Hey you ever imagine Joe not realizing how he feels about Cherry bc heâs never fallen this hard for anyone before?
falling for cherry surprises joe because it doesnât feel like falling.Â
see, heâs fooled around, heâs been with plenty of women and a few men, so he thinks heâs understood how itâs all supposed to be. youâre hot, iâm hot, weâre into this, pursue, chase, conquest. he doesnât think itâs love, necessarily, but surely this is what attraction is?
he doesnât feel butterflies looking at cherry. wellânot all the time. sometimes cherry shows off some new trick on carla, or heâll show a bit more skin than usual, or heâll look at joe with that test in his eyesâbut no... itâs probably indigestion. the lurch in his stomach when cherry says his new recipe is âdecently palatableâ is just how anyone would react, right?
joe feels sparks and electricity when his groupies touch him. heâs been friends with cherry for over two decades and all he feels is justâjust tacit understanding. cherryâs the only one whoâs seen him at his best and worse, the only one whoâs been with cherry through it all, the only one cherry allows to see him as the raw, vulnerable kaoru and in return, cherryâs the only one joe allows into his own guarded emotions and oh shit.
he realizes this one night at sia la luce. theyâve just come back from s and theyâre both still riding the endorphin high. joe declined to go home with one of his girls because itâs wine night with kaoru and not even the promise of a strangerâs bed can take him away from that.
and cherry falls asleep at the bar, and joe wonders how fortunate he is to be the one cherry trusts like this, and how heâd do anything to keep cherry safe and happy, and he just knows cherry would do the same for him, and oh fuck.Â
this isnât indigestion.
this... this is what he doesnât feel for any of his previous partners. this is strong, underlying; he feels it from deepest marrow of his bones and the softest breath of a sigh. once he notices he canât un-notice how much this feeling is everywhere when cherryâs around, when cherryâs on his mind, when cherryâs not on his mind.
falling for cherry doesnât feel like falling. itâs realization after realization, itâs hiding smiles and tempering compliments with empty insults. caresses disguised as roughhousing. confessions in the form of beefs.
itâs love, and itâs been here all this time, and joe wonders how the hell he didnât realize it sooner.