Things Nobody Knows About Ross (a Ross Gaines x Joseph Lisgoe fanfic)
This is part 2 of a 2-fic series, but it can be read as a standalone if you wish! (Part 1 is linked here for you viewing enjoyment)
So, fun fact, this fic is a two-parter! This one centers around Lisgoe and the second part, you guessed it, centers around Ross - very simpl
Things Nobody Knows About Ross
He has a sense of humour. When people meet Ross, they're convinced that the man's face is permanently fixed into a disappointed scowl. However, Lisgoe's come to realise that there is humour in him - it's just incredibly dark. Other people's pain seems to make his day brighter, and anyone else would be truly unnerved by the joy he took from it
But Lisgoe was just happy to meet someone with humour that mirrored his own
He can't hold his alcohol. At all. While Lisgoe could hold a considerable amount, it only took about two glasses before Ross was hammered. And hammered Ross was quite an interesting sight, slightly more untidy and more imperfect than the image he built up whilst sober
Not only is it very funny, it's also nice to have a reminder than Ross Gaines is a human being
He's a very jealous person. People always assume Lisgoe is the jealous, protective one - which isn't wrong. But he's a lot more upfront about it. Ross, on the other hand, is far more subtle. If looks could kill, the glare of a jealous Ross could send the toughest man into an early grave
Lisgoe knows the feeling of Ross' hand wrapping tightly around his wrist, the feeling of him pressing against his side, eyes sending a direct and irritated message to whoever caused the silent, jealous rage - he knows it all reasonably well
And he isn't going to pretend he doesn't find it hot as fuck
He enjoys silence. This one, at first, doesn't seem surprising. But he doesn't like silence because of the absence of human interaction, but rather the fact it allows him to recalibrate.
When they're alone together, Ross can let himself sink silently into calm. Sat beside Lisgoe on the sofa, neither of them comment on the way Ross ends up leaning against his side. And they certainly don't talk about how Ross' pinky finger manages to nudge his everytime
After a while, Lisgoe begins to rest his hand on top of Ross' - they don't talk about this either
His relationship with his father is incredibly strained. At first, Lisgoe just assumed they'd drifted apart due to distance (which would explain the almost-empty phonebook), however he soon found out, from the tiny pieces of information Ross dropped over time, that his father was way more of a dick than he first thought
While there was never any physical abuse, Ross' father hardly ever saw a positive in anything he did. Lisgoe has concluded that this is the root cause of his partner's obsession with being the best of the best. It had been drilled into him that anything below first place was an abhorrent thing that needed to be shamed out of his head
He deals with failure very badly. While Lisgoe tends to push and push until things go his way, Ross will pretty much react in the opposite fashion. If he's faced with failure, he'll clam up. Even though he tries to act as though it didn't affect him at all, Lisgoe can tell that he ends up blaming himself quite a lot
As if he's continuing his father's work
He constantly feels the need to prove himself. Everything he does has to be perfect, all of the time, or it simply isn't good enough. Ross will push himself to the absolute limits until he's satisfied
It doesn't take long for Lisgoe to notice something else about Ross:
He's never, ever satisfied with himself
Lisgoe has always found it strange, watching Ross push himself towards being "good enough". That's because, to him, Ross has always been "good". Well, maybe not always morally, but he was a damn sight better than Lisgoe thought of himself. To him, Ross is the type of man that could have anything he wanted - because he was just that good. So seeing him struggle with maintaining perfection was jarring
Because there's something that nobody, not even Ross himself, knows about Ross Gaines:
And it has nothing to do with his hatred for gory films and novels, the fact that he taught himself how to drive, or that he can eat the sourest of sweets without flinching
No, what people don't know about Ross is that he's one of the few people in Royston Vasey that doesn't just have Lisgoe's heart - he has his utmost respect
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