synopsis: Joey realizes he’s jealous when you start spending a lot of time with Ross—who even willingly spends time talking about dead dinosaurs? For once, the smooth “how you doin’” guy can’t figure out how to confess his feelings without sounding like a fool.
Ross had introduced you and before long you were just another fixture on the orange couch. You laughed at Chandler’s sarcastic digs, humored Monica’s need for order, and matched Phoebe’s oddball humor with ease.
But Joey noticed something else. You seemed to spend a lot of time with Ross lately. Maybe it was the way you leaned in close over coffee, your heads nearly touching as you joked about some museum anecdote. Or how you and Phoebe had this quiet, conspiratorial way of whispering mid conversation, breaking into laughter he didn’t understand.
For Joey, lover of women and king of confidence, there was an odd and unwelcome feeling creeping in.
Jealousy.
“Why’s Joey pouting?” Chandler asked one afternoon, tossing popcorn in the air and missing his mouth completely.
“I’m not pouting,” he snapped, eyes still glued to where you and Ross sat across the room, bent over a stack of papers. “I’m just watching.”
“Uh-huh. Watching your boyfriend flirt with a paleontologist.”
“He’s not my boyfriend!”
That was all Monica needed to chime in, wiping her hands on a dish towel. “Joey, you’ve been sulking since yesterday when Ross and Y/N left together. It’s kind of obvious.”
Even Phoebe, bless her oblivious honesty, chimed in, “Yeah, Joey. You get all growly when they laugh at each other’s jokes. It’s cute. Like a jealous puppy.”
“I don’t get growly!” Joey defended, though his voice cracked enough to earn him a round of knowing smirks.
The problem wasn’t that Joey didn’t like you. Quite the opposite. He liked you too much. Your laugh made him grin without even meaning to. The way you remembered the smallest details about him, like his audition schedule or the kind of sandwich he liked best, had him reeling. But what was he supposed to say? That Joey Tribbiani, master of smooth pick-up lines, couldn’t figure out how to flirt with someone he actually cared about?
He practiced in the mirror.
“Hey, I like you more than pizza.” Too much.
“How you doin’?” Too cliché.
“If I were Ross, I’d spend all my time with you too, but lucky for you, I’m not Ross.” Way too weird.
The more he tried, the more ridiculous he felt.
It wasn’t until one evening at Central Perk, when Ross leaned in to show you something on his notebook, that Joey finally snapped. He stood up so fast his chair nearly toppled.
“Okay! Enough with the fossils, Ross!”
The whole café turned to stare, but Joey was too far gone to notice. “I mean, come on, you’re hogging him! Y/N’s supposed to hang out with all of us, not just you.”
Ross blinked in bewilderment. “Joey, he asked me about my work—”
“Yeah, well maybe I got stuff to show him too!” Joey blurted, before realizing every eye was on him, including yours. His friends were trying (and failing) to hide their laughter. Later, when the group had scattered, you found Joey pacing outside the café, muttering to himself.
“Joey?”
He froze. “Y/N. Uh. Hey. So about before.”
You raised an eyebrow. “You jealous of Ross?”
Joey’s ears burned red. “No! I mean yeah. Okay, fine. Maybe a little. I just don’t like seeing you spend all your time with him when I…” He trailed off, wringing his hands, which for Joey, was as uncharacteristic as it got.
“When you…?”
He finally looked up, and the usual cocky grin was replaced with something almost nervous. “When I like you. A lot. And I didn’t know how to say it without sounding like an idiot.”
Your smile spread slowly, warm and amused. “That’s the least idiotic thing I’ve heard you say.”
Joey’s shoulders sagged in relief, and then, as if on instinct, the grin came back. “So, how you doin’?”
Joey's schedule often doesn't line up with the group's normal lives: auditions, work mixers, rehearsals, & dates. The boy lives on caffeine and hope. He raids the fridge like he's starving because he is. Half the time he'll nap on whoever's closest.
Chandler's insomnia and Joey's late nights make the a good pair. They make grilled cheese sandwiches and fall asleep at 1 am.
