Joshler Fluff

i prefer josh

The night was going great until Tyler found the naked man in his house.

Really, Tyler was finally enjoying himself. College was fun, but during the past few months Tyler had started to bury himself under the pressure of performing well in his finals. The stress had led to what he and his roomates called "The Incident," which had led to Tyler having to take two weeks off by order of the school mental health counsellor, something which was inconvenient and kind of embarrassing.

But now he was back, exam-free and genuinely having fun. He wasn't a party animal, not like his best friend Brendon, but he didn't dislike clubbing or having a few shots. He did everything in moderation, and it all worked out nicely.

Tyler had waved goodbye to Brendon at the edge of the hallway, some drunk guy wirh long legs and floppy hair clinging to Brendon's shoulder. Wearily, he had made his way to his room, the only thing on his mind being his large bed he couldn't wait to collapse into. Brendon was out and his other roomate, Pete, was travelling, so he had the whole place to himself.

Tyler opened the door and screamed.

Sitting cross legged on the floor, completely stark naked was a rather short, very attractive stranger petting Tyler's cat.

Slamming the door behind him, he gaped as the stranger raised his head and squinted up at Tyler. He had a long, wonderfully shaped face with deep brown eyes and a rather sexy smile and, oh god, his body. A torrent of unwanted images ran through Tyler's head as he stared at the naked stranger on his floor, still petting his cat calmly.

"Um." Tyler said, hoping the naked stranger would get the message. "Are you- are you okay?"

The stranger blinked slowly, considering the question. "I don't think so. Who are you?"

"I'm Tyler, um..." Tyler forced himself not to stare at the stranger, the naked, hot stranger as he manoeuvred himself around him, watching as his cat butted his head against the stranger's knee.

"Cool." he nodded, rubbing his cat's ears gently. "I'm Josh. What's his name?"

"Nasa, um..." Tyler began again, his face bright red. "How- how did you get into my house, exactly?"

Josh paused, obviously thinking hard about the question. He frowned.

"I know Pete." Josh nodded as if this cleared everything up and resumed petting Nasa, humming softly. Tyler exhaled deeply.

"So do I, he's my roommate, but I don't go into strangers houses at 12 a.m. and pet their cats, now do I?"

Josh shurgged calmly. "Maybe you do, I don't know you. I don't even know your name. Taylor?"

"Tyler." he gritted his teeth.

"Yeah, cool. Anyways, Pete told me I could crash here if I needed to. Like, if I was super drunk. Or high. Both, even."

"Are you high now?" Tyler asked nervously, suddenly becoming slightly more intimidated than before, which was saying something.

"Don't think so. Do you have milk?"

Tyler blinked once, then again, looking down at Josh's hopeful expression. Damnit, if this guy wasn't so sweet and hot, he would've been long gone.

Tyler directed Josh into the bathroom, arming him with a pair of boxers and an old shirt of his while he went to get Josh milk. Milk? Who craves milk at midnight when drunk? Who on earth does that?

Apparently Josh did, and he was even more attractive with clothes on, which didn't make much sense, but Tyler didn't think too hard about it. He watched as calmly as possible as Josh staggered in and handed the guy his milk. Josh smiled briefly and downed the whole glass in one swallow.

"Jesus." Tyler said flatly as Josh placed the glass down, still smiling like someone had smacked him across the head with a brick.

"I prefer Josh, but I'm okay with Jesus."

Tyler bit his lip to stop himself from grinning. It was a shitty joke, but somehow it was ten times funnier coming from Josh. He rolled his eyes, smirking slightly.

"So, Josh," Tyler rubbed his hands together. "Exactly how drunk are you?"

Again, Josh tipped his head.to the side, thinking. He was pretty wasted by the smell of him. Even in Tyler's clean clothes he still smelled sharply of cheap beer and vodka. Josh eventually turned back to Tyler, face now sombre, eyes clouded over.

"I've had five beers and three shots of vodka. Maybe four."

"Well, it's nice you keep count." Tyler remarked dryly, placing the glass in the sink. Josh's face remained grim.

"It's a coping mechanism," he said lightly, despite his dark expression. "My dad died two months ago."

The way Josh presented that deeply depressing and upsetting information as calmly as if he was reading the paper chilled Tyler to his bones. Now that he was looking for it, he could see the sad exhaustion buried deep in Josh's eyes. Suddenly he really didn't want him to go, and not only because he was attractive.

"I'm sorry." Tyler muttered, looking fixedly at Josh's shoulder, which moved up slowly in a shrugging motion.

"Can't be helped, I guess." Josh frowned, looking around. "Where's Nasa?"

"Sleeping, um, look..." Tyler chewed his lip slightly. "Do you wanna crash here for the night, until you're sober or something?"

Josh looked slightly relieved, but there was some hesitation in his eyes. "Two things."

"Fire away."

"One, will I sleep on the couch? Because I know I look small but I'm not that small."

Tyler laughed softly. "No. You can have Pete's room."

Josh nodded firmly. "Cool. Second, can Nasa sleep with me?"

Tyler watched as his small grey cat emerged from his room, padding softly over to Josh and rubbing against his bare legs. Tyler smiled slightly. The two often made an incredibly cute pair, it felt wrong to seperate them. He nodded and Josh's face lit up. Before Tyler could react, Josh leaned over and pressed a short, sharp kiss to his lips before scooping Nasa up and running to Pete's room.

Tyler stood in the middle of the kitchen, mouth slack, cheeks on fire. What the hell was happening?

"Jesus," he muttered, shaking his head, a cloud of butterflies erupting in his stomach. Beyond the door, Josh laughed.

"Like I said, I prefer Josh!"