8 ways to say 'I love you' | Ryland Grace.
Pairing: Ryland Grace x reader
Summary: 8 different ways Ryland tells you he loves you, most of the time, without actually saying it.
wordcount: 5,755
warning(s): There is a starvation scene (on the way to Erid) to try and stick close to the book. There is also mention of blood and wounds.
authors note: This is very heavily inspired by one of my fav Star Trek fics that you can read here. Shoutout to this amazing writer!
You can find this fic you're reading right now on my ao3 here, but I've written fics for many fandoms and they seem to do well on tumblr so here we are.
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One.
You were frustrated to say the least.
You had been living on the Hail Mary in the vastness of space trying to figure out the astrophage issue for two weeks with no remembrance of how you knew Ryland.
You knew you were selected as a medical assistant because Ryland had done research with you before, but you had no idea how you met, or even how you got on the ship, you just couldn’t remember.
That was until you had suddenly remembered a memory involving you and Ryland. You had suddenly woken up from sleep, when you were bombarded with a memory of you both working in the lab together. The memory was so strong you could hear the conversation.
You sat on a spinning office chair in the lab, you were spinning slowly in circles with your legs up to your chest. Ryland stood in front of you staring at a whiteboard of stuff on astrophage.
“Why do they go to venus?” He asked vaguely, his arms crossed in front of him.
“Maybe they are like birds.”
“What?” He asked, readjusting his glasses.
You continued spinning in your chair.
“I read an article that they found fossil of birds from 73 billion years ago with hatchlings and–”
“You know I love your tangents, but I’m sort of working on saving the world right now.”
You stopped your spinning and smacked his arm, rolling your eyes.
“They discovered that they went to the arctic to breed.”
Ryland rubbed his eyebrow in thought, bringing his glasses to hang below his chin.
“Okay? Birds migrate to breed, I taught that to my students all the– wait! You’re saying–”
“Maybe astrophage go to Venus to breed! Exactly!”
Ryland leant down and pulled you out of your chair, hugging you tightly, before running off to the corner to grab some duct tape.
The memory brought you to tears, mostly because it gave you physical relief, since it felt like you had been literally holding everything tight in your brain and you didn’t have the key to unlock it. But all the emotions from the memory felt so familiar to you. You obviously felt a strong sense of familiarity and comfort around Ryland, but now you knew a small part of exactly why that was. Of course it didn’t tell you exactly how you met, or how you ended up on Mary, but it was something.
When you rushed into the lab and brought it up to him, he told you he didn’t remember, and moved back to his work.
To his defense, you could tell Ryland was trying so hard to remember, he really did want to remember. Throughout the day he tried to squint his eyes hard, even rubbed his forehead to try and simulate some neurons or something, and he felt extremely bad when you laughed at him in those moments. You couldn’t blame him, both of your memories were just waiting to bloom, it just was taking a bit of time.
Ultimately, despite him not remembering, your knowledge of astrophage helped you both remember why you were on the ship to begin with.
After some time Ryland was beginning to stare into space instead of tracking the ship’s trajectory. You put your computer down.
“Ryland, you’ve been up for way too long, go take a nap.”
When he went down for a nap you began to log your memory into your tablet, you didn’t have much there yet. You groaned as your back ached, you hated the lab stools because they hurt your back, but it’s not like you had patients to tend to. So that was what you could do without Ryland’s supervision.
After an hour or so Ryland walked into the lab after his nap. You turned around at the sound of his feet on the floor, and when you saw him, your smile dropped as you noticed the tears in his eyes, his glasses long abandoned, and his stature falling.
“Ryland?”
He crossed the floor immediately toward you and pulled you into a tight hug.
“What’s going on?” You asked as you brought your hands up behind him to run through his hair maybe instinctively, yet still nervously.
“My head hurts—you—you met me at—we stayed up all night together—we—” He stammered.
Your eyes widened and you rubbed his back comfortingly. His sobs made his body shake against you.
“I remember. I remember it all. You’re my best friend.”
You smiled into his shoulder, and let yourself for the first time tighten your arms around his waist.
Two.
You stood in front of a whiteboard. Ryland sat on the floor in front of you beside Rocky.
Ryland could tell you were excited by the way you kept swaying side to side and the giant grin on your face. He knew your passion was human biology, you had told him that everything about it fascinated you, which is why you became a doctor in the first place.
He asked you while you were both trying to get to know each other better in the mental health room, he remembered spending late nights in the lab with you, he remembered eating in the dining room on the boat with you, the jokes you’d make together, but he didn’t remember why you became a doctor. He knew you remembered and maybe told him already before, but insisted you tell him again anyway. And you insisted he tell you why he became a teacher. It was like watching a flower that had been planted last spring bloom again after the long winter.
However, because Ryland was a microbiologist and a biologist he knew as much about human biology as you did, but sometimes he’d pretend not to remember just so he could see the excitement on your face when you did.
Ryland knew, by the way you fidgeted and constantly reminded yourself of basic medicine by reading textbooks on the online database, that you missed medicine so much. So when Rocky asked Ryland to explain human biology and to explain what human doctors do one day while he was in the tunnel meeting Rocky for one of the first times — while you slept — he knew exactly who to talk to — you.
The whiteboard contained info about specialities that weren’t your speciality, but you felt were still important to take note of. You had written down, OBGYN, and neurology, and surgery, you were discussing surgery just then.
“Humans cut people open when there is a problem inside their bodies, that is what surgery is.” You explained.
“What problem, question?” Rocky asked, leaning closer curiously.
“Like…uh, heart problems. Or to get these harmful growths called tumours out of our bodies.” Ryland explained, he moved his glasses to rest on the top of his head.
“Bad bad bad! Human bodies inefficient statement.” Rocky squealed.
“They sure are sometimes.” Ryland groaned.
You nodded and laughed.
“I was in emergency medicine before I was on this mission, and one time there was this guy who came in with heart issues,” You started explaining, your hands moving all over the place. “and we ended up having to crack open his chest, we cut his chest open so we could see his lungs and heart, and we found out there was air from his lung entering into his bloodstream. This is called an embolism–”
Ryland’s mouth formed into a smile, wide at you, a smirk on his face like he was about to laugh. He was just perplexed, some of the memories he remembered best were ones where you went on heated tangents in response to his questions.
You paused when you noticed Rocky giving you excited jazz hands to laugh, then noticed Rylands gaze directed at you. You suddenly felt shy for the first time in front of him.
Did you explain anything wrong? You admired Ryland for his intelligence, and you loved his tangents as much as you loved going on tangents. You were overcome with a desire to impress him constantly. But you sometimes worried you were getting things wrong when Ryland let you talk too much. There he was staring at you making you flustered?
He watched as you shyly bit your lip, clearly nervous.
“What?” You asked.
He shook his head and his lips moved to a more serious expression, hoping you couldn’t read his mind. He moved his glasses onto his face so he could see you more clearly, overcome with wanting to watch you more.
Ryland pulled his legs in front of his chest and crossed his arms overtop his knees.
“Nothing. I like watching you explain things.” He said.
You smiled in relief, and looked away.
Three.
When you woke up one morning, you found yourself becoming anxious at the sight of the stars out your window. You wanted desperately to revisit Earth, and you knew the one place to do it — the mental health room.
You and Ryland had bonded in the mental health room twice before, he showed you all his favorite places on Earth — and also the places he wished he had visited — but Blip-A, or Rocky’s ship showed up before you got a chance to show him yours. You knew what you needed to calm your anxieties was to visit Greece, or Canada, or New York, or to see a tree for God's Sake.
You headed down the ship, toward the semi spherical room, climbing down the ladder leading down. When you jumped off the ladder and turned around you saw Ryland sitting on the platform, staring at a projection of the beach.
“Hi.” You said.
Ryland turned around, lifted his glasses off his chin and looked at you.
“Hi.”
You walked toward the platform, stepped around him and pulled yourself down on the metal grate to sit on the left of him.
“Everything okay?” You asked.
He shrugged, he closed his fox cardigan further with his hands.
“Yea, I just missed the beach. I miss Earth.”
You tilted your head in a nod.
“Me too.”
A moment of silence passed and neither of you interrupted it. You felt as though you might’ve been intruding on his peace and silence, on his moment of reflection. So you stood up.
“Alright, well sorry to interrupt, I’ll let you have your peace.” You said, stepping around him.
You felt his hand grab your wrist to stop you, you looked down at him. His face was comically almost in a pout, and his eyes stuck glued onto you. You couldn’t help but admit he looked well…attractive, in the lighting of the room. You brushed that aside as you stepped closer toward him.
“Stay. I like this room better with you in it anyway.”
“I guess I have to stay then.” You fake complained, which earned you a chuckle from Ryland.
Ryland Grace had a way of saying the nicest things anyone had ever said to you. Your mouth formed a grin shyly, and you lowered yourself down next to him again, you playfully brushed your shoulder against his and you both laughed. Finally, you wagered against something blooming inside of you and the urge to rest your head on his shoulder, and shyly without looking up at him, lowered your head to rest on his left shoulder.
The shy touch felt different than the touch you both usually shared before, and you almost wondered if you made a mistake. But when Ryland lowered his head to the left to rest on top of yours, you were filled with relief and a feeling you hadn’t felt since you were a teenager.
Four.
“Grace and Rocky teach y/n how to fly ship.” Rocky said matter of factly.
You were all headed up to the pilot deck, floating through the halls of the ship. You knew you had to learn how to fly it in case anything were to happen to Ryland when he grabbed the sample from Adrian. You were just nervous. You had very little driving experience, let alone flying experience.
As you floated with Ryland and Rocky into the control room and pilot deck, Ryland reached for your floating body and guided you into the pilots seat. His glasses floated off of his face beside him, before he reached and put them on.
“Pilot detected.”
“Ugh.” You groaned in response to Mary as you lowered yourself into the chair.
“I know, but if I have to fly this hell machine, then you also gotta fly this thing.” Ryland responded.
You pouted up at him and a laugh tumbled out of his mouth.
Ryland helped you strap in, his hand brushing lightly over your body in the process, and it some how felt like the most intimate touch you both experienced. When he buckled you in he made sure to tighten the straps to your liking.
“Grace ready teach, question?” Rocky asked, his body moving enthusiastically in his geometric ball.
“Yea Rock, I think we’re ready, right?” Ryland grabbed your shoulders with his hands and looked at you for a response.
You could feel him scanning your face. Something in his expression reassured you.
You simply just nodded out of nervousness.
“It’s time go!” Rocky exclaimed.
“You mean ‘go time’, but yea.” Ryland mumbled.
He pushed Rocky toward a metal spot right beside you and clicked Rocky’s magnets to stay in place.
“Okay so you see that joystick thingy?” Ryland asked, floating beside you.
“Yea, that thing?”
You placed your hand on the joystick, Ryland grabbed onto the pilots chair and floated behind you.
“Yea, so I’m going to guide you the first time, since it’s sort of…sensitive. Then you can try on your own.” He explained.
You weren’t exactly sure what he meant by ‘guide you’, until he leaned down behind you so his mouth was close to your ear, and his right arm reached around you to put his hand overtop of your hand onto the joystick. You could hear his breathing, his breath on your ear.
The touch was again, different than the rest. It shot up your body, and you tried your best to make it seem like it didn’t affect you. If anything it made you more nervous, but you trusted him to not let you make a huge mistake.
“Alright now, we’re gonna go slightly forward like this, smooth and steady.” He whispered.
You had to resist the urge to let out a laugh at the sensation of his breath on your ear. God, you were embarrassed by how much that was affecting you, and hoped he couldn’t tell. Afterall he was just doing what he did best — teaching.
“Careful!” Rocky chimed in, but you had barely heard it over the sensation of Ryland.
He guided both of your hands slowly to move the joystick forward, you gasped as you felt the ship move.
When you gasped, Ryland felt the way it affected his body physically. He had forgotten for a moment, how intimate this kind of touch was. The conventions were different in space. But the way you gasped, made sparks shoot up his body. He was suddenly aware of how close your skin was to his.
He watched you move along with him, and when your touch felt a little too similar to something unplatonic, he pulled back suddenly.
“Uh, that was great,” He rubbed the back of his neck. “Now, go ahead and try it yourself.”
He watched as you slowly moved the ship forward, and as you did, you turned to face him giving him an excited expression. After a few minutes of you attempting to navigate different maneuvers effortlessly, you stopped, and leaned forward to unstrap.
“How’d I do for my first try?” You asked.
“Much better than Grace first try!” Rocky said. “Grace almost make Rocky die!”
Ryland rolled his eyes, patting Rocky’s ball.
“A bit dramatic don’t you think?”
“Well, I had a good teacher.” You responded. You met eye contact with Ryland that for — the first time — felt a bit awkward.
You unstrapped yourself and leaned forward to activate centrifuge.
“I’m gonna turn on centrifuge, since we still have a bit more work to do.” You said.
Ryland nodded, remembering he had found another case of the specific coffee you liked in the storage room.
“I’ll make you coffee. When you’re ready in the lab.”
You watched him excitedly hurry down to the lab, and you activated the centrifuge.
Five.
Rocky finds Ryland on the floor of the lab.
Ryland laid in the fetal position groaning, his eyes opening slowly from sleep, trying to remember how far away Erid was. He placed his hand on the cold floor feeling for you in the spot in front of him, confused at your absence, he heard the sound of Rocky’s geometric ball rolling toward him.
“Grace! Grace friend need help statement.”
Ryland’s eyes shot open wide as he weakly pushed himself off the floor. He grabbed his glasses that laid on the floor and put them on.
“Okay Rock, just give me a second to stand up.”
“Hold ball so no fall.” Rocky said. “Grace weak.”
Ryland just nodded his head, standing up and holding onto Rocky who led him slowly toward the lavatory.
When he saw you on the ground he collapsed on the floor next to you.
“Grace here to help, statement, no worry.” Rocky reassured you.
“No more taumeoba, it tastes so bad.” You whined.
You could feel your ribs through your skin, you had lost a significant amount of weight when you started to run out of food on the way to Erid. You both knew it was going to happen, but you didn’t think it would happen so quickly. You hated the taste of taumeoba, but you and Ryland had been relying heavily on that for a while, careful to preserve enough for Erid.
Rocky in particular was sure to feed it to you both, chastising you if you didn’t eat it. You had been taking care of each other well enough, until you secretly slipped away from your spot on the floor next to Ryland to throw up.
You leaned above the metal toilet and gagged again, dry heaving, tears stinging your eyes as you sobbed in pain. You refused to open your eyes, the lights were making your head spin. Your face was pressed against the toilet seat, you groaned.
“Why didn’t you wake me?” Ryland asked.
“You don’t want to see this.” You said vaguely waving your hand toward yourself.
“Rocky, go get my hoodie on the floor.”
“Where is, question?” Rocky asked.
“It’s in the lab I think.”
You heard Rocky scamper around away from you and Ryland.
You felt Ryland’s arms slither around your waist as he sat behind you, he pulled you into him. You felt his glasses prod at your shoulder. Your eyes shot open, not because physical contact was not common between you two, but because you really didn’t want him to see this side of you. You shivered as you felt his cold fingers graze around you and above your ribs.
The feeling of his fingers specifically now, made your heart speed up, him trying to hold you at your most vulnerable made something bloom inside of you.
“You’re trying to keep me warm, it’s not working, you’re cold too.” You struggled to say.
“Doesn’t mean I can’t try, you’re too important for me to lose.”
The words shot up your body, you assumed they weren’t that unusual to say, after all you were best friends, but it hit you differently just then, but soon they were immediately interrupted by your nausea.
You knew this moment was going to happen, you knew he was going to see you at your worst, he was your crewmate and your best friend and you were both dying of starvation. However, there were things you had felt you didn’t want Ryland to witness. You just knew you had never been that vulnerable in front of anyone in a long time.
Hell, from what you remember Ryland hadn’t even seen you drunk vomiting since you had no time to drink between your time in the lab and on the boat. If he had, maybe then you’d feel more comfortable with him witnessing you like this.
Despite what you felt, you grabbed his arms and pulled them away from you.
“Ry, go away, you don’t want to see this, I can handle it–”
Another gag escaped your throat, and your spit dripped into the toilet.
“Did you know–” Ryland gulped, his own reserve slipping. “if you don’t get enough nutrients when you’re starving, then you’ll start throwing up blood?” He leaned forward to whisper in your ear.
His voice was smooth and calming despite the pain you were both in, you laughed at him quoting you.
“I told you that.” You mumbled, head falling backward onto his shoulder, finally giving into him. You could feel him exhale in relief.
“Yes you did.”
Rocky scampered back, and you felt Rylands arms coming over you. He put his baggy hoodie over your head, and you tried your best to slip your arms into the arm holes.
You laughed as you wiped the spit from your mouth.
“You’ve only seen one side of me, this is something new I guess.”
He ran his hand over your forehead to wipe your hair away from your face.
“I’ve seen just about all sides of you.”
You turned around to face him, grabbing onto his shirt tightly, as if letting go of him would make you fall into space. Ryland picked up a pack of wet wipes beside him and started wiping your face gently. His eyes occasionally drifted to your mouth, and you caught it, you told yourself it was because he was wiping your face.
You stared at his face, the way he looked when he was concentrated — his eyebrows folded down, his glasses now askew, his tongue sticking out of his lips, and his eyes squinted — always made you smile. So you let your smile appear on your face, and admired your best friend in front of you. The only source of warmth in that moment was the warmth coming out of your chest.
“Now, stop acting so tough. Let me take care of you.”
Six.
When Ryland and you finally arrived at Erid, the Eridians welcomed you both with open arms for helping save Erid. Ryland and you got to meet Adrian for the first time when they launched a ship to attach to the Hail Mary. Adrian was able to quickly replicate some nutrients you both needed to get you both back to health before moving you down to the planet's surface.
Adrian asked Ryland and you individually where you wanted to live. Adrian began building separate houses under the same biodome. Ryland shyly insisted you live relatively close to each other, hoping you wouldn’t think he was creepy or clingy. He wanted you close, he knew he was going to miss sharing a space with you. You agreed. Adrian tried to make sure everything was perfect for you both.
Ryland stood in his kitchen, reluctantly eating the food Adrian had replicated, some kind of protein shake. He admired his home, he was amazed at what the Eridian architects could do, and wondered what your house looked like, how you asked it to be designed. He knew you were particular with those kinds of things, while at the same time, kind of a slob.
He put down the protein shake and looked out the windows, the day cycle was set to night, Ryland was usually very productive at night. So Ryland’s laptop was opened in the living room, he was focusing on working on a lesson plan for the Eridians that Rocky said wanted to be taught by him.
He reached to grab his glasses from the kitchen counter, when he felt a pain in his right arm near his scar. He winced and put on his glasses, he watched as the scar opened and blood started to pool. This had happened once before the weeks leading up to arriving at Erid — because of malnourishment the burn opened into a wound. This was probably waiting to happen, he had only just started to get the nutrients he needed.
“Fudge.” He whispered, trying his best not to fully look at the blood.
He turned to grab a rag from under the kitchen sink. He thought through all his options. He could wake Rocky or Adrian with a press of a button that Adrian designed if Ryland ever wanted to contact them. Or he could show up at your door, late at night, asking for help. He knew — despite not wanting to — that he had to go to you, you were a doctor. Eridians didn’t know about tending to human wounds the same way humans do.
He groaned, leaving his house and slamming his door on the way out. He walked to your house that was conveniently a few seconds away.
He peeked into the window, he could see a lamp on but nothing else. He reluctantly raised his hand to knock on your front door. He heard some commotion before you opened the door.
“Hi.” Ryland said, waving.
By now the rag had turned from white to red, his blood seeping in.
“Hi what are you—whoa,” You grabbed Ryland’s arm with both of your hands. “It opened again?” You asked as you pulled him inside and closing the door.
He nodded silently. Shutting down at the memories from earlier.
You pulled him through your surprisingly clean house and sat him down in your bathroom, pulling a chair beside the sink. You pulled out medical supplies left over from the Hail Mary: suture supplies. a squeeze bottle full of saline, and gauze to hold pressure to your wound.
Ryland’s hands were shaking, he noticed how steady your hands were removing the rag and placing the clean gauze overtop. Once the bleeding stopped to a minimum, you removed the gauze and held the wound over the sink, you began spraying saline into the wound to flush anything out.
Ryland felt how gentle your fingers were against his skin, watched you bite your lip in concentration. He couldn’t understand how you were so calm, he hated the sight of his own blood. When you finished you started preparing the materials for stitches.
When his burn turned into a wound on the ship, you were just as calm and collected as you were in that bathroom. The moment made him think about how starved you both were, how afraid he was of losing you, how much he really cared for you.
You looked up at him, and smiled, Ryland was surprised when one of your hands reached out to cup his cheek. He felt your thumb running over his stubble, the touch making him melt into you. Then he began crying. Uncontrollably. There was something about you that often made him come completely undone. Sometimes in an adolescent way, but sometimes in a way that made him wonder if he could have you for the rest of his life.
“I’m so sorry.” He apologized between sobs.
You reached out to cup his face into both of your hands, the tears he felt fall from his cheeks were being wiped away by you. His heart sprung at the idea of it all.
“Hey, why are you apologizing?”
“I could’ve asked Rocky for help or I could’ve figured it out but–”
“Hey, we both know I have the most knowledge on human medicine out of anyone on this planet.”
Ryland laughed through his tears.
“I didn’t want to worry you.”
“It’s my job to worry about you,” You leaned forward and planted an innocent kiss on his cheek.
Ryland blushed, and was thankful you missed his expression as you leaned down to grab the suture kit.
“however…you’re going to hate me when I jab stitches into you without anesthetic.”
Ryland grimaced.
Seven.
You had been with Adrian all day when you were rushing home.
You loved Adrian so much, you both had become attached by the hip, you loved gossiping about Rocky and Ryland…Adrian was insistent on the fact that you and Ryland would be perfect ‘mates’. You denied their statement over and over again, but admittedly, it was getting harder to rationalize to yourself why you weren’t falling for Ryland.
This day in particular was stressful. Adrian asked if you could try and teach a course for some Eridians interested in human biology. Adrian also just wanted to know what to do in case they had to take care of you or Grace when you got older.
Essentially, you were teaching a human CPR/first aid training course to a small group of Eridians.
You rushed home climbing the hill away from the beach, textbooks in hand, opening the door and dropping them on the floor. You slammed the door, and took notice of your house. It was a huge mess, papers were thrown everywhere, coffee mugs were gathered in the sink and your other Project Hail Mary jumpsuits were thrown on the floor.
You took it all in just as you heard a knock on the door, you groaned and turned around to open it expecting Adrian.
“Adrian I’m–”
It was Ryland. Your heart contracted at the sight of him, then panicked as you remembered your plans.
“Oh Ryland,” You sighed as you ran your hand across your face before dropping it to your side. “I forgot we had plans tonight.”
Ryland rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
“Is this a bad time? I can come back tomorrow.”
You shook your head, desperately wanting to spend time with him.
“No, no, come in, I just need to clean up.” You blushed as you said it.
You and Ryland made plans constantly now that you settled in. You proposed that he come over every other day to have a productive evening, since you both now had lesson plans to work on. You also proposed that sometimes he comes over and you watch one of the many movies provided for you on the Hail Mary’s media system. You selfishly proposed this because you couldn’t handle not seeing Ryland everyday. You were relieved when he was as enthusiastic as you were.
When Ryland stepped in you watched the expression on his face go from shocked, to serious in a second. His eyes scanned the mess carefully.
“Yea…I’m sorry, I’ve just been planning everything with Adrian today, and–”
Ryland placed a hand on your lower back, you blushed as he did, his touch had been making you more flustered than usual lately.
“Hey, it’s okay. Sit down, I’ll clean for you.” He said.
He leaned down and placed a kiss on your forehead, and you swore to god, you saw him blush as he turned away.
Eight.
One of your movie nights, you and Ryland had found a stash of leftover vodka from the Hail Mary in his kitchen. You had long abandoned the movie playing in the background on the monitor Ryland had installed in his living room and instead you were sitting on his kitchen counter, Ryland standing in front of you taking turns drinking out of the bag of vodka.
The porch light shined through the darkness of the window, and the only light in Ryland’s house was coming from a warm yellow lamp and the slight flashes of Jurassic Park.
Ryland was admittedly intoxicated, his glasses askew on his face, and he could tell you were too. You both laughed at the mere sight of it. You had never been drunk together before, and now that you were just getting used to the food provided by the Eridians, you both had a much lower intolerance than anticipated.
“So then Adrian says to me,” You drunkenly explained. “‘Rocky always messy, Rocky always grumpy.’ and I’m like, that sounds like Ryland.”
Ryland watched you throw your head back in laughter.
“Hey, you’re the messy one!” He responded, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Okay fine, I’ll give you that.”
A drunken silence overcame the both of you.The sounds of roars and voices emitted from the ‘tv’.
Ryland stepped closer to you instinctively placing his hands on your thighs. You shivered, the drunken clarity making you realize how much you wanted him. You took the glasses off of his face, to see him better.
“You’ve been spending a lot of time with Adrian.” Ryland barely whispered.
His eyes stared into yours, his mouth open. He grazed his thumb up and down your thigh, shivering as you placed your arms over his shoulders.
“Yea,” You pondered, then suddenly he watched as realization spread across your face. “Oh, I’m sorry I should’ve told you, Adrian said the Hail Mary is fueled, we can go home…I mean if you want.”
“Rocky told me.” He said, his eyes drifting down to your lips, a question in his mind he didn’t realize he had been holding onto for a while.
Another beat of silence. And suddenly everything made sense for Ryland, you sitting on his kitchen counter, your head thrown back like a little kid, watching you bloom into this amazing person, it was all making sense.
“Okay good.” You whispered, not waiting for a response, as if you both knew the answer already.
And as if you both came to the realization at the same time, you pulled each other both in and kissed each other's mouth. Hard and sloppy at first, but when Ryland moved his right hand to cup your face, you tilted your head to allow him to kiss you more passionately. His stubble brushed against your face, and you moaned as you deepened the kiss. You allowed yourself to melt into it, his arms reaching to skim your waist, then slipping his tongue into your mouth experimentally.
Ryland pulled away with a gasp, his face blushing, his breath ragged. You both stared at each other intensely, you waited for him to tell you that this was a mistake, that he was mad it came from Rocky instead of you, that he wanted to go home. But instead he said,
“I love you. I want to spend the rest of my life here with you, but if that’s not what you want then we can stop right now.”
Your heart melted, and you grabbed him by the shirt and kissed him again.
