CURRENT STATUS
Mission: Active
Crew: Ryland Grace | Rocky | Y/N
Archive Status: Updating..
> FLUFF
✧ SAVING GRACE
rated g • 2.7k words
EVA repair goes wrong. Grace volunteers to prove he can fix the ship, mostly because he has a tiny, microscopic crush on the engineer.
✧ AMONG THE STARS
rated g • 900 words
A quiet night. A binary star system. Grace accidentally ruins the romance with astrophysics.
> ANGST
✧ ✧ A PLACE WE CAN'T GO BACK TO
rated g • 1k words
Rocky discovers the Hail Mary's entertainment archive. What begins with cat videos ends with homesickness.
rated g | 1k words | Project Hail Mary | Ryland Grace x Reader
Just a few months away from arriving at Erid, Rocky discovers an archive containing more media from Earth.
While Grace happily loses himself in research papers, documentaries, and increasingly questionable internet videos, Y/N finds herself overwhelmed by memories of the life she left behind.
For the first time in years, Earth doesn't feel millions of kilometers away.
✧ MASTERLIST
TAGS: project hail mary, ryland grace, sci-fi fanfic, angst, flirting, ryland grace x femme y/n, ryland grace x y/n, fluff
NOTE: Sorry I disappeared for a bit! College has been keeping me busy lately, but I'm finally back and writing silly little project hail mary fics again. Thank you for all the love on my previous stories—it genuinely means a lot. 💖 Now, back to our regularly scheduled Ryland Grace brainrot. Enjoy!
Whenever Rocky started a sentence with that tone, it usually meant one of three things: one, Rocky had made a scientific discovery. Two, Rocky had accidentally broken something. Three, Rocky had found something deeply concerning about human behavior.
“What’s up?” Grace asked, not looking away from his laptop.
“Why does Hail Mary contain seventy-eight thousand videos of creature with hair?”
Grace froze. Slowly, he turned around in his chair.
“…What?”
Across the lab, Rocky sat in front of a monitor displaying what looked like an old Earth media archive. Rows upon rows of files filled the screen.
Movies.
Songs.
Television shows.
Images.
Videos.
And apparently… cats.
“Rocky, where did you find that?”
“Archive directory,” Rocky clicked his claws against the keyboard. “Rocky searched for educational materials. Rocky found creature with hair.”
Y/N glanced up from the maintenance panel she was working on. “You found the entertainment archive?” she asked.
Grace immediately abandoned his work. “Oh my God.”
He stared at the laptop he had originally given Rocky for basic system monitoring, now apparently repurposed into a gateway to human history.
Scrolling.
There were so many files.
Far more than he remembered authorizing for personal storage.
“Rocky,” he said slowly, “why are there… this many categories?”
“Organization attempt,” Rocky replied proudly. “Rocky sorted by ‘funny’, ‘confusing’, and ‘emotionally distressing’.”
“I don’t know how,” she admitted—and that might have been the most honest thing she had said all week.
Grace looked back at the screen.
Rain. That was it.
Just rain.
And yet his chest felt oddly tight.
“…Huh,” he murmured.
And for once, he didn’t try to fix it. They spent the next few hours going through files.
At first, it was funny.
Rocky discovered memes.
Grace nearly had a breakdown trying to explain vines.
Y/N laughed at a cooking video from decades ago, shaking her head like she couldn’t believe people used to function like that.
For a while, it was just chaos.
Light.
Normal in a way nothing on the Hail Mary had been for years.
Then Rocky opened a folder labeled “everyday life.”
And the tone shifted.
A street corner. A bus arriving. A family arguing in a kitchen. Someone tying their shoes. A dog barking at nothing.
Grace stopped talking.
Y/N leaned closer to the screen.
Rocky went unusually quiet.
It wasn’t impressive; that was the problem. It was too normal.
Like Earth hadn’t been a mission objective or a problem to solve or a place they were trying to save—
Just a place where things happened.
“I forgot what silence like that sounded like,” she said quietly.
Grace didn’t respond immediately because he had too many thoughts and none of them had a proper scientific structure.
Finally, he said, “It’s just ambient noise.”
Y/N glanced at him. “Yeah,” she said. “That’s what I mean.”
“I miss it.” she added, softer.
She didn’t specify what “it” was. She didn’t need to.
“…Yeah,” Grace said.
A beat.
“I get that.”
And something about that felt heavier than anything they had fixed on the ship so far.
Hours passed.
The archive kept going.
But Y/N got quieter. Less laughing, less commenting, more just… watching.
Grace noticed. He noticed everything now, apparently.
Rocky kept browsing like nothing had changed, occasionally making comments that were either insightful or deeply unhelpful.
But Grace was watching her more than the screen.
The way her shoulders slowly tensed. The way she blinked a little slower. The way she stayed on one file longer than necessary. Eventually, she stopped clicking entirely. She just sat there.
Watching a looping clip of a crowded street.
And Grace realized something uncomfortable. She wasn’t just nostalgic—she was homesick.
He cleared his throat.
“You want to stop?” he asked gently.
Y/N didn’t answer right away. Then, quietly: “No.”
But she didn’t sound sure.
Later, when Rocky had moved on to another folder and Grace pretended to be distracted by system diagnostics, Y/N stayed behind at the screen.
Just her.
Just Earth.
Grace didn’t move at first, then walked over slowly. Sat down beside her without saying anything.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
Then Y/N said, barely above a whisper: “Do you think we’ll remember it right?”
“Earth?”
She nodded.
“Probably not,” he admitted.
Then, quieter: “But we’ll remember it together.”
Y/N exhaled—not a laugh, not quite a sigh, but something in between. And for a long time after that, they just watched the archive. Not because it was interesting anymore, but because it felt like proof that something like that had existed at all.
The stars outside kept moving. The ship kept flying. And for the first time in a long time, Earth didn’t feel like something behind them.
rated g | 900 words | project hail mary | Ryland Grace x Reader
It was a late “night” on the spaceship when they passed through a binary star system. Y/N thinks it’s beautiful. Grace, on the other hand, gets excited and proceeds to scientifically explain everything in great detail.
note: HIII!! I would like to thank everyone who liked my first-ever fanfic posted here. It only motivated me to post more fanfics hehe. So here's another fluff oneshot. Enjoy!! <3
Best listened with:
The ship was quiet, with the lights dim and Rocky sleeping. Despite being awake for twenty-four hours already, Y/N can't seem to fall asleep.
There were 'days' like this on the ship—when space felt more like home than Earth ever did. Not that Earth had really felt like home for either of them to begin with.
Y/N gets up from her mattress and sees Rocky and Grace, asleep, next to each other.
Grace had promised Rocky that he would watch him sleep, but twenty-four hours of nonstop testing in the lab had clearly knocked the scientist out.
She chuckles softly and heads out of the dormitory to the washroom. Just as she was about to step inside, she catches sight of something outside the cupola window in the lab.
Something beautiful.
She changes direction immediately, drifting instead toward the glass. Y/N sits down on the floor and just stares.
"A star system.." Y/N whispered to herself, resting her head lightly against the window.
She thinks about the time she, Grace, and Rocky have spent together on the ship—three years of waking life, though it sometimes feels like much longer in all the ways that actually matter.
Lab experiments, EVA missions, games, teasing, stories told by Rocky, and slowly learning each other’s worlds had become her entire reality without her even noticing.
Grace and Y/N had chosen to save Rocky instead of going back to Earth two years ago. At the time, it felt like something they both would regret in the future.
Now, neither of them could imagine choosing differently.
The distance to Erid wasn’t measured in light-years anymore. Just time. A few months. Maybe less.
After everything, the stars didn’t feel far anymore.
Just… quiet.
-
Grace wasn’t supposed to be awake. That was the first problem.
The second problem was that he had already left his dormitory, walked through two corridors, and ended up in the lab without any clear reason other than the fact that his brain had decided sleep was a suggestion and not a requirement.
The lab lights were dimmed.
Quiet.
Grace pauses when he notices her.
Y/N.
Sitting under the cupola window.
Not working. Not fixing. Not talking.
Just… there.
He doesn’t say anything at first. He should—He knows he should. Instead, he leans slightly against the doorway of the lab and just watches her.
There's a star system outside the window.
Distant. Calm. Indifferent in the way only space can be.
Grace realizes, vaguely, that he has stopped thinking about whatever excuse brought him here. That is mildly concerning. Even more concerning is the fact that he doesn’t really want to fix it.
He shifts slightly, making the floor creak under his Converse.
Y/N turns her head a little, just enough to acknowledge him.
"You're staring." She says.
"I am observing." Grace corrects automatically.
"That's the same thing."
"No, it isn't."
She hums softly, like she's not interested in arguing tonight. And that was unusual for Grace. Most of the time, she argues back. That should make him relieved—instead, it makes him feel... uncertain.
Grace steps into the lab properly now, slowly. He looks up at the cupola window, sitting down a short distance away from her without fully deciding to.
The stars are doing what stars always do.
Nothing.
Everything.
"...Couldn't sleep?" He asks.
Y/N doesn't look away from the glass. "Couldn't stop thinking."
“That is statistically inefficient,” he says.
A faint pause. Then she lets out a soft breath that might be a laugh if you squint at it.
“Yeah,” she replies. “I’ve noticed.”
Silence settles between them again.
Grace finds himself looking at her instead of the stars.
Her eyes.
The soft glow of the star system reflected on her skin.
'God you look so beautiful right now.' Grace thinks to himself, making the corner of his mouth curve up a little.
He shouldn’t be thinking that.
But he is.
Outside the cupola, the star system drifts slowly across the glass. Beautiful in a way that makes him feel slightly irrelevant.
"It looks like it's breathing." She says quietly.
Grace follows her gaze. "It is not." He replies.
"I know."
Another pause. Then, softer:
"But it feels like it is."
Grace opens his mouth to correct her again, but stops. Closes it—he doesn't have a better answer.
He leans back slightly, resting his hands on the floor behind him.
The lab feels too big suddenly, or maybe he just feels too small.
Y/N is still watching the stars.
Still calm.
Still completely unaware of what she was doing to the internal stability of Ryland Grace's entire thought process.
He should leave—that would be the logical choice. He does not move. Instead, he says the first thing his brain offers him.
"It's a binary system."
Y/N sighs immediately. "I knew you were going to ruin it."
"I am not ruining it."
"That's different."
"It really isn't."
Grace looks back at the window, and the stars continue their slow orbit. Beautiful. Predictable. Completely indifferent to the fact that two humans are sitting here pretending they are not affected by them.
"...It does look like dancing." He admits, quieter now.
Y/N turns her head slightly towards him. "Yeah." This time, she doesn't argue.
And Grace realizes, with an almost inconvenient clarity—he didn’t come here to observe the stars.
He came because she was already looking at them alone.
Eng. Y/N fixes things. That’s just how the ship works. The molecular biologist, Dr. Ryland Grace, however, has decided today is the day he becomes an engineer.
NOTE: HIII! Leery here. This will be the first of the many fan fics I will be posting here. I just made this tumblr to share my fics with fellow PHM enthusiasts HAHAHAH. And it has also been taking over my life. I hope u all like it T-T.
It was another 'day' at the spaceship, doing tests, friendly banter with Rocky, and listening to Grace's internal monologues being broadcast to you and Rocky.
clank... clank... clank...
"What was that?" Grace asks. All of you were looking in the direction of the metallic sound.
"Sound bad." Rocky’s translator echoes through the ship. “Maybe outer shield.” Heavy footsteps follow as Rocky moves closer to the lab.
Y/N drags herself toward the doorway, clearly pulled away from something she was focused on moments ago. She looks half-awake, like the ship itself interrupted her brain mid-thought.
"It's a loose panel on the hull of the ship." She groans, Grace and Rocky, looking at her standing sluggishly at the doorway.
"We need to fix it immediately, or else other systems below it will be affected." Y/N rubs her eyes. "I'll fix it. Give me a few minutes to get into the EVA suit."
The thing about Grace is that he hasn’t fully processed it yet— but there is a pattern forming in his thoughts whenever she speaks.
Whenever she moves.
Whenever she fixes something too fast.
Something he absolutely refuses to name.
"Rocky, you go on comms. Grace you g—"
"I'll go." Grace interrupts immediately.
Y/N snaps her head towards him, confused.
“It’s just screwing something back onto the hull, right? I can handle that.” He shrugs. Rocky's carapace tilts, as if matching Y/N's confused energy.
“But Grace scientist,” he says through the translator. “Grace do tests in lab. Y/N engineer. Can quickly fix ship."
That comparison makes something in Grace shift immediately.
Not anger. Not offense.
Worse. Motivation.
“…Right,” Grace says, a little too fast. He clears his throat, already moving toward the EVA prep.
“I can do it,” he adds, like he’s convincing himself more than anyone else.
"You sure?" Y/N and Rocky following behind Grace. "Mayb... Yeah!" He says a little to quickly.
“Plus, you look tired,” he adds, then hesitates. “…and you were clearly interrupted from your robot thing.”
He lowers his voice slightly as they walk.
“Cute robot thing.”
"...Fuck you mean cute?" she says immediately. "And how'd you even know I was working on a robot?"
Grace freezes for half a second too long. 'That wasn't supposed to be audible' He curses himself internally.
“I said interesting,” he corrects way too fast. “You were hearing things. Also, language.”
Rocky’s translator clicks softly, like he’s observing a malfunctioning system. “Grace behavior: suspicious,” Rocky notes.
His pathetic excuse just flies by Y/N's ears. Because now—he’s thinking about it.
The last few days.
Y/N in the lab. Focused. Quiet. Always working on that robot thing.
He remembers standing a little too long in the doorway once. Just watching. Telling himself it was “quality assurance awareness” or something equally stupid.
He even remembers the moment one of its parts ejected unexpectedly, making Y/N jump. And with that, he accidentally drops a sample of Taumoeba on the floor, distracted by Y/N's reaction.
Now, walking ahead of her, that memory hits him again at the worst possible time.
Grace clears his throat, speeds up slightly.
Behind him, he is very aware of his own heartbeat. Which is inconvenient, because he would prefer not to be.
"Grace heartbeat fast. Is Grace sick? Question." Rocky asks.
"Don't worry, Rocky." Y/N says, leaning against the doorway of the EVA room with her arms crossed. "Maybe he's just nervous fixing the hull."
"No, I am not!" The slightly sweaty scientist answers a bit too quickly. "It's just a simple repair, I can do it."
He nods once, like that should settle it.
It does not.
Behind him, the EVA suit rack suddenly feels a lot more judgmental than it did five minutes ago.
Y/N lets out a small chuckle as Grace starts gearing up.
'God that laugh.' Grace thought to himself.
He shakes himself back to reality and actually starts getting into the EVA suit. Y/N and Rocky silently watching and judging him from the entrance.
"What are you both looking at?"
"Nothing. We'll handle communications now. G'luck." Y/N walks off towards the cockpit, Rocky following. "You've got the left and right boots mixed, by the way." she adds casually down the hallway.
Then she’s gone.
Grace pauses. Looks down, then fixes it.
Finally, for the first time in what feels like too long, he’s alone.
He exhales slowly, tension leaving his body in one long breath he didn’t realize he was holding. And unfortunately, his brain immediately fills the silence with the sound of Y/N’s laugh again.
He puts his face into his hands, calming himself down before he says something stupid again.
“Focus,” he mutters to himself.
The problem is, his brain is not cooperating because Y/N is… present in a way she really shouldn’t be right now. In his thoughts. In his timing. In literally everything that is supposed to be about fixing a hull panel.
She just has that perfect humor, energy, and intellect that Grace can't get enough of.
"The hell are you doing?" Y/N's voice echoes throughout the intercoms.
Grace jumps at the sudden voice in his ear and looks up at the CCTV positioned at the top-left corner of the room. "Nothing! Just finishing up."
"Quickly, man. Or do you want more problems with the ship?"
"Rocky want to go home. Rocky don't want ship go boom because Grace stupid." Rocky adds though the intercoms.
“Not helping,” Grace clicks his helmet into place. "Ready."
For a second, there’s quiet.
But not really. Because his brain is still replaying everything from earlier.
Y/N at the doorway.
Y/N laughing.
Y/N fixing things like she already knows the outcome.
The way she looks when something actually works.
The way she ties her (color) hair up when she's working on something.
'Woah' Grace talks to himself internally. 'Stop it, Ryland. Just fix the hull, then panic later.'
Then when he thought he was calm enough to get out of the ship, the intercom was filled with Y/N's laugh. "What are you gonna use to fix the hull with?"
'GOD THAT LAUGH'
"O-oh.." he says, grabbing the first toolbox within reach like it personally offended him.
"That's for internal ship repairs, silly." Y/N chuckles
'silly'
That nickname sent the scientist into a frenzy. All he wanted to do was sit on the floor and squeal like a teenage girl.
"It's the one on your left."
"A-alright.." Grace clears his throat and grabs the correct toolbox, carefully placing the other one back like it personally betrayed him.
"Opening the airlock now." Y/N announces.
The airlock begins to cycle, the heavy mechanism shifting open with a slow, mechanical hiss. Dark space reveals itself beyond the hull.
Grace takes a deep breath so sharp it almost hurts. "...You got this, Ryland." He whispers himself.
"I can hear you, you know." Y/N says immediately through the intercom, amused. Rocky lets out a short Eridian laugh in the background.
Grace freezes and forcibly shuts his eyes inside the helmet.
'Focus. Fix hull. Do not think about her laugh. Do not think about Y/N calling me silly.' He convinces himself.
'Especially do not think about the fact that it worked.'
Finally, he gets out of the hull, walking on top of it now. Looking around to find the damaged part of the ship.
"Have you found it?" Y/N asks. "Yeah." He stares at the damage.
"...It's on the side of the ship, though."
“Mm-hm,” Y/N hums. “Well. You were the one who volunteered to fix it, right?”
She stretches the last word just enough to be annoying.
Grace exhales through his nose.
Focus. Hull. Physics. Not voice.
He moves along the exterior, clipping himself securely to the ship before pushing off toward the damaged panel.
He opens the tools boxt and inside, there were too many screwdrivers. None labeled in a way that feels emotionally supportive.
“The one nearest to your hand,” Y/N says casually.
Grace grabs it immediately. “…Of course it is.”
He starts the repair. For a second, he thought that this wasn't that hard after all.
Back at the cockpit, Y/N was laughing out loud with Rocky. Yes, Grace was using the right screwdriver...
But he wasn't using it on the right screw.
"Alright, Rocky, time for me to go out there now." She wipes off a tear from laughing too hard.
"Okay. Rocky talk with Grace through intercom." Rocky chirps.
Y/N moves quickly toward the EVA room and starts suiting up.
“Good job, Ry,” she says casually through comms. She doesn’t see anything outside, but she hears—
clank.
A pause.
“Is friend Grace okay?” Rocky asks.
Grace is very much not okay.
'Ry.'
He hasn't heard that one in ages. The scientist immediately mutes himself on the intercom to let out a squeal. Supposedly, a release of the dopamine running through his veins.
"Ry?" Y/N calls off to confirm Grace's status. "You good out there?"
Grace takes a breath, forces his voice steady, and unmutes.
“Y-yeah,” he says quickly. “I just—dropped a screw. from the toolbox”
“…Everything’s fine.”
“Alright,” Y/N replies after a beat. “I’ll… go take a quick bathroom break.” Her tone is light. Almost normal, then she mutes comms.
Inside the cockpit, Rocky tilts slightly. “Why Y/N leave?” he asks.
“She didn’t,” Grace mutters to himself. “She said—”
He stops. A few seconds pass.
Something about that answer doesn’t fully sit right, but he doesn’t have time to unpack it yet.
“Rock?” Grace says into comms.
“Yes, Grace? Question.” Rocky replies.
And somewhere in the background channel—barely noticeable unless you were listening for it—
He sighs, not believing himself that he's asking rocky this. "Hypothetical. If a crewmate causes… persistent cognitive interference during critical operations, what is the recommended mitigation strategy?"
In the EVA room, Y/N pauses mid-motion. She’s still getting ready, but now she’s listening very closely.
Grace hesitates. "...Distraction."
And for the first time, there was silence all throughout the ship.
Rocky turns on the comms. "Grace behavior similar to mating behavior."
Grace and Y/N's eyes widen at Rocky's surprising answer. Leading to Grace dropping another screw into space.
"No—no, it is not—why would you say that—" He drops the screw in his hand. It drifts away slowly into space.
“Grace like Y/N.” Rocky cuts off the flustered scientist on the other side of the call.
This made Y/N stop tying her boots' laces. '"Is he being for real, right now?" She mutters under her breath.
Because Rocky doesn't joke. That's the problem.
"That is not— I don't— I mean—" Grace struggles to find the words to explain himself.
Y/N tries to shake off everything that is happening and goes out to space. She looks around and sees the usually— well, sometimes— composed scientist...
Floating near the hull.
Visibly malfunctioning.
Trying very hard to pretend his brain is not currently on fire.
The comms are still uncomfortably silent.
Grace is still trying to recover from the last thirty seconds of his life. Which is difficult considering he is currently floating outside a spacecraft, holding a screwdriver he is no longer emotionally qualified to use.
Then—
He hears footsteps.
He doesn’t turn immediately, but he freezes.
He already knows.
Of course he knows.
Footsteps.
Controlled. Confident. Annoyingly calm for someone entering open space.
"Grace." Her voice cuts through the comms system.
Just his name.
Nothing else.
And somehow that is worse.
He turns slowly.
Y/N is there now—fully suited, helmet reflecting the dull light of the ship, floating just slightly off alignment like she’s done this a hundred times more than she actually has.
She tilts her head a little and looks at him.
Then, very casually:
"So."
A pause.
"…Mating behavior, huh?"
Grace makes a sound that is not language. It is not even a coherent human reaction. Not even a coherent Eridian reaction.
It is something between a cough, a system error, and a man actively regretting every decision he has ever made.
"…That is not— I didn’t— I mean—Rocky said it—" He stops himself.
That was worse.
Y/N doesn’t move closer right away. She just drifts a little in space, stabilizing herself with one hand against the hull like this is a normal conversation and not whatever disaster this is for him.
"Oh." She says slowly. "So you’re blaming Rocky now."
"I am not— I am not blaming—" He gestures vaguely with the screwdriver.
Which is a mistake. The screwdriver drifts away again.
Grace watches it go in real time like he’s witnessing his own dignity leaving orbit.
Y/N lets out a small laugh through comms.
There it is again.
That laugh.
Grace immediately stops functioning for half a second.
"Okay," she says, finally moving in toward the damaged panel. "Let’s fix this before you accidentally confess something else to space."
"I am not going to confess anything to space."
"Sure," She replies, already inspecting the panel. "Space seems like it’s getting a lot of honesty from you today, though."
She starts working.
And she is fast.
Too fast.
Grace tries to recover by focusing on the repair.
He fails immediately.
"…You know." He starts, then stops.
Wrong time.
Wrong everything.
Y/N doesn’t look up. "No, I don’t know. Please continue your sentence, though. I’m curious which version of you comes out."
He physically freezes.
Then—
"Grace." Rocky’s voice cuts in through comms.
"Yes?" Grace says instantly, too relieved.
"Grace behavior: increasing instability."
"Thank you, Rocky."
"Not compliment.Statement."
"Noted."
Y/N laughs again, quieter this time, like she’s trying not to fully break.
And Grace, floating helplessly beside her, realizes something very important: The hull panel is not the problem anymore.
He is.
Grace tries very hard to be useful. This is, unfortunately, his first mistake. Y/N is already halfway through securing the panel when he reaches over to 'help.'
"Don’t—" She starts.
Too late.
He presses the wrong edge of the panel slightly off alignment. There is a pause.
A very meaningful pause.
"…Grace," she says slowly, "What did I just say about touching things?"
"I was aligning it."
"You were introducing new problems to it."
"That is not— I was helping."
"You were participating, yes."
That lands worse than he expected. Behind them, Rocky observes silently through comms.
"Grace efficiency decreasing." He reports.
"I’m aware," Grace mutters.
Y/N lets out a quiet laugh and adjusts the panel herself with practiced ease, tightening the correct sequence of bolts in a way that makes it look effortless.
Too effortless.
Grace watches.
That is his second mistake.
"You do this a lot." He says before he can stop himself.
Y/N doesn’t look at him, continuing the repair. "Fix things in space? Unfortunately, yes."
"No. I mean… EVA."
A pause.
Then she tilts her head slightly toward him.
"I don’t know." She says lightly. "Do you always stare this much at people who are just doing their job, Ry?"
That is his third mistake.
Grace goes still. He's cursing himself inside more than he ever was before.
"…That was not— I wasn’t— I’m observing the repair."
"Mm-hm," She replies, clearly not believing him.
She tightens the final clamp. The panel locks into place with a clean, satisfying click.
"Done." Y/N says.
Then, after a beat:
"You’re welcome, by the way."
Grace exhales. "I was also helping."
"You dropped a tool twice."
"That is irrelevant."
"It is slightly relevant."
"…Slightly."
She laughs again, and he immediately stops speaking for a moment longer than necessary.
They begin the return toward the airlock. Slow and controlled.
Space around them was quiet again, except for suit comms and distant ship hum.
"You know," Y/N says casually as they drift, "for someone who insisted on doing this alone, you didn’t actually do a lot of alone fixing."
"I did conceptual fixing."
"That’s not a thing."
"It is in my field."
"It really isn’t."
A beat.
Then, softer—almost teasing: "You were doing fine though."
Grace turns his head slightly toward her, slightly blushing. "That is not true."
"It is a little true."
That is worse.
Inside the airlock, gravity slowly returns. The hatch seals behind them, and air fills the chamber.
Silence shifts from space silence to awkward human silence.
Y/N pops her helmet off first, hair slightly messy, expression far too calm for what just happened.
Grace follows. And immediately regrets having a face again.
"Ry." She says, like it’s normal now.
He freezes slightly.
"…Yes."
"You’re worse in space."
"I am not— that is not—"
She smiles a little.
"I’m kidding."
Pause.
"…Mostly."
And Grace realizes, far too late, that fixing the hull was not actually the difficult part of this mission.
Rocky's voice crackles through the ship's intercom.
"Hull repaired." Rocky chirps. "Grace still malfunctioning."
From somewhere down the hallway, Y/N bursts out laughing.
Grace considers opening the airlock and trying again.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: GOD I LOVE THIS FIC SM. It made me giggle and swing my legs up like a teenage girl. I hope you all feel the same too hehehe. I added the GIF above bc it's what I imagine Grace chasing Rocky around bc he said the mating part HAHAHAHA
