Work Text:
They were laying on Josh’s bed in silence. Tyler would have said that it was pleasant but it wasn’t quite so pleasant this time. It felt heavy.
There wasn’t anything bad about the way the silence sat around them, no tenseness. Just the heavy feeling that left Tyler feelings like he’d been running for miles. The answer to the silence came quickly.
“Tyler, I gotta tell you something,” Josh said, sitting up suddenly. He was picking at his fingernails and avoiding looking at Tyler. It was unusual to see him so nervous. He got nervous at times, Tyler knew that, but it was never this bad. Josh wasn’t one to get shy.
“Uh, go ahead?” Tyler was hesitant to hear what it was. It felt like one of those things that ended up messing up the good in their lives.
Josh took in a deep breath.
“Tyler, I lo-” he was cut off by Tyler.
“Please, no, don’t do that to me,” Tyler begged. Josh looked up at him finally and there were tears forming in his eyes. The sadness swarmed his features so quickly that Tyler regretted not letting him finish.
“Wh-what?” Josh stuttered out. Even his voice sounded like Tyler had just stolen a toddlers candy.
“I know how you feel Josh but you just can’t say that. We have something good here and I-I just can’t hear that.” It was Tyler’s turn to look away.
“Why?” Josh asked, the sadness still there.
“Because if you say that to me then it means that what we feel here is love. It’s just that love requires falling and I’m afraid of heights.”
Josh nodded and turned to look at the wall. He let out a deep sigh and ran a hand through his hair. It was easy to see that he was frustrated and confused but it seemed the sadness was melting away. Tyler didn’t deny his feelings, just denied putting a label to them.
“So we keep it to goodnight then?” Josh asked, his lips turning down into a frown. Tyler leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Josh’s cheek.
“Goodnight,”