pairing bf!hollis && gf!reader. 🪽,,
⤷ summary : no matter how bad it gets, hollis could never bear to leave you.
⤷ warnings : emotional vulnerability, established relationship, fluff
you don’t realize you’re doing it at first—the waiting. the quiet counting of seconds after you say something too honest, too heavy. you brace for the shift. the distance. the way people usually pull back when you show them the parts of you that ache.
he’s on the couch beside you, knee pressed into yours, thumb tracing slow circles into your palm like it’s muscle memory. the room is soft with lamplight and the low hum of nothing in particular. you’ve been staring at the same spot on the wall for a while now, words stuck in your throat, heart doing that thing where it beats too loud.
“hey,” he says gently. “you still with me, baby?”
you nod, but it’s small. uncertain.
you tell him anyway. about the fear that creeps in late at night. about how you’re always waiting for the moment he realizes loving you is work. that maybe one day he’ll wake up tired of it.
there it is. the thing you never say out loud.
your chest feels hollow after. exposed.
hollis shifts closer instead of away. wraps an arm around your shoulders, pulls you into him like it’s instinct. like there was never another option.
“sweetheart,” he murmurs, pressing his lips into your hair. “is that really what you think?”
you shrug. you don’t trust your voice.
he tilts your chin up so you have to look at him. his eyes are soft in that way that always ruins you—steady, warm, sure.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he says, like it’s the simplest truth in the world. “not when you’re quiet. not when you’re scared. not when you think you’re too much.”
his thumb brushes under your eye, slow and careful. “especially not then.”
something in you loosens. not all at once—just enough to breathe.
you curl into his chest, fingers clutching the fabric of his shirt. he smells like clean laundry and something familiar that feels like home now. his heartbeat is steady beneath your ear, proof. reassurance.
he kisses your temple. then your forehead. then the corner of your mouth.
“you don’t have to disappear to be loved,” he whispers. “you don’t have to make yourself smaller for me.”
you let yourself sink into him, let the weight you’ve been carrying rest somewhere safe.
for once, you stop waiting for the leaving.
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