Shane x Reader (Gender Neutral)

Confession (Part 1) 💐

Word Count: 1118

This will go over well, right?

You nervously walked out of Pierre's shop, holding a bouquet of pink and orange flowers. The vivid colors were an even more vivid reminder of who you bought them for. It had just taken you a long time to finally acknowledge it, but once you had, it hit you like a semi-truck.

The flowers were neatly placed inside of your bag, arranged carefully so they wouldn't shrivel. Shrivelled flowers have a much different meaning in this town, and besides, the last thing you wanted was for someone to prod into your personal business. The zipper of your bag made a loud noise as you closed it and rushed towards your destination. Marnie's Ranch.

As you trudged your feet along the tilled paths through the southern part of town, your mind began to race. What if it goes horribly wrong? What if you get rejected? There couldn't be anything worse than that. No, you had to stash your worries away, even if it was only temporarily. It's all just nerves talking.

You took a deep breath before stepping inside through the heavy door. Marnie's face immediately greeted your presence.

"Hey there, farmer! Here to see Shane again?"

"Yeah," you chuckled. "Has it been that often?"

"A little bit. Nothing wrong with it, though. He's just in the chicken coop right now, you'll find the door at the end of the kitchen." Marnie gestured toward the kitchen to your right. "Thanks, Marnie!" You walked towards the door, just past the one leading to Shane's bedroom, and pushed your hand against it. It hardly made a noise as you did.

You peeked your head into the door, looking around the room, until you caught sight of Shane, holding one of his blue chickens.

"You guys get it, don't you?" you heard him mumble. "Why would they even talk to a slob like me?"

"Hey, don't say that."

He jumped to his feet, eyes laden with shock. "Yoba, do you always have to sneak up like that?" he hissed. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't wanna accidentally eavesdrop for much longer."

"Which actually brings me to my question, which is how long you've been standing there?"

"Doesn't matter." You slid over a wooden box closer to where you were standing, then seated yourself. Shane followed your actions and rested on an adjacent box, allowing the chicken he was previously holding to run loose around the coop. "I appreciate you visiting and all, but you don't have to go out of your way to talk to me every day, you know."

"It's not going out of my way if I wanted to do it in the first place. It doesn't interrupt my schedule, anyway." you smiled. "That means you're integrated into my schedule now."

"Aw, jeez." he muttered under his breath. You noticed him simper, despite trying to hide it.

"Besides, I like talking to you. You're like the first friend I've ever had." your cheeks flushed as you realized how lonely that made you seem. "Well, ok, maybe not my first friend, but the first friend who's meant this much to me." As you dug yourself into a deeper hole, your face reddened even more. "Ok, so I sound super pathetic right now. Moving on from that." Shane chuckled.

"I don't think you sound pathetic."

You both looked at each other in stark silence, the sounds of the forest outside being the only entity speaking as you did. The moment felt as if it was paused, trapped inside of a picture that you wanted to be frozen in forever. The smile on his face, the way that his eyes looked into yours, the way that your stomach churned nervously as you absorbed every aspect about him. Then, you realized that you had to say something, as this was not a moment frozen in time. "Oh, right, thank you." Your eyes broke contact as they shifted nervously to the floor, then to your legs, both trembling.

"I uh... I came here for a reason."

You looked back up at Shane, who now had a very serious look on his face. He didn't look upset, nor did he look happy, but he waited patiently for you to explain why you came in the first place.

"So, we've been talking for a while, and you're probably one of the nicest people I've ever met." You pulled the straps of your backpack away from yourself, hoisting it around to your front. You didn't dare to look back at him as you did any of this.

"Honestly, there were times that I felt really nervous because I didn't want to screw it up. And I guess I'm not really used to all of this, either. I thought maybe I'd just be a loner living in a shed on an overgrown farm when I first moved here." You pulled open the zipper of the largest pocket on your bag, revealing the spectacular colors of the bouquet as you did. There was no way of knowing right now whether Shane had seen or not.

"But ever since I saw you in the saloon on my first.. or maybe second day here? I don't know, I think that I really felt something there. I still feel that now, and I know that I'm never gonna find out until I actually just spill it out." Here goes nothing. You locked your eyes on the bouquet as you pulled it out.

"Shane, is there any chance you would wanna be my boyfriend?"

Warmth immediately overtook your face once you finally said the words, to his face, in the flesh. While waiting for a response, which seemed like it was never going to come, you finally looked back up at him, as if it you were finishing statement. He stared back at you, dumbfounded, not saying anything. A pit formed in your stomach as you noticed how wide his eyes were, how reclusive he seemed, how much he overall seemed like he didn't want to be here. The air and everything around you felt like it was thick and heavy, almost weighing your lungs down. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.

"...Look, Shane, I'm sorry. This was stupid and I never should have done this."

The tension of the moment broke as you said those words, although now another tension had formed. "I don't know why I thought this was a good idea and it was just- it was really idiotic for me to go this far, and I'm so sorry," you hurriedly spouted. Your backpack made a loud noise as you zipped it back up and threw the straps back on your shoulders. "Bye, Shane." You rushed out the door faster than he could even say anything to you.