Work Text:
"Sign up to Dollar Shave Club today and stop spending unnecessary dollars on unnecessary razors- I swear to god" You watched with a grin as Gus shook his head, huffing out a sigh and dropping his iPad into his lap. Joel slowly moved his hands from where they’d been incessantly tickling you, provoking you to interrupt Gus’s ad read as you’d shrieked from Joel’s long fingertips as they’d skated up and down your left side.
"It’s Joel’s fault" you huffed out, smoothing your hair down and trying to calm your racing heart. You shot Gus an apologetic look as he rolled his eyes.
"This is why Joel is never allowed on the Podcast [YN] don’t let him take you down too." Burnie said, smirking when Joel’s arms flailed out as he started to explain himself.
"She literally said before the ad read, ‘oh, I’m ticklish, don’t tickle me’ and so I obviously had to tickle her it’s what the people want." He said, smirking over at you.
You poked your tongue out and turned to Gus as he tried to change the subject, moving on to talk about a PC Game you’d heard of but hadn’t actually played yet. You were surprised that you were actually enjoying yourself. The nerves you’d had an hour ago from the prospect of sitting in on your first podcast had more than dissipated, perhaps thanks to the few beers you’d had and the relaxing attitude of the podcast itself. Barbara and Gavin, the ‘A’ team as Gus lovingly named them, were both out of town for one reason or another and after questioning multiple employees and receiving a variety of ‘no’s’ Gus had come to you. You knew you were his last choice because he’d lovingly told you so.
"Please [YN] no one else can do it believe me I’ve asked." He said with a sigh watching as you closed your laptop and stared up at him.
"Oh so I’m your last choice then?"
"Well no my last choice is Brandon but I really don’t want to ask him." You’d rolled your eyes at that before eventually nodding your head.
"Okay fine."
You laughed as he fist pumped the air and walked out of your office, yelling at you to be on the podcast set no later than 6.30 for a 7 o’clock start.
That had given you three hours to mull over your appearance on the podcast and get more and more nervous. Especially after Gus had sent you a brief itinerary for the podcast that included telling you that Joel would be your couch partner with a warning in all caps that read “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WE DONT WANT TO HEAR ABOUT THE METEORS OR ABOUT ANYTHING YOUVE READ RECENTLY FROM BLOOMBERG NEWS.” You assumed the email had also been sent to Joel and you wouldn’t be surprised if the warning fell on particularly deaf ears.
That’s just what Joel was like, he didn’t care if people didn’t like hearing about it and he didn’t really care if people did like it, he was interested in it so he talked about it, often and vigorously with arms flailing and cheeks flushing pink as he got more and more worked up.
You and Joel had hung out a few times at work since you’d been hired, finding you both actually got along well despite the age difference, you put it down to the fact that Joel didn’t quite act like a man in his mid fourties and instead seemed more on your level psychologically.
You’d spent a few of your lunch breaks laughing at him as he got into one of his long winded rants. Of course he’d done the same to you when asking what you were interested in and getting a twenty minute response in the latest book you’d read and why it was not worthy of being a TIMES best seller and did they even read the books before putting them on their lists anymore?
You figured you got along so well because you were both so passionate about things and didn’t care what anyone else thought. Also from your side because he was drop dead gorgeous, but that was something you never wanted to bring up. You were too young, probably too naive and definitely not what Joel was looking for because he never really seemed to be looking for anyone. You were more than fine with keeping your silly crush under wraps until eventually it fizzled away.
"Earth to [YN]!" You jumped slightly, looking at Burnie who was staring at you with a smirk.
"What?" You said, looking at Gus’s laughter filled face and finally Joel’s alcohol darkened cheeks.
"You’ve been staring into space for like ten minutes" Gus said reaching a hand out and motioning for you to pass him a beer.
You shrugged handing the condensation soaked bottle over and flopping back against the couch, opening your own cold beverage.
"I guess WoW just brings the blank faced stare out in me." You said with a grin, reaching over to accept the cheers Joel had offered you as Gus started trying to explain the perks of the game.
"Did you hear about…?" You turned away from Gus’s next subject he’d chosen to bring up, looking at the movement you’d seen on the floor out the corner of your eye. Joel had started kicking your feet, his huge sneaker clad ones hitting and stepping against your smaller boot sized ones annoyingly.
You huffed out a sigh, kicking back a little more aggressively and turning to pout at Joel when he moved his legs out of your reach, stretching his long limbs over to the other side of the couch and laughing at your considerably shorter ones when they flailed for a moment trying to catch him.
"@tippytoppers on Twitter wants to know why Joel and [YN] are playing footsie while Gus and I are talking about important issues like the newest iPhone" Burnie said, grinning over the top of his laptop at you both as you felt your cheeks burn.
"Because after the last iPhone conversation I’ve realized that if I want to live longer I shouldn’t join in" Joel said, looking over at you and winking.
"Live longer? Please" Burnie said, laughing as Joel pointed a finger at Burnie and took a breath looking as though he was about to launch into a special Burnie sized rant only being cut off when Gus said they were out of time.
"Are you sure?" Burnie said, sighing when Gus continued to say goodbye.
You yawned and stretched as the on air light turned off, moving your mic out of your way and pulling your phone out your eyebrows shooting up when you saw how many twitter notifications were filling your phone screen.
"Uh, does this always happen?" You asked out loud as you opened the app and it started loading the numerous tweets you were mentioned in.
"Not usually as much as that actually" Burnie said, looking over your shoulder at your screen before laughing softly. You looked up at the sound and saw Joel, tugging on his hair as he looked at his own phone screen, the blue and white twitter app looking back at him.
"Looks like you guys caused quite a stir in the twitter verse tonight." Burnie said, clapping you both on the shoulder before walking away.
You turned back to your phone, noticing the common occurrence of Joel’s twitter handle accompanying your own in a large quantity of the tweets.
@rtforever: is it just me or are @[YN] & @joelheyman getting a bit close on the podcast? #aretheyorarentthey
@ahismylife: I spy a pretty cute game of footsie happening on the podcast! @[YN] @joelheyman
@achievementhunterlove: I’m now convinced that @[YN] and @joelheyman are a thing. Sorry Joelay shippers! This ship sails itself.
"Oh my god." You said, locking your phone and putting it on the table in front of you.
"Yeah, this hasn’t actually happened to me in a while, not since it was the Joelay one year anniversary or whatever" Joel sighed, placing his own phone on the table in front of him and scrubbing a hand over his face.
"Being on the other side of this whole shipping thing is new." You mused, bringing your knees up to your chest and sipping on your beer.
"It’s really not a big deal, you don’t usually hear about it unless the fans get together and do something. The Achievement Hunters have it way worse. Also they play it up a lot more." Joel said, grinning at you.
"So it doesn’t annoy you?" You asked softly.
"Of course not, if I don’t care about people writing fanfiction or whatever about me and Ray then I definitely don’t care about them writing them about me and you." He said, flashing you one of his winning grins and taking a sip of his whiskey filled coke can.
"Well who knows, maybe we’ll be as big as Mavin" You said with a laugh, chugging the rest of your beer down and enjoying the tingly warmth it brought as you realized five beers were perhaps too many and that you’d probably be asking Burnie or Gus for a lift home.
"I doubt that they’re a power to be reckoned with. Mavin could lead an army of fan girls into a war if they wanted too. Probably win too, fan girls are crafty."
"I don’t know I think we could give them a run for their money" You said wiggling your eyebrows at the man as a thought passing through your mind.
"Is that so?" You felt your stomach drop precariously at Joel’s smirk and you nodded, reaching over to the table and grabbing your iPhone bringing up the camera app and with alcohol fueled confidence, moving over to Joel’s side of the couch.
"You’re painful" Joel groaned when you tapped the front camera symbol and turned your face towards him with a pout.
"Come on Joel, you’re an actor play nice for the camera." You sighed, using what was left of your courage when Joel turned and smiled at the camera by placing your lips precariously onto his stubbly cheek.
You snapped the picture and promptly felt him stiffen, the motion making his face caress your lips in an entirely not unpleasant way as you suddenly realized just how close you were and just how much of Joel was filling all of your senses.
"Too far?" You whispered, pulling back slightly.
Joel cleared his throat, his Adam’s apple bouncing deliciously to the point that you were quite certain the next time he did it you’d like very much to nibble it, just a little.
"Not entirely, I can think of a myriad of selfies I’ve enjoyed much less." He replied, turning his head to finally look at you.
You enjoyed this close up view for a moment, eyes taking in every inch of Joel’s face and your heart clenching a little at the thought that you’d never be able to be this close to him in better circumstances.
Your eyes trailed down to his lips and you sighed sadly before beginning to pull away.
Suddenly there was a hand, lightly caressing your shoulder, and another one on the side of your face, pulling you back to make eye contact with Joel.
"Wha-"
Your question was cut off by Joel leaning forwards and pressing his lips against yours, slightly chapped and unmoving, testing the waters.
Your own hand found its way to his neck as you applied more pressure, your toes curling in the way they do only when a first kiss feels incredible and new and as lovely as this.
You pulled back after a moment, smiling shyly up at Joel as you both tried to compose yourselves.
"That’s something Mavin wouldn’t do." He said with a grin, his thumb reaching out to lightly pad over your bottom lip.
"I don’t know Joel, they’re pretty fricken gay" you snorted before leaning forwards, maybe you’d get a ride home with Joel instead.
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@[YN]: First #RTPodcast was pretty great. Especially with @joelheyman to annoy. #sorryray #goodbyejoelay pic.twitter.com/HrFUqPHGmx