Work Text:
Josh was seriously beginning to regret letting his friends drag him out to the club, especially tonight when the temperature was hitting a new low that actually made the sweaty humid club seem appealing compared to getting numb hands and runny noses. It was bordering on one am though and Josh had to keep reminding himself that he had work in the morning, that didn't stop his friends from handing him drink after drink however.
In his drunk state it was hard to do anything with the thumping bass from the surrounding speakers along with the flashing neon lights that seemed to blind him every couple of seconds. He hadn't been enjoying the club at all throughout the night but now it was becoming unbearable. Scanning the club quickly he spotted Pete's bleached haircut and made his way to him, surprised that he wasn't with Patrick.
Pete grinned and clapped his shoulder when he saw Josh coming towards him "Hey man!" his grinned dropped when he realised that Josh was squinting at him "You alright?" Josh just waved him off.
"Just needed to tell you I'm gonna go get some air, I don't feel so great." Pete patted his back sympathetically and nodded.
He made his way outside after trying not to shove through people and almost regretted leaving the heat of the club, almost. Making his way to a bench and trying to stay out of the way of passer-bys, his feeble attempts at retaining his warmth were not helping. The biting cold seemed to sober him up enough to convince himself to just go home and sleep off all the beer his friends had shoved into his hands during the night. He had however gotten here on a bus and at this time of night he knew there'd be none going anywhere near his neighbourhood and he also had no money, a necessary requirement when it came to catching taxis unfortunately. Pulling out his phone Josh quickly checked the address of the club he was sitting in front of, it was only a block away from Mark's apartment building. While he was sober enough to understand that he needed to sleep before his shift in the morning Josh was still drunk enough to neglect calling Mark before standing up and embarking on his chilling walk to the apartment.
Not to Josh's surprise the lights were off, Mark was never a night owl in fact he wasn't really a day person either now that Josh thought about it. He really didn't want to bother Mark by asking him to be buzzed in so late, he also knew that Mark never bothered to lock his windows and a plan started to formulate. Looking back on this Josh realised that this really was not his most logical idea, he wasn't a very smart drunk.
Mark's apartment was only on the second floor so Josh clambered onto a closed dumpster careful when the top started squeaking under his weight. His breath was visible in the ridiculously cold morning air, he huffed as he laughed only making his breath more noticeable. He felt like a dragon as he purposely snorted through his nose momentarily forgetting that he was standing on a dumpster at two am.
Josh found himself reaching over to grab the ladder leading up to the second story landing, he didn't trust it nor his stiff fingers not to drop him onto the pavement so he was quick to climb onto the landing and brush himself off. He was so close to the warmth of a few nice blankets and Mark's oddly comfortable couch. After finding the closest window he grabbed the bottom of the frame and pushed it upwards, it stubbornly tried to remain in place for a moment but soon opened for Josh.
Josh was also not a coordinated drunk and fell onto the floor as he lifted himself through the open window, he found himself staggeringly blind to the darkness of the room and eventually stood up. Closing the window he then started to make his way along the wall searching for a light switch while also being careful not to hit his knees on anything.
He felt something brush against his leg and froze, the things continued to push itself against his leg and purr? Mark didn't have a cat, did he? Josh squinted into the darkness as he struggled to remember.
Josh however did not have time to finish his thought as the lights were suddenly turned on and his eyes stung from the sudden harshness of it. He looked around the room and before he could realise that this was definitely not Mark's apartment he saw a man standing at the doorway clutching a baseball bat in his hands and failing to look at all intimidating.
"Excuse me, could you please leave?" he told Josh firmly, not lowering the bat. Josh simply stared with blunt confusion as the cat continued to demand his attention.
"Who are you?" asked Josh and the man suddenly looked bewildered.
"Who am I? You're the one in my lounge room, who are you?" Josh needed to take a moment to process this through his drunk brain.
He squinted "So this isn't Mark's place?" he just needed to make sure, he wasn't very sure of anything at that moment.
The man slowly lowered his bat when he realised that Josh wasn't there for a malicious reason and sighed, "You were going to break into your friend's apartment?" he asked with genuine concern.
"Y-Yes? Or not? I am so tired right now." Josh sat down on the floor and the cat gladly crawled into his lap headbutting him until he scratched it, the cat was so soft. "Your cat is so soft." he told the man.
He never replied however as he left the room leaving Josh to pet the cat and returning with two mugs around 10 minutes later, he was visibly surprised to find that Josh had not moved at all from his spot on the floor. He set one of the mugs down on a coffee table in the middle of the room and walked over to Josh with the other one.
"Here take it, it's just hot chocolate since you're probably on the verge of hypothermia. Let me just go get some blankets." Josh happily took the steaming mug from him and nearly shuddered at the warmth.
As the man started to leave again Josh called out to him "Wait, since you're obviously not Mark what's your name?"
"Uh, Tyler." he gave him a crooked grin before venturing off to get blankets.
Josh found the common sense to get up off the floor despite the cat's protests and he made his way to the sofa being careful not to spill any of his hot chocolate onto the floor, Tyler was even nice enough to add a few marshmallows. He was intently trying to drink as much of it as he could without burning his tongue when Tyler came back in with blankets. Setting them next to Josh on the sofa he then sat down on the nearby armchair with his own mug of what Josh assumed to be hot chocolate not talking for a few minutes as they both drank from their cups.
"Oh! I'm Josh by the way, would have been rude for you to not know my name." Josh laughed to himself as he practically pressed the mug to his face to absorb its heat. He took a moment to look over Tyler, he couldn't tell if he was lanky thanks to the baggy clothes keeping him warm however he did have short brown hair and brown doe eyes to match that made him look ridiculously pretty. Under his eyes though were heavy purplish bags forcing Josh to remember what time it was.
"Did I wake you up? I'm so sorry if I did honestly." Josh told him apologetically but Tyler just grinned tiredly.
"Don't worry I was already awake." was his only response. "I'm guessing you were out clubbing or something though? You can kinda smell the alcohol."
Josh chuckled sheepishly "Oh yeah, it's really not my kind of scene but my friends forced me along anyway. Last time I let that happen." the cat had now leaped onto the couch and was proceeding to headbutt Josh in the arm.
"You know, you're lucky I haven't called the cops it's only 'cause Blurry here likes you." Tyler told him with false seriousness before cracking into a grin.
The cat, apparently called Blurry was now lying next to Josh's thigh purring contently as he scratched its head. "Aw, I'm sure Blurry's not the only one who likes me." Josh chuckled now starting to warm up.
"Yeah, we'll see." Tyler shot back laughing, a sound that Josh wanted to hear more of, "You can stay the night though, no point in making you get a taxi back this early in the morning."
"More time with your cat, I'm cool with that." Josh replied "but thanks really, especially since I kinda broke into your apartment."
"Yeah yeah, as long as you're not a wild axe murderer I don't mind it." Tyler showed his crooked grin again and Josh didn't know if it was the alcohol but Tyler smiling was starting to become the prettiest thing he had probably ever seen. Besides this cat of course, it was so unbelievably soft.
Josh smirked "Sure you don't need to know anything else about me? I'm an open book ask away."
"Alright then," Tyler set down his mug and used one of his hands to prop his chin up "Tell me about yourself Mr?.."
"Dun. And I will if you agree to tell me about yourself too. Who knows, maybe you're the axe murderer here." Josh grinned cheekily, he had finished his hot chocolate now but was still holding the mug thanks to how warm it still was. He also wrapped one of the blankets Tyler had left around himself.
"You got yourself a deal."
What was suppose to be a quick introduction from both of them turned into hours worth of discussion talking about their hobbies, aspirations, dreams, beliefs and weird anecdotes at a few point during the morning as no topic was left off limits. After a couple more mugs of warm beverages and five missed calls from Pete later the sun finally awoken as the early sunrise through the window alerted them to how long they had been there for. Josh had work in a few hours but he really could not find himself able to leave until Tyler made him shower and wrote his number on his hand in such illegible handwriting that he had to add his number on Josh's phone instead. He left Tyler's apartment happier than he had been in months, god bless past drunk Josh for being an idiot he thought to himself.