Work Text:
It was “Family Game Night” aboard the Vat, which was another attempt at camaraderie and raising team spirits when everyone aboard was trying to stop the world from ending.
It was a Littles-centered event, with family friendly games like Candy Land, Life, Chutes and Ladders, etc. Caregivers could also join in —— and were encouraged to, with the younger Littles —— but could very well stand off to the side and talk about vaguely work-related things.
Stratt was the one who had organized it, and she did not want to go. She would have much rather spent her evening in Grace’s room, playing a board game between the two of them, or watching a movie. She knew that if she was going to play games with other Littles, she’d have to talk to them, and no one was as forgiving and accommodating as Grace was.
She picked at the cuff of her sweater as she walked into the rearranged conference room. Instead of one big table and harsh lighting, there were lots of smaller tables with games set out, with Littles already crowding around them. The fluorescents had been replaced with warm lamps, and if she tried hard enough, she’d could blur out all the extra people that were worrying her.
Rylie stood in front of her, smiling kindly.
“Okay, Sunshine, go have fun. If things get too much, we can always go back to my room or your office, okay?”
She nodded hesitantly, and he smiled again. He turned her to face the entrance, where Yào, Dimitri, and DuBois all stood, chatting.
“I’ll be right over there,” he said, and started walking away from them. She wanted to pull him back, ask him to stay. She wasn’t expecting such an abrupt departure.
She turned to face all the tables, looking for the least crowded one. She settled at the table with a deck of cards, probably meant for the grownups, but she fiddled with them anyways. She shuffled them stiffly and the organized them perfectly, over and over again. She could just feel the eyes on her. Eva Stratt, the ruthless and cold Director of Project Hail Mary, a Little? And her Caregiver was failed-scientist-turned-teacher Ryland Grace…
She pushed away those thoughts. She liked Rylie, no matter what anyone else said. She was just about to get back to reshuffling the cards when someone sat down across from her.
She recognized her face, someone from the med bay, put couldn’t put a name to the face. The girl put out a hand.
“HI! I’M KYLIE! YOU’RE EVA, RIGHT!?” She all but shouted, and Eva curled in on herself to sheila her ears from the volume. Kylie seemed to notice, and looked apologetic.
“Sorry, ‘Leysa keeps trying to remind me to watch my volume…” She muttered, looking at the cards in Eva’s hands.
“Oh! Do you know how to play, uhm…” Kylie started, pausing and scrunching her eyebrows together in thought.
“Blackjack!” She exclaimed in realization. Eva was a little confused, not expecting Blackjack to be a game she’d play tonight, but she did know how to.
The two of them played Blackjack for a while, Eva coming up with rather obvious hand gestures when Kylie dealt and both of them winning a crazy amount of cards each round.
After roughly 30 minutes of round after round, Kylie seemed to be getting bored. She collected her cards and tossed them in the middle of the table.
“Hey ‘V! Do you want to join me and my friends over by the car track?” She asked, pointing behind Eva at a Hot Wheels track utterly swarmed with the kids. Eva was hesitant, but didn’t want to leave her only friend. She nodded in agreement and organized the cards again before promptly being pulled away to the Hot Wheel track.
She wished it was more enjoyable than it really was. Instead, any toy she tried to grab was snatched by another kid, she was overwhelmed by residual body heat and the constant feeling of being tousled around. She really didn’t want to run crying into Rylie’s arms, but she felt like it was her only escape.
She shuffled out of the cluster and wandered anxiously through the conference room, the sounds of Littles squealing and cheering and Caregivers laughing and chatting growing louder and louder until the finally found Rylie, standing by the door like he promised. He noticed he almost immediately and excused himself to head over to her. Eva vaguely felt guilty for stopping him conversation, but that fear was pushed away when he dragged her by the sweater sleeve out of the conference room.
The relief was physical. The noise was so much dimmer, lights clearer, and she felt so much better.
“Can I hug you?” Gracie asked, because he knew her and that made her happier than ever. She nodded and quickly felt the comforting embrace of her Caregiver, his jacket cool from standing under the AC unit, his arms strong from all those nonsensical push-up contests he did with Ilyukhina.
She felt at peace there, and would’ve gladly stayed like that if it wasn’t for Grace pulling away and looking at her. He held up a fist, implying that he was going to give her numbered options.
“Okay, so, I’m gonna give you a few options.” He held up a finger, “One, we go to your office and spend the rest of the evening there,” he held up a sending finger. “Two, we go back into the Game Room until Game Night ends,” he held up a third finger. “Or three, we stay here and I give you some more time to decide.”
She held up a single finger, and he nodded. He grabbed her sweater arm and walked her down the endless grey corridors before they both slipped into one she recognized well. Instead of sitting at her desk though, she beelined for the couch. She flopped into it without a care in the world, and Grace laughed quietly.
“Do you want some tea? Or just go to sleep.”
She lazily fingerspelled T-E-A using the limited ASL knowledge she’d gained from Grace. Rylie nodded and went to make the two of them mugs, and she was already close to dozing off by the time he came back. She took a cup from him —— plastic, she couldn’t be trusted with glass when Little —— and took a sip. The heat tickled her tongue in an enjoyable manner, and she smiled slightly.
Grace asked if she wanted to watch a movie, to which she said yes. He pulled up his iPad and propped it up against a side table to give her a clear view of it.
They spent the rest of the evening quietly watching Alice in Wonderland, curled up close.