nostalgia {Ben Hardy/Reader/Joe Mazzello}
Anon asked: i would love to see a little story or like some headcanons about a lazy day with joe/ben/reader. i feel like that would be really cute.
A/N: 1141 words. Just a fluffy little thing, I hope you like it! Iāve missed them v much.
They love you, and thatās what matters.Ā
The days are long when they arenāt around, long and lonely and sometimes cold; it could be the middle of Summer, but thereās a chill in the air when they arenāt there.Ā
Of course theyāre busy, theyāre talented and successful, and youād never begrudge them that, but you... you just like having them around, and thatās not a crime. Sometimes youāre the busy one, and you quietly ache to be in the comfort of their embrace. But such is life, we all do things we donāt want to do, we all learn to go without the ones we love when we must.Ā
Being spread to the far corners of the globe doesnāt feel fair, though. Youāre at home, because you work from home, you can film your videos anywhere, but Benās on a cathedral roof in Italy judging by his most recent selfie, and Joeās filming somewhere in the middle of America. Thereās calls and video chats but itās never the same.
Ben invests in some of those bracelets that let each of you feel when one is thinking about the others, a familiar pressure; Iām right here, no matter how far away. It helps.
Or oneās away, and youāre curled up with Ben in your living room and you donāt remember who suggested watching Jurassic Park, but now you just miss Joe more, and itās four in the morning where he is, but he answers your video call, and sleepily chuckles when you explain what youāre watching. He asks to watch the last half hour, and so you obligingly turn the camera around so he can see the TV, and the phone is tucked neatly between where youāre tangled up with Ben, and something about the way seeing him fall asleep before he gets the chance to hang up is so damn endearing. He wants so badly to be with you both. You know heās missing you just as much as youāre both missing him.
Thereās endless selfies, and recordings that you send each other - Ben air drums when any Queen song comes on the radio, you do funny voices when washing up, making up a whole storyline for the cutlery, something about the mafia and needing to waterboard them for information - itās kinda dark, but also funny, and it makes both Ben and Joe smile. Joe sends you guys a video of himself talking to a home made sock puppet, asking it if he should come home early, because he misses you both. The sock puppet reminds him that heās under contract, and that itās only for a few more weeks. The video still makes you cry.
When itās you and Joe, thereās videos sent of the pair of you scouring the internet for Benās episodes of East Enders, and arguing about if the shady streaming site will give your laptop a virus. You kiss Joe to shut him up. Benās answering photo is of himself, on set, half blushing and covering his smile with his hand, captioned that thereās a USB in his desk drawer with a few episodes on it. He seems embarrassed but endeared. He also gets photos of you pouting with Cardboard Ben,Ā āitās just not the sameā you message, and he sends backĀ āgood, i donāt want him stealing you guys from meā.Ā
āIs it hard always being away from your... your partners?ā The interviewers always flounder when they talk to any of you about your relationship, but youāve all learned to navigate it. Joe flushes and ducks his gaze, smiling a little.
āItās always hard, but weāre all in the same industry so we all kind of understand; weāve got this thing we do, we watch old stuff that the others have been in, when weāre away, like the other day, Y/N and Ben sent me a video of them watching Undrafted, it was really sweet actually,ā he admits, and the interviewer coos at that, asking him what heād watched recently,Ā āwell,ā Joe starts with an embarrassed little smile,Ā ādonāt tell her I do this, but I go back and I watch The Boyfriend Tag video on Y/Nās youtube channel that we did; I dunno, it just makes me all warm and fuzzy,ā he flusters a little.Ā
You have that interview downloaded and saved onto your phone.
Itās hard being away from each other, but it makes it all the sweeter being back together.Ā
Ben and Joe surprise you at the airport after you get back from London Fashion Week, holding a sign with your name in big, block letters, and yeah it kind of attracts a crowd, but itās the thought that counts. Theyāre peppering you with questions, asking you what your favourite outfit was, what your favourite moment was, if you stayed at a nice hotel.
āCanāt be better than our place,ā Joe snorted, and heās got his arm around your shoulders in the back of the Uber, and you smile, lean into him, press your nose to his cheek.
āOi, donāt knock London, man,ā Ben makes a point of seeming annoyed, but Joe rolls his eyes with a smile.
āBabe,ā he tells Ben,Ā āno hotel will ever compare to your flat either, okay? Iām saying that anywhereās better when weāre together.ā And Ben wears a little pleased grin, and presses a kiss to Joeās knuckles, sitting on your other side.
And itās warm, even though the air outside is cold, between them you are warm. Of course you are, wherever they are, you find comfort.Ā
Together, you watch everything and nothing, and you read scripts to help each other learn lines, and record auditions, and they record videos with you, and this is the best feeling in the world. Laughter, bright and loud and warm, fills the halls of your home.
Ben joins in when you interrogate the dishes now, drying them, pretending to threaten their family, just because it makes Joe cackle with laughter.Ā
Joe finally watched Jurassic Park with you both, providing dry commentary about the behind the scenes during the entire time, which has you and Ben in stitches half the time.Ā
And you come home from a walk, only to find Ben and Joe trying to copy one of your makeup tutorials from when youād first started YouTube. The sight warms your heart and almost moves you to tears, right before you hear your own voice from your youth, and you almost screech trying to shut the laptop, while the boys shout that theyāre halfway through.
āYouāre killing me,ā you give a fondly exasperated smile, only wincing a little at the jarring jump cut in the video, and they both beam in response.
āBut you love us,ā Ben practically sings, and you roll your eyes, even though you canāt help but grin.