Categories > Original > Romance
A/N: The following is yet another challenge fic, in the same vein of Undeniable and Perfection. Like the other two just mentioned, it is based off of a collection of prompts. Some of these might tie in, and some of them might not.
Written for Rhiannon Leigh Black, an amazing bestie and sis. I love you!
Disclaimer: I do not own the following characters; they belong to themselves and (quite possibly) each other. Title borrowed from the song “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks, which I also do not own. Don’t sue, I’m a post-grad student with a fuckload of student loans and spare change. You’d just be wasting your time.
Of late nights and drunken confessions of love.
“You know,” Josh mumbled as he wrapped his arm around Robin’s neck and leaned onto her for support, “You’re really pretty..”
The redhead winced at the sudden burden of weight that had been placed upon her, but gritted her teeth as she adjusted.
“You already said that.”
“I knowwww, but I wanted to say it again.”
“All right, tiger, c’mon,” Robin said, as she half-dragged Josh down the hallway, silently wishing he would at least halfway cooperate with her. It wasn’t that she was weak, because she wasn’t, but it was nearly impossible to drag over 200 pounds of dead weight without at least a little help. She gently poked Josh in the ribs to illustrate her point, but he merely grinned and wrapped a finger around the redhead’s.
“Oh, someone’s eager to get her hands on me already,” he smirked. “You know, you didn’t have to wait till now to do it.”
“What?”
“You know what I’m talking about.” Josh began to giggle uncontrollably. “You waaant me.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Robin insisted as she tugged on the man’s arm. “The only thing I want right now is to get you in bed.”
As soon as it left her lips, Robin instantly realized what she’d said and how it would be taken, and regretted it.
“Aw, fuck,” she muttered to herself, knowing that in his drunken state, Josh would take that the wrong way. She shifted her weight for a bit, propping Josh up so that she could look at him. A rather goofy grin was plastered on his face and his eyes were twinkling with mischief. It was a look Robin was very familiar with, and she almost groaned as she realized what he was now going to do for the rest of the night.
He was going to annoy her until either he passed out or was thrown out of the room they were sharing.
“I meant that I wanted to get you in bed so that I could sleep,” Robin said, feeling the need to clarify.
“Uh uh, you already said it,” Josh snickered. “You said you wanna get me in bed.”
“Well, that’s not what I meant.”
“But it’s what you said, you can’t take it back.” He shook his finger and then leaned in closer to Robin, his lips almost brushing her cheek at that point. “You wanna get me in bed so you can have your dirty, evil, wicked way with me.”
The redhead silently willed herself not to blush, but she didn’t have much control over it, not with Josh’s lips so close to her skin. She was almost positive that she was sporting a full-fledged blush, and hoped that Josh either didn’t see it or wouldn’t catch on.
“No, I don’t,” she insisted. “We’re just friends anyway, and I’m not going to take advantage of you. Not like this.”
“How come?” Josh questioned, slightly confused. The stupidly goofy, drunken expression on his face was a mix of adorable and pitiful, and Robin didn’t know whether to laugh at him or hug him. She chose to do neither, instead opting to get to their destination as quickly as possible.
“Because,” Robin sighed again as they half-stumbled down the corridor. “You’re drunk, and it’s not right.”
“Well, what if I said I wanted you to?”
“You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Do too,” Josh insisted stubbornly. “I do too know what I’m saying.” He tripped on the carpet and fell forward a bit before Robin yanked him back.
“Would you be careful?” She ran a hand through her hair. “Yeesh, I’d like to get the both of us back to the room in one piece.”
Josh didn’t respond, and it was at that moment that Robin noticed he had stopped dead in his tracks. His head was cocked and he was staring off at something. What it was, she didn’t know, but the look on his face indicated that he was miles away from the conversation.
“What are you staring at?” Robin asked Josh, before noticing that he was staring at the carpet beneath him in utter confusion.
“Hey, when did that get there?” He glared at the carpet angrily before continuing.
“You know, carpets shouldn’t be allowed to just loiter wherever they please like that. A guy could break his neck.”
Robin snorted and choked back a laugh.
“Carpet loiterers, huh? How much did you have to drink?”
“I’m serious!” Josh exclaimed, as he threw his hands up. “There should be a law. Illegal carpet loitering. And any loiterers should be…” he tapped his finger on his chin as he mused thoughtfully. “Oh yeah. They should be fined and put in carpet jail.”
“Carpet jail? The fuck?” Robin asked incredulously.
“Yes, carpet jail,” Josh said proudly, as if it was the greatest idea he’d ever come up with. “I think if there was a carpet jail, we would have a lot less carpet criminals wandering about.”
Robin burst into laughter. Carpet loiterers. It was the single most hilarious thing she had heard in a long while, and as she laughed, tears streamed out of her eyes and ran down her face. Josh, however, was not amused at the sudden outburst, as he was being completely serious about carpet criminals and carpet loiterers. He scowled at the redhead, who was clutching her stomach in side-splitting laughter.
“Go ahead and laugh. We’ll see if you’re laughing when the carpet criminal gets you. Cause they don’t just attack guys, y’know. They don’t…” he fumbled around for the word that would best describe what he wanted to say, but found himself coming up short.
“Discriminate?” Robin offered helpfully, a smirk on her face.
“Yeah, that’s it. Discriminate.” Josh beamed widely and softly kissed Robin’s cheek. “Thank you. You’re pretty and smart.”
“You’re welcome,” Robin mumbled, her fingers coming up to lightly touch the spot Josh had just kissed.
Moments later, they arrived at the room. Robin paused to take the key card out of her jeans pocket, and quickly swiped it, more than ready to get Josh in the room and in bed. However, the door refused to open, for whatever reason (Robin was half expecting Josh to say that it was because the door was possessed by an evil spirit or something equally ridiculous), and she gritted her teeth in frustration. She tried again, and was denied entry to the room once more. Frustrated, she bit her lip.
“You’re doing it wrong,” Josh said, motioning for the card. “Gimme that.”
Robin scowled at Josh and shook her head.
“No, I’ve got it. Just try to stand up on your own, yeah? I dunno if I can drag you into my room.” She winced as she flexed her shoulder. “Damn tendonitis.”
“Aw, I’m sorry.” Josh placed his hands on the redhead’s shoulders and began gently massaging them. “I can give you a massage.”
“That’s okay,” Robin said, elated when the door finally clicked and she was able to enter the room. “I’ll be fine. A hot shower will fix it.”
“But I wannna,” Josh insisted as he stumbled across the room and more or less collapsed on the bed. “You’re so pretty. And smart. And you helped me to my room.”
He bit his lip. “I mean, I kinda owe you.”
“I told you, it’s no problem.” Robin insisted as she grabbed a towel, washcloth, and her clothes from the bag on the floor. “And you don’t owe me anything, Josh.”
She stripped her clothes off and stepped into the shower, sighing when the hot water hit her body. As she enjoyed the smell of pomegranate steam, inhaling deeply, the events of the night weighed on her mind. It wasn’t that she minded taking care of Josh, per se, and she could even deal with the fact that he was drunk, although it didn’t exactly please her. It was more the things he’d said, along with his actions. Josh was a hard book to read sometimes, and Robin wasn’t really sure of his feelings half the time.
“Josh? Are you okay in there?” Robin called as she pulled her cami over her head and stepped into her boy shorts.
No response.
“Josh, you’re scaring me—did you pass out?”
Minutes, which seemed like hours, passed before Josh finally spoke, his voice contemplative and his words laced with wistfulness.
“I love you.”
Even though Josh couldn’t see, Robin rolled her eyes. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard a drunken confession of love, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. But coming from Josh…the words “I love you” were ones she had waited ages to hear. She knew that she couldn’t take him seriously, though, and it disappointed her greatly. With a sigh, she said,
“No, you don’t. You’re just drunk.”
“HEY. Yes, I might be slightly inebriated, but..” he paused, seemingly forgetting what he meant to say.
“Yeah?” Robin motioned for him to continue, but there was no response. She shook her head, and despite her best efforts, found herself smiling.
“I forgot,” Josh said sheepishly.
Robin rolled her eyes.
“Right. Well, come on. Let’s get you into bed. The sooner we do that, the sooner I can sleep.”
She gently helped maneuver Josh back into a sleeping position, smiling at him once he was settled and comfortable. He was still adorable as ever, despite the fact that he was under the influence of alcohol, and Robin found herself admiring him.
“You gonna take care of me?” Josh asked softly, his features now seemingly childlike and his tone of voice resembling that of a little boy’s.
“Of course.”
The redhead suddenly found herself being huggled gently and her hair being kissed. Embarrassed, she tried to push Josh away, but his grip only tightened. She decided there was no point in fighting, and instead closed her eyes and gripped her pillow. Robin needed to sleep, but she couldn’t as long as she was on her side, and definitely could not if Josh continued doing what he was doing.
“Thank you,” Josh mumbled. “You’re so nice...”
“No problem. Now can you please go to sleep?” She nudged him gently.
“Okay.” He grabbed the covers and hastily threw them over himself, but taking extra care to make sure they were positioned perfectly over Robin, who was sprawled out on her stomach.
The last thing Robin heard before she drifted off to sleep was Josh whispering in her ear and kissing her cheek again.
“Night, princess.”
The atmosphere between the two of them the next morning was tense and awkward, to say the least, but both of them tried to pretend that it wasn’t. Truth be told, Robin was trying her best to forget last night had even happened, and for Josh’s part, he just didn’t know how to address the things he’d said and done.
Robin had just fixed pancakes for them and was in the middle of chowing down when Josh approached her at the table.
“Um, I think we need to talk.”
“Yeah?” Robin replied, looking down at the food on her plate as she tried to push last night out of her head. “About what?”
Josh paced back and forth for a few moments, before stopping in front of Robin and taking her hands in his. He sighed and knelt down so that he could make eye contact with her.
“Look, I know I was an ass last night. I don’t remember all of it, but I know that I was. I put you in a bad position, and I’m sorry. It wasn’t fair to you, and I promise, it won’t happen again.”
“It’s okay,” she said softly.
“No, it’s not, and I feel terrible.” A hand came up to tug at his hair, and he shook his head in disgust. “You must think I was a total tool, huh?”
Robin smiled ruefully.
“Do you remember any of what you said last night?”
“I don’t remember a lot, honestly,” Josh admitted. “But I do remember one thing in particular.”
“Oh? What’s that?” Robin asked, as she pushed her pancake around on her plate.
“I remember telling you that I loved you,” he stated.
Silence.
What was she supposed to say? It felt so…completely different now. Awkward. That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Robin felt as though her world had been turned completely upside down in just 24 hours. Truthfully, she had hoped for this for a very, very long time, but she never imagined that he would say it while he was drunk, and she certainly never anticipated this conversation. But here they were, and she felt frozen in her seat.
“It’s fine,” Robin said, her voice full of disappointment and sadness. “I’m sure you’ve said that to lots of other girls when you were drunk.”
“I’ve said a lot of things, mostly inappropriate ones,” Josh chuckled, as he shook his head at the memory. Suddenly, he grew quieter, and his tone changed as his blue eyes met Robin’s green ones. “But I’ve never told a girl I loved her before when I was drunk.”
“You..haven’t?”
“Nope. Never,” Josh insisted. “What did I tell you? Love isn’t something I just throw around. When I say it, I mean it. And last night—“
“You were drunk last night,” Robin pointed out. “People say things when they’re drunk that they don’t mean.”
“I meant it,” Josh continued. “I did. I love you, Robin.”
“But..I don’t understand.”
“Yeah, I don’t either,” the Michigan native replied as he stroked Robin’s cheek. “And I’m not gonna lie, I’m scared as hell. This is…it’s really new for both of us, yeah? And I don’t wanna screw it up.”
“You won’t.” Robin smiled as she ran her fingers through Josh’s soft hair.
“So, how much did I annoy you last night?” He asked, a slight blush creeping up his cheeks.
“You were actually kinda cute,” Robin replied with a laugh. “You were a gentleman.”
“Sweet!” Josh exclaimed. “I’m sorry about the drooling, by the way.”
“No need to apologize, hon, I do the same thing.” The redhead slapped him lightly on the butt. “Now come on, you still have some making up to do for last night…”
Josh smirked and hoisted the redhead over his shoulder, laughing as he carried her out of the living room and headed in the direction of the bedroom.
“Your wish is my command, babe.”
Written for Rhiannon Leigh Black, an amazing bestie and sis. I love you!
Disclaimer: I do not own the following characters; they belong to themselves and (quite possibly) each other. Title borrowed from the song “You Really Got Me” by The Kinks, which I also do not own. Don’t sue, I’m a post-grad student with a fuckload of student loans and spare change. You’d just be wasting your time.
Of late nights and drunken confessions of love.
“You know,” Josh mumbled as he wrapped his arm around Robin’s neck and leaned onto her for support, “You’re really pretty..”
The redhead winced at the sudden burden of weight that had been placed upon her, but gritted her teeth as she adjusted.
“You already said that.”
“I knowwww, but I wanted to say it again.”
“All right, tiger, c’mon,” Robin said, as she half-dragged Josh down the hallway, silently wishing he would at least halfway cooperate with her. It wasn’t that she was weak, because she wasn’t, but it was nearly impossible to drag over 200 pounds of dead weight without at least a little help. She gently poked Josh in the ribs to illustrate her point, but he merely grinned and wrapped a finger around the redhead’s.
“Oh, someone’s eager to get her hands on me already,” he smirked. “You know, you didn’t have to wait till now to do it.”
“What?”
“You know what I’m talking about.” Josh began to giggle uncontrollably. “You waaant me.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Robin insisted as she tugged on the man’s arm. “The only thing I want right now is to get you in bed.”
As soon as it left her lips, Robin instantly realized what she’d said and how it would be taken, and regretted it.
“Aw, fuck,” she muttered to herself, knowing that in his drunken state, Josh would take that the wrong way. She shifted her weight for a bit, propping Josh up so that she could look at him. A rather goofy grin was plastered on his face and his eyes were twinkling with mischief. It was a look Robin was very familiar with, and she almost groaned as she realized what he was now going to do for the rest of the night.
He was going to annoy her until either he passed out or was thrown out of the room they were sharing.
“I meant that I wanted to get you in bed so that I could sleep,” Robin said, feeling the need to clarify.
“Uh uh, you already said it,” Josh snickered. “You said you wanna get me in bed.”
“Well, that’s not what I meant.”
“But it’s what you said, you can’t take it back.” He shook his finger and then leaned in closer to Robin, his lips almost brushing her cheek at that point. “You wanna get me in bed so you can have your dirty, evil, wicked way with me.”
The redhead silently willed herself not to blush, but she didn’t have much control over it, not with Josh’s lips so close to her skin. She was almost positive that she was sporting a full-fledged blush, and hoped that Josh either didn’t see it or wouldn’t catch on.
“No, I don’t,” she insisted. “We’re just friends anyway, and I’m not going to take advantage of you. Not like this.”
“How come?” Josh questioned, slightly confused. The stupidly goofy, drunken expression on his face was a mix of adorable and pitiful, and Robin didn’t know whether to laugh at him or hug him. She chose to do neither, instead opting to get to their destination as quickly as possible.
“Because,” Robin sighed again as they half-stumbled down the corridor. “You’re drunk, and it’s not right.”
“Well, what if I said I wanted you to?”
“You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Do too,” Josh insisted stubbornly. “I do too know what I’m saying.” He tripped on the carpet and fell forward a bit before Robin yanked him back.
“Would you be careful?” She ran a hand through her hair. “Yeesh, I’d like to get the both of us back to the room in one piece.”
Josh didn’t respond, and it was at that moment that Robin noticed he had stopped dead in his tracks. His head was cocked and he was staring off at something. What it was, she didn’t know, but the look on his face indicated that he was miles away from the conversation.
“What are you staring at?” Robin asked Josh, before noticing that he was staring at the carpet beneath him in utter confusion.
“Hey, when did that get there?” He glared at the carpet angrily before continuing.
“You know, carpets shouldn’t be allowed to just loiter wherever they please like that. A guy could break his neck.”
Robin snorted and choked back a laugh.
“Carpet loiterers, huh? How much did you have to drink?”
“I’m serious!” Josh exclaimed, as he threw his hands up. “There should be a law. Illegal carpet loitering. And any loiterers should be…” he tapped his finger on his chin as he mused thoughtfully. “Oh yeah. They should be fined and put in carpet jail.”
“Carpet jail? The fuck?” Robin asked incredulously.
“Yes, carpet jail,” Josh said proudly, as if it was the greatest idea he’d ever come up with. “I think if there was a carpet jail, we would have a lot less carpet criminals wandering about.”
Robin burst into laughter. Carpet loiterers. It was the single most hilarious thing she had heard in a long while, and as she laughed, tears streamed out of her eyes and ran down her face. Josh, however, was not amused at the sudden outburst, as he was being completely serious about carpet criminals and carpet loiterers. He scowled at the redhead, who was clutching her stomach in side-splitting laughter.
“Go ahead and laugh. We’ll see if you’re laughing when the carpet criminal gets you. Cause they don’t just attack guys, y’know. They don’t…” he fumbled around for the word that would best describe what he wanted to say, but found himself coming up short.
“Discriminate?” Robin offered helpfully, a smirk on her face.
“Yeah, that’s it. Discriminate.” Josh beamed widely and softly kissed Robin’s cheek. “Thank you. You’re pretty and smart.”
“You’re welcome,” Robin mumbled, her fingers coming up to lightly touch the spot Josh had just kissed.
Moments later, they arrived at the room. Robin paused to take the key card out of her jeans pocket, and quickly swiped it, more than ready to get Josh in the room and in bed. However, the door refused to open, for whatever reason (Robin was half expecting Josh to say that it was because the door was possessed by an evil spirit or something equally ridiculous), and she gritted her teeth in frustration. She tried again, and was denied entry to the room once more. Frustrated, she bit her lip.
“You’re doing it wrong,” Josh said, motioning for the card. “Gimme that.”
Robin scowled at Josh and shook her head.
“No, I’ve got it. Just try to stand up on your own, yeah? I dunno if I can drag you into my room.” She winced as she flexed her shoulder. “Damn tendonitis.”
“Aw, I’m sorry.” Josh placed his hands on the redhead’s shoulders and began gently massaging them. “I can give you a massage.”
“That’s okay,” Robin said, elated when the door finally clicked and she was able to enter the room. “I’ll be fine. A hot shower will fix it.”
“But I wannna,” Josh insisted as he stumbled across the room and more or less collapsed on the bed. “You’re so pretty. And smart. And you helped me to my room.”
He bit his lip. “I mean, I kinda owe you.”
“I told you, it’s no problem.” Robin insisted as she grabbed a towel, washcloth, and her clothes from the bag on the floor. “And you don’t owe me anything, Josh.”
She stripped her clothes off and stepped into the shower, sighing when the hot water hit her body. As she enjoyed the smell of pomegranate steam, inhaling deeply, the events of the night weighed on her mind. It wasn’t that she minded taking care of Josh, per se, and she could even deal with the fact that he was drunk, although it didn’t exactly please her. It was more the things he’d said, along with his actions. Josh was a hard book to read sometimes, and Robin wasn’t really sure of his feelings half the time.
“Josh? Are you okay in there?” Robin called as she pulled her cami over her head and stepped into her boy shorts.
No response.
“Josh, you’re scaring me—did you pass out?”
Minutes, which seemed like hours, passed before Josh finally spoke, his voice contemplative and his words laced with wistfulness.
“I love you.”
Even though Josh couldn’t see, Robin rolled her eyes. It wasn’t the first time she’d heard a drunken confession of love, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. But coming from Josh…the words “I love you” were ones she had waited ages to hear. She knew that she couldn’t take him seriously, though, and it disappointed her greatly. With a sigh, she said,
“No, you don’t. You’re just drunk.”
“HEY. Yes, I might be slightly inebriated, but..” he paused, seemingly forgetting what he meant to say.
“Yeah?” Robin motioned for him to continue, but there was no response. She shook her head, and despite her best efforts, found herself smiling.
“I forgot,” Josh said sheepishly.
Robin rolled her eyes.
“Right. Well, come on. Let’s get you into bed. The sooner we do that, the sooner I can sleep.”
She gently helped maneuver Josh back into a sleeping position, smiling at him once he was settled and comfortable. He was still adorable as ever, despite the fact that he was under the influence of alcohol, and Robin found herself admiring him.
“You gonna take care of me?” Josh asked softly, his features now seemingly childlike and his tone of voice resembling that of a little boy’s.
“Of course.”
The redhead suddenly found herself being huggled gently and her hair being kissed. Embarrassed, she tried to push Josh away, but his grip only tightened. She decided there was no point in fighting, and instead closed her eyes and gripped her pillow. Robin needed to sleep, but she couldn’t as long as she was on her side, and definitely could not if Josh continued doing what he was doing.
“Thank you,” Josh mumbled. “You’re so nice...”
“No problem. Now can you please go to sleep?” She nudged him gently.
“Okay.” He grabbed the covers and hastily threw them over himself, but taking extra care to make sure they were positioned perfectly over Robin, who was sprawled out on her stomach.
The last thing Robin heard before she drifted off to sleep was Josh whispering in her ear and kissing her cheek again.
“Night, princess.”
The atmosphere between the two of them the next morning was tense and awkward, to say the least, but both of them tried to pretend that it wasn’t. Truth be told, Robin was trying her best to forget last night had even happened, and for Josh’s part, he just didn’t know how to address the things he’d said and done.
Robin had just fixed pancakes for them and was in the middle of chowing down when Josh approached her at the table.
“Um, I think we need to talk.”
“Yeah?” Robin replied, looking down at the food on her plate as she tried to push last night out of her head. “About what?”
Josh paced back and forth for a few moments, before stopping in front of Robin and taking her hands in his. He sighed and knelt down so that he could make eye contact with her.
“Look, I know I was an ass last night. I don’t remember all of it, but I know that I was. I put you in a bad position, and I’m sorry. It wasn’t fair to you, and I promise, it won’t happen again.”
“It’s okay,” she said softly.
“No, it’s not, and I feel terrible.” A hand came up to tug at his hair, and he shook his head in disgust. “You must think I was a total tool, huh?”
Robin smiled ruefully.
“Do you remember any of what you said last night?”
“I don’t remember a lot, honestly,” Josh admitted. “But I do remember one thing in particular.”
“Oh? What’s that?” Robin asked, as she pushed her pancake around on her plate.
“I remember telling you that I loved you,” he stated.
Silence.
What was she supposed to say? It felt so…completely different now. Awkward. That wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Robin felt as though her world had been turned completely upside down in just 24 hours. Truthfully, she had hoped for this for a very, very long time, but she never imagined that he would say it while he was drunk, and she certainly never anticipated this conversation. But here they were, and she felt frozen in her seat.
“It’s fine,” Robin said, her voice full of disappointment and sadness. “I’m sure you’ve said that to lots of other girls when you were drunk.”
“I’ve said a lot of things, mostly inappropriate ones,” Josh chuckled, as he shook his head at the memory. Suddenly, he grew quieter, and his tone changed as his blue eyes met Robin’s green ones. “But I’ve never told a girl I loved her before when I was drunk.”
“You..haven’t?”
“Nope. Never,” Josh insisted. “What did I tell you? Love isn’t something I just throw around. When I say it, I mean it. And last night—“
“You were drunk last night,” Robin pointed out. “People say things when they’re drunk that they don’t mean.”
“I meant it,” Josh continued. “I did. I love you, Robin.”
“But..I don’t understand.”
“Yeah, I don’t either,” the Michigan native replied as he stroked Robin’s cheek. “And I’m not gonna lie, I’m scared as hell. This is…it’s really new for both of us, yeah? And I don’t wanna screw it up.”
“You won’t.” Robin smiled as she ran her fingers through Josh’s soft hair.
“So, how much did I annoy you last night?” He asked, a slight blush creeping up his cheeks.
“You were actually kinda cute,” Robin replied with a laugh. “You were a gentleman.”
“Sweet!” Josh exclaimed. “I’m sorry about the drooling, by the way.”
“No need to apologize, hon, I do the same thing.” The redhead slapped him lightly on the butt. “Now come on, you still have some making up to do for last night…”
Josh smirked and hoisted the redhead over his shoulder, laughing as he carried her out of the living room and headed in the direction of the bedroom.
“Your wish is my command, babe.”
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