***Trigger warnings for mentions of abortion, slight symptoms of PTSD, and mentions of abuse.***

Start the song. It's Thingamajig by Miya Folick.

Josh couldn't help but smile when he woke up to kisses being scattered all over his face. He knew the kisses were from Frangipane before he'd even opened his eyes, the smell of her perfume and the feeling of her soft skin remaining just as present beside him as they had been when he'd fallen asleep. She didn't kiss his mouth, allowing him to still have complete control over who kissed his lips and when.

Frangipane giggled when Josh didn't open his eyes yet, just rolling over to bury his face against her throat and wrap his arm snugly around her waist. He had no idea at what point in the night he'd rolled away from her, but he was grateful he had the opportunity to snuggle up against her again before he started off another miserable day of suicide watch.

"Again with the morning wood, huh?" Frangipane teased, making Josh grunt tiredly and smile as he rolled back over to face away from her. Frangipane laughed when he grumbled in dissent as she pulled him backwards until he was the little spoon. "You were smiling in your sleep. You kept rolling over and touching my face to make sure I was still here, and then you'd smile really wide. You didn't wake up at all, but even in your sleep, you were trying to make sure I was still here. I didn't cry about it at all. That's for sure."

Josh laughed tiredly, wanting to roll over and look at her but not wanting to make her uncomfortable. Instead, he settled for letting her press a gentle kiss to his shoulder. "What time is it?" He mumbled, feeling like it was still the middle of the night.

"Six. Someone's probably gonna come by in a bit to make sure I'm still doing okay in here though, and I didn't want you to panic if I had to get out of your bed really quick," Frangipane explained.

"Oh, okay," Josh replied, wiping sleep from his eyes. "Have you been in my bed this whole time?"

Frangipane chuckled. "Yep. I just watched you sleep like a complete weirdo, played with your hair, and made sure nobody could come in to hurt my puppy."

Josh yawned. "It's too bad you can't just sleep. How are you feeling?"

"Lots better. I still kinda want to throw up whenever I think about it, and my body isn't completely back to one hundred percent, but I feel lots better. Plus, Gerald has no fucking clue where to find me because he has no reason to believe I'd be staying with your family," Frangipane reported cheerfully. "He doesn't know that you are my family though."

"This isn't meant to be a loaded question, but do you still feel like you made the right choice?" Josh asked her, looking over his shoulder at her with slightly hazy eyes.

She sighed. "I don't know if there really is a right choice in this situation, but at least the one I made got me out of that house without putting me into another unstable situation. Maybe that's selfish, but-"

"It's not selfish," Josh interjected. "I think it took a lot of strength for you to make that choice. I couldn't have done that. You should be really proud of yourself, dude. You knew this wasn't a good time to have a baby and that your asshole husband couldn't help you, so you did what you had to do, even though it was insanely difficult to do. That's not selfish. You risked way too much for this to be selfish."

There were tears forming in Frangipane's eyes as she listened to him, but she was smiling slightly. When he was finished speaking, she asked quietly, "Am I allowed to kiss you?"

"My breath might be pretty bad, and I don't know if you want me to roll over yet," he told her, making her laugh.

"Believe me. I love you enough to look past your morning problems," she told him amusedly before insisting, "No pressure though. You're completely in control of this, and you don't owe me anything. You can always tell me no."

He smiled slightly before rolling over to face her again. "You can kiss me," he decided timidly.

"Let me know if you change your mind, okay? I won't be mad. I'll still love you and be your best friend no matter what," she informed him, waiting for him to nod his understanding before she was holding his slightly scruffy cheek in one hand and connecting their lips.

This kiss wasn't the same as the last one. The last one had lasted for barely a second, and their lips had hardly even made contact. This time, their lips moved, and it lasted long enough for Josh to fully appreciate how gentle and patient Frangipane was being with him the whole time. She wasn't expecting him to be comfortable enough to take any semblance of dominance over the kiss or to deepen it or to really do anything more than keep up with the slow pace of her lips. His lips were tingling when the kiss broke, and he couldn't stop smiling when she pressed her forehead against his and beamed at him.

"You're a natural," she told him, making him blush. She didn't make fun of him for that. She just smiled more brightly, stroking his cheek softly. "Thank you for trusting me enough to let me be your first kiss. I hope I didn't let you down on that."

"You didn't," he replied quietly, his blush darkening when she kissed his nose.

"We'll keep this slow, okay? You're completely in charge of the pace this moves at, and I don't ever want you to feel like you have to move faster than you're prepared to. Just being your friend is enough for me. I promise. Anything else is a bonus, but you don't owe me anything at all," Frangipane explained to him gently. "If anything I do makes you feel rushed or uncomfortable or uncertain, please tell me. I won't be mad. I'll just be better about navigating your boundaries."

Josh smiled, nodding slightly. "You're a good husband," he told her.

She laughed again, nuzzling her nose against his. "I've gotta be. It's the only way I can even come close to deserving my perfect wife."

Josh snorted, making her giggle and hug him close. He tucked his face into the crook of her neck as he beamed. "You're a dork," he told her, making her snort too.

"You are!" She argued through a giggle, tugging at his floppy earlobe before nuzzling her nose against his again. "My dorky little puppy," she cooed, eliciting another laugh from him.

"I hope you realize you're the only person I would ever accept baby talk from. I would probably knock out anyone else who talked to me like that, but for some reason, I'm fine with it when you do it," Josh told her through a grin.

She let out an elongated "awwww," making him laugh again as she pinched his cheeks. "My teeny tiny puppy baby boy," she cooed at him adoringly. "Such a cutie little love bug darling angel dumpling. So sweet and precious."

He laughed, rolling his eyes as she continued to spew nonsense praise at him. He didn't admit it, but some part of him craved the seemingly never ending stream of adoration tumbling from her lips. It filled a hole inside of him that he hadn't even realized was still raw.

Normally, it gave him a stomach ache when anyone called him "baby" or talked to him like he was a little kid, flooding him with horrible memories that made him want to throw up. Frangipane was different though for a lot of reasons: she wasn't a man, she wasn't saying it to intimidate him, she said the words like they were compliments instead of threats, and he had no doubt that she'd stop talking to him like that right away if he told her it bothered him.

"You realize you can't tell anyone in my family that I kissed you, right?" Josh mumbled against her throat. "My mom would definitely come yell at me again."

Frangipane chuckled. "No offence, but your mom was a fucking monster when she came in last night. I've never seen her be that mean. Also, I kind of wanted to kick her ass every time she had an opportunity to tell you she loves you and didn't take it. And whenever she said mean things to you. And whenever she made you cry. And whenever she talked to you like you were stupid. Basically, I just want to fight your mom, so I'm sorry about that."

Josh grinned. "Please fight my mom."

Frangipane laughed. "Deal. I promise I won't tell anyone, though. That would definitely not be good for me either." She was quiet for a moment before telling him, "I might tell Abbie though. I think she'd be excited for you for having your first kiss and proud of you for trusting me."

"Abbie's cool. You can tell Abbie," Josh decided.

They both sighed when heavy boots sounded down the block. Frangipane kissed Josh's forehead before climbing off of his bed and sitting in the folding chair beside it. He rolled over so he wasn't facing her, closing his eyes again and willing his muscles to relax as the footsteps approached. They stopped at his cell door.

"Everything good in here?" A man with a deep voice asked Frangipane.

"Yep," she replied simply. "Everything good out there?"

"Yep," the man replied, and then the boots were leaving.

"Good talk," Frangipane mumbled, already climbing back onto Josh's bed with him before the buzzer had even sounded to confirm that the other guard had left the cell block. "Come back. I miss you," she whined, rolling him over and pulling his arms around her.

He laughed. "You're needier than I am, and that's actually insane."

She giggled, pressing featherlight kisses along his jaw before resting her head on his chest. "Can't help it. You're my favourite person in the world. I want to spend time with you whenever I can. Plus, you're so warm. It's freezing in this block, but you're a little furnace."

"You'd think they'd have some heat over here since it's almost February, and we aren't allowed to have blankets," Josh pointed out, rubbing Frangipane's back gently as he found himself slowly drifting back to sleep.

"It's garbage," Frangipane commented, tangling her fingers with the ones on Josh's free hand. "I'm really proud of you for standing up for yourself last night. I kept thinking I'd need to jump in and defend you, but you took care of yourself. I was so proud of you. Your dad would be too. That was so amazing. I know that was really hard for you, but you handled all of it so well."

Josh smiled slightly. "Thanks," he replied quietly. He hesitated before asking, "Did my mom happen to tell you why she divorced my dad?"

Frangipane sighed. "Technically no, but Abbie said she thinks your dad was with his girlfriend before they split up. Something to do with the age of the baby."

"Fuck," Josh commented quietly.

"Fuck," Frangipane agreed.

"I can't believe my dad has another family," Josh admitted thoughtlessly.

Frangipane squeezed his hand softly. "It's not your fault."

"Maybe not, but I still hate my dad," Josh replied.

"That's okay. You don't have to like him when he's done that. You get to feel however you need to about this, and you get to process it at whatever pace makes sense to you. No one gets to tell you how to cope with this, and there's no wrong way to cope as long as you aren't hurting yourself or anything else," Frangipane reminded him. "You can always talk to me if you need to process it out loud or to ask for help or even if you just need a hug. We're gonna survive this."

Josh nodded slightly, rubbing her thumb softly with his. "We're gonna survive this," he repeated.

"That's right," Frangipane agreed with a smile. "I'm so proud of you for doing all of these difficult things lately. You're doing such a good job."

A shaky breath left Josh's lungs as her words caused the tension in his muscles to dissipate. "Thanks," he whispered in reply.

Frangipane hummed. "You're getting sleepy again, aren't you?"

Josh hummed affirmatively, suddenly finding it difficult to stay awake. Frangipane laughed when he pulled her closer and hugged her to his chest as he relaxed into the lumpy mattress.

"Is there a teddybear somewhere in your cell that I didn't notice, or are you usually deprived of snuggly moments before you go to sleep?" She asked him amusedly.

Josh smiled slightly. "No teddybears in prison. Bad things happen to dudes with teddybears," Josh mumbled.

"I've seen a few teddybears here," Frangipane pointed out.

Josh snorted. "Okay, well, the next time you see the guys who own them, know that they are one hundred percent someone else's bitch."

"Fuck," Frangipane commented.

"Mmhm. It's the same in juvie. You act like a kid, someone's gonna treat you like a bitch. You have to grow up," Josh informed her tiredly.

"I'm sorry that was your childhood," Frangipane told him quietly.

He shrugged. "I was never anyone's bitch, so it could've been worse. I just minded my own business in there, and everything was fine. I had cellmates who were gang members and shit, and I did such a good job minding my business that they would talk about gang shit all the time around me because they know that I a) wouldn't tell anyone, and b) couldn't talk well enough to tell anyone even if I wanted to."

"Because of your stutter?" She asked quietly.

"Because of my stutter," he confirmed. "That's probably the only good thing to ever come from my stutter. No one ever saw me as a threat."

"Or no one saw you as a threat because you're so soft and adorable," Frangipane suggested, making Josh laugh.

"Mmm. Could be that too," he agreed amusedly.

Frangipane grinned, pressing a kiss to his jaw before telling him decidedly, "Okay. Well, I'll hold down the fort for a bit while you get some more sleep. I'll just spend my time playing with your hair and stuff until you wake up. Totally not creepy."

One corner of Josh's mouth tugged up into a lazy smile. He hummed quietly, hugging her a little closer before relaxing once again and mumbling, "Pervert."

Frangipane snickered, reaching up to flick his nose. "You're that," she countered childishly, making him laugh.

"No, you," Josh decided, making her giggle.

"You're so mean to me," she grumbled teasingly, burying her face against his chest. "Gonna make me cry."

"Can we just agree that you're a pervert for watching me sleep, and I'm a bitch for holding you like a teddybear when I sleep?" Josh proposed, making her snort.

"My bitch?" She asked curiously.

Josh snorted. "Hell no. You're just a teddybear."

"Then whose bitch are you supposed to be?" She laughed out.

Josh laughed. "Um, legally? I'm pretty sure the state of Ohio owns my ass."

Frangipane laughed so hard at that that she snorted multiple times, making it impossible for Josh to keep himself from laughing too. She rested her head beside his on the lumpy pillow and smirked slightly. "It is a nice ass," she whispered conspiratorially.

Without hesitation, Josh whispered back, "Pervert."

Frangipane snickered again. "Not to sound like the obvious pervert I am, but can I kiss you again?"

"Not to sound like a bitch, but yeah," Josh agreed, making Frangipane giggle as she connected their lips.

She kissed him at the same slow and patient pace as she had before, releasing his hand to run her fingers through his hair. He melted at the feeling of her long fingernails against his scalp, quite convinced there was nothing else in the world that felt like that. Her lips were so soft, and she smiled into the kiss when he held her velvety cheek carefully in his hand as their lips moved together. He knew his lips were much clumsier than hers, but she didn't seem to mind. She just seemed to be happy that he was happy.

Frangipane broke the kiss, pecking his lips a couple more times to make him laugh before laying her head down beside his again and smiling brightly at him as she continued to run her fingers through his hair. He gently stroked his thumb across the freckles on her cheek, smiling when she blushed beneath his hand.

"Can I tell you something top secret?" Frangipane whispered to him.

He nodded, the tip of his nose touching hers just slightly as he did so. "'Course," he agreed quietly.

Her hand left his hair to hold his chin, her thumb swiping softly along his bottom lip, making it tingle just as much as it had after she'd kissed him. He couldn't help but smile at the touch.

"I have a crush on you," she whispered to him.

Josh laughed quietly. "You're not doing a very good job keeping that a secret," he whispered back.

She giggled, nuzzling her nose against his. "Then how come you're the only one who knows?" She challenged, still keeping her voice a whisper.

He grinned, pressing a kiss to her nose. Her hand slid back into his hair, making him want to kick his leg like a dog again when those long nails scratched lightly at his scalp. "Probably 'cause I have a crush on you too," he replied covertly.

Frangipane beamed, pressing her forehead against his and meeting his gaze with so much love and adoration that he thought he was going to melt. "Hey, I'm proud of you," she whispered to him, smiling when he blushed. "I really am. You have been so brave and so strong. You should be so proud of yourself."

Josh nudged his nose against hers. "Thanks. I'm proud of you too."

Frangipane smiled when he pressed his lips to hers one more time, the kiss barely lasting a second before he was settling in to go back to sleep, collecting her up in his arms again. Her fingers remained in his hair as she allowed him to hold her close, the gentle touch soothing him slowly back to sleep.

"Goodnight, wifey," Frangipane whispered to him sweetly.

He smiled sleepily. "Goodnight, hubby," he mumbled.

It only took a couple minutes for Josh to fall fast asleep with his limbs still intertwined with Frangipane's. He felt completely safe in doing so, not a single doubt in his mind that she would keep him safe while he slept. Frangipane always kept him safe. Of course she did. That was what family was supposed to do.