The Big Book of Self Inserts

~Feelings~ Ryker x F!reader

Y/N stood at the steps of Studio Palmo. Gazing down, her mind raced until finally, she gathered the courage to enter. Opening the door slowly she was greeted by Palmo, who was cheerful as always. After some small talk, Ryker emerged from his room and descended downstairs. This was it. The reason Y/N had been so anxious was that today was the day she decided to confess her love to her best friend, Ryker. After finishing up talking with Palmo, Y/N caught Ryker right before he was about to leave.

"Hey, Ryker!" Y/N greeted cheerfully.

"Oh, hey Sam" Ryker greeted back with a fairly monotone voice. "Did you need something?"

"Yeah!" She nodded enthusiastically. "I actually wanted to talk to you about something, If you aren't busy." She explained.

"Nah, I'm not busy." He stated bluntly. Opening the door he nodded his head for you to follow, to which you obliged. After a few steps, they began talking again. "So what's up?" He asked. Gathering your thoughts, you finally let go.

"Listen, we've been friends for a while and I-. I just really really like you, Ryker." Y/N confessed. As much as she stumbled over her own words, she got it out.

"What?" He questioned angrily. A stark contrast to his previous tone, which had confused Y/N. "That's a joke right? Honestly Y/N I expected better than a prank this cruel." Ryker spoke with more disappointment in his voice than anger now.

"No! Ryker I-" She tried to defend but it only fell on deaf ears. He shook his head.

"Sure, go let Martin have his laugh. I'm done." Ryker said bluntly.

Ryker, upset, stormed back into the studio, surely putting off any of his plans for the day. While Y/N stood there. She didn't know how to feel. Stunned, rejected, hurt, maybe a bit of all of it. Not taking any more time to process, she headed back to the ranger outpost.

-time skip-

Ryker began his day as usual. Palmo had asked him to help out so he did. After a small breakfast, he began working. It had been a slow morning which definitely wasn't usual. Y/N usually dropped by every morning, sometimes bringing a few tourists with her. Ryker couldn't get that talk with her out of his mind. No matter how many questions he had he always circled back to one: What if she was serious?

"Something on your mind Ryker?" Palmo asked cheerfully. Ryker was always amazed that he could tell what people were feeling. Even if he had his own special way of saying it.

"Sam played a joke on me a few days ago. I'm still kinda upset about it." Ryker admitted. No point in lying. Palmo knew most of his tells after living with him for so long.

"Sam? A joke? That doesn't seem quite right." Palmo stated.

"Yeah, she told me that she liked me. Seems like quite the joke to me." Ryker answered. The words left a bitter taste in his mouth. Palmo seemed unusually quiet which caused Ryker to look over.

"Feelings aren't something to joke about Ryker. Are you completely sure it was a joke?" In a moment of pure seriousness, Palmo raised his question. It was more unsettling than anything.

"I mean, no." Ryker slowly answered. "But-" Ryker tried to defend himself but Palmo cut in.

"Maybe you should go get an answer then. You can't always assume everything you don't like is a trick." Palmo said calmly.

"Don't like?" Ryker scoffed "Of course I like her, that's why it's the perfect prank. She could never like me back." Ryker explained. Palmo lightly shrugged, quickly regaining his former cheer.

"I've never seen her stop by any other place every day." Palmo pointed out. Ryker paused then quickly nodded. Abandoning his work he set out to find her.

Ryker went by the ranger outpost first. Checking Y/N's living quarters it looked like it had been left alone for a while. He looked around for a minute before footsteps approached from the stairs, making himself divert his attention.

"What are you doing here?" A voice called out. From the stairs walked Scarlett, Rigbarth's other SEED ranger. Ryker tried to think quickly.

"What are you doing here?" He threw back. Her stern look never faded.

"I thought you were Y/N" Scarlett admitted.

"Yeah well, same here." Ryker defended.

"Get out." Scarlett pointed towards the door.

"Have you seen Y/N anywhere?" Ryker asked, hoping to get out of a scolding.

"No, now leave." Scarlett demanded. Ryker was more than happy to oblige.

Walking past the bridge Ryker noticed a familiar face: Lucy. While he wasn't familiar with her himself, Y/N and her were pretty good friends, being one of the first people she met when moving to Rigbarth. All this to say if anyone knew, it was her. Wanting to find Y/N quickly he cut to the chase.

"Have you seen Y/N anywhere? I can't find her." Ryker asked.

"Really? You should look harder then. She turned up at the infirmary this morning after going MIA for a few days." Lucy explained.

"Infirmary?" Ryker inquired. MIA? Infirmary? Has it really been that long since I've talked to her? He questioned silently.

"Yeah, some pretty bad injuries, nothing my mom can't handle though. I was just on my way to tell Livia." She explained further. Ryker nodded and ran off for the short walk to the clinic.

A few minutes had felt like forever when he opened the door he rushed to Y/N's bedside not caring about or perhaps not hearing Simone's scoldings. His focus was completely on her. Weakly looking up at him Y/N was a bit confused to see him there given their last conversation.

"Ryker?" Y/N stared up at him. He thought about what to say, what to do, he was never good at these types of things. Until finally all he could say at that moment.

"I love you, Y/N. I'm so sorry for what I said." Ryker poured his emotions into each and every one of those words. Carefully he moved his hand on the side of her face to move some loose hair from her sight. Y/N's hand met his as she smiled brightly.

"I love you too." She replied. As the couple shared an honest moment, not only with each other but with themselves as well.

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Stats:

Word Count: 1081

Time Spent: I didn't keep track but probably around 3-4 hours.

Requested by: Seasongtheseawing