headphones in
Authors note: so maybe don’t fly home early without warning your boyfriend. and maybe headphones are evil.
enjoy the emotional damage ♡ p.s. he is so slut in this pic? Like Joseph god damn u..
Photo credits: Pinterest
Dividers credits: @cursed-carmine and @saradika-graphics
Warning: headphones, embarrassment, emotional damage, a very loud embarrassed quarterback caught in act
Tag list: @mrs-delaney
The house is too quiet for four in the afternoon.
Sunlight spills through the big windows, soft and golden, hitting the hardwood floors like nothing in the world could possibly be wrong. The house smells like the overpriced candle Joe insisted they needed.
Of course, Joe Burrow doesn’t like candles—that’s her thing, as he says—so that she can smell it? Somebody must have lit it. Definitely not Joseph. No, definitely not him.
Her suitcase rolls in with a soft thud as she shuts the door behind her.
She smiles to herself.
Two days.
Two stupid, long, dragging days at her parents’ place and she missed him so bad it physically hurt.
It was the empty side of the bed. The way he reaches for her in his sleep. The random kisses in the kitchen. His presence. But he was tired, the season was brutal. So she left him home, her parents understood.
And off-season meant he was home more, softer somehow. So she flew in earlier than she planned. Because Joe was more hers. Off season. Home.
She kicks off her shoes quietly, already picturing his face when she surprises him. That baby-blue eyes and handsome face paired with those long curls and big, tall hunk of a body.
“Joe?” she calls lightly.
Nothing.
She checks his office first. Chair pushed in. Laptop closed. Empty.
Gym?
No music, no weights clanking, no treadmill humming. Where the hell is he..
Living room?
Blanket folded. TV off. No documents obsessed QB in sight.
Kitchen island?
No no Joe perched on the bar chair solving lego or puzzles.
Her brows pull together.
That’s weird.
Both cars are in the driveway. She checks her phone, opens Find My.
His location: Home. Charging.
It’s 4:07 PM.
She huffs out a quiet laugh. “Is he napping? At four?”
It wouldn’t be impossible. He’d been training hard. Maybe he crashed. Or as he says ‘I’m not napping I’m power charging.’
Still smiling, she pads down the hallway. The house feels heavier here. Quieter. It’s like she can feel him there. If he naps? She could use nap too. Damn airplanes. She flew business, but still hours on plane.
Then—
A sound.
Soft at first.
She freezes.
Another sound.
A breathy one. She recognizes that sound. A low, broken exhale that makes her stomach twist. Because she knows that sound, oh so well.
She knows it intimately.
That high, strained, almost whiny moan he does when he’s about to come.
Her heart starts pounding in her ears.
No.
No.
She takes another step toward the bedroom. The door is closed. Okay.
And then she hears it clearer.
His voice. Not sleepy. Not confused.
Breathless.
“Oh my God— yes—” gasp “fuck like that…”
Full. Deep. That tone. The one he only ever uses when he’s completely gone.
And another sound. Deep moan.
Her vision blurs instantly.
Her body goes ice cold and burning hot at the same time. Her stomach drops so violently she actually grabs the wall to steady herself.
No no no no no— he wouldn’t do that would he?!
Her mind is racing, trying to rationalize, trying to explain it away, but she hears the mattress shift. The sheets rustling, the kinda obscene sound of sex.
Another breathy sound from him.
Her Joe. Joe Burrow. Her longtime boyfriend.
The man who falls asleep with his hand tangled in her shirt.
The man who kisses her forehead before practice.
The man who told her he missed her yesterday.
A broken sound tears out of her before she can stop it. A full, raw sob.
Loud.
Ugly.
It echoes down the hallway.
Inside the bedroom everything stops.
Silence.
Sudden, sharp movement on the bed. Then something dropping and sheets moving.
“—what was that?”
His voice. Different now. Alert. Focused. Footsteps thud against the floor.
Her hands are shaking so hard she can barely breathe. Don’t panic.
The door handle rattles.
And she stands there, tears streaming down her face, heart splintering in her chest—
The door swings open so fast it hits the wall.
And there he is.
Naked. Partly.
Hair messy. Chest flushed. The comforter wrapped low around his waist, knuckles white where he’s gripping it. Eyes wild.
He looks stunned. Completely.
“Baby?” His voice cracks on the word.
She can’t even breathe. So she heard right, he is having sex with somebody. Oh my god. Joe is cheating on her. Her mind is going.
Tears are pouring down her face so hard she can barely see him, but she sees enough. Sees the bare skin. The disheveled sheets behind him. The flushed look on his face. Her heart shatters all over again.
She shoves him.
Not hard enough to hurt him — but hard enough that he stumbles sideways, caught completely off guard.
“Hey— what—” Joe is frozen, holding the comforter with his hand. Trying to figure out, how the hell is she home.
She pushes past him into the bedroom.
Her chest is heaving. Her hands shaking violently. She wants to scream so bad.
She scans the bed first. The sheets are a mess. Pillows scattered. But—
No one.
Her eyes dart to the bathroom. She runs to it, yanks the door open. Looks even behind the door
Empty.
She spins back around, runs to the closet room. Throws it open. Clothes. Shoes. Darkness. Nobody..
“No no no no—” she mutters, voice breaking, dropping to her knees to check under the bed.
Nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Behind her, Joe is standing there, still holding the comforter around himself like he’s forgotten he’s naked.
“Baby?” he says again, softer now. Confused. Worried. “What are you doing?”
She stands abruptly, tears streaming, chest rising and falling like she just ran a mile.
“Where is she?” she chokes. “Don’t lie to me, Joseph.”
He blinks. “Who?”
“Don’t.” Her voice breaks. “I heard you. I heard everything.” She pulls a weak breath in.
“The sheets? The moans? The way you said ‘oh my God.’?”
His confusion lasts one second. Then it hits him.
“Oh.”
Her face crumples. “Oh? That’s it? Oh?” She’s looking at him absolutely wrecked, tears running….
“No— no, baby—” He runs a hand through his hair. “There is no one here. You can search the entire house.”
“I did!” she sobs. “I checked everywhere!”
“Exactly,” he says, softer now. “Because there’s no one here.”
Silence.
He looks embarrassed.
Not guilty.
Embarrassed.
“Baby…” he rubs the back of his neck. “I was alone.”
She stares. “…Obviously.”
“No. I mean— alone alone.”
And there it is.
Understanding.
She freezes.
He runs a hand through his hair, clearly flustered now but not in a guilty way. In an oh-my-God-this-is-a-misunderstanding way.
“I thought you were at your parents’ place,” he says carefully. “You said you weren’t flying back until tomorrow.”
“I missed you,” she whispers brokenly.
His entire face softens at that. But she’s not looking at him. She starts to cry again.
“I wanted to surprise you,” she says, voice barely there now. Tears running “And instead I—”
Her breathing stutters again. “You are such a cheater. How can you do this for me?”
Joe steps closer slowly, like approaching something fragile.
“There was no one else,” he says gently. “Baby… I swear. Okay? You searched, nobody is here. I swear to you. There is nobody.”
She finally looks at him then.
Really looks at him.
His eyes aren’t shifty. They aren’t defensive. They’re terrified. Terrified that she thinks this.
“But I heard—” her voice trembles again. “I heard you.”
His jaw tightens slightly.
And then color creeps up his neck.
Slowly.
“Oh my God,” he mutters under his breath.
She blinks.
“What?”
He hesitates.
Actually hesitates. And now he looks embarrassed.
Deeply.
Undeniably.
Painfully.
Fully.
“Baby…” he starts carefully, rubbing the back of his neck. “I was—”
He swallows. Her stomach flips again.
“You were what?” she whispers.
He exhales hard through his nose, cheeks turning red. He really tries to figure out how to say it.
“I was alone.” She stares at him.
“…Obviously.”
“No,” he says quickly. “I mean— I was alone alone.” It takes her a second.
Then another.
And then—
Her crying hiccups stop mid-breath. Her eyes widen slightly. She looks at him.
“Oh.”
He nods once, mortified. “Yea, oh.”
“I thought you were not here,” he mutters. “I had headphones in.”
Her brain short-circuits. Headphones.
Her gaze flicks to the nightstand.
His phone is there.
Charging.
AirPods case open beside it, the actual pods scattered on bed. He had them in, he didn’t hear her..
Her face drains of color again — but for a completely different reason.
“You…” she whispers.
Ans he looks like he would rather be sacked by a 300-pound lineman than continue this sentence. Red creeping onto his face and neck,staring down at his feet.
“I wasn’t with anyone,” he says quickly. Looks at her. “I swear to you. There is no one else. I would never—”
She covers her face with both hands.
“Oh my God.”
Joe steps closer, voice softer now. “Baby… I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow. What are you doing here?”
Silence fills the room.
Heavy. Awkward. Emotional.
Her shoulders are still shaking slightly, but the panic is shifting into something else. Shock. Embarrassment. Residual hurt. And also it pulls a quick laugh like breath from her.
“I thought you were cheating on me,” she whispers from behind her hands.
His expression crumples immediately.
“Hey,” he says softly, pulling one hand gently away from her face. “Look at me.”
She does.
He looks wrecked at the idea.
“I would never do that to you,” he says quietly. “Ever.” Her lip trembles.
“I heard you and I thought—”
“I know,” he says gently. “I know what you thought.”
And suddenly the reality hits both of them at the same time.
She thought he was betraying her.
He just got caught in the most humiliating possible way.
Off-season.
Alone.
At four in the afternoon. In their bed, not expecting her to be back. She was supposed to land tomorrow at 3 a.m., he planned to pick her up, do the whole welcome home thing.
The tension in the room shifts again.
Still fragile.
Still emotional.
But different now.
He lets out a small, awkward breath. “You really checked under the bed.”
She glares at him through watery eyes.
“I was about to call the police.”
That almost makes him laugh — but he stops himself because she still looks shaken.
He steps closer carefully.
“Come here.”
She hesitates for half a second.
Then she collapses into him. Full on into his chest. The comforter forgotten on the floor.
Joe unsnuggles picks the comforter back up. He really seems to remember now he is fully naked, wraps the comforter around both of them instinctively, arms tight around her like he’s scared she might disappear.
“I’m so sorry,” she mumbles into his chest.
“You don’t have to be sorry,” he murmurs, kissing the top of her head. “You were scared. I’m sorry.”
She lets out a shaky breath.
“…I really thought there was a girl hiding in the closet.”
He presses his lips together to keep from smiling.
“There is not.”
Another small silence.
Then, very quietly:
“You sounded really into it.”
He groans, hiding his face in her hair.
“Please don’t. I’m humiliated.”
He exhales.
A slow, doomed exhale.
“Yeah, so…” he mutters, staring very hard at a random spot on the wall like it personally betrayed him.
She’s still wrapped in the comforter with him, eyes wide, cheeks tear-streaked but now flushed for an entirely different reason. Like he is naked, holding her and obviously he is naked naked and has a boner, still.
“You were watching porn, Joe.” It’s not even accusatory anymore.
It’s shocked. But also amused.
He swallows.
“I—”
His ears are red.
Like actually red.
Joe Burrow, normally cool under pressure, fourth-quarter king, completely incapable of saying the word porn out loud right now.
“I mean—” he tries again. Nothing comes out. Yea he can’t say it.
She blinks at him.
“Oh my God,” she breathes.
He squeezes his eyes shut briefly.
“You were watching porn.”
He rubs a hand down his face. “Please don’t”
“I thought you weren’t coming back until tomorrow, you said you need to see your mom for a little longer.” he mumbles into your hair.
“That is not a denial baby.”
“It’s not a crime either,” he shoots back weakly, but he can’t even hold eye contact.
She just stares at him.
“I caught you watching porn.”
He groans softly. “Please stop saying it like that? I’m embarrassed enough.”
“How am I supposed to say it Joey? ‘Oh hello, I walked in on my boyfriend having a four p.m. solo cinematic experience? Yea he had no idea I was coming home?’”
He actually lets out a startled huff of laughter at that, then immediately clamps it down.
“I had headphones in,” he defends quietly. “I wasn’t— like— broadcasting it.”
“I heard you from the hallway,” she says, incredulous. “Joe. You are a loud moaner and talker.”
He winces.
“…Yeah.”
“And that noise?” she adds, staring at him. “That high—”
“Okay,” he cuts in quickly, mortified. “We’re not dissecting the audio. For my sake.”
She presses her lips together, fighting the urge to either cry again or laugh hysterically. This man.
“I thought you were cheating on me.”
His expression softens immediately at that.
“Hey.” He cups her face gently, thumb brushing under her eye where tears had been. “I would never do that to you. I physically can’t do that hun. Not even emotionally. I’m too much in love with you.”
She searches his face. Looks at him.
He’s embarrassed. Yes.
Flustered. Absolutely.
But not guilty.
Just caught.
Red-handed.
Naked.
At four in the afternoon.
“You could’ve waited until tonight,” she mutters.
He stares at her. “You weren’t supposed to be here. You were supposed to land at 3a.m. And I needed well….” He gulps “ release.”
“I live here.”
“You said tomorrow.”
She huffs, wiping her cheeks. “I wanted you.”
That melts him instantly.
His grip on the comforter loosens slightly as he pulls her closer.
“I wanted you too,” he says softly.
She narrows her eyes slightly.
“Well I can hear that.. Clearly.”
He gives her an offended look. “Okay, rude.”
“You were very enthusiastic.”
He groans again, dropping his forehead to her shoulder. “I am never recovering from this. Am I?”
A small, traitorous smile tugs at her lips.
“You really thought I’d just bring some random girl into our bed?” he asks quietly.
Her face falls a little.
“No,” she admits. “That’s why it hurt so bad. It didn’t make sense.”
He kisses her temple gently.
“It doesn’t make sense because it’s not real.”
She exhales slowly.
Silence lingers.
Then—
“…So what were you even watching?” she asks before she can stop herself.
He freezes.
“…Do you really want to know?”
Her brows lift.
He squints at her suspiciously.
“Don’t start.”
“I’m just curious!”
“You just accused me of infidelity and now you’re curious?”
She shrugs slightly, a tiny smile breaking through. “Well now I know it wasn’t a girl in the closet? I need to know..”
He shakes his head, laughing under his breath.
“You’re unbelievable.”
She pokes his chest lightly.
“You’re the one who couldn’t survive forty-eight hours.”
He gasps softly. “That is slander. It’s fifty-two hours since u left.”
“Oh, is it?”
He looks at her.
Really looks at her.
Then his expression shifts — softer, warmer. Kisses her like his life depends on it.
“I prefer you,” he says simply.
Her teasing falters a bit at that.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” His voice is quieter now. “Way more.”
The tension finally dissolves into something lighter. Embarrassed. Intimate. Still a little raw.
She rests her forehead against his chest.
“…I really did check under the bed.”
“I saw babe.”
“I was ready to fight someone.”
He smiles into her hair.
“You looked ready. But….. There was no one to fight.”
Another pause.
Then she murmurs, barely audible:
“I can’t believe I walked in on you like that. But it was kinda hot.”
He sighs dramatically.
“I can’t believe you heard that.”
She snorts softly despite herself. And just like that, the panic is gone.
Replaced with blushes.
And a story he will absolutely never live down.
He’s still holding her, both of them wrapped in the comforter, the embarrassment finally settling into something warmer.
She pulls back just enough to look up at him.
He’s calmer now. Still pink in the cheeks. Still very aware he got caught. But holding her close and letting her snuggle his chest, boner forgotten. This is softer atmosphere.
She hesitates, rests her forehead against his chest.
“I really thought I lost you,” she whispers.
His arms tighten around her instantly, he buries his head into her hair, smelling her, grounding himself.
“I felt so stupid,” she admits. “Standing in that hallway thinking our whole life just… shattered.”
His jaw tightens. “Hey. Don’t.”
“I don’t ever want to feel like that again,” she says quietly.
That makes him guilty in away he didn’t like, kissed her head and squeezes her even more.
“…So,” she starts slowly.
His eyes narrow immediately. “That tone scares me.”
She bites her lip, fighting a shy smile.
“What if, theoretically,” she says carefully, “maybe we could… you know… film something?”
He blinks and stills, looks at her face with hesitation in his eyes. Like did I hear u right?
“Film… something.” He hesitates.
She gestures vaguely between them. “So you’re like… prepared. Next time I’m gone. Or if you are away on game or something”
He goes completely still.
“Prepared,” he repeats. “You want to film a sextape?”
“If you prefer me,” she adds quickly, cheeks heating, “then maybe you could have something that’s actually me. Instead of… random girl number twelve.”
His jaw tightens.
“There wasn’t a random girl number twelve.”
“Oh?”
He mutters under his breath, “They have names.”
Silence.
She slowly looks up at him.
“…What?”
He freezes.
“I— that came out wrong.”
She just stares.
“You know their names?” she asks carefully.
“No. I mean— not like— I wasn’t studying them.”
The silence stretches.
“Joseph.”
“I hate this conversation.”
“ Oh do you?..” she laughs.“ You know what I mean Joe.”
He studies her face. She’s not joking-joking. She’s nervous. Vulnerable. But serious.
“You’d… be okay with that?” he asks carefully. It has been on his mind a long time ago, but he was scared to ask.
She shrugs one shoulder, trying to act braver than she feels. “I mean. It’s just us. And it would stay with us. I know you kinda wanted to do that.”
He’s quiet for a second. “I…. How do you know?” Not in a horny way.
In a thinking way.
“Baby,” he says gently, brushing his thumb along her jaw, “you… How do u know?”
“I’m not noisy,” she says quickly. “I just— I hate the idea of you watching something that’s not… us. And you kinda talked about it with Ja’marr last month, that ‘sex tape is cool bro, I would do it’ you said, I heard that.” she babbles.
“I’m sorry I was wasted..”
“No Joey. Don’t be. I kinda had that thought too. Deja said her and Ja’marr did something like that. And I was embarrassed to ask, if you would even consider that, I didn’t want to be weird. Or force u.”
He softens even more at that.
“I wasn’t watching because I prefer that,” he says quietly. “I was watching because you weren’t here.”
She searches his eyes again.
“And if I gave you something?” she asks softly.
He exhales slowly.
“I’d probably never open anything else again,” he admits.
That makes her blush harder.
Silence lingers between them, charged but not rushed.
“You sure you’d be comfortable?” he asks again, serious now. “No pressure. I don’t want you doing something just because you walked in on me being an idiot.”
She smiles a little.
“You weren’t an idiot.”
“I was at four p.m.” He kinda looks at the floor again.
She laughs quietly.
Then she steps closer, sliding her arms around his waist under the comforter.
“It would kind of be hot,” she admits in a whisper. “Knowing we have something that’s just for us.”
His breath changes slightly at that.
“Yeah?” he murmurs.
“Yeah.”
He leans down, resting his forehead against hers.
“Then we’d do it right,” he says softly. “Your rules. Your comfort. We stop if you don’t like it.”
She nods.
“And it’s just for us.”
“Just for us.”
A beat passes.
Then he smirks faintly. “Although I’d like to formally state I did survive fifty-two hours.”
She rolls her eyes. “Barely.”
He grins.
“You really came home ready to fight a ghost.”
“I was about to drag someone out of the closet by their hair. Or beat her in the bathroom.”
He laughs, full and warm this time.
Then his expression shifts again — softer, deeper.
“I’d rather have you,” he says quietly.
And this time, she doesn’t tease him.
She just leans up and kisses him.
Slow.
Hot.
Intentional.
Very real.
No headphones required.
