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tyler's life is fairly boring.
his life was always boring, honestly, from the endless cycle of basketball and college and this part-time job he snagged at a local repair shop repeat, but this afternoon especially, tyler was just about ready to rip his eyes out of their sockets.
he was leaning against the costumer counter when his co-worker breezed past him, calling out in a hurry, "oh, hey, tyler, i've got this big emergency i cant get out of, could you do my shift for me tonight please?"
tyler's first instinct of course, would have been to immediately decline, because after bombing that one pop quiz in computer applications earlier, today wasn't really his day, and he was ready to high tail it out of their once his shift was over. he never had enough time to do nothing but wallow in ice cream and self pity back at the dorm.
but heaving a sigh, tyler muttered back, "uh, sure dude. yeah." but the door was already swinging and tyler was left back to his hardly interrupted boring ass afternoon.
until the door swung open again, and in rushed a mess of textbooks and pink. lots of pink. and lots of textbooks.
tyler's eyes landed on the sleeve tattoo first thing, which he raised an impressed brow at, before his gaze found the contents cradled the costumers arms; a laptop, which he assumed was what they had entered for. finally, his gaze traveled up to meet a head of pastel pink hair and (almond shaped, tyler was pretty sure? and heck tyler never appreciated how attractive dark eyes were before but holy damn, suddenly he did now that they accompanied the face of this stranger, and wow?? such pretty eyelashes??) eyes of the stranger and hoped that the man didn't notice his jaw drop a little.
keep it cool, tyler muttered to himself. okay, so he's already kinda like, really attractive. but don't make it so obvious, you idiot. and most importantly, you better not blush. at all. swear to god. no bueno.
tyler pulled on the brightest smile he could muster (nooooo you DUMBASS tone it down a bit DONT MAKE IT OBVIOUS) and recited the usual, "hello there, what can i do for you today?"
"hey," the boy wheezed, catching his breath in little small intakes of air, which tyler shouldn't have found hot at all. (and he didn't. really. honest to god.) "uh, i think i... broke my laptop? and i was just wondering if i could get it fixed here, or...?"
his voice was notably deep (at least, without the breathlessness of... not having any breath), but sort of honeyed at the same time in a way that had tyler reeling. except the boy had been staring at him expectantly for the last five heartbeats and yeah no tyler was not doing a very swell job of keeping his cool.
"oh, heh, yeah we uh- i can like, take your laptop to the back for inspection if you want, to get it like... inspected? just to check to see if anything's, you know. up. with your laptop. if you want." tyler kicked himself under the table. this was so unfair. tyler was outnumbered by a very cute boy with cute eyes and a cute smile who suddenly decided to waltz (or stumble, to be more specific) into the repair shop and make tyler forget how to articulate a proper sentence, and honestly who gave him the goddamn right?
the big grin the costumer threw at him was totally worth it, though, and tyler could physically feel himself melting under it like snow succumbs to the sun.
"yeah, that be super cool actually." the boy swung his laptop onto the counter, nudging it over to tyler.
"you can, uh, find a place to sit if you want. this shouldn't take all that long. it's a friday afternoon, business isn't all that clustered today," tyler said nervously. "there's like, chairs somewhere over there, im sure. or you can just sit over the counter with me. i mean, whatever you want, though." tyler inwardly groaned. the word idiot was invented purely for him.
but the boy was grinning at tyler again and replied, "i wouldn't mind sitting over the counter with you, if that would be alright."
he kicked the swinging door open for the pastel pink kid, gesturing to a lightly cluttered table, while mumbling something about the laptop and co-workers and being right out in roughly fifteen minutes before hauling his ass to the storage room. he could feel his face burning, and he seriously wished he could find just ten seconds alone so he could give himself a clean slap across the face. not that it'd help with the redness. which he had strictly told himself was not permitted.
he returned exactly fifteen minutes later (he totally hadn't waited at the door to the storage room and counted down the seconds on the clock before stepping out. who in their right mind would ever do anything as idiotic as that? certainly not tyler!) before he barreled towards to the desk with the boy's laptop.
"good as new," he said breathlessly, gently pushing the laptop across the table. "just a few bugs honestly, there wasn't anything else to it."
"that's a relief," the boy smiled in gratitude, rising up to gather his textbooks and the laptop and wait was this gonna be the last time he'd see this boy?
tyler was slightly panicking as the boy was ready to make his farewells, attempting to do that thing everybody says he's good at, the thinking quick on his feet.
"you wanna give me your name before you leave?" tyler blurted out, quickly continuing, "i mean like, because like, just in case... you know, in case you were to come back or anything... uh-"
the boy was laughing, and tyler was ready to bury his face in his hands right there. couldn't get any more embarrassing than his obvious interest in this boy.
"yeah, sure thing. its josh." he threw tyler a cheeky smile, offering out an awkward hand to shake. "josh dun."
josh. tyler smiled big. "and i'm tyler. tyler joseph." josh's hand was slightly damp, but warm. really warm. and tyler sorta didn't want to let go.
"tyler joseph," josh repeated, with another heart bursting smile (and oh boy, was tyler's heart in flames) before he let go of tyler's hand. tyler hoped his face didn't reveal too much mourning as josh assembled his belongings so they balanced better in his arms, accept he wasn't moving to leave.
he shuffled his feet a bit. he also blew at the strand of curly pastel that collapsed across his forehead. finally he burst out, "look, maybe it's weird and i'm sorry if this is, but i think you're really cute, and i kinda don't want this to be the last time we see each other, so could i have your number or something?" he had said it so boldly too, but now his face was tinting pink to match his curls and his (almond, dark and attractive) eyes were bunching up with a dorky smile and those lips (damn, those lips) curved at all the right places and made tyler feel all the right things.
so ultimately, you couldn't blame tyler for agreeing in .02 seconds and scribbling down his ten digit code on the right arm of the beautiful boy.
josh.
so then again, maybe life wasn't as fairly boring as tyler had predicted.