#touch starved ted is my new favorite head canon

[talldecafcappuccino]

Summary: Four times Rebecca was wrong about Ted’s love language and the one time she got it just right.

1. Gifts

Rebecca had always loved gifts—getting them, unwrapping them, expressing delight over whatever she found inside. The whole process of receiving a gift made her feel warm and fuzzy, lighting her up from the inside out.

It sometimes made her feel a bit selfish or materialistic, like her love depended on things and not the important things.

For all Rupert’s faults, of which there were many, he was very good at gift giving. He always managed to pick something that fit her style, the occasion, or, at the very least, packaged it in such a way that the unwrapping felt like a gift itself. A small part of her wondered if that’s why she stayed so long. Each box acting as a balm to the many other hurts in their relationship.

But then there was Ted who brought her biscuits in a pink box each morning, no strings or obligations attached and she remembered what she loved about gifts in the first place. The idea that they were good and kind.

It was more than just receiving sinfully delicious treats. There was a pleasure in knowing someone had thought of her during their day. That they had gone out of their way to get something they knew would make her happy.

The mere act of taking the box from Ted’s outstretched hand made her toes curl with delight, her hips wiggling in her seat as she lifted the tiny lid to expose the crumbly shortbread biscuits. It was like she was five years old and seeing the roller skates she wanted under the Christms tree all over again.

Which is why she couldn't wait to give Ted his Christmas gift.

She felt like a kid on Christmas morning, the anticipation building each time she caught a glimpse of the box on her office coffee table, beautifully wrapped in a rich navy blue paper with silver ribbon and a big red bow.

They had been through so much their first season together and, while she knew he forgave her, she wanted to do something special to mark their first major holiday as allies—as friends. She knew he’d been coveting a pair of limited edition sneakers, some sort of exclusive design she didn’t really understand other than he told Beard he wanted them more than Ralphie wanted a Red Ryder BB gun.

“Wowee! Thank you, Boss, this is really something,” he said, eyes wide, admiring the shoes nestled in tissue paper. “You know what, I’m going to wear these on the flight back to Kansas for good luck. Ooh! And I’ll wear them on New Year’s too, to kick in the new year with style.”

Rebecca smiled, she was thrilled he was excited. But it wasn’t quite the reaction she expected.

He clearly loved them. He was more enthusiastic than anyone else she’d given a gift to this holiday season, but she felt like she had missed the mark somehow. She was positive it was the perfect gift for Ted Lasso, but he didn’t . . . light up like she expected.

(She probably should have wondered why she cared so much about lighting her gaffer up, but that was for future Rebecca to sort out.)

She’d assumed her feeling towards gifts was a universal reaction, after all, who doesn’t love gifts? But then, she and Keeley had a proper girl’s night, complete with white wine spritzers and sheet masks, where they took turns filling out various ridiculous quizzes in the back of old Cosmopolitan magazines. When Rebecca completed the one about love languages (confirming the importance of gifts to her emotional well-being), she realized where she had gone wrong.

Yes, everyone liked gifts, but it wasn’t what everyone loved the most. There were other ways to make people feel loved and those ways mattered.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t heard of love languages, she didn’t live under a rock, but she’d never been with someone where it really mattered to her. Not enough to really think about it.

So it became a Thing for Rebecca when she and Ted started dating a few weeks later. Because dating Ted unleashed a steady parade of sweet treats and small “thinking of you” gifts that make her feel settled and secure in a way she didn’t know was possible.

The book she had been wanting waited on her bedside table after a long day of meetings, little boxes of truffles snuck into her purse before trying press days, and on a random Tuesday evening, Ted pressed a small, beautifully wrapped jewelry box in her hand, “just because.”

For all the joy it brought, it also brought a problem: she didn’t feel like she could properly reciprocate. Without gift giving to fall back on, she felt unmoored, but it was important to her that she made Ted feel as loved as he made her feel. There was just a learning curve to it, that’s all.

And so, determined and in love, Rebecca began to study.

read the rest on ao3