pairing: jaafar jackson x reader (brother’s best friend)
summary: for years, y/n has only known jaafar jackson as the person in the stories. the brother who was always filming. the brother who was always travelling. the brother who always seemed to leave right before she arrived. meanwhile, jaafar has spent years hearing about jermajesty's best friend, the girl who somehow became part of the family without sharing their last name. when they finally meet, neither of them expects a single afternoon to change anything. they're wrong.
word count: 4,773
an: had this idea when I was randomly listening to 'best friend’s brother' from victorious lol maybe a part 2?
If someone had told Y/N three years ago that one of her closest friends would end up being a Jackson, she probably would have laughed in their face.
Not because she had anything against the family, on the contrary, she was a fan of them. It just simply would have sounded ridiculous.
The first time she met Jermajesty, he had been sitting in the back row of a university classroom, half asleep and completely uninterested in whatever presentation their professor was giving. She remembered that much clearly. She also remembered arriving late that morning, rushing through the door with an iced coffee in one hand and her laptop tucked awkwardly under her arm, already embarrassed before the day had properly started. The room had been nearly full by then, forcing her to take the only empty seat she could find, which happened to be next to him.
Unfortunately, her entrance only became more humiliating from there.
The strap of her bag caught on the leg of a chair. She stumbled. The coffee tipped forward. Several drops splashed across the desk.
Including directly onto the notebook of the stranger sitting beside her.
For one horrible second, the entire room seemed to freeze.
Y/N remembered staring at the mess in complete horror, mentally preparing herself for an awkward apology and what would undoubtedly be a very uncomfortable semester.
Instead, the guy beside her looked down at the coffee staining his notes, then up at her.
'So,' he said casually, 'is this your way of marking territory?'
The laugh escaped before she could stop it.
That had been the beginning.
Looking back, Y/N couldn't pinpoint exactly when the friendship had become important. There had never been a specific moment. No dramatic event. No life-changing conversation. It happened gradually, settling into her life so naturally that she hardly noticed it happening at all. One day they were simply classmates exchanging notes before exams. A few months later they were spending entire afternoons together between lectures. Then came late-night phone calls, shared meals, study sessions that somehow turned into hours of talking about everything except studying, and eventually the kind of friendship where neither person needed a reason to reach out anymore.
Jermajesty became part of her daily routine before she even realized it.
There were days when they exchanged dozens of messages without thinking about it. Days when he was the first person she called after receiving good news. Days when he sat with her through disappointments she didn't want to talk about with anyone else. Their friendship had always been easy in that way. Comfortable. Neither of them needed to perform around the other.
That was probably why she had been so annoyed when she discovered he had conveniently forgotten to mention one very important detail about himself.
She still remembered the exact moment.
They had been sitting outside the university cafeteria during their second year, sharing fries and complaining about an assignment due later that week. The conversation had been completely normal until another student walked past and casually asked Jermajesty whether he was attending a family event for the Jacksons that weekend.
Then slowly turned toward him.
Jermajesty had looked up from his phone. 'Yeah?'
'Jackson as in…thee Jackson?'
The answer had come far too quickly. Y/N stared at him in disbelief.
He shrugged. 'Technically.'
'Since when? You never told me that.'
'Since…forever? You never asked.' He said with a chuckle.
To this day, she hated that response.
Mostly because it was impossible to argue with.
Meeting his family had happened a few months later. Y/N had spent almost a week debating whether she should accept the invitation. She wasn't nervous about meeting people. She was nervous about feeling out of place. Family gatherings had always felt deeply personal to her. The idea of walking into someone else's family celebration made her feel like she would be intruding somehow.
The reality couldn't have been more different.
She had barely stepped through the front door before being welcomed inside.
Nobody treated her like a stranger.
Nobody made her feel as though she didn't belong there.
The atmosphere surprised her. There was laughter everywhere. Conversations happening over one another. Music playing somewhere in the background. Relatives moving from room to room. The house felt alive in a way that immediately put her at ease.
The second visit was easier.
By the fourth, someone had already sent her into the kitchen to grab plates.
By the fifth, she was helping clean up after dinner.
Eventually the invitations stopped feeling formal and started feeling expected.
Somewhere along the way, Y/N stopped being Jermajesty's friend who occasionally visited and became a familiar face everyone recognized.
The transition happened so naturally that she never noticed exactly when it occurred. Jermajesty often joked accusing her of stealing his family to which Y/N always reminded him that his family had made the choice willingly.
The only exception to all of this was Jaafar.
Over three years of friendship, dozens of family gatherings, countless visits and somehow she had never met him.
At first, she assumed it was coincidence and after a while, it became a running joke.
Every visit came with a different explanation.
Jaafar had left twenty minutes ago.
Jaafar would be there next time.
Eventually Y/N started referring to him as a myth. A celebrity version of Bigfoot. Because everybody swore he existed, everybody claimed to have seen him. Yet somehow she always missed him.
Which was why, as she drove toward Jermajesty's birthday party that afternoon, balancing a gift bag on the passenger seat beside her, she had absolutely no reason to think the day would be any different from all the others.
As far as she knew, she was heading to another family gathering.
Another afternoon surrounded by people she genuinely loved and appreciated.
The Jackson house was already buzzing with activity by the time Y/N pulled into the street.
She shouldn't have been surprised. After years of knowing Jermajesty, she had learned that no Jackson family gathering ever stayed small for very long. A birthday dinner somehow became twenty people. Twenty people somehow became forty. Relatives appeared from nowhere. Family friends arrived with extra food. Children multiplied the moment nobody was paying attention. The entire thing always unfolded with a kind of organized chaos that somehow worked despite looking completely unplanned from the outside.
Even before stepping out of her car, she could hear music floating from the backyard. The bass carried faintly through the afternoon air, blending with distant laughter and conversations she couldn't quite make out. A few cars were already parked along both sides of the street, forcing her to squeeze into a spot farther away than she would have liked. Grabbing the gift bag from the passenger seat, she made her way toward the house, smiling to herself when she noticed the front door standing wide open.
That was another thing she had grown used to.
At least nobody in the family.
The first time she had visited years ago, she had stood awkwardly on the porch for nearly five minutes trying to gather enough courage to ring the doorbell. Now she barely made it halfway up the driveway before the door flew open.
'Well, look who decided to finally show up.'
Jermajesty's voice carried across the front steps and Y/N immediately rolled her eyes.
'Hello to you too, birthday boy.'
'What took me so long?' she repeated. 'I've been driving for twenty minutes.'
'You could've driven faster.'
'That doesn't make it legal.'
Jermajesty grinned before stealing the gift bag directly from her hand and hugging her.
Some friendships changed over the years but theirs never really had. The teasing had remained exactly the same since university.
Before Y/N could continue arguing, a familiar high-pitched voice suddenly echoed from somewhere deeper inside the house.
A smile spread across her face instantly.
She barely had enough time to turn around before a small figure came running through the hallway at full speed. Abu Bakr appeared a second later, tiny legs moving as quickly as they possibly could as he charged straight toward her. The little boy practically launched himself at her knees, forcing her to crouch down just in time to catch him.
'There you are,' she laughed, wrapping her arms around him.
The nickname had followed her for nearly a year now.
Nobody really remembered when it started. When Abu Bakr had first begun talking, he struggled with pronouncing her name properly. After several attempts that sounded nothing alike, he eventually settled on 'Nini' and stubbornly refused to call her anything else. Every correction failed. Every attempt to teach him her real name ended with him repeating 'Nini' even louder than before. Eventually everyone surrendered.
Now half the family used it too.
Abu Bakr pulled back just enough to examine her face.
Jermajesty immediately burst out laughing.
'You late.' Abu Bakr nodded with the confidence of someone delivering undeniable facts.
Y/N couldn't even argue anymore.
She stood up and lifted him onto her hip with the ease of someone who had done it dozens of times before. Abu Bakr immediately settled there, making himself comfortable as he absentmindedly reached for one of the bracelets around her wrist. The movement was so familiar that neither of them thought twice about it.
Their friendship had been unexpected from the beginning.
The first few times she visited, Abu Bakr had treated her with deep suspicion. He watched her from across rooms. Refused to answer questions. Occasionally hid behind family members whenever she tried speaking to him. Then one afternoon she accidentally built what was possibly the ugliest Lego tower ever created. The structure had leaned sideways before collapsing entirely. Abu Bakr stared at the disaster for several seconds before announcing, in complete seriousness, that it looked 'ugly.'
After that, they became inseparable.
Now he followed her around whenever she visited.
The moment she entered the house, he claimed her attention for the rest of the day.
The backyard was where most people had gathered. Strings of lights hung overhead despite the sun still shining brightly above them. Several long tables had been arranged across the patio, covered with food that would probably continue growing throughout the afternoon as more relatives arrived carrying dishes. Music played softly from speakers near the house while conversations overlapped from every direction. Some people sat together beneath umbrellas. Others stood around talking. Children darted between adults, occasionally stopping long enough to steal snacks before disappearing again.
The atmosphere felt familiar.
Y/N found herself relaxing almost immediately.
This was exactly why she enjoyed coming here because nobody expected anything from her, nobody cared whether she looked perfect or said the right thing.
Over time, the family had stopped treating her like Jermajesty's best friend and started treating her like someone who belonged. The difference was subtle, but she felt it every time she visited. Nobody introduced her anymore. Nobody asked who she was. Family members greeted her the same way they greeted each other.
She wasn't just a guest anymore.
After spending nearly half an hour moving between conversations and greetings, Y/N eventually settled into a chair beside Jermajesty near the back of the yard. Abu Bakr immediately climbed into the seat next to her before changing his mind and crawling directly into her lap instead.
Jermajesty shook his head.
'I don't know why I bother.'
'I am jealous, my little brother prefers my best friend.'
Abu Bakr didn't even acknowledge him.
Instead, he held up a small toy truck.
'That's a very nice truck.'
'It go fast.' The little boy nodded seriously.
Y/N matched his seriousness.
Abu Bakr seemed pleased by that answer.
The conversation drifted naturally after that. Relatives came and went. Stories were shared. Old memories resurfaced. At one point Jermaine was halfway through telling a story about something that had happened years ago when his attention suddenly shifted toward the entrance of the backyard.
The interruption caught everyone's attention.
A man had just entered through the side gate.
At first, she only recognized him from photographs she had seen online over the years, and the ones Jermajesty shared wit her from the family album. The family talked about him often enough that she already felt vaguely familiar with the idea of Jaafar despite never actually meeting him. Three years of near misses had created an oddly strange situation where she knew stories about him before knowing him.
The backyard seemed to brighten with energy as soon as he arrived.
People stood to greet him.
Several relatives immediately pulled him into conversations before he had even taken more than a few steps.
Y/N watched quietly from her chair.
After hearing his name for so long, curiosity was natural.
He moved through the crowd slowly, greeting people one at a time. Hugs. Handshakes. Quick conversations. The ease with which he navigated the gathering immediately told her everything she needed to know. He wasn't arriving as a celebrity. He wasn't arriving as the lead actor from a major film.
He was arriving as a son. A brother. A nephew.
As he drew closer, Y/N found herself noticing details she couldn't see from a distance. The tiredness lingering around his eyes. The relaxed way he carried himself. The curls. The easy confidence.
That was the first thing that truly stood out to her.
Not the fact that she already knew who he was.
It transformed his entire face. The kind of smile that reached his eyes before it reached his mouth. The kind of smile that made other people smile back without realizing it.
For a brief moment, Y/N understood why everyone seemed so immediately drawn to him.
Beside her, Jermajesty stood from his chair.
Jaafar laughed at whatever his brother said in response.
A few moments later, he reached their section of the backyard. Only then did Jermajesty seem to remember that the two of them had somehow never crossed paths before.
'Oh, right.' A grin immediately spread across his face. 'You guys haven't met.'
For the first time, Jaafar's attention shifted fully toward her.
'This is Y/N,' Jermajesty said. 'My best friend.'
The title wasn't new. He had introduced her that way for years yet hearing it always made her smile. Jermajesty then looked at her.
'And this is my brother, Jaafar.'
After three years of hearing stories.
After three years of somehow missing each other.
The introduction happened in the simplest way possible. Jaafar extended his hand first.
His voice was soft, calm and friendly, just like the rest of the Jacksons. Y/N accepted the handshake.
The exchange lasted only a few seconds.
Just a handshake. A greeting. Two strangers finally putting faces to names they had both heard countless times before.
Yet as they pulled apart, Y/N found herself thinking that meeting Jaafar felt strangely similar to finally meeting someone she'd heard about for years. Not unfamiliar exactly. Just new. Like opening the last chapter of a story everyone else had already been reading.
And judging by the amused look Jermajesty was trying very hard to hide, he was far more entertained by the introduction than either of them were.
The introduction should have been the end of it or at least that was what Y/N expected.
People were constantly arriving and leaving at Jackson family gatherings, conversations splitting and merging every few minutes as relatives moved around the backyard. Jaafar had only just arrived himself. There were still family members greeting him from across the yard, cousins trying to pull him into conversations, and several people who clearly hadn't had the chance to say hello yet. Y/N assumed he would disappear into the crowd almost immediately. It would have been the normal thing to do.
Instead, after speaking with a few relatives and exchanging greetings with people nearby, he eventually found his way back toward the table where she and Jermajesty were sitting.
The realization caught her slightly off guard.
Over the years, Y/N had become fairly good at reading social situations. She knew when conversations were driven by politeness and when they were driven by genuine interest. Family gatherings were full of both. There were always those brief interactions where people exchanged a few pleasant words before moving on to the next person. Nobody thought twice about it.
This didn't feel like that.
Jaafar settled into one of the empty chairs nearby while another conversation unfolded around them, and somehow the two of them ended up speaking again. The transition happened so naturally that neither seemed particularly aware of it. One topic became another. One story led into a second. Every answer somehow opened the door to another question.
The strangest part was how easy it felt.
For years, Y/N had heard stories about Jaafar without ever meeting him. Not intentionally. It was simply impossible to be friends with Jermajesty and not hear his brother's name occasionally appear in conversation. There were updates about filming schedules, travel plans, funny family stories, birthdays he couldn't attend, holidays he arrived late for. Over time, she had developed a vague picture of who he was without ever realizing it. Now, sitting across from him for the first time, she found herself quietly comparing the real person to the version she had built from years of secondhand information.
The real version was far more relaxed than she expected, funnier too, that became obvious fairly quickly.
'You know,' she said eventually, leaning back in her chair as a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, 'I think I'm mostly just relieved.'
Jaafar looked up from the drink in his hand. 'Relieved?'
Y/N laughed softly. 'That you're real.'
His smile appeared again. 'I had a feeling this was coming.'
'Oh come on, you can't blame me.' She gestured toward him dramatically. 'For three years I've been hearing the same thing every time I come over.'
Jaafar already looked amused as she continued.
Y/N pointed at him. 'At some point I genuinely started wondering if everyone was lying.'
'See? That’s exactly what a myth would say.'
The laugh that escaped him this time was louder and for reasons she couldn't explain, Y/N found herself smiling back automatically.
Across the backyard, Jermajesty immediately noticed. He had actually tried to leave them alone for a while. Tried being the important word. The effort lasted less than twenty minutes.
Now he sat several tables away beside Randy Jr., pretending to pay attention to a completely unrelated conversation while very obviously keeping track of whatever was happening between his best friend and his brother.
'You need help.' Randy didn't even bother hiding his amusement.
Jermajesty looked offended.
'You've been staring for ten minutes.'
Jermajesty hesitated. 'The...grass.'
Randy laughed so hard he nearly spilled his drink.
The truth was that Jermajesty couldn't help finding the situation entertaining. For years, Y/N and Jaafar had existed in the same orbit without ever crossing paths. It had become something of a running joke within the family. Every time Y/N visited, Jaafar happened to be elsewhere. Every time Jaafar stopped by, Y/N had already left. The timing became so ridiculous that even family members started commenting on it.
Yet now that they had finally met, both of them seemed surprisingly comfortable, as if they had skipped past the awkward stranger stage entirely.
Meanwhile, Jaafar found himself making a similar observation.
The longer the conversation continued, the more he understood why Y/N's name came up so often.
The realization became impossible to ignore once he started paying attention. She knew everybody. Not just their names. The actual relationships. The stories. The inside jokes. Family members greeted her without hesitation. Conversations picked up where they had apparently left off weeks earlier. Nobody treated her like a visitor.
At one point an aunt walked past and handed Y/N a plate to carry inside without even asking. Y/N accepted it automatically. Neither seemed to think anything of it.
That small moment somehow told Jaafar more than any explanation could. She belonged here.
The thought lingered in the back of his mind longer than expected.
Hours passed faster than either of them realized.
The sun slowly disappeared beyond the rooftops, painting the sky in shades of orange and gold before darkness settled over the neighborhood. The string lights hanging above the backyard gradually became the primary source of light, casting a warm glow across conversations that showed no signs of ending anytime soon. Music continued playing softly somewhere behind them. More food appeared. Someone started telling old family stories. Laughter erupted every few minutes from different parts of the yard.
It wasn't until Y/N glanced at her phone that she realized how late it had become.
The expression on her face immediately changed. 'Oh, wow.'
She turned the screen toward herself again.
'I didn't realize it was this late.'
The statement seemed simple enough yet for a second, Jaafar felt oddly disappointed and the realization surprised him.
Eventually, the familiar ritual of goodbyes began.
It took significantly longer than it should have.
Jackson family gatherings made leaving almost impossible. Every goodbye turned into another conversation. Every conversation led to another hug. Every hug somehow delayed departure by another ten minutes.
By the time Y/N finally made it to the front of the house, she felt like she had already said goodbye at least six separate times.
She was searching through her purse for her car keys when footsteps approached beside her.
Looking up, she found Jaafar standing there.
The offer felt natural. The sort of thing anyone in the family might have done. Even so, Y/N smiled.
Together they made their way down the driveway while the sounds of the party faded behind them. The evening air had cooled considerably since sunset, carrying the distant hum of traffic and occasional bursts of laughter from the backyard.
'I had fun talking to you today.'
The honesty of the statement caught Y/N slightly off guard.
A smile appeared almost immediately.
'Although I still think you might be a myth.'
Jaafar groaned. 'You're never letting that go, are you?'
For a second neither moved.
Then Y/N unlocked the driver's door.
'Well.' She smiled. 'It was nice finally meeting you.'
Jaafar returned the smile effortlessly.
'Hopefully it won’t take another three years to meet again.' She said chucking.
'Oh, I will make sure it won’t happen.' He looked down at her while smiling.
A few moments later she was pulling away from the curb, taillights disappearing into the darkness beyond the street.
Jaafar stood there a little longer than necessary before turning back toward the house. Jermajesty spotted him almost immediately. The grin on his face was a warning sign and Jaafar knew it.
Jermajesty's smile widened and Jaafar already regretted sitting down.
Yet despite himself, despite knowing exactly what reaction he was about to receive, he found his thoughts drifting back toward Y/N anyway. Toward the stories she had told. The way she laughed. The fact that somehow she had become part of his family's life years before he ever met her.
'...Tell me more about her.'
Jermajesty looked like Christmas had arrived early and practically sat up straighter in his chair.
And somewhere deep down, Jaafar realized he had just made a very serious mistake. Because judging by the look on his brother's face, he wasn't going to hear the end of this anytime soon.
The drive home gave him too much time to think.
The roads were quieter now, most of the traffic having disappeared hours earlier. Music played softly through the speakers, but his attention barely registered it. Instead, pieces of the afternoon kept replaying in his head. Small moments. Random comments. Fragments of conversations that should have been forgettable but somehow weren't.
He had met her only a few hours ago.
Yet somehow she no longer felt like a stranger.
Meanwhile, several miles away, Y/N was experiencing a similar problem.
She had changed into an oversized T-shirt nearly twenty minutes ago. Her makeup was gone. Her hair was tied into a messy bun balanced somewhere on top of her head. She was curled up beneath her blankets, scrolling aimlessly through social media while half-watching a show she wasn't really paying attention to.
The day should have been over.
Instead, her phone suddenly vibrated beside her.
The reply came almost instantly.
what did you think of jaafar?
Y/N immediately groaned and dropped her head back against the pillow.
Of course this was where the conversation was going.
She should have seen it coming.
The introduction had happened hours ago, yet apparently that was enough to send Jermajesty into full matchmaking mode.n Not that she thought he was actually trying to set them up.
After staring at the screen for a moment, she finally replied.
The answer lasted on the screen for approximately two seconds before another message arrived.
Y/N laughed despite herself.
what do you want me to say?
you guys talked for like three hours
we did not talk for three hours
Y/N stared at the screen.
She immediately threw her phone onto the mattress beside her.
A smile still appeared anyway.
After a few minutes, she reached over, locked the screen, and set the phone on her nightstand. The room was quiet now. The only sound came from the television still playing softly in the background.
Slowly, her thoughts drifted back toward the afternoon.
Toward conversations beneath string lights.
Toward dark eyes and an annoyingly nice smile.
The realization made her groan into her pillow and this was exactly why she didn't want to entertain Jermajesty's questions. The last thing she needed was encouragement.
A few moments later, her phone lit up again.
With a sigh, she reached for the device.
The notification preview showed only three words.
The message remained on delivered and somehow that was worse because now her curiosity had been planted. Now she wanted to know.
And somewhere across the city, completely unaware of the chaos he had just caused, Jermajesty was laughing his head off.
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