#butcher!reader

He sees you smoking outside the local butcher, heavy boots, bloody apron, face too pretty for the work you do. That's what he thinks, that you shouldn't be surrounded by death, looking like this.

Then something happens, a fight outside the shop and Ghost hesitates to interfere, not his mission, not his town.

But you peek up, roll your eyes, go inside. And come back with a huge butcher's knife or axe, walking around the corner.

"You fuckers startin' shit in front of my shop again?" You are relaxed, absolutely sure in your authority here. "Leave my staff alone, she doesn't want either of you. Last warning."

When one of the men starts arguing you throw your axe/knife, the thud is loud in the shocked silence as the blade misses and is now stuck on the wooden door frame. You missed on purpose, Ghost knows a well trained soldier, when he sees one.

"Thought so. Fuck off."

And you don't even wait what they do, you just move back inside, leave the blade where it is.

still have to iron some things out about it but… but i’ve been thinking about matt murdock and butcher!reader who works at the back of nelson's meats... ><

you don’t like talking to people that much, finding them hard to read. you don’t want to bother with upsetting them anymore or getting upset yourself; thankfully, the nelsons tell you it’s okay that you don’t work front of house — you do your best work alone and focused, after all. on occasion though, foggy brings matt over to get a bite or when it’s on the way to wherever they’re going. foggy eyes matt knowingly the first time he talks to you, though — warning him that specifically, she’s ‘not to be messed with, man.’ he loves the guy, but come on. he’s obviously protective of you, and knows you well enough that things like that don’t come easily to you. not that you need to he treated any differently, it’s just that— well, matt’s got a track record of getting into trouble where he shouldn’t be poking his head in, and foggy doesn’t want to see you hurt.

cue matt coming to the shop almost every day just to be able to talk to you. eventually, he does realize that you don’t get that he’s been flirting with you, which both embarrasses and enamours him. hey, it’s a breath of fresh air, maybe it’s the lack of ambiguity forcing him to confront his feelings upfront. can’t exactly dodge things when you have to talk about them head on, can you?

But he eventually agrees, not wanting you to be so stressed due to being understaffed. And he's surprised at how easy it is for him to go back into the role of being a butcher apprentice. He follows all of your instructions so well, doing whatever you need him to do.

He's also surprised at how at ease he is, despite all of the blood. He's used to blood, has to be due to his job, but he was worried that he'd think of war and the battlefield when cutting up whatever meat you gave him. But it's different in the butcher shop, the blood comes from something that's killed, yes, but he didn't kill it. The blood is on his hands, but it doesn't stain them. For once since he's enlisted in the SAS, the blood on his hands isn't due to him killing.

The work day goes well, you sighing afterwards when you're both back in his flat. You promise that you'll try your best not to ask for his help again, knowing that he had been hesitant to give his help earlier. He shushes you gently, telling you that he actually didn't mind doing it in the end. He ends up helping you again, looking so at ease because he's doing it with you, for you.

This is a masterlist of all of the Butcher!Reader Drabbles. This reader is gender neutral and with Simon "Ghost" Riley.

(Yes, I know that I've made masterlists on my main blog and could just link the masterlist to my pinned post, however, I'm making new masterlists so that I can just update this instead of the old one when/if I expand this series. Yes I am linking posts made from my main blog, yes this is me.)

Ghost Meeting You at a Bar

Ghost Helping You in the Butcher Shop

Omg, thank you so much for giving me a reason to continue this (before I go back to my other WIPs 😅)

Part 1

Anyways, Ghost usually doesn't pay attention to local disputes. But he can't stop thinking about you. Wondering, if this would have been his life, if he hadn't enlisted.

He has a few days to spend, so next day he is back at the butcher, this time actually entering. If he is a bit disappointed that you are not at the front, he will never admit it. Instead he sees what must be the reason for the fight, a surprisingly beautiful woman at the register, greeting him with an honest smile, red cheeks, kind eyes. Doesn't even seem to notice his mask and military boots.

"Good morning, are you looking for something specific?" Nice voice too.

Ghost nods, asks for something he doesn't see on display, something he knows most butchers would only have if you ordered ahead.

"Huh, planning something special? One moment please, you might be in luck. Someone didn't pick up their order yesterday."

With that, she disappears in the back, but doesn't return. Instead you come to the front, Ghost can see a similarity in your face, maybe you are related to the beautiful register girl. Although nothing about you is welcoming.

Where her eyes were kind, yours are hard and cold. Your cheeks are red from the cold and less round. Your lips could be lovely, but you wear a scowl that speaks of low patience. Combined with the knife in your hand and the bloody apron you could have been the killer in a splatter movie. Ghost pretends that his elevated heartbeat is because you pose a potential threat and nothing else.

"Oh bloody hell, another one? What are you, sis? A moron magnet?" You yell to the back, but your eyes are fixed on Ghost.

"Listen, whoever you are. I don't know what stupid games you play or whatever this is, but coming here, ordering meat you don't even know how to prepare, and thinking my sister is stupid enough to be impressed that you know the name for it, ain't gonna work. Or did you think you had free pick, since the other two are too scared now?"

Ghost files all that information away to sort it later but the annoyance in your words does something to him.

"I know how to prepare that." He doesn't even think about why he wants to prove it to you. But he can't leave with you thinking he isn't capable. He just can't.

And now there is almost something like curiosity in your eyes and the scowl turns into a cold grin. You step closer until you stand before him. And although you have to look up to him, Ghost gets the impression that you are on his eye level. At least. Something about you signals 'equal' to his brain. And Ghost has been fighting long enough to trust these impressions.

"Prove it, pretty boy. Shop closes at 5, we live upstairs. I expect you 5:30, bring everything you need, I'll have the meat ready. Now fuck off."

You shove him outside. Knife in one hand, the other pressed to his chest and he can feel the strength. Wonders briefly if you could take him down if you wanted.

You're in clean clothes, you changed before coming to the bar, but there's still small traces of blood in your scent. Because of that and because of how large you are (because of course you'd be large, you carry carcasses of meat around all day and chop them up), people aren't really interacting with you. You're just sitting at the bar, drinking alone.

Until Ghost sits down next to you. It takes a while for him to speak, the two of you in silence until he does so. He talks about your job, reminiscing about his own days of being a butcher. He's drawn towards you because of that, sees a kindred spirit in your shared experiences.

And yes, part of it is because his time as a butcher was before his family died. His mother, brother, sister-in-law, & nephew were still alive then. And in the small traces of blood that lingers around you, he can almost feel like he's back there with them. That he's home again. But he knows that it would be unfair to only be around you because you remind him of better times, but then he ends up actually liking you for you.

With each interaction that you guys have over the next few weeks and months, each time you meet up, he falls in love with you. The way you laugh, the way you smile. Even the way you walk. And slowly but surely, you start to become his home. He smells the traces of animal blood on you and doesn't get reminded of his family, he gets reminded of you and only you. He'll always love the family he lost, but he found a new one in you.

This is a masterlist of all of the Butcher!Reader Drabbles. This reader is gender neutral and with Simon "Ghost" Riley.

Ghost Meeting You at a Bar

Ghost Helping You in the Butcher Shop