Warnings: bad and out of character writing like usual, slight angst, emotional hurt/comfort, lack of communication, very very VERY brief mention of domestic abuse (y/n mom is a survivor!), crying, use of y/n, reader is shorter than Adrian. Probs not as long as I thought it was but it took a whole day to write so CHEERS!!
Additional tags: hurt/comfort, miscommunication, angst with happy ending, fluff, coworkers to lovers (do as y/n says not as they do), I try to write gn!reader but might have moments where I slip up.
Summary:
You knew something was starting to form and you were treading a line that you swore you’d never cross as long as you lived in Gotham. your feelings for Adrian flooded you like a tsunami,You tried to ignore it at first, rationalize it in anyway you could. he was your coworker, it was simply from being around him so much, plus you rarely find nice guys from Gotham.
After all that’s exactly what he was. A guy from Gotham.
You always told yourself you’d never date anyone while living in Gotham. Your mother had met your father while living here and that ended in bruises and tears and since then you knew that any guy or girl in Gotham would be bad news. So you made that pact with yourself And it has yet to be broken for the last 3 years. Sure you slept with someone once or twice but usually you leave before they wake up and never give them any way to contact you.
However that doesn’t mean you can’t look, there is never anything that comes from finding someone attractive. You acknowledge it in your head then move on. Honestly, you think of it as window shopping and usually if you see that person again you don’t pay them any mind.
Yet every time that damn busboy walks through the door you can’t help but watch him make his way over to the other busboy to switch out for the day. You believed it was innocent, you told yourself you were just being observant. Of course you thought he was handsome but you didn’t think any deeper than that. You’ve never even talked to him, you don’t even know his name. He’s always coming in to start his shift right as you are leaving yours anyways.
So, why did he always catch your attention?
You knew you were starting to approach a line you had drawn years ago when he walked into the break room one day while you were digging through your bag. You glanced over at him and your heart bumped a little stronger at his presence. Your eyes trailed over him, the polo you were all required to wear fit loosely on him, however you could tell by the way his forearms stretched and moved as he reached around his cubby that he wasn’t scrawny. He turns to face your direction as he stretches and -you guess- prepare himself for the day. You land on his name tag and it reads ‘Adrian’ you let it roll over all around your head, it bounces around in different pitches and tones. Your eyes trailed back up and your met with his. The first thought you had was that his glasses looked really good on him, way too good. The second thought you had was your brain screaming at you to look away. You were staring at him and you didn’t realize it till it was too late. He smiles widely at you and waves “y/n right?”
Oh no. His voice was nice, so nice your stomach felt like it was swirling around almost as if it became a hot bubbling whirlpool. “I- uh- I’m- ye- um-“ you can’t get yourself to speak properly, it all rushes out in one mushed unfinished sentence. you worry for a second that this is a stroke. Thankfully your brain comes in and saves you and you clamp your mouth shut before you can embarrass yourself more. Your lips are pulled into a tight thin line and your hands are balled anxiously at your sides. They are sweating and they grow even more sweaty because you know it wasn’t this hot before he walked through the door. You simply nod with a very tight “mhm” before grabbing your bag and walking out. You hear a quick “oh co-“ but it’s cut off short as the exit door slams behind you. You rush to your car and are quick to head home.
If your brain was filled with chanting of ‘Adrian, Adrian, Adrian,Adrian-‘ you didnt acknowledge it in fear of what it may bring.
You had asked about him the next day. you honestly didn’t mean to. You and your coworker and friend, Claire, were sat at a booth rolling silverware before your shifts ended. The conversation you had both been having prior about the new girl she had been seeing recently he had died down and your brain and mouth were moving before you could regain control. “What’s that Adrian guy like?” You ask and it catches her off guard, you never ask about people unless it’s someone’s she is talking about. She gives you a strange look “like- you mean chase? The bus boy?” You nod and feel a small ball of shame fill your stomach at her tone “why? He’s a weirdo who’s obsessed with all that crime fighting, hero stuff. I think he has a thing for-“ she says and you are quick to cut her off with a high pitched “Claire!!” Just as Adrian walks through the break room door. She quiets down and glances between you and him before settling on you, picking at the dry skin around your nails. “Im just curious” you say, her eyes soften a bit as she looks at you and she sighs “well he’s been working here for a bit-“ she begins telling you what she knows.
honestly, you felt bad for the guy. from how Claire had described him you could tell a lot of people didn’t give him a chance. She said he was loud and vulgar, always making stupid jokes nobody found funny. Still as Claire expressed her grievances of working with him, you simply nod and hum along in acknowledgment. After all you probably wouldn’t ever work with him. Right?
Wrong.
your manager pulls you into his office one morning- he asks you to sit down and explains that your schedule would need to be moved around due to someone quitting and them now being short staffed. You were the only one who hasn’t said no yet. Instead of early mornings you would be working evenings along side the busboy Adrian. You guessed you had a look on your face because He was quick to keep talking and explained that the evening shifts were usually really slow due to the main business hours being breakfast and dinner. “Plus chase isn’t that bad, just an… acquired taste” he adds on trying to sugar coat it but still your heart squeezes at the unfair description.
That wasn’t your worry though, honestly, you didn’t care who you were working with even if it was the bus boy who had caught your attention. it was more the annoyance of the routine you had become so used to being flipped on its head. Still, you agreed and left the office with a copy of your new schedule in hand and your manager telling you to clock out early since you’d be starting your new schedule the next day.
Your first shift with Adrian had started warily. You entered the break room through the parking lot door to find Adrian already throwing his stuff into his assigned cubby. He glances over at you and offers a wide smile. You quickly glance away and rush over to clock in and then to your cubby. Once you are settled in you keep your eyes down walking towards the door that lead to your hell for the next few hours. You reach for the door knob but instead your hand meets with Adrian’s. You both pull back quickly as if the other is made of fire “sorry-“ you quickly blurt out stepping back for him to go through the door. An amused laugh leaves his mouth and he pulls the door open “don’t be sorry, I always enjoy holding hands with pretty people” he says, gesturing for you to go through the door. You feel like a fire just sprung from the ground under you and engulfed you. You quickly thank him and rush through the door.
The first two hours consisted of him talking. You found out Claire was right, he was loud, making many stupid jokes while you quietly worked. However you didn’t feel the annoyance that Claire had expressed. He was kind and constantly offered to help you out whenever he’d see you busing a particularly messy table or holding a tray that looked too stacked with plates. Never making you feel bad for when you did actually need the help.
You rarely needed help throughout the day though, Your manager was right, evening shifts were boring and slow. So as two hours turned to three and three turned to four Small questions of “do you need help?” turned into long drawn out conversations full of laughter from his ridiculous jokes. You rarely joked back though, not finding any confidence in your humor to do so. you made up for by being an attentive and responsive listener, asking questions whenever he brought something new up. You found yourself enthralled in everything thing he says.
After a few more hours, finally, it was getting close for evening shifts to switch with those working into the very early hours the next morning. You thank whatever is out there for not making you part of dinner/grave yard shift, knowing your sanity would become thin from the hours. You focus back in on your task at hand. You are filling condiments at the tables, the restaurant is empty even though you are still open. the only noise is the old dad rock music playing over the speakers and you pumping ketchup from the giant container into a small red bottle. Adrian is sweeping the floor, you keep taking glances at him. You cant stop finding things about him that makes your stomach flip. The way his glasses would slip just the slightest bit and he’d scrunch his nose in an attempt to get them back up to their original spot, had become your favorite thing you’ve noticed so far. Your brain short circuits and repeats.
Your favorite thing.
You haven’t even known the guy for a day and yet you are already claiming things about him as your favorite. You subconsciously click your tounge against your teeth in annoyance at yourself and look away from him. He must have heard the noise because he looks up at you. you hope he doesn’t say anything and hyper focus in on your task. The world must really want you to suffer because you go to hit the pump of the ketchup and it stays locked in place, another sound of annoyance leaves you. “are you ok?” He asked and you curse under your breath, pressing down on the pump afew times trying to get it to move again. “Yeah just-“ you start, palm hitting the pump harder, this time using one big strong push to get it to press down. Still nothing. “This damn ketchup stopped working, I think the pump broke” you say in frustration.
You hear footsteps approaching and you turn to be met with Adrian’s chest “oh-“ you breath out, this time Adrian must not hear because he reaches behind you to grab the container. He moves positions so he is now stood next to you. His hip meets yours with a quick bump that has electricity flying through you. You take the hint and step to the side giving him full access to the table. You take a seat in the booth and watch as he messes with the pump, twisting it afew times before pressing down on it. It must press down easier than he expected because ketchup comes flying out the opening and hits you. You shriek and Adrian lets out a loud “oh fuck-“ you gag as the smell of ketchup hits you.
It’s a blur of movement you jump up from your seat and gag more as the ketchup seeps into the fabric of your shirt sticking to your skin.
Adrian is quickly yanking napkins out of the dispenser you just filled quickly pressing them to your chest, a rush of ‘I’m SO sorry’ leaving his mouth over and over. You are stuck in your spot too overwhelmed by your disgust and discomfort to notice him hurriedly wiping the ketchup off of you. He glances up at you and you both freeze for a moment eyes locking, it’s broken by Adrian’s eyes widening at the position you are both in, realizing where he’s wiping the ketchup from. He quickly pulls back and more waves of ‘im sorry’ fly at you, he expects you to yell at him but instead he is met with a snort.
Your hand shoots up to your mouth to stop yourself from laughing but you fail and double over in laughter. He watches you, awestruck, for a moment. you gasp for air between your laughs and gag as you smell ketchup again this time your hand shoots to your nose and you grab more napkins with your free hand to rub at your ketchup stained polo “oh god-“ your laughter has died down into small giggles bubbling out from your mouth “I forgot how much I hate the smell of ketchup” you say locking eyes with him once again. It’s his turn to laugh “I don’t think it’s broken anymore” he chuckles.
From that day on you decided Adrian chase wasn’t as bad as Claire made him seem. Over the next two weeks you two grew closer. Helping when actually needed quickly became turning any task, no matter how easy, into a two man job. Your manager had even scolded you both for filling up napkin holders together, a task that usually required one person to complete and took 5 minutes. You couldn’t lie and even if you could you would still be telling the truth when you said you enjoyed his company. You enjoyed it more than anyone you have ever known, more than Claire and more than your friends back home. infact, you even found his stupid jokes funny.
Ontop of that he found YOU funny, it was something new. It’s not like you didn’t joke around with people, You would of course make jokes with Claire but rarely did they land the way you wanted them to. Though Claire would laugh you knew she only did it out of love for you and not wanting to hurt your feelings. With Adrian however they always landed and make him laugh, his laugh felt genuine. the day he first laughed at one of your jokes it made your heart jump into your throat in a way you were sure it was going to fly out and land right into Adrian’s hands, a note taped to it saying ‘keep me 4ever’.
He was scrubbing at the table complaining about how the people who had just been sat there had been rude to you, not only rude but they were down right offensive too. you could tell he was holding back on how deep his annoyance actually went. You had heard their comments too you were their waitress after all. They kept talking about the chefs in the back and their horrible assumptions of them. Their questioning of you and the food as if they were in a Michelin star restaurant and not a greasy unkept diner in the middle of Gotham made you both want to scream.
“If I had known you hated them just as much as I did I would have gone out and poured hot oil in their gas tank and syrup on the engine” it really wasn’t even that funny of a joke, it was more to humor yourself than anyone else. Still Adrian smiled and looked at you with a brow raised “not to be a downer on your plan babe, but I think their car would probably malfunction and they would crash” he huffed out past a small laugh. You are sure you died for a second, your mouth softly repeats the word. ‘Babe’.
you stare down as if in a trance, he looks at you when you don’t respond as quickly as he expects. This makes you snap out of it, you force your warming face to form a menacing smile “yeah, so we should have poured hot oil in their gas tank and syrup on their engine” you repeat putting more emphasis on the plan. you know it’s not funny, yet a laugh rips past Adrain’s mouth and you watch at his shoulders bounce up and down as he laughs.
The heat hits you in a wave and your heart picks up a bit. You’re glad you don’t blush and your face can’t turn red, because you can feel your cheeks tingling. You giggle alongside Adrian as you both continue talking.
You tried to ignore how everyday you’d come into your shifts excited for nothing other than Adrian. After a month Your talking during work soon turned into you both sitting in the warmth of one of your cars. Talking about anything you can think of until you both have no choice but to go home. When you weren’t face to face you were constantly texting eachother, your brain now instantly thinking of Adrian Anytime you see the merman emoji. You knew something was starting to form and you were treading a line that you swore you’d never cross as long as you lived in Gotham. your feelings for Adrian flooded you like a tsunami,You tried to ignore it at first, rationalize it in anyway you could. he was your coworker, it was simply from being around him so much, plus you rarely find nice guys from Gotham.
After all that’s exactly what he was. A guy from Gotham.
So how come you don’t say no when he asks you to go over to his house? You are sat in his car. You are both turned towards each other Your seat is reclined and you have your legs pulled up to your chest, shoes kicked off and sitting on the floor so you wouldn’t ruin his seats. A habit you picked up after complaining about your feet hurting due to your new shoes, to which Adrian told you to take your shoes off and get comfy.
As you two talk small giggles slip out of you, Adrian isn’t saying anything particularly funny, but the excitement in his voice and the closeness makes you feel giggly as you listen to him ramble on about one of his favorite movies. “-and the ending- oh my god! The ending is amazing I won’t tell you cause I don’t want to spoil it- BUT! you just have to trust me and watch it, babe. It will change your life!” You nod your head as you listen. That became a common for him. To call you babe and not think anything of it, you on the other hand, had to fight to breathe everytime he said it. “I’ll watch it tonight when I get home!” You say smiling widely.
This causes Adrian to glance at the clock and his excitement deflates a little, your eyes follow and it’s 7:30 almost two hours since you both have gotten off of work “it’s getting kinda late now huh?” He questions and you smile “I don’t mind sitting here longer…” you let your voice trail off and you glance out the window next to you “I like talking to you” you say hoping it was too quiet for him to hear. He doesn’t say anything to that but you can hear the smile in his voice as he starts talking “you should come over to my house, I have the streaming service for that movie so we can watch it together at my house” he suggests.
your mouth drops open as you go go to respond but instead only a “uhhh-“ comes out, you see Adrian’s confidence drain and you beg your brain to start working again “you probably just want to go home and sleep. I can just text you my log in” he scrambles for a way to save himself, he reaches for his phone and your brain finally powers back on “NO! no!” You cringe at the earnestness in your voice. You want to go, god you want to go and never leave. You don’t tell him this and instead clear your throat and smile “I think that sounds fun, but we have to stop at the gas station and get snacks first” at this Adrian smiles widely and legitimately fist pumps with a small but triumphant ‘yess!!’
You guys talk for afew more seconds before you both buckle in and Adrian puts his car into drive. That night you both stock up on gas station snacks- you make a mental note of the one he mentioned is his favorite- and watch the movie, one movie turns into two and two to three and by the middle of the third one you were fighting the urge to sleep. Your Head falling to the side jerks you awake and you rub at your eyes hoping Adrian didn’t notice. If he did he didn’t say anything, he only hesitates for a moment before letting his arm fall over your shoulders. You know you should back up, set a boundary now even if you don’t want to set it. But sleep weighs too heavy, you simply let your head fall into him and your eyes close.
You knew it was really bad and you were stepping over that line when movies at his place became something you guys did almost every other day. You especially knew you were screwed when cuddling on his couch became a common occurrence aswell. He occupied your every thought and you began hating the days you couldn’t see him. your days off went from being something you looked forward to, to something you tried not to think about. Your days off meant no Adrian, and no Adrian meant you’d spend your days thinking about him. What he was doing with his day off? did he hang out with anyone outside of work? Your thoughts would wander as you sat on your couch watching tv.
What if he is on a date?
Your eyes widen as this thought crosses your mind. Your heart tightens at the idea and you swear you hear it crack as you imagine him holding onto an unknown partner. You don’t just cross the line, you are throw several feet past it, so far you couldn’t see it anymore. You couldn’t lie to yourself, you liked Adrian. No- not just that you wanted him for yourself.
You spent weeks keeping it secret, ignoring it. You are hunting for that line trying to drag yourself back over it to the side you knew and took comfort in. But you were simply too far gone. Your attraction to him. Your need to see him outside of work. Your questions on if and who he’s seeing. You feel borderline crazy how quickly he’s taken over your mind.
It doesn’t help that Adrian has you questioning if he feels the same. Your body is always on fire by the end of the day. Your brain searing every time he touches you in your memory, in fear of forgetting how warm his hands are. You constantly think of how he now calls you babe in that way that makes you go all stupid. You don’t notice it at first, but now you are hyper aware of every interaction after that night. you notice just how much you two touch and you question if you’ve gone to straight up delusional. You began to count every time your shoulders and elbows bump when you were both leaned in gossiping to each other. You will your body not to tense up screaming to yourself to relax the first time Adrian lets the side of his body press fully into yours not moving away as you two remain arm to arm.
You told yourself you were thinking about it too much, it was just friendly contact. That was until you were walking past the sever station and a voice catches your attention “Hey could you pass me two rolls of silverware?” Adrian asks leaning over the short wall separating the booths that were next to each other. You glance down at his arms and watch his muscles flex as he crosses them and lets them rest on top of the wall. You are quick to look away, so quick you don’t even notice how Adrian follows your eyes down to his arms. You reach into the bin and grab two rolls.
“Here you go, it’s going to cost you 20 bucks though” you tease handing him the two napkin wrapped utensils. He unfolds his arms and grabs them, his fingers land just slightly on your hand, but it’s enough of a touch to make your brain scream over and over again. You can’t quiet focus in on it but you are sure it’s a mixture of ‘Oh MY GOD’ and ‘what is this???!’ He holds on for a few seconds longer than normal, his eyes meeting yours. They burn with something you can’t quite put your finger on but whatever it was comes off intensely. “20 bucks!? Damn babe, I knew you only love me for my money” he jokes, and that’s exactly it you remind yourself, a joke. Yet as he walks off, you can’t help but repeat how he says babe and question how you could ever think of his actions as just friendly.
You weren’t even able to bus your tables across the room from him peacefully anymore. Your mind always subconsciously having you glance up at him. You throw your rag into the gray tub full of dirty dishes and cups you had collected. You look up at him one last time before you head into the kitchen with a gift of dirty forks and plates for the dishwasher on staff that day.
You look at Adrian but find him already staring at you. Your eyes lock onto each other and you expect him to look away. However, he keeps eye contact and smiles widely at you. You are concerned for a moment that you haven’t thought about writing a will yet because you swear you were about to die with how hard your heart was beating and how weak your knees became. You smiled back before quickly rushing across the room and into the kitchen.
It’s like this for the next two weeks. Tonight it just like any other you are both sat in his running car. However, tonight he’s heavily occupied with his phone. He’s talking your ear off, you don’t think he could stop even if he wanted to, but something is off. The first time his phone lights up you see a text notification, you don’t look at it too closely not wanting to invade his privacy, instead you take notice of how his face lights up. He quickly texts back and puts his phone back down. Not even a few minutes it lights up again and he answers then Quicker than before it lights up AGAIN and he answers. Quickly the time inbetween texts turns into his phone taking permanent residence in his hand as he types away. His face becomes serious for a moment and he glances at you, then his phone once more.
You go to ask him if everything is ok but he beats you to it “im sorry- I have something I need to go do” he says hurriedly. You glance at the clock 6:30 only an hour after you guys got off work “oh- ok. Um yeah give me a sec” you say as you grab your shoes and slip them back on your feet “is everything ok?” You question. He nods and smiles at you “peachy keen, babe” he says.
You are left reeling as you stand in front of the now empty parking spot. The goodbye and speed it took him to take off was all to fast, you feel like you just go thrown into the deep end of a pool. Cold comes crashing into you and you hurriedly rush to your car.
When you make it home you are quick to kick off your shoes and pull your phone out of your pocket. One hand locking the door while the other types in your password and navigates you to your texts with Adrian.
Your fingers dance across the keyboard. ‘Hey, was everything ok?’ Is the first thing you type out but you are quick to delete it. ‘Are you ok? I hope I wasn’t being weird or anything’ But it was quick to be deleted as well. Finally you settle on your usual message.
‘Goodnight! Ill see you tomorrow <3’
Seen just now
A bubble pops up and you watch as the three circles hop around inside. It disappears and pops up again for a few minutes before finally disappearing fully. You bite into your lip and press the back button, you pull down on the top of the screen hoping that a text will load.
Seen 5 minutes ago
It finally all comes crashing down, you try holding on hoping you can avoid crashing down along side everything else. The next day Adrian is nowhere to be seen, an hour into your shift your manager comes out to tell you that Adrian called off and someone else would be coming to fill in for him. You haven’t even made it to the break room to clock out for lunch before you are digging your phone out of your pocket. You see no texts from Adrian only the ‘seen 1d ago’ that mocks you as you try to type something out.
‘Hey ade, I heard you called off today are you feeling ok? I can stop by after work and bring you your favorite slushie!’
Seen just now
It shows he is typing for a moment before it stops, just like the night before. Your whole face contorts into one of worry. You try rationalizing it, if he is sick he probably doesn’t feel like texting. At least thats what you try to tell yourself. But your brain tells you otherwise, you did something and you messed it all up.
One day turns into another and soon he’s been out almost a whole week. You stopped messaging him after the fourth day. Your last message was asking him if he was ok and if you had done anything wrong. Instead your only response is that dumb fucking word. Seen.
You wake up in the worst mood, most of the time it would be because It’s a Sunday your days are usually busy on Sundays due to the church right up the road holding its services up until around noon and people often coming in after for lunch. Usually you’d get through it with a text from Adrian complaining about preparing for the day. Today there is nothing, you don’t bother to check your messages. You know there won’t be any texts that magically slipped through your notifications.
Still you drag yourself to work. your eyes and legs feel heavy and you worry you too might have to call off. You know if Adrian were to call off again he’d be fired. your heart pulls at this, that means you would never see him again.
You yawn and try to keep your eyes open as you pull into the back parking lot. You almost slam on your breaks, Your heart drops to your feet when you see Adrian’s car parked in its usual spot. There is a loud thudding in your ears, you wonder if it’s your car malfunctioning but you are quick to realize it’s your heart beating in your chest. You park your car afew spots away from his. You glance at it and you feel a patch of excitement fill your chest, then you remember the last few days and suddenly you are full of anger and frustration. Your eyes burn but you quickly blink away any tears threatening to spill.
You get out your car and rush into the break room. You feel like a bowling bowl hits you in the chest with how all the air leaves your body at the sight of Adrian putting away his belonging. He glances over when he hears the door squeak open and your eyes meet. That intensity is there again, it’s burning holes into you with how strong it is. You want to run over to him, slap him, hug him, kiss him. But you don’t, you turn away and make your way straight to your cubby just as he opens his mouth to say something. He is quick to shut his mouth simply watching you put your stuff away.
Neither of you break the silence, you instead walk to the break room door and walk through. Adrian follows behind and you try not to look back at him. Luckily the chaos of the diner catches your attention. Claire rushes over to you “oh thANK GOD Y/N!” She shouts hands planting on your shoulders, getting a few looks from the customers hear by. “they all say they just came from church but i don’t believe it. This is hell!!” You can see the stress painting her face and let out a sympathetic but amused huff. You try to pay no mind Adrian skirting around you two and heading towards the other bus boy and instead take in the whole room. There must have been an important something going on because your usual 8-10 tables of small families had turn into about 15+. You are quick to switch out with Claire telling her you’ll take over the last 15 minutes of her shift and leave her tips in a To go cup in her cubby. After some questioning and you insisting, she disappears through the break room door with a “thank you my angel from above, I need a cig SO bad”
You get to work and begin introducing yourself to your tables telling them you would be taking over. You are shocked to see just how busy it is, everytime a table leaves it feels like another one comes in. You and Adrian barely had a moment to stop a breathe, Bouncing around from table to table, it had been so busy the manager had even asked Adrian to jump on taking orders instead of just busing tables.
You find yourself becoming more and more agitated as you glance at Adrian and lock eyes. Everytime you are quick to scowl and look away. The day goes on like this, constant glances that just lead to a steady growth of aggravation. But you could handle it, it was ok.
Until it wasn’t.
You are going to boil over, It’s almost the end of your shift and you are walking your last table out but Adrian’s last table will not finish up. You say goodbye to your last table with a smile and a wave before taking a second to glance at Adrian again but this time you notice him laughing at something the attractive girl at the last table is saying. They look about your age and Adrian looked very intrigued by what they had to say. Their hand reaches up and finds itself on his lower arm as he is leaning on the table. You can’t help but stop in your tracks and stare at the two of them scowling.
What could she possibly say that’s so funny?
Why is she touching him?
He hasn’t talked to you in a week but is chatting it up with this chick?
You knew it’s wasn’t logical, she is a customer and he was simply being professional. But still when he glanced over at you and perks up before looking at you questioningly you couldn’t help but glare at him and stomp away. It takes an hour for her to leave. You keep sweeping around her and bussing all the empty tables in hope she will get the hint to finally leave. Still she kept pulling Adrian over for a chat before finally sliding him a folden napkin with a heart scrawled on the top.
Your legs are moving and you can’t get them to stop no matter how loud your brain screams. You slam your bin on her table with a loud thud, making the whole table shake. her and Adrian both jump, she gasps and looks at you as if you were insane. And maybe you are.
You suddenly find yourself stood at the line. You don’t know which side you are on anymore. You want to kick at it and rip it from the ground. “I’ll go ahead and take these since it looks like you are FINALLY done” you say in a sickeningly sweet voice, your smile is strained and they can both tell there is no kindness behind your demeanor. Adrian softly says your name but you ignore him aggressively grabbing all her dishes, dropping them noisily into your bin.
She is quick to stand and mumble something under her breath, she turns to Adrian and thanks him. You stare at them as Adrian apologizes to her and walks her out, he wishes her a safe trip home because why wouldn’t he. It’s Gotham.
And everyone knew you had to be careful in Gotham. Something you seemed to forget.
The silence that filled the room is deafening, Your ears are ringing now and you are harshly scrubbing at the table. It’s clean but you are too focused on the insults your brain is throwing your way and stopping tears from rushing down your face. You wish your shift change would just show up already and tap you out of this hell. Adrian keeps throwing concerned glances your way and you feel like you are going to explode with anger and shame.
The break room door finally opens to show your shift change, you rush over to him and tell him about what you have done to help get his shift started easier before leaving with a quick goodbye. You made a beeline towards the break room wanting the day to be over. You just needed to get home and forget about everything. You couldn’t handle it, seeing Adrian, his laughing with that girl, his week of ignoring you. How could you ever come back from this pit of embarrassment? Maybe you could ask someone to cover for you until you can ask your manager to switch your shift again?
You let the break room door shut behind you with a soft thud. You dig through your cubby pulling out all your stuff, you are quick to realize you are missing your keys. You glance around the floor realizing they must have fallen out when you threw your bag in your cubby, hurrying to escape the break you. You blink back tears and whimper softly when you don’t see them on the floor. you glance up and see them in the shelf just above your cubby.
You reach up to grab them but freeze when a hand finds the lower half of your back. You feel completely engulfed as Adrian reaches above you. You don’t move even as his muscular arm reaches past your head. You could have gotten the keys, the shelf wasn’t high up and Adrian knows this having seen you put things on that shelf before. Still he grabs the keys and holds them out to you with a smile “i saw them on the floor and put them up there” he says eyes scanning over your face. You mumble a harsh ‘thanks’ before snatching them and grabbing your bag. Adrian makes a face and you try making a beeline for the exit door to the back parking lot of the restaurant, Finally escaping him. but Adrian grabs his own stuff and is following quick behind. The shuts behind him and he rushes to catch up to you.
You hear your name and a hand is suddenly on your shoulder, you whip around to face Adrian. If looks could kill Adrian would have been dead on the floor. He pulls his hand back quickly “I’m sorry, I know what I did was shitty but I can explain-“ he starts but quickly stops himself with a groan of frustration “well no-I can’t really explain- it’s top secre-“ you turn back around and continue walking after you glare at him “I swear I have a good reason” he pleads following behind you
“Leave me alone Adrian” You say through clenched teeth, thumb pressing down on unlock button causing your car to beep and click. You open your passanger door and throw your bag and coat onto the seat shutting the door with a loud thud once. You wince slightly not meaning to shut it that hard “no- not until you give me a chance to explain” Adrian leans down to try and catch your gaze yet you dodge him and walk around your car to the drivers side “I know you are upset but ignoring me isn’t going to help” He says. He knows the mistake in his wording the second the words leave his mouth.
You quickly turn around to face him. Your feet are moving quick, it only takes afew stomps before you are right in front of him. You finally have a chance to look at him. There are bags under his eyes, he looks tired and worn. You wonder for a split second what the hell he has been up to this week. Still, Your finger jabs into his chest harshly. “YOU-“ your finger goes to jab him in the chest again “YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TALK ABOUT IGNORING PEOPLE” your voice is rough and you feel like you are fighting against your throat to get the words out. You send a push his way with both hands this time, he doesn’t move an inch. Instead he stares down at you brows creased as he frowns. “A WEEK! YOU LEFT ME WITH NOTHING FOR A WEEK!” You go to push him again, then again and he grabs your wrists before you are able to make contact. The grip is gentle and loving, it has you gritting your teeth in anger.
“Y/n- babe” he whispers, you rip your wrists out of his grip “NO- You don’t get to call me that! I should have never allowed you to call me that!” You shove at his chest again “I HATE YOU!” and again “I fucking hate you!” And again. You continue your tirade of shoves to his chest and shouts of how much you hate him. You aren’t looking at him anymore. You can’t see him through your tears even if you were. Your shouts soon go from words to sobs and with one last shove you fall to a crouching position.
Your mind is yelling at you, screaming how embarrassing you are and how you need to just get a grip. You knew this would happen. Your sobs are loud and You hope none of the chefs are watching this all go down through the grease smeared kitchen window. Your hands find your face and you sob as you desperately try to scrub away your tears, it’s no use, every time a tear leaves more follow behind it.
“You- you were gone for a-“ you gasp as you catch your breath, you know you look like a mess, tears and probably snot streaming down your face, barely able to breath. “A week!” You repeat through a sob. You let yourself fall back on your butt and pull your knees to your chest.
You hear gravel shift under Adrian’s feet as he crouched down to match you. You can hear how his breathing is off, it sounds exactly like yours before you started sobbing. “I know-“ he tries but your gaze snaps up at him. It’s your turn to look at him intensely, burning holes into him. His hand is in the middle of the air like he was going to reach you but stopped once he saw your eyes. “No- you don’t know Adrian” your voice steadies itself but tears continue to leak from your eyes. “I spend every moment thinking of you when you are right next to me!” Your hands grip at your pant legs “how do you think I felt after you decided to just ghost me!?” His mouth opens to answer, nothing comes out. “I finally thought I proved myself wrong-That I wouldn’t have to spend the rest of my life in Gotham alone” your eyes narrow at him “did you know that Adrian?” You question intensely
You don’t even try to stop yourself as words just begin tumbling out with no shame. your hands find the gravel and you push yourself up and onto your knees glaring harder-if possible- into Adrian’s eyes “did you know how it feels to go from falling in love with you to feeling like Im some crazy delusion person? Do you know it’s pretty fucking shitty to go from calling me babe to not calling me at all?” His eyes are red and tears are streaming down his face. It feels wrong to see him like this but you continue.
he shakes his head, he feels like he needs to do something other than stare at you dumbly “do you know how is felt to spend everyday of the last week wondering if I read everything wrong? Wondering why you suddenly hate me?” The words leave your mouth and somehow Adrian’s face grows even sadder, he too finds ground on his knees “do you know that Adrian?” you question once again and Before you can even react he grabs you by the shoulders and is quickly pulling you forward. Your body hits his with enough force for a small ‘oof’ to leave you.
You begin to fight against his grip trying to escape the hug. You don’t want to escape though you want to stay there forever grip onto him so tight that you are sure he can never disappear again. But you brain is screaming at you still. “Stop-“ he says, you shake your head and continue to squirm in his grip. He pulls back and brings his hands to your face “y/n please just stop!” finally you stop and look up at him “you didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t read anything wrong and I sure as fuck don’t hate you” you frown at him, you don’t even have to ask it’s as if he can hear the ‘why?’ Bouncing around in your head.
“I had to leave, I had no choice. people were in danger. YOU would have been in danger” you look at him confused, how could you have possibly been in danger? You go to shake your head and move away again but he is quick to grab your focus once more “you aren’t going to believe me but it’s the truth” he begins and takes a deep breath “me and some buddies had to go on a mission. A very important mission that I got myself wrapped up in” you scoff “this isn’t funny-“ you begin trying to turn away from him but he cuts you off. He stands quickly and grabs your hand dragging you to a standing position along side him.
He drags you away from your car and over to his. Hands digging through his pockets until he finally finds his Keys. He finds the right one and stops in front of his trunk. He slides the Key in and twists. The trunk opens just slightly with a pop, he takes a deep breath and pulls it open all the way. Your eyes widen as you stare down into the trunk. A dark helmet with a red visor stares back at you, under it sits the rest of the dirt and blood stained uniform. Next to it sits a locked case. He doesn’t open it but you know what’s in it, after all you did spend many nights watching his favorite superhero movies.
You reach in and pick up the mask. You’ve seen it before. Never in person only is photos sent around by the police or news, but you know what it is, you look at Adrian confused “you-?” He nods and takes the mask from your hands and puts it back in the trunk, in fear someone else may see it. “My best friend, peacemaker, he got into some weird alien stuff and now I’m stuck in with this group” it feels unbelievable and you open your mouth to question him. Aliens? THE peacemaker? He’s messing with you your brain shouts at you. He is quick to fish out his phone before you can even say a word.
He clicks through and opens his camera roll. He begins to swipe through. You see the blur of photos as he swipes and you swear one of them is him posed with an eagle. He stops on a photo, It’s a small group and it looks like they are in a van. Everyone looks tired, there is blood and dirt and they look at the camera in annoyance. One of them is fucking peacemaker himself. Your eyes trail down to Adrian His face is barely showing in the corner of the screen, it’s really just his left eye and up but you know it’s him. You’d recognize his green eyes anywhere. “I had to come back to work because they would have fired me if I didn’t. But I was going to show up to your house anyways if I didn’t see you today”
“Adrian I-“ you look up at him “I swear I didn’t mean for this all to happen. I usually stay near by” you shake your head “but one moment I was helping them take out a family of butterflies and the next I was in a basement having my junk electrocuted. You wince at the thought. you look back at his still open trunk before he shuts it and locks it once more “you aren’t supposed to tell me all this are you?” He shakes his head and smiles “nope” you frown “what if I like reported you to the police?” This draws a laugh from him “well I’d be gone before you told them and also I know you won’t” he smiles and you choke up a bit seeing it
“I- ade I’m sorry” you start hands clamped into fists at your sides “I should have let you explain yourself I shouldn’t have-“ you are cut off by Adrian. His mouth crashes into yours, if it was anyone else the kiss would be horrible. It’s messily placed and your teeth clack together. However it’s Adrian, the same Adrian you have been wanting to kiss for almost months now. The Adrian you thought you’d never get to kiss. You are quick to kiss back. It’s intense and desperate and lasts for a long moment before he pulls away.
“You have nothing to apologize for. I wanted to tell you, I wanted to respond to every text but I couldn’t. There is always something happening-“ he looks to the side ashamed “I kept thinking about what would happen if someone wanted to hurt you because of me. What if I couldn’t protect you” his voice shakes as he says this and your hand finds his cheek, his head falls into your touch “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself”
Your heart aches, You missed Adrian so much, you felt like you were drowning you missed him so much. “You don’t have to want to be with me anymore. it’s dangerous. IM dangerous. You don’t need to be wrapped up in that, especially not for someone like me” you shake your head and lean up, lips pressing to his. “I’m not leaving” you say against his lips before pulling back, a smile makes its way onto your face and Adrian can’t help but lean down to kiss you once more. He has been waiting to see your smile for a week. You break the kiss and laugh “Especially if that means I get a sick vigilante boyfriend, just promise you’ll tell me the next time you have to go”
Adrian smiles and nods enthusiastically as he pulls you in for another kiss. You can feel Adrian smile against your lips before he pulls back with a short chuckle. You tilt your head and raise a brow at him, “so…I’m your sick vigilante boyfriend now?” You roll your eyes and turn away from him to hide your smile “actually now that I think about it where is the police station?” You tease
He pays you no mind and kisses you again. Yeah, maybe not everyone in Gotham is trustworthy. Maybe this will end in tears and heartbreak but still, you’ll never know if It doesn’t if you don’t at least try.
That’s it!! I hope you enjoyed and if you didn’t keep that to yourself😾
Adrian/ vigilante x reader hurt/comfort coming your way soon. I think this is the longest fic I’ve ever written so if it’s too long and drags on DONT BULLY ME. Anyways here’s a snippet
————-
“Hey could you pass me two rolls of silverware?” Adrian asked one day leaning over the short wall separating the booths that were built next to each other. You glance down at his arms and watch his muscles flex as he crosses them and lets them sit On top of the wall. You are quick to look away, you don’t even notice how Adrian follows your eyes down to his arms.
“Here you go, it’s going to cost you 20 bucks though” you tease handing him the two napkin wrapped utensils. He unfolds his arms and grabs them, his fingers land just slightly on your hand, but it’s enough of a touch to make your brain scream ‘oh my god oh my god oh my god’ over and over again. He holds on for a few seconds longer than normal, his eyes meeting yours. They burn with something you can’t quite put your finger on but whatever it was came off intensely. “20 bucks!? I knew you only love me for my money” he jokes, and that’s exactly it you remind yourself, a joke. Yet you can’t help but repeat how he said that one word.
Warnings: slight angst but like for .5 seconds, sanji gets hurt and bleeds but it’s chill and kinda romantic, I can’t write and I’m dumb. I haven’t written anything in ages and I’m not good at it so don’t bully me.
Additional tags: sfw, angst, fluff, angst/comfort, Gn!reader, reader is a waiter/waitress, be nice to your waiters and waitresses, idk what else
Summary:
this causes you to laugh and sanji wonders if he’s already taken afew shots the way it makes him sway.
“One of the waiters said shots are a good trade for a basket of fries and I am very hungry” you say your once confident demeanor wavering just the slightest bit, your eyes travel to the bin full of peeled potatoes “also I’ve heard you are one of the best chefs here”
——
Sanji takes pride in many of his skills, his ability to move with such grace while chopping through vegetables was something he would gladly boast about. It made many tasks a lot easier, like prepping various ingredients for the next day. His knife slices through with confidence, at this point it’s muscle memory. He would shout back and forth with the other chefs and not worry once whenever his eyes drifted away from his cutting board.
That made moments like this awfully common.
His hands gently grip a potato as he glided a knife under the spotty skin, thumb Guiding the knife through. The peel is continuous and falls perfectly into a bag bellow where other peels had collected. However the precision of his potato peeling skills was not what caught his attention.
Everytime he hears the click of the kitchen doors or a muffled “COMING IN!” his eyes snap up and he hopes to catch a moment of you. and if he’s lucky in a few minutes he will get to watch you travel through the back of house. He can’t help but watch you move. He watches as your face contorts beautifully as you bicker and joke with the other wait staff who have congregated in the kitchen. His eyes drop to your hands. You seamlessly switch out a tray of empty plate with a tray of food filled ones all while telling them your newest tables Order.
He worries he’s treading a line of being creepy, you two have only had a few short conversations and a smile here and there. You aren’t aware of his staring from what sanji is aware of, you are too focused in on your tasks and move to quick to notice. But still you snatch his eyes away from whatever task he’s trying to get done.
And it’s no different as you once again come through the door with a shout of arrival warning any wait staff readying to leave the kitchen with food. Sanji’s eyes trail away from the half peeled vegetable in his hand, he notices today You don’t have stacked trays in your hands like usual. instead this time you are holding something small, your left hand is covering the top hiding what you are holding. He watches as you scan the kitchen before you land on him. Your eyes lock and sanji feels a smile pull on his lips. His cheeks are tingling and he knows they are growing pink.
Your eyes light up and you smile back, sanji is a bit taken a back as you take a step forward, then you take another step, and another, and suddenly you are infront of him and he swears his heart did a lap around his chest.
he’s about to speak but you beat it to him “I have a gift for you, but it’s not for free I require something in return” you say smile growing a bit wider finding amusement in your own words. He can’t help but copy you as his smile grows aswell, you talk with so much charisma and charm. It’s something he’s noticed within his millions of glances your way.
“well then that’s not a gift now is it dear?” You roll your eyes and throw a quick glance over shoulder before putting your secret “gift” on the counter. You move your hands to reveal a shot glass filled with some sort of liquor. Sanji wasn’t too picky whatever it was, a shot is a shot and he wasn’t one to turn down a gift.
“However I would be lying if I wasn’t interested what payment this gift required” this causes you to laugh and sanji wonders if he’s already taken afew shots the way it makes him sway.
“One of the waiters said shots are a good trade for a basket of fries and I am very hungry” you say your once confident demeanor wavering just the slightest bit, your eyes travel to the bin full of peeled potatoes “also I’ve heard you are one of the best chefs here”
Oh.
There’s an amused scoff from across the kitchen but Sanji pays it no mind. He’s not sure he’s in his body anymore. He stares at you and he swears his whole body is tingling.
He knows nobody said that to you. Sanji knows he’s an amazing cook, again he takes much pride in his skills, however he’s in the back of house and mostly remains nameless to those who try his food and when he’s not he’s not cooking he’s waiting tables. If anyone has said anything about his cooking he doubts they have called him out by name, especially for as simple of a dish as fries.
You chose sanji of all people. Was he looking too far into this? Sanji was usually very confident with people he found attractive however he finds himself at a loss for words as he stands infront of you.
You grow nervous and began to take his silence for rejection. You look at him before quickly glancing around the room face growing warm. “You know what it looks like a rush is coming in! Don’t worry about it, you can go ahead and keep the shot!” You say before quickly turning around.
Before sanji can bring himself to correct you and tell you he would gladly make French fries for you everyday for the rest of his life. You are gone the only evidence of you ever being there is the door swaying back and forth and a full shot glass.
Fuck. Why did he act like that?
Sanji was confident in his skills, he could glide a knife through anything with ease but right now? He’s not very confident in his skills when it comes to swooning others.
A shout directed his way finds his ears and he
Is quick to get back to work. He pulls two potatoes out of the bin putting them to the side and is pulled back into the flow of the kitchen.
—
Water sprays back into the sink as sanji lightly shakes the excess water off his hands. He pulls the towel tucked into his pocket and wipes his hands dry before tossing it onto the counter.
He grabs two paper lined baskets, the heat radiates into his hands and for a split second it pulls his mind away from his racing thoughts as he wonders if he should let them cool for a bit longer. Really that’s not what he was worried about, he had already let them cool, the golden fries were perfectly dusted in salt. he knew there wasn’t anyway anyone wouldn’t like these fries.
What if he had ruined his chance?
The string of anxiety that had tugged tight in his chest snapped as your voice echos through the kitchen “I’m gonna go crash man, thanks for helping with my big group, they had me running up and down the stairs. Who brings 30 people to a restaurant? ” you say to the waiter you are walking besides as you two walk through the break room door, you both groan in shared annoyance and the two of you go back and forth over how ridiculous the table was.
Sanji watches as you walk through the kitchen, he tells himself he should look away before you catch him but you glance over at him and your sentence trails off. You glance back over at your friend and quickly pardon yourself leaving with a quick “see you in the morning!”
You take quick steps towards sanji and he freezes in place fries still in his hands. He goes to speak but you start before he can “Hey about earlier, I’m sorry for bothering you-“ Sanji is quick to cut you off “sorry darling, I’m a bit late but here are your fries” he smiles softly as he watches you register the two baskets of fries he’s holding. He takes a deep breath and hopes the warmth he feels in his face isn’t dusting him in red. “I made myself a basket, I hope it’s ok if I join you?”
It’s your turn to stare at him silently, however you are quick to recover and your lips pull into a wide smile “I…I would actually really like that, thank you”
Sanji doesn’t hesitate to place the fries down and pull up two stools. He motions for you to sit down and gently pushes your seat in as you take your place. He sits besides you, and when he sees you shift your stool ever so slightly closer to him he doesn’t say anything about it. Infant he copies, moving the slightest bit closer aswell.
His eyes linger on you, watching as you pick up A fry and bite it in half. You gasp softly and turn to Sanji wide eyed “these are delicious Sanji! I was expecting just some regular old fries!” You don’t wait to throw the other half of the fry in your mouth and replace it with another. Sanji smiles and tries to ignore his racing heart. He notices how you keep glancing at him and wonders if your heart is beating just as fast.
“Only the best for you my dearest” he says eyes finally breaking away from you as he too begins enjoying the fries. After all he was hungry from working all day.
“Do you want to hear the crazy story this one pirate told me today?” You ask after a pause in the conversation glancing over at sanji who is mid bite through a bunch of French fries. His eyes go wide and he quickly finishes off his bite and rushes to chew. You giggle softly and now it’s your turn to stare, maybe it’s just you but you feel like the whole room is buzzing and it’s electrifying. You feel like a bubble machine, bubbles forming in your stomach and rising up and out in small giggles.
“Of course I do! Tell me whatever your beautiful mind can think of” Sanji replies after swallowing his food. “Well it all started when a big party came in-….” You both quickly flow into easy conversation from there, eyes constantly meeting and holding. Your voices and laughter fill the room echoing off all the appliances.
sanji’s leg falls ever so slightly to the side as he moves positions, he doesn’t think much of it till your knees are touching. He moves his knee away mumbling a soft “sorry”, you don’t respond and your hands find place under the seat of your stool and your push yourself closer to sanji. Your legs are now pressed right up against eachother, sanji feels all the blood rushing into his head as he slaps his hand to his nose. You simply continue on with your conversation.
For the first time ever you both decided you never wanted to leave that kitchen.
—
It had been almost three weeks since that night and it has became a nightly ritual of the sorts for the both of you. At first it was just fries and a drink here or there but after inquiring about any recipes he wanted to try sanji started making you other foods. Now every night you find yourself sat in the kitchen with a gourmet meal in front of you and a glass of the most delicious beverage you’ve ever had to wash it all down right next to it.
And every time you’d look at sanji with those beautiful eyes and a small pout on your lip that would quickly morph into a small smile. And you’d say something along the lines of “oh Ji, you didn’t have to make all of this!” Of course sanji would just tell you that it’s no problem and he loves sharing his talent with people.
Really you aren’t just people, you are YOU and sanji loves making food for YOU. But how is he supposed to tell you he’d cook for you even after he’s old and his hands stop working without scaring you off.
Sanji has been attracted to people before but never like you. Everything is about you in his head, from the moment he wakes up till the moment he’s asleep he thinks about you and when he’s not awake he’s dreaming of you.
Can you blame him though? You are everything he’s ever dreamt of, something he thought only existed in dreams. He finds himself falling in love with every aspect of you. He loves the way you talk about your family who you had left behind at home to find your dreams. How you hold so much love for all of them collectively but every piece of love you give them is so personal and unique to each person.
He loves how you sway back and forth in your seat happily whenever Sanji prepares a favorite food of yours, it’s a tell tale sign that you liked something. He loves how passionate and open you are about what you love and what you hate and don’t care what people may think. He loves how you will go to great lengths to help those around you even if it’s the small things you that people don’t notice.
He doesn’t hide it well either, he takes any chance to talk to you or see you. He takes more trips out into the front of house than he ever has before. Once leaving the kitchen to bring a pen you had left at his station back to you, well aware of your apron full of several other pens.
The other chefs keep getting at him for it, saying he’s like a love sick teen sitting in bed giggling and kicking his feet. Really they have no right when they are acting like said love sick teen’s friend calling him lover boy and making smooching noises everytime you are talking to him.
You don’t say anything however not when sanji has heard the waitresses teasing you about being in the kitchen flirting all the time. It’s no secret that you both like each other but something always stopped one of you from saying something. Sanji had always been good at navigating daring situations especially in the field of romance. This was not one he could navigate, always too scared of going too far and scaring you off.
So you both chose to enjoy what you had in the moment, Having dinner at night and talking throughout the day. Today was different though.
You were like a blur every time you walked through the doors. your body moved quickly not being able to pause, headed back out the door before it could even shut. That was if it even shut that day. Sanji knew something was happening in the front because the back of house was like a pot of water getting ready to boil over.
Everyone was dodging eachother, everything clanking and banging against eachother and Nobody was able to talk without talking over somebody else. The kitchen was blistering and sanji swore he’d have a heatstroke if he was back there much longer.
That wasn’t the only clue in on a mess happening. The door had yet gotten a chance to stay shut for more than 5 minutes, there was a Burst of noise sent into the the kitchen everytime the door opened. a steady stream of waitresses were coming in and out of the kitchen. Each one looked more and more disheveled than the last time they came in. You were no exception.
Sanji keeps taking glances at you. He’s plating food at the counter, he should be focused in on where he is placing things especially in a rush like this but all his movements are memorized, he’s more worried about you. Your apron had grown stained along with your uniform underneath. Your eyes looked exhausted and every tray you carried in and out was covered in plates and cups.
He hasn’t had a chance to step outside of the kitchen yet but from what he’s heard it’s very busy and everyone seems to have it out for the wait staff. However he didn’t worry too much about all of them he knew that the wait staff could hold their own and would put their foot down if need be. Still when you came in the last time and your face looked more distraught than before he couldn’t help but be worried, he went to call for you but you were already shouting in another order, grabbing your next tray and darting out.
Sanji is quick to go back to work hoping you’d walk through the doors again, instead he doesn’t get distracted by you. A commotion comes from beyond the doors, it’s barely audible at first but it quickly grows louder, he weaves through all the other chefs darting around the kitchen, the noise lowers but there is tension in the air, he goes to peak through the kitchen door but is met with a door in the face and a shaky voice rambling at a million miles per hour. Sanji swears his brain rattles as the wood makes contact,His hands fly up to his nose as he stumbles back in pain.
“- I got them out but I’m really upset- what are you guys staring at?”
Sanji registers that the voice is you and open his eyes which where shut in pain. Sanji looks at you and the two of you make eye contact. Your eyes are bloodshot and brimming in tears they widen as you notice sanji. Hands cupping his hands blood seeping into the cracks of his fingers peaking out just enough for you to notice
“OH MY GOD SANJI YOUR NOSE!” You shriek voice cracking. You notice his closeness to the door and realize you are the perpetrator of the crime. This must be what breaks the string holding you together this night because tears come rushing out your eyes “IM SO SORRY- OH MY- ARE YOU OK?! IM SORRY!” You rush towards him and sanji is quick to meet you in the middle “no no are YOU ok? What happened out there? Do you need me to go out there?” He rushes in quickly bloodily hand reaching out to touch you but pausing in place as he realizes what a mess he is at the moment.
You pause for a moment and look at him like he’s crazy realizes he might be with how his heart flutters as he finally looks at you face to face for the first time today “ME? You are the one with a busted nose!” You shout grabbing his wrist and pulling it away away from his nose. You watch tears still slipping down your face as a drop of blood runs down is down face and over his mouth, his lips part into a wide smile and your face contorts more in bewilderment
“Why are you smiling!? Does it not hurt??” You say reaching up to touch his nose his hand quickly cover his nose and he winced away before you can even touch it “oh- no no my entire face is pulsating right now. I just…we haven’t talked today until right now” he say eyes filled with something you see everytime he looks at you.
You go to scoff but it turns into a nasally giggle from you crying “what is wrong with you?” You say your head falling to his chest head bouncing softly as you both giggle softly. The other chefs mumble to themselves and quickly get back to work.
You grab his still bloody hand and drag him through the kitchen into the break room, he is quick to follow free hand holding his nose. “I’m sorry I should have been watching where I was going” you say glancing at him as you push open the break room door. Sanji shakes his head “no don’t be sorry I was trying to be nosey” he say sitting down as you pull out and chair and point to it with a small “sit” before walking towards a cabinet.
“Wanted to watch all the drama unfold?” You ask pulling out a dented metal box. You flick open the lock tabs and it lifts with a horrible squeal making you both wince. You grab a cloth and bandage and quickly dart into the bathroom attached to the break room erring the rag. “No I was worried, you looked really upset today I wanted to make sure I didn’t have to step in” he says as you walk over reaching out gently pull his hand away from his nose.
You begin wiping the blood from his hands. You sit in silence for a moment, sanji isn’t sure if he should keep talking or not. You give his hands one last wipe, It’s not the best job but it will do.
“ you don’t have to think I’m weak, I know I cried but I can handle myself, I got it all handled before it even started” you finally respond leaning in closely hands cupping his jaw guiding his head as you move it, looking at sanji’s nose. he uses this moment to scan your face. Your eyes are still red but your tears from before have come to a stop only drying streaks left as evidence. You sniffle every few seconds and he can tell you are focusing on taking deeper breaths.
He winces as you gently begin wiping at his nose. Your eyes meet for a second “that’s not what I mean I know you can handle yourself. I just care about you” Sanji responds, you quickly glance away before standing up and dropping to sit in a chair next to sanji “it not broken it looks like a screw holding the window in was sticking out and scratched you when you got hit”
“What happened out there?” He asked smiling softly as you scoot closer to him “we were just so busy today and I was all over the place and then this table came in and they were so rude!” You start, he nods along humming softly in understanding as he listens. “And then his order got messed up and he started yelling at me. He told me I’m a nobody who’s only talent is bring food to people…” you pause, fingers playing with the edge of your apron “I got pissed and then next thing I knew my tray was flying at him and the other waiters were dragging him out and I was running to the back to find you” you admit shoulder scrunching up to you shoulders at the last bit.
A smile spreads across sanj’s face, “well you found me, bloodied and beaten but you found me” he jokes making you laugh bumping shoulders with him “oh shush you weren’t beaten, sorry again” you says glancing up at him. He shrugs and you continue speaking “it all got to me I just, I love working here I just don’t want to be stuck here for the rest of my life I want to be out and exploring like all the other pirates” you say turning your head looking down at the blood stained cloth that was sat next to you on the table.
“What if they are right ji? What If i don’t have anything special about besides waiting on people?” Sanji hears your voice becoming shaky once again and his brain splits on if he should tell you how special you are or run and take down the man who made you feel like this. When he sees you scrub at your eyes with the back of your hand he chooses the first one.
“Y/n..” he whispers softly causing you to look at him “you can’t let some pirate who has never met you before dictate who you are” he gently takes your hand and cups it between his two “you are like a work of art in motion and a artist at work all at the same time. That man has never spent nights listening to you talk about the wonders that go on in your mind.” He looks deeply into your eyes and you think you are having an allergic reaction?
It can’t be you haven’t eaten anything to cause this but your heart is getting up there in speed, your throat is getting tight and you are becoming hot all over. You don’t stop him, there is an intensity in his eyes that tells you to let him finish talking.
“You are far more than this place, you will sail away from here and leave us all behind because you will make it happen. You told me you once thought you’d never leave that island. Now you are here right?” He asks and you nod “so what makes you think you can’t leave this place too?” You feel your throat finally release its tightness as another choked sob rips out of you.
Sanji is scared he’s said or done something wrong he opens his arms for a hug readying a quick apology and comfort. You throw yourself forward at Sanji, hands gripping his white coat and tugging him to meet you. he is more glad than ever that he is wrong. Your lips press into his, your teeth bump for a second and he can feel the now cold tear streaks on your cheek on his fingers as his hand reaches up to cup your face .
You pull away after a moment, you both stare at each other before both splitting into a wide smile. “I hope that was ok-“ he starts but You grab both sides of sanj’s face and pull him forward shutting him up quickly. You pull back once again to speak “Sanji. There was never a waiter who told me to trade shots for fries, I just had a massive crush on you and needed a reason to talk to you” you confess, your heart flutters as the words leave your mouth however any fear you once felt of making such a confession was now gone.
“I’m surprised I was able to get you to like me after that day” to which Sanji busts out in a small fit of laughter, his laughter only growing at your confusion “my dearest, if only you knew just how long I had been waiting for you to talk to Me”
Y’all I have no idea what I’m doing and I cannot write but I still hope you enjoy this. I tried including common hobbies I see in the goth community. Im still fairly new to the community myself so please don’t beat me up.
•Adrian has no idea how to be cool around you when he first meets you. Your all black attire and dark makeup has his brain scrambling to find something witty to say to you. He makes it his entire goal to impress you and convince you that he is cool.
•listens to goth music to try and impress you with his diverse music taste. Even goes as far as referencing and humming songs around you. He can’t help but adore the excited gasp you let out everytime.
•when he asks you out he is stood there in his nicest outfit holding a bouquet of black roses with a face skull in the middle “please go out with me” he blurts out obviously nervous a dark blush covering his face. Oh you were going to eat this man up.
•he brings you on a date to a year round haunted house knowing how much you would love it even with it being a bit of a strange first date. He can’t help but heat up every time you jump and cling to him letting out soft giggles at the jump scares.
•when you both start dating Adrian has no clue how he does it. Somehow someway you had fallen for him and he couldn’t be more grateful to whatever found him worthy of this gift.
•the others are just as confused as Adrian, both understanding how someone like him could pull someone like you. But they still are supportive and happy to see the both of you so happy.
•talk about black cat x golden retriever energy, you two are the definition of opposites attract.
•loves the way you leave a black kissy mark whenever you kiss his cheeks or lips. Jokes about you turning him goth everytime you leave black lipstick on his lips.
•is more than happy to sit there and watch horror movies with you all night even though he hates the idea of ghosts. Humans and aliens he can handle but ghosts he draws the line at. But he will deal with the jump scares in order to sit there with you clinging to his side.
•a little skeptical when you admit to him you collect haunted dolls. He doesn’t 100% believe they are haunted but definitely hates the way they all stare at him whenever he is at your house nonetheless.
•doesn’t even hesitate to ask to join when you tell him you are going for a walk in the local cemetery to cool off after a long mission.
•is a bit worried he will stick out like a sore thumb the first time you invite him to the goth club with you. Once he gets there however he throughly enjoys his time, especially as he gets to watch you so effortlessly dance on the dance floor.
•lets you do his makeup one time and finds he doesn’t actually mind it, infact he think he looks badass. He wouldn’t wear it again the several layers of white foundation and black eye makeup being a sensory overload but he did find it enjoyable in that moment.
•lets you dress him up when the two of you go out. Even lets you dress him up when you two meet the other 11th street kids drawing a “what the hell happened to you?” From Chris.
•is kinda terrified of the monster you become when Halloween rolls around. He has never been in and out of stores and spent more money on Halloween decorations in his life.
•when you start slowly moving into his place he watches as his house becomes covered in different spooky and gothic trinkets and decor. Including those damn spooky dolls.
•takes you on dates to different spooky and odd events and places because he knows how much you love going to those type of things
•constantly compares the two of you to different gothic couples. Even begged you to change eachothers contact photos to Morticia and Gomez.
The Four Times Adrian Almost Discovers Your Identity And The One Time He Finally Did.
Warnings: none
Additional tags: gender neutral reader, canon x reader, reader is all stoic and serious, Reader works at a cat cafe in their free time, Adrian chase is a simp, secret identity, identity reveal, fluff, possibly ooc!Adrian,
Summary: The four times Adrian accidentally almost saw your face and the one time he actually accidentally discovers your identity without you even knowing.
Adrian was nosy, he tended to stick his nose where it wasn’t needed especially when it came to people he cared about. He was just a curious guy, and when it came to you his curiosity was peaked.
Now Adrian told himself he wouldn’t push it too far, you had your secret identity and he respected that as someone who also worked dutifully to stay anonymous and sadly failed. You were so mysterious and stern, rarely breaking character and always serious. Everything he wasn’t and god did he find it attractive.
he was head over heels for you and everyone knew it, well everyone but you. So nobody could blame him for wanting to know stuff about you and know your identity, especially after his was revealed.
He’d try and prod at you asking questions and cracking jokes in hopes you would laugh or tell him something about yourself but with out fail you always glared at him and went on with ignoring him.
So the first time Adrian almost saw you he was ecstatic and very very guilty because you had no idea and he wasn’t supposed to. He was leaned back in a chair with his feet on the table mask long discarded now that everyone knew who he was. His eyes had been shut for a long time, everyone just assumed he was asleep and left the room. Everyone but you.
You decided to do something risky, you decided to take off your mask ‘what’s the worse that could happen? Adrian is asleep and everyone is gone’ you thought and masks get uncomfortable after a long time. So you take it off.
Adrian hears the sound of something hitting a table and looks over to his right and finds himself staring at the back of your head. He feels his throat close up and he choked on the air. Luckily you didn’t notice and he quickly looks aways as his cheeks burn a bright shade of red. He shuts his eyes tightly, images of your head out of his mind. The way the sun from the window infront of you haloed around your body made his stomach flutter. Just as he went to turn his head to get another peak distant voices can be heard and you rush to put your mask back on.
Chris and Economos walk in bickering over something that Adrian doesn’t care for. He continues to pretend to sleep but is disrupted by Chris “yo vig wake up, tell this dumb ass that Ken was totally misunderstood in the Barbie movie” he says shoving Adrian’s shoulder causing him to groan “I’m sorry but everyone knows he was in the wrong” Adrian says playing it off as if he just got woken up.
Adrian looks over at you and you look back with your arms crossed and no expression. Mask on.
Damn those two.
—
The second time he saw you, it was a total accident too. He didn’t know he was going to see what he saw. You see Adrian was very observant much to peoples shock, it just comes with the whole vigilante job. So he is quick to notice how you start hiding something, you sneak off and duck behind walls for minutes at a time before appearing back like nothing happened.
One day you had quickly hid behind a wall and Adrian was quick to sneak behind you. He watched as you pulled up the bottom of your mask freezing for a moment you were taking off your mask and his heart was about to jump out his chest. His heart didn’t settle however as you stopped right below your nose “finally, I’m so hungry” you say pulling a plastic wrapped cookie out of your pocket quickly taking a bite after peeling back the plastic protection. He saw half your face… it’s all he could think of as he turns and quickly walks away cheeks burning.
as Adrian laid in bed that night staring at his ceiling he swore if he had laser eyes his stare would burn the image of your lips into his ceiling.
—
The third time he almost sees your face , you are all sat in the back of the van after a long mission, your bodies all hurt, everyone is exhausted and if you aren’t sleeping then you are sitting quietly keeping to yourself.
Adrian isn’t sleeping he just has his eyes shut once again, a habit he had gained when everything was blurry even with his glasses and trying to focus on anything made his head hurt. He jumped slightly as he feels a weight on his shoulder. He glances down to his left to find your head rested on his shoulder. He waves his hand in front of your face and finds you unmoving. His face heats up as he realizes you are asleep, he looks down and sees that you have your phone in hand.
He was just going to turn it face down in your lap he swore it, but as he gently took it from you hand the phone screen turned on and revealed a photo. He couldn’t help but look at it.
A photo of a grey fluffy cat zoomed in on its eyes as it is pressed up against the side of a humans face. Adrian focuses in on the beautiful color of your eyes and the way your long lashes curled up into your eyelid. It only showed your eye and the slightest sliver of skin, the photo was mainly cat face than yours but he couldn’t help as his heart squeezed with a horribly amazing feeling.
He slowly puts the phone down to not wake you and stares at your mask face trying to imagine what eyes went with those beautiful lips. He feels his face tingle More with heat and his heart speed up as he imagines said eyes staring at him.
——
The fourth time he almost saw your face is on another rough mission. This mission topped all missions on the level of hard. While everyone left with their life It left everyone injured and metaphorically dead. Especially leaving you out of everyone in rough shape. You had rolled your ankle while running leaving chris to carry you back to the van while everyone else was occupied. When Adrian made it back he had felt so guilty that he wasn’t there to help you in your moment of weakness.
I’m a desperate attempt to make himself feel better he offers to wrap your ankle. You hesitantly nod “I’m not taking off my suit though, you can do it with the suit on” he nods quickly “no yeah of course, I just need you to take your shoe off” he says pointing towards your foot.
You wince as you take off the shoe, the swelling in your foot making it a tight fit, but with some strength and a groan of pain you get the shoe off. The first thing Adrian notices is how your foot is enflamed and your ankle is a light yellowish brown as it begins bruising. The second thing he notices is the tattoo you have on your ankle. It was a cat curled up into a ball sleeping, it was small and dainty, nothing too big or easy to spot. But it was enough to once again make Adrian’s heart flutter, that happens a lot when he’s around you. ‘I should get that checked out by my doctor’ he thinks
He takes the blue bandage out of the first aid box he had grabbed and begins gently wrapping your foot.“you like cats?” He asks causing you to stiffen up slightly “calm down, I just saw your tattoo. It’s cute” he says making you sigh softly “thanks I forgot it was there. got it in memory of a very important little guy” you say looking down at your foot watching as Adrian’s hands wrap the bandage around. “How do you know how to do this?” You ask making him laugh softly “oh I have no idea what I’m doing”
And for the first time time Adrian’s heard you laugh. It’s soft and only lasts a short second but it’s still a laugh and it still comes from you.
He smiles brightly and finished off wrapping “all done” he says proudly before stranding “thank you, Adrian” you say and the way you say has name has his head reeling and stomach doing flips and jumps “anytime” he says.
—
Adrian had wanted to get you a coffee to make you feel better, he still felt guilty about you getting hurt so he had went out of his way to stop at this little cat cafe that had opened down the road from his apartment. He had never been to a cat cafe so he had no idea what to expect except for something cat related.
When Adrian walked in through the doubled up doors the first thing he notices was the bell going off above his head signaling his arrival.
The second was a small orange and white cat rubbing up against his leg “oh hello there” he says leaning down to scratch the cat. While he pet the ball of fur he looked around the room noticing tables and several more cats along with a barista bar in the back.
There were people spread around the cafe petting cats and chatting with each other. For some reason Adrian felt out of place within the space but still he persisted and made his way towards the counter where a barista was busying themself with preparing drinks.
The barista doesn’t notice him at first too in the zone if pouring milk into the coffee, Adrian takes in their appearance and he swears that hair and those eyes look familiar. “Hello!” He says causing the barista to whip around.
their eyes go wide and they fumble what their doing dropping milk all over the counter “o-oh my god- I’m- uh- hi I’ll be with you in one sec”
Oh my god.
That voice.
It can’t be…
Adrian feels his heart pick up as he looks over the counter at your legs, Trying not to look like a total creep. Yup and there it is soft blue bandaging that had yet to been changed within having such a busy schedule. “I-I’m so sorry, I don’t know what happened there” you say tossing the milk soaked rag. “What can I get you?”
Hearing your voice and seeing it come from your face had Adrian reeling and had him short of breath . Somehow he had fallen harder within those few seconds. You were stunning, ethereal as you stood there in your coffee stained apron hair pulled back out of your face giving him a nice clear view. all those features he had saw separately now came together like the most beautiful puzzle. He just had to play this cool
“Yeah can I get caramel…meow meow??” He questions squinting up at the menu drawing a chuckle from you. Oh he was absolutely smitten.
Omg hello!! Thank you for reading my first ever fic. I’m both terrified and very proud with myself. I hope you enjoyed! Reblogs are very appreciated 🦇🖤
He takes bandage out of the first aid box he had grabbed and begins gently wrapping your foot “you like cats?” He asks causing you to stiffen up slightly “calm down, I just saw your tattoo. It’s cute” he says making you sigh softly “thanks I forgot it was there. got it in memory of a very important little guy” you say looking down at your foot watching as Adrian’s hands wrap the bandage around. “How do you know how to do this?” You ask making him laugh softly “oh I have no idea what I’m doing”
And for the first time time Adrian’s heard you laugh. It’s soft and only lasts a short second but it’s still a laugh and it still comes from you.
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