Arograce x f!aroace reader [Part 2]
A/N: this isn't completely accurate to the movie or book events. I am not aroace myself so please feel free to comment if I might've misrepresented something or to just educate me on some aroace topics you guys would like to see represented in the fic
Tags: aroace,platonic soulmates,teacher x teacher,found family,mentions of acephobia
Warning: this chapter is mostly just a bunch of stuff that don't make any sense at all and is just meant to be silly fluff with slight angst at end. Also not proofread. Mentions of somewhat sexual trauma at the end.
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You felt as if you were experiencing a weird fever dream. With the lengthy story from Ryland and the noise from the TV you had decided to move to the balcony. "Wait wait wait. Let me get this straight. You want me to tell people we're engaged and I need to what? Pretend to be pregnant? So that the government doesn't send you to this super top secret space mission"
"Yeah basically" Grace cringed at his own words. He knew he was asking for a lot and he also was very aware of how completely insane he sounded but he was desperate. If Stratt found out he was lying he would be forced without allowing him even a simple goodbye to his students or mom.
"Ryland" a long moment of silence passed. You tried to tread lightly. "Is there any kind of medication you have forgotten to take today?"
"I don't have schizophrenia"
"I never said you did. Delusions are also very common in Bipolar disorder I think? Or so I've heard" You tried not to judge but in your mind this man was completely out of check with reality and clearly had some mental health troubles.
"I'm not insane" Grace ran a hand over his tired face and adjusted his glasses that were barely hanging on by a thread on his ears. "Look I know this sounds weird but I'm not insane. Please. It won't take long I promise... You're my only hope"
You sighed but with how desperate Ryland sounded you had half the heart to consider it. "I don't know Ryland. I'm not exactly keen on going to unfamiliar places with colleagues who talk about secret space missions"
"I will buy you that Nintendo switch you wanted" Those words broke down some of your suspicious defenses.
"Okay fine. But only for a couple days"
"Yes! I mean great. I owe you" Ryland pumped his fist in the air in silent victory when the call ended. If he could moonwalk he'd do a little dance too. He was too relieved at the possibility of evading going to space to care about the fact that he had just lost all his retirement funds to bribery. Gosh how much even was a switch?
"I didn't even do anything!" Teenagers had a tendency of thinking the rules applied to them. Especially eigth to ninth graders and frankly it was giving you even more of a headache than usual.
"You were on your phone. Come on Jacob hand it over" your voice was perfectly calm as you held out your palm and eventually after seeing no way out of this the boy handed over his phone with a newfound frustration.
"Yes and one of them is to not be an idiot in class. Now let's resume shall we?"
You may have been too harsh on the boy but your mind was elsewhere today. Today was the day Ryland had asked you to be his fiancée. He even called you this morning. On a burner phone of all things? Just to remind you about your meeting with this woman called Stratt this afternoon. He also insisted on you wearing a very basic silver band that looked more like a basic ring than an engagement one. There weren't even any diamonds.
It was confusing. You've been watching him like a hawk today. He showed no signs of delusions and seemed pretty in touch with reality in the break room today so why was he still insisting on this imaginary meeting?
You have never had any warning signs of Mr. Grace being aggressive. He was a very friendly colleague and you might even consider a very distant friend. And you were promised a Nintendo switch from this so you decided you'd go with him to this meeting he made up in his head.
You were busy enjoying your coffee and reviewing papers in your classroom when a red haired woman entered your currently empty classroom with two large men in suits and Ryland trailing after her. You heard her name fell from your lips. She had a thick accent you couldn't quite place.
"Or should I say Mrs. Grace to be?"
What the hell? These were actual people. This wasn't supposed to be part of the script. You pinched your arm but the three strangers in your classroom and a very nervous Ryland remained.
"Hi yes" you cleared your throat and stood to shake her hand. "Yeah that's me" Mr. Grace intertwined your hands. You weren't opposed to holding hands with your friends occasionally but his hands were sweaty and felt like you were holding the skin of an anxious fish that had just been pulled out of water.
"Come with me" Stratt did not ask and immediately walked. One of the men in suits seemed well acquainted with your colleague but he ushered you two to the car with an intimidating height despite his initial joking smile shared between Grace.
"Oh. Okay" you reluctantly followed. This woman walked twice the speed of a regular person like she had an entire world to save.
"Where are we going exactly?" You picked up the pace just to keep up and fell into a light jog that Ryland mirrored.
"You will see soon. Please enter the car. We will answer any questions in a moment"
The car drive was silent and the further you travelled into unfamiliar terrain and past the city, the more anxious you became.
You knew one thing for sure now. Ryland Grace was indeed not crazy. This was real. Oh shit.
"Your fiancée,Ryland Grace, is part of a project of ours. We need him to travel to space but he is refusing out of his duty to you and your...supposed child on the way" Stratt's gaze travelled to your stomach with an unconvinced expression. Oh boy was it hot in here?
"Ah. Yes I remember he told me of that. I told him Ryland,my love, I will never forgive you if you go through with this. I will not raise this child on my own" Acting was never your thing.
But the overseer had no way of proving you incorrect. At least not right now. "You know it is strange. Grace has never once mentioned you. Not even to Karl" Her eyes were like two big lasers boring into your skulls.
"Well that is because she uh...cheated on me. Yeah she cheated big time. We had a fight. It was pretty heated. Didn't speak for weeks. That's why I didn't mention her"
Your jaw was now on the floor and you offered a polite smile before pulling Ryland aside. "I cheated on you? What the hell is wrong with you?" Your anger could be heard even when you were whispering.
"Well I can't say I was cheating. I've practically been living in this lab for the past few months. Just go along with it" Ryland mustered his best pleading expression and you reluctantly caved.
You took your seats again but you seemed more stiff in the way you were sitting now. "Sorry about that. The truth is...yes. I did cheat on Ryland"
A relieved sigh left the man now that you were finally going along with it but then you added your own little spin to it.
"You see Mr. Grace has a rare disease called Phallus regressus. It is truly tragic. His penis had shrivelled up and withered like a disappointing pig in a blanket. I was left unsatisfied for many years and I just.." you feigned distraught guilt and managed to focus enough to get your eyes to glaze over a little. "I lost control of myself. But we have decided to work things out. For the child" You turned to look at the increasingly agitated man next to you. "Isn't that right,darling?"
Your creative liberty had earned you a forced smile from Ryland. "Yes. Yes that's right"
Stratt felt at a loss of words. "I see...I wish I could unhear that. But we shall move on to the practicalities. As much as I wold like to believe in love I need to ensure that this is the truth" She set down a box of pregnancy tests. "Karl and Jonathan will escort you to one of the bathrooms. They will be waiting outside but do not feel alarmed. We are simply just making sure"
You both felt your stomach drop and judging from your colleagues constipated expression he was having a similar expression. Wasn't lying to the government like a crime or something?
God Ryland what did you get us into?
She was far past her due date and incredibly uncomfortable. He knew he was playing with fire right now.
It was a simple plan really. He just needed to somehow get Mrs. Montgomery to use a pregnancy test,take said pregnancy test and then somehow find a way into the women's bathroom and switch it out with the one you were supposed to take. Maybe if you stalled them long enough this could actually work.
He took a shot and grabbed the unattended dark screen and pretended to be taking a call. "Hello? Yes?"
"Excuse you that's my fucking phone" Mrs. Montgomery argued.
"Mrs. Montgomery it's for you"
"Mr. Smith is saying he doesn't believe you about the baby and that he's not going to keep quiet about things unless you take this test right now to prove it" Gosh he felt insane and he's 99% sure that he was going to be sent to HR after this. Or worse.
"That bastard!" Gosh he was so glad she didn't have much trust in her side piece and soon to be the father of her child. Isn't love beautiful? That or she was just extremely gullible.
He watched Mrs Montgomery waddle to the rest room. Success! Now the task of getting it to you.
"You're in the way" Nancy,a woman who didn't care much for being polite. She didn't come off as the opposed to bribery type. Who knew keeping yourself from going to space was this expensive?
Dammit! Grace was supposed to be here by now. "Um...I'm shy? Just a minute!"
Just then you heard arguing coming from outside the door. "Excuse you I have my rights! So unless you want me to pee all over the damn floor I'm going to go in"
A woman entered,Nancy, read on her name tag. She handed over a plastic bag with a pregnancy test in it. It was positive. You didn't want to think too much over how Grace got his hands on this.
Nancy didn't say anything and just adjusted her beautiful blonde curls in the mirror.
"Thanks" you smiled awkwardly at the woman before grabbed a piece of toilet paper from the stall and carefully removing the positive test from the bag. You'd prefer not getting urine on your hands.
You tucked the unused pregnancy test into your bra,too scared that they might go through your bag. Maybe this was more secure. You didn't want to go to jail.
The silence felt deafening when Stratt stared at the test for a long moment. "Your training if the new standing starts tomorrow. You have three days. You will not leave this building for those few days"
"Yes of course" Ryland maintained a composed expression.
You kept it in all the way until you were out of the building.
"Yes!" You don't know how but someway along the way you got involved into succeeding this deception. Maybe it was the brief stress of being arrested for lying to the government.
"We're pregnant!" Ryland pumped his fist in the air in victory. Well technically not pregnant but they were fake pregnant. Mission successful!
For a brief moment you both hugged even in the face of victory it felt odd to have contact with your colleague. Even if it was platonic.
"Yeah. Let's not do that again"
"Thanks. You have no idea how much I owe you" After your victory you both decided to go for a well deserved bite at the lounge where Ryland had told you about everything. Well almost everything.
It was a bit deserted now that the sun had begun to set but it felt nicer than way. Ryland never liked crowds. "Sorry for dragging you into all this"
"It's ok" You offered a polite smile and something akin to empathy was glinting in your eyes. "I know what it's like. To have people think you're not as important just because of... well who you are" Or in your cases who you don't love. Atleast not romantically.
"Yeah life kinda sucks like that" Ryland's comment drew laugh from you both.
A loud silence filled you both and Grace merely sighed in agreement. "I used to think that if I tried hard enough that I could fit in"
"Is that so? I figure that went swimmingly"
A smile creeped its way onto his lips. "Not exactly. I used to have this girlfriend. She was a good friend of mine"
You weren't sure why but it felt as if physically the air around you had changed when he mentioned his ex. It was the kind of silence that would fill the movie theatres before the Titanic hit that iceberg.
"I really cared about her as a friend. I liked hanging out and it felt nice to hug someone or to even have someone just be there that was so loyal to you but I never really felt that desire to...go further"
Your frown deepened and you choked in when the sound of the jukebox was no longer sufficient enough to fill the silence.
"I felt this crushing weight to keep moving things to the next step. I mean that's how relationships usually go. And when I..." Ryland's blue eyes looked more vibrant when they were glazed over. You wonder if bringing that up after this conversation would atleast get a laugh out of him and lift his spirits.
"People would say I got lucky which is kinda funny because every time I forced myself to just get it over with I felt like a piece of myself was taken that I just couldn't get back. She didn't do anything but I eventually just...ended up hating her"
What do you say to someone who had experienced something so incredibly invasive and personal? You had no idea.
"You know a friend of mine once told me about this book. And in it there's this guy. Now this guy says we should live life how we want instead of living it according to how other people think your life should be lived"
Ryland tried to suppress a smile but hearing his words thrown back at him was slightly amusing.
"Yeah. I mean unless you think I'm too uncool to be your friend?"
"No no" he panicked and held up his hands in self defense. It's rare Grace managed to make friends in general. "Friends it is"
You both shook hands when an idea popped up into your head.
"You know what? Let's get married"
For a moment Ryland froze. He knew you didn't mean it in a romantic way,thank god, but still that was insane! Pretending to be engaged is one thing but married? As in legally binding married??
He laughed in attempts to brush it off. He must've misheard. "What?"
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Part 1 >> Part 2 (you are here)
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