#listening to “faded” while writing this also rlly encouraged the nostalgia thing

[lambilegs]

do you do sfw lee requests?

bc oh. oh boy do I think that high school sweethearts lee x reader is so so charming and hey, maybe I’m just a sucker for sweet tooth rotting fluff (also wlw duh)

you and Lee who had been inseparable, tied at the hip “best friends” for a while. you and Lee who fell for each other at the same time, who held hands under the table, who pretended to be straight until after high school where you moved in together immediately.

Lee had always been anxious. but you made her anxious thoughts go away when you lay your head on her chest. Lee had always been scared of her future, but you’re here now. you’re holding her hand through it all.

thank you 🙏

high school lee harker x reader living out their queer coming-of-age storyline

📖𓍢ִ໋🀦✎ᝰ.✉︎𓍯𓂃𓏧♡

(oh my god??? this is so sweet I am in love. (and yes hehe I definitely do sfw requests!!)

lee who always felt a bit unsettled in high school, finally becoming more aware of social cues, expectations, behaviours, and feeling herself so distanced from performing those naturally

sure, she had a tight knit group of friends, but she didn't feel like she moved through the world, through interactions, as easily as they did

but, you were there. the peer in her history class who directly pointed out her behaviours, but in a way that was free, casual, that made her feel like there was nothing wrong

you were patient, taking your time with getting to know her, and reaching through the layers of stoic distance and hesitation

it started off slow... asking her if she wanted to go to study hall together, since you both had a spare period, and watching her carefully as she poured over her infamously meticulous essays (seriously, everyone knew she was the teachers' favourite in the history and law classes). then, it turned into seeking her out at lunch and lying that you got an extra cookie from the vending machine and you thought she'd like it (you once saw her eating it during morning period, and you didn't even like the flavour), blushing bright red at the sight of her friends confusedly looking between you two.

slowly, she gave back to you, in both subtle and clear ways. she started walking you home, even though it added an extra twenty minutes to her walk. she started helping you with your essays, showing you the right ways to do citations. when she found out gossip had spread about you through the halls, she went to the perpetrator and asked them to stop, her eyes frozen on the tiles and everyone shocked to see lee harker speak up... and for someone else?

you started meeting outside of class, hanging out on the train tracks of your boring town, visiting the pond that you walked by everyday after school, and sharing meals at the nearby plaza. she listened to you like no one else ever had, hanging onto your every word as though she were watching you in the process of creating a master artwork. and you listened to her, and god, how that made her feel... like what she had to say could be taken seriously, and not just be dismissed. she didn't have to be infantilized just for being seventeen years old and less outgoing than her peers. someone saw her as a person worth paying attention to. it started off slow, with her only sharing tidbits of her life with you. the day she confessed to you to the weight of religious guilt that loomed over her day and night, in the privacy of your childhood bedroom, she had never felt so tenderly held.

soon, everyone knew you two were attached at the hips. you spent the summer break together, visiting the gas station before heading to the park, where you guys would talk. and talk... that's all you guys did. constantly talk about your days, your families, school, what your futures beheld. she talked to you of her past dreams of becoming an actress -- when you asked why, she said she had spent her life wanting to be anywhere but here, transported into a new world, and she thought being an actress could do that. now, she said, she thought about law enforcement, wanting to help people and make a change she felt she was too limited to do in your guys' town. you told her if anyone could do it, she could, and she shuddered at the sheer hope you ignited in her.

slowly, though, things changed... you started thinking more of what she thought of you, in ways you didn't with your other friends. the innocence, or perhaps ignorance, towards your feelings, that existed as a safe veil over your eyes, began to lift. suddenly, you wondered if she thought you were pretty. you found yourself longing to know what she thought of romance -- if she pined for it, wanted it, and if so, who she wanted it with. when she received a bashful confession through a candy gram, you went home and cried into your pillow.

little did you know, you were just crossing the threshold into a room she had occupied alone for years. she knew, two weeks in, what it was she felt for you. and here you were, nearly a year later, struggling to comprehend it

but, once you did, every single moment with her felt more fleeting. every walk home felt like a mere second, every lunch break felt like a quick snack, every moment with her held an import that you could barely handle, using every spare second to decipher her and what she felt

your secret feelings crumbled to the wind when you discovered someone had asked her to your school's fall formal. your friends told you the rumour was that she had agreed. that night, on the phone, when she had admitted considering it, you hung up on her. the next day, she practically cornered you in the halls, focused gaze zeroed in on you. you couldn't contain it. you broke down, weeping to her about your feelings, begging her to not tell anyone, fear churning in your stomach of what your peers, what your community, would think of you.

she hugged you, took care of you (when did she not?) and with a shaky voice, declared, "I like you too"

eager youth you both were, immediately confessing to wanting to be each other's girlfriends, whirling into complete bliss together. the autumn of senior year was spent with tenderly written love notes left in each other's lockers, interlaced fingers beneath the cafeteria table, shy first kisses exchanged behind the bleachers. lee carrying your bags home whenever you guys walked, letting you sit on the back of her bike, and finally admitting why she couldn't have you over, why things with her mom were so hard. you bought her her favourite candy without her having to ask and you called her to wish her luck on the evenings of long studying sessions. you sent her a pathetically romantic candygram that she carried in her wallet, which really had nothing much but some spare change for bus money and the receipts of all your dates.

sure, there was pain in it too. your respective friend groups were privy to your relationship, but the rest of the world wasn't. your guys' relationship forced lee to acknowledge yet another big part of her life she couldn't share with her mother. your guys' shared moments were things you had to reserve to nooks and crannies. you couldn't tape the photobooth pictures of you guys on your wall, you couldn't declare to nosey relatives that you had someone who loved you. when it got hard, you two would talk about all the things you'd do once you left town and went to college in a year. the way you'd hold hands under the sun.

and in what flashed by your guys' eyes, a year passed. and finally, you walked with her, far from the bleachers, hand in hand, back to the home you guys built. the home that finally had the pictures hung up.