michael olise x psychologist!reader
— # amongst it all masterlist
# warnings: nsfw, fluff, smut, enemies to lovers, banter, arguments, alcohol
# mia's note: idk if i should post more today. let me know if you’d want more. reqs are open. with sooo much love, mia.
s: When rising football star Michael Olise suffers a devastating knee injury just at the beginning of the season, the club makes one petition. Along with rehabilitation, Michael must work with the club's psychologist upon his return to action. The problem? They can't stand each other. As months of working pushes them together, their mutual resentment gives way to understanding, blurring the lines between professionalism and the silly thing that comes after friendship; love.
The handle turned, the door cracked open, and he stepped inside without so much as glancing in her direction.
Y/N looked up from the mug warming her hands. “You’re early.”
He shut the door behind him. “I was told punctuality builds trust.”
His tone was so dry she couldn’t tell if he was joking.
She smiled anyway. “Who told you that?”
She nodded to herself. “I’ll have to thank him.”
“You’ll have to stop listening to him,” he dropped into the chair opposite hers with all the enthusiasm of someone sitting in a dentist’s waiting room. His elbows rested on his knees, fingers laced together, eyes wandering everywhere except her face.
The window. The bookshelf. The framed club photo. The clock.
He was cataloguing exits. Not consciously, perhaps. But he was.
She resisted the urge to say it out loud. Instead, she quietly slid the empty legal pad off her desk and placed it in the drawer beside her.
His eyes flicked toward the drawer, then back to her. “You actually put it away.”
“You sounded pretty serious.”
He studied her then, properly this time.
It lasted barely two seconds before he looked away again.
The room settled into silence. Not awkward, just unfamiliar.
Y/N had learned very quickly that Michael hated silence because silence meant there was nowhere to hide. Most people rushed to fill it.
“You usually ask questions.”
“For you to stop looking for ways out of the room.”
His head turned slowly. “I’m sitting down.”
“I didn’t say you weren’t.”
She tilted her head slightly. “But you’ve looked at the door three times.”
He frowned. “I have not.”
His eyes instinctively darted toward the door.
He caught himself halfway there. “That doesn’t count.”
Y/N couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her. It wasn’t loud, just enough to make the corners of her eyes crease.
“You manipulated the situation.”
“I asked you a question.”
He sighed dramatically. “I already regret coming.”
That’s twice you’ve said that, she thought.
And yet you’re still here.
She folded one leg beneath the other. “Tell me something.”
“I don’t like where this is going.”
“You don’t even know what I’m going to ask.”
“I’ve developed instincts.”
Michael blinked. “Seriously?”
He leaned back. “I score.”
“I mean that’s what you do.”
He looked unconvinced. “Sometimes longer.”
“And when football ends?”
There it was. The first crack. Not visible to anyone who didn’t know what they were looking for.
But Y/N had begun to notice it. Every time football stopped being today and became the future, something in him shut.
“I don’t think about that.”
“Because not thinking about something doesn’t stop it existing.”
His gaze dropped to the floor. “I’ve had enough people asking me what I’ll do when I retire.”
“I’m asking who Michael is without football.”
Silence. A long one. Outside, whistles echoed faintly across the training ground.
Someone shouted. A ball hit the side of the building. Life carried on.
He rubbed the back of his neck.
The honesty surprised both of them.
She saw it happen. His own answer caught him off guard. He frowned at the carpet as if he’d rather pull the words back into his mouth.
Y/N didn’t rush in. Didn’t reassure him. Didn’t tell him it was okay. She simply nodded.
His eyes lifted. “For what?”
“It wasn’t a good answer.”
He scoffed quietly. “You don’t know that.”
His fingers started tapping against the armrest. A quick rhythm.
Without thinking, she mirrored it against her own knee.
He looked up. “You do that.”
She glanced down. Realized she’d matched him without noticing.
He shook his head once. “That’s annoying.”
She let the conversation drift for a moment before speaking again.
“Can I ask you something else?”
“You were going to anyway.”
“I appreciate your permission.”
His shoulders loosened almost imperceptibly. He hated it when she turned his sarcasm back on him, mostly because she was getting better at it.
“Were your parents supportive?”
Not dramatically. Just enough.
The tapping stopped. His shoulders squared. His expression flattened.
Y/N felt it immediately. Like stepping on thin ice and hearing it crack beneath her feet.
“You don’t have to answer.”
He looked out the window instead of at her.
His voice was quieter now.
“I guess now I look back and… I don’t know.”
“Maybe I could’ve been more grateful.”
He gave a humourless laugh. “I still could be. But, I don’t know. It’s so weird. I can’t control it.”
Y/N’s chest tightened. Not because of what he’d said.
Because of how casually he’d said it. Like he’d been carrying the sentence for years. Like it had become ordinary.
His words hung between them.
He realised what he’d admitted, and his head turned sharply toward her.
Regret. The walls going back up brick by brick.
His voice hardened. “This.”
“I answer one question…” he gestured vaguely between them. “…and now you’re looking at me like that.”
“Like you’ve figured me out.”
The word landed harder than she expected.
He stood so abruptly that the chair legs scraped across the floor. The sound made both of them flinch.
“I’ve seen that look before.”
She stood too. “Michael.”
“You don’t get to decide how I see you.”
“And you don’t get to decide who I am because of one story.”
“You were going to tell me my relationship with my parents explains everything.”
She stared at him. “I wasn’t going to say anything.”
“I know how this works,” he laughed bitterly. “I’ve lived through it.”
Y/N felt frustration rising in her chest. Not because he was leaving, but he had already decided what she believed before she’d even had the chance to believe it.
“You know what?” she said, crossing her arms. “You spend so much energy assuming everyone is trying to analyze you that you never actually listen to what they’re saying.”
His jaw tightened. “I listen.”
“No, you prepare your defense before anyone finishes the sentence.”
He looked at her for a long moment, his expression unreadable.
Then he reached for the door. “I think we’re done.”
She watched him wrap his hand around the handle.
Something in her snapped. Not loudly. Not angrily.
“You’re exhausting, you know that?”
He froze, but didn’t turn around.
“You push people away…” her voice was calm now. “…and then act surprised when nobody stays.”
The silence that followed was deafening.
He didn’t move. Didn’t breathe.
For one impossible second, she thought he might come back.
Instead, his shoulders stiffened. “You don’t know me.”
The words were almost a whisper. Not defensive anymore. Just tired.
He opened the door. “And that’s exactly how I’d like to keep it.”
Y/N stood alone in the quiet office, her pulse still racing. She looked at the empty chair he’d occupied for the last hour.
She’d wanted progress. Instead, she’d found a wall. And somehow, it felt thicker than when he’d first walked in.