#bear with me while i try to figure it out

[starsinthesky5]

you belong with me ll || joe burrow x reader

description: you and Joe have been best friends ever since ohio state and you’ve been his biggest supporter for as long as you both could remember. it was always the same dynamic between you both, friends. very very very close friends. but what if you were more than just friends?

a/n: welcome to part 2! i really couldn’t stop writing this one so i had to split it up :) sorry this took a while!! 

warnings: language, mentions of sex

word count: 13.9 k

Part 1

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A few days later 

You enter your apartment with tears flowing from your eyes. You throw your bag to the side and kick your shoes off before running over and face planting on your couch. You felt like absolute shit because of the day you had and your anxiety was through the roof. First, it was waking up to your period and dealing with deadly cramps while trying to get ready for work. Then, you got lectured by your Boss for being late to a work meeting because you had spent a few extra minutes in bed because of the cramps, and then you managed to take on a work project that you knew would be too much for you so you could make it up to your boss. Then, you managed to spill coffee all over your very new and expensive outfit. On top of that, the florist for your sister’s wedding–which was slowly approaching–had canceled last minute. You had taken on a lot of the planning duties for her wedding, which you now regret, and things were not going as planned. Everything just felt like it was crumbling. 

The thought of you and Joe’s relationship was also still lingering in your mind, you just wanted to know how he felt but didn’t want to push it, and it was driving you insane. So many thoughts were floating through your mind. What if he didn’t feel the same way? What if this caused him to pull away from you? You couldn’t bear the thought of not being able to talk to Joe, not getting to hear his adorable laugh; but most importantly, not having the comfort of knowing you had a person in your life who would always stick by your side no matter what happened. But what if he did feel the same way? What if he had felt the same way all this time but you were too blind to see it? It was an endless battle in your mind and your curiosity was only getting worse by the day; it all could go away if you simply just talked to him, but you refused to push both of you into that situation. If it was going to happen, it would have to happen on its own. 

All you could think about was him. Joe was the only person who could make you feel butterflies and lovesick simultaneously. 

Lovesick. You were lovesick. You couldn’t think about anything other than Joe and your feelings for him, and it was causing you to spiral, falling into an abyss of feelings you thought you moved on from a long time ago.

“Ughhh,” you grumbled into the pillow. “Why did everything have to be so complicated?” You thought to yourself. You lifted your head from the pillow and reached for your phone, checking the time before you opened up your contacts, calling the only person who could turn your mood around, who you really needed to talk to. And as usual, he picked up in an instant.  

“Hey, Y/N,” Joe grinned as he was on the way home from practice. 

“H- Hey, Joe,” you said, trying to hide the fact that you were crying. 

He instantly noticed something was off by the way you sounded, and this was one of his greatest talents. He could always figure out when you were lying, hiding something, or crying by just hearing your voice. 

“Are you okay?” he asked, his smile faltering.

“Y- Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” you lie, trying to hide your emotions because you don’t want him to be worried.

“You sound..off,” he said as he pulled into his driveway. 

“Just tired,” you mumble. 

He sighed at your response and was a little mad that you wouldn’t tell him what was really wrong. You had a habit of always bottling up your feelings and never openly talking about them. When they built up, they would come out explosively in the form of a breakdown, and it was not pretty. Joe always had to tell you that it was alright to let them out even if it felt like a lot, but here you were, bottling them up again and not listening to his advice. 

“Damn, that sucks,” he said, sounding incredibly stand-off-ish on purpose. “Maybe take a nap?” he suggests as he texts his parents that he won’t be able to join them for dinner tonight, then types in the address of the nearest pizza spot by your apartment. If you weren’t gonna talk to him about what was really wrong, he was going to have to get it out of you himself. This, plus what happened a few days ago with how you randomly left his house early in the morning without explanation was starting to bother him. He needed you to open up and what better way to do so than with pizza, wine, and ice cream? Three of your most favorite things.

You flinch at his sudden change of tone. “Joe-” you begin to say before he cuts you off.

“Listen, I gotta go. I’m kinda busy right now so I’ll talk to you later. Get some rest,” he says before he hangs up, not giving you a second to respond. You move the phone out from your ear as tears pooled your eyes again. Even the one person who could make you feel better couldn’t talk to you right now, and that made you feel even more shitty. 

He felt terrible for being so rude to you, but he knew that what you needed was some comfort and leisure, not just another lecture from him like he usually would give when you got like this. 

You wiped the tears that fell from your eyes, mumbling “Jerk,” as you got up from the couch to go change into something comfy. You opted for another one of his hoodies, which was a few sizes too big, and a pair of leggings. Then, you did what he said to do which was take a nap. Maybe that would make you feel better since he was too occupied to talk to you for a few minutes.

An hour later

You were woken by the sound of your doorbell, your puffy eyes slowly adjusting to your room which was now dark. You rubbed your eyes as you got out of bed, not bothering to fix your disheveled appearance, and walked straight over to the door to see what it was. 

You wiped your nose and cheeks with the sleeve of the sweatshirt as you opened the door, your eyes widening at the sight of what, or who was standing at the door. 

“Hard day?” Joe asked with a gentle smile. You looked up at his face, then down to his hands which were holding a box of pizza from your favorite pizzeria, a bottle of pinot noir, and a tub of cookies and cream ice cream. 

Your eyes softened when you saw him. This was your biggest weakness. You could never stay mad at him for longer than a few hours, even shorter if you actually saw him in front of you, just like you did now. “Yeah,” you sigh before you open the door a little more to let him in. 

He smiled as he walked inside, placing all the stuff he had on the kitchen island. He noticed that you had his blue Nike sweatshirt on, the one he had been looking all over for because it was his favorite, but didn’t say anything because you had it, and that was perfectly fine. 

He turns around and sees you standing in front of him, looking incredibly defeated with your puffy eyes and tear-stained cheeks. He instantly grabs your arm and pulls you into him, wrapping his arm around your shoulder and another around your lower back. He held you incredibly close to his warm body, and you wanted him to never let go. 

“Jerk,” you murmur against his chest. 

“I’m sorry but I had to be a little jerky so I could do this,” he said softly, referring to his little surprise. “Did you really think I would’ve left you hanging like that?”.

“I meannn,” you drag out, teasing him as you look up at him. 

Joe gasped dramatically as he said, “I must really be lacking in the bestie department then,”.

“Mmph, please. If anything, you’ve set and exceeded the standards in the bestie department. You’re entering uncharted territory now,” you joke as you feel him rub your back, the warmth of his body making you forget all about your terrible day. 

“Oh really? What territory?” he questions as he looks down into your soft eyes.

“Boyfriend territory,” you say, feeling a pit of nervousness in your stomach because you didn’t know why you said that or how he would react to you saying that. It was pretty boyfriendish of him to drop what he was doing at the moment, which was probably getting ready for dinner with his parents which he so clearly was skipping for you, to come over with your favorite things in the hope of making you feel better. 

Joe swore his heart stopped when you said that. Boyfriend? He knew you were kidding, at least he thought you were, but the fact that you actually said it in regards to him was making his heart race. Were you calling him your boyfriend?

“I guess I’ll be setting the standards in the boyfriend department as well since nobody knows how to do that either,” he says, trying to act cool.

“Well, you’re setting them pretty high right now,” you smile as you break out from his embrace to examine the goodies he brought, letting out an internal sigh of relief that he didn’t say anything about basically telling him he was acting like your boyfriend. Little did you know that Joe didn’t just want to set the standards in the boyfriend department, he wanted to be the standard, and go above and beyond it for you. 

“You’re literally the best person ever for this,” you say as you get a whiff of the delicious pizza. 

“Nothing a good pizza, wine, and dessert trio can’t fix,” he shrugs as he walks over to the cabinets to grab plates and glasses.

“Are you drinking the wine too? Don’t you have practice tomorrow?” You ask as you grab the food and bring it over to the couch. 

“Nah, it’s optional tomorrow so I probably won’t go,” he says as he brings over the plates.

“Sooo that means you have time?” You ask as you jump on the couch with a grin on your face. 

“Yeah, I have time,” he chuckles as he puts the stuff down and joins you on the couch.

“Can we watch Pitch Perfect?” you ask, sticking your bottom lip out.

“Again? I swear to god I’ve seen that movie 30 times with you,” he grimaces.

“You can never get tired of the Barden Bellas, Joey. Just accept it,” you chuckle as you turn on the movie.

“Whatever you say,” he laughs, getting up from the couch and pouring you both a glass of wine. 

An hour later, you both are full from the delicious pizza and slightly tipsy from the wine. The movie is still playing in the background as you both are digging into the delicious ice cream. 

“Mm, this is soo good,” you groan as you take another bite.

“Told you. Ice cream makes everything better,” he shrugs as he takes another spoonful and shoves it into his mouth. 

“You make everything better. This ice cream is just a minor addition,” you say, giving him a loaded look before going back to the ice cream.

He stops eating the frozen dessert and turns over so that his whole body faces you. “You still didn’t tell me what happened,”.

You shove the spoonful of ice cream into your mouth, slowly removing the spoon from your mouth as you hear him talk. 

“I know you were lying earlier,” he says, raising his eyebrow. 

“Can’t ever hide anything from you, Can I?” You chuckle as you put the spoon down and turn so that your whole body is facing him, tucking your legs under you as you sit up on your knees. 

“Even if you tried,” he smiles.

You let out a deep breath before running your fingers through your hair. “I just had a really shitty day and my head feels like it’s ready to explode,”.

He reaches over and grabs your hand, entwining your fingers before giving it a gentle squeeze. “What happened?”. 

“Well first, I’m on my period so I literally feel like I’m about to die,” you say.

“Good thing I brought ice cream then,” he chuckles.

“Like I said, you’re the best person ever. Anyway, then I was a bit late to a work meeting because of the cramps and my boss absolutely berated me for it. So then to soften the blow, I told her I would take on this project for next month but I’m definitely way in over my head with it and I haven’t even really looked into it. And then I spilled coffee all over my very expensive outfit which I just bought last week,” you sigh. 

“I’ll buy you a new one,” he said, giving you a look that told you he was being serious and not just trying to make you feel better.

“You don’t have to,” you giggle. “This was more than enough,” you say, pointing over at the empty pizza box and wine glasses.

“Mmm, it wasn’t but continue,” he says.

You playfully roll your eyes and continue, “And then worst of all, the florist for Kaylee’s wedding canceled and the wedding is in 3 weeks. I don’t know why I took on so many planning responsibilities because I feel like I’m drowning and I really don’t want to screw up her wedding,”. You feel tears pool in your eyes again, feeling another wave of anxiety come over you. 

“Hey, it’s gonna be okay,” Joe soothes while rubbing your hands, noticing that you started to get antsy again. “You’re not going to screw anything up,”.

“Really? Because it feels like I’m screwing up everything,” you say, tensing up. You were partly referring to the wedding, but also about you and Joe’s friendship which you were at risk of ruining because of your emotions. You would always try to talk to Joe about your feelings no matter what they were, but this time you couldn’t even if it was when you needed to the most. 

“Are we still talking about the wedding?” He asks, feeling a change in what you were talking about based on your demeanor. 

“I don’t even know anymore,” you say as you start to cry. “I just have so many thoughts going through my head right now that I don’t even know what’s really making me act like this,”. You felt hot tears streaming down your cheeks again as you started to shake a little. 

Joe felt awful seeing you like this. He still felt like you weren’t telling him everything, but he didn’t want to push you if you really didn’t want to talk about it, especially if it was making you act like this. He hated seeing you upset and the sight of your tear-stained cheeks and swollen eyes broke his heart. 

“Come here,” he mumbles as he reaches out for your arm, pulling you on top of him and in for a hug. 

You shoved your head into the crook of his neck almost like it was a reflex, letting out another sigh as he wrapped his arms around your waist. “I don’t know what’s going through your head, but I’m here if you need anything. I’m always here and I’m not going anywhere,” he says as he rubs your back. Joe always had a way of alleviating your pain, knowing exactly how to bring you down if you were stuck on a dark cloud. Whether it was his promising words or his pacifying hugs, he could always make you ignore your worries.  

“Thanks for always being here,” you sniffle against his neck. 

“I’m always going to be here,” he says before pressing two soft kisses on your forehead, which is new. “You can’t get rid of me that easily,” he smirks. 

Your heart fluttered when you felt him press his lips against your skin. He’d never done that before, even when you had breakdowns worse than this. Was he just being sweet or was this something else? 

All he wanted to do was to take your pain and anxiety away. He still wasn’t sure what was making you act like this, surely it wasn’t just a bad day at work, so what was it? Was it connected to how you randomly sneaked out of his house a few days ago without telling him you were leaving? 

“No, No, No. Enough with the investigation. She needs her best friend right now,” Joe thought to himself as he went back to comforting you. He looked down and saw you clutching onto his bicep as your head stayed in the crook of his neck, feeling your shallow breaths and teardrops. You felt his hand move to the back of your head, his fingers moving through your hair and gently rubbing your head. 

“You’re okay,” he soothes. “Everything’s going to work out for the better on its own. I promise,” he says. You really couldn’t see how everything would work out on its own, but his words were incredibly convincing. 

A few minutes later, the once-flowing tears had now dried up and your breathing had returned back to normal. You stayed in his comfortable embrace for a little longer, relishing the peace and warmth it was providing. The warmth radiating off of his body felt like a safety blanket, just like how it felt when you were cuddling him a few nights ago at his house.

“You’re so comfy,” you mutter against his neck. “My personal body pillow,”. 

“You can use me anytime you want,” he says, pulling you in tighter. 

You smile at his words and then press a kiss to his neck, not really sure why, but it felt right. 

Joe froze when he felt you kiss his neck. You’d never done that before, ever. His heartbeat picked up and his palms started to get sweaty, and you could feel it. Was that because of you? Were you making him nervous? 

Then and there he felt like telling you how he felt. He wanted to tell you that it was going to be alright, that he loved you more than anything in the universe and would always be here for you in every way possible, and that you belonged with him. But he didn’t because he didn’t want to do this now, it didn’t feel right. He wasn’t going to do that to you right now when you needed comfort more than anything. No reason to push those feelings onto you and cause you to get worked up again. 

“Thank you for doing this. I know today was your weekly dinner with your parents so I appreciate you skipping it for me,” you say, pulling your head out of his neck and meeting his soft eyes. 

“You remembered?” He asked, a little surprised that you remembered his weekly dinners with his parents.

“Of course, I remembered. You’ve been having weekly dinners with them since you got drafted, same day every week,” you grin. “But seriously, thank you for doing this. You always know how to make me feel better,”.

“It’s my job,” he shrugs. 

“Well, you deserve a promotion because you’re doing amazing,” you smile as you move his hair out from his eyes. You stare at him for a few seconds, taking in every detail about his face. His perfect ski slope nose was a little red because of the cold weather, his deep blue eyes that you wanted to get lost in, the little scruff on his chin that you wanted to feel against your body, and his adorable smile lit up the entire room. Everything about him was perfect. He was perfect, and you wanted him so badly. 

“You still owe me an explanation for why you snuck out of my house that morning,” he said, snapping you out of your daze as he moved a few strands of hair out of your face. 

“Ohh, uhh. I thought I told you. Lydia needed my help getting ready for her brunch date,” you lie. “She was freeaaaking out. So she picked me up and we went back to my place to get her ready,”.

Joe knew you were lying. The tone of your voice gave it away but also since he asked Lydia. He asked her if you were alright after you texted him saying she picked you up for morning Pilates since she didn’t want to go alone. Joe didn’t understand why you were lying to him, but he also didn’t want to ask you since he had just gotten you to relax and didn’t need you to get anxious again. 

“Ah, I see,” he says. You let out an internal sigh of relief at his response since it seemed like he believed you. 

“Next time, wake me up because that felt awfully like a walk of shame,” he teased, making you blush and squirm in his arms. 

“That’ll be the first walk of shame that happened even though the pair in question didn’t do anything scandalous,” you giggled. 

“Tell that to my neighbors,” Joe mumbled as he looked up at the ceiling. 

“What?” you shrieked as you moved out of his arms, a look of confusion on your face. 

“Yeahhh, they saw you run out of the house and mentioned it to me when I was taking out the trash,” he said as he nervously wiped his hands on his thighs.

“Oh my god. Which neighbor?” you cringed, covering your face with the sleeves of his your hoodie. 

“Mrs. Nelson,” he laughed, knowing that you were scared of her. Something about that woman’s eyes sent chills up your spine whenever you would see her. You saw her most evenings when you were leaving Joe’s house, and she looked like she was judging you every single time. 

“She said, ‘Joey, I know that you young men have needs, but could you at least tell her to put on some pants before darting out the door bright and early in the morning. Some of the neighbors have kids that like to be out early,” Joe said in a girly voice. 

“Oh my god,” you whined against your hands. “Did you at least correct her?” you asked as you moved your hands from your face.

Joe looked around the room with a smug look on his face, avoiding your eyes which told you everything you needed to know.

“Joseph Lee!” you screamed as you got up from the couch and started hitting him with a pillow. 

“Hey, it was funny,” he laughed as he held up his hands to protect himself from your swings. 

“I’m not laughing,” you said, trying to hide your smile. Truth be told, it was pretty funny.  

“Okayy, we’re not about to do this again,” Joe says as he gets off the couch.

“Why? Because you manhandled last time and ended up under me?” you smirk as you twirl the pillow around. 

“Because this time, you’ll be the one under me,” he teases, giving you a wink. Your stomach did a backflip and the room felt like it got 10 degrees hotter because of his alluring words. The wine was definitely doing its thing right now, for both of you. Words came out of his mouth that he would never say to you, and you weren’t even thinking twice about them. For once, you didn’t overanalyze his words and went straight back to the conversation.

“That’s it!” you giggle as you start hitting him with the pillow again, but he retaliates by reaching down and swooping you off your feet. He throws you over his shoulder, resting one of his hands extremely close to your ass on purpose. He knew exactly what he was doing right now, and you were loving every second of it even though you could barely process it.

“Joe, let go of me,” you laugh as he makes his way through your apartment with you over his shoulder. 

“How does it feel to get manhandled, Hm?” he smiles as he kicks open your room door, gently tossing you down onto the bed as you let out a soft yawn.

“Extremely Comfy,” you smile back as he kneels on the bed to hover over you. He places both of his hands on each side of your head, caging you in; this position feels a little too coupley. His hair was falling into his eyes as his big body was shielding you from the overhead light of your room, almost creating a cocoon around you. 

“Hi,” you whisper, staring deeply into his gentle eyes that were now a shade of deep blue, just like the ocean. 

“Hi,” he chuckles. His lips were just inches from yours and he had the urge to crash his lips down on yours and kiss you like he had been wanting to do all these years. 

Similarly, you felt like reaching up and pushing his face down onto yours, capturing his perfect lips in a soft kiss. Both of you had the same thought but neither of you knew that. 

“You look pretty,” Joe mumbled as he moved a few strands of hair behind your ear before moving his hand back to where it was, setting fireworks off in your heart.

“I don’t but thanks for lying,” you say as you fist one of your hands into his hair, playing with the strands. 

“Please. You always look pretty, Y/N. You’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen,” he adds, feeling lovestruck at the sight of you giggling underneath him. Your eyes sparkle in the light, your skin glowing, and your once puffy eyes are now back to normal. His stomach was doing backflips as he realized he was on top of you right now, in a position that wasn’t generally friendly, but you didn’t seem to be bothered by it; just like how you seemed when you were on top of him a few nights ago. 

The pit of nervousness in your stomach was back as your breathing intensified. Your palms started to feel sweaty while your face felt hotter than usual. There was no way that this was a friendly interaction right? He was literally on top of you, inches from your face, and had the same exact look he had on his face on the way home from the Christmas party a few days ago, lovestruck. 

“Thank you for coming over tonight,” you said, your eyes not moving from his. “I don’t know what I’d do without you,”.

“I told you, I'm always going to be here for you and I mean it. You’ve always been there for me when I needed someone and I couldn’t be more grateful for you. When the most special & important girl in my life needs someone, I'm there. Anytime, Any place,” he says, his face moving closer to yours. 

The most special and important girl in his life, he said. He was talking about you and only you and that was the cherry on top that sealed the deal. 

“I know that even if everything in my life fades, including football and the people I’ve met along the way, I know that you’ll always be there no matter what,”.

Your stomach was in knots right now. You wanted to scream and cry right now because of his words–but out of happiness and not despair. You felt like you were being transported back to college right now, experiencing those new feelings of excitement when you realized you had a crush on someone. Back in college, you felt those feelings of excitement about Joe. And years later, those feelings of excitement were still calling his name. 

Love. That was it. You were in love with Joe. You have been in love with him since you two were just a couple of silly college kids trying to get through young adulthood together. Those feelings that you thought were momentary and situational, were permanent and eternal. And now that you two were grown up, it was clear how you felt about him. You had avoided those feelings for too long, and they only got stronger as the moments passed by. No wonder none of your past relationships would ever work out. The right person was in front of you this entire time and has been there for as long as you can remember.

Screw letting things happen naturally. You couldn’t take it anymore. You were on the verge of screaming how you felt about him at the top of your lungs. You had to tell Joe what you were feeling even if it was right now, completely out of the blue. 

“Joe I-,” you start to say before the sound of his phone ringing interrupts you. 

You watch as he closes his eyes and sighs, “Hang on,” he says as he moves off of you and takes his phone out of his pocket. 

“It’s my mom. You good if I take this?” He asks you. 

“Yeah, of course. Tell her I said Hey,” you smile. You watch as he fixes his hair and walks out of your room, shutting your door and leaving you alone with your thoughts.  

You couldn’t believe that you were so close to telling him how you felt. So, so, so close. You loved him more than anything in the world and now that you realized it, you wanted him to be yours, and only yours. 

“I love him,” you whispered to yourself as you stuffed your face into a pillow to hide the blood rushing into your cheeks. You started kicking your feet back and forth, feeling exactly how you did in college when you first realized you liked Joe. It felt like pure teenage innocence. He was the only man you had ever loved now that you thought about it. Yes, you had said those 3 words to other men before, but you never meant it like you did with Joe. 

“Hey Mom,” Joe says as he sits down on the couch.

“Hey Sweetie. Everything alright? You didn’t really explain why you had to miss dinner tonight?” She says.

“Sorry about that. Y/N had a really bad day and I’m over at her place right now,” Joe said as he looked over to your side table, spotting a picture frame that had a photo of the two of you. The photo was of you two after the AFC championship game in 2022 that sent the Bengals to their first Super Bowl in years. You were clutching onto his waist, your head leaning on his chest and a huge smile plastered on your face as you were looking up at him. Joe had his arm around your shoulder and was in the middle of putting his championship hat on your head. Both of you were surrounded by tons of people, but the only thing you could focus on was each other. The candid photo captured both of your sentiments perfectly. 

Flashback to 2022 

You were waiting on the sidelines, taking in the moment as much as you could before you went over to celebrate with Joe. The Bengals had just beat the Chiefs, 27-24, and were on their way to the Super Bowl for the first time in years. You got an intense feeling of Deja vu as you watched Joe’s teammates lift him up on their shoulders, just like how they did when he won the Natty. You were lucky enough to be by his side for both of these significant moments and now you’d be by his side on the grandest stage of them all. 

“I’m so proud of him,” Robin said as she wrapped her arm around your shoulder, squeezing you tightly. 

“You and me both,” you whispered, a smile creeping up on your face as you made eye contact with Joe, his smile somehow getting bigger. 

His mom looks over at him and follows his intense gaze right over to you, smiling at the way he is looking at you. “Go over there,” she encourages as she lets go and lightly pushes you. 

“I’ll be back,” you smile at her before making your way onto the field. 

Joe walked over to you and met you halfway, an evident bounce in his step reflecting the happiness he felt right now. “Hey there Mr. AFC Champ,” you giggle as you pull down your beanie a little more to protect your head from the cold January air. 

He doesn’t say anything back, instead just wraps his arms around you and pulls you in for a big hug, swaying you back and forth. 

“Hey, watch the outfit,” you murmur against his warm neck. He was definitely wrinkling up your dark orange sweater with his big, sweaty, grassy, but warm body. 

“Screw your outfit,” he laughs as he pulls away from the hug. 

“Yeah, you’re right,” you smile. “We got bigger things to talk about,”.

“Oh really? Wonder what it could be?” Joe smirks. 

“I’m getting a major sense of Deja vu right now,” you say, your eyes navigating up to his head which was covered by the championship hat, your mind going back to the sight of the National Championship hat on his head in 2020.  

He suddenly pulls you back into his chest, this time squeezing you even harder. “I can’t believe it,” he whispers.

“Well, you better believe it. I’m so fucking proud of you, Joe,” you say, moving your head so that you were looking up at him, tears starting to pool in your eyes. Words wouldn’t be enough to describe how proud you were of him at this moment. His first full NFL season resulting in his first Super Bowl appearance was incredible, truly magical. You watched for months as he worked his ass off to rehab his knee and get back to where he needed to be, and getting to see all of his hard work pay off was the most fulfilling part of it all.

“You did amazing out there today, I seriously have never seen anything like this,” you sputter. 

He looked down at you, meeting your shiny eyes with his baby blues. His eyes moved to the beanie on the top of your head, and then you felt it being pulled off of your head. Your hair was flying everywhere as you watched him throw it down to the ground, your head now felt incredibly bare and cold. 

“Hey, My beanie!” You yelled as you looked at it on the ground. You looked back up at him with a scowl, “What was that for?”.

“So I could do this,” he says as you watch him take the hat off of his head, your smile coming back to your face instantly as you feel his hand slide along your waist. He places his hat on your head, giving your head a few pats to make sure it’s secure. Joe’s mom snapped a few photos of the adorable interaction, neither of you noticing her presence a few feet away from you. 

“If I’m Mr. Champ, then you’re Mrs. Champ,” he laughed. 

“Mrs?” You laughed as you raised your eyebrow. “Don’t see a ring to prove it,” you add as you pretend to look intensively at your fingers. You were trying to keep it cool, definitely not trying to act like you were doing backflips internally at the mention of being ‘Mrs.’. You knew he was just joking, but your heart couldn’t help but flutter at the sound of being his ‘Mrs.’.

“Ring will hopefully be coming February 13th, 2022,” he sighed. 

“Damnnn. So we’re talking about that kinda ring?” You teased, pretending to look disappointed.

“What did you think?” He smirked, knowing exactly what kinda of ring you were talking about. It was his fault for saying ‘Mrs.’, implying you were his wife, but he always enjoyed the playful back and forth. 

“Ya know, Princess cut? Emerald cut? But I guess a Super Bowl ring will do just fine,” you say while rolling your eyes playfully.

“Maybe you’ll get two,” Joe shrugs as he lets go of you. 

“Proposing without even dating the girl?” you say as you raise your eyebrow, straightening out your sweater which had a few grass marks on it from his jersey. 

“Well, if the girl already knows anything and everything there is to know about me, and I know anything and everything about the girl, then it’s easy to skip the ‘getting to know each other’ phase,” he laughs. 

“Relentless,” you chuckle while shaking your head; your heart still soaring at the flirty back and forth that you two would often have. Sometimes it would be silly, sometimes serious, but often flirty; but that never weirded either of you out for some reason. 

You turn your head to the side, realizing it wasn’t just the two of you out there and that you were surrounded by many other people who wanted a chance to talk to Joe. This would happen a lot, especially in these kind of moments. You two would find each other in a crowded room, and once you were face to face, everything around you would fade away, leaving just the two of you there, together. 

“I think I’ve kept you long enough,” you say, feeling a little shy that this whole interaction happened around so many people, many of whom were probably not even paying attention, but to your overthinking mind, they were. “You probably want to go celebrate with the guys anyway,” you say, looking down at your boots. 

A scoff leaves his mouth, “And leave you? Never,” he says as he gives you a loaded look. 

“That’s sweet but they’re your guys,” you say as you look back up.

“And you’re my girl,” Joe says, instantly turning tomato red as he realizes what he just said to you. That wasn’t supposed to come out of his mouth. He watches you flinch, your face tensing up at the awkward moment that just happened. 

“Not like that,” he quickly retreats, scrambling to make sure he didn’t just make you uncomfortable.

You stay quiet for a few heartbeats, his anxiety getting worse by the second. But then you let out a laugh and cover your mouth to hide your big smile, “I know what you mean,”. He lets out a sigh of relief, his mind cooling back down but your insides were still as hot as ever. Being ‘his girl’ didn’t sound so bad. 

“But seriously, you probably have tons of media and stuff to do right now since you’re now Super Bowl-bound, so I’ll leave you to it,” you say as you pull him in for another hug, sliding your hand up and down his back. 

“I’ll come find you later, I promise,” he whispers into your ear, sending chills down your spine and butterflies in your stomach. 

You pull away and say, “I thought you and the guys would go out or something?”.

“They are but I wanna take you and my parents out for dinner or something,” He smiles. “I want to celebrate with the most significant people in my life,”.

“I won’t fight you on that,” you beam as you stare deeply into his soothing eyes. 

End of flashback 

“Well aren’t you a good friend,” His mom says over the phone, snapping Joe out of his trance. 

“Yeahh,” he nervously chuckles, his mom instantly noticing his awkward tone. 

“Tell me what’s wrong,” she sighs.

Joe goes silent, he knows that he can’t hide anything from his Mom but still tries. He heaves out a sigh before getting straight to the point. “I like her. Like a lot. Like I love her,” he says quietly, making sure you didn’t overhear.

He hears his mom laugh over the phone, his brows furrowed at the response he gets. “About damn time!”.

“What?” he questions. “It’s about time you admitted it. I think everyone knows that you’ve had a thing for Y/N since Ohio State, Joe,” she smiles.

“Oh god. Is it that obvious?” he whispers, making sure that you don’t hear him. 

“Mhm. Obvious to everyone but the two of you,” she replies, causing Joe’s eyes to widen. 

“What do I do, Mom? I want to tell her but I feel like it’ll screw it all up if she doesn’t feel the same,”.

“Just talk to her, Joey. I know she feels the same way about you. I have seen the way she looks at you, talks about you, and acts around you. She loves you, just like you do her. Your girl has been in front of you this entire time,” she advises. 

“I told myself I’d let things happen naturally, but I just can’t keep it in anymore,” Joe sighs, throwing his head back to the pillow. 

“Naturally? Sweetie, you’ve been letting things happen naturally for nearly what, 9 years? You’ve been tip-toeing around each other for entirely too long. You both are grown adults now and I personally think it won’t hurt to give it a shot, especially since I think that it’ll turn out to be the best thing for both of you. She’s a wonderful girl and the effect she has on you is unlike anything I’ve ever seen, and the same goes for the effect you have on her. That’s true love,” his mom adds. “Just simply talk to her,”. 

And Joe took that advice to heart. His mom was right, he just had to talk to you. He never had trouble talking to you about anything before, you were always receptive and understanding. Talking to you about his feelings shouldn’t be so difficult, especially if there was a chance that you felt the same way. 

You got up from your bed, a little concerned since Joe hadn’t come back to the room yet. You opened your door and walked outside to him staring up at the ceiling. 

“Hey, you alright?” you asked as you leaned against the wall. 

Joe sits up straight when he hears your voice and quickly tries to recollect himself so that you don’t suspect that something is wrong. 

“Yeah, she just was asking about why I skipped dinner and if you were alright,” he said. 

“Ohh,” you nodded. If that was all they were talking about, why did Joe look so flustered? 

“Well, I hope you told her that I’m fantastic now all thanks to her son who knows how to flip someone’s mood around better than he knows how to make french toast,” you tease.

“I only burnt them once,” he scoffed as his jaw fell open.

“It was definitely a little more than that,” you said as you moved from the wall to the kitchen, grabbing him a water bottle. “We can try again tomorrow morning and see if you’ve gotten any better,” you laughed. 

“Tomorrow Morning?” Joe asked.

“Yeah. It’s getting pretty late and since you don’t have practice tomorrow, I was thinking you could stay over?” you said as you handed him the bottle. You were hoping and praying he would stay.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude,” he says as he takes the bottle from you, his thumb lightly touching your fingers which sends electricity through your body.

“Intrude on what? It’s just me,” you grinned. “The only thing is, the ‘guest bedroom’ is my storage room so we’d have to share my bed,”.

“It worked out pretty well last time,” Joe softly laughed as he got up from the couch. 

“So you’ll stay?” you perk up, trying to hold back from looking too happy.

“Come on,” he smiles, grabbing your hand and leading you to your room. Both of you were trying to hold back from saying something to each other about your feelings that you were both now certain of, and both of your faces were showing it. You were like two lovestruck teenagers. 

A few minutes later, Joe settled into your bed while you were changing into your Pajamas. His heartbeat only got faster by the second now that he was thinking of when the right moment to talk to you was. Was right now a good time or was it too sudden? You were probably tired anyway, so maybe the next time you see each other would be better. 

He watched as you came out of the bathroom in a short-sleeved Ohio State Football shirt, one of his, and shorts, looking absolutely angelic. He wondered how many of his clothes had piled up in your closet over the years. 

“Do you need anything before I turn off the lights?” You ask him while you plug in your phone.

“I’m good,” he lazily smiles as he pulls the covers up.

You nod, turn the lights off, and slide into the bed next to Joe. You weren’t nervous this time like you were a few nights ago. Maybe it was because you actually came to a conclusion about your feelings for him or maybe it was because he was in your bed and not the other way around. 

“Night, Joey,” you yawn as you look over at him.

“Night, Y/N,” he smiles as he closes his eyes. 

An hour later 

He couldn’t sleep. He tried and tried but he couldn’t fall asleep. He looked over at you, your eyes closed and soft snores coming from your mouth. His mind was still racing and it wouldn’t stop, and you being asleep right next to him wasn’t helping. Nothing about what happened tonight was helping. It was like he was on the verge of exploding because he couldn’t keep it in any longer, and he’d never ever felt like this before, and it was all because of you. 

He turned over to face you, your hair was sprawled out against the pillow, some strands on your face, and your breathing was steady. He moved his hand to move the stray stands out of your face, but as soon as he did, you started moving. He quickly moved his hand away from your face and turned back to face the ceiling, closing his eyes and pretending to be asleep. 

He felt you move around a little more before he felt weight on his arm. He opened his eyes and slowly looked over at you to see you resting your head against his bicep. 

“Y/N?” he whispered.

No response. You were definitely still asleep.

He carefully moved his arm out from underneath your head and allowed you to move into him. You turned so that you were on your stomach but still pressed against his chest. You draped your leg over his and pressed your head against his chest and his arms settled around you, holding you close. He tried to even out his breathing, which was increasing because of your movements. You were cuddling him right now, just like how he was cuddling you a few nights ago. This time, your warm body was providing him comfort and security. 

A few moments later, he had gotten a little more comfy, now feeling a wave of sleepiness come over him. He looked down at you, smiling at the fact that you were doing this naturally and completely in your sleep, like a reflex. He pressed a few soft kisses to the top of your head before looking up at the ceiling. 

You were right there. You had always been right there, he thought to himself. 

“I love you,” Joe whispered to you as he closed his eyes. 

Saturday - The Day before Joe’s Birthday 

The rest of the week had gone by pretty smoothly and you had Joe to thank for that. The morning after Joe stayed over, he helped you track down a new florist for your sister’s wedding. He pulled some strings to help you get the florist on such short notice, and naturally, it worked as nobody could say no to Joe Burrow. Then, he pulled out your laptop and helped you look through your work project. Going through it with him definitely helped you feel calmer about it since two minds were looking at it instead of 1. Even though his brain was wired to be a quarterback, he still had some knowledge about finance in his head from college which came to your advantage. He told you that if you ever felt like it was too much, to just let your Boss know, and if she ever had an issue with you, he would talk to her personally and let her know how much stress you’ve been under lately. 

He always put in so much thought when it came to you, and you could never seem to fully grasp it. He even went online and ordered you a bunch of new, very expensive, clothes to make up for the outfit that you destroyed because of your spilled coffee. He always thought of everything and hit every corner. The only thing that was now left to be sorted out was telling him how you felt about him, and you couldn’t wait to tell him. 

Today, you spent most of the day wrapping gifts for Joe as his birthday was tomorrow. The Bengals were playing Monday Night Football at home, so for once he was free on his special day. Even though he told you he didn’t want anything, you obviously didn’t listen to him. He always went above and beyond for your birthday, and you wanted to do the same for him as much as you could. 

You hit all the corners when it came to getting him birthday gifts this year. The first thing you got him was a funny Squidward sweatshirt, a character with whom Joe shared a lot of similarities. You thought it was so endearing that he still watched SpongeBob, especially now that he’s a 27-year-old millionaire, but he still found comfort in the things that made him who he was. The next thing you got him was the Lego Porche set he had been dying to get his hands on, but was extremely hard to find. You searched every Lego store in the vicinity before you found it in a rare collectibles store downtown. Joe loved Legos, another thing about him that was incredibly precious to you. That man could spend hours in a room building a Lego set when he could, and you were often there to help him. The next thing you got him was a new pair of Cartier Shades. They were a pretty penny, but he deserved to be spoiled on his birthday, and this was just the thing for him. The final thing you got him, maybe your most favorite, was a Night Sky Map from January 13th 2020, the night he won the CFP National Championship. For a man who loved space and anything related to it, this was the perfect gift. The Map showed the exact position of the stars at the time LSU had won the game at the Mercedes Benz Superdome. 

“Perfect,” you smiled as you looked at the Map. You finished wrapping the gift and placed it on the counter with the rest of them. You then pulled out your phone to text Joe and see what his plans were for tomorrow. 

You: hey there birthday boy!! what ya up to tomorrow?

Joe: hey y/n :) nothing really. prob watching some film and relaxing before the game on Monday

Your jaw dropped when he told you his plans. There was no way he was spending his birthday alone, boarded up inside of his house. 

You: joe….

Joe: yes?

You: your birthday is tomorrow 

Joe: i’m well aware lol

You: care to explain why you are spending your birthday alone? 

Joe: my parents and some of the guys were pushing me to do a dinner or something but I told them I just wanted to focus on the game and rest the day before

That was a reasonable excuse, but you were not about to let him spend his special day all alone. Especially since usually, he would have a game on his birthday. 

You: that’s fair but this is your first free birthday in a longgg time. don’t you wanna do something fun?

Joe: fun can wait until the season ends 

Hmm, this was going to be harder than you thought. He really wasn’t going to do anything fun on his birthday, was he? 

Suddenly, you had a lightbulb moment. It would be pretty lame if you told him you were going to come over for a bit to celebrate with him, so what about a surprise? You could lie to him and say you would be out of town tomorrow, but back for the MNF game, and surprise him at his house. You could bake him his favorite dessert, order his favorite food, and bring everything over to his house along with his gifts.

You: if you say soooo. but just so you know, i’ll be out of town all day but i’ll be back for the game on Monday. i have some gifts for you that i can give you after the game :)

Joe’s smile dropped as he read the text. He was hoping you would say that you were going to come over to keep him company on his birthday, which he deep down did not want to spend alone. He couldn’t show that he was unhappy that you weren’t going to see him on his birthday, so he pretended to act like it was alright. 

Joe: no biggie :) i’ll see you in the suite monday?

You: definitely. wouldn’t miss it for the world ;)

You felt bad about lying to him, knowing that he was probably sitting there thinking about how he had to spend his birthday alone. Of course, he needed to relax and focus, but nobody really wanted to spend their birthday alone. And he wasn’t going to, even if he thought he was. 

A smile crept onto your face as you thought about tomorrow. Maybe you could even finish telling him what you were going to say to him a few nights ago. 

Sunday - Joe’s Birthday 

You walked over to the oven, pulling out the fresh Pumpkin Pie you had baked for Joe earlier. You placed it onto the counter to cool as you heard your apartment doorbell ring from what was probably the food delivery person. 

You walked over to the door, greeted the delivery person, and grabbed the food; cajun from Joe’s favorite NOLA-inspired restaurant downtown. After placing the food on the counter next to the pie, you bring over the bag of gifts and set it next to everything, giving everything another check to make sure it was perfect.

“Food, drinks, pie, gifts…” you list off as you feel like you’re forgetting something. 

“Balloons!” you chirp as you speed walk into your room to grab the balloons you got him last night. After bringing the balloons over to the rest of the items you had for his little birthday surprise, you gave everything another check, and this time it was all perfect.

A few minutes later, your car was all loaded up with his birthday surprise and you were on his way to his house. You were bobbing your head along to the song playing on the aux, “You Belong With Me”. 

“If you could see that I'm the one who understands you, Been here all along, so why can't you see? You belong with me, you belong with meee,” you sing, a huge smile plastered on your face as your mind strays to the only man it could ever wander to. “He’s gonna love this,” you say as you bite your lip in anticipation. 

20 minutes later, you pull into his driveway, watching as the sun sets over the horizon. You quickly turned off your car, hopped out of your car, and grabbed the balloons from the backseat. After taking a few deep breaths to calm your excitement with the balloons in hand, you make your way over to his door, but to just your luck, someone spotted you. Of course, it was Mrs. Nelson who seemingly was coming back home after her evening walk. 

“Fuck,” you mumble. You slowly walk closer to his door, and her eyes tracking you as you try not to look at her. You see her shake her head from the corner of your eye and let out a small chuckle, prompting her to clear her throat out of rudeness. You pause at the steps to his door, plaster a fake smile onto your face, and turn to say “Hi, Mrs. Nelson,”. 

The peculiar woman doesn’t respond and just shakes her head again before turning around and walking into her house. “Damn, tough crowd,” you laugh as you walk up the steps to his door. You press his doorbell, waiting for a few moments as you begin to think about how you are going to tell him about your feelings, but before you can get too deep into those thoughts, the door swings open. 

“Y/N?” Joe says, his jaw practically on the floor. 

You leap into his arms and pull him in for a warm hug, “Happy Birthdayyyy!” you squeal as you sway him back and forth. 

“I thought you–” he begins to say before you pull out of the hug to interrupt him. 

“You believed me?” you say as you gently push his shoulder. “I would never leave you alone on your birthday goofball,”.

“I seriously thought you weren’t coming,” he says as he scratches the back of his neck

“Damn. I’m for sure lacking in the bestie department then,” you giggle.

“Please, you have fully broken through the ceiling of the bestie department and are entering dangerous territory,” he teases, echoing your words from a few days ago. 

“Oh yeah? What territory?” you ask, raising your eyebrow.

“Girlfriend territory,” he teases as he watches your face turn a little red. Your heart skips a beat when he says the word ‘girlfriend’. Is this how he felt when you said he was entering boyfriend territory a few nights ago?

“Come inside,” he says, breaking you out of your trance. “It’s cold out here,”.

“Hang on, I have all your stuff inside the car,” you say as you hand him the balloons. 

“What stuff?” he asks.

“Your birthday stuff, duhh,” you giggle as you quickly turn around to grab everything from the car. 

Joe shakes his head and laughs as he watches you scurry over to your car, and then struggle to grab everything all in one go. “You need help?” he yells.

“Nope! I got it,” you yell back.

A few minutes later 

You let out a breath as you finally make it inside with everything for his surprise, then slip off your shoes before walking over to Joe who was examining everything.

“Damn, when the hell did you do all this?” He asked.

“I’ll never spill my secrets,” you chuckle as you take everything out of the bags. His heart was soaring because of you. You really did all of this just for him, making him feel the the most special guy on the planet. 

He watches as you take out the food, his face lighting up as he reads the name of the restaurant on the boxes.

“Cajun?” He asks.

“You know it,” you wink. 

You then carefully take out the pumpkin pie from the bag, setting it next to the delicious dinner.

“And pumpkin pie?!” He says, his eyes widening.

“I know you love my pumpkin pie so naturally I had to make it for National Joe-Day,” you giggle.

“You’re the best,” he said as he grabbed your hand from across the kitchen island, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“I know,” you gloat.

His eyes then navigated to the other bag on the table, the one with his gifts. He reaches over to open the bag, but you quickly swat his hand away.

“Mmm nope. No gifts until after dinner,” you say to him like he was a little child. 

“But it’s my birthday,” he pouts. 

“Food first then the fun stuff,” you say as you give him a look.

“Fine,” he says, rolling his eyes and then grinning at the smile that appeared on your face.  

An hour later 

“Mmm, that was so good,” Joe said as he downed his bottle of water. You’re both full of the delicious Cajun food, reminding you both of the taste of New Orleans. 

“Literally. We gotta go down to New Orleans soon for the real deal,” you say as you clean up your dinner plates and load them into his dishwasher. 

“I’ll book us a trip for this summer,” he smiles as he takes a seat on the couch where you join him with two plates of pie. A smile on your face when you hear him mention going down there with you. 

“Is it gift time?” Joe asks, already reaching for the bags.

“Wait!” You say as you stop his hand. “Take a bite of the pie first,”.

“Why?” He asks.

“It’s technically your birthday cake,” you shrug.

You watch as Joe just continues to stare at you, not really caring much about the formality of it all. “Please, For me?” You pout.

“Anything for you,” he states, grabbing the plates of pie and placing them in front of you. You grab your fork, breaking off a piece of the pie and raising it up to his pink lips. 

“Open up,” you smile as you try to feed him a piece. 

He opens up his mouth, allowing you to feed him a slab of the pie. “Happy Birthday to you,” you sing-song as you take the fork out of his mouth while he lets out a groan and looks very cute. 

“Mmm, Y/N. This tastes like heaven,” he says, covering his mouth so you don’t see him chewing while talking. 

“Thank you,” you giggle as you place the fork back down onto the plate and then reach for the bag of gifts, moving it closer to you. 

“Finally,” he groans as he gets comfy on the couch. 

“Okay, here is gift 1,” you say, handing him the sweatshirt that was wrapped up. 

He peels off the wrapping paper, his face going from smiley to confused. 

“Really, Y/N?” He laughed as he read the text on the sweatshirt which said ‘Are you still talking’ with a picture of Squidward looking absolutely sick of it. 

“Hey,” you shrug. “That’s quite literally you anytime you have to sit down for an interview. I know you feel like darting outta there as soon as they finish talking,” you chuckle. 

His confused face turns into a smile, “You’re right,”.

There were so many interviews or media appearances where Joe looked like he wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. He wasn’t a fan of interviews or anything that needed him to speak for an extended period of time. It was even worse if he had to sit there and listen to someone else talk for an extended period because it prevented him from leaving, so this little quote was very applicable to him. 

“Do you like it?” You say, your smile dropping a little.

“I love it,” he says as he whips his shirt off, showing off his muscular chest, and putting on the hoodie. 

“God damn,” you mumble at the sight of his very attractive body. 

“Hm?” Joe asks as he straightens out the hoodie.

“Oh, nothing. Here, this is your next gift,” you say, changing the subject and placing the Lego gift in his lap. 

He peels off the wrapping paper again, his jaw-dropping as he catches a peek at the gift. “No fucking way,”.

You bite your lip at his reaction, knowing exactly how bad he wanted this set but couldn’t find it anywhere.

“How did you find this?” He gasped.

“I have my ways,” you tease as you grab the wrapping paper and stuff it into the bag to clean up the mess as you go. 

“More importantly, how did you remember?” He asked, his heart feeling like it was ready to burst because of your thoughtfulness. 

“I always remember when it comes to you. Never forgetting a thing,” you smile.

“Oh we’re so building this later,” he says as he turns the box around to look over the visual.

“You got it, birthday boy,” you salute. 

You grab the last two gifts out of the bag and place them into his lap. He opens the Cartier’s first, already knowing what it probably was as soon as he sees a peak of the red box.

“These must’ve been so expensive,” he says as he looks at the sick shades you got him.

“Don’t worry about that,” you say as you rub his shoulder.

“You shouldn’t have spent so much, Y/N. All of this was more than enough for me,” he said, his soft eyes meeting yours.

“You go above and beyond for me, every single year. This is nothing compared to what you do for me,” you say, giving his shoulder a squeeze. 

“Thank you, for everything,” he says, grabbing your hand and gently rubbing your skin. He had to fight the urge to press his lip against yours and show you how thankful he was for you, and it was killing him. 

“Ah ah ah, I think we have one more gift to go and it’s my personal fav,” you say as you move the glasses to the table. 

“What could possibly top all of that?” He said as he started to open up his final gift. You stayed quiet, carefully reading his facial expression to see his reaction to the gift. He opened up the gift, his eyes widening and his jaw slightly falling.

“Oh my god,” he said as he observed the Sky Map. His heart skipped a beat as he started to take in the amount of thought you had put into his birthday. You really hit every single point and nobody had ever done this much just for him. You were extraordinary and you were magic. You belonged with him, and this sealed the deal. You were the most thoughtful, loving, and extraordinary girl he had ever met, and he wanted you to be his. 

“Oh my god,” he said again, this time looking over at you. “This is—,”.

“January 13th, 2020 at the Superdome,” you grinned.

“Holy shit. Are these the stars that night?” He asked as he examined the map. 

“Mhm. The stars at the exact time you won the Championship,” you replied.

“Y/N, this is the best gift I think I’ve ever gotten,” he says as he stares at the map a little longer.

“I know how much you love Space and Stars, and this night was very important to you and your Career,” you said.

“I love it. I love all of it,” he grinned as he put the map on the table, then turned to you and pulled you into his arms for a hug. He wanted to add ‘I love you’ to that sentence as well, but that would be too random. If he was going to tell you, it had to be more special than that. 

You melt into his chest as he squeezes your body, “I’m so glad you like it,” you mumble against him. He held you against him for a few moments, not letting you move one bit, and it was making the pit of nervousness in your stomach grow again. You wanted to tell him how much you loved him and show him how much you did as well, but you didn’t know if you should tell him now or wait for another moment when you were a little more relaxed. 

“You wanna go for a walk?” He asked as he pulled away from the hug. Maybe he could tell you then, he thought to himself. 

“Okay,” you smiled, maybe you could tell him then.

He got up from the couch, putting out his hand for you to grab onto. He helped you off the couch and you both made your way outside. The sun had set and now the sky was dark, the only light being the streetlights and the moon. 

“Thank you for today,” Joe says, breaking the silence as you both walk down the street together. “You really know how to make a guy feel special,”. 

“Anything for you,” you say, echoing his sweet words from earlier. 

“No girl has ever done this much for my birthday,” he laughs.

You looked over at him, seeing that he was being serious, which came to your surprise. “Not even Stella?”. 

“Nope. I think last year all she got me was some clothes, most of which were not my style, and a framed photo of us that I already had,” he says. 

“No way,” you giggled.

“I don’t care much for gifts, you know that, but like come on,” he said as he shook his head.

“Did she at least get you a cake?” You asked.

“Nope, she made me apple pie instead,” he said looking disgusted. 

“What?” You shriek. “You don’t even like apple pie,”.

“That’s what I’m saying. Apple pie was her favorite. And you know what’s even better?” He said.

“What?”. 

“She wasn’t even there for like half the day. She was too busy helping her friend with her little sister's birthday party,” Joe said, rolling his eyes and running his fingers through his hair.

“There is no way,” you said, your jaw falling open as you felt sorry for him since his birthday last year sounded horrible. 

“Yeah, so I really mean it when I say you’re the best person ever and this was the best surprise birthday shin-dig ever,” he said, flashing his million-dollar smile at you. 

“Well, if it helps, I didn’t really like her anyway and I’m pretty sure she hated me too,” you joked.

Joe looked over at you, staying silent and not saying anything to debunk your theory. 

“Oh my god? She did hate me, didn't she?”. 

“She always thought we had something going on. She literally would grill me every single time after we hung out or something, accusing me of cheating on her with you,” he said.

“No fucking way,” you laughed. 

“She used to say that even best friends didn’t spend that much time together and always thought we were hooking up or something. And then I did everything I could to make it up to her, but that would only last temporarily before she found another thing to get mad over,”. 

“She must be delusional,” you said, rubbing your hands together as you were starting to feel the December cold. 

“Wait, why didn’t you like her?” He asked. 

“Her vibe was off. She also didn’t really seem like your type in my opinion. She was too flashy and hyper and you’re-–”. 

“Lowkey and Calm?” He interrupts.

“Exactly,” you chuckle. 

“Yeah, she really wasn’t the one,” he sighed. “At one point she literally told me to pick between you and her,”.

Your heart sank at the words that came out of his mouth. “What?” You asked, feeling a lump in your throat. 

“That’s why we broke up,” he admitted. “I chose you,”. 

He chose you. He chose you over someone that could have been his forever. 

“Joe, I’m so sorry,” you said, looking down at your feet as you both kept walking around his neighborhood.

“For what?” He laughed.

“For making her make you pick,”. “If it wasn’t for me, maybe things would’ve been different for you guys,” you say, feeling a little guilty at indirectly ruining his relationship. 

“That’s not your fault, Y/N. She wasn’t the one anyway, and everything about her showed that. That was just the final nail in the coffin,”.

“I just wish you could’ve told me in the moment,” you said.

“Well, I am now,” he shrugged. “And I know you don’t really like talking relationships with me anyways,”. 

You didn’t like to talk to him about his relationships because all these years you wanted to be the one in a relationship with him, and the mention of other girls always made you bitter. 

“That’s fair,” you giggled. “Anyway, enough with the depressing topics. It’s your birthday, no need to dwell on past heartbreaks,”.

“Yes, Ma’am,” he salutes.

“Are you excited for the game tomorrow?”. 

“Very. I feel really good about where we’re at right now and my body feels good too,”.

“That’s great,” you beam. “I’ll never get tired of the feeling of game day,”.

“I hope not,” he laughed. “You’ve been a part of basically every game day for the last four years. If you got sick of it, I think I’d actually lose it. I need you up there at all times to be fully locked in,”. 

You smiled at his silly thoughts. He didn't need you to be the already exceptional and phenomenal quarterback he was, but that was sweet of him to say.

“God, I wish we could do this for the rest of our lives,” you giggled. “Everything is so much easier when it’s just us without all the chaos that is our life”. 

Joe’s heart fluttered at the thought. What if you could do this forever? His heart felt like it was going to beat out of his chest; this was it, this was his chance to tell you how he felt. Those feelings he’s had inside of him for years were finally about to come out.

“So then let’s do it?” He blurted out, stopping and looking over at you. The streetlight casting a direct glow on the both of you on the dark street. 

“What?” You said, stopping and sporting a confused look on your face.

“Do this with me. For the rest of our lives,” he said. 

Was he being serious, you thought to yourself. 

“Joe—,”.

“You’ve been with me through everything for the past 9 years. The one thing in my life that’s stayed consistent for as long as I can remember. The most special, kind-hearted, loving, and beautiful girl I’ve ever known. When I’m with you, I feel like I’m flying. You make me forget about all the background noise and make me feel like just a guy. I want to feel that feeling for the rest of my life. I’ve been trying to figure out how and when to tell you,”. 

“Joe, I—,”. 

“No, let me finish,” he interrupts as he holds your hand. “I have to say it because I’ve been holding this in for way too long. Y/N, I’ve thought about you every single day for 9 years. Back at Ohio State, I knew I liked you from the moment I saw you. I knew you’d be a special part of my life and when I went to LSU and you stayed by my side, that was solidified. You’re the only girl that makes me feel fireworks. You’re the only girl that I think about and you’re the only girl I want to think about. No girl has ever come close to making me feel the way you do. My mind has been spiraling for the past few weeks because of you, Y/N. You’re the only girl I’ve ever truly loved,”.

Loved. He said he loved you. He loved you this whole time, and you were too blind to see it. This entire time you thought he didn’t feel the same way about you, but he did. He has felt the same way about you for just as long as you did. You felt like you were about to pass out, your flushed face & your silence were saying everything. 

“Y/N.. say something. Please. I hope I didn’t just fuck everything up, but I had to tell you. I couldn’t keep it in anymore,” he said, squeezing your hand. 

“Joe..” you say, breaking your silence and meeting his eyes, which were filled with love. “What are we?”.

“What do you mean?” he laughed. “I’ve been wrapped around your finger this whole time?”.

Your solemn face breaks into a smile as you realize what he is saying. “You– You really love me?”. 

“I really, really, love you,” he grins.

“Guess what?” you ask him.

“..What?” he asks, letting go of your hand and feeling nervous all of a sudden.

“I love you too,” you blush, even harder than you were before. 

“Really?” he asks, trying really hard not to freak out.

“Really. I’ve loved you since we were just two college kids trying to get through that awkward stage of life together. I never said anything back then because I didn’t want to ruin our friendship, so I buried those feelings and moved on. Or so I thought. But as we got older and time went by, I realized those feelings didn’t go anywhere, and more importantly, you didn’t go anywhere. No other guy has ever had an effect on me like you do. Those fireworks your mom talked about, I only feel them with you,”. 

“Kiss me,” Joe blurted out, turning red at the fact that he just said that.

“You aren’t serious–” you reply.

“I so am,” he says as he grabs your waist and pulls you into him, crashing his soft lips against yours. 

Electricity. Kissing each other felt like pure electricity. It felt like you were coming home after a long day or getting a sip of cold water on a hot summer afternoon. Comforting & Refreshing.

His lips molded against yours perfectly as you moved your arms around his neck to pull him in closer. His hands slid up and down your waist, relishing every single part of your body as you moved one of your hands into his hair, pulling at the soft strands. The warmth of both your bodies protects you from the frigid and dark night around you. He whimpers into the kiss because of you pulling on his hair, causing you to break away. You press open-mouth kisses around his jaw, then press kisses all around his face, causing him to laugh.

“I can’t even begin to tell you how long I’ve been waiting for this,” you say, pressing your forehead against his.

“We have all the time in the world for you to tell me, and show me,” he winks.

“Already trying to get in my pants, Burrow?” You flirt.

“Uhh yeah," he says straight up. "Have you seen yourself? Absolutely Sexy and Breathtaking,".

"Besides, I think we can skip the ‘getting to know each other phase’ since we’ve been in that for a longgg time,” he says before he presses another kiss to your lips. 

“Didn’t you say that a few years ago after you won the AFC championship and called me Mrs. Champ?” you say, recalling that moment from a few years ago, the same moment from the photo Joe saw on your side table in your apartment.

“You really don’t forget anything do you?” He smiles.

“Like I said, when it comes to you, I never forget anything,” you smile, then press another kiss to his lips. 

“I love you,” he says, staring deeply into your eyes, in which he finally found what he had been looking for all these years, love. 

“I love you so much, Joe,” you grin. 

An hour later 

After your eventful walk, you make it back to his house, immediately following him into the kitchen for some hot chocolate he said he was going to make to fight off the cold. 

“Ah ah ah, you go sit down. I got this,” he says as he turns you around and pushes you towards the couch. The smile on your face gets bigger as you hop over to the comfy couch. 

A little later, he brings over two mugs of Hot Chocolate along with the rest of the Pie for you both to dig into. He hands you your mug, then plops down onto the couch next to you, opening his arms for you to curl up next to him. You rest your cheek against his chest as he settles his arm around your shoulder. 

“This feels right,” he says as he takes a sip of the chocolatey beverage. 

“So right,” you say, wiping the milky drink off your lips. “Everyone’s gonna lose it when we tell them. But I mean, most of them already saw it coming from a mile away”.

“Wait, so does this mean you’re my girlfriend?” he asks, looking down at you.

“Does this answer your question?” you mumble as you press a kiss to his chocolatey lips.

“Oh yes, yes it does, girlfriend,” he smirks. 

“Good, boyfriend,” you giggle. “I can’t even imagine what the fans are gonna say once they figure it out,”.

“I mean, most of them thought you were my girlfriend anyway,” he shrugged. 

“I can’t believe even they could see it before we saw it,” you said, referring to the love between you both. 

“We must be really oblivious,” he laughs as he takes another sip of his drink.

“Must have been really oblivious,” you correct. “Oblivious no longer,”. 

“Right, oblivious no longer,” he says, pressing a kiss to your forehead. “Thank you for making this the best birthday of my life,”.

“You’re welcome,” you say, meeting his eyes again. “But get used to it. Next year will be even better, and the year after even more better,”. 

“Can’t wait,” he sighs as he rubs your shoulder, his brain now filled with thoughts of the future. Everything was perfect and brighter now that he had the comfort of knowing you were going to be by his side forever. Was it a little early to think about that? Sure. But he knew that you were the one. 

Your brain was also much more relaxed and free now that you had the man of your dreams with you, hopefully forever. Those anxiety-filled thoughts had left your mind and were replaced with thoughts of love and hope. He wasn’t going anywhere, and you were all his. 

You finish drinking your Hot Chocolate, and Joe does the same, so you take both of your mugs and place them on the table. Then, you move back to him, this time settling in his lap. He wraps his hands around your hips and presses his lips against yours again. 

“I’ll never get tired of that,” you mumble against his lips, going back to the kiss.

“We’ve got 9 years of kisses to make up for so you better not,” he says as he moves your hair out of your face. 

“I can’t believe this is real life,” you confess as you stuff your head into his neck, feeling his hand slide up and down your back. 

“Well, you better believe it because this was meant to be. You belong with me,” he whispers into your ear. 

You pull your face out of his neck, meeting his gentle eyes that are still filled with love, and passion exclusively reserved for you. “And you belong with me,” you say before kissing him again. 

–The End–

#joe burrow #joe burrow x reader #joe burrow fic #joeburrow #joe burrow imagine #nfl imagine

[nomercymaster11]

In his presence

@SuuNemuii

A/N: Law x you, afab!reader, R-18! NSFW PART ONE

The alarm you set last night jolted you awake. As you turned over, your heart sank a little—Law wasn't there, and the loneliness crept in. But then, your eyes caught sight of something that made you smile: his long sword, Kikoku, resting beside his desk. Relief washed over you; he was still in the submarine, and the night you spent together wasn’t just a dream.

You stretched, feeling the comfort of having slept so deeply. Law must have left quietly to let you rest. After a moment, you got up and changed into your suit, ready to tackle another day. Grabbing your cleaning supplies, you headed to the narrow hallway you were assigned to tidy.

Before starting, you decided to check the control room to see if Law was there. The metal door was slightly ajar, and you peeked inside. There he was, sitting on a chair with his arms crossed and one leg draped over the other, deep in discussion with the crew. You watched him for a few moments, taking in the sight of his focused expression.

He seemed so engrossed in the conversation that you figured he hadn’t noticed you. With a small sigh, you looked down and turned to leave. Little did you know, as you walked away, Law had indeed spotted you out of the corner of his eye, his gaze briefly following you with a hint of recognition.

As you reached the area where you were supposed to start cleaning, your mind was a storm of thoughts and emotions. You couldn't help but reflect on your relationship with Law. With all the missions he undertook alone, a sense of unease had taken root in your heart. You didn't want to dwell on it, but you were beginning to feel neglected. Questions about your place in his life swirled around your mind.

Law was a pirate captain with immense responsibilities and a whole crew to manage. On top of that, he was always busy. There was no doubt he loved you, yet you still found yourself questioning everything. A part of you longed to be his top priority, just like any woman would wish for. But you couldn't even bring yourself to talk to him about it, afraid he'd see you as inconsiderate. The last thing you wanted was to argue over something that seemed trivial in the grand scheme of things. Anxiety crept in, and you frowned, feeling overwhelmed.

Suddenly, a tap on your shoulder snapped you back to reality. You turned to find Law standing there, concern etched on his face. Your eyes misted over, betraying your inner turmoil.

"Is something the matter? You seemed deep in thought," Law asked, his lips pressed into a thin line, his eyes squinting slightly as he tried to read your expression.

You looked away, unable to bear the intensity of his gaze.

"I was... uh...," you stammered, struggling to find the right words. "I was thinking about what to do next after this," you added, trying to sound convincing.

Law wasn't fooled. He slipped his right hand into his pocket while his left hand gently cupped your face, turning it so you had to look at him. His touch was tender as he caressed your jaw.

"I'll wait for you in the bathroom," he murmured, his thumb brushing softly over your lips.

A flutter of nerves stirred in your stomach at his invitation, and you nodded, feeling a mix of apprehension and relief.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You walked into the bathroom, closing the door behind you with a soft click. You hung your towel on the rack and placed your clean suit on the counter, ready for later. Law was already in the tub, lounging with his arms resting on the edges, his body slightly slouched. His eyes were closed, and his back was pressed against the cold metal wall. As a devil fruit user, he had to be careful not to get fully submerged in the water; it could drown him.

You approached the tub, the water cloudy and scented with the vanilla and butter bath bomb you'd bought. His eyes opened slowly as you drew nearer, and he straightened up, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Finally decided to join me…" he said, his voice dripping with confidence. "Thought you were gonna leave me hanging."

"Sorry, couldn't just leave my work unfinished," you replied, your eyes meeting his. His gaze was intense, filled with a raw desire that made your heart race.

"Strip for me," he ordered, his tone leaving no room for argument. You began to unbutton your suit, slowly pulling down the zipper, your eyes locked onto his the entire time. Left in your black shirt and lace undergarments, you pulled the shirt over your head, feeling his gaze heat your skin.

Law's smirk widened. "Come here." You stepped closer, and his right hand slid to your waistband, gently easing off your last piece of clothing. Once you were completely bare, you stepped into the tub and sat in front of him, leaning back against his chiseled, tattooed chest.

"That's more like it," he murmured, his breath warm against your ear. His strong arms wrapped around you, pulling you closer, making you feel both vulnerable and protected in his embrace. The scent of vanilla and butter enveloped you both, mixing with the heat of the water and the intensity of the moment.

Law gently moved your hair to the side and kissed the back of your left ear, sending shivers down your spine.

“Mmm... you taste so good,” he whispered, his lips trailing along your delicate, sensitive skin. His right hand moved to your breast, caressing it tenderly, teasing your nipple until it was hard and erect. His other arm wrapped around your waist, pulling you close. You could feel his arousal pressing against your back.

“How does this feel?” Law asked, his voice a seductive murmur as he continued to grope your breast. You moaned in response, lost in the sensations. Any lingering worries melted away as you decided to save serious talk for later.

Law's kisses trailed sensually down your neck, his left hand sliding down to your stomach. He caressed your folded legs, moving from your upper thigh to your knees and back up until his hand brushed your inner thigh, dangerously close to your center. He teasingly touched your folds with his thumb but quickly pulled back, making you ache for more. Frustrated, you turned your head to look up at him, eyes pleading.

“Babe, I’m just getting started,” Law said with a mischievous grin, his eyes twinkling with promise.

Without wasting any time, Law’s long finger found its way to your sensitive core, his middle finger circling it expertly. You leaned your head back against his shoulder, your breath hitching as he stroked you back and forth. This was what you had been craving for so long.

“You’re so responsive,” he murmured in your ear, nibbling lightly on your earlobe.

“Tell me,” he continued, his voice deep and commanding, “did you touch yourself while I was away?”

“Well... almost. Just thinking about you makes me want to,” you admitted, lifting your left hand to cup his face and trace his lips with your fingertips. He opened his mouth, and you slid a finger inside. He sucked and licked it, his eyes locked onto yours.

Suddenly, his fingers moved faster against your sensitive core, drawing a sensual moan from your lips. He increased the pressure and speed, while his other hand continued to tease your breasts, sending waves of pleasure through your body. Your eyes hooded, and you bit your lip, overwhelmed by his expert touch.

“Oh, fuck yes!” you moaned, as Law suddenly slid his middle finger into your needy pussy, quickly followed by his ring finger. You grabbed onto his thighs as the arousal built up again, your body craving more.

“Kiss me, Law,” you murmured, your voice almost a plea. He stopped caressing your breast and used his right hand to turn your face toward him. Your kiss deepened, his tongue darting out to explore the depths of your mouth, dancing with yours. Both of your tongues twirled and swirled together, sending waves of sensation through both of you. You moved your hips in sync with the thrust of his fingers, placing a hand above his to guide him as he pleasured you. Law felt your muscles tense as you neared climax. With a final thrust of his fingers, you shuddered and screamed again, your body convulsing in pleasure.

“That was... fucking good,” you said, your breath coming in labored gasps.

“We’re not done yet,” Law replied, his voice low and commanding.

With a show of strength, he pushed himself up, and you followed, stepping out of the tub before him. “Do you need help?” you asked, holding out a hand as you noticed him struggling slightly. Law frowned.

“You mocking me now?” he smirked. “I’m just a bit weakened.”

As he rose from the tub, your eyes couldn't help but be drawn to his erect member, anticipation swirling in the air between you.

You looked at him, starting from his disheveled black hair dripping with water, down to his nose and lips, across his hard, toned chest and abdomen, tracing his V-line down to his erect member. He looked ten times hotter, sexier. As you moved your hand to touch his shaft, he immediately grabbed your wrist.

“Don’t do anything until I say so,” he commanded, his tone leaving no room for argument. Law liked to be in control.

“But I want to make you feel good too,” you pleaded, your eyes full of desire.

“You already have,” he replied, closing the gap between you. Effortlessly, he lifted you as if you weighed nothing.

“Hold on to me,” he ordered in a low, sultry voice. You wrapped your arms around his neck as he pushed you against the flat, tiled wall of the bathroom. He hoisted you up to his eye level, leaning forward until his lips brushed gently against yours before increasing the pressure. Law tilted his head, moaning into your feverish kiss, deepening it further. You ran your hand through his hair, feeling the intensity of the moment.

Breaking away from the kiss, Law trailed kisses along your jaw with such desire that it elicited another moan from you. His lips moved down to your neck, sending shivers through your still-trembling body. The heat radiating from both of you was almost overwhelming. Your legs spread apart instinctively, wrapping around his waist, ready for whatever came next.

Law pressed his erection against you, moving his hips slowly back and forth, building your arousal as his shaft rubbed against your folds. He teased you like this for a few moments, the friction driving you wild.

“God, Law! Please!” you begged; your voice filled with primal desire. With his free hand, he guided his member to your aching sex.

“Keep your eyes open and on mine,” Law commanded as he entered you slowly, savoring every inch. You still flinched at his girth every time he entered you, always in awe that you could take him fully. You moaned as he filled you completely. He hooked his arms behind your knees, spreading your thighs further to give you both a better angle and to help you feel at ease. He kissed you deeply and held that position, your bodies joined but still, driving you crazy with anticipation.

Law's demeanor suddenly shifted to a serious one. He leaned in close, his breath warm against your ear as he whispered,

"Don't ever doubt my love for you, (y/n)-ya."

The emotions you'd been holding back spilled over, tears streaming down your face. He gazed at you for a moment, his eyes full of intensity. "I'm sorry," you whimpered, your voice barely audible.

"Shhh... don't," Law murmured, silencing you with gentle, feathery kisses on your cheeks, wiping away your tears. "You're important to me," he said, his words becoming your lifeline. "I need you more than anything," he added, his voice brimming with love and sincerity. Your body ached for him to start thrusting, but he didn’t. You squeezed yourself around him, desperate for him to move, your breath fast and your heart pounding.

Then, he began to thrust, agonizingly slow and deep, almost pulling all the way out before thrusting hard back inside. Each thrust was intimate and claiming, making you feel every inch of him. He kept this rhythm, his eyes never left yours, the connection between you both deepening with every moment. The passion between you was intense, as if your love for him had been renewed. The feeling was liberating, and in that moment, the two of you were truly one.

Your eyes momentarily slid to the side, catching your reflection in the mirror opposite you. You saw his movements, his back muscles flexing, his buttocks moving and tensing with each thrust.

The sight of him, the feel of him inside you, the intensity of his gaze—it was overwhelming.

Law let your feet touch the floor. Your legs were weak and trembling. He guided you toward the sink, turning you around to face the mirror. His hand slid around your hip and dipped between your legs, his touch making you cry out as the pressure on your sensitive core intensified. You tried to ease his hand off by gripping his wrist, but you quickly gave up, overwhelmed by the sensation. Just as you were about to cum, he removed his hand, leaving you aching and frustrated. You bent over, your ass up in front of him, desperate for him to fuck you again.

Both of his hands gripped your hips, and you felt the blunt head of his cock at your entrance. He penetrated you slowly at first, then suddenly pushed in with a breath-taking plunge that made your body instinctively move forward to soften the impact.

Law looked at the two of you in the mirror, feeling a surge of desire. His pace quickened, and your body responded, moving in rhythm with his. The sound of your bodies slapping together echoed inside the bathroom. You felt your climax building again, and you knew he could too, if he kept up this fast rhythm. Law's thrusts became more deliberate, each one driving you closer to the edge, each one claiming you as his.

Your eyes met in the mirror, and you gripped the sides of the sink.

“Oh! Har…der!” you hissed, your voice filled with need.

“I’ll give you what you want, babe,” Law growled. He pulled you back down and thrust even deeper and harder. He groaned, squeezing your waist, and cupping your bouncing breasts, fucking you relentlessly.

He locked an arm under your breasts, hauling you backward, your body jerking with each sharp thrust. Your hand reached down to your sensitive clit, circling it desperately as you chased that ultimate pleasure.

“That's it! that’s my fucking babe,” Law grunted with every thrust. The intensity of his movements drove you wild, both of you teetering on the brink of an explosive climax.

“Babe, I’m about to cum,” you told him, your voice breathless.

“Don’t hold back,” Law whispered, his breath hot against your ear.

“Let go, baby. Let me hear you scream.” You nodded, biting down on your bottom lip. Law picked up the speed, feeling your body tighten around his as you approached climax.

“YES!” you screamed, and as the orgasm exploded within you, Law continued to plunge his cock deep inside, moaning with relief as he emptied himself into you.

As you both came down from your high, Law leaned over and kissed the back of your neck, leaving tiny hickeys along the way. He held you tightly, your bodies still joined, both of you trying to catch your breath. Slowly, Law pulled out, and his cum dripped from your contracting pussy, running down your legs.

The room was filled with the sound of your heavy breathing. Law wrapped his arms around you, holding you close. "You’re incredible," he murmured, his lips brushing your ear.

You smiled, still feeling the aftershocks of your shared passion. "So are you," you whispered back, turning your head to steal another kiss.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

After some time, Law opened the shower, and you joined him. He scrubbed your back with a small towel. He bent down to clean your legs, sticky and sweaty with both of your cum. His tender aftercare made your heart melt. When he was done, you let him sit on a small wooden stool so you could scrub his back. Your fingers traced his battle scars, and you sighed, the worries already etched on your face.

Law stood up and turned to face you, his concern evident. He gently pulled you into an embrace.

“Let’s talk later,” he said, his voice filled with care. He could see right through you. You nodded in response.

After taking a final rinse, Law dried his hair with a towel and then draped it around his neck. He pulled up his boxers, his pants and put on his shoes. Grabbing the doorknob, he gave you one last glance.

“I love you,” he mouthed silently. You read his lips, smiled gently, and blew him a kiss.

^^^ a few minutes later ^^^

As you stepped out of the bathroom, you bumped into the trio.

"Hi!" you called out, your hands full with a bucket of cleaning supplies. Bepo, with his keen nose, sniffed the air around you.

"You smell nice!" Bepo said, taking a long inhale. "We just saw the captain a few minutes ago," he added. "And he smelled just like you." Bepo sniffed again, innocently curious. Penguin and Shachi exchanged a knowing grin as they noticed your cheeks flush red. Bepo, being an innocent Polar Bear mink, cocked his head in confusion, not understanding why the other two were smiling.

Before Penguin and Shachi could tease you, you set down the bucket and pushed them away.

"G-go away!" you stammered; your voice filled with embarrassment. The two bursts into laughter.

"Why?" Penguin asked, his voice tinged with amusement.

"We didn't even say anything," Shachi added, grinning.

"I know exactly what you guys are thinking just by looking at your faces!" you replied, trying to hide your embarrassment.

"You don’t have to feel embarrassed around us, you know?" Penguin said, still chuckling.

"Even so!" you insisted, giving them another light push.

"Whatever you say, Ms. Shy Girl," Penguin teased, his laughter echoing down the hallway.

Feeling flustered, you couldn't help but laugh along with them despite your embarrassment.

"Alright, alright, enough teasing," you said, trying to regain your composure.

Penguin and Shachi finally stopped laughing, though their grins remained. "We're just happy for you," Penguin said with a more sincere tone. "It's good to see you and the captain so close."

"Yeah," Shachi added. "You two make a great team."

Bepo nodded enthusiastically. "And you both smell really nice!" he repeated, still not understanding but wanting to be supportive.

You smiled, touched by their words despite the teasing. "Thanks, guys. That means a lot."

With the cleaning supplies still in your hands, you decided it was time to get back to your duties. "Alright, I’ve got to finish up here. See you later!"

As you walked away, you felt a warmth spread through you, not just from the recent moments with Law but also from the camaraderie of your crew. It was moments like these that reminded you how much this team meant to you.

^^^^^^^^

Later, as you finished cleaning and headed to your quarters, you found Law waiting for you. His expression softened as he saw you.

“Everything okay?” he asked, his voice filled with genuine concern.

“Yeah, just had a little run-in with the trio,” you said with a smile. “They’re happy for us.”

Law nodded, a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Good to know.” He pulled you into an embrace, and you felt the comfort and strength of his presence.

"Spend the night with me," Law whispered in your ear, his voice low and inviting as he embraced you. Without waiting for your reply, he broke the embrace and reached for your hand, gently pulling you towards his cabin.

The evening settled into a peaceful quiet as you and Law shared a moment together. You lay next to him, your left-hand tracing gentle patterns on his chest, while his left arm wrapped securely around your shoulders.

In the quiet of his cabin, the two of you began to talk. You discussed the things that needed to be addressed, your voices low and sincere. There was a new level of openness and honesty between you, a deepening of the bond that had been growing for so long. You talked about your worries, your hopes, and your dreams, finding comfort in each other's words.

The warmth of Law's embrace and the rhythmic sound of his heartbeat lulled you into a state of contentment. You knew that no matter what challenges lay ahead, you were not alone. You had Law, your crew, and the unbreakable bonds that held you all together. And with that comforting knowledge, you slipped into a restful sleep, wrapped in the warmth of love and friendship.

#one piece #trafalgar law #trafalgardwaterlaw #trafalgar one piece #law one piece #heart pirates #law x you #bepo one piece #law x reader #law x female reader #law x y/n #shachi one piece #penguin one piece #polar tang #one shot collection

[visualbutterflysworld]

The Bear | season 3

Okay this is a bit different from what I usually post but I can’t hold it in anymore! I’m a big fan of The Bear (if you haven’t watched it then what are you doing?), I started it because of JAW and just unintentionally fell in love with the show. Also Ayo is apart of Big Mouth so I was like hm this will interesting. ANYWAYS

I’ve been reading about SydCarm and I’ve always shipped them (mainly because I’m a sucker for bwwm and there’s very little representation of it in tv shows) and I keep coming up with different scenarios that should be in season 3

Like one scenario is Carmy and Richie are arguing right? And Richie is like ‘why are you making this place a living hell?’ and then Carmy unintentionally blurts out ‘Because my girl wants this fucking star and I’m gonna be sure she gets it with every bone in my body’ and Richie just stares at Carmy like ??? but to test if his theory is right (because he knows Carmy is talking about syd, he just wants to be 100% sure) so he says something like ‘when the fuck as Claire mentioned a star’ and Carmy is like ‘Not Claire, you dipshit! Sydney wants the star’ then Richie gives this look and says ‘when did Sydney become your girl?’ and BAM THATS WHEN CARMY REALIZES WHAT HE SAID AHHH

The second scenario I thought of would be Carmy and Syd arguing and it’s sorta the same thing as the first one but a love confession. Syd’s like ‘why are you doing this?’ And Carmy says ‘Because I love you and I don’t want you to leave me again!’ And then they both just kinda stand there like ‘🧍🏽‍♀️😧’ until Sydney says ‘what did you just say?’ And Carmy just stands there bamboozled and stuttering trying to figure a way out of this conversation. that’s when Sydney walks up to him and he’s just doing that one stare (yk the stare) and you think they’re gonna kiss BUT NOPE instead Sydney hugs him and he instantly melts, shoving his face in her neck while he holds her tightly. I mean this is the most desperate hug you ever seen! And Sydney talks very softly and is like ‘I’m not leaving you, Carmen, but you need to chill the fuck out’ and it’s AHHHH.

Idk why but I feel like Carmy is gonna be arguing with someone and he just spits out he loves Sydney and everyone is just staring and he’s like what ??? And like whoever it is says something like you just said you love syd and Carmy is like oh 😀

Anywho glad I got that out !!

#sydcarmy #the bear #jeremy allen white #ayo edebiri #sydney adamu #carmy berzatto #I love the bear #the bear season 3 #bwwmromance #rant post #wtf is going on

[bloody-bee-tea]

June of (minimal) Doom 2024 Day 11 - We're out of time

Suguru smiles, watching the scene in front of him unfurl with a great deal of amusement. Shoko is trying to teach Satoru how to heal others, now that he figured out how to heal himself, and it’s going just as well as all three of them expected.

Suguru gives her another five minutes before she attempts to strangle Satoru with her bare hands and claim that maybe a life and death situation is going to speed matters along.

“Gojo, please,” she now says, her voice tightly controlled and she pinches the bridge of her nose. “Would you concentrate for once in your life?”

“I am concentrating,” Satoru shoots back. “It just doesn’t make any sense what you’re saying!”

Shoko takes a deep breath, clearly trying to calm herself down and Suguru honestly feels bad for her. It’s not as if he has any idea what they are talking about, seeing as he is the only one in the room who doesn’t have any kind of healing-power—neither himself nor others—and so to him it’s all gibberish anyway.

“You just have to concentrate,” she reiterates again. “Remember how it feels when you heal yourself,” she says, not for the first time and Satoru throws his hands up in frustration.

“I know how it feels when I heal myself!”

“Then put your hand on my arm and heal this goddamn cut!” Shoko snaps back and maybe Suguru was a bit generous with his estimate of five minutes.

It looks as if she’s about ready to snap any moment now.

“I can’t, why won’t you understand that! It doesn’t make sense when it comes to you, it’s just not the same!”

“What do you mean ‘not the same’? A body is a body!”

“But it’s not,” Satoru whines and slumps in his chair, eying the shallow cut on Shoko’s arm.

Suguru suspects it’s pretty hard for her to keep it open in the first place at the moment and he wonders if that might be one of the reasons she’s so annoyed by Satoru today.

“What do you mean by that? Gods, Gojo, would it kill you to explain yourself once in a while?”

“Things in my body make sense,” Satoru starts, clearly trying to make Shoko understand. “There’s a wound, I do a little—” he wriggles his fingers in what Suguru guesses is a sensible motion because Shoko nods “—and then it’s gone. But I can’t do the same for you. There’s this—barrier or something and everything past that is muddled and muted and confusing and makes no sense at all. I don’t even know where to send my energy to start on healing you and nothing you say makes sense because I don’t feel your body like I do mine.”

“And thank the gods for that,” Shoko mutters before she shakes her head. “But that’s not feasible, Gojo, you have to figure out how to look past this barrier. What if he gets hurt?" Her hand flies up and she points an accusing finger at Suguru, who almost jerks back.

He’s just here to bear witness to this madness, not be dragged in and besides—

“Wow, thanks for the vote of confidence, Shoko,” he drawls out and then very much does not wither under her burning glare.

“We all know neither of you are indestructible. We’ve seen it. So what if Geto gets hurt again, huh? What are you going to do then?”

“Bring him to you?” Satoru gives back and shrugs. “I mean, I can just teleport him to you if it comes to that.”

“It’s not that easy, Gojo. You can’t always assume that an injury will still allow you to move him.”

“Huh?”

“What if he’s impaled on something? What if moving him means exacerbating his injuries? What are you going to do then?”

 “I can just come and get you?”

“Don’t be stupid,” Shoko shakes her head. “You know Yaga sends me to Kyoto more often these days. What if I’m not here? Are you going to warp yourself all over Japan just to get me? We all know you can’t do long-distance teleportation—not yet—and even if you could: two times that close together while you’re also transporting another person? It’s unlikely even you can do something like that. And even if, let’s pretend your genius self can figure this out, what about him then? You want to leave him alone, seriously injured on a battlefield? Either with a curse still there or left all to his own? It’s not going to work, Gojo. You have to figure out how to do it, for his sake at least.”

Satoru looks over to Suguru with a frown and Suguru simply shrugs. Shoko isn’t wrong, after all. So many things can go wrong on a mission and there’s no way to predict a situation like this.

“It could also be a matter of time,” Suguru apologetically says, because he knows Satoru hates it when he’s not on his side but Shoko is right. “What if I’m bleeding out? You teleporting all over the place could take too much time. Sometimes it’s a matter of seconds that make a difference.”

Shoko only points at him as if to say ‘What he said’ and Satoru groans.

“Fine, I get it, I do, but that doesn’t change the fact that I cannot figure it out!”

“Then work on it! You learned RCT in a moment of shock to safe your own life. Imagine how you’d feel if he would die, maybe that will help.”

“Please don’t,” Suguru immediately blurts out because while he doesn’t believe in superstitions, it does feel a lot like inviting doom should Satoru imagine something like that.

And Suguru can really do without a near-death experience any time soon.

“Can we just stop for today?” Satoru quietly says, his eyes downcast, and Suguru doesn’t even want to think about what he’s imagining right now. “I promise I’ll work on figuring it out, I promise, but—not today?”

“Fine. Get out of my hair then,” Shoko mutters, waving them off and Satoru is off his chair faster than Suguru can comprehend.

Satoru snatches Suguru’s hand in his and drags him off with him and it’s not as if Suguru is putting up much of a fight, so he easily follows Satoru. He seems lost in his own head and Suguru keeps quiet until they are in Satoru’s room.

“You okay?” Suguru asks once the door is closed behind them and Satoru lets out a shaky breath.

“Don’t get hurt until I figure it out,” he says, his voice almost pleading, and Suguru’s chest suddenly feels tight.

“Satoru—”

“Suguru, just. Don’t get hurt, alright? I will figure it out, I promise you, but until then you cannot get hurt. I can’t—”

Satoru’s breath is coming a bit fast right now and Suguru steps close, resting their foreheads together.

Suguru gets it; he always feels a little bit faint when he remembers just how much blood he found in the spot where Satoru fought and he can imagine that Satoru felt much the same when he heard that Suguru had gotten hurt as well.

“I’m gonna be careful,” Suguru promises him because that’s the only thing he can do.

There’s always a chance in their profession that they are going to get hurt and things in a fight are more than unpredictable but he can at least promise that he’s not going to take any unnecessary risks.

“Please,” Satoru whispers, gripping Suguru’s arm almost painfully and Suguru pulls him into a real hug.

“I promise I’m going to be careful. I’m not going to do anything stupid.”

“Thank you,” Satoru says and deflates where he stands.

Suguru expected it, so he can easily hold Satoru up, but he does shuffle them over to the bed.

Today, they are going to take it easy and then tomorrow they can double down on Satoru’s training. Suguru has all the faith in the world that Satoru is going to figure it out because he’s a genius like that and so he’s not too worried about anything.

It will be fine.

~*~*~

Suguru can barely breathe and he guesses the huge hole in his chest is the reason for it. There’s a lot of red seeping out of him, he distantly thinks and tries to raise a hand to push it back in.

It’s not very successful and Suguru blames his hand for it, because it barely comes up to where he wants it.

“Suguru! Suguru, no!” Suguru hears Satoru yell out and then in the next second the sky is replaced with sky-coloured eyes.

Suguru thinks he might like the eyes better than the sky.

“I’m good,” Suguru says, can barely feel his mouth shape his words and watches how Satoru’s eyes drop to his chest.

“You’re not fine, fuck, what am I going to do?” Satoru cries out and Suguru remembers that he has not yet figure out how to heal other people.

“Shoko,” Suguru says, because he has to.

He’s going cold and things are getting more clear somehow and he knows he has to send Satoru away.

“Get Shoko,” he says again when Satoru doesn’t move and he tries to push his hand away from his chest, but he can’t find the strength to do so.

“Suguru,” Satoru whispers and Suguru blinks.

“No time, Satoru, need Shoko.”

It’s getting harder to form words and he knows in all honesty that he doesn’t have long left. This is it, for him, and he barely spares a thought for himself. The only thing on his mind apart from the fuzziness is the fact that Satoru cannot be here when he dies.

Satoru shouldn’t have to see that.

“I’m not going to make it, we’re out of time,” Satoru gives back, clearly knowing damn well that Suguru will be dead before Satoru is even halfway to Shoko and he puts his hand on Suguru’s chest.

Suguru thinks he might be sick when the wet noise makes it to his ears.

“I’m gonna heal you. I’m panicking, this is a life and death situation, I can totally figure this out,” he mutters and then closes his eyes to better concentrate.

Suguru’s eyes want to drift shut as well but he fights it. If he has to die then he wants Satoru to be the last thing he ever sees.

“You’re not dying on me, shut up,” Satoru says, a touch of hysteria in his voice and Suguru wonders if he said that out loud or if Satoru managed to read his thoughts somehow.

It could be fun, if Satoru were a mind-reader now as well.

“Suguru, stay with me,” Satoru pants out, clearly exerting himself by concentrating really hard and Suguru thought there was a hole in his chest so he doesn’t understand why it’s suddenly burning like that.

“Satoru,” Suguru gets out only to be met with a fierce glare.

“Shut up,” Satoru hisses and Suguru obediently falls silent.

Satoru is clearly doing something and it probably wouldn’t do to interrupt him now.

“You’re not going to die,” Satoru mutters as sweat beads on his forehead. “You’re not. I won’t let you.”

It’s a nice sentiment, Suguru thinks, and then his energy is all used up and the last thing he remembers to do is smile at Satoru.

He deserves at least that much.

~*~*~

Suguru wakes up to Shoko’s face. The sight in front of him doesn’t change, even when he blinks once, then twice and eventually he decides to accept it.

He didn’t expect to see Shoko in the afterlife, but stranger things have happened.

“How did you die?” Suguru asks, his voice raspy and Shoko snorts out a laugh.

“I didn’t, you idiot. Welcome back to the living.”

“Huh?”

“Yeah, you heard me right,” Shoko says and leans back. “You survived.”

Suguru cranes his head down to check out his own chest and he is honestly confused when he finds it whole and unmarred.

There should be a hole the size of his fist in there.

“What happened?”

“Gojo healed you.”

“He figured it out?” Suguru asks and he can’t help how proud he sounds.

He always knew that Satoru would figure it out eventually but to hear that he in fact did somehow hits differently.

“Uhm, that’s probably a conversation you need to have with him,” Shoko says, avoiding eye-contact all of a sudden. “You should feel a little bit groggy, but otherwise you’re good to go. Gojo is probably still sulking in your room, claiming I took too long to clear you to go.”

“I—see,” Suguru mutters because this is all a bit much. He does understand that Shoko wants him out of her hair and so he sits up and swings his legs over the edge of the couch he was laying on.

He feels a little unsteady on his legs when he finally pushes himself off but that feeling fades quickly.

“Thanks, I guess,” Suguru mumbles, waving at Shoko who only rolls her eyes at him.

“Go thank your possessive freak,” she gives back and that only serves to confuse Suguru further.

It takes him a little bit longer than usually, but he does make it back to his own room eventually and just like Shoko promised him, Satoru is right there.

“Satoru,” Suguru breathes out and Satoru is there a second later, fluttering his hands over Suguru’s chest as if he has to make sure that he’s really unhurt.

“Did Shoko clear you?”

“She threw me out, if that’s what you mean,” Suguru replies and then pushes past Satoru towards his bed.

Sitting down does sound kind of nice right now.

“That means you’re good then.”

“She did mention that you healed me?” Suguru asks and leans against Satoru with a sigh when he finally sits down on the bed as well.

“What else did she say?” Satoru asks, fiddling with his fingers and Suguru frowns.

“She called you a possessive freak,” he honestly gives back and Satoru huffs.

“Honestly, what does that woman have against me. That’s so uncalled for.”

“What happened?” Suguru asks and leans more firmly against Satoru. “You figured it out then? Healing others?”

“Not—really,” Satoru whispers and clicks his tongue.

“What is it then?”

“Remember that talk I had with Shoko? Where I said that it’s easy because my body makes sense and then there’s a barrier around everyone else?”

“Yeah?”

“Well—it turns out there’s no barrier around you,” Satoru rushes out and Suguru blinks.

“Huh? You mean I’m—what? Leaking everywhere?”

“No, it’s more like—” Satoru sighs. “There’s my body and then there’s everyone else’s. And you’re more like—my body.”

Suguru takes a moment to digest that.

“That’s what she meant by possessive,” he eventually mutters and drops his head to Satoru’s shoulder. “Because you see me as yours.”

“It’s more like—as if we’re one,” Satoru mumbles, his voice barely audible and Suguru hums. “Are you—mad?”

“About what?” Suguru wants to know because being angry is the furthest thing from his mind right now.

“About—that?”

“Satoru,” Suguru sighs out and reaches out to take Satoru’s hand in his, treading their fingers together. “Apart from the fact that you saved my life—for which I am beyond grateful—it’s always us, isn’t it? Why would I be angry knowing that you feel the same about me?”

“The same?”

“Of course the same. Besides, isn’t it you who always says that I’m your one and only? Don’t you think I would have complained before if I minded that?”

“Probably,” Satoru admits and Suguru shrugs.

“Then I don’t see what there’s to worry about. “I love you. You love me and it’s all like it should be. Especially now that I don’t have a huge hole in my chest.”

“Gods, don’t even say that,” Satoru says with a wet laugh. “You have no idea how scared I was.”

“I can imagine,” Suguru replies, because—again—he had to find so much blood after Toji.

He gets it.

“Now, I am cleared and I am very obviously not dead, but I am incredibly tired, so can we please just lay down?”

“Yeah, of course, sure, come here,” Satoru immediately says, moving away from Suguru to allow him to stretch out on the bed.

Satoru follows him easily but instead of laying down next to him, he almost drapes himself over Suguru, pressing his ear to Suguru’s chest.

“Do you mind?” Satoru asks and Suguru somehow musters the strength to raise a hand and card his fingers through Satoru’s hair.

“Not at all,” he whispers and with a sigh of contentment Satoru goes boneless.

“I do love you,” he says after a long moment, “just wanting to get that out there.”

“I think your actions said that loud and clear,” Suguru replies but he can’t deny that it does feel nice to hear him say it.

“Good. Can’t let you forget,” Satoru mutters and then drifts off to sleep, clearly having worn himself out with his worry.

Suguru is not far behind though and he sleeps very well, knowing that his one and only feels the same.

#bt writes #jjk #satosugu #june of doom 2024 #geto suguru #gojo satoru #ieri shoko #near death experience #serious injury #angst #hurt/comfort #getting together #love confessions

[savriea]

Okay but what about Rolan having a crush on Tav but he wants to figure out if they would ever be interested in him so he cast a spell to make him look like someone else to dig up information (I think he would embarrassedly as the companion and they would be on board)

But, turns out Tav clocked it was Rolan by things that he does and decides to mess with him. (Tav likes him but he should be messed with for being sneaky)

Thoughts?

Oh, anon. This popped up on my phone while I was in the mountains and did not have enough signal to respond—so I have been stewing on it nonstop since then.

asdhbfzgld I love this. Rolan is definitely the type to try to be sneaky about his feelings and use magic to get his way. I also think he'd be so tunnel-visioned with his goal that he'd forget to ask the right questions or learn even the tiniest bits of context, such as if the companion he transforms into is already in a relationship ;)

I was so excited to answer this one! Ugh, what a cute prompt. This one got long.

Rolan’s nerves are on edge. After the fall of the Netherbrain, the city had been wrought with chaos, and he has not seen Tav since before the final battle. Now, a tenday later, the "Heroes of the Gate" have decided to celebrate their victory at the Elfsong Tavern. Rolan only knows due to Lakrissa sharing the details of the impending event with Lia. Though he feels a pang of disappointment at not receiving an invite, it seems the perfect opportunity for him to finally learn if Tav harbors any feelings for him. His crush has lingered since the events at Last Light Inn, only growing after they dealt with Lorroakan. He simply can’t bear the uncertainty any longer.

After an awkward conversation with Gale, who was surprisingly supportive, Rolan began working on tweaks to the Disguise Self spell. After many days of nonstop effort, Rolan finally successfully adjusts the spell to allow him control over how the transformation looks. The familiar form of Gale takes over his own in the mirror, and he practices Gale’s mannerisms, determined to pull off the deception.

Entering the bustling tavern, Rolan spots Tav by the bar. Taking a deep breath, he approaches with what he hopes is Gale’s calm, thoughtful demeanor. “Tav, may I have a word?”

Tav looks up with a friendly smile. “Of course, Gale. What’s on your mind?”

Sat in a private booth in the corner of the Elfsong, he manages polite conversation, dodging questions about the other companions he has had no way of answering. Tav asks about Tara’s whereabouts and Shadowheart’s health, and Rolan deflects with vague comments and nods, trying to maintain Gale’s composed exterior. After a believable amount of small talk, Rolan starts with subtle probing.

“That Rolan was a great help at the final battle. Have you spoken with him at all since then? I do wonder if we'll see him this evening.”

Tav’s responses are thoughtful, but their lips hold a playful twitch at the corners. “Rolan? Oh, yes. Very helpful." They lean in slightly, eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Hmm. Maybe he’ll turn up eventually... he’s been quite busy, I'm sure.”

Rolan feels a growing unease, sensing they know something is off but not letting on. The way Tav’s gaze lingers on him makes his pulse quicken. Just as he is about to steer the conversation back to safer ground, suddenly too nervous to go through with his plans, Tav’s demeanor shifts.

“Gale, you seem different tonight. Nervous, almost. More... attentive.” Tav’s voice takes on a teasing lilt, their eyes narrowing playfully. “You wouldn’t happen to be hiding something, would you?”

Rolan’s heart pounds and he finds himself unable to summon a response. He simply laughs off the accusation, folding his arms across his chest defensively. Then Tav starts flirting outright. They lean closer, their smile turning mischievous. “You know, Gale, if you keep showing me this extra attention... I might begin to think you have a crush on me.”

Rolan’s mind races as his heart pounds. “A crush? Of course not,” he stammers nervously, feeling his cheeks burn.

Tav’s eyes twinkle with amusement. “Oh, no? A shame, then...” They pout teasingly, their playful demeanor making Rolan’s stomach ache. As they reach under the booth and place a hand atop his knee, he feels suddenly both giddy and sick.

The teasing and flirtatious comments directed at "Gale" make Rolan's heart sink. Is Tav interested in Gale? How has he not realized that after all this time? He tries to keep his composure, but his discomfort grows with each passing second. Tav’s laughter, though light and pleasant, feels like a dagger twisting in his chest.

Feeling misunderstood and heartbroken, Rolan makes an excuse and leaves the Elfsong Tavern early. “I just remembered I have something to attend to. Please, excuse me.” He hurries out, his heart heavy with disappointment and confusion, convinced he has misread everything and that Tav’s affections lay elsewhere. He quickly finds himself back at Ramazith's Tower, head hung low as he dispels the transformation and makes his way to the wine cellar.

~~~

Tav arrives at the Elfsong Tavern, ready to celebrate their hard-fought victory alongside their companions. The atmosphere is lively, filled with laughter and music. As they make their way through the bustling crowd, Tav notices Shadowheart arriving with someone unfamiliar. Tav finds it odd, considering Shadowheart and Gale had become close at the end of their journey. Even though they aren’t publicly "together" yet, it seems strange for the cleric to show up with someone else.

As Tav approaches to greet them, Shadowheart’s behavior is even stranger. She avoids eye contact and offers short, evasive answers when asked for an introduction to the new man. This piques Tav’s curiosity even more.

Just as Tav gives up and leaves to get a drink, Gale appears, greeting them with a casual, “Tav, may I have a word?”

Tav turns, surprised to see him looking so content, given the unfamiliar man Shadowheart has arrived with. “Of course, Gale. What’s on your mind?”

They move to a private booth in the corner, and Tav can’t shake the feeling that something is off. Gale is evading their questions about Tara, and when they subtly probe about Shadowheart, he avoids the topic. Gale then begins asking odd questions, particularly about Rolan, of all people.

Tav’s responses are thoughtful, but they can’t hide their amusement. They know Gale well enough to sense that something is different. They watch closely as he picks at the hem of his tunic, bounces a leg nervously under the table, and chews on his lip. He displays clear signs of distress, nervous ticks Gale had never once shown on the road.

“Gale, you seem different tonight. Nervous, almost. More... attentive.” Tav’s voice takes on a teasing lilt, their eyes narrowing playfully. “You wouldn’t happen to be hiding something, would you?”

Tav watches as he laughs nervously, folding his arms across his chest. The discomfort is palpable. Deciding to push further, Tav leans closer, their smile turning mischievous. “You know, Gale, if you keep showing me this extra attention... I might begin to think you have a crush on me.”

Seeing “Gale” stammer and blush confirms Tav’s suspicions. “A crush? Of course not,” he manages nervously. Tav glances across the tavern, catching a glimpse of Shadowheart and her "new" beau laughing happily at the bar. Their body language is quite familiar as they lean into each other, and Tav realizes the same could be said of the man opposite them, just in a different way.

Tav and Gale had already been down this road, once. They'd agreed very early on that they were better only as friends, and as the rest of Tav's companions seemed to pair up and find love elsewhere, Tav had been left as the odd one out. Others, such as one particular Master of Ramazith's Tower, would not know this, however. The nervous movements and slight lisp that Tav has failed to notice until now give him away. They decide to play into this knowledge, seeing just how flustered "Gale" could get.

Tav’s eyes twinkle with amusement. “Oh, no? A shame, then...” They pout teasingly, enjoying his flushed reaction. As they reach under the booth and place a hand atop his knee, feeling him squirm, they feel a mix of giddiness and amusement at how easy it is to unravel the façade.

The act seems to have worked too well. He looks genuinely pained, and his discomfort visibly grows with each passing second. Tav’s playful teasing and laughter, meant to be light-hearted, seem to cut deeper than intended.

When “Gale” abruptly makes an excuse and leaves the Elfsong Tavern early, Tav feels a pang of guilt. They watch him hurry out, his posture defeated and his heart clearly heavy. Tav realizes they might have pushed too far. Determined to set things right, they decide to follow him.

Soon, they arrive at Ramazith’s Tower through the portal in Sorcerous Sundries. They are met by Rolan in the foyer, a bottle of Arabellan Dry in hand. The spell has dropped, and Rolan is back in his normal form, but he is still wearing the same clothes from the tavern. The sight of him, looking so dejected, tugs at Tav’s heart.

"Rolan," Tav says gently, approaching him. “I knew it was you.”

Rolan looks up, stunned. “The whole time?”

“Well, not the whole time.” Tav smiles softly. “But I figured it out pretty quickly. Gale and Shadowheart are... a bit of a thing.”

"Ah. He... did not share that with me." Rolan sighs, his face holding a mix of relief and embarrassment. He sucks in a deep breath before steadying himself, seeming resolute. “I just... Tav, I have not been able to stop thinking of you. Since Last Light, and then Lorroakan, you have plagued my thoughts. After... everything. I needed to know if you felt anything for me.”

Tav steps closer, their expression tender. “I’ve liked you for a while. You could have just asked.”

Rolan blinks, processing their words. “You mean... all this time, you...?”

Tav nods, a gentle smile playing on their lips. “Yes, Rolan. All this time. You didn’t need to go through all this trouble.”

Rolan’s posture relaxes, the tension visibly leaving his body. He takes a tentative step closer, his eyes searching Tav’s, seeming to look for any sign of hesitation. Tav offers none, and he lets out a breath so shuddery it wracks his shoulders.

“I’m sorry for being so foolish,” he murmurs, his voice trembling slightly. “I just didn’t know how to approach you.”

Tav’s smile widens. “Well, now you know.” They close the remaining distance between them, their hand gently cupping Rolan’s cheek. “And next time, just be yourself.”

#i got carried away again #anon ask #thanks anon! #bg3 rolan #drabble #sav speaks

[girlwip]

ANYTHING... FOR MY LITTLE SISTER.

✦ 　── 　 fami / famine devil of chainsaw man graphics ( for rentry / whatever ).

✧ 　── 　 requested by @glam-g1rls. free to use ! credit is appreciated, but not required.

#✦﹕agony on display | graphics #fami #famine devil #chainsaw man #csm #rentry #sentry #graphics #rentry graphics #pink aesthetic #sorry there’s fewer this time #i also don’t really have a set style yet so #bear with me while i try to figure it out

[kb11rd]

A confession. If only a bit ill-timed

#kebb's art #click on the pictures if you want to see better tbh i drew this pretty small yeah #spider man #spiderman #peter parker #harry osborn #(albino harry osborn) #green goblin #parksborn #marvel #really a scene coming out of drama lol (im a sap) #ouugh angst parksborn angst ououuggghhhhh #still trying to figure them out bear with me #yes i believe in taller boy harry #listened to “one of us” by abba while drawing this. surprisingly fit

[ohworm-writes]

Hi omg! I hope your doing well and your day/night is going great! ^^. Okay- I genuinely don’t know how this thought came to me, but now that it has its all I can think about when it comes to Nikolai in just two words: Sleepy Sex. Like just imagining where your both cuddled in bed together, the sun shining through the curtains and shining down on the two of you as you both sleep- him spooning and holding you. Can see maybe where he has a rare off day from work and you do too, and because y’all hadn’t seen each other in awhile and being so close to one another’s warm bodies is just so lovely, what better way to enjoy it then by him slowly kissing down your exposed neck, whispering how your so gorgeous even if you say your still tired and look like a mess. After awhile, his hand would slowly go down to the front of your shorts and it quickly turns to him fingering you softly.

Ugh- he’d be so gentle, continuing to praise and say how he plans on spending his day off right with you, even as you come apart on his fingers, even as he’s slowly pushing himself inside you; it’d just be unabashed sleepy/pent up sex AH- Nikolai makes me froth at the mouth sometimes istg???

No because you're absolutely so fuckin' right with this one. I can't even... the amount of time I've spent frothing and drooling at this ask in specific is genuinely unbelievable.

PAIRING gn!reader x Nikolai RATING R - Restricted [ Content warnings: 18+ mdni, soft dom!Nikolai, fingering, sleepy sex]

The thing is, it starts out so innocent. Him waking up first, of course, his body curled perfectly around yours, his face buried into the back of your neck right where your hair starts to sprout.

He's breathing so soft and slow, and his breath is so hot when he wakes up. His voice is so deep and groggy too, giving you these sweet little pecks against your skin as he mumbles out.

And then it escalates to him sliding his big, warm hand down the front of those cute little shorts you love wearing to bed as he stuffs you full, his fingers covered in your slick as he slowly, lazily pumps his fingers in and out of you.

His beard is scratchy against the back of your neck as he kisses it, but it's so hard to be annoyed by when two of his fingers are stuffing your hole and a third teasing.

He's not even being rough or doing anything to escalate it - no bites or nips, no harsh or forceful actions, no groping or squeezing of any kind. Just lazy, loving motions.

Loves the way you feel when you cum all because of his fingers. No need to ask for permission or beg or anything of the like because he just lets you, humming against your skin with his eyes closed, yawning as he gently grinds his hips against the curve of your ass, his big, fat cock barely held back by his briefs.

They're already stained through from his pre-cum too, so eager at such at early hour as it throbs and twitches and he barely pushes his own briefs down enough to get himself out while you shimmy those pretty shorts off.

Your thighs are all messy, too. All sticky and wet from your own cum and slick, which makes it all the easier for him when he pushes himself inside of you and rocks his hips in a slow, lazy manner.

It's almost like he's trying to fuck the both of you back to sleep with the way his and your eyelids are so, so heavy.

He just missed you so much! How can he not fuck that pretty little hole of yours when it's so wet and ready for him? You're making so many pretty noises, too. :(

He's been missing you so much and he knows the two of you haven't been able to spend enough time together, so he hopes filling you to the brim can make up for it.

If he hadn’t just woken up, he’d be folding you in half and fucking the air from your lungs, thrusts hard enough to make you cry. But that isn’t the case, and honestly, he enjoys this in his own way.

Just being able to feel the way your walls wrap around him perfectly, so gummy and tight and warm. And feeling the way you gush around his cock when you cum even though he’s going so slow and being so soft with his movements - it makes his head spin.

Can’t (and won’t) even try to stop himself when he cums, dick twitching as his balls empty and thick ropes of his cum fill up that pretty hole of yours. Fucks it back into you if any leaks out. Can’t have his partner wasting a drop, now can he?

And when he finally pulls out, he maneuvers himself so that he can pull you on top of him, chest to chest, one hand on your hip and the other tracing patterns into your spine as he mumbles words of praise and adoration to you.

It’s the perfect way to start off both of your days. Wouldn’t you agree?

#just something short because this ask has been sitting in my inbox for a while #trying to figure out a format for simple short drabbles like this so bare with me #bare? bear? i dunno #Nikolai x reader #cod nikolai x reader #nikolai cod x reader #nikolai cod #cod nikolai #Nikolai #cod x reader #call of duty x reader

[aquillwieldingmagpie]

I don't know WHY, but for some reason I've had a vision of a Golden Ratio Slay the Princess AU.

I genuinely don't know why, maybe it's because of Ratio's owl motif and one of 2.1 quests being named A Cat Among Pigeons (in reference to Agatha Christie and possibly Aventurine's role) and then later owning three black cakecats even if he's mostly associated with peacocks? Maybe it's because I somehow associate Aventurine's many masks and personas we see over the time we know him with the Shifting Mound's many perspectives and how both her and him are so confident their respective foil won't kill or betray them at the end of everything (and are even fine with it if it does happen), how both the Princess and Aventurine always, always fight for freedom and are denied it until the very end of their story when they finally are granted a true escape through their own efforts and an outside force be it through being show the way or death? How they're both connected to a being so much larger than them but have no say over it (the Princess being seen as only a part/perspective of the Shifting Mound even if she can be found at her heart, Aventurine was blessed by Gaiathra Triclops and ultimately none of that did them any good).

Or maybe it's because I can practically hear this line from the Princess coming out of Aventurine's mouth to Ratio the more close he is to knowing who the real Aventurine is after I woke up in a cold sweat from a nap to write this out:

"Have you figured out what you want to do yet, or are you going to keep trying to find a center that doesn't exist?"

(The Princess saying this about herself and how she's the heart of the Shifting Mound and hasn't really been herself or stopped playing a role through the entirety of the game, but in this context Aventurine saying that there is no 'Kakavasha' or 'No.35' or even 'Aventurine' anymore, just the many masks he wears even though he admits to himself he hasn't changed)

I have no idea if this is anything though or if it would fit their characters at all though. Maybe it's just a silly vision I'll write out one day, maybe not.

#aventio #golden ratio #ratiorine #raturine #slay the princess au #slay the princess spoilers #is this anything? #I dunno folks I'm tired I have several coding assignments to do and a deadline has slowly been approaching my location #haven't had the time to analyze these two as much as I'd like #I just know I had a vision while trying to nap about Aventurine during his time as No.35 as The Witch from Slay the Princess #and then later as himself fulfilling the place of the Thorn with Ratio as the Slayer #and then suddenly blacked out and had this all written out #I also have no idea why but I have a feeling the Princess and the Long Quiet would both like Aventurine. Just a hunch tho #as if the poor guy isn't the favorite/bears the gaze of one too many deities already #also the thought of Ratio as a owl person thing trying to figure out what's going on in the Construct and arguing with the Narrator #over his view on death is insanely funny to me

[deeva-arud]

Boo!

I'm the paranormal activity on your dash :]

#Udi posting in 2023? truly a christmas miracle #Now it'd be pretty funny if everyone seeing this collectively thought 'who the hell is this person?' I mean. UNDERSTANDABLE- #I've been gone for so long I don't even recognise this dash layout help?? #Excuse me while I have a grandma moment trying to figure out where things are #Anyway I don't have much to post since I've barely drawn in all these months. So many art blocks stacked on top of more art blocks #(among other things) #BUT I still have some drawings here and there. Not the best I've ever produced but hey it's something #and you know what happens when Udi has an art block? Exactly. Cateeva content (and silly drawings) (｡•̀ᴗ-)✧ #Now it's time for me to fill my room with sticky notes reminding me to take things easy #you'll have to bear with my slowness for a little bit longer. Life hit me hard recently and everything feels so heavy to me #but I just didn't want to let this year pass without saying anything... #I actually missed being on here. If I see art or an oc from any of my moots I'll probably cry on the spot #Moot reading this you've been warned (🫶) #I'll shut up now. I really hope everyone's doing as good as they can. This is such an awful world #Udi talks

[stellorc]

briefly leaving my cave to throw a wip here

I've been feeling weird with my art and life in general so I took refuge reading and playing stardew valley for the past few weeks. The weirdness isn't completely gone but it's not as haunting as before.

Anyway, please have this snippet of my beloved baby Revan being her broody teenage self. It's nowhere near to be finished but I'm having fun with the process.

With that said, hello to the new (actual!) people who have stopped by this mess of a blog and decided to stay. And to everyone who is still around, a big pat on the head. Thank you all so much <3

#also i leave for just a few weeks and a crypto scam appears on my inbox sir get OUT #and the shit ton of bots good lord why #i'm tired #anyway this painting has been a fun way to turn off my brain from things and just enjoy the process for a while #i'm still trying to figure stuff out so thanks for the patience guys #and this site still scares me a little so bear with me #mandatory comment about the ungodly amount of unfinished pieces i have that won't see the light of day #hopefully this won't be one of them #though i do wish that i didn't expect a pretty finished piece from every sketch i made #some things can be just for funsies but alas #my brain is full of ramblings about jesra childhood and I just want peace but she won't leave me alone send help #if you got this far go drink water if you can <3

[kgerbertt]

#vis #[[please bear tf w me while i try to figure out what reps i owe bc my activity bar is all over #and answer the memes i still have oops]

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Great Expectations (Breath of the Wild story)

Summary: When the time comes to finally face the Calamity at the castle, Link finds himself faltering. Doubt and old anxieties suddenly drown him. Amidst his spiraling, however, a voice from the past arrives to help him, and he learns a valuable lesson about self-worth.

 Link paused in front of the great statue of Hylia in the temple as the wind blew his hair into fairy knots. He’d purified all the divine beasts, he’d reclaimed the Master Sword, and he remembered all the events related to the images in the Sheikah Slate.

 He was ready.

 Or… that’s what Impa had said.

 To be honest, he didn’t feel unprepared. He didn’t feel like he couldn’t do it. He was eager to save the princess, eager to see Zelda in the flesh, eager to have one ounce of familiarity in his life again. Anyone he interacted with was a stranger, whether they knew him or not. Nothing was like how it had been in the few memories he’d recovered. He felt like a foreigner in a strange land. But Zelda… Zelda wasn’t like that. Zelda was the same princess he’d known one hundred years ago, and she’d understand what he was feeling.

 At least… to a degree. After all, for as much as he felt a foreigner in this Hyrule, he felt a foreigner to himself as well. He had more memories of this adventure than whatever had come before it.

 He enjoyed his journey. He enjoyed meeting so many people and helping them. He enjoyed seeing Hyrule in its natural beauty, despite the ruins and struggles of its people. He enjoyed watching them rebuild. He loved seeing the sunrises paint the sky strawberry gold as it cut into the midnight blue of the night before like a fire arrow melting snow. He felt proud of what he’d accomplished so far. But all of a sudden, he felt so incredibly alone, and perhaps the fact that all that was left was to go to the castle made him pause. His heart and mind screamed go get her, but his body froze.

 Some odd sensation, some odd obligation, dragged him back to the Great Plateau. He’d told himself that it was just to get one last look at everything before he headed to the castle, say one last prayer at the temple where it had all started, and get some final sense of what he was fighting for.

 He shook his head. As if I don’t understand what I’m fighting for. I’m fighting for the princess. I’m fighting for my friends who I lost. I’m fighting for my country.

 A country that had mostly forgotten him, except for the Zora. A country that was broken and gasping. A country that he’d failed one hundred years ago. Friends who were dead, who he had abandoned in their hour of need.

 I’ll fail them again if I don’t act. Hyrule will fall. Their deaths will be in vain. Zelda…

 Link shook his head. He didn’t know what was wrong with him. He didn’t know why he was suddenly having this debate. He’d have the occasional doubt during his journey, but it was always quenched by the desire to fulfill his role, the desire to act, the desire to help. He refused to let the king down, he refused to let the champions down. It was almost a blessing that no one else knew who he was, because those thoughts alone were crippling enough, even if they were born from a place of love.

 They aren’t your friends.

 Link’s breath hitched at the thought, and as if giving his mind permission, the poison continued to seep through him.

 They were his friends. A man who was a knight. A man who was a Champion. A man who had a fiancée, who was a protector and confidante and friend to the princess, who had a history and memories.

A man who you are not.

 Link tried to shake his head but found his body frozen. He was a prisoner, held there like someone had used the stasis rune on him, his mind turning against him.

 That man died one hundred years ago. You are a husk of him. You barely have his strength or his stamina. You barely have his memories, and you only pieced them together through the eyes of others.  Are they even really yours to claim, then?

 Gasping, Link found himself on his knees all of a sudden. He’d forgotten to breathe, he’d stiffened his body so tightly like a bowstring pulled back that he’d snapped. His mind was spinning, his vision blurring. Reality crashed down around him, the Sheikah slate on the grass peeking through the cobblestone beside him, its eye staring at him accusingly.

 Even the Master Sword didn’t recognize you at first. You’re not the Hero. He was. And he failed. He fell.

 A desperate gasp turned to a sob. Clear vision turned to tears. Strong shoulders deteriorated into tremors.

 You will never live up to their expectations of him because even he couldn’t.

 His chest tightened at the thought, and his breath hitched. Things were moving too fast and too slow at once, his thoughts turned into a continuous stream of failure over and over and over and over—

 Rustling. Tiptoeing. Cooing.

 Focusing on the sounds, Link’s trembling hand cautiously moved to his sword, sluggish beyond belief, and he looked up to see a dove on the floor in front of him.

 The dove was elevated slightly as it sat on one of the steps leading to the statue. It stared at him briefly, its black eyes seeming to search into his soul. Link didn’t dare move, not wanting to startle the little feathered creature away. Something in its gaze seemed to call to him, a siren from nature beckoning to a man born of the wilds. The dove took two tentative steps and then flew into the air, landing on the statue’s head.

 Link let his gaze fall steadily, tracing down from the dove to the statue’s face. To Hylia’s face.

 Hylia. Why had she chosen him? Had she even chosen him? After all, whenever he’d heard her voice at the statues, she’d addressed him as someone who had conquered the shrines and claimed the spirit orbs. She hadn’t called him destined hero or anything of the sort.

 But… the monks in the shrines spoke of him as part of prophecy, as a hero rising to save Hyrule. In one of his memories, he distinctly recalled Zelda being unable to access the shrines because they were specifically designed to open for him.

 The shrines were made to help the hero train, to hone his skills. They were designed for him.

 Hylia had chosen him. She had chosen him in the past and she chose him now, even though he felt like an imposter in his own skin.

 But the last accusation still clung to him like ice, chilling him to the bone.

 You will never live up to their expectations of him because even he couldn’t.

 Maybe Hylia had made a mistake.

 The dove cooed again, flapping its wings and taking off through one of the windows to the left. Link’s eyes followed it as it flew in circles outside, almost seeming as if it were waiting for him. Giving one last look to the statue of Hylia, he nodded respectfully and exited through the decaying wall. The dove soared, gliding off to a corner of the plateau, and he quickly pursued it.

 After a few minutes, the avian settled on a dilapidated roof, and Link froze.

 The house. The house where the king had been pretending to live. The house where Link had learned his first recipe, spent his first night by a warm fire, rested on a long unused bed and wondered why the strange old man wouldn’t sleep there.

 Slowly entering the building, Link took in all the details with new eyes and new knowledge. The house was so threadbare in comparison to all other homes he’d seen. Logs were clumsily stacked and tied together, there wasn’t even an attempt at building a floor, and the place was draftier than his own home in Hateno. A bed was in the corner, the only furniture aside from a table and a few tree stumps, though it bore no mattress, sheets, or blanket. It was simply carved wood stacked on stilts, a feeble excuse for a resting place. When Link had first slept on it months ago, he’d figured he would have been more comfortable lying in the dirt.

 Had the king really built this place just to ease him back into his responsibilities, his reality? Link had been assisted time and again by the spirits of the champions, but he’d never quiet seen them interact with the living world in such a manner. Would the king be lingering here now?

 Link’s gaze drifted to the diary on the table, and he reread the entry discussing the meal and warm doublet. He smiled fondly, remembering the excitement he’d had when he finally got the recipe right, remembering the comfort of having clothing that actually kind of fit him properly and kept him warm.

 But there was something that his now experienced eyes realized. Something he had missed before.

The diary was open to this entry, and the two pages before it were blank (the first time he’d read it he’d thought nothing of it, but now that he had a better idea of culture, books, diary keeping in general, he noted it was a very strange thing to do, writing in the middle of the book). But… the pages before that… were a different texture. Older. Crinkly, as if they’d been written on, forever changed and scarred by the pressure of a quill and hand pressing and scratching into them.

 Curious, Link flipped back one blank page. And then the next. And then the next.

 And finally found another entry.

 But this… this was different. The handwriting, the size of the font, the way the paragraphs were divided.

 This wasn’t the king’s writing.

 Entranced, Link flipped back until he could find some sort of start to this new entry, and as he did so he discovered that the rest of the book was filled to the brim with this penmanship, from the first page up to this point.

 The king had used someone else’s diary.

 It wasn’t Zelda’s; that much was immediately clear. This writing, though legible and clean, was not the script of royalty. It did not hold the flourishes, the near artwork of letters blending together. It was tight, efficient. Like a soldier.

 Like a knight.

 Link held his breath. Was this…? Surely not… did he…?

 Grabbing the book with trembling hands, he turned to the first entry.

 Link,

 I’ve discovered that with my lack of foresight this is really the only book in which I can write. I have so much to say, so much to tell you… but with so little space I figure it best to be practical instead.

 Lady Impa had forewarned that it was unlikely you would remember me. If that is the case when you awaken, I will accept that. It isn’t your fault, after all.

 You see, I had originally gotten this journal and planned on using it to catalogue events that happen while you’re asleep. Meant as a way to catch you up on things and to keep myself sane. Your mother always did say I should try to write my thoughts down to sort them out. I believe she said the same to you.

 The book slipped out of his numb grasp as he choked out a panicked, shaky exhale. This wasn’t his diary.

 It was his father’s.

 His father’s.

 “I wondered if you would ever come back here.”

 Heart in his throat, panic in his mind, Link whirled, drawing the Master Sword, but all he saw was the entrance to the house.

 “Link,” the voice said behind him. He turned again, sword still in hand, and saw nothing.

 “Son. Put the sword away.”

 Son.

 Son.

 Son.

 Every other time he’d met a spirit from his past, he’d gazed in wonder, in a strange sense of déjà vu, not quite grasping their history while still somehow sensing it.

 Every other time he’d been distinctly himself while also seeing a piece of him.

 Here… just hearing that voice, that term—his mind swirled with sensations and glances into another life, the smell of apple pie, the sound of laughter, the weight of a soldier’s sword in his hands, warm arms holding him close—

 The Master Sword fell to the ground with a clatter, and Link fell with it.

 “P-papa,” he stuttered, his voice thick and wet, his eyes already leaking tears, his lips trembling. “Papa.”

 Warmth and rough skin cupped his cheeks, wiping the tears away with little swipes of thumbs. He felt his head tilted upward. He saw his own eyes in a foreign face, his own dirty blonde hair framing a stranger, stubble failing to hide a comforting smile. He saw a tiny scar, barely a scratch, on the man’s chin, and in his mind he gazed into the distant past, remembering a knight getting knocked to the ground while fighting a horde of monsters, remembering that knight shoving him to the ground as arrows flew overhead, remembering his heart hammering so hard it felt like it would burst, remembering indistinct words of accolades and cheers when it was all over. When the memory faded, the stranger’s face was less foreign, and the searing, undeniable feeling of home, comfort, warmth that enveloped him told him everything he needed to know, everything he already knew.

 “Papa,” he whispered, barely audible. His body started to tremble, and his breath came in quick rasps.

 The face shone with love as the man smiled, his eyes glittering with unshed tears, his brow furrowing together in joy and concern and a concerted effort to not fall apart. “I’m here, little knight.”

 Little knight.

 “That’s enough training for today, little knight, it’s time for dinner.”

 “Is that—where did you get those cuts, little knight? No, no, don’t you dare run off, I already saw it, Link, going to Mipha won’t help!”

 Little knight.

 “Well, then. If it isn’t my favorite little knight!”

 “Little knight, what’s wrong?”

 Little knight.

 “I’m so proud you, little knight.”

 Link broke.

 He couldn’t stop the tears, couldn’t stop the sobs. He couldn’t stop the unbearable ache in his heart, the sense of longing. He couldn’t stop the relief that washed over him as his father gathered him into his arms, the sensation to just let go and let it out, the automatic acquiescence to the invitation the hug gave. He couldn’t stop the racing breathing, the way his hands clung to his father’s tunic, the way he buried himself so much into his father’s chest that he couldn’t even see the light from the room around him.

 He couldn’t stop the pain that had been tearing into him with each memory he’d gained. The sense of loss, the grieving that he couldn’t quite understand, that he wanted to feel and to run from at the same time. He couldn’t stop the fear that had gnawed at him steadily throughout his adventure whenever he thought about his destiny, whenever he’d truly considered that he was literally Hyrule’s last and only hope. He couldn’t stop the loneliness of being someone displaced by time, someone who had a life that he couldn’t even grasp anymore.

 He couldn’t stop the tidal wave of love that he felt, the comfort that sank into his body and made him slump boneless in his father’s embrace, hiccups holding him hostage in a twitching frenzy.

 Throughout the entire time, his father gently rocked him and held him so tightly it almost hurt. It felt so good, a reassurance that someone was there, someone who loved him so dearly, someone who he knew even if he didn’t remember all of their interactions, someone who was so intrinsically bound to him by blood and by love that all it took was a single word, a single look, and it unlocked his heart.

 After what felt like an eternity, Link almost felt coherent again, pulling away enough to be able to breathe a little, sniffling and flinching when he saw the stains of snot and tears on his father’s shirt. He wiped at his face, embarrassed. He felt his father press a gentle kiss into his hair, and the gesture made him melt back into the embrace once more.

 “I missed you,” his father whispered, clearing his throat, and it was only then that Link realized he had been crying too.

 Link wished he could say the same, but all he could do was shudder. He’d certainly spent a few nights thinking about what his family might have been like, but other matters and distractions were usually on his mind. He hadn’t had a single inkling of who his family was until now.

 But he was here now. He was here.

 “Are you real?” Link asked into his father’s tunic.

 The man’s chest rumbled as he chuckled. “I already said I was, silly child. Did you really think I’d move on and leave you while you were still in that state?”

 Move on and leave you. In that state.

 Link shuddered, pulling away. “You’re…”

 His father’s warm smile faltered, but then he renewed it and brushed some hair out of Link’s face. “I died many years ago, Link, but that doesn’t mean I gave up on you. I refused to leave until I knew you’d be okay.”

 “How are you touching me?”

 “Oh, I learned a trick or two from His Majesty.”

 Link blanched. “You spoke to the king?”

 His father laughed heartily. “Whose house do you think he decided to inhabit after I died? You don’t think His Majesty actually built this place, do you?”

 There was such incredulous amusement in his tone that Link supposed it was a silly thought. Still, the king had spent a good amount of time here.

 “You wouldn’t believe the conversations we had,” his father continued, rubbing Link’s back and giving him another kiss on his head. “But enough of that. Look at you. You look so healthy.”

 His father’s hands moved from his back to his face, and he cupped his cheeks as he brushed more hair out of his face. His fingers traced over the scars on his neck and collarbone, the only ones visible. He hummed, frowning. “Do they hurt?”

 “No,” Link answered honestly. “They’re a bit tight, sometimes I can feel the skin pull, but they don’t hurt.”

 His father blew out a slow breath. “Sheikah technology is something else, that’s for certain. One hundred years seems a bit excessive, though.”

 The statement was said so casually, as if speaking about the weather, that Link had to laugh at it. That was certainly the understatement of the century.

 Ha. Ha! Understatement of the century. Link laughed even harder, tickled by his own pun. It probably made him look a little crazy, because his father tilted his head to the side, his eyebrows creasing together in concern.

 “Sorry,” Link said between giggles.

 His father smiled, shifting from kneeling to sitting on the floor and pulling Link onto his lap. The hero settled into the hold, feeling comfortable and safe beyond any sensation he ever remembered feeling. Even Zora’s Domain hadn’t brought this kind of peace.

 “So,” his father started gently. “Where are you in your journey, little knight?”

 Reality shoved its way into Link’s peace, and he felt his body tense. His father squeezed his shoulder, rubbing reassuring circles with his thumb. He started to sway his torso side to side, shifting his weight from one direction to the other, bringing Link with him.

 “I’m… I’m almost done.”

 The rocking stopped, and Link looked up to see his father staring at him, surprised. “Almost done?”

 Link swallowed. “I freed all the divine beasts and their champions. All that’s left is…”

 “Ganon,” his father finished, spitting the word as if it were a curse. He looked away, somewhere beyond Link.

 Link’s fears from earlier returned in a heartbeat, seizing his throat. He suddenly remembered all the anxieties he’d felt in the past, recognizing why he hadn’t spoken much back then.

 Guess I am more like the hero of the past, then, he thought bitterly.

 There was no way he could explain how he felt to his father. There was no way he could tell him that the boy he was holding didn’t feel at all like the son he knew.

 “Link.”

 His eyes snapped back to his father, who was watching him intently.

 “What’s wrong, son?” he asked quietly.

 Link swallowed and said nothing. His father sighed.

 “Remember, Link,” he said softly. “Remember that it’s not about being fearless. It’s okay to be afraid. But it’s our duty to protect Hyrule, and you are the only one who can do this.”

 Link felt his chest clench. He swallowed again. His face grew neutral with unnerving ease, almost like muscle memory.

 Because it was muscle memory.

 Well, at least I’m feeling less and less like a foreigner in my own body, he supposed. He suddenly missed the days when he barely had any memories and was far more carefree. Though he supposed that was a lie too – when he had remembered nothing at all, wandering on the plateau, he’d been eager to help Zelda but also scared. It was the worst feeling, being completely alone and unsafe without a single reassurance that anything was okay. He at least had better direction and a focus after he’d left the plateau, and perhaps that had been the best point of his journey – a time when he knew what he needed to do but hadn’t really any solid inkling of who he’d been yet.

 He heard his father sigh again. “Hylia, I’m not good at this.”

 Link once again blanched, slightly, and felt a little bad.

 “Link,” his father tried again. “I… I need you to talk to me, okay? I’m not your mother, I can’t read you as well as she could.”

 His mother. His mother. He wished so hard he could remember something, anything, about her. He wanted to ask his father about her, but he figured that would make him sad, so he didn’t.

 Pushing past the overbearing weight clutching his throat and holding his voice hostage, he choked out, “Wrong.”

 “Wrong? What’s wrong?”

 “Me. Wrong…” he swallowed hard, trying his darndest to spit the words out. “Wrong hero.”

 His father stared at him, his mouth slack, and then he burst out laughing. “You think I wouldn’t know my own son? Link, you may not remember me, but I know you.”

 His heart clenched at the words. His father thought he didn’t remember him at all… he knew he didn’t remember him… and yet here was, loving him and comforting him all the same.

 “Papa…” he muttered, his eyes stinging with tears once more.

 His father’s mirth faded. “Link, what is it? You really don’t think you’re the right person? You’re my son, I promise you. I know that little nose anywhere, and those are my eyes eyes. And those ears are absolutely your mother’s, because she had the cutest ears in all of Hyrule. Look at them!”

 His father’s hands slid up his ears, playing with their tips. He smiled, cocking his head to the side. “See? Perfect tips. Her ears.”

 The sensation tickled, and the warmth in Link’s chest spread to his belly with a tingling feeling. He giggled, his throat releasing.

 “Now,” his father purred, his hands lowering, pulling Link back to his chest. “What’s actually wrong?”

 Link mumbled it out before the anxiety stole his voice away again. “I don’t… I don’t feel like him. Not as fast, not as strong. I don’t… even back then he couldn’t… I couldn’t…”

 His father stayed quiet, waiting for him to continue, giving him room to breathe. He was grateful for it.

 “I couldn’t…” he tried again, gripping his father’s shirt in an attempt to ground himself. “I didn’t win. I f-failed. I failed.”

 Once he said it, the words started to spill out unbidden. “Hylia chose wrong. I screwed up. I got everyone killed. And now I’m just a shadow of what I used to be, and everyone expects me to get it right this time. I could never be who I was… and even back then, who I was wasn’t good enough.”

 You will never live up to their expectations of him because even he couldn’t.

 There was silence for a long while. Link started to fidget in his father’s lap, feeling unwelcome and uncomfortable.

 “Link, look at me.”

 Feeling himself shrivel under the words, he barely drew up the courage necessary to obey. When he saw his father, the man was watching him seriously but not unkindly.

 “Do you really think you’re just a shadow of who you used to be?”

 The old anxiety was back, and he couldn’t move.

 His father exhaled through his nose, closed his eyes as if steeling himself, and then opened them to send a piercing look his way. Link stiffened at it.

 “You are the Hero of Hyrule,” his father said firmly. “You freed the divine beasts from the clutches of Calamity Ganon, something that no one else has accomplished in a hundred years. You reclaimed the Master Sword, which only obeys the Hero chosen by destiny. You are chosen by the goddesses to protect this land from Ganon, and you have been fulfilling that duty.

 “Hyrule fell one hundred years ago because of everyone and no one. You didn’t know Calamity Ganon was going to infect the guardians. No one did. No one expected you to fight an army of guardians by yourself. No one expected you to have to rescue the champions when their specific purpose was to support you. You had no one and nothing to help you, and you still fought armies to protect the princess. Link, you didn’t fail, you exceeded expectations.”

 Link started to tremble, his breath coming in unsteady rasps.

 “And now,” his father pressed on. “Now you had to start out with no support, no friends, no family, and no one to even remember your name and yet you still succeed. You rescued the divine beasts. You got your strength back despite nearly dying. You’ve overcome every obstacle in your way.”

 “The p-people of Hyrule s-said—”

 “To hell with what what people said,” his father interrupted with a frown. “Prophecies are vague, and everyone’s beliefs on what would happen became more fueled by hearsay than anything else. People’s opinions don’t matter, Link. I… I insisted on protocol back then. Back then I thought it mattered. But when it’s all said and done, Link, people’s opinions of you aren’t what define who you are, and you shouldn’t let that drive you.

“You have a destiny set out for you by the goddesses, it’s true. But we all do. We’re all made for a purpose, and it isn’t whatever the people of Hyrule claim it to be. You are a work of art sewn together by the goddesses, who made you with a specific purpose in mind. Your worth, your dignity are yours and yours alone because of simply being you. Not because you’re a Hero that the people revere, not because others say you are the only hope for Hyrule. Because you’re you.”

 Link shuddered with a gasp, feeling buried alive and released at the same time.

 “As for your destiny... believe me,” his father insisted with a gentle smile, tipping his head. “The goddesses will never put you in a situation that you can’t handle. You’re stronger than you think. I used to believe I could never be a father. I certainly haven’t been perfect… clearly my teachings messed you up, but—”

 Link threw his arms around his father’s neck. “Papa, stop. You’re the best father.”

 He really didn’t have much evidence to back his words up, given his lack of memories of the man, but he knew. He knew in his heart he was right.

 His father trembled in his arms, slowly hugging him back.

 Silence filled the room, occasionally interrupted by the songs of crickets, and it was at that point that Link realized how late it was. He looked around the house as darkness descended, the sun having already dipped under the horizon.

 His father shifted, and Link slid off his lap as they both stood. Grabbing the diary off the table, his father held it out to him. “Take this. I want you to have it. I left notes for you in there, they might still be useful.”

 Link reverently received the diary, opening it and squinting at the words, and his father laughed.

 “Don’t read it now, little knight,” he said breathily. “Later. After it’s all done. Tonight you must rest. You’ve got a very eventful day tomorrow.”

 Link felt his heart sink into his stomach, which did somersaults at the thought of it. He didn’t comment, instead holding onto his father’s words like a lifeline.

 The goddesses will never put you in a situation that you can’t handle. You’re stronger than you think.

 He felt like he used to have that level of confidence, at least in his abilities. If not, he tried to convince himself of it. Maybe. He didn’t know.

 He needed to stop lingering on the past. What was done was done. Who he was back then was who he was back then. Times had changed. He had changed. He needed to accept that.

 It didn’t matter what others thought of him. It didn’t matter who he used to be or who he was now. His worth was inherent to him, no matter what. The goddesses had thought he was worth making, and that was reason enough.

 Link was enough.

 His father motioned to the bed. “Get some sleep, little knight.”

 Nodding, Link started to head that way and then paused just before he went to lay down, remembering how uncomfortable it was. He glanced at the floor instead.

 Behind him, his father chuckled. “Yes, I suppose that would be more comfortable. But I don’t want bugs crawling on you. Come here.”

 Turning, he saw his father wrap an arm around him and pull him to the bed frame. His father sat first, letting him settle on his lap once more, and he leaned against his father’s chest, resting his head on his shoulder.

 “Papa, I don’t want to squish you,” he mumbled, exhaustion starting to overtake him.

 His father laughed outright at that. “Son, I’m a ghost, you can’t hurt me. Get some sleep.”

 Link closed his eyes obediently, feeling at peace. “Good night, Papa.”

 “Good night, Link.”

 The next day, Link woke at the foot of the statue of Hylia in the temple. The sunlight had been dazzling, making the grass sparkle with dew and making the statue glow. He had felt warmth embrace him, and he had said several prayers before running to the edge of the plateau and leaping off, gliding towards the castle.

 That day he fought the Calamity. That day he won. That day he freed Hyrule, the champions, and the princess. That day he fulfilled his destiny and his duty, he exceeded the expectations everyone had of him. That day he realized it didn’t matter what their expectations had been in the first place.

 That day he freed himself.

 His father floated with the other ghosts over Hyrule Castle, smiling as peace finally claimed him, and they all moved on together.

#good Lord I made myself cry again #like a lot #I'm hopeless #we need more Good Parent material in LoZ #I see a disturbing amount of abusive or neglectful parent figures in fanfiction and it makes me sad and worry for y'all #like please feast on Good Dad Vibes and be at peace #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #botw #breath of the wild link #botw link #angst #emotional hurt/comfort #for the record writing post-calamity Link is super hard #I kind of understand pre-calamity Link but post #trying to figure out how he processes everything #while also bearing in mind his natural personality and inclinations #while also bearing in mind nature v nurture if he doesn't remember anything #sheesh #writing

[braskide]

outofcharacter. happy 22nd final fantasy x anniversary!!!! ! !! !! please think about her today.

i will be revamping my guidelines and whatnot because i miss interacting with the dashboard and writing her — i have resumed writing yuna over discord with friends lately so i wanted to go look for my old mutuals, so if i found you and you’re reading this don’t forget you’re here forever.

apropos of what i just mentioned i also want to reach out with new muses, thank you for being here!! ! you can [ like ] this post and i’ll come drop her in your askbox.

#outofcharacter. #if they aren't planning a remake for the 25th year anniversary .. ... #anyways ; #seeing that i established this blog in 2013 in my old guidelines gave me a headache.. . . #what do you mean i've been in this hell for 10 years . h u h #i miss my old mutuals ! !!!! #but i'm so thankful i'm following all these new writers too !! !! #i need to make my dashboard look more alive again cause . .. #all the ones i interacted with are inactive / moved blogs.. . #if you see this and you moved blogs pl ea t he let me know.. . #anyways again !!! !! thank you for being here while i was inactive !! !!!! #i miss my wife !! ! perceive her !!! !! #i will go and drop richard siken poetry lines in your muses' askbox don't even try me. #edit ; #i recognize tunglr rp has changed a lot over the years i've been away so i will try to adjust and make mobile friendly guidelines ! #& whatnot necessary for interacting more 🌸 #just bear with me while i figure it all out again .. . ...

[banamaak]

tumblr what the fuck is this formatting!!!! 

#me trying to reply and it just messes up the entire post ..... #pls bear with me while i figure this shit out ya'll lol #tbd.

[talaok]

Hi there i had too many links on my pedro masterlist so i had to split it in two

So basically now if you click on “Pedro” you get sent to Pedro’s masterlist while if you click on “characters” you get sent to his characters masterlist💗

#bear with me while I try to figure out how technology works