Requested by: No one
Summary: You are helping Joe pack for a move and stumble across some old pictures of Joe in his early boxing years
(This is loosely based off a post on tumblr from 'askthewvba' where Joe is shown talking about his appearance in the NES Punch Out. I just thought it would be a cute idea to write about. Was struggling to find pictures of NES Glass Joe so here you go.)
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"Again, I can't thank you enough for helping me pack, mon amour." Joe thanked you for what felt like the 100th time. You smiled to yourself and finished taping up the box you were working on before looking to Joe.
"You don't have to keep thanking me Joey. I'm more than happy to help." You explained once more before moving the now taped off box with the others and standing up.
"Merci." Joe muttered while finishing up with his own box and moving it with the others. You both took a step back and examined the room. From what you could see everything, except the furniture of course, was safely packed away and ready to be moved into the moving van when needed.
"I think we got everything." You commented with a proud smirk as you searched around for any stray items, checking your watch after to see only an hour or two had passed. "That didn't take too long."
"Not everything. I still need to go through the attic." Joe explained with a nervous look before leading you down the main hall of his place.
"Your place has an attic?" You asked, only hearing about this attic now.
"Oui. Most of the things up there are just old relics and furniture. Most of it is either broken or could be given away." Joe answered before the sight of a pull down attic door appeared, hidden away in another room. Joe stood up on his tippy toes and carefully pulled the string down, the ladder slowly extending down to the floor with some dust falling with it.
"I don't go up here much. If you don't want to continue you don't have to." Joe said after noticing the large amounts of dust that coated the stairs and sides of the entrance. The place was bound to be a mess.
"Nonsense! I drove over here to help you pack and I'm not leaving until everything is packed." You boosted before confidently climbing the ladder, crawling into the decently sized attic with ease. Joe felt a smile tug at his lips as he scrambled to follow you up the ladder, listening to the creaking floorboards of the attic as you walked around. The attic wasn't as clustered as you would have expected but did have a good amount of stuff in it. There was an old couch with many boxes of things scattered on and around it. A broken bookshelf in the corner with a larger plastic box filled with boxing gear to your right. There was also an old lamp with a box of unused lightbulbs and other little appliances to the left.
"I don't know what you were worried about, Joey. This shouldn't take to long." You noted after taking in the room, placing your hands on your hips for a moment. Joe looked around and had to agree with you.
"I guess so. You want to take the right and I'll start on the left?"
"Sounds like a plan." You agreed before rushing over to your side of the attic and started going through the few boxes and and items scattered about, occasionally raising up an item and asking Joe what he wanted to do with it. Most of the items ended up being put in a box to be given away or thrown out entirely since most of it was just collecting dust anyway. As you were rummaging through the many boxes, you finally got to the specific one with old boxing gear in it. You eyed the items with interest, pulling out some standard red gloves, cleaning them off, and carefully putting them on before sneaking over to Joe. Joe noticed your shadow and was about to ask you what you needed before feeling a playful punch to his shoulder, catching him off guard for a moment until he recognized his old gloves and smiled.
"I see you got to my old gear." Joe laughed as you continued to mess around with the gloves, pretending to punch an invisible enemy until Joe stood up and walked over to the plastic container where you found the gloves. You stopped what you were doing and followed behind your boyfriend, taking off the red gloves and placing them to the side as Joe rummaged through the container.
"Je ne les ai pas vus depuis des années. (I haven't seen these in years.)" Joe muttered to himself while looking over the items with a soft grin, picking up an old piece of headgear and some old training supplies, quietly reminiscing to himself in French. You smiled at your boyfriend's reaction and decided to do some more digging, pushing everything aside until your eyes caught the sight of what appeared to be a book. Upon closer inspection, it was a photo album! You slowly pulled the book out and opened it to a random page, seeing photos from Joe's early years at the WVBA. For the first few pages you saw Joe with a few boxers you didn't recognize, although there were a few that you did. For example you could easily pick out Mr. Sandman and Bald Bull from the small crowd along with someone that looked a little like Don Flamenco but not exactly. So you continued to flip through the pages, seeing more and more images, most of them focused on Joe's boxing career with a few showing him during his leisure time, until a very particular and noticeable change in the pictures happened.
"Uh, Joey?" You tugged at your boyfriend's sleeve, giggling a bit to yourself. Joe snapped out of his mini trance and turned his attention to what you were holding, his face turning a light shade of red when he realized what you were on about.
"You dyed your hair blonde?!" You asked with a smirk, pointing out the clear difference in hair color in the next group of photos, the bright color contrasting with his natural auburn. Joe nervously averted his eyes and scratched his cheek, a shaky smile appearing on his face.
"O-Oui, I did. I thought it would be a good idea at the time." He admitted with a small stutter, timidly laughing before looking back at the book.
"I was looking to reinvent my image." He continued on with a distant look.
"And you went about that by becoming a blonde?" You snarkily replied, noting that it was the only major change. Joe once again averted his eyes, his face twisting into one of embarrassment. You felt your attitude soften when you noticed Joe's expression, deciding to calm down with the teasing.
"Well, if it makes you feel better, I think you look cute either way. Blonde or red-headed, you're still mon amant (my lover)." You added on, leaning up to place a kiss on Joe's cheek, earning a soft blush and smile from the Frenchman who leaned over to return the kiss with one of his own. You bashfully pulled away from the kiss with a smile before letting your eyes wander back to the photo album, noticing another peculiar sight.
"Wait. You got to meet one of the Bruiser brothers?" You asked with genuine curiosity only to have the book slammed shut.
"That's enough reminiscing for today! We have an attic to clean!" Joe said rather loudly while standing up and walking away with the photo album.
"Joe, you didn't answer my question!" You pointed out only to hear, "Question? Quelle question ? Nous avons des bagages à faire! (Question? What question? We have packing to do!)" You sighed and rolled your eyes, making a mental note to ask Joe about that later.
YOU ARE READING
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