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banderhoe · 6 years

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late night (colin ritman x reader)

hello, this is my first colin fic; hope you enjoy! ~

synopsis: (Y/N) works at Tuckersoft with Colin and is overwhelmed during a stressful workday. Fluff!

word count: 2134. i got carried away

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“(Y/N)!” You jumped as Thakur slammed his arms down on your desk playfully, shaking both your computer and Colin’s, who worked on the other side of your desk. He glanced up, shooting an annoyed glance at Thakur before shoving his headphones down harder over his ears and returning to work. “Whatcha workin on today?”

“Uh, still working on James’ proposal for next week. Why?” Your job at Tuckersoft was essentially to draft documents describing and proposing new games being developed at the company and send them off to major distributors to convince them to purchase the games in bulk when they came out. Developers would give you a demo of their game once it was completed, and you would use the power of persuasion to sell it to stores.

“Listen, I know this is last minute, but GameStuds down the street is struggling financially, and the manager told me today that they would double what they were previously gonna pay us for two new games if we get the proposals to them by tonight. Computer games are apparently their main sell, and he thinks they might be able to stay afloat longer if they can sell more. He wants Andy’s and Lola’s new games.”

“So you’re saying I need to have two new proposals for them by tonight?” Your heart sped up; that wouldn’t be nearly enough time.

“Well... I mean...” He sighed. “Yes. Yes, that’s unfortunately what I’m saying.”

“What the hell, Thakur?”

You glanced over at Colin, grateful for his interruption. He was standing up and walking around to your side of the table, headphones hung lopsided around his neck.

“You know how much work she puts into those things, and it’s the reason so many stores distribute Tuckersoft games. You can’t just make her bust out two full length proposals in a day.” You could feel Colin looming above you, the weight of his hand protectively on your shoulder, but you didn’t look up. Colin was always much more outspoken with Thakur than you ever were.

“Yeah, I know it’s not ideal, but it’d really boost profits for months to come if we can get double pay for two new games. And you’d obviously get double, too, (Y/N).”

Your eyes darted from him to your computer, Colin’s grip on your shoulder growing stronger. “Yeah, okay, I guess. I’ll do it.”

“Great. It’s 2:13 now, so, can you get them in by 2 am? That’s almost twelve hours. You don’t even have to run them by me, just email them straight to GameStuds.”

“Okay,” you nodded.

“I’ll have Andy and Lola send you their demos.” Thakur flashed you a grateful thumbs up and disappeared into his office.

“Well, I guess it’s gonna be a late night,” you said, spinning your chair around to face Colin.

“Jesus.” He was angrily staring in Thakur’s direction. “Are you gonna be able to do that?”

You shrugged. “I’ll have to. I don’t get off easy like you programmers, with months to work on one project. Spoiled assholes,” you grinned.

“Oh, fuck off,” he swiped at your arm. “I’ll be here for moral support if you need me.” He stuck a blunt in the corner of his mouth and winked, returning to his seat.

“Thanks, Col.” You ran your hands through your hair, preparing yourself for the long night before you.

You and Colin had been close for nearly a year, since you started working at Tuckersoft. You took classes at the nearby university and had picked up the job randomly for some money on the side because the job description had consisted of writing. You were not a computer science person, and, frankly, not a gamer. Because of this, you had no idea who Colin was when you started working at the company, and therefore were unfazed by his ego and blunt personality which could come off as intimidating to some. His frequent sarcasm and emo taste in music matched completely with yours, and in a short matter of time you two were practically inseparable, waiting for the other to finish what they were working on so you could take your lunch breaks together, and picking up breakfast for the other person when they were running late to work. When Colin needed a break from constant programming he would meander over to your side of the table and sit next to your computer until you payed attention to him. It made what was initially a meaningless side-job into something you genuinely enjoyed every day. Days like today, however, were much less enjoyable.

Your inbox beeped with an incoming message from Andy, a programmer who had been working at Tuckersoft for a little over a year. You opened the file and pushed your earbuds in, hitting the “RUN” button on your computer to test out the game. After about thirty seconds of smooth gameplay, the screen buzzed and glitched, revealing a blue and pink pixelated screen before ultimately crashing.

“Fuck,” you whispered under your breath, ripping out your earbuds and walking over to the other side of the room where Andy’s desk was. “Dude. Your game isn’t stable.”

“What?” He glanced up at you.

“Look, I usually wouldn’t mind giving you a few extra days, but Thakur needs this proposal in addition to Lola’s in by 2 am. So I can’t waste any time here. You have one hour, or I’m gonna be here literally all night.”

“Okay, you got it. Sorry (Y/N).”

By the time you returned to your seat, Lola had sent you her demo, which thankfully was stable. You breathed a sigh of relief and opened a blank document.

“What was that about?” Colin poked his head around his computer, looking at you from across the desk. He was wearing a faded grey graphic tee and a blue collared shirt on top, unbuttoned. He looked damn good, as usual. But you knew he wouldn’t feel the same; you two were friends. Just really good friends.

“Oh, Andy’s game isn’t stable. But it’s okay, Lola’s is ready, so I’ll just write her proposal first.”

Colin frowned. “Well, listen, if you need me to threaten that kid until he gets his shit together, just say the word, yeah?” He leaned forward in his seat. “And Thakur too, for that matter. You don’t need all this fuckin’ work.”

“I’ll be okay, Col, no threatening necessary.” You forced a smile, but Colin wasn’t fooled; he could tell you were stressed out. You were bouncing your knee and biting your lip, telltale signs of your anxiety. He knew them inside and out by now.

“Hey.” He leaned forward and grabbed your left hand. “Look at me.” You did. “You’ll be completely fine. Just relax. You’re a bomb ass writer; you’ll get it done.” He stroked your hand lightly with his thumb, and it sent a jolt through your entire body.

“Thanks, Colin.” You tried to calm your heart rate, but couldn’t be sure if it was so high due to the work ahead of you or the boy in front of you.

~10 hours later~

You had finished Lola’s proposal but only received Andy’s demo a few hours ago, and it was nearly 12:30. Most of the office had left already, expect for you, Colin, and the secretary at the front desk. Even Thakur had checked out. You and Colin were usually the latest workers anyway, but you had to control a whimper at the thought of finishing this entire proposal by 2 am. Andy’s game was complicated, and to write convincingly about it you had to learn all the ins-and-outs of the game, which took even more time in addition to the writing. You worked feverishly, eyes glued to the screen.

“(Y/N). Hey.” You jumped nearly all the way out of your seat, Colin’s voice having brought you out of your computer-induced trance.

“Jesus, Colin. Don’t do that.”

“Sorry, sorry,” he chuckled. “Just trying to wake up the zombie. Let’s go take a break, yeah?” He kicked your leg lightly.

“No, I gotta finish this proposal first.”

“Nooo, you need to take a break,” he said, steering your chair away from the computer. Usually, you were the one dragging him away from his programming, forcing him to drink a cup of tea and clear his head for a bit.

“No, I need to keep doing this, Colin, just let me do this first, I need to--” your voice broke, eyes tearing up. You were utterly exhausted.

“Hey, hey.” Colin kneeled down and held your shoulders. You avoided his eyes; you didn’t want him to see you crumbling under the pressure like this. It was embarrassing.

“You’re doing so well. You’re almost done, love.” He brought his hands up to your cheeks, lightly stroking them. “Hey, look at me.”

Grudgingly, you met his eyes. His touch was at least calming you down a bit.

“I promise you, you’ll be done soon and it’ll all be okay. I just need you to come with me for two minutes, okay? Just for a little break. Alright?” He touched his forehead to yours, breathing in slowly. You tried to match his pace and calm yourself down.

“Okay,” you said weakly.

“Okay. Come on, sweetheart,” Colin murmured softly, practically dragging you up out of your seat for the first time in ten hours. He wrapped an arm around your waist and led you to the break room. You leaned against the counter in an exhausted daze as Colin moved around the small kitchen. A minute later, he was by your side again, holding a cup of tea.

“Here, love.” You accepted the cup, your fingers sliding off of his as he gave it to you. He smiled supportively down at you, and you couldn’t help but to smile back despite the wrecked mental state that you were in. It was times like these when you wished you could just reach up and kiss him, but lacked the courage. You didn’t want to ruin a perfect friendship, anyway.

You swallowed a few sips and began to feel a bit better, the warm drink comforting your throat. Colin reached down and rubbed your back, and you leaned into his chest, closing your eyes and breathing out deeply for the first time in hours. You two stood like that for a minute, until you remembered the time, and the fact that you had less than two hours to finish your work. You slowly moved away from Colin, gulping down the rest of the tea.

“Feeling better?” he asked softly, his hand still lingering on your back.

“Yeah. Thanks, C. I just gotta finish this now.”

Colin nodded, taking your empty cup and following you back to your seat.

As you continued working, Colin moved his chair over next to you, as he was done with his work for the day. He sat there with his headphones on, eyes closed, reclined and quietly listening to music as you typed away, occasionally resting a hand on your arm or rubbing his knee against yours if you let out a frustrated noise or got too antsy.

At 1:52, you typed the last word and fell back in your chair, scrolling through the impossibly long document you had just written to make sure everything you needed was there.

Colin scooted closer to you. “Done?”

You nodded, did a quick spell check, saved the proposal, and sent it off to GameStud’s manager. “Oh, my God. Finally.”

“And look at that! Seven minutes before the deadline! What a pro,” Colin said, his voice husky with tiredness but happy.

“Hey, I’m sorry I kept you up so late. You didn’t have to stay with me.”

“I know, but I wanted to.” He reached out to wrap his arms around you, and you leaned in, falling into his lap, your arms around his torso and your head buried in the crook of his neck. He pressed a light kiss to the top of your head, and your heart nearly burst right there. If this was the way you two were going to be, you knew you wouldn’t be able to conceal your feelings any longer.

Raising your head up, you prepared to take your chance-- but Colin beat you to it, grabbing your chin and pressing his lips to yours. Fiercely, you kissed him back, feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted off your shoulders.

After a few seconds, you pulled away, still in shock. “You feel the same way?”

“Well, obviously,” he chuckled, and pulled your head down to peck your lips again. “Since the day we met.”

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whEW that was longer than i expected lol. anyway, i might do a sequel for this if you guys want-- let me know! i will try to respond to any requests as well.

#black mirror #bandersnatch #bandersnatch imagine #colin ritman #colin ritman imagine #colin ritman x reader #will poulter imagine #will poulter #will poulter x reader

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