that never fails to try and get on your nerves just for the fun of it– you can see just how hardworking he is. Sure, his temper sometimes goes haywire but nevertheless, he does what needs to be done.

Grace gave you plenty of reasons.

Those were why you felt what you felt.

And strangely enough, finally putting a name to it didn't feel nearly as good as you thought it would.

A quiet laugh escaped your lips before your mind could even register, followed by another, each one carrying equal parts of amusement and disbelief.

“What's so funny?”

Your breath hitched, the laughter coming into a halt.

Your head snapped towards the familiar voice, you find Grace standing with his eyebrows raised in curiosity, clearly trying to figure out what he just walked into– which you could only hope he doesn't think you've finally lost your mind.

“You're–”

“Late I know,” Grace walked towards you and placed an iced coffee by your side.

“My group mates were pestering me over something so mundane, I'm pretty sure they just kept asking to seem like they're contributing something important, really they're just wasting my time.”

By the time he finished speaking, he had already settled into his usual spot.

“Mm..anyways what's this?” you held up the iced coffee directly into his face.

“I'm getting deja vu.”

“Why did you give me this?”

“Yep deja vu.”

You didn't bother continuing your interrogation as to why, when, where, how, he decided to present you with a coffee– that you desperately needed. If anything you're thankful for it actually, asking why was simply for modesty, if you had no shame you'd probably demand at least a few a week. He should be thankful you're a decent human being, yeah he definitely should.

You took a cold sip of your iced coffee as your drift subconsciously drifted to Grace. He wasn't doing anything particularly interesting, he's on his laptop, scrolling and looking through things you have no idea what about. Every now and then, his brows would knit together whenever he came across something he didn't particularly understand or didn't quite agree with.

Has he always done that?

Your eyes lingered longer.

His glasses, his damn glasses that he never seems to get on right. Looking back, have you ever seen him wear it correctly? Probably, but choosing to believe that he wears it so ridiculously is so much more fun.

Your gaze drifted lower, his t-shirts that you've brought up more times than you can count. It's so outrageous to the point that it's endearing, almost always solid color shirts with some bad science pun printed on it.

They were such ordinary things.

Things you've probably seen hundreds of times before without really noticing.

“Will I be freaked out if I ask for the reason why you're staring?”

“Depends.”

“Depends..?”

“On how open minded you are.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

Grace continued to stare at you like you'd just confessed to something absurd, while you stubbornly refused to elaborate, drifting the conversation farther whenever he tried to circle back and ask what you meant.

“Should I be concerned?” Grace followed up.

“Depends.”

“Stop saying depends!”

“Are you open minded?”

“You already asked that!” He exclaimed, throwing his hands up, gesturing it erratically. “Open minded about what? Ghosts? Conspiracies? Are you secretly going to tell me you've been stalking me?”

You stared at him. “Interesting how that was your third guess.”

“You didn't deny it!”

A laugh escaped your lips while Grace pointed an accusing finger at you. “Don't laugh. Explain.”

“No.”

“Why?”

“It's funnier this way.”

He let out a groan, rubbing his hands across his face.

.✦ ݁˖

As much as you love getting on Grace's nerves, you've noticed just how often he doesn't eat during his free periods– in other words, whenever you're together. He seems to be always glued to that laptop of his, despite it all he never fails to bicker with you and answer whatever ridiculous question you might have for the day.

Which is why you're in front of a convenience store cash register with some microwavable meals. Obviously you already heated it up by the store, carrying it all the way back to campus was a hassle, the paper bag they provided was soaked in minutes leaving you to hold the hot packaging. Your fingers got burned, he better eat whatever you gave him.

Unsurprisingly, Grace had beaten you and was already at the corner sitting. He pointed his hand towards you, gesturing like he's asking you to give him something.

You rummage your bag and threw the extension cord towards him.

“Whoa–”

He caught it against his stomach with a muffled oof, blinking down at the extension cord before looking back at you.

“You could've just handed it to me?”

“You caught it didn't you?”

“With the expense of getting hurt first..”

You set your things down along with the food you bought in the convenience store. It wasn't hard to miss the way Grace was eyeing all the meals you had placed down.

“You're eating all of that?”

“What?”

“We're supposed to just ignore the multiple boxed hot meals you just put down?”

“Unless you think I've secretly doubled in appetite, some of it is yours.”

“Mine?”

“Is there anyone else here that I could possibly be giving it out to?”

“Fair.”

Your eyes met, seemingly refusing to look anywhere else.

“You didn't have to.”

“I didn't have to.”

“But you did.”

“That I did.”

“Why?”

Your face contorted as if to say ‘really?’

“I haven't seen you eat anything in the past few days.”

“I–”

“Drinking coffee with a protein bar doesn't count.”

“Hm.”

That shut him up real quick. With a quick motion, you handed him the hot meals.

“This is a sad looking sausage.” Grace mumbled while he tore the plastic seal apart.

“It was cheap, don't complain.”

“I'll complain because you said to not complain.”

“Can you just eat?”

“I'll eat begrudgingly.”

“...”

“I'll eat spitefully.”

At his words, you threw a bottle of water you had bought alongside the food– towards him.

With Grace getting used to being thrown stuff at him, (specifically by you) he's gotten good at catching whatever object that you decide to send his way.

“I'll drink this indignantly.”

“Stop!”

.✦ ݁˖

The courtyard buzzed with students hurrying off to their classes, some were killing time by the bench or anywhere really, alongside hungry students, eating like they've been starved– which unfortunately you don't find surprising. You have schedules where the classes quite literally go back to back with no breaks, not giving you any time to eat something– these students are probably in the same predicament. All in all they're basically expecting students to survive 5-6 hours of straight lectures.

Anyhow, you weaved through the sea of students, more focused on reaching your destination rather than the people around you.

You rounded the corner towards the study hall, already knowing the quickest route towards the hideaway, but before you could even take a step forward, something in your peripheral vision caught your attention— or to be more precise, someone familiar.

Your feet nearly carried you right past them before your brain caught up with what you're seeing. You slowed to a stop.

Not because you saw Grace— that part wasn't surprising anymore. At this point, bumping into him around campus had become so common that it would've been stranger if the two of you hadn't seen each other outside the hideaway at least once.

No, what caught your attention was the fact that he wasn't alone— not that you're trying to imply that he's a loner.

There was a girl sitting across from him.

Your eyes narrowed.

“He's interacting with another human being…”

You stared for another second.

“...Voluntarily.”

That can't be right.

The same Grace that told you he did his group mates work because he was getting fed up with him? The Grace that looked mildly inconvenienced whenever somebody messages him about school related things? The same Grace that responded to most conversations towards people he's not particularly close with— with either a nod or an expression that translates to ‘leave me alone’?

Yet here he was, having what appeared to be an actual conversation.

You almost considered walking over to check if he's currently being possessed— if you got a nickel for every time you got suspicious enough to think he had been possessed, you'd have 2 nickels. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice.

Instead you lingered where you were, shamelessly watching from a distance.

Grace said something that you couldn't make out, probably something funny considering the girl had smiled and laughed, laughed hard enough that she playfully hit him.

You muttered something completely unintelligible under your breath, with a sharp edge like he had personally betrayed the image you had built of him.

It was ridiculous.

You should've laughed. Took pictures so you can tease him about it later, you know, something friends usually do?

Or you could've just continued walking like a perfectly normal person instead of standing still like a completely creepy stalker.

Whatever the reason may be, your feet refused to move. Something settled uncomfortably in your chest.

Heavy.

Strange.

You knew that feeling.

You'd only just figured it out a few days ago after spending too many hours trying— and failing, to explain why your thoughts always seem to circle back to him.

You liked Grace.

Which, frankly, is one of the most inconvenient discoveries you've ever made.

Seeing him with someone else shouldn't have meant anything.

God forbid the guy has a life and has other people to hang out with except you. She could've been a classmate, a friend, someone asking for notes, or somebody asking Grace for help. You know very well that he's smart, so the fact that people are flocking to him to ask things shouldn't be unusual right?

The possibilities were endless, each one perfectly reasonable.

So why did your chest tighten anyways?

You frowned.

“Seriously..?”

The words left your mouth, pointed directly at yourself.

Apparently, your feelings had decided they were no longer content staying hidden deep inside your mind.

They had chosen today to make themselves everyone else's problem.

Including yours.

When you got to your hideaway, you didn't waste any time to sit down and distract yourself with whatever work that is you've been ignoring— all because the time you allotted for studies was replaced with spending time with Grace in a video call. He never asked you to stop studying, you simply had decided that talking with Grace was a higher priority.

That couldn't have been his girlfriend right? He was spending all his nights with you— not in that way. The two of you also don't hang up when going to sleep, if he had a girlfriend, he wouldn't have been doing this whole set up with you.

Okay, so nothing to worry about.

What if it's a crush and he starts distancing himself?

No, no. Can't be.

You snapped out of your trance when you saw a figure sit down opposite you.

“You didn't bring the extension cord?”

You blink.

“Hello?” Grace stared at you mildly confused.

“O– oh right, right. It's in my bag, I'll just take it out and plug it in– yeah, yeah. I'll do that.”

He was confused just a tad bit when you seem to have been on a different planet when he arrived but now, he was completely confused.

You're acting weird.

Like really weird, more so when you handed him the extension cord. “What?”

“What?” You mumbled.

“You handed me this.”

“Yes?”

“Gently.”

“You asked for the extension cord?”

Grace squinted his eyes at you, his hands grabbing the wire and plugging in his laptop, still not breaking eye contact from you. “You're acting weird.”

“No I'm not.”

“Yes you are.”

“You're mistaken.”

“I never make mistakes.”

“Wow, extremely humble.”

“Don't change the subject.”

He continued to stare at you for a solid ten seconds before giving up, seeing that you aren't planning on giving him any answers. Even if it was uncomfortable that you hadn't tossed an insult the moment he arrived— Grace didn't pry. After all, everybody has their bad days, this will surely pass.

.✦ ݁˖

It had been four days. Four long embarrassing, self inflicting days of avoiding Grace— at least you tried to.

You don't know why you're doing this, why you felt the need to act like this. Something doesn't feel right if you tried to act like nothing happened, act like seeing Grace with another girl other than you didn't actually affect you. Even if it did. It affected you way too much that you can't even run from it during your sleep.

Which is why avoiding him is the solution you promptly came up with.

It was significantly harder than expected.

The campus apparently had a personal vendetta against you, because no matter how carefully you planned your routes, somehow, someway, the two of you still managed to cross paths.

You spotted him in the hallway?

Immediate U turn.

Saw him going inside the library? That's fine, you suddenly remembered the library 3 buildings away from you, it's fine, it's fine. Exercise right?

You avoided the cafeteria all together and the convenience store became your friend. Apparently though, Grace had thought the same because why is he there every time you try to buy something?

At one point, you'd even hidden behind a pole that was placed (conveniently for you) in the courtyard.

In hindsight, hiding behind something that is only about 2 inches thick wasn't your brightest idea. Talk about being known as one of the smartest in your batch.

Grace had looked directly at you.

You'd maintained eye contact.

Then ever so slowly crouched down. His eyes following you.

It was humiliating.

Yet somehow, despite your increasingly, hard to ignore behavior. Grace never called you out for it.

In those four days, where you still meet in your hideaway without fail, not once did he ever bring up your weird antics.

Which somehow made it worse.

You'd started wondering if maybe he's choosing to pretend that none of it is happening.

He wasn't.

“You're acting weird.”

The words arrived so suddenly that you almost spilled the drink you're currently holding, onto your laptop.

You looked up, Grace was standing just before the indent of the wall— that you consider your hideaway.

His expression was unreadable, which was weird as you're used to him being expressive with you.

“Hello to you too.”

“Hi.”

He didn't sit.

He kept looking at you while you squirmed slightly in your position.

“Do you need something? I already plugged in the extension cord–”

“You're acting weird.”

“You already said that.”

“You didn't answer.”

“Because I reject the accusation.”

“Hm.”

Grace was silent, it's nerve wracking more so since you have no idea what he's thinking about— that's a lie, you know what he's thinking about.

“I saw you walk the long way towards our spot.”

He's grilling you, and you should be nervous— well you are but the way he called this little meet up of yours as ‘ours’ made your stomach twist and turn in the most pleasant way.

“...exercise.”

“You hate walking.”

You don't know what you should be feeling but being happy because he's evidently showing that he listens to you, notices you, he remembers stuff you say that even you, yourself forgot— probably isn't it.

“Cardio..?”

“You called me over from meters away instead of walking over.”

“Efficiency.”

“You saw me at the library three days ago.”

“Did I..?”

“We made eye contact.”

“Coincidence.”

“Then you immediately turned around.”

“Another coincidence.”

Maybe you aren't as subtle as you thought you were, that much is for sure with how much Grace is pointing out your clumsy attempts of avoiding him. And to think you were proud at how good you were at hiding, turns out you simply got ignored.

“The pole.”

“You don't need to remind me.” You huff in frustration, covering your face with your hands.

“Well?”

You clicked your tongue, breathing out heavily before straightening yourself. “You're strangely invested in this.”

“You usually come to bother me.”

“Excuse me?”

“You haven't.”

You opened your mouth, and closed it right after, the words you were about to say suddenly disappearing.

“So..?” The only thing you managed to blurt out after a few seconds of silence.

“You always have something to say.” Grace gestured vaguely towards you. “You've been quiet.”

“People can be quiet.”

“Not you.”

Okay rude.

“You've also been leaving almost immediately whenever we bump into each other, anywhere else besides our spot you completely avoid and ignore me.”

“Okay well I—”

“I know our schedule well enough to know we have a few days that has our vacant period aligned, two hours. We had two hours and you showed up an hour late.”

“homework…”

“Don't lie, I know you had finished it already before coming.”

“How do you know that?”

He blinked once, his body leaning over the wall.

“You were doing your homework during our call the night before.”

Right. You did.

You looked away, suddenly finding the floor the most interesting thing in this whole vicinity.

Grace watched you as still as a rock.

“...did I do something?”

The question was so simple that every sarcastic and snarky response got knocked out of your head.

There wasn't any irritation in his voice, you almost wished he'd be angry instead of.. Whatever this is.

You couldn't bear to look him in the eyes, the way he sounded was enough for your guilt to consume you. His question sounded as though he'd spent the last few days replaying every conversation the two of you had that might’ve had, every action, every remark. Trying to figure out if he had done anything wrong that resulted in you avoiding him with your entire being.

It's not like you really went away. You still showed up during your free period, the two of you talked, the two of you called each night without fail. But every single time, even though you were there, it felt like you were completely somewhere else.

Your chest tightened, because he hadn't done anything.

That was the problem.

You were the one who realized your feelings, you were the one who suddenly can't look at him properly without getting reminded of that fact, you were the one turning every single interaction into an internal crisis.

Grace was simply existing.

He hadn't done anything to warrant your sudden shift in behavior, and yet he was the one who took the hit.

“You didn't do anything.”

“So why are you acting like this?” You could feel the slight desperation in his voice, days of trying to ignore you and hoping that things would go back to normal.

The silence felt unbearably loud, Grace has never been the type to fill the silence for the sake of it, which is why you're currently under his gaze. He's waiting, and he'll wait as long as he needs to until you give him an answer.

Usually you could out last him, today however, you couldn't bring yourself to make fun of the situation.

You busied yourself by doing absolutely anything that could prolong the confrontation, you know where this is going, and you're not ready for everything to end yet.

It has only been a few months since the two of you have been acquainted, it was enough time for you to become accustomed to waking up every single day being greeted by Grace's sleeping figure— on your phone.

“You don't have to tell me.” Grace said after a while, it turns out you can still out last him.

“But if I did something, I'd rather know.”

Your fingers froze, Grace seemed to give up on getting an answer out of you with the way he stopped leaning on the wall and finally sat down, where he usually goes.

“You didn't…”

“Then why are you avoiding me?” His voice was calm, he repeated the question in hopes that maybe, just maybe you'll finally tell him why so everything could go back to normal.

You opened your mouth, no sound came out.

Because there wasn't a believable excuse anymore, the thing you've been trying so hard not to mention because of how ridiculous it all was.

“..a girl.”

At your voice, Grace shifted his focus back to you. “A girl?”

“You were with someone.”

“When was this?”

“A week..probably.”

For the first time since his confrontation, you gained the confidence to look at him. You were fully expecting him to be confused, irritated, slightly angry, anything! relief was definitely not part of it.

Grace was relieved.

“Oh.” Grace managed to blurt out.

“Oh? That's all you have to say?”

“I remember now.”

“Good because I was beginning to think I imagined the whole thing.”

Grace waited, giving you time to finish talking.

“I saw her laughing because of something you said, you smiled.”

“Did I?”

“Don't play dumb.”

“I'm not.”

“Grace.”

“I don't remember smiling.”

You leaned back against the wall. “Well you did.”

A beat passed.

“So?”

You closed your eyes shut, the words caught in your throat. You desperately want to just blurt out your feelings and get this all over with. If only you had the confidence to do so, quite ironic when presenting to hundreds of people didn't even affect you compared to now.

“I thought…” There it is again, like some invisible force physically preventing you from speaking out loud, whether it's the fear of losing Grace or the fact that you won't be able to take it if that girl is actually someone to him.

“Never mind.”

“What did you think?” Grace pressed.

“Nothing.”

“You don't just ignore someone for four days because of nothing.”

You groaned. “Can you stop being logical for five minutes?”

“No.”

Grace waited, like he always does.

“...I thought that maybe that girl was someone to you.”

Silence.

“That's why you've been avoiding me?”

“Well when you say it out loud it sounds stupid.”

“It's not stupid.”

“It most definitely is.”

“Why would me liking somebody make you avoid me?”

There it is, the question you've been hoping he wouldn't ask.

“You're really persistent.”

“I'm asking because I'm concerned.”

You laughed, it sounded weak. “This is so embarrassing…”

Grace frowned slightly. “What is?”

You finally looked at him. Big mistake.

You really have no choice now, you can't see a decent outcome that would happen if you try to back track now and completely disregard his question. And that's the bad thing, you can't stomach the feeling of Grace being down because of you.

Because you wouldn't tell him what's wrong.

“Promise not to laugh.”

“I'll try not to.”

“Thats not exactly reassuring.”

Another beat of silence.

You inhaled slowly, then, before your courage had the chance to abandon you—

“I like you.”

You mentally braced yourself, for rejection, for insults, anything. Your Anxiety had made you blind, you know Grace would never even think about joking around, especially when you're being openly vulnerable.

“I realized I like you, and then every time I see you, I start acting like an idiot! The way you act like I'm someone worth paying attention to, the way you notice every single detail, you even went out of your way to buy me stuff I briefly mentioned the day before. How could I not like you?”

You let everything out, after all you already said it anyways. Might as well tell him every single thing you've been trying so hard to suppress.

Meanwhile Grace hasn't said a word, the longer the silence lingered, the tighter your chest became, an uncomfortable heaviness creeping through your body and sinking into every corner of your thoughts.

“Actually forget all the things I've said…can you do that?”

It's ridiculous, obviously Grace would be speechless, he never would've expected a confession out of all things— to be fair, you aren't exactly planning on confessing either.

“I'm…im going to leave now, I think I want to focus on my studies for tonight, if we can push the call tomorrow that'd be great.”

What are you saying? You loved your calls more than anything and yet here you are, stating right in front of his face that you don't want to do it for the night.

You didn't even get to finish packing your bag when you heard Grace's voice.

“Wait.”

Of course he'd stop you. He's probably going to let you down gently, though you don't think there's any way to sugar coat the words “I don't feel the same way.” anything that comes out of his mouth will make you cry either way.

Possibly.

You braced yourself as you stopped putting your stuff back in the bag.

Grace was still sitting there, looking at you.

His expression hadn't changed much.

But there was something different in his eyes, still processing what had just happened.

“You like me.”

“Unfortunately so.”

“Oh.”

You blinked.

“Oh?”

Grace nodded, as if that's a reasonable response. “I didn't expect that.” he uttered after a few seconds.

“Neither was I, this whole thing wasn't part of my plan. I had actual plans, I was going to graduate, look for a job, hopefully get a job, get an apartment, soon a house, maybe adopt a cat.”

He stared at you as you continued rambling. “You can still do all of those things.”

“...thats not the point.”

He looked away for a brief second then back at you. “When did you realize?”

“Like..a week or so I guess, I didn't keep track.”

“That explains a lot.”

“I'm glad my emotional collapse was educational.”

The corner of his lips twitched, it was barely there but you caught it. “You've been hiding from me because you like me?”

“Please stop saying it out loud…”

“That's inefficient.”

Silence stretched between the two of you once again.

“I thought you were upset with me.” Grace muttered under his breath. “I kept thinking about what I might’ve said.”

“Grace…”

He looked down at his hands before quietly admitting. “I missed you, I didn't like not talking to you.”

He looked back up, his eyes met yours.

“And..”

A pause.

“I like you too.”

You felt your breath escape as if somebody had punched it right out of you.

“What..?”

“I like you.”

“No, no. I heard you, I'm just—” you frowned. “questioning if this is real or not.”

“Why?”

“Because this wasn't supposed to happen.”

“What was supposed to happen?”

“You reject me.”

“Why?”

“Closure”

“That sounds unpleasant.”

A laugh escaped your lips, a real one this time. You subtly pinched your arm just in case all of this is just some sick and twisted dream your mind is showing you— telling you that this would've been a great experience, a nice outcome, but in reality he'll never reciprocate your feelings.

But the pain stung.

Nothing faded, you're still here, Grace is still here. This is real.

You were so occupied with your thoughts that you hadn't noticed Grace had moved from his position to being besides you.

“I barely knew the girl.”

You flinched slightly at the sudden closeness between you and Grace. “What?”

“She's a group mate, you know, the research I told you about?”

Oh.

Ohhh.

“Your group mate…?”

“My group mate.”

It's not surprising to say that your soul practically left your body. “I avoided you for almost a week..because you were doing your research paper like a dependable leader.”

“Seems so.”

“I'm transferring somewhere far away.”

“A bit unnecessary isn't it?”

“I'm leaving the country.”

“Now that's just overreacting.” The corner of Grace's lips stretched upwards.

There it is again, that tiny smile.

“You're smiling.”

“Am I?”

“You are.”

“I think it's because you thought that girl was my girlfriend.”

“Please stop talking.”

“No can do, I love talking to you.”

You could feel the heat creeping up to your face, how dare he say something like that? Making your heart all crazy right after experiencing quite a bit of an emotional roller coaster ride.

“Can I kiss you?”

You stilled, did you hear that right? You've been wearing your earbuds non stop, maybe it's now causing problems.

“Repeat that for me.”

“I want to kiss you.”

“You want to kiss me?”

“Yes.”

“As in…?”

“Romantically.” he says with a slight mischief in his voice.

“You're making fun of me.”

“A little.”

“You're unbelievable.”

“Is that a no?”

Despite his teasing, there wasn't a single trace of impatience in his voice, he hadn't moved closer. He was waiting.

Waiting for you.

The realization warmed your chest, a sharp contrast to the anxiousness you've been feeling earlier, and the days before.

“It's a yes.”

Grace held your gaze for a moment, making sure you really meant it.

“Okay.”

Ever so slowly, his hand cupped your face, running his thumb against your soft skin. He savored it before inching in closer. Unhurried, giving you every opportunity to pull away in case you changed your mind.

Like you'd ever think about doing that, instead, you found yourself closing in the remaining distance.

His soft lips met yours, so gentle that you wondered once again if maybe all of this was a dream.

The warmth of Grace's hands on your face said otherwise. This is definitely real.

Eventually, Grace pulled away to give you a moment to breathe. He didn't go far.

You can still feel his breath grazing your skin, he leaned in closer and pressed his forehead against yours.

“...Hi.” You whispered, breathless.

“...Hello.”

“We just kissed.”

“We did.”

“I don't know what to do now...”

Grace thought about it for a moment. “Didn't you have that paper you needed to pass?”

You stared at him for a moment before laughing, hard enough that your forehead had slipped away from his.

“You kiss me and your first thought was to remind me of academics?”

“No.” Grace looked at you with an expression you haven't seen before. “My first thought was that I'd very much like to hold your hand.”

Before you could respond, his fingers found yours. They fit together naturally.

“Is it too early to say I love you?”

It was his turn to laugh. “No, because I've known since the first time I saw you.”

You used to think this comfortable spot of yours was a quiet corner to escape the noise of campus, looking back maybe it had been more than that.

Out of everyone who could've stumbled upon it, it was Grace who did— a student who wasn't even from this building. By all logic, the two of you were never supposed to cross paths.

Maybe, just this once, coincidence wasn't the right word.

astrxpup

Jun 29

lagout-loud

How About A Beach Episode?

Synopsis: Ryland makes a beach day out of teaching the Pebbles about Buoyancy and how Ammonia is less dense than water or air--- but they, like Rocky and Adrian, can't let him do anything around you without making his heart-rate and flushed cheeks terribly obvious.

WC: 3.4k

AN: Teacher Grace... mmgnnn... Teacher Grace... save me Teacher Grace... AHem. Author getting freaky in the AN... sorry!!! I got possessed. Totally yeap. Anyway! The beautiful artist that inspired this post: @nocek

Gender Neutral Reader.

"Okay!" He claps his hands together, humming lowly as he glances over the gaggle of tiny Eridians grouped together before him, each in their own little spheres. "I think we're all here— now, who wants to go learn about water?"

A chorus of tunes emit from the group, and he can't help the smile that pulls onto the edges of his lips; Sue him, he missed this. The teaching, kids, being able to be a stepping stone in a younger ones life, to help them learn about their world. It was awesome.

Erid was awesome.

Clearing his throat, he steps over a little Eridian as he makes his way away from the house, over to the water— the kids sing happy tunes as they follow him, the sounds of their spheres digging into the gravel a welcome company in lack of your own.

You weren't dead or anything. Gosh, no. You were just inside, and, well, he favored being a little dramatic.

Only a little.

He takes another step, and at the feeling of something brushing his ankle, he pauses; on instinct, he glances southward to make sure he wasn't going to step on anyone (and to make sure they weren't getting too close whilst he was walking)— they'd nearly tripped him twice before, so he'd tailed a class with how it was dangerous for both them and him if they ended up doing so and getting hurt.

Of course, they listened, but some had a hard time.

Ronald — a tiny, adorable pink Eridian — pushes his xenonite sphere against him again, jumping in his bubble in a way he knows that alerts he'd missed something. Ryland shifts on his feet, pushing his glasses back up from where they'd slid down his nose from his heads angle.

He frowns. "What's up, buddy?"

"Where Grace friend, question?" Ronald pushes himself into his sphere, making a faint clinking sound as he does so to make sure Grace understood he was curious (and slightly miffed at your absence).

"They're inside getting changed— they'll be here soon, I promise. They won't go back on their word."

A cacophony of angry, annoyed tunes ring out from the bunch at what he's said, successfully muting the noise of more of them bumping themselves into their spheres unhappily. He winces, his mouth parting slightly before he steels his expression, clearing his throat again.

…Okay, then.

"Alright, um— how about we wait for them instead? How's that?"

The tunes that come out are happier this time.

"Why friend take so long, question?" Tola muses, pushing herself out of the gaggle to run over the top of his shoe, only to slip down between his feet. She stays there. "Take too long, statement."

He flits his gaze downward, watching Tola shift around in her ball— the rest are doing similar movements; some swaying, some bumping their xenonite into anothers (just to hear the noise of contact, he's found), some just sitting or rolling around atop of the gravel.

"Oh, well… They wanted to eat before they came out, so they wouldn't be peckish at you guys. It won't take much longer, I'm sure."

"Peckish, question?" Barrole asks.

"Hangry, correction." Carl answers.

They're not wrong, he thinks, tilting his head idly and looking back over to the door of the house. They do end up hangry. Your face would scrunch and your eyes would narrow every time something didn't go your way when you were hungry— your voice would get strained, too, but you'd always try your best to not get too snappy at him.

That was always nice.

You were nice.

At a nudge to his ankle, he's pulled from his distraction.

"Hm?"

"Grace friend slow, Grace go check. Fast." Ronald pushes his sphere into his leg this time, slightly harder than before.

"Um…" Ryland clicks his tongue against his teeth, huffing slowly at the ache in his back as he lowers himself to sit down, being careful to check to make sure no-one's behind him first. "No, it'll be fine. It's rude to interrupt someone while they're changing— disrespectful, really."

"Rude why, question? Hurry along not rude, statement."

"Because—"

He's cut off mid-way as a bunch of pebbles perk up, making happy noises. About a hundred Grace friend here!'s are said, so he understands the reason quite quickly— their affections for you were, truthfully, very cute. They loved you as much as they loved him.

It was great; what only makes it cuter is the fact you were nervous that they wouldn't like you the first time you'd met all of them. He had to push you to come along to one of his classes, even just to get you acclimated first.

He still remembers the flush to your cheeks — and your breathless, relieved laugh — when they'd made it known they adored you.

As a handful rush over to you and bump into you for attention and to talk, Ronald pushes against his shoe again. "Grace heart-rate get faster while watching Friend, statement."

Laughing awkwardly, he swallows, looking away from where he'd zoned out watching you to tune in more to Ronald. "Oh— uh, it's nothing to worry about, buddy. It's very normal. Nothing worrying."

"Grace voice unsure, statement. Unsure unsure unsure."

"It's nothing to worry about," He echoes, shyly running his hand through his hair to fix it… even though he's done nothing to ruin it. He does it anyway, even if it's an obvious self-soothing tick. "And I'm very sure about that part."

"Grace lie, statement. Ronald know, statement."

He huffs, slightly offended, slightly flustered— it's a horrible concoction, making a low heat of embarrassment warm the tips of his ears and the fat of his cheeks.

"I'm not lying," Ryland grumbles, pushing his glasses back up as you settle the group of excitable pebbles and finally start coming over. Attempting to calm himself down some, he exhales slowly, his tongue poking out to wet his bottom lip.

He'd rather you not see the flush to his face he's sure is still clinging like a bad cold.

"Friend get new shirt, question?" Tola asks, the gravel beneath her ball shifting with the quick movements she's taking to keep up right beside you; his gaze jumps up naturally at the question, his eyebrows raising faintly at the sight of you wearing a shirt he'd "made," you.

Really, all he'd done was take the older, more worn clothes aboard the Mary, and patch-work them into stuff the two of you could wear again. The one you were wearing now was a mis-match of a few things.

You look great in it.

Gosh, he wonders, inhaling slowly, how do you make everything look so good?

"No," You respond, and he watches as you carefully avoid bumping into Tola, then his attention flits back up to your face to watch your expression. You look focused. "Your Teacher Grace made it awhile ago… I just never come out in it. I mostly use it for sleeping. It's cool, though, right?"

"Very cool," Pablo muses, fumbling to keep pace with you, "Awesome. Feel nice, question?"

"Yeah, very nice. Thanks for asking."

"Yes, yes, yes. Pablo happy at Friend thanks."

Your laugh sounds nice, but your voice, softened by amusement, sounds worlds better.

"No problem, Pablo."

Ryland shakes his head to pull himself from the distraction you are (It's entirely his fault, not yours, but he'll blame you anyway) as his fingers dig into the gravel as he pushes himself to stand up, and he gasps at the feeling of your hand curling around his bicep to help him up— the touch startles him, and you notice it, too, because you pull your hand away almost immediately as he straightens out.

"Sorry," He mumbles, his nose scrunching in both embarrassment and guilt; he can see regret staining your expression. It only makes it worse. "I, uh, don't know why that startled me, that's all me. Sorry."

"Grace heart beat faster!" Carl announces proudly (and rather unhelpfully), jumping up in his ball a second after.

His face flames.

Your mouth opens like you're going to say something, but Tola pipes up first, circling your feet excitedly— he looks from her to Ronald as he runs over his shoe, to you, back to Tola, then to the others. They're sticking together, pulled into a tight bunch and saying stuff in a frequency he can't hear. He knows they're talking, because they keep giggling and swaying.

"Grace friend's fast too," Tola chimes, pushing her sphere into your ankle as she sings. "Grace friend star-tled too, question?"

"Yeah," You finally mutter, staring down at her. It feels like it's on purpose. "It's okay."

Clearing his throat loudly, he exhales, fiddling with the sleeve of his shirt; it's a little too tight around his biceps, and it's slightly annoying when he's so hyper-aware of everything about himself… Like he is at the moment, face flushed and body hot.

"Okay! Changing topics now, who wants to go swim?"

They're all paying attention now.

"Well— actually," He continues, turning on his heel to walk and talk, "Swim is a rather broad term for this, as you all won't be able to actually go under-water. Since Ammonia gas is significantly less dense than air or water, it'll give your spheres a strong buoyancy. Like a balloon!"

"Do they even know what a balloon is?" You question, trailing a little behind him.

"Yes," He affirms, looking back to make sure they're all keeping up— at the sight of them doing just that, he re-focuses on where he's walking so he doesn't trip. "I made myself a similar-enough prototype, and I showed them that during class yesterday. Cool, right?"

"So that was your reason for wanting to finish the tequila the other night? Jeez, and here I was, thinkin' you just wanted to drink with me. I'm hurt."

Your tone is teasing, almost soft.

Heat crawls up the back of his neck as he abruptly stops, stilling just before the water-line. The noise of the waves against the shore and the pebbles stopping beside him keep it from true silence, and he's heavily grateful for it.

"I needed the bag," He defends weakly, scratching at the back of his neck as he turns to face you. "And I wanted to drink with you— it was a win-win!"

You snicker. "I was kidding, Ryland. Relax. I had fun; I don't care what your reasoning was."

I had fun. He's not sure what about that makes his brain halt in it's tracks. It feels good to hear.

"Well… I would hope so," He grumbles, "And I am relaxed. Completely. 100 percent… not tense at all. Like a cat."

"…Right."

He huffs, swallowing. The warmth in his face is still terribly there, and his arm buzzes with the remnants of your earlier touch.

"Can we get in the water yet Teacher Grace, question?"

Looking away from you, he runs his gaze over the excited cluster, searching to see who'd asked the question. As soon as he does, his tongue clicks against the backs of his teeth. "In just a second, Mallory. Let one of us get in first so we can help you all in after."

A choir of questions follow his response, but he can't hear almost any of them.

"Pebbles— we've talked about this. One at a time, please, or else I won't be able to hear all of you."

"Will it be difficult, question?"

"Swimming? Not at all."

In the corner of his eye, he catches you getting out of your shoes— then anything else you don't want getting wet. He follows, continuing to answer questions as he toes his shoes off.

"It will be fun, question?"

"Once you get the hang of it, yes. I'll make sure of it."

"Why Grace behave odd around Grace Friend, question?"

"Okay, uh, pass. Next question?"

"Grace Friend and Teacher Grace mated, question?"

"Wha—! No! That's not even related to the lesson— pebbles, please, for the love of science, stay on-topic. We can ask personal questions later."

"Why not, question?"

You're awfully silent. You're doing it on purpose, too, because you've got no problems answering their questions on other days. You're ditching him on this one, and it's a blatant choice.

Of course you leave me to answer the awkward stuff.

"On topic, Carl. The topic. Let's not forget it! How water reacts to different things is amazing stuff!" He reminds, pulling his socks off and shoving them to rest inside of his shoe, so he doesn't lose them… again. The rocks hurt the bottoms of his feet, but he carries onward anyway.

"Anyone else have anything to say that's related to the topic?"

"What 'topic' mean, question?" Barrole asks, rolling up to the edge of the water.

"Oh, it's just the main point of conversation. For example," He steps into the water, continuing, "science is often the main topic of our classes. Yesterday's topic was radiation poisoning."

"Barrole understand. Thank, Teacher Grace."

"You're welcome, Barrole."

The water is room-temperature— Rocky had made sure it wasn't too hot or too cold multiple times, and he was thankful for it. He was always very susceptible to even the slightest changes in temperature; when his ex-girlfriend was still living with him on earth, they had multiple arguments over her making it too hot or too cold.

"Tola want up, Statement. Up up up."

"Give me a second," You mutter, and he glances over his shoulder to get a split-second of view of you taking off your watch, before he stumbles and has to re-focus. "I'll pick you up in a minute. Think you can wait that long?"

"No, statement."

"That was a rhetorical question, Tola."

He grins. It was always amusing to listen — or watch — to you talk with the little pebbles; some of them could be a very needy (or very curious) bunch, and he wouldn't say it, but it was funny to have you fumbling to answer or pay attention to them all.

You always did well, though.

You'd make a great parent.

…What?

What the heck do you have him thinking?

"Can we get in, question?"

Now that yanks him back to attention.

"Hm—? Oh, yes. Just… do it slowly, okay? It'll be hard to keep balance at first, but you'll get it."

He stops once he's in about the mid-thigh length, nudging his glasses back up the slope of his nose as he watches the pebbles all rush into the water; they do so as expected, so he's prepared enough. His gaze flits over all of the ones floating atop the surface, making sure none of them are getting too stressed or are slipping too much.

The sound of Tola singing happily is louder than the rest of them— and, of course, when he looks over to see what she's doing, she's completely slumped against the side of her sphere that's pressed to your chest as you wade into the water.

Cute.

"How's everyone doing?" He implores, reaching out to steady Mallory when she slips.

The answers he receives are all happy, mellifluous tones.

"Buoyancy so fun!" Carl chirps, his ball bumping into Ryland's hip as he jumps upward in it. "Fun fun fun!"

"Okay, okay," He laughs, gently pushing him backward so he doesn't float off too deep, "Be careful, Carl."

"Water shaky," Barrole announces, "Difficult to stand on, statement."

"That's because you're not standing, you're floating. Buoyancy, remember? Ammonia is less dense than water, so you float on its surface. Very cool stuff!"

Slowly, he steps backwards, going in a little deeper whilst keeping an eye on everyone. They're all doing great— Carl is still bouncing, Mallory is getting the hang of it, Barrole is sticking close but getting it too, and Tola is… still singing happily against your chest.

"Other things are buoyant, question?" Mallory asks, her sphere rolling slightly as she steadies herself.

"Yes," He affirms, feeling his stomach twitch as the warm water envelopes his lower tummy. "Quite a few things, really."

The artificial sun is warm on the back of his neck, and, faintly, he wonders about sunscreen. He burns easily— but he doubts there's enough artificial UV Rays to give either one of you sun poisoning, so he worries less about it.

He bumps into you when he takes one too many steps backward, and warmth blooms from the contact almost instantaneously. You don't care, because all you do is steady him and offer a lazy, careless grunt of acknowledgement… apparently too busy with Tola.

"Examples, question?" Carl pipes up, his ball clinking into Barrole's as he stops.

"Uh, Oxygen and water is one," Ryland offers, trying to recall others. "And Helium and oxygen. There's a lot."

"Grace breathe oxygen. Grace buoyant in water, question?"

"I am, yes."

"Example, example, example!"

"Example?" He gasps, dramatizing the question, just for fun. "I'll see what I can do about that. I'll need a willing, human puppet—" He glances over to you, a grin pulling onto his mouth as he watches you process what he's implying. "For this example. Anyone willing?"

Once your eyes meet, your eye-contact says a lot you don't. A silent conversation ensues.

Really? You raise a brow, head tilting.

Come on, it's for the kids!

Right… not for your enjoyment at all, got it.

Only a little, I'll confess. Come on!

You groan.

"Okay; willing puppet secured, let's do this."

Slowly, you pull Tola from your chest— she sings unhappily, saying something in a frequency neither of you can hear. It must be bad, too, because the other pebbles laugh.

"I'll pick you back up in a minute," You huff, gently settling her in the water next to the other awaiting, mostly-still kids. "I promise."

He snickers. "Willing Puppet, I want you to submerge yourself under-water for a second. Understood?"

"You can quit with the name-calling any day now, Grace." You grumble, inhaling slowly as you sink downward, then go under, blowing air out of your nose.

"That's no fun— anyway, do you guys see this? He doesn't have a lot of Oxygen in his lungs, so he's not as buoyant. He's still buoyant, just not as much as he would be, were there more Oxygen in him."

"Grace say Grace float, statement. Grace friend no float, statement." Carl says.

He looks back to you as you come up, only to glance back over to the pebbles. "We're not done yet, Carl. I'll show you the rest in a second. Patience!"

He looks back over to you, watching you surface and push your hair out of your face, then wipe the water out of your eyes— your shirt clings obscenely to you, but he tries not to focus on that.

"Grace heart beat faster again, statement."

Nevermind.

"Okay, Ronald, you don't need to point it out every time— pay attention to the lesson!"

"I think I got water in my nose," You announce, pointedly ignoring what Ronald said as you run your hand down your face, "I haven't done that in a long time."

"Rusty?" He muses, exhaling slowly. Your arms look awfully good; you in general look way too good. It could be a crime. "Me too."

[Name], sentenced to life without parole for being Too Hot, statement!

…He's going off topic.

"Ready?" He implores, idly steadying Tola and Barrole when they bump into him to get closer.

You nod.

This time, when you go under, you keep the air in your chest— and, of course, you end up floating at the surface, slightly dipping every time you exhale.

"See?" He points out, stepping a little closer to you. Gesturing to your chest, he glances between you and the pebbles, "Since their lungs are full of air, they're more buoyant; example complete. Oxygen is more buoyant than water."

He lazily pokes you in your side to alert you that your Willing Puppet℠ days are now over, but instead of you seamlessly coming up, your hand curls around his wrist— he yelps as you drag him under-water, instinctively reaching for you as he comes up gasping and soaking wet.

"What the heck?!" He breathes, pushing his hair off of his forehead, then pulling his glasses from his face.

"I'm ticklish," You laugh, wiping the water from your face. It's an awful excuse.

But the sound is pleasant; both gentle and slightly raspy at the same time, making an unwilling fondness bubbles in his chest at it. And… Well, he ends up laughing too before he can stop himself.

The pebbles are giggling too, soft, higher-pitched sounds as they wiggle in their spheres to come over to the two of you.

He smiles, squinting lightly now that his glasses are too wet to see through.

Elbowing you in your side, he tries to steady his voice, hoping to avoid letting the amusement show too obviously. "O… kay. I think that about wraps up this lesson. Back to shore, everyone!"

#mmmlph teacher grace….

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