homecoming :: josuke x reader

final period :: a review

Winter rolls around with midterms in tow. It seems as if I'm the only one at this entire party to care about it.

Even though I can't get the fact that I should be sitting at a desk with a textbook in front of me, I do have to say, the atmosphere is quite nice. The lights hanging around the house paint it a deep red, contrasted with the night sky outside makes me feel worryingly relaxed, if that explains anything. I've forgotten how peaceful the suburbs are.

Electronic music of different emotions drones pleasantly throughout the house and atop the commotion of everyone else - or at least, up until the point where someone walks through the front door with another case of booze, in which the entire house ripples in a wave of cheers.

(This party would be fun if I knew the people here.)

The bulk of them, as Josuke told me, where people in his Practical Law class and their plus ones. Some kid's parents must have rented out a nice one-story for him to live in - I watch as yet another beer is added to the carpeted living room floor - and this was probably the only time that he could throw a party.

There's a dull brown bottle in my hand, long past warm and far into an uncomfortable heat. The liquid inside I haven't even thought about drinking, its main purpose right now is sloshing around the bottle as I put my thumb over the lid and play with it.

"How are you doing?"

A red solo cup and a smile.

"Fine. I feel a bit out of place."

Josuke leans in and takes the opportunity to give me a quick peck on the cheek. "Don't worry about it."

I worry anyways. "How about you?"

"What?"

He leans down enough so I can shout into his ear as the entire house cheers. A new box of Jack Daniel's, it seems.

"HOW ARE YOU DOING?"

"I'm good!" He flashes me a thumbs up.

Suddenly, someone walks past and Josuke's head whips in their direction, and then back to mine. "Hold on, I'll be right back--"

Just as he turns to leave, I hold the sleeve of his jacket. He turns around to look at me, confused, but then catches on once I look at him pleadingly. I'd say I was feeling embarrassed about it, but I've abandoned my pride at the door simply by stepping inside this party I don't belong in (or was invited to).

"...Please stay with me."

He laughs, before returning to wind an arm around my waist. "I suppose he hasn't met you yet."

I abandon my drink permanently on the counter in exchange for Josuke's hand, and we saunter off together to another corner of the house. I could tell he was like every other typical frat boy loitering around the house: His name is Ethan, his parents are paying his tuition, and he watches me turn a full red when Josuke pulls me closer to him and introduces me as "his girlfriend".

(That wasn't the first time it's happened, but it sure felt like it.)

They converse about whatever, and I can't help but disregard whatever Ethan's saying. My eyes travel from area to area of the room, watching everyone slur their words or shuffle against each other with a bottle in hand. The room goes dark red, and Daft Punk's Something About Us starts to play through the sub-woofers. The vibrations feel comforting on the soles of my feet.

I look out the sliding glass door and notice, all of a sudden, the world is being powdered with a fine white dust.

This is new - wanting the temperatures to nip at my fingers.

It's teasing me, isn't it?

A peck on the cheek. "I'll be around."

The sliding door groans as I move it, evidence of years upon years of neglect upon the gears. The breeze slides under my neck and makes me shiver pleasantly as I walk out to lean on the wooden railing of the patio, snowflakes in the sky delicately landing on my reddening nose and the strands of hair that I forgot to brush out this morning.

A group of girls blowing cigarette smoke into the night sky give me a sideways stare as I walk outside. They whisper among themselves, hastily turn their heads at me, and a few walk inside - not before smashing their cigarette butt into the snow accumulating on the rail of the deck. Burn spots litter the pristine white.

The world is oddly silent whenever it snows. It's the same silence you hear right before anything bad happens, but this silence is welcoming. It makes me feel like everything is going to be okay, and as the world quietly moves around me, I can almost hear sleigh bells.

Red and blue lights from inside twinkle upon the snow. For a few seconds, I get to enjoy my own personal aurora borealis until the floodlight behind me turns on.

"What are you doing out here all alone?" Josuke rubs his hands together and shudders dramatically. "It's freezing."

Shaking my head, I can't help but smile. It's something about him. "It's like, 40! What do you mean freezing?"

"Come on." Josuke extends one of his palms towards me. "Share some body heat."

No need to ask twice.

His hand is easily two sizes bigger than mine, but I don't mind. When we touch, our callouses match - it almost seems like every time it happens, we're reminded of bombs and stands and blood and healed broken wrists and noses - but then we're reminded that we earned them together. And even if just a little bit, it makes up for a painful summer.

(After all, it was that painful summer that we first met.)

Eight seconds have passed. Oh, how I used to scream that so menacingly.

"Hey."

I snap out of my trance and turn my head towards him, my pupils meeting with his trademark purple irises.

"I love you, you know that?" He brings my knuckles up to his mouth and gently kisses the skin in between the bones. My heart melts a little, and I know the most I can do is return with a grin. "Of course. I think about it a lot." The rest of my response comes in a whisper: "I love you too."

A few more seconds of silence, then heartfelt sigh on my behalf— "This is how it's supposed to be."

"Sure feels like it, doesn't it?" A squeeze of his hand around mine. "Like home."

"Just like home." Snowflakes cling to our cheeks and dance on our eyelashes just as softy as he pulls me closer to him.

--Closed eyes, a kiss that tastes like sweet nicotine and Sangria.

Just like home, I think.

Just like home.
———
06. — you have spent your entire life watching the lights above you dance in the sky. today, you are one of them. ☆