Dec 7, 2025
EYE CONTACT
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Serbia
seen from China
seen from Serbia
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Russia
seen from Brazil
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Russia
seen from China
seen from Malaysia
EYE CONTACT
DOES ANYONE KNOW WHICH STREAM AIMSEY USED HER POWER ON DRIFT ACCIDENTALLY PLS I CANT FIND IT 😭😭😭
Don't You Dare Forget The Sun - Chapter 4
*very loud sound of me bashing my head against a table. or a wall. or any surface.*
LLLLLORD this fucking chapter.
you know i actually wanted to make it longer, but i just decided enough is enough and i should probably get at least something out there. soooo the divorce arc is now spread out to two chapters!!
will the next one take as long as this one?
I REALLY FUCKING HOPE NOT.
as always, special thank you to my betas @allangelsgobyangharad and @mer1d1an for dealing with my bullshit
i kinda have a tag list? of one person. who probably forgot about this fic. and i dont blame them.
@bad-at-living
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 weeks later
“You’re what?”
Marcy slammed the paper down on the table in front of Simon. Simon raised an eyebrow. He set down his coffee, and stood up to match Marcy’s eye level. The first time she’d shown up from whatever friend’s house she had been staying at for a month, and this was the first thing she said?
Honestly, Simon was just glad he sent it to the right address.
“Can’t read all of a sudden?”
He sassed, arms folded in front of him.
“Fuck you.”
“Respond, or don’t. This’ll happen with or without you, Marcy.”
He said, his voice stone-cold with a burning, bubbling rage under the surface, close to blowing up in both of their faces. Simon took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. Getting too angry wouldn’t be good for anyone, let alone the person he was trying to help in this situation. He needed to focus.
Marcy stayed silent, gritting her teeth so hard Simon was surprised they didn’t crack. She grabbed the packet from where she had thrown it on the table, and flipped through it again.
“When did you even file this?”
“Two weeks ago.”
She continued flipping through the papers before pausing on a specific section . Simon didn’t even try to remember what it was, not he could anyway. The entire pamphlet was, what, 20 pages long?
He didn’t bother asking.
He picked up his cup from where he had set it down and made his way back to the kitchen. Marcy didn’t react, not even the rustle of a turned page as he walked away.
“You have 25 days.”
No response.
Simon clicked his tongue in annoyance, and the soft rush of water echoed through the tense silence. He put the cup back up on the shelf, turning to walk past Marcy without a second glance.
“I’m going to work. Bring that with you when you leave.”
The door shut behind him, leaving Marcy alone in the eerie silence. Her grip tightened on the page, her vision focusing onto a certain phrase.
Sole Legal Custody to Simon Markson
Marcy felt her jaw tighten.
“Try to get more people to work with us. Especially children, your own if possible. They’re the easiest to conform to our standards.”
She flipped the pamphlet back to the front, grabbing a pen from Simon’s holder.
Does the other spouse challenge any requests of this agreement?
With a quick flick of her wrist, she ticked inside the small box.
~
Simon stretched from where he was sitting, tapping his toe against the wooden planks, hand raised over his eyes to combat the bright afternoon sun. He watched as the diving boat sailed up to the dock, spraying a tail of thrown-up water behind it. He sighed, getting to his feet as it slowed to a stop.
With a sharp breath, he clambered onto the deck, swinging his dry bag onto the bench. He sighed, turning to face the boat’s driver.
“Hey, Cap-”
Hm?
He expected to see the familiar black-haired diving captain but instead came face to face with a young man. His light chestnut hair fell across his face as he whipped around and met Simon’s confusion with an embarrassed, lopsided smile.
“Hey, sorry, The Captain isn’t here today.”
“Isn’t here?”
Simon echoed, tilting his head in confusion as the man turned back to the controls, flicking switches this way and that.
“Mmmhm! ‘Lu called in sick, so I’m here instead. Hope that's okay, I am pretty new to this.”
“Lu?”
“Luis. His name.”
“Ah.”
“You didn’t know his name?”
The man cast a glance over his shoulder, eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Simon shrugged, leaning against the bench he was sitting on.
“Never came up. Called him Lix or Captain.”
“Makes sense. He uses Lixian a lot.”
“You know him?”
“A little.”
Simon hummed, gaze cast on the waves below them, and occasionally reached over to graze the azure water.
Eventually, the boat slowed to a stop, and Simon got to his feet, standing with a stretch as he heard his joints pop. The other man let out a quick breath, clapping his hands in one short sharp sound.
“Yes! Okay. You should go get-”
The man turned to him, but immediately stuttered to a stop, his face crumpling into a wince.
“Ah. I mean. Do what you need to, I’m the rookie here.”
He muttered, some remnant of a smile fading into an embarrassed grimace as he rubbed the back of his neck. Simon frowned, then sighed.
“It’s fine. Don’t worry ‘bout it, ‘kay?”
The man opened his mouth, but stayed silent. He closed it. Simon huffed out a laugh, walking past him into the storage room.
~
Simon bit back a curse as the frigid water instantly surrounded him, his diving suit clinging tighter to his skin, the cold making it tense up and sting. He took in a deep breath, or as deep as he dared with a limited oxygen supply, and pulled at the chain, dragging himself down and deeper into the water. Soon, he had reached the ROV, and he took a look around.
Weird.
Ellion had been in almost all his photos back up at the surface. Where was he now? Simon sighed, shaking off the thought as he unclipped the ROV from its magnet. A little tug, and it broke away from the chain. Simon was about to head back up to the surface, when he spotted a dark shape in the distance.
“What in the-”
It started moving.
“What.”
He watched as it grew larger, and larger, and-
Oh fuck its getting closer.
And fast.
Way too big to be Ellion, so what the fuck was that?
Simon pulled at his memory, trying to trigger literally anything about the big fucking fish coming his way-
Muskellunges.
Fuck.
Simon tightened his grip on the sub, managing to clip it back onto the chain before the sickly green animal swam over, and sunk its teeth into his fucking arm!
Simon grit his teeth, pulling his face a pained wince, letting out a pained groan as its teeth cut through rubber and dug into his skin.
“Shit, get off me!”
He grabbed at the fish with his right hand, pulling at its skin in an effort to force it to fucking let him go!
The animal didn’t let up, pressing its teeth harder into Simon’s arm. Simon bit back a cry as it broke through his skin, pushing into his flesh and tearing at vessels. He squeezed his eyes shut, cause fuck it burned and it didn’t just burn the pain was fucking pulsating throughout his entire body and god it hurt it hurt so much please fuck stop-
Simon gasped as the animal tore its fangs out of his flesh, biting back a groan as the water seeped into his open wound. He shook off the pained daze that fell onto his subconscious, and snapped his eyes open, looking around wildly through the murky water until his eyes caught onto a familiar bright blue.
Ellion snapped his jaws at the very confused muskellunge fish. Simon could’ve laughed if his head wasn’t still swimming in the aftershocks of the pain, or if the fish’s teeth weren’t still stained with his blood. Said larger fish snapped its own jaws at Ellion, before swimming off.
Simon exhaled, watching as Ellion swam over to him, head tilted in an adorably concerned way.
“Jesus fucking christ, ‘El.”
The eel twirled around worriedly, and wriggled over to Simon’s still-bleeding arm. Or, he thought it was still bleeding at least. The cloud of diluted blood around it would imply that.
The eel coiled around his arm without touching the skin, and poked the wound with its nose. Simon bit back a curse as the sharp, stabbing pain shot up through his arm.
“Ow- Maybe don’t touch that, yeah?”
He winced, and Ellion immediately backed off, pulling his body off of Simon entirely. Simon laughed dryly, reaching out with his good arm to give Ellion a little scratch.
“Too smart for your own good, hm? It’s okay, don’t stress about it. I’m fine.”
Ellion pressed into his touch, curling slightly around his hand. Simon chuckled, and looked over at his wound.
It wasn’t actively gushing blood anymore, which was a good sign.But then again, infection didn’t show itself until later. It wasn’t gaping anymore either, and Simon had been through worse. It’d probably hurt to get changed out of his suit, but he’d live.
With a deep breath, Simon grabbed the sub with his injured arm, grabbing the chain with the other, and hauled himself up, Ellion following behind him.
~
“Okay guys, listen up!”
Two sharp claps echoed through the bustling classroom, and twenty-one pairs of eyes swiveled to face the chipper blond man standing at the front.
“We have good news, and we have a condition for the good news. Which one do you want first? Yes, Carter?”
Carter put his hand down, and pulled a red lollipop out of his mouth to answer.
“The good news.”
“I was going to start with that anyways.”
A small bubble of laughter poured from the students, but they kept their eyes focused on Mr Grace.
“Okay,”
He sighed, pulling out a couple of papers from the drawer in front of him.
“I’m not going to bore you, you all know our funds have been pretty low. Don’t pretend you don’t know anything, I know Daphne tells everyone. And that’s okay, Daphne. However,”
He tapped his knuckles against the paper.
“The school board has signed off on us getting a bit more funding, plus a field trip.”
The room erupted into sound, the rumble of excited whispers and nudging-to-attention filling the room back up with noise. Mr Grace clapped his hands again, and the noise died down.
“Okay, okay. The contact was with Fall Guy Productions,”
More chatter, but softer this time. Ryland continued.
“For us to basically be their background set for a scene in their new movie. They offered us funding, admission to the Science Centre for that day, and a bunch of free stuff- Daphne?”
“Isn’t that the company your brother owns?”
“You have a brother?”
Elaine yelped in sync with Carter, pulling many of their classmates’ gazes away from Mr Grace and onto them. Elaine instantly clammed up, her shoulders tensing up around her ears.
“Uh, I mean-”
“Mr Grace, you have a brother?”
Carter repeated, cutting off Elaine, much to her relief. The eyes swiveled back around to Ryland, who had his eyes shut in an expression of fudge-I-hoped-this-wouldn’t-happen.
“Twin, actually.”
He sighed, shoving his hands into the pockets of his sweater.
“Colt’s my twin.”
He rolled his eyes in fond, sibling-like exasperation. Carter let out a soft ‘Oh’.
“Besides the point. So,”
Ryland pressed his palms together, curling his fingers and pressing them outward.
“Condition is, Ms C’s coming along.”
The classroom erupted into noise again, but this time a lot less cheerful. Muttered curses and groans were grumbled to a very confused Elaine, who raised her hand.
“Who’s Ms C?”
Before Ryland could answer, Carter beat him to it.
“Ms Clarke is this jackass-”
“Language, Carter.”
“-hyper-religious old lady in the school board who has somehow got it in her head that all of science means nothing."
He rolled his eyes, tapping his fingertips against the desk. Elaine looked at Ryland, eyebrows furrowed with concerned confusion. Ryland just shrugged, his hands planted at his hips.
“He said it, not me.”
Wow. Mr Grace agreeing that someone sucks? She must really suck.
“But as we all know,”
He spoke again, this time addressing the whole class, getting them to quiet down.
“She’ll be there keeping a hawk’s eye on us, and if she sees anything,”
He mimed an explosion with his hands, and blew a raspberry.
“There goes our budget.”
Another chorus of groans.
“So, I’m going to make a deal with you guys.”
Carter and Daphne exchanged a look from across the tables. Honestly, most of the class never needed much convincing, but a deal with Mr Grace? Curious…
"If no one messes with Ms C, and we get no complaints,”
He paused, then grimaced like he was really regretting his next words.
“I’ll sing at the school festival next month."
It was like a bomb went off.
“Wait, what did he-”
“Oh my god he’s not joking is he.”
“That would be so funny, hold o-”
“Mr Grace, do we get to choose your song?”
Ryland screwed up his face, but answered.
“Yes.”
“Oh my god-”
“He really trusts us way too much..”
“Do you think Carter and Daphne’ll let us vote on it?”
“Alright, alright!”
Ryland clapped his hands twice again, and the class quietened down.
“Yes, you get to pick. Keep it PG though, cause your parents’ll still be there.”
A number of winces ran through the class. Ryland rolled his eyes, and glanced at the clock on the wall.
“Alright, I think that’s all for today. You’re dismissed.”
The classroom lit up in noise, students left and right standing up to get their things, waving at Ryland or Rocky, who was situated at the back of the class working on one of his many projects. The kids chatted with each other, and Ryland did his routine check up on how they interacted with one another.
Kate and Ross seemed to have resolved whatever argument they were having, and were doing great. Which was a good sign, they had a good friendship. Ryland would hate for it to break over something so small.
Christina and Liana were still together, as far as he could tell. Also good. He could never predict or prevent teenage relationships, so all he could do was look for signs of things.
Ryan and Collin continued staying very far away from one another. Not a bad thing, their arguments almost destroyed the chemistry lab last time, but he should try to get them to work together once or twice.
Reading people was a good teacher skill.
Meanwhile, Elaine and Carter were at the back of class, talking as they packed. He was probably asking her what song he should make Ryland sing when they inevitably won the bet.
Or deal.
Whatever.
He watched as Daphne made her way over to them, just in time for Carter to make some kind of snarky remark, earning him a slap to the back of the head.
“Hey, c’mon guys, no violence.”
“Yeah, Daphne-”
“Shut up.”
Ryland chuckled, turning to continue packing up his papers. As he packed, he thought.
Weirdly, Elaine had really stuck out to him once he got to know her. And as much as he tried to deny it, he knew why. That unbridled curiosity, especially in the world of space. She'd clearly been through some stuff, Ryland knew that hesitation and over-thunken reactions all too well.
He didn't like saying things like this, but he saw himself in her.
Might he add, the blond hair and grey-blue eyes weren't helping.
Ryland had always wanted kids. Really he had. But he'd accepted a long time ago that he wouldn't have any. His sexuality, or lack thereof, for one. Also his lack of financial everything.
With that rude reminder, Ryland grabbed his bag and made his way to the pick-up point, shielding his eyes from the blaring sun. Soon, Elaine bounded over to him, rocking back and forth on her heels as she stood next to him, a grin still etched on her face from whatever Carter had said. Ryland chuckled, reaching over and messing up her blond hair. She swatted him away with a couple frantic waves, which made him actually laugh.
Maybe he could pretend, just for this year.
No, you can’t.
He admonished as the familiar maroon-red car pulled up to the pick-up point.
That’s weird. You’re not her parent, never will be.
He sighed, shaking off that thought as he got into the passenger seat.
“Hey, Sim- Oh my god what happened to you?!”
Ryland had just sat down, when he noticed the bandages crudely wrapped around Simon’s left forearm, slightly stained in red.
What the fudge?!
Oh that was definitely blood.
Ryland saw Elaine poke her head out from the backseat. She took one glance at her father before clapping a hand over her mouth, eyes nearly bugging out of her face.
“Dad?! What the fuck happened?!”
Simon winced, slouching a little deeper in his chair. Ryland didn’t even bother language-ing her, instead reaching out to Simon, only to pause and pull his arm back when Simon froze.
“It’s nothing.”
Ryland gave a dry humorless snort.
“Yeah right!”
He paused.
“Can I see?”
He added, softer and more gentle. Simon’s shoulders fell, and he sighed.
“It’s not good, but yeah, just let me…”
He muttered, pulling out of the pick-up point and into the deserted parking lot. He turned in his seat to face Ryland, and pulled at the bandages until they fell away.
Then it was Ryland’s turn to clamp a hand over his mouth, eyes wide with horror as Elaine screwed her eyes shut, nearly snapping her neck in her effort to look away.
The wound was grizzly, dried sticky blood lingering around every cut and tear, the cuts and punctures themselves a dark deep crimson that made Ryland feel sick. The cuts themselves were messy, torn stabs into Simon’s flesh that were still surrounded with blood.
He felt a little like throwing up.
Simon winced at the reaction, instinctively curling in slightly around his arm.
“Y-Yeah, I know it’s pretty bad. Sorry.”
Ryland coughed, swallowing back the rock of nausea in his throat.
“It’s- It’s fine. When did you last disinfect it?”
Simon shifted around nervously.
“...I haven’t yet.”
Ryland went still.
“... Simon.”
“Ry.”
He inhaled deeply through his nose, pushing his glasses up his face as he pressed at his nose bridge.
“Elaine, do you guys have a medkit?”
“Yeah, gimme a sec.”
As Elaine rummaged around in the backseat for the medkit, Simon sat up a little straighter, looking between Ryland and his daughter as he raised his hands in surrender. Ryland didn’t miss the little wince he gave when he moved his arm.
“Woah- Hey- There’s no need to do that, I-”
Ryland fixed him with a glare, and he clamped his mouth shut, hands still slightly raised in a placating move.
“Firstly. You got that from work, which means an animal. Secondly, it was in the water. Thirdly,”
Ryland gestured wildly at the very much still gaping wound in Simon’s arm.
“That thing has been exposed for at least a couple hours now!”
He reached forward, grabbing Simon’s wrist and pulling his arm closer, looking over it with clear frustration and worry.
“It’s a wonder it isn’t already infected!”
On cue, Elaine poked her head out from the backseat and handed Ryland the medkit. He set the red and white box down on his lap, shuffling around so that Simon’s arm also sat at a somewhat comfortable angle in front of him.
Only then did he actually open the kit, pulling out an alcohol wipe and tearing it open with his teeth, using his free hand to gently take Simon’s wrist, pulling his arm towards him. He saw Simon’s throat bob up and down in his peripheral vision, but ignored it. He tensed as Ryland applied the alcohol, which made him wince in sympathy.
“Sorry, I know this probably stings a bunch- Elaine? Are you okay?”
Elaine watched from the backseat, face a little pale as she kept a vice grip on the driver’s seat. She nodded, closing her eyes as she sucked in a breath, letting it out slowly.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m okay.”
Simon frowned.
“Don’t worry, okay? It’s not as bad as it looks.”
Elaine nodded wordlessly.
Ryland furrowed his eyebrows, turning back to the task at hand.
“How did you even get hurt like this? Were there no medics at your worksite? That can’t be safe… Or legal…”
“There are a couple… The guy was new, I didn’t wanna stress him out. And I have some antibiotics left over.”
“Simon...”
He kept rambling as he continued to disinfect the wound, treating it and reapplying the bandages.
“Gosh, I really hope this heals okay, I’m not sure if it needs stitches- Elaine can you help me cut this? Watch your dad’s wrist- so you should probably go get it checked out soon.”
He said, words partially muffled by the safety pin he held in between his lips.
“There’s a clinic nearby where I live, if you need to you can go get it looked at there. Not like I wouldn’t mind going along, if you don’t mind that is.”
He muttered, pinning the bandage to keep it together before turning Simon’s arm over to check his handiwork, running his fingertips over the bandages.
“They don’t feel uncomfortable, right?”
Ryland glanced up at Simon from where he was looking down at his arm, and paused.
Simon was staring at him, an amused little smile playing across his lips. Ryland felt heat flash up the back of his neck, and he fixed his blue eyes onto Simon’s brown ones. They looked… soft, and warm. He looked at Ryland like he was something to be treasured, not just as another person, but someone.
Simon’s lips moved, and Ryland let his eyes flick down to them. They were upturned gently in a small, lopsided smile, and Ryland felt the warmth rise up to his face. He muttered a soft ‘Thank you’, and Ryland snapped back to reality.
“O-Oh! Uh, it’s, it’s totally fine you don’t- you don’t need to thank me I just- I-”
Geez, he really was an idiot. Who stutters that much in front of their friend?
~
This was probably the weirdest revelation of Elaine’s life.
She blinked, staring from the backseat at Mr Grace and her dad.
It felt kind of weird calling him Mr Grace now.
You know, after she found out he liked her dad.
Really, she should’ve seen this coming. Really.
She knew her dad was physically attractive. It made her gag every time someone brought it up, but she knew. She’d seen the looks.
This was a little… different.
When she was sure the two of them wouldn’t look her way, she risked a glance over at Mr Grace.
His face was beet red, the flush crawling up from his neck to the tips of his ears where his glasses sat. He was fumbling and fidgeting with said glasses, looking anywhere but her dad as he rambled on something. Though he was rambling, he was still grinning like a lovesick idiot. If Elaine looked closely, even his freaking pupils were dilated!
Simon on the other hand, looked… amused. In a friendly way. She couldn’t notice any sort of romantic intentions behind his eyes, but he had a different look to him.
He looked like someone who realised they had a friend.
And she was happy for him.
Obviously, she knew her parents were divorcing. Her dad had asked her first, if she was okay with it happening. He’d explained why he wanted to, and she’d understood.
Was this why it happened? Did her dad lie to her?
…No, definitely not. She doubted her dad even knew Mr Grace felt this way, heck she doubted even Mr Grace knew he felt this way.
Honestly, she’d rather she didn’t know.
Not only was this absolutely painful to watch, how would she even deal with this knowledge?
Already, she felt that daughter-ly urge to call them gross and to get a room.
…But that would imply her dad even felt the same way.
She didn’t know. And didn’t want to risk it.
She could keep Mr Grace’s secret.
Well, was it considered a secret if he didn’t even know?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
yeah, weird ending i know. like i said this was supposed to continue
but hey? at least it exists?
uhhh fun character facts i was supposed to add in here but didnt cause im a chud loser:
the "newbie" boat captain is actually vincent!! you know, marks. editor. the new guy. hes cool.
carter and daphne are siblings. or very sibling coded. im not sure yet
pray to the hail mary that the next chapter will be quick
spoiler: there will be a lot of angst. but fluff after that!! so
here, have the link
Derek: I am NOT attracted to stupidity?! That's an insane thing to be attracted to! I value intelligence in my partners.
Avery: Hey, Der, where's the 'Y' in broccoli??
Derek, in the same breath: God, please, have my children already—
King In Yellow: Really?
drops this and runs
yo girl, are you a cognitohazard,, cause the knowledge of your existence is making me woozy
The delusional state these two assholes put me in 😭 is such a crime like WTF NAMTANFILM!
