semi-automatic ; j.d

twenty four ; the background music of 'i love you'

after a few hours spent by mia laughing at josh's lame excuse of iceskating and a trip to get hot chocolate, they end up back at her apartment.

"this room is so relaxing," states josh as he lays on her bed with his eyes watching the quick rotation of the ceiling fan. for the past twenty minutes he's been enjoying the silence between them that doesn't require words to be spoken. an m83 record playing on vinyl with the sound low serves as background noise.

mia spins around in her desk chair to look at josh. he's laying on his back with his arms folded above his head and she can't help but wish that she could just keep him there forever. in a i-miss-you-a-lot-when-you're-gone, type of way, not in a creepy stalker type way, of course.

"it's probably my favorite place," she agrees with a slow nod of her head as she looks around her room. moving into an apartment that she had to pay rent for didn't really give her many permanent options when it came to decorating, so she had found ways to work around the boring white walls. string lights wrap around the tops of the walls and a bunch of polaroid pictures and other shots had been tacked up. some of her favorite quotes from songs and movies and books are scrawled on paint samples in different colors.

"i can see why," he stifles a laugh and then sits up. "what are you doing, anyways?"

"trying to fill out an application," mia pulls her bottom lip between her teeth out of habit, a shy smile pulling at the corners.

josh raises an eyebrow. "yeah?" he asks while getting up from her bed. he walks up behind her and puts his hands on the top of her chair to spin her back around. his chin falls on her shoulder and he squints a bit at the laptop screen. "application for where?"

"alternative press."

he grins, because he remembers giving her advice when she got fired and one of the things he told her was to apply there. "that's great, babe."

"d'you think i'll get in?" she asks wearily. she's been incredibly worrisome about her work ever since she started writing.

josh nods his head. "of course. they'd be stupid not to take you," he tells her encouragingly and then kisses her cheek.

a slightly-relieved exhale falls out of her lips. "thanks," she says and goes back to filling out the online application.

"mhm," he hums in response while his arms wrap around her shoulders. "now hurry up and finish so i can cuddle you."

mia grins. "okay, okay," she laughs and then tries not to focus on the incredibly adorable man hugging her and instead on filling out the interview. the song playing ends and when another one doesn't start, she knows it means it's the end of the record.

"can you put something else on?" she asks josh. one thing that she's come to terms with since she was old enough to actually decide what music she likes is that she can't focus when things are completely silent.

he straighten up and nods his head while going over to the vinyl player. he sits down next to the bin of albums and fingers through them. one thing he likes about her is that every album and every song she shows him, he ends up loving.

he catches a glimpse of a familiar album cover and pulls it from the collection. it's a twenty one pilots record, vessel.

seeing that makes him smile a bit and also peaks his curiosity, so he continues looking through the bin and finds the self-titled album, regional at best, and blurryface.

josh carefully takes vessel out of the paper sleeve and swaps out the m83 record for it. after setting the needle down and turning the volume up, semi-automatic starts playing.

it takes mia about seven seconds to hear what's playing, and when she does she feels her cheeks blush.

"when did you get these?" asks josh with an amused tone while he turns the cover over in his hands.

she turns around with a shy, slightly embarrassed smile. "the day after you left for tour."

he grins broadly. "i didn't even know they still sold these," he muses while glancing at regional at best and the self-titled record.

"they don't," she says. "not in stores, i mean. i found those two online."

josh doesn't know what part of that is cuter ; the fact that she bought his band's albums or that she went online to find them.

mia suddenly feels like she's under a microscope. "why are you looking at me like that?"

"because i think i love you," josh says slowly, like the words and his thoughts are clicking and suddenly someone has removed an unclear layer from his life.

mia hesitates saying anything back. her mind is full of 'you haven't been together that long' and 'do you even know what love is?' but for once she isn't going to let her self-doubting mind hold her back from being happy.

"i think i love you, too."

josh grins at her like she just explained to him the meaning of life. "cool," he says, nodding his head with satisfaction as he looks back down at the record in his hands.

mia decides not to make a comment about the fact that josh just used the word 'cool' as a response to a serious situation. it's not the first time, either, but she finds it really cute so she doesn't say anything and instead turns back around to finish her application.