Arctic Arctic and more Arctic

“Grace, I need your signature.”

Grace looked up from his work in his closet of an office. Stratt closed the door behind her.

“An autograph? I’m flattered.”

She pushed the work off his already disheveled desk and set a single paper on top. It kind of looked like his degree, it kind of looked like-

“A marriage license? Well, now I’m really flattered.”

“For legal reasons. Just sign.” Stratt muttered.

“Are you serious?”

Of course she was serious. She only was serious. But she seemed…uncomfortable? The feeling looked strange on her. Eyes dart between the paper and him. Arms crossed over her chest as if hugging herself. It was definitely a new look. They were in new territory.

“I’m not the marrying type.” said Grace. “And I think I forgot to propose.”

Stratt breathed in deeply. Steeling herself.

“Grace,” Her hands were fidgeting with the cuff of her sleeve. “What I’m doing here is illegal. I’ve broken alot of rules to give the crew a chance to save us. But once the mission begins…the world order will need to go back to how it was.”

Grace listened intently trying to make eye contact with her glassy gaze. He hadn’t thought to much about the legality of it all. After all, that was her job.

“I will be put on trial. I will be found guilty. I will serve the rest of my life behind bars. That is my cost.” Stratt continued, “You, the team, will all be fine. But-”

She pushed the license closer to Grace.

“Spouses don’t testify in court.”

Finally she looked at him. She wasn’t telling him to sign. If that was the case she probably would’ve just forged his signature. Hell, she probably has a whole team just for that purpose. She was asking him.

His choice. Just between the two of them.

“We don’t have to sleep together, right?”

Her eyes went big. “God Grace! No! Just sign the damn paper!” she huffed.

He smiled. And put his name under hers.

Husband and wife.

Well, more like “Most powerful person in the world” and “Some guy she kept around.” But still. Till death do they part.

weird notsex but definitely horny activity they do is rocky makes grace watch thriller or scary movies so he can be a pervert about the sound of graces heart and lungs going fucking crazy and being very Viscerally alive next to him in a controlled environment. he constantly complains about how sloshy and wet grace is all the time but privately he is so deeply traumatized and he needs to be glued to this guys obscenely exposed heartbeat and rushing blood noises at all times

also something somethinng the eridian equivalent of a vibrator being a tuning fork and they. experiment . with that. its not necessarily Sexual stimulation it doesnt really engage the reproductive organs but it DOES very much engage the pleasure sensors in their crystalbrains and involves a disgusting amount of trust because if something is resonating Directly against their carapace loud enough theyre functionally blind. grace then tries hooking it up to the frequencies of wonderwall and loses all privilages forever

anyway. i love when two characters love each other so so much in such a complicated way that they dont have sex but instead do something MUCH weirder

The ramparts of Mount Erebus. Ross Island near Antarctica during the Terra Nova expedition, 1911.