Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Tyler runs his fingers through his hair as he checks his appearance in the mirror.  There’s usually nothing really interesting or exciting about his outfits, since he usually just wears a dark gray hoodie that’s a bit big on him, any pair of skinny jeans, and his dirty black converse, but he's satisfied with what he sees.  The outfit, at least— there’s no hope for everything else.

But it’s too damn early to be thinking this way and putting himself in a bad mood, so he grabs his stuff before heading downstairs to the kitchen where his older brother, Zack, is eating breakfast.  Tyler doesn't have to leave the house for another few minutes, so he sits at the table next to Zack, who shoves a spoonful of Cheerios into his mouth.  

“Morning, T-bro,” Zack greets after swallowing his food. “I was too lazy to cook, sorry.”

“Morning, Z-bro, and it’s fine,” the younger of the two returns as he pulls his phone out of his pocket to scroll through Tumblr until it’s time to leave.  

“Want me to give you a ride?” Zack offers as Tyler gets up from the table.  Tyler politely declines;  The older man's car reeks badly of cigarette smoke and whatever horrible air freshener he uses in it to mask the smell, but both of those just blend together and makes Tyler sick to my stomach.

“Suit yourself,” Zack shrugs nonchalantly as he finishes his cereal, disposing of his dirty dishes in the sink as the younger leave the house. He plugs his earbuds into his iPod and shuffles his music as he start the five minute walk to his bus stop.  

When he arrives at the bus stop, he's surprised to see that two other high schoolers are in a heated one-sided argument.  The angry one—Pete, one of the more popular kids at school—is threatening to beat the other boy’s ass, from what Tyler can tell.  He's never seen this kid before, so maybe he’s new?  That kid seems unfazed by Pete’s behavior— in fact, Tyler's pretty sure he can see a fucking smirk pulling at his lips now.  The new guy says something that Tyler isn't able to make out due to the fact that his music’s up too loud and he can’t read lips for shit, but whatever was said must’ve sent Pete over the edge, because next thing you know, Pete’s face is red and contorted from anger as his fist is colliding with his jaw, making the new kid stumble back a bit.  Pete launches himself at the new kid with another raised fist, but the new kid recovers quickly and lands a good punch to his nose.

Of course, teenagers whoop and holler when there’s a fight, and of course all that noise is gonna attract attention from the residents of these homes, and now there are a couple of oh-so brave adults trying to break up the fight.

The fight is successfully broken up, and Pete is walking away to get his bloody and crooked nose fixed up while the new kid just stands there as if nothing even happened.  

And honestly, Tyler would be lying if he said he wasn’t intimidated by this new kid; his first day of school hasn’t even really started yet and he already managed to get in a fight with fucking Pete Wentz of all people, and he didn’t even seem bothered in the slightest when Pete was screaming in his face.  It should probably be in Tyler's best interest to stay clear of this guy, because he's too weak and wimpy, physically and emotionally, to defend himself if he just so happened to get on his bad side. But, he can’t stop the brewing desire to be known by him.

Chapter Text

Tyler steps out of the carpool to hell and anxiously looks to hell itself.  These hallways are bound to be crowded by ruthless teens rushing through and clogging the hallways, and the small boy's bound to narrowly dodge several teenagers, some of which are bound to snap at him for stepping on the back of their shoe or accidentally bumping into them.  It happens every single day, but Tyler only seems to fear these halls more and more rather than get used to it.

He takes a deep breath and makes his way to the entrance.

<><><>

He's finally entering his third block class roughly three hours later.  Mr. Lassiter, his math teacher, usually just lets them all talk while he gets his things together for the lessons, but Tyler literally has no friends other than Zack, but he has already graduated from high school years ago.

One of the first things Tyler notices upon entering the room is the new kid from earlier standing by Mr. Lassiter's desk, seemingly having a pleasant conversation (Mr. Lassiter's a huge social butterfly, but he's really cool, so no one really minded).

Tyler looks away from the two to avoid getting caught staring and takes his seat towards the back of the room, where he'd be allowed to watch people without getting caught in the action.

As soon as the late bell rings, Mr. Lassiter waltzes over to the door and throws it shut, effectively slamming the door in a student's face as they attempted to rush inside.

"Awe, come on, Mr. Lassiter!" the boy on the other end of the door whines desperately, but Mr. Lassiter only grins through the mini window in the door.

"You came in late, so I don't want you here. I'm sure the dean will be happy to let you into his office, though!" Mr. Lassiter teases before covering the window again, earning a few snickers from some of the class.  Mr. Lassiter moves back to the front of the class and clears his throat to get everyone's attention.

"In case it wasn't obvious enough, we have a new student," he informs us before motioning toward the new kid. "This is Joshua Dun, who goes by 'just Josh'." He turns back to Josh before speaking again.

"There's a few seats open next to Rienna, Tyler, and Jackson," Mr. Lassiter points to the owner of each name as he calls them, and Tyler freezes up when his name is mentioned.  The idea of Josh possibly sitting next to him both frightens and excites him, but isn't he justified in feeling this way after what he witnessed earlier that morning?

Josh looks between the three of them a few times before looking back to the teacher.

"Who's the smartest out of the three?"

"Why, so you can cheat on all the work?" Mr. Lassiter teases, and Tyler fucking swears Mr. Lassiter just attempted to discreetly motion towards him.  Josh follows his gesture and both boys make eye contact, which Tyler impulsively breaks immediately to watch his hands fidget in his lap instead.  

He doesn't look up when he hears Josh slump into the desk next to his.

Mr. Lassiter turns on the promethean board and starts rummaging through his files for a presentation on today's lesson.

"Today, we will be going over..." he trails off before he finally loads a presentation. "Logarithms!"

A chorus of groans from the students makes Mr. Lassiter laugh gleefully.

"It's not hard, I promise you. Somebody pass out the calculators quickly so we can take notes."

Tyler pulls out a sheet of paper and a pencil and titles his notes.

"Hey," Josh says, tapping at the edge of the brunette's desk.  Tyler shyly glances over to his left at him, instantly noticing the large bruise starting to darken his jaw.  It already looks really painful, and Tyler can feel his own jaw starting to tingle.  "Do you have a pencil?"

He nods at him before turning back to his bag, pulling out one of Tyler's spare pencils before handing it to him.  Tyler can also feel himself blushing, but he just blames it on his pathetic shyness.  Josh thanks the brunette before turning back to the board and jotting down his notes, and Tyler does the same on his own paper, internally cringing from how awkward be made that exchange.

Chapter Text

Mr. Lassiter ends the logarithms lesson ten minutes before the bell is due to ring, like usual.  He grabs a stack of papers from the top of the filing cabinet at the back of the room, dropping them on Josh’s desk.  

“Pass these out, Dun.”

Josh dramatically sighs and rises from his seat, swiping the papers off his desk with faux attitude, but he only ends up spilling most of the stack over the edge, watching dejectedly as papers scatter all across the floor.  A few kids snicker and laugh as Josh crouches down and gathers up the papers.  Tyler scoots his chair back a little to help pick up a few sheets around his area, handing them to the annoyed boy when he stands again (keeping a couple for himself and Josh, of course).  He takes the papers out of Tyler's hand with a mumbled 'thanks' before proceeding to pass out the homework in a more civil manner.

He’s back in his seat a few minutes later, and he begins to pack his belongings into his bag.

But then he puts Tyler's pencil in his bag .  That Tyler was nice enough to let Josh borrow.  

And, it’s one of Tyler's better pencils.  Well, at least it was before he fucking stole it.

“Uh, that’s my pencil,” is what Tyler doesn’t say, because the idea of speaking to people he doesn’t know overwhelms him with dread and anxiety and he just simply can’t do those kinds of things, so all the petty brunette can really do is sit pitifully at his desk and mourn the loss of one of his favorite pencils, which would’ve been in the safety of his own bag if he wasn’t too pathetic to ask for his own shit back.

Tyler just won’t lend him any of his pencils anymore, then.  That’s the last pencil Josh Dun will steal from him.

Chapter Text

The rest of the school day is pretty uneventful, and so was Tyler’s day after he got home, seeing that all he did was listen to music and work on homework.

So, with that being said, we’ll skip to the final class of the next day of school.

Tyler’s last class for today is Latin.  He hates the subject with a burning passion, but he’s kinda gay for the teacher, but he wouldn’t admit it to anyone if asked.

Mr. Liddell is almost old enough to be Tyler’s dad, but looks to be in his mid-twenties.  He also tends to dress as if he was from the nineties, has short hair but long enough to randomly flip throughout the class period, and paints his nails a different color every month.  He’s a really chill guy—Tyler doesn’t think he’s ever heard the man yell before—and sometimes catches himself going off on tangents while telling the class different stories, whether it be about Roman/Greek history, his trips to Italy, his family (rip Tyler’s inaccurate dreams and fantasies), just anything.  

Tyler’s sexy ass teacher is standing by the door in the hallway as he approaches, and Mr. Liddell smiles warmly at him, as usual.

“Salve,” Mr. Liddell greets him, and Tyler nods his greeting back as he enters the room, taking a seat at the back of the room.  

Tyler’s startled when someone not-so gracefully drops themselves into the seat next to Tyler’s, and the brunette looks to see who decided to pay him a visit.

It’s Joshua pencil stealing Dun, and why is he sitting next to him ?  There’s plenty of empty seats in the room, yet he chooses this one.

Tyler can feel his face starting to heat up, and he turns his head away in an effort to hide his shame.

The late bell rings, and Mr. Liddell marches to the front of the room to greet his class.

“Salvete, discipuli et discipulae!” Mr. Liddell chirps loudly, receiving a chorus of ‘salve’ before he clears his throat.

“There’s a new student here today,” Mr. Liddell speaks, looking around for a moment before pointing to Josh. “Would you like to briefly introduce yourself?”

“I’m Josh,” he says simply, and Mr. Liddell moves on with today’s lesson.

A worksheet is eventually being passed out, and Tyler reaches into his bag to get a pencil, but Josh stops him with a tap to his shoulder.

“Do you have a pencil?”

Tyler could’ve easily said, “you still have my pencil from yesterday, you should’ve given it back or at least kept up with it,” but instead, he nods his head and retrieves two pencils from his bag, because Tyler doesn’t want to get on Josh’s bad side.

He wants Josh to like him.

Josh takes a pencil from Tyler’s hand and thanks him as Mr. Liddell approaches Josh’s desk, crouching down in front of it.  

Mr. Liddell speaks to Josh in a hushed tone, and Tyler assumes they’re talking about the worksheet since the teacher kept motioning towards it.

Tyler didn’t pay attention to their conversation as he worked on his own worksheet, that is, until he hears Mr. Liddell mention his name, and now he’s all ears and fucking nerves as he starts eavesdropping.

I mean, can you blame him?  He was mentioned, he should have a right to know what’s being spoken of him…

Tyler risks a glance in their direction, and his face starts flushing as he catches the other two already looking at him.

“Tyler,” Mr. Liddell starts gently, “Would it be okay for you to work with Josh?”

No, that wouldn’t be okay, because Tyler sucks really badly at Latin, and not to mention how shy he fucking is.  But, he forces a smile and nods anyways, and Mr. Liddell smiles thankfully in return before getting up, leaving the teenagers alone.

Neither of the boys say anything for a moment, and it’s really fucking awkward, honestly.

“So…” Josh finally starts, scooting his chair closer to Tyler’s. “What the fuck am I reading, exactly?”

Tyler shrugs, “I, uh, I don’t really understand much either.”

Tyler expects Josh to belittle him for not being able to explain the work, but Josh only laughs a little. “Me neither.”

Tyler smiles a little, not really sure what to say, before dropping his gaze back to the worksheet.

“Well,” Tyler starts, “These answers should be in the back of the books.”

“Show me?”

Tyler nods, flipping to the back and pointing out the charts.

“Sick. Thanks, Tyler,” Josh says before getting started.  Tyler only nods again, applying the endings from the charts to his vocabulary.

<><><>

“Thank you guys for working so diligently,” Mr. Liddell says a few minutes before the final bell is due to ring, “You guys can go ahead and pack your things, and please bring me your work before you leave here today.”

Tyler quickly puts his things away and stands, grabbing his and Josh’s papers before bringing them to the teacher.  

Tyler gets to his seat just in time to witness Josh putting his next pencil in his bag.

That motherfucker, Tyler only has one pencil now.

But he shouldn’t be getting upset with Josh, because Tyler could’ve easily asked for it back himself.  Why won’t he just ask for it back?

The bell rings, and Tyler allows Josh Dun to steal another pencil from him.

Chapter Text

One of the first things Tyler does when he gets home is rifle through his drawers in a futile attempt to find any stray pencils.  Tyler isn’t always the best at keeping up with things—which is why he made sure to keep extra pencils on him in the first place—and Zack will have his ass if he has to buy him more pencils any time soon.

Tyler just finished rummaging through the last drawer, slamming it shut with a huff before crawling towards his bed, laying on his stomach as he retrieves his phone from his back pocket.  He turns on his phone’s flashlight, lighting up the darkness underneath his messy bed, and he slithers a little further to get a better look.  He wouldn’t be surprised if he found any sort of bug hiding in the clutter down there, if he’s completely honest.

Tyler eventually finds a pen, which won’t help him during math (Mr. Lassiter will literally take ten points off for using pen instead of pencil, which is honestly fucking bullshit in Tyler’s opinion), but he’ll take it if the ink comes out smoothly.

Tyler pulls himself from under the bed, bringing the pen and a lighter he thought he lost months ago with him.  Tyler’s pretty happy about that, though; he can finally burn his candles again.

He burns his marshmallow scented candle and grabs a notepad out of his desk, scribbling on the margin with his new pen, and the ink comes out decent enough for him to tolerate it.  He puts the pen in his bag.

Tyler doesn’t have any homework he needs to be working on any time soon, so he plops down onto the bed, grabbing his laptop off the nightstand when he’s comfortable.  He opens YouTube, planning to watch everyone’s favorite chinless fuck, until there’s a knock at his bedroom door.  

Zack doesn’t bother waiting for a response before pushing the door open.  Tyler glances up from the computer screen as the older man enters, seemingly distressed.

“You okay?” Tyler asks his brother quietly, earning a shake of the head from said man.

“Not feeling so hot, so dinner’s on you, unless you want me to order a pizza or something?”

“Pizza’s fine,” Tyler answers.

“Yeah, so I’ll go order the pizza. Open the door when the pizza guy gets here, okay?”

No, not okay.

Tyler opens his mouth to protest, but Zack is stressed and probably sick, and Tyler doesn’t want to be selfish, so he closes his mouth and nods instead.  Zack smiles appreciatively.

“Thanks, T-bro,” and with that, Zack’s gone again.

<><><>

Tyler’s startled when the doorbell suddenly rings roughly half an hour later.  He puts his laptop aside and trudges downstairs, growing more nervous with every step he takes towards the front door.

Zack left money for the pizza man on the coffee table, so Tyler grabs that on his way.

Tyler takes a deep breath before he opens the front door, and he’s instantly greeted by Josh Dun.

Just kidding, the pizza man is some punk guy who introduces himself as Frank.

Tyler smiles anxiously at the shorter guy when he gives Tyler the pizza along with some paper thing he has to sign.  Tyler just draws a squiggly line before handing it back to Frank, along with the money, and Frank wishes him a good night.  Tyler returns it in a small voice before closing the door and locking it.

That wasn’t so bad , Tyler calms himself as he takes the pizza into the kitchen.

Chapter Text

Before Tyler leaves for school the next morning, he peeks into Zack’s room to make sure he’s okay.  The older man is curled up in his bed, awake and looking a bit miserable.  Zack looks up to his younger brother upon hearing the door open.

“What’s up, T-bro?” Zack asks, voice low and raspy from getting ill.

“Just wanted to check on you,” Tyler smiles at his brother. “Do you need anything before I go?”

“Nah, you go on to school, you whippersnapper,” Zack teases as his eyes slip shut, Tyler letting out a small laugh as he closes the door again.

Tyler stands a good distance away from the rest of the kids at his bus stop, like usual, and no one pays him any mind.

That is, until Josh makes his way over and stands next to him, and for some reason, this causes his face to go uncomfortably warm as Tyler keeps his gaze at his feet.  He should really clean his shoes sometime in the near future.

Neither of them really say anything for a moment or two, and it’s starting to get really fucking awkward.

“You don’t talk much, huh?” Josh finally breaks the silence, but Tyler already doesn’t like where the conversation is heading.  He shakes his head anyways, though, and Josh continues, “Why not?”

And that , my friends, is one of the most asked questions when it comes to Tyler, and it’s one of those questions people ask that he hates the most.

“I’m just shy,” Tyler sugarcoats his reason, like usual.

“I used to be shy a few years ago, but I talked to people who really brought me out of my shell,” Josh responds, and Tyler swears that literally fucking everyone tells him this after being told that the small boy is shy.  Tyler only nods and makes a quiet hum in reply, because he’s honestly not sure how else to respond to that.  

“Is that also why you won’t look at me?” Josh suddenly asks.  Heat rushes to Tyler’s face as he timidly and sheepishly looks up at the other, and he’s sure he looks really dumb right now, but Josh only smiles a tad bit as they make eye contact.  It only lasts for a second since Tyler breaks it to stare at Josh’s nose instead, but Josh doesn’t say anything about this.

“There we go,” Josh says, more to himself than to Tyler. “How old are you?”

“I’m turning, uh, sixteen in December,” Tyler stammers, and he mentally belittles himself for doing so.  

“Yeah? Sophomore? Junior?”

“Junior,” Tyler answers as his gaze starts to wander past the other when he sees flashing lights.  The school bus is approaching.

“Me too,” Josh says. “Do you have a girlfriend, Tyler?”

And if Tyler’s face wasn’t red before, it definitely is now, and he drops his gaze to his dirty ass shoes once again.

“N-no.”

“Ah, a boyfriend ?”

Tyler doesn’t trust his voice, so he opts to shake his head, bringing his hands out in front of them to fiddle with his fingers, one of his nervous habits.

“I don’t have a boyfriend either,” Josh says as the bus pulls up to the curb, and- dude, did Josh just imply that he’s gay or something?

For some reason, this gives Tyler hope, and no , he scolds himself, you don’t even know this kid, he’s probably just a fuckboy, he just wants to say he has a boy, don’t let this happen again .

The boys climb onto the bus after the other teens, Tyler sitting at the very front while Josh moves towards the back, and Tyler has some mixed emotions right now.  He wanted to be known by Josh before and honestly, he still does, but what if Josh is bad news?  Is this a risk he’s willing to take?

Why is Josh showing interest in him of all people anyways?  What if Tyler is getting wrong signals and he’s making a big deal out of nothing?

The latter question hits him hard, and he shivers as he suddenly goes frigid.

He has to be getting the wrong idea.  He’s pathetic, and he’s ugly, and there’s so many cute boys at his school for Josh to choose from.

Tyler is so silly.

Chapter Text

Tyler’s trembling from fear and anxiety by the time he rushes into Mr. Lassiter’s room.  He accidentally stepped on the back of someone’s shoe in the hallway—one of those guys that hang with Pete Wentz, the flamboyant one with the large forehead, Bryan , or some shit like that.  Anyways, Tyler accidentally stepped on Bryan’s shoe since he decided to randomly stop in the middle of the hallway, turned around, and tried to grab at Tyler.  Tyler managed to jump out of the way on time, but he didn’t miss the string of threats that spewed from Bryan’s mouth as he nearly ran to class.

Josh is already seated in his seat when Tyler drops himself clumsily into his seat, immediately putting his head in his arms as he tries to calm his uneven breathing.

He’s okay enough after a few minutes, and he picks his head up from the desk.  He can see Josh watching him from his peripheral, but Tyler just acts like he doesn’t notice; he doesn’t like to make eye contact with people he isn’t comfortable with if it isn’t necessary, and he’s not exactly comfortable with Josh yet.

Class starts a couple minutes after that, and Mr. Lassiter slams the door shut again before going back to the front of the class.

“I believe that the homework from last class is due today,” the teacher announces, resulting in half of the class either smacking their teeth or commenting on how they forgot about it while the other half pull their worksheets out of their bags.  Tyler’s part of the latter group, and Josh?  He pulls out a worksheet, but it’s completely blank of any pencil marks when Tyler glances to it.

“So, Tyler,” Josh starts. “Can I borrow a pencil and your homework?”

Tyler knows good and well that giving Josh another pencil isn’t the best of ideas, but one of Tyler’s bad qualities is the inability to say no, and Tyler likes Josh and wants Josh to like him back, at least as a friend, and if giving Josh another pencil is what it takes, then he’ll give him another pencil.

So Tyler gives him a pencil and his homework sheet, and Josh starts to copy down as many answers as he can without getting caught.

“I probably should’ve asked for this yesterday during Latin…” Tyler hears Josh mutter under his breath, and Tyler needs Josh to hurry up before Mr. Lassiter comes over to take their homework.

“Here, I’m done,” Josh whispers as he gives the homework back to Tyler, and the smaller boy isn’t even surprised when Josh keeps the pencil sitting on his desk.  Now that he thinks of it, why does Josh always ask to borrow a pencil every day?  Does he just throw them out or something when he’s done?  Shit, why can’t he just give it back so Tyler can hold onto it for him?

Tyler’s such a hypocrite for that; he’s always losing his shit too.

But at least it’s his shit he’s losing and not someone else’s, ooh, shots fired .

Mr. Lassiter finishes collecting all the papers, dropping them onto his desk before moving to the filing cabinet, grabbing a different stack of papers.

“You have a quiz!” Mr. Lassiter bellows, which startles Tyler, dropping the stack of papers onto Josh’s desk.  The class groans out in protest as Josh raises from his seat to pass out the quizzes.  

Tyler reaches towards his bag to get a pencil—

Shit .

Tyler fucked up.  He has to take the quiz with pen ink, because Mr. Lassiter doesn’t provide pencils unless you have a quarter, and Tyler doesn’t even have a penny on him, so he’s instantly getting ten points off his quiz.  

But the logarithms were easy last class, he’s got this.  He’ll turn his inked quiz in and get a ninety in return.  A ninety is still an A, so Zack won’t care so much.

Then he looks down at his quiz, and he should’ve fucking studied this shit because he doesn’t remember what he’s supposed to do.

Tyler definitely fucked up.

Chapter Text

Mr. Lassiter hands their quizzes back out a few minutes before class ends, and Tyler’s so nervous about his score.  He’s pretty sure he got the formula all mixed up, but Mr. Lassiter gave little bonus questions at the bottom of the quiz that were from a different lesson a while back, so he at least won’t be getting a zero.

The teacher stops at Tyler’s desk, handing the paper to him folded over, and Tyler already knows he fucked up on that quiz.  He takes it from him, unfolding it.

Sixty three.  

He fucking failed the quiz by one point .  

One fucking point .

He could’ve had a seventy three, a C, if he didn’t use ink on his quiz.  That pen policy is so fucking dumb and it pisses Tyler off, but it’s all Tyler’s fault because he didn’t have to give Josh that pencil.

And this is where it all gets better: right next to that big fat sixty three F is a signature line, meaning Zack has to sign his failure or Mr. Lassiter will call home.

Tyler’s never hated Mr. Lassiter so much before.

Tyler slips his quiz into his bag before tilting his head up towards the ceiling to stop the tears that welled up from spilling over.  He won’t cry.  He won’t cry.

“Hey, did you fail the quiz or something?” Josh asks just before the bell rings, signalling the start of lunch.  The two stand, and Josh walks with Tyler out of the classroom, who wipes at his eyes to dry the tears.

“Uh- yeah,” Tyler whispers, shoving his hands into the pockets of his hoodie.

“I’ve never seen anyone cry over a failed quiz before,” Josh muses, and that doesn’t make Tyler feel better at all.  Josh must’ve seen this because he starts talking again, “If it makes you feel any better, I got a thirty-something.”

Tyler forces a smile at Josh in response, and Josh laughs a little.

“Wanna sit outside with me?” Josh asks as they stop at the end of the hall, and Tyler looks up at him incredulously.

“You know that we’re- we’re not allowed to, right?”

“Quit stammering, there’s no need to be nervous around me,” Josh laughs a little, motioning toward the hallway that lead to the field.  Tyler hesitates for a moment before following Josh away from the way to the cafeteria.  This is trespassing and they could be put in ISS for that, but apparently lending pencils isn’t the only thing he can’t say no to when it comes to Josh.

Tyler follows Josh to the bleachers at the edge of the field, sitting next to Josh on them with about a foot’s distance between them.  The two sit in silence for a moment, looking towards the empty football field.

“So, Tyler, do you like sports?” Josh tries to strike up a conversation.

“I used to play basketball,” Tyler answers with a small shrug.

“Yeah? Why’d you stop?”

“Uh, just kinda lost interest over time,” Tyler says.  He’s lost a lot of interest in things he used to do when he was younger, and basketball just so happened to be one of them.

“Would you ever play it again?”

“Maybe if I got the opportunity.”

“I have a goal at my house, maybe we can play together,” Josh says, turning to the smaller boy with a smirk.  Tyler turns to look at Josh incredulously.  Did Josh just invite him over to his house?  To play basketball ?  Josh doesn’t really seem the type to play basketball… but honestly, Tyler probably doesn’t either.

“Y-yeah, sounds sick,” Tyler agrees, putting on a little smile.

“Sick,” Josh says. “Do you have Kik, Tyler?”

Tyler’s heart flutters and he blushes a little, because holy shit , a cute boy is actually asking for a way to communicate with him after school, and this excites Tyler a little, but he scolds himself for it; Josh doesn’t want to date Tyler, he needs to stop getting his hopes up .

So Tyler nods shyly at the other boy, who pulls his phone out of his pocket, loading the social media before handing the phone to Tyler.  Tyler quickly enters his username, tylerrjoseph , before handing it back to Josh.

Josh takes the phone and stands from the bleachers, catching Tyler off guard for a moment.  Lunch can’t be over already.

“I’m skipping,” Josh answers the unasked question upon seeing the confused expression on Tyler’s face. “I’ll text you later, shybutt.”

The nickname leaves Tyler flushing again, and Josh smirks at that before leaving Tyler alone on the bleachers.

What the fuck is shybutt? Tyler can’t help but to wonder as he watches Josh’s figure shrink as the distance between them increases.  

Was he teasing him?  Was it actually supposed to be a petname?  Tyler honestly can’t tell anymore with this kid.

Chapter Text

Tyler considers his options as he sits alone during the bus ride home.  He can just straight-up hand Zack his failed math quiz, or he can wait for Mr. Lassiter to call home next class—Friday—and inform him himself.  

Tyler could just wait for the  phone call and be confronted on Friday instead of today—Wednesday—and risk the possibility of Zack being more pissed off with him, or he can get it out of the way today.

Well, when he thinks of it that way, the latter seems more logical.

Tyler’s bus stop is about five minutes away from his house if he walks at a moderate pace, but it takes him a little longer as he dreadfully drags his feet along the concrete.  He brainstorms some reasonable excuses that would alleviate Zack’s anger towards him, but he never manages to come up with anything before he’s at his own door.

Zack’s already sitting on the couch when Tyler enters, and Tyler sure is one unlucky motherfucker, because Zack already looks rather pissy; Zack tends to get pretty cranky when he’s sick, and today seems to be no exception.

Tyler drops his bag onto the couch to retrieve his quiz with trembling fingers, and by the way Zack’s looking at him now, it’s safe to say that the older man knows something’s up.

“What happened?”

“Um—” Tyler forces out, voice catching in his throat as the tears from earlier begin to return, even though nothing’s even happened yet.  He tries to blink the tears away as he shakily hands the quiz to his brother, anxiety skyrocketing as Zack takes it, looking over it.

“Tyler, why did you use ink knowing it’ll get you points taken off?” Zack asks lowly, and that lets him know that he’s pissed , but Tyler can’t bring himself to respond as he’s engulfed by fear of whatever happens next.

“Tyler, if you don’t start speaking right fucking now ,” Zack threatens, voice rising louder with every word until he’s close to yelling.

“Um— I— I didn’t have a pencil,” Tyler squeaks, eyes welling up in tears for the third time that day, and he doesn’t think he’ll be able to prevent them from spilling over much longer.

“Why didn’t you have a pencil, Tyler?? Jesus!” Zack stands now, and Tyler steps back as he looms over him  Tyler bites his tongue as he tries to regulate his increasingly unsteady breathing, and shit, he’s getting lightheaded, he’s gonna faint, he’s—

“ Ten, nine, eight ,” Zack starts counting as he steps closer to the teen being driven into hysteria, and Zack counting down like that is always bad .

“I gave them away!” Tyler finally spits out with a cry, and Zack finally snaps.

“Fuck, Tyler, what did I say about this?!” Zack screams at him, and Tyler is so overwhelmed .  He starts to hyperventilate, but Zack doesn’t care, he presses on, “I’m not made out of fucking money, and I sure as hell don’t get you this shit for free! I pay for all your school supplies, along with food, clothes— not to mention these crazy ass bills! You’re too fucking much Tyler! You’re like a fucking leech! ”

“I—”

“ No , shut the fuck up, Tyler! I don’t wanna fucking hear it!” Zack steps even closer, and oh, God, Zack’s gonna hit him , Tyler’s gonna throw up—

Fuck fuck fuck fuck—

Tyler blindly dashes up the stairs and into the bathroom, collapsing in front of the toilet before harshly dry heaving into it, shaking violently as he clutches desperately onto the porcelain.

When the heaving stops, he weeps and weeps, letting everything Zack said sink in.

Tyler’s just a fucking leech, a burden.   An obstacle in Zack’s life.  Good for nothing, worthless—

He emits another sob, and he doesn’t even bother holding them back, and he’s so cold; he always goes frigid when he’s deeply sad.

And so he picks himself up and carries himself to his room, grabbing a blanket and wrapping himself in them before dropping down onto his desk chair.  Tears still spilling over, he begins fumbling through the various items strewn across his desk, searching for a distraction to help calm himself in any way possible; he swishes his hand through a jar of marbles, spins coins the best he can with shaky fingers, smells his favorite candles, flicks the lighter he uses for candles on and off—

He lets the fire flicker longer than recommended.

He rolls down his sleeve.

Chapter Text

Zack calls Tyler down for dinner, but Tyler ignores him as he drowns himself in his mass of blankets on his bed.  He absent-mindedly grazes the pad of his thumb over his hurt arm, the contact causing the burns to sting.  They’re not so bad; he’s inflicted worse.

Zack calls again, but Tyler doesn’t budge.  

A moment later, Zack knocks on the door before it’s pushed open, then he feels the bed dip down next to him.

“Hey, T-bro,” Zack says quietly.  He sounds sad.  Tyler knows that he feels guilty.

“Hey…” Tyler responds, but he sounds a bit distant, and Zack sighs.

“I’m sorry for earlier,” Zack says, “Will you take the covers down?”

Tyler hesitates for a moment before pushing the covers down to his waist, revealing his wet, blotchy face.  Zack’s hand immediately goes to Tyler’s hair, and the younger boy relishes the comfort being offered from his brother.

“You’re not a leech, okay? I’m so happy to have you as my little brother, and I love you so much. More than anything, alright?”

Tyler sniffs looks his brother in the eyes, and Zack seems to have meant everything he said.  Tyler nods his head, and Zack motions for him to sit up, so Tyler does so.  Zack immediately pulls his brother into his side, arm wrapped around his smaller frame as Tyler leans his head onto Zack’s shoulder.

“I’m the worst brother ever , I’m so sorry,” Zack laments, and Tyler shakes his head the best he can while having it pressed against the other’s shoulder.

“Some brothers have committed fratricide,” Tyler mumbles, and Zack laughs a little at that.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. But that doesn’t justify my actions either, though. I’ll make it up to you, okay?”

Tyler nods, and Zack begins to stand, “Come down for dinner? I ran by and got Taco Bell to try and cheer you up.”

Tyler perks up a little at that.  “What’d you get?”

“Chalupas, of course,” Zack smiles, motioning for Tyler to walk with him.  Tyler returns his smile with a smaller one of his own before pulling himself out of bed, following Zack out of the room.

Chapter Text

Tyler and Zack eat their chalupas and watch movies on Netflix together for the rest of the day, having a brotherly snuggle, despite Zack not feeling well.  Tyler loves having movie nights with his older brother and they didn’t happen too often these days since Zack actually doesn’t like tv; he’s more of a video games guy.

Unfortunately, it’s Wednesday, so Tyler has to go to bed no later than ten, unless he’s okay with nearly falling asleep in class— he isn’t.

So, Tyler finishes the movie he and Zack were watching about ten minutes past ten before Tyler is off to get ready for bed.  Zack tidies up a little before doing the same because, you know, he’s sick and needs rest.

Tyler flicks off the light and crawls under the blankets, snuggly and warm, and closes his eyes to fall asleep.

Until his eyes snap open when his phone emits an alert.  

Tyler grabs his phone, seeing a notification from Kik.

Tyler forgot that he gave Josh his Kik earlier that day.  Oops.

Tyler swipes at his screen, puts in his passcode, immediately opening the rarely used app.

    josh: Hey Tyler.

    tyler: hey

    josh: How are you?

    tyler: im doing alright, wbu?

    josh: Tired but I can’t sleep.

    josh: And sorry for not texting you sooner, shit happened lol.

Tyler furrows his brows, a little worried from the two messages.  If he’s tired, why can’t he sleep?  And whenever Tyler sees ‘lol’ followed after things like ‘shit happened,’ he takes it as a bad sign.

    tyler: would you like to talk about it?

    josh: Nah, you shouldn’t worry your pretty little head about it :)

Tyler blushes as he reads that message; he’s pretty sure Josh is flirting with him.  He sucks at flirting, so he just brushes it off.

    tyler: you sure?

    josh: I’m sure, Shybutt.

Tyler feels his face get even hotter, but his questions from earlier return.  Is Josh teasing him for being shy, or is it an odd pet name?

    tyler: are you teasing me? :^(

    josh: Don’t get so offensive, it’s just a nickname I have for you. :)

    tyler: oh alright :^)

    josh: :^)

    tyler: that’s my smiley, git your own! ,:^(

    josh: But it’s cute! I wanna use it too. ,:^(

    tyler: @n@

    josh: Tyler, what the fuck even is that smiley?

    tyler: it’s my other smiley, he’s supposed to have swirly eyes like in those animes

    josh: How creative.

    tyler: thanks, i try :^)

    josh: Why don’t you talk like this in person?

Tyler’s heart sinks as he reads that message.  

    tyler: idk it’s just easier to talk to people over text than in person

    josh: You’re so shy. You don’t have to be shy around me, Tyler.

    tyler: i mean i can’t really help it

    josh: oh. is it anxiety? i had a sister and she had anxiety.

    tyler: idk honestly

    josh: It’s okay, Tyler. I’ll be patient, take your time :^)

Tyler finds himself smiling a little at that as he types in his reply.

    tyler: i really appreciate that josh :^)

    josh: You should get some sleep. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, okay?

    tyler: alright. night josh :^)

    josh: Goodnight, Shybutt :^)

Tyler locks his phone before putting it back on the night stand, getting snuggly and warm under his blankets again.  He falls asleep without interruptions this time.

Chapter Text

As Tyler nears the bus stop the following morning, he sees Josh already standing where Tyler likes to stand, away from the rest of the teenagers, and that oddly makes Tyler a little happy.

“What lunch do you have today?” Josh asks as Tyler stands next to him.  Tyler looks to Josh’s eyes for a quick second before staring at Josh’s nose instead.  He’ll admit that he feels more comfortable around Josh than he did before, but he’s still not too keen on eye contact, apparently.  

“Uh, first,” Tyler answers, and this seems to please Josh.

“Sick, me too. Wanna sit together again?” Josh asks, and Tyler nods. “I’ll be on the bleachers again, alright?”

Tyler nods and even offers a little smile to the other, which he returns with one of his smirks.

<><><>

The bell rings hours later, signaling the end of second block and first lunch.  Tyler remains seated as his classmates quickly stand and file out of the room; he does this to avoid getting pushed and bumped into, because these kids are impatient as fuck.  Like, shit , lunch isn’t going anywhere.

When the hallway seems to clear out a little, Tyler grabs his things and heads out, turning towards the backdoors instead of the cafeteria.

Tyler’s a bit taken back when he finds Josh leaning against the wall by the doors, fucking with something on his phone; he said he’d be at the bleachers this morning.

Josh looks up as Tyler’s close enough for his timid footsteps are close enough to be audible, offering another smirk, “There’s been a change of plans; I’ve made another friend today who also has this lunch, so we’re gonna sit with him in the cafeteria, if you’re up for it.”

Honestly, the idea of Tyler having to sit with another stranger during lunch makes him quite nervous, but he hates spending lunches alone more, so he nods to Josh with a small, forced smile.

“Alright, off to the cafeteria we go, then,” Josh says, pushing himself off the wall to lead Tyler to the cafeteria.

The two boys step into the (sickeningly smelly) cafeteria, and Josh takes a moment to scan the room for his friend.

“Josh!” a familiar voice shouts from across the cafeteria.  Tyler’s not able to follow the source, but Josh picks up on it just fine and leads Tyler deeper into the room.

Tyler feels his nerves begin to kick as he follows Josh; what if the friend doesn’t like Tyler?  Does the friend even know Tyler’s sitting with them?  What if the friend wants Tyler to go away?

The two approach a table that would’ve been completely vacant, if it weren’t for the lonesome boy sitting at it—

Dude, it’s fucking Bryan , the boy who tried to kick Tyler’s ass for accidentally stepping on the back of his shoe… what was it, yesterday ?

Oh, God , Tyler really hopes Bryan doesn’t remember that—

“Sit, Tyler,” Josh guides Tyler to the seat next to his, and Tyler complies, tense and hunched over where he sits, gazing anxiously at a dirty spot on the surface in front of him.

“Thank God we happen to have the same lunch today, none of my other friends have this lunch,” Bryan sighs as he folds his arms over the table, leaning forward onto them. “So are you gonna introduce me to your friend?”

“This is Tyler, which you already know,” Josh says to Bryan.  Josh pokes Tyler’s shoulder to get his attention, receives it, and continues, “Tyler, this,” he motions to Bryan, “is Brendon.”

Oh.

Tyler blushes sheepishly; he’s been fucking this kid’s name up this whole time.  At least he hasn’t done so out loud…

Tyler shyly lifts his gaze to who he now knows as Brendon, briefly meeting his eyes before looking to his nose.

“Hi, Tyler,” Brendon says as he holds his hand out, and is this kid seriously asking to shake his hand?

Tyler hesitantly reaches towards it, but Brendon pulls it away at the last moment, emitting an obnoxious guffaw as Tyler quickly withdraws his own hand, his entire face heating with mortification.  Tyler ducks his head as he starts to tremble a little, and he just wants to get out of here immediately.

“You’re such an asshole, Brendon,” Josh snaps at his friend, but that only adds fuel to the fire as Brendon laughs even harder, clutching at the table for support. Josh turns to Tyler, but Tyler refuses to look away from his hands as they fiddle with each other in his lap.

“I was only playing, holy shit,” Brendon wheezes out as his laughter ceases, “I’m sorry I embarrassed you, Tyler. Don’t take it personally.”

Tyler only nods.  He still doesn’t like Brendon.

Chapter Text

Tyler only nods.  He still doesn’t like Brendon.

“You’re still upset,” Brendon notes. “Want a cookie?”

Brendon doesn’t wait for a response as he pulls his school bag from under the table, setting it on the seat next to his, retrieving oreos.  

Not just a small bag of a few, no, but a whole fucking unopened bag of them.

Brendon rips the seal open before pushing the cookies to Tyler, “Have some.”

Tyler hesitates, half expecting Brendon to yank the cookies away from him.  Brendon lets him take a cookie, and he smiles.

“See, we’re cool!” Brendon says, digging through his bag, and Tyler can’t believe that Brendon not only carries whole containers of oreos to school, but apparently cartons of milk too.

“Brendon, what the fuck?” Josh chuckles as said boy rips open the top of the half pint.  Brendon looks to Josh, raising an eyebrow at his friend.

“What? Did you expect me to eat my oreos without milk?” Brendon says, grabbing an oreo and dipping it into the carton a few times before stuffing the cookie into his mouth before turning to Tyler. “Anyways, I haven’t heard you speak yet.”

Tyler blinks at the other boy before speaking shyly, “Uh- hi.”

“He’s so shy!” Brendon coos, a blush warming Tyler’s cheeks as he plays with the hem of his hoodie—another nervous habit of his. “Forget Josh, I’m gonna be your new best friend!”

“He doesn’t like you, you were mean to him,” Josh teases, and Brendon’s quick to defend himself.

“I was playing! And I gave him a cookie, so of course he like me,” Brendon teases back, and that’s when Josh turns to Tyler, who turns to face him as well.

“Tyler, do you like Brendon?”

“ Say yes! ” Brendon says in what some people tend to call a ‘whisper-shout,’ for lack of a better way to describe his tone, earning a meaningless glare from Josh.

Brendon and Josh arguing over whether or not the former is Tyler’s best friend is honestly kinda ridiculous to Tyler, and he finds himself breaking out into a wide, amused smile.  He ducks his head again to hide it, and the other two laugh fondly at Tyler’s behavior.

Tyler doesn’t understand why they’re laughing, though; he feels embarrassed now, and his smile starts to crumble.  Josh must’ve noticed as he leans closer to Tyler.

“We’re not laughing at you, Shybutt,” Josh assures him, voice low enough so it’s only audible to Tyler.  He blushes for the umpteenth time as the pet name returns, and Brendon coos as he observes from across the table.

“Awe, Tyler likes Josh!”

And— surprise, surprise —Tyler’s entire face burns worse, and he just wants to get out of here before Brendon makes another straightforward accusation and possibly stripping whatever’s left of his dignity.

“Shut up, Brendon!” Josh speaks up for Tyler upon noticing his embarrassment, but Brendon starts cackling again. “What’s so funny now?”

:You guys totally like each other,” Brendon teases once his laughter dies out, dramatically pretending to wipe a tear from his eye as he pushes the cookie container to the other boys, “Since I keep embarrassing you guys…”

They both take a cookie just as the lunch bell rings, and Brendon takes two out for himself before putting the cookies away.

“We’re gonna wait for the crowd,” Brendon says as he dips both of his cookies in his milk before shoving them both into his mouth.  He continues to speak, despite his mouth being stuffed with food, “Because I’m tired of bitches stepping on me in the hallway.”

Rip , Tyler thinks to himself.

Chapter Text

The bell rings, and the door is thrown shut.

“Salvete, discipuli et discipulae!” Mr. Liddell greets the class, who returns his greeting with their usual, “Salve.”

Tyler glances to the empty seat at his right; the familiar sinking feeling returns to Tyler’s stomach, because Tyler was honestly kinda looking forward to seeing Josh again, despite the fact that he just saw him an hour and a half ago.  He’s probably skipping again, Tyler decides.

Tyler perks up a little as someone starts knocking on the door, because something in the back of his mind makes him aware of the possibility of the source being Josh, and that he’s just late for class.

So, Tyler watches hopefully as Mr. Liddell strides back to the door.  Tyler’s eyes light up as the door opens, revealing Josh— wait, Josh looks kinda annoyed…

“Our sub wouldn’t let us out because she was upset with one person ,” Josh drones out in response to Mr. Liddell’s raised brow, tone laced with annoyance.  The teacher doesn’t question him as he nods, motioning for his student to come in.

Tyler greets Josh with a small smile as he fills the previously empty seat next to him, and despite Josh’s obvious sour mood, he returns it with his own genuine smile.

Mr. Liddell instructs the class to get out some paper so they could take notes, and Tyler waits for Josh’s inevitable question.

“Hey, can I borrow a pencil?”

And there it is.  

This is also the moment that Tyler actually has to say no to Josh upon requesting the (permanent) use of one of his pencils.

Tyler doesn’t allow himself to think about it before shaking his head.  He starts to feel a little anxious at the surprised expression on Josh’s face.

“Why not?”

“You, uh, have them all,”  Tyler mumbles, looking to the hands nervously picking at each other in his lap.  A brief moment of silence passes before Josh speaks again.

“Well, shit, why didn’t you say anything?”

And that’s a pretty damn good question, and Tyler knows the answer to it, but he only shrugs his shoulders in response.  

“I’m sorry, Tyler. I’ll get you some new ones, alright?”

Tyler nods his head; Josh isn’t gonna get him anything—people make promises like these all the time and never fulfill them.

Chapter Text

Tyler is taken aback the next morning when Josh swings his school bag around in front of him, unzips it, and retrieves a box of thirty pencils, because he really didn’t think Josh would even care enough to give him a sad little pencil sharpened down to the eraser (this has happened before), let alone go out to the store and buy him entire thirty pack.

“I ran and bought you these since I stole all of yours,” Josh says, holding the box out to the smaller of the two. “Bought a bigger count since you like to share so much, though I’d prefer if you kept this for yourself; I bought them for you.”

“You really didn’t have to, Josh,” Tyler mumbles to the other boy, taking the box from him to put in his own bag.  

Josh only shrugs nonchalantly, “I mean, it was only around five dollars, s’not really a big deal.”

Tyler flushes, hanging his head again a bit sheepishly.

“Hey, don’t be embarrassed,” Josh says softly, and Tyler fucking flinches as a gentle, comforting hand is placed on his shoulder, the touch unexpected; Josh has never touched him before now.

But, anyways, Tyler’s always been one to feed off of affection granted by other people— like a fucking leech —and to most people, a hand resting on their shoulder is probably one of the most trivial gestures to receive.  But to Tyler, affection is affection, and he’ll take any form affection greedily, especially if it’s from Josh.

Tyler picks his head up a little to smile shyly at him.  This pleases Josh; smiling always pleases Josh.

The taller of the two (which is Josh in this story, in case you didn’t know) opens his mouth to say something, but stops himself before he can even produce any sound, and closes his mouth once again.

Tyler has no idea what he was going to say before psyching himself out of doing so, but he bets money that it was gonna be something flirtier than usual.  What else could it honestly be?

And then a new question arises: why does Josh even flirt with him anyways?  Tyler’s a petty gremlin that just can’t seem to stop belittling himself— see?

“What’re you thinking about, Shybutt?” Josh’s voice pulls Tyler out of his thoughts.  Tyler— needless to say—blushes as he shrugs, and Josh laughs a little at this as he makes a comment about Tyler’s consistent shrugging, “What do you know?”

Tyler smiles, this one more confident as he shrugs again, and Josh lets out another laugh.

“You sure are something else,” Josh says, and Tyler doesn’t even start to take it the wrong way and get offended since Josh said it with so much fondness; it leaves Tyler blushing again, his smile widening to the point that it probably looks dumb, so he drops his head until it dulls down.

Chapter Text

The lunch bell rings hours later, and Tyler and Josh stand from the metal bleachers, cold from exposure to the late fall weather.  

“So, Josh starts as they head towards the building, “Would you rather walk home with me after school, or do you want me to give you the address?”

Tyler shrugs, watching his feet as he walks, which is typical for a person like Tyler, “Whichever's—uh, more convenient for you.”

“I don’t really care, it’s up to you,” Josh says, “But I need to know now, ‘cause I’m skipping if we’re not leaving together.”

Tyler remembers Josh skipping after lunch on Wednesday as well, and he can’t help but wonder why he keeps doing this, and how long it’ll be until he gets caught if he hasn’t already; if he hasn’t, then he’s bound to in the near future, and the dean of boys is a fucking dick that even Pete Wentz hates getting into shit with.

So, Tyler’s answer comes easy, “We can go together.

Uneasiness also comes easy, though, because what if Josh was actually hinting and hoping that he wanted Tyler to come later by bringing up his skipping?  What if Josh hates his choice?  Tyler should’ve just insisted once again that Josh decides since it is his house—but what if that only annoyed Josh as well?

Tyler risks a nervous glance at the other boy, but Josh only smiles down at him in return.

“I’m more than okay with that,” Josh reassures him, “And don’t be afraid to make your own decisions, alright? Do what pleases sweet little Tyler, not Asshole Josh.”

“N-no!” Tyler raises his voice a little, surprising both himself and Josh, and Tyler feels his cheeks heat up from embarrassment as he continues in a quieter tone, “You’re really nice.”

“To you ,” Josh smirks as they approach the doors, holding one open for Tyler, who blushes yet again , and said boy finds it absolutely ridiculous how much he blushes and flushes these days.

He also finds the fact that Josh is apparently only nice to him is absolutely ridiculous —and honestly, what even drew Josh in, anyways?  He’s an ugly monkey always clad in dirty converse and a plain gray hoodie that’s way to big on him, not to mention how anxious and socially inept he is.

“So, see ya later,” Josh says with a friendly pat to the back (which Tyler totally didn’t flinch in response to) before walking off into the building.

Chapter Text

Tyler’s tummy is fluttering uncomfortably with excitement as the bus pulls up at his stop, and he wills himself to slow the fuck down as he nearly runs off the bus.  He stands and waits for Josh at the corner, nervously watching other students exit the carpool and head to their own homes.

Josh is the last person off the bus for this stop, and Tyler greets him with a shy smile as the bus pulls away.  Josh returns it with a smirk.

“Did you want anything from your house before we head to mine?” Josh asks, tilting his head in the direction of where he knows is the smaller boy lives.

Tyler shakes his head, so the two head towards Josh’s house.  It’s only about a minute’s walk, unlike Tyler’s five minute walk to his own, and he’s really glad that he decided to just go straight to Josh’s house; it’s finally starting to get pretty cold out, and Tyler doesn’t wear a coat to school since he didn’t buy a locker.

“So,” is the first thing Josh says as soon as he gets the front door open (and holy shit, Tyler’s in Josh’s house ), “Do you need the wifi password?”

Tyler nods and retrieves his phone from his pocket, inserting the passcode before placing the device in the other’s hand.  Josh wonders off upstairs with it in his possession, and Tyler starts to wonder what the fuck he’s up to, so he has to remind himself that Josh probably hasn’t memorized his wifi password and has it written down somewhere.

“You coming?” Josh calls down to Tyler, who carefully ascends the stairs, gripping the rail tightly—he may or may not be slightly afraid of stairs.  Only one of the doors are open, so it’s safe to assume that Josh is in there.

Tyler steps into the room to find Josh hunched over a desk, glancing at a sticky note before tapping at his phone, and that proves his earlier assumption that Josh hadn’t memorized the wifi password.  

“I know I invited you over to play basketball, but it’s colder than it was earlier this week,” Josh says as he hands the phone back to Tyler, who nods understandingly to Josh implying they stay indoors.  He then motions towards his bed his book bag was slumped against, “You can drop your bag there if you want.”

Tyler slips his bag off his shoulders, carefully easing the bag onto the floor next to the other.  Josh plops down onto his bed with a huff, scooting back until his back is against the wall, “Come sit, Shybutt.”

Tyler—needless to say—blushes as he complies, sitting close but not too close , because he doesn’t want Josh to think he’s weird.  He likes Josh, and he wants Josh to like him.

Neither of them say anything for a moment, just fuck around on their phones in silence, until Josh clearing his throat breaks it.

“I have a Wii,” Josh starts, gesturing towards an armoire situated across from them, doors kept shut by a lock, and Tyler wonders why he has his Wii locked up like that.  Josh leans forward towards his bag, rummaging through it, pulling a key out of it before handing it to Tyler, “You can pick out a game we can play for a few hours.”

Tyler hums in response as he pushes himself off the bed and crosses the room, grabbing the lock and inserting the key.  He unlocks the doors and opens them to reveal a TV, a Wii, and a box which he assumes holds all the games.  

There aren’t many games to begin with, but Tyler’s surprised to find that not even half of them are Wii games—they’re for the PS4, but he doesn’t see one.

And it’s as if Josh read his mind, because he answers the question before Tyler can even ask himself anything, “My parents sold half of my shit a while back.”

And actually, that also answers Tyler’s question from before, the one about the lock on the armoire.

But, a new question arises; why did his parents do that in the first place?

Chapter Text

“ Fuck! ” Josh screams at the TV, leaping up from the bed as he mercilessly pounds the jump button on his controller.  His character had fallen off the stage, and Josh is desperately trying to get him back up, but he runs out of jumps and falls to his death, “I was looking at your character again!”

“Two Kirbys was probably a bad idea, then,” Tyler mumbles to himself, voice inaudible over Josh’s fury.  

The timer starts counting down from five as soon as Josh’s Kirby respawns, and they both desperately fight the other two CPUs in the little time they had before time is called.

“The winner is—” the announcer calls, and Josh collapses onto the bed with a loud groan, because their team clearly lost this round.

“Wanna take a break?” Tyler asks the over dramatic boy as he glares at the screen with so much passion.

“That’s probably a good idea,” Josh agrees, putting his controller aside and standing once again.  Tyler follows, and Josh leads the smaller boy downstairs and into the kitchen, “How does pizza sound?”

“Alright.”

Josh nods and pulls a basket down from the top of the fridge, and Tyler sits at the kitchen table as Josh searches through its contents.

“So, you’ve said your birthday’s in December?” Josh asks, still rummaging for whatever he’s looking for, and Tyler hums an affirmative sound.  “What day?”

“The first,” Tyler answers just as Josh pulls a twenty dollar bill from the basket.

“Cute,” Josh says as he places it on the counter.  Tyler blushes again, because he highly doubts he was referring to the money—there’s nothing cute about Andrew Jackson.

But neither is his birthday being December 1st, and Tyler is confused.

“My birthday is June 18th,” Josh exchanges, leaving the room once again.  Tyler stays seated, not sure if he should follow or not, and slips his phone out of his pocket to have something to hold as he waits for the other to return.

His name is being called a few minutes later from somewhere upstairs, so he follows the source of the voice.  He finds Josh in a room that isn’t his, seated in front of a computer at a desk.  Josh beckons to him, and Tyler moves to stand behind him, looking past the older boy’s shoulder to see the screen.

“What toppings?” Josh asks.

“Doesn’t matter,” Tyler shrugs.  The other boy turns in his seat to give him a pointed look.

“Do you really not know, or are you trying not to disappoint me?”

And that’s a good question paired with a bit of a complicated answer.  Tyler actually doesn’t know what he wants, but he does know that he doesn’t like cheese pizza, nor does he like pineapples, peppers, and sometimes sausage as toppings.  But, what if Josh wants those things?  

“Uh—both?” Tyler admits with a sheepish smile that leaves Josh chuckling fondly.

“Wanna just get pepperoni?” he offers to the younger boy, who nods his approval.  Josh turns back to the monitor and fills in the rest of the information before confirming his purchase.

“Sick, pizza should be here soon,” Josh says as he gets up from the chair, tucking it under the desk before turning to Tyler again, “What do you wanna do?”

Tyler shrugs, just as Josh’s phone starts ringing.  The bigger of the two sighs as he fishes the device out of his pocket, and Tyler steps out of the room to give him privacy (despite how curious he is about the conversation to come, since Josh didn’t look too pleased when he answered the phone).

So, Tyler sits on Josh’s bed, staring at the Super Smash Bros victory screen as he waits for the other once again, who returns in only a few minutes.

“Wanna spend the night?” Josh asks, plopping onto the bed next to Tyler (leaving minimal room between them, not that Tyler minds—except the blush now tinting his cheeks probably makes him look dumb as fuck), “My parents aren’t coming home tonight, so I’ll be home alone.”

Tyler nods, and then he remembers someone Josh once brought up, “Where’s your sister?”

A brief silence engulfs them as soon as the question is asked, but it’s laced with tension, and Tyler feels that he fucked up by asking unnecessary questions; he’s too fucking curious and he needs to keep his fucking mouth shut.

“Uh, she’s not gonna be here either,” Josh says quietly, pausing for a moment before going back to his usual self, smirking at Tyler. “So, are you alright with sharing a bed with me?”

Tyler doesn’t blush, of course not.

Chapter Text

As the two ate the pizza had ordered earlier, Tyler’s curiosity was getting the best of him as he pondered about this sister of Josh’s.  

Something negative has happened to upset Josh, going by the tension that had engulfed them earlier at the mention of her.

One possibility Tyler came up with is that his sister maybe has her own place and that may be affecting Josh in some way.  Maybe his sister promised a place for Josh to stay, because Tyler figures that something could be up with his parents (they did sell his shit for God knows what, but that could also be a punishment for something Josh has done).  Maybe they’ve gotten into a really bad argument before parting, and the distance somehow contributes to them not being able to patch things up.

Maybe the parents kicked her out, and maybe Josh depended on his sister, or is just upset that his sibling is gone.

Perhaps this sister is gone, but from more than just the household; maybe she died.  Josh could still be devastated, if that’s the case, since his sister’s death was most likely tragic—Tyler highly doubts the cause of death was from old age.  Maybe there was a car crash or a terminal illness.  Perhaps even a homicide or suicide—Josh said that his sister had anxiety, and Tyler’s pretty sure that he might have some form of it too (Zack never took him seriously whenever he brought the possibility up, and Tyler doesn’t wanna go around saying he has anxiety if he doesn’t know for sure), and he could list plenty of times when anxiety overwhelmed him, had him into hysterics, and contributed to his desire to take himself out.

And Tyler can’t help but want to know what Josh’s sister is or was like, and he wonders if she’s pulling through if she’s alive, and if she really is gone—

“Hey,” Josh lays a hand on Tyler’s shoulder, startling him back to reality, “You good?”

Tyler puts on a smile and nods.  Josh’s eyes linger on him for a moment longer, as if doubting him, but then he just motions towards the partially eaten pizza in Tyler’s possession.

“You were just sitting with it for a good moment, staring off into space,” Josh says, shoving a bite of pizza crust into his mouth.  Tyler looks to his own pizza and sighs; he’s not really hungry right now.

“I’ll eat it later,” Tyler responds, placing his pizza on a plate and putting it aside, hoping Josh won’t mind.  Josh hums, mouth still stuffed with food, and hands Tyler a roll of paper towels.  Tyler nods a silent thanks and tears a sheet off to clean himself.

“So, I kinda promised that I’d call Brendon while we were hanging out since he wasn’t invited,” Josh says as he pulls out his phone, and he doesn’t seem to enthusiastic about talking to said boy, if Tyler’s completely honest.

Josh puts the phone on speaker, the two listening to the dial tone until Brendon finally picks up the phone.

“Hi, Tyler!” Brendon calls out from the other end of the call.  Josh rolls his eyes.

“Wow, hi , Brendon,” Josh says, voice dripping sarcasm, and pretty much stealing Tyler’s turn to speak.

“Yeah, hi, Josh. I was getting to you.”

“Whatever, dude,” Josh huffs, “Tyler doesn’t like you anyways ‘cause you were mean to him.”

Brendon lets out a dramatic gasp, much like he did at lunch, “Sure he does! Right, Tyler?”

“Uh—I don’t r-really know you,” Tyler stammers, face flushing as soon as the words come out his mouth, and Josh chuckles.

“We can easily fix that!” Brendon chirps, “We’re gonna be such great friends, you won’t even care about Josh anymore.”

Of course Tyler (and Josh, may I add) knows he’s joking about the last statement, but he can’t help but think to himself that he’d never not care about Josh; he’s been very kind and respectful to him, and despite only knowing Josh for less than a week, he’s the first real friend Tyler’s had in a very long time.  Plus, Josh seems rather fond of Tyler, and he really doesn’t think Josh would let Brendon steal him away that easily.

“Fuck you, Brendon, and stick to Pete Wentz and them,” Josh banters, and Brendon cackles in return.

“Anyways, what’s going on over there?” Brendon asks, a suggestive undertone detectable.  Before Josh can even start to answer, Brendon speaks again, “Let Tyler answer that; I’ve only heard his voice twice.”

And Tyler’s muscles tense at the idea of responding with a statement more complex than what he’s used to when it comes to people he’s not comfortable with—especially Brendon, ‘cause though he seems to like Tyler now, he tried to attack him and spewed insults at him and threatened him when he accidentally stepped on the back of his shoe, and he made a fool out of him during lunch in front of Josh —and he feels like an asshole now for still being upset over that, because Brendon gave him cookies to make up for it—and what even is going on over here at Josh’s?  All they really did was play Super Smash Bros and eat pizza; so Tyler will just tell him that—

“Y-yeah, we just played Su-super Smash Bros,” Tyler rushes out, high pitched, fidgeting nervously, fumbling with the hem of his hoodie, and his face gets as hot as it did when Brendon first embarrassed him with that handshake fiasco, and he expects Brendon to laugh at how ridiculous he sounds right now.

Brendon cackles, Tyler wants to die, and Josh is unimpressed.

“You’re such a fucking asshole,” Josh snaps, tone void of playfulness this time, but that doesn’t make Brendon’s laughter falter.

“I’m sorry, shit, ” Brendon continues to laugh, and Josh just hangs the phone up and turns to Tyler.

“Sorry,” Tyler whispers, dropping his head to watch as his shaky hands pull tightly at his hoodie, and why is he so embarrassed by something so fucking trivial?  It’s over now, he needs to get over it and stop being so fucking pathetic.

“Don’t apologize, Tyler,” Josh says, reaching out to Tyler’s hands, covering them with his own larger ones to calm them, and we all know what our boy does, “It’s okay, Brendon won’t even remember later, and you know I’d never judge you.”

And Tyler appreciates Josh so much , he’s such a good friend.  He really wants to hug his friend.

“Can you hug me?” Tyler asks, and strong arms are instantly being wrapped around him, pulling his smaller frame into one of the tightest hugs he’s ever received.  Tyler turns his head to rest the side of his face against Josh’s chest as returns the hug, and Tyler lets out a shaky breath as Josh gently rubs Tyler’s back, snuggling him.  

Tyler relaxes completely in his friend’s touch, so firm yet gentle; no one’s ever given him a hug that even came close to how amazing this one is.

Tyler clings onto his friend, basking in the affection, and the leech simile doesn’t cross Tyler’s mind this time.

“I really like you, Josh,” Tyler whispers without even thinking about it, and Tyler starts to freak out when Josh stills.

But then Josh chuckles so fondly , and Tyler knows that’s a positive response.

Chapter Text

The two had decided that since it was getting late (and they didn’t have anything better to do), they’d settle down and watch Netflix on Josh’s Wii.

As cliche as it may sound, Tyler wasn’t able to pay attention very well to whatever it was that they were supposed to be watching; Josh just looked so good, and he’d much rather look at Josh.

Nah, I’m kidding—that’s not what’s distracting Tyler.  It does have something to do with Josh, though.

He’s thinking about the hug he shared with Josh—well, more what he said during that hug.  He pretty much confessed his feelings or whatever towards the other boy and didn’t receive a bad reaction, he guesses, but he still has no idea what was going through Josh’s head as the words fell off his tongue.

Tyler’s pretty sure that Josh probably likes him back, and he feels that he’s justified in assuming so, considering how much he has flirted with him in the past, and he definitely hasn’t forgotten Josh admitting that he’s only nice to the smaller boy (I mean, it was only earlier that day).  But, how will things be between them?  How will Josh treat him now?  Sure, Josh probably likes him too, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Josh actually wants anything more; there’s been a few people he’s liked in the past, but couldn’t see himself actually being anything more with them, if that makes any sense.  Another question he’s asked himself awhile back resurfaces; what if Tyler is getting wrong signals and he’s making a big deal out of nothing?  Maybe Josh is just a flirty person and flirts with everyone.  That statement doesn’t really make a lot of sense, though, because Josh has told him that he only treats him kindly, and he’s seen him shit talk Brendon quite a few times.  

But wait , Josh could be buttering him up, trying to finesse him out of something he wants from him, because—need he say it again—there’s so many other people Josh could choose from.  

Sure, Tyler can admit that he isn’t the worst option, definitely not; he’s really nice—maybe too nice, and he’s actually not entirely ugly like he keeps making himself out to be—like the time he called himself an ugly monkey, but monkeys are endearingly ugly, yeah?

Tyler remembers the time when his parents took the family on vacation, and this one—what’s the word, excursion?  Sure, and this one excursion they went on involved entering a monkey’s habitat or something, and the monkeys were sitting on everyone’s shoulders.  Young Tyler was in love with the cuddly monkeys sitting on his shoulders, until one got too comfortable and pissed down his fucking arm, and Tyler’s liked monkeys a little less because of that one little pissbitch.

Okay, a bit off topic— wait , what if Tyler gets too comfortable with Josh one day and does something that seems natural at the time, but fucks shit up for them?  What if Tyler becomes Josh’s pissbitch?

Despite how gloomy the thoughts are, Tyler finds himself giggling to himself; that last question just sounded kinda wrong , holy shit.

Josh joins in, “What’re you giggling about, Shybutt?”

“O-omor—” Tyler starts, but cuts himself off as he bursts out laughing, clutching onto Josh’s arm desperately as he laughs.  Josh’s laughter intensifies as well, because Tyler’s laugh is so contagious.

“ Oh more what?” Josh forces out in the midst of his own laughter, and Tyler shakes his head as he tries to calm himself down.  

Tyler tries again when he’s calm enough, “N-no, omora—”

Tyler’s taken over by laughter again, this time the silent and breathless kind, and he tugs on Josh’s arm as he leans his forehead on the other boy’s shoulder.

“J-jesus fucking Christ, Tyler,” Josh strains, doing his best to pat the younger boy’s back as his own body shakes from his laughter, “B-breathe!”

“ Oh my gosh! ” Tyler wheezes, and he can’t believe that he’s laughing this hard at something so stupid with someone who isn’t Zack.

He’s feels like he’s gonna choke from laughing so hard, but it feels good to genuinely laugh like this, especially with Josh.

Chapter Text

Tyler’s having trouble finding sleep as he lays next to Josh in a bed he’s never slept in before.  He’s been to a few sleepovers in the past, and he’s noticed that every time he spent the night for the first time with a different person, he’d find himself still awake as the early hours slowly approach.  He’s not exactly sure what it is that keeps him up, but he has a few ideas.

One—he doesn’t know whether or not he snores, and if he does, he doesn’t know how bad it is, and he’s not too keen on finding out from Josh.

Two—he has been described as a wild sleeper and a blanket hugger by his family, and he also tends to gravitate towards warmth, if you know what he means.

Three—it’s a bit pathetic, honestly, but he’s afraid of the dark—or, what lurks in it.  Being in this house for the very first time, he has no idea what kind of ghost fucker could be wandering as he sleeps, or whether or not he should be afraid of him, and with that in mind, it’s difficult to ignore every sound he hears throughout the darkness of the house.

And so, Tyler lays awake, staring at the wall inches from his face, until the sun begins to slowly illuminate the room.  

He rolls over in bed only to be greeted by Josh’s back.  He carefully pulls his tired body into a sitting position and peers over Josh’s form, not surprised (but disappointed) that his friend is still asleep.

Tyler straightens his legs a little, but they’re sore from being in the same position all night, and he wants to walk around a bit.  Josh is between him and the open room, so Tyler has to get off over the footboard, unless he’s okay with literally crawling over Josh.

The former seems to be the easier route, so he crawls down the bed slowly to avoid waking his friend.  Tyler pulls himself up straighter to get his leg over, and Josh fucking coughs in his sleep , and Tyler’s bitch ass gets scared and lurches forward with a yelp.

Tyler’s on the floor and in more pain than before (rhyme game strong yessir), and Josh is definitely wide awake now, so essentially, Tyler went through his trouble for nothing.

“Tyler, holy shit,” Josh breathes, voice gravelly from just waking up, and he peeks over the footboard at Tyler, who just lays on the floor, curled up and stripped of his dignity. “Are you alright?”

Tyler lets out a dramatic, distressed hum, and Josh chuckles a little at it.

“Well, it’s…” a very brief pause, “Almost seven. Do you wanna sleep or are you up?”

Tyler shrugs, speaking in a small voice, “I dunno.”

Josh laughs again, “Alright, but get off the floor, Shybutt,” Josh says as he gets up from the bed himself, walking around the bed to hold a hand out to the lump of pathetic on the floor.  Tyler takes the hand gratefully, wincing as Josh pulls him up to his feet, because holy shit, that actually hurt.

“What time are you leaving today?” Josh asks, leading the smaller boy out of the room.

Tyler shrugs, “Whenever you want me to leave.”

“If it were up to me, we’d be roomies,” Josh teases, jogging down the stairs.  Tyler takes his time, because he’s as clumsy as he’s prone to losing his shit.  Josh smiles to Tyler as he notices the blush warming his cheeks brought on by what Josh had said, and Tyler shyly smiles back to his friend.  “You’re really cute, Tyler.”

That doesn’t help Tyler’s blush at all, and he ducks his head to hide it.

Chapter Text

Josh lets out an annoyed huff as he swings the refrigerator shut, and Tyler flinches at the sudden intrusion to the previously calm room.  The smaller boy lifts his gaze from the surface of the table to see Josh holding up a nearly empty container of milk, exasperatedly motioning towards it with his free hand.

“I literally just fucking bought this shit!” Josh complains, slamming the container onto the table in front of Tyler, who only flinches again, but Josh continues, “I’ve only used it for one bowl of cereal! How the fuck did my parents use it all in less than twenty four fucking hours?!”

Tyler averts his eyes uncomfortably; Josh is honestly kinda reminding him of Zack right now.

No—Tyler shouldn’t compare Josh to his older brother like this.  Josh wouldn’t purposefully hurt Tyler.

He used to think the same about Zack—

No— Josh is different.  Josh is always nice to him.

And Josh must’ve noticed his discomfort, because he takes in a deep breath, holding it in for a moment before he lets it out, and his voice is significantly calmer than it was previously, “It’s okay. But it looks like we don’t have food here.”

“It’s alright, Josh,” Tyler says, attempting a smile as he looks back to his friend, who returns it as their eyes meet.  Tyler drops his eyes to Josh’s nose for a second, but hesitantly brings it back to look into Josh’s eyes.

This is okay.

“Well, if you get too hungry,” Josh starts, motioning towards the cabinets, “I should have some poptarts, unless my mom and dad got to those too.”

Tyler nods in appreciation; he’s probably just gonna wait until he goes home, honestly, because he’s not really a big poptart fan.

Unless it’s, like, those s’mores poptarts, or any of the ones like those, they’re really good.

“What kind?” Tyler finds himself asking, tilting his head a little.

Josh smiles fondly at the smaller boy be walking over to one of the cabinets, dragging a chair with him.  Tyler can’t help but be amused as Josh climbs up onto the chair and kneels on it, because it’s unnecessary; Josh should’ve been tall enough to reach the cabinet without the chair.

Tyler’s brows shoot up as Josh opens the cabinet, revealing a bunch of poptart boxes, all neatly lined up and stacked on top of each other.  Why the fuck does he have so many?

For some reason, this reminds him of the time Brendon pulled out that entire pack of oreos and a carton of milk during lunch, and he bites his lip as he breaks out in a wide grin.

“Okay, we have strawberry, blueberry, cherry,” Josh lists in a mumble as he pulls said boxes out of the cabinet and sets them on the counter, “Let me know if something tickles your fancy.”

And Tyler giggles; he’s never heard anyone say that before, and it just sounds funny to him, okay?

“You’re not gonna have another laugh attack, are you?” Josh asks, glancing over his shoulder at the giggly boy, who shakes his head as his giggles cease, but the wide grin stays.  Josh smiles as he turns back to the cabinet, naming flavors as they’re retrieved.  

The older of the two eventually names s’mores, ironically, and Tyler lets his friend know that he wants that kind.

“You like these?” Josh asks, putting the box off to the side before piling the previously abandoned poptart boxes into the cabinet once again.  Tyler hums an affirmative sound, and Josh lowers himself to the floor, “I don’t really care for these; I like the fruity ones better.”

Josh sets the poptarts down in front of Tyler, who opens the sealed box, pulling a packet out.  He quickly glances around the kitchen in search for a toaster, spotting one at the other side of the kitchen.  Tyler figures that Josh wouldn’t care if he put his poptarts in it, so he just gets up and helps himself to the toaster.

As soon as Tyler’s poptarts pop up, he hears car doors slamming outside, followed by a deep, angry voice.

“ Fuck ,” Josh curses under his breath, and he’s right behind Tyler now, paper towel in hand as he grabs the poptarts out of the toaster, and hands them to Tyler.  Josh sets a gentle hand to the small of his back, guiding him to another door in the kitchen.  Josh pushes it open, revealing the outdoors, and Tyler feels awkward now, because he’s pretty much being kicked out of the house.  

But he thinks he understands—Tyler figures there’s something up with his parents, which you already know, and they’re outside yelling, angry, and Josh is most likely trying to keep him out of harm’s way.

Josh steps outside with Tyler for a moment, the two of them shivering from the cold, “I’m sorry, Tyler.”

Tyler turns to offer his friend a smile, “It’s alright. Thanks for having me over.”

Josh smiles so fondly, “Thanks for sticking around, even though there wasn’t shit to do or food to eat.”

Tyler hears the front door open, so Tyler turns to leave, stepping down onto Josh’s backyard, finally taking a bite out of his warm treat.

And it isn’t until Tyler’s halfway home that he remembers that his shit is still propped up against Josh’s bed.

Chapter Text

Tyler throws the dirty paper towel in the trash as soon as he gets home, then starts to look for his older brother; he should have this weekend off, but he’s not really sure about his brother’s schedule yet—it seems to change a lot, honestly.

He finds Zack in his room, relaxed on his bed with his laptop in his lap, and Tyler can hear Sims sounds coming from the device.  Zack’s eyes flick over to Tyler, offering a smile to his younger brother, “Hey, T-Bro. I didn’t expect you to be back so soon.”

“Yeah, he has plans for today and needed to get ready for them,” Tyler lies without hesitation, and Zack believes him.

“Alright, now off you go, I’m doing something important,” Zack  waves him off with a smile, and Tyler’s not sure what’s going on in the Sims to be marked as important, but Zack is, like, fucking addicted to that game, so he’s not really surprised either.

<><><>

Hours later, Tyler’s playing Scrabble by himself on his phone, until his phone alerts him of his low battery.  Too bad for Tyler, whose charger is still at fucking Josh’s house, but there’s still hope for him—Zack too has an iPhone, and if Tyler’s lucky, he won’t question him upon being asked to lend his charger.

So Tyler wanders out into the hallway, knocks on his brother’s door, waits for a response.

“It’s open,” Zack calls out, so Tyler pushes the door open and steps inside.   Zack’s still playing Sims, if the stupid Simlish speak spewing from the laptop still resting on Zack’s lap is anything to go by.

“Can I borrow your phone charger?” Tyler asks.

“What happened to yours?”

And Tyler was afraid of this—but trouble can still be easily evaded, because he just formed another lie, yay Tyler.

“I accidentally took Josh’s charger but he doesn’t have an iPhone,” Tyler lies, praying that Zack would just leave it at that and give him the charger.

“See, this is why you’re supposed to put your stuff back in your bag as soon as you’re done using it,” Zack lectures, but opens the top drawer of his nightstand, retrieving a phone charger from it and tossing it to the younger boy, who reaches out in a failed attempt to catch it.  “Boo, Tyler.”

Tyler laughs sheepishly at Zack’s playful teasing as he grabs it from the floor.

“Thank you,” Tyler says, quickly retreating back into his room before Zack can start asking questions again; Tyler doesn’t wanna risk sticking around for that and getting in trouble.

Chapter Text

“Am I the only one who didn’t know that we have off Wednesday?!” Brendon calls out as Tyler and Josh approach the lunch table on Monday, “I’m definitely not complaining, but since when do they completely drop school on Wednesday for Thanksgiving?”

“I don’t like it,” Josh disagrees, sitting one space away from the end of the table; the end of the table is always Tyler’s seat, “I’d rather have that day off for Christmas break.”

“ Wait , are you saying that they took a day off from Christmas break ?” Brendon asks incredulously, jaw dropping, and Tyler doesn’t know if this is a genuine reaction or if Brendon’s being over dramatic again.

“Yeah, we—”

“Fuck that!” Brendon’s suddenly shouting, successfully startling Tyler and reeling in the attention of nearby students, “I’ll skip and get my day back!”

“Don’t interrupt me, motherfucker! And skipping won’t get you your day back, wise guy, ” Josh teases, and Brendon scoffs as he pulls out his usual lunchtime milk and cookies.

“Shush, you. But are you guys leaving town for Thanksgiving? Having relatives come over?” Brendon asks, pulling the seal up and grabbing a cookie.

Josh speaks first, “I’m not even celebrating it.”

“Huh? Why not?”

“Me and my family just don’t care enough to,” Josh says with a nonchalant shrug, but something tells Tyler that it’s more than what Josh’s letting on.

“Man, that sucks. What about you, Tyler?” Brendon asks, and Tyler just simply shrugs.  It’s probably just gonna be him and Zack, making more food than they can eat just for the two of them, but he’s perfectly content with that.

“Yeah. But what I’m gonna do is—”

<><><>

Mr. Liddell was planning on having the class watch a Roman documentary today during class, but that clearly wasn’t going to be happening as he opened the DVD case and revealed some fucking ABC’s shit.

“We all have my daughter to thank for that,” Mr. Liddell had joked after sharing the news.

The teacher had also decided that since he had literally nothing else planned and that it’s a couple days before break, that it could be a chill day—and Mr. Liddell had even put the fucking DVD on anyways as a joke.

A few of his classmates are sitting together, singing along to the alphabet songs the makers came up with, while others just fuck around on their phones, talk amongst themselves, sleep—some of his classmates honestly look fucking annoyed by their surroundings.

But fuck these kids, we wanna know what’s up with Tyler and Josh, yeah?  

Tyler’s pondering of something great—having Josh over for Thanksgiving. Tyler honestly believes that Zack shouldn’t mind Josh’s company, since—like previously mentioned—it’ll be just the two of them, and they both make more than enough food.  He already shot his older brother a text, asking if he’d be okay with him inviting Josh.  

Zack replies a bit late because of work, but Zack gives him the okay to invite his friend.

And now Tyler feels nervous, because what if Josh doesn’t wanna come over and turns him down?  He trusts Josh—he’s just so afraid of rejection, and it takes him another ten or so minutes of risking glances in Josh’s direction and trying to psych himself into just fucking inviting him, until Josh finally notices his friend’s inner conflict.

“Hey, what’s on your mind, Tyjo?” Josh asks, gentle and encouraging, and hey, if Josh rejects him he’ll do it gently.

Fuck that doesn’t help—

He’s just asking Josh to spend Thanksgiving with him, why is he making this so fucking hard?  

“I-I, uh,” Tyler stammers as he tries to force the words out of his mouth, and Tyler ducks his head, tugging furiously at the hem of his hoodie.

“It’s okay,” Josh speaks again, and a moment later, he’s handing his phone to the timid boy, the notes app open with a blank note, “Type it if you can’t say it.”

Tyler takes the device from his friend, keeping it simple as he types out the offer before handing it back to Josh.  

Josh reads it before speaking again, “Yeah, sounds sick!”

Tyler picks his head up, and he’s met with a smile from his friend, which he shyly returns.

Chapter Text

A heavy form drops down onto the bed next to Tyler, startling him awake as the force of the drop launches him up from the mattress ever so slightly.  Zack laughs at him as Tyler sits himself up, grabbing his phone from the nightstand to check the time.

It’s a bit past six in the morning, and Tyler whines in protest.

“Come on, T-Bro, we’ve got food to cook!” Zack chirps, and it’s too fucking early for this shit—like, he doesn’t even get up this early for school—and the sun isn’t even fucking up.

Zack gets up from the bed and brings Tyler up with him, tugging him into the kitchen with him.

“Z-bro, I wanna brush my teeth,”  Tyler speaks groggily, but his older brother doesn’t release him until they get in the kitchen.

“Your boyfriend isn’t gonna be here until, what, four?” Zack teases, and Tyler’s face flushes at the man’s brotherly teasing.

“He—he’s not my boyfriend,” Tyler defends himself, “And I brush my teeth because I like to have clean teeth, not for Josh.”

Zack just laughs as he places some sweet potatoes and a potato peeler on the counter in front of Tyler.  He wishes Zack would stop assigning him the task of peeling shit; he doesn’t know how to do it right, and he almost always slips the blade a little too far.  He grabs the first potato and the peeler anyways and gets to work, furrowing his brow in concentration.

“Woah, T-Bro,” Zack stops him before he can do much, and Tyler looks to his older brother questioningly. “I don’t think you’ve washed your hands.”

“The germs would’ve cooked off and died anyways,” Tyler jokes as he puts the things down, moving to the sink to wash his hands.

“Use soap too, you nasty bastard,” Zack teases, moving next to Tyler to wash his hands as well.

“You’re my brother so you’re one, too,” Tyler retorts, a playful smile tugging at his lips.

“I didn’t mean it literally, you fuckmunch,” Zack counters, flicking water at his younger brother’s face as he finishes washing his hands.  

Tyler gasps at the unexpected action before cupping his hands under the running faucet, gathering water in his palms before tossing it towards Zack, who jumps back as the water leaves a wet patch on his shirt.

Zack glares down at Tyler, and he starts to think that he fucked up , but he catches a mischievous glint in the older man’s eyes.

Zack puts the water on full and pulls the spray head from the sink, spraying Tyler in the with the warm water, who squeals at the intrusion and holds his hands out in front of his face in a sad attempt to stop the water.

He stumbles back a little, but he slips backward on the water puddling the floor, and Zack quickly moves to catch him.  Zack slips too, though, and ends up going down with his soaked brother, and they find themselves laughing gleefully as they lay in the puddle building up on the floor.

“We’ve barely started cooking and we’ve already made a huge, unnecessary mess,” Zack laughs, pulling himself off the floor and onto his feet.

“You started it,” Tyler giggles back, following suit as Zack finally shuts the faucet off.

“Sure, whatever you say. Put on something dry while I clean this mess up,” Zack says, heading towards the hall to get a towel.

<><><>

They’re finally finishing dinner hours later, and they’ve only had one more disaster; Tyler’s clumsy self knocked a bowl of mashed potatoes onto the floor and Zack berated him for it, but it was just fucking mashed potatoes, which doesn’t take long to prepare at all, so they just made a new bowl and acted as if it didn’t happen (well, almost—Zack’s words had still lingered in Tyler’s mind, but he just did his best to ignore them).

Tyler quickly puts presentable clothes on and makes sure Zack is good to go as well before sending Josh a quick text, followed by his address.

    tyler: come over whenever you’re ready :^)

<><><>

Tyler jumps up from his seat on the couch when there’s knocking on the door, waiting a brief moment before answering it, smiling as he comes face to face with Josh.

“Hey, Tyjo,” Josh greets his friend with a smile, “I would’ve brought some food to show some respect, but I can’t cook for shit.”

Tyler smiles wide to the other boy, stepping aside and holding the door open for him, “That’s alright. W-we have plenty of food, anyways.”

Tyler leads Josh into the dining room where Zack is waiting, and the older boy gapes at the plethora of food strewn across the table.

“Holy shit , I didn’t expect it to be this much food,” Josh breathes before awkwardly turning to Zack, who looked to Josh blankly, “Sorry, that was inappropriate.”

Zack merely laughs and shakes his head dismissively, “No, it’s alright; make yourself at home.”

“Thank you,” Josh says politely, and the three sit at the table.

<><><>

“I’m never gonna be able to walk again,” Josh groans from where he’s laying face down on Tyler’s bed, spread out like a starfish.  Tyler’s curled up next to him, back against Josh’s side, clutching his pained stomach (Zack is having a similar crisis alone in his own room, in case anyone happens to be thinking about him).  Tyler hums in agreement, and Josh just groans.

“Are you staying over?” Tyler strains.

“If that’s okay with you guys,” Josh answers. “I don’t plan on moving for the rest of the night.”

“I won’t e-even be able to.”

“No kidding; you ate more than me and your brother.”

“Yeah… So your parents are okay with you staying?”

“They don’t give a shit,” and Josh turns over onto his back, so Tyler does his best to roll over onto his other side to face Josh. “They’ve stopped caring me years ago.”

“Why do you say that?” Tyler whispers sadly as their eyes meet; their eye contact doesn’t falter even a little this time.

“To put it simply, the drugs they’re on are taking over their lives,” Josh says, almost nonchalantly, but there’s despondent undertones detectable when he speaks.

“I’m sorry,” is all Tyler can think to say, but Josh shakes his head.

“Hey, don’t worry your pretty little head about it,” Josh smiles at the smaller boy, “I’m okay.”

“Okay,” Tyler responds, and a yawn starts to fight its way up, “I think I’m gonna fall asleep.”

“Goodnight, Tyler.”

“Night.”

Chapter Text

When Tyler wakes up, he finds that Josh is already awake and on his phone.  He also finds that he’s partially laying on top of his friend, who has an arm loosely wrapped around his waist in return, and he blushes; of fucking course he rolled into Josh’s personal space in his sleep.  He honestly can’t even be surprised because—like he’s mentioned before—he tends to gravitate towards warmth.  Or something.  But, Josh doesn’t seem to mind at all, so he doesn’t berate himself like he usually does.

Josh eventually glances down to the younger boy, the older of the two looking surprised as their eyes meet.

“Good morning, Tyjo,” Josh greets, and Tyler smiles in return. “You snore when you sleep, yaknow?”

Tyler blushes again, “Was it bad?”

Josh laughs a little, “No, it was cute.”

His blush worsens at that, just as there’s a knock at the door.  Zack doesn’t bother waiting for any form of response as he immediately pushes the door open, clad in his work clothes, eyebrows raising as he peeks in.

“ Gaaaay, ” Zack sings, and Tyler pulls himself up to grab one of the stuffed animals at the foot of his bed, hurling it straight (ha) at his older brother’s head.  Zack catches it and hurls it back, successfully hitting Tyler in the face, who snorts out a laugh.  Josh laughs at his friend as Zack heads out to work.

Tyler waits for Josh to stop laughing before asking, “How long are you staying?”

“Until you kick me out or my parents demand me home,” Josh answers, and Tyler smiles at the answer he received; if Josh wasn’t gonna stay, he’d be home all alone, and there’s two main problems with that—one, he tends to get lonely quickly, and two, he’s kinda afraid of being in his house alone because he’s a punk ass bitch, as Zack once put it.

“Yay!” Tyler starts softly, and Josh smiles fondly at the younger boy as he continues, “but like, I don’t have much fun things.”

“What do you usually do when you get home?” Josh asks.

“Computer,” Tyler responds simply, reaching under his bed to grab his laptop the best he can with one hand, and sets it down on the mattress.  

“What do you do on it?”

“Uh, I just spend a lot of time on the internet, and I watch, like, Hulu and Netflix on it.”

“Let’s watch something,” Josh suggests.  Tyler nods, scooting back until he’s resting against the headboard, and Josh follows suit, sitting close to the younger boy.  Tyler blushes a little as he situates the laptop so that it sits on both of their laps before putting in his password.

“Have you seen Rick and Morty?” Tyler asks.

“No, let’s watch that.”

Tyler smiles as he starts to pull up Hulu.

Chapter Text

Tyler tends to think a lot, so last night’s conversation with Josh making itself known again was inevitable.

Josh has said that the drugs his parents are on are taking over their lives and that because of that, they care for Josh less than they should, or something along those lines.  The brunette can’t help but wonder how much of a threat Josh’s parents are to him since the drugs have such a big impact on them.  How heavily does it impact Josh?  Has it impacted his sister?  Does their parents’ drug use have anything to do with her not being home?  

So many questions continue to sprout as Tyler stares subconsciously at the computer screen, until his tummy growls a bit too loud and long for his comfort.  His face flushes a little as he sheepishly turns his head to Josh, but he finds that the other boy is sleeping peacefully.

Tyler carefully slides the laptop completely onto his sleeping friend’s lap before pushing himself off the bed and heading down to the kitchen, where he plans to make a bowl of cereal.

Tyler quickly prepares a bowl of Fruity Pebbles—the only cereal he’ll pour the milk before the actual cereal—and barely gets to enjoy his hard work before his phone chimes in his pocket (he’s been wearing his jeans since yesterday).  Tyler fishes the device out of his pocket and swipes at the Kik message, unlocking his phone after tapping in his passcode.

It’s from a username he doesn’t recognize, and there isn’t a person in the profile picture.

    ?: Hi tyler!

What the fuck?  Apparently this person knows his name…  They seem a bit excited to talk to him, going by the exclamation mark… And honestly, who else talks to him and would be more than willing to do so other than Josh?

    tyler: hey. is this brendon??

    ?: Yeah! How did you know?

Tyler can’t help but faintly smile a little to himself, even though it was kinda obvious who it was.  Let bean be proud.

    tyler: lucky guess

And as Tyler waits for the large-foreheaded boy to respond, he’s struck by another question: how the fuck did Brendon get his Kik?  Josh had to have given it to him.  The small boy starts to get a bit annoyed by the realization; what if Tyler didn’t want Brendon to have his Kik, but Josh went and gave it to him without his consent?  But, Tyler actually doesn’t care and he doesn’t wanna be upset with Josh, so he just pushes the thought aside as he waits for Brendon to finish and send his reply.

    brendon: Sure it was :) so wyd?

    tyler: feasting on cereal. wbu?

    brendon: I love cereal! What kind are you eating? And im buying snacks and shit

    tyler: fruity pebbles. theyre my favorite

    brendon: I dont have a favorite. If its cereal i love it

    tyler: i like that philosophy

    brendon: Mhm so im starting a business

    tyler: yeah?

    brendon: Yeah! Im buying snacks right now and im gonna sell them at school staring monday

    tyler: are we even allowed to do that?

    brendon: Idk but thats not stopping me! Ima have everything! Chips candy soda YA NAME IT! Sell them all for a dollar

    tyler: people will buy that from you?

    brendon: Of course they will! Dont doubt me child! And ill give you two for a dollar since youre my smollest beaniest friend :)

    tyler: sure if i can find some money somewhere

    brendon: Look forward to having business with you! Spread awareness!

    tyler: alright brendon :^)

    brendon: Holy shit that nose

Tyler grins a little; people always comment about his nose for some reason.  Plenty of people do it, but everyone he’s ever texted acted as if they’ve never seen it before.

    tyler: its great

    brendon: Yes. And ill talk to you later. It was fun talking to you! Kinda wish you would talk this much in person but no pressure!

This honestly makes Tyler feel bad, but he does his best to push that aside as he types in his final response.

    tyler: you too brendon :^)

Tyler locks his phone after that, just as Josh steps in.

“I fell asleep, sorry,” Josh apologizes, searching through the cabinets until he retrieves a bowl.  Tyler smiles amusingly at that, Josh really made himself at home.

“‘S alright,” Tyler says, shoving another bite of cereal into his mouth, chews, swallows (heh), “Brendon says he’s, uh, starting a business.”

“What kind of business?” Josh asks, bringing his bowl to the table to fix himself a bowl of Fruity Pebbles as well.

“Selling snacks.”

“Dude, I wish I had thought of that,” Josh laughs a little, opening cabinets again after his cereal’s ready.  He eventually opens a cabinet with cereal boxes, putting the cereal away for Tyler, along with the milk in the fridge.

“I didn’t think it would earn much money,” Tyler says shyly, swirling his spoon around in his cereal bowl.

“Kids in school always ask each other for food,” Josh smirks a little to his younger friend, “And would very likely be desperate enough for it to pay.”

Tyler blushes a little, because Josh made it make a whole lot of sense, and he feels kinda fucking stupid now.

Chapter Text

Josh was only able to stay at Tyler’s until around four; his parents called and told him to go back home, but Zack was already back home by that time, so Tyler didn’t worry about loneliness.  He had spent the rest of his day fucking around on the internet.

<>

Now it’s Saturday morning, and Tyler’s only been awake for a few minutes before someone’s knocking on the door.  Zack doesn’t usually work on weekends, so he remains in bed comfortably.  Zack likes to bring up that he’s paying bills and shit and how his name is on whatever paperwork, so he can get the door too.

Another moment goes by, and whatever asshole’s outside starts spamming the doorbell to the point that the brunette will lose his fucking shit if it doesn’t stop, so he forces himself out of the warmth of his blankets and into the biting cold of his room.

“Answer the fucking door, Tyler!” Zack shouts from his room, aggravated as well, as Tyler scrambles for his hoodie, pulling it on.

“Going!” Tyler calls back, carefully making his way downstairs to answer the door—and this person won’t fucking relent, the fucking audacity of this guy...

Tyler pushes himself onto his toes to reach the peephole, smiling to himself as he sees fine ass Josh Dun.  He quickly works at the lock—and the ringing finally stops—and opens the door, earning a soft meow in response.

Wait— what the fuck?

Tyler looks to his friend incredulously, earning a smirk in return as Josh steps into the house, the smaller of the two closing the door behind him.

“Sorry I just showed up, I left my phone at home while I was on a walk,” Josh starts, and he reaches into his hood and literally pulls out a fucking cat (why did Josh have a fucking cat in his hoodie? Could the poor thing even breathe like that?).  Josh continues as he holds the small animal in his arms, much like you would hold an infant baby, “And ran into this little thing—I see her wandering outside all the time, I’m pretty sure she’s a stray.”

Tyler’s gaze drops to the cat; she’s super pretty, and he finds himself grinning widely at her.  He reaches out to pet her, but she growls lowly.  Tyler quickly drops his hand to his side as he flushes again, embarrassed by rejection, even though it’s just an animal.

“No, no,” Josh says, stepping a little closer to Tyler, “Pet her anyways, she’ll warm up to you.”

Tyler hesitates for a moment before reaching out to her again, earning another growl, but he does his best to ignore it as he gently runs his thumb along the top of her head.  He’s surprised as she closes her blue eyes contently, and he smiles again.

“She’s so cute,” Tyler whispers, moving his hand down to pet her under her chin, the small cat tilting her head to give him more room.

“She’s really sweet, too,” Josh agrees, moving the cat towards the smaller boy, offering to hold her.  Tyler holds his arms out so Josh can hand her over, and she growls in protest until Josh pets her head. “I can’t keep her, though. You’ll do it?”

Tyler looks up to his friend, “I don’t know… Zack might let me.”

“Ask, I’ll go with you,” Josh smiles to the smaller of the two, and Tyler nods as he leads the other upstairs and to his older brother’s room.  Josh knocks on the door for Tyler, since his hands are kinda full, and Zack tells him to come in.

Zack glances at the two of them as they enter, and he looks surprised as Tyler steps closer with the feline in his arms.

“U-uh,” Tyler stutters, trying to gather the right words so he doesn’t fuck this up, “Josh brought this stray, and, like, he said he’s not able to take care o-of her, and it’s, uh, starting to get cold outside too, s-so—"

"So, you wanna know if we can keep can keep it," Zack finishes for his brother, not sounding too pleased as he speaks, and Tyler starts to feel really uneasy, especially since Josh is standing at the doorway; he doesn’t want his friend to witness Zack lashing out on him if such reaction comes up.

“U-uh, yeah…” Tyler trails off, voice small and unsure.  

Zack glances to Josh, then the cat, and back to Tyler, and he seems to be pondering for a moment.

“Tyler, this cat won’t be priceless taking care of,” Zack starts, “We’ll have to buy food, litter, and she’s been outside, we’ll have to buy shampoos for her dirty ass fur—probably has bugs galore. We’ll have to get her declawed, too, or she’ll mess up our furniture, and that isn’t cheap either.”

And Tyler smiles, because this is a good sign.

“I-I’ll take good care of her,” Tyler promises, and Zack dismisses the teenagers from his room.

“What are we gonna name her?” Tyler asks as Josh closes Zack’s door, and they both enter Tyler’s room instead.

“I honestly have no idea,” Josh shrugs as they approach the bed, and the cat wiggles in Tyler’s hold, so he lets her down onto the bed.

“Me neither,” Tyler says, watching his new cat as she leaps off the bed gracefully, sniffing around her new surroundings.

Chapter Text

Tyler sits on his bed, watching his new feline companion as she makes herself comfortable on Tyler’s desk chair, which has been a little damaged—thanks to said feline companion, who constantly raked her claws against the fabric.

Tyler’s also trying to think of possible names that fit her, because he’s been referring to her as “the cat” ever since Josh brought her over yesterday morning, and it’s getting old now.

The teen hums, and the cat turns to look curiously to the source of the sound, and the two instantly make eye contact.  Tyler considers naming her Peri—short for periwinkle, since her eye color is close enough to it.  Tyler dismisses it, though, when he thinks about that annoying ass platypus from Phineas and Ferb; the sound he made used to always drive him crazy.

He then considers just giving her a basic ass name—like Noodle or some shit—but Josh probably wouldn’t appreciate that much—

Josh.

Tyler thinks about his best friend, his favorite person in the whole world, and he wants the cat’s name to be something that relates to Josh in some way.  His mind immediately drifts to the other boy’s hair… dyed red…

Maybe he can name the cat Red?

Tyler immediately shakes his head at his own suggestion; he doesn’t like that too much, honestly.  But maybe a shade of red could work?

Like Crimson?

No, no, that sounds kinda weird to Tyler.

Scarlet?

No, he used to go to school with a girl named Scarlet in middle school and she was a fucking bitch .  She would always pick on him for being really quiet and timid, and she pants him during gym on the last day of school.  Man, fuck Scarlet.

Ruby?

Tyler considers it, says it aloud.

He likes it, and he smiles as he grabs his phone to ask for Josh’s approval.

    tyler: hey how does ruby sound for the meow meow?

He gets a response almost immediately.

    josh: Meow meow? You’re so cute, Tyler.

Tyler blushes and moves to type a response, but he notices that Josh is typing again, so he waits a moment.

    josh: I like Ruby a lot though :^)

    tyler: my smiley :^(

    josh: :^) :^) :^) :^) :^)

    tyler: :^)^:

    josh: What the fuck is that omg.

    tyler: what does it look like?

    josh: Two colons, a parenthesis, and an upside down floating V.

    tyler: caret :^)

    josh: What?

    tyler: ^ is called a caret

    josh: Why do you know this?

    tyler: i learned it in school. didnt you?

    josh: Nah not that I can remember at least. I’ll talk to you later though, gotta do some things :^)

    tyler: bye fren :^)

Tyler locks his phone just as Zack knocks on his bedroom door, letting himself in without waiting for his younger brother to answer.

“I’m going to Wally so we can get stuff for the cat,” Zack says, “You coming?”

Tyler nods, pushing himself off his bed to put on his hoodie and put on his shoes—he has to look for them.  How the fuck do you lose a pair of shoes anyways?

Chapter Text

“Hey, Zack?” Tyler asks as the car slows to a stop at a red light.  The older man hums, letting his brother know that he had his attention. “If a person couldn’t see yellow, would the color green look blue to them since yellow and blue make green?”

“I don’t know about that, T-bro,” Zack answers, smiling fondly at Tyler’s question, “If I remember correctly, the most common color blindness deals with red and green, though.”

“Oh, like the colors of Christmas.”

“Yeah—oh, speaking of Christmas, you need to make your list,” Zack reminds the younger boy as the light turns green, “Nothing too expensive; Mom and Dad still haven’t sent in any money, and we have to get your cat declawed.”

“Actually, I looked into that last night. Like, it’s not good for cats,” Tyler speaks up as they enter the Walmart parking lot, “I can lock Ruby in my room so she can, uh, only mess up my stuff.”

Zack shrugs, “Whatever floats your boat.”

Barely a couple minutes later, the brothers are entering the store, the older of the two grabbing a basket before the two of them head directly to the pet area.

“Can I go look at the fish?” Tyler asks as Zack stops to check out the cat food, comparing them.

“Go for it.”

Tyler heads to the end of the aisle and turns to where he knows a few fish tanks are displayed, but he immediately halts when he sees a couple people already standing there; just the idea of staring at the fish with two complete strangers makes him nervous, and he wants nothing to do with that.  He’s about to back out and return to Zack, but one of the strangers turns their head—it’s Brendon, who’s eyes light up at the sight of Tyler.

“Hi, Tyler!” Brendon greets him, and the other stranger turns to look too now—it’s Pete Wentz, who’s almost as intimidating as Josh (was).  Brendon beckons for Tyler, smiling widely, “Come look at these scraggly as fish.”

Tyler glances to Pete again, who only watches him with a blank expression as the timid boy quickly rushes to Brendon’s side.  The three continue to look at the fish in silence, until Brendon breaks it so loudly and suddenly that it startles Tyler.

“What the fuck? This fish is dead! ” Brendon guffaws, pointing at a fish as it floats upside down along the top of the tank, and Pete cackles at the pathetic little fish.  Poor fish.

But Tyler, despite his nervousness, can’t help but break out into a little smile—it’s funny how something as trivial as a dead fish at the store amused the two to the point of explosive laughter.

But then again, Tyler tends to laugh at stupid shit too, so who is he to talk?

“So, Tyler, who are you here with?” Brendon giggles as his laughter dies down, and Pete looks to him expectantly.

“U-uh, my brother,” Tyler stammers, and Pete’s eyebrows shoot up.

“I seriously thought you were fucking mute,” Pete imparts, surprised, and Tyler blushes, uncomfortable.

“Well, he’s clearly not!” Brendon smiles, throwing an arm around Tyler’s shoulder and pulling him into a side hug, the smaller boy flinching at the unexpected contact—but he relaxes into it quickly; he feeds off affection, as stated multiple times before, and will take it from anyone willing to give it to him.

“Apparently,” Pete rolls his eyes at his friend’s unnecessary outburst, speaking next to Tyler, “Aren’t you a junior?”

Tyler nods, and Pete hums.

“I’m a senior—”

“He’s supposed to have already graduated last year, though,” Brendon butts in, yelping as Pete delivers a not-so-gentle punch to his arm.

“Who fucking asked, Urinal?!” Pete snaps, but Urinal only bursts out laughing again.  

Zack’s voice calls out for Tyler, so he pulls out of his friend’s hold and waves to the two before turning the corner, the other teens calling out their farewells behind him.

“Who were you over there talking to?” Zack asks once his younger brother is by his side again, and they head towards checkout.

“Pete and Brendon, from school.”

“You have weird friends,” is all Zack says in response.

Chapter Text

“Hey, Ruby!” Tyler chirps out in a voice one would speak to a baby with as he enters his bedroom, bags from Walmart in his hands.  The noise woke the cat, who was curled up on Tyler’s bed.  She stretches and yawns before getting up to greet the boy she quickly grew attached to, mewling softly as said boy scratches her fur. “We bought you some stuff!”

Zack enters as well with a container of kitty litter—it was too heavy for Tyler’s wimpy noodle arms to lift up—and pours a reasonable amount of it into the litter box the teen had left on the floor.  Tyler lifts Ruby off the floor and gently sets her in the litter box.

“This is where you potty, only here!” Tyler continues, and Zack laughs from above him, so he responds with a questioning glance.

“You realize you’re talking to a cat, right?” Zack teases playfully, and Tyler flushes a little as he unpacks the cat bowls, handing one to the older man.

“Fill it with water for me?” Tyler asks, opening the bag of cat food and pouring it into the other bowl before setting it out of the way.  Zack leaves with the empty bowl and Tyler shows the food to Ruby, who starts eating it as soon as she gets to it.  They’ve been giving her bologna until now, but she was only licking it rather than biting it.

Zack is back barely a minute later with the bowl of water in hand, setting it down next to the food, taking a moment to pet the cat himself as she continues to eat as if she hasn’t done so in days.

“Wanna help me put up the tree?” Zack asks, earning an enthusiastic nod from his younger brother.

<><><>

“Some of those need to go up towards the top of the tree,” Zack suggests as he peeks into the living room from the kitchen, where he was working on dinner for the two (also known as heating Thanksgiving leftovers).

Tyler sighs quietly, moving the glass ornament currently in his hand away from the tree, looking up towards the top pitifully.  Tyler wouldn’t call himself short, exactly—maybe around five and a half feet—but this tree is tall as fuck.  Maybe seven feet, if he had to guess,or at least close to it.

“I don’t think I’m tall enough,” Tyler speaks up, pushing himself up onto his toes and reaching the ornament as high as he can to push the loop onto one of the prickly branches.  He thinks he actually got it onto one securely, but he’s proven wrong when he hears it shatter upon impact against the wooden floor.

And when Zack rushes in with a shout of “what the fuck was that,” he knows that he probably just fucked up again.

Tyler watches, frozen in a mix of horror and anxiety as his older brother bends down to gather the broken pieces, realizing that it’s one of Zack’s favorites —he got it from an old close friend of his before she passed away, and he had treasured it ever since.

And Tyler starts trembling, because he definitely fucked up.

Zack takes in a shuddering breath, refusing to even look in Tyler’s direction as he speaks, voice low and shaky, “Just go to your room before I lose my shit.”

He hauls ass immediately after the words come out of the other’s mouth, and he’s fucking blessed, because pulling a stunt like that usually ends in Zack getting physical with the weaker boy.

Tyler’s still twitching and breathing heavily and wills himself to calm the fuck down as he curls in on himself on his bed.

And once he’s starting to calm himself down, the guilt of what he’s done finally hits him.

He’s broken the last thing Zack’s friend gifted him, and she will never be able to give him anything else ever again, because it’s kinda difficult to receive a gift from a dead person.

He’s so fucking destructive and has only been a burden on Zack ever since he took him in.

Tyler cries himself to sleep despite not eating dinner yet.

Chapter Text

Tyler wakes up only half an hour later when Zack shakes his shoulder.  The younger boy’s face is still damp from laying on his own tear-soaked pillow, and he just feels really gross after his pity session.  He looks to his older brother, noticing his blotchy cheeks and red eyes, and it’s safe to assume that Zack has been crying as well.

“I’m sorry,” Tyler croaks out, but Zack only shakes his head sadly.

“No, it’s alright, you didn’t mean to,” Zack assures his younger brother, gesturing for him to sit up.  Tyler complies, and Zack pulls him into a hug that Tyler instantly relaxes in.

“But Melanie gave you that ornament, it was special to you,” Tyler weeps against Zack’s shoulder, and the older man shushes him gently.

“It’s not the only thing she’s given me, it’s alright,” Zack pushes Tyler away from him enough to smile at him, “Smile for Z-bro?”

Tyler forces on a smile, but Zack doesn’t seem to notice as his own smile widens.

“Come on, we have leftovers to eat,” the older man says as he gets up, tugging Tyler up with him.

<>

Zack’s phone starts ringing during dinner, disrupting the peaceful silence they were previously eating in, and Zack puts his fork down to answer the call.

“Hello?”

Tyler tries not to eavesdrop as he pokes at the food on his plate, still upset from what happened earlier, despite Zack reassuring him that he’s not upset about it anymore numerous times.

“Uh, yeah, I’ve been pretty decent, how about you?” Zack speaks after a short moment, and the muffled voice on the other end of the line begins speaking again.

“No, no, he’s been really good,” Zack says, glancing to Tyler, so the younger boy automatically assumes they’re now talking about him and pays more attention to the conversation the best he can.  I mean, isn’t he justified in doing so?

“We were probably just gonna hang out.”

Pause.  Zack’s brows furrow, still watching Tyler thoughtfully.

“What are you saying..?”

Pause.  Zack seems surprised now.

“Uh—yeah, okay—”

The muffled voice cuts him off, and he looks annoyed because of it, but doesn’t make it known to the caller as he sits and listens.

“Yeah, okay. I’m pretty sure they get out on the twenty first.”

Pause.  Zack nods, despite the fact that the caller definitely can’t see him.

“Yeah, I’ll tell him. Love you guys,” Zack finishes, hanging up his phone and giving his attention to Tyler, who’s watching him expectantly.

“Look’s like we’re going to Columbus in a few weeks for Christmas.”

<><><>

It’s windy as fuck today, making it feel ten thousand times colder than it actually is, and Tyler resents himself for wearing nothing more than a t-shirt and a hoodie in such frigid conditions.

He’s shivering so violently that it causes pain by the time he approaches Josh at the bus stop, and the other boy is shivering as much as the brunet now standing next to him.  The older of the two looks down to his younger friend, greeting him with a smile.

“Where’s your coat, Tyjo?” Josh asks,and Tyler looks to his friend incredulously.

“ Yours? ” Tyler returns, and Josh shrugs the best he can in the midst of his shivering.

“One of my parents’ druggie friends stole it or something, I can’t find it,” Josh answers, stepping closer to his friend, “Where’s yours?”

“At home,” Tyler answers back, blushing as Josh wraps an arm around his shoulder and pulls him closer.

“Looks like we’re gonna have to keep each other warm,” Josh says—how cliche—as his smile widens, and neither of them say anything else after that.

<><><>

“Guys, check this shit out,” are the first words out of Brendon’s mouth as Tyler and Josh sit across from him at their usual lunch table.  The excited boy pulls out a wad of ones from his book bag and waves it under their noses, “Smell that? That’s the smell of business!”

“How much is that?” Josh asks with a raised brow as Brendon brings the money to his own nose, inhaling contently.

“Fifteen dollars,” Brendon answers, putting his money away and retrieving a container of oreos and a small carton of milk; Tyler doesn’t even think anything of it anymore.

“Oh, I’m also having a Christmas party soon,” Brendon reveals, opening his milk to dip his cookies in it, “It’ll be lit, you guys should come.”

“Yeah, when is it?” Josh asks, interested.

“Twenty third’s the only time I can do it,” Brendon answers, and Tyler deflates a little, but that doesn’t go unnoticed by the business man across from him, “Will that not work for you, Tyler?”

“I mean, I’m not gonna be in the area,” Tyler says a little sadly.

“What do you mean?”

“Cause—um, I’m gonna see my parents and my other siblings for, like, Christmas,” Tyler answers, and he hopes Brendon doesn’t question him further.

“Oh, then the three of us should do something together before you leave!” Brendon suggests excitedly, and Josh is quick to jump back into the conversation.

“Yeah, isn’t your birthday on Thursday, Tyler?”

Brendon perks up, eyes widening as he slams the palms of his hands on the table, startling the  “Your birthday?! How old are you turning?!”

“Sixteen,” Tyler squeaks, cringing at how fucking dumb he sounds, but neither of his friends seem to even notice as Brendon continues.

“Holy shit, you’re fifteen ?!”

“Brendon, we were both fifteen earlier this year,” Josh speaks up, semi annoyed with their overly excited friend sitting across from them.

“No, I’m seventeen!” Brendon retorts, turning towards Josh now, “I started school a little late,” and he’s turning back to Tyler after he defends himself, “We should all celebrate your birthday! How’s that sound?”

Tyler thinks about it a little; if it’s just the three of them and/or Zack, then he doesn’t see why not.  So, he smiles a bit and nods to his friend.

“Sounds sick.”

Chapter Text

“Hey, Tyler,” Josh speaks lowly as they sit in their Latin class, and Tyler hums quietly in acknowledgement, “You remember how you said that you were gonna go see your parents and siblings?”

“U-uh, yeah,” Tyler whispers back almost inaudibly, twirling his pencil between his fingers—another one of his many nervous habits.  He already knows what his friend wants to know about, and it’s honestly not even that serious, he just doesn’t really like to think about it at all.  

“Why don’t you live with them?”

“Well,” Tyler starts with a shrug, “It’s, like, kind of a long story.”

“Are you okay with telling me later if I give you my phone number?” Josh offers, and Tyler nods in agreement.

“Okay.”

<><><>

Josh Kiks Tyler his number just as Tyler enters his bedroom after dinner later that night.

Tyler dials the number received—checking it a thousand times just to be sure it’s right —waiting anxiously for his friend to pick up as he tries to get comfortable in bed.  He doesn’t have to wait long before he hears shuffling on the other end of the line, then his friend’s voice.

“Hey.”

Tyler doesn’t say anything for a brief second, a bit overwhelmed by his nerves.  He takes in a breath to calm himself, reminding himself that it’s just Josh , and talking on the phone is nothing much more different than talking in person.

Tyler lets out a breath, “Hey.”

“How are you?” Josh asks, tone gentle, as if he could hear how nervous Tyler is.

“I’m alright, what about you?”

“I’m also alright,” Josh returns, and Tyler doesn’t know what to say after that, so he just hums in response.  After a beat of silence, Josh speaks up again, “So… About your parents and siblings? If you’re still okay with telling.”

“Sure. So, like—uh—you know how I’m gay, right?”

Josh laughs a little and hums an affirmative sound, so Tyler continues.

“Yeah, I came out to them a few years ago in eighth grade. Jay and Maddy—my brother and sister—they seemed pretty chill with it, but my parents…”

“They didn’t like it?”

“No, no, they didn’t…” Tyler shakes his head, feeling his eyes start to well up as he remembers their reactions, “They’re huge christians. like, my mom—she got really upset and almost cried and my dad was just… really pissed off.”

“Did he hit you, Ty?”

“No, he raged and had a huge angry rant… Like, I knew my parents were— homophobes , but I didn’t think it was quite to that extent, like they didn’t even acknowledge me anymore after I came out—my mom wouldn’t even look in my direction, and my dad just always had something overly homophobic to say.

And a f-few days later, I was hanging out with Madison because her friends had bailed on her on girls night or something… and she wanted to talk about boys with me. So—uh, I was talking about a boy in my class, but my dad heard me so he—”

Tyler laughs to himself a little, though his laugh was a humorless one; his dad’s next move was just so petty that Tyler had to laugh, despite how upset the memory made him.

“Yeah, my dad heard me so he threw a Bible at me and yelled about how being gay is a sin, and, like, that was the last straw for me, so I called Zack and told him everything and asked if I could stay for a little while. It ended up being a permanent arrangement.”

Tyler finishes, and Josh sighs a little.

“That’s… That’s not good, Tyler. And Zack’s actually letting you near those assholes again?”

“I mean, it’ll be nice to see my siblings again… I really miss them.”

“You guys aren’t in touch?”

“Nah, they didn’t have phones; my parents thought they were too young,” Tyler says, and neither of them say anything for a moment.

“Hey, Ty?” Josh finally speaks again, and Tyler hums, “Want me to tell you about my family? Since you told me about yours?”

And Tyler really wants to know, he’s a curious little shit, but he doesn’t want Josh to feel obligated to tell, so he makes this known, “You don’t have to if you don’t want.”

“No, I don’t mind telling you,” Josh laughs a little, and Tyler can hear shuffling from the other end of the line before Josh speaks again, “As you already know, I had a sister too, named Ashley.”

Tyler perks up a little, “Oh, yeah, I’ve been wondering about her.”

“Yeah? What do you think happened to her?”

“I don’t know, drugs?”

“Smart boy,” Josh confirms, “I’ll tell the story.”

“Okay.”

“I’ve mentioned that she had anxiety, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Yeah, she had anxiety, and she didn’t pick a very healthy coping mechanism, obviously,” Josh picks up again, and Tyler listens intently as his friend speaks, answering some of his many questions he’s had about the other boy, “I didn’t find out until she got really dependent on them, but I still tried my very best to help her get over the drugs, you know?  She was doing really well at some point, too—managed to stay clean for, what, a month and a half? I was so proud of her, and she seemed so proud of herself, too.  But, um… I don’t know, something happened one day while I was out with some friends; I came home and found out she had relapsed—she overdosed, she didn’t make it.”

Josh sniffs when he’s done, and Tyler’s eyes widen as Josh’s breathing begins to sound my labored.

Is Josh crying?

“J-Josh?” Tyler whispers into the phone, heart heavy as Josh lets out a shaky hum, “I’m so-sorry that happened, Josh.”

“No need to apologize,” Josh says, voice shaky as he speaks, “W-well, that’s my sister. So, I’ll tell you about my parents too.”

Josh is silent for another moment as he collects himself before continuing, “I’m not close with my parents at all—actually, all three of us fucking hate each other; they’re always fucking  arguing with each other, and they both always fucking bring me into the argument—they feel like they need me to validate their points, which confuses me because they usually don’t even give a shit about me, so why does my opinion matter to them? They’re both fucking dumbasses so I almost never agree with either of them, and then they get pissed when I disagree.  If the argument gets heated enough, they feel the need to fucking put their hands on me—and you know me, Ty, I don’t take shit from anyone , so I swing back—unless it’s my mom, I’ll just shove her away and she’ll back off.”

Tyler waits a second to make sure it’s his turn to talk before speaking, “How often do you guys fight?”

“Not too often,” Josh answers, “I try to avoid them as much as I can—Actually, I’m at Brendon’s house now. I’d go to yours, but I don’t think Zack likes me too much.”

Tyler’s brows furrow, confused by Josh’s confession, “What makes you, uh, say that?”

“He keeps looking at me weird. You haven’t noticed?”

“Um—no, I-I haven’t.”

“He makes it painfully obvious, Ty,” Josh murmurs, humming a little to himself.

“I don’t know why, you treat me really nice,” Tyler speaks up.

“I don’t know, it’s alright, though. I don’t care how Zack feels about me as long as you like me.”

A blush heats Tyler’s face once again, and he finds himself giggling a little at the understatement.

Chapter Text

It's been decided that Tyler would celebrate his birthday with his brother and his two friends on Friday, and that Brendon and Josh could show up whenever and spend the night if they want.

Friday afternoon's finally upon them, and Josh walks home with Tyler after they exit the carpool that freed them from hell.  Tyler greets his older brother before leading Josh into his room, closing the door behind him so Ruby doesn't run out (not that she would've gotten a chance to, since Josh was in her face the second he saw her curled up on the desk chair).

"Did Brendon ever tell you when he was coming?" Josh asks as Tyler moves to lay on his bed, shaking his head.

"Said he wanted to surprise me," Tyler answers as Ruby moves away from Josh to curl up next to Tyler, resting her paws on the boy's arm.

"I heard that cats putting their feet on their owners means that they love them," Josh smiles as he sits on the chair, rolling it closer to the edge of the bed.  Tyler smiles too and stroke's the feline's fur lovingly, said feline closing her eyes contently as she purrs, leaning into his touch.

"That's so sweet," Tyler responds to Josh's previous statement.  The older of the two reaches out to pet her too, but Ruby quickly glances back at Josh upon feeling a second hand before she leaps off the bed, leaving the teens to laugh at what just happened.

"You ruined our moment," Tyler jokes, a first for him when it comes to Josh, but neither seem to mind as they continue to giggle.

"I was just— "

"The party don't start 'til I walk in!" Brendon sings as the door is swung open, and he shakes his hips in a little dance as he enters the room, oblivious to the small animal by his feet.  Tyler and Josh try to warn him, but they don't speak fast enough, because Ruby emits a pitiful kitty cry as Brendon steps on her tail.

" Oh my God! " Brendon cries out upon realizing what he's done, dropping to his knees in front of Ruby, "I'm so sorry! Beautiful baby, I'm a monster! Please don't hate me!"

"It's alright, I don't hate you," Ruby doesn't say, because she's a cat, and she's dashing through (the snow) the door that Brendon had left open, much to Tyler's misfortune.  Brendon crawls over to his shocked friends with a dramatic sigh, hugging Josh's calves as he throws his head onto Josh's lap.

"I've done the unforgivable!"

Josh shoots Tyler a look, wordlessly expressing his distaste for his current position, but all Tyler can do is offer an apologetic smile as their weird friend continues to fake cry on Josh's legs.

"So, uh…" Josh trails off awkwardly once Brendon's antics have gone on for far too long.  Brendon gets the hint and releases his friend to launch himself at his other friend instead, earning a startled yelp from said friend.

"Happy late birthday, Tyler!" Brendon chirps, not moving or releasing his grip on Tyler—but Tyler's an affection leech, so he definitely doesn't mind.

"Thanks," Tyler smiles, patting his friend's back as Brendon allows himself to get comfortable on top of the smaller boy.

"What are we doing today?" Brendon asks against Tyler's chest, the youngest shrugging in response.

"I'm not a very good, uh, party planner," comes Tyler's sheepish response, "Whatever you guys want."

"I'm good doing whatever," Josh smiles to his friends as he begins to spin around in the rolling chair.  Tyler has to look away or he'll get nauseous just watching.

"Can I look around?" Brendon asks, earning a nod, and the weight is lifted from Tyler's person as Brendon begins to explore his semi messy room (which is in the state it is thanks to Ruby's own explorations).

The older eventually opens the closet door, eyes lighting up as he reaches towards the top, retrieving Scrabble and the Game of Life.

"Guys, we should play these," Brendon suggests.  Tyler's never heard of playing board games as a party event, but he loves these games, and Josh seems to be on board (lmao) as well.

Chapter Text

“Fuck yeah!” Brendon shouts out as he places his last tile on the board, “I fucking slayed your score, Tyler!”

The youngest of the three gazes down at the word spelled out on the Scrabble board— jornal.  Tyler doesn’t even say anything, because honestly, he doesn’t even give a shit.

But not Josh, “You spelled it wrong, you dumbass.”

Brendon looks to his mistake, ego shattered as he curses again, gathering his tiles again, “Dammit, I forgot about the u. I don’t know what to do now.”

“You can do moral right there,” Tyler points out, pointing at a m with enough space to fit four letters under it.

Brendon hums as he starts putting his tiles there, “Thanks, Ty!”

“Sure, I’m still winning, so why not?”

Josh and Brendon both laugh, just as Zack opens the door after knocking, the teens redirecting their attention to the new presence in the room.

“Taco Bell’s downstairs, then we’re eating cake,” Zack informs them before heading out again, the boys following right after.

<>

Tyler’s sure to pay a bit more attention to Zack’s behavior around Josh this time, and he notices how Zack subtly gives his best friend these looks—if you wanted to let someone know that you did not fucking like them but you didn’t want others to know, you’d give them one of these looks.  You know the ones.

After witnessing the umpteenth look, Tyler looks to Josh apologetically, but Josh just smirks a little and shrugs nonchalantly.

Brendon nudges Tyler’s arm with his elbow, startling the smaller a little, but he turns to Brendon anyways as he bites into his third taco.

“Your brother is hot as fuck,” Brendon whispers, earning an awkward look from Tyler, because what kind of shit is that?  Brendon continues anyways, his next question more awkward than his previous statement, “What if I called him Daddy?”

Before Tyler can even process the question, Brendon turns back to face Zack, who stood at the counter, back to them as he works on icing a homemade cake.

“I love you, Daddy Zacky!” Brendon calls out, and the older man throws a dirty look over his shoulder at the teen as Brendon and Josh start cackling.  Tyler?  He’s kinda surprised, because Zack’s not one to get annoyed over things like that.

Maybe he doesn’t like Brendon either?  What’s wrong with his friends?

<><><>

Like Tyler has said before, he’s not a very good party planner, and they were unable to think of anything better to do than watch Netflix.

So a couple seasons into Shameless later, the three are snuggled against each other, fighting to stay awake.

Brendon’s the first to lose at almost two in the morning, slumping against the youngest, leaving Josh and Tyler alone in their consciousness.

“Ty?” Josh whispers after another moment passes, and Tyler hums as quietly as he can in response, “When are you leaving?”

“I think… either the twenty second during night or the twenty third during the morning.”

“Are you excited?”

“I guess so,” Tyler answers, hesitating for a brief moment before leaning his head onto Josh’s shoulder.  He waits for any sign that Josh doesn’t like Tyler’s gesture, but the older of the two leans his head against Tyler’s, so his worries leave him as he continues, “I just really wanna see my siblings again, I haven’t seen them since—uh, Zack picked me up.”

“I wish your siblings could just come down here instead,” Josh whispers, and Tyler shrugs a little.

“I guess my parents want them around for Christmas,” Tyler whispers again, sadly, because he’s as much their child than Jay and Madison…

But maybe things are different now, because they invited him over too, so they must want him around, yeah?

But what if they just want Zack over, and they know that the older man will have to bring their gay son along if he comes?

“Tyler?” Josh whispers, a little louder than how they were previously speaking, pulling Tyler away from his brooding, “You looked distracted. You okay?”

Tyler nods against his friend’s shoulder, eyes fluttering shut sleepily, “I’m okay, Josh.”

“Wanna sleep now?” Josh asks, but moves to pause the show and set the laptop aside anyways.  He gestures towards the sleeping teen to Tyler’s left, “Push him against the wall so we can have more room?”

Tyler nods a little as he lifts his head from the other’s shoulder, gently nudging Brendon off of him and against the wall, scooting closer to him so Josh can have more room on the bed.

“We should FaceTime or something when you leave,” Josh suggests, laying next to Tyler, and Tyler hums in agreement.

“I won’t get on the camera though,” Tyler confesses, and Josh only laughs a little.

“Whatever, dude. Good night.”

“Night,” Tyler whispers back, eyes fluttering shut once again.  It only takes a few moments for him to fall asleep.

Chapter Text

If Tyler and Zack left at about six in the morning, they should be able to get to Columbus at around three in the afternoon.

So, Tyler had his alarm set to wake him at 5:40am on the twenty third, and he whines sleepily when said alarm blares out at an obnoxious volume.  He turns it off and lays there for a moment more, because it’s way too fucking early—he doesn’t even get up this early for school (he get’s up a whole hour later on school mornings).

He’s about to fall asleep once again, but there’s a knock at his door before Zack pushes the door open, seeing his younger brother still in bed, falling asleep, “T-bro, you gotta get up.”

Tyler only whines again in response, and Zack makes his way over to the smaller, pulling the blankets aside and gently easing him into a sitting position.

“You can go back to sleep in the car, alright?” Zack encourages him before grabbing Tyler’s hoodie and shoes, bringing them to him before searching around Tyler’s room again, “Where’s your coat?”

“I’on know…” Tyler trails off sleepily, pulling his shoes onto his feet before slipping on his hoodie.  

Zack curses under his breath before giving up the search, grabbing a smaller blanket from the hallway closet before bringing it to his brother, “I cooked breakfast, you can eat yours while I put stuff in the car.”

“Not hungry,” Tyler mumbles as he wraps the blanket around his shoulders, lying back down on the bed and closing his eyes.

Zack sighs and flips the bedroom light on, much to the sleepy boy’s dismay, “Suit yourself, but don’t go back to sleep yet.”

Despite the light being on and Zack’s warning, he falls back to sleep while the older man packs the car.

<><><>

When Tyler opens his eyes again, he’s met with the sun shining in his eyes, so he brings a hand up to block out the light.  

“Had to carry your ass to the car,” Zack teases when he notices the younger boy’s consciousness.  

Tyler ignores his statement, sitting up a little and rubbing the sleep from his eyes, “What time is it?”

“I don’t know, look on your phone—I’m driving,” Zack continues his teasing, nodding towards the cup holder holding Tyler’s phone.  He grabs it, presses the home button, it’s almost noon—he slept most of the car ride.  

And apparently, he also has a message from Brendon.  Tyler swipes at the message and puts in his passcode.

brendon: RUBY FUCKING PISSED ALL OVER MY BED IM GONNA FUCKING BODY SLAM HER OUT THE WINDOW

Tyler can’t help but giggle at the imagery, despite how much he adored the cat and how wrong animal abuse is, and types back his response.

tyler: did you show her where the litter box is?

brendon: I was supposed to??? I thought she would be able to smell it!

tyler: thats your stupidity, dont blame Ruby :^)

brendon: You’re so mean to me :(

tyler: ily

brendon: Ily too.  Are you there yet?

tyler: nah we still have a few hours to go

brendon: You must be suffering

tyler: nah not really. i just woke up and i can stand a few hours in a car :^)

brendon: I wouldn’t be able to do it omg

brendon: I gtg! Bye!

tyler: bye :^)

Tyler locks his phone and puts it aside again, just as his stomach growls—long and loud—and Zack just bursts out laughing because it’s definitely fucking hilarious, yeah?  But Tyler laughs along anyways; laughing feels good, laughing makes him feel happy.

“We’ll stop at a fast food place when we drive past one,” Zack offers, and Tyler nods in agreement.

Chapter Text

Tyler relentlessly pestered Zack during the car ride by telling shitty jokes and asking ridiculous hypotheticals, annoying the older man to the point of him scolding the younger for bothering him while he’s trying to concentrate on driving, and Tyler sat quietly for a good while, staring out his window with a mixture of embarrassment and dejection.  

The younger still isn’t over it by the time they pull into their parents driveway, and feelings of anxiousness and dread start to overwhelm him as he opens the car door, stepping onto pavement that now seems so foreign to him.

He doesn’t belong here, he wants to go home, he wants to be with Josh—

“T-bro, help me carry some of this shit in?” Zack asks as he opens the trunk, tone playful as if he didn’t fuss at him around an hour ago.  

“O-okay,” Tyler stammers, grabbing two of the suitcases from the car, Zack grabbing the other two before locking up.  Tyler follows his brother to the house, standing next to him nervously as Zack rings the doorbell.

Someone calls out from inside, and Tyler recognizes it as his father’s voice, the same one that degraded him for weeks after he came out to his family, and it only makes him more anxious about stepping foot in this house again.

“I’ll get it!” Madison calls out excitedly, and Tyler perks up at the voice of his only sister—personally his favorite sibling, don’t tell his brothers—and he finds himself smiling huge from joy, and being here suddenly doesn’t seem as bad as it did previously.

Tyler’s trembling a little—from anxious or excitement, that doesn’t really matter right now—as he hears the lock twist.  Then the door is swung open, and Madison launches herself at him, nearly knocking him over in the process, but he just squeezes her back tightly as she goes off about how much she’s missed him, and Tyler’s about to cry, because he’s missed his little sister so much.

“Wow, it’s so so good to see you again, Mads!” Tyler sighs when Madison finishes her rambling, “I’ve missed you.”

“Hey, Maddy, I’m here too,” Zack jokes, definitely ruining their moment, but their sister giggles anyways and moves to hug the older man anyways—not with as much enthusiasm as she did with Tyler, he notices, and he can’t help but feel prideful at that.  

Tyler pulls the suitcases into the house so he doesn’t have to stand outside in the cold any longer than necessary, and he wonders if his old room is still okay for him.  

He leaves one suitcase (it has presents in it, he just wants his) and starts to head for the stairs, just as his mom walks into the room, and they both freeze in shock, staring at each other for a moment, and Tyler’s not sure what he should do; what does one say to their mother after not speaking to her in years because she doesn’t like that they’re gay?

“U-uh, hi?” Tyler squeaks out, bringing his mother out of her stupor.

Tyler’s not even surprised when she merely walks past him and to Zack instead, pulling him into a loving hug.  He’s not surprised, but he’d be lying if he said it didn’t hurt, because it seems that nothing’s changed.  But, he carries on to his room anyways, tugging his suitcase upstairs as he tries to ignore the emotional pain his encounter with his mom engulfed him in.

Tyler doesn’t notice his younger brother standing at the top of the stairs, smiling down at Tyler as he watches his brother ascend the steps, until he speaks, “Hey, Tyler!”

Tyler startles and grips onto the railing to keep from falling back, but he tries to push his negative feelings aside as he smiles to Jay, “Hey!”

“Do you need help?” the younger boy asks, not even waiting for a response as he steps down, taking the suitcase from the older boy and pulling it up the remaining steps and to Tyler’s room.

“Thanks,” Tyler thanks his brother as he follows after him, stepping into his childhood bedroom for the first time in years.  Everything’s exactly the same—at least he assumes so, how could he remember the state of his room after so long, you know?

Tyler turns to his younger brother again just as said brother does the same, and they smile at each other once again.  Tyler wants to hug him as well, but he remembers how he would throw a fit whenever someone got touchy with him, and he doesn’t know if Jay’s still the same way or not, and he’d rather not risk it.

They just stare at each other for a moment until tears start to well up in Jay’s eyes, “It’s weird to see you here again; I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”

And the words tug hard at Tyler’s heart, tears beginning to well up in Tyler’s eyes as well as Jay’s tears begin to spill.  The younger boy strides towards the older, wrapping his arms around him as he cries into Tyler’s shoulder—and wow, Jay’s gotten tall…  He’s almost as tall as he is…

Tyler hugs the crying boy back, trying to keep his tears back as he gently rubs his back—just like Josh did to him—doing this until Jay’s all cried out, relaxed.

“Are you okay, Jay?” Tyler whispers, heart hurting, and Jay nods against his shoulder.

“I’m happy,” Jay mumbles back, leaning against Tyler for another moment before pulling away, “I’m gonna go say hi to Zack now.”

Tyler nods, smiling at him as Jay leaves Tyler alone in his room.  He sighs, looking to his suitcase; he may as well unpack.

Chapter Text

There’s a soft knock on the door just as Tyler puts the last of his stuff away and pushes his suitcase into his closet.

“It’s open,” Tyler calls out, moving to sit on his bed.  He watches as the door is pushed open, and in comes an eager Madison.

“Hey,” she greets her brother as she moves to sit criss-cross in front of him on the bed, propping her elbows onto her knees and resting her chin on her palms, “We have some catching up to do, huh?”

Tyler smiles brightly and nods, “You wanna go first?”

The girl shrugs a bit, “Nothing much has happened here, just the same stuff, you know?”

“Nothing’s happened in three years?” Tyler repeats dumbly, but his sister doesn’t seem to mind at all as she just giggles.

“Nope—well, we don’t go to church anymore.”

This surprises Tyler, if you can imagine, “Wow, really? Why not?”

“Jay’s been acting up during church lately; I think they’re embarrassed or something,” Madison rolls her eyes at the thought, and Tyler hums, because his parents must have it so hard.

“Poor Mom and Dad, seems they can’t raise their kids right—one kid’s gay and the other misbehaves in church,” Tyler jokes quietly, just to be sure his parents don’t hear.

“Yeah, must be difficult—I mean, what’s next? Zack’s the antichrist and I’m an STD donor? How abominable!” Madison jokes back before they both start bursting from laughter, and they just sit and laugh together for a moment, just like they used to growing up, and Tyler is so happy .

“Now, what’s been going on for you lately?” Madison asks, still giggling a little.

“I’ve made a couple new friends, and uh,” Tyler starts, blushing a little at what he’s about to say next, “One of them, Josh… I really like him.”

The younger girl muffles a squeal with the palms of her hands before leaning closer to the older boy, “Tyler, awe! Tell me about him!”

Tyler giggles again as he feels his face heat up more, swaying himself bashfully as he speaks, “O-okay, um… Where do I start?”

“How did you guys meet?”

“Yeah, so he was a new student, right? And he was actually really intimidating at first—like, there’s this senior named Pete Wentz that failed a grade or something, and he’s just, really freaking scary? I don’t know—but Josh goes to my bus stop, and he was in an argument with him and just seemed unfazed, and he broke his nose, and—you get what I’m saying?”

Madison nods, watching him intently as she waits for him to continue, so he does.

“So yeah, he was also in my math class, and he asked to borrow my pencil.  He just spent a little bit stealing my pencils—but it’s okay, because he bought me a whole new pack, and that was just super nice of him, you know? That’s how we met!”

“That’s oddly cute, actually,” the younger girl giggles, “So, how exactly did you guys start talking?”

“I honestly don’t know… Like he just started flirting with me out of nowhere—”

Madison muffles another squeal, bouncing on the bed excitedly, “Does he like you back?! Do you know?!”

“I-I honestly think he might,” Tyler blushes again, biting his lip as he starts grinning, “It’s kinda weird.”

“What? How’s it weird?”

“Oh—I mean, there’s so many other people he could choose from, because he’s really cute, Mads, there’s gotta be boys that think he’s cute—and girls as well, but I think he’s gay, he pretty much implied it a long time ago—and just, why choose me? So I’m not too sure.”

“But Tyler, you’re so sweet and adorable! You shouldn’t be surprised!” Madison beams up at him, and Tyler giggles a little and shrugs.

“You’re sweet, Mads,” Tyler says, picking at a string sticking out of the blanket on his bed.

“I’m serious! I bet’cha he likes you!” Madison places a hand on Tyler’s knee, “I wanna meet him! Don’t you have a phone? I wanna talk to him!”

“Yeah, we wanted me to FaceTime him, actually,” Tyler says as he reaches for his phone on the night stand, dialing his friend’s number on the FaceTime app after putting in the passcode.  The siblings both wait patiently for the call to pick up, the younger of the two leaning onto Tyler’s shoulder to fit her face in the frame.

The call picks up, and Josh’s smirking face appears on the small screen on his phone.

“Hey, Tyler and Madison,” Josh greets the two, “This is Madison, right?”

“Yeah, I’m Madison,” the girl confirms, smiling brightly at the oldest of the three, “It’s great to meet you!”

Josh nods, smiling to the girl, “You too.”

There’s a brief silence before Josh breaks it again, addressing Tyler, “Everything going okay so far?”

Tyler shrugs a little, “Jay cried because he thought he’d never see me again, and my mom completely ignored me, haven’t seen my dad yet, but me and Maddy have been catching up—she wanted to meet and talk to you.”

“Yeah, we can talk,” Josh smiles at her again, and Tyler hands her the phone before pushing himself off the bed, leaving his sister and friend alone to talk—he trusts that they won’t talk shit about him while he looks to catch up with Jay.

Chapter Text

Tyler knocks on Jay’s door, waiting for permission to come in before entering, closing the door behind him again.  Jay’s sitting against the wall on his bed, an earbud out of his ear as he listens to music, and the younger boy smiles and pats the bed next to him.  

“Hey, what are you listening to?” Tyler asks, and Jay just shows him the MP3 player, “How do you pronounce that?”

“I don’t know, I just call him X,” Jay answers, smiling to his brother, “I don’t think you’d like him, though.”

Tyler tilts his head to the side a little, “Why not?”

“Trap—you just listen to bands, don’t you?”

“Not necessarily, I can enjoy some of the stuff on the radio sometimes,” Tyler answers, glancing around his surroundings.  It’s nothing much, but there’s a few drawings of action characters.  He doesn’t recognize some of them, but there’s a lot of Goku, and Naruto.  

“Do you wanna listen?” Jay offers, and Tyler nods, taking the earbud when it’s handed to him, pushing it into his ear as Jay speaks again, “How’s life?”

“It’s alright, I guess,” Tyler shrugs, smiling to his younger brother, “What about you, Jay?”

“Mom and Dad are kinda mad at me,” Jay laughs, “We don’t go to church anymore because of me!”

Tyler laughs a little as well, “Mads told me, what exactly have you been doing in church?”

“All sorts of things,” Jay answers before bursting out in laughter, “Last time we went, we had communion and I announced that I was just there for the bread and juice, and that I would like to thank Jesus Christ for the meal—I think that pissed everyone off.”

Tyler laughs at his dumb ass brother, shaking his head as he tries to calm himself down, “Oh my God, Jay, what made you think that was a good idea? That’s blasphemy, Jay.”

“I had to entertain myself somehow ,” is Jay’s excuse, and it’s definitely a bad one, but this is Jay, and Jay honestly isn’t known to have a lot of common sense.

They both just sit there for a moment, listening to Jay’s music—and honestly, it’s pretty good, Tyler found himself getting into it.

“You might not wanna hear this, but Mom and Dad didn’t really want you over; me and Maddy agreed to get less gifts so you could come over,” Jay starts, smiling over at his brother again, “But that’s okay, we’re definitely okay with that.”

The confession gives Tyler mixed emotions again, because it’s so sweet of them to give up presents just to see him again, but it just not right— they shouldn’t have to do that just to see their brother, especially if he hasn’t even done anything wrong.  

Their parents are so fucking selfish.

Chapter Text

Dinner was very uncomfortable later that evening for Tyler.  His mother did her best to avoid looking in Tyler’s direction—and his dad surprised him by actually trying to communicate peacefully with the younger boy, but he did look at him weird, and Tyler didn’t like that at all.

Tyler hid away in his room as soon as he finished dinner, turning out the light and crawling into bed for the night (ayee that rhymed).  He closes his eyes and tries to fall asleep.

Hours later, he’s still lying awake in bed, and he takes this as a sign to just give up and stay up for the night.  He sits up again and checks the time on his phone; it’s almost three in the morning.

Tyler sighs, opening the top drawer of his nightstand and retrieves his laptop, setting it down on the bed in front of him.  He finds an online version of Bookworm and plays that, stressing himself out every time a burning letter reaches the bottom of the board, threatening to end his game, the possibility of losing bothering him even more with every level up.

He almost cries out in frustration as a burning Qu burns its way through the bottom of the board, ending his game at level nine, again.

Why is it always level nine?

Tyler closes his tabs and puts his computer back in the nightstand drawer, grabbing his phone from the surface of it instead.  It’s past three thirty, but that doesn’t stop him from pulling up Josh’s contact in his messaging app.

    tyler: are you up?

Tyler only has to wait a few minutes before the other replies.

    josh: I am now. What’s up?

    tyler: you can go back to sleep if you want

    josh: It’s fine. What’s up?

    tyler: mad at bookworm. wbu?

    josh: Nothing much, just woke up. And why are you playing Bookworm at almost four in the morning?

    tyler: had nothing else to do

    josh: You could sleep :p

    josh: Actually, you should get some sleep now. You always look tired

    tyler: nope

    josh: Pleaseeee

    tyler: :^(

    josh: Why don’t you wanna go to sleep?

    tyler: i already tried and couldnt

    josh: Try it again?

    tyler: i dont know if ill be able to

    josh: You know what? Wanna make a deal?

    tyler: it depends. whats the deal?

    josh: How about I tell you who I like if you promise to try to sleep again?

This.  This really catches Tyler’s attention, if you can imagine, because this could either leave Tyler overjoyed and on top of the world, or it could wreck him and leave him aching for an indefinite amount of time.

This makes him feel nervous, but he types out his response anyways.

    tyler: alright

    josh: Guess :^)

Jesus fucking Christ.

    tyler: brendon?

    josh: Fuck no lmao

    tyler: my sister?

    josh: Holy shit Tyler, isn’t she twelve?

    tyler: youre right that would be really weird

    josh: Keep guessing. It’s obvious Ty

Tyler hesitates a moment, feeling a light blush heat his cheeks as he types in his next reply

    tyler: is it me?

    josh: Smart boy. Good night Tyler, talk to you tomorrow morning :^)

vdsionvsdionvidsvhldsiuvhsdidfb is the way to describe how the young teen feels in this moment as he stares incredulously at his phone with the widest grin he’s had in a long time, because holy fucking shit, it’s just been confirmed that Josh likes Tyler— Josh confirmed that shit, dude—fuck, Tyler’s so fucking happy to be alive and gay!

Tyler sits up in bed, overwhelmed by excited nerves, and he sways himself as he giggles madly, butterflies going crazy in his tummy.

Holy shit, Josh actually does like him.  So what does this mean?

Holy shit, what if Josh asks him to be his boyfriend?

Tyler is fucking shook , boi.  He’s never ever been a boyfriend before—  

Dude, he could become Josh’s boyfriend soon—

He needs to share the news with someone before he explodes, right now.

He leaps off his bed, forgetting to text Josh back as he dashes off to his sister’s room, even though she’s most likely asleep.

Chapter Text

Tyler woke curled at the foot of his sister’s bed, said girl using his tummy as her pillow as she snored—and gross, is she drooling?  

Slightly disgusted, the boy eases his sister off of him as gently as he can, and she only stirs a little, thankfully.  He then heads to his room, changing into a clean shirt.

Tyler grabs his phone off his bed—

Tyler gasps as he remembers that he forgot to text Josh back last night, snatching up his phone and tapping in the passcode.

    tyler: sorry i never responded! i may have kinda gotten a little too excited and forgot to respond rip

Tyler waits a moment for a reply, getting one almost ten minutes later.

    josh: That’s alright :^)

    josh: So I have a question

    tyler: yeah?

The young boy waits anxiously, because we’re all pretty sure what Josh’s bound to ask—obvious, even.

    josh: Wanna be my boyfriend?

And Tyler’s face flushes madly as he grins widely, tapping in his next response excitedly.

    tyler: i do :^)

Chapter Text

Nothing’s been able to bring Tyler down from his elation ever since he talked to Josh; it didn’t bother him anywhere as near as much as it usually would when his mother ignored his existence, nor did his father’s weird looks and occasional homophobic comments.  

He’s the happiest he’s felt in a long time.

When he wakes up on Christmas morning, he thinks of Josh like the cliche he is, and he feels so warm and happy again, turning his head to giggle into his pillow—he’s disgustingly giddy about it, but this is his first boyfriend (wow, Josh is his boyfriend ), and he actually genuinely cares about him.  Tyler never thought the time would come—he should throw himself a party or something to celebrate his accomplishment of the impossible, jeez.

There’s a gentle knock at his door, followed by his sister whispering, “Are you awake in there?”

“I’m awake,” Tyler calls out, sitting up in bed as Madison opens the door, smiling at him.

“You look really happy,” Madison giggles knowingly before saying what she came to say in the first place, “So we have the option to eat before presents or after—what’s your vote?”

“I wanna eat now,” Tyler answers, and Madison nods.

“Okay, ready to go down now, then?” she asks, and Tyler nods before pulling himself out of bed and following his sister out of the room.

<>

The Josephs are now all seated near the Christmas tree as Jay and Madison pass out the gifts, and Tyler thanks them whenever one is handed to him; he only asked Zack for a couple things, but they go together, and it isn’t exactly cheap.

All the presents are handed out, and they open gifts in age order, starting with Jay, since he’s just a little younger than Madison (i decided to make them twins in this story, i keep forgetting to mention that, oops).  Everyone else watched fondly—except for Tyler, honestly, because he’s one of those kids that get bored and impatient watching everyone else open gifts.  His parents used to call him a spoiled brat for this, so he learned to fake eagerness while watching others open gifts.

<>

Tyler’s turn eventually comes, and all eyes are on him.  The watchful gazes honestly make him a little uncomfortable and his face flushes a little, but it’s not like he can tell them to fuck off and look away—imagine how that would go down, especially since he isn’t exactly on good terms with his parents, and Zack… must he say it?

He usually likes to unwrap the smallest presents first, but his smallest has Zack’s messy scrawl written across it in sharpie, telling him to open it after opening the biggest of the box—he’s pretty sure he knows why.

So, he grabs the next gift in size, eagerly tearing off the paper (in a civil way, unlike Jay—Tyler swears he’s like a wild fucking animal sometimes).  When the paper’s gone, he smiles appreciatively at two doodle books—he saw one at the store a little while ago back at home and expressed to Zack how cool the activities inside it looked.  He thanks his brother before putting his books aside, moving on to the largest gift.

He already knows what it is before he even opens it, but that doesn’t lessen his excitement as the lack of wrapping paper reveals a game system—it’s just a Wii, but Tyler’s never had one of his own, just played one with Josh.  Again, he thanks Zack for the gift, but with much more enthusiasm, because a Wii is way cooler than two doodle books, as spoiled as that may sound.  But it’s Christmas, who cares?

He unwraps the smallest gift now, and just as expected, he gets a few games to go with his Wii.  One is the game he played with Josh the last time he went over—Super Smash Bros—and the rest are games Zack decided Tyler would enjoy as well—Mario Kart and Super Mario Bros.   A thank you to Zack, and Christmas is over, yay!

Tyler grabs a pencil from the coffee table a couple feet away as Zack starts opening his presents, and the young teen starts to work on one of the activities in one of his doodle books as he waits for permission to go upstairs—he doesn’t understand why he and his younger siblings have to stick around for the adults to open their boring gifts, but whatever, at least Tyler has something to keep himself busy in the meantime.

<>

The adults eventually finish all their gifts, and the younger three are finally given permission to hang out in their rooms, so Tyler gathers up his new gifts and takes them up to his room.  

He just sets them against the wall, though; he wants to FaceTime his boyfriend.

Tyler blushes again at the sweet reminder, his grin tugging at his lips once again.

He gets himself comfortable on his bed and unlocks his phone, tapping his way to the messaging app.

    tyler: hey. can we call?

Less than a minute later, his phone is ringing with an incoming FaceTime call, and Tyler answers it, smiling brightly as he sees Josh again.

“Hey,” Tyler greets shyly, and Josh laughs a little.

“Hey, having a good Christmas?” Josh asks in return, and Tyler nods excitedly.

“Yeah! I got two doodle books, a Wii, Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and Mario Bros,” Tyler enthuses, and Josh smiles fondly at him as he speaks.

“I bought you something while you were gone,” Josh reveals.

Tyler tilts his head a little, “Yeah?”

Josh only laughs again, “It’s cute when you do that little head tilt thing, like a little pug dog.”

Tyler blushes once again, but before he has a chance to even think to respond, there’s a knock on his door.

“It’s open,” Tyler calls out, watching as his bedroom door is pushed open.  He’s surprised when he sees his dad enter, even more so when he notices him carrying a large gift in with him.

His dad sits at the edge of his bed and stands the gift on the floor in front of them, gesturing for Tyler to come closer, “Your mother and I have one more gift for you, but I wanted to give it to you alone.”

The younger of the two glances once more to Josh before muting the call and setting his phone on the nightstand, hesitantly scooting closer to his dad so that he’s sitting next to the older man.

This current scene could very well be a milestone to the reconstruction of their relationship, and despite how fucked up his parents had treated them after coming out, he wants to be close with them again—or if that’s too much to ask, at least on good terms.

Tyler risks a glance towards his dad, and they make eye contact.  Tyler averts his gaze to his nose.

“I’m sorry for being such an awful father,” the older man sighs, shaking his head at himself as he speaks.  Tyler doesn’t say anything, only hums quietly, because what is he supposed to say, it’s okay ?  It’s not, he’s put his son through so much emotional pain and didn’t even bother to keep in touch for three years.  He probably doesn’t even deserve his forgiveness, but Tyler’s a very forgiving person, and he used to be close with this man, and he misses how things used to be, if you can imagine.

“So… Open it, I guess,” his dad says, gesturing to the box in front of them.

The timid boy hesitates again for a moment before beginning to tear at the wrapper, and the man starts to talk again as he does so.

“We didn’t know what to get you, but we wanted it to be something good—” his dad starts, and Tyler’s eyes widen, because his parents bought him a keyboard— “And Madison said that you might like a piano… She picked it out, and it wasn’t cheap at all, and—nevermind, do you like it?”

Tyler smiles widely, nodding his head enthusiastically, “I can’t wait to use it, thank you!”

“Sure,” is his dad’s response as he gets up from Tyler’s bed, heading to the door again, “I’ll leave you alone now,” he says before closing the door after him, leaving Tyler incredulous for a moment.

Then he remembers that Josh is still on the call, and he grabs his phone again, unmutes him.

“Josh, my parents got me a keyboard,” Tyler breathes out excitedly, flipping the camera to show Josh, “Isn’t that cool?”

Josh questioningly furrows his brows a little as Tyler speaks, but Tyler’s too excited to pay it much mind right now.

“It’s sick; I didn’t know you played,” Josh says as Tyler flips the camera so it’s on him again.  

Tyler shakes his head, “I don’t, I have to teach myself.”

“Oh, alright. Want me to call later so you can try it out?”

Tyler shakes his head, getting comfortable on his bed again, “No, I wanna talk to you.”

“You sure?”

“Of course.”

Josh smiles and opens his mouth to speak, but he’s interrupted by a feminine voice calling out his name on the other end of the call, and his smile is replaced by an irritated scowl as he calls out to her, “The fuck do you want?”

Well, shit…

“Bring your ass down here!” she calls out again, and Josh groans, throwing his head back in exasperation.

“I’m so fucking tired of this bitch,” he grumbles under his breath before looking to Tyler apologetically, “I’ll call you later, alright?”

Tyler nods a little, offering a sad smile, “Alright, bye, Josh.”

“Bye, baby boy,” Josh smiles back before hanging up, leaving Tyler blushing furiously at the pet name.

Chapter Text

Tyler began teaching himself to play the keyboard by learning all the keys first.  The white ones were super easy and got them down quickly.  The black keys kept confusing him—he kept forgetting the difference between flat and sharp, but it was nothing a quick Google search couldn’t help with.

After getting the keys, he looked up piano versions of nursery rhymes on Youtube.  Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Mary Had a Little Lamb were both super easy and he learned to play them after only a couple minutes each.  He got similar results with Itsy Bitsy Spider—it just took a couple more tries, but still elementary.  

Zack enters the room as Tyler’s teaching himself to play Jingle Bells and sits next to his younger brother, watching him play for a moment before speaking, “Maybe we can look into getting you piano lessons when we go home.”

“You don’t have to,” comes Tyler’s smiling response, wincing a little as he accidentally presses the wrong key, and he starts playing the song again from the beginning.

“Did you learn any other songs?” Zack asks, and Tyler nods, stopping Jingle Bells to show him the three nursery rhymes mentioned before.  Tyler looks to his brother after he plays all three songs, and he’s met with a proud smile.

“That’s good, T-bro!” Zack praises the younger boy, and Tyler can’t stop himself from breaking out into a wide grin, “You know the names of the keys, too?”

“Just the white ones,” Tyler answers, starting Jingle Bells again, “I keep getting the black ones confused.”

“Not gonna lie, I never really grasped the sharps and flats when I used to play,” Zack says.  This gains the younger’s attention, because he never knew his older brother played anything.

“You used to play?” Tyler asks, tilting his head a little as he stares at Zack curiously.  

“Yeah, started in second or third grade, but my piano teacher sucked, so Mom and Dad pulled me out after a few years. I haven’t played in awhile, but I could probably still show you some stuff. I’ll show you how to play something cool, how does that sound?”

Tyler nods enthusiastically and pushes the keyboard closer to Zack, watching intently as Zack begins to demonstrate a few things, explaining as he does.

Chapter Text

Tyler had spent the rest of the day on the keyboard with Zack, practicing and learning new things from the more experienced man.  Zack praised him as he gradually got better at the piano—even swore he was a natural—and that motivated him further to learn how to play his piano, and added fuel to his Josh-induced elation.  

At some point during their keyboard session, Zack suggested that he “serenade Josh with his smooth tunes,” though in jest, but it still left Tyler blushing furiously as he tried his best to fight off his stupid love-sick grin.  

And Zack had understood what his reaction had meant, and he had looked surprised for a brief moment before Tyler caught a glint of disappointment in the older man’s eyes.

“You and Josh..?” Zack had spoke slowly, eying the younger boy, making him feel uncomfortable under the judging gaze.

He had nodded.  Zack had shaken his head.

“ Jesus, Tyler, do you really think so lowly of yourself?” Zack had mumbled before turning back to the keys, and he had resumed his teaching, but there was an unpleasant atmosphere surrounding them.

And Tyler’s elation had began plummeting.

<><><>

Now Tyler lies in bed at four in the morning, unable to sleep in his melancholy state.  He’s noticed before that whenever he crashes from being overwhelmingly happy, he crashes hard, and all negativity he’s able to brush off during his elation resurfaces and taunts him mercilessly.

And right now is no different as he tries to contain his sobs, not wanting to risk anyone hearing him.  His head pounding and his throat aching, nose stuffy and face itchy, heart grieving and mind unrelenting.

He finds himself longing for Josh, his comforting warmth and gentle touch.  Strong arms wrapped protectively around him, calloused hands soothingly rub his back as reassuring words are spoken softly in his ear.  

He wants nothing more than to be with the other boy in this moment—to at least hear his voice.

Tyler’s phone ends up in his shaky hands, squinting through his blurry vision in an attempt to see the screen as he taps his way to Josh’s contact.

He stops himself just as he’s about to hit the call button, because what if the other boy is asleep?  What if he doesn’t wanna be bothered by Tyler’s whiny shit so late in the night?  What if Josh gets pissed at him for calling?  Calls him out for being clingy?  A baby?  Of overreacting?  What if Josh realizes he’s made a mistake when asking him to be his boyfriend?  What if he breaks up with him?

But Josh cares.  He cares about him.  He really likes him.  

And Tyler finds himself finally tapping the call button before he can psych himself out of doing it again, shakily bringing the phone to his ear.

He doesn’t have to wait long before his boyfriend’s groggy, concerned voice speak from the other end of the call, “Hey, everything okay?”

And Tyler doesn’t say anything, trying hard to suppress a pained sob, and he needs to calm down, he wills himself to calm down.

He shakily inhales, exhales, doing this until he’s sure he’ll be able to at least speak coherently.

“N-no.”

He can hear shuffling from the other end before Josh speaks again, voice gentle and soothing, “Talk to me?”

“I-I was so hap-happy but now I’m s-so sad,” and it’s followed by a soft cry that manages to slip, and he quickly brings his hand to his mouth to try and muffle any more that may follow.

“What happened?”

Tyler takes a moment to compose himself before speaking, “Well—Zack, he-he—I’m such a h-huge disappointment —all I do is, is disappoint him and-and burden him, and I c-cause him so much trou-trouble, and my parents d-don’t want me—and I-I-I—”

He stops talking when he begins to weep into the phone, and he sounds so pathetic , but Josh begins to speak again, so he focuses on that.

“Hey, I’m not good with words at all, but you know what? Fuck Zack and fuck your parents; they’re spoiled as fuck and unappreciative. They’re so lucky to have a Tyler Joseph in their life—and so am I. I swear on Brendon’s grave, you’re something special, baby boy. I’ve never met anyone quite like you, you know? Shit, I wish I was better with words…”

“N-no,” Tyler finds himself saying, a little more calm than before, “You’re perfect. Th-thank you.”

“There’s no need to thank me. I’m glad you called—how about I try to take your mind off what’s bothering you? I’ll tell you about the stupid shit I’ve done growing up, you’ll laugh.”

“Y-yeah.”

And Josh begins his first story of how he and an old friend of his almost burnt his house down while they were trying to smoke paper, Tyler hiccuping every once in awhile as he finally starts to come down from his crying fits, and the younger boy swears he loves this kid more than anything.

Chapter Text

“There’s no need to thank me. I’m glad you called—how about I try to take your mind off what’s bothering you? I’ll tell you about the stupid shit I’ve done growing up, you’ll laugh.”

“Y-yeah.”

“Okay, this one happened when I was twelve… I had an old friend of mine come over while my parents weren’t home, and we thought we were so fucking cool, so you know what we did? We rolled up some paper and tried to smoke it—”

Tyler interrupts the other boy by giggling, and Josh chuckles on the other end too, and he doesn’t continue until their laughter dies down.

“Okay, so, we tried to smoke the paper, and that shit was fucking miserable and we choked pretty bad, so I went to get us some water, and that fucking dumbass had managed to set my fucking curtains on fire in the couple minutes I was gone.”

“Oh my gosh, Josh, did your parents ever find out?” Tyler giggles out again.

“Hell yeah, they did,” Josh laughs as well, “I got my ass beat and my friend never came over again. Would you like to hear another story?”

Tyler nods, despite Josh not being able to see him, needless to say, “Please.”

“Alright, alright… Yeah, one time in gym in maybe fifth or sixth grade, we were doing some sort of exercises, and one of those was to… fuck, what are they called, well, it’s those stretchy rope things—you know what I’m talking about?”

“Mhm.”

“Good, so I was in that station at the moment, and I thought it would be funny to wrap one around my neck and pull tight enough for my face to change colors.”

And Tyler has to bring a hand to his mouth to muffle his laughter, just so he doesn’t risk waking any of his family—the more he imagines it, the funnier it gets, honestly, and he turns his face into his pillow instead as his laughter doesn’t cease, and Josh is laughing right along with him.

“What—what happened after?” Tyler strains out in the midst of his fit, and Josh takes another moment to compose himself before answering.

“Gym teacher yelled at me and made me sit out while he called my mom. That bitch came all the way up to the school just to beat my ass in the bathroom—it was fucking embarrassing, we weren’t alone in the bathroom; those boys joked on me for the longest time—dude, this one’s good, you up for another?”

“Sure am,” Tyler’s still giggling a little as Josh starts the next story.

“This was years ago, like, I don’t even think I was in school yet. So, my mom was babysitting some other girls.  Shit, so, I went up to one of them and asked her if she wanted to play a game, and she agreed, so I went and grabbed a laundry basket big enough to fit a child our age at the time. So then brought the basket to the top of the stairs—”

Josh cuts himself off as he begins to laugh once again, Tyler joining in, and Josh eventually speaks again, and Tyler can hear how hard Josh is trying to contain the rest of his laughter so he can speak coherently, “ Fuck, I told that girl to get in the basket and she did, and I pushed the basket down the fucking stairs—”  

And  the older of the two guffaws this time, and Tyler’s fucking dying , writhing around in bed as his laughter leaves him breathless, struggling to catch his breath.

“Al-alright,” Josh wheezes, composing himself, “So as that bitch went rolling down the stairs in the basket and I’m jumping up and down in delight, another one of the girls my mom was babysitting happened to be standing right by the stairs—she was a fucking snitch, she told my mom. Guess what happened next?”

“She-she spanked you?”

“Smart boy,” Josh confirms before bursting with laughter again, “Man, I stayed getting my ass beat growing up.”

“J-Josh, my mom used to spank m-me with thin sticks,” Tyler forces out as he laughs.

“Holy shit, the switches! Fuck, my stomach would drop every time my mom came at me with one of those—She beat me with a switch in the living room while we had company once, and she just left me lying there when she was finished—the company just watched me as I cried.”

“Oh, wow! That’s so awkward,” Tyler giggles, followed by a tired yawn.

“You ready for bed, baby boy?”

He giggles again, blushing like usual, “One more story?”

“Sure thing. So, I’m not exactly sure how old I was with this one, maybe seven or eight or something? Doesn’t really matter, but me and Ashley were home alone once for a little bit,” Josh starts, and Tyler’s eyes widen a little at the mention of the other boy’s sister, but Josh doesn’t really sound upset as he continues, so it must be okay, “And we didn’t have shit to do—we couldn’t go outside either because it was way past dark—but we did have a house phone, so we decided we’d fucking prank call people.  Ashley would dial the number and I would do the talking.  Everything was fun and games, but then she dialed fucking 911, and I should’ve stopped there, but instead, I fucking tell them that someone had cut the cheese .”

And they’re losing their shit again, sides hurting from laughing so hard and so much, but it’s still one of Tyler’s favorite feelings in the world.

“Okay, so I hang up right after that, thinking it was the end of it. Nope, not too long later, the cops are in our fucking house. I don’t remember much after that, but I had fallen asleep before our parents returned.  I woke up to find my mom towering over me, swinging a belt at me.”

And they laugh one last time for the night, and after they’ve recovered, Josh speaks again, “You’re going to sleep now?”

“Yeah. Thank you, Josh,” Tyler smiles, and Josh hums in protest.

“No need to thank me, I was more than happy to talk to you. Now get some rest, okay?”

“Mhm. Night.”

“Good night, Ty.”

The call ends, and the younger boy puts his phone back on his nightstand, feeling significantly more at ease than he did earlier—he doesn’t dwell on earlier, though, and gets comfy in bed.   

Chapter Text

Tyler hasn’t forgotten what Zack had suggested on Christmas; he could play a song to Josh when he got back home, a song dedicated to their new relationship (yeeee thanks again to hidefromeveryone for the suggestion, it's cute!).

So, he spent the next several days of his Christmas break hunched over his keyboard, determined and focused, only leaving his room to eat and use the bathroom, of course.  His younger siblings would hang out with him in his room while he practiced, testing Tyler’s ability to multitask as they talked and watched him play at the same time.

He doesn’t call Josh either while he practices—he doesn’t wanna ruin the surprise—and opted to stick with texting instead, though responses from Tyler were a bit slower than they should’ve been.  The older boy never brought that up, so Tyler guesses that it’s alright.  If Josh were to bring it up, he’d just say he’s working on a surprise for him, so it doesn’t really matter anyways.

<>

Now it’s December 31, and Zack’s planning on driving them both back home on the first of January, and that leaves Tyler with mixed emotions.  He’s sad to leave his siblings, because honestly, he has no idea when he’ll be able to see them next.  But, he’s also excited to see Brendon and Ruby and Josh again—and he still has to play Josh that song, and that makes him nervous, because he’s not sure he’s good enough at it yet.  He doesn’t suck at it, though, so maybe Josh should still be pleased.

<>

There’s only a few hours left of 2016 when Tyler’s phone starts ringing next to his head with an incoming FaceTime call, waking him from his sleep.  He taps the answer button before laying back down, leaving the camera pointing up towards the ceiling.  He can hear a lot of noise in the background of Josh’s end of the call, and he assumes that he’s at a party or something.

“Hey,” Tyler greets, cringing at how groggy his voice sounds.

“Hey,” Josh greets him back, “Why aren’t you on the camera?”

“I don’t look presentable,” comes Tyler’s excuse, “I just woke up.”

“I don’t mind, baby boy,” Josh assures, the younger boy blushing and grinning at the pet name.

“Now I’m definitely not getting on the camera,” Tyler says, suppressing a giggle.

“Awe, man, why not?” Josh whines, and the smaller boy can’t hold back his giggle anymore.  

“You made me blush and I’m sure I look stupid every time I do.”

“No, you don’t,” the other boy promises, “Let me see you.”

“Okay, fine,” Tyler gives in, sitting up to turn on the lamp on the nightstand.  He gets comfortable and fixes his hair a little before getting on the camera.  Josh seems pleased as he smiles fondly.

“Thanks, baby boy,” Josh says, and Tyler’s face heats up again as his grin returns, “You’re so cute.”

And Tyler pulls the collar of his shirt up over his nose as he—unsurprisingly—becomes more flushed than before, “Liar, you know I’m scraggly.”

Josh laughs, “I’m not lying; you’re hella cute, period. Are you doing anything for New Years?”

“Uh—no,” Tyler starts, releasing his collar, “I think my family’s gonna watch the ball drop on tv or something.”

“Why aren’t you?”

“I don’t really care enough to,” Tyler shrugs, “What about you?”

“That Pete Wentz guy is having a New Year's party right now and Brendon convinced me to tag along. Me and Pete talked things out and we’re cool now—after that fight back in October, you saw that, right?”

Tyler nods, and Josh speaks again.

“You know, I wish you were here so we could do that cheesy shit and kiss at midnight.”

“But I can’t right now so baby kiss me through the phone.”

Josh starts chuckling at that, “You dork, over here making fucking Soulja Boy references.”

Tyler giggles sheepishly, “What, is that a bad thing?”

Josh shakes his head, “Nah, just a little lame.”

“I guess,” Tyler laughs a little, “So, how’s the party?”

“Eh, it's not too bad,” Josh shrugs nonchalantly, “They're down there playing drinking games and shit.”

“And you don't wanna play?” Tyler asks, tilting his head a little, and Josh chuckles again.

“I'm not much of a drinker,” Josh answers, shaking his head, “And even if I was, I'd much rather sit in the bathtub and talk to my boyfriend.”

And, Tyler’s face flushes again.  Neither say anything for a moment until Josh breaks the silence, “Have any New Year's resolutions?”

Tyler shakes his head, “No, I don't really do those.”

“Me neither, but is there a reason why?”

“Not really… I guess I never really stick with them for long, anyways.”

Tyler can hear people counting down from ten from Josh’s end of the call, as well as his family downstairs.

“I'm just glad 2016 is ending,” Josh sighs as the countdowns continue, “It's been a really shitty year.”

“The end of it wasn't so bad,” Tyler smiles, not caring if he sounds sappy or cliche.  Josh doesn't seem to mind, though, as he smiles back at the younger.  It hits midnight, and a lot of cheering and hollering can be heard, especially from Josh’s end of the call.

“You should definitely let me kiss you when you come home,” Josh suggests, looking to Tyler hopefully.

And Tyler blushes for the thousandth time since he met Josh, “Yeah, I should.”

Chapter Text

Tyler and Zack are up at five in the morning, and so were Jay and Madison.  Zack packs the car while the younger three hang out for a bit before they have to leave.

Madison and Jay are crying, and that makes Tyler’s eyes well up with tears as they sit, Tyler in the middle as his younger siblings lean affectionately on each side of him.  They sit like this until six approaches and Zack is ready to go.

“Come on, T-bro, we have a nine hour drive,” Zack urges on.

Tyler hugs each of his siblings one last time, telling them how much he loves them and that he'll miss them so much, and they promise to see each other again before Zack’s guiding Tyler out of his childhood home.  

He finally starts to cry as Zack pulls out of the driveway, heart heavy as he and his siblings waving until they can no longer see each other.

The older man glances to the younger boy sympathetically, “Hey, don't be so down.  You get to see Josh again when we get home.”

“I thought you didn't like Josh,” Tyler mumbles, and both of them are silent before he speaks again, “Why don't you?”

Zack remains silent, and Tyler only averts his gaze to the window.  Being ignored did nothing but make him feel worse than he did before.  It made him feel so small and insignificant.

But he decides that he doesn't care.  

<><><>

Tyler still hasn't said anything hours later, still trapped in his bubble of self depreciation.  Zack’s made a few fruitless attempts to pop it, but he eventually gave up with an exasperated sigh—that made Tyler feel like an asshole.

Zack turns to pull into a Taco Bell drive thru, “What do you want?”

“Nothing, I'm not really hungry.”

“Going on a hunger strike isn't gonna hurt me,” Zack snaps, and the younger refrains from rolling his eyes at his brother.  Why was accusing him of going on a “hunger strike” even necessary?  Why would he even say something like that?

Zack hands Tyler a taco anyways before pulling away from the restaurant, telling him to eat it when he does get hungry.  He just eats it now so Zack isn’t able to make any more accusations and leaves him alone.  He falls asleep not long after.

<><><>

Tyler’s awoken once again as Zack slams on the breaks, screaming, “What the fuck is wrong with you?!”

Tyler begins to panic a little, thinking the older man was talking to him—but he looks through the windshield and sees Brendon standing in the middle of the fucking road, beaming at Tyler.

Tyler gawks at the teen incredulously as Zack rolls down his window so Brendon can hear him better, and proceeds to lecture him for running in front of moving vehicles—and Tyler can’t believe he did that stupid shit, though he really shouldn’t be all that surprised by this point.

“Tyler, I missed you!” Brendon shouts, ignoring the older man completely as he runs up to Tyler’s window.  Tyler’s about to roll down his own window to speak to his friend, but Zack begins to drive again, leaving Brendon standing in the road like a dumbass.

“You have some stupid ass friends, I swear to God,” Zack curses under his breath, gripping the steering wheel in aggravation as he drives the rest of the way home; they must be pretty close now, considering the fact they almost ran Brendon over barely a minute ago.

“Now might be a bad time to ask,” Tyler starts and Zack briefly glances to him, giving Tyler the green light (get it, ‘cause they’re driving) to continue, “But, can I invite Josh over?”

“Invite him over all you want, but I don’t wanna hear you guys fucking each other,” Zack teases, a smirk pulling at his lips, and Tyler’s face flushes furiously.

“We’re not gonna do that!” Tyler whines pitifully, and Zack only cackles at his brother’s embarrassment.

<><><>

Tyler brings the last of his things into his room before retrieving his phone from his pocket, putting in his passcode and opening Josh’s contact.

    tyler: hey daddys home

His response comes in a couple minutes later.

    josh: You dork

    josh: And you’re baby boy, I’m daddy ;)

    tyler: lmao

    josh: Damn the rejection :^(

    josh: So are you really home?

    tyler: mhm and zack said you can come over

    josh: alright be there in a few

Tyler unpacks his things as he waits for Josh to come over; he’d have to get it done sooner or later.

He didn’t have much to unpack, so he finishes in around a couple minutes.  Tyler sits at his desk, mindlessly fucking around with things strewn across it until he comes across his lighter.

He hasn’t lit a candle in a while, he decides, and he grabs one from the shelf.  He sets the lit candle back in it’s place just as someone else enters the room, turning in his rolling chair to see Josh, smiling instantly.

“Hey,” Josh greets him.

“Hey, we almost ran over Brendon.”

Josh cackles, and Tyler finds himself laughing as well, because one—he finds the other boy’s laugh to be quite contagious, and two—Brendon could’ve fucking died, but Josh is over here weak as fuck.  But honestly, can he blame him?  That shit was funny as hell.

“Holy shit, Tyler, seriously?”

Tyler nods his head, “Yeah, apparently he ran in front of the car while Zack was driving.”

“Brendon’s a fucking idiot,” Josh laughs, moving to sit on Tyler’s bed, Tyler following and sitting next to him, immediately leaning his head on Josh’s shoulders, reminding himself that Josh doesn’t mind this, he shouldn’t mind this, but Josh wrapping an arm around him and holding him closer is all the reassurance he needs.

They sit like that for a moment longer, Tyler drinking up the affection like the little leech he is, until something else resurfaces in his mind.

“Josh?”

“Yeah, baby boy?”

Tyler’s cheeks redden once again, “Um… Are you still gonna kiss me?”

Josh chuckles a little at the younger boy as he cups his cheek with one hand, guiding Tyler’s head off his shoulder so he could reach him better, “Mhm, did you want me to kiss you now?”

“Yeah… I kinda don’t know how to, though,” the brunette sheepishly admits as he leans into the other’s hand, and Josh smiles at him fondly.

“You get to learn from the best,” Josh jokes, making the smaller boy giggle, and Josh begins to lean in.  Tyler’s nerves and excitement begin skyrocketing as Josh inches closer to him, and he moves his hands to the other boy’s shoulders so they’re not lying awkwardly in his lap.

Tyler can feel the other’s breath against his lips once he’s close enough, and Tyler’s the one to press forward, suppressing a gasp at the new sensations coursing through him as he flushes madly—

“ Gaaaay!”  

The two immediately break away from each other, heads snapping to the source of the unwelcome voice, only to find Zack leaning against the doorframe, smirking mockingly at the two.

“Zack!” Tyler cries out, mortified as he mindlessly grabs the first thing his hand reaches—his phone—and hurls it at the older man, who dodges the small device easily and runs off like the fucking manchild he is.

Josh starts laughing again, and Tyler leans against him, sheepishly hiding his face in the other boy’s shoulder.

“You’re so cute, oh my God,” Josh gets out, wrapping his arms around the smaller boy as he continues to laugh.  Tyler hums a disagreeing sound as he clings onto the other in return.

Chapter Text

After the scene had unfolded, they agreed to play Tyler's Wii for a little bit.  Josh had connected it to the tv, and asked if the system was used before he received it, since it was a little scratched and smudgy.  Tyler didn't care in the end, because it still worked just fine.

They played games for hours until Zack enters, holding Ruby in his hand as she mewled out in protest, attempting to writhe herself out of the older man’s hold.  Poor Ruby.

“It's getting a little late, isn't it?” Zack says as he sets the cat on Tyler's desk chair, shooting Josh a hinting look.

“Yeah, I guess so,” Josh says just as the two finish the level, and Zack leaves again to bring up the rest of Ruby’s stuff.  

Josh gets up, “Your brother wants me out—so I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Tyler nods sadly, but then he remembers how he wanted to play Josh a song, and he speaks before he can stop himself, “I wanna show you something first.”

And Tyler's a fucking idiot because he's not sure he's quite good enough yet, and he probably needs more practice, but Josh perks up at his statement, curious and excited, and Tyler doesn't wanna take it back and disappoint him.

So, he smiles to his boyfriend and hesitantly sets up his keyboard on his desk.  He gently moves Ruby to the floor so he can sit at his desk chair instead.

“Are you gonna play me something?” Josh asks enthusiastically as he moved to stand behind the addressed boy.

“I’m gonna—uh—attempt to,” Tyler nervously readies his fingers over the keys, “Dedicated to us, yeah?”

Tyler takes in a breath, he’s got this, he's had a lot of practice.

And he shakily presses the first key, focusing himself the best he can as the other boy watches intently.  Josh is listening, and he wants him to love what he plays, and that puts a lot of pressure on the brunette.

He winces each time he makes a mistake, but he quickly recovers and keeps going like normal, hoping Josh doesn’t notice how off a misplaced note sounds.

It wasn’t a long song at all, and he’s soon pressing the final key, moving his hands away from the instrument to place them in his lap instead.

Then Josh is clapping, “That was perfect, baby boy!”

And Tyler grins uncontrollably, cheeks tinging pink, “Thanks, Josh.”

The door is pushed open again as Zack peeks in, most likely to see if Josh has left yet, and Tyler’s can’t help but feel that his older brother has been really fucking annoying today.  Like, his pissbitch.  Haha remember that one?

Josh must’ve thought something similar, because he’s holding his arms open for the smaller boy, “Alright, I should really go now.”

Tyler quickly stands and clings to Josh, pressing himself as close as he can.  Josh chuckles as he wraps his arms around his waist, giving him a tight squeeze.  The hug isn’t as long as Tyler would like, but he doesn’t protest as Josh pulls away, the two exchanging their byes before Josh leaves for the night.

And Zack is still standing there, what the fuck does he want?

“Yeah?” Tyler asks, tilting his head at his older brother.  The man steps into the room and sits on the chair the younger was previously, sighing a little before he speaks.

“I’ve been an asshole today, huh?”

Fuck yeah, he was.

Tyler only shrugs instead; he doesn’t wanna risk setting the older man off, if you can imagine.

“Yeah, I was… I’m sorry, T-bro, I’ll make it up to you, okay?”

Tyler hesitates a moment before asking one of his biggest questions, “Why don’t you like Josh anymore? You seemed to have liked him during Thanksgiving…”

Zack sighs again, slouching down in his seat as he gestures to Tyler’s bed, wordlessly telling him to sit.  Tyler quickly complies as Zack rolls over to the edge of the bed.

The younger boy’s both eager to hear Zack’s reasons, and dreading them at the same time.  It’s like taking a hard ass test and feeling that you might’ve passed it, but at the same time, you’re not entirely sure because it’s just… so hard.  That probably doesn’t make any sense, none of this makes any sense, this is just a whole clusterfuck.

“I get these… vibes from him, you know? Bad vibes.”

...Is he fucking serious?  Zack sounds like a fucking idiot to Tyler right now, why would he be getting bad vibes from Josh, but not Tyler himself, and he’s the one who actually knows and spends time around him—unless he’s lying, because there’s a reason worse…

“Um… is it because Josh is a boy? And I like him?”

This seems to spark annoyance in the older man, and he visibly does his best to contain it as he speaks, “Tyler, I’m not a homophobe.”

Tyler wants to push and get a real answer, but he doesn’t wanna get fucking decked right now, either, so he only nods, “Okay.”

“Okay,” Zack smiles at the younger boy, standing from the chair, “Let’s go make dinner, I haven’t eaten since we were driving today.”

Chapter Text

Tyler’s startled to consciousness the next morning as his alarm goes off.  The song he had set for his alarm starts off obnoxiously loud and increases in volume the more it’s left on, and yeah, alarms are supposed to be loud, but Beach Walk is a bit too much first thing in the morning.

So, he hastily moves to silence the noise before curling up once again under the comforting warmth of his blankets, and that’s when he’s struck with the ruthless realization that he has school today—Christmas break is over, and it’s time to go back to classes after nearly two weeks of freedom.  

The thought’s enough to draw a pitiful whine from the brunette, and he lies in bed a moment longer to brood over the school day ahead, and he begins to contemplate faking sick so he can just stay home one more day.

He forces himself out of bed anyways because skipping school will only make going back more difficult—he’d be bound to miss something important and have makeup work to complete—and Josh will be there, even if it’s just at the bus stop, lunch, and one class.

<><><>

As Tyler approaches the bus stop, he sees not only Josh standing at their usual spot, but Pete Wentz as well, seemingly having a pleasant conversation.  It’s a little amusing to Tyler; they both swung fists at each other after Pete screamed in his face when they first met, and now they’re laughing together and enjoying each other’s company.  Kinda like his first encounter with Brendon—he stepped on the back of his shoe by mistake and almost got his ass beat because of it, and now Brendon’s possibly as leechy towards Tyler as Tyler himself is towards Josh.  

Tyler doesn’t mind how clingy Brendon is; it’s kinda endearing, actually, and it makes him feel cared for.

Is it the same for Josh though?  What if he finds it annoying?  If not now, then later?  It’s bound to happen sooner or later—the more comfortable he gets with someone, the clingier he gets, and he’s been called out for it by old friends in the past.

But his old friends were assholes.  His old friends weren’t true friends.  Josh is better, and he cares about him so much.

Josh turns his head towards Tyler’s direction, smiling fondly to the younger boy as he offers a hand.  Tyler doesn’t hesitate before clasping the other’s hand in his own, and Josh turns back to Pete, who watches Tyler with interest as the youngest of the three timidly shuffles closer to Josh.  He feels uncomfortable under Pete’s gaze, but he tries his best not to show it as he leans his head onto his boyfriend’s shoulder.

“You can say hi to him instead of staring at him like that,” Josh says lowly, eying the oldest of the three, and Tyler can’t help but blush a little.

Pete narrows his eyes a little at Josh before looking to Tyler again, “Hi, Tyler.”

“H-hi.”

“How are you?” Pete asks.

“Um—I’m good,” Tyler stammers, and Josh gives Tyler’s hand a comforting squeeze.

Pete nods, just as the bus begins to pull up, saying, “That’s good,” before turning to head to the vehicle.

“You okay?” Josh asks the younger boy softly as they trail behind Pete.

Tyler nods, offering a smile, “Of course.”

Chapter Text

“Tyler’s brother almost killed me!” Brendon accuses, pointing a finger at said boy as Tyler and Josh sit across from him at the lunch table.  Tyler and Josh both know what he’s referring to, and they both laugh as the topic of Brendon’s stupid ass almost getting ran over is brought up again.

“That’s your fault, you fucking dumbass,” Josh laughs, “You know you don’t run in front of cars.”

Brendon laughs too, turning to Tyler, “You told him?”

“I had to spread awareness,” the youngest boy giggles out, “You’re a threat to everyone’s safety.”

Brendon guffaws as soon as the words come out of Tyler’s mouth, “Tyler, you’re so mean! How am I a threat to everyone’s safety?”

“You could’ve caused an accident,” Josh speaks up for Tyler, and Tyler confirms so with a nod.

“Well, I didn’t so…” Brendon laughs, and doesn’t speak again until his laughter ceases, “How was your break, Tyler? We haven’t talked!”

The smaller boy smiles apologetically, “Sorry—but yeah,  it was really good.”

“That’s good!” Brendon chirps, “All I did was throw a Christmas party and attend a New Years party; did you do anything exciting?”

Cheeks tinted pink, Tyler turns to Josh questioningly.  Josh answers with a smirk and a nonchalant shrug, letting the other know that he doesn’t care whether or not he tells the large-foreheaded boy across from them.

“Um… I got a boyfriend—”

And Brendon startles both his friends as he slams his palms on the table with an excited yelp, leaning closer to Tyler, “Oh my God, seriously?!”

Tyler can only gawk at the overly excited teen and nod.  Why the fuck is Brendon making such a huge deal out of it?  He expected the other boy to be thrilled by the news, but not quite this much, yaknow?

“You and Josh?!”

Another nod from Tyler, and Brendon fucking squeals, no doubt reeling in the attention of surrounding students and staff, much to Tyler’s dismay.

“Awe, tell me everything!”

“His sister told me that Tyler was gay for me,”Josh starts, and Tyler feels himself blushing furiously, because of fucking course Madison told him—but he can’t be upset with her for it, “So I told him I liked him too on the twenty third and actually asked him out on Christmas Eve.”

Josh clearly hasn’t told Brendon everything, but said boy seems satisfied with what he does know, and begins fangirling at the two of them again.

“Okay, this is so amazing! You guys are going on a date soon, right? I’m fucking drop kicking you both if you say no,” Brendon threatens, and chuckles amusedly.

“No.”

“ Boy!” Brendon shouts out, slamming his palms on the table once again as he rises to his feet, and the principal is striding over to their table before Josh can respond to Brendon’s outburst.  That’s okay, though, because their principal is here to do so instead.

“What’s going on over here now, Brendon?” their principal, Mr. Barheit, asks as he towers over the teen—this man is fucking tall, which would’ve made him intimidating as fuck if he weren’t so incredibly caring.

“My friends are in love!” Brendon sighs dramatically, gesturing toward the two still seated, Tyler flushed from mild embarrassment and Josh just unimpressed with Brendon’s antics.  Mr. Barheit looks to the two, his usual grin present as he nods his greetings before turning back to Brendon again.

“I came over to ask you to stop shouting,” the older man asks politely, and Brendon’s jaw drops.

“Bro… This is a cafeteria… Everyone’s loud…”

“They’ll shut you up during in school suspension,” Mr. Barheit says, visibly amused as his smile widens.

“You a whole clown, Mr. Barheit.”

Their principal chuckles, “You’ll be the clown sitting in SIPS because he couldn’t quiet down just a little.”

“I was joking!” Brendon defends himself, plopping down in his seat once again, and Mr. Barheit walks off to do whatever it is he does in the cafeteria, and Tyler and Josh both start laughing at the scene that just unfolded.

“You guys are a pair of asscheeks,” Brendon sighs with faux dejection, pouting as his friends continue to laugh at him, “So disrespectful.”

Chapter Text

Someone grabs Tyler's arm before he can climb the bus once school ends that afternoon, startling him as he spins around to face the threat.  He's met by Brendon, eager and maybe even mischievous— yeah , the look in his friend’s eye doesn't provide relief at all, honestly.

“Wanna come to my house? We gotta have a talk!” Brendon asks, pulling Tyler away from the bus before he can process the request.

It's not until Tyler's seated next to Brendon after sneaking onto his bus that he realizes that he's technically just been kidnapped—but that's not what's got Tyler’s nervous and fidgeting in his seat; what fucking talk does Brendon plan on having with him, and why is it important enough for said boy to drag him away from his bus?

“You look anxious,” Brendon observes, how impressive, “I’m not about to murder you or anything, it's okay!”

Tyler puts on a smile just as the bus begins to pull away, and his phone buzzes in his pocket less than thirty seconds later.

josh: Did you ever get on the bus?

tyler: im on brendons. he said we have to talk ö

josh: About what?

tyler: idk

josh: Don't let him murder you

tyler: ill try

Josh doesn't respond after that, and Tyler makes sure to send Zack a text saying that he’s staying after school for a dumb long test he couldn't finish.  Lying might not have been necessary, but Tyler would like to avoid pissing the older man off in any way he can.

<><><>

“Welcome to my home!” Brendon chirps as he pushes his front door open, guiding the younger boy inside so he can lock the door behind them.  Brendon leads the way upstairs to his room, Tyler nervously following behind.

Tyler sits on the edge of Brendon’s bed as instructed, the older boy locking the door before joining him on the bed. Oh boy.

“Tyler,” Brendon starts, the serious look now on the boy’s face not helping his nerves as he continues, “Now that you have a boyfriend, I believe it's time for you to get the sex talk.”

Is… is he fucking serious?  He brought him here on a Tuesday afternoon just to give him the sex talk?  

The real question here is why he's surprised, honestly.  

“But… I've been getting it since, like, fourth grade.”

Brendon grins widely as he shakes his head, “But I’m about to give it to you hands on!”

And Tyler flushes furiously, because what the fuck even??   He’s not about to do anything sexual with Brendon—he doesn't even wanna do anything with Josh yet—

“Shit, I know what you're thinking! We’re not touching each other!” Brendon assures the flustered boy.  Tyler can only shoot him a confused look, though, because Brendon had clearly said this was gonna be hands on…

Brendon gets up from the bed and heads to his dresser instead, rummaging through one of the drawers, and Brendon makes things worse when he returns with a small square package and a phallic device.

“B-Brendon, oh my God, ” Tyler whines out, mortified as he puts his face in his hands, “I don't wanna do this.”

“What, you plan on barebacking??”

“ No! Jesus, Brendon, I don't wanna do that kind of stuff any time soon!”

“But you do one day!”

“Brendon, please no.”

The older boy laughs, “Alright, but come to me when you're ready! I can tell you what you need to know.”

“I don't know, that's kinda awkward,” Tyler mumbles with a sheepish smile, and Brendon laughs again.

“Only if you make it awkward,” Brendon responds, “So, what should we do now, best friend?”

Tyler shrugs, but Brendon gasps as if suddenly getting an idea, “You and Josh gotta go on a date!”

Tyler blushes, smiling shyly, “Yeah?”

“Yeah! Me and Pete and some other friends might go to Dave & Busters or roller skating or something—you and Josh can get a ride from us and go do your own thing!”

“Yeah,” Tyler agrees with a nod, “I’ve never been skating before.”

“Ask Josh if he's up for it this weekend!” Brendon urges excitedly, bouncing where he sits.  Tyler takes his phone from his pocket again and pulls up Josh's contact.

tyler: brendon said we should go skating this weekend and make it a date :^)

josh: That sounds sick (c:

tyler: josh tf is that

josh: My smiley. I made up my own nose (c:

tyler: :^) is better :^/

josh: It most definitely is not you hater /c:

tyler: fite me (=o’.’)=o me and you tomorrow morning

josh: I’ll take you out easily kiddo oc:

tyler: ew its so ugly D^:

josh: Alright I'll keep using yours :^)

tyler: fiiiine

josh: So what did Brendon wanna talk about?

tyler: you prolly dont wanna know

josh: Now i really wanna know

tyler: alright ill tell you later but its kinda awkward ha

josh: Cool call me later <3

tyler: i will!

“What he say?” Brendon asks as Tyler slips his phone back into his pocket.

“Mhm we’re going skating,” Tyler smiles, “We're making it a date.”

Chapter Text

The week rolled by at a moderate pace, Tyler increasingly becoming more nervous the closer Friday, because he's going on his first date ever, with Josh.  And they're going skating, and Tyler's never skated before as previously revealed, and the younger boy is bound to make a fool of himself, if he can imagine.  Honestly, why did he even choose skating over going to the arcade anyways?

But it's too late now, so Tyler just sucks it up as Friday is finally upon them.

When school lets out for the weekend, Brendon climbs onto Tyler’s bus (much to Tyler’s surprise).

“Wrong bus!” the bus driver says to Brendon, and the boy shakes his head.

“No, this is my bus; my mom can't pick me up today,” Brendon tells her, earning access onto the bus as he plops down next to Tyler.  Of course that was a lie; Brendon doesn't even live in the same neighborhood as Tyler, and Tyler's been on his bus just a few days ago.

Brendon turns to Tyler excitedly, “You ready for tonight?”

Tyler nods, “Just a bit nervous.”

“I bet, isn't this your first date with anyone?”

Tyler nods again, feeling awkward when Brendon begins to coo at that.

“Awee, Ty! That's so cute!”

How?? Is what Tyler wants to ask, but he didn't wanna seem rude, so he merely offers a sheepish smile.

<><><>

Tyler lets them both in the house after the walk from the bus stop, and Zack is seated on the couch, his laptop plugged into the tv with an HDMI and playing sims on the larger screen.

“Hey, isn't this cool, T-bro?” Zack asks when he hears the door open, looking towards Tyler with a smile—which is replaced by a look of surprise when he sees Brendon grinning to him.

“It's awesome, Daddy Zacky!”

The grim look Zack shot Brendon’s way didn't seem to bother Brendon at all, but Tyler doesn't want him to get kicked out or something, so he grabs the older boy by the wrist and pulls him to the stairs and hopes it doesn't piss Brendon off.

Tyler doesn't let go until they're both in his room with the door closed behind him.

“I don't think Zack likes me very much.”

“ Wonder why ,” Tyler mumbles under his breath as he moves to sit on his bed.  Brendon either didn't hear or didn't care enough as he sits on the bed next to Tyler, looking to him excitedly again.

“So, what are you gonna wear?” Brendon asks, Tyler shrugs.

“Probably what I usually wear,” Tyler informs.  He's confused when Brendon shakes his head.

“No, this is your first date!” Brendon starts, rising from the bed and heading towards Tyler's closet, “Mind if I find you something to wear?”

“Okay,” Tyler shrugs—he doesn't have much, just several pairs of jeans, a few old hoodies, and t-shirts.  Brendon questions him on this, which honestly annoys Tyler a little, because he shouldn't be in his goddamn closet in the first place, but he doesn't say anything as Brendon rifles through his closet anyways.

“Do you think Zack would drive us to mine?” Brendon asks as he gives up on finding anything nice in Tyler's closet.

“Reluctantly,” comes Tyler's response, but it's enough for Brendon as he gestures for the younger boy to follow him back down to the living room, saying on the way that Tyler himself should ask since Zack will probably be more likely to drive them if he asks.

The older man is still playing his game when they enter the living room, and Tyler asks a bit anxiously, “Hey, um—can you, like, drive us to Brendon’s?”

And Tyler was right, because Zack sighs a little as he puts his computer stuff aside before standing.

“You need to learn how to drive,” his brother mumbles as he slips his feet into a pair of shoes.

<><><>

“I should have something in here that’ll fit,” Brendon says to himself as he searches through his own closet, Tyler seated on Brendon's bed as he waits.  He's honestly not sure why he couldn't just where this, because even Tyler can tell you that Josh won't give a shit if Tyler wears his usual big hoodie or not—and it's just skating.

“Here, this is nice!” Brendon says as he brings a black tee and some sort of floral shirt to him, “The kimono was one of my ex’s but not anymore!”

Tyler hums, “Okay.”

“Want me to turn while you change shirts?” Brendon offers, earning a nod and an appreciative smile from the younger boy.  He quickly changes as soon as he gets privacy, telling Brendon he can turn back when he's ready.

Brendon turns, smiling widely as he tells his friend to stand do he can see him better.

“Look at Tyler, lookin’ like a snack!” Brendon hypes, and Tyler blushes a little at the compliment, “Now, let's clean your shoes; they've been dirty for too long .”

Chapter Text

Tyler's introduced to two of Brendon's friends (he was distracted by today's upcoming events and didn’t properly catch either of their names) before they both climb into the backseat of… Jerry’s?  Gerald’s?   Well, the driver’s car.  Brendon sits by the window and Tyler sits on the middle seat; the other window seat is clearly for Josh.

Brendon manages to give directions to the driver while keeping up with a conversation between himself and the boy in the passenger seat—and Tyler recognizes him, actually, he swears he's seen him somewhere before, and that confuses him, because based on what he gathered from the aforementioned conversation, it's safe to say that he and the boy in the passenger seat don't attend the same school.

But that doesn't matter, and Brendon's directions conclude with the driver pulling up in front of Josh’s house, said resident already waiting on his porch.

More introductions are made as Josh enters the carpool, and Tyler finds it to be in his best interest to actually pay attention to them this time to avoid future embarrassment.  

“Our wonderful driver here is Gerard,” Brendon points, and oh well, Tyler was close, “And this is his boyfriend, Frank.”

Yes, the name is familiar too, but Tyler still can't put his finger on where the fuck he knows this kid from.

Josh plops down onto the seat reserved for him, turning to Tyler to place a gentle peck on his temple, the younger boy bowing his head as he blushes and smiles to himself—and Brendon starts fangirling again, and Brendon’s so fucking weird, honestly, but that’s Brendon for ya.

Gerard starts driving toward their next destination, which barely takes a minute to get to, and Pete climbs into the car before they’re off again.

The last house is in a neighborhood a bit further down than Tyler’s.  He takes in his current, unfamiliar surroundings—there’s a plethora of graffiti sprayed onto a lot of the fences he sees.  So far he’s seen a few dicks, “fuck 12’s,” and messages announcing who was where, but despite that, the houses are quite nice.

When they finally get to the house, a girl with long, blue air rushes out; she’s introduced as Ashley, and she sits in the middle row with Pete.

Now that the car’s full of chatty teens, Gerard drives towards the nearest skating rink—it’s, like, twenty minutes away.

<><><>

After waiting in the entrance line and paying, the friends get in the next line to get their shoes—and Tyler fucks up before they can even start skating, because he doesn’t know his fucking shoe size and has to take his shoe off to see the number at the bottom, but him being the clumsy fuck he is, he lost his balance and fell on top of Frank, sending them both crashing to the floor in front of everyone.

Tyler apologizes profusely, and Frank does his best to reassure him that it’s alright and that he didn’t mind, but fuck , dude, that was mortifying.

Tyler’s still beet red and dead inside by the time he and Josh have their skates on, and Josh tries to console the smaller boy as they make their way to the practice rink, Tyler desperately gripping the other’s hand as he struggles to figure out what to do with his legs.

Tyler feels a little awkward when he finds that most of the people there are small children, but there are a few kids close to his age, so he guesses it isn’t too bad.

They roll onto the rink, and Tyler almost falls     on the spot, but Josh is quick to catch him before sudden death.

“I’ve got you,” Josh assures him, carefully guiding him further onto the rink.  Tyler wobbles uncontrollably and nearly topples over, hastily clutching onto Josh and pressing himself against him in his panic, but the other doesn't seem to mind and he laughs a little to himself.

“I can't do it, I suck too bad,” Tyler whines pitifully, refusing to let go of his boyfriend.

“You're just new to this—everyone falls and struggles to keep balance at first,” Josh says encouragingly, “Here, grab onto the railing.”

Tyler reluctantly complies, gripping the railing with his right hand and gripping onto Josh’s hand with his other.

“You good?” Josh asks as Tyler does his best to keep his balance, but his feet keep rolling as if they have minds of their own, and Tyler shakes his head frantically.

“No, no, I’m gonna fall—”

He freaks out and jerks his foot in a desperate attempt to prevent himself from falling, but he slips backwards, and Josh barely catches him before he lands.

“You alright, baby boy?” Josh asks, heart fluttering at the pet name, but he's still embarrassed about screwing up.

“I'm dead inside,” Tyler mumbles, and Josh chuckles at the comment as he pulls him up to his feet again.

“You're fine, cutes,” Josh reassures, and Tyler blushes at the new but endearing  nickname.

“Cutes?” Tyler asks, tilting his head a little as he grips onto the railing again.

“Mhm, don't like it?” Josh smirks to the younger, and Tyler shakes his head.

“No, I do,” Tyler starts, taking a risk as he slowly moves one foot forward, like he's seen Josh and the others in the rink doing, “I've just never heard it before.”

Josh moves with Tyler, “That's it, just like that.”

Tyler hums, bowing his head to watch his feet.  They both keep at it like this, the smaller boy almost falling over every once in awhile, but Josh catches him and reassures him each time, and Tyler's eventually able to let go of the railing.

“See? Progress, Ty,” Josh says, and Tyler smiles in agreement, “Think you're ready to let go of my hand?”

Tyler nods, “Yeah, wanna try.”

“Alright, easy,” Josh loosens his hold, and Tyler lets go.  He moves forward, toppling over instantly, but he catches himself with the palms of his hands.

“Oops,” Tyler mumbles, and Josh chuckles as he helps Tyler up again.

“Wanna hold on again?”

Tyler shakes his head, “I just need balance again.”

So Josh holds onto him while Tyler regains his composure the best he can, nodding his okay when he feels he's good to go.

And Tyler impresses himself as he's able to skate along the entire length of the wall, but then a new problem arises; he doesn’t know how to fucking turn, and he falls on his ass again while attempting to.

“You alright?” Josh asks as he glides over to him effortlessly, and he feels bad for making Josh have to skate with him in the practice rink when he could be enjoying himself in the big rink with everyone else.

“I'm fine,” Tyler mumbles as Josh helps him up yet again, “Can we watch everyone else skate now? Think I need a break.”

“Yeah, that's fine,” Josh says, grabbing his hand as they exit the rink, “You did so well.”

Tyler smiles at the praise, allowing Josh to lead him to an empty space at the short wall between the pathway and the larger rink, leaning against it as he searches for the people he came here with.

There's a lot of people gliding laps effortlessly along the rink, but he easily spots Ashley and her vibrant blue hair, Frank and Gerard not too far behind as they skate with intertwined hands, Brendon just a bit behind as he tries to show off by doing a spin, but he rams into someone else, the yelling profanities as they both fall over.  Josh must've seen as well, because he begins cackling next to him, along with a few others nearby.  Tyler laughs too, but his laughter quickly ceases as his feet slip, but he manages to catch himself against the wall before he falls. That's what his bitch ass gets for laughing.

“Rip,” Tyler says to make the situation less awkward.  It doesn't work, because he's still getting weird looks, but his daddy comes to the rescue.

“What, you guys never fell skating? Hard to believe, so mind ya own goddamn business,” Josh spits harshly, and Tyler blushes as he leans against the other.

“My hero,” Tyler sighs, and Josh wraps an arm around Tyler's waist.  

The two stand like that for a while, watching everyone skate as they're challenged to skate backwards.

“Nope! That ain't for me!” Tyler hears the one and only Brendon Urie call out, and he's rolling up to them a few seconds later.

“You guys wanna get food with me?” Brendon asks the two.

“I’ll go,” Josh agrees before turning to Tyler, “You coming?”

Tyler shakes his head; he doesn't trust himself and his (lack of) skating skills to skate to the food area, and Josh can't hold him while holding food as well.

“I’m not really hungry, I’ll be fine here.”

“You sure?”

Tyler nods, offering an encouraging smile.

“Alright, I’ll be back as soon as I finish eating,” Josh says, leaning down to press a quick kiss to Tyler's lips before leaving the blushing mess at the wall.  The younger boy giggles to himself, smiling down at his raggedy skates.

Tyler's not alone for long, because someone rolls over to him, saying, “Skrt skrt” as they grab onto the wall in between them.  He looks up to the source of the onomatopoeia, instantly making eye contact with Pete.  Tyler drops his eyes to the other’s nose.

“What’s up, Tyler?” Pete asks, leaning forward onto the wall, making them closer than necessary.

“U-um, just waiting for Josh,” Tyler answers, moving to the side a little so he can get his personal space back.  Pete stays where he is, thank God.

“Where did he go?”

“Food,” he keeps his answer short and sweet, but Pete doesn't seem to mind too much.

“Cool, cool,” Pete says, glancing over his shoulder in the direction of the food area before looking back to the younger boy again, “It's weird to hear your voice; I literally thought you were a mute.”

Tyler’s heart clenches uncomfortably—he’s never liked hearing stuff like that.

“Y-yeah?” he squeaks out pathetically, and Pete nods.

“Yeah. I like hearing you, though,” Pete admits, and holy shit, it sounds suggestive —he’s definitely dealing with another fuckboy here.

But maybe he's getting the wrong idea?  He's gotten wrong ideas before, and he needs to stop jumping to conclusions.

“Oh, okay,” Tyler mumbles lamely, not knowing how to talk to the older boy—man?  I mean, he’s already supposed to have graduated last year, so he's most likely grown.

“Yeah. So, you and Josh..?”

Tyler nods, “Yeah, this is, uh, our first date.”

“Oh, cool,” Pete says, nodding his head towards the large rink, “Wanna skate?”

And this is awkward, because he doesn't wanna just flat out reject him, but he doesn't wanna go in the big rink either, “Um—I still can't skate, and, like, I'm waiting for Josh, my date .”

“Josh won't mind, and I'll take you to the kiddy rink,” Pete persuades.  The younger boy doesn't like the fact that he referred to the smaller rink as the kiddy rink because it honestly makes him feel childish, but he agrees nonetheless.

Pete just simply climbs over the wall and takes Tyler's hand, urging him along.  They enter the practice rink together, and Tyler grips onto Pete as he tries to balance himself.  He honestly feels awkward as fuck right now, but he tries to suck it up and enjoy himself as they begin to inch forward.

“Not bad,” Pete compliments, and Tyler only hums awkwardly in response.

They skate together for a little, allowing Tyler to get the hang of it before Pete suddenly lets go of the younger’s hand.  He falters a moment, not expecting the loss of support, and he ends up slamming into the wall when he doesn't recover in time.  It doesn't hurt too bad, but it was so embarrassing.

“Fuck, sorry Tyler!” Pete apologizes, “I thought you could do it, shit, sorry!”

“It's alright,” Tyler assures him.

“Here,” Pete says as he grabs Tyler’s arm and brings it over his shoulder, and if skating with Pete wasn't awkward before, then it definitely was now.

They try to skate again, but the position they're in is more of a hindrance than an aid, and Tyler topples over, bringing Pete down with him.  They land on the floor hard, Pete basically crushing Tyler under him, and fuck, Tyler's hurting so bad right now.

“Shit, sorry! Damn, I should've left you by the wall, huh?” Pete apologizes, getting up so he can help the smaller boy up as well.

“It's fine,” Tyler winces at the pain, and honestly, he agrees with the older of the two.

They go back to the wall and Tyler leans his weight onto it, Pete doing the same, just a bit too close for his liking.

“I'm really sorry for hurting you,” Pete apologizes once again, and Tyler shakes his head.

“It's okay,” Tyler reassures again.

They stand in silence for a moment longer, until Brendon and Josh finally return.

“A bit close, don't you think?” Josh asks firmly as he skates over to Pete and Tyler.  The oldest pushes away from the way, hands up in surrender.

“Just keeping him company, shit, ” Pete defends himself as Josh takes Pete’s place by Tyler's side, “Brendon does the same thing to him, why can't I?”

“I wasn't in this but okay,” Brendon butts in, but he's ignored as Josh continues.

“Because I don't fucking trust you,” Josh snaps back, and that only pisses Pete off, and it's about to be Josh's first day all over again at the rate they're going.

“Why not me, but you trust the fucking urinal?!”

“Brendon's not a fucking slut!”

And that's when Pete reaches his boiling point; he draws his fist back, but Brendon pulls Pete back before anything can happen.

“We’ll get kicked out, Pete! And you don't wanna ruin Tyler's first date!”

And that seems to be convincing enough for Pete, and he allows Brendon to guide him away from the two.

Tyler's just slightly disappointed, because he kinda wanted to know how a fight in skates would go down. 

Chapter Text

The group didn't stay much longer after the drama unfolded, and Gerard dropped everyone off at their designated stops, the uncomfortable tension engulfing them keeping them silent.

Tyler contacted his older brother prior to leaving the rink and got permission to go home with Josh and spend the night (though the older man teased him and told him to use protection because he thinks he's funny—which he definitely isn't).

Tyler follows Josh to the latter’s front door after Gerard drops them off and leaves, and the two make their way upstairs.

“So…” Josh starts as they sit on the bed, facing each other; the bigger of the two both looks and sounds apologetic as he speaks. “I pretty much fucked up our first date, I'm sorry, baby boy.”

Blushing, Tyler opens his mouth to verbally accept his apology, but Josh shakes his head before continuing.

“We both know that I was a dick to Pete, and I ruined your first date—you deserved way better than what I gave you.”

“I still had fun, though,” Tyler partially lies; he has discovered that skating isn't really for him. “We can have more fun playing Wii, yeah?”

Tyler's mentioning the Wii has the other perking up, as if suddenly remembering something, before jumping up from the bed.

“Your gift!”

Tyler tilts his head a little, “My gift?”

“Yeah, I told you I got you one,” Josh reminds him as he works on unlocking the armoire, “I locked it up because my bitch ass parents steal anything when they're desperate.”

Tyler just hums in response, because what do you say in response to someone insulting their parents?  Sure, Josh's parents are assholes, but still.

“Close your eyes,” Josh instructs as he finally gets it unlocked, and Tyler complies.  He hears one of the armoire doors open, followed by what sounds like a gift bag shuffling, and he almost opens his eyes against his will as a bag is dropped onto his lap, surprising him a little.

“Open, kiddo,” Josh says as he sits next to him, causing the mattress to dip down.  When he finally reopens his eyes, he's greeted with a shopping bag from Pink.

“I saw you and Brendon looking at it that time we hung out at the mall, so…” Josh trails off awkwardly as Tyler pulls a hoodie out of the bag.  It’s maroon with gray at the top, and Tyler remembers Brendon dragging him into Pink before Christmas break started to look at the hoodie.

Brendon was the one who wanted it, not Tyler—but it is a nice hoodie, and it's from Josh.

So he gestures for Josh to turn away from him for a moment, which visibly confuses the other as he complies.  Tyler knows what he's thinking; why does Josh have to turn away just so Tyler can take a kimono off?

To be blunt, he doesn't want the other boy to see his arms.  Josh doesn't need to know that, though, so he's very thankful of Josh’ wordless cooperation as he exchanges the kimono for the hoodie.

Tyler zips his hoodie and stands to show his boyfriend, looking down at himself and smiling.  His new hoodie fits much nicer than his old one had, and probably looks less silly as well.  He adjusts the hem of his hoodie as he looks back up to Josh, who looks to the smaller in adoration.

“You look cute, baby boy,” Josh smiles, earning another shy smile and a cute blush in return.

“Yeah, it's comfy,” Tyler says, sitting next to Josh once again, leaning closer to press a gentle kiss to his cheek before resting his head on his shoulder, “Thank you.”

Josh only chuckles a little in response, “We should play Smash Bros.”

Chapter Text

Tyler’s awakening the next morning isn’t exactly peaceful as Josh urgently shakes his shoulder as he sleeps, but it has him awake enough to pull himself out of bed as Josh explains that his parents are home—with company.

The two manage to sneak out of the house unseen by the high fucks in the living room by sneaking out the back door, and they start walking down to Tyler’s house, where they won’t be in any potential danger.

Tyler unlocks his front door and lets them both in, heading to the kitchen, “Breakfast?”

“Of course—it’s the most important meal of the day,” Josh follows the younger.

“Servin’ it up, Gary’s way,” Tyler jokes as he swings open the refrigerator door, rummaging through the contents of his fridge; he really wishes Zack would hurry up and go to the fucking store.

“What?” Josh asks, as if he didn’t get it.

Tyler turns away from the fridge to shoot Josh an incredulous look, “Are you kidding?”

“Nope, I’m genuinely confused.”

Tyler looks to his boyfriend a moment longer before turning back to the fridge, “You don’t deserve to know.”

“Awe, c’mon, kid,” Josh laughs as Tyler pulls out a carton of eggs and bread, and Tyler also wishes Zack would stop putting the fucking bread in the fucking fridge as well, because how can he enjoy a sandwich with hard ass, cold ass bread?  Or maybe Tyler’s being overdramatic, but he doesn’t care.  He hates refrigerated bread, and the older man has the nerve to wonder why bread always goes bad.

“Fried or scrambled eggs?” Tyler asks, nudging the fridge shut with his foot before moving to set the food down on the counter by the stove.

“Whatever you want,” Josh says, leaning on the counter as Tyler turns on the stove before searching for a frying pan, “Need any help, baby boy?”

Tyler blushes and shakes his head, setting a frying pan on the stove and retrieving spray from the cupboard above him, “Uhh… Start on eggs—fried, I guess—and I’ll, like, ask Zack if he wants anything. Please?”

“Sure thing, I have no idea where your spatulas are though,” Josh agrees, taking Tyler’s place at the stove.  The younger of the two opens a nearby drawer before leaving the room, being sure to toss a thanks over his shoulder.

Tyler knocks gently on his brother’s door when he gets to it, waiting for the okay to come in before doing so.

“Hey, Z-bro,” Tyler greets with a smile, and said man looks back to the younger, furrowing his brows a bit upon seeing him.

“Hey, isn’t that a girl’s hoodie?”

“No, it’s my hoodie,” Tyler says matter of factly before continuing, “Want any eggs and toast?”

“No, that’s okay, thank you,” Zack declines politely before speaking again, “Is Josh here?”

Tyler nods.

“Alright, come back here when he leaves, you have to tell me about your first date,” Zack smiles to the younger before turning back to his computer.

“Okay, see you later,” Tyler finishes before closing the door and returning downstairs to Josh.

“I’m back,” Tyler says as he enters the kitchen and moves to the older boy’s side, peering into the pan to make sure Josh is doing everything right.

“Welcome back, cutes,” Josh greets him as he moves the finished egg to another plate and starts on the next egg.

Tyler blushes as the petname returns, “You can, like, cook more than one on that pan.”

“Last time I tried that, I almost burnt the house down,” Josh chuckles, still sticking to one egg at a time, despite there being room for two more.

“Like that time you tried to smoke paper?”

Josh laughs, “Man, I thought you’d forget by now.”

“How could I?” Tyler laughs along, reaching for the refrigerated bread and grabbing four slices, “Zack doesn’t want anything, by the way.”

“Is it because I’m cooking it?” Josh jokes as Tyler moves to put the bread in the toaster.

“Possibly,” Tyler shrugs, heading back over to the fridge to get jelly—like Josh did of Pete, ayoo.

They don’t say much after that as Josh finishes cooking, and they eat their eggs and toast in silence as well, before heading up to Tyler’s room.

Chapter Text

Josh wasn't able to stay much longer when his parents demanded him home, and the bigger of the two cursed his parents before kissing the smaller sweetly, promising to see him later before leaving Tyler blushing and smiling to himself where he sat on the floor, Ruby curled up contently against Tyler's thigh.

He waits until the front door opens and closes before getting up from the floor, ignoring Ruby’s mewl of complaint as he heads over to Zack’s door, knocking and getting permission to enter.

“Josh left,” Tyler says as he closes the bedroom door behind him and sitting at the edge of the older man's bed when beckoned.

“That was quick, but how did yesterday go?” Zack asks, looking to his younger brother intently.  Honestly, Tyler’s not sure if he genuinely wants to know how it went, or if he’s looking for reasons not to like Kosh, but either way, he plans to leave out what happened between Josh and Pete.  

“Josh taught me how to skate,” Tyler starts, “Couldn’t turn, though. Skating’s hard.”

“All you guys did was skate?”

“Well, Gerard was our ride—”

“Who’s Gerard?”

“One of Brendon’s friends—but anyways, Gerard was our ride home, and he was, like, on a date too, and it would’ve probably been kinda a jerk move to ask him to take us somewhere else—especially since we weren’t the only ones who got rides,” Tyler explains to the older, finishing off with a nonchalant shrug, but Zack doesn’t seem satisfied with what he got, if the furrowed brow and slight narrowing of eyes is anything to go by.

“I know you, Tyler, and you’re leaving something out,” Zack says sternly, and though it’s not a warning, it manages to draw the full story out of the younger before he can even think about what he’s saying.

“And—uh, Josh and Pete almost, like, got in a fight over me and got us kicked out?? ‘Cause, like—”

“Woah, stop,” Zack interrupts, and if Tyler wasn’t so nervous right now, he’d be annoyed by the interruption, “Why the fuck is your boyfriend trying to fight this Pete kid? And what do you mean, ‘ got in a fight over you ’?”

“Josh said he-he didn’t trust Pete,” Tyler stammers, fiddling with the hem of his new hoodie and averting his gaze to the wall instead, “And he—um—he saw P-Pete with me.”

“Calm down, I’m not mad at you,” Zack sighs, as if noticing the younger’s nerves, before continuing his pushing, “Now, tell me why Josh doesn’t trust Pete if you can, and how you ended up with Pete in the first place on your date with Josh.”

Tyler takes in a deep breath in an effort to compose himself before answering, “He said, um, Pete’s a slut, and like, Brendon didn’t wanna, like, go to the food court a-alone, so he asked Josh to, to go with him.”

“And knowing that you can’t skate for shit, he left you alone so Brendon wouldn’t be?”

“I-it’s not that, I told him it was okay—and I was holding onto the h-half wall, until Pete, like, took me back to the practice rink.”    

“But as far as Josh knew, you were left alone on skates with a bunch of rowdy people around you, and anything could’ve went wrong.”

“I’m not a little kid, Zack—” Tyler starts to defend himself, only to get interrupted yet again.

“You sure do act like one,” the older man retorts, and Tyler freezes then and there, looking up to his brother, wounded by his accusation, and Tyler’s so ashamed.  

But the older man doesn’t seem fazed by how hurt the younger seems to be until he’s pushing away from the bed and crossing the room to the bedroom door.

“Shit, T-bro, I didn’t mean that,” Zack pleads, but Tyler only ignores his bullshit excuse as he leaves the room, closing the door behind him.  

Chapter Text

Tyler didn't come out for the rest of the day after his talk with Zack, ignoring the older man when he had announced that dinner was ready.  He had breakfast that morning, he'd reasoned with himself as he pressed the keys of his keyboard, so he should be okay enough skipping dinner—he had plenty of snacks already stashed in his desk drawer for times like this, anyways.

Tyler didn't come out the next day either.  He'd cross the hall to use the bathroom, but he'd lock himself in his room again immediately after finishing.  Of course Zack had tried to get him to come out again for both breakfast and dinner, but he got no response both times.

“You going on a hunger strike won't affect me , Tyler,” Zack had said, but Tyler only pressed another group of keys.

And this , Tyler had mused, was acting like a little kid.

<><><>

And Monday morning came at them fast, and Tyler reluctantly steps downstairs so he can leave for school.

He barely makes it out the door before he's being pulled back by his bookbag, and he's not gonna lie, it scared the shit out of him, and when he realizes that it's Zack who has a hold on him, his rapid heartbeat doesn't cease, because fuck , the older man's about to flip shit at him for the stunt he pulled.

But Zack only forces him to sit at the table, a plate of pancakes and eggs in front of him.

“I'm not letting you up until you finish your plate,” Zack speaks sternly as he sits across from him with his own food.

The tension engulfing them and the older man's staring eyes both make him uncomfortable as he begins to scarf down his food, because the sooner he finishes, the sooner he can get the fuck out of here.  Zack doesn't seem to pleased about it, but he doesn't stop him as he takes his time to actually enjoy his food.

And the younger boy is hastily heading out without a word as soon as he takes his last bite.

<>

As Tyler approaches the bus stop, he notices that Pete is back to standing by the crowd—and Josh isn't there at all.  Tyler's stomach drops as he stands at his spot alone, because he could really use a Dun Hug right now.  He hangs his head dejectedly, gazing down at his shoes.  At least they're clean now.

Not even a minute passes before another pair of feet enter his vision.

“Hey,” Pete says, and Tyler looks up at him with a wave, and Pete continues, “You look upset.”

Tyler only shrugs, though, and Pete actually looks a little sympathetic.

“You're not upset over Friday, are you?”

Tyler shakes his head, “Nah, just… home stuff, yeah?”

“Home stuff,” Pete repeats with a nod, “Yeah, me too. Dad’s an alcoholic and he gets angry when he's drunk, if you know what I mean.”

Tyler nods sadly, and he can't help but note to himself that he, Pete, and Josh have the dysfunctional family factor in common.  But what can they do about it, hmm?

“Are you okay?” Tyler asks carefully, voice small enough for it to almost be inaudible.

Pete snorts, shrugs, “I’m not dead yet so don't worry about it.”

Tyler flushes and sheepishly looks away from the older man, nodding a little.

A brief silence passes them before Pete speaks again, “Remember how Josh called me a slut?”

Tyler just nods.

“Josh doesn’t fucking know me, okay? I’m not a slut, and I wasn’t trying to hit on you or anything—just a man trying to hang out with his friend,” Pete defends, and Tyler only nods again, because honestly, what is he supposed to say?  He doesn’t know Pete, either.

The bus arrives a few seconds after, bringing an end to their conversation as Pete rushes ahead—assumably to get his favorite seat—and Tyler climbs on after everyone else, alone.

Chapter Text

It was day one at Tyler’s school, and he doesn’t know anyone other than Josh in his day one classes nor his day one lunch, so he was bound to spend the day alone.

And that’s exactly what he did, and an overwhelming feeling of loneliness inevitably engulfed him.  He decided that he didn’t care, though; he’s already used to loneliness and everything that sprouts from it.

This was just fine.

<><><>

Lunch time eventually rolls around, and Tyler contemplates what to do.  He could go to the bleachers outside like he usually did on day ones with Josh, but that’s considered trespassing, and he could get into trouble with the dean if he got caught.  He hasn’t gotten in trouble with the school since, what, his first year in middle school?  For vandalism?  All he did was doodle on the back of a bus seat with a sharpie, and it was gone the next day.  

His second option is to go to the cafeteria.  Alone, surrounded by loud teens who had no idea what personal space was, and that sounds like a disaster waiting to happen, so he crosses that off the list immediately.

His final option was to ask Mr. Lassiter if it would be alright for him to spend the lunch period in the classroom, and he decided that yeah, Mr. Lassiter’s a pretty chill guy, and this probably the best option.

But when the bell rang for lunch, he followed the other students out of the classroom instead of crossing the room to his teacher, because he dreaded rejection—that, or he’s a coward, and both are valid answers when it comes to Tyler.

So now he’s trespassing and pulling himself onto the bleachers, desperately hoping that security won’t be patrolling around outside as he retrieves his phone from his bag, scrolling mindlessly through Tumblr on his mind.

That is, until his phone vibrates in his hand, alerting him of a new text from Josh.

    Josh: Sorry I left you alone at school Cutes )c:

    Tyler: its alright. are you sick? :^(

    Josh: I’ll explain later okay? Call me when you get home from school

    Tyler: is everything okay?

    Josh: Nothing you should worry your pretty head about (c:

“Excuse me!” a deep masculine voice barks out from somewhere in the distance behind him, and Tyler freezes up before he can respond, panicking as he hears heavy footsteps jogging closer to him.

And fuck , out of all the days for security to come out, why did it have to be today?  

Tyler considers grabbing his shit and hauling ass, because this security guard doesn’t know who he is, and he may not be fit enough to run very well, but it damn sure is worth a shot, yeah?

And Tyler grabs his shit and hauls ass, running towards the building with the nearest boy’s bathroom in mind, hoping the security guard won’t think to check in there.  

And he’s so close to the back doors, and he’s being yanked back by the security guard, and he’s trembling with overwhelming anxiety and adrenaline from trying to escape, and he barely hears the man speak into a walkie talkie of sorts before addressing him.

“Why are you out here?”

Tyler only gapes up at the man as he struggles to form words, because holy shit, he’s so fucking fucked right now.

When Tyler doesn’t speak, the security guard continues, “Are you mute? Do you have an issue? You know you’re not supposed to be back here.”

“U-uh—” Tyler finally stammers out, trembling fists clenched by his sides as he musters up the strength to continue, “I—uh—I’m in lunch.”

The older man shows no sympathy as he glares down at him sternly, “Does this look like the cafeteria? Are you an idiot?”

And despite how anxious the young boy is, this seems to snap something in Tyler; he can take shit from Zack, but he will not take it from random ass people who just so happen to work at his school.   Fuck that.

“It—it sure doesn’t, why would, why would you e-even ask that? Are you an idiot, sir?”

This tugs at the guard’s nerves, if the way the older’s eye twitched and scowl deepened is anything to go by, “You’re trying to make me look a fool while stu-stu-stuttering?” he mocks the younger boy, and Tyler’s face heats up intensely.  He doesn’t even know how to respond to that at the moment, but he isn’t gonna let this kid punk him out while his surge of confidence lasts.

“I-I may have a, have a stutter, but at least I’ll—I’ll graduate and become something be-better than a school security guard. ”

And this seems to hit home, “I’m not dealing with this shit! I’m taking you to the dean of boys!”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

That’s when the older man’s large hands roughly grab at him in an attempt to haul him into the building himself, which shocks Tyler, who wouldn’t be caught off guard (ha pun)?  

But this man had no right to put his fucking hands on him, no fucking right.

“No!” Tyler raises his voice, thrashing and pushing at the security guard to break free from his grip, “I’m not your bitch so you’re not gonna manhandle me like I am!”

And it only went downhill from there.

Chapter Text

Tyler really wishes that he had been born a girl, because if he were, he’d be sitting in the dean of girls’ office.  The dean of girls’ has always been easy on the girls she’s disciplined due to her kind nature, especially when dealing with girls who are quiet—like Tyler.  

But Tyler’s a boy and always has been, so here he is, sitting in Mr. Bryson’s office with Zack fuming in the seat next to him as the dean of boys’ explains Tyler’s punishment without a hint of remorse for the timid boy.

And yeah, Tyler has definitely fucked up.

<>

The tension is thick and suffocating as Zack drives the two of them home, glaring at the road as he refuses to look or speak to the younger.  Tyler has no idea what awaits him when he gets home, but God , he doesn’t wanna find out.

<>

“What the fuck , Tyler?!” Zack raises his voice as soon as they enter the house, slamming the door so harshly that it rattles the windows.  Tyler flinches and cowers away from the older man, keeping his gaze to the wall behind him as he fiddles with his fingers anxiously.

“I—” Tyler squeaks out, only to shut his mouth again upon being interrupted.

“Shut up, Tyler! I don’t wanna hear any excuses from you!”

Tyler takes in a shaky breath and nods weakly, and Zack continues.

“How did you get yourself fucking suspended, Tyler, for a whole fucking week ?”

And Tyler’s not sure if he’s supposed to respond to that or not; the older man just told him to shut up and said that he didn’t wanna hear excuses, but what if he labels his response as an excuse?

“Five, four, three,” Zack starts, and fuck, Tyler doesn’t know what to say, and Zack reaching one will surely put him on his deathbed, and Tyler blurts out the first thing that comes to his panicked mind.

“I was defending myself!”

“By skipping, being uncooperative and disrespectful, and assaulting staff?” Zack lists off, glaring down to the younger with a look that reaches beyond one an angry parent would possess while scolding a misbehaving child.  Zack looks enraged— like he wants to put his hands on him and hurt him again.   Tyler can’t help but think that maybe his brother wouldn’t be quite this angry if it weren’t for the bad tension brewing between them for going on three days.

“I—I was just sitting out-outside—”

“I don’t wanna hear your fucking bullshit excuses, Tyler!”

“I’m trying to explain myself!” Tyler shouts back, surprising the older man, but Tyler’s too overwhelmed to care as he continues, “Why can’t you just fu—just listen to me, for one freaking second?!”

And Tyler then finds himself on the floor before he can process a hand coming towards him with a force strong enough to knock him off his feet, and he pulls himself into a sitting position to cradle his abused cheek in his own smaller hand, tears threatening to spill as he stares in shock at his brother’s feet.  He expected his brother to hit him, yeah, but it devastates the smaller boy anyway, because he got struck again by his best friend, and his best friend is screaming at him now.

“How fucking dare you talk to me like that?! After every fucking thing I do for your ungrateful ass?”

And Tyler doesn’t bother to hold back his tears as the guilt trip starts, letting go of his face to hold his knees against his chest, letting his tears soak the fabric of his jeans as Zack doesn’t relent.

“I took you in because Mom and Dad don’t give a single fucking shit about you!  I can easily take care of me and me alone, but here comes Tyler, who also needs food and water and clothes and all of life’s necessities that, by the way, aren’t fucking cheap!  And despite all that, I spend extra money on shit you don’t even need so you can be happy and comfortable! Your Wii, your computer, your games, you fucking phone bill! I buy you fucking everything when you could easily get a job so you can buy your own fucking shit! I’d give the world for you, Tyler, but you only come into my house and break my shit and show disrespect! You’re not my fucking kid, I shouldn’t have to take this shit from you! I—I—you know what, just please get out of my fucking face, Tyler!”

And Tyler, who was still shaking on the floor and trying his best to contain his sobs by the time Zack finished his rant and ultimately wounding Tyler with every word spat, pulls himself shakily onto his feet.

But instead of running to his bedroom like Zack probably expected, Tyler flings the front door open and dashes away from the house, leaving all his belongings behind.    

Chapter Text

Tyler’s chest is burning and his calves are threatening to snap in half as he finally finds himself at Josh's front door, struggling to catch his breath and tears not yet ceasing.  The likeliness of Josh's parents being home did cross his mind as he ran, but now it's safe to say that they're not home, seeing that there aren't any cars parked near the house.

So Tyler knocks on the door with a shaky fist, and he doesn't have to wait long before the door is opening, and Tyler must look absolutely ridiculous right now, but he needs Josh right now, so his current appearance is one of the least of his concerns.

And Tyler sees Josh at the door, eyes worried and bruised, and his nose is also bruised badly, and there’s a healing split on his lip, and Tyler’s worried too, because he just knows that his parents did this to him.

“Ty,” Josh speaks softly as he reaches out to gently grab his chin, tilting the younger’s head to the side, brows furrowing, “Please tell me what happened to you.”

Tyler opens his mouth to respond, only to emit a pained sob, and the older boy immediately pulls him into the house and out of the cold so he can wrap him into a tight hug instead.  Tyler presses himself as close as he physically can, burying his face into the crook of the other’s neck and continues to cry into it, and Josh lets him, keeping one arm securely around Tyler’s waist as he moves his other hand up to run his fingers through the smaller’s fluffy hair.  Tyler has always found this to be soothing, and now is no different as they work on calming him down and making him feel safe.

Tyler eventually regains composure, and he pulls away enough to speak clearly, “I-I’m okay now.”

“Good, good. Think you can tell me what happened?” Josh asks, tone still gentle and comforting, and Tyler nods as he pulls away completely to allow Josh to lead him into the living room.  They sit on the couch, and Tyler’s quick to lean against the older’s side, head resting on his shoulder, and Josh leans his head against Tyler’s to return the gesture.

“Uhh… I guess it started, uh, after you left my house Saturday morning?” Tyler starts, and he feels Josh nod against him, “Yeah, so like, Zack ended up telling me that I, like, act like a little kid, I guess since I’m childish and overly leechy.”

“Leechy?” Josh asks, and it occurs to Tyler that he’s never brought up his leech simile with his boyfriend, and he flushes sheepishly.

“Yeah, like, I feed off of affection until people get sick of me, I guess. So metaphorically, I’m a leech.”

“There’s nothing wrong with wanting affection, baby boy,” Josh assures him, and after all this time, Tyler still doesn’t seem to be used to the name as he blushes once again.

“But I excessively seek it.”

“Still,” Josh reassures, shifting their position a little to wrap an arm around the smaller boy’s shoulders, “That doesn’t make you a leech. You’re more like a cuddly little cat.”

“Or a monkey that, like, gets real comfortable with someone— too comfortable, and then pees on someone,” Tyler brings up, and Josh chuckles a little at that.

“Monkeys are cute, even if they apparently pee on people.”

“I guess so,” Tyler shrugs before he picks up where he left off, “But yeah, Zack said that I acted like a little kid, so I got upset and, like, locked myself in my room the entire weekend. Uh, I guess that made it really awkward and tense between us, yaknow?”

Josh nods, and Tyler continues again.

“You know how we sit on the bleachers on day ones?”

Another nod.

“Yeah, I went out there again because I didn’t know where else to go for lunch, but security came out, and, like, he disrespected me so I disrespected him back.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, he asked me why I was outside, and I didn’t say anything at first, and he was like, ‘are you mute? Do you have an issue?’ And I told him that I was in lunch, yeah? And he asked me if the bleachers looked like the cafeteria, and asked if I was an idiot. So I was like, ‘sure doesn’t, why would you ask that, are you an idiot?’”

And Josh starts chuckling again, “Ty, I can’t believe you actually said that.”

“Me neither,” Tyler smiles a little as he flushes again, because really, he can’t believe he actually said that to that man, jeez.  Hopefully he doesn’t see that guard for the rest of the year, as well as the next.

“Sorry I keep interrupting, go ahead,” Josh says, and Tyler nods.

“It’s fine. But I stuttered when I said that, so he was like, ‘how are you gonna try to make me look like a fool while stu-stu-stuttering?’ so I was like, ‘I may have a stutter but at least I’ll graduate and become something better than a school security guard,’ right? And I guess that made him really mad, and he said that he wasn’t gonna deal with me and that he was gonna take me to Mr. Bryson, so I told him that I wasn’t going anywhere. So then he grabbed me, and I got defensive and, uhh… said something to him about it…”

“Awe, what did you say?”

“Uh… Well, I told him that I wasn’t his bitch so he wasn’t gonna manhandle me like I was.”

And Josh outright laughs at that, “Holy shit, I’m pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve ever heard you curse!”

“Yeah?” Tyler blushes, and he can’t help but giggle too.

“Yeah, it’s precious!”

Tyler tilts his head a little, “How?”

“I don’t know, it’s like one of those things that you don’t get to hear often so you gotta love it when it does,” Josh answers, and Tyler giggles again before Josh speaks up, “And dude, you sassed out a security guard, that couldn’t have went down well.”

“Nah, I got suspended for five days.”

“I can’t believe you got suspended before I did,” is all Josh has to say, and they take a moment to laugh again together before Tyler continues explaining.

“So, uh… Zack took me home and, like, started yelling at me and didn’t really give me a chance to put a word in, so I yelled at him back and asked him why he couldn’t listen to me for a second, yeah? And then he, uh…”

Tyler brings a hand to his cheek, and Josh seems to get the idea, and the older pulls Tyler into another close hug, and they just sit like that in silence for a moment.

“Hey, can I ask you something?” Josh finally asks, and Tyler nods, “Is this the first time he hurt you?”

Tyler hesitates for a moment before giving in and nodding, “But I'm not in danger or anything, like, I'll be okay.”

Josh pulls away enough to give Tyler a concerned look, “No, abuse is abuse, no matter how minor you make it out to be—Zack slapped the shit out of you, babe, your cheek is fucking purple .”

“P-pur—?!” Tyler's eyes widen as he brings up a hand to poke at his abused cheek, but Josh catches his wrist before he can hurt himself.

“I don't think messing with it is gonna help it. Want some pain medicine for it?” Josh offers gently, and Tyler shakes his head before changing the subject.

“Why weren't you in school today? Since you were gonna call and tell.”

“My parents didn't want the school to see my black eye and busted ass nose so they told me to stay home,” Josh says, gesturing at his injuries, “Dad and I had gotten into a bad fight Saturday when I came home.”

“Can I ask why?” Tyler asks, and the other shrugs nonchalantly.

“He’ a homophobic fuck. He started cussing me out as soon as I walked through the door and asked me where the fuck I was, and that lead to an unnecessary argument,” Josh says, and offers an assuring smile upon seeing Tyler's concerned expression, “Hey, no worries, you know I don't go down without a fight; I got him good.”

“Abuse is abuse, no matter how minor you make it out to be,” Tyler repeats, and Josh sighs a little at that.

“Speaking of getting my dad good, I'm gonna have to kick Zack's ass.”

Tyler frowns and shakes his head again, “No, you don't.”

Josh nods, “Yeah, I'm gonna kick his ass, kiddo, next time I see him.”

“Like, I appreciate the thought, I guess, but I don't think beating him up is gonna, like, change anything,” Tyler says, and Josh only leans closer to press a gentle kiss to the smaller boy's forehead before getting up from the couch.

“We should totally play video games to lighten the mood,” Josh suggest to the blushing boy, who agrees and follows the other upstairs.

Chapter Text

Josh’s phone rings in the midst of their current battle, and Tyler doesn’t object as the older boy pauses the game to fish the offending device out of his pocket.  Josh groans before answering the call and speaking a flat greeting into the phone.  He’s silent for a moment as the caller speaks, and Josh’s brow furrows.

“Um… Okay?” is followed by another pause, before it’s Josh’s turn to speak again, “I can go to Brendon’s. I’ll just tell him I got into a fight or some shit.”

The caller barely speaks for a moment more before the call itself ends, and Josh taps at his phone for a moment as he addresses Tyler, “My parents are bringing a few of their druggie friends over, and they don’t want me here even though it’s not their fucking house, so I asked Brendon if his aunt could pick us up.”

Tyler doesn’t say anything as Josh puts his phone away and reaches out for Tyler’s game controller, and he hands it over so the other can lock everything away.

“By the way,” Josh starts as they start heading downstairs a moment later, “If Marie or Brendon ask about the bruises, it wasn’t Zack, and it wasn’t my dad. I got in a fight, and I don’t know, some bitch at school slapped you or something.”

Tyler tilts his head as he looks to the other boy, “But why would a girl slap me for no reason? Like, what do I say if they ask?”

“Just tell them that you’d rather not talk about it and leave it at that. If they push, I got your back.”

<>

A car pulls into Josh’s driveway at almost nine pm, and Josh mumbles to himself about how he wonders why Marie took so long, and Tyler’s just nervous to be meeting a new person.  Josh assures him that Marie is “sick as frick” and that he’ll love her, so Tyler just takes his word for it as they approach the car.  Josh opens the back door and motions for Tyler to slide into the car before following buckling his seatbelt—which reminds Tyler to do the same; he always forgets to buckle his seatbelt, and sometimes, he just simply chooses not to.  

“Thank you, Marie,” Josh says as Marie starts pulling out of the driveway, seemingly not noticing their blemished faces, probably because of the dark.

“No problem, love,” Marie assures him before speaking up again, “So, Josh, Brendon said that this is your boyfriend, Tyler?”

“Yeah. He’s really shy and sensitive, so don’t be so straight-forward and blunt towards him,” Josh warns, “Like Brendon was when they first met.”

“I’m sorry you had to meet the dumb fuck known as Brendon,” Marie jokes from the driver’s seat, and Tyler offers an amused smile, even though the older woman probably can’t see it.

“He’s smiling,” Josh speaks up, and Marie laughs as she keeps her eyes locked to the road in front of them.

<>

“So, Tyler,” Marie speaks up as they turn onto a familiar enough street, “My only rules are to take your shoes off by the door, and please don’t holler and shout, I can’t stand that. And I don’t wanna walk in on a jerk triangle, either.”

Josh starts snickering while Tyler sits, confused, because what’s a—

Oh.   Wow, okay, then…

And Tyler’s red faced, even as they’re all exiting the car and approaching the front door.

“I also have nuggets and fries in the kitchen, if you’re hungry,” Marie offers as she gets the door unlocked and open, letting herself in and holding the door open for the boys to enter.  

And now that they’re in light surroundings, their bruises are on full display, and Marie’s eyes widen as soon as she sees them.

“Oh my God, did you guys beat each other??” Marie asks, only half serious, and Tyler can hear Brendon make a startled sound before he’s suddenly entering the room as well.

“Tyler beat the shit out of Josh!” Brendon gasps dramatically.

“How does someone so tiny do so much damage?!”

“Shit, Tyler’s probably the daddy in the relationship for all we know!”

“He surely is not, he’s baby boy!” Josh retorts, and Tyler blushes again, and it gets a little more serious as the jokes and laughter ceases.

“But seriously, did you guys scrap?” Marie asks, and Josh shook his head.

“Got in another fight at the park on Saturday, and Tyler said this girl slapped him at school today,” Josh lies easily, and attention is momentarily shifted to Tyler.

“Who slapped you and why?” Brendon asks, and Tyler lets his gaze drop to his feet as he fiddles with the hem of his hoodie, like he usually would when getting nervous.

“I don’t really wanna talk about it,” Tyler mumbles, and the two seem to fall for it, and thankfully, they don’t push.

“You guys hungry? We have nuggets and fries,” Marie reminds the youngest two of the four, and they nod before entering the kitchen together, even though Tyler doesn’t really care much for chicken nuggets.  

Chapter Text

"It's getting late," Marie brings up hours later as the time nears midnight, pausing the movie they were watching, "When did your parents want you home?"

"Funny story," Josh starts, "Tyler's brother is out of town, and I'm having drama with my family again, so I was kinda hoping we could stay here for a little bit?"

"I don't see how that's funny, but yeah, that's fine with me, love," Marie nods, "I'm taking my ass to bed, though, goodnight."

The boys return her goodnight as she leaves the living room to head upstairs, and none of them say anything, until a door upstairs is heard clicking shut.

"So," Brendon starts, turning to Josh with a serious look, "What really happened?"

"About what?"

"Me and Pete were at the park all Saturday, and there was no fight, nor a boy named Josh Dun."

And Josh doesn't say anything for a moment; what does one say after getting called out for lying, especially when the lie was created to cover something as serious as child abuse?

"Alright, fine , it was one of my parents' druggie friends," Josh lies again after his brief moment of hesitation and pondering, "He was talking shit, so I talked shit back, he got pissed and shoved me, and then we were both swinging fists."

"And he's still there or something? What's the family drama?" Brendon asks, frowning a little to his friend.

"He's gonna be here for the next day or two and I want nothing to do with him. That's why I'm here," Josh finishes, and Brendon nods understandingly.

"But what about Tyler? I'm assuming that him getting slapped by some girl at school was bullshit, too."

"Nope, it was that Debby bitch," Josh finally builds onto the lie, making it more believable—at least to dumbass Brendon, who runs in front of moving vehicles and doesn't find anything wrong with that, "The one who's friends with Jenna."

"The one that likes Tyler?!" Brendon asks, and he genuinely looks surprised, "Dude, why?"

"I don't know, Tyler said that Jenna tried to ask him out during class, and Tyler accidentally hurt her feelings," and then Josh is turning to Tyler, "What happened again? You obviously know it better."

And Tyler can't believe Josh just put him on the spot like that, because no, he obviously doesn't know it better, because it's obviously a lie that Tyler had no part in creating.

But Tyler obviously can't say that, so he blurts out the first bullshit lie that comes to mind.

“Like, at first I just, uh, told her no, but she asked why I, like, wasn't interested… So I was like, I dunno, prolly ‘cause you have a vagina, and uh… It was one of those moments when the class gets, like, really quiet at the wrong time…”

And Brendon fucking guffaws (and Tyler wants to kill himself; he hates when Brendon laughs like that), “Yeah, I hate when that happens!”

“Yeah, but anyways, I guess it embarrassed her really bad and she ran off to Debby, and so that's why Debby came up.”

“Bro, I'm not afraid to fight a girl!” Brendon claims, and he's still laughing his ass off, so Tyler's honestly not sure if he's serious or not, “I'll murk a bitch for you!”

“But you'll get suspended,” Tyler warns, because yeah, he cares about his friend, but he also doesn't want whoever the fuck this Debby person is to get hurt over something she never did.

“You do that, and you and Tyler can be suspended together,” Josh says, and the oldest emits a surprised sound as he looks to the youngest with wide eyes.

“You got suspended ?!” Brendon asks incredulously, “Instead of SIPS?! What did you do?!”

Tyler flushes again as he shrugs, and begins to give Brendon the watered down version of what happened, because he doesn't like to repeat himself, and he can hardly even remember right now anyways, “All I did was go outside for lunch, and, uh, security came out, and they said that I was uncooperative and disrespectful or something. Security even accused me of hitting him—but like, he had grabbed me and he had no right to do that. I didn't even hit him, I only struggled.”

“Tell him what you said to him,” Josh smirks to the youngest, and Tyler represses the urge to sigh as he looks away from both of them.

“When he grabbed me, I—uh, I told him I wasn't his bitch so he wasn't gonna manhandle me like I was.”

And Brendon starts cackling, slapping his hand on the couch repeatedly as if it's the only thing keeping him from laughing himself into an early grave, “I can't believe you said that! And you swore!”

Tyler only fidgets awkwardly in response.  He can understand people laughing when he's sassy, but when he curses?  It seems that almost everyone these days cuss as if it’s the only way they know how to socialize, and he’s heard some bizarre ones as well.  All he said was bitch, why is it so serious?

This is exactly why he doesn't use expletives out loud.  People think it's so funny and shit when he does, just because he's quiet.  Accuse him of being dramatic if you’d like, but it's so annoying to him.

But then again, Tyler gets annoyed by everything .  

“How long are you suspended for?” Brendon asks as his laughter ceases.

“Five days,” Tyler says, “I go back to school next Tuesday.”

“And I'm not going back until my bruise heals,” Josh adds, and Brendon looks truly distressed as he slumps in his seat and lets out a dramatic sigh.

“You guys are gonna make me have day two lunch alone?” Brendon whines, “And Josh, why?”

“Why not?” Josh counters, earning a pout from the oldest.

“Maybe Aunt Marie will let me stay home,” Brendon wonders aloud, shrugging to himself before getting up, “I’m gonna get ready for bed in case she says no. I have a trundle so you guys can sleep on the bottom mattress.”

And with that, Brendon leaves the two on the couch alone.

“Has Zack tried to contact you yet?” Josh asks once Brendon is out of earshot.

Tyler shrugs nonchalantly, “Left my phone at home.”

“Any reason?”

“I ran out in the heat of the moment,” Tyler says, “Didn't bring anything.”

“Did you wanna get it tomorrow or something?”

Tyler shakes his head, “Nah, I'll get my stuff when I'm ready to go home.”

Chapter Text

An alarm jolts Tyler from his sleep the next morning, and it plays for an agonizing ten seconds before it’s turned off—but Tyler’s now too alert to fall back to sleep any time soon.  He’s honestly surprised that he was able to get any sleep last night; he usually has difficulty sleeping when in unfamiliar surroundings.  

As cliché as it sounds, he can’t help but wonder if his ability to fall asleep last night was due to the secure hold Josh has on him as he still fucking sleeps.

All wondering is cut short, though, as a large forehead peeks over the edge of the bed above and to the right, mischievous eyes gleaming down at him.

“I’ma stay in bed and play sick,” Brendon mumbles to the younger, “Don’t blow my cover!”

Tyler nods his loyalty to his friend before Brendon disappears from sight again.

Brendon then emits a loud groan of agony, and Tyler would be lying if he said it didn’t scare the absolute shit out of him—how the hell did Josh manage to sleep through both Brendon’s monster noises and the alarm?

Brendon wails out again just before Marie finally enters, face scrunched up as she looks to the idiot on the top mattress.

“What the fuck? Are you okay?” she questions judgingly, nearing Brendon the best she can with the bottom mattress of the trundle pulled out.

“Not at all, boy!”

And Tyler can barely contain his laugh, because Spongebob references are always funny.  At least if you’re Tyler and amused by every damn thing.

Marie leans over Brendon’s bed, “You don’t feel hot, you weirdo… What’s wrong?”

“I don’t feel good,” Brendon whines out, coughing at the end for emphasis.

“Okay…” Marie says in a tone that suggests that she thinks the boy is full of shit, “Stay home if you need to, but you’re gonna help me do housework.”

And Tyler can hear his friend sitting up in bed, “I think I can make it to school, actually.”

Marie looks down to Tyler with pursed lips and shakes her head at Brendon’s antics, and Tyler returns it with an amused smile.

“Are you two not going?” Marie asks as Brendon carefully climbs over Tyler and Josh, who are either still sleeping or hasn’t even tried to move from bed.

“Josh doesn’t want to, uh, go to school with his face, like, all bruised up and stuff, and I got suspended,” Tyler answers, and Marie nods.

“Wake Josh for me?”

Tyler nods and turns over the best he can so he can gently shake his boyfriend’s shoulder, and why the fuck is he still asleep?  Is this fucker dead??

“You gotta use vigor, love,” Marie laughs a little, and Tyler flushes a little, sheepishly.

“But I just have noodles,” Tyler says as he uses more force, and Josh stirs before blinking open his tired eyes.

“Thank you, Noodles,” Marie teases before addressing Josh, “Let me see your face.”

Josh removes his arms from around the smaller boy so he could push himself up into a sitting position, tilting his chin up so the older woman could see his face.

“Brendon, can you turn the light on for me, please?” Marie asks, and Tyler winces as the lights are switched on before he could prepare himself.

Marie hums as she stares at Josh, pondering, “Do you want makeup? It might not be exact, but better than nothing?”

“ Please, Josh, ” Brendon squeaks pathetically from where he stands in the closet, and Josh only looks to Tyler.

“I’ll make sure Tyler’s comfortable if that’s what you’re worried about,” Marie pipes up, and Tyler offers a reassuring smile.  He doesn’t want Josh to miss school just for him—he could get accused of, what, truancy?  What category offense even is that?

“Okay,” Josh finally decides, and they all also decide to ignore the faint “ yay! ” that comes from the closet as Marie motions for Josh to follow her.

Now Tyler lies in the bottom trundle bed alone with Brendon rummaging through his closet, and then he’s struck with the realization that Marie’s probably gonna have him help with housework today.

Chapter Text

Brendon’s still in the closet by the time Marie reenters the bedroom with Josh trailing behind her (with his bruises now concealed), and the older woman scoffs disapprovingly as she stomps her foot.

“Brendon Boyd Urie, if you don’t bring your ass, I’m making you take the bus again!” Marie threatens, and Brendon lets out a panicked cry.

“No! I don’t know what to wear!”

“Some clothes would work,” Tyler mumbles under his breath, almost inaudibly.

“Tyler, you don’t understand the struggle!” Brendon accuses, “You always wear the same hoodie zipped up!”

“You could, like, do the same sometimes and avoid struggle,” Tyler counters, earning poorly contained laughter from Josh and Marie, who are stood waiting by the bedroom door.  He doesn’t really understand how what he said was funny, but it still fuels whatever he had of his ego.

“I don’t even have any decent ones! Can I wear one of yours?”

“No,” Josh is quick to answer for Tyler before he can say yes, and Tyler goes with Josh’s answer and remains silent.

“Go see if one of mine fit,” Marie offers, and Brendon’s dashing out of the closet and down the hall without having to be told twice, “Anyways, you guys want pancakes? We might have time for some.”

<>

They were starting to run late by the time Marie finished cooking the last of the pancakes, and said woman leaves her plate in the microwave for later as Brendon and Josh decide to bring theirs to the car to eat on the way.

“I trust you won’t destroy anything until I get back, Noodles,” Marie jests as she grabs her keys and half-assedly forces her feet into shoes before she leaving the house with Brendon following behind.  Josh strides over to Tyler rather than the door, plate in hands.  He presses a quick kiss to Tyler’s lips as he nears him, bringing a pink flush to the younger’s cheeks as he smiles sweetly in response.

“Text me if you need and I’ll ditch, okay?” Josh promises, but Tyler shakes his head.

“I don’t want you to get in trouble.”

“Like you did?” Josh teases with a fond smile, not giving Tyler a chance to respond as he turns and walks out, leave Tyler in the house alone.

Well, at least he’s not completely alone; he has a plate of pancakes to enjoy—

But Tyler cringes and scratches his scalp as a plethora of holes taunt him, and he decides that waffles are better; he’s never seen a waffle infested with holes.

<>

Tyler’s lying mindlessly on the couch and bored to fuck as he hears keys turning into a lock, and he’s so relieved, honestly, because being alone in an unfamiliar house is honestly one of the worst things he’s ever endured.  

“You alive, Noodles?” Marie asks as she kicks off her shoes by the front door, and Noodles must be his newest nickname.  He hums in response, and Marie plops down onto the couch adjacent from the one he’s strewn across.

“What do you wanna do?” Marie asks, pulling her knees closer to her chest as she gets comfortable in her seat.

“You’ve said something about, uh, housework?” Tyler brings up, and he doesn’t know why he did that shit, because Lord knows he doesn’t wanna do housework, but then again, this woman was nice enough to take him in for a few days, even though she’s never met him before yesterday.

But, Marie laughs a little, “There’s no housework; I always tell Brendon about housework to get him out of the house. He believes it every time.”

“Brendon’s weird,” Tyler smiles to said boy’s aunt, who nods in agreement.

“Hell yeah, I can’t believe you willingly put up with him,” Marie jokes—at least Tyler hopes she’s joking.

“Me neither, honestly. He was almost roadkill.”

Marie scrunches her face again, “What the fuck?”

Tyler flushes sheepishly, “He ran out in front of my brother’s car while he was driving?”

“I wish his ass got hit,” Marie sighs with a shake of her head, but laughs immediately after, and he can’t help but join in, “But really, what do you want to do, Noodles?”

Noodles shrugs with the sheepish smile that always presents himself when he continuously says that he doesn’t know; people seem to get fed up with his indecisiveness, but Marie, he doesn’t think she seems to care too much as she shrugs as well.

“I have Wii games and Playstation games—wanna come look?”

“Okay,” Tyler agrees, and Marie motions for Tyler to follow her down the hallway and into a room that you have to go down a few steps to get into.  Not a basement, just a room on slightly lower ground, or whatever.  Tyler’s not the best at descriptions.

“They’re in that cabinet thing right there,” Marie informs, pointing to a coffee table situated beneath a flat screen tv mounted to the wall.  Tyler nods and makes his way over to it, taking in the variety of games available for them to play.  She has a lot of horror games—honestly, that seems to be all this woman has, and Tyler doesn’t handle horror very well.

“See anything?” Marie asks as she crouches down next to him, peering into the cabinet with Tyler.

“Uh… You can pick, I’ve never, um, played any of these,” Tyler says awkwardly.

“You like scary games?” Marie asks, and Tyler hesitates for a moment before giving in and shaking his head.

“I don’t handle horror well.”

“Hmm… What about zombies?” Marie starts as she reaches towards the back, retrieving a Wii game, “This one isn’t scary, more of a funny game, you know what I mean? Not graphic—visually, at least. It’s vulgar as fuck.”

The woman hands Tyler the game, and he stares at the cover for a moment.  House of the Dead: Overkill.

“I can try it.”  

Chapter Text

Tyler and Marie play that same game for the next several hours, incredulously so on Tyler’s part; the end of the storyline was… a bit disturbing, honestly, and he won’t share to avoid any possible spoilers.  But like Marie had previously promised, it wasn’t really a scary game at all and the younger played it easily after getting the hang of his aim.

“What time is it?” Marie asks when Tyler dies, giving him a chance to take a break.  Said boy glances around the room for a clock or something, and decides to just press the home button on Marie’s phone—which was right next to her on the floor—when he doesn’t find one, hoping the older woman doesn’t mind; someone once flipped shit when he pressed the button on their phone, and he’d like to avoid another reaction like that if he can.

“3:02,” Tyler answers, and the older woman curses under her breath.

“Do you think I’ll be able to make it to the school on time, or should I make them take the bus?”

“I don’t know if the bus driver will let Josh onto Brendon’s bus,” Tyler shrugs apologetically.

“Dammit, you’re right,” Marie sighs, hitting pause before pushing herself to her feet, “Wanna come with me?”

“Okay,” Tyler agrees, following her to the door to get their shoes.

<>

“Brendon said he’d be a minute because he has to find Josh,” Marie says as she pulls into a parking space in front of the school, “I don’t know why he can’t just tell him to meet him at the courtyard, but whatever floats his boat.”

“Brendon’s weird,” Tyler agrees, and an amused smile breaks out onto the older’s face as they look out at all the students hanging out on aforementioned courtyard.  It’s dumb crowded, and the idea of him even standing against the walls makes him uneasy; he would much rather head straight to his destination and lower the risk of something awful happening.

They only wait a few minutes before Josh approaches the car and climbs into the back seat with Tyler, greeting the younger with a kiss on the cheek that surprisingly leaves the younger blushing.  Can you fucking believe it?

“Hey, Marie,” Josh addresses the woman in the front seat.

“Hey, love. Where’s Brendon?”

“Talking to Pete’s bitch ass,” Josh says, maybe a bit bitterly, pointing out the window towards the courtyard.  Tyler looks in that direction, and surely enough, he sees Brendon, Pete, and a somewhat familiar blue haired girl by the flagpole, and Pete seems to have an arm wrapped around the girl’s—Ashley, if he recalls correctly—waist, and he can’t help but wonder if they’re dating or something.  I mean, Pete was literally flirting with him last weekend, was he not?

Marie grumbles about how Brendon’s always holding her up like this as she rolls the window, and Tyler prepares himself for a raised voice.

“Brendon Boyd Urie, if you don’t bring your watermelon-headed ass over here!” she shouts out, gaining not only the attention of Brendon and his friends, but also a decent handful of the kids polluting the courtyard.  Teens erupt in laughter and joke on poor Brendon as he shamefully makes his way to the car.

“You’re a bully,” Brendon whines as he climbs  into the passenger seat, “All that extra was not necessary.”

“Shut up, Brendon. Seatbelts on, loves.”

Brendon only crosses his arms and glares out the window, “I’m not putting mine on; if you get a ticket, it’ll serve you right for being rude.”

“If we get into an accident and you die, it’ll serve you right for being a fucking idiot.”

“I’d be dead so it wouldn’t bother me, but if you get a ticket, you still have to suffer the consequences—and if I die, you also get to suffer the pain of my loss, which’ll serve you right for not appreciating me while I’m living.”

“Brendon, I’m about to smack the shit out of you, and it’ll serve you right for having a mouth as big as your forehead, and you’ll have to suffer the consequences of getting slapped in the face and being on punishment, so try again.”

Brendon doesn’t say anything after that so Marie turns on the radio, and Tyler sits there awkwardly while Josh does his best to contain his laughter.

Chapter Text

The rest of the car ride goes by in silence, not considering the radio that holds no one’s attention.  Brendon remains pissed, Marie indifferent, Josh amused,and Tyler nervous—no longer because of the argument from earlier.

He spent the car ride wondering what’s up with Zack right now.  Is his older brother worried?  Angry?  Uncaring?  Will he resort to calling the police?  Assume he’s with Josh?  Look for him himself?  How’s he going to react when Tyler eventually returns home?  Will he weep about how worried he’s been?  Yell at him?  Hit him?  All of the above?  Just offer a casual, “What’s up, T-bro?”  Most importantly, how the fuck is Ruby?  Is Zack looking out for her?  Is she starving or dehydrated?  Is the litterbox being cleaned out for her?  Did Zack kick her out?  Hurt her?  If Ruby’s hurt in any way, it’ll be all Tyler’s fault—

“Hey, you okay?” Josh pulls the younger out of his toxic thoughts with a gentle nudge.  Tyler gives a perturbed nod, and it’s then that he notices that they’re pulling into Marie’s driveway.

And as soon as the woman gets the door open, Brendon storms past them and up the stairs, slamming a door behind him with enough force to rattle the windows.

“I can’t believe he’s really that mad,” Marie sighs as she toes off her shoes, the younger boys following suit, “I was just playing with him. I guess I’m such an asshole that I don’t notice when I’m going too far.”

“No, Marie, Brendon’s just dramatic as hell,” Josh reassures the older woman, but she sighs in response.

“Don’t feel so bad about yourself,” Josh tries again, “I’m a bigger asshole, but on purpose. I’m always mean to Brendon, and he’ll get over it quickly.”

“I know, I just wish I would tone it down a little,” Marie mutters, turning away to head towards the kitchen, “I’m gonna make homemade rice krispies.”

“Her rice krispies are great if you don’t mind getting all sticky,” Josh says to Tyler, who only nods in response, and that doesn’t seem to sit well with Josh as he furrows his brows worriedly, “Are you sure you’re okay? You look kinda out of it.”

And Tyler sighs and shrugs a little, “Just worried.”

“About what?” Josh asks, guiding Tyler over to the couch with a gentle hand on the small of the younger’s back.  They sit side by side, and Tyler immediately leans onto the older as he securely wraps an arm around his shoulders.

Tyler sighs again, more content with the affection he’s receiving from his boyfriend, before speaking quiet enough for Marie not to hear, “Just about Zack and Ruby and stuff.”

“What about them, baby boy?”

Tyler attempts to hide his flushed cheeks, which was unsurprisingly brought on by the petname; why is he so gay?

“Like, how Zack feels right now and how he’s gonna react until I come home, and if Ruby’s okay. Especially if Ruby’s okay.”

“Zack is cruel but I hope he’s not cruel enough to harm a cat,” Josh reassures, “And if he harms either of you, that’s just another reason for me to beat him up.”

Tyler turns his head to give the older boy an incredulous look, “You’re still set on fighting my brother?”

“Yeah,” Josh says, and dude, he’s actually serious?

“No, that’s not necessary,” Tyler shakes his head, “Where would you even get the opportunity?”

“Show up to the house, knock on the door, hope Zack answers it, and bam.”

“What if I open the door?”

“Say, ‘Hey, Cutes, can I come in?’”

“What if I say no?”

“I’ll come in anyways.”

“How? I wouldn’t let you.”

“I’ll sweep you off your feet with my charm.”

“Don’t flatter yourself, you gremlin.”

And before Tyler can begin to beat himself up for possibly going too far, Josh is laughing, jostling the smaller boy as he shakes from laughter.  Tyler giggles along, and Josh tightens his hold lovingly as his laughter ceases.

“But this gremlin managed to snatch up the finest work of art created,” Josh says fondly, tone as sweet as the way Josh looks to said work of art, and it’s so gay but it leaves Tyler a blushing, smiley mess pressed against him.

“ Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! ” they can hear Marie chanting from where she observes from the kitchen, and as sweet as the moment is, Tyler doesn’t want things to get cheesier than it already is, so he pulls away from Josh’s cuddle with a sheepish smile.

“Marie, you pervert!” Josh calls out, feigning irritation as he glares to the woman at the oven, who wiggles her eyebrows and smirks in response before turning her attention back to the snack cooking.

“One of the biggest you’ll cross.”

Chapter Text

It didn't take long for the rice krispies to finish and cool enough to serve.  Marie had called Brendon down with the offer of the homemade treat, and the boy was downstairs and devouring the rice krispies in a heartbeat, as if he wasn't just angry minutes prior.  

And after trying the snack for himself, Tyler decides that it's definitely better than actual rice krispies; maybe because it's warm and made with marshmallows and butter.  

But unfortunately for Josh, his phone rings only after his first bite.  

“Bet it's home,” Josh mumbles to Tyler as he fishes his phone from his pocket, and the younger can't help but note that the older didn't clean his sticky fingers first.  The thought is gone as soon as it came when Josh sighs before speaking up, “Just gonna take this call, leave me some.”

And with that, he leaves the kitchen for at least a bit of privacy as he answers the call, and Tyler also can't help but feel upset as he predicts that Josh’s parents are going to tell him to come home now.  What do they always call him home for, anyways?  Chores?  A target?

Tyler tries not to dwell on the subject as he turns his focus back to avoiding making a mess with his snack, unlike gross Brendon, who still scarfs down the food like it's gonna disappear if he gives his jaw a break.

Josh returns a moment later, and he clearly isn't happy with the conversation he just left as he speaks again, “Marie, my parents want me home. Can you drive me?”

“Sure thing, love,” the woman agrees, turning to wash her hands at the sink before grabbing her keys.

“Is Tyler staying though?” Brendon asks, mouth sticky from the treats, and Tyler looks away, disgusted.  

“Yeah, he's staying,” Josh answers, landing a quick kiss to said boy's cheek before grabbing a handful of rice krispies and heading towards the door.

“Bye, Josh!” Tyler calls out to the older boy.

“Steal Brendon's phone if you want me!” Josh returns before closing the door behind him.

“Why my phone?” Brendon asks, brows furrowed as he continues to stuff his face.

“I don't have mine,” is all Tyler says, and Brendon doesn't push—probably too focused on eating to care.

“Since Josh isn't here anymore, I think I'll invite Pete over for an assignment we were assigned,” Brendon informs the younger, “You don't have any beef with him, right?”

“Uhh… Not really…” Tyler trails off awkwardly.  

And dude, Tyler's gonna have a lot of makeup work when he returns, now that he thinks about it.  He fucking hates makeup work; he has to do it on top of the work currently assigned and it puts a lot of unnecessary pressure on him.  

He's also a lazy fuck, both are valid reasons.

“Awesome! I’ll invite him over real quick,” Brendon chirps, licking his fingers before retrieving his phone from his pocket.

Tyler finishes the last of the rice krispies before washing the sticky shit off his hands as Brendon texts Pete.  

The younger boy really wishes he didn't leave his phone at home.  Maybe he’ll ask for Brendon's when Pete comes over, since he’ll be busy with work.  Maybe Marie would let him borrow hers as well?  

He's not sure, and most likely won't even ask to find out.

Chapter Text

As soon as there’s a knock on the front door, Tyler retreats back upstairs and into Brendon’s room; the older boy had previously said that he and Pete would be working in the kitchen, and though he’s welcome to stay, he could chill out up there if he wanted until they’re done.

Tyler doesn’t dislike Pete or anything, but he can’t help but feel a bit awkward around him, for lack of a better word—but Josh doesn’t like Pete, nor does he trust him, and the younger isn’t really sure why, apparently because he's a slut or something. But is Josh genuinely apprehensive about Pete, or is he still bitter about the fight back in October? Possibly even both? But Josh didn’t seem too bothered during that fight, and weren’t Josh and Pete cool for a period of time?

Tyler decides that associating with people is difficult; he didn’t have to worry about anything like this when he was still friendless.

The boy pushes the bedroom door shut, and now that he’s isolated in a semi-unfamiliar room without his phone nor his computer, he has no idea what to do with himself. Tyler sighs, and he really wishes he didn’t leave all his shit at home. Sure, he could just man up and go home—

No, he’s not ready.

He pushes the thought to the back of his mind so it can bug him later, the idea of exploring Brendon’s room surfacing in its place. It’s most likely a bad idea; it’s immoral, and bad things could very well follow. Brendon could walk in on Tyler’s infringing, he can dig up something that haunts him forever—

But we all know how that dumb ass saying goes: curiosity killed the cat.

Tyler crosses the room, deciding that he'll start with the closet; when Brendon came over to his house, he went digging in the closet and even had the audacity to do it before Tyler's very eyes! Eh, he doesn't actually care that much, all Tyler has in his own closet are clothes and board games.

And just like Tyler's closet, Brendon's is void of anything interesting, so he moves onto his friend's dresser. Just clothes—honestly, Tyler expected the older boy to have more shit than this, and he has to say, he's a bit disappointed.

Then again, Brendon didn't know he was supposed to set up a plethora of fascinating things just to satisfy Tyler as he went through his shit, without the former even knowing.

As a matter of fact, this whole thing is ridiculous; is Tyler seriously bored enough to go through Brendon's clothes?

He is, as a matter of fact. Maybe not the clothes but yeah.

Tyler ditches the dresser and sits at Brendon's desk, where a laptop innocently rests on the surface. He opens the laptop, and he's surprised to find that it doesn't ask for a password.

He signs in—flushes, and quickly shuts the lid. Brendon should consider requiring a password if he's gonna leave his sinful tabs open.

The next thing that catches Tyler's eye is a small picture frame that displays a photo of a young child, a man, and a woman. He delicately grabs the frame to get a better look at the image, and needless to say, the child resembles a younger version of Brendon, who is situated a bit in front of the woman, who as well is a bit in front of the man. Tyler assumes that these are Brendon's parents, and all three faces beam with happiness and love, and it brings a small smile to Tyler's face.

But then he wonders where the couple are and why Brendon's staying here with Marie, and his smile falters. He hopes they're okay, though honestly, Tyler suspects that they might be dead or something.

Tyler puts the frame back in its place before opening one of the desk drawers, revealing paper, writing utensils, scissors, just supplies like that.

Tyler shall create.

<><><>

Arts and crafts successfully distracts the brunet from his boredom as a couple hours go by. Tyler can be quite creative, but not right now, as he’s only created about ten million origami swans. The most creative thing he's done was give them different faces, but how different can you get with origami swans all constructed with college ruled aper?

He’s in the middle of folding his umpteenth swan when he hears the bedroom door open behind him. Tyler glances over his shoulder to find Pete closing the door behind him, and what happened to doing an assignment?

“We’re taking a break—” Pete starts, cutting himself off when he takes in the sight before him, “What do you plan to do with all these birds?”

Tyler merely shrugs.

Pete shrugs as well—possibly mockingly—and sits at the edge of the bed closest to the younger boy, “So, I heard you got suspended.”

Tyler nods as he turns back to his incomplete swan, hoping that Pete won't ask further, because he's tired of repeating the same thing over and over again. The disciplinary staff, to Zack, to Josh, to Brendon—

“What did sweet little Tyler do?”

Tyler refrains from letting out a sigh and opts to shrug again instead, “Long story, d-don't feel like, um, repeating.”

“That's cool, Brendon likes to run his mouth so maybe I'll hear it from him,” Pete laughs, “Unlike you; you're so quiet and mysterious. I wanna get to know you better, but you never talk. Give me your number? We can text as friends.”

And instead of waiting for a response from the timid boy, Pete immediately fishes his phone out of his pocket, leaving Tyler to sit and watch a bit awkwardly as he ignores the alarms going off in his head; he's dealing with yet another fuckboy, isn't he?

Tyler either doesn't care, or he subconsciously loves to put himself in uncomfortable situations so he can pity himself about it.

“Is Josh one of those boyfriends that checks their partner’s phone?” Pete asks as he hands the device to Tyler, who shakes his head as he taps in his number. How would Josh react to this?

At least Tyler knows that Josh won't degrade and guilt trip him, nor will he put an unloving mark on him.

Clenching his teeth, Tyler hands the phone back to Pete and tries to keep a straight face.

“Cool, we’ll be great friends—as long as your boyfriend doesn't interfere,” Pete says as he gets up, motioning for Tyler to follow, “Come chill with us, you look sad making all these birds.”

...And Tyler's not sure if that was an insult or not, but he’ll let that bother him later as well, and he follows the older out of the room.

Chapter Text

Unsurprisingly, Tyler's hanging out with Pete and Brendon as the third wheel while the latter two play video games.  Though it doesn't surprise the youngest as previously said, it does upset and slightly annoy him.  What was the point of inviting him down if neither of the two were going to acknowledge the fact that he was there?  He'd be much better off with the company of his swans.

With his beloved crafts on his mind, he pushes himself off the couch to head upstairs, because why cry about your friends when you can craft new ones?

Neither of the older boys notice Tyler's departure, and he'd honestly be lying if he said it didn't annoy him further.  But who cares, Pete and Brendon suck anyways.

Marie emerges from one of the rooms just as Tyler reaches the top of the stairs.  She pulls the strap of her purse onto her shoulder as she smiles to the younger boy, "Hey, not hanging out with your friends?"

"They're too, uh, busy playing games," Tyler shrugs and does his best to feign nonchalance.

"They're whackos anyway," Marie says, "I'm going to the store to pick up dinner.  You can come too for something to do if you want."

Tyler nods, turning back and descending the stairs again.

Brendon finally acknowledges Tyler as said boy's pulling his converse onto his feet, "Are you going home?"

"He's coming with me to the store," Marie speaks up for him, and the way she says it implies that she's teasing her nephew, "And he's picking out your food."

"What?" Brendon asks, slightly alarmed as he sets his controller to the side, "Can I come and pick out my own food?"

"No, just stay here with Pete," Marie chuckles, ending the conversation as she walks out of the house, Tyler following close behind.

"I'm not gonna lie," Marie starts as they approach the car, "I love being mean to Brendon."

"Yeah?" Tyler asks, not knowing what else to say but also not wanting to just not respond either.

"Yeah, I don't think he cares as much as he makes himself out to. You know how he loves to act dramatic."

"Yeah," Tyler says simply, cursing himself for how socially inept he is.

The woman doesn't speak again until after she's pulling out of the driveway, "Don't think I'm implying anything, because you're welcome whenever, but when is your brother coming back to get you?"

Tyler shrugs for the thousandth time that day as he stops himself from fidgeting in his seat.  He hopes Marie doesn't ask anything else of it, because he hasn't expanded on his lie for moments like what he fears.

"Alright, I was just asking so I knew how much food to buy," Marie says, and Tyler can't help but begin to feel guilty.  Brendon's aunt has to spend extra just because Tyler's too much of a punk to go back to his own home and eat his own damn food.  If Zack has it oh-so hard paying for himself and Tyler, then it must be annoying for Marie having to pay for the original for herself and Brendon, plus Tyler now (and everyone knows that Brendon can definitely eat).

And this reveals the selfish part of Tyler, because even knowing this, he's still unwilling to return home.

"Really, it's fine!" Marie reassures the boy as his inner conflict must've shown, "I honestly would've made Brendon pay if it wasn't. Apparently he's been making money selling snacks at school. At least I hope he really is and not sucking dick in the bathroom, knowing Brendon."

"I've seen him, like, selling candy and stuff," Tyler confirms, and Marie laughs a little.

"Good, ;cause I know you have some hoe ass kids at your school, and I can't say I'd be surprised if Brendon got in trouble for having sex in school."

"True."

Marie laughs again, loud enough that it almost startles the boy, and they drive in a comfortable silence the rest of the way.

<>

"I was thinking about making subs tonight," Marie says as Tyler grabs a car for her, "So if you want, I can go get stuff for it while you pick out snacks and stuff you might want."

Tyler nods, and Marie takes the cart from him.  She suggests he checks either the dairy aisle or the bed aisle for her when he's done before leaving him alone.

And honestly, he regrets agreeing to split ways, but he'll only look like a wimp if he punks out and trails helplessly after the woman now.

So the timid boy hesitantly heads to the other side of the store where he knows all the snacks are, nerves not easing at all as he wonders how many he's allowed to pick out, and what price he's to stay below; he really should've asked Marie this before she left him alone.

He decides that he'll just get two for now as he turns into one of the aisles.  His first and obvious choice is fruit snacks, because who doesn't like fruit snacks?  They taste like fruit, and they're gummies!

He decides that is last choice will be popcorn, because he hasn't had it in a while, and it used to be one of his favorite snacks growing up.  The popcorn is displayed in the back alongside the sodas, so he heads that way.

But the second he steps foot into the aisle, he gets a good glimpse of Zack browsing through the shelves, and backs out immediately.  His nerves and heart rate skyrocket and he wills himself to calm the fuck down, because Zack didn't see him, Zack doesn't know he's there,

and someone's saying his name, and fuck, Tyler's panicking, and he's running away into the baby stuffs, aisles, and he's not sure if the thumping he hears is footsteps behind him or his own heartbeat, and the hand on his shoulder makes him want to cry from being caught.

He's being turned around to face his captor, and he's met with worried, feminine eyes.

"Tyler--what the hell, Noodles? What's wrong?"

And Tyler can only gaze dumbly at the shorter woman as he struggles to calm his rapid heartbeat and labored breathing, because at the rate he's going, he's gonna fucking faint in the middle of the store.

When his mind and vision clears up, he's struck with an unpleasant ambivalence of embarrassment and confusion.

How did he mistake Marie for Zack?  Their voices are completely different, nothing alike.  And what's going through her mind right now?  She must think he's a nut, that there's something undoubtedly wrong with him.

"Did something happen, Tyler?"

Tyler blinks and realizes that he hasn't answered the question yet, and God, Tyler's making a huge fool of himself right now.

"M-my b--" Tyler stammers out but stops himself immediately, because as far as Marie knows, his brother is out of town and won't be back for at least another few days, and why would he be running from his brother as if he was trying to escape pending danger?

"Your what?"

"Uh--my b-bladder, my bladder--"

Marie lets out a sigh, "Jesus Christ, I thought something was seriously wrong. I'll be here when you're done."

"Tyler nods meekly before hastily heading off to the bathrooms.  He locks himself in the last stall and just sits there with his head in his hands as he struggles to compose himself.

He resents himself for being this way.

Chapter Text

Still embarrassed but now calm, Tyler meets Marie where he left her, the woman offering another worried look as she notices him approaching.

"Everything's good now?"

"Yeah, sorry," Tyler smiles sheepishly as they head to where Marie had abandoned her cart.

"It's okay, you weirdo," Marie smiles in a way that expresses the light-heartedness behind her words, but that still doesn't stop Tyler from feeling worse about himself.

Marie lets out a relieved sigh as they approach the cart, "Thank God nobody took our shit. Did you want anything else other than the fruit snacks you dropped on the floor?"

"Popcorn," Tyler says, flushing from mild embarrassment from being called out.  Marie grabs the cart and leads the way to the popcorn, and Tyler gets increasingly nervous with each step they take closer to the aisle, only to let out his own relieved sigh upon the absence of his older brother.

But as they reach the end of the aisle where the popcorn should be, all they're greeted with is caramel popcorn, which really fucking pisses Tyler off, honestly; all that fucking drama for some damn caramel popcorn?

"what the fuck?" Marie seems to share his discontent towards the situation, "Since when does Walmart not have buttered popcorn? I don't want this bullshit!"

"Me neither," Tyler mumble, risking a glance Marie's way.  She looks to him in return, dropping her scowl to smile at the boy instead, said boy returning it genuinely.

"How about we just buy ice cream treats to make up for it?"

<>

"Alright," Marie sighs as she pulls into the driveway of her home, "Go tell your friends to help or they don't get ice cream."

Marie hands the keys to the boy before he goes, and—surprise, surprise—Pete and Brendon are exactly where they left them a couple hours ago.

"U-uh," Tyler stammers pitifully, flushing sheepishly at how ridiculous he sounds, "Marie said to help with groceries, or, like, you won't get any ice cream."

" Groceries, " Pete repeats (re-petes) under his breath as a smirk pulls on his lips, but Brendon doesn't seem too impressed with his friend's teasing.

"That's what they are, Pete," Brendon defends his younger friend, wiping the smirk of his older's face.

"Who fucking asked you, Urinal?"

"Shut up, Pete, at least I'm graduating on time."

And that's Tyler's cue to leave, so he makes a full one-eighty and heads back to the car.

Marie's pulling as many bags as she can onto her elbows when she notices Tyler there alone, "Where are they, Noodles?"

"They're arguing," comes Tyler's answer just as the front door swings open, bringing light to the otherwise dark driveway.  As a matter of fact, these street lamps aren't on, Tyler's just now noticing this.

Shitty ass neighborhoods, man.  It's as if it's encouraging crime.

"The fuck are you guys arguing about?" Marie calls out as they descend the porch steps.

"Huh? We're not," Brendon says as he grabs a few bags.

"Yeah, banter, ma'am," Pete expands, grabbing a few himself before he and Brendon walk back to the house together, and Tyler's left out yet again.

Josh wouldn't exclude him, he can't help but conclude bitterly.

"Don't worry about those dick pumpers," Marie says, "They only get one ice cream cookie and you and I get two, because they're losers and we're awesome."

Marie pulls the bags out of the trunk, hunching over with a curse as the weight of the bags pulls down on her elbows, so Tyler takes enough bags from the struggling woman to help her bring in.

"Thanks, Noodles," Marie sends a smile Tyler's way, and they carry their groceries to the kitchen, where Pete and Brendon are already unloading their bags.

"Are there any more?" Brendon asks as he empties the bag currently in his hand, balling it up and tossing it towards the corner of the room where a few others have begun to accumulate.

“No, but the trunk is still open,” Marie answers, nodding her head towards the door as she drops her bags onto the kitchen floor.  Brendon heads that way, and Pete gets started on unloading the bags Marie just delivered.  Tyler lowers his own to the floor with more ease than the older woman did, and leaves the groceries on the counter; he doesn’t know where anything belongs.  But that’s okay, because Brendon starts putting them away for him when he returns.

“What’s gonna work?!” Brendon sings loudly and abruptly, and Tyler’s ashamed to admit that, yes, he did flinch like the bitch he truly is.

“Teamwork!!” Pete joins in just as loudly.

“What’s gonna work?!” Brendon sings again even louder, and Tyler braces himself as he knows Brendon’s voice will only increase in volume again.

“ TEAMWORK!! ” Brendon and Pete fucking shout not even on key, and poor Tyler wasn’t ready like he thought he would’ve been.

“Y’all shut your bitch asses up!” Marie shouts at them both as they proceed sing the music.  The assholes choose to ignore her and continue, and Tyler hopes for an additional ice cream for not being annoying.

Chapter Text

After eating subs that could put Subway out of business, Marie had taken the box of ice cream cookies out of the freezer. Pete and Brendon had protested to themselves only getting one while Tyler had gotten not two, but three ice creams. Marie explained why Tyler had gotten each extra, and threatened to give him a fourth if they didn’t stop complaining.

And the youngest isn’t even sure how that led up to now, where Brendon’s bitching at Pete for taking a bite out of his ice cream cookie, the older defending himself through a mouthful of food (fucking ew) that he thought it was his cookie (which Tyler doesn’t understand, but is he to talk after that stunt he pulled at Walmart?).

“But you do this every time!” Brendon accuses his friend with a scowl.

“It’s time to stop lyin’,” Pete speaks around Brendon’s food, and this just does it for Watermelon Head as he turns on his heels to grab a trash bin. Pete looks to the younger incredulously as said boy holds the trash bin out to him.

“It’s time to spit it out like Slipknot,because if I can’t have it then you can’t either,” Brendon says, and Tyler thinks that he’s actually being serious right now, if the stern look Brendon’s sending Pete’s way is anything to go by.

But instead of spitting the treat into the trash as demanded, Pete looks Brendon dead in the eye as he swallows, and Tyler tags this as one of the gayest things he’s ever seen.

“You’re disgusting,” Brendon speaks lowly.

“That bite of ice cream wasn’t,” Pete taunts further, and Tyler’s done with these kids.

So, he grabs his ice creams and heads upstairs with them, hoping Brendon won’t mind him bringing food up there, especially something like ice cream.

The boy opens the bedroom door and is greeted by dozens of origami swans strewn across Brendon’s desk and the area surrounding it, and Tyler smiles sweetly at them, even though they’re just paper. He sits at the desk with his creations and gets back to his second half eaten treat, but his peaceful silence doesn’t last long as the bedroom door bursts open minutes later.

“Josh is on FaceTime,” Brendon says as he crosses the room to hand Tyler his phone, getting a good look at Tyler’s paper friends, “I like your swans, Tyler!”

“Thank you,” Tyler smiles to Brendon, who smiles back before leaving the younger alone again, closing the door behind him (it’s satan-blessed, bc we have all had enough god-damned doors).

Tyler turns his attention to Brendon’s phone now, which he has laying on the desk, camera pointed towards the ceiling, “Hey, Josh.”

“Hey, baby boy,” Josh returns, and it’s a shame that he doesn’t get to see the blush tinting the younger’s cheeks as he grins stupidly, “How are you?”

“Good, Marie bought us ice cream,” Tyler answers, “And I made a lot of origami swans. What about you?”

“I’ve heard,” Josh chuckles a little, and it makes Tyler smile again, “I think my parents’ druggie friends have been in my room.”

“Why?”

“I kinda don’t have a mattress anymore,” comes Josh’s answer, and Tyler’s jaw drops, because holy shit, did they really steal a whole fucking mattress and why??

“Are, are you serious?”

“Yeah, look,” Josh says, and Tyler looks at the screen, which broadcasts Josh’s bed frame, which supported nothing but a pillow and a blanket; druggies deadass stole his boyfriend’s mattress.

“But why?” Tyler asks dumbly.

“Your guess, my guess,” Josh says, “I’ll just turn myself into a burrito on the floor until I can get a new one.”

“Sounds uncomfy,” Tyler sighs, honestly feeling sorry for the other. He hates waking up with his blankets completely wrapped around himself; he feels trapped and it usually gets uncomfortably warm.

“Nah, the blankets will be cushion enough for someone who doesn’t own a mattress,” Josh laughs again as he turns his camera off. He can hear rustling from Josh’s end of the call, and the older boy is most likely rolling himself into his cocoon (an: completely irrelevant but like the word cocoon reminds me of little bill and that makes me feel nostalgic yo).

“I have to sleep on a mattress or, like, my hips will feel like they’re being mashed in,” Tyler says as he finally finishes his second ice cream and moves onto his last, which is already partially melted, but of course that won’t stop him from eating it.

“That sounds painful as fuck,” Josh sympathizes, and Tyler shrugs, even though Josh can't see it; neither of them are on the camera.

“I just try to, like, sleep on my back or my tummy if I don't have one.”

“I can't, I automatically roll onto my side,” Josh says before changing the subject, “So… Figured out when you're going home?”

“Not yet,” Tyler mumbles, grabbing one of his swans to nervously fiddle with.

“I don't like you over there anyways, since your brother's apparently an asshole,” Josh says, brother rolling off his tongue in a way that emphasizes Josh's dislike towards said man. Tyler doesn't say anything; he knows Zack is an asshole, but he also has his moments that makes the boy feel as if he has one of the greatest brothers ever. That hurts Tyler, but what can he do?

“Hey, are you alright over there?” Josh's voice brings him out of his head once again, and Tyler hums.

“Yeah, everything's alright.”

Chapter Text

The rest of the week went by quickly enough.  Tyler would play Overkill with Marie until Brendon would return from school, when Marie would excuse herself to make some sort of snack for them all while Brendon took his aunt's controller to play instead.  Then at night, Brendon would bring his phone to Tyler so he and Josh could talk for a little while.  To sum things up, the rest of the week wasn't as eventful as the last Tuesday.

So Tyler was actually a bit happy to be returning to school the following Tuesday, Marie's makeup hiding the blemish that has yet to heal from the boy's cheek.  And maybe happy's the wrong word, because school never fails to overwhelm and put a lot of stress on him, but the idea of seeing Josh again in person for the first time in a week brews up a tingly feeling in his stomach and dusts his cheeks with a pleasant pink.

But that overwhelming yet familiar sense of dread takes him as he's sitting in his first classroom, unprepared since he left his school bag at home, and too shy to ask even the teacher for a writing utensil when she is to come to class.

The final bell rings, signalling the start of block one, where Tyler is to sit timidly for ninety minutes, just to do the same thing in the next class, where he'll still be unprepared.  Serves Tyler right for thinking he can run from his problems—all he did was pile up more to suffer through when he inevitably returns.

"Where the fuck is the teacher at?" one of his classmates asks no one in particular—one of those rhetorical questions—and Tyler quickly scans the room; there's no teacher in here.

"Said we were getting a sub, remember?" comes another classmate's answer, and the one prior smacks his teeth.

"Same goddamn difference, bitch."

Before a response can be given, the door is pushed open and in comes a small elderly woman seemingly done with the world and everyone and everything to do with it, and that doesn't seem to exclude this class as she takes a moment to glare at a random few students.

"I'm Mrs. Turner," the woman's voice is loud , raspy, and matches the expression on her face, and Tyler already doesn't like her, "And I'm your sub for today. Someone take out a sheet of paper and make that your attendance list. What are you supposed to be doing today?"

"Work," another classmate says, as bold and confident as ever, and do we even need to express how unamused Turner is with his response?

"Attitude will not be tolerated in here today, and I won't hesitate to write anyone up if you even look at me funny."

And Tyler finds that to be ridiculous and especially hypocritical, because that's all she's been doing since she step foot in here: giving attitudes and funny looks.

"Man, I'm 'bout to skip," the boy sitting next to Tyler mumbles under his breath as he receives the attendance paper and a pen, signs it, and passes it to Tyler, and skipping doesn't seem so bad as Tyler signs the roll himself and passes it along.  But he can't just walk out, obviously.  Actually, he could, because this is a sub and she doesn't know his name, so how can she truly report him?  But that doesn't mean that she can't call security and have them look for him; he's seen teachers and subs do that before, and something tells him that Turner will be no different.  He could go to the bathroom—but Turner will have to write him a pass, and she'll know he's gone then.  If he's gonna skip, he'll have to sneak out and hope the sub doesn't see him.

When the last student signs the paper, she brings it up to Turner, who begins to check for each name on the attendance roster, and this is probably the best opportunity he's gonna get.  So he pushes his chair back as carefully as he can, slinks up and out of the room as discreetly as he can, opens the door, steps out, and closes it as gently as he can, and he's gone unnoticed by his substitute.

Hopefully his classmates won't tell on him, which isn't too likely—hopefully.

Standing outside in the hallway like a fool, Tyler ponders to himself the best places to hide out as he skips.  But, what are those places?  He's never skipped before, and he has no idea where kids go when they skip.  The bathroom comes to mind, so he rushes to the nearest bathroom and locks himself in the last stall, checking to be sure the toilet seat's clean before sitting down; he's gonna be in here for a long time.  

But Tyler has no way to track time—he doesn't own a watch and he definitely doesn't have his phone on him right now, so the best he can do is count every second that passes by.  Well, he doesn't have anything better to do, so he begins with a one, two, three, four...

<>

2223, 2224, 2225, 2226 —

Tyler flinches a little as the sink turns on abruptly after.... thirty seven minutes of silence, if he calculated correctly, and pulls his feet up onto the seat; he doesn't want whoever's out there to see him, because boys don't turn their feet away from the toilet when they pee, and taking a shit in public seems to be a disgrace.

"No fucking soap? Cheap ass school," the other boy mumbles under his breath, and Tyler immediately perks up at the familiar voice.  He gets off the toilet and pushes the stall door open, and the boy turns at the sound of the door opening, offering a smile, "Hey."

"Hey, Josh," Tyler smiles back, and Josh holds his arms out as if asking for a hug.  Tyler's quick to close the distance between them and press himself as close to the older as he can, Josh hugging him back just as tightly.

"Why are you in here?" Josh asks, moving one arm from the smaller boy's waist to card his fingers through said boy's hair instead, as if the hug couldn't get any better; Tyler has always loved fingers in his hair.

"Skipping, what about you?"

"Sneezed into my hands. Why're you skipping? You just got back from being suspended."

"I don't like my sub," Tyler whines a little, and he wants to beat his own goddamn self up for it; he hates whiny shit, honestly, it's annoying.

"You have a sub too?" Josh asks, but starts talking again before Tyler can answer, "They should just close school if all these teachers are gonna be out sick. You should come to my class, I have a cool sub and she's letting us do whatever."

"Really?" Tyler asks, tilting his head to lock eyes with the other, "You sure she won't mind?"

"Promise," Josh reassures him before pulling away from the embrace to instead guide him out of the bathroom and to his own classroom.

Chapter Text

Josh’s classmates were rowdy and slightly overwhelming, and Tyler didn't understand how the poor sub could stand it.  I mean, those children were too old to be standing on desks and chairs and making so much goddamn noise—kindergarteners would probably sit and wonder what the fuck was wrong with these high schoolers .

Tyler could never be a sub; they don't get enough respect, and why would he want to put up with heathen ass kids that aren't even his?

But it doesn't matter anymore, because he's now long gone from that room as he sits in his third class of the day, waiting for the bell to dismiss their class to fourth lunch.

He's finally blessed moments later as the long, flat beep blares through the intercom, and before he knows it, he, Josh, and Brendon are reuniting at their usual lunch table.

“My next class is a sub so I'm thinking about skipping,” Brendon says, pulling open a carton of milk—he got it from the lunch line this time since Marie forgot to buy his milk and oreos, “You guys skipping too?”

“I’m down if Tyler is,” Josh agrees, looking to said boy as if waiting for his approval.  He kinda wants to say no, because it's his first day back from suspension and he already skipped first block, and Mr. Liddell might be in today, and Tyler likes Mr. Liddell.  But at the same time, he doesn't want to keep Josh back in class if he doesn't want to be there—even though skipping could get him in trouble, and it has already been expressed enough that Tyler doesn't want him to get in trouble.

“Let's just bring him, turn him into one of us,” Brendon jokes (maybe) as he lifts himself up from his seat a little, ready to go and abandon his wasted milk.

“I don't want to soil his sweet reputation more than that fatass security guard already did, so this is up to him,” Josh defends, and Tyler flinches a little as Josh unexpectedly touches his back to rub it affectionately.  He returns the gesture by leaning closer into the other’s side, resting his head on Josh’s shoulder, ignoring Brendon’s “well, aren't you two cute” as he finally gives his answer.

“I guess we can.”

“You sure?” Josh asks, and Tyler nods before they pull away to get up with Brendon, who retrieves an agenda from his bag before hauling it over his shoulder.

“Alright, let's roll,” Brendon says before leading the way to the cafeteria's exit.

But they only made it halfway there before Brendon suddenly halts them all, “There goes the bitches.”

Tyler and Josh look in the same direction their friend does, and his eyes land on Debby and Jenna, innocently minding their own business as they enjoy lunch together, most likely not even knowing who Tyler Joseph even is.

He tenses as the senior begins to walk towards the girls, and maybe Tyler and Josh should've stopped him instead of sharing a look that clearly expresses how pessimistic they feel about the outcome of this confrontation, but decisions have been made and now it's time to face the consequences as they follow behind their friend—but not too closely.

The younger two stop a few feet away from the table as the oldest goes close enough to slide onto one of the seats, offering the two girls a bitterly false smile and getting confused looks in return.

“Hey, ladies,” Brendon starts, tone syrupy sweet and blatantly sarcastic, and Tyler’s not sure if he wants to run away from embarrassment or stay to watch the scene unfold.

“Hey, uhh…” Debby trails off momentarily, “Brendon?”

“The one and only, and we happen to have a problem.”

Both girls furrow their brows as Jenna speaks now, “Who even are you?”

“Your friend literally just called me Brendon and I confirmed it,” Brendon shows where Tyler gets his sass from, “One of you lovelies put your hands on my friend.”

The girls exchange clueless glances before turning back to face Brendon, looking to him as if he was as dumb as they get.

“No no, don't look at me like that,” Brendon chuckles sarcastically, leaning forward on his elbows, “Look, I'm not afraid to but my own hands on a bitch if she hurts my friends, let me find out.”

Neither of the poor girls say anything else as Brendon gets up from his seat, and Tyler and Josh turn on their heels as their friend catches up.

“You really didn't have to do that…” Josh trails off before suddenly bursting into laughter, which rips a laugh from Tyler as well.

“Sure did!” is all Brendon says as he laughs along, but unknowingly for a different reason.

Chapter Text

The rest of the school day went by quickly; their last class of the day had a sub that just put on a movie and went to sleep, and it's the job Tyler could only ever dream of having.

Despite not going home with the boy, Josh walks with Tyler as he's on his way to the courtyard to meet up with Brendon.  Tyler greatly appreciates it; he's found that the crowded halls are a bit more bearable while in the company of someone he trusts.

They find the oldest waiting near the exit to the courtyard, and Josh gives the youngest a parting hug, whispering a promise to talk later tonight before leaving for the bus lane.

"I begged Marie to take us to Wendy's for a frosty," Brendon informs excitedly as he pushes the glass door open, holding it open for Tyler after first letting himself out.

"Haven't had one in awhile," is all Tyler says as they start walking to the general area where Marie should be parked. 

Or at least he thought they were, because Brendon stops them both at the flagpole.  Tyler glances up to find Pete leaning against the metal, Ashley--probably, they don't really talk at all--right by his side and offering Tyler a smile.  He awkwardly returns it before something past her shoulder catches his eye.  You know when you just happen to randomly avert your gaze and end up making immediate eye contact with someone?  This is exactly what happened here, and Tyler's overwhelmed with dread as he mindlessly yanks himself free of his friend's hold to turn on his heel, heading to where he hopes Marie's car is.

Somehow, he didn't even expect Zack to come to his school, but there he is, leaning against his car, and Tyler hopes to God that the older man doesn't call him over or follow him, or that Brendon doesn't see him.

"Tyler? What's wrong?" Brendon immediately drops his conversation with Pete, slightly alarmed by his friend's antics.

"I-I don't feel well," Tyler lies quickly, but it's believable enough for Brendon to excuse himself from the group to lead him to Marie's car, which would've made him feel guilty under different circumstances.

"Why not?"

"Headache," the younger expands, the older awing sympathetically as they finally approach the car.  

"Hey," Marie greets the two as they get in their seats from last time, "Still getting Wendy's?"

"Yeah, just frosties," Brendon says, opening the glove compartment and retrieving a bottle of pills, "I'm getting these for Tyler."

"Why, what's wrong, love?"

"Headache," Tyler answers again as Brendon holds out a couple pills for him to take.  Tyler takes them and slips them into his pocket--clearly he doesn't need them.

"Awe, I'm sorry," Marie sympathizes as the car finally starts moving, hopefully putting distance between him and his brother.

The oldest turns on the radio and no one says anything during the entire ride to Wendy's, and Tyler's more at ease the further away they get from the school.

It doesn't take long before Marie pulls into the drive thru of Wendy's, and Marie turns the radio down a bit to speak with the worker through the speaker thingy, whatever the fuck it is.

"Can I get three small frosties?"

"Small?!"

"Shut up, Brendon!" Marie scolds in a shushed tone, "You paying for something bigger?"

"No, but I love you!"

She sighs before asking for a small and two mediums instead, and the youngest manages to smile a little as Brendon cheers triumphantly; it reminds him of the friendly banter he has with Zack when the older man isn't being a piece of shit.

When Marie eventually receives the frosties, she passes them to Brendon and asks him to give one to Tyler.  The older boy turns in his seat to do as told, but he pauses to gawk out of the back window.

"Daddy Zacky's back in town!"

"Huh??" Tyler squeaks as he whips around himself, stomach dropping as he catches sight of the driver of the car in line behind them.

He's really fucking following them--he's gonna make Tyler come home and he's not ready to come home yet--

"Who??"

"Tyler's brother! He's in line behind us."

Zack meets Tyler's eyes and the younger boy turns forward again and completely slumps down in his seat, hoping he's out of his brother's sight--pointlessly, knowing that Zack clearly knows that Tyler's in the car, otherwise he wouldn't have been following them like a fucking stalker. 

"Everything okay, Noodles?"

"Yeah, just, just not feeling well," he lies and Marie falls for it, humming sympathetically.

"Well, let's hurry up and get to the house," Marie says as she starts driving away from the restaurant.

Chapter Text

Marie pulls into the driveway of her home as Zack pulls up along the curb, the woman noticing through the rearview mirror and ra ising an eyebrow in curiosity.

“You said that's Tyler's brother?” Marie asks Brendon as he eagerly unbuckles his seatbelt and flings his car door open, “He followed us here.”

“I know, I'm about to go say hi!” he says before jumping out of his seat, abandoning the medium frosty he begged his aunt for.

“Brendon, don't forget your frosty ‘cause I'm not grabbing it for you!” Marie shouts at him as she gathers her things and gets out, leaving Tyler sitting alone in the back seat like a fucking weirdo. He takes in a deep breath to calm his nerves before finally letting himself out. He sees Brendon tightly fling his arms around Zack’s waist as he wipes his face across the older man’s shoulder, who looks pleadingly to Marie as she approaches them.

“He doesn't want to see you, carry your ass inside,” Marie scolds him for being annoying as she pries the offending boy away from Zack, “I’m Marie, Brendon’s aunt.”

Zack offers a kind and appreciative smile, “I'm Tyler's older brother Zack. Sorry about following you home, me and Tyler had a bad argument a little while ago and he ran ou t, and I haven't seen him ever since until I saw him get in your car. ”

“Wow, I didn’t know he ran away… ” Marie says as she glances at Tyler, who drops his head in shame, “I’m sure you were worried.”

“No, I knew he’d run off to his friends. I just never knew where they lived,” Zack says, “Tell Brendon bye, Tyler. And thank you for looking after him, Marie. I hope he hasn’t been too much trouble.”

“No, he’s a sweet boy,” Marie assures happily as she ends the conversation there to guide Tyler back into the house, where Brendon must’ve left to. The woman doesn’t speak again until they’re in the house, “Everything alright at home?”

Tyler nods, “Sorry for not being honest.”

“I understand, Noodles, really,” Marie assures the boy, “You’re a good kid and I’m sure you didn’t run away to be rebellious. My dad was a dick to me and my siblings growing up and I wished I had somewhere safe to run off to. You’re welcome to come back when things get rough, or just whenever you feel like coming over.”

Tyler wraps his arms tight around her in a hug and Marie squeezes him back affectionately, “Thank you so much.”

“Anytime, love.”

“Is Tyler leaving?” Brendon asks as he reappears from the kitchen.

“Yeah, say bye,” Marie answers as she lets go, allowing Brendon to hug his friend too.

“See you later, Tyler,” Brendon says as he pulls away, patting his younger friend dismissively on the back.

“Bye, guys,” Tyler offers one last smile before leaving, anxiously walking towards what could be impending doom. He can see his brother watching him in the driver’s seat and offers him a smile upon being caught. Maybe he’s not mad because he wouldn’t have smiled at him if he was—unless he’s smiling at the thought of what he’s gonna do to him as punishment when they get home. Tyler easily dismisses that last idea and cringes because one, his older brother can be an asshole at times but he’s not a sadist, and two, the way he put it sounds so wrong and he wants to forget he even thought that.

He opens the passenger door and slides onto the seat, avoiding eye contact as he fiddles with the cup in his hands.

“Uhh… ” Zacks starts as he begins driving once again, “So I owe you a huge apology for what I’ve said and done, none of that was right and no excuse would ever justify it.”

Tyler silently agrees with a nod, eyes still glued to his drink, and Zack sighs.

“Look, I’m no good at apologies so I’ll tell you what. I’ll do anything you want for a week as long as it’s realistic and not too illegal,” the older man offers, and the younger boy finds his suggestion to be quite tempting.

“It won’t right your wrongs,” Tyler starts, “But I haven’t been to Taco Bell in a minute.”

“Didn’t we both just get Wendy’s?” Zack teases, and Tyler can’t help but smile a little.

“Didn’t you say anything as long as it’s realistic and not too illegal?”

“Yeah, I do owe it to you.”

<> <><>

“Welcome home, T-bro,” Zack says happily as they step through the front door after a couple hours of rebonding. Zack had bought Tyler everything he wanted from Taco Bell before taking him to Walmart to buy stuff for another movie marathon knowing how much that means to Tyler; as mentioned once before, Zack doesn’t like watching Tv. It shouldn’t make up for what he did and Tyler knows this, but he’s a leech and forgives too easily, and he truly does love his piece of shit brother.

“Your stuff is in your room and your phone’s on the charger. I’ve been taking care of Ruby while you were gone too.”

“Thanks, see you tonight,” Tyler says as he removes his shoes before heading to his bedroom. He opens the door to find Ruby alive and well, watching him with wide eyes from where she sits on his bed. He smiles as he closes the door behind him and approaches her, and Ruby stands to meet him at the end of the bed.

“Hey, Ruby,” Tyler speaks softly as he scratches behind her ears, “I’ve missed you dearly.”

He gives her a few more moments of petting and kisses her on the nose before looking around for his phone. He finds it plugged i n on top of his desk and unplugs it, the screen lighting up with several notifications (thank God his damn brother plugged it in for him or that shit would ’ve been dead). All but the most recent one are missed calls from Zack, the one being a text message from an unknown number.

             ?: sup its pete

             tyler: hey just got my phone again

Tyler sends the message and creates a new contact under the other boy’s name before opening Josh’s to send an identical message. He returns to his bed and settles himself against his pillows and Ruby invites herself onto the boy ’s lap, basking in the attention she’s been missing out on while he was gone.

His phone starts vibrating in his hand as a FaceTime call with Josh’s name on it lights his screen, and he smiles a little to himself as he answers it.

“Hey, Josh,” Tyler greets as he sets his phone on the bed, camera pointed up towards the ceiling.

“Hey, everything okay?”

“Yeah, Zack took me to Taco Bell and we’re gonna have a movie marathon later.”

“That’s supposed to be him making up for being a good for nothing fuck of a brother?” Josh asks, coating his words with hatred reserved for the man who caused harm to the youngest.

“It’s alright,” Tyler shrugs to himself, glancing down at Ruby and catching her gazing lovingly up at him, “He’s being nice for now.”

“Well— ” Josh refrains from saying more with a sigh, “Okay, Tyler, I don’t wanna argue because you sound like you’re in a good mood. But I swear if I ever see him again he’ll truly have a reason to hate me.”

“No, Josh,” he says sternly as his smile falters, “I’ve got this.”

“What do you mean by that, Cutes?”

He blushes at the name and shrugs yet again, “I don’t know… Like, if it happens again I might tell Marie or something.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I think I can trust her.”

“See, told you she’s amazing.”

Tyler lets out a giggle as Ruby licks his hand, and he seizes the opportunity to change the subject, “Ruby’s tongue feels like sandpaper.”

“Yeah, cats have rough tongues,” Josh chuckles from the other end of the call, tone full of adoration, “It hurts when they lick your face.”

“What does it feel like?”

“Sandpaper, like you said,” the other boy teases and a sheepish smile forces itself onto Tyler’s face.

“Shush,” he says light-heartedly, scratching under Ruby’s chin, who responds by craning her neck to give him more room.

“Get on the camera, I wanna see your blush.”

“I’m not blushing for once.”

“Hmm, for once .”

“Josh!” Tyler giggles as he hides his now pink face in Ruby’s fur despite his boyfriend not being able to see, ignoring his feline friend’s meow of complaint, “Stop!”

“Get on the camera and maybe I will.”

“You aren’t on it either,” Tyler reasons but grabs his phone anyways and aims it towards his face, “You get on too.”

“Only to say hi to Ruby,” Josh teases as his smiling face appears on screen, “Has she gotten any bigger?”

“If she has I haven’t noticed,” Tyler shrugs as he glances down at her again. She’s still as tiny as ever, he decides. He’s about to say this but he’s interrupted by a knock from the other end of the call.

“What?!”

“Watch that fucking tone and come out here without the attitude,” a woman’s voice calls out and Josh groans.

“It’s probably some bullshit again,” Josh mumbles to himself before looking to Tyler apologetically, “So I’ll see you tomorrow?”

Tyler smiles despite his disappointment and nods, “Hope everything’s okay.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, baby boy,” Josh assures, smiling victoriously as he makes the younger boy blush again, “Bye and goodnight.”

“Night,” and Tyler’s left alone with Ruby until he’s due to spend time with Zack.

Chapter Text

The movie marathon was almost nice; they watched the movies quietly and ate the snacks Zack had bought them for the marathon, but Tyler had flinched away from his older brother as he leaned in for another one of their brotherly snuggles.  Zack had tried to mask his hurt with an apologetic smile which the younger had weakly returned, but he couldn’t help but feel guilty throughout the rest of the movies.

The incessant vibrating from his phone throughout the movies was also very annoying.

Tyler dismisses himself as the fifth movie ends, leaving his brother as he sleeps on the couch after making sure the blanket is wrapped around his shoulders so he doesn’t get cold.  He pushes his bedroom door open and is immediately greeted by a soft meow from his feline companion, who suddenly reemerges from underneath his bed.

“Hey, Ruby,” Tyler returns as he pushes the door shut behind him.  She watches his every move as he gets himself ready for bed and joins him in bed, curling up above his head on his pillow.

It’s then that Tyler scrolls through his overflowing notification center.

     pete: sup tyler

     pete: yo tyler

     pete: yo

     pete: sup

     pete: yosup josup

     pete: your last name’s joseph right

     brendon: Hey tyler pete said text him back

     pete: josup

     pete: josup

     pete: josup

And you get the gist.  Tyler suppresses a sigh as he opens the message from Brendon first, texting him a quick, “okay,” before opening his messages with Pete.

     tyler: sorry i was watching movies with my brother

Tyler rests his eyes as he waits for a reply from the other boy—if it’s gonna come.  He wishes he just waited until tomorrow to text him back; he just wants to sleep now.

His phone buzzes in his hand as he’s falling asleep and Tyler’s eyes flutter open with a sleepy whine.

     pete: what were yall watching

     tyler: uhh i don’t remember what they were called but one of them was bee movie

Tyler fights to keep his eyes open as he watches the screen, waiting for the next reply, which never comes—he watches his screen turn black five minutes later, so he lets his eyes slip shut again.

Only for his phone to go off again a brief moment later, and maybe Pete’s one of those slow texters.

     pete: bee movie

     pete: ya like jazz

Tyler wants to go to sleep so badly.

     tyler: haha :^)

He forces himself to stay awake for seven minutes—

     pete: are you always this awkward

Tyler’s face heats up as he halfway buries his face in the pillow, hand abandoning his phone to caress Ruby’s fur—something he’s found to help calm him down.  He listens to her soft purring as he lightly scratches behind her ears, and jeez, why did Pete have to say that?  He doesn’t wanna talk to Pete anymore, Pete’s mean and weirdos like Tyler shouldn’t talk to people, so really, this is his own fault, stupid Tyler, always stupid and awkward and will never fit in because he’s always so awkward and stupid.

Tears well up in his eyes as he pushes himself further up his bed to bury his face against Ruby’s fur instead, only for her to get up and migrate to the foot of his bed.

Traitor—he cries into his stupid boy pillow as he pulls his stupid boy blanket up to his chin and cries over something as stupid as stupid Pete calling him awkward—he didn’t even use a question mark, why couldn’t he at least use a question mark to make his question seem less mean?

He sniffles, and Ruby’s back with him and curling up against his chest in an instant.  

“I love you,” he whispers to the sweet kitty as he lightly pets her cheek, “You’re the best kitty.”

Tyler focuses on the softness of her fur and the rhythm of her purring, and it helps the sleepy boy finally fall asleep.

Chapter Text

Tyler considers faking sick when he wakes the next morning, or pretending to oversleep—anything to avoid going to the bus stop and seeing Pete.  He knows he’s being dramatic, but is that not his specialty?

He decides against it though—he’s not up to staying home with his brother today, and besides, Josh will be with him at the bus stop, and he doesn’t even see Pete much at all during school.   

<><><>

Tyler doesn’t look in Pete’s direction as he approaches Josh at the bus stop, eyes set on his boyfriend as he picks up the pace a bit.  He can’t stop his wide grin as the red-haired boy sends a smile of his own his way, and he picks up the pace a little more.

“Hey, Cutes,” Josh greets Tyler as he laces their fingers together.  He can see Pete watching them from his peripheral but does his best not to look his way, “How did the movie marathon go?”

“Was alright,” he says, leaning his head against Josh’s shoulder, “Am I awkward?”

“No, not at all. Did your brother say that?”

The brunet shook his head against his boyfriend’s arm, “No, someone else did.”

“Who?”

Tyler shakes his head again, “They don’t matter.”

Josh is quiet for a moment as he brings a hand up to his hair, running his fingers through it, “Alright, baby boy. If they give you more trouble, I’ll handle it.”

Tyler’s eyes flutter shut as he hums, and they stay like that until the bus arrives.

<><><>

The brunet’s nerves are skyrocketing as he attempts to navigate the sea of students flooding the hallways, heart racing as he wills himself to calm down before he has a fucking panic attack in public—

And he yelps out in fear as a hand latches onto his wrist and pulls him to the side, and someone’s gonna jump him or some shit, he’s about to be the laughingstock of the school—

“Tyler, dude,” he’s maneuvered so that he’s leaning against the wall, trying not to hyperventilate as wide eyes dart to the source of the voice, and of fucking course Pete Wentz—one of the last people he wants to see right now—steps into his line of vision, “Chill out, it’s okay.”

And God damn, that just wiped away all of Tyler’s anxiety—but then Brendon’s by his side too, and he’s no Joshua Dun, but the boy’s grown on him enough for Tyler to deem Brendon a safe space, and he pushes away from the wall to bury his face in the other’s shoulder.

“He hugged me first!” Brendon celebrates as he wraps his arms around Tyler, and it’s not Josh, but it’s still nice.

“If I hug him, I’ll get my ass kicked,” Pete huffs, and despite being a fiend for affection, he doesn’t wanna hug Pete—he really doesn’t wanna hug Pete.

“Awe, Tyler wouldn’t wanna hug you anyways,” Brendon teases as he sways them both from side to side, like Maddy would do with her friends back in the day.  The younger boy decides that he likes it.

“But who asked?” Pete snaps before addressing Tyler, who’s still pressed against Brendon,  “Why didn’t you text me back?”

He can feel heat spreading across his cheeks and up his ears, “O-oh, um, I fell asleep.”

“What did he say?”

“He said he fell asleep.”

“Oh, yeah, I guess it was pretty late.”

The warning bell blares through the building, but Brendon doesn’t let go.  He tilts his head to send a questioning look Brendon’s way, who smiles mischievously in return.

“We’re turning you into one of us,” Brendon answers the unspoken question, earning a blink in response, “We’re skipping and you’re invited!”

He knows he should’ve said no to the boy, because he could ultimately get in a lot of trouble with Zack if he were to get caught, but he finds himself nodding a little to his friend anyways.

Chapter Text

Tyler feels very apprehensive as he walks with Pete and Brendon down the hallway after the class bell blares throughout the building. he glances over at Brendon, then at Pete, and they both seem totally okay with this—maybe he’s just being dramatic.

Fuck no—Pete and Brendon are a couple of hooligans and Tyler has common goddamn sense—why is he here right now? He literally just got suspended for trespassing, now he’s skipping? He must want Zack to fuck him up or something, why is he doing shit that he knows will get him into trouble? Why is he—

“Tyler, chill out,” Pete warns him as he nudges his arm, totally not startling the younger boy, “We’ll look suspicious with you making that face.”

Tyler’s face flushes. He’s making a face?

He ducks his head sheepishly and watches his feet as they walk forward, left, right, left, right, and he remembers the time that girl commented to her friend about how he walks weird in middle school, and he can’t help but wonder if he still does.

“There’s nothing to be scared of!” Brendon reassures him as he slings his arm around his shoulders, just as they turn into the hallway at the back of the school, where a few boys are already hanging out.

He recognizes them vaguely, and he remembers Ashley, of course, and she offers him a small smile as they approach. He musters up a smile of his own.

“Who the fuck is this?” one of the guys rasps, and Tyler doesn’t feel welcome here—why would he be?

“Isn’t that Josh’s lil boyfriend?” another boy asks as he ducks his head once again in shame.

“Yeah, his name is Tyler and he’s sweet, so be nice to him,” Ashley’s voice speaks sternly, and he leans more into Brendon’s side.

“Yeah! We’ll tell Josh if you don’t!” Brendon adds, giving Tyler a comforting, friendly squeeze.

“Does Josh even know he’s here?”

“Tyler’s his own person, he can go where the fuck he wants without telling Josh first,” Pete says as he heads in Ashley’s direction.

“He looks like he doesn’t even wanna be here,” a different guy’s voice states, and he bows his head a little more.

“Because you jerks are making him uncomfortable!” Brendon fusses, guiding the awkward boy to a window ledge. Brendon sits on it and gestures for Tyler to do the same.

“So, is this a new thing that’s happening now?” the first voice asks, and God, Tyler feels so unwelcome here, he could cry, “Is this kid gonna be hangin’ with us now?”

“Damn it, Bob, why don’t you just shut the fuck up and stop being such a dick? Maybe that should be a new thing,” Pete snaps, and Tyler presses himself into Brendon’s side as he wills himself not to cry. Who would’ve known this would turn out to be such a disaster?

“Fine, I won’t say shit else!”

“Good, you’re doing us all a favor!”

“Fuck this, I’m out,” and Tyler watches hears him start to walk away, and jeez, he hasn’t even uttered a single word but he still managed to fuck everything up and cause drama in this friend group.

No one says anything for a moment as the Bob guy leaves the hallway.

“What’s been up with him lately?” Ashley asks, followed by a sigh, “Sorry about him, Tyler.”

He hesitantly lifts his eyes to settle them on her nose, and she offers him a sympathetic smile.

“S’okay,” he nearly whispers before averting his gaze again to his lap.

“You know, it’s totally cool that you’re here,” the third guy says, and Tyler shyly looks his way.

“Yeah, Bob’s just a dick,” the second guy adds, and Tyler looks his way too—there’s something strangely familiar about him in a way,  “I mean, he’s usually not that bad, but it’s not you.”

“Um,” Tyler starts hesitantly, and how does he form words and use them? How do people do this so effortlessly ?

“Yeah?”

“You—you—” Tyler stammers pathetically, and he desperately looks to Brendon for help, who only seems curious to what he’s struggling to say.

“Oh, yeah! He’s really shy,” Ashley comes to the rescue and crosses the hallway. She bends over to his level as she nears him, offering him her ear. He flushes sheepishly as he reaches out to brush her blue hair out of the way, and he can’t help but admire how soft it feels.

“Ahh,” he whispers, leaning forward to be sure she can hear him. She smells really nice—a flowery scent, and it’s honestly really comforting. “That guy, um, he, like, looks kinda familiar.”

She smiles comfortingly at him as she pulls away, and he decides that he really likes Ashley—he wants to be her friend. Plus she smells like flowers, and he really likes flowers.

“She said you look kinda familiar,” she says to the oddly familiar guy before turning to look back to Tyler. “You remember Gerard, right? The guy who drove us to the skating rink?”

Tyler nods, then looks back to the guy, and— ohh, they must be related.

“Yeah, I’m his younger brother,” he confirms, and Tyler guesses that makes sense. “I’m Mikey.”

“Tyler,” he says shyly before realizing that they already know his name, and he blushes sheepishly yet again.

“He’s cute, I like him,” the third guy declares, and Tyler hides his face against Brendon’s arm to hide his shame-stained face.

“Isn’t he!” Brendon agrees loudly, wrapping both arms around the boy and rocking him—Tyler isn’t sure if he likes it or not. “We’re gonna turn him into one of us!”

“I’m down,” the third guy says, “He’s real quiet and shy, we could break him out of his shell like we did for Mikey and Ryan.”

“Good luck with that,” Pete says, and Tyler can’t help but agree. He isn’t sure his shyness is merely shyness to begin with—Josh once said something about social anxiety?

“This is gonna be awesome! ” Brendon says loudly, and Tyler can’t help but disagree. He’s pretty sure this is gonna suck so bad.

Chapter Text

Tyler was a nervous wreck on the way home from school. What if the school had contacted Zack and told him he wasn’t in one of his classes? He’s not sure if it even works like that, and his older brother hadn’t texted him or anything, but what if he was gonna surprise the boy with his wrath when he arrived home?

He notices Josh watching him from his peripheral and does his best to keep the guilt from showing as he meets his boyfriend’s eyes. What if Josh wouldn’t approve of him skipping? One of Brendon’s and Pete’s friends had asked if he would, and honestly, that’s a question Tyler would like the answer to himself. Maybe not this way—he doesn’t want the other to be upset or disappointed in him.

“Everything okay, baby boy?” he asks the brunet, who blushes and nods. Josh frowns a little as he looks to the smaller boy. “You look anxious.”

“Just about going home,” Tyler tells him, which isn’t really a lie. “Don’t wanna see Zack.”

“Did something happen?”

Tyler shakes his head before resting it on the other’s shoulder, “Just, like, still don’t really wanna be around him.”

Josh wraps an arm around his boy and gives him an affectionate squeeze, “I’d bring you to my place but my parents are gonna be around.”

“I wish we could both go back to Marie and Brendon’s house,” Tyler says as the bus makes a stop—it’s their stop. “Or something.”

“I should take you out again this weekend,” Josh decides aloud as they get off, walking towards Tyler’s house.

The brunet blushes and can’t stop the smile that breaks out, “Yeah.”

“Just us this time,” Josh adds. “Last time was a disaster.”

“And not rollerskating.”

“You’re so cute on rollerskates.”

“I nearly died on rollerskates.”

Josh chuckles a little, and Tyler suppresses a giggle as his heart flutters a little.

<>

The nerves return as soon as Josh is walking towards his own house, leaving Tyler alone at his front door. Worst case scenario, Tyler opens the door and Zack is waiting for him on the other side and jumps his ass on spot. Best scenario, Zack drops at his feet and kisses them, tells him about how much he’s missed him during the eight hours he was away at school, and gives Tyler permission to marry Josh.

That helps his nerves a bit. Ain’t that a cool trick?

He braces himself and lets himself in, and Zack is nowhere to be seen so far. If the school had contacted him, he’d be waiting for him out here.

He startles and lets out a yelp as his phone goes off in his pocket, and fuck, it’s an angry text from Zack, he bets, ordering him to his room, and there he’ll face the consequences—

But when he retrieves his phone from his pocket, it’s just a message from Pete. Tyler isn’t very relieved.

   pete: yosup josup

He sounds so stupid, as stupid as Pete finds him awkward—stupid Pete.

   tyler: hey

Tyler heads to his room, suppressing a groan as his phone goes off again, already knowing it’s Pete—but at least he made it into his room without Zack having anything to say, so maybe the school didn’t contact him after all.

He brings his bag over to his bed and pulls out the books needed to complete today’s homework—he’s truly a good kid, even though he’s been suspended about a week ago and has already skipped twice after returning to school—before opening his messages with Pete.

   pete: wyd

   tyler: homework haha, wbu?

Pete’s reply is almost immediate.

   pete: so you are a good boy ;)

Tyler’s face flushes and he squirms uncomfortably—what the fuck is he implying by that?

Maybe he didn’t mean it that way. Maybe Tyler’s just overreacting or getting the wrong signals.

But Tyler’s dealt with fuckboys before, and Tyler’s really getting bad vibes from that message.

   tyler: um what

   pete: i’m just fuckin wit you

  tyler: oh haha

He isn’t able to concentrate on his homework—his discomfort only worsens with each second that passes by, and he rocks himself back and forth to try to calm himself, tapping his pencil against his book as he stares off into space.

He gives up on homework and packs his bag again, dropping the bag onto the floor by his bed. He gets a startled meow in response, then Ruby’s leaping onto the bed with eyes blown wide.

“Sorry, Ruby,” Tyler laughs a little, offering his hand to her. She takes a moment to sniff at his fingertips before butting her head against his hand, purring as Tyler lightly scratches behind her ears.

“You’re the greatest kitty,” Tyler tells her as she crawls into his lap and allows herself to get comfortable. She slow blinks at him in response, and he does the same with a smile. He’d read somewhere that a slow blink means that your cat loves you, and isn’t that wonderful?

“Let’s take a nap,” he says as he gently tries to maneuver them into a lying position, but she moves off of him completely and settles at the foot of her bed. Tyler huffs a little and curls up alone, pouting at his feline companion as she watches him from afar.

“ Lamest kitty,” Tyler says grumpily, letting himself under his blanket. “We’re not friends anymore.”

Ruby only looks away, as if she didn’t care at all.

“Whatever, cat, ” Tyler huffs again, habitually checking his phone for messages—none.

Oh goodie, that means Pete’s leaving him alone! Tyler decides he’ll have that nap to celebrate.

Chapter Text

Dinner with Zack is a bit awkward. Tyler refuses to meet the older man’s eyes as they sit in silence, the younger boy nervously cutting up his noodles rather than actually eating them and hoping his brother doesn’t say anything about it; his appetite isn’t quite there, but he did manage to eat about a third of his alfredo.

“You’re not eating,” Zack suddenly says, startling the younger boy as he accidentally meets the other’s eyes. He quickly looks to his nose instead—it’s easier.

“My stomach hurts,” he lies easily, cutting another noodle in half with the edge of his fork, then again.

“You should go lie down, I’ll put it in the fridge for you,” Zack suggests as he finishes his food, getting up from the table with his dishes in hand to take them to the sink.

“Alright,” Tyler agrees thankfully, getting up and leaving as quickly as he can.

He lets out a sigh as he closes the door behind him and moves to his bed, just in time for his phone to go off where it’s sat next to his pillow. Tyler allows himself to get comfy on his bed before grabbing it, smiling to himself at the name that flashes across his screen.

   josh: Hey babyboy.

  tyler: hey! i miss you

  josh: I miss you too. Wanna call?

  tyler: heck yeah

Tyler answers the FaceTime call, his smile growing wider as he sees his boyfriend’s face smiling back at him.

“Hey Cutes,” Josh waves, and Tyler giggles and hides his blushing face with his hand.

“Hey Josh,” he says into his hand, unable to stop smiling. Josh smiles a little more too, and the way his boyfriend looks at him—so endearingly and full of love—makes his heart melt and has butterflies flying in his tummy.

“No, let me see that beautiful smile,” Josh says lovingly, and Tyler complies, moving his hand to show off his smile, loving the way it makes Josh seem a bit happier.

“I could kiss you right now,” Josh says, and Tyler can’t stop himself from giggling and giddily throwing his face into his pillow, and he’s so pleasantly overwhelmed with love and happiness and gay.

“That’s my baby boy,” Josh adds fuel to the fire—Tyler swears he’s doing it on purpose—and he can’t help but giggle in delight as he listens to his boyfriend. “So cute and precious, gonna take him out this weekend and show him off.”

“Where are we going?” Tyler picks his head up to ask, cheeks pink and smiley.