Looking For Space // Josh Kiszka

III

*I'm really honored as to how well-received this little fic has been so far. Here's part III...hope you enjoy it as much as the previous two*

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Josh and I had made decent progress on the poem--we had reiterated Perseus' heroic story through the eyes of the other stars and had begun to tie in the tales of the surrounding planets. It was hard to write but I felt like Josh's knack for learning any bit of information he read and my natural knack for constructing words meshed together nicely--I just hoped Steve would appreciate it too.

"What are you doing tonight?" Josh asked me, the two of us sitting in the same study room we always used, my laptop open on a chart of the night sky and his notebook open to a page scrawled over with notes.

I broke away from the screen to look at him. He was wearing a headband that day--a thin strip of brown leather around his forehead--and while at first I found it ridiculous, looking at it then, I found it somewhat adorable.

It was absurd.

"Working on this, probably," I replied. "Why?"

"There's a star show at the planetarium," Josh told me. "We should go."

My heart began to race again. It was, after all, for the assignment so there was no good reason for me to decline. 

"Okay," I agreed--for research purposes, obviously. "What time?"

-

It felt like a date, which made me nervous, but maybe that was only because it had been a long time since I had been on a proper date. Plus Josh just had that charm--he held the door open for me on the way in, holding out his arm with ridiculous charisma as he guided me in, and I nearly pissed myself when he offered to pay for my ticket.

"I'll get it, Josh," I said through gritted teeth, glaring at him as we stood in front of the counter.

"No, no, darling, I'm getting it," Josh replied.

Darling. My heart started to race again and I nearly relented, thrown by the word, until I reminded myself that that was just Josh--it wasn't personal.

I quickly slapped a ten dollar bill on the counter. "I got it."

Josh exhaled, shaking his head, then smiled at me. "Fine. I like independent women anyway."

I rolled my eyes.

The domed room was practically empty. I let Josh lead the way to two chairs in the furthest row back, facing the northern plane of the building. I sank into the folding chair, tilting it back so I was almost completely face-up, Josh doing the same.

The soft, slow music in tandem with the soothing voice of the program director over the speakers made for some serious relaxation. My body felt looser than it had in a long time as I looked at the projection of stars and planets above us, totally captivated. When the projector shone a virtual image of the Milky Way I turned my head to look at Josh, who also looked totally captivated.

He caught me again though, and reached out to trace one gentle line down my forearm with his fingertip, then turned his head to look at the ceiling again.

A shiver ran through my body. It seemed like a gesture that Josh expected me to know the meaning behind except I didn't.

"That was really cool," I said as we walked back into the parking lot, the real sky above us. "And now we're even more inspired."

Josh smiled. "Yeah, I think so, darling."