digital selfharm is real. do NOT check up on that ex-partner/ex-friend. do NOT reread those old messages/conversations that you know will hurt your feelings all over again or that will otherwise make you feel like shit. do NOT block evade to see if youāre being talked about. inhale. exhale. let it pass and youāll be better for it.
Thinking about Rhett carrying you to bed after youāve fallen asleep on the couch waiting for him to come home from a week-long circuit
Pairing: Rhett Abbott x Fem!Reader!
Author's note: Just wanted to make a little fluff piece because I've been stressing out all week about my practical lab simulation that's happening today. Writing this really took the edge off, and I hope y'all enjoy <3
The television had gone quiet sometime after midnight, its stale blue light still flickering across the living room without a sound. The cable box had shut itself off hours earlier, leaving nothing but a blank, glowing rectangle that cut through the dark.
Rhett noticed it the second he eased the front door open. The hallway stretched ahead of him in near-total darkness, the whole house holding that particular hollow quiet of a place already turned in for the night. Only the televisionās leftover light reached this far. Then he saw your slippers abandoned near the edge of the rugāsomething that shouldāve been with you in the bedroomāand finally his eyes settled on the uneven stack of quilts on the couch, with one of your arms hanging limply off the side.
You had fallen asleep curled on your side in a tight ball beneath them with your cheek pressed hard into the cushion instead of the pillow that had slipped halfway off the edge. The shirt you were wearing was his. He knew it by the frayed edges at the sleeves, the ones he had always picked at when he was thinkingāremoving the stray threads until they unspooled.Ā
The sight of you in it undid every ache that had been riding him since the last chute.
He was exhausted, his body spent from a full week of travel and competition that hadnāt let up once. Arena dust sat thick under his fingernails, and a deep bruise along his ribs had been spreading with every mile of the drive home. His wrist was throbbing steadily inside the brace he had put on before leaving the arena, and the long hours behind the wheel had settled into the muscles of his lower back until they screamed for a mattress to lay down on.
But looking at you made it all recede, even as he toed off his boots and crossed the living room toward the couch.Ā
A mug waited on the coffee table beside your phoneātea that had gone cold hours agoāand three messages from him still glowed unanswered on the screen when he tapped it awake.
Headed home.
Running a little late, lotās of traffic tonight, think thereās an accident.
Donāt wait up, Sweetheart. Iāll see you in the morning.
Rhett lowered his head, a tired smile pulling faintly at one corner of his mouth.
āYou never listen to me,ā He murmured, lifting his hat off his head and setting it carefully beside the mug. Even through the pain he crouched beside the couch, as the floorboards under his boots giving a loud, familiar creak. He sucked in a sharp breath and held still, his eyes snapping at you for any sign that he disturbed your sleep. But you only shifted deeper into the cushion, your face turning further into the plushness of it.
Up close he could see the faint crease pressed into your cheek from the pressure, and the soft furrow that lingered between your brows, like some part of you had kept worrying about him long after sleep had taken you.
Rhett let out a quiet sigh and reached for you slowly, curling his dirt-dusted fingers so the backs of his knuckles could brush along the cool skin of your temple. He eased your hair away from your face so he could see you betterāso he could take in the sight he had missed the most this week. His skin was rough, calloused in spots where callouses shouldnāt have been, but his touch was painfully gentleāthe way it always was with you.
āHey, darlinā,ā He whispered, watching as your eyelids fluttered at the sound of his voice, even though they remained closed. Rhett dragged his knuckles slowly across your forehead, before bringing his hand down to cup the side of your faceāhis large palm dwarfing the size of it. You tilted into the warmth without wakingāas if you were a sunflower and he was the sunānuzzling closer like you had been waiting for this contact. He could feel his heart seize at that moment, stopping in the caverns of his chest at the way you responded to him regardless of your alertness.
He had spent the last seven days getting thrown around under bright arena lights, sleeping on narrow motel beds that never held enough heat, eating alone with the television running just to fill the silence. Every night without fail he would call you from a parking lot or those cheap rooms, pretending the sound of your voice was enough to make the distance bearable for him, but it had never been. Because nothing compared to walking into this house and finding you waiting for him like thisāeven if it was against his wishes.
āShould be in bed,ā He said, though there wasnāt any real scolding in the comment. You made a quiet sound, a small hum, and your outstretched hand shifted until your fingers brushed his bicep beneath the soft cotton of his button-up. As if you were testing to see if what you were feeling was real, your touch slid down the length of his arm, closing loosely around the hard plastic of his wrist braceāthough your fingers couldnāt touch.
āRhett?ā Your voice was thick with sleep, and he could hear the confusion lacing the edges of it, and his throat tightened at the relief he could sense beneath it.
āYeah, baby,ā He answered, stroking the soft skin under your eye with his thumb, āItās me.ā He confirmed. Your eyes opened only halfway, peeking out through your lashes, and for a long moment you just looked at him, completely dazed, as though you needed to make sure you werenāt still dreaming. Then your mouth curved into a small smile.
āYouāre home.ā He nodded once, his hair falling out of itās slicked back form while doing so.
āIām home.ā You hummed at that, as your eyes slipped shut again, but your fingers began to absentmindedly rub along the thick plastic of the brace, like you were trying to keep yourself from falling back to sleep.
āTook you forever.ā You murmured.
āI knowā¦ā
āI tried to stay awakeā¦Wanted to see youā¦ā The words came out drowsily and soft as you made futile attempts to fight against the exhaustion that was plaguing you. Rhett smirked and leaned in, pressing his chapped lips to your forehead. He stayed there long enough to breathe you ināthe faint scent of your honey shampoo and all the other hair products you piled on after a shower, mixing with the spicy, pine and woody cologne that he owned, all of it mixed with the unmistakable warmth of home, of comfort, of love.
āYouāre seeinā me now,ā He replied, easing back just enough to look down at you, noticing that your eyes were still closed.
āBarely.ā You muttered, and a soft laugh escaped him.
āWell it would help if you would open your eyes, but I can tell youāre too tired for thatā¦So letās get you to bed, sleepinā beauty.ā He stood carefully, gathering the quilts tighter around you so nothing would fall as he was walking, tucking the fabric in until you were fully cocooned. Once he was satisfied with his work he slipped one arm beneath your knees and the other around your back, then lifted you off the couch slowly, making sure he wasnāt triggering the ache that was still pulsing in his back. Even with him keeping all his injuries in mind, his muscles and bruises still protested, but he ignored every one of them as he drew you close, feeling the heat of your body soaking straight through the fabric that separated the two of you.
Immediately, you curled into him, your cheek pressing against the hard muscle of his chest as you nuzzled closer into him, and without thought, Rhettās arms tightened around you.
āDid you win?ā You asked, the words muffling against the fabric of his shirt.
āStayed on.ā He answered as he began to walk.
āWasnāt my question.ā You shot back, and a small smirk tugged at his mouth at the quiet jab.
āYeahā¦Yeah I won.ā He said, glancing down to caught the soft smile that touched your lips.
āKnew you would.āĀ
The certainty in your voice made his heart clench. You had never doubted himānot once, not through any of the long sessions of training or the hard falls that you had beared witness to. You had watched him win enough buckles that he made most of these circuits look easy from the outside. But that never stopped the worry in you. The wrist brace along was proof enough that the work he put in took its toll, and you couldnāt yet see what was waiting for you under his clothes. But that would be tomorrowās problemāyou would nurse him back to health when he allowed you. Tonight you just wanted himāhis presence, his body, his arms, everything.
Rhett carried you down the hallway with careful stepsāmindful of how narrow it wasākeeping you tucked securely against him so you didnāt accidentally knock against the walls. The navigation of the dark house was only amplified by the soft creak of the floorboard under your combined weights, and halfway to the bedroom your fingers found the greasy strands of his hair, tangling into them.
āMissed you,ā You murmured, and Rhettās jaw flexed at that, as he tilted his face down to rub his chin against the top of your head.
āMissed you tooā¦So damn much.āĀ
There were things he had never learned to say easily, even after five years of being together. He could take a hard fall without making a sound. He could carry every expectation his family stacked on his shoulders without complaint. Tenderness, though, still sometimes caught behind his teeth like it was too fragile to risk letting out those feelings. But with you half-asleep and warm in his arms, the words came easier.
āHated wakinā up without you,ā He said quietly, āAnd I definitely hated cominā back to an empty motel room.ā Your hand slipped from his hair and smoothed slowly down the side of his neck, resting your fingertips over the steady thunder of his pulse.
āYou donāt have to now.ā Rhett closed his eyes for a brief second and let out a long breath.
āNoā¦I donāt.ā
He crossed the threshold into the bedroom, angling carefully around the hefty basket that was stacked high with neatly folded laundry and the sharp edge of the dresser. When he reached the bed he pulled the covers back with one hand without ever letting you go, before lowering you onto the plushness softness of the sheets, putting in more care than he used for almost anything else in his life. But the second his arms started to ease away you made a small, protesting sound.
āIām right here baby.ā He promised, as he began to unravel you from the quilts, tossing them haphazardly on the floor, before crouching down to pull off your socks one at a time. HIs thumb rubbed slowly over the faint indentations each elastic had left around your ankles, kissing the marks, and nuzzling against them, feeling the way your muscles jumped at that. When he was finished he drew the duvet up to your chin and tucked you in, smoothing it around you.
Your eyes opened again the moment he was levelled with you, and he watched concern pull across your faceāyour brows drawing together, and your mouth parting slightly on a breath. You hadnāt seen the bruise blooming along his jaw when he had been crouched beside the couch, but now that you were in a room that had enough lightāfrom the moon that peeked through the curtainsāyou were able to identify the purple shadow that stood out beneath the stubble. Your hand came out from under the covers and your fingertips traced the edge of it, watching as Rhettās eyes closed at the contact and feeling him leaning into the touch even though the sharp pinch of pain made him flinch.
āYouāre hurt,ā You whispered, your voice cracking a little on the discovery. You wondered how this happened, but deep down inside you didnāt really want to know, especially when you werenāt there when it happened. He looked at you through his lashes, his blue eyes catching the light.
āJust soreā¦Itās nothinā to worry about.ā He replied, turning his head to press a kiss into your palm before easing back. If the exhaustion hadnāt already settled so deep in your bone you mightāve sat up and followed himāwrapped your arms around his neck to pull him back down so you could hold him. But as it was right now, the attempt died before it even started and you only managed another soft whine.
āCome backā¦ā Rhett let out a short huff of a laugh and shook his head at you.
āBaby, I need a shower.ā You mirrored him in those moments, shaking your head against the pillow.
āTomorrow.ā His brows lifted at that.
āY/N, I smell like a stockyard and Iām covered in dirt.ā You only shrugged at him.
āDonāt care, we can change the sheets tomorrow and I donāt mind if you smell bad.ā The corner of his mouth twitched.
āYou will in about five minutes.ā He mumbled, as you shifted under the covers to make room before opening them up toward him, quietly inviting him in the space you made.
āCāmere and Iāll prove you wrong.ā There was no demand in your voiceāonly that soft, teasing affection that always managed to cut every argument out from himāand he gave in with a gruff sigh.
āAlrightā¦Itās your funeral.ā He stated, as he worked his belt open and unbuttoned his jeans, letting both of them fall into a careless heap he already knew you would give him hell for in the morning. The buttons of his shirt took longer as he undid them with one hand, before shrugging it off his shoulders to let it join the rest of the clothes. Once he was down to just his boxers he climbed carefully onto the mattress beside you, feeling your body moving in close immediately, dragging the duvet over the both of you. Rhett stretched his arm out so you could fully settle against him, as your leg slipped between his while you tucked your head beneath his chin. His body loosened the second your full weight rested against him, closing both arms around youāsurrounding your body and covering you completelyāsliding one hand up under your shirt until his palm pressed against the small of your back.Ā
Your fingers began tracing slow, idle patterns across his chest while you breathed him in deeply, letting his scent fill your lungs.
āYou donāt smell like a stockyardā¦You smell sweaty.ā You corrected him quietly, pressing your nose against the dark lines of the bull-rider tattoo over his heart and inhaling again on purpose, āLove that smell.ā He hummed low in his throat and shook his head once.
āI think youāre so tired that your sense of smell has gone off its rocker.ā You glared up at him, a small smirk curving your mouth, before leaning in to press a soft kiss right at the base of his throat, tasting the saltiness of his skin.
āMaybeā¦But right nowā¦I like it a lot.ā Rhett sighed, clenching his arms around your body to embrace you even further.
āI told you not to wait up for meā¦If you hadnāt you wouldnāt have been so tired, and you wouldnāt be waking up smellinā like a farm.ā He said, and you hummed again.
āI wanted to be the first thing you saw when you got home.ā You replied softly, feeling Rhettās breathing halt for a moment beneath your head, as your eyes began to close again, feeling the heaviness of sleep washing over your body and invading your mind. You could feel Rhettās hand slowly sliding upward, coming to cradle the back of your head. He gently tipped your face upward towards his and kissed your forehead, then the corner of your eye, then your cheek, then finally your lips. He kept it tender, and unhurriedātouches that asked for nothing but made him feel like he was reuniting with you in a far more intimate way, like he wanted to complete it.
āYou always are,ā He whispered against your mouth, as he allowed you to settle back down against his chest again, and even through the haze of sleep that was about to overtake you, he saw the sleepy smile that draped across your lips before you fell asleep against himāfinally in the comfort of your lover's arms.
āThere were things he had never learned to say easily, even after five years of being together. He could take a hard fall without making a sound. He could carry every expectation his family stacked on his shoulders without complaint. Tenderness, though, still sometimes caught behind his teeth like it was too fragile to risk letting out those feelings. But with you half-asleep and warm in his arms, the words came easier.
āHated wakinā up without you,ā He said quietly, āAnd I definitely hated cominā back to an empty motel room.ā Your hand slipped from his hair and smoothed slowly down the side of his neck, resting your fingertips over the steady thunder of his pulse.ā
Rhett talking about how much he missed the reader made my heart melt š„¹
āWhen he reached the bed he pulled the covers back with one hand without ever letting you go, before lowering you onto the plushness softness of the sheets, putting in more care than he used for almost anything else in his life. But the second his arms started to ease away you made a small, protesting sound.ā
That part was so sweet it made me tear up
āIām right here baby.ā He promised, as he began to unravel you from the quilts, tossing them haphazardly on the floor, before crouching down to pull off your socks one at a time. HIs thumb rubbed slowly over the faint indentations each elastic had left around your ankles, kissing the marks, and nuzzling against them, feeling the way your muscles jumped at that. When he was finished he drew the duvet up to your chin and tucked you in, smoothing it around you.ā
Heās being so gentle and careful I- š„¹š¤§š„°
This was amazing and it contained all the softness that he deserves!!!!
