hi i don’t know if you write about mental health problems or anything but if you do, please could you write a billy butcher x female reader where you’re his gf and it’s gotten really bad but he takes care of you ?? sorry i know it’s a bit much but i’m going through it tbh ://
A/N: You and me both, my love. Hope everything gets better for you.
I wrote this based mainly on anxiety since is the one I’m most acquainted with.
Words: 1.9k+
Summary: Billy gives you advice on your anxiety.
Warnings: Female!Reader. Mentions of anxiety. Mentions of stress over college work. Slight age gap is mentioned, but you can imagine it as big or as small as you want, literally, anyone can be a college student. College Student Problems!
You have been having an extreme hard time with college. Teachers like to believe that any student can easily work under extreme pressure, so they like to schedule all tests and essays in a space of a week and a half.
With all of that, it means that you need to study with many weeks in advance and hope that you won’t mix all the information in your head and get confused. As well as... Take as less breaks possible.
That may sound ridiculous to many, and you’re 100% sure that any doctor would yell at you if they had heard you say that, (since breaks are ALWAYS NEEDED), but you just can’t bring yourself to take breaks.
It’s both mentally and physically impossible. You already can’t sleep that well; you can’t eat that much or even focus on other things other than your notes and books (you had previously grabbed at the library).
Everyone that hangs out with you knows that you’re a very anxious person by nature, but they never saw you like this. And if they had to admit, it is quite scary.
Your boyfriend, Billy, who also lives with you, has been blind to it all. It’s not his fault. You try to hide it as much from him as possible. And he’s also out of the house for most of the day and only sees you when he comes back before dinner.
He has noticed your jumpy leg under the table, bloody bottom lip (from you biting it) and especially how less you eat. But like I said before, you’re an anxious person by nature.
Billy doesn’t see your daily mental breakdowns or hears you giving yourself a pep talk when in the shower, because he’s almost never present whenever something important happens between the boys.
But everything will change today.
And that is because today is a Friday that Billy decided to take off ‘work’ to stay home and relax, while you, on the other hand, will spend it with online classes and studying.
You lean back on your desk chair, finding it awfully uncomfortable after so many days sitting in that same position, and sigh loudly while looking at the PowerPoint that is being projected on the Zoom call.
Your webcam is on, yet your microphone is off, making your sounds of pure frustration be silent to others that could possibly see you.
The TV in the other room is on by what you can hear over your headphones, and you’re pretty sure that Billy is sitting on the couch bingewatching a random ‘police drama’, as always.
He has made his appearance at least once on the background of your screen, which caught some people’s attention. But other than that, he has been leaving you in your corner to peacefully have your class.
You continue to take notes of what your teacher is saying silently as your mind runs miles an hour, always taking your attention somewhere else.
“You alright there?”
You turn your chair a bit to the side and look over your shoulder at the doorway behind you, looking at the owner of the deep voice and the British accent.
“Yeah” You say with a quick fake smile before turning back around to look at the screen.
“You sure?”
You nod, knowing that he can see your head (the chair’s back is not that tall).
“Alright,” He says before walking off to somewhere in your apartment.
(...)
Lunch went rather well. You ate as much as you could, which wasn’t a lot. But Billy’s cursing at the news were enough to keep your mind occupied for that short while. Other than that, your day has been like any other day of this week.
You’re officially done with your online classes for today, but unfortunately, you still need to study.
You have been reading your notes and small bits of the books the teachers told you to study with, for the past… what you believe, hour, but nothing seemed to make sense.
You’ve tried changing up a few words in the sentences, for simpler words, in hopes that your brain will soon catch the meaning as it sounds simpler... but nothing of the sort is happening.
Your eyes have filled with frustrated tears at least 10 times since you started, making the reading quite difficult. But as for right now, you are letting those tears roll down your face in complete defeat.
People do say that you shouldn’t hold back your tears, right? That it will always feel better once you stop?
Yeah, that is true. But they forgot to mention that it only lasts 10 minutes.
You sniffle while wiping the tears off your face, throwing the pencil down at the desk in pure frustration, before leaning back on the chair.
“Are you okay?” Billy asks from behind you, probably on his way to the bathroom.
“Yeah, yeah” you say while wiping your tears quickly, “My nose just started running for no reason”
A silence is set and for a few seconds you believe that he has walked away, but that was until you felt his warm hand rest over your shoulder.
“Runny nose that created tears?” He asks in a slight ironic tone.
You don’t answer him, yet his hand gives your shoulder a small squeeze.
“Get up, let’s go to the living room” He says in a whisper.
“I can’t” you say, not taking your eyes off your notebooks, “I need to keep studying”
“I’m sure you can take a break”
You sigh loudly, trying to rearrange your feelings before looking up at the older man.
“I need to keep studying” You repeat.
Your sad tone was way more noticeable to Billy this time, and he caught it right as you said the first word.
“How long has it been since you took a break?”
“I’ve been here since lunch”
Butcher’s eyes widen at your words and his mouth falls agape.
“It’s almost 5pm, what do you mean since lunch?”
You shrug as an answer before taking a quick look at your phone, checking if Butcher isn’t lying about the time, and he’s not.
His mind runs with thoughts about you probably feeling exhausted, while yours just run around the idea of another day almost being over and you haven’t even started to understand this new chapter.
You try to grab your pencil back from the table but Billy, in that same second, snatches it off your hand and puts it back down.
“Get up in your two little feet and walk your arse over to the couch”
You, surprisingly, do as told, once noticing his change of tone, as well as his change of facial expression. He looks slightly annoyed, but also, worried.
You walk off the bedroom, Billy right behind you, not even a meter away.
Once your body collides down into the soft surface of the couch, Butcher lets out a loud sigh, also taking his seat.
“Have you been doing this routine every day?” He asks, looking over at you.
“Yeah. I mean, kinda,” you answer, shrugging again, “it depends on what classes I’m having”
“Have you eaten anything since lunch?”
“No, I’m not hungry”
“How? You almost didn’t even eat anything today”
“I just feel nauseous every time I smell or see food, I can’t eat, Billy” you say, with a sadder expression taking over your face.
“And why do you not take breaks?”
“I don’t have time for breaks”
“Honey, 15 minutes wouldn’t hurt you” he says, making you look away, knowing that he won’t understand your side, “You know that”
“Yeah, I know that. But what are breaks when my mind just stays on that stupid piece of paper the whole time?” You ask, “I’ve tried everything to keep my mind occupied with something else, believe me! I just can’t relax until I got all of this sorted in my head”
“I get it, love” He says in a calmer tone, as if he was trying to calm you down with his voice, “But you know that if you’re non stop studying, at some point, your brain just wont grab anything that you’re reading, right?”
You stay silent.
“I’ve studied for college as well. No degree is easy, love, that’s for sure. I know how stressful it is, and how it feels when you don’t have your own stuff under control” His hand rests over yours, “But you don’t have to destroy your mental health because of it”
“What if it’s my mental health destroying itself and not me destroying it?”
“Well… You are sure helping it” He admits, “If your mind is worried about something from when you wake up to when you go to sleep, all you could do to relax is get a distraction, right?”
“Yeah, but I’ve tried everything”
“I’m sure you didn’t try everything, babes” He gives your hand a little squeeze, “There’s millions of options. Try not to read if you space-out too much, and try, I don’t know, watch one of those highly chaotic videos you like to watch. I’m sure those one’s will leave your mind more than occupied”
A small smile grows on your lips as you hear his words and you take a deep breath.
“And what do I do if I continue to not be able to understand anything?”
“I’m sure you understand something. You take notes like a mad woman when in class” he says with a joking tone.
“I’m serious”
“I know you are, princess. But this is not the first time you’ve felt this much pressure because of school, is it?” You shake your head, “And every time you lived past this type of shit, you were able to do every test and every essay right on time. And most of them with fucking amazing grades!” He says with a smile at the end.
There’s some silence between the two of you.
“I know it feels like it’s impossible to live through this right now, but believe me, there’s always someone in a worst situation than you, yet still is able to live their lives with smiles on their faces. If they can do it, I’m more than fucking sure you can do it 200 times better”
A silence is set between the two of you again, this time, a little longer than before.
“Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? I know it sounds impossible right now, but just try and focus on something else. Leave all of that for tomorrow”
As good as that sounds, you feel a little hesitant. Billy lifts his hand from yours and brings it over to your head, caressing it as you look down at the ground.
“I’m just scared that I won’t be able to pass these tests”
Butcher, with your words, leans forward and presses a kiss on the side of your head, over your hair.
“I would offer you my help if I could” He says making a sympathetic smile appear over your lips, “But I don’t even understand a word from what you write down”
A chuckle escapes your lips and you look back up at him.
“I can always ask Hughie for help” He offers.
“I would love that. Thank you.”
You wrap one of your arms around Billy’s torso and lean your head over his shoulder. Butcher responds quickly to your actions by wrapping his own arms around you, pulling you closer to him.
Billy leans his head to the side, laying it right on yours, and you snuggle closer to him once feeling his warmth envelop your colder body.
“Here” He says, before passing you the remote.
As soon as you start surfing through the channels, Billy remembers something.
“Start thinking about what you want for dinner” He says, “You’ll be eating a whole 3 course meal tonight, young lady”
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Hope you liked this!!!
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