Said man raised an eyebrow at the cockiness. “Really? You’re going to say that to your commander?”

“I mean, it’s not like I’m wrong. From what I remember, it’s not a result of the coma,” he doubled down, further sealing his fate. Ilyukhina snorted and sat up.

Yao balked, making a face at the woman. “He can’t remember his name on his own, but he can remember the state of my hair before we left?”

“Ryland Grace, master of ragebait. Even with amnesia,” Olesya joked, finally bringing down her laughter. 

He immediately recognized the word, his students having used it to describe him many times. He shrugged slyly. 

“I shouldn’t be surprised, that’s exactly like you,” the captain confirmed. “You jerk.”

Grace smirked. “I’d rather be a jerk than balding.”

Ilyukhina barked out a cackle, pointing at her captain and managing to say, “Ohhhh shit! Thahat is rough, man!”

Yao lunged at the scientist, who shrieked and dropped to the floor against the wall. He landed next to Ryland on his knees, shoving his hands into his ribs and drilling. “This disrespect will not be tolerated, doctor.”

Grace yelped, grabbing at his hands with much more urgency than he would’ve back on Earth. “Wahait! What is thihis?”

Li-Jie reared back, retracting his hands in confusion. “Do you… not remember what tickling is?”

The bewildered face answered his question. 

“No fucking way!” The engineer threw in her two cents, jumping up and making her way over to the pair. “This is gold! We have to reteach him.”

A grin overcame both of their features, while a face of faux fear took over Ryland’s. He had a vague feeling of ‘run the fudge away’, but his own curiosity doomed him. “W-what? I mean- it sounds familiar but- AH! No!”

Olesya had sat next to him, poking his side experimentally. “I would hope it sounds familiar, this used to be Carl’s favorite thing to do.”

Grace shook his head while trying to inch away from her hands, which were threatening to grab his sides. Yao put a stop to this by planting himself on his other side, sending a hand into his neck to scribble. He got some giggles from the action. (see this post, third picture <3)

“Noho! Ihi’m juhust an amnesiac, cuhut me sohome slahack!”

“Oh, we have got a poet over here. I thought you majored in biology, not English?” Ilyukhina teased, grabbing one of his arms and pulling it over her shoulder and out of her way. She then clawed into his underarm, earning a short yell and cackling. 

“Thihis ihisn’t fahair! Cohome ohon! Wihill yohouhu at leheast explahain it first?”

Ilyukhina halted and nodded, which Yao took as a sign to do the same. “Okay, sure,” she started. “Tickling is defense mechanism – or at least that is how you described it – which evolved most likely from the need to identify when bugs or plants were touching you. Eventually, it just turned into something we do not need as much, so it is now more of a social action. A type of play. Got that?”

He nodded, signaling her to continue explaining. 

“Different types of touch can produce reactions from people who are ticklish, like you. You happen to be very bad, so very small touches make you laugh – like this!” She softly dragged her nails across his stomach, eliciting a bout of giggles and a snort. She kept going, having no more explaining to do. “However, I do not remember you having that reaction.”

Yao had one of his rare, soft smiles as he stared at his crew, resuming his scribbling on his neck. “You seem to be more sensitive now than before. Any theories on why, Dr. Grace?”

“Ihi aham NOHOT dohoing thihis wihith you!”

“But you are a scientist, no? What happened to your experiment brain?” Yao seemed to realize what he’d said immediately after he finished. He puffed out his cheeks and looked away, hoping neither of them had clocked it.

“Ahamnehesiaha! Yohouhu buhully!” Grace yelled, playfully whacking his arm with his free hand. Olesya leaned on his shoulder and joined him in laughing. 

Yao nodded, closing his eyes. “That was fair. Apologies, bad phrasing.” 

“Noho, thahat wahas SOHO ohon puhurpohose!”

“I can assure you it was not, but if you need this to fuel the victim mentality in this situation, be my guest.”

The engineer found this to be the funniest thing in the universe, and she certainly let them know this fact with the boisterous laughter that followed. “о боже,” she managed.

“WHAHAT? Thahat’s nohot whahat this ihis!” Grace squawked. “Whahat hahappened to mahatuhurity?”

“You tell me. I did not start this,” he said, trying to sound flat, but the amusement was not concealed well in his tone. He distracted him from it by pinching his hip – a well known, much worse spot.

Grace nearly screamed, his free hand shooting down to hold Yao’s. “WHY IHIS THAHAT WOHORSE?”

He snickered at the question. “Right, teaching. I do not know the exact science, but I’ll try my best,” he stated, going back to pinching despite Ryland trying to stop him. “Obviously, touching someone in certain places – do not make that weird, Olesya! – causes them to laugh. People have different places that they’re ticklish, like how Olseya’s sides are really bad-”

“Hey! You cannot mention me without mentioning you!”

He rolled his eyes and continued with an extreme amount of sass,  “Yes, of course. Like my knees. Happy now?”

She nodded smugly. “Yes.”

“Anyway, you just happen to be bad all over. But especially right here,” another pinch to his hips, “here,” a quick squeeze to the top of his kneecap, “and here,” a skitter over his back. 

“OHOKAHAY! IHI GEHET IHIT!” Grace hollered, giving up on fending off the captain in favor of hiding his face.

Ilyukhina beamed. “And now he hides his face. Everytime.”

“Like clockwork.”

Grace blushed. “HOHOW OHOFTEHEN DIHID THIHIS HAHAPPEN?” He paused to think about what he asked. “Doho nohot ahansweher thahat!”

“Often,” Yao replied, ignoring the second statement.

“Ihi shahid dohon’t!” Grace wheezed, shoving at his hand with more urgency. “Ohohokay! Ihit’s beehen ahawhihile, ehenohough!”

The other two backed off immediately. Olesya repositioned to give him a hug, which he reciprocated. “We are so doing that again. Just warning.”