Y/N is neurodivergent. Despite having a successful career, she is insecure about her intelligence and is very sensitive to remarks that imply that she isn’t smart at all. On the set of the music video for Speed Demon, a crew member makes a joke about her intelligence which upsets her but she tries to downplay it. Michael notices something is wrong and comforts her.
badera!michael and fem!reader
Note: Hope you guys enjoy! This is my first time writing fanfic (been reading it for years, now have the courage to try writing a little one lol) so be easy on me! Happy reading! :)
You loved coming on set to watch your boyfriend Michael film his music videos. You had a busy schedule of your own in your career, but when you had the opportunity to watch Michael film a music video - you always jumped to it. You were particularly excited to watch this one being filmed, it was for his single Speed Demon.
It was a long day today for Michael - he was filming the dance show off scene between himself and the rabbit. He was laser focused on making sure it was perfect, doing retakes and talking to the director in between takes. His perfectionism meant that he missed it when a crew member, Matt, had come up to you to talk to you.
When Matt came up to you, you were focused on trying to figure out this questionnaire sheet you had to fill out for work. It should have been easy and quick, but with your tendency of getting easily distracted by your thoughts/the world around you, your processing speed and the way the questions were worded - it made filling out this stupid little questionnaire sheet a million times harder than it should have been.
“Hey Y/N!”
You didn’t answer right away as you were trying to figure this questionnaire sheet out while simultaneously making the realization about how long rabbits ears really are.
“Earth to Y/N haha!”
You felt a someone tap your shoulder and you snap your head up, looking at the smiling face of Matt. You felt embarrassment wash over you when you realized he was probably standing there for a while trying to get your attention.
“Hi Matt!” you exclaimed in your usually cheery tone and a smile to match. Your cheeks were a bit pink from embarrassment. “Sorry I didn’t answer you, I just got lost in thought over this questionnaire sheet haha.”
Matt laughed and said “No worries Y/N, we all know that you’re slower than the rest of us! Just wanted to let you know that we’re wrapping up in 20 minutes.”
You felt a heavy pang in your chest when he said that. You tried brushing it off with a smile as you told Matt thank you for letting you know.
When Matt walked off, the smile melted off of your face and you felt tears come up in your eyes. You tried blinking them away, as you didn’t want to make a scene on set. Despite trying to blink your tears away, you couldn’t help but think about how it always hurt when people would make remarks about your intelligence. You genuinely couldn’t help that your processing speed was slower than everyone else’s and that you got easily distracted. You knew you were smart enough to somehow complete your education and do as well as you could manage for your career, but in moments like this, it was difficult to believe that you were smart at all.
20 minutes passed by quickly and you were still working on the questionnaire sheet. You were trying your best to complete it, but Matt’s comment kept flooding your mind. The anxiety from thinking that everyone on set thought you were dumb was all-consuming.
You didn’t even notice that Michael had come up to you. Michael knew that you had a tendency to do that, but he didn’t mind it. He thought it was cute that you would be so wrapped up in whatever your brain was thinking.
“Hey dove, what are you working on?” he asked while beginning to rub your back in circles. Michael felt you jolt a bit, but then relax a little when you realized it was Michael speaking.
“I’m just working on this questionnaire sheet for work.” What was abnormal was that you didn’t look up when he said it, you stared hard at the sheet and gripped your pen tighter in your hand. Normally you would have looked up with a big smile on your face and gave him a kiss and a bear hug. You guys had been together for two years, almost three - being together for that long meant Michael figured out how you acted when you were upset and he immediately knew in that moment that’s how you were feeling right now.
“Are you ok, Y/N? You seem upset by something, is it because of this sheet?” You felt the burning sensation of tears beginning to form again and threatened to fall. Unfortunately a singular teardrop fell onto the sheet of paper, prompting Michael to say, “Love, look at me please, what’s wrong?”
You finally looked up to Michael and you looked like a hurt animal. Your eyes were glistened with tears, your cheeks pink and a somber expression was etched across your normally chipper face. “Do you think I’m stupid?” You asked, your voice small.
Michael furrowed his brow and said “No I don’t think you’re stupid, love. I hate it when you talk about yourself like that, you’re so smart. What happened that made you think that today?”
You took a shaky breath and a few tears fell from your eyes unconsciously. You began to speak, but more tears rained down as you explained, “A crew member came up to me a bit ago while I was working on this sheet to let me know that you guys were wrapping up soon. He was joking and said we all know you’re slower than the rest of us. It really hurt my feelings but I’m probably just being dramatic.”
This deeply angered and hurt Michael. How dare someone, especially someone that was hired to work for him, say such hurtful things to his girlfriend. Michael knew that you struggled with your attention span and it took a bit longer for you to process things, but he knew that you were so smart despite all of that. He hated that people think they could say things like that to you.
“Y/N, you’re not being dramatic at all. How mean of him to say that to you. Stand up love.” You did what you were told as you heaved heavy sobs. Michael wrapped his arms around you into a bear hug and kissed your temple sweetly.
“You are not stupid, my love. You are so, so smart. I think you are so smart, I know so many people think you are so smart. I want you to never listen to people like that crew member, they don’t know what they are talking about.” You buried your face into the crook of his neck, still feeling awful but less so due to Michael’s reassuring words and the deep pressure of his bear hug. “Which crew member said this to you?”
“Matt said that.” You mumbled. Michael loosened his bear hug so he could hold your waist and look at you.
“Thank you for letting me know love, I will deal with it ok?” You nodded and Michael planted a soft kiss on your lips. He looked at you with a smile and said “Alright, stay here for a moment, love. I’m going to speak to the director for a minute and then we’ll go, ok?”
You knew when he said that, that he was going to indirectly fire Matt for doing that to you by using the director to do the dirty work for him. Even though it was sweet in a way, you also hated it too a bit, you didn’t want to cause more of a scene. However with Michael around, he was never going to let anyone (even if it was a crew member) hurt you and get away with it.
After speaking with the director, Michael came back to you and wrapped his arm around your shoulders, guiding you to the car where Bill was waiting for you two. As Michael caught you up to speed on how production was going, you couldn’t help but think about how grateful you were to have such an amazing person like Michael as your boyfriend.
