youth [josuke x reader]

youth

A/N: My analytical essay needs writin' but GUESS WHAT! I WROTE THIS INSTEAD! I had fun. My mental health is suffering. But I love Josuke, so I will continue to bomb my college classes for him. Is this what he would want? Probably not. More notes at the end.

He'd been through enough this summer. The intense tracking of the elusive serial killer Yoshikage Kira was taxing on everyone, and Josuke was always there to patch his allies up. His health was suffering. Not being able to heal his own wounds left you to care for him at his bedside when Tomoko was away, and even then, you didn't leave the general vicinity. You couldn't help but worry. He fought to the death with a murderer, after all—

"Oy. [name]. Whatcha frownin' about?" You'd taken the liberty of bringing him the notes he'd missed in cram school (lord knows he needed it more than you), but he was uninterested in them. The laid-up, injured teen took more interest in your facial expression than whatever scientific notations were.

You sighed. The last thing you wanted to do was give him the satisfaction of knowing you were thinking night and day about him. It was more than a mothering feeling, but a feeling you were unable to properly express nonetheless. "Nothing. Just thinking about all the homework you're going to have to do tonight."

The beauty of a boy groaned and scratched inside his right leg cast with a pencil. It was a bit disgusting to watch, but it seemed to satisfy him after a minute or so. You let yourself stare at his sculpted (thankfully uninjured) thighs for a while, grateful for the bunching up of his basketball shorts. "You know how to read Shakespeare, right?"

Josuke's school banter scolded you for your ogling. "Y-Yeah. You have to read Hamlet, right?"

"Yup." Josuke leaned over the side of his bed and dug through his messy school bag. He pulled his english textbook out and set it in his lap, reluctantly so. "I can barely read english to begin with, so I have no idea why we got assigned this."

"How dare you! Hamlet is a classic. You'll like it." You fished out your own, though it was a much cleaner copy, minus the scattered sticky notes on nearly every page. Josuke glared hard at your book, in shock, and perhaps disgust.

"Have you read every piece in that book?"

"Why? Is that a bad thing?" You shifted uncomfortably in your dining room chair. You'd become used to the habit of visiting often, so you usually brought a pillow to sit on. Maybe it was a bit odd to sit with him for such long stretches of time... You never thought about that.

"...No, I think that's pretty cool. You're dedicated to something you like." His compliment came as a surprise, and left you blushing furiously.

"Ah. Thank you Josuke. It means a lot to hear that from you."

"It's no problem. I like to see you happy, so I'm glad you have something special like that." A rosy color soon dusted his cheeks too, and he avoided eye contact.

"W–What?! I'm not sure what you mean..." You stumbled over your words and quickly flipped to the beginning of Hamlet, littered heavy with blue sticky notes and scribbles of page numbers and quotes.

"Nevermind! Let's just read Ham-whatever, okay?" He scrambled to turn to the same page, and said nothing akin to his previous statement for the rest of your study session.

You thought hard about what he said that night, and concluded it was either a daydream or Josuke's pain medication getting the better of him.

---

"Josuke, good morning! Can I come in?" Saturdays were your favorite. Tomoko was always home in need of help with household chores now that Josuke was pretty much otherwise incapacitated, and there was no greater pleasure than doing your long-time crush's laundry. Perhaps that was too weird, but he didn't seem to mind being doted on and you definitely didn't mind hanging his school uniform up to dry.