Ships Burving Grief & Mourning

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.

Severance 1,200 Burving works 120,000 grief works

Top Burving Grief & Mourning Fic Recs

1 grief & mourning Burving fic matched, followed by other top-rated Burving stories.

1

General Knowledge

Grief & Mourning

by 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.

734 kudos 2,240 words 1/1 chapters General Audiences
2

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

795 kudos 1,688 words 1/1 chapters Mature
3

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

710 kudos 4,122 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences
4

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.)

314 kudos 6,935 words 5/5 chapters Teen And Up Audiences
5

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.

243 kudos 8,503 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences
6

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.

242 kudos 42,543 words 8/8 chapters Explicit
7

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.

224 kudos 3,260 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences
8

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

210 kudos 2,474 words 1/1 chapters General Audiences
9

Sticking It (To The Man)

by Meduseld

One of the best ways to say Fuck You Lumon is to fuck yourself on company time.

184 kudos 860 words 1/1 chapters Mature
10

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.

181 kudos 3,942 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences
11

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.

170 kudos 822 words 1/1 chapters General Audiences
12

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.

163 kudos 4,272 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences
13

i slithered here from eden, just to sit outside your door

by Anonymous

Burt finds some interesting supplies. He finds Irving along the way.

160 kudos 6,369 words 1/1 chapters Explicit
14

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

158 kudos 31,623 words 6/? chapters Mature
15

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.

136 kudos 2,521 words 1/1 chapters Explicit
16

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

135 kudos 5,860 words 1/1 chapters Mature
17

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

124 kudos 2,520 words 1/1 chapters Not Rated
18

If You Should Forget Me for a While

by Cousin Shelley (CousinShelley)

After Burt's retirement, something goes wrong.

123 kudos 2,286 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences
19

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

118 kudos 3,859 words 1/1 chapters General Audiences
20

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.

117 kudos 4,413 words 1/1 chapters Teen And Up Audiences

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.

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