Chapter Text
Donna wakes up to fingertips tracing her spine, the slight pressure pushing her closer to the hardness pressed into her belly. It’s still dark outside so she takes the opportunity to explore Josh’s shoulders. Big circles, small circles, exploring each muscle, memorizing their feel. Her alarm hasn’t gone off yet, so they still have some time.
Donna wonders how much she can get away with before Josh will startle back into his usual repressed self. Can they go again without having to talk about it or before he gets all weird? She’s surprised he was open to snuggling all night, though that was actually more normal for them than it would have been to sleep apart.
Just as she’s drawing her hands lower, as his mirror hers, his ringing cell phone startles them both. He rolls backwards, reaching for his phone with one arm, pulling her into his chest with the other.
“‘Lo?”
She can’t make out who or what he’s hearing, so she inhales softly, memorizing his post-coital morning scent.
“We’ll be right there.”
She’s scratching her nails through his chest hair when he bolts upright, knocking her sideways.
“No. Um. I just meant I’ll call Donna right now and tell her to come in.”
With that Donna sits up too, clutching the sheet to her chest.
“Okay, yeah. Bye.”
Josh hangs up. Stares straight ahead for a minute. “That was Leo.”
“Ah, so ‘we’ll be right there’ was a little too much information.”
“Yeah he asked me who I meant by ‘we.’” Her eyes widen. “It’s fine. He was calling to say he wants me on the Hill all day whipping up support, but he’ll have DOD waiting to brief me first. Whoever thought of scheduling all night parties on a Monday should be shot.”
She stares at him for a second.
“Ok bad choice of words. Um, can we just. I know we have to. Y’know but. Time and getting ready.” It almost seems like he’s trying to talk about what happened. Just really, really badly. “Oh shit, I have to go home to get a suit. Leo will kill me if I show up in my tux.”
“I have a suit for you in my closet that I picked up from the cleaners, if you want to just get ready here?” A peace offering of sorts.
“You really are amazing.” He’s looking at her like he did last night on her front steps—the word amazing breathless in the same way. His eyes lock with hers then slowly start tracing over her lips, her shoulders, down to her sheet-covered breasts. She feels herself blush and flush under his gaze. Her eyes glancing down and catch the way the sheet tents in his lap.
She somehow has to get out of bed before she says “fuck it” and jumps him. She could take the sheet with her like some cliche rom-com heroine, but she has nothing to be embarrassed about and she’s proud of her body. So even if he’s not ready to talk about it, she doesn’t want to make this too easy on him.
She drops the sheet as she hops out of bed and pads her way to the closet. Grabbing his suit and slacks and a sweater for her, she turns and drops them both on the bed before heading to the bathroom. Looking over her shoulder at his slack jawed, wide eyed face, she smirks as she says, “You want to give Leo another reason to ask questions? Get moving.”
By the time she gets out of the bathroom, he’s back in boxers. A small part of her… no that’s a lie, a not so small part of her is disappointed she didn’t get to take him in in the light. In the heat of the moment last night, she’s realizing that she didn’t get to fully admire the view.
But It’s surprisingly easy getting ready for work with him, they’ve done this before after all, even if she never used to walk around naked. They’re in a bit of a rush though, so they don’t have time to exchange more than a “can you call a cab?” and “do you see my keys?” before they’re out the door and on the way to work.
But once the morning office chaos settles down and Josh is off to the Hill, the earlier domestic bliss starts messing with her head. She has these flashes of memory. Brushing their teeth together, eyes catching in the mirror. Stealing glances across the backseat of the cab. Grabbing coffee together around the corner.
It’s only at lunch in the mess that she remembers that she didn’t have time to shower and she smells like him, like them. She turns her head and catches a whiff of his cologne in her hair. She makes some excuse for her sweater being too warm to cover up the questions about why she’s so flushed. It almost feels good having this dirty little secret.
Busy days at the White House have one huge perk—distracting from personal problems. Donna spends all day rearranging and reprioritizing Josh’s schedule, doing research into Kundu, potential avenues of support. And before she knows it, while she’s head down in sorting files, she hears his shoes slap against the marble of the lobby and the doors to the bullpen fling open. She doesn’t like to think about how she’s unconsciously able to pick out his sounds from the din.
She hears him dump his backpack on the floor of his office and flop in his chair. “Leo said to see him as soon as you’re back,” she shouts over her shoulder. She’s putting the Thursday files in the chronological order when she feels Josh lean over her back and peer over her shoulder.
“Whatcha doin’?” He says and she knows he’s smirking. Which is good, this is normal, he’s not being weird.
“Baking a pie.” She’s trying for flirty, maybe a step up from their usual banter but that’s what comes out. Maybe she’s the one that’s a little nervous, a little weird. This isn’t anything they wouldn’t do in the bullpen before but she’s especially conscious that people can see and hear them. And it’s taking all her self control not to turn around in his arms and kiss him senseless. “Go see Leo.”
Once he’s gone, it feels like she can breathe again. She takes her pile of folders for tomorrow’s meetings and heads into his office. Shaking her head at the mess he managed to make on his desk in all of 30 seconds, she starts tidying up. None of this has to get done tonight, but she needs something to keep her hands and mind busy, her body seeming to vibrate now that he’s back in the building.
“Leo kicked us out. Something about me being insufferable after knocking around Congress all day?” Josh is leaning against the doorframe.
“Or he’s a benevolent boss who realizes we’ve been working for 20 of the last 24 hours?”
“We’ll never know. Either way we get to leave at the entirely reasonable hour of 8pm.”
“We have very different definitions of reasonable.”
“Do you want to… um… comehavedinneratmyplace?” He mutters that last part as he rubs the back of his neck and looks away. She blinks at him as she tries to decipher what he just said. “Since I wasn’t here all day, I have no idea what my schedule is for tomorrow and you could maybe walk me through it? We could prepare? Since Leo kicked us out and we can’t stay here?”
“I thought Leo said we should stop working.”
“Is that a no?”
She takes a deep breath. They do this all the time, keep working over dinner at his apartment. “Dinner sounds great. Let’s go.” And maybe we can do something other than work, she thinks.