Discover Top Posts Tagged with #dcst joel

astronomer reader × Joel gear PLEASE!! Reader is Stanley's younger sibling and studies space science

I'd die to see you write about Joel :3

Space Between the Stars

Joel Gear x Reader

Synopsis: Tasked with charting the stars for Senku’s dream of space travel, you struggle with a broken telescope and mounting frustration. Joel steps in, applying his gift for detail and quiet understanding. Under the open sky, mutual admiration and unspoken affection begin to take shape, even if neither of you realizes it yet.

Word Count: 2,200

The grass is cool beneath your back, the faint scent of earth and night air clinging to your clothes as you stare up at the sky. Stars scatter overhead in familiar patterns, comforting, frustratingly distant, and achingly beautiful all at once.

You adjust the charcoal pencil between your fingers and add another mark to the rough star map resting on your stomach. Senku wants precision, of course. If he is serious about going to space, and knowing him he absolutely is, then he needs the clearest possible understanding of the heavens. Angles, positions, long term movement. You are the best person for the job.

Or at least, you were.

You sigh and glance sideways at the telescope sitting a few feet away, partially disassembled and very much useless. You had been adjusting it earlier, trying to recalibrate the alignment, but something was off. No matter what you did, the image warped just enough to make accurate observation impossible.

You hated that you could not fix it yourself.

Footsteps crunch softly behind you.

“You’re… not using it?”

The voice is quiet, cautious. You do not need to look to know who it is.

You push yourself up onto your elbows and glance back. Joel stands a short distance away, hands tucked awkwardly into his coat pockets, goggles resting at his neck. His eyes flick between you and the broken telescope like he is not quite sure which one he should be looking at.

“Oh, hey, Joel,” you say, offering a small smile. “Yeah. It’s busted. Or misaligned. Or cursed. One of the three.”

He blinks, then clears his throat. “That’s… unfortunate.”

Coming from anyone else, it might sound blunt. From Joel, it is almost gentle.

You sit up fully now, brushing grass from your sleeves. “I was trying to fix it, but the image keeps drifting. I adjusted the mount, checked the lens, even recalculated the angle twice, still off.”

Joel hesitates, rocking slightly on his heels. You can practically see him debating whether to say something. Finally, he gestures vaguely toward the telescope.

“I… if you want, I could look at it.”

Your eyes brighten instantly. “Really?”

He stiffens at your tone, nodding a bit too quickly. “I mean! If you don’t want me to, that’s fine. I just… small mechanisms tend to leave clues when something’s wrong.”

“That would be amazing,” you say, maybe a little too fast. “I’d really appreciate it.”

A faint flush creeps up his neck, barely visible in the moonlight. He moves past you toward the telescope, crouching beside it with careful precision, like he is afraid to disturb it further.

You watch quietly as he works.

Joel does not rush. He never does. His fingers move slowly, deliberately, adjusting screws by fractions, pausing to peer through the lens, then adjusting again. He notices things you had not. Tiny stress marks near the joint, a minuscule imbalance in the housing that throws everything off by degrees instead of inches.

You are reminded, not for the first time, that his genius is not loud like Senku’s or forceful like your brother Stanley’s. Joel’s brilliance lives in the details most people overlook.

After a long while, he exhales softly.

“Found it,” he murmurs.

“What was it?” you ask.

“The internal ring,” he says, carefully tightening it. “It was warped. Barely. Enough to skew the alignment every time you adjusted the outside.”

You stare. “…That makes so much sense.”

He pauses, glancing back at you. “It does?”

“Yeah,” you say, grinning. “I should have checked that. Guess I was too focused on the big picture.”

He hums quietly, like he is thinking. “Big pictures are important. But they’re built from small parts.”

Then he steps aside. “Try it.”

You scramble to your feet and lean over the telescope, holding your breath as you peer through the lens.

The stars snap into perfect clarity.

Sharp. Aligned. Exactly where they should be.

“Oh my god,” you breathe. “Joel, it’s perfect.”

Relief and excitement bubble over, and before you can stop yourself, you turn to him, hands clasped. “Thank you. Seriously. I’ve been losing my mind over this.”

His eyes widen slightly. “I… you’re welcome. It wasn’t… hard.”

“You’re incredible,” you say earnestly. “I don’t know what I would do without you.”

That definitely does it.

Joel freezes, shoulders drawing in as his gaze darts away. “I’m… I just fixed a thing. That’s all.”

You laugh softly, not unkind. “Still. I’m grateful.”

He nods, clearly at a loss for words.

After a moment, you glance back at your star map, then up at the sky. “I’m almost done for the night. Senku will want the rest tomorrow anyway.”

You hesitate, then look back at him. “Do you want to sit with me? For a bit?”

Joel blinks. Once. Twice.

“…Sit?”

“Yeah,” you say, patting the grass beside you. “You don’t have to talk. Just company.”

For a second, you think he might decline. Then he carefully lowers himself onto the grass, leaving just enough space to be polite.

The stars stretch endlessly above you.

You resume sketching, occasionally pointing out constellations, planets, old world navigation paths. Joel listens intently, asking quiet questions here and there. His shoulder is warm where it nearly brushes yours.

Neither of you notices how late it has gotten.

Neither of you notices how comfortable the silence feels.

And somewhere between the stars and the quiet, something unspoken settles gently into place.

#dcst joel

Trending Tags

Recently Viewed Tags

#dcst joel