Work Text:
A lot of people don't realize just how bad Ryland Grace's eyesight truly is. They see him have his glasses properly on for about .5 seconds before they're in a position that makes them question his sanity. He isn't purposefully hiding it, it's just more of a coincidence. He doesn't really like wearing his glasses all the time, and it's not because of appearance reasons. It's because his glasses being on his face, for longer than a few minutes, starts driving him up the wall. The sensory of something sitting on his nose bridge and being hooked around his ears makes him want to snap the glasses in half. And pair that with the strain of going from incredibly blurry vision to crystal clear? Yeah, no thanks.
He got into a habit of having his glasses on when he first walks into a room but after he does a scan of the whole room and mentally maps it out, he takes his glasses off. He's able to make out rough shapes of objects and people but he can't see any details beyond that. Having lived and worked in the same small ship for nearly two years now allows him to traverse the Stratt Vat very well without his glasses. And despite what literally everyone thinks, he's very good at taking care of his glasses. Sure, how he handles them is a bit precarious he will admit that. However, he has not lost or broken a pair since he got his latest prescription, which was a year before he was pulled into the Taskforce. However, after one especially chaotic day. . .
"Where in the gosh darn heck are my glasses?" He muttered quietly to himself as he all but flipped his desk space upside down after realizing his glasses were nowhere to be found. Unfortunately for him, Eva Stratt decided to walk into his lab at this moment. He quickly stood straight up and pretended like nothing was happening. Through his blurry vision he could tell that she had raised an eyebrow incredulously at him. He could tell this was what she was doing because they had spent so much time around each other he knew her quirks even without his glasses on. "Dr. Grace," She all but sighed. "What have you done to your desk space?" Oh Christmas Eve he was in trouble.
"Well, you see I was just trying to uh, you know um…" His brain was scrambling for a reason to excuse his mess while trying to not look like a complete idiot who lost his glasses. "Trying a new perspective on this experiment that I've been-"
"Dr. Grace, cut the bullshit." Yeah he definitely failed at not looking like an idiot. He sighed and resigned to the fact he was just going to have to fess up.
"I lost my glasses and I can't find them."
"Grace." She starts in utter disbelief. "They are right there." She points to the other desk. He turns and finally is able to make out the rough shape of his glasses.
"Oh…" He moves over and puts on his glasses. He turns around to face her and is barely able to see her contain a laugh and a smile at his antics. He smiles back and chuckles. "I'm uhh, I'm a lot more blind than most people think."
"I'm quite aware of that now, Doctor." She fires back. "We do have a meeting in five, in the engineer labs." She turned back into her professional mode.
"Yes ma'am!" He salutes her. She rolls her eyes with a light airy laugh before turning around and walking out of the lab.
Gosh that meeting was a mess. Massive issues with the ship were brought up and now everything was in a bit of a frenzy. He was now having to pull even later nights working around these new issues. He was exhausted and he knew that Stratt was as well. Going a full week of staying up past three in the morning and waking up at five does no good for anyone. And that was his sleep schedule, he had no idea how bad Stratt's was. He had a feeling it was somehow even worse because no matter what time he needs her he finds her awake.
It was currently past two in the morning and he was the only one in the labs. He was going over some of the new designs and a detail put him in a roadblock. He sighed as he leaned back in his chair. "Why can't you just cooperate for once?!" He seethed at the papers. He grumbled a lot as he picked up the papers he needed. Once they were all situated he got up and started making his way to Stratt's office. Having her to bounce ideas off always helped ring out the kinks of the designs.
He continued his mumbled grumbling his entire way to her office as he continued to look over the papers. He barely even noticed as he took turns and opened doors to other hallways. His body merely moving on autopilot as he knew the route to her office by heart. He reached the last door he needed and swung it open without a second thought. "Stratt, there are some issues with this design here, I can't quite figure them out and I was hoping that you would-"
He stopped himself dead in his tracks as he realized three separate things all at once: One, he had made it to her office already. Two, he had entered said office without knocking. And three, Stratt was wearing glasses.
He stood there like a deer in headlights.
She sat there like a deer in headlights.
His brain had fully blue screened. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. There was no way Stratt wore glasses right?! But there she was with the pen in her hand completely frozen over the paper she had been signing, looking like a child who had been caught sneaking cookies.
"I- uh, I am so sor-"
"Close the door." She interrupted him. Her voice was clipped and sharp. He immediately obeyed. When he turned back around her glasses were now sitting on the desk. "What is it that you needed?"
"I just, needed you to go over these designs with me…" He trailed off. He really wanted to address the elephant in the room but she clearly didn't not want to.
"Very well, read me the designs." She said like always.
"Oh uh, these ones are diagrams. I can't exactly read them off to you." He said quietly as he slowly handed the papers to her. She actually hesitated before grabbing them. She held them and he could immediately tell that she was trying her best to not squint. She brought the papers a bit closer to her face, and then closer, then closer. The papers were now about two inches from her face and yet she was still squinting. Wait, is this why she always had him read what he needed help on late at night? Had she been completely unable to see during these late night meetings?
Just how bad is her eyesight? He couldn't help but think. He knew plenty of people who preferred to wear contacts so he guesses he shouldn't be as surprised as he is. However, he is greatly surprised at just how bad her sight seemingly is. After several painfully silent seconds she sighed and reached for her glasses again. When she put them back on a tint of red flushed her cheeks. She looked stunning in her glasses but that didn't stop the bad gut feeling pool in him.
She was embarrassed to wear her glasses… Why? He didn't like what his gut was telling him. Her voice interrupted his thoughts. The two of them spent the next twenty minutes working through the kinks of the design.
"One last thing, Dr. Grace." Stratt said as he stood up from his seat. She slid another piece of paper towards him.
It was an NDA regarding him seeing her in her glasses. He looked up at her in disbelief and was met with a stern look but he knew her well enough that he could see the desperation. He signed it without complaint.
He held his papers to his side as he went to open the door of her office. With his hand on the handle he turned back to look at her. The way the warm light of the lamp hit her glasses and how they framed her face made her look down right ethereal. A smile and a hint of blush warmed his face as she looked up at him from over her frames.
"You look stunning."
He turned the handle and left before either one of them could process what he had just said. As he walked back to his own room he couldn't help the smile on his face.
The next day at lunch, Ilyukhina sat right next to him and nudged his shoulder. "So pretty boy, I hear you were at Stratt's last night?"
"Uhhhh yeah, I was there."
"Soooo what you guys speak about?" She said all too cheerfully.
"We were just going over some designs." He answered honestly.
"At two in the morning?" Her tone was now very cheeky.
"Yeah, I guess"
"I hear you were smiling like an idiot when leaving."
"Was I?" He knew damn well that he was but he could not let her know why. Stratt would have his head if he broke that NDA.
Ilyukhina continued her interrogation until Yáo stepped in and told her to leave him alone. He sent a thankful nod to Yáo but was met by an eyebrow wag from the man. He groaned and hung his head.
A week later if anyone asked him if he already knew, he would say he had no clue that Stratt wore glasses.
She truly looked beautiful during that team meeting.