one wish | joseph x reader
18+ only | for @lichilly (thank you for being so sweet!)
author's note: if you liked this, please check out my ongoing pre-canon SDJ fic!
_
there was a knock at the door.
"it's open," joseph called as he looked at himself in the mirror, making sure to rub off a stray patch of paint the makeup team managed to miss.
after a moment, you slipped in, closing the door behind you with a click. you had one hand behind your back - a sure sign that you had some kind of surprise in mind.
"don't tell me it's another script revision," he groaned. it had taken him hours to memorize the newest song for the next episode and his fingers were sore from all the strumming. "i don't think i can handle any more."
but you simply smiled in that easy way that always made him want to turn away. it was just so gentle, that smile. it was softer than anything he had ever deserved.
"you didn't tell me it was your birthday today," you said. "i had to find out through dan."
goddamn daniel. his castmate was a good guy, but he had a big mouth.
"i'm not into parties." they were too loud. crowded. he had never been one to want to be the center of attention.
"i didn't say there had to be a party," you replied, taking your hand from behind your back to reveal what you had been hiding.
in your palm was a large cupcake topped with a fluffy white frosting and a smattering of sprinkles. a red candle had been stuck in the middle of it.
you pulled out a lighter and with a few quick flicks of your thumb, lit the short wick.
"it can be just us," you said, eyes glowing as the flame flickered in your palm.
joseph had never had anyone celebrate him for any reason at all, let alone the day he came into existence, but he was aware of what he had to do. "you want me to make a wish?"
"anything you want," you beamed.
"anything i want," he repeated, inhaling to loosen the tightness in his chest.
in truth, there was only one wish he had. it was a wish he would tell himself as he lied awake at night staring at the ceiling of his motel room, it was a wish he'd hum as he learned each new song, it was a wish that he only ever confessed he had in the quiet of his solitude.
and here you were, now. with him. as if all those days and nights had built up to this very moment.
joseph took in a breath. you were so beautiful. ever since he had met you, he never had the courage to tell you that.
tentatively, he placed his hands over yours, craned his neck lower so that his mouth was near the bright flame, and blew.
"what was the wish?" you asked as the smoke curled into the air. after a moment, you set the cupcake onto his desk.
he hesitated. "it's bad luck if i tell you, isn't it?"
"not if it's a secret," you said, a smile curling at the corner of your mouth. "but i really would like to know."
joseph swallowed. what could he say to that?
"do you really want to know?" he asked, his heart threatening to burst out of his chest.
"tell me."
he paused. "close your eyes, then."
you obeyed, clasping your hands behind your back.
thoughts raced through his head, a buzz of static that threatened to overwhelm him. he could stop this. he could turn you away. he could deny himself this moment, as he did with all of the others.
he inhaled, cool air filling his lungs, before he took your face in his hands and kissed you.
it was a soft kiss. a gentle kiss. a kiss that asked if all of this was okay, if he could want you like this.
and it was okay, because you brought your own hands to his face, ran your fingers through his hair as you pulled him towards you.
your lips were so warm, so soft. if he could, he would wish for this moment to never end.
"there," he said, face burning as he pulled away. "i told you."
when you smiled this time, it was full of so much affection that it made his heart swell.
"tell me more," you said, pressing a kiss along his jaw and curling a finger at his collar. "please? it's your birthday, after all."
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Rep. Jim McGovern, a leading anti-hunger lawmaker in the House, expressed anger Tuesday that the debt ceiling legislation negotiated by Republicans and the Biden administration targets food benefits for older adults while doing nothing to raise taxes on the wealthy or rein in military spending.
During a House Rules Committee hearing on the bill, McGovern (D-Mass.)—the panel's top Democrat—slammed his Republican colleagues for claiming to care about the deficit but refusing to look to the Department of Defense, a paragon of wasteful spending and fraud, for savings. The White House and Republicans ultimately agreed to increase military spending for the coming fiscal year.
Meanwhile, Republicans rejected White House proposals to close tax loopholes exploited by the rich.
Instead, McGovern said Tuesday, the GOP insists Congress has to "cut funding that helps the most vulnerable in this country."
"Give me a goddamn break," he added.
McGovern voiced particular alarm over the bill's expansion of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) work requirements to include adults between the ages of 50 and 54, a Republican demand. Analysts and campaigners say the change, which would sunset in 2030, could put hundreds of thousands of older adults at risk of losing food aid.
White House officials and President Joe Biden himself have defended the new requirements by pointing to the legislation's proposed expansion of SNAP benefits for veterans, kids leaving foster care, and people experiencing housing insecurity.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Biden brushed aside progressives' warnings that the bill could cause some people to go hungry, calling such concerns "ridiculous."
McGovern pushed back during Tuesday's hearing, saying that "improving benefits for some does not justify putting 700,000 older adults at risk of losing critical, lifesaving food benefits."
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) published an assessment late Tuesday that concludes the debt ceiling bill, titled the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023, would lead to roughly 78,000 people gaining SNAP benefits "in an average month, on net (an increase of about 0.2% in the total number of people receiving SNAP benefits)."
But observers cautioned that the CBO's estimate hinges on ensuring that vulnerable people, particularly those who are homeless, are aware they are exempt from SNAP work requirements and able to navigate the program's bureaucracy.
"This is HIGHLY theoretical," The American Prospect's David Dayen wrote of the CBO analysis. "There's no funding to identify eligible people without benefits or to help them apply or find the necessary documentation. I obviously haven't seen the model but it seems like wishful thinking to me."
"How are we exactly a) informing homeless individuals that 1 of the 2 work requirements for SNAP [has] been lifted, b) helping them collect and submit the documents that prove they meet the income test, and so on?" Dayen asked.
After a nearly six-hour hearing, the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee voted Tuesday to send the debt ceiling legislation to the full House for a vote, which could come as soon as Wednesday evening.
McGovern and every other Democrat on the panel voted no.
Ahead of Tuesday's committee vote, McGovern called the latest standoff over the debt ceiling an "all-time high in recklessness and stupidity" and said Republicans "manufactured" a "crisis that risks the full faith and credit of the United States."
"Republicans are unfit to govern," said McGovern, one of the lawmakers who—to no avail—urged Biden to use his 14th Amendment authority to unilaterally avert a debt ceiling catastrophe.
"This bill could have been a lot more awful than it is," McGovern added. "I didn't come to Congress to hurt people. And when I listen to my Republican friends, what is clear to me is that we don't share the same values."
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