josuke cuddles? uwu (ps i wuv u nat)
Josuke’s the kind of guy whose primary language of love lies in touch. He needs to be physical with his friends; put his hands on their shoulder, hug them when he’s feeling overcome, hold their wrists to drag them along when they’re not coming with him quickly enough. It had been a shock at first - this tall, handsome boy with the wide smile and the pompadour, touching you so much. You thought back on how you’d always been told the Japanese were a reserved kind of people, and not the kind to rush whole-heartedly into things with enthusiasm sparking off them brightly enough to start a fire - thinking on that, when Josuke’s in front of you . . . Well. Josuke is certainly not reserved by any means.
You’d blushed something fierce the first few times it had happened. It didn’t help that Josuke’s face is so beautiful, that his voice is so warm, that his very presence makes butterflies rise in your stomach as you worry about embarrassing yourself in front of him. You’d always been grateful when he didn’t mention that your face had gone so pink; you’d thought maybe he was used to it. After all, he’s always surrounded by legions of girls who look as though they’d faint if his hand so much as brushed theirs. You’re his friend! You have to get used to how warm and soft his hand is and how comforting it feels to have his arm slung around your shoulder and not to let your heart beat out of your ribcage when he pulls you close to him to whisper something into your ear!
When he’d shyly and nervously suggested that maybe you two should hang out together a bite more outside of just being friends in a group, you’d done your best to quell the heart that felt like it was going to beat out of your chest. You wondered if he was going to ask you advice about asking out a cute girl, or whether he wanted to ask you about doing him a favour, or anything along those lines. You had done your best to squash the thought that maybe he had a crush on you in the same way as you had one on him - and then, nervousness apparent in the shake of his fingers and the bite of his lip, he’d laid his hand over yours and smiled at you and your entire body has felt like it was melting on the spot.
He’s slow when it comes to physical affection. Your first kiss is a rushed peck on the cheek at your front door, Josuke’s face flushed with embarrassment, your own cheek feeling hot as though he’s branded you instead of merely brushed your flesh with his lips. You’d bitten your lip and looked up at him, flustered, and he’d scratched at his cheek and given you an embarrassed smile and you had realized with certainty that you were utterly and completely infatuated with Josuke Higashikata and would do absolutely anything he asked of you.
It had taken a while for you to get to this point. Lots of blushing, and awkward physical encounters, and trying to get the courage to hold Josuke’s hand in public and not to squeak in excited alarm when he squished you against his warm, hard side. You’d felt like a teenager with their first crush again - something about Josuke just brings out those kind of feelings, you suppose. For all his attempts to seem like a delinquent and a tough guy, inside he’s sweet and sensitive and the perfect boyfriend in every way.
And times like this - laid next to him in bed, half-dressed - you feel like the luckiest person in the entire world that Josuke Higashikata wants to spend his time with you, when he could have his pick of almost anyone in the world.
His arms always feel so strong when they wrap around you and pull you against him. He’s one of those lucky people who radiate heat no matter the season; he never seems bothered if you hog the duvets whilst you’re sleeping, he just uses it as an excuse to cuddle up to you further. He drops kisses on your bare shoulders to wake you up.
“I always feel safe when we’re cuddling,” you tell him, your voice still laced with sleep, and you feel the wonderful reverberating rumble of his chest where it presses against you, the light laugh that he emits warm enough to wrap around you like a blanket in its own right. “It’s like you’re . . . I don’t know. Like nothing in the whole world could hurt me while we’re like this.”
“I wouldn’t let anythin’ hurt you, babe,” Josuke assures you, dropping soft kisses along the column of your neck. “Long as we’re together, I’ll protect you! I’ll be like your knight in shining armour, yeah?”
You relax into him, your head fitting perfectly into the space beneath his chin. You can’t see his handsome face from here, but you know Josuke well enough to be able to imagine the indulgent smile that he’s probably sporting. You can smell his cologne from here; something woodsy but sweet.
“I’ll protect you too,” you promise him, and he laughs.
