pairing: benjamin poindexter × reader
note: as you can see by this little story i wrote, i'm not feeling really well. so i just thought about dex comforting me (reader) because of her rage. angst.
“So if you need to be mean
I can take it and put it inside of me„
Dex is always the first to know when something is off with you.
He can tell it by the way the look in your eyes falls or your eyebrows furrow. The way your breath changes depending if you're sad or angry, beating silently in a too long rhythm or incessantly as if it were running at every moment. In either of the thousand manners and ways of your that he memorized, he always noticed everything.
He knew that, in the same way you could be deeply melancholic, you had so much rage inside of you. And that it would explode like a gun when everything went wrong. He was slightly surprised when he found out about that, that his star felt that terrible feeling almost like him, but it made sense after all. Made sense the way you would look down when trying to recompose. Made sense why you typed so fast and so hungrily in your notebook, but still measured. Enough. It made sense in the amount of coffee you drink, in how you plan things.
It would start with something daily going wrong, like not finding your favourite shirt in the closet. Then a slightly meaner comment by someone you didn't expect to, your boss underestimating your work. Slowly crumbling down. And Dex could feel it as soon you looked at him. As if you were afraid, but not of him (never of him), but of you. When you got home, you would snap, even if you hated it when you did it in front of him. And your boyfriend, even if he maybe should be scared, found it somewhat… comforting.
He found it comforting because he felt that too, as if it were something you both were alike. The fact was: that rage always made him feel there was something wrong with him. That he was sick. But when he met you, he knew you weren't like him. You were you. You were good. And if you have the same trouble as him and can still be good at the same time, then he could be too.
You would start a fight over something minimal with him, because you just couldn't take it anymore. And he understood it, so he would just be quiet. He would stand in the eye of the storm. He would let you argue, curse, let your burning tears tear apart your cheeks (even if he hated that sight). You would weep as if nobody understood, but he knew what you felt. And that's why he would let you fall apart until he could come in and pick up the pieces.
In the climax of all the hatred stuck in your heart, you would grab a plate and throw against the wall, watching the shards of glass falling while it doesn't change anything on you. Instead, it does change, but for worse. It replaces the feeling of anger with guilt, the same feeling you always felt after all that. Your ears were filled with static, your head spinning and your stomach hurting as if you had the burdens of your whole life there.
You hated so much when that happened. When you snapped, when you lost control in front of Dex. Because he shouldn't have to see it. He shouldn't have to deal with you in this way. You should be in your better version for him, not this fucking mess of feelings and sorrows, so he could lay down and feel warm with you, and-…
Spiraling into the same labyrinth you would always end up in, Dex watches you slowly melting against the wall, holding your knees to your chest when you touched the ground. He would walk up to your direction slowly, with steady steps. Passing through the shards, he would kneel down beside you, hearing your low and hoarse voice whispering “I’m sorry, I’m sorry I’m sorry, I'm sorry…” nonstop.
Putting his both hands to each side of your face, making you open up your swollen eyes to look at him, he would in a quiet, almost gentle voice, as if it all wasn't your fault, as if it were alright, mutter:
“If you need to be mean, be mean to me.”