My name's Leo! He/him, 23. I write for Male and Nonbinary readers. Here's a full collection of my works. ( Will be updated frequently, so be sure to keep this post in your sights and refresh. ) Oh, and my requests are wide open! ( titles without links are still being written. )
# FLIGHT RISK. — Semi-Canon-Adjacent, NavalPilot!Reader, Bodyguard x Charge Dynamic, Gender Neutral Reader, Aura Gap Relationship, Slow-ish Burn, Longform, Part 1 of ??
# FIFTY SHADES OF GRACE. (R.) MDNI — Top!Male Reader, Bottom!Ryland Grace, Sub!Ryland Grace, Porn with Some Plot, Power Dynamics, Boss x Subordinate, AMAB Reader, Frotting, Edging, Overstimulation, Part 1 of ??
BOB REYNOLDS. — THUNDERBOLTS*
# MY PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGIST AND I. — Longform, Slow-ish Burn, Fluff, Less Hurt, More Comfort, Post-Thunderbolts*, Male Therapist Reader. (2, 3)
# CHLORINATED KISSES. — GN!Reader, Fluff with Some Plot, Established relationship, Soft Boyfriend Bob Reynolds, A kayaking incident inclines the reader to teach Bob how to swim.
OKAY, RECEIVED. ( PART 2 )— RYLAND GRACE x Male!READER
SUMMARY: Distance means nothing to the destined and the damned.
# # TAGS: Epistolary, Transcripts, Single Dad!Reader, Doctor!Reader, Teacher!Ryland Grace, Miscommunication, You've Got Mail Type Beat, Petrova Taskforce
## WARNINGS: No Beta, Formatting this was a Nightmare. This fic contains a lot of media, but don’t worry as alt text is available. I find that it's quite difficult to read this in light mode, so dark mode is recommended. Edits made by me, images sourced from Pinterest. Basically I've just fucking lost it. Enjoy.
There is no specification of the reader’s height nor form but there is specification of his handwriting. Please Pretend That You Write Like That.
PETROVA TASKFORCE
ARCHIVAL TRANSCRIPT
TRANSCRIPT ID: COMM-LOG-INT-88
FREQUENCY: CH-09 (INTERNAL SECURITY / MEDICAL RELAY)
DATE: ▇▇, ▇▇ / 20:15 UTC
[ AUDIO START. ]
[20:15:02] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
Watch-Command, this is Attending Physician, Unit B. Metabolic panels for Sector 4 are complete. Requesting clearance to log off the active medical net for the evening. Over.
[20:15:15] WATCH-COMMAND (MILLER):
Copy that, Doctor. Metabolic logs received by central grid. Clearance granted at 20:15 hours. Secure your handset and switch to standby status. Over.
[20:15:17] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
[ AUDIO FEEDBACK. ]
This thing on? Over.
[20:15:19] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
Birdie, what did I tell you about using the tactical frequencies? Switch to the house channel. Over.
[20:15:22] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
House channel is very quiet and no one responds to me. Over.
[ SILENCE. ]
[ FAINT CHATTER. ]
[20:16:02] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
I’m bored. Over.
[20:16:05] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
Young lady.
[20:16:08] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
What’s for dinner? Over.
[20:16:13] WATCH-COMMAND (MILLER):
Hab-Deck-B, be advised this frequency is reserved for operational data and emergency triage. Clear the net. Over.
[20:16:20] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
Hi, Miller.
[20:16:23] WATCH-COMMAND (MILLER):
Hi, Miss Birdie.
[20:16:30] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
Apologies, Command. The civilian asset will be contained. Heading to quarters now. Unit B, actual, out.
[ AUDIO START. ]
[20:17:05] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
Okay, I'm on twelve.
Birdie, do you copy?
[20:17:11] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
Loud and clear!
[20:17:16] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
What are you botherin’
us for.
[20:17:22] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
Nothing. Just wanted
to chat.
[20:17:27] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
Okay.
[ PAPERS SHUFFLING. ]
What do you wanna
chat about?
[20:17:35] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
I dunno. What did you
do today?
[20:17:41] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
Lotta tough work. We’re doing as many trials as we can, putting folks to sleep.
'Course the issue isn't actually getting them to sleep. We can throw a dozen different sedatives into the line and knock a subject out in under two minutes. The real problem's the metabolic maintenance.
[20:17:54] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
Medically-induced comas are so fascinating.
[20:18:04] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
Yeah. It's like a pause button. They could close their eyes in your lab, sleep for four years, and when they wake up, it'll feel like only hours have passed. You're like -- removing them from time.
Super cool.
[20:18:08] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
Other twelve-year-old kids don’t usually think so.
[20:18:13] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
They’re missing out.
Oh, hey! I got so much mail today! Everyone wrote me back and I got a bunch of gifts!
[20:18:25] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
[ BACKGROUND CHATTER. ]
Run the analysis again.
Thank you, Doctor.
What sorta gifts?
[20:18:34] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
It’s so funny.
I have six winter hats now.
They're all from my friends.
[20:18:43] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
Winter hats?
[20:18:47] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
Yeah, they think I’m in Antarctica, remember?
[20:18:52] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
Oh, yeah.
[20:18:56] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
I love them all.
I might as well wear them around the facility. They’re pretty cute.
[20:19:07] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
That’s nice.
You got a favorite?
[20:19:12] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
Yeah, there's this fox one. Wraps around my ears.
I got a ton of
stickers, too.
Olivia gave me fifty
sheets.
[20:19:24] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
That’s too many stickers.
[20:19:28] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
No such thing!
[ STATIC. ]
[ SILENCE. ]
[20:19:50] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
I miss them. Over.
[ STATIC. ]
[ SILENCE. ]
[20:20:12] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
I know, baby.
[20:20:18] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
[ SIGH. ]
[20:20:23] MED-UNIT-B (DR. ▇▇▇ ):
I wish things
were different. Over.
[20:20:30] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
I don’t.
Don't ask me to go
back again.
[20:20:36] HAB-DECK-B (BIRDIE):
I’m okay as long as
you’re here. Over.
[ AUDIO END. ]
PETROVA TASKFORCE
ARCHIVAL TRANSCRIPT
TRANSCRIPT ID: COMM-LOG-INT-88
DATE: ▇▇, ▇▇ / 20:45 UTC
[02:45:01] [ AUDIO START. ]
[02:45:04] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _This is Dr. ▇▇▇, Attending Physician and Lead Coordinator for the Comagenesis Division, Petrova Taskforce. Recording audio log from Auxiliary Lab Four, Observation Suite B.
>> _I am accompanied on deck by senior research leads Dr. Annalise Bautista and Dr. Ethan Jackson.
>> _The time is... 0245 hours.
[02:45:32] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _We are currently observing Subject 0-42, cleared for Trial Phase 3-B at approximately 1800 hours yesterday following a titrated intravenous infusion of the revised neuro-suppressive cocktail.
>> _Current physiological vitals are stable, but highly volatile.
>> _Core body temperature is holding at thirty-four point two degrees Celsius. Heart rate is suppressed to twenty-eight beats per minute.
[02:45:58] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> [ DISTANCE VOICE, SLIGHTLY MUFFLED. ]
>> _I'm seeing a minor spike in baseline levels. Cortical micro-arousals are beginning to register in the occipital lobe on Monitor 2.
[02:46:09] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _Copy that. Increase the paralytic drip by zero point five milligrams per hour. Let's keep the receptors dark before the twitching triggers a full cycle.
[02:46:21] DR. JACKSON:
>> [ KEYBOARD TYPING. ]
>> _Adjusting the line now.
>> [ KEYBOARD TYPING. ]
[02:46:35] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _Think this one'll work?
[02:46:39] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _Too early to tell. Cross your fingers.
[ SILENCE. ]
[ FAINT SHUFFLING. ]
[02:46:58] DR. JACKSON:
>> _Hey, what do you guys think about Stratt?
[02:47:04] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> [ KEYBOARD TYPING. ]
>> _What about Stratt?
[02:47:08] DR. JACKSON:
>> _I don’t know. Just - -
>> _Stratt.
[02:47:13] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _Like, a general idea?
[02:47:16] DR. JACKSON:
>> _Yeah, something like that.
[02:47:20] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _I’m not sure.
>> _She’s very severe, I guess. In a good way. She gets things done regardless of how crazy it may seem.
[02:47:31] DR. JACKSON:
>> _She feels a little disorganized to me.
[02:47:35] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _Disorganized?
[02:47:38] DR. JACKSON:
>> _I mean look at us --
>> _We’re synthesizing coma technology for astronauts she hasn’t even recruited yet.
>> _And even when she does recruit them, the probe’s not set to come back for another month. We don’t know what’s dimming the sun.
>> _Is that her next plan? To send astronauts to the sun?
[02:47:58] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _You think that’s disorganized?
>> _She’s literally thinking twenty steps ahead. I don’t know what you mean. Even if we don’t have the data on the sun yet, we can still try to look for other solutions out there in space.
[02:48:12] DR. JACKSON:
>> _Out there in space?
[02:48:15] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _I don’t know. I’m not an astrophysicist.
[02:48:19] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _I have an audio log running, I don’t think now’s the best time to gossip.
[02:48:25] DR. JACKSON:
>> _Just edit it out later.
>> _What about you, ▇▇▇?
>> _What do you think about Stratt?
[ STATIC. ]
[ KEYBOARD TYPING. ]
[ SILENCE. ]
[02:48:45] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _Subject status?
[02:48:48] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _Subject is stable.
[02:48:51] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _Nothing’s going to get in Stratt’s way.
>> _Good for humanity. Bad for the people around her.
[02:49:01] DR. JACKSON:
>> _How’d you get saddled into all of this, anyway?
>> _I hear you took some convincing.
[02:49:08] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> [ KEYBOARD TYPING. ]
>> _The convincing is downstairs in the mess hall eating ice cream.
[02:49:15] DR. JACKSON:
>> _Wait, that’s your kid?
[02:49:18] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _Geez, Ethan. ‘You been living under a rock?
[02:49:22] DR. JACKSON:
>> _I don’t ask questions, alright?
>> _I see a girl running around the facility I think it’s one of the senators’.
>> _I didn’t know ▇▇▇ had a kid.
[02:49:31] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _Now you do.
>> _Status?
[02:49:35] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> [ KEYBOARD TYPING. ]
>> _Ah, shit.
>> _Encephalogram is smoothing out but the delta wave amplitude is still dragging. It’s not locking into the hibernation state we need.
[02:49:48] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> [ LONG EXHALE. ]
[ SILENCE. ]
[ STATIC. ]
[02:50:02] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _As the logs will corroborate across the past three cycles, the data suggests that while we can successfully induce a prolonged, deep comatose state without immediate cellular degradation, the threshold between true metabolic stasis and irreversible brain death remains narrow.
>> _We are trying to perfect a chemical suspension that can keep human beings alive, asleep, and entirely unmonitored for years in a deep-space environment.
>> _To be entirely frank for the record... the trials have a long way to go.
>> _That’s it for Phase 3-B. In the meantime, we will reconvene.
[02:50:41] DR. JACKSON:
>> _You guys wanna go out for lunch?
[02:50:45] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _Very funny.
[02:50:48] DR. JACKSON:
>> _What? This great new place just opened. I think it’s called the West Side of the Facility?
[02:50:55] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _Do you have a single serious bone in your body?
[02:51:00] DR. JACKSON:
>> _You? ▇▇▇? C’mon, let’s get drinks.
[02:51:04] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _Can’t.
>> _I’m the division’s representative for tonight’s plenum.
[02:51:10] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _I have literally never seen you outside of work.
[02:51:14] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _Which makes me a good representative?
[02:51:18] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _Which means you probably have five minutes before you drop dead.
[02:51:23] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _That’s funny, Anne.
[02:51:26] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _I got news from that plenum you’re going to attend, though.
[02:51:30] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> [ SHUFFLING. ]
>> [ FAINT THUD. ]
>> [ PAPERS RUSTLING. ]
>> _There is a difference between news and gossip.
[02:51:39] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _Oh, c'mon.
>> _All I was going to say is I hear they’re recruiting more people. Making more divisions.
>> _They’re looking into microbiologists.
[02:51:50] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> [ FAINT LAUGH. ]
>> _I matched with a microbiologist once. On a dating app.
[02:51:56] DR. JACKSON:
>> _You’re on dating apps?
[02:52:00] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _Was. Alright? It was a while ago.
[02:52:04] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _And? Then what?
[02:52:07] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _What do you mean, then what?
>> _Then I got shipped to the pacific and made to do all this work.
>> _I don’t talk to him anymore. I wish I still did.
[02:52:19] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _Maybe you’ll meet a new one on the Taskforce.
[02:52:23] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> _Right.
[02:52:25] DR. BAUTISTA:
>> _No, c’mon. Maybe you will.
>> _I mean just this morning I saw a printout in the office.
>> _I think they’re planning to recruit this guy named Ryland Grace?
[02:52:38] DR. ▇▇▇:
>> [ OBJECTS CLATTERING TO FLOOR. ]
[02:52:41] DR. JACKSON:
>> _Dude.
[02:52:45] [ AUDIO END. ]
ⓘ The preceding transcripts were recovered from the central USS Kilauea auxiliary comms unit. The names of particular dependencies have been redacted in compliance with the International Non-Disclosure Act regarding the Petrova Event.
rewatched nice guys last night and realized how many scenes there are where march's ass is just right in your face and it pulled a wire in my brain. i don't have a concrete idea in mind all i ask is march x male reader where we get to throw him around a little, mess up his tie, all that good shit
UNDERGROUND - holland march x male reader
tags: smut, dom/sub undertones, age gap, frotting, incorrect use of tie winkwink
a/n: oh anon this request was like saying all of a dog's favorite words.... this is a long one!
MINORS DNI
🐝˚‧︵‿︵‿︵‿︵
All things considered, Holland thinks he’s doing a pretty fine job so far. So fine, in fact, that this case is looking like it might be the quickest they’ve ever wrapped one up. It was only yesterday that he and Healy met up with the client—a feisty young lady who suspected her kid brother was caught up in some nasty drug business, with such vivid orange hair Holland couldn’t help but ask if it was natural before they parted. Healy had kicked him sharply under the table, and the woman had merely blinked at him, grabbed her purse, and said, “just find my goddamned brother.”
If the kid really is balls-deep in any sort of clandestine organization, drug-related or otherwise, then he’s doing a pretty poor job at it; they only had question two of his friends to find out he frequents—with a rather methodical consistency—an underground club in the Eastside every Saturday. Though they only acquired this pivotal piece of intel from the second one, the first had expressed his own concern for his buddy, and after some coaxing gave them the address of his "business partner”, whatever that means. The guy wasn’t sure what exactly they did, either, but claimed the guy was creepy and filthy rich.
So, if only to kill two birds with one stone, and because this case wasn’t looking like one that would require any backup, he and Healy split up: Holland looking for their guy, and March seeing what he could dig up at this elusive business partner’s place.
The club really takes its underground title seriously, Holland quickly learns. It takes him a good fifteen minutes to even find the alley, at the end of which an unassuming pair of steel doors led down a steep flight of stairs—and then he’s in it. Brilliant, colorful lights sweep across the crowded space in cyclical routes, cutting through the blue-tinted darkness. Music blasts through deliberately positioned speakers, low bass vibrating through Holland’s sternum while he shuffles through sweaty bodies and makes his way toward the bar. The dancing multitude is certainly to blame for the warmth hanging thick in the air, so Holland doesn’t think twice about half of the male attendees being shirtless or near it—clad in haphazardly chopped or lightweight materials that hardly pass as clothing, in his book.
He finds a gap between chatting groups at the bar, and flags down the harried bartender. He darts up to Holland, planting his hands on the lower side of the surface and leaning in to listen over the music.
“I’m looking for someone,” Holland starts, fingertips tapping restlessly over the sticky wood. “He comes here often, Jason Stewart? Might know him as Sonny? Yea high, red hair?”
The bartender’s face stiffens, then cements in a dismissive frown. He glances past Holland, waving down some waiting customers.
“Order something or go, you’re holding up the line,” he bites, defensive. Holland gapes, glancing over his shoulder at the line in question: a pair of young women conversing and lightly bouncing along to the music. One of them meets his eye, her hair cropped short against her skull, and upon sharing a look with the barkeep furrows her brows.
Right. So, this might be trickier than he thought. Might as well acclimate. He tries to refrain from drinking too much on the job after the shitshow that was the house party they infiltrated last year, but Holland reckons skulking around an underground disco asking for a regular by name, and without even having a drink isn’t helping his chances at success. Partygoers, from his experience, often aren’t too keen on selling each other out, and if not that, are often too drunk or high to offer any lucid answers; these, however, seem far more skeptical than usual. They must get up to some pretty sketchy stuff down here—but far be it from Holland to judge them.
So, he gets a beer. It won’t be enough to get him drunk, far from it, but it'll hopefully make him blend in more, even though his outfit alone makes him stick out rather sorely.
He weasels his finger into the knot of his striped tie and loosens it slightly, eyeing the brightly or barely-clad attendees. He makes room for the two women and nods in thanks to the narrow-eyed bartender, before shuffling down the length of the bar. He ignores the terse looks flung his way, growing strangely antsy under the curious stare of a lone, younger man sitting at a stool, his expression not so much hostile as it is alert, discerning. Taking a sip of the cheap beer, Holland finds a relatively sober-looking woman near the restrooms past the bar.
His attempts prove fruitless there, too. Either she truly has no idea who Sonny Stewart is, or she has a phenomenal poker face; as he’s about to ask if she knows any regulars who might be able to help him, another lady strolls out of the bathroom. The first greets her with a hand on the waist and a private smile, and…
Oh.
Oh, yeah, well, that explains it.
They saunter back to the dance floor, leaving Holland gaping and feeling laughably dense. For once, he peers into the multitude, really looks into it, and it only takes a few seconds to notice the unconventional pairs dancing together under the strobe lights.
What the hell kind of a PI is he?
Well, now everybody’s caginess makes a whole lot more sense.
He takes a hearty swig of beer and sighs, more frustrated with himself than anything else. If he’d known he would be gathering intel at a gay club, he would have gone about it differently from the start. Now, he just hopes word hasn’t gotten around that a possible cop is snooping among them.
“Hey, pal.”
Holland turns toward the source of the unfamiliar voice. His gaze locks on yours, and he’s quick to recall your face as the one that’s been watching him since he first approached the bar. You’re alone, still seated atop a rickety stool, nursing a cocktail and leaning back leisurely against the wood. The high hem of your tank top reveals a narrow strip of stomach, and the tight material across your chest leaves nothing to the imagination. Holland squeezes out a shallow breath, and floats over to you.
“You sure you at the right place?” you ask once he stops, eyeing him brazenly.
“Why's that?”
“Is that corduroy?” You push yourself off the edge of the bartop, reaching out to catch the lapel of his suit jacket and laughing when you confirm your suspicion. Warmth prickles at Holland’s cheeks. He swats your hand away, grinding his molars when your lips seek out the thin straw resting on the edge of your glass, cheeks hollowing faintly in a lazy sip. “There’s a sports bar one street over, in case you missed it.”
He ignores your teasing, steels himself. “I just need some information, and then I’m gone.”
Your brow furrows, expression hardening under the glow of a passing blue strobe.
“You a cop?”
“No,” he immediately replies. “I mean, I was, but that’s—that doesn’t matter. I’m a PI, okay? I don’t give a shit what you get up to down here, in fact I’m all for it, probably, so I’m not going to rat anybody out—”
“Except for Sonny,” you butt in, cocking an eyebrow while you chew on your straw. Holland’s mouth clamps shut, eyes dipping fleetingly to the soft shape of your lips, curled around the plastic.
Jesus—focus. And he’s not even buzzed.
“His sister hired us. She’s worried about him.”
“Us? There’s more of you?” Your gaze leaves his, turning instead to the open expanse of the club, sweeping across it with mounting alarm.
“No! Well, okay, yes, just one, but he’s not here. Honest.” He crosses his heart over with one fingertip.
You look back at Holland, brow set, and then reach behind you without breaking eye contact to set your empty glass on the bar. The motion makes your shirt ride up a little, and Holland makes a truly monumental effort not to steal a quick look at the sparse trail of hair leading down to your belt buckle.
“His sister hired you?”
“That’s right.”
He watches your face in the chromatic lighting, losing its wary edges and eventually settling into something more genuine. You wipe the condensation from your palm off against your dark jeans, sighing lightly.
“What’s your name?”
“Holland,” he breathes out, stiffening unconsciously when you lean in, elbows on your parted knees. “March.”
“Alright, Mr. March,” you say, and for whatever goddamned reason it makes his gut sink into a pool of bubbling warmth. As you rise from the stool, movements smooth and unhurried, almost catlike, you say, “let’s go somewhere quieter, hm?”
Then, your hand is on his tie, and you’re all but dragging him through the club, not looking back for a second at the way he staggers after you, apologizing mildly when he bumps into a drunken partygoer.
The club is far bigger than it looks, and he wonders what the original use of the space might’ve been before it was refurbished into a secret underground disco. He reaches up for your wrist, though halts before closing the gap. The mild pressure circled around the nape of his neck, herding him across the dance floor holds him at an unbalanced, hunched posture, wholly undignifying—and yet, it makes his head spin.
Down a broad corridor, you stalk past a file of closed doors labeled VIP, and Holland isn’t certain whether he should be thrilled or terrified. You stop at the end of the hall, where a piece of paper is taped to the last door, reading ‘CLOSED FOR MAINTENANCE’, and without a second thought, you haul him inside.
Immediately, his back is struck against the closed door, wincing at the force and reflexively raising his palms in a gesture of peace.
“You know I still don’t trust you, right?” you say, voice stern again, though clearer now with the music and clamor sealed outside, muffled through the walls. He opens his mouth to reply, but your fist tightens in wordless warning around his tie, so he simply nods, meek. The heat in the pit of his stomach refuses to dissipate—though this is really not the time for his fucked-up libido to rear its ugly head. “The second I suspect you’ve lied to me, or are in any way up to something that would put a single person here at risk, I’ll see to it myself that you regret ever coming here. Am I clear?”
“Crystal,” he wheezes.
At that, you press on a flat, sardonic smile, and pat his cheek twice. You don’t release his tie just yet, but when you pull him off the door it’s a morsel less harsh than it was moments ago. You whirl him around the small room, and then spread your palm to push him back into the leather sectional sofa, which he collapses into with a yelp. Now freed from your iron fist and stifling proximity, he breathes out—a little shaky, strained—and lets himself look around the interior. It’s nothing too special, a dim room with elegant leather seating, a low table before him and a small, slightly elevated platform at the very front of the room. You switch a light on, which only partly succeeds in illuminating the space; there’s no overhead bulb, but many smaller fixtures throughout the room, the largest of which being a warm-toned, almost orange lamp by the door.
He notices, then, rather belatedly, that by some miracle he’s managed to keep his beer, clutched tightly in one hand. As you shuffle up to him and sit on the edge of the table before him, Holland downs the rest in a massive gulp. Liquid courage, and all that.
“Alright,” you say, “shoot.”
Right. Right, the case.
He clears his throat, scrambles to get his wayward thoughts together. First order of business: get the intel. Then he’ll focus on the warmth flooding his cheeks and, mortifyingly, his crotch.
As it turns out, Sonny isn’t secretly smuggling drugs in clandestine discos. He certainly attends them, but the way you put it, he hardly ever dips into anything stronger than an occasional bump or two. A few months ago he met an older guy in this very club and the pair have only been seen together since.
“My guess,” you say, prying the empty bottle he’s been absentmindedly playing with from his fingers and setting it on the table beside your hip, “is he hit the jackpot: found himself a hot older guy who’s happy to spoil him, and his sister notices him being vague, always busy, suddenly able to afford all these expensive things… First thought, 'he’s dealing drugs'.”
Holland sinks against the backrest, hands falling limp on his thighs with nothing to fidget with. An incredulous huff escapes him, looking off in the middle distance as he turns it over in his head. It makes perfect, logical sense.
“How do you know all this?”
You shrug. “Worked here for two years up until a few months ago. Marty gives me a discount for drinks and I still like to keep up with the long-time regulars. Word gets around quick down here.”
“I’m sure.” He looks back up at you, and a thought strikes him. “So, what are the odds I don’t get jumped outside for looking like a cop?”
You pull a deeply pensive face, head tipping with a long hum. “Not too good. Don’t worry, Sherlock, I can walk you to your car.”
When you go to stand, Holland’s chest seizes with something akin to panic. His hands shoot out, but hesitate to touch.
“Wait.”
You pause, already half-turned toward the door, and raise an eyebrow down at him. Holland scrambles to his feet, swallowing hard against the sudden dryness in his throat.
“Thank you,” he chuckles, aiming for cool self-assurance. “Pretty much did my job for me.”
Your mouth quirks—a flash of motion you quickly tame into a neutral politeness. You nod once.
“No problem, Mr. Holland.”
When his eyes slip again, down to the elegant curve of the smile you can’t quite tamp down, that’s it. He can’t look away, can hardly blink. His chest feels shrunken, thready little breaths whistling silently out of him. He tries, with every ounce of rapidly dwindling willpower in him to meet your eyes again, to stop gawking at your mouth like some sleazy asshole, but his body appears to have incited a mutiny against his brain, because his heart is hammering against his ribcage, his gaze fixed inexorably on your mouth.
“Jesus, sorry,” he manages, just barely succeeding in pressing his eyes shut, chuckling airily again. He rubs circles around his eyes, pinches crudely on the bridge of his nose. “I’m—I don’t know what…”
“It’s alright,” you hum, and despite your words you sound amused, almost mocking. Holland flushes even further. He senses you step closer, and keeps his eyes valiantly shut. When your hand curls smoothly around his wrist, however, they fly open on their own accord.
“I don’t even know your name,” he murmurs as you lower his arm from his face. “How old are you?”
Your eyebrows rise slightly, smile sharpening.
“Don’t lie, I’ll know.”
“Alright, tough guy,” you laugh, a sound that thrums through him like a peal of thunder. “I’m twenty-five.”
“Oh, fuck.” His head sinks between his shoulders, hoping the subtle lighting masks the color that must be flooding his face. The magma-warm desire steadily rolling into his gut has begun to spill lower, tightening his flared slacks around the hips.
“What?” you hum, tone dipping teasingly. “That doing it for you?”
He chances a look up; your hooded eyes bore into him, open and undaunted—so bold with your want in the way one only is in their youth, and Holland is no senior citizen but he’s lived a dozen lifetimes since he was your age. He’s learned apprehension. Discretion. At least he thought he did.
You step closer, releasing his arm, only to regrip gently at his jaw.
“You ever been with a man, Mr. March?”
You’re getting cocky, he can tell. You don’t even know how old he is and yet, his reaction must have revealed it is not a trivial number. Emboldened only by his frustration, rather than answering you, he rushes forth, kissing the smug smile right off your face.
Your sharp inhale reveals your surprise, free hand flying up to his shoulder to steady yourself, but the other only tightens, pointedly angling his head and deepening the kiss. His own slide around the curve of your waist, settling at your lower and mid-back. From there, he pulls you in flush—and regrets it upon realizing you can probably feel him, already half-hard against you. He supposes the satisfied hum you push into his mouth is a response to that; he burns.
Releasing his jaw, you reach over to sink your fingers into his hair and catch them in a stern grip. Holland hisses at the lovely little pinpricks of pain it summons, and bucks automatically against your groin, where he feels you beginning to stiffen up, too.
You regrip abruptly, from his shoulder to his hip, and hold him steady in order to repeat the motion, grinding shamelessly against him. A pitiful little hum emerges from his chest when your hands withdraw entirely—though it’s only for a second, before they splay across his waist, his stomach, smoothing up then to push his jacket off his shoulders. Spacey with want, Holland blinks at you, lets you strip it off, hardly registering the delighted sound you make when you feel the shape of his pack of smokes in the pocket and whip it out. You pluck one out and hold it between your lips while you search for a lighter. Once retrieved, you toss the jacket onto the table, and without looking up plant one palm to his chest and shove him down onto the sofa.
“On your back,” you mumble around the cigarette, instinctively cupping the flame to light it. Holland moves off the backrest, swinging his feet up to lie across the cool leather. You pause, then, driving one knee into the cushion by his hip, taking a long, thoughtful drag of the cig, and then gesture silently at his shirt. He doesn’t need to be told twice; immediately he reaches for his tie and damn near rips it off. From there, he moves to the uppermost button, undoing it swiftly and fumbling for the rest.
He’s fully hard by the time he shucks it off, left shirtless and flushed under your cool scrutiny. Something gleams in your eye, though, something hungry and satisfied, and then you’re moving, straddling his thighs. The bright end of the cigarette bounces slightly between your lips as you shuck your belt off, then his, and yank open his fly.
“God, you’re easy,” you comment offhandedly, dragging your knuckles down the shape of his length through his briefs, at the end of which a puny spot of precum has bled through the material. Holland’s whole body quivers, biting down on the wobbly groan that slips out of him. In a rare show of kindness, you offer the pressure of your palm, pressed firmly against him, but it soon hits him that, with your weight perched on his upper thighs, attempting to grind up into it is futile. He writhes, hips pivoting side to side in a desperate search for friction, the ineffectiveness of his struggle only making him harder. Needier.
You chuckle, airy and light, and pluck the cig from your lips. You turn it over and let your hand descend to his mouth, where his head flies off the leather to take a much-needed drag. As you observe, he notes the thinly-veiled lust that darkens your gaze, sucking in a hitching breath.
As you pull it away, your other hand slides higher, sinking two fingers into the elastic of his briefs. Ash plummets onto the floor beside you, but you only watch him as he steadily exhales, smoke clouding in the space between you. Your eyes sweep his bare, heaving chest, and after returning the cigarette to your mouth you reach down, drag a blunt nail over his nipple. Holland gives a strangled grunt, involuntarily arching into the contact, hyperaware of both it and your second hand, slowly easing his briefs down, just enough to free his cock.
“No fair,” he grits out, panting. You tilt your head in question. “You take something off now.”
Your grin turns wicked, circling the stiffened pebble of his nipple a few times before leaving it entirely.
“You’re cute,” you say dismissively. Holland can’t help but feel patronized. He squeezes the outer flesh of your thighs, letting his head fall back in defeat. At the sound of a zipper opening, however, he’s quick to perk back up. You offer him the cigarette again, only to use both of your hands to push your jeans a bit down your hips, readjusting so you’re lying on top of him, knees bracketing his on either side. Your underwear follows shortly thereafter, but Holland’s view is mournfully blocked when you duck your head to mouth at his chest. Your teeth graze his collarbone down its sharp length, pausing at the inner end to bite down, and then latch your lips over it, sucking leisurely.
“Oh, Jesus,” he breathes to the ceiling, choking on his inhale and, in a frustrated impulse, tosses the cig onto the floor. He grips your shoulders, your neck, the back of your head, hands flighty and restless, wanting to feel every inch of you as you pinch his skin between your teeth and roll it sharply. Holland muffles a humiliating whine into his fist, bucking up into your hip. He can feel the weight of your own cock against his stomach, hot and hard.
“Shit, shit—come on, c’mon, can you—” he cuts himself off, not entirely sure what he’s asking for, other than get me off or else I’ll blow my load like a horny teenager.
You shush him, planting a wet kiss to his sternum before drifting back up to eye-level. You frown.
“Where’s the cig?”
Holland looks down. Quietly mumbles, “dropped it.”
You peer over the edge of the sofa and click your tongue. Your eyes dart to him, then to his mouth. Before he knows it, three of your fingers are bullying past his lips, coaxing his jaw open.
He’s already sucking them down by the time you murmur the order. A ripple of motion catches your eyebrows, and then you smirk, pressing down on the back of his tongue, drool gathering around the digits.
“Second nature, huh?”
Holland flushes, ears burning. He shuts his eyes and sucks harder.
For a minute, he floats through the haze of his bliss, lost in the simple task of sucking your fingers down to the base, gag reflex be damned. Maybe all those years of vigorously trying to scrub the bitter taste of hangovers off his tongue proved more beneficial than he thought.
Your thumb, in the meantime, traces his chin encouragingly, scratching gently over the stubble in a way that makes his chest loosen, push out a long, low hum—almost a purr.
“And here I thought you’d be too green to take them,” you say after another brief lull, anchoring your thumb by the corner of his mouth to slowly pull your fingers free. Holland’s eyes crack open, brows knitting slightly with the loss. A string of spit connects your middle finger to his lower lip for a long moment, stretching and sagging as you bring your hand down between your bodies. When it snaps, Holland shudders as it lands, cold, against his chest and chin.
Both of you peer down at your cocks, hard, neglected, and his own sitting in a mortifying pool of precum, one that gets a groan out of you when you notice it.
“Jesus, you’re soaked.”
Tonight is quite the educational night, Holland is quickly learning, as the simmer of humiliation under his skin rolls into arousal, and coaxes yet another drop to surge out of his slit.
You wrap your fingers around your own dick, slick with his drool—the image makes him squirm—and drop a groan into his shoulder at the sensation. Again, his view is blocked, but the sounds of your low, muffled moans against his skin and the softer ones of you working yourself over paint a clear picture. Holland’s fingers curl into your back, writhing, fucking up into empty air. A choked whine weasels its way up his throat, not knowing whether he wants more to get off or watch you touch yourself.
“Alright, alright,” you pant, and within seconds Holland feels your fingers wrap around him, and the weight of your cock press against his own.
Immediately, he’s thrusting up into your right fist, chasing after the swift pace you quickly set. His toes curl in his shoes, all that static amassed under his skin rushing down into his cock, and from there bursting outward in bright flares of pleasure. He clings to you, seeking an anchor point in your warm, breathing, blanketing body, curled fiercely over him. He feels, suddenly, very small—like something so intuitive and uncomplicated it could be pulled apart and pieced back together without issue. And that’s what you’re doing: prying him open, extracting piece by delicate piece with attentive certainty, despite the severity of your teeth bearing down on his skin and the near cruel amusement in your tone.
You tighten your grip around the heads, thumb gliding firmly over his slit, gathering more precum, and the blinding flare that whizzes through him could put fireworks to shame. Whatever urges he might’ve previously had to shy away from your hot, weighted gaze are nowhere to be seen now, as you lift your head and watch his reactions; squeezing, twisting your wrist, grinding against him.
He’s getting loud, he knows—amdist the rumble of blood in his ears, the slick sounds of you both sliding against each other, he can catch his wanton moans, his shattered grunts and whiny bleats.
“Shhh, you want us to get caught, March?” you murmur, dropping your weight to an elbow in order to seal a palm over his open mouth. After a moment, the glint in your blown pupils turns knowing, almost chastising. “Unless you want that? For someone to find us? To see you like this?”
Holland makes a sound shamefully reminiscent of a sob, muted against your palm. His head twists, not trying to displace the muzzle of your hand but unable to resist the animalistic urge to writhe and thrash. Despite the sweat across your brow, the uneven jumping of your breathing, you look terribly composed compared to him.
“Well, we can’t have that. I want you all to myself tonight, okay?”
Holland moans in response, realizing his teeth had captured a bit of your skin in a gentle pinch, just to hold something. You pull your hand away, wiping spit off on his cheek, and lean over, torso straining off the sofa. He watches your free arm extend toward the table, pausing your motions over your cocks for a moment, and when you return, it’s bearing his tie.
“Open,” you instruct, balling the tie up, and Holland’s understanding groan is promptly muffled halfway when it’s shoved into his mouth. The material instantly soaks up most of the spit in his mouth, making his tongue feel uncomfortably dry. He runs it in tiny circles against the bunched fabric in an attempt to salivate and rid himself of the sensation.
Your fist continues pumping, then, and now he’s far quieter—strangely soothed by the feeling of something in his mouth again.
He’ll analyze that later.
For now, your forearm presses against his bare shoulder, fingers tracing sweet, mindless shapes, occasionally brushing against the chain around his neck, the ring hanging off of it. You don’t ask, and Holland eases. Not that he could answer any questions at all at the moment, dead-wife-related or otherwise.
You lean down, kiss the stretched corner of his mouth, and tighten your grip between your bodies. The pit in his lower gut grows and grows, a simmering heat threatening to swallow him whole as the precipice makes itself known in the near horizon. He emits a long, wavering hum, hips rolling wildly, cock twitching and weeping another trickle of precum.
You say nothing, but seem to sense his oncoming orgasm, picking up the pace, squeezing his shoulder once. Holland’s eyes burn with the sheer force of his mounting release, not having realized how close he was until he’s almost reached it, pulse throbbing against his breastbone, surely visible in his sweat-sticky chest. He breathes in, sharp and forceful through his nose, trying to keep his eyes open as they grow leaden.
It only takes one more squeeze of your deft fingers, one more press of your thumb to his tip before he’s coming, whining long and low through his tie—heat erupting from his groin and barreling through him in a tingling tidal wave of pleasure. It has his legs drawing up on a reflex, thighs knocking against your ass, neck straining back against the leather cushion as the sound dies out on the material and gives way to silent bliss.
The seemingly endless ropes of cum his pulsing cock offers makes the continued slide of your fist all the smoother. You work him through it, though the pace hastens, grows sloppy and erratic, and when he pries his eyes open, blinking through the mistiness, watches your face contort beautifully around your own release, uttering a fractured sound into the air.
Your hips roll steadily with each wave, and the feeling of your load landing across his stomach, over the mess of his own gets another pitiful mewl out of him, head lolling to the side. Your hand catches his jaw, abandoning his shoulder, and with a deep sigh you release both of your dicks.
First, you sit up, towering over him on your knees while you tuck yourself back into your jeans. Then, you repeat the gesture for him, and finally pry the tie out of his mouth.
“Hope this wasn’t your favorite tie,” you say, finding a somewhat dry edge to wipe your hand and his stomach clean.
He grunts, smacking his tongue against the roof of his mouth.
You lightly pat his flank once, before getting to your feet. The tie falls with a wet smack to the floor, by the half-smoked cigarette.
“You planning on getting dressed, or I gotta do it for you?”
Holland grunts again, and scrapes up his voice. “Give me a minute, Jesus.”
You snort, finding your discarded belt and beginning to work it through the loops of your jeans. “One good orgasm’s got you incapacitated, old man?”
“Don’t,” he bites, but the rawness of his voice kills any attempt at sternness, “...call me that.” He watches your fingers smoothly buckle the belt, fingers that were moments ago effortlessly plucking away at all his seams, unfurling him.
“I need a drink,” you announce, settling your hands on your hips. “You?”
Holland pulls in a Herculean breath, and pushes himself up to his elbows. He shakes his head with great defeat—oh, the burden of having responsibilities. He checks his watch; he still has to meet up at home with Healy to debrief.
“No, I should… probably get going.”
“Oh, right. The case, and all.”
He grunts, again.
“Well, I had fun,” you say, turning back to the table and fumbling for his jacket. For a moment, he expects you to pull out another cigarette, but with a hum of triumph you whip out his wallet, and he stiffens. You pay him no mind as you begin rifling through it.
“...Please don’t rob me.”
“Here it is,” you chirp after a beat, whipping out one of his business cards. Holland sinks, sighing shallowly. You scan it briefly, then tuck it into your back pocket, grinning. Then, you lean down, grab his face between both hands, and plant a long, wet kiss to his mouth. “I’ll see you around, Sherlock.”
SUMMARY: A astrobiologist and his sole surviving crewmate are trapped together in deep space, not realizing how quickly their professional boundaries are about to completely dissolve.
Tags: Ryland Grace/Male Reader, POV Ryland Grace, Dom!Reader, Sub!Ryland Grace, Touch Starvation, Trapped in Space, Slow Burn to High Heat, Science Metaphors, Explicit, Edging, Mind Melting.
Total Word Count: ~3,200 words
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Chapter 1: The Co-Efficiency of Friction
Human skin sheds roughly forty thousand dead cells every single minute.
Yeah. Gross, I know. It was the exact kind of useless trivia Ryland used to throw at his middle schoolers back in his classroom just to watch them write “ew” in the margins of their notebooks. But out here, in the cold, endless void of the Tau Ceti system, it was the only stupid math keeping Ryland from losing his mind. Forty thousand cells a minute. Which meant the Hail Mary wasn't just a spaceship; it was a sealed metal box slowly filling up with the microscopic, physical dust of two men.
Two men. Not one.
When Ryland first crawled out of the amnesia haze of his coma, surrounded by creepy robotic arms and the mummified remains of his actual crewmates, he thought he was totally alone in the universe. But then, in the third pod, there was a heartbeat. A steady, stubborn little beep on the monitor.
You.
It took weeks of grueling physical therapy, a lot of stomach-churning space-slurry feeding tubes, and several frantic breakdowns that Ryland technically hid by locking himself in the lab to get You upright. But now, You were here. Standing in the middle of the science bay, squinting at a digital readout of the Petrova lamps, wearing nothing but a pair of issued grey sweatpants and a tank top that showed off the sharp, clean line of Your collarbone.
Oh, great, Ryland thought, his brain instantly short-circuiting. Fantastic. He's attractive. Just what I needed on a suicide mission.
"Grace," You murmured, Your voice still carrying that rough, low gravel from months of artificial sleep. You didn't even look at him, Your fingers tapping a restless rhythm against the console. "The radiation shielding on the starboard side is fluctuating by point-zero-two percent. Is that normal, or are we about to turn into glowing space meat?"
Ryland stopped washing his beaker. He didn't mean to stare, he really didn't, but his brain was currently undergoing a massive system crash.
For months on Earth, Ryland had been isolated in a sterile underground lab under Eva Stratt’s iron fist. Then came the coma. He hadn't been touched—not truly touched, with warmth and human intent—in almost a year. Every nerve ending in his body felt like a live wire waiting for a spark. And You were standing less than three feet away, smelling like the ship’s recycled water and warm, clean skin.
"Uh. Normal," Ryland squeaked. He cleared his throat frantically, trying to sound like a respectable scientist instead of a guy losing his mind over a clavicle. "Totally normal. The Astrophage is just... settling. It’s like a car engine warming up. No glowing space meat. I promise."
You finally turned your head, a faint, tired smile touching Your lips. "Good. Because I didn't survive a suicide mission to the stars just to get micro-waved."
You stepped closer. Too close. The science bay was a masterpiece of efficient, cramped engineering, which meant any movement required a delicate ballet of dodging elbows and hips. You reached past him to grab a stylus from the magnetic strip, and Your bare forearm brushed firmly against his.
It was a fraction of a second. Just a brief, heavy glide of skin against skin.
Ryland completely froze. A physical shockwave went straight up his spine, so intense his fingers twitched and he nearly dropped the glass beaker right into the sink. His heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. Holy moly. Touch. That was touch. A real, warm human.
"You okay, Ryland?" You asked, noticing how stiff his shoulders had gotten. You didn't move away. In fact, You tilted Your head, Your eyes scanning his face with a sudden, quiet intensity that made his skin feel tight.
"Yep! Fine! Great!" Ryland muttered, his voice way too high. He frantically wiped the beaker with a towel, over and over. "Just... thinking about data. Lots of data. Brain is full."
You let out a soft huff of laughter, but Your eyes lingered on his mouth for a heartbeat longer than necessary before You turned back to the screen. Ryland stared down at his own hands. He’s a man of science, but right now, the only hypothesis he could form was that if You touched him like that again, he was going to completely fall apart.
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Chapter 2: The Thermal Mass of Two Bodies
The problem with the Hail Mary was that everything was shared. The oxygen, the water, the terrifying burden of saving the human race—and the sleeping quarters.
There were only two operational bunks left after the equipment shift. They were stacked vertically, little more than padded shelves recessed into the bulkhead, separated by a thin privacy curtain. But tonight, the ship’s primary life-support system was running a diagnostic cycle, which meant the heating grids in the bunk area were completely dead for the next six hours.
"It's freezing," You muttered, walking into the main cabin while rubbing Your arms. Your breath formed a faint plume of mist in the dim, emergency-red lighting. "Tell me the Astrophage didn't die."
"Astrophage is fine," Ryland said, huddled on the small bench with a thick insulation blanket wrapped around his shoulders. He probably looked like a miserable space-penguin, his teeth clicking together. "The ship is just re-routing power. It’s going to be like a meat locker in here until zero-four-hundred."
You stood there, shivering, looking at the tiny bench and then at him. The blanket Ryland was holding was the only heavy-duty thermal layer outside of the EVA suits, and it was barely big enough for one person to wrap themselves in completely.
"Move over," You said suddenly.
Ryland's eyes widened. "What?"
"Move over, Grace. Basic thermodynamics," You said, stepping up to the bench and not waiting for his permission. "Two bodies generate more thermal mass than one. If we sit separately, we both freeze. If we share the blanket, we don't. Scootch over."
Oh, boy. Okay. Thermodynamics. Sure. Let's go with that, Ryland’s brain scrambled for a counter-argument—something about personal space, or the psychological boundaries of a command structure—but You were already sitting down right next to him.
The contact was immediate and total. Your thigh pressed firmly against his from hip to knee. Ryland let out a small, choked gasp as You reached out, grabbing the edges of the heavy silver blanket and pulling it over both of Your laps, tucking it in tight around Your sides.
"Jesus, you're like a furnace," You whispered, leaning Your shoulder heavily against his.
Ryland literally couldn't breathe. Every single point of contact felt like it was branded with fire. The touch-starvation he had been trying to ignore for weeks violently rushed to the surface, making his entire body tremble. He wanted to pull away out of sheer, overwhelming panic, but his instincts—the deep, primal part of him that was absolutely starving for human warmth—forced him to stay rooted to the spot.
"I—uh. High metabolism," Ryland managed to choke out. He was staring straight ahead, his arms locked tight against his chest to keep from accidentally grabbing You. "Lots of... caloric intake."
"Mmm. Keep talking," You murmured. Your head dropped, Your cheek resting softly against his shoulder. Your eyes drifted shut, exhausted from the day's repairs. "Your voice is nice. It's warm."
A giant, heavy lump formed in Ryland's throat. He looked down at the top of Your head, the messy strands of Your hair just inches from his lips. You looked so vulnerable like this, stripped of the survivalist bravado You wore during the work shifts. You were just a guy, millions of miles away from everything You had ever known, looking for comfort in the dark.
Slowly, deliberately, Ryland let his arm relax. He allowed his shoulder to sink into Yours, absorbing the heavy, comforting weight of Your body. He let out a long, trembling exhale, his eyes stinging with sudden, hot tears.
He was so goddamn lonely. And You were right here.
Ryland didn't sleep at all that night. He spent the entire six hours frozen in place, listening to the steady, rhythmic sound of Your breathing, his heart keeping time with Yours under the silver blanket, completely intoxicated by the simple, quiet magic of being held.
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Chapter 3: The Breaking Point
The tension didn't disappear when the heat came back on. It got way worse.
It was in the way Your eyes lagged on him while he worked in the lab. It was in the way Ryland's hand would shake whenever he passed You a tool, Your fingers deliberately brushing against his, lingering just a second too long. The air inside the Hail Mary became thick, charged with an invisible static electricity that had nothing to do with the ship's reactors.
The breaking point happened during a routine inspection of the fuel lines in the lower maintenance crawlspace.
It was a space less than four feet high, requiring both of them to crawl on their hands and knees amidst a maze of pulsing pipes and bundles of wiring. Ryland was in the lead, holding a diagnostic scanner, his breath echoing loudly inside the cramped metal tube.
"Okay, the primary manifold looks... wait," Ryland stopped, squinting at the screen. "That’s weird. The pressure here is higher than it should be."
"Let me see," You said from behind him.
You crawled forward, Your body moving over his until You were draped over his back, Your chest pressing firmly against Ryland's shoulder blades as You leaned over his shoulder to look at the scanner. The heat of Your torso radiated through his jumpsuit, Your breath hot and sharp against the sensitive skin of his neck.
Ryland's hand shook so violently he dropped the scanner. It clattered against the metal floor.
"Ryland?" You asked quietly.
"I can't—" Ryland choked out, his voice cracking completely. The proximity, the smell of You, the absolute weight of Your body pressing him down into the metal deck was too much. The wire finally snapped. "I can't do this, ███. I can't."
"Can't do what?"
"This!" Ryland burst out, twisting around in the cramped space until he was lying on his back, staring up at You. You were hovering directly over him, Your hands planted on either side of his head, your faces inches apart. His chest was heaving, his eyes wide and frantic. “Do you realize what you’re doing to me? You’re always close—always finding some excuse to touch me. Every glance, every brush of your hand, drives me completely insane. We’re the last two men left in the universe, ███. I should be focused on saving the world, but instead, you’re all I can think about. No matter how hard I try, my mind keeps coming back to you.”
The silence that followed was deafening, save for the low, rhythmic hum of the ship’s engines. Ryland immediately regretted it. Stupid, stupid, stupid, he thought, wanting to dissolve into the floorboards. He just confessed to his crewmate. Now it’s going to be weird forever. Oh, great. Brilliant job, Grace.
But You didn't look shocked at all. Your eyes darkened, a heavy, intense heat flaring in Your gaze that made Ryland's breath catch in his throat.
“You think you’re the only one?” You whispered, your voice dropping into a low, steady tone that made the air between you feel heavier. Your gaze held his firmly as you stepped just a little closer, enough for the space between you to tighten. “Ryland… I’ve been watching you for weeks. The way you move around the lab, the way you talk about science—like it’s the only thing that matters.” Your breath hitched slightly, honesty slipping through the control in your voice. “I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I honestly thought I was going crazy.”
Before Ryland could even process the words, You leaned down, closing the distance between them.
The kiss wasn't gentle. It was a collision of months of suppressed terror, loneliness, and raw, burning lust. Your lips slammed into his, hard and demanding, parting his mouth instantly. Ryland let out a loud, needy groan, his hands flying up to grip Your shoulders, his fingers digging deep into the fabric of Your shirt as he pulled You down onto him.
The taste of You was intoxicating. Your tongue slid into his mouth, claiming the wet space with a fierce, possessive hunger that made his hips buck involuntarily against Yours. The friction of your bodies rubbing together in the tight, hot crawlspace was a sensory explosion. Ryland’s mind went entirely blank, his intellect completely melting away under the onslaught of Your mouth.
You pulled back just an inch, Your lips slick, Your breath coming in ragged gasps as You stared down at him. "The lab," You muttered against his skin, Your thumb tracing his jawline with a fierce, trembling grip. "Now."
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Chapter 4: The Chemistry of Displacement
The transition from the maintenance shaft to the lab counter was a blur of friction and oxygen deprivation. Ryland’s brain, normally a finely tuned instrument of logic and sequence, was failing him. It was short-circuiting under the sheer volume of tactile data.
You. Your hands. Your weight.
When You shoved him back against the edge of the primary examination table, the cold stainless steel bit into his lower back through his jumpsuit, creating a jarring, freezing contrast to the blistering heat of Your body wedged between his thighs. You reached down, Your fingers hooking into the front zipper of his uniform and tearing it down with a sharp, heavy snap.
"Jumpsuit off, Grace," You ordered, Your voice dropping into a low, quiet authority that Ryland had never heard before. It wasn't the voice of a co-astronaut; it was the voice of someone taking absolute territory. "Hands at your sides. Don’t move."
Ryland's breath hitched, a frantic, high-pitched whimper escaping his throat. He wanted to argue—he was the primary science officer, for heaven's sake—but his arms felt like lead. The touch-starvation he had been harboring for a year had turned into a physical dependency the second Your bare chest pressed against his. His eyelids fluttered closed, his heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
"Look at me," You commanded, Your palm coming down in a firm, heavy slap against his clothed thigh. The sharp crack echoed through the sterile bay, sending a jolt of pure electricity straight to his groin. "I didn't say you could close your eyes, Grace."
Ryland’s eyes snapped open, his pupils completely blown out, reflecting the emergency red lighting of the bay. He was flushed a deep, brilliant crimson from his chest to his ears. “I’m looking,” he gasped out, his voice cracking with a vulnerability that embarrassed him. “I’m looking. Please...”
You didn't rush. You reached over, grabbing a tube of medical-grade conductive gel from the lab supply rack. Ryland watched in a daze of anticipation as You flipped the cap with Your thumb and squeezed a generous, thick pooling of the clear fluid over Your fingers.
When Your wet, gel-slicked fingertips first touched the tight, un-stretched skin of his entrance, Ryland violently bucked off the table.
“Ah—wait! Wait, that’s—”
“Easy,” You said, Your voice calm but completely unyielding as Your free hand pinned his hip flat against the steel with inescapable force. “You’re too tight, Ryland. If I don’t take my time opening you up, I’ll end up hurting you.” Your hands stayed steady at his hips, grounding him as You leaned in slightly. “Breathe... and relax for me.”
Ryland bit his lip so hard he tasted copper, his knuckles turning white as he clawed at the edges of the metal table for purchase. You pushed one finger inside, testing the resistance, and Ryland let out a ragged, choked sob. It was an overwhelming, invasive fullness. His internal walls convulsed around You, desperately fighting the intrusion, but Your touch was patient and firm. You began to stroke inward, Your thumb pressing against his perineum, deliberately seeking out the hyper-sensitive bundle of nerves inside.
Anatomy, Ryland’s brain scrambled, trying to cling to clinical facts to stay sane. The prostate gland. Approximately two to three centimeters inside. Surrounded by smooth muscle. Oh, great, he was doing biochemistry during a hookup, brilliant—
Then Your finger hooked upward, striking the exact spot, and all scientific thought dissolved into a high, broken wail.
“There it is,” You whispered darkly, watching the way Ryland’s head tossed back, his throat arching elegantly as fresh tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. “You like that, don’t you, Grace? You’re already slick.”
You added a second finger, then a third, stretching him with a slow, agonizingly thorough rhythm that turned his insides to molten liquid. Ryland was weeping openly now, completely undone by the preparatory torture. His lower body was entirely loose, weeping precum onto his own stomach, primed and completely hollowed out for You.
By the time You withdrew Your fingers with a wet, heavy slide, Ryland was shaking from head to toe, completely dependent on Your hands to keep him from sliding off the table.
You didn't give him a moment to recover. You lined Your thick, rigid length against his dripping entrance. Ryland stared down at the sheer scale of You, his breath completely stalling in his lungs. You were thick-veined, heavy, and stretching him open visually before You even entered.
With a slow, deliberate lean of Your hips, You began to sink inside.
“Oh, God… ███—!” Ryland shrieked, a desperate, breathless cry tearing from his lungs as his body was forced to accommodate Your massive girth. It felt like being split open from the inside out, an impossible, suffocating fullness that buried deeper and deeper until You bottomed out, Your hips locking hard against his.
Ryland let out a long, trembling sob, his eyes wide and glazed with a mixture of shock and sheer, unadulterated ecstasy. You were so deep he could feel the throb of Your pulse against his internal walls.
“You took all of it,” You muttered, Your chest rising and falling as You secured Your grip around his waist, holding him firmly against the table. “Now we’re staying right here until you’re completely ruined, got it?”
You didn't rush the climax. For the next forty-five minutes, You subjected Ryland to a brutal, agonizingly prolonged demonstration of human stamina. You locked into a slow, heavy, punishing pace—withdrawing until almost the crowning tip left his hole, only to plunge back in to the hilt, deliberately crushing his prostate with every single stroke. The lab filled with the explicit, wet sounds of Your coupling. Ryland was completely reduced, a sobbing, whining mess under Your weight.
Every time he felt the explosive wave of a climax building in his lower stomach, the desperation became too much to bear.
“Ah... nn-nh, no, please…” Ryland whimpered, his voice dissolving into a broken, high-pitched whine of pure sensory frustration. It wasn't a shout, but a pathetic, breathless plea, completely ruined by the heat. “Don’t stop… ███, please, I’m right there… let me, please let me…”
Beneath You, Ryland's hips bucked frantically in tiny, useless twitches, his internal walls constricting in a desperate, weeping search for friction. He was teetering on the razor-thin edge of a helpless climax, his chest heaving as a soft sob caught in his throat.
But You weren't about to let him off that easily.
With a low growl, You suddenly halted Your rhythm. You buried Your massive length to the hilt, pinning Ryland flat against the desk to freeze him completely in place.
"Ah, ah, puppy," You purred darkly against his ear, Your hot breath making him shudder. "Who told you that you could cum?"
Ryland let out a tortured, wet whimper, his entire body shaking as the sudden lack of movement left him stranded and agonizingly close at the absolute peak. He tried to squirm against Your thickness, a quiet, desperate sob spilling past his lips. But You locked him down, reaching around to wrap Your fingers securely around the base of Ryland's rigid, leaking length—completely blocking his release.
Ryland’s eyelids fluttered open, his blue eyes completely drowned in tears of sheer overstimulation. He looked at Your dominant, unyielding expression and completely fractured. “███,” he wept, his fingers clawing at Your shoulders, pulling You down into a messy, wet kiss. “I’m all yours. M-Move… please, please… move.”
You stopped him once. You stopped him twice. You stopped him a third time, stretching the encounter out for nearly an hour until Ryland’s mind was completely blank, his intellect entirely burned away by the kinky, agonizing denial. He was nothing but a weeping, trembling instrument for Your pleasure.
Only when his internal walls were violently spasming around You in an involuntary, desperate rhythm did You finally release Your grip on his length. You picked up the pace to a blinding, savage blur, hammering into him one final time, driving Ryland over the edge into a messy, cataclysmic release that left him squealing.
┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈┈⸝⸝
Epilogue: The Equilibrium of Rest
Two hours later, the science bay was quiet again.
The sterile lights had been dimmed back to a soft, ambient glow. The data screens were still blinking silently in the background, tracking the course of the Hail Mary through the infinite dark, but for the first time since the mission began, the ship didn't feel like a tomb.
Ryland was lying curled on his side on the narrow examination bench, his head resting securely on Your bare chest. His jumpsuit was loosely pulled back up to his waist, his skin still flushed, breathing in slow, exhausted drafts. Your arm was wrapped securely around his shoulders, Your fingers mindlessly tracing small, soothing circles into the bare skin of his back.
Oh, wow, Ryland thought, his brain finally functioning at a normal, non-panicked baseline. We actually did that. I just got completely unmade by my crewmate on a sterile lab counter. Very professional, Grace.
But as he felt the steady, heavy thump of Your heartbeat beneath his cheek, the lingering spark of anxiety completely evaporated. The suffocating loneliness that had been weighing down on his chest for months was just... gone. Replaced by a profound, heavy warmth.
"Hey," You murmured quietly, Your voice a low rumble against his ear that made his stomach do a pleasant little flip.
Ryland shifted slightly, a soft, content sigh leaving his lips as he snuggled closer into Your side, his nose pressing into the crook of Your neck. "Hmm?"
"You're not overthinking the physics of what just happened, are you?"
Ryland let out a faint, sleepy chuckle, his fingers reaching out to lightly trace the line of Your jaw. "Actually," he whispered, a tired, dorky smile touching his lips. "I was just doing the math on our proximity. And I think the co-efficiency of friction between us is... absolutely perfect."
You smiled, leaning down to press a soft, lingering kiss to his forehead. Out here, in the cold, unyielding void of space, the universe was vast and terrifying. But inside the tiny metal walls of the Hail Mary, tucked securely in each other's arms, You both had found exactly what You needed to survive.
﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌﹌
Hey, Writer San here. I’m pretty new to writing on Tumblr, so this is one of my first attempts at a fanfic. I really hope you enjoyed reading it and that it was to your liking…
If you have any thoughts, feedback, criticism, or even some suggestions, I’d genuinely appreciate it. Don’t be shy. Please.
Thanks so much for taking the time to read this. Bye-bye!♥︎
SUMMARY: A night-shift doctor and a microbiologist are matched on a dating app not knowing their lives are already intertwined.
# # TAGS: Chatfic, Epistolary, Emails, Text Messages, Transcripts, Single Dad!Reader, ER Doctor!Reader, Teacher!Ryland Grace, Miscommunication, You've Got Mail Type Beat, Romcom-ish, Marissa is Mentioned
## WARNINGS: Minor Suggestive Themes, Canon-Typical Dread, No Beta The Formatting Was Driving Me Nuts, Please Pretend You Like Batman If You Didn't Already
NOTES: I had an insane amount of fun writing this. I ADORE EPISTOLARIES. Don't you just love media that makes you feel like you're in other people's business? No background is specified as to why the reader is a single father. The reader's daughter is unnamed, but nicknamed 'Birdie'. No use of Y/N, no specification of reader's height nor form. 3.k words.
Thursday, 8:54 PM
PetriParker:
Hello
Sorry, I'm a bit confused
I was scrolling, then this chat box popped up
B4tman_26:
I think it's because we 'matched'.
PetriParker:
Ohh
How does one 'match'?
B4tman_26:
From my understanding, you swiped on my profile and I swiped on yours.
Saw something we both liked, apparently.
PetriParker:
Ohh
B4tman_26:
Yes.
PetriParker:
Sorry
I make it obvious that I don't use these apps, don't I?
B4tman_26:
That's alright.
I don't use them either.
PetriParker:
My friend Marissa set this up for me
B4tman_26:
Does she also think you need to be 'putting yourself out there' more?
PetriParker:
Haha. Exactly!
B4tman_26:
My daughter feels the same.
PetriParker:
Oh, you have a daughter
B4tman_26:
Yes, I thought I'd get that out of the way.
Wouldn't want any surprises.
PetriParker:
Haha, yeah.
Thursday, 10:42 PM
[ PetriParker is typing... ]
PetriParker:
So, Batman?
B4tman_26:
Yes?
Are you a fan?
PetriParker:
Hmm
No, he's okay
I'm not really into DC
B4tman_26:
I thought so, Petri Parker.
PetriParker:
Haha. Clever, right?
B4tman_26:
Petri, as in petri dishes?
You work in a lab?
PetriParker:
Yes
Well, I did, but not anymore
I'm a microbiologist
B4tman_26:
Impressive.
PetriParker:
And you?
What do you do?
B4tman_26:
I'm an ER doctor. I work the night shift.
PetriParker:
Woah. Very cool
And intense
Ohh
Batman, because you work nights
B4tman_26:
You got it.
PetriParker:
Haha. I like that
I'm actually a bit surprised that you matched with me. I didn't think anyone would be interested because I don't have a picture of myself on my profile
B4tman_26:
I don't have a picture on mine, either.
And I thought me having a daughter would throw you off.
Yet here we are.
PetriParker:
Yet here we are
B4tman_26:
Why'd you swipe?
PetriParker:
Well, I didn't see your face
But one of your pictures was the best-looking casserole I have ever seen in my entire life
B4tman_26:
Are you a homecook yourself?
PetriParker:
The opposite, really
I kinda suck
But I'm willing to learn
Why'd you swipe on me?
B4tman_26:
The beach in one of your photos looked familiar.
PetriParker:
Woah. Really?
B4tman_26:
Really.
It looked like Baker Beach.
PetriParker:
No way!
It is!
B4tman_26:
Baker Beach in Cali?
PetriParker:
Yes!
B4tman_26:
Small world.
PetriParker:
Are you from the Bay Area?
B4tman_26:
Around there, yeah.
PetriParker:
Veeeryy small world.
Friday, 5:42 AM
New message from: Birdie 🪶
Birdie 🪶:
warmest greetings, father
You:
Morning, sweetheart.
You're up early.
Something on fire?
Birdie 🪶:
no we're all good for now
i just wanted to ask you if you could pick up some eggs before you get home
You:
We're out already?
Birdie 🪶:
yes i was baking last night
You:
What'd you make?
Birdie 🪶:
just some cupcakes
oh and pls don't forget that you have that PTA meeting today
You:
Ugh.
Birdie 🪶:
YOU HAVE TO GO
you've missed so many of those already
and mr. grace wants to talk to you
You:
Why? You're in trouble?
Birdie 🪶:
no im not!
he just wants to talk to you so he can tell u how much of a cool and intelligent student i am
also because i was recruited into the academic decathlon team. i'm representing the science department
You:
Holy moly, really?
That's freakin awesome.
I'm so proud of you!
Birdie 🪶:
thank you please refrain from saying holy moly
or freakin
You:
Which one's the teacher that needs to talk to me?
Birdie 🪶:
mr. grace
he's the science teacher
he has to talk to you because of permission slips and stuff like that i think
You:
Which teacher is that again?
Birdie 🪶:
the one with the glasses
You:
Not ringing any bells.
Plenty of your teachers have glasses
Birdie 🪶:
uhhh
OH OH
remember like, two months ago
during the bake sale
he tripped over some boxes and stuff and you caught him in your arms and the whole school was talking about it for weeks?
You:
Oh
That Mr. Grace
Birdie 🪶:
yes
You:
He's kinda cute, isn't he?
Birdie 🪶:
WHATTTT
You:
I'm just teasing.
I won't miss the PTA.
Love you, Bird. Be home in an hour.
Birdie 🪶:
love you too
don't forget eggs!
WAIT DAD
DAD
DAD
DAD
You:
What happened??
Birdie 🪶:
did you get any luck from that dating app i set up for you
You:
Young lady, that is classified information.
Birdie 🪶:
what the heck!!
i have the right to know
i am your daughter also i made the account
You:
I matched with a guy named Nunya.
Birdie 🪶:
real mature
You:
Nunya business.
Birdie 🪶:
that's not how the joke works. i have to ask you who nunya is then you say nunya business but otherwise the joke DOESN'T work and you are just lame
You:
It's genuinely too early for this.
Go away.
Birdie 🪶:
DONT FORGET THE EGGS
Friday, 6:32 PM
Contact added: Mr. Grace
You:
Good evening, Mr. Grace.
Sorry about the whole fiasco earlier.
Mr. Grace:
Hi, good evening!
I'm glad my number works, haha
Oh, don't mention it
It's totally fine. It wasn't yours or your daughter's fault at all
Parents can be quite competitive when it comes to their kids
You:
You can say that again.
Mr. Grace:
Either way, nothing they could've argued was going to make me change my mind
Abby is a bright girl, but your daughter is an exceptional student
I can't think of anyone more fitting to represent the science department on the academic team
You:
Science has always been an interest of hers.
Mr. Grace:
I could tell
I appreciate you contacting me
It'll be easier for me to give you updates
The academic decathlon requires some time and training away from the school
You:
Of course. I don't mind.
I trust you, Mr. Grace.
Mr. Grace:
I'm glad to hear it
You:
Still stuck in the PTA?
Mr. Grace:
Oh, yes. I'll be here all night
You:
All night? I thought the meeting ended at 6.
Mr. Grace:
It should
But some parents tend to show up still
And if you're not available, they will be very angry at you
You:
How unfair.
Mr. Grace:
It is
And above my pay grade
But at the end of the day, they just care about their kids
At least they want to show up, you know? It's worse the other way around
You:
That's nice of you, Mr. Grace
Mr. Grace:
I should get going
I hope you get some rest yourself
I'm glad we were able to speak today
You:
The pleasure's mine.
Though I did have a few more questions about the training routine.
Mr. Grace:
Oh! By all means, please ask me anything
You:
I was hoping to ask you in person.
My hands are a little too full for texting at the moment.
Would you mind if I stopped by tomorrow afternoon again?
I'll be there to pick my daughter up.
[ typing... ]
Mr. Grace:
Yes, of course!
Nno problem at all
Come by anytime
You know where to find me
I mean, you don't
But I'll be in the faculty
You:
Alright.
Do you drink coffee?
Mr. Grace:
I like
[ typing... ]
I like caramel macchiatos
You:
That's cute.
ⓘ Not Delivered.
Have a good night, Mr. Grace
Mr. Grace:
Good night
Saturday, 7:32 PM
PetriParker:
What's for dinner?
B4tman_26:
Nothing special. Orange chicken.
PetriParker:
Oh wow
That looks really good
If that's nothing special I can't imagine what you'd cook for an occasion
B4tman_26:
And you?
Dinner?
PetriParker:
I spend an evening of champions
Noodles and night time telenovelas
B4tman_26:
Sounds like my kinda’ night.
PetriParker:
Speaking of night, are you heading off to work?
Gotham isn't going to save itself
B4tman_26:
You're one to talk, Spider-man.
But yes. I'm heading off soon.
I eat dinner with my daughter before I start my shifts.
PetriParker:
That's nice
B4tman_26:
How was your day?
PetriParker:
Oh boy
Are we at the ‘how was your day’ part?
B4tman_26:
Awful, isn’t it?
I bet you've got a whole roster of guys asking you how your day was.
I, a mere fish in your sea.
PetriParker:
Hey, I wouldn't say ‘roster’
You make it sound like I've got them coming left and right
That sounds wrong
B4tman_26:
So you have been talking to other men?
I thought I was special.
PetriParker:
Har-har. Very funny
This is a dating app, after all
B4tman_26:
You're right. Fair enough.
That said, I've only had time for you.
PetriParker:
I bet you say that to all the other guys
B4tman_26:
I mean it. I'm a busy man.
How was your day?
Saturday, 7:40 PM
New message from: RYLAND
RYLAND:
I think I have a type
MARISSA:
Which is a miracle in and of itself
I'm guessing the dating profile's working out alright?
RYLAND:
Yes
I mean I get one or two matches a night, but there's this one guy
MARISSA:
Send me a picture before you say anything else
RYLAND:
He doesn't have a picture on his profile
MARISSA:
What
Rookie mistake, Ry
He probably works at a gas station
RYLAND:
No he doesn't!
Also I don't have a picture on my profile either, so we're even
MARISSA:
Then are you here to tell me that your type in guys are the ones you can't see
RYLAND:
No
Worse
[ typing... ]
I think I'm into single dads
MARISSA:
Oh my GOD Ryland
I mean I knew you had issues but
???
RYLAND:
Okay, listen
I worded it wrong
I don't like dads
I think I just like that they're responsible?
MARISSA:
So you've been on that app looking for dads ??
RYLAND:
No!
No it just so happens that the guy I matched with is a dad
And
I might be crushing on my kid's dad
MARISSA:
You're hopeless, Grace
You've got TWO?
Had fun at the PTA, did you??
RYLAND:
Hey it's not like I'm two-timing!
The other one's just a crush
MARISSA:
Jesus christ
We're in our 30s
We don't CRUSH on people anymore
Make a move for god's sake
If he likes you, he likes you
If he doesn't, NEXT
RYLAND:
I will NOT make a move on my student's father. That poor girl
But I have been flirting with the online guy if it's of any comfort
MARISSA:
It's not
But hey, at least you're out there
Tell me how it goes
RYLAND:
Oh god
MARISSA:
What
RYLAND:
I just realized something
Is this one of those apps where guys chat and eventually hook up?
MARISSA:
That's how a lot of dating sites go, but it's not always the case
You scared he's gonna book you a hotel?
RYLAND:
I just
Hadn't thought of it till now
MARISSA:
Relax, Ry
He can't make you do anything you don't want to do
Now that I'm thinking about it, it's a good thing you didn't put your picture on there
Just have your fun, yeah? That's the beauty of being anonymous on the internet
Saturday, 11:21 PM
PetriParker:
Can I ask you something?
B4tman_26:
Still awake?
PetriParker:
Yes
Oh, sorry
I forget you're on the clock
B4tman_26:
It's okay, I can talk.
What were you going to ask me?
PetriParker:
It's about your work, actually
What sort of doctor are you?
I mean I know you're an ER doctor, but do you take specific cases?
B4tman_26:
You don't really get to choose which cases to take when you're in emergency med.
My job's to get people stable.
I specialize in whatever comes my way.
Why? Need a diagnosis?
PetriParker:
No, just curious
B4tman_26:
Got it.
You're simply in an asking mood.
PetriParker:
It's for the Daily Bugle
B4tman_26:
What about you?
PetriParker:
Me?
B4tman_26:
Yeah, Mr. Microbiologist.
What's your specialization?
PetriParker:
Molecular Biology.
But right now I'm a teacher.
B4tman_26:
Like, a professor?
PetriParker:
No, I teach middle school.
B4tman_26:
Huh.
PetriParker:
What?
B4tman_26:
Nothing
I just
[ ... ]
What are you doing teaching kids with a degree in molecular biology?
PetriParker:
Felt like a higher calling, I guess
B4tman_26:
I see.
Saturday, 11:30 PM
New message from: RYLAND
RYLAND:
Is it unattractive to be a middle school teacher???
MARISSA:
What??
RYLAND:
Is that a thing that throws guys off??
MARISSA:
Maybe you got him imagining Miss Frizzle
Did you tell him you're a teacher?
RYLAND:
Yes! But I also told him I have a degree in molecular biology!
Shouldn't that cancel out??
MARISSA:
Heck if I know, man
OH, tell him you have a doctorate. That'll get him back
RYLAND:
Should I?? I don't wanna sound like I'm bragging
What if he thinks I'm trying to one-up him as a doctor?
MARISSA:
You might be overthinking this
RYLAND:
Mayb
WAIT HE SENT ME SOMETHING
Sunday, 12:01 AM
B4tman_26:
PetriParker:
Looks quiet over there
B4tman_26:
Oh god.
Now you've done it.
PetriParker:
What?
B4tman_26:
Don't you know you're not supposed to say that in an ER? It's like saying Macbeth at a play.
You've jinxed it.
PetriParker:
I'm sorry!
B4tman_26:
It's on you, Parker.
You're gonna owe me if my night goes bad.
PetriParker:
Oh, gosh
What ever will I owe you, Mr. Wayne?
B4tman_26:
I'm yet to decide.
PetriParker:
Seriously though, I hope nothing goes wrong
I didn't mean to say that
B4tman_26:
I know.
Just wanted to scare you.
What are you up to this late?
PetriParker:
Paperwork
None of which are due
I just like to keep busy
B4tman_26:
Looks like we're both relatively occupied, then.
PetriParker:
Relatively
Hey, you like Batman, right?
Do you also like Superman?
B4tman_26:
He's alright.
PetriParker:
He's alright, he says, in true Batman fashion
B4tman_26:
Batman fans are not famously Superman fans.
PetriParker:
What would you say is your 'kryptonite'?
B4tman_26:
Getting shot.
PetriParker:
Huh???
B4tman_26:
Kryptonite is the thing that kills Superman, right?
I don't respond particularly well to bullets.
PetriParker:
No, it's his weakness!
B4tman_26:
Okay well my weakness is getting shot.
PetriParker:
Quit it! You're teasing me
B4tman_26:
What's your weakness, then?
PetriParker:
Dads, apparently
ⓘ Message Not Sent.
I dunno! I'm weak to a good jelly donut
B4tman_26:
Lame answer.
PetriParker:
How is that lamer than getting shot!
B4tman_26:
What is the context of this 'weakness'?
Like, is it a physical weakness? A mental weakness?
PetriParker:
I don't know
Maybe like
Things that you like in people? Things that'll have you wrapped around someone's finger?
B4tman_26:
Why didn't you just say that?
Okay, I'll give you a real answer.
Glasses.
PetriParker:
Are
Are you serious
B4tman_26:
Yeah. Guys with glasses.
Super cute.
PetriParker:
Hahaha
B4tman_26:
You?
PetriParker:
Guys who like Batman...
B4tman_26:
Do I have news for you.
Sunday, 1:34 AM
PetriParker:
Hey
B4tman_26:
Still awake?
PetriParker:
Sorry
Are you busy?
B4tman_26:
No. But you should be asleep.
PetriParker:
I can't sleep
No school tomorrow, anyway
B4tman_26:
I'll keep you company, then.
PetriParker:
My hero.
[ ... ]
You know about the Petrova Problem, right?
B4tman_26:
Pretty sure everyone does.
Why?
PetriParker:
I don't know
I'm just thinking about it tonight
B4tman_26:
Is it making you anxious?
PetriParker:
I think it makes everyone anxious
Still, does it ever feel weird that the world is just
moving on?
I mean, the apocalypse was announced and everyone's just going about their days
B4tman_26:
I know what you mean.
The danger isn't imminent, so people aren't losing their heads I suppose.
Everyone trusts that a solution will appear.
PetriParker:
Do you?
B4tman_26:
Trust in a solution?
Yes. I have to.
One way or another, it'll turn up.
PetriParker:
Faith in humanity and all that?
B4tman_26:
Yeah.
Exactly.
ⓘ The preceding transcripts were recovered from the central USS Kilauea auxiliary comms unit. The names of particular dependencies have been redacted in compliance with the International Non-Disclosure Act regarding the Petrova Event.
Your professional experience and prior research history have been identified as relevant to an ongoing international initiative.
Our records indicate your participation in multiple research programs concerning human physiological resilience, including co-authorship on NASA-affiliated studies. Specifically, your contributions to the publication “Effects of Prolonged Circadian Misalignment on Cognition in Simulated Spaceflight Conditions” and supporting data analysis for simulated isolation environments (HAB-3 Cognitive Retention Trial) demonstrate direct relevance to current mission-critical human performance modeling.
Additional involvement is noted in data collection for the ▇▇▇▇ Habitat Study on sleep fragmentation and cognitive task retention. In light of recent developments, these experiences warrant further evaluation.
You are requested to attend a consultation with representatives of the Petrova Taskforce.
Date: ▇▇▇▇
Time: ▇▇▇
Location: ▇▇▇▇
Transportation arrangements will be provided upon confirmation of attendance.
Please note that details regarding the nature of this consultation cannot be disclosed through unsecured communication. A representative will contact you directly within twelve hours.
0:07⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Hello, Eva Stratt. No, I am not interested in selling my property at the moment. I keep telling my daughter to unlist our number from your site but she keeps forgetting to do it. Kids these days, am I right?
0:11⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Doctor.
0:11⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀And if you're not here to ask me to sell my property, then no, I am not interested in purchasing any of your products. Actually—unless you're selling washing machines. Mine just broke and I could use a new —
0:15⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Doctor, I'm with the Petrova Taskforce.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I am not here to buy or sell you anything.
0:15⠀⠀[ SILENCE. ]
0:17⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Oh.
0:17⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀You are a very difficult man to reach.
0:18⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I have a busy schedule.
0:18⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Not at the moment though, yes?
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀You've just finished your shift.
0:20⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I don't like that you know that.
0:21⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Let me reintroduce myself.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀My name is Eva Stratt, I am the Head of the Petrova Taskforce and I am calling you regarding a certain offer you've declined.
0:25⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀If you already know I've declined, why are you calling?
0:26⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I thought I might try to convince you.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Change your mind.
0:28⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[ BACKGROUND NOISE.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀SCREEN DOOR OPENING,
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀DOGS BARKING IN THE DISTANCE. ]
0:30⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Doctor?
0:32⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Look, I've had this conversation before.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I've already spoken to one of your representatives. I attended the briefing, I read the files.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I am not interested, Miss Stratt.
0:36⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I must confess something to you.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I didn't call to change your mind.
0:38⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[ LAUGHTER. ]
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀No?
0:39⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀No.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I called to help you understand the urgency of the situation; and why what will be done, must be done.
0:41⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Birdie.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Get down from there —
0:42⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Your offer is no longer an offer and is now a mandate.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀It is crucial that you comply.
0:44⠀⠀[ FEMALE VOICE IN
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀THE BACKGROUND.]
0:45⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I don't care if it's almost fixed.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀We'll call the cable guy. Get off the roof.
0:46⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[ SIGH. ]
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Doctor?
0:50⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Sorry — yes, I'm here.
0:51⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Is that your daughter?
0:55⠀⠀[ SHUFFLING. ]
0:56⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Yes.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Get inside.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I know, baby. I'll make breakfast. I'm just taking a call, alright? What do you want? Pancakes? Okay. Head upstairs for a bit, get your things ready.
1:01⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Do you love your daughter, Dr. ▇▇?
1:02⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀What?
1:03⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Your daughter.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Do you love her?
1:04⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀What kind of question is that.
1:05⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀You know what it is that we do.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀You know what the Taskforce is for. You know what we're trying to resolve.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀To avoid.
1:07⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I do.
1:08⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Then you understand the urgency of the matter — why I cannot settle for your refusal.
1:00⠀⠀[ SILENCE. ]
1:13⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[ SIGH. ]
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I can't be the only person qualified to do this.
1:14⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀You're not.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀You are among a team of ten physicians.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀All of whom will oversee medical protocol for astronaut training, including pharmacological management and physiological maintenance for long-duration transit.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀We need to make sure our astronauts can make the trip in comas. Your research covers a good portion of this. The way I see it, you have what we need to get started.
1:21⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀That's ten physicians.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I say no, you've got nine more to spare.
1:23⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀No. Redundancy exists for failure tolerance. I need an efficient team and I do not have time for setbacks.
1:30⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[ STOVE TURNING ON. ]
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[ BRIEF STATIC. ]
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[ RADIO IN THE BACKGROUND. ]
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Well, I've got a problem, Miss Stratt.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Two, it seems.
1:34⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Do tell.
1:38⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀The first one is I'm out of butter.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀The second is that I am my daughter's only parent.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I do not have any immediate family that I can entrust her with. And I’m not leaving her with a rota schedule of babysitters while I disappear into Timbuktu.
1:41⠀⠀[ POTS AND PANS SHUFFLING. ]
1:56⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Joining the taskforce requires me to semi-permanently reside in the headquarters, correct?
1:58⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Correct.
1:59⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Which is, from my understanding, a government facility the middle of the ocean.
2:02⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀As a countermeasure, yes.
2:05⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Then I can't do it.
2:08⠀⠀[ SILENCE. ]
2:10⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀So we compromise.
2:10⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Miss Stratt—
2:11⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Option one: she remains in San Francisco under full state supervision, including education, housing, and guardianship provisions.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Option two: she accompanies you under taskforce protection and receives equivalent care within parameters.
2:21⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[ LAUGHTER. ]
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀You've gotta' be kidding me.
2:22⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀I am not much for jokes.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Take the girl to the ship or leave her at home.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀She will live either way.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀The only circumstance where she will not is if you do nothing and aid in the end of the world.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Her world.
2:30⠀⠀[ SIZZLING. ]
2:31⠀⠀[ FEMALE VOICE IN
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀THE BACKGROUND: ]
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Dad, I can't find my shoe!
2:33⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Make a decision.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Or we will make one for you.
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Regardless of your choice, you are joining the Taskforce, Dr. ▇▇.
2:39⠀⠀▇▇▇▇:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀[ SHUFFLING. ]
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Did you check under the couch?
2:40⠀⠀STRATT:
⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀Expect to hear from me again in twelve hours.
Ryland Grace background headcanons that I came up with because I’ve been thinking about him way too much (combo book/movie, because both. both are good.)
originally from the Bay Area and is a Bay Area LOYALIST, will literally argue that it’s the best place in the world
started his BS in Molecular Biology from University of Washington, but panicked and transferred to Stanford one year in because he missed San Francisco (and the concept of change) too much (“Seattle is just not the same as the Bay”)
He finished his terminal degrees from Stanford, going straight through from undergrad (graduating with a PhD at age 25)
He got a fancy research job post-grad, and quickly got promoted through positions, ending up in a superior position way too young (which led to him calling the leading scientist in his field a “staggering waste of carbon” at a conference, and getting fired)
He taught for 5 years before PHM, and remembered every single student’s name (he ran into a former student (recently graduated!!) at the grocery store once and asked her how her cat was)
at the end of each year, he would hand write a message to his 8th grade students who were going to High School (the last class he had before PHM banded together and framed all their notes, hanging them on the wall of the middle school after they learned he was sent to space)
his parents were both High School teachers, his mother taught math and his father taught science. he was inspired by both of them (who died when he was young)
Grace wears his glasses the way he does because that’s the way his father would wear his glasses. (he also had a tendency to lose his glasses as a kid, and it helps him keep track of them)
Rockey reminds Grace of his childhood best friend, who moved to Houston after college to work as a rocket engineer for NASA. Both of them are incredibly smart with a dry sense of humor, and would “play bully” Grace.
Grace’s childhood friend and Grace were in contact throughout PHM (they both worked on the team in various ways). He was excited to see Grace at the launch, and was sad to learn that Grace not only “volunteered” to be part of the mission, but was put under before the launch so he didn’t get to say goodbye. (Stratt showed him the video logs from the ship once the Beatles returned, and Grace’s friend named his first son Ryland)
Yk I’ve had this idea of like something to do with six. Maybe six meeting reader who is in like a similar program to the sierra program n he only ever finds out ab it because they’re told to collaborate? Could lead any which way after such tbh thats where idea ends 😓
Alternatively, something to do with Henry Letham. Anything would do, fluff, angst, anything n all. I needa rewatch the movie lwk tho cuz I got soo lost towards the end n I’m not sure if it’s because I watched half one day n the other another day or what 😓😞
henry letham x male reader
tags: sleepy morning fluff, sickfic, established relationship, canon divergence; everything is Okay, kind of proposal (it's henry after all)
a/n: this was genuinely so hard to pick dude i love them both </3 but i rewatched stay the other day and had to see him happy and cherished 😞😞
✎﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏﹏
Henry stirs very slowly. Awareness reaches him in faint threads, knitting itself together as the memory of his dream already begins to fade and he becomes aware of his body again. It's a far kinder awakening than the harsh blaring of his many alarms wrenching him from sleep most days of the week, even with the faint achiness present in his limbs.
Warmth crowds in from all sides—the flattened pillow against his cheek, the rumpled blankets and sheets he's buried in, his own body heat, soaked into the mattress beneath him—and still he's cold. He's quick to notice its terrible absence in his foot, where it sticks out from under the covers, and just as swiftly he pulls it back in, curling into himself.
In the same motion, eyes still pressed loosely shut, he swings his leg back, searching out the man-sized furnace he shares a bed with in hopes of leeching some warmth.
When instead he finds a vague spot of ebbing warmth in the empty space behind him, Henry huffs mournfully into his pillow, prying his eyes only halfway open. He blinks a few times, eyelids sluggish and achy with an already-rooting headache, and attempts to focus on the clock on his nightstand. Drowsy as he is, he might as well be staring at it through a glass pane. A very foggy, very thick glass pane.
He turns to the window next, figures he'll have a better shot at gauging the time there—it's light out already, but the sun seems muted, pale, and isn't pooling inside the way it does around noon, so Henry estimates he can sleep in for another hour or two.
He stretches his limbs out, quivering all the way to his teeth, and then goes boneless back into his pocket of warmth right as the bedroom door creaks softly.
Henry's eyes squint back open where they'd fallen shut during a jaw-aching yawn, and more warmth finds his chest at the sight of you heedfully slipping back inside. His gaze slips when you turn to shut the door, down the expanse of your bare back and the low-sitting waistband of your shorts. How you aren't freezing your ass off is beyond him. Then again, you haven't been saddled with a particularly stubborn fever for the last several days.
"Oh," you say upon spotting his drooping, sleepy blues gazing up at you. "You're up early."
"What time'sit?" he mumbles, rolling over to face your half of the bed and patting your vacant spot with his palm.
"Just past eight," you reply as you crawl up the mattress and settle in beside him. "How are you feeling?"
"Where'd you go?" He demands in lieu of an answer, distantly aware of how disgruntled the question comes out, but sue him, he doesn't enjoy waking up to an empty bed anymore, especially after he had to banish you back to your own place for a few nights so he wouldn't get you sick before finishing with your finals. So, he just tucks his nose against the junction of your shoulder and neck and sighs.
"Had to take a leak, I need your permission to get out of bed now?"
Henry hums noncommitally into your shoulder, holding his tongue but swinging a thigh over your hips. Instead of a true response, he jerks both ice-cold feet out and presses them cruelly against your legs, snickering when you hiss. With great might you power through, and slip a hand up out of the covers to press flat against his cheek, then forehead.
"We might have to go to Urgent Care if your fever doesn't break," you hum, a thread of worry tightening your voice. Henry is quick to shake his head with dismissive looseness. Neither of you own a car, so he'd rather avoid paying for a ludicrously overpriced Uber—and the thought alone of stepping into a subway station in his state, with all its sounds and smells and lights, makes his head pound. Still, it hurts less than it did yesterday, and far less than the day before.
"I'll just sleep it off," Henry mumbles into your skin, weaseling a flat hand between the back of your ribcage and the bed, effectively trapping you. Already, that same sinking weight of tiredness makes itself known again in his limbs. "'M already feeling better."
Your fond puff of breath falls into his hair, followed closely by your fingers, which begin sifting through dark, sleep-mussed tufts and scratching gently over the base of his scalp. The sensation sparks feathery little chills racing down his spine, in response to which he noses further against your neck.
He has a feeling he won't be able to fall back asleep, but he keeps his body loose and his eyes shut, just to bask in the moment for as long as he can. You, on the other hand, seem to have no problem dozing off again—seeing as you had your last final exam yesterday after a particularly punishing exam season, so Henry understands, and when he eventually angles his neck up to watch your sleep-soft face, does so quietly, gingerly, so as not to disturb you.
He props his head up on his open palm, heel pressing into his temple. Your stomach rises and dips in even waves beneath his leg, eyebrows loose on your face, lips parted a mere hair's breadth.
Henry's chest feels funny just watching you. He itches to scour for his sketchbook—wherever the hell he left it—and capture you on its blank pages. But he's too tangled with you, and preserving your peace at the moment takes firm priority.
He can hardly believe it, even still, that he gets to have this. Gets to have you. For months you'd existed to him as some unattainable wonder, one he'd only permit himself to appreciate from measured distances: across a lecture hall or a few benches down from you at the subway station. Then, somehow, you'd spoken to him, your eye caught by one of his paintings at a portfolio exhibition, and the two of you hit it off so smoothly, you'd gone out to a 24-hour diner after the event and talked all night. He'd been buzzing by the time you two parted ways in the early hours of the morning, both from all the coffee he'd downed as well as the elation of having finally, properly met you.
He's endlessly fascinated by you, in a way he never is with other people. With art, certainly—maybe even a particularly good song or poem, but never people. People are fickle and frustrating, often cruel, prone to disappointing him. But since that evening you first spoke to him there was a sort of good-natured disposition to you, in the way you spoke but also in how you listened. He was so certain he'd scare you off once he'd started speaking, quoting Tristan Reveur and detailing the admittedly bleak inspiration behind his painting—but you were fascinated, seemingly as rapt with his words as he was with you.
He's pulled out of his reverie when you crack an eye open.
"Do I have toothpaste on my face or something?"
A tiny smile curls at the corner of his mouth, shaking his head as he skims his palm from your ribs along your warm, bare chest and up your neck. His palm lifts, only to leave his fingers tracing your jaw, all the way up to the hinge below your ear. Meanwhile, your own drifts lazily up and down his back over his loose sleep shirt.
"I love you," he murmurs, very matter-of-factly, swinging his thumb around to the other side of your jaw, catching it in an infirm grip. "Know that?"
"I had my suspicions," you reply playfully. "I love you, too." He feels the faint shifting of muscles under his fingertips as you draw up a soft smile. Your eyes don't stray from his mouth for an instant, but Henry keeps your head fixed on the pillow. Despite your efforts, you are endearingly easy to read.
Your hand strokes higher, the heel of your palm ultimately falling into the shallow dip between his shoulder blades and applying a degree of pressure that's more a question than anything else. Henry purses his lips, angling his head slightly away.
"You'll get sick," he says when your brows gather in a frown.
"I got my flu shot this year."
"Go back to sleep, you look exhausted."
"I should be telling you that," you grumble, still trying to urge him down into a kiss with the hand on his spine. Henry shakes his head in fond exasperation, curling his fingers to scratch down your jaw—and you seize the opportunity in order to dart your head up.
Fortunately for your immune system, regardess of the defeated groan you soon make, Henry just about manages to intercept the kiss with his palm, sealed over your mouth.
"Stubborn," he muses, pressing the pad of his thumb underneath your chin to feel it shift as you swallow, peering up at him with a cross of betrayal and amusement. Your tongue darts out, poking wetly at his hand, but Henry holds his ground. It'll take much more than that to gross him out.
If only to appease the pitiful edge to your expression, Henry ducks his head, presses a few fleeting pecks to your temple and the top of your cheek over his fingers. Your fingers drum insistently over his back, but your eyebrows loosen faintly once he leans his upper body over yours. The warmth of your breathing chest seeps into his, his skin oversensitive and tingly the way it gets when it's feverish but soothed by your body alone.
When your free hand drifts up to his narrow wrist and pulls it down, Henry doesn't resist, just straightens and blinks down at you. You kiss him, finally, and he allows it because he can very rarely deny you anything—and whatever, he's sick, he thinks he deserves a kiss from his (very mulish) boyfriend.
It's warm and chaste, but far from a quick peck. You finally return to his hair, cupping the back of his head to keep him in place while your lips slide with familiar ease against his. He thumbs blindly at your collarbone, slipping his eyes shut. Like a switch suddenly flipped, Henry forgets why he was even so adamant on not allowing you to kiss him. Well, he doesn't forget, exactly, just decides very promptly that if you do get sick, he'll gladly nurse you back to health, just as you've been doing with him.
The kiss fractures every now and again, though continually reconnects after half a beat, both of you reluctant to pull away.
Henry curls further around you when a shiver zips through him, one he isn't entirely sure is attributable to his sickness. His chest is so tight, heart stuttering under the immensity of his adoration he doesn't know what to do with it. He has to get it out somehow, put it down on paper with charcoal and paint. Feels he has to make something out of it, or else it might slip away and he won't have anything to show for it.
"Love you," he repeats against your lips, reaching up to the side of your neck, feeling under his pressing index finger the steady thump of your pulse. "Marry me."
Your smile ends up being what fully breaks the kiss. You scratch distractedly at his scalp, going a little cross-eyed as you try to meet his gaze, noses knocking.
"What a proposal. Very romantic," you tease, but Henry doesn't laugh—though not for lack of fondness. Strangely enough, he's completely untroubled, not embarassed nor anxious over what you may think or say, whether you'll be put off by the idea or move to pull away.
You won't. He knows you won't.
"I'll buy you a ring, I'll get you flowers, whatever you want," he continues, darting between both of your eyes. "You're it for me."
"Alright, loverboy." Your hand on his head comes around to cup his cheek, tracing the bag under his left eye with your thumb. "Let's think about this for a minute—"
"I'm not just saying it. I mean it."
"I know you do," you say, ever patient when it comes to him. "I'm just thinking logistics here. We're college students working minimum wage, baby."
"It doesn't matter," Henry says, smiling minutely, shaking his head despite knowing you're right. "I'll ask my parents for some money."
You laugh, and his forehead drops to your shoulder, huffing in faux defeat. It's so damn cold in this room; he presses himself flush to you, thighs and hips and chest melting into you under the covers, wishing he could crawl into you and curl up there, soaking up the heat that runs like a current under your skin. He presses his mouth to your neck for a few seconds, if only to warm his lips, and then you twist your head down, meeting his eye. He clears his scratchy throat.
"So, not a no?"
Your lips twitch, eyes tired but open and earnest. "Not a no."
He kisses you again, disregarding his prior concerns—he just can't help himself. Soon, you're both smiling too much to sustain it. Without looking away, Henry searches under the covers for your hand. Once he finds it, he lances his slender fingers between your own, imagining the feel of a smooth golden band around one of them. Imagines, for the first time in a long time, growing old, and doing it beside you.
"Get some sleep," he quietly says, then, somewhat cheekily, "Mr. Letham."
You snort, but comply and let your eyes drift shut.
Will chapter 3 of Perapsis come out soon? It's so so good, Ryland Grace doesn't have enough x male!reader fics </3 Take care man, you're a wonderful writer!
Ta-da! I just posted a new part he he. Thank you for the love. It means the world to me to know that you guys like what I put out. I'm so happy to be able to share my interests with people!
The fifty shades of grace is soooooo good I’m actually in love with ur writing will u be doing more parts to it (absolutely no pressure I’m just curious:))
I am working on a sequel for Fifty Shades of Grace right now! Thank you for the support, I'm so glad you like it!
OMG I thought for a second that what you reblogged was a continuation of periapsis and I almost exploded of happiness lmaoaldomw.
I just saw the movie and I absolutely loved itttt it's just so perfect.
Love ur work btw (≧▽≦)! I'm really excited for the next part of the fic so I'm just going to be stalking your account over here until it comes outtt...👀
Take care (*´ω`*)💗
You are too kind to me. Thank you for your support. I finally got around to updating the fic. I hope you know that you are one of the reasons I am able to stay motivated. I hope you are taking care yourself! T_T <3
PERIAPSIS. ( PART 3 ) — RYLAND GRACE x Male!READER
SUMMARY: Murphy’s Law states that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Ryland Grace would like to have a word or two with Murphy.
# # TAGS: Semi-Canon-Adjacent, Longform, Male!Pilot Reader, Eventual Rocky (No Rocky Here Yet), Hurt-Comfort, Caretaking, Injury, Slowburn-ish, There's Only One Med Pod, Part 3 of ??
# # WARNINGS: Canon-typical Space Dread, Graphic Depictions of Pain and Injury, Broken Bones, Mechanical Surgery, Bordering on Medical Gore (?), Medical Trauma, Angst, Strong Language, Inaccurate Space Science, Not Beta Read
NOTES: Thank you thank you thank you! I have no words for all the love and support I've gotten. I am so very grateful. Like, WOW! As an apology for taking so long, this chapter is relatively chunky. I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this fic as much as I enjoy writing it. As always, thank you for your patience! 6.4k words.
PART ONE, PART TWO.
TAGLIST: @screechingphantommaker, @whoislio4
The outer hatch sealed behind you with a heavy thunk. The silence that came after was horrifying to Grace. He'd scrambled to get to the intercom, nearly missing the console as he rushed to a seat. He didn’t bother buckling himself in. He put his glasses on, eyes darting around the monitors as he searched for you on the ship's external feed. Eventually, he landed on a small moving figure on one of the panels. He gripped the console, leaning in.
Telemetry scrolled down the right side of the screen. Suit pressure nominal, oxygen nominal, heart rate slightly elevated. Grace heard himself sigh in relief. “That’s comforting,” he muttered. “You’re only mildly terrified.”
Your voice crackled through the comms. “I heard that.”
Grace nearly launched himself into the ceiling. “Jesus—!”
The tether uncoiled behind you in loops, its faint clinking traveling up the steel braid and vibrating into the chest plate of your suit. Beneath you, the hull of the Hail Mary stretched out like the white belly of some prehistoric deep-sea leviathan. Overhead, the infinite empty void of space yawned open.
Back in the control room, Grace’s eyes scrambled over the main console until they finally locked onto the small microphone. “Hello?” he said, quite frantically. “Cap, can you hear me? Hello? Copy?”
You smiled behind the glass, though your brows furrowed at the obtrusive volume of Grace’s voice. You were using a handrail to orient yourself as you began the slow hand-over-hand crawl along the ship's spine. “I copy. But turn your mic down a notch, you're practically inside my skull.”
“Right! Sorry. Adjusting. Is that better?”
“Much.”
“Everything okay out there?”
“You tell me, Doc. You’re the one on the screens.” Your laugh was accompanied by static. “S’just dark as far as the eye can see over here.”
“Oh, god. Right. Okay.” You heard him shuffling across the panels. “Okay, everything looks normal. And there’s this radar here with a bunch of little green dots. None of them are near you. Well, there's one, but it's moving away. It’s moving very fast. Wow, space is terrible.”
“You’re doing great.”
The damage to the Petrova scope's antenna array was exactly as the diagnostic had described. The primary bracket was sheared through, looking like torn foil. The relay coupling, which was the little yellow case's counterpart, was warped. Its ceramic housing cracked open to expose a nest of severed fiber-optic filaments that floated like tiny transparent hairs.
“I’m onsite,” you reported, hooking your safety tether to the anchor point. “The bracket is compromised. I'm going to have to manually realign the housing before I can seat the new coupler. It's going to take some muscle. My telemetry might spike a bit; don't panic.”
“Copy that,” said Grace. You could hear him impatiently tapping against the console. “Hey, can I tell you something?”
“Talk to me, Goose.” You unclipped the tool bag from your thigh and pulled out the pneumatic wrench. The work was tedious, frustratingly restricted by the pressurized bulk of your gloves.
There was a brief crackle of static as Grace took a breath. “I’m terrified of heights.”
A soft chuckle huffed out of you, echoing inside your helmet. “If it makes you feel any better, there’s no up and down out here. Technically, no such thing as ‘height’ either. There’s no floor to catch you and no floor to fall from. We’ve got a trillion miles of absolute nothing in every direction.”
It took a while for him to respond. “You seriously thought that would make me feel better?”
Every action required an equal and opposite reaction; if you turned the wrench too hard without anchoring your hips, your whole body would swing around the bolt like a pendulum. For five agonizing minutes, the only sounds were the rhythmic whir-snap of the tool, the steady hiss-click of your suit's oxygen regulators, and Grace's occasional, anxious updates.
“Debris field is clear,” he said. He’d begun chewing on a Twizzler that he’d found floating over the panels. “Hull pressure is rock solid... You've got a slight temperature spike in your left glove, is that normal?”
“Yeah. Friction from the wrench. Keep watching.”
“Copy.”
You pulled the cracked coupling free. It drifted away on a short wire lanyard until you clipped it to your tool belt, replacing it with the pristine, yellow-housed component Grace had retrieved for you. It slid into the slot with a gratifying mechanical clack.
“Coupler is seated,” you grunted, bracing your knees against the hull as you reached for the locking lever. “Engaging the primary seal now.”
As you worked, the cause of the damage became clear. The tricky thing about traveling at the speed of light was that any loose debris you met had the calibre of a bullet. The ship's primary defense was its massive sacrificial bumper, designed to absorb the brutal kinetic energy of cosmic dust. But with the ship now in orbit, (or settling into orbit) there was hardly a need to be wary of such dangers.
Unless of course, instead of the ship propelling towards the debris, the debris was coming at you.
“Something’s wrong.” Grace sat up from his chair. “I’m getting alarms, Cap. Foreign objects detected? This wasn't here before. What the – Oh, god the green dots in the radar earlier — there’s a cluster of them now. Heading to you!”
Your head snapped up. You didn't waste time looking at the void; you wouldn’t see projectiles traveling at kilometers per second until they were already tearing through you. “How long?” you barked, having already abandoned the wrench.
It didn’t make sense to Grace. How was it coming so fast? How had Mary not seen it sooner? “Five seconds! Four—!”
You unhooked your knees from the cleats and threw your weight downward. You tried to tuck your body behind the thick, reinforced structural rib of the Petrova scope's primary housing. It was the only substantial piece of shielding within arm's reach. You pulled yourself in, curling into a tight, desperate ball against the hull. But you were a fraction of a second too late. A soundless flurry of violence erupted around you. A spray of cosmic gravel shredded the space where you had just been floating. It didn't make a sound in the vacuum, but you felt it — a series of sharp, rhythmic thuds vibrating violently through the metal hull beneath your chest. Bright sparks danced across your visor as particles vaporized against the ship's skin.
Then came the impact.
A blinding spike of agony caught your trailing left arm. One of the larger fragments slammed directly into your sleeve. Your dutiful EVA suit refused to breach, and as a result, trapped the force into your forearm and shattered the bone under your skin.
The strike spun you against your tether until your helmet snapped against the hull. You couldn’t tell if you were screaming. You were deaf to the world, hearing only the sharp singing of your broken arm.
You gasped for air, spots dancing in your eyes. You clutched your shoulder and pulled your wrist toward your chest. The pain was a sickening, throbbing white-hot fire radiating towards your entire torso. You forced your eyes to focus on the flashing HUD data overlaying the dark void.
SUIT PRESSURE: 14.7 PSI (STABLE)
O2 SUPPLY: NOMINAL
INTEGRITY: 100%
The ringing in your ears gradually subsided. In its place, came Grace’s frantic calls.
“Cap! Cap!” He was screaming into the microphone, his voice slightly distorted by the volume. “I lost your vitals — no, wait, your heart rate is at 180! The suit sensors — is there a breach? Tell me there's no breach. Talk to me!”
The multi-layered Kevlar and reinforced polymer weave of the sleeve had held, absorbing the brunt of the hit without puncturing. But the sheer force of the impact had transferred straight through the insulation.
“No… no breach,” you squeezed through gritted teeth. You pressed your forehead against your visor, sweating profusely. “Suit’s… suit’s whole, Grace.”
Grace didn’t realize he was already crying. He angrily wiped his tears away with his fist. Now was not the time. “Okay.” He sniffled. “Okay. Come back. Forget the antenna, come back now.”
“My arm,” you groaned. A choked sound escaped your throat as the throbbing intensified. Inside the rigid, heavy suit, you tried to move your hand and immediately regretted it as a fresh wave of agony made your stomach churn. “My arm's broken. I can’t move it.”
Grace paled.
It took everything in you not to vomit. In zero gravity, a broken arm wasn’t a weight-bearing problem, but a physics problem. Every time you hauled your weight forward with your single good hand, the lack of a counter-stabilizing grip sent your lower body swinging. You kept your injury as close to your body as possible, but the shattered bones under your skin felt as though they were grinding together with sickening, wet friction. You had to time each pull, slowly dragging yourself along the handrails, knowing that one missed grip meant hurtling into the void.
“I see you.” Grace’s trembling voice snapped you out of the haze. “I-I see you, Cap. You’re doing great. You’re past the thrusters. Just six meters to the airlock.” He was lying. It was eight meters. But he needed the distance to be shorter, if only to keep his own lungs from seizing up. He felt completely and utterly useless.
“Tell me… tell me about the radar,” you panted, your voice cracking as you reached for the next magnetic cleat. You needed a distraction. You needed him to talk. “Any—Any more debris?”
Grace snapped his eyes to the screens. He blinked back the tears that blurred his vision. “No. Nothing. It’s clear. You’re safe, I promise.”
“Good.” You laughed weakly. “Because I don’t think I have another dodge in me, Doc.”
“Don’t talk, just focus on the rails,” Grace pleaded. His breath shuddered. “You’re almost there. Just come inside. Please, just come inside.”
When you got closer towards re-entry, Grace abandoned his station and rushed to the nodes to get you.
The internal airlock door hadn’t finished its depressurization but Grace was already throwing it open. The sudden rush of cabin air swirled around your helmet. You barely registered it. You were slumped against the bulkhead, your right hand locked onto an emergency handle in a death grip while your left arm hung weightless.
“Oh my god, oh my god, I’ve got you,” Grace lunged into the airlock, his hands trembling so violently he could barely get a purchase on your suit’s latches.
He didn't bother with the full decompression protocol. With a frantic grunt, he popped the seals on your helmet and yanked it free. The sudden rush of cool, recycled ship air hit your sweat-drenched face, but the relief was instantly swallowed by a wave of vertigo. The cabin was spinning.
“Can you talk? A-Are you going to pass out?” Grace’s face was inches from yours, his eyes wide and panicked behind his crooked glasses.
“Don't… don't touch the left sleeve,” you wheezed, your voice a ragged whisper. Every breath felt like inhaling glass. “Just get me… out of the suit.”
“Right. Okay. Carefully. We’re going carefully.”
It was anything but careful. In microgravity, maneuvering a dead-weight human body out of a rigid multi-layered EVA suit was an Olympic sport. Doing it while trying not to jostle a shattered forearm was competing in the finals. Grace worked like a man possessed, unclipping the torso restraints and peeling the heavy material down past your hips, steering entirely clear of your left side.
When your left arm finally slid free of the inner lining, a sharp, ragged gasp tore from your throat. Without the stiff structure of the suit to hold it, the arm deformed — bending at a sickening, unnatural angle between the wrist and the elbow.
Grace let out a small, horrified squeak, the blood draining from his face. “Oh, Jesus. Okay. Don't look at it. Just look at me.”
He grabbed your right hand and draped your good arm over his shoulders, anchoring his arm around your waist to keep you from drifting. “We need to get to the lab. The med bay. Hold onto me, okay? Just hold on.”
The journey through the narrow, cylindrical corridors of the Hail Mary was an exercise in pain. Without gravity to keep you grounded, every movement required momentum. Every shift was an enemy. Grace used his free hand to pull both of your masses along the guide rails, but he wasn’t a trained astronaut; his movements were jerky and frantic.
With every forward lurch, your lower body drifted, and the momentum transmitted straight up your torso to your dangling left arm. The shattered ends of your bones shifted and ground against each other inside your swollen skin.
“Wait—Grace, stop, stop,” you choked out, your eyes squeezing shut as a violent wave of nausea hit you. Your stomach convulsed, and you had to swallow down the bitter taste of bile. If you vomited in zero gravity now, you’d choke on it.
“Stopping! I’m stopping!” Grace slammed his hand onto a handrail, bringing both of you to a sudden, jarring halt.
The abrupt deceleration sent a searing shock of lightning straight up your arm and into your brain. Your vision completely blew out into a roaring haze of grey static. You felt your knees buckle into the empty air, your chin dropping against Grace’s shoulder as you shivered from deep, systemic shock.
“Hey, hey! Stay with me!” Grace’s voice sounded like it was underwater, echoing from the end of a long tunnel. He was panicking, his grip tightening around your waist as he began hauling you forward again, much faster now, his breaths coming in ragged, terrified gapes. “We’re almost there. Come on, don't pass out on me yet. I can't do this by myself!”
You couldn't answer. You could only press your face into the fabric of his jumpsuit. Your right hand clutched his shoulder so hard your fingers cramped, riding out the humming aches as he dragged you through the hatchway of the infirmary. For what it was worth, it felt good to be held. You kept your cheek against Grace's shoulder, relishing in what little relief his presence brought.
“Okay, okay.” Grace set you down on one of the cots. Under the infirmary’s fluorescent lights, the unnatural color your arm was turning became impossible to ignore. He did his best not to look at it as he strapped you down.
Your head lolled as he moved. “Grace,” you called weakly.
His eyes snapped to you. “Yes? Yes? What's wrong? It's gonna be okay, we're gonna fix this, okay? Hang on. I'll fix it, I promise.”
You couldn't even remember why you said his name. You supposed you just wanted to see his face. Dazed and weakened by the deafening pain, you sought comfort in having his attention. At least you weren't alone, you thought. You couldn't imagine going through something like this by yourself.
As the final strap clicked into place, securing you firmly against the cot, a chime sounded overhead. Mary's perfectly modulated voice echoed through the small room.
“Warning. Biometric anomaly detected. Commanding Officer: heart rate: 178 beats per minute. Respiration: elevated. Severe localized trauma identified in upper left extremity.”
“Yeah, no kidding!” Grace yelled at the ceiling, using the back of his arm to wipe a mix of sweat and tears from his face. “Uh… Uh, initialize medical assessment protocol!”
With a heavy hydraulic hiss, a panel in the bulkhead beside the cot slid open. Out glided Armando, the ship's sleek, segmented contraption of aluminum and white polymer, tipped with a precise multi-jointed hand.
Armando didn't have a face, but the way its optical sensors whirred and clicked as they focused on your left arm felt intensely invasive. The robotic hand hovered a mere inch above your swollen, distorted forearm. A thin line of green laser light swept down from your elbow to your wrist, mapping the grotesque S-shape of the fractured bone beneath the skin.
You hissed through your teeth, flinching away even though the machine hadn't actually touched you.
“Assessment complete,” Mary reported. “Displaced compound-adjacent fracture of the left radius and ulna. High risk of compartment syndrome. Radial artery compression detected. Peripheral blood flow to left distal extremity is critical. Immediate manual reduction required to prevent permanent tissue necrosis.”
Grace stared at the diagnostic monitor, his face losing what little color it had left. “Necrosis? No, no, no... Okay, uh, Mary, initiate automated analgesic protocol? Give him the good stuff, knock him out!”
“Request denied,” Mary responded instantly. “Mechanical failure detected in primary intravenous delivery valve. Fluid line pressure: insufficient. Administered dosage of localized analgesic: 0.05 milligrams. Maximum threshold reached for current capacity.”
“What do you mean threshold reached?!” Grace slammed his fist against the medical console. “Override it! Bypass the valve!”
“Grace,” you choked out. “Something's blocking the valve. It's not gonna work till you fix it.”
The infirmary lapsed into a terrifying silence, save for the rhythmic, high-pitched beeping of your spiking heart rate. Armando’s robotic hand retracted slightly, twisting its joints into a waiting posture, as if acknowledging its own inability to fix the mechanical jam.
Grace turned his head to look at you. “Okay, so I'll fix it. I-I'll fix the valve.”
“Fix it later,” you told him. “Right now you have to activate the centrifuge. We need gravity for the rest of the infirmary to be operational. C-Can you do that for me?”
Grace nodded. He asked you to stay still, then he was gone.
Grace had been out of your sight for no more than two minutes, but it was hard to gauge time with how incessantly your arm was burning. It felt like forever. It felt like he'd never return. You breathed shallowly in your cot as you stared up at the ceiling and did your best to stay conscious.
Then, the world shifted. You held your breath, thinking it was another wave of vertigo. But then your hair fell over your face and you realized that gravity was making a cautious return. Up and down were re-established in a slow, careful descent.
It felt good to be oriented, but worse to feel pressure against your broken arm. You let out a strangled, breathless cry, your right hand instantly locking onto the metal frame of the cot as the extra weight crushed you into the mattress. Your vision, already swimming with static, began to fade into darkness.
“I know, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Grace yelled, stumbling as his own feet slammed into the newly formed floor. He nearly ran into your bed upon his return. His glasses slid completely off his nose, dangling from one ear. “I did it. Gravity stable. What now?”
“Shit.” You gasped. “Shit, shit, shit.” You inhaled a deep, unhelpful breath. “Grace, you have to set my arm.”
“What?!”
“You do. You have to do it. Armando's not going to with that broken valve. You need to set my arm before he can operate.” You held your good hand out as if to stop him from bolting. “You just — i-it's just one big snap into place, okay? Then I'll pass out, then you can fix the valve.”
“You're insane!”
“I'm out of options, Grace!” You were hyperventilating by then. The monitors next to you were going haywire. “You can do this.”
Grace tugged on his hair. He was going to be sick. “Can't I just fix the valve first?”
“No!” you yelled. He hadn't heard you yell that loud before. “No. Please. Set the arm. I want this over with. It hurts. If you take any longer the injury will be irreparable. You have to do it.”
Grace froze, momentarily shaken by the desperation in your voice. He looked at your face, streaked with sweat, pale with shock, twisted in an agony he doubted he could comprehend. He inhaled a deep, steadying breath. This was the least he could do.
“Okay,” Grace breathed, his voice suddenly losing its frantic pitch. He swiped his dangling glasses off his ear and shoved them into his jumpsuit pocket. He didn’t want a clear view of this. “Okay. I’m going to do it.”
He stepped to the side of the cot, his boots slamming heavily against the floor. He positioned himself over your left arm. Up close, under the harsh infirmary lights, the distortion was stomach-turning. The sharp, jagged edge of the radius was pushing so hard against the underside of your skin that the tissue was white and bloodless, a mere breath away from tearing through.
“Hold onto the rail with your right hand,” Grace commanded, hands hovering over you. “Don't let go. Don’t move.”
You locked your right fingers around the cold titanium frame of the medical bed. You closed your eyes, squeezing so hard your face creased. You took one last ragged breath. “Do it.”
Grace didn't give you a countdown. He knew if he paused, he’d lose his nerve.
He clamped his left hand firmly just above your elbow, pinning your upper arm against the mattress to anchor it against the crushing centripetal force. With his right hand, he gripped your wrist, his fingers locking tightly over your cold, purple-tinged skin. Then, with a guttural grunt of exertion, Grace leaned his entire body weight backward, pulling your wrist down and away from your shoulder with everything he had.
The universe fractured.
An ungodly wet grinding screech echoed within the flesh of your arm as the overlapping, shattered ends of the radius and ulna were forcefully dragged back past one another. The sharp shards of bone plowed through muscle and fascia. A raw, piercing scream tore from your throat, a sound of pure, unadulterated torment that vibrated through the metal frame of the bed. Your spine violently arched off the cot, fighting against the padded restraint straps as every nerve ending in your upper body flared into a blinding nova of pain.
To Grace’s horror, the job didn’t end there. He felt the horrific, structural resistance of the bones, and with one final, agonizing heave, he gave the wrist a sharp, aligning twist.
SNAP.
A heavy, sickening thud reverberated through your arm as the two main shafts of the bone finally slid back into their parallel tracks. Instantly, the pressure on the radial artery released, and a hot, throbbing rush of restricted blood surged back into your fingertips.
At the exact same moment, the automated splint on the counter sensed the alignment. With a sharp hydraulic click, it shot forward, wrapping around your forearm and clamping down to lock the newly straightened limb into place.
But you didn't feel the splint. The overload to your nervous system was too much. Your eyes rolled back, your grip on the metal rail went completely slack, and your head fell heavily to the side. The world mercifully went black, plunging you into deep, silent unconsciousness.
On the monitor, your heart rate plummeted from its frantic peak, settling into a steady thumping.
Grace let go of your wrist, stumbling backward until his back hit a wall. He slumped down against it, sliding to the floor, his chest heaving as he stared at his trembling, sweat-slicked hands. He was hyperventilating, crying, tugging on his hair again. He wanted to throw up. But he also wanted to be sure you were alright.
Above him, Mary’s voice chimed with a serene indifference. “Vascular occlusion resolved. Distal blood flow restored to 100%. Bone alignment within acceptable parameters.”
Grace sat there for a moment longer, timing his breaths to the steady beeping of your heart rate.
“Right,” he choked out, aggressively wiping his cheeks as he forced himself back up. “Not done.”
Compared to the horror of setting your bones with his bare hands, fixing the valve was a walk in the park. Mary had been there to guide the repair, and soon enough the rest of the medical systems were operational. More hands protruded from the cot. They snipped your shirt off and injected you with needles and tubes. Armando wore an oxygen mask over your peaceful face. They whirred and hummed and then a scalpel was slicing through your skin.
Grace did not do well with blood. Back on Earth, he felt dizzy at the sight of a drop. But he could not look away from you. He held himself as he stood over your unconscious body and watched as mechanical arms operated on yours. He didn’t leave until the process was done. It had taken hours, and the balls of his feet had ached and numbed, but he wasn’t satisfied until he had confirmation that you were stable.
When the tension finally bled out of him, it hit his knees first. Grace sank straight into the floor, head dropping to his hands. He cried into the ground and stayed there until he could cry no longer. His lungs burned with a weariness that felt heavier than any force the ship could pull.
He didn’t think about going back to his quarters. Instead he dragged his blanket and pillow from his bed and pulled them through the corridors, clumsy in his exhaustion. He laid them out on the floor beside your cot and collapsed there. He wedged himself into the tight gap between your bed and the diagnostic console. The space was cramped and ridiculous for a man of his size, but it was the only place he could bear to be.
Lying there on his side, his cheek pressed against the rough fabric of his pillow, he stared up at the underside of your cot. The position was devastatingly familiar.
It brought him right back to those terrifying first weeks. The fog of his amnesia had been so thick and suffocating, and you had been nothing more than a stranger with a stable heartbeat on a monitor. He remembered watching you until his eyes could no longer do so. Now, he would do it again. He would wait for you to wake up no matter how long it took.
The hours blurred into a disjointed montage of isolation.
Grace lost track of the ship's artificial day-and-night cycles. He lived in the increments between your medical readouts. Every three hours, the overhead console would hum, cycling a fresh dosage of targeted analgesics into your IV line. Grace would instantly sit up at the sound, his eyes scanning the data, verifying the diagnostics and checking your skin temperature before allowing his head to drop back onto his pillow.
He tried to pass the time. He brought your navy moleskine notebook into the bay, holding it under the dim tertiary lights. He traced the crude, jagged diagrams of Astrophage membranes and Petrova formulas he had scrawled just days before. He filled the empty margins with frantic sketches and lists — anything to keep his brain moving. But the science felt flat, and the math was useless. He felt as though the universe’s worth had shrunken down to the hitching breaths of the man on the bed next to him.
He ate his space ramen cold, sitting on the floor with his knees pulled up to his chest, his eyes never leaving your resting profile. The plastic mask obscured the lower half of your face, fogging slightly with every exhale you took.
The twenty-two hours of orbital settling had long since passed. Outside, Tau Ceti held the Hail Mary firmly in its gravitational grip, spinning the ship through the silent, perfect curve of its new home.
It was late.
The world outside was dark, and cold, but the lab was warm and lit by the steady hum of monitors.
A desk lamp cast long shadows across the tiled floor.
There was so much work to be done and so little time to do it.
The edges of the room were washed out like an overexposed photograph, but the feeling in your chest was heavy and whole. You were focused on a task, hunched over a surface, pen in hand, scrawling something down into your familiar navy-colored notebook.
Something was distracting you.
Someone was distracting you.
Everything sounded far away, but you could hear the unmistakable cadence of Ryland’s voice. He sounded lighter — softer. He had nothing to be afraid of here.
Since when did you call him Ryland?
Hands.
Fingertips.
You could feel him breathing on the back of your neck. You could hear the smile in his words.
That's enough for tonight, Captain.
How annoying. Couldn't he see that you were busy?
Stay on your side of the lab, Grace.
Slowly, deliberately, the tips of his fingers trailed an agonizingly gentle line up the sleeve of your shirt, tracing the curve of your bicep, sending a wave of electric heat straight to your spine.
You snapped. With a low laugh bubbling in your throat, you dropped the pen.
You caught his wrists and surged forward, using your weight to pin Ryland back against the edge of his desk.
A pile of folders shifted beneath him, but neither of you cared. He let out a breathless, triumphant gasp, his hands instantly wrapping around your neck to pull you down.
A kiss.
Warm.
Familiar.
Secret.
Beep.
Beep.
Beep…
Your eyelids felt like lead.
You moved your good hand first, fingers twitching against a rough but thin sheet. The sensation of friction jarred your brain further into consciousness. A dull throbbing ache pulsed in your left arm, muted and distant under a heavy blanket of narcotics.
Slowly, your eyes blinked open.
You felt good, all things considered. You were sure you had the morphine to thank. The ceiling of the medical bay took shape above you. You sluggishly turned your head. The plastic straps of the oxygen mask shifted against your cheek. Your arm felt like a distant object. Curious, you commanded the limb to move. It rose with a heavy reluctance, floating up into your line of sight. You blinked, attempting to draw your swimming vision into focus. Your forearm was encased in a thick, rigid medical cast. It locked the limb straight, while your exposed fingertips looked slightly pale against the stark white bandages.
You felt good. Wait, you thought that already. Boy, those meds sure were working.
You sat up, tugging the oxygen mask from your face.
Grace was on you in a millisecond. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! What do you think you’re doing? Lay back down!” his hands were on your shoulders before your head could even clear the pillow.
“Narcotics,” you mumbled, your voice sounding like it had been dragged through gravel. The oxygen mask was dangling uselessly around your neck, puffing a gentle hiss against your collarbone. You had a dazed look in your half-lidded eyes. “These are. Good. You should try.”
“Okay, that’s nice. Please lay back down.” Grace was crying again. His warm eyes glistened with tears.
You reached your good hand out to touch his cheek.
“I’m so glad you’re awake,” he whispered. Despite his emotional state, he was still making sure you weren’t hurting yourself. He let you sit up, but kept a close eye on the needles and thin tubes that poked out of your skin.
“I’m fine,” you insisted. To prove your point, you craned your neck, which triggered your vision into a slow, dizzying spin. Your hand shifted on Grace’s face, thumb clumsily catching the edge of his crooked glasses and shoving them further up his nose.
“Don't move, just—please, don’t move,” he begged. He didn't pull away from your hand on his cheek. If anything, he leaned into the touch, verifying that you were actually warm; actually alive.
“It'll take more than just a couple of rocks to keep me down,” you slurred. “How long was I out?”
“Three days,” Grace muttered. The answer broke out of him like a sob.
The resistance in his posture completely collapsed. His forehead dropped against your mattress, landing next to your good arm. His fingers slid down from your shoulder to lock tightly over your right hand. His shoulders shook as the last 72 hours of terror finally gave way to a wave of relief. His tears soaked wet circles into the sterile sheet of your bed.
“You did good,” you muttered.
You ran your functioning fingers through his hair, petting his messy oil-slicked curls. You didn’t know what else to do to comfort him. The sight of him so thoroughly broken by the thought of losing you was doing funny aching things to your chest. These, the painkillers couldn't numb.
“You’re a terrible patient,” he mumbled into the mattress. “An absolutely terrible patient.”
You hummed out a laugh.
His hand blindly reached for yours. When he found it, he didn’t let go. He squeezed every time his chest hitched with another shuddering breath. He stayed like that for a long time, letting the weight of the universe bleed out of him onto the edge of your cot.
“C’mere,” you said. You shifted your torso to the side, wincing slightly as the automated splint on your left arm gave a tiny, protective whir to adjust for the movement. You tugged at your blankets with your right hand. You made space for him on the bed; which was hardly any space at all.
Grace lifted his head from the sheets, staring at you, bewildered. His eyes were red-rimmed and swollen. “What?”
“Lay with me.”
He looked at the tiny gap of mattress you’d cleared. “What?” he repeated.
“C’mon, Grace,” you slurred, your eyelids drooping as another wave of warm drowsiness rolled over your brain. You gave his hand a clumsy, insistent tug. “Who’s gonna fuckin’ see? Lay with me here — I’m cold.”
He could’ve gotten you another blanket. But he had to be numb to reject the offer to be held. Tired and sleepless himself, Grace crawled into your cot. He was hesitant and careful not to touch your broken arm, but he was also embarrassed at how little convincing it had taken him to lie down next to you.
The rest was automatic. Grace somehow knew that he laid with his back to your chest, and you somehow knew that your good arm went over his waist. Your chin rested above his head. The mattress was entirely too small for the both of you, but it was impossible to feel uncomfortable when the warmth of another body was there to cushion your every ache.
You slotted against each other like you'd done it a hundred times before. Grace was too exhausted to have realized this. And before he knew it, he felt himself drifting closer to proper slumber.
“How did you figure out how to activate the centrifuge?” Your voice had gone low and sleepy. It made Grace’s stomach flip.
“It just came to me,” he whispered.
You smiled. “That’s good.”
“I did this to you,” he muttered, now loopy from his own sleep depravity. His fingertips traced idle shapes on your good arm. “I didn't watch the monitors. I should've been able to tell you there was incoming debris.”
“Wrong.” You nuzzled into his hair. “The Petrova scope wasn’t the only thing damaged. The housing sits right over the main radar antenna — the ship’s main computer couldn't see the debris because the broken scope was blocking its eyes.”
You felt Grace curl into himself.
“Mary couldn't have known,” you insisted. “The radar itself was broken. Didn’t even transmit to my suit. You didn't mess up. You gave me four seconds of warning in a total blind spot. If you hadn't been there, I’d be dead.”
Grace went entirely still against you.
“You saved my life,” you whispered, your eyelids feeling heavier by the second. The morphine was pulling you back under. “Don't do it again. Bad for your heart.”
A tiny, breathless huff of a laugh shook Grace’s chest.
Grace drifted the rest of the way down until his cheek was against your pillow. His breathing fell into a slow rhythm, matching the steady beeping of your heart monitor. One of his hands remained loosely tangled in your right fingers. You were a protective dead-weight anchor that kept you both pinned to the bed.
The medical bay faded around the edges. The harsh fluorescent lights dimmed in your consciousness, replaced by a thick, safe silence. You didn't think about the four light-years you had traveled, or the memories yet to return, or the dying suns, or the extent of your new injury, or the difficulty it would add to succeeding in your mission. You held onto the warm man beside you and let the momentum of the Hail Mary carry you both into a deep dreamless sleep.
Pardon the NSFW on main but sub!Driver driving on a gig remembering the way he was pinned against the hood of his car and briefly losing focus..
ooh. it's a late night gig, as usual. it's near downtown though, which makes it a bit more dangerous. he's got his watch set up for five minutes, and he's waiting patiently. his eyes drift out over the hood of his car, and the shadows at night remind him of the same shadows in shannon's garage where you had hooked up again just earlier that day (among other times). the guys get back before he can get too lost, and he's driving away. there's a cop on his tail, he's speeding up to get away. a chase ensues, and he's so lost in the focus of it. the familiarity of doing something he loves. there's a sound as something smacks on his hood (a tree branch, or a pinecone, he can't tell, he's going too fast). and the sound transports him back to something else he loves, something else he's familiar with. the car slows briefly as he remembers.
he can feel your grip against his wrists, the cool glass of the windshield against them, even as it heats up quick with how hot his body feels. your other hand against his hips holding him against the hood of this very car. the feeling of—
"look out!"
he snaps back into the present as one of the guys who hired him shouts. driver manages to swerve away from another car, and eventually shakes off the cops while his blood is still hot and he can still remember the feeling of you inside of him. (he gets the job done. he also immediately drives to your house and lets you pin him again.)
fandom etiquette as a whole died when people who didn’t grow up on fandoms became stans during lockdown, yes, but why am i seeing people openly mocking fics on twitter. why am i seeing screenshots of fics with captions like “bro what is this 😭.” why am i seeing people mock fic writers for not knowing how sports or theater or college or any other organization operates in the real world.
“college is absolutely nothing like this” “why are we writing four people on the team scoring a hat trick in one game” “so tech work is nothing like this, hope that helps!”
if you don’t like a fic, and if you can’t suspend your belief enough to enjoy a fic that exaggerates or ignores real-world orgs, you don’t have to read it. you don’t have to screenshot it and put it on blast for twitter. you don’t have to post a link to it in the replies. the back button is literally there on your phone. it’s not giving baby’s first fandom anymore, it’s giving entitled asshole and it isn’t as cute as you think it is.
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