why can i imagine like a spin the bottle situation that the team ( mainly Ilyukhina let's be real haha ) set up for you and Ryland to finally kiss. Like, it had been agonizing weeks watching the two of you go around in a circle and in obvious denial that you like each other during the lessons, so after convincing Yao and Dubois, they've rigged the game so you two have to kiss but it totally backfies lol
“Hmmm… My answer is still no.” Ryland said after faux pondering about the situation that was just present by the Russian. His blue eyes glanced down at the paperwork strewn about the table, now suddenly eager to get out of the meeting with the three that would be taking their place in the stars for the sake of Humanity. It was time to get back to his work space anyway, he needed to do some --- Stuff. He couldn’t think of anything valid at the moment, but there was definitely stuff to do!
Ilyukhina waved her hand at Ryland's dismissal of the game, having told her before his adamant ‘no’ that it was 'too childish' and 'something his students would play during study hall to get a rise out of him' while stalking after him as he booked it to the door. He glanced back at her, minor fear shedding across his expression at her vehemence. “No biggie, is just small kiss. Help… camaraderie in a team, ya? Very important!”
Ryland stared at her with a deadpan expression after turning on his heel to look the female in the face. She was moving with such momentum that she bumped right into him with a wide grin of determination. They were shoved aside in the small corridor by a group of Spin-Drive specialists on their way to a meeting, one Ryland wished he could use as an escape for being metaphorically cornered by a woman on a mission.
He took his glasses off with a sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose before his hands rested his hips like a disappointed father, and in some ways even worse, a disappointed teacher. "I'm still not playing. It's a kids game made to embarass---"
"(Name) is playing too!" Yao finally spoke up from behind Ilyukhina - Ryland glanced at him and sputtered - she even got the pilot in on the plot! Ryland felt a bit dwelled by that, not thinking that he would ever--- Ilyukhina nodded her head emphatically and Dubois gave a thumbs up. DUBOIS?! Ryland stared at him, slack jawed, though he was unsure if it was because they managed to get a soft-spoken scientist in on this or because you were mentioned.
Ryland's eyebrows creased together, "How uh…” He gestured with his hands, flinging his glasses rather carelessly around, “How’d you swing that one?" He was trying to seem disinterested in this development, it was obvious as he wiped his already clean glasses and put them back on his face. He glanced at the three of them from over the rims of his golden frames, expecting a logical and sound answer though he very much doubted that was what he was going to get.
"Was easy!" Her accent was sharp in his ears, almost shrilling in excitement. Ryland scoffed and threw his head back in disbelief. "No need to ask question, Grace! She is playing, that is all that matters!"
Annnddddd that's how he ended up sitting in a circle, cross legged staring rather blankly at the empty bottle of Miller Lite in the middle of the incomplete circle. All that was missing was the host herself, and you. Ryland’s heart gave a little flutter at the prospect - No, no… The probability of the bottle landing on you when he spinned it. His mind started doing the calculation and they weren’t really in his favor. Swallowing thickly, it felt like there was a piece of something stuck in his throat as he leaned over to his right.
"I don't want to do this." He muttered at Dubois who just nodded in understanding, letting his eyes peer over at Shapiro. Wait, understanding!? Ryland’s brain seemed to short circuit for a second, tabling the look that Dubois gave Shapiro for a later conversation and pressed on, "Why are we doing this?" His voice was a touch above a hush as Dubois looked over at Yao, sharing a glance of knowledge that left Ryland semi-uncomfortable. After spending weeks with them, teaching all he knew about Astrophage, he’d be a stupidhead not to notice that they were obviously hiding something. The calls of a secret keeper were the same as his junior high students. He opened his mouth again to ask again - how did he get convinced to do this - why he was doing this - why he was doing this sober ---
"A team that kiss together stays together." Ilyukhina said cheerfully as she entered, tugging you behind her by the hand. It was very evident from the way that your wrist was almost popping out of the socket that you were being dragged. “I bring last teammate! Now we can start!”
Ryland looked up at you, your eyes wide as you stared back at him, your shoulders being pressed down as the engineer urged you to sit across from the blonde haired Molecular biologist. You plopped without resistance as he shrugged his shoulders at you, apology written in his expression as your lips parted in question. Your breathing was slightly rapid, his eyes admiring the inhales and exhales of your chest for a few seconds and wondered what it would feel like to touch, a pencil still lodged in your hair, fingers twitching in a subtle urge to brush them through it. Ryland deduced what must have happened. One minute you were just doing your work, and the next, you had no idea what transpired in the middle as Ilyukhina was deftly quick and only gave you muttering in a mix between English and Russian as to where she was taking you, you were sitting here.
His mouth fell open as he looked between Yao and Dubois who very adamantly avoided his gaze. You were never asked to play! They set something up. Why? Ryland had no idea.
Okay, okay. That was… Not the truth, but it wasn’t a lie. There may have been… Some inkling that there was attraction between the two of you, but it wasn’t that obvious! Right? Ryland tapped his fingers against his knees. Well… Obviously not, you were sitting in front of him, bottle between you.
“I um-” You started to speak but were drowned out by the announcement.
“Is simple game! You spin bottle, you kiss who it land on. Fun, fun.” The brunette slapped her hands together and sat next to you with that dumbed-down description of the game.
Spin the bottle? You looked at the brown bottle in the middle of the circle, drawing your slow attention to Ryland, over his tightly tied Converse, the fabric of his jeans against his long legs that were bunched up in a criss-cross, up his fit torso that was covered now only by a t-shirt, thin enough that if he moved in a certain direction, you were sure to see the vague outlines of his lean form. And to his face, which was harder to read than usual. He was intentionally being stoic. You pressed your lips together. What was going on!?
Not fun! Your head was screaming, stretching your crunched up legs to stand, “I’m really busy, I don’t have time for---”
Ilyukhina shoved you back into a seated position with a cynical smile, “You have time for one round.” Patting your hands in your lap, she gave some semblance of reassurance but you couldn’t help but feel like you were being held hostage.
“I have time for one round.” You muttered in defeat, figuring out now that there was no logical escape. Maybe you’ll get lucky and it won’t land on you. That’s the optimism speaking, with your luck, it was going to land on you. Ryland knew something - something you were still piecing together and it was evident in the way he was staring at you, glasses tucked into the collarband of his shirt.
“We go by rank!” She said next to you, the sound of her voice was enough to surprise you even if it was expected. “Grace, go first!”
“I’m not the highest rank-”
“You are second to Stratt, you go first!”
His heart skipped a beat in his chest as you stared rather numbly at the bottle, still processing. “Can I just…---” He breathed out, pouting his bottom lip as he did so, the air fluttering the blonde hair against his forehead. “Supervise? I’m good at that! I used to supervise dances at the middle school. Box arm dancing, leave room for Jesus! No kissing, especially with tongue! That sort of thing---”
“You agreed to play.” Yao finally spoke up causing Ryland to groan softly, the sound low and emitting straight from his chest. In any other situation, it would have been incredibly attractive to hear but now? Still attractive, your monkey brain said but your rationality won out and you felt empathy for him. You were both dragged into this. “Spin the bottle, Dr. Grace.”
He sighed - hard and groaned more audibly as he reached forward, almost on his hands and knees in front of you, his eyes peering into your own for a few seconds, almost pleading, but that could have been your imagination, before giving the god-forsaken bottle a lazy spin. It went around - around… Sort of like a centrifuge, he tried to look at it a bit optimistically but it was just not happening as he watched it slow down, waiting in baited silence, your attention fully captivated as well by the revolving glass.
Ilyukhina gasped softly, “боже мой!! What surprise!”
It was hard to ignore literally every single set of eyes in the circle making their way to you, except for Ryland’s as he pressed his eyelids together tightly. You were smiling forcefully, glaring intently at the bottle whose neck was set on you. Ryland finally opened his eyes and was doing very much the same, but instead of glare, he was smacked hard with absolute disbelief. The odds were not in favor of it even landing on you, he was 100% prepared to have to place a peck on Shapiro or Yao, but… “Uh--- Ya know, I think I might be coming down with a cold,” You forced a cough out, causing Ryland to raise an eyebrow at the legitimacy of this claim. But, he also couldn’t blame you if you didn't want to kiss him. Not many would. “I don’t want to get Dr. Grace sick and all, he’s so important. Can he uh… Spin again? Is that possible or?”
He cleared his throat and leaned forward again, grabbing the bottle with what you could only describe as enthusiasm, “Yeah!” That was too cheery, and for a second he could have sworn there was a glimpse of hurt on your face. “I-I’ll spin again, don’t want to get sick.” He grimaced, refusing now to make any sort of eye contact with you, knowing somewhere along the way this was causing offense. But did you not start it? You didn't seem all too keen to kiss him either! “I’m really hoping it lands on you, DuBois, I’ve had it out for you since day---”
“Ehhh, the rules say no.”
“What rules?” You almost cried at Ilyukhina, face so red you were positive that everyone in the room was aware of what you true feelings were.
“I mean, there are no rules to this game.” Ryland laughed nervously, the sound wavering into the air, “If there were rules, I’m sure we’d have been told---”
“I read the rules before, the rules say no.”
“Can I see the rules?” You murmured to her, which she fought back with ‘they were in Russian, you won’t understand’. It spiraled a bit into a heated conversation, back and forth between you and Ilyukhina until---
“I haven’t kissed someone in like 5 years!” Ryland sounded semi-desperate, pressing his sweaty palms against his thighs and almost regretting immediately the statement that he made as now everyone in the circle was looking at him. God, that made him sound like a loser. But… He was hoping, maybe, MAYBE, they wouldn’t make him do this if they knew that. Make you… kiss him. Even if he wanted it,, deep down. And he agreed to do this because deep down, he wanted a good excuse… reason? Excuse sounded bad. Yeah, reason to kiss you. But only if you wanted to. Which, you obviously didn't.
Wh--- Where you looking at his lips? Ryland could have sworn you were but quickly averted them back up to his gaze when he caught on to your looming. ‘5 years?’ Shapiro mouthed at Dubois, causing a flush of what could only be described as embarrassing heat to hit his ribcage and eradicate what felt like the rest of his senses.
“Yeah, yeah. 5 years.” Ryland finally bursted like a can of stuffed biscuits under intense pressure. “Can we like--- Ugh, not focus on that? It was my ex-girlfriend, she thought I was too,” He whistled and gestured upwards with his right pointer finger, “in the clouds. She dumped me. Probably deservedly so. 5 years ago. Maybe a little more. I’m also a lousy kisser, so maybe that’s why she left me too.”
Ilyukhina blinked, smile faltering a slight bit at this development.
Yao looked at Ryland, straight faced as usual but there was obvious… Sympathy written in his eyes. A little bit of guilt, too.
Dubois and Shapiro both closed their mouths, giving each other a look of… What… Pity?
And you? Ryland popped his mouth open, letting the sound emit into the air to break what would be considered to most as an ‘awkward silence’. He couldn’t even look at you but he knew you were fixated on his frame like he was some specimen in a jar. He rubbed his shoes together, contemplating. He could cower in, bring his tight shoulderblades inwards and make himself appear smaller but that would just make it worse like he was a coward - Ah, geez. He quickly shot up, feeling the rush of blood running through his veins, feet planting semi-sturdily on the ground, his height incredible to the rest of you before jolting himself out of the room with a small, ‘excuse me’, the only thing making noise now was the door clicking shut behind him.
“Ryland, wait!” You were quick to your own feet and stepped through the circle of your peers, following with incredible speed, only catching the tailend of Ilyukhina’s voice saying something along the lines of ‘It went according to plan, see?’. You pushed that aside and half ran, half walked down the small hallway towards the only exit. It poured you onto the deck and after looking to the left and right, you could see the slumped over frame of the Molecular biologist leaning against the railing on the starboard side.
Somewhere in his mind, he knew you were going to go after him, it was obvious from the look of absolute dismay you were giving him in the circle - he glanced over his shoulder upon hearing your footsteps and drew a deep breath in while waving one of his hands to let you know you were okay to approach. Here goes! “Sorry for that,” He muttered once you closed the distance enough, “I don’t do good with… Y’know.” You nodded in understanding and came to stand beside him, watching his sharp features contort in thought, “ I have no idea how Ilyukhina talked me into that. Actually, all of them. I-I hope I didn't offend you. I’m sure kissing you would be great, just not… what I had planned for my Thursday night.”
“So you’re saying you don’t want to kiss me tonight? How about tomorrow?” You joked, trying to keep calm and not fall apart at the idea that you were somehow undesirable to him. Tucking a piece of hair behind your ear, you let the hand linger by your face and gauged how red you must have appeared.
“I did… didn't say that I didn't want to.” The tall blonde scoffed under his breath as you drew that conclusion without much of a fight. It was said in a playful way, sure, but he could tell that it was subdued… He had offended you. Maybe even worse. He had to make it better. He wanted to make it better. “Any guy on this carrier would be lucky to.”
“Any guy but… you…” There was a solemn use of your words now that Ryland disliked heavily. He couldn’t bring himself to look over at you as you leaned against the railing with him, sure that your face was scrunched in, trying to keep yourself together and light about the situation. You still had to work together at the end of the day.
“I couldn’t be that lucky.” That was said more to himself because it was true. He was given the chance with the stupid game that led to this situation in the first place, but how genuine would that have been? Just a small peck in between a group of people, nothing pleasurable about that, no time to really savor it. He hadn’t logically thought that out when agreeing to it earlier and now it came back to bite him in the butt.
“I dunno about that.” That hit is ears barely above a hush. “Luck is a funny thing.”
He just wanted the chance to do it right.
Dark eyebrows raised at that admission. Going that deep into the surface to admit that felt strange for him. He… Was never one for attraction, it always took a side step to the backburner for most of his life so why this? Why you? He wasn’t sure but something in his science brain wanted to find out why and wanted to take the time to explore it.
“What I said was true.” Ryland whispered to you, adjusting his body so he was now facing you.
He was much larger than you gave him credit for, maybe it was the mild meekness he carried himself with when he was around others, but Ryland was tall and lean, muscular to an extent but not overly so that it made him unappealing in any way. The thin t-shirt he had on was perfectly set to his biceps which you took interest in for a few seconds, free from the blue fabric of the lab coat you both so often wore. Your breath hitched in your throat gazing up at him. You’d never realized how… thick his eyelashes were around his blue irises, really bringing out the color, or how he crinkled his forehead causing wrinkles to line there. Up to his hair which was wild and tousled just right - you wondered vaguely if he just woke up like that or if it was a stylistic choice. There was a faint trace of mint lingering --- Did he… brush his teeth before this?
“W-what?” Your right side bloomed into existence at the sensation of his long fingers resting on your waist, keeping you still enough to let him focus on what he wanted. You were tethering Ryland to the surface of the planet, otherwise, he was sure he’d be floating off into outer space.
“I am a lousy kisser.”
You huffed out a small laugh at that, which oddly turned into some sort of straggling noise as Ryland took the plunge and leaned his head down to capture what he hoped was your mouth. He had his eyes squeezed shut, like a kid kissing his crush on the playground. It was sloppy, half of your face was against the stubble around his mouth which was tickling you but there was the undeniable warmth that his pink lips gave that subsided all else, your hand reaching up and resting on his left arm to keep him in place, to let him know in silence that you didn't want him to pull away. It was up to you as you tilted your head to the side, furthering the embrace and giving Ryland the leeway he needed to make the kiss complete, capturing your lips fully and tightening his grip on your waist, grasping at the fabric of your shirt. It was chaste, in the best way you could possibly think of when you let your eyelids fall shut as he finally tugged you towards him.
Grunting softly as you pressed chest to chest, almost crushing his glasses in the process, Ryland grasped the back of your head with his free hand, tangling his fingers there and to keep you in place as he experimentally tilted his head to the side. That was more appreciated by you, or at least, that’s what he observed as you responded quickly, lips parting against his. He knew what to do, and if it weren’t the heat of the pivotal moment, he’d be kicking his own butt for even thinking about frenching someone, but the temptation was too great and he allowed himself full access. It was shy at first, his tongue pressing against your own, and it never got more familiar than that as you played around with the muscles in your mouth.
The two of you tumbled a bit to the point where your back was against the railing and Ryland was now grasping at the metal on either side of you, effectively blocking you with his body as he dragged one of his thighs between your legs to give you some semblance of balance against his hard frame. Not that you minded, the idea of being under him now a serious prospect as this position was very similar in nature to one where you’d be on your back, his body weight being held up by his forearms, chest to yours, hot breath against your face, fingers in his messy hair and hips swaying against each other…. Ryland pulled his hot mouth for just a moment to catch a breather, the taste of you on his tongue still before he was back in for another round, more precise this time as he began recalling muscle memory, your arms slipping around his neck to support yourself from falling backwards and overboard. Fingers carded themselves deliciously into his golden locks, admiring just how thick it was between your digits and how silky they felt as you brushed through.
There was a deep rumbling that came from his chest when he pulled away once again, mouth parted and swollen from first contact. His eyes were still pressed shut, hands holding so tightly onto the railing that his knuckles were turning white. He was holding back, it was obvious from the way that he held himself almost rigid and kept his breathing to a minimum. Ryland was trying to keep calm, keep that dam from fully opening but it was hard once it had a crack in it. “I uh…” He let go of the railing, arms falling to your sides and using your body as leverage as his eyelids fluttered open to look straight at you. “Sorr--- Sorry, that was not me, I… I am so sorry.”
“You’re right,” He could feel the heat of your breath against his face as he pressed his eyebrows together at your statement, taking some time for himself to admire how… Beautiful you were, red faced, mouth anticipating his next move, eyes sunken and looking at him like you were his prey. “You said you were a lousy kisser. Th-that was anything but that.”
did you guys know that when you are in bed at night time, you can turn on a lamp, put a really soft blanket around your shoulders and read your book?? and sometimes it will rain??? did you know that???? the wonders of this life do not cease!
act 1 scene 1 benedick & beatrice are both like "romance is dead & i have killed it" & then they go & have the most dramatic & captivating romance known to man
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