#and if i made some typos or skipped words accidentally in this long long tag rambling. just ignore it

[nicepersondisorder]

killing and violence (wrist pain is back)

[rogerina-yee-haw]

"Oranges"

Joe Mazzello x Reader One shot

summary: your elder brother has a best friend and you've been in love with this guy since you were five. But this guy is Joe Mazzello and he doesn't love you back. Or this is just what you think.

word count: 2,4K+

a/n: I wrote this some time ago for my baby @starfleet-wannabe 💓 since my girl received some amazing news this week, I decided to finally post this fic, because Erin deserves a lot of Joe and good stuff in her life ily bby ❤💕💝💞💖

tagging my love @chicagoblackhawkslover96 cause she asked and cause i love her very dearly!💖💕🖤❤✨

warnings: fluff!! fluff!! fluff!! some angst (just a tiny bit), implied smut and typos (as usual lmao)

Oranges.

When you were five, Joe gave you two oranges, because you were crying over a broken toy. He was fifteen, tall and very sweet, while asking you what happened and smiling at you softly. He had been your brother’s best friend since forever, and you grew up having him around; so Joe, hanging out in your house on the regular basis, wasn't an unusual thing.

When he gave you those two oranges - your favorite fruit - your heart skipped a bit for the first time in your life. You didn’t know what happened and why it happened, but you certainly liked the feeling. It made you feel sweet and nice, and you stopped crying immediately. You shared the oranges with Joe as you two were sitting on the grass in your backyard; he kept on smiling and asking about your day - just to distract you from the broken toy.

“Joe!” your brother ran out, panting as he spoke. “Come on, the boys are waiting!”

“I’m having a very serious conversation with your sister, Chris!”

Your brother huffed and winced. “This can wait. Besides, if we don’t go now, Chloe will leave the party”.

You saw the way Joe’s eyes sparked when your brother mentioned the girl’s name, and he got up and left with Chris, telling you to be careful at last. You still remember how your little heart ached when he left.

You accidentally threw an orange at his head when you were fifteen yourself. You aspired to be a juggler and Joe was laughing at you as you were telling him about it.

“You can’t be a juggler,” he said, sitting down at the kitchen table. “Your mom won’t simply let you”.

You rolled your eyes. “I bet your ass, Mazzello. When she sees my skills, she’ll understand that there’s no other choice for me. I’m a great juggler”.

“No, you’re not”.

“You wanna bet?”

He let out a deep sigh and then looked at you; his hazel eyes were scamming you, trying to burn you down - or you would state it like that. You were lost in his gaze. Lost and found only in him. “I’ve never understood your terrible desire to bet on everything, Y/N”.

You huffed and crossed your arms over your chest. “You know I’m good. You’re just a pussy, Mazzello”.

He rolled his eyes at your remark. “We both know that Chris is the biggest pussy in this household. But alright. Show me your skills”.

You took three oranges from the bowl, two in your left hand and one in the right, and took a deep breath. “Goddamn it, Y/L/N, it’s not like your life depends on it or something”.

“Shut up, Joe”.

You started juggling the oranges and it was really bad. They were falling from your hands right on the floor or on the kitchen table; you were picking them up, starting juggling again, and Joe was just wheezing. He was holding his hands on his stomach, cackling and tilting his head back, as he was laughing loudly. He didn’t even notice that you stopped juggling and just kept on laughing. You clenched your jaw and started breathing heavily, as you felt anger rising from your stomach to your chest. You took one orange and threw it right into his forehead, making him jump from his seat and look at you shockingly.

“The fuck are you doing, Y/L/N?”

Your answer was simple. “Juggling”.

As Joe was plotting his revenge, your mom walked into the kitchen, ruining the moment. “Joey! I didn’t know you were back!”

“Yeah, Mrs. Y/L/N, I’m here for a couple of weeks. Life in Los Angeles is very-”

“Boring”, you finished for him. He glared at you and sighed heavily.

“No, Y/N. It is very stressful”.

“Of course it is. Especially with you and Chris working yourselves off there”.

Despite being rather angry with each other, you and Joe involuntary shared glances. Your brother wasn’t the hard-working one, in contrast to Joe.

"So, your mom told me you have a girlfriend. As your god-mother, I would be very happy to see her and approve of your choice”, your mother smiled lightly and you rolled your eyes. Of course, Joe had a girlfriend. Of course. He was twenty-five years old, he should have had someone. At this age, your parents were already married with a child. Of course.

“Oh, trust me, you won’t regret meeting her”.

He smiled so widely and happily that your heart sank, making you believe that you and he would never happen. He was ten years older than you, an actor and your brother’s best friend, who never considered you to be more than a little girl, crying over a broken toy.

Even three years later, when he practically stumbled upon you on your prom night, he still didn’t see you as an adult. You were eighteen then, already legal, wearing a short pink dress, that was giving easy access for observing your long legs - even then Joe didn’t see you as a possible romantic interest.

“Wow, sorry, Y/N”, he said after you hit each other accidentally with your shoulders. He looked you up and down and gave you a cheeky grin. “Going out?”

“Prom night. Waiting for my date”.

He hummed in response. “Got it. Have a nice night. But don’t drink too much. Well, you should drink as it is your senior prom, but don’t get agitated like-”

“Joe”, you interrupted his rambling. “I got it. You can stop giving me a lecture, Chris has already done that today. Twice”.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. I’m just…” he sighed as he looked you straight in the eyes. “You just grew up so fast. I still remember you crying over that broken Barbie”. He smiled and your heart melted. Maybe it was the first time you realized that you loved him - desperately and infinitely. You loved his hazel eyes, that were looking right into your soul, his soft ginger hair, his sweet smile and him.

You felt your breath hitching, and your eyes started looking everywhere but at Joe - and it was a straight sign of you being nervous and flustered. So you tried to hide it, by chucking and turning your head away. “Yeah, I guess. That Barbie was pretty important to me, you know”. He laughed and scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah, I remember. Good luck tonight, Y/N”.

He remembered. Your heart pounded crazily in your chest throughout the whole night; and not because your date was a hot guy who wanted to get in your pants the entire time, but because Joe remembered. You came back home in the morning, with messy hair and your lipstick smudged all over your face from kissing with your date; only to find a glass of water, an orange, and a note on your bedside table.

“Oranges help with the hungover. Trust me. Joe.”

Now you were twenty-five, the same age Joe was when you threw an orange at his head. You couldn't call yourself a juggler, because the only thing you juggled with were your emotions as you were on the edge of mental breakdown while working with kids. Teaching maths in middle-school made you go crazy, as your students didn’t always listen to what you said. You saw your family rarely and, instead, you saw Joe almost every day. You couldn’t get enough of each other when you stumbled upon one another in February.

He just got back from filming “Bohemian Rhapsody” and you were coming home after a long day of dealing with middle-schoolers. You met in Starbucks and hearing him say, “Sugar honey iced tea, Y/N!” made your day much better. It also brought back all the feelings you had for him, all the love you tried to get rid of your entire life. You lived in a small flat with your cat Nancy and had a failed engagement behind your shoulders. And Joe was the sun that shined through the darkness and brought you back to life. He had breakups, heartbreaks and a lot of pain in his life, but still remained happy and excited about everything. At that moment you hadn’t seen each other for a year - and it seemed that it would take you the same amount of time to catch up on. You had talked for three hours, looking at each other and slightly touching one another. His gaze was constantly fixed on you, as he was looking at your face, into your eyes and staring quite obviously at your lips. You were giggling like crazy at every joke he told, tucking your hair behind your ears and biting your lips. You were all grown and legal, you thought, he should do something with it.

You were by Joe’s side through his darkest and saddest moments, holding his hand and hugging him tightly, while he was crying, clinging onto you as if his life depended on it. You spent more time with him rather than with your family, and your mother noticed it but didn’t say anything. She just silently watched Joe finally falling in love with you.

Summer was nearing its end, and you and Joe were even closer now. You spent too much time together for it just to be called “friendship”. You used to hang out at his place much more, as it was bigger and you liked it more than your own. He said yours was much cozier and he couldn't stop gushing about Nancy who seemed to love him even more than her rightful owner.

In August your childhood friend invited you to her wedding, and Joe was your “+1”, as you just couldn't show up alone to the wedding where you ex-fiance should have been with his new girlfriend. Your ex didn’t even bother you that much, you just wanted to be with Joe. As you have always wanted.

He held your hand and had his arm over your shoulder the entire time, and you kept smiling non-stop. At one point, when you were standing outside, shaking under the cool summer wind, he wrapped his jacket around your shoulders and kissed you. He tasted the way you always imagined - like oranges and summer. You answered to his kiss, leaning in closer, trying to get as much of him as possible. When he pulled away, you both were breathing heavily and grinning.

“Wanted to do it since February”, he whispered, and it sent shivers down your spine. You smiled softly and took his face in your hands, and kissed him again. You couldn't get enough of him. He couldn't get enough of you. That led to you two going to his apartment.

You ripped each other’s clothes off and you squeaked - you didn’t have anything else to wear to go home in the morning. “Don’t think I’ll let you go that easily”, Joe said in between kisses and you smiled, taking his blazer off.

Since you were introduced to the world of sex, you had been dreaming of this moment. You spent hours, thinking of Joe - while masturbating or regularly daydreaming or even when having sex with any of your partners. You imagined him like this, between your legs, fucking you into oblivion, too many times; but in reality, everything was much better. Joe kissed you feverishly, hungrily, like he had been starving for eternity. You both were sweaty, out of breath and happy.

"That's a weird thing to do", he noticed when the two of you were having breakfast at eleven in the morning, too fucked out to wake up earlier after hours of devouring each other.

"What exactly?" you furrowed your brows and looked at him.

“Eating oranges with coffee for breakfast", he shrugged his shoulders.

"Your fucking fridge is empty! Oranges are the only eatable thing in there. Or do you expect me to eat that old sandwich?"

"It's not old! It's been there just for a week."

"It's rotten, Mazzello."

"No, it's not! You don't understand how a refrigerator works apparently!"

"Well, enlighten me then, you fucking smartass!"

And the way he spoke about the work of the fridge - telling you his one was the most special on the planet - made you fall into him deeper and deeper. You realized that you hadn't ever even loved before Joe - and was it, ever, a-before-Joe phase? It seemed to be non-existent. You had spent your whole life, trying to run away from these feelings, trying to fall for someone else, just to forget him. But it wasn't possible. Ever.

So when he kept on ranting about fridges and how his sandwich was not rotten - you felt in love with him more than at any time before. It was something magical about this moment: the sun was piercing through the window, Joe's eyes glued to yours and - oh god - you didn't know it was possible to love someone that much.

"So when you say it's rotten, it's really-"

"I've been in love with you since I was five", you blurted out, being completely unable to control your emotions. Joe stopped talking and stared at you, without even blinking.

"W-What?"

"It's stupid", you gulped; why on Earth would you even say that out loud? "I shouldn't have said it. I don't want to put any pressure on you, it's idiotic, we just fucked for once and I'm already saying this type of shit-"

"Me too".

Your brows drew together. "What?"

"I've been in love with you too", he said firmly, and you let out a breath you didn't even know you were holding. "Not since I was five or something, you weren't even born then", Joe started babbling like a little kid and it made you chuckle; but you could already feel the tears forming in your eyes. "Maybe for a year. Maybe when I saw you with that piece of shit you were going to marry - maybe then I realized that I've been hopelessly and stupidly in love with you, Y/N".

Joe's eyes sparkled in the soft sun that was gleaming throughout the kitchen and you felt like crying just because of a loving look you saw in them. It was this pure bliss you had been dreaming about. It was everything you could have ever asked for.

And it was Joe. The man you fell in love with too long ago. And you couldn't be happier.