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“How are we going to tell everyone?” Tyler whispered the question into the skin of Josh’s collarbone as they sprawled across the bed, tangled together.
“Dunno,” Josh was too busy being in this moment to care too much about everyone else. He’d been waiting forever, never believing he’d finally be here. It was all so new—mutual confessions that had been waiting and growing for a long time, hungry, followed by desperate kisses that culminated in this quiet existence—just the two of them. He ran fingers up and down Tyler’s bicep, watching the shiver that ran along the other’s spine.
“Josh, this is…Big.”
“I know. I just want to enjoy it being the two of us. You know I’m private like that.”
“So you’re keeping me a secret?” Tyler stuck out his bottom lip in a pout, and Josh found it overly endearing. He also kind of wanted to bite it too.
“I just want to find the right time. But it’s up to you. You’re the lead singer.”
“Hmm,” Tyler’s face slid into inscrutability, “You’re right, it is fun to sneak around for a bit. Let the kids guess and gossip for a while.”
“Why do you enjoy these games?”
“Keeps my life exciting. Now shut up and kiss me.”
- Snapchat
Josh knew he was sitting on a bombshell. He’d seen the blogs and stories and comments for years before him and Tyler were ever a romantic thing. And then when everything culminated, he fantasized about the reactions they’d get at the pronouncement. Either way he’d cut it, it would be mass chaos, but he knew the true believers would stay with them. If people weren’t happy for them, then why cry over those jerks? Josh didn’t need that negativity in his life when he was this happy.
He thought about doing it quickly—just a quick picture on Snapchat. Literally thousands of people watched his story every time he uploaded, and he was tempted to send a pic of the two of them kissing. Josh actually went so far as to caption a candid video of Tyler shoveling a burrito in his mouth as “hungry boyfren,” but then thought better of it, switching boyfren for bestfren. His mom would probably kill him for coming out through social media, which reminded him that they needed to tell their families before the rest of the world.
So Josh put off telling the fans for a little more time, at least until after they were back in Columbus.
They told their families at a joint dinner party, and it was to shock and excitement. Josh had never been so happy to have so many people burst into collective tears and laughter simultaneously. Tyler was glowing and everything was right with the world because this is where they were supposed to be.
Of course everyone started asking how they planned to tell their fans—the masses who were kind of part of this whole thing too. The two shrugged, saying they were still waiting for the right moment. Josh and Tyler hadn’t discussed it with each other since that first conversation, and Josh wondered what Tyler was arranging. He was always planning something, though his fake-innocent face promised something else.
Josh had several photos on his phone of the two of them kissing, even though he worried a lot about hackers. A wild thought crossed his mind as the two of them sat on the couch in his living room, Tyler’s face serious as he wrote something with his feet propped up on Josh’s lap. Josh thought about beating those imaginary hackers to the punch, uploading one of the pictures—maybe the one with Tyler draped over his back, pressing a kiss to his cheek with the Golden Gate Bridge in the background. He had already started to add filters and was pondering a good caption when Tyler climbed fully into his lap.
“Okay, time to pay attention to me,” Tyler glanced at the phone screen, “Sick pic, but isn’t it tacky to do it on Instagram?”
“But it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days.”
“I guess, but that takes the fun out of the game.”
“Tyler, you keep saying ‘game’ but we haven’t done anything different publicly that we weren’t doing already before.”
Tyler gave him a wicked smile and that was when Josh knew he was screwed.
- The Interview Game
It started off small, but Josh knew from lurking on the internet that the fans were picking up on it. Initially it was just Tyler running fingers through Josh’s hair and staring fixedly at his lips, but then he kept saying Josh completed him, that they were soulmates. Then there was one interview where Tyler discussed Josh’s smile for exactly three minutes and forty eight seconds.
And Josh threw it right back at him, leaning into the touches with half-lidded eyes, stretching and draping himself over Tyler. He spent one of those acoustic performances where only Tyler performed, pretending to be the ‘Spooky Jim’ character, and he played it as far from subtle as he dared to go, flirting openly to make Tyler blush. It was a battle of who could one up each other, and with every video and article, there would be a surge of speculation and flat out questions on Twitter asking if they were finally dating.
Which, yes, of course, but it was too much fun at this time.
- Fan fiction
“Joshua William Dun!” Tyler screamed from the lounge and Josh nearly made a run for it. He was surrounded by the crew, watching a movie while Tyler fiddled around with new tracks in the back.
“Y-yes?”
Mark whistled low, “Someone’s in the doghouse.” They had told everyone in the crew about a week after their families and it was again to general excitement, but it also seemed they had given their friends endless material to tease them with. Mark had started the latest trend of calling them ‘Mom and Dad’ which kinda freaked them out, but it was best to pretend that it didn’t faze them because that was just more ammo.
The door slid open and Tyler came storming in, holding his laptop. He shoved it at Josh, who looked at the screen.
“What the hell is this?!” Tyler stood with arms crossed, looking explosive.
Josh smirked, “You’re always going on about supporting clique art. I’m just embracing all aspects of it.”
“But did you really have to make a Joshler rec list? With comments like…” He scanned the page, “Great story, but Tyler would definitely propose marriage to me with a ukulele serenade, though I like the idea of a hot air balloon ride.”
“I know its fiction, but I’m a fan of realism.”
“So that’s why you have three coffeeshop, five apocalypse, one vampire, and FOURTEEN high school AUs?”
“You gotta read this one apocalypse fic,” Mark pointed, “It’s my favorite. I know it’s a work in progress but it’s so suspenseful.”
“I can’t believe you helped him!” Tyler yelled and marched back to the bus, refusing to speak to anyone before the show, though Josh could have sworn he recognized a familiar red banner on Tyler’s laptop as he huddled over it in the dressing room.
- Mark’s camera
Now that they were in the open with their family and friends, they had to be very cognizant of Mark. He tried to take candid photos and videos with them, but a lot had to be edited out when they’d be cuddling in the background. There was one themed episode of a massive game of hide and seek that had to have a restaged ending since Tyler tackled Josh and kissed him.
But Mark was also joining on their game with the fans, Tyler Durden-ing montages with second long clips of clearly romantic moments between the two band members. Eventually someone would slow down the footage and they would be caught. It was all fun and games but Josh realized they were quickly running out of time.
It seemed that even music news sites were posting speculative articles of ‘whether or not Twenty One Pilots were dating each other’ and “Top Fifteen Joshler moments of the past month.” It was out of hand and something had to be done, and Josh didn’t know what to do. He drafted several posts for the website or his Tumblr, but words were Tyler’s forte. He was alright at expressing himself, but nothing worked right when he put the metaphorical pen to paper. Josh considered their options, but nothing suitably epic came to him.
+1 The Slip Up
Of course it finally happened during a show, and after all that build up, it was anticlimactic in a way. Josh was just doing his thing, giving everything he had to the songs, drumming until his muscles ached and sweat dripped. It was electric, and every show lately had been on a different level than before. They were in sync and fully opened to the other, and that just heightened the music and the performances.
Tyler stalked across the stage, giving one of his speeches, and Josh watched him with a warm feeling somewhere in between his chest and stomach.
“…and this all wouldn’t be possible…I wouldn’t be here without the man to my right. Give it up, for my boyfriend Josh Dun!”
Josh did his usual percussive response, but wondered if he’d misheard what Tyler had just said. Was it just him or were the screams louder? Was he having a stroke or was Tyler going pale as he too realized what he’d just said.
“Um…whoops. I think the cat’s out of the bag on that one,” Tyler winced at Josh, who shrugged in response. Tyler raised his arms to hush the crowd that was going absolutely wild. “Okay, okay fine. Yes, Josh and I are dating, and no, this isn’t a joke. So, uh…Josh can you start the next song because I can’t think of anything else to say besides I love you?”
Josh could barely hear himself over the screams, but he felt so free, and when he dipped Tyler for a kiss at the bows, he knew this was the best possible way this could end.