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swordsandholly · 2 days

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Across the Way

Chapter 4: New and Old Problems Alike

Retired!Ghoap x Fem!Fat!Reader

Ao3 | Previous - Next | Masterlist

MDNI | cw: fainting, some medical inaccuracies

Word Count: 5.8k

Summary: You go to Scotland with high hopes for your future. After all, you have the bakery you always dreamed of and a whole new life to live. Plus, the men who own the butcher’s shop across the street seem nice.

You haven’t texted them, even three days later. That little sticky note haunts the surface of your kitchen counter. It taunts you - tells you that you should text them and at least give them your number. That you’re being a terrible neighbor. They might need you too, after all. Even though you can’t figure out why they might for the life of you. On the other hand, you can’t help but feel wary about it. Men don’t take an interest in you - people in general rarely take interest. It’s hard not to feel suspicious, as pure as you’re sure their intentions probably are.

More so than any of that, you don’t know what to say. If it had been day one you could have just put your name, but now you feel like you need to explain. Or at least be funny or something. Tossing and turning on your designated rest day about what the hell you should do.

You’re overthinking it. You know that. You can’t stop, either.

They just seem so cool - so put together. So unlike you. You want to impress them. You don’t want to ruin the first possibility of friends in this new life you’re building for yourself.

Eventually you work up the courage to send off an initial text to each of them. Just to give them your name to save if they so choose - plus an extra thank you to Simon for giving you their numbers in the first place. Something simple and borderline cold. Too cold, maybe? Maybe you sound irritated. You hope not. You just want them to like you. Friends in new places are hard and to have someone around you who gets how it feels to need accommodations would just feel so… lovely. Your phone may or may not go flying onto your bed while you bury your face in your hands out of sheer nervousness.

You don’t expect it to chime about a minute later. Right as you’re staring to calm down, of course. It sends your heart violently pounding all over again.

J >> Bonnie lass!

J >> So glad u texted!!

>> Sorry it took so long lol

Oh, you could just slap yourself. You don’t have anything better than that? At all? Christ.

J >> Nah Nah

J >> No worries

J >> Actually I was wondering if u would mind if I came by tomorrow

J >> Just to chat

J >> need an excuse to get out of the house

“How the hell does he type that fast?” You scoff to yourself.

>> Yeah, come by anytime.

>> totally

>> yea sounds cool

>> rad, man

A message from Simon pops up mid your internal battle with how to respond, replying with a simple thumbs up. Very in character, you think. He knows how to be nonchalant. What would Simon say? Something casual, maybe a little formal.

>> If you like. You’re always welcome.

Okay maybe that was too much like Simon. You sigh heavily m before adding,

>> I’m trying out a new blueberry loaf

>> If you want to test for me :)

Better. That’s a little better. With another heavy sigh you decide to drop your phone into your nightstand for the rest of the day. Your heart really cannot handle this much emotional pressure.

~~~

You sort of end up just forgetting about the texts. With your phone out of sight and out of mind upstairs in your apartment it almost catches you off guard when Johnny comes striding through the door just before close. He’s dressed more casually than the last couple of times you saw him - having broken out the summer shorts and a graphic tee for some band you don’t recognize. It suits him, though.

“Hey, bon.” He grins.

“Hey.” You smile back, finishing with putting up your stocking baskets before dusting off your hands and turning around. “Simon closing up?”

“Aye.”

You hum. “Come on back, I’ll get you a slice of that loaf I mentioned.”

Johnny follows you quietly. Uncharacteristically quietly. That’s okay - you don’t have a problem with hanging out in silence. It doesn’t feel tense, surprisingly enough. He leaves Riley out front again. Should you get her a dog bed? Maybe if he comes by consistently. That would be nice. Maybe that’s wishful thinking.

“It’s sort of a pound cake but fluffier. I might make an icing for it but I don’t know if that would be too sweet…” You trail off, focusing on plating up the piece. You’re not sure what compels you to try and make it pretty for him. Probably something you could blame on your grandmother. She did have an obsession with presentation.

Johnny hums loudly after taking a bite, talking around the mouthful. “Y’should totally make an icing.” He swallows roughly. “Si would go crazy fer this.”

“Oh?” You smile. “I’ll send some home with you.”

There’s a lapse of silence while Johnny chews on his slice of bread and you pack up some in a paper bag for him to take home. The only sounds in the room comprised of your cutting and folding and the hum of the cooling oven.

“You’re being weirdly quiet.” You blurt, immediately covering your mouth with your hand. “I, uh, I mean that isn’t a bad thing! I don’t mind… I just, uh, was… sorry, never mind…”

“Well I did come wit’ a bit of an ulterior motive…” Johnny admits, glancing off to the side shyly. It’s a show, you think. Johnny doesn’t seem the type of man to have felt shy a day in his life.

You tilt your head. “Oh?”

He dusts off his hands and grins. “Let us take ye out! In celebration of yer first full month.”

Has it been a month already? “Oh - no, no you don’t have to-“

“C’mon! It’s a big accomplishment.” His smile is so bright that you almost believe his idea that you’ve done something great.

“…alright.” You give a tentative smile. It’s hard to believe they like you enough to want to hang out casually in the evening. Hard to imagine anyone liking you that much but you’re not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

“There’s a pub down the street - the one on the corner. Want tae meet us there around six?” Johnny gives you that lovely smile. How could you ever say no to a smile like that?

“Okay.”

You spend far too long changing in and out of clothes and fussing with your hair. Up-do’s and buns and braids. A tank top then a sweater then a t-shirt. There’s no reason to feel this stressed over it. It’s not a date or anything. Besides, it doesn’t seem to make a difference. Either way you look like a frumpy dumpling. Eventually you land on jeans and one of your designated ‘going out tops.’ At least it’s a good excuse to wear something other than work clothes or loungewear.

Excitement and anxiety thrum under your skin like electricity as you make your way down the street. You feel painfully nauseous - stopping once or twice just to make sure you aren’t about to throw up for real.

The pub is surprisingly quiet when you enter. Obviously somewhere only real locals hang out - there’s no theme or really any decor in general. Just a bar, some booths and a couple pool tables. You scan the floor a few times, not seeing either Johnny or Simon (not that they would be hard to miss). Eventually you just grab a soda from the bar and slide into one of the booths closer to the back. A quiet spot facing the door where you can easily watch for them.

As time ticks on you begin to grow increasingly nervous. Did you get the time wrong? No, no you triple checked. You even wrote it down in your planner. Your leg begins to bounce furiously, heart nearly beating out of your chest. Did they decide to ditch? You wouldn’t really blame them. They’re way out of your league when it comes to friends. Maybe Johnny had an emergency? Should you call Simon? If he had an emergency it would make sense that they would forget to notice you. What if something really bad happened? What if-

The front door opens and Simon’s wide frame strides through, holding the door for Johnny and Riley to come in behind him. You let out a quiet sigh of relief, willing your leg to stop bouncing with a pinch to your thigh. Why are you always so damn dramatic?

Johnny lights up with an ear to ear grin when he spots you, bee-lining for the booth while Simon casually walks up to the bar. It’s almost comedic, the way he dwarfs the counter. Johnny leans on the side of the booth, waiting for Simon, you think.

“Glad ye could come out.” He looks you over, eyes flicking from your plain top to the very practical, not at all stylish up do that you landed on for the evening.

You do your best not to squirm under his gaze. “Me too…”

Simon comes back with two beers in hand and slides them onto the table. He scoots into the inner booth to give Johnny the outer edge. Riley happily sits beside his leg and practically grins at you in a near mirror image of Johnny’s. You’d never do it while she’s on the job, of course, but part of you wants to give her a pat on the head and coo at her for being so polite.

Johnny gives you an apologetic smile. “Sorry we were a bit late-”

“Johnny redid his hair about five times.” Simon butts in, not reacting at all to Johnny’s sputtering protest. He glances at your half-drunk soda. “Want me t’ grab you a beer?”

“Oh, no, I’ll just stick to coke.”

They blink at you. Simon cocks his head slightly. “You sure?”

You chew your lip. “Uh, alcohol tends to aggravate my symptoms is all...”

“Then why’d ye agree to drinks? We coulda gone somewhere else.” Johnny frowns.

You shrug. “I don’t mind. I… maybe this is over sharing but I’d rather go out and be kind of normal than just… not ever. Y’know?”

His expression softens. For having such icy blue eyes they are so, so warm. “I get it.”

“How’d you two meet anyway?” You blurt, taking a left turn to get the conversation off of you. It’s the first question that comes to mind. Maybe it’s rude - maybe you’re prying too much already.

“Military.” Simon grunts. “SAS.”

“Si retired wit’ me after I was discharged.” Johnny points to his scar the same way he did when you first met. “Russians scrambled my egg a bit.”

“Couldn’t do the time apart…” Simon murmurs, eyes locked on Johnny’s face. It’s vulnerable. More than he’s used to - you can see it in the way he tenses after saying it.

Something passes between them that a deep, wounded part of you desperately wishes to understand.

You can’t help but start giggling to yourself. They both give you an incredulous look. “Sorry, sorry - it’s just, that’s like… totally a romance book premise. It’s sweet. Really.”

“Och, aye. Wouldn’t know it t’ look at him but Si’s a real romantic.” Johnny bats his eyes at the other man, who just rolls his in response. The corner of his scarred mouth quirks up subtly.

“SAS…” You repeat, staring at your drink. “That’s like Navy Seal shit, right?”

“We worked with them a few times, yes.” Simon nods. There’s an air of ‘do not ask anything more specific’ in his voice.

“Huh.” You take that for what it is and sit back, squinting at them. “You don’t look it, honestly.”

Johnny laughs. “Tha’s just cause ye havennae seen Simon with his gear on. The Ghost.” He wiggles his fingers along as he makes a stupid, spooky sound effect. “I domesticated him.”

Simon scoffs but doesn’t deny it, just takes a quiet sip of his beer.

“Riley’s a vet, too.” Johnny pats her head. “Got too skittish around loud noises but she transitioned into a service dog nicely.”

“Now she’s just spoiled.” Simon rolls his eyes in faux annoyance. You get the strong feeling that he’s the one doing the spoiling.

You find yourself relaxing as the night goes on. Slouching in your seat rather than sitting ramrod straight and nervously twiddling your thumbs. They never press you to drink, never insist that you’ll be fine with just one. They take your statement as fact and it isn’t brought up again. That shouldn’t be as significant as it is, now that you think about it.

Johnny’s words begin to slur a little bit on his fourth, no maybe fifth, beer. You aren’t sure. It’s very cute, the little blush that forms across his cheeks. Simon loosens up, too. He slings an arm around the back of the booth and Johnny readily tucks himself into the open spot. You find yourself wondering about their military career again. You can’t picture either of them committing violence - especially Simon. Sure, he’s big and gruff but he looks at Johnny so, so softly.

Simon is the one to call it a night - though you have a feeling its because you nodded off a couple times. Not out of boredom, you try really, really hard to pay attention to Johnny rambling about the chemistry of different explosives. He makes it interesting, somehow. Really it’s just that you’ve been awake for… holy shit almost twenty hours!

“D’you need a ride?” Simon asks as you exit the pub, hands firmly shoved into his pockets.

“No, I’ll be fine.” You don’t know how to interpret the look he’s giving you. It’s intense, but not annoyed or displeased. He has such a weird knack for unreadable but distinct expressions. You wonder if you’ll ever get close enough to get good at deciphering them.

You jump when Johnny takes both your hands in, kissing the backs of them with a sloppy, drunk smile. “Thank ye fer comin’ out. “

Somehow your face feels hotter than a damn oven. You tuck your hands to your chest, kicking shyly at the sidewalk. “Th-thanks for the invite. We, uh, we could do it again sometime?”

You glance up hopefully, praying that you didn’t misread the situation. You’ve done that before - thought people liked you more than they did. Johnny just grins wider somehow and nods excitedly.

You watch them walk off in the other direction, hand in hand. Johnny giggles about something loudly and you can see Simon’s shoulders shake with a far more silent laugh. All the way until they disappear down the street.

The sheer amount that the image hurts your heart makes you feel evil.

~~~

The pub changed something. What, you don’t know. Either way, you fall into an easy pattern with Johnny and Simon over the next couple weeks. Exchanges of food, leftovers or morsels about to turn, little visits back and forth between your shops. Johnny continues to stop by after close, just hanging around with you while Simon closes up shop.

You can’t deny how much you look forward to hearing that door chime followed by a too-loud greeting from Johnny. How your heart flips in your chest when those bright blue eyes peek around the corner into the back room or light up while trying a new recipes you’ve been testing. You’re still a bit awkward - unsure how to react when he throws an arm around your shoulders or listens oh so intently while you talk about nothing important.

Things can’t ever be all sunshine and rainbows, though. Not for you. A new problem has arisen as summer truly sets in - the comfortable spring breezes giving way to nothing but bright, unfiltered sun. One you didn’t expect to impact you this much living this far north.

Heat.

It’s hard to breathe in the back room while you’re baking. Hard to keep your water and salt intake high enough to compensate for how fast you lose them. You might as well get a permanent saline drip attached to you at this point. You definitely didn’t google if that was physically possible. Your budget for liquid IVs and other supplements nearly doubles. Standing over the massive oven in the back room has your head swimming a few times. You end up resting longer on your weekends, unable to keep up like you could in cooler weather.

It’s okay, you tell yourself, the summer here isn’t like back home. It will pass quicker. Plus, you at least have methods of dealing with it now other than crossing your fingers and praying.

“Bonnie!” Johnny suddenly appears in your doorway - that charming smile splitting his face from ear to ear. “Ye made it up Main Street yet?”

“No?” You tilt your head and try to ignore the way your vision spots momentarily at the motion. “Why?”

“Ye dinnae hear about the summer festival?” He leans on your counter. You shake your head. “It’s a yearly thing. Not that big a deal but they have some fun games an’ it’s nice tae see everyone out an’ about. Si an’ I are about tae head down. Come wit’?”

You hesitate. The exhaustion in your body tugs at your spine. Your limbs feel heavy. This morning really got to you - out of towners who must have come for the festival flooded your shop the moment it opened on top of your Saturday regulars. Not that you’re complaining, really. It’s easily your best day so far. You want to go with them, though, despite the ache in your back and the sting in your joints. It sounds so fun and it’s never a bad idea to take part in your new community’s festivities.

“Yeah. That sounds nice.” You smile. You can tough it out for an hour, then come back home. Yeah, just an hour. You’ll be fine.

You hadn’t noticed Simon leaned up at the entrance to your shop. Your eyes lock on his arms. This is the first time you’ve actually seen him in short sleeves. You can’t help but stare at his half-sleeve tattoo - all skulls and bombs and other military motifs. Faded and sun worn. Yeah, if you’d seen that sooner you definitely would have picked up on the whole military thing. You bite your lip to keep from snickering about it.

You can hear the music drifting from the speakers down the street. A few kids run by with balloons and cheap carnival prizes. It almost reminds you of the Spring Fling back home, just missing the extreme American flag theming across every booth and vendor front. Now that you’re looking around, you can actually see several booths that have been sponsored by various businesses in the area. Even the post office has a snow cone stand. The deeper you get into the event, the more flamboyant the decor becomes. Multicolored streamers and pennet flags connect stands, creating an almost canopy effect.

Simon stops rather abruptly at a booth, waiting behind a few teenagers tossing rings onto bottles. You stop with Johnny about two feet away. What’s he thinking? Simon doesn’t seem like the type who would be too entertained by basic carnival games. Even so, he steps forward and passes over a couple bills to the vendor as soon as the teenagers leave.

“Si’s really good at these. Watch.” Johnny grins beside you.

“Aren’t they rigged?” You raise an eyebrow.

Johnny doesn’t answer, eyes locked on his husband as he lines up one of the rings. You have to lean slightly to see around the breadth of the man - the multicolor rings almost cartoonishly small in his hands. Cute. Your eyes get impossibly wide with each toss, every single one landing comfortably on the bottle necks as if it’s the easiest thing in the world. As if this isn’t one of the most commonly rigged carnival games.

“Holy shit…” You mutter, still staring.

“Aye, tha’s a SAS sniper for ye.” Johnny laughs. “Glad tae see it still comes in handy.”

Simon huffs out a quiet laugh at that. Almost more of a sigh if it weren’t for the shaking of his shoulders. You love it - their little dynamic. The bond between them that’s so strong it’s almost visible.

“‘ere.” Simon turns to you suddenly, holding out a cheap little carnival prize. You can’t even begin to decipher what it’s supposed to be - some sort of furry puff ball with big, embroidered anime eyes and two felt antennae sticking up out of it’s purple head… body… thing…

Your face heats. “F-, uh, me?”

He shrugs. “Suits you. Riley will just chew it up if we take it home.”

“Aye. She’s so good with everythin’ but cheap plushies.” Johnny snickers.

You glance down at the dog in question - her dark eyes glued to the toy in Simon’s hand. Her tail thumps against the ground where she sists dutifully, but you can see the desire to snatch the thing away in her twitchy ears and pleading eyes. You snort, taking the stupid thing and tucking it under your arm with the prayer that they don’t notice the heat now spreading from your cheeks to your ears.

“Thanks…” you murmur, already mentally deciding where to add it to the mess of stuffies covering your bed already.

Somehow you end up walking between them down the street - Simon on your left and Johnny on your right with Riley in tow. You stop at a few other games here and there. All pretty basic. Johnny absolutely kills at the dunk booth.

Simon tires his hardest to help you with your terrible aim, “Just visualize it. Y’have t’ account for the arc.”

You get to the point of sticking your tongue out in concentration. Even so you only manage to knock down a couple of the wooden ducks at the ‘Dunk-A-Duck’ stand. You do, however, win one of those rock candy sticks at the guessing booth. You just hand it off to Johnny. It’s probably not best to load up on sugar in your current state.

Johnny excitedly points to different buildings giving you a rundown of the history of his hometown as you walk. Simon seems to barely be listening. He’s probably heard this a thousand times. Prattling on about the old town square, the church bell that a bunch of teenagers spray painted one time (Johnny was not involved, how could you accuse him of that?)

You find yourself focusing on your feet - keeping each step even and fast enough to remain on pace with them. One, two, one, two, one, two. The air begins to thicken. Muggy and heavy on your skin. Your breaths become shallow and fast. You can’t catch it, the air seeming to get stuck in your throat rather than reaching your lungs. Spots begin to dance across your vision. You stumble over nothing.

Not now! Come on! You’ve been doing so well!

Riley presses against your leg acting as a counter weight. Your body moves on instinct to grab whatever you can - hands wrapping around something strong and covered with cloth. An arm solid as rebar. Hopefully it’s someone you know. All you can see are colorless shapes.

“Gonna pass out - don’t freak!” You gasp before your legs give out.

It’s not that you go entirely out - it’s rare that you fully black out. It’s more like being stuck. Limp and fuzzy and confused. Almost like sleep paralysis. There’s voices and people moving around you. Someone has picked you up, you think, based on the swaying motion and the passing shapes around you. Maybe that’s just vertigo. A door bell chimes.

You finally begin to really come to when something icy is pressed to your forehead. It couldn’t have been more than a handful of seconds that you were gone, but it takes much longer for the world around you to come back into focus.

“I’m sorry…” You murmur, eyes stinging. Even after all these years it’s so damn embarrassing. You blink, the distinct mural that decorates the ceiling of the post office slowly coming into view. Johnny said a big time traveling artist painted it back in the nineties.

“Ye alright?” Johnny murmurs, crouched down beside you. Riley sniffs at your hand, seeming satisfied when you finally move it on your own.

You nod slowly. “Overheated…”

“Give her this.” Someone says. An event medic, you think. The boys must have flagged them down. Fingers press to your pulse point, a light shines in your eyes and you follow it. A quick check of vitals. Johnny shoves a water bottle in your hand as soon as the medic decides you’re fine to move - the contents distinctly murky from some sort of electrolyte pack that’s been shaken into it.

“Up y’get. Slowly does it.” Simon helps you sit up with a hand on your back. It’s so gentle. You don’t miss how he cages in your body the way only someone intimately familiar with caretaking might. Fully ready to catch you if you go limp again.

You sip slow, eyes glued to the ground. You feel so fucking stupid. Can’t even walk down a street without creating some sort of scene. They’re never going to want to hang out with you again, are they? You can’t go out drinking, can’t walk around a festival for longer than a couple hours. You distracted Riley. What if something happened to Johnny while you were having your spell? She might not have alerted correctly because of you. She might have gotten confused and then he could have gotten hurt. He might have-

“Ye really should drink tha’ instead of glarin’ at it.” Johnny pulls you from your thoughts. He’s now sat with his legs crossed beside you. Riley’s head rests in his lap. She seems calm. Content now that the emergency is over and happily lying on a cool floor.

You hum, chugging the last bit of it quickly. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be.” Simon says curtly. “Does this ‘appen often?”

You shrug. “Not as much anymore… usually my medication keeps me stable.”

“Do ye need a doctor?” Johnny tilts his head slightly. There’s no judgment in his tone - in either of their tones. Just calm concern. It probably shouldn’t make you want to cry as much as it does.

You shake your head. “I’ve got liquid IV at home. Just need to sleep it off.”

Hopefully. In reality, a pain flare up is inevitable now. You just won’t know how bad until you’re fully in it.

“Let’s get ye home.” Johnny says, knees popping as he stands.

“I-I’m fine!” You insist, mentally preparing to get yourself up off the floor. “I can get home on my own - I don’t want to ruin your time.”

Johnny levels his gaze onto you, so serious it almost looks angry. It doesn’t match his face. “We’re not leavin’ ye tae get home alone like this.”

You’re caught off guard when an arm slides under your back and another under knees - lifting you like you weigh half of what you do in reality. Like you’re a paperweight instead of a boulder. You blink up at Simon, far too surprised to be embarrassed. At least at first. You splutter out a poor attempt at convincing him to put you down. Excuse and reason after reason and excuse. They roll off him like water off a ducks back. Your face burns as he steps out of the post office with you neatly tucked against his chest - Johnny and Riley in tow.

If you allow yourself to be honest, to give into that weaker part of you (or, at least, the part you consider to be weak) you could possibly admit that this feels nice. Being cared for feels nice. Having your body up against someone else feels nice. It’s been a long time since anyone touched you outside of a polite handshake or accidental bump. You sink into it despite yourself - relaxing against Simon’s chest. They were right, you wouldn’t have made it back. Your head is too fuzzy and there’s that telltale pain in your shoulders radiating up to your neck that signifies an oncoming Bed Day.

It doesn’t take long with Simon’s lengthy strides to get back to your building. You probably wouldn’t have been able to keep up to that running. Well, you can’t really run much at all so you definitely wouldn’t. A stupid, muddled train of thought that melts into the hazy bog of your current mental state. Even Johnny trails a few feet behind. Neither of them speak, marching in determined silence. You attempt to subtly check their faces for any anger. You’d understand if they were angry. Most people would get angry. You interrupted their day out with your useless drama. All you get is a wide, bright grin from Johnny when your eyes eventually meet his.

Simon puts you down with all the care in the world. As if you’re made of fine china. His hand stays on your upper back - planted firmly between your shoulder blades and ready to catch you if need be. Your vision swims a bit, your joints feel like jelly but you manage to dig your keys out of your pocket and unlock the door.

“Here.” Johnny plops the puff ball back into your hands just as you turn to say goodbye. To say thank you - to apologize profusely.

Your brows raise. You completely forgot about it while swimming around in a sea of embarrassment - he must have picked it up for you. You hug it to your chest with a quiet, “Thanks.”

You shift your weight side to side, psyching yourself up for the crawl up the stairs. Probably literally. You don’t think you could stay upright if you tried to walk them like a regular day, or even with an aid. Like a regular or semi-regular person. Fuck.

Johnny follows your eyes up at the staircase. He must sense some hesitation in you. “Do ye need help up?”

You bite your lip, staring at the ground. Standing in one place seems alright, but the thought of climbing is so daunting, even with the cane you have stationed at the bottom of the steps for that exact purpose. It’s embarrassing. You’re young, you should be able to walk up some damn stairs. It isn’t even that many. It’s barely a full flight. Just one story of stairs for fuck’s sake.

“Hey.” Simon touches your cheek, the action snapping your eyes to his in surprise. “It’s okay. C’mere.”

He picks you up again in the same fashion with barely a grunt, taking his time up the steps so as not to jostle you. How many times has he done this with Johnny? you wonder. That’s the only explanation for how good he is at keeping your equilibrium so even. You wonder if he practiced - if he took caretaking classes. He probably did. Does he keep up at the gym just so he can take care of his husband? Simon might be quiet and a little formal, but he exudes dedication.

“Sorry it’s messy…” You murmur when they reach the top of the steps. Glancing behind you, you see Riley sitting patiently at the bottom. Johnny must have told her to stay. “Haven’t gotten to fully unpack…”

You’ve been spending too much time in bed on the weekends. Fucking lazy.

Johnny just laughs. “Ye shoulda seen the first place Simon an’ I had.”

“Wasn’t that bad.” Simon argues, carefully setting you down on the couch. His hands hold your waist to steady you. They’re so warm… It feels wrong to be disappointed when he lets go.

“We hadnae figured out a system yet.” Johnny huffs, hands on his hips. “We ended up hirin’ a specialized maid service the dishes got so backed up.”

You scoff, laying back against the couch with that stupid carnival prize still in your arms. Like it’s the only thing grounding you to reality. The tears that have been stinging your eyes this entire time continue to threaten to spill - a myriad of blinks and careful breaths the only thing keeping them back.

Johnny sits beside you slowly. You can’t meet his eyes. “Do… do ye want tae tell us what it is? Ye donnae have tae - it’s up tae ye. Just if somethin’ happens again…”

“We’d like to be prepared.” Simon jumps in where Johnny trails off.

You chew your lip, still staring up at the ceiling. It splits and that coppery taste coats your tongue for a moment. “I, uh, it’s called POTS. There’s different types but basically my body can’t regulate blood flow and pressure right…” You shrug. “Like I said my medication usually keeps me mostly okay.”

It’s the pain that really gets to you usually, but you don’t need to start dumping on them about that. There’s no reason to spill your guts about things they can’t fix.

“Thanks fer tellin’ us.” Johnny smiles. You stiffen slightly when he reaches out to tuck some hair behind your ear. You tilt your head, still resting on the back of the couch, to meet his eye. “Get some rest, yeah? We’ll lock the knob behind us. Call if ye need anythin’.”

“Okay.” You nod, keeping your eyes down and picking at your nails. “Sorry… about all this… I didn’t - I don’t… I’m sorry.”

“Donnae apologize.” He says softly as he stands. “Never apologize. We’re your friends, aye? Friends help friends. Tha’s all there is to it.”

Simon gives you a discerning nod behind him, expression both soft and deeply serious.

Friends? They consider you real life proper friends? Really? You can’t help but beam up at him. “Yeah.”

A/N: I’ve re-read this chapter so many times that it’s total mush in my brain which tells me it’s time to be done with it.

Bonus: I made a Pinterest board for this fic

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hhughes · 22 hours

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♯ 𝐊𝐈𝐒𝐒 ◞ 𝑸𝑯⁴³

✰ 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 ⤫ fem!reader x quinn hughes

✰ 𝐬𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬 ⤫ 5 times Quinn wanted to kiss you + 1 time he finally did

✰ 𝐜𝐰 ⤫ none!

✰ 𝐚/𝐧 ⤫ just some quinny content for your dash <3 as always please let me know what you think. . .

✮1

You make your way through the crowd to get to the table at the back of the bar, where a few familiar faces already spotted you.

"Look who's here! Nice of you to finally join us," Brock says as you hop onto a barstool next to Quinn.

"Hey, stranger," Quinn says softly and knocks his shoulder into yours.

"Guys, I saw you like two weeks ago. Sorry, I have a life," you say teasingly.

"Watching friends, eating Chinese food, and going to bed by 10 PM is not having a life." Brock says, and Quinn laughs at your offended expression.

"It does when you work the hours I do, thank you very much. I'm getting a drink. Do you guys want anything?" You ask and make your way to the bar.

When you get back, Elias is sitting in your seat. Noticing there's no more chairs open, Quinn goes to offer you his, but you stop him.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," you say, and Quinn pulls you to stand in between his legs. Your back leaning against his chest. His arms wrap around your waist, and he hooks two thumbs in your front belt loops, keeping you close.

Throughout the night, you can feel Quinn's breathing on your neck or his head on your shoulder while he talks or listens to one of the guys.

When Brock went to the bar to get a refill on your drinks and Elias went to the bathroom, you and Quinn were left alone at the table.

You turn around in his arms, looking up at him.

"Now is your chance to steal your seat back," Quinn jokes.

"I'm pretty comfy right here, actually," you say, and Quinn smiles softly.

In that moment...

he really wanted to kiss you.

✮2

You jump in surprise as someone knocks on your door. You weren't expecting anybody...least of all the man you found standing at your door.

"Quinn...what are you doing here?" You ask, opening the door wider to let him in.

"I haven't seen you in a few days, and I know you work late tomorrow, and we're leaving on another roadie...I didn't wanna go another week without seeing you," he says and you smile.

"Wanna watch a movie with me?" You ask and he nods, both of you making your way to the couch.

Halfway through the movie, you're cuddled into Quinns side, both of your eyes on the screen.

Quinn feels your eyes on him and looks down to meet them.

"What?" he asks softly

"You played really well tonight..." you say

"You watched?" Quinn asks surpirsed

"Yeah... I always watch. How do you think I know when to tell you congratulations..." You respond.

"I thought you just looked the score up after the game, to be honest," Quinn says

"I like watching you play," you say and Quinn smiles down at you...

In that moment...

he really wanted to kiss you.

✮3

"This is not a good idea," You say shakily as Quinn ties your skates.

"You're gonna be fine... don't be so dramatic. I'll be there the whole time," Quinn says and holds his hand out to lead you onto the ice.

You wobble a bit and grab onto Quinn, looking at him with nothing but fear in your eyes and he bursts out laughing.

"You should see your face right now," Quinn says amused.

"I'm glad you find this amusing," you snap.

"You've lived in Vancouver your whole life. How can you not skate?" he asks

"Contrary to popular belief not all Canadians come out of the womb knowing how to skate. Besides the one time I tried, I fell and broke my wrist and had no intention of ever trying again."

"Just keep your hips straight and push out with one foot and then the other," Quinn says.

You concentrate so much on doing what he says you don't realize he's let your hands go and you're skating on your own.

The moment you do realize, instant panic takes over, and your legs start to go separate ways.

Quinn tries to pull you up, but he's laughing so much, he isn't much help.

"Quinn, help me up." you say, standing in a half split and clinging to Quinn's waist, voice filled with laughter, and Quinn just laughs more.

With him laughing and you clinging to him, neither of you is very stable, and both of you end up on the floor, you on top of Quinn, who was still laughing.

"You did it though, for a second" he says and you scoff

"Can you buy me ice cream now?" you ask pouting

"Yeah, you deserve it." he says and looks up at you. Cheeks flushed because of the cold, a cute little beanie on your head.

he really wanted to kiss you.

✮4

You take another deep breath, and another practice swing, before finally pulling back and hitting the ball.

It goes really far, just not in the right direction...

"Quinn! Did you see that?!" you ask excitedly, and Jack has to turn around to hide his laugh, and Luke rubs a hand over his face to hide his smirk.

"I did see...it was...very far," he says, and you swing your stick, making Jack duck and head for the golf cart.

"Man... she's so smart, but she can not play golf to save her life," Jack says, and Quinn swats at him.

"It's her first time asshole. She's doing great," Quinn says and walks towards you.

"Love really does make you blind." Jack says, and him and Luke laugh all the way to the golf cart.

"You know as much fun as this has been, I don't think I'll be doing this again any time soon," you say and Quinn frowns...

"What? Why?" he asks

"The first couple were fun, you know, but then it just gets really boring and really hot. I was really hoping one of you would've told me to stay in the cart by now," you say and Jack's mouth drops open.

"Were you bad on purpose?" Jack asks

"I'm not good by any standard but those last couple was just to fuck with you a little bit. Props for trying to hide your reactions, but you're a horrible actor Jacky, you're gonna have to do better than that when I give you your Christmas present."

Jack and Luke laugh, and Quinn smiles as you hand them the sunscreen and tell them to put some on.

he really wanted to kiss you.

✮5

You and Quinn were swaying to the music, smiles on your faces, observing Emma and Brady.

"They look so happy," you say

"They really do. You look beautiful," he says, and you blush.

"Thanks, so do you."

"You ever think about it... getting married?" Quinn suddenly asks. "Just in general...someday."

"If the right person asks... yeah," you say.

"Wanna marry me if we're still 30 and single?" Quinn jokes

"There's no way you'll still be single at 30 Quinn, but if that's the case, then yes. I would be honored." You say, and Quinn smiles as the song comes to an end.

Suddenly, Taryn is there dragging you to the side of the room where the bouquet toss was happening, and you smile apologetically at Quinn.

You stood at the back, trying to stay out of people's way. You weren't really trying to catch it. But three seconds later, you stood with the bouquet in your hands, awkwardly looking around the room until your eyes met Quinn's. He smiled as you thrust the bouquet into Taryn's hands and scurried your way over to him, hiding in his chest.

he really wanted to kiss you.

✮+1

You and Quinn were snuggled up at the end of the boat... watching Jack wake board with the sunset behind him.

"I love having you here," Quinn says rubbing patterns on your legs softly

"I love being here..." you reply.

"Think you wanna come back next summer?" Quinn asks, and you turn to look at him.

"I don't know... think I need some convincing," you whisper and move your face closer to his.

Quinn gently cups your face and presses his lips to yours. You soak up the moment for a while before it's interrupted by Jack and Luke's yelling, which results in Jack being horribly distracted and falling into the water.

"I've been wanting to do that a long time..." Quinn admits

"So have I," you say and kiss him again.

he finally kissed you.

#── ❛ 𝐜𝐚𝐦𝐢’𝐬 𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐬 ✗ QH43 #quinn hughes fluff #quinn hughes x y/n #quinn hughes x you #quinn hughes fic #quinn hughes x reader #quinn hughes blurb

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superprofesh · 2 days

Text

The Five Times Colt Seavers Almost Kisses You (and the One Time He Does) — Part 1

Pairing: Colt Seavers x reader

Description: The first time Colt Seavers almost kisses you — on set, with lots of paint involved.

Rating: T

Word Count: 2.1k

Tag List: let me know if you want to join! :)

Author’s Note: This is part 1 of what I hope will be a six-part series, but it can be read as a stand-alone too. I am so obsessed with Colt right now that I can't even see straight, so just take this and do whatever you want with it!

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The first time Colt Seavers almost kisses you, you’re not sure it actually happened.

You’ve been on set for about two months now, and your job as set decorator for the biggest action thriller of the decade has ended up being way more challenging than you expected. Every day, it’s a new demand from the director — more realistic graffiti, more subtle light fixtures, more beat-up furniture. It’s going to look amazing, but you’re exhausted just thinking about another day of smearing grime on the set walls by hand.

The one bright spot of every day is Colt Seavers. He’s the best stuntman in Hollywood, so naturally he’s been recruited to perform stunts for almost every scene in the movie. Watching him get thrown against walls, riddled with bullets, and dropped from dizzying heights is heart-pounding for you, but nothing gets your heart pounding as hard as when he leans a little too close to you, so close you can see the dusty brown of his eyelashes against his soot-stained skin.

“Nice sign,” Colt quips, dropping onto the picnic table seat next to you. You’re hand-painting a bright-red Do Not Disturb sign for the next scene, and you barely manage to keep from smearing the paint when you whirl to face him. “Is it for your trailer door?”

You give him a mock glare, laughter slipping through the edges. “Very funny. It just so happens that you’ll be kicking this sign in half in tomorrow’s scene, so show a little respect.”

Colt’s eyes sparkle at your words, all his attention focused on you. He leans forward on one elbow, the other reaching up to ruffle the dust out of his hair. “Wow, a handmade prop just for me to kick in half?” He grins, inclining his head in a mock bow. “I’m honored.”

You can’t hide your return grin, or the blush rising under your skin at his close proximity. Colt always has this effect on you — never pushing the limits to make you uncomfortable, just taking up space with you in a way that steals your breath.

“What’s this?” you ask, using your free hand to tug on the shoulder of his fireproof vest. One side is seriously singed, close enough to his skin to set you to worrying.

Colt shrugs, flashing you a crooked smile that makes his left eye crinkle. “Little pyrotechnics mishap,” he informs you casually, brushing imaginary dust off his arm and onto you. You roll your eyes at him playfully. “Ray got a little overexcited with the stun grenades.”

“What?” You can’t keep the concern from slipping into your voice, even though you try to disguise it behind a joking tone. “You’re working with real stun grenades now?”

“Well, yeah,” he says, as if it should be obvious. “It’s only a stunt if it’s real, you know?”

You narrow your eyes, cocking your head to one side. “I think that’s the opposite of how it works, actually.”

Colt just laughs at that, the golden rays of the setting sun turning his tanned skin golden. His smile is warm and directed entirely at you, heating up the blush in your cheeks again. You turn your eyes back to your painting to keep from completely giving yourself away.

These past few months have been both paradise and torture for you. You thought you could hide your crush easily enough — it’s not like you haven’t done that before. But with Colt, it’s different. He sees through your stoic facades and teases out your laughter, searches for ways to make you smile even on your bad days. Whether it’s pulling a goofy face at you from his rig or remembering that you like sour cream in your soup, Colt has found some new way to surprise you every day that you’ve known him.

The thing is, you’re not sure if he’s actually interested in you or just being flirtatious. Misinterpreting the signals would be awkward and painful for you at this point, so you’ve decided that he’s just going to have to make the first move. You’re too old to play middle-school games with him.

Even if he does give you middle-school butterflies all over again.

You don’t realize that you’ve been lost in your thoughts until you notice that Colt has imperceptibly moved closer to your side, peering over your shoulder as you put the finishing touches on the purposely-sloppy sign.

“So I kick the sign in half tomorrow,” he says softly, his husky voice in your ear sending goosebumps over your skin. “What happens if we have to do another take?”

You risk a glance over your shoulder at him, letting a coy smile slip. “Do you really think this is the only one I’ve done?”

Colt just lifts his eyebrows at you and smiles, returning his eyes to the sign in your hands. Colt has a way of burning you up just with his gaze, and you can’t help breathing an inner sigh of relief every time he focuses his attention elsewhere. Concentrating on anything when he’s looking at you is impossible.

“You know, I could definitely give you some pointers on set design sometime,” he mutters, as if he’s genuinely musing on the thought. You know he’s warming up for a joke, so you let him continue, hiding your smile while he watches over your shoulder. “I have tons of experience in your department.”

“Oh, really?” You grab your black paint and begin the focused task of sprinkling the sign with the darker color for a realistic touch. Realism is the key to making memorable set designs, and you’ve mastered the technique.

“Mm-hmm.” You feel the murmur reverberate in his throat when he leans forward, resting his chin on your shoulder while you lightly dab your paintbrush in your paint bottle. Your heart skips at least three beats when you feel his hair tickling the side of your neck, his eyes still locked on the sign as if he’s studying it. Does he really not know what he’s doing to you, or is he doing it on purpose?

You try to keep your hands steady while you feel his chest rise and fall against your shoulder. Struggling to hide the tremor in your voice, you tease, “What could I improve about this piece, then? I can always use an expert opinion.”

He tilts his head to the side, his chin still resting on your shoulder. You can feel the bristly stubble on his cheeks now. It’s an oddly comforting sensation, one that forces every bit of your self-control to the brink in order to keep yourself from moving your face to the side and nuzzling your cheek against his. You feel his face move slightly as his mouth turns up into a smile.

“If you really want some advice…” he begins, lifting one hand up to trace the edge of your sign.

“Careful,” you warn him, “that’s wet paint.”

Colt doesn’t even get close to smudging your paint, but that doesn’t stop you from lifting your free hand to rest on his wrist, holding it in place while you set your paint bottle down. Colt stills at your touch, and your heart accelerates again at the gentle way his fingertips rest on the edge of your sign.

He lets the moment hang in the air between you for a moment, then comments, “I was just going to suggest a nice artist’s signature. See this big gap right here between Not and Disturb? Your name should go there in big red letters.” You’re already swatting his hand away playfully as his serious tone devolves into snickers. “Just like Bob Ross does on TV.”

“You are so ridiculous,” you laugh, glad to feel the tension slipping out of the atmosphere. Colt lifts his chin off your shoulder now, his hair brushing your earlobe as he does.

“No, it would look perfect,” he insists, his eyes sparkling as his smirk widens. “And then I can aim right for your name when I kick it in half tomorrow.”

He laughs out loud when you slam the sign down on the picnic table surface in mock irritation, your grin making your amusement at his joke obvious. The slam sends a few drops of the black paint from your brush flying up, spattering your jawline.

You reach for a dry rag nearby, still grinning as you prepare to respond, but Colt stops you with a hand on your arm. “Allow me,” he says seriously, placing your hand back into your lap and raising his other hand to the side of your face. You freeze in place, unprepared for the wave of emotion that washes over you when Colt touches the side of your jaw softly.

His eyes are still sparkling with humor, and you know he’s about to do something to make you laugh, but you can’t help the feeling that sweeps through your heart when you’re face to face with him, one of his hands holding yours on your lap and the other just beginning to cradle your face. It feels so gentle, so intimate, so right, and your heart aches as you realize that there is no going back from the feelings you’re developing for Colt Seavers.

He hesitates for a split second, his hand hoving on your jaw for practically no time at all, but it feels like a lifetime to you. You watch his dark blue eyes as they dart down to look at your lips, flitting back up just as quickly to latch onto your eyes with a stare that could melt diamonds.

Then the corner of his mouth turns up again into his usual smirk, and he strokes his thumb across your jaw to smear the black paint up the side of your face.

“Now,” he offers, “don’t you think you look more realistic?”

He dissolves into laughter as you reach up and feel the streaks of black now smudged across your face. You immediately reach past him to dip your fingers in your bottle of red paint, giving him a mischievous grin as you slather three fingers’ worth of paint across his nose and cheeks. The combination of his semi-shocked expression and the ridiculousness of his painted face pushes you over the edge into another fit of laughter.

“You’re the one who will be on camera,” you retort, smiling wider than you can remember doing in a long time. “Shouldn’t you be the one who’s realistic?”

“Touché,” he acknowledges playfully, rubbing his face and only succeeded in smearing the red paint further across his face. “Though I doubt Tom Ryder is going to accept any glimpses of my face on camera, so I won’t even have to wash this off.”

You impulsively reach up and drag your fingertip through the splotch of paint on his cheek, resisting the urge to draw a heart and settling on a simple smiley face instead. His own smile resurfaces at that, eyes twinkling as they stay locked on yours.

“If you keep it until tomorrow, you’ll match my sign,” you muse, trying to lighten the atmosphere, which has suddenly grown a bit more intense now that Colt’s gaze is focused on you again.

He doesn’t look away, doesn’t play it off, doesn’t do anything that you expect from him. His breathing seems to slow down, while yours feels like it takes off in a flurry of movement. Colt doesn’t make a move to touch you, but you can feel the distance between the two of you closing infinitesimally.

You’ve never noticed the flecks of silver-gray in his eyes, or the almost-invisible smattering of freckles across the bridge of his nose, or the ragged cut of his hair right beside his ears. Even the brilliant red streak only serves to bring out the golden tones of his skin, the swirls of blonde in his hair. Every detail of his face seems vivid, as if you’re seeing him for the first time.

His eyes seem to drink you in, too, traveling over every inch of your face before stopping on your lips again. This time, though, he doesn’t flick his eyes back up. Words escape you, as do any coherent thoughts. This is it. He’s actually going to kiss me. This is real.

“Seavers, on set, ASAP.”

The squawk of his walkie-talkie shatters the intense moment, and both of you release a breath that felt like it had been held for an hour. Colt swallows, smoothes his hand over his beard, turns to slip the walkie back into his pocket. You turn back to your painted sign quickly, trying to regain some composure.

Uncharacteristically, Colt doesn’t speak as he stands and turns to walk back to the filming set. He does, however, glance back at you the moment you lift your eyes to watch him walk away. Your heart is still hammering, recovering from his closeness to you.

With a wordless smile, he reaches up, swipes a bit of red paint off his face, and presses it onto the tip of your nose in the shape of his fingerprint. Then he walks away.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Part 2

#hi guys i'm having a full on heart attack over this #please send help #i had an absolute blast writing it #fanfiction #colt seavers x reader #colt seavers fanfiction #original #colt seavers #the fall guy #ryan gosling #ryan gosling x reader #the five times colt seavers almost kisses you (and the one time he does)

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jordyn14 · 1 day

Note

hiii can you make one where the reader has surgery and joe takes care of her your imagines are so good !!!

Livin’ the dream?

Pairing: Joe burrow x fem first person reader

Words: 9225

Notes: I combined this with a request asking me to write about the foundations recent golfing invitational. But omg I was not expecting this to be this long, I just kept writing and writing… I hope you enjoy though!! 🫤🫶🏼🫶🏼

Taglist: @wickedfun9

I sat in the hospital bed waiting for the nurse to bring in Joe since I was awake. A week ago, I got into a car accident which not only totaled my brand new car, but broke my Tibia, which, if you're not aware, meant I needed surgery. Better yet, the surgery just had to be scheduled for the day before the 2nd annual Joe Burrow foundation golf invitational, which I had so much fun at last year. To say I wasn't in the best mood was a complete understatement, given that both Joe and his parents wanted me to just stay home and recovery from the surgery, especially since I would need to be on crutches for a while.

As I sat in my thoughts, just glaring down at my leg which was covered in a huge and ugly cast that Joe would definitely want to write on at some point, the door opened up. Expecting it to be another doctor since it was only a few minutes after the nurse left, I didn't look towards the door. Then, I heard Joes voice which practically brought me to tears. "Hey, how are you doing?" Joe asked me. I quickly looked over to him with a sigh and as soon as I did, Joe gave me a small smile, knowing I was upset that I needed surgery. All I wanted to do was have him wrap me in his arms and hold me forever, and also take me to the golfing invitation tomorrow.

"Ooh, where to start? One, I have this ugly cast on my leg, and two, I can't even go to the invitational. I'm livin' the dream." I said with an exasperated sigh and leaned back against the hospital bed, staring straight up at the ceiling as Joe walked over to me. I could hear joe start to chuckle and then he grabbed onto my hand and gave it a small squeeze, trying to reassure me. "Maybe if you feel up to it you can come, but it you're in pain, I just want you at home. I don't need you falling down some steps or getting hurt again." Joe said.

Ever since this accident, he's been treating me like I'm super fragile. I know I broke my leg, but he didn't have to keep worrying about me like he has been. Every time I need to go to the bathroom, he's always sitting on the bathtub across from me and watching my every move so I don't fall, saying things like, 'I don't want you to get a concussion when you fall, or worse, have a brain bleed when you hit your head.’

"Joseph, I only broke my leg, I'm not going to try and go up or down some stairs without someone's help." I said and glared over at him. "Well who knows with you, I'm just trying to keep my baby safe." He said with that adorable smile. Once again, I sighed and looked up at the ceiling, counting down the minutes until l could go home and get out of this sad and depressing hospital.

Once we got home, Joe sat me down extremely carefully on the couch and placed my crutches next to it. As soon as I sat down, our dog Tucker ran over to me and started to sniff at my cast like crazy before jumping up onto the couch for some pets. "Did you miss me buddy? I missed you, yes I did." I said in a puppy dog voice while rubbing his belly when he rolled over onto his back. For the past week he's been at my best friend's house so l didn't have to deal with him, considering that I had a broken leg and Joe's been at OTA’s.

“Okay, do you need anything? Pillows, Blankets, food, drinks, a computer, books...coloring books... legos?" Joe asked me, trying to think of every possible thing that I could need. I laughed a little bit at his concentrated face as he kept racking his brain. "Can you get me some Oreos and Maybe my Stanley?" I asked him with a smile. "3 big ice cubes?" Joe asked me. I nodded quickly with a smile and watched as he walked to the kitchen to grab what I asked for.

While he did that, I reached over and grabbed the remote and turned on the tv. Although I've watched it about a million times, I turned on the vampire diaries since it was my comfort show and then saw Joe walking back over to me with the Oreos and water bottle. "Hey, you should've asked me to do that, you need to rest." Joe said. I squinted up at him like he was stupid and scoffed a little bit. Joe set down the Oreos and water bottle next to me and then held up his hands as a surrender. "What?" He asked, confused at why I was looking at him like that. "How many times do I have to remind you that I only broke my leg? I didn't break my arms. Turning on the tv isn't going to wear me out.” I said.

"Okay, well still. I've been hurt numerous times and every single time you've been there to help me. Therefore I am here now to help you. Y'know, it feels good to not be the helpless one for once." Joe said and plopped down next to me while taking a bite out of an Oreo. Reaching over next to me, I grabbed the bag and grabbed one out of the bag and let out a huge sigh as I bit into it. "Well aren't you just enjoying this. You have a never ending supply of Oreos thanks to your amazing husband and you even have your own butler.” Joe said while laughing at how I was eating my Oreo. My eyes were shut and I kept shaking my head. Yeah, I was probably enjoying this way too much.

"y'know what could make this better?" I asked him with an excited smile. Joe pretended like he was thinking about what he could do to make this any better, but then his smile dropped and he looked over at me seriously. "Tomorrow's still a maybe." Joe said. I groaned and leaned back against the couch while crossing my arms over my chest in a kiddish way. "This is so not fair. You're the one that's going to regret making me stay home. I'm like your emotional support person." I said and kept glaring at the tv with my brows furrowed. "Just to clarify, You're not like, my emotional support person...You are my emotional support person." Joe said.

"Well then you should," I said and stopped halfway so I could yawn, "let me go with you." I said and then started to rub my tired eyes. "C'mere, you should take a nap." Joe said and patted on his lap. I couldn't help but smile as he patted his lap, wanting me to rest my head on it. “Yes sir." I giggled and started to shimmy my way over to Joe. While I tried to move over without hurting my leg, Joe reached over and grabbed a blanket out of the blanket basket and waited for me to lay down with my head in his lap.

I let out a few groans while grabbing my leg under my knee to move it on the couch, trying not to hurt it too much. Once both of my legs were on the couch, I rested my head in Joe’s lap and he sprawled out the blanket so it was covering me and then he started to run his fingers through my hair, knowing it helped me fall asleep. “Hmm, that feels good.” I hummed with a smile on my face as I shut my eyes. I could hear Joe chuckle a little bit at my tired state, but before I knew it, I was out.

I woke up with a deep inhale a little while later, my leg starting to ache, and I needed to pee so badly. Now awake, I noticed that instead of being on episode 5 of the vampire diaries, I was now on episode 7. Dang. Usually I could never take naps this long. Fidgeting a little bit, I looked up to see Joe who also fast asleep. I giggled a little bit at how he was sleeping. Since I was laying in his lap, he was forced to sleep upright with his head back on the couch and his mouth was hanging open because of the position.

With a sneaky smile, I reached up and put my finger in his mouth to wake him up. There was no way I was going to try and go to the bathroom on my own without him. Since it’s my first time using crutches, I was still extremely nervous about trying to do anything that may potentially make me fall, because with my luck, I’d break my wrists and be bed bound.

As soon as I stuck my finger in his mouth, his eyes shot open and he quickly looked down to me and scanned my whole body, expecting something to be wrong. “I’m up, I’m up. Are you okay?” Joe asked me, not even wondering why I just stuck my finger in his mouth. “Yes you big dummy. But can I ask you a favor?” I asked him with my best puppy dog eyes. “Of course, what do you need?” Joe asked me before reaching over and grabbing his phone from next to him, completely ignoring the fact that I put my finger in his mouth. When his screen lit up, I smiled at the picture of us at our wedding before my eyes found the time and I shot up a little bit. “Shit. We slept a long time.” I said. “I know right.” Joe chuckled before putting his phone down.

“My leg really hurts and I have to pee so extremely bad right now. Can you help me? I’m kinda scared to fall.” I asked Joe. “Yeah, baby, of course.” Joe said and waited for me to sit up to get up himself. When he got off of the couch, he held out both hands towards me and I grabbed both of them after sliding my legs off of the couch. Once my hands were in his, he carefully lifted me off of the couch. I couldn’t help but blush when I saw his huge bicep muscles as he pulled me off of the couch with ease. “Damn. That was hot Joey.” I giggled slightly once I was up. Joe just chuckled and then grabbed my crutches. “Alright, you able to walk with your crutches? Or can I carry you?” Joe asked me with that adorable smile, wanting nothing more than to carry me.

Although I wanted him to carry me, I knew it was best for me to just use my crutches so I could get used to using them some more. “I probably should get used to getting around with them.” I said. “Don’t worry, It’s easy. You’ll be hopping around here like a speed demon soon enough.” Joe said and handed them to me. I slipped them under my arms and lifted my leg off of the ground. “Yeah, sure.” I said with a laugh and started to head towards the bathroom. Tucker just stared at me from on the other couch next to the one Joe and I were sleeping on. Luckily he was already used to seeing crutches since Joe had to use them when he tore his acl.

Very carefully, I went to the bathroom while Joe walked right next to me the entire time, making sure I didn’t fall. If there was one thing to know about me, was that I’m extremely clumsy, meaning Joe was like a helicopter parent right now. When we reached the bathroom, Joe opened up the door and walked in first and when we got to the toilet the toilet, he grabbed both of my crutches and then leaned them on the bathroom counter before returning to me and helping me pull down my pants and sit down. “Thank you, Joey, you’re the best.” I said. “I’m just making up for the fact that you had to help me shower when I tore my acl, this is nothing.” He smiled down at me. “The showers I actually enjoyed.” I said with an exaggerated wink. Joe just rolled his eyes and said, “I’m going to grab your Advil, I’ll be right back.” I watched as he disappeared out of the bathroom and then I could hear the medicine cabinet opening up.

Once I was done going pee and Joe returned with the Advil, he once again helped me up and walked right next to me as we made our way back to the couch. “Oh my gosh, Joe. What about working out? I have to work out.” I said, wondering how I was going to work out any time soon with this huge cast on my leg and with how much my leg’s been bothering me. “You’ll be able to work out, but give it a little bit for your leg to start feeling better. Don’t rush into anything just yet.” He said and helped me sit back down on the couch. “Do I just put my crutches down and hop around? I can’t do legs anymore…oh my goodness.” I said and leaned back on the couch and stared straight up at the ceiling, a small feeling of dread over taking me. Joe just chuckled at me before plopping himself down next to me. “I think you’re forgetting that I went through this as well. I’ll help you, don’t worry about it, okay?” Joe told me and grabbed the blanket and threw it over the both of us.

With a groan, I rested my head on his shoulder and nodded. “Okay fine.” I said. Before we got too comfy on the couch, Joe leaned forwards and grabbed the three Advil pills and handed them to me along with my green Stanley cup. “Thanks.” I said and took them from him. Everyone always told me I had a high pain tolerance, but right now my leg was killing me. I quickly downed the pills in one big gulp and then handed my Stanley to Joe so he could set it back down. “Hey Joey?” I asked him. “Hey baby?” He said and smiled over at me. “I’m a little bored. Can we build legos or something? Get my brain working a little bit?” I asked him. Joe looked down at me like I was stupid before he scoffed, “uhh, of course. You already know the answer to that.” I laughed as he got off of the couch quickly and headed to the place he keeps most of his legos.

When he returned, he drug the coffee table a little closer to us so I didn’t have to move my leg too much and scattered the little Lego pieces all over it so we could start building. “After this, I’ll make dinner. What sounds good?” Joe asked me. I raised an eyebrow and looked over to him. There are some occasions where Joe cooks because he actually enjoys it. He likes getting all kinds of ingredients and making new things. But usually during this point in the off season he is so extremely focused on his body and the food he eats that he always has the chefs come over to make our meals. “Really? You’re going to make dinner tonight?” I asked him. “Yeah, I figured that we didn’t need any more people over here, especially since I knew you would be a little tired after your surgery. So, what sounds good?” He asked me.

What sounds good? How about everything? It feels like I haven’t eaten in forever. “Maybe some chicken Parmesan and a Cesar salad?” I asked him. “Mmm, that actually sounds so good right now. If we finish up with legos in 30 minutes I’ll have dinner ready by 6:30, does that sound okay?” He asked me. “That sounds more than okay, you’re amazing.” I said as Joe dove right into the legos and started to connect some of the pieces. He was like a little kid sometimes, which was so much fun. He always kept our relationship so alive, funny, and wholesome, which was something I desperately needed after having only terrible relationships before him.

The next day, I woke up to the sound of Joe’s alarm going off from his night stand and immediately sat up to access my leg and how it felt. From next to me, Joe sat up and turned off his alarm and started to rub his eyes and then he stretched. I looked over to him while he stretched with his eyes closed. His arms were up in the air, and I could see his perfect muscles. My eyes scanned over his pecs, his abs, and his his huge biceps. Every single detail all the way to where the blanket stopped just above the waist band of his boxers. I gulped a little bit at the sight of him and tried not to get too worked up considering we had somewhere to be soon.

While my eyes were on Joe’s faultless body, I didn’t even realize that he had caught me staring until he cleared his throat and said with a chuckle, “excuse me, my eyes are up here.” I quickly looked up into those bright blue eyes with a small laugh and began to stretch myself, although there was nothing for Joe to stare at since I was in one of Joe’s oversized LSU tee’s and a pair of shorts, which was my go to sleeping outfit. “How does your leg feel?” Joe asked me. It hurt. I quickly nodded with a smile. “It feels surprisingly good. Let’s get ready.” I said. Joe just looked at me sternly, making me cave right away. He could always tell when I was lying. “Fine, it hurts. But I still want to go. Please.” I practically begged him.

With an eye roll, Joe swung his legs over the side of the bed so his back was facing me, giving me the perfect view of his extremely muscular back and shoulders. “Damn.” I accidentally said out loud, making Joe crack up laughing at how shocked I looked when I realized I didn’t say it in my head. “Of course you can come, I need you there. But if your leg starts to hurt or you don’t feel up to it anymore, then tell me and I’ll either drive you home or get someone else to. I don’t want you to be miserable and in pain all day.” Joe said.

I immediately sprung up a little bit and shuffled my way out of bed and then grabbed my crutches that were leaning on the nightstand. “Yes! Oh wow, I’m excited. Last years was so much fun.” I said all excitedly and hobbled over to the bathroom to beat Joe so I could go pee. With the little time I had to actually move around last night considering how exhausted I was, Joe got me moving so I could test out my crutches and get the hang of them, so today was a little easier to maneuver around.

Right after Joe and I ate breakfast, it was already time for us to start getting ready for the event. Per Robins request, we had to get there before anyone else did and be extra early, so to make her happy, we made sure we would arrive right after she got there. Knowing her, she was probably already there, though. Currently, Joe was in a really good mood and feeling optimistic about the whole event since it was such a great turnout last year for the first ever invitational, but I knew that after a few hours and after numerous people requested pictures with him, he would totally be over it. Therefore, I was soaking in every second I had with a happy and currently people loving Joe.

When we were ready, Joe helped me get into the car and put my crutches in the back seat before walking around to the other side and getting in himself. Even though I ironed a pair of golf shorts and left them on the bed for Joe to wear this morning, he opted for a white tee shirt and shorts with a pair of Ugg slippers. I knew his mom would be on his ass eventually about his choice of outfit, but luckily he was bringing a change of clothes to better match the vibe of the event once speeches started and the food was brought out. Unlike Joe’s lazy outfit, I wore a cute little pink and white sundress and since I didn’t want to worry about having a hard time walking around, I wore my favorite white converse shoes-well, shoe if we’re being technical since the cast covered my whole foot as well.

When we got to the event, it didn’t take long for people to start piling in. Not only people who were invited to the event were pulling in, but also caterers and the people who were helping run everything for today. So much for being early and avoiding all of these people.

Once Joe parked in the very front of the parking lot closest to the building, he quickly got out and walked around to the front of the car to get to me. While he did that, I opened the door and slid my right leg out of the car and then picked up my left leg to try and maneuver it out of the car without bumping it or making the pain any worse than it already was. “Hey, hey, let me help you. Don’t hurt yourself.” Joe said as he grabbed my crutches from the back seat and then leaned them on the car. “I’m fine, I’m going to have to do this when you aren’t here.” I said. “Yeah, well, I’m here now, so let me help you.” Joe said and grabbed my purse that was resting on my lap.

With a small eye roll, I faced Joe some more so he could help me out of the car. Even though I felt like a complete baby, it was nice not having to worry about bumping my leg or getting out of the car and falling down since Joe was here. Joe put both of his hands under my arms and then pulled me out of the car. The entire time, I watched his face as he lifted me up with ease, not even phased by it in the slightest. My face flushed red slightly when I was placed on the ground, so I quickly looked down at the ground while grabbing my crutches. “Are you okay, did that hurt at all?” Joe asked me, a slight hint of worry in his voice after shutting my door and looking at me. I could tell he was scanning my face to see if I was okay.

I looked up at him with a sigh and nodded. “Yes Joe, but if you keep treating me like I’m fragile, I’m going to lose my mind.” I said with a small laugh. Joe sucked in his lips a little bit, realizing how much of a helicopter partner be was being right now and then he stood out of the way so we could start heading inside to greet Robin and Jimmy and maybe even my parents if they were here yet. “Okay, okay. I’m sorry. Sha’ll we?” Joe asked me with a smile. “We sha’ll.” I giggled and started to walk after him, making sure not to place my crutches anywhere that would make the crutches slip out from under me. The last thing I wanted was to embarrass myself in front of all kinds of people and have people take pictures of me on the ground.

Joe stayed by my side the entire time, but I couldn’t help but notice how much he struggled to walk slowly. With his long legs, his strides were always super long, fast, and spaced out. With my less long legs, I always had to take bigger strides to keep up with him. But now, with me being handicapped, I can tell he’s struggling to take shorter strides and to stick with me since I usually have to stick with him. There were so many times where he would start walking fast before catching himself and having to focus on walking slower all over again.

Before Joe had to leave and go play some golf with various people, we first made our way over to Robin and Jimmy who were flying around and trying to make everything perfect. As soon as Robin spotted us, her face lit up and she started to speed walk towards us. “Oh my goodness how are you?” She asked me when she got to us, putting her hands on my shoulders and looking me up and down. “I’m okay. It’s pretty sore and practically aches all the time, but we’re getting by.” I said. While I said this, Robin took a step towards Joe and gave him a tight hug. “I love you, Joe.” She said once they separated. “I love you too mom.” Joe smiled down at her, though I could tell he wanted to get the show on the road. “I just feel so bad. Joe kept us in the loop with everything after your surgery, but I haven’t talked to him about the actual surgery. Did everything go good?” She asked me.

From behind Robin, I could see Jimmy finally spot us and make his way over to us. “The doctors said everything went well. Broken Tibia’s are normal for car crashes so it was nothing new, y’know?” I said with a small shrug. “Well that’s good. I’m just glad you could make it. I know at first I just thought it would be best if you stayed home, but Joe needs you here. You keep him…semi sane.” Robin said and laughed at Joe when he shook his head down at his mom and started to walk over to his dad instead of listening to his mom talk about him. “Trust me, I know. Yesterday he told me I was his emotional support person.” I laughed as she stuck out her bottom lip, finding it adorable.

If we had a number one supporter, it was Robin. Of course there was always Jimmy who supported us no matter what, but Robin was a lot more vocal about it and showed it a lot more.

Once Robin and I talked for a few minutes and then I greeted Jimmy, my parents arrived so we all talked together and caught up a little bit. Another thing about me is that I hate being the center of attention. But can you guess what happens when you get into a car crash and total your car, break your Tibia and get surgery on it, and then end up in crutches with a huge cast on your leg? Ding. Ding. Ding. You become the center of attention.

We only talked for a little bit though since we all had to part ways. Much to Joe’s dismay, he had to finally leave me. Luckily he wasn’t too annoyed about it since he was going to play golf instead of something he doesn’t enjoy. Robin and Jimmy were greeting a bunch of people, and since I needed space from my parents who were- like Joe-helicopter parents, I escaped them.

For a little bit and as a bunch of people started piling in, I made small talk with numerous different people and introduced myself to a lot of people I didn’t know. Eventually, I ended up away from a lot of the crowd so I wasn’t worried about hitting anyone, putting my crutches on people’s shoes, saying excuse me every 5 seconds, or falling. The alcoholic drinks were being passed around on little trays, so I leaned against a railing overlooking the golf course and snatched a drink from someone’s tray.

By now, Joe and the rest of the people he was golfing with were already out of sight, so although I didn’t get to watch Joe, I still watched other people and mentally critiqued their forms in my head; although I suck at golf and shouldn’t be anywhere near a club.

All of a sudden, I saw someone walk up to me on my right out of the corner of my eye and jumped a little bit. I whipped my head over and started to laugh a little bit when I saw that it was only Sam Hubbard. “Damn-you scared me.” I laughed. Sam started to laugh as he leaned on the railing next to me with a drink in his hand as well. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you,” he laughed and then gestured down to my leg, “I’m actually surprised that you’re here. How’s the leg?” He asked me. I sighed and looked down at the huge cast covering my leg and foot. “A pain in my ass pretty much sums it all up.” I said, the both of us laughing.

Not wanting to stay on my injury subject any longer, I quickly changed the subject before Sam could ask me something else about it. “So where’s the fiancé? I was hoping she’d be here today, make me less bored.” I said. Sam took a sip of his drink and shook his head while facing me more. “Her family is in town this weekend. She really didn’t want to miss it, but her family really wanted to see her. Plus with the wedding coming up and all.” He said. “Oh my gosh for sure. I get it. Plus weddings are stressful so the more they can help her plan some things and take some of that stress off of her shoulders the better.” I said and took a sip of my drink.

Resting my hand and glass on the ledge, I began to swirl the liquid around in my drink and watch as the sun reflected off of the glass. “Exactly. It’s not for a while, but she’s still trying to plan everything out to make sure it’s perfect.” He said with a smile and stared off out into the golf course for a few seconds. “We’re girls, it’s what we do.” I laughed a little bit. Sam raised his eyebrows quickly with a nod and looked back over to me. “Good to know.”

Looking to my right, I could see Robin next to the microphone where speeches were going to be held after Joe returned from golfing. She was checking the microphone to see if it was working properly and was looking around to make sure all of the decorations were in the right places. Since I was looking over at Robin for a few seconds, Sam followed my lead and looked in the same direction, wondering what I was looking at. “Oh yeah…speeches. That should be fun for Mr shy Joey B.” Sam said. We all knew how Joe burrow got during speeches, even when it was family and friends and people that were all there to support him. He was a shy person at heart when it came to standing in front of a crowd and talking, but not when it came to playing football for millions and millions of people.

“I might help him pregame before his speech so he’s less nervous up there. I might even push him to take an edible.” I said. “Or you could work some magic before the speech. Y’know, release some tension and all.” Sam said with a quick raise of his eyebrows up and down a few times. I let my jaw hang open at his suggestion before hitting him in the arm slightly. “That is so not funny Hubbard.” I said with a scoff. “It wasn’t supposed to be funny because it wasn’t a joke.” Sam laughed and watched as my face flushed red, making me look away from him. “I can’t with you sometimes.” I shook my head and drank the last sip of my drink.

After a while, I left Sam and started to hobble around somewhere else, making some more small talk with some people. While I was making my way around though, I noticed that my leg was really starting to hurt, causing a slight wave of nausea to wash over me. There were far too many people around me right now talking and walking about, so I decided to go find Robin and ask her if there was anywhere that I could go to be alone for a little bit until my leg felt better.

Once I made my way to Robin, she looked me up and down with a slight worried look on her face, able to tell something was wrong. “Are you okay? Is it your leg?” She asked me and started to rub my arm. “Yeah, it hurts pretty bad. Is there any where I can go to prop my leg up for a little bit and get away from everyone?” I asked. Robin scanned the whole area and then nodded. “Yes, of course. There’s a room that’s vacant right now with a couch so I’ll just stick you in there until you feel better. Is that okay?” She asked me. “That sounds amazing.” I said with a sigh and gave her a smile smile.

Robin guided me over to the room where I could get away from the commotion. The whole way there, she kept her hand on my back and made sure that I was okay while walking. “I’m sorry about this, I wouldn’t have come if I knew how much my leg would hurt.” I said, feeling bad that I had to leave so soon after the event started and make Robin stop what she was doing. “Don’t be silly, this is nothing. We need you here,” Robin said and opened up the door and holding it open as I hobbled inside, “take as long as you need, okay?” She told me. “Okay, thank you.” I said. With a smile, Robin said, “of course, anything for my favorite daughter in law,” and then shut the door, leaving me all alone.

Now that I was all alone, I let out a loud groan while walking to the couch and then plopped myself down on it, practically melting into it. I placed my crutches on the ground and then used the pillows to elevate my leg. Almost immediately, my leg felt better. Once I was situated on the couch, I grabbed some Advil out of my purse and then took a few pills to try and dissipate some of the pain so I could get back out there as soon as possible.

While I waited, I went on my phone and started to scroll through Instagram. After a few minutes, I refreshed the page and then saw of the some pictures that the foundations Instagram page posted on their story. There were various different pictures from the event and a few of Joe in his lazy outfit on the golf course with 5 other people including Cody Ford. Then there was another picture with Joe and two workers from Jeff Ruby’s catering service and I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. In the picture, Joe looked so incredibly tall and his hair looked amazing and so fluffy. Even though it was only a simple picture of Joe smiling, Butterflies fluttered around in my stomach.

Knowing that Joe would probably be wondering where I was since he was back from golfing, I went to my contacts and was just about to call him when I heard the door open. Expecting it to be a worker from the event that needed this room for something, I quickly tried to stand up and said, “I’m sorry, I was just leaving.” As soon as I said this, I saw that it was only Joe, and when he saw me, he quickly shut the door, though I could see the worried expression on his face. Realizing it was only him and that I was in fact not being kicked out, I settled back into the couch and was about to tell Joe why I was in here when he spoke before me. “Hey, baby, what’s wrong, my mom told me you were in here. Did something happen? Did you fall or did someone step on you? Do you need me to take you home real quick? I have about 20 more minutes until I need to change and make a speech.” Joe said in a rushed manner, gesturing down to the black Nike shirt in his hands that he needed to change into before speeches.

“Joey I’m fine. My leg started to hurt so Robin took me in here so I could be alone and rest for a few minutes while you were golfing.” I said as Joe started to walk over to me, still carrying a worried expression. When he reached me, Joe sat down next to me and started to read my face before he let out a sigh of relief and nodded. “Okay, okay. Are you sure you’re okay though?” Joe asked me and started to rub my thigh. “I promise. I took some Advil so once it kicks in I’ll be good to go.” I said with a reassuring smile. Joe reached up and started to rub the back of his neck with a small chuckle. “Damn, this is weird, you being hurt and all. Usually it’s me. When my mom told me you were in here I thought the worst possible thing happened to you.” Joe said.

“Yeah, try watching you get tackled by 300 pound men and take a second to get up. Or try being out of state when I watched you tear your acl.” I said, thinking back to all of the times where I would watch him get tackled and struggle to breathe sometimes. There was one specific time back at LSU where he was on his hands and knees for a few minutes and I could’ve sworn that he broke ribs or collapsed a lung. Two of the worst things, though, was being 8 hours away from him when he tore his acl and I had to to drive all night long just to get to him, all while being terrified of the unknown. Or when he recently hurt his hand and I had to watch him try to throw a ball, but drop to the ground when he realized he couldn’t and then watch him go to the locker room where I had no idea what was wrong with him or if his season or career was over with.

Joe shook his head and leaned back on the couch while reaching down and grabbing my hurt leg. Joe was super careful while he picked my leg up and placed it in his lap so it could be elevated for a little bit. I let out a sigh of relief when he placed it on his lap and then closed my eyes. “Oh wow, that feels better.” I said while smiling. “I truly don’t know how you do it. I couldn’t imagine having to watch that and not know what happened or if I was okay.” Joe said and looked straight ahead to think about what I have to go through pretty much every single game. “So this year, maybe try not to get hurt, how does that sound?” I asked him. Joe looked at me with a small laugh and said, “I will certainly try.”

“How much longer do you have before your speech?” I asked him while leaning back some more on the couch, lifting up my other leg and setting it on Joe’s lap as well. Joe grabbed his phone out of his pocket and then looked super bummed. “About 15 minutes. Great.” Joe said with a not so pleased look on his face. I could hear the hint of worry and nervousness in his voice, so I reached forwards and grabbed his hand, giving it a little squeeze. “You’re gonna do great, just like always. This ain’t your first rodeo.” I said with a smile. Joe looked down at me after slipping his phone back into his pocket and let out a big sigh. “I hate giving speeches. It’s different when I have to talk about football in front of people because I know football like the back of my hand. But this, I feel like there’s so much expected out of me for some reason.” Joe said with a little shrug. “You know food insecurity and mental health like the back of your hand too, you grew up around it. Just talk from the heart like you always do.” I said.

“How much would I have to pay you to give this speech for me?” Joe asked me with a pleading look on his face, wanting nothing more than for me to stand up there in his place and give the speech for him. “You don’t have that kind of money. Plus, this is your foundation, I only help you with it.” I said. Joe looked forwards and tried to think of a reason that he couldn’t give this speech, and when he thought of something, he whipped his head over to me. “What if I make an excuse that my hand started to hurt and needed to ice it?” Joe asked me. “One, you can give a speech while icing your wrist, and two, every single bengals fan around the world would have a heart attack.” I said and shook my head at his stupid idea.

Joe just groaned a little bit while resting his head on the back of the couch so he was looking up at the ceiling. I couldn’t help but feel bad for him. Most people knew he hated public speaking, especially when it wasn’t football related. When it was about football, the answers came naturally and he could milk some of the answers a little bit depending on what the people wanted to hear. But when it came to the foundation, although he’s extremely passionate about it and the good it does, the speeches and the answers don’t come as natural. During these kind of speeches he always felt vulnerable and uneasy. He wasn’t worried about messing up while talking about football since he knew how to answer every question and give speeches about it. But with this, he knew there was a possibility of him messing up and that if he did, there would be hundreds of videos from hundreds of different angles all making fun of him.

“Hey, you’re going to do great,” I said, getting Joe to look over at me again, “if you get nervous or lost, just look at me. I’ll be front and center and will try and help you in any way possible.” Joe gave me a small smile and let out a small sigh, letting some of the tension out with it. “You promise?” Joe asked me. I held out my hand for a pinky promise and when Joe reached forwards and locked our pinkies together, I said, “I promise.” With a nod, Joe put his hands on my legs and then glanced up at me. “How does your leg feel? Are you ready for me to put your legs down? I need to change my shirt.” Joe said, making sure I was okay before we had to leave. “Yeah, she’s feelin’ better now.” I said and leaned forwards slightly while he very carefully placed both of my feet on the ground, making sure not to hurt me. “She.” Joe chuckled at how I called my leg a she. “Well my legs definitely not a boy.” I laughed while sitting up straight on the couch.

With another chuckle and a roll of his eyes, Joe took off his shirt. I couldn’t help but stare as he took his shirt off so quickly and easily, and I especially couldn’t stop staring at him shirtless. My eyes scanned over his muscular shoulders, toned abs, and then his v-line which was showing ever so slightly. Right now, I was seriously contemplating whether or not to do what Sam said. I wanted nothing more than to kiss all the way down Joe’s stomach while leaving small magenta marks on his abs and pecs, and then kiss up and down his v-line while Joe struggled with holding in his groans.

While I was staring at this perfect man in front of me and imaginingwhat I wanted to do in here with him, I could tell Joe was amused with just watching me drool over him. While my eyes scanned every single inch of his infallible body, he looked down at me with that panty dropping smirk on his face, knowing I was enjoying this immensely.

I was quickly torn from my thoughts when he sadly slipped the black Nike shirt on, covering his perfect chest which was tan from being outside by the pool. “How was the show?” Joe asked me. My eyes shot up to look him in the eyes before I scoffed and stood up. “Oh as if, your body is so mediocre.” I joked and rolled my eye. When I stood up, I grabbed my crutches and started to hobble over to him. “Oh yeah, then what’s with the drool?” Joe asked me. I quickly reached up and wiped off the ‘drool’ from my mouth, but when I found none, I glared up at Joe, making him laugh. “So not cool.” I laughed while nudging his shoulder.

We walked out of the little room together and then headed for the front of the event where Robin and Jimmy were waiting for Joe so they could start the speeches. When we got there, Joe was hesitant to leave my side, but eventually left and when to stand up in front of everyone with his parents. Robin started the speeches since only her and Joe were going to be giveng one, and when she was done, she said, “and with that, I’m going to pass if off to my very loved, beloved…son. Joe Burrow.” I couldn’t help but laugh a little bit as she passed the microphone down to him and then winked down at me with a smile.

When Joe got the microphone, the first thing he did was glance down at me. I could tell he was slightly nervous, but I knew he’d do amazing. When we made eye contact, I gave him a quick thumbs up with a big smile to try and help him the best that I could. “Thanks, mom.” Joe said with a big smile on his face while looking over at her. Both Jimmy and Robin and a lot of the crowd started to laugh at what Joe said. When he started his speech, I could tell he was nervous, but he did amazing. Everyone listened the entire time to what he had to say and gave him their undivided attention.

After his speech was done, he handed the microphone back over to Robin who had a few words to say to end the short speeches, so I hobbled over to Joe who left both of his parents. “See, I told you that you would do great.” I said. Since Joe wanted to wait for his parents, I walked by his side to wait with him and he put his hand on the small of my back extremely discretely. I knew he didn’t like when pictures of us were taken because he valued privacy and I was completely fine with it, so when he found ways to put his hands on me without anyone knowing, I couldn’t help but blush. “I fucking hate speeches.” Joe said quietly down to me while bending down slightly so only I could hear and started to rub my back a little bit.

When the speeches were over and everyone started to either get some food or talk amongst themselves a little bit, I found a place to set my crutches on so I could have another drink, but midway through the drink, I started to get a little chilly since the wind was picking up a little bit. I had to look around the entire place 3 times before I finally spotted Joe talking to Sam and Cody Ford, so I headed over to them to ask Joe for the keys.

When I reached them, I kind of felt bad for interrupting, but they didn’t seem to care. “Everything okay?” Joe asked me and started to rub my arm discretely. “Yeah, can I borrow your car keys though? I’m going to run to the car to get my sweater real quick.” I said and greeted both Sam and Cody and excused myself for cutting in, to which they both said that it was no problem. “I can go and get it for you, it’s no problem.” Joe said and was about to turn to the boys to tell them he would be right back. “I can do it, it’s okay. My leg feels a lot better anyways.” I said. Joe looked me up and down and then said, “are you sure?” I gave him a small look before he reached into his pocket and grabbed out his car keys. After hesitating to hand me them, I finally glared at him long enough for him to hand them over. “Just be careful, please. And call me if you need me.” Joe said. “I will.” I said and slowly turned around and started to head to his car.

I walked out of the huge venue and to Joe’s Porsche that was next to Robin and Jimmy’s car. It only took me a few minutes to get to the car and put my sweater on, so I was heading back inside in no time. As I was hobbling in past people, I got a notification that someone texted me, so I moved over a little bit so I wasn’t in the way and went on my phone to see a text from Joe telling me where he and the guys moved to and that he missed me. I couldn’t help but laugh at him and how I was only gone for a few minutes but he missed me. I quickly replied back:

I was only gone for a few minutes, plus, I wasn’t with you until I needed to grab the keys from you, you’ll be fine Joey

I was still looking at you from across the venue. Just because you couldn’t see me or find me doesn’t mean that I couldn’t see you 👀👀

You are something else Joseph Lee Burrow

And you love me for it. Now hurry up please 🙏🏻🥺

Stop it with the begging emoji, I swear

🥺

If you don’t stop I’m not going to bless you with my presence lmao

Ok fine 😂

I put my phone away with a laugh and started to work my way back inside, but not without getting stopped by a few people on the way. I couldn’t help but laugh even more when I spotted Joe in the place he told me he was. Joe was currently sitting down on a couch next to Sam and Robin sat on the other side of Sam. Just like last year’s event when Joe spotted a couch, he was slouched down on it and manspread which showed off his huge thighs.

Joe must’ve seen me out of the corner of his eye while looking in the opposite direction as me because his head whipped around to look at me and when we made eye contact, he gave me a huge smile and started to stretch a little bit. “Finally.” Joe laughed. “I’m crippled, sorry that I took too long for you, you big baby.” I joked while laughing at him and then looked over to Sam and Robin who were also laughing. “See, I should’ve went instead.” Joe said while putting his hands on the couch so he could lift himself up off of it so I could sit down, but before he could, Sam quickly stood up. “You can sit down, Joe. You can have my seat.” Sam told Joe and me as he stood up, letting me sit down. “Thank you Sam.” I said and hobbled over to where he was. Joe reached forwards and grabbed my crutches and then gently grabbed ahold of my arm while I sat down, trying to help me.

When I sat down, Sam grabbed my crutches from Joe and leaned them against the railing closest to us. I let out a big sigh as I got myself situated in between Joe and Robin, finally taking pressure off of my leg that wasn’t in the cast. It felt like every time I sat down, I had just ran a marathon. I looked over at Joe who was currently yawning. I could tell that he was pretty much all peopled out for the day, and the event still had a few more hours to go. For the most part, Joe was introverted and socially awkward. He loved to stay inside where he could interact with very few people as possible while watching SpongeBob and building legos. That’s just the kind of person he was.

“I can tell someone’s all peopled out today.” I said while nudging Joe in the side after his yawn ended. Joe chuckled a little bit and then nodded down at me. “I love raising money for this cause, but I wish I could do it in the comfort of our home.” He said. “Trust me, I know you do.” I said and started to pat Joe’s thigh while scanning the room. I could hear Joe suck in a small breath at the feeling and then he grabbed ahold of my hand and lifted it up and off of him. I quickly looked down, confused why he moved my hand, but then noticed just how far up my hand was on his thigh. “Oops.” I laughed a little bit as I looked up at Joe’s face and saw how he had his lips sucked in and he was trying to calm himself down. “Don’t look at me.” Joe said and looked straight ahead while dropping my hand. I watched as he tried to take deep breaths in order to bring himself down. “You’re such a teenage boy, I swear.” I joked with him while looking straight ahead and placing my hand on my own lap this time. “I can’t help it. It has a mind of its own. Now stop it so I don’t get a boner.” Joe whispered down at me. “You are something else, Mr. Burrow.” I laughed. “You drive me insane Mrs. burrow.” Joe said while shaking his head, unable to hold back a smile as he stared straight ahead.

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marigold-hills · 2 days

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june 6: explore | @wolfstarmicrofic | word count: 586

PREVIOUS PART • NEXT PART • FIRST PART

For a moment they’re both frozen, then Remus mouths Filch. He must be able to smell the man, and Sirius shudders at the thought – the grease and general malady are strong enough with his regular senses.

It’s too late to run away. Sirius is a quick thinker, good in a crisis. He pulls Remus closer, gathers his body over his own hoping the chair he’s sitting on won’t creak. Throws the Cloak over the both of them.

It’s been years since they’ve been able to hide under it together. They’re both larger now, taller and broader, and Sirius prays his feet aren’t showing.

Filch is in the main library hall, hand-held lamp bobbing with each of his steps. His murmuring to himself about bloody students and library, of all places. He makes his way to the alcove they’re sat in, beckoned by the glow.

Sirius is a quick thinker, but he didn’t think this through. They can’t move, for risking a sound. Filch should see the light and nothing else and chalk it up to somebody being forgetful, but…

Remus’ hand is at his sternum, pressed underneath the T-shirt. The whole front of him pressed close, legs on each side of Sirius’ thighs. His breath is uneven and muffled into Sirius’ hair, ghosting over the skin of his neck and Sirius’ body breaks out in a shiver. He wants wants wants.

He wishes he knew what.

“Don’t move, Sirius,” Remus whispers straight into his ear. “You have to be quiet.”

It’s a tone of voice Sirius thinks he’s dreamt once. Only for him to hear. Sometimes, in the days before the moon, when Remus loses control on his ever-present composure, he sounds like this when Sirius exasperates him: expect no, not quite. This is new, closer to when he speaks Gaelic, when he weaves magic from ancient sounds. Reverent. Each word holds Sirius like he’s precious.

Sirius stills and it’s somehow more for Remus than to avoid getting caught. When the moon is full and Remus is Moony and he is Padfoot, there is an instinct there roll over, show your belly, submit, and it’s like this now, too. Listen. Pay attention. Be good.

Filch gets close to them, approaches the desk. “Bloody mindless bastards,” he mutters, and louder: “I know you’re here! Come out now!” It’s a bluff. He’s less than half a metre away from the chair they’re sitting in, and he gives up the pretence quickly, putting out the light and stalking away.

Remus shifts. Sirius feels it everywhere, each muscle as it moves and each drag of fabric. The door closes and locks, and Remus makes to stand up.

No, thinks that part of Sirius that wanted to run with a werewolf, and before he knows what he’s doing he leans forward and bites the flesh where Remus’ neck meets his shoulder.

Remus doesn’t say stop doesn’t say what are you doing? He doesn’t push him away.

The taste of him is something Sirius could spend his life exploring. If it’s different here than it would be on the skin of his wrists or the delicate part of his thighs. The moment says pay attention, pay attention and he tries to but he’s too torn fighting between letting go and sinking his teeth deeper.

“It’s alright, Sirius. I’m here. I’m not going anywhere,” Remus runs gentle fingers through his hair. Touches him so gently like Sirius is an untamed dog poised to pounce or to flee.

Slowly, Sirius pries open his mouth.

NOTES:

Part 6!

this went not at all as I planned but I’m rather happy with the direction it’s taken. Tomorrow’s prompt is “imaginary” so we’ll be back to our scheduled oblivious pining

do we hate filch for disturbing the conversation or rather like him for how it went?

@moon-girl88 @digital-kam @tealeavesandtrash @sweetstarryskies @alltoounwellll @hunnybeemarie @hoje--aqui

#remus lupin #sirius black #marauders #wolfstar #dead gay wizards #fanfic #marauders era #remus x sirius #microfiction #wolfstar microfic

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drvscarlett · 2 days

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THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT

Pierre Gasly x ex!reader

Summary: The 4 times that they break up and get back together and that 1 time they didn't.

The Tortured Drivers' Department series

A/N: im on a roll with updating the Tortured Drivers Department now that im nearly done with every reqs. I hope you enjoy this and let me know what you think or feel about this

Taglist. @tea-bobba @boiohboii @c-losur3 @haikyuen @stelena-klayley @stinkyjax @0710khj @jinimon-tr

"You're not Dylan Thomas, I'm not Patti Smith This ain't the Chelsea Hotel, we're modern idiots"

Pierre and Y/N are the type of people that is confusing to talk about. No one really knows the big deal between the two of them, are they friends or are they lovers? One minute everything is all good, they are about to go to the store and pick out rings then the next thing that you know they already broke up. What was constant was that they always find their way back to each other.

Maybe it’s the lifestyle that makes it work; Pierre is a famous F1 driver that travels the world most of the year while Y/N is a grand recluse of a writer that is trying to find her way to the market. They don’t need much time from each other, and they understand the busy structure of their work.

Maybe its also the fact that they have years of friendship backing them up that's why they were able to last long with each others antics. So, what happened to them?

The first kind of break ups were pretty silly. It was usually something that could be fixed in a matter of hours or a day being away from each other. Its something very random and weird like this.

"Wait, so you are breaking up with me because you are writing?"Pierre was confused.

Pierre had been in relationships before but he has never once heard of someone wanting to break up with him because she has to meet a certain deadline.

He felt very whiplash by the whole situation because she was just kissing him and they were cuddling in bed in the morning. Now she wants to break up with him.

"Yes Pierre, I need to be in my most heartbroken self to write my best lines"Y/N confirms.

"So does this mean that once you finish this thing you are working on then we can get back together?"Pierre clarifies.

Y/N nods as she brings out her working laptop and a notebook.

"So should I say something mean or should I just leave you be to your senses?"Pierre wondered.

"Do you really wanna break up with me so badly?"Y/N had too much of Pierre's question

Pierre raised his hands in defeat.

"Okay then lets break up"

Pierre headed straight back to his room to allow Y/N to work on her things. He chuckles at himself with the weird antics of his girlfriend, (or should he say ex girlfriend) but he busies himself with some emails that he has from work.

It took Y/N two days before she comes crawling to their shared bed. Pierre was in a sleepy state when Y/N snuggled to his arms.

"Are you done?"Pierre wondered.

"Yeah,just passed my manuscript"Y/N agrees.

"Can I call you my girlfriend again?"

II.

Qualifying was extremely difficult today with Pierre taking p15. To make matters worse there was this pressing issue that Pierre might be axed from the team. It honestly frustrated him to the point that he was only doing sim work, training, and more training.

It worries Y/N a great deal especially when Pierre seems so out of it.

"Pierre c'mon get some rest" Y/N begged.

It was already 2 in the morning and there was still a race tomorrow but he insisted on hitting the gyms to train.

"You are going to be exhausted later during the race if you keep doing this"Y/N reminds.

"I don't care, I have to work hard"

"Pierre please listen to me"

"You're the one who is not listening to me"Pierre snaps "Don't you realize that I have the possibility to lose everything that I have worked hard for if they cut me off the team."

Y/N was in shock with the sudden outburst and if Pierre was in his usual self then he would have immediately apologized for raising his tone. But Pierre was far from thinking clearly.

"Pierre that was not nice"

"Nothing is ever nice in this world"scoffs Pierre.

"Look I'm just trying to help you he-"

"You know what, why not just break up with me so I can focus on my thing without anyone nagging" Pierre suggested.

She could feel the tears prickling her eyes and threatening to fall. But her mother did not raise her cry over a stupid boy like this.

"You're really going there huh" Y/N said "See if I care"

With a slam of the door, Y/N was gone and Pierre felt even more antsy than ever. It wasn't the fact that he has a messed up weekend but he has the possibility of messing up a good relationship because of his blind rage.

In a couple of hours despite Y/N implying that she didn't care, she was at the race patiently waiting for the lights to go out. It was difficult for her to just leave Pierre especially when he is in this state of mind.

But of course, Y/N's pride was something that she holds dear that is why she didn't show up to Pierre's garage. It is kind of weird to see the crowd of yellow and black colors but Y/N was so glad that she has Isa by her side to join her during the race.

"Never gets easier to let him go for races huh"Y/N comments as she watched Isa putting on Carlos' helmet.

"Well, I'm sure he tries his best to be careful on the track" Isa smiled.

"Why aren't you giving any pre-race goodluck kisses to Pierre? He might need it" Carlos suggested.

Y/N could just roll her eyes, Pierre wasn't superstitious like that.

"Okay laugh all you want but don't make me say I told you so if he gets involved in an accident"Carlos warns.

"Don't mind Carlos, he is just joking"Isa shrugs it off.

"But Isa, its true remember when-"

"Stop stressing Y/N out Carlos, go race and be safe"

"Aye aye"

Y/N watched the playful interaction before the couple parted ways. The scene struck a chord in her heart because she knew that she could never act that way with Pierre. Their whole relationship was a secret that only the grid knows Y/N is off limits. But outside the grid, no one knows about it. Fans equate them as close friends but never more than that.

"What's on your mind honey?"Isa asked

"Nothing Isa, I'm okay"

Y/N showed a weak smile and Isa was hesitant to press things but she just let friend be.

"Look the race is starting"Y/N diverts.

The sound of the engines filled the air and off the cars go. Y/N watched as everyone gets off with a decent start, she could only hope that there was no incident today especially for Pierre's sake.

Everything happened all of a sudden as white smoke filled the air and a loud collision was heard. The cameras were quick to pan to the accident and the two girls clutched each other's hands as the smoke clears.

"It's Nico, its not Carlos" someone from the garage reassured Isa and the girl could feel a sigh of relief.

However, the same cannot be said to Y/N as the frustrated team radio of Pierre can be heard and the familiar livery was seen in the middle of the wreck.

Any amount of pride or memory of what he said last night was suddenly thrown out of the window. She just wants to know how he is or if he is safe from that tragic collision.

"Y/N, they're going to check on Nico" Isa pointed out to some Renault people "You should probably go since Pierre would be there too"

Y/N was about to deny that she didn't want to see him but Isa had a stern look on her face.

"Just go honey"

And she comes running to the medical bay to look for the injured man. She was a bit thankful that precautions have been made in this sports that allowed drivers to walk away from such accident without major damages.

Maybe, a bruised ego is their biggest worry now.

"Y/N"Pierre was confused to see her.

Maybe the damage has been far more worse than he imagined because he was now seeing things. As far as he could recall, Y/N was not around when the race started. So how is she here?

"God, you scared me P"Y/N wrapped him in a hug.

Pierre was a little bit sore from the crash but there was this instant warm feeling knowing that Y/N didn't abandon him. Even if he was really moody and too shitty, Y/N was still there for him.

He remembers how terrible it was being in that car and thinking that the last memory he shared with Y/N is a bad one. He didn't feel great at all so he held her as if its his second chance.

"I didn't mean what I said last night"Pierre whispered "I'm really sorry for hurting your feelings. I wasn't thinking straight and there is just a lot of pressure-"

"It's okay, I know Pierre"Y/N consoles "I won't be leaving you anytime soon"

A chaste kiss was shared between the two of them, a symbol that they have reunited once more.

III.

The third time they broke up was when Pierre asked her hand for marriage and she didn't say anything.

After being constantly invited to weddings, Pierre is bound to pick up some courage to ask Y/N out. He developed this dream that he wants a life with Y/N and he is ready to take it to the next level. Knowing Y/N, he picked the right size and the perfect ring. He also knows her dream proposal place which is somewhere with a view of the city.

He had everything planned out perfectly so imagine his surprise when she answers.

"Pierre, I can't do this" Y/N dropped the bomb.

"What? Why?"

Y/N felt like an extreme asshole because everything was perfect. Any girl would say yes to this prime opportunity of marrying their childhood bestfriend but Y/N sees through things.

"Pierre we aren't even official to the public and now you want to escalate it to marriage" Y/N reasons.

"So that's it, you don't want to marry me because I can't call you mine in public?"

"It's not just that" Y/N sighs "but our careers are just taking off and we haven't talked about our relationship yet and suddenly were going to go to marriage"

What Y/N saying was valid but Pierre was not listening to any of it. He felt very crushed and he could not think straight at the moment.

"Let's just break up if you can't see a future with me"

"Pierre, you know that's not what I meant"

"Then tell me how would you feel if the person you truly loved didn't want to marry you"Pierre roared.

It was a devastating scene between the two of them. How Y/N wished that she could undo what she said a few minutes ago but she knows that she only means well. A rushed marriage will also lead to rush separation and she will not put herself to that.

"Let's break up then, I think its best if we go our seperate ways for the time being"Pierre concludes.

It took them three long weeks before they got back together. It was due to an intervention by Charles that allowed them to speak again and talk their differences. Pierre has been more understanding now and heard Y/N's point out.

They got back together but it felt like there is a huge crack that took a heavy blow with their relationship.

IV.

Y/N had a terrible day at work with her manuscript being asked to be revised by her publisher. All she needs was a good rest and possibly some cuddles with Pierre. She prays as she twist the doorknob that Pierre was not in his one of his moods.

"Mon amour"Pierre called out "I was waiting for you"

Pierre can cook but it doesn't mean that he does it often. It was a good surprise for Y/N to see the dinner table set with all of her favorite dishes and an array of fresh flowers in a bouquet. She eyes the man warily as she takes a seat

"I didn't miss any important dates, didn't I?" Y/N asked.

"Is it bad that I wanted to do something special for you?"

In other days, she would want to argue about it but for today she didn't want to do any of that. She had no energy to question Pierre's weird behavior and she just wants to enjoy the dinner with him.

It was a lovely dinner but Y/N knows that Pierre was hiding something from her. As she was putting away the plates, she knew that she had to get an answer or she may fall asleep overthinking things.

"What is going on P, I'm actually scared you did something stupid that's why you are buttering me up so much"

Pierre lets out a heavy sigh, they knew each other too well that they can't really keep a secret with each other.

"My PR talked to me today and they wanted to announce a relationship to help my whole image"Pierre confesses.

Articles are very easy to miss but as a writer, Y/N knows how a different usage of an article changes the meaning of the sentence. Pierre used "a" rather than "the" which means he is not referring to their relationship.

"Who is it?"Y/N wondered

"She's a model, her name is Caterina" Pierre explained.

There was a heavy silence in the room as Y/N dried out the dishes. She knew that this was all because she was not very marketable due to her timid personality. She was not even famous for her books so that's another reason. Bottom line, they can't announce her because she seems very different from Pierre and she is not the WAG material.

"How long?"

Y/N was used to this kind of treatment. She felt like she accepted this as long as she can get to keep Pierre at the end of this whole thing. People would think she is crazy but love makes people do crazy things.

"Just 6 months and its over"Pierre answered.

It was also very difficult for Pierre's end. He have tried to lobby that he wanted to announce his relationship with Y/N but he is held by a contract. If he decides to deviate then he might lose his seat.

He knows how difficult it was to ask her for this but he had no choice.

"I'll get packing then and I'll move out in the next few days"Y/N mumbles.

Pierre stopped her for leaving and held her tightly. She instantly melts in his hold and she easily reminds herself why she puts up with all of this.

"I love you, don't you forget that"

The world moved with Caterina being announced as Pierre's girlfriend. However, they didn't know that after 6 months then Pierre is back to Y/N's arms. It was always Y/N and Pierre even if the world can't see it.

It started with a normal dinner reservation.

Y/N has been promised by Pierre that he will take her out for dinner. They both understand that the past few weeks has been tiring for the two of them with the stress of racing, writing, and personal issues. The dinner is a nice way to reconnect with each other.

However, here she was already an hour waiting for Pierre to show up.

The hour goes from two to three and by the fourth hour, she decided that she will just go home. She have felt upset with Pierre before but this was a different kind of upset. It's not something to be fixed by flowers, vacations, or any of those stupid letters he does.

She reaches their shared apartment and started packing her stuffs. Her mind was already made up and this time it was going to last. The relationship was doomed to failure anyways.

And just before she finished packing, Pierre stumbles in.

"Y/N, do you have a schedule tonight?"Pierre asked.

He was met with silence as the writer ignores him.

"Oh c'mon what did I do wrong this time?"Pierre complains "Sit and talk with me Y/N"

Pierre could only stop Y/N by bringing all her packed clothes out of her suitcase. Something that heavily irritated Y/N, which caused her to finally speak.

"Can you just let me pack in peace"Y/N begged.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong"Pierre stops "Do you have a flight somewhere? Maybe I could drive you"

"You don't have to drive me Pierre"

"Then what's going on, I arrive here and you are fuming there-"

"You made me fucking wait four hours"Y/N snapped.

Pierre racked his brains for anything that he missed and he suddenly remembered how he reserved dinner with her. He felt like all the color drained on his face.

"Don't do this, I'll make it up to you Y/N" there was a desperation in Pierre's voice.

"I can't, we can't keep doing this P"Y/N admits it "We keep on breaking up and then making up then we act like this is a healthy relationship. We can't do this"

Strong arms wrapped around Y/N's waist and she could feel the wetness on her shoulders as Pierre buried his face there. It was proving more and more difficult for Y/N to leave him.

"I have to do this P, for you and for me"she remains firm.

"Tell me you don't love me"Pierre refuses to let go.

And Y/N cannot admit that because she knows she will always love Pierre. But she was scared that in loving Pierre so much then she may not have any love left for herself. She doesn't know what to do if she loses Pierre so its best if she will be the one to let go of him first.

"I'm sorry Pierre"

With a heavy heart, she removes the him away from her. She picks up her bags and closes the door. She left without taking a look back at the man she has loved from childhood till now because she knows that the moment she sees him then all form of control she has will evaporate.

And everything was two years ago. Here is Y/N with her third best-selling novel book signing tour. Sometimes she likes to think that she lost Pierre to be able to write the books that made her extremely famous. Most of the times, she wishes it never happened because she would rather have Pierre than these best selling novels.

It was her first time in Europe for work. She was often here to watch and support Pierre from the sideline. She never thought that she will be back in Europe so loved and so adored.

But it seems like destiny has a way of messing things up.

"Hi! What's your name?"she greets the woman in front of her.

Even though it has been a long day, she managed to master the art of keeping a perfect smile. She understands how the fans have been waiting in line for so long and she has to give them the best experience as she signs their book.

"My name is Kika, I'm a huge fan of yours" the woman introduced.

Y/N looked up to take a look at her. Kika had a dazzling smile and has this certain aura that exudes her charmingness. Y/N felt that she should be the one asking for Kika's signature because she looks like a stunning goddess.

"I really love the way you write things and I used to read it with my boyfriend when he is not racing"Kika narrates.

Racing, its been a while since Y/N heard that. She completely cuts off that certain topic ever since she left Pierre.

"Oh that sounds like a fantastic way to bond as a couple"Y/N agrees

"Yeah and actually my boyfriend told me that he knows you. I was actually wondering if he is joking but I figured that maybe he is"

There was this sinking feeling in her heart but Y/N would like to think that she made some friends in the F1 grid so this may be their girlfriend. Or maybe her boyfriend is bluffing.

"He races? In what kind of race"Y/N asked,she was careful.

"Oh he does Formula 1, his name is-"

"Kika mon amour"

Y/N didn't have to hear the voice twice to know who that voice belongs to. She knows that voice very well and she couldn't believe her rotten luck.

"Pierre, we were just talking about you"Kika embraces Pierre.

Pierre was shifting nervously and Y/N suddenly realized that Kika doesn't know anything about the shared history between the two of them.

"Oh so you are Pierre's new girl" Y/N knew how to act "I'm so pleased to meet you and yes I know Pierre from childhood"

"See mon amour, I was not lying"Pierre teased.

"So you do know her, we should definitely set up a lunch or dinner together"Kika exclaimed "I can't believe that my favorite author is your childhood friend"

She has that bright and genuine smile on her face. It was that certain genuineness that Y/N makes her heart crack. Why did she have to be so sweet and kind, its so difficult to fault her of anything.

"Y/N is one of the best authors, I know" Pierre proudly states "She has a way of tugging hearts"

"Indeed she has, I remember that when I first started reading one of your series I was so hooked and I wanted to pattern my dream partner to how you write the character of.."Kika babbles.

And everything felt like fading in the background. But Y/N didn't miss how Pierre was looking at Kika so lovingly and so endearing while Kika was rambling excitedly. The heart that was once healed was getting torn up once more because of what's happening in front of her.

#the tortured drivers department #f1 imagine #f1 x reader #f1 fanfic #pierre gasly x reader #pierre gasly x imagine #pierre gasly fanfic #pierre gasly x y/n

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fluentmoviequoter · 2 days

Text

Defend Myself - Part II

Part 2 of Defend Myself

Summary: You agree to teach a self-defence class at the police station. There, you meet Tim Bradford again, as well as some unexpected guests.

Warnings: Tim gets nervous and awkward, fluff!! lots of mentions of winning fights

Word Count: 1.9k+ words

A/N: Not proofread yet! I have to go to work so I'll do it tonight. :)

Masterlist | Tim Bradford Masterlist | Request Info/Fandom List

Alone in your studio classroom, you tap your toes against the floor as hold music plays from your phone. It’s been two days since you met Tim Bradford and learned about the opportunity to teach a free self-defence class at the station. As you wait to talk to the community liaison, you can’t help but think about Officer Bradford again.

“Hello,” someone greets. “Sorry about that wait.”

“No problem,” you reply. “I was calling to find out about teaching a self-defence class for the public. The officer I just spoke to told me you were the person to ask.”

“Of course. I can definitely help you with that. We’ve got several openings for community courses in the coming weeks. Are you a certified group instructor?”

“I am.”

“Perfect. That will help you get in here faster. This means your next step is just to choose a date and time and complete some paperwork. After that, we’ll spread the word in the community, find volunteers to assist you, and get everything in order before the course itself takes place.”

“Great, thank you so much. Is there any chance I could get started on the next step today?”

“Yes, we can do that. Most instructors come into the station to view the community area and complete the necessary forms, but we can send those papers over electronically as well.”

“I’d be happy to come by the station.”

“Excellent. I’m available all day today and tomorrow afternoon if you’d like?”

“Today works.”

You decide on a time with him before you end the call. After your last class of the day, you lock up and head for the Mid-Wilshire police station. Though Officer Bradford said he’d be willing to volunteer for your class, you doubt you’ll ever see him again. LA is a relatively big place, and the chances of seeing the same cop more than once can’t be very high.

At the front desk, you provide your name and the details of your appointment. You’re quickly led through a door and into a large room where police officers are milling about.

“Nice to meet you,” the community liaison greets you as he welcomes you into his office. “I’ve got your paperwork here. Just a few simple liability forms and a background check.”

“Thank you for meeting with me so quickly,” you say as you take a seat.

You begin filling out the forms as you tell him what you plan to teach. He seems impressed by your willingness to host a free session and explains that fewer and fewer people are reaching out to him, despite the compensation they offer.

“That’s the last of them,” he tells you as he accepts your final paper. “I want to get started on these right away, so I’m going to pass you off to another officer to give you the tour.”

“I appreciate that.”

You follow him to the door and see several officers talking near a glass wall.

“You mentioned Officer Bradford in your call, didn’t you?” the liaison asks.

“I did.”

“Great.”

He waves someone over, and you smile when you see Officer Bradford again. He’s not alone, but he smiles at you before he begins introductions.

“This is my watch commander, Sergeant Grey,” he tells you. “Grey, this is the woman who did my job for me at the hockey game earlier this week.”

“I’ve heard a lot about you,” Sergeant Grey says as he shakes your hand.

“Good things I hope,” you reply.

“Of course,” Tim interjects quickly.

He seems nervous, but you brush it off as him trying to do his job and carry a conversation. In reality, Tim Bradford is awestruck by you, your abilities, and how kind and compassionate you are despite how easily you could win a fight against anyone in this station.

“Any chance you’d still be willing to help me with the class?” you ask Tim. “I’d hate to mess up and never be invited back.”

“You’d have to fire your service weapon in the station for us to not invite you back,” Wade says. “Which has happened, but we’re desperate.”

“Then I’m glad I can help. And the more people who can defend themselves, the better.”

“Right,” Tim agrees. “And, yeah, I’d be happy too. I can show you where you’ll be teaching.”

“Great!”

There’s a commotion near the door, and Tim and Sergeant Grey stand straighter as they watch. A security guard steps in with an officer, and then two cops follow on either side. Tim has positioned himself directly beside you, whether to keep you back from whatever is happening or just to get a better view you aren’t sure. When another man walks in, flanked by more security guards, you gasp and hit Tim’s arm with the back of your hand.

“Ow,” he mumbles quietly as he jerks back slightly.

“Sorry,” you whisper. “Do you know who that is?!”

“I take it you do.”

“Sergeant Grey,” an officer calls. “We’re early, I’m sorry about that.”

“No problem. We can meet in the roll call room,” Sergeant Grey replies.

Three large men stand feet away from you, and you link your fingers together as you try to hold your excitement inside. You smile at the man nearest you before you turn back to Tim.

“Bradford, can you sit in?” Grey asks. “Or do you need to finish here first?”

“Oh, please go, I can wait,” you answer for him. “They’re way more important than me.”

“I don’t know about that,” someone says beside you.

You turn to see which man spoke and laugh before you argue, “You have a game to win, Mr. Konecny, you get priority here.”

“Are you a fan?” Travis Konecny asks.

“Yes!” you answer loudly. “Sorry, I’m excited. Yes, I’m a huge Flyers fan.”

“Do you have tickets?” Sam Ersson asks from beside him.

“I do. Nosebleeds, but tickets are tickets.”

Travis clicks his tongue and looks to one of the security guards to say, “Get her a seat on the ice. And anyone else in here who wants one. Their job is much more important than ours.”

You thank him and shake his hand before he passes. As Tim leads Travis Konecny, Sam Ersson, and Jamie Drysdale into the roll call room, you wait nearby. You just met the Philadelphia Flyers! As if seeing Tim again wasn’t exciting enough, you just had a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with some of the best hockey players in the country. Maybe the day can’t get any better.

“Hey,” Tim calls as he returns. “Are you ready?”

“Sure. Thank you again, for everything,” you reply.

He nods as you stand, and then leads you through the station.

“I…” Tim begins.

“Yeah?” you encourage.

“Would you maybe want to go to the game together? They gave me a ticket too.”

“I’d love to! Are they nice? Wait, don’t tell me if they’re not.”

“They’re very nice, and they seemed very happy about meeting a fan.”

“Sorry again for hitting you.”

“It’s fine,” Tim assures with a smile. “It hurt, but that just makes me even more impressed by you.”

“Impressed?”

Tim opens a door for you and shakes his head when your eyes meet his. “Like you can’t tell.”

On the day of your self-defence class at the police station, you wake up early to prepare everything. Most of your equipment is already packed, but you want everything to go well. Once you finish this, you’ll be even closer to your date with Tim. Self-defence, an attractive man, and hockey all in one week is like a romcom made just for you.

Tim is waiting outside the door when you arrive to set up. He smiles and opens the door before he takes a bag from you. As he helps you arrange your minimal gear and go through your sets and cues in a practice run, he makes easy conversation with you. Getting to know each other seems easy, even if this is only small talk and surface questions. He’s someone worth the time and effort of learning.

When the last person leaves your class (after telling you several times about how much she enjoyed it and would like to come to another one), you sigh and shake your arms out. You had been nervous that no one would show up or that they wouldn’t like it, but you were wrong. The room was full, and everyone participated and seemed to enjoy themselves.

“That was fun,” you tell Tim. “I want to do it again.”

“Don’t say that too loud, Grey will try to make you a permanent fixture,” Tim teases.

“I might like that. Although, I’m more excited for our date.”

“Date?” Tim asks, standing up quickly. “I mean, I wanted it to be a date, but didn’t know if you were-“

You smile as you interrupt him to say, “Yeah, it’s a date, Tim.”

“Good,” Tim says softly. His smile grows as he repeats, “Good.”

The night of the Flyers game, Tim picks you up at your studio. He’s the first gentleman you’ve been on a date with in a while. Each moment with him increases your excitement for a hockey game date.

“Wait,” you tell him when he reaches for his door handle. “You’re cheering for the Flyers, right?”

“Yeah,” Tim answers slowly. “Why?”

“Because I was going to sit with someone else if you said no. Please continue.”

Tim smiles a look that knocks the breath out of you like a well-timed punch. He takes your hand and keeps it in his as he leads you to the perfect seats you were gifted. You gasp as you look out on the ice, and Tim watches you rather than the skaters warming up. One of the guys shoulder-checks his teammate before they point at each other, and you and Tim laugh with them.

“I’m pretty sure you could beat up both of them,” Tim says in your ear.

“Do you just like me for my fighting skills?” you ask, narrowing your eyes.

“Not just for that!”

You laugh and bump your shoulder against Tim’s. He takes the opportunity to wrap his arm around your shoulders, and you happily lean toward him.

“This is way better than the last hockey game I went to,” you murmur.

“That’s not a compliment,” Tim argues.

Before you can explain what you mean, the Flyers skate to the panel before you and bang on the divider. You smile and Travis, Sam, and Jamie hold up a jersey with ‘LA’s Finest’ on the back. After they skate away, a woman in a Flyers shirt approaches you and hands you a bag. Inside are two of those jerseys, and you quickly pull yours over your head.

“LA’s finest,” Tim reads. “I have to agree.”

“Back at you.”

Tim stays at your side for the entire game. You cheer together, yell together, and enjoy the night in each other’s company. You want Tim Bradford at your side for a very long time, even if he does make endless comments about who you could challenge to a fight.

“We should invite them to the wedding,” you say when the game ends.

“An entire hockey team?” Tim questions. You notice he doesn’t argue against the idea of marriage, just the number of people you’re already adding to the guest list.

“Yeah. Plus, the whole LAPD, right?”

Tim pulls you under his arm and leads you back to his truck. You can invite as many people as you want, he thinks, as long as he’s there with you.

#tim bradford x reader #tim bradford x y/n #tim bradford x you #tim bradford x fem!reader #tim bradford fic #tim bradford the rookie #tim bradford imagine #tim bradford #fem!reader #hanna writes✯#the rookie x reader #the rookie abc

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thedisc0spider · 3 days

Note

Could you write Spenser Agnew fluff? Could it possibly be Reader and Spenser have been hiding their relationship and basically pull a Shourtney??

Out of hiding

————————————————————————————————————

Summary: you and Spencer come out as a couple

Warnings: mentions of Covid, pre-established relationship, this is really short I’m sorry

Genre: fluff

Point of view: Second person

A/n: this is such a cute request I love it. By the way, I’ll be getting to my other requests really soon, just busy!

————————————————————————————————————

You and Spencer have been dating for almost 5 years. Your relationship had moved rather quickly, you started dating a few months before lockdown and you decided to move in together because you didn’t know how long Covid was going to last. This wasn’t that crazy because it had felt like you’d been dating longer than you had due to the fact that you worked together years prior and always secretly wanted more.

Since the beginning of your relationship you told each other that should you make it to your five year anniversary, you would tell the world then.

Time flew by and the next thing you know, you’re only a day away from the world knowing why you’ve been so happy this last half-a-decade.

As it was getting closer you guys started teasing it on your stories

First spencer posted this on his story, tagging you:

Then it was your turn, you posted this on your story, this time tagging him:

People were starting to speculate now.

You and Spencer are laying in bed, you’re still asleep as he watches the rise and fall of your steady breathing. You wake up to the feeling of a hand running up and down you side. You turn, humming softly, to see spencer intently watching your every move.

You chuckle, running your hand through his hair. “You look like you’re about to murder me.”

He smiles, “sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you up… I just like the way you look while you sleep.”

You smile, turning back around so he’s now spooning you. “Okay, creeper.”

Spencer laughs, wrapping an arm around your waist as he nuzzles his face into your neck. “You know what I mean, idiot.”

You lay in silence for a few seconds before Spencer speaks again. “Guess what?”

“Hm?”

He kisses behind your ear, “tomorrow we go public.”

You sigh, nodding.

“You know we don’t have to if you don’t want, I know we said 5 years but-“ you quickly turn around to face him, sitting up.

“No, no. Of course I want to. I’m just… you know, nervous.” You fidget with the end of his shirt.

He cups your face in his hand, sitting up with you. “I know, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t scared too… but after we do this we don’t have to hide at all anymore. Just imagine..” he kissed your forehead.

You have to admit, the thought of being able to talk about him, to have him to yourself publicly, for everyone to know he was yours. You’d be able to kiss him, flirt with him, you smiled just thinking about it.

You grab the wrist of the hand on your face, leaning into it. “Yeah, you’re right.” You leave a kiss on his palm, “I love you, S.”

“I love you too, baby.”

The next day, you posted:

Caption: chat, is this a hard launch? Happy 5 years!

#fanfiction #spencer agnew x fem!reader #spencer agnew fanfiction #smosh spencer #spencer agnew x reader #spencer agnew #smosh cast #smosh games #smosh x reader

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veryberryjelly · 7 hours

Note

🍷 + Jason Todd + Standing next to you by Jungkook with fem!reader pls 🥺👉👈✨️

jason todd x reader

lyrics ; 'afterglow, leave ya body golden like the sun and moon'

𝐍𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐆𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 ✦ 𝐲𝐨𝐮'𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 !

a vacation was well needed for jason, and you were ecstatic that he was actually allowing you to take him out of the country for a few days.

it had taken you literally dragging him out of the house after he tried to 'run back to the office to check something' .

you knew if you let him back into his office he wouldn't leave again.

but once he was on the plane there was no turning back and he seemed to relax into his seat.

but the moment he seemed to truly let go was when you pulled up outside your temporary residence.

it was beautiful, a quaint villa in practically the middle of nowhere and yet only a short drive away from a grocery store that you had stopped by on the way up so you didnt have to leave the confines of the villa tomorrow.

you had researched this place a lot to make sure you could both be happy here.

it still had service so jason could get onto his laptop and check in at home if he wanted too, and it was so far from any other people that you didnt have to worry about anyone eyeing jason up while you lounged around the pool.

it may not seem like a massive issue but on every other vacation you'd been on with him, the minute his shirt was over his head, he had people eyeing him.

and when he pulled himself out of the pool you understood why and were glad your eyes were the only ones watching behind your sunglasses as drops of water dripped down his defined abdomen.

" seeing something you like, gorgeous ?" he teased as he padded across the warm stone floor to where you laid on your sun lounger.

before you could even formulate a response, you were distracted again by jason's strong form crawling over yours, a teasing smirk on his face as water dripped down onto your body, raising goosebumps on your skin.

he lifted one of his hands to move your sunglasses from your eyes to the top of your head so he could look into your eyes without the obstruction of tinted plastic.

" you know what you're doing, todd. good thing there's no one else around or i'd have to drop kick a couple girls " you joked, your arms lifting to drape over his shoulders, fingertips pushing through his wet hair.

" you know i've only got eyes for my baby " his voice dropped as his head lowered to press a featherlight kiss onto your lips, so light you questioned whether his lips even touched yours in the first place.

" i know, it's just other girls have eyes for you " you pushed yourself up into a sitting position on the lounger, watching as jason let himself fall onto your lap, turning so he could still look at you.

" don't care. only want you, angel " his words caused you to lean down and press a kiss onto his already slightly pink nose.

" love you too, handsome " you replied simply.

the rest of the day was spent lounging in the sun until it started to darken outside and you both showered and changed into something more comfortable for dinner.

dinner which consisted of a simple pasta eaten on the patio overlooking the sunset.

but all jason could seem to look at was you.

you could feel his eyes on you, and every time you looked over at him, his gaze remained fixed.

he didnt shy away.

he would simply offer you a smile and lift your locked hands to his lips to press a kiss to the back of your hand.

by the end of dinner, you had turned to face him, your legs up on his chair and his up on yours. and his eyes remained on you

" see something you like handsome ? " you teased, a smile worming its way onto your face.

" yeah, my gorgeous, gorgeous girl. you're freckles are coming out already, baby. caught the sun a little today "

he was right, while you lounged around today your cheeks had turned a light shade of pink that you noticed when you were washing your face after showering.

" so have you, jay. " you insisted as you stood and walked the few steps over to him, your legs straddling his as your hands cradled his face.

your forefinger dragged delicately over the redness of his face.

down the slope of his nose and across the apple of his cheeks.

" y'gonna let me put on some of my aloe cream on your face before we go to bed ?"

" you can do whatever you want to my face, sweetheart, as long as you still want to kiss it "

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catmiemy · 11 hours

Text

Another Chance to Live Part 5 (Ana Maria Crnogorčević x Reader)

Summary: Things between Ana and you are going great, sadly the same isn't true for other aspects of your life.

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

A/N: One day early is still early, right? However the good news is that I almost finished editing the last part, so you should get that one at the beginning of next week. Although I might have to find a way to incorporate Ana's pink hair!

Happy reading! 😊

Things continued to flourish between Ana and you, and soon the two of you spent every possible minute together. Not that this was much of a change, you had more or less been doing that from the beginning. You still met up with other people too, you weren’t totally reclusive, but usually you did so together.

Somewhere in the back of your mind you started wondering if maybe moving in should be something that should be brought to the table sometime soon. What was the point of paying for two apartments when you were always together at one or the other?

However, you still weren’t confident enough to bring up something big like that on your own. Being with Ana, who constantly told and showed you how amazing she thought you were, had definitely helped bolster your confidence, but there were limits.

You were once again thinking about starting a conversation about moving in together while Ana and you were lying on your couch after a long day of training. The Swiss woman was in front of you, snuggled against your chest, your entangled hands resting on her stomach.

In the end you couldn’t go through with it though, just like always. You resigned yourself to wait for Ana to bring it up. Plus you didn’t want to complicate or possible even ruin a nice evening.

“I’m so glad I don’t have to go in tomorrow,” you sighed contently.

“Me too,” Ana agreed instantly, turning around to give you a soft kiss.

It went deeper than just the joy of having a day off for the both of you. Even after several months neither of you had really found your footing at your respective teams. At least it had gotten easier since you began talking about it together. It felt good to let out all of your emotions and complain about your situation without being scared to be judged for it.

It was in that moment that your phone buzzed and when you checked it you sighed again. This time out of unhappiness though. In an instant Ana sat up and turned around to you properly, a non nonsense expression on her face.

“Okay, what was that? This keeps happening, you checking your phone and then looking unhappy about it. Is someone bothering you? Mean comments? A stalker? Please talk to me,“ your girlfriend all but begged.

You hadn’t even realized that she had taken note of this happening. In your mind you had been subtle.

“It’s nothing really.“

Ana just raised her eyebrows, telling you with that one small gesture that she didn’t accept your answer. That she in fact thought this was something, something important even, if it was bothering you in any capacity.

“Just my parents, complaining I haven’t been around much lately,” you explained, not thinking much about it.

However, when Ana’s face fell and guilt spread across it, you recognized your mistake. Only now did you realize how this must have sounded to your girlfriend.

“Wait no, that came out wrong,” you scrambled to make this right, to put a smile back on your girlfriend’s face. You didn’t get far though before Ana interrupted you.

“Please don’t. You don’t have to lie, it’s fine. I’m sorry that I never thought about that. Now that I think about it, I realize that I have been monopolizing you a lot lately,” your girlfriend apologized, chuckling self-deprecating.

In that moment you hated yourself a little for making Ana doubt herself, for making her apologize for something that had made you so happy.

“No, no, no! Don’t apologize, tesoro, please. These last few months have been the best in my life and I’ve been so happy. And sure you’ve been monopolizing me, but only because I also wanted that. To be honest my parents aren’t the easiest,” you said, hoping that the Swiss woman could hear your sincerity.

You weren’t completely convinced that she did, still seeing some lingering doubt and guilt in her eyes, but the moment you uttered the last sentence, all of Ana’s focus shifted to that.

“Oh, I didn’t know. Do you want to talk about it?”Ana spotted your reluctance, so she continued, “You said yourself that talking about your emotions has been helpful.”

You rolled your eyes good-naturedly, leave it to the Swiss woman to beat you with your own words. She was right though. Still, this was different. This was definitely a case of you just being whiney and spoiled.

“Please?“ Your girlfriend pleaded and there was no way you could ever resist that face.

“Fine, but honestly it’s nothing bad at all, I’m just being ungrateful and apparently I love complaining about everything.”

You quickly moved on when you detected a fair amount of unhappiness about your words on your girlfriend’s face. She didn’t like it at all when you put yourself down. However, Ana also knew that you shouldn’t be stopped when you got into sharing mode, otherwise you would most likely withdraw again. Therefore the Swiss woman bit her lip and let you keep talking, vowing to bring this up again later.

“They just have a lot of expectations about who I should be and how a good daughter is supposed to act. Sometimes it feels like they don’t really care that much about me, but only about the person they want me to be. But that’s probably normal. I guess everyone has an image of how their kid will turn out. It just really sucks when you constantly feel like you’re not living up to the expectation.”

Once again Ana had to basically restrain herself from speaking her mind. This definitely wasn’t what she would describe as a normal relationship between parents and their kid. However, she sensed that you still had more to say, so she didn’t want to interrupt you.

“And the other thing is that it’s just me. You know I’m an only child, but also none of my aunts and uncles have children. Plus they all live here in Madrid too. So it’s just a whole lot of people from one generation against me. No wait, that sounds wrong, like we’re constantly fighting. We’re not, we just…” you trailed off, not even sure yourself what you were.

All you knew was that you never felt relaxed in the presence of your parents, aunts and uncles, that you always felt under scrutiny and every little thing you did or didn’t do was fair game for them to take apart and criticize viciously.

“But like I said, I shouldn’t be complaining. At least they care. I mean they’ve never missed a single one of my games,” you finished, happy with the way you managed to put a positive spin to this in the end.

Ana looked at you in confusion. “Really? I’ve never seen them at any of your games I’ve gone to,” she pointed out carefully.

“Oh yeah, I meant when I still played for Atlético. They’re all live long Atleti fans,” you clarified. “It was really hard for them when I had to transfer.”

Clearly the Swiss woman didn’t like this answer, her jaw was clenched tightly and anger burned in her eyes.

“That doesn’t sound very supportive! Honestly all of this doesn’t sound like a good family situation to me, but I know I personally can’t stand it if anyone other than me talks even remotely badly about my family, so I don’t want to overstep.”

You could tell that there was a lot more your girlfriend wanted to say and it was hard for her to hold her tongue. However, you appreciated that she did. You weren’t ready to get into a long conversation about this right now.

“I actually haven’t talked about my family to anyone before, so I don’t really know how I feel about that. But I also don’t really want to continue talking about them right now; I need some time to process first. Up until now I’ve been so convince that I was the problem and if I ever told anyone they would just laugh at me. I mean it’s not like they were ever abusive or anything.”

In your mind you were still being overly dramatic and ridiculous, but the simple fact that Ana disagreed with that assessment, made you re-think your convictions.

“There is more than one way to hurt someone. And, Schatz, it’s clear as day that you’ve been hurt and people have severely damaged the image you have yourself.”

The gentle way in which Ana spoke to you, brought tears to your eyes. There is more than one way to hurt someone. You had never thought about it like this before.

“And it’s totally okay if you don’t feel up to talking about it right now. Just promise me that you won’t try to process everything all alone in your head! Talk to me once you’ve had some time to let it set, yeah?”

You smiled at that, your girlfriend really knew you too well. No, not too well, she knew you the perfect amount well.

“I promise, I’ll try?” It came out more as a question than a statement. And in some way it was; a question if that offer was good enough. Of course you had no reason to worry.

“I guess I’ll take that. And in turn I promise that I will bother you about it again,” Ana retorted, winking at you.

You huffed in fake annoyance, but made sure to communicate that it was in fact exactly what you needed with a grateful smile and by closing the distance, that had been left between the two of you ever since your girlfriend had sat up.

Sharing your thoughts and feelings wasn’t something that came naturally to you, so you appreciated some gentle pushes. It made it easier to believe that Ana really wanted to hear what was going on inside your mess of a brain.

With this out of the way, you tugged on your girlfriend’s upper arm to get her back into your previous position. You wanted some more snuggles.

However, Ana didn’t follow your silent request, her body still a little tense and something clearly still on her mind. She was nibbling on her lips, having some sort of internal fight.

“What’s going on in that mind of yours?” You asked, placing a few kisses on your girlfriend’s shoulder. The soft contact made her relax visibly.

“Okay, so I’m just going to come out and say it, but I want you to know that there’s no pressure. And really it probably isn’t my place to bring this up. However, I also know that you tend to over think.”

“And you tend to ramble,” you quipped, hoping to soothe some of your girlfriend’s nervousness. It worked like a charm.

Ana chuckled, sounding much less stressed when she continued, “I’d be happy to come along to your parents whenever if you don’t want to miss out on any time together, but still want to go and see them.”

“Really? That would be amazing!” You replied. „And you were right; I never would have brought this up even though I have been thinking about it.”

One more time you pulled on Ana’s arms to get her to lay down with you again and this time your girlfriend relented without pause, snuggling into you.

“So should I tell them we’ll come over for lunch tomorrow and then we’ll say we are meeting friends at 3 or something, so we have a reason to leave,” you suggested.

Ana agreed easily, deciding to not ask why you felt the need to have other plans lined up, or well a lie prepared to be able to leave whenever you wanted. Without even meeting your family she already knew they were very different from her own. Also, you had asked for some time to figure stuff out, so she didn’t want to add another thing on top of it.

After your girlfriend had given her approval, you quickly texted your mother back, before putting your phone away and focusing on the moment instead. You gently stroked Ana’s arm, the rhythmic motion doing a lot to calm yourself down as well.

Normally this was the moment you would began to worry, think through every possible and impossible scenario that could occur the next day when Ana met your family, but with your girlfriend in your arms it was easy to put a stop to that and instead bask in the peaceful quietness.

---

However, the next day not even Ana’s usually almost magical presence did anything to help you relax. Seeing how nervous you were, your girlfriend insisted on driving, which left you with the job of giving directions. But with how preoccupied with your worries you were, you missed several turns.

“Schatz, do you just want to give me the address so I can put it into the GPS?” The Swiss woman proposed carefully, after you had gotten annoyed with yourself for missing a turn for the fifth time.

“No, no, it’s okay. I’m going to focus now. I’m sorry,” you apologized, trying to slow down the tornado of thoughts going round and round in your mind.

“Everything is going to be fine, just take a deep breath. We can always leave if you don’t feel comfortable.”

You only nodded tersely. It was sweet of Ana to try and calm you down, but she didn’t know your family like you did. You couldn’t just leave whenever you wanted, not if you didn’t want to risk a whole lot of guilt tripping and harsh words.

“Or we can just cancel?” Ana tried again, when she noticed her words had done absolutely nothing to soothe your nerves.

You chuckled humorlessly. That was even less of an option.

„No, it’s fine really. I’m just being dramatic again, don’t take me seriously.“

Ana frowned at your attempt to downplay things, but she decided to stop her futile attempts. She had to accept that words were not going to do anything for you right now. Instead she reached over and took your hand into hers, trying to communicate that no matter what happened she would be right there with you.

Although in reality that was part of the problem. By now you were seriously berating yourself for not thinking this through more. You had just decided one random evening to bring your girlfriend to your parents’ house, a first time occurrence since you had never been serious enough about someone before.

A little while later Ana parked the car in the spot you pointed out. And as soon as she didn’t need her hands to drive anymore, she reached over to awkwardly hug you over the center console. It helped to bring you back to your body from where you had been lost in your head.

“We can still leave,” you girlfriend offered, making sure you knew she was completely serious.

“No, it’s okay. Let’s just get this over with,” you sighed.

Only when you were walking towards your parents’ front door, did you remember to check in with Ana. You should have learnt from the past that just because the blonde often seemed so calm, didn’t mean that she always was.

You tugged on her hand to get her to stop, hoping your parents weren’t already keeping an eye out through the window for you.

“And how are you doing? I’m sorry I’ve been making this about me so much. Now that I think about it, I should probably be the one calming you down.”

“You don’t have to apologize, Schatz. Also, I can see that this is really hard for you, so I’m happy I can be there for you. And really I’m fine.”

Ana’s voice sounded sure and steady, but still you couldn’t accept that answer so easily.

“Look, I’m being completely honest, somehow it helps me stay calm when you’re anxious, like I have something else than my own thoughts and worries to focus on,” your girlfriend explained once she saw your doubtful face.

This you could believe, you felt the same when Ana was particularly stressed or emotional. You gave the blonde’s hand a good squeeze, not feeling comfortable enough to hug or even kiss her when your parents were possibly spying on you.

“Good, but tell me if things change, yeah? We can always leave if you want to.”

Ana nodded, touched at this offer. From what she could gather just leaving whenever you wanted wasn’t something you ever did, even if your family made you uncomfortable. So, the fact that you were willing to do so if Ana needed it meant a lot to her.

Walking to the front door you gave yourself an internal pep talk. Surely things wouldn’t be as bad as some of the scenarios circling through your mind. Your parents weren’t the easiest people, but they also weren’t bad or anything. Ana and you would spend a couple of hours with them and then leave again to enjoy the rest of your day off. You could do a few hours! That was nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Sadly, this time you were proven wrong. Things turned out to be as bad as you had pictured them. And it all started with the realization that not only your parents, but also all of your aunts and uncles were there.

Your first thought, once you noticed, was that you were now severely outnumbered. At this point you still had hope though and even chastised yourself for thinking about this in a ‘you versus them’ manner.

However, then it continued with your family basically treating Ana like she wasn’t there. They didn’t address her, they didn’t react to anything she said, they didn’t even look her way. It made you want to scream at your family, but when you glanced over at Ana to gauge how she was feeling, she smiled at you bravely, mouthing that she was fine and that you should stay calm.

You wondered if she was hoping things would turn around, that your family just needed a little time to adjust and warm up to her. Or maybe your girlfriend had already resigned herself to a few hours of suffering through the awkwardness because she didn’t want to do anything that might impact your relationship with your family. Both were very Ana things to do.

You reached the end of your patience though, when your mother started dropping passive aggressive remarks aimed at Ana. The second time she mentioned how heartbreaking it was when people just swooped in and ruined a family, without mentioning your girlfriend of course, but clearly talking about her, you jumped up from your chair.

“Can we talk in the kitchen?” You gritted out between your teeth, staring daggers at your mother.

She just looked at your father meaningfully, like she has done so often when you were a kid and were throwing a tantrum. You balled your fists in anger; you hated how easily they could make you feel like a child again. And not a happy, excited about life child, but a stupid, worthless child.

“What is it, niña?” Your mother asked you innocently when you entered the kitchen, making your blood boil even more. It felt like you were one wrong word away from having steam shoot out of your ears like in a cartoon.

“You know exactly what I want to talk about,” you snapped.

Still feigning ignorance your mother looked at you in pretend confusion. “No, niña, I obviously don’t, otherwise I wouldn’t have asked. So can you just tell me, so we can go back. You’re being really rude right now.”

This was the final straw. You were going to tell your mother exactly what was wrong, in great detail and not quietly at all. However, before you got around to venting your anger, you heard a loud voice from the living room.

Without even sparing your mother a second glance, you rushed back there. The only thought on your mind was that you had to make sure Ana was okay. That was much more important than shouting at your mother, you could do that later.

The scene you walked into wasn’t pretty. Your uncle was standing, his face red and contorted into anger, while he was throwing a stream of angry words at your girlfriend. The rest of your family was nodding along in silent agreement.

Ana on the other hand was still seated, her hands balled into tights fist, just like yours had been seconds before, and her gaze fixed on the table. It made her look small and defeated, but one look at her stormy eyes was enough for you to recognize that she was actually doing her best to keep her temper in check. Despite everything she was still trying to keep peace, even if your family had been nothing but horrible towards her. It filled you with so much anger and disappointment.

You caught the last few words your uncle was yelling, before he snapped his mouth shut, the moment he noticed you. Clearly you weren’t supposed to hear this.

“Isn’t it enough that you stole my niece’s place in our team?! Now you’re also taking her away from us! But I’ll tell you right now, you will never be a part of this family!”

Anger was roaring through you at this point. So when you opened your mouth to defend your girlfriend, you didn’t hold back anything.

“No, let me tell you something! Right now I’m ashamed to call any of you my family. This is how you treat my partner, the woman I love? She isn’t taking me away from you, I just finally feel happy and accepted exactly the way that I am. And she definitely didn’t take away my spot at Atleti, we don’t even play the same position!”

With that you marched over to your girlfriend and took her hand to pull her up. Ana followed your guidance without resistance, holding on to your hand tightly.

“Come on, tesoro, we’re leaving,” you told her quietly.

“Wait what? You can’t do that, we’re your family,” your mother cried out.

You shrugged your shoulders. “Just because you’re my family doesn’t mean you can do whatever you want and I have to put up with it.”

And without listening to anything else you walked out of the front door, the warmth of Ana’s hand in yours giving you the courage to do so. In the past you would have given in to your mother’s pleading, you would have been intimidated by your father’s anger, but not this time. You had learnt that you deserved better, thanks to your girlfriend.

Swiftly you guided Ana to the passenger side, before getting into the driver seat yourself and pulling away in a hurry. You didn’t want to risk your family coming out to try and talk with you again. Your confidence was only so strong; you didn’t need to put it to any more tests.

You didn’t drive all the way home though; instead you found a quiet place to park. It was important to you to check in with Ana as soon as possible. After all, you were used to your family, but she wasn’t.

“Are you okay?” You both asked each other at the same time. It made you chuckle which diffused some of the loaded atmosphere in the car.

“You first,” you pleaded. You needed to know right now how your girlfriend was feeling.

Ana stayed silent for a moment, mulling her answer over. It had been a lot to take in and she wasn’t completely sure yet how she felt.

“I’m a bit overwhelmed I guess. You warned me about your family, but I didn’t expect this.”

“Honestly I didn’t either and I’m so so sorry for it,” you apologized, harshly rubbing away the tears filling your eyes.

Ana gently caught your hands and brought them to rest on her knees instead.

“Schatz, you have nothing to apologize for. Your family’s actions aren’t your fault, not ever!”

You took some deep breaths to avoid breaking down into tears completely, there was still so much more you wanted to say.

“I’m still sorry and I hope you know that I don’t share their beliefs at all.”

Your girlfriend looked at you searchingly. “Not even about me taking your spot a Atleti?” She asked quietly.

“No, of course not! Why would you ever think that? Wait, has anyone else said anything like that to you?”

How long had your girlfriend been worried about that? It had never even crossed your mind, so you had never thought to talk about it with her. But maybe she had been feeling like she had taken something from you all along.

“No, no, no one said anything. I just thought…I mean with the timing…So you really don’t feel like that?”

The hope in Ana’s voice hurt your heart. Now you knew without the shadow of a doubt that she had indeed been worrying about that, probably been feeling guilty since she met you, for absolutely no reason.

“Oh my gosh, no! I really never thought about it like that. Like I said we play on completely different positions. Plus I’m pretty sure that the decision to let me go was made weeks before Atleti ever signed you.”

Tears of relief began trickling down Ana’s cheek. She had been holding this inside for so long and now she finally had confirmation that she had worried needlessly. You gently wiped the tears away with your thumb, a complete antithesis to how unkindly you had gotten rid of your own tears.

“I wish you were as gentle with yourself as you are with me,” your girlfriend whispered, leaning into your soft touch, letting her eyes flutter shut for a moment.

You bit the inside of your cheek, frowning. “I’m working on it,” you offered.

“I know you are, Schatz. Now please tell me, how are you feeling?”

Ana fixed you with a serious gaze, making it clear that you weren’t going to satisfy her with any sort of generic reply. Therefore, just like she had done, you took a moment to tune into your feelings and gather your thoughts.

“Angry, disappointed, sad, guilty but mostly angry,” you listed, “I can’t believe they treated you like this!”

Just thinking about it made you mad all over again. How dare they! And sure maybe you were biased, thinking Ana was the most amazing person in the world. But then again you had yet to meet anyone that didn’t like the kind-hearted Swiss woman, so you weren’t alone in your assessment.

“You want to know the funny thing about all of this?” Your girlfriend asked.

Somehow you doubted that there was anything funny about this entire situation, still you motioned for Ana to continue. You were more than happy to get out of talking about yourself more.

“The thing that really makes me angry? The way they treated you and apparently have always treated you! I don’t care that much about what they said to me or how they ignored me, especially now that we cleared up the whole Atleti thing, but the way they treat you? Let’s just say I was very close to punching someone.”

Ana’s voice shook with anger, and suddenly you were glad you were the one sitting behind the wheel. Otherwise you wouldn’t have put it past her to turn around to actually give your family a piece of her mind. And as satisfying as that would be, you didn’t want to complicate this entire mess even more.

“Well, I’m glad you didn’t. They probably would have pressed charges and I don’t want you to get into trouble because of me.”

Your girlfriend shook your head vehemently. “Because of them”, she corrected.

“Fine, because of them,” you relented, “But the most important thing is that it didn’t happen and you won’t have to deal with any legal matters.”

Once again Ana shook hed head, “No, the most important thing is that you recognize that you’re not responsible for your family’s actions.”

You swallowed a couple of times, trying to get rid of the lump that had formed in your throat. It continued to overwhelm you how much your girlfriend cared for you, how important it was to her that you healed from every bad thing that had ever happened to you.

“I’m going to work on that too,” you promised.

“And I’ll be right here by your side, helping you,” Ana vowed.

That was something you were never going to say no to. Everything seemed much less daunting with your girlfriend by your side. It was nice to know you had someone in your corner, and not just someone that pretended to be there for you, as long as you stayed in the corner they wanted you to be in.

“How about we go back to my place now and have a cozy afternoon after all of this craziness?” Your girlfriend suggested.

It was precisely what you wanted to do, still you couldn’t agree right away. Instead you chewed some more on the inside of your cheek, stuck in indecision.

“Or maybe I should go back and clear everything up right now?”

“It that what you want to do? If so, then definitely do it,“ Ana responded.

You didn’t even have to give it a single thought to come to the conclusion that it wasn’t what you wanted at all, but it was what you thought you should do.

Your silence was enough of an answer for Ana and somehow she guessed very accurately where your mind was at, “I get that you feel like you should figure this out right away. But, Schatz, I don’t think it’s something that will be easily resolved in an afternoon. So, I really think that putting it to rest for a little bit might be best. Or if you just want some time alone, I also totally understand that.”

“No!” You jumped in, “That’s the last thing I want. What I really want is to go home with you, have a nice cuddle session before cooking dinner together. But I just feel like I should try again. Am I a bad daughter if I don’t?”

You knew what you parents’ answer to that question would be. They had been telling you all your life that you were a bad daughter when you couldn’t meet their needs and obviously their need right now was for you to come and make things right.

However, Ana had slowly started to change the way you thought about yourself and your family, so you were curious what she had to say.

“Absolutely not! If my parents ever did something like that, I would expect them to come to me and beg for my forgiveness.”

“Except they never would do something like that in the first place,” you added the part your girlfriend had so graciously omitted in a vain attempt to spare your feelings.

“True. So can I take you home now and shower you with love?” Ana pleaded, unleashing her secret weapon on you, her pout.

“You know there’s no way I can say no when you look at me like that,” you groaned.

“Good,” Ana replied with a satisfied smile. “Do you want so switch so I can drive?”

You nodded, feeling too jittery to safely drive anything more than a few blocks. Ana and you both got out of the car and when you met in the middle, your girlfriend pulled you into a hug, swaying you softly from side to side.

“Just a little teaser for all the cuddles to come,” Ana joked after she let go of you.

You smiled at her brightly, glad that you had made the decision to go with what you wanted, instead of doing what you thought you should do. Going home to snuggle with your wonderful girlfriend sounded so much better than going back and dealing with you very frustrating family.

---

The next few days Ana was extra affectionate with you. To be honest it was surprising she could even step up her affection game since she was already very affectionate to begin with. However, you appreciated it and it helped soothe the fresh wounds your family had inflicted.

You got a lot of messages from them, although not a single one contained any sort of apology. There were a lot of, sadly very successful, attempts to make you feel guilty, and if it weren’t for Ana, you would have felt like the world’s worst daughter.

A little over a week after the initial fight you felt ready to try and sort everything out with your family. Ana offered to go with you, but you decided against it. Your girlfriend being there and potentially being disrespected again would only make you more emotional. And the one thing you needed was to keep your composure, if you wanted any chance at having a calm conversation about this.

In the end it didn’t matter though. Within minutes the conversation turned into a shouting match that resulted in you storming out of your parents’ house once again. You rushed home to fall into the waiting arms of your girlfriend.

“I just want this to be resolved,” you whined after the worst of your sobs had died down, “But there’s nothing I can do if they don’t even realize what the problem is. And I hate that so much! I hate not being able to do anything!”

Ana rubbed soothing circles on your back, humming in agreement. She very much felt the same; she hated that there was nothing she could do to make this all better for you right this moment. Having to accept that something sucked and you could do nothing to change it, was a bitter pill to swallow.

You cried for a long time that evening, and you cried a lot more in the next few weeks. Then slowly you began to accept this reality, resigning yourself to having no contact with your family for the moment. You only reached out once more, sending them a text with your thoughts and explaining that you wouldn’t come around anymore until there was a clear signal from their side, that they were prepared to work on themselves.

After that you ignored every other message they sent, even debating if you should block all of your family members, but you weren’t ready to go that far yet. They were still your family! Plus you had left the door open an inch, for the unlikely scenario that they wanted to work everything out, so you had to at least glance at their texts.

Ana wasn’t too happy with that decision because every message made you sad and worried that you were being selfish all over again. She even offered to read the messages for you, but seeing your girlfriend get upset on your behalf was even worse than reading the harsh words yourself.

Therefore every time you got one, you quickly scanned it, getting disappointed each and every time, and then deleted the message. Unfortunately getting rid of the words wasn’t as easy as getting rid of the texts; they played on a loop in your mind.

We did so much for you and now you just turn your back on us?

You’ll come running back to us, as soon as she dumps you!

How can you do this to us? Your mother can barely eat because she’s so upset.

We didn’t raise you to be so stupid and blind. I can’t believe you’re letting her manipulate you like this.

Why are you being so dramatic about a few words?

It all fell apart completely at the game between Real and Atlético. You had been dreading that match for a long time. Not only would you be playing against your girlfriend, but also against your former club.

Ana and you had talked about it beforehand and promised each other that there would be no hard feelings, no matter what team won. You were pretty confident that the two of you would be able to follow through on that promise, but the anxious part of you still fretted about it.

However, once you entered the pitch for warm up you were slapped in the face by a harsh surprise, making every other worry seem obsolete. Your entire family was there, clad in Atleti’s colors and loudly supporting your former team.

It wouldn’t have hurt quite so much if they would have been at any other Atlético game this season, but they hadn’t. So the only reason why they were doing this now, was to upset you.

And they succeeded. Forgetting all professionalism you turned around and ran back into the tunnels, chocking on the tears you were holding back until no one could see you anymore. You heard a few confused voices calling after you, but you couldn’t explain right now, you couldn’t talk.

You found a quiet corner where you slid down the wall and buried your face in your hands, your knees pulled closely to your chest. Your entire focus went to keeping your breath as normal as possible to avoid spiraling into a full blown panic attack. Therefore you didn’t even notice someone coming up to you until that person sat down next to you and gently pulled you against their side.

For a moment you went stiff, uncomfortable with the sudden closeness. But then you smelled Ana’s coconut shampoo and allowed yourself to melt into you girlfriend.

“Wait, you shouldn’t be here,” you exclaimed once Ana’s calming power had helped you feel less overwhelmed and think more clearly again.

“Of course I should be here, you’re my girlfriend. No way was I not going to check on you after that stunt they pulled,” Ana replied harshly, softening her tone when she noticed you tensing up, “You’re much more important than any possible repercussions this could have, Schatz.”

“I just want to go home,” you mumbled, hating how much you sounded like a little kid.

“You can if you want to. I’m sure your coach would understand and if not I’ll beat them up. I could even go with you! Or I can go out there, grab your family and throw them out of the stadium. I’d happily do that.”

The mental image of your girlfriend literally throwing your family out made you chuckle. Although you had no doubt that she would actually do it if you asked her to.

“Or you go out there, completely ignore your parents and play an amazing game. And afterwards we’ll go home and I’ll hold you all night long.”

You stayed safely tucked away in Ana’s arms for a little while longer, before extracting yourself with a sigh. There was only one option you could live with, even if it was the one that meant suffering for the next few hours.

Ana studied you with pain in her eyes. You didn’t need to lay out for her what you wanted to do, she knew without a single word. And while she understood, she also longed to take you home, far away from the harshness of real life.

“If you change your mind at any point, let me know, yeah?” Your girlfriend requested.

“And then what? We run away together in the middle of the game?” you joked, but Ana didn’t react to your attempt at humor, instead she nodded seriously

“Yes,” she confirmed.

You swallowed, fresh tears pricking in your eyes because of your girlfriend’s willingness to do an absolutely crazy thing, if it was what you needed. And just that knowledge was a huge help in getting through the game.

Not once did you look over at your family, telling yourself they weren’t there. Still, you knew, and it hurt. It felt like something had been stuck right through your heart, twisting and turning with every movement, inflicting pain over and over again.

You didn’t let it show, though. There wasn’t a lot you could control when it came to your family, but you could at least decide how much or how little of your feelings they got to see. And they didn’t deserve to see any of them.

Because while you always felt horrible when you knew that you were the reason someone was hurting, you had to assume your family didn’t feel the same; that they might even get some satisfaction from knowing they upset you. Otherwise why would they have done this?

Throughout the entire game you functioned on autopilot, and you continued to do so until hours later when you stumbled into your girlfriend’s apartment. You had asked to go there instead of yours because absolutely nothing at Ana’s place reminded you of your family.

The moment you stepped through the front door, tears began running down your cheeks. Ana had been expecting this and pulled you towards her couch, cocooning you in her arms. She didn’t even attempt to say anything to make you feel better; there really wasn’t much she could say. She just let you get it all out.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Your girlfriend asked softly, after your tears had stopped and your breathing had been much more even for a while.

You shook your head, not trusting your voice to function right now. Not having to rely on words to communicate was one of your favorite things about your relationship with Ana.

“Okay, I’ll be here to listen whenever you feel ready,” Ana reminded you. “How about we block their numbers now?”

Again you shook your head and you could tell that your girlfriend didn’t agree with this decision, but she kept her tongue. She watched you like a hawk when you sat up and grabbed your phone.

“What are you doing?”

Ana did her best to keep her tone neutral, but internally she was anything but. She was of course curious, but mostly your girlfriend was worried that you had already convinced yourself again that this was somehow all your fault and were going to apologize to your family.

You simply showed Ana your phone, erasing all of her fears and replacing them with satisfaction and heartbreak. You had typed out a message to your family, stating that you would block them, and expected them to leave you alone until you were ready to talk with them again.

After you pressed sent, quickly so you couldn’t second guess yourself, you handed your phone to Ana.

“Now you can block them,” you instructed her, snuggling into your girlfriend again.

It didn’t necessarily feel good to cut all contact with your family for the moment, but it definitely felt right. However, lying all night long in your girlfriend’s arm definitely felt good, so much better than having another argument with your family that somehow always refused to see your side of things.

And being told that you were loved and that Ana was so proud of you, was also much better than being called childish, dramatic, ungrateful and whatever else your family came up with. Still, was it too much to ask to have a wonderful girlfriend and a loving family?

#woso #woso imagine #woso x reader #ana maria crnogorcevic imagine #ana maria crnogorcevic x reader

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