#avoiding you

Though, even when they were alone with each-other, they were awkward, quiet, and stand-offish. You couldn’t help but feel guilty, and like it was your fault.

Your interactions with Ryland turned awkward in the six days of no physical contact. He wanted it, he knew he needed it, but he was way too scared to ask verbally. And his subtle hints were dismissed, you’re not sure why you ignored his tiny brushes or subtle lean ins.

Maybe it’s just because you felt bad. Not just for him, but for Simon.

He’d been blatantly staying out of your way, probably embarrassed from having been caught masturbating into your panties, which he now somewhat regrets. He’s glad you were into it but… nothing has come out of it since. So the initial adrenaline and stamina has slowly shifted to embarrassment and shyness around you.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, Simon and Ryland had been arguing. You weren’t sure how long this had been going on for, they did it behind your back. You only found out because you were about to go into the lab, and hid behind the doorframe the moment you heard yelling.

Simon’s voice was the first you heard, loud and rough, a slight growl in his tone. “Don’t act like I don’t see you trying to hold hands with her and kiss her and shit!”

Oh no.

Ryland retorted with an obviously shaking tone, “You completely avoid her! And yet I’ve seen her panties in your laundry pile, so what the hell is that about!?”

Shit.

None of them are explaining themselves, but they keep testing the waters. Seeing what they can call out the other for. Seeing what they can reveal.

You can’t tell if they’re arguing over you, or about you. If they’re jealous of each-other or jealous of you.

Rocky comes out, he was hiding behind a corner too. He quietly rolls over to the other side of the doorframe, both of you are hiding now.

He gestures to you with a slight wave of his claw, like he wants you to follow, but he knows you have to be quiet.

You don’t really want to hear any more of this arguing, so you decide to follow Rocky, the only person who’s not arguing on this ship at the moment.

Rocky leads you to the bedroom, you shut the door of the dormitory and start talking, “How long has this been going on?” You ask with obvious worry in your tone, you try to stay somewhat quiet.

“Too long.” Rocky states, shifting from side to side in annoyance. “Rocky is very tired of it. Rocky cannot sleep because they argue so loud.”

You grimace, how long have you not noticed? You can’t help but feel guilty, especially because they’ve been doing this in front of Rocky.

Rocky talks over your silence, “Rocky have solution. Doctor, Simon, and Grace need to…” He rocks back and forth, trying to find the human word for it, “Mate.”

You choke, and he keeps talking. “Rocky knows that Doctor has been intimate with Grace and Simon. Simon and Grace like each other, question?”

You stutter slightly in your words, “I… I think so.” 

“Rocky solution.” He rumbles around, you shudder uncomfortably. “Doctor gets Simon and Grace to mate so they are no longer uncomfortable.”

“That’s easier said than done.”

“They both want it.” Rocky states. “They just need persuasion.”

Persuasion.

You think you understand what Rocky is… trying to say. With the limited vocabulary you know he has. Ryland definitely hasn’t taught him certain words like sex.

Rocky decides to leave, and go off to God knows where just to leave you to consider your options. And you have a feeling he doesn’t plan on coming back until someone—you, hopefully—tells him it’s okay to.

You stand up, following him out after thinking afterwards. You head to the laboratory where Simon and Dr. Grace are, surprisingly, still arguing.

Though you make your presence a lot more obvious this time, walking through the door with heavy footsteps, catching them mid insult. You had no clue what the hell was even going on, what they were saying, but it was obviously getting heated.

Both their hairs were messy from fingers being run through it, you could see a prominent aggravated vein in Simon’s neck and you could see the blatant shade of pink Dr. Grace was turning.

“Both of you.” You didn’t have to say those words to get their attention, but you figured it was necessary, “Bedroom. Now.” You turned away, storming off to the dormitory.

You had no clue if they were gonna follow you, at first it was false confidence, but you heard scurried and shuffled footsteps behind you. It was hesitant, and it took them a while to follow after you.

But they did.

Maybe Rocky was right.

Walking into the dorms, you close the door behind them. Making sure you lock it. They’re both pretty frazzled, probably still shocked that they got caught arguing by you. Dr. Grace is fiddling with his fingertips and looking at you for some sort of guidance.

You walk over to the bed, sitting down at the edge of it, they come closer until you put your hand up.

“Stay.”

Simon starts to argue with you, “What the hell is this about Doct-“

“I said stay.”

He stutters, closing his mouth. Holy shit, you honestly can’t believe this is working. Inside your heart is working loudly, your arms are shaking ever so slightly. They can’t say anything, because not only are you in charge, but they’re shaking too.

You think of what to say next. They’re both standing, next to each other, you can almost see electricity between them from how heated their tension is.

“Strip.”

They both let out chokes and unsure noises in shock, Ryland almost starts protesting but Simon gets right to work. You add, “Keep your underwear on.” because you have a feeling Simon is willing to go the entire way right now.

Dr. Grace is a lot more doubtful, watching Simon thoughtfully while he takes off a borrowed t-shirt and tosses it to the side. He slowly unbuckles his pants and lowers them fully. His gray boxers don’t do much to hide his boner.

You don’t know if that boner happened just now or when they were arguing, but with how fast it made itself known you’re willing to bet it happened when they were fighting.

And Dr. Grace is staring at it.

“Grace.” You click your tongue at him, like he’s a dog. Simon glances over at him, catching his stare. He doesn’t react to it, but he definitely sees.

He nods. “Sorry.” He whispers, lifting his shirt over his head, and taking off his slacks. He does it with a lot more uncertainty than Simon did, probably because he’s more embarrassed of…

“Nice boxers.” Simon grins at them.

Space themed boxers, with planets and stars on them. Yeah, no wonder he hesitated.

“Shut up.” He glares at Simon, and his dick.

Dr. Grace isn’t doing much to hide his own boner. Even if the space boxers distract anyone who looks from it, they’re both extremely hard.

You cross your legs over another, they half expect you to strip as well, but you don’t. They haven’t earned that from you yet, no, not at all.

“Why were you two arguing?” You ask, looking at them as if they weren’t almost naked in-front of you.

Neither of them reply first. And you raise your eyebrows at Dr. Grace.

“Uhm.” He starts. “I- it was over something stupid.”

“Yeah.” Simon adds. “Nothing you should be worried about.”

You squint at them, at them ever so obviously lying to your face. 

“One more time. Why were you two arguing.” You cross your arms. Neither of them want to reply. You can see Rylands cock twitching in his boxers from the tension.

“Was it over me?” You tilt your head at them, and they both have visceral reactions to it. A hitch of the breath, a flinch. “Or was it over each other?"

Simon rubs his face. “That’s ridiculous. Both of that- that’s insane, right, Ryland?”

Ryland nods. “Mhm. We weren’t arguing over either of those thi-“

“Why are you both so fucking hard then? Why did you cum in your pants from the idea of Simon seeing us dry hump, Ryland?” Dr. Grace shudders, a soft noise coming out his mouth. “Why did the arguing start after I did shit with the both of you? The only explanation is that you guys are jealous.”

They go quiet.

They’re.. embarrassed. 

You got your answer though. It’s written all over their faces. On Simon's teeth between his lips, his gaze focused on the walls. At Rylands hand covering his face, the visible shudder in his hands.

“Come here.” You say. Patting the spots next to you.

They hesitantly walk over to you. Their weights shift the bed softly. Simon carries himself with heavy weight, Ryland carries himself with more unsureness\, but they’re both considerably fit people. 

Simon’s bicep graces you, he flinches and you even hear him mumble an apology. Like he hasn’t jerked off in your panties. Ryland’s hands are over his underwear, trying to hide the obvious precum that’s starting to show through, right on planet Saturn.

You lean over, slowly. Grace’s eyes flutter at you leaning, he even backs up, thinking he needs to make space for you. It takes him a moment to register that you want to kiss him. Even when you were grinding on his lap you didn’t really do that. 

His mouth opens for you, lips slightly parting. It’s uncertain, his breath falters into your mouth as your lips close around him. They part ever so slightly, you can hear a noise come out as your hand lifts to tighten your fingers around his hair.

He leans in, he’s so hesitant. So scared. His hand finds your hip, he didn’t think he’d get a chance like this again. His kiss is soft and tender, and he falters when your tongue finds his mouth, unknowing what to do with it.

His tongue brushes against yours, he whimpers softly into your mouth at the new experience. For someone who went to college he’s a very shy kisser, but you don’t mind. He was probably a nerd considering he majored in molecular biology.

Your hand moves from the back of his head to the side of his face, tilting his head as you continue to makeout with him.

You pull away with a soft bite of his bottom lip, and he chases you for a moment before realizing you really are pulling off. And, oh, the sound he makes, a soft, a disappointed whine.

You turn your head around, looking at Simon who’s grown even harder than he originally was. He adjusts his position to better face you on the bed, knowing that his mouth is next for you to press up on.

And it’s clear that he didn’t mind watching you makeout with Dr. Grace, no, not at all. In fact, it’s clear he enjoyed watching it. Maybe he was thinking of what his lips would feel like on either of your faces. And truthfully, if you’re being honest with yourself, you find that extremely attractive.

You put your hand on his chest and he can’t help but sit up slightly, leaning towards you in anticipation. His hand stays close to his side, knuckles almost white from how much pressure he’s gripping the sheet with.

You press your mouth against his, his facial hair is a lot more grown out than Dr. Grace’s, who tries to keep it somewhat trimmed. Your lips press against his softly though, he pants into your mouth.

He’s really putting his all into this kiss, his shoulders shift and his back arches forward as you run your tongue across his lip softly. His kiss is a lot louder, surprisingly, you would’ve figured that Dr. Grace would be the louder one when it came to kissing. 

He brings the arm that’s not gripping the bed up to your face, holding your jaw as he gradually becomes sloppier with the kiss. You can see his cock visibly twitch in his plain boxers and it does nothing to help the heat pooling in your own core.

He leans forward so much that you can practically feel your back pressing against Dr. Grace’s chest, who hasn’t thought to back up. He still has a bit of saliva on his chin from where you kissed him just as passionately, and he’s watching you kiss Simon with such awe.

With a soft peck finishing your makeout with Simon, you pull away. He does the same thing as Grace, chasing your lips before realizing it was fully over. The two men had a somewhat puzzled expression, wondering what happens next in this scenario.

You’ve come to the conclusion that these men haven’t acted on their attraction for each other, you don’t think they’ve even admitted to it. You’d think Simon would, he seems like the more dominant one between them. 

You, however, know Simon well enough that you realize he won’t say anything to Grace. And Ryland definitely won’t say anything to him. You’re sure that Simon has touched himself in Ryland’s boxers and you’re sure Ryland has thought of Simon on top of him. Or maybe him on top of Simon?

You’re just theorizing, you weren’t one to look at two men that way, but being presented with these opportunities has only made your mind wander so much. 

You cross your legs, looking at the both of them. You stretch your neck out slightly, pulling your shoulders back to reveal the curve between your neck and shoulder blades, the crooks where Ryland’s forehead rested a few nights ago when you were grinding on him.

Both of them seem to get your implications at the same time, and they may have even shot each other a look. You feel their hands pushing your hair aside, Ryland’s hands are shaking against your flesh, and so are Simon’s.

You feel Ryland first, his glasses clash against your skin slightly, but it’s not painful, no. His lips hesitantly kiss your neck, you can feel how unsure he is in it. Simon follows, the rough texture of his beard pushing up against you as he takes your neck with more pride than Ryland does.

You can’t help but smile as the two vigorously begin making out with your nape, their noses and mouths only separated by you in-between them. They push up into you, your body shifts with each suckle of Ryland’s lips and brush of Simon’s tongue. 

You shift your head slightly, leaning your jaw on the side of Grace’s forehead, tilting into his affectionate kiss, which earns you a slight gasp of held-in air from his lips. You turn the other direction to coo against Simon’s hair as he works a hickey on the side of your neck.

The more you shift your head side to side, the more they follow. Ryland lifts his head first to affectionately kiss your jaw, it’s fearful, you can see his eyes peek open to judge your reaction, and in the brief moment of eye contact you give him a loose smile to show your affection.

He shifts his thighs a bit to hide the precum that’s starting to make itself noticeable in his underwear.  

Simon follows his direction, after he leaves a mark on your neck he lifts his face up, pushing himself up on the bed to better reach you, and kisses your jaw and the side of your face as well. Normally, makeout sessions are limited to the neck and the mouth, but this is a situation where both of these men have held everything in for so long, you don’t think they care what they kiss.

As long as their mouths are on you.

You decide to test the waters a bit, you bring your hands up to hold both of their faces. You open your mouth and catch Ryland’s tongue slightly as you bring the both of them ever so close into the middle. Your touch isn’t forceful, it’s guiding and suggestive. If they wanted to keep kissing your jaw and your cheek, they could’ve.

But both of them follow your guidance, lips mostly hitting the corner of your mouth, tongues only occasionally interlocking with yours, wetness mostly coating your chin and philtrum. 

The two of them awkwardly catch each other's lips, rough facial hair obvious in comparison to your soft skin. They immediately pull away, all the progress of slowly pushing them together reversed by one slight touch of chins.

Simon seems a bit caught off guard but he definitely isn’t turned off by the contact, his mouth remains somewhat open as his attention is fully focused on Ryland, who’s a nervous wreck at the contact.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that…” He wipes some saliva off his chin, he’s unclear if it’s his, yours, or Simon’s at this point. 

The two of them laugh awkwardly as they shuffle their positions, Ryland putting one of his knees on the bed while the other hangs off of it. His arm goes in between his legs to hide his own obvious signs of pleasure. 

You laugh with them, breaking the tension that temporarily removed you from their line of sight. You grab their faces again, looking at both of their eyes for some sort of confirmation, and gradually bring them both to your face again to resume where you three left off.

You bring them to your lips, not the corner or your jaw, but your lips. You kiss them, you don’t have a specific aim, but you simply kiss them and they kiss back. Now, they don’t care about who brushes up against who. 

They can feel each other’s facial hair, the different noses that grace their cheeks occasionally. They’ve made an unspoken connection that it’s okay, that it’s going to happen if they’re gonna do this. 

Your hands come up to grab both their faces as you make out with them, feeling the different ways their lips and tongues dance with yours, how hesitant and whiney Ryland is in-between gasps and how sloppy and desperate Simon is. 

Your hands run down to the backs of their necks, which earns you a soft moan and flinch from Ryland, and almost no reaction from Simon, who’s too focused on eating your face.

Ryland moves down to kiss your neck passionately, your lips awakening something nervous in him, anytime he peeked his eyes open from behind his glasses he’d see your face and it’d simply make him too anxious right now. He sucks on your neck hungrily though, building the courage to move back up to your face. 

In the opportunity your hands cup Simon’s face, you kiss him tenderly and properly in the mix of everyone. He kisses you like he’s been dying for Ryland to get out the way, he grunts and his hand moves to your thigh, not in any implications, but to simply steady himself.

As Ryland eats your neck, you move to cup his face, turning your head slightly as Simon begins to move down to the nape of your neck, licking and kissing a spot underneath your ear. You turn your head to give him the room and to also push your lips against Grace.

You grab his face quickly and briefly, everything seems to be happening so fast compared to earlier. Your makeout with Ryland individually is brief because your hands find Simon’s face again, and guides him to the very middle.

As your lips catch Simon’s, they catch Ryland’s just as easily. It’s a switch, you can feel Simon's facial hair pressed against you as you catch Grace again, then Simon, then Grace, his glasses cold against the side of your face. Then they catch each other.

And they don’t stop catching each other, because they don’t have anyone else to catch.

You’ve leaned back slowly as you watch the two of them press their lips against each other, still with the same hunger that they’d touched yours previously. With the same consistency of saliva around their tongues. 

And you know that they know. The feeling of strictly manly unshaven hair against their lips is a lot more apparent now that your gentle skin isn’t separating them both.

You can’t help but smile at the way they turn their heads to the side as they kiss one another, noses awkwardly shifting against each-other and teeth catching lips in anxious bites.

Tongues pressing against the corners of their mouths and veins popping in necks from the pure hunger and starvation that they feel for each other's mouths.

They can’t get enough of each other.

They’re both extremely hard during this entire thing as well, Simon is still gripping the bed trying to keep himself from touching his aching cock right now and Ryland is doing the exact same.

“Okay.” You say. Which is enough to break them out of whatever makeout trance they were in. 

You hear the soft break and smack of their lips as they both pull away in surprise at the interruption, and they look down at you, leaning back on the bed.

You shift your thighs slightly, using your elbows to prop yourself up between the two, who are sort of just staring at you. Breathing heavily and avoiding the other’s gaze in silence.

You simply can’t wipe that shit eating grin off your face, it’s impossible. You just accomplished something that neither of them would’ve been able to fully do without, or without a lot more work than needed at least .

And you still wanted in on the fun.

“You’re both hard.”

Ryland brings his hand to his mouth to wipe some saliva. Simon watches, looking back at you, down at his cock, down at Ryland’s cock, back at you.

He clears his throat in Ryland’s silence, “You would be too given… the circumstance.” He waves his hand around.

“Oh, trust me.” You shuffle your thighs again. “I’m really wet right now. I’m loving this.” You sit up fully again, breaking the space between the two. You grab Simon’s face, kissing him softly, you look back at Ryland.

He closes his eyes in expectancy for a kiss, but you don’t give him it. “Do you guys want me to stay? Or do you wanna have fun without me?”

Ryland’s the first to speak, he opens his eyes quickly, “No, no. I- right, Simon? We don’t want her to leave, right?”

“God no.” Simon agrees, his hand finds your lower back, it’s a gentle touch, and it’s so light for someone with such burly arms. “No, we need you here, Doc. Who’s gonna guide us?” He asks with a smirk.

You can’t help but feel your face warm, putting your hands in your lap and wiggling your shoulders at the kind words. “Jeez, I didn't think I was that needed here. But you’re right.” Your hand moves from your own lap, to Simon’s thigh. It graces in a spot so, so close to his cock, and the breath leaves his lungs at the touch.

“Who’s gonna guide you both?”

“You, you are.” Simon replies, quickly. Anxiously.

Your hand stays on his thigh for a moment, eying him before leaning back. “Stand up.”

He does, Ryland goes to follow before you place a hand on his thigh. “No, you stay.”

“Okay…” He whimpers softly, biting his lip.

Simon stands up, and he walks over to stand in front of both of you. He’s not sure what to do with his hands, they go to cover his boner instinctively before realizing that’s probably what you both want to see.

He’s obviously very big, you’ve seen his cock before, but Grace hasn’t. He’s blatantly staring at the ginormous dent in Simon’s pants, and it’s only making Simon break eye contact with the both of you.

The outline of his tip can be seen through the thin fabric. He's so hard that the strap of his boxers has lifted a bit, pulling off at the tension of his boner.

You lean over to Ryland, the both of you still looking at Simon as he stands in front of you, like a piece of meat. You whisper in his ear. “Dr. Grace?”

“Yes?” He whispers back, like he has to keep this a secret from Simon.

“Have you seen Simon’s cock?”

His breath hitches, his eyes widen as his gaze is broken momentarily from Simon to your eyes. He looks almost fearful, like the question is an interrogation. But he bites his lip, shaking his head. “No, no I haven’t.”

“Do you want to?” You ask, your fingers dancing over his own boner, and the tip of your index presses against the tip of his cock through his silly boxers. A string of precum follows the connection as you lift your finger back up. 

Ryland’s breath falters and his back arches softly into your touch. “Yes, I do. I do.”

You lean back, sitting up to face Simon again, and you raise your eyebrows at him. You raise them because you know he heard that whole, not-so-silent whispering of conversation.

“Simon.”

He nods, putting his thumbs around his own waistband. It’s slow, he pushes his hips out ever so slightly as he slides the gray boxers down, letting them fall to his ankles after a certain point. His cock bounces softly after being freed from the tense fabric.

And Ryland can’t stop staring at it.

You’ve seen Simon’s cock, obviously, you walked in on him pumping it into your panties. But you won’t deny that he has an insanely attractive sex. Its length is certainly impressive but you think his girth is all the more striking, how thick it is, the veins that throb in it. It’s a very porn-worthy cock, if it weren’t for the situation he were in you’d honestly recommend he make some money off of it.

You turn your head to look at Ryland, whos own cock twitches in his underwear at the sight.

“It’s big, isn’t it?” You whisper against his ear, leaning against his shoulder.

You hear him gulp, literally, you hear him swallow his own saliva down his throat. “Very.”

Your hand runs down Ryland’s leg, rubbing his thigh softly. “He’s so hard, isn’t he?”

“Very.” Grace nods.

“Extremely.” Simon adds.

You smile, you kiss Ryland’s cheek. He doesn’t take his eyes off of Simon’s dick though, he’s in a trance.

You bite his ear softly, and he whines at the overstimulating thoughts in his head right now. 

“Have you sucked dick before?” You place your hand on Ryland’s chin, turning him to look you in the eyes slightly. He seems shocked at your question, his eyebrows raise and his mouth opens slightly. He gives you a dry silence before he works up the courage to even speak.

“N-no. I haven’t.”

“Do you want to?”

He thinks about it. He looks over at Simon, at his dick, at you.

“I think so…”

“We can’t have an ‘I think so,’ Ryland. You either want to or you don’t.” You place your hand on his cheek.

Simon clears his throat. “You don’t gotta. This is a lot, I mean-“

“I want to.” Ryland sighs, the words come out with a rushed breath of air. “I just- I was embarrassed so I said I think so but I really want to, I do.” He brings a hand up to push yours away from his cheek, and rubs it down his face.

You smile, and you hear a soft ‘oh fuck’ leave Simon’s mouth at the admission.

No other words really have to be said, you stand up. Ryland stays sitting, just to see what you’re doing. You walk over to Grace’s bed and take one of his pillows, throwing it on the floor at Simon’s feet. Your hand graces Simon’s shoulders, looking at him.

“You good with this, big guy?”

He nods, biting his lip. “Fuck yeah. This is really hot.”

You turn around where you stand, looking at Grace. “Grace, hun’, get on your knees right here, please.”

He nods, standing up slowly. He looks at Simon in the eyes, looking to see some sort of reaction, maybe hear some words. They’re both silent as Ryland lowers himself, face to face with Simon’s cock. Looking up at the both of you staring down at him.

He looks pretty like this.

The idea of Ryland Grace on his knees in general is a very attractive thought, but this entire situation is extremely beautiful.

Simon’s hand finds itself in Grace’s hair, pushing his bangs out of his face slightly, but they’re so trained that they fall right back into place.

You kiss Simon’s cheek, biting his jaw a bit as you whisper. “Isn’t he pretty like this?”

“Mhm…” Simon utters.

“Tell him that then.”

He lets out a shuddered breath, his hand still in Grace’s hair. Ryland’s hands have found themselves touching Simon’s thigh, bracing slightly. “Ryland you’re… you’re so pretty like this.”

He squirms, looking up at the both of you. “Thank… thank you.”

You walk around, because you can tell that they’re both not sure where to go from here. Simon is too scared to push Ryland, and Ryland seems to be too scared to even touch Simon’s cock.

You lower yourself onto your own knees, behind Grace. He turns his head over his shoulders, anxiously asking, “What’re you doing?”

“Helping you, you’re okay. I’ll talk the both of you through this, okay?”

Grace lets out a relieved sigh, and you can see Simon let out one too by the way his abs move.

You put your hands around Ryland’s waist, rubbing them up and down gently. “Just put your hand at the base of his cock, hold it.” He does. “There we go, like that.”

Simon shudders at the contact, Grace holds his pent up cock into place. 

“Now,” You whisper into his ear, hands traveling down his waist, rubbing the spot above his cock. Fingers running through a soft and subtle happy trail. “Guide his tip to your lips. Just kiss it.”

He shakes as he leans in, looking up at Simon as he kisses the tip lightly. You whisper soft praises into his ear, telling him to kiss the base and the sides, to lick it slightly.

Obviously, this isn’t sucking his dick. You know that, but you also know that Ryland has never done this before. You don’t think he’s even considered this as an option for a while, you’re just working him up to it. You know that. He knows that. Even Simon knows that.

Your hands go under the waistband of Ryland’s boxers, and his breath shudders against Simon’s cock. You feel around, running your hands through the hair he keeps well trimmed, his hands shake softly.

You don’t touch his cock, not yet. It seems like just putting your hands near it would be enough to push him over the edge.

“There we go.” You coo into his ear as he gets into the groove of licking Simon’s cock, a lot more comfortably. Simon lets out light gasps and soft moans. “He’s doing so good, isn’t he, Simon?”

“Yeah, yeah, fuck..” Simon groans, running his hand through Ryland’s hair tenderly.

Your fingers come out of Ryland’s boxers, and he whines for a moment before you put your thumbs around the waistband. Slowly, you lower it to free his cock. It’s longer than you would’ve expected and the girth is pretty impressive too.

You got really lucky ending up on the ship with these two.

You keep whispering into Ryland’s ear. “You think you’re ready to take it, Ryland?”

He bites his lip, leaning back and kissing Simon’s tip. He stares at it for a while, and pushes his glasses up to the top of his head like they’re sunglasses. He nods and lets a soft ‘mhm’ out.

“Mkay.” Your hand finds the tip of Grace’s cock, rubbing your thumb on the precum that’s been pooling. You use that as a slight lubricant to wrap your hand around him from behind and slowly pump him.

“Open your mouth.” You instruct. He does. “Slide his tip into your mouth.”

He follows your instructions, Grace is a smart boy, he could figure out how to suck dick without you in his ear instructing him.

He likes this, he likes being told what to do, he likes the soft praise in his ear that he gets when he follows your instructions right.

The more of Simon’s cock that he manages to get into his mouth, the more Simon groans. “Fuuuuckk…” He forces his eyes shut, fist clenched by his side at the feeling of Grace’s mouth.

Your hands pump Grace a bit faster. “Now go back and forth, here, actually, let me help.”

Your free hand lifts to grab his hair on the back of his head, and you guide his head back and forth on Simon’s cock. He gags a little, not because he’s taking too much, no, you haven’t even pushed him that far yet. He gags at the surprise, but his hands grip Simon’s thigh, holding on as you guide his head back and forth.

Simon bites his lip. “Fuck, look at that, he’s doing so good.” 

You feel Ryland’s cock throb under your hand at Simon’s words. You smile. “I know, right. D’you hear that, Ryland? Simon thinks you’re doing good.”

He nods his head.

“Think you can do it without my hand?”

Ryland nods again, and you take your hand off his head, moving it to stroke his cock with both of your hands.

The stimulation only makes him moan on Simon’s dick, sending vibrations up his spine. Simon shudders. “Holy shit this is so fucking hot.” He spurs out.

His hips falter a bit into Ryland’s mouth, it scares him slightly, you know Simon’s cock is huge, especially for someone who’s never done this. But you shush him in his ear as you run your palm over his tip.

“It’s okay, it’s okay Grace. You can take it. Go on, try to take a little more.”

He hesitates, but he pushes his head down further, getting half of Simon’s cock in his mouth. Tears well at the corner of his eyes, but it’s worth the groan that comes out of Simon’s mouth. He tilts his head back, looking at the ceiling as his hand moves down to the back of Ryland’s head.

He pushes his head subtly, not forceful, just guiding. Grace chokes around his cock anxiously as he slowly takes more of it into his mouth.

“It’s okay.” You purr, pumping his cock faster. His hips buck into your hand. “You got it, you’re taking it just fine.”

Ryland eventually gets used to choking on Simon’s cock as he takes it somewhat faster.

You lean forward, still jerking him off, you look up at Simon, smirking at his wrecked expression. Then you turn your head to Ryland, kissing his neck. “If you can take him all the way to the base, I’ll sit on your face.”

He has to physically stop himself from cumming, because he grabs one of your hands and forces you to stop stroking him at the mere thought, but he nods, and Simon moans.

“Fuck, yes. Yes please.”

You don’t know if Simon is saying yes because he wants to watch you sit on Ryland’s face, or if he wants to feel his whole dick to get buried down Ryland’s throat, but either way he’s getting what he wants.

Ryland picks up the pace, with Simon’s hand still on the back of his head, pushing him closer and closer to the base of his cock. The sounds are dirty, tiny gags from his mouth, Simon’s moans and your praise in Grace’s ear. It’s so, so perverted.

Eventually, Ryland gets his mouth to the base, nose touching Simon’s stomach. He goes to lift his head up but you place it on the back of his head, holding it. “Hold it, c’mon. You got it.”

Simon moans, holding the back of his head with both hands. “Fuck- fuck. I can’t- I’m gonn-“

You grip the back of Ryland’s head, pulling him off of Simon’s cock before he can cum down his throat.

Simon moans and whines at the loss, his orgasm was so close and you just took it from him. He whines. “Fuck- why’d you do that.”

Grace backs up and leans into you, you kiss his forehead softly as he coughs. It was unexpected, you should’ve warned him. You wipe some of the tears from his eyes. “Because we’re not done. That’s why I did that.”

Simon grunts, and you slowly stand up, reaching out for Ryland’s hand, who you lift up. He slowly removes the rest of his boxers from his legs, disregarding them on the floor.

“Go, lay down.” He nods at your instruction. Walking over to the bed and laying down on his back. You look at Simon, who seems unsure. He wants to pump his own cock but honestly doesn’t know if he’s allowed.

He mumbles a shy, “What am I gonna do?”

And you can’t help but giggle at it, you walk over to him, brushing a strand of hair out his face and kissing him softly. “I’ll jerk you off.”

Simon doesn’t seem to be opposed to that idea, because he simply nods with pursed lips. You begin unzipping your pants, before Simon comes up behind you, he doesn’t ask, but he starts helping you.

He kisses the crook of your neck while he does it, even glancing at Ryland on the bed, who has his neck craned up and is touching himself at the sight.

He slowly lowers your pants, helping you step out of them, then slowly takes off your panties. His breath shudders at the sight of how wet you are, because it’s so obvious. He continues kissing your neck, but this time you can practically feel him smiling against you.

You crane your neck to look at him as you step out your panties, he tosses them gingerly to the side. “What’re you smiling about?”

“How turned on you are by this.”

You scoff, kissing him softly on the lips before walking over to the bed, you climb on top of Ryland, he holds onto you wherever he can so you don’t fall before you stabilise yourself.

You hover over his face slightly, and you watch as he admires your core. Simon walks over, standing to the side of the bed as he jerks off to the sight. 

You look down at Rylands face, pushing his hair out his eyes. “Want me to hover or really sit?”

He lifts his arms up to wrap around your thighs, trying to pull you down. He pleads. “Sit, please sit. Put it all on me, I want it so badly.”

You don’t need to be told twice, his arms bring you down fully and you immediately feel his tongue connect with your clit. Fuck, he’s a teacher, a teacher of science. He knows where everything is.

You let out a tiny gasp at how quickly he got to work, tongue running along your slit as he sucks your clit tenderly.

Simon puts his hand on your lower back, guiding you to slightly hump his face. “C’mon, ride his fuckin’ face.”

You like the way Simon’s thinking. You hold onto Ryland’s hair as you slowly grind on his face, you can hear him whimper softly under you. Your clit brushes up against his nose, you can feel his tongue go inside you momentarily.

You keep thrusting on his face, with the help of Simon’s hand. That’s right, fuck. Simon, you need to take care of him too.

You look over, smiling at him and his worked up expression. His hand is wrapped around his own cock, albeit he’s pumping pretty slowly, waiting for your hand to replace it.

Eventually it does, it’s kind of tricky, but as Grace eats you out your hand finds Simon’s cock, he shivers as your hand finally covers around it. You bob your hand against it nicely, smoothly. He leans his head back, groaning. 

“This is amazing.” He sounds.

“I agree.” You say in between moans and strokes.

Ryland would give his two cents if he weren’t so focused on circling his tongue around your clit, trying to keep up as your pussy moves back and forth against his face.

It’s an extremely hot thing to see, to watch. Simon grunts, almost leaning over. 

“Fuck- wait- I’m gonna cum-“ He gasps, half expecting you to stop.

“Go ahead.”

He whimpers as your thumb circles his tip in just the right way, his hips stuttering into your grip and cumming onto your thigh, narrowly missing Ryland’s face.

You continue stroking him for just a few moments before he whines and backs up, which you giggle at.

You feel yourself almost pushing over on Ryland’s face, but you don’t really want to finish yet, so you slow down on grinding on his face. You back up a bit to look down at him, and he’s looking right up at you.

You didn’t even realize how hard he was gripping your legs, you couldn’t get up even if you wanted to (unless you told him to let go, obviously).

Simon quivers as he backs up, wiping sweat off of his forehead. “That was- holy shit. I need a minute.”

You nod, “Go, sit down.” You gesture to a chair that’s facing the bed.

You didn’t intend to cuck Simon, really. But when you turned your head over your shoulder to watch him go sit down in the chair, you caught a glimpse of Ryland’s cock. And god, it was so fucking hard. It was practically twitching.

You knew the ship had condoms but… right now you didn’t really care. Was that bad to say? You were a teacher of children so, you know how important protection is but…

You tap Ryland’s hand on your thigh. “Hey, let go.”

He does, and you back up off of him. You crawl backwards on the bed towards his cock, straddling his waist. He sits up, his facial hair and even the tip of his nose is shiny with your wetness.

“What’re you-“

“Do you wanna fuck me, Dr. Grace?”

Simon chokes as he watches this, neither of them were expecting all of that to come out of this night. But in your mind it’s almost now or never.

Ryland stutters, wiping his mouth and shamelessly licking his lips. “I do- I do but, what about Simon? Should we wait til he’s… y’know?”

You hum, taking Ryland’s cock and lining it up with your entrance, god, his tip is entirely wet with precum.

Simon speaks up. “Yeah, shouldn’t we wait for Simon?”

You giggle, looking over your shoulder. “You can watch.”

You push yourself down on his cock. The combination of you being wet inside (from general arousal and from Grace eating you out like there’s no tomorrow), and the amount of precum on his tip makes it easy to get in.

You turn your head to look down at Ryland, who’s leaning his head back and gritting his teeth. “Crap- oh my god, oh my god you’re so tight.” He grips your thighs, one hand mixing in Simon’s cum.

“Am I?” You giggle, kissing his neck tenderly as you slowly lower yourself all the way down to the base. His cock- it’s definitely huge. It’s really impressive.

“Mhm. Feels so- so good…” Grace whimpers, lifting his head back up, when you pull away from his neck he kisses you tenderly, hands moving up to grab your ass.

You slowly lift your hips up, riding his cock smoothly. You pull away from the kiss to turn your head over your shoulder, watching Simon who’s harder than he’s ever been before. Though, his cock is still sensitive, because he’s just rubbing his thigh, not jerking off.

You turn your head back around to kiss Ryland softly, continuing to bounce and ride on his shaft. Your lips press against his sloppily, his mouth coated in your taste.

In your kiss, Grace moans into your mouth. “I love this- thank you, thank you- crap. Thank you so much.” His hips stutter upwards to meet yours as well. Chasing a high that you knew was coming.

Simon grunts at the sight of Ryland’s hips bucking, he spits on his hand, picking up the pace as he strokes his cock. “He’s about to cum. You can- shit- you can hear it in his voice.”

Ryland whined at Simon's words, now fully and sloppily meeting your hips halfway. “I am- ah- I’m gonna cum, I’m gonna cum seriously.” He warns you, he can’t control his own hips thrusting inside you.

You place your hands on his shoulders, bracing as you continue riding him. You kiss the corner of his mouth. “Cum inside.”

Ryland whimpers, shaking his head, narrowly missing your kisses. He’s trying to remain rational. “No- no are you crazy? You’ll get… ngh, you’ll get pregnant.”

You shake your head, grinding your hips onto his cock, which earns you a pathetic held back whine. “I don’t care. Really, it could be a- fuck, a scientific miracle, first… first baby in space… or something…” You bite your lip. “First space abortion, I don’t care just- fuck, just cum inside me Ryland.”

Ryland whimpers, but he no longer has it in him to resist. To argue with you. His arms are too weak right now to even try getting you off of him. No, his body is telling him to cum inside. So he does. After a few plaps he moans loudly as fucks himself deep into you roughly. spilling his warm load inside you harshly.

Simon keeps stroking his cock, gasping. “Fuck- I- this is so fucking hot.”

You turn your head over and smile at him, you obviously haven’t finished (though you’ve gotten extremely close), and you feel bad that Simon hasn’t experienced this either. You lift your hand, waving at Simon. “C’mere.”

Ryland shakes his head. “I can’t- I can’t do anything else. Sensitive…” He whimpers, and expects you to send him to the chair to watch Simon make you cum.

You slide Ryland’s cock out of you, you haven’t felt his cum dripping out of you yet, which means he definitely came extremely deep inside you. You shuffle off of him. “Stand up for me.”

He stands up slowly, getting off the bed. Despite his cock being coated in his own cum and your juices, he’s still incredibly hard.

You shuffle on the bed, stretching slightly and getting on your hands and knees. You wiggle your butt a little as you look over your shoulder at Simon, and glancing at Ryland.

You smirk at him, "In front of me, on the bed.” Back at Simon. “You get behind me.”

Simon scurries over to you, getting himself on the bed. His cock is glistening with his own precum and spit from jerking off to the sight earlier. He lines himself up with you. “So fucking pretty.” He grunts. “Thank you, you’re so gorgeous.”

Ryland hesitantly goes over to you, sitting on his knees in front of you with his cock in your face. “Be gentle. It’s really sensitive.” He warns, as you wrap your hand around the base of his cock.

His breath shudders as you slowly push his tip into your mouth, it’s wet and salty with precum, but you push him down to the midway of his shaft. He shudders, and chokes a soft whimper. “Gentle… please, I- I can’t-“

Simon rubs his tip along your slit for a moment, groaning. He forgets that he can slip it inside for a moment, but eventually he does. Earning a soft moan from you around Grace’s dick. He fills you up nicely. 

When he pushes himself fully inside you, you can truly feel how girthy he is. It’s one thing seeing it, but it’s another thing feeling him fill you up and stretch you fully. You gasp softly and he comments, “You’re so fucking tight, shit.”

The deeper Simon’s cock pushes into you, Ryland’s cum begins seeping out of the crevices, Simon’s dick is so big that it’s pushing Grace’s cum out of you, and you can fucking feel it. “Would you look at that…” He gasps softly as he watches.

Ryland whimpers loudly, his arms are shaking, he brings a hand up to cover his mouth. Tears begin to seep down his cheek and he embarrassingly tries to wipe them away.

“I ca- I, I can’t take it…” He whimpers, hyperventilating. “‘s too much, can’t… I can’t…”

“Fucking take it, Ryland. You can do it.” Simon grunts, gritting his teeth.

Rylands moans get louder at that, you hear a quiet ‘okay, okay I can take it’ leave his mouth. Simon smirks and begins to fuck into you a bit more rough, which makes you gag on Ryland’s cock unexpectedly.

Simon’s hand gently feels your ass as he fucks into you, it’s firm, his hand has sublte calluses on it from hard work.

You feel Ryland’s softer hand shakingly grip your hair in-between loud whimpers.

Simon leans his face in, Ryland meets him half way. The two share a loud, messy and sloppy kiss. Simon kisses Ryland through his overstimulation, maybe even licking some tears off his face. When they pull away, Simon looks back down at you.

Simon leans down, right over you. His large arm reaches under you and finds your clit, rather quickly. He rubs his fingers over it, starting gently but eventually circling it rather roughly to get you to the edge,

As he rubs your clit, his hips smack against you a bit harder, because he can tell that he’s found that sweet spot in your pussy by the way you’re moaning around Ryland with tears in your eyes.

Ryland whimpers as you continue sucking his dick, his hips are stuttering, thrusting subtly, but not face fucking you. No, it’s more like little twitches from how overwhelmed he is, because you can see him visibly shaking. “I- ah, I can feel you… mph…h… moaning on me…”

“C’mon, c’mon.” Simon grunts between thrusts and rubs. “You can do it, come on, cum on my cock, I know you- fuck, I know you wanna. Can fuckin’ feel it.”

Ryland moans softly as his hand finds its way running through your hair. “Please cum, please. Plleasse….” He whimpers.

Simon keeps hitting you just right, at a spot no one has ever hit before. They’re both right. You’re close. He rubs your clit thoroughly as he pushes you to the edge. When you finish around his pummeling cock, you finish hard. You moan loudly into Ryland, who whimpers at the sudden vibrations.

Your mind goes blank for a bit as he fucks you through your orgasm, you forget to suck Ryland’s dick, but he doesn’t seem to mind because your moans are keeping his cock twitching.

You only come back to reality when Simon starts pulling out of you, figuring he’d finish by hand. You push your hips back to meet him, keeping him inside of you. Insisting that he keeps fucking you til he cums.

“God- okay, god that’s- that’s attractive.” He nods though, meeting your hips back and fucking you. His pace is a bit rougher, sloppier, he’s no longer focused on trying to make you cum, because you just did. No, he’s trying to make himself finish.

Ryland whines, a soft whimper escaping his throat, tears are falling down his face. He doesn’t care anymore, he just wants to cum through this overstimulation. “I- I, g-ahh, fuck. I’m gonna cum, Simon I’m gonna cum.”

Simon grunts in between heavy thrusts, “I’m not… I’m not far behind you…” he growled, feeling himself tighten in your pussy.

Ryland leans in first over you, and Simon follows. The two of their lips meet as Simon continues fucking into you, and Ryland keeps letting you suck on his cock. They both finish at the same time, which you find extremely satisfying.

You hear Simon moan loudly into Ryland’s whiney mouth as he spills himself inside your pussy, he fucks himself through his orgasm, and Ryland holds your head down gently as he cums down your throat, his hips shaking at the worked-up orgasm.

The two pull out of you relatively at the same time, you feel the mix of their cum drip from your pussy, a small glob that makes you shudder. You managed to swallow all of Ryland’s cum though, and you wiped any drip from your chin.

Both of them watch you sit up on your knees, as you continue to wipe your mouth. You can’t believe that just happened, you’re practically cock drunk right now and your ears are ringing from how hard you just came. You hear Ryland’s voice first, “Are you okay?” He asks, worried, hands placing themselves on your thigh. He also wipes up Simon’s leftover cum while they’re there.

You nod, a soft ‘mhm’ spilling from your throat. You lean back into Simon’s arms.

You feel him kiss the top of your head as you lean back into him, his hands finding your hips. He whispers sweet words into your ear. “You did so good, so fucking good.”

Ryland joins, leaning forward and kissing your cheek. He’s smiling so hard right now, and his eyes are half lidded. “Thank you, so so so much for this.”

You nod sweetly into Ryland’s kiss, grabbing his face and kissing his lips properly. “You’re welcome. Can you get me a uhm… a change of pajamas?” Ryland nods sweetly, pulling away from your face as he gets up.

You giggle and sit up somewhat, looking back at Simon. “Honestly you guys should thank Rocky. He recommended I do this, he got pretty sick of you guys arguing, statement.” 

The two awkwardly look at each other, laughing in shock, like they can’t believe what you just said. Because truly, they can’t, they can’t believe this was Rocky’s idea.

Simon rubs his face, hands through his facial hair. He groans softly. “I guess we really needed this.” He sighs, standing up and finding his gray boxers. He lifts them up over his hips and over his softening cock.

After putting his own boxers on, Ryland finds a comfortable pair of pajamas and hands them to you neatly, along with a clean pair of panties, judging by how wet your other pair got. He smiles softly as you get up and start changing into them.

While you change, so do they. Grabbing their discarded shirts and putting them back on, despite all the wrinkles they’ve acquired from just laying on the floor.  

You watch as the both of them start putting their pants on, and you sit back down on the bed. “Wait, c’mere. Lay with me. I deserve a reward for finally solving your issues.” The two don’t need to be told twice, walking over to the bed in their boxers and t-shirts, how they usually sleep.

Simon crawls in beside you, and Ryland on the other side. It’s a very tight fit, they’re both big guys. But you make it work, because it’s warm, and it’s cozy. Despite the perverted things the three of you just did, it truly just feels like you all really needed this. You can shower and do any of that other stuff when you wake up.

He hasn’t learned much about you. What is there to learn? You two were co-workers, and it’s not like you had any crazy secrets he’d just be dying to know about.

It’s clear he wants to know something, anything, because you’ve been catching his eyes a lot these past six days.

After you came out the shower with Simon, he’d been sort of iffy about it. He obviously didnt say anything to you, why would he bring that up? You’re a grown woman, you can do what you want. You ended up being the one to bring it up.

You finally got a moment alone with Dr. Grace while Simon slept, and Rocky watched him. He was sitting in the pilots room, where he’d steer the ship and check their collision course. There wasn’t much room to walk around. He was double checking the course, he had some paranoia about getting off track, you guys only had so much astrophage after all.

When he saw you, his eyebrows rose, a surprised expression on his face, wondering why you’d be in there.

“This is the pilot’s room.” He said. Like you didn’t know.

“Wow thanks.” You sneered, walking over, crouching down. You get a little closer to him, just to see what he’s doing. He can’t deny that your closeness is a little surprising to him.

Especially given that he assumed you and Simon had something going on.

“Did Stratt not consider maybe two people would like to sit down in here?” You jokes.

“There was only one pilot… so.” He bit his lip, looking away at some of the controls.

You glance down at him, his face is somewhat flushed. His lips are red from biting. He’s clearly been stressed, he and Rocky are really the only ones on this ship who know a lot about the mission, and about how this ship even works. 

“Mind if I sit?”

“What?” He looks at you, confusion in his eyes. “There’s no chair for you to sit, and I don’t really trust you to pilot this thi-“

You gently lower yourself down onto his lap, sitting sideways on his thigh. You can fit on just one, considering he’s manspreading right now. You’re not straddling him or anything, no matter how much you may want to.

He inhales sharply, surprised at the sudden move you’re making. Is this a move? Does this count as a move? He has no clue. 

His hands raise a little, not knowing what to do. Eventually, he decides to grip the arm rests of the chair. You can see veins bulging in his arms.

“What’re you doing?” He grunts, peering up at you.

“Sitting. Want me to get u-“

“No, no.” He blurts out, immediately turning a slight shade of pink, he goes back to looking at the screen.  

Bringing a fist up to clear his throat, he manages, “That’s not what I said. I just didn’t know what you were doing… is all.”

You shuffle in his lap, getting comfortable, which earns you the privilege of hearing him breathe heavily. Normally, he doesn’t breathe this loud.

Is it because you’re so close, that you can hear it? Does he always breathe this loud and you just… never hear?

Or are you doing that to him?

“What’re you doing… exactly?” You turn your head, putting your arm around the back of the chair to stable yourself.

He zooms in on… well, you’re not sure. It’s just space. To him these graphs and random numbers must mean something but, to you, the screen is just black with white dots (which you assume are stars).

“Our course. We’re headed for Erid, I was just making sure we were still… y’know. On course.”

“That’s good, you’re the only one on this ship who knows how this stuff works, anywho.”

Dr. Grace laughs softly at that. “Rocky knows.”

You can’t help but roll your eyes. “Okay. Rocky is watching Simon sleep right now.” You giggle, hitting the back of his head lightly. “Can’t exactly do both.”

His laugh continues, but it stutters at the mention of Simon. His fingers tap against his seat with impatience, and his hand flickers up every now and then, building up the courage to eventually place it on your lower back.

“Uhm… what exactly were you two doing in the shower together?” He asks quietly, pulling you ever so slightly closer, looking up at you with hesitance, like he doesn’t even want you to hear his question.

You raise your eyebrows at the question, looking at the entrance, and back at him. You have a lighthearted expression, but he doesn’t. Is he jealous?

Who is he jealous over?

“The welts on his arm.” You gesture to your own forearm. “From radiation poisoning. I was treating them, it was easier to use the water in there than a cramped bathroom.”

His expression softens, he looks embarrassed. “Oh, yeah. That makes sense.” He fumbles, looking away at a screen.

Avoiding your gaze.

You place both hands on his shoulders, standing up and stabilizing yourself to straddle him. Whatever was on that screen doesn’t matter anymore, because he’s looking up at you in shock.

“What’re you-“

You place yourself down right on his crotch, and he gasps, hands immediately flying to your waist to hold you, to keep you still. He’s surprisingly strong.

“Were you jealous, Dr. Grace?”

“N-no, I mean…”

“Be honest.”

He sighs, trying to find his words, he’s more-so concerned about you being so close to a growing boner. He had a halfie the moment you sat on him, but at least you weren’t right on it. He doesn’t care about Simon right now.

He looks around the room, mouth opening, closing, a couple of ‘ahs’ and ‘uhms’ come out as he confusingly tries to find the words.

He doesn’t even know the answer for himself, truthfully.

“A little?”

“Is that why you’ve been avoiding me?”

“I haven’t been avoiding you!” He looks up at you, shocked that you’d say such a thing, losing his focus.

His grip on you loosens, and you finally get a moment to grind against him. He gasps, hands tightening on your hips again, and his forehead immediately finds itself towards the crook of your neck.

He grits his teeth, “What’re you doing to me?” He pants. “Why are you doing this to me?”

“Why are you lying to me?”

He looks up at you through his falling glasses. “What, so you’re gonna torture me like this because you think I’m… I’m lying about avoiding you?”

You bite your lip. “Maybe. Want me to get up?”

He thinks about it.

It doesn’t take long to find his answer.

“…Mmmph… No. I don’t. I don’t want you to get up.”

“Then start being honest.” You emphasize your point with a sharp thrust of your hips, feeling the cock in his pants starting to grow.

His breath stutters, and he hisses through gritted teeth. “Okay- okay, I’m sorry. I’ve been avoiding you.” He moves away from the crook of your neck, leaning back onto the chair.

“Good. An answer.” You keep a steady rhythm with your hips, each hump earning you a tiny moan, gasp, or breath from him.

“What- are you… rewarding me for… ah, avoiding you?” He asks, gripping your hips like you’ll go flying if he doesn’t. Trying to slow you down.

“No. I’m rewarding myself for finally being able to get my hands on you.”

He doesn’t reply, he just stares at you through half closed eyelids, with an open dumbfounded mouth.

You place your hands on his knees, leaning back as you move. “No smart ass comment, Dr. Grace?”

“No, no-fff… I- I don’t want you to stop.” He admits. “We’re already in… in it now. If we stop I… I won’t be able to focus.” His hand finds its way to his face, dragging it down his cheek. 

He can’t believe what he’s seeing is real.

You purse your lip. “Really now?” You can feel just how hard his cock is under his slacks, you wish you could actually see it, but right now may not be the time. “You poor thing.”

He nods, looking around, “Mhm.. uhm… can I… can I touch you?” He blurts out, shyly, like he’d been building the courage to just say it.

You think about it.

Really hard. The silence is deafening.

“No.”

He whines, like it physically pains him to be refused by you. He even lurches forward, either at shock or because you hit an extremely sensitive spot on his dick. 

You lean in, putting your hands back on his shoulders, pressing your forehead to his.

“Wh…whyy?” He whimpers, looking up at you.

“Because you’ve been avoiding me, and you lied to me.”

“I’mm sorry. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” He shakes his head, you gently push his glasses back up. 

Your fingertips press on his chest, making him fall fully back into the chair again. “I was jealous… Is that what you wanna hear?”

“Maybe.”

“You and- ah, Simon, were getting so close and… laughing, I could never get you alone…”

“Yes you could, you just never tried.”

You speed up, he can practically feel the slit of your pussy touching his cock. He whines. “I couldn’t, I can’t- I-… slow down… or I’ll cum, please…”

You don’t listen. “Just think, we could’ve been doing this the whole time if you would’ve just talked to me.” You can’t deny how good this feels, how every now and then you can feel the tip of his cock touch your clit.

Though, this isn’t about you. It’s about him. All him.

He moans, and you cover his mouth, because he’s starting to get loud.

“Shhhh, you don’t want Simon to come in here and see this, do you?”

He looks up at you with tears in his eyes, shaking his head pathetically. 

“That’d be really embarrassing for you, wouldn’t it Dr. Grace?”

He nods, hips jerking up into you. 

He’s close.

He’s getting off on the thought of being caught.

Caught by Simon.

You’re starting to understand.

And he can tell that you’ve realized it, you can hear his muffled ‘no, no, no’ from under your hand.

“You pervert, Ryland.”

He gasps, and you move your hand away so it’d be loud. It echoes in the control room. 

“No- I’m not-“

“You’re getting off thinking about being caught, aren’t you?”

“I’m not, I promise I’m not- I-“ He leans his head back, letting out a dry moan. “Right there- pl- oh my-“

“You want Simon to see us like this, don’t you?”

That sets him off.

He grabs your thighs, humping into you. You hear him cuss, which is really rare for him. Tiny ‘fucks’ come out of his mouth as he buries his face into the crook of your neck. His hips stutter into you, almost lifting you up off the seat.

He cums in his pants.

Hard.

His hands are shaking on you, and 

 you pet his hair gently while he rides that high.

He stays somewhat quiet, besides his shakey breaths.

He finally gains the courage to look up at you, wincing at the wetness in his pants.

“To… to clarify, that’s not what made me cum.”

“Yes it is.”

“It’s not.”

“Do you really wanna keep lying to me, Dr. Grace?”

He opens his mouth, before you hear footsteps. Heavy ones.

Shit.

You quickly stand up, he gasps sharply at how quickly you got off him, and you can see a wet spot in his pants. Fuck. You feel bad.

He looks at you, a yearning look in his eyes. But he waves his hand, shooing you. He’d rather Simon see you with frizzy hair than him with messed up glasses, a disheveled face, and wet pants.

You don’t know what to do, you should kiss him, give him some aftercare, but instead you walk off down the hallway.

You turn the corner to see Simon, this time you don’t run into him.

“Woah, what’s with the rush?” He laughs, looking at you. He even places his large hands on your shoulders to slow you down.

He’s eying you up and down.

“I just heard you coming- walking. Heard you walking.”

You’re acting weird.

He nods his head slowly, “Uh-huuuuhhhh…” he bites his lip, as his eyes move all over you. It starts to click, ever so slightly, in his mind.

“Where’s Ryland?”

——

Whatever you did to Dr. Grace, he needed. The man hadn’t slept in days, and right after he came in his pants he walked into the dormitory, and slept for twelve hours.

Those twelve hours were painfully awkward between you and Simon, even Rocky. Something told you even he knew what was going on.

You ended up just telling Simon that Dr. Grace was busy in the commander, pilot room. He didn’t really believe you, but he wasn’t going to go check. His expression looked like he didn’t really wanna know. 

He ended up just grabbing a protein bar and eating it in the dome with screens, looking at videos of Earth, he’d been doing that a lot lately.

Meanwhile, you immediately decided it was time to go to bed. You would’ve touched yourself to the thought of Dr. Grace’s face moments prior, but Rocky insisted on watching everyone sleep.

Nothing could get done in the dormitory without Rocky seeing, at this point.

A few days had passed, if you had to bet on it, it was probably three days. Everything seemed to happen in three days intervals.

It looked like the tables turned, Simon was quiet around you, but Dr. Grace just could never get a moment with you.

It was always the three of you in awkward silence. And honestly, even when Dr. Grace did get a moment with you, he couldn’t get any words out. He couldn’t even think about that night without getting hard again. It’s like he wanted more but wasn’t sure if he could handle it.

You were in the laboratory with him and Rocky, just talking about Erid, what it’s like.

Rocky explained that the eridians could make a dome of some sorts for the three of you, and that you could each have your own little houses. For privacy.

“Humans do not seem to enjoy sleeping next to each other, statement.”

Of course he could tell, you rub your mouth subtly.

“It’s definitely weird, I mean, speaking as a girl.” You look at Dr. Grace, who nods immediately at your gaze.

“I… I can see that. I think different houses would be good… I mean, I- we could always come by and visit each-other, yeah?” He asked.

You knew what he was implying.

“As long as you knock.” You shrug, trying to tell him that as long as he didn’t avoid you, it was fine.

Before he got the chance to reply, Rocky said your name, which was odd because he normally calls you ‘Doctor.’

“Can Rocky and Grace have moment alone, question? Private discussion.”

Dr. Grace looked pretty surprised, like he didn’t know about this private discussion. Which, he didn’t. He also looked a bit frustrated, because you were finally starting to talk again 

But before he got the chance to protest, you gave Rocky a thumbs down (which is his version of a thumbs up), and made your way back to the dormitory.

The Hail Mary had a ton of laptops on them, and on those laptops had so many articles and information, stuff it shouldn’t have due to copyright, but when you were sent out here, you were expected to die.

Anyways, you kept a laptop under your bed for boredom, and you were currently on page 49 of a PDF explaining every single bird on earth. It was so boring. Yet, you were determined to finish it. 

When you open the door to the dormitory, you’re met with a shocking sight.

Your bed, Simon, and your cutest pair of panties that Stratt had packed.

He hadn’t even noticed you yet, too focused on covering his own moans, the neck of his shirt was between his teeth as his hand moved the red laced panties up and down his shaft.

You could hear your name slip out of his mouth, you can’t deny that it was an extremely hot sight. This is the second time you’ve walked in on Simon naked, but this time was obviously very much different.

Both of them, Dr. Grace and Simon, they’re pervs.

You shut the door behind you, making sure it not only locks but makes a loud click.

Simon shudders, an embarrassing moan comes out of his mouth as he locks eyes with you. He can’t tell what your expression is trying to convey, his hand is still subconsciously moving up and down his shaft.

“Fuck- I’m sorry- shit.” He looks down at himself, at his cock, at your panties laced with precum. “I’ll wash them, I, God, you weren’t supposed to walk in.”

You stay silent, because it’s kind of endearing. You have the entirety of this ship wrapped around your finger, two boys so desperate for you that one would cum in his pants and the other in your panties.

It was attractive. And their jealousy was starting to make more sense by the second. 

You sit down in a chair infront of him, pulling it a bit closer, you’re surprised this room even has a cuck chair.

“Keep going.” You state, crossing your legs.

“No, no this is wrong, I’m sorry I shouldn’t have done thiiisissss…..” His words trail as your shoe presses against his cock. “Stop, stop..” He moans, but he holds onto your leg, keeping it there.

“Wow, Simon. You’re shamelessly perverted, huh?” You smirk.

He whines as your shoe moves slightly against the tip of his swollen cock. “I’m feeling a lot of shame right now…” He whimpers, closing his eyes and bucking his hips slightly at the friction.

You move your shoe away, crossing your leg over the other again. He frowns at the loss of contact.

You point at his cock, your panties are still drooped over it. “I said continue. If you’re gonna do this you need to go all the way.”

He could get up, he could walk out if he really wanted to. He wants you to see him like this.

So, he takes a shaken breath and moves his hand to his cock, pumping it once more. Now, instead of closing his eyes and imagining whatever it was he was thinking about earlier,

He’s looking at you dead in the eyes.

His mouth is open, heavy breaths come out with each pump as he holds eye contact with you. He isn’t even concerned about your body, the way your clothes drape over your figure.

He just wants to know that you’re looking at him.

“I’m so sorry…” He says in-between jerks.

“You enjoying this?” Is your reply, head turning to the side.

“Mhm….” He nods, biting his lip. He thrusts his hips up into your panties ever so slightly, imagining what it’d feel like to buck them under you.

Just like Ryland did the other night.

“Say it.” You lean closer. “Don’t mumble, say you’re enjoying this.”

“I-…” He gasps, a weathered look on his face, furrowed eyebrows as he looks at you, stroking his cock with an erratic and non-rhythmic pace.

He whines as he rubs his own tip with his thumb through the lace, “I’m enjoying this…”

“What’re you enjoying about it?” You ask, fighting any urge to touch the throbbing in your own pants. No. You hold the power in this situation, if you touch yourself that puts you on the same equal footing as him and that’s not what you need right now.

He groans, looking away, it hurts to admit just how pathetic he is. 

“Don’t do tha…that…” He moans, and you grab his face, turning his head to look at you.

He looks pathetic, sad, there’s so many words you could use to describe it, but which one is the right one?

Needy.

He looks so needy.

“I… you looking at me, that’s what’s doing it for me. Okay?” He shakes his head out of your grasp, looking down at your panties. “And these— obviously. I’ve been… imagining what they look like on y-“

You interrupt him, standing up and taking the panties from his cock. He whines. “No… no-“ but you shush him, before he gets the chance to look you take off your pants, throwing them and covering his eyes with them.

He’s still pumping his cock, he knows what you’re doing, and if you’ve decided his eyes should be covered then so be it.

When you pull your pants away from his eyes, he sees you wearing the panties. Panties that he’d just been humping, leaking precum all over.

You pray that you don’t get pregnant this way, but it’s not the time to worry about that. That’s a problem for the future, surely Stratt packed some pregnancy tests.

He gasps, words getting caught in his throat at the sight. 

You walk over to him, standing over him, inbetween his legs, thighs dangerously close to his cock. His head switches from looking at you, to your panties, he doesn’t know where to look.

That seductive gaze looking down at him,

Or the wet panties he was just humping.

“Fuck- I’m gonna cum- gh-“ He chokes and leans his head on your stomach, cumming onto your panties without thinking. He didn’t even realize how pent up he’d be, because his cumshot is quite impressive. 

You look down at the mess he’s made on you, and you bite your lip. It’s… hot. You hate to admit it, but looking at how far Simon’s cum managed to get on you, it’s really turning you on.

Before you get the chance to say anything, he takes his shirt off, without being asked, and wipes it off of you. He doesn’t look up at you, he’s too embarrassed.

“I’m sorry.” He says, wiping his cum up, even off your panties, not even registering how close he is to your core.

How hard he still is.

“I didn’t mean for you to walk in on that it- it was just a moment for me. I… it was frustration, I needed to get it out, I-“

You grab a handful of his hair, he gasps, a tiny ‘ow’ falling from his lips. You force his head up to look at you, and he turns red.

“Did it help?”

“Huh…?” He manages, star struck.

“With your frustration, I mean.”

He takes a few deep breaths, setting his sticky shirt down on his thigh.

“It did… I, yeah. Thanks. Twice you’ve helped me now.” He brings a hand up to wipe the sweat off his face. “I need to make this stuff up to you, somehow.”

You were never supposed to be on Project Hail Mary, it was an extremely last minute decision on Stratt’s end. You met her maybe… three days before you were induced Though, she made you feel as if you didn’t have a choice but to be in this project.

You were the only nurse at Grover Cleveland, well over-qualified for your position. With a Master’s Degree in Biology, completing and passing the MCAT—essentially you’d completed every step to become a proper doctor at the hospital near your house.

And you hated it. God you hated every part of it, all the responsibility, disrespectful patients, nurses, staff, just generally a displeasing job for you. You’re sure that other doctors loved their job, but you loved this area much more. You weren’t willing to move in order to find a better job at a hospital, it wouldn’t be home.

So, you compromised. You believed it was better to be happy and poor than miserable and rich. Your family believed otherwise, as hard as you worked for your degree, but you really didn’t care.

You get paid extra just for being a technical Doctor, though some staff who don’t really know you still refer to you as a Nurse. It doesn’t bother you with staff, no, you care more about the children.

All the kids in school call you Doctor, so any staff member that’s going out of their way to push down your hard work is simply just trying to be disrespectful. It’s best to ignore.

You didn’t speak much to Dr. Grace, but he respected your title highly, you think it’s because people don’t respect his. You’d often hear him talking to students;

“That’s Dr. Grace to you, Kevin!”

Sometimes, when kids would ask to go to the nurse, you could hear him reply that this school didn’t have a nurse, only a Doctor.

You found it amusing, especially considering you two didn’t talk much. His classroom was on the other side of school compared to your office, he only came into your office once to ask for bandaids.

You remember the faint knock on your door. “Come in!” You’d reply, working on your computer and still using your ‘student voice.’ When Dr. Grace walked in, you continued typing a report from a kid that scraped his knee pretty badly.

“Just one second hun’.”

“Take all the seconds you want, I get paid by the hour.” Dr. Grace replied, closing the door behind him. He had never been in your office, so he really took in the comforting atmosphere of it. 

Your head jolted up at the blatant voice of a grown man, seeing Dr. Grace smirking at you. You couldn’t help but laugh at the misunderstanding.

“Oh, sorry Dr. Grace, thought you were a student.”

“I didn’t think I was that short. Shot my ego straight down, Doctor.”

You giggled, pushing your rolling chair aside, away from the computer to better talk to him. “You know that’s not what I meant.”

“Do I?”

You crossed your arms. “What do you need?”

He walked over to the counter of your desk, crossing his own arms on them and leaning over to peek at what you may have on your desk.

“Bandaids. Like a pack, my kids are pretty violent so we ran out.”

You’d nod your head, standing up to walk to the corner of your office, and opening a drawer. “I can give you a map to the nearest Walmart.” You replied, searching for some band-aids. Preferably ones with cute designs on them, biology themed?

“Hardy har har.” 

You tossed him the pack, he caught it. “Will that do?”

They were bandaids with planets on them, he rubbed them with his thumb, looking at them pretty intently. “Yeah. That’ll be fine.” He put them in the pocket of his suit, and you couldn’t help but think about how different your work attire was. Yours was much more calm, much more casual.

“Alright, tell your kids to stop falling or cutting themselves on paper, Band-Aids are expensive.”

“I think if I told them that they’d just wanna do it more. They’re menaces.”

“Right, bye Dr. Grace.” You sat back down in your rolling chair, typing on the computer.

He gave you a slight wave as he walked out.

Most interactions with people coming into your office were… boring. Everyone was scraping their knees, or needed packages of bandaids. Again, overqualified.

After school had ended, you were finishing up some paper-work, well, procrastinating on it. When someone knocked on your door, you assumed it was George Rams’ mom, he had a fight today and you were the one who got stuck with fixing him up. You were sure she had some concerns, most parents aren’t used to actual doctors working in schools, you’ve had parents complain a lot about a ‘nurse’ handling something that a proper doctor should handle.

“Ma’am, I am a doctor.” You’d say. It was often just met with an ‘Oh, thank you for your time.’

The woman who came in was cold and had a stoic expression, she had the vibe like she commanded a room. You were surprised that such an authoritarian figure would have a child getting into fights, but it’s also expected for children to have a rebellious phase in Middle School, better than High School at the very least.

“Hi Mrs. Rams, is this about your son?” You sat up, giving her your attention.

“I have no son. My name is Eva Stratt, I am working with the United Nations to solve the growing Patrova Line problem with Astrophage.”

You stare at her, not saying much. Because what did this have to do with you? Did she confuse your office with the front office? Was this a mental health issue?

You open your mouth to reply before she states your full government name, which makes you pause your words in slight surprise.

“You are a Doctor right, overqualified for the position as a Middle School Nurse?”

“Maybe.” 

“It seems to be a theme with this school to hire those overqualified to work here. Please stand, Doctor.”

You do, you don’t know this woman, but you stand.

“I hereby grant you clearance to know all information about Project Hail Mary.”

She places her hands on your shoulders, her words imply that she knows someone else overqualified to work here. Dr. Grace, right? That’s the only option, he’d be gone for quite some time, with constant substitutes. Normally a teacher would get in trouble for that but the principal seemed pretty lenient, almost scared to say anything about it.

“Come with me.”

She begins walking out, but you don’t follow.

“Uhm, Ms. Stratt thank you for this… whatever this offer is but-“

“It is not an offer. You will come with me either by willingness or force. I would suggest following me.”

She stares at you for a moment, until your feet automatically move. You follow Stratt, you leave your computer open with George Rams’ medical information on it. You don’t know why—well, yes you do. It’s fear, you’re scared of what Stratt is gonna do to you if you don’t follow her. 

Over the next three days, you don’t ever see Dr. Grace. 

Stratt tells you the purpose of Project Hail Mary, that this is a suicide mission. 

She tells you that you’re not her top candidate, and that you’d only be sent if Dr. Grace is sent.

“He’ll only be sent if something happens to our two scientists, but we know he will not want to be there at all. We aren’t sure if he will cooperate, or if he will do self harm in the hull in order to escape the responsibility.”

That doesn’t sound like Dr. Grace, but at this point you don’t know if you really know Grace at all.

“Not only do you know him, but you’re an extremely qualified Doctor, so you’ll be the ship medic if he is sent up. If he does harm to himself, or others, you will be in charge of that situation. Or if any mishaps happen where someone is wounded, we need this Project to follow through.”

You slowly rose your hand during one of these meetings. “What if I… don’t… want to go. This is a suicide mission, I-“

“We don’t care. Grace will not want to go. So you two can bond over that.”

Awesome. 

And with your luck, after a deadly explosion of Astrophage, the two scientists were rendered useless before launch. Pronounced dead at the scene.

And you were forced to be put into a medically induced coma, and to go aboard the Hail Mary, all so you could be a medic.

——

When you woke up, everything was hazy.

“What is 2+2?”

Four. You thought.

“Aughhr…” You say.

“Incorrect.” The voice restates its question. “What is 2+2?”

Why can’t you talk? You smack your lips, not wanting to open your eyes yet, because you’re still trying to remember things. You make loud noises, groaning continuously. You roll out of bed, before feeling an edge, okay, don’t roll over there. You open your eyes slowly, seeing you’re very high above the ground, with several empty ‘hospital’ beds below you.

A robotic arm grabs you and moves you back to the center of the bed. “What is 2+2?”

“Fruckc.. off…” You groan, trying to sit up, to look around. The lights are bright and fluorescent, and the gravity feels unreal. Your arms feel stronger, you don’t feel unhealthy.

You feel tired. You feel gross.

You can assume it was a coma, your memories are hazy, you have no clue where you are. But you know that you probably just got out of a coma.

“What is 2-“

“It’s four!” You yell at the arm. “Four! It’s fucking four!” You rub your face.

“Correct!”

The arm takes several IVs out of you, you assume a feeding tube was taken out of you moments before you woke up, because your throat feels really weird.

You look on the other side of the bed, seeing a floor and a ladder that leads to a hatch. This room obviously has nothing of importance to provide you, so you sit up, slowly standing. Now that you’ve answered the question, the robot helps you up, guiding you to the hatch.

When you begin climbing, the robot arm holds onto your back to prevent you from falling, and when you get the hatch door open, you can’t help but say “Thank you,” to the arm.

When you step out of the hatch, you enter a hallway— and you smell blood. It’s so much blood, it’s a nauseating smell. You cover your nose with your hospital gown.

Is this a hospital? Hospital gown, smell of blood, coma, seems like a hospital. But why would a robot arm be taking care of you? That doesn’t seem right in the slightest.

You hear loud thuds, like a ball rolling down the hallway. You turn your head in fear, maybe a cart or an emergency patient is being rolled. You step to the side to make way.

But you see a… rock… crab? In a clear… low polygraphed ball.

What the fuck is that?

“Human! Human is alive! Three humans on ship! Grace friend!” It begins rolling towards you, you have no clue what it is. You don’t want to know.

Ship? You start to wobble down the hallway, in your mind you’re running, but you’re actually walking quite slow. You turn the corner, looking behind you as the rock shouts ‘Amaze Amaze!’

You bump into a wet figure, gasping, and backing up to see blood on you.

You quiver in confusion, you look up. A bearded man with longer hair looks down at you. He’s muscular, he has frustration in his eyes, and he’s covered in a lot of blood. You think you hear him ask if you’re okay, but it doesn’t fully register.

You begin shaking your head, about to scream.

But behind the man, is Dr. Grace. You remember him, his face, his name, that’s about it.

“Dr. Grace!” You shout, walking over to him, again, imagining yourself jogging much faster towards the only person you know.

Dr. Grace accepts you into his arms, registering that you just woke up from a coma. Regardless, his embrace feels safe.

“You’re awake!” He screams, happy as can be despite the blood now on his shirt. He seems to have been worried about you, because his arms are shaking in your tight embrace.

“I don’t- I, what’s going on? I don’t remember anything…”

“It’s okay, It’s okay. God, you’ve been out so long, the mission is basically done.”

“Mission?”

“Project Hail Mary.” He says, memories come back faintly at the mention of the name, and you rub your head slightly.

“Human does not remember!” The rock states the obvious. It goes slightly ignored.

“Okay…” You push yourself away. “That doesn’t explain the… rock, or this guy covered in blood.”

He blinks at you, despite being covered in blood, he’s pretty reserved. The blood doesn’t seem to be… from him. It’s like he took a bath in someone else’s blood. He ignores you entirely, and looks at Grace.

“Who’s is this?”

“Gosh, so many questions! This is Dr….” He repeats your last name. “She’s the Doctor at the school I worked at, I… I’m not sure why she’s on this ship. I’ve been wondering that since I woke up.”

You push yourself off of him, not realizing you’d been hugging him so tightly for so long. He didn’t seem to mind, it actually looked like he needed the brief human embrace.

You rub your eyes. “Who is he? Why is he asking who I am?”

“Because I was curious?” The bearded man turns his head at you.

“Okay, okay everyone calm down please. Uh, Rocky.”

“Yes Grace, question.”

“Can you take Simon to uh… the showers where he can handle the blood situation? And clothing situation? I should probably talk to the Doc here privately. Catch her up, you guys are throwing her off.”

“Understand. Come Grace blood friend to bathing center.” Rocky rolls away, and the burly man named ‘Simon’ follows it with heavy footsteps that squelch against the metal floors.

The silence is heavy in the room, your brain is foggy, fuck, your eyesight is foggy. You have the rest of your life on this spaceship, and you can’t even remember what you’re on it for.

Dr. Grace guides you into the laboratory, simply because it’s an easy room to get to in that moment, he helps you sit down.

He reexplains the entire Project Hail Mary mission, the issues with astrophage and the Patrova Line. The more he speaks, the more you remember. The more you remember why you’re on this ship.

You interrupt him mid-sentence. “How long have you been alone, Dr. Grace?”

He blinks at you, shocked at the interruption, but he considers it. “I have no clue… maybe eight months, if you’re asking how long you’ve been out since I’ve been awake.”

“…I’m sorry. Stratt sent me as a… medic for the ship. I was supposed to be the one handling any issues. But from the looks of it you seem to have gained injuries.” You gently take his hand, looking at a scar, running your thumb over it. He lets you.

“None of that explains the rock, or that random guy— seriously, who was that? Eight months is not that long, and I’ve missed so much.”

“Well, that rock is— Rocky. He’s from the planet Erid, making him an Eridian. I taught him our language, and he’s helped a lot with solving the Astrophage problem. Perfectly healthy, it’s just we can’t survive in each-other’s atmosp-“

“You solved the Astrophage problem?” You perk up, eyebrows raising.

Dr. Grace perks up with you. “Yes! Uhm- Tau Ceti, the star, it has a Patrova line to a planet we named Adrien. On that planet was basically um… microorganisms, to put it simply, that were a ‘predator’ for astrophage. Then all I did was send those back on probes to Earth.”

You sigh, leaning back in relief that the problem had been solved. 

“That means I’ve missed it all, we’re all going to die out here.”

“Not exactly, Rocky gave us some astrophage as fuel, we have enough to make it back to Erid. So, not back to Earth right now but… maybe in the future?”

You sigh again, taking it all in, you originally thought you had no choice but to die. Hearing that’s not the case? Extremely relieving. You rub your head, the brain fog clearing.

“As for the man, he actually arrived like… four hours ago? It’s really complicated but we think he’s from an alternate dimension, and accidentally managed to enter a wormhole. His ship is designed for water, like an extremely thick submarine. We managed to get him out of it and bring him in, as the ship didn’t look suitable enough to survive out in space.”

You blink. “That doesn’t explain the blood he had on him? Is he an axe murderer?”

“He says that in his world- or, dimension, all the stars have died, all the planets are gone. There’s just space stations, and he was a Convict for… something he doesn’t wanna talk about. They basically had him go into an ocean of blood, but he was being used as a sacrifice? Or bait? Either way he’s pretty shocked about being alive still.”

Dr. Grace fidgets with his hands and fingers, you can tell he’s been really thinking about this the past four hours. “We’ve spent a lot of time getting him alive, with CPR and feeding him liquids. But he recovered quickly. My hypothesis is that he’s from a dimension that didn’t solve, or didn’t realize the astrophage problem, leading to planets and stars being eaten by them.”

“…Or it’s completely unrelated to astrophage.”

The brain fog is coming back, but you get the general idea. “Is he nice?” You ask, rubbing your head intently.

“He doesn’t seem like a butt.”

That’s not a very direct answer. He may just be closed off though. Your stomach grumbles loudly, it’s almost embarrassing.

Dr. Grace shows immediate concern. “Oh! Gosh, I’m so sorry. Stay right there!” He runs out the lab, and comes back with a small pouch.

“What is that?”

“Liquid food, your body isn’t used to solids so you have to work back up to them. I know it sucks.”

You groan, begrudgingly opening the satchel and taking a sip. You’re met with an immediate flash of flavor and deliciousness on your tongue, it tastes like chicken, several healthy vegetables mixed in. It’s the best thing you’ve had in… what, four years?

Dr. Grace chuckles at your expression, and how quickly you down the food. Immediately you feel better, your muscles feel somewhat better. Mentally, you still feel gross.

“Uh… shower? Is that possible?”

Dr. Grace nods. “Yeah! Come, I’ll show you.”

You follow him down the hallway. “Originally,” He starts, “The ship wasn’t gonna have a shower room, but I had to beg Stratt. Saying it’d be inhumane to make a person bathe without a proper shower.”

You nod. “Were you and Stratt close? She barely talked to me.”

He glances at you over his shoulder, shrugging. “I’d like to think she trusted me more than others, but I wouldn’t consider us friends. She had a mission that took priority over any friendship.”

Dr. Grace points down a hallway. “That room is the shower room, let me know if you need anything.”

The offer isn’t perverse, it’s genuine.

You walk over to the door, unthinking, and nudge the door open. The shower room is relatively large, like a mini-locker-room shower. There’s several unopened bars and packages of soap, conditioner, all sorts of stuff. One of the showers is already running.

The floor is red.

Oh.

“OH I’m SO sorry I-“

“It’s okay.” Simon says. “It’s a locker-room shower, other people are expected to be in here.” He looks at you with a cold look in his eyes, you can see several burns and welts on his arm, something you should definitely treat under different circumstances.

Until then, you close the door. “Just- let me know when you’re done, I’d prefer!”

You hear a quiet ‘Mkay’ from him, and you notice a ball rolling down the hall again, Rocky turns the corner and looks at you.

“Blood Human is in bathing room, Doctor Human.”

You sigh. “Thank you, Rocky.”

Before the crab has a chance to roll away, you ask; “Uhm… where would my clothes be?”

Rocky rolls around in excitement. “Rocky show! Follow! Follow!” He rolls off in glee, and you jog slightly to catch up.

He stops at a door, there’s four beds, one of them has a cage so you assume it’s Rocky’s bed.

“This Doctor bedroom. Clothes under bed.”

You smile at Rocky. “Thank you, sorry for being scared of you.”

“Apology accepted. Rocky understand that Eridian beauty is difficult for Human brain to comprehend.”

You just kinda… blink at him, but you shrug. “Sure!”

You go over to your bed, pulling out a box. Stratt had, seemingly, broken into your home to take some of your personal clothes and pack them. Which is creepy, but you appreciate it. You search for comfortable loungewear, maybe some shorts and a tank top, something reasonable to wear out of a shower.

You find a black tank top and matching shorts made of silk, they’re somewhat loose on you. You intend to get some real sleep after your shower, not comatose sleep.

You walk out with Rocky, who politely waited for you. You run into the once bloodied man in the hallway, he seems freshened up. He’s wearing a tight t-shirt and sweatpants, presumably belonging to Dr. Grace or the deceased members of the ship.

He’s drying his hair with a towel that rests over his shoulders, and he looks at you. You both pause, Rocky rolls away from you both.

“I’m done showering.” He added blankly, walking away.

You watch him intently, you can’t tell what his tone is. He just seems tired.

You go into the shower room, taking a long hot shower, you don’t even care if the water supply is limited anymore. You use all the soaps they’d given you, taking full advantage of this moment alone. No one walks in, reasonably. 

Afterwards, you put on your black tank top and shorts, you figure you should probably tell Dr. Grace that you’re going to bed, so he’s not worried about your uncomfortably long absence. 

You walk down the hallway, holding a wet towel and the old hospital gown, you peer into the laboratory, seeing Dr. Grace talking to the man.

He’s explaining everything he just explained to you.

“So basically, we’re headed to Erid. I’m not sure if we’re going back to Earth, but we won’t die.”

“That’s all I care about, Ryland. I don’t wanna die.”

Dr. Grace smiles at him. “That makes two of us.”

They’re sharing a nice moment, it feels like you’re watching an old married couple. Supposedly, they’d just met a few hours ago, but they talk to eachother like they’ve known each other quite some time. Simon is obviously pretty reserved, given his situation, but Dr. Grace saved his life, so he seems to trust him more than you.

You hate to interrupt but you knock lightly on the door.

They both look at you at the same time, Dr. Grace’s expression softens, Simon’s stays the same.

“Hey, uhm. Sorry, I guess this is a weird thing to tell you both but I’m going to bed. I need some real sleep.”

“Okay.” Simon says. “We’ll probably be close behind, at least, I will. I think Ryland is a bit worried about the ship and its destination.”

“Yeah,” Dr. Grace agrees, “Mary’s been through a lot, so if anything off collision happens I’d like to be awake but… I assume we can do shifts?”

You yawn. “I don’t really care.”

Rocky rolls around in the lab, you reckon he’d been hiding around a shelf. “Rocky watch Doctor sleep!”

You grimace. “What?” 

Simon’s expression is similar to yours. Being watched sleep isn’t exactly something you’re wanting to do.

“Eridians watch each other sleep, to keep each-other safe. You get used to it.” Dr. Grace says, and honestly you don’t really care after learning that, as long as Rocky isn’t being creepy, right?

You just nod, gesturing for Rocky to follow.

When you lie down in the bed, it’s a lot more comfortable than the hospital one you originally woke up in. You can feel Rocky staring at you in silence, but you don’t really mind, it’s not the end of the world. You find yourself falling asleep relatively fast.

——

When you wake up, it’s dark outside.

Okay. That’s a given. 

The lights are off in the hallway, and you can hear light snoring. You sit up slightly, peering into the pod next to you. The once bloodied man, Simon, is sleeping heavily.

You can see the welts on his arms, even with little to no light. You really want to look at them when he’s awake. For right now, you’re up, you have no clue how long you napped for, maybe four hours? Either way, you feel relatively refreshed.

Rolling out of the bed, you stand up. Rocky shuffles, moving closer to Simon. He doesn’t say anything, but he figures he should watch Simon sleep now since you’re awake.

You trudge down the hallway in search for Grace, you know he’s awake, or sleeping somewhere that’s not the pods.

You walk into the lab, the lights are on, but Dr. Grace has his head down on the table. He’s sleeping.

What do you do? Do you wake him up? 

You stand there for quite some time, feeling through your now dry hair. 

“Dr. Grace?” You whisper, he shifts slightly.

“Mrgmmph…” Is his reply.

That means he’s not in a deep sleep, so you calmly walk over to him.

You rub his shoulder softly. “Hey, you should probably sleep in the beds. You’ll hurt your back sleeping here.”

He puts his hand on you, a failed attempt at pushing you away.

“Mnmoo…” 

“Moo?” You repeat to him.

“No… I said no… I don’t wanna get up…” He grumbles, waking up slightly.

You pause, rubbing his shoulder still.

“Rocky isn’t watching you sleep.”

For some reason, that does it for him. He peeks an eye open under his glasses, and he sighs. It takes a moment, but he gets up. He rubs the eye boogers out under his glasses, flicking them somewhere. Gross, but understandable.

He walks with you quietly to the dormitory, you two don’t say much, but your hand moves down to his back, you don’t really know why. 

You guide him to his bed, it’s comforting, the way you gently open the blanket up for him, taking off his glasses and setting them to the side. He doesn’t say thank you, but you know he’s grateful.

Simon rolls over and faces the other way.

——

It had been a few days, maybe three? Not an extremely long time, especially compared to how long Dr. Grace had been alone, and for what Simon had to put up with before he came here.

Simon seems to be having a hard time adjusting to freedom, and adjusting to trust. Dr. Grace did say he was a convict, a criminal, so you assume he may have done something wrong? You have no clue what defines ‘wrong’ in his dimension though.

Either way, he’s been through a lot.

One day when Dr. Grace was showing Rocky some more things about Earth in the little TV room, you were left alone with Simon in the laboratory.

It had been awkward, especially since you walked in on him literally showering. God- you felt horrible for that.

Bringing it up again would just make things a lot more awkward, right? So you choose not to. No matter how much you want to apologize over and over.

He’s looking at all the science lab tools, you don’t really understand them, but if anything he understands them the least. You hope he doesn’t ask you to explain anything, because it would be a very botched explanation of equipment only Dr. Grace (and even Rocky) really know how to use.

Just as you’re thinking that, he speaks.

“So what’s your purpose here?”

You laugh a little, being caught off guard. He lifts his eyes to meet yours, and you realize he’s asking a serious genuine question.

“Oh, err, I guess I’m the medic for the ship? I… haven’t really been doing the best job, because I’ve been in a coma. I’m glad Dr. Grace was able to help you.”

Simon looks down at his arm, at the welts that had calmed down. 

“Why are you calling Ryland, Dr. Grace? He’s a Doctor? I didn’t know that.”

“He has his doctorate innnn…” you bite your lip trying to remember, “molecular biology? So technically he has the title. He’s more focused on science and space and stuff, I’m surprised he knew C— well, never mind, he’s a teacher, CPR is a useful skill.”

Simon blinks at you, registering all the new things he’s learning about Dr. Grace. The fact that he has a doctorate, the fact that he’s a teacher. Has Simon been to school, does he know how college works? You really don’t know how different your dimensions are.

“Right.” He states, sighing. “I’m glad he knew it. He saved my life.” 

You nod in agreement, quite awkwardly. “I’m sorry, I… don’t really know what you’ve been through but whatever it was it seemed-“

“Traumatizing?”

“I was gonna say exhausting but, traumatizing could be a word to describe it.” Like you said, you didn’t know his situation.

He goes quiet softly, fingers running over his welts. 

You can’t help but ask.

“Can I see them?”

“What?”

“The welts, I’m guessing they haven’t been treated yet, right?”

Simon considered, it didn’t even occur to him to treat them. He walks over to you, showing you his arm. 

His forearm is covered in tiny blisters, it’s gross. When working in the medical field, this stuff isn’t gross to you. There’s irritation in certain parts, visibly red skin. His forearm is… large, there’s so much room for these blisters to appear, they go all the way down to the palm of his hand. It looks like his arms are the most affected. 

“What are these from?”

Simon bit his lip. “I think radiation?”

You look up at him, eyebrows raising. “How much radiation were you encountering for this to happen?”

He looked away slightly. “On the Iron Lung.”

He doesn’t say anything else and… okay? The medical tool? Wh… what? 

“Iron Lung?”

“That’s what… they… called the submarine I was on. It needed to use a radioactive camera to see, I think. I didn’t really… read the manual.” He admitted shyly, avoiding your gaze. He isn’t as tough as he looks.

That makes more sense. “Well, since you’re not around radiation anymore, this seems treatable. Maybe some scarring but I can definitely work with this, if you’d let me.”

He thinks about it, watching you analyze his blistered arms carefully. You study him, waiting for a reply.

He swallows, his adam’s apple moving visibly. “…Please. It hurts.”

You didn’t need to be told twice. You and Simon calmly walked to the shower-room, you weren’t sure if there was really a bathroom? And even then that may be uncomfortable to deal with.

You pull a stool up, having him sit. Leaving him there for a moment, you find a ton of medical supplies in a closet, and you bring them.

You turn a faucet on to a lukewarm temperature, using a clean rag to gently wash his arm with soap. You do it carefully and softly, making sure you don’t accidentally pop any blisters or cause more irritation than needed. 

“Have any blisters popped?” You ask, drying his arms by patting them.

He thinks. “No.. uh, I think this one? I’ve tried not to mess with them.”

“That was a very smart decision.” You smile softly at him, he doesn’t know how to take the compliment. 

You look at the one popped blister on his palm, digging in your basket of medical supplies, applying hydrogel to protect the area. “Are you okay with taking an antibiotic?”

“If it helps.”

“So yes, okay. I’ll give you some when we’re done here.”

You get some medically safe moisturizer, applying it to extremely irritated areas of his arms. He winces softly. “I know, I know.” You’d say to him. “It’s almost over.”

When you’re done, you give him some advice. “Wash it with this bar of soap and lukewarm water everyday to keep it clean. Pat it dry, don’t rub it.” He nods. 

“If any blisters pop, come to me. Here, take these antibiotics, they’ll help.”

You were surprised the ship had antibiotics to help exactly with what Simon needed, you guessed the hull had everything you guys could need for the short time you would be out here. You even spotted condoms while searching through the closet. 

Stratt definitely… over-prepared.

Simon takes everything you handed him, looking at it, back at you. He looks grateful.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“What do you mean?”

“I just… wouldn’t have known what to do, I guess. Thank you.” He covers his mouth, he looks like he’s about to cry.

You place a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Simon, it’s okay. You’re welcome, I would do it again in a heartbeat. Just come straight to me if you have any more problems, okay?”

He nods, sighing, wiping a stray tear from his cheek. “Okay, okay. I will.”

The two of you get up, conversing slightly. Nothing of importance, he’s asking a little about your life on Earth before Project Hail Mary. You both leave the shower room laughing, running into Dr. Grace.

He looks surprised, raising his eyebrows. 

“Uh… what were you two doing in there together?” He turns his head, double checking around the corner to see that yes, he really did just watch you both come out of the shower room together.