Work Text:
She sat back down at the restaurant table from where she had stormed off just five minutes earlier.
She took a deep breath and looked up only to find him already looking at her as intently as ever.
“I’m sorry. I’ve had an awful week and I am also very much in my head about this entire thing. It’s not about you, at all. I just feel very out of my depth, and like I am so behind in life, especially considering everything you’ve been through. But I shouldn’t have reacted like that earlier. Can we try again? Please?”
“Samira, we’ll try as many times as you need. If this feels uncomfortable to you we can go to the park, sit on the bench and talk there. I never want you to feel like you have to live up to some made up expectation. I just want you. And you say you feel behind because you’ve never really had a relationship before, but I feel like I am bringing too much baggage to this. We’ve both got our stuff to deal with but I really really want to deal with it together.”
A tear slips down her cheek, but she’s smiling. She’s never felt as seen, as understood, as she is right now with this man that she has been pining over for over two years. And something tells her that the feeling is mutual.
He smiled at her, a tender smile he reserved just for her, and reached over the table to grasp at her hands that were already stretching to reach his.
She has a bad habit of running away when things get overwhelming. She wants to fight that urge because this feels important and like it might be worth it. He wants to help her. She wants to let him, and that is the important part, the new part, the thing that will take some time to get used to. But looking at him, sitting across from her in a fancy restaurant that neither of them felt entirely comfortable in, she realizes that he’s the one person who she would withstand discomfort for and with over and over again.
“Ok. I want that, too, Jack. Let’s deal with our shit together.”