Chapter Text
Ryland was barely awake as he ate, leaning up against the wall of the canteen. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that he knew he’d be sick when he woke up, he wouldn’t even be eating now. There had been a nightmare round of meetings, and he had been dragged to every single one of them.
Now that someone had bothered to tell him that he was the de facto second in command of the project, Stratt had actually, somehow, dumped more onto him. It left him exhausted. They had just come in, and she had released him from this round of frustration. Ryland could admit he hated the meetings. Nobody liked them, but he had to go to more than anyone else on the leadership team. Somehow. Even Stratt went to fewer. Not many, and the few that she attended that he did not were with heads of multiple nations at once. So they probably ranked way higher than his meetings for annoyance. But while she’d be doing that, he was doing meetings to help coordinate between the different science teams, checking in on those teams, and making sure everyone was working on the same page.
Though those last few were at least part of his training as one of the science leads. If anyone had spent any time in sciences, especially in academia, they knew that meetings were endless.
All of that was on top of his actual experiments, coordinating with people on said experiments, and training the astronauts.
In a way, he almost missed the first days of the project. It was chaotic and everyone felt even more frantic than they were now, but it was smaller, and everyone had been very focused. The politicking and jockeying for position that happened whenever any group of people as competitive as scientists was forced together long term was not as much a thing. Everything was much more theoretical, so arguments happened, but since nobody knew what to really expect, they hadn’t gotten too wild.
Now that they had finalized the design and the payloads to get the Hail Mary built were starting to come together, it seemed to send a wave through the science teams. It was headache inducing as some people started to focus more on trying to climb the ranks. The people at the top of this were going to be famous. Or infamous. Ryland wasn't sure which.
He missed the days of focusing in the lab. The part he actually liked.
Ryland wondered what Stratt would do if he strangled half their science team? She would be pretty irritated. Make him replace them, maybe. He just wasn't sure if that would mean hiring new people or doing their work himself. Depends on how annoyed she was.
In any case, he had a rare quiet morning planned today. No meetings. No training. He should be using it for some tests he had written up, but he was going to use the time to sleep instead. Had even been laying down when his stomach had protested the fact he hadn’t eaten in almost twenty four hours.
So, to keep future Ryland from being absolutely miserable, he had shoved his feet into a pair of shoes and dragged on his project hoodie. The sweats and tee shirt he had worn to sleep in were fine. No holes in them and clean, so they’d be fine for a quick run to get something to eat.
He had chosen to lean against the wall because, as tired as he was, Ryland was afraid that he would fall asleep on the table. Defeating the entire point of coming here to get food, plus not sleeping in his surprisingly comfortable bed. A far cry from his first few months here. Guess one could get used to anything.
Now, he just had to get through this bowl of oatmeal, hiding slightly with his hood pulled up. It also helped provide a layer of protection from the various murmurs around him and the lights of the room. Block out anything that kept him from eating and falling into bed. Excellent plan.
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Olesya heard the low mumble of voices before she even got to the canteen after her regular morning run. Normally there weren’t so many people in there at this time of the morning to have that sort of effect, and she wondered if there was a special treat there she hadn’t gotten the message about. Turned out there was, but not the sort she expected.
The first thing that she noticed was that there were quite a few eyes turned one direction, and she glanced that way as well. Only to see someone leaning against the wall, slowly eating something from a bowl. Male, though she didn’t see his face. He was wearing a pair of sweats that had obviously been well loved, barely clinging around the man’s hips, showing off the lean waist. They looked very soft, and she sort of wanted to steal them. Looked perfect for lounging in. The shirt looked just as broken in, part of it rucked up by the project hoodie to show a thin line of the skin underneath. The man’s face was tilted down and mostly hidden by the hoodie.
Something about the look was just very appealing. Not that they lacked attractive people on the ship. In fact, there were ongoing chats all over as people gossiped. It was human nature for the most part, and Olesya was rather proud of her own fanclub. Nice to see people with such amazing taste.
So she was curious who it was, and shamelessly sauntered up to say hi. She grinned as several people she knew gave her a thumbs up, as they were all very curious about who this was, but not nearly bold enough to go say hi.
As she got closer, Olesya realized she knew who this was.
“Grace?” she said, blinking a bit in surprise as she saw the face a bit clearer. Her voice made the person jump, and then one blue eye pried itself open.
“Hey,” he said back, voice rough, before eating another bite of the oatmeal in his bowl.
“You look like you are about to pass out,” she told the man, who definitely looked like he needed a nap. That got a spoon pointed at her.
“That’s the plan once I finish this,” he admitted, still leaning against the wall. “Would be asleep now, but realized I needed to eat something.”
Ah, that explained things. She had never seen him out in sweats like this. Normally it was jeans or slacks of some sort. Though she would recommend sweats like this more. If he was actually interested in people in anything other than friends, a look like this would get him a lot of company. It was such a sad thing that he was totally oblivious to his appearance, as well as not really having a desire for such things.
Still, she grinned and teased him. “Going to start a new round of notes left for you,” she teased. It happened every time they rotated staff between the Vat and off ship sites. People would leave flirtatious little notes for Grace, and he would get all red and flustered and a little flaily. It was a source of great entertainment for herself and a few others of the long term crew that never left. Dimitri had apparently been finding it hilarious since the start. He had a few pictures of flailing Grace he was happy to share.
The mere idea of notes made Grace blush and splutter out a protest, and she fought the urge to coo at him. Oh, poor sweet asexual. He had no idea how easy he was on the eyes. Well, at least she could appreciate it. As a treat.
Then Grace’s protests were broken by a yawn. “Go sleep,” she told him, still grinning. “You definitely earned it.” For raising morale, if nothing else. How someone who looked like Grace, and was as big a theater nerd as he was, ended up a scientist instead of in movies, she had no idea.
Still pink, he huffed at her, before he shoved the last few mouthfuls of oatmeal into his mouth. Then he tossed his empty bowl and spoon at her. She fumbled and caught them out of surprise, then blinked as he grinned and scampered off. That brat.
Laughing, she went to return the empty dishes, then went to question some of the others. Everyone was very much chatting about the appeal of casual dress Grace, and Olesya knew that at least one person had snuck a few pictures. Likely more. Those needed to be in her possession. How else was she going to use them to tease Grace later?
She also made a mental note to buy him more sweats. As a favor to everyone.