GIVE US GRACE CUDDLES PLEASE
I WILL DO MY BEST!
SPOILERS ABOUND, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!
This is set after the centrifuge crisis on board the Hail Mary.
You are the arm pilot, filling that extra slot, so slight canon divergence.
—————
You’d been successful in your, frankly insane, fishing mission on Adrian. You’d captured an alien amoeba, which Grace had named “Taumoeba”, and watched in sheer terror alongside your Eridian companion Rocky as your scientifically inclined cohort retrieved the collector and scrambled his way back inside. You’d managed to keep the ship from falling into orbit despite the immeasurable pull of gravity on a ship not made to take it, but it was not easy. Luckily for you, this one amazing species, native to this one planet over 15 light years from home, could save both Earth and Erid. All you guys needed to do was breed enough of it, right?
But the damage the ship sustained was too great for the ascent. A single breach in the hull had sent the ship into a death spin as the Astrophage began to migrate toward Adrian. With nothing to slow the sudden tailspin, the centrifugal force had flung you from the cockpit and forced Ryland to fight against the increasing gravity to get to the controls. He holds onto the pilot’s seat to try and prevent him from getting launched, being tossed a bit by its constant movement. He manages to eject one of the fuel bays, then the second, but-
It had happened so fast. The slam, the sickening crack of skull against hull, the delicate wheezing from the only other human aboard the ship as the pilot’s seat suffocated him against the panels. Rocky’s heartbreaking cries as he called to you, to Grace, and the wails of pain he fights through as he willingly smashes the glass to save you both, burning himself in your atmosphere just to get to Grace. You return him the same kindness, dragging yourself to meet him halfway as he valiantly goes back to save you, too. You feel his carapace burn your hands as you help him back into his tunnels, both of you whimpering in agony. But you make it. By some god given miracle you make it. He asks you, quietly, to watch him sleep. You promise to, eyes misting as you glance between him and Grace.
You slump down against the paneling next to where he lay, curling into a ball, and you sob. You have no idea what to do now.
You pray to a god you stopped believing in many years ago that they live. As you spin lord only knows how far into space, all you can think.
Please, let them live.
..
You startle awake to a sudden weight against your body, and at first your sleep addled mind doesn’t know what to make of it. You push, gently, and start grabbing the material around you. Space suit, orangish yellow. You glance up at the chest first.
Oh. Hello Grace. Welcome back. Your mind offers, almost numbly cheerful as you read the nametag sown onto the suit
Then, you hear the crying. Desperate, but grateful. Grace is tucked against your neck, head buried against what little open skin was offered, almost as if needing to feel your heart pulse just to make sure you were okay.
Then you both look at each other for the first time in days. His eyes are full of tears, but they’re relieved.
“Y/N…you’re okay, we’re okay!” Ryland huffs out in a daze and a tangle of limbs, which finally clicks in your head. He’s hugging you, tightly, and your body reacts all at once. You both latch onto one another, sobbing and nuzzling into the other like they were all that mattered right now. You needed to feel each other, to know the other was alive and breathing.
After a moment to recover, your eyes glance over your eridian friend, now quiet and still inside his self made hamster paths. You feel the panic rise again, hand pressing against the panels.
“We made it..but..we..we gotta watch him sleep, right? That’s what they do, we..” you start to say as tears rise in your eyes, but Grace nods and brings a hand to the xenonite barrier, placing it delicately over your own.
“And we will. Together.” Ryland promises, tears in his own eyes as he tries to fight the worry in his own heart. But it’s all you can do to wait and watch over Rocky until he heals. He has to, he just has to.
You stay curled up like that for a long time, arms and legs tangled around each other like you’d never let go, lent against the side of the enclosed space of the first alien friend you’ve both made. You stay close together, and close to Rocky, a primal part of your mind whispering kindly that he would need a friend. Someone to watch him sleep.
So..you watch.
And you wait.
Together.
——
First time writing him, hopefully I get the opportunity to do more of it!
If you have a request or an idea, feel free to leave me an ask.












