(Inspired by "Coming Home" by Falling In Reverse. HIGHLY suggest the song, please, it will only take about five minutes of your time and will probably leave you in tears if you listen closely. This oneshot a Modern Day AU)

Mariner 9 is a real, successful NASA satellite but for the sake of this oneshot, I decided to make that satellite a failure on reaching Mars. It will make more sense once you read and if you are a space geek such as myself :p

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"We miss you, Grian-!... We hope your trip back to Earth is a safe one!"

Static. Then the holographic message, the transmission video feed that somehow sent through space to reach him, glitches before restarting once again.

"We miss you, Grian-!... We hope your trip back to Earth is a safe one!"

The video has Xisuma, Stress, Mumbo, and Iskall holding a large wooden sign that has a picture of Grian in his NASA astronaut spacesuit, hugging all of his long-missed Hermits. The four yell out the first sentence before getting cut shortly with Doc, False, Ren, Impulse, and Joe joining the video by bounding into view.

Then everyone together yells "We hope your trip back is a safe one!" before the feed turns into static for a solid minute before replaying.

Grian cuts the video feed so it would stop its constant repeating. He can feel a tear dribbling down his cheek. The surrounding universe around him is completely silent, leaving only Grian's breathing to be the only noise to fill the dreading silence.

His breath accidentally makes fog attach itself to his glass helmet. He doesn't bother to make an effort to clear it since there was nothing for him now.

All he can see is the infinite universe and stars as far as his eyes can see. The little dots and spirals seem so close, nearly from his reach, but he feels so lonely since they are absently millions of miles away.

So many shades of purples blend with the stretched black space. Little dots sprinkle everywhere he looks, some being more vibrant in color than others that are duller.

They are thoroughly everywhere. Space was a lot brighter than Grian originally thought since all the tiny stars and galaxies swirling bring the endless black into a state of life by shining so brilliantly, it was unbelievable.

Drifting alone in space, supplied with a low amount of oxygen, was not something Grian was planning, nor did he ever want to wish this upon himself.

But here he was, stuck in a spacesuit with no one around, plunged into space without control of where he is going. He is very limited on moving, but there was no point in moving because it wouldn't alter the slow motioned, random direction he was going.

So, he just stayed in one position, hoping a satellite would pick up his distress signal he sent out. He has tried multiple times to reach out to anyone. All signals sent out were not received or got lost into between the stars.

There was nothing for him except for two things.

One is the video he received, created by his friends. The other being a photo he fondly loves. His friends back on Earth made a video for him before his task failed. He was surprised when his suit received the transmission.

It may be full of static and kept glitching occasionally, but it still warmed his heart every time he watched it no matter the number of times it would refuse to load properly.

His friends care about him. They miss him so much and they wished Grian the safest flight.

Grian was tasked, with three other random men, to fix a large satellite that failed to reach Mars. He was sent out since he offered to handle the chore. The four journeyed in a slim rocketship for about a month to reach the machine, Mariner 9 as it's called.

When they came across the satellite, Grian decided to attach his NASA suit to the end of the cord first and head out. The men, including Grian, said they would be taking turns to handle the satellite and Grian volunteered first with certain bravery.

The cord he was attached to snapped without his full awareness. He had only just found out what the issue was with the broken satellite and was ready to report to the men to tell them the issue.

He pushed himself off of the complex satellite and tugged his silver rope. For a moment, he didn't receive a tug back or began to reel back to the original rocket. He tugged again before deciding he would drag himself back towards the team.

His gloved hands begin to pull the rope so he can haul himself, but his eyes went wide. The end of the snapped rope reached him and he clutched onto the cord with sheer horror. If he knew the cord snapped, he would've held onto the satellite until one of the men came to rescue him.

"Guys?! I need help!" Grian presses one of the buttons inside of his helmet to send an urgent emergency message to the men inside the rocket.

"What's the issue?" One of the men, Mark, replied almost instantly, a deep voice ringing through the communicator on Grian's helmet.

"Th-The cord snapped! Someone, please get me!"

"We'll be out soon, Grian!"

Since he pushed himself off from the satellite, he was already beginning to drift away. The girthy, bulky NASA suit restrained Grian from moving, but he still tried to move so he could make himself drift towards the rocket. He only continued to go in the opposite direction.

A minute later, one of the side panels of the narrow rocketship opened and another figure in an identical astronaut suit jumped out. A silver cord is attached to his suit and trailing back to the inside of the rocket.

The figure jumped off the wall of the rocket and began to head towards Grian's direction. Grian can feel his heart palpitate within his chest, the fear of being alone in the endless universe was haunting.

He outstretched his hand and waited for the figure to come closer since they are going at a faster speed than Grian so they will easily be able to catch up. Grian watched the rope closely and felt his entire body go stiff when he noticed the cord was running out quickly.

The figure reached out and Grian reached as far as he could. The figure stopped moving towards Grian, instantly got held back, since he reached the very end of the cord. He extended his arm as far as humanly possible, Grian doing the same.

Their fingers were only a foot apart. Grian tried to move closer but he only kept hovering away.

"No, no no! C-Can you guys move the rocketship forward just a tiny bit so Mark can reach me?" Grian's hurried voice rushes into the communication system to alert the men.

"No can do, there's not enough fuel. If we use any fuel, we would crash when returning home. We'll find a different option, d-don't worry Grian!"

Then they didn't. They frantically tried multiple methods but each was more time consuming than the last as Grian kept floating away. Every minute was precious at that moment. And then, before Grian knew it, the rocket and satellite became a tiny dot, the same size as the stars.

And now he can't even see them anymore. He lost any feed except for the video he saved. The only thing he can hear is his breathing. The sounds of all the worried men trying to reassure him turned more and more into static before his suit gave out on the connection altogether.

He wanted to play the video again but he couldn't muster himself to do so. Alone in the universe, floating to nowhere, he began to cry to himself. It only just registered inside of his brain the full situation.

He felt as if any crack of hope was nonexistent. There was nothing and it would be only a matter of time before he died from no oxygen or starvation. Since suits are provided with water, he was alright on that factor.

"Warning: Your suit is losing oxygen at rapid rates. Supply your tank immediately or seek urgent attention. Oxygen supply is low."

He notices the thinning of the oxygen in his suit and helmet. It was getting increasingly harder to breathe every hour that would pass through.

He doesn't know how long he has been alone like this. A few days possibly, since his body screamed for food and his eyes constantly gave out like a lightbulb. His eyes hold heavy dark bags underneath and beneath the suit, he can tell that his body is becoming skinnier and weaker.

As he continued to shed tears and weep to himself, he finally decided to replay the feed. The video was the only thing he had to keep him happy and the last thing he has besides his suit.

The video began to stir to life across his helmet divider and play with static, muddled noises mixing into the feed. He watches with glistening blue orbs as the original four of the video hold the sign before the others join in.

Since everyone lives in different parts of the world, he found the transmission feed to be a true gift. They took time from their busy schedules to fly to one location and record a video. They did this since he told them he was going to space to fix a machine, and they miss him greatly.

Especially his husband and daughter...

Grian sniffs and continues to watch the clip. As he does so, he reaches his hand into one of the many closed pockets of his cloud white suit. He unclips the pocket, manages his fingers inside, and pulls out a folded piece of paper.

He unfolds the item and eyes the picture. He found himself crying harder, his fingers clutching onto the photo tightly so he doesn't accidentally lose it.

It's a picture of his adopted four-year-old daughter, Evelyn, holding a poorly drawn picture of Grian in his spacesuit. Mumbo is holding the adorable brunette, smiling at the camera with a small note at the bottom, written in very neat cursive.

'Come home soon, Grian. Evelyn misses you already.'

This got mailed to him before he took off to space. It was in the letter of one of the employees and handed to Grian, who smiled at the picture and admittingly cried when he first saw it.

"Papa, where you going?" Evelyn asks with large green eyes, her timid voice being a higher octave due to her young age. Her hammy little fists cling onto Mumbo's grey shirt as he holds her close to his chest.

Grian closes the trunk lid of his dark blue Honda, smiling gently at the two. He walks towards the two, who are standing in the dark arched doorway since Mumbo didn't want to go outside in his pajamas. Grian reaches them, placing a gentle kiss on Evelyn's head before going on his toes to send Mumbo a quick peck on his lips.

"Your dad is going to space!" Grian grins. Evelyn's eyes go wide and she begins to bounce, causing Mumbo to almost drop her with a worried expression. The little adopted girl didn't seem to notice since her fascination took over her emotions and bubbled to the surface of her emerald eyes.

"Did you hear tha'?! Daddy, bring me wit' you!" whines the girl as she releases one of her hands from Mumbo to do the motion grabby hands towards Grian.

Mumbo smiles and reels her back to plant a small kiss on her cheek. "Woah there tiger, you have preschool approaching soon," Mumbo says, keeping his same smile. Grian keeps his beam also and engulfs them into a giant hug.

"I'll miss you guys," said Grian softly, closing his blue eyes gently to embrace their presence one last time before departing.

"Papa?"

"Yes, Evelyn?"

"Will you come back?"

Grian pulls away and holds out his pinky finger. The girl giggles cutely and wraps her stubby finger around his.

"I promise."

"I promised..." Grian forces the words to fall out of his sobbing state. Oh, how he misses his husband and daughter so dearly. He told them he loved them and said his goodbyes before leaving officially.

He misses everyone so much.

He didn't anticipate his goodbye to being the very last one. He felt too young, it had been so soon. He thought he would complete the mission in space, be gone for approximately two months before bringing Evelyn into his arms again getting kisses from his husband.

"I miss everyone... I just... I just want to go home," Grian whimpers to himself, allowing his tears to escape his eyes. The video of his friends begins to slowly die out from his sight since his vision is coming closer to blackout.

He puts the photo back into its original pocket, making sure it's clipped so he never loses the photo. He can feel his entire head feel dizzy and weak, his vision beginning to slowly blur as colors merge.

His eyes blink to reclaim his vision, but it didn't seem to be doing any good. The edges of his eyes begin to collect black dots that began to rapidly spread. He shuts his eyes and leans his head at the very back of the suit.

The oxygen in his suit is dissipating at an alarming rate. The air is so shallow, making it harder to breathe and his brain is slowly accepting the lack of oxygen by making his entire body fall out of consciousness.

Maybe he can finally die once and for all so he can end this isolated nightmare.

"....."

".....an.."

"Gri....?"

"....Grian?"

Grian can feel his sense coming to life again, the environment around him suddenly coming into existence. He can hardly open his throbbing eyes since they weighed heavier than anvils and the blazing white light above him is not helping.

He moves his fingers first, concentrating on one part of his body to move. He tilts his head slightly, only slightly since he has a tiny ounce of energy left in his body. His lips part opened and he finally began to receive more strength.

"He's-He's alive!"

Grian recognizes that voice...

He perceives a separate body wrapping their arms around his body tightly, sobbing loudly as their white covered arms keep him in a compacted hug. Grian noticed his helmet was gone, leaving him in only his space suit with his face being revealed to the public.

A few more pairs of arms envelope his exhausted frame, all of the voices falling together as they cry out in happiness. Grian didn't know what was happening, only feeling presences hugging his fatigued body as he proceeds to lay on what seems to be the ground.

The ground, literal solid land. People... people!

He contemplated for a slow and short moment if he was maybe in heaven.

The blurry images of people reel away from Grian's enervated, lying body. He tries to focus intensely on one figure but can hardly make out their silhouette or colors despite his foremost effort.

The tall physique closest to him places a hand on his cheek, boasting his senses a bit more since he can focus on that instead of everyone surrounding him. The figure draws closer towards Grian, hovering over him and gently rubbing his thumb across Grian's cheek.

Grian's chapped lips curl into a tiny, weary smile as he can finally recognize the person above him. "Mumbo...?" His voice is so quiet, any other noise would immerse his own.

Mumbo is smiling greatly with tired eyes, his ruby-colored cheeks getting stained with tear streaks. He places his forehead against Grian's, gently rubbing Grian's cheeks with his thumb as he closes his eyelids.

"We missed you, so so much Grian..." Mumbo spoke faintly, silently hiccuping in between. "We thought you were gone... W-We heard the news and... I was so scared."

Grian listens closely, keeping his focus on Mumbo so he doesn't miss a single word.

"Whe-re's Evelyn?" His voice cracks, squeaking slightly as his voice remains hushed. Mumbo lets out an airy laugh as another tear evades past his eyelids.

"She's in-...in preschool now ... C-Can you believe that our little girl is growing up so fast? I wish you c-could've seen her face on-on the first day of school... She drew a p-picture of you on the first day and she- she was so happy but she missed you..."

Grian lifts his shaky arms up, causing Mumbo to lift his head. Grian gingerly grabs the side of Mumbo's face as his smile expands. He can feel a round of tears and emotions flood himself and the emotions bubbled to the surface of his body when tears began to well inside of his eyes.

The others watch with their own teary eyes, Ren and Stress being ones to cry the hardest as they constantly wipe under their eyes to stop the tears from plunging down. Xisuma looks at the doctor to his left, his grey helmet absent which divulges his crying as he tries his hardest to hold his tears back.

Doc even had to turn away from the scene since he felt a tear accidentally escape his working eye, his other eye being patched up by red bandages. Iskall nudges Doc since he noticed, and Doc crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at Iskall who was sobbing a little bit lighter than Ren.

Mumbo and Grian engage in a deep, understanding gaze with one another. Grian's body quivers harshly from the abrupt crying and he speaks to Mumbo with pure joy despite his croaked voice.

"I can go home now, just like I promised..."