I stumbled over your robertxjoseph fic bc my fave artist promoted it and I just had to check it out. and what can i say, it's amazing and perfect! so much drama and love and it feels so real like it could happen to anyone. your writing is dope. because of your switch of povs I still have two questions because I want to know more abut robert's feelings. how did rob experience the three years after their fall out and what was he thinking when he saw joseph in his apron or his sports dress? >w<
i can’t believe you read all of them, that’s amazing! thank you for the kind words, this is such a great ask?? i don’t really talk about motivations or thought processes of the characters i write, so this is so nice.
i think, in the intervening years between TTR and IJNO, robert kind of hunkered down into his old ways. i think he lived his solitary life for so long, it would have been too easy to fall back into that sort of rut again. i think he would have been super cautious about the way he related to those around him from then on, too, because he’s not the sort of person who opens himself up to the same kind of pain twice, you know? so he would have been even more isolated, and probably really caustic and miserable. but in a self-deprecating kind of way? not in an obvious, cry for help kind of way, because he wouldn’t want anyone to try to get to close to help him. but i also think he’s a tape-and-glue kind of guy, so he never was really patched up after what went on with joseph, which was why it was so easy for joseph to get back over that unapproachable wall. it was never properly shored back up because robert never learned any kind of effective coping mechanisms, so he was vulnerable to joseph’s particular brand of persuasion.
and then as far as the apron goes, i think robert was probably pretty bowled over by it. he muses a lot on the facade joseph has constructed around himself, but he knows joe to be a really soft, caring person on the inside. so i think seeing him in his more natural, “domestic” state is a huge turn on for rob. not to mention that’s kind of everything robert has been searching for, but doesn’t know how to ask for? that familial, homey, relaxed atmosphere. dinner on the table, cookies in the oven, partner waiting for you kind of domesticity. robert had never experienced that, because he worked really hard to ruin his family life when he was married. so joseph is kind of his sedentary wet dream come true. and obviously, he’s a big guy in a pink apron, which is just all kinds of dirty hot. like i’m sure rob entertained (or acted on!) more than a few scenarios with joseph and that apron. rob strikes me as the type who loves “outfits” on his man, any kind of role playing sort of situation. except for the minister garb. that’s bad dirty for him, not hot dirty.
all that to say, i think robert is really just thrilled with joseph as a person, so any expression of his true self is infinitely appealing to robert. he likes seeing him happy and in his element, and we all know joseph loves to bake. so joseph in his apron with flour on his face is like, robert’s ideal
vaporwave
dailybridgerton
theartofmadeline
areudirty
blakekathryn
snowghoul
turnnoffyourmind
