soft spot
Adrian Chase x fem!Reader
synopsis: Adrian has no idea what to do for Valentine's Day. He goes to Harcourt for some advice.
tags/warnings: sappy boyfriend!adrian, valentine's fluff, somehow this also became an adrian and emilia besties dynamic fic idk??
word count: 2.1k
Masterlist
“Harcourt,” Adrian says, “I have a question for you.”
“What’s up, Chase?” she asks, not even looking up from her monitor. Her fingers tap away on the keyboard, because he’s probably going to ask her to quiz him on capybara facts, and she’ll say no, and he’ll pout and go away, just like every other day.
“I need some advice,” he says, and she pauses what she’s doing. That is not what she expected. Her chair swivels around, and she crosses her arms as she looks up at him with a raised eyebrow.
“You need some advice,” she repeats. “From me?”
“Yes.”
“Why me?” Emilia asks suspiciously. “Why not Chris? Or Ads? Or John? I know they are all higher on your best friend list than I am.”
“Yeah, well, they’re nicer to me than you are,” Adrian says plainly. “And you think I’m annoying.”
“True. But you’re not making a very good argument for why I should help you.”
“I’m sorry,” he says quickly. “I just—you’re a badass, and I respect you a lot, and you are still on my best friend list—”
“Get to the point, Adrian.”
“They don’t have the expertise I need right now,” he says.
“What expertise?”
“You’re a straight woman.”
“...Yes.”
“And you’ve had a lot of boyfriends.”
She frowns. “A lot?”
“I have only ever had one girlfriend, who you obviously know, and it’s a miracle she agreed to be my girlfriend in the first place, because everything on our first date went horribly wrong. And last time I asked Chris for relationship advice—well. I don’t want to talk about it. Ads is a lesbian, and John has no dating experience whatsoever.”
“You want my relationship advice?”
Adrian nods, eyes wide. “Please.” “Okay,” she says, because her curiosity is winning out. “What do you need?”
“It’s Valentine’s Day next week,” Adrian says. “Our first Valentine’s Day. And I don’t know what to do. Chris told me to buy her a gun, but that’s not very romantic, right? And we buy each other weapons like, all the time. I gave her a knife literally last week because she thought it was pretty.”
Emilia’s face softens, because—Adrian Chase is a fucking disaster of a human being, sure. But she’s developed a bit of a soft spot for him, and he has done nothing but treat you right since you two first started dating eight months ago, after years of oblivious pining on both sides of the equation. It’s…sweet, the way he’s so infatuated with you, the way he follows you around the office like a tiny baby animal, big giant eyes and all.
And Emilia likes you. So if he wants her help making sure your Valentine’s Day is nice—
“Okay,” she says, glancing around the office. You’re in the break room, chatting away with Leota and Chris, but still, she lowers her voice a bit, so you won’t overhear. “I’ll help you. What—what happened on your first date? That went so terribly wrong?”
“Well, there were people fucking in the back row of the theater,” Adrian says. “That’s public indecency. It was very distracting and gross, and also a crime. We were gonna go to dinner afterwards, but we ended up killing those people instead—”
“Jesus fuck,” Emilia mutters. “You two are hopeless.”
“It was a family-friendly movie! There were children in that theater! We had a good time doing it, it’s just—not a good first-date activity. I’m not that clueless.”
“Okay—forget I asked. Let’s start with the basics. If you didn’t come over here and ask me for help, what would you have done for Valentine’s Day?”
“Um,” Adrian says. “The things they do in the movies, probably. Flowers and chocolate?”
“That’s a start,” Emilia says. “A normal start. There’s hope for you yet.”
“But she’s allergic to flowers. She gets all sneezy. And she doesn’t really like chocolate,” Adrian says, panicky. “If I can’t do the basics—”
“Calm down,” Emilia says, and Adrian takes a deep breath at her instruction. “Sit down. We’ll figure this out. A normal, regular Valentine’s Day that makes sense for you and doesn’t involve weaponry or killing anybody.”
“Thank you,” he says desperately. “I just—don’t want to be a stereotypical shitty boyfriend and fuck it up.”
“Buy me some chocolate and we’ll call it even.” She pauses. “Not in a heart-shaped box, I feel like I need to specify. That would be fucking weird.”
“Got it.”
On Friday night, the day before Valentine’s Day, Emilia swings by your place in the morning to pick you up for a girls-only dinner. She’d roped in Adebayo the night before to extend the invitation.
“Adrian needs our help,” she said.
“And he asked you?” Ads asked, bewildered.
“He did,” Emilia said. “So I need you to invite us all to a Galentine’s activity, or something. Get her out of the house so he has time to set everything up. She’ll get suspicious if the invite comes from me, because I think all that shit is corny.”
Ads smiled. “You’re such a burnt marshmallow. All charcoal on the outside and gooey and sweet on the inside.”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Okay. We can go to that new winery that opened up in town for dinner? Try all the fancy flavors? She likes that shit.”
Emilia sighed. “God, you two and your fruity wines. You’re such—girls.”
“You are also a girl,” Ads said. “It’s not a gender thing to have a sweet tooth.”
“Whatever. Just—text the group!”
So Friday night, Emilia finds herself, champagne in hand, sitting across the table from you and Ads as you munch on cheese and crackers and sip on white wine.
“I don’t know,” you shrug. “Adrian asked me to be his Valentine, like, six weeks ago, but I’m not sure he understands what that even means. He hasn’t brought it up since, so I’m not really expecting much. But it’s weird, because he’s been so attentive for literally everything else. The holidays, my birthday—I mean, he literally gave me a whole new set of knives for our one month anniversary.”
“That boy is a sap, and he is in love with you,” Ads says firmly.
“I know he is,” you say, smiling to yourself. “He tells me every day. Which is why I feel guilty for feeling a little disappointed that he hasn’t said anything about Valentine’s Day. Am I expecting too much?”
Emilia and Ads exchange a look, and Emilia smirks.
“Valentine’s Day is so…corporate,” Emilia says, rolling her eyes. “But no, I don’t think you’re expecting too much.”
“He should at least take you out to dinner,” Adebayo says. “Maybe he’s trying to surprise you?”
“Maybe,” you concede.
“Hey,” Emilia says softly. “He’s a moron. But he loves you.”
You smile. “I know.”
Emilia and Ads exchange a smirk before changing the topic, Valentine’s Day forgotten.
Emilia texts Adrian before leaving to drop you off, and he sends back a string of merman emojis, like she’s supposed to know what that fucking means. She rolls her eyes. As she pulls up to your apartment, you furrow your brow.
“My lights are on,” you note suspiciously. “I did not leave my lights on.” You immediately start reaching for the hidden knife sheathed in your coat. Emilia stops you with a hand on your arm, and you look over at her, frowning.
“I swear to god,” she mutters. “The two of you are meant for each other.”
“What?” you ask, and your eyes flick back over to your front door when it swings open and Adrian pokes his head out, beaming at you. “What—you—what is going on, Em?”
“Your boyfriend,” Emilia says, “wanted to do something special for your first Valentine’s Day.”
Your mouth falls open. “And you—helped him?”
“I did. Now get the fuck out of my car, and put the poor boy out of his misery, yeah?”
“Okay,” you say, a smile slowly growing on your face. Emilia sighs and shakes her head as she watches you run up to Adrian, who sweeps you up into his arms dramatically and kisses you like it’s the end of a rom-com movie.
“Idiots,” she says to herself. But she smiles.
“I can’t believe you surprised me,” you say to Adrian, who barely lets you get the words out between kisses as he pulls you inside and kicks the door shut. You’re giggling the whole time, and he’s smiling as he kisses you.
“Why is that surprising?” he says, finally giving you a chance to breathe. “I am so good at keeping secrets!”
“Not from me!”
“I got you presents,” he says.
“Adrian—”
He drags you to sit on the couch. “Stay here.” He rushes into the other room and comes back with a giant, sparkly pink bag with hearts all over it. Eagerly, he pushes it into your hands and sits on the cushion next to you. “Open!”
“Okay! Okay!” You pull out something soft, plush, and gigantic. “A penguin?”
“I know most people get bears,” Adrian says. “But that’s fucking weird, I think. Bears kill people. There are at least a dozen bear-related deaths every year—”
“I don’t think that’s true, babe—”
“—and that’s sick as fuck, and they’re cute, and all, but so are penguins, and they mate for life. Much more romantic.”
You squish your new stuffed bird. “Thank you, baby. I love him.”
“There’s more! In the bag!”
Peeking inside, you shake your head. “This is too much.”
“Not too much. I just love you a lot,” he says, like it’s simple. Like it’s a fact of his life.
You swallow past the emotion building in your throat and reach for the bag of your favorite candy and box of microwave popcorn, smiling.
“Are we having a movie night?”
“We are,” he says happily. “The movie is in there too.”
You dig around for the DVD, and when you pull it out, you want to cry even more. “From our first date?”
“We didn’t get to watch it properly,” he says. “We can do it right this time. Minus the public indecency and the murder.”
“That’s really thoughtful, baby.”
“One more thing!” he says excitedly, pulling out the last thing out of the bag, a giant wrapped box. There’s something rattling around inside. “Open!”
“What—” You take the package from him, and he watches you with wide, eager eyes as you rip it open. Your face softens when you see what’s inside. “Oh, Ade. Thank you.”
“They won’t make you sneeze!” Adrian says, pointing at the Lego flowers. “And they’ll never die, just like my love for you, and we can build them together while we watch our movie tonight—”
You cut him off with a kiss, and he gives in easily, molding himself against you, pulling you closer to him.
“I would love to build Legos and watch a movie with you,” you say. “That sounds like the most perfect night ever.”
“Are you sure?” he says, and you hate that he looks uncertain, when he’s been nothing but thoughtful and generous and wonderful. “I wanted to do it right. I talked it through with Emilia—”
“It’s perfect,” you interrupt. “You’re perfect.”
He beams at you. “I’ll go make our popcorn!”
“Hang on a minute,” you laugh, yanking him back onto the couch when he goes to stand up. “You’re spoiling me—”
“You deserve to be spoiled—”
“Can I give you my present, now, and spoil you back?” you interrupt, and Adrian goes quiet.
“You got me a present?”
“Of course I did,” you say softly. “Valentine’s Day is about love, Ade. And I love you. A whole lot.”
“I love you, too,” he says.
“I know you do,” you say, kissing his cheek quickly. “Stay here.”
You run to your bedroom and come back with the box you’d been working on for the last two weeks, placing it carefully in his lap. He looks down at it, confused.
“What is it?”
“You mentioned, a while ago,” you say nervously, “that you’d never gotten any real Valentines when you were a kid. So I made you a shoebox full of them, like we used to do in elementary school.”
Adrian opens the box carefully and sees the dozens of cards you’d written him. Some of them are punny jokes, some of them real love notes. He pulls one out from the top—it’s got a doodle of a little kitten, and reads, I’ve got a soft spot for you. He swallows roughly, and when he looks up at you, you’re surprised to see that his eyes are wet.
“You—” he starts. “This is—”
You cup his face in your hands, and he gives up trying to explain it. He just smiles and kisses you.
Adrian taglist: @snowyathena @justalotoffanfiction @danversxwasabi @clowninavan @obsessedromancereader @adoresami @a-young-g0d @rattymess @raidstarz @bastardstevie @wipperwillylily @am-3-thyst @xoxocamis @morguegrl89 @somethin-sparklyy @awesomsaucesom @secretjesterr
