𝐅𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 - 𝐈
fight club x reader | tyler durden x black! fem! reader
unlike those around you at lou's, you don't subscribe to tyler durden's rhetoric so easily. in fact, you don't subscribe to much of anything. and that fact severely intrigues the wrong—or right, depending who you ask—attention
cw - violence, death, gore, nihilism, fighting, existential crap, mature themes, 18+, profane language, bit of an age gap (reader is 23, tyler is 30)
I. Rag
The place was a madhouse—a Friday night at Lou’s always was.
You were used to the stench of beer soaked into the floorboards, the sound of too many voices crowding the air, and the kind of music that felt like it was being piped through a tin can.
The bar was a wall of bodies tonight: leather-clad bikers with beards like tangled fishing nets, businessmen whose loosened ties were as limp as their morals, and those lonely eccentrics who looked like they’d been sitting in the same booth for decades, watching their drink sweat into nothing.
You’d long since stopped trying to make sense of the clientele—it was easier to pour, wipe, ring up, repeat.
Somewhere between slamming a pint down for a particularly impatient regular and swiping a ten from under a damp coaster, you clocked them—just for a second.
A man in a rumpled business suit, his hair unkempt and his eyes worn hollow, slid into a booth alongside someone who looked like he’d been dropped into the room from a Used-Car Salesmen Anonymous meeting.
The latter was hard not to notice.
Red leather jacket.
Matching red-tinted sunglasses that probably didn’t belong anywhere inside, yet somehow suited him.
Even from across the room, his confidence was obvious—it was in the way he sat back in the booth, one arm along the backrest, his posture a declaration.
He didn’t just enter—he took over.
The two spoke, leaning in close, and you looked away.
You didn’t give it much more thought.
Not because they weren’t interesting, but because you didn’t care.
You never cared.
You’d been told before that you had a “face for corporate” the kind of comment people delivered like they were gifting you some great piece of wisdom.
That you’d be better off in an office, smiling behind a desk, doing the kind of soul-sucking work that made you want to swallow a stapler whole.
Every time, the thought repulsed you.
The cubicles, the dress code, the polite conversations about nothing—you’d rather rot behind the sticky counter at Lou’s than die slowly in fluorescent light making copies for someone’s boss’s boss.
Lou’s wasn’t glamorous, but it was yours in a way an office never could be.
The pay was trash, sure, but between this gig and a few odd jobs here and there, you scraped by.
Rent on your so-so apartment.
Bills paid just in time.
A fridge that always had the basics, plus enough left over to grab takeout on the nights you couldn’t stand cooking.
It was survival, but you were fine with that.
By the time the clock inched past ten, the noise in the room had gone from chaotic to deafening.
Your hands worked automatically—tilt glass, pull tap, slide drink, collect cash.
But somewhere in the repetition, a prickle crawled up the back of your neck.
You didn’t need to look to know when someone was watching you.
And when you did glance, you caught him the man in the red jacket—staring at you with an intensity that seemed immune to the noise and motion around him.
He wasn’t subtle about it either.
Even as his companion spoke, his gaze stayed fixed.
Like he was sizing you up.
You looked away, not rattled.
Not even flattered.
Just… used to it.
This crowd had eyes like moths to a flame, and you’d long ago stopped being surprised when someone thought they’d discovered something rare.
Your attention was stolen anyway—and not by him.
The biker leaned across the counter, his leather vest pulling taut across a stomach that had lost the battle with beer years ago.
His breath hit you like a wall, thick with alcohol and smoke, and his grin was the kind that made your skin crawl before he even opened his mouth.
“Y’know,” he slurred, “a girl like you shouldn’t be wastin’ her time here. You oughta be sittin’ on a guy’s lap somewhere, lettin’ him take care of you.”
It was loud, crude, and embarrassingly transparent.
A few heads at the bar turned just to watch the scene.
You didn’t flinch.
You’d dealt with worse.
But as he leaned even closer, his elbow sliding across the counter like it was a slow claim, you felt that familiar burn of irritation—the one that made you want to pour a drink over someone’s head and call it performance art.
Somewhere behind you, the sound of laughter— ow, smooth—threaded into the chaos.
The man in the red leather jacket was still watching.
You didn’t even blink at his comment.
Didn’t give him the satisfaction of an eyeroll or a scoff.
You simply shifted your weight to one hip, stared flatly at him, and asked, “What do you want to drink?”
The question slid out like a grocery list item—no inflection, no trace of invitation.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t the type to take a hint.
His grin widened into something more lecherous, and he leaned further over the bar, like he thought proximity was part of the seduction, “Oh, I think I’d rather have you on the menu, sweetheart.”
The words oozed out of him, drunk and sticky.
A few patrons within earshot looked over, sensing trouble brewing—or maybe just hoping for a show.
The biker fed off the attention, smirking like he was in on some great joke.
He tossed out another “compliment,” this one twice as crude, about what your mouth would be better suited for than taking drink orders.
You didn’t blush, didn’t falter, didn’t do anything but look at him like he was an especially dumb commercial playing during your favorite show.
Then, in that same neutral monotone, you said,
“Original. Those last two brain cells of yours rub together to spit that one out?”
A few men nearby burst into laughter—low, rumbling, genuine.
Someone even coughed into his drink to hide a grin.
It phased you exactly as much as a flickering lightbulb.
But the biker?
The red creeping up his neck was impossible to miss.
Humiliation, mixed with enough booze to fuel a poor decision, was a dangerous cocktail.
His grin curdled into a snarl.
“Think you’re funny, huh?” his words started coming out in jagged pieces now, sharper, angrier.
He went on a rambling rant about “girls like you”—peppered with the kind of slurs and insults you’d stopped bothering to catalogue years ago.
You didn’t interrupt.
You didn’t nod.
You just let him dig his own grave.
And when he paused to breathe, you tossed in the shovel:
“I’d tell you to go screw yourself, but judging by that gut, you’d never be able to find it.”
The laughter that followed this time was loud enough to cut through the music.
A couple of men actually slapped the bar in delight.
You might as well have poured gasoline on the biker’s pride and handed him a match.
The red in his face darkened to something ugly, and before you could move, his hand shot out, gripping your bicep like a vice.
He yanked you toward him so fast the barware rattled.
You didn’t gasp.
Your reflex was immediate—your free hand slipped under the counter, fingers curling around the cool metal of the switchblade you kept taped there.
It was already half out before you’d even thought about what you’d do with it.
Then he appeared.
The man in the red leather jacket.
He moved like he’d been there the whole time, standing behind the biker so silently that no one noticed until his hand clamped around the man’s neck.
It wasn’t a theatrical chokehold—just a firm, unyielding grip at the nape, like he was lifting a misbehaving dog by the scruff.
And then, without a word, he slammed the biker’s head into the curve of the bar.
The sound was sickening—a dull, meaty crack that silenced half the room for a heartbeat.
Your eyes went wide, more in surprise than fear.
The biker’s grip on you vanished instantly, his body going slack as he slid to the floor.
A dark bloom of blood seeped from a jagged cut at his forehead, snaking toward the grooves in the wood.
The man in red didn’t linger.
He didn’t sneer or say something clever.
He just turned on his heel, walking back to his booth like he’d only gotten up to adjust the jukebox.
The tired-looking man in the suit was still talking, and Red Jacket— Tyler, you vaguely remembered the business man calling him—slid back into the conversation as though nothing had happened.
Only difference was, his gaze still found you between sentences.
You exhaled slowly, tucking the switchblade back under the counter.
A rag dangled from a hook near the ice bin; you grabbed it, flipping it open in your hand.
Without so much as a sigh for the unconscious heap at your feet, you leaned forward and began wiping the blood from the bartop—slow, deliberate circles—until the dark streaks gave way to dull, worn wood again.
.
.
.
Closing time was always the same rhythm—rinse, wipe, stack, lock.
The chaos of the night reduced to the hiss of the tap cleaning cycle, the dull scrape of a rag along wood, the click of glasses fitting neatly into place.
Lou’s after hours smelled like lemon cleaner and stale beer, the noise replaced by the hum of the old refrigeration unit.
You’d just finished the last wipe-down, tossed the rag in the bin, and slung your jacket over your shoulders.
Purse in hand, you pushed out the back door, the hinges groaning like they resented the movement, and stepped into the cool night air.
The lot behind Lou’s was lit by two flickering security lamps, casting everything in a weak, buzzing halo.
The air smelled faintly of oil and asphalt—not pleasant, but cleaner than inside.
You locked the door behind you, the bolt sliding home with a satisfying clack.
Half-listening to the hum of the lamps, you dug through your bag until your fingers brushed the familiar shape of the spliff you’d rolled earlier, neatly tucked in a corner like a little promise to yourself.
The lighter followed scratched metal warm from being buried in there all night.
You put it between your lips, cupped your hand against the breeze, and sparked the flame.
The first inhale was slow, filling your lungs with something that cut through the lingering smell of beer in your hair.
You let the smoke out in a lazy stream, watching it twist up into the dark like it was trying to escape the parking lot too.
Your boots crunched lightly against gravel as you took the first few steps toward the sidewalk that would lead you home.
You didn’t live far—just a short walk through streets you knew well enough to navigate half-asleep.
But you didn’t make it far.
Movement caught your eye—two shapes ahead, in the dim stretch where the parking lot met the street.
Your brows pulled together as you focused, recognizing the red leather jacket first.
Tyler.
And the man from earlier, the tired-looking suit.
They were fighting.
Not in the sloppy, angry way you’d seen drunks brawl outside Lou’s, all flailing arms and broken insults.
This was… different.
Controlled, almost.
They hit each other like it was a language they both understood a back-and-forth of fists and shoulders, bodies colliding with a thud that carried across the cool air.
You frowned, the smoke curling from your lips in a slow ribbon.
They’d been leaning toward each other in quiet conversation just hours ago, and now here they were, trading blows that would’ve put most men in the ER.
And yet…
You couldn’t sense any real venom in it.
Tyler’s mouth curled at the corner between strikes, and the suited man, even with his nose bleeding, didn’t look afraid.
It was more like watching two brothers hash something out with their fists instead of words.
They didn’t notice you.
You made sure of it, staying in the soft shadow between the pool of lamplight and the dark edge of the lot.
Another drag from the blunt, another exhale, and you kept walking, boots steady on the pavement.
You didn’t speed up.
You didn’t slow down.
You just let the sound of their punches fade behind you, the smoke lingering in the air as you disappeared into the quiet streets toward home.
.
.
.