Author:somemaycallmesunshine Pairing: Matt Cohen x Reader Reader Gender:Female Word Count:2k Warnings: fluff (is that a warning?), swearing, reader has self-confidence issues, mentions of anxiety/depression
A/N: Hi, everyone! Sorry this took so long. I first want to thank everyone who liked or followed this story and for everyone who still is reading it despite my absence. It means so much to me. I hope you enjoy this next chapter! (Internal thoughts are in italics)
Summary: You had long dreamt of meeting your hero Matt Cohen and thanking him for changing your life. But now with SPNCon rolling around, you finally get your chance, and it’s more than you could have ever imagined.
You checked yourself in the mirror for the umpteenth time. You didn’t have anything to wear for a day out with your hero so you asked your friend Cecelia, who, just like friends do, let you borrow a cute sundress she brought. But not without the price of grilling you on the details.
“Come on! At least show me a picture of your mystery date!” She pouted.
“It’s not a date, Cece.” You insisted.
She snorted, “Yeah right. What kind of guy asks you on a whim to eat lunch with him alone and tells you how special you are? Not to mention he just met you. Face it, Y/N. He totally asked you out.” She sighed as she flopped onto the hotel bed. “God, why don’t these kinds of things happen to me?”
You hesitated for a moment, fiddling with your hands. “Cece, what if it’s not all it’s cracked up to be?” You asked, your voice low and hands shaking. “What if this is just a game? What if he’s just using me?”
Cecilia frowned, “You know he’s not.” But your unconvinced expression told her otherwise. “Y/N, you’ve gotta be a little more hopeful about this. This is someone new, this mysterious and probably hot and handsome stranger asking you out on a friggin’ date for god sakes! It’s like a dream!”
“And what if that’s all this’ll be? Just some stupid dream that ends up being a complete nightmare?”
“I don’t think that’ll happen.” She replied. “Not everyone is like Barron, you know.”
You sucked in a deep breath, knowing that what she said was true but the doubt still lingered in your mind. You weren’t one for fairy tales and happy endings. They just didn’t happen to you. And you weren’t going to start believing in them now just because some gorgeous guy supposedly asked you out.
You turned away from the mirror to face her, changing the subject. “How do I look?” Truthfully, whatever your friend said, you felt a little strange. You never dressed up for anything really and it was one the first times in your life you ever put that much effort into make up and hair. Your reflection almost made it seem like you were a completely different person.
Cece gave you a wink, “Rawr.” She made a sound similar to a purring cat. “Trust me. He won’t be able to resist.” You grabbed a nearby pillow and threw it into her face.
“Hey! What the hell?”
“You’re crazy.” You snorted.
She smirked and kicked at your heels, “Yeah but you love it. Now get going or you’re gonna be late for Prince Charming!”
Matt fiddled with his collared shirt and tried combing his unruly hair once more before turning back to his friends, Richard and Rob. “There. How do I look?”
“Like a friggin’ archangel.” Richard snickered and pinched Matt’s cheeks. Matt swatted his hand away and Richard’s snickers turned into full on guffaws.
Rob shook his head, “I still say it’s a little weird. You met her yesterday, right?” Matt nodded his head and he continued, “So what – do you like her or something? I mean, it’s not like you to wanna just pick girls up on a whim.”
“Um no. Girls wanna pick him up. I mean, have you seen the ass on this guy? He’s fucking blessed.” Rich snorted.
Matt rolled his eyes and ignored his friend. “It’s hard to explain. It was… It was a feeling, you know?” He paused for a moment, biting his lip to help collect his thoughts but they all traced back to your smiling face. “It was like God was opening this door of opportunity and I had to take it – seriously, you’re a fucking perv, Rich.” He scoffed as he watched his friend collapse in tears.
“Face it. You walked right into that one though, dude.” Rob smirked.
Sometimes Matt wondered why he was best friends with those psychos but he couldn’t help but love them. He sighed and glanced at his watch and his eyes widened, “Shit! I’m gonna be late!”
As he bolted out the door, he heard Richard holler, “Use protection, Matty!” And he flipped him off.
You couldn’t stop the thrumming in your heart as you waited in the lobby. You tapped your toes on the ground and checked your phone to try to calm yourself down but it still didn’t seem real. Matt had asked you to lunch and half of you thought it was a dream you were more than excited to experience and the other half thought it was too good to be true.
Maybe I was just dreaming it all up. You thought as your heart sank but just as it had, it lifted and raced as you spotted the all too familiar face enter the lobby.
Several heads turned as they saw him and some folks who had gone to the convention gasped and squealed upon seeing him but once he spotted you, yours was the only face he saw. He dashed to you, bypassing the spectators nearby and that was when you realized you hadn’t dreamt it at all. It was a reality and you were about to live it and you didn’t know whether you were bursting from excitement or trembling from that nagging fear that you would mess it up.
“Y/N, hey. Sorry for being late.” Matt remarked, giving you a quick hug. “Rich and Rob kept me but hopefully you didn’t wait too long.”
You shook your head, “No I didn’t.”
Matt’s nervous expression turned to one of relief as he sighed with a grin, “That’s good. I would’ve hated it if I worried you.”
“Truthfully I’m surprised you remembered.” You admitted.
His eyes grew wide before he frowned, “And forget about you and our special day together? Keep dreaming, Y/N.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “Speaking of that, I made us a reservation in an hour so shall we go, m'lady?” He drawled in a fake British accent, holding his arm out.
You hooked your arm in his and nodded. He squeezed your arm against his as you both headed for the parking lot.
You were dreaming. You had to be. There was just no other explanation as to why Matt not only asked you to have lunch with him but followed through with his plans and took you to the quaintest restaurant you’d ever seen. It was like a little slice of Italy with pictures of olive groves and Tuscan villas decorating the walls and the sweet smell of garlic and tomatoes wafting through the air. They had the sweetest staff and you both wound up in a corner booth a ways away from the other customers.
“Any friend of Rob’s is a friend of ours.” The owner, a tiny Italian woman who looked like a grandma grinned at you as she took your orders.
“I’ll have the special.” Matt remarked before turning to you, “What would you like, sweetheart?”
You blushed at the nickname but Matt didn’t seem to notice the effect he had on you. Nevertheless, the waitress was awaiting the response and you didn’t want to keep her waiting. You glanced at the menu, hiding behind its pages before ordering the same thing and the woman left you both alone.
“I don’t think I said this yet but you look beautiful.” Matt grinned.
You almost thought it was his goal that day to make you blush constantly. You fiddled with your sleeves as heat rose into your cheeks, “You’re just saying that –”
“Trust me. I’m not. You really do look great today, Y/N.”
You ducked your head, feeling even warmer, “Thanks. You – you look great today too –not that you don’t look great everyday! Im sure you look amazing everyday – oh God, I’m digging myself in a hole aren’t I?”
Matt chuckled, amused. “I’m glad you think so, sweetheart.” He winked.
You were pretty sure your face was now officially on fire so you hid your face behind your hands. “I just need to shut up. I’m such an idiot.”
“Hey, no, Y/N.” Matt frowned, “Look at me.”
You shook you head and he sighed. “Y/N, please.” His voice grew serious and you peeked behind your hands for the briefest moment before relenting and letting them drop. Then you lifted your gaze and met his green orbs as he replied, “Thank you.”
You nodded, feeling your throat run dry as he continued. “You’re not an idiot, okay? I know we don’t know each other much but trust me when I say you aren’t. And for the record, I didn’t mind the rambling. I thought it was adorable.”
You flinched, reliving the words that made you feel humiliated. “Sorry about that…”
“You don’t have to apologize, you know, for anything. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But –”
He put his hand out and placed it over yours which easily shut you up. “Y/N, it’s okay. You have nothing to apologize for. Alright?”
Your throat seemed to swell and your eyes sting from the unshed tears that always seemed to appear at the drop of a hat. But Matt didn’t seem to mind. He tilted your chin up, allowing you to gaze once more at his handsome face. His eyes searched yours, awaiting a response so you nodded your head.
He beamed and his whole face lit up. “Well alright.”
Before you could say anything, the waitress returned, bringing over your plates of food. Upon seeing you both, she rushed with placing the plates in front of you before disappearing with a knowing wink. And just like that, you were blushing all over again.
“Man, Rob wasn’t kidding when he said this place was good.” Matt sighed, patting his belly as the both of you walked out of the restaurant.
You nodded, “I don’t think I can even eat dinner.”
“Tell me about it. I’m not even sure I could eat breakfast tomorrow, but do you know what sounds pretty good right now?” He asked and you shook your head. “A nice, cold pint. I could go for a pale ale or something to cool down after all that chow.”
You gestured in front of you. “I saw a bar a few blocks down if you wanna check it out.”
Matt’s eyes sparkled as he turned to you, “Only if you check it out with me.”
You wrinkled your nose in displeasure, “Okay, but… I’m not much of a beer person.”
“You’re kidding.” He deadpanned.
“It tastes like piss.”
He snorted, “Only if you haven’t tried the good stuff.” You didn’t look convinced and he smirked, “That’s fine. I’m up for the challenge. I’ll school you on good beer and in return, I’d like you to do something for me.”
“What’s that?”
“I want you to stop speaking so negatively about yourself.” He replied and though you opened your mouth to object, he continued. “I know it’s hard and I know you don’t want to do it, but it would make me really happy if you stopped criticizing yourself when you’re a strong and beautiful woman. Okay? So can you do it? Please? For me?” He batted his lashes at you and you turned to mush.
You bit your lip, wishing you could not only refuse him but stop yourself from turning scarlet again but it was as though your mouth betrayed your mind. “So you really think I’m strong?”
He nodded, “And beautiful.”
“… Fine.”
Matt grinned and his eyes twinkled with glee. “Perfect! And for every negative comment you say about yourself, you gotta find five things you like about yourself.”
Your eyes widened, “Hey! Wait a minute! I didn’t sign up for that!” You hollered but he was already bounding ahead of you, skipping like a child.
“You’re not gonna regret this! I promise.” He called out as you chased him into the bar.
Ne is a novelty seeking perceiving function preferring ideas, connections, and possibilities. This is exactly what Michael leads with. He loves exploring different possibilities and this is seen by his ambitious and unusual form of torturing people in hell. He was not satisfied with the usual and craved a more inventive way. He approaches his job as an architect from that perspective, more comfortable in the ideas and possibilities than in the details. He has Janet to help with the details of his plans.
His Ne outlook on the world is also what leads him to perceiving the afterlife a little differently. Not just in his need to put new energy in his hell, but in how he starts to see from the humans’ perspectives and is open to questioning his own beliefs.
These are all the positives of his Ne dominance, but we also see how he can struggle with Ne being his primary mode. Because he is so open to possibilities he can have a hard time coming to firm conclusions and feeling satisfied. He always needs a challenge, a new puzzle to solve.
At times he can be so frozen with possibilities he can’t move forward. This is seen when he confidently makes the deal to run his experiment on four new humans to prove that in the afterlife humans can change. He is frozen by all the ways in which it could all go wrong. Instead of being able to confidently and methodically move forward through the plan, like his ENTJ counterpart would be able to do, he finds himself overwhelmed.
At the same time, because he has a hard time with conclusions and being satisfied, this actually drives him to keep questioning the process of the point system. Like all functions Ne is a double-edged sword.
SECONDARY FUNCTION: INTROVERTED THINKING [Ti]
As mentioned in describing his Ne, Michael likes a challenge. He prefers to innovate logical systems, to strategize, and compete rather than deal with the emotions of others and people in general. This is the difference between how an ENTP funnels their Ne energy versus an ENFP.
His way of helping his friends is more through analyzing the inconsistencies of the system itself and trying to find loopholes. He isn’t great at immediately helping his friends emotionally. This isn’t to say he doesn’t care, he clearly does. We see his way of helping through that channeling of Ne-Ti to try and make lasting change for their overall lives. He may not always be the first to hug or talk through say Eleanor’s familial issues, but he will move the pieces of the puzzle to try and make the situations for his friends better.
As an introverted function, Ti is used more inwardly as well. When he gets enveloped in a project he can seem more intense like an INTP. He tries to solve an issue and seclude himself at times. However, because he leads with Ne he is far more comfortable with ambiguity in the world around him when trying to understand a problem. This is evident when contrasted with Chidi, an INTP, who is not as comfortable with such ambiguity existing in the world.
When trying to figure out if Michael uses more Ti rather than Te, it comes to the approach of the logic used. Michael tries to understand a situation or a problem as they come rather than try to use a rational system to universally filter situations through. Although this can make Michael more relaxed, he can frustrate others with his more laid back sensibilities in situations. While he is open to accepting a lack of concrete answers more often, he can seem inefficient and unserious to others when he does this.
TERTIARY FUNCTION: EXTRAVERTED FEELING [Fe]
All the functions in our stack drive us in some way, but not all come as naturally to us. Fe no matter where in the stack is interpersonal, seeking peace, harmony, and understanding in all relationships. By now, we can see all the pieces coming together. Like I said, he does care. He wants to help his friends and doesn’t revel in their discomfort. But he doesn’t know exactly how to address their discomfort in an actual Fe fashion. While this Fe drives him, he uses his Ne and Ti as described above to try and fix this disharmony.
Because this is lower in his functional stack, he is more comfortable with his inward judgments than expressing them outwardly. This Ti-Fe conflict leads to ENTPs, like Michael, to inwardly resent those who are trying to control him.
This becomes central to Michael’s mission. Yes, he is trying to help his friends, but he also resents being manipulated and forced to be a cog in a machine that isn’t evenly working properly. Luckily, he has friends to keep connecting with his Fe to channel this resentment in a more helpful and positive way. Without this we could see a far more evil Michael trying to take down the system.
INFERIOR FUNCTION:INTROVERTED SENSATION [Si]
Michael is more of an idea man than he is one to deal with a methodical approach and hammering out the details. He is really able to thrive in his role in the afterlife because he has the assistance of Janet to help with the details so his ideas can come to fruition. It isn’t that Michael doesn’t value these details, they are clearly important. But he prefers to keep them in context of the bigger picture of his plans and problem solving than he would to look through each detail himself. However, that only works for so long and Michael can miss crucial details at first.
An example of this is how he assumes that the point system is rigged by hell. Michael is able to quickly see the pattern of people not going to the good place and he immediately makes connections of the possibilities. But he doesn’t start by looking at the details of the point system itself. He comes upon this later to discover the complexities of the system. Now, once he does, he is able to contextualize that complexity immediately, but he could have discovered this sooner if he were more comfortable and prone to searching for the details.
Si being inferior also leads to ENTPs like Michael to forget about their own self-care. He gets so wrapped in problem solving that he forgets to take care of himself. He can have a hard time centering himself in concrete perceptions and go too far with Ne as seen in his break down mentioned in the Ne section. It is important for Michael learn to work with his Si more in order to avoid such consequences.
Here’s a sketch page with a bunch of drawings of varying quality because it’s all I achieved today. I’m running low on inspiration so feel free to send in requests for me to draw.
By a very random luck of the draw, I’m your Secret Santa @orange-plum! Had to draw the boy, Michael. Ngl, I liked the gold variant, so you get both, too! Hope you like it! =)
![MICAHEL FROM THE GOOD PLACE [ENTP] “The Originator”DOMINANT FUNCTION: EXTRAVERTED INTUITION [Ne]Ne i](https://64.media.tumblr.com/aebc0710777543a38aac56d2838bb33b/b3328c4e5d45276f-29/s1280x1920/bbc1c1d8f75dacfc5dc17050d934794ed0223cf2.png "MICAHEL FROM THE GOOD PLACE [ENTP] “The Originator”DOMINANT FUNCTION: EXTRAVERTED INTUITION [Ne]Ne i")
