Crushing (Joshler)

3. Kitty

Start the song. It's Conditions by Squirrel Flower.

By the time Josh was done with classes and football practice for the day, the moon was hanging high in the sky, and only the porch light was on to greet him when he got home. The blame for that fell entirely on some dumbass freshman who kept complaining throughout practice, so the coach made the whole team run through all of their drills again with every complaint. The fucking idiot didn't catch on until one of the other players told him to shut the fuck up so they could all go home.

Every muscle in Josh's body ached already as he unlocked the front door and stepped inside, closing and locking the door behind him. He knew Ashley had decided to stay the night here when he saw a bright orange sticky note on the oven door. He smiled slightly when he read what it said:

Joshua's To Do List:
1. Eat dinner (in the oven)
2. Take your medicine
3. Take a shower without Ashley : (
4. Come wake Ashley up so she can ask you about your day
5. Snuggle Ashley back to sleep : )

He rolled his eyes as he left the sticky note where it was and opened the oven. There was a plate covered with tinfoil inside. Josh ate the heaping plate of spaghetti in what felt like seconds before heading upstairs to do the rest of the things Ashley had written out for him to do. She didn't need to write it down. It was a routine by now, and he understood routines very well, but she generally still wrote him notes like this during he first couple weeks of a new semester anyway.

It wasn't until Josh had showered, taken his pills, and settled for just pulling on a pair of boxers since he could clearly see that Ashley was just in her underwear and one his shirts anyway, that he finally got to climb into bed. He was exhausted, and he didn't exactly want to wake Ashley up to talk about his day, but he knew he'd feel uncomfortable if he broke the routine, so he wrapped his arms around Ashley and pulled her in against his chest. He soothed his fingers through her hair as gently as he knew how, careful not to move his fingers far enough through her hair to snag them on her curls.

Ashley hummed sleepily when he pressed a lingering kiss to her forehead. "Mmm, you're home," she mumbled happily, tilting her head up so Josh could see the lazy smile on her lips as she draped an arm across his waist before trailing her fingernails lightly along his back. She pressed a kiss to his lips as goosebumps rose along his bare skin beneath her fingertips. "What time is it?"

"Late. We had to stay an extra two hours because some fucking dumbass freshman kept complaining about how tired and sore he was and shit," Josh told her grumpily as he tucked his face away in the crook of her neck. He left a trail of kisses there before simply closing his eyes and relaxing his aching muscles.

Her fingers trailed up his back and into his damp hair as she told him, "I'm sorry, buddy. You must be exhausted."

Josh grunted his agreement, already half asleep from the warmth of their bed and the feeling of her fingers in his hair alone. The term of endearment was melting away any residual tension in his body as well, making him even more susceptible to the heaviness of his eyelids.

"You're gonna be sore tomorrow too, aren't you?" Ashley sympathized.

"Already am," Josh mumbled back.

Ashley cooed at him quietly, but he was too tired to be annoyed by her babying her. He felt even less annoyed when she told him, "You don't have classes on Tuesdays, and I don't have any until one, so we should take a bath and make pancakes in the morning."

Josh hummed his agreement. "Mmhm. Sounds good to me."

"Remember when I used to have to force you to take baths with me because you didn't want to do anything even remotely boyfriend-ish with me? We could hang out as friends and be totally fine, but if we ever slept together or kissed or anything, you suddenly had to be as far away from me as possible for a while? I'm glad you worked through that. This is way better. I love that you're my best friend who's also capable of doing boyfriend things from time to time. You're good at it," Ashley told him sleepily, twirling the hair at the nape of his neck around her fingers slowly.