Best Burving Grief & Mourning Fanfics
The best grief & mourning Burving (Irving Bailiff/Burt Goodman) fanfiction on AO3, curated by popularity. Canon kills characters and moves on; fandom holds funerals. Readers return to grief fic because it treats mourning as a story worth telling rather than a scene to survive.
Top Burving Grief & Mourning Fic Recs
1 grief & mourning Burving fic matched, followed by other top-rated Burving stories.
General Knowledge
Grief & Mourningby Jennie_D
The severance procedure does not erase everything from the human mind. Innies still know how to speak, how to read, they retain general knowledge.Sometimes that knowledge proves revealing.
Transcendance
by Princip1914
Irving Bailiff keeps having a dream that he is loved.He cannot explain it. It is a feeling rather than a setting. The love is new but the setting is always the same, has been the same for years. Long white corridors which twist at impossible angles into other long white corridors. The severed floor
all in just one sitting
by makesomelove
Irving is getting ahead of himself. Lovemaking comes after kissing, or at least that’s what he believes in his heart. And kissing, of course, comes after dating. Irving lowers his cube wall again. "Did you notice if there were any vending machines in O&D?" "No," Dylan says shortly, clacking away at
april, come she will
by passingafternoon
Life finds a way, even on the severed floor. Seasons change and plants grow. Even Lumon can't stop flowers from blooming.(In which Dylan solves a mystery, Mark finds a leaf, Irving falls in love, Helly makes a list, and Petey dreams of spring.)
but after this life I'll find you in the next
by gutsandglitter
Seeing the other man was a surprise, as was the first response that came to Irv’s mind – Oh, there you are. But that didn’t make any sense; he had never laid eyes on the other man before.Three times Burt and Irving found each other.
if it’s quite alright
by ShowMeAHero
“You… like it?” Irving asks, vulnerable, pitched halfway between a statement and a question.And Burt thought he was a stranger.“Of course, I like it,” Burt replies, automatic, honest. “I love it, it’s— It’s me!”This time, there’s a touch of a laugh in Irving’s voice when he repeats, “Yes, it— it is.
One day on Earth, and this is what you do with it?
by lamphouse
Some good things happen the night they activate the OTC protocol. Not a lot of them, but some.Or, one thing from each innies' trip outside (and inside, as it were) that didn't suck. As much.
honey, you're familiar
by ShowMeAHero
“It’s silly,” Irving says, his voice smaller than the artwork. “Its own wall, when it’s that tiny and— and amateur. Ridiculous.”Burt’s thumb brushes the side of Irving’s.“Make me more, then,” he suggests. or: Irving feels an impulse and decides to make Post-It-and-pen art for Burt— who
Sticking It (To The Man)
by Meduseld
One of the best ways to say Fuck You Lumon is to fuck yourself on company time.
Shared Purpose and Commitment: The Joys of the Perfect Work-Life Balance, an article by Jake DeBeers, writing for the New Jersey Observer
by Cousin Shelley (CousinShelley)
Jake gets an exclusive assignment to interview some severed Lumon employees and discovers that no people in the history of the world have ever been so god damned happy about spending every moment of their lives at work.
Retirement
by sigrid_sloan
It still gives Irving a bit of a thrill, after all these years, to be picked up by the Volvo that’s been picking him up since he was first picked up all those decades ago.
I've Got You Under My Skin
by Oldflowers
Irving opens his eyes and immediately wonders how the hell he ended up in the arms of his old lover.
i slithered here from eden, just to sit outside your door
by Anonymous
Burt finds some interesting supplies. He finds Irving along the way.
The Windmills of Our Minds
by Klark412
Reunions with lost loved ones, polarizing shifts in Outie vs. Innie power dynamics, and the beginning of Lumon's true plans starting to take shape leads to endless celebrations and consequences for both severed and unsevered.OrA fan's version of what could be in store for season 3
thank my wicked dreams
by ShowMeAHero
If I ever see Burt again, this time, I’m going to kiss him. And there he is.“Good morning,” Irv murmurs, his hand finding the center of Burt’s back.
Knowing him, Inside and Out
by ArwenKing
What if: episode 9, Irving comes to in his art studio, but what if someone is waiting for him? What if Burt wasn't married - to someone else that is? What if, instead, they could just be happy and Irving could finally get what he so desperately deserved?Basically- just something I needed to get out
February 14th
by youtubepoop
On the severed floor, the calendar month and date are a strangely guarded secret. When Burt accidentally overhears this forbidden information, there’s only one person he can think to share it with.Alternatively: old men eat raisins and awkwardly flirt for like eight google docs pages
If You Should Forget Me for a While
by Cousin Shelley (CousinShelley)
After Burt's retirement, something goes wrong.
Questions, Unanswered
by archersilverr
The ideal small talk might have begun with asking how he was doing. Then, a mention of the weather, and how his night went when he came home from work the night before. Did he have a nice dinner? Did he ever get to finish that book he had wanted to read? He wanted to know more about him, but when Bu
so come the storms of winter (i have to fear of time)
by deathconsciousness
On a late-night trip to a convenience store for cigarettes, Irving gets caught in a storm and ends up stuck there. He finds unexpected company in a beautiful stranger with striking eyes and a taste in music that’s completely different from his. Turns out, he’s an ex-Lumon worker.
Find More Burving Grief & Mourning Stories on AO3
Browse the full AO3 archive for grief & mourning Burving fanfiction, sorted by kudos. Then read offline with Fanfict Reader.
Why Grief & Mourning Burving Fanfiction Works So Well
Irving Bailiff/Burt Goodman — Severance's most devastating romance blooms between two severed innies in Optics and Design, all trembling hands over Kier paintings — until Burt's retirement effectively kills the only self that loves Irving. Season two twists the knife with their outies.
Grief & Mourning — Stories that sit with loss: characters mourning a death canon rushed past, or grieving losses that aren't deaths at all — homes, futures, versions of themselves. Grief fic ranges from raw immediate aftermath to the strange long tail of missing someone for years.
Two men who only exist at work falling in love on borrowed time is the show's cruelest thought experiment, and its tenderest. Canon kills characters and moves on; fandom holds funerals. Readers return to grief fic because it treats mourning as a story worth telling rather than a scene to survive. That's why grief & mourning Burving fanfiction is one of the most consistently popular combinations on AO3.
Grief & Mourning in Other Ships
Love grief & mourning? Explore the same trope in other popular pairings:
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