Chapter Text
Tyler jolts awake in a soft, familiar bed. His legs are wound up in the covers and blankets and there’s the soft voice of his mother calling up to him from downstairs (or he presumes so anyway), “Tyler, hon, breakfast is ready and if you don’t get dressed for school in the next few minutes you’ll have to walk!” He inhales, and then exhales, he does this for a few more minutes and places a hand on his chest, tracing around the skin there. Tyler has zero ideas of what is happening, because he could have sworn he was being hit and thrown over the hood of a car only a few moments earlier, he drags a shaking hand through his hair and realises that it’s shorter than he remembered, which is strange, because it had reached his ears before, he’d been growing it out with Josh so the older boy didn’t feel insecure about growing his own hair out and then dying it (they’d decided together that he was going to dye it either blue or red).
He lies in bed for a few more minutes, when he’s struck with such a shocking, impossible thought that he can’t even comprehend why he would even conjure it up. “Time travel?” He breathes out quietly; as if asking himself a question. Tyler surges over onto his side and grabs his phone with shaking hands, switching it on and closing his eyes, too afraid of what he might see on the screen. His eyes are closed for a good 10 or so seconds before he collects his courage, pulls his big boy shorts up and checks the date and time. “24th June 2016.” The last time he had checked, it was the 24th June, 2018, not 2016.
Tyler didn’t register that he had actually let the phone slip from his sweaty hands until his mom is shouting up at him, “What was that noise? Are you okay Ty?” And Tyler has to muster up all of his energy to shout back, “Fine, mom, just dropped something!” He ends their short conversation with that and recalls what might be special about today; he allows himself to toy with the idea that he really has travelled back in time and wonders why whatever being had cast him back, to send him back to this date, or if it was just random?
He’s still thinking of an explanation for the date as he pulls on some black skinny jeans and a crimson jumper when it hits him, today is the day he first met Josh Dun. He runs a hand through his shorter hair (which he still hasn’t gotten used to again) and lets out a shaky sigh of relief, because he knows what he has to do – he has to change the past if he wants to change the future, if he wants to save himself and his and Josh’s relationship. And as much as it pains him to have to do the majority of school again, he knows it’s for Josh and that’s what motivates him to pull his socks on and some black shoes and swing his backpack over his shoulder. Tyler calls out to his mom that he’s ready, bounding down the stairs and squeezing his mother tight in a warm tight. Now it’s no lie that they do have their ups and downs, and quite frequently, but moments before he’d thought he’d never see her again and he doesn’t want to ever feel like that again. “I love you,” He says with a joyful smile and his mum chuckles. “You seem very happy today, Ty, anything happening?” And Tyler just shrugs, keeping his mouth shut because from all of the Doctor Who episodes he’s watched he assumes that if he spills anything from the future of what he knows, a paradox could form (or something like that anyway, Tyler more enjoys staring at Matt Smith’s perfect features).
“I think I’ll walk today,” Tyler comments happily as he plucks a piece of buttered toast from one of his siblings’ plates and they reply with a loud shriek of ‘hey!’ but he pays it no mind and practically skips towards the door.
His mom speaks up before he can leave the house, “Are you sure? I can still drop you off if you want, Ty, it’s your first day back and all,” She smiles, trying to mask – despite her attempts at hiding, quite obvious – confusion at Tyler’s happy ways (her son isn’t usually this much of a morning person, but she dismisses it in favour of walking over and placing a gentle kiss on his forehead as she wishes him a good day).
Tyler practically bounces to school, smiling at anyone and everyone he sees, despite some of the scowls he gets from some other high schoolers. He’s not exactly popular within his peers, and nobody has really made any efforts to reach out to him (except Brendon that is) but today, it doesn’t really bother him, because he knows what he has to do. He pulls out his phone and checks the time, making sure he has it right, and he does, he slides his phone back into his pocket and pushes his left foot out slightly, and sure enough, a tall figure goes flying over it and smacking onto the grass. Tyler conceals his smile behind his hand as he watches the familiar boy roll onto his back and groan, he can’t tell if it’s exaggerated or not but Tyler is just happy he was right with his times and placing.
The next few moments come easily to him, as he sticks out a hand and pulls Josh up, claiming that he didn’t mean to do that, and he’s so sorry. The image of Josh and Debby coming out of the closet together is still there in the back of his mind but he pushes it back even further in favour of making things right.
“Hi. I’m Tyler.”