Loving Your Writings So Here's My Request ♡

Loving your writings so here's my request ♡

If you are comfortable, imagine Stan and Xeno trying to court reader (gender neutral if you can) who's jewelry artist asexual but romantic, who just can't for the love of god recognize naturally flirting like gestures towards them and just thinks people are being kind or reading it as platonic gesture.

When reader is being told out loud straight to the face that someone is actually interested or in love with them by anyone, the reader would become insecure as they have deep doubts that their platonic and romantic attraction alone towards people is enough after bad dating experiences from past where people have claimed them being cold hearted machine because of the lack of sexual attraction and blindness to see nor notice flirting kind gestures naturally thus not responding those when others have expected that so the reader kind of shots down the people who dare to confess their love towards them out of fear being hurt all over again, even when their own romantic feelings are awakened.

I like this prompt a lot, I just hope I did it justice. Sorry this took so long, I had to consult with a friend, so parts of this is more how they said they felt when things like this happened. Honestly, though, I don't think Stanley and Xeno would mind if their partner was asexual.

StanXeno x gn!Reader

You stare hard at yourself in the mirror, searching yourself for the part of you that was broken. You think there must be something; why else would that be what everyone you’ve ever dated says to you as they walk out the door? 

You don’t find anything, except for a few familiar blemishes.

With a sigh, you trudge out of the bathroom to finish preparing for the day. You were running a bit behind, but it wasn’t like you had that many customers in the stone world. At most, Xeno would already be waiting for you to ask for something, but he rarely complained too much about such things. If anything, he should know not to show up until at least ten minutes after when you typically “opened”. 

You take the steps down from the living quarters to where your little shop was a bit too quickly, causing you to miss the last step. Your stomach drops, heart racing out of control as you fall, your whole body tensing to prepare for the inevitable pain of landing. 

But instead, a pair of hands grabs you at the last second, stopping you just centimeters from the hard ground. 

“Gotcha,” Stanley’s voice sighs in your ear. Turning your head, you find him looking a little winded, as if he’d just raced down the stairs himself. Behind him, Xeno is making his way down much more casually. 

Huh. That was weird.

You mumble a soft thanks when Stanley helps you steady yourself on your own feet, which he just nods at. 

“What fortunate timing,” Xeno says. “Stan and I were just on our way to meet you.” 

“Good thing, too. That would have been a bad fall.” Stanley says, his own hands now behind his back.

The three of you take the rest of the short journey together, both men quiet as you unlock the door and bustle around the inside of your tiny jewelry crafting space. 

Xeno had this put here for you after you’d complained a little too loudly about how much you missed your craft. He’d had the space carved out, and all the materials had been given to you for no other reason than you wanted it. So he claimed, anyway. 

You didn’t get why people didn’t think he was nice. He was good to you all the time, always finding time to stop by and say hello, and never getting upset with you if you took too long to do something for him. 

Stanley was nice to you all the time too, even if he sometimes stood a little too close. He brought you things you wanted, did lots of heavy lifting whenever you needed the help, and liked to just linger around your shop and keep you company. 

“So,” You say. “What brings you both by?”

“Are we not permitted to visit just because?” Xeno asks. 

“No! No, of course you can come hang out! I like your company,” You say with a smile.

“We like your company, too,” Stanley says, sliding a cigarette from his pocket, sticking it between his lips, and lighting it. 

“Oh, Stanley, could you not-” You don’t even finish the sentence before it’s out of his mouth and he’s pinching the end to kill the ember. He sticks it behind his ear for later. 

“Sorry, sorry,” He says. Xeno lets out a soft huff, but otherwise says nothing about the short moment. 

“It’s okay,” You say with a soft chuckle. “I’m sure it’s hard to remember not to smoke in here, since I’m the only one it seems to bother.”

“It bothers me, but it seems my opinion means little,” Xeno says, and you think he might actually be pouting a little. 

“You’ve never actually asked me to put them out,” Stanley says. “If you want me to stop that bad, just tell me.” 

The look Xeno gives him has you laughing even harder.

“Anyway,” Xeno says, redirecting. “There is an actual reason we’re here.” 

You want to make a joke about him originally saying they were here just because, but he looks a little too serious now for that. Stanley, also, straightens back up at Xeno’s tone. 

“What’s up?” You ask, suddenly feeling nervous. The two of them look at each other, something secret whispered between their gazes. 

“Stanley and I are interested in you.” Xeno finally says. 

You blink, confusion filling you. 

“I don’t follow,” You say. 

“Romantically,” Stanley says. 

Oh. Oh. Oh no. 

You already had a feeling where this was headed. Were they asking you out? Seriously? Why? Surely they knew there was something wrong with you by now. You’d heard it whispered by a previous partner you’d briefly had within the colony. There was no way it hadn’t reached Xeno by now. 

“I, um,” You don’t know what to say. You don’t know what to do. 

Romantic feelings were nothing new to you, but getting into relationships had always been a painful struggle. Relationships a lot of times came with the expectation of eventual sex, and that’s where your hard line was. You didn’t crave things like that, like everyone else did, and that had led to far far too many harsh breakups that left you believing more and more that you weren’t worth anything. 

You didn’t want to fall in love again. You didn’t want to get hurt, to build something with them only to have it torn down like all the others. 

“I don’t think…” You have to let them down easy, to salvage what little relationship you’ll have left after this. “I don’t think I’m the right person for this.” 

Xeno’s head tilts, as if not comprehending what you were saying. He makes a gesture with his hand, encouraging you to continue. To explain. 

“I-I just…I’m not good at…at relationships,” You say. 

“Is anyone?” Stanley asks, now mimicking Xeno’s head tilt. “Isn’t the point of being with someone to grow with them?” 

You learned something new about Stanley Snyder today. He never struck you as such a romantic before. 

“If you feel anxious about joining our relationship as a third party, I can assure you that there is no issue. Stanley and I have discussed this at length,” Xeno says. 

“No, no, it…it’s not that,” You say quickly. “I just…I…didn’t realize…you felt that way, I guess?” 

“No?” Now Xeno looks contemplative, mentally searching his memory for every encounter you had with each other and reevaluating them one by one. “I see. So it was a failing on our part to get our intentions across.” 

Stanley steps forward suddenly, closing the distance between you and him fairly quickly. He reaches for you, taking your chin in his hand and forcing you to look up at him. 

“I’ll say it real slow, so you catch it this time,” He says. “Xeno and I like you, and want you to be a part of our relationship. Romantically. Is that clear enough?” 

You nod as best you can with how firmly he’s holding you. His grip doesn’t hurt, but it’s clear he has no intentions of letting you flee without an answer. 

“Crystal,” You say. His fingers loosen, rubbing where he’d been holding you as if he worried he’d held too tightly and hurt you. 

The softness of his touch makes your chest ache. It makes you want to lean in, to open your heart back up one more time and let him and Xeno run off with it while just praying they don’t leave you when you don’t give them your body as well. 

“So then, now that we all understand each other-”

“I don’t have sex.” The words fall out of you without any prompting, bursting from your chest before you even had time to comprehend you’d said them at all. 

The silence that follows makes you want to throw up. 

“Sorry,” You wheeze. “I-I don’t know where that came from I-”

“Is that your reason? Your real reason?” Stanley asks. You can’t read his face, or Xeno’s, but now that it’s in the open, you have no other choice but to keep talking. 

“I just don’t feel it, you know? The…the want…for it…And I know that it’s supposed to be important in a relationship, and I’ve gone through this so many times already, so I just…I figure you should just know I’m broken ahead of time so-”

“Broken?” You’re not sure you’ve ever heard Xeno sound like that before. “What fool would say that you were broken?” 

Everyone. All your past loves had said you were broken, that there was something deeply wrong with you. That you were unfixable. 

Stanley has a look in his eye, and somehow you know he’s mentally targeting someone already.

“I just…it’s not normal, is it? To not…feel any desire in that way?” Your voice sounds small. You feel small. 

“It’s statistically unlikely that everyone on this planet feels physical desire. The human body is a marvel-”

“Do you feel love?” Stanley asks, cutting Xeno off before he can start to lecture for real. 

“That’s not really enough-”

“Not what I asked.” 

“I…yes, I can. I do. I just-”

“Okay then. Why does anything else matter?” 

His words short circuit your brain, leaving you staring at him with parted lips like a gaping fish. 

You’d always been told it mattered. That sex was what was most important. That your purely romantic love for someone just wasn’t enough. You’d always been pressured for more. 

“Let me assure you,” Xeno steps up, shooing Stanley to the side so that he can make eye contact with you while he speaks. “What we are looking for is a romantic partner. There are not, and will never be any expectations for you to perform in a way you are not comfortable. We want you for other reasons.” 

“Like what?” You ask, desperate to understand further. 

“Your personality, for one. The fact that we simply enjoy being in your presence. You’re intelligent, skilled, you make Stanley laugh like a child, something I have not seen anyone do in years-” 

“We want you because we’ve started falling in love with you,” Stanley cuts in, once again stopping Xeno before he can get too deep. “And you said you feel love, so it works out perfectly. If we need to fuck someone, we’ll just fuck each other.” 

The laugh that bubbles out of you at his blunt vulgarity has him grinning ear to ear. Stanley always looked happy when you laugh. Xeno, too, seems pleased at how your mood is rising a little. 

“Let us care for you,” Xeno says. “And have a little more faith. We aren’t animals.” 

“Can I think about it?” You ask. It was a big decision, whether you wanted to open your heart the way they were asking you to or to stay in your little bubble forever. There was a large part of you that was still terrified that you were going to get hurt again. 

“Of course,” Xeno says, reaching up to brush a tear you didn’t know you’d started shedding from your face. “Until then, I believe Luna has been begging you for some earrings.”

You let out another weak chuckle. 

“Yeah, she has,” You say with a soft sigh. “I…I won’t take too long. Just…give me till the end of the day, okay?”

“Of course, my dear. Should you need anything before then, though, we are still available to assist you,” Xeno says. 

“Then…can you guys help me sort some of these gemstones? The boxes are heavy as hell and I need extra hands-”

“Whatever you need,” Stanley says. “We can do it.”